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 22
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ployed. In 1839, Rev. - Sturges, 1 year. In July, 1841, Rev. - Payson; in October, 1841, Rev. - Townsend, who in February, 1842, was invited to become a pastor, and remained several years. On the 29th October, 1849, Rev. Leicester A. Sawyer was called, and June 11th, 1850, was installed as pastor. The church has belonged to the Watertown Presbytery, since February 10th, 1819.
About 1822, a small society of Universalists was formed, which continued three or four years.
Christ's Church (Episcopal) was legally organized, August 6th, 1821, with Henry Moore Shaw, rector; Zeno Allen, and Elisha Camp, wardens; Robert M. Harrison, Samuel O. Ach- muty, William Kendall, John McCarty, Hiram Steele, Thomas J. Angel, Hiram Merril, and Thomas Y. Howe, vestrymen. A church organization was formed, September 29th, 1821, and the next year a subscription was circulated to obtain the means for erecting a church. The corner stone was laid, May 26th, 1823, with masonic ceremonies, but was not completed till after seve- ral years of delay. William Warring, Elisha Camp, William M. Robbins, S. F. Hooker, William M. Sands, S. O. Achmuty, and R. M. Harrison, subscribed sums of $100 and upwards, for the erection of the church. The Rev. Messrs. M. Beardsley, Wm. L. Keese, A. C. Treadway, - Noble, Benjamin Wright, Jr., Rufus D. Stearns, and G. Huntington, have been successively employed here as missionaries. In 1852, the church reported 44 families (79 adults, and 53 children) as belonging to the congregation, and 54 as belonging to the church. It receives a small stipend from Trinity Church, New York.
The Methodists formed a legal society here, May 9th, 1831, with Asahel Smith, Alvah Kinney, Hiram Steele, John H. McKee, William Francis, Elijah Field, Daniel Griffin, Samuel Whitby, and Samuel C. J. DeCamp, trustees. In 1835, it was reor- ganized, and in 1841, they erected a church at a cost of about $3000.
The Christian Church of Houndsfield was formed in 1820 of about forty members, under the Rev. Lebbeus Field. A division having occurred, a new organization was effected, and in 1843 they erected near Blanchard's Corners, four miles from Water- town Village, a church, at a cost of about $1100.
The Seventh Day Baptist Religious Society of the town of Houndsfield, was formed December 26th, 1847, with Benjamin Maxson, Elias Frink, John Ulter, Nathan Truman, and John Witter, trustees. In 1853, they had 41 members, mostly near the line of Watertown.
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Le Ray ..
LE RAY.
This town, embracing all that part of Brownville, as it pre- viously existed, lying east of Penet's Square, continued to Black River, was erected Feb. 17, 1806; the first town meeting being directed to be held at the house of Abiel Shurtleff. By an act of April 4, 1806, all that part of Leyden, in Jefferson County, was annexed to Le Ray, and by the erection of Antwerp, Wilna, Alexandria, and Philadelphia, it has been reduced to its present limits. The town derives its name from James D. Le Ray de Chaumont, the distinguished landholder, who made the town his home many years.
The following officers were elected at the first town meeting, in 1807. James Shortliff, supervisor; Thomas Ward, clerk; John B. Bossout, Ruel Kimball, Richardson Avery, assessors; Daniel Child, Lyman Holbrook, Daniel Sterling, commissioners high- ways; Thos. Thurston, constable and collector; Joseph Child, Eldad Evans, overseers of the poor.
Supervisors .- 1807-15, James Shurtliff; 1816, Ruel Kimball; 1817, Ethni Evans; 1818, Alvin Herrick; 1819-25, Horatio Orvis; 1826, Wm. Palmer; 1827-29, John Macomber; 1830, Stephen D. Sloan; 1831, J. Macomber; 1832, S. D. Sloan; 1833- 35, Lybeus Hastings; 1836, Ira A. Smith; 1837, S. D. Sloan; 1838, Daniel D. Sloan; 1839-40, Joel Haworth; 1841-42, Elisha Potter; 1843, L. Hastings; 1844-5, Hez. L. Granger; 1846-7, Alfred Veber; 1848-49, Joseph Boyer; 1850, Wm. G. Comstock; 1851, Joseph Boyer; 1852-53, Alonzo M. Van Ostrand.
Wolf bounties of $5, were voted in 1809, 12, 14, 16, 18; in 1818 $5 for panthers; wolf bounties of $10 in 1810, 13, 15, 20; fox bounties of 50 cents voted in 1810, 16, 17, 18; of $1 in 1821. In 1817 voted that the overseers of the poor, and justices of the peace, build or hire, a work house for indigent people, and that the sum of $50 be levied for that purpose.
