USA > New York > Onondaga County > History of Onondaga County, New York > Part 61
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275
HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
1803; William Metcalfe Clarke, (Mass.,) 1805 ; Clark W. Kenyon, 1806; Elisha D. Sabin, (Vt.,) 1806; Samuel Kingsley, (Mass.,) 1806 ; David Hunt, 1807, died 1874 ; Nathan C. Eaton, 1808 ; Eli An- derson, 1808; Josiah T. Northway, 1808 ; David Chafee, 1805 ; George B. Cornish, 1810, died 1867 ; C. C. Conklin, 1811 ; William Rose, 1808; J. De Witt Rose, 1812; Augustus Reed, 1812, died 1875 ; Wm. Raynor, 1813; Jonathan Kneeland, 1813; Orrin Green, 1813 ; Geo. C. Hopper, 1814; Rufus Cossit, (Mass.,) 1814; Marcus G. Clark, 1814; Nathan Covell, 1815, died 1876; Enoch Kenyon (R. I.), 1816; Russell L. Kenyon (R. I.), 1816, died 1877; Augustus C. Kenyon (R. I.), 1816; Reuben W. Lincoln, (Mass.,) 1816, died 1875 ; Wm. F. Mosely, 1815, died 1876 ; Joshua Chaffee, 1817 ; George Anderson, 1817; Lemuel G. Clark, (Vt.,) 1818, died 1870; Cicero Barker, (Mass.,) 1816, died 1870; Chauncey P. Cornish, 1818.
Finlay McLaren, a prominent merchant residing at an early time at Manlius, was attacked by a bear and fatally injured, on the East Hill, while returning home from Onondaga Valley. Dr. Holbrook was called to dress his wounds, but he sank under them and soon died.
TOWN MEETINGS.
The first Town Meeting for Onondaga was held at the house of Gen. Asa Danforth in April, 1798. General Danforth presided ; Ephraim Webster was chosen Supervisor ; Jabez Webb, Town Clerk ; Samuel Searing, Daniel Earll and Sier Curtis, As- sessors ; and Elisha Alvord, Nehemiah Earll, Jr., and Elijah Lawrence, Commissioners of Roads. The meeting was adjourned to the house of Dr. Allen Beach.
At the annual town meeting for 1799, James Geddes was chosen Supervisor ; Orris Curtis, Town Clerk ; John Ellis, Cornelius Schouten and Sier Curtis, Assessors. The meeting adjourned to the house of William Laird. At the town meeting in April, 1800, Sier Curtis was chosen Supervisor, and Orris Curtis Town Clerk.
In the summer of 1796, John Cantine, assisted by Gideon Seeley, under the direction of the Sur- veyor-General, surveyed the Onondaga Reservation, and in the fall of that year Gideon Seeley and Com- fort Tyler bid off at the sales in Albany twenty-one lots of two hundred and fifty acres each, at two dollars per acre-in all, $10,500. Mr. Seeley con- structed the road from Samuel A. Beebe's to the south line of the town, including a bridge across the west branch of Onondaga Creek. The first saw mill built within the present limits of the town was by Turner Fenner, on the west branch of Onon-
daga Creek, in 1793. General Danforth erected a saw and grist mill in 1794, on what was afterwards called the Kirk farm.
MASONIC.
Onondaga Lodge No. 98, of Free and Accepted Masons, was established at Onondaga Hollow in the winter of 1803. The charter obtained from the Grand Lodge of the State was dated January 21, A. L., 5803. Jasper Hopper was appointed W. M .; Walter Colton, S. W .; and George W. Olmsted, J. W. “ Br. Jedediah Sanger, of Whitestown, having received a dispensation for that purpose, summoned the said brethren to a meeting at Br. Comfort Tyler's, in Onondaga Hollow, on the fourth day of June, 5803, and in due form constituted the said Lodge and installed the said officers." The old book of records of this Lodge, now in the pos- session of George J. Gardner, Esq., of Syracuse, contains the proceedings of the Lodge till May 17, 1826. About that time the Lodge was discontinued on account of the Anti-Masonic excitement. The oldest surviving member is Mr. Arthur Pattison; still residing at Onondaga Valley. Lewis H. Red- field, Esq., was the last Senior Warden, in whose possession were left the jewels of the Lodge.
