History of Oneida County, New York, 1667-1878, Part 76

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

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The issues were entirely of fractional curreney, and of six different denominations, ranging from three to seventy- five cents. They were issued during 1814, 1815, and 1816.

Another important enterprise was put in operation dur- ing 1814,-the Capron cotton-factory, at New Hartford. About one-third of the stock was taken in Utica, the heaviest subscribers being Jeremiah Van Rensselaer and Asahel Seward .*

Prominent among those who made Utica their place of residenec in 1814 was Wm. H. Maynard, who bore a eon- spieuous part in the political field from that time until his death, which took place from cholera in New York City, Aug. 28, 1832.

Mr. Maynard came of an excellent and prominent New England family, and graduated at Williams College, Massa- chusetts, in 1810. Soon after he located in New Hartford, Oneida' Co., where he read law with Hon. Joseph Kirk- land, and in 1814 he removed to Utica, where he rose rap- idly to distinction as a brilliant advocate and politician. He was appointed attorney for the corporation in January, 1815, and soon after law officer of the Utica Insurance Company. He was admitted to practice before the Su- preme Court in 1818.

He was cleeted to the State Senate by the Anti-Masonic party in 1829, and served until 1832, and was editor of the Utica Patriot, and one of its principal contributors from 1811 to 1824. His law practice was extensive, and among his partners were Samuel A. Talcott, Ebenezer Griffin, and Joshua A. Spencer. In the State Senate he was called the leading intellectual light, and this, too, with such men around him as William H. Seward and John Young, both subsequently elected to the gubernatorial chair. Mr. Maynard was an officer of Hamilton College, and a liberal contributor to its upbuilding.t

Another prominent citizen of the period of which we write was John H. Ostrom, who filled many offices, both civil and military,-village attorney, trustce and assessor, and chief-engineer of the fire department. In the military line he rose through the successive grades to that of major- general, and was likewise clerk of the county from 1826 to 1832. General Ostrom died in Poughkeepsie, Aug. 10, 1845, at the age of fifty-one years.

Another individual, for many years connected with various enterprises in Utica,-increantile, religious, and charitable,-was Nicholas Devereux. He came to the United States in 1806, and in May, 1814, became a partner with his brother John. In May, 1816, this relation was dissolved, and another formed with Gco. L. Tisdale, a for- mer elerk, under the name of N. Devereux & Co. Among his other partners were Horace Butler, James MeDonough,

and Van Vechten Livingston. He was for some time agent of the New York Life and Trust Company, and in this capacity traveled extensively in the newer portions of the State, and this led him into an extensive land specu- lation. In company with several New York parties he purchased of the Holland Land Company, in Allegheny and Cattaraugus Counties, 400,000 acres of wild lands, which he turned to good account in after-years. He took an active part in the organization of the Utica and Schenec- tady Railroad, the first that reached Utiea. He was largely interested in carly banking operations, in manufacturing, and as a manager in the New York State Asylum for the Insanc.

He was the leading spirit among the Catholics of Utica, and contributed largely to the upbuilding of that organi- zation as founder of the Orphan Asylum and the Brothers' School, and also in introducing the first edition of the Douay Bible into Central New York. About two years previous to his death he visited Rome, in Italy, where he had a flattering interview with the Sovereign Pontiff. Mr. De- vereux died Dec. 29, 1855, leaving a name and a memory which will long be cherished.

At the annual election for village officers, in the spring of 1815, Jason Parker was cleeted one of the trustecs. He failed to qualify in season, and was promptly fined twenty- five dollars for neglect.

It would appear from correspondence between Judge Morris S. Miller, and John R. Bleecker, of Albany, that the bridge at the foot of what is now Park Avenue, over the Mohawk, had quite recently been carried away by a flood. The judge urges the rebuilding of the bridge, the opening of new streets, and extension of old ones, and the improve- ment of the publie square, now Chancellor Square. These improvements, Dr. Bagg says, were probably entered upon the following year, 1816.

There was great rejoicing in Utica over the proclamation of pcace between the United States and Great Britain in the spring of 1815. Their support of the war had perhaps not been altogether enthusiastic, especially among the New England element, and the cessation of hostilities was hailed as the harbinger of better times, for the war had pressed heavily upon all classes, save a few contraetors and a portion of the manufacturing eommunity.

The news was brought from Albany by an individual who came on horseback, and arrived four hours in advance of the mail coach. The town was illuminated that same evening, and again in the course of a few days, when it was made universal, and there was a grand display of fire-works.

