History of Oswego County, New York, with illustrations and Biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 18

Author: Johnson, Crisfield. cn
Publication date: 1877
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & co.
Number of Pages: 798

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 18

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FOR several years Oswego County with the rest of the country enjoyed great prosperity. Population and wealth increased. Business flowed along the line of the canal, and its vivifying influence permeated the whole county. Two new towns were formed, Schroeppel and Palermo being both taken from Volney on the 4th of April, 1832. New villages started up here and there, the growth of which will be described in the township histories. Oswego made rapid progress towards becoming a city. Soon came the celebrated era of speculation, extending through 1834, 1835, and part of 1836, when nearly all the people in the United States thought they were going to get rich at once, by the rise of land. Oswego County and especially Oswego village had their delusions like the rest of the country, but did not become quite so exalted as Buffalo and a few other western localities.

By a curious coincidence, marking well the "irony of fate," it was just when the flush times were at their climax, when half the people on Scriba's patent thought themselves on the highroad to wealth, that George Scriba, once the owner of half a million acres of land, the liberal proprietor, the enterprising citizen, master of towns, and founder of cities, died at Constantia, in hopeless poverty, at the age of eighty-four. He had long been a bankrupt, but had been

HISTORY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK.

allowed to retain a small homestead out of the immense tract he had onee called his own, and there he had seen a new world grow up around him, -a world of which he had once hoped to be the leading spirit, but in which he had now no part, save what was accorded to the pitying memory of the past.

In 1836 eame the crash, when all the imaginary wealth of the country faded out of existence, leaving behind only a beggarly account of worthless mortgages. The depression was as deep as the excitement had been great, and for several years the " hard times" pressed on the people with a weight which has never been equaled, nor even approached, in later days.

In 1837 and 1838 the troubles in Canada, known as the " Patriot War," ran their somewhat ridiculous course. Nearly all the people along the northern frontier of the United States sympathized more or less with the insurgents, commonly called the " Patriots," not so much on account of their grievances as because it was natural for Americans to sympathize with any revolt against British power.

Seeret lodges of "Hunters" were formed all along the frontier, money and supplies were forwarded to the " pa- triots," and some armed men crossed the border. In No- vember, 1838, the steamer " United States," then considered the pride of the inland lakes, lay in the harbor of Oswego, under the command of Captain James Van Cleve. A large number of "patriots," under one General Von Schultz, had come on board, and the captain was unwilling to set forth down the St. Lawrence. But some of the owners decided that she must go on the IIth, and go she did, with the " patriots" still on board, and with two of the owners of the steamer also on board. Two schooners were seen near the entrance of the St. Lawrence, which the owners just men- tioned said they wanted to help through to Ogdensburgh. Captain Van Cleve took them in tow, one on each side of the " United States." In a short time the hatches were raised, and a large number of armed men swarmed out of the hold and boarded the steamer.

Captain Van Cleve was afraid of trouble, and wanted to run the steamer and schooners ashore in Alexandria bay, but the owners decided differently, and on they went to Ogdensburgh.

Captain W. S. Malcolm, of Oswego, who was then acting as United States deputy marshal, on secret service, had been sent down to Ogdensburgh a week or two before to watch the movements of the " patriots," and was there when the " United States" arrived. The town swarmed with " pa- triots," and it was soon noised around that they would use the " United States" for the purpose of making an incursion into Canada. The captain and engineer left the vessel. A crowd of " patriots" quickly took possession of it, under the command of a General Birge, of Syracuse, and began seeking for a pilot. Some one espied Captain Malcolm, who stood near watching their proceedings, and exelaimed,-

" Here is Captain Malcolm; he has commanded the ' United States,' and knows every harbor on the lakes or the St. Lawrence ; he can pilot her."

The captain was immediately seized and forced to board the vessel, which soon set out on its voyage of invasion. His services, however, were not at first required, as the 6

regular wheelsman was well acquainted with the channel. The " United States" ran down and landed most of the forees on board her at " Windmill point," some three miles below Prescott, whither General Von Schultz and the rest of the " patriots" crossed in boats about the same time. The subsequent conflict and the defeat of the insurgents at the point just mentioned are beyond our purview, and we only mention what occurred on the " United States" because it was to some extent connected with Oswego.

As that steamer neared Ogdensburgh she was fired into by the armed British steamer " Experiment," the ball striking the head of the wheelsman and instantly killing him. Cap- tain Malcolm and a " patriot" eolonel were standing near the wheel-house at the time.

