USA > New York > Lewis County > History of Lewis County, New York; with...biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 8
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* Father of the late Selden Ives, and grandfather of Mather S. Ives of Turin.
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TORNADOES.
are unusual, but not unknown in this and adjacent counties. One in the towns of Rutland and Champion, about six years since, was equally violent, and its effects may be seen in remarkable erosions, a short distance below the village of " Black River," close by the railroad, as it passes under the hill toward Watertown.
1871 .- Autumn late and mild. Trees budded and some blossomed. The suc- ceeding winter was mild.
In September, 1881, forest fires pre- vailed extensively in Wilna, adjacent to Carthage, and in the back settlements of this town, and of Croghan. In Jefferson county many buildings were burned, but in Lewis county the greatest injury was done to standing timber, cord wood and bark. Fires also prevailed at about the same time in the towns of Watson, Mar- tinsburgh and Montague. Relief funds were raised for assisting families who had experienced losses in the neighborhood of Carthage in that season.
1882-'3 .- Judging from its beginning, the winter of 1882-'3 will be as memora- ble from the amount of snow, as the preceding autumn has been, from the ab- sence of rainfall, and the remarkably low water in the streams and wells. In this the conditions are believed to be without a precedent in the history of the country.
TORNADOES.
Of these, several have swept over the county since its settlement, and traces of others, as shown by fallen timber and young trees, indicate that these fearful tempests had traversed this region before its settlement. The first and greatest one ever witnessed in the county, oc- curred on Sunday evening, June 3, 1810, and formed an epoch in the memories of the early settlers. It passed nearly a due east course from West Martinsburgh across the river near the Watson bridge, and far beyond into the wilderness, leav-
ing a track of broken and prostrate trees over a space a mile and a quarter wide and of unknown length. It was attended by torrents of rain and vivid and inces- sant lightning. Its approach was an- nounced by a fearful roaring in the woods, and the crash of falling timber was lost in terrific peals of thunder. The affrighted inhabitants fled to their cellars or sought in the open air an asylum from the dangers which their own dwellings threatened. The clouds which had been gathering in dense black masses, having poured an immense volume of water along the track of the storm, cleared up as soon as it had passed, and the remain- der of the evening was beautifully serene and quiet. Although many buildings were unroofed or prostrated, it is won- derful to relate that no lives were lost.
In 1823, a tornado passed over the un- settled country near the south west corner of the county, leaving a track two miles long and half a mile wide, on which no trees were left standing. This occurred about a mile south of the deep valley of Salmon river, and nearly parallel with it, in the present town of Osceola.
A tornado from the northwest passed over Harrisburgh, Sept. 9, 1845, tearing down trees over a track in some places forty or fifty rods wide. It struck the saw-mill of Jacob Windecker and the house of Richard Livingston in Lowville, where it prostrated a building attached, and did other damage to buildings but destroyed no lives. Eleven days later, the great northern tornado swept the forest from Antwerp to Lake Champlain, mostly through an uninhabited region and likewise without the loss of human life.
At half past five o'clock on the after- noon of July 5, 1850, a tornado cloud was seen, like an immense cloud of smoke, rapidly whirling and advancing down the hill, about a mile south of Turin village. It passed eastward to the
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HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY.
river, demolishing two or three barns, unroofing several houses, and prostrating everything that lay in its track. It is reported that plank were torn up from the road, grass twisted out by the roots, and solid objects on the ground removed. No lives were lost.
EARTHQUAKES.
These fearful but unnatural phenomena have been felt several times since the set- tlement of the county, but seldom suffi- cient to create a sensible motion of the earth. They were indicated by a deep rolling noise like distant thunder, or like wagons driven over frozen ground. Such an instance occurred in the county. late in the evening of January 22, 1832, and in Martinsburgh, April 8, 1836. On the first of March, 1838, a slight shock was felt at Lowville, at 9 o'clock in the even- ing, and another in December, 1839. At half-past two o'clock, on the morning of March 12, 1853, an earthquake was felt throughout the county, windows, stoves and crockery were rattled, in Lowville one chimney was thrown down, and even the bells in the stone church and academy were rung by the movement. The effect was more sensible in brick and stone, than in framed houses, and some persons awakened by the noise and frightened by the motion, ran into the open air, lest they should be buried in their own houses. The phenomenon was attended by a distant deep rumbling sound, gradually approaching and then dying away in the opposite direction. As it approached it was interrupted by a series of explosions like bursts of thun- der, and the noise is described as pecu- liarly grand, appalling and unearthly. It continued from one to three minutes, and was heavy in Turin, Lowville, Copen- hagen and Adams, and light in Water- town.
