History of Jefferson County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 99

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 99


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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CHURCHES.


The " Christian Church of Hounsfield" was organized in 1820, by Rev. Lebbeus Field, with a membership number- ing about forty. A division occurred in the church and a new organization was afterwards effected. In 1843 a neat frame church was erected near Blanchard's Corners, at a cost of about $1100. Mr. Field continued to be the main pillar of the society until age forbade him to labor longer, yet now, when nearly a hundred years old, he occasionally finds his way to the tabernacle and listens to words from other lips, speaking upon the same subjects which he discussed more than half a century ago. The present membership of the church is not large.


The "Seventh-Day Baptist Religious Society" was formed December 26, 1847, with Benjamin Maxson, Elias Frink, John Utter, Nathan Truman, and John Witter, trustees. A church was built in the neighborhood known as "Sulphur Springs," which is still standing. The so- ciety holds its meetings on the seventh day,-Saturday,- and on Sundays the church is occupied by a Methodist


· Hough.


396


HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK.


class, which has flourished here for many years. The latter is in charge of the pastor at Sacket's Harbor, at present Rev. S. M. Fisk.


FIRST TOWN-MEETING.


After the organization of the town due notice was given by Amasa Fox, Esq., and a town-meeting was convened at the house of Ambrose Pease, and from thence adjourned to the house of Joseph Landon, March 4, 1806. The follow- ing is a list of officers chosen : Supervisor, Augustus Saeket ; Clerk, William Waring; Assessors, Amasa Fox, William Baker, Samuel Bates, Jr., Theron Hinman ; Com- missioners of Highways, Ambrose Pease, Robert Robbins ; Overseers of the Poor, Jotham Wilder, John Patrick ; Col- lector, Jeremiah Goodrich ; Constables, J. Goodrich, Wil- liam Galloway, John Root.


The supervisors for Hounsfield from 1806 to 1877, in- clusive, have been as follows : 1806-8, Augustus Saeket ; 1808 (special meeting), Elisha Camp; 1809-18, E. Camp ;. 1819, Hiram Steele; 1820-23, E. Camp; 1824, Daniel Hall, Jr .; 1825, E. Camp (special meeting to fill va- cancy), William Baker; 1826-7, Daniel Hall, Jr .; 1828, E. Camp ; 1829-41, Daniel Hall; 1842, Seth P. Newell, Jr .; 1843, Benjamin Maxon ; 1844, D. Hall; 1845, Au- gustus Ford; 1846-7, B. Maxon; 1848-50, Jesse C. Dann; 1851, Samuel T. Hooker; 1852, J. C. Dann; 1853-6, Edgar B. Camp; 1857-8, Daniel McCulloch ; 1859, Theodore Canfield; 1860, Sylvester I. Lewis; 1861, Andrew Smith ; 1862-4, Luther Barrows; 1865, Jay Dimiek ; 1866, Walter B. Camp; 1867-8, Jay Dimick ; 1869-72, Theodore Canfield ; 1873-5, William E. Tyler ; 1876-7, Samuel N. Hodges.


At the meeting above mentioned it was


" Resolved, That the inhabitants of this town, who shall hunt any wolf or panther in this town (though he should kill such wolf or panther in any other town), shall be entitled to $10 bounty.


" Resolved, That three delegates be appointed by this town to at- tend a general meeting of the county to nominate a suitable candidate for the legislature, at their own expense."


Theron Hinman, Augustus Sacket, and Amasa Fox werc appointed. At a special meeting called for the pur- pose, January 10, 1807, A. Sacket, John Patrick, and Elisha Camp were chosen to represent the town at a mcet- ing of delegates at Watertown, to take into consideration the military situation of the county. They were instructed to protest against any undue iufluences that might be exer- cised in the meeting.


Annual town-meeting, held at the house of Amasa Fox, March 3, 1807 :


" Resolved, That there shall be a bounty of twenty-five dollars paid to the inhabitant of this town who shall raise the greatest quantity of hemp above five hundred weight."


