USA > New York > Oneida County > Annals and recollections of Oneida County > Part 41
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church was locked and the key taken by C. A. Mann, the agent of the owner of the building, and the committee and crowd returned to the court house. At this day these pro- ceedings seem strange. The author only designed to give the more prominent facts without " note or comment," as forming an item in the history of Utica. As might have been antic- ipated, hundreds became abolitionists, merely from sympathy.'
January 10th and 11th, 1836, snow fell four feet in depthi. Sleighing for four months afterwards-hay thirty dollars per . ton in April.
May 5 .- Great break in the canal near Nail Creek.
July 22 .- First engine run over the Utica and Schenectady Rail Road, and Aug. 2, first train of passenger cars arrived at Utica.
September 26 .- Snow an inch deep.
December 18 .- First burial in the new or west burial ground.
On the 31st of March, 1837, the " great fire " occurred in Utica, the largest which has ever occurred in the place. It. commenced at No. 53, lower corner of Genesee and Broad Streets, in a row of old wooden stores, which extended down Genesee Street, about half way to the square. These were quickly swept away, and the brick stores below were soon in flames, and their contents, not burned in them, were piled in front in the centre of Genesee Street. There being a strong east wind, a sheet of flame was carried nearly across Genesee Street, and soon the fine brick stores on that side were in flames. Large quantities of goods which had been placed in the centre of the street, melted away under the archt of fire above them. Soon the few buildings on Broad Street. west of John, and on John below Broad, were in ashes, ex- cepting only the fire proof store on John Street, of E. B. Shearman. On the east side of Genesee the fire extended
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down to and including the stores fronting the square, excep- ting that on the corner of John Street. On the west side of Genesee the fire extended from No. 54 inclusive, to the cor- ner of Whitesboro, (two stores on that corner, the site of the log cabin had been burned a few months previously,) des- troying ten stores, and the four story temperance house, kept by Captain William Clarke. On Whitesboro Street every thing was destroyed cast of the brick dwelling, on the corner of Burchard Street, including "Burchard's Inn," upon the site of the McGregor house, and also the small buildings and fixtures in the city garden. The loss for a place of its size, was immense, but in the end, the fire, as is generally the ease, was the means of greatly improving that part of the town.
July 25, 1837, Daniel Webster delivered a speech in Steu- ben Park.
June 27, 1839 .- First train of cars over Syracuse and Utica Rail Road.
September 11 .- President Van Buren visited the city.
August 8, 1840 .- Log cabin upon corner of Genesee and Whitesboro Streets completed.
-August 3, 1841 .- Captain William Clark, an old and highly respected citizen, died. Capt. Clark held a lieutenant's and captain's commissions in the twenty-third regiment U. S. Infantry, during the war of 1812-he was severely wounded at the battle of Queenston, and received a pension for the remainder of his life.
February 5, 1842 .- Mohawk bridge at foot of Genesee St. carried away.
July 17, 1843 .- Military Encampment in Utica.
July 19 .- John Q. Adams visited the city.
January 0, 1844 .- Moses Bagg, (Jr.) an old resident and long the proprietor of Bagg's Hotel, died, aged 64.
June 19 .- Ole Bull's concert.
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October 19 .- Thomas James, and Mary his wife, residents in the place for many years, died, aged forty-nine, and were buried in the same grave.
Sept. 16, 1845 .- Fair of State Agricultural Society com- menced.
May 9, 1847 .- While Rev. Mr. Corey was baptizing in the Mohawk, a portion of the bridge broke down, and about twenty persons were precipitated into the water or upon the rocks at the foot of the butment. W. O. Smith was killed and several injured to a greater or less degree.
July 4 .- Mr. Wise ascended in a balloon.
May 21, 1851 .- President Fillmore visited the city.
During the year 1850 and winter of 1851, a large number of most disastrous fires occurred in the city, nearly all of which were the works of incendiaries. June 5, 1851, James .J. Orcutt was convicted at Rome, before Judge Allen, of ar- son in the first degree, in burning the barns etc. of Butterfield & Co., in rear of the National Hotel, in the last spring. Others are indicted for similar offenees. Orcutt was sen- tenced to be executed on the 1st of August, but has been re- prieved by Gov. Hunt, until the 24th of October next. Re- wards amounting to $ 700, had been offered by the Common Council for the detection of the offenders.
To allow the intellect of the reader to rest from the con- sideration of the weightier matters of history, the following advertisement is given, as referring to an instance " of the im- parting and acquisition of knowledge under peculiar circum- stances.2
" Mr. Winfield wishes to inform the citizens of Utica and vicinity, that he will give an Exhibition of his dog-school, on Thursday Evening, March 12th (1846), at the Mechanics' Hall. Doors open at 7 o'clock, and performance at half past 7. Admittance 25 cts."
