Growth of a Century : as illustrated in the history of Jefferson County, New York, from 1793 to 1894, Part 108

Author: Haddock, John A. 1823-
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Sherman
Number of Pages: 1094

USA > New York > Jefferson County > Growth of a Century : as illustrated in the history of Jefferson County, New York, from 1793 to 1894 > Part 108

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The town officers elected at the first town meeting, April 1, 1800, were Noadiah Hub- bard, supervisor; Eli Church, clerk; Tim- othy Pool, David Coffeen and William Had- sell, assessors; Ephraim Chamberlain, con- stable and collector ; John Ward and Reuben Rockwood, overseers of the poor; Solomon Ward, Amaziah Parker and Elihu Jones, commissioners of highways; David Coffeen, William Crowell, Timothy Pool and Moses Goodrich, overseers of highways; Levi Barnes, fence viewer; Bela Hubbard, pound- master.

The following is a record of the first school meeting in town, as it occurs on the records in the town clerk's office :

CHAMPION, October 23, 1800 .- At a regular meet- ing of the inhabitants of the town aforesaid, it was resolved that there shall be a house erected near a spring, on the road running from Noadiah Hubbard's

to Daniel Coffeen's in said town; and likewise re- solved, that said house shall be built with logs, 16 feet one way, and 20 feet the other way. Also, re- solved by said meeting, that Daniel Coffeen and Noadiah Hubbard shall act as trustees of said school.

Attest, ELI CHURCH, Town Clerk.

Champion was surveyed by Moses and Ben- jamin Wright in 1797, the former subdivid- ing, and the latter surveying around it; the area, according to M. Wright, was 26,703 acres, and by B. Wright 25,708 acres. It was subdivided into lots of 500 acres each.

This town was among the first in which actual settlements were begun in the county. The following advertisement appeared in the Western Sentinel, June 7, 1797:

LAND FOR SALE-Lying on Black river, in the county of Herkimer, and State of New York. Forty lots of land laid out into farms. containing from 100 to 240 acres each. On Inman's Patent. so called, in this township, there is about 40 actual settlers. and a good grist-mill within one mile and (illegible * * * ) on said land. This land is of an excellent soil. and the situation convenient and pleasing for settlers. The subscriber will remain on the land the most of the ensuing summer and fall. Terms of payment will be made to accommodate purchasers. Also township No. 4. lying on and adjoining Black river. about 30 miles from Boon's Mills; this township is of an excellent soil; 20 actual settlers will be on this township this summer. For terms, please to apply to the subscriber, who will reside on Inman's Patent, or to Captain Noadiah Hubbard, of Steuben, who is making a settlement on said township No. 4.

Also for sale, a township of land lying on Black river, near Lake Ontario. These townships are all laid out in lots, and will be sold by large or small quantities, to suit purchasers, and the title indis- putable. Also 10 lots of land to be leased on first tract.

May 10, 1797. LEMUEL STORRS.

Settlement was commenced in this town by Noadiah Hubbard, in 1797. He was afterwards a county judge, and proved him- self an unusually able and successful man. (See his extended sketch on p. 511). He raised a family that have proven themselves worthy of their ancestry. His son, Hon. Frederick W. Hubbard, was a judge of the Supreme Court, and three of his daughters were married to able and distinguished lawyers in Watertown.

We think it a proper place to introduce some remarks by the Judge's talented daughter, Miss Parnell Hubbard, who is now an honored resident of Watertown. Her father wrote for Mr. Hough an able article, relating more particularly to his own ex- perience as a farmer in that early time. Her reminiscences relate more especially to the domestic life of that era, a subject which she handles with a graceful pen. Among other things she says :

"One mile south of the village of Cham- pion, lies the lovely sheet of water called Pleasant Lake; the resort of romantic youths and maidens in early days. It had formerly a finely-wooded background of hills, and the lake, fed almost entirely by springs, is very deep and transparently pure. It is small in extent, but larger than many of the far- famed English lakes, and quite as beautiful.

