USA > New York > Oswego County > History of Oswego County, New York, with illustrations and Biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 13
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116
Redfield was another of the earliest settled towns in the county, but the exact date is uncertain. It was occupied certainly as early as 1799, probably in 1796, and possibly in 1795.
Mr. Scriba's city of Rotterdam progressed very slowly. A letter written by his agent, Meyer, in the fall of 1796 (which is now in the possession of the Scriba family), reads as if they were just finishing the saw-mill which was built in 1793; probably he referred to repairs, on account of the destruction of the dam by high water. The grist- mill was still in contemplation.
Few men ever set themselves more earnestly to develop a new country than did George Scriba. His money must have flowed like water. True, he undoubtedly expected to get it back again in due time, but nevertheless liberality, enterprise, and publie spirit in the early stages of a county's development may fairly be called virtues, and it is to be regretted that Mr. Seriba carried them so far to excess as to work the most serious injury to himself.
In 1797 an act was passed directing the surveyor-general of the State to lay out a hundred aeres at the month of the Oswego, on the west side, in a village to be forever thereafter called by the name of Oswego. The tract was laid out as directed, by Benjamin Wright, the lots were
sold by the proper officials, and thus far on the road to " forever" the place has been called by the name of Oswego.
So few and so widely scattered were the people of the great town of Mexico, that they neglected to liold a town- meeting this year at the time preseribed by law,-April 1, 1797,-and perhaps had done so the year before. Town officers were accordingly appointed by the justices of Ilerk- imer county, and as these were the first of which we have any knowledge in the present county of Oswego, we insert their names here: John Meyer, of Rotterdam, supervisor ; Oliver Stevens, of Fort Brewerton, town clerk ; Amos Matthews, Solomon Waring, and Luke Mason, of Rotter- dam, assessors; Amos Matthews and Solomon Waring, overseers of the poor; Solomon Waring, collector; and Elijah Carter, constable.
Meyer was also a justice of the peace at that time, for on the 8th of June he signed a certificate that Abram Van Valkenburgh had acknowledged the proper bond to keep an orderly hotel. Mr. Meyer was undoubtedly the first justice of the peace in the present county of Oswego ; for if there had been one on the Oswego river, Van Valken- burgh would not have gone from the falls to Constantia to get his certificate.
Meanwhile a few new settlers had located on the river- shore. John Van Buren made his home on the east side, below the falls, in 1796, and John Waterhouse in 1797. At this time the settlement at the falls, on both sides, was known indiscriminately as "Oswego Falls." There were others came whose names are unknown, and in 1796 there was business enough, so that it is said that Daniel Masters and one Goodell built a saw-mill on the east side.
In the summer of 1797, Asa Rice, his family, and two or three friends, having made their toilsome way from Con- necticut to the embryo village of Oswego, passed along the lake-shore to lot No. 2, in the present town of Oswego, where Mr. Rice had purchased a farm. They proceeded to erect a shanty of small logs, the completion of which was celebrated with a bottle of wine, carefully brought from the land of steady habits. The location was duly christened " Union Village," which name it has retained to the pres- ent day. His friends did not remain through the winter, and Mr. Rice was thus the earliest permanent settler in the town. His son,-Arvin Rice,-then a boy of eleven, still survives, and is undoubtedly the earliest living resident of the county.
On the first day of January, 1798, the first post-office was established in the county, Rotterdam being its name and location, and the much-offiec-holding John Meyer being "the first postmaster.
On the 15th of March following, the county of Oneida was formed from Herkimer. It embraced the present county of that name, all of Lewis and Jefferson counties, and all that part of Oswego County west of the Oswego river. So far as Oswego County was concerned, this or- ganization-the east part being in Oneida county, and the west part in Onondaga-continued during the whole period of pioneer settlement down to 1816. The town of Mexico was not for some time touched by the hand of change, retaining its old magnificent proportions.
It is extremely difficult to ascertain with any certainty
54
HISTORY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK. .
the date of events occurring so long ago, except when writ- ten documents can be found. Events themselves will live in tradition for unnumbered years, but dates are hardly recollected even through the first generation, still less through succeeding ones. In that same year-1798-we come to a document which gives quite a good idea of the state of affairs in all that part of Oswego County west of Oswego river at that time. This is the assessment-roll of the town of Mexico for that year, now in possession of Mr. Cross, of Pulaski. We have copied the names of the assessed parties belonging in Oswego County. Their resi- dences are given on the roll according to the number of their survey-township, but for convenience' sake are desig- nated here, in most cases, by the corresponding modern town. We may add, in explanation of some of the descrip- tions, that Salmon river was then called Salmon creek, and Salmon creek was then termed Little Salmon creek. The list was as follows :
At the mouth of Little Salmon creek, Benjamin Gil- bert, Benjamin Winch, Archibald Fairfield, and Benjamin Wright, agent for Scriba. He was assessed on a store, barn, blacksmith-shop, saw-mill, and log house.
