LED by avarice, the trader ventured to the forests, and sought wealth in a traffic in fur and peltries.  Treading in his footsteps came the disciples of Loyola, and sometimes preceding them.  They told the story of the Cross to the dusky warriors of the Western lakes, and, as early as 1611, fifteen Jesuits from the Old World, arriving at Montreal, went among the Five Nations.  Others followed them until, in 1833, the number of the order who had come to this country was twelve hundred.  With the creed our province has nothing to do, but with the devotion of the Jesuit who can study but to admire?  They knew no danger, they traversed the wilderness without a path, they paddled their canoes upon unknown river and lake, and with unflagging zeal erected their chapels in the Indian villages, and brought the entire population to bow beneath the emblems of salvation.  Untainted by pernicious white intercourse, the impression was deep, the effect wholesome.  As French influence declined Jesuitical power waned, until the only indication of their advent is the silver cross of ornament and the rude symbol at the grave.  In the year 1669 came Robert Cavelier de la Salle to Western New York, and with him were De Casson and De Galinee, two missionaries of the order of St. Sulpice.  They came, with twenty-two men, in seven canoes, under escort of a party of Senecas, and landed, on August 10, at the mouth of Irondequoit Bay.   The Iroquois had four villages, all east of the Genesee.  Thirteen years previously, Father Chaumonot had made here a brief sojourn.  In July of 1667, three men - Fremin, Pierron, and Bruyas - left Quebec for the Iroquois country.  In August they reached a Mohawk village called "Gandaonaye," where, twenty-one years before, Jogues died a martyr to the cause.  Here two remained.  The third, Father Bruyas, advanced to Oneida, where Garnier soon joined him.  Farther on, the Onondagas asked missionaries among them.  The Senecas then sent a deputation of chiefs to Montreal in November, 1668, asking a mission at their villages.  Father Fremin was promptly sent forward to their country, where a pestilence was raging so deadly that he called to his assistance Garnier, from Onondaga.  Fremin resided at Gandongarae, four miles southeast from Victor, where was founded the mission of St. Michael, and where he labored until 1671.  Garnier located in "Ganagarro," situated on what is known as Boughton Hill, in Victor, and there remained till 1683, and established the mission of St. James.  La Salle came to the Seneca country to obtain a guide through to the sources of the Ohio.  The Jesuits Fremin and Garnier were absent at the Onondaga council, as is thought by design, and La Salle traversed the country and held councils in the Seneca villages without the notice of the missionaries.  The deep-seated and natural interest attached to the past throws a charm about the lives of the Jesuits.  Religious principles and fixed attachments were succeeded by much of benefit, and when the Protestants sent Joseph Baxter, of Massachusetts, to a mission among the Abenakis, he returned, convinced that the Indians desired no other teachers.  Then came Samuel Kirkland, early in 1765, and, adopted by the Senecas, advanced their interests in peace and treaty, and by faithful teaching did them much good.
     Secure in their homes, and selecting lands according to t heir taste, single families have been found living miles from any other.  Intelligent educated, and enterprising, the first emigrants to Ontario were comprised in two classes, the irreligious and the religious.  These latter were again a composition of two principles: - those who were habituated to the observance of Christian rules, sent their children to religious institutions for their salutary effect, and themselves, without piety, loved to attend preaching; and professors of religion, members of churches East, anxious for the formation of society, and the enjoyment of religion in their new home.  This field was the domain of the missionary.  To him was intrusted the encouragement of the Christian, the confirmation of the moral, and the reclamation of the erring, and nobly did he strive to do his work.  From its origin, the Methodist church took the lead in the great enterprise of supplying the people with gospel privileges.  Its creed of salvation by faith and works has caused her to push out from the great centres into new and sparcely settled portions of the country, following and keeping pace with the resolute emigrant, and furnishing the "bread of life" to all who would consent to receive it at their hands.  And when the notice came of preaching in cabin, barn, or open air, the settlers gathered on foot, or with ox-sled from miles away.  In some favored spots several Christian families, settled adjacent to each other, began the observance of the Sabbath at once by meetings where there were prayer, singing, and reading sermons; sometimes prayer was omitted, from none present being willing to take upon himself this office, and the Bible was read, and psalm or hymn sung.
