USA > New York > Oneida County > Annals and recollections of Oneida County > Part 28
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"'The Western Inland Lock Navigation Company' com- pleted a canal connecting the navigable waters of Mohawk River and Wood Creek, at Rome, in 1797; it was two miles in length, and of a capacity for Durham boats of forty tons burthen ; it had locks built of brick, at the east and west ends, and its water was from the Mohawk by a feeder at the centre ; its course passed the southerly margin of the vil- lage." - Western Enquirer.
The brick locks, it seems, did not answer the purpose, and they were shortly afterwards rebuilt with more substantial materials. The bricks of which they were first constructed were very large, and the first Court House at Rome was constructed of them. Since the Court House was burned in 1848, these same bricks are again re used for the walls of a handsome dwelling at the corner of George and Court streets.
The following particulars respecting this canal are con- densed from a notice of it in the first edition of Spafford's Gazetteer of New York, published in 1819. "The canal is fed by a lateral cut from the Mohawk, which entered it nearly a mile west of the river. It had a lock of ten feet at the eastern, and another of eight feet at the western ter- minations. There were also four locks, respectively of four, six, seven, and eight feet, upon Wood Creek, within five miles of Rome, which were made by throwing dams across
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the stream. Batteaux, carrying from three to fifteen tons, drawing two feet of water, could pass, but in dry season: with some difficulty. About 1812 it was estimated that 300 boats, with 1,500 tons of merchandise, &c., went through this canal annually. The canal at Little Falls [Rockton] was completed in 1795." These stupendous enterprises, for that period, were greatly indebted to the wisdom and energy of Gen. Schuyler, who was President of the Company by which they were constructed. "The average freighits in 1812 from New York to Oswego, per hundred weight, were, -to Albany, 30 cents ; to Schenectady, 16 cents ; to Utica 75 cents ; and to Oswego, $1 25, or $2 40 per cwt. through, which included lockage, portage money, &c. But the pro- ject of a Great Western Canal, to connect Lake Erie and the Hudson by a boat navigation, is now a principal topic in this State. Commissioners have examined the country, and have reported in favor of the project, but on a plan which to my [Spafford's] apprehension is generally imprac- ticable. The object is certainly a desideratum of vast im- portance, and the magnitude of the undertaking is warranted by the ample means at our disposal. But the object is, or ought to be, a national one, and Congress will probably be induced to lend efficient aid whenever its practicability shall be satisfactorily demonstrated to that body." Such doc- trines sound strangely in this "day and generation."
Peter Colt superintended the construction of the old canal. An anecdote which went the rounds of the papers at the time. may not be entirely uninteresting. Then, as now; canals were mainly constructed by Irish laborers. As Mr. Colt was passing through a company of these laborers one day, for some real or supposed offence or delinquency, he gave one of them a smart kick on his rear exposure. Thu man instantly let go his barrow, and while with his left hand
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rubbing the seat of attack, with his right very respectfully raised his hat, and rolling the quid in his mouth, and with a .peculiar knowing twinkle of the eye, said, in the richest Irish brogue, "Fath and by Jassus, if yer honor kieks so while ye're a coult, what'll ye do when ye get to be a horse ?"
George Huntington was continuous Collector and Peter Colt Superintendent for the Western Inland Lock Naviga- tion Company until the completion of the Erie Canal. There is extant a copy of the finding of a body of freehold- ers of Herkimer County, summoned by William Colbrath, sheriff of said county, dated November, 1797, in which they assess to the proprietors of "the Expense Lot," for fourtech acres of land, taken by the Western Inland Lock Naviga- tion Company, upon which to excavate their canal. Damages $100 and costs of appraisal.
In the second war for independence, declared in 1812. Rome had not quite lost "the fire of the flint" of the "days that tried men's souls." When called upon, it again and again furnished its quota of men for the defence of the northern frontier. Major Samuel Dill, of this town, was at Sacketts Harbor in the first detachment under Col. Bellin- ger, in 1812. When the downfall of Napoleon on the field of Waterloo had left no other enemy to haughty Britain than the United States, when Wellington's hitherto invin- cible regiments were pouring into Canada, in that darkest period of the war, Governor Tompkins, unsolicited, appointed Joshua Hathaway Quarter Master General of the New York State Militia, and ordered him to Sacketts Harbor. When he arrived at that post, it was under the command of the hero of Oswego, Col. Mitchell, of the regular artillery, who immediately tendered to him the command, as senior officer. This was at first modestly declined, but on Col. Mitchell's
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earnestly insisting, with the most cordial assurances of his good will, counsel, and co-operation, it was accepted.
