USA > New York > Madison County > History of Madison County, state of New York > Part 39
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opposite the cottage built in later years, which is now stand- ing on the homestead farm. (Note m.)
The Cowassalon* Creek courses through here ; and north of DeFerriere's and the adjacent village of Wampsville, was the Indian village. A great deal of business was transacted at Wampsville at an early day. The Seneca Turnpike was a great road ; six and eight horse teams hauling covered emigrant wagons with wide-tired wheels, were constantly passing over it.
Luther Cole was the first mail carrier west of Utica. Judge Young, of Whitestown, was the first agent of the Seneca Turnpike Company ; he built the De Ferriere bridge over the Cowassalont at Wampsville, which was then known as a great bridge. His name and the date of its construction was inscribed on the bridge. It was at last destroyed by a freshet, when its foundation was washed away and its two arches fell by the violence of the flood. Judge Young was succeeded by Gardiner Avery as agent of the Turnpike Co .; he continued in office a number of years, and was succeeded by Capt. Harvey Cobb, now a citizen of Wampsville, who held the agency till the turnpike was given up by the Company and became a common pub- lic highway.
On the opening of the Erie Canal, the lands about Wampsville and throughout the town along its line, were in market and were rapidly sold. A portion of Wampsville Flats was purchased by Peter Smith and Elisha Williams, (the latter gentleman a noted lawyer, of Hudson, N. Y.,) which purchase was known as "the purchase of 1815." These lands were sold out in farms. Southward from Fed- eral and Quality Hills, or south side of and adjoining the Seneca Turnpike, was " the purchase of 1798," which then
* Pronounced "kwos-a-lone;" meaning bushes hanging over the water. It is sometimes erroneously spoken, "Squash-a-lone." De Witt Clinton, hearing the latter pronunciation, supposed it to be "Squaw-a,lone," and has so written it. By some it is said to mean "Weeping Squaw."
+ At the foot of " Break Neck Hill."
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found a ready market, as the turnpike lands became a great attraction to emigrants. In Judge Thomas Barlow's enter- taining sketches, published in the Canastota Herald in 1868, he gives a narrative from Col. Cadwell's experience in the early settlement of Quality Hill and its vicinity. To this narrative the author is indebted for much of the history of this section. We learn from this source that as early as 1802, there were no houses on the north side of the turn- pike from Wampsville to Quality Hill; all was woodland except here and there cleared spots. The road leading south by Dr. Hall's was the only road going south from the turnpike between the two places. The Colonel says : "The first labor I performed when I came here, (1802,) was in laying a causeway across the swamp at the bottom of the hill on this road." There was, however, a considerable population from near Federal Hill, westward along the turn- pike, of which Quality Hill was the nucleus ; here, individ- uals of enterprise, education, and in many instances of wealth, settled. The name of " Quality Hill" was given by a young lady, Miss Lucinda Harris, daughter of Dr. Harris, who lived in a log house on the spot where now may be seen the stately mansion of Sylvanus Stroud. Miss Harris, it seems, regarded the ladies of the hill as enjoying better advantages than those around them, and therefore as " putting on a little more style" than they would, had it been otherwise ; hence, so far as a name would do it, she qualified and dignified the place and people by prefixing the title " Quality" to the " Hill," by which not inappropriate name the locality was known as early as 1800, and has been so known to this day. Miss Harris married Elisha Buttolf and resided for a time a half mile west of the Hill.
An old resident, in a recent communication, remarks o this part of Lenox : "The soil being in possession of all its strength and fatness, produced most luxuriant crops of all the cereals, and where but lately stood a growth of heavy timber might be seen the tasseled tops of a rich crop of
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Indian corn, and a yellow harvest of wheat waving in the breeze, side by side. So congenial was the new land to the growth of pumpkins, that in the harvest of some years, a man might walk over an acre of ground on pumpkins at every step! Hence, the hill near where my father lived was called 'Pumpkin Hill.'"
Sylvanus Smalley, afterwards Judge, who was one of the first settlers, kept tavern at Quality Hill many years. His was also the first tavern of the place ; it was built of logs with a frame front. It was long ago removed, and the Judge erected a fine two-story house, (now owned by Je- rome Hoffman,) in which he lived many years. He died at Durhamville. After Judge Smalley, this tavern was kept by John P. Webb for a long term of years.