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This is sufficient to keep the great facts, the dog-school at No. 22 Post Street, and the public exhibition of the dogs. in remembrance, and with these, the details will be transmit- ted by tradition and song, from generation to generation Mr. Winfield as a professor of Canagogy, and as a friend to dog and man, received from the citizens of that period many attentions, although he possessed a skin no darker than many of the great men of antiquity.
IHISTORY OF THE CORPORATION. 1
As before stated. the eastern line of Whitestown, originally crossed the Mohawk at the fording place, near the log cabin of Mr. Cunningham, which stood at the lower end of Genesee Street, near the site of the Rail-road depot, thus leaving old Fort Schuyler village in two towns. Upon the formation of Oneida County, in 1798. the cast line of Whitestown and the county, was carried eastwardly to its present location. at the east line of the city.
On the 3d of April, 1798, an act was passed entitled " Act to vest certain powers in the freeholders and inhabitants of the village commonly known by the name of old Fort Schuy- ler." The first section is as follows: " The district of coun- try contained within the following boundaries, to wit : begin- ning at a point or place on the south side of the Mohawk River, where the division line between lots No. 97 and 98, in Cosby's manor strikes the said river, thence running souther- ly in the said division line to a point in the same forty chains southerly of the great road leading to Fort Stanwix, thence cast thirty-seven degrees south, to the easterly line of the County of Oneida. thence northerly in the said county line to
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the Moliawk river. thence westerly up the waters thercof to the place of beginning, shall hereafter be known and distin- quished by the name of the village of Utica."
This is the first act of incorporation of Utica. and gave the inhabitants the right to elect five freeholders as trustees, who had the powers then usually granted to small incorpora- ted villages respecting roads, estrays, pounds, etc., etc. At a meeting of the citizens previously held to consider the ques- tion of incorporation, Utica was proposed as a name by the late Erastus Clark. and adopted, but the reasons for the se- lection, and the other names proposed, if any, are matters lost and forgotten. As the records of the village for the first seven years are also lost, it is not known what was done or who were the village officers, excepting that Francis A. Bloodgood was treasurer in 1800 and 1801, and Talcott Camp in 1802. The act of incorporation has been consider- ed somewhat anomalous, because in its title only the name of " old Fort Schuyler" is given, and in the body of the act only that of Utica. The west line of the village crossed Whitesboro Street a few feet west of its intersection by Varick Street.
April 9, 1805, a new charter, more comprehensive in its provisions and powers, was granted to the village, and its bounds were extended so as to include lots 98 and 99. By this act five " disercet freeholders " were to be annually cho- sen as Trustees. At the first cleetion, held at the school house May 7, 1805, the old trustces presided and Ab'm. Varick, Jr., acted as clerk, and upon counting the ballots Erastus Clark, Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, Jr., Nathan Wil- liams, Francis A. Bloodgood and Jerathmael Ballou were declared clected trustees. The new board at their first meeting May 13th, appointed David W. Childs, clerk, with a salary of $ 5,00 for the year. Isaac Coe, treasurer, and Worden
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Hammond, collector. They also voted to appoint " twenty- five able bodied men as firemen," and Gurdon Burchard, Daniel Budlong, John Hooker, Ezekiel Clark, John Hobby, Abijah Thomas, Moses Bagg, Jr., John C. Devereux, Wn. Fellows, Thomas Ballou, Worden Hammond, Ebenezer B. Shearman, Henry Trowbridge, Thomas Walker, Ralph W. Kirkland, Hugh Cunningham, James Bloodgood, Aaron Eg- gleston, Judah Williams, Elisha Capron, Rufus Brown, Jas. Van Rensselaer, Oliver Babcock and Benjamin Ballou, Jr .. were appointed. Mr. Walker is now the only individual of this number residing in the city, if not the only one living. The fire regulations included only lots 93, 94, 95, 96. Voted that the seal of the trustees " be a heart, with the letter F in the centre."
June 3 .- Voted that the assize of bread for the ensuing month be as follows : Wheat fourteen shillings per bushel, a loaf of superfine wheat flour, to weigh two pounds ten ounces. for one shilling, and other sizes in proportion ; a loaf of com- mon wheat flour, to weigh three pounds three ounces, for one shilling, with a fine of five dollars for selling at a higher price, for each offence. The " assize of bread" was regulated and published monthly, as long as Utica was a village.
May 6, 1806 .- The old trustees were all re-elected.
