USA > New York > Wayne County > History of Central New York : embracing Cayuga, Seneca, Wayne, Ontario, Tompkins, Cortland, Schuyler, Yates, Chemung, Steuben, and Tioga Counties, Volume I > Part 7
USA > New York > Cayuga County > History of Central New York : embracing Cayuga, Seneca, Wayne, Ontario, Tompkins, Cortland, Schuyler, Yates, Chemung, Steuben, and Tioga Counties, Volume I > Part 7
USA > New York > Seneca County > History of Central New York : embracing Cayuga, Seneca, Wayne, Ontario, Tompkins, Cortland, Schuyler, Yates, Chemung, Steuben, and Tioga Counties, Volume I > Part 7
USA > New York > Ontario County > History of Central New York : embracing Cayuga, Seneca, Wayne, Ontario, Tompkins, Cortland, Schuyler, Yates, Chemung, Steuben, and Tioga Counties, Volume I > Part 7
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In this connection a stricter observance of the Sabbath was one of the questions brought to the fore. On February 13, 1828, a convention was held in Auburn, Cayuga County, which re- sulted in appointment of commissioners to establish a line of stages between Albany and Buffalo, which should travel only six days a week. Delegates pledged themselves to patronize only six-day-a-week stages. Large sums were subscribed through the state for the new six-day Pioneer Line, when proprietors of the old line of that name offered to sell out. Their offer was de- clined and the transportation battle was on.
The Pioneer Line, choosing Auburn as the seat of the fray, obtained control of the Western Exchange Hotel there, turned from its stables the horses of the older competing line and re- fused accommodation to the rival line's passengers. But only a few days before this ejection of horses and passengers, a brick block was opened in Auburn by John H. Bacon and Thompson Maxwell under the name, Bank Coffee House, and here head- quarters were provided for the old line's patrons. Auburnians, including William H. Seward, later President Lincoln's secretary of state, came to the aid of the older company and protested any curb upon individual conscience as it concerned Sabbath observ- ance.
Splendid new light stage coaches carrying only six passengers and built expressly to compete with the new Pioneer Line, were provided by Isaac Sherwood & Co., and the line took the name of
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Telegraph Line. It procured the most careful drivers and the best teams and ran day and night. The Pioneer Line, failing to get the federal mail contract and in the face of this opposition, died. The Telegraph Line for seven years held full sway.
It was the stage which made the tavern, where brooded ro- mance, adventure, life-and where the door of hospitality was thrown wide in a new country. From time immemorial some sort of tavern has been the scene where epics of literature and drama have been enacted. Taverns have reflected the customs, the aspirations and the courage of many peoples. From the days of the old English inns, immortalized by Shakespeare, to the day when the railroad blighted forever the future prospects of the taverns of the new world, these public houses have been memor- able. They became institutions in a community then. They got closer to the people and the people got closer to them and they were the forum where every topic was discussed.
When the creaking stage wheels began their march over cor- duroy roads taverns sprang up by hundreds in Central New York. Auburn, then known as Hardenbergh's Corners, boasted more inns and taverns than any place between Utica and Canan- daigua. When the Erie Canal went through, followed by the hurrying railroads, the halcyon days of the tavern passed for- ever. But throughout Central New York, there are still these sleepy old monuments of a bygone age, some hastening to decay, weatherbeaten, neglected, solitary-others transformed into pleasant rural homes, but only a very few resembling in their cordial hospitality their forebears of crinoline days.
With the decline of patronage from teaming and staging, the taverns which continued in operation were forced to resort to various devices for keeping up their income. Dancing parties became more frequent and at these and other gatherings, mod- erate drinking was rather encouraged, especially at taverns of waning fortunes.
In the villages, taverns at one time were used as play-houses. In 1820 at the old Bank Coffee House in Auburn the celebrated Edmund Keen played Othello. The first theatrical performances given in the village of Elmira took place on the upper floor of
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the tavern kept by Hawks & Dunn on the north side of Water Street next the canal. The "orchestra" consisted of a single violin. In all the taverns the notables who visited the communi- ties were royally entertained.
Usually the Central New York tavern was a long, two story building set flush with the road, with a "stoop" or platform ex- tending the entire length, for convenience in getting into and out of the stage coach. Could we envision one of these rustic, rural taverns today, we might picture it something as follows: At the left as you enter a door leads to a plainly furnished ladies' sitting room. Just beyond this door, the stairs lead to the long room, which usually comprised the entire second floor of the main part. Opposite the door to the ladies' sitting room a door from the hall leads to the bar room, but an outside door, usually at the end of the house, is the more common entrance to this popular resort. On one side of this room a large open fireplace affords ample room for big blazing logs. The bar in one corner exhibits decanters labeled "whiskey," "brandy," "gin," "rum," etc., in gilt letters. To add to the effect, between the deep de- canters of liquors are ranged glass cans of stripped peppermint or red tinted wintergreen candies and lemons. The assortment is completed by a few clay pipes, dull black paper packages of fine cut smoking tobacco and perhaps on the top shelf one or two boxes of cigars. These latter came only in later times.