FIRST POSTOFFICE IN THE COUNTY.
A Postoffice was established at Onondaga Hollow in 1794, and Comfort Tyler was appointed Post- master. This was the first postoffice established in the county, but one was established at Cayuga, then in Onondaga county, the same year. George Kibbie was Postmaster at the Hollow in 1801 ; George Hall succeeded him in 1802, and Jasper Hopper in 1803, the latter remaining in the office nineteen years, under every administration without distinction of party. The office at that time was quite an important one, being a distributing office for the county and parts adjacent. As late as 1812, letters were distributed from this office to people living in the towns of Camillus, Pompey, Marcellus, Otisco, Spafford, Lysander and Manlius.
George Kibbie, in 1800, was the first regular merchant who sold goods in the town of Onondaga. In 1803, there were but eight frame houses in the Hollow. In 1809, a frame school house was erected, a log one standing near the site of the Academy having previously been used.
In accordance with an act of the Legislature passed in 1808, authorizing the Governor to deposit five hundred stand of arms and munition and mili- tary stores for the defence of the frontier, at Onon- daga, in 1812 was built an Arsenal on the hill east of Onondaga Hollow, where for a number of years
276
HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
was kept a large deposit of arms and ammunition. As a military store it has long since been abandoned, and has fallen into decay.
NEWSPAPERS.
7\ newspaper was first established at Onondaga Hollow by Thomas Crittenden Fay, in December, 1811, entitled The Lynx, having for its motto, " Liberty and my Native Country." l'ublished every Wednesday and delivered to subscribers in the village of Onondaga Valley at two dollars per annum. In closing his prospectus he says : "I shall endeavor to promote the nation's interest with the industry of the Beaver, while I watch its enemies with the eyes of a Lynx." It was in the office of The Lynx that the subsequent distinguished editor of the Albany Evening Fournal made his debut in the art of journalism. Mr. Weed, in the short space of about twelve months, became devil, printer, journeyman, editor and proprietor of the memorable Lynx.
The Onondaga Register made its first appear- ance at Onondaga Hollow in September, 1814, edited by Lewis H Redfield, Esq., and was con- tinued till May, 1829, when it was transferred to Syracuse and consolidated with the Syracuse Gazette. (See History of the City and County P'ress. ) The first iron press introduced into the county was by Mr. Redfield, who also introduced the first compo- sition roller.
Russell Webb and James S. Castle published a paper at Onondaga Hollow in 1832, entitled, The Citizen's Press, which was discontinued after six months.
The Onondaga Gusette, by Evander Morse, was established at Onondaga Hill in 1816. Mr. Morse sold the establishment to Cephas S. McConnell, and in August, 1821, its name was changed to the Onondaga Fournal. Mr. McConnell sold out to Vivus W. Smith in 1826, who in 1829 removed it to Syracuse, and joined Mr. Wyman in the Onendaga Standard.
ONONDAGA WEST HILL.
One of the first settlers at this point was William Laird, in 1795. He became the first purchaser of Lot No. 1144, and kept a log tavern, the first on the Hill. He committed suicide by hanging in October, 1802. Nehemiah Earll. Daniel Earll and Jabez Webb settled on the Hill in 1796. Jabez Webb was killed by the falling of a tree in 1806. He was the first pur- chaser from the State of Lot 118. Simeon and Reuben West moved to the Hill in 1805-'6 ; Judge Strong in 1802, and kept the first school ever
taught on the Hill, from November, 1802, three winter terms of four or five months each, in a log building which stood near where the Court House used to stand A frame school house was erected near the same place in 1807. Judge Strong was a Deputy under Col. Elijah Phillips, High Sheriff, four years, and Under Sheriff to Sheriffs Earll and Rust during their periods of office. Dr. Salmon Thayer was the first physician on the Hill, in 1800, and was succeeded by Dr. Stewart.
