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 17
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When the pursuing vessels came opposite their ambush, they suddenly arose and poured in a deadly fire on the boats and the flankers. The latter were cut in pieces almost in an instant. The boats were raked with a heavy fire, and at the same time the American artillery opened on them with deadly effect. Another detachment made a rapid cir- cuit and assailed the enemy in the rear. In ten minutes the British commander found that he was engaged in a hopeless contest, and surrendered his whole force. Out of nearly two hundred men, he had in that brief time lost eighteen killed and at least fifty wounded ; while the whole injury to the Americans consisted of the wounding of one rifleman and one Indian. A hundred and seventy prisoners, two gun-boats and four other boats, five cannon and two howitzers rewarded the skillful plans and vigorous action of the Americans. The cannon and cable were afterwards carried by land to Sackett's Harbor ; the big cable of the " Superior," in default of any vehicle of sufficient strength,
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HISTORY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK.
being borne on the shoulders of two hundred volunteer militiamen. The "Superior" was quickly fitted out, the blockade was broken, and Chauncey was able in turn to drive Yeo around Lake Ontario.
During the remainder of the war very little of especial consequence happened in Oswego County. The summer and winter passed quietly away, though the people were ever in a state of nervous alarm lest the enemy should again find his way into the county. But none came, and when, in the early part of 1815, the news of peace spread through the land, the people gladly returned to the inter- rupted task of improving and developing the country.
CHAPTER XIV.
FROM 1815 TO 1830.
Organization of Oswego County-Towns then Existing-Two County- Seats-First Officers-The "Year without a Summer"-The Erie Canal-Ellicott's Logic-An Oswego County Engineer-The " Big Cat and the Little Cat"-The First Steamboat-First Court at Pulaski-A Duel on Ice-Court-Houses begun-Three New Towns -- Mr. Bronson's Services-The Census uf 1820-Condition uf the County-Deer and Salmon-Oswego County Medical Society- Constitution uf 1821-An Oswego County Senator-Oswego Canal Authorized-The Famous "Seventeen"-The First Circuit Court- First Church-Anecdote of Aaron Burr-Oswego Canal Built -- Stopping the Salmon-First Oswego County Congressman-The First Pier-The First Village-The Situation in 1830.
WITHOUT pausing on the unimportant year succeeding the close of the war, we pass at once to an event which would be of very slight consequence in a general history, but is of the greatest moment in this local record.
On the first day of March, 1816, the legislature of the State of New York passed an aet forming the county of Oswego out of the counties of Oneida and Onondaga. Its boundaries were the same then as now, embracing one town- ship and thirty-three lots of the Military tract, sixteen townships of Seriba's patent, and five townships of the Boylston tract. Its area is one thousand and thirty-eight square miles. The towns existing at the separate organiza- tion of the county were Hannibal, Seriba, New Haven, Volney, Mexico, Richland, Redfield, Williamstown, and Constantia.
It would appear that when the scheme for a new county was mooted, there was a strife, as is frequently the case, between several locations for the county-seat. Oswego village, small as it was, had the advantage in population, wealth, and commercial importance ; while the little settle- ment which afterwards became the village of Mexico, but which then contained neither store nor tavern, and the still older settlement of Colosse, divided between them the honor of being in the centre of the county. Pulaski, too, where there were as yet but a few log houses, was desirous of sharing the benefits of being the capital city. Under these circumstances 'the extreme eastern and western parts of the proposed county united their forces and procured the inser- tion in the law of a provision for two jury districts, with a court-house in each. Three commissioners, residing outside
the county, were appointed by law to select sites for the court-houses. These made choice of Oswego and Pulaski.
Next came the selection of officers. At that time all county officers were appointed by the " council of appoint- ment." The first ones commissioned for Oswego County were Barnet Mooney, first judge ; Ilenry Williams, Smith Dunlap, Peter D. Hngunin, David Easton, and Edmund Hawks, judges ; Daniel Hawks, Jr., assistant justice ; Elias Brewster, surrogate; James Adams, county elerk ; and John S. Davis, sheriff. The population of the new county was between six and seven thousand, and as they were mostly poor, they did not feel like entering at once on the task of building two court-houses. The first court of com- mon pleas in the county was held at the school-house in Oswego village by Peter D. Hugunin and Edmund Hawks, judges, and Daniel Hawks, Jr., assistant justice. The follow- ing lawyers, already counsellors of the supreme court, were admitted to practice in the Oswego common pleas on pre- sentation of their certificates : Luther Badger, Abraham P. Vosburgh, John Grant, Jr., and Thomas French. Three students were admitted on examination,-Henry White, Levi S. Burr, and George Fisher. The clerk's office was kept in the private house of the clerk, and was so kept in private houses or offices, alternating every three years between Oswego and Pulaski, for forty-five years.
