History of Oneida County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 46

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 46

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county clerk's office.

14,000.00

Total

$107,899.86

No insurance on Utica jail.

The following summary shows the amounts of money allowed to benevolent institutions outside the county for 1877 :

Central New York Iostitution for the Blind at Ba- tavia

$61.17

Union llome and School, New York

442.60

New York Asylum for Idiots at Syracuse,

192.00

Onondaga County Peoitentiary at Syracuse.

2028.61

State Asylum for Insane ..

442.00

$3700.38

Compensation to supervisors $6605.94.

1200.00

SUPERINTENDENTS OF POOR.

These were originally five in number, appointed by the Board of Supervisors. Under the constitution of 1846, the number was reduced to three, and the office made elec- tive by the people. The number was finally reduced to one by a resolution of the Board of Supervisors, and elected for three years. The number was gradually reduced as the terms expired : Julius C. Thorne, 1862-64; Archible Hess, 1865-67; Owen E. Owens, 1868-73; Roderick Morrison, 1874-76; Thomas J. Brown, 1877-79. In addition the following officers are employed at the county farm : Keeper, E. F. Brown; Keeper of Asylum, B. Sayles; Physician, Edwin Evans, M.D., of Rome. There are also six attendants at the asylum, and two farm hands employed for general work.

CHAPTER XVI.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

Roads-Early Slack-Water Navigation-The Erie Canal-Railways -Telegraph Lines-Express Companies.

THE carliest means of communication in the region of Central, New York were the trails of the savages and the streams and lakes, whose arrangement and inter-connection is so remarkable. : There is not, as in Mexico and Central and South America, any evidence that a pre-historie race ever constructed great turnpike-roads like the Appian Way of the Roman Empire and the wonderful highways of the Incas of Peru ; but it is at least probable that in lieu of these means of communication they made use of the won- derful system of rivers and lakes which form so remarkable a feature of the great region lying between the Atlantic Ocean and the Rocky Mountains.

Nowhere else in the world is there such an interlocking of head-waters, and at the same time a country so elevated and so perfectly adapted to the wants of the human family.

From the centre of the Iroquois Confederacy the savage could launch his bark canoe, and traverse the entire water system of the St. Lawrence and the great lakes, and by means of short portages could pass to the head-streams of the Mississippi, the Red River of the north, and thence to. the Rocky Mountains and Hudson's Bay. He could de- scend the Black River, the Mohawk, and Hudson, the Delaware, the Susquehanna, and the Ohio; and these far- reaching water lines were the basis of the unparalleled Indian empire, whose council-fires were on the hills and in the valleys of Central New York. This geographical peeu- liarity was one principal cause of the superiority of the Iroquois over all the surrounding nations; they held the vantage ground, the strategic position, from whence. they could diverge in all directions against their enemies, and into which they could fall back and concentrate, as in an impregnable " quadrilateral,", when misfortune: overtook them in the fields.

Their principal trails were along the main water-courses, and so accurately. did they understand the geography and topography of the country, and so judiciously choose their routes, that the first turnpikes of the white race were laid substantially over the same ground from Albany to Buffalo.

Water lines were the first means used in penetrating the country, with the single exception of Champlain's expedition in 1615, which, after descending the river Trent, in Canada, and crossing Lake Ontario in its numerous canoes, secreted them on the eastern side of the lake, and made the rest of the journey by land. But the expeditions of Denonville in 1687, and Frontenac in 1696, entered the country by way of Irondequoit Bay and the Oswego River. The earliest movements of the English colonists and troops in the direction of the lakes were by way of the Mohawk River, Wood Creek, Oneida Lake, and the Oswego River about 1726, when a trading station was established at a point west of the mouth of the latter stream.

HIGHWAYS.

The earliest notice taken of highways in the Colonial Legislature was in 1691, when the General Assembly directed surveyors to be appointed. It is probable, how- ever, that anterior to that time legislative provision had been made on the subject. Previous to 1683, highways had been discussed before the Governor and Council, and the system of laws known as the "Duke's Laws" has reference to these modes of communication. No subject on the statute book prior to 1813 had claimed a greater proportion of legislation than. the manner of making and repairing roads. . Since 1799 turnpikes have participated in its beneficial effects, and received the fostering care of the Legislature. . "In 1721 road commissioners were ap- pointed for the western part of Albany County, " from the bounds of the village of. Schenectady to the : Moques country, on both sides of the river, and as far as Christians are settled or hereafter may be settled." These "commis- sioners were Hendrick Hause, Carl Hansen; and Captain Harman Van Slyk .. In 1702, the first year of Queen Anne's reign; Colonel Killian Van Rensselaer, Major Der- rick Wessells, John. Brunk, and. Evart Bancker were appointed commissioners for Albany County. On the 6th

Salary of superintendent of poor.