Mexico, Isaac Burlingham, - Miles, Simon King, Jonathan Parkhurst, Elias Rose, Nathaniel Rood, Stephen Spinner, Hezekiah Stanley, Chipman Wheadon.
Constantia, John Meyer, Amos Matthews, John Bern- hardt, Daniel Banvard, Henry Fall, Solomon Waring.
Orwell, Moses Coffin.
Fort Brewerton, Oliver Stevens.
Volney (township 17), Ebenezer Wells.
" Locations on the Oswego," Stephen Lush, Daniel Pho- nix (in Schroeppel), Philip Roe, - L'Hommedieu, John Waters, Ebenezer Wright, Benjamin Walker, Lawrence Van Valkenburgh. Two or three of those named in the last paragraph were probably only owners, not residents. Such was the case also with William Constable, assessed on part of the Boylston tract; with Franklin and Robinson, as- sessed on part of Constantia ; with Jacob Mark, assessed on part of Scriba ; and Mr. L'Hommedieu on part of township 12.
George Scriba was at that time the owner, and assessed on but nine out of his original twenty-four townships, of which eight were in the present county of Oswego (and from these are to be excepted the lands of the before-men- tioned resident owners), viz., No. 6 (Amboy), No. 11 (Constantia-the greater portion), No. 12 (West Monroe), No. 16 (parts of Schroeppel and Volney), No. 17 (parts of Volney and Scriba), No. 19 (New Haven), No. 20 (Mex- ico), No. 23 (Parish),-making a total of one hundred and sixty-two thousand four hundred and seventy-seven aeres, assessed at two dollars per acre.
But by far the most populous township at that time in the old town of Mexico was " No. 12," now known as the south part of Redfield. The assessed owners of property there were Samuel Brooks, Phineas Corey, Nathan Cook, Ebenezer Chamberlain, Joseph Clark, Taylor Chapman, Roger Cooke, James Drake, John Edwards, Nathaniel Eels, Titus Meacham, Amos Kent, Joseph Overton, Juel Over- ton, Silas Phelps, John Princ, Nathan Sage, Eli Strong, Jedediah Smith, Obadiah Smith, George Seymour, Joseph
Strickland, Samuel Smith, Josiah Tryon, Benjamin Thrall, Jonathan Worth, Joseph Wickham, Thomas Wells, Luke Winchel, Charles Webster, Daniel Wilcox, and Jonathan Waldo, -- making thirty-two assessed residents in that town- ship alone, to about twenty-six in all the rest of Oswego County, east of the river.
Making allowance for men who had no assessable prop- erty, and for those living on the west side of the Oswego, there were probably about eighty or ninety adult males in the county in the early part of 1798, representing a popu- lation of near five hundred souls.
We say in the early part of 1798, for those who came later would not be assessed. The first settlement in the present town of Seriba was made in this year by Henry Everts, who located in the southwest part of the town, near the river. New Haven was also first occupied by perma- nent residents in 1798, its pioneers being Mr. Rood and Mr. Doolittle.
We have copied at length the list of assessed men, be- cause they show more clearly than aught else could the ad -- vance and direction of settlement in the county up to 1798. Henceforth, however, names of individual settlers, uncon- nected with any especial incident, will generally be left to the township histories.
Benjamin Wright, of Vera Cruz, Mr. Seriba's surveyor and agent, was appointed a justice of the peace in 1798, being probably the second one in the county.
Mr. Scriba pushed forward his settlements in Rotterdam and at Vera Cruz and along the road between with all pos- sible speed. The latter-named place was destined to be the great commercial emporium of central New York. It must have been in the latter part of 1798 or forepart of 1799 that one Captain Geerman started a ship-yard and built a small schooner. No mention of the vessel is made in the assessment-roll of 1798, and the oldest residents say it was in 1799 that the accident happened to it which, with its consequences, east a gloom over all the scanty settlements around. It will be adverted to in the town history of Mexico, but at the time it occurred it was a matter of very wide general interest, and even yet the story of the remark- able disasters of the Vera Cruz pioneers claims the mournful attention of every sympathetic reader. It has therefore been thought proper to insert an account of them here, principally drawn from a statement furnished many years ago to the Mexico Independent by Mr. Goodwin, of that village, after careful consultation with several old residents, now deceased.