     In 1789, the Genesee country was rightly considered upon the very outskirts of civilization.  To this distant field the New York and Philadelphia Conferences sent missionaries.  The first of these to travel through the settlements upon the Indian trail, or without a path, were David Dunham, Benjamin Bidlack, Smith Weeks, and Roger Benton.  Only the names of these men are now known to us, but what an experience was theirs!  Two by two they went out upon their extended circuit.  The circuit in 1808 extended three hundred miles, and included Rochester, Lima, Groveland, Sparta, Avon, Mendon, Pittsford, Bloomfield, Canandaigua, Sulphur Springs, Phelps, Palmyra, Lyons, Perinton, and Penfield, and such it remained for years.  Every day services were held, and the itinerant pushed on through the woods over bridges and streams to the next appointment, and from four to six weeks elapsed ere the round was completed.
     The records show that Joseph Jewell was presiding elder during 1805, and Reverends Amos Jenks and James Kelsey, the ministers on the circuit, which was of extended and un defined area.  A Methodist class was formed in Victor during 1807.  It was composed of seven persons, and was attended by Samuel Talbot and Joseph Scull.  In 1808, this was known as the Susquehanna District.  James Herron was the presiding elder, and William B. Lacey and James Mitchell were the preachers.  Years passed before a church was built, and while circuits became less, and ministers increased in numbers, other denominations erected meeting-houses, and entered upon an existence which we hope may know of no temporal limit.  At a Quarterly Conference held during 1809, it was "resolved that this Quarterly Conference give to Brother Levi Jacobs, of Canandaigua village, credentials and authority to go into the Southern States and collect money, if collectable, for the purpose of building a meeting-house in the aforesaid village."  Whether he went and prospered, or found funds uncollectable, is unknown, but the resolution is calculated to excite reflection, when read at this late day.
     The first organization of a church is reported to have been effected by Rev. John Smith, of Dighton, Massachusetts, in 1791.  He came to Ontario with Captain Pitts and others in 1789, and is reputed to have preached the first sermon in Canandaigua delivered by other than Indian missionaries in the Genesee country.  The next sermon was preached by Rev. Guernsey.  In 1790, religious meetings were held in the barn of Judge Phelps.  John Call read sermons, and Nathaniel Sanborn led the singing; prayers were omitted.  The church organization above noted was temporary and composed of persons widely scattered.  The Lord's Supper was there and then celebrated for the first time in the western part of the State, and no record of subsequent assembly exists.
     Rev. Zadoc Hunn, a settler in the town of Canandaigua during 1795, organized a church of the Congregationists in 1796 at East Bloomfield.  It numbered

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sixteen members, including the minister.  During December, 1795, a church having ten members was formed at South Bristol.  A Presbyterian society was formed in Geneva as early as 1798.  A meeting was held in July, at which John Fulton and Oliver Whitmore presided.  The Rev. Jedediah Chapman became the first local minister, and so continued until his death in 1813.  He was an active, zealous man, and stood connected with the formation of various societies, both in Ontario and Seneca counties.  His successor was Rev. Henry Axtell.  No house was erected until 1811.  The second minister of the Congregational denomination was Rev. John Rolph, who was installed pastor of the South Bristol church by an ecclesiastical council for that purpose convened, and consisting of Rev. Hunn, Rev. Eliphalet Steele, of Paris, Oneida county, and Rev. Asahel S. Norton, later known as Dr. Norton, of Clinton, Oneida county.  These last named were the nearest to be obtained, and were probably several days on the journey.  This council was the first one ever convened in the limits of Ontario County.
     The next minister to locate in Ontario was Rev. Reuben Parmele, who was in stalled pastor of the church in what is now known as Victor, during February, 1799.  The Rev. Timothy Field came to Canandaigua in 1799, in response to an application by the villagers, and recommended by Dr. Dwight, then president of Yale.  He was favorably received, and responding to a call, was, in February, 1800, ordained to ministerial work, and installed pastor of the church by an ecclesiastical council convened for that purpose.  This ordination was the first one in the Congregational churches of Ontario, and prior to any such action by the Presbyterian church.
     In the early part of 1799, a Congregational church numbering twenty members was organized in Bristol by Rev. Hunn, and Rev. Seth Williston, a missionary.  At its first meeting it connected itself with the Ontario Association.   Rev. Joseph Grover, a missionary from New Jersey, preached for the society several times acceptably.  A call was received, and moving on his family, he was installed pastor in June, 1800, and remained fourteen years.  This society is entitled to the honor of erecting the first meeting-house built exclusively for the worship of God in the county of Ontario.  It was a log structure, composed of unhewn timbers raised sufficiently high to permit of a gallery, and was supplied with desk and seats of rude description.  The date of its erection was about 1800, and its site was somewhat south of the junction of the Bloomfield and Canandaigua roads.
