"Bemus Point Was Probably First Lake Settlement," Jamestown (NY) Post-Journal, 23 May 1981.
        The Post-Journal website:  http://post-journal.com/

Bemus Point Was Probably First Lake Settlement

   If not the first, among the first to settle on the banks of Chautauqua Lake was William Bemus. Bemus was born Feb. 25, 1762 at Bemis Heights in Saratoga County, near where later the first of the battles was fought that resulted in the surrender of Burgoyne. Bemis Heights was named for Jonathan Bemis, a kinsman who kept an inn on the Albany and Fort Edwards roads.
    In the beginning of the Revolutionary War Bemus moved to Pittstown in Rensselaer County, where he purchased land and later wed Mary, the eldest daughter of William Prendergast, in 1782. Early in 1800, the Prendergasts were considering a move to the western wilderness where their fast-increasing families would have plenty of room in which to grow. Bemus sold his large property to be ready for the move.
    Soon after the sale, he made a trip west to visit his brother, Jotham Bemus, who was at that time living near Batavia. Bemus was accompanied by his brother-in-law, Thomas Prendergast. After their visit to Jotham Bemus it was their intention to pass into Canada to view a location which had been recommended as a desirable one for their future home.
    While at Batavia, they made the acquaintance of William Peacock, who had lately returned from a surveying tour of the neighborhood of Chautauqua Lake. Through his influence they were induced to pay a visit to Chautauqua Lake before they returned home.
    The circumstances attending the coming of the Prendergasts to the county are of interest. Prendergast, although about 75 years of age, was hale and healthy. His family did not wish to stay in Rensselaer County where they then lived, and as he was a man of energy and perseverance, he was determined to keep them together by emigration. Accordingly, they left their home in the spring of 1805 with the intention of locating in Tennessee.
    Prendergast and four sons, five daughters, his son-in-law, grandchildren and slave Tom; 29 persons, with four canvas-covered wagons, some drawn by four horses, and a two-horse barouche for the older ladies, traveled through Pennsylvania  as far as Pittsburgh or Wheeling. There they purchased a flat boat and embarked with all their effects and descended the river to the falls of the Ohio, now Louisville, Ky. They traveled with their teams to a point near Nashville, but were dissatisfied with the country and the people and turned back through Kentucky, Ohio and Pennsylvania to Erie, where they arrived about the last day of September, 1805.
    Prendergast had desired to settle in Canada, his son Jediah has urged the family to go to Tennessee, William Bemus and Thomas Prendergast had visited Chautauqua Lake and were pleased. It was finally decided that they should settle in Chautauqua. There being few settlers in Chautauqua, and a lack of provisions, the company went to Canada to winter, except for William Bemus and Thomas Prendergast, who remained. Thomas Prendergast bought land near Ripley, where he settled.
    As soon as William Bemus had his family comfortably housed for the winter in a log house, not far from Thomas Prendergast, in what is now the town of Westfield, he made a visit to Chautauqua Lake and found a squatter had already been at work.
    It was a rule at the land office that if a person built a tenable log house on any unoccupied lands that he should be entitled to the article or 100 acres for each house erected.
    A Dr. McIntyre (the first settler at Mayville) had built up a small hut of poles six by eight and about six feet high, covered it with brush and bark and claimed that it was habitable and had on false representations received an article for 100 acres at what is now known as Bemus Point. For another pole hut erected on the opposite side of the lake he had secured the article of a second 100 acres.
    This was undoubtedly the choicest location on the lake, viewed from the outlook of 1805. At least 100 acres at the point bore evidence of former human occupancy, and there were two fields, each of about 20 acres free from trees and which gave evidence of recent cultivation of corn and beans, the two staples of Indian agriculture. Nearby was a large orchard of wild plum trees, and in this orchard were the remains of wigwams and their contents. In one of the fields were two large mounds, showing that it was an Indian burial place.
    The visit of William Bemus to his much-desired location was in October, 1805. The recently-erected pole huts, he felt confident, could not hold the lands, but they filled him with anxiety. He started immediately for the land office at Batavia, the result of which was that he was authorized to locate at the narrows, and in the following January William Bemus booked at the land office for lots 53-54, tier 2, range 12, with the choice of other lots in spring at a large discount for cash down. He had plenty of money in his pocket, but did not wish to pay $2.50 and $3 per acre when it could be purchased for $1.50 cash at the time of purchase. Bemus paid $1.50 for several hundred acres on both sides of the narrows of Chautauqua Lake in 1806.
    Dr. McIntyre claimed that the pole huts were sufficient to hold the lands and to avoid all vexations, Bemus gave him $100 for his interests. Afterwards he found a very curious claim upon his lands. A Dr. Thomas B. Kennedy of Meadville had a deed from the Indians which called the 1,500 acres of land indefinitely bounded "between the two hills on each side of the creek which empties its waters into the lake at the narrows." This worthless deed included the Bemus purchase on the east side of the lake. Bemus offered Kennedy $80 for his interest, which was accepted. In July 1806, he took articles for a large amount of land near his first purchase.
    After his return from the land office at Batavia, Bemus immediately employed a number of hands and proceeded to the narrows. In less than two weeks, and before the first of December, 1805, he had erected a large and substantial log house about 30 or 40 rods northeast of what is now known as Bemus Point at the ferry. At this time, there was a famine in Chautauqua County, and he left his family where they were until spring.
    On the 9th day of March, 1806, his goods, chattels and family were placed on sleds at their temporary home in Westfield and started for their future home. Arriving at the lake, the teams were too smooth shod to stand on the ice. The sleds were propelled by hand across the lake, and the teams sent around by land. At sundown March 9, 1806, the first white settlers on Chautauqua Lake were at home in their new log house at the narrows of Chautauqua Lake, now Bemus Point.
    William Bemus started his farming operation immediately by girdling the trees which were mostly oak and chestnut, and in due time planting between them corn, potatoes, etc.
    At an early day, no man did more for the advancement and welfare of the county than William Bemus. A highly religious man, the Bible was his constant pocket companion, and all his acts were guided by his precepts. He had one peculiar belief, though, which he gave up only a few hours before his death. That belief was that he should live forever.
    He died Jan. 2, 1830 of the dropsy.
    The log cabin built by Bemus was located about where the present Fish Hatchery pond now is. The Bemus family for their water from a flowing well now located at the corner of Elm Street and Spring Brook Avenue.
    The Indians in the vicinity of Bemus Point spent their summers around Chautauqua Lake. In the winter, they went to Ohio to hunt, returning in the spring. There was an Indian cemetery about where the Fish Hatchery buildings now stand. The cemetery was grown up to weeds and brush. One winter when the Indians were away, Bemus set his colored man (some say he was a slave) to work burning off the brush in the Indian cemetery.
    When the Indians returned in the spring and found what had happened, they left the lake and were never seen again. 

    Editor's note: This article is from material compiled by Martin Arend and Victor Norton Sr. and is used by courtesy of C.T. Arend and Victor Norton Jr. It was submitted for publication by Homer Danielson.

10/31/2003