On the morning of October 17, 1860, a
subterranean thunder was heard, and a slight tremor was felt in Turin. It was also heard and felt at many other places at this hour.
On the 11th of July, 1861, at about 9 o'clock in the evening, or a little later, an earthquake shock was felt, rather than heard, in Turin, Martinsburgh, Low- ville, etc. Windows were heard to rat- tle, as if shaken by an external force. Some observed a visible motion in build- ings, and others noticed a deep rumble, like a wagon crossing a bridge, but the greater number of those who felt the motion, heard no sound. The tremor lasted a minute or so, and some who noticed the sound, thought that it passed towards the southwest.
CHAPTER VI.
NOTES UPON NATURAL HISTORY - NOTICE BY TRAVELERS.
W TATE are not aware that there have been found any animals, or their re- mains, of particularly local occurrence within the county of Lewis. The re- mains of a Mammoth found near Copen- hagen, will be found noticed more par- ticularly in our account of Denmark. There have been found fragments of the horns of the Elk, in the great eastern wilderness, showing that that animal once inhabited this region, in times com- paratively recent, but still before any record in human history.
The Moose was found somewhat fre- quently, at an early day, in the great forest, but it is now supposed to be wholly extinct, as to the native race, al- though some have been introduced and placed under protection by parties own- ing tracts of woodland in the interior.
The Beaver must have once been com- mon, if we can judge from the beaver dams, and meadows caused from their
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NOTES UPON NATURAL HISTORY.
overflow, that occurred on the plateau region of the western part of the county, and less frequently upon the limestone terraces of lower level. They are still supposed to exist here and there, but nowhere colonize as formerly, or build dams, They were found busy at work on their hydraulic structures, at the time when the first surveys were in progress.
Wolves once common are now rare, and bounties for their destruction have been offered by the State, county and towns, in former times, and occasionally claims are brought in for these bounties at the present time. In 1823 and 1824, fraudulent speculations in these bounties prevailed to a large extent in Franklin county, but we are not aware of their ex- tending into our county.
Panthers are seen and killed at rare in- tervals, but were formerly more com- mon. The bounties for their destruction were generally the same as for wolves.
Of other animals the county presents nothing of particular interest, it being no- ticed here as elsewhere that in certain years, bears, foxes, squirrels and other animals are much more common than others, probably from some unusual abundance of their food, or a mild win- ter that favors their living. The " squir- rel hunts," once more common, are not wholly forgotten. In one of these con- tests many years ago, we noticed the scale of reckoning had the red squirrel as the unit, and this being counted I, the black squirrel was 2, partridge 2, woodchuck 4, fox 6, deer 8, wolf 12, and bear 12. The last two, however, were commonly rated as much higher.
Of birds, besides those of the migratory species that stop for a brief period in passing in spring and fall, and those that nest in the county, there have occasion- ally been found specimens or flocks very unusual in this region. A flock of white swans was seen on the river in March, 1826, and one of them that was shot
measured seven feet ten inches from tip to tip of wings, and weighed seventeen pounds.
Pigeons have in some years nested in prodigious numbers in the beech woods of Montague and West Turin. The spring seasons of 1829, 1849 and 1858 were especially noted for their abun- dance.
Fish .- In Fish creek, salmon formerly abounded, and were taken in the early history of the county as large as twenty or twenty-five pounds in weight. More were caught after about 1815. We have been informed by an early settler that about the year 1805, ninety-five salmon were caught at one haul in "Shalers' Hole" in Fish creek, in the present town of High Market, weighing from three to five pounds each. At the next haul but two or three were taken, no more being apparently left at that time. This is alto- gether the " biggest fish story " we have to relate as located in Lewis county, but the statement was made by an eye witness who was entirely reliable. Sal- mon river, which rises in the south- western part of the county, is named from the former abundance of these fish, but as settlements began in that part of the county, at a comparatively recent date, no traditions remain as to their former abundance.