Adjacent to the tavern in the rear, or across the way in front, stood the commodious barns and ample sheds, under which anyone might shelter his team and feed without cost, if he brought his own fodder. Prominently in front of the tavern was the well with its wooden pump and pail for watering the horses of any who chose to avail themselves of the privilege. If the lay of the land permitted, as was not infrequently the case, the waters of a spring on a neighboring hill were enticed through pump logs to the end of the long stoop, where a "penstock" poured the limpid waters into a log trough set at a convenient height for watering the horses. Frequently three or four speckled trout would be imprisoned in this trough.
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The host of the tavern of early days is an extinct species. He was a man of character and respected in his community. He neither desired nor sought promotion outside the line of his work. His aim in life was to make his guests comfortable and to "keep tavern well." He silently disappeared when the old fashioned tavern gave way to the hotel.
Who were the frequenters of Central New York taverns aside from the transient guests? Everybody more or less who lived in the vicinity. Daytime and evening during the dull season of winter the oracle of the village occupied the best seat in front of the fire and others would range around in the order of im- portance. The Ishmaelite usually stood leaning against the bar or hanging onto the mantel over the fireplace, but rarely said anything unless spoken to. Politics were discussed and crop prospects and local matters talked over.
A game of checkers was usually in progress in some part of the room. When the spirit moved, one would approach the bar and take his "bitters," drawing from the depths of his pocket the required three coppers to pay the expense. Then he resumed his seat or went home. He rarely asked anybody to drink with him. It was a free show and anyone was at liberty to buy his own whiskey.
Opinions differ as to whether there was much drunkenness in those early days. The weight of evidence seems to be that there was not. The tavern had not become a resort for drinking. Saloons were unknown. Still every house had a supply of liquors. A barrel of whiskey was regarded as essential to the campaign of haying and harvesting, as much so as a mower and reaper are today.
CHAPTER VI
FRENCH NOTABLES' EARLY VISITS
LAFAYETTE GIVEN TRIUMPHAL RECEPTION IN 1825-CANNON SALUTE AT WATERLOO FATAL-LOUIS PHILIPPE, LATER KING OF FRANCE, AN EXILE AFOOT AND ON BOAT IN REGION-FRENCH REFUGEES.
There was the hustle of anticipation down the full length of the old Genesee Turnpike in early June, 1825. Settlers along that historic trail in Central New York brought out their oxen to grade the old road a bit where it was too rutty. They cut away here and there an obstreperous tree stump, which the weekly stage had pummeled and marred in vain. From Canandaigua on the west to Skaneateles on the east, Central New York settlers felt a new patriotism stirring hearts which had bled during the Revolution.
For General Lafayette, and his son George Washington La- fayette, were to make their triumphal journey down that ancient thoroughfare, while in America as guest of the United States Congress. It was a journey affording Americans their oppor- tunity to pay homage to the great Frenchman who nearly fifty years ago had fought shoulder to shoulder with Washington to make the Colonists free. And the end of that journey along the old turnpike was to be Bunker Hill, where the general laid the cornerstone of the historic monument there today.
On this trip from Buffalo to Albany, the entire state paid her tribute but nowhere was the ovation greater than in Central New York. Canandaigua, historic Indian village, later English trading post and then a thriving pioneer settlement, gave the General its welcome. On the morning of June 8, 1825, the famous Lafayette coach, behind six spanking horses set out east- ward from Canandaigua.
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Geneva's welcoming committee met the calvacade eight miles west of the town, accompanying it on eastward. The party stopped under the historic "Lafayette Tree," a large Balsam poplar just west of Geneva's outskirts near the junction of the old Pre-emption and the present Buffalo-Albany Route 5 and 20. Here the General caught the first glimpse of sparkling Seneca Lake 200 feet below and two miles distant. A signal gun told the people of Geneva their distinguished guest had arrived and nearly a dozen military companies marched to the Lafayette Tree, the light infantry and artillery troops all being in full uniform. A large concourse of Genevans awaited the General and his suite there by the tree.
