USA > New York > Chenango County > Smyrna > Early years in Smyrna and our first Old home week > Part 12
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HOTELS.
The first hotel, as has been stated, was the Mansion House, built on the site of the present Methodist church, and kept by Samuel Hall. About the year 1820 Jethro Hatch and Luther Bowen built the hotel on the opposite side of the road, soon
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after selling the same to Russell Case, who continued it for sev- eral years and sold it to Enos Merrell. About this time also the old Kelsey hotel was started, merging from a grocery store. The building still stands and, if not an ornament to the place, it stands as a relic of the past. In the early fifties the Merrell hotel was purchased by Ery. W. Stokes, a son of Captain Stokes, of Otselic, who conducted it for many years very successfully, and in 1864 or 1865 traded with Charles C. Wilber for the pres- ent Kenyon farm, once the property of Allen Rexford. In a year or two Mr. Wilber sold to William M. Dietz, and about 1869 the property was sold to Manson K. Messenger, who owned it till his death in April, 1905. The old hostelry was burned in the fire of 1900, and a new and handsome hotel of modern de- sign now graces the site of the old structure, with all modern conveniences, and is an ornament to the village. The property is now owned by its recent purchasers, John W. Shepardson, Floyd W. Brooks and George A. Munson.
OPERA HOUSE.
The Munson Opera House was built in the spring of 1886, by John H. and George A. Munson, its builder being N. Lee Mes- senger, of Smyrna. The building was on Academy street, on lands purchased by Manson K. Messenger, and was large and commodious, holding easily five hundred people, the auditorium being on the ground floor. The upper rooms were used as lodge rooms for Smyrna Lodge, No. 116, 1. O. O. F., and for small assemblies. It was supplied with a handsome stage and a full complement of scenery, besides a spacious balcony. It was dedicated November 10, 1886, by a company of Norwich sing- ers under the direction of the late Dr. Linn Babcock, who gave a most excellent concert and were greeted by a crowded house. The occasion will be long remembered by all who attended. The accompanist for the occasion was Mrs. Nettie B. Mitchell, of Norwich, one of the soloists Mrs. Nettie M. Crombie, also of Nor- wich, and Miss Annie E. Parks, of Boston, furnished a number
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of excellent cornet solos, all of which were generously applaud- ed. Many noted lecturers and political speakers were heard from its platform, not excepting Belva Lockwood the women's candidate for President. Its entertainments and concerts and social parties were of a high order, seldom seen or heard in a village the size of Smyrna. It was very much missed by all when it met the fate of the rest of the business part of the vil- lage in the calamitous fire of 1900.
FIRE DEPARTMENT.
The Smyrna Fire Department liad its beginning during the year of the incorporation of the village, though but little was accomplished in the line of a regular organization until Septem- ber 1, 1849, when a company was constituted by the village for the purpose of "putting out fires," as the record reads.
Protection Fire Company was legally organized June 27, 1855, consisting of twenty-four members, their equipment a Silsby hand engine, a hose cart, and five hundred feet of hose. The organization was continued until the building of the present system of Water Works, when the company was no longer needed.
The Munson Hose Company was organized in June, 1887, consisting of twenty-five members, their equipment a fine Rum- sey hose cart, being presented the company by George A. Mun- son, Esq., who had interested himself in the project, together with hose and all necessary arrangements. Interest in the De- partment is not strong at present but the company is still kept up, the only such organization in the town. It will be hard to maintain a successful fire department, until our citizens see fit to build a proper fire house within the limits of the village.
THE CONFLAGRATION OF 1900.
The Village of Smyrna which, as has been stated, is one of the oldest incorporated villages in the central part of the state,
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. protected from fires only by small reservoirs of water, and an old-time hand engine, had been especially fortunate in escaping serious conflagrations previous to the year 1900, and while pre- dictions were often made that a reckoning day would be sure to come, yet the inhabitants of the little hamlet, or at least a ma- jority of them, had settled down to the opinion that such predic- tions were idle dreams and that the village would continue to move along in its quiet security.
June 16, 1900, a day of sunshine and beauty all through the valley and over the hills, was a day long to be remembered by each and every inhabitant. At precisely ten minutes before the hour of noon an alarm of fire rang out from the steeple of the Methodist Church and the trouble was soon located in a rear room of the Comstock drug store. Large volumes of black smoke were issuing out, keeping back all who attempted to en- ter and assist in subduing the flames. To all it was a forerun- ner that a dire disaster awaited the little village such as it had never before experienced. Protection Fire Engine was at once brought out, but though the time-honored machine worked no- bly and well, the supply of water was inadequate, and worst of all the flames were working in three directions.
