Growth of a Century : as illustrated in the history of Jefferson County, New York, from 1793 to 1894, Part 3

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 3

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).

SOUTH SANDY CREEK .- This is the principal wa- ter course in the extreme south part of the county, passing through the towns of Worth, Lorraine, and centrally through the large and wealthy town of Ellisburgh, and empties into Lake Ontario, and into the same bay as Sandy Creek-hence it is sometimes called the South Branch of Sandy creek, though both streams are of nearly the same size.

This stream has some romantic gorges. It has cut its channel through the soft slate rock of its upper region, from 100 to 200 feet in depth, with a valley from 4 to 10 rods wide. The bottom lands, and sometimes the adjacent sides of the bluffs, are grown up to timber, or have been cleared and sown to grass for pasturage or culture. Across these bottom lands the stream has cut a zig-zag channel from bluff to bluff, causing a perpendicular cliff of quite imposing grandeur where it strikes the banks-illustrating,

in a smaller way, that erosive action of water ways so magnificently manifest in the cañons of the Yel- lowstone in the great National Park of Colorado.

The South Sandy rises in the wooded region east- erly of the town of Worth, receiving several tribu- taries in its descent to the lake. It has but few mill privileges, for in the summer and winter seasons the creek maintains only a small flow.

Other streams in Jefferson county are Chaumont river, Perch river, both slow streams or estuaries ; Stony creek in Henderson, and Mill creek in Hounds- field. The "Gulf Stream" in Rodman (a tributary to Sandy creek), celebrated for its deep gorges, has cut through the shale rock from 50 to 200 feet in depth. Jefferson county abounds in small streams, some of them containing trout (notably Cold creek in Watertown), and has many springs, which have proved very serviceable to farmers in watering stock and for dairying purposes, and have been an impor- tant factor in maintaining the superior reputation of the butter and cheese marketed from Jefferson.

One spring, in particular, is worthy of mention. Bursting from a hillside on the Cooper farm, in Le- Ray, it discharges at least 1000 gallons of the purest cold water each hour, summer and winter, and un- doubtedly much enhances the value of the farm on which it is developed.

So far as the writer is informed, the largest medici- nal spring in the county is the sulphur spring in the town of Houndsfield, 5 miles east of Sackets Har- bor. The water is beautifully clear, and strongly impregnated with sulphur, proving a great regulator to the secretions of the system. It is peculiar in this: when boiled, the sulphur taste and odor en- tirely disappear. The Haddock family, on whose sandy farm this spring was located, used the water for many years in cooking.

There existed, for a long time, at Factory Square, in Watertown, a flowing stream of the purest water, containing slight traces or iron and magnesia. A few public-spirited citizens had drilled out the rock and tubed the spring, and erected a watering place for horses, cattle and dogs. This beautiful spring was a great comfort to the people at that end of the town, and was very much patronized by teamsters and farmers. At a later day, perhaps early in the '50s, John Smith, an experienced mechanic, conclu- ded that the flowing spring at Factory Square indi- cated a subterranean flow of water beneath the lime- stone rock. The Knowlton Brothers or their prede- cessors had long desired a flow of clear water for their paper mill. They put Smith at work, upon their premises, where once had flowed the south branch of Black river, and when that worthy had drilled a 6-inch hole through the rock, up gushed a delightful stream of water, and the theory of a flow- ing subterranean stream was demonstrated -for thenceforth the spontaneous flow at Factory Square ceased, resort being had to a pump in coaxing the water to the surface. The spring so fortunately de- veloped by the Knowltons must have proved a val- uable addition to their property.

THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

A. R. THOMAS, M. D., DEAN OF THE HAHNEMANN COLLEGE, PHILADELPHIA, PA.

HISTORIC and beautiful Watertown has contribu- ted much more than her relative quota to the list of bright and able men who have hitherto filled, with only two or three exceptions, the whole catalogue of official positions in the United States. It is true that she has not yet furnished a President, Vice- President, nor a member of the U. S. Supreme Court -though one of her most popular citizens has at this date (1894) apparently the best coming chance for the Presidential succession. Watertown has supplied at least three governors to Western States, many representatives and several senators in Congress, while no branch of the learned professions, and but few courts of justice can be named in which some of

her sons has not added lustre to his position. I do not think any other town in the State can show so long a record of citizens who have achieved dis- tinction-and even upon the roll of martyrs, the name of one of her sons is indelibly inscribed.