In the summer of 1802, Benjamin Brown, a brother of Gen. Brown, commenced the erection of a saw mill on Pleasant Creek, in the present village of Le Rayville. The party left Brownville, April 17, to cut a road through to this point, led by Jacob Brown, who preceded with a compass to mark the line, and after a few miles returned, leaving word that he would send on a team with provisions. From the difficulties of the route, these supplies did not arrive till the second day, when the parties had reached their destination, half famished. In July Mrs. B. Brown arrived, the first woman in the settlement, and in the fall the mill was com- pleted. At the raising, men were summoned from great distances. These occasional reunions for mutual aid, afforded in these primitive times the only opportunities which they enjoyed for
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exchanging the news, comparing progress, and speculating on the probabilities of the future, nor could thirty or forty men in the prime of life, and many of them accustomed to the stimulus of ardent spirits, allow those meetings to pass without a frolic. Our chronicle relates, that on this occasion "the party was feasted upon a fine buck, that, when dressed, weighed 228 pounds." This game was very common in town at that period.
The silken cord which binds two willing hearts, will sometimes chafe and irritate, as happened in this town, more than half a century since, when a lady of many advantages, having wedded a Frenchman, accustomed to the rough fare of common life, had found the hut of the backwoodsman a poor place for the enjoyment of life's comforts; in short, got sick of the bargain, and sent for a magistrate to come and untie "the knot." As this request required deliberation and council, the justice invited one or two of his neighbors to accompany him, and remembering the scripture, that "wine maketh the heart glad," took with him a bottle of Port, and repaired to the dwelling, with the design of negotiating the question, and, if possible, of settling it by mutual compromise. The ills of single life were contrasted with the discomforts of marriage, in such a light as to produce conviction in preference of the latter, and the parties having consented to remarriage, were again pledged for life, and the umpires returned home with an empty bottle, and a consciousness of having merited the bless- ing upon peace makers. The current of wedded life thenceforth flowed quiet and uniform till old age, and the parties have but recently been separated by the hand of death.
Scattered settlements had begun in various parts of the present town of Le Ray in 1803-4, among whom where Joseph Child, and sons Daniel, Samuel, and Moses; Benj. Kirkbride, Thos. Ward and others. Wm. Cooper settled at a very early day, resided till his death, January 11, 1851. Dr. Horatio Orvis was the first practicing physician who located in town about 1808. Roswell Woodruff, settled in 1804, about six miles from Watertown, in the direction of Evans Mills, where he purchased a large farm, and resided till his death in 1830.
The first general agent from abroad, sent by Mr. Le Ray, to look after his lands, was M. Pierre Joulin, the Cure of Chau- mont, in France, who was one, of the faithful few who would not take the constitutional oath, and was sent to America by Mr. Le Ray, to save him from the guillotine, and to have a fair prospect for providing the means for a comfortable subsistence. Joulin was loved and respected by all who knew him, and after the troubles in France had subsided, he returned.
Moss Kent was early appointed to the agency of lands, and continued in that capacity several years, living in Mr. Le Ray's
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family until the departure of that gentleman for Europe in 1810, when he remained with his son Vincent. When Joulin first met Mr. Kent, they would have been unable to communicate, had it not been that both being classical scholars, they were en- abled to converse in Latin.
In 1806, Dr. Bawdry, another Frenchman, was sent by Mr. Le Ray to select the site of a house, and superintend its erection. This vicinity was probably chosen from its central position, and the locality was one of much beauty, near the edge of the pine plains, within sight of the little village of Le Raysville, and in the midst of a native growth of timber, which was carefully thinned out, and the premises adorned with every appendage that fancy could suggest. Mr. Le Ray came in with his family to reside here in 1808, and began a liberal system of settling his lands, by opening roads, building bridges and mills, and of- fering fair inducements to the first settlers of a new neighbor- hood. If he had a fault as a land holder, it was in being over indulgent in allowing payments to pass by, and too readily list- ening to the complaints of settlers, by which both himself and his purchasers were eventually the losers. He was uniformly liberal in aiding religious societies and schools, the most of whom, on his tract, received, gratuitously, the site for buildings, and many of them substantial aid besides.