Commemorating this event the Seneca Chapter, D. A. R., on June 8, 1922, placed beneath the old tree a large boulder with bronze tablet to record the visit of Lafayette. After his recep- tion at the tree, the General visited a house now known as La- fayette Inn, built in 1820, less than 200 feet from the tree. Today the same ancient coach in which he rode is stored there as a cherished heirloom.
Lafayette was escorted into Geneva to what is now Pulteney Park, gaily decorated for the occasion. Maidens dressed in white sang and strewed flowers in the path of his carriage. Lafayette spoke at exercises on an improvised rostrum. Two hundred distinguished citizens dined at breakfast at the New Franklin House with the General.
The cavalcade left Geneva at 1 p. m., accompanied by the military, picking up a troop of cavalry from Waterloo on the way to that village, where the party arrived shortly before 2 o'clock. A number of Waterloo folk also went ahead on horse- back to greet the guest. The party drew up in front of Earl's Tavern, then known as the Waterloo House, which stood on the northeast corner of Main Street and the public square-now the Court House Square. The main entrance was in the center of the west side of the building opening into the square.
On a balcony on the second story, south of the entrance, was stationed a band, the players uniformed in white. Music filled the air from the time the procession came in sight on the west
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end of Main Street, until General Lafayette had left his car- riage and entered the hotel. In the second floor parlors for sev- eral minutes he received the citizens, many of whom were vet- erans of the Revolution. After the short reception, the party was off in a cloud of dust for Seneca Falls.
But the General was then unaware that tragedy, small but poignant, had marked his visit to Waterloo. Just before his arrival an old swivel gun, which had been taken from a brig operated in the African slave trade, was set up to fire a salute. To do justice to the occasion, a double charge of powder was put in and a mass of flax jammed in upon it. The loaders were then afraid to touch it off and Capt. J. P. Parsons, chancing along and not knowing of the heavy charge, touched off the gun with a match. The gun burst and a fragment killed the Captain.
When Lafayette later learned the soldier had left a mother, three sisters and a brother without support, he sent the family $1,000. The Geneva Gazette of August 24, 1825, a copy of which is now in the possession of Herman F. Brehm, historian of Waterloo, quotes Lafayette's letter to the mother as follows:
"Dear Madam: The dreadful event which took place on the morning of my introduction to the citizens of your town, when it became known to me, filled my heart with the most painful and sympathetic emotions. Every subsequent information rela- tive to the melancholy loss of your son, could not but enhance those feelings.
"Permit me to avail myself of our community of regrets, to obtain from you an assent to an offer which may not afford to you, but will to me, some consoling relief. Learning the situa- tion of the family, the acceptance of the enclosed bill of one thou- sand dollars will confer on me the great obligation. Be pleased, dear madam, to receive my affectionate and consoling respects. "Lafayette."
June 8, 1922, the ninety-seventh anniversary of Lafayette's visit to Waterloo was celebrated in that village by placing a monument to the noted Frenchman in Lafayette Park, the scene of the great celebration nearly a century before. The services were in charge of Seneca Lodge of Masons. Coming from Wash-
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ington to do the honors of his country, Col. George L. Dumont, military attache of the French Government in that city, was in attendance. As on the day in 1825, the celebration was dimmed by tragedy, but this time the sadness did not fall on Waterloo. As Col. Dumont prepared to attend the unveiling of the monu- ment, he was notified of the death of his son.
As hearty as the Waterloo celebration for Lafayette was that in Seneca Falls. Then on eastward the train moved across the great Cayuga Bridge, more than a mile long and extending across the northern end of Cayuga Lake to the village of Cayuga. Auburn sent her welcoming delegation to Cayuga, where La- fayette was greeted by military companies, Masons and veterans of the war.
In Auburn, as the General passed under an arch erected in his honor, a battery of twenty-four guns boomed out its salute and church bells pealed a welcome, while thousands cheered. After a parade and address, the visitor dined in an open air pavilion. A ball was given in the old Bostwick Tavern, erected in 1803-04 at the corner of Exchange and Genesee streets. The old hotel was rebuilt in 1824, just before the historic visit, named the Western Exchange Hotel and was torn down in 1863. The first band ever organized in Auburn came into being in 1825 in time to play for the French visitor.
Today on the site stands the Smith and Pearson block, on whose side is a memorial tablet erected in honor of Lafayette's visit by Owasco Chapter, D. A. R. The committee in charge of placing the tablet comprised Mrs. Julia G. Everatt, Mrs. Grace H. Quick, Miss Guilelma Thayer, Mrs. Clara M. Skilton, Mrs. Lena P. Snow and Miss Florence M. Webster.
