Person:Esther Bronson (3)

From Ontario County Times 5 April 1876: [[3]]

A correspondent of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle communicates the following facts respecting the late Esther B. Gunn, whose death was announced in these columns last week: "Mrs. Gunn's 93d birthday occurred on the 14th day of January last and up to within a few days previous to her death, her health and all her faculties were good, and she was daily engaged in doing fine sewing and household duties. Nearly three years since the writer had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Gunn, who was in perfect health, and upon that occasion learned something from her in regard to her early advent to the Genesee country which we append to this notice of her death.

Like other portions of the Genesee country, East Bloomfield was first settled by New Englanders. Its settlement commences simultaneously with that of Canandaigua. Early after the opening of navigation, the first settlers in East Bloomfield left Schenectady, some of the men with household furniture and stores in boats, but the most of the party upon pack horses, following generally the Indian trails. Amos Brunson first came to the town of East Bloomfield in 1793, from Berkshire, Mass., driving an ox team and being upon the road twenty-eight days. In February, 1794, he moved his family to their new home in the wilderness, arriving there on the 15th of February, by sleighs drawn by horse teams. Mr. Brunson located upon a lot of land lying a short distance west of Mud Creek, on the state road, and made improvements, soon after opening a tavern for the accommodation of emigrants and new settlers. When the family of Mr. Brunson arrived in East Bloomfield in 1794, there was one daughter named Esther, and it is of her that I am about to write. At this time, Esther was in her girlhood, she being but eleven years old. A brief interview with Esther (Mrs. Gunn) who was ninety years old on the 14th of January last, presented to my mind one of the best preserved women that I ever met. I found her in possession of perfect health, her hearing and eyesight quite as brilliant as when young, with an elasticity of step and straightness of form that would put to blush many of the young ladies of the present day. Mrs. Gunn is the widow of Linus Gunn, and the mother of Mrs. Steele, with whom she now resides. From the hasty interview held with Mrs. Gunn, I learned that her father drove the first team that passed over the Centerfield road from Canandaigua going west. It was then a dense wilderness. This was afterwards laid out as a state road, six rods in width, in the summer of 1794. The surveyor's name was Rose. General Chapin and a Mr. Elliott, of Onondaga county, were the commissioners, and they stayed at her father's during their examination at that time. When the axemen commenced chopping down the heavy timber, making the opening six rods wide, it enabled them to see a long distance each way, and made a great change in the appearance of their wilderness home. the line of the road diverged to the north after leaving her father's house and passed out at Frederick Toby's. Her father kept a public house for the entertainment of travelers, and she well remembered that after the death of General Chapin, the great lamentation that prevailed among the early settlers over their great loss. Judge Hosmer of Avon came to her father's on his way to the funeral of General Chapin, in a comfortable sleigh with a fine pair of horses driven by a colored servant, and tendered her father a seat in his sleigh to accompany him to Canandaigua. Mrs. Gunn often saw Red Jacket, Farmer's Brother, and many other prominent Indian chiefs and warriors, as they passed her father's house on their way to and from their council fires and treaties.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Find A Grave.

   Tombstone not shown: [[1]]

2. ↑ Ontario Messenger
   31 Mar 1876.

   Died: In East Bloomfield, on the morning of the 18th instant, Mrs. Esther B. Gunn, aged 93 years. [[2]]