History of Jefferson County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 35

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 35

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is the centre of a very extensive trade in nearly all descrip- tions of merchandise and manufactured goods, and transacts a very large business in dairy and other agricultural produc- tions.

ADVANTAGES AND ATTRACTIONS.

1. Its unsurpassed and almost unlimited water-power,

furnished by Black river, which falls nearly 112 feet within the city limits.

2. It is located in the most fertile and productive portion of northern New York, and in one of the most thriving and prosperous agricultural counties in the State.

3. It is the virtual centre of a railway system which has its outlets at favorable points in the interior of the State, and at the best ports on the " great lakes of the north."

4. It therefore possesses the advantages of railway com- petition, all competing lines expressing and showing a liberal spirit towards all manufacturing enterprises.

5. It is situated in the midst of vast and valuable mineral deposits, chief among which are inexhaustible beds of the finest iron ore to be found in the United States, many of which are in full and successful operation.

6. Within the limits of the city lie portions of a ridge of limestone miles in extent, which, it has been demonstrated, has no superior as a flux for use in the reduction of iron ore.

7. It has direct railroad communication with the vast coal regions of northern Pennsylvania, by two competing railroad lines.

8. It has direct railroad communication with the lum- bering interest of adjoining counties, with lake and river ports, receiving lumber from the west, and with the great pine forests of Canada.

9. It is within ten miles of one of the best harbors on the great lakes, with which it is connected by rail, thus affording direct communication by water with the grain, lumber, and mineral industries of the northwest.

10. It is situated in the midst of the most productive tanning interest of the State,-Jefferson and adjoining counties being large producers of live stock, and the mate- rial for reducing hides to leather.

11. The government of the city is based on the strictest ideas of economy consistent with safe and sure progress, and the spirit of the people is decidedly in favor of every measure intended to make the rate of taxation low. The officers of the city are pledged to carry out this idea.

12. Statistics show that it is one of the healthiest cities in the Union, subject to no contagious diseases, and free from prevailing sickness. The rate of mortality for 1875 was one in seventy.

13. Its public school system has been placed upon a satisfactory foundation, and affords excellent educational facilities.

14. The cost of living is much less than in the large cities.

15. Its social advantages are numerous, the tone of society healthy, and the morals of the community beyond dispute.

Formerly called Cowen's island.

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HOUSE

DENTISTA

SHOES

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PUBLIC SQUARE, WATERTOWN N. Y.

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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK.

16. Its great wealth, which is just now seeking invest- ment in desirable and well-conducted manufacturing pur- suits.

It is 250 miles northwest of New York city, 147 miles west-northwest of Albany, 72 miles north of Rome, 90 miles northwest of Utica, 69 miles north of Syracuse, 60 miles northeast of Oswego, 76 miles south of Ogdensburgh, with all of which citics it has direct and unbroken railroad connection. It is also 10 miles east of Sacket's Harbor, one of the finest harbors on Lake Ontario, and 25 miles southeast of Cape Vincent, a fine port on the St. Lawrence river, opposite Kingston, Ontario, and one of the prominent outlets of a flourishing Canadian trade. With both the last-named points Watertown has direct railroad connection. It is also connected by rail with Clayton, a thriving village on the St. Lawrence river, opposite Gananoque, which is also an outlet of Canadian trade ; and with Morristown, a prosperous village a few miles farther down the river, opposite Brockville, Ontario. Kingston, Brockville, and Ganancque, with Prescott, opposite Ogdensburgh, are im- portant points on the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada. Kingston is the terminus of the Kingston and Pembroke railroad, penetrating a productive lumber country. Brock- ville is the terminus of the Broekville and Ottawa railroad, and also of the Rideau canal, both passing through impor- tant lumber districts. Prescott is the terminus of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa railroad.

It will be seen that nothing can be more favorable than the geographical location of Watertown, commercially con- sidered. It is an element of strength which cannot be well overlooked by those who look at the question of location with commercial eyes.

The city is situated in the very heart of one of the richest agricultural regions in the State, to which fact is largely due the substantial growth, thrift, enterprise, and prosperity which have become its recognized features with those who know its history best. Its prosperity is second to no city of its size in the United States. It is, in fact, the leading commercial city of northern New York.

ORGANIZATION, SURVEY, AND SETTLEMENT.

