USA > New York > Jefferson County > A history of Jefferson County in the state of New York, from the earliest period to the present time > Part 20
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At the first town meeting held by notification of Amasa Fox, at the house of Ambrose Pease and from thence adjourned to the house of Joseph Landon, March 4, 1806, Augustus Sacket was chosen supervisor; William Waring, clerk; Amasa Fox, William Baker, Samuel Bates, Jr., Theron Hinman, assessors; Ambrose Pease, Robert Robbins, com'rs highways; Jotham Wilder, John Patrick, overseers of poor; Jeremiah Goodrich, collector; J. Goodrich, Wm. Galloway, John Root, constables.
Supervisors .- 1806-8, Augustus Sacket; 1808 (special meet- ing), Elisha Camp; 1809-18, E. Camp; 1819, Hiram Steele; 1820-23, E. Camp; 1824, Daniel Hall, Jr .; 1825, E. Camp; (special meeting to fill vacancy), Wm. Baker; 1826-27, Daniel Hall, Jr .; 1828, E. Camp; 1829-41, Daniel Hall; 1842, Seth P. Newell, Jr .; 1843, Benjamin Maxon; 1844, D. Hall; 1845, Augustus Ford; 1846-47, B. Maxon; 1848-50, Jesse C. Dann; 1851, Samuel T. Hooker; 1852, J. C. Dann; 1853, Edgar B. Camp.
1806. " Resolved, That the inhabitants of this town, who shall hunt any wolf or panther in this town (though he should kill such wolf or panther in any other town), shall be entitled to $10 bounty."
" Resolved, That three delegates be appointed by this town to attend a general meeting of the county to nominate a suitable candidate for the legislature, at their own expense." Theron Hinman, Augustus Sacket, and Amasa Fox, appointed.
At a special meeting called for the purpose, January 10, 1807, A. Sacket, John Patrick and Elisha Camp, were chosen to represent the town at a meeting of delegates from other towns, at Watertown, to take into consideration the military situation of the county. They were intrusted to protest against any undue influences that might be exercised in the meeting.
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1807. $10 voted as bounty for every wolf or panther which shall be killed by any inhabitant of the town,which wolf, or panther shall be started by such inhabitant within this town. A bounty of $25 voted for the greatest quantity of hemp, above five hundred weight. Elisha Camp appointed surveyor to the town.
1808. Voted not to accept the state road as a town road. 1812. Canada thistles to be destroyed, under a penalty of $1; the fines to go towards rewarding such as might discover some method of destroying them. " Resolved, that hogs be free com- moners, if yoked, the yokes to be 24 inches long by 15, and small hogs in proportion." 1815. The poor masters authorized to build a poor house for transient poor, if they thought necessary. 1824. At a special meeting, voted against the poor house system, and a remonstrance to the legislature voted. The wolf and pan- ther bounties were continued till 1816. In 1822, 1823, 1831, a fox bounty of 50 cents was offered. In 1828, the highway com- missioners, were directed to offer as stock, the half of the cost of the bridge at Dexter, to the plank road leading from thence to Bagg's Corners, on the W. & S. H. P. R., and if refused, to petition that the bridge be made a toll bridge.
This town derives its name from Ezra Houndsfield, a native of Sheffield, in England, who, about 1800, came to New York as agent for his brothers, John and Bartholomew Houndsfield, man- ufacturers and merchants of Sheffield. He engaged in the hard- ware trade, and in company with Peter Kimball, purchased in common the south half of township No. 1, or the present town of Houndsfield. This purchase was made of Harrison and Hoffman, March 10, 1801, and subsequently other and smaller purchases were made. Mr. Houndsfield was a bachelor, and died in New York, about 1817. By his will, dated April 7, 1812, he ap- pointed David A. Ogden, Edward Lynde, John Day and Thomas L. Ogden, his executors, who advertised a sale at auction of the remaining interest of the estate in town at Sackets Harbor, August 1, 1817. The executors bought in the property and afterwards conveyed it to Bartholomew, the father of George Houndsfield, the present heir of the family, living in Sheffield.
The town is said to have been named through the influence of Mr. Augustus Sacket, who was an acquaintance of Mr. Hounds- field. The latter was accustomed to spend his summers in town.
