History of Oneida County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 101

Author: Durant, Samuel W
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Fariss
Number of Pages: 920

USA > New York > Oneida County > History of Oneida County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 101

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George Huntington, mentioned previously as the first merchant in the place, resided here until his death, which occurred September 23, 1841, in the seventy-first year of his age. Mr. Huntington was a fine-looking man, and pos- sessed great excellence of character. By the Oneida In- dians he was called " A-i-o,"-" handsome." His brother, and for many years business partner, Henry Huntington, came to Rome in 1798, and was also a man of strict integ- rity and worth. The Utica Bank was chartered in 1812, and Mr. H. was president of it from that time until his death, Oct. 15, 1846. He lived to be eighty years old, and was considered the wealthiest man in the county.

Among the other early settlers of Rome was Hon. Joshua Hatheway,* who came previous to 1800, and lived here more than forty years. He died December 8, 1836. He served both in the Revolution and war of. 1812; was long a judge in the Common Pleas and county conrts of Oneida County ; and on the 4th of July, 1817, cast the first spadeful of dirt in the work of excavating the Erie Canal. His father, him- self, and six brothers were with General Stark at the battle of Bennington.

Captain Samuel Perkins, a veteran of the Revolution, a soldier under General Anthony Wayne in his Indian cam- paigns, and a participator also in the exciting events of the war of 1812-15, held for eighteen years the position of ordnance-keeper under the government, and died at the United States Arsenal in Rome, December 30, 1837, aged seventy-five years.

On the north side of Dominick Street, and west of Wash-

ington, there stood as early as 1810, on the site of the brick block built by R. W. Pritchard and N. Kling, a small dwelling. About 1814 it was occupied by Marinus W. Gilbert, who afterwards removed to Watertown, where he died. In 1815 there were a number of fine young ladies at Mr. Gilbert's, and a " dancing-master" who came to the place in that year evinced a decided liking for one or more of them. " He went late one evening, towards midnight, to give them a serenade. A serenade in those days was an entire new feature to all Romans except dancing-masters, and the family did not understand the matter at all when they heard the singing and the violin. A brother of the girls got up out of bed, went into the yard, drove the dancing-master off, broke his fiddle into a dozen pieces, and gave him such a trimming as made him keep step quite lively to music of another sort. The brother was under the impression that the man was a burglar, or had come there to make a disturbance. The dancing-master, in relating the occurrence afterwards, was very indignant at what he called Tom Gilbert's boorishness, and declared that the brother did not know anything about fashionable life, nor how to salute a lady."

The portion of the village south of the canal has long been known as " Canal Village." Previous to 1820 there was not a solitary house or building of any kind between the New York Central Railroad and the Poor-House, and all the intervening space was a swamp, with mud between the bogs from knee- to waist-decp. It was covered with timber, and next to impassable ; in fact, it was entirely so in all seasons except winter. A road had been cut through it and a cross-way of logs built, which, when the mud was frozen in the winter, could be traveled by teams. In the winter of 1817-18 the Legislature granted a charter to Jeremiah B. Brainard and Isaac G. Green and their asso- ciates to construct a turnpike on that route. The road was built and the first tolls taken October 20, 1819. J. Burr Brainard, who came to Rome September 10, 1813, the day of Commodore Perry's famous victory on Lake Erie, shoveled the first gravel to go on this turnpike, and collected the first tolls after it was completed. Upon the completion of the Erie Canal from Montezuma to Utica, in 1819, Mr. Brainard built in "Canal Village" the tavern long known as the " Mansion House," on the south side of the canal and close beside it, on lands belonging to the turnpike com- pany. This was the first building erected south of the railroad, and was kept both as a hotel and toll-house. It has long been removed. Among those who served in this building as landlords were James Thompson, Benjamin I. Starr (both these also kept the " American," at the corner of James and Dominick Streets), J. B. Brainard, Charles Moseley, and M. D. Hollister.

