USA > New York > Lewis County > History of Lewis County, New York; with...biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 35
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William Inman, the eldest son, resid- ed formerly in Leyden, entered the navy January 1, 1812, and became a com- mander May 24, 1838. He retired after 58 years' service, and died at Philadel- phia October 23, 1874.
John Inman was educated to the law, but turned his attention to literature, was connected with the New York Mir- ror, and soon after, with Colonel Stone,
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HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY.
engaged as editor of the Commercial Advertiser, of which, in 1847, he became principal editor. He conducted for some time the Columbian Magazine, and died at New York, August 30, 1850, aged 47 years.
Henry Inman, (born October 28, 1801,) early evinced a great talent for painting, and at the age of fifteen, painted his fath- er's portrait, which is still preserved. He became one of the most eminent of his- torical and portrait painters, and died at New York, January, 1846, aged 45 years. He never resided in this county, but was an occasional visitor. Charles Inman, a cabinet maker, died in Cincinnati.
Topping received a deed of 139 acres, lot 60, October 28, 1795, for £128. Bray- ton's deed of 10014 acres, was dated July 2, 1797. Coe's deed for Lot 88, 15212 acres, is dated June 12, 1795, and was given by Arthur Breese, attorney for Inman (Oneida Deeds, iii., 39). Others were less fortunate, and some were re- quired to make second payment by a transfer of the titles by Inman, before their deeds were made out or their pay- ments completed.
Late in 1793 Mr. Inman returned to England, and through his representa- tions, Mr. Colquhoun was induced to undertake the purchase of what is now known as the Brantingham tract, of which he was entrusted the agency. He sold most of the 25,000 acre tract in Feb- ruary 1794, and in the sequel his princi- pals found reasons to sincerely regret their connection with him. It would be unpleasant to specify details, and it is sufficient to know that Mr. Inman is not one of those to whom the town owes a grateful recollection.
The purchasers were Lemuel Storrs and Joshua Stow,* of Middletown,
Conn., with whom Thomas and Abel Lyman, of Durham, Conn., and Silas Stow, held a small interest; and sales were made by these, as joint proprietors, a few years. Inman reserved a few lots. After the division of the joint estate, Ezra Miller became an agent of Stow. Henry Champion, S. W. Dana, Zenas Parsons, of Springfield, Mass., and others, subsequently owned portions of the town before actual settlement.
Great Lot No. 7, upon Black river, containing 620 acres, was reserved for a town plot, and the first road traced from Fort Stanwix, led obliquely down to the river at this place, but it was never laid out or traveled. The water-power of this point was supposed to offer a chance for important manufactories. Storrs and Stow owed a large sum to the Con- necticut school fund, and an act was passed for receiving lands in this town for security. C. C. Brodhead, of Utica, was appointed appraiser, and the price set upon them being considered too high, they long remained unsold, and finally proved a heavy loss to the fund for which they were pledged. In 1835, an act was passed by that State, provid- ing for the conveyance of lands in this State, and they have since been sold. By this act of 1835, the secretary of that State was authorized to take acknowl- edgement of deeds for these lands, and the State Treasurer to give deeds.
Settlement was first made in this town and county by William Topping,* who emigrated from Meriden, Conn., early in 1794, with an ox team and his household, consisting of his wife, a son aged seven years, and a girl aged five years. They were two weeks in reaching Whites- town, and turning northward into the wilderness, pursued their course through tangled underbush and around fallen logs, to the far-off tract where they
* Storrs died in Middletown ; Stow died in Middle- field, about five miles from Middletown, October 9, 1842, aged eighty-one. He was many years postmaster at Middletown, and had been Chief Judge of the Mid- dlesex County Court, State Senator, etc.
* William Topping died September 17, 1840, aged seventy-six years.
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF LEYDEN.
hoped to find a home. The wife assisted in driving the team, while the husband went on before, with axe in hand, to clear the way. After laying by one day to nurse a sick child, they at length reached Lot 60, and selected a spot for shelter. They arrived late in April, and built a bark shanty by the side of a large log, with poles for the sides and a blank- et for the door.
