USA > New York > Franklin County > A history of St. Lawrence and Franklin counties, New York : from the earliest period to the present time > Part 70
USA > New York > St Lawrence County > A history of St. Lawrence and Franklin counties, New York : from the earliest period to the present time > Part 70
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A large portion of his European estates were sacrificed to satisfy the claims of creditors of the house with which he was involved. The business in America, which had for some time previous been managed by David and George Parish, was soon after assumed by the latter. Mr. David Parish will long be gratefully remembered, by the citizen of St. Lawrence county, as their early benefactor, and is never mentioned by those who enjoyed an acquaintance with him, without a warm expression of esteem and respect. His wealth enabled him to extend those offices of kindness and support to those who needed, which with many would exist in intention only : the deserving poor found in him a benefactor; the man of enterprise and industry, a patron; the gentleman of culti- vated mind, and enlightened views, a companion, who could appreciate and enjoy his society; and every member of the community in which he lived felt towards him a sentiment of respect and regard, which was as universal as it was deserved.
The portrait which we give, was engraved after a miniature, painted on ivory, by Spornberg, at Cheltenham, in England, in 1810, and is said by those who knew him, to be a correct resemblance. Mr. Parish was, by a special act of the legislature, passed in November, 1808, empowered to hold and convey real estate, but this act did not confer upon him the full right of citizenship.
GEORGE PARISH, was a younger brother of David Parish, who received a finished commercial education in Europe, and came to Ogdensburgh to reside, in 1816. He had previously held the office of collector in the East Indies, and was a gentleman of great intelligence, polished man- ners, and a capacity for the transaction of business which is seldom sur- passed. He continued the improvements which his brother had com- menced, and was among the first of our land proprietors who adopted towards settlers the equitable and accommodating system of receiving payments in kind, of whatever surplus grain, stock or labor he might have in exchange for land. The greater portion of the northern part of the state was purchased and held by capitalists, who bought upon specu- lation, and sold their lands through agents who received money only for
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their lands. The proprietors residing in the cities felt no personal interest in the affairs of their settlements, further than to realize as large a profit as possible, and expended money for roads and improvements only so far as it tended to enhance the value of their property and make it more saleable. The moneys received were usually remitted to the owners, and the country not benefited by its expenditure ; and this sys- tem very naturally gave rise to a feeling of ill will towards the proprietor, which was evinced in various ways.
To this may be traced the causes of those abuses of power in voting for taxes, of which our past history affords many examples, and which, in some instances in Franklin county, grew into a studenduous system of fraud and crime, which required the action of the legislature to sup- press, by withdrawing the power which had been exceeded.
The privations of a poineer settler, who has to contend against the rugged wildness of nature, in addition to poverty, want of access to markets, and the numerous casualties which befall those who advance beyond the precincts of civilization, and lay the foundation of what it is his ambition to make a home, and a freehold, are of such a nature that it requires persevering industry and rigid economy on the one side, and forbearance, liberal accommodation and easy terms on the other, in, order that the purchaser and the landlord may each derive the greatest benefit, and the settlement prosper to their mutual advantage. During his residence in the county, he acquired the general respect of the inhabitants, by his courtesy and kindness. With the graces and urbanity derived from his early education and former associations, and a true sense of the requirements which genuine politeness, unattended with ostentation, or aristocratic airs, dictate, he assumed no position in the society of those around him which was calculated to convey a feeling of superiority. During his administration of the estates of the family in this country, he spent several years in traveling in the north and east of Europe. In the course of these journeys, he traversed Norway and Sweden, visited St. Petersburgh, Moscow, Astrachan and many other cities in the east of Europe, and was preparing to undertake ań exten -. sive tour over Asia, when he died suddenly at Paris, France, on the 22d of April, 1839, at the age of 58.
DR. HORATIO POWELL, a native of Hartford, Vt., removed to Malone, and engaged in the practice of medicine, in 1811. From that period till within a few years before his death, he continued in the practice of that laborious profession, and acquired to a great degree the confidence and patronage of the citizens of Franklin county. For several of the latter years of his life, he was disabled by a paralytic affection. He died at Malone, November 12, 1849.
