History of Montgomery and Fulton counties, N.Y. : with illustrations and portraits of old pioneers and prominent residents, Part 32

Author: Beers, F.W., & co., New York, pub
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: New York : F.W. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 664

USA > New York > Fulton County > History of Montgomery and Fulton counties, N.Y. : with illustrations and portraits of old pioneers and prominent residents > Part 32
USA > New York > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery and Fulton counties, N.Y. : with illustrations and portraits of old pioneers and prominent residents > Part 32

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

THE HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

when it was demolished. In the latter part of the Revolutionary war a small party of Indians fired on some men hoeing corn on Roof's flats. be- tween his dwelling and the river. not far from the present river bridge, and killed one of them, but seeing the others securing their fire arms they fled to the hills and escaped. Roof had kept a tavern at Fort Stanwix, and in ('anajoharie he resumed that business, continuing it for some years after the war. He was succeeded in it by his son and namesake, the late Col. John Roof.

Martin Roof. a brother of the last-named, was a druggist at an early day in Canajoharie village, and one of its first postmasters, also an acting justice of the peace. John Roof. Jr., married a daughter of George Spraker, of Palatine, and for a time they kept the Roof tavern as one family. During this time, probably about 1795, the house was robbed one night of a heavy tron chest, which was chained to the post of a bed on which some of the family were sleeping : a trundle-bed was also quite near it The chest usually contained several hundred dollars io specie, and no inconsiderable sum was in it when it was so mysteriously abducted. Not long before it was stolen it was lifted only with great effort by two girls in their teens, one of them the young inn-keeper's wife's sister, who is now living at the age of ninety-seven. It was never known who took the safe, ur what became of it. A small tin trunk within it, containing valuable papers, was afterward found in an abutment of the bridge over the creek. Of Henry Schremling. above mentioned, little can be learned. Capt. Martin G. Van Alstine, and Captain or Sheriff John Winn, married respectively his daughters Catharine and Elizabeth. Schremling, in the latter part of the last century. had a mill near the site of Arkell & Smith's dam in Cana- johasie. His name was pronounced Scrambling, and the place was called from him "Scrambling's Mills." At some period before the Revolution, three brothers, Henry, Nicholas and John Failing, Germans, located on the rich intervale lands just westward of Canajoharie village. Henry pitched his tent where Joshua Williams now resides. It was known after the war as the Roger Dougherty, and still later as the Adam I. Roof place. Nicholas resided nearly a mile farther west, where he built, just before the war, one of the better class of stone houses, in a commanding position upon a knoll. It is remembered as a large two-story dwelling, having a spacious hall and stairway in the centre. In the autumn of 1833 or 1834 this edifice, then occupied as a tenement house by several families, took fire one night from a keg of ashes under the stairs, and burned down. This house, as was learned many years ago from the late Jacob H. Failing a son of Henry and grandson of Nicholas Failing , who was a boy living in it at the time. was rendered defensible during the Revolution by the following process : A staging was erected across iis rear or hill side a few feet wide, with an oak floor, and was planked up breast high, access being gained to it by the chamber windows. The lower windows and outer doors were also planked up so as to be bullet-proof : and as the house had several families in it during the war, especially after so many had been burned out by the enemy, it was believed it might be defended against a large attacking force ; but it was never molested. After the war the place went into the possession of Rev. John Daniel Gros, who, after owning it for a time, traded it to Col. Hendrick Frey for property in Freysbush, where he built a large brick mansion, now standing, in which he lived for some years, and where he died in 1812. Col. Frey occupied the Failing place for some years, and in it, at a good old age, he died. From it, with a field-glass, he could oversee his men at work on the flats of the Mohawk for hah a mile east, north and west. His farm here embraced 200 acres, and his entire possessions south and west of the site of Canajoharie village. 3,200. From him Freysbush was named. Col. Frey was a justice of sessions o Tryon county, and a postmaster, and carried on a lucrative trade with the Indians and settlers. He was buried near his house above mentioned, but no monument marks the spot. Col. Frey was a loyalist during the Revolu- tion. His brother, Major Frey, was a prominent patriot, once Chairman of the Tryon County Committee of Safety.

