USA > New York > Madison County > History of Madison County, state of New York > Part 38
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There is a Methodist Episcopal Church in Hamilton vil- lage, which was formed as a society in 1819. We are una- ble to present the facts in its history, from want of the nec- essary material .* We have also failed in obtaining a histor- ical sketch of the M. E. Church at Poolville, and at East Hamilton.
NEWSPAPERS.
The Hamilton Recorder was started in 1817, by John G. Stower and P. B. Havens. In 1819, it passed into the hands of Stower & Williams, and afterwards into those of John P. VanSice. In 1829, it was removed to Morrisville and united with The Observer.
The Madison Farmer was published at Hamilton in 1828, by Nathaniel King.
The Civilian was started July 27, 1830, by Laurens Dewey. In February, 1831, it passed into the hands of Lewison Fairchild, and in November, 1831, it was discon- tinued.
The Hamilton Courier was commenced by G. R. Waldron in February, 1834, and in the following year it appeared as
The Hamilton Courier and Madison County Advertiser. It was continued until 1838.
The Hamilton Palladium was started in 1838, by John Atwood, and continued six years-a part of the time by J. & D. Atwood.
The Hamilton Eagle was published in 1836, by G. R. Waldron.
The Literary Visitor was published at Hamilton about three months, in 1842, by Dennis Redman.
The Democratic Reflector was started at Hamilton by G. R. Waldron, in 1842, and was published by Waldron & Baker from 1843 to 1854, and two years by Waldron alone, when it was united with the Madison County Fournal, and appeared as
The Democratic Republican. It was published by Wal-
* See page 451.
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HAMILTON.
dron & James until 1861 ; by J. Hunt Smith, sixteen months, when it passed into the hands of E. D. Van Slyck, by whom it is now published.
The Madison County Fournal was commenced Septem- ber, 1849, by E. F. & C. B. Gould. W. W. Chubbuck, F. B. Fisher and T. L. James were afterwards interested in its publication ; and in 1856 it was united with the Democratic Reflector.
The Mill Boy was published during the campaign of 1844, at the Palladium office, and
The Polker at the Reflector office.
The Land Mark was published as a campaign paper in 1850.
The New York State Radii was removed from Fort Plain, Montgomery County, in 1854, by L. S. Backus, and con- tinued about eighteen months, when it was returned to Fort Plain.
The Democratic Union was commenced at Hamilton, in 1856, by Levi S. Backus ; and in 1857, it passed into the hands of W. H. Baker, when he removed it to Oneida in 1863, where he contiues to publish it.
The Independent Volunteer was started at Morrisville and Hamilton, July 28, 1864, by G. R. Waldron and J. M. Chase ; in 1865, it was published by G. R. Waldron & Son ; Sep- tember 25, 1866, it was changed to
Waldron's Democratic Volunteer, and was first published at Hamilton by Waldron & Son, and is now issued by Waldron & Slauson.
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MADISON COUNTY.
CHAPTER X. --
LENOX.
Boundaries .- Climate .- Geography. - Ancient Occupation of the Town by Indians .- Jesuit Missions of the Seventeenth Century .- English Travelers .- Ancient Forts .- Rev. Samuel Kirkland at Oneida Castle .- Traversing Armies. - Travelers' Statements .- First White Settlers .- The Klocks .- Myndert Wemple .- Angel DeFerriere .- Wampsville .- Quality Hill .- Biographical .- Palmer Hill .- Oneida Castle and Skenan- doah's Home .- Lenox Furnace .- Canastota Village with Biographical Sketches .- Oneida Village .- Oneida Commu- nity .- Churches .- Newspapers.
The town of Lenox is bounded north by the Oneida Lake and Oneida County, east by Oneida Creek, (the natu- ral division between this town and Oneida County,) south by Stockbridge and Smithfield, and west by Sullivan. It is one of the two northern towns of Madison County. Ly- ing north of the water shed, its streams all have a northerly course and discharge their waters into Oneida Lake. Oneida Creek, which rises far southward in Madison County, drains the eastern part of Lenox, and, at this point, is a noble stream, affording several mill sites. Before the construction of dams, salmon ran up this stream as far as Stockbridge, affording fine fishing. The Cowasselon Creek has its numerous tributaries all along the ridge, in the towns of Fenner and Smithfield, which pour down the hill sides to the level country below, where the main body of the stream, moving easterly, receives them all, then curves northerly and westerly and receives the Canastota; then trails slowly through the heavy swamp into the town of
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Sullivan to unite with the Canaseraga. The Canastota, having its source in Fenner, rushes down the hills at a rapid rate, and finally having reached the level country and wa- tered the village of Canastota, it unites with the Cowas- selon.
