USA > New York > Lewis County > A history of Lewis County, in the state of New York, from the beginning of its settlement to the present time > Part 15
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In the fall of 1805 a huge bear was seen on the farm now owned by Jas. S. Jackson, but escaped. Depredations were committed the next night, and Capt. Jonathan Edwards set out in pursuit. He found the enemy on N. Merriam's farm, fired at him without effect, and followed on, till in preparing for a second shot, the bear turned upon the hunter and got within two or three rods of him when the latter hastily fired his half loaded gun and wounded him. Calls for help brought persons to his assistance, and the beast was killed with an axe. It was judged to weigh 500 pounds and had
1 Mr. Aldrich removed to Utica, and afterwards to Ogdensburgh, where he died July 11, 1811. He built the first bridges at Potsdam, Waddington and Ogdensburgh.
Mr. Kelsey died at Cape Vincent, Aug. 18, 1839, aged 76 years.
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done much mischief to the settlers. Trout abounded in the streams when first known, and deer were numerous. They used to go east in November and December to winter beyond the Black river, and return as soon as the snow was gone in the spring. Many hundreds used to pass lot 68 before it was cleared. On lot No. 58 was a small strip of land called the Point, just above the junction of Moose creek and Sugar river, where there was a beaten path.
The first store in town was kept by Benj. J. Starr,1 at Talcottville. Jotham Snow was the first physician in Ley- den, and Manly Wellman the next. The latter removed to Lowville and afterwards to the Genesee country.
Silas Southwell taught the first school in town. The first school organization under the act of 1813, was effected at a special town meeting, held Dec. 27, in that year, at which Thomas Wolcott, David B. Miller and Winthrop Felshaw were appointed school commissioners, and Nathan Pelton, Samuel Kent, Israel Douglass, jr.,2 Amos Miller, Allen Auger and Benj. Starr, inspectors. The first school house in town was built in 1802, at Leyden Hill.
The Leyden Union Library was formed Dec. 24, 1821, with Johnson Talcott, John Fish, Ela Merriam, Parsons Talcott, Allen Auger, Joseph Stimson, Ezra Miller and Thomas Wolcott, trustees. It acquired about 300 volumes and was dissolved two or three years after the introduction of school libraries.
An unsuccessful application was made to the regents of the university March 29, 1826, for the incorporation of an academy at Talcottville, but a sufficient sum had not been raised by the applicants to obtain an incorporation.
On the 22d of March, 1836, Gen. Ela Merriam bought of Eber L. Kelsey an undivided half of 50 acres, lot 17, em- bracing the water power at Port Leyden and Rock Island, about 60 rods below. On the same day he bought of Daniel Sears his farm on lot 16, adjoining Kelsey's, and immedi- ately sold three-fourths of his interest to Francis Seger, Lyman R. Lyon and Jesse Talcott. The place was surveyed out into village lots by Eleazer Spencer in 1838-9, and the place previously called Kelsey's Mills was named PORT LEYDEN.
1 Mr. S. removed to Rome and kept an inn on the site of the American hotel. He died on a visit to Cleveland.
2 Mr. D. came to this town Feb., 1805, was two or three years in trade with one Higley, failed, and for several years after was engaged in the manufacture of potash, which, for some time, was the chief article of cash produce in the country. Israel Douglass, sen., died March 28, 1818, aged 75, and I. D., jr., March 22, 1855, aged 85 years.
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Mrs. Pamelia J. Munn has since purchased the interest of Talcott. A tannery was run at this place many years by Cornwell Woolworth, who had bought the other half of Kelsey's interest, and in the fall of 1855 the Snyder brothers purchased this tannery, greatly enlarged it and it is now one of the largest establishments of the kind in northern New York. It contains 162 vats, uses 3,800 cords of bark, and produces 40,000 sides of sole leather annually. The village is situated directly upon the Black river canal, and had, until the diversion of the waters of the river into the Erie canal, an abundant supply of water power. Unless the natural volume of the stream can be restored by the construction of reservoirs, the water privilege at this point, as at others above the High falls, will be materially injured.
