USA > New York > Onondaga County > History of Onondaga County, New York > Part 33
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Mr. Wilkinson was engaged upon this work at the time of his sudden death. ITis plan embraced the construction of other reservoirs when they should become necessary.
The water-works company have since tried two systems of pumping, and are now contemplating the readoption of what may be called the Wilkinson plan by the construction of another reservoir to hold 300,000,000 gallons. If this should be done, it will confirm the wisdom of his judgment. For this
projected reservoir an appropriate name suggests itself It should be called Forman Lake, in honor of Joshua Forman.
In Mr. Wilkinson's life he showed a solicitude that was almost pathetic that young people should start right, and he was never in their company without trying to give help in the right direction. It pained him to see them treat lightly the great advantages of later times, doubtless remembering the many weary miles he had walked to attain his education ; and if, as the old Hindoo said, " Man is man's mirror," we do well to hold up the mirror of Mr. Wilkinson's life to young men just entering on their career, that in it they may see the rewards which wait on industry, integrity and zeal.
His noble mother, believing that knowledge is power, resolved that he should possess the key to unlock its treasure-house, and gave him, as we have seen, the best education in her power, at how great self-sacrifice no one but herself ever knew. Her wisdom it was, that laid the foundation of his suc- cess and she was rewarded by living to witness it.
From the age of sixteen he fought the battle of life unaided, his only weapons the perseverance and determination which he had learned amid the privations of pioneer life.
Never was the promise better exemplified, " Be faithful over a few things and I will make thec ruler over many things." With care and fidelity he, in his youth, had discharged every duty which devolved upon him and gained the confidence of the community in which he lived, until at last they were eager to thrust their most precious possessions upon him for safe keeping.
Perhaps the best eulogy upon him is the simple testimony of a neighbor-a life-long friend and staunch supporter : " He was an honest man."
15I
HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
Miles W. Bennett, Horace Wheaton, Thomas J. Gilbert, Elihu L. Phillips and Aaron Burt, were citizens of Syracuse and Onondaga County ; the rest were Utica and Albany men.
The Syracuse and Utica Railroad Company were required by law to pay to the President and Direc- tors of the Seneca Road Company the amount of damages which the said road company might sus- tain by the construction of the railroad, and also to pay toll to the Canal Commissioners on all freight, other than the regular baggage of passen- gers, carried by the railroad during the season of canal navigation. The Schenectady and Utica Rail- road was absolutely prohibited in its original charter from carrying any freight. This prohibition was re- moved by act of March 7, 1844, and the Schenectady and Utica Road was allowed to carry freight during the suspension of canal navigation by paying the canal commissioners such tolls as would have been paid on the goods had they been transported by the Erie Canal. This opened all the roads to freight through to Buffalo, subject to the same conditions as those imposed upon the Schenectady and Utica Railroad.
Prior to the removal of the prohibition on the Schenectady and Utica Railroad, freights had been to some extent carried through from Schenectady to Utica on sleighs in winter, and transferred to other points west of Utica by rail ; but very little freight reached Syracuse by the Utica Railroad till after March 7, 1844.
Oliver H. Lee, of Syracuse, was the engineer in the construction of the Syracuse and Utica Railroad, and was appointed the first Superintendent. The original board of directors consisted of the following named gentlemen :
John Wilkinson, President.
Charles Stebbins, Vice-President.
Vivus W. Smith, Secretary.
David Wager, Treasurer.
Oliver Teall, Horatio Seymour, Aaron Burt, James Hooker,
Holmes Hutchinson, Irad Hawley,
John Townsend, John Stryker,
Samuel French.
Between the railroads of that day and this, and their equipments, there is a marked contrast. The first track consisted of six-by-six scantling, fastened to the ties by L-shaped chairs placed outside the rail and spiked to it and the tie beneath. Upon the scantling, parallel with the inner edge, a bar of iron two inches wide and three-fourths of an inch thick was spiked. Occasionally a bar-end came loose and endangered the safety of passengers by being thrust up through the car-floor. The first
engines were single-drivers, with small trail wheels under the cab, which consisted of a roof hung around with oil cloth during winter. The weight of the locomotive was from four to six tons. The first cars had four wheels. The conductor came along outside the compartments, which had two seats each, and collected the fare. In 1843, the cars had no projection over the platforms, and were low and ill-ventilated. It was quite a step in ad- vance when locomotives with four-drivers were placed upon the road, but even then there were no pilots ; some had two splint brooms set in front just in position to clear the track, and others flat iron bars bent forward and sharpened at the ends. This was the " cow-catcher." In winter a large wooden plow was placed in front of the engine. The first track was soon superceded by an eight-by-eight wooden rail, along the center of which was placed strap-iron the same width and thickness as that at first used. Iron rails were supplied in 1841, and steel rails in 1872.
