History of Montgomery and Fulton counties, N.Y. : with illustrations and portraits of old pioneers and prominent residents, Part 68

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 68
USA > New York > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery and Fulton counties, N.Y. : with illustrations and portraits of old pioneers and prominent residents > Part 68

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).

John Edwards was born in Dutchess county, in 1781, and went with b .. father to Johnstown when two years old. Ile was jailor from about 1x. 0 to 1812. Ile served a term in Congress, to which he was elected in 18th

Llias Dawley removed from Connecticut to Johnstown, about 1790. He lived for many years between Bennett's Corners and Johnstown villap It is sad that on account of some political affair he did not wear a hat. shave or wash his face for about four years, including the war of 1812.

Res.of JAMES S. HOSMER Town of Johnstown, Fulton. Co.

Res.of MAX MAYLENDER Town of JOHNSTOWN, Fulton Co.

KID FACTORY

MENT 440)1. 1

209

FIRST ROADS IN THE TOWN OF JOHNSTOWN-KINGSBORO.

Abraham Van Wart removed from Westchester county to West Bush in 1795, and lived there until his death in 1860. He was a mechanic.

Charles Rose removed at an early day from Rensselaer county to Johns- town, and settled on the farm now owned by his grandson, S. S. Rose.

Daniel MeMartin was born in Johnstown, in 1785 He served in the war of 1812 as sergeant in Capt. Bates's company of New York militia.

Benjamin Peckham moved into what is now Fulton county, about 1816. He made the first cast iron plow made in the county. The first plows brought into the county were made by John Merrill, about 1807. They were of the Peacock patent, very heavy, and others soon took their places.

One of the first settlers in the neighborhood known as Albany Bush was Barney Vosburgh.

Gilbert Van Sickler was born in Johnstown in 1828, and opened a black - smith shop at Bennett's Corners in 1843, which he kept until 1869, when he opened a country store at that place.

Hale's grist-mill, some two miles east of Johnstown village, is one of the oldest in the county, having been built some time before 1795, and always used as a mill. Its capacity is 12,000 bushels per year. The proprietor, Mr. James Hale, was born in Johnstown in 1821.

ROADS AND POST ROUTES.

Among the earliest records in the county clerk's office is the certificate of the commissioner of highways for the laying out of a highway from John- son Hall to Stone Arabia : also one from the house of Gilbert Tice, in the village of Johnstown, to the highway leading through the Caughnawaga patent to East Canada creek. The former is dated August, 1768, and the latter April 2d, 1770. These must have been among the very first roads leading out of Johnstown, though one to the southward was probably opened at a still earlier date-perhaps the same on which was located the farm bought of Sir Wm. Johnson by John Boshart, now the Fonda plank road. The line of the Mohawk river was in the earliest times as now the route from the east to Johnstown ; and the fact of an emigration from New Eng- land and the Mohawk valley for the settlement of this town implies com- munication in that direction earlier than in any other. Sir William John- son laid out a carriage road fourteen miles long from the Hall to his sport- ing residence built in 1772, at Summer House Point on the Vlaie, in the present town of Broadalbin. In 1786, and for years after, the only road from Johnstown to Kingsboro was a foot-path through the woods, and the guide-boards were marked trees.

During the Revolution, Lambert Clement carried the mail on horseback from Johnstown to Cherry Valley. On one of his trips his horse was shot through the neck by one of a party of tories and Indians, but not being disabled, carried his rider the more speedily into safety.

Long before the day of railroads Johnstown was an important point on the line of emigration by wagons, as appears by the following extract from Mr. N. S. Benton's history of Herkimer county:

