USA > New York > Tioga County > Owego > Early Owego, N.Y.; some account of the early settlement of the village in Tioga County, N.Y., called Ah-wa-ga by the Indians, which name was corrupted by gradual evolution into Owago, Owego, Owegy and finally Owego > Part 31
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On this occasion the fire department did excellent service. In acknowledg. ment of their appreciation of the vigi- lance and exertions of the fire- men at this fire, the citizens of Owego gave a dinner to Neptune,
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.. Rescue, Croton, and Deluge fire companies at the old Owego hotel on the 6th of the following May, At eleven o'clock in the morning a pro- cession of firemen was formed in front of the hotel, under the direction of Ezra S. Sweet, Esq., marshal of the day, and headed by Pease's martial band. They marched to the Congre- gational (now Presbyterian) church in North avenue, where they were ad- dressed on the part of the citizens by I. N. Jerome, principal of the Owego academy. John J. Taylor, chief engi- neer of the fire department during the two years previous, responded in behalf of the firemen. After the ex- ercises, the firemen marched back to the hotel, where a dinner was served by Lewis Manning & Son, the proprie- tors, followed by cold water toasts without limit. In the evening the firemen had a torchlight procession through the principal streets.
The most destructive conflagration in the history of Owego, long known as "the great fire," broke out at about three o'clock, in the morning of Sep- tember 27, 1849, in the hall of the Sons of Temperance, over 'the store of James & William A. Ely, on the south side of Front street, and burned the entire business portion of the village. Only three stores were left standing, and one hundred and four buildings, exclusive of barns, were burned, en- tailing a loss of about $300,000. All of the buildings on both sides of Front street, from Church street to the park, were burned, and all on Lake street, to the Central House on one side. and- Jared Huntington's residence on the other. The bridge across the river was also partly burned.
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When first discovered the fire might have been easily extinguished. One of the engines was throwing water upon the flames. The chief engineer insisted upon changing engines, in spite of the remonstrances of others. The position. of the engines was changed and during this operation the fames made such progress that they could not be checked.
The next fire worthy of any mention was the one that burned the fire en- gine house in Main street. This was a two-story wooden building, which was built in 1844 on the east side of Court street on the ground now occupied by the county jail, and which was then between the old court house .and the county clerk's office. This building was moved in the spring of 1851 to the north side of Main street, where the brick engine house now stands, and was burned in the night of January 6, 1853, together with Susquehanna en- gine and Wave hose carriage.
Gen. Ogden's cabinet shop, which had been rebuilt and which was at the time occupied by J. L. Matson, was again burned in the night of February 16, 1854. The fire broke out in John Cafferty's livery stable in the rear. Everything from the present residence of Dr. D. S. Anderson to North avenne was burned, including John Cafferty's dwelling house, H. J. Hodge's oyster saloon, and D. Corsaw's dwelling house, all of which were in Gen. Ogden's block, and Parmenter's meat market, H. W. Cornell s eating saloon, H. W. Billings's dwelling house and oyster saloon, and Lincoln & Steb -. bins's grocery.
In the night of October 20, 1856, a. fire burned Clark, Coyle & Perry's
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wagon factory on the west side of North avenue, and the residences of Chas. T. Bell and Mrs. Wood.
In the night of the following May, the Ahwaga house barn 'in Church street was set qu fire, and the black- smith shop of George Riley adjoining was also burned. The flames ex- tended to Lake street, burning the livery stable and residence of Charles Beers, which stood where the post office is now, and Adam C. Gould's blacksmith shop north of them.
Bliss's sash factory and steam mill, situated in Front street, just east of the Erie. railway, was burned at about noon on October 24, 1857, and J. F. Howes's planing mill in Main street, above the Erie railway, was also burned in the morning of Dec. 30 of the following year. The tannery of Samuel Archibald, on the south side of the river, was burned in the morning of January 31, 1860 ..
An exciting fire was that of the morning of March 21, 1860, which burned out the Empire block of Stone & Co., Eldridge & Smith's hat and boot store, and Link & Michael's cloth- ing store on' the south side of Front street, east of Lake street.
Simon Springsteen's foundry and machine shop, which stood on what is now the northwest corner of McMas- ter and Delphine streets, was burned in the evening of June 13, 1860, and on the 16th of the following December Arba Campbell's tannery in Canawana was burned.
