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Bristol | East Bloomfield | West Bloomfield
Bristol Town History
A VIEW TO OUR PAST
History by: Helen Corser Fox, Bristol Town Historian
The history of Bristol was first recorded in 1669, when the explorer, Robert de LaSalle wrote to his homeland describing his visit to the Burning Springs, where the Seneca Indians escorted him to see this special place. In 1779 General Sullivan traveled through this area. His soldiers were impressed with the fertile land and many returned as Bristol County, Massachusetts purchased this land for settlement. Richmond, Bristol and South Bristol were all part of this purchase. South Bristol was organized from Bristol in 1838.
The Goodings were the first settlers, followed by many others from the Dighton Area. Gamaliel Wilder also brought many settlers from Connecticut. In 1789 the town was formed. Town meetings were held regularly often at the old Congregational Church. Churches and school were formed. The district school was centralized with Naples, Canandaigua, Bloomfield, and Honeoye. Today there is only one church, The United Church of Bristol. There were small stores throughout the town which later sold gasoline. Bristol was an agricultural town. Other Industries were sheep raising with tanneries and chandleries at Muttonville, which is now Vincent. The Cultivation and sale of hops from 1853 to 1920 was a successful enterprise. Many fairs, Field Days and festivals were held in Bristol.
The beauty and serenity of the hills and valleys has drawn many to the area. Many permanent homes now dot the hills. Tourism is the venture of the town now. We have Bed and Breakfasts, Pottery shop, Antique stores, Wood specialty stores, and Computer Graphics to name a few.
The Town Park across from the Town Hall at Bristol Center has sheltered picnic areas, sports fields and jogging track available to all town residents and also anyone passing by who needs to rest a bit before going on.
Town government is still very local with meetings held at the town hall. We have preserved our various cemeteries as best as can be with the passage of time. Veteran's graves are decorated. These include Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Civil War, Spanish American War, World War I and II, Korea, and Vietnam.
Geographic Location
The Town of Bristol is located in west central Ontario County, in the State of New York. It occupies an area of 36 square miles or 22,840 acres. It is approximately 35 miles southeast of Rochester, 8 miles southwest of Canandaigua, 13 miles south of Victor, and 12 miles north of Naples.
Elevations in the town range from 850 to 1,950 feet above sea level. The only relatively level land is in the Bristol Valley, which extends the entire length of the town, north to south. Mud Creek flows through Bristol Valley from south to north and is the principle waterway, which facilitates drainage for the town. The creek eventually empties into the Barge Canal. The three north and south ridges which compose the terrain of Bristol are the spurs or northernmost reaches of the Allegheny Mountains.The natural features of Bristol make it a source of never-ending beauty.
Bristol History
When the Senecas first roamed these hills and valleys, the region was crowned by a dense growth of timber. Maples and elms grew on the flat land. On the hills, oak and chestnut predominated, intermingled with pine, beech, hemlock, ash, basswood, hickory, poplar, ironwood, butternut, buttonwood, wild cherry, and a few other varieties.
It is said, wolves and bear roamed the forest, panthers haunted the deep ravines in the hilly regions, and stealthy wild cats crouched in the trees. Deer glided gracefully in the shadows-squirrels were everywhere-the red, grey and black of the species.
History records that the first white men to visit Bristol were the French explorer, Robert de LaSalle, and the missionary, Galinee. In August 1669, they visited the Seneca village south of Victor to await an Indian escort to Ohio. While negotiations were pending, Galinee recorded: "In order to pass away the time, I went with M. de LaSalle, under escort of two Indians, about four leagues (ten miles) south of the village (Victor) where we were staying, to see a very extraordinary spring. Issuing from a moderately high rock, it forms a small brook. The water is very clear, but it has a bad order, like that of the mineral marshes of Paris, when the mud on the bottom is stirred with the foot. I applied a torch and the water immediately took fire and burned like brandy and was not extinguished until it rained. The flame is among the Indians a sign of abundance or fertility, according as it exhibits the contrary qualities. There is no appearance of sulphur, or any other combustible material. The water has not even any taste and I can neither offer or imagine any better explanation than that it acquires the combustible property by passing over some aluminous land."
Neither the Indians nor the white man realized that is was natural gas, coming from underground and bubbling through the water that caused the water to burn. Probably set afire by lightning for the first time, the flame was several feet high and burned until extinguished by a heavy rain or high wind. More than hundred years passed before it was discovered that gas could be used for heat and light.
When Walter Case owned the "Burning Spring" farm, he and his wife often cooked over the flame of the spring-it was a hot flame, and at that time, rose to a height of eighteen inches. The drilling of gas wells in the area has caused the flame to become much smaller.