A short distance below the village, the channel of Black river is contracted to less than twenty feet in width, and the torrent rushes through the gorge with immense force. Several pot-holes have been worn in the gneiss rock to a great depth. Rock Island, at this place, is a rugged bluff, surrounded by water only during floods and easily acces- sible at other times. Its scenery is highly picturesque and as yet mostly undisturbed by the hand of man. In the map of a survey made before settlement, this narrow gorge is named Hellgate. The rock has been partially excavated west of the island, to afford hydraulic privileges, but the cut- ting off of the supply by the canals has prevented the com- pletion of this work.
On the Black river, about a mile from Oneida county line, is a mill for the manufacture of lumber, staves, broom handles and other turned work. It stands near the canal, and a few years since was started from its foundations and much injured by a break in the canal directly opposite.
Another highly picturesque locality occurs in this town on Sugar river, about a quarter of a mile above the canal, and below its junction with Moose creek. The river here tumbles down a hundred feet or more through a gorge worn in the limestone, which presents a succession of steps, having a general slope of about 45°. The banks on either side, above and below, are nearly vertical, and from 100 to 200 feet in height. Below the falls, the gorge spreads out into a beautiful vale of some thirty rods in width and forty in length, covered with a dense growth, chiefly of ever- green timber, far above which the massive walls extend on either side. Several very deep pot-holes, worn by peb- bles occur above the falls. About a quarter of a mile below, the whole of the river in the summer disappears in
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the fissures worn by the current, and about fifty rods below, again appears at the surface. The river road passes over this natural bridge thus formed. Near this place and in the same strata are caves which have been explored some 200 or 300 feet in different directions. They are simply natural fissures worn in the formation known to geologists as the Black river limestone. This rock is very soluble, and streams almost uniformly find an underground passage when their course lays across it.
A murder occurred in the northeast corner of this town on the morning of May 4, 1855, under these circumstances : A quarrel arose between two Irish women, near Lyons falls, growing out of the pawning of a pair of flat-irons. One of the parties, who kept a low grog shop, hired Thos. Rutledge and Michael Cavanaugh, two drunken sots, to whip James Cooper, the husband of her opponent. The hirelings assailed Cooper's cabin, pelted it with stones and broke his windows. He resolved to seek the protection of the law, but observing the superstition of his countrymen that " when the cock crows all danger is over," he awaited this signal, and a little after three o'clock, started for Port Leyden, was watched, pursued and killed with clubs, as he fell exhausted with running, at the door of Mr. Philo Post. Rutledge fled, and was doubtless concealed for some time among the Irish in High Market. Rewards were offered by the sheriff and the governor, but he was never arrested. Cavanaugh was indicted May 16, tried June 26, when the jury did not agree, and again before Judge Allen, Aug. 14, 15, when he was convicted of murder and sentenced to be hung Oct. 5. The convict was respited by the governor till Nov. 9, 1855, and subsequently his sentence was com- muted to imprisonment for life in Clinton prison. An attempt was made by a low class of politicians to bring dis- credit upon the governor for this exercise of executive clemency, and on the night of Nov. 9, Governor Clark was hung and burnt in effigy. The governor wrote a lengthy letter in answer to one addressed to him, in which he stated in detail, the grounds upon which the commutation was granted.
There are two post offices in this town. Leyden post office was formerly kept at the village known as Leyden Hill, but in 1836 it was transferred to Talcottville on the Sugar river, two miles south, where it has been since kept. Leyden Hill was formerly a place of some business, but is now only a farming vicinage. Talcottville has but little claims to the title of a village, having only an inn, store,
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church, a few houses and a partially improved water power. Port Leyden post office is at the village of that name on the Black river and the canal.
RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES .- The Baptist church of Leyden is the oldest church in this town, and the oldest of this sect north of Oneida county, in the state, having been formed at the house of Thomas Brayton, April 22, 1803, by four males and one female. Eld. John Clark, their first minister, was ordained Oct. 4, 1804, by Eld. Jesse Hartwell of New Marlborough, Mass., Eld. Timothy Pool of Champion, Philips Chandler, Maltby, Wm. H. Stevens, Jeduthan, Zac- cheus, and John Higby, and Russell Way. In this year the church received an accession of 28 males and 31 females from a revival of religion that occurred. Elds. Thomas Davis, Thos. Morgan, Chandler Hartshorn, Riley B. Ashley, R. Z. Williams, H. Nichols, Henry W. Chafa, Clement Haven, V. R. Waters, J. Lawrence, Reuben Sawyer and others, have preached here.
On the 4th of July, 1820, a subscription was drawn up to procure the means for erecting a church, 35 by 40 feet, which was successful. The edifice was built in 1821 at a cost of $1,660, and on the 17th of Jan., 1825, a society was legally formed, having Dr. Samuel Bass, Daniel Talcott, Samuel Douglass, Jesse Miller, Isaac L. Hitchcock and Nathan Coe, first trustees. The church edifice at Leyden Hill was repaired in 1856. Several years since a plot of ground was purchased adjacent to this church by indivi- duals as a burial place, and the title was conveyed to its trustees.
The Presbyterian church of Leyden was formed Nov. 6, 1803, by the Rev. Ira Hart, and consisted of six males and eight females. The first pastor was the Rev. Jeduthan Higby, who was ordained Sept. 10, 1810, and preached three years. The second pastor was the Rev. Reuel Kim- ball who was installed May 14, 1817, and dismissed for the want of support in 1826. The Rev. J. Murdock and others were afterwards employed, and Mr Kimball was re-engaged at a later period.1 The Rev. Evan Evans was employed from June 3, 1838, to Aug. 12, 1843, and one year after the Rev. Augustus L. Chapin began to preach. Others have been engaged for short periods, but for several years no stated services have been held, and the church now num- bers (1859) but two males and about a dozen females. The Presbyterian Church of Leyden was built in 1821, and the
1 The Rev. R. Kimball died Oct. 1, 1847, aged 67 years.
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First Presbyterian Society of Leyden was formed under the statute, Jan. 3, 1826, with Abner Porter, Calvin B. Gay and Wm. Parks, trustees. It was changed to Congregational Jan. 4, 1836. Revivals occurred in 1824 and 1831, and protracted meetings have been held by Burchard, Crandall and Knapp.
In 1825, an effort was made to erect a Union church at Talcottville, but without success. The First Universalist Society in Leyden was formed June 4, 1831, with Otis Munn, James Brooks, Joseph Burnham, Eliphalet Sears, Armstrong Malcom, Alfred Day and Ezra Miller, first trustees. A church was erected1 and the society has kept up its organization, although for several years it has not, until within the last year, held regular meetings.
The First Methodist Episcopal Church of Leyden was formed March 12, 1832, with Halsey Miller, Levi Hubbard and John Utley as trustees. A church edifice was erected at Talcottville, but this having much decayed, has been removed, and an arrangement recently made by which the Universalist church has been thoroughly repaired and is now owned by the two sects, but chiefly occupied by the Methodists.
An Old School Baptist Church was formed May 22, 1834, in the shed of the Leyden church, consisting of five males. A few days after four females united, and Dec. 17, 1837, the church was dissolved, and united with this sect in Turin.
A church was erected at Port Leyden and dedicated Dec. 6, 1853. It has been used by the Congregationalists and others, and the title of its property has been, or is now, in suit. A Congregational church was legally organized at Port Leyden, May 2, 1859, with Alanson Merwin, Daniel Scrafford and Sylvester Stimson, trustees.
