History of Montgomery and Fulton counties, N.Y. : with illustrations and portraits of old pioneers and prominent residents, Part 62

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 62
USA > New York > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery and Fulton counties, N.Y. : with illustrations and portraits of old pioneers and prominent residents > Part 62

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 centennial anniversary of the laying of the corner stone of the building was made the occasion of a most interesting celebration, June 26, 1872, at which the Hon. Horatio Seymour delivered one of his valuable historical addresses, to a multitude gathered in and about the court-house green. Many of his auditors were from abroad, including delegations of Knight Templars from Utica and Gloversville. In pointing out the signifi- cance of the occasion celebrated, Mr. Seymour said :

"The edifice and its objects were in strange contrast with the aspect of the country. It was pushing the forms and rules of English jurisprudence far into the territories of the Indian tribes, and it was one of the first steps taken in that march of civilization which has now forced its way across the continent. There is a historic interest attached to all the classes of men who met at that time. There was the German from the Palatinate, who had been driven from his home by the invasion of the French, and who had been sent to this country by the Ministry of Queen Anne ; the Hollander, who could look with pride upon the struggles of his country against the powers of Spain and in defence of civil and religious liberty ; the stern Iroquois warriors, the conquerors of one half the original terri- tories of our Union, who looked upon the ceremonies in their quiet, watchful way. There was also a band of Catholic Scotch Highlanders, who had been driven away from their native hills by the harsh policy of the British government, which sought by such rigor to force the rule of law upon the wild clansmen. There were to be seen Brant and Butler, and others whose names to this day recall in this valley scenes of cruelty, rapine and bloodshed. The presence of Sir William Johnson, with an attendance of British officers and soldiers, gave dignity and brilliancy to the event, while over all the group, asserting the power of the Crown, waved the broad folds of the British flag. The aspects of those who then met at this place not only made a clear picture of the state of our country, but it came at a point of time in our history of intense interest. * * * All in that mingled crowd of soldiers, settlers and savages felt that the future was dark and dangerous. They had fought side by side in the deep forests, against the French and their Indian allies ; now they did not know how soon they would meet as foes, in deadly conflict."

A portrait of Sir William Johnson was hung outside the front wall of the court-house, and over it was suspended the British flag with the inscrip- tion : "One Hundred Years Ago." Resting upon the railing near the entrance was a massive iron casting of the English coat of arms, imported by Sir William. The celebration ended with the re-laying of the corner stone of the court-house with appropriate ceremonies.

The committee having charge of the celebration received a number of highly interesting letters from eminent gentlemen in different parts of the State, whom they had invited to be present on the occasion. In his re- sponse to the committee's invitation, Mr. John Frey wrote as follows :

"The eminent jurists-Kent, Platt, Spencer, Van Ness and their com- peers, who adorned the bench of the State in an early period of our history and whose names will ever be identified with legal science and jurispru- dence, have all presided in this ancient temple of justice ; and the elo- quence of all the great lawyers of the State-Emmett, Burr, Hamilton, Henry, Van Vechten, Cady and others who were their contemporaries, has resounded within its walls. To myself there are many pleasant memories

192

THE HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY.

associated with that relic of a past age. I shall be excused for alluding to a single one : The first Court of General Sessions of the peace-if not the first court-was held in the new court-house on the 8th day of September, 1772, a few months after its completion. It was presided over by Guy Johnson as chief judge, by eight assistant judges and six justices. Among the latter was my esteemed and venerable ancestor, John Frey, who sub- sequently became identified as a brigade major with our Revolutionary struggle, and was wounded and taken prisoner at the battle of Oriskany."

Mr. E. C. Benedict of New York wrote :

"It would give me great pleasure to re-visit the scenes and recall the pleasant memories of my earliest professional studies and experience fifty years ago, when I derived pleasure and profit from the learning and ability of such lawyers as Daniel Cady, Marcus T. Reynolds, John W. Cady, Wm. - I. Dodge, Henry Cunningham and others, who were the leaders of the dis- tinguished bar of Montgomery half a century ago, and to whom from term to term I had the opportunity to listen in the 'old court-house." "

