USA > New York > Onondaga County > History of Onondaga County, New York > Part 31
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The first burials within the limits of what was formerly the village of Syracuse were made on land now enclosed in Block No. 105, near the intersec- tion of Clinton and Fayette streets. They did not probably exceed twenty or thirty in number, and the citizens ceased to bury there previous to 1819. When the village was laid out by Messrs. Owen Forman and John Wilkinson, and a map made of the same, no spot of ground seems to have been set apart for a cemetery, and from 1819 to 1824, all burials were made at Salina, Onondaga Hill, or On- ondaga Hollow. The first person buried in what is now designated the "Old Cemetery " was Mrs. Eliza Spencer, the first wife of Hon. Thomas Spen- cer, who died on the 2d day of April, 1824. After the village passed into the hands of the Syracuse Com- pany, they probably set apart this piece of ground for a cemetery ; and it continued to be used as such till 1841.
On the Ist of July, 1841, the grounds embraced in Rose Hill Cemetery, containing a fraction over twenty-two acres, were purchased of George F. Leitch, by the Trustees of the village in compli- ance with a vote of the citizens. There was much opposition to the purchase of this ground, on ac- count of its nearness to the village and for other reasons, and a second meeting was called, hoping that the citizens would reconsider their decision. A majority, however, voted in favor of it a second time, and the property was purchased and laid out
as a cemetery. On motion of General Granger two hundred dollars were voted at the same meeting for the improvement of the grounds, which the Trus- tees proceeded at once to lay out. Ambrose S. Townsend, who died on the 24th of August, 1841, was the first person buried at Rose Hill. He was the eldest son of John Townsend, Esq , of Albany, and grandson of the late Ambrose Spencer.
OAKWOOD.
As a cemetery Rose Hill was never satisfactory to a large number of the citizens of Syracuse. The topography was unfavorable, more than half of the surface being a steep side hill, not easily ac- cessible, and the whole destitute of natural trees and shrubbery. It was by many deemed incapable of those high adornments which the public taste now demands. For these and other reasons an early desire was manifested by many prominent citizens to procure grounds for a cemetery more in conformity with the higher cultivation of modern taste on the subject. Accordingly, as early as 1852 and the years immediately following, a number of meetings were held and the subject of a new cemetery was fully discussed. Committees were appointed for the purpose of thoroughly examining the vicinity of the city in all directions and finding the locality best adapted in all respects to the pur- poses of a rural cemetery. These committees care- fully performed their duty and the unanimous con- clusion was finally reached, that the hundred acres of land best fitted for all the purposes desired was that now embraced within the limits of Oakwood.
The persons who most particularly interested themselves at this time were Messrs. Henry A. Dillaye, Charles B. Sedgwick, John B. Burnet, Robert B. Raymond, Charles Pope, Hamilton White, A. C. Powell, C. Tyler Longstreet, Israel Hall, John Wilkinson, Allen Munroe and E. W. Leavenworth.
No immediate action was taken with regard to the purchase of the grounds, and in the midst of other pursuits of more pressing personal interest, it was delayed till the summer of 1857, when the sub- ject was again revived by Messrs. Hamilton White, J. L. Bagg, Lewis H. Redfield, C. Tyler Long- street, A. C. Powell, John Wilkinson and Henry A. Dillaye. The papers were drawn up preparatory to the organization of an Association ; the terms of the purchase of the grounds were verbally agreed upon, when the whole subject was suddenly put to rest by the great pecuniary revulsion of that year. A final and eventually successful effort was again made in the summer of 1858, principally by Messrs.
19*
146
HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
White and Leavenworth, which was continued with little interruption till the summer of 1859. Having arranged with Charles A. Baker, Esq., for the pur- chase of the front twenty acres, and with Henry Raynor, Esq., for the balance of the ground, the first object to which attention was directed was the removal of the Jamesville Plank Road from the bounds of the proposed cemetery. It became nec- essary to procure the consent of a majority of the stockholders,-afterwards of a majority of the inhab- itants residing on the east and west road crossing the said Plank Road near its first gate, to which the road was to be changed,-next of the Supervisors and Commissioners of Highways of the town of Onondaga, in which town the road is situated-and finally, to procure a right of way for said Plank Road across the lands of Charles A. Baker, Esq., and Dr. David S. Colvin.