This pioneer home was on the East road, a little northeast of Sugar river, where the road rises from the river flat, on land owned in 1860 by Robert Harvey and P. Owens. His neighbors to the south were many miles distant, and none were nearer than Canada to the north. Jared, his brother, came on in June, to assist in building a log hut, and the first cabin was hardly finished when William Dustin, Asa Lord,* Bela Butterfield and others, came to settle in town. It is be- lieved no families wintered here in 1794-'95, besides Topping and Butter- field.
The following reminiscence of the first settler in Lewis county, was writ- ten by Major Isaac Hall, of Talcottville, and cannot fail to be read with inter- est :-
" When a boy of probably from six to eight summers, I went with my mother to visit an uncle (the husband of my father's eldest sister), an old man, whose farm joined that of my father's. His hair was white as snow. When we had arrived at his house, we found there an- other old man, who was as old, appar- ently, as my uncle. His appearance in- terested me at once, and I can describe him as he then appeared as though but yesterday I had seen him. He was of English type. His face was round and full, with a fair and ruddy countenance,
eyes blue, nose Grecian, forehead high and oval, and his head was covered with a luxuriant growth of pure glossy white hair. His figure was well developed, compact and closely knit, full and well rounded out, but in the strict sense of the word he was not corpulent. He was straight, and his height about five feet eight inches. In subsequent life I have occasionally compared most favor- ably to him the memory of his compact form with that of others of noted endur- ance. Though, then, probably of more than four-score years, he had vitality enough to illuminate his being, and when his face was lit up with expressive intelligence, as I saw him that day in conversation, its impress upon my child- hood was indelibly fixed. He was then living at Turin, with his son Jared, as I have been lately informed, and this was the only time of my recollection that I ever saw him. When we had started for home I asked my mother who that stranger was. She said his name was Topping. Referring to uncle, I eagerly inquired if they were brothers. 'Why, no,' said she ; 'one is father to the other.' Surprised at that, I said, hastily, ' Is that old man, Uncle Bill's son?' 'Oh, no, said she, 'he is Uncle's father.' I won- dered, child-like, how that could be when Uncle Topping was the taller and larger man ; but he was not of so fine a mould. They were William Topping, the first settler of Lewis county, and his father, Daniel Topping ; both patriots of the Revolution, and the former a soldier of the war of 1812. He served in the latter as a substitute for Joseph Wet- more, (a carpenter, and a brother-in-law of his) who worked day for day, upon a house Topping was then building. They were the grandfather and great- grandfather of Richmond and Cephas Topping, and of Mrs. John Andrus, of this town. William Topping, the first settler, was the uncle of Mrs. Levi Benedict, of Collinsville, and Mrs. S. Gaylord, of this town, and Daniel con- sequently their grandfather. Mrs. Cyrus Pitcher, of Martinsburgh, and her brothers and sisters of Wayne county, children of the late Ezra Miller, bear the same relation as the Toppings of this town. Dwight and Lucy Miller are descendants of one generation later."
* Mr. Lord was born in Franklin, Conn., October 6, 1767. He arrived here immediately after Topping, and built the first log house in the county, on Leyden Hill. He was brother of Thomas and Rufus L. Lord of New York, Eleazer Lord of Piermont, and Gurdon Lord of Leyden. He went to St. Lawrence county, and was drowned April 9, 1818, with five others, al Madrid, N. Y., while attempting to cross his mill-pond.
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HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY.
Daniel Topping died at the house of his son Jared, in Turin, in 1830, aged ninety years. He had served through the whole of the Revolutionary war.