Assistance was at once summoned from Sherburne, Earlville and Norwich, and the willing responses were quick and active, though the departments from the first two villages were equally as helpless as our own, on account of the lack of water. Not till the Norwich fire department, which came by special train over the O. & W. R. R., with their fine new steamer reached the scene of trouble were many strong hopes raised for the safety of much of the village. Most surely no firemen ever worked more earnestly nor were any ever more welcome than the Nor- wich firemen on this occasion. Their steamer was taken at once to Pleasant Brook near the tannery bridge and very quickly two streams were playing upon the burning buildings and it was but the work of a few minutes with their powerful machine in the hands of its skillful manipulators to subdue the flames,
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UTICA ENGEM
NEW BLOCK OF STORES.
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though leaving a long black line of blackened and smoking ruins to tell the story of the day. The following buildings were burned, the list including every business building on the south side of the main street of the village :
Comstock drug store, residence and store of Erastus C. Bil- lings, (occupied by Edwin S. Billings as a shoe store), Lyon & Ferris, hardware store, Ferris, Sternberg & Co., (formerly Dixon Bros. store), store of John H. and George A. Munson, occupied by Preston & Miner, Messenger hotel, furniture store and under- taking rooms of W. G. Willcox, the Munson opera house and also the residence of James T. Comstock, (the Dr. Lawrence place), home of William W. Lyon, (the Karr homestead), the Solomon Brown place and the Holley house. The total loss was estimated to be at least $75,000.
This disastrous fire aroused our citizens from years of leth- argy to the fact that fire protection was needed by the village, and it was an easy matter in the following month of August, at a special meeting, to vote by a large majority a sufficient amount to build a fine system of water works, in which our citizens with scarcely any dissent manifest much pride. The system was constructed in the fall of the same year at a cost of $8,500, five hundred dollars of which was raised, leaving a standing debt of $8,000, for which bonds were issued in amounts of $500 each at 3 1-2 per cent, the first to be due and payable five years from its date, and one each year thereafter, till the whole amount was paid, the last bond to be due in 1910. The water supply is pumped from a well near the railroad station thirty feet deep and ten feet in diameter, with a twelve-horse power gasolene en- gine connected direct to a one hundred and thirty gallon triplex pump, to a concrete reservoir 40x60 feet and twelve feet deep, located two hundred and twenty-five feet above the well on the farm well known as the John Willcox farm. There are about one and one-fourth miles of four and six inch mains with thir- teen hydrants for fire protection, with an average pressure of eighty pounds. At present there are sixty-four water takers,
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making an income of about $525. The water is pure and cold, and is not excelled by any in Central New York.
NEWSPAPERS.
The first newspaper published in Chenango County was the "Western Oracle", at Sherburne Four Corners, said to have been an octavo sheet containing what little amount of news might then be obtained from the country round about. Its editor was Abraham Romeyn. The next was the "Olive Branch" pub- lished by Phinney Fairchild at Sherburne West Hill, but both of these journals enjoyed only a short career.
The first paper in our town was gotten out in 1858, and named the "New Year's Call", but only one copy was ever printed. Its contents were a few verses of poetry by the late Sylvia Lawson Covey, and a few miscellaneous matters. Its publisher was James M. Scarritt, of the "Sherburne Transcript," who afterwards became a somewhat noted editor and publisher, conducting at one time the Clyde (N. Y.,) Republican, the Mex- ico (N. Y.,) Independent, and later the Hudson (Mich.,) Regis- ter, in which he was very successful, remaining there until his decease not many years ago. Mr. Scarritt was a brother of our friend and excellent citizen, Nelson J. Scarritt, and we very much regret we are unable to give a more complete sketch of this family, one long and most favorably known in the town. George, another brother, was a long-time resident of our town, his home being the present Henry Crouch farm. He moved many years ago to South Dakota, where his death took place some four years ago.
The next paper in Smyrna was the Smyrna Citizen, started in October, 1875, and lasting some fourteen months. Its motto was "Neutral in Politics, we work by the Golden Rule." Its owner and proprietor was the compiler of this book, and though it was not the largest or perhaps the most interesting of any in the county, yet some five hundred copies were gotten out each week, and if one of our lady poets of that day was to be be-
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lieved, we are confident it was a worthy journal. We insert a few lines of a "poem" written for the Citizen in 1876.