The most noted case tried in this court-house, in recent years, was that of the people against Frederick Smith, charged with the murder of Ed- ward Yost. The latter kept a meat market adjoining Hays and Wells' bank, and slept in a bedroom occupying a corner of the bank building. In the morning of March 6, 1875, the bank was discovered on fire, and a number of men who entered and extinguished the flames found the corpse of Yost lying on the floor of the bedroom, charred and disfigured by the fire, which had burned through beneath it, aad having in the head two ballet wounds, one of which might have caused instant death. The gold watch of the murdered man, worth $190, a diamond pin worn by him, and several hundred dollars he had taken from the market, had been stolen, and the building fired to obliterate the evidence of the crime. Suspicion fell upon a young man, named Frederick Smith, who had been in partner- ship with Yost, but had separated from him on unfriendly terms. While in business with the deceased Smith had slept with him in the bank, and occasionally afterward, once two weeks before the murder. He was familiar with the interior and fastenings of the building, and with Mr. Yost's dog, an animal fierce and dangerous to strangers, kept in the bank by night. He admitted having been about town until between one and two o'clock on the fatal morning, but denied all knowledge of the crime. He was arrested, however, and after lying in jail nearly a year was brought to trial. He was acquitted by the efforts of able counsel, and subsequently went to California. Rewards amounting to $6.000 were offered by the sheriff of the county, the friends of the deceased and Gov- emor Tilden, for the detection of the murderer, but no conviction for the horrible crime was ever reached.

One of the first murder trials in the court-house-perhaps the first -- was that of John Adam Hartman, a Revolutionary veteran of the Mohawk valley, for killing an Indian. in 1783, in the present town and county of Herkimer. They had met at a tavern, and the savage had excited Hart- man's abhorrence by boasting of murders and walpings performed by him during the war, and particularly by displaying, as the white man alleged, a tobacco pouch made from the skin of the hand and part of the arm of a white child, with the finger nails remaining attached. Hartman con- cealed his feeling, at the moment, and the two left the tavern to traverse together a forest, from which the red man never returned. and in which his body, his rifle, and some baggage he was carrying were found a year later. Hartman was acquitted for lack of legal evidence.

" AAmong the interesting trials that have taken place in this county, was one that occurred in 1828. Henry Garlock brought an action for trespass against Henry J. Failing to recover the value of his negro slave. Jack, whom, it was alleged. the defendant had wrongfully and maliciously killed. Garlock had a deed of the negro, the con-ileration being $350 Failing admitted killing the negro, but suul it was through a mistake. The circum- stances as they were proved in court were as follows : On the night of the homicide the negroes had a gathering near the river below Dutchtosn, hecame intoxicated and broke up at a late hour. Jack and one of his ompanions started for home. on the road passing defendant's house During the night a black man called at Fading's house saying that he had seen a bear a short distance from the house. Failing took his rifle. and, accompanied by his dog, started in search of the bear, which he soon dis- covered sitting upon his haunches about ten rods distant. The dog re- lused to advance, and Failing could see by the dun starlight the eyes of the bear. Taking gal ain between the eyes he fired. A terrible groan, a struggle and all was still. A light was procured. and on proceeding to

the spot there lay Jack, stone dead. It appeared that the negro had taken a keg from a trough where it had been placed to soak, and seated himself upon it in the middle of the road, with his back towards Failing, who inis- took the bright buttons upon his coat for the eyes of the bear. Eminent counsel were employed on both sides, and the result was a verdict for the plaintiff for $250."

Among the Johnstown lawyers to whom the old court-house was a forensic arena in the closing years of the last century, was George J Eacker, son of Judge Eacker, of Palatine, and nephew of Gen. Herkimer At the opening of the present century he went to New York, where he be- came associated in a law firm with Brockholst Livingston, and took a high rank at the metropolitan bar. He hecame a friend and admirer of Aaron Burr, and was a Jeffersonian in politics. Party feeling ran very high, and Eacker soon began to quarrel with the Federalists, who called him " the Mohawk Dutchman." On leaving a theatre in John street, one evening in 1802, some of the latter party, including Philip, son of Alexander Hamil- ton, encountered him and addressed to him offensive words, which led to a bloodless duel at Weehawken between Eacker and one Priest. Young Hamilton thereupon challenged the former. They met the next day on the same ground, and Hamilton fell, mortally wounded, on the spot where his illustrious father was destined, two years later, to perish in the same ignoble way at the hand of Eacker's patron, Aaron Burr. Eacker fell into a decline, and died about two years after the duel. He never mar- ried, but the descendants of his kindred still live in the region of his native place.