After a year of laborious effort, and with much aid from Mr. Baker, these several objects were suc- cessfully attained, and all serious obstacles removed, except the raising of the necessary funds for the pur- chase. To that important service Hon. A. C. Powell for weeks devoted a large portion of his time, and with such aid as he had from Messrs. Hawley, White and Leavenworth, succeeded early in August in raising the necessary amount in sub- scriptions, payable in one, two and three years with interest.
On the 15th of August, 1859, the subscribers to the fund met at the Mayor's office and organized the Association of Oakwood, and elected the following trustees : Hamilton White, J. P'. Haskins, John Crouse, John Wilkinson, E. W. Leavenworth, Arch- ibald C. Powell, Austin Myers, Allen Munroe, Timothy R. Porter, Robert G. Wynkoop Thomas G Alvord, J. Dean Hawley. On the following day a meeting of the trustees was held at the office of Hon. E. W. Leavenworth and the following officers were chosen : E. W. Leavenworth, President ; A. C. Powell, Vice-President : Allen Munroe, Secre- tary, and Hamilton White, Treasurer.
At the same meeting a resolution was adopted, on motion of Mr. Alvord, instructing the officers of the association to purchase of Messrs. Baker and Raynor the lands now embraced in Oakwood on the terms theretofore agreed upon, viz : 59,500 for the twenty acres in front, bought of Mr. Baker, and $15,000 for the seventy-two and seventy-nine one hundredth acres, bought of Mr. Raynor. Agree- ably to such resolution, the purchase was made and the papers exchanged on the 5th of September thereafter.
All the lots in Rose Hill Cemetery, and also in
that at Salina, having been sold, and the Common Council having resolved to sell the north eight acres of the former, the Trustees made immediate prep- arations for the improvement of the grounds, and carly in October, Howard Daniels, Esq., an accom- plished landscape gardener from the city of New York, with the aid of fifty or sixty men, commenced work and continued it till the month of December.
The first person buried at Oakwood was Mrs. Nellie G. Wilkinson, who died on the 6th, and was buried on Tuesday, the 8th day of November, 1859
The first monument of any kind erected within the bounds of the cemetery, was that of James Crouse. Esq., on Section No. 13, during the winter of 1859-'60.
The little pamphlet from which we have selected the matter for this history closes its account of the progress of Oakwood in the following words : " Thus, at length, after nearly ten years of delays, difficulties and disappointments, after the project had been more than once abandoned, and our hopes all but extinguished, this lovely spot of ground was secured for the final repose of our dead : to be visited, admired and hallowed in our memories while we live, by a thousand sacred and tender re- collections, and to be the beautiful resting place of our bodies when summoned to our final home." We may add that the grounds are the most beauti- ful and admirably adapted to the purposes of a rural cemetery of any in the country, and the art dis- played in their decoration and the rich and costly monuments will well repay the stranger for a visit to Oakwood.
DEDICATION.
On Tuesday, the 3d day of November, 1859, the grounds were dedicated with appropriate ceremo- nies to the sacred purpose of a resting place for the dead. The Hon. W'm. J. Bacon, of Utica, deliv- ered the Address, Alfred B. Street, Esq , of Albany, the Poem, and Rev. John Pierpont, of Boston, and Mrs. Thomas T. Davis, of Syracuse, furnished re- spectively an Ode and a Hymn for the occasion, which was one of deep interest to the people of Syracuse, many thousands testifying their apprecia- tion of the importance of the object attained by their presence on the ground. The day, which was lowery and threatening in the morning, became bright and beautiful and one of the pleasantest of the season.
