Growth of a Century : as illustrated in the history of Jefferson County, New York, from 1793 to 1894, Part 146

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

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THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

has never had a more faithful, true and prac- tical Senator. He was several times elected supervisor of his town, having always to be urged to accept public positions.

" He moved from his farm in Rutland to the city of Watertown in November, 1862, and some six or eight years afterwards united with the 1st Presbyterian Church there. He was always a regular attendant and liberal supporter of the Rutland Congregational Church, but not then a church member. His funeral was attended by a large concoursc of people, and his remains deposited in Brook- side cemetery. He went down like a shock of corn, fully ripe."

Another local paper, in a little memorial notice of Mr. Towne at the time of his death, spoke of him as "one of the best men that ever lived."

Mr. Towne was for many years a member of the board of directors of the Agricultural In- surance Company, of Watertown, who paid to his memory resolutions of respect.

Mrs. Gardner Towne was the daughter of Daniel Eames, and was one of 13 children. She was born May 26, 1801, in the town of Western, Oneida county, her parents coming to Rutland when she was an infant. She

was well fitted to be the companion of her husband-theirs was a happy and congenial union. A notice in a local paper at the time of her death, written by one who had known her long and well, said of her, among other things: "Very few people have had the rc- spect of the community in which they have lived to a higher degree than Mrs. Towne. Naturally of an amiable and cheerful disposi- tion, supplemented by sweet Christian graccs, she was a pleasant companion for young or old. Her virtues-and they were many- were quiet, refined, domestic virtues, such as became her sex, her age and her position. It was the violets' perfume she shed about her, which blooms unseen. Her tastes were rc- fined, as was her nature, and the ornament she prized was a cheerful and quiet spirit. She was always the true friend, the trusted wife and mother-ever ready with offices of help and love whenever needed-a true- hearted woman, and true to her convictions. There was not a treacherous or doubtful fibre in her nature. Such was her life. Having finished her work, she waited hopefully the coming of the message of the Master, who gave her sleep." Her death occurred July 7, 1887, in the 87th year of her agc.

THERESA.

THERESA was formed from Alexandria by an act of April 15, 1841, and was named in honor of the daughter of James LeRay de Chaumont; she marricd the Marquis de Gouvello, of France. It is nearly in the form of a parallelogram, with its longer lines stretching northeast and southwest. St. Lawrence county is its northeastern boun- dary, LeRay township its southwestern, Or- leans joins it on the west, Alexandria on the northwest, and Antwerp and Philadelphia on the southeast. Indian river traverses the en- tire length of the town, cntering at its south- ern corner and leaving it in the extreme northeast, whence it passes into St. Lawrence county. The town contains a number of beautiful lakes, lying principally in the north- ern part. Of these, Butterfield and Mud lakes lie on the Alexandria line, and partly in that town, Grass Lake is partly in St. Law- rence county, Moon extends into Antwerp, while Hyde, Crystal, Sixberry, Millsite, Rcd and Maskolunge lakes, and the Lake of the Woods, lie wholly in Theresa. The margins of these lakes are nearly everywhere bound in by high, rocky shores. The surface along Indian river is broken and traversed by ridges of gneiss rock, with fertile intervals. The ledge known as Bluff Rock, four miles below Theresa village, on the river, is from · 130 to 150 feet in height, and nearly a half mile in length, in a great part of this dis- tance descending sheer from the summit to the water's edge. From the falls to the St. Lawrence county line the surface of the country along the river is level. It is also

comparatively free from inequalities in the south and southwest portions. In other parts, particularly in the lake section, it is broken by abrupt hills and ribbed by barren and forbidding ledges. Nearly all the town- ship was comprised in the 220,000-acre pur- chase of LcRay from the Antwerp Company, January 4, 1800. It has an area of 25,604 acres.

The first town meeting was held at the public house of Marcius B. Ashley, in The- resa village, April 11, 1841, and resulted in the election of the following officers, viz .: Percival D. Bullard, town clerk ; Abraham Morrow, Michael Servis and Osmyn Caswell, justices of the peace ; Richard Hoover, as- sessor ; Barney N. Hanson and Jonathan Hakes, commissioners of highways ; Stephen Scott, commissioner of common schools ; Samuel S. Strough and Ichabod Cronkite, inspectors of common school ; Samucl T. Brooks, overscer of the poor; Isaac L Huntington, Jeremiah R. Hungerford and Albert W. Covenhoven, constables. Alex- Salisbury, elected supervisor of Alexandria for that year prior to the partition, held over as supervisor of the new town, under a clause of the act of ercction, which provided that all persons elected to town offices in Alexandria at the last previous annual mcet- ing should continue to hold those offices, until the expiration of their term, in the towns in which their residence fell. Some other officers than the supervisor also held over in Theresa under that provision.