In the fall of this year the Oneida County Militia were called to Sacketts Harbor, en masse, and the 157th regiment, usually known as the Rome regiment, commanded by Col. John Westcott, embodied and marched to that post. Among its officers were Lieut .- Col. Joshua G. Green, Captains Rudd. Fillmore, Church, Grannis, Hinckley, and Peck, (perhaps some of these were there previously, in the detached militia.) Staff; Adjutant Samuel Beardsley, Paymaster Jay Hatha- way, Surgeon Henry H. Smith.
In a truthful narrative of the events of that period, the historian is compelled to record the fact, that there were individuals of high standing, who would attend the military parades when drafts were called for, and harangne the men when under arms, denouncing the war as wicked, and all those who volunteered their services as murderers.
The United States' Arsenal, magazine, workshops, and officers' quarters at this place, were erected in 1813. The work was superintended by Major James Dalliba, of the Ordnance Department. A State Arsenal, built of brick. previous to 1810, stood on the site now occupied by St. Peter's (Catholic) Church. It was accidentally destroyed by fire, with its contents, a few years since.
On the 4th of July, 1817, the ground was first broken in the construction of the Erie Canal. This was done with appropriate public ceremonies, and the place selected was a few rods west of the United States' Arsenal, and the honor of casting the first shovel of earth was assigned to the late Hon. Joshua Hathaway. Wood Creek flows into the canal at this point, and the surplus water passes off by a waste weir over its old channel, following which about three-fourths of a mile. it receives Mud Creek, a small mill stream. from
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the south-west, and about the same distance below is the remains of Fort Bull.
The Erie Canal from Montezuma to Utica was so far completed as to be navigable in 1820. Bela B. Hyde was the first collector, appointed at Rome, and held the office for eighteen successive years. The first tolls were paid by Col. John Westcott, upon a raft of timber. The Erie Canal on its first construction through Rome, passed about half a mile south of the village, but this was a departure from the uniform course pursued by the State in the location of its public works. In every other instance it is believed the canal was located, as far as consistent with the public in- terest, so as to save capital already invested, while at this point a different policy or course was pursued. The canal located half a mile from the village was far more expensive in its construction than if laid in the bed of the old canal through the village. No very satisfactory reasons have ever been adduced for such a location, and it was certainly very disastrous to the village, and for eightcen years kept it behind the other villages upon the line of the canal. At the time of its construction, it was said the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company asked such an exorbitant price for their canal, that it was thought cheaper to make a new one than to buy it. Others suspected that an assistant engineer was interested in testing the practicability of con- structing canals through a muck swamp, as he owned land of that description in another county, which would be greatly benefitted if canal making in such grounds proved success- ful. Be that as it may, all the advantage which Rome de- rived from the canal for the above term of time was very limited, although it is true that a storehouse and a little cluster of cheap buildings, mostly built upon piles, sprang up in the swamp. In point of durability, the latter just
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answered their end. for when the location of the enlarge; canal was changed through the village, these buildings ha. lived out their day, and their owners experienced very little loss. The change of location, which was in 1844, gave : new impulse to the business of the place.
This now forsaken channel, however, still answers t valuable purpose as a drain for the " swamp." Several huis dred acres, originally covered with a dense growth of pinc. cedar, and black ash, have lately been cleared, and are found so dry that the alluvial soil is very valuable for agricultura purposes.
The Syracuse and Utica Railroad passes through the southerly part of the village, crossing the Mohawk and Eric Canal upon wooden bridges. The depot is a substantial stone building, 225 feet in length. This road was charterec. in 1836, and its construction has added materially to th. prosperity of Rome. The Rome and Watertown Railroad now constructing, makes its junction with the Syracuse ang Utica Railroad a few rods westerly from the depot. Ex. tensive buildings are about to be erected near the junction.
