Yates County, New York

Businesses in the Town of Potter

From the History of Yates County, NY
published 1892, by L.C. Aldrich

pg 464 - 465

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Businesses of Potter   

The Village of Rushville - Among the hamlets or small villages of the town of Potter, that called Rushville, is of the greater importance, both in point of population and commercial advantage.  The village lies partly in this town, while another and possibly a greater part is in the county of Ontario.   On the site now occupied by Rushville, south of the line, Elias GILBERT, mentioned on a preceding page, was the first settler, followed soon afterward by the LOOMIS family.  Beza WHITMAN, whose descendants still live in the town, was the keeper of the first hotel, while Mrs. Seldon WILLIAMS figured as the pioneer schoolteacher.  William and Cornelius BASSETT were the first male teachers.  Philander P. WOODWORTH was the first merchant of the settlement, his place of business being in the afterward-called Dr. BRYANT House.  Mr. WOODWORTH afterward kept store and hotel on the site yet occupied for the latter use.  Chester LOOMIS succeeded WOODWORTH in 1815.  On the west side of the river a tavern was also early started, and near by was the first school, in which, also, were held the first Congregational Church services.  Among the early merchants and business men of the village, there can be recalled the names of Raymond & Sprague, Stillman & Gilbert, John WISEWELL, Thomas J. DUDLEY, Grant BARNEY, John CLARK, Charles W. HENRY, Wisewell & Henry, Whitman & Green, Randall WHITMAN, Dudley & Colt, Dudley & Bailey, Hamlin & Hazen  (a branch of the large store at Penn Yan), Judson JONES, Flinn & Dwelle, LC, Wisewell & Co., Hunt &Armsburger, Mortimer CASE, J. H. BEERMAN, William T. BASSETT, Geroge Howell & Son, A & J. Thomas, and others, perhaps whose names have become forgotten.  The large and attractive union school building was erected in 1868, at a cost pf $16,000.  An important adjunct to the business interests of the village and vicinity was the large steam and water power grist-mill.   

Potter Center, which, as the name indicates, is near the center of the town, westward of Flint Creek, is not more than a hamlet, or convenient trading point for residents in the surrounding country.  Its business industries have been but few, there not having been more than one or two stores in operation at any one time, while a single hotel affords ample accommodations to the wayfarer.  The dwellings in the hamlet proper number not to exceed twenty.  But the Center has two prosperous church societies. 

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