Growth of a Century : as illustrated in the history of Jefferson County, New York, from 1793 to 1894, Part 31

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

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of direetresses, the president and trustees be- ing advisory and fiscal managers. The Di- vine blessing has been given them, making their intercourse a joy and refreshment in- stead of laborious duty, -not a discord marring the harmony of cighteen years' association. More than five hundred children have gone out from this institution, and more than half of this number into homes by adoption.

Appropriations have been received from the State from time to time in years past, which, being judiciously invested, yield an income which, added to the receipts from the county charges, and some others who are able to pay a portion of the expense of their board, suffices to pay the expenses of the institu- tion. A school is taught in the Asylum throughout the year. It affords, too, a home for the children of working women at a small expense, when they can pay at all, and gratuit- ously when they cannot. It is also a tempor- ary refuge for mothers and their children, while the former are seeking employment,- nine mothers having been so accommodated the past year. The committees of the board of supervisors appointed from year to year to visit and inspect the Asylum speak invariably, in their reports, in terms of high commenda- tion of the humanity and watchful care dis- played in the management of the institution."

TRUSTEES.

Hon. Willard Ives, President ; John Lansing, L. Ingalls, Geo. H, Sherman, Geo. W. Knowl- ton, Dr. H. M. Stevens, Col. A. D. Shaw.

LADY DIRECTRESSES.

Miss Frances Hungerford, 1st Directress; Miss Sophia Bushnell, 2d Direetress; Mrs. Geo. W. Knowlton, Secretary and Treasurer; Mrs. Charles D. Smith, Mrs. L. Ingalls, Mrs. A. D. Shaw, Mrs. J. F. Moffett, Mrs. Will- ard Ives, Mrs. John Frost, Mrs. Pease, Mrs. L. Woolworth, Mrs. Wm. Sherman, Mrs. Ward Hubbard, Mrs. Geo. W. Knowlton, Sr., Mrs. Wm. Clark.

The Asylum is very ably conducted, has a fine building, and is one of the most deserving and popular charities of Watertown.

Referring finally to the subject of charities, as developed in one way and another in Jef- l'erson county, but more particularly in the present city of Watertown, it may be said that the work had never been judieiously conducted until Mrs. Lansing began to sys- tematize efforts in bringing to publie notice the claims of the Orphan Asylum. Such work had, from the earliest settlements, been given over largely to the churches and to the sporadic efforts of charitable individuals. In that way much real strength was wasted, be- cause there was no concentration of effort. It was like treating a disease by several mild yet inefficient palliatives, instead of a skillful effort to affect the malady itself. While the Orphan Asylum reaches only one class of the poor, in takes hold of the very young and therefore helpless waifs of the community, and carries them along those early years when there is the greatest possibility of form- ing correet ideas of life.

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GENERAL DESCRIPTION.

JEFFERSON county once formed part of the original county of Albany, the line of evolu- tion from the latter being as follows: Albany county, formed November 1, 1683; Tryon, formed from Albany, March 12, 1772; Mont- gomery, changed from Tryon, April 2, 1784; Herkimer, formed from Montgomery, January 16, 1791; Oneida, formed from Herkimer, March 15, 1798; Jefferson, formed from Oneida, March 28, 1805. A part of the act erecting Jefferson county is as follows :

"Be it enacted by the people of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, That all that part of the county of Oneida, contained within the following bounds, to wit : Beginning at the south- west corner of the town of Ellisburg, on the easterly shore of Lake Ontario, and running along the south- erly line of said town; thence along the easterly line thereof to the southwest corner of the town of Malta [Lorraine]; thence along the southerly line of the said town of Malta, and continuing the same course to the corner of townships number two, three, seven and eight; thence north along the east line of the town of Malta aforesaid to the northeast corner thereof; thence in a direct line to the corner of the towns of Rutland and Champion; thence along the line between the said town of Champion and the town of Harrisburg to Black River; thence in a direct line to the bounds of the county of St. Lawrence, to intersect the same at the corner of townships num- bers seven and eleven, in Great Tract number three of Macomb's Purchase; thence along the westerly bounds of the said county of St. Lawrence to the north bounds of this State; thence westerly and southerly along said bounds-including all the islands in the river St. Lawrence, in Lake Ontario, and in front thereof, and within this State. to the place of beginning, shall be, and hereby is, erected into a separate county, and shall be called and known by the name of Jefferson." *

* * *

"And be it further enacted, That all that part of township number nine, which is comprised within the bounds of the said county of Jefferson, shall be annexed to and become a part of the town of Harris- son [Rodman], in said county, and that all that part of the said township number nine, comprised within the bounds of the said county of Lewis, shall be an- nexed to and become a part of the town of Harrisburg, in said county."