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THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

Nearer the village was a deep gulf, through which a considerable stream of water flowed in early days, forming mill-sites at different points. We had to cross this gulf by means of a high timber bridge, in going to and from school. In the intricacies and nooks of this gulf, we children passed many enjoyable hours. On this stream, and nearly one mile apart, were two beaver meadows and the re- mains of beaver dams. These were favorite places of resort in childhood. In the winter, when a sudden thaw caused them to over- flow, and a sudden fall of temperature would cover them with ice, they formed fine skat- ing ponds for the boys and fine sliding places for the girls. The upper meadow was lovely in my young days, and a favorite resort, though it was the stillest and most solemn place I ever knew. No cathedral of the old world I have since visited, with " solemn aisles long drawn out" ever im- pressed me with the solemnity of this place, God's own temple. One felt alone here with his Creator, and afraid to break the stillness. Now and then would come the hoarse voice of a bull-frog, startling one like a voice from the dead. The meadow was a perfect level, covered with dense greensward, and all around the outer margin were immense pine trees, venerable from age, branches thick, seemingly impenetrable, low, nearly sweep- ing the ground. The rustling of the leaves in the wind, the fragrance of the air, all com- bined to produce the effect above described. I should not have dared express a profane thought there, if such a one had entered my mind. Alone with God ! was always my feeling.

" When it was expected that Champion would become the county seat, a number of professional gentlemen came there and built offices, portions of which are still stand- ing, forming the nucleus of larger buildings. Among these men of note, I will mention : Henry R. Storrs, afterward a noted lawyer in the State, Judge Moss Kent, a brother of the chancellor, Judge Egbert TenEyck, father-in-law of the late Judge Mullin, and others. I have no means of learning when these men left Champion, for it was before my day or recollection. Judge Kent, whom we all regarded as a very dear friend, used to come back occasionally, and we were delighted to see and visit with him. He was engaged matrimonially to Miss Cooper, a sister of Fenimore Cooper, the novelist. She lost her life by being thrown from her horse. He (Judge Kent) lived and died a bachelor. He led a benevolent life, assisting many young people, particularly the daughters of poor clergymen, in obtaining an education. Lucretia Maria Davidson, the poetess, was a protege of his. When Judge Kent' left Champion, he placed his miscellaneous library in the home of a friend for safe keep- ing, viz : with the late Mrs. A. Lathrop, the grandmother of George Lathrop, the author, who married the daughter of Hawthorne. It remained there a number of years.

The young people of the present day can scarcely imagine the difficulties of heating and lighting houses 50 years ago in country places. The only light to be depended upon was the tallow candle, generally a home- made one, and happy were they who could afford to burn even one all the time, and two was an extravagance not often to be indulged in. Wax candles were used on extraordinary occasions. After a time the sperm-oil lamp came into use; then we had the burning fluid. It gave a clearer, brighter light than the tallow candle, but was exceedingly dan- gerous, explosions sometimes occurring, mak- ing sad work and depositing an astonishing amount of lampblack, to the dismay of the housekeeper, if nothing worse occurred. Then came the lard lamp ; this gave a beauti- ful light, but it required an immense amount of lard of the best quality, and more than most could afford. Before this we had the astral lamp, which was thought to be the grand disideratum, but it proved very troublesome, and, unless used constantly, was sure to fail when most wanted, and this was soon discarded. After a while kerosene oil was introduced, very crude at first, and the color of coffee, but gradually refined and purified as we now see it. The present gen- eration here advanced to gas and electricity for lighting. Have we attained the summit, or is there something brighter to anticipate ? Who can tell? As for heating, we had the old-fashioned fire-place. If the house was of considerable size, there would be a chim- ney in the center, and the rooms around would each have its fire-place, above and be- low. But then we dared not keep fire in them constantly, for each wood fire required watching, else the falling brands would set fire to the house. Consequently no more fires were kept than absolutely necessary. People generally slept in cold rooms. When guests came, if put in beds with linen sheets, the warming-pan, filled with coals, was re- sorted to, making the bed comfortable. The wood fire was beautiful to look at, but troublesome to keep. Wood was so plentiful as to be of no account, and it would be piled up to the crane. Imagine, if you can, what it was to do the family cooking by a huge wood fire. Not onc modern conven- ience. It is appalling to look back. But then the cooking was most excellent. It

makes one's mouth water to think of it. Such roasted pigs, goslings and turkeys, done to perfection before the fire in the huge tin oven. Think of the amount of work neces- sary to keep the utensels clean. I have in my mind one notable housekeeper, whose copper tea and coffee kettles were daily scoured so bright that a face could be re- flected in them, only to be burned black the first time they were set on the crane over the huge wood fire. Every house had a brick oven, in which the weekly baking was done, but most had also a bake-kettle, heated by coals from the fire (placed underneath), and coals piled on the top of the lid. In these

