USA > New York > Essex County > Westport > Bessboro: A history of Westport, Essex Co., N.Y. > Part 28
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39
The most delightful picture is suggested by the "ad" which sets forth the advantages of the Ferry from West- port to Basin Harbor, "the superior Horse-Boat EAGLE, Capt. Asahel Havens," which has been run- ning three trips a day, starting out at 7 A. M., 10 A. M. and 3 r. u., but will from the 14th of September wah:
417
HISTORY OF WESTPORT
but two trips. "The peculiar situation of this Ferry, protected as it is by mountains, renders crossing safe and certain, even in the most boisterous times." Signed by C. B. Hatch and A. Havens. These horse- boats were common on the Hudson, and were propelled by side wheels, worked by a kind of treadmill in which two horses stood, continually walking nowhere, like the horse-powers which are now seen in connection with our threshing machines.
It was in November, the 16th, in a gale of wind, that the steam tag MeDonough was wrecked in Button Bay. A canal boat had broken loose from the tow, and in the endeavor to pick her up the MeDonough rau on the reef and never floated again. The engine was taken out and the hull abandoned where it lay. It is a little remark- able that the only two wrecks in the history of naviga- tion on Lake Champlain (so far as I know) which were caused by steamers running aground occurred within sight of. Westport,-the MeDonough in 1841 and the Champlain in 1875.
The oldest surviving book of the records of the Con- gregational church at Wadhams begins with the date Oet. 8, 1841, and ends Oct. 16, 1864. One of the first entries is that of the sacrament administered by the Rev. Cyrus Comstock, to whose labors, fifteen years be- fore, the existence of the church was mainly due. This year the pastor was the Rev. Charles Spooner, who re- mained thirteen years. The deacons were George W. Sturtevant and William L. Wadhams, and the church elerk, William L. Wadhams. Deacon Wadhams was
418
HISTORY OF WESTPORT
church clerk continuously until 1861, with the excep- tion of two or three years spent in California. The first babies whose baptisms are recorded in this book are George Harvey, son of Levi and Elisa Pierce, and Mary Elizabeth, daughter of John R. and Elmnina Whit- ney. The membership at this time was one hundred and twenty-two.
182.
.
Town Meeting at H. J. Persons.
William Guy Hunter, Supervisor.
Harvey Pierce, Clerk.
Diodorus Holcomb, Justice.
Newton Hays. Collector.
Platt R. Halstead. Calvin Angier, Alexander Stevenson, Assessors.
Hezekiah Barber, Abram E. Wadhams, William Rich- ards, Road Commissioners.
William. Van Vleck. Miles M'F. Sawyer, William L. Wadhams. School Commissioner.
Orson Kellogg and Asahel Lyon. School Inspectors.
Tillinghast Cole and Horace Holcomb. Poor Masters.
Newton Hays. Jared Goodell, James Peets, Henry Stone, Constables.
Horace Barnes. Sealer of Weights and Measures.
Patbmasters .- Apollos Williams, Otis Sheldon, Samuel Root. Andrew Frisbie. Lorrin Cole. Aaron B. Mack. Cy- rus Richards. Horace Barnes, James Marshall. Elijah Angier, George W. Sturtevant, George Kilmore. Stephen Sayre, Augustus Hill. David R. Woodruff, Charles T. Cady. Epbraim J. Bull. Alan Slaughter, Leonard Avery, Daniel M. Howard. Deunis Stacy. Frederick T. Howard, Ezekiel Pangbourn, Julius Ferris. Moses Felt. Calvin C. Angier. Orrin Skinner. B. P. Douglass. Lester Wallace, Joseph Duntley. John Stone, Ichabod Bartlett.
Voted to raise ten dollars to refuud to Asabel Havens for counterfeit money taken by him as school commissioner.
This is a pertinent example of the injury and incon- venience suffered by the people from counterfeit money
419
HISTORY OF WESTPORT
and notes from unsound banks. From 1836 to 1863 there were no banks but State banks, and the laws, especially in the earlier part of this period, were inade- quate to prevent adventurers from pretending to estab- lish banks, and putting iu circulation notes which were entirely worthless. No wonder the people preferred to barter in iron and farm produce.