In the old tavern, whose memory is perpetuated by the marker, the first public ball in Auburn was given on July 4, 1805. It commenced at 3 p. m. and closed "with the approach of night." Bostwick, the owner, kept the tavern until he sold it in 1816 to Canfield Coe, who eight years later transferred it to Emanual D. Hudson, who changed the name to the Western Exchange.
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Auburn gave the Marquise de Lafayette the last of the larger receptions in Central New York. And the heartiness of that ovation was typified to Lafayette as he moved eastward from the region, by the sight of hundreds of lighted candles peeping through the windows of homes in Skaneateles, stage coach center, as his last farewell to Central New York.
In marked contrast to the visit of General Lafayette was the visit of another famous Frenchman, Louis Philippe, who from 1830 to 1848 was Louis XVIII of France. An outcast, a man without a country, afoot and by primitive boat, Louis Philippe as a young man penetrated the wilderness of the region in 1797, when only a few cabins dotted the thousands of square miles of solitudes.
Across one section of Central New York, then a frontier outpost, he laboriously traveled, gaining impressions of the new world which in years to come would send him back to Europe convinced that Central New York was one of the garden spots of the world. His introduction to the region came because he was exiled to America during the ascendency of Napoleon and traveled from the outpost at Buffalo to Philadelphia, in the course of his aimless journeyings while awaiting the time fate should place him on a throne.
Louis Philippe's father had died on the scaffold, his mother was immured in a Paris dungeon and his two brothers were re- leased only on condition that they join him in the new world. So the three young men adventured into the wildest part of Colonial domains of America, a few years after the American Revolution.
Of all their travels they recalled with most arresting memory the weeks they tarried in Central New York among the lakes. They spent several weeks at Canandaigua, where they were under the hospitable roof of Robert Morris, just two years after the first jury trial held west of Utica took place in the settlement, the defendant being accused of stealing a cow-bell.
The Frenchmen are believed to have been the first famous visitors at the "Long House" in the village of Honeoye on Hone- oye Lake, erected in 1790 by the first settler there, Capt. Peter
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Pitts. Later this abode was to shelter such guests as Duke de Liancourt, General Lafayette and Tallerand. Louis Philippe characterized the wildwood paradise as the "Switzerland of America." The house was on an Indian trail from Canandaigua to the Genesee River.
After idling through restful days about Honeoye and Canan- daigua, the three brothers proceeded to Geneva, where they pro- cured a sloop for the long sail up Seneca Lake to what is now Watkins Glen. They stopped there, resting for several days, and scouting the adjoining country. The beauty of Chequaga Falls near Montour Falls, nearby, so impressed the exiled king- to-be that he drew a picture of the cataract and later this draw- ing was hung in the Tuileries in Paris.
From Watkins, with packs on their backs the solitary broth- ers trudged afoot through the forest to Elmira where they spent some time hunting and fishing. A boat took them down the Chemung, through the Susquehanna and the trip to Philadelphia was overland from Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania.
VIEW OF WATKINS, N. Y.
BARGE CANAL LOCK, SENECA FALLS, N. Y.
SULLIVAN MONUMENT, NEAR ELMIRA, N. Y.
LAFAYETTE AND SKOIYASE MONUMENTS, WATERLOO, N. Y.
CHAPTER VII
EARLY MISSIONARIES AND FOUNDING OF CREEDS.
COMING OF THE JESUITS WHO BRAVED TORTURE-MORAVIANS AND SAMUEL KIRKLAND AS PROTESTANT MISSIONARIES-JEMIMA WILKINSON'S FRIENDS- FOUNDING OF MORMONISM, JOSEPH SMITH AND BRIGHAM YOUNG-BIRTH OF SPIRITUALISM-QUAKER SETTLEMENTS-CENTURY OLD CHURCHES- LITTLE CHAPEL ON THE MOUNT.
More than 250 years ago, or a century before the Revolution, courageous French Jesuit priests penetrated the forest realm of Central New York to carry the Cross. They were the first white men to dwell among the Iroquois. Many paid for their faith with their lives and with harrowing torture the like of which has seldom been inflicted in any country.
Into bark houses where smallpox stalked these priests of Christ went to minister to humanity. And often times flames, the knife, bestial mutilations were all they gained for their pains. But for a century their missions formed the last Christian out- post beyond the frontier of civilization and in the wilderness they wrote a story of Christian fortitude which has never been equaled in history.
In recent years some of these heroes of the Cross have been canonized and to others there have been erected monuments indi- cating spots where these pioneers labored, suffered and were put to the torture.