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they baked the delicious pork and beans and many other small things. Later there came into use what was called a reflector, which proved a great convenience in baking cakes and other small things ; it was made of tin, above and below, with a sheet-iron pan. Ar- ticles to be baked were placed on the pan, and the bright tin reflected the heat from the fire before which it was placed, causing them to bake in a short time. At length cook stoves were introduced. But of these I need not write, at least for modern ones. But of one, the first introduced in my father's house, I will make mention. It was called a " cook stove ;" also a "Canada stove." But, alas ! for anybody who should try to cook anything upon it. Would you have a description ? It was nothing more or less than a two-story box-stove, no hearth and no hole for a boiler. There was, to be sure, an oven over the fire chamber, of no earthly use, except to burn to a cinder everything put into it. It was a good heater, as shown by its effects on cold Sundays, when the church people came to warm. We had a serving man who rejoiced in the name of Washington, physically the size of his great prototype. He delighted in giving a warm welcome. He would pile the dry wood up to the crane in the fire-place, and fill the stove and add the fire. The first who came would naturally seek the warmest place, between the fire and the stove, and soon, to his intense amusement, they would begin to move back, to find themselves against the hot stove-literally between two fires.

" Most families had wells, with the water drawn up by a sweep. Many had only a pole with a hook on the end to hold the pail as it was let down into the well, and when filled, was lifted out by main strength, and where much water was required for domestie purposes, it was a great tax upon the strength. There were no cement cisterns for rain water. Rain water was caught in logs hollowed out, in barrels, in hogsheads, and even in wash-tubs. Very seldom a plentiful supply. No ice. There were very few con- veniences for lessening the household work. We had a washing-machine as long ago as I can remember, and when in use, it was operated generally by two men, one on each side. All the early settlers lived in log houses of one or two rooms. I can remember very . few of them.

" I can remember when much business was done in Champion, and when there were three dry goods stores there and two pot- asheries, a distillery, and various other indus- tries. There were no matches in, those days. They were not yet invented or if invented, not .in use in the country, aud special care was required to keep the fire alive, for if it went out, it was a great trouble to re-kindle it, either by striking a flint or by rubbing pieces of wood together, or it may have been sending to a neighbor a half mile or a mile away for a few coals or a burning brand. The usual way to preserve the fire was to

carefully bury the live coals in ashes. Woe to the luckless wight who should come home late and find no coals. To light a candle under such conditions, even if there were coals, was no trifling fact, for he must open the bed carefully and abstract therefrom a coal with the tongs, and then proceed to blow with the mouth, and blow and blow again, until a flame was produced sufficient to ignite the wick of the candle. To evening meetings, to singing and spelling schools, the people carried candles, and probably there were two or three to light the school- house. Imagine its brilliancy if you can.

AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS.

"They were of the simplest kind that would serve the purpose. Farm work was done by the hardest manual labor. Grains were cut with a sickle. Finally the cradle was introduced. I believe this was consid- ered a great advantage over the sickle, inas- much as the laborer was not obliged to hold or take every handful by the hand, as in us- ing the sickle. Buckwheat was pulled up by the roots, as was also flax, a very im- portant product of the fields, and a very necessary one for family use before we had much cotton cloth. Almost all the cloth for underclothing for men and boys was made in the homes of the farmers, as was also bed linen, table-cloths and towels, and sometimes pocket-handkerchiefs. Farmers wore tow frocks and pants to work in in summer. I think, perhaps, of all work the farmers dreaded most the dressing of flax, it was such dusty work. Along toward spring, after the threshing of grain by hand was done, they would perforce attack the flax ; then the days were lengthening, and the time to begin the spinning had come, and it must be done before the warm weather, which made the linen garments a necessity. I pass over a description of the various processes by which the flax and tow were prepared for spinning. The flax was spun on a little wheel, at which the operator sat, turning the wheel with her foot, whereas the tow and the wool were spun on a big wheel and the spinner walked back and forth as she drew the thread, twisted and wound it on the spindle, causing many miles of travel in the course of a day's work. Sometimes young women would change works; that is, one would take her wheel and go to a neighbor's for a day or a week, as they could agree, and in the meantime work and visit, and the next week the compliment would be returned. I wonder if the phrase "spinning yarns," thus originated. Almost every elderly ma- tron had at least one suit of linen bed-cur- tains, spun, wove and colored with her own hands ; usually indigo blue and white, wove in large plaids. Home-made linen or woolen garments were manufactured in their respec- tive families. The wool spinning was done in summer, after sheep-shearing. The card- ing of the wool ready for spinning was done with hand-cards. Finally a carding machine

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was invented, which made long round rolls. Those made by hand were flat. I have no means of ascertaining when the carding ma- chine was invented and brought into use.