The Syracuse and Utica Railroad was opened in 1839.
In locating the depots and route through Syra- cuse, certain conditions were required of the com- pany by a resolution prepared by Hon. E. W. Leavenworth, President of the village, and offered to the Board by Captain Putnam, viz : that the railroad company should construct a sewer along the track on Washington street from the stream known as Yellow Brook to Onondaga Creek, and should plant trees along both sides of Washington street as far east as Beech street. These con· ditions were performed by the company. The rows of trees now standing on East Washington street are those planted by the railroad company, and they form a pleasant and agreeable shade. The sewer constructed by the railroad company was the first of any importance in the village, and contributed largely to the draining of the swamp between Sa- lina street and Lodi.
The company was also required to purchase cer- tain portions of the blocks on each side of the depot, so as to make sufficient space for the building and an alley-way along side of it. This was done, and the space now left where the old depot was lo- cated is known as Vanderbilt Square.
DIRECT ROAD.
The line from Syracuse to Rochester, composed of the Auburn and Syracuse and the Auburn and Rochester railroads, was 104 miles over a crooked route with heavy grades. In 1849 the attention of Mr. John Wilkinson and others was called to the
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HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
necessity of constructing a more direct and level railroad between Syracuse and Rochester, and, with that object in view, they organized the Rochester and Syracuse Direct Railroad Company. The sur- veys were made by O. C. Childs and showed that a level railroad could be constructed twenty-two miles shorter than the old line. In 1850 the three com- panies consolidated under the name of the Roches- ter and Syracuse Railroad Company and the Direct Road was built in the ensuing years under the direc- tion of James Hall, engineer, and opened in 1853, at the same time of the general consolidation form- ing the New York Central Railroad.
OSWEGO AND SYRACUSE RAILROAD.
The Oswego and Syracuse Railroad Company was formed April 29, 1839, and the route was sur- veyed during the summer of that year. The Com- pany was fully organized March 25, 1847, with the following Board of Directors : John Wilkinson, Thomas T. Davis. Allen Munroe, Horace White, Syracuse : F. T. Carrington, Luther Wright, Syl- vester Doolittie. Alvin Bronson, Oswego ; Holmes Hutchinson, Alfred Munson, Thomas F. Faxton, Utica ; Samuel Willets, New York ; Rufus King, Albany. The first officers were : Holmes Hutch- inson, President : F. T. Carrington, Secretary ; Lu- ther Wright, Treasurer. The road was opened in October, 1848. It is thirty-five and a half miles in length. In 1872 it came under the management of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Rail- road Company, by whom it is still operated.
SYRACUSE, BINGHAMTON AND NEW YORK RAILROAD.
The Syracuse and Binghamton Railroad Com- pany was organized August 13, 1851, under the general law passed in 1850. The original directors were, Hamilton Murray, D. C. Littlejohn, Os- wego ; Horace White, James R. Lawrence, Thomas B. Fitch, Syracuse ; Daniel S. Dickinson, Hazard Lewis, Binghamton ; Jedediah Barber, Israel Boies, Homer : Alanson Carley, Marathon ; Henry Stevens, Cortland ; John B. Rogers, Chittenango Forks ; Robert Dunlop, Jamesville. Henry Stevens, President ; Clinton F. l'aige, Secretary ; Horace White, Treasurer ; W. B. Gilbert, Superin- tendent and Engineer for the construction of the road. The road was opened through, October 23, 1854. It was sold October 13, 1856, on fore- closure of mortgage, and reorganized April 30, 1857, under the title of the Syracuse, Binghamton and New York Railroad, its present title. In 1858, the company was authorized to purchase the Union Railroad to the canal at Geddes. The length of the road from Geddes to Binghamton is 81 miles.
Under the second organization, Jacob M. Schem- erhorn was President, and Orrin Welch, Syracuse, Secretary. Then T. B. Fitch was President till 1871 ; since which time the Presidency has been held by Samuel Sloan of New York.
Through a controlling interest in the stock, the road came under the management of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company in December, 1870. The new passenger depot at Syracuse was erected in 1877.
SYRACUSE, CHENANGO AND NEW YORK RAILROAD.
