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 4
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The first meeting of the board of supervisors was held in the school house, on the site of the Universalist Church in Watertown, October 1, 1805, and the following persons constituted the first board. Noadiah Hubbard, Champion; Cliff French, Rutland; Corlis Hinds, Watertown; John W. Collins, Brownville; Nich- olas Salisbury, Adams; Thomas White, Harrison; Lyman Ellis, Ellisburgh; Asa Brown, Malta. N. Hubbard was chosen pre- sident, and Zelotus Harvey clerk. The meeting was adjourned to the house of Abijah Putnam. Cliff French, Thomas White, and Corlis Hinds, were appointed a committee to procure a con- veyance of the land on which the court house and jail were to be erected. The following was the aggregate of the real and personal estate in the several towns: Ellisburg, $80,109; Water- town, $69,986.50; Adams, $33,606; Brownville, $447,240; Harrison, $43,395; Malta, $49,248; Rutland, $44,829; Cham- pion, $42,578.50; Total, $805,992. Henry Coffeen presented a bill of $85.86, and Jacob Brown of $100, for. attendance at Albany, in procuring the division of Oneida county, which were rejected. The latter had been appointed by the convention at Denmark for that purpose. Hart Massey was appointed sealer of weights and measures, and $45, and the next year $30 were voted to purchase a set of standards of specified materials.
In 1806, the board consisted of Jacob Brown, Corlis Hinds, Perley Keyes, Noadiah Hubbard, Jonathan Davis, Augustus Sacket, Ethni Evans, Jesse Hopkins, Asa Brown, and Nicholas Salisbury. J. Brown and A. Sacket were appointed to settle all accounts pending with Oneida and Lewis counties, by meeting at Whitestown, with committees to be chosen by them for the purpose. At a subsequent meeting they reported $328.61 due to Jefferson; $293-54 to Lewis, and $1670-73 to Oneida counties, from the funds on hand at the time of division. Messrs. Hinds, Salisbury, and J. Brown, were appointed to report the expediency and probable cost of a jail, and the most advisable course to be pursued. The expense of sending prisoners to Whitestown was found heavy, and it was apprehended that public officers would reluctantly spend their time in going to and from thence. "Hence many criminals might escape a just punishment, and the county might be infested with criminals to the great danger and injury of its inhabitants." The committee reported that two-thirds of
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Jail Limits.
all county charges were paid by non resident taxes, and a pro- spect then existed that this law would be repealed. They, therefore, advised the immediate erection of a jail, and it was estimated it could be built for $4,500; that $2,500 would pro- vide one better for the interests of the county than the existing system. J. Brown and A. Sackett were appointed to draft a petition to the legislature which procured on the 20th of Feb. a law authorizing a tax of $2,500 for erecting a court house and jail, and Feb. 19, 1808, a further tax of 2,500 was applied for. In 1807, Noadiah Hubbard and Zelotus Harvey were appointed a committee to meet a similar one from Lewis County, to ascertain the boundary of the two counties. William Smith, Gershom Tuttle and N. Hubbard, were appointed to build a jail after a plan to be approved by the board. It was to be 40 by 60 feet, built of wood, and fronting eastward, and was built in 1807-8, by Wm. Rice and Joel Mix, after the plans of Wm. Smith. It contained a jail in the first story, and stood a little south of the present Jail. On the 30th of Jan. 1808, the superintendents were empowered "to build a sufficient tower and cupola on the centre of said building, and cover the dome of said cupola with tin, and so construct the said tower and cupola that it shall be sufficiently strong and convenient so as to hang a bell, and to erect a sphere and vane, and also a suitable rod to conduct the lightning from said building." On the 5th of Oct. 1808, the accounts of the Court House audited, including extra work and services of com- mittee, amounted to $4,997.58. Wm. Smith was directed to purchase the necessary fixtures for the Court House and Jail, at an estimated cost of $262-87.