In 1795, Allen Alger, and families named Olmstead, Adams, Bingham, Hinman, Miller, and perhaps others, came, and in 1796, David Brainerd Miller, Peter W. Aldrich, Eber Kelsey, Brain- erd Coe, and others. A road warrant dated May 23, 1797, has upon it the fol- lowing names of tax-payers in District No. 5, viz :- Asa Lord, Ezra E. C. Rice, Bela Hubbard, William Topping, Rodolphe Tillier, Jonathan Boardman, David B. Miller, David Miller, Calvin Miller, Jared Topping, Ezra Rice, Asahel Hough, Chandler Otis, Amos Miller, Brainerd Coe, Eben Wheeler, Asa Brayton, Elisha Randall, Paul Green, John Worden, Daniel Topping, John Barns, Ephraim Town, Joseph Buttolf, Jonathan Wheeler, Asher Hol- dridge, Edmund Newell, Jerden Ingham, Moses Warren, Thomas Stone, Eliasheb Adams, Lemuel Storrs, Nathaniel Dus- tin, Abel Lyman, Peter W. Aldrich, Samuel Douglass, John Allen, and fifty- four others, in what is now Boonville.
The first birth in town was that of Jonathan, son of William Topping, who died, aged thirty years. The birth oc- curred in June, 1796.
The first death of an adult person in town was that of Calvin, son of David B. Miller, March 23, 1797, at the age of twenty-one years.
This historical fact, which we have di- rect from the deceased, and without heresay, is recorded on his tombstone in the old Leyden hill cemetery, as fol- lows :-
" Of all the adults which in this yard do lie, I was the first, eternity to try."
In speaking of tomb-stones, one of more recent date may be mentioned. Upon a headstone adjacent to the old
Baptist church, upon Leyden hill, there may be seen the following epitaph :-
"Henry Scovil, died July 5, 1823, aged 23 years.
" Mourn not for him a saint departing, Though killed was he while hard at chopping, By a limb that struck his head.
At noon in health, and joy abounding, At night in death, and friends surrounding, Now the sainted spirit fled."
As a further confirmation of the truth of this melancholy event, there is at the top, a representation of a tree, (as nearly resembling a cabbage as a palm tree) and one branch in the attitude of falling upon the saint's devoted head.
A man named Bingham was accident- ally killed by a tree early in 1797 or '98. This was the first fatal accident known to have occurred in the county.
The first saw-mill in the county was built in 1795, at Talcottville, by Bela But- terfield, a few rods below the present grist-mill, but it went off in the next spring flood. In 1798, he sold to the Talcott families, from Middletown, Con- necticut, who became prominent settlers in town, but adopted a policy adverse to the building up of a village at the point where natural advantages greatly favor- ed. It is said they refused to sell vil- lage lots to mechanics, and retained the water power on Sugar river, although parties offered to invest liberally in manu- factures. Bela Hubbard, husband of Stow's sister, removed in 1795, but did not long remain in town. The first framed building after the saw-mill, was a barn built by David Brainerd Miller in April, 1798; and the next, a house by Lemuel Storrs, the same year. The lat- ter is still standing and is the oldest in the country. In 1803, the Talcotts built the second grist-mill in town. The pres- ent stone mill at Talcottville, was built about 1832-'33. The river has here a fall of nearly 100 feet within a quarter of a mile.
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF LEYDEN.
Hezekiah Talcott, father of the fami- lies of this name who settled in this town, died March 16, 1813. His children were : Phebe, born 1766, married David Hall, died January, 1826; Sally, born 1768, married ist, Joel Coe, 2d - Parsons, died March 20, 185 -; Elisha, born 1770, was killed May, 1807: Daniel, born 1772, died June 3, 1847; Joel, born 1774, died April 16, 1813, of the prevailing epi- demic ; Jesse, born 1775, died January 15, 1846; Johnson, born September 6, 1778, died February 17, 1850; Parsons, born 1780, died January 16, 1849; and Lucy, born 1782, married Ithamer Whet- more, died March, 1852. Elisha and Daniel were men with families when they settled.
