History of Oneida County, New York, 1667-1878, Part 79

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

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UTICA AT THE PRESENT TIME.

Utica in 1878, according to the ratio of its growth up to the year 1875, should contain a population approximating 35,000 souls. Within its borders are found 221 different streets and lanes, four railway lines, two canals, two express and two telegraph companies, a street railway, forty-one public and private schools, ineluding two seminaries or academies, upwards of thirty church organizations, a great State Innatic asylum, a county court-house and jail, a county clerk's office, a fine city-hall building and police lead- quarters, an elegant and costly opera-house, a new and beautiful public library building, a city hospital and twenty other charitable institutions, two medical societies, nine Masonic, eleven I. O. O. F., and four Knights of Pythias organizations, nine military bodies, six temperance societies, three trades unions, six musical societies, sixteen miscel- laneous organizations, eleven incorporated associations, in- cluding the heavy manufactures, extensive gas- and water- works, an efficient fire department, a finc trotting-park, two prominent hotels and a score of others, a great rural ceme. tery, a dozen fine parks and squares, nine banking institu- tions, and eighteen different publications, including three daily, one tri-weekly, seven weekly, one semi-monthly, five monthly, and one quarterly.

The number of names engaged in the various business occupations of the city, as given in the directory for 1878, is about 1400. There is a very large number of fine business blocks, constructed of marble, brick, and stone, in various parts of the city, conspicuously upon Genesce, John, Fayette, Columbia, Elizabeth, Bleecker, and Broad Streets, and an exceedingly fine array of private dwellings in almost all parts of the city. The place is very irregu- larly laid out, and presents almost as much variety in the forms and angles of its streets and business buildings as Boston or Washington. Very few avenues in America surpass the upper portion of Genesee Street in breadth of roadway, in stately shadc-trees, or in elegant and tastefully- constructed dwellings and ample and finely-ornamented grounds. Many other streets nearly equal Genesce in splendid dwellings, fine shade-trees and surroundings, though none approach it in stir and constantly-changing variety of passers by, and in volume of travel. It is the Broadway, the Pennsylvania Avenue, the Chestnut Street, the Euclid Avenne, the Washington Street, of Utiea, and its people have a right to point it to strangers with pride as an avenue worthy even of a great capital.

Among the more prominent breathing-places are Chan- cellor Square and Steuben Park, each of which is beauti- fully laid out and ornamented with shade-trees, fountains, etc. The number of fine shade-trees in the older portions of the city is very great.

Its principal streets are well paved with stone. Gencsce Street, for a large portion of its extent, is handsomely laid with what may be termed the Belgian pavement, being very similar to that in Broadway, New York, and Broad Street, Philadelphia. In its construction it also elosely re- sembles the celebrated Nicholson wooden-block pavement, so extensively adopted in Chicago and other Western cities, though much more substantial and durable. The other variety of pavement most in use is the common cobble, or

# Sce farther on, article " Manufactures."

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HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

bowlder style. The side- and cross-walks are largely com- posed of thin sandstone layers, found abundantly in many portions of the State. In the suburbs the walks are mostly of plank. The city is divided into three topographical por- tions by the " Gulf" and Nail Creek, which form ravines or valleys, the ground rising on either hand into an elevated plateau, so that the city may be said to be founded on three distinct and separate hills. The northern portions of the town slope towards the main Mohawk Valley, while the southeastern portions slope very gently towards a broad, shallow valley on the south, lying between the city and the high ridge which rises in New Hartford, and which un- doubtedly gave the locality its Indian name " Nun-da-da-sis, -around the hill." The broad valley of the Mohawk is bounded on either hand by majestic ranges of hills, which rise quite gradually from the lowlands, and from whose summits enchanting and picturesque views are obtained, covering the eity and a vast surrounding region.

VILLAGE OFFICERS.

