History of Ontario Co., New York, Part 14

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HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY, NEW YORK.

CHAPTER XIV.

ORGANIZATION, FROM ONTARIO, OF OTHER COUNTIES-COUNTY BUILDINGS- FIRST A88E88MENT OF TAXES FIRST CASE IN SURROGATE'S COURT-TEN STATE ARSENAL-THE POOR FARM- ONTARIO IN 1810.

ORIGINALLY, from Seneca lake westward, the entire region was known as "The Genesee Country," from Genesee, signifying " Pleasant Valley." Settle- ments were gradually formed after the close of the Revolutionary war, although retarded by fear of Indians, unsettled land claims, diseases prevalent, and other pioneer hardships and trials. The United States census of 1790 for Ontario County, then comprising all the State west of Geneva, gives a total of two hun- dred and five families and one thousand and eighty-one individuals. A tide of population poured into the country when Indian title was extinguished and the energetic proprietors had made surveys. This fair and fertile region was made known at home and abroad, and those desiring to better their condition spared no endeavor to come hither. From rugged hill and shaded dale of Scotland came hardy and intelligent people to the congenial clime and prolific soil of the famed western valley. The yeomanry and middle class of England sent hither a goodly number, Pennsylvania and New Jersey sent a larger proportion of emi- grants, but New England exceeded all in her supply of a shrewd, enterprising, and permanent population. The war of 1812 temporarily reduced population, but when peace returned, a wave of emigration rose higher than any previous, and scattered through all this section a valuable class of inhabitants. Land sold at a few shillings an acre, labor was in demand, trade yielded a high per cent., and naages were free and unrestrained. To improve circumstances, to possess fairer prospects, to win place, influence, and wealth, were some of the influences which developed a rapid growth, and resulted in a partition of " Old Ontario," the mother of counties.

To see how well and truly this appellation is deserved, the following list of counties formed from Ontario is given :- Steuben was set off March 18, 1796 ; Genesee, March 30, 1802; Alleghany, April 7, 1806; Chatauqua, March 11, 1808; Cattaraugus, March 11, 1808; Niagara, March 11, 1808; Erie, April 2, 1821; Livingston, February 23, 1821; Monroe, the same date as Livingston ; Yates, February 5, 1823; Wayne, April 11, 1823; Orleans, April 11, 1824; Wyoming set off May 14, 1841 ; Schuyler set off April 17, 1854. With the growth of villages and the settlement of farms came the desire for more convenience in the matter of courts, and the destiny of original Ontario was the active sepa- ration of counties as indicated; but this was not accomplished without strong opposition, confined, at times, to a locality, again wide spread, and rising to a party question.

In 1805 the subject of dividing Ontario County was agitated, as appears from the following notice, dated January 14, 1806 : "The citizens and inhabitants of Canandaigua and adjacent towns in the county are requested to meet at E. Rowe's tavern, in the village of Canandaigua, January 20, 1806, to adopt measures to oppose an attempt to divide Ontario." The bill for division was rejected. Many of the people opposed division. Communications were written and arguments employed. One writer stated, that " the Genesee river, the western limit of the county, in its pasenge northward bending to the right from a parallelism with the eastern boundary, renders the aggregate east and west extent of it considerably less than its north and south extent. That the county contained but 4150 taxable inhabitants, of whom but 786 live in the four western towns, and many of these, especially Sparta and Northfield, are opposed to being discovered from their old friends by a new organization."

Another consideration was of some weight respecting the accommodation of the judges, officers, and the usual attendants of a court during its session. Excite- ment ran high, and resulted in a meeting at Bates' Hotel, Canandaigua, December 25, 1806. Thaddeus Chapin was voted chairman, and Myron Holley, clerk. Resolutions were unanimously passed, That any division of the county would be inexpedient, and every plan of division should be opposed, and that the meeting will oppose all attempta to procure a division of said county by remonstrance to the Legislature, and that Nathaniel W. Howell, Peter B. Porter, and Myron Holley be appointed a committee to draft such remonstrance.