"The nicest paper that i know, In all this Happy Land, 'Tis one I love to ponder o'er, And hold within my hand.
Though small in size, is ever graced. With pages clean and bright, And at the close of every week. We hail it with delight.
* *
*
It goes its round, of north and south, It flies to east and west, It never wearies or complains, But does its very best.
*
* *
Though other papers larger far; Than this, are not complete, The little Smyrna Citizen, Can many others beat.
The Chenango Tribune was launched in the spring of 1881 by our old friend, Frank J. Stanton, now of Norwich. It was a decided improvement over its predecessor, an eight page journal, which after a time was enlarged and made a four page sheet. It had a circulation of some six or seven hundred copies and was fairly well patronized by the business men of the town, perhaps the most conspicuous the "Smyrna Mills," in which the excellent qualities of "Munson's Patent Buckwheat Flour" was shown up in glowing terms. After an existence of some three years, the Tribune followed the Citizen and ceased to exist.
The Smyrna Press was inaugurated in December, 1906, by L. D. Blanchard, who had previously sold the Earlville Stand- ard, a paper which he built up and made a success in every way. An enterprising and thoroughgoing newspaper man, he led off with the Press as the best and most ably conducted newspaper Smyrna had ever been possessed of.
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In 1897 he sold the paper to Wendell S. Phillips who has since conducted it, a clean, wholesome and reliable local news- paper, well representing the interests of the town and its people, having a paid ciruclation of some nine hundred copies, and it is scattered each week to nearly every quarter of the globe. All will sincerely hope that it may be continued for many years to come.
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SOCIETIES.
THE SMYRNA AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY was in existence some forty-five or more years ago, and its Annual Fairs were objects of interest to the people of the town and vicinity, and usually largely attended. The Union School building was made use of for a "Floral Hall," and the main Fair held on the Stan- bro lot a few rods west of the present station of the Ontario & Western Railroad. The agricultural exhibits were usually of a high order, and the crowd were generally regaled with sweet cider and generous cards of old-fashioned ginger bread, a pro- duct of those days which we doubt has ever been equalled by any modern cookery. There were no horse trots, and modern fakirs and gamblers had never been heard of. The last fair of the Society was held in the month of September, 1861.
THE FIRST SECRET SOCIETY in Smyrna was a lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, organized very early in the century, its place of meeting being the chamber of the log house of Joshua Talcott, one of its leading members. The rooms were reached by means of a stairway on the outside of the building. There are no records left of the organization, and whether it was moved to Sherburne in later years, or some other locality, or swept away by the great anti-masonic wave of the thirties and forties we are not able to state. The town has been for many years and remains at present within the jurisdiction of Sherburne Lodge No. 444, of the town of Sherburne.
SMYRNA LODGE, NO. 116, 1. O. O. F., was organized Decem- ber 17, 1847, and still survives, one of the oldest lodges in Cen-
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tral New York, still having a membership of forty-five. Its first officers were Levi H. Case, N. G .; Elmore Isbell, V. G .; Francis E. Dimmick, R. S .; George C. Mead, P. S .; Dwight H. Talcott, T .: Milo Benedict, W .; Asa Harrington, C .; Leman H. Talcott, I. G ; Enos Merrell, O. G. Meetings were first held in the upper rooms of the hotel kept by Mr. Merrell, and later in the Kelsey building, and still later in the old Lawson hall, moving from there to the commodious quarters in the Munson Opera House in the fall of 1886. The rooms now used are the ones over the brick store built by the Chenango Loan Associa- tion for E. D. Miner. The organization has been a most worthy institution, and much good has been accomplished by it. Its red letter day was December 17, 1886, when it moved to its new quarters at the Munson Opera House, and its new rooms formally dedicated, on which occasion members from Norwich, Earlville, South Otselic and Eaton lodges took part. The officers on that occasion were Grand Master Edward Whitlock, and Grand Sec- retary James Terwilliger, of New York city, Rev. Leroy C. Hayes, of Norwich, Grand Chaplain, and Past Grand Master George W. Chapman, of Canastota. The banquet in the audi- torium of the Opera House at the close of the dedication, was by far the finest ever served in the town. The fiftieth anniver- sary of the lodge was duly celebrated on the evening of Decem- ber 17, 1897, and largely attended by all the surrounding lodges.
