USA > New York > Seneca County > Fayette > Centennial historical sketch of the town of Fayette, Seneca County, New York > Part 7
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Special acknowledgment is due to Charles D. Becker, Esq., late county clerk, and long familiar with the town and county records, for information as to South Waterloo and vicinity.
Next in order of settlement, mention will be made of the hamlet of Boardman's Burgh, taking its name from Benajah Boardman, an early settler, and now known as "The Burgh." The name appears in the Romulus town records as early as March 1796. It was located on Military Lot No. 29, although the name applied also to a district of country extending east to the Reservation road, and still farther east. A store and tavern were early kept by Benajah Boardman and (after his removal to Canoga) later by Vincent Runyan, where town meetings were held as early as 1803, and military trainings at an early date. At the four corners east, on the Reservation road, a blacksmith and wheelwright shop and a tailor shop were maintained for many years. The log Burgh schoolhouse, located on a road nearly half a mile east of the Reservation road, is mentioned in the Romulus town records in 1798, and the Burgh Church still further east was built in 1835. At this time nothing remains of the original hamlet-the fine brick schoolhouse of the local school district, being now located nearly a mile northwest from its original location. The Burgh cemetery is still maintained by an incorporated cemetery associa- tion. The Burgh Church of the Evangelical Association has been closed, and without a pastor for more than ten years past.
Canoga, one of the few Indian names preserved (originally Cannogai or Ga-nò-geh), the signification of which name according to Hon. Lewis H. Morgan, in his "League of the Iroquois " is " oil on the water," is the name of a village which
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dates back to the last years of the eighteenth century. The first settlement was made at the Canoga Spring, nearly a mile west of the present village.
A Gazetteer and County Directory of Seneca County, pub- lished in 1867, by Hamilton Child, Syracuse, says that a grist mill, just east of the spring, was erected in 1799 by Bena- jah Boardman. Other authorities make the date of the erec- tion of the mill there, a year or two later, but this may refer to its completion for business. Other members of the Boardman family and John Freeman are said to have been interested with Benajah Boardman in the business. In connection with the mill, Mr. Boardman kept a store and tavern as early as 1803 and was succeeded in the latter about 1806 by Charles Bachman. Of this early village at "the Springs" nothing remains, although a modern saw mill, feed grinding mill and cider mill, run largely by water from the outlet of the Canoga Spring, and located a short distance east therefrom, are still in existence and operation.
The present village of Canoga is situate nearly a mile east of the Canoga Spring and about the same distance from Cayuga Lake, opposite to Union Springs with which it has ferry connection. Its settlement dates back to about 1815 when the first store was opened there. In1823 (several years after the closing of the Boardman mill) a grist mill was erected about half a mile north of the present village upon the outlet of the springs, known as Canoga Creek, by John Frantz. At this point, a saw mill and fulling and carding mill had also been erected, and a large business was transacted there. Upon the destruction by flood, in the year 1883, of the mill dam erected across the creek, the grist mill was closed, the other mills referred to having previously ceased to carry on business. The village contains two churches (Methodist Episcopal and Presbyterian), a village hall, school house, two stores and sev- eral mechanic shops, together with the mills on the outlet of Canoga Spring already referred to, situate a short distance west of the village. A large business once carried on here in carriage manufacture, has been substantially discontinued.
Canoga post office was established Jan. 2, 1826, with Bernard Thalheimer as its first postmaster. The present population of the village is estimated at two hundred. Mention has been
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already made elsewhere of the Indian village near Canoga destroyed by Gen. John Sullivan, and of the birth of the Indian chieftain, Red Jacket, near the village, also of the early proprie- torship by the Indian sachem, Fish Carrier, and of Capt Israel Chapin, of lands here and in the vicinity.
In Hon. John Delafield's History of Seneca County (pub- lished in the Transactions of the New York State Agricultural Society for 1850), special mention is made of the "Canoga Spring." He says of it: "This most interesting spring is situate on Lot No. 34 of the Cayuga Reservation, a short dis- tance west of the present Village of Canoga. The water from this spring and a smaller one in its vicinity, turns (1850) the machinery of the Canoga flouring mills, saw mills and other works, and passes into Cayuga Lake.
