USA > New York > Herkimer County > History of Herkimer county, New York > Part 20
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The first newspaper in Ilion was the Ilion Independent, which was es- tablished by George W. Bungay in 1855. The proprietor, who in later years acquired considerable reputation as a poet and a lecturer, and died in 1892, was induced to come to the village and start a paper by the Remingtons. Poets are not necessarily good editors and managers, and the Independent was not very successful. In 1858 it was removed to Utica, its title changed to the Central Independent, and subsequently it was merged in the Utica Herald. In the year last named, and after the departure of the Independent, the Remingtons again took steps to secure for the place the publication of a newspaper, and S. B. Loomis became the editor and nominal proprietor. The paper was Republican in character and was called the Loyal Citizen. It probably did not pay financially, at least for a period, but received the necessary support from the Remingtons, who employed various persons to take the active man- agement of the establishment. Subsequently the name of the paper was changed to the Ilion Citizen, which it has since borne. In 1878 Rev. Albert E. Corse was editor of the journal, and C. D Rose busi- ness manager.
Net Russell)
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TOWN OF GERMAN FLATS.
In 1884 the establishment was in possession of Weaver & Mead, and on the Ist of January, 1885, C. S. Munger purchased a half interest in the establishment and the firm style became Weaver & Munger. At the same time the Herkimer Citizen was founded by the firm and has continued to the present time. (See history of Herkimer village.) In the conduct of the two journals, George W. Weaver was in immediate charge of the Ilion branch, while Mr. Munger gave his attention to the Herkimer sheet. On the Ist of January, 1889, Mr. Weaver retired and his interest was purchased jointly by A. T. Smith and F. E Easton, who with Mr. Munger form the Citizen Publishing Company. The Citizen is at the present time a progressive, ably edited paper, and makes its influence felt throughout the county.
The Ilion News was started March 21, 1889, by C. A. White. He sold out in 1891 to C. D. Munsel, the present publisher, under whose management the paper is gaining in reputation and circulation.
Churches of Ilion .- Methodism in Hion dates back to 1832, when Rev. John Ercanback, a preacher in charge of the Litchfield circuit, or- ganized the first class, consisting of John Hunt and wife, Mrs. Bolles, Mrs. Nathan Morgan, W. Norton, R. Hunt, and probably one or two others. John Hunt was the first class leader and at his house the first preaching was held. After that the school-house was used for services. In 1840 Hlion, together with Frankfort and Mohawk, was made a part of the Herkimer circuit ; Rev. C. H. Austin was the preacher in charge. In 1842 Rev. B. I. Diefendorf and Rev. J. Thomas were sent to Herki- mer circuit and in that year a union church was built by the Methodists and Universalists ; this was afterwards sold to the Baptists and still be- longs to them. In 1856 Frankfort and Ilion were made a separate cir- cuit, with Rev. A. M. Smith in charge; he was followed for two years by Rev. J. B. Ferguson, and one year by Rev. O. Squire.
In 1860 Ilion became a preaching station, having some sixty mem- bers and paying $400 preacher's salary. In 1862 the parsonage was built, Rev. J. F. Dayan, pastor. In 1866 was built the First Metho- dist Church; Rev. E. Horr (then a probationer in the Conference), pastor. In 1890 Mrs. Caroline Remington, in remembrance of her husband lately deceased, built and presented to the church the Reming- ton Memorial Chapel ; Rev. D. F. Pierce, pastor. The church has now
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IHISTORY OF HERKIMER COUNTY.
465 members and thirty probationers and owns a church and parson - age property worth $35,000.
The pastors of the church have been :
1860-61, D. B. White; 1862-63, J. F. Dayan; 1864-66, E. Horr, jr. ; 1867-69. F. F. Jewel; 1870-72, M. S. Hard ; 1873-74, T. B. Shepherd; 1875-77, H. W. Bennett ; 1878-80, G. M. Mead; 1881-83, W. H. Reese; 1884-86, S. O. Barnes; 1887-90, D. F. Pierce ; 1891-92, R. E. King. Superintendent of Sunday -school, L. B. Walrath.
