Crandall, Evelyn.  "Lumbering Was Major Industry For Early Settlers," Jamestown (NY) Post-Journal, 11 June 1983, Tempo, p.6T.
        The Post-Journal website:  http://post-journal.com/

Lumbering Was Major Industry For Early Settlers

    This is the first of several stories on the early lumber and logging industries in Chautauqua County. It is excerpted from extensive material compiled by Evelyn Crandall, whose primary interest is in the history of the town of Poland.

    When the first settlers came to Chautauqua County, they found vast forests. By some, the forests were looked upon as a source of lumber, waiting to be cut down and sold. But to most, the mighty forests were an obstacle to farming, to be gotten rid of so that crops could be planted.
    From the forest was born the region's first major money-making industry, and several subsidiary ones.
    Before farming could begin, trees had to be cut down and their stumps removed. What the settlers found was a mixed forest, made up of evergreens, such as pines, hemlocks, balsam and spruce, and broad-leaf hardwoods, like maple, oak, birch, ash, walnut, elm, hickory, chestnut and cherry.
    Only the softwood could be sent to market down the river because only the softwood would float, so thousands of trees were simply cut down and burned to be gotten out of the way. Some of the stumps were left to serve as fence posts and these dotted the county for many years until finally they too rotted.
    Farmers poured water through the ashes of the trees to make potash or black salts from the leachate, a valuable cash crop for the money-poor settlers. The salts were used in glass making or in another form as leavening agent for baked goods.

   Mrs. Crandall writes about Dr. Thomas Kennedy's mill at Kennedy.

    Dr. Kennedy was an astute business man. He made an ideal choice for his mill-site and dam at Kennedy, in the narrowest part of the vast Conewango Valley, estimated in all of the course of the stream to drain about 64,000 acres or more than 400 square miles.
    A constant water supply was assured since a considerable portion of Cattaraugus County, adjoining the western border, was drained by the Conewango Creek and its tributaries. The east branch of this creek rises in the north-western part of Cattaraugus County and passes southwesterly into Chautauqua County, where it unites with the main stream. The little Conewango passes northwest through the Village of Randolph, going north of the present Route 394 and joins the main Conewango near Waterboro. The course of this channel through Cattaraugus County is a treacherous 26 miles long, yet it leaves the county at a point only five miles distant from the place where it enters. Elm Creek and Mill Creek also feed this stream.
    The main Conewango, the principal stream of Chautauqua County, flows through the wide valley that extends along the eastern part of the county. It is into this stream that the Chadakoin River, the outlet of Chautauqua Lake, drains. The Conewango joins the Cassadaga Creek just before leaving the town of Poland and empties into the Allegheny near Warren, Pa. Where these two streams join, they are about equal in volume. For seven miles above its mouth, it is a rapid stream, falling in that distance about 60 feet, but thence upward it is deep and sluggish, navigable at this period for steamboats more than 25 miles.
    To further substantiate this, I quote from letters written at Waterboro in 1832 and 1833 by Aner Dye, operator of Footes' Mill.
    "23 June 1832 - The Conewango is subject to Fever and Ague the whole length. It is a deep, dark, sluggish stream being from 15 to 20 feet deep a great part of it. There is a great many pickerel in it. Weigh from 6 to 10 pounds though some weigh more than 20. They are a most excellent fish equal to any trout.
    Dec. 8, 1833 - I went to visit Mr. Hubbard's folks the first of Nov. They live 17 miles from here up the creek, in the midst of a large plain or swamp. It is about 6 miles by 10 and was in all probability a lake once and from every appearance I am inclined to think the whole valley of the Conewango was once a dead Lake as large as Lake Champlain.
    That part where Mr. Hubbard's folks live is the greater part swamp but all that lies above high water is extremely rich. They are anxious that I should purchase a lot that joins them for 175 cents per acre, one fourth down and 6 annual payments, about one half very good, the other swamp, but they say (it) is excellent for meadows."

    All along the border of the Conewango Creek and in the southern townships through which it passed grew giant pine trees, which came to be known as pine trees of Poland quality. The land on which they grew was the most fertile of the area and afforded a resale market to the pioneer interested in agriculture, once the timber was cut.
    At Waterboro, a natural gravel bar retained the waters north of there, creating a vast swamp later drained when the "dredge" was completed.
    This would explain Dr. Kennedy's remark: "A short distance above my dam, dead water commences and continues for two-days paddle in the canoes, possibly up to the Susquehanna Road; from thence to the mouth of the Cattaraugus, it is said to be but 16 miles."
    Mention of the Susquehanna Road is confusing, so let's explain. The first efforts to construct turnpikes west of the Genesee occurred in 1805, when two companies sought charters from the legislature. One company proposed building a northerly road from Canandaigua to Black Rock, two miles from Buffalo, while the other company under leadership of Philip Church wanted a more southerly turnpike from Bath to Lake Erie.
    After much negotiation and compromise, both companies failed for lack of funds and interest. It wasn't until 1810 that the Holland Land Company started a narrow road - not a turnpike- from Angelica to Lake Erie. Work on the route was finally completed in 1814  but it soon fell into disrepair because of insufficient maintenance.
    Dr. Kennedy's interest was only in stripping the timber from his contracted land and then reselling his land holdings at a profit to settlers. He was dependent in part of the successful negotiations for the building of the southern route, across the Tier counties from Lake Erie to Bath. Of course, this road never existed.
    The dam built at Kennedy is reported by Newel Cheney in The Centennial History to have created a mill pond that covered 100 acres.
    During a heavy flood, when the water rises to approximately three feet above the banks of the creek just west of the bridge at Kennedy, take a look upstream to see the vast area covered by water. You will then have a good idea of what the mill pond looked in the early 1800s.
    Most of the pine timber was in the four towns which constituted the original town of Ellicott, in the southeast corner of the county. It was for many years the leading industry. The first mill erected within this territory was that of Dr. Kennedy in the town of Poland in 1805.