175

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

of February, 1773, highway commissioners were appointed for Tryon County ; and those in the German Flats district, which then included all of the State lying north and west, were Mareus Petrie, Nicholas Weaver, and John Cuoniog- ham. On the same day the money to arise from the excise tax in Tryon County was appropriated for highway im- provements. On the 6th of April, 1784, the election of highway commissioners was provided for in Montgomery County, from three to five being authorized, "and as many overseers as were needed."

The following petition was presented to the Legislature in 1791, at which time Baron Steuben was a resident of Herkimer County, io that portion subsequently included in Oneida County. The contemplated road no doubt was to pass through the eastern portion of Oneida, and probably near to Steuben's traet.

" TO THE HONORABLE THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK : "The petition of the subscribers humbly sheweth, That a line of road from Little Falls oo the Mohawk River to the falls on the Black River, which runs ioto Lake Ontario, would be attended with infi- nite advantage to this State, not only by opening a trade with the flourishing settlement of Cadaroque,# nod that part of Canada, by which all goods and merchandise could be transported from New York for half the expense that they are by the present route by the River St. Lawrence, but that it would, likewise, very much enbance the value of a large tract of laod that this State has to dispose of, oo and near the said river, and very much facilitate the settlement of that country. That it is humbly submitted to the Legislature to appoint commissioners to explore, lay out, and have said road made, and to appropriate a sum of money or laods for that purpose, the distance being botweeo fifty and sixty miles; and your petitioners, as io duty bound, will pray.

(Signed) " ARTHUR NOBLE, " STEUBEN."

The committee to whom it was referred reported that in their opinion the prayer of the petitioners ought to be granted, and a bill prepared, authorizing the commissioners of the land office to set apart a traet of land for the purpose of defraying the expense of exploring, laying out, and opening the proposed road. Whether their recommenda- tion was carried out we have not been able to ascertain.

No doubt the earliest route traveled by bodies of white men was the military road which followed the valley of the Mohawk, sometimes on one side and sometimes on the other, and quite probably in places on both sides. It ap- proached Utica from the east on the north side, and crossed the river about opposite the foot of the present Genesee Street. From thence it passed through Whitesboro' and along the foot of the hills to Rome, and across the portage to Wood Creek. Temporary roads may also have been eut through the forest to the north of Oneida Lake. Probably the earliest military road was opened about the time of the erection of Forts Bull and Williams, which may have been in the spring of 1756, or possibly much earlier.

General John Stanwix probably used portions of this road in the spring of 1758, when he was sent with a de- tachment to rebuild the fort destroyed by Colonel Webb upon the advance of Montealm in August, 1756. The great army of General Amherst also approached Canada by this route in 1759. In 1775 Colonel Guy Johnson, who . had succeeded his father-in-law, Sir William Johnson, as

superintendent of Indian affairs, pursued the same route when with his family and retinue he filed up the valley on his way to Canada. In 1776, Colonel Dayton, at the head of the Tryon County militia, marched over this route on his way to take possession of Fort Stanwix, and the ex- peditions of Herkimer and Arnold weot over the same ground in the following year.

EARLY ROADS AND TURNPIKES IN ONEIDA COUNTY.

