USA > New York > Cayuga County > History of Cayuga County, New York > Part 3
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In the latter part of the year 1810 the citizens of Auburn began to discuss the question of an academy, that the youth of the village might enjoy the advantages of a more extended education than was afforded by the public schools. The matter assumed definite shape in December of that year. A public meeting was held, at
18. Seum
Millian
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which John H. Cumpston, William Bostwick, Robert Dill and John H. Hardenbergh each offered to donate land for the site of an academy. None of these sites was accepted at that time, but subsequently, Robert Dill's lot was decided upon, and he gave the trustees a deed for five and three-quarters acres of land. The meeting appointed a committee composed of William Bostwick, Doctor Burt and David Brinkerhoff, to solicit subscriptions toward a building fund. That subscription realized $4,090, all of which was assured early in 1811. On January 5th of that year the Auburn School Association was formed, and consisted of a number of those citizens who had subscribed to the building fund. The academy building was erected in 1811, at a cost of nearly four thousand dollars. The building was a three-story brick structure sixty feet long and twenty feet wide, surmounted by a belfry The rooms were heated by old-fashioned fireplaces, and all three floors were used as school rooms.
When the War of 1812 began, there were three companies of volunteer soldiers, with headquarters at Auburn; one was cavalry, one infantry and one a battery of artillery. The cavalry company was the first military organization in Auburn, and was recruited by Captain Trowbridge Allen in 1804. This company was very popular, not because of its efficiency in drill, but because of its handsome blue coats, trimmed with red, over buff vests and pants, and surmounted by headgear ornamented with plumes and horse- hair crests. It was a notably patriotic body of men, as were all the companies. Captain James Simpson succeeded Captain Allen, and was in turn succeeded by Captain Bradley Tuttle who was in command during the time of the war.
The infantry company was organized in 1806, being an off-shoot from the company of Captain James Wilson of Brutus. Edward Stevenson was the first captain of the company.
The artillery company was organized by Captain Thomas Mumford of Cayuga, but at the time of the war it was commanded
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by Captain John H. Cumpston. Its equipment was two brass six pounders.
Immediately after the declaration of war, in June 1812, the governors of the several states were requested to muster their forces for service on the borders. The Aurelius regiment assembled on the farm of Jesse Reed, two miles west of Auburn, and volunteers were called for, as they were in 1898, for the War with Spain. Enough privates to make up two companies responded at once, and there were more officers anxious to go than were needed for the regiment. The two companies were commanded by Captains Henry Brinkerhoff of Owasco and Daniel Elbridge of Aurelius, and were ordered to join the command of General Van Rensselaer on the Niagara River. The battery under Captain Cumpston was also sent. The Cayuga County infantry saw war in earnest at Lewiston and Queenston Heights, where Scott and Wool disputing as to which of them was in command, sent part of their forces over into Canada, and failing to support them, left many as prisoners in the hands of the British. Captain Brinkerhoff was one of the active participants in the battle, and it is recorded that having mounted a stump to make an observation, his pedestal was knocked from under him by a cannon ball.
The artillery company did not arrive in time to participate in this affair, but was engaged in several subsequent actions. The company served the country creditably for three months, at the end of which time it was sent back to Auburn and honorably disbanded.
A company of regulars was raised in Auburn in 1812, and was quartered in wooden barracks on Genesee street. This company was sent to Sackett's Harbor and formed a part of General Pike's expedition against York, in upper Canada. York is now the city of Toronto, and upper Canada became the Province of Ontario when the British provinces of North America were organized under the name of the Dominion of Canada.
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In 1814 Captain Jack Richardson led a company of rifles from Auburn to the Niagara frontier, and took part in some of the severest engagements of the war. This company was with General Brown's command when the Americans were besieged in Fort Erie, and in the famous sortie of September 17th achieved a place for its banner in the Soldiers' Hall of Fame. General Porter was ordered to destroy an advanced work of the enemy, consisting of a block-house and bastions, from which batteries were playing upon Fort Erie with destructive effect. Captain Richardson's company formed a part of General Porter's detachment, and as the Americans charged the works, Captain Richardson, running in front of his men, exposed himself, a prominent mark for the British bullets, but went through uninjured. During the combat General Porter was surrounded and captured by the enemy, but was rescued by men of the Auburn company led by Lieutenant Chatfield. The British works were taken and with them a thousand prisoners and a large amount of stores. Captain Richardson was subse- quently promoted to the rank of Colonel.
