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Eighty-five years ago the tract of land now known as the twp. of LeRoy, was an un-
broken wilderness, where the bear, the deer and the wildcat roamed at will, and
no human foot save that of the wild Indian trod its hills and forests. It is
difficult to realize that such a comparatively short time age there were no fields,
no roads, no houses, nothing but unbroken forests. And it is still more difficult
for those who have for years lived in the comfortable homes, tilled the farms and
eaten of the fruit of the thrifty orchards to realize the hardships and dangers of
those through whose labors and privations the forests were converted into fertile
fields.
The first settlers of the town are all gone. A very few of those who came
a few years later are still living. Some of the descendants of those early pioneers
still live in the town, but the thrift, energy and desire to earn a home for them-
selves, which characterized the parents, was inherited by the children, and many
of them have found homes in the far west.
But little is known of the first settlers of the town. They came, and
lived, and died, comprises nearly all that can be said of them.
In the year 1802, Col. Amasa Clapp, of Mass. gave a tract of land, located
in the then ‘far west,’ to his two sons, Paul and Elah Clapp. They came to their
land, not on the cars, or by stage, or even in wagons, for there were no roads the
greater part of the way, but picking their way, as best they could, on foot or on
horseback, through the trackless forests. When they found their ’farms,’ they
cut down some trees and rolled up a log house. The site of that first house built in
the town is still to be seen. It is on the farm now owned by James Quine. Paul
Clapp was married but left his family in Mass. Elah was a bachelor. .
In 1803 Spencer Phelps came from Mass. and settled near them. The Clapps
harvested their first crop of wheat that season. The crop was not much like those
raised by the homesteaders on the prairies of Neb. and Dak. It did not need a
McCormick Binder to harvest it. Indeed I doubt if the grain cradle could have been
used to very good advantage among the stumps and brush of that first wheat-field in
the town of LeRoy.
In 1805 Paul Clapp moved his family to the wilds of Ohio, and the same year
John and David French came from Mass. and located Land. The next year Patty Clapp,
a dau. of Paul Clapp, ae. 11 yrs. died and the same year the first white child was
born in the town, a dau. of Spencer Phelps.
The next year, 1807, Elah Clapp was married to Rebecca French, a sister of
John and David French. They had three children, Ogden, born in 1808, Amasa, in 1810,
and Octavia, in 1812. Ogden was the second white child and Amasa the third born in
the town of LeRoy. Ogden died in early childhood. Amasa Clapp is still living in
the south part of the town, near the site of the house built by his father and his
uncle Paul, more than eighty years ago.
He was married to Sophia Beebe in the year 1833. She was a dau. of Ezra
and Lydia Beebe, who came to LeRoy in 1831 from East Haddam, Conn. They lived for
many years in the south part of the town and both died there. They had a family of
eight children, two of whom are still living---Mrs. Amasa Clapp, and Allen Beebe,
of Geneva.
Octavia Clapp was married to Rupert Foster in 1845. They lived in the
south part of the town and she died Jan. 10, 1883. Her husband survived her but
a short time and died Nov. 10 of the same year. They had no children.
Elah Clapp died about the age of 25 and his widow married Wm. McMillan,
by whom she had one son, James McMillan. He died in 1837, ae. 21. They lived on
the farm now owned by Edwin Callow, near the South LeRoy Church. Mr. McMillan
died in 1862 ae. 76, and his wife in 1853, ae. 61.
Mrs. J. W. Doncaster 1891 p. assoc.
Mrs. J. W. Doncaster (Elizabeth E.), “Pioneers of LeRoy Twp.,” (Ohio, 1891);
typescript in files of Nancy Turo, deceased;
citing From the File of “The Lake Co. Pioneer Association” 1879; 1891.
Unable to locate source.
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