History of Onondaga County, New York, Part 10

Author: Clayton, W.W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 840

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exchange (with Colonel Voorhees,) of the present Court House site for the lot on Clinton Square can be effected, this Board will order the exchange." Upon motion of Mr. Barrows, T. C. Cheney, Elizur Clark and Bradley Carey were appointed a commit- tee " to prepare plans, specifications and estimates for a Court House, and report at a future meet- ing." At a meeting of the Board on the 28th of April, the committee submitted their report, show- ing that they had made favorable terms with Col- onel Voorhees for the exchange of lots, and recom- mending a plan previously submitted to the Board, drawn by Mr. H. N. White, architect, of this city. They estimated the cost of the building, on the plan proposed, at $38,000, including old mate- rial. In preference to brick, they recommended Onondaga limestone, as " most appropriate and much more durable." This report was signed by the entire committee and favorably received by the members of the Board. The question of changing the site was then submitted in a resolution offered by Mr. Palmer, which was carried almost unani- mously, only one member voting in the negative. The plan of the building presented by the commit- tee was then adopted, and Messrs. Slocum, Johnson and District Attorney Andrews, directed to execute papers for an exchange of sites with Col. Voorhees. The next day Timothy C. Cheney, Luke Wells and D. C. Greenfield, were appointed a committee to superintend the erection of the building ; and Hora- tio N. White, architect. At a subsequent meeting of the Board in June, the proposals for the erection of the building, advertised for by the commission- ers, were opened, and the contract awarded to Messrs. Cheney and Wilcox at $37,750, the con- tractors to have the material of the old court house and jail. Mr. Cheney thereupon resigned his place as Commissioner, and Elizur Clark was appointed to fill the vacancy. The cut stone work of the building was let by the contractors to Messrs. Spaulding & Pollock, the carpenter and joiner work to Messrs. Coburn & Hurst, and the iron work to Messrs. Featherly, Draper & Cole. The building was finished and occupied in 1857. It is a beauti- ful and substantial structure of Onondaga grey lime- stone, a credit to the county and an ornament to the city.

The County Clerk's Office, a fire proof brick building, on North Salina street, corner of Church, was erected by the County in 1814. It contains rooms for the Surrogate, Supervisors, Superin- tendent of the Poor, etc., together with a large collection of valuable documents and records placed therein on file for preservation.

HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

CHAPTER XI.

THE SALT SPRINGS -- HISTORY OF THEIR DIS- COVERY - EARLY MANUFACTURE OF SALT - STATE LEGISLATION ON THE SUBJECT - THE SALT SPRINGS RESERVATION - METHODS AND STATISTICS OF THE SALT WORKS-ANALYSIS OF THE WATER AND SOURCE OF ITS SUPPLY.

The existence of salt springs at Lake Ganentaha, or Onondaga, was known to the Indians before the advent of the first Europeans, but it does not ap- pear that they knew the use of them till taught by the Jesuit Missionary, Father Le Moyne, in 1654. An allusion is made to the springs, or " salt foun- tains," by Father Jerome Lallamant, who visited the Onondagas in 1645, and who says : " The On- ondagas have a very beautiful lake called Ganentaha, on the shores of which are several salt springs, the borders of which are always covered with very fine salt." Father Le Moyne, in an account of his return to Quebec, under date of August 16, 1654, says : " We arrived at the entrance of a small lake ; in a large half-dried basin we tasted the water of a spring of which the savages dare not drink, saying there is a demon in it which renders it foul. We found it to be a fountain of salt water from which we made salt as natural as from the sea, a sample of which I shall take with me to Quebec."

This act of Father Le Moyne's exorcised the demon, to whose dominion the superstition of the natives had given over the salt springs, and thence- forth Onondaga salt came into use among the Indians of this region of country. Says Clark : " In 1770, Onondaga salt was in common use among the Delaware Indians, and by that time traders were in the habit of bringing small quantities to Albany along with their furs as a curiosity." At this period it was to be found in the huts of the Indians, the women manufacturing it and sending it to Quebec for sale .*

Some years before this Sir William Johnson had obtained a conveyance from the Indians of a tract of land one mile in width adjoining and including the entire " salt lake." On account of the loyalty of Sir William and his son, Sir John Johnson, to the English, this and his princely estate on the Mo- hawk were forfeited during the Revolutionary period. It was not until several years after the Revolution that the fame of these salt springs began to attract settlers, and that attempts were made by Americans to develop and utilize their resources.