The first Agricultural Society of the county was organized at Onondaga Hill in 1819. For organi- zation, first fair, officers, &c., see Chapter on Agri- culture.
St. John's Church, Onondaga Hill, was organized by Rev. Davenport Phelps, November 26. 1803. It was succeeded by Zion Church, which was or- ganized in the summer of 1816. The clergy were Rev. Messrs. Ezekiel G. Gear, Milton Wilcox, Thomas K. Peck, Augustus L. Converse, John McCarty, George L Hinton, John W. Cloud, S. W. Beardsley and Marshall Whiting. Regular services ceased at this church in 1839. The bell formerly used here is now in use in Trinity Church, Syracuse.
One of the early supporters and Wardens of this church was Mr. Reuben West, an early and well- known merchant at Onondaga Hill, at which place he settled in 1805. He was born in Hebron, Con- necticut, in 1783, and died at Onondaga in 1832.
Mr. West's eldest daughter married Rev. George L. Hinton, of New York City, Rector of the church at Onondaga in 1827, and for about two years after- wards. Another of his daughters, Mrs. Thomas Underhill, born at Onondaga Hill, July 6, 1813, is now a resident af Syracuse, where she has resided since June, 1873. His youngest daughter married Mr. Erastus Sampson, of Ypsilanti, Michigan.
James Mann, first landlord of the Syracuse House, was an early merchant at Onondaga West Hill. He was the son of Capt. Benjamin Mann, who commanded a company in Col. Stark's regi- ment at the battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775. and continued as such officer through the Revolu- tionary War, under Gen, Washington.
James Mann was born at Woburn, Mass , Feb- ruary 15, 1767. From about 1800 to 1806, he was the principal merchant at Keene, N. H , and P'resi- dent of the Cheshire Bank. In 1807 he became an importing merchant at Boston, at the head of the house of Mann, Adams, Nazro & Co., at No. 67 Broad street. The trouble with England, soon coming on, compelled the firm to give up import- ing. About 1810, he removed to Troy, N. Y.,
Photo, by W. V. Ranger, Syracuse.
Ges. J. Clark. M.D
Levi Clark, the father of the subject of the present skeich, was a native of Vermont, and was born March 7, 1788. He came to the southern part of the town of Onondaga at the age of sixteen, and when only nineteen married Martha Fenner, aged seventeen, and who was the daughter of Capt. Turner Fenner, one of the earliest and most prominent settlers of the town. The young couple bought a forest-crowned farm on the old State road, and there reared to adult age all their children, five sons and four daughters. Of these, Levi Thomas was for several years a clergyman of the Universalist church, and is now a resident of Kansas. Five of the other children moved into western States.
Levi Clark was not a farmer only; he was an uncommonly inventive mechanie. He made the first " grapevine" grain cradle ever used, and for many years he and his sons annually manufactured in a shop on the farm hundreds of these then leading American harvesters of grain. A member of the Bap- tist church, he afterwards became a zealous Universalist and great Bible student, always ready with book, chapter and verse to meet any one who dared to controvert his religious views.
His son, Dr. George T., was born December 20, 1819, and lived on the farm with his parents till he was of age. Being a good mechanie, he made grain cradles several years ; but, in 1854, became a member of the Eclectic Medical College, then in successful operation in Syracuse. Spending two terms in that institution, he afterwards graduated at the American Medi- cal College in Cincinnati, Ohio. Devoting two years to his pro- fession in the village of Jordan, he returned to the homestead on account of his father's health, carrying on the farm and practicing medieine in the vicinity.
After his father's death he bought the old home; but his increasing practice induced him to move into the neighboring village of South Onondaga in 1869. His ride has extended through his native and adjoining towns into the city and into adjoining counties, and his professional business is now more extensive than that of any one in this or any of the surrounding villages. Kind and liberal to the poor, lenient to his patrons, yet prudent in his investments, he is a worthy descendant and representative of Onondaga's capable and suc- cessful pioneers.