The Baptist church (under title of the First Baptist Church of Ilion) was organized in April, 1865, but had been recognized by a council which met in the Union church in February preceding, and consisted of fifteen members. Rev. R. O. Broady was the first pastor. In 1869 the Union church building was purchased by the society and extensively remodeled, enlarged and refitted; it was dedicated on the 13th of May, 1869. Among the pastors who have served the church since the first are Revs. W. W. Jones, Judson Davis, James H. Andrews, L. Golden, Mr. Maxfield, Mr. Reeder, Mr. Merwin, A. B. Sears, who came in 1887, and Rev. A. M. Beggs, who came in 1890. The membership is about 250. Superintendent of Sunday-school, Frederick Coleman.
First Presbyterian Church of Ilion .- At a meeting of the Presbytery of Utica, held at Little Falls January 16, 1871, Aaron Brown and A. H. Sumner appeared in behalf of residents of Ilion and asked to be or - ganized into a Presbyterian church. The request was granted and the following persons became members :
Aaron Brown, A. H. Sumner, Mrs. Mandana A. Sumner, Rebecca Churchill, A. P. Redway, Mrs. Fannie Redway, Sarah A. Southworth,' Helen Southworth, Eliza R. Hanson, George Newth, Mrs. Charlotte Newth, John Wake, Mrs. Mariette Wake, Thomas G. Hutchinson, H. Harper Benedict, Mrs. Marie Benedict, Sarah Robinson, and E. Robinson.
In the following November Rev. D. M. Rankin became pastor and continued until 1878. In October of that year Rev. A. F. Lyle was called; he was succeeded in 1882 by Rev. M. E. Dunham, and he by Rev. W. C. Taylor, the present pastor, whose services began in October, 1888. In the spring of 1874 a lot was purchased on the corner of Morgan and Second streets for $4,500, and there the present handsome brick church was erected ; the entire property is worth about $40,000.
The first elders of the church were Aaron Brown and A. H. Sumner. The deacons were George W. Newth and James Truax. The first
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TOWN OF GERMAN FLATS.
trustees were A. M. Osgood, S. W. Skinner and Russel Perkins. The present trustees are F. O. Harter, J. K. Harris, A. H. Sumner, N. J. Newth, C. W. Carpenter, H. A. House, J. C. Truax. Elders, A. H. Sumner, N. J. Newth, J. K. Harris, F. O. Harter, Robert Watson. The church membership is 143.
Church of the Annunciation .- In 1845 Rev. Father John McMenomy, a Roman Catholic priest, established a mission at this place in connec- tion with missions at Mohawk, Frankfort and Herkimer. He was stationed at Little Falls and attended this mission from that place, con- tinuing to do so until 1856, when Rev. Father William Howard took charge of this missionary field. He lived in Mohawk the first year and preached in Varley Hall, in that village. In August, 1857, Father Howard purchased of Mr. J. P. Pelton, of Ilion, the house and lot, con- taining two and a half acres of land, upon which the church and par- sonage now stands, paying therefor $4,500. In April, 1868, he in- augurated measures for building a church edifice, and in August of the same year the present church was dedicated by J. J. Conroy, bishop of Albany, assisted by twelve priests. The buildings cost $14,000, and the property is at the present time worth $30,000 and is clear from debt. The membership comprises about 200 families. The station is now and has for many years been in charge of Rev. Father J. F. Hyland.
The Catholic Parish of the Annunciation, including the villages and surrounding country of Herkimer, Mohawk, Ilion and Frankfort, was organized into a mission in 1867, by Rt. Rev. J. J. Conroy, with Rev. William Howard as first resident pastor. His assistants at different times were Revs. A. P. Ludden, J. F. Mullany and W. J. Smith.