Also, a bounty of ten dollars was voted for every wolf or panther started within the town and killed by any inhabitant thereof. Elisha Camp was appointed surveyor to the town.


1808,-voted not to accept the State road as a town road. Annual town-meeting, Mareh 5, 1811 :


" Resolved, That Luther Read and Joshua Cross be permitted to retail liquor for this day."


Annual town-meeting, March 3, 1812 :


" Resolved, That hogs be free commoners, if yoked; the yokes to be 24 inches long by 15, and small hogs in proportion.


" Resolved, That any resident or land-holder of the town, he or his agent being notified by an inhabitant of the same that there is a patch or parcel of Canada Thistles likely to go to seed on the land in his possession, or in the highway adjoining the same, pointing to him the place, and shall within three days thereafter neglect to mow down or destroy the same, so that they shall not go to seed, shall for- feit and pay a fine of one dollar for every such neglect, to be collected the same as an action of debt. All fines so collected shall be deposited in Town Clerk's office to appropriate as premiums to any inhabitant of this town who shall discover the most practical method of destroy- ing said thistles, and will actually destroy the most, -such appropria- tions to be under the control of the town at their future annual meetings.


" Resolved, That the above resolve is made the duty of the Consta- bles.


" Resolved, That the agent shall not be individually responsible on the above resolve."


In 1815 the poor-masters were authorized to build a poor-house for transient poor, if they thought it necessary. At a special meeting in 1824 the poor-house system was voted against, and a remonstrance recommended to the legislature. Wolf and panther bounties were continucd until 1816. A bounty of fifty cents was offered on each fox scalp in 1822, 1823, and 1831. In 1828 the highway commissioners were directed to offer as stoek to the plank- road leading from the bridge at Dexter to Bagg's Corners, on the Watertown and Sacket's Harbor plank-road, half the cost of said bridge, and in case of refusal to accept, to petition that the bridge should be made a toll bridge.


MILITARY.


From the breaking out of the War of 1812 the citizens of Hounsfield have been imbued with an intensely patriotie spirit, which adhered to them as a result of the experiences during that war in their very door-yards, as it were,-and which was undoubtedly strengthened by the blood which flowed in their veins as descendants of a race of heroic men,-veterans of the war for independence. When the echoes of the guns fired at the doomed Fort Sumter in April, 1861, rolled northward and reverbcrated among the hills and valleys of the " Empire State," Jefferson County sprang at onee to arms, and Hounsfield was one of the fore- most towns to send volunteers to the front. No extra in- ducement in the way of bounty was needed as an incentive to enlistment. Men came pouring in from all directions, and offered themselves eagerly as defenders of the country which called them her sons.


" October 19, 1861, on the authority of Governor Morgan, of New York, the barracks (Madison barracks, at Sacket's Harbor) were opened as a depot for volunteers by W. B. Camp, a citizen of Sacket's Harbor, who was named on the staff of the governor, with the rank of colonel, and charged with the 'command of the volunteers to be quartered at Sacket's Harbor.' The governor was induced to open the barracks as a recruiting station on account of the patriotic as- sociations that elung to the place in the memories of the people, especially in the northern part of the State. In this he was not mis- taken, as every regiment he permitted to be raised here was quickly filled up by the youth of the surrounding country. Col. Camp found many of the buildings in a state of decay. To fit for occupancy some $3000 were expended in repairs. A portion of the eastern row of men's quarters was set aside as a hospital.


EA.S. DEL.


RESIDENCE OF D.C.READ, HOUNSFIELD , JEFFERSON CO, N. Y.


-


397


HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK.


" The 94th N. Y. Vols., organized by Col. Camp, was the first regi- ment raised here during the Rebellion. So great was the enthusiasm for the war that this regiment was filled up in eighteen days without the allurement of bounty. II. K. Veile was appointed colonel, and conducted it to the front in March, 1862.