In 1802, there lived upon the hill, Dr. Asahel Prior, Da- vid Barnard, Aaron Francis, Abiel Fuller, David Barnard, jr., Dea. Ebenezer Cadwell, Isaac Senate, Samuel Louder, Nehemiah Smalley, Mr. Tucker, Selah Hills, Job Lockwood, Nash Mitchell, tanner and currier by trade, Dr. Harris and Ichabod Buell.
Passing along east from Quality Hill, there lived east of the creek, as it then ran, a Mr. Handy, who was a deer skin and leather dresser. There were deer in the forests, and many of the inhabitants wore deer skin pants, from material prepared by Mr. Handy. There was a brick yard on the flat near there, and Jason Powers, who came to Quality Hill in 1801, worked in the yard and boarded with Mr. Handy, and finally married his daughter, Lovina. Near here was also a distillery. On the south side of the road toward Federal Hill was a tavern kept by Joseph Phelps .. On Federal Hill, on the south side of the road, Thomas Menzie was located and sold goods, trading mostly with the Indians. In 1802, there was no other dwelling from this point to Wampsville.
West from Quality Hill, on the turnpike, in the section called " Oak Hill," it was considerably settled by farmers, who had made quite spacious clearings around their homes,
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and were well started in the world. Squire Ebenezer Calk- ins, then a young man, resided in a log house, where he afterwards built, and where the Perkins have since lived. Col. Zebulon Douglass was keeping tavern on his well known farm, west of Col. Calkins' ; Reuben Hale lived on the hill nearly west of what is now know as the Culver res- idence ; Gen. Ichabod S. Spencer lived on the flat between Mr. Hale's and where Col. Stephen Lee afterwards lived ; Col. Thomas W. Phelps worked at the harness making busi- ness, opposite Col. Lee's ; a Mr. Pettibone kept tavern bere before 1802 ; this tavern was burned down and never rebuilt.
After 1802, the population of this locality was added to by many other substantial citizens, among whom were Har- vey G. Morse, Edward Lewis, Thomas W. Phelps, Wm. I. Hopkins, Joseph Bruce and Squire Wager. Dr. Thomas Spencer was an early resident of Quality Hill, as were also his brothers, Joshua A. and Ichabod S. Spencer.
South and south-west from here on the Clockville and Canaseraga road, Walter, Sylvester, Hezekiah and Lines Beecher, located at an early date. The first two named, were afterwards Judges of the County Court. Dea. John Hall, from Massachusetts, settled on Oak Hill in 1806. Dea. Nathaniel Hall,* from Connecticut, and Dr. Nathan- iel Hall, his son, came in 1807. Their farms were in the Beecher neighborhood.
About 1810, a singular and fatal affair occurred in the Beecher and Hall neighborhood. Two young men, named John Allen and John Harp, were at work plowing for Judge Beecher, and obtained some of the roots of Cicuta, supposing it to be "Sweet Sicily," and ate of it. In a
* Horace H. Hall, of Quality Hill, has in his possession an old relic, descended to him from his grandfather, Deacon Nathaniel Hall. It is an ancient powder horn, quaintly carved, bearing the inscription "Nathaniel Hall 1759." This early resident of Lenox, was born in Guilford, Conn., in 1742, and died in Lenox, in 1818, aged 76 years. He served in the war of the Revolution, having been called from peaceful pursuits at several different times in periods of emergency.
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short time they discovered the horrible mistake they had made and attempted to reach some neighbor's house, but found themselves unable to go. One of them succeeded in making himself heard, and soon the whole neighborhood was aroused ; physicians were procured, among whom were Drs. Hall and Prior, and every effort possible was made to save the victims, which, however, availed nothing, for before sunset of the same day they were both dead. The sad affair created intense excitement. The house of Judge Beecher, where the young men were carried, was immediately thronged with almost the entire population for miles around, and the funeral was the largest this part of the country had yet known.
Among other early settlers ot this part of the town, were a Mr. Cotton, Evard Van Epps, Gift Hills, John Hills, Martin Vrooman and Benjamin Smith,-the latter kept a tav- ern. The first person who engaged in the mercantile busi- ness at Quality Hill was Capt. William Jennings. He was succeeded by Maj. Joseph Bruce, who was a merchant here many years. At a very early day, contemporaneous with Jennings, the firm of Walton, Beebe & Hall kept a store, erecting a building for that purpose. The village had at one time two taverns, which did ample business. The pros- perity of these institutions, may be in good part accounted for by the fact that the turnpike was a constantly traveled thoroughfare, especially in winter when teaming was a great business. As many as forty teams in a line have been seen at one sweep of the eye, from the stand point of Quality Hill, eastward toward Federal Hill. There were other taverns near by, both east and west of the village. Besides the business institutions already mentioned, there were at the same time on Quality Hill, a post office, several shops and a Masonic Lodge, to which a large number ot the leading men of the country round about belonged.