The names of the officers of the village from 1798, under the first act of incorporation, to 1805, are not known, ex- cept that Francis A. Bloodgood was treasurer in 1800 and 1801, and Talcott Camp in 1802. Under the revised charter of 1805 the presidents of the village board were chosen by the trustees. The following is a list of the names of those who served in this capacity from 1805 to 1816, inclusive :

1805-6, Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, Jr.

1807, Erastus Clark.

1808, Morris S. Miller.

1809-14, Talcott Camp.

1815, Abraham Van Santvoort.

1816, Rudolph Snyder.

Of those who served as clerks during these years only one name is preserved,-that of D. W. Childs, who was the first clerk of the board in 1805.

Under the new charter of 1817, the president of the board was appointed by the Governor and council. The presidents from 1817 to 1831, inelusive, were as follows :

1817-19, Nathan Williams.

1820, Rudolph Snyder.

1821-23, Ezra S. Cozier.

1824-25, William Clarke. 1826-27, Ezra S. Cozier. 1828-30, William Clarke.

1831, Ezra S. Cozier.

The clerks were appointed by the board, and were the following :

1817-25, John H. Ostrom. 1826-27, William Jones. 1828, John Fish. 1829-31, John G. Floyd.

CITY OFFICERS.

Under the city charter, from 1832 to 1840, the mayors were appointed by the Common Council. Since the last- mentioned date they have been elected by the people. The following are the names of those who have filled the office from 1832 to 1878, inclusive :

Appointed .- 1832, Joseph Kirkland; 1833, Henry

Seymour ; 1834-35, Joseph Kirkland; 1836, John H. Ostrom ; 1837, Theodore S. Gold; 1838, Charles P. Kirk- land ; 1839, John C. Devereux.

Elected .- 1840, John C. Devereux ; 1841, Spencer Kellogg; 1842, Horatio Seymour; 1843, Frederick Hol- lister ; 1844, Ward Hunt; 1845-46, Edmund A. Wetmore; 1847, James Watson Williams ; 1848, Joshua A. Spencer; 1849-50, Thomas R. Walker; 1851-52, John E. Hin- man ; 1853, Charles H. Doolittle; 1854, John E. Hinman ; 1855, Henry H. Fish ; 1856-57, Alrick Hubbell; 1858, Roscoe Conkling ; 1859, Charles S. Wilson (appointed Dec. 2, by council) ; 1860, Calvin Hall (resigned May 20, 1860); 1860, De Witt C. Grove (appointed May 25, 1860) ; 1861-62, De Witt C. Grove; 1863, Charles S. Wilson ; 1864, Theodore S. Faxton ; 1865, John Butterfield ; 1866, James McQuade ; 1867, Charles S. Wilson ; 1868, J. Thomas Spriggs ; 1869, Ephraim Chamberlain ; 1870, James McQuade; 1871, Miles C. Comstock ; 1872, Theo. F. Butterfield; 1873, Charles K. Grannis ; 1874, Theo- dore S. Sayre; 1875, Charles W. Hutchinson ; 1876, Charles E. Barnard ; 1877, David H. Gaffin ; 1878, James Benton.

The clerks for the same period have been : 1832-33, Thomas Colling; 1834-36, Jacob D. Edwards ; 1837-39, John S. Ray; 1840, Sylvanus Holmes; 1841, Dexter Gillmore ; 1842, Huet R. Root; 1843, Richard U. Sher- man; 1844, Joseph B. Cushman; 1845, Alexander Coburn; 1846, George Murphy ; 1847-50, James McIver; 1851- 52, James W. Bond; 1853, Andrew H. Green ; 1854-56, James G. French ; 1857-58, David Perkins; 1859, James McDonough ; 1860-61, Peter Cunningham ; 1862-63, Thomas S. McIncrow ; 1864, David Perkins; 1865-78, Thomas S. McIncrow.

CITY GOVERNMENT For the year commencing March, 1878.

Mayor .- James Benton.