The exercises, including the opening address by Hon. E. W. Leavenworth, President of the Ceme- tery Association, and the oration by Hon. William J. Bacon, were all exceptionally interesting and appropriate, but we have space only for the Hymn
147
HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
of Mrs. Thomas T. Davis, and the Poem of Mr. Alfred B. Street, which deserve a place in the more permanent records of the city and county, as among some of the finest specimens of our mortuary lite- rature.
HYMN.
BY MRS. THOMAS T. DAVIS, Air- Pleyel's Hymn.
Life and love with tender hand Guard and deck this Silent Land ; Cypress arch and willow wreath Shade the sacred sod beneath ; Sun and starlight gild the shrine, Flow'ry chaplets fondly twine ; Angel hosts, your vigils keep Where our loved and lost shall sleep.
Loved. not lost ! No fear nor gloom Shrouds the portals of the tomb ; Death revealed immortal day When the rock was rolled away. Grave and crypt and pallid stone Mark not the realm of Death alone ; Life but sleeps, while Death survives,- Death shall die, and Life arise.
Shed not then the frenzied tear ; Robe in light the pall, the bier ; Yonder see the shining shore Where our loved have gone before ; Rear the marble o'er the dead. Crown with flowers the dreamless head ; Calmly wait till Life shall be Blended with eternity.
This hymn was sung by the members of the Syra- cuse Musical Institute, under the leadership of H, N. White, Esq.
At the conclusion of Mayor Leavenworth's ad- dress, Alfred B. Street, Esq., of Albany, pronounced the following exquisitely beautiful and appropriate
POEM :
-
O'er life's fresh springtide, when the blithsome hours Dance to glad music through perennial flowers ; O'er bounding youth, when hope points ever on, No blossom scentless, and no color wan ; O'er stately manhood, when the mountain tread Seeks the far prize that stars the crag o'erhead ; O'er trembling age, when, worn with toil and woe, It turns from light above to gloom below ; Darkens a shade, mysterious, cold and black,
Mantling the flowery as the wintry track ; Brooding where joy its diamond goblet quaffs ; Where daring, loud at every danger laughs ; Where strength securely rests on future years ;
Where fame, wealth, pleasure, each its votary cheers ; Death is that shade, inexorable Death, With ever-lifted dart at all of mortal breath.
But though the soul that lights the frame depart, The darkened dust is sacred to the heart.
Around the spot that wraps the dead from sight, Lingers thought's tenderest, love's divinest light ; Hallowed by suffering, it remains a shrine
Where oft sad memory wends, its fairest flowers to twine.
The land that trod through Deluge-ooze its way, Gave to the pyramid its mummied clay. The purple skies of Art and Song inurned The sacred ashes sacred fires had burned. The Parsee offered to his God, the Sun,
On the grand crag the heart whose course was run. And the red roamer of the prairie sea Yields to the air his wrecked mortality. But not to pyramid, though mocking Time, The urn funereal, nor the sun sublime, Nor boundless air, nor yet the waste of waves, That stateliest, mightiest, most august of graves- But not in such drear, weltering vastness spread Should Christian hands consign the Christian dead, But to the earth, the warm, the steadfast earth, That, touched by God's own finger, gave us birth ; Where to the resurrecting sun and rain The seed but perishes to live again ; Where nature hides her life in Winter's gloom For warbling Spring to sing it into bloom ; Home of the tree that sheds its leafy showers For the new garland wreathed by vernal hours ! Home of the priceless fount ! the matchless gem ! The precious gold ! more precious grainy stem ! Yea, as we woke to life upon her breast, Her loving arms should fold our last and longest rest.