Although far removed from the immediate vicinity of the war, Auburn was kept in touch with its activities, not only through its citizen soldiers who were at the front, but because of its location upon the main thoroughfare of the state, along which bodies of troops passed to and from the northern and western frontiers. The soldiers of Van Rensselaer, Brown, Scott and Izard repeatedly passed through Auburn and often made it a halting place, much to the delectation of the citizens and to the damage of the streets and roads which the artillery and heavy ammunition wagons cut into deep ruts.
In the winter of 1813 the British crossed the Niagara at Black Rock, destroyed the place and captured and burned Buffalo, spreading consternation throughout all Western New York. Fugitives flying from the devastated villages spread the report that the British were marching into the interior, and couriers were
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dispatched in all directions to warn the inhabitants. The news reached Auburn in the evening, and a night of alarm and anxiety ensued. Mayor Olmsted ordered Captains Tuttle and Ammerman to muster their companies and march at daybreak toward Canan- daigua. The cavalry company was hastily mustered and marched west during the night, while Enos T. Throop and John H. Beach collected all the arms and ammunition available in the village and encouraged the citizens to volunteer to fight in defense of their homes. In the morning the militia and citizen volunteers, in all about two hundred, marched off for Cayuga, the people gathering upon the hill west of the village to watch their departure. But there was no foe to be found, as the Auburn forces learned when within four miles of Canandaigua. At that point they were met by Colonel Colt and John H. Beach, who had ridden ahead to reconnoitre, and the troops returned to Auburn.
The village got another scare in 1814, when a bugler, a deserter from the British, came toward it from the west, blowing blasts up- on his instrument and inspiring the brief fear that a detachment of the enemy was descending upon the place.
The Auburn of 1815 has been described as a "Dutchy-looking" village of two hundred buildings and one thousand souls. But it was a busy hamlet full of activity and ambition. Immigrants were coming in so rapidly that land owners were projecting new streets to provide more building lots. The roads and streets, ruined by the passage of armies, were being restored by the gratituous road work of citizens and the proceeds of lotteries. The latter source of revenue, now illegal, was at that day, and for some time later, a favorite means of raising money in various parts of the state. Even Union College, in Schenectady, received great aid from this source in its earlier days.
A swamp covered all that part of the city where Dill and Water streets now run. They were not in existence in 1815, but the swamp had been cleared of its growth by axe and by fire, and the
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sun and wind converted it into dry ground. The forest had not been cleared westward beyond where Washington street now runs, and Genesee and Clark streets ran into the woods at that line. South street, now a magnificent avenue of elms and splendid residences, possessed no attractions in that day.
There were only five brick buildings on Genesee street, and the huge chimneys of the village indicated that the houses were heated by old-fashioned, wide, fireplaces. The improvement of the streets and the prevention of fires were subjects in which the people took a lively interest, and in order to secure these results the incorpora- tion of the village was earnestly desired, and efforts were made to accomplish that end
The village of Auburn was duly incorporated by act of Legis- lature, April 18, 1815. John H. Beach, who was then Member of Assembly for this district, secured the passage of a bill to incor- porate the village. The territory included in the act embraced lot forty-seven and the eastern half of lot forty-six, and the free- holders and inhabitants of that district were constituted a corporate body and invested with all the powers of village government. The elective officers of the village were five trustees, three assessors, a clerk and a treasurer, who were to be elected on the first Monday in May of each year. The president of the village was one of the trustees, chosen by themselves. The first Board of Trustees of Auburn was constituted as follows: Joseph Colt, President; Enos T. Throop, Bradley Tuttle, Lyman Paine, and David Hyde.
