Moving to Macedon

It was February of 1790/91 when Lemuel Spear, his wife, Ruth (Hayward) Spear, and some of their children, traveled from Cummington, Massachusetts, to settle north of the village of Palmyra (area now Macedon). Lemuel Spear is considered as the third settler of the area. 

The Spears traveled by sled/"runners" with two yoke of oxen, sheep, and cows. The Spear family had little to guide them from Phelps to their destination, one mile above the Palmyra village besides marking on trees from past travelers, and a bare track.  According to the P A L M Y R A — WAYNE COUNTY, NEW YORK: Copyright 1907 from the OFFICIAL  JOSEPH  SMITH  HOME  PAGE, "He [Lemuel] found his way by blazed trees from Vienna to his purchase and his sled ran roughly upon little less than a track. The weather was mild and the stock fared well upon the growth of the fiats, a portion of which had been known as Indian Village."

The land on which Lemuel Spear settled was purchased from Isaac Hathaway. He bought around five hundred to six hundred acres depending on the source and paid about 20 to 25 cents an acre. 

The Spear family lived in a covered sleigh, later a hut, mimicking that of a Native American home until their log cabin was finished. The family spent months clearing the land and planting while they built their new home. 

The Spears survived decently well in the wild woods of Palmyra, which at the time contained wolves, some records of bears (most likely black bears) and Native Americans. The Spear family is recorded to have traded with the local Native Americans in the area for a supply of venison, when the Spears needed meat; but when the Spear farm was later harvested, the Spears had a sufficient food supply.

Lemuel Spear is recorded to have erected the second frame barn of Palmyra, the first being Mr. Porter. In the same document, Landmarks of Wayne County, New York, Lemuel Spear is also listed as one of the first first grand jurors empaneled in the county.

Lemuel Spear is recorded in a 1817 Town Highway Tax Record, to have worked on the highway. As the document explains, "New York law established a system for maintaining roads which required that each township be divided into road districts and that all men in each district were required to work on the roads." Further down the paper explains, " ....every male living in his district who was twenty-one years or older (a free man) or property owner (a freeholder). Each man devoted at least one day a year to keeping the roads in repair in the district in which he lived. This included clearing brush, stones, and fallen trees; repairing bridges; filling holes; and in the winter clearing paths through the snow."

The land had been in the Spear family for over one hundred years before being sold to out of the family. A Historical Marker sign stands to mark the land on which the Spear's log cabin once stood.