From an early period of the purchase, the waters of Black River Bay were regarded as an eligible place for a commercial point, and in a work published in Paris in 1801,* the follow- ing description of it is given under the name of Niahoure. " At the bottom of this gulf Black River empties, forming a
* Voyage dans la Haute Pensylvanie, et dans l'Etat de New York, par un membre adoptif de la Nation Oneida. Vol. III, p. 408.
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harbor sheltered from the winds and surges of the lake, which, during the prevalence of the south-west winds, roll like those of the ocean. The land on the right or south of this bay, is extremely fertile, and is a grove more fresh than can elsewhere be seen. That on the left, i. e. the country that extends to the north of the bay of Niahoure, as far as the St. Lawrence, and east to the Oswegatchie, is not less fertile, and the colonists begin to vie in settling it." This bay is elsewhere in the work described as comprising all the waters within Six Town Point, and Point Peninsula, which on ancient maps was named La Famine, by the French, and Hungry Bay, by the English. On some maps this term is applied to what is now known as Hen- derson Bay, and in others to Chaumont Bay. The origin of the name is unkown, unless perhaps it may have been derived from the misfortunes of De La Barre in 1684.
This town, having been conveyed through Macomb and Con- stable to Harrison, Hoffman, Low, and Henderson, as related in our history of the titles, fell to the share of Harrison and Hoff- man on division, and the north part was conveyed June 13th, 1797, for $58,333.33 to Champion and Storrs, amounting to 11,134} acres,* with the town of Champion (25,708 acres). On the 14th of November, 1798, Champion and Storrs sold a portion of the above to Loomis and Tillinghast, receiving two notes of $6000 each, which, with a mortgage upon the premises, not being paid, the tract was sold by a decree of chancery, at the Tontine Coffee House in New York, June 20th, 1801, and bid off by Augustus Sacket of that city, who received a conveyance from Champion, and the assignees of Loomis and Tillinghast. While the sale was pending, Mr. Sacket having heard of the location, and inclining to engage in its purchase, made a journey early in 1801 to the place, and was so struck with the great natural advantages for a port which the place presented, that he hastened back, and having secured the purchase, returned with a few men to commence improvements. In the second and third year, he erected an ample and convenient dwelling, and the little colony received the accession of mechanics and others. Other parts of the town began to settle quite as early as the village, especially towards Brownville, near which place Amasa Fox is said to have made the first improvement in town. In September, 1802, a traveler reported about 30 families living in township No. 1. The south part of the town, sold to Kemble and Houndsfield, was first placed in the hands of Silas Stow, of Lowville, as agent, and in an advertisement in the Columbian Gazette,t of Utica, June 11th, 1804, the land is represented as excellent, and "the flourishing state of Mr. Sacket's village, its
* Oneida Deeds, 6, 32.
t Vol. 2, No. 65.
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advantages of water carriage and its valuable fishery, renders it one of the most inviting objects to an industrious settler."
In 1805, several English families settled at Sackets Harbor, among whom were Samuel Luff, and sons, Edmund, Samuel, Jr., Joseph and Jesse; David Merritt, William Ashby, John Roots, Henry Metcalf, and George Slowman. Besides these, John and William Evans, Squire Reed, Amasa Hollibut, Charles Barrie, Uriah Roulison, Azariah P. Sherwin, and others. Dr. William Baker settled in 1803, and was the first physician. Ambrose Pease, and Stephen Simmons, were early innkeepers, and Loren Buss, and Hezekiah Doolittle, merchants. The place was at an early day very healthy, and from February, 1805, till January, 1809, it was remarkable that but one case of death occurred (except that of infants), and this was from an accidental discharge of a pistol by one of the men employed in " preventing intercourse with Canada during the embargo. The victim of the accident was one McBride, who was killed by Julius Torrey, a negro, with whom he had been a companion for several years on a desolate island, in the South Seas, and whom for a long time he had not seen, and the accident was felt with great severity by him. Late in 1808, typhus fever began to appear among the citizens and a detachment of United States troops, originating with the latter, and of this sickness many died.