" The 10th N. Y. Art. was organized here in the summer of 1862, and the barraeks, soon after the eall for men was sent forth, were filled by 2300 men, who had floeked in without being attracted by offers of bounty. The regiment was filled up out of this number, and tho balanee wero sent to regiments forming elsewhere." #


In 1863 the 20th N. Y. Cav. was formed here under Col. Lord. These were $1000 bounty men, and many of them were shiftless, good-for-nothing, vagabond fellows, who enlisted solely for the bounty, and departed for more congenial elimes as soon as it was drawn. True, there were many as noble and patriotie men in the ranks of this regiment as could be found in the State or elsewhere, but the reputation established by the black sheep of the flock was a bad one and not easily worn off.


In 1864 the 186th N. Y. Vols. was organized and filled up by Major C. S. Lovell, a retired officer of the United States army. These were also thousand dollar-bounty men. Many deserters, stragglers, skulkers, etc., from the front found their way into this regiment, and as soon as they received their bounty the region round about knew them no longer, for they


" Folded their tents, like the Arabs, And silently stole away."


Bounty-jumping, as it was called, was believed by many to be one of the devices invented for crippling the government, by a band organized for the purpose, working throughout the State of New York and having connections in Canada in the shape of rebel sympathizers.


The people in the neighborhood of the barracks suffered mueh from the vandalism of the disorderly spirits of this regiment, and it was a happy day for them when it was ordered away. Those who were conspicuous in the prae- tiee of bounty-jumping were probably in all cases non-resi- dents, so that the lustre of the record of Hounsfield and Jefferson is not dimmed nor tarnished by any disgraceful aets of their own eitizens.


" At a special town-meeting held at the town-hall in Hounsfield, on the 29th day of August, 1862, in pursuance of a call made by the town-clerk, for the purpose of author- izing the supervisor of said town to loan, on the credit of the town, $5100, for a bounty of $50 to be paid to each person that would volunteer into the serviec of the Federal Government, for the purpose of putting down the Rebel- lion. The whole number of votes for the loan was 260, the whole number of votes against the loan was 17."}


At a special town-meeting held on the 23d day of De- cember, 1863, to vote on a town-tax for raising bounties of three hundred dollars to each volunteer, to fill the quota of the town under the eall for 300,000 men, it was on motion


" Resolved, That the town of Hounsfield will, if the eleetors vote a town bounty, pay it to those only who may volunteer on or after the 16th instant, and to only a sufficient numuber to complete its quota, and that the money bo expended by the war committee of the town, and that said committee report to the next regular town-meeting."}


# History of tho post in Hospital Dept., Madison barracks. + Town records.


į Ibid.


At this meeting the vote stood-for the tax, 210; against, 30.


At a special meeting held February 5, 1864, to vote on bounties of three hundred dollars cach to volunteers from the town, the following preamble and resolution were adopted :


" Whercas, It is probable that the State legislature will pass a bounty aet, with the intent and for the purpose of doing away with town bounties ; and as the paying of town bounties in such a ease would be inexpedient, and may prevent our participating in said Stato bounty, therefore,


" Resolved, That if a town bounty is this day voted by this town, and the legislature should pass such a bill as that referred to, tho town bounty shall not be raised."?


The vote stood-for the tax, 180 ; against, 23.


Three-hundred-dollar bounties were decided upon at a special meeting held July 7, 1864, by a vote of 76 to 0. The following resolution was adopted :


" Resolved, That the supervisor bo authorized to pay bounties to as many volunteers as he may deem requisite to elcar the town from the coming drafts, and that, in the opinion of this meeting, bounties should be paid to all persons that may enlist from this town."?


So ready were the citizens to volunteer that but one drafted man went out from the village of Sacket's IIarbor, and he may possibly have been the only one from the entire township. This one was a colored man by the name of Hadley. He died while in the service.


