Geographical gazetteer of Jefferson county, N.Y. 1684-1890, Part 70

Author: Child, Hamilton, 1836- [from old catalog] comp; Horton, William H., [from old catalog] ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., The Syracuse journal company, printers and binders
Number of Pages: 1384

USA > New York > Jefferson County > Geographical gazetteer of Jefferson county, N.Y. 1684-1890 > Part 70

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

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TOWN OF HOUNSFIELD.

made a clearing and erected a log house. The eldest of his children was. 20 years and the youngest 11 months of age. During a service of five years. in the Revolutionary army Mr. Allen attained the rank of major, which title clung to him through life. His son Leonard served in the War of 1812 and participated in the battle of Sackets Harbor. In 1815 Ira Ingleheart, a native of Canada, who had served in the American army during the War of 1812, removed from Watertown and located in Hounsfield, in school district No. 6. His son, C. W. Ingleheart, for some time an influential resident of Sackets Harbor village, came with him. In the neighborhood of Stowell's Corners settlements were made quite early. Previous to 1807 Nathan Baker located near the south line of the town.

Stephen Blanchard, from Vermont, located at East Hounsfield about the beginning of the War of 1812. He kept an hotel there, and the place acquired the name of Blanchard's Corners. A postoffice was established there in 1850, with Nelson Jones as postmaster.

Augustus Sacket began the first settlement at Sackets Harbor village. He built a saw-mill, wherein was sawed the lumber used in the construction of the first permanent house and other buildings put up at that time. The saw- mill was on Mill Creek, where were also erected a grist-mill by Samuel Luff, the first one in the neighborhood, and a cotton factory by Solon Stone. In 1804 came Mr. Elisha Camp, a brother-in-law of Mr. Sacket, who settled at the village, and was appointed resident agent, under whom the estate was sold, the last of the business being closed up about 1848 or '49.

" In 1805 several English families settled at Sackets Harbor, among whom were Samuel Luff and sons Edward, Samuel, Jr., Joseph, and Jesse, David Merritt, William Ashby, John Root, Henry Metcalf, and George Slowman. Besides these John and William Evans, Squire Reed, Amasa Hollibut, Charles Barrie [or Berry], Uriah Roulison [or Rowlson], Azariah P. Sher- win, and others. Dr. William Baker settled in 1803, and was the first physi- cian in the town. Ambrose Pease and Stephen Simmons were early inn- keepers, and Loren Buss and Hezekiah Doolittle, merchants." *

William Rowlson was the first white male child born in the town of Houns- field. His birth occurred at Sackets Harbor, September 18, 1804, and he still survives (1889). His father, Rial Rowlson, was one of the first settlers at the village, having located there about 1802, from Connecticut. Squire Reed, a native of Rhode Island, also came from Connecticut to this county in 1802, first locating in the town of Adams, whence he removed to Sackets Harbor in 1806 or '07, and became prominently identified with the affairs of that village. He served in the Revolutionary war. After the breaking out of the War of 1812 he removed to Brownville, where he died. His son Daniel, who came to this county with his father, was a captain on the lakes for many years. Daniel De Wolf was a blacksmith in the navy yard at

* Hough's History of Jefferson County.

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Sackets Harbor from 1812 to 1815, in the employ of the government. After the war he moved away, but returned with his family in 1822 and located permanently. The first school in the town was opened in Sackets Harbor in 1807 or 1808, by a man named Mitchell. Outside the village the first school was opened in the " Muskalonge " neighborhood, in 1808, by Amasa Fox. The next year a frame school-house was built there. No school-house was built at Sackets Harbor until after the War of 1812-15, when a one- story frame building was erected on the site of the present union school building. About 1816 a log school-house was built at Blanchard's Corners (now East Hounsfield), which gave place to a frame house which was burned. A stone house was next erected, which was finally torn down and a frame building erected instead.

