USA > New York > Essex County > Westport > Bessboro: A history of Westport, Essex Co., N.Y. > Part 23
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Fence Viewers .- Platt Sheldon, Asa Loveland. . Abner Fish, Josephus Merriam.
Overseers of Highways .- Ralph Walton, Charles Wood, James W. Coll, Willard Frisbie, Diadorus Holcomb, Eb. - nezer Sciseb. Elijih Williams. John Whitney. Samuel Denton. Gideon Hammond, Henry Stoue, John Pine, Jacob Matthews, Chester Taylor.
In the road surveys we find two "private roads" laid out. One ran from "the shore of Lake Champlain to the road which leads to Maria Coats' ore bed lot." It began "at a stake standing near the ore bed wharf," and ended at a "stake and stones standing twenty-five links north of the division, line between Platt Rogers' ore bed patent, and Lot No. 100 in the Iron ore tract." The other seems to join this one, and mentions "the house in which Eleazer H. Ranney now lives," and "the road leading from Abijah Cheaver's ore bed to his wharf."
Another survey was of "a road leading from Fisher's
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Mills by A. Dunton's and the Bartlett settlement to the town of Moriah."
At this time the only public building in the village was the school house which stood on Main street, on the south side of the bridge. Its threshold must have been well worn, for it was crossed by the bare feet of the children five days and a half out of every week, by the heavy cowhide boots of the men for town meet- ings, general elections and district school meetings, and every Sunday felt the; tread of men, women and children, attending divine service at two long sessions, morning and afternoon. It will be a mistake for the reader to allow a feeling of pity to rise in his breast for the people subjected to so much ecclesiasticallabor. It was the one relaxation of a hard working, thoughtful, self-denying population, starved as to mind and soul on remote farms, in many cases, through the week, and looking hungrily forward to the opportunity of sitting on a rough board seat for an hour, listening to a ser- mon which gave positive answer to every question then asked by the mind of man. Do not, of all things, pity the women, for then came their one chance to ex- change notes on important subjects with their neigh- bors during the intermission between services, while the lunches were being eaten. Even those who lived in the village often brought lunch with them, in order to enjoy the company of the noon hour. And so we understand when we are told that "everybody went to meeting then," whether the preacher was the settled minister of the Baptists, coming out of the parsonage
.
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a little way down the street, the Methodist circuit rider, or Father Comstock with his Congregational doctrines, riding in on horseback from the house of some friend where he had been as welcome as a Bible and a daily newspaper rolled into oue.
But what about the children ? Rough board seats and sermons are poor support for growing bones. They were sometimes allowed to play outside, roaming over the fields and down to the lake shore, and making high holiday. Any one who knows boys can imagine sun- dry drawbacks to this plan, connected perhaps with stray cats and apple orchards, and it soon became evi- dent that something must be done. Then it was that the plan originated of a Sunday school, and the person who first put it in operation in Westport was one Sam- uel Cook, who had joined the Baptist church in 1816, The Baptists formed the leading denomination at that time, and for some years after, and consequently the first Sunday school was a Baptist one. Mr. Cook's services seem to have been entirely self-offered, which makes it all the more creditable to him, and we are told that the teaching and management fell upon him and his family. The Cooks seem to have gone away in 1828, as in that year Relief, Eunice and Harriet Cook received letters of dismission. But the Sunday school thus begun was never abandoned. The church in 1826 took a formal vote, assuming the responsibility of the work, and in 1830 elected three superintendents, Gid -. eon Hammond, John Chandler and John Pine.
This year, or not long before it, Frederick T. Howard
HISTORY OF WESTPORT 341
came from Vermont with his family, and settled on the back road, on the place so long occupied by his son Frederick B. Howard. Other sons were Mansfield, who bought the Gidcon Hammond place, where his son Rush now lives : Dorr, who built the large brick house on the road to Wadhams, now occupied by his widow ; Orrin, who built the white house near the railroad crossing known so many years as "Howard's;" and Hosea, who lived on the middle road, where his son Fred now lives.
1825.
Town meeting held in the school house at N. W. Bay. Gideon Hammond, Supervisor.
Samuel Cook, Jun., Town Clerk.
Enos Loveland, Charles Hatch and John Lobdell, As- sessors.
Enos Loveland and John Lobdell, Poor Masters.
Charles Fisher, Caleb P. Cole and Samuel Storrs, High- way Commissioners.
Charles B. Hatch, Platt R. Halstead and Diadorus Hol- comb, School Commissioners.
Levi Frisbie, Pbilo Kingsley and Jason Dunster, Con- stables.
