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Rushford Lake

Compiled by Mary Rhodes

The headline from an 1984 Wellsville Daily Reporter article caught my eye as I was leafing through newspaper archives at the Alfred State Library.  “Two Towns Lie Under Rushford Lake”.   I had lived in this area for over 25 years, (a relative newcomer) and had never heard of the “Two Towns” of  Kelloggville or East Rushford as were reported in the paper.  So, I hit the local libraries and visited the county historian’s office to find out a little more. 

What I found was a series of newspaper stories written as the world was changing in Rushford.   They represent history in the making with a touch of small town charm.  I present them to you here.

If you want to ignore my ramblings and get right down to these old stories, you can click on the links below to take you there, or just read on.  Use your back button to return here.

East Rushford is Doomed

Mrs. Evans Tells Us Where Some Families Moved

Mr. Balcom’s Farm

Dam Gates Close

Kelloggville

Kellogg Reunion

Seeding Trout

First Boat On Rushford Lake

A December 5, 1925 headline from the Olean Times Union laid the foundation of the story by providing a short historical account of the area.  The following are some highlights from that article.

HYDRO POWER SPELLS DOOM OF OLD TOWN

Arthur H. Crapsey

Olean Times Union

East Rushford is doomed.  Within 12 short months this little village will be completely submerged under thousands of tons of water.

It was Caneadea Creek, running through the timber covered hills in Allegany country that lured the first settlers to East Rushford and now, after more than 100 years, it is the same slender thread of water that has spelled the doom of that town.

Where the early settlers rolled their logs into the stream to be whirled to the saw and pulp mills, progress has decreed that the waters of Caneadea Creek shall be harnessed between the giant hills and turned to power.

Soon, the people of East Rushford will gather their personal belongings and seek new homes, leaving the place where their ancestors struggled for a livelihood with axe and oxen.

No ill feeling exists in their minds toward those who have purchased their property, and while there is regret that they must move on to strange places, they feel that its different when you know that no one else will live in our homes.

When the dam of the Mohawk Power Company, owner of the Rochester Gas and Electric Corporation, is completed in the gorge of Caneadea reek, and the waters are checked, East Rushford at its western end will be at least twenty feet under water.  From this point to the dam is a distance of two miles.  At the dam, the water will be 125 feet deep and the dam will be 140 feet high.  The cost of the project is estimated at $2,000,000.

Old Town Skeleton.

Today East Rushford boasts but a scant two score dwellings, a gristmill, sawmill, store and school house.  It has fewer than 200 inhabitants.  But the village today is just a skeleton of its former rugged self.  East Rushford’s palmy (sic) days go back to the decade prior to the Civil War when Caneadea Creek hummed with industry and the population reached a half thousand souls.

But Caneadea Creek proved a fickle mistress.  After luring those hardy settlers to her banks, she waited patiently for years until log cabins had been replaced with frame dwellings, log fences with rail fences, until plank roads had been built through her gorge and the community had multiplied in numbers; and then in one angry night, perhaps to avenge the clearing of her hills, she swept the town away, boiling over her banks and leaving nothing but twisted piles of debris.

It was on August 16^th and 17^th  1864 that this flood wiped out East Rushford and, though many of the settlers immediately set to work to rebuild the town, many left and the town never again reached its former prosperity.

To get the story of this little village proved a difficult task yesterday.  Memories have failed and dates are conflicting.  But in the home of Mrs. Carrie Daley, whose grandfather was one of the first settlers in the town, was found a book of reminiscences of the pioneers of the village and from these some dates and events were taken.

Marvelous Kinships.

The book dealt with the town of Rushford for the most part.  This town is about two miles from East Rushford. But it was soon discovered that Rushford and East Rushford are closely bound together in history at least as far as families and major events are concerned.  For example, here is one of the passages of the book:

“The relationships in our town are marvelous to contemplate.  Probably there is no other man in the country who has more relatives than Fred G. Gordon, belonging to the large family of Gordons and related to all of the Garys, all of the Tarbells, all the Kendalls and as if that were not enough, he must marry a Woods.”

Be it known that the writer discovered Woods all through East Rushford, and that is not an intended pun.  The passage continues:

“If Mr. Gordon should make a dinner party some day and invite all his relatives, we would all go.”

So the residents of the valley were willing to move in the name of progress.  The power company paid them a fair price for their property and they moved.   Luckily for us, local historians and newspapers were there to keep record.  Mrs. Viola Evans supplied a story to the Spectator detailing where some of the residents of East Rushford relocated to.

1927 Spectator Story

 by Mrs. Viola Evans

Thinking it may interest some of the readers of the Spectator, I am giving an account of the exodus of East Rushfords former inhabitants and their present locations.

