USA > New York > Oneida County > Utica > Memorial history of Utica, N.Y. : from its settlement to the present time > Part 1
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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02222 4122
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MEMORIAL HISTORY 1
OF
UTICA, N. Y.
FROM ITS SETTLEMENT TO THE PRESENT TIME
Edited by M. M. BAGG, M. D.
SYRACUSE, N. Y. D. MASON & CO., PUBLISHERS
1892
PRESS OF D. MASON & CO., SYRACUSE, N. Y.
4-12-10-1/2/32
PREFACE.
1295448
IN submitting this book to the reader its editor may truly say that he is not insensible of its defects: Several topics pertinent to the his- tory of Utica have been left unnoticed. His unwillingness, however, to offer a volume too unwieldy to be handled has constrained him to withhold some chapters which were already in part prepared. Had the necessity for greater condensation been earlier foreseen, some of these topics might have found a place at the expense of curtailing parts that are presented. Further delay in order to effect such condensation is impossible, being forbidden both by the demands of the subscribers and the interests of the publishers. It remains to mention in a word only a few of these omitted subjects, and to waive any attempt at enlargement. The State Hospital for the Insane is not one of the charities of Utica, yet its location within the bounds of the city is so eminently a characteristic of the place, and its many relations connect it so intimately with our people, that to fail of a sketch of it is to fail of an important part of our later history. The cemeteries of the city, the many beautiful monuments of Forest Hill and its Conservatory, so unique a feature of a burial place for the dead, are a source of pride to our inhabitants, and objects to which strangers are commonly con- ducted. The admirable water supply of the place, the police and fire departments, the former and the later interests of some of the citizens in the perfection and expansion of telegraphic and telephonic commu- nication, are all entitled to survey. The noble structure in use by the
I 2
PREFACE.
Y. M. C. A., the good it has accomplished, the past doings of the Oneida Historical Society, the multiplied orders and associations for social, benevolent, or useful purpose, these with the preceding must remain undescribed.
For the assiduous labors of H. P. Smith, of Syracuse, in gathering materials for the history as well as in writing some of its parts, the editor is deeply indebted. To others he would likewise accord his thanks for hints and additions.
The cost of the numerous steel portraits which adorn the book has been borne by the parties depicted, or by their relatives. In one case only has the expense been defrayed by another. Hon. Addison C. Miller, who declined to admit a likeness of himself, has introduced that of the late S. D. Childs.
In behalf of the Publishers,
DR. M. M. BAGG, Editor.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
OLD FORT SCHUYLER.
Its Location -- A large grant known as Cosby's Manor- The tract surveyed and mapped - Settlers - Peter Smith, father of Gerrit Smith - John Post -- The first bridge across the Mohawk - Maj. James S. Kip -- More early Settlers -- Newcomers in 1796 -- Dr. Alexander Coventry -- Col. Benjamin Walker - Utica incorporated as a Village. .17-49
CHAPTER II.
THE FIRST VILLAGE CHARTER.
Counties Erected - Newcomers of 1798 - Notes from Dwight's Travels - The Holland Land Company - The Phelps and Gorham Purchase - The first Hotel - Its Proprietors - Religious interests and an early Preacher - The Village tax list for 1800 - Notes of another Traveler - Highway Improvements - Business Development - The year 1801 - Recollections of the Welsh Popu- lation - General characteristics at this early Period - Settlers of 1801-04 - Petition for a new Charter - A Map of the Village in 1806 - General Feat- ures 49-88
CHAPTER III.
THE SECOND VILLAGE CHARTER.
Officers elected at the first Town Meeting - Their Proceedings and those of suc- ceeding Years - Newcomers Noticed .. 89-130
14
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IV.
THE THIRD VILLAGE CHARTER.
Its Principal Provisions - The Proceedings of the Successive Boards of Aldermen to 1824 - The Progress of the Erie Canal -The Visit of General Lafayette - Newcomers of the Period 131-173
CHAPTER V.
THE THIRD VILLAGE CHARTER CONTINUED.
Village Proceedings and Incoming Residents to the Year 1832 -- A Period of large Expectations - Application for a City Charter 173-198
CHAPTER VI.
FIRST DECADE UNDER THE CITY CHARTER.
Inauguration of the City Government - Cholera Epidemic - Details of its Rav- ages -- The Anti-Slavery Convention - Proceedings of the Successive Coun- cils -- New Comers of the Era 199-243
CHAPTER VII. SECOND DECADE OF THE CITY'S HISTORY.
