History of Lewis County, New York; with...biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 33

Author: Hough, Franklin Benjamin, 1822-1885
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Syracuse, New York : Mason
Number of Pages: 712


USA > New York > Lewis County > History of Lewis County, New York; with...biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 33


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The fruit of this marriage was Orrin, Osenath, Electa, John and Lucinda. Electa died in infancy. The family lived in Chester until the spring of 1804, when they returned to Lewis county, and located near Copenhagen. The village then contained but two or three houses. John Scott Clark resided in the home he had chosen until his death, which occurred March 1, 1850, in the 88th year of his age. He was one of the number that organized the first religious society at Copenhagen, and was a lead- ing member of the Baptist church until his death. He loved justice and mercy, and in return was beloved and honored by all who knew him. Selah Anderson Clark, his wife, died June 23, 1838.


Asenath, eldest daughter of John Scott Clark, married Abner Whiting. She died February 15, 1861.


Lucinda married Francis Wright, and died in Copenhagen in the summer of


1874. She was mother of the late John C. Wright.


John, the youngest son, married Phebe Keene. He lived most of his life in Denmark, and died in 1875.


Orrin, the eldest son of John Scott Clark, married Rebecca White, of Tem- pleton, Worcester county, Mass., and had as children Electa, Betsey, Orrin, Sarah, Rebecca, Nathan, Wayne, George W., and John Scott. During the War of 1812,Orrin, the father, served for a time with Captain Israel Kellogg, then stationed at Sackett's Harbor. He died in Copenhagen January 13, 1840, in the 49th year of his age. His wife, Rebecca, died September 23, 1855, aged sixty-eight. Mrs. Rebecca White Clark had two brothers, William and Nathan, and four sisters, Abigail, Sally, Lydia and Hannah ; also four half-sisters, Polly, Dorcas, Susan and Elizabeth. Abigail White married John Clark, Ist, who came from Worcester county, Mass., in 1802, and settled at Copenhagen. He belonged to some other branch of the Clark family, of whose genealogy we are not informed.


Wayne Clark, the third son of Orrin and Rebecca, was born in Copenhagen February 16, 1825. His educational privileges were those of the common schools, with a short term at Denmark Academy, then taught by Johnson Clark. Elizabeth Clark, his wife, was born in Watertown, N. Y., December 21, 1831, and received her education at what was then called the Jefferson County Litera- ry and Religious Institute. They were married November 6, 1854. The chil- dren of this marriage are George W.,


243


HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF HARRISBURGH.


Frances L., John N., and William Grant. The family have resided since 1854, in Harrisburgh. Wayne Clark was elected town superintendent of schools for 1856. He afterwards held the office of school commissioner for three successive terms for the second district of Lewis county. He was supervisor of Harrisburgh dur-


now great State of Minnesota then con- tained only a few straggling settlements on the Mississippi. He is the oldest settler in this county. John Scott Clark removed to the same place in 1852, where he died two years after. Orrin followed his brothers to Winona in 1854, where he now (1883) resides. Nathan lives on


[HIRAM B. LANPHER.]


ing 1872-'73, and has held other minor offices.


Of the brothers of Wayne Clark, George Washington emigrated to the territory of Minnesota in 1851, and settled at Wabasha Prairie (now Winona). The country was then occu- pied by the Sioux Indians, and the place a missionary station of the Jesuits many years previous. La Crosse, Wis., was the nearest white settlement, and the


the homestead of his grandfather, John Scott Clark, near Copenhagen. Of the sisters, two reside in Livingston county, and two in Mannsville, Jefferson county, N. Y.


HIRAM B. LANPHER.


Hiram B. Lanpher, the subject of this brief sketch, was born in Harrisburgh October 14, 1837. His parents were


244


HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY.


Nathan and Harriet Bailey Lanpher. Nathan, the son of Pardon Lanpher, was born in Lowville in 1801, and is still (1883) living. Pardon Lanpher came to Lewis county in 1800 from Rhode Island. .


The early life of Hiram B. was passed in Harrisburgh, where he was educated in the common schools. His business


ney, Lewis county, January 23, 1861, and has no children.


LORIN A. STODDARD.


