In May 1789, Nicholas and William Stansell and John Featherly, with their wives and children, came from the Mohawk Valley by water, piloted by Hendrick Wemple, a pioneer Indian trader, and debarked on the north bank of the Clyde River, where they tied their bateaux to an elm tree about seven rods east of the bridge. These three families settled on high land one half mile directly south of the river.