" March 26, 1803, an act was passed authorizing certain great roads in this State to be opened and improved, and for that purpose $41,500 was directed to be raised by lottery. The State road, so called, from Johns- town to the Black River country, passing through parts of Manheim and Salisbury, and the towns of Norway and Russia, in this county, was laid out and surveyed, and probably opened, by commissioners appointed by the Governor, pursuant to the authority conferred by the above act. This road was used a good deal in the early part of the present century, when the castern emigration was flowing towards the present counties of Lewis and Jefferson, the western portion of St. Lawrence, and the northern parts of Oneida and Herkimer. * * * An opinion prevailed at an early day that the northern travel would leave the Mohawk Valley at East Creek or Little Falls, and turn towards the Black River country, but the project of opening and improving a road from little Falls in that direction was never carried into effect. The people of Johnstown. Utica, Whitestown, and Rome were too much alive to their own interests to allow such a pro- ject to get the start of them. The route from Johnstown through the northern parts of Montgomery and Herkimer, crossing the East Canada Creek at Brockett's Bridge, and the West Canada Creek at Boon's Bridge, near Prospect, in Oneida county, was much the shortest, and the best adapted to emigrant travel."

The first stage route was organized by H. Johnson, about 1815, to Fonda's Bush. He kept a hotel where the Sir William Johnson now stands.

About the same time a Mr. Leroy conducted a mail route as far as the " Fish House," on the Sacondaga.

Asa Tiffany carried the mail from Johnstown to Denton's Corners twice a week, on an old white horse, about 1831 or 1832.

In 1839 stage lines ran eastward to Broadalbin, and westward to St. Johnsville.

The plank road from Johnstown to Gloversville was built in 1849, on a thirty years charter, granted in the previous year. The plank road from Johnstown to Fonda was built by another company at the same time.

The Johnstown and Gloversville Street Railroad Company was organ- ized November 11, 1873, and its track was laid in the following year. The first directors were: D. B. Judson, Jonathan Wooster, Daniel Potter, Ira Lee, H. L. Burr, A. Simmons, W. H. Place, C. J. Alvord, John McLaren, C. E. Argersinger, William Argersinger, and R. Fancher. President, Nicholas H. Decker, Esq .; secretary and treasurer, John McLaren.

THE SMALLER VILLAGES.

The chief village in the town after Johnstown and Gloversville is KINGS- BORO. The name at first covered quite a region of country, part of which was settled by Scotch Highlanders, who, remaining loyal to the British crown at the Revolution, were obliged to leave the country. The first settlement on the site of the present village was made in 1786. The set- tlers were mostly from New England, but included some Scotch and Dutch. Among the New Englanders was Samuel Giles, thirty-eight years a member and thirty-two years a deacon in the Presbyterian church. His - father died the next day after the battle of Bunker Hill, in which he had participated; but his place in the ranks was taken by Samuel, who served from his twentieth to his twenty-fifth year, and took part in the battles at Trenton, Hubbardton, Saratoga and Monmouth, and endured the terrible winter at Valley Forge. He died in 1841. Other Revolutionary heroes were Amos Beach and Elijah Cheadel.

In 1844 Kingshoro was spoken of as containing a Presbyterian church, an academy and forty or fifty dwellings. Glove-making is the principal industry. Frederick Steele is said to have kept the first store in Kings- boro.

The society from which the Presbyterian church has grown was organized in December, 1793. A site for a church building was selected "just north of the burying-ground at the head of the present park, on land bought of Frederick Steele and Darius Case." Mr. Steele was paid at the rate of £5 per acre, and Mr. Case £4. The church was not finished until late in 1796. It was a small wooden building, furnished with high square box-pews, in which a good fraction of the congregation was lost to sight, and but a quarter of the seats faced the preacher. The only pro- vision for warmth in cold weather was the foot-stoves of those who were fortunate enough to own them. Thus housed and provided, the congrega- tion underwent two long sermons each Sunday with but a recess between them. For the first two or three years Rev. John Linsley was the pastor. He was to have $375 per annum for the first two years, and a house and fuel; after that the cash part of his salary was to be reduced $25. The house furnished him would seem to have contained one room, as he found it necessary to study at Deacon Giles's, where there were two. Mr. Lins- ley's departure was hastened by a contention in the church as to whether it was Congregational or Presbyterian. There seems to have been a society of the latter name, which united with the Congregational church in 1804. A year previous Rev. Elisha Yale had assumed the pastorate, which he held for the remarkable period of forty-eight years and seven months. He remained connected with the church more than a year longer. During this whole period he exerted a most powerful influence for good, and won und retained the highest respect and esteem. No less than 628 persons were received into the church during his ministry, more than two-thirds of them converted through his preaching. Seventeen of his parishioners entered the ministry. The Sunday-school was opened in 1821. Up to 1853 the government of the church was Congregational in form, "but really Presbyterian in spirit;" and in that year the society was re- ceived into the Albany Presbytery, where it remains. The church early had to take a stand against intemperance, as there were three distilleries "within the then 'limits of this congregation, and liquor flowed like water." A temperance society was formed in 1814, and a reform begun which was prosecuted until, in 1857, liquor was not publicly sold in the town north