The Washingtonian Temperance Movement - Establishment of a Recorder's Court -- Inauguration of an era of Manufactures -- Incorporation of the Utica Water Works- Building of the City Hall. 243 270
CHAPTER VIII.
THIRD DECADE OF THE CITY'S HISTORY.
The Black River Railroad Project -- Extensive Charter Amendments - A Period of severe financial Stringency -- Failure of local Banks - A Citizen's political Movement --- Beginning of the War Period. .270-308
15
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IX.
FOURTH DECADE OF THE CITY'S HISTORY.
The War record Continued - A new Armory built on the site of the Market -- List of business Houses of 1863 -- The Draft in Utica - Burning of the Female Academy and the Free Academy - Close of the War - Growth and Prosper- ity in the dawn of Peace - Efforts toward the Establishment of a Police and Fire Commission -- Building of the new County Clerk's Office 308-341
CHAPTER X. THE CITY'S HISTORY : 1872-1880.
Important charter Amendment -- Enlargement of the city boundary on the West - Formation of the Utica Manufacturing and Mercantile Association .... 341-352
CHAPTER XI.
THE LAST DECADE OF THE CITY'S HISTORY.
Summary of recent History-Extensive and new methods of Paving-Street light- ing Improvement-Development of the Street Railway System-Mohawk Val- ley and Skenandoa factories Built-Government Building and new Churches Erected-Young Men's Christian Association and Soldiers' Monument. .... 352-361
CHAPTER XII. MODES OF TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION.
The Mohawk River as a Public Waterway-The Genesee Turnpike-Early Stages -Construction and Opening of the Erie Canal-Early Railroads East and West-The Plank Road Era -Northern and Southern Railroads 361-395
CHAPTER XIII. CHURCHES OF THE SEVERAL DENOMINATIONS.
Presbyterian Societies-Congregational Organizations-The Reformed Church -- The Episcopal Denomination-The Methodists-The Baptists-The Lutherans -The Moravian Church-Roman Catholics-The Hebrews and their Syna- gogues-Welsh Churches-Sketches of some of the Clergymen who have preached in Utica. 396-448
16
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE SCHOOLS AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL LIBRARY ... 449-476
CHAPTER XV.
THE PRESS
476-490
CHAPTER XVI.
THE BENCH AND BAR OF UTICA. 491-567
CHAPTER XVII.
FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS. 567-590
CHAPTER XVIII.
MANUFACTURES 591-615
CHAPTER XIX.
CHARITIES.
616-632
PART II.
BIOGRAPHICAL. 633
MEMORIAL
HISTORY OF UTICA.
CHAPTER I.
OLD FORT SCHUYLER.
Its Location - A large grant known as Cosby's Manor - The tract surveyed and mapped - Settlers - Peter Smith, father of Gerrit Smith - John Post -The first bridge across the Mohawk - Maj. James S. Kip - More early Settlers -- New comers in 1796 -- Dr. Alexander Coventry -- Col. Benjamin Walker -- Utica incorporated as a Village.
T HE original settlement made at Utica took its name of Old Fort Schuyler from a fort which had been erected here during the French and Indian war. This fort, which was designed to guard the fording-place in the Mohawk River above it, was situated on the south bank a very little distance southeast of the present intersection of Sec- ond street and the Central Railroad. The left bank of Ballou's Creek, which joins the river just below, was formerly much depressed a short distance above its mouth, so as to form in high water a lagoon that must have reached almost to the walls of the fort, and thus have facili- tated the landing and embarkation of troops. The fort consisted of an embankment surrounded by palisades, nearly all traces of which had disappeared at the time of the arrival of the first settlers. It was named in honor of Col. Peter Schuyler, an uncle of Gen. Philip Schuyler of the Revolution. During and subsequent to this war it went by the
3
IS
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
name of Old Fort Schuyler to distinguish it from another fortress erected at Rome, and which was sometimes known as Fort Schuyler, though it had been christened and was therefore more correctly called Fort Stanwix.