In one of the humblest dwellings on Beebee's Isl- and, just east of William Smith's machine shop, on the 3d of October, 1826, was born AMOS RUSSELL THOMAS, whose faithful likeness appears on this page. He was the son of Col. Azariah Thomas (who com- manded a company in the war of 1812), and of Sarah Avery, a descendant of the distinguished family of that name who came first to America in 1640, settling at Gloucester, Mass. Col. Thomas had been a farmer

THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

at Perch River (owning the well-known Richard Buckminster place), but having unwisely endorsed for a friend, was forced to sell that fine farm, remov- ing to Watertown in 1821. There he resided until he died in 1831, leaving the subject of this sketch and his elder brother, Avery, as the main depend- ence of this widowed mother. Avery Thomas was favorably known to Watertown's older residents as the apprentice and skilled journeyman of Dyer Huntington, whom he succeeded in business. He is somewhat known to the present generation by his interesting historical sketches lately published in one of the city papers.

Thrown upon his own resources at this early age, our embryo Doctor acquired his education, both lit- erary and professional, without outside aid. His life was passed in the country until nearly 20 years of age, and by manual labor upon a farm he acquired a robust and vigorous physical condition. His early love for books led him to devote his evenings and other intervals of leisure to study, and in that way he qualified himself to teach school. This was his business in 1846, in Western New York.

Four years afterwards he engaged in merchandise at Ogdensburg, N. Y., but finding this occupation uncongenial, he again turned to his books, firmly resolved to devote his future to a profession. Getting possession of an old Indian skull, which had been exhumed in digging a cellar near his place of bnsi- ness in Ogdensburg, and borrowing a work on anat- omy for the purpose of studying the skull, he be- came so deeply interested as to engage at once in the study of medicine. He became a student in the Syracuse Medical College in 1852, devoting himself assiduously to the study of his chosen profession, graduating in February, 1854. Thence he repaired to Philadelphia, the recognized seat of Homeopathic learning and education in the United States, where he attended a prescribed course of lectures, gradua- ting from the Penn Medical University. His abili- ties now began to be recognized, and immediately upon graduation he was offered the position of Dem- onstrator of Anatomy by this Medical School, which he accepted, and made Philadelphia his permanent home. In 1856 he was appointed to the Chair of Anatomy, holding the position 10 years. In the same year he was also appointed Professor of Anat- omy in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where he delivered annual courses of lectures to ar- tists and students for 15 years. These lectures were the first of the kind ever given to art students in America. In 1863 he was appointed Lecturer on the same subject in the School of Design for Women, which position he held for 10 years. After Second Bull Run, he volunteered his services as surgeon, and was assigned to duty in Armory Square Hospi- tal, Washington, where he remained in charge of one of the wards until the wounded from that disas- trous battle were provided for. He then returned to Philadelphia and resumed his practice, which has always been lucrative and select.

Becoming interested in an examination of the

merits of Homeopathy soon after settling in Phila- delphia, he was finally led to adopt that system of practice. In 1867 he was called to the chair of An- atomy in the Hahnemann Medical College of Phila- delphia, and in 1874 was elected Dean, the position he now holds.

As a lecturer on anatomy, Dr. Thomas has acquired a reputation for clearness and accuracy, and for an impressiveness of manner, which readily attracts and retains the student's attention. The institution at whose head he presides is the strongest and holds the highest rank among the Homoeopathic medical colleges in the world. During his administration as Dean, largely through his personal influence, the college has advanced its curriculum of study, eleva- ted its standards, secured its new buildings (which are in all respects equal to the best in the country), and entered upon a career of success never before attained.

In addition to the demands of a large practice, Dr. Thomas has contributed a number of important papers to various medical journals, besides writing a work on "Post Mortem Examinations and Morbid Anatomy," which has been highly commended by medical journals. For 5 years he has acted as gen- eral editor of the "American Journal of Hono- pathic Materia Medica."

