History of Oneida County, New York, 1667-1878, Part 143

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

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Mrs. Elizabeth Everett was born May 8, 1797. She was the sister of Henry Roberts, Utica, father of the well- known firm Henry Roberts' Sons, Columbia Street. She filled well her station in life. Wise in counsel, true, faith- ful, and judicious in her relation to her family, the church, and the neighborhood, never countenancing gossip, but exercising a thoughtful care for all, she was always a steady, cheerful support to her husband. After his death she continued the publication of the " Cenhadwr" till the close of 1876, when it passed into the hands of her son, Lewis Everctt, the present editor and publisher.

Living so entirely for others, Mrs. Everett was never idle, and she always retained a remarkable youthfulness of body aud mind. Latterly she met with many serious acci- dents, but her quiet endurance and Christian submission enabled her to recover with surprising rapidity. A little more than a year before her death she was thrown from the sleigh and her thigh broken in two places ; she re- covered to walk without assistance or apparent lameness. She was able, also, during the next summer, to attend church frequently, and, in the fall and winter, nearly every Sabbath. She loved prayer, and God blessed her in all her ways. Her last illness was pneumonia, the same as that of which her husband died, but not so severe. She kept her bed only one day, and died March 12, 1878.

Dr. and Mrs. Everett sought to give their eleven chil- dren a good education rather than wealth, and they were permitted to see them all numbered among Christ's fol- lowers.

Elizabeth, their eldest, was educated in Clinton, Oneida Co., at the school of Rev. H. H. Kellog, where she re- mained as teacher. When the school passed into the hands of the Free-Will Baptists she still retained her posi- tion, and was for some time lady principal till her marriage with Rev. J. J. Butler, D.D. She was an earnest Chris- tian, very successful in her work, and dearly beloved by her pupils. When the school was removed to Whitesboro' Dr. Butler was chosen professor of its theological depart- ment. At the close of ten years they removed with this department to New Hampton, N. H., thence to Lewiston, Me., and finally to Hillsdale, Mich., where Dr. Butler oc- cupies the leading chair in a like department of Hillsdale College. Their only son is also Professor of Latin in that college.

Mrs. Butler was ever a conscientious Christian worker and reformer, and her influence will long be felt, especially by those of the Free-Will Baptists' clergy who studied with her husband. She had also marked talent as a writer, and her contributions were well received, but her dearest interests centered in her family. Her health gradually failed after removing to Michigan, and she died April 11, 1877.

Dr. Everett's daughter Cynthia taught among the freed- men in Norfolk, Va., and in Charleston, S. C. She was ardent in her love for this work, and especially strove to elevate them spiritually. Her sympathies were enlisted by the sad condition of the inmates of Charleston jail, among whom were many boys confined for vagrancy ; she and another lady teacher, therefore, opened a school where every other Sabbath she went alone to teach them. Afterwards, at her solicitation, the Governor of South Carolina made them a grant of books, and in other ways bettered their condition. Miss Everett was naturally timid, but in labor- ing for Jesus she forgot herself. She found work on every hand ; the people were literally starving for instructiou. Her zeal led her to overtax her strength. She returned to her father's house, but never regained her health. Very patiently she endured a long illness till, Sept. 19, 1876, she, too, went " to join the heavenly host."

Two sons, Henry and Robert, have also passed from earth. They both entered the theological department of Whites- town Seminary, but ill health prevented them from com- pleting the course. Henry died at the age of nineteen, March 6, 1854. Robert was licensed to preach, and did so occasionally, and lectured on temperance and anti-slavery, as his health permitted. He was for a time in the daguer- rian business in Utica, where he had a large circle of friends. He died Nov. 10, 1856.

RICHARD R. ROBERTS

was born in the town of Steuben, Oncida Co., Jan. 2, 1821, being the son of Richard R. and Jane Roberts, both of whom were natives of Wales, where his father cmigrated from, and settled in the town of Steuben in 1818. His parents died and are buried in that town,-his mother in the month of February, 1842, and his father May 31, 1857, at the advanced age of cighty years. He passed his early life at his father's home, and when he became of age bought a farm, but afterwards he became a tanner, which business he followed for twenty years ; and, having amasscd

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HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

a comfortable competency, he now lives a retired life. He was married April 8, 1856, to Mary A., daughter of Owen and Jane Lewis, of Remsen. She is a native of Wales. Their children all died in infancy. He is a member of the Republican party ; and though a member of no particular church, has given liberally of his means for the support of religion. His wife is an active member of the Baptist Church.