On the 10th of January, 1815, notice was published that a petition would be presented to the Legislature at their next session, asking that certain towns then in the county of Ontario be set off and erected into a new county, and that the site of the public buildings be at or near the Genesee Falls, and that it should not be organised until the end of three years next after granting such petition, or until the same territory shall contain 15,000 inhabitants.

The citizens of the village of Rochester were agitating the subject of dividing Ontario County, and a county meeting of the tax-payers who were opposed to the division was held at the court-house on November 6, 1817, at which time Hon.

Timothy Barnard presided, and Dudley Marvin acted as secretary. Strong reso- lutions were passed against said division.

Applications were made to the Legislature in 1817 for a new county, to be taken from Ontario and Genesee counties, with court-house in Rochester; another for court-house at Avon ; another for court-house at Genesee.

In 1818, Penn Yan discovered that she was situated in a remote and flourishing section, and her citizens wanted a division of the county, that they might have a new county with court-house and jail at their village. A convention of delegates opposed to the division was held December 10, 1818, at the court-house in Cas- andaigua. Hon. Samuel Chipman presided, and John Dickson, Esq., was secre- tary. Of the sixteen towns represented, fifteen were opposed to the division. A corresponding committee of five persons was appointed, to consist of Philetus Swift, Micah Brooks, Nathaniel Allen, Dudley Marion, and Jared Wilson. There was considerable excitement prevailing, and meetings were held in various towns opposing the division.

The political parties of 1819 were divided as anti-division and division parties. On election, the former party were triumphant by one thousand majority.

In the fall of 1820, Rochester, Palmyra, Penn Yan, Avon, Geneva, and Lyons were desirous of becoming county seats, but met opposition from Ontario's citizens. These efforts were futile, as we find Livingston and Monroe erected in 1821 from Ontario and Genesee counties. It is noted that prisoners of Monroe were to be lodged in Ontario County jail until their own jail was completed.

A meeting was called of the supervisors and county treasurers of Ontario, Monroe, and Genesee, to meet at Avon on the first Monday in June, 1821, to apportion all moneys in their hands justly and equitably.

Yates county was established at the winter session, February 25, 1823, and consisted of the towns of Benton, Milo, Jerusalem, Italy, and Middlesex, all of which were taken from " Old Ontario," and comprised about 12,000 of a popula- tion. As with Monroe, prisoners were to be confined in Ontario County jail until one could be built in the new county.

Asshel Stone, Jr., Paul B. Torrey, Lorenso Clark, Eph. W. Cleveland, Jero- miah B. Parrish, Isaac Watkins, and Simeon Lyon gave notice December 1, 1824, that they and associates would apply for the erection of a new county, to comprise the town of Naples, the south township of Bristol, the same of Rich- mond, the east part of Spring-Water, Conhocton, Prattsburg, Italy, and the west township of Middlesex. Reference to the files of later dates fails to show the opposition earlier manifested in later movements towards a permanent condition of civil area. Not as in many counties was there a strife as to the location of a county seat. Canandaigua asserted this prerogative, and it has never been disputed. Not alone county but State and nation have acknowledged her importance. and contributed to her public buildings.

By not of April 9, 1792, the supervisors in the several towns of Ontario were directed to raise and levy the sum of six hundred pounds for building a court-house, with the addition of one shilling on the pound for collection. By the not the county treasurer was to retain, " three pence in the pound for his trouble in receiving and paying out the moneys directed to be raised by this sot." The court-house was soon after erected on the northeast corner of the square, the north line of the building being upon the line of the present structure. The old frame two- story building was contracted and built by Elijah Murray, in 1794. When a successor was erected, the old building was moved across the street to the north- cast corner of Main and Cross streets, and used for years as a town-hall and post-office. It was subsequently purchased by Thomas Beals, and moved to Coach street, where it was used as a storehouse. On the night of November 21, 1875, during a prevailing fire, it narrowly escaped destruction, and " the old cod-fish" on its spire, which had stood the blasts of eighty-three winters, was displaced. The souvenir was obtained by T. M. Howell to be placed in the room of the Wood Library, and the old " Star Building" yet exista.

