Oaks Corners
Ontario County, New York
The following document was sent to
me with the suggestion
that I add it to this site. That was some time ago.
I have forgotten who sent it and am not sure if it was
the owner. Thus I have attempted to locate the owner
for the purpose of gaining permission to post it. My
efforts have not born fruit. There is no longer a Wilson
Press in Phelps, NY. There is one in Waterloo, but
they don't appear to know about the story.
Therefore I am displaying the paper in hopes
that if someone owns the copyright, that they will
contact me.
It is a very well written paper and details
the history of the small church on the
Pre-emption Road in the Hamlet of
Oaks Corners. It was by Mabel E. Oaks
who was in a very good position to Write it.
I recently communicated with the son of Mabel
Oaks. He is Mason Oaks and lives in Oaks Corners.
It is good to know there is still an Oaks living there.
Oral History of Oaks Corners
Church and Community
Presented August 1, 1954 by Mabel E. Oaks On the
occasion of the Sesquicentennial
Anniversary
My sources for this sesquicentennial history of Oaks
Corners Church and community are
many--our session record books,
a scrapbook compiled by J. Seymour Doolittle and
owned by his niece, Mrs. Katharine Angevine of Geneva, the pamphlet program of
our
1904 church centennial celebration, the booklet "When Pheips Was Young" (written
by
Helen Post Ridley in 1939 for that village's sesquicentennial) and isolated
thoughts
surfacing for a moment in the minds of older
residents. Much of this material is not
newly discovered, is already known, but this is the first time it has all been
brought
together and told from the particular angle of its relationship to Oaks Corners.
First, a brief historical review for background--It
was in 1779 that General John Sullivan marched
into the Genesee Country on his
expedition to drive out the Indians so that settlement
might begin.
His 5000 soldiers destroyed Indian crops, orchards and villages,
and most of the savages retreated
to the farther bank of the Genesee River. The
terms,
Genesee Country and Ontario County, were
then synonymous--meaning
all land now in
western New York State west of Seneca Lake from
shores of Lake Ontario to the
nearer
bank of the Genesee River. Ontario County is the mother
of counties, as our
church is
the mother of churches. Ten more years went by before
Phelps and Gorham were
able
to complete their huge land purchase and extinguish Indian
titles.
At last, in the spring of 1789--only
a few weeks after George Washington's inauguration
as President--John Decker Robison and his family came
poling up the Canandaigua
Outlet, a mile north of here, in a batteau and landed on the flats back of the
present
War Veterans' Home at Phelps. Wilderness and a few
sullen Indians surrounded them.
Later that same year came six men from Conway, Massachusetts; they were Jonathan
Oaks, Wells Whitmore, Seth Dean, Elias Dickinson, Oliver and Charles Humphrey.
One of
them, Jonathan Oaks, settled here at Oaks Corners, made his clearing and built
his log
home just west of Myron Wilison's, back by the brook; he and his companions (who
settled a little north of here and In Vienna), being the first settlers, were
able to
choose land partially cleared by the Indians. Jonathan Oaks was the great
great
grandfather of Albert, Nathan and Carlton Oaks and their cousins, Mrs.
George F. Cook,
Margaret Oaks and Charles T. Oaks, (deceased).
FOUNDING OF ThE EARLY CHURCH
Soon there were more cabins and the need was felt for
religious meetings; these were
held in homes or barns until 1794, when Oaks Stand was finished, built by
Jonathan
Oaks--the head carpenters, Wells Whitmore and Benjamin
Shekell. This wellknown inn
stood till Civil War times, when it burned, on the
site of the former home of the late Nathan
Oaks 2nd. At Oaks Stand was
held the first town meeting of Phelps In 1796 at which
Jonathan Oaks was elected supervisor, Solomon Goodale clerk, Dr.
Joel Prescott, Philetus Swift
and Pierce Granger assesssors. Here, In 1797, was
formed a nonsectarian "Christian Association".
The pioneers were Practical; they had to be. Since there were not enough people
of any one
denomination to organize singly, they harmonized religious differences. Even In
Geneva in 1797
there were still no separate denominational groups; in 1798,
20 log houses were Geneva. (Dr. Robert S.
Breed of Geneva's Experiment Station believes that our
first meetings Quite possibly were held in the
Immer Crittenden barn built about 1793 at the corner
of Pre-emption and Seneca Castle roads.
In Conway, the Oaks Corners settlers had been neighbors
of the Geneva Jonathan Whitney group
and would naturally have wished to worship together in this strange new frontier
country. That the Oaks
Corners and Old Castle people knew each other well is established by the
fact that two of Jonathan
Oaks' daughters, Martha and Doratha, married Old Castle men, Solomon Warner and
Seth Reed.)
This religious activity was going on simultaneously with days of back-breaking
toil and nights of
uneasy fear of Indian attack from the west. The Oaks Corners Christian
Association had no
preacher; laymen conducted these meetings. John VanAuken, Thaddeus Oaks (son of
Jonathan)
and Solomon Goodale are mentioned In the records as frequent exhorters.
Always they longed for a church building, and by
1804; $600 had been raised by circulating a
subscription paper, and the work began. The society had a contract with Daniel
Shattuck, his
brother, Rufus Shattuck, and Wells Whitmore to furnish and frame the timber and
bring it to the
church lot, ready for raising, within three months. The three were to receive
their pay In an interesting
way; $56 down, in squared and round timber, $75 within one month in cash, $75
more in five months
in cash, $344 within six months In wheat and $50 in goods at John R. Green's
store. (John R. Green
was the first merchant in the township; his store was located where George F.
Cook's house now stands.)
Not much cash was in circulation then, so the use of money was worth a great
deal. In 1814, our church
trustees loaned $200 at an interest "not to exceed 14%". The dimensions of the
meeting house were
50 by 60 feet, the spire 55 feet high; Thaddeus Oaks
gave the land on which it stood--the Lord's acre.
Came July 18, 1804-the day of the raising. It was to
be a wonderful day, but tragedy struck without
warning. Cotten Dickinson, an earnest young member of the church, was instantly
killed and carried
to Oaks Stand where he was laid out for burial In one of the rooms. His
gravestone, In the old cemetery
across the road from Miss Whitney's, bears this inscription: "Cotten Dickinson
died July 18, 1804,
while in the act of raising the first Presbyterian Church in Phelps, in the 34th
year of his age."
Isn't that an historic monument? He left his widow, Nancy Pullen Dickinson, and
eight fatherless
children. Soon after her husband's death, Nancy Dickinson gave birth to her
ninth child, whom she
named Cotten 2nd.
I want to read to you this interesting note, sent us
by Mabel Dickinson, a great-grand-daughter of Cotten
Dickinson 1st. I quote:
"My great-grandfather and my grandfather were
carpenters and both worked on the old Oaks Corners
Church. One day before my grandfather was born, my great-grandmother had a
premonition of trouble
and did not want my great-grandfather to go to work on the church. However,
he said that help was
scarce, and
went . (This was the day of the raising) While working
on the roof, he slipped, fell on a
beam below and was killed instantly. A spike in the beam pierced his body.
In later years, my grandfather and his eldest brother, Eli, were working
on the old church. Suddenly,
my grandfather said, "Eli, where was It that our father was killed?" Eli looked,
pointed, "Right there"
(for there were blood stains on the beam). This scene so
affected my grandfather that he fainted."
Next-Page
Historical Index
Site Map
Home Page
Site Bibliography
|