EARLY GRIST MILLS.

The first grist mill on Canajoharie creek is believed to have been erected by Goshen Gose' Van Alstine, the father of Captain Martin G. and Philip Van Alstine, who succeeded to its ownership. It is supposed to have been built about 1760. It was a wooden building and stood on the east bank of the stream, twenty-five or thirty rods from the end of the rapid below

the falls, from whence, near the original Can-a-jo-ha-rie, the water is said to have been conveyed to it in a race course. About the year 1814, or 1815, this mill burned down, and Mrs. Isaac Flint, who among the superstitious was reputed a witch, was from some cause accused of setting it on fire. Learning that she was to be arrested. her mind was so wrought upon that she arose one night, fastened a cord to a nail in a beam overhead ; then standing upon a chair, adjusted a nouse around her neck, and pushing the chair from under her, was soon beyond the reach of her accusers. Nathan- iel Conkling, an uncle of Senator Roscoe Conkling, as coroner, called an in- quest on the occasion, says Peter G. Dunckel, who was a member of the jury, and is now eighty-four years of age. Tradition, at the end of over sixty years, is more ready to implicate a relative of the mill owner- as the incendiary than the poor woman who died by her own act, a victim to the superstition of her neighbors.

Some measures were taken in Freysbush to prucure timber to reconstruct the mill, but it was not done, and not long after the site and water privilege were sold to George Goertner and Henry Lieber, his son-in-law. When the mill was built, a small stone dwetting was erected near by for the miller, and one of the last to make it a home was a man named Stanton, still re- membered as having been quite accommodating. This old dwelling. some- what dilapidated and occupied in the interest of Lieber as a cooper shop for the manufacture of flour barrels, was burned down one night in the autumn-as believed-of 1828. In 1817, Goertner and Lieber built a stone mill fifteen or twenty rods below the site of Van Alstine's, where they also constructed a substantial stone dam across the stream. At this place they also erected a sawmill, distillery, fulling mill and carding machine, and for some time a large business was done here, including much of the milling for the towns of Palatine, Root, and Charleston. Mr. Lieber shortly bought out his partner's interest. At his death about 1838, Uriah Wood became the owner of the mills. While in his possession they were destroyed by fire and never re-built. Henry Lieber, and John his brother, on coming to America about the beginning of this century, were for a time sold into servi- tude to pay their passage from Germany-a custom long in vogue, and of which many good though poor people availed themselves. Henry Lieber, on becoming his own master. first learned the weavers trade, an i then be- gan life as a pack peddler ; next had a small store in Freysbush, then one at Newville ; and finally became established in trade at Canajoharie. just before the advent of the canal. The Lieber brothers were instrumental in bringing their parents to this country.

The second grist mill on Canajoharie creek was built by Col. Hendrick Frey about 1770, and near it a nice stone dwelling. Here, at the same period, he built a saw mill. This place, which became known as the Upper Mill, was not more than forty or fifty rods from the Van Alstine mill. It was nearly a mile from the creek's mouth, and stood at the base of the high land on the west side of the stream, and near the Inchians' Can-a-jo-ha-ric. Col. Frey was at this time an extensive landlord. and in disposing of farms in Freysbush he stipulated that the buyers should have their milling done at his mill. He lived at this place during the Revolution.