The jail was begun at the same time with the court-house. An appro- priation of {1,600 was obtained from the Legislature in 1774 for the com- pletion of both buildings. The jail, like the court-house, has served its original purpose from that day to this. The walls were built four feet thick, of stone. Under date of October 26, 1775, the Tryon County Revolutionary Committee inquired of Sir John Johnson whether he pre- tended a prerogative to the court-house and jail, "and would hinder or interrupt the committee to make use of the same public houses to our wan: and service in the common cause." Sir John, in reply, claimed the build- ings as his property until he should be refunded £700 which Sir W :.- liam had advanced toward their construction. The committee, at the time respecting this claim, fitted up a private house as a prison, and sent some convicts to Albany and Hartford for safe-keeping. Congress, how. ever, was informed that Sir William had conveyed the buildings to the county, and the jail was used as a fort by the patriots during the Revol ... tion. being fortified with palisades and block-houses. In 1849 the wiwu- work was burned out, and one of the walls so much injured as to new rebuilding.

The present county clerk's office was built in 1867. The one used a, to 1815 was a little building near the Academy. In that year the scoold was built, in the southeast corner of the court-house lot, which server 41.1 replaced by the present structure.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF BUSINESS

The multiplication of business places in a town in its maturer years ta''s for only a passing notice in its annals. Not so with the earliest step . trade and manufacture in a community, when the opening of a new in 1. store or shop cut- off miles from the distance the pioneer must go for the necessaries of life: or breaks up a previously existing monopoly ; ur intt dices a new industry destined to become the absorbing interest if : 1 town. The beginnings of things are the subject of the historian's kreta study, and the first ventures of business in its various channels in the lage of Johnstown now clum our attention.

Sir William's provision for the earliest wants of the village in the life ' of lumber and pearl ashes has already been noted. To the north "' p'. Hall, on the neighboring stream, stood also the first grist-mill in the fa - settlement, erected hy the Baronet in 1766. An old road and Inchan tr . passed by the buikling. "Peter Young, miller," mentioned among . William's tenants, probably managed the concern.

The first carding-mill was put up by Edward Arken, and was a great conveniente to the settlers, who universally made their own cloth.

The first merchants doubtless soll a greater variety of arts les than is' ' be found in the same store at present in our larger towns, Dae Rotu .1 Adams was on hand in the first days of Johnstown, and the followerp

PIONEER GROUP.

DJ. A. FAILING, PALATINE BRIDGE, N.Y.

CHARLES ROSE, FATHER OF S. S.ROSE,

SCOTT S. ROSE, GLOVERSVILLE, N. Y.

A.W SHULL, PALATINE BRIDGE, N.Y.

ALFREO B. WASHBURN

HENRY SILMSER

HON. JOHN J. HANSON

1 W. H. SHAW, MAYFIELD, N. Y. LU

JOHN DUNK JR. MANUFACTURER OF FUR GAUNTLETS. 45 Melcher St. Johnstown, FULTON CO., N. Y.

193

FIRST STORES, SHOPS AND TAVERNS OF JOHNSTOWN.

extract from his day-book shows some of his dealings with the gentleman who must have been his best customer:

Johnstown, 4 July 1771. Dr.

SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON Bt.

To White Breeches patterns,

20S.

£200

1, yds. White Linen,

45.

1-16 White Broadcloth,

· 44S.

2 9

2 Pairs Knie Garters,

35.

2 Skains White Silk,

IS.

2 Sticks do Mohair,

9d.

1 6

2 doz. Small Buttons.

- 9d.

1 6

: doz. large do.

£3 0 6

Mr. Adams is said to have built a house on the present site of the Sir William Johnson Hotel, moving into it November 23, 1769. Sir William's will contains the following item : " To my faithful friend Robert Adams, F.sq., of Johnstown, the dwelling house, other buildings and the lot and one acre whereon he now lives, the potash laboratory and one acre of land with it; also the farm which he holds by deed from me ; all free from rent during his natural life except the quit-rent." L. J. Smith began business as a merchant in Johnstown in 1818, and was in trade in the village for over fifty-eight years. He was born in Rutland county, Vermont,

" William Phillips, wagon-maker," whose name occurs among the first Baronet's tenants, must be supposed to have been the first in his line, but one of the pioneer wagon-builders in the country was William Chauncey Hutchinson, originally from Sharon, Litchfield county, Connecticut, who came to the village about 1780, and carried on his business first on Perry street, and afterward on Market street, near the corner of Green, and still later at Garoga in the town of Ephratah. His son William followed the same business at Garoga, and later at Lasselsville in the same town. His wagons and sleighs, though less stylish than those now made, were more serviceable, and gained a wide reputation for their durability, selling in Jefferson county and even in Canada. Some of his carriages made for old residents about Johnstown, as the Yosts, McEwens, Cases and Hildreths, over forty years ago, are still intact. C. N. Stewart, born in Johnstown in 1810, commenced the manufacture of wagons in 1827, in the building now standing at the corner of Market and Green streets.