In 1807 (Aug. 13), the jail liberties were first established, and deserve mention from the singular manner in which they were laid out. They covered a small space around the Court House, and a part of the Public Square, and included most of the houses in the village, while between these localities, along the sides of the roads, and sometimes in the centre, were paths, from four to eight feet wide, with occasional crossings, so that by carefully observing his route, turning right angles, and keeping himself in the strict ranges which the court had established, a man might visit nearly every building in the village; but if the route was by any accident obstructed by a pile of lumber, a pool of mud, or a loaded wagon, he must pass over, or through, or under; or else expose himself to the peril of losing this precarious freedom, by close imprisonment, and subjecting his bail to prosecution for the violation of his trust. In several instances, persons were thus dealt with, where they had inadvertently turned aside from the straight and narrow path, to which the statutes of that period allowed the creditor to consign his unfortunate debtor. A map
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Clerk's Office, Court House, and Jail.
of these limits, prepared by Jonas Smith, who for several years had made these details a subject of daily observation from ne- cessity, was prepared in July,. 1811, and deposited in the clerk's office. It is interesting from its containing the names of those who then owned houses in the village, of whom there were about fifty. These limits were maintained till Feb. 23, 1821, when an act was passed defining a rectangular area around the village as the jail limits. In 1808 a series of maps was directed to be prepared by Jonas Smith, for the comptroller's office, at a cost of $100, and at the same session Messrs. Richardson, Hubbard and Hopkins, were appointed to petition the legislature for a law to provide for the destruction of Canada thistles. On the 9th of October, 1815, the supervisors voted a petition for a tax of $1000 to build a fire-proof clerk's office, and April 5, 1816, an act was passed accordingly, allowing a tax not exceeding $1500 for this purpose, and Ebenezer Wood, Ethel Bronson and Egbert Ten Eyck were named as commissioners to build the same. The conduct of a certain senator, in substituting the name of another man for that of Judge Brown on the committee, was most strongly condemned by a subsequent vote of the super- visors. A clerk's office was accordingly built between the pre- sent Episcopal Church and the Public Square, and was occupied until the present one was erected in 1831, in accordance with an act of Jan. 26, 1831. The supervisors in 1829 had appointed .a committee to investigate the matter, and in 1830 had petitioned for the act, which named Daniel Wardwell, Eli West, and Ste- phen D. Sloan, commissioners for this purpose, who were em- powered to borrow on the credit of the county $1000, for the purpose, and to sell the former office and lot.
In December, 1817, the Court House was injured by fire, which occasioned a meeting of the board, and $500 were voted for re- pairs. On the 9th of Feb. 1821, the Court House and Jail were burned, and on the 12th, the supervisors met to take into con- sideration the measures necessary for the occasion. A petition was forwarded for a law authorizing a tax of $8000 to rebuild the county buildings, and a loan of $6000 for the same purpose. It was resolved to build the jail separate from the court house, and both buildings were to be of stone. Elisha Camp, Nathan Strong and John Brown, were appointed commissioners to super- intend the building. Premiums of $10 for a plan of a court house, and $15 for one of a jail, were offered. An act was ac- cordingly passed, March 13, 1821, for the separate erection of these buildings, at a cost not exceeding $8000, under the direction of Eliphalet Edmonds, Henry H. Coffeen and Jabez Foster. The courts meanwhile were to be held at the brick academy, and criminals were to be sent to the Lewis County Jail.
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Maintenance of Prisoners.
