USA > New York > Ontario County > A history of Ontario County, New York and its people, Volume I > Part 14
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The government calls upon us for aid in this hour of peril; patriotism, honor and duty demand that we respond to the call.
The noblest, wisest and best government ever instituted by man, must not be struck down by rebellion, and the glorious memories of the Revolution effaced, without a struggle which shall be worthy of our Revolutionary fathers.
The time for action has come. The government calls. Let every man respond.
By Order of the Meeting. JOHN A. GRANGER,
WILLIAM G. LAPHAM,
HENRY O. CHESEBRO, WILLIAM H. SMITH, WILLIAM HILDRETH,
Committee.
C
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THE COUNTY IN THE CIVIL WAR.
At the meeting called as described, the town hall, it is reported in a newspaper of the time, was crowded almost to suffocation. Immense enthusiasm prevailed and as one and another went for- ward and their subscriptions were announced, had the building been one of modern date, it would certainly have been shaken down by the cheering. Every one present seemed anxious to do some- thing. Noah T. Clarke, the beloved principal of Canandaigua Academy, besides his own subscription of $100, made a proposition to the meeting to put down "something for each one of his sons to be repaid to him by means of their own little earnings, so that they might have it to remember that the first money they ever gave in their lives was for the cause of liberty-for the good of their native country." This proposition was received with applause and was immediately acted upon by others, some putting down for their children and others for their wives. The subscription list was headed by Francis Granger, who put down his name for $500, and Henry B. Gibson gave a like amount, John A. and Albert Granger gave $300, and Mrs. Clarissa Greig $200. Chester Coleman, Thomas Beals, Gideon Granger, Alexander McKechnie, James McKechnie, Merrick and M. Dwight Munger, N. J. Messenger, James C. Smith, William H. Smith, George Cook, Hiram Metcalf, Nahum Grimes, Henry O. Chesebro, Elbridge G. Lapham, John Johnson, Frank C. Bennett, Thomas M. Howell, Albert Lester, Levi Tillotson, Richardson & Draper, William Hildreth, and others, subscribed $100 each. Then followed a long list of citizens, each pledging himself according to his ability. The whole subscrip- tion amounted to the sum of $7,131.50.
General John A. Granger presided at this meeting and addresses were made by Francis Granger, Elbridge G. Lapham, Alexander H. Howell, Elihu M. Morse, and James C. Smith. Resolutions were adopted and a committee of fifteen appointed to look after the enrollment of volunteers and raising of funds and all matters con- nected with the public defense.
This committee of fifteen consisted of Alexander H. Howell, James M. Bull, Gideon Granger, Albert G. Murray, William Hil- dreth, Elnathan W. Simmons, Henry O. Chesebro, J. Harvey Mason, Lyman O. Lampman, Henry C. Swift, William G. Lapham, Charles Coy, Dr. Matthew R. Carson, John W. Holberton, and James L. Palmer.
It is noteworthy that in the first burst of enthusiasm party lines
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HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
were forgotten, and that indeed the men who were most prominent in this meeting, while the natural leaders of the community, were men who in the political controversies preceding the actual out- break of war, had taken counsel for compromise.
At the close of the meeting, it is related, "Yankee Doodle" was played by the band, the "Star Spangled Banner" was sung by John S. Robinson, the audience joining enthusiastically in the chorus, and three cheers were given for the President and three more for "The Constitution and Enforcement of the Laws."
The military spirit of the people of the county was thoroughly aroused. The local newspapers reported that martial bands were constantly parading the streets, two companies of volunteers were formed, and efforts were made to establish a rifle company and a company of flying artillery. The principal recruiting station was at the town house in Canandaigua and was in charge of Owen Edmonston, who a few years before had been sheriff of the county. Preparations were made to have the recruits camp out on the fair grounds. The ladies were to assemble in the town house on Thurs- day to make bedding. War, it was said, was the only topic of conversation in the streets, nearly everybody was ready to enlist, the National flag waved from almost every accessible place, and boys by the hundreds carried it in miniature in the streets.