According to Dr. Bagg's " Pioneers of Utica," n road following substantially the course of the great Indian trail from the Hudson to Lake Erie had been opened by Wil- liam and James Wadsworth, who had planted a colony in the " Genesee Country," at what is now Geneseo, the county- seat of Livingston County, in June, 1790. In 1794 legis- lative action was taken, and three commissioners were appointed to lay out a road from Utica via Cayuga ferry and Canandaigua to the Genesee River at Avon, and in that and the following year made appropriations to aid in its construction. The road from Albany to Utica was prob- ably constructed before the portion west of Utica, and was known as the " State Road." That portion lying between Utica and the Genesee River was called the " Genesee Road." It would appear that the road was not immediately constructed, for in June, 1797, Colonel Williamson, of Ontarin, represented it as little better than an Indian trail. According to the " Documentary History," the Legislature, early in 1797, passed an act relating to this road, and authorized the raising of $45,000 by a lottery scheme for the benefit of various roads in the State, $13,900 of which sum was to be appropriated for the use of the Genesee road. The road was then put in rapid course of construction, and was so far advanced that on the 30th day of September, 1797, a coach with four passengers left old Fort Schuyler (Utica), and arrived at Geneva, Ontario County, a distance of one hundred miles, on the second day of October. This section was the first opened west of Utica ; the inhabitants along the line subseribing four thousand days' work to aid in its construction. This road was sixty-four feet in width, and built of earth and gravel, with numerous " corduroys" over the swampy places and ravines. Its bridges over the numerous streams, small and great, were probably of ordi- nary trestle-work in the form of " beats," and very likely floored with saplings or " puncheons." But it was a won- derful improvement over the narrow trail and bridle-path, and the inhabitants of the then far west-the Genesee Valley-rejoiced greatly over its inauguration.

But in a short time it was seen that a more perfeet high- way than this was needed, and in 1800 the Seneca Turo- pike Company, with a capital of $110,000, was chartered by the Legislature. The shares were $50 each. The com- missioners were Jedediah Sanger, of New Hartford, and Benjamin Walker, of Utica, for Oneida County, and Chas. Williamson and Israel Chapin, of Ontario County. Ac- cording to the journal of John Maude, an English traveler, who passed through Utiea on his way to Niagara Falls, one mile of it only was completed in July, 1800. This road passed through the villages of New Hartford, Kirkland, Lairdsville, Vernon, and Oneida Castle. The road leading into Utica from the east seems to have been still unfinished

# Now Kingston.

176

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

at this time, as would appear from an advertisement of the Mohawk Turnpike and Bridge Company, published in the village paper, under date of Oct. 21, 1800, in which the said company solicited proposals for a bridge over the Mo- hawk, at Schenectady, for completing the ten miles of the road lying immediately east of Utica, and for finishing other portions farther east.

Up to the date of the organization of the Seneca Turn- pike Company, the road leading across the Mohawk bottom, between Utica and Deerfield, had been very tortuous, and at times nearly impassable. About this time it was straight- ened across this intervale, and otherwise improved, but it was several years before it became a tolerable road.

The building of this then great thoroughfare was the first important factor in the growth and importance of Utica, for it virtually made it the head of navigation and the principal landing-place on the Mohawk River for the emigration then just beginning to seek the fertile regions in Western New York, and the embryo commerce destined to expand in the swift-coming years to fabulous propor- tions. The opening of this road ten miles to the south forced Rome to take the second place in the county in com- mercial importance, and gave Utica the preponderance which she still retains.

The following is a partial list of turnpike- and plank- roads which have been authorized by legislation in Oneida County, taken from the records in the county clerk's office in Utica : Chenango Turnpike, laid out in 1804, through the towns of Whitestown (then including Utica) and Paris .* Rome Turnpike Company, chartered in 1820. On the 7th of May, 1847, the Legislature passed " An aet to provide for the incorporation of companies to construct Plank-roads, and of companies to construct Turnpike-roads." These, and especially the latter, previous to the general construc- tion of railways, served a very important purpose in open- ing new thoroughfares, which, without legislation, could not have been established. Most of the turnpike-roads have been authorized by special acts, and after serving their orig- inal purposes passed into the keeping of the various towns through which they were located before the date of the above act. Plank-roads began to be constructed about 1846, and for about ten to fifteen years were considered valuable improvements over the turnpike ; but experience soon proved they were costly and ephemeral, and they lost favor and disappeared as rapidly as they sprang into ex- istence, until, at the present time (1878), there are only a few miles remaining in Oneida County. The following list embraces a large proportion of those which have existed in the county :

Rome and Utica Plank-Road Company .- Authorized Nov. 18, 1847. Located in June, 1848. Partly sur- rendered in 1856. Since abandoned.

* A mail-route from Rome, via Redfield and Adams, to Sacket's Harbor, was established by Act of Congress, April 21, 1806. Another route from Utica, vin Whitestown, Rome, and Sacket's Ilarbor, to Brownville, Jefferson County, was established April 28, 1810. The inails were at first carried on horseback, but in the summer of 1819 a line of coaches was put on the route. Among the proprietors of this line was James Thomson, who also owned the " Rome Hotel." A rival line was also put in operation about the same time from Utica via the Black River country. The trips were mnde tri- weckly.