     The Congregational society of East Bloomfield erected the frame of a house of worship during 1800.  It was sixty feet long by forty- six in breadth, and had a steeple.  Although, several years before it was finished, it was used by the society for holding services, this was the first frame church erected in the Genesee country.  The Congregational and Presbyterian societies were in utmost concord during the early settlement of Ontario, and members of each united to give strength to the societies formed, and their history at this period is one and the same.  We have noted early Methodist ministers, and also of the Congregational.  The Episcopal and Baptist were also in existence in strength at a primitive stage of settlement.  The oldest parishes in Western New York were Trinity, of Geneva, and St. Matthew's, of Canandaigua.  The former was organized in 1806, with nineteen adults, and in default of a rector was presided over by John Nicholas.  Rev. Davenport Phelps was the first officiating clergyman, and Rev. Orrin Clark was his successor.  A building was erected in 1809.  An Episcopal church was organized under the name of St. Matthew's, in Canandaigua village, on Feb. 4, 1799, by Rev. Philander Chase, then a missionary, and afterwards Bishop of Ohio.  In accordance with previous notice to persons belonging to that denomination and wishing to establish such a church, a meeting was held, and a vestry elected at the date given.  Ezra Platt was called to the chair and presided, Joseph Colt was chosen secretary, and Rev. Chase read prayers.  Two church wardens were chosen, and eight vestrymen.  The organization is scarcely known to have existed, and the names of its officers are therefore given in this preliminary notice of the society.  The wardens were Ezra Platt and Joseph Colt, and the vestry men were John Clark, Augustus Porter, John Hickox, Nathaniel Sanborn, Benjamin Wells, James Fields, Moses Atwater, and Aaron Flint.  A day for election of officers was fixed, the title was voted, and Messrs. Colt and Wells, with the chairman, certified and acknowledged their action before the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas, and filed a copy with the clerk.
     The first Baptist church in Bloomfield was formed in 1799.  A council, composed of delegates from the several Baptist churches in the vicinity, met on June 13.  Elder Irish was moderator; Solomon Goodale, clerk.  The church was formed with seventeen members.  No regular meetings were held during that year.  The early ministers were William Farnam, S. Goodall, Elnathan Wilcox, and Elder Wilson; preaching being at the homes of members.  Fifteen dollars was voted to support the gospel, in June, 1800, and the apportionment was made among the members.
     The first Baptist church of Bristol was formed Feb. 7, 1805, and embodied the members of the Bloomfield church.  Their log meeting-house was sold to a settler, and another one built near the present site of the Universalist church.
     The earliest record of the first Baptist church of Phelps dates Aug. 31, 1808, and embraces the result of a council held at that place at this date.  The council was formed of delegates from churches in Palmyra, Farmington, now Manchester, Bristol, Romulus, Ovid, Augusta, and Gorham.  The ministers present were Jeremiah Irons, John Caton, Jehiel Wisner, and John Goff.  Elder Irish was chosen moderator.  This was not the original formation, which had apparently ceased to exist.  The struggles of the pioneer societies, dissolving, reforming, branching off, endeavoring to erect houses, the difficulty of maintaining preaching, and the strict character of the discipline, present a feature of early settlement of unusual interest to the people of the county.
     Detailed history will be found in the various town histories, and a summary farther along in the county work.  Second only to religion, and intimately associated with it, is education.  The pioneers were fully aware of its necessity, and when a foreign population moved in and blended with the Eastern people, no influence was more powerful to assimilate and harmonize diverse languages and customs.  No sooner had a few settlers found themselves sufficiently numerous, and some young New Englander or an old-time pedagogue made his appearance, than a settler's cabin was utilized and a school started.  The backwoodsmen set their day, and, meeting at a central point, erected the log cabin; and then, as now, these schools were of the highest advantage, or lamentable failures.  In the log house age of country schools, when they rested with the people, the buildings primarily erected for education were generally occupied for religious exercises, and held as common property.  In the history of the villages and towns of Ontario will be found the existence of schools contemporary almost with settlement.