The next building was erected the same year by the State, and extended across the canal. Here tolls were taken, and a chain was stretched across to detain boats until their tolls were paid. B. B. Hyde was the first collector of tolls, and Thomas J. Hyde, later of Verona, clerk. Colonel John Westeott, of Rome, paid the first canal tolls, on a raft of timber. This old building, which was painted yellow, stood upon piles driven into the marshy ground, and a year or two afterwards was purchased by B. B. Hyde, placed north

# This name is upon the court records written Hatheway and Hathaway.

381

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

of the canal, enlarged, and converted into and used by him and N. H. Leffingwell as a warehouse, the first one in Rome. It was painted red, and subsequently used for a brewery by John O'Neil, and finally destroyed by fire.

The next building erected was the " Canal Coffee-House," built in 1824 by Daniel Whedon. It was a two-story tavern, and kept at different times by Alva and Hiram Whedon, Norman Butler, Samuel Henderson, A. J. Roe, and Marvel & Sons. It was also finally burned down.

Following this was a small grocery building ereeted in 1826, by John O'Neil, immediately west of the " Mansion House."

In 1826, Hiram Whedon built the first dwelling-house in this locality. It stond north of the " Canal Coffee-House." Alva and Hiram Whedon lived in it a number of years, and carried on a cooper-shop a little farther north. The latter was also built in 1826, and in 1835-38 was used as the first place of worship for those now constituting St. Peter's Church. It was finally converted into a dwelling.

For the first ten years after its settlement Canal Village grew slowly. In 1844 the eanal-bed was changed to nearly the same place where had been located the eanal of the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, and this change called away all the " Yankees" from Canal Village, which immediately began to fill up with foreign immigrants. The principal growth has been since that time, and the popula- tion is now almost or entirely foreign.

The New York Central Railway was completed through Rome on the 4th of July, 1839. The " Railroad House' was built the same year by H. A. Foster. This building is now known as the " Curtiss House."

Caleb Putnam's tannery has already been mentioned as oeeupying the triangular space between the railroad, the canal, and James Street (east of the latter). Opposite the tannery property and near James Street, there stood at one time a hotel. This was out of use, old and dilapidated, more than fifty years ago.

West from James Street some distance a pottery was carried on by Normao Judd as early as 1813, and about where the coal-yard now is was an ashery, owned by Messrs. George & Henry Huntington, and afterwards operated by Levi Green. Next west of the latter establishment, towards Washington Street, Elijah Worthington erected a shop about 1822 for the manufacture of hats.

The " Armstrong Block," on the west side of James Street and south of the canal, was built in 1843-44 by Jesse and E. B. Armstrong.

The corner of James and Whitesboro' Streets, north of the canal, was built upon at an early day. About the year 1800 John Barnard erected a two-story hotel, with a piazza in front, on the north part of the present site of Stanwix Hall. It had a froot of fifty feet on James Street, and extended back forty feet. On the corner of the streets named, and where the south part of Stanwix Hall now is, was a small red building, occupied as early as 1812 by Nathaniel Mudge, Sr., as a grocery. The tavern was kept in 1812 by Benjamin Hyde; Sr. Enos Gilbert after- wards became landlord and proprietor, and in 1815 sold to Elisha Walsworth, who kept it till about 1825, when Thomas Ford became proprietor, repaired the building, and

