History of Jefferson County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 2

Author: Durant, Samuel W; Peirce, H. B. (Henry B.)
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 862

USA > New York > Jefferson County > History of Jefferson County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 2

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The county is wholly drained by Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence. The most important of the interior streams is Black river, which drains about one-fourth of the county, passing through a little south of the centre. Between Carthage, on the east line of the county, and the lake, this stream falls four hundred and eighty feet, and, as may be imagined, is almost a continuous series of rapids, with sev- eral eascades varying from two to fifteen feet in perpen- dicular descent.

The waters of this river are of a peculiarly dark and for- bidding appearanec, resembling, in deep plaees, the lye of wood-ashes, eaused probably by the leachings of the cedar and hemlock swamps and peaty bogs which it drains towards its head-waters, and by oxides.

This stream furnishes an immense amount of water- power; it being estimated as high as one hundred and thirty-five thousand three hundred and sixty horse-power, in the dry season, within the limits of Jefferson County alone.

The other principal streams are Indian river, a branch of the Oswegatehie; Chaumont river, flowing into Chaumont bay ; Pereh river, which drains Perch lake and discharges into Black River bay ; the two branches of Sandy ereek, in the south part of the county ; Stony ercek, in Henderson

* Sec history of land titles.

t Sec history of townships.

HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK.

and Adams ; and Mill creek, in Hounsfield ; the last four named flowing into Lake Ontario south of Blaek river.

FIRST MAP OF THE COUNTY.

The first attempt to delineate Jefferson County upon a map was probably made in October, 1802, by Simeon De Witt, surveyor-general of the State, who published a State map. At that date the only village in the county was Brownville. All the region north of Blaek river was ealled Castorland, and the position now known as the " Thousand Islands" was marked "unknown." Chau- mont bay was then ealled Hungry bay. Watertown was subdivided into three seetions, Hesiod, Leghorn, and Milan. On the south were Henderson, Aleppo, Orpheus, and Han- del ; and along the south side of the county were Minos, Attieus, Fenelon, and Shakspeare.

THE THOUSAND ISLANDS.

The following interesting article upon the Thousand Islands is from Dr. Hough's history :

"Several of the early travelers deseribe, in romantie terms, the beauty of this group of islands; but no lan- guage is adequate to convey a just idea of the charming variety that they present to the traveler. The following ex- traet is from " Weld's Journal" (1799), and gives a truth- ful description, due allowanee being made for the changes which eultivation and settlement have made :

"' About eight o'eloek the next and eighth morning of our voyage, we entered the last lake just before you come to that of Ontario, ealled the Lake of a Thousand Islands, on aeeount of the multiplieity of them whiel it contains. Many of these islands are seareely larger than a bateau, and none of them, exeept such as are situated at the upper and lower extremities of the lake, appeared to me to eontain more than fifteen English aeres each. They are all covered with wood, even to the very smallest. The trees on these last are stunted in their growth, but the larger islands pro- duce as fine timber as is to be found on the main shores of the lake. Many of these islands are situated so elosely to- gether that it would be easy to throw a pebble from one to the other, notwithstanding which eircumstanee, the passage between them is perfectly safe and commodious for bateaux, and between some of them that are even thus elose to each other is water sufficient for a frigate. The water is un- commonly elear, as it is in every part of the river, from Lake St. Francis upwards; between that lake and the Utawas river downwards it is diseolored, as I have before observed, by passing over beds of marl. The shores of all these islands under our notiee are roeky ; most of them rise very boldly, and some exhibit perpendicular masses of rock towards the water upwards of twenty feet high. The seenery presented to view in sailing between these islands is beautiful in the highest degree. Sometimes, after pass- ing through a narrow strait, you find yourself in a basin, land-loeked on every side, that appears to have no eommu- nication with the lake, execpt by the passage through which you entered ; you are looking about, perhaps, for an outlet to enable you to proceed, thinking at last to see some little channel which will just admit your bateau, when on a sud- den an expanded sheet of water opens upon you, whose

boundary is the horizon alone; again in a few minutes you find yourself land-locked, and again a spacious passage as suddenly presents itself; at other times, when in the middle of one of these basins, between a eluster of islands, a dozen different channels, like so many noble rivers, meet the eye, perhaps equally unexpectedly, and on each side the islands appear regularly retiring till they sink from the sight in the distanee. Every minute during the passage of this lake the prospect varies. The numerous Indian hunting en- eampments on the different islands, with the smoke of their fires rising up between the trees, added considerably to the beauty of the seenery as we passed it. The lake of a Thousand Islands is twenty-five miles in length, and about. six in breadth. From its upper end to Kingston, at which place we arrived early in the evening, the distance is fifteen miles.

