ELLICOTTVILLE — Although the town of Ellicottville’s Bicentennial celebration was postponed to next year, descendants who received Pioneer Certificates from the Ellicottville Historical Society continue to honor their ancestors.
Charles R. Pettit, of Mooresville, N.C., is honoring his great-great-grandfather Amos Pettit and great-grandfather James Smith Johnson who came to Ellicottville to make a better life for their families.
AMOS PETTIT was born in what is today North Tonawanda in a log cabin where his parents, Joshua and Elizabeth, operated a tavern on River Road. During the winter of 1814, the British and Indigenous allies marched along the Niagara River, destroying everything in their path, including the Pettit Tavern. The Pettits fled to Batavia to escape the enemy and later returned to rebuild the tavern in time for Amos’ birth in 1815.
In 1834, Amos married Rebecca Baker and they started married life on a farm in Centerville. Later that year, his parents and siblings moved to a farm outside Rushford. Amos sold his farm and purchased the Fairview Tavern-Inn, a stagecoach stop on the Chautauqua Road, and raised six children.
In March 1859, Amos moved his family to Ellicottville where he became the host and manager of Irvine Hall Hotel, located on the corner of Washington and Monroe streets. They moved to the Exchange Hotel, in 1861, where he hosted and managed that facility. His family lived in and worked at both hotels.
When the Civil War broke out, Amos’ son, Joshua R., joined the 154th New York Volunteer Infantry in August 1862. In October 1862, Amos was appointed by Governor Reuben Fenton to become the sutler for the 154th Regiment, a position he held until December 1862.
Amos hired a man in Washington, D.C. to drive his team, wagon and goods back to Ellicottville, and he took the train home. After some time, he was notified that his horses had died and the wagon and goods were stolen. He traveled to Baltimore where he found his wagon, one horse and his goods, but the other horse had died. It was determined that the man had planned to rob Amos of his equipment and disappear with the profits.
Upon returning to Ellicottville, Amos purchased the Exchange Hotel and added another floor to the building. When Joshua returned from the war in June 1865, they started a grocery store in the basement. When the county government moved to Little Valley in 1868, he sold the hotel and opened a new store on the south side of Washington Street under the name A. Pettit & Son, “General Dealers in Groceries, Provisions.”
Amos stayed in the partnership until 1880 when poor health forced his retirement and his passing the next year, in 1881. His wife passed in 1899. Both are buried in the Jefferson Street Cemetery.
Five of their six children remained in the community their entire lives. Sarah Ann Pettit married Darwin E. Blair, Joshua R. Pettit married Sabra Simonds, George W. Pettit married Jane McCadden, Sophia L. Pettit married Charles Delos Sill and Orrin M. Pettit married and divorced.
In 1888, Joshua and his son, Guy, opened a new store on the corner of Washington and Monroe streets in the building presently owned by The Gin Mill.
Following the fire of 1890, they built their own building where Adventure Bound on Washington Street is presently located. That store remained in the Pettit name until 1937 when Guy sold it to Alex E. Fraser. One of Guy’s sons, Neil A. Pettit, became manager of the M & T Bank and Mayor of Ellicottville. Neil was Charles R. Pettit’s father.
JAMES SMITH JOHNSON, born 1824 in Davenport, was the youngest of 12 children. His father, William Johnson Jr., was a veteran of the Revolutionary War and his mother, Hadassah Smith, migrated from Connecticut.
Following the death of her husband in 1838, Hadassah and son, James, moved in with her daughter, Elizabeth, and her husband, Benjamin Fuller.
The Fullers, Hadassah and James moved to Cattaraugus County in 1841 and settled
on a farm in Great Valley. A carpenter by trade, James moved to Ellicottville to seek work.
In 1846, he married Sarah A. Root, daughter of Joseph and Hannah Etta Odell Root. James and Sarah started their married life on a farm on Maples Road, at the junction of Poverty Hill Road. Their first child, Hadessa Johnson, was born there in May 1847. Sarah passed away in 1851.
That same year, James married her younger sister, Celeila Root, to care for his daughter. Two children were born to this union, Sanford Johnson and James Merrill Johnson. Celeila died after the birth of James M. in 1858.
Faced with caring for three small children, James S. married Mary Ann Thompson, who worked as a servant for a family in the village. In addition to raising three children from his previous two marriages, five children were born to this union.
James S. was a skilled carpenter who worked all over the area building houses and barns. In the spring of 1880, he fell and broke his back while working on a new house in the village. He died from his injury later that summer and is buried in the Jefferson Street Cemetery. His wife and family moved from the farm and into a house on Elizabeth Street. Mary Ann lived until 1919 and is buried in the Sunset Hill Cemetery.
Most of James’ children lived out their lives in Ellicottville. Hadessa Johnson married
William Henry Hall, a veteran of the Civil War; Sanford Johnson married Ellen Ryan; James Merrill moved to Olean; Andrew Jackson Johnson married Annie Sullivan; Ella Johnson married Joseph R. Peck and moved to Jamestown; Adelaide Johnson married Willis C. Hall; Emma Johnson married Guy M. Pettit; and Mary Etta Johnson married Benjamin Coit.
Emma Johnson Pettit was the mother of Neil A. Petti who was Charles R. Pettit’s father.
