History of Oneida County, New York, 1667-1878, Part 75

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

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Another important project originated at this time. This was the establishment of an extensive glass-manufactory. The " Oneida Glass-Factory Company" was incorporated on the 17th of February, 1809, with a capital of $100,000. The stock was readily subscribed, the following list showing the names of the stockholders and amounts taken :

Abraham Variek. $5,000

Solomon Wolcott & Co ... $1,000

Charles C. Brodhead. 2,000

Isaac Coc ...

9,500

Peter Bours. 5,000

Winne & Evertsen 1,000

John Steward, Jr. 5,000

Richard Sanger,

2,000

Watts Sherman. 5,000

Frederick Stanley

5,000

Nathaniel Butler

2,000

Caleb C. Sampson.

1,000

Anson Thomas.

2,000

Joseph Kirkland.

2,000

Bryan Johnson.

2,500

Paul R. L. Colt ..

5,000

Alex. B. Johnson

2,500

Samuel Peck

1,500

Frederick White.

2,500

Philip Hoagle,

2,000

John C. Devereux

2,500

Sill & Doolittle.

2,000

Jonas Platt

1,000

Williams & Shearman.

2,000

Elizur Moseley.

1,000

James Dana.

1,000

James Lynch.

2,000

Walter Morgan.

2,500

Royal Johnson.

1,000

Ezekiel Clark

1,500

Daniel Cook

4,000

Stalham Williams,

500

Geo. Huntington & Co ....

2,500

.John Hooker ..

5,000

George Brayton

1,000

Erastus Clark

500

R. and D. Cook

1,000

Samuel Hooker

1,000

Blank.

1,000

Jason Parker.

1,000

Total

$100,000

The first 24 names were all citizens of Utica ; the others lived in various parts of the county.

The original directors were Watts Sherman, Abraham Varick, John Steward, Jr., Alexander B. Johnson, and Richard Sanger, of whom the latter was chosen president. Land was purchased at Vernon of Isaac Coe, Daniel Cook, and Samuel Peck; contracts for wood were made, and the works soon put in operation. The business was success- fully continued until August, 1836, when the company sold their real estate and closed their affairs.

The first serious accident with fire-arms, on the 4th of July, in Utica, is recorded for this year. The Democrats were having a grand celebration at Bellinger's tavern, and to complete the arrangements had procured a heavy naval gun and put it under the control of Tom Jones, a black- smith, who had seen service in the British navy. Towards the close of the day, when it is presumed many of the poli- tieians were a little mellow, it was proposed by some of the crowd that they give the opposite party, who had their headquarters at Bagg's Hotel, a rousing gun ; and aecord- ingly, not content with the ordinary charge, they increased it heavily, and then rammed the chamber of the gun full of turf, sand, and other material, and made ready to wake the echoes. Jones refused to have anything to do with such recklessness, and retiring from the crowd sat down near his shop, where he could look on and be comparatively out of danger. The gun was made ready and pointed towards Bagg's Hotel, and a young man named Seymour Tracy volunteered to fire the picce. Taking a live coal in a pair of tongs he applied it to the powder, when a tre- mendous explosion ensued, shivering the gun to atoms and badly injuring Tracy, who had to undergo the amputation of one of his limbs. Jones was slightly scratched by the breech of the gun, which struck the beneh on which he sat. The injured young man was well cared for by the party, and afterwards became quite prominent as an at- torney.

We take the following concerning the mechanics of the period from Bagg's " Pioncers of Utiea":

