History of Oneida County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 121

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 121

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

We are indebted to Edwin Benedict, Mr. Hovey, and others at Forestport village and in the town for information received.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

GENERAL JONATHAN A. HILL

was born in the town of Milo, Maine, Jan. 15, 1831, being the eldest son of a family of six children of Heze- kiah and Emily Hill. He was educated at the common schools, and also entered the Corinna Academy, at Corinna, Maine, in 1847, where he graduated two years later. He then served an apprenticeship as a tanner with William Plaisted, of Stetson, in whose employ he remained for eleven years. When foul treason tried to trample our national flag in the dust and separate our Government, and the President called upon the brave and noble sons of the North to protect it, General Hill relinquished his mercan- tile business and gallantly sprang to its support. He raised a company of men, which was attached to the 11th Regi- ment of Maine Volunteers, as Co. K, and were enlisted for three years' service. He received the appointment as cap- tain of that company from Israel Washburn, Jr.,-then Governor of Maine,-Nov. 2, 1861. Soon after the regi- ment left for the seat of war, and in March, 1862, joined the Army of the Peninsula, being connected with the Fourth Army Corps. They were first placed in actual service at the battle before Yorktown, which was soon followed by Fair Oaks and the battle of Malvern Hill. In these engagements General Hill took an active part, not only casting honor upon himself, but also on the regiment to which he belonged. The regiment was afterwards brigaded with General Negley, and moved South and joined General Terry's command at Charleston, S. C., and was engaged in the bombardment of Forts Wagner and Gregg. They

454

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

remained with this department till the formation of the Army of the James, under General Butler, in the spring of 1864. They took part in the battles of Bermuda Hun- dreds and Fort Darling while connected with this army. General Hill, for brave and meritorious conduct on the field of battle, was promoted on June 7, 1864, to major, and on the 25th of the same month to lieutenant-colonel of his regiment, both commissions being signed by Governor Sam- ucl Cony, of Maine. Aug. 16, 1864, while in command of the brigade picket line in the battle of Deep Run or Strawberry Plain, he received a bullet in his right arm, which had to be amputated just below the elbow, for which he now draws a pension. He was granted a furlough, and returned home to recruit his health ; but this being at the most exciting time of the war, and receiving daily accounts of his brethren soldiers' bravery in the field, he hastened his return, and, though hardly recovered from the effects of his wound, reported for duty November, 1864. This was at the time of Grant's assault upon Richmond, and General Hill was actively engaged in the battles that ended the war, and, on the last day of the fight at Appomattox Court-House, April 9, 1865, received a bullet-wound in his knee while in command of his regiment. Soon after his return to his regiment, after his furlough, he was promoted to colonel, receiving his commission from Governor Cony, dated April 5, 1864. After receiving his second wound, General Hill was detached and placed on special duty by General Terry, and served as president of a military com- mission at Richmond. In November, 1865, he was placed in command of the Northwestern Department of Virginia, with headquarters at Lynchburg, Va. The 11th Maine, which General Hill commanded so long, was the last vol- unteer regiment that was mustered out of service in the State of Virginia, which occurred in February, 1866. He returned home with them, and was the only original com- missioned officer of the regiment. In 1865 he received a commission as brevet brigadier-general from Andrew John- son, President of the United States, for gallant and dis- tinguished services in the campaign ending with the sur- render of the insurgents' army under General Robert E. Lee, and dated April 9, 1865. Upon his retirement to civil life he received the appointment as postmaster of the city of Auburn, Maine; but, having always been used to out-door employment, the confinement necessary to the dis- charge of his duties did not agree with his health, and he was forced to resign. In April, 1867, he removed to Forest- port, Oneida Co., returned to his old business, and bought a tannery of Robertson & Robertson, forming a copart- nership with Thomas E. Proctor, of Boston, under thic firm-name of Proctor & Hill, and with which he is now connected. The tannery is one of the largest in the State, contains two hundred and one vats, and the yearly produc- tion is about twenty-five thousand hides.

