USA > New York > Oneida County > Annals and recollections of Oneida County > Part 33
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five acres substantially fenced forever, and no cattle or other animals suffered to go within its bounds, and the title to fail whenever the lessees shall fail in the performance of the stipulations. Up to the present time the society has sacred- ly kept its trust, the forest having the most primeval appear- ance, and the little tiny saplings as well as the largest beech and maples bear the impress, that here, man nor beast has trespassed. The monument erected by subscription, when the "nation's guest," La Fayette, visited this country, is be- coming dilapidated, and for the honor of the town and county, it is hoped that it will be shortly repaired. The tablet is about seven feet by four, and nearly a foot in thickness, of the purest limestone, and kept in place, will withstand the ravages of centuries.
The following from the Rome Sentinel of December 19th, 1949. is considered worthy of being inserted :
". WONDERFUL OCCURRENCE .- The most remarkable and almost in- credible accident that we ever heard of, happened in the town of Steuben, in this county, last week. About three weeks since, Thomp- son Phillips, a respectable inhabitant of Steuben, completed a new Steam Saw Mill near a piece of woods on his premises. It was kept in tolerable successful operation, till a week ago last Friday, when the boiler collapsed, and by the force of steam or some other pow- er," moved bodily from the arch into which it was set, and was carried with tremendous fury, the distance of twenty-eight rods into a piece of woods. In its progress it carried away the chimney of the Saw Mill, and struck and severed entirely from the stumps six trees, several of which were hemlock, and one, a sound beech, eighteen inches in diameter. One of the trees was severed into several pieces, aud the last tree that was struck was broken into a log about thirty
* The boiler burst at one en I, and it is now believed that the escape of the steam from the end, on the reaction principle, caused this powerful movement of it .~ AUTAOR.
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STEUBEN.
feet long, which was driven six rods beyond the stump from which it was severed. The wood that was in the furnace at the time of the accident, was drawn into the boiler through a hole broken into the boiler over the furnace, tighter than it could be driven by a beetle.
" Every tree except the last one severed, fell in the direction from which they were struck. There were six men in the Saw Mill at the time, no one of whom was injured. The explosion was loud, and a man at work in the woods near where the boiler passed, thought for a moment that the last irump was sounding.
" Every particular of the above occurrence happened as we have related, as hundreds who have gone a considerable distance to see the ruins, can verify."
There are no leading roads or publie improvements through this town. Four taverns at different times have been started, but there being little foreign aid, and the inhabitants too tem- perate and frugal to give them an efficient home support. they have all failed for the want of patronage. For the last twenty years Steuben, and to its honor it is narrated, has had no house where drunkards are manufactured according to law.
The high altitude of this town renders the air pure and bracing. As a town it is remarkably healthy. In its cas- terly part there is a school district of thirty families. Within this district, and within the ten years previous to 1849, there had seventeen persons died, over eighty years of age. Of these three were between eighty and eighty-five, zen between eighty-five and ninety, and four between ninety and ninety-five. A majority of these persons had resided in the district more than forty years, and quite a proportion were emigrants from Wales. There has been but one crimi- Dal conviction in the district, and that was of a person who had not resided in it two years. This district is thus partic- ularized, as a fair sample of the town.
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RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES.
There are seven churches in this town, six of which are Welsh and one English. These churches are of the follow- ing denominations, viz. : two Calvinistic Methodist, two Presbyterian, one Baptist, one Episcopal Methodist, and one Union Society of Methodists and Baptists. These statistics, in connection with the number of inhabitants, show conclu- sively that the Welsh are a church going, and a church loving people. It is rather a national peculiarity of the Welsh, that they divide into small societies, for the support of a preached gospel, and still they well sustain them by their attendance, subscriptions and contributions. By the census of 1845, there were six saw mills in the town, and no grist mill.
There is a printing office, but of its business capacity the author is not informed.
Population in 1845, 1,924.
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CHAPTER XXII.
TRENTON.
THE first settler of this town was Gerrit Boon, a native of Holland, who arrived in Trenton village in 1793, although he had then been some time in the United States. He was a most amiable and worthy man, and possessed great perse- verance and patience in overcoming all the obstacles and privations attendant upon the settlement of a new and unex- plored country.
