USA > New York > Oneida County > Annals and recollections of Oneida County > Part 18
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The first grist mill in Lee, or indeed in this section of the county, was built by Gen. William Floyd, in 1796. It was sitnate on Canada Creek. one and a half miles south of Lec Centre, and near the line between Lee and Rome. It accommodated a large section of country, there being at the time of its erection no grist mill nearer than at Whitesboro. Many of the early grists brought to this mill, came on the backs of the owners, horses in those days being a luxury beyond the means of most of the settlers. This ancient mill, erected by the immortal signer of the Declaration of Inde- pendence, has long since been in ruins, and its site aban- .doned. The second grist mill in the town was built in the year 1798, by Thomas and William Forfar. emigrants from the Highlands of Scotland. It was located on Canada Creek, on the site now occupied by the mill at Lee Centre. There are now two grist and flouring mills in the town, one in Delta and the other at Lee Centre, each doing an exten- sive business.
The first school house was erected in 1796 or 1797, by the voluntary contributions of the inhabitants, in money, mate- rials, and labor, and was situated one mile south-east from Lee Centre. In this pioncer school house, many of the early sons and daughters of Lec received their first lessons
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in the rudiments of a common school education. Some of them yet reside in the town, and they say if some luckless wight failed to get a fair portion of ideas by the ordinary course of study, as the course of discipline then was, the knights who occupied the chair pedagogic would make the attempt to quicken the perceptions by a smart application of the hand on the car, and if that failed, an effort was made to reach the seat of knowledge through the cuticle of the back, by a thorough application of the rod.
The manufacture of leather was commenced on a small scale as early as 1815. There are now four tanneries in the town, doing a fair but not extensive business.
There are three wool-carding and cloth-dressing establish- ments, in one of which the manufacture of woolen cloths is carried on to a considerable extent.
There are also in the town an extensive plow manufactory, two lathes for the turning of wood, driven by water power, and seven dry goods and grocery stores.
RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES.
The first church organization in the town was a Congre- gational Church, constituted as early as 1797, and ten of its members, seven males and three females, belonged to the limits of the present town of Lee, viz .:- Nathan Barlow, Lydia Barlow, John Hall, Dan Miller, James Young, Han- nah Young, Ebenezer Seymour and wife, Joseph Simmons, and Eliakim Miller. There were a few also who united with this body who resided in the present town of Western, Joshua Wills and wife, Hezekiah Elmer and wife, and perhaps one or two others. The first pastor of this church was the Rev. James Southworth, then the Rev. Mr. Norton.
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Missionaries for a time- Rev. Mr. Cook, Rev. Mr. Leavens- worth, Rev. John Alexander, Rev. Mr. Long, Rev. Mr. Hall, Rev. Simeon Snow, Rev. Clement Lewis. The present pas- tor (1850) is the Rev. Mr. Edwards. It is now under the Presbyterian form of government, and has about thirty members. This society used as a house of worship, for about twenty years, the school house noticed as the first in town.
The Methodists are the most numerous body of Chris- tians in Lee. They have a respectable house for public worship in Delta, besides a share in the house belonging to the " Union Ecclesiastical Society," at Lee Centre. This last-named house was erected in 1819, and was the first house for publie worship in the town. The Methodists are supplied by circuit preachers, the Rev. Messrs. Chidester and Richards supplying them in 1850.
The Friends have quite a numerous society and a house for worship located near the West Branch Post Office, in this town.
The Universalists have a society in this town, and have for their present pastor the Rev. Mr. J. S. Kibbe, alternately holding their meetings with the Methodists in the "Union Church."?
The common schools previous to 1849 had been well sus- tained, were flourishing, and the cause of education rapidly advancing. Few towns could produce an equal amount of talent in useful and active life, which had been developed but in the common schools. In 1845 there were seventeen public schools in successful operation. The school house at Lee
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Centre is a good two-story wooden building. The cost of the several school houses, and the land connected with them was $3.768.