And thus, oh lovely Oakwood, shalt thou spread Thy sylvan chambers, for the slumbering dead. Through thy green landscapes shall Affection stray, Weep the wild tear, with softened sadness pray. Within the glen, as murmurings fill the tree, A voice shall seem to whisper, " Come with me !" And the green hill top-whence the sight is fraught, With the rich painting Nature's hand hath wrought ; Woodland and slope, mount, meadow and ravine, The city's white, the water's purple sheen, And the dim mountain tops, until the gaze Pierces where distance hangs its tender haze- Tell that the soul, with onward pointed eye, Finds its far limit only in the sky. The grassy dingle and the leafy dell Shall tremble sadly to the tolling bell ; Where now wide solitude wraps slope and glade For winds to pipe to dancing sun and shade, Shall carved memorials of the dead be found Breathing their solemn eloquence around. Here, shall the son, in some prone trunk, descry
148
HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
The sire he saw in life's completeness die ; Here, shall the sire, in some green pine, survey The stately son, ere death had claimed its prey , Here, in the flower, the mother again shall see The laughing child that perished at her knee : Here, the weird wind shall with long, melting moan, Mingle its sadness with the mourner's own, And the drear cloud, low brooding, seem a part Of the dark sorrow hanging on the heart ; Here, too, the joyful splendor of the sun Shall tell the life the loved and lost hath won, And warblings sweet, the landscape's ear that fill Of those glad strains the sounding heavens that thrill. Summer shall here hold green and leafy time, Emblem of those that perished in their prime ; Autumn shall shower its wreaths upon the air. Sign to the living also to prepare ; Winter shall spread in fierce and frowning might, Great type of death, its chilling robes of white ; But oh, glad thought ! in Spring's triumphant reign Nature shall bound in radiant joy again, Bid with her rapturous life Death's horrors flee, Type of that glorious truth-MAN'S IMMORTALITY.
POPULATION OF SYRACUSE.
The following statement of the population of Syracuse for May, 1877, is taken from Boyd's City Directory :
1 MALES.
FEMALES.
TOTAL.
WARDS.
Over 2 I.
Under :1.
Over IS.
Under 18.
Ist .
1,336
1,247
1,443
1,18g
5,215
2 cl
2,405
2,263
2,236
2,061
8.965
3d
1,092
937
1,05S
945
4,032
4th
2,324
2,071
2,739
2,082
9,216
5th
2.339
1,769
2,456
1,759
8.323
6th.
1,549
603
1,671
711
4,534
7th
2,336
1,774
2,946
1,923
8,979
Sth
1.343
1,071
1,657
1,061
5,132
Total ...
14,724 11,735 16,206
11,731 54,396
Population in 1877.
. 54,396
Population in 1876.
54,176
Increase
220
Village of Geddes
5,403
Syracuse (including Geddes) is.
59,804
SYRACUSE CITY WATER-WORKS.
Among the first to advocate a system of water- works for supplying the village of Syracuse was Capt. Oliver Teall, who was the first Superintend- ent of the middle division of the Eric Canal upon its opening in 1820. Captain Teall had taken a contract on the canal during its construction, and had removed from Manlius to the Lodi Locks as
early as 1819. He became largely interested in land in that vicinity, and erected mills at Lodi, having the right of the surplus water of the canal at that point, which right he retained till it was finally resumed by the State. In connection with Messrs. Aaron Burt and Harvey Baldwin, Mr. Teall became an enterprising and wealthy land-owner in that part of the city now included in the Eighth Ward, formerly Lodi, but incorporated in the vil- lage of Syracuse in 1835. (Laws 1835, Chap. 160.)
As early as 1821, the subject of water-works in the village had been brought before the Legislature. The first act, entitled " An Act to supply the vil- lage of Syracuse with wholesome water," was passed March 27, 1821. (Laws 1821, Chap. 176.) It granted the people of Syracuse the right to use sufficient water for supplying the village from any of the springs on adjacent lands belonging to the State, and provided for the election of three Trus- tees, at an election to be held at the house of Ster- ling Cossit, inn-keeper in said village, on the first Monday in May, 1821, who should have power to transact all business relating to the water-works, and to carry into effect the provisions of said act. It does not appear that the provisions of said act were ever carried into effect or that anything was donc under it towards supplying the few inhabitants then in the village with water. Probably the enter- prise would not pay at that stage of settlement. The villagers, however, wished to obtain the right and to keep it against a time of need, for the mid- dle division of the canal was then open, and all were anticipating a marvelous growth into the pro- portions of a city.