put in a brick front. He kept it until about 1833, when his son, John A. Ford, became the owner, and named the tavern " Stanwix Hall," in order to perpetuate the name in the locality of the fort, then leveled and destroyed. In 1838, Giles Hawley purchased the Mudge premises on the corner, and afterwards sold them to John A. Ford, and the latter, in 1843, erected a briek building south of the old one. The briek part became the hotel, and was first kept by M. E. Jenks, of Troy. The old part was left standing, and used principally by M. L. Kenyon and Giles Hawley for a stage-house. M. L. Kenyon purchased the whole prop- erty about 1845, raised the roof of the brick part, tore down the Walsworth Hotel, and in its place erected the brick block which runs to the original " Putnam Hotel" property, on the " Hill Block" corner. M. D. Hollister kept " Stanwix Hall" in 1847-48, E. R. Robinson in 1849, Hager & De Ryther in 1850; since then it has been kept in turn by J. L. Watson, N. M. Clark, A. W. Churchill, George Wood, Hiram Nellis, W. B. Sink, Henry Hepburn, Wheeler & Churchill, A. J. Sink, R. W. Barr, and the present occupant, J. Q. Perley. The entire property was purchased of M. L. Kenyon in 1861 by A. J. Sink, who still owns it. " Stanwix Hall" is announced on the arrival of trains at the depot to be the " principal hotel in the .city," and as the intelligent passenger hears its name spoken there are awakened in his mind memories of the days of " long ago," when the smoke of battle, the shriek of the bullet, and the yell of the savage awakened the echoes in the dim old forest aisles around the beleaguered fort, within which a brave and hardy garrison held forth valiantly in defense of their lives, their property, and their country.

On the site of the " Merrill Block," corner of James and Dominick Streets, a Mr. Devereux kept a store or grocery as early as 1804.

Much of the preceding matter is taken from articles published in 1871 in the Roman Citizen, and copied by the Rome Sentinel. These articles were from the pen of D. E. Wager, Esq., who has done much towards rescuing from oblivion a large amount of interesting and historical lore regarding Rome and vicinity, and who is still engaged in the work. Another article, accompanied by a map, was published in the Sentinel of March 31, 1874, showing the village as it appeared in 1810, with deseriptions and loca- tions of buildings. A copy of the map is presented on the following page, together with the article as it appeared. The buildings are numbered on the map, and the numbers in the description correspond with them, beginning at the east end of Dominick Street and going west.

" A map of Rome in 1810 is substantially one of Rome at the com- meneement of the present century, for the changes were not so rapid nor so marked in that period as those of the present day. The census of the town of Rome in 1800 shows a population of 1459, and the census of 1810 shows a population of 2003,-a gain in the whols tuwn of only 544 in ten years. And further, the descriptions of the buildings generally state ( where it can be remembered) the year each building was erected, so that our readers ean judge for themselves as to the growth of Rome.

" It should be borne in mind that Dominick and James were the main, and, practically, the only streets in Rome sixty-five and seventy years ago. It is true, Washington Street was opened then, as now, but no buildings stood thereon, except that of Dr. Mathew Brown, whu resided, abont 1806, on the site now occupied by the

382

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

residence of Mr. J. B. Jervis, and perhaps with the exception of the house of the Rev. Moses Gillett, which stood on the site of the brick block near the Universalist Church, and that of the house of M. L. Brainard, built by Bleecker Lansing. As it is difficult to ascertain whether those two houses were built before or after 1810, we have omit- ted them from our map. James Street did not run farther south than the present location of the railroad, for all below that was a miry cedar swamp. Liberty and Court Streets were opened between James and Washington Streets, but no farther. The foregoing and Whitesboro' Road and the Floyd Road ( which used to be the Indian path to Oswegatchie) were the only opened streets in Rome at the time we write of (between 1800 and 1810). The numbers in the deserip- tion and those of the buildings, as described on the map, correspond.

" We commence at the east end of Dominick Street, and go west on the north side thereof.

ling a little west of the site now occupied by the residence of Dr. Cobb. Afterwards, and before 1810, he erected, as the addition or main part, a part of the dwelling of the late Mrs. Merrill. The part erected in 1794 now stands on the east side of James Street, north of Embargo.

"No. 6 .- As early as 1804 a large frams building, used as a store at that time by a Mr. Devereux, stood on the corner where the Merrill Block is. It was afterwards occupied by Levi Green. Fifteen or more years ago it was used as a vinegar-factory by Mr. Rathbun, near the Black River Canal.

