Railroads to Catharine Valley Trail Print this page

At one time there were three railroads serving Schuyler County:  "the Elmira, Jefferson and Canandaigua Railroad, along the west shore of the lake; the Chemung Railroad, which connected this road at Watkins with Elmira, both now parts of the Erie system; and perhaps one should add the Seneca Steam Navigation Company, of 1870, which had at various times a half dozen steamers on the lake, some of them nearly 200 feet long." (http://www.hopefarm.com/schuylny.htm)  Only one remains active today.

 

The Catharine Valley of a Distant Yesterday

By Frank W. Steber


The opening of the Catharine Valley Trail between Montour Falls and Millport is a great gift to the residents of Schuyler and Chemung Counties, as well as to visitors from near and far. The newly constructed trail offers countless opportunities to stroll through the beautiful countryside or cycle along fabled Catharine Creek and rejoice in the wonder of nature and wildlife along its route. Our children and children’s grandchildren will be able to better know this lovely portion of their rich heritage.


However, this remarkable little valley has not always been looked upon as a place of beauty. The first white men in any number came to Catharine Creek when General John Sullivan led his army into the Finger Lakes region during the Revolutionary War for the purpose of driving out the British and Indians and destroying their villages and orchards. At 8:00 a.m. on September 1, 1779, the soldiers struck their tents and started their march northward. Three days earlier they had defeated the English and Indians at the Battle of Newtown. The previous night they had bivouacked near what is now the village of Horseheads. What they had expected to be a few hours’ march to Seneca Lake became a day-long ordeal that tested their mettle to the highest degree.


It is with difficulty that we may attempt to create in our minds’ eyes a picture of that army on the march. There were several thousand troops marching on foot in columns led by mounted officers. Many horses pulled wagons containing cannons and caissons. Others carried bags of flour and other provisions. This mighty invading force entered Catharine Valley, wild and untamed, where only a few narrow footpaths had ever existed, where only the native Seneca and a few white hunters, traders or missionaries had ever trod. A couple of miles beyond their encampment site, they encountered the southern end of a “deep, miry swamp, covered with water from recent rains, dark with the closely shadowing hemlocks, the path studded with rocks and thickly interspersed with sloughs; it was the most horrible spot they had met with.”


Several of Sullivan’s officers kept journals throughout the campaign that give us a firsthand account of their reactions to this “horrible spot.” Lt. William Barton wrote of an hour’s halt while a road could be cleared for the artillery. He continued to write of “difficult and bad marching, horses still increasing the mud so as to make it impassable.” Some horses, laden with sacks of flour and other baggage, were unable to move until the next day. Major John Burrowes wrote of having to ford one creek seventeen times, noting that “we never had so bad a days march since we set off.”


Dr. Jabez Campbell, an army surgeon, pointed out that while the difficulties of moving this army and its supplies were very great during daylight, the problems multiplied after dark. Lt. Col. Henry Dearborn described the growth of pine, spruce and hemlock as “extremely thick.” “A small river run through it which we had to cross about 20 times. On both sides of this swamp is a ridge of tremendous hills.” He goes on, “At dark when we had got within about 3 miles of Katareens Town we found ourselves in a most horrid thick Mirey Swamp which render’d our proceeding so difficult that it was 10 o’clock in the Evining before we arriv’d at the town...”


Major Jeremiah Fogg of New Hampshire described the “swamp, which continued six or eight miles, full of morasses, ravines, windfalls, and about every obstacle to impede artillery…” Sgt. Major George Grant claimed that his unit “had to cross a creek, which empties into Seneca Lake, near 30 times in the course of three miles,” adding that “several pack horses were lost, 2 horses had their necks broke, and many … did not reach camp till next day.”


Lt. Col. Adam Hubley of Pennsylvania also noted the “impassable route, marked by defiles,…ravine after ravine, interspersed with thick underwood… The pack horses, cattle, etc, were chiefly the whole night employed in getting through.” Captain Daniel Livermore of New Hampshire called Catharine Valley “the most disagreeable road I ever traveled.”
Sgt. Thomas Roberts, a shoemaker from New Jersey, seemed to know his timber. After the pine, spruce and hemlock that everyone else also had seen, he found plentiful black walnut, beech, and white oak near Catharine’s Town, but not before noting, like the others, the 20 crossings of the creek and the loss of horses and provisions.


Two hundred and twenty-four years have passed since that September day when a Yankee army drove out the Senecas from their homeland. Time and generations of human activity have changed that “mirey swamp,” that “horrible spot,” into a place of beauty. Catharine Creek has flowed calmly and serenely through the days of military conquest, the days of wagons and ox sleds, the time of canal and towpath, and the era of the railroad. The paved highway, perhaps, is here to stay, the traveler along Catharine Creek no longer subject to hazards of thick forest or deep morass.


And now we have the trail, that peaceful byway that takes us close to Nature’s kinder side, free from struggle and strained effort, where we can experience a sanctuary amid the eternal bustle in which we live. May it endure, with continuing and constant care, for the benefit of all who will pass this way for at least the next two hundred and twenty-four years!

 

Quoted material taken from:
Journal of the Military Expedition of Major General John Sullivan, 1779, prepared by Frederick Cook, 1887, reprinted by University of Michigan, 1967.

Frank W. Steber has been a resident of the Catharine Valley area for 48 years. A retired Watkins Glen High School English teacher, Frank has, for the past 15 years, been writing a weekly column for the Watkins Glen Review and Express.