USA > New York > Essex County > Westport > Bessboro: A history of Westport, Essex Co., N.Y. > Part 27
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This was the year in which the Hunters first came from Boston, bought land on North Shore and built the house at Hunter's Bay which was burned in 1875. Wil- liam Guy Hunter was born in 1798, and was therefore a man of forty when he came to Westport. He had been a sergeant in the war of 1812, and had afterward spent three years at the West Point Military Academy. His father William Hunter, had fought in the Revolution, sharing in the retreat from Quebec in the summer of 1776, and thus being the first of the family to see our North Shore, as he passed it in the Continental army. His father, David, was the son of Jonathan Hunter, who came from England to America in the earlier years of the eighteenth century, and married Hopestill Hamlin, of Rochester, Mass.
Doubtless the first attraction to the place for Mr. Hunter was the residence here of his elder sister, Mrs. Sewall Cutting, who had come with her family in 1823. Another sister, Mrs. Aiken, came soon afterward. Mr. Hunter soon became one with the country people, took an active part in public affairs, and was, after a few years, elected supervisor of the town. Many stories of
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his words and ways are still told, and such was his fame as a conversationalist that a myth-making process has now begun, attributing any witty or shrewd remark which is recognized as especially applicable to West- port or to Westport people, to Mr. Hunter. In this way some apocryphal tales are told, but one saying of his we can vouch for as authentic, made in reference to some man his opinion of whom had been asked. "Well," It csaid Mr. Hunter, "in the sight of man he passes for a pretty straight, upright kind of a fellow; in the sight of God I am afraid he wiggles a little." This has the true Hunteresque flavor-something which no one else would ever have thought of saying.
Mr. Hunter's wife was Elizabeth Wilson, who was only twenty-three when they came to Westport. Her sister Sarah, six years younger, soon visited her, and was accustomed to ride about the country on horse- back. She often told of her first meeting with Louis Agassiz, the great naturalist, in the solitary road which pierces the forest of North Shore, and of his astonish- ment at meeting there a young girl on horseback, en- tirely unattended. He was then not long from Switz- erland, and had come from Cambridge to visit Mr. Hunter. Miss Sarah Wilson afterward married Col. Francis L. Lee, of Boston, whose father was a wealthy East India merchant, and it was in 1848 that they built their summer home on a hill north of the Bay, over- looking a glorious view of the lake and mountains, and called it Stony Sides.
It was in 1838 that David Turner, then in the news-
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paper office at Keeseville, tells of a visit to Elkanah Watson at Port Kent.
"It was here the writer of this narrative had the honor to visit this venerable man at his fine stone man- sion, and listen to his description of events from the Revolutionary war up to that time ; his journey to France and London, and the story of Copley painting his portrait, which then hung on the wall before me. It was here I met the then President of the United. States, Martin Van Buren, John, his son, Henry Clay, Governor Silas Wright, and other prominent men of that day, who had called to pay their respects to the distinguished agriculturist and philanthropist. He had then reached his eightieth year."
This gives an interesting glimpse of the people who might be met on the passenger steamers and packet boats of the lake and the canal, in the leisurely jour- ney from the waters of the Hudson. Many stories are told of the pleasure of these journeys, and their social possibilities, which were akin to the opportunities of- fered by a voyage at sea. Martin Van Buren, -the little Magician, the Fox of Kinderhook,-often made the trip from his mansion at Kinderhook, on the Hud- son, to Lake Champlain, and was often the travelling companion of the Hunters. He was then a widower past fifty, a man of wealth, a successful lawyer and pol- itician, who looked ou the world from the President's chair. It is said that Miss Sarah Wilson might have become Mrs. Martin Van Buren if she had not preferred become Mrs. Francis I. Lee.
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It was this year that navigation on the lake was fa- cilitated by the erection of the first light-houses, at Cumberland Head and Split Rock.