BENJAMIN RAYMOND, a son of Paul Raymond, was born at Richmond, Mass., October 19, 1774. In his youth he received such advantages as his native town afforded, and while a young man removed to Rome, and became acquainted with Mr. B. Wright, which led to a friendship that endured for life. In this way he became connected with the surveys of northern New York, of which we have given an account. While tra- versing the country, the several parties would occasionally meet, and spend the night together, exchanging the news which they might chance to pick up, compare notes, and speculate on the probable destiny which the future held in store for the country which they were exploring. On one occasion, Mr. Raymond, in a letter to Wright, distinctly expressed his belief, that the navigable waters of the St. Lawrence would at a future
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HISTORY OF ST. LAWRENCE
day be united with those of lake Champlain, so as to afford a channel of communication between them; and this gerin of an idea of a canal he never lost sight of, but often and repeatedly urged it upon the public notice, and lived to see a concerted and general movement towards its realiza- tion, nor was the project wholly abandoned, until it gave place to 'a scheme for a rail road, which has but recently been completed.
Having traveled through St. Lawrence county in various directions as a surveyor, and observed the character of the soil and surface, he pro- cured, on his return, from the proprietors of Potsdam, an agency for the sale and settlement of that town; and in this he was aided by the influ- ence and recommendation of his friend Wright. In May, 1803, he started for his location from Rome, in a bateau, laden with iron for a mill, provisions for the season, and several men, and proceeded by the slow and difficult water route to Point Iroquois, above the present village of Waddington, where he hired teams, and opened a road sufficient to allow the passage of wagons to a point on Raquette river, about half a mile below the present site of Potsdam village. Here he built a raft, and floated up his effects to the falls, where he landed on the west side of the river, opened a land office in a bark shanty, and commenced the erection of mills. During the first year, he got in operation a saw mill, cleared a small tract and made arrangements for removing his family. In 1804, he returned and spent the summer, erecting a grist mill and a house, which was the first framed dwelling in town. The principal roads from the village to the neighboring towns are very direct, and were surveyed by Mr. Raymond. during the first season of his residence, with the view of making his settlement a central point with relation to the surrounding towns. During the second year of his residence, he opened a small store, for the accommodation of his settlers, and in 1810, he built a house, which he called an academy, and subsequently conveyed for that purpose. In the founding of this institution, and in securing its endow- ment by an appropriation from the state, he was peculiarly active and successful, and the St. Lawrence Academy may justly be considered as owing its origin to the zeal and energy of Mr. Raymond. He also took an active part in organizing the first religious society in town, and in se- curing the services of a clergyman.
About the year 1810, he became an agent for a tract of land in the town of Norfolk, and erected a warehouse at the head of navigation on Raquette river, and subsequently took much interest in the navigation of that stream, which was in early times regarded as a matter of much im- portance. The potash and other produce of the young settlements back of this place, was brought here for shipment, and the merchandise used in the country arrived by the same route.
In 1818, he removed to the settlement in Norfolk which bears his name, and which it received at the request of the inhabitants on the es- tablishment of a post office. He remained at this place several years, as the agent of Mr. Mc Vickar, having relinquished the agency of Potsdam, and engaged in the improvement of his new settlement, the erection of mills, and the formation of a line of boats to run between this place and Montreal. He was engaged in this business in partnership with Henry McVickar, and continued in this connexion until the death of the latter in Europe. Mr. Raymond was appointed one of the first justices of the peace on the organization of the town, and held that office as well as that of supervisor of the town of Potsdam, for many years. " On the 8th of April, 1808, he was appointed a judge and justice of the county court. In 1823, he was employed by a committee chosen at a convention called
Engraved by J C Buttre from a com a Painting by Ames.
Benjamin Hay mon)
Engine for the History of St Lawrence and Franklin Counties by Franklin B. Hough.
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to concert measures for securing a canal from the St. Lawrence to Lake Champlain, to examine the route, and his report was instrumental with the petitions forwarded to the legislature in securing the passage of a law providing for the survey of the route by one of the engineers (Mr. Holmes Hutchinson), in the employment of the canal commissioners.