On July 10, 1937, the glen was the scene of one of the many celebrations staged in commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the LaSalle and Denonville expeditions. A log cabin "trading post" was built and a pageant presented on a coast-to-coast radio program.
The Burning Cave on the same property, may be considered more spectacular, but is not as much of a curiosity as the burning waters of the creek. On the side of the twenty-five foot falls is a deep niche and from within its inky darkness, a steady flame burns. Called a cave, it does not permit a person to stand upright, and the heat of the flame prevents crouching within it.
For many years, the glen at the Burning Spring was the most popular place for picnics for the local folks and excursions for tourists.
In 1969, the Tax List of Bristol named the owners of twenty-two taxable commercial gas wells in the town. During the period 1915-1935, there were many private gas wells on various farms; at that time, one could have a well dug for about $200. Sometimes, wells were dug and no gas was found, or it might be a small vein, which was quickly used up, but if a rich vein were found, it heated a home for many years. Natural gas was not only Bristol's first connection with history, but has been an enduring tie to it.
In the angle formed by County Road 2 and Flatiron Road, there was a large Indian Village; a smaller one was located near Randall Gully in the southern part of town, just off present Route 64; another was east of Route 64, on a hill south of the Fisher Hill Road. A small village was located on the rise of ground northeast of Baptist Hill and another near the Burning Spring. There were eight Indian sites in Bristol.
On September 11, 1779, General Sullivan's troops marched through Bristol on Lot No. 3, crossed Mud Creek on Lot No. 4, and followed the Indian trail to Honeoye. He must have burned the village at Flatiron Road, just as he destroyed the Indian village at Canandaigua, before entering Bristol.
An amusing story is told by Helen Herendeen, former Bristol historian: "About a hundred years after Sullivan's march, some young lads in Bristol had the idea from their reading of history that Sullivan's army had buried some treasure along their line of march across my grandfather's farm, so they came and asked him if they might dig for the treasure. He gave them permission on condition that they shovel back all the dirt into the holes when they were through digging. This they promised to do.
"They spent much time that summer hopefully digging for treasure, but they finally tired of this unrewarding occupation and abandoned their efforts. When it came time for fall plowing, Grandfather had to mount his saddle horse and make a number of house calls to remind the young men to return and keep their part of the bargain by shoveling back the dirt."
"It is said that there are cannon buried up on West Hill across the flats from my farm, upon the Gregg farm or in that vicinity, on Elm Tree Road."
"The horses were becoming exhausted hauling these heavy cannon up the steep hills, over the rough terrain, so they decided to bury the cannon before they had to bury the horses. I believe that someone is now trying to locate a cannon with a metal detector. If they should locate one, we would indeed have a memento of the American Revolution."
One of the soldiers who received a land grant for service in the Revolutionary War was William Gooding, who with two younger brothers, James and Elnathan, walked to Bristol from Dighton, Massachusetts, in the spring of 1788. They drove before them a flock of sheep, a herd of young cattle, and a cow for milk. Their claim established on Lot No. 1, in the northeast section of the town, the brothers cleared a few acres of ground, sowed wheat and planted turnips. They built a crude log cabin for themselves, and a shelter for their livestock, and cut and stored hay to feed the animals during the winter, leaving seventeen year old Elnathan to care for the animals. Elnathan was the first white man to winter in Bristol.
"This story was told by Elnathan's great, great grandmother, Ada Fisher Bliss: "One evening, not long after his brothers had left him alone, Elnathan was cooking his supper outside over a campfire, when the long shadow of a tall Indian fell across the fire. Elnathan did not panic, but ladled out a bowl of his stew and handed it back over his shoulder to the Indian, who happened to be a hungry young man. This act was the beginning of a long friendship between the two young men. Someone gave the Indian the name of Jack Kelly."
"Ada said it was not unusual to come into the kitchen in the early morning and find a number of Indians sleeping on the floor around the fireplace." The Goodings and the Fishers always made them welcome.
William and James Gooding returned with their families in the early spring of 1789, and soon built a larger, more substantial cabin and a blacksmith shop. William was kept busy shoeing oxen and horses, and repairing and making tools for other pioneers and his anvil was kept in steady use as the settlement continued to grow. Deacon George Codding and his son, George, traveled over the Susquehanna route from Dighton to Bristol in 1788 - 1789. His sons, John, Faunce, Burt and William soon followed him. The Coddings had drawn Lot No. 3 in the lottery in Massachusetts.
The Town of Bristol was formed by the Court of Sessions, January 27, 1789. Many of the first settlers were from Dighton, Bristol County, Massachusetts, and they named their town for that county.
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