The first settlers in the region of Fish Creek possessed one advantage over the carly settlers in many other parts of the country. The luxury of the "roast beef," pork, and mutton, of older settlements, is sparingly enjoyed in new : but in the neighborhood of the creek, the luscious salmon almost compensated for the deprivation. From the time the salmon made their first appearance in the spring until fall. the supply was only limited by the demand, and after the wants of " home consumption" had been satisfied, the surplus was frequently taken to gratify the voluptuaries at Fort Stanwix, Whitestown, and Old Fort Schuyler. Many of the inhabitants thus drew from Fish Creek a considerable part of their support. In the fall they were salted down for winter's use, and formed a far more palatable substitute for "meat victuals." than did the salted pigeons substituted by the pioneers of Whitesboro.
There are no large villages in this town. but there are four points where business centres.
In the west part of the town, on the Rome and Taberg plank road, is a small cluster of houses, mechanics, etc., and there are in the vicinity four saw mills, and other machinery on West Creek, a stream that empties into Fish Creek. Here is the Lee Post Office, and a tavern.
Lee Centre. as its name indicates, is centrally located in the town. Here are a number of dwellings, the Union Church, two stores, a tavern, a grist and saw mill, Lee Centre Post Office, a tannery, with various shops for mechan- ies. It is a quiet country village, isolated from the bustle of canals, rail or plank roads, yet its water power makes it a place of some importance and considerable business. It is
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situated on the Canada Creek, a stream sufficient to turn quite an amount of machinery, that empties into Wood Creek westerly from Rome.
Nisbet's Corners are about two miles easterly from the Centre, where the road from that place to Delta crosses the Rome and Turin plank road. Here is a store, tavern, and a small collection of dwellings and shops. and Stoke's Post Office. This place takes its name from Robert Nisbet, a gentleman from Adams, Mass., who settled here about the year 1818, and resided here until his death, which occurred in March, 1839. He was. a prominent and active business man. For many years he was confessedly the best farmer in the county, and in his farm management probably had few superiors in the country. He was also extensively en- gaged in the produce business, and did more at an early day to introduce and encourage good dairying in this part of the State, than any other person. The little village which bears his name, was built up under the influence of his active and extended business, and for many years pre- sented, during the autumn, the stir and activity often not witnessed in towns of a much larger population, but lacking the energy of a master spirit to guide and direct its opera- tions. The influence of Mr. Nisbet's example and advice has contributed largely to the agricultural improvement, not only of the town where he resided, but of this entire section of country. This brief tribute to his memory is not therefore undeserved.
Delta is situated in the extreme eastern part of the town, a small portion of the village being in Western. It lies on the westerly side of the Mohawk River, which affords it an abundant water power. Delta has a post office of that name, a Methodist Church, a grist and flouring
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mill, a saw mill, a large distillery, a plow factory, a wool carding, cloth dressing, and woolen manufacturing establish- inent. and the various mechanics usually found in a coun- try village, with quite a collection of respectable dwelling houses.
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CHAPTER XIV.
MARCY.
In the year 1740, and in the north of Ireland, were wit- nessed the parting adieus of a young man and his lately betrothed wife, to parents, brothers, and sisters, and the dear friends of their childhood and youth. The parting over, a long, long, lingering look was given to the green valley that had ever been their home, and where the shamrock covered the happy playgrounds of childhood ; a long farewell was in- wardly breathed to Ireland, and the journey to the harbor of embarkation was at once commenced. They had heard of " swate Americy," the home for the oppressed and poor. where labor was abundant, and wages fully compensated for its toil, and, above all, where but a small portion of the laborer's earnings were swallowed up in rents, tythes, and taxes. To this El Dorado of their imaginations were our young emigrants about to exile themselves.