210

THE HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY.

of Johnstown village. Mr. Yale received but $25,000 for his fifty years work at Kingsboro. His successors in the pastorate have been: Rev. Edward Wall, 1852-62; William Bannister, D.D., 1863-9; Rev. George Harkness, from July, 1869, to November, 1877. The church building now used cost $8,000 in 1838, when it was dedicated. In 1870 it was repaired, and a Sunday-school chapel built, at an expense of over $3,000. There are now six " Protestant houses of worship within the former limits of Dr. Yale's congregation," which built the first.

The Kingsboro Academy, as an outgrowth of the Presbyterian church, calls for mention at this point. The first meeting of the friends of such an enterprise was held at the house of Abner Johnson, January 4, 1831. Among them was Daniel Potter, who offered a lot and $200 on condition of $2.000 more being raised. That sum was subscribed within a week, and the building was finished in the latter part of 1831. It was of wood, three stories high, and built upon a stone basement arranged for the accommo- dation of the principal and his family as a dwelling. An addition 14 by 64 feet was soon after built and the grounds fenced. The total cost up to this point was $2,950, beside the value of the lot, which was considered worth $500. The building was formally opened December 1, 1831. A. Mr. Waldo was engaged as principal, and the first term began early in 1832. In February, 1839, the institution was incorporated by the Regents of the University. In May, 1837, Horace Sprague became principal and Mrs. Sprague one of the teachers. Mr. Sprague was a man of considerable ability and very popular. Although not a college graduate he received the degree of A. M. from L'nion College in 1836. In May, 1842, he resigned the principalship, and was immediately followed by H. M. Robertson, recently graduated from Union College. He remained until April, 1845. after which the academy was without a principal until December, 1846, when Mr. Sprague again took the position, which he held until within two years of his death in May, 1861. The academy has within hall a dozen years become the public school of the district. It has three departments, with as many teachers.

Kingsboro was represented in periodical literature in 1843 by The Literary Journal, published by S. R. Sweet.

MCEWEN'S CORNERS is a hamlet about two miles west of Gloversville. Here, for many years, lived Nicholas Stoner, whose eventful life has been sketched by Mr. Simms. He removed to this place, then called Scotch Bush, from the vicinity of Johnson Hall, where he lived for two years after the Revolution. From this point, in his hunting and trapping excur- sions, he ranged a wide section of the great northern wilderness, which must have extended to his very doors. Indeed, most of the town was probably, little better than a wilderness. It was while living near Johnson Hall that Major Stoner had his fields of ripening corn and wheat devastated by a bear. After protracted nightly vigils, the hunter got a shot at the marauder, but owing to darkness only wounded him, and the animal es- caped on so easy terms that he ventured back next day and was reported in a neighboring orchard Stoner snatched his rifle and repaired to the scene. His first shot did not disable the bear, and the latter would have climbed a tree but for the hunter's dog pulling him back as often as he tried it. The exasperated beast turned on the dog and managed to catch one of his paws in his mouth. Stoner had been hindered in reloading by the stopper of his powder horn .breaking off short, and before he was ready for a final shot, was almost distracted by the agonized yelps of his canine ally. Rushing up to the bear, he thrust the muzzle of his rifle into the animal's mouth, getting in the act a blow from bruin's paw that tore off a leg of his pantaloons and gashed the flesh with the marks of claws. The discharge of the rifle blew the bear's brains out. The trapper was so long away on one of his northern excursions that he was suspected of being engaged in smuggling goods from Canada to Johnstown. The suspicion involved Amaziah Rust and Cornelius Herring as the receivers. Stoner stoutly denied the charge, though he said he had seen goods in transttu in the forest in the hand, of persons unknown to him. It seems that squaws got the merchandise across the border and delivered it to men who completed the transportation. MeEwen's Corners was so named from the father of J. D. and D. MeEwen, who established in 1816 a grist-mill, which is now operated by his sons. It is now run only half the year, dur- ing which time its capacity is about 15,000 bushels. These gentlemen in 1847 built a skin-mill, which in the six months of each year in which it is run dresses 16,000 skins.