The summer of 1816 was the celebrated " cold summer," when there was a frost every month during the season. The erops were almost an entire failure. The smallness of the population, the scantiness of the supplies left over from the previous year, and the large number of immigrants requiring food, all combined with the failure of the erops to raise breadstuffs to a very high price, and cause great suffering among the people. Fortunately, however, the deer were still abundant in a large part of the county, and the salmon ran thick in all the streams. These resources sup- plied to some extent the place of wheat and corn, but still there was much suffering, and the memory of the "year without a summer" is deeply impressed on the minds of the early settlers.
In March of this year an act passed the assembly pro- viding for the construction of the Erie canal: The senate, however, insisted on further surveys, to which the assembly agreed. The preparatory work was prosecuted under the direction of a board of canal commissioners, of which De Witt Clinton was the leading spirit ; one of the other members being Joseph Ellicott, the principal surveyor and agent of the Holland land company in western New York. At a meeting of the board, in 1815 or '16, the subject of employing a supervising engineer was under con- sideration. There were very few engineers in America at that time, and it was proposed to send to England to obtain one.
"Stuff and nonsense !" exclaimed Ellicott, who was a rude, blunt-speaking man ; " what will an English engineer know about making a three-hundred-mile canal through the woods and hills and swamps of New York ? He will want to work with as much nicety and elaboration as if he were cutting a ditch twenty miles long through some level English plain. He will make the work cost three times as much as it ought to, and it won't be finished in a century.
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HISTORY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK.
The main thing is to survey a good line, and then have the men dig the ditch on that line. A good surveyor, accus- tomed to the woods, will be better than the most scientific engineer you can find in England."
Ellicott's logic prevailed, and it was thus it happened that the Oswego County surveyor and pioneer, Benjamin Wright, together with James Geddes, was selected to supervise the location and construction of the Erie canal. The success with which he performed this great work amply justified the shrewd ideas of Ellicott.
The people of Oswego County were naturally opposed to a work intended to divert the great and growing western trade from its time-honored channel past their borders. They repeated the story of the backwoods philosopher, who cut two cat-holes in his door, a big one for the old cat and a small one for the kitten ; and they declared that the Erie canal was a useless hole for the small commercial cat, while the big one would always go through Oswego. But they evidently didn't know how the cat would jump.
The pressure in favor of the new route could not be suc- cessfully resisted, and, in the spring of 1817, a law author- izing the construction of a canal was passed, the work being commenced soon after. These proceedings dispelled the dream of those who had expected the whole commerce of the west to pass up the Oswego river. The dwellers on its shores saw that to get even a share of that commerce they must be connected with the great artery of the State, and soon began to take measures to that end.
One event, which tended to revive their hopes of a great lake-commerce, occurred this same spring. One fine day the whole population of the little village of Oswego-men, women, and children-poured out into the streets and hurried towards the wharf.
"It's come! She's come! There she is! See her come ! Hurrah ! Now we will have some business ! Good gracious, what a smoke !" such were the mingled exclama- tions of surprise and pleasure which broke from the lips of the excited people as they crowded down to the river.
The cause was to be sought in an object out on the lake, the like of which perhaps not one of the spectators had ever before seen. Coming from the northeast, and heading directly towards the harbor, was a large vessel, moving rapidly without sails or oars, while from a tall pipe rolled a huge column of smoke. It was the first steamboat west of the Hudson. It had been built the year before at Sackett's Harbor by General Brown, Commodore Woolsey, and other prominent men of that vicinity, had a capacity of four hun- dred tons, and had been christened the " Ontario," in honor of the great lake which it was to navigate.