Above the waters of Cayuga Lake, half way between Aurora and Union Springs, there is a monument, erected by Auburn Council, Knights of Columbus, bearing this inscription :
"This valley was the site of the principal Cayuga Indian vil- lage. To the brave French Jesuit missionaries, whose heroism was almost without parallel-Joseph Chaumont and Rene Me- nard, who as guests of Chief Saonchiogwa built here in 1656 the
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first house of Christian worship in Western New York; Stephen DeCarheil, who for nine years was interested here, and his co- laborer, Peter Raffeix-this memorial is respectfully erected."
And again three miles west of Canandaigua is a monument with this inscription :
"Gannagaro, largest of the Seneca Indian villages, was lo- cated on Boughton Hill. Rev. Joseph Chaumont preached and baptized here in 1857. The place was also visited by Rev. Julien Garnier and other Jesuit missionaries. Rev. John Pierron had a chapel and resided here from 1673 to 1677. The village was destroyed by DeNoville's army in 1687 and the inhabitants driven eastward toward Canandaigua and Geneva."
Another monument inscription two miles west of Canandai- gua reads:
"Gandougarae. Near this spot stood a village of Huron Christians, captives of the Senecas. Father Chaumont preached here in 1656. Father Fremin preached in a new chapel dedi- cated November 3, 1669. Father Garnier also ministered here. James Atondo and Francis Tehoronionga were exemplary mem- bers of St. Michael's flock."
The Jesuits, all educated men, took notes as they wandered through the land of the Indian, thus perpetuating minute de- scriptions, dates, opinions and information about the life of the Iroquois. The data was preserved in the "Relations," prized documents in France and translated into English by historians.
Pierre Raffeix, during his year at the mission of St. Joseph near Choharo or St. Stephen, at the foot of Cayuga Lake, strik- ingly tells of the abundance of game in the locality.
"More than 1,000 deer are killed every year in the neigh- borhood of Cayuga," he wrote. "Fishing for salmon and eel is abundant. Tiohero (Cayuga Lake) abounds with swan and geese through the winter, and in the spring nothing is seen but continued clouds of all sorts of game."
The intellectual training of these French missionaries was of high order. Any one of them could qualify for a Ph. D. degree. They knew French, Greek, Latin, Hebrew and the Indian tongues. One of them, Fr. John Pierron, was the first artist in
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Central New York, having painted religious pictures while among the Indians. Maps, histories and geographies from the pen of these Black Robes still give best information on Indian days in Central New York. In addition of necessity they knew forestcraft and used their robes for tents when spending the night in the forest.
Jesuit missionaries to the Seneca Indians included :
Rev. Joseph Chaumont, born in 1611 in France, who landed in Quebec in 1639, when he at once went to minister to the .In- dians. He entered Central New York in 1656.
Fr. James Fremin, who arrived in Canada in 1655, and went to the Senecas at Sonnontuan, now Rochester Junction, where he served from 1668 to '69, when he went to villages two and three miles west of Canandaigua and served another year.
Fr. Julien Garnier, born in 1643, who came to Canada in 1662 and served the Seneca missions from 1669 to '84 and again from 1701 to '03. He died in Quebec in 1730.
Fr. Peter Raffeix, who arrived in ill health in Canada in 1663, was appointed a missionary to the Cayugas in 1666 and served the Senecas from 1670-'02 and from 1673-'80. He died in Quebec in 1723, broken down with years of toil.
Fr. John Pierron served the Senecas from 1673 to 1677, re- turning the next year to Europe.
Fr. James Bruyas was among the Senecas in 1673 but most of his time was among the Mohawks. It was he who concluded a final peace between the French and Iroquois, which lasted for more than fifty years.
Fr. John Morain was in the Seneca villages from 1681 to '84 followed by Fr. Francis Valliant de Gueslis, who served from 1701 to 1707. Fr. James de Hue served in 1708, the last French missionary in Central New York. He returned to France in 1715.
Some of the same courageous priests who served the Senecas carried the cross to the Cayugas in Cayuga County. Fr. Rene Menard, who was born in 1604 and had been in France confessor to Madame Daillebout, one of the founders of Montreal, accom- panied Father Chaumont, mentioned above, to the Cayugas in
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August, 1656, and on the east shore of Cayuga Lake between Aurora and Union Springs, erected the first house of worship in the region. He found great antipathy for the Black Robes, the dislike coming from Huron influence. The first person bap- tized at this little chapel was a man eighty years old. The sec- ond was a cripple deformed by cancer, who had been a renowned warrior. Father Menard was accused of being a sorcerer. He remained among the Cayugas for two months, when he was re- called to Onondaga, but soon afterward returned and remained until the missions were broken up in 1657.
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