Board of Aldermen .- 1st Ward, H. Ray Barnes ; 2d Ward, Win. N. Weaver ; 3d Ward, Thomas A. Lowery ; 4th Ward, Wm. H. Price; 5th Ward, John Johnson ; 6th Ward, Edmund J. Callahan ; 7th Ward, Eli Cone; 8th Ward, Gottlieb Zitzner; 9th Ward, John Carney; 10th Ward, George Shotthafer.

OFFICERS OF THE CORPORATION.

Clerk .- Thomas S. McIncrow.

Treasurer .- Martin S. Gottry.

Recorder .- Patrick F. Bulger. Counsel .- J. Thomas Spriggs.

Street Commissioner .- Aikens A. Tallman.

Surveyor .- Egbert Bagg.

Messenger and Janitor .- Nicholas Rossiter.

Sealer of Weights and Measures .-- James Mulligan. Superintendent of Public Parks .- Thomas J. Smith. Poundmaster .- Michael O'Donnell.

City Sexton .- Wm. Austermiller.

Board of Health .- James Benton, Mayor and ex-officio President ; Thomas S. McIncrow, Secretary, and Regis- trar of Vital Statistics ; James G. Hunt, M.D., Health Officer ; John H. Douglass, Thomas Jay Griffiths, Abel B.

PER

Photo, by Mundy

James

Mentor

JAMES BENTON was born at Leamington Priors (now Leam- ington Spa), Warwickshire, England, on the 18th of October, 1805, of poor but honest parents. The place of his birth is about ten miles from the birthplace of the immortal Shaks- pearc, two miles from Warwick Castle, and five miles from the famous ruins of Kenilworth Castle, in a region of the " Merry Islc" among the most interesting to tourists of any in the kingdom. Mr. Benton grew up with few advantages in the way of schooling, the most of his education having been obtained at the Sunday-schools of the parish.

In his younger days he engaged in any kind of work where he could " turn an honest penny," and from his twelfth year was entirely dependent upon his own labor. But, under cir- cumstances which would have discouraged many, he labored on and saved his money until he had accumulated sufficient to purchase a situation with a master mechanic, where he could learn a profitable trade, and apprenticed himself to a plasterer and worker in stucco, with whom he remained until he was an accomplished workman.

He left England for America about the 1st of April, 1829, and landed in New York City in the beginning of June, literally " a stranger in a strange land." Here he remained a few weeks, during which he worked as a journeyman on Holt's buildings, corner of Pearl Street and Maiden Lane, and on the Dutch Reformed Church. In the latter part of June he came to Utica, where he has made his home contin- uously since, with the exception of about nine months spent in Canada, at Toronto (thien Little York) and Brockville, in 1830-32. It was while in the fornrer place that his attention to business and the superior excellence of his work attracted the notice of his employers, who had a contract on the govern- ment buildings, and led to an increase of his wages and his subsequent advancement to the direct superintendence of the workmen, without any solicitation on his part. He was at the date of his experience in Canada a part of the time in the

employ of Mr. Samuel Stocking, of Utica, a well-known and prominent business man.

After working as a journeyman for several years, Mr. Ben- ton began business for himself as a contractor and builder, and the many monuments of his handiwork in Utica are not only an honor to their builder but a source of pride to the citizens. Among these may be mentioned a fine residence for Hon. Ward Hunt, many dwellings on Genesce Street, the new Opera House, Grove & Bailey's printing-house, Faxton Hall, Faxton Hospital, Old Ladies' Home, the Gardner, Empire, and Hackett blocks, the Mather and Buchanan Banks, in Utica, and many fine buildings erceted in the suburban towns. In his advancing years he still carries on an extensive business, and is known of all men as emphatically a working man.

Mr. Benton has never been an office-secker or taken any special interest in political affairs ; but in the spring of 1878 the Workingmen's party, in looking about for a fitting candidate to represent their interests as mayor of the city, solicited the privilege of using his name, and he was elected by a very complimentary majority over his competitors.

