USA > New York > Cayuga County > History of Cayuga County, New York > Part 2
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About the year 1797 the Indians began to trade with the whites, some stores having been opened on Captain Hardenbergh's farm. In this way the aborigines procured and soon began to indulge in fire-water. It would seem that no restrictions were placed upon their purchases of it. This led to their destruction. Their village became the scene of savage brawls which often called for the interference of the whites to prevent bloodshed. Finally, one night things reached a crisis. The village broke into pandemonium and the whole neighborhood was aroused. The settlers who hastened to Wasco found the Indians yelling and fighting like demons, pelting each other with fire-brands and striving to set fire to each other's lodges. All attempts to quiet them were unavailing and before morning they had all fled into the forest from which they never returned.
Such is the statement, given almost literally, of one historian, while others assert the existence of the village and give a similar version of its abandonment. General Clark, however, gives very little weight to any of these accounts and it must be conceded that the lack they support of acceptable records. Besides, there is a large element of improbability in the statement that a whole village
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decamped in a night never to return. A few would surely have remained; one or two would have wandered back. General Clark maintains that there was at most but a few huts in the so-called village, if it existed at all. He states that all the Indian villages were many miles to the south and west of Auburn, and that the only Indians who came over this spot in modern Indian days, were hunting parties. The tribes dwelt on the lakes; the Cayugas on the eastern shore of Cayuga Lake. He also doubts the existence of a crossing constructed of stepping stones and bark, because there was only one place where such a crossing or bridge was practicable and at that place it was not needed. That place was the shallows where the Indians came to fish, spearing the trout with which the Outlet abounded, as they made their way up stream.
Captain Hardenbergh's first task was to make himself comfort- able in his new home, the second was to control the power of the wild stream rushing past his door and compel it to work for him. With the aid of Thomas Morley he built a substantial log dam upon the Outlet and employed Eldad Steel and Captain Edward Wheeler to build a mill for him. It was what was known as a gig mill and contained one run of stone with a capacity for grinding twelve bushels of grain daily. The roof was a thatch of hemlock brush.
Before this mill was erected the early settlers of Aurelius were compelled to grind their grain into flour by the primitive method of barbarous tribes; that is by a pestle and mortar. The settlers used a heavy piece of wood suspended from a balanced pole for a pestle and a scooped-out stump for a mortar. But Hardenbergh's first mill was of a fixed capacity while the demand for flour was constantly increasing, so he erected a new frame mill in 1802, with a capacity of thirty bushels daily, which was increased the following year by the addition of an extra run of stone raising the output to one hundred and thirty bushels per diem.
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HISTORY OF CAYUGA COUNTY
CHAPTER II.
Early Settlers - Fort Hill - The New Genesee Road - The First Religious Society - The New County Seat.
To Colonel Hardenbergh and succeeding captains of industry the water power of the Outlet was the initial lure of Auburn, but to the antiquarian Fort Hill has ever been the most interesting feature of the city. Upon the summit of this hill once stood an Indian fort. Whether that fort was built by the Cayugas or by some more ancient tribe has ever been a matter of controversy, such noted men as Schoolcraft and Squier being unable to agree upon the subject. Schoolcraft visited the hill in 1845 to examine it for the State, and the result of his inspection was an expression of the opinion that the fort was built by the Alleghans, a powerful tribe that occupied this part of the country prior to the Iroquois, who drove them out. He classed this fort with similar constructions found in the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi and therefore assigned it to the same origin. Benjamin F. Hall, in an exhaustive dissertation on the subject agrees with Schoolcraft, but the eminent antiquarian, E. G. Squier, after a careful comparison of the pottery, pipes, ornaments and relics of barbaric art found in the fort, with those of both pre- historic and historic tribes, leans to the belief that the fort was con- structed by the Iroquois. The traditions of the Iroquois, whatever they are worth, support the latter claim. The Cayugas maintained that the fort was constructed by themselves for defensive purposes during the wars that raged among the Iroquois previous to the formation of the great league known as the Five Nations.