The original incorporators and directors of this road were James P'. Haskins, Elisha C. Litchfield, Henry TenEyck, John W. Barker, Dennis McCar- thy, George F. Comstock, Hiram Eaton, John Green- way, James J. Belden, S. D. Luce, J. 1. Bradley, J. M. Wieting, Alfred A. Howlett. J. M. Wieting was elected President. The articles of association were filed April 16. 1868, the capital stock being $1,000,000. The road was partly opened in 1872, and finished in 1874 - length 42 miles.
Harlow W. Chittenden succeeded J. M. Wieting as President. The present officers are A. A. How- lett, President ; Henry TenEyck, Vice-President ; J. S. Sherman, Secretary.
SYRACUSE NORTHERN RAILROAD.
This road was chartered in 1870 with a capital stock of $1,250,000. The directors were Allen Munroe, E. W. Leavenworth, E. B. Judson, Patrick Lynch, Frank Hiscock, John A. Green, Jacob S. Smith, Horace K. White, Elizur Clark, Gerret Doyle, Syracuse ; William H. Carter, Brewerton ; James A. Clark, Pulaski ; Oren R. Earl, Sandy Creek. President, Allen Munroe ; Secretary, Pat- rick H. Agan; Treasurer, Edward B. Judson ; Engineer, A. C. Powell. The road is 44 miles to its intersection of the R., W. & O. R. R., and was opened Nov, 7, 1871. It was purchased by the Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg Railroad Com- pany, by which corporation it is now managed, in 1875.
PROGRESS OF EDUCATION.
EARLY SCHOOLS OF SYRACUSE.
The progress of education in the City of Syra- cuse forms a very interesting chapter of its history. With the earliest settlements schools began to be taught, and before there were any districts or pub- lic school houses, private buildings and even salt blocks were appropriated to the uses of education. It is a fact which speaks well for the old " Salt Pointers," that their whole attention was not ab-
RESIDENCE OF JOHN MOORE, No.129 WEST GENESEE ST., SYRACUSE, N.Y.
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HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
sorbed in salt making, but that one of their num- ber at least, a Mr. Conner, could divide his time between this occupation and the instruction of the children and youth of the new settlement in useful knowledge. Mr. Conner kept the earliest school of which we have any account in a salt block at Salina, and at the same time carried on the occupation of boiling salt. He made his school a very useful and popular one, securing for it the dignified title of the " High School," and it was well patronized by the people of Salina and Onondaga Hollow.
The first public school within the present limits of Syracuse, and in the town of Salina, was proba- bly District No. I, now the Salina School, situated in the First Ward. The date of its organization we have not been able to ascertain, but the school house was built in 1805. It was commonly known as the " oid red school house" and stood on what was afterwards the southwest corner of Washington Park. When first built it was on a line parallel with Park, then Salt street, and fronted to the east. The seats were arranged at first to face the wall, but af- terwards to face the teacher. In the center of the room stood a large stove elevated upon a platform filled with sand. Originally, the Park was a com- mon, intersected by Center and Salt streets. Near the center of the ground was a deep pond which seemed to be fed by a living spring. Here geese and ducks and children dabbled in summer, while the frozen surface in winter afforded an excellent skating park. In 1839, the school house was taken down, the pond filled up and the four quarters of the Park indicated by a horizontal guard. In 1847 the present fence was placed around it.
Some reminiscences are related of this old school house worth recording. At an early day some rough young men and boys were taught here. There was a teacher by the name of Isaac Van- Tassel, a pious man, from Onondaga Hollow, who was determined to become a minister and had asked the Presbytery to educate him, but they had refused to do so on account of a certain impediment in his speech. However, he said he would preach, and finally did preach, becoming a missionary to the Maumee Indians. Under his administration, a plot had been formed to resist his authority. He had punished a young man for swearing. This led to insurrection and revolt. Five or six banded to- gether to put him out of the school. He had some intimation of what was going on, and as he left the house in the morning he said to Mrs. Dioclesian Alvord, with whom he boarded : " You need not be surprised to see me home earlier than usual," and then explained to her his apprehensions. He left,
and upon going to his room to put it in order, she found the Bible open with the passage marked : " Rid me and deliver me from the hand of strange children." His prayer was answered. At noon he informed Mrs. Alvord that Dean Richmond, who had been drawn into the plot, came forward and in a manly way confessed and apologized for the whole transaction. She predicted that he would come to something, which was verified in the well known future career of this distinguished poli- tician. Mr. Van Tassel, also, was afterwards a suc- cessful missionary, and died among the Maumee Indians about 1847.