" Take the wheel, Malcolm," exelaimed the colonel; " the man is killed." Captain M., seeing that the vessel would be destroyed unless he did so, stepped into the wheel- house, and, standing over the prostrate form of the slain man, guided the steamer amid a storm of balls into the mouth of the Oswegatchie, and ran her on a bar. He im- mediately took away some important parts of her engine, so as to prevent her being again used by the raiders.

Colonel Worth soon came with a body of regulars, and placed a guard on board of the " United States." Captain Malcolm, however, remained in charge, and took her up to Sackett's Harbor, where she was kept by the government for a year or so, but was finally released.

The prevalent feeling along the frontier was fanned by a newspaper called The Oswego Patriot, especially devoted to the cause of the insurgent Canadians, and we think the only downright organ that they had, though many papers favored them. The Patriot was issued from the Palladium office, and its editor, after a brief trial of another man, was the young Oswego lawyer, John Cochrane, since so renowned as an ardent politician of New York city. It is safe to say that his editorials were of the most enthusiastic description, and if armies were to be beaten by glowing words, those of Great Britain would have been annihilated by three or four discharges of The Oswego Patriot.

But in spite of young Cochrane's thunders, and of more material aid covertly furnished by sympathizing Americans, the " patriot" war came to an end in the forepart of 1839, with an infinitely small amount of bloodshed. Dorephus Abbey, the early printer of Oswego, was one of the few who lost their lives, having been hung by the British gov- ernment for his part in the rebellion. The truth was, the people of Canada did not think they were much oppressed, and so the rebellion failed for lack of rebels.

In 1839, on the 2Ist of March, the town of West Mon- roe was formed from Constantia, embracing the territory of the old survey-township of Delft, -. No. 12 of Seriba's pat- ent. Since that time no new town has been organized, and West Monroe is still the youngest of the Oswego County family.

By the United States census of 1840 the total population of the county was forty-three thousand six hundred and nineteen, an increase of ouly five thousand three hundred in five years. This showed the result of " hard times" very plainly, for during the semi-decade from 1830 to 1835 the increase had been over eleven thousand.

HISTORY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK.

It was not until 1840 that the Oswego County Agricul- tural Society was organized, that event occurring on the 1st of February in that year. The first president was N. G. White, and the first fair was held at Oswego, com- mencing on the 7th of the following October. For fifteen years the location of the fair was changed each year. A more full description of the society will be given farther on.

With the new decade the condition of the county began slowly to improve; yet it was several years ere it had fairly recovered from the "hard times." From about 1844, however, until 1857 was a season of very general prosperity. The log houses almost entirely disappeared. The old red frames which in early times had been the resi- dences of the most prominent men in each rural district now looked shabby and forlorn beside the bandsome white farm-houses, with green blinds, which rose in every direc- tion. The cleared ground was extended on every side, and the greater part of the county took on all the characteristics which distinguish an old from a new country. The com- merce, too, which passed through the Oswego canal, Lake Ontario, and the Welland canal continually increased.

The appearance of the lake, too, at least in summer, changed with that of the land. Where once the broad ex- panse had been broken only by the solitary canoe of the savage, and later by the occasional bateau of the fur-trader, now schooners and sloops and brigs swept in rapid succes- sion before the breeze over the rippling surface, deeply loaded with the grain of Canada and Ohio and Michigan, and of still more distant fields, or bearing in return the manufactures of the east and the immigrant of Europe.

Among these white-winged burden-bearers, too, was often seen the dark cloud of smoke which denoted the presence of the less picturesque but more rapid steamboat, crowded with passengers of the better class, for whom, before the completion of the Central railroad, the Lake Ontario steamer was the principal means of summer travel. The " United States," the " Bay State," the " Northerner," the " Onta- rio," the " New York," the "Cataract," the " Niagara," and numerous other steamers navigated the lake, landing and receiving passengers at and from Oswego by thousands, and freight by hundreds of tons. The first propeller on the lakes was built at Oswego, in 1842, by Sylvester Doo- little, of that place,-now the proprietor of the Doolittle House,-and numerous others speedily followed.

Meanwhile, however, another son of stcam had been born ; another agent had taken its place among the instru- ments of modern civilization, destined apparently to surpass the canal, the steamboat, and all the other methods of trans- portation previously known. A company had been formed to build a railroad from Oswego to Syracuse as early as 1839, and a route was surveyed the same year. But the times were not propitious, and nothing more was done for over seven years. In March, 1847, the company was fully organized under the name of the Oswego and Syracuse railroad company, and work was begun the same season. During that and the succeeding years the enterprise was pushed rapidly forward. In October, 1848, it was com- pleted, and the iron horse every day went screaming up and down the west bank of the Oswego, where not so very long since the Indian war-whoop had sounded ; where Eng-

lish and French and Americans had met in deadly conflict ; where the burden-bearing squaw had been succeeded by the ox-cart ; the ox-cart by the stage-coach ; the stage-coach by the canal-boat ; and where now the valiant captain of the passenger-packet saw his brief reign brought to an untimely close by the advent of the locomotive engineer.

