A history of Lewis County, in the state of New York, from the beginning of its settlement to the present time, Part 29

Author: Hough, Franklin Benjamin, 1822-1885. dn
Publication date: 1860
Publisher: Albany : Munsell & Rowland
Number of Pages: 422


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 29


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256


Turnpike and Plank Roads.


Oliver Bush, Anthony W. Collins, and their associates. The act gave them the existing highway so far as they needed, and power to buy new lands not over $3,000 in value.


The Canal Turnpike Co. was incorporated Feb. 28, 1823, with $15,000 capital to build a road from Stokesville in Lee to Olmstead creek in Turin. Subscription books were to be opened by Seth B. Roberts and Geo. Brown of Oneida, and Ela Collins of Lewis county. In May 1826, Stephen Ward, Ephraim Owens and John Post were ap- pointed (under an act passed a few days previous), to locate the southern end at the court house in Rome, and to ex- tend it northward to the store of Seth Miller jr., and thence to St. Paul's church in Turin. The stock was by this act increased to $20,000, and the rates of toll were raised. The location north of Constableville was actively opposed by interested parties. The route of this road had been sur- veyed under the direction of Peter Colt, James Lynch and Moses Wright in August, 1808, under an act of April 8, of that year. To open the road an act of April 15, 1815, ap- pointed Moses Wright assessor, and Geo. Huntington, Wm. Constable and Thomas E. Lawrence commissioners to as- sign a tax to be levied upon adjacent lands, but the super- visors neglecting to raise the tax, the act was modified April 15, 1816, and the road was opened in that year. It was not however passable in wet seasons until improved as a turnpike. It was proposed in 1823, to extend the canal turnpike to Martinsburgh, but the measure was opposed by a vote of town meeting, and means were found to suppress the project.


Early in 1842 the plan of a McAdamized road through the county was discussed, but nothing resulted from it. In the spring of 1847, efforts were made to organize a plank road on an extensive scale, to extend through Oneida and Lewis counties. A meeting was held at Boonville, Feb. 23d, and town committees were appointed, but nothing was effected towards a general union of effort, and each sectional interest began its race of rivalry, which has produced the natural result. Upon neighboring and nearly parallel routes plank roads were laid, all of which have perished much sooner than was anticipated, and most of which have never earned beyond the cost of collection and maintenance, any- thing worth naming towards paying first cost or rebuild- ing. With the exception of the roads laid along the line of the State road south of Lowville, they have all been aban- doned and again laid out into road districts. In every instance these roads were constructed along old and well


257


Plank Roads.


settled roads, except at points where to improve the grade it was found necessary to deviate slightly from the former line. The excavations and embankments upon these roads will form a durable monument to their memory, and if the gain in value of farms and their market products, justly due to plank roads, were placed to their credit, it would far exceed the amount expended upon them. Unfortunately the public spirited citizen has in this case, as in others, often paid too liberally to enrich his parsimonious but more wealthy neighbor, and fortune, with partial hand, has dealt out her favors to the undeserving.


Of the eight plank roads, with an aggregate length of seventy-six miles, that have been built in this county, all but three have been discontinued. The history of these roads is briefly as follows :


Rome and Turin P. R., laid on the route of the old Canal turnpike, filed its articles in the Secretary's office Dec. 24, 1847. Capital $45,000; cost $50,000 ; was 30 miles long ; was inspected July 21, Sept. 28, and Oct. 28, 1848, and aban- doned to the public Jan. 18, 1855.


Turin P. R., through the town of Turin, on the State road, filed articles Dec. 27, 1847; cap. $8,000; was 52 m. long, and was inspected July 15, 1848, except 117 rods south of the village, which was inspected July 9, 1849. After pay- ing large dividends a few years, it was bought at a small price by parties interested in its maintenance, and it is still kept up. Large quantities of timber cut for rail road ties, have been used in relaying it.


West Martinsburgh and Copenhagen P. R., filed articles Feb. 17, 1848. Cap. $25,000 ; length 17 miles ; cost 22,000, the whole of which was lost. Inspected July 17, 1849, and abandoned March 19, 1856, and April 5, 1858. It was laid on the West road from the south line of Martinsburgh to Copenhagen.


West Turin and Leyden P. R., on the line of the former Turin and Leyden Turnpike (so called) from its southern end to the Rome and Turin P. R., one mile north of Con- stableville. It filed its articles Oct. 23, 1848 ; cap. $6,000 ; length 5} m. Inspected August 30, 1849, and abandoned March 3, 1856. It was a total loss to the owners, and made but one or two small dividends.