The first hotel at Sackets Harbor, a small story and a half frame building, located on Main street, was built by Ambrose Pease before 1805, and was conducted by him until the beginning of the War of 1812, when it was pur- chased by a Mr. Kelsey, who came here from Cape Vincent. The building was afterwards burned. In 1806 a Mr. Lanning commenced the erection of an hotel on the site of the present Eveleigh House, which became the prop- erty of Stephen Simmons before it was completed. Mr. Simmons finished it and conducted the hotel a number of years. Ambrose Dodge built the Eveleigh House in 1843-44, and it was opened by him in 1844. Judge Elijah Field built the Earl House in 1817, and it was opened by him in December of that year. It has been remodelled, and greatly enlarged and improved to accommodate an increasing patronage. The present proprietor is Richard M. Earl.

A stone hotel, which is still standing, although not used for the purpose for which it was built, was commenced by Frederick White in 1817, and opened by him the following year, with the name of "Union Hotel." The Masonic fraternity occupied a room on the top floor, and subsequently removed to the floor below. It has been said that Morgan, who published an exposé of Masonry, was brought to this lodge room very soon after his mysterious disappearance. Mr. White, the first proprietor of the hotel, was a man of dissolute habits, and dissipated his large fortune of $150,000, finally dying a pauper. He was at one time president of the Jefferson County Bank, when that institution was located in Adams.

In March, 1817, George Camp established a printing office at the village, and became " proprietor, publisher, and editor" of the Sackets Harbor Gazette. A copy of the Gazette of October 8, 1818, contains an editorial which fails to substantiate the report so often heard that, although liquor was freely used, drunkenness was unknown among the pioneers 50 or 75 years ago. We are sure no such condition of affairs as is described in the following extract from this editorial would be allowed to exist in Sackets Harbor at the present time :-

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" The intemperate use of ardent and intoxicating liqnors is the crying sin of these times. Nor is our own neighborhood free from this foul offense-' It smells to heaven.'-Every night may be seen more than one miserable wretch reeling from the grog-shops (if not so beastly drunk as to be incapable of motion), and carrying to his broken-hearted wife and famishing children, not bread, nor meat, but RUM ! And in this exeerable way, week after week, he sqnanders the little that he earns, while his perishing, starving family are supported by the charity of his neighbors. Their elamors for bread he silences with rum, and the obvious effects of this conduet in the parent on the children is, that they are drunkards from the cradle."

The following description of the above mentioned copy of the Gazette, printed in the Watertown Daily Times, July 6, 1888, contains so much of historic value, and illustrates so well the commercial importance of Sackets Harbor at that time, that we give it space here :-

"It is a four-page sheet about half the size of the Times, ' printed and published ' by George Camp, (father of T. H. Camp, Esq., of this city, and Col. W. B. Camp, of Saekets Har- bor,) at $2 per year in advance to mail subscribers, and $2 to village subscribers payable half yearly in advance. The first page contains miscellany and advertisements. The second page has editorial and advertisements. The third page has also editorial and advertisements. The fourth page has a report of the first fair of the Jefferson County Agricultural Society at Watertown, and advertisements. Among the advertisements, which are interesting reminis- cences in themselves, is that of the 'steamboat Ontario,' which made weekly trips between Ogdensburg and Niagara, leaving the first named place every Saturday at 9 A. M., Saekets Harbor on Sunday at 3 P. M., Hanford's Landing (Genesee River) on Monday at 3 P. M., and ' arriving at Niagara with all possible expedieney.' Returning, the Ontario left Lewiston at 4 P. M. on Tuesday, Hanford's Landing at 4 P. M. on Wednesday, Sackets Harbor at 4 P. M. on Thursday, and 'arrive at Ogdensburg the next day.' The rate of passage was $5 'from port to port.' For the convenience of people at Oswego, Sodus, and Pultneyville ' the fast sailing schooner Kingston Packet is provided as a tender to the steamboat, and after touching at those places' will make connection at Genesee River on Monday and Saekets Harbor on Thursday.