""' The length of time required to aseend the River St. Lawrenee, from Montreal to Kingston, is commonly found to be about seven days. If the wind should be strong and very favorable, the passage may be performed in a less time ; but should it, on the contrary, be adverse, and blow very strong, the passage will be protraeted somewhat longer ; an adverse or favorable wind, however, seldom makes a differ- enee of more than three days in the length of the passage upwards, as in each case it is necessary to work the bateau along by means of poles for the greater part of the way. The passage downwards is performed in two or three days, aeeording to the wind. The current is so strong that a contrary wind seldom lengthens the passage in that diree- tion more than a day.'"

The following lines, by Caleb Lyon, are meritorious as a production of the faney, and will be read with interest :

The Thousand Isles! the Thousand Isles ! Dimpled, the wave around them smiles, Kissed by a thousand red- lipped flowers, Gemmed by a thousand emerald bowers; A thousand birds their praises wake By roeky glade and plumy brake, A thousand eedars' fragrant shade Falls where the Indians' children played ; And faney's dream my heart beguiles While singing thee, thou Thousand Isles !

No vestal virgin guards their groves,

No Cupid breathes of Cyprian loves, No Satyr's form at eve is seen, No Dryad peeps the trees between,

No Venus rises from their shore, No loved Adonis, red with gore, No pale Endymion wooed to sleep, No brave Leander breasts their deep,

No Ganymede,-no Pleiades,- Theirs are a New World's memories.

The flag of Franee first o'er them hung,

The mass was said, the vesper sung, The frères of Jesus hailed the strands

As blessed Virgin Mary's lands ; And red men mutely heard, surprised, Their heathen names all Christianized. Next floated a banner with cross and erown, 'Twas Freedom's eagle plueked it down, Retaining its pure and erimson dyes With the stars of their own, their native skies.

There St. Lawrence gentlest flows,

There the south wind softest blows,

HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK.

There the lilies whitest bloom, There the birch hath leafiest gloom, There the red deer feed in spring, There doth glitter wood-duek's wing, There leaps the muskelunge at morn, There the loon's night song is horne, There is the fisherman's paradise, With trolling skiff at red sunrise.

The Thousand Isles ! the Thousand Isles ! Their charm from every care heguiles ; Titian alone hath grace to paint The triumph of their patron saint, Whose waves return on memory's tide, La Salle and Tonty side by side. Proud Frontenac and hold Champlain There act their wanderings o'er again ; And while the golden sunlight smiles Pilgrims shall greet thee, Thousand Isles !

Thomas Moore, the Irish poet, early in the eentury traveled on the St. Lawrence, and his Canadian Boat Song is familiar to all admirers of his writings. The magnificent seenery of this noble river naturally excited the enthusiasm of a temperament formed for the perception of the beauties which are so strikingly reflected in his poetry. The boat- men were accustomed to beguile the tedium of rowing by singing, their voices being perfectly in tune together, and the whole joining in the chorus. Of the effect of this he says: "Without that charm which association gives to every little memorial of scenes or feelings that are past, the melody may perhaps be thought eommon and trifling; but I remember when we had entered at sunset upon one of those beautiful lakes into which the St. Lawrence so grandly and unexpectedly opens, I have heard this simple air with a pleasure which the finest eompositions of the first masters have never given me; and now there is not a note of it which does not reeall to my memory the dip of our oars in the St. Lawrence, the flight of our boat down the rapids, and all those new and fanciful impressions to which my heart was alive during the whole of this interest- ing voyage."

CANADIAN BOAT SONG. Et regimen cantus hortutur .- QUINTILIAN.