In the days following, the village streets were the scene of many military displays, a number of companies stopping over to change from the New York Central to the Northern Central rail- road, and other companies being organized from among the young men of the village and neighboring country. Meetings were held in Geneva, Phelps, Naples, Clifton Springs, Victor, and other towns, and steps were everywhere taken to give practical expression to the aroused patriotism of the people.
The women, too, lost no time in organizing to provide hospital comforts and necessities for the soldiers. The villages and towns were canvassed by them for supplies and other steps taken to show their sympathy with the prevailing movement in defense of the Union. The women of Canandaigua made a beautiful banner, 7x4 feet 4, of blue silk, which was to be presented to a yet problematical Ontario county regiment.
But the feeling of patriotism did not fill all hearts. Treason presented its ugly head even in Ontario county, in the early days of the war, and one man at least earned general condemnation.
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THE COUNTY IN THE CIVIL WAR.
It was reported, on the evidence of citizens of unimpeachable reliability, that a man of some prominence in business circles at the county seat, upon hearing of the death of the gallant young Colonel Ellsworth, declared that all who took up arms under the call of President Lincoln deserved a similar fate. The indignation aroused by this expression of treasonable sentiment was intense. A public meeting was held, and resolutions were adopted denouncing as traitors all persons entertaining such sentiments, but some of the more impulsive young men of the village were not satisfied with so orderly a procedure, and it re- quired the counsel of older and wiser heads to prevent them from getting out the hand fire engine and attempting to soak the treason out of the man.
This was the only expression of disloyal sentiment, made by a citizen of the county during the war, of which public notice was taken, and it is entirely to the credit of the community that the stigma fixed upon the man who uttered it by the meeting referred to was never removed. He was a produce buyer, and it is related that even in the years after the close of the war he was often re- buffed by sturdy farmers who had grain to sell but who wanted none DR. NOAH T. CLARKE. of his money. On one occasion he approached a heavily loaded wagon, asking the driver what he had for sale. Receiving no reply except a cold stare, he started to climb up on the wheel, asking, "Is it wheat?" At this the farmer arose and with uplifted whip sternly commanded, "Ge-e-t down-er-off of that wa-a-agon! Get down off that wagon!" He got down.
Noah T. Clarke, for twenty-nine years principal of the Canandaigua academy, was born in Naples, April 8, 1817; educated in the district schools and at the Franklin and Canandaigua academies; devoted his life to teaching ; succeeded Marcius Wilson as princi- pal of Canandaigua academy in 1853 and con- tinned at the head of that institution until 1882; president of the New York State Teachers' Association, 1875; president of the Village of Canandaigua, 1865-66. Died at Canandaigua, September 16, 1898.
No account of the war time events of the county would be complete that did not include some words about the part which the
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HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
Canandaigua Academy, then at the zenith of its fame, had in the work of filling the ranks of the Union army. Dr. Noah T. Clarke, the principal, in his morning talks in the chapel, could not refrain from voicing his ardent patriotism and the students were soon aroused to the highest degree of enthusiasm.
As early as June, 1861, that enthusiasm found expression in the raising of a National flag upon the Academy building and the holding of a meeting on the campus. General John A. Granger presided, "The Star Spangled Banner" was sung by a choir led by Dr. A. G. Coleman, and Dr. Clarke made a stirring and patriotic address. Gideon Granger, James C. Smith, and Elihu M. Morse also spoke. The girls of the Ontario Female Seminary, with many ladies of the village, graced the occasion by their presence.