The next large fire was June 22, 1866, and burned Crane & Sweet's planing mill in Temple street.
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A very destructive fire in the night of October 5,1867, burned all the build- ings on the south side of Front street from Dr. S. W. Thompson's present residence up to the brick store of Geo. W. Hollenback, the sixth store above . the bridge, now occupied by Millrea . Brothers, including Camp's . foundry, one span of the wooden bridge, and several dwelling houses. The fire also burned all the buildings from Park street to Parker'slane, including Robert Cameron's brick block at the north- west corner of Front and Park streets, we Exchange hotel, and George Sidney Camp's house. John J. Taylor's brick .. block at the corner of Front and Court streets was also burned.
Wilson hall on the west side of Lake street, with the stores beneath it, and L. N. Chamberlain's brick block ad- joining at the south, and George W. Patrick's wooden block and L. M. Wicks's wooden building at the north, were burned in the night of April 24, 1868.
The old Baptist church, which had been moved a few years previous from the southeast corner of Main and Church streets to the north side of Main street, a little east of Lake street, was burned in the night of De- cember 23, 1868, and the Erie railway bridge shop in the night of June 5, 1869.
A very destructive fire in the night of October 16, 1870, burned the solid row of wooden stores and shops ex- tending from the county jail (now the telephone exchange) on the north side of Main street to and around the Lake street corner south to L. D. Durphy's
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brick building, now occupied by G. A. Durussel as a jewelry store.
In the evening of Feb. 6, 1872, a wooden row of buildings on the east side of North avenue, occupying all the ground between the building now oc- "cupied by B. F. Lyke as a laundry and L. W. Smith's grocery store was burned.
In the morning of April 14, 1872, an- other wooden row on the west side of Lake street, extending from the Chamberlain block to Aaron Ogden's cigår store, was burned .. In the morn- ing of October 10 of the same year all. of the wooden row of stores on the east side of the same .street between the Gazette block and the Central house was burned, together with Muzzy & Warren's livery stable.
Wheeler C. Bristol's five-story brick " Hlouring mill in Central avenue was burned. in the night of February 21. 1873. In the morning of the 17th of the following April a fire broke out in the Park hotel barn in Central avenue, Which was burned, together with N. T. Burton's bakery and other . wooden buildings. on the west side of North avenue.
The Erie railroad depot was burned in the night of January 24, 1874, and the fire engine house in Main street in the afternoon of the 1st of the follow- ing February.
In the night of April 28, 1875, a row of wooden buildings on the west side of North avenue, extending from N. T. Burton's new brick block to. and in- cluding John Barry's carriage manu- factory, was burned, and early in the morning of December 29 the Union
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house on the west side of North avenue was also burned.
The Congregational church on the west side of Park street was burned in t :e morning of December 3, 1877, and the residences south owned by Miss E. H. Bates, M. D., and J. L. Matson were partially burned.
Samuel Archibald's tannery on the south side of the river, just below the bridge, was burned in the morning of September 1, 1878.
George Thurston's planing mill on the east side of North avenue, opposite George street, was burned in the night of April 2, 1881. Miles F. Howes's planing mill on the south side of Ade line street was burned in the morning of January 30, 1884.
The extensive grain drill and wagon works of Gere, Platt & Johnson at the northeast corner of Central avenue and Temple street were burned in the morning of June 19, 1888.
The Canawana fouring mill, owned by Dorwin, Rich & Stone, which stood on the ground where the electric light plant is now, was burned in the moru- ing of March 19, 1889.
C. A. Hill's saw mill and planing mill on the west side of Central avenue was burned in the morning of June 21. 1890.
Joel A. Hamilton's novelty works on the west side of William street, east of Main street, were burned in the night of July 13, 1891, together with Alfred Hill's house.
In the night of March 15, 1892, the Ahwaga blanket and knitting mill on the south side of Adeline street, near the Lehigh Valley railroad station, was burned.
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The hay press of E. H. House on the east side of North avenue, near the Erie railway, was burned in the even- ing of March 25, 1893. In the morning of May 11 in the same year the whole interior of Storrs, Chatfield & Co's hardware store at the northwest cor- ner of Front and Lake streets was burned out.
The Pennsylvania house, Joel A. Hamilton's novelty works, and other buildings on the south side of Front street, below Park street, were burned in the night of December 4, 1895.
Dean & Burt's flouring mill on the east side of Central avenue, between Temple and Fox streets, was burned in the evening of February 27, 1896.
