USA > New York > Oneida County > Annals and recollections of Oneida County > Part 60
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From the Western " Centinel," published at " Whitestown." of September, 1795, the following Whitestown advertisements are taken, showing the business men, and the kinds of trade and business carried on at that early day : "Kyte & Stark- weather will pay the cash for any quantity of good clean Salts of Lye. Whitestown, Aug. 31, 1795." Thomas R. Gold offers for sale 7 lots in the Military Tract, 65 lots in the " 4thi Town of the 20 Townships," and "9,180 acres in the 7th Township, 4th Range, Genesee." " To be let, a Farm upon Bowen's Creek, near Esqr. Sayle's, in German- town. Enquire of Wm. Green." "Save your Flax Seed ! An Oil Mill will, without doubt, be erected in the course of a few months, if duly encouraged by the several gentlemen in the vicinity of Whitestown, who it may benefit." " For Sale,
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the Dwelling-House and Farm, situate on the New Genesce Road in Whitestown, lately occupied by Enoch Grannis. being an excellent stand for a Tavern and Store. Enquire of T. R. Gold, Att'y, or Thomas Jenkins & Sons." " WANTED A GOOD faithful MAN to attend a SAW MILL on Oriskany Creek. Apply to the Subseriber at Col. D. C. White's, in Whitestown. Wm. Green." "John Russell, Windsor Chair Maker, has established his business a few rods west of the Meeting House in Whitestown." " Wanted Immediately, an active Boy, as an Apprentice to the Tay- loring Business. Joseph Blake." " To be Sold, a Farm in Whitestown, lying on the great road leading from Old Fort Schuyler to the Genesee River, containing 100 acres, 40 acres improved, and Framed House and Barn. Jed'h San- ger." Boardman & Dewey occupy nearly a column with an invoice of their Stock in Trade, among which are " Cloths .. Cassimers, Yorkshire Plains, Thicksets, Shalloons, Durants. Plain Black Calimanco, Striped Do., Black Russell, Tabor- etts. Bandanno Hdkfs., Black Mode, Wildbore, Rattinetts. Men's and Women's Buckles," &e. &c. ; among articles for male and female wearing apparel, and among the miscellanies are " Brass Nubs, Raizors, Iron Dogs, Franklin Stoves. Hard Soap, Drawn Boot Legs, Felt Hats, W. I. Rum, Rub- stones, Bibles, Spelling Books," &c. &c. ; and they announce to " their customers in general, that they have removed their Store from the house of Mr. Caleb Douglass to their new Store at a place formerly known as Pool's Landing," and that they "will receive in payment Wheat, Rye, or Barley : Money will not be refused. Whitestown, July 27, 1795." " Webster's Spelling Book for sale at the Printing Office." " Fulling Mill. Notice is hereby given to the Public, that the Subscriber is about to ereet a Fulling Mill in the town of Scipio, and county of Onondaga, where he designs to
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carry on the Clothier's Business in all its various branches, by a well-informed workman in said business, &c. Amaziah Hutchinson."
SALT .- The information contained in the following extracts from the journal of the Committee of Safety of this State in the Revolution, was new to the author, and is believed to possess interest sufficient to warrant its publication; but this is all that he has learned respecting the subject. It is found under date of February 7, 1777.
The committee appointed to devise ways and means for manufacturing salt within the state, produced a sample of salt " made of the water of certain springs at Oriskie (Oris- kany), about ten miles to the eastward of Fort Schuyler (Stanwix), and reported that from information, it appears to the committee that nine gallons of water will make two quarts of salt."
" Resolved, that said committee devise ways and means to make further experiments, in order to ascertain the quality of said water at Oriskie, and if they are of the opinion that salt can be manufactured with advantage, that they procced, without delay, to procure materials and employ proper per- sons to carry on the same."
MANUFACTURES.
New York Mills .- The " upper mills " of this company be- ing in the town of New Hartford are noticed in the history of that town.
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The New York Mills, for the manufacture of cotton goods, may well be reckoned as among the pattern factories of the Empire State. The manufacturing is carried on in two large stone buildings, to which are attached a machine shop, offices, shops, store, out-buildings, all in the most neat and complete order. System is manifest in its every department. Twen- ty-five thousand yards of 4-4 superfine sheetings are manu- factured weekly. It employs 325 operatives in and about the premises. Forty bales of cotton of 430 lbs. each are used weekly. About $ 1,250 are paid in that time for labor. It gives employ to twelve machinists. Machinery of the latest and most perfect models is constantly taking the place of that which perhaps but a few years before was considered at the height of perfection.