The first jail was a block-house, built as a refuge in case of Indian attack ; it stood near what is now Torrey's coal-yard. At a later period it served as a place of confinement to law-breakers. About 1816 a two-story brick building was put up, and later formed part of the Franklin House, which occupied the site of the Webster Hotel. The lower part was used as a tavern and the resi- dence of the sheriff or his deputy, while the upper story, divided in cella, was used for jail purposes. The insane, and the man who could not pay his debts, were then subjects of imprisonment. Moses Ward, Sr., says, " In 1803 my father was served, and having nothing with which to make payment, was taken to the old jail. His mother carried provisions from Centreville, as prisoners for debt had to board themselves. A dosen prisoners were then confined in the old log jail, and their only crime was poverty." To those who look wistfully upon the past, desiring its return, let the imprisonment for debt, the existence of slavery, and the inhuman condition of the pauper insane be held in contrast with present immunity, freedom, and the beneficent spirit which prompted a Brigham Hall

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HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY, NEW YORK.

and a Willard Asylum. It was a lesson of the times, that, while the debtor sat above and wore out his time, gayety and revelry presided below, as T. Shepherd opened a dancing-school in the ball-room, and C. W. Parsons a singing-school in the same apartment of the jail.

Roger Sprague, John Price, and Septimus Evans formed a committee on the part of the supervisors to receive proposals at Atwater's tavern for furnishing stone, timber, and other material for a new jail. They met November 4, 1813; again, January 26, 1814. The committee advertised to receive proposals for two hundred and fifty cords of stone for building a new jail. Failing to contract at this sitting, they subsequently offered to pay ten dollars per cord for good building stone, delivered on the site of said jail between January 31 and June 1. The stones were brought and were duly measured, March 2, 1814. The contract was let in April. The Legislature passed an act in 1815 authorizing the county treasurer to pay a certain sum to the building committee for the new jail. The building was not entirely secure, as is evident from the fact that, on the night of January 21, 1816, three prisoners confined therein broke out and escaped: The citizens of Canandaigua congratulated themselves during the winter of 1823-24 upon the building of a new court-house, the present town-house; the appro- priation for that purpose to be six thousand dollars. The people desired this new building in place of the " old monument of the early settlers," the "Star Building," which was pronounced " a disgrace to the public square, and a reproach to an old and wealthy county." The Board of Supervisors published a notice through their chairman, Francis Granger, Esq., and E. Taylor, their clerk, on February 21, 1824, that an application, would be made to the Legislature, at its present session, for the passage of a law authorizing and requiring the supervisors of this county to cause to be assessed and levied upon the freeholders and inhabitants of the county the sum of six thousand dollars, for the purpose of erecting a court- house; two thousand dollars to be assessed and levied in each of the years 1824, 1825, and 1826. The bill authorizing the building of the court-house became a law in April, 1824. On July 4, 1824, the corner-stone of the present town-hall, then to be the new court-house, was consecrated, and, with appropriate ceremony, deposited in its place. The widow of Oliver Phelps, with her own hand, inserted within the corner-stone a tin box containing a copy of Governor Clinton's mes- sage to the Legislature of January 22, 1824; copies of the two newspapers printed in the village, said copies being upon white satin; the first census of Ontario County, taken in 1790; Continental currency of 1776, and other articles. Rev. Eddy, pastor of the Congregational church, offered prayer, and Dr. James Lakey delivered an address. Among those who took part in that interesting occasion were Judges Howell, Lapham, Loomis, Mitchell, Younglove, Sawyer, Greig, Spencer, Willson, Sibley, Loster, Granger, Penfield, and Marvin ; while among the citizens of that day present were Messrs. Bemis, Gibeon, Jackson, Ward, Coe, Wells, E. Sawyer, O'Hara, Blossom, Phelps, Bunnell, Lakey, Bar- num, Francisco, Dorrington, J. M. Sawyer, Kibbe, Kingsley, Mead, Spaulding, and Merrill.