In 1890 Theresa had a population of 2,391- a gain of two in 10 years. The town is situa-

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ted in the third school district of Jefferson county, and in 1888 had 15 school districts, one of which was joint, in which 18 teach- ers were employed 28 weeks or more.

Theresa village was incorporated June 29, 1871, under the general act of April 20, 1870, for incorporation of villages. The first elec- tion, held July 29, resulted in the choice of George E. Yost, president; John Parker, Ambrose Walradt and Gideon Snell, Sr., trustees ; Hiram P. Salisbury, treasurer ; and Charles Fairbanks, collector. The trus- tees appointed Melvin E. Cornwell clerk. Rev. Mr. Rockwell made a survey and map of the corporation, which embraces about 1,200 acres. The village is a station on the Utica & Black River division of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg Railroad, 17 miles from Watertown, 190 from Albany and 332 from New York. It has telegraph, tele- phone and express offices, and a population of about 1,200. The principal manufactur- ing establishments of the village are Pool & Cheeseman's grist and saw-mill, C. Wakefield & Son's iron foundry and Snell & Make- peace's flouring and feed mill. It is one of the principal villages of the county, and is pleasantly situated at the High Falls on Indian river, which furnishes an excellent

water-power. May 11, 1859, the village was visited by a most disastrous fire. which spread devastation on both sides of the river, destroying one barn and two dwellings, two or three saw-mills, a wood-working shop, machine shop, a foundry, grist-mill and a cloth factory. The bridge was also totally destroyed. In 1863 a flood did great damage here, carrying away the upper dam, the cov- ered bridge and other property.

Soon after midnight on the morning of April 5, 1890, a more disastrous fire visited the village of Theresa, destroying more than $150,000 worth of property, including every business place in the village, with the ex- ception of the American Hotel and one sa- loon. Forty-two buildings were burned and 17 families were made homeless. [For a full description of this fire, see article later on.]

West Theresa is a small hamlet in the western part of the town. It was once con- sidered of enough importance to have a postoffice, which was established in 1848, but has long since been discontinued. Warren Parrish was the first postmaster. A post- office, known as Military Road. was estab- lished in the southeastern part of the town, near the line of LeRay, about 1840. It was in existence but a few years.

EARLY SETTLEMENT OF THERESA.

PREPARED BY B. PALMER CHEESEMAN, JOS. FAYEL AND MAJ. J. A. HADDOCK.

AT an early day, Benjamin Wright, the distinguished surveyor, called the attention of Mr. LeRay to the great water power on Indian river, at the village of Theresa, where at the lower falls the water-power was a per- pendicular fall of 55 feet, and about 100 rods above, another fall of about 15 feet. These water-falls attracted Mr. LeRay as a favorable locality to commence a settlement. In 1812 a path was cut through the wilder- ness from Evans Mills-nine miles-which would allow an-ox team with a sled to pass through, for wagons were unknown in those primitive settlements. Mr. LeRay, in the same year, cleared, under the direction of Captain John Hoover, 40 acres on the farm now owned by J. P. Douglas, about one mile from the falls. He built a log house and a framc barn. The next year he made another clearing of 100 acres, on the farm which was purchased in 1815 by James Shurtliff.

Mr LeRay also employed Musgrove Evans to survey 1,000 acres as a reservation for a village. Anson Cheeseman moved his family into the mill house in 1815, before it was completed.

Thus was the opening made for civiliza. tion, where for years none but Indian trap- pers and hunters followed a trail along the bank of the river. There was a well-defined trail along the west bank of the river, and there was to be seen, about four miles above the village, a small cleared plot on the river

flat of a couple of acres, called the " Indian Garden," where the Indians had bivouacked and raised vegetables. Mr. Joseph Fayel well remembers spending many hours by the light of the fisherman's camp-fire, listening to the thrilling incidents of the hunter's ex- perience of old Uncle John Sixberry, who spent his whole life in hunting, trapping and fishing, and died a few years ago at the ripe old age of 104 years. He entertained an inveterate hatred of an Indian, and when talking about them, his eyes would snap and flash like fire-brands, and he would raise to his feet at the thought of the atrocities com- mitted by these savages upon his father's family. He said it was sure death for any Indian to pass in sight of the muzzle of his rifle He pointed to the spot where he had seen an Indian in a canoe, and saw him roll over the side of his craft. No doubt the bullet from the rifle of old "Uncle Six," con- signed him to a watery grave.