"The spring bed covers a space about fourteen feet in diameter, is shallow and covered with loose pebbles ; the water which rises with great rapidity is clear, tasteless and inodorous, and leaves no deposit on the bottom or sides of its basin. The bubbles of gas which rise with velocity and in large quantity, are pure nitrogen. On examination they do not afford any trace of oxygen. No ready means were applicable for ascertaining the quantity of gas given off, but it is incredibly great; as the surface presents the appearance of ebullition and on stirring the bottom with a stick, the supply is so much increased that a large test bottle may be filled in a few seconds. The temperature of the water in June was 45 degrees, that of the air surrounding at the time was 82 degrees.
"These waters escape from a fissure in the Seneca limestone, which is everywhere broken by a series of faults, produced as Prof. James Hall, State Geologist, believes it probable, by the soft gypseous rocks below, etc."
Dr. Lewis C. Beck in his Report on the Mineralogy of the State of New York, 1842, also makes mention of the Canoga Nitrogen Spring, and gives the diameter of the spring bed, at that time, as 20 feet. Other authorities, referring doubtless to the pool in which the spring is found, make its diameter still greater.
Mr. Delafield continues his interesting description at length
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nd says in conclusion : "The water does not contain more mineral matter than 16 grains to the pint, which consists of ulphate of lime and chlorides of calcium and sodium."
Mention will next be made of the village of Bearytown (also it an early day called Beary's Corners), upon the town line of Varick, and partly located in that town.
The first settlement at this village was undoubtedly made by oseph Haynes, or Haines, in the Varick part thereof, in 1798, und the early hamlet is referred to in the town records as Haines' Corners, as early as April 1802.
John Pontius, Jr., located in the Fayette part of the village in the year 1802, and Henry Singer soon afterwards. On Dec. 26, 1809, a German congregation was organized in Fayette, and a log church, used also as a German school house, was erected soon after at Bearytown, when there were only three houses in the entire village-upon the lot purchased of Henry Singer, on which the Reformed church edifice, built of stone in 1824, still stands. In 1810, the cemetery in connection with this church, was opened for burials.
In the year 1819, Henry Beary, from whom the village takes its name, erected and opened here a public inn, and in 1821 Charles L. Hoskins and William Hoskins opened a store in a part thereof.
Between 1820 and 1845, the growth of the village was gradual and largely in the Varick part thereof.
An attempt was made sixty-five years ago, to open there a grist mill having tread-mill horse power as its motive power, which soon proved to be a failure. Subsequently in 1846 a steam grist mill was constructed by Minard Le Fevre of New York City, which had a brief and unsuccessful existence. Afterwards in 1881, a steam grist mill was established, but not proving remunerative, it was removed elsewhere in 1894. A feed grind- ing mill is now the only mill maintained in connection with a steam saw mill.
The village has two blacksmith shops and a wheelwright shop, located in Fayette, the other business pursuits of the village
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being carried on in the Varick part, where the school house ist also located and one church edifice (Methodist Episcopal).
In 1846 and for several years thereafter, the village made coff1. siderable advancement and a number of new buildings were erected. The brick church edifice of the Second Evangelical. Lutheran Church of the Hartwick synod was erected in 1846 andi dedicated in January, 1847. It was handsomely remodeled andh. improved in -1881.
An attempt to secure the location of the court house and county buildings here in 1844, and again in 1854, proved unsuc- cessful, as have also thus far, efforts for the completion of at railroad through the village. A branch telephone line wass opened here in September, 1896, and an office in connection with the same.
Fayette post office was established Feb. 25, 1826, with William Hoskins, as post master. The present population of the village is estimated at 200, of which number about one-third reside in Varick.
Reference has already been made elsewhere, to the location of the Lodge room of East Fayette Grange No. 40, Patrons of Husbandry, at this village.
Fayette Lodge No. 539, Free and Accepted Masons, with Lodge room at Bearytown, and the only Masonic Lodge in Fayette was constituted by dispensation June 27, 1863, and chartered by the Grand Lodge of this State, June 8, 1864, with twenty charter members.
Its first principal officers were :
GEORGE W. BACHMAN, Worshipful Master.
REUBEN TREXLER, Senior Warden.
JOHN FLICKINGER, Junior Warden.
DANIEL H. BRYANT, Secretary.