"The ' Marine List ' shows there were many other steam and sail eratts plying at that time. On October 1 the arrivals were the steamboats Ontario from Ogdensburg, Sophia from Kings- ton, packet Swallow from Henderson, brig Maggie Graham from Oswego, and schooner Lizzie from Cape Vincent; on the 2d, packetboat Jane from Oswego, steamboat Sophia from Kings- ton, schooner Sea Foam from Rochester, and steamboat Maria from Ogdensburg; on the 3d, schooner Rambler from Kingston, packet Alvira from Port Hope, and brig Seneca from Buf- falo; on the 4th, schooner Genesee Packet from Ogdensburg, schooner packet Swallow, brig T. Rogers from Charlotte; on the 5th, steamboat Sophia from Kingston, and the sloop George N. from Belleville, Ont .; on the 6th, steamboat Ontario from Niagara, schooner Loren P. from Chicago, brig Rochester from Port Colbourne, yacht Iva from Ogdensburg, and schooner John Powell from Wilwaukee. The departures were: On October 1st, schooner Rambler for Kingston, schooners Sachem, Lady Washington, and Farmer's Daughter for Niagara, and schooner Triumph for Boston; on the 2d, the Ontario for Oswego, Genesee, and Niagara, schooner Templeton for Milwaukee, and brig B. Williams for Ogdensburg; on the 3d, packet Sirallow, sloops Arcadia and Ontario for Niagara, and brig Susie for Rochester; on the 4th, steamboat Sophia for Kingston, schooner Genesee Packet for Sodus and Niagara, brig George V'ane for Detroit, and sloop Mary B. for Ogdensburg; on the 5th, the Ontario for Ogdens- burg, brig Sea Bird for Chicago, steamboat Maria for Ogdensburg, packetboat Jane for Oswego, and schooner Olcott for Detroit; on the 6th, steamboat Sophia for Kingston, brig T. Rogers for Charlotte, schooner Sea Foam for Rochester, and schooner Appetona for Cape Vincent. The steamboat Sophia. it appears, made semi-weekly trips between Sackets and Kingston. The schooner Woolsey made regular trips for the season between Sackets and Niagara.

"The editorials are on the subject of the ' White Man's Government,' ' Military ' (giving an account of the annual publie parade of the Sackets Harbor Light Infantry company), and ' The Newspaper.' Among the local items is a 'report that in the vicinity of Ellisburg on the

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:30th ult. was seen by a gentleman of unquestionable veracity, an animal resembling " Ya-ho, or Wild Man of the Woods." Hundreds of men were in pursuit for several days, but nothing further is heard or seen of him.' The conviction at the Circuit Court at Watertown, James Hany, of manslaughter, for killing of Malachi P. Varian, soldier of Sackets Harbor, is noted. The sentence was 10 years in state prison. Judge Platt presided at the court.

"The advertisements are various. Among the principal ones are those of J. G. Parker. who sold all kinds of spirits, rums, brandies, and whiskies, and all kinds of groceries; F. Clark, who sold . Jamaica spirits ' by the puneheon, Boston 'rum.' and brandies, gin, wines, groceries generally, dry goods, crockery, hardware, etc. One man advertises against trusting his wife. The sheriff of Montgomery County offers a reward of $175 for the return of four prisoners who ' broke goal.' ' A New Line of Stages' from Utica to Sackets Harbor through Rome and Adams is advertised. ‘A reward of $30 and all reasonable charges will be paid for any deserter from the U. S. army' is the burden of an advertisement dated ' Madison Barracks.' The Lowville Academy has a conspicuous advertisement. Among other things it says that board, including lodging and washing, is afforded to students at $2 per week. 'Six Cents Reward' is offered for the return of a runaway indented apprentice boy, by a Rodman man. The . Jefferson County Bank,' then located at Adams, through James Wood, its cashier, announces a dividend of 312 per cent. payable to its stockholders. The loathsome disease of 'itch ' must have been more or less prevalent then generally, for there are two conspicnons advertisements of 'oint- ment' therefor.