The Oneida Factory .-- This mill is a large substantial stone building with office, shops, boarding houses, etc., con- nected. It manufactures 20,000 yards of 4-4ths sheetings per week, with 160 operatives, and pays $350 weekly for labor.
VILLAGES .- Whitesboro has one of the handsomest loca- tions in the county. It is a level plain of sand and gravel, elevated a few feet above the Mohawk Flats adjoining. The village contains a considerable number of handsome dwellings, three taverns, two dry goods stores, two grocery and pro- vision stores, the Whitestown post office, the bank of Whites- town, Presbyterian, Baptist and Congregational houses for worship, and various mechanics. Although situated upon the Erie Canal and Syracuse and Utica Rail-road, its loca- tion bnt four miles from the city of Utica, is at this day an unfortunate one. For a considerable number of years from
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its commencement, it was ahead of Utica in population and business ; but while its neighbor has beeome a city, Whites- boro has for the last twenty-five years but sustained its pre- vious size. The court-house, although it is still nominally the half-shire of the county, is not now used for courts, and as a court-house and jail are now in the course of erection at Utica, the court-house and jail at this place will soon be useless as such. The inhabitants early bethought themselves to orna- ment their streets with elms and other forest trees. which have now become large and almost venerable in their appear- ance, and add greatly to the beauty of the place. It is a quiet, lovely village, and no more desirable place for a vil- lage residence can be found in the county. The denomina- tions having houses for worship, have ever sustained excel- lent pastors. Just below the village is what was formerly the " Oneida Institute " of Science and Industry, under the patronage of the Presbyterians ; but an unfortunate abolition difficulty arose, and the institution which had flourished for a time, declined, and at length was purchased by the Free- will Baptists, who have now a very flourishing and valuable school. The institution occupies three large commodious buildings of wood, with a small farm attached. There is also in the village an academy in a fair condition. Few places of the size can be found which could boast of such an array of men of talent as Whitesboro, the most conspicuous of whom were Jonas Platt, Thomas R. Gold, Theodore Sill, Henry R. Storrs, Fortune C. White, and, for a short time, Samuel A. Talcott. These were prominent names not only in central New York, but throughout the state, and a portion of them were not unknown to fame in our national legislature.
New York Mills .-- It is but little more than a quarter of a century since the plat of this village was used for agricul-
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tural purposes. The erection by Benjamin Marshall, an English capitalist, of the extensive cotton manufacturing establishment, known as the New York Mills, gave the first impulse to the place. It now contains between 1,500 and 2,000 inhabitants. It contains Methodist and Presbyterian houses for worship. Although manufacturing of cotton is the great business of the village, still it has a full share of mer- chants and mechanics, and a temperance tavern. The statistics of these mills are given in another place. New York Mills post-office is located herc.
Yorkville is a small village hardly separated from the New York Mills Village, except by the Oneida Factory, and the dwellings and other buildings attached to it. Here are a public house, a grist and flouring mill and a saw mill.
Oriskany .- This village is situate at the confluence of the Oriskany Creek and Mohawk River. This was one of the earliest settled places in the county, and probably contained the first merchant ever located in it. That merchant was the late Abraham Van Eps, who is more particularly noted in the history of Vernon, and who established a small trading house at this place in the spring of 1785; and from information recently obtained, it seems, as previously stated in this chapter, that Mr. Webster established here a depot for Indian goods at even an carlier period. This is now a place of considerable business. There are here two respect- able houses for public worship, Episcopalian and Presbyte. rian, the Oriskany post-office, and a fair mercantile and me- chanical business is carried on, but the most important branch of business is its manufactory of woolen goods. A brief account of its operations subjoined, was kindly fur- nished by S. Newton Dexter, Esq., its enterprising agent.
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At this place, the brave Gen. Herkimer encamped, with his little band of heroes, on the night previous to the Oris- kany battle.
During the enlargement of the Erie Canal, a large quan- tity of human bones have been exhumed, which, no doubt. from the ornaments found with them, were of aboriginal origin. The following, from the Oneida Morning Herald. gives some account of those remains.
DISCOVERY OF ABORIGINAL REMAINS AT ORISKANY.
"Oriskany, October 27, 1849.