In the afternoon of November 9. 1899, the interior of: Wilson opera house on the west side of Lake street was burned out. The fire was caused . by the explosion of some celluloid films in a moving picture machine. The theatre wasentirely burned five years later, in the morning of February 28, 1904.
Sauerbry & Birdsall's carriage fac- tory on the east side of North avenue, between South Depot and John R. streets, was burned in the morning of January 24, 1903.
This is a record of the principal fires in Owego for more than one hundred years. The building of a water-works. system in 1880 has ensured a practi -. cally inexhaustible supply of water for fire purposes and since it was built there has been no large fire ... It is . worthy of note that within the last sixty years the entire business portion . of Owego has been swept over by fires-on both sides of Front street
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irom Parker's lane to Church street, both sides of Lake street, both sides of Main street from Church street to . Central avenue, and both sides of North avenue from Temple street to Main street.
Some Account of "Old Bet," the "Liv- ing Elephant," Which Was the First "Menagerie" to Visit Owego and Was Exhibited in the Bates Tavern Carriage Barn, and of the First Cir- cus, Which Came in 1826 and Ex- hibited in the Tavern Barn Yard, and of Other Tent Shows That Came Hère Later.
The first "menagerie" that came to Owego was an elephant, and it was the first elephant ever exhibited in the state of New York. It came here in the summer of 1813 and was ex- hibited in the carriage barn of the old Bates tavern.
This carriage barn was a large red building which stood adjoining the lot on the north side of Front street where Ahwaga hall now stands at the east. In the rear was the barn where the stage horses were kept. The en- trance to this barn yard was between the tavern and the red barn. .
The coming of the elephant to Owe- go was announced in the newspapers under a big heading as "A Living Ele- phant," and was described as follows:
"The elephant is not only the lar- gest and most sagacious animal in the · world; but, from the peculiar manner in which it takes its food and drink of every kind, with its trunk, is acknowl- edged to be the greatest natural curi- osity ever offered to the public. The one now offered to the view of the curious is a Female. She will lie down and get up at the word of command.
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She will draw the cork from a bottle, and with her trunk will manage it in such a manner as to drink its con- tents. She is thirteen years old, and measures upwards of twenty feet from the end of her trunk to that of her tail; twelve feet around her body; up- wards of eight feet high, and weighs more than five thousand pounds. Per- haps the present generation . may never have an opportunity of seeing an Elephant again, as this is the only one in America, and this is perhaps its last visit to this place ... - Admit- tance 25 cents .- Children half price. llours of exhibition from 8 o'clock in . the morning until 6 in the evening."
This elephant was known among showmen as "Old Bet." She was ex- hibited by a showman named Bailey, who travelled at night, and in the day, . time kopt the animal in a: barn and covered her with hay, so that people could not see her by peeping. through the cracks at the side of the barn. A camel and a monkey completed the outfit. . There was no other wild ani- mal show in Owego until 1833.
The first equestrian performance ever given in Owego was that of Blanchard & Newell's circus, in 1826. The show did not have to exceed ten performers and about a dozen horses. The company came unannounced, and the advertising was done by one of the troupe, who went through the street and announced the arrival of, the show in a loud voice, something in the manner of the side-show "barker" of the present day. The performance was given in the barn yard, in the rear of the old Bates tavern, which was at that time kept by Philip Good- man. The show had neither tents nor seats, and the spectators had their choice of standing or sitting upon the ground.The ring was made by
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throwing up a circle of earth in the middle of the yard. The performance consisted of the feats of a strong man, horseback riding without saddle,comic singing, etc. The band was composed of drums and a fife. While the performance was in progress the up- per windows of the hotel were all oc- cupied by "dead head" spectators. No performance was given at night, as in those days of tallow candles there was no known way of lighting the ring.
The next show to visit Owego was the circus of Angevine, Titus & Bur- gess. This show 'started from Putnam county. Its tent consisted of a centre pole and canvas sides, but no top. The tent was pitched on the lot on which the Robert Cameron brick block now stands at the northwest corner of . Front and Park streets in the summer of 1827. The circus ring was a solid wooden curb, made in curved sections, about eighteen inches high and six feet long, and painted. The pieces were held in place by iron spikes, driven into the ground, and the earth was heaped up against the curb from the interior. The rings constructed in this manner were in use about twenty-five years, but as so many riders were injured by falling or be- ing thrown upon them, the curb was finally abandoned altogether. In its place were substituted red curtains, suspended by rings from iron stakes, with an earth ring, as now. The tent was supplied with seats, similar to those in use at the present day ..