The Rome and Watertown railroad company showed a much longer hiatus between its organization and the begin- ning of its labors. The former was accomplished in 1832, but it was not until November, 1848, that work was actu- ally commenced at Rome. In the autumn of 1849 the road was completed to Camden, Oneida county. The next year the most of the work in Oswego County was done, and in May, 1851, the road was in running order to Pierrepont Manor, a short distance north of the county line. This road crossed the towns of Amboy (barely a corner), Wil- liamstown, Albion, Richland, and Sandy Creek, and fur- nished a market to a large section of the county which had previously been almost without one. On being subsequently extended to Watertown, it took the name of the Watertown, Rome and Ogdensburg railroad.

Another public work of this era was the improvement of the Oneida river. In 1846 a steamboat was placed on Oneida lake, and the dwellers on its shores began to bope for a renewal of the old times when that was the great route of western travel and commerce. An appropriation to improve the navigation of the river was obtained from the legislature. A coffer-dam was built at Fort Brewerton to decpen the channel. A lock was also built at Coughde- noy, four miles below Fort Brewerton, and another at Oak Orchard creck, five miles farther down. This furnished ample means of communication between lakes Oneida and Ontario, but has not resulted in diverting any great amount of travel from the Syracuse route.

In this period, too, some one, tired of the terrible roads of those days, conceived the idea of covering some of the principal ones with four-inch plank (as being cheaper than turnpiking or macadamizing them), the expense to be re- paid by tolls. In 1845 a charter was granted for a com- pany to build such a road from Salina, Onondaga county, to Central Square, in the town of Hastings, Oswego County. In 1846 the road was completed, being the first " plank- road" built in the United States. This example was soon followed in other localities, and for a few years there was a mania for building plank-roads all over the country.

Nowhere was it more prevalent than in Oswego County. The Rome and Oswego plank-road company was organized in 1847, and the road, running through Scriba, New Haven, Mexico, Albion, and Williamstown, was built immediately afterwards, being finished in the spring of 1848. During the following summer it was crowded with business. Large numbers of passengers came down the lake from the west, landed at Oswego, took the stage to Rome, and thence went eastward by rail. Others from the east went over the same route in the opposite direction. Five coaches were fre- quently dispatched from Oswego the same morning, each with nine passengers inside and eight outside, besides the driver, making eighty-five passengers in all. Nothing could be more exhilarating than a ride on the outside on a fine day. With the sun shining brightly, and the air

HISTORY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK.

full of vigor, the four spanking horses went at a rattling gait over the smooth new road, whirling the delighted pas- sengers over hill and dale, past smiling farms, pleasant vil- lages, and cool-looking groves, and landing them at Rome after a ten-hours' ride of unsurpassed excitement. But all the while the iron horse, as has before been said, was making his way down the Oswego. Coaches went out to meet him as he approached, and when, in October, 1848, he came sereaming into the new city, the great stage-route was destroyed, so far as through travel was concerned.

The Oswego and Syracuse plank-road was begun in 1848. It ran from Oswego, thirty-two miles, to Liverpool, Onondaga county, connecting there with a road to Syra- ense. The Oswego, Hannibal and Sterling plank-road, built about the same time, ran from Oswego to Hannibal, with a branch to Sterling, Cayuga county. The Oswego and Hastings Centre plank-road was begun in 1849. The Williamstown and Pulaski plank-road was another of the productions of this period, while still another ran from Constantia to Fulton. All these roads have been given up so far as the plank part was concerned. The worn-out planks have been removed and the toll-gates abandoned. Railroad rivalry has ruined some of them, but the general cause of their failure has been the rapid destruction of their material under the wear of travel. Besides, as the county progresses, the people can afford to make better gravel-roads, and do not so much feel the need of any other kind.

As railroads advanced the stages gave way. Yet as late as 1857 there was a daily line from Oswego to Pulaski; another from Oswego to Kasoag; another from Oswego to Auburn, and still another from Oswego to Richland Sta- tion,-while a tri-weekly ran from Oswego to Rochester. Across these ran other routes,-south from Pulaski to Brewerton, and thence to Syracuse and northward to Watertown, etc. In twenty years nearly all have passed away,-an occasional tri-weekly or semi-weekly route tra- versed by a Concord wagon, with a span of horses, only emphasizing more thoroughly the loss of the staging glories of the past.