An enterprise which has had a marked influenee for good on the history of Utica was inaugurated about this time. This was the Utiea Academy. The initial steps were taken in 1813, but the building was not completed and ready for occupation until the summer of 1818. It was a substantial, two-story building, of brick, and cost $8000. Its dimen- sions were about fifty by sixty feet, and it was located on the site occupied by the present elegant and costly academy building, fronting on Chancellor Square, erceted in 1867- 68.1

# Sce article by Hon. Horace Capron on Early Manufactures, Chapter XIX. He gives this date as 1812.

t See Early Bar of Oneida, Chapter XVIII.

# See farther on, history of Schools.

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HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

Among the new-comers of 1815 were Judge Ezekiel Bacon, prominent in political circles, who filled various offices,-judge of the Court of Common Pleas, member of the Constitutional Convention of 1821, ete.,-and was a prolific and able writer, who died Oct. 18, 1870 ; William Green, a prominent business man and polished scholar ; Captain William Clarke, a banker, president of the village board, and prominently connected with the insane asylum and the Reformed Dutch Church ; Ephraim Hart, John H. Handy, Robert Shearman, merchants; Joseph Bunce and Horace Wadsworth, gold-beaters and looking-glass makers ; William Blackwood, brass-founder ; William Bell, a plater ; and Abraham H. Stephens, a gunsmith.

The year 1816 witnessed the organization of an institu- tion which has since grown to important proportions, and exerted a marked influence in society ; this was the Utica Sunday-school. The prominent parties interested were five young ladies, viz., Alida M. Van Rensselaer, Mary E. Walker, Sarah M. Malcom, Elizabeth and Catharine W. Breesc. The Welsh Bible Society was also organized in December of this year.

Among the prominent arrivals of this year was Samuel Austin Talcott, who was born in Hartford, Conn., in 1789. He received his education at Colchester Academy and Wil- liams College, graduating from the latter in 1809, at the age of nineteen years. He soon after married Miss Rachel Skinner, and removed to Whitesboro', Oneida Co., where he began the study of the law with Thomas R. Gold. He practiced at first in Lowville, Lewis Co., as a partner of Isaac W. Bostwick, but in 1816 removed to Utica and en- tered into partnership with William H. Maynard. In Feb- ruary, 1821, he was appointed attorney-general of the State, when he removed to Albany, and from thence he went to New York, where he died, in March, 1836 .*

The following description of Utica, in 1816, is from Dr. Bagg's work :

"In order to form some conception of it and its surroundings, let us approach it from the north.

"Standing on the Deerfield hill, four or five miles away, the country below you seeins like a level swamp covered with forest, the clearings being scarcely discernible.

" Beyond the river you perceive the houses on the hill at Utica, and an extensive opening in the vicinity, one strip ascending southerly to the height of land in Freemason's Pateut. Directly south and west nearly one-third of the country is denuded of wood. To the southcast there are only small patches of elearing.

" Coming down towards the plain, you discern the more conspicuous features of the village.

" Two church steeples enliveu the scene, the Presbyterian and Epis- copal, which stand like sentinels guarding the approaches on the west and the east, the latter rejoicing in a pointed spire, the former equally happy in its rounded cupola. As you cross the dyke you see plainly before you, and towering ahove their fellows, the imposing York House on the right, and its closely-contesting rival, Bagg's IIotel, directly in front. Having passed over the hridge, you are at once within the heart of the settlement, the very focus of the town. For the limits of Utica, at the time I treat of, were mostly confined hetween the river and the Liberty Street road to Whitesboro'; from the square as a centre, they spread westward along Whitesboro' Street to Potter's Bridge, and eastward along Main and Broad to Third Street,

"The course of Genesee Street was pretty thickly lined with stores,-a few residenees only being here and there interspersed,-as