About the year 1843, B. Smith and Amos Higby, Jr., put about thirty spec- imens of perch into Brantingham lake. From these they have since multiplied in the waters of the Black river and its tributaries. In recent years various kinds of fish have been placed in the waters of the county, under the direc- tion of the U. S. Fish Commission. In their native condition the waters of the county abounded with trout, dace, suckers, bullheads, eels, sunfish, and probably some other species.
The natural history of the county is in the way of being very carefully
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HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY.
studied up, and whatever there may be of scientific interest will at no distant day be made known. We deem it prop- er in this connection to notice the labors of Dr. C. HART MERRIAM, of Locust Grove (Leyden), who has in preparation an elaborate work upon the literature of Natural History in the State of New York. His careful and thorough man- ner of studying this subject, and the completeness with which he has gone over a somewhat similar, but much less comprehensive work, upon the birds of Connecticut, is a sufficient guarantee that his present enterprise will be of great scientific value. Considerable col- lections of the fauna of this region have also been made by ROMEYN B. HOUGH, curator of the collections of birds and mammals in Cornell University.
THE JOURNEYS OF WASHINGTON IRVING THROUGH LEWIS COUNTY, IN THE SUMMER OF 1803, AND IN THE AUTUMN OF 1814.
In the summer of 1803, Washington Irving, then twenty years of age, and a student in the law office of Josiah Ogden Hoffman, [one of the first owners of Denmark,] accepted an invitation of a journey to Ogdensburgh, and has left some trace of his trip through Lewis county.
The party consisted of seven persons : Mr. and Mrs. Hoffman, Mr. and Mrs. Ludlow Ogden, Miss Eliza Ogden, Miss Anne Hoffman, and himself. We will be- gin his journey at Utica :-
On Monday, August 9th, they set off from Utica for the High Falls on Black river, in two wagons, having despatched another with the principal part of their baggage. The roads were bad, and lay either through thick woods, or by fields disfigured with burnt stumps, and fallen bodies of trees. The next day they grew worse, and the travelers were frequently
obliged to get out of the wagon and walk. At High Falls, they embarked in a scow on Black river, " so called from the dark color of its waters," but soon the rain began to descend in torrents, and they sailed the whole afternoon and evening, under repeated showers, from which they were but partially screened by sheets stretched on hoop poles. About twenty-five miles below the Falls, they went ashore, and found lodgings for the night at a log-house, on beds spread on the floor .*
The next morning it cleared off beau- tifully, and they set out again in their boat. On turning a point in the river, they were surprised by loud shouts, which proceeded from two or three ca- noes in full pursuit of a deer which was swimming in the water.
A gun was soon after fired, and they rowed with all their might to get in at the death.
"The deer made for our shore, " says the Journal. " We pushed ashore imme- diately, and as it passed, Mr. Ogden fired, and wounded it. It had been wounded before. I threw off my coat and prepared to swim after it. As it came near a man rushed through the bushes, sprang into the water, and made a grasp at the animal. He missed his aim, and I, jumping after, fell on his back and sunk him under water. At the same time I caught the deer by one ear, and Mr. Ogden seized it by a leg. The sub- merged gentleman, who had risen above water, got hold of another. We drew it ashore, when the man immediately dis- patched him with a knife. We claimed a haunch for our share, permitting him to keep all the rest. In the evening we arrived at B[ossout]'s, at the head of the Long Falls. [Carthage.]
" A dirtier house was never seen. We dubbed it ' The Temple of Dirt, ' but we contrived to have our venison cooked in a cleanly manner by Mr. Ogden's ser- vant, and it made very fine steaks, which,
" This must have been at Spafford's Landing in Low- ville, at the point where the road from Lowville village to Watson strikes the river.
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WASHINGTON IRVING.
after two days' living on crackers and gingerbread, were highly acceptable. Friday, 13th. " We prepared to leave the Temple of Dirt, and set out about sixty miles through the woods to Oswe- gatchie. We ate an uncomfortable breakfast, for it was impossible to relish anything in a house so completely filthy. The landlady herself was perfectly in character with the house ; a little squat Frenchwoman, with a red face, a black wool hat stuck on her head, her hair greasy and uncombed, hanging about her ears, and the rest of her dress and person in similar style. We were heart- ily glad to make an escape."