Now we have another of our stories of adventure ou the lake. If you seek for the romance of our history, you will ever find it upon the water. Talk with one of our old boatmen -- there are no young ones, and soon there will be no old ones either-and see their love for a sailor's life, just the same fervor found in an "old salt" of the sea shore, even though our waters are fresh and land always in sight. "I liked it better than 1 did to eat," said Mr. James A. Allen to me, telling me of the twenty-two years which he sailed the lake, as man and boy, in the years from 1832 to 1854, when you might see fifteen or twenty sail in the bay at any time. And then he told me a story of one of his first trips in his own boat, when he was twenty-three years old. He started out from St. John's with his cargo, bound for New York, and carrying in his cabin a box containing five hundred Mexican dollars. His employers liked their money in Mexican dollars, upon which they ob- tained a premium in New York. Ralph Loveland, a young man of his own age, was sailing his own boat too, as his father had done for years, the children grow- ing up half on ship-board, and knowing the lake as you know your own back yard. "One smutty night " as
420
HISTORY OF WESTPORT
Mr. Allen said, he ran ashore on Schuyler's island, and Loveland ran out from Burlington and helped him off. lightening his boat by taking on his deck load. Then she floated again and they sailed away, getting into Northwest Bay before morning, and when the sun rose they were tied up safe and sound at Hatch's wharf, and had turned in for a wink of sleep. Waking, they be- gau transferring the deck load from Loveland's boat to Allen's again, and while busily at work looked up to the top of the hill and saw all the village people passing by, dressed in their Sunday garb. Then it burst upon thew that it was Sunday morning, a fact that their night of toil and peril had driven from their minds, and that they were "breaking covenant obligations" by perform- ing unnecessary labor upon the Sabbath. As Loveland was then a faithful member of the Baptist church, and Allen afterward a pillar in the same, they took the sit- uation seriously, and hastened to set themselves right in the eyes of the community.
It is true that in those days the churches were ex- tremely watchful in regard to the daily conduct of their members. It was the time of numerous "church trials" for offences ranging in magnitude from a prolonged absence from the Sunday services to profanity, lying and drunkeuness. These were in no sense "heresy tri- als," and the church never properly claimed jurisdic- tion over offences against the common law, but it was eonsidered a plain though painful duty to take action upon every suspicion of unchristian conduct or incon- sisteney. It will not require much reflection to con-
421
HISTORY OF WESTPORT
vince any person with a moderate knowledge of human nature that the strict enforcement of this principle often led to most unholy warfare, to the perplexity and despair of well-meaning and conscientious people. Another generation has learned more wisdom, and the ancient church trials are things of the past. They make tedious and profitless reading, with sometimes a reve- lation of situations unspeakably humorous. For in- stance, one of the Baptist deacons was so unfortunate as to find great difficulty in living in peace with his wife. Now we leave it to any married man if this was not a dispensation sufficiently afflictive in itself, without having a solemn church committee of three or five long, faced brethren fling in at his front door with the in- tention of inquiring into the particulars. We of this generation should give thanks that, among other bles- sings, the New England conscience has become amel- iorated by the development of a keen and wholesome sense of humor. One word in our vernacular to I am inclined to trace directly to this period. Any per- son who had been obliged to undergo the examination of the church in regard to his or her conduet in any matter was said to have been "church-mauled." It will be perceived that the very formation of the compound word betrays a sympathy with the supposed offender and a turning of popular opinion against the church tribunal.
This summer there was a camp-meeting at Barber's Point, in the woods near the lake, and again in two years it was held in the same place. This was as con-
422
HISTORY OF WESTPORT
venient and accessible a spot as could be found, since preachers and people always came from the Vermont shore as well as from this side of the lake, and the ferry boat was in great demand. The line steamer also stopped at the Point regularly for several years after this.
