USA > New York > Oneida County > Annals and recollections of Oneida County > Part 13
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" How few of our first settlers, of those who cleared up the wil- derness, and who have literally made this county to " bud and blos- som like the rose," now remain among us. Let us appreciate the services, the toils, and privations, as well as imitate the virtues of those who have departed, while we respect and minister to the com- fort of those who remain among us."
". ANOTHER REVOLUTIONARY PATRIOT GONE .- Died, at his residence in Floyd, N. Y., on the 1st of February, 1851, Stephen Moulton, for- merly from Stafford, Ct., aged 91 years, of inflammation of the lungs.
"He was a member of the celebrated band of musicians of the Revolutionary army, under Mr. Timothy Olmstead. IIe emigrated to Floyd sixty-one years since, was one of the pioneer settlers of the county, and has occupied the same farm from that period. He was never sick until his last sickness, but at all times enjoyed health and vigor during a long life, and often boasted that 'the doctors were no richer for him, as he never took a portion of their medieine.' He was very spry and active to an advanced age, and at the season, walked over in the morning from his dwelling to this village, [Rome, ] some seven miles, priding himself upon being the first to execute his pension papers, on the 4th of March and September. He was
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honest and particular in his business transactions, and very cautious and unwilling to contract a debt; was a kind, considerate, and obliging neighbor, husband, and father. He had the happy faculty to ' drive away dull care,' and always a fund of anecdotes to instruct and amuse those around him, enjoying, as he was wont, a hearty laugh with unmeasured satisfaction. His death occurred abont four weeks after the attack, and such was the strength of his constitution, that his muscular powers were in some force for twelve or fifteen hours after his pulse had apparently ceased."
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CHAPTER XII.
KIRKLAND.
This is a most interesting section of the county. Its college and seminaries of learning render it, not only the literary and scientific emporium of Oneida County, but of central New York. The religious societies of the town are of the highest order, and their early records show them as models for their cotemporaries and successors.
The settlement of this town was commenced in March, 1787, the first emigration having consisted of eight families. Some little uncertainty exists as to the names of all the heads of these eight families, but as to five of them there is no dispute. Moses Foot and his three sons, Bronson. Luther, and Ira, and his son-in-law Barnabas Pond, were of the number ; and there is but little doubt that Levi Shear- man and Solomon Hovey were two of the eight ; but whether Ludim Blodget or Timothy Tuttle made the eighth, must remain a matter of uncertainty. But this is a question of very trifling importance, for in the month of April succeed- ing. we find the names of Blodget and Tuttle, Samuel Hub- bard, Randall Lewis, Cordial Storrs, John Bullen, and Capt. Cassety, father of Col. Cassety, -the pioneer of Oriskany Falls,-among the settlers. Capt. Moses Foot was the lead- ing spirit of the emigrants.
In the fall previous (1786), an exploring party of the settlers came from the German Flats to Paris Hill, following
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thus far the "Old Moyer Road," an Indian trail leading from Buffalo to the valley of the Mohawk, at a place some distance below Utica, where a Dutchman named Moyer kept a tavern. The exploring party left Paris Hill and came to the elevated plain near where Daniel P. Northrop and the widow Mary Baird now reside, and here the party divided, a part wishing to commence operations at this place, while the others proceeded to the site of the park. or "green." in the centre of the village of Clinton, equally determined there to commence the settlement. A committee was appointed by each party, who met upon the banks of the small creek near where Scott's slaughter house now stands, but neither would yield, and they returned to their constituents without having effected a compromise. Subsequently other delegates were appointed by cach, who settled the dispute, and the location of Clinton village was agreed upon for their future residence. Tradition asserts that, in the fall of 1786, Ludim Blodget commeneed building a log house upon the ground where the widow Philena Catlin now resides. On the 27th of February, a few days previously to the arrival of Capt. Moses Foot and his party, James Bronson visited the site of Clinton Green. Exhausted by his rambles in exploring the country, he contrived to construct a shelter by the side of the upturned roots of a large hemlock. He was the first white person who ever slept in the village of Clinton, and so well pleased was he with the place, that he afterwards settled where his grandson Roswell now resides, opposite the Liberal Institute.