The Academy was pretty nearly closed by the enlistment of students and teachers. One class, which Dr. Clarke had formed with great satisfaction, enlisted bodily, with the exception of a single member, and he only stayed at his books because he was so young that he could not be accepted. The Academy catalogue of 1864 contained a roll of honor, which embraced the names of one hun- dred twenty-five young men who had been students of the institu- tion during Dr. Clarke's principalship and who had enrolled themselves in the Union armies, but these, Dr. Clarke wrote, were probably not more than half of the total number of soldiers who had at one time or another been students in the institution.
Though temporarily crippled by the enlistment of its young men, the close of the war saw the Academy fairly overwhelmed with pupils, two of the members of the faculty in 1866 and twenty- three of the pupils being returned soldiers.
New York responded promptly and cordially to President Lincoln's first call for 75,000 volunteers, as it did to those succeed- ing. Ontario county was prominent in the work done for the Union in the Legislature, Thomas Hillhouse, afterwards Adjutant General of the State, State Comptroller, and Assistant United States Treasurer at New York, being the representative of this Senate district, and Perez H. Field and Stephen H. Ainsworth representing the county in the Assembly. Mr. Hillhouse was suc- ceeded in the Senate on January 1, 1862, by Charles J. Folger, and David Pickett and Francis O. Mason were the Assemblymen that year, and the following year they were succeeded by Perez H. Field and Lanson Dewey, who were reelected and served through 1864
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THE COUNTY IN THE CIVIL WAR.
also. In 1865, Volney Edgerton and Edward Brunson represented the county in the Assembly. All these were nominees of the Repub- lican party, then and later swelled by the accession of many so-called "War Democrats."
There is no exact record of the number of men who enlisted from Old Ontario, but it appears that the county was represented in at least twenty-nine different regiments, and probably furnished five thousand recruits.
The 18th Regiment of Infantry, known as the New York State Rifles, contained one company, G.,
that was recruited at Canan- daigua early in 1861. Henry Faurot was made its captain, James H. Morgan, first lieutenant, and William H. Ellis, Jr., ensign.
Company E., of the 28th Regi- ment of Infantry, or the Niagara Ritles, was recruited at Canandai- gua, and had for its officers, Theo- dore Fitzgerald, captain; J. J. Whitney, first lieutenant, and Harvey Padelford, ensign.
The 33d Regiment of Infan- try, mustered in July 3, 1861, was COLONEL ELIAKIM SHERRILL. known particularly as the "On- Eliakim Sherrill was born in Greenville, Greene county, N. Y., February 16, 1813; elected Member of Congress in the Ulster dis- trict, 1847; State Senator, 1855-56; removed to Geneva in 1860; became Colonel of the 126th Regiment, New York Volunteers, in 1862; led the Third corps at the battle of Gettysburg, and there on the 3rd of July. 1863, received a wound which resulted in his death the following day. tario regiment." Its ranks includ- ed three companies recruited principally in Ontario county. One company, D., was recruited at Canandaigua, under Captain John R. Cutler, and two at Geneva, under Captains Walker and Waterford.
Company H., of the 38th Regiment, was recruited at Geneva. with W. H. Baird as captain.
The county furnished two companies to the 85th Regiment, mustered into service in the fall of 1861, One company, B., enlisted at Canandaigua, with William W. Clarke, of Naples, as captain, and C. S. Aldrich and Amos Brunson as first and second lieutenants, and Company G., at Geneva, with John Raines as captain, and George W. Munger and Thomas Alsop as first and second lieuten-
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HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
ants. . This regiment was a part of the Third brigade that was compelled to surrender at Plymouth, in April, 1864.
Company K., of the 98th New York Infantry, of which George N. Williams, of Canandaigua, was captain, and Company I., in the same regiment, of which William H. Adams, was captain, were also recruited in this county.
Company B., of the 100th Regiment Infantry, was recruited largely at Victor, late in 1861, and continued in service throughout the war.