One of the first acts of the new government was to provide adequate fire protection. The trustees issued an order that every owner must provide each of his buildings with a ladder and also a leather fire bucket for each fireplace in the building. Failure to obey this order laid the owner liable to a fine of four dollars for each lacking bncket. Also a fire engine was ordered in New York and shipped by boat up the Hudson. At Newburgh the boat became ice-bound and Gershorn Phelps was sent to bring the engine to
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Auburn with a team. A peculiar feature of the fire ordinance of the village was that the president was to act as fire chief, and wear a white belt, a badge on his cap and carry a trumpet. The trustees, whose badge of office was also a white belt, were to carry canes and form the water carriers into orderly rank. Then there were fire wardens whose duty was to aid in extinguishing the fire and after- wards to gather up the fire buckets and other implements of the department. Those who worked the engine were the only ones de- signated as firemen.
Prior to the date of its incorporation as a village, Auburn had an unenviable reputation for mud. Sidewalks were few and, where any were found, consisted of slabs thrown down in the spring, but regularly consumed for fuel in the winter The new village gov- ernment gave the matter of sidewalks early attention, and, in 1816, issued an order directing the construction of brick or plank walks, eight feet in width, on both sides of Genesee street, on the west side of North street and on the north side of Center street.
Small as it was in 1815, Auburn was then the largest and most important place in western New York, and it possessed natural advantages that gave promise of continued supremacy. Its un- developed resources were inestimable and it lay upon the principal highway of travel and commerce, besides being surrounded by a peculiarly fertile country, that was filling up rapidly with settlers. Rochester was then but a cluster of log cabins on the banks of the Genesee; Syracuse was not even a hamlet; Canandaigua and Geneva were not only very small but lacked indications of growth.
For some years prior to the incorporation of Auburn as a village, the Legislature of the State had been considering a proposition to erect a new prison in some place in western New York. The people of Auburn were desirous of having the prison built in their village believing it would stimulate and increase business. Conse- quently the claims of Cayuga County were presented to the Legislature by John H. Beach, who was perhaps the leading member
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in the Assembly in 1816. Cayuga County was at that time a Democratic stronghold and that party was in control in the State, the attitude of the Federalists during the war with England having cost them political supremacy. So, when the question of a location for the new prison came before the Legislature the claims of Cayuga County received very friendly recognition, and it was finally decided to build the prison in Auburn. The citizens had agreed to donate a site and two were offered, one being the present location which was chosen. The donors were Samuel Dill, David Hyde, John H. Beach and E. S. Beach. The land was conveyed June 22, 1816, and called for six acres and twenty perches, with sufficient land for roads six rods wide on three sides of it. The plans for the prison were drawn by J O. Daniels and were approved by Justice William Brittan of the Court of Chancery. The contract for the masonry work was let to Isaac Lytle, of New York City, and work upon the stone foundation was begun at once. The construction of the main building with its enclosure and of the outside wall to the height of four feet was completed in the year 1816.
The first criminals were consigned to the prison in the winter of 1817 and fifty-three were received from adjacent county jails, and confined in the south wing, just completed. These were employed to aid in the work of construction, as were other convicts subse- quently received; the State Commission being authorized in April 1817, so to employ them. The plan was not well advised and led to trouble. The regular workmen and mechanics developed sympa- thy for the convicts working with them under duress, and turbulent times resulted. There was at least one riotous affair, and on another occasion the convicts set fire to the buildings. The knowledge that they had outside sympathy rendered them rebellious and hard to manage, and the citizens finally became alarmed lest some day the convicts should break loose and have the town at their mercy. This led to the organization of the "Old Auburn Guard" which was formed in 1820 under the command of Captain Joseph Colt. It
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was armed and equipped by the State, and had an armory in the upper story of the stone building built upon and within the front wall of the prison. This guard did good service during the burning of the north wing of the prison in November, 1820, when it marched the convicts to their cells at the point of the bayonet. Also, as a result of the surveillance of the guard, the discipline in the prison improved vastly, and dread of an outpouring of the convicts gradu- ally passed from the minds of the citizens. In 1817 the first prison dam and raceway were constructed; and the prison was entitled to half the power furnished thereby.
In April, 1818, the Legislature appointed a board of inspectors to manage the prison. The board consisted of John H. Beach, Elijah Miller, James Glover, Archie Kasson and George Casey. They appointed William Brittan the first agent and keeper of the prison.