As it came up to the wharf the most extravagant mani- festations of joy were indulged in by the people, who thought the steam-boat would certainly beat the canal-boat, and bring the whole wealth of the west directly to their wharves. In fact, they were so excited over this new wonder that they kept up their rejoicings with beating of drums and blazing bonfires all night long, and until the steamer departed the next morning. The steamer " Fron- tenac" was built at Kingston, Canada, the ensuing season, and cre long a vessel of that kind was no wonder on Lake Ontario.
We may note in passing that the first term of the com- mon pleas for the eastern jury district, being the second in the county, was held on the 4th of February, 1817, at the school-house in the fourth school-district of Richland (Pulaski), with Barnet Mooney, the new first judge, pre- siding, assisted by Judges Hugunio and Dunlap. James F. Wight, Joseph Pynchon Rosseter, Thomas C. Chitten- den, Benjamin Wright, and Daniel Wardwell were ad- mitted to the bar; most of them (except Wright) being doubtless outsiders who were already practitioners. It was provided by law that circuit courts or courts of oyer and terminer need not be held in the new county until the circuit judges should decide that it was necessary, and none were held for several years.
An event which occurred at Oswego in the winter of 1817-18 is curiously illustrative of the manners of the period. Two Scotchmen, named McDonald and Campbell, had a quarrel about the wife of the latter. Campbell's jealousy at length became so great that he challenged Mo- Donald to fight a duel. The latter accepted, and chose rifles as the weapons. Each invited a friend to act as second, but dueling was under the ban of the law, and not at all popular ; so the persons invited declined to act. Mr. Wil- liam Squires, who was asked by McDonald to be his sec- ond, refused, but conquered his scruples sufficiently to lend his rifle to the duelist.
Being unable to find seconds, the principals determined to get along without them. The duel came off in due time, and what distinguishes it from most combats of that nature was that it was fought on the ice. The field of battle was on the Oswego river, a little above the mouth, and near the east side, about in front of where the marine elevator now stands. At the appointed time, which had become generally knowo, a large erowd of men was as- sembled on the bank, who, though none of them were disposed to take part in the fight themselves, were all perfectly willing it should proceed.
The principals had necessarily made their own arrange- ments, according to which they marked two lines on the ice ten rods apart. Midway between these lines the enemies took their places, baek to back, with their rifles at a " carry." When both were ready, they started by mutual consent, marched steadily to their respective lines, and faced about. When both were faced, Campbell lifted his rifle and fired, McDonald following an instant later. The latter remained unharmed, but Campbell dropped as if shot through the heart. On examination, however, it was found that he had only received a flesh wound in the groin.
McDonald hid for a short time, and left for parts un- knowo. Campbell, too, soon recovered from his wound, and made his way to Canada; but what became of the fair Helen of this Oswego Iliad history saith not. This battle on ice was the last display of old-fashioned chivalry within the limits of Oswego County.
The year 1818 was distinguished for the erection of three towns. On the 28th of February, Orwell was formed from Richland ; including within its boundaries the present towns of Orwell and Boylston. On the 20th of April, the towns of Oswego and Granby were formed from Hannibal. They
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HISTORY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK.
had nearly the same boundaries as now, but the dividing line was a little farther north, so that a small part of the present Granby was then in Oswego, which also included all of the present city on the west side of the river.
In the summer of 1818, two court-houses were begun at both Oswego and Pulaski. The one at the former was a wooden building of very moderate dimensions, designed for a court-house alone, while that at Pulaski was a substantial wooden structure, of which the lower part was intended for a jail. The buildings were not completed till a year or two later.
The eastern portion of the canal was now being rapidly constructed. The Oswego people, as well as many others, were anxious to turn it down to Oswego, and not construct the western part,-the " hole for the little eat." Failing in that, the Oswegonians wanted a branch eanal from Syra- cuse down the Oswego river to its mouth. Mr. Bronson, being at that time the principal merchant and leading citizen of the county, made frequent journeys to Albany in the interest of his locality. He had not then acquired the facility with his pen for which he was afterwards noted, but he furnished a large portion of the facts and arguments from which S. B. Beach, Esq., and Dr. Walter Colton wrote pamphlets on the subject.