PICKING GEESE.

" Early in the summer came the important operation of picking geese, which were kept by most families for the sake of the feathers. A hard business for the workers, and a cruel one for the poor geese, to be stripped of nearly all their feathers, and sometimes their quills, and turned out almost naked to bear the winds. The quills were used for pens for writing; there were then no others. Feather-beds were then commonly used. Much home-made linen thread was used in making garments. We could buy white cotton thread. It came in little balls, not much larger than a walnut, and was very choice. Sewing silk came in small skeins. We had imported fine linen for gents' underwear, and table and bed- linen, which was commonly called "Hol- lands " in those days. The first unbleached cotton cloth I can remember, was called " Hum Hum," and said to be of East Indian manufacture. 'Tis true we had printed cot- ton, chiefly bed-curtains, before that, which, I presume, were imported from England, but how early in the century I know not. In almost every farmer's house was to be seen a dye-pot for coloring indigo blue. This was the staple color, and it took a long time to permanently dye the articles subjected to the process, wool, yarns, etc.

VEHICLES.

" I have heard my mother say that in those early days, she never expected to live to see a four-wheeled carriage, other than the farm wagon, but I can never remember when we had not vehicles of different kinds, and among them an old-fashioned hack. This, and a similar one owned by Judge Bronson, of Rutland, were the first I can remember. I might mention in this connection, that a ball was one of the prominent features, and the winding up of all the early " cattle shows and fairs." This ball was attended by the elite of the county, the officers of the society, the farmers, their wives and daughters; and it was on the return of the young people from one of these balls, in the small hours of a dark morning, that the old hack was overturned on a steep hill and met its fate. It was never again thoroughly re- paired.

There were many very original charac- ters in Champion, both men and women. Of one I have some recollection, inasmuch as she was more nearly the embodiment of my ideas of a " witch," in personal appearance and in dress of any other person I ever met. Everybody called her "granny." A red cloth mantle was her outside garment, as she wandered over the country. She had most striking peculiarities, and was oddest of the odd, and her sayings incomparable.

Her husband was a devout man, walking in the fear of the Lord. Whether his righteous soul was vexed from day to day, I cannot say, but this I do know, that as was then customary at week-day meetings, laymen used to pray or speak. The wife was usually present at the opening of the meet- ing, but as soon as the husband arose to perform his part, she invariably arose and left the house. Why or wherefore I cannot tell. She had a daughter, her exact oppo- site in every respect, the most fastidious of all mortals. The fun-loving medical stu- dents amused themselves with her peculiar- ities. For their own diversion, and that of their young friends, they constructed a camera obscura in the office door. She could't be induced to pass there at all. She was "not going to be turned upside down by those young doctors." Her brother, a pious man, went as a missionary printer from Watertown to the Sandwich Islands, and died there soon after the first missions were established in those islands. One of the men of this original stamp had been, I pre- sume, a Revolutionary soldier, and perhaps under LaFayette, or had had something to do with, or a great admirer of him, from the fact that he named his son Marquis de LaFayette. Notwithstanding his weighty name and titles, he bore up under them, and after attaining manhood was a faithful serving man. Once upon a time a young surveyor, who had business with the old man, went to his home. Wishing to show his hospitality, he turned to his better-half and said : "Wife, either you or I must go down cellar and get some beer, and I swear I won't." Mr. Olney Pierce, one of the first settlers, built a house in Champion, which was standing until a few years since. In this lived the family mentioned, and later was occupied by the father and sisters of the Rev. William Good- ale, who for 40 years was a valued, learned and useful missionary in Turkey, and trans- lator of the Scriptures. Mr. Fayel, in one of his papers, speaks of Madame De Ferret. I knew her very well the last years of her so- journ in this country-that is, as well as I could, considering the difference in age and the awe inspired by her superior acquire- ments. She and our family occasionally ex- changed visits, and in her absence from the county she and the late Mrs. Robert Lansing corresponded. In a communication from Mr. Vincent LeRay, in 1871, he says : ‘Madame la Baronne De Ferret came to America in 1816, immediately after the marriage of M. de Gouvello with my sister, and with them and my father, Madame De Ferret built her house above Great Bend, probably in 1823 or 1824.' I do not know it from herself, but I have heard that her father was a friend of Benjamin Franklin, and that when it became necessary for herself and mother to quit France for political reasons, they came to this country to claim Franklin's protection ; but he being dead, they returned to France. If this be true, it must have been years