At that time the country around Kingston, Canada, which had been settled at a much earlier period, was the ordinary resource for getting provisions, or grinding those raised here. Men sometimes took two or three bushels of grain across the lake in an open boat, got it ground, and returned by the same precarious conveyance. Either to relieve a scarcity of provisions before harvest, or to get grinding done after it, Captain Geerman, in the summer of 1799, accompanied by a young man named Welcome Spen- cer, started in his new schooner for Canada. In a few days the people began to look for their return, but in vain. Days and weeks passed on, and still they came not. Anx- iety spread rapidly among the settlers, bound together as
55
HISTORY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK.
they were by the ties of common dangers and hardships. The only hope was that the wanderers had been driven on some coast or island by the wind, whence they might be reseued.
Misled, perhaps, by their desires, a report spread among the people that lights had been seen on Stony island, a short distance this side of Sackett's Harbor, and it was hoped that the wanderers might have been cast ashore there. A meeting of the settlers for some distance around was held at Vera Cruz, and it was determined that a party should go in search of the missing ones.
Bold volunteers were readily found, and a crew was made up, consisting of the father of young Spencer, Chip- man Wheadon, Green Clark, Nathaniel Rood, and a Mr. Doolittle, all of whom resided either at Vera Cruz or a short distance back. They rowed across the lake in an open boat, and made a thorough search of Stony island and the neighboring isles, but found no trace of the lost mariners. On their return they, too, encountered a heavy gale. It came from the west, and drove their frail craft swiftly towards the mouth of Salmon river. A man who chaneed to be on the beach, in that then uninhabited lo- cality, saw the boat swiftly approaching the shore, bearing all its inmates to their fate. When within a short distance the boat was upset, and all five of the men were flung into the boiling surf. Strange as it may seem, not one of them reached the shore alive, and it does not appear that even a single hody was ever found, except that of Green Clark, which was washed on shore near Sandy creek. Chipman Wheadon, a very active man, clung to the boat for some time, but was finally washed off by the waves, and met the fate which had befallen all his comrades.
Seven strong men were thus lost to the infant settle- ment, for Geerman and the younger Spencer were never heard of more. There was a vague rumor that some of the contents of the schooner were found near Saekett's Harbor, from which it was inferred that it was capsized near there, but nothing was certainly known, save that it never reached Kingston.
It is not correct to say, as the gazetteers have generally done, that only one survivor (Benjamin Winch) was left in the " settlement," even confining that expression to the little hamlet of Vera Cruz, for Benjamin Wright and Arch- ibald Fairchild at least remained. Even then there were others not far distant. The story of a subsequent disaster on the lake, sweeping away more men of the Vera Cruz settlement, which has found its way into some publications, is entirely a mistake.
Unquestionably these disasters were a terrible blow to Mr. Scriba's embryo metropolis. We cannot learn that any more vessels were ever built there. The store, how- ever, was kept up, and a grist-mill erected, and it is said that one year, not long afterwards, more goods were sold there than at Oswego or Utica. In fact, for some time, most of the settlers on the Seriba patent were on or near the old Rotterdam and Vera Cruz road, and they had to go to one of those places to trade; they generally ehose the latter, as the more convenient .:
In 1799 the collection districts of Oswego and Niagara were formed hy act of Congress. The former embraced
the shores and waters of the St. Lawrence, and of Lake Ontario, within the United States, from the forty-fifth parallel to the Genesee river. It does not appear, however, that any officers were appointed, or any attempt made to collect duties, until four years later.
In the same year the gigantie town of Mexico was re- duced by the formation of Camden, Oneida county ; and in 1800, Champion, Redfield, Turin, Lowville, and Water- town were taken off. This brought it down so that, in addition to the whole eastern point of Oswego County (with Redfield forming a notch-out), it only included the southern third of Jefferson county,-giving it an area in all of about twelve hundred square miles. In the last- named year (1800) one more of the present towns- Schroeppel-was settled, Abram Paddock being its earliest pioneer.