Another teacher of a later day had a novel mode of punishment. He was wont to take out his pen knife and strop it vigorously, and then ask the delinquent scholar whether he would be bled or be struck with the ruler. Of course, each fright- ened urchin always chose the latter. This was carried on successfully for sometime. At length a brother and sister put their heads together to cir- cumvent the wary teacher. Having loitered or been detained without good excuse, and anticipat- ing punishment, the sister advised the brother that when called up and the usual choice submitted, he should say he preferred to be bled. The pen-knife of the teacher was again whetted in a very dramatic manner, the child's sleeve rolled up and the solemn question put. " I choose to be bled," said the boy. This answer overturned the teacher's gravity, and he let the boy go.
While upon this subject of novel punishments we will relate another instance. It is said of a teacher who taught a select school not far distant, that she adopted a mode of punishment still more extraordinary than those referred to. Her method of disgrace was nothing so common as a dunce block or a fool's cap, but a salt barrel pierced with nails, the nails pointing inward. Into this barrel the refractory child was put, and a heavy piece of iron from the stove laid over the top, so that if the little offender in durance vile tried to resist, he found, like the Apostle, that it was hard to kick against the pricks.
Within the memory of many now living there was but one school house in the village of Syracuse, that was a low square frame building, with a roof resembling an inverted mill-hopper, standing in a pine grove on the north side of Church street, upon the lot next east of where the Northern Railroad crosses. The site is occupied by a brick building which was afterwards school No. 4, and then became a church, and is now converted into a blacksmith's shop. This was the first school house built in the
20*
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HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
village of Syracuse, and was probably erected about 1820. For a number of years it was used as a school house, meeting house, town hall, and for almost every kind of a public gathering.
In the winter of 1821, school was taught here by Hiram A. Deming, who is now book-keeper in Mr. Greenway's brewery. Webster's Spelling Book, Daboll's Arithmetic and Morse's Geography were then the principal text-books. The teacher " boarded round " among his patrons. Blackboards, globes and other apparatus had not been thought of, and the young idea was taught to shoot without the advantage of "grades" and " departments." The family of Judge Joshua Forman, including the present Mrs. E. W. Leavenworth, and others well known, were pupils in this school when Mr. Dem- ing taught in 1821. Mr. Deming was born in Stillwater, Saratoga County, in 1779. and came to Syracuse in 1820. He is a remarkably well pre- served man for one of his years, being almost an octogenarian. After Mr. Deming the school was kept a while by William K. Blair, now residing in the Fourth Ward of the city.
Welthia Ann Lathrop, widow of the late Edward Allen, Esq., of Auburn, taught a select school in a building furnished by Capt. Joel Cody, in the rear of the present First Baptist Church for many years, beginning in 1826. Her school was the first select school taught in Syracuse.
In 1830 a Miss Guthrie taught a private school in a building then called the " Wheeler House." It stood on the corner of Salina and Center streets in what is now the First Ward.
During six months of the year 1835, Hon. Geo. F. Comstock taught a select school in the upper story of a yellow building which stood on the site of the present Bastable Block. The Judge was then pursuing his law studies with Messrs. Noxon and Leavenworth. He was elected Inspector of Schools for the town of Salina in 1837.
A school called by the fanciful name of the " Sa- lina Institute " was established in the village of Salina at quite an early day, and was for some time a popular and useful school. It never had any char- ter and was properly only a select school. At dif- ferent times Mr. Leavitt, D. C. LeRoy and Dr. Jas. Forham were connected with it as teachers. The building occupied by this school is still standing, on Turtle street between Park and Salina streets.
A young ladies' school flourished for several years on the site of the present Presbyterian Church, cor- ner of Park and Prescott streets.