"Perhaps the most interesting feature of the paper is the full report of the first fair of the County Agricultural Society, which was held at Watertown on the 28th and 29th days of Sep- tember. The first day was devoted to the exhibition of stock and domestic manufactures, award of premiums, and in disenssions. There were present as guests Gov. De Witt Clinton, General Stephen Van Rensselaer, Colonel Jenkins, Mr. Parish, and other distinguished strangers from different parts of the country. The exhibition of stock was large and fine, and Roswell Woodruff exhibited 17 yoke of oxen and steers drawing a cart. They were of his own raising. Judge Noadiah Hubbard and Colonel Harris, of Champion, also exhibited a cart drawn by 15 pair of working oxen, very large and fine. The next day began with a plowing match. After that was finished a procession, the largest which was ever seen in the county up to that time, marched to the conrt-honse, where, after a prayer, addresses were made by the president of the society and Governor Clinton. The procession then re-formed and marched to the house of Mr. Isaac Lee and partook of a sumptuous dinner, and then succeeded a list of 19 toasts, including several appropriate to the agricultural and manufacturing inter- ests, and complimentary notice of Washington. President Madison, farmers' wives and daughters, Governor Clinton, and others. Doubtless the entertainments during these two days were among the most edifying and delightful that have ever been given at the annual fair."

The first regular physician in Sackets Harbor was Dr. William Baker, who located here in 1803. Other early physicians were Dr. Benjamin Farley, who came in before, and Dr. James Starkweather, who came soon after, the War of 1812. The first number of the Sackets Harbor Gazette ( 1817) con- tained the advertisement of Dr. R. B. Hayes, who avowed the intention of making " medicine and surgery his only pursuit." Dr. Samuel Guthrie, sub- sequently world-renowned, located in Sackets Harbor, on Mill Creek, soon after the War of 1812, and here prosecuted his scientific investigations which resulted in the discovery of chloroform (at about the same time with Sou- beiran, in France, and Liebig, in Germany), and of the percussion compound for firearms, which superseded the old flint locks. Dr. Guthrie died in this village October 19, 1848. A more extensive account of his discoveries, etc., has been printed in this work in the medical chapter, by Dr. Crawe.

In 1806 Charles Barrie (or Berry), a Scotchman, opened a small store on the lot adjoining the one now occupied by the Eveleigh House, and he was

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the first merchant in the village. Barrie sold out to Loren Buss, who con- tinued the business.

" The first mercantile operation at Sackets Harbor on an extensive scale was by Samuel F. Hooker. who, in 1808, commenced with a stock of $20,000 worth of goods, and in 50 days had sold $17,500 worth. The business that then opened with the brightest prospects was the trade of potash to Montreal, where Astor and other heavy capitalists had placed money in the hands of agents for its purchase. The embargo of 1808, by withholding those along our frontier from a career in which they were highly prosperous, naturally led to a spirit of evasion of the laws, and the difficulty of exporting this great staple of commerce directly from the Atlantic ports to Europe led to extensive and systematic measures for forwarding to the lake and river, from the interior and southern counties of the state, and even from New York, large quan- tities of potash. This sometimes vanished in the night, or was shipped with due formality to Ogdensburg, where it disappeared, and sometimes an open course of defianee of law was. attempted. In whatever way it may have escaped it was sure of reappearing in Montreal, where it commanded the enormous sum of $200 to #320 per ton, and from whence there was no obstruction to its export to England." *