May 5, 1807 .- Messrs. Clark, Van Rensselaer. Ballou. Williams and John Hooker were elected trustees, and Geo. Richards appointed clerk, and Abraham D. Van Horne, vil- lage attorney.
July 13 .- Memorandum : "Joshua Ostrom and John Culver are applicants for the next vacancies in the fire com- pany."
March 7, 1808 .- Voted to pay three dollars and six cents for expense of watch for winter of 1805-6.
May 3, 1808 .- Messrs. Hooker and Ballou, and Morris S.
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Miller, John Bellinger and Nathaniel Butler, were elected trustees.
In September of this year, a fire engine is first mentioned upon the records preserved, which a committee is directed to examine and to make necessary repairs. Abont this time it appears from memoranda upon the records, that Lewis Ma- comber, Walter King, Ira Merrill, Jesse Newell, Watts Sherman, Reuben Brown, Lynott Bloodgood, J. H. Beach, John B. Mitchell, John Osborn, Henry B. Gibson, Nathan- iel Butler, William Winne, D. W. Childs, Anson Thomas. William Williams, John Bradish, and John Camp, jr., were applicants for appointments as firemen. Thomas Walker was clerk of the fire company several years, and once a quar- ter was required to report all absentees from fires and regu- lar meetings, and at the option of the trustees, they were expelled from the company, unless they could make a good excuse. The trustees for 1809, were Messrs. Hooker, Bal- lou, Bellinger, Talcott Camp and Solomon Wolcott.
January 2, 1810, the trustees " voted that the village pum; be put in complete repair, and that a contract be made with some faithful persen to keep the same in repair one year." This pump was in the centre of Genesee Street, nearly on & line with the south side of Whitesboro Street.
January 11, " voted to employ three watchmen for patrol- ling the streets," and William Jones, Nitus Hobby, and Wing were employed, at six shillings per night. A formidable code of instructions and regulations was adopted for the government of the watchmen, which are entered at length upon the records. They were required to watch from Judge Cooper's to Morris S. Miller's, at the lower end of Main Street.
May, 1810, Messrs. Camp, John C. Hoyt, J. C. Deveraux: R. Snyder and Ab'm. M. Walton were elected trustees.
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November 16 .- The sum of $ 1,000 having been raised by subscription for purchasing a new fire engine, Watts Sher- man, Esq., was appointed agent of the village, to proceed to New York or Philadelphia, and purchase one at a price not exceeding 81,200. About this time several buildings were burned, as was supposed by incendiarics, and a reward of $ 150 was offered for their detection.
May, 1811 .- Messrs. Camp, Devereux, Van Rensselaer, Frederick White and Ebenezer B. Shearman were elected trustees.
At the annual meeting of freeholders and inhabitants, May 5, 1812, Messrs Camp, Van Rensselaer, Shearman, Arthur Brecse and Thomas Skinner were elected trustees, and voted to erect a publis market, at an expense of $ 300, of wood, with stone foundation, to stand " on the public square be- tween Mr. Moses Bagg's tavern and the store of Mr. Dever- eux." This is the square in front of Bagg's Hotel.
May, 1813 .- Messrs. Camp, Shearman, Moses Bagg, Mont- gomery Hunt and Seth Dwight were elected trustees ; S. Dwight, clerk. The question of location of the market after wards caused considerable excitement, and subsequently a special town meeting was called to consider the question of removal, but the majority were still in favor of the first loca tion. However, at a special meeting, Nov. 2, 1814, the mar- ket was ordered to be removed to the corner of Division and Water Streets. The trustees this ycar were Messrs. Camp, Van Rensselaer, Williams, William Winne and Samuel Stocking. J. H. Ostron, clerk. This market building is now a part of the City Coffee-house, kept by Mr. Beston.
May, 1815 .- Abram Van Santvoord, Aug. Hickox, Gur- don Burchard, Jason Parker and William Geer were elected trustees.
In 1815 and '16, the trustces issued considerable sums in
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small bills, called " shin plasters," varying in denomination from three cents to a dollar. In this, they only followed a custom prevalent among banks, cities, villages and individu- als throughout the country.
May, 1816 .- Messrs. Snyder, Burchard, Geer, Ezra S. Co- zier and Hickox were elected trustees.
June 13, 1816, the trustees voted to number the buildings on Genesee Street.