" No. 7 .- On the American corner a three-story frame building was erected soon after 1800. It was called ' The Hotel,' and at the towo-meeting in Rome, in 1806, it was voted that town-meeting the next year be held at ' The Hotel.' The sheds were in the rear, and access to thei was from James Street. West of this hotel, and .

ROME 1810

COURT

75 74 73

LIBERTY

79 80

M 62

167

€

STONE ALLEY

JAMES

- 59

19 18

IG 13

12 1

10 :

DOMINICK

51 5049

48 47 46 45

43.42 41

80 13938

35 34 33 32 31

28 27

" DOMINICK STREET-NORTH SIDE.

" No. 1 .- Prior to 1810, a large, square frame dwelling occupied the site on which stands the present residence of H. K. White. The southeast corner of the fort had been leveled off, and that dwelling erected thereon by Dominick Lynch very early in the present cen- tury. It was occupied by his son James ; it was buroed about 1824. "No. 2 .- Iu the southwest corner of the lot was the land-office of Mr. Lyach, now a part of the dwelling of Patrick Martin, near there. "No. 3 .- Fort Stanwix originally extended through from Domi- nick Street to what is now Liberty Street, and the block-bouse was in the centre (about where Dr. Kingley's barn is). The ditebes around the fort were near Dominick, Liberty, and Spring Streets, and the west ditcb close up to the house where H. M. Lawton resides (formerly Judge Foster's house), and the wing of that house was erected wbere ths diteb was. We give the fort on the map as it looked when erected, although it should be borne in mind that it originally embraced the site covered by the Lynch house.

"No. 4 .- Prior to 1800, part of the house spoken of as Judge Foster's house was erected on that site by Cicero Gould as a tavern. It was used as such for many years, and old persons have informed us they remembered the time when the sheds and fence extended across the street at that point. The house was afterwards enlarged.

"No. 5 .- In 1794 Geurge Huntington crected a small frame dwel-

about where the jewelry-store of M. M. Davis is, was a lane, or alley, leading to the rear.

"No. 8 .- Just west of the above lot was the ' White Lot,' em- bracing what is now the ' Empire Block.' Next to the alley, and on the east end of the ' White Lot,' was ' White's Hotel.'

"No. 9 .- On the west end of the ' White Lot,' where N. P. Rudd's store is, was a small frame dwelling, occupied before 1820 hy Stophen White. Between this dwelliog and ' White's Hotel' (creeted by Stephen White's father) was an alley, or lane, running to the rear, where Stephen White bad a wagon-shop. That alley was about where J. B. Tyler's store now is.

" Next west of the ' White Lot' was the 'Starr,' or ' Hubbard,' Lot. That lot extended west so as to include a part of the land now occupied by C. F. Greene's drug-store. Where R. T. Walker's store now is, Mr. Starr, as early as 1804, erected a frame dwelling. Jon- athan B. Brainard did the carpenter work, and Oliver Greenwood, wbo had a shop on Liberty Street, near where Dr. Scudder now re- sides, made all the nails used in the building. Stephen Hubbard afterwards owned the premises.

"No. 11 .- Where C. F. Greene's drug-store is there was a small 7 hy 9 frame building. Francis Bicknell, in 1816, bought out a man whose name is not remembered, but who then kept a jewelry shop there, and had for some time previous, and Mr. Bicknell then occupied it. That structure not long since was opposite Mr. Bissell's residence.

MOHAWK R

INLAND NAVIGATION

Co'S CANAL

37 36

FEEDER

WASHINGTON

D 66

383

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

" No. 12 .- The next lot west was ' Bill Smith's.' It embraced part of the lot covored by Mr. Greene's drug-storo, and the other stores of W. Atkinson and R. Keeney. In 1793, Jobn Barnard built a small frame one-story tavern ou the site now occupied by Mr. Atkinson's store. Bill Smith, about 1810, owned the premises, and converted tbe tavern into a store. Fifteen years later it was changed into the ' Checkered Store,' and enlarged. Stairs were then made on the east and west ends, outside, so as to go to the offices overhead.