The great swamp extends from Sullivan far into this town, but at the northward the lands bordering the lake are more arable. The beach on the south shore of Oneida Lake is beautiful, and in some places well adapted to the sports of fishing. From the earliest days the lake abound- ed in the best qualities of the finny tribes. Spafford's Ga- zetteer of 1812, says: " Among the most admired fish are salmon, pike, Oswego and white bass, trout, catfish, with a great variety of others, and eels of a superior quality and in vast abundance."
The face of the whole town, which may be seen from the southern high ridges, is beautiful. To the tourist coming from the south and reaching the summit, where the macad- amized road is ready to take its downward curve around to the rocky base of the hill, where a branch of the Cowasse- lon splashes from one rocky shelf to another into the gorge below ; here, upon the highest point, it requires but a slight stretch of the imagination to seem to be on some romantic border ground of two widely different countries, especially if it be at that transition period in nature, the spring time, when the buds are bursting and the grass freshening ; when the warmer soils and sunnier spots first show their robes of living green ; for the climate north of the ridge materially differs from that south, and brings forth vegetation two weeks earlier. From this summit the observer's vision ex- tends many miles southward over successive hills rising and falling, between whose convolutions flow many streams. Brown and bare are the still wintry looking forests, though the faintest hue of swelling buds may just relieve the hang- ing duskiness about the extreme crown of the maple woods ; but let him turn to the northward and his eye sweeps a vast
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breadth of country, seeming to be a wide prairie, upon which groves of timber have been planted ; he sees various north- ward bound creeks and rivulets, which cease suddenly their rushing and roaring at the base of the hills, and wind leis- urely along the level country below him; and in this charmed climate lies the village of Canastota, flourishing her fruit and ornamental trees, clothed in their new outfit of .green foliage. To the southward he has felt the chill of winter fleeing from the breezy hill tops ; to the northward he breathes the balmy air of spring which has crept up the valley of the Mohawk and finds no counter-current impedi- ment to its progress along the low, sandy country, south of Lake Oneida.
The soil of Lenox is rich and productive, being in the north a gravelly alluvium and in the south more clayey. It is generally well adapted to the cultivation of wheat. Iron ore is perceptible in the soil in many places, and limestone abounds. The geology of this town is quite like that of Sullivan-its various strata of rock and mineral deposits be- ing but a continuation of the same. Beds of gypsum and iron ore are seen in various places. On the Seneca Turn- pike, near the crossing of the Cowasselon, are sulphur springs of considerable strength. The development of salt springs, as found at Canastota, exceed any in the coun- try, except those at Syracuse.
Lenox was formed from Sullivan, March 3, 1809, and is one of the largest towns in Madison County. At the date of its formation it embraced an area of 54,500 acres of land. A portion of its territory was taken off for Stockbridge in 1836, leaving the present area 49,568 acres.
The town of Lenox, the center of the old Oneida Reser- vation, was the established home of the Oneida Indians for centuries. Although they had been planted at Stock- bridge, yet we have evidences that their chief village was at Oneida Castle as far back as 1650. Madison County was, properly, the home of the Oneidas; they owned all its
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LENOX.
broad domain, and within its borders were situated nearly all their villages. The Oneidas claimed but a comparatively small part of Oneida County, and yielded their jurisdiction of that the earliest ; so we claim the Oneidas. Since this tribe has had no historian, it becomes our task in this work to gather and report such fragmentary records as have been penned by priests, travelers, and other itinerants, and handed down among the musty documents of ages past. From these we learn, that in 1667, a Jesuit Mission was established at Oneida Castle by Father Jacques Bruyas. The mission was named " St. Francis Xavier." Father Bruyas did much towards attaching the Indians to the French ; in his reports he names thirty Indian as having been baptized by him. In 1677, an English traveler, Wentworth Greenhalgh, in the interest of the English Government, traveled through the Indian country as far as the Senecas. He speaks of the Oneidas as having but one town, about 130 miles west of the Mohawks, and about twenty miles from the head of the Oneida river, which runs into Lake Tshiroque (Lake Oneida). He says: "The town is newly settled, double stockadoed, but little cleared ground, so they are forced to send to the Onondagoes to buy corn. The town consists of about 100 houses. They are said to have about 200 fighting men. Their corn grows round about the town."