It seems to have been at this period that the first in- vestment of Boston capital in Essex county iron mines was made, as this year the Cheever ore bed, then al- most entirely undeveloped, was sold to Mr. Horace Grey of Boston. From this time until after the war .the property was in the hands of, as Watson says, "an incorporated organization composed of gentlemen of affluence residing in Massachusetts."
1889.
Town Meeting beld at the Inn of H. J. Person.
. Benajab P. Douglass, Supervisor.
Franklin H. Cutting. Clerk.
John H. Low. Justice of the Peace.
Platt R. Halstead, Jobb Chaudler, Joseph Hardy, Asses- sors.
Seymour Curtis, Collector.
Alanson Barber, H. J. Person, Jason Braman, Road Commissioners.
Ira Henderson, Aaron B. Mack, William L. Wadhams, School Commissioners.
D. S. Holcomb, Evander W. Ranney, D. H. Sayre, Seboo! Inspectors.
James W. Coll and Calvin Angier, Poor Masters.
Seymour Curtis, J. F. Brush, Henry Stone, E. H. Coll, Sewall Cutting. Constables.
James Walker Eddy, Scaler of Weights and Measures.
Pathmasters. - Appollos Williams, Jr .. Otis Sheldon. Samuel Root. Tillingbast Cole, Cyrus Richards. Harvey Pierce. Barnabas Myrick Diodorus Holcomb. Eleazer H. Ran- ney, James Marsball. George W. Sturtevant, Eli Wood, Jason Dubster. Joel K. French. George Skinner. Nathan Slangb- tor, Ephraim Bull, Jr .. E. B. Nichols, Jobo Chandler,
HISTORY OF WESTPORT 405
William Stacy, William Perkins, Solomon Stockwell, John Lewis, Jr., Moses Felt, Joseph Farnam, Joshua Slaugh- ter, B. P. Douglass, Erastus Loveland, Jonathan Cady, John Stone. James Bartlett.
In December of this vear Charles B. Hatch was ap- pointed Town Clerk in place of F. H. Cutting, who had re- signed.
In the summer of 1839 the Baptist church was moved from the top of the hill on Washington street to the lot upon Main street upon which stands the present edi- fice. This lot had been owned by the church since 1836, and it is evident that there had been from that time an intention to move the building upon it, since the house had never been finished where it first stood. After it rested upon its new foundations, close upon the street, new floors were put in, with sixty-four pews, which according to the custom then prevailing, were rented for a fixed sum each. The building was painted white, with green blinds, and as it was a large square house, with a large square belfry at one end of the roof, it was gazed upon with intense satisfaction by every one who had had a hand in its construction, as a per- fect example of the most recent and approved ideas of ecclesiastical architecture. The pulpit stood on a high platform at the western end, and the choir sang in an alcove opposite .. No doubt at first the cus- tom of the audience facing about with faces to the choir and backs to the minister while the hymn was being sung, may have been followed, but was given up in the next generation. There was a large basement for prayer meetings and Sunday school, and the new church was abosee the center of a busy social life. Two hundred
r
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and twenty-seven members were reported this year to the Association, a number which has never since been exceeded. The pastor at this time was the Rev. Cyrus W. Hodges, the church clerk William J. Cutting, and , the trustees elected since 1830 were Caleb P. Cole, Norris MeKinney, Calvin and Elijah Augier, Evander W. Ranney, William J. Cutting, Alexander Young and Aaron B. Mack. That the M. E. church was also in a prosperous condition is shown by the fact that this year the first stationed preacher was assigned to the place, the Rev. John W. Belknapp. Measures were taken for building a parsonage, which were consummated some- what later.
Just coming into use was a new invention, that of made envelopes into which letters were put before they were sent. Up to this time a part of the education of every child in an educated family was the intricate folding of a written letter so that a blank space should be presented on the outside upon which to write the address. Postage was still so high that letters were a luxury, unless an absolute necessity, and with the new- fashioned envelopes, sealing wax was used for closing them. Steel peus had been invented about ten years before this, but were by no means in common use.