Of those who enlisted from the village not one was killed, nor were any very seriously wounded, although several re- ceived slight wounds. Of those who went from the town- ship, however, a number never returned, and their bones lie bleaching in southern fields, made red by the blood of patriot thousands,-hallowed spots, where the lives of many noble men were offered up as willing sacrifices on the altar of their country. The record of their valiant deeds is graven on the hearts of a grateful people, whose inheritance -a broad Union-was saved from destruction through their mighty efforts in common with those of " a million freemen more."


" The muffled drum's sad roll has beat The soldier's last tattoo ; No more on life's parade shall meet That brave, but fallen few. On Fame's eternal camping-ground Their silent tents are spread, And Glory guards, with solemn round, The bivouae of the dead."


Aside from the regiments already mentioned, there were men from Hounsfield in the 35th, 184th, 121st, and other infantry regiments ; the 14th and 21st artillery ; 20th and other cavalry regiments, and a few served in the navy. The record of Hounsfield iu the Rebellion is one covered with glory.


POST-ROUTES.


Numerous postal-routes have been established between Sacket's IIarbor and outside points,-the first being formed by Act of Congress April 21, 1806, from Rome, through Redfield and Adams, and by Smith's Mills to the Harbor. Another, formed April 28, 1810, from Brownville via Saeket's Harbor to Rome, Whitestown, and Utiea. April 30, 1816, from Williamstown through Richland, Ellisburg, and Hen-


¿ Ibid.


398


HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK.


derson to Sacket's Harbor. These were the earliest ones. Mails were long carried on horseback, and finally stage-lincs were established, and the mails transferred to them. In the summer of 1819 a line of stages was placed on the route between Sacket's Harbor and Utica, passing through Adams and Rome. Among the proprietors of this line was James Thomson, who was also proprietor of the " Ronie Hotel," at Rome. Trips were made over this line tri- weekly, and it was run in competition with a line over the Black River road. It in time became very popular, and was well patronized.


In the summer of 1853 a telegraph line was built from Watertown to Sacket's Harbor, by citizens of the latter place, over the dircct plank-road connecting the two points.


" The south part of the town, sold to Kemble and Houns- field, was first placed in the hands of Silas Stow, of Low- ville, as agent, and in an advertisement in the Columbian Gazette* of Utica, June 11, 1804, the land is represented as excellent, and ' the flourishing state of Mr. Sacket's vil- lage, its advantages of water carriage, and its valuable fish- ery, renders it one of the most inviting objects to an indus- trious settler.'"+


Interest in " Mr. Sacket's village" increased, and to such an extent had its many advantages been realized that " on the 5th of March, 1809, Sacket conveyed 1700 acres, the present


VILLAGE OF SACKET'S HARBOR,


to Cornelius Ray, William Bayard, and Michael Hogan for $30,000 in trust, and a few days after Ezra Hounsfield and Peter Kemble conveyed to the same parties their interest in the. tract.} In a declaration of trust subsequently made, the parties concerned in this purchase appear to have been C. Ray, W. Bayard, M. Hogan, Herman Le Roy, James McEvers, Joshua Waddington, James Lenox, William Maitland, William Ogden, - McLeod, Benjamin W. Rogers, Duncan P. Campbell, Samuel Boyd, Abraham Ogden, David A. Ogden, and Thomas L. Ogden, each own- ing one-fifteenth part, except D. A. & T. L. Ogden, who together owned a onc-fifteenth part. The first three named were trustees of the others, and Mr. Elisha Camp, a brother- in-law of Mr. Sacket, who settled in the village in 1804, and has since remained a leading citizen, was appointed the resident agent, under whom the estate was sold, the last of the business being closed up about 1848 or. 1849. As thesc proprietors were mostly extensive capitalists of New York, it is to be presumed that their influence was exerted in securing from the general government some portion, at least, of that attention which this place has received during and since the war as a military and naval depot ; but which can scarcely be said to have conferred a lasting benefit upon it. The expenditure of several million dollars for labor and materials would, in the opinion of most people, be sufficient to impart a visible impulse to the prosperity of a place, but, from causes which it might be improper or foreign to our purpose to investigate, such has not been the case here."§