The meetings and trainings of the military organizations were the occasions of the great gatherings of early days in
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town and county, the officers of which were the most con- spicuous men of the times. During the war of 1812, the patriotic citizens of Lenox raised a company of horse artillery that volunteered tor the war. The officers were : Captain, William Jennings ; First Lieut., Joseph Bruce ;* Second Lieut., Argelus Cady ; Cornet, David Beecher ; Orderly Sergeant, J. Austin Spencer. It was at this time that Capt. Jennings made himself famous for his poetical order on Gov. Daniel D. Tompkins, which has been related as follows :- The officers had met at the store of Lieut. Bruce to prepare a requisition letter to the Governor, for two field pieces. While discussing the form in which to address so distinguished a man, Judge Hopkins, at that time doing duty on the bench, made a bantering wager with Capt. Jennings that the ordnance could be procured on an order, the form of which should be dictated by him. Hopkins walked up to the desk, seized the pen and forth- with produced the following :-
" Great Daniel D., we send to thee For two great guns and trimmings ; Send them to hand, or you'll be d-d, By order of
Capt. Jennings."
This of course created a good deal of amusement, and though it was not officially sent to the Governor, as the ord- nance was obtained through a regular order, the story was too good to be kept ; the Governor, who was fond of a good joke, in some way learned of the incident, and was also made aware that his friend, the Judge, had a hand in it. Some of the officers in this Company were rewarded for gallant services in the war, by promotion, and they, with others, sent to Albany by Judge Hopkins for their commissions. On calling for them at the proper office, the Judge learned that they were all made out and lacked on the signature of the Governor. To facilitate the business,
* Lieut. Bruce commanded the Company during its whole term of service, Capt. Jennings being sick and unable to act as Captain.
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he offered to take them himself to His Excellency, who, on receiving them, placed his autograph to the documents, one after the other, till coming to one belonging to Capt. Jen- nings' Company, he stopped and very gravely inquired : " Is this by order of Capt. Jennings ?"
The 75th Regiment had its head-quarters at Quality Hill ; Col. Zebulon Douglass was its first Colonel, Thomas W. Phelps its second, and Stephen Lee its third.
The Congregational Church, at this place, was organized with a large and influential membership, as early as 1809. Nathaniel Hall and John Hall were its first Deacons. Its first trustees were Zebulon Douglass, Sylvester Beecher, Asa Cady and Mr. Sessions. Its first minister, it appears, was the Rev. Mr. Palmer; the next, Rev. Mr. Hubbard. These two, however, could have been employed to preach but a short time, as the Rev. Ira M. Olds was the first reg- ular pastor installed at the time, or soon after the organi- zation of the church. The church building was framed and raised in 1814 ; it was a large and expensive edifice when all completed and dedicated in 1819.
Quality Hill, with its men of strength and influence, vied with other sections of Madison County in holding the bal- ance of political power. Hamilton and Lenox had the Courts alternately, up to 1810. Judge Smalley was the first Judge. In this place, these alternate Courts were held in the school house near David Barnard's. The first trial for murder, in Madison County, that of Hitchcock of Mad- ison, for poisoning his wife, was held in Judge Smalley's barn, the excitement being so great that the school house could make no approximation towards accommodating the numbers present. Judge Van Ness of Utica, presided at this trial, whose charge to the jury on the occasion, it has often been remarked, was one of the most remarkable pro- ductions of that day, or of any recent time.
' "Among the early settlers of Federal Hill, (so named be- cause its prominent residents were Federalists,) was Thomas
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Y. Kneiss, who removed to this section about 1806. He was a man of fine abilities, and was highly respected for his pro- bity and good judgment. At one period, probably no man in town had greater influence. He held several town offi- ces ; was Justice of the Peace very early, retaining the of- fice several years. There is an anecdote told of Squire Kneiss, which is sufficiently illustrative to transfer: In that day, the office of Justice of the Peace was filled by a Council of Appointment. Mr. Kneiss was a thorough Fed- eralist, and when the Democrats came into power, (perhaps in 1812,) members of that party in Lenox, appealed to the Council for a man of their own party to supersede him. When the papers removing him, reached the post office at Quality Hill, several Democrats present, who were in the secret, narrowly watched the Squire as he perused the doc- ument. Quite anxious to know its contents, one of them said: "What is it, Squire ?" "Oh, nothing," quietly re- plied Mr. Kneiss, " only I can exclaim with the apostle Paul, 'sin revived and I died !'"
