Events now held trivial deepen their interest with the lapse of years and the inquiry as to what families first made settlement in Monroe, rightly answered will, in time, afford no little satisfaction. The transmission from age to age of the details of early travel, primitive life, and laborious effort anticipates conjecture, presents contrast, and stimulates emulation. Local history traces human progress and natural changes. New England colonies are seen to occupy an Indian wilderness; troops of savages, predatory and Ishmael minded, are located upon reservations or transported to distant regions, and the gradations of improvement find ample demonstration.

The main road leading from Utica westward to Buffalo, crossed the Genesee at Avon, by the only bridge spanning the river, and led to an early and general settlement of the lands adjacent that highway, while northward remained for years a wilderness with here and there a log hut in a clearing, the occupants scourged by fevers, yet tenacious in possession till time and interest brought relief.

From 1788-90 a half-dozen persons had effected a lodgment between Avon and Lake Ontario. At Pittsford were Israel and Simon Stone; at Perrinton, Glover Perrin; upon the site of Scottsville lived Peter Shaeffer; at Brighton, Orange Stone had built a habitation, and at the mouth of Genesee William Hincher had fixed his abode. For several years no neighbor intervened between the twelve miles of forest which stretched from the log tavern of Stone to the solitude where Hincher dwelt by the lake.

It was the close of 1789. When Peter Shaeffer originally from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, set out for the Genesee country to provide his sons and daughters each with an inheritance before his departure, for he was eighty five years of age. During July a tract of one thousand two hundred acres was purchased in Bloomfield, and each of three daughters was given four hundred acres, upon which they settled. Shaeffer came in December to the mouth of Allen's creek, where dwelt Ebenezer Allen in a log house upon a farm of four hundred and seventy acres, part granted for services rendered Phelps and Gorham in treaty with the Indians, and three hundred the gift of the Indians. Shaeffer found over fifty acres under tillage, and a field of twenty acres sowed to wheat; experience taught him the value of the property, and it was purchased for his sons, Peter and Jacob, for one thousand one hundred and seventy-five dollars. This money enabled Allen to complete his famous mill upon the present site of Rochester. The Shaeffers, while building for themselves a structure, which was known as the first framed, farm dwelling from the Genesee to Lake Erie.

The father and brother died, and Peter Shaeffer, Jr., wealthy, enterprising, and benevolent, was held in high repute in public and private life. As he was the pioneer settler of southern Monroe, we learn with pleasure that his life and character were worthy of transmittal to posterity in the records of its organization.

Among reminiscences he speaks of laying a road from Allen's creek to the falls in 1792. He was assisted by his brother, and having no compass the ranges were taken from trees. Improvements in the way of bridging were made in the winter of 1793. Wild animals were numerous and troublesome. Wild pigeons wee netted in large numbers. Trout were abundant in the creeks. While en route to join the western Indians against Wayne, a body of Senecas encamped upon the flats near the creek, and threatened, if successful, to return and war against the settlers. On one occasion a detachment of troops proceeding westward along the Ontario shore became shortened for supplies. Learning of Shaeffer, they came up to his farm, quartered in his bar, received a quantity of rations, and were guided by him to Caledonia springs, and from Tonawanda were led by the trader Poudry to Fort Niagara, where they were the first to raise the American flag. Maude said of Shaeffer, "This respectable farmer lives off the road in a new boarder house, the only one of that description between New Hartford (Avon) and the mouth of the Genesee river. Upon which, excepting Indian Allen, he is the oldest settler."

Simon and Israel Stone were proprietors of Pittsford, and settled upon the trail from Avon northward to Irondequoit. Silas Nye and Joseph Farr were others closely following them.

William Walker is recalled as the land agent of Phelps and Gorham at Canandaigua. Probably as a remuneration for his services, township 12, range 4, became his property.