In 1823, the prison was practically completed and contained 185 cells besides wooden workshops for coopers, blacksmiths, shoe- makers, tailors and spinners. The cells were seven feet long, seven feet high and three and one-half feet wide, and were separated by walls of solid masonry one foot thick. An areaway, ten feet wide, ran between the cells and the outer walls, so that the guards could keep a strict watch over all movements of the prisoners.
The location of the prison in Auburn was not an unalloyed benefit to the place. The large amount of money paid out in the village during the construction of the prison was a great stimulus to business, and the location of the institution in Auburn was an advertisement that drew the attention of all classes, over a wide area, to the beauties and advantages of the young village, not only as a place of business but also as a place of residence. These things led to a veritable boom, including increase of population and the establishment of the first bank in Auburn; but evil results followed. One of these was the fear that released convicts of both sexes would remain in the village, a menace to its morality and property. A second evil was convict labor. The employment of prisoners upon
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custom or contract work immediately made the convicts competitors of the honest tradesmen of the village, and the latter resented the invasion of their field of labor by such competitors, and censured all who countenanced such a condition of affairs. The result was that much ill feeling was engendered and many worthy tradesmen left Auburn for other places. The growth of the place and the expansion of business, however, in time checked this exodus. But, though the effects of prison labor were only transient in Auburn, it was a question that, later on, absorbed the attention of skilled labor, not only throughout the State, but over the entire nation.
The large disbursements of money by the State Commissioners, when they began to build the prison, led to the establishment of the Bank of Auburn, which was chartered May 31, 1817 with a capital of $400,000, in shares of fifty dollars each. The stock was all subscribed by the citizens and the bank was organized in July, with Thomas Mumford, president, James S, Seymour, cashier, and a directorate consisting of Nathaniel Garrow, Archie Kasson, Joseph Colt, Horace Hills, Walter Weed, George F. Leitch, Enos T. Throop, David Brinkerhoff, James Porter, John Bowman, Hezekiah Goodwin and William McCarthy, along with the president and cashier. A room in Demaree's Tavern was fitted up and equipped for a banking office, and there the first regular banking business in Auburn began.
CHAPTER IV.
Development of Manufacturing Industries-Visit of LaFayette-Auburn Med- ical School-The Erie Canal-The Auburn and Syracuse Railroad Company-The Panic of 1837.
On February 4, 1818, the Agricultural Association of Cayuga County was formed, and on the 20th of the following October the first fair of the county was held in Auburn. In addition to the exhibits of stock and agricultural products two features of that fair were unique. One was that the bells of the village rang for
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half an hour at sunrise, and the other that in a procession, which was part of the programme, Comfort Tyler of Seneca Falls, the first man who put a plough into the ground of New York State, west of Oneida County, drove an ox team and plough.
Two industries both of which are now defunct in Auburn, flour- ished on the Outlet in the first half of the nineteenth century. One was the manufacture of cotton goods, the other of paper.
In 1814 John H. Beach and Elijah Miller began to build a cotton mill at the lower falls, and in 1817 had it in operation. In 1822 the Auburn Manufacturing Company purchased the mill and began to weave a cotton ticking that was noted, for years, as one of the best upon the American market. In 1827 the property passed into the hands of a company composed of Nathaniel Garrow, George B. Throop, Robert Muir and Eleazer Hills. After some years they became involved financially and sold out to George F. Leitch. Further changes carried the mill into the hands of Benjamin W. Bonney in 1845. In 1853 the property was transferred to the Auburn Bank which immediately made it over to Lorenzo W. Nye. The old building now forms a part of the plant of the Nye & Wait Carpet Company.
The Auburn Paper Mill was erected on the south bank of the Outlet in 1828-9 by Thomas M. Skinner, George C. Skinner and Ebenezer Hoskins. George C. Skinner was the practical man of the company, and under his direction the mill prospered for a few years. But when the hard times succeeding the panic of 1837 came, the founders of the enterprise were unable to continue operations and, in 1839, the mill passed out of their hands. In 1840 the title was transferred to the Cayuga County Bank. After passing through the hands of several lessees it came into the possession of David S. West, in 1848. He organized the Auburn Paper Company in 1849, with a capital of $20,000, which was increased in 1854 to $50,000. The mill was destroyed by fire in 1868.