But to return to the first settlers. Habitations were first to be provided. Huts constructed with erotches and poles. and sided and roofed with bark. destitute of floors. doors, or windows, were their first domicils. Ludim Blodget com- pleted the log cabin he had commenced the fall previous,
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and although built of logs, and covered, as were the huts, with bark, it bore quite an aristocratic appearance among its more plebeian neighbors just described.
Mrs. Solomon Hovey was the first female who arrived, and of course something extra had to be provided for the accommodation of her table furniture and wardrobe. Her husband felled a large hollow basswood, which grew a few feet west from where the Kirkland Bank now stands, and cut- ting off a piece of the proper length, split and hewed off one of its sides ; this, raised upon end, with a number of shelves fitted into it, and placed by the side of their hut, was found admirably contrived for & pantry, cupboard. and clothes press. A street was laid out, extending north and south, from Royce Mansion to the dwelling of Mrs. Hays. To each family was set apart a lot of two aeres upon this street, and upon these lots the first apologies for houses were erected.
Soon afterwards, and in the next year, additional lots of eight acres each, adjoining the two acre lots. were set apart to the several families.
As soon as their first rude shelters were provided, the settlers fell zealously to work to clear for cach a piece of land, upon which to raise vegetables, and a crop of Indian corn. The lofty forest trees which had withstood the storms of centuries, were laid lew by the blows of the sturdy axe- men. In the course of the summer, the place, by common consent, was named Clinton, in honor of George Clinton, who was then Governor of the State, and who was largely interested in various tracts of land in the present limits of the county, some of which were located in the present bounds of Kirkland. It may not be improper in this place to men- tion, that George Washington, the beloved father of his country, was the joint owner with Gov. Clinton of quite a number of now valuable farms in Oneida County. The lot
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No. 14 in the 5th grand division of Coxeborough of 316 acres, and composing the farm of the late Nathaniel Griffin. of this town, was held by a deed directly from President Washington and Gov. Clinton. The author has seen this deed, signed by the hands of George Washington and Gor Clinton, and witnessed by Tobias Lear and De Witt Clin- ton, dated July 22, 1790. Within five years past, 1,000 acres of the Mount Vernon estate have been sold to a com- pany of Friends at $25 per acre. Washington could hardly have anticipated that these cheap wild lands in the vicinity of the Oneidas would, within half a century, readily sell for twice, and in some instances three times, the price per acre of his beloved Mount Vernon.
The nearest mill was Wetmore's, at Whitestown, about seven miles distant from Clinton, and at the time of the commencement of the settlement, there was no road to it, and for portions of the distance there was not even an Indian trail through the tangled forests and miry swamps. To go to mill and return, was a hard day's journey, especially when, for lack of horses, the grain was borne on the back of the owner. Capt. Foot was the owner of the first and only horse in the place, and this " sorry jade" was soon stolen by the Indians. In the month of June, 1787, a party of the settlers turned out and cleared a road sufficient for the passage of an ox cart, and the next day Samuel Hubbard drove the first team to Whitestown, and returned with six bushels of corn. The same season, Capt. Cassety built & small grist mill on the cast side of the Oriskany, a short distance above the site of the factory of Barton and Tracy. By September it was so far completed as to be ready to commence business, when Samuel Hubbard, Ludim Blodget, Jesse Catlin, and Salmon Butler, each shelled a peek of corn, of which they made a joint grist, and then east lots to
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determine whose shoulders should bear the precious grain to the mill. The lot fell upon Samuel Hubbard, who forth- with carried it to the mill, and as it was the first grist, im- memorial eustom decreed that it must be ground free of toll. This was the first grist mill west of German Flats, except Wetmore's, at Whitestown.
A saw mill was erected, either the same or the succeeding season, a short distance above the grist mill, drawing water from the same pond.
On Sunday, the 8th day of April, 1787, the first religious meeting was held, at the half completed log cabin of Capt. Foot. This rude edifice stood upon the spot now occupied by the tin shop and printing office. Capt. Foot commenced the services by prayer ; Bronson Foot, Barnabas Pond, and Ludim Blodget were the principal singers; and Caleb Mer- rills, who had settled near the place now known as Middle Settlement, read a sermon. From that day to the present, there are probably very few places where the Lord's-day has been more appropriately and religiously observed. Publie worship, with scarcely an interruption, has been well attended and maintained.
