USA > New York > Oneida County > History of Oneida County, New York, 1667-1878 > Part 169
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THIE WHITESTOWN BANK
was for many years one of the main institutions of the vil- lage and eounty, and possessed a capital of $150,000. Its first president was S. Newton Dexter, and the second Judge Bruee, of Canastota. The failure of the bank occurred about 1862-63, at which time Israel J. Gray was eashier. The old bank building is now used as a " grocery."
WHITESTOWN SEMINARY.
This celebrated temple of education is located in the lower part of the village, in the midst of beautiful grounds, and is pointed to with just pride by citizens both of the village and county. A fall history and deseription of it will be found in the educational chapter of this work.
MANUFACTURES.
The waters of Sauquoit Creek have from an early period in the settlement of Oneida County been made to drive the machinery of various manufacturing establishments, and the Erie Canal has also been utilized for like purposes. Promi- nent among the industrial establishments of the village is
B. T. Babbitt's Whitesboro' Iron- Works, which were es- tablished by B. T. Babbitt in October, 1871. The build- ings now in use were ereeted immediately, with the exeep- tion of the large briek structure used as a machine-room and foundry. The articles manufactured are various kinds of machinery, steam-generators, pumps, tanks, eastings, ete. One hundred men is the average number employed. The works are under the superintendenee of Mr. Babbitt, who spends a portion of his time here.
Saw and Planing Mill .- This establishment was put in operation by Messrs. Williams & Co., the present proprie- tors, in 1869. From one to two million feet of hemloek lumber are manufactured annually, besides a large quan- tity of sash, doors, blinds, awnings, and general building material. An average of about fifty men is employed. The " Wagner Spring Bed" and the " Centennial Mattress" are also manufactured.
Furniture- Manufactory .- Messrs. Sutton & Quigley es- tablished this business within a recent period. The present firm is W. B. Quigley & Co. Ash and black walnut are principally used. Twenty to twenty-five men are employed,
# We do not find his name among the assistant justices of 1798. There was then no County Court proper; the court answering to it was that of Common Pleas. The County Courts were created by the Constitution of 1846.
+ These military titles are certainly very unusual in a Fire Depart- ment, but, as there is no accounting for tastes, they may have been bestowed.
į Incorporated in 1839, with a capital of $100,000.
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HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
and the shop has a capacity for manufacturing from $30,000 to $40,000 worth of furniture annually.
The ice business is quite extensively engaged in, and Messrs. Minot & Davis have in the past winter (1877-78) built a large iee-house on the bank of the eanal, opposite the furniture-mannfactory. The iee is ent from the eanal, which is here much eleaner than in other seetions,
Among the tanneries which have at different times been earried on here is the present one owned by William Bene- diet, in the upper part of the village, near the eanal. It was established by Mr. Benediet in 1850, and the value of manufactures has reached, including currying, $25,000 an- nually. At present business is light. Four hands are employed.
Reed- Manufactory .- Established by James Brierley in the spring of 1858. " Weavers' reeds" are manufactured for use in cloth-factories. Messrs. Brierley & Son at present carry on the business, occasionally employing an additional hand.
Tub, Puil, and Churn Factory .- Established in 1824 by Messrs. Watkins & Griswold, and a building erected in the upper part of the village. In 1840, Ellis & Co. be- eame proprietors, and in 1844 the factory was burned. The present. building, in the lower part of the village, was after- wards erected, and the business carried on by Messrs. Wat- son, Ellis & Co. until 1873, sinee which time it has been managed by Ellis & Co., the present proprietors. The pails, said to be the best made in the State, are manu- factured from pine, as are also the tubs, while the churns are made of white oak. From twelve to fifteen hands are usually employed, and $15,000 to $20,000 worth of goods are produced annually.
Whitesboro' contained in January, 1878, beside what have already been deseribed, two hotels, a wagon-shop, four blacksmith-shops, a harness-shop, seven stores, a frame dis- trict school-house, four churches, with perhaps a few other shops, ete., not enumerated.
YORKVILLE.
East of the Sanqnoit Creek, and adjoining the village of Whitesboro', is Yorkville, containing two hotels, a store, a blacksmith-shop; a shoe-shop, a carriage-shop, and a pork- packing establishment. The village extends south to the eanal, and, although really only a continuation of the vil- lages of Whitesboro' and New York Mills, is honored by a title of its own. The grist-mill previously mentioned, known as " Wetmore's Mill," stood in the western part of the village, a few rods south of the main road leading to Rome.