Comfort Tyler was the pioneer in this enterprise, which has since assumed proportions of such im-

mense magnitude. In 1788, he was shown the spring by the Indians, and in May of that year made in about nine hours thirteen bushels of salt. His account of his first visit to the springs is given as follows : " The family wanting salt, obtained about a pound from the Indians, which they had made from the springs on the shores of the lake. They offered to discover the water to us. Accord- ingly I went with an Indian guide to the lake, taking along an iron kettle of fifteen gallons capaci- ty, which he placed in his canoe, and started out of the mouth of Onondaga Creek, easterly into a pass called Mud Creek. After passing over the marsh, then overflowed by about three feet of water, and steering towards the bluff of hard land, since the village of Salina, he fastened his canoc, pointed to a hole apparently artificial, and said there was the salt."

Thus was Mr. Tyler introduced to the salt springs. The same season he was joined by Major Asa Danforth, who carried a large iron kettle on his head from Onondaga Hollow to the springs at Salina, and the two together made salt, suspending the kettle by a chain to a pole supported by two crotched stakes driven into the ground. When they had made a sufficient supply, they hid the chain and kettle in the bushes, to keep them safely for future use. In this way all the salt was made which was manufactured during the first year at " Salt Point." In 1789, Nathaniel Loomis came by the way of Oneida Lake and River with a few kettles, and dur- ing the following winter made from five to six hun- dred bushels of salt, which sold for one dollar a bushel.

The State acquired an ownership in the salt springs, in common with the Indians, and in the tract of land adjoining them, known as the Onon- daga Salt Springs Reservation, by the treaty of Fort Stanwix, concluded September 12, 1788. This treaty stipulated that the salt lake and the lands for one mile around the same, should forever remain for the common benefit of the people of the State of New York and of the Onondagas and their pos- terity, for the purpose of making salt. The two races thus became tenants in common of the salt springs property. The white men at once took possession at Salina and commenced the manufac- turc of salt.

In 1794, Judge James Geddes constructed a " salt work" a mile or more to the southwest of that point, or what was properly the head of the lake. The Indians took exceptions to this, saying they owned one half of the water, and the white men the other half, and as the whites had taken pos-

* Letter of Judge Bowker, quoted by Hon. George Geddes.

HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

session on their side of the lake, they should keep away from what they called the Indian's side. This grew into a difficulty threatening an attack on the part of the Indians. Judge Geddes had proceeded too far with his work to be willing to give it up as a peace offering, to conciliate the wrath of his red neighbors. Presents were offered and conciliatory speeches made to them, to induce them to surren- der peaceably, but all seemed unavailing. The In- dians desired the presents, but at the same time felt unwilling to compromise what they considered their right to the side of the lake which the Judge had occupied. Finally, a happy method of solving the problem struck one of the chiefs : "Let us," said he, "adopt this pale face into our tribe, and then being one of us, he will have a right to make salt on our side of the lake." The proposition was unanimously adopted, and Judge Geddes had the name Don-da-dah-gwah conferred upon him, by which the Indians ever after addressed him. Thence- forth he made his salt in peace .*

In 1795, the Indians not being satisfied with the arrangement whereby they held a common interest in the Reservation, entered into another treaty at Cayuga Ferry, in which they ceded their right ab- solutely to the sovereignty of the State of New York. This treaty was the foundation of the Con- stitutional prohibition against the sale of the Salt Springs, because it was regarded as a particular bar- gain and agreement on the part of the State of New York to so exercise its power over them as never to depart from its rights and interest in them, and to use them for the benefit of the entire people of the State.

The bargain was consummated by giving the Indians $1,000 in money, an annuity of $700, and 150 bushels of salt annually.

The Salt Springs Reservation, as delineated on the map, is about three and a half miles wide at the extreme south end, about three-quarters of a mile at the north end, including the lake within its boundaries, and containing about ten square miles. It takes in the city of Syracuse, the town of Geddes and the town of Salina, with the exception of nine and a half lots added to the town of Salina from the town of Manlius.

