History of Oneida County, New York, 1667-1878, Part 121

Author:
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Fariss
Number of Pages: 932

USA > New York > Oneida County > History of Oneida County, New York, 1667-1878 > Part 121

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).

General Hill was married Jan. 16, 1856, to Lucy M., daughter of Rev. Robert Richards, of Maine, and has a family of five children,-viz. : Hattie M., Katie E., Lula M., George R., and John. Politically, he belongs to the Republican party, and, though he has been solicited at various times to represent his fellow-citizens in the Legis- lative halls of this State, has always steadily refused. Gen-

eral Hill is one out of many who returned from the busy and active scenes of war and turned his attention to mer- cantile business, in which he has been successful. And, knowing well what our soldiers and country suffered in the late war, he still has sympathy for our Southern brethren, whose ill-judgment forced upon our people a sad and devas- tating warfare. A good soldier, whose military duties oblige him to respect order and law, always makes a law-abiding and substantial eitizen. General Hill stands as a living monument of the late American volunteer soldier, who can be relied upon in time of war; when that is finished, and peace reigns once more over the land, can turn his atten- tion either to improving the manufacturing or agricultural interests of our country,-being useful in war, useful in peace, and useful in the welfare of their countrymen.

CHAPTER XXXII.

KIRKLAND.

THE town of Kirkland occupies a position in the southern central portion of the county. It covers an area of 19,716 acres, and includes Kirkland's Patent and parts of the Brothertown Tract and the Coxeborough Patent. Nearly through its centre flows Oriskany Creek, on either side of which rises a range of hills. Those on the west are the more prominent, and present a bold outline. Upon one of their summits, west of the beautiful village of Clinton, is located Hamilton College, that institution of learning which has a wide reputation, and takes high rank among those of the State and nation. Here the missionary Kirkland labored faithfully and carnestly to found an institution which should flourish for years as a power in the land, long after his deeds and his fame were known only to the pages of history. Here, too, were wont to roam the dusky Oneidas, and, in later years the remnants of the scattered eastern tribes, which, upon their association and settlement in this eounty, became known as the Brothertown Indians, who had no common language in a native tongue, and there- fore spoke only the English. Here the venerable Skenan- doah and the sage warriors of the Oneida nation saw the advance of the white settler, the increase of his numbers, and the deeline of their own power, the sure forewarning that their raee should pass away.

So numerous and so excellent are the educational institu- tions of this town that it has received the appellation of the " literary emporium of Oneida County."

Rev. A. D. Gridley, of Kirkland, prepared an excellent history of the town, which was published in 1874, and we have made liberal extracts from his work, with necessary additions and occasional `corrections.

Dr. Oren Root, of Hamilton College, thus briefly de- seribes the geology and mineralogy of this town :

"The rocks belong to what our geologists call the Silurian Age. The lowest in place is the Oneida conglomerate, a hard, gritty rock of grayish color, and composed of quartz pebbles finely cemented. This rock is seen by the roadside, a short distance from Clinton, toward Utica.

" Above the conglomerate we find the rocks of the Clinton Group,

455

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

well developed on both sides of the valley of the Oriskany Creek. These rocks consist of alternate layers of shale and hard sandstone, with very impure limestone. They contain beds of lenticular iron ore, and abundant remains of Fucoids, Corals, Mollusks, and Trilobites.

" In the ravines on College Hill we find directly above the Clinton rocks a thin deposit of the shales of the Niagara Group, containing imbedded masses of limestone, with lead and zine ores.

" Next above these dark shales we find the red shale of the Onon- daga Group, a rock of great thickness, and well developed in this town, but, as elsewhere, entirely destitute of fossils.

" On the hills both east and west of the Oriskany, and south of the red shale, we find the drab-colored rocks of the Water-lime Group.

"The valleys and most of the hillsides of this town are covered with the material of the drift period, consisting of sand, gravel, and pebbles cemented with clay.

" The rocks of Kirkland contain nuincrons fossils. Of the follow- ing genera of Mollusks there are many species, to wit : Orthis, Lin- gula, Leptæna, Atrypa, Pentamerus, Spirifer.

"Of chambered shells : Oncocerus, Orthocerus, Corals, and Cri- noids are abundant, and Fucoids in certain localities, but Trilobites are more rarely found.

" The minerals of Kirkland are as follows : Oxide of iron, sulphuret of iron, carbonate of iron, sulphuret of lead, sulphuret of zine, stron- tianite, celestine, calcite, gypsum, quartz crystals."