"No. 13 .- On the west end of 'Bill Smith's lot,' and where R. Keeney's store is, a small frame building stood as early as 1810. It was after that used for a sadldler's shop, and before 1825 the Inte Jay Hatheway kept store there. Just west of that store was an alley, running to the rear of the lot. That alley is about where the store of Archer & Snyder now is.

"No. 14 .- Just west of that alley was a two-story frame building, gable eud to the street. It was erected about 1810, by Alex. Lynch, for a store. It was afterwards known as the 'Hollister Store.' It occupied the sites now occupied by the drug-store of George Seott and the shoe-store of G. T. Jones.

"No. 15 .- About where the office or bar-room of the Willett House is William Boden had a chair-shop as early as 1820, in a small 7 by .9 frame building. The building had been there some time before.

" No. 16 .- In 1804, Nathaniel Mudge, Sr., lived io a small frame house which then stood between the Willett Ilouse site and the old Bank of Rome. There Alva Mudge was born in the above year. A few years after, that building was removed to the site on Liberty Street now occupied by the residence of Edward Huntington, and where Zelotus Lord, the ' village shoemaker,' resided for many years.

" No. 17 .- On the sites of the 'Spencer Hall Block,' and the stores of R. Dunning, James Walker, and Peter Toepp, stood a long double frame house, known as the ' Long House.' B. B. Hyde and Benjamin Wright owned the house, and resided there before 1820. It was erected by John Barnard about 1800.

"No. 18 .- Mr. Sweatmao erected a small frame structure about 1810, on the site now occupied by Evans' meat-shop. Mr. Sweatman used it for a harness-shop. In that building the Oneida Observer was pub- lished in 1818, by E. Dorchester.

" No. 19 .- On the corner of Washington and Dominick Streets, where B. W. Williams has his marble-works, Caleb Hammill erected a frame dwelling before the war of 1812, and resided there; after him Reuben Hoag occupied the premises for a blacksmith-shop.

" No. 20 .- In 1810 and earlier, Marinus W. Gilbert lived in a small frame house on the site now occupied by the Pritchard Block.

"No. 21 .- The 'Grosvenor Lot' was next west; on the east end, Chauncey Filer, before ISIO, erected the dwelling known in later years as the 'Grosvenor House' (oow a part of Mrs. Stevens' boarding-house).

" No. 22 .- On the west end of the 'Grosvenor Lot,' Mr. Filer erected his carpenter-shop,-a building afterward used as a dwelling.

" No. 23 .- The old double house caves to street (on 'Purdon Lot'), yet there, was erected as early as 1804. Mrs. Bradley (sister of Luke Frink) resided there in 1817, but who before that we could not ascer- tain.

" No. 24 .- Oo the site now occupied by the residence of Charles Northup, a small frame dwelling stood as early as 1810. John Lewis, father of L. L. Lewis, resided there in 1817, but who before him we canoot learn.

" No. 25 .- On the west end of John Ilook's lot, a small frame house stood about 1800. Mr. Elliott lived there in 1810, and after him Elijab Soell.

" No. 26 .- Where the house of H. W. Barnes now is, a small red frame dwelling was erected soon after 1800. Simon Matteson lived there before 1820, but who before him our old residents don't know. There was a dwelling east and one west of this building, but whether as early as 1810 we could not learn.

" DOMINICK STREET-SOUTH SIDE.

"No. 27 .- A frame blacksmith shop, in the war of 1812, stood just west of what is now Black River Canal (then feeder of Ioland Caoal). The first one who worked there, as our oldest residents remember, was Asa Holden, father of E. B. Holden, Turin, Lewis Co .; after him, and before 1820, Lyman Briggs. It stood opposite the Lyoch House.