Lowville and Carthage P. R., along the State road from the line of Martinsburgh to Denmark village, and thence by the direct road to Carthage. It filed its articles Nov. 8, 1848. Cap. $22,000, cost $26,000, the most of which was G*


258


Plank Roads, Mail Routes.


lost. Length 16 m. Inspected July 30, Aug. 6, and Sept. 11, 1849, and abandoned May 5, 1859.


Boonville P. R., on the State road from the south line of Turin to Boonville, and southward. It filed its articles Nov. 8, 1848. Cap. $30,000; length 20 m. Inspected Aug. 31, 1849, and still maintained.


Martinsburgh P. R, on the State road through the town of Martinsburgh. Filed its articles Dec. 13, 1848. Cap. $7,000; length 5 m. Inspected July 13, 1849, and still maintained.


The Great Bend and Copenhagen P. R., about three miles of which lay in this county, filed its articles Dec. 4, 1848, cap. $13,000 ; length 10 m. ; inspected July 17, 1849, and abandoned about 1856.


Several other plank roads were proposed, among which was one from Lowville to New Bremen; one from near Constableville to the High falls, and another from Turin to the High falls and Lyonsdale. The Lowville and Denmark P. R. Co., formed a regular organization but did nothing. During the summer of 1859, an effort was being made to raise the means to rebuild the road from West Leyden to Stokesville on the line of the old Rome and Turin P. R., but without success.


These several plank roads were chiefly laid with hemlock plank eight feet wide and three inches thick, the track being usually on the west side of the grade, so that teams going southward retained the plank in meeting other teams.


Mail Routes .- The first route through the valley was established Jan. 19, 1804. Daniel Gould is said to have been the first carrier. He was succeeded by Reuben Chase soon after, who began in 1804, and performed one trip each week from Utica to Brownville. Mr. Barnabas Dickinson of Denmark, was the next mail carrier, and by him a two horse carriage was first placed upon the route for the ac- commodation of travellers. About 1812, or 1814, Parker & Co., run a line of stages. Other parties were afterwards engaged in this service, and in Jan., 1824, E. Backus and Ela Merriam, with N. W. Kiniston and John McElwaine, commenced carrying the mail, and with the exception of four years Mr. Merriam has continued in the business till the present time.1 It has been carried daily except on Sunday during 36 years, and until 1848 to 50 over as muddy a road


1 The shortest trip from Utica to Sackets Harbor ever made over this route by stages, was on Thursday, Feb. 19, 1829. The trip was made in 9 hours 45 minutes, and the mail was changed at every office. The stops amounted to 39 minutes, distance 93 miles, snow 22 feet deep. Mr. Merriam has been concerned in stage routes from Denmark to Ogdensburgh, from Rome to


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259


Early Canal Measures.


as could be found in the state. The spirited and sacrificing efforts of Mr. Merriam, in calling public attention to plank roads and other improvements, and in their construction and maintenance, entitle him to the lasting gratitude of the citizens of Lewis county. Without his exertions the only existing plank road southward from Lowville would ere this have been abandoned, and the traveling public left to plod their weary way over the original mud road.


There has been since its first establishment, a daily mail line (except Sunday) through the county with a short interval in 1859. In 1821, a route was established from Martinsburgh to Adams; and about 1826, a route from Rome to Turin. At a later day a side route was established from Turin to the post offices east, and from Lowville through the woods to Edwards, St. Lawrence co. There are at present several short routes supplying offices not on the central line, at intervals of two, three and six days.


CHAPTER VI.


CANAL AND RAIL ROAD PROJECTS.


BLACK RIVER CANAL AND IMPROVEMENT .- Excepting the vague allusion to canals and other public works, in the instructions of Tillier in 1796, no measure was proposed for constructing a canal into this county until 1825, when DeWitt Clinton in his annual message suggested a connec- tion between Black river and the Erie canal, as one of several highly desirable canal routes. Under a general act passed April 20, 1825, a survey was ordered from the Erie canal in Herkimer co., to the head waters of Black river and thence to Ogdensburgh, and another from Rome to the same.


A survey was begun by James Geddes, one of the chief engineers on the Erie canal, July 25, 1825, and the leveling was continued down to Carthage. By this survey the Remsen summit on the eastern route was found 841 feet, and the descent from thence to the lake 985 feet. From Rome to Boonville, the rise was 700 feet, and from thence to the


Sackets Harbor, through Redfield, from Oneida to Turin, from Rome to Turin and Denmark, from Rome by Copenhagen to Watertown, from Rome by Western, to Boonville, and now from Boonville to Lowville, in company with Moses M. Smith of the latter place.