The soil of this town is a claycy loam, with occasional beds of sand and gravel, exeept along the shores of the Oris- kany Creek, where there are rich alluvial deposits.

EARLY SETTLEMENT.

Hon. O. S. Williams, of Clinton, in a lecture delivered in the year 1848, mentions the fact that " as early as 1776 seven pairs of brothers, from as many different families in the town of Plymouth, Conn., enlisted under the command of Captain David Smith, were marched westward, and dur- ing the summer of that year were stationed by turns at Fort Herkimer, Fort Schuyler, and Fort Stanwix. They visited the surrounding country, and at the close of the war were ready at once to go up and possess the land." These were not the earliest settlers in town, however, as will be seen by reference to the history of the city of Rome and the town of Whitestown.

On the south face of a limestone slab, which has been set in the park in the village of Clinton, is the following inscription :

" Moses Foote, Esq., in company with seven other families, com- menced the settlement of this village March 3, 1787."

The north face has the following :

"Nine miles to Utica. Moses Foote, James Bronson, Inther Foote, Bronson Foote, Ira Foote, Barnabas Pond, Ludim Blodgett, Levi Sherman."

Moses Foote,* in company with a few other explorers, had visited this neighborhood in the fall of the previous year (1786), with a view to commencing settlement. In February, 1787, James Bronson came also to look at the valley, and spent the night of the 27th of that month on what is now Clinton Green, sheltered by the upturned roots of an ancient hemlock. There is also a tradition that Ludim Blodgett was here early in the fall of 1786, when he commenced building a log house on what is now the corner of the park and Kellogg Streets. The settlement of the town was actually begun, however, by the families and at the time mentioned on the slab referred to. Five

# Also written Foot.

of these families were from the town of Plymouth, Conn. ; they had left New England a few years before and halted at German Flatts, in what is now Herkimer, during the interim between their emigration from Connecticut and their settlement in Kirkland. When they arrived there were three log houses at " Old Fort Schuyler," now Utica, seven at Whitestown, three at Oriskany, five at Fort Stan- wix (Rome), and three at Westmoreland.+ These pioneer families followed what was known as the " old Moyer road," which brought them to Paris Hill, from whence they turned to the northward. The " Moyer road" was a part of the Indian trail leading from Buffalo to the Mohawk Valley, and terminating some distance below Utica, where a Dutch- man named Moyer kept a tavern.

The exploring-party which came here in the fall of 1786 were not agreed at first upon the site for a settlement, some wishing to locate on the elevated plateau a mile and a half cast of Clinton, and the others on the present site of the village. After some discussion the castern party was in- duced to join the western, owing principally to the per- suasive powers of Moses Foote. The family of Solomon Hovey is included by some in the number who began the settlement here; Mrs. Hovey was at all events the first white woman who pressed the soil of the town of Kirkland beneath her fect.

Early in the summer of the year 1787 the little settle- ment on the Oriskany had increased to thirteen families, and before winter it numbered twenty. Among those who eame this first year, according to Mr. Gridley's history, were John Bullen, Salmon Butler, James Cassety (after- ward of Oriskany Falls; see Augusta history), William Cook, Samuel and Noah Hubbard, Amos Kellogg, Aaron Kellogg, Oliver Porter, Randall Lewis, Cordial Storrs, Caleb Merrill, Levi Sherman, and Judah Stebbins.

" And in what sort of habitations did these first families live ? The building of great pretension was the log house of Ludim Blodgett, which, having begun the fall previous, he now finished. It was roofed over with elm-bark, but was destitute of floor, windows, and doors. The houses of the other settlers were at first mere hints made of crotched stakes driven into the ground, with poles laid from crotch to erotel, and then sided and roofed over with strips of bark. These certainly were rude accommodations, but the settlers cheerfully sub- mitted to them."±

Amos Kellogg, on the day of his arrival with his family, in the winter of 1788, was obliged to shovel the snow out of his log house before he could take possession. This house stood on Fountain Street, in the village, on the site of the present dwelling of J. N. Percival, and had been erected by Mr. Kellogg several months before he brought his family to it.

Solomon Hovey, according to Judge Jones' " Annals," made extra provision for stowing the table-furniture and wardrobe of his wife. The judge says,-

" He felled a largo, hollow bass-wood tree, which grew u few fect west of the present banking-house in Clinton, and cutting off a piece of the proper length, split and hewed off one of its sides ; this, raised upon end, with a number of shelves fitted into it, was found admira- bly contrived for a pantry, cupboard, and clothes-press."

The settlement was formed on a street laid out north and

t See history of Deerfield. ¿ Gridley.