Platt Sheldon, Asa Loveland and Abner Fish, Fence Viewers.
John H. Low, Pound Master.
Overseers of Highways .-- Joshua R. Harris, Oschar Wood. Crosbie MeKeuzie, Hezekiah Barber, Caleb P. Cole. Platt R. Halstead, Newton Haze, Calvin Angier, Willard Church, Elijah Storrs, Joel Finney, John Daniels. 3rd, John Kingsley, Vine T. Bingham, Enos Loveland, Gideon Hammond, John Nicholds, Frederick Howard, Jacob Mathews, Chester Taylor.
In the road surveys we find the first mention of the road which we should now say led from Payne's wharf to the Fair grounds, but as neither one of these termini
.
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was existent in 1825, it is described as "beginning at the north east corner of a piece of land lately purchased by Barnabas Myrick and Ira Henderson of Bouton Lob- dell," and running "to the center of the road near Dia- dorus Holcomb's." There was also a road laid out "leading from Northwest Bay to Whal m's Mill."
In this year John Quincy Adams was inaugurated, the Erie canal was opened, and Lafayette laid the cor- ner stone of the university building in Burlington, Vt. Another thing remembered in the Champlain valley is that this was a remarkably early spring, the ice being out of the lake on the eighteenth of March.
At about this time were built two of the large brick houses in the village. Judge Hatch built on Main street, just north of the present Library lawn, the house now owned by Mr. Daniel F. Payne, and in the northern part of the village, on the lake shore, the house now owned by Mr. Frank Allen was built by Ebenezer Douglass. Both are of brick made in West- port brickyards, I am told, and both have the massive chimneys with deep fire-places on two floors, which were still considered necessary in an elegant house, notwithstanding the increasing use of stoves. These great chimneys, containing many tons of brick, were built before work was begun on the outside of the house, whether it was to be of wood or brick, and the masons who laid them must needs be skilled workmen.
The Douglass house was begun the year before, and finished this summer, but Ebenezer Douglass did not come until 1825, his business here being superintended
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. by his oldest son, Thomas, a young man not long married to Joanna Winans. The Douglasses came originally from Connecticut, but Ebenezer Douglass had been in Ticonderoga before 1812, as is shown by the fact that he was supervisor of Ticonderoga in that year, holding the office until 1814. He was again elected in 1816, and again in 1824, 1825 and 1826. Then he re- moved to Westport, remaining about twenty years. He had been one of the leading merchants of Ticonderoga, in partnership with Judge Isaac Kellogg until after the war of 1812, and then with Joseph Weed in the Upper Village. In Westport his business partner was his son William, and firm name E. & W. Douglass. They built the northern wharf, and the brick store above it, owned boats, made potash, and carried on extensive dealings in lumber.
Ebenezer Douglass had a large family of children. His second son, William, married a Miss Arthur of Ticonde- roga, and was grandfather to Miss Ada G. Douglass. His daughter Hannab married Dr. Abiathar Pollard, for many years our leading physician. Other children of Ebenezer Douglass were Mary. Lemuel, John, Prentice, and Be- najah. afterward supervisor of the town.
That the village at Northwest Bay was growing in importance is shown by all these things. Lumber from the forests and iron from the forges on the rivers came in to our wharves, and was shipped ou canal boats and schooners, while merchandise from the south, Albany or New York, and ore from the Moriah mines was un- loaded. Barnabas Myrick built a forge at the Falls this year, and the next he and Luman Wadhams built
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their grist mill there, making the place one of active prosperity.
This year the schooner Troy was lost with all on board, her master, Jacob Halstead, a young man of twenty-five, his young brother, George, thirteen years old, Jacob Pardee, their step-brother, and two others whose names I never heard. The schooner went on her first trip for ore to Port Henry, one day in November, and was returning loaded, when she met a gale in which she foundered, somewhere above Barber's Point. It is thought that the ore was not properly secured from shifting in the hold, and when the schooner careened in the gale, the ore shifted and made it impossible for her to be righted. Not one, master or crew, ever came back alive, and from this tragedy arose the story which Henry Holcomb loved to tell, and which I have always heard in my own family, of the mother and sisters sit- ting at home in the Halstead house, listening through the storm for the sound of home-coming footsteps as the night wore on. Suddenly they heard the boys on the doorsteps, stamping off the snow in the entry as they were wont to do before coming in. The women sprang to the door and opened it, stepped to the outer door and looked down upon the light carpet of untrod- den snow which lay before it, and then crept trembling back to the fireside, knowing that son and brothers would never sit with them again within its light. The father stayed on the wharf all night, and searching par- ties weut along the shore all the next day, and in the afternoon, wreckage which told the tale was picked up
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in Coll's bay. My grandmother was a girl of sixteen at the time, and the midnight watch, and the warning of those unearthly footsteps, were things which she al- ways grew pale to remember. This is the only ghost story I have ever known told and believed among our townspeople, and I never suspected that it was known outside my own family until the old Halstead house, then the middle portion of the Westport Inn, was torn down in 1898, and some of the older people standing by to see it done, recalled the story and told it exactly as my mother first told it to me.