McCauley, the historian, visited the fort in 1825, and in his His- tory of New York, gave the following description of it :- "It inclosed about two acres and had a rampart, ditch and gateway. It is now nearly obliterated by the plow. In its original state, or the condition it was in thirty-five years ago, about the time the land was cleared,
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the rampart was seven feet high, and the ditch ten feet wide and three deep. Two persons, the one standing in the ditch and the other within the enclosure, were unable to see each other. The gate-way was on the northeastern side in the direction of a spring which flowed close by. The work was three hundred and fifty paces in circumference." There were caches inside the fort which were used as storehouses for grain, and, when first inspected, there was a moat surrounding it. The fort was a strong defensive structure against the primitive weapons of Indian foes and its position on the hill gave it strategic importance.
Hardenbergh s Corners was the original name of the hamlet that was destined to grow into the village and City of Auburn.
After the question of subsistence, the next two problems encount- ered by the early settlers were the demolition of the forest and the construction of roads. Danger from the Indians, which had been the great terror and menace of the pioneers in the eastern part of the state, was not apprehended in Cayuga County, and immigrants came in without dread of foes, ready and eager to overcome the obstacles presented by the wilderness, and to build up homes.
Close upon the heels of Hardenbergh, they began to arrive. In 1791 a party of settlers left the vicinity of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and after a lapse of two years arrived in Owasco. Their journey had not occupied all that time; delays at Ludlowville to perfect land titles had consumed much of it. But they settled in Owasco shortly after Hardenbergh located in Aurelius. The party consisted of three men named Brinkerhoff, Roeliff, Jacob and Luke, Charles and James Van Tyne; Philip O'Brien; Thomas and Abraham Johnson and Albert Demaree. Later in the same year, 1793, came the Par- sell family, consisting of David, Isaac, John and two sisters. Among the early settlers in Aurelius were two Revolutionary soldiers, Solomon Tibbles and Jacob Van Dorn. In the same year came Elder David Irish, a Baptist minister, who preached the first sermon
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to white men in Cayuga County, in 1794. In 1795 came Major Noah Olmsted, Jonas Huggins, and Gideon Tyler who brought his family. As early as the last mentioned year, settlers began to cluster about the Corners because of the operation of the mill. In that year James O'Brien erected a log house on the site of the present City Hall, and two physicians, Doctor Samuel Crossett and Doctor Ellis joined the hamlet. In 1796 Samuel Bristol arrived and opened the first tavern in the place, his hostlery offering only such accom- modations as could be afforded by a log cabin. In that cabin he had a store also, which held the distinction of being the first mercantile establishment in Auburn, or in the town of Aurelius. Then came John Treat, Major Walter G. Nicholas, Dr. Hackaliah Burt, Nehemiah Smith, William Bostwick and Daniel Hyde The most important arrivals in 1806, were, Doctor Joseph Cole, John Wagstaff, a coppersmith; Captain William Clark; Benjamin Yard, carpenter and joiner; Robert Dill, a public spirited man ; Samuel D. Lockwood, lawyer; George F. Leitch, merchant; Captain Edward Allen, manufacturer; Horace Hills, merchant; Daniel Lounsbury; Jonathan Russel, a silversmith; Clark Camp, a millwright, and Reu- ben Swift, a miller. In 1807 came David Brinkerhoff; Colonel John Richardson, a cabinet maker; Reuben Porter; Elijah Miller, lawyer; Elijah Jarvis; Elisha T. Swift and Peter Hughes who was the County Clerk. In 1808, David Hyde and William Brown. John H. Beach and Doctor Joseph T. Pitney augmented the Corners in 1809. In 1810 John Porter, Samuel C. Dunham and Elisha Pease came in.
In 1795, Jehiel Clark settled on lot forty-five, and in 1798, completed the construction of his saw mill and grist mill, the latter, a permanent edifice of stone.
The town government of Aurelius was formed in 1794, and the first town meeting was held on the first Tuesday in April of that year. It convened in the house of Colonel Hardenbergh-a rank he subsequently obtained and a title by which he was popularly
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known. When that meeting was held the population of the town was so small that the majority of the citizens had to accept office to fill the civil list. For ten years the town meetings were held regu- larly at Colonel Hardenbergh's.
In the year 1800 every road leading to Western New York was thronged with immigrants heading for the Genesee valley and the rich Military lands. Large numbers of them settled along the old Genesee trail, the oak openings of Aurelius and the fertile lands of the southern towns being eagerly sought after. The valley of the Owasco was not inviting to the early arrivals because of its heavy forests and low-lying land. In 1800 there were not more than one hundred and fifty acres of cleared land about the Corners and the settlement was not large enough to attract recruits rapidly.