In the early days of Syracuse the chief select school for girls, principally, was that taught by
the Misses Chamberlain. It was with difficulty that a suitable room could be found for a school, and Dr. Mather Williams erected for the purpose a tempo. rary frame building on Water street near the corner of Clinton, which, as one of the juvenile attendants expressed it, " was without any lining," being neither ceiled nor plastered. Here taught Mrs. Humphrey, a niece of the late Holland Johnson, who afterwards married Mr. Montgomery, law partner of Harvey Baldwin. On the approach of cold weather this structure proved uncomfortably airy, and Captain Putnam finished and fitted up a room over his wood- house on Mongomery street, which was soon dubbed " Montgomery Institute." Among the teachers here were Miss Richardson, niece of Mrs. Elam Lyndes and afterwards wife of Zaccheus Newcomb, and Miss Alexander, sister of the late Mrs. Harry Alexander. Following these were the Misses Newton, from Mas- sachusetts (afterwards Mrs. Volney Cook ) and a sis- ter of Mrs. Stevens, whose husband was the first landlord of the Globe Hotel ; Miss Fitch, from Trumansburg ; Miss Collins, sister of Mrs. Reuben L. Hess, and assistants ; Miss Laurie, from Whites- boro, and Miss Gould, from South Carolina. ·
At this period the standard of education was well advanced, the higher mathematics, French, Latin, drawing, painting and music being taught in Miss Collins' school. The study of the sciences to any extent was, at a later day, introduced by Miss Amelia Bradbury, who numbered among her pupils many heads of prominent families now living in the city, who cherish gratefully and affectionately the memory of her conscientious, tender counsels, and who owe to her advanced views of education the stimulus towards that higher culture which has fitted them to adorn responsible positions in life, and to become useful, reliable and intelligent women. The school of Miss Bradbury was located on Mont- gomery street, Lot 8, Block 113. the same lot on which the house built by Horatio N. White now stands.
Miss Emily Chubbuck, afterwards Mrs. Adoniram Judson, wife of the famous missionary to Burmah, taught a select school at one time in a small build- ing which stood where Mccarthy, Sons & Co.'s wholesale store now stands, on the corner of Wash- ington and Clinton streets.
From September, 1847, to June, 1861, the late Madame A. J. Raoul, one of our old inhabitants, taught a select school in this city. She was an ac- complished teacher of music and French lessons, the last of which she continued to give to a few pupils till 1872, (she died in 1875,) when growing infirmities brought to a close a longer term of years
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HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
consecutively devoted to teaching than probably has been given by many teachers in Syracuse.
SYRACUSE ACADEMY.
Through the exertions of Messrs. Aaron Burt, Harvey Baldwin and Oliver Teall, who owned a large tract of land in the locality, a charter was ob- tained for the Syracuse Academy in 1835. A lot was donated by Mr. Baldwin, and, under many dis- couragements, the building now occupied as the Orphan Asylum, on Lodi Hill, was erected and completed for the Academy, which was supplied with competent teachers and supported by the bene- factions of its founders. The first Principal was Mr. Kellogg, of New York, who was succeeded by Orrin Root, for many years since a Professor in Hamilton College. At one period, the late A. G. Salisbury, who became the first Clerk of the Board of Education of the City of Syracuse, was its Prin- cipal. His qualifications as a teacher were only equalled by his love for the vocation, and the many years of conscientious performance of its duties in connection with the establishment in Syracuse of the present system of Public Schools. At a later day in the existence of the Academy, it was con- ducted by Joseph A. Allen and Oliver T. Burt, part of which period was after its removal to a more central location.
But the Academy did not prosper. After it went into operation, jealousies in reference to it were awakened, enterprise in regard to public schools was aroused, district school houses sprang up and soon attracted the sympathy and patronage of the public. The cause of education profited by the efforts of the founders of the Academy, but they were, and continued to be, the losers, so that the Academy was finally abandoned, and the house designed by its originators to subserve the cause of education providentially became the home of the helpless orphan and the abode of charity.
COMMON SCHOOLS BEFORE THE CITY ORGANIZA- TION.
The common schools existing prior to the city organization were all formed and maintained as schools of the town of Salina, under the general school laws. Neither the charter of the village of Salina, adopted in 1824, nor that of the village of Syracuse, in 1825, made any change in the status of the schools within their limits : they were from the first, and continued to be till 1848, common schools of the town of Salina.
The first legislative action on the part of the State in behalf of education was the passage of an act entitled " An Act for the Encouragement of
Schools," passed April 9, 1795. (18th Session Laws-George Clinton, Esq., Governor.) Amend- ments were made to this act April 6, 1796, March 10, 1797, and April 3, 1799. It was the first act appropriating public money to the use of common schools, the sum then set apart being twenty thou- sand pounds out of the surplus revenue of the State, to be divided among the different counties, and the sum assigned to each county was to be apportioned by the Supervisors to the several towns according to the number of taxable inhabitants therein ; the Supervisors being also required to raise by tax in each town, for school purposes, a sum equal to half the amount of the public money to which each county should be entitled. The portion of the twenty thousand pounds assigned to the County of Onondaga was one hundred and seventy four pounds, which was Onondaga's first public school fund. It would be interesting to know what portion, if any, of this was appropriated in the town of Salina, and at what date, but there are no records extant that can furnish the information.
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