He continued actively engaged in his land agency, milling, farming, and merchandise, until 1824, when he went as an engineer and assistant of Benjamin Wright to the south, and engaged on the Delaware and Chesapeake canal, where he soon after sickened and died of a prevailing fever at St. Georges, Newcastle, Delaware, on the 26th of September, 1824. Mr. Raymond was tall and well built, and possessed a dignified and genteel deportment, which would lead one to select him in a crowd, as a man of superior ability and one who took a leading part in public affairs. His complexion and hair were light, and his features are admir- ably represented in the accompanying engraving. A single propensity in his character, impaired his usefulness and prevented him from being universally esteemed; which was a peculiar faculty for sarcasm that possessed a point and severity, and was expressed in language so concise and pertinent, that its sting often remained in the feelings of the unlucky subject long after the occasion had passed which induced it. This was not indulged from a cynical motive, nor from malicious feeling, for no man ever possessed a heart more open to the calls of humanity or a hand more ready to convey relief to the widow and the fatherless, the sick and the afflicted, than him; but rather to gratify a taste for the lu- dicrous, and to hold up in an absurd manner the arguments and motives of those from whose opinions he differed. Among those who had been politically and otherwise opposed to him on numerous occasions, and who had oftenest been the subject of his satire, the writer has not found one individual who did not concur in the assertion, that Mr. Raymond was a man of spotless integrity, great benevolence, and superior ability, in whatever station of public or private life he was called to fill.
ALEXANDER RICHARDS, was a native of New London, Conn., where he spent his early life. When a young man he removed to New Jersey, and becoming there acquainted with the Ogden family, he was sent by them as an agent to their lands in Madrid, where he located as the suc- cessor of Joseph Edsall in the land agency of that town in 1803. In 1811, he was appointed collector. During the war he was an active par- tisan, and being of the republican school of politics, he sustained that measure to the extent of his ability. He died at Waddington, Oct. 16, 1834, aged sixty-nine.
JOSEPH ROSSEEL, although never placed in a public station, yet from his early and prominent connection with the business of Ogdensburgh, has become in a measure identified with its history. He is a native of Ghent, Belgium, and came to America at the age of 25, with letters from the house of Hope & Co., of Amsterdam, introducing him to Mr. Parish, and to several commercial houses, ostensibly with a view of extending his commercial knowledge, but in reality, to avoid the military conscrip- tions of Napoleon, He reached Baltimore in August, 1807, and resided a year in Philadelphia, where he became acquainted with Robert H. Rose, late of Montrose, Pa., and with him took a tour into Pennsylvania. Late in 1807, he was sent by David Parish to explore the lands in North- ern New York, which that gentleman proposed to buy, but from the lateness of the season was obliged to defer the exploration, which was accomplished in the summer of 1808, in which he traversed Antwerp
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HISTORY OF. ST. LAWRENCE
Rossie, and Kilkenny, then mostly a wilderness. In September, while on his way to " the garrison," he met D. Parish and G. Morris, and the latter offered strong inducements for him to locate at Morristown, and promised a gift of a mile square, where the village now is, if he would establish himself there; but Mr. Parish was convinced that Ogdensburgh would be the place, and his advice prevailed. With Mr. Parish's advice, and sustained by his capital, he commenced mercantile business with David M. Lewis,* under the firm of J. Rosseel & Co., and for several years did an extensive business, but an unfortunate speculation in western produce led to embarrassments, which Mr. Parish met. Having implicit confidence in Mr. R. he offered to again establish business, or to give him the general agency of his lands. He chose the latter, and has since continued in the employment of the family.