Owing to his zealous faith and untiring energy Father Howard was very successful in securing a suitable church, rectory and cemetery, and for the most part paying for them. His continued illness, and local business depression, induced him to retire to Herkimer in 1878. He was succeeded by Rev. J. F. Hyland. During his incumbency of four- teen years the church, cemetery and rectory have been enlarged and greatly improved. The debt also has been paid and there are a few thousand dollars in the treasury.
Though Herkimer was severed from the mission in 1878, and Frank- fort in 1886, the church attendance has not decreased.
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HISTORY OF HERKIMER COUNTY.
Rev. J. F. Hyland was the second child of a large family in the town of Hamilton, Madison county, N. Y. He graduated successively from the public schools there, Eastman's Commercial Business College, Poughkeepsie ; Niagara University, Suspension Bridge, and St. Joseph's Theological Seminary, Troy, where he was ordained in 1874.
He was assistant pastor of St. John the Baptist's church, Syracuse, and St. Mary's, Amsterdam, and became pastor of the Church of the Annunciation, Ilion, in 1878.
St. Augustine's Protestant Episcopal Church was incorporated on the 9th of August, 1869, with the following officers : Wardens, Floyd C. Shepard and John W. Newhouse; vestrymen. S. Bosworth Johnson, William Onyans, William R. Russell, David W. Vanderburgh, Richard Hard and George Rix. In August, 1869, Rev. Charles H. Lancaster was chosen rector, and was succeeded November 1, 1871, by Rev. George H. Hepburn. Succeeding rectors have been Revs. C. F. A. Bielby, Edward M. Pecke, J. B. Hubbs, Edwin Armstrong, J. Dolby Skeene, S. M. Griswold, and the present rector, Rev. William Mason Cook, who came in 1888 There are 173 communicants in the church, and following are the wardens : F. C. Shepard, R. L. Winegar ; vestry- men, George P. Rix, T. J. Behan, George H. Barlow, George H. Dyett. Alfred Williamson, N. A. Hanchett, Walter C. Rix and Walter S. Baker.
The present officers of the village of Ilion are as follows : President, Dr. A. J. Douglass ; trustees, Seward Hakes, Harrington P. Whitney, M. L. Burke, John Van Gumster; clerk, Z. E. Cooper ; chief engineer of the fire department, M. M. Kane ; chief of police, Daniel Foley. S. G. Heacock is postmaster.
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TOWN OF HERKIMER.
CHAPTER XI.
THE TOWN OF HERKIMER.
W HEN the town of Herkimer was organized in 1788, it contained all that part of the county of Montgomery bounded northerly by the north bounds of the State ; easterly by Palatine (then extending to the west bounds of the present town of Manheim) ; southerly by the Mohawk Riv- er, and westerly by a north and south line running across the Mohawk River at the fording place " near the house of William Cunningham, leaving the same house to the west of said line." This fixed the west line of the town on the present western limits of the county, north of the Mohawk, and covered the area now embraced in the towns of Fairfield, Little Falls, Newport, Norway, Ohio, Russia, Schuyler, and Wilmurt, besides a considerable portion of the northern part of the State outside of the present county line. These limits also embrace all that portion of the German Flats and Kingsland districts north of the Mohawk and east of the present westerly bounds of the county.
The town as at present constituted is bounded on the north by New- port and Fairfield ; east by West Canada Creek and Little Falls ; south- erly by the Mohawk River, and westerly by Schuyler. The whole of Winne's and portions of Burnetsfield, Hasenclever's, Colden's and Wil- lett's patents, and some lots of the Royal Grant and Glen's purchase are in this town.