Oliver and Sylvanus Gardner engaged in the pork-paek- ing business at this place in 1865, and the work is still continued by the former. From 1700 to 2500 hogs are paeked annually, the meat being mostly disposed of in the eentral and northern portions of the State. From eight to fifteen hands are employed.
S. Hoxie, agent for the celebrated " Unadilla Valley Stoek Farm," located in Oswego County, resides here. The improved Duteh and Holstein eattle are raised, and have gained an excellent reputation in this country .*
VILLAGE OF NEW YORK MILLS.
The settlement of the strip of land on the east side of Sauquoit Creek, including the sites of Yorkville and New York Mills, is previously mentioned. The village of New York Mills is in three settlements, or divisions, of which the " upper village" is in the town of New Hartford, and the middle and lower in Whitestown. The post-office is located at the middle village, and was established subse- quent to 1831, with Seth Maltbie as first postmaster. The mail was for a long time, previous to the establishment of the office, brought by stage from Whitesboro'. The present ineumbent of the office is E. M. Stiles.
The village of New York Mills is widely known from its being the place where are located the extensive mills of the New York Mills Cotton Manufacturing Company. A short historieal sketch of this institution has been kindly fur- nished by Leander S. Wood, of the lower village, and is here subjoined :
"ONEIDA MANUFACTURING SOCIETY .- In the winter of 1807-8 a joint-stock company was formed in Whitestown, of which IIon. Thos. R. Gold, Hon. Theodore Sill, General George Doolittle, and Jesse W. Doolittle were prominent members. This company was incorporated by the Legislature, under the name of the 'Oneida Manufacturing Society,' with a nominal capital of $200,000, and chartered with bank- ing privileges. Mr. Walcott, of Rhode Island, as their representative, in 1808 erected a three-and-one-half- story brick building, known as the 'Oneida Factory.' It was built on the Sadaqueda Creek, now most commonly called Sauquoit, about one mile from its confluence with the Mohawk River. In 1809, Mr. Benjamin S. Walcott, as agent of the company, procured the requisite machinery and began to card and spin cotton, making mostly coarse yarn, which was put out to families to weave. Two or three years' experience convinced Mr. Walcott that to secure an even and uniformly good quality of cloth he must secure the services of a skilled weaver, who would open a shop and personally superintend the preparing of the yarn and the weaving. Mr. J. W. Doolittle, of Utica, agent for getting the weaving done, secured the services of Ezra Wood, then recently from Rhodo Island, to come to Utica and open such a shop. This was done in 1812, and there he continued to run six looms till March, 1818, when Mr. Walcott, having had some power-looms built at the factory, en- gaged Mr. Wood to remove to the factory and run them. In a very short timo they were successfully running, these being the first power-looms in the United States west of the Hudson River. The number of looms was increased till the mill was filled.
" March 13, 1828, the factory was burned, and in two months the same company began building a new one of stone, of larger dimen- sions, on the same site. The next year it was in successful operation.
"Some three years after the weaving was commenced, Mr. B. S. Wal- cott relinquished the agency of the Oneida Company to his brother, Mr. William Walcott, and in 1825 he, in company with Messrs. Ben- jamin and Joseph Marshall, built the ' New York Mills,'about a half- mile above, on the same stream.
" The 'Oneida Manufacturing Society' continued business, under the management of Mr. William Walcott, enlarging from time to time, till 1851, when they sold out to the ' New York Mills Company, then as now under the control of Walcott & Campbell. Since that time the ' Oneida Factory' has been known as ' New York Mills No. 1.'"
The building erected in 1825 is a stone structure, and is generally known as the " old mill." The stone wing in the rear was built in 1828, and the north portion of the build- ing (brick) was erceted in 1852, under the direction of Samuel Campbell. Soon after this Mr. Marshall retired from the firm, and Mr. Walcott's son, W. D. Walcott, and Mr. Campbell became partners with Mr. Waleott, Sr., whose death, in 1862, left the firm as at present, consisting of Messrs. W. D. Waleott and Samuel Campbell.
In 1842 the stone mill at New Hartford (now the
# See County Societies, Chapter XIX.
624
HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
" Upper Mill" of the company) was built by the same par- ties who crected the Middle Mill in 1825. A new mill was built at New Hartford about 1868. The bleachcry at the Lower Mill (or No. 1) was built between 1855 and 1859, and began work in 1860. The use of steam has become a necessity at all the mills except during high water. The average volume of water has greatly dimin- ished in the creck from what it was formerly, owing prin- cipally to the destruction of the timber in the country which it drains.