Faintly as tolls the evening chime Our voices keep tune, and our oars keep time ; Soon as the woods on shore look dim, We'll sing at St. Ann's our parting hymn. Row, brothers, row, the stream runs fast, The rapids are near and the daylight's past !

Why should we yet our sail unfurl ? Thero is not a breath the bluo wavo to curl ! But, when the wind blows off the shore, Oh, sweetly we'll rest on our weary oar! Blow, breezes, blow, the stream runs fast, The rapids are near and the daylight's past!

Utawa's tido! this trembling moon Shall see us float over thy surges soon : Saint of this green isle ! hear our prayers, Oh, grant us cool heavens and favoring airs ! Blow, hreezes, blow, the stream runs fast, The rapids are near and the daylight's past!

GEOLOGY, MINERALOGY, ETC.

The chapter upon the geology, mineralogy, etc., of the county, in Dr. Hough's History, published in 1854, is so complete, and treats the various subjeets with such thor-

oughness and marked ability, that we give it nearly en- tire :

To an agricultural population, like that which forms the basis of society in Jefferson County, there are none of the physical sciences which have stronger elaims to attention than geology and its allied branehes, mineralogy and chem- istry, for it is these that teach the character and capabilities of the soil, and the train of causes which, acting harmo- niously through long periods of time, compared with which the historic eras of man are but as moments, have gradu- ally prepared the earth's surface for his support ; given form and beauty to its hills and plains ; seoopcd out the valleys through which rivers find their way to the sca, and placed stores of metallie wealth within reach of his labors. Nor have these agencies failed to record their action in the traces they have left, as enduring as time, yet easily inter- preted, and abundantly rewarding such as will but observe them. There is no pursuit more engaging or better calcu- lated to impart a true knowledge of the grandeur and harmony of nature's works, and a devout reverence for their Author.

Such is the intimate relation between the soil and the rock from which it has been derived, and usually with that by which it is immediately underlaid, that a definite knowl- edge of its capabilities can scarcely be had without an ac- quaintance with the latter. Besides this, we are indebted to mineral products for so many articles of necessity, to say nothing of the conveniences and luxuries in life, that their relations and the indieations which lead to their occurrenee become subjects of necessary knowledge, and indispensable to our eivilization.

PRIMARY ROCKS.

Geologists divide rocks into two great elasses, named, from their relative ages, primary, and sedimentary or sec- ondary ; the first never presenting traces of organic re- mains, but from their crystalline character and mode of occurrence often exhibit evidences of having been sub- jected to tlie agency of heat, while the latter appear made up of materials derived from the former, broken up and deposited in water, and usually contain fossil remains of animals and plants that lived at the period of their forma- tion. As we ascend in the series, we find the characters of the roeky strata vary, as if their deposit had been produced under different ageneies, which had changed repeatedly, and at each time the forms of organic life had disappeared, to give place to some other, which had in like manner passed away ; and so constant is the type of these fossil remains for each class of rocks, that it affords an infallible guide, when present, to a knowledge of the place and rela- tion of the rocks in which they occur. The science of Paleontology has for its object the classification and de- seription of these fossil remains, and few sections afford a more profitable field for these researchies than this county. Both primary and secondary rocks occur in Jefferson County, the former of which, with the dividing line be- tween them, affords the only rational prospects of valuable metallic veins and deposits, as well as most of the crystal- line minerals, which form so attractive objects to the min- eralogist and such dazzling ornaments to cabinets.

Of the latter, however, we are not without localities that

HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK.