456

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

south, which extended from the house now owned by Mar- shall W. Barker to the house of Seth K. Blair :

"Two acres of land were assigned to cach family on this street for a building site. In the course of a year cight additional acres were set apart to each family adjoining the two-acre lots first named. Ilaving built their first rude huts, suitable for temporary use, the set- tlers commenced clearing a portion of their lands, and providing for raising their first crops of vegetables and Indian coru. While these crops were growing they took time to select a name for their infant village, and finally fixed upon that of CLINTON, in honor of George Clinton, then Governor of the State."@

Governor Clinton was at the time joint owner with Gen- eral George Washington of several tracts of land in the county, some of which were within the limits of this town. Judge Jones states, --

" Lot No. 14, in the fifth grand division of Coxe's borough of 316 acres, and composing the farmu of the late Nathaniel Griffin (now John Barker), of this towu, was held by a deed directly from President Washington and Governor Clinton. This decd was wituessed by To- bias Lear and De Witt Clinton."

The facilities for grinding corn, raised during the first years of the settlement, were exceedingly limited. The Wetmore mill had been built at Whitestown in 1788, and to that the grain from Kirkland's pioneer settlement was carried, either ou foot or horseback, over a narrow Indian trail, through woods and swamps. Finally, however, the enterprising settlers joined their forces and opened a road- way to Whitestown; as soon as it was finished Samuel Hubbard drove an ox-team to the mill and brought baek six bushels of Indian meal. The distance to Whites- town, six miles, was considered too great, however, and Captain (afterward Colonel) Casscty built a small grist-mill on the east bank of the Oriskany Creek, near the site of the present bridge on College Street. Samuel Hubbard, Ludim Blodgett, and Salmon Butler, cach shelled a peck of new corn, and cast lots to sce who should carry the joint grist to the mill. The lot fell upon Mr. Hubbard, who placed the corn on his shoulder, and marched away with his burden. As this was the first grist ground in the new mill, it was sent out without taking toll, as was the custom. A saw-mill was built the same year or the next, a few rods -

above.

To such an extent had the settlement grown in the fall after the arrival of its avant couriers that it began to scem much like the villages in the land the people had left,-the rock-ribbed New England. Judge Williams says of it at that period, --

"What in March was a wilderness, gloomy, sad, aud cheerless, in October begau to seem like home; aud even with the child and the delicate woman the longing for New England's rocky hills and happy villages had grown faint, and almost vanished before the attractions of this fertile land, and the mutual kindness and hospitality of these dwellers in the wilderness. I hazard nothing in saying that this place has known no days more delightful than its earliest."

About 20 new families were added to the original settle- ment during the summer of 1788, among whom were Rev. Samuel Kirkland, the noted missionary, George Langford, Timothy Tuttle, Benjamin Pollard, Zadock Loomis, Theo- dore Manross, Andrew Blanchard, Silas Austen, Joshua Morse, Elias Dewey, and Joseph Gleason.

# Gridley's History of Kirkland, page 24.

" When the lands now covered by this town were first selected by Captain Foot and his party, it was supposed that they had never been surveyed, and were not embraced within the limits of any patent. They considered themselves 'squatters,' presuming that when the land came into market they could claim it by pre-emption right. What, then, was their surprise, on exploring and clearing up the forests, to find lines of marked trees, and on further inquiry to learn that they had settled upon Coxe's Patent, 'a tract of land granted by the colony of New York, May 30, 1770, to Daniel Coxe, William Coxe, Rebecca Coxe, and John Tabor Kempe and Grace, his wife.' Their settlement was found to be located on 'the two thousand and sixteen aeres tract,' by which descriptive name it was long known to the older inhabitants and surveyors. This plot was bounded on the north by the farm now owned by Henry Gleason, on the cast by David Pickett's, on the south by Seth K. Blair's, and on the west by the Oriskany Creek. On further search it was found that this tract had already been divided into twenty lots of nearly equal size, and that the proprietors had offered it as a gift to any colony of twenty families who would take it up and occupy it as a permanent settlement. At once our settlers hoped that they might enjoy the benefit of this generous offer; but the patentees, learning that their lands had already been occupied in ignorance of their pro- posal, refused to make the gift, and required the squatters to buy the land at the rate of ten shillings an acre. Accordingly, in the summer of 1788, Captain Foot was sent to Philadelphia to purchase the whole tract on the best possible terms ; and eventually the several lots were parceled out at cost among the different settlers. The triangular picce of land which afterwards became the site of the village was called the 'handkerchief lot,' from its resemblance on the map to a half handkerchief, and this was bought by Captain Foot."f

In the spring of 1788 the settlers were overwhelmed with grief at an accident which happened, and which is thus described by Judge Jones :

" Miss Merab Tuttle, aged seventeen, daughter of Colonel Timothy Tuttle, who owned and resided upon the Royce farm, was drowned in the Oriskany Creek. The circumstances are briefly these : Miss Tuttle and Miss Anna Foot, daughter of Captain Moses Foot, started late in the afteruoon to make a call at Mr. William Cook's, who re- sided on the west bank of the creek, in a log house which stood near the site of the house formerly owned by Mr. J. Herrick. . . .