The Black River Canal passes in a southerly direction through the easterly part of the village. This work has progressed very slowly. From the disordered situation of the State finances in 1812, all public works for a time were suspended, but a better state of things has enabled the State to resume its public works, and this canal is in such a state of forwardness, that it became navigable to the Black River in the spring of 1850.
The capitalists of Rome, aided by the inhabitants of the different sections of country interested, have, with a laudable ambition, converted all the important highways leading to the village into plank roads. Those from Rome to Oswego. from Rome to Taberg, from Rome to Turiu, and from Rome
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to Western and Boonville, are already constructed, while one from Rome to Hamilton is in the course of construction. The Rome Academy, an incorporated institution, occupies a handsome three-story structure, built by subscription in 1848, upon a beautiful and prominent location on the public square, on the north side of Court street, and west of the Court House and James street. It is under the charge of a board of trustees, who have power to fill all vacancies in their number. Rev. S. R. Brown, some time missionary in China, is its principal, and the female department is under the care of Miss Sabina Jennings, late of Mount Holyoke Seminary. For an institution so recently estab- lished, it is in a very prosperous condition, now numbering about 200 students, with a juvenile department attached.
The common schools of Rome have claimed the attention of its prominent citizens, and are not behind those of any section of the county .*
The village contains 500 dwelling houses, some of them very elegant structures, and pre-eminent among which is that of Mr. Edward Huntington, on Liberty street, which is of briek, finely stuccoed and shaded, in imitation of stone. It also contains forty stores and sixty mechanic shops. The principal public houses are the American, Northern, and Railroad Hotels, Stanwix Hall, Tremont House, Willett House, and Seymour House. The Bank of Rome and Fort Stanwix Bank are each doing an extensive and profitable business. The Rome Exchange Bank has been established within the present summer (1851).
* Since the foregoing was penned, a new era has commenced in the common schools in the village. A new school house has been erected, of brick, seventy feet by fifty, two stories high, calculated to accommodate 400 scholars, and located upon a large lot in a handsome and convenient position, at an expense of about $ 7,000.
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The natural advantages of Rome as a place of business, are good, and its location central. The carrying place from the Mohawk to Wood Creek in the olden time, the old canal making an uninterrupted water navigation from New York to the Ontario, Cayuga, and Seneca Lakes, the elevated dry gravelly plain, so firm and suitable for building ground, the excellence of its water, and its contiguity to the fore-men- tioned streams for hydraulic purposes, all seemed to point to this location as one for a place of extensive business. Its growth, however, for the first half century after its perma- nent settlement, was far short of public expectation, and for this there were a number of causes. A prominent one was in the fact, that the owners of the soil refused to sell the fee simple of the building lots. Enterprising business men, locating themselves in a new country, generally possess too much of the spirit of independence, too much of the feeling of "anti-rentism," to willingly impose on their posterity the burthen of an annual stipend to the landholder. The loca- tion of the Sencca turnpike, some ten miles south of Rome, and intersecting the Mohawk at Utica, soon caused a rival, without a tythe of its natural advantages, to grow up and outstrip it. And then the unkind and unjust first location of the Erie Canal, as before mentioned, added to the fact that the energies and ambition of the people had become too dormant, left this place with but a very tardy progress. The construction of the Syracuse and Utica Railroad, the change of the route of the Erie Canal, and the construction of the Black River Canal, roused the Romans to burst "the shell" which had so long encased them, and their now flou. rishing and prosperous place, with its improvements, its plank roads, and business facilities, give unerring evidence of the publio spirit of its capitalists, and the enlightened energies of its people; and with its but few years of prosperity, it
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even now claims a reserved stock of public spirit and am- bition, with a basis, it is believed, of sound advantages, which, when events shall ripen, and the State Capitol, in search of a new location, shall " westward take its way," will then show their mettle in the strife with Utica and Syracuse ; "till when, it bides its time."