He brings to the helm of administrative affairs in his adopted city an unswerving integrity and honesty of purpose which arc a guaranty that during his administration the public ex- penditures shall be conducted according to the strictest econ- omy, and with duc regard to the wishes and necessities of his constituents. His life is an excellent exemplification of what may be accomplished by honest industry when directed by the sound principles of common sense. He has been for many years prominently connected with the Protestant Episcopal Church as a communicant of St. Stephen's Church, of New Hartford.

Mr. Benton married Miss Susan Bradley, a native of Gid- dington, Northamptonshire, England, about 1833. They have had five children,-three sons and two daughters,-all living, and four of them respectably married and comfortably located on excellent farms in the vicinity of Utica.

299

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

Buell, P. J. MeQuade, John Quinn, Lawrenee Bailey, Ezra P. Hodges.

Commissioners of Schools .- David P. White, John N. Earll, Charles K. Granuis, Charles S. Symonds, William Kernau, J. C. P. Kineaid.

Superintendent of Schools .- Andrew MeMillan.

Commissioners of Exeise-George Ralph, Henry Ehres- man, A. H. Sheldon ; Paul Keiser, Clerk.

Commissioners of Charities .- Homer Townsend, Joseph Faas, William L. Baldwin, David Donaldson, James Mer- riman, Wm. Blakie ; Clerk, Martin Neejer.

Justices of the Peace .- Wm. H. Phillips, Morven M. Jones, James F. Hurley, Dexter Gilmore.

POLICE AND FIRE DEPARTMENTS.

Commissioners .- L. W. Rogers, Thomas M. Davies, Henry Lux, Miles C. Comstock.

Chief of Police .- James Dwyer.

Assistant .- Robert MeElwaine.

Chief Engineer .- Wesley Dimbleby.

Clerk .- Thomas F. Clarke.

The active police foree comprises two roundsmen and sixteen patrolmen.

The official papers of the eity are the Utiea Daily Ob- server, Utiea Daily Republican, and Oneida Demokrat.

POPULATION.

The population of Utiea at different periods is shown by the following figures, taken from official sourees :

In 1800 ..... about 300 inhabitants.

In 1835

.10,183 inhabitants.

" 1813.

1700

" 1840. . 12,782

' 1816

.2861

" 1850. .17,556

1820

2972

" 1860 22,524

" 1823.

.4017

“ 1870.

28,804

" 1825

.5040

" 1875.

.32,496

" 1828

7466

" 1878 estima-

" 1830.

8335

te ....... 35,000

HON. HIRAM DENIO.

The following obituary notice of Judge Denio was pre- pared for the Utica Morning Herald by Hon. Ellis H. Roberts, and published .Nov. 6, 1871. It should have appeared in the article on the " Early Bar of Oneida," but was accidentally omitted :

"Oneida County has produced few jurists who in broad views, in sound judgment, in legal learning, stand above Hiram Denio. With a cast of mind eminently judicial, with studious habits that never wearied, with conversance with the principles' as well as the letter of the law seldom surpassed, and with integrity never questioned, he deserves to rank with the magnates of the bar, of the county, and tho State, and as a judge of the Court of Appeals his decisions are accepted as standards and as models. He was not a man to startle observers by brillianeo and eccentricity. His prudence, his common sense, his thorough conscientiousness, were his marked characteris- ties. He was trained in the best school of the law, for he studied with Henry R. Storrs, whom Henry Clay pronounced the most elo- quent man he ever listened to. Yonng Denio learned early the need of thorongh preparation of his eases, and this was always a rule with him. He was a student throughont his life, and his culture was broad and varied, reaching beyond his profession into the rieh fields of literature and of history. Conspicnous for his discretion and his integrity, he was burdened with trusts as executor and trustee, and at his death was president of the Savings Bank of Utica. As a citi- zen, he was above reproach. His religions connection had been for years with Grace Church. In politics he was a Democrat, but he was still more a patriot. He gave all 'his sympathies to the Republic during the war, and voted for Lincoln for President, and sustained

the measures necessary for the nation's life. His fame will rest npon the services which he rendered as judge of the Court of Appeals. His decision on the metropolitan police law offended extreme Demo- crats at the time, but it illustrated bis independent and non-partisan character, and the party was compelled to recognizo his fairness and his integrity by a renomination. Tbe ermine was honored by him. As he was without dogmatism, he eould admit and eorreet errors. In every sense he was a good judge, and in some respects bis associates have pronounced him among the best and foremost that ever sat upon the beneb of our highest tribunal.