" For lack of perfumued French hair powder for their toilet, they called on their way at Cassety's mill, and with the mill-dust whitened their locks as for some gala day. Though now obsolete, such was then the fashion. At that time no bridge spanned the stream from its source to its mouth. The settlers had felled two trees across, a little below the site of the bridge, on the road to the College. When the girls arrived at the crossing-place they found the stream swollen from the spring freshet and recent rains, and its turbid waters were rushing and foaming madly down its channel. At first they quailed, but Miss Foot, the more courageous of the two, soon led the way, fol- lowed by her companion. When near the middle of the stream Miss Foot heard from her friend the _exclamation, 'Oh, dear, my head swims!' which was instantly followed by a splash in the water, and turning saw her struggling in the current. Miss Foot gave such loud and prolonged cries for help that she was distinctly heard through the woods at Miss Tuttle's residence. Mr. Cook, who happened to be at his house, either witnessing the accident or attracted by the cries, sprang into the stream to rescue the drowning girl, and nearly succeeded in grasping her by her clothes, when the current drew her from his sight under a pile of drift-wood. Instant and continued search was made for the body. The blacksmith made hooks which were fastened in the end of long poles, with which to drag the stream. These were unsuccessfully plied through the whole night. In the morning the remains of the unfortunate young lady were found drawn under a pile of drift-wood, near the site of the Clinton factory. Few eyes slept in Clinton that night. Intelligence was sent to their neighhors at Dean's settlement, in Westmorelaud, as also the time appointed for the funeral. At the time named many of the few set- tlers on Dean's Patent attended. Nehemiah Joues (father of Hon. Pomroy Jones), when about to start, aud knowing there could be no elergyman expected (as probably there was none west of Albany) took with him a volume of sermons, in which was one preached on

t Gridley, pages 27 and 28.

REK

Thomas Dean

In the year 1795, John Dean, a Quaker, then living near New- burg, Orange Co., N. Y., was commissioned by the Society of Friends in New York City to labor as a missionary among the Brothertown Indians, on the southern line of the township of Kirkland, Oneida County. The Brothertown Indians were so named because their number ineluded the remains of several disorganized tribes in New England and Long Island, representing the Mohegans, Montauks, Nar- ragansetts, Pequots, Nahantics, and others.

It cannot be here stated when this composite tribe was first organ- ized. It is known that the Oneida Indians sent an early and earnest invitation to their Eastern cousins, and that the State Governments of New England aided in the removal of the seattered elans to their new home in Brothertown. As early as 1763, Sir William Johnson re- ports them as numbering two hundred warriors, and in all one thousand souls. They all spoke the English language with more or less facility.

John Dean returned to Newburg in 1797, after living and laboring among the Brothertown Indians for two years. This absence was so deeply regretted that, in a few months, he was visited by a deputation of Indians who urged him to return to Brothertown and live with them five years longer as their religious teacher and friend. This pressing invitation was accepted. In 1798, John Dean returned to Brother- town with his wife and his son, Thomas Dean, then a youth of nine- teen years. For the first year they lived in a log house.

In 1799 the wing of what came to be known as the Dean home- stead was built; and in 1804 the main part of the dwelling was com- pleted. There was no release for John Dean at the end of five years. HIe faithfully served the Brothertown Indians as their spiritual guide, protector, and friend until ho was laid aside by the infirinities of age. By wholesome precept and godly example, "he lured to brighter worlds and led the way." He died and was buried in Deansville, in 1820, aged 88 years. Some years before his death, his son, Thomas . Dean, had been chosen by the Indians as their agent and adviser,-so strong had grown the bond of friendship and mutual confidenee be- tween the Dean family and the Brothertown tribe.

In 1809, Thomas Dean married Mary Flandrau, of Now Rochelle, Westehester Co., N. Y., an excellent young lady of Huguenot deseent, and a sister of Thomas M. Flandrau, well remembered as an eloquent member of tho bar of Oneida County, who died in 1854.