Sylvester Bodman emigrated from Massa- chusetts in an ox cart and on horse-back. His noble wife rode the horse and carried the baby in a basket fastened to the saddle. The kind old lady died in 1881, at the age of 104. There are several descendants of the family yet living.

In 1823 Dr. John D. Davison settled as a practicing physician, and died in 1860. In 1825 Olney Pearce and Anson Ranney pur- chased the store of Ebenezer Lull, and

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THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

opened a business under the name of Pearce & Ranney. In connection with the store they manufactured large quantities of pot and pearl ashes. The first school-house was built in 1818. During the years of 1822 and 1823, there was an epidemic of fever and ague, caused by the opening of the wilder- ness, and many of the settlers left their im- provements, but many remained.

During the winters of 1831 and 1832, Henry Hooper, of Quebec, would take a large lot of French Canadians to the pine plains and the country around, and during the winters would manufacture large quan- tities of pine and elm timber, and put it in the river at Hull bridge, at the bend of Indian River, and some was drawn by farm- ers and put into the river below the falls. In the spring freshets the timber was floated down the river to Ogdensburg, and there rafted to Quebec. This business was aban- doned after two years of trial.

Anson Cheeseman, the father of B. Palmer Cheeseman, our local historian, came into Theresa in the fall of 1817. The improve- ments which had been made by Mr. LeRay had developed a bridge at the lower falls. A dam and saw-mill were also constructed, and a frame house had been enclosed, being the only one in town. Anson Cheeseman had a contract with LeRay to supply the saw-mill with logs and to saw them into merchantable lumber. The next year (1818) Benjamin Barnes came, and purchased land on the east side of the river, half a mile from the upper falls. He was a man of peculiar energy, was a licensed M. E. preacher, and had learned the trade of a mason. He at once began manufacturing brick and burning lime, prov- ing a most acceptable and valuable member of society, as he was peculiarly adapted to a new country, being able to both work and pray. In that year (1818) Mr. LeRay caused a raceway to be excavated and the founda- tion walls built for a grist-mill, and Anson Cheescman had the contract for the work, Benjamin Barnes doing the mason work. The next year (1819) LeRay caused the mill to be built, and Noah Ashley was the first miller, and put the mill in operation. It was a great convenience to all that section and was the foundation of that material prosperity which the Indian river then and since has conferred upon the thrifty village of Thercsa. In that same year (1819) LeRay caused a frame hotel to be built at the "High Falls," as the place was then denominated, the name "Indian River" having been dropped. That hotel was afterwards destroyed by fire, and in it a colorcd woman was cremated.

The site of this hotel was afterwards pur- chased by Gen. Archibald Fisher, and he caused a brick hotel to be built, Benjamin Barnes having the contract for the mason work, his price being $4.00 per 1,000 brick laid in the wall, he furnishing everything-a price that now appears surprisingly low, as such brick alone, as went into that hotel, would now bring $5.00 per 1,000, delivered

at the kiln. The hotel was completed in 1822, the same year that the first white child was born in the village (Mary F. Lull, who married John A. Haddock, the editor). This latter fact is challenged, however, by the - statement that the honor belonged to Tammy Cheeseman, but it is probable that they were born quite close together, perhaps not 10 days apart. The first child born in the town pro- per, outside the village, was indisputably Fanny Cole, who afterwards married Jacob Ostrander.

In 1818 James Shurtliff purchased land on the east side of the river, about a mile from the river, and was elected justice of the peace. He became an elder in the Presby - terian Church. His family became a noted one in Theresa, several prominent citizens marrying his daughters, and the sons proving acceptable members of society.