# See article, "Banking Institutions."

S. y

y er

Laurence Sehooleraft

284

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

"The freshly-starting inechanies of 1809 were the following : Rob- ert MeBride, mason, long held an honorable place among the workers of Utica. He built the nucleus of the present Bagg's Hotel,-that is to say, the corner and central portion,-and did much other heavy work in the place; completed some important contracts on the Erie Canal, and was an alderman, and an enterprising and respectel eiti- zen. He made his final home with his son-in-law, near Canandaigua. . . Another mason was Thomas Thomas, a Welshman, who built the stone house of James S. Kip, and afterwards one of the structures of Hamilton College. Of furriers there were three in 1809, viz .: Joseph Simons, Charles Blates, and Adolph Cotterfield. The first was the only one of them who remained long enough to leave a remembrance and a descendant. Charles Simons followed in the footsteps of his father, and died in 1875, an old man and unmarried. The saddlers, Eliphalet Tucker and Erastus Burchard, now began at the old stand of Gurdon Burchard, who went into tavern-keeping. The tanner, Andrew P. Tillman, succeeded to the tannery of Bela Hubbard, but in 1815 removed to Geneva. The first carpenters were Samuel Jones, G. W. Harris, and William Morris. Jones was en- gaged, some years later, to make the gallows on which John Tuhi, the Indian, was hung. He was not told for what it was intended, and was greatly surprised and shocked when he learned its purpose. ' They told me it was a ga-at,' said he, 'and it's a gallows!' The eab- inet-makers were Asa Palmer, J. Andrews, and Obadiah Congar. The latter had a shop in Utica and another in New Hartford. Palmer moved to Racine, Wis., about 1842, and died in 1871. T. H. Nurse (Nourse ?), reed-maker, had for some years a home in the house which preceded the residence of Ward Hunt. He afterwards moved to a farm three miles cast of Utica. Joel Hinckley, blacksmith, at the sign of the ' King's Arms,' on Whitesboro' Street, became insolvent three years later. Henry Bowen, another blacksmith, had a son who still carries on the trade of his father. Two young men, who came from Danbury, Conn., bore the relation of brothers-in-law, and of master and apprentice to the trade of shoemaking. The latter was Ezra S. Barnum, who, after finishing his apprenticeship, removed temporarily from the place to re-appear some years later. The foriner, Levi Comstock, lived in Utica from that time onward for nearly fifty years, and then made his home with a son in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, until his death, May 31, 1868. William Houghton was a stage pro- prietor, and for a time a partner with Jason Parker. A son of his was a harness-maker."

During the year 1810 many improvements were made : new streets were opened, the fire department was looked after, a new engine-house ordered built, and altogether the sum of five hundred dollars was appropriated for publie purposes. It would seem that trumps were even then abroad in the land, for we read that the trustees offered " one hundred and fifty dollars for the detection of the in- cendiary who set on fire the new store of Hugh Cunning- ham, on the night of the 2d of October." Real estate must have been looking up, for the Patriot records the fact that a small lot on the corner of Genesee and Whites- boro' Streets had been sold at the rate of $300,000 per aere, which same land could have been bought twenty-five years before for one dollar per aere. The population of the place at this date (1810) was 1650.

Two important roads were eommeneed during the year, -the Utiea and Black River Turnpike and the Minden Turnpike, afterwards known as the Burlington Plank-Road.

In July of this year the Erie Canal commissioners were in Utiea prosecuting their first survey, but the war with Great Britain compelled a suspension of operations, which were not renewed until its elose.

Another great manufacturing enterprise was also in- augurated, in the shape of a glass-factory. The success of the Oneida Glass-Factory, put in operation the year pre- vious, stimulated others to invest in the business, and a new company was formed, a charter obtained, and stock to

the amount of $250,000 taken. The parties who were in- strumental in starting this enterprise were Peter Bours, Colonel Benjamin Walker, John Steward, Jr., Hugh Cun- ningham, John Hooker, and Seth Bright. Land was pur- chased in the north part of what is now the town of Marey, buildings were erected, workmen procured from Boston, and the manufacture of erown glass commenced. For a time the business went on swimmingly. It was stated in 1813 that the expenses were $30,000 annually, the value of pro- duets $50,000, and the amount of stock $100,000. In 1813 or 1814 the company purchased 790 additional aeres of land, and went on to all appearances prosperously. In 1819 they advertised for glass-blowers; but it transpired before many months that the effort to manufacture erown glass was a failure, for the produets eould not compete in the markets with English glass. The company finally, on the 22d of March, 1822, leased the works to the Oneida Company, of Vernon, and retired from business, after sink - ing considerable money.

A more successful enterprise was put in operation in the course of the years 1809-10. This was the cotton-mill of Messrs. Waleott & Co., in Whitesboro', the nucleus of that immense business which has sinee grown up in and around Utiea .* From an advertisement which appeared in the Whitestown paper of Nov. 13, 1809, it would appear that the following parties were interested in the new enterprise : B. Waleott, Theodore Sill, Thomas R. Gold, Newton Mann, Asher Wetmore, Seth Capron, William M. Cheever, Ben- jamin S. Walcott, Jr.

. In 1810 another stock company was formed for the pur- pose of establishing manufactories of cotton, wool, and iron on the Oriskany Creek, near the house of Colonel Lansing, with a capital of $200,000. $38,500 was taken in Utiea, the balance by people of Whitesboro' and Eastern capital- ists. This company put a large woolen-mill in operation, according to Dr. Bagg and Judge Jones, in 1811,} which is elaimed to have been the first woolen-manufactory in the Union.