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before coming over with Mr. LeRay's family. I have also been told that Madame De Fer- ret and Lady Hester Stanhope, the secretary and niece of Lord Chatham, were friends in early life, but had for many years lost sight of each other, but finally, when Madame De Ferret learned where Lady Hester was, she contemplated joining her. It is needless to say she never did. I do not know in what year Madame De Ferret left this country. She died in her native France, and left a name and a memory in this county entirely irre- proachable. When in Watertown, she was often the guest of the Mortimers, a very high-toned family, one of the daughters be- coming Mrs. Ithamer B. Crawe, the distin- guished physician and botanist, who was drowned in Perch lake, being succeeded by his son, the present able Dr. J. Mortimer Crawe, who, in turn, has also a son practic- ing medicine contemporaneous with his father. Madame De Ferret's place, on the Black River, near where the bridge named for her spans that stream, was laid out with much care and taste, a veritable flower garden around her villa, but much of her farming land was of poor quality. It is understood that she was obliged to take this land from Mr. LeRay in discharge of a debt for a large sum of money loaned him.

CLOCKS.

"I suppose we have the first clock brought into this county. Of this I am not certain, for I do not know the year it was brought in. I have been told it was the first clock made in Utica. Previous to this time they had not felt the want of a clock, for they were in the habit of consulting the sun, moon and stars for the time of day or night, and most persons had what they called a noon mark, which indicated the hour near enough for the practical purpose of blowing the dinner horn. I have been credibly in- formed (but never saw it) that sometimes in the waning evening they would look up the broad, open chimney-mouth at the moon and stars, to ascertain the time of night, and whether bed-time had come."

The virgin soil of this town was found to yield bountifully, and return an abundant increase to the hand of the cultivator; but the uncertainty of realizing any means from the sales of produce, from the difficulty of getting to market, led to efforts for bet- ter roads and aid in opening lines of com- munication, and it was related by one who had shared in these privations that once on an evening, when a few neighbors had assem- bled to exchange the news, the subject was being discussed, and one, more sanguine than the rest, hazarded the prediction that "there were those men then living who would see a weekly line of mail-stages pass through the town." This prophesy, like the dream of Oriental fable, has come and gone, for within thirty years not only weekly, but a daily mail was established, and the town has been

placed in direct communication with the out- side world by the completion of the Carthage, Watertown & Sacket's Harbor railroad. The first saw-mill in town was built by William Hadsall and John A. Eggleson, from Green- wich, New York, in 1802, on Mill Creek, near the line of Rutland, where, several years afterwards, a grist-mill was built.

The following is an authentic census of Champion in the year 1800, the heads of families and unmarried men only being named. These were free men, but at that time there were 13 persons held as slaves in that township, though their names are un- known : Daniel Coffeen, Christopher Church- man, Peter Kilner, John Jones, Joseph Martin, Moses Miller, John Ward, Asa Harris, Eli Church, Levi Barnes, Joel Mix, Michael Col- lins, Zebulon Rockwell, Constant Miller, Lewis Godard, Noadiah Hubbard, Elihu Jones, David Starr, Samuel Starr, Comfort Ward, Thomas Brooks, Reuben Rockwell, Ephriam Chamberlain, William Crowell, Fairchild Hubbard, Timothy Pool, Joseph Crany. These, with their wives and children, comprised 143 souls.

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Growth of a Century : as illustrated in the history of Jefferson County, New York, from 1793 to 1894, Part 108

Author: Haddock, John A. 1823- Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Sherman Number of Pages: 1094

Author: Haddock, John A. 1823-
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Sherman
Number of Pages: 1094