Ebenezer Lull, from Butternuts, Otsego county, was the first merchant. He opened a store in 1820, afterwards taking Azariah Walton as a partner. Mr. Lull married Almira Barnes, July 21, 1821. She was the first school teacher, daughter of that Barnes who gave his name to the "Barnes Settle- ment," near Goose Bay, in Alexandria. Mr. Lull died in 1827, much lamented, for he was an enlightened, popular business man, ready to aid the deserving poor, who were strug- gling to found homes. Most of the trade of Lull & Walton was in square oak timber and staves, marketed in Montreal and Quebec. In 1821 Walton purchased five acres of land on the east side of the lower falls, with one- half of the whole water power of Indian river. In 1822 he removed his family from Brownville to Theresa, but about 1827 he re- moved permanently to Alexandria Bay, hav- ing been appointed deputy collector of cus- toms at that place, where he became finally very wealthy, and an important factor in developing the Thousand Islands.

One of the permanent improvements madc by Walton at Theresa, was his excavation, in 1824, of a site for a shute and flume, by which he utilized the water pouring over the dam by diverting it to a saw-mill located in the deep gulf northeast of the falls, which mill is still continued, and some of the origi- nal timbers of that racc-way and flume are yet in place and well preserved. In 1822 or 1823 Walton sold a portion of his land and a restricted interest in the water-power to Na- than M. Flower, who built a cloth-dressing and wool-carding establishment upon the extreme point of rocks adjoining the northeast bank of the High Falls, and there he estab- lished a valuable and permanent business. He was the founder of the celebrated Flower family, all of whom have justified the hon- est blood of their ancestry-one of them be- coming the popular Governor of the great State of New York, and one serving as com- mander of a gallant company in the Union army, while the remaining sons have all risen to wealth and prominence. Nathan M. Flower was for many years justice of the

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peace, and it is said that he never had one of his justice's decisions reversed on certiorari. He was a peculiarly honorable and able man, beloved by every one, and his early death was felt as a great public calamity. He was an elder in the Presbyterian church, and his sons have united in erecting the present beau- tiful church edifice to the memory of their parents. It is shown in this History, as well as the mural tablets inserted upon its interior walls.

The first blacksmith in Theresa was Curly Smith. He came in 1818, and located on the east side of the river at the lower falls, near the end of the bridge. His forge was in the open air, as we may see travelling tinkers on the continent of Europe, who work for a day and then pass on. Smith was a brother-in - law of Walton. This blacksmith afterwards built a house, but used part of his home for his smithshop. That same house was after- wards purchased by Mr. Flower, and in it he resided for many years before removing into the Flower mansion on the main street of the village.

In 1818 Jesse Doolittle also purchased land about one mile northeast of the upper falls, removing thither from Watertown. His children were: Jesse S., Jr., Richard, Molly and Mira. In 1820 Sylvester Bodman came, and he was an usually valuable addi- tion to the new town, for he was a worker. This family was well-known through all the years of their lives ; the children's names were : Martin, Miranda, Sophronia (Mrs. Da- vid J. Wager), Sylvester and Atwood, and they have all proved honorable members of society. Mrs. Bodman, Sr., lived to be 104 years old. In that same year (1820) Dudley Chapman came in. He was also a hard and persistent worker. His children were : Mary, William D. and Simeon.

Zalmon Pool came in about 1818. His children were : Charles, Zalmon, Jr., and three daughters. Sinecy Ball also came in about 1818. He had a large family. One of his grandsons is the Rev. Wilson Ball, at present pastor of the M. E. Church at The- reia. Dr. Brooks was the first physician, followed by Dr. J. D. Davison ; Ebenezer Lull was the first merchant, followed by An- son Ranney ; and Henry Morey was the first hotel keeper, followed by General Fisher and parties not now remembered, until Suel Wil- son became proprietor, and he was hotel keeper for many years, followed by several short-lived proprietors, until Mr. Getman, father of the three Getman Brothers, came to the front. He, and his sons after him, proved to be the right men in the right place.

Subsequently to 1818 the town began to be settled quite rapidly. The water-power brought mechanics, while the farming lands, though broken, proved wonderfully produc- tive-hence all who came, with scarcely an exception, could always find something to do. Abraham Morrow came in about 1821. (See his biographical sketch later on.) The Dr. Brooks spoken of as the first physician, was

the grandfather of Mr. Byron A. Brooks, now of Brooklyn, N. Y., the distinguished inventor and author.

The grist-mill erected by Mr. LeRay, was by him sold in 1822 to Percival Bullard, father of one of Theresa's most honorable and useful citizens, still living, and many years a merchant, Mr. Percival D. Bullard, whose portrait and biographical sketch are shown in another place in this history. That mill property has always been valuable, and still continues so. Many million bushels of grain, first and last, have passed through its hoppers.