"Previous to the war a flourishing commerce had sprung up on Lake Ontario, and the fol- lowing vessels were engaged in trade, all of them having more or less business at Sackets Har- bor: Genesee Packet, Capt. Obed Mayo, of Ogdensburg; Diana, Capt. A. Montgomery; Fair American, Capt. Augustus Ford; Collector, Capt. Samuel Dixon; Experiment, Capt. C. Holmes; Charles and Ann, Capt. Pease; Dolphin, Capt. William Vaughan; and a few others whose names were not obtained. The Fair American is said to have been the first vessel built under the present government on this lake. She was launched at Oswego for the North Western Fnr Company. Soon after the war the schooners Woolsey, Rambler, Farmer's Daughter, Tri- umph, Commodore Perry, Dolphin, &c., were advertised as running on regular lines as packets from this port.+" * *

It is said the Ariadne, which sailed from Sackets Harbor with a cargo of pork and flour, under Captain Pickering, was the first merchant vessel that ever entered the river at Chicago.

"On the 2d of March, 1799, Congress first enacted a law applying to the collection of duties on Lake Ontario, by establishing two districts, of which all east of Genesee River was included in Oswego, and all west in Niagara District. * * * In pursuance of the act of March 3, 1803, Sackets Harbor District was soon after established, and has been since main- tained, having been reduced in extent by the formation of Oswegatchie District, including St. Lawrence County, March 2. 1811, and Cape Vincent District, April 18, 1818, comprising all below Point Peninsula, inclusive."#

March 3, 1863, Sackets Harbor was consolidated with the Cape Vincent district, and since that time it has been only a port of entry in charge of a deputy. Cape Vincent district comprises the entire coast of Jefferson County.

Previous to the completion of the railroad to Watertown, in 1851, Sackets Harbor was a place of considerable commercial importance. The greater portion of the freight for Watertown and the surrounding towns, and for adjoining counties, came by boat to Sackets Harbor, whence it was carted to its destination, and in return the products of this rich territory found way to the markets through the saine channels. Although enterprising citizens of the village put forth every effort to maintain its commercial relations, its com-

* Hough's History of Jefferson County,

+ Ibid., p. 184.

+ Ibid.

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merce has been mostly diverted to other channels. In 1846 the declared value of exports and imports was $2,735,091; as early as 1859 it had fallen to the comparatively insignificant sum of $13,016. The enrolled and licensed tonnage of the district in 1852 was 7,083 tons, and in 1859 it had been re- duced to 1,375 tons.

About 1823 a measure was proposed to supply a water-power to Sackets Harbor by diverting the surplus waters of Black River from the lower pond in Watertown through Pleasant and Mill creeks. Through the opposition of influential persons, through whose lands the water would pass, the project failed. In 1825 the effort was renewed, and an act was passed by the legis- lature authorizing Joseph Kimball, Amos Catlin, and Daniel Hall, Jr., to divert the surplus waters of the river into Pleasant and Stony creeks, for hydraulic purposes. The act provided that waters should not be taken from any dam then existing without the written consent of the owners, virtually defeating the project, for this was next to impossible. In 1826 the act was amended by reinoving the obnoxious restriction, but still the plan was not considered feasible. It was next proposed to make the canal navigable from Carthage to Sackets Harbor, and an act was accordingly passed in April, 1828, incor- porating the Jefferson County Canal Co., with a capital of $300,000, but nothing was done under this act. In 1830 a canal 20 feet wide at the top and 12 feet wide at the bottom, four feet deep, was made from Huntington's Mills, two miles above the village of Watertown, to the "Big Swamp," and in 1832 it was finished, supplying to the village of Sackets Harbor a valuable water-power, upon which were erected a grist-mill, two saw-mills, a plaster-mill, a paper-mill, and a furnace, principally the property of Elisha Camp, to which person is due, more perhaps than to any other man, the credit of making the village a place of consequence. Great difficulty was en- countered in maintaining the first half-mile of the ditch, which was con- structed along Black River, where it was liable to be washed away on one side and filled by slides of sand and clay on the other. These difficulties finally led the work to be abandoned, after having been in use 10 years, to the pecuniary loss of all.