Mr. J. Mellish, an English traveler who visited the United States in 1810-11, reported trade and general business in a drooping condition, and gave what he eon- sidered good reasons for it, to wit: inereased mereantile facilities in the more western settlements, "a change in the current of the market, which had begun to traverse the lakes and the St. Lawrence, forsaking the tedious channel of the Mohawk, and excessive overtrading throughout the State, due to the indulgence of too free eredit both in New York City and in England." In speaking of the citizens of Utica, he says, " They have already begun to avail them- selves of the advantages to be derived from the new order of things, and a good deal of the surplus capital of Albany and New York has been invested in manufactures in and about this place, for which they are already getting, in some respects, a handsome return." His predictions regarding the future seem to have been prophetie, for he says, " There are three branches that are likely to flourish in an eminent degree,-glass, woolen, and cotton,-and they will all be of

# Sec history of Manufactures, farther on.

+ See article by Ilon. Horace Capron, p. 243 of this work.

285

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

great importance to Utica. The cotton trade will, I think, flourish here beyond every other."

Mr. Mellish goes on to give a sort of summary of the place, which, though in some respects considerably cxag- gerated, is mainly correct :

" Utica is the capital of Oneida County, and consists at present of about four hundred houses, containing two thousand inhabitants. It began to settle about twenty-three years ago, but it has been prinei- pally built since 1796, and two-thirds of it since 1800.

"The buildings are mostly of wood, painted white, but a good many have lately been built of briek, and some few of stone. The public buildings are four places for publie worship, two of them elegant, an academy, clerk's office, etc., and there are six taverns, fifteen stores, and two breweries. There are three printing-offices, viz., one for books and two for newspapers, one bindery, two morocco-factories, and one manufactory of musical instruments, three masons, and a number of briekmakers and carpenters, four cabinet- and chair-makers, two coopers, seven smiths and nailers, two tinsmiths, one coppersmith, four silversmiths and watchmakers, three tanneries and eurriers, one furrier, six butchers, two bakers, three hatters, four tailors, four painters, and four druggists.

" The village lots are from fifty to sixty feet front and one hundred to one hundred and thirty deep, and sell for from two hundred to one thousand dollars. The out lots contain twelve acres, and five hundred dollars is asked for them. House rent for mechanics is about sixty to one hundred dollars; wood, one dollar and twenty-five cents per cord ; flour, eight dollars per barrel ; potatoes, two shillings per bushel ; tur- nips, thirty-one cents; cabbages, four cents each ; beans, sixty-two cents per bushel ; onions, seventy-five cents; beef, mutton, and veal, five cents per pound; venison, four cents; fowls, nine cents caeli ; ducks, two shillings; geese, four shillings; turkeys, five shillings ; butter, one shilling; cheese, seven cents ; lard, six cents; beer, five dollars per barrel ; whisky, forty-five cents per gallon; boarding, two dollars and fifty cents per weck.

"The goverment of the village is vested in a board of five trustees chosen annually by the inhabitants. There are five schools, in which are taught all the various branches of education, which is pretty well attended to; and there is a very good seminary for young ladies.# The expense of tuition is from two to four dollars per quarter. The commeree of Utica cousists of dry goods, groceries, crockery, hard- ware, and cotton, imported; and of grain, flour, provisions, ashes, ete., exported. The chief part of the commerce is with New York, but it is said a considerable smuggling trade has of late been carried on with Canada. Wheat is one dollar and twelve cents per bushel, corn forty-four cents, barley seventy-five cenis, ashes nominal, cotton twenty-one cents, horses fifty to one hundred dollars, eows fifteen to twenty dollars, sheep two dollars to two dollars and fifty cents. Lands on the turnpikes in the neighborhood sell for from fifty to one hundred dollars ; further off, forty to fifty dollars ; but the lands in both village and country have greatly depreciated in money value."

Among the new-comers of the year 1811 may be men- tioned Thomas E. Clark and Charles M. Lee, attorneys ; Dr. Amos G. Hull, a prominent physician ; Colonel Richard M. Malcom, John Williams, Joseph S. Porter, and Jona- than Hedges.

During the year 1812, and the suecceding years of the war with Great Britain, Utica was alive with soldiers and munitions of war, going and coming on the great thorough- fare which had been for centuries the war-path of savage and civilized (?) nations. The place furnished a consider- able number of men for the army and navy, but we have not sueeceded in finding reliable data concerning themn. Dr. Bagg says that a company of about sixty volunteers was re- cruited in Utiea, in February, 1813, a number of whom were members of its independent light infantry company. They were attached to the 134th Regiment, and com-

manded by Captain William Williams. John Grove was orderly or first sergeant, and John George and T. S. Fax- ton were members. The company only remained a few weeks in the service.