The act incorporating the village, passed April 13, 1825, (Laws 1825, Chap. 124,> vested all the rights, property, and powers of the Trustees of the Water-Works in the village corporation, and the hypothetical water-works were placed under the control of the trustees of said village till 1829. During this period it does not appear that the trus- tees did anything practical towards supplying the village with water.
On the 23d of April, 1829, an act was passed, ( Laws 1829, Chap. 236,) authorizing the Trustees of the village to convey to Oliver Teall, his heirs and assigns. all the rights, property and powers of the Trustces of the Syracuse Water-Works Company, as vested in said village by the act of incorporation, for a term of twenty years, and said Oliver Teall was invested with all the rights and powers granted by the original act of 1821. This act also prescribed the amount that Mr. Tcall should charge the citizens for water, viz .: a private family, a sum not exceed-
Photos, by W. V. Ranger.
W. M. Clarke.
William Metcalf Clarke was born in Lanesboro, Berkshire Co., Mass., April 3, 1800. He was the fifth son of Dr. Hezekiah Clarke, who was the son of Dr. John Clarke, of Lebanon, Conn .; son of Moses Clarke, of Lebanon, Conn. ; son of Daniel Clarke, of Colchester, Conn. ; son of Hon. David Clarke, who came to America in 1639, from Warwickshire, England, and settled at Windsor, Conn. By both his paternal grandparents he is de- scended, in the seventh generation, from Simon Huntington, of England, whose sons, Christopher and Simon, Mr. Clarke's anees- tors, settled at Saybrook in 1633, and finally at Norwich, Conn.
His mother, Luey Bingham, was a daughter of the Hon. Moses Bliss, of Springfield, Mass. In this line he is in the seventh generation from Thomas Bliss, an early settler of Hartford, Conn.
By his maternal grandmother he is deseended, in the eighth generation, from Michael Metcalf, who came from England in 1637, and settled in Dedham, Mass.
One of the paternal great-grandmothers of Mr. Clarke was Elizabeth Edwards, second daughter of Rev. Timothy Edwards, of Windsor, Conn., who married Colonel Jabez Huntington ; and one of his maternal great-grandinothers was Abigail Edwards, sixth daughter of Rev. Timothy Edwards, who married William Metcalf; both sisters of President Jonathan Edwards.
In the year 1805, Mr. Clarke emigrated with his parents to Onondaga County, arriving at Pompey Hill Nov. 2, where they occupied the " Squire Wood House." The next year they moved on a farm lying ten miles east of the hill. Mr. Clarke's early educational opportunities were quite fair, and he improved them to the utmost. In 1815 he obtained a clerkship in Col. Camp's store, at Trumansburg, N. Y., whose confidence in him was so great that he often intrusted him with the execution of very diffi- eult duties. He then went to Ithaca, and engaged as elerk until Jan. I, 1819, wben he returned home, and pursued his studies at the Pompey academy. Some time later he made a trip to Kentucky, where he experienced religion, and united with the Concord Pres- byterian church, Nichols county, in April, 1827. He taught sehool most of the time while there.
In April, 1828, he returned to Pompey, traveling a distance of 700 miles. In the year 1829 he was elected school commissioner of the town of Pompey by the anti-Masonie party. The winters of 1880, 1831, and 1832 were spent in teaching the district schools of Lafayette Square, Camillus Village, and Pompey Centre.