With a supply of Colton's pamphlets, Mr. B. went to Albany, and so impressed the leading friends of the Erie eanal that they obtained an appropriation of twenty-five thousand dollars for the improvement of the Oswego river. This was not what was wanted, but was accepted for the time as a preparatory step towards a branch canal. No action, however, was taken under the law.
The number of inhabitants in Oswego County by the eensus of 1820 was twelve thousand three hundred and sixty-four. By this time the county had begun to lose its primitive appearance. A few frame houses had takeu the place of log houses on some of the main roads. The log school-house at the four corners was, in a few localities, re- placed by the red frame familiar to the memories of the present generation. The convenient windlass was some- times substituted for the picturesque well-sweep, but the pump was still unknown in the farmer's yard. The elear- ings had increased rapidly since the war, but even in the western part of the county there were often many miles of road to be seen bordered by woods on both sides, and in the eastern portion the forest held its own with still more tenacity. Besides Oswego, several little hamlets had begun to look village-like,-such as Pulaski, Mexico, Fulton, and Constantia, but there was still not a solitary ebureh edifice in the county. The deer still coursed in large numbers through the woods, and the salmon ascended the streams in immense shoals.
Mr. William Squires tells of chasing a deer on to the ice of Lake Ontario, near Oswego, about this time, and fol- lowing it with his dogs out of sight of land, until at length his four-footed assistants caught the fugitive, and brought it, not to the earth, but to the ice. Mr. Cross, of Pulaski, relates how, when he was a youngster, in his father's saw- mill, on Trout brook, in the town of Albion, the salmon used to come up and collect below the dam in great quan- tities. The mill-man would shut the gate, when the water
would rapidly become shallow, and the salmon start baek towards the river. Then the young man, standing in the stream, with a pitchfork would throw them out by the score, catching from two to three hundred in a night.
From 1814 to 1820 there had been no member of as- sembly from Oswego County. In the latter year Theophilus S. Morgan, of Oswego, served as one of the representatives of the district composed of Oneida and Oswego counties.
In 1821, the doctors in the county had become suf- ficiently numerous so that a county medical society was organized, of which a sketch will be given hereafter. That year a new State constitution was formed, under which sheriffs and county clerks were elected by the people of each county, Orris Hart being the first sheriff elected in Oswego County, and Hiram Hubbell the first county clerk.
Senatorial distriets were also provided for, each electing four senators. By the first apportionment under the new constitution, Oswego County belonged to the fifth district, of which the other counties were Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, Madison, and Oneida. When the nominating convention of the Bucktail or anti-Clintonian party met, it was de- termined to give a senator to the new county of Oswego, and Mr. Alvin Bronson was duly nominated and elected, being the first senator (chosen fifty-five years ago) from the county in which he still resides.
In the classification of senators, Mr. Bronson drew a two- years' term. He very naturally became the leader of the movement in favor of the Oswego canal, and finally brought that movement to a successful issue, obtaining an appropri- ation of three hundred thousand dollars for that purpose. He was also, in the latter part of his term, a member of the celebrated "seventeen" who were the theme of such wide denunciation and praise over half a century ago. Previous to that time the presidential electors had been chosen by the legislature. At the session of 1824, in order to prevent the vote of New York from being cast for Wm. H. Crawford, a bill was introduced giving the election to the people. Few were willing to oppose what seemed likely to be so popular a measure, and it passed the assembly almost by aeclamation. In the senate, however, seventeen senators defeated the bill, considering that whatever might be its merits at the proper time, it was a mere party meas- ure, designed to affect the ensuing presidential election. For a while they were denounced in the bitterest manner, and not one of them was re-elected, but in time the reason- ableness of their action was admitted, the " seventeen" beeame popular, and one of their number, Silas Wright, became a leader of his party in the United States. Mr. Bronson and Heman J. Redfield, of Genesee county, are now the only survivors of the little band once so widely celebrated, both being over ninety years of age.
We have spoken of " parties" and " party measures ;" it would be more correct to say " factions," for in 1824 it could hardly be said there were any parties in the usual sense of the word. The Democratic party had swallowed all others, and the political contests were merely about ques- tions of local policy, or over rival candidates for office.