The First Sawmills

    First date is first settlement; second is first sawmill.

From History of the Lumber Industry in The State of New York by William F. Fox, 1976, Harbor Hill Books

    The mill at Kennedy was a double gang saw mill, operated by water power from the mill pond, flowing through a channel

onto an undershot water wheel.
    Water in the mill pond was controlled by "head gates," which were usually "slash boards" of great length placed  between two posts driven into the ground on either end.
    Once the water passes through and leaves the mill, there is what is known as the "tail gate" to control the flow of this water. We have heard of men attempting to remove the slash boards during floods and being carried away and drowned.
    The mill irons for the first mill were brought from Pittsburgh in a canoe, the trip occupying two weeks. The mill irons included castings for the gig and bull wheels, big crank and gudgeon for the main water wheel, beaver tail for the pitman, the dogs and bars for the old-fashioned handblocks, bull-wheel chain and saw. These irons did service in all the old-style mills.
    Young's History quotes an old-time resident as saying that the mills ran day and night throughout the year except in the spring freshet time when every available hand was used in rafting the lumber to southern markets and the flood waters were too high for the mills. The old-timer said the mill cut about three million feet each year.
    In 1815, almost the entire business of Jamestown, then called The Rapids, was cutting some three million feet of boards a year, mostly run down the river. Most of the provisions and groceries used by people were brought from Pittsburgh in keel boats. These included flour, bacon, dried apples and peaches, tobacco and whiskey, and hardware, such as nails, glass and castings.
    The sawmills were run day and night, except Sundays. They required two shifts of workmen, one commencing at noon and working until midnight; and the other working from midnight  to noon.
    The gang required two hands to work it, or four hands for 24 hours. The single-saw mills  required one hand each, or two for 24 hour. The man who tended the gang carried out of the mill the slabs cut by the slabbing mill and their own slabs or boards. The mills cut with great power. The cranks, except those of the gang, were 17 or 18 inches. There was an abundance of water winter and summer and there were large throats to the water wheels. The saws were thick and seven feet long, with large teeth  and would bear heavy feed. The boards sawed in the single mills looked rough, as the saws cut from 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch at a stroke and made coarse sawdust. The gang saws had finer teeth, cut more slowly, and made finer sawdust, leaving the boards smooth, even from knotty logs. Gang boards were sometimes used without planing.
    The quantity of sawdust shoved into the waterway from these mills was enormous.
    Most of the logs were sawed for the owner on shares, each taking one-half of the boards. The logs were drawn to the pond, and floated to the mill. Each owner distinguished his logs with a mark. Marks were rudely made by a certain number of notches on the end or side of the log, or by one or more letter cut on the side, or by letters on the head of an axe, or on a hammer, and struck on the end of the log.
    The sawyers entered the mark on a slate hanging in the mill and the quantity of boards from each log; and these slate accounts were transferred to the mill owner's books, who was thus enabled to settle with his customers.
    Rotten or shaky, unmerchantable boards were entered as rot and charged to the owner of the logs; they were piled by themselves.
    Next to the slabs were usually one or two-way bark-edged, or sappy boards, which were called ruffage boards. These were piled by themselves.
    The logs were all drawn up into the mill from the pond on an inclined plane, the water power turning what was called the bull wheel, with a windlass shaft, which wound up a large chain, one end of which was fastened to the shaft, the other to the log by a dog of hook-like form driven into one side of the log near the small end on the log.
    One dollar per thousand, plus board, were the wages at these mills. The men usually cut 2,000 feet at each turn of 12 hours. The hands on the gang and slabbing mills were paid about $15 a month and boarded.
    The logs were cut in the woods almost uniformly 12 feet 4 inches or 16 feet 4 inches, except butt logs, which were cut longer, as the shaky butts were to be sawed off.
    Besides board, most the scantling or other building lumber was sawed in the new mill. Boards were sawed thin for lathing. All lath used in those early times were thin boards, which were split or cracked with an ax or hatchet, and, while being nailed on the studs, stretched or spread sufficiently to open cracks for the mortar, instead of being sawed into strips as now.
    Boards for rafting down the river were put into piles from 10 to 20 feet high and 12 or 16 feet square, each layer of boards placed edge to edge and crossing the layer preceding. The slabs, butts, and edgings of boards were carried outside the mills and thrown into a common pile to be burned. The fire was kept almost constantly burning, winter and summer. Thus millions of slabs were burned to get rid of them and the burning did not entirely cease until about 1835 or 1840. However, the best of the slabs were cut into lath or were used for other purposes much earlier.
    Pine was, in the early days, almost the only timber sawed, although some cherry, oak and other timber was sawed for customers for home consumption, not much having been sent down the river. Some cucumber, maple and whitwood was sawed into scantling for bedsteads and other uses.

10/31/2003