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In 1815 William Hayden started his factory in the old fulling mill of Jehiel Clark, for the manufacture of woolen cloth, and in 1817 Nathan Garlick built a new grist mill on the east bank of the Outlet. In 1824 a substantial stone mill was erected by John H. Hardenbergh on the site of the old frame mill. The stone structure is still standing but the mill was enlarged by a brick addition in 1886, and is now operated by Charles W. Brister. In 1829 Aspah D. Leonard and Alvah Worden began the manufacture of burr mill-stones in their machine shop. In 1831 a steam grist mill was started by Walter Weed in his brick building on the eastern corner of Genesee and Owasco streets. The capacity of the mill was about eighty barrels a day.
The original Auburn market was opened in 1820 by Edward Patten. It stood upon the west side of the North street bridge.
It is claimed that the first canal boat used upon the Erie Canal was built in Auburn in 1822.
In 1823 the town of Auburn was erected.
In 1824 Doctor Erastus Tuttle, who had been physician and sur- geon of the State Prison for nine years, established a medical school in Auburn, hoping to obtain a charter for it from the Legislature. He lectured to a small class of about a dozen students that autumn and winter, and in January, 1825, explained his project at a public meeting, receiving hearty indorsement. William H. Seward, George B. Throop, Horace Hills and Doctor Ira H. Smith, along with Doctor Tuttle himself, were appointed a committee to me- morialize the Legislature on the subject and obtain a charter. Lec- tures were continued by Doctor Tuttle and medical coadjutors until 1829, when the ambitious founder of the institution died. Doctor John H. Morgan then sought to carry on the college, and as- sociated some able men with him, but the establishment of a medical department in Hobart College influenced the Legislature to deny Auburn's application for a charter, and interest in the institution died out, and the project failed.
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In 1825 the first Auburn band was organized, funds therefor being provided by a subscription among the citizens.
In June, 1825, Auburn entertained a distinguished visitor in the person of Lafayette. His visit was made the occasion of much ceremony and the village exerted itself to pay him honor. He was met at Cayuga by a committee of Auburnians and escorted to their village where he was received by the military companies, Free Masons and Revolutionary veterans, who had been arranged along the road by General Brinkerhoff and Colonels Lewis and Gridley. Then, as he passed under an arch reared and decorated for the occasion, he was saluted by a battery of twenty-four guns, and greeted by the ringing of the village bells and the cheers of the assembled populace. After a parade and an address of welcome by Col. John W. Hulbert, Lafayette was dined in an open-air pavilion, and suitable toasts and patriotic speeches followed.
A religious newspaper, entitled the Gospel Messenger was started in Auburn, by Reverend Doctor John C. Rudd, in 1826. It was de- voted to the cause of the Gospel and to female education, and represented no sect, although its founder was the rector of St. Peter's Church.
In 1820 the population of Auburn had increased to 2,233; in 1825 it was 2,982; in 1830 it had risen to 4,486, and in 1835 the village boasted 5,368 inhabitants. During those years commercial prosperity had kept pace with the increase in population, and twenty years after the village had been incorporated it presented an appearance vastly different from the Auburn of 1815. Resi- dences, churches, public buildings, stores, mills, hotels, had been built, old buildings had disappeared, or had been enlarged and improved ; enterprise, progress and prosperity were evident on every hand. Streets were leveled and macadamized, shade trees were planted beside the walks; private enterprise and public spirit united to the great advantage of the community.
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The year 1829 was one of unusual activity in building. In that year the paper mill, the second church, six cut stone stores and many fine residences were erected. In 1832 the Episcopalians and the Methodists each erected a new church building, and in 1833 a new stone jail was built in the rear of the old wooden Court House. In the latter year also were erected Demaree's block of cut stone, afterwards designated as the Auburn House block: the Cayuga County Bank building; the Chedell block: the Hyde & Watrous block and a large number of brick and frame buildings. In 1834 the Baptist church on Genesee street, now Traub's Furniture Emporium, was built, and in 1835 as many as eighty new residences were erected, besides the four-story stone block built by William H. Seward, Nelson Beardsley and others.
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