The town of Watertown was organized from Mexico March 14, 1800, and comprised at that time townships Nos. 1, 2, and 3, or Hounsfield, Watertown, and Rutland. The name of the town was probably suggested by the great amount of water-power at the rapids where the city now stands. It is not on record who suggested it.

By the erection of Hounsfield and Rutland the original limits have been reduced to their present outline. Up to 1869 the village of Watertown formed a part of the town- ship. In that year the village was erected into a city, and a portion of the town of Pamclia was at the same time included in the chartered limits. The town was surveyed in 1796 by Benjamin Wright, and subdivided into fifty-two lots, ranging in size from 450 to 625 acres, and having a total area of 26,485 acres. A subsequent survey, by Robert McDowell, gave 26,667 acres. In 1801 the town was again subdivided by Joseph Crary, under the direction of Silas Stow. Upon the division of these towns, this, with Adams and Lowville, fell to the share of Nicholas Low,

under whom it was settled. The first agent employed was Silas Stow, who was followed, in 1804, by Morris S. Miller, and in March, 1806, the latter was succeeded by Isaac W. Bostwick, Esq., of Lowville. Mr. Wright surveyed the " Black River Eleven Towns," and made a report accom- panicd by remarks upon the soil, timber, water-power, etc. The following is an extract from his remarks upon this town :

"Township No. 2, on Black river, is situated about three miles from the mouth of the river. This river is navigable for bateaux about one and three-quarter miles, but yet with eonsiderable diffi- eulty, it may be ascended two and a half miles. The soil of this township is excellent in general, and, indeed, there is very little but what might be truly called first quality. Timber-maple, beech, bass, elm, ash, butternut, and some pine, of execllent quality.

" There are excellent mill-seats along Black river, where they are noted on the map, and many more which it is impossible to note with certainty, as the river the whole distance on the town is very rapid, except at the northeast corner, for abont three-quarters of a mile. The river is very rocky along the whole distance, and ap- pears to be a bed of limestone roeks. Along the banks of Black river, opposite No. 2 township, is eedar and hemlock, and, in some places, white pine, for about twenty or thirty rods, and from thence it rises to very handsome land, and timbered with maple, bass, beech, ete.

" At the northwest eorner is some flat rock, which lies about eight inches under the surface, and which is full of large eraeks, open about ten or twelve inehes."

Of the lots upon which the village of Watertown has been built, he remarked :

7. " This is a very good lot, and has excellent mill-seats on the river, without expensive dams, and with the greatest safety to the inills.

8. " This is a very good lot, and is well timbered ; has fine mill- seats, and land of the first quality ; some few stone and some pine timber.

9. " (Above village.) This is an excellent lot, some beautiful land along the east line, and some pine timber on the south ; some maple, beceli, bass, elm, and iron-wood.

10. " (Corner lot.) This is an excellent lot ; has a fine flat along the beach, which is very fine soil."

Simultaneously with the organization of the town, settle- ments were commenced by Henry Coffeen and Zachariah Butterfield, who arrived in March, 1800. They had vis- ited the country the previous autumn and purchased farms. They were from Schuyler, Oneida county, and brought their families and began their settlements on the site of Watertown village. Coffeen arrived a little in advance of Butterfield, coming via. Lowville, with his family and house- hold goods upon an ox-sled. He had purchased parts of lots 2, 3, 13, 21, and 165 acres on the westerly part of lot No. 7, now covered by the city. He erected his hut on the ground just west of the Iron Block, and Butterfield settled on the spot now covered by the Merchants' Exchange, newly erected on the corner of Washington street and the Public square. Oliver Bartholomew* arrived in town in March, 1800, and settled one and a half miles from the present village of Brownville. Simeon and Benjamin Woodruff and others visited the town, with the view of settlement, and in the ensuing winter but three families

Deaeon Bartholomew was born in Connecticut, October 20, 1757 ; served through the Revolution ; settled in Oneida county in 1794, and died in Watertown, June 18, 1850. In 1803 he assisted in forming one of the first Baptist churches in the county.