The first Methodist preacher was Gardner Baker, but really the first movement towards a church sprang from the wife of Anson Cheeseman. When Mr. Baker came upon the circuit he was a young man of perhaps 18 years, without much education. His cir- cuit was from Carthage to Ogdensburg, in- cluding Potsdam, Canton and Theresa, nearly 300 miles in extent. This long route he fol- lowed on horseback once in two weeks, preaching perhaps six or eight times, in log cabins, at four-corners, or wherever he could find listeners to his method of declaring the word of God. The writer of this sketch listened to his first sermon in Theresa. After a long life, full of good works, he died at Thousand Island Park. His life was stainless. his teachings pure-pre-eminently a good and useful man.

He was followed by Rev. Squire Chase, a man of stalwart frame and untiring industry. He was 19 years of age, tall and lank and not by any means educated. But he had in him, as shown by his life-long example and influence, the making of a grand itinerant Methodist preacher. He organized into le- gal form the first Methodist Society in The- resa, with some 26 members. He preached the funeral sermon of Ebenezer Lull, an event long remembered there, from the pe- culiar pathos which surrounded his untimely death, as he was cut down in the midst of great expectations and much usefulness. His widow became one of the original mem- bers of the Methodist organization at Theresa. Squire Chase afterwards went to Africa as a missionary, became superintendent of mis- sions there, and died while on a brief visit to his native land. This sad event occurred at Syracuse, during the session of the Con- ference in that city. Mr. Chase died at the home of Mr. Judson, where he received every possible care.

The first Presbyterian clergy man was Rev. William B. Stow, who came as a missionary, no church organization having been com- pleted. He located about a mile below Plessis, for the Plessis and Theresa churches were served by the same pastor for many years afterward, even up to 1850. He formed the church at Theresa May 8, 1825, at the house of Abraham Morrow. The number enrolled was 12, eight females and four males.

The name "Indian River," first given to Theresa, was appropriate, for it was a great

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resort for the red man, whose wigwams were in the gulf now traversed by the race-way and flume of Pool & Cheeseman's saw-mill. The high bluffs on either hand were covered with a fine evergreen growth, a great pro- tection in cold weather. When the Cheese- mans came in, white people were scarce, but the Indians were plentiful. Like their suc- cessors, the whites, they had occasional quar- rels over bad whisky, but they were in general an inoffensive lot, much given to begging pork and potatoes, their nomadic life not permitting them to stay long enough in one place to fatten pork or raise a crop. But they were good trappers, and the abun- dance of muskrats and mink, whose skins found ready sale, kept them supplied with the necessaries of life. The Indian river, a sluggish stream below Theresa to Rossie, was the home of many fur-bearing animals, and hunting them for their skins helped to pay for many a farm in Theresa. Those were the days before the present game laws, which prohibit the poor from enjoying the good gifts of a bountiful and discriminating providence, but aims to reserve the denizens of the water and of the air for the pleasure (not the necessities) of a favored few. That wild animals were numerous, is attested by the fact that the writer remembers when he was a boy, going with some companions to the falls, and there listening to the howl- ing of wolves-a peculiar sound, hard to imitate. Those scenes have passed away. There has followed them an era, said to be more cultivated and advanced, but in which man's struggle for existence is not lessened, but seems to be increased, because the sim- ple ways of living then prevalent really left a person more freedom for thought and read- ing than now.

As an unbroked forest, Theresa was beau- tiful, along the river especially so, but clear- ing away the timber has revealed the rugged rocks, a painful but truthful illustration of the fact that our alleged advance in civiliza- tion has laid bare much that before was in- visible, and is altogether unsightly. A poor man is now not much removed from a menial-equal to his richer neighbor only when he casts a ballot. In those olden times a community of interest for protection and defense made all equal after election as well as before.

In 1828 Sylvester Bodman came to the vil- lage with his oxen and cart; when left for a while they started for home. The road then run along the edge of the gulf by the lower grist-mill. By some means or other, in going down the hill, the oxen and cart plunged down into the gulf (80 feet) to the bottom. One of the oxen was taken out alive, and one was killed. In 1845 Peter H. Ryther built a blacksmith shop and trip- hammer in the gulf. It was afterwards owned by George W. Flower, and turned into a butter-tub factory. In 1818 the old grist-mill, then owned by George Wilson, burned down on Sunday. It was re-built,

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Growth of a Century : as illustrated in the history of Jefferson County, New York, from 1793 to 1894, Part 146

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