far upwards as Catherine Street, beyond which private houses pre- dominated over places of business, and these were scattered in a straggling way even to Cottage Strect. The roadway was guiltless of pavement, and the mud at times profound. The sidewalks wero paved, if such it might be called, but the pavement-of flagging, of cobble, of gravel, or of tan-bark, as suited the convenience or the taste of the householder-bore little resemblance to the modern conven- tional sandstone. Stately, but graceless poplars, the common badge and sole ornament of all new villages in the North, stood in unbroken row from Bleccker Street to the hill-top. On the west, Genesee had no outlet higher than Liberty Street, and on the east none above Catherine; for though Bleecker was known by authority, it was neither fenced nor housed, and was only a path to pastures heyond. The buildings on its husiness part were mostly wooden, and of mod- erate size and pretensions, A few were of brick, and of these an idea may he formed from the block that adjoins Taylor's on the north. On the hill were the spacious grounds and heautiful houses, already descrihed, of Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, Arthur Breese, and Alex- ander B. Johnson. In Whiteshoro' Street were the Bank of Utica, the Manhattan Branch Bank, and the York House, as well as the inns of Burchard and Bellinger. This was the Wall Street of the village; it harbored several stores, and was more populous than any other, except Main, containing, probably, nearly as many inhabitants as it now does. Ilotel, in proportion to its length, was quite as thickly peopled. Seneca, Washington, and Broadway reached only to the Liberty Street road; Broadway hringing up at the elegant stone mansion of James S. Kip, while Washington conducted passen- gers no farther than the Presbyterian meeting-house. The public square contained the town-pump and the market-house, Main Street had apparently more buildings than it now has. It was lined with the comely residenees of prosperous citizens, and was terminated by the Methodist chapel, and the pleasaut home and grounds of Judge Miller, Broad Street was occupied as far as the line of Third Street, but it did not contain the half of its present number of huild- ings. Between it, Whitesboro', and upper Gencsee, the best dwell- ing-houses of the village were unequally distributed. John Street had here and there a residence, which in all reached a little higher than Jay ; while beyond were the rising walls of the academy, and in the rear of this two tenements on Chancellor Square.

"The faint attempts of Catherine to rival its fellow below were. effectually crushed when stakes were planted alongside of it to mark the course of the future canal. This settled its fate, and consigned it to the rank it has held ever since. Water Street, now rohbed of its former importance, was nearest of all to the then channel of com- merce, and besides its houses for storage and forwarding, was also the home of a few well-to-do folks. Thus, as it appears from the directory,f while the buildings of Genesee were in numher 157; of Whiteshoro', 84; of Main, 67; of Broad, 59; of Hotel, 34; of Cath- erine, 20 ; and Water, as many ; Seneca had 15; no other street more than 10; and the rest hut half or less than half that number. Of those running eastward, not one is named above Catherine, save only Rebecca ; and this, we are puzzled to see, has already a name and two houses upon it. Cornhill was a forest from South Street to the New Hartford line. Another forest covered the sand-bank, and skirting the gardens on the west side of Genesee, came down the slope to the present Fayette, aud extended west to the Asylum hill. When the commissioners, in the following year, ran the line hetween Whiteshoro' and Utica from Jewett's farm to the county line on the east, and to the river on the north, they were obliged to fell the trees so as to see their flag.

"Such was the 'pent-up Utica' of 1816, with its four hundred and twenty dwellings and stores, with its churches, banks, taverns, print- ing offices, and other appendages of a flourishing country town, and which, according to the enumeration made by the compiler of its di- rectory, contained two thousand eight hundred and sixty-one inhab- itants."

THIRD CHARTER.

On the 7th of April, 1817, the Legislature granted a new charter to the village of Utica, extending its bounda- rics and increasing its legislative powers. The village was divided into three wards, described as follows : all east of a line beginning at the river in the centre of Genesce Street,

# See Early Bar of Oneida, in Chapter XVIII.

¡ Of 1817.

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HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

thenee up Genesee to John, thence up John to the centre of Broad, thence down Broad to the centre of First, thence southerly in the middle of First Street to the south line of the village, was the First Ward. All between the west line of the First Ward and a line beginning at the south line of the village in the centre of Genesee Street, and thence north in the middle of Genesee to a point on a line with the centre of Hotel, thence down the centre of Hotel Strect to and across Whitesboro', and along the east wall of the York House to the river, was the Second Ward; and all west of the last described line was the Third Ward. This charter author- ized a president, to be appointed annually by the Governor and council, and six trustecs, a supervisor, three assessors, and two constables, all to be elected annually by the people. The board appointed a clerk, a treasurer, a collector, an overseer of the poor, and other subordinate officers. The president was also, ex-officio, a justice of the peace, and, with the advice of the board of trustees, granted permits to tavern-keepers, retail merchants, and butchers, receiving fees therefor, or, in lien thereof, a salary of two hundred and fifty dollars.

By the same act of incorporation the district of country included within the limits of the village of Utica was set off from Whitestown, and created a separate town by the name of Utica.