Two fires in the village, the first burning quite a portion of the business portion on the south side of Dominick street. and the "great fire," which occurred January 6th, 1846, sweeping all the buildings on the north side of Dominick street, from the Bank of Rome on the west to James street, and up that to Stone Alley, have very materially added to the beauty of the place. In the brief space of three years from their occurrence, the whole of the burnt districts were rebuilt with good substantial brick buildings, and on the site of the latter fire it is believed few finer or more uniform blocks of its extent can be found in central New York.
In one instance thousands now regret that the ruthless hand of improvement had not been stayed. The noble fort, built on the strictest scientific rules, and round which so many rich reminiscences centre, has been razed, and not one portion of it left to mark its locality. It was an exception to every other fortification in the "Old Thirteen," for it was never taken, and no enemy ever entered within its ramparts. For a pleasure ground, its location was most admirable, and planted with forest trees and shrubbery, no park in the State could have vied with it. On the south and east lay the finest alluvial meadows, through which the silvery Mo- hawk, "o'er its numerous rifts," wends its way, while equi- distant between the river and the fort, meanders Spring Brook, " cold as winter's ice," in which in former times gambolled "nature's best," the speckled trout ; while on the north and west, for at least two miles, extends a level plateau,
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than which, for town or city, no finer site exists. If it had been spared, so long as the stars and stripes float over a nation of freemen, so long as the remembrance of the times which "tried men's souls" is cherished, so long cach suc- ceeding year would have increased the interest in a spot so rich in revolutionary lore.
All now left for the historian is to speak of it as "among the things that were," and as far as possible preserve the identity of its location. The residence of John Stryker, Esq., stands where stood the north-cast corner or bastion. on the south-cast that of Virgil Draper, on the south-west that of Alva Mudge, and on the north-west that of D. B. Prince. The large elm tree standing at the west end of the dwelling of Alva Mudge, in 1804 was a small ten foot sap- ling, growing on the west scarp, just below the top of the rampart.
It has fared better with Fort Bull, for time Las effected all the changes wrought upon it. It is a fort in miniature. compared with Fort Stanwix, yet a very Landsome and regularly formed work. It is near a farm house owned hy Simon Matteson, and the area within its walls is occupied as a garden. Piekaxes, gun barrels, hatchets, knives, flint arrow-heads. flints, pieces of crockery, cte., are occasionally plowed up within the fort and in its vicinity. In a com- mendable spirit, Mr. Matteson says, that so long as he owns the farm, the fort shall remain as it is. In building a barn a few years since, he used for one of the posts a stick of timber found in the bed of Wood Creek, and which belonged to the dam thrown across it at the time of the construction of the fort. It was entirely sound. "and just as good as new."
The public buildings in Rome are the United States' Ar- senal. Court House. Jail. Academy, Presbyterian, Baptist.
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Episcopal, Methodist, Irish Roman Catholic (St. Peter's), Dutch Roman Catholic, Welsh Methodist, and Lutheran Churches.
There are two printing offices, from each of which issues a weekly paper, - The Rome Sentinel (Demoeratio), and the Roman Citizen (Whig).
In the town are twelve saw mills, carried by water, three steam saw mills, two furnaces, one grist and flouring mill, one plaster mill, one steam planing machine, one woolen factory, two breweries, a stone ware manufactory, and a ship tackle block factory. The county poorhouse is in this town, about two miles south-west of the village.
There are several Lodges of Odd Fellows in the village, which occupy a handsomely furnished hall on James street. There is also a flourishing Division of the Sons of Tem- perance.
The Court House and Jail, just completed by the county, occupy the site of the former ones, which were destroyed by fire some three years since. They are of briek, except the cells, which are of large slabs of limestone. These buildings, in style and finish, are considered as models, worthy the central county of the Empire State.
There is nothing in the geology of this town of particular interest, other than already noticed. On the southerly line . of the town is a quarry of freestone, particularly noticed in the history of Westmoreland (Chap. XXVIII). On the north line of the town the banks of the Mohawk and Gulf Brook show large masses of shale. Bowlders are occasion- ally met with. The surface of the village plat, and for a considerable distance north and east, was originally almost covered with cobble stones, many of which exhibit numerous petrifactions.
In excavating the canal through the swamp, clam shells 25
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of a large size, charcoal, and ashes, were found imbedded eight feet below the surface.
