History of Oneida County, New York, 1667-1878, Part 74

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 74

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The year 1804 saw many substantial additions to the population of Utica,-professional men, mechanics, and merchants. Among them were David Wells Childs, from Pittsfield, Mass., who because a prominent attorney, but died comparatively young, of consumption ; Abraham Var- ick, Jr., who was for many years agent for the Holland Land Company, and a busy speculator and dealer in real estate, in manufactures, and conspicuous in various enter- prises at Clinton, Yorkville, Ithaca, Oswego, etc. IIe died in New York City, whither he had removed in 1842.

Dr. David Hasbrouck, a native of Shawangunk, Ulster Co., N. Y., studied medicine with Dr. James G. Graham, and formed a partnership with Dr. Alexander Coventry, of

280

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

Utica. He was the first secretary of the Oneida County Medical Society. In 1815 le removed to Kingston, Ulster Co. He died in Schenectady, in October, 1823, at the age of forty-five.

Dr. Christian Stockman, from Germany, established here the drug business, which he continued until about 1820, when he bethought himself that he could make money faster and easier by taking a party of Indians to Europe for ex- hibition. He accordingly tried the experiment, but made a miserable failure, and on his return voyage, chagrincd and disappointed, ended his life by plunging into the sea.

Abijah, Anson, and B. W. Thomas, merchants and me- chanics ; Hugh Cunningham, a merry Irishman, merchant, builder, and distiller ; Isaac Coe, a merchant; Judah Wil- liams, father and son ; Walton, Turner & Co., forwarding and commission merchants; Enos Brown; Augustus Hickox, and others, were also settlers of 1804.

In 1805 a new charter for the village was obtained, more comprehensive in its provisions and covering a larger terri- tory, including the whole of lots 98 and 99.

The necessity for a change in the existing order of things had been felt for some time, and the matter assumed tan- gible shape in the following petition to the Legislature, which was presented on the 12th of February, 1805 :

" To the Honorable the Legislature of the State of New York, in Senate and Assembly convened :

"The petition of the freeholders and inhabitants of the village of Utica, in the County of Oneida, humbly showeth :

"That the rapid increase of buildings, business, and population, seems to demand a police better regulated and more enlarged than at present the said village enjoys, particularly with respect to fires and the prevention of public nuisances; That your petitioners have already, in many instances, experienced a want of power in the in- habitants of said village, and the Trustees clected by virtue of the law under which the affairs of said village are now regulated ; That a greater number of firemen are requisite than is at present allowed ; That the population of the village is very rapidly increasing toward the west aud south, so that the bounds of the same as now settled in these directions are too much limited ; That a great portion of the in- habitants of said village are in the habit of consuming bakers' bread, and there being no assize of bread, the poor, as. well as others are obliged to pay for that necessary article a greater price than is paid in New York and Albany ; That it is found impossible in many cases to carry into effect the laws respecting swine, etc., running. at large in the streets, having no power to distrain and impound, and the owner being frequently unknown.

" For these and other reasons, your petitioners therefore pray that your honorable body will grant to the freeholders, inhabitants, and trustees of said village powers similar to those enjoyed by the vil- lage of Poughkeepsie, in order that the above and many other exist- ing evils may be avoided. That the bounds of said village may be extended, and that the annual meetings of the inhabitants of said vil- lage may be hereafter on the first Tuesday in April in cach year. Signed as follows :

" B. Walker, Erastus Clark, Ira Dickenson, N. Williams, Elkanah Hobby, Aylmer Johnson, Moses Bagg, Jr., Thomas Skinner, Wm. Webster, John C. Hoyt, Daniel Thomas, Samuel Webster, B. Brooks, S. P. Goodrich, Thaddeus Stoddard, Gurdon Burchard, Talcott Camp, Caleb Hazen, D. Turner, Wm. Fellows, Augustus Hickox, E. B. Shearman, M. Hitchcock, Samuel Ward, Philip J. Schwartze, David Hasbrouck, Benajah Merrell, Joseph Ballou, Frederick White, Abraham Williams, Elisha Capron, David W. Childs, John Adams, James Brown, Watts Sherman, Ab'm Varick, Jr., Thomas Ballou, James Dana, N. Butler, Joseph Ballou, Thomas Walkor, Jer. Van Rensselaer, Jr., Thomas Jones, J. Ballou, Christian Stockman, Eli- sha Rose, Apollos Cooper, Bryan Johnson, Obadiah Ballou, Benja- min Ballou, Francis A. Bloodgood, James Hazen, Jason Parker, John B. Murdock, -David Stafford, Judah Williams, Jr., Francis -

Guiteau, Jr., Eph'm Wells, Willett Stillman, John Hobby, John Bissell, John Mayo, Charles C. Brodhead, Evan Davies, Rufus Brown, Ezekiel Clark."