The earlier accounts of this family, re- late that two brothers of the name of Stoddard came to this country from England, at an early day. One of these


[LORIN A. STODDARD. ]


through life has been that of a farmer and dairyman, in which by hard work he has amassed a competency. He is a retiring, pleasant, honest-faced gentle- man, with a supply of good common sense, broad and liberal in his religious and political views. In the matter of politics he has taken no very active part, and the only office of importance held by him was that of supervisor, on the Re- publican ticket, in 1877-'78. He was married to Elizabeth Roberts of Pinck-


brothers located in Connecticut, but of the other all trace has been lost. The grandfather of Lorin A. was Ralph, who was born in New London, Conn., in 1750. He was a soldier of the Revolutionary war, and died in Harrisburgh, Dec. 31, . 1831. His wife was Mabel Newton, who was also a native of Connecticut. She died Jan. 10, 1837, aged 87. They came to Lewis county about 1807, and settled in Harrisburgh. Their children were George A., Avery P., Charlotte, Waite,


245


HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF HIGH MARKET.


Amos, Susan and Simeon, all of whom are dead.


George A., the father of Lorin A., was born in 1772. From the age of sixteen until he was twenty-four, he was a sailor between the Indies and the United States. He came to Lewis county from West- field, Mass., in the spring of 1805, per- forming the journey with an ox team and a horse in eighteen days. He located on the farm now owned by Lorin A., on which he passed his days, and died Jan- uary 11, 1844. His wife was Temperance Allin, of New London, Conn., born April I, 1 772, died November 6, 1847. Their children were as follows :-


Lydia, born May 6, 1798, married Wm. I. Lasher, June 8, 1820, both dead ; Synthia, born October 7, 1800, married Wm. Thompson, March 16, 1820, both dead; Maria, born May 14, 1802, mar- ried Amasa Dodge, January 30, 1823 ; Anson, born October 21, 1804, died Au- gust 20, 1828 ; Polly, born October 10, 18c6, married Henry Humphrey, June 22, 1828 ; Charles S., born March 23, 1809, married Nancy Humphrey ; Lorin A., born Feb. 16, 1811, married Clarrissa Dewey, Feb. 19, 1835 ; Mabel, born March 16, 1813, married Avery Root, Nov. 10, 1853, died Jan. 6, 1881.


Lorin A. Stoddard was born in Harris- burgh, February 16, 1811, on the home- stead where he has passed his life, and which he inherited at his father's death. He received a common school educa- tion which he enlarged by an extensive reading that has made him a man of broad and liberal views. In 1835, he married Clarrissa Dewey, a native of Westfield, Mass., born November 9, 1809. One child was the fruit of this marriage -. Alfred L., born July 20, 1837.


Alfred L. was married to Elizabeth Searls, Feb. 16, 1859. To them was born, Nov. 17, 1859, a daughter, Jennie L., who was married Sept. 21, 1881, to Ralph W. Caperon.


CHAPTER XXV.


HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF HIGH MARKET.


HIS town was formed from West Tu- T rin by the Board of Supervisors, No- vember 11, 1852, by the same act that or- ganized the town of Lewis. The first town meeting was directed to be held at the house of Schuyler C. Thompson.


Supervisors .- 1853, Schuyler C. Thomp- son; 1854-'55, Michael H.Coyle ; 1856-'58, Michael Walsh ; 1859-'60, Charles Plum- mer ; 1861-'63, Patrick Byron ; 1864, William Dolphin ; 1865-'69, Charles Plummer ; 1870-'71, Edward Sweeney ; 1872-'73, Frederick Anken; 1874, Pat- rick Byron ; 1875-'76, Israel Mullin ; 1877-'78, Charles A. Wider ; 1879-'80, John Byron ; 1881-'82, Christian Closner.


Clerks .- 1853, Lynville M. Beals ; 1854, William Dolphin; 1855, G. R.Thompson; 1856, Lynville M. Beals ; 1857, Chas. P. Felshaw ; 1858-'59, Wm. Rowlands ; 1860- '61, Robert D. Blair ; 1862, Wm. Dolphin ; 1863, Robert D. Blair ; 1864, Thos. Mc- Ginnis ; 1865-'66, Robert D. Blair ; 1867, Patrick Byron ; 1868-'80, Christian Clossner, Jr. ; 1881-'82, James Hanley.