HENRY F. TROUTMAN, Treasurer.
CALVIN WILLERS, Senior Deacon.
JOHN L. RITTER, Junior Deacon.
JAMES SHANKWILER, Tiler.
Regular communications of the lodge are held every two weeks and the lodge had sixty-seven members recently.
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Kuneytown, is a thickly settled neighborhood upon Lot No. 14, West Cayuga Reservation and adjacent lots, in the eastern part of the town, where the three brothers John, Daniel and Henry Kuney from Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, settled in 1807. Its location is in a rich and delightful farming region, and it enjoys the distinction of having one of the best school houses in the town. A point near by on Lot 43, where five roads cross each other, is locally known as "Five Corners."
West Fayette Station, a little village and railway station upon the Ithaca branch of the Lehigh Valley Railway, is of comparatively modern growth (since the opening of the railroad), although a grist mill was built and operated near there, by Gabriel Beach prior to 1809 and for a number of years afterwards, by himself ind others, and a dry goods store was kept by David B. Dodge and others, in the vicinity, about 1825. A public inn and stage house was kept a little north of the present village, early in this century, by Capt. Nathan Cook, a patriot soldier of the Revolution, who died Feb. 12, 1838, aged eighty-two years, and his remains were buried there upon the farm formerly owned y him.
At the present time, besides the railroad station buildings, a general store, a grocery store, two grain and hay warehouses, an elevator, a feed grinding mill, saw mill, and cider mill, con- stitute the business erections of the village. The First Presby- terian Church of Fayette is located about three-fourths of a mile west of the station. MacDougall post office, located here, was established March 13, 1876, with Henry W. Saeger as post- master,
A small hamlet located about one and a half miles northwest, from West Fayette station-upon Military Lot No. 36, locally known as Metzger's Corners, where considerable business was once transacted, has fallen into decay-a blacksmith shop alone remaining, with draining tile works a little to the westward.
West Fayette post office, which was established Nov. 1I, 1829, with Dr. Samuel B. Chidsey, as postmaster and was for many years located at the tavern of Capt. Nathan Cook
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(afterwards kept by Peter Kohler) and in the vicinity, has been removed to, and is now located at Metzger's Corners.
Another small hamlet upon the east end of Military Lot No. 18, about two miles northwest from Metzger's Corners (and a mile east from John Johnston's corner at Seneca Lake),-where formerly was located Rogers' tavern, several shops in which mechanical pursuits were conducted, also a post office, has become entirely extinct. Rose Hill post office which was established March 5, 1850 with William Herries as postmaster, was discontinued and abolished July 22, 1872. A fine brick school house, is however still maintained near by.
The latest hamlet established in town is situate on Military Lot No. 37, at "Varick Station" upon the main line of the Lehigh Valley Railway, which was opened to the public in 1892. The station buildings, and Yale post office located here and erected Jan. 27, 1893, with John T. Roberson as postmaster, with one store, are all located in the Town of Fayette, adjoining the town line road between Varick and Fayette.
The first grist or grain flouring mill erected in the town at South Waterloo, already mentioned, proved to be also the first to accommodate a large section of surrounding country. It was built by the first settler there, Samuel Bear-commenced in 1793 and completed in 1794. John, George and Casper Yost, all of whom became residents of this town, assisted in building this log mill which was afterwards replaced by a frame structure. A graphic description of the difficulties encountered and overcome in putting up the mill for Mr. Bear, is given by Mr. Delafield in his county history.
At different periods, there have been three or four other flour- ing mills in operation at South Waterloo, among which may be mentioned the Fayette mills on the site of the old Bear mill ; the mill of Judge John Watkins, on Watkins' Island ; the mill of Wm. W. Wood, burned in 1855 (upon the site of the present Piano Forte Manufactory) ; the Brick mill (which was partially destroyed by fire in December, 1891, and an electric light and power plant established upon its ruins) ; and the mill called the Selmser mill, occupying the site of the old paper mill, now owned by the
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Hoster estate. The Fayette mill and the Selmser mill are the only flouring mills now existing at South Waterloo.
Reference has been already made herein, under the sketches of the Villages of Canoga, Bearytown and West Fayette, to grist mills once operated in those localities, but which have now ceased to exist, and the only flouring mills now in the town, are those located at South Waterloo.