Dr. Thomas married Elizabeth M. Bacon, daughter of the late Deacon Bacon, of Watertown, and they have had two children-a son, Dr. Chas. M. Thomas, also a distinguished physician of Philadelphia, and a daughter, who died in 1880, wife of Dr. J. N. Mitchell.

Besides the County and State Medical Societies, of which he has been President, Dr. Thomas is a mem- ber of the American Institute of Homeopathy, of the Academy of Natural Sciences, of the Fairmount Park Art Association, of the Pennsylvania Horti- cultural Society, of the Historical Society of Penn- sylvania, and of the Genealogical Society of Penn- sylvania.

A man who can show so fine a record for ability, and has left so marked an impression upon the young men of his college, usually traces to heredity the source of at least a part of his success. Dr. Thomas' father was but one of that grand procession of New England's sons which moved westward, in the beginning of this century, from the cold win- ters and peculiar hardships of the land of their birth, to find a more congenial environment. The "Black River country " seems to have been for them a fa- vorite tarrying place; and though many who at first settled in Jefferson county, at a later day emi- grated further westward, they left behind them the schools and the churches which were the character- istic evidences of their presence. The Doctor's an- cestors were among those who landed as Pilgrims in New England. Their direct line has produced a long list of names distinguished in literature, arms, law, and medicine. Like so many of his people, he is of stalwart build, big brained, deep chested, bearing his 67 years like a man of 50. The graduates of his college, now numbering thousands, idolize him ; his medical brethren (of both schools) hold him in the highest esteem, for wherever he has been placed, and whatever called upon to do, he has filled the position or done the work like a master. Of the medical professors occupying positions in the five medical colleges in Philadelphia when Dr. Thomas began his career as a teacher, but two are now living be- sides himself, and they have been retired for several years. Since the death of the lamented Leidy, Dr. Thomas is the senior medical professor in the city of Philadelphia. J. A. H.

THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

REV. GEORGE CHANNING HADDOCK, D.D., The First Martyr to the Cause of Prohibition.

COMPARED with humanity's countless thousands, the men who have proved themselves worthy to die for a great cause are but few. Lovejoy, John Brown and Abraham Lincoln, three names that have been heard at every fireside in America and in the homes of the whole English-speaking race, met untimely deaths because they had perceptions clear enough and hearts large enough to advocate the cause of the enslaved. They might have lived out common lives, and sunk at last into common graves, and the world would not long remember what they had said or done ; but they seem to have been "chosen " by some invisible agency to fill peculiar positions, then to perish by violence, and finally to have their

names inscribed upon the roll of immortality-as if to show to those who come after them that the Cre- ator's work moves steadily forward though the cho- sen workmen perish. Of these three men it is now sadly remembered that they seemed to have dim perceptions of their fate, and to comprehend, in mo- ments of introspection, that their lot was not just like that of their fellows. They had a definite work to do, and could have no peace of mind until they took up that work and followed it out. Thus they had but scant time for trivial affairs. Lincoln's early life appears to have been inexpressibly sad. John Brown probably never had three days' pleasur- ing in all his hard-worked life; and Lovejoy, when

THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

he became a printer and then an editor, knew that he bade adieu to ease, perhaps to happiness. These were earnest, thoughtful men-springing from the common walks of life; and their lonely and preoc- cupied habits in youth but too truly shadowed forth the fate they were to mcet.

The subject of this biography was largely of such a nature. His brothers and sisters well remember that he never enjoyed childish sports like the other children, but seemed most happy when alone, com- muning with his own thoughts. Bright, handsome, sensitive, full of intelligence, he was never a compan- ion for those around him-not that he disliked asso- ciates, but they appeared uncongenial. Silent and reserved he grew up, and none but his mother dis- cerned in his childhood any promise of that bright capacity he was destined to attain. But the time arrived when all his reserve power developed itself, and he came to the front as the ablest, the most de- termined and unfaltering advocate of Prohibition that had until then appeared.

In writing of such a man, a wise discrimination is demanded. Measured by conservative, common standards he would perhaps be classed as impetuous, unbalanced, too far in advance of his day-but re- garded as a reformer, as a standard-bearer in the grand march of human progress, he seems worthy to be classed as a martyr in the cause for which he perished.