This year Cyrenns Rockwell Payne came to Wad- ham's Mills from Brookfield where his father, Joseph Payne, had settled in 1807. He opened a shoe shop and afterward built the brick house which is still owned in the family. His first wife was Eliza French, daugh- of Joel French, and their children were : Orrin, who
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died at the age of sixteen. Delia, married Judd Sayre, now of lowa. Joel Osborne, who lived in Wheeling, West Virginia, aud amassed a large fortune, dying iu 1890. Seward Quiney, now living in South Dakota. Daniel Safford French Payne has always lived at Wad- liam's Mills, carrying on the mills and forge for many years, and doing a large business in iron and lumber. The second wife of Cyrenus R. Payne was Mrs. Lucinda Boutwell) Stone, and their children were twin daugh- ters, Lucinda and Cornelia.
1840.
Town Meeting at H. J. Person.
Barnabas Myrick, Supervisor.
James W. Eddy, Clerk.
Ira Henderson, Justice.
Joseph R. Delano. Aaron B. Mack, Levi Frisbie, Asses- sors.
Guy Stevens, Collector.
Samuel Storrs. Otis Sheldon. William Viall, Road Com- missioners.
Asabel Havens. David H. Sayre, Albert P. Cole. School Commissioners.
A. M. Olds, Joel K. French, D. S. Holcomb. School In- spectors.
James W. Coll and Stephen Sayre. Poor Masters.
Guy Stevens. Jared Goodell. Seymour Curtis. L. W. Pollard, Constables.
Charles Hatch, Sealer of Weights and Measures.
Pathmasters .- Joseph Bigalow. E. H. Coll. James W. Coll, Johu Ferris. David Rogers, Charles Hatch, Barnabas Myrick. Asa Loveland, Smith Moore, Henry Royce, George W. Sturtevant. Horace Holcomb, Benjamin Hardy. Joel B. Phinney. Jason Braman, Charles Cady, Jobnsou Hill, Leonard Avery, Luther B. Hammond, Charles Stacy. Alvin Buat. Solomon Stockwell. Lee Prouty. Abram Sherman,
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Calvin C. Angier, William P. West. B. P. Douglass. George Vaughan. John Lewis. Jr., John Stone. James Bartlett.
This year Platt R. Halstead surveyed "a private road for William Guy Hunter," from corner lot No. 1, Taylor and Kemble, "to the cleared fields. "
Another road began "on the lake road south of the Ore Bed House, running fifty links easterly of the north point of a ledge of rocks there. due north to Joseph Ormsbee's south line. " to "an east and west road." Abraham Stone. Surveyor. There was an alteration of a road "leading from the Congregational meeting, house at Wadbam's Mills to the road leading from North West Bay to Pleasant Valley. " Joel K. Freuch, Surveyor.
The name of Abram Sherman among the pathmas- ters recalls the fact that this family had not been long in Westport. Humphrey Sherman, father of Abram, was born in White Creek, Washington county, in 1780, and probably came into Essex county early in the nine- teenth century. His brother Nathan, progenitor of the Moriah Shermans so closely connected with the history of the Moriah iron mines, was elected the first town clerk of Moriah in 1SOS, and it is likely that Humphrey Sherman came into Brookfield at nearly the same time. He married Anne Reynolds, born in Dutchess county, a sister of Abraham Reynolds, "the patriarch of Brook- field." Their children were :