Jefferson county is situated in the northern part of the State of New York, in an angle formed by the St. Lawrence river and Lake Ontario, the superficial area, according to the latest statistics, being 733,585 acres, equiva- lent to 1,146 square miles. In is bounded on the northwest by the St. Lawrence river, on the northeast by St. Lawrence county, on the west by Lake Ontario, on the south by Oswego county, and on the east by Lewis county. The southwest part is marshy, but at a short distance from the lake the land rises in gentle undulations, and, farther in- land, by abrupt terraces to the highest point, 1,200 feet above the lake, in the town of Worth. A plateau, about 1,000 feet above the lake, spreads out from the summit, and extends into Oswego and Lewis counties. An ancient lake beach, 390 feet above the present level of the lake, may be traced through Ellisburg, Adams, Watertown and Rutland. North of Black river the surface is generally flat or slightly undulating; in the extreme northeast corner it is broken by low ridges parallel to the St. Lawrence. With the ex-

ception of a few isolated hills, no part of the region is as high as the ancient lake ridge mentioned. An isolated hill in Pamelia for- merly bore a crop of red cedar; and as this timber is now only found upon the islands in the lake and in the St. Lawrence, it is sup- posed that the hill was an island at a time when at least three-fourths of the country was covered by water.

The main water features of the county are Ontario lake and St. Lawrence river. The main indentations of the lake are Black River Bay, Chaumont Bay, Henderson Bay and Griffin's Bay. Black River Bay is accounted the finest harbor on Lake Ontario. The largest islands attached to Jefferson county are Wells, Grindstone and Carleton, in the St. Lawrence, and Grenadier, Galloe and Stony islands in the lake. Besides these there are innumerable smaller ones, including several in the mouth of Black river, a number in Black river and Chaumont bays, and a portion of the archipelago known as the " Thousand Islands." Among the most prominent headlands and capes are Stony Point and Six Town Point, in the town of Henderson; Pillar Point, in Brownville; Point Peninsula and Point Salubrious, in Lyme; and Tibbett's Point, in Cape Vincent.

There are about 20 small lakes in the county, of which 10 are in Theresa and Alex- andria, two in Henderson four in Ellisburgh, two in Antwerp, and one each in Orleans and Pamelia, Champion and Rutland. The lar- gest of these is Butterfield lake, lying between Theresa and Alexandria, which is about four miles in length. The other more important ones are Perch lake, lying between Orleans and Pamelia, nearly three miles in length, and Pleasant lake, in Champion, about two miles long.

When the settlement of Jefferson county began, its territory was embraced in two towns of Oneida county. All south of Black river was a part of Mexico, and all north of the river belonged to Leyden. The forma- tion of Jefferson and Lewis counties from Oneida was made necessary by the rapid set- tlement of the country, and the inability of the courts to meet the demands of justice, when their jurisdiction extended over such a vast territory. It was at first intended to erect but one now county. Local interests began to operate to secure the advantages ex- pected from the location of the public build- ings. Each section had its advocates, Nathan Sage in Redfield, Walter Martin in Martinsburg, Silas Stow and others in Lowville, Moss Kent, Noadiah Hubbard, and others in Champion, Henry Coffeen in Watertown, and Jacoh Brown, in Brownville, were each in- tent upon the project of a county seat. In case but one county was erected, Champion had the fairest prospects of success, and in- deed such had been the chances, in the opin- ion of several prominent citizens, that they located there. To obtain an expression of