The Baylors, Michael and Fred, sold their farm to George Balcom and bought another in the vicinity of Black Creek where they are now living.  At the time they sold to Mr. Balcom, it was not thought their farm would be much affected by the water but a later survey showed that it would and Mr. Balcom has since sold out to the Power Company, though he is still living there. (See the next article in this series)

Will Burr purchased a farm in Black Creek, also, and moved his family there a year ago.  When we last saw him, he seemed well pleased with his present home.  A Mr. Wray is now living in the Burr house.

Mrs. Mae Burr, who owned a house and lot near her son, was living in Olean when it was sold and is still there. Ernest King and family now occupy her house. 

The McCalls purchased the Miles Tarbell farm west of Rushford and Mrs. Fannie McCall and son Newell and family moved there last fall.

We are informed that the company plans to move both the McCall and Burr houses onto the new road eventually.

L. C. McElheny, who was doing an extensive business in the saw mill and last block and cheese box factories, is now living on Taylor Hill where he has bought some seven hundred acres of land, built a large barn and has gone into the business of both cattle and sheep raising.

Wm. Durkee is living on the Albert Farwell farm on the Creek Road between Rushford and Fairview, which he purchased of Dorance Farwell over a year ago.  We understand he and his wife are pleased with their present home.  The Durkee house here is still standing although partly dismembered.

Their former near neighbor, Mrs. Sumner Kilmer, who was living alone in what years ago was known as the Worden house, since her husband’s death a few years ago, is living with her grandson, Volney Corsett, in Caneadea, where she went about the time Mr. Durkee moved to his present home.  Nothing remains of that house.  It was taken down and moved to a place near Fairview where the house had been destroyed by fire a short time before.

Fred McElheny and family are living in Rushford Village in a home purchased of Mrs. Ralph Lanning.

Their house in East Rushford is still standing.  Willis Weigle, who purchased it, intends to move it to his farm west of the future lake where he and family plan to make their future home, as there is no house there now.  He is still living in his house in East Rushford as he has bought it back from the company and is not obliged to move yet.

Mrs. Carrie Daley also bought in Rushford and is now living there.  The buildings formerly owned by her have been taken down and removed.

David Thompson and wife purchased of Allen Austen the house in Rushford once owned by John James, Jr., and are now living there.

The Thompson house is to be moved by the Power Company later.

Chester Blom, who owned the canning factory, bought Colonel Bakers farm where he is about to make extensive repairs on the building and has become a farmer.  He bought back his East Rushford house and has removed much of it to his present home.

Victor Marsh bought the interior of the canning factory which he now operates in the old B & S Depot, which he now owns.  The Canning factory exterior occupies a site on the W. M. Camp Ground at Houghton.

Otis Marsh bought part of the land known as the Connor farm, of Lynn Allen, where he is building a barn and expects to move there later.  He is still living in East Rushford.

Charles Youngs, one of the first to move from our village, bought a home in Oramel where he lives at the present time.  Only rubbish remains of the buildings he once owned here.

Clyde Colburn and family are living in the building which was once Roy Van Dusen’s store, near the old B & S Depot which his mother owned at the time of her death and is now his.  But little remains of his buildings here.

The Wesleyan Methodist parsonage was taken down and moved to South Hill in Centerville to make a home for a family that had recently lost theirs by fire.  This was one of East Rushfords old land marks.  Probably the oldest.

E. A. Brockway, who had a small grocery store here, is now living in Rushford Village.  The skeleton of his former home remains, its windows are gone, just another indication of East Rushford’s desolation.

Fred Lafferty bought F. M. Worden’s farm, south of Rushford vicinity, moving there last fall.  His house here is still standing.

F. J. Miller’s feed mill is as yet doing a thriving business, but Mr. Miller and family are living in town where his children can attend school.  As far as we know he has not decided where he will make his permanent home.

The John Heald house which was owned by Fred McElheny is still standing.  The Ione Van Dusen house has been taken down and carried away.

East Rushford’s school house has been taken to Caneadea to become an addition to the church building in that village.  In its former home it served for many years as a place of divine worship.  So it seems quite fitting that it should occupy the place it now does.

This is a sketch of the practical side of our village’s history.  But the sentimental side – the memories, both sad and pleasant, the marriages, deaths and births, the friendships formed here, the tender associations clinging to its various building – these cannot be easily expressed.  Certainly I cannot do justice to such an undertaking, so I leave this to others better fitted to do so.

I think she did just fine.  Mrs. Evans mentions George Balcom, and he is the protagonist in the next story I found and, I admit, I really enjoyed reading.

East Rushford Farm Brings $27,500.00

1927 Patriot

If he who laughs last laughs best, he who is last to sell his land to a corporation which must have it to carry out its project of building a dam, not only laughs best, but stands a chance of having the companionship of a copious lot of coin of the realm to keep him in cheerful mood the balance of his days.