General Hill was married Jan. 16, 1856, to Lucy M., daughter of Rev. Robert Richards, of Maine, and has a family of five children,-viz. : Hattie M., Katie E., Lula M., George R., and John. Politically, he belongs to the Republican party, and, though he has been solicited at various times to represent his fellow-citizens in the Legis- lative halls of this State, has always steadily refused. Gen-

eral Hill is one out of many who returned from the busy and active scenes of war and turned his attention to mer- cantile business, in which he has been successful. And, knowing well what our soldiers and country suffered in the late war, he still has sympathy for our Southern brethren, whose ill-judgment forced upon our people a sad and devas- tating warfare. A good soldier, whose military duties oblige him to respect order and law, always makes a law-abiding and substantial citizen. General Hill stands as a living monument of the late American volunteer soldier, who can be relied upon in time of war; when that is finished, and peace reigns once more over the land, can turn his atten- tion either to improving the manufacturing or agricultural interests of our country,-being useful in war, useful in peace, and useful in the welfare of their countrymen.

CHAPTER XXXII.

KIRKLAND.

THE town of Kirkland occupies a position in the southern central portion of the county. It covers an area of 19,716 acres, and includes Kirkland's Patent and parts of the Brothertown Tract and the Coxeborough Patent. Nearly through its centre flows Oriskany Creek, on either side of which rises a range of hills. Those on the west are the more prominent, and present a bold outline. Upon one of their summits, west of the beautiful village of Clinton, is located Hamilton College, that institution of learning which has a wide reputation, and takes high rank among those of the State and nation. Here the missionary Kirkland labored faithfully and earnestly to found an institution which should flourish for years as a power in the land, long after his deeds and his fame were known only to the pages of history. Here, too, were wont to roam the dusky Oneidas, and, in later years the remnants of the scattered eastern tribes, which, upon their association and settlement in this county, became known as the Brothertown Indians, who had no common language in a native tongue, and there- fore spoke only the English. Here the venerable Skenan- doah and the sage warriors of the Oneida nation saw the advance of the white settler, the increase of his numbers, and the decline of their own power, the sure forewarning that their race should pass away.

So numerous and so excellent are the educational institu- tions of this town that it has received the appellation of the " literary emporium of Oncida County."

Rev. A. D. Gridley, of Kirkland, prepared an excellent history of the town, which was published in 1874, and we have made liberal extracts from his work, with necessary additions and occasional corrections.

Dr. Oren Root, of Hamilton College, thus briefly de- scribes the geology and mineralogy of this town :

"The rocks belong te what our geologists call the Silurian Age. The lowest in place is the Queida conglomerate, a hard, gritty rock of grayish color, and composed of quartz pebbles fiucly cemented. This rock is scen by the roadside, a short distance from Clinton, toward Utica.

" Above the conglomerate we find the rocks of tho Clinton Group,

455

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

well developed on both sides of the valley of the Oriskany Creek. These rocks consist of alterunte layers of shale and hard sandstone, with very impure limestone. They contain beds of lenticular iron ure, und abundant remains of Fucoids, Corals, Mollusks, and Trilobites.

" In the ravines on College ITill we find directly above the Clinton rocks a thin deposit of the shules of the Niagara Gruup, containing imbedded masses of limestone, with lead and zinc ores.

"Next above these dark shales we find the red shale of the Ooon- dagn Group, u rock of great thickness, and well developed in this tuwn, but, as elsewhere, entirely destitute of fossils.

"Oo the bills both east and west of the Oriskany, and south of the red shale, we find the drab-colored rocks of the Water-lime Group.

" The valleys and most of the hillsides of this tuwn are covered with the material of the drift period, consisting of sand, gravel, nod pebbles cemected with clay.

" The rocks of Kirkland contain numerous fossils. Of the follow- ing genera of Mollusks there are many species, to wit : Orthis, Lio- gula, Leptæna, Atrypa, Pentamerns, Spirifer.

"Of chambered shells: Oncocerus, Orthocerus, Corals, and Cri- noids are abundant, and Fucoids in certain localities, but Trilobites are more rarely found.

" The minerals of Kirkland are as follows: Oxide of iron, sulphuret of iron, carbonate of iron, sulphuret of lead, sulphuret of zine, stron- tianite, celestine, enleite, gypsum, quartz crystals."

The soil of this town is a clayey loam, with occasional beds of sand and gravel, except along the shores of the Oris- kany Creek, where there are rich alluvial deposits.

EARLY SETTLEMENT.

