USA > New York > Delaware County > Delaware County, New York, history of the century, 1797-1897, centennial celebration, June 9 and 10, 1897 > Part 34
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TOWN OF MIDDLETOWN.
Charles Allaben, G. T. Brown, J. W. Telford, and William E. Hendry. Dr. Reed, the veteran physician, has practiced here since 1853: he has been superintendent of common schools of the town and has filled the office of Supervisor for teu terms.
Earlier than 1871 the educational advantages of the town were such as could be procured at the ordinary district school of the day, where one teacher was expected to be able to teach sixty or seventy pupils. But in 1871 a new school building was erected and fitted for two departments. This was the first school in the towu to employ two teachers. As time advanced and Margaret- ville became a larger business center the need of a still better school became evident. From 1882 to 1892 Miss Lavey A. Water- bury, a lady of rare ability as a teacher, a daughter of Robert L. Waterbury, tanght a select school here. In 1892 at a meet- ing called for the purpose, it was voted to change the public school into a Union free school, with a school board of nine members, namely: William R. Swart, E. L. O'Connor, Mrs. S. P. Ives, J. H. Hitt, C. lull, Mrs. J. K. P. Jackson, Amos Allison, C. J. Dickson, and C. C. Kaufman. Mr. Swart was deeply in- terested in the success of the school and gave liberally of his time and money. He was president of the board until his death, when Edward L. O'Connor filled the office.
The first principal was Alvin A. Lewis. A fine library has been added to the school; the building is furnished with running water and heated by steam.
The supervisors who have watched over the interests of Middle- town for the last twenty years have been selected from this village. The following list gives the name and time of service of each: From 1880 to 1883. Dr. S. W. Reed; 1884. Dr. O. M. Allaben: 1885, W. F. Doolittle; 1886, S. W. Reed; 1887, James W. Kittle: 1858 to 1892, S. W. Reed: 1892 and 1893, J. W. Kittle: 1894 to 1898, Thomas Winter.
In 1885 a water company was established with $10,000 capital. The present officers are: Alexander Thompson, president; William
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
T. Winter, vice-president: A. Albers, secretary and treasurer; E. L. O'Connor, superintendent.
In 1887 the Excelsior Hook and Ladder Company was organized with thirty members, and soon after the Pakatakan Hose Company with twenty-five members. The fire department was accepted by the corporation trustees in 1890. In 1896 a three-story building was erected on Church street for the department.
In 1891 a state bank was organized with a capital of $25,000. which has been increased to $40,000. A fine building was built on the corner of Main and Bridge streets. Hon. George G. Decker has been president of the bank since its organization, John Grant its first and Noah Olmstead its present cashier, Howard Swart assistant, E. L. O'Connor vice-president, and J. K. P. Jackson attorney.
The hotels of Margaretville are: The Ackerly House, the River- side House, the Bouton House. The general mercantile business is represented by many active firms.
There are several societies, the oldest is the Masonie, organized in 1855, Knights of Pythias and Good Templars. Another old organization of the place is the cornet band, formed in 1859, and now. nearly thirty years after, it still contains several of the first members.
In the time of the Civil war Middletown showed her patriot- ism by sending more men to the front than any other town in the conuty.
The popularity of Margaretville as a summer resort is each year increasing. Its clear mountain springs from which it receives its water supply, its improved roads and shaded drives, its miles of stone walk, its clean streets and fine mountain scenery attract all who visit the place. During the summer months the population is largely increased by city people. Among those who have built cottages here is the artist, Mr. Henry Mosler, whose paintings are noted both in Europe and America. The normal population of Margaretville is about 800.
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TOWN OF MIDDLETOWN.
Among those people prominent for their usefulness in the town of Middletown may be mentioned Dr. Orson MI. Allaben, who came here and settled the year he graduated from Waterville Medical College, Maine, in 1831; here he practiced medicine until his death in 1892. The respect and confidence placed m him by the people is shown by the numerous public offices that he filled; being once a Senator, twice in the Assembly, and seven terms town supervisor. He procured the first legislation relating to the Ulster & Delaware Railroad, and was instrumental in various early town and village improvements.
George G. Decker came to Middletown in 1849. He was in- strumental in establishing the Methodist Episcopal church, and especially helpful therein. He has been Supervisor of the town, Member of Assembly, and is now president of the People's Bank.
Matthew Griffin, an attorney at Griffin Corners, represented the second district of the county in the Assembly for three years. His son De Witt Griffin is also an attorney and was Member of Assembly in 1892.