In the case of the dam being built at East Rushford by the Rochester Gas and Electric Corporation, this last man to deal was George W. Balcom, and he was amply paid for waiting.  As a matter of fact, Mr. Balcom sold twice to the company.  His original home in the very heart of the proposed dam was sold for $12,000.  He then bought for $7,500 the 232 acre farm of Michael A. Baylor, which lay high and, according to the engineers, was not supposed to be affected by the dam.  Later it was discovered the engineers were in error and that the farmhouse would be surrounded on three sides.

The company sought to buy the farm from Mr. Balcom, but he was in no hurry to sell.  Finally when all the balance of the land necessary had been secured, he proceeded to deal with the electric interest.  It is understood there was a good deal of bargaining back and forth in which Mr. Balcom was represented by Attorney Walter N. Renwick of Cuba and the electric people by their attorneys of Rochester and elsewhere.  The details of those dickerings are not open to the public but in the final transaction it is noted that Mr. Balcom received the sum of $27,500.  He disclaims , however, that his net profits on the deal is $20,000 as might appear on the surface as, since taking possession of the place he had made improvements costing close to $2,500.  In the meantime however, he has raised some pretty good crops including about 2,000 bushels of potatoes for which he has been offered $2.00 per bushel.

Those of us driving toward  Rushford from Caneadea on Route 243 will notice a street named Balcom Beach Road. Hmmmm….

The building of the dam took a relatively short time.  Using local labor, it was started in 1925 and finished February 1928.  The final structure is 625 feet across at the top, 125 feet high and 37 feet thick at its base. 

CANEADEA DAM GATES CLOSED

February 4, 1928

The work of building the large single arch dam in the Caneadea gorge was completed late Saturday night.  Water began filling the dam.  The gates were closed by A. S. Dennell, in charge of the gate adjusting, who later left for his home in Kent, Ohio.

The work of spreading the cement and the brickwork was also completed and 40 men were laid off.  There are 140 workmen still on the job cleaning up waste materials and refuse.  The last derricks were taken down and will be stored in the shed of the Gannett, Seeley and Flemming Company.

Edward Kayser, superintendent of the construction of the dam left for New York City Sunday morning where he will take charge of a branch of the Harrisburg Pennsylvania Company which built the dam.

The Pennsy railroad switch which was placed on the Luther P. Moore property for switching cars with materials for the dam will be removed early in the week.

The water last Sunday stood about 50 feet in depth in the gorge and covering the site of the former village of East Rushford.

The dam will furnish power for the Rochester Gas and Electric Corporation.

Kelloggville

Around 1958, The Rushford Lake Sesquicentennial  Committee released a book called the “Spirit of Rushford 1908 – 1958”. (A godsend, really, to anyone wishing to trace their Rushford families.)   I quote now from that book.

Alfred Riley Kellogg married Mariette Bannister, daughter of Pliny Bannister, a pioneer school teacher, who taught school in Rushford, NY in 1813 where the Methodist Episcopal church now stands.  In 1816, Pliny and his brother Wayne each bought a 200 acre tract of land from the Holland Land Co., on Caneadea Creek, where the Rushford Lake is now located.

Here they erected saw mills and operated grindstone quarries.  Pliny Bannister and others built part of the plank road through the gorge (Caneadea Gorge), over which the early settlers traveled to Caneadea.  In 1855 Calvin Kellogg and his sons, Alfred and Cornelius purchased this property from Pliny Bannister.  Soon afterwards Alfred R. Kellogg and his wife bought the property and made it their life home, where their family of nine children were born.

The area became a thoroughfare for pioneers heading west and for lumber and farm goods heading to market in Buffalo and Rochester.  Kelloggville was born and lived for a hundred years, a community in the valley of the Caneadea Creek, and now submerged by the waters of Rushford Lake.  

The Kellogg homestead and the community of Kelloggville may be gone – but not forgotten.  The Kellogg family meets every year in Rushford for a family reunion, and I confirmed that with Mr. Arthur Kellogg.

Mr. Kellogg explained that the get-togethers started around the end of the World War.   Weir Kellogg had been wounded in service to his country and family and friends wanted to celebrate his return to Rushford by holding a picnic in his honor.   The reunion has been happening ever since.   Mr. Kellogg says in recent years attendance is down, but they still get 30 to 40 people there swapping stories and having a good time.  He was not around for the building of the dam, but his dad worked on the project.  Forty cents an hour, 10 hours a day.  They also paid him 40 cents an hour for his team of horses.  That’s $8.00 a day!

You can look at a copy of the Kellogg Family Tree in the Rushford Free Library if you decide to visit.

Read on for a 1987 account of the Kellogg Reunion from the Olean Times Herald...