Father Pierre Millet was stationed at Oneida, in 1684, by De La Barre, Governor General of Canada, who remained there till about 1696, during which time he exerted his in- fluence to attach the Iroquois to the French. Although in some degree successful, yet he could not win them from their allegiance to the English and Dutch. During Father Millet's residence here, this region was invaded by French armies to coerce the natives, and bring them under subju- gation, and marks of their devastating course existed a long time after. In the meantime, the authorities at Albany and New York maintained their friendship by keeping up
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constant communication by runners on the "errant path," whose course through this region often awoke lively enthu- siasm for their English and Dutch friends, who always sent them useful presents in times of need.
When the Jesuits were recalled to Canada, they left many evidences of their former presence among the Onei- das, which, a few years since, were scarcely obliterated.
Schoolcraft discovered some remains of the French occupation in this town, which he saw when in Lenox, and from which he drew a diagram. The drawing represents the lines of a picketed work covering two sides of a fort. beyond which is an extensive plain once cultivated. He thus describes it :-
It is now [1846,] covered with wild grass and shrubbery. The northern edge of the plain is traversed by a stream which has worn its bed down to the unconsolidated strata, so as to create a deep gorge. This stream is joined from the west by a small run having its origin in a spring near by. Its channel at the junction is as deep below the level of the plain as the other. [Some few miles below on the stream is the site of an iron cupola or blast furnace, where the red or lenticular oxyd is reduced.] The point of junction itself forms a natural horn work, which covered access to the water. The angle of the plain thus marked constituted the point defended. The excava- tions may have once been square. They are now indentations disclosing carbonaceous matter, as if from the decay of wood ; no wood or coal, however, existed; their use in this position is not apparently connected with the designated lines of palisades, unless it be supposed that they were of an older period than the latter, and designate pits, such as the aborigines used in defence. This idea is favored by the ground being a little raised at this point, and so formed that it would have admitted the ancient circular Indian palisade. If such were the case, however, it seems evident that the French had selected the spot at an early period, when, as it is known, they attempted to obtain a footing in the country of the Oneidas. The distance is less than ten miles north-west of the Oneida Castle. It probably covered a mission. The site which my informant, living near, called the old French Field, may be supposed to have been cultivated bv servants, or traders connected with it. The oak and maple trees which once covered it as denoted by the existing forest, are such in size and number as to have required expert axmen to fell.
With the exception of two points in the Oneida Creek valley,
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where there are still vestiges of French occupation, supported by tradition, this work is the most easterly of those known, which remain to test the adventurous spirit, zeal and persever- ance, which marked the attempt of the French Crown to plant the flag and the cross in Western New York."
After the contest between the French and English was ended, the Iroquois unmolested, pursued their usual customs, and for several decades the present county of Madison saw but little of the white man, save as the trader came up to purchase the choice furs of the bear, beaver, mink and otter, then the only exchange products of the country, for which he would disburse in payment, not only the gay city notions the Indians so much admired, but many a flagon of baneful fire water. Oneida Castle, Onondaga and other points farther west, were regular trading posts, and it was no uncommon scene to see companies of Indians, laden with furs, coming in on the various trails to these points, at periods when traders were to arrive. Many fleets of fur- laden canoes came over lake Oneida on the same errand. Finally, so lucrative grew the fur trade, it became necessary 1 to build a fort at the carrying place, between the Mohawk
River and Wood Creek, Oneida Co., and also to perfect the water communication between here and Albany, in order to facilitate and systematize the traffic, and to improve the facilities for a quick and easy transportation to Albany.
In July, 1766, Rev. Samuel Kirkland took up his resi- dence at Ka-non-wal-lo-hu-le, the Indian name for Oneida Castle. He had intended to settle with the Senecas, but having ill health, had returned and decided to locate here. In the autumn of this year, he built himself a house, cutting and hewing the timber and digging the cellar with his own hands. He cultivated a garden on the ground occupied, in 1850, for the same purpose, by Hon. Timothy Jenkins .* In 1769, Mr. Kirkland married and brought his wife here, when he found it necessary to enlarge his house from its original dimensions of ten feet square, to sixteen feet square.
*Jones' Annals of Oneida County.
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MADISON COUNTY.