The Calvinistic Methodist church of Port Leyden was formed March 9, 1855, with Rev. Edward Reese, Pierce Owens, David Roberts, Richard Roberts, Evan Evans and John Hughes, trustees. It has not now a place of worship and the members attend at Collinsville.
LOWVILLE.
This town was formed from Mexico, Oswego county, March 14, 1800, embracing, besides its present limits, that part of Denmark, south of Deer river, which was taken off
1 Joshua Stow, former proprietor of lands in this town, gave $50. He died about 1840.
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in the formation of Harrisburgh in 1803. Redfield, Water- town, Turin and other towns were formed by the same act. It embraces No. 11 of the eleven towns, and is the only one of that number that retains the name given by the surveyor general. At an earlier date it was known as Number Eleven, and a few legal writings drawn here are dated in Mexico. The first town meeting was ordered to be held at the house of Silas Stow, at which the following town offi- cers were chosen : Daniel Kelley, supervisor; Moses Coffeen, clerk; Charles Davenport, Jonathan Rogers and Benjamin Hillman, assessors; Ehud Stephens, constable and collector; Billa Davenport and Aaron Cole, overseers of the poor; Isaac Perry, James Bailey and Benjamin Hillman, commis. of highways; Ehud Stephens, David Cobb, Asa Newton, Daniel Porter and and Zadoc Bush, path masters; Jonathan Rogers and Elisha Stevens, pound masters and fence viewers, and Adam Wilcox, Benj. Hillman, Jonathan Rogers, Daniel Kelley, Asa Newton and John Bush, a committee to select convenient places for burial.
Supervisors .- 1800-4, Daniel Kelley ; 1805, Silas Stow ;1 1806-7, Wm. Darrow ; 1808, D. Kelley ; 1809-10, Benjamin Hillman ; 1811-3, Ela Collins; 1814, Solomon King ; 1815, B. Hillman ; 1816-7, Heman Stickney ; 1818-22, Benjamin Davenport ; 1823, Chester Buck ;2 1824-6, Charles D. Morse ; 1827, E. Collins; 1828, B. Davenport ; 1829-31, E. Collins ; 1832-3, C. Buck; 1834, Daniel T. Buck ; 1835-41, C. Buck ; 1842, John Buck ; 1843, Curtis G. Lane; 1844, C. Buck ; 1845-6, C. G. Lane; 1847, Phineas Leonard ; 1848-52, C. G. Lane; 1853, Jess Brown ; 1854-5, C. G. Lane ; 1856-7, Joseph A. Willard ; 1858-60, C. G. Lane.
Clerks .- 1800, Moses Coffeen ; 1801-5, Wm. Darrow ; 1806, Daniel Gould ; 1807, Daniel Kelley ; 1808-9, Wm. Darrow ; 1810-6, Robert McDowell ; 1817-8, Charles D. Morse ; 1819-23, Charles Dayan ; 1824, Russell Parish ; 1825, Andrew W. Doig ; 1826, Palmer Townsend ; 1827-34, Orrin Wilbur ; 1835-8, Wm. L. Easton ; 1839, Ambrose W. Clark ; 1840-1, Edwin Jarvis; 1842-4, Wm. Thompson ; 1845-6, A. W. Clark ; 1847, Francis B. Morse ; 1848, Wm. A. Chase ; 1849-51, F. B. Morse ; 1852-4, Geo. S. Case ; 1855, Francis N. Willard ; 1856-8, Loren M. Brown ; 1859-60, Marcellus J. Murray.
1 At a special town meeting, held one month after, Solomon King was chosen supervisor.
2 Mr. Buck came from Lanesboro in 1811. He represented the county in Assembly in 1822 and 1840, and took an active part in public affairs. Supe- rior breeds of sheep were first introduced into the county by him. He died July 3, 1847, at his residence on the west road, aged 58 years.
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Notes from the Town Records .- In 1809, 1810, 1812 and 1814, fines were voted for allowing Canada thistles to go to seed.
