This industry was indispensable to the farmers, who raised sheep and took their wool to the carding machine and had it converted into rolls, from which the good housewife and her daughter spun it into yarn and wove it into cloth on a hand loom. Then it was sent to the cloth-presser, fulled, colored, napped, sheared and pressed. It was called fulled cloth, ready to be made into the wearing apparel of the family.

Every country household had its spinning wheel and some had two or three. As late as 1843 full-cloth was regarded as legal tender for services performed by the day laborer. Wood-choppers received 2 5 cents a cord and took full cloth at one dollar a yard for their pay.

A similar industry was started at Aldrich Mills by Amasa L. Chaffee, who came from Rutland, Vermont, in May 1821. His partner was Alvin Bugby and they continued in business until 18 3 1. Ahaz and Dan Allen also set up a carding machine that year, the business enlarging into a woolen mill. (It was subsequently operated by Stiles A. Torrance.)

About the same time, a wool carding and cloth dressing business was started by Harding and Camp. James H. McMillain, a grocer from Onondaga County, moved to the village in 1821. The first physician, Dr. Sands M. Crumb,arrived in 1822. Ahaz Allen put up the first grist-m.ill in Hidi in 1823 and equipped it with one run of stones.

Lehman Pitcher, one of the first settlers in South Dayton, moved to Aldrich Mills in 1821 or 1822. Lehman Pitcher fought in the War of 1812 and his family was in Buffalo when it was burned by the British. His wife and children were taken as captives to Canada but were later exchanged. Mr. Pitcher served as Justice of the Peace and school inspector for many years. They lived in the house now occupied by Mrs. H. Sherman at 90 Buffalo Street.

Business was picking up in 1823 and the people felt the need of a more distinctive name for the village. That Fall, 1823, a meeting of the citizens was called and the historic name of Lodi, taken from Napoleon's Bridge of Lodi, was given to the village by Ahaz Allen. Noah Cook of Perrysburg related this story many years ago. He said he was running the saw-mill for Uncle Ahaz, who told him: "Upon

Page Eighteen

my suggestion they christened the new-born village Lodi." Then said Mr. Cook: "If that is Lodi, this must be Hidi." Since then the little hamlet one mile above Gowanda has borne this original name. Col. Benjamin Waterman continued to be Postmaster of the Lodi Post Office.

Phineas Spencer, moved to ttLodi'.' in 1824. He had been elected to the Legislature and had been one of the commissioners to build the first county clerk's office at Ellicottville, which was then the Cattaraugus County seat. He purchased the property subsequently owned by Miss Dell Gardner on West Main _Street and later owned by Richard Wilhelm. (Mr. Spencer built an ashery and subsequently a distillery on the ground that was later owned by the M. T. Hill Box Factory. This was on the south side of Thatcher Brook, being demolished when Orchard Place was cut through from Chapel to Johnson Street.)

Militia regiments were being organized throughout the state in this period. Among the . officers of the 198th Regiment were Colonel Benjamin Waterman, July 5, 1822; Captain

Simeon Waterman, July 6, 1821; Lieutenant Herman Waterman, June 9, 1821; a.nd Ensign Edwin Farnsworth, July 6, 1821. The local company held their weekly drill on the large meadow at the rear of the old Maltbie homestead on Maltbie Heights. Each man had to arm himself with a musket, bayonet, belt, two spare flints, knapsack, cartridge box and ammunition.

There was usually an annual "general trainings'' at the flats in Zoar. Hill's Tavern was a popular place at such times and the customary officer's dinner was never complete without roast pig and rice pudding. Life even then, for the officers at least, was not without its compensations!

1823 was something of a boom year for the new-named town of Lodi. For one thing that was the year of the coming of Ralph Plumb whose ability and foresight was to mean so much to Gowanda even before the community came to be known by that name.

Ralph Plumb was born in Sanquoit, Oneida County, New York, in 1795. About 1814 he

Page Nineteen.

went to Buffalo, entering the firm of Grosvenor and Heacock. After 1812 he had a mercantile business in Buffalo at Main and Seneca Streets. He opened a similar business with his brother, Joseph, in Fredonia in 1817. But they closed that store in 1823 and he moved to Lodi.

Ralph Plumb bought land of the Aldrich family, on which a frame building had already

been built. He reconstructed! this building for his store and built an addition for living quarters. This building stood on the corner of Buffalo and Perry Streets opposite the old Eagle Tavern.

Mr. Plumb built an ashery soon after opening the store, and later built a distillery on the property back of the Eagle Tavern. This distillery, later destroyed by fire, used much of the coarse grain he was obliged to take in trade for merchandise. As money was scarce, he also accepted cattle, hogs and all kinds of produce. 'the refuse from the distillery was fed to the cattle and thus the circle was complete.

During the year 1823, religious meetings were held in the upper room over Plumb's store, by traveling Methodist ministers, with occasional sermons from Congregational and Presbyterian preachers. After the completion of the first school house in 1824, it was used on Sunclays for religious meetings by different denominations. In 1827, the Methodists and Presbyterians organized separate churches, holding their meetings in the school house. Ralph Plumb and his wife were among the first members of the Presbyterian Church and for years were instrumental in its activities.

Page Twenty