"Black Tom," or " Miller Tom," as often called, a slave belonging to Col. Frey, was remembered after the war as having been a useful append- age about the mill; but the principal miller for a long time was an Irish- man, named Usher. He occupied a small wooden house not far from the Frey mansion. He had a son, John, who was a good soldier in the war of 1812. Of the miller Usher the following anecdote is remembered: Col Frey, like Sir William Johnson-with whom he was ever oni terms of intimacy, having been associated with him as an officer in the French war -was fond of fun, even if it had to spring from a practical joke. Observ- ing Mrs. Henry Hess approaching the mill with a grist ming a woman performed similar labors at that period , he said to Usher; " That woman is very hard of hearing; you will have to talk lond to her." Then step- ping out to assist Mrs. Hess at the wagon, he took occasion to say to her: "My miller is so deaf you can't make him understand unless you speak very loud " When the grist was unloaded and the woman entered the mill to look after it, the Colonel posted himself in a favorable place to listen; when, as he afterward told his friends, he heard some of the loudest talking he ever heard in his life. The miller's and woman's voires were raised to the highest possible pitch for a long time before the parnes dis- covered that they had been sold.

This Upper Mill property, by a deed of gift from his grandfather, dated May 4, 1812, passed into the possession of Henry Frey Cox, and with it about seven hundred and fitty acres of excellent land, most of it heavily

VALUTHODGE & STAFFORD, STO

ELLE STICHT & SHUR ERT

HODGE & STAFFORD, Wholesale and Retail Dealers in

STICHT & SHUBERT'S

DROGS. MEDICINKS, PAINTS, OILS, BOOKS, STATIONERY, Etc. BOOT and SHOE STORE.

CANAJOHARIE. N.Y

NELLIS HIVE

NUCLEUS HIVE

BUBURBAN RESIDENCE OF

HORATIO NELLIS, CANAJOHARIE, N. Y. Alac the House, Apiary, and Work-Shop uf J. H. NFILIS ; and the Greenhouses, Seed and Flower Gardens, Poultry House and Yurda of A. C. NELLIS.

بطوتط عابي

-INTERIOR VIEW OF

H. C. Benze': Clothing Store, Canajoharie, N. Y. CUSTOM WORK A SPECIALTY-

LED

Interior of Mr. EDWARD S. SMITH'S STORE, No. 157 Main St., AMSTERDAM, N Y.

PIONEERS OF TRADE IN CANAJOHARIE

timbered. Much of this timber John A. Ehle, who erected a storehouse, sawmill and dry dock below Canajoharie village, on the canal at its com- pletion, sawed up and took to tide-water in boats of his own construction; thus, for several years, giving employment to a large number of men. In 1826, and for some years after, Dr. Sherman lived in the stone house appertaining to the mill property, during which time John Lieber was suc- wessfully operating the grist mill and distillery adjoining The property changed owners a number of times, coming, in 1828, into the possession of Harvey St. John, who, with Nicholas G. Van Alstine as a partner, for several years manufactured flour for the New York market, working up most of the wheat raised in this and several adjoining towns. Mr. St. John, however, failed, and after being in a good many hands, the mills were burned down January 8, 1849, and eight days later the miller's house met the same fate. Neither of the structures was rebuilt.

THE HISTORY OF TRADE.

Small stores were established in the different German settlements soon after they were planted, but nothing is known of them, except the little that tradition has handed down. They contained small stocks of such goods as their white neighbors must, of necessity, have, and certain kinds which their traffic with the Indians called for ; the latter consis. g of fire- arms, knives, hatchets, ammunition, trinkets, brass and copper kettles, scarlet cloth, rum and tobacco. These, with a few other articles, were har- tered for furs to great advantage. There were, probably, traders in the town of Canajoharie before the Revolution, but it is now impossible to name any. The first after the war was William Beekman, who located near Van Alstine's ferry, a mile east of Canajoharie village, in 1788, as it is thought, when he was twenty-one years of age. In a few years he removed Ro Sharon, and became the pioneer merchant of that town. He was a man of fair ability, and on the organization of Schoharie county, in 1795, he was appointed the first Judge of the Common Pleas Bench, a position which he held for nearly 40 years. He died November 26, 1745, aged seventy-eight years. He was succeeded in trade in Canajoharie hy Barent Roseboom & Brothers, John and Abram. At length Philip Van Alstine became the sole partner of Barent Roseboom in trade, the firm occupying a store on the east side of the Canajoharie creek, and within the present village, which then contained scarcely a dozen houses.