One Van Sickler is thought to have been the first blacksmith in the set- tlement, probably Sir William's tenant of that name, as the Baronet is said to have employed a blacksmith. Nicholas Stoner used traps made by a Johnstown blacksmith named Mann.

A tanner named Peter Yost is also mentioned among Sir William's tenan- try. Uziel Crosby started a tannery about 1810 and operated it until 1826. The Montgomery County Bank was chartered in 1831, and located at - Johnstown through the influence of State senator Wm. I. Dodge, a resident of the village, and against the wishes of the Mohawk river villages. The bank began business with a capital of $100,000. The first officers were : President, Daniel Potter ; vice-president, Daniel Cady ; cashier, Nathan P. Wells. On the death of Mr. Potter, Mr. Cady succeeded him, Dr. J. W. Miller taking Mr. Cady's place. Mr. N. P. Wells was next president, and his son Edward, cashier. Dr. Miller afterwards succeeded to the presi- dency, but Mr. Edward Wells subsequently became sole manager. Losses, ineurred in speculation, broke down at once his bank and his mind, and he died in the Utica asylum. The river villages patronized the bank for a number of years. Mr. N. P. Wells is remembered as a shrewd, careful and obliging bank officer. The bank building was, in its early days, nick- named the "smoke house." In this building Edward Yost, a business man of the village, was robbed and murdered. In 1867 the institution was changed into the private banking house of N P. Wells & Co., who carried on the business until 1876, when it passed into the hands of lays & Wells, the present firm.

l'he first lawyers admitted to the bar in Fulton county were John W. Cady. James T. Hildreth, Aaron Herring. Thos. Frothingham, Clark S. Grinnel, James McNice, John Wells, George Yost, Abraham Monell, Phineas Randall, Wm. Kennedy, T. B. Mitchel. A. MeFarlan, R. H. Courtney, Benjamin Chamberlain and John Frothingham.

THE EARLY TAVERNS.

"Gilbert Tice, inn-keeper," was an inhabitant of Johnstown in the founder's time, and was, doubtless, the first of his calling in the infant

village. If there were other taverns than his and Pickens's, hereafter re- ferred to, before the Revolution, it is impossible to learn anything about them. But a number are known to have been in existence in the later years of the last century, and tradition has preserved some of the many stirring incidents of which they must have been the scene, in the rude times when Johnstown, as an outpost of civilization and a depot for the fur trade, was the resort of hunters and trappers, Indian and paleface; where the settler was liable to meet the savage who had wronged him or his in the border wars, or beside the lonely waters where each strove to ply exclusively the trapper's art.

One of the first tavern keepers was the genial and attentive Jean Baptiste Vaumane de Fonclaiere, who lived in New England for some time on his arrival from France, but shortly after the Revolution opened a public house in Johnstown, and continued in the business for many years. This first stand, on William street, a little south of Main, was still a tavern thirty years ago. Here one day, soon after the war, half a dozen Indi.mn- gathered in the kitchen and barroom to feast and drink deep on the pro- ceeds of a stock of furs, which they had gathered in the northern forests and sold to John Grant, then a trader in the village, And here they met the famous trapper Nicholas Stoner, who hated the redskinned race with a fervency to be expected in a man whose father was tomahawked and sealped. The inevitable quarrel was hastened by libations of firewater, and precipitated by one of the Indians resenting a question put to another by Stoner. Instantly the trapper grappled the savage and threw him upon a. table, sending it with a load of bottles to destruction. The Indian sprang up and rushed upon Stoner, when the latter, making a desperate attempt to throw his antagonist into the yawning fireplace, only succeeded in laying him in a great platter of hot lard and fried pork sizzling before the fire. The Indian was badly burned and willing to give in; but Stoner's blood was up and he marched into the barroom, only pausing by the way to tear a large ring from the ear of another Indian, who lay drunk in the hall. As the trapper entered the barroom, a third half drunken savage was exhibiting his sealping knife, which bore upon the handle nine notches, for as many scalps taken by its owner in the recent war, one of them, as he boasted, being the scalp of " old Stoner." Young Stoner heard the speech and, vowing that the murderer should never take another scalp, snatched an andiron from the fireplace by the ring at the top, and hurled it at the In- dian's head, striking him across the neck with the red-hot bar, and felling him to the floor more dead than alive.

For this feat the venturous frontiersman was lodged in the Johnstown jail, but his numerous friends, including the Sammonses, Putnams, Wemples. Fondas, Vroomans, Veeders, Gardiniers, and Quackenbosses, could not tolerate the idea of his being imprisoned for merely assaulting an Indian who was boasting of the butchery of the trapper's father, and proceeding in a crowd to the jail, they battered down the door and liberated their hero. This was considered eminently the occasion for a drink, and the party, including the jailer, repaired to a tavern in the center of the village, kept by a man named Throop. Here Stoner consented to return with the turnkey to the jail, but being missed by his rescuers, they went in pursuit. again took him in charge, and saw him safely home, where he was not disturbed.

