OHDELAWA-L Archives

From: Maggie Stewart-Zimmerman <>
Subject: Fw: Canada Road [Part 2]
Date: Fri, 12 Feb 1999 05:55:10 -0500

Continued from Part 1

From: Merle Rummel <>

Joseph Bowman started from Waterloo, February the 9th, 1819,
and arrived in Reading, February the 27th 1819.

>From John Erb's Mill to
Jacob Myer .................... 60 (Jordan ONT)
Cadareenstown (St Cathrines) ... 8 (St Catherines ONT)
Queenstown .................... 12 (Queenston ONT)
Morehous's tavern ............. 25 (Hartland NY)
Olarged Creek ................. 13 (Oak Orchard Creek)
`Tillanson's tavern ............ 28 (?Parma's Corners NY)
Rochester ..................... 11
Pitsford ...................... 8
Cannandaigua .................. 21
Benyang (Penn Yang) ........... 22 (Penn Yan NY)
Head of Sennaka Lake .......... 30 (Watkins Glen NY)
Coryell's tavern .............. 7 (?Montour Falls NY)
New Town ...................... 15 (Elmira NY)
Lowman's tavern ............... 7 (Lowman NY)
Tioga point ................... 14 (Greens Landing PA)
Shaw's tavern ................. 6 (?Ulster PA)
Brown's tavern ................ 27 (Browntown -Wyalusing)
Smith's Ferry ................. 30 (?Eatonville PA)
Wilksberry .................... 20 (Wilkes-Barre PA)
Rack's tavern ................. 17
Mirwein's tavern .............. 16
Dreisbach's Mill .............. 6
Lehigh Water Gap .............. 12 (?Palmerton PA)
Richard's Tavern .............. 8
Kutstown ...................... 6 (Kutztown PA)
Reading ....................... 17
---------
Miles ............... 458

Spending Money ........... $22.53

-------------------------------------------

Lets go south from Waterloo/Kitchner ONT ---Hwy 8

Joseph Bowman went clear through on the old Settlers road (Hwy
8/ Hwy 81) to Elder Jacob Moyer at Jordan, and continued on to
St Catherines ONT. Here Hwy 81 continues on the Queenston ONT
as Queenston Street, then York Road on to Queenston. At
Queenston it come to the bluff at the Niagara River, just at
the foot of the Escarpment where the US Army was defeated by
British General Brock, in the War of 1812. Just south on Front
Street (at Dunfries Street) was a twisting lane down to the
"Sand Beach" landing on the River. Here was the ferry to
Lewistown in New York. The South Landing Inn on Front Street
was built near that time.

>From Lewistown NY the Settlers Road followed the Ridge Road to
Rochester NY. This was a sandy ridge several miles back from
Lake Ontario, said to be the Archaic Beach of the Prehistoric
"Lake Iroquois". The ferry landing was at Center Street, which
is the end of the Ridge Road at the Niagara River. The old
Ridge Road is NY 104 from Lewistown going east. Samuel
Morehouse built a "hotel" at Hartland Corners in 1813. This is
now the west part of the town of Hartland, in Niagara County
NY.

Local Historians seemed to think that German speaking Joseph
Bowman misunderstood the English name of "Oak Orchard Creek",
because it was named for an Orchard of Oak trees at its mouth
(Point Breeze) on the bay on Lake Ontario. The Ridge Road
crosses Oak Orchard Creek at "Oak Orchard on the Ridge", just
NE of Medina NY. I was unable to locate any records to
"Tillianson's Tavern" but distances on NY 104 placed it just
about NY 259, or Parma's Crossing.

>From Rochester NY, the route would likely have followed PA 64
to Pittsford and angled down to the Iroqouis Castle of
Canandaigua on the mouth of Lake Canandaigua (Finger Lakes
area). From there NY 147 goes south and east to Penn Yan (for
early settlers from Pennsylvania and Yankee Connecticut) (mouth
of Keuka Lake), then 14A and 14 to Watkins Glen at the head of
Seneca Lake. Coryell's tavern was likely at the "Montour
Falls" on the river feeding into the Lake. They then followed
over the Indian Trail to the headwaters of the Susquehanna
River at Horseheads (where General Sullivan had to kill his
horse pack team, as he lead the army in its raid against the
Iroqouis Indians in 1762).

Elmira NY was originally named Newtown, the name being changed
in 1828. The Indian Trail followed down the Susquehanna River
as far as Wilkes Barre. Tioga Point is a historical site at
Greens Landing, just south of Athens PA. From Wilkes Barre,
Joseph crossed over to the Lehigh River, passing through the
Narrows the gap in the Mountain there (Lehigh Gorge), and on
toward Allentown PA. Instead, he turned west to Kutztown and
on to Reading.

This is a main Iroquois Indian Trail that followed this route,
from Canada all the way down to the Susquehanna River Valley
(noted by an earliest settler, Jemima Wilkinson).

============================================================

I can see several locations where the migrants could switch
from one road to the other.

One would be on the Susquehanna, where those from Sunbury could
go on up the River to Wilkes-Barre.

Another would be at Elmira NY, which is in the same valley, and
only a few miles from Corning NY.

A third would be near Rochester NY, where the Iroquois Trail
from Canandaigua went west to the Genesee River at Avon, or in
reverse, those on the Genesee River could easily go on down the
river to Rochester.

(I followed the western route, plotting the locations: 1998.
I traced the upper NY and Canada route last week, 1999, and
hope to drive the eastern route this summer! -my son is getting
married in Newark Del. I will be at my daughter's house at
Buffalo the week before.) Could someone help me on the area
along the Lehigh River and Allentown? -are these places right?
Could he have used an easy route between those locations? Was
there an Old Settlers Road there? What about those taverns?
HELP!!)

The Widow Berry was a very popular person of the Niagara/
Batavia/Buffalo area -Joseph's sequence seems to indicate
another person by that name-or did she move north? I wonder
if Dreisbach's Mill PA and Dreisbach's Tavern NY weren't also
the same family kin? A Henry Dreisbach came into Sparta NY.

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• Fw: Canada Road [Part 2] by Maggie Stewart-Zimmerman <>