The summer passed away and autumn came ; but how changed ! What in March was an unbroken forest, now showed the germ of a thriving settlement. The numerons little openings and clearings, -the fences, indeed not very ornamental, surrounding fields of corn dotted with the yellow pumpkins,-the blue smoke ascending from perhaps twenty log houses and cabins, -showed distinetly that other than the red man was there, and that the new settlers were of the genuine persevering Anglo-Saxon raee.
The settlers were becoming contented and happy. Con- trasted with New England's bleak hills, their location was fast becoming an El Dorado. Home, with all its sweet
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associations, it was fast becoming. The author remembers, something more than twelve years since, of meeting Mr. Eli Bristol, one of the pioneers of Clinton. "How is your good old father?" was the first inquiry. Upon being informed that he was in usual health, Mr. Bristol resumed, "Tell him from me, that I want to see him once more before I die. I am now. more than eighty-five, and I can not expect to live much longer. We are now both so deaf, that we can not converse together, but I want to see him. Tell him also that I remember that the first twelve years I spent in this country, were the twelve happiest years of my life." Such was the universal testimony of the pioneers of Oneida. They say "all were on a level." An aristocrat can not breathe the air of a new settlement.
The carly settlers of Clinton, living as they did almost beyond the pale of civilization, and beyond the limits of any organized town, carly bethought themselves of the necessity of some compact or civil polity, for the preservation of order and quiet in their isolated settlement.
The author found the following articles among the papers of his uncle. the late Isaac Jones, who was one of the first settlers in Clinton. Such was the scarcity of paper, and rigid economy of the times, that they were written upon the margin of the pages of a pamphlet, and doubtless they were the original and rough draft.
- Whereas, Capt. Moses Foot, and some others, formerly of ye State of Connecticut, did last fall find a good and con- venient place for a large settlement in Coxeborough, County of Montgomery, State of New York; and whereas, the said Foot did contract with John Lansing, Jun., of Albany, in ye State aforesaid, for a large tract of land, sufficient for a con- siderable number of inhabitants, and did invite his acquaint- ances and others to join with him in the purchase and
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settlement of said land: Therefore, we, whose names are underwritten, being about to take the benefit of said invi- tation, for our future safety and benefit with regard to buying said land, and other internal business amongst ourselves, do by these presents covenant with each other, jointly and severally, that we will be under the following rules, regula- tions, or by-laws, viz .:-
" We will, as soon as may be, meet and choose a Secretary, whose business it shall be to record all our public papers, votes, &c., and said record shall be binding on us all ; said Secretary must be sworn to the faithful discharge of his trust, and serve for one year.
"2. Any seven persons shall have liberty to call the pro- prictors or company together, and the Secretary shall, by their application, issue out a warrant for a meeting at least four days before said meeting.
"3. Three copies of said warrant, set up in the most pub- lic places of our settlement, shall be deemed a sufficient warning while we live as compact as at present ; and every article of business to be done shall be inserted in said war- rants, that the members may have time to consider of them. and be in some manner prepared to give their opinion, and it shall not be lawful to act on any business not mentioned in the warrants.
"4. In all matters of debate, the moderator shall allow every member to have his turn to speak, provided he does it in an orderly manner.
"5. No votes shall be recorded, or be binding, except two- thirds of the members are of a mind.
"G. Upon the consideration of Capt. Foot's taking us in as partners with him, we agree to pay him the account he has kept in cash in procuring said land, that is, labor for his time, and cash to the amount of what he has expended."
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In 1788, about twenty families were added to the num- ber. This was most cheering and brightening to their prospects.
When the location was agreed upon in the fall of 1786, they supposed that they were not within the limits of any patent, and that the land had never been surveyed. They characterized themselves as squatters, but presumed upon the benefit of the pre-emption right. Upon exploring and clearing up the land, they however soon discovered lines of marked trees, and during the second season they ascertained that they were on Coxe's Patent, a tract of land granted by the colony of New York, on the 30th of May, 1770, to Dan- iel Coxe, William Coxe, Rebecca Coxe, and John Tabor Kempe and Grace his wife, and by them had been surveyed into lots.