THE SECOND CHARTER.

The prayer of the above petitioners was granted, and a new charter received the sanction of the Legislature on the 9th of April, 1805, securing all the privileges asked for. It fixed the bounds of the village on the east, as they are for the city of to-day, on the county line, and extended them on the west to include lot No. 99.

" The freeholders were declared a body corporate, with power to raise among themselves a tax not exceeding $1000 in one year for public buildings, fire expenses, and necessary improvements. Five trustees were to be elected annually, at a meeting of freeholders to be held on the second Tues- day of May. Any person who declined to serve when so elected was liable to a fine of $25. To these it was given to fix the price of bread, assess all taxes, appoint twenty-five firemen, make all by-laws necessary for pro- tection against nuisances, and for the general regulation of municipal affairs, and to them was intrusted full power to enforce the same. The president whom they should ap- point was required, in addition to his duties as presiding officer of the board and superintendent of the public in- terests, to look after the utensils used at fires, while the trustees were to serve also as fire-wardens. There was to be appointed also, at the annual meeting, a treasurer and a collector, who were to receive a compensation for their services."*

At the first annual election the former trustees presided, and Abraham Varick acted as secretary. The first trustees chosen under the new charter were Jeremiah Van Rens- selaer, Jr., Nathan Williams, Francis A. Bloodgood, Je- rathmel Ballou, and Erastus Clark. Jeremiah Van Rens- selaer, Jr., was chosen president of the board, D. W. Childs clerk, Isaac Coe treasurer, and Worden Hammond col- lector.

UTICA IN 1805.

The following remarks concerning the place we copy from " Pioneers of Utica" :

" The village, it is evident, had now taken a start, and was growing with some degree of vigor, and this start would seem to have begun from about the year 1794, as will be seen from a glance at the few data we possess. The three log shanties of the Bleecker map of 1786, and as observed by a passing settler of 1787, had, in 1790, hardly in- creased in number, for this is the sum of them given by Morse in his earlier ' Gazetteer,' and William Miller, of Trenton, fonnd no more in 1793, when he first passed through the place. In 1794 there were, according to Judge Jones, about ten resident families, or, according to a settler of that date, seven or eight houses, although two Welsh emi- grants, on their way to Steuben, counted, the next year, only four honses and a barn on Main Street. In 1796 the number of houses, says Morse, had increased to thirty-seven, and in 1798, Dr. Dwight estimates their number at fifty. Maude, two years later, tells us there were sixty, while another authority rates the population of 1801 at two hundred souls. In 1802 the number of houses, as we learn from Rev. Mr. Taylor, had grown to nearly ninety, and in 1804, when Dr. Dwight was here again, he found 'one hundred and twenty houses and a long train of merchants' stores and other buildings '

"The actual narrowness of confine of the Utica of 1805 and tho small progress it had made towards its present measure of prosperity will be evident when we know that the only streets in nse were Main,

· # Pioncers of Utica.

281

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

Whitesboro', Genesee, Hotel, and a portion of Seneca, the latter having been added in the year 1804. Others were laid down on the manuscript maps of proprietors, but unrecognized by authority, and as yet without houses. Business found its way from the river as far up Whitesboro' as Hotel Street, as far up Genesee as the upper line of Broad, and a little way along Main. Beyond these limits shops and stores were sparingly intermingled with private residences. The business was conducted in little wooden buildings, of whose style and dimensions a flattering estimate may be formed from a sample that still remains, transported many years ago to the corner of Fayette and State Streets, from the west side of Genesee, just above Whitesboro', and which, when it was erected in 1806, was deemed the glory of the street. And even this has lost most of its significant look sinee the repairs recently put upon it. Not more than two brick stores had yet found a place. The dwelling-houses of Main and Whitesboro' Streets may be judged of by a few specimens still to be seen east of First Street, and west of Broadway. The road along Genesce Street con- sisted of a log causeway barely wide enough for teams to pass one another, and having a ditch on either side, into which, if the hinder wheels slipped, a vigorous pull was required to raise them again to the track.