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public opinion on this subject, three dele- gates, chosen at town meetings, from each town interested in the question, met at the house of Freedom Wright, in Harrisburg (Denmark), Nov, 20, 1804. Many went with the intention of voting for one new county only, but strong local interests led to the at- tendance of those who so influenced the voice of the delegation that, with but one excep- tion, they decided for two new counties, and the convention united upon recommending the names of the executive officers of the Federal and State governments, then in office, from whom came the names of Jefferson and Lewis, from Thomas Jefferson and Morgan Lewis, both men of national celebrity. Application was accordingly made to the Legislature, and on March 4, 1805, Mr. Wright, then in Assembly, from the com- mittee to whom was referred petitions and remonstrances from the inhabitants of the county of Oneida, relative to a division there- of, reported "that they had examined the facts stated as to population and extent of territory, in said county, and the inconven- ience of attending county concerns, and find the same to be true." A division was deemed necessary, and leave was granted to bring in a bill, which was twice read the same day, and passed through the Legislature with- out opposition.

LOCATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS.

Section 5 of the act erecting Jefferson and Lewis counties, provided for the appoint- ment of three commissioners, "who shall not be resident within the western district of this State, or interested in either of the said counties of Jefferson or Lewis, for the pur- pose of designating the sites for the court houses and jails of the said counties respec- tively, and to that end the said commission- ers shall, as soon as may be, previous to the first day of October next, repair to the said counties respectively, and after exploring the same, ascertain and designate a fit and proper place in each of the said counties for erecting the said buildings."

The commissioners appointed were Mat- thew Dorr, David Rogers and John Van Bentheusen. The question of location was not settled without the most active efforts being made by Brownville to secure the site; but the balance of settlement was

then south of Black River, and the level lands in the north part of the county were represented to the commissioners as swampy and incapable of settlement. Jacob Brown, finding it impossible to secure this advantage to his place, next endeavored to retain it at least north of Black river, and offered an eligible site in the present town of Pamelia ; but in this he also failed. The influence of Henry Coffeen is said to have been especially strong with the commissioners, although he was seconded by others of much ability. The location finally decided upon was in Water- town, on the site of the present county jail, then quite a distance from the business por- tion of the village. This, it is said, was to conciliate those who had been disappointed in its location. A deed of the premises was presented by Henry and Amos Coffeen.

FIRST BOARD OF SUPERVISORS.

The first meeting of the board of supervisors of Jefferson county was held in the old frame school-house, which occupied the site of the present Universalist church in Watertown city. The date of this meeting was October 1, 1805, and the following persons constituted the first board: Noadiah Hubbard, of Champ- ion; Cliff French, Rutland; Corlis Hinds, of Watertown; John W. Collins, of Brownville; Nicholas Salisbury, of Adams; Thomas White, of Harrison (now Rodman); Lyman Ellis, of Ellisburg; and Asa Brown, of Malta (now Lorraine). Noadiah Hubbard was chosen president, after which they adjourned the meeting until 3 o'clock p. m., at the house of Abijah Putman. They met according to adjournment and proceeded to elect, by ballot, Zelotes Harvey, clerk, and Benjamin Skinner, county treasurer. The latter was required to furnish security in the sum of $5,000 for the faithful discharge of his duties, which he did, Jacob Brown becoming his bondsman. The session lasted seven days, the entire appro- priations amounting to $723.44.

The first officers of the county, after its organization, who were appointed by the governor and council, were as follows : Henry Coffeen, county clerk; Abel Sherman, sheriff; Benjamin Skinner (appointed by board of supervisors), county treasurer; Nathan Will- iams, district attorney (1807); Ambrose Pease, coroner.

GEOLOGY OF THE COUNTY.

BY D. S. MARVIN.

A knowledge of geology lies at the base of physical geography, and is essential to the skillful prosecution of mining and other use- ful arts. The geological history of the earth is ascertained by a study of the successive beds of rock which have been deposited on its surface, and of the masses which have been forced up in a liquid state from within

its crust, together with the fossil remains of animals and plants, which certain of the beds contain. As thus established, it is usually divided into four great periods, the names of which are taken from the progress of animal life, as this at present affords one of the best criteria for geological classification. They are: I., the Eozoic, or " period of the dawn

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GEOLOGY OF THE COUNTY.

of life;" II., the Paleozoic, or "period of ancient life;" III., the Mesozoic, or " middle period of life;" and IV., the Neozoic, or " recent period of life."