" MESSRS. EDITORS :- In excavating for the enlarged canal, we have discovered some ten or more skeletons of the Aborigines, and with them not a few ornaments and medals. The remains are very much decayed, and exhibit evidence of having been interred a very long time. The bodies appear to have been placed in troughs, prepared in the Indian mode of forming canoes ; that is, by burning a log to a flat surface, and then keeping the fire in the centre from the cavity. Faint traces of wood at the sides of the skeletons and also coals seen to warrant the correctness of my suggestion. I have assisted in re- moving a number of them, and found in two instances three or four bodies placed heads together, and the limbs radiating from a centre. We found three, a man, woman, and child. The head of the woman lying between the man's arm and side near the shoulder, and the child's head apparently on her bosom. The man with a portion of the contents of his medicine bag, consisting of the bones of a bird or animal, uniformly of a bright green color, well polished and wound with bark or skin to protect the Indian beauty and semi-transparency. The woman's ornaments, consisting of beads about the size of peas, and variously colored, some of them still retaining the sinew on which they were strung. Together with these I found a rosary of beads, ap- parently of ebony, about half an inch in diameter, though so frail as to fall into dust on the slightest pressure. These were strung on a brass chain, some of the links still being in the beads. Among these, and probably attached to the rosary, was a medal of the reign of George the 1st, 1731. Several medals have been found with dates
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1731 to '36, and one with, I think, a Spanish inscription. I have one handsome medallion head of George the King of England on one side ; on the other, an Indian shooting a buck with a bow and arrow from behind a tree. There is no date on it. It is about the size of a dollar. The ear and nose ornaments are made of the celebrated red pipe- stone. Some pipes have been found, one splendid one, speaking I .- dian-wise, and no small potatoes any wise. I think it equal to any in Mr. Catlin's Gallery. The remains of one Indian have been found in this vicinity with portions of a blanket, which together with the hair seemed quite sound, though the skeleton was a good deal decom- posed, yet not appearing as old as those I have been describing I have spun the yarn long enough. . KROGAN Rec. .
The Oriskany Manufacturing Company was incorporated in 1811, and is believed to be the oldest woolen manufacturing company now in being in the United States. The capital is $110,000, which has been all paid in, and is divided into 2000 shares of 855 each. The buildings are situated in the village of Oriskany, upon the margin of the Erie Canal. This com- pany have eight set of cards, and a proportionate number of spindles and looma, and manufacture about 100,000 yards of 6-4 gooda, broadcloths and tweeds annually, and consume about 200,000 pounds of wool in the manufacture of these goods. The company employ about 120 hands. This com- pany has been kept constantly in operation since its com- mencement, although often subjected to great losses from the precarious nature of the business.
At the time of the incorporation of this company, our dif- ficulties with Great Britain had assumed a threatening aspect, and a number of the prominent public men of that day were induced, from truly patriotio motives, to embark in the busi- ness of manufacturing woolen goods, in the hope of doing something to render their country independent of England for a supply of clothing. The most prominent gentlemen
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engaged in first starting this company were Seth Capron, Jonas Platt, Thomas R. Gold, Newton Mann, Theodore Sill, Nathan Williams, William G. Tracy, DeWitt Clinton, Am- brose Spencer, John Taylor and Stephen Van Rensselaer. The satinetts made by this company sold readily at 84,00 per yard, and their broad cloths from $10,00 to $12,00 per yard, but to counterbalance these prices. for the first four years after they commenced operations, they paid an average of $1,12 per pound for their wool.
The company now pay out about $500 weekly for labor.
The Dexter Manufacturing Company is situated on the Oriskany Creek in the town of Whitestown, and village of Pleasant Valley. It commenced operations in 1832, under what is called the general act for incorporating manufactur. ing companies, passed in 1811. It has a nominal capital of $100,000, divided into 1000 shares of 8100 each. The main buildings are of brick and stone, and the factory is 200 feet long, there are seven sets of cards, and a proportionate num- ber of spindles and looms. This company manufacture beau- tiful long shawls, broad cloths and tweeds, and consume about 175,000 pounds of wool annually ; and employ about 110 persons in the various branches of its business. The company has gone steadily on since it commenced, and with varied success. The company pay out about 8430 weekly for labor.
The Whitestoror, Manufacturing Company is situated in the village of Walesville in the town of Whitestown, has a capital of 812,000, and is carried by the waters of the Oris kany Creek. It manufactures tweeds and flannels, and con- aumes about 45,000 pounds of wool annually, and employs about seventy eight persons.