The new Genesee road from Utica to the West was constructed in 1797, and the section of it lying between the Corners and Onondaga Hill is now known as Franklin street. When Jehiel Clark built his mills he opened up several roads to attract business and make his location the leading center of the settlement. One of those roads corresponded nearly to what is now Division street, and ran south 'to Grover's settlement. Another was Clarksville street, now Clark street. It is not possible to state with exactitude the locations of all the roads which traversed Aurelius at that date. The old Gene- see road was the first built and its location is well verified. The one leading to Hardenbergh's mill was, doubtless, what was known as the old Chenango road. The first roads used by the settlers followed the Indian trails, more or less, as was practicable. And it might be stated that such trails were not without system. For instance, it was the custom of the aborigines to have a trail from the head of one lake to the foot of the next and vice versa. Where a trail followed a stream or lake it always ran as close to the shore as possible, lying outside of the close timber growth of the banks and the ravines.
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In those days the roads were always wet and heavy during the summer, so that travelling was easier in the winter months, and immigrants generally came on their sleighs.
Throughout the whole length of the Genesee road no part of it rivalled in badness that strip passing through Auburn, and its reputation clung to it for thirty years. This, with the wet lands, swamps and stagnant pools prejudiced settlers against the locality and retarded rapid growth for a number of years. It is asserted that prospectors after looking over the situation passed on to seek a more inviting section of the country, and that some who had settled actually left.
Notwithstanding that Hardenbergh's Corners was not an alluring place in its infancy and that its reputation had gone abroad, the settlement continued to grow slowly. The openings in the forest grew wider before the axes of the woodmen and fields began to fructify in the midst of the wilderness.
New York was a slave state at that time and some of the settlers in Aurelius were slave owners. The negroes aided materially in clearing up the land and some of them actually purchased their freedom by that means. One negro, Tom Bramin, so earned his by clearing an eighty-acre lot for Colonel Hardenbergh. The papers attesting the manumission of this slave appear in the town book of Aurelius for the year 1803.
The first white child born in Auburn was John H., son of Colonel Hardenbergh, who, in 1796, had married a daughter of Roeliff Brinkerhoff of Owasco. The first white girls were Harriet and Polly, daughters of William Bostwick.
The first school was located in Hardenbergh's Corners in 1796, and the first schoolmaster was Benjamin Phelps. The primitive school-house was constructed of logs and stood on the west side of North street halfway up the hill. In 1801 a frame school-house was erected at the Corners. It stood on a spot which is now covered by South street.
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The first regularly formed religious society of the hamlet was organized by Reverend Davenport Phelps, although missionary services had been held in the school-house on South street and in William Bostwick's large barn, for some time previous, by Reverend David Higgins, a missionary from Connecticut, who also preached at Aurelius, Cayuga and Grover's Settlement. Mr. Higgins began to hold his meetings in the year 1802.
In 1800 a post-office was opened at the Corners and Doctor Crossett was the first postmaster. There was a mail every two weeks which was brought on horseback by Jason Paker. In 1804 mails had increased to a bi-weekly service. The daily mail was not inaugurated until 1808. Stages were running once a week along the old Genesee road as early as the year 1800.
The first bridge in Auburn was constructed in 1800, across the Outlet on North street. Previous to that time pedestrians crossed the stream on the trunk of a tree thrown from bank to bank; teams waded through the water.
The first worker in iron who settled at the Corners came in the first year of the century. His name was Daniel Grant and he opened a blacksmith's shop which in 1804 developed into a trip- hammer forge situated on the corner of Genesee street and Lumber lane.
In 1801 a lawyer who achieved fame and a large practice in land titles, settled here. His name was Daniel Kellogg, and with him was associated Moses Sawyer. Richard L. Smith, then a law student but subsequently district attorney and editor of the Auburn Gazette, came also in the same year.
In 1803 Nathaniel Garrow, a man destined to become prominent in the young community came to the Corners. He purchased the triangle of ground now bounded by Genesee street, North street and the Outlet, and embarked in the business of distilling He became very popular and held several public offices, finally reaching the dignity of Congressman.