The 126th Regiment is one of the two regiments to which the mind most quickly reverts when reference is made to the part which Ontario county had in the war. Recruited in Ontario, Seneca, and Yates counties, it was mustered into service at Geneva, August 22, 1862, for a term of three years, under command of Colonel Eliakim Sherrill, of Geneva. Companies D., H., and K., were recruited wholly in this county; and E., F., and G., partly in this county. Company D. gained the prize for the first company to be recruited for this regiment in Ontario county, and had for its officers, Philo D. Phillips, captain; Charles A. Richardson, first lieutenant, and Spencer F. Lincoln, second lieutenant. Company H. was officered by Orin J. Herendeen, captain ; George N. Redfield, first lieutenant, and Alfred R. Clapp, second lieutenant; and Company K., by Charles M. Wheeler, captain; H. Clay Lawrence, first lieutenant, and Isaac A. Seamans, second lieutenant. Henry D. Kipp was captain of Company E. ; Isaac Shimer, captain, and Ira Munson and Ten Eyck Munson, lieutenants, of Company F., and John F. Aiken, captain of Company G.
This regiment had a most notable and romantic career. Pro- ceeding to the front in August, 1862, and hurried to the defense of Washington, it was surrounded and captured with 11,000 other Union troops in the disaster of Harper's Ferry; was charged with · cowardice, paroled, exchanged, and then reentered active service, and later, as part of the Second army corps, bravely removed the stigma it had so unjustly borne. Its work at Gettysburg was par- ticularly fine.
The other regiment especially remembered in this connection was the 148th. Ontario furnished a larger proportion of its material than it did of that of any other regimental organization. Its col- onel was William Johnson ; its lieutenant-colonel, George M. Guion ; and its major, John B. Murray, all of Seneca Falls. Dr. Elnathan
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W. Simmons, of Canandaigua, was its surgeon ; C. H. Carpenter, of Phelps, its first assistant surgeon, and Frank Seeley, of Rushville. second assistant surgeon. Its battles began with Gwynn's Island, in November, 1863, and it remained in active and important service until the surrender at Appomatox, in April, 1865.
Canandaigua, East Bloomfield, Bristol and Geneva contributed recruits to Company E., of the 160th Regiment; Hopewell and Phelps, to Company K., of the 179th : Phelps, Victor and Naples, to Company B .; Richmond, Farmington, and Seneca, to Company E. : Canandaigua, to Company F .; and Phelps to Company I., of the 184th, mustered in October, 1864. Men from these and other towns were registered as members of the 188th and 194th Regiments Infantry, the 8th and 9th Cavalry, the 15th and 24th Cavalry, the 1st Mounted Rifles, the 1st and 2nd Cavalry, the 4th. 9th, 13th and 16th Heavy Artillery, and in other regimental organizations also.
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HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
XVII
VICTORY CROWNS THE STRUGGLE.
Ontario County Heroes-The Boy Who Never Returned to Claim His Scythe or His Betrothed-The Board of Supervisors in the War-The Women's Aid Organizations-The News of Rich- mond's Fall and How It Was Celebrated-Memorials of the Great Struggle.
Ontario county was not without its heroes in this war time. Not a few perished in the striving. Others returned home to receive honors and offices in recognition of the part they bravely played. Yet others, as worthy, as brave, and participants in actions as thrilling and as romantic, have continued to go quietly in and out before us in their regular vocations without a claim on their part to any mead of praise, without a thought on the part of others that in these matter-of-fact, hard working citizens is the stuff of which stern war created heroes.
For instance, Herman F. Fox, recently representing the city of Geneva in the county board of supervisors, was shot from his horse in a mad charge at Sutherland's Station, but, though surrounded by the enemy, refused to surrender either himself or the brigade flag which he carried, and only gave up the latter when forced to do so by blows and bayonet thrusts. He was rescued by his comrades from death or capture, but sacrificed a hand.
Ontario boys fell into prison and died there, as did Lieutenant Albert M. Murray, or taking desperate chances, escaped as did Captain C. S. Aldrich.