" In 1805, several English families settled at Sacket's Harbor, among whom were Samuel Luff and sons, Ed- mund, Samuel, Jr., Joseph, and Jesse; David Merritt, William Ashby, John Roots, Henry Metcalf, and George Sloman. Besides these, John and William Evans, Squire Read, Amasa Hollibut, Charles Barrie (probably should be spelled Berry), Uriah Rowlson,|| Azariah P. Sherwin, and others. Dr. William Baker settled in 1803, and was the first physician. Ambrose Pease and Stephen Simmons were early innkeepers, and Loren Buss and Hezekiah Doo- little, { merchants. The place was at an early day very healthy, and from February, 1805, till January, 1809, it was re- markable that but one case of death occurred (except that of infants), and this was from an accidental discharge of a pistol by one of the men employed in preventing intercourse with Canada during the embargo. The victim of the acci- dent was one MeBride, who was killed by Julius Torrey, a negro, with whom he had been a companion for several years on a desolate island in the South Seas, and whom for a long time he had not seen, and the accident was felt with great severity by him. Late in 1808, typhus fever began to appear among the citizens and a detachment of United States troops, originating with the latter, and of this sickness many died.'


The first white male child born in the village, or in Hounsfield township, was William Rowlson, now a resident of the village. His birth occurred September 18, 1804. By some his sister, Wealthy Rowlson, is stated to have been the first, but this is a mistake, as she was born in Con- necticut, from which State their father, Rial Rowlson, emi- grated, probably in 1802, and settled at Sacket's Harbor among the first who located at that place. He served a short time during the War of 1812. Wealthy Rowlson is also yet living at the Harbor.


Henry Metcalf, one of the Englishmen who settled here in 1805, joined a military organization at Sacket's Harbor, and, on the breaking out of the war with Great Britain in 1812, joined his neighbors in defending his adopted against the encroachments of his mother country. His brother, Francis Metcalf, came from England in 1829, and located at the Harbor, where his son, Henry Metcalf, still resides. Six of Henry Metcalf, Sr's., children are now living in the town of Hounsfield. John M. Canfield, from Litchfield, Connecticut, settled at Sacket's Harbor in 1817, or possibly 1819. He was for eight years collector of customs for the Sacket's Harbor district. He stopped for a time at Watertown, and afterwards at Brownville, before making a final location in Sacket's Harbor. His son, Hon. Theodore Canfield, is now a resident of the village. Squire Read, a native of Rhode Island, and afterwards a resident succes- sively of Massachusetts and Connecticut, removed from the latter State in March, 1802, with his wife, three sons, and one daughter, and settled in Adams township, Jefferson County, New York, where he resided until 1806 or 1807, when he came to the present corporation of Sacket's Harbor, and made a settlement. He was, during his life, a man of


# Vol. ii. No. 65.


į Jefferson Deeds, B. 260, where a map made by William Bridge, in March, 1809, is also recorded.


¿ Hough.


+ Hough.


| Rial Rowlson settled possibly in 1802. See mention of him else- where.


T See " Merchants," elsewhere.


Hough.