His wife remained with the family of Gen. Herkimer until he could accomplish the enlargement. This being com- pleted, he removed her to the improved residence, in the latter part of December. Mrs. Kirkland's presence was soon felt in introducing order, neatness, industry, purity and devotion among the Oneida women ; and in a few years the influence of Mr. and Mrs. Kirkland produced a most saluta- ry effect upon the natives, so that at the death of Sir Wil- liam Johnson, and the breaking out of the Revolution, their strong attachment to the principles which had been incul- cated, won them from the interests of the Johnson family, and attached them to the American cause. They were in- duced by Mr. Kirkland to remain neutral ; but Skenandoah, the famous Oneida Chief, residing here, influenced many of them to take up arms in the defense of the Americans. On the breaking out of actual hostilities, Mrs. Kirkland re- turned to Massachusetts, and remained there till after the peace of 1783, Mr. Kirkland, meantime, remaining in the discharge of his duties, sometimes residing at Whitestown and sometimes at Oneida Castle.
Because the Oneidas held a neutral position, these vil- lages were unmolested during the war, while others around them were utterly destroyed by one or the other of the con- tending forces. Although large bodies of soldiery passed and repassed over their trails and through their villages, their quiet remained undisturbed. In the spring of 1779, Col. Van Shaick with his detachment of six companies of New York troops, one of Pennsylvania, one of Massachu- setts and one of rifles, amounting in all to 504 men, rank and file, marched from Fort Schuyler to Onondaga, through Oneida village ;- and again in September of that year, Col. Gansevoort, with one hundred men, made his rapid march through the Genesee Indian country to Fort Schuyler, pass- ing through here. He had been instrueted by Gen. Sulli- van as follows: " Take particular care that your men do not offer the inhabitants the least insult ; and, if by any accident
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damage should be done, you are to make reparation, for which I shall stand accountable." Col. Gansevoort reported afterwards, and of his passing through Oneida Castle, says : " Every mark of hospitality and friendship was shown our party. I had the pleasure to find that not the least dam- age nor insult was offered any of the inhabitants." The famous Vrooman adventurers and their savage pursuers, Sir John Johnson and his barbarians, made their swift jour- neys over the well preserved Oneida path through Lenox.
Although neutral as a tribe during the war, the Oneidas had some famous warriors who did good service in the cause of the colonies. Chief of them all, was the sagacious and noble Skenandoah, who, when peril threatened to overwhelm the colonists, left the peaceful arts of agriculture which he had acquired with civilization, and helped to fight the bat- tles of the Americans. The Castle was also the home of Thomas Spencer, an Indian interpreter, who rendered most valuable service to the cause of his country, and gave to it his life at the battle of Oriskany, in 1777.
After the war, the peaceful arts flourished, and the Onei- das began to cultivate the rich lands of this town, which they chose to reserve for their own use. They made pres- ents of some fine tracts to their prized friends ; one to Judge James Dean of Westmoreland, and a rich tract to Rev. Sam- uel Kirkland. They made cessions of land to the State, time after time, from other sections of their territory, but preserved Lenox intact.
The Great Trail was an excellent thoroughfare for emi- grants who had heard of the wonderful Genesee country. In 1790, James Wadsworth opened the first wagon road along this route as he passed westward ; but, up to the pe- riod of which we have been speaking, not one emigrant had come to settle in northern Madison County. It was in 1791, that the first settlers of Sullivan, the Germans, passed here. The locating of these Germans upon a portion of the chosen reservation of the Oneidas, did not please the lat-
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ter ; the spirit shown by the Indians on this occasion, how- ever, deterred others from encroaching ; and not until pur- chases were made by the State, was the town of Lenox set- tled by white people.
From published statements made by travelers at the time, we learn something of Central New York at an early day. Capt. Williamson, agent of the Pultney estate, in one of his letters, writes of a gentleman (name not mentioned,) moving to Genesee in the month of February, 1792, who says : " At Whitestown I was obliged to change my sled ; the Albany driver would proceed no further, as he found that for the next 150 miles we were not only obliged to take provisions for ourselves and horse, but also blankets as a substitute for beds. After leaving Whitestown, we found only a few huts scattered along the path, at a distance of from ten to twenty miles apart, and they afforded nothing but the convenience of fire and a kind of shelter from the snow." They reached Seneca Lake on the evening of the third day, greatly fatigued with their tedious journey. Capt. Williamson also alludes to his own journey to the same place that year, as follows :- " After passing Clinton, there are no inhabitants on the road until you reach Oneida, an Indian town, the first of the Six Nations ; it contains about 550 inhabitants ; here I slept, and found the natives very friendly. The next day I went on to Onondaga, leaving the Oneida Lake on the right and the Onondaga on the left, each a few miles distant."