The settlement of the territory included in this town has been alluded to in the early pages of this work. It will be remembered that the In- dian deed of Herkimer county lands was under date of 1721, and the land was afterwards secured to the settlers by the colonial patent under date of April 25, 1725. At that date the lands had been surveyed, num- bered and assigned to persons by name. One hundred acres were as- signed to each of the ninety-two persons named in the patent, on the north side of the river. In order to make an equal division of the flats surrounding the present village of Herkimer, thirty acres were as- signed to each person who did not secure intervale lands elsewhere on the
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HISTORY OF HERKIMER COUNTY.
river. The thirty acres were designated as lowland, and to those who had the thirty acres each, were also assigned seventy acres of upland, called woodland in the patent; the thirty -acre lots and seventy . acre lots were designated by the same numbers, and in order to bring each of the seventy-acre lots near to its corresponding thirty-acre lot, the former were made about sixteen rods wide on the river, and almost two and one-half miles long. (See map, page 38.) The names of the l'alatines who were to settle on the lots were certified to the surveyor-general and certificates issued to the settlers in the winter and spring of 1723. The certificate of the lot embracing the site of the village of Herkimer bears date March 28, 1723. This lot was assigned to Gertrude Petri, wife of Johan Jost Petri, and contained eighty- six acres.
At the election of town officers in March, 1809, the following persons were chosen :
For supervisor, Henry Staring; town clerk, Melger Fols; assessors, Melger Fols, George Smith, Melger Thum ; collector, George Fols; constables, George Fols, Adam Bauman; commissioners of highways, Peter F. Bellinger, John Demuth, Jacob N. Weber; overseers of the poor, Henry Staring, George Weber, jr., Michael Myers ; overseers of highways, Marx Demuth, Philip Helmer, Adam Hartman, Hannes De- muth, Peter Weber, Philip Herter, Hannes Hilts, jr., Hannes Eiseman; pound- masters, George Weber, jr., Peter Barky, Ilannes Demuth, Nicholas Hilts, Ilannes Sehell.
From 1725 to the close of the Revolution the foregoing county his- tory comprises very little of general moment that did not take place in this town and German Flats. Fort Dayton was a small stockaded fort erected on the site of the village of Herkimer 1 and within its limits was included the land on which the Reformed church and the court-house now stand.
I Regarding the name of " Herkimer " as applied to this town, Gen. F. E. Spinner wrote in 1878 as follows : " The present nomenclature came about by a most singular misunderstanding between Hon. Simeon De Witt, then surveyor-general of the State, and Dr. William Petry, the maternal grandfather of Judge Earl, of Herkimer. The doctor was one of the most intelligent of the set- tlers of the upper Mohawk valley, and having previously for several years been a member of the State Legislature, was sent to Poughkeepsie, where the Legislature then sat, in regard to the erection of new towns in the then county of Montgomery. This was in 1788. The names of Ger- inan Flats and Herkimer had heen agreed upon, but the location of the two was not understood by the surveyor-general. That officer had his survey maps by patents before him. He asked the doctor as to the situation of each. Viewing the ground from his standpoint, below the mouth of the Mohawk, looking up that river, he answered that Herkimer was on the left and German Flats on the right. The surveyor-general supposed that the doctor meant the right and left hanks of the Mohawk as the river flowed ; so wrote the names on his map, and so the error was enacted into a
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TOWN OF HERKIMER.
Previous to the Revolution the German settlers looked upon the site of Herkimer village as desirable for a business center, as it rose grace- fully above the surrounding lands, and was early known as " the Stone Ridge." This site was embraced in lot 17, assigned, as we have said, to Gertrude Petri. On account of its desirable features for compact building, the settlers complained to some extent that it had been granted to one person. In consequence, Mrs. Petri, or members of her family, executed a deed dated July 1, 1765, to forty-six of the Burnets- field lot owners, and the deed ran to those persons whether they were then dead or living, and conveyed sixty-two and three fourths acres lying southwardly from an east and west line running just north of the present Palmer House. Mrs. Petri retained the part of her lot lying north of this line, and there the court-house, the Reformed church, and other buildings now stand.