Kellogg Family Gathers for 79^th Reunion

Olean Times Herald - Monday August   10, 1987

By Mark Whitehouse

RUSHFORD – When Rushford Lake was built in the 1920’s, a small community was relocated.  Kelloggville, settled more than 125 years ago, lay in the same spot where Rushford Lake is today. The community dispersed, but each year, on the second Sunday of August, its former residents return to Rushford to catch up on old times.

On Sunday, the family of Alfred Riley Kellogg held its 70^th annual family reunion in the Rushford Village Park.  Philo Furniss, great grandson of Mr. Riley Kellogg said the Kellogg family missed its annual reunion only one year in the past 70.

“We have met every year since 1917, with the exception of 1943, during World War II, Mr. Furniss said. “Otherwise the reunion has gone on continually.”

Mr. Furniss, 60, said he wasn’t alive when the relocation of the Kellogg community took place, “But people had to leave – houses were torn down or moved.”

Originally, Kelloggville was comprised of Kelloggs only, but Mr. Furniss said gradually, other families entered the community.

He said relatives from Arizona, New Mexico, New Jersey, the Buffalo Lockport area and Allegany County attend the reunion.  On a year like this, the 70^th reunion – he expected over 100 people to be in attendance, but only 70 actually attended, probably because of drizzly weather.  In other years he said “anywhere from 50-75 people will show up.”..

“People just bring their favorite dish,” Mr. Furniss said.

This year’s reunion was held, despite gray skies and rain, under the pavilion in the Legion Park.  Mr. Furniss said if there had been heavy rain, the group would have moved to the Rushford Bible House on County Road 7B.

He said in the past the group has occasionally had to move the picnic indoors because of bad weather.

We have had a few washouts.” Mr. Furniss said. “But we’re a hardy group.”

By the way, the Rushford Bicentennial Committee is now working on a new book to celebrate 200 years of Rushford and its people.  Mr. Kellogg tells me he is contributing an article on his farm, and that the committee wants to make this book even better than the1958 edition.

I, for one, can’t wait to read it.

Rushford Lake

Although the lake was originally designed for use by a power company, residents of the area watched and participated in the creation of a vibrant summer recreational community.  These last two stories are both from 1928, as the water was rising…

Plant Rainbow Trout in Caneadea Lake – 1928 News Story

Fifteen thousand rainbow trout have been planted in the tributary streams of the new Caneadea Lake, under the direction of Inspector Hamilton of Rochester, representing the Conservation Commission.  The planting of rainbow trout in this new lake made by the Caneadea dam will afford excellent rainbow trout fishing within a few years, as rainbows can stand warmer water than the native trout and on account of the dam, will be unable to escape down the river.  Game protector Ward Whitney assisted in the planting.

The name of the lake has evolved into Rushford Lake, instead of Caneadea Lake, fitting since it lies wholly within the Town of Rushford.

Original plans for a power plant as were mentioned in the first “Doomed” story were never realized.  Instead, the lake that was created became a holding reservoir.   In the fall, when the Genesee River runs low, water is released from the dam into the Genny, it is again captured farther north, behind the Mt. Morris dam, bringing the water level there up to normal levels, and allowing the power plants in Rochester to continue producing hydro electric power.  The Mt. Morris Dam is a relative newcomer to this equation, it was built in the 1950’s as flood control for the Genesee Valley between Mt. Morris and Rochester, NY.

I can’t think of a better way to end this piece than by reprinting another article from 1928 as follows.  The name of the canoe may be politically incorrect now, but Webster’s has always defined it as a “good luck symbol. “  Smile at the foresight as you read the last few lines.

First Boat on Rushford Lake

April 1928

Of course we would rather have the folks than the water in East Rushford.  But my, the water is fine!

The ‘Swastika’, a canvas canoe constructed and owned by Hugh Thomas, was the first boat to ride the rising waters of Rushford Lake.  Last Wednesday, April 4th  Hugh and Mary Katherine Thomas had their boat on the lake in front of the house recently occupied by Mr. White and the former home of Rev. Johnson.  The trip was most interesting including many thrills.  A stop was made over Crocker Hill Bridge.  A paddle was put down on the iron railing showing the water 2 feet deep above that point.  A tour around the island on which the remains of the Marsh home lay revealed about the last of the East Rushford homes being hungrily consumed by the advancing water.  The store and gas station were lingered over, as were other points of interest. The return trip followed the old state road and a landing was made by the picturesque remains of the mill.

More boats will come soon and we shall have cottages and a delightful summer colony.  Rushford lake with its irregular shore line, its coves and inlets will compare favorably with the most beautiful of the lakes anywhere in the state.

The coming summer will no doubt bring many tourists who will come to see, linger to admire, go to proclaim, and return to enjoy with us our beautifully situated Rushford Lake. 

For a picture of the Rushford Dam submitted by Jim Gelser, taken by his grandfather, William J. Gelser,

PRESS HERE