A loan not exceeding $6000 was authorized from the state. On the 28th of March the board met, and the plan for a jail offered by Wm. Smith, was adopted, and a resolution was passed pro- viding for solitary cells. The court house was agreed to be 44 by 48 feet, after a plan by J. H. Bishop. This necessity of an outlay for new buildings revived the question of a new site, and among others, the citizens of Sackets Harbor made diligent efforts, by petition, to secure their location, but without success; and in the same season the present Court House and a part of the present Jail were erected, which continued to be occupied until November 1848, when the Hon. Jas. M. Comstock, one of the inspectors of county and state prisons, reported to the Hon. Robert Lansing, judge of the county, the entire failure of the County Jail to meet the requirements of the statute in relation to the safety, health and proper classification of prisoners, and expressed his belief that the arrangements required by law could not be attained, without the construction of a new prison building. This report, approved by the judge, and certified by the clerk of the board, was laid before the supervisors, a committeee appointed, who visited the Jail and confirmed the report, but after repeated efforts the board failed to agree upon a resolution providing for the necessary rebuilding of the county prison. This led to the issue of a writ of mandamus, by the supreme court, in December, on the motion of G. C. Sherman, requiring the board of supervisors to proceed without delay to the erection of a new jail, or the repair of the one then existing. This necessity for a new prison suggested the project of the division of the county into two jury districts, and the erection of two sets of buildings, at other places than Watertown, and the question became, for a short time, one of considerable discussion in various sections of the county. The question was settled by the erection of an extensive addition to the Jail, two stories high, and considered adequate for the wants of the county for some time to come, at least, if the course adopted was that recommended by the board of supervisors, Oc- " tober 20, 1820, as set forth in the following resolution:
" Whereas the maintenance of prisoners, committed to the County Jail for small offences, in the manner that they have been usually sentenced, has been attended with great expense to the people of this county, and in many instances has operated to punish the county with taxes, more than the criminals for offences, and whereas some courts of special sessions have sentenced them to imprisonment upon bread and water, which lessens the expense to this county, and the same operates as a punishment more effectually than longer terms of imprisonment would in the ordinary way; the board of supervisors, therefore, recommend generally to magistrates and courts of sessions in mittimuses,
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Poor House System.
upon conviction of petty crimes, to make the length of confine- ment less, and direct the jailor to keep the offenders upon bread and water during the time of their imprisonment. The board would recommend in such cases that the prisoners be not sen- tenced to be kept longer than thirty days in any case, it may endanger the health of the convicts.
Resolved, That the jailer for the future, be directed not to procure any thing more expensive for criminals than moccasins at fifty cents a pair, instead of shoes, nor procure any hats, and to purchase as little clothing as possible, and that of the poorest and least expensive kind."
Previous to the adoption of the poor-house system, each town supported its own poor, and the records of the board show annual appropriations in many of the towns for that purpose, of from $50 to $800. In 1817, $50 was voted to build a town poor- house in Le Ray, and in 1822 the supervisors recommended to the several towns to take into consideration at their next annual meetings the propriety of building a poor house and house of industry for the county, as advised by an act of March 3, 1820. In April, 1825, a meeting of the board was called, and a com- mittee, consisting of Messrs. Hubbard, Hart and Stewart, was appointed to ascertain the most suitable site for erecting a poor house, and the price for which a farm could be purchased, within five miles of the Court House. The cost of buildings was limited to $2000. They were directed to advertise for proposals for purchasing a farm, if they should think proper. On the 7th of June an adjourned meeting of the supervisors met to hear the above report. After visiting the premises in a body, it was re- solved to purchase the Dudley Farm in Le Ray, five miles from Watertown, containing 150 acres, at $10 per acre. Committees were appointed to procure titles, and to fit up the premises, which continued to be occupied for that purpose until Nov. 1832, when the supervisors voted a petition for the power to sell the property and borrow $4000 on the credit of the county, for build- ing a new one on a new site, if the interests of the county re- quired it. They procured an act, January 25, 1833, granting this power, and providing for the execution of this trust, by three commissioners to be appointed by the supervisors. At their fol- lowing session, the board, after much discussion, finally agreed to erect a new poor house, on a farm of 100 acres, purchased of J. Foster, for $1500, about a mile below Watertown, north of the river, and Orville Hungerford, Joseph Graves, and Bernard Bagley, were appointed to carry the resolution into effect.
The distinction between town and county poor was abolished by a vote of the supervisors in November, 1834, and this has been since several times changed. In 1832, the experiment of
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Cholera Expenses.