Little was done until after the Revolution towards making this site a center of close settlement. In 1793 steps were taken for the divi- sion of the tract into small lots, and Evans Wharry, Isaac Brayton, and Phineas Gates were the commissioners for the task. The strange proceeding was then witnessed of granting lots principally to dead persons and seventy years after the lots in the original patent had been assigned to them. The sixty-two and three-fourths acres were divided into two sections, the present Main street being the dividing line, and a street was run through each section parallel with Main street. They then laid out the land into half acre lots, bounding the same on the three streets that are now known as Main, Prospect and Washington streets, and making forty-six lots in each division. A map was made showing the numbers and positions of the lots, and the forty-six names were written on slips of paper and placed in a hat to be drawn out, the first drawing being written on lot No. I, and so on through the whole list. Each person, dead or alive, whose name was read in the proceed- ings, was assigned two lots of the same number, one in each division. Nicholas Feller, who received lots No. 4, was dead before the deed was executed by which the sixty-two and three- fourths acres were granted.
law, and the reversal of the names was not known until too late, and so they have remained ever since. The old and true German Flats, which are situate in the angle formed by the confluence of the Mohawk with the West Canada Creek, were by this' mistake placed on the opposite side of the Mohawk, and Fort Herkimer was carried by force of law to the German Flats."
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HISTORY OF HERKIMER COUNTY.
John Jost Herkimer was assigned lots 45, and he, too, was dead long before the division was made; and the same might be said of most of the others. It is under this partition that titles to the village lots have since been held. The title to the portion of the Stone Ridge retained by Mrs. Petri, with the exception of the acre belonging to the Reformed church, passed into the hands of Gen. Michael Myers soon after the Revolutionary War, and from him the title to all that part of the village site is held, including the title to the land on which the county build- ings stand. The original map made by the commissioners contains the following names of those who received lots, given with the original spelling :
Mary Catharine Coen, Lodwick Richet, Jurgh Doxstater, John Adam Staring, Michael Edick, Johonas Pownrad, Adam Michael Smith, Nicholas Woolver, John Vanderline, Wendrick Myer, John Jurgh Smith, John Casler, Johonas Bellinger, Law- rence Harder, Nicholas Staring, Lendert Helmer, Lodwick 'Pears, Godfrey Reele, Jacob Weaver, Dedrick Tamouth, Christian Felmer, John Jost Herkimer, Hendrick Orendorf, Nicholas Wever, Johonas Miller, Frederick Bellinger, John Jurgh Kast, jr., Peter Bellinger, Rodolph Korsing, Jurgh Hlerkheimer, John Michael Edigh, Widow M. Folts, Hendrick Spoon, John Jost Petrie, Peter Spier, Johonas Boar- man, Thomas Shoemaker, Philip Helmer, Conradt Richet, John Adam Helmer, Frederick Staring, Anna Catharine Land, Nicholas Feller. John Adam Bowman, Johan Jurgh Kast, Johanas Hess.
It need hardly be stated that numerous descendants of these families are still living in the town of Herkimer and in other parts of the county.
Here and on the opposite side of the river on the flats the settlers had, before the outbreak of the French and Indian war, made for then- selves comfortable homes, built mills and churches, and were living in contented peace.
The building of the stone church and a mill south of the river is described in the preceding history of the town of German Flats; these were the first in the present limits of the county. Then followed the erection of the church on the site of the Reformed church in Herkimer village, described a little further on. A grist mill that was burned in the invasion of November, 1757, was situated about half a mile north of the turnpike, near the residence of George W. Pine, on lands of the late Hon. Frederick P. Bellinger. This mill was built shortly after the year 1733 by Jacob Weber, to whom was assigned lot No. 10 in the
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TOWN OF HERKIMER.