The first President appointed under the new charter was Nathan Williams, and the first Trustees elected under it were Ezra S. Cozier and William Williams, from the First Ward; Jeremiah Van Rensselaer and Abraham Van Sant- voort, from the Second Ward; and Erastus Clark and John C. Hoyt, from the Third Ward. The Assessors were Moses Bagg, David P. Hoyt, and Thomas Walker. Benjamin Walker was chosen Supervisor, and Ezra S. Barnum and Joshua Ostrom, Constables. The other officers, appointed by the board, were as follows : John H. Ostrom, Clerk ; E. S. Barnum and Benjamin Ballou, Collectors ; Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, Overseer of the Poor; Judah Williams, Treasurer; Frederick W. Potter, Poundmaster; Benjamin Himman, Aaron Eggleston, and Jason Parker, Fence- Viewers; James Hooker, Gauger; Benjamin Ballou, Super- intendent of Highways.

One thousand dollars was voted by the board to be raised for the current expenses of the year, besides fifty dollars additional for the support of the free school.

Colonel Benjamin Walker died in January, 1818, and his place was filled in the board by the election of Charles C. Brodhead, and E. S. Cozier was appointed overseer of the poor in place of Mr. Van Rensselaer, resigned.

The summer of 1816 is still known among our older inhabitants as the " cold summer," there having been frost in every month, and the crops were, consequently, exceed- ingly poor, and general distress in business circles was the natural result,-a distress from which the country did not recover for several years.

The year 1817 is marked in the history of Utica as men- orable for the first capital execution in the place, and the second in the county. The criminal was an Indian of the Brotherton tribe, by the name of John Tuhi, who was con- victed of killing his cousin, Joseph Tuhi, in a drunken quarrel. The execution took place, according to Dr. Bagg,

" a little east of the present intersection of John and Rutger Streets, then a lone and desolate suburb." There was an immense concourse of people, drawn together by an inexpli- cable and morbid curiosity, from all parts of the county and surrounding courtry, and among them were a large num- ber of Indians. A strong guard, consisting of a troop of light horse and a company of infantry, preserved order dur- ing the proceedings. There was the usual farce of religious services performed by two Baptist clergymen, and the stolid prisoner died very much as a white man would under simi- lar circumstances.

Apollos Cooper was then sheriff, and attended to the business personally, assisted by John B. Pease, of Whites- boro', under sheriff. Sheriff Cooper was conspicuous for his military chapeau, and the short sword with which he cut the drop. He was on horseback, and as the drop fell he turned and rode rapidly from the ground. There was the usual hilarity, profanity, and drunkenness on the ground, and it is said the Indians in particular made a day of it. It was an event long remembered by the people of Oneida County.

The prominent settlers of the year 1817 in Utica were James and Walter L. Cochrane, brothers, the former of whom represented the western district of the State in the fifth Congress (1797-98), and of whom the story was told that he " fiddled himself into Congress," from the fact that at a vessel-launch on Seneca Lake, when the crowd assem- bled were looking for music, he produced a fiddle and sup- plied their wants ; Thomas and Charles Hastings, the former noted as a teacher of religious music and as a pub- lisher, and the latter as a bookseller and publisher; Jared E. Warner, William Soulden, Samuel M. Blatchford, Cap- tain O'Connor, E. W. Tryon, and others, merchants and business men ; John G. Mills, an attorney ; Calvin Guitcau, a surveyor ; John A. Ross, a carpenter; Owen Owens, a baker; William Richards, a shoemaker, letter-carrier, and musician ; Major J. W. Albright, United States paymaster ; William H. Tisdale, a lawyer; William Spencer, a tavern- keeper, etc.

In 1818* the Western Education Society, a religious or- ganization, was inaugurated with the view of aiding " indi- gent young men of talents and piety in acquiring a com- petent education for the gospel ministry."

At its first annual meeting, held in December, 1818, Hon. Jonas Platt, of Whitesboro', was elected president, and twenty vice-presidents, consisting of an equal number of each, -clergymen and laymen,-were associated with him. The directors were Rev. Henry Davis, A. S. Norton, P. V. Bogue, Israel Brainerd, Moses Gillet, Noah Coe, John Frost, Samuel C. Aiken. Rev. John Frost, corresponding secretary ; Walter King, recording clerk ; Arthur Breese, treasurer ; Erastus Clark, auditor. This society continued its operations until about 1830.