Having now reached the elose of the eighteenth century, we will begin the nineteenth with a new chapter. At this time the settlements were still confined to the new (and flourishing) town of Redfield, those in Constantia, those extending through Mexico to Vera Cruz, a few residents at Oswego, two or three at Union Village, and a few more scattered along on both sides of the Oswego river. Sandy Creek, Boylston, Orwell, Richland, Albion, Williamstown, Amboy, Parish, West Monroe, Palermo, and Hannibal, all greeted the new century untouched by the pioneer's axe.
CHAPTER XII.
1801 TO 1812.
An Important Era-Early Hardships-Price of Land-The Bachelor Pioneer-The Indispensable Ox-Sled-Poverty of the Settlers-An Imaginary Skeleb-A Miseclianeous Load-A Schoolma'am in the Woods-An Unfortunate Boy-A Duy-Dreum and its Interpre- tation-Arriving at Destination-The House-Raising-Clearing Land-Tho Logging-Bee-Browse-Deer-hunting-Snow-Shoes- "Yards" of Deer-Rails and Fenees-Multitudinons Salmon- Sixty-three in Seventeen Minutes-Making of Sugar-The Well- The " Sweep"-Slaughtered Sheep-The Schoolma'um Spinning- The Old Lady Weaving-Young Jonathan's Home-The Indepen- dent Citizen-School-house and Meeting-house-Sugar-Party and Quilting-Bee-Spelling-School, Singing-School, and Husking-Bee -A Twelve-Miles' Walk to a Dance-First Settlement in the va- rious Towos-Formation of New Towns-Ancient Relies on Trout Brook-Inerense of Commerce-The First Custom-house-An At- tempted Raid-The Ruidors Routed-First Amerienn Ship-nf- War-Townsend, Bronson & Co .- Durham Boats-Roads-Onn- diaga-Difficulties with Great Britain-Feelings of Purties- Hostile Mensures.
THE years to which this chapter is devoted form the most important era in the development of the county, though few remarkable events transpired in it. Then was the time when in every township the axe of the woodman was heard, either beginning the work of improvement or greatly enlarging on the few efforts already made. Every year saw numerous immigrants locating in different parts of the county. The story of one is the story of hundreds. A few pages may, therefore, profitably be devoted to a gen- eral view of the way in which this county, like other new regions covered with timber, was settled.
56
HISTORY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK.
The old know how it was themselves. The middle-aged have heard the story so often told by their predecessors, and have seen the events so often repeated in the newer portions of the county, that they are very well acquainted with them; bnt a county history is designed to fix the fleeting circumstances of pioneer life for the instruction of those who are yet to come, ere they fade forever from the memory of the living. There will soon be no spot which will witness a renewal of such hardships as were endured by the early settlers of New York. The labor of subduing the prairie is trifling indeed compared with that undergone by the pioneer who confronted the beeches and the maples, the oaks and the hemlocks, the stumps and the roots, the rocks and the hills, of Oswego, of Jefferson, of Lewis, and of hundreds more of just such counties on the eastern side of the Alleghanies.
The price of land varied from two dollars an acre up- ward. As late as 1806 the instructions to the agent of town 6 (Amboy) directed that a hundred families should each receive a farm in the centre of the town for two dol- lars and a half per acre. Purchasers of lots along the "State road" were charged three dollars an acre for fifty acres each, and four dollars for all over that amount. All buyers were required to live on the land, or have some one else do so.
The young bachelor, intent on making a home for him- self, and mayhap for the girl he left behind him, often plunged into the depths of the far-famed Scriba's Patent or the Military tract, with no aid but the axe he bore on his shoulder, a seanty supply of provisions on his back, and possibly a few dollars in money, though this was by no means certain. Selecting his location, he obtained a con- tract, and handed over perhaps his last dollar as an advance payment. Very likely he dispensed even with a log house the first summer, putting up a mere hut of poles, shingled with bark.
Then late and early his axe rang among the monarchs of the forest. When a few acres had been cut down he probably made a logging-bee, one of the great events of pioneer life, and got his ground cleared ready for a crop of winter wheat. If he had no money to buy seed or neces- sary provisions, he earned them by working for his more fortunate neighbors. Having sown his piece of winter wheat, he proceeded, before snow came, to put up the " body" of a log house,-that is, the logs, without roof nor floor, door nor window,-and then returned to the place whence he came, married his girl, and brought her out in the spring to his well-ventilated palace in the forest.