In 1817 Stephen Leonard and Heman Stickney were ap- pointed a committee to confer with a committee from Mar- tinsburgh about building a poor house. It will be noticed that this was about ten years before one was built.
In 1830 it was proposed to build a town house, and $300 were voted. In 1832 are solution was passed to apply for a law allowing $500 to be raised for a town house. Wm. Shull, Isaac Bailey, John Stevens, Stephen Leonard and Chester Buck were appointed to superintend the building. A petition was presented in Assembly March 15, and referred to Messrs. Doig, Skinner and Moulton, but no fur- ther legislative action appears upon the journals.
At a special meeting, July 7, 1832, the town voted $100, besides the $150 previously raised, to build a draw in the Black river bridge, to allow the steamboat then building at Carthage, to pass. The town of Watson also aided in this improvement.
In 1833, voted $150 for the Illingworth bridge, if enough to finish it be raised by other means.
In 1836, resolutions were passed asking for a law to tax the town $500 annually for five years, to aid in rebuilding the academy. This will be further noticed in our account of that institution. A committee, consisting of Chester Buck, Charles Bush, Luke Wilder, George D. Ruggles and Benjamin Davenport, was appointed under these reso- lutions.
In 1843, the town protested against the tax in this town, for the Carthage and lake Champlain road, and the next year against a county tax for the Tiffany bridge, or a new clerk's office.
In 1851, voted to borrow $1,950 from the state treasurer, under resolution of Nov., 1850, to aid in building Black river bridges.
This town, with Adams and Watertown, fell to the share of Nicholas Low, in the division between the four proprie- tors of the Black river tract, Aug. 5, 1796.
Nicholas Low, the fifth son of Cornelius Low, and Marga- rette, his wife, was born near New Brunswick, on the Raritan, N. J., March 30, 1739. Of his boyhood we have no trace, but it may be assumed from the position and easy circumstances of his parents, as well as from his character in after life, that he received careful training. He entered at an early day upon the career of a merchant, in the city of New
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York, where his eldest brother Isaac had made himself con- spicuous. Both brothers, at the commencement of the dispute between Great Britain and her colonies, embraced the American cause. Isaac Low, in 1774, was chosen by the city a member of the committee of public safety, and also one of the delegates of the continental congress of that year, having for colleagues, John Jay, John Alsop, James Duane and Philip Livingston, but as the quarrel became embittered, Isaac Low adhered to his allegiance to the crown, while Nicholas cast his lot in with his countrymen,1 and when the British troops entered New York he aban- doned it and only returned after the peace. He then resumed business there as a merchant, enjoying the confi- dence and friendship of the most eminent men of the nation-Washington, Jay, Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris, Rufus King, the Livingstons and others.
Mr. Low was alive to all the great political questions which agitated his countrymen, and taking such part as he deemed obligatory upon every good citizen, was ever averse to political life, and office he never sought. He was never- theless sought out by his fellow citizens on occasions of moment. He was a member of the convention that adopted the federal constitution, and in 1788 and 1789 was in assembly. His political sentiments were then of the federal party, as inaugurated under the auspices of Washington, but he was of too independent mind and habits, ever to be a mere partizan.
Late in life, Mr. Low married Alice Fleming, widow of S- Fleming, and by her he had three children, Cornelius, Nicholas and Henrietta, of whom the last only survives. In 1796, he made the purchase of the Black river tract with others, as we have elsewhere related. He had inherited from his father a considerable amount of landed estate at Ballston, which town in the early part of this century be- came a place of much summer resort by reason of its medi- cinal springs, and Mr. Low built there for the accomodation of this travel a large hotel known as Sans-Souci.