Another company of the 134th Regiment was known as the Silver Grays, and was under command of Captain Na- than Seward, of New Hartford, and among its members was Thurlow Wecd, of Utica. Nathan Williams seems to have been major, Nicholas Smith adjutant, and John E. Hin- man quartermaster. This regiment was called out in Sep- tember, 1814, on the occasion of the descent of Sir George Provost upon Plattsburg, but after continuing one month under arms was dismissed without seeing active service. Benjamin Ballou was captain of one of the companies, and Nicholas N. Weaver orderly-sergeant. The latter was sub- scquently promoted captain. Thomas Skinner, of Utica, was captain of a battery in a regiment of artillery, com- manded by Colonel Elijah Metcalf. Several citizens of Utica had volunteered at Buffalo, and served at the time of the British invasion in Deecmber, 1812.

The following young men, then residing in Utica and its neighborhood, enlisted as midshipmen in the navy : Samuel Breese and William Inman, of Utica; John G. Young and Edward and Benjamin Carpender, of Whitesboro', and An- till Lansing, of Oriskany. There was a recruiting station established at Utica, under the charge of Captain P. Mills, of the 23d United States Regiment ; and a temporary hos- pital was located on the Kimball farm, under the charge of Dr. Solomon Woleott.

In June, 1812, the first local bank in the place received its charter under the title of The Bank of Utica, and com- menced business on the 8th of December following.t The prominent bankers of that date were Montgomery Hunt and A. B. Johnson, both eminent in their profession, and long residents of the place. In addition to Mr. Johnson's great business abilities, he was finely cultivated, and a writer upon various subjects. Mr. Hunt died in the West Indies Feb. 24, 1837, and Mr. Johnson, on the 9th of September, 1867, at Utica.

Mr. Jones gives the following list of business firms in 1811-12: General dry goods and variety stores .- Talcott Camp, A. Van Santvoort, S. Wolcott & Co., Stalham Wil- liams, John C. Devereux, Kanc & Van Rensselaer, John E. Evertson, James Van Rensselaer, Jr., A. Hitchcock, Watts Sherman, Henry B. Gibson, Alexander Seymour, Dwight & Sherman. Trunk and harness-maker, James Dana. Edge tools; Oliver Babcock. Cabinet-makers, Smead & Cable. Drugs and medicines, D. Hasbrouck, M. Hitch- coek, Guitcau & Watson. Paints, oils, etc., Macomber & Newell, Charles Easton. Tobacco, segars, etc., Robert Todd, Jr., John A. Bury & Co., W. Fleming. Morocco- manufactory, Amos Camp & J. Downing, Henry Clark. Utica Museum, Erastus Row. Copper-factory, Daniel Stafford & Co. Fur store, J. C. Nennhoeffer. Painting and glazing, John C. Bull, Z. B. Clark. Gunsmithing, Castle Southerland. Hlatters, and stock and trimmings, Samuel Stocking, Cozier & Whiting. Merchant " tayler," B. Painc. Tailor, John C. Hoyt. Hides, leather, etc.,

# A private or seleet school.

+ See uuder head of Banking.

286

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

David P. Hoyt, Perley Harris. Brewery, Thomas Harden. Distillery, Thomas Devereux. Stone, Thomas James. Cotton goods, glass, and seythes, E. B. Shearman. Soap and candles, John Roberts. Lamp oil, etc., Nicoll & Dering. Boot and shoe makers, John Queal, Levi Com- stoek, Ezra S. Barnum. Auctioneer, E. Spurr. Groceries, James Hooker. Stone-cutting, Cross & Danforth. Mili- tary goods, Barton & Porter. Lottery tickets, Asahel Seward, Thomas Walker, S. Wolcott & Co.

Lotteries were at that time authorized by law for various purposes.

Another prominent citizen at this time was Richard R. Lansing, an attorney, and partner at various periods of Morris S. Miller, G. J. Mills, John H. Ostrom, and Abra- ham Varick. He held the office of clerk of the District Court of the United States during his residence in Utica, which was continuous from 1812 to 1829. Hc afterwards removed to New York City, and engaged in the wholesale liquor business, but was ruined financially by the great fire of December, 1835. Subsequently he removed to Michi- gan, where he became interested in lands and in copper- mining on Lake Superior. He resided at Lansing, now the State capital of Michigan, for a few years, and had the honor of giving the place its name. He died in Detroit, whither he had removed, Sept. 29, 1855.