John Grant, a native of this town, was elected State Senator in 1896, the youngest member of that body.
Roxbury.
By Dr. J. Y. Wright.
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TN the year 1788 on the beautiful flats upon which now stands the village of Roxbury, a wandering hunter by the name of Israel Inman built himself a house of logs and made a little elearing. But agriculture was not Israel's forte. The glossy fur of the beaver whose dam across the East branch of the Dela- ware at that point made those flats a minature Venice-was vastly more to his taste. But Inman soon had company, for in the next year, 1789, a party of pioneers of about twenty families from Fairfield, Conn. followed a pathway, with blazed trees for a guide, from Catskill, and camped at the mouth of what is now known as Roses Brook in the town of Stamford. Their horses being stabled in the woods to browse, the third day were missing, when a search party, of which Abram Gould was one, started on their trail. They followed them over the mountain and on the other side met Inman who told them he had their horses and invited them to his cabin. So pleased were they with the location that they returned for their families, and persuading two others to come with them they came back over their trail to what is now Grand Gorge, passing through the mountain notch and down the valley to a place now known as West Settlement. Thus the grand old town of Roxbury had its birth.
But another settlement had added materially to the beginning of the town. In the year 1786 that sturdy old Scotchman John More-whose numerous descendants are so closely and honorably associated with the growth and prosperity of this town-estab- lished his home near the head waters of the East branch of the Delaware, at a point seven miles east of Inman's cabin, his land
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Village of Roxbury.
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TOWN OF ROXBURY.
claim being now partially covered by the village of Grand Gorge, This beginning was known as More's Settlement, then Moresville, until in 1875 the post office department by reason of the confusion arising from their being a number of similarly named offices in this state changed the name to Grand Gorge, opropos of the grand mountain gorge just west of the village.
And now commenced the gigantie undertaking of transforming a howling wilderness into the beautiful town of to-day.
" His echoing axe the settler swung, Amid the sea-like solitude. And crashing, thundering, down were fung The Titans of the wood."
It was soon learned that the bark of the hemlocks which cov- ered the mountain sides could be utilized, and large tanneries sprung into existence along every stream, from which immense quantities of first-class sole leather found its way to the markets of the world. Saw mills on every mountain rivulet furnished lumber for the homes; green pastures and waving meadows ap- peared, and Roxbury took the place which she long maintained as the first butter town in the United States.
In 1845 Roxbury became involved in what was known as the Anti-Rent war. Masked and armed men disguised as Indians terrorized the peaccable farmers who thought differently from themselves in regard to leased land. Many serious and ludicrous meidents occurred, a fair specimen being the battle of Shacksville: As the signal for the gathering of the Indians was the blowing of a horn the farmers were forbidden to use theirs to call their men to meals. John B. Gould, the father of the late Jay Gould, refused to submit to their dictation and proceeded to blow his horn when and where he pleased, until one noon after a partien- larly long and aggravating blast, a tribe of warriors swooped down nyon him to execute vengeance. The old man, instead of begging for merey, quietly took down his old flint-lock rille from the antlers where it hung and confronted them. That and the ominous
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
clicking of the lock was enough; in less time than it takes to tell it nothing could be seen but the cloud of dust raised by those bold warriors as they scooted for tall timber, and the battle of Shacksville was over. These differences however were soon ad- justed, but more or less of the anti-rent feeling prevailed until other issues absorbed the attention of its followers.
When the war eloud of 1861 spread its gloom over the country Roxbury sent nearly one hundred of her sons to defend the in- tegrity of the nation. Enlisting in fighting regiments over sixty of them sleep where they fell on the field of battle, or in the trenches near the prison pens of Richmond, Saulsbury and Ander- sonville. Only about thirty of their more fortunate comrades are peacefully waiting for their final muster out as residents of this town.
The building of the Ulster & Delaware Railroad in 1872 marked a new era in the history of this town, making many changes in long established customs and putting in touch with the outside world in a manner never dreamed of by its early settlers. And though the town was bonded for the large sum of $150,000 for the construction of this road, it has all been paid, and now this town has within its borders over fourteen miles of one of the finest and best managed railroads in the state. Its people can now leave their homes in the morning, go to New York, transaet a fair amount of business and return by nine o'clock in the even- ing, a wonderful change from the old five days journey by stage coach and steamboat.