RICHARD P. ROBERTS

was born in the town of Steuben, Aug. 9, 1837, being the only child of Robert R. Roberts, who emigrated with his father, Richard R., from Wales to that town, at the age of ten, that being in the year 1818. His father died May 9, 1872, and his mother Jan. 4, 1874. He was married April 28, 1863, to Ann, daughter of Roland and Ann Anthony, who were among the first settlers of Trenton, where their daughter was born, March 13, 1841. The family consists of three children, all being born in the town of Steuben,-Catharine J., Feb. 1, 1864 ; Lizzie Ann, May 6, 1866; and Robert Wallace, Feb. 6, 1869. He is an active member of the Republican party.

JOHN C. OWENS.

This gentleman's father, Owen Owens, came from Wales to this country in 1800, and landed at the city of Phila- delphia, where he remained till he was twenty-four years of age, when he came to the town of Steuben and bought a farm of one hundred and nine acres. He ended his days in that town, leaving two sons to inherit his property,- John C. and Charles. The former was born in Steuben, Feb. 20, 1829, and passed his early life on his father's farm, receiving only.a common-school education. The two brothers have always conducted their business together, and are among the most successful farmers of their town, and have increased the farm left them by their father, acre by acre, until they now own one of the largest farms in the county, containing about a thousand acres. They also own and carry on a large and extensive cheese-factory. John C. was married Jan. 28, 1869, to C. Elizabeth, daughter of Wilbur and Charlotte Shaw, of Trenton. They have no children. Politically he belongs to the Republican party, has held the office of justice of the peace for four years, and is the present supervisor of the town, now serving his second term.

SARAH PORTER.

CHAPTER XLI. TRENTON.

THE town of Trenton lies in the central eastern portion of the county, and is bounded north by Remsen, east by Herkimer County and Decrfield, south by Marcy, and west by Floyd and Steuben. The western portion includes a large share of the Holland Patent, and the eastern the greater part of Servis' Patent. The town comprises an area of 27,292 acres, and the valuation of all property was placed in 1869 at $2,415,351.

The boundary between this town and Herkimer County is formed by the West Canada Creek, in which stream are the far-famed and beautiful " Trenton Falls," a description of which will be found in another place. Among the other streams which water the town are Cincinnatus Creek, also having a number of fine falls and cascades ; Nine-Mile Creek, and the tributaries of each. The surface is generally quite hilly and broken, though in places high and rolling table-lands are found. The various streams have cut deep gorges, and the scenery along most of them is grand and picturesque. Nine-Mile Creek has the broadest valley, and flows through probably the lowest land in the town.

535

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

The Utica and Black River Railway enters the town at Stittville, in the southwest corner, and after passing through the villages of Stittville, Holland Patent, and Trenton, and the station at Prospect, leaves the town on the northwest, passing into Steuben. The village of Prospect is located on West Canada Creek, nearly two miles northeast of the station of the same name. South Trenton is located in the southeast part of town, on Nine-Mile Creek.

The town of Trenton* was organized in 1797, and the first town-meeting was held at the house of Thomas Hicks, in the village of Olden Barneveld, on the 4th day of April in that ycar. The following were the officers chosen, viz. :

Supervisor, Adam G. Mappa ; Town Clerk, John P. Lit- tle; Assessors, Thomas Hicks, Cheney Garrett, David Wil- liams; Commissioners of Highways, Peter Schuyler, David Stafford, William Miller ; Overseers of the Poor, Gerrit Becker, Peter Garrett; Collector, Daniel Bell; Commis- sioners of Schools, Peter Schuyler, John Hicks, David Williams ; Constables, Daniel Bell, Jacob P. Nash, Solomon Gillett ; Fence-Vicwers, Gerrit Boon, William Johnson, Solomon Gillett; Poundmasters, Jacob T. Smits, James Holibert; Overseers of Highways, on road to Fort Schuyler, Francis Adrian Van der Kemp; on road to Steuben, Joseph Brownell ; on road to Canada Creek, David Corp; on road to Fort Stanwix, Abner Matthews; on road to White's Town, Jonathan Graves.