Settlers were continually coming in through all these years, and in 1825 Leonard Taylor came from New Hampshire and settled near Brainard's Forge. This part of the town was largely peopled from New Hamp- shire, as George and Orrin Skinner, who had come some time before this, the Pierces and the Hodgkinses, all came from that state.
Oliver Boutwell also came from New Hampshire in this year, and settled near Wadham's Mills. He had a large family of children, one of whom, Lucinda, born in New Hampshire in 1820, married first Randall Stone, and after his death became the second wife of Cyrenus R. Payne. Her children were Edna Stone, afterward Mrs. Daniel Carey and Lucinda and Cornelia Payne, the former now Mrs. John Hoffnagle, of this place.
1826.
Town Meeting held in the school house at North West Bay.
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
Charles Hatch. Supervisor.
Samuel Cook. Jun .. Town Clerk.
Diadores Holcomb, Gideon Hammond, Jesse Braman. Assessors.
Lovi Frisbie. Collector.
Enos Lovelaud and John Lobdell. Poor Masters.
Barnabas Myrick. John Kingsley. Elijah Storrs, High- way Commissioners.
Diadoras Holcomb. Iva Henderson. Asahel Lyon, School Commissioners.
Diadorus S. Holcomb. Charles B. Hateb. Platt R. Hal- stead, School Inspectors.
Levi Frisbie. Philo Kingsley, Paulinus Finney. Consta- bles.
Enos Loveland. Gideon Hammond, John Lobdell, Fener Viewers.
Charles B. Hateb. Pound Master.
Overseers of Highways .- Abial Mitchell, Platt Sheldon. Alexander Spencer. Cyrus Richards, Ebenezer Pulsiver. Diadorus Holcomb. Elijah Angier, George W. Sturtevant. Moses Felt. Samuel Denton, Samuel A. Wightman, John Lobdell. Jobuson Hill, Nathan Wallace, Gideon Hammond. John F. Alexander. Philander Persons, Seth Lewis, Jonas Walker. Joseph Farnum.
A new road leading "from General Wadhams to Wil- lard Hartwell's." Another road begins "on the east side of Black river," and we find mention of "a road running from Southwell's Forge southerly towards Steel's Saw Mill," and the "old road leading from Haasz's Forge easterly to N. W. Bay."
The mention of these forges reminds us that the iron business was now becoming more and more important. "Haasz's Forge" was at "the Kingdom," in Elizabeth- town, high up on the Black river, and Southwell's was lower down near the place, I believe, where the turn- pike now crosses the river.
This year road district No. 10 is formed, to "begin
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At William P. Merriam's, run north by Walker and Garfield's Mill, and east to the town line by Darius Merriam's." This would seem as though Darius Merriam had before this moved from where he first settled, ou the western slope of Coon mountain, proba- biy not long after the war of 1812, to the place where he built his house upon the river bank. The Merriams came originally from Massachusetts, but Darius Mer- riam came to Westport from Essex, and his wife, Enseba Potter, came from Swanton, Vt. His children were William Potter, Lovisa, Philetus Darins, Enos, Adney, Delia, Sarah and John. They seem all to have gone west, sooner or later, except William and Philetus who carried on an extensive lumber and iron business for many years under the firm name of W. P. & P. D. Merriam. William married Caroline Barnard and had two sons and two daughters. He built the cottage on the river bauk at Merriam's Forge, still owned by his daughter, Mrs. Whitney. Philetus Merriam lived on the other side of the river, not far from the towu line, but went west before his death.
I do not know the exact connection between the fam- ily of Darius Merriam and that of William B. Merriam, [commonly known as Deacon Merriam,) whose name also occurs in this year's records as a resident of West- port. He removed to Essex in 1854. His wife's name was Rebecca Cook Whitney, and it was his son, Gen. William L. Merriam, who carried on the iron works in Lewis A danghter of Gen. Merriam married James W. Steele of Lewis and her daughter married D. F.