As before stated, the Germans, or more correctly, the Dutch, from the Mohawk valley, had passed through here and discovered the land to be a goodly heritage to whom- soever should possess it. They had decided to remain in Sullivan, with the consent of the Oneidas, upon the land of their choice ; they were not at all disheartened by the reverses and poverty which seemed to constantly attend their first efforts at settlement, nor did their ill fortune de- ter others from following in their footsteps.
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The year 1792, brought the first white settlers of the town of Lenox. Conrad Klock and his sons, Joseph, John and Conrad, from the Mohawk country, came to the vicin- ity of Clockville, and there located their homes. It is from this family that the village was subsequently named. Their settlement was increased by additions from the lower Mo- hawk ; the Betsingers, the Moots, Jacob Forbes* and Nicholas Forbes. They opened a road through to Cana- seraga, which communicated with Oneida Castle, and along this road, during the next few years, many families settled. Capt. Jacob Seeber and others, of the Sullivan pioneers, re- moved to this locality. Southeast of Clockville, about two miles, was quite a compact settlement of Dutch, among whom were the Snyders, Bruyeas, Kilts and Tuttles. A half mile west of Clockville, at the four corners, one of the settlers named Fort, kept a tavern for many years.
At this day (1871,) many of the old farms are in posses- sion of members of the above named families ; D. B. Moot is in possession of the old Forbes place ; N. M. Moot owns the homestead of his father ; Adam Klock has also his fath- er's homestead ; Abram Snyder is the owner of the farm his father, Adam R. Snyder, took up.
On the opening of the Seneca turnpike, Myndert Wem- ple, a blacksmith, who had been sent among the Indians by Gen. Washington, opened a tavern at the place which was afterwards named from him, Wampsville. This tavern, being the only one there for many years, was widely known to the traveling and emigrating public. (This old tavern building is still standing as a farm Louse. In 1870, the farm upon which it stands was sold by Mr. Benjamin Dyer to Mr. Miner, of the Eagle Hotel, Oneida.) Wemple was a favorite with the Indians ; they gave him a tract of land in Westmoreland, one mile squar., which was known as "Wemple's Patent."
* Isaac Forbes, son of Jacob Forbes, was in times past a Magistrate and Deputy Sheriff.
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MADISON COUNTY.
Before 1800, Angel De Ferriere, a Frenchman, who had married a daughter of Louis Dennie, a leading family among the Oneidas, was prevailed upon by his wife's relatives to take up his abode in their territory, and as an inducement, the wife's brother, Jonathan Dennie, made her a present of a very nice farm near Wampsville. After this, Mr. De Ferriere made large additions to this estate by purchases, receiving from the Indians the benefit of their title, and ob- taining, also, a patent from the State. He so increased his possessions, that at one time he owned 3,000 acres of the best grade of land in Lenox. He built a tavern, a saw mill and grist mill, a distillery and brewery ; and with rare dis- crimination, selected worthy and industrious young men, and set them up in business in the little village he had founded. The tavern, a fine building for its day, being a large two-story house, was kept by Dr. Stockton ; and from such an authority as DeWitt Clinton, who put up here on a journey westward, we learn that it was the best tavern on the road. After Dr. Stockton's term of renting had expired, a Mr. Alcott took the house. The grist mill, which stood nearly on the site of Duncan McDougall's flouring mill, was run by Mr. McCollum, a Scotchman. Mr. DeFerriere em- ployed a man to carry on the brewery, set up a blacksmith and a shoemaker, and built a small store. Although un- used to our customs and unable to speak English when he came to America, his good knowledge of human nature, his ready tact and common sense, usually rendered him success- ful in selecting the right sort of men to assist him in his af- fairs ; he also speedily acquired our language, so that he soon became able to transact any part of his own business, making out his contracts and conveyances in his own hand. His land extended nearly to Oneida village ; he subse- quently sold much of it to white settlers, many of whom, or their successors, to-day possess old titles and papers in the orthography and chirography of Angel DeFerriere. His own house, long since removed, stood near the tavern and
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