He came from old Fort Schuyler (Utica) to this place marking a line of trees on ground lie selected for a future road, and on arriving at the junction of Cineinnatus and Steu- ben Creeks, he pitched his tent and named the place " Olden- barneveld," in honor of a great patriot and statesman of that name in Holland, a man of indomitable truthfulness and 'courage, who perished on the scaffold in 1619, in the eighty- second year of his age, in defence of the virtuous principles he had adopted.
Mr. Boon was agent for Nicholas Van Staphorst, Pieter Van Eighen, Hendrick Vollenhoven, Aernout Van Beefting, Volrave Van Herkelom, of Amsterdam, Holland, known as the Holland Land Company, and who with Jacob Van Stap- horst, Christian Van Eighen, Isaac Ten Cate, Christiana Coster, widow of Peter Stadnitski, and Jan Stadnitski, cit- izens of Netherlands, were the original " Holland land owners." Mr. Boon, either alone, or in connection with Her
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man LeRoy, William Bayard, James McEvers, Paul Busti. or some of them, purchased and held in trust for the owners in Holland, various considerable tracts of land in this section, aside from the immense possessions of the company in the western part of this State, and among which were, 46,057 acres of Oouthoudt's Patent, 6,026 acres of Steuben's Patent. 1,200 acres of Machin's Patent, 23,609 acres of Servis's Patent, etc., the latter Patent mostly lying in this town. As the early conveyances affecting these lands are not all re- corded in this County, the author has not been able to give a "chain of title" to them.
Servis's Patent was granted in 1768, by Sir Henry Moore, Governor of this colony, to Peter Servis and twenty-four others, tenants, and really for the benefit of Sir William John- son, and like most of the large colonial grants was made in the first instance to obscure individuals and by them trans- ferred to a government favorite, or officer of rank. to evade the instructions of the "Lords' Commissioners for Trade and Plantations." -- (Vide Cosby's Manor, Utica.)
Sir William Johnson prepared a great feast by roasting an ox whole, etc., to which he invited Peter Servis and his twenty-four colleagues, besides a large number of other in- habitants of Johnstown and vicinity, with their wives and children, and when all were in the best of spirits he procured a transfer of the patent to himself, he having doubtless fur- nished the money and exerted the influence necessary for its procurement. After the death of Sir William. and prior to the Revolution, his son Sir John Johnson and other heirs sold Servis' Patent to several gentlemen residing in New York, so that it was not confiscated with the property of the Johnson's in the Mohawk Valley, and between 1790 and 1800, this and the various other tracts were conveyed to Boon and others in trust, and on the 24th of March, 1801,
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Messrs. LeRoy, Bayard and Boon, conveyed Servis' Patent directly to the Holland Company. Mr. Boon died a few years since at Amsterdam, in Holland, whither he returned many years since, after closing up his land agency in a man- ner most satisfactory to his employers.
A characteristic anecdote is told of the late Peter Smith, in connection with the purchase of Servis' Patent, by Mr. Boon. After negotiating with the owners of the Patent in New York, Mr. Boon came to this then entire wilderness to examine as to the quality of the land. Having done so to his satisfaction, he arrived at the village of old Fort Schuyler on Saturday evening, on his way to New York, and put up with Mr. Smith, with whom he intended to remain over Sunday. After giving Mr. Smith his views as to the land and the price per acre at which he could purchase it, and Fafter the usual chit chat of the evening, Mr. Boon retired for the night. On Sunday morning he was surprised at the non- appearance of Mr. Smith, and what was singular his family could not account for his mysterious absence. The day wore away, and, although the family manifested no signs of alarm, yet no explanation of the occurrence was given, and early on Monday Mr. Boon sat out on his slow and toilsome journey for home. Immediately upon arriving in the city he called upon the proprietors of the Patent to complete the purchase, and it is casy to judge of his surprise when he was informed that Servis' Patent had been sold to Peter Smith on the day preceding. The story ends with an insinuation that Mr. Smith received a bonus of about $10,000 for his interest in the land.
At the commencement of the Revolution, Sir John John- son concealed the title-deeds, and other valuable papers, be- longing to the family, by burying the strong box containing them, in the garden of Johnson Hall, and several years after-
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wards, when exhumed they were found destroyed, having bo- come wet and mouldy, and therefore illegible. This fact having become public, Peter Servis, the original patentee, be- ing still alive in the Mohawk Valley, presuming that the transfer to Sir William could not be proved, commenced an action of ejeetment against Mr. Boon and others, to recover the land, but failed in the attempt, as parol proof of the trans- fer, was admitted upon the trial.