The Journal omits to mention that just before they started, the young traveller took out his pencil, and scribbled over the fire-place the following memorial :- " Here Sovereign Dirt erects her sable throne,
The house, the host, the hostess all her own."
In a subsequent year, when Mr. Hoff- man was passing the same way, with Judge William Cooper, (the father of the distinguished novelist, James Fenimore Cooper), he pointed out this memento of his student, still undetected and unef- faced ; whereupon the Judge, whose longer experience in frontier travel had probably raised him above the qualms of over-nicety, immediately wrote under it, this doggerel inculcation :-
"Learn hence, young man, and teach it to your sons, The wisest way's to take it as it comes."*
Irving's journey through the wilder- ness to Ogdensburgh, mid dreary drench-
ing rains,-his sleepless nights in log cabins, and the cheerful contrast pre- sented after three or four days wading through the mud, would have interest, but our space does not allow. While writing the history of St. Lawrence county, in 1852, and knowing of Irving's former transient residence there, we ad- dressed him a letter, asking if he could give some reminiscences of the country at that early day. He replied, court- eously thanking us for the invitation, but declined, as other engagements just then claimed all his time, and the impressions of his youth had become faded by time.
But in September, 1853, he had occa- sion, on a journey, to pass through Ogdensburgh by railway from Lake Champlain, to take a steamer for the west, and the visit brought back with freshness, the scenes which it recalled, and in a letter to a niece in Paris, he de- scribes them with a beauty and pathos that shows how sad these memories were, and yet how dear. He says :-
"One of the most interesting circum- stances of my tour was the sojourn of a day at Ogdensburgh, at the mouth of the Oswegatchie river, where it empties into the St. Lawrence. I had not been there since I visited it fifty years ago, in 1803, when I was twenty years of age; when I made an expedition through the Black river country to Can- ada, in company with Mr. and Mrs. Hoff- man, and Anne Hoffman, Mr. and Mrs. Ludlow Ogden, and Miss Eliza Ogden. Mr. Hoffman and Mr. Ogden were visit- ing their wild lands on the St. Lawrence. All the country was then a wilderness. We floated down the Black river in a scow ; we toiled through the forests in wagons drawn by oxen ;* we slept in
* Irving appears to have gained something himself from experience, for in traveling the next year in France, in remarking upon the dirt, noise and insolence he met with on the road from Marseilles to Nice, he says :-
"Fortunately for me, I am seasoned, in some degree, to the disagreeables from my Canada journey of last summer. When I enter one of these inns to put up for the night, I have but to draw a comparison between it and some of the log hovels into which my fellow travel- ers and myself were huddled, after a fatiguing day's journey through the woods, and the inn appears a palace. For my part I endeavor to take things as they come, with cheerfulness, and when I cannot get a dinner to suit my taste, I endeavor to get a taste to suit my dinner." He adds, " There is nothing I dread more than to be taken for one of the Smellfungi of this world. I there- fore endeavor to be pleased with every thing about me, and with the masters, mistresses and servants of the inns, particularly when I perceive they have 'all the dispo- sition in the world' to serve me ; as Stone says, 'it is enough for Heaven, and ought to be enough for me.'"
* Judge Noadiah Hubbard, for many years a prom- inent citizen of Champion, drove this ox team, and in 1853, he related to the author some reminiscences of the journey. The girls wanted to learn the names of his oxen-the meaning of "gee " and "haw," and many other details, which they probably did not remember as long as it took him to tell them. But it was all new to them-in the spring-time of life-and there was a ro- mance, even in the discomforts of a journey with an ox team, which would be at least remembered after the weariness of the ride was forgotten.
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HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY.
hunter's cabins, and were once four and twenty hours without food ; but all was romance to me.
" Arrived on the banks of the St. Lawrence, we put up at Mr. Ogden's agent, [Nathan Ford,] who was quar- tered in some rude buildings belonging to a French fort at the mouth of the Os- wegatchie. What happy days I passed there! rambling about the woods with the young ladies; or paddling with them in Indian canoes on the limpid waters of the St. Lawrence; or fishing about the rapids and visiting the Indians who still lived on islands in the river. Everything was so grand and so silent and solitary. I don't think any scene in life made a more delightful impression on me.