     Bristol was formed in 1789, and Thomas Hunn was a teacher in that town in the year following.  Thirty families constituted the population of Canandaigua in 1792, yet Major Wallis is recorded as the instructor of their children at that date.  The pioneer teacher in East Bloomfield was Laura Adams, in 1794.  The first schoolmaster in the town of Gorham was Timothy Moore, who, in 1802, opened a term in Rushville.  Prior to this, Hopewell, formed from the northern portion in Gorham, had enjoyed school advantages under the direction of Calvin Bacon, a teacher as early as 1792.  Elam Crane, of whom frequent mention is made from his extensive experience in the schools of the county, was the first teacher in Manchester in 1800.  A marked contrast in capacity, apparent as late as 1806, was exhibited between two teachers.  One day unwonted quiet fell upon the school-rooms, the light faded, and the air grew chill; the sun was slowly darkened, and an awe was felt in many a troubled breast.  Elam Crane called his scholars out to where a fair view could be obtained, and then, while they looked on and watched the dark body of the moon stealing over the great luminary, a lesson of astronomy was taught never to be forgotten.  In another school Draxy McLouth was teaching; she saw the gloom deepen with emotions of terror, dismissed her pupils, and sought shelter with a patron near by.  The early settlers of Naples established their first school in 1792, with Susannah Parish as teacher, while the pioneer of Phelps is lost to recollection.  A house was known to have existed prior to 1800, and it is not probable that a man of enterprise like Robinson would delay the establishment of an agency so necessary to future well-being.  At Geneva, in Seneca, was established a model union school, and one of the first in the State.  To Francis Dwight is attributed the plan of its formation, and its success changed the opposition caused by the weight of taxation to the heartiest support; delegations from various localities came to visit and to observe its workings.  Though the oldest point of settlement, no school was opened in the settlement of Seneca until 1792, when Samuel Wheaton engaged in teaching, while the first school in South Bristol was taught by Joanna Forbes.  The old school house, rude in every feature, from the round logs which formed its sides, and the broad fire-place which occupied one end, to the puncheon floor and slab seat, is a matter of history.  The text-books of that period are known no more.  The rod is little used in modern days, and the pens are no more to be mended, nor copies to be set.  While it were futile to challenge progress, nevertheless it is true that the few books were well conned, and some attention to good manners inculcated.  Schools of all grades and classes were established in the villages, and, as examples, we note a boarding-school at Canandaigua in June, 1804, by Mrs. Whalley, at her house, a few doors north of the court-house.  Her number was limited to twenty young misses, who, in addition to the branches of study, were taught sewing at the reasonable tuition of two dollars per quarter.  A military school was opened at the court-house by Othniel Taylor, and a dancing-school at a hotel by E. M. Cummings. A musical association was formed in 1803, under conduct of Elijah Morely, and it is safe to assert that there is little taught at present but was known and practiced in those early days, and there is "no new thing they did not attempt"
     The marriages which characterized the early history of Ontario and all

PICTURE
Plate VII

"HYGENIC INSTITUTE," - 10 Park Place, Geneva, N. H., A. B. Smith, M.D., Proprietor.
The Institution is open at all seasons of the year for patients and boarders.  For circulars address as above

PLATE VIII
 

Presbyterian Church of  Seneca & Parsonage.

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this western region, were in accordance with the circumstances.  Not unfrequently, young men came out and sought their favorite spot for a farm, purchased, cleared, and built, and then went East to be married; and the long journey by ox-sled was the bridal tour, and the howling of wolves their charivari.  Bravely the youthful couple encountered the hardships of backwoods life, and together they passed along life's pathway down to rest.  Numerous anecdotes are extant of the simplicity of ceremonies attending the marriages in the settlements.  An instance or two must suffice.
     One afternoon in a day of 1794, Israel Chapin was busily engaged on the public square at Canandaigua in chopping, when a man called desiring his services to marry him to a young lady accompanying him.  The ceremony was soon over, and the new-made bridegroom produced a silver dollar as the magistrate's fee.  Mr. Chapin took the coin and presented the same to the bride as her first gift; the squire returned to his chopping, and the couple whence they came.