The first animal show came in 1833, and exhibited on the lot on the east side of Court street, south of the pres ent county clerk's office. This was the
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first tent show with a canvas top 'to visit Owego. :
The first circuses were advertised by a bill poster, who rode horseback through the country, carrying his handbills in his saddle-bags. These bills he fastened on trees and barns along the wayside with tacks. Isaac J. Greenwood, in one of the Dunlap society publications, has .thus de- scribed the circuses from 1817 to 1820:
"At first they were but sinall affairs consisting of a couple of wagons, four horses, and some half dozen perform- ers, mostly tumblers and vaulters, with perhaps a trick man and that indis- pensable -- a clown. There was . no band save a fiddle or two; no lady in gauze and spangles, no ring-master, and no tent; but they carried some six-foot poles, around which, planted in a circle, was stretched at each per- formance, a canvas to keep them from 'the gaze of outsiders, while a few board's served to build. an. outside platform, raised just above the ground, for acrobatic performances, jig-dane- ing, and the like; the rest of their loads was baggage, cooking utensils, and provisions. The place of exhibi- tion was open to the sun and rain, though in time a covering suspended from a centre pole was introduced. There were no seats, except such as could be borrowed from the ladies, but sometimes the wagons were drawn in, so that the back crowd could mount upon them, and two hundred and fifty spectators, at an entrance price of twenty five . cents was a big house. Usually a man went ahead who pla- . carded all conspicuous places, pro- cured the five-dollar license, and hired . the ground; then presently a bugler on horseback announced the approach of the show, and on the village green the clown would be proclaiming the time of performance.".
About the year 1840 circuses began to advertise by means of posters, with pictures thereon of prancing horses,
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flying acrobats, etc., printed in colors. There was a blank space on the bills, in which the names of towns and dates of performance were filled in with crayon. These bills were put up in the barrooms of . country taverns, They were fastened to the wall with tacks and when the circus was, gone . one of the showmen carefully . took down such of the bills as had not been mutilated by the jack-knives of bar room vandals, and they were used again in other villages.
The visits of the circus in those days wore "few and far between." Among those that exhibited here were Buckley, Weeks & Co.'s, Sept. 3, 1835; a show known as "The Ampitheatre," Aug. 19,1836; Purdy, Welch, Macom- ber & Co.'s menagerie, Aug. 19, 1837; . and Buckley & Co's circus, July, 1838, and May, 1839.
In those days there was a rough element among the people not only in the village, but in every direction out- side of, it. When a show came to town there was much. drunkenness, with consequent fighting and disorder. It . was for this reason that many quiet citizens objected to the coming of the circus; besides it was complained that the circus carried all the loose change out of town. Some of the village trus- tees, too, objected to circuses,. think- ing they tended to demoralize the peo- . ple. So, when the agent of Welch, Bartlett & Co.'s Broadway circus ap- plied to the Board of Trustees for a license in August, 1840, his application was refused. The next year, however, the "Victoria Arena and Great West- ern Circus" had no dituculty in obtain- ing a license and showed on the 3d of June. In 1842, when Rockwell, Stone
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& Co.'s circus made application for a license, there was a tie vote. S. S. Tinkham and T. P. Patch voted in lavor of license, and Jonathan Platt and Charles R. Coburn against: Judge Drake, the president of the village, decided the matter by voting in favor of license, and the show exhibited on the 3d of June. No circus license was granted until 1844. Welch, Delevan & Co.'s agent applied to the board, in July of that year, when David Wallis and Isaac B. Ogden favored granting a license and Sylvanus Fox and A. P. Storrs opposed it. "The matter was again decided in favor of the circus by the yote of: Judge Drake. After this licenses were not refused to circuses
Circuses for many years . pitched their tents on the lot at the northwest corner of North avenue and Main' · streets. This ground was a vacant lot owned for many years, by Samuel Standish Tinkham and extended from the corner to David P. Tinkham's, house, which stood where the Park hotel is now. The wooden fire engine house was moved from Court street to the west end of the lot in 1851, and the block on the corner was built by Thomas I. Chatfield in 1853.