George Channing Haddock (youngest child of Samuel and Sabrina) was born, Jan. 23, 1832, near the Sulphur Springs, in Houndsfield, 6 miles from Watertown, 5 miles from Sackets Harbor. In his early childhood his parents removed to Watertown, and there, hand in hand with his labors in the print- ing office of his brother, he completed his education at the Black River Literary and Religious Institute, in that early and prosperous period of its history, when Rev. James R. Boyd was the principal, and Messrs. Covert, Whitford, and Ramsey the leading professors. He graduated as the brightest scholar in his class. Marrying early, he accepted Horace Greeley's advice and went West. It had been the hope of his deeply religious mother that George should become a preacher-an idea, however, which he had never seriously entertained. While on a visit to his grandparents at Columbus, O., he attended a series of revival meetings, and was constrained to embrace the religion his parents had so long pro- fessed. Seeking membership in the Methodist E. Church, he was soon given "local work" by the presiding elder of that district. In that work he began to develop the pulpit and platform ability which afterwards made him so prominent. Having removed (in his 26th year) to Milwaukee, Wis., he was assigned to ministerial work on trial, and in 1862 joined the Wisconsin Conference as an ordained travelling minister. His first location was at Port

Washington, a town on the northern shore of Lake Michigan. Thence, year by year, growing more and more in the favor of the people, he was rapidly pro- moted. Perhaps his political sermons were among his best, though as a preacher of the gospel, pure and simple, he had no superior in the West, that land so prolific of able ministers. But in his sermons upon the stirring subjects which from 1861 to '65 agitated the public mind, he reached the sublimest heights of eloquence and his best command of rhetoric. He did much to elicit loyal sentiment, and though he did not himself go to the front, as his father and brothers had done, he was none the less a support to the Union cause in his own way. When General John A. Logan chanced to hear him speak at a great Union rally, he exclaimed, "Why, this is one of the brightest men I ever heard. He ought to be in the United States Senate."

Gradually he became more widely known for his eloquence and pulpit ability, and soon the largest charges in the Wisconsin Conference asked for him as their pastor. Clinton Junction and Waukesha, unimportant stations, were served after leaving Port Washington, and then he was called to Oshkosh, where he spent three very laborious but happy years. The ever-moving tide of the Methodist itinerancy transferred him to Ripon in 1867. This place was the seat of a Congregational college, and he was in his element when his pastoral labors led him among the young. Under the educating and elevating in- fluences which the progressive Christian minister must ever feel and recognize as dominating his life, Dr. Haddock "grew," at Ripon, into the logical, rhetorical speaker, whose charm of utterance drew large audiences wherever he was announced to speak. He now began to make a special effort in behalf of temperance, for he was brought daily in contact with the evils which strong drink engenders in every community.

In October, 1869, he was transferred to Appleton, a vigorous town on the Fox river, containing 10,000 inhabitants. In 1871 he was at Fond du lac, and in 1873 was made presiding elder of the Fond du lac district. He was a preacher who attracted not only by his pulpit ability, but he charmed all who met him socially. His democratic manner, his undying sympathy with the young, and his quick apprecia- tion of the common people, from whose ranks he was ever proud to say he had come-made him wel- come everywhere in his district. In 1880 he was appointed to Milwaukee, the largest and most im- portant city in Wisconsin. While here he took dis- tinct and definite stand as an out-and-out Prohibit- ionist, and thenceforth his name became inseparably identified with that cause in the West.

At the Conference session of 1881, he preached for the presiding bishop. This was his farewell ser- mon, for he asked for and was granted a transfer to

THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

the Iowa Conference-an unwise step, and soon to be fraught with fatal consequences. He had labored successfully in the Wisconsin Conference-his early friendships were among that people ; there he had achieved his reputation as the chief preacher of his denomination in that State. But he felt that the cause of Prohibition had peculiar claims upon him ; and so, impelled by that invisible yet potent force which so often shapes such lives, lie deliberately went where the fight was the fiercest, and the wants of the cause most imperative. When Dr. Warren, Boston's most popular physician, volunteered to fight at Bunker Hill, he was asked to what duty or to what part of the field he desired to be sent. "To the breach, to the breach !" he cried : and there he fell, with an empty musket in his hand.