The total number of operatives employed in all the Mills is about one thousand ; the cloths manufactured by this company are among the best in the United States, and as such have become justly celebrated. Hon. Samuel Camp- bell, one of the firm, became noted some years since as the owner of the best selling herd of short-horn cattle ever dis- posed of in this country, ten head bringing the enormous price of $280,000.
The middle and lower settlements at New York Mills together contained in January, 1878, seven stores of various kinds, one blacksmith-shop, a tailor-shop, two district school buildings, three churches, two physicians. A stage-line plies between here and Utica, which also carries a mail.
VILLAGE OF ORISKANY.
From Judge Jones' " Annals of Oneida County" the following extract is taken regarding the Indians who form- erly resided on the site of the present village of Oriskany :
" It has been incidentally mentioned that a branch of the Oneida tribe of Indians resided at Oriskany. When Judge White settled in Whitestown they oceupied six lodges or wigwams. Colouel Han Yerry resided in a log cabin, which stood just back of the house formerly occupied by Mr. Charles Green, on the casterly side of the Oriskany Creek. The other five eabins stood on the westerly side of the ereek. Colonel Han Yerry had two sons, Cornelius and Jacob, and one daughter, Dolly, who married one of the Denny family at Oneida. Hendriek Smith, who afterwards lived in the south part of Vernon, at the Indian orehard, was the head of one of the families on the west side of the ereek. . . . Colonel Han Yerry, . . . in the Revolution espoused the eause of the king. A few months after the arrival of Judge White at Whitesboro', his son, Philo, called at the colonel's house at Oriskany, but found that the family were all absent exeept the colonel's wife. After talking awhile upon various subjeets, the woman proceeded to remove the bunk and bedding from one eorner of the room, and then taking up a portion of the floor brought to light a ten-gallon keg, which she soon unheaded. This keg was filled with silver plate, which she carefully took out, piece by piece, and exhibited to her guest. Some of the artieles were very valuable, and among them was a heavy and highly ornamented silver tankard. After thus showing the ware it was earefully returned to its hiding- place. In looking about the room Philo eounted eight brass and copper kettles, of various sizes, and ahout the premises were many kinds of farming utensils. As Mr. White was subsequently passing down the Mohawk, he ealled at the publie-house kept by the widow of General Herkimer, and in conversation with the widow he mentioned the keg of silver plate, and particularly the massive tankard, deserihing many of its ornaments. From this deseription the widow at onee recognized it as one which had been pillaged from her house during the war. It is probable that the plate, kettles, and agricultural implements were plundered from the suffering inhabitants of the valley of the Mohawk. " The precise year in which the Indian settlement at Oriskany was broken up, or whether they all left at the same time, has not been aseertained, but it is eertain that they all left previously to 1793."
Among the celebrities who for a short period resided at Oriskany was Ephraim Webster, for many years distin- guished as a member of the Onondaga Indian nation, and Indian agent and interpreter.
" He was born in 1752, at Hampstead, N. H. In 1773, with his raft, he removed to the hanks of the Hudson, in this State, and in 1778 he enlisted in the army of the United States, and served to the close of the Revolutionary contest. Returning to his home, he found that the quiet pursuits of agriculture were incompatible with his roving dis- position and love of adventure. Furnished with a small stoek of goods. he left home for the purpose of trading with the Oncidas, with whom he had had some acquaintance during the war. This was probably in 1784, as he was present at the treaty of Fort Stanwix of this year. After surmounting many difficulties in ascending the Mohawk, his partner having beeome discouraged and returned home, Webster located himself at Oriskany, where he established a trading- house. Here he remained two years, doing a successful business and mastering the Indian language. In the spring of 1786 he accepted an invitation from the Onondagas to remove his goods and business to Onondaga. . . . Ile was adopted into the Onondaga tribe, married an Indian woman, by whom he had several children, and received 640 aeres of land, the title to which was confirmed to him hy the State. During the Indian war of 1788-94 he was employed, on account of his knowledge of Indian language and customs, to gain intelligence in the country of the Miamis. In 1812, with the commission of captain in the militia, he proceeded to the Niagara frontier with about 300 Onondaga warriors under their chief, La Fort, who was elected also head war-chief of the Six Nations, and who fell at Chippewa. Webster acted as interpreter between General Brown and the Indians, and La Fort died in his arms.