Clinton was found to be on the "two thousand and sixteen acres tract," and by this descriptive name it is still known by the older inhabitants and surveyors. It was based upon the Oriskany Creek on the west, extending cast to Daniel P. Northrup's, north to Solomon Gleason's, and south as far as Mrs. Hays'.
The most unpleasant part of the discovery was yet to be made. The tract had been surveyed into twenty lots of equal size, and the proprietors had offered to give the tract to any company of twenty families who would make a per- manent settlement upon it.
After this state of things had been discovered by the settlers, they entertained strong hopes of realizing the benefit of this offer; but the patentees ascertaining that the settle- ment had been made in ignorance of their offer, the settlers were required to pay ten shillings per acre.
In the summer of 1788, therefore, Capt. Foot was sent to Philadelphia to make the necessary contracts for the pur-
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chase of the whole traet, and eventually the several lots were taken by the different settlers. The site of the village was on a triangular piece, called the "handkerchief lot," from its resemblance to a half handkerchief, and was purchased by Capt. Foot.
If the settlers were happy and contented, they also came in for their share of grief allotted to humanity. In the spring of this year "the insatiate archer" sent a shaft into their secluded settlement, and he rarely assumes a more distressing or heart-rending form. The bow was not drawn at venture, for, as the poet writes,
" Death loves a shining mark."
Miss Merab Tuttle, aged 17, daughter of Col. Timothy Tuttle, who owned and resided upon the Royce farm, was drowned in the Oriskany Creek. The circumstances were briefly these :- Miss Tuttle and Miss Anna Foot, daughter of Capt. Moses Foot, started late in the afternoon to make a call at Mr. William Cook's, who resided on the west bank of the creek, in a log house which stood near the site of the house formerly owned by Mr. J. Herrick, and at present occupied by Mr. John Nettleton. For lack of perfumed French hair powder for their toilet, they called on their way at Cassety's mill, and with the mill-dust whitened their locks, as for some gala day. Though now obsolete, such then was the fashion. At that time no bridge spanned the stream from its source to its mouth. The settlers had felled two trees across, a little below the site of the bridge on the road to the college. When the girls arrived at the crossing place, they found the stream swollen from the spring freshet and recent rains, and its turbid waters were rushing and foaming madly down its channel. At first they quailed, but Miss Foot, the more courageous of the two, soon led the way,
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followed by her companion. When near the middle of the stream, Miss Foot heard from her friend the exclamation. " O, dear, my head swims!" which was instantly followed by a splash in the water, and turning, saw her struggling in the current. Miss Foot gave such loud and prolonged erics for help, that she was distinctly heard through the woods at Miss Tuttle's residence. . Mr. Cook, who happened to be at his house, either witnessing the accident, or attraeted by the cries, sprang into the stream to reseue the drowning girl. and nearly succeeded in grasping her by her clothes, when the current drew her from his sight under a pile of drift wood. Instant and continued search was made for the body. The blacksmith made hooks. which were fastened in the ends of long poles, with which to drag the stream. These were unsuccessfully plied through the whole night. In the morn- ing the remains of the unfortunate young lady were found. drawn under a pile of drift wood, near the site of the Clinton Factory. Few eyes slept in Clinton that night. Intelli- gence of the accident was sent to their neighbors at Dean's Settlement, in Westmoreland, as also the time appointed for the funeral. At the time named, many of the few settlers on Dean's Patent attended. The late Nehemiah Jones. father of the author, when about to start, and knowing there could be no clergyman expected, (as probably there was none west of Albany.) took with him a volume of sermons, in which was one preached on the occasion of a young man being drowned. At the funeral he was requested to read that sermon, and after a prayer by Capt. Foot, he did so. The text upon which the sermon was founded, was 1 Samuel xx. 3: "There is but a step between me and death." Her grave was first dug on the "green," but it being thought too wet, she was buried in the south part of the present burying ground, which was then a part of her father's farm. Major
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Barnabas Pond, but a few years before his death, informed the author that he dug her grave, and that he dug every. grave in that burial ground until there had been over one hundred interments.
There were few or none of those fevers in the settlement, the scourge of many of the new settlements in the west and far west. The second death was that of Thomas Fancher; Jun., who was killed by a falling tree, in 1791 ; and the third was that of Mrs. Mercy Stebbins, wife of Judah Steb- bins, Jun., aged 26 years. She was the mother of Jameg D. Stebbins, yet residing in Clinton.