The Supervisors of this town, from 1798 to 1876 inclu- sive, have been as follows, viz. :

1798-1800, John Storrs; 1801, Peter Schuyler; 1802- 10, John Storrs ; 1811, Rowland Briggs; 1812-29, Wil- liam Rollo; 1830-32, Ithia Thompson ; 1833-39, John Storrs ; 1840, Isaac Currey; 1841, Israel F. Morgan ; 1842-45, Henry Rhodes; 1846, Luther Guiteau, Jr. ; 1847, Henry Miller ; 1848-49, Aaron White; 1850-51, John N. Billings; 1852, John Candee; 1853, Reuben W. Fox ; 1854, Elam Perkins; 1855-58, Orville Combs ; 1859-64, Delos A. Crane; 1865-70, Henry Broadwell ; 1871-73, Delos A. Crane; 1874-76, J. Robert Moore. The officers for 1877 were :

Supervisor, Jacob J. Davis; Town Clerk, Albert S. Skiff; Justices of the Peace, Thomas Thomas, Frank Douglas ; Commissioner of Highways, Alexander Pirnie ; Overseers of the Poor, Daniel French, Herbert A. Pride ; Assessors, Henry Rhodes, William L. Fowler, Jesse A. Hughes ; Collector, Hugh X. Jones ; Town Auditors, Wil- liam W. Wheeler, J. E. Chassel, Sylvester B. Atwood ; Constables, Norman Wheeler, Dean W. Rockwell, Adam G. Griffiths, Edwin Joncs ; Game Constable, Thomas Maurice ; Inspectors of Election, District No. 1, H. L. Garrett, P. M. Whittaker, Frank Conway ; District No. 2, S. E. Barton, Charles A. Brown, J. J. Loragan ; District No. 3, Daniel French, E. G. Griffiths, H. S. Carpenter ; District No. 4, John T. Jones, George H. Worden, M. G. Slocum ; Excise Commissioner, Robert Billsborrow.

EARLY SETTLEMENTS.

July 4, 1876, at the village of Trenton, a centennial address upon the carly history of the town was delivered

by John F. Seymour, Esq., of Utica. As he took great pains in preparing the sketch, and has so much of import- ance incorporated in it, we take the liberty of presenting it entire, as follows :

" The association of my parents with the Mappas, the Vander- kerups, the Billings', the Douglases, the Guiteaus, Shermans, and others, early settlers at Trenton, together with my own acquaintance with so many of your eitizens, mnade doubly attractive your invita- tion to unite with you in the observance of this centennial.

" The suggestion of the President of the United States that on this day reference be made to the early history of each locality is in ae- eordance with the thoughts of every one, and in no place do such thoughts come more spontaneously than in this town, noted for the culture and refinement of its settlers.

" To appreciate the difficulties and dangers encountered by the first settlers, it must be remembered that in their day not only was this country covered with a dense forest, but also that it was peopled by the most warlike of the Indian tribes. Bryant, in his history of the United States, says that in 1645, when a general peace was concluded with the hostile tribes, although sixteen hundred of the savages had been killed, there was not a single Dutch settlement, except that at Rensselaerwyck and the military post on South River, that had not been attacked aud generally destroyed ; and that, besides a few traders, there were left upon Manhattan Island scarcely a hundred people, and throughout the whole province not more than three hundred men capa- ble of bearing arms could have been mustered.

" In 1663 all that part of the State west of Schenectady was called Terra Incognita ; and although nominally governed by the Duteh, was really under the dominion and terror of the Indian.

" In 1755, almost a century later, an official map had printed in large capitals over this part of the country the word Iroquois, the name of the six nations of Indians.

"In 1758 a fort named Schuyler, after Peter Schuyler, was built where Utiea now stands, to protect a fording-place of the Mohawk River, not far from where the bridge at the foot of Genesee Street is now located; and according to an article on Utica in the Edinburgh En- cyclopedia, written by the late James Watson Williams, this fort was the ' scene of several skirmishes between the Indians and the whites ; the flats of the Mohawk and the country adjoining being the posses- sion of the Mohawk tribe, who were acknowledged by the other tribes of the Maquas or Iroquois to be the true old heads of the Confederacy. This tribe having remained faithful to the British throughout the Rev- olution, finally forsook their town at Fort Hunter, and removed to the province of Upper Canada, in 1780, under the auspices of Sir John Johnson.'

" Until 1784, according to the interesting Annals of Oneida County, by Pomroy Jones, there was no white man's dwelling-house between Fort Stanwix and Fort Schuyler, and in that year Hugh White eame from Middletown, Conn., and built the first house erected at Whites- boro', and on his way up the Mohawk River he found some unoccu- pied farms, and, not far east of the sito of Utica, the blackened remains of burned dwelling-houses and barns told the story of the savage work of tho Indians and Tories during the Revolution. It must be remembered that the war of the Revolution, the deadly hos- tility between the Patriots and Tories, and the raids of Indians put a stop to the improvements of the Dutch in the valley of the Mo- hawk, so that west of Schenectady, with the exception of a few places, it was almost an unbroken wilderness.