"Some idea may be had of the condition of what is now one of the busiest and most thriving quarters of the city from the building ex- perience of Anson Thomas during the summer of 1805, when he put up a store on Genesee Street, nearly opposite Liberty, and also a bouse higher up on the former. The workmen engaged on these buildings had board with their employer, on Whitesboro', between Broadway and Washington. The last-named streets were unopened, and the old corduroy road, that once started between their lines and pursued its winding way to New Hartford, was at this time abandoned. The course of the men to and from their work lay through a swamp and along prostrate logs. To call them to their meals the housekeeper hung a towel on the door-post. Within less than two years Mr. Thomas built another house, and this was nearly on the site of the one now occupied by Dr. Watson. Here a forest confronted him, and a forest approached close to his rear ; the lands about were unfenced and neighbors were distant, the nearest on the north being Judge Cooper, at the upper part of Whitesboro' Street. Between Mrs. Thomas and Mrs. Cooper invitations to and interchange of visits were made, as in the former ease, by the display of the white signal, the passage between them being along a lonely cow-path."

At this date both New Hartford and Whitesboro' sur- passed Utiea in population and business, and Rome was still a more important point. The former two monopolized the brilliant lights of the legal fraternity, and Whitesboro' was also a half-shire town, and all legal business was eon- pelled to go there or to Rome. New Hartford and Whites- boro' were even then noted for their polished and refined society and the beauty and thrift which characterized them above all other villages in this region.

Prominent among the new-comers of 1805 were Gideon Wileoxen, a teacher, and afterwards eminent in the legal profession, John Steward, Elisha E. Sill, and Jesse W. Doolittle, merehants.

It was in the year 1805, also, that Moses Bagg, son of Moses Bagg, who came here from Massachusetts in 1794, began his business career as a merchant, in eouipany with William Fellows. He had previously been employed as a surveyor on the Seneca turnpike and other works. Three years later, or about the year 1808, he assumed thie manage- ment of the hotel ereeted by his father. It was then a two- story frame building of ordinary size and pretensions, as the fact that Messrs. Stephen Van Rensselaer and Gouverneur Morris, with their suites, when stopping overnight in July, 1810, occupied the whole house, would testify.

In 1812-15, Mr. Bagg erected on the site of the franie building the central portion of the briek hotel, which still bears his name, and subsequently made additions on either

side. He carried on the business of hotel-keeping until 1836, when the property was sold to a stock company, and under various managements it has grown to its present eo- lossal proportions. It was the great eentre for the various stage-lines that radiated from Utiea from the days of J. Parker & Co. to the advent of the New York Central Rail- way, and its proximity to that wonderful thoroughfare still makes it the most prominent hotel in the city. In the location of the railway through the city Moses Bagg acted a conspicuous part.

Mr. Bagg erected a dwelling in 1824 on the corner of Broad and Second Streets, where he spent the remaining years of his life. His death occurred Jan. 9, 1844.

He was a prominent eitizen, and occupied many positions of trust and responsibility,-an officer of the early fire de- partment, a village trustee, and also at various times trustee of the Ontario Branch Bank, the Bank of Utiea, and the Savings Bank of Utiea, and treasurer of the Presbyterian Church and the Female Academy. He was noted far and near as a model landlord, and his tables were of the best ; but as the reputation of the early "taverns" depended largely upon the ability and good management of the land- lady, there is no doubt that Mrs. Bagg was every way a worthy helpmeet of her husband. Mr. Bagg was twice married, and in both his companions he was remarkably fortunate, for they were well known as worthy examples of womanhood, and foremost in all the benevolent movements of the day.

Seth Dwight, from Williamsburg, Mass., was another settler of 1805. Commencing as a clerk, he followed the various avoeations of merchant, lumber dealer, boarding- house and hotel-keeper, ete. He removed to Buffalo, and died there April 30, 1825.

George Tisdale was somewhat noted also as a hotel-keeper. He came in the spring of 1805 to take charge of Bagg's Hotel, where he remained two years. He also condueted the House tavern, and afterwards removed to Sacket's Harbor.

Among the merchants were J. A. and L. Bloodgood, brothers of Franeis A. Bloodgood, the attorney. Joseph Barton was a watchmaker and jeweler. Rudolph Snyder was a manufacturer and dealer in furniture.

Benjamin Paine was a fashionable tailor, and captain of the Utica Fire Company. William Hayes manufactured earthenware, near what is now the northeast corner of Liberty and Washington Streets. The place is also credited with two liquor saloons at this date, both situated between Bagg's Hotel and Water Street, one by George Calder, the other by J. Wharton.