Others, like A. Eugene Cooley, of Canandaigua, could if they would, relate experiences stranger than those of fiction. Mr. Cooley, wounded and disabled at the battle of Spottsylvania Court House, discovered that the youth who was helping him to the improvised hospital was a young woman attired in boy's clothing the better to facilitate her work of relief. Then after two days of torturing pain,
VICTORY CROWNS THE STRUGGLE. 159
he held the candle by light of which a surgeon cut the bullet out of his leg, and for ten other days was thrown, as it were, from pillar to post, from hospital tent to ambulance, then to peach orchard, to boat, to Washington, and finally in a freight car to Philadelphia. And he lives to tell the story, but-he married another girl!
The fibre of the men is indi- cated by the case of Edward H. Frary, of Canandaigua, who suf- fered in the Wilderness a shot through the lungs, and not only without the aid of antiseptic surgery, but without any skilled attention, and compelled to spend days and nights on the ground or on a hard floor, and then bear transportation in a rough army wagon, yet survives to act well his part as a citizen in the re- deemed Republic.
What days were those, when, as after the awful Gettysburg fight, succeeding mails brought news of the death on the battle- field of favorite sons like Colonel Sherrill, Captain Wheeler, Cap- tain Herendeen, and many others, who at the call of their country had given up comfortable homes and bright prospects to face the perils of war. county homes were thus made desolate.
WALTER MARKS.
Walter Marks, member of the County War Committee, was born in Hopewell. Ontario county. September 6, 1819; member of the Board of Supervisors. 1862-69. and chair- man of the Board, 1869; County Clerk. 1871-73. Died in Hopewell. October 12. 1895.
Many Ontario
A tree in front of a farm house, on the highway east of Geneva, bears a unique memorial to the spirit that animated one of the young soldiers who lost his life at Gettysburg, and, as it is fitly decorated with the National colors on each succeeding Memorial day, it typifies the patriotism which animated the sons of Old Ontario as they rallied in support of the colors at President Lin- coln's call. The memorial referred to is the point of an old scythe which projects from the tree and which has been there ever since the implement was hung in the crotch by Tyler J. Snyder as he
·
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HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
came in from the hay field one day in August, 1862, and announced his purpose to enlist in the Union army. His request to his betrothed, the daughter of the household, to let the scythe hang there until his return, has not been forgotten. Firmly imbedded in the tree's fibre, it yet waits his home coming, which is never to be, for the gallant boy was killed at Gettysburg.
The county board of supervisors was prompt, energetic, and generous in its efforts to raise the quota of troops assigned to the county under succeeding calls of the President. Bounties to encourage enlistments and to avoid the necessity of drafts were offered by National and State Governments and by the county, and, while starting at the modest sum of $20, rose in the last years of the struggle to over $1.000 per man. The county, to pay these bounties, sold its 7 per cent bonds to the amount of a million and a half dollars, the war committee in charge of this work being G. W. Nicholas, of Geneva; Walter Marks, of Hopewell, and William H. Lamport, of Canandaigua. The last of the war bonds were paid in advance of the date on which they came due, during the term of Captain George N. Williams as county treasurer, probably in 1871.
Another efficient aid to the work of the soldiers was that afforded by the organizations of patriotic and self-sacrificing women. Cotemporaneous with the first enrollment of recruits. there was organized at the county seat the Ladies' Hospital Aid Society, of which Mrs. Margaret Rankine was the first president and Miss Antoinette Pierson, secretary. Later Mrs. William Hildreth became president of this organization. Mrs. Jabez H. Metcalf, Mrs. Nathan J. Milliken, Mrs. William M. Mclaughlin acted successively as secretary, and Mrs. F. M. Lester was the treasurer.