The new court-house is a prominent object to the stranger's eye, as he approaches Canandaigua. Commandingly situated, artistic in design, and ex- tensive in dimension, it is deservedly regarded with pride by the citizen of village or county. Two questions arrayed the people in factions prior to its erection,- its location, and the direction it should front. Three sites were considered, and the ultimate decision placed it on the Gorham lot and the old Square,-one-third being on the former, two-thirds on the latter. Some desired the front to be southward, others to the west; the conclusion gave a west frontage. The con- tract was let to Messrs. Camp Kelsey and J. K. Wells, of Canandaigua, and Thomas Crawford, of Geneva,-the price being forty-two thousand dollars,-and the work was immediately commenced. The corner-stone was laid on July 4, 1857, by John L. Lewis, Jr., Grand Master of New York State, assisted by Ex- celsior Chapter, No. 164, and Canandaigua Lodge, No. 294. N. G. Cheesebro, S. W. Salisbury, and A. H. Hager were the committee, Thomas Crawford was the architect, and J. Stephenson secretary. The ceremonies were conducted with more than usual formality. A procession was formed of Masons, firemen, and citizens, and marched to the spot. Prayer was offered by the Grand Chaplain. A derrick upheld the corner-stone, within which was placed the silver plate from the corner-stone of the old Masonic Hall erected in 1816, newspapers, and coins. Solemn music accompanied the lowering of the stone to its place. The architect presented working.tools to the Grand Master, who applied the plumb, square, and level in their proper position, and pronounced it "well formed, true, and trusty." He then struck the stone thrice with the mallet, and the honors of Masonry were given. An oration was delivered by John L. Lewis, Jr. The Hon. Thomas W. Howell followed by an appropriate address. The dimensions of the building give a base of ninety-six by seventy-six feet. The structure is surmounted by a statue twelve feet in height, and the distance from the ground to the top of this statue is one hundred and twenty feet. The inside is finely finished, and is designed

for a variety of court and county purposes. Upon the ground-floor are the offices of the county clerk, surrogate, and United States district clerk, the supervisors' room, and the post-office. A handsome memorial tablet meets the eye as one ascends the stair to the court-rooms. Here are engraved the names of one hundred and ten soldiers who fell in the late civil war. On the second floor are two court-rooms -one for the United States court, the other for the county. The building was completed and a court opened therein on January 10, 1859, the Hon. Henry Welles presiding. Well might a contrast between the court-house built (at a cost of six hundred pounds) in accordance with the act passed April 9, 1791, be drawn with the present noble structure. The old town-hall, made such on the erection of the new building as the court-house, recalls many a trial of forensic skill and moving eloquence by those early giants of the law. A Thompson, a Kent, a Spencer, a Van Ness, and a Platt sat upon the bench, while a Howell, a Greig, . Younger, a Spencer, a Willson, a Hubbell, a Sibley, and a Marvin contended for mastery at the bar. That generation has passed away, and their descendants in Canandaigua and elsewhere prove worthy sons of able and distinguished fathers. Enter the United States court-room, and find it hung around with portraits of eminent and noted men of the early day, of whom the following is a brief record taken from a framed enrollment and biography:

ONTARIO'S ROLL OF EARLY NOTABLES.

OLIVER PHELPS .- The original purchaser, with Nathaniel Gorham, of all that part of the State of New York lying west of the pre-emption line. Born in Windsor, Connecticut, in the year 1750. Died in Canandaigua, February 21, 1809.