Many of the early settlers of Leyden were from Haddam, Middlefield and Middletown,* Connecticut. An adver- tisement in the Western Centinel of Whitesboro, dated 1797, and signed by Lemuel Storrs, records the fact that there were at that time 40 actual settlers upon Inman's Triangle, and the official records of the earlier years show an un- usually large number of voters, and of course of men having sufficient property to entitle them to this privilege. Many of the pioneers were able to pay down for their lands, and have a surplus to enable them to begin settlement free from debt. In 1799, the number of senatorial voters was 57, and in 1800 it was 79, including of course the territory now known as Boonville. In 1798, the number of per- sons liable to serve as jurors was 14; in 1802, 61 ; and in 1805, 64.
One of the pioneer settlers of Lewis county was Isaac Hall, Jr. He came from Wallingford, Conn., now Meriden, in 1801 or 1802, and built a log house at the northeast corner of lot No. 59, of Leyden-adjoining the first settled lot
of the county-having purchased seven acres of that lot of Joel Coe, on which to build, and that he might have access to Sugar river. He priorly owned lot No. 49, directly east. The seven acres above named, is now owned by Horatio Coe, grandson of said Joel, and the re- mains of the old log-house cellar are plainly visible in the bend of the road that runs from Sugar River cheese factory to the Leyden depot, and is memorable not only on account of its antiquity, but also by reason of an excit- ing incident of pioneer life-related further on-that occurred near it. Jona- than, the brother of Isaac Hall, Jr., soon came on, having received in January, 1802, a deed of lot No. 48, of his father, Isaac Hall, Sr., then of Wallingford, Conn., and being then unmarried, he boarded with his elder brother, and the brothers changed works with one an- other in clearing up their respective lots.
Early in the fall of 1803 or 1804, the younger brother, who slept in the upper part of the house, was awakened by the running of the cow and calf near the house, and soon after a sound so peculiar to swine when suddenly alarmed ; a bounce, and then the sharp squeal of a hog, in the pen near the house, was heard, which brought him from his bed, with an outcry to his brother that a bear had caught one of his hogs. The elder brother, already alarmed, arrived at the door in time to see-in the dim dark- ness-the bear drag the hog over the top rail of the pen. The brothers gave chase, but the cow preceded them, and followed up so closely, that bruin was glad to leave his prey at the fence near by and save himself. The hog's back was badly lacerated, and deep incisions were made by the animal's teeth, rendering its slaughter necessary. The younger brother subsequently bought out the elder, and resided upon the farm till his
* The families of Merwin, Northum, Algur, Thomas, Cone, &c., were from Haddam, those of Coe, Talcott, Brainerd, Smith, Stimson, Starr, &c., from Middlefield.
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HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY.
death, which occurred February 22, 1841 .*
The Isaac Hall above mentioned was one of seven males and five females, who organized the first Baptist church in the town of Meriden, Conn.
The Post .Family .- Josiah Post, an- cestor of all of the name in Lewis county was the son of Nathan Post. He was born in Saybrook, Conn., April 12, 1761. April 19, 1781 he married Miss Lydia Platts, of the same town. Miss Platts was a granddaughter of Frederick Platts, from Germany, who carried the first mail between New York and Bos- ton, requiring two weeks to make the round trip. Frederick Platts married an English lady, Miss Fox, of New Lon- don, Connecticut, and settled in Killing- worth in 1670, and was the father of three sons, viz : Samuel, Ebenezer and Obadiah, the latter, father of Lydia. In 1802, Josiah Post bought of Abel Ly- man, of Durham, Connecticut, a tract of land for six dollars per acre, located in Leyden, Lewis county, N. Y., one mile southwest of the High Falls, (now Lyons Falls) on the Black river. In the spring of 1803, Mr. Post, with his family of seven children, removed to the then almost unbroken wilderness, and settled on his new purchase, where he worked with a will in making the necessary improve- ments for a home. Being a good car- penter, his services were much needed by the hardy resolute settlers that were rapidly coming in at that date.