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HISTORY OF CAYUGA COUNTY
The Seneca turnpike, which was the great highway of western New York was constructed through Cayuga County in 1802 and 1803 by a company organized for that purpose. The old Genesee road, west of the Outlet, was accepted as part of the turnpike with- out any alteration or improvement, but the line to the east was built through the woods along a new survey to accommodate Skaneateles as well as Hardenbergh's Corners. This road was a very primitive affair and was long known as the "mudpike." It was in use eight years before the stumps were dug out of it.
A famous old tavern known as the Farmer's Inn was erected at the Corners in 1804 by Henry Ammerman, and was long a favorite resort for lawyers, jurors and other court attendants, as well as a popular hostelry for farmers. John Demaree and Epharam Lock- hart built a cabinet shop opposite the Farmer's Inn in 1804, and in 1815 a brick shop was erected to the east of it. The first stone house in the hamlet was built in 1805 by Jeremiah O'Callaghan on the west side of Seminary avenue, just north of Franklin street.
In 1805 came William Cox, the first tailor of the hamlet; Anslem S. Howland, the first hatter; and John' Walker, who with Silas Hawley erected the first carding mill on the Outlet. Other notable settlers were: Henry Polhemus, Zepheniah Caswell, Robert and John Patty, who built an ashery, and a tannery, besides conducting a mercantile establishment; Watrous Pomroy, a carpenter, and Micajah Benedict, a veteran of the Revolution and a personal friend of LaFayette.
Slowly, but steadily, the hamlet kept on growing. In 1801, Abner Beach with his family of two sons and two daughters, settled on Franklin street hill. In 1802 Philip and Gideon Jenkins, millwrights, Ichabod Marshall and Captain Edward Stevenson, joined the little colony.
As the county continued to increase in population the question of a permanent county seat began to be agitated. For several years after the organization of the county, the village of Aurora
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was used, because of its central location, as the meeting place of the supervisors and the courts. Aurora was never designated by law as the county seat. The regular jail for the district was at Canandaigua, although there was a supplementary house of detention for debtors at Cayuga. In 1804 a law was passed reducing Cayuga County to nearly its present dimensions and that act precipitated a rivalry among several places for the honor of being the county seat. The law defining the boundaries of the county contained a provision for the erection of a court house and jail for the new county at Sherwood's Corners, and immediately Cayuga, Levanna, Clarksville, Aurora and Hardenbergh's Corners began to urge their respective claims to preferment. The result of the agitation was that the law was revoked, and on March 16, 1805, James Burt, of Orange County, Edward Savage of Washington County, and James Hildreth of Montgomery County were appointed commissioners to visit Cayuga County and report as to the most suitable site for the location of the county seat. The commissioners made their inspection in June and reported in favor of Harden- bergh's Corners, because of its central location, its position on the highways and its prospective importance. They further stipulated that an acre of ground should be donated for the site of the public buildings, and selected its location on the farm of William Bostwick. Henry Ammerman, John H. Cumpston, Daniel Hyde and Doctor Burt pledged themselves that the State should receive a deed of the selected site and their promise was duly fulfilled. The site cost two hundred dollars.
The southern towns of the county were much dissatisfied with the location of the public buildings and the supervisors succeeded in delaying the erection of the Court House and jail for several years, by refusing to appropriate sufficient funds for that purpose. The citizens of the Corners, however, began the construction of the buildings themselves, and furthermore, succeeded in securing the enactment of a law imposing a fine of two hundred and fifty dollars
2
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HISTORY OF CAYUGA COUNTY
upon every supervisor who should refuse to levy the proper taxes when legally directed so to do. This ended the trouble and the Court House was completed in 1809, at an expense of ten thousand dollars. It was a strong wooden edifice, two stories high, and painted white. The lower story, which was used as a jail was built of large upright logs held together by iron spikes. The lawn in front of the Court House was long known as "Court House Green."