The Kane Brothers, seven in number, came into Canajoharie very soon after the advent of Beekman, probably about 1790, and at first established themselves in trade in the old stone dwelling of Philip Van Alstine, which, creeted about the middle of the last century, is still standing. (Tradition says that General Washington was in this building on his visit to the frontier in 1782 . The new firm was known as John Kane & Brothers : whether all of them were interested is unknown. They were a family of smart young men, and when they located there was no store of any rote in the valley westward of them, so that for a time much of the trade of the Herkimer settlements centered here. The names of the Kane brothers were John, Elias, Charles, Elisha, Oliver, James and Archi- bald. Only John, James and Archibald were known in the business. Ere long they erected a stone dwelling with an arched roof, one mile east of Canajoharie village, where had been established " Martin Van Alstine's Ferry," at or before the organization of Tryon county-it was in operation if: 1776. At this place James and Archibald Kane continued to trade, un- till about the year 1805. It is believed no firm in the valley ever before became so widely known. In 1799 their purchases of potash and wheat amounted to $1 20,000. On leaving the place, the brothers separated widely, John going to New York, Elias to Albany, whither he was subsequently followed by James; Elisha to Philadelphia, Oliver to Rhode Island, Charles to Gilen's Falls, and Archibald to Hayti, where be married a sister of the Mack ruler and where, after a few years, he chied. The Kane dwelling. which came to called the " round top," having a modern hip in the roof, Is still standing. It> roof, when erected, was covered with sheet lead. It is to he hoped that this relic of the past may be suffered to remain. A hzde canal which led from the Kane store to the river is still visible, though nearly filled up and lined with willows.

The war of the Revolution, as all warsdo, inaugurated a dissolute period of drinking, gambling and horse-racing which lasted for years, and was at its height in the time of the Kanes. Their house became a rendezvou, for . ardi players, and a quarrel over stakes occurred on one occasion, resulting

in a duel, April 18, 1801, in a small pine grove on the hill west of the Kane dwelling, in which Archibald Kane was wounded in the right arm hy Barent Roseboom. Dr. Webster, father of Peter Gi. Webster, Esq., was Kane's surgeon, and charged him 1os .- $1.25-for each of his half dozen visits but one, for which the charge was &s ; the doctor lived four miles from his patient, and the moderateness of his charges is said to have been characteristic of the man.

MARRIAGE FEES AND METHODS.

Col. John Roof, after the death of his first wife, married the widow ot Rev. Philip Pick, or Peek, as usually written ; and for the performance of the ceremony he gave Rev. John I. Wack seven dollars. Soon after Capt Abram Wemple married a daughter of John Loucks, and gave as his mar- riage fee ten dollars. Just after these nuptials Henry Frey Cox married a daughter of Henry Nazro, and gave the same clergyman fifteen dollars, a liberal fee for those times in the country. In speaking of his unusual success, Dominie Wack wa- heard to say soon after that he wished his parishioners would keep on doing like that, and he wouldn't care if they came every day. At this period William Lane married a daughter of Peter Walrath, of Bowman's Creek. He also called into requisition the services of Mr. Wack, and when the knot was tied, asked the dominie what he usually got for the ceremony. " That," replied the good man, "depends upon how much a man thinks of his wife ;" he added, " the legal fee is one dollar." Mr. Lane is said to have given him a dollar.

Among the early incidents related is the following account of a marriage in which Squire Bowman officiated. While working in his hay field a couple came to his house on horseback to be married. The party were sent to the hay field, where they found the squire upon a load of hay. Wishing to dispatch the business with as little trouble as possible, he re- quested the parties to join hands. He then said, "Hans, you dake di- voman to be your vife ?" "Ya," replied the expectant groom. "Lisbet, you dake dis Hans to he your husbant ?" "Ya, ich will." "Den I make you one vlesh und one peele. Now vat man has put togedder, let not Got put asunder."