The New London Plank-Roud Company .- Authorized Nov. 22, 1847. Extended from Abram Lent's tavern, ju Vienna, to one mile below the village of New London, in Verona. Length 54 miles.

Rome und Turin Plank-Road Company .- Extended from Rome through the towns of Lee and Ava, near the canal turnpike, to Turin, in Lewis County. Located in 1848. Surrendered in 1855.

Fish Creek Plank-Rond Company .- Extending from the Rome and Oswego Plank-Road, near McConnellsville, to Fish Creek Landing, in Vienna.

Bridgewater'and Utica Plank-Road Company .-- Road laid out in August, 1848.

Northern Plank-Road Company. - Road built in 1847-48.

Hamilton and Deansville Plank-Road Company .- Road surveyed and laid out in June, 1848. Total length, 15 miles, 30 chains, and 42 links. Abandoned in 1874.

Utica and Waterville Central Plank-Road Company .- Road laid out in February, 1849. Surrendered in 1856.

Frankfort and Utica Plauk-Road Company .- Road laid in April, 1849. Abandoned 1861.

Russia and North Guge Plank-Road Company .- Road laid in 1849. Surrendered in 1860.

Rome and Madison Plank-Road Company .- Road laid in April, 1850, from Rome, through Vernon and Augusta, to Madison.

The Seneca Plauk-Road Company .-- Laid on the Seneca Turnpike.

Waterville and Utica Plunk-Road Company .- Road laid in December, 1848.

Earlville and Waterville Plank- Road Company .- Or- ganized in 1849. Road extended from Waterville, Oneida County, to Earlville, Madison County. Abandoned in 1869.

Augusta Plank-Road Company. - Organized 1852. Road mostly abandoned in 1869.

Holland Patent and Marcy Plank-Road Company .- Road laid in December, 1850.

Central Square and Vienna Plank-Road Company .- Road abandoned in 1855.

Rome und Tuberg Plank-Road. Company .- Organized March 28, 1854. Road abandoned in 1871.

Winfield and Paris Plank-Road Company .- Organized under act of 1854. Abandoned in 1872.

The Trenton and Prospect Plank-Road Company .- This company are still running three miles of their road, extend- ing from Prospect Station, on the Utica and Black River Railroad to Gang Mills, above Prospect Village. The portion from the station to Trenton Village was abandoned in 1860.

Utica and Deerfield MacAdam Road .- Extending from Genesee Street bridge to Deerfield Corners. Tbe Utica and Deerfield Street Railway Company, incorporated in 1871, have the privilege of laying down their track on this road.

Some further accounts of roads will be found in the history of the several townships.

Dr. Bagg, in his valuable compilation, " The Pioneers of Utica," gives a great amount of information upon a variety of subjects, among others the primitive means of transpor-

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HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

tation before the era of canals and railways. From his work we learn that the first person to inaugurate a stage- line was Jason Parker, a native of Adams, Mass., who came to Oncida County, and permanently settled at Utica, in 1794. His first experience was that of post-rider between Canajoharie and Whitestown. The contract for carrying the mail, which had been given to one Simeon Pool, was soon transferred to Mr. Parker. His first trips were sometimes made on foot and sometimes on horseback. In August, 1795, he put on a regular stage between the towns mentioned, and advertised his venture in the follow- ing words :

" The mail leaves Whitestown every Monday and Thursday, at two o'elvek P.M., and proceeds to Old Fort Schuyler (Utiea) the same evening; next morning starts at four o'clock, and arrives at Canajo- harie in the evening, exchanges passengers with the Albany and Cooperstown stages, and the next day returns to Old Fort Schuyler. Fare for passengers, four cents per mile ; fourteen pounds of baggage gratis. One hundred and fifty pounds weight rated the same as a passenger. Seats may be had by applying at the post-office, Whites- town, at the house of the subscriber, Old Fort Sehuyler, or at Captain Roof's, Cunajoharie."

In 1797, finding the business risky, expensive, and of doubtful profit, he joined with others in a petition to the Legislature for pecuniary assistance. There is no evidence that they obtained any relief, but the stage-line was kept running, and in 1799 the name of Moses Beal appears in connection with that of Parker as proprietors of a mail- stage which ran twice a week between Schenectady and Utica.