Cupid, the wily little god, was not idle, but visited the settlement in 1788, casting his darts, and making some very pleasant wounds among the young people. The result was, the marriage of Elias Dewey and Anna Foot, and Andrew Blanchard and Mary Cook, upon the same day. The first public wedding, (and even some claim that it was the first marriage of a white couple in the county.) was that of Mr. Roger Leverett and Miss Elizabeth Cheesbrough, sister of the late Harry Cheesbrough and Mrs. Benedict Babcock, Sen. The bans were solemnized upon the Congden farm, in a log house which stood upon a knoll in the first orchard east from where the road from Clinton to Utica crosses the Chenango Canal. Jason Parker, of Utica, so long known as a stage proprietor and mail contractor, was an invited guest. In lack of other, the fire-sill was used as the most prominent seat for the company: It was a real merry- making; and if the bill of fare did not quite come up to that of the modern weddings of Clinton, yet we are quite sure it did not fall short in that essential ingredient of a good wedding,-happy guests. Among the early marriages was that of Mr. William Stebbins to Miss Lydia Branch, November 25, 1790. The Rev. Sampson Orcum, the Indian
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preacher, officiated, and, as was the custom in those days, saluted the bride without giving any offence.
The first child born in the settlement was Clinton Foot, son of Luther Foot, who died before he arrived at manhood. The second was Fanny Kellogg, daughter of Capt. Amos Kellogg. She is yet living in Clinton, and is the widow of the late lamented Orrin Gridley. The third, Julius Pond, Esq., deceased, who was extensively known in the county, was born July 26, 1789; and the fourth was James D. Stebbins, who was born September 11 of the same year.
Many settlers arrived in 1789, among others, Jesse Cur- tiss, Esq.,* who is still living, in the enjoyment of a green old age, a monument between the past and the present age. honored and beloved. He brought on his back from the log huts in Utica, a skipple (three pecks) of seed wheat.
It is believed that, for the first time, horses were seen in the settlement this year, excepting the one before mentioned as brought in by Capt. Foot. William Carpenter and Nathan Marsh each had one, and during the fall they went on horseback to Albany. It is no very great compliment, however, either to the roads or the powers of the beasts, to state that Jesse Curtiss and Bartholomew Pond, who started on foot at the same time, preceded them some hours in arriving at Albany.
The summer of 1789 was in one respect more trying to the settlers than its predecessors. Famine, with all its horrors was upon them. The crops of the previous year were insufficient for their own wants and those of the daily increasing emigrants. The hoarded little stock of flour, and their last year's crop of potatoes, were consumed, and the corn and meal were nearly exhausted, while the forthcoming crop was not matured. At planting time such were their
* Since deceased. (See his obituary at the close of the chapter.)
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straits, and their care to husband their limited supply, that the eyes of the potatoes were ent out for planting, and the remainder carefully preserved for the table. To slaughter their few cattle, would be at once to destroy their future pros- pects, and nothing but the last extremity could have induced them to do so. Money was almost out of the question, and it is believed that if they had been compelled to contribute their all, not enough would have been found to purchase a barrel of flour, even at present prices. The forests were searched for ground-nuts and leeks, the fishing rod put in requisition, and most fortunate was the hunter who succeeded in securing a bear or her cubs, to aid in their extremity. Notwithstanding, children cried for food, and strong men put themselves on a stinted allowance, that the more help- less might be fed. All this did not suffice; something far- ther must be done. A small party was sent to Fort Plain, Montgomery County, to see if supplies could not there be obtained. At that place resided a large farmer and miller, named ISAAC PARIS, and to him imploringly they appealed. He responded most liberally ; and with a promptness which did honor to his heart, he loaded a small flat boat with flour and meal, and sent it up the Mohawk to the mouth of the Oriskany. Here it was met by a party of the settlers, transhipped into a log canoe of their own construction, and from thence, with the aid of setting poles, paddles, and ropes, their " ark of plenty" was taken up the creek as far as the site of the bridge upon the Lairdsville road, and from that landing it was transported in carts to the settlement. Lan- guage is too feeble to describe the rejoicings upon the arrival of this timely supply of breadstuffs. Clinton has never before nor since witnessed such an overflow of gratitude.
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