Mr. Post built for himself two good saw-mills, worked at his trade, continued to clear and make improvements on his farm until February 13, 1813, when he died, being the first victim of the terrible
epidemic of that year, which carried off so many of the early settlers.
His wife remained a widow after his death, and died in Martinsburgh, No- vember 15, 1836.
Of the children,-
Lydia was born March 9, 1772, mar- ried Elderkin Boardman ; was the mother of two sons and died in Leyden, Aug. 25, 1814.
Josiah, Jr., was born April 13, 1784, and died in Leyden, February 26, 1827.
Josiah Post, Jr., married Miss Fanny Banning, of Leyden, by whom he was the father of ten children, five of whom are now (1883) living in Lewis county. The mother died September 8, 1833. Jo- siah, Jr., was remarkable for his courage, resolution and physical strength. When but sixteen years of age, he seized a large grey wolf which he had caught in a trap, bound it with barks, and carried him alive three miles on his back, receiving ten dollars bounty for his scalp.
Nancy Post was born July 26, 1788, and died in Randolph, Portage county, Ohio, May 8, 1865.
In 1832, Mr. Post moved with his fami- ly to Ohio. His two sons were in the army during the Rebellion, and the youngest, Jesse, Jr., died of starvation in Andersonville prison. John Post, was born October 21, 1801, and died in Olm- stead county, Minnesota, January 13, 1877.
John Post married Miss Fidelia Lyon, August 28, 1825. Four children were born to these parents.
John Post, Jr., lost his life on the 9th of January, 1857, by accidentally falling into the Black river while cutting ice in a flume, and was instantly carried over the falls, his body not being recovered for some months afterward. John Post was for many years a justice of the peace and for a time one of the Associate Judges of Lewis county. He was the youngest of Josiah Post's seven children, and for
* Isaac Hall, the settler, died in February, 1810. He was a descendant of John Hall, who came over in 1672, and died at Wallingford in 1676, aged seventy- one. Ason Thomas, born March 25, 1679, had a son Isaac, the first physician in Meriden, born July II, 1714 ; was the father of Isaac, the settler in Leyden, who was born in 1745. His sons were John, Isaac, Jonathan, Abijah and Joseph,-the last one born in the county.
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF LEYDEN.
a number of years the only survivor. July 5, 1813, Nancy married Joseph Brainerd of Leyden, by whom she was the mother of five children, four sons and one daughter. The husband died in Martinsburgh March 10, 1831, aged 48 years.
Rebecca Post was born August 25, 1791, died in Leyden November 12, 1813, (unmarried). Obadiah Post born May 6, 1793, died May 28, 1873 at Elkhart, In- diana, aged 80 years.
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Obadiah married Lucretia Bailey, by whom he was the father of six children, 1
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four sons, and two daughters. The mother died at Elkhart, Indiana, Sept. 21, 1867.
Jesse D. Post, was born September 14, 1797, died in Stow, Summit county, Ohio, May 30, 1863. Jesse D. married Sybil Fisk, of Leyden, Nov. 16, 1820. She died - - leaving one daughter. June 19, 1822, he married Melancy Rogers, who bore him four sons and one daugh- ter.
In the winter of 1799-1800, a funeral service was held at Talcottville upon re- ceiving news of the death of Washington. We are not informed who delivered the oration, but think it probable that Ste- phen Butler might have been designated. He was at about this time a teacher in town, and in former years had been one of Washington's life guard. He removed to Ohio many years after. These funeral services were common all over the coun- try, being held in fact, almost every- where, and a very large number of these sermons and eulogies have come down to us in print. A few years since, the author of this volume had occasion to publish in two large octavo volumes, a series of memorials and documents relating to the death of President Washington. It embraced a notice of about two hundred and fifty publications of that day, (a few of them foreign), relating to that event. The nearest place at which published pro-
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ceedings were had, was at Oldenbarne- veldt, (now Trenton,) in Oneida county.