Roxbury has had the honor of contributing two county judges to the bench of this county. Edwin More, who was the first county judge elected under the constitution of 1846, and William (Heason, who was elected in 1851 and again in 1859, serving eight years. Its citizens have also many times represented this county in the legislature at Albany.
In this brief sketch it is utterly impossible even to mention the mines of those who have been prominent in the history of this
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Villa je of Grund Gorje.
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TOWN OF ROXBURY.
town. Yet memory loves to dwell upon the names of John More who more perhaps than any other can be called the founder of Roxbury: of Jay Gould, the most brilliant financier of the age, who was born and grew to manhood in a typical Roxbury home: of Hon. Edward I. Burhans, the able and conscientious magistrate and sagacious man of business; of Charles Harley, who for his whole long life was the honored merchant, genial companion and trusted adviser of the entire eastern portion of the town, and of John C. and Joseph Keator, whose enterprise did so much to make the beautiful valley of Batavia the splendid section that it is to-day.
The town of Roxbury has a population of 2,344 who receive their mail from four well conducted post offices. Eight churches of the following denominations are well supported. Three Method- ist Episcopal, two Reformed, two (old school) Baptist, and one Baptist; all of them having excellent edifices, and their pulpits supplied with eloquent and earnest pastors.
Two beautiful villages are within its borders, Roxbury and Grand Gorge. The incorporated village of Roxbury is second to no village in the county. It has wide, level, well shaded and well lighted streets, the best possible system of water works, a well equipped fire department, a union free school supplied with all the modern methods of education, a live newspaper, two ample and well arranged public halls. three fine churches, one of them the Gould Memorial church, erected in loving memory of their father by the children of the late Jay Gould, having a deservedly national reputation.
'A large number of first-class villas and cottages are every season filled with summer guests, while the private homes of Rox- bury are beautiful and modern. Kirk-side, the elegant and spa- nions summer residence of Helen Miller Gould, is an ornament of which any village might be proud, while the presence of Miss Gould in the town is a benison indeed. Hor interest in every public improvement. the establishment and maintenance of a public 27
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
library, her unostentatious and elegant hospitality, combine to- place her among the most beloved of women.
"Our homes are cheerier for ber sake. Our dooryards brighter blooming, And all about the social air Is sweeter for her coming.
Her presener lends its warmth and health, To all who come before it; If woman lost us Eden, such As she alone restore it."
The village of Grand Gorge is what may be justly called a modern and up-to-date village. A mere hamlet in 1872, the build- ing of the Ulster & Delaware railroad gave it an impetus, and a steady and substantial growth has been the result. Its situation commands the trade of a large portion of Greene and Schoharie counties, which with its extensive milk business makes it an ex- ' tremely lively village. It has two admirable churches, two large creameries, two mammoth mercantile establishments, a splendid school, a fine system of water works, and its residences are with- out exception in first-class condition and of modern construction. It entertains a large number of summer guests, and is in all res- pects a good place in which to exist.
Batavia, about four miles south of Roxbury village, is one of the most beautiful valleys in the county, and is a thriving farming community. It has two churches, a post office, and many of the finest farms and farm buildlings in the town, and its inhabitants. are altogether a happy and prosperous people.
Such is a brief history of the town of Roxbury in 1897, Del- aware county's centennial year. Its future is bright with many pleasant anticipations which are sure to be realized, and it will always hold its position among the first towns in our county.
The following is a complete list of the persons who have held the office of Supervisor:
1799, 1806, Isaac Hardenbergh: 1807, 1808, Joshua Ferris; 1809-25, 1832, 1838, John T. More; 1826, 1827, 1830, David P.
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TOWN OF ROXBURY.
Mapes: 1828, 1829, Lewis Hardenbergh; 1831. 1833, 1834, 1842, Jonas More: 1835, Alexander Daniels: 1836, Daniel Rowland; 1837, 1813, 1844, 1846, 1847, Thomas Keator: 1839, 1853, 1854, 1857, 1861-66, E. I. Burhans: 1840, 1841. Harvey Keator; 1845, John S. More: 1848, Sherman S. Street; 1849, 1860, Ira Hicks; 1850, Mar- tin Kelly; 1851, 1852, 1855, 1863, Alexander H. Burhans; 1856, Jonas MI. Smith: 1858, 1872. 1873, Edward Burhans; 1859, Benja- min Scudder; 1860, Charles Harley; 1862, Alexander More: 1867, Jacob Newkirk; 1868, Hiram Meeker; 1869, Abram Van Dyke; 1870, 1871, George W. Lauren; 1874, Andrew J. Corbin; 1875, : 1876. Henry C. Soop: 1877, John E. Newkirk; 1878, 1879, O. A. Mecker; 1880, 1881, Daniel D. Andrus; 1882, Charles G. Keator; 1883. George W. Lauren; 1884, Daniel T. Keator; 1885, Charles G. Keator: 1886, 1887, Almerin Cartwright; 1888, 1894-97, David S. Booth; 1889-91, B. B. Bouton; 1892, Charles Schermerhorn; 1893, Ezra H. Bartram.