On the 7th of April, 1817, a new act of incorporation passed the legislature, and by which the west line extended fifty chains south of the "great road to Fort Stanwix," and thence east thirty-seven degrees south to the county line. By this act the village was divided into three wards as fol- lows: all east of a line beginning at the river in the centre of , Genesee Street, thence up Genesee to John, thence up John to the centre of Broad, thence down Broad to the centre of First, thence southerly in the middle of First Street to the south line of the village, was the first ward. All between the west line of the first ward and a line beginning at the south line of the village in the centre of Genesee Street, and thence north in the middle of Genesee to a point on a line with the centre of Hotel, thence down the centre of Hotel Street to and across Whitesboro and along the east wall of the York House to the river, was the second ward, and all west of the last described line was the third ward. The officers author- ized by this charter, were a president, six trustees, a supervi- sor. a clerk, treasurer, collector, three assessors and two con- stables. By the same act " that part of Whitestown inelu- ded within the limits of the village of Utica," was "created into a separate town by the name of Utica."
Trustees in 1817, E. S. Cozier, William Williams, Jere- miah Van Rensselaer, A. Van Santvoord, Erastus Clark. John C. Hoyt.
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In 1818, Messrs. Van Santvoord, Rudolph Snyder, Cozier, Enos Brown, Marcus Hitchcock, J. E. Hinman.
In 1819, Messrs. Cozier, Hinman, David P. Hoyt, Gurdon Burchard, Snyder, Wm. Alverson.
In 1820, Messrs. Cozier, Hinman, James Hooker, Abm. Culver, Ezekiel Bacon, Thomas Walker. Each ward elected two trustees under the charter of 1817, and their names are given in the numerical order of their wards.
The following is a list of the presidents of the village front 1805 to 1831, inclusive : Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, Jr. 1805 and '6; Erastus Clark, 1807 ; Morris S. Miller, 1808; Tal- cott Camp, 1809, '10, '11, '12 '13 and '14; Abraham Van Santvoord, 1815; Rudolph Snyder, 1816 and '20 ; Nathan Williams, 1817, '18 and '19; William Clark, 1824, '25, 126. and '29 ; Ezra S. Cozier, 1821, '22, '23, '26, '27, '30 and '31. Mr. Snyder is the only one of the number now residing in Utica,
Utiea received a city charter by an act of the Legislature passed February 13, 1832. The city was divided by Genesee Street and the Erie Canal, into four quarters or wards, the north-east quarter being the first ward. the north-west quarter the second ward, the south-west quarter the third ward, and the south-east quarter the fourth ward. The officers elected under the charter were a mayor, four justices. one supervisor and three constables for the city, and three aldermen, one as- sessor and three inspectors of election in each ward. Those appointed by the common council were city clerk, attorney. treasurer. overseer of the poor, street commissioner, survey- or, county and city collectors. two police constables, watch men, etc., etc.
The amount of the city tax was limited at $ 8,000. By the school law of 1843, two school commissioners are elected annually, who hold their offices three years.
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On the night of the 7th of December, 1848, the common council room, situated on the east side of Hotel Street, was destroyed by fire, with its entire contents. None of the books, records or papers, relating to the village and city governments were saved, excepting the books of minutes of the proceed- ings of the trustees, subsequent to May, 1805, and of the con- mon council, since the organization of the city.
On the 31st of March, 1849, the original city charter was repealed, and an act containing a new charter passed by the legislature. By this act the city is divided into six wards : the first and second reinaining as before, and the third, divi- ded by the Chenango Canal, forms the third lying east, and the sixth lying west of said canal. The fourth is divided by a line beginning at the Erie Canal in the centre of John Street. thence up the centre of Jolin to Rutger, thence in the centre of Rutger to West, thence in the centre of West to the city line. and that part west of said line is fourth, and that part east of said line is the fifth ward. The city, more intelligi- bly described in this charter, is bounded on the west by the line between lots 99 and 100 of Cosby's manor, beginning at the river and thence to a point in said line 200 rods south of the south side of Varick Street, thence at right angles with said line east to the east line of the county. The officers elected under this charter are a mayor, recorder, attorney, treasurer. surveyor, overseer of the poor, marshal, street commissioner. four justices of the peace and six school commissioners for the city and two aldermen, a supervisor, assessor, collector, constable and inspectors of election for each ward. Each ward elects one alderman every year, who holds his office for two years ; and the common council appoint the clerk, chief engineer of the fire department, watchmen, etc.
The following is a list of the mayors of Utica, with the year of their appointment or election. Joseph Kirkland,
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1832, '34 and '35 ; Henry Seymour, 1833; John H. Ostrom. 1836; Theodore S. Gold, 1837 ; Charles P. Kirkland, 1838; John C. Devereux, 1839 and '40 ; Spencer Kellogg, 1841 ; Horatio Seymour, 1842 ; Frederick Hollister, 1843 ; Ward Hunt, 1844; Edmund A. Wetmore, 1845 and '46; J. Wat- son Williams, 1847; Joshua A. Spencer, 1848; Thomas R. Walker, 1849 and '50; John E. Hinman, 1851. Previously to 1840, the mayors were chosen by the common council, and subsequently elected by the people.
