CHAPTER II.

PIONEER LIFE.

A Winter Journey from New Jersey to De Ruyter.-Discomforts of early Travel.-Contrast with present Facilities.-Pioneer Life.-Primitive Agriculture.-Scarcity of Market.—Establishing a Pottery.-Advantages of diversified Industries.— Removal to Ithaca, 1841.-Personal Characteristics.-Death of Wife and Mother.-Severe Bereavement.-Christian Character.-Long and useful Life.-Large Number of worthy Descendants.

THOSE Of Our Own generation, familiar only with existing modes of travel, can but faintly realize the hardships encountered by families emigrating to any considerable distance, with their household effects, in that, to us, remote period. At the present day, the journey from New York City to Madison County, may be made in ten hours time, with all the comforts and luxuries of the drawingroom car by day, and the sleeping car by night. It would have been utterly impossible for the pioneers of our then frontier region, to contemplate with any degree of intelligence, even had they been foretold by the most minute revelation, the wonders of the modern development of railway facilities.

At the period of the occurrence of incidents related in this chapter, the means of transit, in the State of New York were very meagre. On the Hudson River, steam navigation was in its infancy, and the only mode of public conveyance through the western portion of the State, was by stagecoach across the older counties bordering on the Mohawk Valley, and thence to Buffalo, a village of moderate size, at the foot of Lake Erie. The southern tier of counties, adjacent to Pennsylvania, were but sparsely populated, and no accommodation for travel, had as yet been established through them. The original Erie Canal, was only then in course of construction, and was not opened for traffic until several years later, while the first railway in the State, was not yet even projected. In removing his family from New Jersey to Madison County, Mr. Cornell was obliged, for want of other transportation, to make the journey with his own teams, carrying also his personal effects, household goods and provisions, as well as many farming utensils, and implements of his mechanical trade. Their course was, of necessity, much of the way, through an almost uninhabited wilderness, over the rudest and sometimes nearly impassable roads, frequently interrupted by unbridged streams.

With so many obstacles to overcome, and at

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the slow pace of animals drawing lumber wagons, loaded with the persons and possessions of a family seeking a new home, it would indeed be difficult for us to realize the tedium and positive discomforts of such a journey. The route fol

lowed, was along the Ramapo Valley, and, by way of Goshen, through Orange County; across the Shawungunk range of mountains near the present town of Otisville on the Erie Railway, and over the Navesink River at the little hamlet of Cuddebackville, about eight miles above the site of the now prosperous village of Port Jervis, which was then covered with a dense forest. Thence through the great beech woods of Sullivan and Delaware Counties, crossing the Chenango Valley at Oxford, and over the bleak hills of Chenango County, to the place of destination.

The travelling party consisted of Mr. Cornell, his wife, and six children, the oldest only twelve years old and the youngest an infant in its mother's arms, and these, with their domestic goods, constituted the burden of two ordinary teams. For a portion of the distance, they were so fortunate as to obtain entertainment over night, at public inns or farm-houses, while through the more secluded regions, they were obliged to content themselves with the shelter of their own covered vehicles, and the cheering hospitality of a camp

fire in the woods. In the cold, short, wintry days, the journey thus made, covering a distance of about two hundred and fifty miles, occupied something more than two weeks, a period of time suf ficient at the present day, to permit emigrants to be conveyed from Great Britain, or the Continental ports of Europe, to Iowa and Minnesota, or the frontier regions of the United States.

The contrast between the modes of travel in 1819, and those which we now enjoy, striking as it may seem, is not greater than the difference between the condition of pioneer farmers of the former period, and those of the times with which we are familiar. While through the older settled portions of the country, the stage-coach furnished means for the transit of passengers, there were no public facilities for the conveyance of freight, except over such natural water-courses as were navigable. To find purchasers for surplus farm products, the producer had necessarily to convey them to a point of shipment, however distant it might be.

Beyond the ordinary home consumption of such articles, no market existed short of localities favored with water navigation. For the very meagre growth which could be realized from the cold and sterile hills of De Ruyter, there was no demand which could be relied upon, more acces

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sible than at Albany, one hundred and fifty miles distant, to which place the farmers of Madison County, were often obliged to convey their grain by teams. It may readily be imagined, therefore, that the net avails of the small surplus of agricultural products, after paying the expense of transportation, were limited indeed. Mr. Cornell determined to establish an earthenware pottery on his farm, to enable him to furnish an article, which would command a home market. The wares of foreign potteries, had not yet penetrated the wilds of Madison and adjoining counties, and the pioneer was fortunate enough to find ready sale for the goods of his manufacture, thereby very profitably supplementing the operations of the farm. In the work of the shop, as well as that of the field, he utilized the labor of his growing sons, thus rearing them to habits of industry, and preparing them for careers of usefulness and pros. perity, when they should venture forth from the paternal home.

Gradually the introduction of the celebrated Amboy clay, from New Jersey, by water transportation, enabled potteries located on the line of the canal to produce stoneware at prices which proved injurious to the sale of earthenware; and owing to the isolated location of De Ruyter, it was found impossible to compete successfully