Having crossed the wide Atlantic, the town of Plainfield, in the State of Connecticut, was selected for their future home. Poor in this world's goods, yet rich in each other's love, in stout hearts, strong arms, and persevering industry, they could hardly fail to be successful. At the end of twenty-five years, we find our emigrants with ample com- petence, almost rich, and with ten healthy children, nine sons and a daughter. Another emigration now became necessary, to secure farms and homes for this numerous
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progeny. Vermont was then the "New Country," whose woods and cheap lands were inviting the tide of emigration. and in 1765 we find our Irish-Yankee settled in the town and County of Windsor, in that territory, then claimed by New York and New Hampshire. A few years found them with good farms, cleared of their primeval forests ; then came the time that "tried men's souls," and eight of the nine sons were found with the Green Mountain Boys, battling for their country. The ninth and youngest would have joined his comrades, but his age did not come up to the continental standard. What was seemingly remarkable, they all lived to see their country's independence established; although some were "during the war's" men, no bullet had been com- missioned to harm them, and being some of the iron men of that age, they had withstood the hardships and privations which swept so many of the soldiers of independence to un- timely graves.
Vermont not coming fully up to their anticipations, four of the sons were among the earliest settlers of the town of Marey. John Wilson, the sixth son, was the first person who removed within the present limits of the town. He came in the spring of 1793, and brought a large family of children, all under eighteen years of age. He settled upon a river farm, about half a mile east of the Nine Mile Creek. where he built a small log house, and cleared several acres of land. In the fall he was taken ill of a bilious fever, and died, and several of his elder children continued to reside on the farm, while the younger separated, and went to live. with different relatives. Early in 1794, James Wilson, the seventh son of the Irish emigrant, arrived in the town. A Dutchman, named Tull, had preceded him, and built a log house eighteen feet square, in which he and his family, in all twelve persons, were living. The house stood on the bank
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of the Nine Mile Creek, about sixty rods above its junction with the Mohawk. Like all new settlers, Tull's latchstring was out, and James Wilson removed in with the already crowded household, adding six to their numbers, and there remained until spring, when he purchased a "new lot," as unimproved lands were then called, about one mile north of the Oriskany village, upon which he moved. His first efforts in agriculture were unfortunate. Ile cleared a few acres the first spring, and planted it with corn, adding a liberal supply of pumpkin seed to the corn seed. The pigeons pulled up every stalk of the corn, leaving the pump- kins to luxuriate alone on the virgin soil. Their numbers were legions, and their size enormous, but they were his only produce the first year, and consequently the hardships of the settlers were trying and severe, as the oxen and cows had to be fed the first winter from the tops of the elm, basswood, and maple. Hardships were, however, borne without com- plaint, and at the end of fifteen years from his arrival, he- was a wealthy farmer.
In 1794, Isaac and Jacob Wilson, fourth and fifth sons of Thomas Wilson, removed into this town, in the neighbor- hood of their brother. Of these first settlers, not an individual now remains in the town, all having died or removed ; the last, Thomas, son of James Wilson, who was but a small lad when he arrived, having recently removed to the town of Vernon. Of the early settlers, among whom were the Careys, Camps, and others, several still reside in the town.
The first settlers were mostly uneducated men, yet with their rude manners, kind and neighborly. They were in the habit of meeting at some one of their houses, to celebrate the advent of the new year. A "rich supper," as they termed it, was provided, by each furnishing the articles in which he most abounded ; and the result was, that these
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suppers exhibited a bountiful supply of turkeys, chickens, pies, cakes, etc. After the supper, the young people spent the evening in dancing, while the older ones told their stories and cracked their jokes.
Strong drink was freely used, although by few to intoxi- cation ; for this was before the invention of temperance societies. Logging and wood bees were also the order of the day, to which a whole neighborhood were invited, to give one of their number a lift in drawing, piling, and burning logs, in clearing land, or to cut and draw fire wood. It is very questionable whether those who have succeeded them enjoy life with as high a relish as they did. They were a plain people, manufacturing in their families almost every article of their wearing apparel, the fabric of which, though coarse, and colored from the bark of the hemlock. soft maple, but- ternut, and hazel, was warm and durable. The females, or as they might be termed, "nature's ladies." were well fitted. by inclination and habit, for pioneers; and threading the paths through their tangled forests on foot, or at best on horseback, was to them a pastime. An instance might be given of a young married woman, who, wishing to visit her father's family, some three miles distant, at the place now known as Colman's Mills, in the town of Whitestown, went to the pasture, caught a highly spirited four years old horse, manufactured a halter from her home-spun, home-woven, long and strong unmentionables, and without other head- gear for her horse, or even a saddle, performed the journey, having to ford or swim the Mohawk at the "Oxbow," on her outward and homeward passage. She had a pleasant visit, and her, it must be confessed, perilous ride, was performed without accident.