" Judge Denio died at his residence on Broad Street, Sunday, Nov. 5, 1871, aged seventy-two years. He was born at Rome, on the 21st of May, 1799. He was two years a student in tbo aea lemy at Fairfield, Herkimer County, with Albert Barnes for his classmate. He came to the bar in the light of some of the greatest names which have adorned our local history, and he did no discredit to their tutel- age. After commencing the study of the law with Judge Hathaway, at Rome, in 1816, he came to Whitesboro' and entered the office of Storrs & White, where he remained until 1821. In that year he be- eamc a partner of Wheeler Barnes, a lawyer in established practice at Rome. Oct. 30, 1825. he was appointed by the Court of General Ses- sions .district attorney, to succeed Samuel Beardsley, and he served worthily in that capacity for nine years. In the mean time, in July, 1826, he became a resident of Utica, and a partner with his life-long friend, E. A. Wetmore, Esq., in the law firm of Wetmore & Denio. May 7, 1834, Mr. Denio was appointed a circuit judge for the fifth cirenit, and then begau the judicial career in which he won emi- nence, serving about fonr years. About 1836, Judge Denio formed a partnership with Hon. Ward Hunt, and for some time the firm of Denio & Hunt stood in the fore-front of the profession here. On the 23d of June, 1853, he was appointed to fill a vacancy on the bench of the Court of Appeals, and twice afterwards elected to the same posi- tion, closing his career in 1866. Other honorable positions he also held, such as bank commissioner, and clerk of the Supreme Court, and he was from 1835 a useful and efficient trustee of Hamilton College.

"Judge Denio married, in May, 1829, Miss Ann II. Pitkin, of Farmington, Conn., who survives him. Three children were born to them : one died an infant; the eldest daughter died in Madeira, where she had gone in search of health; the third is the wife of Dr. L. A. Tourtellot, of this city.

" A paralytic stroke befell Judge Denio on the 17th of October, 1868. He partially recovered from the effects of it, but was never again fully himself. For some time he had been failing. For a fort- night his friends knew that death was nigh. He has passed away, a high type of the Christian jurist, of whose memory eulogy may speak withont reservation. His life proves that eminenee involves no sacrifice of worth, that purity of personal character is consonant with personal, professional, and political success."

HON. HORATIO SEYMOUR .*

Horatio Seymour was born in the town of Pompey, Onondaga Co., N. Y., May 31, 1810. His ancestors were among the first settlers of Hartford, Conn., and the family has been prominent for several generations in the States of Connectieut, Vermont, and New York.

The father of Governor Seymour, Hou. Henry Seymour, removed, when a young man, to Onondaga County, which was then mostly an unsettled wilderness.

When Horatio was nine years of age his parents removed to Utiea. He received his education at the academies of Oxford and Geneva, N. Y., and Captain Alden Partridge's military sehool, in Middletown, Conn. He read law in Utiea with Greene C. Bronson and Samuel Beardsley, and was admitted to praetiee in 1831. He served on the mili- tary staff of Governor Marcy from 1833 to 1839. The death of his father, in 1837, devolved upon him the settle-

# Chiefly from Appleton's American Encyclopaedia.

300

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

ment of a large cstate, and virtually withdrew him from the practice of his profession.

In 1841 he was elected to the State Assembly and rc- clected for three successive terms upon the Democratic ticket, and in 1845 was chosen speaker of that body. In 1842, while a member of the Assembly, he was elected Mayor of the city of Utica, which office he filled for one term. In 1848 he supported Hon. Lewis Cass for the presidency.