NATHANIEL W. HOWELL .- Born in Blooming Grove, Orange county, New York, January 1, 1770. Died October 15, 1850. For thirteen years first judge of Ontario County. Assisted as counsel, with Vincent Matthews and Peter B. Porter, in 1795, in trying in Canandaigua the first cause ever tried before a jury in Ontario County.

NATHANIEL GORHAM .- Born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, in 1738. Pur- chased, with Oliver Phelps, all that part of the State of New York lying west of the pre-emption line. A delegate from Massachusetts to the convention to form the first constitution of the United States. Died in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1769.

JOHN GREIG .- Born in Moffat, Dumfrieshire, Scotland, August 6, 1779. At- torney and counseller-at-law. Settled in Canandaigua in 1800, where he died April 9, 1858.

. VINCENT MATTHEWS .- Born in Orange county, New York. Settled in New- town (now Elmira) in 1791. Attorney and counsellor-at-law. Practiced at the Ontario bar at an early day, and, with Nathaniel W. Howell and Peter B. Porter, tried the first cause ever tried before a jury in Ontario County, and died at Rochester in 1846.

AUGUSTUS PORTER .- Born in Salisbury, Connecticut, January 18, 1769. Settled in Canandaigua in 1789; removed to Niagara in 1806, where he died June, 1849.

ABNER BARLOW .- Born in Granville, Massachusetts, 11th March, 1759. Came to Canandaigua in May, 1789, and that year sowed the first wheat ever sowed in this town. Died June 28, 1846.

WILLIAM WOOD .- The originator of the gallery of portraits, founder of the Merchants' Clerks' Association of the city of New York, and other similar excel- lent institutions. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, March 31, 1777. Came to Canandaigua in 1800, where he died August 5, 1857.

MOSES ATWATER .- Born in Cheshire, Connecticut, May 12, 1765. The first physician settled in Canandaigua, having come there in 1789. For many years one of the side judges of the Ontario County Court of Common Pleas. Died November 15, 1847.

. MICAH BROOKS .- For some years one of the side judges of the Ontario County Court of Common Pleas. Born in Cheshire, Connecticut, and settled in East Bloomfield in 1799.

WILLIAM FITZHUGH .- Born in Maryland ; settled near Genesee in 1816. JASPER PARRISH .- Born in Windham, Connecticut, 1769. Captured when a boy by the Delaware Indians, soon after the massacre at Wyoming, and sold by them to the Mohawks, with whom he remained seven years as a captive; was found among them on the opening of the settlement of Western New York. Settled in Canandaigua in 1789, where he died July 12, 1836.

THOMAS BEALS .- Born in Boston, Massachusetts, November 13, 1783. For twenty-seven consecutive years he was the treasurer of Ontario County. Settled in Canandaigua in 1803, where he died April 1, 1864.

WILLIAM A. WILLIAMS .- Born in Wallingford, Connecticut; settled as a physician in Canandaigua in 1793, where he died September 3, 1834.

PETER B. PORTER .- Born in Salisbury, Connecticut, in 1773. Settled in

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HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY, NEW YORK.

Canandaigua in 1795. In that year he, with Vincent Matthews and Nathaniel W. Howell as attorneys, tried the first cause ever tried before a jury in Ontario County. Was a brave and skillful general of the Western New York militia in the war with Great Britain in 1812. Died at Niagara Falls, March, 1844.

NATHANIEL ROCHESTER .- Born in Westmoreland county, Virginia, February 21, 1752. The founder of the city of Rochester. Settled in Dansville, Livings- ton county, New York, in 1810. Died in Rochester, May 17, 1831.

HENRY WELLES .- For many years judge of the Supreme Court of the State of New York.

JAMES WADSWORTH .- Born in Durham, Connecticut, in 1768. Settled in Genesee, Livingston county, then called Big Tree, in 1790, where he died in 1844.