" Webster died at Tusearora in 1825, and was buried at Onondaga. For many years he conformed to the habits and dress of the Indians to sueh a degree that it was difficult to distinguish him from a native. Upon one oceasion, before the British had surrendered Oswego under Jay's treaty, he was suspected by an officer at that place of being a white man and spy ; hut sueh self-possession and self-command had he acquired, that although plied with liquor and many deviees re- sorted to to throw him off his guard, he was discharged as a real Indian. After the death of his Indian wife he married a white woman of a very respectable family."*
The village of Oriskany owes its origin to the enterpris- ing pioneer and manufacturer, Colonel Gerrit; G. Lansing, who came here from Albany in 1802. He served with distinction in the American army during the Revolution. The following notice of him is in Dr. Bagg's " Pioneers of Utica," published in 1877 :
" Born at Albany, Dec. II, 1760, Colonel Lansing entered the army, at the beginning of the war, and served until its elose; was present at several important battles, and at Yorktown, under Colonel Hamilton, he led the forlorn hope as lieutenant. In 1802 this gallant soldier and true gentleman of the old school settled at Oriskany, and lived there on his pension and his patrimony until his death, on the 27th of May, 1831 .¿ Both in the army and after his removal to Oneida County, Colonel Lansing was distinguished for his high integrity and his patriotism, as well as for his ability and his enterprise. His wife was a daughter of Colonel Edward Antill, an Englishman by birth, but an officer of the Revolutionary army high in the confidenee of General Washington. After her husband's death, she lived in Utiea until her own death, on the 24th of August, 1834. She possessed in an eminent degree the qualities that adorn true womanhood."
Colonel Lansing purchased four hundred acres of land at Oriskany, extending back (southwest) from the Mohawk River, and on the northwest side of Oriskany Creek. About 1810 he erected a grist-mill on the site of the pres- ent one, and also a saw-mill. The property afterwards passed into the hands of John R. and Garrett Bleecker, of Albany, who removed the old mill and built the present stone structure about 1832. The iron-work was put in
# See Jones' Anuals.
+ This orthography is from county records ; spelled also Gerrett and Garrett.
į The notice of Colonel Lansing's death, published at the time, gives the date as the 29th, instead of the 27th.
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HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
this mill by B. E. Williams, still a resident of the village. James A. Reynolds was agent for the Bleeckers at the time, and his brother built the mill. It has sinee been several times enlarged and repaired.
A Mr. John Green was among the early settlers of Oriskany, and purchased about four hundred aeres of land on the southeast side of the ereek. He was a farmer, and the father of several sons, all well and favorably known in the community .*
William M. Cheever, also one of the earlier comers, owned a large farm just above the village.
A long-remembered event in the history of the village was the visit to it, June 10, 1825, of the Marquis de La- fayette, who on that day visited his companion in arms of the Revolution,-Colonel Lansing. Many are yet living who reeolleet the occasion, and speak of the delight and honor felt by all at seeing the noble Frenehman who had aided the colonies in their struggle for independence. The general was accompanied by a numerous escort, and was himself much gratified at meeting, after a lapse of nearly half a century, the comrades of eamnp and field whom he had commanded .*
During this same year (1825) the Erie Canal was com- pleted. On its enlargement at Oriskany, in 1849, a large quantity of human bones and various ornaments were un- earthed, of which the following, published in the Oneida Morning Herald, is a description :
"ORISKANY, October 27, 1849.
" MESSRS. EDITORS,-In excavating for the enlarged eanal we have discovered some ten or more skeletons of tbe aborigines,t and with tbem not a few ornaments and medals. The remains are very much deeayed, and exbibit evidence of having been interred a very long time. The bodies appear to have been placed in troughs, prepared in the Indian modes of forming eanoes; that is, by burning a log to a flat surface, and then keeping the fire in the centre. Faint traces of wood at the sides of the skeletons, and also eoals, seem to warrant the correctness of my suggestion. I have assisted in removing a number of them, and found, in two instances, three or four bodies placed together, and the limbs radiating from a centre. We found tbree,-a man, woman, and child,-the head of the woman lying between the man's arm and side, near the shoulder, and tho child's head apparently on her bosom; the man with a portion of the eon- tents of his medieine-bag, consisting of the bones of a bird or animal, uniforinly of a bright-green color, well polished, and wound with bark or skin to protect the Indian beauty and semi-transpareney ; the woman's ornaments consisting of beads about the size of peas, and variously colored, some of them still retaining the sinew on which they were strung. Together with these I found a rosary of beads, apparently of ebony, about half an inch in diameter, tbougb so frail as to fall into dust on the slightest pressure. These were strung on a brass chain, some of the links still being in the beads. Among these, and probably attached to the rosary, was a medal of the reign of George the First, 1731. Several medals have been found with dates 1731 to '36, and one with, I think, a Spanish inscription. I have one handsome medallion head of George, the King of England, on one side; on the otber an Indian shooting a buek with a bow and arrow from behind a tree. There is no date on it. It is about the size of a dollar. The ear and nose ornaments are made of the celebrated red pipe-stone. Some pipes bave been found,-one splendid one, speaking Indiamicine,