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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK.

wintered in town, viz. : Coffeen, Bartholomew, and Butter- field. The land books of Mr. Low show the following list of purchasers, some of whom may not have been actual settlers :

" 1799, May 16. John Whitney, 450 aeres on lot 8, at $2.50 per acre ; this probably reverted. In Oetoher, E. Allen, Silas Alden, S. and B. Woodruff, Jas. Rogers, O. Bartholomew, Thos. Delano, Elisha Gustin, Z. Butterfield. In 1800, HIeman Pellit, Thos, and John Saw- yer, John Blevan, Ahram Fisk, Wm. Lampson, Joseph Tuttle, N. Jewett, J. Wait, Ahram Jewett, IIart Massey, Joseph Wadley, Jona- than Bentley, J. Sikes, S. Norris, Chas. Galloway, Jonathan Talcott, Josiah Bentley, Frend Dayton, John Patrick, David Bent, Luther Demming, Ephraim Edwards, Tilson Barrows, Thomas Butterfield, J. and L. Stebbins, Asaph Mather, Benj. Allen, E. Lazelle, IIenry Jewett, Lewis Drury, S. Fay, - Stanley, James Glass, Ira Brown, W. P. and N. Crandall, Calvin Brown, Aaron Bacon, Bennet Rice, Thomas H. Biddlecom."

During the following season many of these persons, who were mostly from Oneida county, settled, and, in 1802, Jonathan Cowen* began the erection of a grist-mill at the bridge that crosses to Beebee's Island. The extraordinary water power which this place presented afforded ground for the expectation that it would become the centre of a great amount of business. The first deeds were given August 20, 1802, to Elijah Allen, Jotham Ives, David Bent, Ezra Parker, William Parker, Joseph Tuttle, and Joseph Moore.t-

During the first summer of the settlement, it being en- tirely impossible to procure grinding at any mills nearer than Canada, a stump standing on the Public square, a few rods east of the American Hotel, had been formed into a mortar, and, with a spring-pole and pestle attached, served the purpose of a grain-mill to the settlement. This primi- tive implement, suggestive of rustic life and the privations of a new colony, relicved the pioneers, in some degrce, from the necessity of long journeys to mill, through a pathless forest. The hardships of this carly period had a tendency to ereate a unity of feeling and sympathy from the strong sense of mutual dependence which it engendered, and which is recalled by the few survivors of the period with emotions of gratitude for the manifest mereies of Providence. These hardy adventurers were mostly poor. They possessed few of the comforts of life, yet they had few wants. The need- ful artieles of the household were mostly made by their own hands, and artificial grades of society were unknown. The first death of the settlement is thus described by J. P. Fitch, in the preface of the first village directory, published in 1840 :

" Late at the close of a still, sultry day in summer, Mrs. I. Thorn- ton, the wife of one of the young settlers, gave the alarm that her hushand had not returned from the forest, whither he had gone in the afternoon to proeure a piece of timber. Immediately every man in the settlement answered to the call, and hastened to the place desig- nated for meeting, to coneert a plan for search. Here all armed them- selves with torches of lighted pine-knots, or birch-bark, and calling every gun in the place into use for firing alarms and signals, started out in small companies into the forest, in all directions. After a search of several hours, the preconcerted signal-gun announced that tho ' lost was fonnd.' All hurried to the spot, and upon the ground

where now stands the Black River Institute, crushed beneath a trce which he had felled, lay the lifeless body of their companion. He was laid upon a bier hastily prepared for the occasion, and conveyed through the gloom of midnight, by the light of their torches, back to his house. What must have hecn the cmotion of the bereaved young widow when the mangled corse of her husband, so suddenly fallen a vietim to death, was brought in and laid hefore her ! She did not, however, mourn alone. As the remains were horne to their last rest- ing place-the first grave that was opened in Trinity Church-yard- it needed no sable emblems of mourning to tell of the grief that hung dark around every heart. Each one of the little company, as he re- turned from performing the last duties to his departed companion, felt as if from his own family one had been taken. A similar inei- dent occurred a short time after, in the death of a child which was killed hy the falling of a tree, on the present site of the court-house ; thus designating with blood, as one can imagine, the location of the halls of justice and science in our village, and conscerating the ground of each by a human sacrifice."