Hon. O. S. Williams, of Clinton, in a lecture delivered in the year 1848, mentions the fact that " as early as 1776 seven pairs of brothers, from as many different families in the town of Plymouth, Conn., enlisted under the command of Captain David Smith, were marched westward, and dur- ing the summer of that year were stationed by turns at Fort Herkimer, Fort Schuyler, and Fort Stanwix. They visited the surrounding country, and at the close of the war were ready at once to go up and possess the land." These were not the earliest settlers in town, however, as will be seen by reference to the history of the city of Rome and the town of Whitestown.

On the south face of a limestone slab, which has been set in the park in the village of Clinton, is the following inscription :

"Moses Foote, Esq., in company with seven other families, cum- menced the settlement of this village March 3, 1787."

The north face has the following :

"Nine miles to Utica. Moses Foote, James Bronson, Luther Foote, Bronson Foote, Ira Foote, Barnabas Pond, Ludim Blodgett, Levi Sherman."

Moses Foote,* in company with a few other explorers, had visited this neighborhood in the fall of the previous year (1786), with a view to commencing settlement. In February, 1787, James Bronson came also to look at the valley, and spent the night of the 27th of that month on what is now Clinton Green, sheltered by the upturned roots of an ancient hemlock. There is also a tradition that Ludim Blodgett was here early in the fall of 1786, when he commenced building a log house on what is now the corner of the park and Kellogg Streets. The settlement of the town was actually begun, however, by the families and at the time mentioned on the slab referred to. Five

of these families were from the towo of Plymouth, Conn .; they had left New England a few years before and halted at German Flatts, io what is now Herkimer, during the interim between their emigration from Connecticut and their settlement in Kirkland. When they arrived there were three log houses at " Old Fort Schuyler," now Utica, seven at Whitestown, three at Oriskany, five at Fort Stan- wix (Rome), and three at Westmoreland .; These pioneer families followed what was known as the " old Moyer road," which brought them to Paris Hill, from whence they turned to the northward. The " Moyer road" was a part of the Indian trail leading from Buffalo to the Mohawk Valley, and terminating some distance below Utica, where a Dutch- man named Moyer kept a tavern.

The exploring-party which came here in the fall of 1786 were not agreed at first upon the site for a settlement, some wishing to locate on the elevated plateau a mile and a half east of Clinton, and the others on the present site of the village. After some discussion the eastern party was in- duced to join the western, owing principally to the per- suasive powers of Moses Foote. The family of Solomon Hovey is included by some in the number who began the settlement here; Mrs. Hovey was at all events the first white woman who pressed the soil of the town of Kirkland beneath her feet.

Early in the summer of the year 1787 the little settle- ment on the Oriskany had increased to thirteen families, and before winter it numbered twenty. Among those who came this first year, according to Mr. Gridley's history, were John Bullen, Salmon Butler, James Cassety (after- ward of Oriskany Falls ; see Augusta history), William Cook, Samuel and Noah Hubbard, Amos Kellogg, Aaron Kellogg, Oliver Porter, Randall Lewis, Cordial Storrs, Caleb Merrill, Levi Sherman, and Judah Stebbins.

" And in what sort of habitations did these first families live? The building uf grent pretension was the log honse of Ludim Blodgett, which, having begun the fall' previous, he now finished. It was roofed over with elm-bark, but was destitute of floor, windows, and doors. The houses of the other settlers were at first mere huts made of crotched stakes driven into the ground, with poles laid from crotch to eroteh, and then sided and roofed over with strips of burk. These certainly were rude accommodations, but the settlers cheerfully sub- mitted to them."}

Anios Kellogg, on the day of his arrival with his family, in the winter of 1788, was obliged to shovel the snow out of his log house before he could take possession. This house stood on Fountain Street, in the village, on the site of the present dwelling of J. N. Percival, and had been erected by Mr. Kellogg several months before he brought his family to it.

Solomon Hovey, according to Judge Jones' " Annals," made extra provision for stowing the table-furniture and wardrobe of his wife. The judge says,-

" He felled a large, hollow buss-wood tree, which grew a few feet west of the present bunking-house in Clinton, and cutting off n piece of the proper length, split und howed off one of its sides; this, raised upon end, with u number of shelves fitted into it, was found admirn- bly contrived for a pantry, cupboard, and clothes-press."

The settlement was formed on a street laid out north and

t See history of Deerfield.