# See history of. Utiea.
t Aborigines, original inbabitants of a country. It is not at all probable, therefore, that these were "aborigines." The finding of the medal dated 1731, and the fact of the remains being so well pre- served in the soil, to say nothing of the " medicine-bag," ete., would show that they were Indians, and of a much later race than the people who originally occupied this region.
and no small potatoes anyicise. I think it equal to any in Mr. Cat- lin's gallery. The remains of one Indian have been found in this vicinity with portions of a blanket, which, together with the hair, secmed quite sound, though the skeleton was a good deal decomposed, yet not appearing as old as those I have been describing. I bave spun the yarn long enough.
" KROGAN REX."
In the year 1811, the aspect of affairs with Great Britain having become serious, a number of prominent and philanthropie gentlemen, urged by patriotic motives, were induced to start the enterprise of manufacturing woolen goods, and thereby " render their country inde- pendent of England for a supply of clothing." Among the gentlemen who embarked in this enterprise were Seth Capron, Jonas Platt, Thomas R. Gold, Newton Mann, Theodore Sill, Nathan Williams, William G. Tracy, De Witt Clinton, Ambrose Spencer, John Taylor, and Stephen Van Rensselaer. The "Oriskany Manufacturing Company" was incorporated in 1811. Buildings were erected at the village of Oriskany, near the subsequent location of the Erie Canal. Gerrit G. Lansing was. long the president of this company. "The satinetts made by this company sold readily at $4 per yard, and their broad- cloths from $10 to $12 per yard ; but, to counterbalance these prices, for the first four years after they eommeneed operations they paid an average of $1.12 per pound for their wool."} The machinery used consisted of eight sets of eards, with a proportionate number of spindles and looms. Over 100 hands were employed, and the manu- factures amounted to more than 100,000 yards annually of 6-4 goods,-broadeloths and tweeds. After various re- verses and sueeesses, the company finally elosed business about 1856-57, after which the buildings were purchased by A. B. Buell, of Utiea, and transformed into a furnace. He afterwards inserted machinery for manufacturing eotton goods. The cotton-factory became the property of Thomas Wood, and now belongs to his son-in-law, Dr. Clark. Woolen machinery has been replaced in it, but the factory is only occasionally in operation.
A tobacco-factory was built by the Oneida Manufacturing Company about 1833, but has long been out of use. It oeeupies a portion of the same ground with the main build- ings of the company.
The furnace established by Mr. Buell is still in operation, manufacturing malleable iron, and composition and brass castings. It does a considerable business.
A frame school-house was built in the settlement as early as 1812 to 1815, having an old-fashioned four-sided roof. A man named Sumner was an early teacher, and David Wood taught in this building in 1816.
A post-office was established previous to 1821, with Colonel G. G. Lansing as first postmaster. The present postmaster is Luther G. Williams.
The village contained in February, 1878, three stores, a grist-mill, two blacksmith-shops, a foundry, a wagon-shop, three hotels, three churches, a district school building, a post-office, two tin-shops, a broom-factory, and a population estimated at from 500 to 600.
+ Jones.
79
626
HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
PLEASANT VALLEY.
This name was given to a former small manufacturing settlement, a mile above Oriskany, on the Oriskany Creek. It was the site of the large factory of the " Dexter Manu- facturing Company," which commenced operations in 1832. The main buildings were of brick and stone, and the fac- tory was 200 feet in length, containing seven sets of cards, with the requisite number of spindles and looms. Very fine long shawls, broadcloths, and tweeds were manufac- tured, and over one hundred hands employed. The factory was burned within the past year or two, and the onee busy settlement now wears much the aspect of Goldsmith's " De- scrted Village." The location in the beautiful valley of the Oriskany gave rise to the most appropriate title, " Pleasant Valley," Nature here, seemingly, having outdone herself in arranging combinations of her rarest beauties.
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