Prominent among the new-comers of the year 1806 was Morris S. Miller. He was the son of Dr. Matthias Bur- nett Miller, of Long Island, a surgeon of the Revolution, attached to Colonel Rutger's regiment. Morris S. Miller was born in 1780. Upon the death of his father, who was still in the army, his mother opened a boarding-house. Young Miller graduated with high honors at Union College in 1798. He read law with Cornelius Wendell, of Cam- bridge, Washington Co., N. Y., and was soon after appointed private secretary to Governor Jay. About 1802, Nicholas Low, a wealthy landholder of Lewis County, made him his

282

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

agent for the sale of his lands in the neighborhood of Low- ville, where he remained until his removal to Utiea, in 1806. During his residence at Lowville he married Miss Maria Bleecker, of Albany.

Immediately upon his arrival in Utiea he eommeneed the practice of his profession, and rose rapidly in the estimation of the publie. Within two years he was chosen president of the village board, and within four years was appointed first judge of the county, which last-named offiee he con- tinued to hold by sueeessive appointments until his decease. In 1813-15 he represented his distriet in Congress, where he won the respeet of many of the leading minds of the day.

In July, 1819, Judge Miller represented the United States at a treaty made with the Seneca Indians near Buffalo. He also held the position of a trustee of Hamil- ton College, and many others at various times during his life. He was managing agent for the Bleeeker estate, of which his wife was one of four owners. He oeeupied the house at the lower end of Main Strect previously oeeupied by Peter Smith and James S. Kip. He was a striet and faithful attendant of the Episcopal Church, a soeiable neigh- bor, and noted for his aets of charity and the generous hospitality which was dispensed at his mansion. A short time before his death he had made extensive preparations to ereet a new dwelling at the head of John Street, " where his son, Rutger B. Miller, ereeted in 1830 the fine stone mansion which now forms the eentral building of the Rut- ger place."*

His death oeeurred Nov. 19, 1824, when he was in his prime. His remains were buried in Albany. His wife survived him for more than a quarter of a century, and died March 15, 1850. Their children were Rutger Bleeeker, recently deceased ; Morris Smith, brevet briga- dier-general, United States Army, died in Texas March 11, 1870; Sarah (Mrs. E. S. Brayton), died May 10, 1853; Charles Dudley, of Geneva, N. Y .; and John B., editor and lawyer, who died while consul at Hamburgh, April 22, 1861.

Abrahamı Van Santvoort was for many years a promi- nent business man. He was a nephew of John Post, and came first to Utiea about 1798. After a few years' resi- denee, his uncle sent him to Schenectady to superintend the forwarding of goods.

In 1806 he returned to Utiea and engaged in the for- warding and commission business, oeeupying one of Mr. Post's stores on the Canal dock. He changed his business to various localities within the village, and during the war of 1812-15 ereeted, in company with Eri Lusher and others, a large briek warehouse near the foot of Division Street. This company, known under the firmn-name of Eri Lusher & Co., were heavily engaged in the transportation business both by land and water.

Mr. Van Santvoort was a sub-contraetor under the gov- ernment during the war of 1812, and also acted as govern- ment storekeeper. He was also interested with Peter Sken Smith and William Soulden in the manufacture of glass at Peterboro', and was agent for the sale of the company's goods.

This speculation proved a failure, and caused the sus- pension of the company. Mr. Van Santvoort subsequently removed to Schenectady, thenee to Dunkirk and Rochester, and finally to New York, where he became interested in the business of steamboating. He died in Jersey City. His wife was a sister of Dr. Marcus Hitcheoek, and lived to a great age.

In 1807 one Christian Schultz, Jr., visited the village of Utica, and recorded his impressions of the frontier town as follows :

"It contains at present about one hundred and sixty houses, the greater part of which are painted white, which gives it a neat and lively appearance. Foreign goods are nearly as cheap here as in New York, which, I presume, is owing to the merchants underselling each other, for this, like all other country towns, is overstocked with shop- keepers. Most of the goods intended for the salt-works (at Syracuse) are loaded here in wagons, and sent overland a distance of fifty miles. The carriage over this portage is fifty cents a hundredweight."

Among the new-comers of 1808 were Peter Bours, a trader, manufacturer, and auctioneer ; Stalham Williams, a partner of the last-mentioned, and also of Jason Parker, and who lived to the great age of nearly one hundred years ; Killian Winne and John E. Evertson, merchants; Wil- liam Pitt Shearman, Jacob Snyder, William Haywood, Joab Stafford, Bildad and Isaae Merrell, Levi Barnum, John B. Harrington, John Gilbert, an Englishman, and manufac- turer of stareh, and others.