Each of these admits of subdivisions, which may stand as follows, beginning with the oldest: Eozoic-Laurentian and Huron- ian; Palezoic-Cambrian or Primorial, Siluro Cambrian, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, and Permian; Mesozoic-Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous; Neozoic-Eocene, Miocene, Pliocene, Post-pliocene, and Recent.

In the oldest condition of the earth, shown by the most ancient of the rock formations above referred to, it surface was covered with water more generally than at present, and sediments were then, as now, being deposited in the waters. The earth must, however, have an earlier history than this, though not represented by distinct geological monuments. This primitive condition of the earth is a sub- ject of inference and speculation rather than of actual knowledge; still, we may begin with a consideration of a fact bearing upon questions which have long excited public attention. It is the observed increase of temperature in descending into deep mines and in the water of deep artesian wells-an increase which may be stated in round num - bers at one degree of heat of the centrigrade scale to every 100 feet of depth from the sur- face. These observations apply, of course, to a very considerable depth, and we have no certainty that this rate continues for any great distance toward the centre of the earth. If, however, we regard it as indicating the actual law of increase of temperature, it would re- sult that the whole crust of the earth is a mere shell covering a molten mass of rocky matter. Thus a very slight exercise of imagination would carry us back to a time when this slender crust had not yet been formed, and the earth rolled through space an incandes- cent globe, with all its water and other vapor- izable matter in a gaseous state. Astronomi- cal calculation has, however, shown that the earth, in its relation to other heavenly bodies, obeys the laws of a rigid ball, and not of a fluid globe. Hence it has been inferred that its actual crust is very thick, perhaps not less than 2,500 miles, and that its fluid por- tion must therefore be of smaller dimensions than has been inferred from the observed in- crease of temperature. Further, it seems to have been rendered probable, from the density of rock matter in the solid and liquid states, that a molten globe would solidify at the cen- ter as well as at the surface, and consequently that the earth must not only have a solid crust of great thickness, but also a solid nucleus, and that any liquid portions must be a sheet of detached masses intervening be- tween these. Still this would merely go to show that the earth has advanced far toward the entire loss of its original heat. Other considerations, based on the form of the earth and the distribution of variances, lead to similar conclusions. It must be observed, however, that there are good reasons for the belief that the products of volcanoes arise

chiefly from the fusion of portions of the stratified crusts. Such considerations, how- ever, lead to the conclusion that the former watery condition of our planet was not its first state, and that we must trace it back to a pre- vious reign of fire. The reasons which can be adduced in support of this, are no doubt somewhat vague, and may, in their details, be variously interpreted, but at present we have no other interpretation to give of that chaos, formless and void, that state in which "nor aught nor aught existed," which the sacred writings and the traditions of ancient nations concur with modern science in indica- ting as the primitive state of the earth.

In the Eozoic time we have actual monu- ments to study. The Laurentian rocks, more especially, occupy a very wide space in the northern part of America. These rocks stretch along the north side of the St. Law- rence river from Labrador to Lake Superior, and thence northwardly to an unknown dis- tance. In the Old World the rocks of this age do not appear so extensively, although they have been recognized in Norway and Sweden, in the Hebrides, and in Bohemia. Geologists long looked in vain for evidences of life in the Laurentian period, but its proba- ble existance was inferred from such consider- ations as the abundance of carbon, limestone, iron, etc .- materials known to be accumulated in the newer formations by the agency of life. In addition to the inferential evidence, how- ever, one- well-marked animal fossil has been found in the Laurentian of Canada-Eozoon Canadense, a gigantic representation of one of the lowest forms of animal life, that of the Protozoa, and a type still extant in the ocean, and remarkable for its power of collecting and secreting calcareous matter.

Geologists divide rocks into two great classes, primary and sedimentary or secondary ; the first, from their crystalline character and mode of occurrence, often exhibit evidences of having been subjected to the agency of heat, while the latter appear made up of ma- terials derived from the former, broken up and deposited in water, and usually contain fossil remains of animals and plants that lived at the period of their foundation. Both primary and secondary rocks occur in Jeffer- son county; the former of which, with the dividing line between them, affords only rational prospects of valuable metallic veins and deposits, as well as most of the crystal- line minerals. Of the latter we are not with- out localities that vie with the most noted, and the primitive region of the county will abundantly repay the labor of mineral collec- tion. The rock constituting the primary is mainly composed of gneiss; a mixture of quartz, feldspar, and mica, which are regard- ed as elementary or simple minerals, and make up by far the largest part of what is known of the earth's surface. In gneiss these usually occur in irregular strata, often con- torted, never horizontal, and seldom continu- ing of uniform thickness more than a few feet. It forms by far the largest part of the surface rock throughout the great northern