POPULATION OF UTICA AT VARIOUS PERIODS.
It has always been supposed that there was a considerable error in the footing of the census of 1840, as is manifest by a comparison with that of 1845.
In 1813
1700
In 1829
8010
1816
2861
" 1830
8335
1820
2972
" 1835
10,183
1823
4017
" 1840
12.782
1825
5040
" 1845
12.190
1828
7466
" 1850
17.556
CHURCHES.
Previously to the organization of any church in Utica. and some time before 1800, several of the more prominent citizens of various seets and creeds, believing in the propriety and beneficial influences of religious observances, agreed to hold meetings on Sunday, which should be free from sectori-
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anism, and that they would officiate in their various services. These meetings were held for some time in the school house, where the services of singing, prayer and the reading of a sermon were conducted by men not "in the succession," and, as being " neither one thing nor the other," Blair's sermons were selected for the preaching. But this, like all efforts of the sort, was destined to fail, for some gentleman discovering or imagining that he discovered something counter to his the- ological views in one of Dr. Blair's sermons, the union was dissolved, and the church was resolved into its original ele- ments.
First Utica Presbyterian Church .- On the 21st of August, 1794, the Rev. Bethuel Dodd, a licentiate of the presbytery of New York and New Jersey, was ordained the first pastor of the United Society of Whitestown. The members of this society resided in the villages of Whitesboro and old Fort Schuyler and the country adjacent, and at an carly period meetings were held occasionally in the latter village, and, sub- sequently, the meetings of this church were held alternately at the two villages.
In 1803, " The First Presbyterian Society of Utica " was formed. Stephen Potter and Ebenezer Dodd, the only elders of that church in Utica, presided at the organization and the election of trustees. First trustees : Jeremiah Van Rensse- laer, Erastus Clark, Talcott Camp, Apollos Cooper, Benja- min Ballou, jr., Benjamin Plant, John C. Hoyt, Nathaniel Butler and Solomon P. Goodrich. Rev. Mr. Dodd died April 11, 1804, aged thirty-seven years, and the Rev. James Carnahan, a licentiate of the presbytery of New Brunswick and now the venerable president of Nassau Hall College, of Princeton, N. J., was on the second of January, 1805, or- dained pastor over the united Presbyterian churches of
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Whitesboro and Utica. Mr. Carnahan preached alternately at Whitesboro and Utica until 1812, when ill health com- pelled him to resign his charge. (See History of Whitestown for a more extended account of this church before the di- vision)
On the 3d of February, 1813, the union of the two churches was dissolved, and on the 4th of the same month, the Rev. Henry Dwight was installed pastor of "The First Utica Presbyterian Church and Society," he and Rev. Mr. Frost. pastor of the church in Whitesboro, exchanging every alter- nate Lord's day. Mr. Dwight was dismissed from his charge on the Ist of October. 1817, on account of ill health. having been entirely disabled for several months.
On the 4th of February, 1818, Rev. Samuel C. Aikin. a licentiate of the Presbytery of Londonderry, N. H. (and now of Cleveland. Ohio), was ordained pastor of the church, and discharged the duties of his office with great fidelity. and to the acceptance of his large and increasing congregation, until 1836.
On the 9th of May. 1836, Rev. John W. Fowler was in- stalled. His successor. Rev. Charles S. Porter, was installed pastor of the church and society on the 23d of March, 1842. Rev. William H. Spencer was ordained as pastor, January 13. 1846. and dismissed at his own request in October, 1850. Rev. Philemon H. Fowler, the present pastor, commenced his labors about the Ist of January, and was installed pastor, February 10. 1851. in Concert Hall. Sermon by Rev. Prof. Hopkins, of Auburn.
The author has been unable to learn the number of members at the time of the organization of the church. During the ministry of Mr. Dwight it numbered about 200, and since its organization about 1600 persons have united upon profession and otherwise. Present number of resident members about
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UTÍCA. 560
460. In 18%6, this church with the others in this section enjoyed an extensive revival of religion. Rev. Charles G. Finney commenced his labors in this society about the 1st of February, and the number of converts in the village was es- timated at 500. of whom more than 100 united with this church that year, upwards of fifty with the Second. church, forty with the Welsh Congregational church, many with the Baptist and Methodist churches, and others of this number. united with these churches during the next year. This. church has also enjoyed revivals at other periods.
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