A number of feed-grinding mills have however in recent years been opened in various parts of the town.
A grist mill, known as the Teall mill, was operated for a brief period about 1823 upon the Seneca Outlet near the point where it originally flowed from Seneca Lake, but this mill was undoubt- edly located in the bounds of the present town of Waterloo.
A fulling and cloth dressing mill was erected and operated for several years prior to 1828 (and afterwards) by Jacob Vreeland son of Michael Vreeland,* at the foot of Seneca Lake in Fayette, a little south east of the Teal grist mill mentioned above and near the original outlet of the lake. Its water power came through a special mill-race.
Another fulling mill, at Canoga, upon Canoga Creek, operated for a time prior to 1823, by Archibald Packer, afterwards by John Frantz, has been already referred to and there was also one at South Waterloo, operated by John Watkins, and one near the present West Fayette R. R. Station.
While these establishments were extensively patronized for a number of years, changes in the manufacture of woolen cloths and linen fabrics and the introduction of cotton cloths, led to the disuse of homespun clothing, and neither of these mills has been in operation in the past forty years.
Spafford's Gazetteer of 1813 mentions two grain mills, four saw- mills a carding mill and two distilleries as operated in town in 1810, according to the census of that year.
Want of reliable data necessitates an omission to make special mention of numerous saw-mills, distilleries and asheries and the tanneries and linseed-oil mills established in the town and
* Jacob Vreeland in after years removed to Flat Rock, Mich., where he died July 24, 1848, in his sixtieth year.
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maintained during the first quarter of this century and later. Mechanics, such as shoemakers, tailors, blacksmiths, coopers, saddlers and carpenters were largely located in the villages and hamlets, as were also the stores.
Anearly "general store" and its trade has been thus de- scribed : " The merchant furnished the carpenter with nails and edged tools ; the tailor with thread, buttons and shears; the shoemaker with thread and wax, awls and sometimes leather ; and the housekeeper with flour and meal, crockery and cutlery, tea and coffee, spices and salt and such luxuries as the times afforded. Women were supplied with combs and beads, calicoes and ginghams, muslins and silks ; and men with nankeens and sati- nets, vest patterns and coat patterns, of goods domestic or foreign. There was a limited circulation of cash, and barter in trade was the order of the day. This consisted in various grass seeds and grain, in pelts, hides and tallow, in dried fruit, in butter and eggs, in the fruit of the spindle and loom, in the work of the team; and in the labor of the shoemaker, the tailor, the blacksmith, and other mechanics, as also the school-master, together with due bills and notes and judgments, often of doubt- ful collection."
The account books of Judge John Watkins, Col. W. Mynderse and other early merchants, show entries for fabrics either for- gotten or now little known, such as Ticklinburg, Osnaburg and the like.
The sale of spirituous liquors by the measure in quantities appears to have been a regular feature of general merchandizing of yé olden times.
It was the early custom of farmers to have the hides of slaughtered animals tanned, at local tanneries or to purchase leather and materials and to procure the services of a shoemaker to come to the house, perhaps annually, to work up the same into boots and shoes for the several members of the family.
Tailors in like manner were employed to make up clothing from the home-spun and woven, woolen and flaxen cloths made in the family. This primitive custom of employing shoemakers and tailors was known as "whipping the Cat."
In the olden time, the flax wheel and the wool spinning wheel
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were part of the furniture of every well equipped family and many also added thereto the weaving loom.
After a time, with the aid of fulling mills and wool carding and cloth dressing establishments, a very good article of home- spun cloth was made and the late Prof. Charles Woodruff of Ypsilanti, Mich., was accustomed to relate, that as late as 1831, his father Hon. Benjamin Woodruff, of Fayette, was clad in home-spun cloth made from merino wool of his own flock and spun and woven by his own family, during his service in the Legislature at Albany, in that year.
The census of 1810, shows that the number of looms in fami- lies in Fayette was 63, which produced 15,399 yards of cloth.
The student of geology will find in the survey and history of Seneca County, by John Delafield, published in the Trans- actions of the N. Y. State Agricultural Society for 1850, a very full and interesting chapter upon the geology of Seneca County, treating upon the underlying rocks as classified under systems, as also some account of drift deposits.