This society, by means of monthly dues paid by its members. contributions by generous-hearted citizens, and receipts from fairs and other entertainments, raised many hundreds of dollars for the relief of the suffering on battlefield and in hospital. The ladies were given free use, at fair time, of the refreshment stalls in the wonderful old amphitheater building on the County Agricultural Society's grounds, and thereby made much money for the cause. Their fair in Bemis hall in February, 1864, netted $1,893, to which was added a purse of $100 contributed by the village fire depart- ment, through its chief engineer, Bardwell Billings. Their fair in
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VICTORY CROWNS THE STRUGGLE.
the town hall in January, 1865, after deducting expenses and $42.76 bad money, netted the goodly sum of $1,658.61.
To these money contributions were added boxes upon boxes. barrels upon barrels, of such luxuries as shirts, and sheets and quilts, and pillows, dressing gowns, slippers, handkerchiefs and towels. contributed by citizens in all parts of the county, or made by the ladies of the society. Large quan- tities of lint and bandages also were forwarded, together with barrels of dried apples, onions, canned fruit, wine, raspberry vinegar, jelly, pickles, and in fact everything that the generous hearts and ready wits of the wo- men could suggest for the com- fort and welfare of the boys at the front. An outpouring of such supplies was gathered and for- warded under charge of Dr. W. Fitch Cheney and his associates on the committee designated to go to the relief of the wounded after the battle of Gettysburg, in July, 1863. The Young Ladies' Aid Society, of which Miss Susan Daggett was president, was a valuable ally of the older organi- zation of women and crowned a WILLIAM H. ADAMS. most efficient record by raising the money for the beautiful me- morial tablet now affixed to a wall of the county court house.
William H. Adams was born at Lyons, Wayne county, in 1841; studied law with Smith & Lapham in Canandaigua; enlisted in the Union army in 1861, serving first as Lieutenant, then as Captain, and then as Brigadier Adjutant General; married Miss Charlotte Lapham, daughter of Hon. El- bridge G. Lapham, in 1865; elected Supreme Court Justice in 1887; appointed a member of the Appellate Division, Fourth Depart- ment, in 1896; and became its presiding officer on January 1, 1900. Died in Canandai- gua, October 12, 1903.
The Rear Guard, as the peo- ple at home were often facetiously called, not only provided thus generously of money and supplies, but they speeded the parting recruits with gifts of banners, swords, and revolvers, and welcomed those returning with speeches, music, and dinners. Upon the return of the 33d, the so-called Ontario regiment, on May 25th, 1863, at the completion of its two years' term of enlistment, there was an
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HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
enthusiastic demonstration of this kind and the flag was returned to the donors "stained, battle rent, and covered with glory," as Colonel Taylor said.
Political feeling ran high throughout the war here as else- where, the new alignment of parties not yet thoroughly adjusted, resulting in strange coalitions and calling forth on occasion bitter criminations and recriminations. The Republicans were generally successful, but diversions of Union men who trusted not the leaders of the new party, nor liked its name too well, sometimes overturned calculations and now and then gave their better organized oppo- nents a temporary advantage. The campaign of 1864, upon which depended the reelection of President Lincoln and the future conduct of the war, was fought between the "Union" and Democratic parties, the friends of the administration by the adoption of the name Union hoping to secure the support of all men of all parties who were resolved to fight it out. And they did secure them. Lincoln was reelected by a tremendous vote, carrying every State that took part in the election except New Jersey, Delaware and Kentucky. Reuben E. Fenton was elected Governor of New York. The Lincoln majority in Ontario county was over 1,400, and the entire Union county ticket, including George B. Dusenberre, the .candidate for county judge ; John Whitwell, for sheriff; Nathan J. Milliken, for county clerk; Charles A. Richardson, for treasurer ; Ambrose L. Van Dusen, for superintendent of the poor ; and Volney Edgerton and Edward Brunson, for members of Assembly, was elected. The Republican or Union "stumpers" in that notable cam- paign were Elbridge G. Lapham, Charles J. Folger, Edwin Hicks, William H. Lamport, Captain Edgar W. Dennis, and Rev. L. W. Gage, all of whom are now with the majority.
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