His first charge in Iowa was at Fort Dodge. He soon discovered that although the State had voted for Prohibition, the lawful action of its legislature .was to be opposed by the worst element found in every community-those who countenance or favor the sale of rum. During his two years' pastorate at Fort Dodge he held a somewhat critical and inde- pendent congregation together by the sheer force of personal ability. The Iowans began to admire his broad-gauge, big-hearted, brainy sermons, the candor of his utterances, and his earnestness in all he undertook; and though some differed with him as to his premises and conclusions, all were ready to praise his ability and fairness.

In 1886 he was sent by his bishop to Sioux City. The power that assigned him to that place could not llave properly appreciated the situation, or, if so, its decision must have resulted from a conviction that an extraordinary man was needed in that peculiar place. Dr. Haddock himself did not see what good lie could accomplish as a pastor among a people al- most unanimously opposed to Prohibition, restless under lawful restraint, case-hardened against ap- peals, and steeped in all the iniquities which grow up around grog-shops. But he writes: "We will work the year through, and do our duty."

His midst was a mixture of nationalities, promis- cuous in all respects. Sioux City is far to the west, at the junction of the Big Sioux with the Missouri river, and in 1886 was of the true frontier type. It contained 20,000 people, more than half of them for- eign born. It was a receiving and distributing point for a large area of country, a centre for adventurers of honest intent, and a harvest-field for thousands who found its atmosphere congenial to crime. Its 15 churches were offset by 100 saloons and a propor- tionate number of brothels. Every saloon was in full blast, and rum-selling was as open as if no law existed prohibiting it. Rum-drinking, prostitution and their inseparable evils had gained control of a sentiment that dominated prosecuting officers and juries, corrupting the press, the politics, the busi- 2

ness and a large part of society, and mocked at and defied everything which savored of legal or moral restraint. Even the religious sentiment was apa- thetic or discordant. With a mayor, a council, and the whole machinery of the municipality in its power, the rum interest ran riot, and terrorized the community into acquiescence or silence.

Thus matters stood, when one of the judges of the superior court openly declared that the temperance people of Sioux City were a " cowardly and a craven set," for the conditions of public morality would never have sunk so low if they had at the first made a judicious stand against crime. This rebuke stung Dr. Haddock as though it was a personal charge, for he recognized its justice. Just then, too, he learned that women were signing the complaint papers re- quired by the law in punishing its violators. He now felt that he had ignored his duties as a citizen until further forbearance would be a sin, and he de- termined to step into the gap which no other man in Sioux City dared to fill. When admonished that his life would be in danger if he proceeded legally against the rum sellers and brothel keepers, he la- conically replied, "So be it-I shall do my duty as a citizen as I understand it." With him the Rubi- con was crossed-there could be no turning back.

His purpose and spirit is indicated in a letter sent out with one of his circulars : " We are engaged in a desperate encounter here. It is dangerous for a man to take an honest stand for Prohibition. It is currently reported (and believed) that 100 men are under oath to burn the churches if the saloons are closed by law. I have signed 25 complaints, and am satisfied that I took my life in my hand by so doing. But somebody had to do it." The saloon men and their adherents now began to "spot" the man to whom they attributed the responsibility for the State having gone Prohibition. The corrupt press of the city held him up to execration by jeering paragraphs and wilful misstatements. The Daily "Tribune " was particularly malignant.

On the evening of August 3, 1886, he procured a conveyance, and (accompanied by a brother in the church) drove to a small town near Sioux City for the purpose of procuring evidence to be used in the pending prosecutions. At 10 o'clock they returned, the Methodist brother having left the carriage at his home. ' The Doctor drove the horse to his stable, and started to cross the street, when he was set upon by a dozen men-some one of them fired a pistol, and the victim of their cowardly attack sank down in his very tracks, dying in a minute, while his cow- ardly assassins skulked away to their dens, scared at what they had done. The Doctor's body was taken to his home, where it was tenderly cared for by sympathizing friends. The bitterness of such a ca- lamity to his own family and to his brother and sis- ters can be imagined better than described.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Growth of a Century : as illustrated in the history of Jefferson County, New York, from 1793 to 1894, Part 3

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