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Canal Statistics and Surveys.


river below the falls 422 feet. The Camden route to Ogdensburgh, 129 miles, was estimated at $655,630, and the Boonville route, 114 miles, $931,014. Mr. Geddes advised two dams with locks on the river, and a towing path on the bank. A canal meeting was held at the Court house Sept. 21, 1825, at which James T. Watson reported Geddes's survey, the maps were left with Mr Dayan for re- ference, and a committee was appointed to gather statistics of transportation from each town in the county, specifying every article of which more than five tons were carried, with the probable increase. Other meetings were held in Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties, and committees of correspondence were chosen to secure unity of action.


A meeting at the court house Dec. 24, 1825, prepared a petition to the legislature, and reported the following esti- mates of business :


Denmark 1272 tons ; mean distance 60 miles.


Lowville 1310 tons, viz : grain and flour 550; ashes 130; butter and cheese 10; sundries 620. Distance 60 miles at 1} cents per mile.


Martinsburgh 1280 tons. Turin 600 tons. Leyden, Watson, Pinckney and Harrisburgh, 1200 tons. Total 5,662 tons, amounting to $5,435.80. From Jefferson county the esti- mate claimed 10,680 tons at $10,146 ; from St. Lawrence 13,000 tons at $23,400, and from Herkimer and Oneida 4,620 tons at $1,386, making with the extra transporta- tion added to the Erie canal a revenue of $69,145.88.1


The county papers of northern New York at this period teemed with articles favoring the measure, and a series of statistical essays in the Black River Gazette, signed Jona- than, had a beneficial influence upon public opinion.


The canal commissioners reported March 6, 1826, upon the Herkimer, Rome and Camden routes. The first had a rise and fall of 1831 feet, and was deemed inexpedient. The second had 1587 feet lockage, and would cost to Ogdens- burgh $931,014, and the third with 635 feet lockages would cost $855,630. No result followed, and on the 2d of Jan., 1827, a canal meeting held at the court house, renewed their memorial, and petitioned Congress to procure the right of navigating the St. Lawrence to the ocean. A meeting at Carthage Oct. 23, 1827, prepared the way for a general con- vention at the court house in Martinsburgh on the 4th of Dec., at which delegates attended from all the towns in-


1 A general committee of correspondence was chosen at this meeting, con- sisting of Russell Parish, Isaac W. Bostwick, Ela Collins, Charles Dayan and James Mc Vickar.


261


Rev. J. Clinton's Address.


terested in the work. Spirited addresses were delivered, and a resolution was passed for the incorporation of a com- pany to construct a canal.


The address of the Rev. Is ac Clinton upon this occasion, affords data in the highest degree valuable as showing existing resources. It was therein stated that five towns in Lewis co. made annually 100 tons of potash each, and three others about fifty tons each. About 2500 barrels of pork, and 60,000 bushels of wheat were supposed to pass through and from the county to the canal. About 1500 head of cattle were driven from the county and five times as many from Jefferson and St. Lawrence. The county exported 50 tons of butter and cheese, 20 tons of grass seed, 14 tons of wool, 12 tons of oil of mint, and 325 tons or 650 hogsheads of whiskey. It received annually 400 tons of merchandise, 50 tons of bar iron and steel, 40 tons of gypsum, 15 tons of dyestuffs and 20 tons of hides. The increase from the county and beyond had been during twelve years at the rate of 300 tons annually. This address closed with a direct ap- peal to the enterprise of our citizens. It was as follows :


"Perhaps, sir, it may be said that the remarks are plausible, but the undertaking is great and we can do without it. So we might do without many other things. A farmer on a very small scale might do without a scythe and cut his grass with a jack- knife. What are canals and what are rail roads but great labor saving machines ? What a grass scythe is to a jack-knife, so is a canal to a common team. Will it be said, sir, that the un- dertaking is really too great-we can not accomplish it? Let ; no such thought lodge in any man's bosom. Say we can accom- plish it, we must and we will have a canal. What if the patriots of the Revolution had said-' slavery is truly detestable and liberty is equally desirable, but what are we ? We have no army, no treasury, no revenue, no magazines of arms, and such is the mighty power and prowess of Great Britain that we can not withstand them ?' What, I say ! Then we and our children would have been slaves forever. But they said, we can withstand them ; and they did withstand them, and with their blood and treasure and indescribable hardships and privations procured the benefits and blessings we now enjoy. Let us not say " we can't." This expression has been the ruin of thousands, has prevented many a glorious enterprise,-has kept many a family poor and in the back ground. This was the imbecile language of our committee, last winter! Let us then say we can and we will have a canal. Many farmers may turn out if need require, with their teams and work out shares. It would be better to do this than be forever wearing out their teams in carrying their produce to market and paying toll at turnpike gates. The


262


Canal Surveys.


enterprise is only worthy of the industrious and spirited citi- zens inhabiting this section of the state. And from the previ- ous estimates I am confident the stock must be good, and after the canal is made and proved, will sell at any time for ready cash."