Dy r. Onewman
William Wilson, the paternal great-grandfather of the subject of the present sketch, was an Anglo-Irish farmer in Cherry Valley, N. Y., before the Revolutionary war. But the entire family was captured by Brandt, or his allies, during or near his Wyoming Valley expedition and massacre. His daughter Mary, only nine years old, was hurried through the forest, with the other prisoners, to Detroit, and afterwards to Montreal, where. by labor, the family bought off one after another of the captives, and they settled in Onondaga and neighboring counties. The Indian prisoner girl married Ezekiel Newman, and on " Survey Fifty." in the town of Otiseu, raised a family of children. Of these. Wilson bogan at arventeen and worked seven years for Gideon Sely, a wealthy pioncer settler in the southeastern part of the town of Onondaga, and then married Esther Conklin, the daughter of a widow who owned an adjoining farm. In a log cabin, on this farm, five sons and two daughters were born and reared to adult age. The father had only six months of schooling ; but, by the nid of his wife, his children, and books, he became a good Bible scholar, and was well posted in the current facts and theories of natural science. He was nearly forty years the class-leader of the Methodist Episcopal church of South Onondaga, and his pastor, in his obituary sketch, says: " Brother Newman was no ordinary man. He was one of those choice spirits who are suffered occasionally to appear among us, and who, by the unwonted excellence of their Christian character, challenge the admiration and respect of all, both saint and sinner. lle was the most active and efficient class-leader we have ever known."
The parents' ambition was to give their seven children n good common school education; but, when they had furnished this boon, the children thirsted for more, and, almost by their own unaided efforts, continued the work paternal encouragement had begun. Five became teachers. The chlest, Rachel C., a graduate of the first class of the first Normal school in the State of New York, was several years preceptres at the Caze- novia seminary, and E. lansing is now pastor of a Methodist Episcopal church in Rochester. N. Y. The oldest son, Win. Wilson, born Det. 5, 1-21, after - keeping bachelor - hall"
one winter in the Onondaga academy, began to teach when a few days over seventeen, and continued in that profession, without a single exception, twenty-five winters, and, unless attending school, during these entire twenty-five years. One summer was spent, with two younger brothers, in the Al- bany academy, studying only Latin and Greek, under Dr. l'eter Bullions, with free tuition, and all living in the city of Albany, with such economy of his hard-earned wages, that the entire expense for room rent, washing, and provisions was, on an average, for each person only seven-eighths of a dollar a week. At the close of the term he received the prize for composition and declamation, from the venerable T. Romeyn Beek.
Acting under the advice of President Not and Prof. Bullions, he continued his studies while teaching, and received the hon- orary degree of A.M. from U'nion college. Becoming principal of Public School No. 7, now the Putnam, in the then village of Syracuse, then the largest school in Onondaga County, he con- tinued to be its principal after the village became a city, and, in that building, at a county teachers' institute, was married, April 20, 1850, to one of his assistant teachers, Elizabeth E. Williams, of Manlius. Thence they went to Public School NNo. 13, in the city of Buffalo, where they continued thirteen years, till his failing health led them to change their vocation, and return to the old homestead farm in 1861. Not as teacher or farmer only, but also as author and editor, as administrator and executor of estates, accepting some minor political and public positions and refusing others, nud as correspondent of Syracuse and New York city journals, he continues in the quiet and varied duties of a retired but useful life. On his homestead farm, costing from two dollars to five dollars an here in 1795 to one hundred dollars in 1875 and aggregated by ten separate purchases and deeds, where he and his parents and grandparents have cleared away forests, creeted buildings, and made tillable fields, where two generations have passed away, and three generations have been born and reared, a family representation remains, toiling amid the duties of the present, and treasuring the sacred mem- ories of the past.