When the embargo of 1807 and war of 1812, cut us off from the supply of manufactured goods usually received from England, Mr. Low conceived the project of a great manufactory of cotton at Ballston, and accordingly with his accustomed energy and decision of character, went to work at the enterprise, investing very large sums himself, and
1 Isaac Low withdrew to England in 1783, having been attainted and banished by an act of the legislature in 1779. He died in that country in 1791
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inducing friends to do likewise. For the brief period of the war, the undertaking was remarkably successful, but with peace came ruin to home manufactures, and those at Ballston did not escape the common lot. The capital in- vested was almost a total loss, and Mr. Low soon after sold all his property at Ballston, of which as a watering place . moreover the glories had been eclipsed by the neighboring Saratoga Springs.
With declining years Mr. Low withdrew from business, occupied himself mainly with the care of his estate, and in the society of his family and of attached friends, exempt until within the last year or two of his life, to a remarkable degree, from bodily suffering, though with eyesight and hear- ing somewhat impaired, yet with mind unclouded, he passed serenely on to death, November 15, 1826, being then in his 83d year.
In personal character, Mr. Low was distinguished for sterling qualities. With a clear head, great self-reliance and independence, much observation and knowledge of men and affairs, he combined a high sense of honor, the most scrupulous integrity, and the most exact justice and truth. His yea was always yea, and his nay nay, whatever might betide. He was a consistent member of the Episcopal church, and for many years a warden of Grace church in the city of New York. In personal appearance he was of compact and robust frame, with a full head, broad forehead, clear steady blue eyes, fine complexion and an expression indicative at once of great kindness and great firmness. His manner was courteous and polished, yet very direct. He was the very type of an independent, upright, honest gentle- man.
Mr. Low was accustomed to visit the town annually upon business during many years. His son Cornelius was ap- pointed in 1818, agent with Mr. Bostwick, and remained at Lowville a law partner with him until the death of his father. He died June 30, 1849, aged 54 years. Nicholas Low the second son, died in New York in the fall of 1859, and his only sister, married the Hon. Charles King, now president of Columbia college in the city of New York.
On the 20th of April, 1798, Low deeded to Silas Stow, for $8,000, a tract of 4,168 acres in the central part of the town, excepting 168 acres in a square in the N. W. corner.1 This tract has from this cause been known as Stow's
1 Deeds, Oneida Co,, vii., 259.
R
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Square, and may be classed among the best farming lands of the county.
Number Eleven was surveyed around its border in May, 1796, by Benjamin Wright, who reported that "this town is very good, especially in the south part, the soil excel- lent, and timber, bass, maple, beech, birch, ash, elm and butternut and some few hemlock. Along the river there is a fine intervale in many places, which has very fine soil, and is exceedingly handsome." He also notices the swamp along the river and a medicinal spring in the north part, "which may perhaps be of some considerable importance when properly examined." The area reported in this survey was 24,453 acres, and in another made by him in subdividing the town into lots the next year as 24,615 acres. Wright's survey of 1797, divided the town into 40 lots of from 154 to 693 acres. It was further surveyed by John Frees in 1802, J. D. Hammond in 1804, Robert McDowell1 in 1808, and by others. The swamp near the river extend- ing into Denmark (3,329 acres), was surveyed into 41 lots, of from 72 to 120 acres by McDowell in 1808.
A reminiscence of this town extends back to the revolu- tion, and is supported by very good verbal testimony, to the effect, that a party of tories and Indians having cap- tured a Mrs. Roseburgh and her little boy Henry, in the Mohawk settlements, conducted them through the woods to the High falls. They had here left concealed a birch canoe, in which they came down the river with their prisoners till on arriving at a place above Smith's land- ing, they left the river and came up to some flat rocks near the present east road and encamped. They had at this place made caches of corn, and here they spent the night. They proceeded on the next day to the Long falls, and from thence to Carleton island in the St. Lawrence, where Mrs. R. a few weeks after added one to the number of the captives. Henry was adopted by the Indians, but some time after was stolen away by his relatives. The child born in captivity, afterwards married in this county.2
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