The present officers of the lodge are as follows: N. G., Henry P. Northup; V. G., Eugene Howard; R. S., George A. Munson; P. S., James P. Willcox; T., William W. Lyon; W., Charles Humphrey; C., Wesley D. Wilbur; R. S. N. G., Clay- ton S. Widger; L. S. N. G., Walter G. Willcox; R. S. V. G., Jesse M. Willcox; L. S. V. G., Edward J. Deady; I. G., Charles Bellinger; R. S. S., Edwin D. Miner; L. S. S., Benjamin Haz- ard.
SMYRNA LODGE NO. 244., A. O. U. W., was organized July 9, 1879, with the following Charter Members: James P. Will- cox, P. W. M .: Dwight L. Sweet, M. W .; George P. Pudney, Foreman; William H. Comstock, Overseer; Elbert F. Smith,
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Recorder; Robert H. Knowles, Financier; Alfred Eastman, Re- ceiver; Isaac D. Wade, Guide; Chanley Isbell, Inside Watch- man; Frank J. Lawrence, Outside Watchman. It is still kept up as an organization, though with a decreased membership. Its present place of meeting is the little hall over the Nearing store.
STEPHEN WEAVER POST NO. 576, G. A. R., of Smyrna, was constituted October 30, 1885, taking its name from First Ser- geant Stephen Weaver, of Company F, of the 114th Regiment, a brave and faithful young soldier who was mortally wounded at the battle of Winchester, September 20, 1862, at the age of a little less than twenty-three years. The Post has been prosper- ous and successful, and though its members are fast passing away to the great unknown, it still remains an honored institu- tion. Its Charter Members were: Isaac Weaver, Elbert F. Smith, Josiah Miles, Nathan Eldridge, William D. Warner, Isaac D. Wade, Mott C. Dixon, Nelson J. Scarritt, William H. Com- stock, James C. Lee, Samuel J. Hopkins, George W. Crumb, Thomas H. Mowers, Abram D. Ferris, David B. Russell, Elisha Bisbee, Jerome Snyder, Leonard S. Phillips.
The officers of the organization elected for the year 1905, in January last, were: Commander, William H. Williamson; Senior Vice Commander, George W. Crumb; Junior Vice Com- mander, Manson K. Messenger, (deceased); Surgeon, Nathan Eldridge; Chaplain, Rev. H. H. Baker; Quarter Master, J. W. Boynton; Officer of the Day, Duane D. Dimmick; Officer of the Guard, Andrew Frazier.
GOOD TEMPLARS-Smyrna has always been known as a town of strong temperance proclivities, and there has scarcely been a period of more than a few years but that a strong tem- perance society has been in existence. In the forties the Wash- ingtonians, a strong organization held forth in the Kelsey hotel. A flourishing lodge of Good Templars was organized in the same building in 1867, which was a source of much good in the com- munity for several years, causing the reform of several excellent citizens who had long been addicted to the intoxicating cup. It
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was known as Smyrna Lodge, No. 239, and its public and social meetings and excellent work in various lines will be pleasantly remembered by all who were members in its successful days.
From this lodge emanated John B. Finch, many years a suc- cessful school teacher in the town and village, who afterwards be- came widely known as a temperance leader, and was at the time of his decease in Boston in 1889 in his thirty-fifth year, Grand Worthy Chief Templar of the world. The Grand Lodge of England passed the following among many other resolutions of respect to the dead leader: "In the loss of our illustrious leader and chief, the world has lost a worthy citizen, and humanity a sincere friend, whose life will be remembered for aye, and whose memory will be enshrined in Templar History for all time."
Joseph Cook, the noted platform lecturer of Boston, added the following testimonial to his character: "John B. Finch fell dead in Boston, which has seen many historic deaths, but since Warren fell in his early manhood at Bunker Hill, there is no death of a young man more pathetic than that of this reformer and hero. The soil of this city is henceforth the more sacred for having been an altar on which so costly a sacrifice was laid."
A new lodge of Good Templars was organized in our village December 14, 1904, known as Smyrna Lodge No. 71, having a membership of some twenty-five, its present officers are as fol- lows: W. J. Abbott, C. T .; Mrs. A. L. Harris, V. T .; A. L. Har- ris, F. S .; Louise Comstock, Ass't Sec .; James P. Knowles, T .; Ernest Abbott, M .; Avis Campbell, D. M .; Mrs. W. H. Com- stock, Chap .; Henry K. Peckham, L. D .; Abel Comstock, P. C. T .; Nellie Luther, G .; Justin Hitchcock, S.