· In 1850 circuses were larger and re- qhired more room. From that time and for several years later all the cir- cuses exhibited on the east side of North avenue between John R. and South Depot streets. This was then a. vacant lot, extending back the entire . length of John R. street.
The Yankee Robinson Circus. and Theatre.
In August, 1859, Yankee Robinson's combined circus and theatre exhibited
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under a large tent on this lot .. After the equestrian performance in the ring a theatrical, performance con- cluded the entertainment. This was given on a stage about four feet high at one end of the tent, with good scenery. The characters were for the most part sustained by the acrobats and gymnasts, and the production was a meritorions one. The play was called the "Days of '76" .and the scene was laid in the United States during the revolutionary, war. R. J. Miller, professional known as Yankee Miller and an uncommonly good comedian, played the leading comedy part, that of a Yankee. He died at Fort Wayne, Ind., in 1877, while travelling with his nephew's, theatrical troupe. Yankee Robinson's wife, equally good as a comic actress, played the character of a Yankee girl. In the company was also Harry Evarts, a circus rider, who was afterward one of the owners and tambourinist of Booker & Evarts's minstrels. . He came to his death in. May, 1889, while travelling as press agent of Adam Forepaugh's circus, in a railroad accident near Hamilton, Canada .. The car's caught fire and Evarts's body was buried in the wreckage, Billy Pastor, famed as a circus performer, and a brother of . the well-known Tony Pastor, was also a member of the company, and also a boy named Gibbons, a most remark- able contortionist, who came several . times. afterward to Owego with cir- cuses and who was billed as Don San- tiago Gibbopaise.
Robinson owed a printing. estab- lishment a bill for posters to adver- tise his show. . While at Owego the show was attached by the sheriff of
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Tioga county to satisfy the claim, and Robinson was compelled to cancel his dates ahead and remain here a week, being unable to obtain bondsmen dur- ing that time. A man named Field, who claimed to be the owner of the show, came and replevied the property, and one fine Sunday morning Robin- son folded his tents and went on his way rejoicing. The company per- formed every evening to large crowds during its enforced sojourn here, and the manager declared that his week here had been more profitable to him than it would have been had he gone on his advertised route.
Robinson. was. a unique character. He was a shoemaker, then successive- ly a travelling showman, an exhibitor of scriptural paintings, a tragedian, a Yankee comedian, a dancing master, and finally a circusman.
Washburn's Indian Show.
Some account may be of interest here 'of a big tent show, which was organized in . this vicinity. In May, 1854, E. S. Washburn visited Owego with an Indian show and gave an ex- hibition at Patch's hall,in Lake street. : He afterward, during the winter of 1854-5, lived at Owego, boarding with John Loveland in the second story of the old Walter. Ogden house, which was afterward the "Diamond store," and which stood on the west side of North avenue on the ground now oc- cupied by George Snyder's brick build- ing. With him was a full blood Mo- hawk Indian, six feet tall, known as "Joe Washburn," and his sister, a handsome Indian girl, who afterward became Washburn's wife. She was known as Princess Ne-os-ko-le-ta, and later as the Princess Wynima: Both
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names were the same in the Mohawk tongue, and the meaning of them is "Prairie Flower."
During his residence here, Wash- burn, in company with Col. Theron Seymour, who had been landlord of the Ahwaga house, and Frank Phelps, of Elmira, who had been travelling through the small towns with a hall . show, organized an Indian tent show on a large scale, to travel the next season. Loveland, who had been travelling the previous season with teams, giving a show in country tav- erns, was the business manager. They secured twelve Onondaga Indians and a few gymnasts, and went upon the road, in the spring of 1855.
In addition to the genuine Indians, several white men living in Owego and vicinity, among whom were Almon W. Gould and Joseph D. Hollister, joined the show and made themselves up as Indians by coloring their faces and hands and dying their hair. The show had a brass band, the musicians be- ing also "fake" Indians. A side show was attached to the circus, in which a minstrel performance was given, Hol- lister playing the bones. Gould, who was something of a musician, played a guitar with the orchestra during the Indian performance.
The show consisted of a scalping scene, rescue from burning at the stake, war dances, and the delineation : of other pleasant little Indian festiv- ities and customs. A representation of the historical scene of Pocahontas saving the life of Capt. John Smith was also given, the show closing with the cheerful revolutionary tragedy of the murder of Miss Jane McCrea. "Joe Washburn" was advertised as
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