patent on the north side of the river. He bought, July 2, 1733, an acre of land in lot No. 11, adjoining his lot, to make with his lot a con- venient mill site. In 1769 Dr. William Petry, then a prominent and leading German in the valley, took a bond from Jacob Weber and his son, George Jacob Weber, for a deed of this mill site. The condition in that bond shows that it was the site of a former mill, and is as fol- lows :
The condition of this obligation is such that if the above bounden George Jacob Weber and Jacob Weber, Senior, their heirs, executors, administrators, or any of them, do will and truly deliver for the first of Jacob Weber, Senior, one acre of land in the clove of Christman's mill Kill, and in Frederick Reegle's House place, where the old mill was, and then together out of their own House place near by above this acre the land lying on the same Kill from one hill to the opposite oue when he finds necessary for the use of a mill unto said William Petry, etc.
This extract shows that there was a mill on this site before the burning of 1757. It was one of the grist-mills mentioned in the ac- count of that disastrous event. There is a tradition that Jolin Christ- man had a mill, probably a saw-mill, on this creek. On the site men- tioned in the bond above referred to, Dr. William Petry erected a grist- mill, a potashery, dwelling house and other buildings. These were all burned at the time of Brant's invasion in 1778.
The following petition throws light upon the history of Fort Dayton (Herkimer), after the Revolution, and indicates that the Legislature gave some needed relief to poor widows whose husbands were killed in the war:
To the Honorable the Legislature of the State of New York our humble petition sheweth :
We the subscribers humbly beg to take in consideration our poor circumstances, it has been pleased to grant ten of the poor widows occasioned by the enemy, the Legis- lature by the session of last spring, some provision where Peter Tygert, Esq., should have the charge of, we never have got anything yet until this moment, and have spended the chief parts of our clothes and effects for the maintenance of our familys.
We therefore humbly beg to order this provision to be issued to us by Peter Tygert, Esq., to be forwarded so that we may in our distress be supported. Then further, since the petition of us has been grant four other families have shared the same fate with us and Catharine Demood, Anna Colsh, Catharine Reigel and Anna Lents, where two of their husbands had been killed and two taken prisoners.
1 Samuel Earl's papers.
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HISTORY OF HERKIMER COUNTY.
So we humbly beg to grant us some support wherefore we shall ever pray and call ourselfs your honours' most obedient liumble servants.
Fort Dayton, March 3d, 1787.
ELIZABETH AYRES,
CATHARINE RINHILL, SYBILLA DINIS,
CATHARINE DEMOOD,
EVA KELLER, ANNA COLSH,
GERTRAND STEINWAY, MARGARETH ('LEMENTZ,
CATHARINE REIGEL, MARIA SKIFF,
SUSAN OYD,
ANNA LENTZ,
MARGARETH BROWN, MAGDALEIN SNEK.'
Nicholas Feller, who has already been mentioned as receiving a lot in the division under Gertrude Petry's deed, and who also had posses- sion of a tract in German Flats, was assigned lot No. 7, lowland and up- land, on the north side of the river. The upland lot was, according to the late Samuel Earl, " the house place and is the next lot east of the paper-mill in the village of Herkimer. There he lived and died. He made his will in 1734, one of the witnesses to which was John Jost Petri, his nearest neighbor, then living on the adjoining lot No. 8, whereon stands the paper-mill of Messrs. Miller & Churchill. In his will he gives his lot to his daughter, Maria Elizabeth, wife of George Hilts. The lot was afterwards owned by George Hilts's son, Nicholas Hilts, and he was succeeded by his son, George Hilts, who died in 1857." This is one of the few lots that remained in possession of descendants of the original holder until very recent years. Another lot that may be men- tioned as remaining in the family during a number of succeeding gener- ations was that of the Doxtaders, about a mile west of the court-house on the turnpike, lot No. 20. On this lot John Doxtader, father of Frede- rick, was wounded by the Indians in August, 1780, while at work with his brothers on the lowlands near the river. Frederick Doxtader lived to a great age, and the lot passed to his daughter, wife of Alexander M. Gray, who occupied it.
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