The State took formal possession of it in 1797, sending a surveyor to run out a portion of it into lots, and placing it under a superintendent. William Stevens was appointed the first Superintendent, June 20, 1797, and held the office till his death, in the year ISO1. The surveyor laid out the reserva- tion into marsh lots, pasture lots, salt lots, dwelling

lots and store lots. The State fixed the duty on salt at four cents a bushel, and for this tax gave, in the first place, a large lot running down close to the springs, for the purpose of putting the salt works thereon, and running up to the brow of the hill, with a frontage upon the bluff sufficient for a dwell- ing house and store. And to each owner it gave a fourteen acre marsh lot and a five acre pasture lot, under a lease for seven years, and a right to roam anywhere over the entire ten square miles for fuel, without any cost to themselves save cutting and hauling, for the manufacture of salt, or for any other purpose for which fuel or timber was desired.

In addition thereto the State built a sort of wharf down on a little creek that comes into the lake, for the batteaux that should engage in the distribution of the salt to Oswego and other places. The State, also, in order to avoid the necessity of large works, which would be required by individuals to store salt in, while waiting for its sale, erected storehouses and stored the salt in them. All this was the equiva- lent which the State gave the manufacturers for the four cents charge of duties .*

The Salt Springs Reservation, we have said, in- cluded the city of Syracuse and the towns of Ged- des and Salina. The amount of lands sold by the State out of this Reservation up to and including 1846, was over $250,000 worth, the State reserving a royalty on the salt water. In outlying lands which would probably not be needed in the manu- facture of salt, the State has given the deeds reserv- ing this royalty. In addition thereto, the State has from time to time, under the Constitution of 1846, which says they shall not decrease the acreage which has heretofore been devoted to the manufacture of salt, exchanged lands which were not suitable for that purpose for lands which were adapted thereto, and have thus increased the acreage from 550 to 1, 100 acres. The State at the same time has put into the treasury between $40.000 and $50,000, as the difference in value in favor of the State arising from such exchange of lands.t

In 1867, salt works were removed at a large profit to the State, to make room for the increasing popu- lation in the Third and Fifth Wards of Syracuse. Also, by an act of the Legislature in 1872, salt works were removed from the Third Ward of the city and other lands substituted for them. These lands are good property ; a considerable portion of them have been sold by the State, and should the balance be held till after the present financial de- pression, the State will no doubt realize a handsome profit on them. The Syracuse Solar Salt Company

* Addre : H n Th ma G A verd, 13-6.

* H n. G- rge Gedde , Rep rt, 1859).

HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

and the late Onondaga Salt Company, in 1872, dis. posed of forty acres of vats to the State, situated on State lands in the Third Ward of Syracuse, in ex- change for lands under the hill, to which they re- moved their works. They are holding about forty acres outside, granted them by the State, so that as the city encroaches upon their private land imme- diately under the hill, where their vats are now situ- ated, they can eventually remove them to the lands held under the State grant.

To return to our history of the manufacture of salt. In 1792, Thomas Orman, Simeon Pharis and William Gilchrist came to Salina. Mr. Orman brought the first caldron kettle for the manufac- ture of salt. Mr. Aaron Bellows came that year and established a cooper shop for the manufacture of salt barrels. The first kettles set in arches were used by Jeremiah Gould and William Van Vleck. The latter in company with Moses De Witt. in 1793, erected an arch with four kettles, and supplied the demand for the whole surrounding country.

The " Federal Company " was formed in 1798, its members being AAsa Danforth, Jedediah Sanger, Daniel Keeler, Thomas Hart, Ebenezer Butler, Elisha Alvord and Hezekiah Olcott. This company erected a large building capable of containing thirty- two kettles set in blocks of four each. In this man- ner originated the term " block " which has ever since been applied to a salt manufactory where the water is boiled in kettles. l'art of the " Federal Works" were subsequently hired by Dioclesian Alvord. The pump-house was then out in the water, and Mr Alvord had to take a boat in order to reach it.