vic with the most noted, and the primitive region of the county will abundantly repay the labor bestowed upon min- cral collection. The details of these will be hereafter given. The rock constituting the primary is mainly composed of gneiss ; a mixture of quartz, hornblende, and feldspar, which are regarded as elementary or simple minerals, and make up by far the largest part of what is known of the earth's surface. In gneiss, these usually occur in irregular strata, often contorted, never horizontal, and seldom contin- uing of uniform thickness more than a few feet. It forms by far the largest part of the surface rock throughout the great northern forest of New York, and in Jefferson this rock constitutes the greater part of the islands in the St. Lawrence, between French Creek and Morristown, and ap- pears in Clayton, Orleans, and Alexandria on the river- bank ; in the latter town it extends back a mile or two from the shore. It forms a strip, extending up on both sides of Indian river to Theresa village, and the shores and islands of most of the lakes of that town and Antwerp, and much of the country within the node of Indian river, towards the village of Philadelphia, where it forms the surface rock and extends to Antwerp, the greater part of which it underlies. From this town it extends along Indian river to the village of Natural Bridge, and thence to Car- thage, where it forms the islands among the rapids of the Long falls, and thence follows up the river, keeping a little west of its channel, through Lewis into Oneida county. In this area there are occasional ledges of white or primary limestone, especially in Antwerp, with limited quantities of serpentine, and superficial patches of sandstone.

SEDIMENTARY ROCKS.

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

In the vicinity of Theresa, Redwood, etc., there occurs in numerous places in this rock the cylindrical structure, common at many localities in St. Lawrence county,* and apparently produced by eddies acting upon the sands at the bottom of shallow water. This formation is generally in thick masses, often disturbed by upheavals, almost invari- ably inclined from the horizontal, and seldom in this county so evenly stratified as to admit of that uniformity of frac- ture that gives value to it as a building material at Potsdam, Malone, etc. It is, however, extensively used for this pur- pose, and forms a cheap and durable, but not an elegant wall. This rock has two applications in the useful arts, of great importance,-the lining of blast furnaces, and the

manufacture of glass; for the former of which it has been used extensively at all the furnaces in the northern counties, and for the latter at Redwood. The quarry that has been most used for lining stone oecurs on the farm of Hiram B. Keene, in Antwerp, where the rock occurs highly in- clined, but capable of being divided into blocks of uniform texture and any desirable size. The edges of the stone, when laid in the furnace, are exposed to the fire, and become slightly fused, forming a glazing to the surface. It is seldom that a material is found so finely adapted to this purpose. For the manufacture of glass the stone is calcined in kilns, and crushed and sifted, when it affords a sand of much whiteness, and eminently suitable for the purpose.

This rock is generally overlaid by a fertile soil, but this is more due to the accidental deposition of drift than the dis- integration of the rock itself, for such is its permanence that it can scarcely be found to have yielded to the destruc- tive agencies that have covered many other rocks with soil. On account of its capacity to resist decay it should be se- lected, when possible, for the piers of bridges, the founda- tion of houses, and other structures where permanence and solidity are required. A very peculiar feature is presented by the margin of this rock, which, by the practiced eye, may be detected at a distance, and which strongly dis- tinguishes it from all others. The outline is generally an abrupt escarpment, sometimes extending with much regu- larity for miles, occasionally broken by broad ragged ravines, or existing as outstanding insular masses, and always pre- senting, along the foot of the precipice, huge masses of rock that have fallen from above. The most remarkable terrace of this kind begins on the north shore of Black lake, in Morristown, and extends through Hammond into Alexandria, much of the distance near the line of the Mili- tary road, and other instances are common throughout the region underlaid by this rock.

Next in the ascending series is a rock which, in this part of the State, constitutes a thin but level formation, and, from its being a sandy limestone, has been named calciferous sand- stone. It has generally an open, porous texture, much dis- colored by iron, and occasionally, like some strata of the sandstone bencath it, filled with small masses of incoherent sand, that easily falls out, leaving irregular cells. It is this rock that contains the beautiful quartz crystals for which Middleville and the vicinity of Rockton, in Herkimer county, have become celebrated. It appears as the surface rock between Antwerp and Carthage; between the Check- ered House, in Wilna, and the Natural Bridge ; between Antwerp and Sterlingville ; and in Theresa, Alexandria, Orleans, and Clayton. It is valueless as a building mate- rial, from its coarse, rotten texture, and want of regular fracture. In many places it is filled with the forms of marine plants, which, though obseure, are conclusive, and appear to have been like some still existing, with thick, succulent, hollow stems. Shells are less common, and are but imperfectly preserved, constituting seven genera and about a dozen species. Of the probable condition of the earth's surface when this rock was forming, Prof. Hall has made the following remarks :+

# History of St. Lawrence and Franklin counties, p. 678 .- Hough, 1853.

Palæontology of New York, i. 5.

HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK.

" During the progress of this formation, and towards its elose, a considerable number of forms of animal life appear to have been called into existence. We have passed from that condition of the earth unfavorable to animal develop- ment, and we perccive the gradual change which, in the next period, presents us with swarms of animated existences. If we can, in imagination, allow ourselves to go back to the preceding epoch,-to fancy the earth enveloped in one waste of ocean, save, perhaps, a few rocky peaks; when the natu- ral agitation of the waters by the winds was inereased by voleanic or igneous outburstings ; while the rocky points were abraded, and thenee fine sand and pebbles spread over the bed of the ocean,-we behold life, struggling into exist- ence in this stormy period, only manifested in the fragile yet enduring form of the little Lingula, while an apparently rootless, leafless plant is the representative of the vegetable kingdom.

" Look forward from this period to a gradual change. A more congenial element to the inhabitants of the ocean eomes in the form of calcareous matter, and new organisms are gradually called into existence. Still the heated waters bear their burden of silex in solution, and now they permeate every portion of this habitation of the new-born vitality, destroying the living, enveloping the dead in a siliceous paste, and preventing that development of numbers which awaits only a more congenial condition."

Next above this roek is the Chazy limestone, that occurs highly developed, and abounding in organic remains, but, according to Professor Emmons, does not appear in the Black River valley. The next rock there is the Bird's-Eye limestone, which ineludes the close-grained, hard, and thick-bedded strata, in which the layers of water limestone occur in Le Ray, Pamelia, Orleans, Brownville, and Clay- ton. The properties which give it value as a hydraulic eement are uncertain, as upon analysis it is found to con- tain variable proportions of silica, alumina, and magnesia. Its characteristic fossil, in the manner in which its vertical stems divide and interlace with each other, presents features totally distinct from any known analogy, either in marine plants or the zoophytes. These stems are filled with crys- talline matter, and often make up a great part of its mass. It has received from Professor Hall the generic name of Phytopsis,* of which there are two speeies,-P. tabulosum and P. cellulosum,-both of which occur abundantly in this county. When polished this rock presents an appearance which has given it the name, and in quarrying it readily breaks into regular masses. Its brittleness, when struck with a smart blow, prevents it being useful as a marble.

This forms the surface rock over a considerable extent of Cape Vincent, Lyme, Brownville, Pamelia, Le Ray, and Wilna. The part that overlics the yellowish or water lime strata abounds in nodules of flint that everywhere stand in relief upon the weathered surface. These are thought to be the fossil remains of sponges, or other forms of animal life analogous. These masses of flint often contain shells, corals, crinoidea, and obscure traces of other organic bodies that flourished in the seas in which this rock was deposited. Perhaps the most striking of these fossils is the Orthoceras

multicameratum, which is very common. Specimens are found of shells of a class analogous, of the enormous length of ten feet and breadth of twelve inches .; Besides the obscure fossil whose doubtful nature we have above noticed,ţ six genera and about a dozen species have been described.

The Black River limestone, in the classification of Pro- fessor Hall (the Isle La Motte marble of Professor Em- mons), is interposed between the rock last named and the Trenton limestone. It is a well-defined mass of grayish- blue limestone, in this eounty not exceeding ten fect in thickness, but in its fossils clearly distinct from the strata above and below it. Five genera and six species of corals, and five genera and ten species of cephalopoda, are described in the State Palæontology as occurring in this rock.

The delicaey of markings upon the surfaces of some of these eorals, when magnified, is beautiful; and their differ- ences afford the ground of classification of families and the generic and specific distinctions.

Another eoral is of frequent occurrence in the Black river limestone. It is sometimes seen of the size of half a bushel, and in the Mohawk valley much larger. It is commonly mistaken by the unobserving for petrified honey- comb, which in some respects it resembles.

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History of Jefferson County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 2

Author: Durant, Samuel W; Peirce, H. B. (Henry B.) Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 862

Author: Durant, Samuel W; Peirce, H. B. (Henry B.)
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 862