The great English novelist, Charles Dickens, visited America this year, and recorded his impressions of the country in "American Notes." His passage through Lake Champlain is thus touched upon.
"There is one American boat -- the vessel which car- ried us on Lake Champlain, from St. John's to White- hall-which I praise very highly, but no more than it deserves, when I say that it is superior even to that in which we went from Queenston to Toronto, or to that in which we travelled from the latter place to Kings- ton, or I have no doubt I may add, to any other in the world. This steamboat, which is called the Burlington, is a perfectly exquisite achievement of neatness, ele- gance, and order. The decks are drawing-rooms ; the cabins are boudoirs, choicely furnished and adorned with prints, pictures and musical instruments ; every nook and corner in the vessel is a perfect curiosity of graceful comfort and beautiful contrivance. Captain Sherman, her commayder, to whose ingenuity and ex- cellent taste these results are solely attributable, has bravely and worthily distinguished himself on more than oue trying occasion ; not least among them, in having the moral courage to carry British troops, at a time (during the Canadian rebellion) when no other
423
HISTORY OF WESTPORT
conveyance was open to them. He and his vessel are held in universal respect, both by his own countrymen and ours ; and no man ever enjoyed the popular esteem, who, in his sphere of action, won and wore it better than this gentleman. * * * By means of this float- ing palace we were soon in the United States again, and called that evening at Barlington ; a pretty town, where we lay an hour or so. We reached Whitehall, where we were to disembark, at six next morning ; and might have done so earlier, but that these steamboats lie for some hours in the night, in consequence of the lake becoming very narrow at that part of the jour- ney, and difficult of navigation in the dark. Its width is so contracted at one point, indeed, that they are obliged to warp round by means of a rope. *: * After breakfasting at Whitehall we took the stagecoach for Albany, a large and busy town, where we arrived between five and sis o'clock that afternoon."
We have a copy of the Essex County Times for. Oct. 5, 1842. Ou the editorial page we find an account of a Democratic convention which met at Elizabethtown Sept. 28, in preparation for the coming election. Van Buren, Democratic, had just gone out, and William Henry Harrison, Whig, was now in. The delegates from Westport were Anson H. Alleu, Harry J. Person, Orson Kellogg, Miles M'F. Sawyer, Platt R. Halstead, Frederick B. Howard and Alpheus Stone. The dele- gate to the Congressional Convention was Platt R. Hal- stead.
The resolutions of the Elizabethtown convention.
42-4
HISTORY OF WESTPORT
drafted by Hon. A. C. Hand, are expressive of the po- litical situation. There is coudemnation of "all at- tempts to sell Unele Sam's wood lot to the Dutch, Eng- lish or Jews," a reference to "the short and confused ascendency of Whigism," and a prophecy "that we shall be troubled no more with Bankistu, hard cider and coons for the next quarter of a century." "The Whig party have been weighed in the balauce and found wanting. The people are saying to them, 'who deceives us once, 'tis his fault ; if he deceive me twice, 'tis mine.'" Our town committee appointed was Platt R. Halstead, Harry J. Person, James W. Eddy.
We are informed that the Westport Young People's Temperance Society will bold a meeting this evening in the Methodist church, and there will be an address by William Aiken, Esquire. Also that the next Quar- terly meeting of the Essex County Temperance Society will be held in the Congregational church at Lewis, in October, and that Orson Kellogg is the secretary. The Eastern New York Anti-Slavery Society will hold a convention for the county of Essex at East Moriah, Oe- tober 13 and 14. Addresses by Elder Abel Brown of Albany and Elder D. W. Burroughs.
Charles B. Hatch is still postmaster, and he gives a list of about twanty letters lying unclaimel. The od- dest among these names is that of Dovalthy Hickok, and we notice an Antoine which shows that before this time the French Canadian names had come to be known in the village.
Harvey Pierce "has just returned from New York
HISTORY OF WESTPORT ₣ 425
with a splendid assortment of Fall Goods. Black, Blue-Black, Invisible Green and Brown Broad-cloths, Sattinetts, Cassimeres, Pilot Cloths. Vestings, Alpacca Cloths, Bombazines and Silks. Heavy stock of Gro- veries, Liquors Excepted."