399


HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK.


considerable importance in the village and town, and held numerous positions of trust. He had seen much service during the Revolutionary War, having been in the army several times for a period of a number of months cach time. He was in service on the "Mohawk" for nine months. Until the breaking out of the war of 1812-15, he made his home at Sacket's Harbor, but soon after war was de- clared he changed his place of abode to Brownville, where he died more than fifty years ago. His son, Captain Daniel Read, now an old man, lives at Sacket's Harbor. His title of captain comes from service on the lakes as commander of several packets and trading vessels. He was the youngest, save one, of the children who came with their parents to Jefferson County in 1802. His long life on the water has made him familiar with nearly all the craft which have plied the lakes, and his recollection of early vessels and their commanders, and incidents connected with the carly history of the region at the foot of Lake Ontario, is remark- able. His sailing days are over, but as a citizen he is re- spected by all, and historical statements made by lini are accepted as accurate by those who know him. His recol- lection of the War of 1812 is vivid, and his faculty of re- citing incidents of these days makes him an exceedingly interesting conversationalist. When he passes away Sacket's Harbor will have lost a good citizen and a prominent link in the connection of her past and present.


Daniel De Wolf, of the State of Connecticut, lived at Sacket's Harbor from 1812 to 1815, and was employed by the Government as a blacksmith in the Navy Yard. After the war he left the village, and in 1822 returned with his family, and made a permanent settlement. He died in 1829. His son, David O. De Wolf, now living in the vil- lage, is the present Deputy Collector of Customs for the port.


Augustus Sacket,* on his arrival at the place, built a saw-mill, wherein was sawed the lumber used in the con- struction of his first permanent house and other buildings put up at the time. The house was only a small one-story frame building, and stood on the spot now occupied by the barn on the old place, at present owned by B. Eveleigh, who came to the village in 1834, from England, and for about eight years has lived in the second house. Mr. Sacket built about 1804, also a frame. Aside from the great abundance of hard timber in the surrounding region, there was a tract of


several hundred acres covered with a heavy growth of ex- cellent pine, reaching to the present site of Madison Bar- racks. The hardware store now occupied by Mr. Eveleigh was built by Mr. Sacket's sons, George A. and Edward. Sacket's saw-mill was on Mill creek, where were also erected early a grist-mill by Samuel Luff, the first one in the neigh- borhood, and a cotton-factory, by Solon Stone. These mills have long since passed away.


When the canal was finished to Sacket's Harbor, in 1832, a grist-mill, two saw-mills, a plaster-mill, a paper-mill, and a furnace were built upon it, principally the property of Elisha Camp, to which person is due, more perhaps than to any other man, the credit of making the village a place of notoriety and consequence. He settled here at a very early day, and became at once identified with the interests of the town. His son, George H. Camp, lives on the old place in the village.


The first merchant in the village was Charles Berry, or Barrie, a Scotchman, who settled about 1806 and opened a small country store on the lot adjoining the one now occu- pied by the " Eveleigh House." Two brothers, Peter and James, came with him, but only one remained, while the other went south. Berry sold out to Loren Buss, who had with him as clerk a young man named Hezekiah Doolittle.


" The first mercantile operation at Sacket's Harbor on an extensive scale was by Samuel F. Hooker, who in 1808 commenced with a stock of $20,000 worth of goods, and in 50 days had sold $17,500 worth. The business that then opened with the brightest prospects was the trade of potash to Montreal, where Astor and other heavy capitalists had placed money in the hands of agents for its purchase. The embargo of 1808, by withholding those along our frontier from a career in which they were highly prosperous, natu- rally led to a spirit of cvasion of the laws, and the difficulty of exporting this great staple of commeree directly from the Atlantic ports to Europe led to extensive and systematic measures for forwarding to the lake and river, from the in- terior and southern counties of the State, and even from New York, large quantities of potash. This sometimes vanished in the night, or was shipped with due formality to Ogdensburgh, where it disappeared, and sometimes an open course of defiance of law was attempted. In what- ever way it may have escaped, it was sure of reappearing in Montreal, where it commanded the enormous sums of $200 to $320 per ton, and from whence there was no ob- stacle to its export to England. To check this contraband trade two companies of regulars were stationed at Ogdens- burgh, and Capt. Wm. P. Bennett, with a part of a com- pany of artillery, and Lieut. Cross, with a few infantry, was stationed heret in 1808 and a part of 1809."±




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