1. Morris, married Louise Dunster; children, Ellery and Carroll.
2. Humphrey, married Mary Hardy; children, Har- vey and Hardy, Walter.
3. Abram, married Eliza Smith ; children, Abram, George, Frank, Alfred, Eliza, Emma.
4. Charlotte married a Pomeroy.
5. Christiann married Morrill Gibbs.
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
6. Titus George, married Parthenia, daughter of Thomas Sheldon of Essex. He was commissioned Eu- sign in 1840, Lieutenant in 1842, and Captain in 1843, of the 37th regiment, N. Y. S. M .. Col. John. L. Mer- riam ; 40th Brigade, Gen. William S. Merriam. A sou of Captain Titus Sherman, Henry Douw, married Sally Maria Whitney, daughter of Lucius Whitney of Essex. Their daughter Cora, born in Essex, Aug. 15, 1869, married at Essex, Nov. 15, 1870, Henry Harmon Noble, born 1861, son of Harmon Noble of Essex. Their chil- dren, all born in Essex, are : 1. John Harmon, born Sept. 6, 1SSS. 2. Laura Anne, boru October 25, 1889. 3. Katherine Ruth, born Oct. 2, 1892. Mr. Henry Harmon Noble has been employed in the office of the State Historian at Albany since Sept. 4, 1895 ; Chief Clerk since March 1, 1900. Another son of Capt. Titus Sherman is Adelbert, married Susan Coll.
There were other Shermans in Westport, living in the south part of the town, much earlier than this family of Humphry Sherman, but I have not been so fortunate as to find any one who could name unto me their gen- . erations. In 1815 our Stacy brook is called in the town records "the Sherman brook," doubtless after a mau who lived near it, and afterward we find Elijah, Hollis and Stephen Sherman named.
This year Archibald Pattison came from Washington county and settled on the lake road, on Bessboro, re- moving in later life to the village. His wife was Me- hitable Pratt, and they had four sons.
Israel married Eleanor Coll, daughter of James W.
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Coll. George married Catherine, daughter of Andrew Frisbie. Charles married Jane, daughter of Col. Sam- uel Root. Warren married Hattie, daughter of Fred- erick Kinney. Sarah, an adopted daughter, marriedl Hosea Howard.
The "hard cider" campaign of Harrison this fall was characterized by so many excesses that a strong reac- tion set in in favor of the temperance reform movement, which from this time forward gained steadily in strength.
In a history of navigation on the lake published in the Vermont Historical Magazine, the term of service of Phineas Durfee as steamboat pilot is given as from 1825 to 1840, therefore he probably retired to his home in Westport this year. He was one of the best pilots on the lake, serving with Captains Sherman aud Lath - rop, and it was said that uo eye was so keen as his in darkness or fog. A story is told of one foggy night when the regular pilot became bewildered, and con- fessed that he did not know which way to steer. Captain Lathrop knew that Phin Durfee was on board, asleep in his berth, and had him called. Durfee instantly took the wheel, turned the steamer half way around and rung the bell to go ahead with the most perfeet confi- deuce, saying that they were only a little way out of the channel near Isle la Motte, which proved to be the case. He died in the house of James A. Allen, and his .watchers still remember that after his death his eyes refused to close in spite of all their efforts, seeming to the last still fixed in an effort to pierce that darkness Which covers the waves of eternity.
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Sylvester Young first came in 1840. His ancestry is most unusual and interesting. Nine Dutch brothers came from Holland to the Hudson river before the Rev- olution. When unmistakable signs of the times indi- cated the near approach of that conflict, they, having no deckled sympathies with either side of the quarrel. removed into Canada, and settled at Noyan, province of Quebec, on Mississquoi Bay. The father of Sylves- ter was Jacob. After Sylvester Young came into town he engaged in clearing wood from the land of Willian Guy Hunter on North Shore. Iu 1842 he married Eliza Angier, eldest daughter of Calvin and returned to Noyan, P. Q., remaining there a year, living in Essex six, and returning to Westport in 1849. Sylvester Young was long a prominent member of the Congrega- tional church at Wadhams. His daughter Mary mar- ried Heury Eastman, and their children are Lizzie,now Mrs. Adams, Sylvester, Mary and George. Miss Mar- tha Young has been of the greatest assistance in giving information about the families of Young and Angier.