In his peaceful, unselfish method of dealing with Indians, Thomas Dean elosely followed the copy set by his Quaker sire. Hle sup- ported a school, in which Indian boys and girls were instructed in ele- mentary knowledge; he settled quarrels among the Indians, directed and encouraged their plans for household industries, and for gardening and farming; he transaeted their business with the whites and with each other; he negleeted no opportunity to improve their religious sentiments and habits.

Previous to tho year 1820 the Brothertown Indians found themselves elosely hemmed in by white settlers, who trespassed on their lands, and eaused discontent. They determined to seek a new home towards the setting sun, and besought Mr. Dean to aid them. His influence sceured for them from the United States Government a truet of land at Green Bay, Wis., covering sixty-four thousand aeres, between the Fox River and Lake Michigan. Upwards of twenty-four hundred Indians wero to be transferred to those distant lands. Difficulties were encountered at both ends of the line of emigration. Speenlators made much trouble at the West, and the breaking up of long-established homes caused reluetanec and delay at the East. Mr. Dean spent ten winters in Washington and ten summers in Green Bay, winters and summers of ceaseless labor, travel, anxiety, and weariness, before the

arrangements for removal could be completed. While at Green Bay Mr. Dean was busy fighting speculative land-sharks, surveying farms and roads, building bridges, saw-mills, grist-mills. In New York he procured the enaetment of a law which enabled the Indians to sell their lands at their full value, under the direction of three commission ers.

Between 1830 and 1840, Mr. Dean was occupied in transferring Indian colonists to Green Bay. They went out by installments, and each installment required his personal supervision and guidance. In 1841 there came a season of rest. As the tired laborer when his day's work is ended falls asleep beside the evening fire, so Thomas Dean, after he had settled the Brothertown Indians in their new home, came to a peaceful end in June, 1842, at the age of sixty-three, and was laid beside his father, mother, and wife, in the Deansville Cemetery. During his forty years of service for the Indians, Mr. Dean received a salary of only $300 a year, including the support of an Indian school, and exclusive of traveling expenses.

He kept his personal accounts with that serupulous exaetness of detail which characterized Judge William L. Marey when traveling at the expense of the State. His sturdy conscientious honesty and passion for square dealing were fitly symbolized to the eye by a com- manding presence. llis work was done in no half-hearted perfune- tory way. Every ineh of his great hereulean frame was full of sympathy. There was no regular physician in Brothertown, and often Mr. Dean and members of his family ministered with well-tried household remedies at the bedside of the sick and suffering. His hands and house were always open to charity and hospitality. His doors were locked neither day nor night. Indian guests were frequent at the table and the fireside. Often they came unbidden when the family had retired for the night, and slept by the kitchen fire. Such a long and spotless eareer of disinterested public duty has few parallels in our country's history.

Traditions of Thomas Dean's kindness, generosity, and unbribable integrity are familiar to the older Brothertown households, and they give something of the charm of a pastoral poem to the carly namie and the pleasant streets of that historic village, with its large heart still throbbing in the Dean homestead.

Thomas Dean was the father of five children, of whomu only two are now living. The oldest child, Mrs. Philena Hunt Dean Catlin, now living in Clinton, Oneida Co., is the surviving widow of Professor Marcus Catlin, who died in 1849, after filling the Chair of Mathe- maties and Astronomy in Ilamilton College for fifteen years with the highest ability, devotedness, and success, Mrs. Phebe Dean Redfield. wife of the late Colonel Alex. Il. Redfield, of Detroit, Michigan, died in 1877. John Dean, the oldest son, born Ang. 16, 1813; graduated from Hamilton College in 1832; was a member of the State Legisla- ture from Oneida County in 1846, and in 1862 was appointed Commis- sioner of Customs in the Treasury Department at Washington. While holding this office, he secured freedom for a large number of slaves, whose masters, living outside the District of Columbia, had hired them out to residents of Washington. Mr. John Dean also defended many fugitive slaves whose masters sought to foree them back to bondage. Ile was under indictment for protecting a fugitive slave, and was pre- paring his defense when he was seized with the illness of which he died, Oct. 16, 1863. He was buried in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington. Ilis funeral sermon was preached by Rev. John Pier- pont. Hannah Dean, the youngest daughter, died in 1847. Dr. Elias Flandrau Dean, the youngest son, is a practicing physician in Lenni, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Oneida County, New York, 1667-1878, Part 121

Author: Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Fariss Number of Pages: 932

Author:
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Fariss
Number of Pages: 932