Often a married man came alone, in advance, in the same way, went through the same routine, and brought his wife and family the ensuing season. When the family came, whether the first season or the second, whether in winter or spring, the chances were that they and their scanty household goods were packed on an ox-sled, and that the musie of " Whoa ! haw ! gee, Bnek !" resounded in their ears throughout the whole length of their journey. Once in a while a solitary horse was ridden into the forest, but its possession was a decided mark of aristocracy. Oxen could be driven along the diabolical roads, where horses would have broken their legs in an hour. The former
could be used in clearing land, where similar dangers waited; and if worst came to worst, they could be changed into beef, to help eke out the failing supply of bread. But their prime recommendation was their cheapness. For cheapness was absolutely essential to the pioneer.
Mention has been frequently made of the scantiness of their means, and it would not be far out of the way to say plumply that all the pioneers of Oswego County-all the pioneers of central and western New York-were poor. The exceptions were few indeed. Their descendants now look back with pride to the humble log house, the ox-team, the home-made furniture, which were the beginning of subsequent competence ; and the greater the hardships en- dured the greater the pride of the sons in the courage and energy which overcame them.
Not only was the ox preferable to the horse, but the sled was more convenient than the wagon. The former would twist around among the trees and logs where the latter would soon have been ruined; besides, it was far cheaper. Sometimes a cart, consisting of little more than two big wheels, an axletree, and a tongue, would be bronght into use ; but for moving into the country the sled was the gen- eral favorite, it being not only cheap and hard to break, but capable of holding all that the ordinary emigrant family would have to bring. Advantage was usually taken of the snow of late winter or early spring; but even when the ground was half bare, the sled was the thing for moving.
Perhaps the usnal process of settling a new country in the old times can be best pictured to the mind of the reader by an imaginative sketch, condensing and uniting the nu- merous accounts of the pioneers.
Here comes an ox-battery attacking the forest fortress of Oswego, County. The patient, broad-horned toilers move steadily forward along the narrow road, undisturbed by the numberless stumps, trees, and logs against which they rub as they make their tedious way. Behind comes the sled, where a middle-aged matron in linsey-woolsey gown sits on top of two feather-beds, while around her are stowed a bag of flour, four splint-bottom chairs, three tow-headed chil- dren, a side of pork, two iron pots, three bags of potatoes, and a brindle cat. The new-comers evidently belong to the more opulent class of pioneers, and will be looked up to with respect by all their less fortunate neighbors. Very likely the tall, dark, gaunt, keen-eyed, iron-jawed New Eng- lander in sheep's-gray clothing, who with long ox-goad in hand tramps by the side of his team, has as much as six dollars and a half in his pocket, and will be a justice of the peace inside of three years.
Behind the load trudges a bright, red-cheeked girl of eighteen, occasionally clinging on in order to pass a bad mud-hole, but capable of traveling as far as the oxen ean, at least. Poor as the family may seem to the city gentle- man or old-world observer, she has had a fair English edu- cation, has taught school the previous summer in her native town, has quilts of her own making on that all-embracing ox-sled, and plenty of ideas in the brain behind that inde- pendent-looking face. Still farther back comes the boy next younger, doomed to be the custodian of the old red cow, the producer of the ouly luxuries the family enjoy, the hope and solace of many a clamorous child. He looks
57
HISTORY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK.
mad. He is vexed to the utmost point of boyish disgust because he is not, like his big brother, wandering through the woods with rifle on shoulder, instead of fagging at the heels of poor, despised old Betsey. Oh, if he were only twenty instead of fifteen ! wouldn't he have a gun ? and wouldn't he kill a bear ? To kill a bear is to his mind the chief object in moving into a new country, and he knows he could do it if he only had a gun.
And he, the envied big brother of twenty, has somewhat similar ideas as he strides with elastic step amid the trees away off on the right flank of the main army, the flint-lock rifle with which his father had faced the red-coats at Ben- nington carelessly resting on his shoulder, his powder-horn and bullet-pouch by his side, his inevitable sheep's-gray suit scratched by the thickets through which he has plunged, and his eager face aglow partly with the excitement of the hunter, and partly with the hopes of the pioneer. Of course it isn't for him-a man-to think much about such trivial things as deer and bear; he has come to the wilder- ness to help his parents make a home and then to make one for himself; to acquire a two-hundred-acre farm, to turn it into first-class meadow and grain land, to raise the largest crops in the county, to build a fine house and barns of incalculable size,-in short, to get rich.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.