In 1802 a stage was put on the line from Utica to Onon- daga, which carried mails and passengers twice a week. In March, 1803, Mr. Parker, Levi Stephens, and others, pe- titioned for the exclusive right of ruoning stages between the villages of Utica and Canandaigua for the term of ten years, affirming that "the present emoluments are inade- quate to reimburse the expense by the proprietors." In the following year the Legislature passed an act " granting to Jason Parker and Levi Stephens the exclusive right, for seven years, of running a line of stages for the conveyance of passengers, at least twice a week, along the Genesee road, or Seneca turnpike, between the above-mentioned villages. They were bound to furnish four good and sub- stantial covered wagons or sleighs, and sufficient horses to run the same. The fare was not to exceed five cents per mile, and they were to run through in forty-eight hours, accidents excepted. They were forbidden to carry more than seven passengers in any one carriage, except by the unanimous consent of said passengers. If four passengers above the seven applied for passage, they were to fit out and start an extra carriage for their accommodation. Any number less than four might be accommodated by paying the rate of four."

In . September, 1810, a daily line of stages was started between Albany and Utica, and a year later (September, 1811), another tri-weekly line was added. As early as January, 1811, the route had been extended westward to Buffalo and Niagara Falls.

In 1813, Theodore S. Faxton was admitted to the firm of J. Parker & Co., as outside assistant, and in 1816, S. D. Childs was also taken in as book-keeper. Another remark-

able man, John Butterfield, was employed as runner in 1822, and eventually became the successor of J. Parker & Co. in the stage and transportation business. At the time of Mr. Parker's decease, in 1830, the business first started by him in 1794-95 had grown from humble beginnings to remarkable proportions. Utica had become a great centre for stages, there being eight daily lines running east and west, and twelve daily, semi-weekly, and weekly lines north and. south ..

Like every other business there was brisk competition in this, and about 1810-11 a number of rival companies were in the field ; among them we find Joshua Ostrom, Baker & Swan, J. Wetmore & Co., Powell & Parker, and Campbell & Co. A portion of them, however, failed, and left the business to their rivals. On the line in May, 1811, were Powell, Parker, Baker & Co., Parker & Powell, Hosmer & Co., and Landon & Co.

After Mr. Parker's death, Messrs. Faxton & Childs con- tinued in the staging business until 1838. Subsequently, Mr. Faxton, in company with John Butterfield, Hiram Greenman, and others, put a packet line in operation on the canal, and the same parties were also interested in steamboat lines on Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River.

About 1805 a company was organized for the purpose of building a turnpike from Utica through Trenton to Boon- ville. Trenton was then called " Oldenbarneveld." Col- onel A. G. Mappa was secretary of the company. Sub- scriptions were taken in Utiea, Deerfield, Oldenbarneveld, Remsen, and Steuben. The company experienced great difficulty in raising sufficient means to prosecute the work, and Colonel Mappa, in a letter to Hon. Morris S. Miller dated at Oldenbarneveld, Dec. 10, 1805, complains that the heavy property-owners and merchants of Utica had done very little, and shows by comparison with other points the small amount of stock taken by them, thus: Utica, 37 shares ; Oldenbarneveld village, 92 shares; town of Rem- sen, 35 shares.

At that date there had not been sufficient stock taken to enable the company to choose directors. The colonel set forth in forcible language and at great length the advantages that would accrue to Utica by the completion of the road, and showed that if Utica failed to do her duty, the towns of Johnstown, Little Falls, and German Flatts would un- doubtedly enter the field and carry off the profits of a trade which should properly come to the former. From a similar letter, written June 25, 1814, it appears that the company was much embarrassed.

ARTIFICIAL NAVIGATION.

As early as 1774 the idea of connecting the valley of the Hudson with the western lakes and Lake Champlain by means of canals and locks at the rapids and carrying- places was discussed by Governor Tryon and others; but the breaking out of the Revolutionary war put an end to any measures for carrying the project into execution.

The matter assumed tangible shape in the mind of Christopher Colles, of New York, in 1785, and on the 30th of March, 1792, the Legislature passed an act in- corporating the " Western Inland Loek Navigation Com- pany," for the purpose of opening lock navigation from the

178

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

navigable part of Hudson's River to Lake Ontario and Seneca Lake. The commissioners appointed for distribu- ting the stock were Samuel Jones, David Gelston, Comfort Sands, Melancthon Smith, Nicholas Hoffman, Abraham Ten Broeck, John Taylor, Philip S. Van Rensselaer, Cor- nelius Glen, and John Ten Broeck.

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History of Oneida County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 46

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