On the 5th of March, 1809, Sacket conveyed 1700 acres, the present village of Sackets Harbor, to Cornelius Ray, William Bayard, and Michael Hogan for $30,000 in trust, and a few days after Ezra Houndsfield, and Peter Kemble, conveyed to the same parties their interest in the tract .* In a declaration of trust subsequently made,t the parties concerned in this purchase ap- pear to have been C. Ray, W. Bayard, M. Hogan, Herman Le Roy, James McEvers, Joshua Waddington, James Lenox, Wil- liam Maitland, William Ogden, -- McLeod, Benjamin W. Rogers, Duncan P. Campbell, Samuel Boyd, Abraham Ogden, David A. Ogden, and Thomas L. Ogden, each owning 713th part, except D. A. & T. L. Ogden, who together owned a -15th part. The first three named were trustees of the others, and Mr. Elisha Camp, a brother-in-law of Mr. Sacket, who settled in the village in 1804, and has since remained a leading citizen, was appointed the resident agent, under whom the estate was sold, the last of the business being closed up about 1848 or '9. As these proprietors were mostly extensive capitalists of New York, it is to be presumed that their influence was exerted in
* Jefferson Deeds, B. 260, where a map made by William Bridge in March, 1809, is also recorded.
t Ib. D. 254.
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securing from the general government some portion, at least, of that attention which this place has received, during and since the war as a military and naval depot, but which can scarcely be said to have conferred a lasting benefit upon it. The expend- iture of several millions of dollars for labor and materials, would, in the opinion of most people, be sufficient to impart a visible impulse to the prosperity of a place, but from causes which it might be improper or foreign to our purpose to investi- gate, such has not been the case here.
About 1807, there occurred in this town, about 6 miles south from the harbor in the Price settlements, one of those incidents peculiar to a new country, and which seldom fail to exite the sympathies of a whole community, whose common wants, and mutual dependence, lead to a bond of union less observable in an old settled district. The following sketch was written by Mr. David Merritt, one of the English families, who located here in February, 1805; the occasion was the loss of a child in the woods.
"The parents of the child had recently settled in the woods, half a mile from any other dwelling. It was of a Lord's day evening, about sunset; the father set out to visit his nearest neigh- bor, and, unobserved by him, his son, a child of four years, fol- lowed him.
The father tarried an hour or two, and returned, not having seen the little wanderer. The mother anxiously enquired for her child, supposing her husband had taken him with him; their anxiety was great, and immediate though fruitless search was made for the little fugitive. Several of the nearest neighbors were alarmed, and the night was spent to no purpose in searching for the child. On Monday a more extensive search was made by increased numbers, but in vain; and the distressed parents were almost frantic with grief and fearful apprehensions for the child's safety.
Another afflictive and sleepless night passed away, and the second morning beamed upon the disconsolate family, the child not found, and by this time (Tuesday), reports were in circulation of a panther's having been seen recently in the woods by some one. This circumstance gave a pungency to the grief and feelings of every sympathetic heart unknown before; and the timid and credulous were ready to abandon any further efforts to recover the child, and give the distressed parents up to despair.
It was however concluded to alarm a still more extensive circle, and engage fresh volunteers in a work that must interest and arouse even the unfeeling on common occasions. A messenger was dispatched to Sackets Harbor, a distance of six miles; it was in itself an irresistible appeal to every feeling heart. To feel, was to act.
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Messrs. Luff, Ashby, Merritt, and others immediately mounted their horses, and repaired to the scene of painful anxiety; this was about eleven o'clock in the forenoon of Tuesday. When they arrived at the spot, the number present, that had collected from all quarters, was about five hundred men. A small number was immediately chosen as a committee to direct the best method of search, and they were formed in a line, extending to the right and left of the house, a mile each way. They were placed so far apart as, for every foot of ground they passed in their search, to come under their observation; and when they had marched such a given distance from the house, the left or right wing were to wheel in such a way, as would, by pursuing the same plan, have effectually searched every spot within several miles of the house, before evening. The order of the day was, that no person should fire a gun, sound a horn, halloo, or make any needless noise, whatever; but with vigilance, and a sense of duty to the distressed parents, use every effort to recover the child. If the child was found alive, every person, that had a gun, was to fire, and every one that has a horn to sound it; on the contrary, if the child was found dead, one gun only should be fired, as a signal to the remote line to cease searching.
In this way, in silence, they had marched about two miles, when a distant gun sounded; it was an anxious moment. "Is the child alive?" was a thought that ran through every mind; a moment more and the hope was confirmed, for the air and forests rang with guns and horns of every description.