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
Payne of Wadhams Mills. Col. John L. Merriam, son of Gen. Merriam, married Mahala, daughter of Joseph R. DeLano, and after her death in 1857 he removed to St. Paul, Minn., represented his adopted state in Congress, and was Speaker of the House in 1870. His sou, the Hon. William Rush Merriam, born in 1849 at Wadhams Mills, has served two terms as Governor of Minnesota, has represented his state in Congress, and is now Director of the Census, appointment of Presi- dent McKinley.
In May of 1826 Levi Pierce came from New Hamp- shire, and he and his children settled on farms near the north line; in Lewis, Essex and Westport. His sous were Levi, Jr., Samuel, William, Charles, Curtis, and Harvey, and his daughters Mary, Maria and Bet- sey. The latter married Captain Samuel Anderson, one of the lake captains, and lived on the lake shore farm now owned by Mr. Head of Boston. Their daughter Amanda married William Williams. Lovi Pierce, Jr., was the father of Wallace, and Samuel of Martin Pierce. Harvey Pierce came to Westport as a clerk in Hatch's store, afterward buying an interest in the business, and later was in partnership with Franklin Cutting. He married as his second wife Margaret Augier, and their children were Sarah, who died when a young girl ; Frauk, who married May Wyman of Crown Point, and has three children, Howard, Eloise, and Beatrice ; and Charles, who is married and has one child. Frank and Charles Pierce are now partners in business in Iowa.
May 3, 1826, Barnabas Myrick and Gen. Wadhams
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built a large grist mill at Wadhams, the finest yet seen in town. Its brick walls still form a part of the present mill.
1827.
Town Meeting beld in the school house at North West Bav.
Gideon Hammond, Supervisor.
Samuel Cook, Jun., Town Clerk.
Diadorus Holcomb, Jesse Braman and Alexander Spen- cer. Assessors.
Levi Frisbie, Collector.
John Lobdell and Enos Loveland, Poor Masters.
John Kingsley, Elijah Newell, Ephraim Stiles, Highway Commissioners.
William Frisbie, Timothy Sheldon, Levi Frisbie. Calvin Willey, Constables.
Asahel Lvon, Diadorus Holcomb, Ira Henderson. School Commissioners.
Jason Dunster, Elisha Garfield, Diadorus S. Holcomb. School Inspectors.
Caleb P. Cole. John Lobdell and Calvin Angier, Fence Viewers.
Elijah Newell, Pound Master.
Overseers of Highways. - Abial Mitebell, Platt Sheldon. Peter Tarbell, Cyrus Richards, Caleb P. Cole. Asabel Lyon. Luther Angier, Willard Church. Moses Felt. Joel Finney, John Daniels, 3rd, John Lobdell, Harvey Smith. Abram Niebols, Willard Carpenter. Harry Stone. Wash- ington Lee, Eli Ferris. Myron Cole. James Marshall. War- ren Harper.
"Myrick's forge and shop" are mentioned in the de- scriptions of the road districts.
This year a new school district was formed, and "the brick school house" was built on the road opened in 1825, running from the Douglass wharf westward until it joins Pleasant street. For my own convenience J intend to call this street "Douglass street" in future.
HISTORY OF WESTPORT
and so save the circumloention of a tedious description. Doubtless the boundary between the two districts was the bridge across Mill brook. This briek school house came afterward to be used for the class meet- ings and preaching services of the M. E. church. Mr. S. Wheaton Cole wrote me in 1899 : "I well remember the old brick school house in the north of the village, where I began learning my A. B. C's seventy-two years ago. The next year I began business, picking winter- green berries in the hemlock forests north of the town. and exchanging them for candy with Edwin and Charles Hatch. My father was killed in September of 1825, and the next year I went to live with my uncles, Caleb and Paul Cole, where I remained twelve years, working on the farm and attending school in the south part of the village." Mr. Cole's father was killed by being thrown from an ox-cart on a rough road, the wheel passing over his chest and so injuring bim that he died. This gives us a glimpse of the character of the roads of that day, and the fact that he was taking a grist to Wadhams to be ground goes to show that the grist mills at Northwest Bay were probably not running. It is true that the usefulness of these early grist mills was but short-lived.