Kent and Felt advertise the Hatting Business exactly as before, and Eddy and Kent will sell Bonuet Silks, Ribbons, Flowers, and also Cauldron Kettles, but in another column we are warned of the dissolution of the firm of James W. Eddy and Dan H. Keut, Aug. 30, 1842. The Cuttings and the Richardses advertise as before, and John H. Low announces "that he is determ- ined not to be undersold by any one, at his store two doors south of H. J. Person's Hotel." Hinkley Coll furnishes Lime at his Lime Kiln in the south part of the town. "Notes of most of the suspended Safety Fund and Red Back Bank Notes bought by William J. Cutting." Inquire of Barnabas Myrick if you wish to buy the farm of James Marshall on the road to Essex. Geo. B. Reynolds is agent for E. Jewett of Vergennes for receiving Wool to Card or Manufacture. $50 Re- ward will be given for information which will insure conviction of persons who have committed various tres- posses in the yard and grounds now occupied by Sew- all Cutting. (This was the old Dr. Holcomb place, at the forks of the road, the place now occupied by Joseph Lord.)
Abiathar Pollard is about leaving town, and "wonkl inform the inhabitants of Keeseville that he will hold Himself in readiness promptly to attend all who, in af-
426
HISTORY OF WESTPORT
flictive Providence, may require his aid." And there is au Executor's Notice for the estate of John Chandler, deceased.
It was in the summer of 1842 that Francis Parkmau, the great historian, made his first trip through Lake George and Lake Champlain, accompanied by Henry Orne White, examining the scenes of the events of the early wars of America, and obtaining that thorough knowledge of the country which is so evident in all his works upon the history of this region. The next , year he went again this way to Canada, collecting his- torical material at Quebec and other places, and passed through on a similar journey once more in 1877. When the Westport Library was opened, in 1888, he presented it-with a complete set of his historical works, which now stands upon the shelves, one of the most valued posses- sions of the Library. His interest in this institution had been awakened by an account given him by Mrs. F. L. Lee of its history and its needs.
1848.
Town Meeting held at the Inn of H. J. Persons.
William Guy Hunter. Supervisor.
Cyrus W. Richards, Clerk.
Anson H. Allen and Miles M'F. Sawyer, Justices.
Benajah P. Douglass, Collector.
E. H. Coll. Luther Angier, Asabel Lyon, Assessors.
Alvin Burt, Lorrin Cole, Elijah Angier, Road Commis- sioners.
. Ira Henderson, William L. Wadhams, William Van Vleck, School Commissioners.
William Higby and Orson Kellogg, School Inspectors. Tillingbast Cole and Horace Holcomb, Poor Masters.
127
HISTORY OF WESTPORT
Barnabas Myrick. Alexander Stevenson. Alanson Bar- ber. Inspectors of Election.
B. P. Douglass. Erastus Loveland. Jared Goodale. James Peets. Horace Barnes, Constables.
William Van Vleck. Sealer of Weights and Measures.
Pathmasters. - William Brooks, E. H. Coll. James Peets. Levi Frisbie, Albert P. Cole. Aaron B. Mack, William Mcintyre, Horace Barnes, James MeKenvey. Luther Augier, George W. Sturtevant. Titus M. Mitchell, David H. Sayre. Augustus Hill. David R. Woodruff. Charles T. Cady. Johnson Hill, D. M. Nichols. Albert Stringbam, Luther B. Hammond. Henry Stone. John Ormiston, Forest M. Goodspeed. Julius Ferris. Humphrey Sherman. War- ren Gibbs. Leopard Taylor. B. P. Donglass. Leonard Ware. Jouatban Cady. James Fortune. Truman Bartlett.