This town, in common with the early settlements of the county, suffered much from the depredations of bears, wolves,
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and foxes, and some of the early settlers soon learned to be quite skilful in making the bears rue their depredations in the corn fields. Probably a Mr. Hall had acquired the "art and mystery" beyond any of his cotemporaries, for at one time he had sixteen of their pelts stretched on the sides of a barn to dry.
The early settlers in general enjoyed good health, and but occasionally a case of bilious or intermittent fever occurred in the valley of the Mohawk, or on the margin of a mill- pond. Consumption was hardly known, but of late years almost one half the deaths in the town are from this dis- ease. The principal causes for this change would doubtless be found in the different modes of living, and the warm houses, heated in winter almost to suffocation by stoves, and then the sudden transition into the cold north-westers of our climate.
A portion of the first settlers were not very strict in their observance of the Lord's-day, and a number of them used to congregate on this day upon the Mohawk Flat, near the Oxbow, to talk over the news of the day, etc. Two lads, of about fourteen years, took a rather novel way to cure the evil. Near the place of rendezvous stood a tall pine tree, the top of which grew so thick as to be quite impenetrable to the eye, and one Sunday morning, previous to the time of gathering, the boys, with testament in hand, and taking advantage of a thickly-limbed cedar which shot up beside the trunk of the pine, reached the thick top of the latter, and snugly ensconsed themselves within it. At the usual time the loiterers convened, and soon one of the boys, in a loud but sepulchral tone, commenced reading from the sacred volume texts against the desecration of the day. Occasionally the reader would interlard the selected scrip- tures with an admonition to desist from the bad example
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they were setting their children. The hearers strained their optics to see from whence came the warnings, but no dis- covery was made. They, however, very soon left, and the cure was most perfeet. For more than thirty years the principal actors in this scene kept the secret locked in their own breasts, but after their whole congregation were either dead or removed from the town, one of them divulged the whole matter.
GEOLOGY. - There is nothing dissimilar in the geological formation of this town, from that of many of the towns in the county. Commencing on the southerly side of the town, which is bounded on the Mohawk River, we find the alluvial flats common to the stream, and the alluvial deposits are in many parts of great depthi. In digging a well on that flat, a frog in a torpid state was found, encased in clay and gravel, twenty feet below the surface. After being exposed to the air a short time, animation returned, but it survived but a few hours. The flats in this town are of various widths, but in general the whole width is about one mile, and as the river meanders from side to side, it leaves at some places the larger portion in this town, and at others a large portion in the adjoining town of Whitestown, while at others the river is nearly central. When not too wet, they are very productive. Rising from the flats. there is a strip of table land, averaging about one hundred rods in width, and which is much higher in the north-western than in the south- eastern parts of the town. Opposite the Oriskany village,. the hill is very considerable, while against Whitesboro it has. but a slight elevation above the alluvial flats. In the lower part of the town, the soil of this table is almost entirely sand, warm and quick, and, with high manuring, very pro-
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ductive. In passing up the Mohawk to a point opposite the upper part of Whitesboro, there is found a small rivulet which rises on the hills at the north, and empties into the river. passing between the residences of Milton and Horace Dyer, and this stream is the boundary between the sandy and gravelly portions of the table land ; above it is entirely gravel. The cobble stone and gravel of this section have the appearance of once having been washed. and occasionally clumps of petrified shells are found. a strong indication that this table was at some period covered with water. If. as many suppose. - and there are certainly very strong reasons for the opinion, -Fall Hill at the Little Falls was the east- ern terminus of a lake which once occupied the Mohawk valley above, then the depth of water would have been suf- ficient to have covered this table land. It is very productive. the earth thrown from wells fifteen or twenty feet in depth, possesses all the fertility of that on the surface.