The principal excitement of the year 1813 would appear to have been the new market building, which had been erected, at an expense of $300, on Bagg's Square, two years previously. Some were in favor of removal, and some were for selling the building at auction; but its friends rallied in force, and it was allowed to stand for another year, when it was ordered removed to the corner of Division and Water Streets, at an expense of $75; and thenceforth marketing was free to everybody who chose to engage in it.

It was in this year that Hon. Joseph Kirkland became a resident of Utica, though he had been a resident of the county at New Hartford from before its organization, and was one of the original attorneys admitted to practice upon its organization in 1798. In 1801 he was a candidate for delegate to the State Constitutional Convention. In 1803 he was elected on the Federal ticket to the Assembly. From February, 1813, to February, 1816, he was district attor- ney for the Sixth district. From 1818 to 1821 he was again in the Legislature, and in the latter year was elected to Congress. In 1825 he was again elected to the State Legislature. He was the first mayor of Utica in 1832, and was re-elected in 1834. He was conspicuous through the terrible visitation of the Asiatic cholera, in 1832, for his unremitting attention to the duties of his office, and to the sick and suffering around him, never leaving his post, though great numbers of the citizens deserted the plague- stricken city.

Mr. Kirkland was prominently connected with many of the important enterprises of his time. In the establishment of Hamilton College, the Utica Academy, the Presbyterian Church, the Ontario Branch Bank, the Oneida Glass-Fac- tory, the New Hartford Manufacturing Society, tlc Far- mers' Factory, the Paris Furnace Company, and other insti- tutions, he was an earnest laborer from their beginning, and was also interested in the building of the Seneca Turnpike.

The celebrated Dr. Samuel Kirkland was his father's brother. He figured quite extensively in military affairs, and rose to the rank of general in the State militia. His death occurred Jan. 2, 1844. Hon. William J. Bacon married a daughter of General Kirkland.

Other prominent men of this period were Dr. Ezra Williams, James Platt, a brother of Judge Jonas Platt, Barent Bleccker Lansing, Alexander Seymour, Thomas Rockwell, John Welles, and Amos Gay, the last. mentioned two innkeepers. Mr. Gay was also, for a time, a manufac- turer of pottery.

Ezra S. Barnum, before mentioned, who had come to Utica with Levi Comstock, in 1809, became a partner of the latter in December, 1813. He continued through life to be a conspicuous trader and public officer in the place. In 1817 he filled the several offices of constable, collector, and coroner, and at one time was, in addition, police officer and deputy-sheriff. But his greatest honors came as an officer of the Masonic fraternity. Beginning with 1817, at which date he became a member of Utica Lodge, he rose rapidly, and filled many offices in the gift of his brethren, and finally reached the highest position attainable in this country. He also filled nearly every office in the Grand Commandery of Knights Templar of the State, and served for twenty-one years in the Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of the United States, of which body he was, at the time of his death, Past General Grand Captain- General.

He was a prominent member of the Universalist society in Utica, having been connected with it since 1825. He was one of the original subscribers to the fund for the Clinton Liberal Institute, and held the office of trustee of that institution for forty-five years. He was also a director of the Oneida Bank. Mr. Barnum died within the past year.

The year 1814 witnessed the first attempt to construct regular sidewalks in Utica. On the 23d of May an ordi- nance was passed " for the better improving the streets of Utica, and making the sidewalks in said village." This ordinance required the walks on both sides of certain por- tions of Genesee, Whitesboro', and Main Streets to be constructed within ninety days in the manner described, subject to a fine of $20 for non-compliance, and an ad- ditional one of $2.50 for every month thereafter. Those on Genesee Street were required to be fifteen feet in width, to be constructed of smooth or cobble stone from Whites- boro' to Catherine Street, except between the stoops, where the owner might use gravel at his option. On all other streets the walks were to be ten feet in width, and con- structed of smooth or cobble stone, or good, clean gravel, at the owner's option. The outer border of the walks was protected by timber and a line of posts, except where passages were required to reach outbuildings.

In September additional walks were ordered on the north side of Liberty Street, " from Joseph Kirkland's office to the Presbyterian meeting-house, and on the south side of Broad Street from James Van Rensselaer's store to the Episcopal Church." In October cross-walks of flag- ging, stone, and gravel were ordered laid down on all the principal crossings.

287

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

On account of the scarcity of currency caused by the war, the board of trustees, having obtained a promise from the officers of the Manhattan Branch Bank to redeem their issues, passed the following resolution :

" Resolved, That corporation bills, not to exceed five thousand dol- lars, be issued, signed by the president, and made payable at the Man- hattan Branch Bank."

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History of Oneida County, New York, 1667-1878, Part 75

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

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