About 1819, Mr. Le Ray sent a young and talented scholar of the Polytechnic School, by the name of Desjardines, who had invented a new mode of manufacturing powder, and caused to be erected, under his direction, a powder mill, a mile below Le Raysville, which run a few seasons, making a large quantity of coarse quality, which had the reputation of being "lazy " but strong, and well adapted for blasting. Its slowness gave remark to a saying " that on a time, a man having a considerable sup- ply, accidentally discovered it on fire, and, being distant from neighbors, before it could be extinguished, it had half consumed." The mill was afterwards changed to a starch mill, for making potato starch, and the site is now occupied by Slocum's grist mill. The charcoal used was made of alder wood, carefully peeled, and charred in close iron vessels.
Le Raysville continued to be the seat of the land office until about 1835, when it was removed to Carthage, since which the place has lost much of its importance. It is but a small village, and is nine miles from Watertown, three from Evans' Mills, and two from the Great Bend.
Evans' Mills is a small but pleasant village, situated at the junction of West and Pleasant Creeks, the latter of which af- fords a limited amount of water power, and is one mile from In- -
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dian River. It owes its name to Ethni Evans," a millwright, from Hinesdale, New Hampshire, who came into the country in the employment of Jacob Brown, about 1802, and July 9, 1804, purchased of Le Ray a tract of 192 acres, for $577. About 1805 or 6, mills were commenced, and in 1809 the place con- tained but a saw and grist mill, and a small tavern. The first merchant and inn-keeper at the village was Jenison Clark.
In June, 1812, the inhabitants of Evans' Mills commenced the erection of a block house, for protection against Indian mas- sacre, but the alarm subsided before the body of the house was finished, and it was never used. Several families from the Mohawk had settled here, and the traditions they possessed of savage warfare, of which some had been witnesses, doubtless originated the alarm.
A post office was established here about 1823-24, which, in 1846, was changed to Evansville, and in 1851, to the original name of Evans' Mills. This village, at present, contains two inns, three stores, two groceries, one hardware store, three blacksmith shops, one cabinet shop, two wagon shops, one grist mill, one saw mill, the usual variety of mechanics, four physi- cians, about sixty dwellings, and from 300 to 400 inhabitants. There are here churches of the Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, and Catholic orders. The village is three miles from Le Rays- ville, seven from Sterlingville and Philadelphia, ten from Theresa, twelve from Stone Mills, thirteen from La Fargeville, three from Pamelia Corners, eleven from Brownville, ten from Watertown, by plank road, six from Black River Village, and twelve from Carthage. The Potsdam and Watertown Rail Road will pass through the village.
The Pine Plains, a very interesting feature, due to geological causes, extend into this town from Wilna, and were, when the country was first explored, covered with a most valuable growth of pine timber. Immense quantities have been cut off, and fires have run over more or less of the tract, every few years, since 1804, so that between the two agencies they have been mostly stripped of their timber, leaving a light, barren, sandy soil, of little value. Perhaps the most destructive fire that has occurred on these plains was in July, 1849, but running fires have oc- curred in almost every season of extreme drouth. With the ex- ception of these sand plains, the town is fertile and well culti- vated. Like several adjoining towns, it is underlaid by vast quantities of water limestone, which has been manufactured to a considerable extent at one or two places.
A union library was formed in May, 1810, with Abner Pas-
* Judge Evans died February 22, 1832, aged 62.
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sell, James Shurtliff, Horatio Orvis, Ruel Kimball, Olney Pierce, Isaac Ingerson, and Jonathan Miller, trustees.
Religious Societies .- The Baptist church of Le Ray was formed in 1814, about two miles from Evans' Mills, by Elder Maltby, and in 1818 was removed to that place. A society was formed November, 1823, with E. Evans, Asa Hall, Levi Read, John Macomber, Stephen D. Sloan, and Chauncey Morse, first trustees. A church edifice was begun and nearly finished, when it was accidentally burned. Mr. Le Ray gave the society a sub- stantial donation in lumber, with the aid of which the present Baptist church at Evans' Mills was erected. . Elders Matthew Wilkie, John Blodget, Thomas A. Warner, John F. Bishop, - Tillinghast, - Adams, -- Ford, N. Bishop, Ward, and others have been employed here. In 1835 the soci- ety was reorganized.
The Congregational Church of Le Ray, at Evans' Mills, was formed, January 13th, 1814, at the house of Elisha Scofield, by Rev. N. Dutton, of Champion, of 12 members. It soon joined the Black River Association, and February 12th, 1825, became Pres- byterian. In 1841, it united with the Ogdensburgh (old school) Presbytery. Rev. Ruel Kimball was employed the first ten years, and Rev. C. G. Finney 6 months, in 1825-6, since which, John Sessions, R. Pettibone, T. C. Hill, John Eastman, Thomas Bel- Jamy, and Joseph A. Rosseel, have been employed. Mr. Eastman has alone been installed pastor. The First Associated Congrega- tional Society of the town of Le Ray was formed, March 3d, 1823, with David Burhans, Milton W. Hopkins, Clark W. Cande, Dr. Ira A. Smith, Silvenas Evans, and Silvester Kelsey, trustees. In 1826, the present church was built at a cost of $2,600, of which Mr. Le Ray gave $200.