The choice of this spot as a place of settlement after the war was prob- ably determined by the following circumstances: The presence of the hills which confine the Mohawk at Little Falls, and their close approxi- mation for some way above that point, restricted the range of the earlier immigrants into Central New York, and concurred with the fertility of the soil along the valley to fix them within the limits of the latter. To- ward Old Fort Schuyler these hills decline in height and begin to melt away to the right and the left. Here, therefore, was the first place where facilities appeared for a divergence from the former course, while the beautiful valleys that open southward at this point and at Whitesboro tempted settlers who found the lands below already in occupation to depart from the line of the river in search of homes more remote. The old Indian path from Oneida Castle here intercepted the path along the river- side leading to the portage at Fort Stanwix. Both crossed the Mohawk at the only place in the neighborhood where fording was easily practicable, and this was at the site of the present bridge at the foot of Genesee street. As a place of trade with the outlying settlements beyond, which required supplies that could best be brought by the river, the spot seemed an advantageous one.
The soil along the stream was, it is true, wet and marshy and the same was the case with nearly all the land in the vicinity with the ex - ception of a low, gravelly ridge lying parallel with the southern bank some dozen rods distant, and from whose upper end diverged a slighter ridge southward. There were no promising mill privileges, no quar- ries of valuable building stone, no mines of metals or useful minerals, no salt springs or other special features of the spot that pointed it out as an attractive site for a settlement and gave assurance of extended growth. The Mohawk was indeed navigable for vessels of small ton- nage from Schenectady to Fort Schuyler and even to Fort Stanwix, whence, after a short portage into Wood Creek, water passage was con- tinuous by way of Oneida Lake, Oneida and Oswego Rivers, to Ontario and the far West; and this in fact had from the earliest period in
19
EARLY WATERWAYS AND ROADS.
the country's history formed the principal thoroughfare of travel and of trade. The real and practical head of navigation on the Mohawk was at Fort Stanwix, and this place was looked upon-to use the language of the commissioners of the Inland Navigation Company-as "the future great city west of Albany." Even the mouth of the Sauquoit formed a much more natural and important landing. Previous to the improvement of the road extending west from Old Fort Schuyler both Rome and Whitesboro at the mouth of the Sauquoit far exceeded the former place in the amount of their river transportation.
The most that could have been expected by its earlier traders was to make it a landing-place whence goods could be conveyed to the places rapidly settling in its immediate vicinity. Thus it happened that for a long time its business was carried on near the river on Water street or in the street which ran parallel a short distance above. This was called Main street, its extension toward Whitesboro being known as the Whitesboro road. Nor did the settlement reach much above this line until the village had had several years of existence. Not until after the ap- propriations made by the legislature in 1794, '95, and '97 had been ex- pended on the road to the " Genesee country," and especially not until after the incorporation of the Seneca Turnpike Company in 1800 and the construction by it of a more perfect road, which, starting at the ford, ran much to the southward of Rome and Whitesboro, did Utica in- crease materially and become the virtual head of trade upon the Mohawk.
Southward from the line of the river the ground rises by a gentle ac- clivity that reaches about three fourths of a mile, when it falls over a short course to rise again beyond. Curving toward the northwest on its western side this acclivity approaches the river more nearly on the western border of the present city than it does on the eastern. It is upon this hillside that the Utica of today is mainly built, the lower por- tion having the larger part of the places of business. Both on the east and on the west this hillside is cut by small streams, Ballou's and Nail Creeks, that join the Mohawk nearly at right angles. Still farther east and on the confines of the city another creek, the Starch Factory, pur- sues a similar course.
The territory on which Old Fort Schuyler was settled formed part of a tract of 22,000 acres granted on the 2d of January, 1734, by George
20
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
II., King of England, nominally to several persons, but in reality to in- ure to the benefit of William Cosby, colonial governor of New York and New Jersey; it was thence known as Cosby's Manor. In default of the payment of arrears of quit-rents it was on the 4th of July, 1772, sold by the sheriff under warrant from Daniel Horsmanden, the chief justice of the colony, and was purchased by Col. (afterward Gen.) Philip Schuyler for the joint benefit of himself, Gen. John Bradstreet, Rutger Bleecker, and John Morin Scott. They paid for it £1,387, 4s., 7d., or at the rate of fifteen pence per acre. By them or their heirs it was held at the time the first settlements were effected. The whole tract ex- tended easterly from the mouth of the Sauquoit Creek eleven miles, seventeen chains, and was six miles wide, three upon each side of the Mohawk River. It was divided into lots that ran back from the river three miles and were sixteen or seventeen chains in width.