# Gridley.

# Also written Foot.

456

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

south, which extended from the house now owned by Mar- shall W. Barker to the house of Seth K. Blair :

"Two acres of land were assigned to each family on this street for a building site. In the course of a year eight additional acres were set apart to each family adjoining the two-acre lots first named. Having built their first rude huts, suitable for temporary use, the sct- tlere commenced clearing a portion of their lands, and providing for raising their first crops of vegetables and Indian corn. While these crops were growing they touk time to select a name for their infaat village, and finally fixed upon that of CLINTON, in honor of George Clinton, then Governor of the State."#

Governor Clinton was at the time joint owner with Gen- eral George Washington of several tracts of land in the county, some of which were within the limits of this town. Judge Jones states,-

" Lot No. 14, in the fifth grand division of Coxe's borough af 316 acres, und composing the farm of the late Nathaniel Griffin (now John Barker), of this town, was held by a decd directly from President Washington and Governor Clinton. This deed wus witnessed by To- bias Lear and De Witt Clinton."

The facilities for grinding corn, raised during the first years of the settlement, were exceedingly limited. The Wetmore mill had been built at Whitestown in 1788, and to that the grain from Kirkland's pioneer settlement was carried, either on foot or horseback, over a narrow Indian trail, through woods and swamps. Finally, however, the enterprising settlers joined their forces and opened a road- way to Whitestown; as soon as it was finished Samuel Hubbard drove an ox-team to the mill and brought back six bushels of Indian meal. The distance to Whites- town, six miles, was considered too great, however, and Captain (afterward Colonel) Cassety built a small grist-mill on the east bank of the Oriskany Creek, near the site of the present bridge on College Street. Samuel Hubbard, Ludim Blodgett, and Salmon Butler, each shelled a peck of new corn, and cast lots to see who should carry the joint grist to the mill. The lot fell upon Mr. Hubbard, who placed the corn on his shoulder, and marched away with his burden. As this was the first grist ground in the new mill, it was sent out without taking toll, as was the custom. A saw-mill was built the same year or the next, a few rods above.

To such an extent had the settlement grown in the fall after the arrival of its avant couriers that it began to seem much like the villages in the land the people had left,-the rock-ribbed New England. Judge Williams says of it at that period,-

"What in March was n wilderness, gloomy, sad, and cheerless, in October began to seem like home; and even with the child and the delicate woman the longing for New England's rocky hills und happy villages had grown faint, and almost vanished before the attractions of this fertilo land, and the mutual kindness and bospitality of these dwellers in the wilderness. I hnzard nothing in saying that this place has known ne days more delightful than its earliest."

About 20 new families were added to the original settle- ment during the summer of 1788, among whom were Rev. Samuel Kirkland, the noted missionary, George Langford, Timothy Tuttle, Benjamin Pollard, Zadock Loomis, Theo- dore Manross, Andrew Blanchard, Silas Austen, Joshua Morse, Elias Dewey, and Joseph Gleason.

" When the lands now covered by this town were first selected by Captain Foot and his party, it was supposed that they had never been surveyed, and were not embraced within the limits of uny patent. They considered themselves 'squatters,' presuming thut when the land came iato market they could claim it by pre-emption right. What, then, was their surprise, on exploring and clearing up the forests, to find liacs of marked trees, and on further inquiry to learn that they had settled upon Coxe's Patent, 'a tract of land granted by the colony of New York, May 30, 1770, to Daniel Coxe, William Coxe, Rebecca Coxe, and John Tabor Kempe and Grace, his wife.' Their settlement was found to be located on 'the two thousand aad sixteen acres tract,' by which descriptive name it was long kaowa to the elder inhabitants and surveyors. This plot was bounded on the north hy the farm now owaed by Henry Gleason, on the east by David Pickett's, on the south by Seth K. Blair's, and on the west by the Oriskany Creck. On farther search it was found that this truct had already been divided into twenty lots of nearly. equal size, and that the proprietors had offered it ns a gift to any colony of twenty families who would take it up and occupy it as a permanent settlement. At once our settlers hoped that they might enjoy the benefit of this generous offer; but the patentees, learning that their lands had already been occupied in ignorance of their pro- posnl, refused to make the gift, and required the squatters to buy the Iund at the rate of ten shillings an acre. Accordingly, in the summer of 1788, Cuptain Foot was sent to Philadelphia to purchase the whole tract on the best possible terms; and eventually the several lots were parceled out at cost ameng the different settlers. The triangular piece of land which afterwards became the site of the village was called the ' handkerchief lot,' from its resemblance on the map to n half baodkerchief, und this was bought by Captain Foot."t

In the spring of 1788 the settlers were overwhelmed with grief at an accident which happened, and which is thus described by Judge Jones :

" Miss Merab Tattle, aged seventeen, daughter of Colonel Timothy Tuttle, who owned und resided upon the Royce farm, was drowned in the Oriskany Creek. The circumstances are briefly these : Miss Tuttle and Miss Annn Foot, daughter of Captain Moses Foot, started late in the afternoon to make a call at Mr. William Cook's, who re- sided on the west bank of the creek, in u log house which stood near the site of the house formerly owned by Mr. J. Herrick. . .