The first laws regulating the manufacture of salt were passed in 1707, the State then assuming the control which it has never relinquished. The State demanded for the rent of land and the use of water, four cents a bushel for all the salt made, and re- quired that ten bushels, at least, should be made in every kettle or pan used. Provision was made that in case any lessee should not use all the water there might be on his lot, the surplus could be conveyed to his next neighbor, and so on, till all the water was used. The powers given to the Superintendent were full, and the law entered into minute details in regard to the whole business of making and packing salt. The maximum price was fixed at six cents a bushel to citizens of the State, and the manufacturer must either put the salt in the public storehouse, or if he kept it in his own building, he must surrender the keys to the Superintendent. No salt could be sold on the leased premises. One cent per bushel was exacted by the State for storage, and the Super- intendent was to take care to have always in store

two thousand bushels the first year, and an addi- tional five hundred for each year thereafter, which was to be ready to meet the demands of citizens of this State. The block-house, which in 1794 had been constructed for defense, was converted by the State into a public store-house. Clark, in his history, says : " The Superintendent gave certificates of de- posit in the store-house, and these certificates passed from man to man like bank bills."

The manufacture of salt continued to increase as the surrounding population became more numerous, some of it finding a market in Canada. The rivers and lakes connected with Onondaga Lake furnished facilities for transportation in summer, and in the winter, sleighs came from the counties to the south, bringing farm produce to exchange for salt. The time soon came when the Superintendent could not store all the salt made, and so in March, 1798, it was provided by law that the manufacturers might account on oath for the quantity manufactured ; and they were allowed to pay rent according to the capacity of their works, at the rate of two cents per month for every gallon of the capacity of their pans or kettles, and were released from the charge of four cents per bushel. Fifty six pounds was fixed upon as the weight of a bushel of salt.

In 1799, another law was passed, going more into details, even determining the number of hoops on the barrels, the kind of timber they should be made of, the seasoning of the barrels, and directing that they must be water-tight. The Superintendent was to weigh, deduct the tare, then brand the weight and quality and put on the price per bushel which he judged the salt to be worth, and then brand the name on the wood. This salt, if it went away by water, was to be shipped from the public wharf, under a penalty of five dollars for every bushel not so shipped. The Superintendent was required to provide bins to keep each manufacturer's salt in, until it was inspected.

These, or the like minute regulations, continue to govern, and when their rigor has been lessened, it has been due to the fact that the magnitude of the business has made it impracticable to enforce them.

It is worthy of note that the almost absolute power conferred by law upon the Superintendent of the Salt Springs, has been the secret of its success in an economical point of view, as affording a larger revenue to the State than any other State property, managed on different principles. The policy of conferring the whole authority on the Superintend- ent and making him alone responsible for the entire management of the interest, has proved in the case

HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

of the Onondaga Salt Springs exceptionally suc- cessful, as compared with every other State in- terest.

In 1817 the duties levied by the State were raised to twelve and a half cents a bushel, the de- sign being to apply the revenue thus derived to the extinguishment of the debt on the canals. This rate remained till 1834, when the duties were re- duced to six cents a bushel, and so continued till April 20, 1846, since when they have been one cent a bushel. This was intended to be sufficient to pay for superintendence, digging wells, pumping and conveying the water to the manufacturers, and other expenses of the works incurred by the State. Since the reduction of the duties to one cent a bushel, the following revenue has been derived from the manufacture of salt, and paid into the General Fund of the State :

From 1846 to 1876, net reve- nue. . $ 653,112 73

Deficit in 1857, to be de- ducted.

$6,603 01

Also expenditures previous to March 1, 1857 . 7,000 00

Total deduction and expendi- tures 13,603 0I

Net revenue above expendi- tures 639,509 72

Revenue from 1825 to re-

duction of duties in 1846 ..

3,402,971 49

Expenditures for the same

period 202,054 99

Net revenue from 1825 to 1846 $3,200,916 50 Total net revenue since 1825. 3,540,226 22

In addition to the above direct revenue, the salt interest has paid to the State in canal tolls about three-fourths of a million dollars. In 1875, it paid over $70,000. The manufacture and handling of salt in various ways employs about four thousand men.