Among the early settlers of this section of the town, was Col. Adam G. Mappa and his family, Doctor Vander Kemp, both emigrants from Holland, the latter from the city of Leyden. Doctor Vander Kemp first settled near Esopus, now Kingston, Ulster County, in 1788. In 1793, he changed his residence to the shores of the Oneida Lake, and soon after to Oldenbarneveld, where he enjoyed the society of Col. Mappa's family. Col. Mappa succeeded Mr. Boon in the land agency, and Mr. John J. Vander Kemp, a son of the Doctor, early in life succeeded H. J. Huidekoper, Esq., who was appointed chief clerk in the general agency, Philadel- phia. In 1804, Esquire Huidekoper accepted the ageney of the Holland Land Company's lands, in Pennsylvania, and re- moved to the Alleghany river, when young Vander Kemp was called to the chief clerkship in Philadelphia In 1824, upon the decease of Mr. Busti, Mr. Vander Kemp succeeded him in the general agency. Thus clerk in Col. Mappa's office, chief elerk, and general agent, he was almost half a century engaged in the concerns of the Holland Land Company.
But to return to Oldenbarneveld. The first settlers en- lured all the hardships and deprivations incident to a border life at that period. The nearest mill was sixteen miles dis- tant, and in the then state of the roads, it waa a full three days' journey to go and return. When the candles were all expended, and a supply not forth-coming, they had to substi-
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tute a saucer of lard, with a strip of linen for a wick, thus forming a lamp around which they would sit, and enjoy life as well as with the most costly lamp, filled with the best of sperm, to grace their table. In the best of weather and in the driest portion of the season, twelve hours were quick time in which to perform the journey to old Fort Schuyler. This, it must be recollected, was before plank roads were in- vented.
Among the first settlers of Trenton, were Judge John Storrs, Col. Robert Hicks, Peter Schuyler, John P. Little, Cheny Garrett, and William Rollo. Like all first settlers, they had their privations, joys and sorrows, in common. An instance of this, and of the energy of the men of those days, by which a house, as if by magie appeared to grace their vil- lage, is related. A new settler had arrived with his family, but no domicil was ready for their accommodation, and noth- ing in preparation for its erection. Trees, it is true, were growing in their native forest, "decked in green," and this was all. The morning after the arrival all hands turned out to give the new settler a benefit, some logs were eut to be taken to the mill for boards, others were employed in prepar- ing a skeleton frame, and ere night had spread her " sable curtains," the house had been framed and raised, the boards sawed. the building entirely enclosed, and the family had "moved in," to dream their future fortunes, the first night in their new home. It is probable there were neither plastering, paint nor glazing, but contentment made it equal to a palace.
Mr. Boon while he continued his agency erected a saw and grist-mill, so that in a short time, comforts and accom. modations clustered about them.
The first town meeting of the inhabitants of Trenton, was held April 4th, 1797 ; at which Col. Adam G. Mappa was chosen supervisor, and John P. Little, town clerk. During
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the next three years, Judge John Storrs held the office of supervisor; for the next ten, Peter Schuyler; the next eighteen (with the exception of one year) William Rollo, and then Judge Storrs held the office again for eight years.
Of the first settlers of this town, Miss Sophia, daughter of Col. Mappa, the widow of Judge Storrs, and Cheny Garrett are all who now survive.
To the scientific geologist there is no more interesting see- tion of the State than this town. Limestone underlaid with slate, is found in almost all parts of it, and is of the very best and purest quality when burned for building purposes. The produce of many quarries also is easily cut, and is thus ex- tensively used in the erection of buildings. The State Asy- lum, at Utica, is built of Trenton limestone, quarried near Stittsville, a small village intersected by the line between this town and Marey. This stone is formed of myriads of shells, corals, etc., etc. In different parts of the town, as the limited supply of timber suitable for fences, becomes exhausted, the farmers are annually quarrying from their inexhaustible beds, and adding to the walls which are eventually to enclose and divide their fields.