Another family coming in from Canada, though some- what previous to this year, was that of Warren Gibbs. His wife was Abigail C. Morrill. They settled in the north-eastern part of the town, in the neighborhood known as "Angier Hill," on the Vine place, in the house which was burned in 1900. In the census taken this year, (1840,) the family of Warren Gibbs, consisting of himself, his wife, fourteen children, and an aged parent. bore the distinction of being the largest in the county. He and his sons were skilled masons, and much of the
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finest work in town was done by their hands. Thes- are the family names :
1. Lucy, married Artemas S. Hartwell.
2. Morrill, married Christian Sherman.
3. Hiram, married Melissa Lock.
4. Milo, married Mary Estey.
5. Lorenzo, married Mary Ann Angier.
6. Abigail, married Orson Bennett.
7. Orange, married Mahala Morrill.
S. Emmons, drowned in California when a yonug man.
9. Jane, married Merlin Angier.
10. Ann, married, Ist, S. K. Wells, 2ud, Samuel Huntington of Burlington.
11. Mary, married A. J. Howard of Burlington.
12. Eliza, marriod B. D. Stevens.
13. Nelson J., (born 1840,) married, Ist, Theresa Clark; 2nd, Jennie Richards.
(One child died as an infant, making the full number fourteen. )
18-11.
Town Meeting held at the Inn of H. J. Person.
Joseph R. Delano, Supervisor.
Dan H. Kent, Clerk.
Joel K. French. Justice.
Henry Stone, Collector.
Alauson Bayber, Aaron B. Mack, William Viall. Asses- sors.
Jason Braman. Samuel Storrs, James W. Coll, Road Commissioners.
*
C. F. Cady. Samuel Root, D. S. Meteod. School Commis - sioner's.
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
A. M. Olds, John H. Low, Evander W. Banney. School Inspectors.
John Greeley. Jr .. and Albert P. Cole. Poor Masters. Harry N. Cole, John Lock. Henry Stone. Constables.
William MeIntyre, Scaler of Weights and Measures.
Pathmasters .-- Joseph Bigelow, Alpheus Stone. A. Pat. tison. Hezekiah Barber. Caleb P. Cole. William J. Cutting. William Melotyre. John Mitchell. William G. Hunter, Luther Angier. George W. Sturtevant. W. L. Wadhams, Edward Colouru. Elijah Wright. George Skinner. Willard Hartwell. Justus Harriss. Henry Draper, Platt Sheldon. Charles H. Stacy. Thomas B. Lock. Rufus Barr. Giles Shurtliff. Moses Felt, Morrill Gibbs. W. C. West. Reuben Brown. Erastus Loveland. John Ferris, Samuel Anderson. Jebabod Bartlett.
Voted that fifty dollars be raised for map or Towo Piot.
Now we come to something truly interesting -- West- port's first newspaper. The first number was published August 4, 1841, by Anson H. Allen,* south of H. J. Person's hotel," and its name was "The Esser Comity Times and Westport Herald." The first part of the name seems to be a perpetuation of that of the Eliza- bethtown paper published for a short time by R. W. Livingston, but the second part is all our own. It was
*Anson If Allen was born in Palatine, N. Y in IScc, learned the printer's trade in Middlebury, V't., and wasin the Herald office in Keeseville in 1827. In 1940 ke took the census of Essex county, and some experience of his in the wild back country gave rise to the popular doggerel called "Allen's Bear Fight." two lines of which ave .-
"O God. he cried in de. p despair.
If you don't help ine. don't help the bear :"
From 4 th , he published the Essex County Times in Westport; afterward in Keeseville and Saratoga, he published a monthly called "The Old Settler." stevoted to early stories of this region, of which it is a pity that so few now re- main. When the Hunter house was burned, one loss which Mrs ffunter deeply lamented was that of barrels of oid papers, wich a complete file of Allen's "Oud Seitter."
Although no name but that of Anson H. Allen is given upon the paper, we know that Lana Turner was associated with him from the first, from the latter's Jup statement in a letter published in the Elisabethroua Post a few years before
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
a very respectable four-page sheet, as may be seen by the four or five copies which have not gone long ago to kindle fires. There have been preserved, and are now in Westport, four copies, from the years 1841-42-43 and 1844, and the writer has examined another printed in 1843, owned by Mr. Heury MeLaughlin of Moriah. The earliest number still preserved is dated Wednes- day, Oct. 13, 1841.