This town embraces township 9, or Penelope, of the Boylston tract, with 35 lots of township 2, or Flora, and 64 lots of township 3, or Lucretia, of Constable's four towns; its present name was bor- rowed from that of its postoffice, estab- lished in March, 1849. It was invented by Schuyler C. Thompson, to distin- guish this place from every other, and in this view it was entirely successful. The Irish settlers, wished to have the town named Sligo, and usage had long before applied to an undefined region, west of Constableville, the nondescript name of Kiabia, which it retained for many years.


Township 2, of which nearly half lies in this town, was subdivided by Benjamin Wright, in 1797, and measures 26,26634 acres. The bearings and distances of its outlines are as follows :-


N. W. side. N. 37° 30 E. 412 ch. 48 lks. N. E. 66 N. 52° 2. 30 W. 632 50


S. E. S. 37° 30' W. 412 “ 48 “


S. W. S. 52° 30' E. 63 " 23


246


HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY.


At the second town meeting, the owner of the premises at which, by ad- journment, the voters were to meet, re- fused to open his house. The majority of the voters, who were Irish, and not accustomed to the usages proper in such a case, were quite at a loss to know how to proceed, and came near losing their organization by failure to elect town officers. Just before sunset, they how- ever organized in the street, as near the place of meeting as practicable, and ad- journed to some convenient place the next day. With the advice of J. M. Muscott, a lawyer of Turin, they went through with their meeting, and have since retained the management of town affairs. In 1858, the town voted, with but one dissenting voice, to petition for re-annexation to West Turin, but with- out success. In 1857, they purchased for $200, a store for a town house.


Settlement was begun about 1814, by Alfred Hovey and Liberty Fairchild, and in 1815, John Felshaw became the third settler. Ebenezer Thompson, and others subsequently located in the town.


John Felshaw died June 24, 1857, aged 82 years. He settled in the county in 1813.


Ebenezer Thompson removed from Rockingham, Vt., in 1821, and died June 6, 1843, aged 69 years. He was the father of S. C. Thompson, Esq., former- ly of Constableville, and of Chandler E. Thompson, of that place.


Upon the suspension of the public works, in 1842, great numbers of Irish families removed to this town, and took up small tracts of land.


The western part of this town is still a wilderness, including a considerable part of township 9, near the west part of which Fish creek flows south ward across the town.


The highest point of land in the coun- ty is said to occur on lot 50, township 3. Streams flow from this lot in several dif-


ferent directions, and in a clear day dis- tant glimpses of the hills in Madison county, as well as more than half of the distant eastern horizon, are seen.


In 1871, Emory Allen, Newton Nor- tham, Alva Ward and Archibald Mc- Vickar (the two last named being of the firm Ward & McVickar) bought a tract of 14,500 acres in township 9. There was then a large amount of spruce timber upon this tract,-esti- mated by good judges at 100,000,000 feet. It began to die off the next year, and continued till most that had value of this timber had decayed.


Mr. Ward is dead. The firm of which he was a partner failed, and the burden of this purchase fell upon Mr. Allen. He has recently sold the tract to Hood, Gale & Co., of Michigan, and they intend to clear it off at an early day. It is chiefly valued for its birch and other hardwood timber. It will need roads-possibly a railroad-to accomplish this clearing.


The principal business of this town is dairying, for which it is well adapted.


A case of murder has been before the courts from this town, since its organiza- tion. In 1871, Peter Carey, John Col- lins, Jr., and Michael Collins, were in- dicted for killing Francis Joyce. They were sentenced May 2, 1871, as follows: Carey for manslaughter in the second degree, seven years; and the two others for manslaughter in the fourth degree, two years each. It resulted from a drunken quarrel.


SPECIAL TOWN MEETINGS DURING THE WAR.


Bounties of $50 were offered at the annual town meeting in 1863.


March 17, 1864 .- A bounty of $300 was voted to each volunteer, and the sum of $2,400 was borrowed.