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picking oakum was tried with a profit of $154 the first year. The culture of the mulberry has also been attempted, but with small success. The first superintendents of the poor house, ap- pointed in 1826, were Orville Hungerford, Wm. S. Ely, Peter Yandes, John Hoover, and Asher Wilmot, and an equal number was annually appointed until the adoption of the present con- stitution. The persons elected under the general law, were David Montague, Charles F. Symonds and Phineas Hardy, in 1848; Martin J. Hutchins, 1849; Peter S. Houk, 1850; Austin Everitt, 1851. It being thought by certain ones that the general law was not the best that could be devised for the county, an effort was made in 1852, which procured on the 12th of April an act which directed but one overseer of the poor to be here- after elected in each town in this county, and the duties of overseers of the poor were conferred upon the supervisor and such overseer, in the several towns, who were to be associated together in affording relief to the indigent within certain limits, to be prescribed by the board of supervisors for each town. No superintendents of the poor were to be thereafter elected, but one is to be appointed by the board of supervisors, to hold his office during their pleasure. He is to reside at the poor house, and be the keeper thereof. In case of vacancy, the county judge, clerk and treasurer, or any two of them, are to fill the vacancy by temporary appointment until another is chosen. In the fall of 1854, and annually, afterwards, two visitors are to be appointed by the board of supervisors, to visit the poor house every two months, and examine its books and management. Contracts for medicines and medical attendance, are to be made by the super- visors, individually, in the several towns, and as a board for the poor house. They have also the power of directing the manner in which supplies for the poor house shall be purchased, which directions the superintendent is obliged to follow. The provisions of this act apply to no other county than this. The board of supervisors, in accordance with powers thus conferred, appointed Alpheus Parker, superintendent, who entered upon his duties Jan. 1, 1853. His salary was fixed at $600, by a resolution of the board, passed Nov. 1852. This system has not been in operation long enough to afford a knowledge of its merits com- pared with the general system.
Among the appropriations for benevolent purposes, may be classed the expenses resulting from the Health Law of 1832, as a guard against the ravages of the cholera, which in the several towns were as follows, viz: Adams $19.00, Alexandria $159.93, Antwerp $31.50, Brownville $60.13, Champion $2-50, Ellis- burgh $193.50, Henderson $114.35, Houndsfield $795.12, Lor- raine $9.50, Lyme $443.08, Orleans $267-22, Pamelia $6-75,
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Bounties for Wild Animals .- Early Courts.
Rutland $ 10.00, Wilna $12.85, Philadelphia $10.50, Watertown $167.05, LeRay $2.00, Total $2299.98. But little, if any good, resulted from this expenditure, as the disease scarcely appeared in the county.
Of bounties for the destruction of noxious animals, every new country affords examples, but in this, much less than in some others. The want of uniformity in the several towns, led the board of supervisors in 1808, to recommend that $5 should be made the limit of town bounties,. This diversity of premiums presented a temptation for fraud, and in some instances it is said, wolves were driven from one town into another by hunters, to gain the extra sum there offered. The board has usually voted a county bounty, which from 1805 to 1819 was $10 for wolves and panthers, except that it was in 1815, 16, 17 and 18, $20 for the latter. In 1819 $10 was voted for panthers and in 1820 the same for wolves and panthers, with half price for the young. In 1821 there were no bounties granted. For several years after they were continued at $10, seldom amounting to more than half a dozen in a year.
The first records of Courts are dated June 1807, but others must have been held earlier. An act was passed, April 1806, directing three terms of the court of common pleas to be held in this county and Lewis, since which the times of holding courts have been repeatedly changed .. Tradition says, that, after formal ad- journment, the first court, which was held in the school house, on the ground now covered by the Universalist Church, became a scene of fun and frolic, which has since been seldom equaled. The greater part of the settlers were young or middle aged men, some indulged in habits of intemperance; the customs of the day did not discountenance practical joking, and athletic games were invariably the accompaniments of all gatherings. More- over they had been just organized, and must have business for their courts, else what the need of having courts ? Should any one evince a disinclination to join in these proceedings, they were accused of "sneakism," and arraigned before a mock tribunal, where, guilty or not guilty, the penalty of a "quarter," was sure to be imposed for the benefit of the crowd. Among other charges was one against Esq. H., of Rutland, a man of very sober and candid character, who was charged with stealing. Conscious of innocence, he offered to be searched, when a quantity of dough was found in both pockets of his coat. Thus implicated by cir- cumstances which he could not explain, he was fined. Another was accused of falling asleep, and fined a shilling, and another was fined a like sum for smoking in the court room. After pay- ing the penalty, he resumed his pipe, and was again arraigned, when he entered his plea that the fine was for a pipe full, which
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Early Courts.