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THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

forest of New York, embracing nearly the whole of Hamilton, and a part of Lewis, Herkimer, Fulton Saratoga, Warren, Essex, Clinton, Franklin, and St. Lawrence counties, and in Jefferson this rock constitutes the greater part of the islands in the St. Lawrence, between French Creek and Morristown, and appears in Clayton, Orleans, and Alexandria on the river bank; in the latter town it extends back a mile or two from the shore. It forms a strip extending up both sides of Indian river to Theresa village, and the shores and islands of most of the lakes of that town and Antwerp, and much of the country within the node of Indian river, towards the village of Philadelphia, where it forms the surface rock and extends to Antwerp, the greater part of which it underlies. From this town it extends along Indian river to the village of Natural Bridge, and thence to Carthage, where it forms the islands among the rapids of the Long Falls, and thence follows up the river, keeping a little west of its channel, through Lewis and Oneida counties. In this area there are occasional ledges of white or primary limestone, especially in Antwerp, with limited quantities of serpentine, and superficial patches of sandstone.

Lying next above the primitive, and form- ing a considerable amount of surface rock, in Alexandria, Theresa, Clayton, Orleans, and Antwerp, is the Potsdam sandstone, so named from the fine manner in which it is developed in that town. It is the oldest of sedimentary rocks, and contains (but rarely) the forms of organic bodies that were created at the dawn of the vital principle. Two genera, one a plant, the other a shell, have been found in this rock, but so rarely that it may be almost said to be without fossils. Its principal con- stituent is silex, in the form of sand, firmly consolidated, and forming, where it can be cleaved into blocks of regular shape and uni- foam size, a most elegant and durable build- ing material.

In the vicinity of Theresa, Redwood, etc., there occurs in numerous places in this rock the cylindrical structure, common at many . localities in St. Lawrence county, and appar- ently produced by eddies acting upon the sands at the bottom of shallow water. This formation is generally in thick masses, often disturbed by upheavels, almost invariably in- clined from the horizontal, and seldon in this county so evenly stratified as to admit of that uniformity of fracture that gives value to it as a building material at Potsdam, Malone, etc. It is, however, extensively used for this purpose, and forms a cheap and durable, but not elegant, wall. This rock has two appli- cations in the useful arts, of great importance -the lining of blast furnaces, and the manu- facture of glass. The quarry that has been most used for lining stone, is in Antwerp, where the rock occurs highly inclined, but capable of being divided into blocks of uni- form texture and any desirable size. The edges of the stone, when laid in the furnace, are exposed to the fire, and become slightly used, forming a glazing to the surface. For

the manufacture of glass, the stone is calcined in kilns, and crushed and sifted, when it affords a sand of much whiteness, and emi- nently suitable for the purpose.

This rock is generally overlaid by a fertile soil, but this is more due to the accidental deposition of drift than the disintegration of the rock itself, for such is its permanence that it can scarcely be found to have yielded to the destructive agencies that have covered many other rocks with soil. The polished and scratched surfaces given by diluvial attrition, are almost uniformly preserved, and wherever this formation appears at the surface it pre- sents a hardness and sharpness of outline strongly indicative of its capacity to resist de- cay. A very peculiar feature is presented by the margin of this rock, which, by the prac- ticed eye, may be detected at a distance, and which strongly distinguishes it from all others. The outline is generally an abrupt es- carpment, sometimes extending with much regularity for miles, occasionally broken by broad, ragged ravines, or existing as out- standing insular masses, and always present- ing, along the foot of the precipice, huge masses of rock that have fallen from above. The most remarkable terrace of this kind be- gins on the north shore of Black Lake, in Morristown, and extends through Hammond into Alexandria, much of the distance near the line of the Military road; other instances are common throughout the region under- laid by this rock.

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Growth of a Century : as illustrated in the history of Jefferson County, New York, from 1793 to 1894, Part 31

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