March 28, 1864 .- The proceedings of the recent meeting were amended, and the sum of $300 was to be paid.


247


HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF HIGH MARKET.


September 7, 1864 .- A bounty of $500 was offered, and $150 to each man who furnished a substitute. A committee was appointed, consisting of John B. Murphy, Charles S. Felshaw, and Christian Closs- ner, to fill the quota of the town.


RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES.


After the burning of the Catholic church west of Constableville in 1880, a


division occurred among the members, a part separating from the rest, organ- izing a church in High Market, while the rest proceeded to re-build in Con- stableville village. The church in this town is named "St. Patrick's," and is not finished at the time of our writing. It is located near the town house and postoffice of High Market, and will be served from Constableville.


BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.


[CHARLES PLUMMER.]


CHARLES PLUMMER.


Charles Plummer is the son of William and Ann Plummer, natives of Burton Leonard, Yorkshire, England, where Charles was born, January 12, 1811, and where he lived until 1832. In that year the family sailed for America, and landed


in New York on the 24th of May. Re- maining there no longer than necessity required, they went to Deerfield, Oneida county, where they purchased forty-five acres of woodland, and entered upon the active duties of life in their new country and new home.


248


HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY.


On the first of the following May, 1833, the mother died, at the age of fifty-two. His father died December 10, 1848.


Mr. Plummer lived in Deerfield eight years, and in 1840, moved to High Market, which was at that time embraced in the town of West Turin, where he bought one hundred and seventy-six acres of wild land. Here he toiled man- fully for years to clear his land and bring it to its present state of cultivation, to build for his family a home, and to accumulate a competency for the declin- ing years of his life.


For the turmoil of politics, which produces cares and trials, as well as triumphs, Mr. Plummer has never been ambitious, although he has at differ- ent times acceptably filled the official positions to which his townsmen have elected him. He has served seven years as Supervisor of the town of High Market, was for three years Assessor, and for two years filled the position of Town Auditor. In all these public, as well as in all his private matters, he has conscientiously endeavored to do his duty, believing that he is the better man who acts the better part in all dealings with his fellow men. Such characters need no written eulogy. Their lives are remembered even after they have passed away, and their characters stand as ex- amples for the men of other generations. As it is the deep waters that run with the greatest force and stillness, so it is the quiet and unobtrusive men who, to an extent greater than is imagined, shape the events of the day, and act as the moral, social, and business motive power


of the world. They clear the wilderness, build the homes, develop the townships, and decide the social, moral, and relig- ious tendency of their time. Of that class of men can be reckoned the subject of this sketch. He is respected by all who come in contact with him as a man of honor and integrity, and is one of those whose name should be preserved to the men of the coming years.


On the 27th of December, 1834, Mr. Plummer was married to Catherine Smith, daughter of John P. and Nancy Smith, of Deerfield, Oneida county, N. Y., by whom he has had two children, George, born May 27, 1836, and Ann, born November 13, 1844. His wife died January 3, 1853, aged thirty-four years .. George, the son, married Mary E. Shep- ard, daughter of Harlow Shepard, of Turin, December 1, 1858, and lives on the homestead. His children are: Em- ma C., Nellie M., Charles E., Jennie C., and George H.


The daughter, Ann, married Albert D. Blair, of High Market, January 1, 1863. Their children are: Charles R., Jennie C., Kittie B., George A., May B., and a child that died when an infant.


CHAPTER XXVI.


HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF LEWIS.


T HE town was formed from Leyden and West Turin by the Supervisors, November 11, 1852, embracing a part from the narrow point at the south-


249


HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF LEWIS.


western part of "Inman's Triangle," which previously had formed the town of Leyden and No. 1, and part of No. 2, (three rows of lots,) of "Constable's four towns," previously in West Turin. The first town meeting was ordered to be held at the house of Orlando S. Kenyon. Its name was derived from that of the county ; but as there is also a town of " Lewis," in Essex county, the postoffice of "West Leyden," remains as before, the only one in the town.