THE FIRST SCHOOLS.

An Indian school was taught at the Canajoharie castle by an Indian named Philip Jonathan, as early as 1764 ; but the first school in the present town stood on Seeber's Lane, on the north line of the Goertner farm, a mile and a half southwest of Canajoharie village, and the district was styled " No. i in and for the town of Canajoharie " when the common school system was adopted.

MINOR VILLAGES OF THE TOWN.

BOWMAN'S CREEK was about forty years the local name of a district in the southern part of the town, four or five miles in extent, through which in an easterly direction courses the C'anajoharie creek, the stream being called Bowman's creek at this locality, after Jarob Bowman, an early settler, who about 1760 bought a large tract about its head-waters. This for a number of years was quite a business part of the town, and its first post office was named Bowman's Creek. A number of Mr. Bowman's numerous descendants reside in the neighborhood.

BUFL is the name which this post office took about 1830, and a little hamlet has since been known by that name. Its first remembered settlers, who went there about the beginning of this century. were John Bow man, Benjamin Button, an eccentric and ingentons blacksmith, with the strength of a giant and the courage of a mastiff ; Hon. Peter Walrath. Benoni Bul- Jock, a close-communion Baptist preacher ; Michael Hickey, Freck rick Weller, Audolph Walrath, Richard Horning, Cornelius Flint, James Smith, Noah Dodge, a justice of the peace ; James Adsit. Daniel M Donald, As

Kimball, whose place was afterward known as the Milligan farm ; Adam Brown, and his son Peter, who was a merchant ; Doctor Conklin, who died by falling into a kettle of boiling potash ; W'm. Bartlett, a tanner, and John Seeber, Esq., who was one of the earliest inn-keepers. He is be- lieved to have sold out to Peter Brown and the latter to Henry Garlork, who was succeeded by his brother John Garlock, who at one time was running a grist mill and a distillery, enabling him to supply his table and his bar.

THE HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

The post office is believed to have been kept at Garlock's when its name was changed to Buel, in honor of Jesse Buel of Albany, then a prominent agriculturist of the State .. Near this place a deaf and dumb asylum was established in 1823, which for a time had some success. but whose pupils at the end of a dozen years were removed to New York.

AMES, so called in honor of Fisher Ames, is a hamlet with a post office, in the same valley, between two and three miles east of Buel, and was at one period quite a business place. A post office was erected not long after the name of Buel was given to the Bowman's Creek office,

The first settler in the town of Canajoharie as now defined is believed to have been a man named Taylor, who cleared off some thirty-five acres half a mile south of the village of Ames, planted apple trees and built a small house of logs, with a roof of bark. When the locality began to be settled, he, having no title, had to leave his clearing. Where he came from and where he went to is unknown. He had a son called Harry Taylor, who is remembered by aged people now living as having wandered about bareheaded, though generally having two or three hats hanging to a bun- dle which he carried. He would spend the day beside some stream, fishing for horned dace, and at night beg a lodging on a kitchen floor and a bite of food after the family had eaten. When asked why he carried hats but wore none he would say he had lost his head which in one sense seemed true enough) and was waiting for one to grow on.