From the spring of 1832 to 1837 he was employed in mercantile houses at Manlius, principally that of Messrs. E. & H. Rhodes. While there he became acquainted with Clara Catlin Tyler, whom he married June 7, 1836, at Ilarford, Pa., where she was born
Clara b. blanke
April 9, 1810. She was a daughter of John Tyler, of Harford, son of Deacon John Tyler, of Ararat, Pa. ; son of Capt. John Tyler, of Attleboro, Mass. ; son of Ebenezer Tyler, of Attleboro, Mass. ; son of Samuel Tyler, of Mendon, Mass .; son of Job Tyler, the emigrant ancestor, who was born in 1619, and came to America, and settled in Andover, Mass., about 1640.
By her paternal grandmother she is descended, in the eighth generation, from Rev. Peter Thacher, of Salisbury, England, rector of Saint Edmond's, in that city. His son, Rev. Thomas Thacher, came to America in 1635, and became the first minister of the old South ehureh, Boston. Mrs. Clarke's mother was Polly Wadsworth, daughter of Epaphrus Wadsworth, formerly of Litchfield, Conn. In this line she is deseended, in the seventh generation, from Hon. William Wadsworth, who emigrated from England in 1632, and settled in Cambridge, Mass., and afterwards in Hartford, Conn. ; also from his son, Capt. Joseph Wadsworth, of "Charter Oak" fame. By her maternal grandmother she is, in the eighth generation, from Thomas Catlin, who emigrated from England, or Wales, as early as 1644, and settled in Hartford, Conn. The Catlins are of French origin. Mrs. Clarke received a good education, and was preceptress at one time in the Cazeno- via high school, and also in the Manlius academy.
In 1838, Mr. Clarke was appointed deputy county elerk. In 1841 was elected clerk of Syracuse, and the same year was ap- pointed collector by the board of trustees. In 1843-44 was a member of the firm of Clarke & Sloat, in the marble business. In 1850 became a co-partner of Lyman Kingsly, in the sash and blind business, which he continued three years. On Jan. 1, 1869, was appointed chief clerk of the searching department, which position he held ten consecutive years. In 1866 he purchased a residence, with fourteen aeres of land, in Onondaga Valley, about two and a half miles from the city of Syraeuse, where he now resides. His son, Henry Wadsworth, is civil engineer and sur- veyor of Syracuse, born in Ilarford, Susquehanna Co., Pa., Nov. 6, 1837. Frances Amelia, his daughter, was born in Syracuse, Dec. 6, 1839, and now lives with her parents. Mr. Clarke is a man of excellent habits, neither chewing tobaeeo, drinking liquor, nor smoking. It has been his life's aim to stop, in his humble way, the spread of intemperanee. He has identified himself with the great moral and social ideas of his time in every way that he has been able. In all the many and intricate offices which have been intrusted to him, he has invariably discharged their duties with ability and integrity. He is still enjoying good health, and is passing away his declining years in the sweet consciousness of having led an upright and consistent life.
Photos. ty N. S. Howdiah, Syracuse.
Sarah Y. Salisbury
ALBERT G. SALISBURY.
The subject of this sketch was born in Woodstock, Oneida Co., N. Y., Aug. 23, ISI3. He was the youngest of three sans of Sylvester Salisbury and Sarah F. Gleason, both of whom were natives of Massachusetts. He spent his early life among his relatives, his father having died when he was only three years of age. At about the age of seventeen he conceived the idea that an education was necesary to meet the future, and resolved if possible to obtain one. Accordingly, without means pecuniarily, he entered the academy at Pompey Hill, working for his board. Here his time was a constant round of netivity, but he advanced so rapidly in his studies, both at Pompey and Whitesboro, that he was enabled afterwards to engage as a teacher in district schools. Thus he met the obstacles so common to self-made men.
About the year 1836 he came to Syracuse, opened a private school, subsequently obtained a position in the public school, and by successive gradations he rose in the esteem of the people until, upon the erection of the village of Syracuse into a city, he was elected as the first superintendent of schools, which office he enjoyed for some three years, and subsequently held the same ofice for several terms, and either as teacher or super- intendent was connected with the schools of the city until 1861, a period of nearly thirty years. In this Jabor he was an inde- fatigable worker, possessing marked ability as an instructor, and
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