The First Reformed Church of the town of Le Ray, was formed July 13th, 1822, with Alexander H. Van Brocklin, Peter Hovee, Richard Hovee, and John C. Walrath, the first elders and deacons. This society has no house of worship.
The first society of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Le Ray, was formed November 20th, 1824, with James Ward, Wil- son Pennock, Elijah Smith, William Taggard, P. S. Stewart, Henry Churchill, Parker Chase, John Y. Stewart, and Daniel Smith, trustees. They have been once reorganized, and have a church at Evans' Mills. The second society of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Le Ray was formed October 25th, 1824, with Francis Porter, Seneca Weed, Curtis Cory, John Humphrey, Daniel Burden, and Elijah Cory, trustees. This society has also been reorganized.
A Union Church has been recently erected at Sanford's Cor- ners in this town.
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Lorraine.
The Friends have a meeting house between Evans' Mills and Le Raysville belonging to the Le Ray Monthly Meeting, of which denomination a more particular account will be given in our account of Philadelphia.
In 1848, the Catholics erected a church at Evans' Mills (St. Michael's), the attending priest being the same as at Watertown.
LORRAINE.
Was erected as Malta from Mexico, by an act passed March 24th, 1804, but it being found inconvenient to have two towns of the same name in the state, and there being then a Malta in Saratoga County, the name was changed to the present, April 6th, 1808, together with many others having duplicate names.
By the first act of incorporation, this town was made to in- clude its present limits with those of Worth, or townships one and two, of the Boylston Tract, and the first town meeting was directed to be held at the house of John Alger, Williamstown in Oswego County, and Harrison now Rodman, in this, were formed by the same act. At the annual town meeting, legally warned, and held March 5th, 1805, at the dwelling house of John Alger, the following town officers were elected. Asa Brown, supervisor; William Hosford, clerk; Clark Allen, Or- mond Butler, Warner Flowers, assessors; O. Butler, constable and collector; William Hunter, C. Allen, poor masters; William Hosford, Michael Foost, Asa Sweet, commissioners highways; William Lanfear, Joseph Case, Elijah Fox, fence viewers; James McKee, John Griswold, pound masters.
When the country was new, deer were very common in this region, and of course wolves, which led to the offering of bounties for their destruction for many years. Wolf bounties* of $5 were offered in 1809, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20; of $10 in 1806, 11. Panther bounties of $5 in 1810, 17, 19, 20; of $10 in 1811. Fox bounties of $0.50 in 1816. In 1806, voted, that there be a pair of stocks erected in the town of Malta. Voted, that the stocks be set at the crotch of the roads near John Allger's. We can not learn that this salutary instrument of justice was ever erected. At the same town meeting voted, that swine be yoked, and ringed, and shut up in pens. In 1812 voted, that each person, allowing Canada thistles to grow, after being notified, pay the sum of $2; that the informer shew the owner where said
* It has been said, that on a certain occasion, one or more wolves were driven from Lewis County into the town, and killed, to secure the bounty. If so, the transaction was far more upright than the varied schemes practiced in some of the towns of Franklin County, at an early period, to procure the reward offered.
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thistles are; that the money go to support the poor. In 1813 this law was again passed.
Supervisors .- 1805-6, Asa Brown; 1807, Clark Allen; 1814 Elihu Gillet; 1815-24, Clark Allen; 1825-29, John Boyden; 1830-31, Jared Gleason; 1832-35, J. Boyden; 1836-37, Loren Bushnell; 1838-39, Elisha Allen; 1840, L. Bushnell; 1841, E. Allen; 1842-43, James Gifford; 1844, J. Boyden; 1845, E. Allen; 1846, J. Boyden; 1847, David J. Redway; 1848-51, Moses Brown; 1852, James Gifford; 1853, Willard W. Huson.
The first settlement in this town was made in November 1802, by James McKee and Elijah Fox, the latter a single man. During the following winter and spring several families moved in, among whom were Comfort Stancliff, Benjamin Gates, - Cutler, - Balcom, John Alger and others. Cutler built mills about 1804. The first locations were made along the line of the state road from Rome to Brownville, and being easily accessible, was soon settled. A mail route was established at an early period; the first carrier being Simeon Parkhurst. Benjamin Gates was the first post master.