" Even the western boundaries of this Stato were undefined, and Massachusetts claimed land at the west end of our State, and the claim was finally settled by allowing her land, but only as so mueh laud within the boundaries, and under tho jurisdiction of the State of New York.

" Within the lifetime of men now living thero was no Oneida County, no Trenton, and no roads iu all this part of the country, except the pathways of the Indians through the silent forest.

" In 1792, Judge Vander Kemp states that in his journey on horse- back he found two hundred Oneida Indians at Whitestown, and on his arrival at Oneida Lake found Chief-Justice Lansiug, of the Su- preme Court, and tho Attorney-General of the State eamping out on their way to court.

" The best illustrations of the dependenee of our early settlers upon the good-will of the Indians, not only for comfort in life, but also for

# Formerly a part of the town of Schuyler, Herkimer Co.

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HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

life itself, are to be found in two lectures delivered by William Tracy in 1838, in which he narrates two incidents, from one of which it appears that as late as hetween 1785 and 1790 Hugh White did not dare to deny to a dreaded Indian chief a request to take his little grandchild out of its mother's arms to his wigwam, four miles distant, to keep over night, as a proof that White trusted him.

" The other narrative is still more extraordinary, showing that as late as 1788 eighteen chiefs, of the Oneida tribe of Indians, met in solemn council, and coolly deliberated whether or no they should put to death Amos Dean, a missionary of much note, an adopted son of the wife of their head chief, as an atonement for the murder of one of their tribe, of which murder it was not pretended Mr. Dean had any knowledge whatever, but only that he was of such distinction that he would make a good sacrifice.

" And this same council condemned him to death without deigning to ask leave of the white men of the State of New York, or of the United States, or of any of their officers, and actually proceeded to his house in a hody in the dead of the night, and met him and argued with him the propriety of their course, and, without a suspicion that they were amenahle to the laws of this State, were proceeding to ex- ecute their sentence of death, and would have done it if the wives of three of the chiefs of the council had not suddenly appeared and saved his life in a manner which equaled, if it did not surpass, the bravery of Pocahontas.

"In 1786 there were only two dwelling-houses near Fort Schuyler, now Utica, and three in Deerfield.

" Trenton, therefore, was not far behind when her first settler arrived in 1793. Gerrit Boon, of Holland, marking forest-trees for the line of a future road, as he came over from Fort Schuyler, pitching his tent here in this sheltered valley where two creeks come together, he determined that this should be the seat of a future village, and he called you Olden Barneveld, not only as significant of the love of re- ligious liherty, which sought a place of refuge from the tyranny and bigotry of the old world, hut also as a monument to the memory of John of the Olden Barneveld, a nohle family of Gerland, of whom Motley speaks as the foremost statesman of the Netherlands, 'who had the hardihood, although a determined Protestant himself, to claim for the Roman Catholics the right to exercise their religion in the Free States on equal terms with those of the Reformed faith.'

" A lincal descendant of this patriot and martyr now resides at Utica, -Mrs. James Madison Weed, the adopted daughter of the late Rudolph Snyder, and an esteemed friend of your deceased Sophia Mappa.

" The name of Olden Barneveld comes hack to me as I recollect its inscription on the letters which my youthful hands so often carried to the mysterious post-office. It has been suggested that if the name had been shortened to Barneveld it might yet have heen retained hy a people too young and too much in a hurry to think or say Olden.

" It is to he regretted that the historic designations of Fort Schuyler and Fort Stanwix and Barneveld should have been changed for those of Utica, Rome, and Trenton, which only dim history. It is lament- able that Indian and descriptive names of localities and streams have heen thrown aside and misplaced Latin and Greek names substituted in their stead.

" It was not poverty or mere adventure which hrought Gerrit Boon through the wilderness to this place in 1793, but a great trust, which to-day astonishes us hy its maguitude. He was the agent of the Holland Land Company, which at one time owned over five millions of acres of land in this country.

" This is not the time or place to speak of Herman Le Roy, William Bayard, James McEver, Paul Busti, Colonel Lincklaen, General Led- yard, David Evans, Joseph Ellicott, and others, trustees and agents of that great company. I must limit myself here to say that the title to all the twenty-three thousand acres in Servis' Patent, under which many of you hold your farms and homesteads, was at one time vested in Gerrit Boon as trustee.