In agriculture this town maintains an equal position among her sister towns in the county. When the town was new, winter wheat was extensively raised, but as the land becomes partially worn, it is winter killed, to so great an extent that its culture has been abandoned and spring wheat substituted, and this has been nearly driven from the productions of the town by the insect. Indian corn, oats, barley, rye, potatoes, carrots and ruta-bagas yield well, and are as sure to bring as good a return for the labor bestowed, as in most sections in the county. There is a large proportion of good land in Trenton, and among her farmers she numbers many of the most enterprising, persevering and successful of that class in
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this section of the country. Improvement and onward is their motto. This town furnishes a number of active and influential members of the Oneida County Agricultural So- ciety. More attention has of late been paid to the breeding of good stock of all kinds, than formerly. The soil is well adapted to grazing, and large quantities of butter and cheese are made annually and sent to market.
TRENTON FALLS .- These falls, now so celebrated, were first brought into notice by the Rev. John Sherman, by pub- lications in different papers, and a pamphlet giving a, most glowing description of them. "They are situated on West Canada Creek, in N. lat. 43 deg. 23 min., 14 miles north of Uti- ca,at which place every facility can be had for a ride to Trenton Falls, where a large and commodious house is erected for the accommodation of visitors." The Indian name of these falls is
Cny-a-hora, signifying "fall of the glancing waters."
This
creek is the main branch of the Mohawk river, and interlocks with the Black River upon the summit elevation and at one point the two streams are but three-fourths of a mile apart, and can very readily be turned into the same channel. The West Canada Creek has chosen its course along the highlands, making its way on the backbone of the country, and empties into the Mohawk at Herkimer. Mr. Sherman thus speaks of the approach to the falls: "From the door yard, you step at once into the forest, and walking only twenty rods strike the bank at the place of descent." Passing down the stairs, "you land upon a broad pavement, level with the water's edge, a furious rapid being in front that has cut down the rock still deeper ; being now on the pavement, the river Styx at your feet, perpendicular walls of solid rocks on each side, and the narrow zone of sky far over head, your feelings are at once excited, you have passed into a subterranean world. The
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first impression is astonishment at the change. But recov- ering instantly, your attention is forthwith attracted to the magnificence, the grandeur, the beauty and sublimity of the scene. You stand and pause. You behold the operations of incalculable ages. You are thrown back to antediluvian times. The adamantine rock has yielded to the flowing water that has formed the wonderful chasm. You tread ou petrifactions or fossil organie remains imbedded in the four- hundreth stratum which preserves the forms and occupies the places of beings once animated like yourselves, each stratun having been the deposit of a supervening flood, that happened successively, Eternity alone knows when!"
These falls have not the sublimity or grandeur of Niagara. where every thing of cascade is formed upon the grandest scale. There perched on Table Rock, the visitor at one view can witness the mighty roll and tumble of the father of cat- aracts. Not so at Trenton. Here days spent in viewing and reviewing the succession of wonders and the beauties of the several cascades, rapids and eddies, and the scenery in which they are involved, will hardly satisfy the eyes of the tourist. There are three principal falls, the lower of thirty- seven, the middle of eleven, and the upper of forty-eight feet, and these with the lesser cascades and rapids immedi- ately above, below and intervening, make a descent of 109 feet.
In 1822, Mr. Sherman erected a "Rural Retreat for the accommodation of visitors at the Falls. His receipts for the first year were $ 187,35.
The following beautiful lines were sketched at the Falls by the gentleman whose name is affixed, and presented to a Miss M. S., of Waterville, in this County, who was one of the party, and who furnished a copy for this work.
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MOONLIGHT REVERIES.
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods; There is a rapture of the lonely shore ; There is society where none intrudes, By the deep sea and music in the roar .- BYRON.
Night's shadows thicken and the stars look through Their eth'ry veil of soft and cloudless blue, While the pale moon with clear and steady ray Usurps the throne, where sat the god of day ; Here, as I stand upon this rugged shore, Nought breaks the stillness, save the mighty roar Of Trenton's waters, as they rush along, O'er craggy steeps, and jagged rocks among, Foaming and lashing in their ceaseless flow, To reach in thunder the abyss below.
Flow on, proud stream !- flow on, unfettered river; And peal aloud great Nature's anthem ever, And you, ye hills, in living verdure drest, Ye giant roeks, no human foot e'er prest ! Ave stand, 'till Time to ashes shall have trod All earthly emblems of the power of God.
Ye flow'ry banks, so beauteously array'd ! Ye winding walks, through which but once I've stray'd, If ne'er again among ye I shall rove, In the sweet presence of the hearts I love. Still on my mind, till life's brief hour is o'er, Your charms are written-fadeless evermore ; Ye maddened waters ! as ye rush along, Years will re-eeho your undying song, And tho' afar my footsteps wander free, My pulse will quicken at the thought of thee.