The following less sanguinary tale, related by Mr. Simms, from whose book "Trappers of New York," written in 1846, our anecdotes of Stoner are taken, is at least entertaining :

"There stands in Johnstown, on the east side of the street [ William ], a few rods to the southward of the first inn, kept by De Fond laiere, an anti- quated building with a gambrel roof, owned and occupied before the Revolution by Maj. Gilbert Tice. The latter buikling, after the war, was occupied as a tavern stand, by Michael Rollins, a son of the emerald ish De Fonclaiere kept a span of mettlesome horses, and when a deep show had spread her white mantle over the bosom of the earth, and the bells auml belles began to jingle and smile, the restless steeds, harnessed to a sleigh, to give his ladies an airing, were brought before the door, with their no- trils snuffing up the wind in the direction of the Mohawk.

" Left only un leetle moment to their own wills, the gay animals of Mon- De Fonclaiere, either of which would have served a Ringgold or a Mas for a charger, abused the confidence of their master and dashed off at the top of their speed. In front of the rival inn stood a cow chreuth in the beaten path, which belonged on the premises. Strange as it may seem, a. the sleigh passed the cow she was thrown upon her haunches and, as chance would have it, rolled on her back plump into it. The party intend-

194

THE HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY.

ing to occupy the seat instead of the kine came to the door in time to see the latter drive off in triumph, urging on the horses by a most doleful bel- lowing. The horses started in William street and ran south to Clinton street, thence east through Clinton to Johnson (now Market street, south up Market to Montgomery street, west through Montgomery to William, and down the latter to the place of starting. The best part of the joke was that on turning into William street from Montgomery, at the next cor- ner above and only a few rods from where the cow was taken in, she was, sans ceremony, thrown out again. A war of words instantly followed this adventure, between the rival landlords. Said De Fonclaiere, greatly excited: "Keep you tam Irish cow out von my sleigh!" "You French booger," retorted Rollins, with an oath, "do you kape the like of yeer fancy horses away from me cow!"

De Fonclaiere spent his later years in managing a tavern built by him in 1796, in the angle of the Tribes Hill and Fonda's Bush roads in Johns- town. This place, which was long known as Union Hall, was bought by Mr. Vestus Balch about 1837, and ceased to be kept as a public house.

The earliest occurrence mentioned in detail in connection with any of the village hotels, is Sheriff White's defense of himself in the Pickens tavern, which stood on the lot between the houses now numbered 37 and 39 William street. Alexander White was the King's sheriff of Tryon county, and as such committed to the Johnstown jail John Fonda, one of the men who were coming into prominence as the people's champions and leaders in the Mohawk valley. Mr. Simms says the trouble between White and Fonda was " their hogs and cattle breaking in upon each other's premises, which resulted in a quarrel, in which White called Fonda a d-d rebel, and the latter, provoked to anger, did not seruple to give his Majes- ty's peace officer a severe caning." Maj. Giles Fonda, a brother of the incarcerated patriot, immediately gathered some fifty of his neighbors, in- cluding Sampson Sammons and his sons Jacob and Frederick, who pro- ceeded under arms to the jail, and without violence procured the prison- er's release. Not satisfied with this, the party repaired to the Pickens tavern, where Sheriff White was staying, and Sampson Sammons having stepped to the door and called out Mr. Pickens, demanded the sheriff. Pickens went to call him, and returning reported that White was dressing, and would be down immediately to speak with the company. Instead of coming down, however, the sheriff at this moment opened a window over the door where Sammons was standing, and inquired: " Is that you, Sam- mons?" "Yes," said the patriot leader, whereupon White fired a pistol at him, the ball lodging in the door sill. This shot, the first fired in the Revolutionary struggle west of the Hudson, was answered by a volley from the party in the street; but the sheriff escaped with a slight wound in the breast. Sir John Johnson having hastily assembled two or three hundred of his tory neighbors by the firing of a signal cannon twice as many could be summoned by the same signal', the patriots dispersed. Sheriff White and one Peter Bowen left Johnstown for Canada with some Mohawk guides, hut they were captured at the house of a Mr. Jesup, in Saratoga county, and sent to Mbany, where they were put in jail.

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History of Montgomery and Fulton counties, N.Y. : with illustrations and portraits of old pioneers and prominent residents, Part 62

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