The lines were immediately broken up, and each ran, anxious to see the little lost sheep. The dear little fellow was presented to his now overjoyed parents; a scene that overcame all present.
When the little boy was found, he was sitting on a small mossy hillock, in the middle of a swamp, surrounded by shallow water. When the man, who first approached him, extended his arms and stooped to take him up, he shrunk from him, appeared frightened, and shewed a disposition to get from him. But he was much exhausted, and seized eagerly an apple that was held to him. Had he not been rescued from his situation, he probably would have died at that spot."
The first mercantile operation at Sackets Harbor on an extensive scale, was by Samuel F. Hooker, who in 1808 commenced with a stock of $20,000 worth of goods, and in 50 days had sold $17,500 worth. The business that then opened with the brightest prospects, was the trade of potash, to Montreal, where Astor and other heavy capitalists, had placed money in the hands of agents, for its purchase. The embargo of 1808; by withholding those along our frontier from a career in which they were highly pros- perous, naturally led to a spirit of evasion of the laws, and the
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difficulty of exporting this great staple of commerce, directly from the Atlantic ports to Europe, led to extensive and systematic measures for forwarding to the lake and river, from the interior and southern counties of the state, and even from New York, large quantities of potash. This sometimes vanished in the night, or was shipped with due formality to Ogdensburgh, where it dis- appeared, and sometimes an open course of defiance of law was attempted. In whatever way it may have escaped, it was sure of reappearing in Montreal, where it commanded the enormous sums of $200 to $320 per ton, and from whence there was no obstacle to its export to England. To check this contraband trade, two companies of regulars were stationed at Ogdensburgh, and Capt. Wm. P. Bennett, with a part of a company of artillery, and Lieut. Cross, with a few infantry, was stationed here in 1808 and a part of 1809.
On the declaration of war, the United States possessed almost no means, whatever, for defensive operations on this frontier. The brig Oneida, under Lieutenant Woolsey, with an armament of 16 guns, a heavy 36 pound iron cannon, and a few smaller ones, some of which belonged to the state militia, constituted the sum of our means of defence. The British, it was well known, had been preparing for the event, one or two years at Kingston, and when the news of war arrived, had the means afloat at that place, not only of commanding the lake, but of landing whatever force they might possess, at such points as they might select, without a reasonable prospect of resistance. Col. Christopher P. Bellinger, with a body of drafted militia, had been stationed at this place, and an artillery company, under Capt. Elisha Camp, had been formed, and had offered their services for a short time, which had been accepted by General Brown. As ordnance and military stores were of first importance for the defence of the place, a meeting was called to press upon the governor the im- portance of an immediate attention to these wants, of which the following is a copy of the proceedings:
Sackets Harbor, July 11, 1812.
"HIS Ex. Gov. TOMPKINS, Respected Sir :- The undersigned, a com- mittee appointed on the part of the officers stationed at Sackets Harbor, and the villagers, for the purpose of adopting measures of defence for this place, beg leave to address you on this subject. We would earnestly solicit your attention to the exposed situation of this place, its liability to attack, and to the most expeditious means of resisting with effect any offensive operations. This place, it will be known, is the station or port from whence the brig Oneida derives all hier supplies, and the almost only harbor she can. with safety resort to from the bad weather of the lake. It is a village respectable for size and population, and is the easiest of access to any hostile naval force upon the lake. The English have a disposable effective naval force of at least sixty eight guns, while all our defence consists of 18 guns, on board the Oneida, and 2 nine pounders on
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shore, less than one third of what may be made to bear upon us. Under these circumstances, according to the established usages of war, it would be bordering upon insanity for us not to expect that an attack will be made upon us, the troops stationed here driven from their encamp- ment, a landing effected under the cover of naval artillery, and the village demolished, with a large amount of property, and loss of life. And in fact we have it credibly reported, that it is the intention of our enemies to capture Captain Woolsey, and destroy the navigation on our side of the lake. Having two schooner prizes in port, besides other craft, we of course must daily expect a visit. Under this point of view, we have for some time considered the subject, and have been awaiting with anxious expectation the arrival of cannon and ammunition. It is far from the wish of the citizens of this place to retire from it with their families and effects and thereby scatter alarm and dismay throughout the country at large, but we assure you honored sir, that every consideration of prudence and self persevation would dictate the measure, did not reinforcements of artillery soon arrive. We have a very well disciplined company of artil- lery, ofcitizens belonging to this place, who can be rallied at a very short 'notice, and would in conjunction with the soldiers be competent to the management of a number of heavy pieces of ordnance besides the two 9 pounders already here. We should therefore respectfully solicit, that the two 9 pounders, and two sixes and other ordnance at the Rome Ar- senal, might with suitable fixed and other ammunition be forwarded with all possible expedition, and if 10 or 12 nines, twelves, or eighteen pounders, could be forwarded, we should consider the troops, the village and the brig Oneida, when here, as secure from attack, or if attacked would be able to give a good account of our adversaries. This place would then be a safe retreat to the Oneida, should she meet with a re- verse of fortune, as well as a safe place of refuge for the navigation of the lakes, no harbor being easily of access, or naturally more secure. At present, there is no place to which the Oneida can resort with safety, in case of attack with a superior force.