Early in 1796 a Free Will Baptist church organization was removed to Ames (where some of the members lived, including the minister, El- der George Elliott from a point several miles west, where it was established in 1794. The following were the original members : Rufus Morris, Wm. Hubbs, Jesse Benjamin, Philip Bonsteci, Ray Gulles, Nathan Richmond, Peter Frederick, Samuel Baley, Stephen Smith, Ephraim Elmer, Jonathan Elliott, Rufus Elliott, Jonah Phelps, Henry Rowland, Joseph El- liott, Jacob Elliott, Joh Wood, John Thomas, Thomas l'allman, Benjamin Treadway, Stephen Howard, David Warner, Matthew Nealey, Isaac Elliott, Hendrick Pemberton, john Hodge jr, Alexander Hubbs, Gideon Elliott. Gerard Hubbs, Jonathan Parks, Stephen Griffeth, Samuel Allen, James Marvin, John Baley, Richard Kimball, Jonathan White, Wm. Griffeth Abiram Skeel, Jonathan Wheton, Elisha Daniels, Oliver Bartholomew, Reuben Hodge, Clemens Griffith, John Hodge, Sen., Daniel Marvin, John Bishop, John Jackson, Azariah Peck. Solomon Scipie, Orlando Mack. Simeon Pemberton, James Marvin, jun., Samuel Hubbs, Isaac Van Alstine and 54 females, wives, sisters and daughters of the above. Among the num- ber, as a relic of Puritanism, is the name of " Thankful Lord." Their first meeting house was erected a mile east of where the village of Ames is situ- ated. The society has had a successful continuance, never being without a pastor. A new church was built in 1832 at Ames, and the society organ- ized under the statute as the " Ames Free Baptist Church," with Jeremiah R. Slark, John Bennett, Luther Taylor, Simon D. Kittle, Willard R. Wheel- er, and Lawrence Beach, as trustees.

The following is a list of its pastors : George Elliott, A. Nichols, Thomas Tallman, E. Eastman, David R Mc Elfresh, O. F. Moulton, Phips W, Lake, G. P. Ramsey, R. Dick, Wm. H. Waldrose, A. Bullock, J. M. Crandall, and S. F. Mathews.

Prominent among the early citizens here were Dr. Simeon Marcy, Jos. Jessup, his brother-in-law; Rufus and Charles Morris, brothers, the latter being the father of Commodore Charles Morris, of the war of 1812; Judge Phineas Randall, father of the late Governor Alexander Randall, of Wis- consin; Ira Beach, an inn-keeper; Frederick Mills, William and Squire Hills, brothers; Abial Bingham, Seth Wetmore, the first Sheriff of Mont- gomery county elected by the people under the Revised Statutes; three brothers, Abram, Isaac and Jacob Hodge: Gen. John Keyes, father of the eccentric Zach. Keyes, long a tavern keeper in Sharon: Ebenezer Hibbard. sen., who, with Keyes, on locating, bought a thousand acres of land; John Russel, George Mills, who had a luirge tannery; two or three Whites, one of them Asahel, a hatter, who sold out to Asahel Hawley, the latter after- ward removing to Canajoharie; and another Abijab, who was the first sur- veyor in the town; one Benton, who owned a grist mill on the creek; Eben- ezer Tillotson, Jabin Welch, a spanning-wheel maker; Charles Powell. Reuben Hodge, Rice Beach, a silversmith; John Schuyler, Lebbeus Kim- ball, Billing- Hodge, Guy Darrow, Joseph Wood, James Marvin, Daniel Latimer, Elder George Elliott and Jonah Phelps. Joel White was the first white child born at Ames. Russel and Mills were the first merchants at Ames, beginning business about 1800.

Mrs. Electa Bryars, who was found at her loon weaving as lively as a

middle aged lady, says that in her mother's time the neighbors would live six weeks in succession without bread, subsisting on potatoes, butter and salt. Barns were so scarce that grain had to be hauled many miles to la threshed; hence farmers put off the job until they had finished sowing their winter grain, living without breadstuffs rather than lose the time necessary for threshing. Mrs. Bryars was married in petticoat and short gown, and Mr. Bryars in linen pantaloons; neither wore shoes or stocking».

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History of Montgomery and Fulton counties, N.Y. : with illustrations and portraits of old pioneers and prominent residents, Part 32

Author: Beers, F.W., & co., New York, pub Publication date: 1878 Publisher: New York : F.W. Beers & co. Number of Pages: 664

Author: Beers, F.W., & co., New York, pub
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: New York : F.W. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 664