A writer in the Black River Gazette, under the signature of Asdrubal, at this period also urged the measure proposed at this convention.


The application in the hands of Mr. Dayan then in the the senate, and Gen. Ruggles in assembly, procured an act passed March 20, 1828, incorporating the Black River canal company. A subscription of $100,000 by the state was proposed by Mr. Dayan, who was supported by Senators Hart, Waterman and Wilkins, and opposed by Jordan and Carroll. It was finally stricken out in the senate.


The act incorporated Geo. Brayton, Isaac Clinton, Levi Adams, Peter Schuyler, James Mc Vickar, James T. Watson, Seth B. Roberts and Vincent Le Ray de Chaumont and their associates, with $400,000 capital and the usual powers of similar stock companies. The canal was to be finished within three years, and the franchise included the navigation of the river to Carthage. The commissioners above named employed Alfred Cruger1 to survey and estimate a route, and his report rendered in September of that year, mostly advised inclined planes instead of locks, and placed the total cost of 44.86 miles at $433,571.25. The structures were to include 9 culverts, 8 dams, 7 waste weirs, 52 bridges, 1015 feet rise by planes, and 75 feet by locks. He proposed to improve the river by wing dams, where ob- structed by sand bars, eight of which might be built for $4,168. Subscription books were opened at the office of W. Gracie, N. Y., Dec. 15, 1828, but the stock was not taken, and a meeting at Lowville represented from many towns, Jan. 24, 1829, discussed a plan of local taxation, but finally abandoned it, and agreed upon a memorial urging its adop- tion as a state work.


A concurrent resolution introduced by Mr. Ruggles, was passed April 7, 1829, ordering a new survey in case that made by Cruger was not found reliable, and the canal commissioners were directed to report the result to the next legislature. Canal meetings were held at Lowville June 4, and at Turin Oct. 17, 1829, and an effort was made to procure a nomination of a person pledged to the canal


1 Mr. Cruger died at Mantanzas, Cuba, in 1845, while engaged in a rail road survey.


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263


Black River Canal.


alone, irrespective of party, but did not meet with favor. On the 12th of January, 1830, a convention of delegates from Lewis, Jefferson and Oneida, met at Lowville to me- morialize the legislature ; town committees were appointed, and again Nov. 22, of that year, for a similar purpose.


On the 6th of April, 1830, the canal commissioners were by law directed to cause a survey of the proposed canal, and Holmes Hutchinson employed under this act, reported his labors the 6th of March following.1 His estimate based upon a canal 20 feet wide at the bottom, 4 feet deep, and and locks 10 by 70 feet, capable of passing boats of 25 tons, placed the total cost of canal and feeder at $602,544. The first company having expired by its own limitation, a new one of the same name was chartered April 17, 1832, with $900,000 capital, and power to construct a canal from Rome or Herkimer to the Black river, and thence to Ogdensburgh, Cape Vincent, or Sackets Harbor. The work was divided into six sections, of which one must be finished in three and the whole in ten years. Nothing was done under this act.


In 1834, Francis Seger in the senate, and Geo. D. Ruggles in the assembly procured an act (April 22,) providing for an accurate survey of a canal from the Erie canal to the Black river below the falls, and thence to Carthage. The sur- veys of Cruger and Hutchinson were to be adopted in whole or in part, at the discretion of the commissioners, and the result was to be reported at the next session. Mr. Timothy B. Jervis was employed upon this duty, and his survey based upon a canal 26 feet wide at the bottom, banks 7 feet high, water 4 feet deep, locks and two inclined planes, computed the cost at $907,802.72, with composite locks, and $1,019,- 226.72 with stone locks.2


A report from the canal board in 1835, stated that the actual cost of freight by rail road was 3} cents a mile per ton, as shown by the Mohawk and Hudson rail road. This is believed to have influenced favorable action upon the Black River canal, although manifestly unfair as regarded rail roads, because based upon the experience of a road only sixteen miles long, then with two heavy inclined planes, and using locomotive and stationary steam power as well as horses.