·
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The literary portion, made up of selected articles, the foreign news, brought across the ocean on the steam- ship deadia, and the notes of national events, as the concluding scenes of the "Patriot War" in Canada, are not so interesting as the home advertisements. We notice in the Democratie nominations the name of James Walker Eddy for Coroner. The editor is indebted to Capt. R. W. Sherman of the steamer Burlington for late copies of Boston, New York and Montreal papers. We find "ads" of five different business firms in the village of Westport. William and Cyrus Richards "would most respectfully inform the public and their friends that they still continue in business at their oll
his death: "In 1841 I left Keeseville for Westport to assist Anson H. Allen in the publication of that illustrious literary production, The Westport Times. Here I remain eight years, then removed family and printing office to the county seat." David Turner was born in Hull, England, in ISig, and first came into Essex county in 1937, working in the printing office at Keeseville. From IS4t to 1549, as he says, he lived in Westport, then in Elizabethtown for ten years or more, moving about ivo to Washington, where he died in 1900. He had an especial fondness for the history and the legends of Essex county, often writing articles upon such topics for the local press. His wife was Eliza J. Cameron, of Scotch descent. His son, Ross Sterling Turner, the Boston artist, was born in Westport June 27, 1917. Three other sons are Byron Pond Turner, of the Civil Service Commission at shingt n. Jasper C. Tarner of Cleveland, and Louis M. Turner of New York.
HISTORY OF WESTPORT
stand, the Douglass store." They keep on hand "a gen- eral assortment of Dry Goods, Groceries, Crockery, Hardware, Oils, Paints, &c." William J. & Franklin H. Cutting announce that they "will hereafter sell upon the Cash and Short Credit System, and have fixed upon the following prices," which are chiefly interesting from the fact that they are expressed in shillings and pence. as two shillings and sixpence a gallon for molasses. They also offer cash for "smooth, flat and square Bar Iron." Harvey Pierce "feels grateful for past favors, and for so liberal a share of the public patronage, and would inform the citizens of Westport and its vicinity that he keeps constantly on hand a general assortment of Choice Goods, which he will sell a little Cheaper than his neighbors !" Eddy & Keut "are constantly receiv- ing a general assortment of Fancy & Staple Goods," among which are stone churns and "sad irons,"and will take "all kinds of country produce at the highest pri- ces." Another firm, Kent & Felt, "continue to carry on the Hatting business at their old stand near the Bridge, and keep on hand a good assortment of well-made Hats, of the latest Fashion, which they would like to exchange for Sheep Pelts, Sheared and Pulled Lamb's Wool, Hatting and Shipping Furs, and most kinds of Pro- duce." All show the prevalence of barter in trade, and the very editor himself advertises patent medicines for sale !
At Wadhams Mills, H. & J. Braman have a good se- lection of Dry Goods for the country trade, and a good assortment of Straw Bonnets, of different qualities ;
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also, Variegated Cotey Hats and Hoods," which shows that in those days the women were not provided with a milliner to sell them head-gear, but went to the general store and asked to see the finery that the store-keeper brought home with him the last time he went south. It would seem that Wadhams was then the centre of fashion, for one Michael O'Sullivan declares that he can do Tailoring and Cutting "on the shortest notice and in the most satisfactory manner."
That Charles B. Hatch was then Postmaster is shown by a long list of unclaimed letters then lying in the post office -- a list longer than it would have been if postage had not been so high and chargeable to the recipient of the letter. Daniel Rowley advertises that he has lost a small bay mare, strayed from the enclosure of William Olds, and Frederick B. Howard that he has a quantity of farm property for sale, "cheap for Cash, or at from six to twelve months for good endorsed paper payable at a southern bank. The purchaser's eyes to be lis chop." Daniel M'Eachron says that five spring calves have strayed into his pasture in the north part of the town. There is an Administrator's Notice of the estate of Levi Frisbie, deceased, signed by Sally Fris- bie, Willard Frisbie and Aaron B. Mack.
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