Fish Creek, which forms the western boundary of the town, is here large and rapid, and was formerly well stocked with trout, and from May to July it amply supplied the Rome market with the finest salmon, speared and brought in by the Oneida Indians. As late as 1800 salmon were so plenty, that from three to four cents per pound was a fair price, and many were bought of the Indians for a pint to a quart of rum per salmon. They sometimes brought them in baskets on their backs, and when extra plenty, the Indian ponies were used as pack-horses, on which the fish were somewhat fantastically, and quite ingeniously, bound with bark, the back and sides of the beast having been previously covered with branches of the large-leafed basswood sapling.
The following public officers have been elected or ap- pointed from among the former or present citizens of Rome : -two Supreme Court Judges, three Supreme Court Com- missioners, six County Judges, two Sheriffs, four Surrogates, one United States' Senator, one Member of Congress, six Members of Assembly, two State Senators, five County Treasurers, one Chief Engineer of the Eric Canal, one do. of the Black River Canal, and one Captain of the United States' Army. The first postmaster in the place was Mat- thew Brown, jun.
John Barnard, who has been mentioned as an innkeeper and business-man in the early days of Rome, yet survives, at a very advanced age, in Lima, Livingston County. Jede- diah Phelps, Esq., also named as an early settler, has for many years resided in Albion, Orleans County. About two years since, the author wrote to him for some of his recol- lections of the carly history of Oncida County. The an- swer came in another hand, but age had so impaired his
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memory, that nothing of interest was elicited. At the bottom of the letter, in very fair and legible characters. was the following, in his own hand' :-
"I am, dear Sir, very respectfully yours,
" JEDEDIAHI PHELPS. ". My age is 95." *
Sergeant John Dowlee, of the artillery, was long in the garrison of Fort Stanwix, and was in it when it sustained the siege by St. Leger. He also went out with the party under Col. Willett, and was at the taking of Sir John John- son's camp. He said the surprise of the Indians and tories was as perfect as was that of Gen. Herkimer at Oriskany, as they had no picket-guard out, and were engaged in making fires and cooking their rations. It will be recollected that Johnson's camp was at the landing, about half a mile below the fort. When the attack was made, the tories attempted to ford or swim the river, and were shot down by scores while in the river, and those who reached the shore fled for their lives. Sergeant Dowlec was of the opinion that a portion of Johnson's men had returned from the Oriskany battle before their camp was stormed. He declared "they were & bloody, villanous looking set." He was the only officer who settled in the vicinity of the work he had so long assisted in defending, and where he and his comrades had so sigually punished the Indians and tories for the Oriskany butchery. He lived to a good old age.
The following epitaph, copied from the monument over his remains, contains so much of the history of one of Rome's prominent citizens, that it is inserted : -
* Since deceased.
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" In memory of the Hon. JOSHUA HATHAWAY, More than forty years a resident of this town. He was born in Suffield, Ct., Aug. 13, 1761; graduated at Yale College in 1787, and died at Rome, Dec. Sth, 1836. 'Requiescat in pace.' As a husband and father, ever worthy, loved, and venerated. As a man and Christian, up- right and exemplary; a friend to the needy and injured; and a father in the Church. As a magistrate and judge, by the grace of God, an executor of justice, and maintainer of the truth, 'a terror to evil doers, and praise to such as did well.' As a patriot, he bore arms in two wars for his country, and sustained at all times the cause of the people with zeal and fidelity. As a citizen, ever active and enterprising for the benefit of our common country, and among the foremost for the improvement of this favored portion of it. To him was assigned the honor of breaking ground on commencing that great and beneficial work, the Erie Canal, July 4, 1817. In the various relations of life he fulfilled its duties as in the fear of God, with faithfulness, ability, and honesty of purpose. He died lament- ed. 'The memory of the just is blessed.'"
Judge Hathaway's father, himself, and six brothers, were under Gen. Stark at the Bennington battle, which victory was the first link in the chain of events, and the flight of St. Leger from before Fort Stanwix the second, which led to the capture of Burgoyne ; the capture of Burgoyne laid the foundation for a treaty of alliance with France, and without the aid of the French land and naval forces, Washington could not have forced the capitulation of Cornwallis, which in fact achieved the independence of the United States.
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