Supervisors .-- 1853, Orson Jenks ; 1854- '55, Charles Pease ; 1856, O. Jenks ; 1857, Hiram Jenks ; 1858, Jonathan A. Pease ; 1859-'61, O. Jenks; 1862-'71, Jay A. Pease; 1872, Mathew Kilts; 1873, Andrew Katsmeyer; 1874, J. A. Pease ; 1875, A. Katsmeyer; 1876, M. Kilts; 1877-'80, A. Katsmeyer; 1881, George Pohl; 1882, A. Katsmeyer.


Clerks .- 1853-'54, David Crofoot ; 1855, Orson Jenks ; 1856-'57, Daniel H. Buell ; 1858, O. Jenks; 1859, William Gray ; 1861, J. Pease ; 1862-'67, Orson Jenks ; 1868-'70, J. Milton Pease ; 1871, Louis Gleason ; 1872, William M. Hough; 1873, J. Wallace Douglass ; 1874, Louis Gleasman ; 1875, Mathew Kilts; 1876, Andrew Katsmeyer; 1877, George Pohl ; 1878-'80, Valentine Pohl; 1881, Willard Gray ; 1882, Valentine Pohl.


The town embraces very nearly that part of Inman's triangle, known as the "New Survey," and parts of Town- ships 1 and 2. Township No. I, was originally designed to be called Xeno- phon, and No. 2, Flora, but these names were never known as in use, even in the land sales. The principal settlements are in the eastern part, and its drainage is south ward, by the head waters of the Mohawk and by Fish creek, and south- westward by Salmon river. The soil is well adapted to grazing and the coarser grains, but fruits and corn have not been extensively or successfully culti- vated. Its soil is inclined to clay, and


in places is a gravelly loam, or covered with flat stone derived from the under- lying slate rock.


That part of this town taken from Leyden, was sold to settlers by Storrs and Stow. Township I was surveyed into lots by Benjamin Wright in 1797, and its outlines were run in 1795, as fol- fows :-


N. W. line: N. 37°, 30' E. 520 chains, 3 links.


N. E. do S. 52°, 30' E. 631 do 62 do S. E. do S. 37°, 30 W. 339 do 07 do


S. W. do N. 68°, 50'W. 559 do 20 do


The latter is the patent line, and was surveyed in 1794. Township I meas- ures 27,105 acres, and the whole of Town- ship 2, 26,26634 acres. The connection of John Jacob Astor with the titles of this town has been noticed on a previous page. Lots I to 19, and half of 20, in township I, were conveyed by Pierre- pont to Charles Ingersol of Philadelphia, agent of Consequa, a China merchant, in payment of a debt of $12,000 which the captain of a vessel owned by Mr. Pierrepont, had incurred. John G. Cos- tar, afterwards became agent, and paid the taxes many years from a fund pro- vided for that purpose. They were final- ly sold for taxes and were in 1860, chiefly owned by the Costar heirs. Fifteen lots,* owned by Judge William Jay of Bed- ford, by virtue of a marriage, were sold in 1841, to Richardson T. Hough, with certain conditions of opening roads and. forming settlements. Jas. S. T. Strana- han of Brooklyn, the Lawrence heirs and John E. Hinman of Utica, have been heretofore owners of considerable tracts of wild lands in this town.


These various conveyances of land to Astor and others, in No. I, of the four towns, as also in No. 13,now in Osceola, grew out of the settlement of an insolv- ency in which James, brother of William Constable, became involved in 1801, as


* Numbers 26, 27, 32, 41, 50. 52, 53, 55, 56, 58, 61, 64, 65, 68, 69.


250


HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY.


explained in our notice of the latter, in the account of West Turin.


Settlement was begun at West Ley- den (now included in the town of Lewis), in the summer of 1798, by two families named Newel and Ingraham, who came by way of Whitestown and Fort Stanwix, and located, the former on the farm of George Olney, and the latter on that of John Domser, adjacent to the east line of this town. Fish then abounded in the streams, and game in the forests, afford- ing partial support, with no care but the taking, and incidents were not want- ing to diversify the life of the first pio- neers of this lonely spot. On one occa- sion, as the wives of the two first settlers were returning on foot from Fort Stan- wix (Rome), they saw a bear on a tree near where Jenk's tavern was afterwards built. One of the women took her sta- tion at the foot of the tree, club in hand, to keep bruin from escaping, while the other hastened home, a distance of two miles, procured a gun, returned and shot the bear .* These families remained about two years and went off.