Sylvanus Smalley, Walter Beecher, Zebulon Douglass, Nathaniel Hall, jr., Thomas Spencer and Sylvester Beecher, were early Members of Assembly from this town.
Dr. Asahel Prior was one of the prominent men of Qual- ity Hill ; he came to this town about 1797, lived some years in a log house, and then built the second frame house erected on Quality Hill. Here the Doctor lived till his death, and his place is still occupied by his children. In 1813, he be- came a member of the State Medical Society. The follow- ing obituary notice is clipped from the Canastota Herald : "DIED-In Lenox, Jan. 12, 1856, Dr. Asahel Prior, aged 84 years.
Doctor Prior was a resident of this town 59 years. Possessed of sound judgment and superior skill in his profession, he was engaged faithfully, devotedly, and successfully in the per- formance of its arduous duties for more than 40 years and until incapacitated by the infirmities of age. Of gentlemanly manners, strict integrity, genial and kindly temperament, he won the re- spect and esteem of all classes of his fellow citizens. He was a
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good citizen, an affectionate husband and father, an agreeable companion, in short his character shone brightly in all the social relations. He endured in common with his fellow citizens all the privations and hardships incident to the first settlement of a new country, and on no class perhaps do these hardships press more heavily than on the physician, in consequence of the bad- ness of roads and poverty of the sparse population, and conse- quent inability to remunerate his toils. When this now rich and populous town was a wilderness and only dotted here and there with the log cabins of the early pioneers, Dr. Prior was a wel- come visitor among their lowly habitations, and often to the sick and suffering poor were his valuable services rendered without fee or reward. He will be held in grateful memory by very many families whose maladies were healed by his medical skill, and whose sorrowing hearts were comforted by his cheerful and urbane deportment and kindly sympathy. One of the most dis- tinguished medical men* Madison County has produced, has ever gratefully recognized Dr. Prior as one of the most efficient of his early friends and patrons. But our venerable friend, after a long life of usefulness, has gone to that ' Undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler returns.'
" Peace to his asbes laid In the earth's cold bosom, peace."
From a recent communication the following particulars relating to individuals in this vicinity, are learned. A man named Cathcart, from Massachusetts, came to live in the vicinity of the present Canastota in 1805. He moved into Mary Doxtater's log cabin, for his home. Mr. Cathcart and his wife made friends with the Indians on the Reserva- tion, by whom they were surrounded. The Indian Chief, Hon Yost, was very friendly with the family, and was par- ticularly attached to Mr. Cathcart's little daughter of five or six years, (the present Mrs. Charles Stroud). He used to make grape-vine swings to amuse her and would allow no one to swing her but himself, lest she should come to harm. Years after, when the Reservation had been sold to white men, and the Indians had removed, Hon Yost, after twenty years' absence, and then near a century old, returned to see the white girl and receive from her hands garments to en-
*Dr. Thomas Spencer.
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shroud his body after death, according to the customs of white men. About a year passed, and the worn out form of the venerable Hon Yost was wrapped in the garments he so longed to wear.
It will not be amiss here to mention the family of the Strouds, who, themselves, have been residents here since about 1816. The two brothers, Sylvanus and Charles Stroud, were natives of Vermont. Both have been well know as contractors on the canal and other public works. Both are self-made, self-sustaining, and of the efficient bus- iness men of Lenox, as well as useful members of society. Mrs. Cathcart, the mother of Mrs. Charles Stroud, and the before named early settler in Canastota, is still living at the advanced age of ninety-five years.