DANIEL S. BARNARD .- A member of the Ontario County bar as early as 1825. CAPTAIN PHILIP CHURCH .- A large land proprietor at an early day in Alle- ghany county, New York, and one of its earliest settlers. Died in Angelica.

WILLIAM WADSWORTH .- Born in Durham, Connecticut. Settled in Genesee, then Big Tree, in 1790. Was general of the militia of Western New York in the war with Great Britain in 1812. Died at Genesee in 1833.

AMBROSE SPENCER .- An eminent judge of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, when that court was the pride of the State.

STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS .- Studied his profession as a lawyer in Canandaigua. Was senator in Congress from Illinois. A Presidential candidate of Conservative Democracy in 1860, and died, in 1861, at Chicago.

RED JACKET .- The renowned chief of the Seneca Indians, and the famed orator.

MARK H. SIBLEY. - Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, in 1795. Settled in Canandaigua in 1814. A distinguished member of the Ontario bar. Represented the county in the Assembly and in Congress. Died in Canandaigua, September 8, 1852.

JARED WILLSON .- Born in West Stockbridge, Massachusetts, May 23, 1786. Settled in Canandaigua in 1813. Admitted to the bar, where he was well known as a sound lawyer and eloquent advocate. Died April 8, 1851.

WALTER HUBBELL .- Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, February 25, 1795. Long a prominent leader of the Ontario County bar. Settled in Canandaigua in September, 1814, where he died March 25, 1848.

BOWEN WHITING .- Born in Berkshire county, Massachusetts. Appointed first judge of Ontario County. Died at Geneva.

JOHN C. SPENCER .- Born in Hudson, New York, January 8, 1788. Settled in Canandaigua, 1809, where he resided until 1845. A prominent lawyer of this bar and State. Represented Ontario County in the Assembly and Senate of this State and in Congress. Was appointed, in 1827, one of the revisers of the laws of this State by Governor De Witt Clinton. Was secretary of this State in 1839, and in 1841 Secretary of War under John Tyler. Died in Albany in 1855.

WILLIAM H. ADAMS .- Admitted as attorney and counsellor of the Supreme Court of New York in 1815. Practiced his profession with great credit in Canandaigua for many years, and died in Lyons, Wayne county.

GIDEON GRANGER .- Born in Suffield, Connecticut, July 19, 1767. Post- master-general under Jefferson from 1801 to 1809. Removed to Canandaigua in 1816. Elected State senator in 1818. Died in Canandaigua December 31, 1822.

FRANCIS GRANGER. - Born in Suffield, Connecticut, December 1, 1792. Came to Canandaigua in 1816, and then admitted to the bar. Was a member of the Legislature of this State, and a member of Congress from this county for many terms. Was postmaster-general under Harrison, and died at Canandaigua August 28, 1868.

HENRY S. COLE .- Born in Canandaigua September 23, 1800. Admitted to the bar in 1821. Removed to Michigan, of which State he was attorney-general, and died in Detroit in 1835.

Many another eminent lawyer, like General Dudley Marvin, for thirty years an able practitioner, is entitled to like honors and brief mention, but these given serve as examples that the bar of Ontario has no fictitious reputation.

AN INTERESTING RELIC

of early court proceedings in Ontario County is found in the extracts from speeches made in June, 1805, at the close of the sitting of the Court of Com- mon Pleas; the one of Judge Hosmer, as a farewell address, the other a reply by John Greig, Esq. The Hon. Timothy Hosmer, first judge of this county, having attained that age which constitutionally disqualified for a longer exercise of official functions, retiring to private life, thus addressed his auditory : " Gen- tlemen,-Having by the constitution of our State been dismissed from further meeting you in this court of justice, my official life closes after a period of about twelve years, during which I have had the honor of presiding on this bench. An

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History of Ontario Co., New York, Part 14

Author: Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages: 391

Author:
Publication date:
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Number of Pages: 391