In 1850 he was nominated by the Democrats for Gov- crnor, and was defcated by the remarkably small majority of 262 votes, in a poll of about 430,000, by Hon. Wash- ington Hunt, his opponent ; but in 1852 he was chosen Governor by a plurality of 22,596 votes over the same com- petitor. A prohibitory liquor bill, passed in March, 1854, was vetoed by Governor Seymour, on the ground of its unconstitutionality. He was re-nominated in 1854, and in a close canvass, with four candidates in the field, and the Prohibition, Know-Nothing, and Anti-Slavery issues in the contest, was defeated by Hon. Myron H. Clark, the Whig and Prohibition candidate, by a plurality of 309 votes in a total poll of 470,000.

In 1862, Mr. Seymour was again elected Governor over General James S. Wadsworth, by a majority of 10,752 votes. In his inaugural address, Jan. 1, 1863, he said, " Under no circumstances can the division of the Union be conceded. We will put forth every exertion in our power ; we will use every policy of conciliation ; we will guarantee them every right, every consideration, demanded by the constitution, and by that fraternal regard which must prevail in a common country ; but we can never voluntarily consent to the breaking up of the union of these States or the destruction of the constitution."

On the 15th of June, Secretary Stanton, by direction of President Lincoln, telegraphed to Governor Seymour, asking if he could raise and forward twenty thousand militia to aid in repelling the threatened invasion of Mary- land and Pennsylvania by Lee's army ; and within three days twelve thousand soldiers were on their way from New York to Harrisburg.

While these troops were absent from the State the draft was ordered to be enforced in the city of New York on the 11th of July. On the 9th, General John E. Wool, com- manding the Department of the East, addressed a letter to Governor Seymour, setting forth that the city of New York was in a defenseless condition, and asked that he might be furnished with four companies of infantry. These compa- nies were on their way thither from the interior of the State when General Wool telegraphed, July 13, " Please countermand any militia that is ordered to this place." On the same day the draft riots began.

The Governor immediately went to New York, where on the 14th he issued two proclamations, one calling on the rioters to disperse, and the other declaring the city in a state of insurrection. He divided it into districts, which were placed under the control of military men, who were di- rected to organize the citizens, and three thousand stand of arms were issued to these and other organizations. Boats were chartered to convey policemen and soldiers to any point on the shores of the island where disturbances were

threatened. The Governor visited all the riotous districts in person, and, by persuasion as well as by the use of the force at his command, greatly aided in quelling the disturb- ance. During his term of office Governor Seymour com- missioned upwards of thirteen thousand officers in the vol- unteer service of the United States.

In 1864 he addressed a message to the Legislature ad- vocating the payment of the interest on the State bonds: in gold ; and the refusal of that body to adopt this policy greatly depreciated their value. In August he presided over the Democratic National Convention at Chicago which put in nomination General McClellan for the presidency. He also presided over the convention of 1868, held in New York. The leading candidates for the nomination were George H. Pendleton, Andrew Johnson, Thomas A. Hen- dricks, and General W. S. Hancock.

Governor Seymour had positively declined to permit the use of his name, but on the twenty-second ballot the Ohio delegation, to forestall a threatened movement in favor of Salmon P. Chase, cast their united vote for Horatio Sey- mour. When Wisconsin was reached in the call of States its delegation seconded his nomination, and every State changed its vote to Mr. Seymour, who was declared the unanimous choice of the convention. General Francis P. Blair, Jr., was nominated for Vice-President. At the elec- tion Seymour and Blair received 2,703,600 votes, against 3,013,188 cast for Grant and Colfax. Governor Seymour lives on an extensive and well-cultivated farm in Deerfield, three miles from the city of Utica. He is president of the American Dairymen's Association, and has delivered many addresses before agricultural societies, colleges, centennial assemblages, etc. He is also president of the Prison Asso- ciation of the United States.

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History of Oneida County, New York, 1667-1878, Part 79

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

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