Prior to 1870, the following held the office of Town Clerk:
John T. More, John E. Burhans, Otis Preston, Thomas Mont- gomery, Jonathan B. Cowles, John Frisbee, Novatus Blish, Dubois Burhans, Ezekiel Preston, E. Follett, Thomas Keator, Truman C. Bidwell, John P. Burhans, A. C. Cowles, A. H. Tyler, Alexander H. Burhans, Samuel B. Follett, Hiram Meeker, Daniel W. McGarry, Silas S. Cartwright, Orrin A. Meeker, Richard W. Van Dyke, John C. Van Dyke, John E. Newkirk, Fred J. Youngman. William W. Noble, Henry C. Soop.
The early Justices of the Peace were the following:
Alexander Daniels, Harvey Keator, Daniel Rowland, Houry T. Becker, Timothy Cartwright, Edward I. Burhans, Harvey Keator, Samuel More, Samnel Sendder, Eli Wright, Cyrus Graves, David MI. Smith, Benjamin H. Akin, A. C. Cowles, Lewis Stratton, Erastus Mead, Solomon P. Moffatt, Nelson K. Dart, Hiram Mecker. Albert. R. Terwilager, George A. Dart, George A. Dent, Robert B. Smith, Almerin Cartwright, John T. Grant, Jacob K. Benjamin, Erastus Mead, Ezra Mead, William D. Powell, Sanmel B. Shout.
Sidney.
By Edwin R. Wattles.
S IDNEY was originally part of the town of Harpersfield. Harpersfield was created a town in Otsego county in 1778. and embraced lands between the Susquehanna, Charlotte and Del- aware rivers. It included besides the present town of Harpersfield, Franklin, Sidney, part of Bainbridge, and part of Afton.
Harpersfield was then in Montgomery county-the name Mont- gomery having been substituted in place of Tryon, because Governor Tryon was a tory. In 1791 the county of Otsego was created from Montgomery, and the town of Harpersfield, including Franklin and Sidney, became part of Otsego. In 1792, Harpersfield was divided, the western part being called Franklin, -and Franklin was made to include what is now Sidney,-and Sidney was taken off from Franklin in 1801. The name of Sidney was given in honor of Sir Sidney Smith, a British Admiral, who about that time had achieved great success in Syria ( Asia Minor ) by checking the progress of Napoleon Bonaparte. Sidney prior to this time was called Susquehanna Flats, but at the suggestion of an English school master named Mandeville, the name was changed to Sidney.
Rev. William Johnston, one of the earliest pioneers of our town, was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1713. This remarkable man received a thorough education at Edinburgh University, Scotland. He came to this country when a young man, and married Miss Cummins, an English lady. It is not fully known where he resided during all the time prior to his removal to this town, but it is believed that it was in the vicinity of Albany. His occupation had been that of a minister of the gospel, of the Presbyterian Calvinistic faith. His wife was a lady of education, and was in receipt of an
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Village of Sidney.
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TOWN OF SIDNEY.
annuity of $150, which, however, ceased after the breaking out of the war. Interesting incidents are related in the career of the ekler Johnston, and the tradition is that the notorious Brant met General Herkimer by appointment in the summer of 1777, encamped on what is now known as the Milton Johnston farm one mile below the village of Sidney. Here they held a conference and the Rev. William Johnston was present at the interview, and Brant asked him which side he was on, and Mr. Johnston told him he was on the side of the people.
Soon after these occurrences the Johnston family removed for safety to Cherry Valley. Before leaving they secreted some rude farm utensils that they could not carry with them, burying them in the ground and under the hearth in the cabin.
After the massacre at Cherry Valley, Hugh and Witter went to Schenectady and Florida in the Mohawk valley, where their father died in 1783, after preaching a sermon celebrating the result of the war. Witter and Hugh returned to Sidney in 1784, bringing their mother with them.