In 1802 an inn was opened by Dr. Isaiah Massey, and settlers began to locate in every part of the town, which, in September of that year, numbered 70 or 80 families. A dam was built by Cowan in 1802, and in 1803 he got in operation a small grist-mill. During two or three succeed- ing years, John Paddock, Chauncey Calhoun, Philo John- son, Jesse Doolittle, William Smith, Medad Canfield, Aaron Keyes, Wm. Huntingdon,¿ John Hathaway, Seth Bailey, Gershon Tuttle, and others, several of whom were me- chanics, joined the settlement, and, at a very early day, a school-house was built on the site of the Universalist church, which served also as a place of religious meetings. In 1805, John Paddock and William Smith opened the first store in the place, their goods being brought from Utica in wagons. An idea may be had of the hardships of that period, compared with modern facilities, from the fact that in March, 1807, seventeen sleighs, laden with goods for Smith and Paddock, were twenty-three days in getting from Oneida county to Watertown by way of Redfield. The snows were in some places seven fect deep, and the valleys almost impassable from wild torrents resulting from the melting of snows. The winter had been remarkable for its severity, and the spring for destructive floods.

In 1803 a bridge was built below the village, near the court-house, by Henry Coffeen and Andrew Edmunds, over which the State road afterwards passed, and in 1805 the dam was built below the bridge, at which, the same year, a saw-mill was built on the north side, and in 1806 a grist- mill, by Seth Bailey and Gershom Tuttle. A saw-mill was built on the Watertown side by R. & T. Potter, a little below, and a saw- and grist-mill soon after by H. H. Cof- feen, since which time many mills have been erected along' the river.

The first brick building erected in the county was built by William Smith, in the summer of 1806. It was two stories in height, with a stone basement, Mr. Smith work- ing upon it with his own hands. The bricks were manu- factured by Eli Rogers, on the point of land between the mall and Franklin street. The site of this building is now occupied by Washington Hall.

It is a singular faet that the village of Watertown, in common with the whole county of Jefferson, while it vies in

# Coweu was a millwright, and an unele of Judge Eseek Cowen, of Saratoga county. IIe died near Evans' Mills, November 27, 1840, at the age of 80.

t The majority of these settled outside the village.

¿ Died at Watertown, May 11, 1842, aged 85. IIe was a native of Conneetient, and came to Watertown in 1804.

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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK.

wealth and enterprise with the most favored portions of the State, owes very little if anything to imported capital. In most instances the wealth now existing has been acquired on the spot, by those who at an early period were thrown upon their own immediate exertions for support ; and from the ashes of the timber that covered the land, and the first erops which the virgin soil yielded in kind profusion, they received the first impulse, which, seconded by in- dustry, prudence, and sagacity, has not failed in bringing its reward. With a strong conviction that the place would at a future time become an important village, Jonathan Cowen, Henry Coffeen, Zechariah Butterfield, Jesse Doo- little, Medad Canfield, Aaron Keyes, Hart Massey, and Isaiah Massey, who owned property adjoining the present publie square and Washington street in Watertown, held, early in 1805, an informal meeting, and agreed to give for- ever to the publie for a publie mall a piece of land twelve rods wide and twenty-eight long, and another, running south at right angles to this, nine rods wide, and about thirty-two long. They then directed to be made by John Simons, a surveyor, a map of the premises, which was done, and de- posited in the town clerk's office, but this was afterwards lost. An attempt was subsequently made to resume the title, and sell portions of the public square, but the question having come into the courts, was decided by Judge Nathan Williams in favor of the public, as Mr. Cowen, the claimant, although he had never deeded land on the publie square, had acknowledged its existence by his bounding certain conveyances upon it .* In the same year the site of the court-house was determined by the commissioners appointed by the governor for that purpose, not without the most active influences being used at Brownville ; and it is said to have been located in its present site, at some distance below the business portion of the village, by way of compromise.

U. S. ARSENAL.

An act of 1808 directed 500 stand of arms to be de- posited at Champion, the destination of which was, by an act of March 27, 1809, changed to Watertown, and an arsenal erected in that year. The arsenal was built under the direction of Hart Massey, Esq., collector of the district of Saeket's Harbor, at an expense of $1940.99. It has given its name to the street on which it stands, which was previously called Columbia street, and was maintained by the State as an arsenal until sold under the act of April 9, 1850. The brick of which it was built were furnished by Abraham Jewett, at a cost of $339.63; the stone were cut by Thaddeus Smith and Joseph Cook, at a cost of $110.80 ; and the lime furnished by David Stafford and Benjamin Goodale, at 22 cents per bushel.