"As that patent is in your own town it will interest you to know that it was granted in 1768 by Sir Henry Moore, then Governor of the colony, to Peter Servis and twenty-four other tenants, really for Sir William Johnson. Jones states after the grant Sir William made a great feast, roasting an ox whole, and to this feast he invited Peter Servis and his twenty-four colleagues, and during the feast they con- veyed the land to him. It descended to his son, Sir John Johnson, who conveyed it to some parties in New York City, who, between 1790 and 1800, conveyed this and other tracts of land to Gerrit Boon in trust for the Holland Land Company.

" Although there is no record of this conveyance from Servis to Sir William, bis title has never been disputed save once, and then by Servis himself, who, after the Revolution hearing that Sir John had huried his title-deeds during the war to prevent their destruction, and that they had thus hecome illegihle, hrought an action of ejectment against Boon, hut the court allowed verhal evidence to be given of his conveyance to Sir William, and Servis was defeated. The witness to prove the conveyance from Servis and others to Sir William was an old negro, who was employed to fiddle for the guests at the feast.

" Boon, after residing a few years in this country and discharging his trust to the Holland Land Company with fidelity, returned to Hol- land and died there. He was a man of ahility as well as integrity. He erected a frame dwelling-house upon the lot where we are now as- semhled. That house was subsequently moved, by the Rev. Mr. Sher- man, across the road, where it was enlarged and where it now stands, -the pleasant and hospitahle residence of Mrs. Douglas. Mr. Boon, like many others from the old country, was compelled to undertakings in which he had no experience, and some of which would not work, like his stone grist-mill, the picturesque ruins of which are on the hanks of the Cincinnati Creek, just ahove the railroad embankment. He could not make the dam stand, and so that mill was abandoned for another farther up stream, which I shall mention hereafter.

"Dr. Guiteau is my authority for stating that Mr. Boon was the veritahle Dutchman who was so delighted when he first saw the manu- facture of maple-sugar from the sap of your maple-trees that he pro- posed to continue this husiness all the year round; and he actually caused to be made a large number of grooved slats in which he pro- posed to conduct the sap from the hill-sides into a reservoir in this valley. These slats were afterwards used more profitahly for the sides of a large corn-house, and the frame of that corn-house is to-day doing service as a part of one of your dwelling-houses.

" Colonel Adam G. Mappa and his family followed Boon from Hol- land to this country, and Mr. Mappa hecame Mr. Boon's successor as agent of the company at this place, and after a year or so Francis Adrian Vanderkemp, of Holland, and his family came here to reside. These two men were inseparahle in their lives and fortunes. Colonel Mappa was an accomplished gentleman, less learned hut more practi- cal than Mr. Vanderkemp, and the latter in his autobiography speaks of him as an officer of acknowledged skill in the Old World, and during the short-lived hut disastrous revolution in Holland of 1786, in which hoth were engaged, Colonel Mappa was placed in charge of the army. Their cause seems to have heen just, and on the side of humanity and liherty, hut they were defeated through the treachery of the Dutch government. Colonel Mappa and his family escaped to this country. Mr. Vanderkemp was imprisoned, and only released hy a ransom of $35,000 paid hy his friend De Nys, and in 1788 he and his family came to this country, first settling at Esopus,# on the Hudson River, then on an island in Oneida Lake, and then here. His son, John J. Vander- kemp, was first clerk in the office of the Holland Land Company at this place, under Colonel Mappa, then chief clerk and finally general agent of the immense husiness of that company, having his head- quarters at Philadelphia. Judge Vanderkemp hecame acquainted with John Adams (afterwards President) in 1780, while he was in Holland trying to negotiate a loan for our own country, in which he was seconded by Baron Van der Cappellan and by Mr. Vanderkemp.

"There is now in the historical library at Buffalo a very interesting autobiography of Judge Vanderkemp, placed there with valuahle let- ters hy his granddaughter, Mrs. Ilenry, of Germantown, near Phila- delphia. In this hiography he states that early in life, hefore completing his studies, he became a deist, but was brought into trouble with clergymen by the holdness with which he asserted his views, and was unable to pursue his studies for want of money, and then it occurred to him (to use his own language) 'that the Bap- tists at Amsterdam were reputed to he of extensive liheral principles. . . . I resolved then to open my mind to Professor Osterhaen, ask him for support to promote my studies at Amsterdam, in their semi- nary, if I could he admitted without compromising myself in any manner, without constraint to any religious opinions I might foster or adopt in future, and with a full assurance that I should he decently supported, all of which was generously accepted, and Osterhaen actu- ally acted and proved himself to me a friend and benefactor, a guide and father.' These facts relating to the liberality of the Baptists of Amsterdam, and this tribute to the wise generosity of Professor Os-

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History of Oneida County, New York, 1667-1878, Part 143

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

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