The manor formed a part of what was known as German Flats in Montgomery County, the name of the county having been changed from that of Tryon in 1785. On the 7th of March, 1788, the district of German Flats was divided and " Whitestown" was set off as a separate town, which was bounded on the east by a line crossing the Mohawk at the ford and running thence to the bounds of the State. It cut the settlement of Old Fort Schuyler in the middle, leaving a part in Whites- town and a part in German Flats. Upon the formation of Oneida County in 1798 this east line was thrown eastwardly to the present line of the city and county. This immense region, now teeming with peo- ple, then numbered less than 200 inhabitants. But the tide of immigra- tion had already begun to flow. The reaction which slowly followed the exhausting struggle for the nation's independence was awakening enterprise and directing it into new paths of activity. The fame of "the Whitestown country" had reached New England and was enticing thither the adventurous settler as to a land of promise. The neighbor- ing settlements of Whitesboro, Oriskany, Westmoreland, etc. had been commenced a year or two previously ; that of Deerfield, broken up and destroyed during the Revolution, had also just been resumed.
In the year 1786 a survey of the manor of Cosby together with a map of the same was made by John R., son of Rutger Bleecker. It appears therefrom that two houses were located near the ford on what is now
2I
FIRST SETTLERS AND SETTLEMENTS.
the east side of Genesee street and one on the west side. Improve- ments had been made a little farther westward somewhere between the present lines of Broadway and State streets, and there were also im- provements near the present eastern limits of the city. Outside of these evidences of a commencing civilization was an unbroken forest consisting chiefly of beech, hemlock, maple, and elm.
The occupant of the house nearest the river on the eastern side of the road was John Cunningham, his neighbor beside him being George Damuth. The resident of the opposite side was Jacob Christman. The settler toward the west was a man named McNamee, and the clearings on the eastern border were designated as those of McNamee and Abra- ham Boom.
An emigrant who passed through the place the following year like- wise informs us that there were three log huts or shanties near the old fort. The statement furnished by a settler who arrived in 1788 con- firms the evidence of the map, showing that Cunningham, Damuth, and Christman were living near the ford while it adds to the list the name of Hendrich Salyea. Of these men we know little. Most of them were of Palatine descent, and had probably removed hither from settlements lower down the Mohawk.
The lease from Rutger Bleecker, of the city of Albany, to " George Damuth, of Montgomery County," (the name then applied to all of the State west of Albany County,) is dated July 28, 1787. It demises 273 1/2 acres, being part of lot No. 94, for the term of twenty-one years at a yearly rent of one shilling per acre. The first payment was to be made on the 28th of July, 1793, and subsequent ones annually thereafter. Mr. Damuth made assignment of his lease and probably died ere 1790. It was with Cunningham that Moses Foot, who began the settlement at Clinton, found a lodging in 1787.1 His legal title to the land he occupied he probably obtained about the same time with Damuth. From a state- ment of the payments received thereon it would appear that it conveyed ninety-one and a half acres of lot No. 94 for the term of ten years at one shilling an acre each year, and that the times of payment were fixed on the 26th of July, 1793, and annually on the same day thereafter ; that is to say, within two days of the beginning of payments on the lease of
1 Journal of Dr. Alexander Coventry where the statement is made on the authority of Mr. Foot.
22
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
George Damuth. As with the latter so with Cunningham, not one of the payments were made by the original lessee, Cunningham having already before 1793 sold his lease and his betterments to John Post and departed.
Of Jacob Christman's title we know nothing, nor whether, indeed, he ever had any. Of McNamee our information is still less. Abraham Boom obtained from Gen. Philip Schuyler in 1790 a life lease of the land on which he had located, and after his death his son, William Boom, disposed of it to the Christmans.
Hendrich Salyea had a twenty-one years' lease from Rutger Bleecker dated on the same day with that of George Damuth, namely, July 28, 1787. This lease on the 19th of September, 1789, he covenanted to sell to John Post, the purchaser of the interest of Cunningham and in part of that of Damuth. The improvements which he had made on a strip of land lying adjacent and like the former on lot No. 93 he sold on the 15th of March, 1790, to Peter Smith for the sum of £5. He squatted again on a part of lot No. 90, occupying a log house that stood on the north side of the present Broad street opposite the site of the subse- quent farm-house of Matthew Hubbell. The improvements on the lat- ter tract he sold the same year to Mr. Hubbell, but continued to live a straggler in the village for several years longer. He was the only one of these earliest settlers near the ford who remained in the vicinity. These were the forerunners of the settlement which was presently known as Old Fort Schuyler.