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Since the histories of Bridgewater and Kirkland were in type, the venerable men named in the following obituary no- tices have deceased and therefore they have a place here.
" ANOTHER REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIER GONE .- Died on the 28th of July, 1851, in Kirkland, NOAH CLARK, in his 88th year. Mr. Clark was a soldier in the war of the Revolution, and was at Yorktown at the surrender of Lord Cornwallis. He had resided in this county about 61 years, and lived to see a family of six children grow up to maturity about him. His wife died last February, since which time the old gen- tleman has gradually failed, till at last death released him from a life. which age and painful infirmities had rendered hardly desirable.
" Three of his sons are the proprietors ofthe extensive cotton frete- ries in Kirkland, known as Clark's Mills."
"STILL ANOTHER REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIER GONE .- Died, at his residence in Bridgewater, on Friday, July 18, 1851, ABRAHAM MONROE, aged 92. Mr. Monroe, at the early age of 16, enlisted into the Ameri- can army, and was a soldier under Gen. Gates, at the surrender of Bur- goyne. He was a native of New Hampshire, and removed to Bridge- water while it was a wilderness, and was one of the pioneers in its set- tlement. Fortunate in securing one of the finest locations in this re- gion, Mr. M. had the sagacity to be content with his first choice, and remained upon it to the day of his death.
" For several years past he received a pension for his Revolutionary services, the need of which he fortunately did not feel, having by his temperate and industrious habits secured to himself and family a com- petence at an early day. He was a whig of'76, and a whig of '51. His last presidential vote was given to Gen. Taylor. Although for years nearly isolated from society by age and infirmities, his memory of the scenes and events of the Revolution remained unusually distinct and vivid to the last. A great concourse of people testified their respeet by attending his funeral solemnities, which were held in the Congrega- tional church at Cassville, on the Sabbath succeeding his death."
[CORRECTION .- On page 783, first line, for " 1787," read ": 1775."]
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CHAPTER XXX.
INDIANS.
THE author had intended to give a much more extended notice of the aboriginal inhabitants of this part of our coun- try, the Six Nations, than his limits will admit of, and had collected many materials for that purpose. The Iroquois or Six Nations, called their race the On-gue Hon-we, i. e. " Men surpassing all others." The name "Indians " has never been recognized by them, but was given them by foreigners.
Those tribes of the Ongue Honwe, known to us as the Five, and later as the Six Nations or Iroquois, are (or were) known among themselves as the Ko-nosh-i-o-ni (Schoolcraft) ; Ago-nea-se-ah (Macaulay) ; Ho-de-no-sau-nee (Seneca : Mor- gan) ; or A-ga-nus-chi-o-ni ; Let-e-nugh-sho-nee ; Gwhun-nugh- sho-nee or Haugh-gogh nuch-shi-o-nee, (various authors) ; be- ing the same word or idea with the dialectical modifications incident to several tribes ; and the signification of which is " People of the long house," or " People of many fires." This name of the Iroquois, like our national motto, E Pluribus Unum, is beautifully significant, and refers to the union of the several tribes, thus forming the " Long house ; ". with the Mohawks at the eastern, and the Senecas at the western doors. With the Indians the fire upon the domestic hearth stone was invested with a peculiar sacredness, and they look- ed upon their confederacy as the union of " many fires " or homes.
The Powhattans called them Mas-saw-o-meeks; the Leni
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Lenape (Delawares) called them Meng-wee or Mingoes By the Dutch and early English writers they were called Ma- quas, and at a later period Mohocks, and from the French they received the name of Iroquois, a name of more frequent and general use by writers of all nations, than any other. Until the Tuscaroras joined the confederacy they were called by the English the Five Nations.
It is supposed by many that the Iroquois succeeded a people who were farther advanced in arts and civilization, who were the builders of the fortifications, mounds and other structures, the ruins of which are found in western New York and Ohio. To the latter the name of " Mound Builders " has been very confidently applied by certain learned pundits of the country who have, in connection with their Scandina- vian researches, given the subject some attention.