J. E. VAIL, New York.
TRENTON FALLS, August, 1845.
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Among the immense numbers who have visited the falls from the four quarters of the world, within the past thirty years, several most heart-rending accidents have occurred, showing the necessity of care, while viewing these beautiful and wonderful works of nature. Such accidents occur too frequently from venturing too far and attempting to reach points almost impossible of access, and at the utmost risk of life.
ACCIDENTS AT TRENTON FALLS .- On the 21st of July. 1827, a numerous party from New York visited the falls, and among the number were several members of the family of John Suydam, Esq., of that city. Miss Eliza Mesier Suy- dam, aged seventeen years, a daughter of Mr. Suydam, and a young gentleman, a cousin, were in advance of the party, and upon arriving at the projecting point just below the fall, the second above the refreshment house, and since known as the "Suydam fall," Miss Suydam passed around alone. and in a moment her cousin was made aware of her sad fate by seeing her bonnet borne down the foaming rapid. The body was not found until one or two days had elapsed, and was then taken to Utica for burial.
On the 2d of August. 1830, Charles E. Bill, son of Dr. Bill of Remsen, visited the falls with a sister, two ladies, his cousins, and an uncle. While assisting the ladies around a point of rock a short distance above the lower fall, he in- cautiously stepped into the edge of the current, when his feet slipped and he was hurried in a standing potition over the frightful cataract, a fall of about 40 feet. As he passed out of sight, he waved with his hand a final adieu to those who gazed in helpless agony upon his certain and rapid progress down the torrent, while his features showed the full realiza-
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tion of his terrible fate. Mr. Bill's age was about 21. he was a student at the Fairfield Medical College, and was a young man of excellent character and fine promise, and his death was mourned by an extensive circle of relatives and friends.
On the 15th of July, 1836, while Mr. Herman Thorne, a celebrated millionaire of New York, then recently returned from Paris, with his family, was on a visit to the falls, a young daughter; Miss Zerlina, was drowned at the same place where Miss Suydam found a watery grave. The following account of the catastrophe is.copied from a New York paper :
" On Friday last, Mr. Thorne was carefully conducting his wife over a narrow pass, having this fated daughter, Zer- lina, in his arms, when a faithful servant stepped up and begged permission to take charge of the little girl. At first Mr. Thorne declined, but was finally induced by the difficul- ty of the pass, to give the child over to the servant. He had scarcely done so, and turned again to his wife, when a scream, the last ever uttered by the lovely child, burst upon the ear, and he looked around to see the servant struggling in the boiling eddies, and to feel-that his own cherished daughter he was to beheld no more. The man had slipped upon the treacherous rocks, and with his charge was precipitated into the whirling stream. The little girl instantly disappeared. The man sustained himself until a stick was held forth, by which he was drawn from the water. Thus perished before the eyes of her parents-in the early blossom of life, ere sin had touched, or sorrow faded-Zerlina Thorne, in the eighth year of her age-described to us, by one who is himself a father and has known affliction, as a child of such uncommon loveliness, as to attraet the regard of all who approached her."
On the 2d of August, 1849, a party of six ladies and gen-
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tlemen were visiting the falls, having arrived the day prece- ding, and of the number were Edward and Eliza Bryan, son and daughter of Mr. Daniel Bryan, and brother and sister of John Bryan, Esq., of Utica. The party left the hotel in the morning to visit the falls, and upon arriving at the refresh- ment house, the Bryans, leaving their companions, proceeded as far as the path is cut in the rock and as far as any but the most venturesome ever go, and then as they were climbing around a huge pile of rock with a perpendicular face of an hundred feet, with only here and there a slight projection or crevice to assist them while hanging a considerable distance above the water, was the last that was seen of them alive. The particulars of that terrible moment will never be known until that great day when all secrets shall be revealed. Which met his or her fate first ? and what struggles and efforts to save the other? and how long those struggles ? are questions no human tongue can answer. They parted with their friends at about ten o'clock, and the watch of Miss Bryan was found stopped a few minutes before elev- en. The body of Edward was found late in the evening near where he doubtless fell, and the body of the sister was found carly the next morning a short distance be- low. On the fourth their funeral took place at Utica, andl their remains were followed to their final resting place by one of the largest processions ever witnessed in that city, in- cluding almost the entire fire department, of which Edward Bryan was a member.
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