In Watertown, as in other sections, the manufacture of potash formed the first means of realizing eash, and many paid in whole or in part for their lands by this means. In 1808 nine thousand dollars worth of this staple was ex- changed, the market being at that time in Montreal. In 1870 the firm of Paddock & Smith purchased 2800 bar- rels, averaging $40 per barrel, making for that period the enormous aggregate of $112,000. The embargo which

preceded the war did not prevent but rather increased the trade by the high prices that it created, but the declaration of war entirely prostrated that and every other energy of the country, except that the inilitary operations of that period required large supplies of provisions and forage for the armies on the frontier. At Watertown bodies of troops were stationed for short periods, and the siek were often sent thither for that attendance which could not be secured at Sacket's Harbor. In 1811 the citizens had adopted measures for securing the benefits of an academy, and erected on the site of the First Presbyterian church a brick building for that purpose, which will be again mentioned in our account of academies. This building was used as a hospital for a considerable time.

Soon after the war there occurred in this village an event which excited extraordinary interest throughout the country, and of which many accounts have been published, more or less approximating to the truth, but none to our knowledge giving the full and correct details. Had the subject de- pended upon us alone to give it publicity, it might have been properly passed over as one of those events that should be forgotten, in charity to the memory of the dead, and feelings of surviving relatives ; but as it has been so often repeated that we do not imagine it in our power to give it wider notoriety, and knowing that the public would expect a notice of the event, we have labored to procure a correct version. The narrative may effect a useful purpose, by ex- hibiting the extent to which one error leading to another will betray one, at the same time serving as an instructive lesson to warn against any deviation from the path of honor, or the listening to suggestions that compromise principle.

Samuel Whittlesey, Esq., a lawyer of fine abilities, and whose moral and religious standing in the community was above suspicion, although " unequally yoked" to a woman of vicious proclivities, had settled in Watertown as early as 1807. He was a member in good standing of the Con- gregational (now Presbyterian) church, and being a Demo- crat in politics, was honored with office from the appointing power. In 1814 he was the candidate of that party for member of Congress, and though defeated by Moss Kent, it was not for lack of popularity with the people composing his party. He was appointed brigade paymaster of the militia, by Governor Tompkins, for the purpose of paying off the State militia who had been called into the service on the frontier during the war. Jason Fairbanks and Perley Keyes were his sureties, and this last fact is the apology for giving a detailed history of that affair in connection with Mr. Fairbanks' biography.

After the war had fully closed, the militia began to look with anxiety for the time to come when they should get their pay for services in the defense of their country. Mr. Whittlesey went to New York to obtain the necessary funds, and received at the Mechanics' Bank in that city $35,000, with which he returned, honestly intending, as there was reason to suppose, to pay out the last dollar to the persons for whom it was designed.

Mrs. Whittlesey's evil genius had suggested to her to go along, ostensibly for the purpose of visiting some friends, but, as afterwards seemed more likely, to watch for some opportunity which might turn up. Au indefinable desire

# See Paige's Chaneery Reports, iv., p. 510.

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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK.

to be where the money was possessed her, and she persuaded her husband that it was eminently proper for her to bear him company. On their way back, at Schenectady, she claimed to make the discovery that their trunk had been broken open and soure $8700 of the money taken. Her opportunity for possessing herself of a portion of that money had come, indeed, as she planned, and she had wickedly abstracted it, as will appear in the sequel. Mr. Whittlesey was confounded and overwhelmed. What could be done ? was the anxious inquiry.

By degrees she began to hint, darkly, "that it mattered little what was done; that they were ruined beyond any hope of escape; that it would be utterly impossible to sat- isfy a carping, uncharitable world; that they would un- doubtedly be charged with embezzling the money, and forthwith prosecuted for the amount; that it would sweep away every dollar of their hard savings, upon which they had depended as a store for old age and decrepitude, etc." In his distraction and perplexity, this reasoning sounded so like logical deductions that he was obliged to assent to the terrible array of consequences. She continued to inti- mate " that if there was no way of escape, if they must be ruined beyond hope of redemption, in character and property ; if all must go to satisfy the inexorable demands of arbitrary law ; if men would have no mercy, and God him- self had left them to buffet the waves of relentless fate, then there was an instinct which prompted her to lay hold of anything that promised to alleviate their terrible condition." She whispered it in his ear, " take the balance of the money and flee to some distant island or country, where among strangers, with money in their pockets, they could hope to escape utter starvation." She succeeded in getting him in her toils and then fastening him there.

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History of Jefferson County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 35

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