SIMMONSvitte is an enterprising village of about two hundred inhabi- tants, on the southern border of the town and county, profiting by the water power afforded by Cayadutta creek. In 1819 Myndert Starin went into business here, where he built, in course of time, a hotel, a potash factory, a distillery, a four-mill, blacksmith and machine shops and other buildings. In 1826 he closed out his business here and re-

moved to what is now Fultonville, where he started similar industrial es- tablishments. The strawboard mills, furnishing material for paper boxes. are the chief industrial features. They include those of Joseph Hill. - brandt, commenced in 1847, and having a capacity of 125 tons a year : William Wemple, 200 tons ; John Moore begun in 1873, 100 tons ; alnd one or two others. Eli Wemple, a descendant of one of the oldest familie. of the town, carries on a vinegar and cider factory, which he opened in 1873. G. H. Sholtus is postmaster, and one of the merchants of the vil- lage, where he began business in 1848. Edward H. Sammons keeps .. store and hotel. Jacob Martin is another storekeeper. He was for thirty years one of the leading carpenters and builders of the region. His grand- father, Philip Martin, was an early settler and a Revolutionary soldier There are also in the village a cheese-box factory, producing 15,000 A year; a saw-mill, cutting 250,000 feet annually, and a church and school- house.

KECK'S CENTER is a hamlet about four miles and a half west of Johns- town. Joseph Keck opened a store and hotel here in 1849, and in 1800 a strawboard mill, which has a capacity of roo tons per year. He has been postmaster since 1856, when a post-office was first established. His grand- father, George Keck, was a soldier in the Revolution. Robert Smith is one of the leading carpenters and builders in the county. He began the business in 1867. J. D. Wert carries on the old Coughnet farm, one of the first settled in the town.

Several cheese factories represent the great dairy interest in the town. The Johnstown Cross Roads factory, about two miles west of Johnstown. was incorporated in 1863 with a capital of $3,000, and had a capacity ot 120,000 lbs. annually. The first directors were : Nicholas Dorn. Frederick Wert, Daniel J. Walker, Henry Gross and E. E. Buggs. The present capital of the factory is $5,000, and it produces 60,000 lbs. per annum.

The Cold Spring Cheese Factory, two miles east of Johnstown, managed by R. W. Rogers, began business in 1871. It makes 70,000 lbs. per annum).

POPULATION, ETC.

The population of the town of Johnstown has, for a quarter of a century. increased much more rapidly than that of the county at large. Several censuses have given the following results : 1840, 5,409 ; 1845, 5,408 ; 18;r. 6, 131 ; 1855, 7,912 ; 1860, 8,811 ; 1865, 9,805 ; 1870, 12,273 ; 1875, 15,634 The population of the town has all but doubled since 1855, while th.it ut the county has only increased from 23,284 to 30, 155. The actual incre .... in the town since 1855 is 7,777, against 6,861 in the whole county ; indicating a removal from other towns of the county to this, which is further e denced by the fact that the population of some of the other towns b. been diminishing for several years. The present population of Johnsto. is over half that of the county. The number of taxable inhabitants : 1876 was 2,492, and the assessed valuation of real and personal property. $2,605,348.

A CENTENARIAN

The cases of persons whose lives span a century are rare in ... county. Fulton county presents that of Mrs. Jeremiah Dorn of John . town, her one hundredth birthday being on the 15th of March, 1 ;. She was born at Niskayuna, Schenectady county, where her father, a M! Carnkrose, lived until he came to reside about three miles cast of joh. . town. Mrs. Dorn was one of a family of fourteen children, of wh. besides herself, there are now living Mr. Nicholas Carnkrose and \; Veghte. Mrs. Dorn's own children numbered ten. It is now setet. nine years since her marriage. Almost as remarkable as her extr. length of days is the fact that during hardly one of them has she ?. under the power of disease.