In 1808 a new street was opened in the growing village. This was Broad Street, which had been laid out and partly worked towards its eastern end. It was now continued through to Genesee Street. About this date there was considerable commotion over President Jefferson's " Em- bargo Law," and a great gathering took place in Utica, at which Colonel Benjamin Walker presided, and Bezaleel Fisk, of Trenton, was secretary. Thomas R. Gold made an able speech, which was warmly seconded by Judge Van- derkemp, of Trenton, and a petition to the President of the United States was drafted by Jonas Platt, of Whites- boro', which was adopted unanimously. It demanded the immediate repeal of the obnoxious law.

To this petition President Jefferson made a very cour- teous reply, showing that the matter was a subjeet for the National Legislature.

During this exciting era a military company was raised (by draft, according to Dr. Bagg) to serve in ease of an outbreak of hostilities. The drafting took place at the hotel. Major John Bellinger was chosen eaptain, and Silas Clark and Benjamin Ballou, Jr., seeond and third officers. t

Arthur Breese was among the newcomers of 1808, having been appointed clerk of the Supreme Court. Mr. Breese was a prominent eitizen during the whole course of his residenee in Utiea, and filled many important positions. Was one of the founders of the Oneida Bible Society and the Utiea Academy, and was a trustee of the village and of the Presbyterian Church. He was twice married. His first wife, Catherine, was the daughter of Harry Livingston, of Poughkeepsie, and died in 1808. Her

* The present residenee of Hon. Roscoe Conkling.

" It was during the preceding year that the encounter between the British frigate " Leopard" and the United States frigate " Chesapeake" took place, and the excitement was very great.

283

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

children were Samuel Livingston, Rear Admiral U. S. Navy, died 1870; Sarah (Mrs. B. B. Lansing, afterwards Mrs. James Platt) ; Elizabeth, wife of William Malcom Sands, purser U. S. Navy ; Catherine Walker (widow of Captain Samuel B. Griswold, of the U. S. Army) ; Sidney, chief-justice of the Supreme Court and United States Senator from Illinois, recently deceased ; Susan (Mrs. Jacob Stout, subsequently Mrs. P. A. Proal), died in 1863; Henry Livingston, died at the age of fourteen ; Arthur, died in Florida, 1838; and Mary Davenport (Mrs. Henry Davis, of Waterford).

His second wife was Miss Ann Carpender, of New York. She survived her husband many years and died in 1857. She was the mother of six children, all of whom are de- ceased. Mr. Breese died at the age of fifty-three years, in the city of New York, where he had gone for the benefit of his health, Aug. 14, 1825.

Henry W. Livingston, a brother of the first Mrs. Breese, resided in Utica from 1808 until 1813 or 1814. He was an attorney, and agent of John B. Church for the salc of lands in Cosby's Manor. He subsequently removed to Hartford, Conn., where he died.

Other prominent settlers of 1808 were Walter King, a distinguished attorney, and for some time law partner of James Dean ; Samuel B. Malcolm, whose wife was a daughter of General Philip Schuyler; Eliasaph Dorchester, a noted printer, teacher, and public officer ; Shubael Storms, a jeweler and silversmith ; J. H. Beach, a teacher; Asahel Davis, subsequently an Episcopal clergyman ; Royal John- son, John Ostrom, Rev. Morris Welsh, Congregational minister ; Wm. Donaldson, Peter B. Markham, Lemuel Brown, Richard Van Dyke, John H. Leeper, Samuel Hoyt, Chauncey Rawson, Oliver Goodwin, Lewis Griffin, Eber Adams, Simcon Natten, T. Gladding, and A. Philips.

In 1809 several new streets were opened and adopted by the commissioners of highways, among them, Broad, First, Second, and Third, and Water Streets. Bridge Street, the present Park Avenue, was also laid out and maeadamized. It was the work of private enterprise, being carried throughi by Judge Morris S. Miller and his father-in-law and brother- in-law, of Albany. At that time it was on the southeastern margin of the village. A good bridge was built over the Mohawk, and the road was continued across the bottom lands on the north side of the river, though not without opposition from some of the property-owners. It is said that McAdam, the originator of the road that bears his name, had a contract on this road.

FIRST BANK IN UTICA.

From the time of settlement down to 1809 the majority of money in circulation was silver, and this mostly Spanish coin. The paper currency consisted of the bills of Eastern banks, and business men were obliged to resort to Albany whenever they wished to negotiate a loan of any consider- able amount. In the year last nanicd the Manhattan Bank of New York established a branch in Utica under the man- agement of Montgomery Hunt, whom they sent hither for the purpose .*

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 74

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

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