This classification as relates to the Town of Fayette, is mainly included under three systems or groups-the Corniferous or Seneca limestone group, running in a belt across the town from the Seneca River (at the point where it enters the town), about six miles in a southeasterly direction to Cayuga Lake; the Marcellus shale, found chiefly in the northern and middle portions of the town ; and the Hamilton group principally in the south and southwest portions of the town.
The Marcellus and Hamilton systems include chiefly shale and slaty rock, of little value for commercial uses.
Mr. Delafield, in his County History, referring to the Seneca limestone group, says : "In the county of Seneca, it occupies no more than an area of six miles. About one mile and three- fourths west of Waterloo Village it appears under the bed of the river, and crosses over to the southern (Fayette) side, and is traceable eastward toward Cayuga Lake, where it passes out of the county, about one and a half miles south of Canoga."
There are extensive limestone quarries a short distance south, also west and southwest of South Waterloo, one near the county poor house, several near the locality known as "The
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Burgh " and one southwest of Canoga. The stone quarried therefrom is valuable for building purposes, and has been much used in the construction of canals and railroads and bridge abutments. Excellent building lime is also made therefrom, although some of the quarries are now but little worked.
An interesting "Report on the Structural and Economic Geology of Seneca County," was made in 1895, to the State Geologist, by Prof. D. F. Lincoln, of Hobart College, Geneva, N. Y., and was published in pamphlet form. Reference is made therein, to the Seneca limestone of Fayette-and tothe quarries then worked.
About thirty years ago, considerable attention was given to, and outlay made by persons owning or leasing lands in this town, near Seneca Lake, opposite Geneva, to the growing of nursery stock-and over four hundred acres of land were for a time devoted to the growing of fruit trees-the largest nursery of these being that of T. C. Maxwell and Brothers, of about 250 acres, upon the farm formerly owned by the Delafield estate- with a smaller acreage upon several adjacent farms. Unfortu- nately the investment was not adequately rewarded, and the greater part of the nursery business then located in Fayette was discontinued and abandoned after from ten to twenty years of experiment.
Grape culture, which has recently been extensively introduced in the Towns of Varick and Romulus, with very moderate returns upon the capital invested, has fortunately not been pursued to any great extent in this town.
The right of suffrage under the first constitution of this State, prior to 1823, was restricted, and white voters of 21 years and upwards were classified in three schedules.
The first class which enjoyed the right to vote for Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, State senator and all other elective officers, were required to possess a freehold of the value of one hundred pounds ($250), over and above all debts charged thereon.
The second class included all those possessed of a freehold of the value of twenty pounds ($50), within the county, and the
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third class those not possessed of a free hold, but who have rented a tenament therein, of the yearly value of forty shillings ($5), and been rated and actually paid taxes to the State.
The second and third class of voters were authorized to vote for Member of Assembly and town officers.
From 1823 to 1827, while the property qualification of white voters was abolished, the voter (if not a taxpayer) was required to have performed military duty, or to have worked on highways, or served as a fireman.
County officers did not become elective by the people until after the adoption of the Constitution of 1821 and prior to 1823, they were appointed by the Governor and Council of Appoint- ment of the State or by boards of supervisors. Justices of the peace were appointed and first became elective by the people at the general election in November, 1827, but were not elected at the town meeting until in 1830. Other town officers since the organization of the town were elected at annual town meetings.
The first full board of justices of the peace elected in town, in November, 1827, was made up of Benjamin Woodruff, Stephen Watkins, James Rorison and Samuel B. Chidsey.
Early justices of the peace who were residents in Fayette were Benajah Boardman, Alexander Coventry, Israel Catlin, Alex- ander Rorison, all appointed prior to 1804, Benjamin Tucker, 1805, Hugh McAllister, 1809, Martin Kendig, 1810. Other early justices of the peace were Benjamin Hendricks, Jacob Knox, William B. Hall, Joseph Bachman, John Watkins and Ludwig Stofflet. The name of Benajah Boardman was included in a list of justices of the peace for Herkimer County in 1793, for Odon- daga County in 1794, and later for Cayuga County, and he was appointed also in March, 1804, for Seneca County by the Gover- nor and Council of Appointment.
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