Aliah L. Carpenter
Charles Curpunten
JUDGE CHARLES CARPENTER
[ONONDAGA HILL.]
Among the worthy citizens and representative men of this town, none deserve a more honorable mention upon the pages of our county history than the subject of this sketch. He is the son of William and Lois Carpenter, and was born Sept. 4, 1800, in Kingsbury, Washington Co., N. Y. His father was born in Dutchess Co., N. Y., in 1761 ; his grandfather, William, was born near New York, in 1710; and his forefathers were of English origin, having settled in New England among the early pioneers to that country.
The judge had very limited advantages for an education, but by reading and reflection he has acquired a more than ordinary education, being able to perform well whatever duties may devolve upon him. His father settled in this town in the spring of 1816, and followed coopering. He died in Herkimer county, in the fall of 1821. His wife, Lois Carpenter, died in Kingsbury, Washington Co., N. Y., April 30, 1814.
In the fall of 1816 the judge settled in the town of Onondaga, and for a number of years followed coopering. At the age of twenty he shouldered his pack of tools and went more than one hundred and fifty miles from home, into what is now Orleans county, but then the " far west," and made one hundred and fifty flour barrels for a man by the name of Morey, who was at the time a merchant at Onondaga Hill, and who engaged young Charles to make the barrels for him.
Returning to Onondaga Hill, he continued his trade till he was twenty-four, when he married Miss Naney Burgess, a native of Montpelier, Vt., April 15, 1824. She was born Oct. 8, 1804, and settled, in company with her parents, in 1816, in Manlius, Onondaga County. By this happy union nine children were born, uamely, Charles H., Cynthia Ann, Emeline, Seth M., Edward W., Wm. H., Silas A., Kate L., and Emma L. Cynthia Ann and Emeline are deceased.
In August, 1827, the judge was appointed " deputy salt inspector" at Geddes, holding the same position for some ten years, and for the following fourteen years was engaged
in the manufacture of salt. He then was appointed " prin- cipal inspector" of salt, and held that position until said office was abolished.
In 1852 he purchased a farm in the town of Clay, having disposed of his salt interest. He returned to Geddes in 1854, and on Jan. 20, 1855, his wife died. Mrs. Car- penter was a worthy member of the Methodist Episcopal church ; was a faithful wife, and a devoted and affectionate mother. In the spring of 1855 the judge was reappointed " salt inspector," and held the same for two years. He married his present wife April 14, 1858. Her maiden name was Abiah L. Briggs, a native of Schenectady, N. Y. She was born July 6, 1811, and married Mr. Thomas Ste- venson, of Broome Co., N. Y., Nov. 25, 1829, by whom one son, Wm. B. Stevenson, was born, March 27, 1831, and died July 30, 1874. Mr. Stevensou died April 30, 1856, and she married the judge at the date before mentioned.
In 1859 the judge went back on his farm in Clay, oecu- pying it seven years; selling it in 1866, he removed to Onondaga Hill, where he now resides.
In politics, he affiliated at first with the Democratie party, easting his first presidential vote for General Jackson ; but in 1838 he joined the Whig party, and remained in it until the organization of the Republican party in 1856, since which time he has aeted with that party. He has held the office of inspector of election, overseer of the poor, assessor, and justice of the peace in three different towns, serving some twenty years, and was recently eleeted in Onondaga to serve four years more. He was elected in the fall of 1871 to serve as "justice of sessions," serving two years. In all these different positions he has given excellent satisfaction, and is held to-day in high esteem by his fellow-townsmen.
His wife is a member of the Congregational church. The judge is now in his seventy-eighth year, living in retired life with his estcemed lady, and has the satisfaction of reviewing a long and useful life, with no apprehension of the future.
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HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
where he established himself in mercantile busi- ness, and also opened three stores in Onondaga County, one in the firm name of Mann & Johnson ; one was at Onondaga West Hill, one at Camillus and one at Baldwinsville. In 1817, these stores re- quiring his attention, he closed his business at Troy and in March of that year removed with his family to Onondaga West Hill, or " Court House," as it was sometimes called.