Leaving the table land, and further back from the Mo- hawk. the land rises into hills of primary formation ; these are not quite as productive as the alluvial and table lands, yet there is much good second quality land. Most of it is underlaid with slate from two to twenty feet below the sur- face. The slate has a slight dip to the south, and this will be found true of all the rock and mineral formations in the county. Much time and money have been expended in this town in boring for coal, and in one instance a few individuals penetrated 100 feet, near the Nine Mile Creek, without find- ing coal. and for the very best of reasons, -there is none. If the geology of the county had formerly been as well understood as at present, much labor and money might have been saved for more useful purposes.
A GRICULTURE. - The agriculture of this town is improving.
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Wheat has been almost driven from its limits by the wheat worm, but within the last two years a few good crops have been raised, and strong hopes are entertained that, when the worm has passed by, wheat growing-to an extent equal to home consumption - may be resumed. All other erops common to the county are successfully cultivated ; much, however, of this success is found with those farmers who pay the greatest attention to the superior methods of man- uring and cultivating their land. Within a few years there has been a decided improvement witnessed in the agriculture of Marey.
SCHOOLS .- There are no Seminaries or High Schools in the town. The common schools are represented to be quite flourishing.
INDIANS. - There were no Indians residing in this town when the county was settled. A correspondent informs the author that there was a place about half a mile east of the Oriskany. upon a beautiful piece of table land, on the north bank of the Mohawk, which was known to the first settlers by the name of the "Indian Castle." As early as 1796 it was mostly covered with second-growth timber, five or six inches in diameter; and a small mound, about eighteen inches high. and from eight to ten feet across the top, is still scen upon its site. Near the place of this Indian settle- ment are from twenty to thirty "hopper holes," as they were termed by the first settlers, and, according to tradition, they were used to seerete their corn on the approach of an enemy. Each hole would contain about ten bushels, and the bottom and sides were carefully lined with dry brakes and grass. Several of these were found upon the farm first purchased by James Wilson. Iron hatchets, of a very peculiar shape,
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have been ploughed up on the same farm, supposed to be of Spanish manufacture. The author's correspondent is of the opinion that this place and the Oriskany village were. an- terior to the Revolution, occupied by a branch of the Mohawk tribe, and that the Oneidas took possession after they had left. This may be correct ; still the author had never pre viously heard of the Mohawks having any villages as high up the river.
By the last census the town contained 1,769 inhabitants It then contained no grist mill, seven saw mills, one tri, hammer. using 8400 in raw materials, producing $1.500 it manufactured articles, two tanneries, using 87,700 in rav materials. and producing $ 10,600 in manufactured articles.
RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES.
There are two Baptist Churches in the town. the cost o which was $1.050; one Congregational Church, cost $200 and one Methodist Church, cost $ 1,320. Of these churchc no statistics have been obtained, with the exception of the Berean Baptist Church, and of this they are quite meagre. The Berean Church was formed early in the year 1844 under the pastoral care of Elder Wm. H. Thomas, and reported that year sixty added by baptism, thirty by expe rience and letter, and seventeen dismissed, excluded, ant deceased, leaving a total of seventy-three. In 1845, 11/ members were reported. In 1846 and 1847, Elder Myror H. Negus was pastor, and seventy members reported th former, and sixty the latter year. In 1849, Mr. Alfre. Harris, a licentiate, supplied the pulpit, and but forty-sever members were reported. The first pastor became a " case away" and fled to a distant part of the country, where h.
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died in poverty and disgrace. How much of the deelension of this church is chargable to his fall, will never be known in time.
By a law passed March 30, 1832, the town of Marcy was formed from the town of Deerfield, and was named in honor of William L. Marcy, then Governor of the State, and Seere- tary at War during the administration of President Polk. A few months after the formation of the town, Gov. Marcy visited it, and was the guest of C. Baldwin, Esq., who was the first and then Supervisor of the town.
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