At a meeting of the board of Town Auditors convened at the Town Clerk's office in the town of Westport. on the first day of April. 1843, present: William G. Hunter. Su- pervisor, Cyrus W. Richards, Town Clerk. John H. Low. Ira Hendersou and Anson H. Allen. Justices of the Peace. it was unanimously resolved that the Supervisor of said town pay over to Platt R. Halstead the sum of fifty dollars heretofore raised to furnish a map of said town, whenever he sball have completed the map by making the allotments and the subdivisions of the different patents of said town, more especially the Bettsborough and P. Skeins Patent. to the satisfaction of said supervisor.
Recorded this Brd day of April. 1843. Cyrus Richards. Town Clerk.
Was this map ever made? If so, what became of it? The present writer can find no trace of it except this entry in the old Town Book.
This year was the one set by William Miller for the End of the World. Mr. David Turner writes as fol- lows in regard to this remarkable delusion:
"The Millerite fanatieism, that extended from 1839 to 1843, the day fixed for the grand ascension of the saints to the realms above. At that time every man, woman and child ju Pauton, Vt., was a firm believer in
428
HISTORY OF WESTPORT
Miller's doctrine. Every Sunday, and almost every weck day, a camp-meeting was held in the woods on the lake shore, and on a still night, with an easterly wind, you could hear the loud singing from across the lake -
"O Canaan, bright Canaan, I'm bound for the land of Canaan ! 1 O Canaan it is my happy home, I'm bound for the land of Cavaan ! If you get there before I do, Just tell them I am coming too, For I'm bound for the land of Canaan !"
I have been told that William Miller once preached his wild doctrine in the Baptist church in Westport, when it stood upon the hill where it was first built, but as the church was moved in 1839, and Miller bad then but just begun his propaganda, I do not think it at all likely. He seems to have had very few followers here. Mr. Aaron Clark once told me that he knew of some people in town who were convinced by Miller's argu- ments, (drawn chiefly from the mystical figures in the Book of Daniel,) but he would not give their names be- cause he said they were all enlightened as to their er- rors before now, from which I guessed that they had all gone to another world, though not precisely accord- ing to the predictions of Miller.
A copy of the Times for June 14 gives the card of Asa Aikens, Attorney-at-Law, and a notice of the for- ma ion of a partnership between Charles Hatch and Harvey Pierce. John H. Low "has just received fash- ionable summer goods." The call for a meeting of school teachers at the Academy for the formation of a
429
HISTORY OF WESTPORT
Teachers' Association in Westport, signed by Orson Kellogg as Town Superintendent, shows that he is still principal of the Academy.
In the Times for June 28 there is a long description of the recent celebration of the Battle of Bunker Hill, with an address by Daniel Webster, listened to by the largest crowd ever seen in this country,"-150,000! In, the procession were two hundred Revolutionary sol- diers and twelve survivors of the battle of Lexington. As for our business meu, the most important advertise- ment seems to be that of William J. and Franklin H. Cutting, who have purchased "store and wharf recently owned by C. B. Hatch, Esq." The copartnership be- tween William and Cyrus Richards is dissolved, and the business is continued by William Richards alone, while on the other hand, a new partnership is just formed by Charles Hatch and Harvey Pierce. "W. D. and B. F. Holcomb have opened a new tailoring estab- lishment one door north of Hatch and Pierce's store." Asa Aikens, "being a solicitor in Chancery, and Attor- ney and Counsellor-at-Law in all the courts of law in Vermont, will attend to legal business confided to him in the counties bordering on Lake Champlain." Kent has just received 328 palm leaf bats, and will sell "sawed Eave Troughs," and "Wash Tubs, Augier's make," as well as a variety of stoves. Edmund J. Smith* bas just opened a blacksmith shop "one door south of his carriage shop."
*We have five old resident families, climbing no relationship with one another of the honorable but frequent name of South. The oldest of these is undoubtedly
-130
HISTORY OF WESTPORT
The next meeting of the Teachers' Association for the town of Westport will be held at the Academy. Several short addresses will be delivered on the subject of education. William Higby, Pres. A. C. Rogers. Sec. Meetings of the Essex County Temperance So- ciety are still held, Dr. Samuel Shumway of Essex. President, Orson Kellogg, Secretary. The Annual Meeting of the Champlain Baptist Convention, with leave of Providence, will be held in Essex, July 5. C. W. Hodges, See. N. B. The Board of the Convention are requested to meet at Deacon Reuel Arnold's.