Hardenbergh's Corners began to grow rapidly as soon as it was designated as the county seat and at the same time one of the most famous names connected with the county began to be mentioned. Enos T. Throop settled in Auburn in the spring of 1806 and became the law partner of Joseph L. Richardson. He took a lively interest in the county seat question and was the prosecuting attorney against the recalcitrant supervisors, pressing the matter to ultimate success
Hardenbergh's Corners was an unwieldy name and as soon as there was a probability that the place would be chosen for the county seat the question of a more suitable appellation for an important community began to agitate the citizens. Dr. Crossett suggested the name of Auburn, which Colonel Hardenbergh opposed, as a matter of course. He was willing to drop the "Corners" and retain the name "Hardenbergh"; some were in favor of "Center." some "Mount Maria" but a committee composed of Dr. Crossett, Dr. Ellis and Moses Sawyer decided upon "Auburn," and the name was adopted, although a meeting was subsequently called to induce the citizens to reverse that action. This new name was adopted in 1803, and the archives of the county were removed from Aurora to Auburn in 1807, by Peter Hughes, then county clerk. The Court House was not completed until two years later, so Mr. Hughes kept them in his house in the meantime.
In the year 1810, Auburn had begun to give indications of its possibilities as a manufacturing center. In that year there were seventeen industrial establishments upon the Outlet. and although
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none of them were pretentious, all were active and thriving. Five of them were saw mills, four grist mills, two distilleries, two card- ing mills, two fulling mills, one linseed oil mill and one forge. The number of dams at that date was six. The first dam was built in 1807 by Elijah Swift for his saw and grist mills. The original dam, on the sight of the big dam, was built in 1808 by Daniel Hyde, who owned the adjacent land along both sides of the outlet, and who completed a large grist and saw mill the same year. In 1810 he built a mill for the manufacture of linseed oil. This burned down the following year, but was re-built by John H. Beach and David Hyde. They also started a distillery in 1812. Robert Dill's log dam was constructed in 1809 to furnish power for a saw mill and a forge opposite. When built both of these buildings were sur- rounded by dense woods. A fulling mill was erected in 1810 by Robert Dill and John Walker. It was burned down along with the saw mill in 1816. Jehiel Clark built two dams at Clarksville, one to furnish power for a grist mill and one for a saw mill.
CHAPTER III.
The First Newspaper in Auburn - Street Improvements - Notable Early Settlers-The Auburn Academy-Auburn in the War of 1812-Incorporation of the Village-Building of Auburn Prison.
In 1808 the first newspaper published in Auburn made its appearance. Henry and James Pace, two Englishmen, who had been publishing the Gazette, at Aurora, moved their primitive press to Auburn when the latter place became the county seat, and started the Western Federalist. The first number appeared June 7, 1808. This was the only paper in the village until 1814 when the Cayuga Patriot was established. The Patriot was a Democratic organ and opposed politically to the Western Federalist, the name of which indicated its political faith. The editor and publisher of the Cayuga Patriot was Samuel A. Brown, who, it is related,
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HISTORY OF CAYUGA COUNTY
never could get his paper out on time, and whose wife, as easy going as himself, never had his dinner on time.
As the village continued to grow the question of better thorough- fares and new streets was given some attention. North street was straightened so as to conform to the western boundaries of lots forty-seven and thirty-eight. This street and Genesee street were first laid out in 1791; South street and Owasco street in 1795; Market street, then known as the Mill road, and Franklin, at first called the Genesee road, were projected in 1797. East Genesee street was in use as early as 1791 but was not legally erected until I802. Division street was laid out in 1799 and Seminary avenue in
1805. Seminary and Fulton streets date from 1806; State and Chapel streets from 1811. Mechanic street, which superseded old Lumber Lane, was not definitely located until 1821. After the town of Auburn was erected the hill at the junction of North and South streets was lowered about twelve feet, and the levels near the adjacent bridges were raised about eight feet; the earth carried from the hill being used to fill in the lower levels. Genesee and South streets were also graded and much improved over their original condition.
Among the settlers who came to Auburn in 1811 were Tilliman Beach, Thomas Cooper, John S. Burt, Chauncey Dibble, Stephen Van Anden and Doctor A. M. Bennett. In 1812 came Doctor Erastus Tuttle, Abraham Gridley, John Oliphant, Teri Rogers, and the two Terrys, Abel and Thadrach. New arrivals in 1813 were Major Joseph Colt, Daniel Elliott and John and Samuel Dill. The next year brought Ezekiel Williams, Sylvanus Noble and George Casey.
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