DR. JOSEPH W. SMITH, was the first physician who settled in St. Lawrence county, at a period when the hardships of that laborious pro- fession were unusually severe. The physician's avocation is always one of great responsibility, and requires for its successful prosecution the great- est amount of sagacity and skill, but especially amid the privations of a new settlement, where conveniences for the sick are sometimes not pro- curable, and the usual methods from necessity are supplanted by such as the exigencies of the moment may suggest, does it require in a special manner the exercise of sound judgment and a prompt and judicious action. Dr. Smithi was born at Cheshire, Mass., Feb. 22, 1781. His father removed from Cheshire to Addison, Vt., and died in the year 1791. He studied with Dr. Ebenezer Huntington, of Vergennes, in 1799, and completed his professional studies with Dr. William Rose, at Middlebury, in 1802. In the following year, he removed to Lisbon, and commenced practice. During the time he resided here, his business extended to Madrid, Canton and Oswegatchie, and was one of great hardship from the want of passable roads, and the great distance which he was com- pelled to travel, often on foot from the impossibility of getting through otherwise, and exposed to the various vicissitudes incident to a new country. He has been known to travel on foot through the forest by torch light, at night, without a road, to Canton, a distance of 18 miles. In 1807, he removed to Ogdensburgh, and became the first physician at that place. He was the first president of the County Medical Society, and continued to fill that office during a great part of the time till his death. He also held the office of loan commissioner for some time. The following tribute to his memory, published soon after his decease, is believed to be but a just picture of his life and character:
"From the first settlement of the county till the close of his life, his whole time and energies were devoted to his profession. He underwent incredible fatigue in his extended practice in the country without roads, and never spared himself in his exertions to mitigate the pain of others; neither dangerous roads, or the darkness of night, or inclement weather, ever deterred him from attending to the calls of the sick, even though that call were made by the most poor and profligate of our race; all will bear him witness to his kindness, charity and compassion. It was no selfish principle that prompted his exertions. The love of gain seemed to have no influence with him, for he habitually did himself great in- justice, as well in respect to the amount of his charges, as in his reluct- ance to collect those he had made. He was undoubtedly a man of great
* Mr. Lewis was private secretary of Mr. Parish, and died in New Orleans, June 1, 1834, aged fifty-eight.
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science, skill and judgment in his profession. Perhaps no physician ever had the universal confidence both of his professional brethren and of his patients, than Dr. Smith; at the bedside of a patient he was rarely mistaken, either in the disease or its appropriate remedy. To the poor and distressed he was the good Samaritan, and in the various relations of professional and private life he was ever found exemplary."
He died at Ogdensburgh, July 4, 1835.
GURDON SMITH, was born in Windham, Ct., Feb. 12, 1775, where he resided till his 21st year, when he removed to Rome. Here he became acquainted with Mitchell and Wright, who had been extensively engaged in surveying, and becoming interested in this science, he commenced the study and subsequently assisted, as has been elsewhere stated, in the township surveys of St. Lawrence and Franklin counties. He was one of the first justices of the peace appointed on the organization of the town, which were Benjamin Raymond, John Delance and Gurdon Smith; the latter held his office about twenty successive years.
JAMES B. SPENCER, removed from New Haven, Vt., in 1810, to French mills; during the war he served his country with fidelity, in the capacity of captain in the 29th regiment of U. S. Infantry, and took part in several of the engagements of this frontier. He subsequently held many offices of trust, among which were those of magistrate, judge, deputy collector, member of assembly, presidential elector, and Indian agent, and in 1836 he was elected to congress. His tastes led him into the field of political strife, and he acquired much influence in the democratic party. A deep thinker and a man of an active temperament, he was well calculated to plan and execute whatever business of a political or a social nature he might undertake. Few citizens of the county have acquired more influence, or have been more highly esteemed than the subject of this notice. He died at Fort Covington, in March 1848, at the age of 64.