Oswego, Sodus, and Genesee River, she cannot enter with her guns aboard, and Niagara is too much exposed. We would further take the liberty of suggesting the propriety of some engineer being ordered on with instructions to erect suitable temporary batteries to be thrown up by the troops for such pieces of ordnance as may be stationed here. Any communication that your honor may think proper to make through Captain L. Buss, the bearer, to the keeper of the arsenal at Rome or other- wise, we have no doubt will be executed with fidelity and dispatch."
The committee who drafted the above were Colonel Bellinger, Major Dill, Captain E. Camp, F. White, and W. Warring.
During the war, Sackets Harbor became the theatre of military and naval operations on an extensive scale, the details of which will be given in our chapter on that subject. It was twice attacked by the British, without success, and it was the station from which were fitted out the expeditions against Toronto, Fort George, &c., and the unfortunate enterprise under General Wilkinson, in the fall of 1813. From its being the centre of operations so extensive, and the rendezvous of great numbers of sailors and soldiers, many incidents occurred that possess much interest, and scenes of vice and misery inseparable from camps, became familiar to the citizens.
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At this station about a dozen military executions were per- formed during the war, for repeated desertion, with the view of striking terror into the minds of the disaffected, but with the effect of increasing the evil. These cases were many of them young men from New England, of respectable families, who in the heat of poltical excitement had enlisted in the army, and who found themselves the victims of the wanton barbarity of officers, exposed to the severest hardships of the camp, and often ill clad, and worse fed, sometimes without shelter, and always without sympathy. Was it unnatural that under these circum- stances the memories of home, with all its comforts, and the thoughts of mothers, sisters, wives, and children, and the thou- sand associations that cluster around the domestic fireside, should come freshly to mind with a force that was irresistible ? Seve- 'ral of these cases excited much sympathy, among which was that of a boy of sixteen years of age, who had been bribed with a gold watch, to open a prison door at Greenbush, and who was here arrested and convicted. Many officers and citzens made strenuous efforts to obtain reprieve, which were enforced by the appeals of a mother, but without effect; the agonised parent fol- lowed her child to the gallows, and the sympathizing tears of the spectators bespoke the feeling which this rigid exercise of the iron rule of war had occasioned.
To the condemned, opportunity was always given to make remarks, in which some admitted the justice of their fate, others plead the entreaties of their comrades, or the urgent necessities of home; and others, while they acknowledged their crime, sup- plicated mercy with all the eloquence which the occasion could command. Others treated their fate with indifference, or openly preferred it to a life under the circumstances, On one occasion the convict, on approaching the scaffold, scrutinized its construc- tion with the eye of a carpenter, leaped upon the platform, pushed off the hangman, and jumped off himself; but a reprieve arrived the instant after, and he was restored. The place of execution was generally in the rear of the village, where the graves were dug, and the convicts were marched to the spot, surrounded by a guard, and after kneeling by their coffins, were dispatched by the shots of several muskets, a part of which only were loaded with ball. There were commonly eight men detailed for this purpose. The brutality of officers was in some instances excessive; the most extreme corporeal punishment being inflicted from the slightest causes, or from mere caprice; and such was sometimes the bitterness of men towards officers, that in one case it is said a captain durst not lead his company in an action, for fear of being shot by his own men.
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