Early in this century, considerable settlement had been made in the southern part of the town. A new street was laid out about a mile north of and running parallel with " Mile Strip," which was settled by the Palmers and Ran- dalls, emigrants from Stonington, Conn., and from Rhode Island. "There were formerly," says R. Randall, of Clin- ton, Mich., "some twelve families of the Randalls and se- venteen of the Palmers." On " Lenox Hill," better known as " Palmer's Hill," there were living at one time six Joseph Palmers. To distinguish these, people gave each name an affix or prefix. There was " Squire Jo," and his son Joseph S., called " Sheriff Jo," he having been once Sheriff of the County ; another was "Jo Elijah," from being Elijah's son ; another was distinguished as " Jo Down," from having dwelt at the foot of a hill in Connecticut ; Joseph Palmer, 3d, was known as " Jo Deacon," because his brother was a deacon ; and the sixth bore the soubriquet of " Clever Jo." They were generally very respectable, industrious and indepen- dent farmers. These families are now scattered all over the North West.
Thomas Case located quite early on Palmer street, and Martin Lamb, formerly one of the Supervisors, was another early settler in the same vicinity.
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From information obtained of Mrs. D. Chase, who, in 1814, when a child twelve years of age, resided a year in the family of " Clever Jo," we condense the following: In this neighborhood of Palmers, Goodwins, Randalls, Gallups and Cransons, the original dwellings, erected by the settlers on first arriving upon their lands, were double log houses ; if ad- ditions were made they were also of logs and for the pur- pose of having handsomer apartments, being nicely ceiled and having hard wood floors from the best timber in the forest. The huge stone chimneys, an improvement upon the old stick chimneys, invariably stood in the center of the houses ; in the ample fire-places the huge back-logs made cheery comfort in the long winter evenings, and on those broad hearth-stones the coals scarcely ever died out, for the day of "lucifer matches" had not yet arrived. As regularly as the hour of bed-time approached, just so regularly did the good man of the house rake the ashes over the bed of glow- ing coals ; and if, perchance, at earliest morning dawn-the hour at which all thrifty farmers rose in those days-he found not a spark of fire, forthwith some one of his house- hold was dispatched to the nearest neighbor, who might live a half mile off, or only just over the way, with the big fire shovel to " borrow " fire. Many a time has the luckless urchin sent upon this errand, weary with the weight of the iron shovel in attempting to shift it to an easier position for carrying, jostled the coals upon the ground, and before they could be replaced the last spark of fire was extinguished, while his steps were to be retraced to obtain a fresh supply.
Every farmer raised his patch of flax, and near the house or barn, a nice piece of meadow land was used for the plat upon which it was annually spread to rot. Every barn contained the flax hetchel ; every house was supplied with its hand cards for flax and for wool, its spinning wheel and linen wheel and loom, while every housewife spun and wove her linen for summer, with its stripe or check of blue for aprons, the brown tow for the pantaloons and frocks for the
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men, the fine linen for towels, for bedding and under wear, and her woolen for winter-the warm heavy cloths for men's wear, the more soft and thin for women and children, and for bedding. Their bed comforters were made of flan- nel stuffed with wool, " cotton batting " having never been heard of then. Other kinds of goods were seldom worn. America was just emerging from the war of 1812, and could not afford to buy goods of foreign make. Some people bought "hum-hum," which was a rather thin and coarse quality of bleached shirting, for men's Sunday wear. Every woman had her visiting dress, or " ropper," (wrapper,) and shortgown of chintz or calico, which cost five or six shillings per yard, while a very stylish gown was made of cambric, some patterns of blue, others purple, lilac, plum color, black, &c., at a cost of one dollar a yard. The invariable go-to-meeting dress of summer, for every young lady, was the simple and pretty white muslin or cambric. In winter, many matrons had their broadcloth cloaks, some black, though red was a very fashionable color. Our pres- ent water-proof, with hood, is cut very much after the style of 1812-14, but those of that date were lined with silk and edged with fur or down. Black satin cloaks of the same shape, were also worn, at a cost of twenty dollars and upwards, while those of broadcloth often cost forty dollars each. But these were luxuries indulged in only by those in easy circumstances, while ladies of more moderate means contented themselves with the finest flannel, fulled and pressed, for cloaks. All famili s, rich or poor, wrought hard in the manufacture of home-made goods, bleaching their linen to a snowy whiteness by aid of weak ley and the bat- tle-board, an instrument resembling a small paddle, used instead of our modern washing machines in cleansing clothes. Wringers and other labor-saving utensils, had not been dreamed of, and wash-boards were unheard of previous to this. The first wash-board ever seen in that section was brought into Lenox by a relative of Mr. Palmer, (his name
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is forgotten,) who was on a visit from one of the Eastern States, in 1814. It was looked upon as quite a curiosity, and withal considered a great improvement.
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