The following obituary notice of the son Hugh is worth pre- serving: " Died at Sidney Plains, October 23, 1833, Hugh Johnston, aged 70 years. Captain Hugh Johnston was born April 10th, 1763, in Duanesborough, New York. He, with his father, Rev. William Johnston, with other connections, came to the Susquehanna Flats, now Sidney, in 1775. They were the first settlers in that part of the county, and for two years suffered all the hardships and priva- tions of a new country. In June. 1777, they were obliged to leave their homes and fee before an invading foe. Brant, a chief. with one hundred and ten warriors, came and burnt their buildings and slaughtered their cattle."
At Sidney was the site of an old Indian fort where three acres of ground were enclosed by mounds of earth, surrounded by a ditch; and for a long time this enclosure was called the Fort Grounds.
In company with Mr. T. G. Smith we visited recently the okl
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
Indian burial place, located near the Ontario & Western bridge across the Susquehanna river at Sidney. We found a circular, hay- stack 'looking mound about one hundred feet in diameter at the base, and ten feet in height, well authenticated as their burial place. Since that time one of the early tribes assembled on Moses hill just across the river, and decided to make an encampment where Sidney village is now located. Some of the tribes remained there for many years. Excavations and examinations of this mound have proved it beyond doubt to be an Indian burial ground. The unearthing of arrow heads and other relies was sufficient evidence to induce the people to have the mound remain intaet. Mr. Arthur Bird suggested to the village fathers to have a monument of an Indian chief placed on the mound, holding in his hand the calumet, or pipe of peace, a deserved and appropriate memorial of the "Indian lover " and " his dusky mate."
The first grist mill west of Harpersfield was built in 1778 by Abram Fuller, on the Ouleout, near Wattles Ferry. An inn was opened by Nathaniel Wattles at the Ferry in 1785. The first raft was sent down the river to Harrisburg, in 1795, by Captain David Me Masters.
In 1787 a great searcity of provisions occasioned much distress in this valley, and the settlers were saved from starvation by a boat load of flour from Northumberland, Pennsylvania, brought to them through the exertions of General Daniel Bates.
The second settlement of white people was made upon the Ouleout in the summer of 1785, by Sluman Wattles, who was after- wards Justice of the Peace and a Judge of the County Court. Mr. Wattles was born in 1752, of Seotch deseent, in Lebanon, Connecti- ent, and died in Sidney in 1837, aged 85 years. Arriving in this state he first settled for a short time at New Canaan, and moved from there to a place upon the West branch of the Delaware, at or near what is now called Bloomville. Leaving this place Mr. Wattles located in Franklin, upon what is now known as the Taylor farm, where he commenced clearing a piece of land, and the following
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TOWN OF SIDNEY.
year went back after his family, bringing them with him on his return. In the course of this journey a daughter was born to them, the first white female child born in Delaware county. Previous to moving his family the Judge had made some improvements, having erected a log cabin, the covering or roof as well as the upper and under Hoors of which were composed of ehn bark. As near as we can learn this was in 1785. About this time John and Alexander Harper bought of the Indians the right and title to a large tract of land, and soon after sold their contract to a company, who petitioned the State for a grant of a patent of land. The patent was granted to Peter V. B. Livingstone, and was known for a long time as the Wattles patent, the Judge being one of the four proprietors. The Harpeis having failed to pay the proprietors. Judge Wattles went to Governor Clinton and related the cireum- stances. The Governor asked him if he had the money due the State, and learning that he had, they both went before the Legislature and the Governor stated the business of Judge Wattles, and thereupon an act was passed reinstating them in the contract. Soon after Judge Wattles, standing upon the banks of the Ouleout, called by the Indians " Leafy Water, " surrounded by the swarthy denizens of the forest, made with them a memorable treaty. And many times thereafter during the frequent troubles that arose he was able, by this treaty, to save himself and family from being massacred.
In this brief sketch many incidents and reminiscences must be omitted: but we would pay a grateful tribute to the memory of those grand men who when quenching their thirst from the flow- ing springs of the forest displayed a character as pure as the fountain itself.
We have in our possession Judge Wattles' old account book, more than a century old, written by his own hand with ink made from the bark of a tree, with a pen made from the wing of a bird captured in the same dense wilderness. In this book, now yellow with age, we find historical records of great value, legal
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
documents and papers, which when we consider the dates when they were written, indicate remarkable ability. And what Mr. Francis W. Halsey said of him after a careful study of Judge Wattles' life and character was true: "When Sluman Wattles left this world he took a man's life with him."
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