" For lack of perfumed French hair powder for their toilet, they called on their wny at Cnssety's mill, and with the mill-dust whitened their lacks as for some gala day. Though now obsolete, such was then the fashion. At that time no bridge spanned the stream from its source to its mouth. The settlers bad felled two trees across, a little below the site of the bridge, on the road to the College. When the girls arrived at the crossing-place they found the stream swollen from the spring freshet and recent rains, and its turhid waters were rushing und foaming madly down its channel. At first they quailed, but Miss Foot, the more courageous of the two, soon led the way, fol- lowed by her companion. When near the middle of the stream Miss Foot heard from her friend the exclumation, 'Oh, denr, my head swims!' which was instantly followed by a splush in the water, and turning saw her struggling in the current. Miss Foot gave such loud and proloaged cries for help that she was distinctly heard through the woods at Miss Tuttle's residence. Mr. Cook, who happened to he at his house, either witnessing the accident or attracted by the cries, sprang into the stream to rescue the drowning girl, and nearly succeeded in grasping her by her clothes, when the current drew her from his sight under a pile of drift-wood. Instant and continued search was made for the body. The blacksmith made hooks which were fastened in the end of long poles, with which to drag the stream. These were unsuccessfully plied through the whole night. In the morning the remains of the unfortunate young lady were found drawn under a pile of drift-wood, near the site of the Clinton factory. Few eyes slept in Clinton that night. Intelligence was sent to their neighbors at Dean's settlement, ia Westmoreland, as also the time appointed for the funeral. At the time named many of the few set- tlere en Dean's Putent attended. Nehemiah Jones (father of Hon. Pamray Joacs), when about to start, and knowing there could he no clergyman expected (as probably there was none west of Albany) took with him a volume of sermens, in which was one preached on

# Gridley's History of Kirkland, page 24.

+ Gridley, pages 27 and 28.

Thomas Dean

In the year 1795, John Dean, a Quaker, then living near New- burg, Orange Co., N. Y., was commissioned by the Society of Friends in New York City to labor as a missionary among the Brothertown Indians, on the southern line of the township of Kirkland, Oneida County. The Brothertown Indians were so named because their number included the remains of several disorganized tribes in New England and Long Island, representing the Mohegans, Montauks, Nar- ragansetts, Pequots, Nahantics, and others.

It cannot be here stated when this composite tribe was first organ- ized. It is known that the Oneida Indians sent an early and earnest invitation to their Eastern consins, and that the State Governments of New England aided in the removal of the scattered clans to their new home in Brothertown. As early as 1763, Sir William Johnson re- ports them as numbering two hundred warriors, and in all one thousand souls. They all spoke the English language with more or less facility.

John Denn returned to Newburg in 1797, after living and lahoring among the Brothertown Indians for two years. This absence was so deeply regretted that, in a few months, he was visited by a deputation of Indians who nrged him to return to Brothertown and live with them five years longer as their religions teacher and friend. This pressing invitation was accepted. In 1798, John Dean returned to Brother- town with his wife and his son, Thomas Dean, then a youth of nine- teen years. For the first year they lived in a log house.

In 1799 the wing of what came to be known as the Dean home- stead was built ; and in 1804 the main part of the dwelling was com- pleted. There was no release for John Dean at the end of five years. He faithfully served the Brothertown Indians as their spiritual gnide, protector, and friend until be was laid aside by the infirmities of age. By wholesome precept and godly example, "he lured to brighter worlds and led the way." He died and was buried in Deansville, in 1820, aged 88 years. Some years before his death, his son, Thomas Dean, had been chosen by the Indians as their agent and adviser,-80 strong had grown the bond of friendship and mutual confidence be- tween the Dean family and the Brothertown tribe.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Oneida County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 121

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