The year 1819 witnessed the introduction of the Lan- casterian system into the schools of Utica, under the direc- tion and management of Mr. L'Amoreux, and also the firs Catholic religious services, which were held in the court- house on the 10th of January ; and on the 22d of October

# The preliminary meeting was held Dec. 19, 1817.

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HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

following the people beheld the first boat traversing the Erie Canal .*

It was in this year also that Henry Seymour, the father of ex-Governor Horatio Seymour, eame to reside in Utica, where he remained until his death, Aug. 26, 1837. Mr. Seymour was a native of Connecticut, born at Litehfield, May 30, 1780. The Seymour family have been prominent for more than two centuries in Connecticut, and for many years also in Vermont and New York.

Mr. Seymour was living at Pompey Hill (where his son, Horatio, was born, in 1810) in the beginning of 1819, but having been appointed one of the Canal Commissioners on the 24th of March in that year, he soon after removed to Utica as a more favorable location for the performance of the labors of his office.

The following sketeh of his character is from Ham- mond's " Political History of New York" :

" He was a well-bred man and very gentlemanly in deportment. His great native shrewdness and sagaeity had been improved and highly cultivated by an association with genteel society. As a politi- eian he was wary, smooth, and apparently moderate in his action. . . .

"Notwithstanding the immense amounts of moneys which passed through his hands, and the many and vastly important contracts made by him on the part of the State, not the least suspicion was ever breathed against the purity of his conduct. He was in all respects a correet business man."

He was a great favorite of Martin Van Buren, and a good story is told of the latter when he heard that Mr. Seymour was made a member of the Council of Appointment. In a letter to a friend he gave vent to his feelings in the follow- ing laeonie expression : " Dear Sir, Seymour ! Seymour ! Seymour !"

Dr. Bagg leaves the following testimony of Mr. Seymour :

" In temper he was amiable and forgiving, just, considerate, and tender ; he was intolerant of evil-speaking in others, and suffered as mneh from the very apprehension of defrauding as though he himself were wronged. To a gentlemanly deportment there was joined a gentlemanly physiognomy, for he had a tall figure, and features that were strikingly handsome and refined."

Mrs. Henry Seymour was a daughter of Colonel Jona- than Foreman, an officer of the American army during the Revolutionary war, and was a grand-niece of the famous but unfortunate Colonel Ledyard, who commanded and lost his life at Fort Griswold during Arnold's treacherous expe- dition to his native State. Mrs. Seymour was born at Monmouth, N. J., in February, 1785. She survived her husband many years, her death occurring Sept. 16, 1859.

The great subject of absorbing interest in the year 1820 was the Erie Canal, which was now partially in operation, and continued to be the attraction, par excellence, of all classes of people .*

This year also witnessed the advent of a remarkable character in Utica,-one who subsequently became famous throughout America and Europe,-James Henry Hackett. He settled in Utiea when twenty years of age, and a short time after his marriage to an accomplished English lady, commeneed the business of merchandising in the grocery line, and subsequently added a stock of erockery. He remained about five years, doing a prosperous business, when, having accumulated a capital of about $18,000, he,

like many another young man (foolishly thinking he could enlarge his business and do better in a large city), re- moved to New York, where misfortune soon overtook him, and he became bankrupt. Broken up completely, his capital entirely gone, he betook himself to the stage, for which he seemed to have been peculiarly fitted by nature, and subsequently won a world-wide fame. In the role of Shakspearc's wonderful character, "Falstaff," he was said to have been unrivaled, even surpassing the accomplished Ben de Bar. His wife was before her marriage an actress of some prominenee, and an excellent musician.

About 1820 an enterprising young man, who had made Utiea his home since 1812, began to appear prominently as a business man ; this was Theodore S. Faxton. He had been a driver on one of Jason Parker's stage-coaches for five years, from 1813 to 1817, inelusive, with the excep- tion of six months which he spent in school at Clinton. He was considered one of the most expert reinsmen in the business, and in after-years when he had left the driver's seat, if any extraordinary occasion ealled for faney or diffi- cult driving, Mr. Faxton was chosen to lead off. On the occasion of the visit of the Marquis de Lafayette, in 1825, he handled the "six dashing grays" from the box of the Van Rensselaer carriage, in which the distinguished guest rode from the canal landing in Whitesboro' to the hotel. Mr. Faxton still remembers this occasion as the proudest of his life.

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History of Oneida County, New York, 1667-1878, Part 76

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

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