Mrs. Dorn remembers to have heard her mother-in-law tell of Sir liam Johnson, particularly of his funeral, at which according to her to lection most of the mourners were Indians, The red men are also lat. associated with the memories of our subject. A cousin of her mo; called "the beauty of Schoharie," was shot by a savage. A prim Indian trail ran through the Dorn farm. \ brother of Mrs. Dorn mn ja times used to carry apples to the Indians at a point thirty miks 14: Utica, and was always well treated. She formerly attended the ( . . . nawaga stone church, and often saw there Colonel Visscher, who was sed .. during the Revolution in his house in the town of Mohawk, and lett . dead by the savages. He wore a handkerchief on his head which co- cealed the wound.

Mrs. Dorn's husband, who was born in 1760, was a patriot soldier the Revolutionary war, as were also two of his brothers, one of w/ . named l'eter, was at the battle of Oriskany. Mrs. Dorn remembr . time when the village of Johnstown had but two stores, one physt and one grist-mill, that bindlt by sir William Johnson, near the Hill

TREN

Res. of MRS. H. SAMMONS, SAMMONSVILLE, N. Y.

Res. of JOHN R. STOLLER TOWN of MOHAWK, Montgomery Co.

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Res.of ADAM FREDERICK, Town of JOHNSTOWN, N. Y.

THRUD

375

GLOVE MANUFACTURERS, MARKET ST., JOHNSTOWN, N. Y.

NORTHRUP BROTHERS Fr !. Ş. & M. S. NORTHRUP & CO.

PARSONS SEATL

-... KKRESIDENCE OF

JUDGE LEY! PARSONS, KINGSBOUROUGH, FULTON CO., N. Y.y') .-

21L

PEDIGREE OF THE KINGSBORO PARSONS FAMILY.

JAMES' PARSONS, a descendant of Thomas', of Great Milton, near Oxford, England, through Deacon Benjamin', one of the early settlers of Springfield. Mass., was born at Windsor, Conn., 9 Oct., 1748. He married, 25 Jan., 1770, Hannah Phelps, dau. of Charles of Windsor, where their eight children were born : seven of whom, in 1792, accompanied their parents to Kingsboro, Johnstown township, then Tryon county, now Fulton county, N. Y. From the Kingsboro records TO THE CAM CEDO of public meetings, 30 Dec., 1795, and of subsequent dates, we find he was active in measures tor building a meeting house; and on the 6 Nov., 1796, was chairman of the meeting, when it was voted to give the Rev. John Lindsley a call for settlement. Other records of the society and town show that Mr. Parsons was an active and influential citizen. He died 22 Jan., ISto .* Of his children, I. Hannah' was born 5 Feb., 1771, d. 28 July, 1775; 2. Mercy6 married Ephraim BURDICK, among whose descendants are: CHILD, PRICE, BALL, WORRELL, ROBERTS, SCOFIELD, ADAMS, CHRISTIE, GARDNER, ELDRED ; 3. Jame-6 m. Huldath Beach, among whose de- scendants are: JUDSON, DEMAREST, GLOYD and BARLOW; also, the families of Dea. Chauncey' and Alvin Beach' Parsons; 4. John' m. Charity - Dayton Johnson, leaving families of sons Homer J., Hiram A., and daughter Amelia-T". WARNER; 6. Oliver6 m. Clarinda Beach, leaving sons Richard, Goodwin , Myron', Edward', Hun-Harrington', William- Peach", James-Oliver , and daughters Mary-B. BUCK, Martha' HOSMER und Olive-Clarinda MILLS ; ; Hannah m. James HALL, leaving Amira MARTIN and Hannah CHRISTIE, of Le Ray, N. Y. ; 8. Linda m. Daniel BOWEN, leaving sons Rev. Henry' and Willard' and daughters Caroline NEVINS and Maria' GRAHAM; 5. Gurdon' b. 4 July, 1780, m. 11 March, 1801, Sally-Pamelia Leavenworth, b. at Stratford. Conn : she d. 30 Dec .. 1824. He m. and. Helen Demarest, and died at K., 5 Oct. 1845. The children of GURDON" Par-ons were: 1. Intant son b. and d. 11 March, 18oz; 2. Mary-Ann' m. Joseph WOOD ; 3. Dr. Gurdon-Lester" b. 28 Aug., 1810, d. 17 Sept .. 1840; 4. Tallmadge-Leavenworth1 b. 13 Jan., 1813, m. 21 Sept., 1841, Jane MeGregor, b. S Aug., 1814, dan. of Duncan amd Catharine Carmichael , of Comrie, Perthshire, Scotland. They had ome child, Tallmadge-I.ester, b. 2 July, 1843. who in 1872 visited Europe in company with his uncle, Judge Levi', and, 1878, resides at Kingsboro : 5. Caroline' m. Edward Parsons of Chicago; 6 John-Randolph' m. Caroline Mead; 7. Jane Almira' m. David WILSON ; Judge Levi' was b. I July, 1822; in 1844 entered the law office of Judge Yost of Johnstown, who removed, 1846, to Fort I'lain. In 1847 he was admitted to the bar, and formed a co-partnership with Lauren Ford, Esq., of Little Falls.