he had not finished, and this afforded a subject of legal argument for discussion, that elicited the research, and ability of the lawyers present. As the avowed intention was to make business for all the new officers, one was stripped and laid out on a board, loosely covered with cloth, and a coroner sent for, who commenced a bona fide examination, that was interrupted by some one tipping over the board, when the "subject" of the hoax jumped up and fled. There had not thus far been any business for the sheriff, but this was at length made, by their finding one who had crept into the garret for concealment. He was dragged before their tribunal, where it was decided that his failing was a disease, rather than a crime, and required an enema. This "carnival" was continued the second day, and although the officers of the court affected to abstain from these frolics, yet judicial dignity offered no exemption from them, and all parties, whether willing or unwilling, were compelled to join. Companies, distinguished by personal peculiarities, were paraded under officers selected for the prominence of these traits, as "long noses," &c, while the lit- tle short men were organized into a party, and charged with the duty of "keeping the cats off." These follies may be considered puerile, but not more so than the annual carnival in some Eu- ropean countries, and their record is interesting from illustrating the custom of the times, when athletic games were fashionable, and men seldom met in numbers without having "a regular train." The first criminal convictions in the county, are said to have been those of Springsteel and Jones, who, having committed a burglary in Brownville, were pursued and arrested in Denmark, Lewis County. Not having yet had any business of this kind for their courts, some of the inhabitants rallied, and an attempt was made to detain the prisoners there for trial, but without success. The records of the court of oyer and terminer and general jail delivery commence, June 17, 1807, at which Smith Thompson was present as justice, Augustus Sacket, Joshua Bealls, and Perley Keyes, judges, and Lyman Ellis, assistant justice. Courts continued to be held at the school house until the summer of 1809, when the Court House was opened.
An Act was passed April 18, 1815, by which all free males, of legal age, worth $150, in personal property, and holding a con- tract for lands; were made qualified to serve as jurors in several counties, among others, Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Franklin and Lewis.
The time of meeting of the board of supervisors was by an Act of April 8, 1834, fixed at the Monday next after the general election, and the judges of the county courts were directed to meet them on Tuesday of the first week of their sessions, for the appointment of officers.
CHAPTER III. HISTORY OF LAND TITLES.
From time immemorial, down to a few years after the close of the revolution, the title of lands in this section of the state, was shared in doubtful supremacy by savages and other denizens of the forest. At the earliest period of authentic history, the Iro- quois confederacy, and the Oneida nation in particular, were acknowledged to be the owners of the greater portion of our territory; which, according to Gautinonty, a chief of the Oswe- gatchie tribe, extended as far north as a line running from the mouth of French Creek to Split Rock on Lake Champlain; while the Oswegatchies claimed the land north, as far down the St. Lawrence as Cat Island (Louisville), where a monument had been erected by Sir John Johnson .* The Oneidas, according to a map and survey by Arent Marselis, at the request of John Duncan, and by order of the surveyor general, claimed " from the 'Line of Property' reversed, and continued from the Canada Creek, till it comes to a certain mountain called Esoiade, or the Ice Mountain, under which mountain that Canada Creek, oppo- site to the Old Fort Hendrick, heads; from thence running westerly to an old fort which stood on the creek, called Weter- inghra Guentere, and which empties into the River St. Lawrence, about twelve miles below Carlton or Buck's Island, and which fort the Oneidas took from their enemies a long time ago; from thence running southerly to a rift upon the Onondaga River called Ogoutenagea, or Aguegonteneayea (a place remarkable for eels), about five miles from where the river empties out of the Oneyda Lake."+ Marselis was doubtless the first surveyor in the county, and there is preserved a traverse of Hungry Bay made by him, in September, 1789, which began " at a monument or red painted post, set up by the Indians, as a division line between the Onendago and Oneida nation;" from which it would seem that the former claimed some right on the eastern shore of Lake Ontario. To extinguish these claims, a treaty was held at Fort Stanwix, October 22d, 1784, with the Six Nations, by which all the country, east of a line drawn from Johnson's Landing Place on the Lake Ontario, and keeping four iniles east of the carrying path between that lake and Lake Erie, to the mouth of Tehose- roron, or Buffalo Creek, and thence south, to the north line of Pennsylvania, and down the Ohio, was ceded to the United
* Special message of Gov. Lewis, Assem. Journal, 1804-5, p. 49.
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