The history of Free Masonry in Essex county began with the establishment of Essex Lodge in the village of Essex in 1807. In 1818 the Valley Lodge at Elizabetli- town received a charter. Its first officers were Ezra C. Gross, W. M .; Laman Wadhams, S. W .; and John Barnes, J. W. This is the lodge whose records
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
.
were carried away in the freshet of 1830. and which doubtless had some Westport men as members. Dia- dorus Holcomb and Ira Henderson were Masons, Davil B. MeNeil belonged to the Essex Lodge, and the name of Joel Finney is also found upon its records. Joseph C'all is said to have been a Mason. Meetings of the order were beld from time to time in Westport, in a room of the house since known as the Richards House, on Pleasant street. There Thomas. Douglass was initiated into the mysteries of the order in the year 1825, as his daughter, now Mrs. James A. Allen, dis- tinetly remembers hearing him say. The only record which I have been fortunate enough to find is that given in the last Essex County History, on page 323 : "Royal Arch Masonry in the county began, it would seem, with the establishment of Westport Chapter No. 127, at Westport, February 27, 1827, with Joseph Cook, High Priest, Orris Pier, King, and Calvin Willey, Scribe, After making reports to the Grand Chapter for two years it disappears from the records." None of the names given are those of Westport men. It is possible that the strong Anti-Masonie excitement which followed the disappearance of Morgan in 1826 may have operated against the prosperous continuance of this order at this time. The present lodge was established in 1852.
This year was the "first great revival" of the churches, and the first camp meeting. The camp meeting was held on the little wooded point on the north shore of the bay, on the borders of the "Siseo farm," named from the family who lived on the hill above it. Here a plat-
HISTORY OF WENTPORT
form was built under the trees for the preachers, who exhorted a congregation seated ou long planks which were supported by stones and blocks, with no roof overhead save the leafy branches of the trees. The camp meeting held for one or two weeks, and people came from far and near, from the Vermont shore, from Lewis and Essex, from Barber's Point and Wadham's Mills, put up tents and bark roofed shanties for shelter. and lived there on the lake shore the whole time, listen- ing to sermons and to the testimonies of converts all day long, with the culmination of the day's excitement invariably looked for at the evening service, lighted by the glare of great flaming torches of pitch pine. The preachers were of all denominations, called iu along both shores of the lake, and their labors were rewarded with a large number of converts. The records of our village churches show a great increase in membership, in this and the next year, and both must have soou doubled their numbers.
There is doubtless a close connection between this revival and the fact that in this year the Congregational church was first organized at Wadham's Mills. If there had been a Congregational society there before this time, it was not in a flourishing condition, and there are no traces of it left. My efforts to obtain the early records of this church have been unavailing, the pres- ent clerk having in his possession nothing older that the book beginning in 1841. Smith's history of 1855 gives the names of the original members of 1827 us Laman Wadhams, Calvin Wiley, Jesse Braman, Alex.
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ander Whitney and Thomas Hadley, the date of the first meeting March 29, 1827, and the place the school house "near the residence of Jesse Braman."
Besides the increase in membership, there is shown in the Baptist records a mounting zeal in the matter of church discipline. Serious business it was felt to be, and seriously they did it, appointing solemu commit- tees to visit delinquents, and taking action upon the reports rendered at the next church meeting, but to one of the present generation a smile seems never far away when reading these deliberations, in which a neglect to attend church was dealt with as weightily as more flagrant offences. Poor Joseph Stacey, waited upon by one of these committees, confessed to working on board his boat on Sunday, instead of dressing up and going to church, and so we know that one of the white sails in the bay belonged to him.
Dr. Cutting has left an account of this revival which shows in perfection the quiet, sincere dignity of his own faith, which never descended to small ansieties about the inconsistencies of others.
"In 1826-27 occurred a revival in Westport. It was remarkable in character. Beginning in the early au- tumn of 1826, in a very general seriousness in the com- munity, it continued through the winter. Many were baptised, myself ou the last Sabbath in May, by the Rev. Jeremy H. Dwyer, pastor of the Baptist church in that village. I can hardly tell how I became more deeply interested in religion. I think my own state of mind and feeling were in harmony from the first
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with the growing interest which pervaded the commu- nity. Long afterwards I learned that on retiring from the water, Mr. Dwyer remarked, 'I have baptised a minister to-day.'"
1828.
Town Meeting in the school house.
Gideon Hammond, Supervisor.
Samuel Cook. Jun., Town Clerk.
Jesse Bramau, Platt R. Halstead, Ephraim Stiles, As- sessors.
Levi Frisbie. Collector.
Jason Dunster, Diadorus Holcomb. Alausou Barber, Highway Commissioners.
Levi Frisbie. William Frisbie. Calvin Willey. Constables. Elisha Garfield. Wm. B. Merriam; Alexander Spencer, School Commissioners.
Diadorus S. Holcomb. Asahel Lyon, Platt R. Halstead. Sebool Inspectors.
John Greeley, Isaac Stone. Caleb P. Cole, Fence Viewers. Newton Havs, Pound Master.
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