     Again, it is related of Joseph Annin, known later as Judge Annin, that the "course of true love did not run smooth" in his efforts to provide a helpmeet.  The lady of his choice was a Miss Read, the daughter of Seth Read, a settler in the town of Phelps.  Tradition affirms that Mr. Read was much opposed to the match, and forbade Annin from entering his house.  One evening Mr. Annin, in company with Thomas Sisson, Esq., one of the first justices of the peace in Ontario, was passing the premises of the farmer, and found Miss Read employed in milking her father's cows near the highway.  The opportunity was propitious.  She set aside her milk-pail, stood up, and then and there the silken knot was tied by Esquire Sisson.  The justice and the bridegroom then wended their way home, while Mrs. Annin finished milking the cow that was commenced by Miss Read.  The parents of the young wife, compelled by necessity, became reconciled to the union, and, so far as is known, this wedding, unwitnessed and unceremonious, was productive of full as much felicity as those attended with the display of these times.  No form of law can soften asperity of temper nor imbue with conjugal affection, and the log cabin of the settler probably knew more of happiness in the marital relation than now exists in many a palatial abode.  The first marriage, not only in Ontario, but upon the Phelps and Gorham purchase, was that of Benjamin Goss to a daughter of George Codding.  The first marriage in Farmington was that of Otis Comstock and Huldah Freeman, in 1792.  Philetus Swift and Sally Dean were married in Phelps during 1793.  The first marriage in Naples was in 1795, of Benjamin Clark and Thankful Watkins.  The first marriage in Seneca was of Dr. Joel Prescott and Phila Reed, and in Victor, that of Zebulon Norton and Miss Boughton.
     An importance always attaches itself to the initial event of any character, and the first white child born in a county, a town, or a village takes precedence from that circumstance, and the fact becomes a matter of history.  The birth of Oliver Phelps Rice in 1790, at Canandaigua, was the first within the limits of Ontario.  Welcome Herington was born during the same year, in Farmington.  The first born of Bristol was Cornelius McCrum; of Naples, Phineas P. Lee; of Phelps, Henry H. Robinson of South Bristol, Eli Allen in 1791; of Hopewell, Benjamin Wells, Jr., on Feb. 4, 1791; of Victor, Frederick Boughton, June, 1791, and of Bloomfield, Lucinda Gardner, September, 1791.  It would be interesting in this connection to learn the consequents in the lives of these earliest native whites of Ontario; yet one fact is established - that the open air, the plain, nutritious food, the healthful exercise, and the freedom from care have resulted in long and happy lives.
     The first deaths in the county, from the fact simply that they were such, require a brief notice.  It was on secure region, this country of the Senecas; there were those who died while on their journey hither; there were deaths by falling trees, by burning fevers, by drowning, and by inclement weather; and hardly had the log cabin betokened occupation ere the lonely grave gave silent witness of man's destiny.
     Without medical care, destitute of medicines, many struggled with disease, and in the intervals of fevers attempted to prosecute their labors.  We note the death of Walker, in 1790, at Canandaigua, and that of Mrs. Fish soon after.  The death of Elijah Smith was given as 1793, in Farmington.  William Johnson, of Seneca, was found dead upon the banks of "Scanœdice" Lake, in Pittstown, in 1803; and on Jan. 15, 1805, Charles Robins, of Canandaigua, and John Kennedy, of Sparta, were found frozen to death.  Robert Wiley, of Middleton (Naples), was drowned in Canandaigua Lake in 1808, and Cotton Dickinson was instantaneously killed by the falling of a stick of timber from a loft in 1804, at the raising of the Presbyterian church at Oak's Corners.
     Respect for the departed was not feigned, and while deep feeling of loss weighed upon the relative, tender sympathy was exercised by friends.  There was a class who looked indifferently upon death, and the carousal could proceed in one apartment while a body lay awaiting sepulture in the next.  familiarity upon the battle-field with the grim horrors of war had blunted sensibility.  these settlers were tender and kind to the mourner, but regarded the remains with honor only as far as they recalled worth on the part of him who had left them.  Funeral rites were solemnized with little display.  No hearse with stoic driver preceded a long train of carriages, no rosewood, silver-mounted coffin inclosed the inanimate clay, and but a plain native slab marked the burial spot.
     But with his early simplicity there was method and provision for the future.  One of the first acts of Oliver Phelps, Sr., at the "chosen spot" was the presentation to the inhabitants of a lot for a cemetery, containing one acre of ground as surveyed by Daniel BRAINARD; and such lots were donated or purchased at suitable spots over the county.  Not upon unknown grounds, but in consecrated lots, were laid the bodies of the pioneers, born thither upon the bier, and consigned to rest.  In these old cemeteries are to be found the honored names of many we have noted in these pages - the pioneer settlers of Ontario.  Upon those old graves the hand of affection still lays the fresh flowers over the dust of ancestors, and as in life they were the precursors of settlement, so are their remains the first in the ever-growing villages of the dead.