"No. 28 .- On the west end of the blacksmith lot was a small frame tenement, occupied by Mr. Holden, and afterward by Mr. Briggs.

"No. 29 .- On the site now occupied by the house of the late Geo.

Barnard stood a small frame house, where Elisha Burrows (father of Captain Oraoge Burrows) resided in the war of 1812. Who before him, no one now living remembers.

"No. 30 .- Next west, and the house is there yet, was Luke Frink's residence. He built it as early as 1810, and resided there as many as twenty years, and was a well-known Roman. The house is now oc- eupied by Mr. Besley.

"No. 31 .- Next west was a sixty-six foot lot, leased in 1798 to Rufos and Joseph Easton. Afterwards, and in August, 1800, a man by the onme of Samuel Edes lived in a small frame dwelling, and he mortgaged the premises to Samuel Starr, at above date. Numa Leonard owned that building, and used it for a hat-shop, and the room overhead for a justice office, near sixty years ago. It was sub- sequently changed ioto a dwelling, and is now occupied by Mrs. Servey. It now stands on Luke Frink's let.

"No. 32 .- The next building west, as early as 1810, was a small tenement on the site now occupied by the residence of C. E. Saulpaugh, and is the kitchen part of that house. Tradition says it was sixty-five or seventy years ago a store. Numa Leonard resided there, and before 1820 built the front or upright part.

"No. 33 .- On the site where Dr. Flandrau resides, Robert Dill lived before 1800, and probably built the old part (since torn away). Henry Huntington bought of Robert Dill in 1807, and erected the house now there.

" No. 34 .- Very near where the alloy is, between the Opera-House and Ilill Block, stood, as early as 1804, a two-story frame building. It was occupied in 1810 by James Sherman (father of Mrs. Judge Foster).

"No. 35 .- Before 1800 John Barnard erected on the sito of Pell & Co.'s hardware store a frame dwelling, and resided there for a while. It was used as a store by Bill Smith about 1814, and about 1823 it was added to and converted into a tavero.

" No. 36 .- About 1808 Gurdon Ifontington kept a store in a frame buildiog which then stood where the First National Bank is. It was a sort of lean-to to ' Rome Coffee House.'

"No. 37 .- ' Rome Coffee-Ifouse' was a tavern erected before 1800, on the sites of the stores of E. H. Shelley and H. W. Mitchell. It was a three-story building, with a wing or lean-to on each side. Solomon Rich kept that tavern in 1800.

" No. 38 .- On the site now occupied by drug-store of G. N. Bissell & Co., stood very early in the present century n small red frame tenement, one story high. Jay Hatheway kept store there as early as 1814, but who before him no one now remembers.

"No. 39 .- Where the store of J. D. Ely now is, a two-story frame building was erected soon after 1800, and occupied before 1810 by Dr. Mathew Brown for a drug-store; afterward by Stephen Hubbard for a store, he having his residence on the opposite side of the street (' No. 10'). West of this store was an alley.

" No. 40 .- Where the bakery of Mr. Cheney is, and west of above alley, was a small frame tenement, occupied soon after the war of 1812 by Miss Marsh (she who was afterwards Mrs. Ardon Seymour), as a millinery-shop. It was probably erected by Dr. Brown or Mr. Hubbard. About 1820 there was a small frame building where G. J. Leach's store is, then used by Dr. A. Blair as his office and drug-store; but as we cannot learn that it stood there as early as 1819, we have not got it down on our map.

"No. 41 .- The next building west was on the site now occupied by Spencer, White & Co.'s store. It was a story and a half frame building with a lean-to, next to alley, built by John Bernard about 1800, and occupied in 1804 by the late William Wright as a store.

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History of Oneida County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 101

Author: Durant, Samuel W Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Fariss Number of Pages: 920

Author: Durant, Samuel W
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Fariss
Number of Pages: 920