RICHARD TOWNSEND, was born at Hebron, New York, about 1768. In his youth he pursued the study of medicine but did not engage in its regular practice. He removed to Delhi, Delaware county, and engaged in the business of lumbering, when being in New York, in the course of his trade he became acquainted with Gouverneur Morris, by means of Gen. Lewis R. Morris, which resulted in his appointment as agent for the sale and settlement of wild lands in the townships of Cambray and Kilkenny, much of the former belonging to Morris, and the latter to Messrs. Fowler and Gilchrist. He was married about 1804, and in the year following made the first exploration with the view of settlement, of which a particular account is given in our history of Gouverneur. He settled in the village of Gouverneur, and spent the remainder of his life in that town, devoting his time to his agency, and to farming. During the epidemic of 1813, he practiced his profession, from necessity; but otherwise did not serve the public in that capacity except in cases of emergency. Towards the close of life he became a Quaker, and died in that faith, at his house two miles below the village, about 1826. He was interred at the Friend's settlement in Philadelphia, Jefferson county. He was active, intelligent and benevolent, and won the esteem of his settlers by his kindness and generosity.
WILLIAM HENRY VINING, was a young man of brilliant talents and en- dowed with a capacity which would have rendered him the ornament of his age, had his life been spared, but he was unfortunately for his country, stricken down early in life, but not until he had evinced on several occasions the splendor of his genius, and those traits of character
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HISTORY OF ST. LAWRENCE
which belong not to ordinary men. Mr. Vining's father was a member of congress from the state of Delaware, who died without wealth, and left his family dependent upon relatives. The mother alse died while her sons were young, leaving the training of their children to a maiden aunt. Two of them were 'educated at West Point, but died young. Henry was received while a boy, into the family of Mrs. Gouverneur Ogden, his maternal aunt, and came to Waddington, where he after- wards lived. Adopting the legal profession he studied in the office of his uncle G. Ogden, and was admitted to practice in the supreme and county courts as an attorney in 1817, and as counsellor in 1820. In 1821 he was elected to the assembly, but declining health prevented hin from taking his seat. In the autumn of that year he sailed for the island of St. Croix, and arrived, as he expressed it in a letter to a friend, " A lonely invalid in the land of the stranger." In the spring he returned to New York without benefit from his voyage, and died in that city among his relatives in 1822. In the few cases at which he appeared at the bar, he evinced an eloquence and ability that elicited remark, and on an occasion of a slander suit, while pleading the cause of the plaintiff, it was said by several members of the profession that the plaintiff could well afford to be slandered, to be so eloquently defended. The management of his argument was masterly and its effect upon the jury and the audience was wonderful. On another occasion before the supreme court at Utica, he received the commendation of Chief Justice Savage, for the chasteness and purity of his language and careful preparation of authorities. He was a man of delicate sensibilities, a lively and poetic fancy, and of unsullied purity of character; he recognized in the beauties of nature the evidences of a God whom he loved and worshiped, and on every occasion which his brief career afforded, evinced that he possessed a heart that sympathizes with his fellow man, and a genius that needed but the opportunity to have rendered him eminent. The foregoing facts are derived from an article written twenty years after his death, by one who knew him well, and had been favored with his confidence.
DR. HENRY S. WATERHOUSE, was a native of Salisbury, Vt., from which place he removed to Oneida, and thence to Malone, where he settled during the war, as a physician and surgeon. His tastes and studies led him to direct especial attention to anatomy, and he acquired much dis- tinction as a surgical operator, and led to an appointment in the medical department of Vermont university, in 1826. He held this post about two years, and then removed to Key West, Florida, where he resided several years. He was drowned at Indian Key in Florida,
JOSEPH YORK, the second sheriff of St. Lawrence county, an active partisan in the war of 1812-15, and a citizen .who enjoyed to a great de- gree the esteem of the public, was born in Clarenden, Mass., Jan. 8, 1781, and removed with his father's family at an early age to Randolph, Vt. From thence he emigrated in 1805, to Ogdensburgh, and for three years held the post of deputy sheriff under Thos. J. Davies, when he succeeded that gentleman, and held the office of sheriff four years. At the battle of Feb. 22, 1813, he was residing in the court house, and had care of the prisoners. Measures had been taken to raise a new com- pany, and he was to have been one of its officers. He had charge of a cannon which was posted at the corner of Ford and Euphamnia streets, and was the only person of his party who was not killed or wounded. He was captured and taken to Prescott, but soon after, at the intercession of his wife, he was paroled, and in a few weeks after exchanged. The prisoners in jail were set free on their own assertion that they were con-
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