This town was settled under the agency of Benjamin Wright, and others; the unsettled interests being owned by the Hon. William C. Pierrepont, of Pierrepont Manor. There were, Sept. 1, 1806, 128 settlers in this town, who had acquired evidences of title or long credit to pay for it.
In quoting from the journal of James Constable, in our account of Ellisburgh, we alluded to the practice of issuing certificates to settlers. Of these the same journal remarks, August 10, 1805:
" Town No. 1 was settling very fast, and indeed all that part of the country watered by Sandy Creek had got a name that brought settlers in great numbers. We find the practice of giving certificates to those people, allowing them a certain time after exploring to go for their families, before they take contracts for their lots, has been productive of speculation, and must not be continued. A Mr. Salisbury, who had formerly taken a contract, sold it to another, and bought, or procured, one of these certifi- cates, came to us, apparently to ask indulgence, as to the time of payment, but really with a view to ascertain what our inten- tions were in respect to such instruments, when we explained to him that they were given to assist the first real settlers, and by no means to be transferable to second or third parties, as that led to speculation, upon the persons who ought to have indulgence, not to the speculators, who profited to the disadvantage of both the proprietors and actual settlers. We of course would oppose all such attempts, and as he had seen fit to change his situation from holding a contract under us, to speculating in certificates, which he must have known were intended only as an accommo-
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dation to the first parties, we could not treat with him, as the indulgence intended to them could not be transferred. Upon con- versation with Mr. Wright, we found the certificates had already occasioned some mischief, and we discovered from others that some of the holders of them had caused it to be believed that all the best part of the town was taken up, so that new comers were obliged to apply to them, or go to some other town. Mr. Wright had no books or accounts here, but supposed that about half of the town was sold, either by contract or conditional agreement, and would average $3, though the sales were begun, and a good deal sold at $2. The lowest price now was $3, and it might at once be raised to $4, for the whole, from the great immigration to this quarter. He gave it as his opinion that it was not for our interest to hurry sales, as this town would speedily settle, and the price might be raised. We told him he should have our determination on our return from St. Lawrence County. When we were at Smith's Mills we had an application from Mr. Frost, whose mill on No. 1, has been carried away by the freshet in April, at the rising of Sandy Creek, who stated that his loss by that event had disabled him from building another mill, and he intends, after paying for his lot, to sell to David Smith, who would engage to build a mill on the same site the next season. Having told him that we wanted to see Mr. Wright at his house (Drake's), to-day, he promised to be there and settle his contract, but he did not come, and we find by Mr. Wright that Smith, who already holds a quantity of land in No. 1, and is the owner of the mills on No. 7, would be an improper person to hold that mill seat, unless bound to build a mill immediately, because the settlers would be obliged to come to his present mills from a great distance. We accordingly left directions with Mr. Wright to settle with Frost, so that the mill seat did not pass to one who would not erect a mill for the accommodation of settlers. Smith owns a large property, and is a moneyed man. He is supposed to be on the look out for such opportunities, and perhaps pos- sessed of some of the certificates just alluded to, it is therefore advisable to be cautious of such people. Mr. Wright having in- information from Mr. Hunter of the probability of iron ore on lot No. on town 7, we went this afternoon to the spot, Drake, who is a blacksmith, accompanying us. We found the place designated by Hunter, which was under the roots of a large tree, blown up in a swampy place, where were some collections of a hard sub- stance, not unlike the dung of sheep, and those on the surface of the ground. We digged with stakes, but found nothing different, and after a trial {by fire at Drake's house of what we brought there, the result was an appearance of the cinders of coal rather than iron, so that we concluded Hunter was deceived by appear-
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ances .* We afterwards went to see the remains of a beaver meadow, and were much entertained at it, being of large extent, and the work of these animals is surprising."
Soon after the declaration of war, the following document was forwarded to General Brown:
Lorraine, July 21, 1812.
" DEAR SIR: Viewing our country in danger, and feeling a willingness to defend the same, sixty men assembled in this place and made choice of Joseph Wilcox, as captain; James Perry, lieutenant; Ebenezer Brown, Jr., ensign. This is therefore to desire your honor to furnish us with arms and ammunition, while you may have the assurance we shall be ready on any invasion within the county of Jefferson, at a moment's warning to defend the same. The above men met at the house of John Alger, on the 16th inst., and may be considered as Silver Grays, that is men who are exempted by law from military duty. We wish you, sir, to forward the arms to this place as soon as possible, and be assured we are, with respect, your humble servants."
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