OUR SCHOOLS.
SMYRNA UNION SCHOOL was formed by a union of districts number two and number fifteen in the village, pursuant to an act of the State legislature passed March 19, 1852. The site se- lected for the new building is in the center of the village, very pleasantly located and one of the most attractive in the county.
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In the fall of 1889 the school was merged into an Academic school to be known as the Smyrna Union School and Academy, of which our citizens have reason to feel justly proud, as the in- stitution compares most favorably with those in much larger villages in the vicinity. It now contains an academic, interme- diate and primary department.
We copy the following from the last Annual Catalogue: "Smyrna is a pleasant village of about four hundred inhabitants, located thirty-nine miles from Utica on the New York, Ontario & Western railroad. It is a quiet place, and the moral tone of the community is such that parents sending their children to school, may be certain that they will escape many of the tempta- tions common to most larger towns.
"The school is very pleasantly located in a healthful part of the village, and about forty fine maples and elms add to the attractions of the surroundings.
"Students will have access to a valuable reference library during school hours, and an opportunity will be afforded each Friday afternoon for members of the school to draw books from the general library. The books are mostly new and comprise the works of our standard authors of history, science, poetry and fiction. Great care has been exercised in selecting the library, and a strong effort will be made to develop in students a taste for the best literature.
"Parents of the pupils are requested to make themselves familiar with the requirements of the "Compulsory Education Law," and to earnestly co-operate with the teachers and school officers in preventing unnecessary tardiness and absences of the pupils.
"The design of the school is to prepare the student for a life of usefulness. The instruction and discipline will be of a char- acter calculated to develop independence and self-control. To this end it is expected that the student will make his desk his place of business, and pursue his work with that earnestness of purpose which is the secret of all true success."
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FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH.
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Its present Faculty are as follows: Principal, Arthur C. Lewis; Intermediate, Miss Antoinette Johnson; Assistant Inter- mediate, Miss Mary E. Wedge; Primary, Miss Estella Wilber.
The School Board is composed of the following members, of which the first named is the efficient President: George P. Pud- ney, George A. Munson, Abel Comstock, Fred A. Sweet and William L. Chapman; Clerk, Charles Doll; Treasurer, John E. Widger.
THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH.
The First Baptist Church of Smyrna was organized Decem- ber 22, 1804, at the home of Joseph Tobey in the town of Sher- burne, (Smyrna then being a part of Sherburne). It was formed by Samuel Barber, Joseph Tobey, Joel Ellis, Freeman Ellis, Elizabeth Tobey and Sarah Ellis, and at this first meeting Joseph Tobey was appointed Deacon, and Joel Ellis, Clerk. Regular church meetings were held by appointment at private houses and school houses until 1832, when they were held in the Union Church built previously by the several denominations. On the 22d day of October, 1807, at the home of Joseph Tobey, the Society received formal recognition by sister churches, which had sent delegates for that purpose.
The first Sunday School was organized in May, 1835, its offi- cers being: A. H. Burlingame, Superintendent; Benjamin Bar- ber, Clerk; Benjamin T. Lyon, Levi Post and Benjamin Barber, Trustees. In the year 1835, protracted meetings were held, un- der the direction of a committee appointed by the church, con- sisting of Rev. Comfort Record, Deacon Worden and Benjamin Barber. These meetings were held in the Congregational Church and great interest was created in the community, many people making public profession of religion and uniting with the differ- ent churches, thirty-three uniting with this church, which then had a membership of about seventy-five. On March 5, 1836, the church was organized into a corporate body according to the laws of the State of New York, and the first trustees under
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such organization were Thompson G. Fisher, Levi Post and Benjamin T. Lyon. The name adopted was "First Regular Bap- tist Church and Society of Smyrna;" the seal were the letters, "B. S."
In 1837 the meeting house, then located in what is now a pasture on the hill on the Wheeler farm, just east of the John McCotter place, was purchased and moved on to the lot now occupied by the church. After removal the interior was re-con- structed and replaced by new work, the building committee be- ing Benjamin T. Lyon, Stephen Harrington, John Ferris, Thomp- son G. Fisher, Levi Post and Benjamin Barber. Rev. D. G. Corey was pastor from 1836 to 1841, and during the four years of his pastorate one hundred and thirty persons were added to the church membership.
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