In October, 1820, the house occupied by him and his son-in-law, Mr. Joel Dickinson, was burnt to the ground ; soon after which, having failed in busi- ness, he went into the " Hotel," so called, at Onon- daga Hill, and kept it till the fall of 1821, when he removed to Syracuse and became landlord of the " Syracuse Hotel," afterwards changed to the Syra- cuse House. About 1825, he left the Syracuse House and the county of Onondaga, and finally died September 22, 1835, at Aurora, Cayuga county, N. Y., where he had gone on a visit to his daughter.
A postoffice was established here about the year 1800, Nehemiah Earll, Postmaster. Daniel Mosely established himself here as a lawyer in 1809. Medad Curtis, B. Davis Noxon, and several other members of the Onondaga Bar resided here pre- vious to the removal of the Court House to Syra- cuse. With the completion of the Erie Canal and the removal of the public buildings the prospects of the Hill began to decline, and the business and professional men removed to a more promising locality.
ONONDAGA SOUTH HOLLOW,
now South Onondaga, is a small village on the west branch of the creek, with a resident clergyman of the M. E. Church, and the usual accompaniments of a country village. This church was organized about the year 1818, and is now the only one in the place.
Some of the first settlers in this part of the town previous to 1800, were Gideon Seeley, Phineas Sparks, Ebenezer Conklin, Turner Fenner, Gilbert Pinkney and Amasa Chapman ; from 1800 to 1804, Obediah Nichols, John Clark, Henry Frost, John Carpenter, Zebulon Rust, Joseph Warner, Oliver Cummings, Daniel Chaffee, Isaac Parmenter and others.
Near this village is a singular elevation of land rising about two hundred feet above the creek, with sides steep and not easily accessible, except on the west. On the top is a beautiful plateau or table land perfectly plain and level, containing about a hundred and fifty acres of excellent land under a high state of cultivation. There are other similar
elevations in this branch of the Onondaga valley, but none so deserving of notice as this.
NAVARINO AND OAKLAND MILLS, now called Ce- darvale P. O, are other small villages in the west part of the town, with a resident clergyman of the M. E. Church at Navarino, and at East Navarino is the Baptist Church with a settled minister.
VILLAGE OF DANFORTH.
The village of Danforth was incorporated De- cember, 1874. The first officers were elected Jan- uary 23, 1875. Edward Abeel, President ; Luke Wells, Enoch Mann, Hontoneter Bowers, Trustees ; Hiram Collins, Treasurer ; Amasa L. Pratt, Col- lector ; James H. Hinman, Clerk of the first Board of Trustees.
Present officers-elected March 19, 1878: Tru- man K. Fuller, President ; Charles P. Phillips, Eli C. Brayton, Frank Jerome, Trustees ; Daniel N. Lathrop, Treasurer ; William S. Brown, Collector ; John S. Markell, Village Clerk ; Enoch Mann, Village Justice.
ONONDAGA ACADEMY.
At a meeting of several of the persons residing in the village of Onondaga Hollow held August 15, 1812, a subscription paper was circulated having for its object the raising of funds sufficient to build and endow an academy.
The following were among the principal subscri- bers to the building fund :
Joshua Forman $500. ; Thaddeus M. Wood 300 ; Nicholas Mickles 200 ; John Adams 150 ; Jos. Forman 150; Dirck C. Lansing 150; W. H. Sa- bin 150; Cornelius Longstreet 100; Jasper Hop- per 50 ; Joseph Swan 50 ; Judson Webb 50.
And the following to the endowment fund :
Joshua Forman $750; Thaddeus M. Wood 500 ; Nicholas Mickles 200; John Adams 250 ; Joseph Forman 250; Dirck C. Lansing 250 ; Jasper Hop- per 200; Joseph Swan 125; Judson Webb 150; Cornelius Longstreet 250; George Hall 250; Wm. H. Sabin 250.
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