The origin of the Iroquois is unknown, and probably will ever remain so, as all that we really know of their history prior to the discovery of America has been gleaned from tra- ditions current among them. According to early writers it was believed that they emigrated from the country around Montreal, that they were dependents of the Algonquins, but becoming troublesome to their masters, the latter drove them from the country, but they finally conquered their masters and destroyed their power. David Cusick, the Tuscarora historian, has written out a tradition as to their origin, which was formerly current among all the tribes, and which was probably founded in truth. According to this, the Holder of the Heavens took the Indians out of a hill near the Oswego Falls, and leading to and down the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers to the sea. There they became scattered, but their great Leader brought six families back to the vicinity of the janetion of the Hudson and Mohawk, and then proceeding westerly he planted the Five Nations, the Mohawks, Onei-
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das, Onondagas, Senecas and Cayugas, by leaving a family at the location of each, giving them names and slightly chan- ging their language. With the sixth family he proceeded on " between mid-day and sun-setting " to the Mississippi River. which part of them crossed upon a grape vine, but the vine breaking, those on this side travelled easterly to the neigh- borhood of the ocean, and settled upon the Neuse River in North Carolina. This last was the Tuscarora tribe. The tradition is highly poetical, and in some respects beautiful, but is too highly colored with supernatural manifestations to be fally and easily understood.
As to the population of the Iroquois in earlier times, we have no certain data, but their numbers were doubtless much over-rated. In 1677, they were estimated at 2,150 warriors. or 10.750 souls ; in 1756, at 1,200 warriors, or 6,000 souls ; in 1760, at 7,500 souls; in 1764, at 7,750. In 1776, it was es- timated that 1,580 warriors took sides with the British, and 230 were friendly to the Americans, which at the same ratio as above, would give 9,050 souls. According to a census ta- ken in 1845 (under a law of this state) of those residing within this state, with estimates and data as to those of the Six Nations residing out of this state, they then included 6,942 souls, of whom 4,836 were within the limits of the United States, and 3,843 were within this state. Of the latter number were 2,441 Seneeas, 398 Onondagas and 281 Tuscaroras, being the three tribes which had then remained whole ; also 210 Oneidas, 123 Cayugas, 20 Mohawks and 260 St. Regis, etc. The St. Regis tribe was composed orig- inally of those members of the other tribes who embraced the Catholic faith and under the influence of the French re- moved to the borders of Canada, and their land is now inter- sected by the Canada line. Of those out of the state there were (in 1842) 722 Oneidas at Green Bay, about 2000
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Mohawks and Cayugas in Canada, a few upon the Alleghany River in Pennsylvania, and some scattered in the far west. The main body of the Oneidas, a few Tuscaroras, and one or two of the St. Regis tribe took sides with the Americans in the revolution. Col. Louis of St. Regis rendered the Amer- icans efficient service at Fort Stanwix and elsewhere. All the others of the Six Nations joined the British, and became the scourge of the frontiers of the Mohawk, Hudson and Pennsylvania.
The Iroquois confederacy was probably at the heighth of its power when the Dutch commenced their settlements upon the Hudson about 1610, and retaincd their ascendancy, with little diminution, down to the close of the last "old French war," or about 1760. The Five Nations, by their energy and valor, their eloquence in council and skill in diplomacy, be- came the most powerful people in central North America. They carried their arms to the Straits of St. Mary's, to the foot of Lake Superior, and under the walls of Quebec, where they defeated the Hurons under the eyes of the French; they annihilated the Eries, the Galiquas and the Susquehannocks, and the Munsecs ; they put the Manhattans and the Metoacks they subjected the Leni Lenapes (Delawares), the Nanticokes under tribute, they spread terror and destruction over New England, they crossed the Appalachian chain, and descended like furies upon the Cherokees and Catawbas. Capt. Smith encountered their warriors in Virginia, and La Salle saw them upon the banks of the Illinois. "Nations trembled when they heard the name of the Konoshioni."
ONCIDAS.
ยท According to the before-mentioned tradition, as to the ori- gin of the Six Nations, as recorded by Cusick, after planting
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the Mohawks, the "company journeyed westward two days and a half, and came to a creek called Kaw-na-taw-ta-ruh, i. e. " Pine woods." (This creek, according to Cusick, is a branch of the Susquehannah, having its head in Col Allen's lake ten miles miles south of Oneida Castle.) The second family were di- rected to take up their residence near that creek, and they were named Ne-haw-ve-tah-go, i. e. "Big tree" (the Oneidas). and their language was changed." In conclusion, he says " but the six families did not go so far as to lose the understanding of each other's language."
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