Colonel John Barnes came in 1799, and brought potatoes,for planting, on his back from Whitestown. A saw-mill was built in the winter following, near the present mill of Calvin B. Hunt, by Joel Jenks, Medad Dewey, John and Corne- lius Putnam, who came on with their families. Major Alpheus Pease, t took up four or five lots in 1801, and built the first grist-mill, one or two years after, a little above the Mohawk bridge, in the present village of West Leyden. Na- than Pelton # and William Jenks,§ from Stafford, Connecticut, Stephen


Hunt,* - - Graham, -- McGlashan, Levi Tiffany,t Winthrop Felshaw, ; and perhaps others, settled within four years after. Most of the lands first taken up were sold at $5 per acre. Samuel Kent and Jeremiah Barnes, were early teach- ers, and the first school was taught at the house of Joel Jenks. The first death that occurred in town, was that of a child in the family of some travelers, but the first adult person that died in town, was Mrs. Calvin Billings, a sister of Stephen Hunt, in the spring of 1810, about twelve years after the beginning of the settlement.


The Castorland settlers speak of a road to Fort Stanwix, from their settlement at the High Falls, as early as 1795, and it must have passed through this town, about a mile east of West Leyden vil- lage, but we have no information upon this point. The first road of which we have certain knowledge, was opened to Constableville, in 1803, by Mr. Shaler; but the first direct road was not opened until 1816, by Commissioners appointed for the purpose. This became the line of the Canal Turnpike, and still later of a Plank road, which in its turn has been abandoned to the public, and is now maintained by the towns through which it passes.


Thesc routes, now seldom used except for local travel, but consolidated and good at most seasons of the year, were, in former times, one of the principal thoroughfares for all the country north, in Lewis, Jefferson, and St. Lawrence counties. They were thronged with teams bearing southward the produce of that region, or returning with mer- chants' goods, and were noted for the great depth of snow that fell upon the highlands, and for their mud in spring and fall. The road from Rome to Con-


* Related by Josiah Dewey of Delta, New York, who furnished ample notes upon the early history of this town, for our first edition.


+ Mr. Pease died April 8, 1816, aged 54 years.


# Died June 7, 1856, aged 92 years.


§ Died in the fall of 1865, about 80 years of age. His son, Hiram, died about the same time, aged be- tween 50 and 60 years.


* Died June 14, 1853, aged 79 years.


+ From Somers, Ct.


# Died May 2, 1863, aged 87 years.


251


HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF LEWIS.


stableville, was for a long period, a stage route that carried the mails daily each way, and because some miles nearer, and usually not much worse, it was preferred to the Utica route, by the farmers, in get- ting their surplus produce to the canal.


An occurrence happened in Novem- ber, 1804, which caused much alarm in this settlement, and might have led to a most melancholy result. Joseph Bel- knap, Cornelius Putman, Jr., and Josiah Dewey, Jr., set out from the former Dewey tavern stand, westward, on a deer hunt. The snow was about ten inches deep, and they found tracks of deer plenty, but no game. They had no compass, the day was cloudy, and towards night they attempted to return, and as their track was crooked, they con- cluded to take a direct line for home. After traveling some distance, they came around to the same place, a second and a third time. They were evidently lost, and no longer trusting to their own esti- mate of direction, they concluded to fol- low down a stream of water which they took to be the Mohawk, which would, of course, lead them home. They passed a number of beaver meadows, and were frequently obliged to wade the freezing stream, and at other times were forced to wade down its channel instead of climbing its steep rocky banks. They tried to kindle a fire, but failed, and final- ly kept on traveling till daylight, when they came to a foot-path, which in two or three miles, led out into a settlement which proved to be in the town of Western, twenty miles by the nearest traveled road from home. They had fol- lowed down the Point-of-Rock stream, to near its junction with Fish creek. The half-starved wanderers having fed, pushed on over a miry road, and reached home at midnight, when they found the country had been rallied, and a dozen men had gone into the woods in search of the lost.




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