Re: Canisteo Purdy's
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In reply to:
Canisteo Purdy's
Mary 5/03/12
This family is a puzzler.I figure that the the eldest Daniel (I estimate born c1755)in the 1800 census is the father, and the others are sons of his.This is early pioneer time at Canisteo so there aren't many people around and it doesn't appear that there are two Purdy family lines... they must be very close and I don't see why they wouldn't be of one family.
The name Daniel is common among descendants of Francis Purdy of Fairfield, (as is Joseph and to a lesser extent William) but I suspect that this family is of Irish origin, due to their location.Access to this area at the time was primarily via the Susquehanna River up from Baltimore.Baltimore was a popular destination for Irish immigrants because Maryland was originally Catholic, although by 1790 Irish immigrants often said they were Scots or English in order not to burn any bridges with Protestants who might be the very people they need to help them in the new world.
This is not a migration path that the Purdys of NY state would be expected to take.It's possible to reach the area from other parts of Upstate NY (Rome for example) but it's a lot of overland travel.One early settler (Guy McMaster born in Ireland in 1770 see http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nysteube/guy/toc.htmlhttp://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nysteube/guy/toc.html)said that in 1795 he went to Albany on horseback and there was "no road from Cayuga Lake to Utica better than an Indian trail".In order to move and settle you needed barges or small shallow boats, and water.
This family probably moved to Steuben Co not likely before 1790.
If you can find a direct male line descendant, have them participate in the Purdy surname project at Familytreedna.com and do a 65 marker Y-chromosome test.We have very few Irish Purdys in the project, but so far they are not a match with Francis Purdy.Even if Francis and the Irish Purdys are related, which they may be, the match will certainly not be as good as it would be if Daniel came from a Francis line.
Knowing the origin prior to 1750 will focus the search much better.
Guy McMaster in his long story said:
"I have already mentioned that Col. Williamson expended a good deal of money in improving a number of farms, and erecting a number of buildings on them, which gave employment to many hands. These hands were my best customers, and paid up their accounts every three months by orders on Williamson; but orders came from England to stop such improvements, and shortly after Col. W. resigned his agency. Those tenants and laborers got in my debt, at this time, about $4,000, and in one night the whole of them cleared out for Canada. They were a sad set of unprincipled scamps. They were a part of that “sprinkling of Yankees that came to make money.” There was not one foreigner, nor a Virginian, nor a Marylander amongst them. They were a part of the first settlers in the town of Wayne. I waited some time till they got settled down in Upper Canada, and then started to pay them a visit. At that time there were no white inhabitants between Genesee River and Niagara, a distance of about 90 miles. I lodged one night with the Tonnewanta Indians, and the next day crossed the river to Newark. I found some of my customers at York or Toronto, and some at the Bay of Canty. [Bay of Quinte, at Belleville / Trenton, a loyalist place. AP] I employed a lawyer named McDonald, who advised me to get all I could from them in the first place, and he would undertake to collect the balance if they were worth it. They paid me about $200. I heard that some of them had gone up Lake Erie, and were in Detroit."
That was Wayne, not Canisteo, but it shows that there were "Yankees" in the area about 1798.
"My lawyer McDonald was shortly after drowned in the crossing the lake. It was the last I heard of him or of my papers.
My next start in business was attended with a little better success. My brother Charles kept a small store in Bath, and in the year 1800 we entered into partnership. I moved to Dansville, opened a store, and remained there one year. I did a safe business, and took in the winter 4,000 bushels of wheat and 200 barrels of pork--built four arks, at Arkport, on the Canisteo River,[on the northern edge of present day Hornell (N of hwy 86); hartsville is at the south edge of Hornell]and ran them down to Baltimore. There were the first arks that descended the Canisteo. My success in trade that year gave me another fair start. My brother, in the mean time, went to Philadelphia to lay in a fresh supply of goods for both stores; but on his way home he died very suddenly at Tioga Point. He had laid in about $30,000 worth of goods. I returned to Bath with my family--continued my store at Dansville--opened one at Penn Yan, and sent a small assortment to Pittstown, Ontario County."[there is no Pittstown in present day Ontario County.The only one I know of is east of Albany. Ontario county is north of Bath.Does he mean Prattsburg? ]
The village of Penn Yan had some Purdys of Francis lines.The name of the town is derived from the fact that about half of the settlers were from Pennsylvania and the other half were Yankees.They couldn't agree on a name based on Pennsylvania or NY names, so called it Penn Yan.
Alec