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HISTORIAN’S CORNER
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PHELPS HISTORY
NEW YORK TO MICHIGAN IN 1821
BY FRED GIFFORD
Several years ago, a Rev. Jasper Pennington, who was pastor at St. John's Episcopal Church in Clifton Springs from 1978 to 1982, left for a new period of service to Ypsilanti, Michigan. In 2001, he did an extensive paper on the early Episcopal Churches in Michigan and in doing so came across an account of early travels of a priest and his family from New York State to the Territory of Michigan in 1821.
The Rev. Alanson W. Welton between 1814 and 1821 performed off and on services at the little Episcopal Church in Clifton Springs, which had been erected by John Shekell and his friends in 1807-08. On October 27, 1821, probably in response to Western New York's Episcopal Bishop John Henry Hobart's enthusiasm for missions, Welton, his wife and two children headed for the west. The following story was written by Mrs. Welton in 1862 of that journey:
" On the twenty-seventh day of October 1821, I, with my husband and two children, a boy two and a half years and an infant daughter of six months, left Ontario County by wagon for Buffalo on our way to Detroit, the capitol of the Territory of Michigan. My husband was one of the first Protestant missionaries to this then western wilderness and with high hopes of doing well in this wide field of labor, we started our journey.
The weather was inclement, and the journey to Buffalo occupied three days. We arrived in Buffalo on the evening of the 30th of October 1821. The next day, in the afternoon, we took the steamboat, Walk-in-the-Water from Black Rock bound for Detroit. This was the first steamer ever built on the western lakes.
During the first few hours, we had fair weather. At five o'clock in the evening, while we were at supper, a terrific gale commenced, which lasted throughout the night. The steamer, after stemming the gale as long as she safely could, cast her anchors a few miles above the old Buffalo Lighthouse. There we lay till nearly daybreak, during which time the steamer writhed and creaked from the violence of the waves. Her joints and timbers parted and opened in a frightful manner and she was reported to be dragging anchor. At daybreak, the Captain gave orders to cut the cables and let her go ashore and the passengers were advised of what might be the fatal result. The cables were cut and a heavy swell carried the boat high on the beach, a wreck. Fortunately the boat struck the beach in a favorable position near the Lighthouse and all were saved. You may be quite sure the warm fireside we gathered around at the Lighthouse was agreeable to our chilled limbs, while our hearts warmed with gratitude to God for our safe deliverance from the perils we had past. The terrors of this night may be imagined by those who perchance have been placed in similar circumstances, but can never be described so as to impart any reality to those who have never experienced a shipwreck.
This was, as may be imagined, saddening to our hearts at the outset of our missionary pilgrimage. The wind and the waves seemed against us, but our hearts were encouraged by the friendly words of James Campbell, Esquire of Buffalo, who kindly took us to his noble heart. We enjoyed his hospitalities till Monday, November 5th, and on that date, embarked on the schooner, Michigan, from Black Rock, determined if possible to reach Detroit, our future home in the western wilderness. The weather was favorable and wind fair, till Tuesday evening. We were off Cleveland, Ohio, when another gale sprung up, before which we were swept like a feather, until we came to anchor under Long Point (Canada) only sixteen miles from Buffalo. In the morning, November 8th, we upped anchor and with fair wind ago, reached a point opposite Cleveland, when yet another storm met us from which we sought shelter in Erie Harbor, Pennsylvania.
Here we were obliged to stay eleven days inconsequence of the fury of the storm, having in the meantime tried three times to get on our course and been as often driven back to Erie again. Our fourth trial was successful, although the weather was still unfavorable, but by great exactions we reached the then harbor of Put in Bay Island. We spent the Sabbath on shore, and on Monday we again set sail for our long wished for place of destination, Detroit. That evening we dropped anchor at the mouth of the Detroit River. At this point, unfavorable winds detained us the entire week, and we only arrived at Detroit on Saturday evening December 1, 1821. The time occupied in this journey from Ontario County to Detroit, Michigan was just 36 days. (The same journey today by auto can be made in several hours.)
My husband commenced his ministerial labors as Pastor of the then partly organized society of St. Paul's, over which Bishop McCoskry later presided. Welton continued to perform his duties until his sickness occurred in September of 1822. On the 28th of that month he left me to walk the Golden Streets of the Celestial City.
There is little more to tell in this short narrative that would either interest or instruct anyone. I found aid in the Brotherhood of Masons, not only general sympathy in my bereavement, a welcome home for myself and both children, but the pecuniary aid for me to finally reach again my husband's home back in New York State in the Richmond, Ontario County."
One wonders how such a family could face each new day when they were besieged by so many troubles. What happened to all their belongings when the shipwreck occurred? How many times would you or I continue to board, what at the time was this new mode of transportation, and set forth again and again on those troublesome waters?
Research on the steamboat, Walk-in-the-Water, states that indeed it was the first steamboat to navigate the Upper Great Lakes. It was built by Noah Brown, and launched May 28th, 1818 at the Black Rock shipyard at the mouth of Scajaquada Creek, near Buffalo. On August 23rd 1818, she left port on her maiden voyage, commanded by Job Fish, and continued in service until wrecked off Buffalo, November 1, 1821. The name of the boat would suggest to me that it might have been what the Native Americans of the area might have called the boat when they first saw it.
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