Daughter of:
Daniel and Elizabeth (Wheaton) Cruger.

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A portion of the article written by David Gilbert.

Genesee Country Express
Dansville, Livingston County, New York.
Thursday, August 9, 1995

Dansville Turns 200 - 1795 to 1995
by David Gilbert

It may have been earlier, or it may have been later... the various history books disagree, but some time around the year 1798, something extraordinary happened just outside the little town of Danvsille. The settlers were startled by a loud, cannon-like, thunderous explosion to the east, accompanied by ground tremors. Investigating, the villagers discovered stones of up to 300 pounds that had been dislodged, and a two and one-half foot diameter oak tree that had been uprooted, and gushing forth from a newly created fissure, was a stream of water the diameter of a barrel. At first, the pressure of the out flowing was tremendous, but in time it would diminish (although, in the 1840's, it was still strong enough to supply water power for a tannery). The fissure was dubbed the "Devils Hole" and for over half a century the spring would be little more than a local curiosity. Not until the 1850's would this geological fluke gain real significance, and indeed, put Dansville on the map.

1798 was not at all a good year for the man after whom Dansville was named. Daniel Faulkner, who tended to spend his money a bit too carelessly Chis Grenadier militia, for example, was funded almost solely by himself, had completely run out of funds, and was forced to return to Pennsylvania. There, he would return to his former occupation of tavern keeper, and attempt to rebuild his fortune. The position of local storekeeper was assumed by a new arrival to town, Jared Irwin. Irwin's business was much more successful, and he would become one of the village's leading citizens for the next decade and a half.

Also in 1798, Dansville took one more big evolutionary step forward, it obtained its first school. A Scottish immigrant, Thomas Macklem (called Macklen or McLain in some history books) began teaching in a one-room schoolhouse erected about a mile north of the center of town, about where the present-day school system on Main Street is located. He had about 10 or 12 young students, including little James Faulkner, Cap'n Dan's nephew. Dodsworth's Spelling Book was used (the famous McGuflcy's Readier debuted in the 1830's). Macklem would eventually marry into the McCurdy family.

Sickness continued to take its toll. The leading cause of death was "Genesee fever," possibly a strain of typhus (a disease transmitted by lice). It was very often fatal, and the constitution of the survivors was in many cases, permanently impaired. Rev Samuel J. Mills, who performed Danaville's first wedding, would around 1800 be one of its victims. In 1798. "Genesee fever" claimed the lives of Christopher Van de Venter, Dansville's first tanner and Catherine Hammond, the wife of Amariah Hammond, the town supervisor, "When she died," reminisced James McCurdy, "all wept who had hearts and eyes." Amariah would eventually remarry. Another recurrent problem plaguing the early Dansvillians were fire, once a building caught fire, there was little one could do but to stand by, watch the structure burn away, and hope the adjacent buildings are spared. David Sholl had already had to rebuild the Williamson grist mill, then in the winter of 1798 the two-story tavern built the year before by Samuel Faulkner, was destroyed. Samuel Faulkner would occupy the house abandoned by this brother Daniel.

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