The first grist-mill in this town, and the second one in the county, was built on the Black river, at what has since be- come Port Leyden, in 1799, and got in operation the next year, by Peter W. Aldrich and Eber Kelsey, mill-wrights, from Killingworth, Conn. They came on to explore in the fall of 1796, selected a site and purchased two lots, extending from the river to near Leyden Hill. In the spring of 1797 they removed their families, and during this season put up a frame for a saw-mill, which was swept off by the next spring flood and lodged on the rocks below. In 1798, the frame was again set up, and the saw-mill got in operation, and in 1800 the first rude grist- mill was prepared to relieve the early settlers from long tedious journeys to Whitestown in the dry season, and to Constableville at the more favored peri- ods of the year. When first got in op- eration the mill was but partly enclosed, and its bolt was turned for some time by hand. It stood west of the river, a little below the present bridge. Aldrich sold his share to Jonathan Collins, Oct. 25, 1802 .. The saw-mill was burned in Feb- ruary, 1802, but was rebuilt by Kelsey & Collins, and both mills were afterwards burned.
In the fall of 1805, a huge bear was seen on the farm since owned by James S. Jackson, but escaped. Depredations were committed the next night, and Capt. Jonathan Edwards set out in pur- suit. He found the enemy on Nathaniel Merriam's farm, fired at him without ef- fect, and followed on, till in preparing for a second shot, the bear turned upon the hunter and got within two or three rods of him when the latter hastily fired his half-loaded gun and wounded him. Calls for help brought persons to his as- sistance, and the beast was killed with an axe. It was judged to weigh 500
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HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY.
pounds, and had done much mischief to the settlers. Trout abounded in the streams when first known, and deer were numerous. Deer used to go east in No- vember and December to winter beyond the Black river, and return as soon as the snow was gone in the spring. Many hundreds used to pass Lot 68 before it was cleared. On lot No. 58 was a small strip of land called the Point, just above the junction of Moose creek on Sugar river, where there was a beaten path.
We are able to present from the Elec- toral State census of 1807, the names of those who enjoyed the right of voting in this town at that time.
CENSUS OF ELECTORS IN LEYDEN, IN 1807.
Including so much of the present town of Lewis as was then in this town, none else in the present town of Lewis being then settled.
LEWIS SMITH, Census Taker.
Allen, Samuel.
Douglass, Daniel.
Andrews, Phineas.
Douglass, Israel.
Arnold, Asa.
Douglas, John.
Augur, Allen.
Douglass, Israel, Jr.
Baldwin, Smith.
Douglas, Nathan.
Baning, John.
Dustin, Nathaniel.
Barns, Abraham.
Edward, Jonathan.
Barns, Elihu.
Felshaw, Winthrop.
Barns, Jeremiah.
Fields, John.
Barns, John.
Fish, John.
Belnap, Joseph.
Ford, Amasa. Fox, Ashbel.
Boardman, Jonathan.
Gregory, John M.
Botsford, Jabez.
Gridley, Eli M.
Brainard, Isaac.
Hall, Abijah.
Burr, Benjamin.
Hall, Isaac.
Burrows, Nathan.
Hall, John.
Camp, Ashel.
Hartson, Jabez.
Churchill, Abel. Clark, John.
Height, George W.
Coe, Brainard. Coe, Joel. Cook, Clark.
Hubbard, Ephraim. Hubbard, Everts.
Davis Ebenezer.
Hubbard, Leonard C.
Dewey, John.
Hubbard, Robert.
Dewey, John, Jr.
Hubbard, Timothy.
Dewey, Josiah. Dewey, Medad.
Hunt, Stephen. Jinks, Joel.
Jinks, Stoddard.
Stemson, Joseph.
Jinks, William.
Jinks, William, Jr.
Stone, Timothy.
Johnson, Samson.
Stone, William.
Johnson, Sheldon.
Talcott, Daniel.
Kelsey, Eber. Talcott, Hezakiah.
Kent, Augustus
Talcott, Joel.
Kent, Samuel.
Talcott, Johnson.
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