The construction of the Black River canal was authorized by an act of April 19, 1836, which provided for a navigable feeder from Black river to Boonville, and a canal from thence


1 Assembly Documents, No. 229, 1831.


2 Assembly Documents, Nos. 55, 150, 1835.


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Black River Canal.


to Rome and to the High Falls, and the improvement of the river to Carthage for steam boats drawing 4 feet water. The details of construction and expense were left discre- tionary with the canal commissioners, who were to receive from the canal fund such sums as the canal board might estimate and certify would be the probable expense, with such additional sums over and above the foregoing, borrowed on the credit of the state, and not to exceed $800,000. The surplus waters of Black river, not needed for the canal, were to be passed around the locks by sluices or turned into Lansing's kill or the Mohawk river.


This act was largely due to the exertions of Francis Seger of the senate, and Charles Dayan of the assembly, whose active labors for the promotion of this measure deserve hon- orable recognition in this connection.1 Eleven years had passed since this work was first urged upon public notice by the governor, and the youth who listened with enthu- siasm to the glowing prospect of coming benefits from the completed canal, had ripened into manhood before the first positive step was taken towards its realization. Still they were destined to grow old in the anticipation, and while those who had fondly cherished and aided the successive stages of effort, became silvered with age ; full many closed their eyes in death, before it became a practical reality ! Stow, Clinton, Watson, the elder Le Ray, Lyon, W. Martin, Adams, J. Mc Vickar, Collins, Parish, Rockwell, Bancroft, J. H. Leonard, N. Merriam, H. G. Hough, B. Yale, S. Allen, and many others who had served on committees, and con- tributed time and money to the promotion of this improve- ment, died before it was so far completed as to admit boats into the river.


Surveys were placed in charge of Porteus R. Root, and in Sept., 1836, Daniel C. Jenne, resident engineer, began further examinations which were continued through the fall and in the spring following.


The first contract for construction was made November


1 Francis Seger removed from Albany county to this county in 1826. He studied law with Marcus T. Reynolds, and was admitted to the bar in 1823, having taught school at various times to aid in acquiring an education. He was several years deputy clerk, and from 1828 to 1833, inclusive, clerk of assembly, but yielded this position at the urgent solicitation of friends of the Black River canal, for a place in the Senate, where he remained four years. He was appointed a master in chancery, and in April, 1843, under Bouck's administration, became first judge of Lewis county. He continued to offi- ciate until 1856, having been elected judge and surrogate, at the first judicial election in June, 1847, and again in 1851. In 1846, he was elected one of the secretaries of the constitutional convention. His highest ambition ever seems to have been the faithful discharge of official trusts, with an ability and simplicity worthy of imitation.


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265


Black River Canal.


11, 1837, including 14 miles from Rome and work was at once begun. On the 26th of May following, the work was let to Boonville, including the feeder, and Sept. 7, 1838, eight miles north of that place. Work was begun and vigor- ously prosecuted until, under an act of March 29, 1842, entitled "An act to provide for paying the debt and pre- serving the credit of the state," more familiarly known as the tax and stop law, work was suspended. The original estimate upon which work had been begun was $1,068,437.20. The third division, extending from Boonville to the river a distance of ten miles, contained 38 locks of which 24 were nearly finished, the gates and docking timbers excepted. The other 14 locks had not been contracted. It was esti- mated that $276,000 would finish this division, and $809,000 the whole work.1 There had been expended according to the report of 1842, $1,550,097.67. The sum of $55,222.78 was paid for extra allowances and for suspension of con- tracts on the part of the state, and much loss was occasioned by the decay of wooden structures, washing away of banks, filling in of excavations, and other damages to which half finished works of this class are liable.


In the constitutional convention of 1846, Lewis county was represented by Russell Parish, an ardent friend and able advocate of the Black river canal. In a speech of Sept. 15th he urged the completion of this work with great zeal, and the clause in the constitution (art. vii. sec. 3), providing for the completion of this canal among other. public works, is without doubt to be attributed in quite a degree to him.2


An act passed May 12, 1847, appropriated $100,000 to this canal. Work was soon after resumed on the feeder, and the next year on the canal south of Boonville, many old contracts were resumed, new portions were let, and in the fall of 1848, the feeder was finished so far as to admit water on the 18th of October. The first boat passed up the feeder to the river Dec. 13, 1848. The canal from Boon- ville to Port Leyden was put under contract in 1849, and the feeder was brought fully and successfully into operation in May or June of that year. The first boat from Rome




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