The law of 1799 required the Superintendent to make an annual report to the Legislature. To this valuable provision we are indebted for much in- formation and many of the important improvements which have been made from time to time. We learn from one of these reports that in 1806, 159,07 I bushels of salt were made. About this time a great advance was made by the construction of a block of ten kettles by Hon. John Richardson. During Mr. Kirkpatrick's administration the well at Salina was dug out twenty feet square to the depth of thirty feet. Each manufacturer had his own pump, worked by hand, and water carried in spouts to his works. In 1810, water power was first used to raise the brine, Yellow Brook being brought in a canal

to turn the wheel. This brook, through the enter- prise of Judge Forman and others, was conducted all the way from what is now the eastern part of Syracuse, to do service in the salt blocks at Salina. In 1812 a law was passed requiring the Superin- tendent to lay out two acres of land and lease the same, free of duty if he thought proper, to induce an experiment to be tried for the production of salt by solar evaporation. This was the origin of a mode of manufacture which has since become general, and has exercised an important influence on the entire salt business. Hundreds of acres are now covered with vats for solar salt, and the an- nual product is between two and three million bushels.

The salt interest of Syracuse, like many other manufacturing interests, has had its seasons of pros- perity and of comparative depression. It passed through its severest trial in 1857, when the general financial panic paralyzed the business of the country, especially of the West. Then, and for several years after, Onondaga salt suffered from the want of a regular and systematic method of putting it upon the market. Says Hon. Thomas G. Alvord : " Gentlemen from Buffalo and Oswego would come here and buy our salt. They would give us their thirty days, ninety days and four months paper. They would take the salt and use it for ballast on their grain vessels, and when they got to their destination, they would dump the salt on the dock and sell it for what they could get. If their venture in grain was a good one, we got our pay, if not, we were the losing parties. The result was that we were at the mercy of these men." The manufac- turers put their capital and their wisdom together and got out of the difficulty in 1860 and 1861.

The period of greatest prosperity was during the war of the Rebellion. The largest annual produc- tions of salt were, indeed, during the years from 1867 to 1871, being an average yield per annum for the four years of 8,612,865 bushels. But the prices were not equal to those ruling from 1862 to 1865, when, on account of the war, foreign salt was almost wholly excluded from the country.

About the commencement of the war, salt water was discovered in abundant quantities in the valley of the Saginaw, about midway between the salt springs of Syracuse and the great West, which had become the principal market for Onondaga Salt. The latter, however, went on prospering for three or four years, the competition being scarcely suf- ficient to affect the market. During this time the volume of salt made here was largely increased ; many new manufacturers went into the business ;

HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

prices ranged high, and all seemed in the tull tide of prosperity. But just at this juncture the salt in- terest here met another impediment. The experi- ment of boring for oil at Goderich, Canada, very much to the astonishment of the experimenters themselves, resulted in striking a fountain of salt water, the strongest and purest known in the country, standing 92 and 98 degrees of the sal- ometer. In a short time they struck another well at Kincardine. twenty five miles north of Goderich, 850 feet deep, and found the same result. Then they sank a well at Clinton, twelve miles south of Goderich, 1,200 feet deep and found water equally strong. They sank another well at Seaport, twenty- five miles south of Goderich, 1,400 feet deep, where they have gone 101 feet into a solid mass of rock salt.

Of course these discoveries, together with the the cheapness of labor and fuel in Canada and Mich- igan, have had a tendency greatly to depress the salt interest in this locality. For several years past the Canadian and Saginaw salt has been a formida- ble rival to Onondaga Salt in the Western markets, and have almost entirely excluded the latter from Canada, where before large quantities were sold. Since this competition, it has been the effort of the Onondaga manufacturers to not only improve the quality and condition of the salt put upon the market, but also to cheapen the cost of its produc- tion, so as to be able to compete with the Saginaw and Goderich salt, and to find markets where the transportation will be most favorable to the salt manufactured at Syracuse This, by the energy, perseverance, and wise management of the com- panies, has been in a great measure accomplished. By the combination of capital and the reduction of the cost of labor and fuel, there has been of late years a great saving in the manufacture of salt.“

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History of Onondaga County, New York, Part 10

Author: Clayton, W.W. (W. Woodford) Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & Co. Number of Pages: 840

Author: Clayton, W.W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 840