Continuing down the west side of Main street from the Public Square was first the Building owned by William R. Maffett. Then came the shoe store of Mr. Bound on the corner of the alley. Then the brick block occupied as a general store by E. W,. Reynolds. My first pair of red top boots came from this store. Henry Pettebone kept a store in the same building and lived in a frame house that stood back from the street below the store. It was called the Allen Jack House. Then came Davids shoe store and dwelling. He raised a large family of children but they belonged to somebody else. They never had any of their own. Then next was the old Wyoming Hotel and srables. I do not remember who kept it then, but shortly after Jacob Bertles moved in and was proprietor for many years. Next was Caleb B. Fisher’s store. On the corner were two or three small buildings owned by Robert Kilmer as cabinet shops.
On the opposite corner was an old shanty. Then came avacant space and you came to the old Matthias Hollenback establishments where the early settlers and Indians came to do their trading. I saw hundereds of old deer horns under the old sheds that had accumulated as barter with the Indians for and molasses and stacks of old day books in the garret , with charges like “Injun Joe, one-halk gallon rum”, with rum as the leading article in most of the entries. This is the spot where the foundation was laid for a colossol fortune which so many of the legatees are now enjoying. Next was Polly Pells, where the Pell block now stands then Thomas butler’s small house. Then Reuban Marcy’s house. Then William Dilley’s who was a carpenter. There were no houses between Main and Canal streets. On the west side of south street lived a Mr. Baker where Barnum Place now is. On the east side between Franklin and Main were two or three small houses. One was occupied by a tailor named Shivets. Where Landmessers Hall now stands was a large farm barn, then the old Ross homestead, then the one small house between there and the corner of Northampton street. Next came Miss Perry’s brick house on the corner then the Jacob Dennis building, where Nathan Barney taught school. A small store at the corner of Dennis alley, kept by Mr. Hogenbaum, came next, then a small stone house, then Dr. Covell’s, then Esquire Dyer who was very eccentric and had a colored housekeeper called “Old Hanner”. She always wore a red bandana handkerchief on her head, and she was a terror to the boy who stole the Squire’s fruit. (J. Bennett Smith)