FIRES IN SACKETS HARBOR.

Soon after the War of 1812 a small fire company, a " bucket brigade," was organized at the village, and unsuccessful efforts were made to procure an engine. The fire wardens of the village passed an ordinance requiring owners of buildings to provide a certain number of buckets to be placed conveniently about their buildings for the use of the brigade. Hough's History contains the following account of early fires :-

"On May 23, 1838, a paper-mill of Col. Camp, at the Harbor, was burned, with a loss of from $7,000 to $10,000. It had been in operation about a year.

" A destructive fire occurred at Sackets Harbor on the morning of August 21, 1843, origi- nating in a warehouse on the wharf, as was supposed from the cinders of the steamer St.

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Lawrence, and spreading rapidly, consumed nine buildings on the north side of Main street, and eight upon the south side. Passing up Bayard street, it consumed several barns and dwellings, and from the violence of the wind the flakes of burning materials were wafted to the cupola of the Presbyterian Church, which was burned. Upon the ally or street in the rear of Main street a number of buildings and much property was burned. The whole num- ber of buildings consumed was about forty; the loss over #35,000. Had this fire occurred in the night time, from its rapidity and violence, a loss of life could have scarcely been avoided. An ineffectual suit was instituted against the steamboat company. On several other occasions the village has suffered severely by fires."

Col. Walter B. Camp has kindly furnished the following regarding the fires of more recent occurrence.

Sackets Harbor has been singularly unfortunate with its fires, commenc- ing in particular with that of August 21, 1843, to which reference has been made-many of them so serious and unaccountable in their origin as to bring at last a degree of discouragement to its inhabitants, who question how far they can be justified in restoring the present burnt district. After that destructive one of 1843 better and more modern buildings rapidly took the place of those destroyed. The same conditions do not now exist. Then an extensive commerce was carried on, being a port of export and import for several counties, and from which sailed a fine fleet of vessels, owned by en- terprising merchants. This source of accumulative wealth has disappeared from the lakes.

In the fall of 1851 the Ontario House barns, on Broad street, took fire from some unknown cause. The fire extended to Main street, and five stores and dwelling houses were soon in flames. Before the sixth was reached a very heavy-timbered two-story building (and one in which printing presses of va- ried newspapers had been established for years) was torn down by the heroic efforts of the foresighted and resolute inhabitants. Hook and axes de- molished it in a few minutes. The feat was heralded as something almost incredible.

Six weeks afterwards Buck & Burt's dry goods and hardware establish- ment, on Main street, took fire in like manner, and was consumed with nearly half the square. Each one of these conflagrations brought clouds filled with snow, by the vacuum produced, from distant hills that held the currents run- ning eastward from the lakes. About 1854 a dwelling house of Captain Tuttle, on Main street, nearly opposite the navy yard, burned down ; the only point of interest remembered is, that buildings each side, one only four or five feet away, had ice formed upon the exposed sides from the intense cold prevailing.

Lane's dry goods stock was badly damaged by some cause unknown- supposed by the bursting of a lamp. Being in a block, and adjoining Eve- leigh's Hotel, much solicitude was felt for the result.

" Gladwin's brick " a little later was occupied by some Hebrew clothing merchants. They were compelled to escape from their sleeping quarters from the heat among their goods. A gallant fight with this no doubt in- cendiary fire confined it to the store apartment.

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Geographical gazetteer of Jefferson county, N.Y. 1684-1890, Part 70

Author: Child, Hamilton, 1836- [from old catalog] comp; Horton, William H., [from old catalog] ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., The Syracuse journal company, printers and binders Number of Pages: 1384

Author: Child, Hamilton, 1836- [from old catalog] comp; Horton, William H., [from old catalog] ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., The Syracuse journal company, printers and binders
Number of Pages: 1384