Anson H. Allen, as Justice, allows himself a sly joke . in advertising "Hymenial knots tied in good style in short order." Under "Marriages" we find two interest- · ing events : "In this village, on the evening of the 22nd inst., by Rev. J. Thomson, Mr. Alonzo M. Knapp of Crown Point, to Miss Lucy A. Clark, daughter of Da- vid Clark, Esq. Also, ou the 27th inst., by Rev. Mr.
the Smith family at Wadhams, known to have been there before the war of IS:2.
Edmund J. Smith, of the well-known family of Smith street, Shoreham, Vt .. came about 1840 and opened a carriage and blacksmith shop near his house on Washington street. His wife was Emma Larrabee, sister of Mrs. Dr. Shattuck, and his children are Frank E. Smith, of the firm of Smith & Richards, and Mrs. C. A. Pattison.
James A. Smith came from Brooklyn in 1$59, and made clay pipes at Coll's Bav. His wife was Mariella Munerette, and his children now living are Gabriel, Peter and Sarah, now Mrs. John Farnsworth.
John E. Smith came from. Canada and settled on the Iron Ore Tract, on the road to Seventy- five. He was the father of William Smith, of John Smith the under - taker, and of Mrs James Patten.
Ira Smith was a shoemaker. and kept the toll-gate for a long time. His sor. Arth ir is a graduate of Cornell. Leslie Smith, brother of Ira, is a carpenter, now living on Pleasant street.
431
HISTORY OF WESTPORT
Hodges, Gilbert A. Grant, Esq., of New Market, N.H., to Miss Helen St. John Aikens of this place."
Ou the eleventh of September was held the twenty- ninth anniversary of the Battle of Plattsburgh, at Plattsburgh. The President of the day was Col. David B. McNeil, formerly of Westport, and that part of the ex- ercises most interesting from the point of view of this his- tory was introduced as follows : "To our esteemed fellow citizen, Platt R. Halstead, Esq., late a Lieutenant in the United States Army, I assign the honor of placing mon- uments at the graves of Capt. Alexander Anderson, of the British marines; Lieut. William Paul, midshipman; William Gunn aud Boatswain Charles Jackson of the British navy, and Joseph Barron, pilot on board Com- modore Macdonough's ship-all of whom fell in the naval engagement in Cumberland Bay, off Plattsburgh, Sept. 11, 1814. Joseph Barron, pilot, was personally known to Lieut. Halstead and myself, and was a man held in high estimation, for his intelligence and patri- otism, by all who had the pleasure of his acquaintance." The account of the exercises goes on to say that "Lieut. Halstead in the discharge of the duties assigned him, erected the monuments at the head of the graves of the three lieutenants of the British navy, and proceeded to the grave of Joseph Barron, and as near as we could cateb his remarks, spoke as follows: 'I take a melan- choly pleasure in erecting this monument at the grave of Joseph Barron, Commodore Maedonough's confiden- tial pilot. I knew him well -- be was about my own
432
HISTORY OF WESTPORT
age -- we were school-boys together-a warmer hearted or a braver man never trod the deck of a ship.'"
It was about 1833 that Freeborn HI. Page first came to Westport, from Hyde Park, Vt., where he was born in 1824. His parents were Lorenzo and Polly (Matthews) Page. He opened a tin shop, aud afterward a store for general merchandise, was for a time a partner of C. H. Eddy in this place and carried on a wholesale grocery business in Troy for a number of years. His first wife was Phebe Ann Viall, daughter of William Viall, and their children were Evelyn, now Mrs. Dan Holcomb, and Walter, who died at Bay City, Mich., in 1883. His second wife was Mrs. Mary Hitchcock, daughter of William J. Cutting. Mr. Page's sister Clara married D. L. Allen.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.