In 1848 the discoveries in California gave rise to the gold fever in the States, and the valley of the Mohawk was not exempt. Among the first victims was Levi' Parsons, who on the 4th March, 1849, the day of Presi- dent Taylor's inauguration, left New York on a schooner for Brazos San- tiago, about ten miles north of the Rio Grande; thence by mule route at that date unknown to New Yorkers, through Monterey, Saltillo, Parras and Durango to Mazatlan on the Pacific, whence by a sailing vessel he reached San Francisco Aug., 1849. Me rose rapidly in his profession, and, 3otla March, 1850, was elected by Legislature Judge of the Fourth Judicial District of California, comprising the City and County of San Francisco- his commission from Gov. Peter H Burnett being dated ed Apr. 1850, an office which he resigned to attend to the practice of his profession. He subsequently came with a fortune to New York

His early and later experiences led him to accept the presidency of ser- eral railroads in the west. He was the principal promoter and President of the Missouri, Kansas and Tevas Railroad, about Soo miles in length. Thi- was the first railroad built to Texas, and carried civilization into a region of extreme ignorante and backwardnews. It is and must remain the principal trunk hne between Chicago and the North-west generally, and St. Louis and the South-west and South.

On the 3d Sept .. 1861. he in., at Fort Plain. Mary Jane Cuyler. b. 15 Dec. 1334. at Mobile, Ala., dan, of Amaziah Rust and Julia Vost , a niece of Judge Yest, of Fort Plan, N. Y He resides, INES, in New York city, and .

takes a deep and quiet interest in all that pertains to his native plne and! the welfare of the entire I niun.

times-trules, twich vronels printer, between there cases, de-plated, or Crest -On a Jeopant's head, gu . in pic] .. . . mas 1, it thigh. nr.

JUDGE LEVI' PARSONS is of the eighth generation from THOMAS' PARSONS of Great Milton, Oxfordshire, England, who married in that place 19 October, 1555, Katherine Hester, of Sydenham, near Thames, in the same county. He was buried at Great Milton 23 May, 1597. Hn will, dated i July, 1584, was proved at London, by his eldest son, Thomas, 14 June, 1597. The overseers of the will were John, Thomas and William Hester, probably brothers of his wife. He was a man of considerable wealth, as evinced by his bequests. He left a certain sum for the poor of Great Milton, and also for the reparation of the church; mentioned, be- sides his wife and sons, Thomas, Hugh, Richard and Francis, his nephews Thomas Parsons and Robert Newcomb. His widow was buried at Sand- ford, near Oxford, 3 Oct., 1608. Their five children were baptized at Great Milton, viz .: Thomas, Hugh", Richard, Francis and Joane.

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History of Montgomery and Fulton counties, N.Y. : with illustrations and portraits of old pioneers and prominent residents, Part 68

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