" Well, here I was again after a lapse of fifty years. I found a populous city occu- pying both banks of the Oswegatchie,con- nected by bridges. It was the Ogdens- burgh, of which a village plot had been planned at the time of our visit. I sought the old French fort, where we had been quartered-not a trace of it was left. I sat under a tree on the site and looked round upon what I had known as a wil- derness-now teeming with life, crowded with habitations-the Oswegatchie river dammed up and encumbered by vast stone mills-the broad St. Lawrence plowed by immense steamers. I walked to the point, where, with the two girls, I used to launch forth in the canoe, while the rest of the party would wave hand- kerchiefs, and cheer us from the shore ; but it was now a bustling landing-place for steamers. There were still some rocks where I used to sit of an evening and accompany with my flute one of the ladies who sang. I sat for a long time on the rocks, summoning recollections of by-gone days, and of the happy beings by whom I was then surrounded. All had passed away, all were dead and gone; of that young and joyous party, I was the sole survivor; they had all lived quietly at home, out of the reach of mischance, yet had gone down to their graves; while I, who had been wandering about the world, exposed to all hazards by sea and land, was yet alive. It seemed al- most marvelous. I have often, in my shifting about the world, come upon the traces of former existence ; but I do not think any thing has made a stronger im-
pression on me than this second visit to the banks of the Oswegatchie."
Irving was afterwards engaged to marry Matilda Hoffman, a younger sister of Anne, but she died after a short illness in her eighteenth year, in 1809. He was never afterwards able to forget this sad event, which cast a shadow over his life till the end.
In September, 1814, Irving, then aid and military secretary to Governor Tompkins, with the rank of Colonel, was sent to Sackett's Harbor, with discre- tionary power to consult with the com- manding officers stationed there; and if necessary to order out more militia, as the place was threatened with an attack by land and water. Proceeding to Utica by stage, he there took horse for the Harbor, which with all his diligence he could not reach under three days, for the roads were exceedingly heavy, and the journey rough and toilsome, but not without interest. A great part of this lonely ride lay through the track trav- ersed in 1803 ; but eleven years had made great changes in the face of the country, and doubtless suggested to him what further time would do.
Among his papers, left at his death, and used by his nephew Pierre M. Irving, in preparing "The Life and Letters " of this distinguished author, were found faded leaves, numbers 10, 11, 12 and 13, of an article which Irving had apparently written for the press, but had never sent.
This fragment begins on the second day after leaving Utica, when he was proceeding on his way amid such " gen- eral stillness " that "the fall of an acorn among the dry leaves would resound through the forest."
" While I was jogging thus pensively on, my horse scarce dragging a snail's pace and seemingly, like his rider, sunk into a reverie, I was suddenly startled by a loud rustling on the right; a beautiful doe came bounding through the thickets, leaped lightly over a
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LISTS OF PUBLIC OFFICERS.
fallen pine, and alighted in the road just before me. The poor animal seemed transfixed with astonishment at behold- ing another tenant of these solitudes; it gazed at me for an instant with the most picturesque surprise, and then launching to the left, I presently heard it plunge into the river.
" I had now been traveling for some time through close woodland, my view bounded on every side by impassive forests, when I came to where the face of the country sinks for a considerable distance, and forms a vast terrace of ten miles in breadth, and then sinking again forms another broad terrace or plain, until it reaches Lake Ontario. Nothing could exceed the grandeur of the effect when the view first burst upon my sight. I found myself upon the brow of a hill, down which the road suddenly made a winding descent. The trees on each side of the road were like the side scenes of a theatre; while those which had hitherto bounded my view in front seemed to have sunk from before me, and I looked forth upon a luxuriant and almost boundless expanse of country. The forest swept down from beneath my feet, and spread out into a vast ocean of foliage, tinted with all the brilliant dyes of autumn, and gilded by a setting sun. Here and there a column of smoke curling its light blue volumes into the air, rose as a beacon to direct the eye to some infant settlement, as to some haven in this sylvan sea. As my eye ranged over the mellow landscape I could per- ceive where the country dipped again into its second terrace ; the foliage be- yond being more and more blended in the purple mist of sunset ; until a glit- tering line of gold trembling along the horizon, showed the distant waters of Lake Ontario."
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