| Notes |
- Niagara Gazette - Abt 7/1957
By CLARENCE O. LEWIS
Niagara County Historian
IN 1810.JOHN WITMER and
his family consisting of his wife
and eight children left Lancaster,
Pa., in a Conestoga wagon with
a four horse team. AM their worldly
possessions were in that wagon.
They were bound for the
Niagara Frontier. The trip was
made in late August and early
September and required 18 days.
The route was circuitious until
they reached Batavia from whence
they followed the Buffalo road
to Black Rock and thence down
the river to Devil's Hole where
they took a road which had been
chopped out by Isaac Swain. This
led to his clearing where the Military
road crosses Gill Creek, close
to the northern boundary of the
Town of Niagara.
Mr. Swain had. partially cleared
the timber from about 40 acres
and erected a good-size log house.
John Witmcr had purchased this
100 acre farm of Mr. Swain who
then moved to the Town of Porter
and settled south of Youngstown.
At this period (1810) there was
only one other clearing on the
Military road in the present town
of Niagara.
A short time before John Witmer
brought his family from Pensylvania,
he had ridden through
on horseback and purchased his
land. When he left his old home
he had cut a slender branch from
a Locust Tree to use as a switch.
When he reached his new home
he planted the switch in the rich
soil in front of the log cabin. The
switch, so the family tell me, took
root and today one may see as I
did, on the east side of the military
road some 25 odd feet north
of the Gill Creek crossing, a large
gnarly old locust tree that has
every earmark of being old enough
to verify the family legend.
* *
WHEN THE TOWN of Niagara
was organized in April 1812.
John Witmer was elected one of
the "pathmasters." In 1817 he
built a small sawmill on Gill
Creek near his home and in 1818
began to saw and sell lumber.
"A great many of the first frame
houses in that part of Niagara
and adjacent towns were built of
lumber from his sawmill. Last
week I called on Mrs. Theresa
Morrison and Miss Serena Witmer
of 1024 Grove Ave., who are great
granddaughters of John Witmer.
They were most hospitable and
very willing to help me complete
this story. One incident they told
me was about Benjamin Witmer
son of John, and their great uncle
who as a boy of 17 during the
War of 1812, ventured down to
the bank of the Niagara opposite
one of the teaters of battle on the
Canadian, side and as he peered
through the bushes a four-pound
cannon ball came whizzing across
the river and took hit hat off his
head. When be had recovered
from the shock he found the cannon
ball imbedded in the earth
and took it home and it is still
kept by these ladies as a memento
of those troublous times of long
ago.
Abram Witmer, a brother of
John, came to the Frontier in
1811 from the same place in
Pennsylvania. His wife and four
children came with him. Their
trip was similar to John's. They
settled on a tract of land purchased
from the Holland Land
Co. It was on the Saunder's Settlement
road just east of Sugar
Street, and on the west abutted
on the Mile Reserve. He built,
a log house and began to clear
his land. At the first town meeting
in 1812 he was also elected
a pathmaster. When the War
broke out he took his family back
to Pennsylvania. The Witmer brothers
were Mennonites and had
religious scruple against war.
« » *
OUT OF AN estimated total of
337 homes along the Frontier, the
English and Indians looted and
burned all but a few that were
somewhat isolated! Fortunately
Abram Witmer's was one of these,
so that when they returned everything
was just as they had left it.
When the weather was too bad
to go to Porter's Grist, Mill at
the Falls they used a hollowed
out stump and a spring pole with
a stone tied to it for a pestle to
grind their grain.
In the spring of 1836 Benjamin
Rathbun came to Niagara Falls
to invest in real estate and erect
buildings. He heard that Abram
Witmer Jr., had a brick kiln
where he was making brick for
his house. Mr. Rathbun entered
into a contract with father and
son to make 300,000 brick for
him which he would pay for on
delivery. They had made and delivered
about two-thirds of the
contract when Rathbun's business
empire founded more or less on
credit, failed partly, on account
of the financial panic of
that year and partly because of
unscrupulous deals.
The Witmers lost heavily but
made the best of a bad deal, selling
the bricks left on their hands
wherever they could find a market.
Abram Sr., was a carpenter
and cabinet maker as well as a
farmer.
Among documents found in the
old Court House attic were two
legal papers dated 1853 containing
the signatures of Abram Witmer
and Tobias, another son.
Abram, Sr., died Sept. 4, 1851.
Christian H. Witmer, the oldest
of Abram's seven sons operated
Judge Porter's Grist mill near the
present River end of First street
He also had a mill of his own
somewhat later, on the high bank
of the River near the Whirlpool
Bridge. On Sept. 17, 1859 while
working on the raceway he fell
into the water and was carried
down into the River and to his
death in the Whirlpool.
,* *
TOBIAS WITM'ER was born in
1816 at Bellvue, (Suspension
Bridge). He was one of the first
surveyors of that region, his maps
being still the main reliance for
lot lines, etc. He was quite a
genius, being an inventor, author,
poet and a preacher besides a
Civil Engineer. One of his inventions
was the bicycle wheel. He
made the spokes of the wires from
an old hoop skirt. He also invented
a corn sheller, an automatic
rairoad switch,- pile driver,
portable signal tower for use
in the Army, fire escape, etc.
He taught school for a time
In 1861 although he had a family
of 12 children he enlisted in a
Civil War Regiment He died in
1897 in Williamsville, Erie Co.,
leaving a record of accomplishments
that seldom is equalled.
Elias Witmer, twin brother of
Tobias, finished his schooling at
the Lewiston Academy after which
he learned the tailor's trade. Later
he taught school, but finding his
health impaired he stuck to farm-
ing the rest of his long life.
Practically all the advancement
of the Niagara Frontier, from its
wild state to the highly developed
status of 1918, was. encompassed
in his life. In his youth oxteams
were a common sight along Portage
road. He was in Buffalo on
Oct 26, 1825, to see the official
opening of the Erie Canal and saw
DeWitt Clintonon the "Seneca
Chief and heard the cannon
"telegraph that carried the notice
of the starting of the Seneca
Chief on its voyage to the Atlantic
Ocean.
#
ELIAS WITMER was greatly
interested in the Niagara County
Pioneer's Assoc, organized in 1877
and was one time vice president
He was a regular attendant at
the Olcott Pioneer's Picnics. In
1914 when he was 98 years old
he planned to attend the picnic,
writing, a card to the Secty., George
S. Gooding in advance signifying
his intentions. He died Feb. 23,
1918, aged 102 years, in the
homestead built by his father in
1821.
On the 1852 map of Niagara
County there are shown nine
families of Witmer's living at different
points in the Town of Niagara.
The two first Witmers,
John and Abram, reared 17 children,
most of whom survived and
married.
A few moved out of Niagara
County, but the majority of them
lived and operated various types
of business in this County. The
Witmer road connecting Hyde
Park Blvd. with the Military
road perpetuates the family name.
There are today in Niagara
Falls six families descended from
the two pioneer brothers, .John
and Abram. They are Orlando
B. Witmer, 2215 Pierce Ave.; M.
T. Witmer, 1301 Ferry Ave; Miss
Emma A. Witmer, 1600 Cleveland
Ave.; Christian H. Witmer. 1174
Haeberle Ave.; and my collaborators,
Miss Serena T. Witmer and
Mrs. Theresa Morrison, 1024
Grove Ave. Also a great great
grandson, Robert C. Witmer,
2913 Michigan Ave.
|
1735 - 1825 (1 year)
d. 28 Jul 1791, Manor Township, Lancaster County, PA