The settlers who successively came in to swell our quota of this now populous district let us proceed to consider. In March, 1788, arrived Maj. John Bellinger, the first who effected a lodgment after the persons whose names occur on Mr. Bleecker's map. Major Bellinger was a native of the Mohawk Valley, and with two other members of his fam- ily was present at the battle of Oriskany, where he stood by the side of the gallant Herkimer when the latter received his mortal wound. At the time of his journeying hither the ground was covered with four feet of snow. Immediately on his arrival he constructed a hut of hemlock boughs in which he lived four months. It was placed near what is now the east corner of Whitesboro and Washington streets. The same year, it is said, he began to clear up a piece of land and to build a small
23
NEW COMERS TO THE YOUNG SETTLEMENT.
frame house, he being his own artificer. If it be true that the house now pointed out by old residents as Mr. Bellinger's is the one he then erected it is a noteworthy object and does credit to the builder's skill. It stands in the rear of a wagon shop on the south side of Whitesboro street, third house east of Washington, and is a story and a half gable- roofed house. It has a tough, weather-beaten look that promises for it several years' duration. Here while Mr. Bellinger managed his farm he entertained the stream of emigrants on their way to more distant homes. He afterward erected a larger building nearly opposite, a part of which was known at the time it was burned as the New England House. This he continued to keep as a public house until his death in 1815.
At this time, we are told by Judge Jones,1 a family named Morey, Philip the father, and Solomon, Richard, and Sylvanus his sons, from Rhode Island, were living as squatters on lot No. 97 and Francis Fos- ter was then a squatter on lot No. 96. Philip Morey subsequently had a lease of his land.
The following year (1789) came Uriah Alverson, a native of Rhode Island. He journeyed through the place some two years before, when he determined to locate here, and returned east for his family. On his second arrival he took up some land in what is now West Utica on a long lease from General Schuyler, and built him a house. His son, William Alverson, accompanied his father on his first visit as well as when he came here to reside, and was then a youth of nineteen: He followed several different pursuits : by trade a journeyman carpenter he was also a farmer, a brewer, a grocer, and a painter.
Some time during the year 1789, or the latter part of the previous year, came one of those remarkable men that new countries are apt to produce, and whose eminent success, especially in the acquisition of wealth, is not surpassed by the richest gains of metropolitan commerce. This was Peter Smith, father of the more widely known Gerrit Smith. Peter Smith was a native of Rockland County and was born in 1768. Apprenticed at sixteen as a clerk in the importing house of Abraham Herring & Co. he left them at the end of three years and, stocked with a supply of goods for a country store, settled himself in trade at a
1 Annals of Oneida County.
2.4
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
small place called Fall Hill a couple of miles below Little Falls. Here he remained but a single year, and while yet a minor came to Old Fort Schuyler. He put up a log store, which as nearly as he could recollect in his later years stood where Bagg's Tavern was afterward built. J. F. Watson, in his "Antiquities of the City and State of New York," says that Peter Smith in 1787 bought of the widow Damuth for a few pounds of Bohea tea her log house that stood on the ground where was afterward built Bagg's Hotel. He soon built another store of the same kind near the lower end of Main street, and not far from the handsome two-story dwelling he subsequently erected on the corner of Main and Third streets. Mr. Smith's later residence was the house on Broad street, beyond the gulf, afterward occupied by his son-in-law, Capt. Walter Cochrane. To this house was attached a farm of two or three hundred acres. Here in March, 1797, was born his noted son Gerrit. He removed in 1806 to Peterboro after a brief residence of three years at Yorkville, then known as Wetmore's Mills. He had been sheriff of Herkimer in 1795 when that county included Oneida also. On the or- ganization of Madison County, the same year of his removal thither, he was appointed one of its judges and the following year became first judge. This position he continued to hold until 1821, and as it was said by the lawyers of the day made an excellent magistrate.
In the spring of 1790 John Post with his wife, three young children, and a carpenter, supplied with a stock of merchandise, furniture, and provisions, embarked upon the Mohawk at Schenectady and in eight or nine days landed at Old Fort Schuyler. Besides the purchase from Salyea he had also the ownership of the lease of John Cunningham and of a part of that of George Damuth. We are told by a settler of the Genesee country who passed up the river the summer previous that Mr. Post was then finishing his house on a half acre of land that he had cleared.1 The clearing was probably made by Cunningham, the prev- ious settler. The house, as Mr. Post subsequently informed Dr. Alex- ander Coventry,2 was probably the first frame house erected in the county. Judge White, of Whitesboro, was still living in a log house. This house of Mr. Post stood on the west side of what is now lower Gen-
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