It was not until 1823 that the judges of the supreme court thought Oswego County of sufficient importance to justify the holding of a circuit within it. The first one was
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HISTORY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK.
held on the 20th of August, in that year, before Hon. Na- than Williams, circuit judge. Four cases were tried. A court of oyer and terminer was held the same term, at which three criminals were tried. In that year, also, Os- wego County alone was first allowed an assemblyman. Theophilus S. Morgan, of Oswego, was again elected to that position, and thenceforward the county has always had a representative in the lower house of the legislature.
In that year (1823), also, the first church edifice in the county was begun at the little village of Colosse, in the town of Mexico. It was a substantial frame building, thirty-six fcet by forty-six, and at that time was justly considered as a remarkable specimen of architecture.
Before a blow was struck on the Oswego canal, the Oswego people learned with consternation that the Buffalo member of assembly, Reuben B. Heacock, had introduced a bill repealing the law authorizing the Oswego canal. Mr. Bronson was then out of the senate, but was expected to take care of the interests of Oswego all the same. He mounted his horse and started for Albany. On entering the capital the first man he met was Aaron Burr, who, twenty-five years before, had been vice-president of the United States, but was then, in his old age, earning a very moderate subsistence by his practice at the bar. He knew Mr. Bronson, having argued cases before him when, as a senator, that gentleman was a member of the old court of errors.
" Ah," exclaimed the veteran, as he met the Oswego merchant, " so you have come to look after your canal, have you ?"
" Yes, sir; that is my main object."
" Well, now, Mr. Bronson, I am disposed to be on your side; I am in favor of the Oswego canal, too."
" Well, colonel," said Mr. Bronson, " I believe that all sensible men are on our side."
" Ah, my young friend," replied the disappointed and cynical politician, " if you have none but the sensible men, there is a vast majority against you."
But whether by the aid of the sensible or the senseless, the Buffalo project was defeated, and the Oswego canal was begun in 1826, the corner-stone of the first lock being laid on the 4th of July in that year, the semi-centennial of American independence. The canal was completed in 1828, at a cost of five hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars.
The greater part of the way the river was turned into a canal by the erection of dams through which loeks were built for the passage of boats. The building of these dams scriously interfered with the navigation of the salmon, and finally stopped it. Over a damn seven feet high they vaulted with comparative ease, but when they came to one of the twelve-feet ones only an occasional very muscular salmon could leap it, and a twenty-feet dam vanquished them all.
The first congressman from Oswego County was General Daniel Hngunin, of Oswego village, the young lieutenant of the war of 1812, who was elected in the autumn of 1824, but was obliged to go through a contest with the person holding the certificate, and was not adjudged his seat until the opening of Congress, in December, 1825. That winter he obtained an appropriation by Congress for a pier at
Oswego, the first constructed there by the general govern- ment. The twentieth congressional district then consisted of Oswego, Lewis, Jefferson, and St. Lawrence counties, and was represented by two members.
In 1828 the first village in the county was incorporated, being, of course, Oswego. Hon. Alvin Bronson was chosen the first president of the board of trustees. In 1830 the Welland canal was opened, and the commerce of the upper lakes began, though slowly at first, to seek the old route up the Oswego river.
By that year the population of the county had risen to twenty-seven thousand one hundred and nineteen, and the face of the country showed a corresponding improvement. Churches began to raise their white spires in hamlets here and there ; frame houses superseded the old log domiciles, even on many of the back roads ; orchards flourished and bore fruit on nearly every farm ; the deer and bear receded eastward, though not entirely abandoning the county ; the canal was hailed as the harbinger of wealth ; and the people generally looked forward to a long era of ever-increasing prosperity.
CHAPTER XV.
FROM 1831 TO 1861.
Prosperity-Two New Towns-Speculation-Departed Greatness -- The " Hard Times"-The "Patriot War"-Adventure of the Steamer " United States"-The " Oswego Patriot"-John Cochrane -West Monroe-Slow Progress-The Agricultural Society-Re- viving Prosperity-Lake Commerce-Another Son of Steam-The Syracuse and Oswego Railroad-The Rome and Watertown Railroad -Oneida River Improvement-First Plank-Road in the Union --- The Oswego and Rome Plank-Road-Lively Times -- Other Plank- Roads-Stage-Routes-Large Increase-The Reciprocity Treaty- Approach of War.
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