By the census of 1850, the population of the county was sixty-two thousand one hundred and ninety-eight, an in- crease of eighteen thousand five hundred and seventy-nine over that of 1840. Business was evidently looking up. In 1854 the celebrated reciprocity treaty was entered into be- tween the United States and Great Britain, by which nearly all the natural productions of British America were admitted into the United States free of duty, as were those of this country into those provinces. By the operations of this treaty the business of the Oswego canal was largely in- creased. This, of course, increased the business of Oswego city and the villages along the canal; and these, again, by furnishing a better market, and causing a general financial activity, promoted the welfare of the towns. The imports of the port of Oswego became by the close of 1860 more than four-fold what they were in 1854.

The census of 1860 showed a population in Oswego County of seventy-five thousand nine hundred and fifty- eight, an increase of thirteen thousand seven hundred and sixty during the decade.

This was a handsome increase, though not as large as that of the previous decade. But the events of that and the succeeding years put in the background questions of increase of business and population, and concentrated the thoughts of all American citizens on subjects of vital and instant importance.

The election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency by the Republican party, in the autumn of 1860, was followed by the revolt of seven southern States, while four others stood ready to join them at the first excuse, and all the rest of the south was exceedingly dubious in its loyalty. The rebel Confederacy was formed. Treason organized its forces and sharpened its weapons, and no power could be found in the constitution to prevent the destruction of the nation. The citizens of Oswego County, like all the loyal north, looked on with astonishment and anger. Thus the winter and the early spring wore away, and all was ripe for a terrific explosion.

CHAPTER XVI.

OSWEGO IN THE REBELLION.

First War-Meeting-The Twenty-fourth Regiment, New York Volunteers.

No portion of the Empire State exhibited more patriot- ism, or responded with greater alacrity to the president's call for volunteers, than the county of Oswego. The light- ning had scarcely flashed along the wires, conveying the intelligence to the expectant north that Major Anderson and his gallant band had surrendered as prisoners of war, when a meeting was held in the city of Oswego, April 16, 1861, and measures adopted for the immediate formation of a regiment. Recruiting was rapidly pushed forward, and on the morning of April 26, 1861, a company, under the command of the intrepid John D. O'Brien, who was the first captain of volunteers commissioned in the State of New York under the president's first call for seventy-five thousand troops, proceeded to Elmira. His was the first company to rendezvous at that subsequently celebrated sta- tion. They found nothing prepared for them, and while barracks were heing erected were quartered in a barrel-fac- tory. While here they were joined by Companies B and C, under command of Captains Edward M. Paine and Frank Miller. These three companies established a mili- tary encampment, and assumed the pomp and eireumstance of war.

The following companies soon after reported at Elmira, and on the 17th day of May, 1861, were mustered into the United States service as the Twenty-fourth Regiment, New York State Volunteers, by Captain Sitgreaves, of the United States Army : Company D, from the town of Parish, under command of Captain Melzar Richards, subsequently licu- tenant-colonel of the Twenty-fourth Cavalry ; Company E, from Volney, Captain Orville Jennings; Company F, from Oswego city, Captain Archibald Preston; Company G, from Sandy Creek, Captain W. D. Ferguson, subsequently major in the One Hundred and Eighty-fourth Regiment ;

HISTORY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK.

Company H, from Volney, Captain Albert Taylor, after- wards major of the Twenty-fourth Cavalry; Company I, from Oswego city, Captain Levi Beardsley ; and Company K, from Ellisburg, Jefferson county, Captain Andrew J. Barney, who was subsequently promoted to major.

The following were the regimental and line officers :

Colonel, Timothy Sullivan ; Lieutenant-Colonel, Samuel R. Beardsley ; Major, Jonathan Tarbell ; Surgeon, J. B. Murdoch, M.D .; Assistant Surgeon, Lawrence Reynolds, M.D .; Adjutant, Robert Oliver, Jr. ; Quartermaster, Charles T. Richardson ; Chaplain, Rev. Mason Gallagher.

Line Officers .- Company A, Captain, John D. O'Brien ; First Lientenant, Samuel H. Brown; Second Lieutenant, Daniel C. Hubbard.

Company B, Captain, Edward M. Paine; First Lieuten- ant, B. Hutcheson ; Second Lieutenant, William L. Yeckley.

Company C, Captain, Frank Miller ; First Lieutenant, John Rattigan ; Second Lieutenant, William L. Peavey.

Company D, Captain, Melzar Richards; First Lieuten- ant, Severin Beaulieu ; Second Lieutenant, William Wills.

Company E, Captain, Orville J. Jennings; First Lieu- tenant, Richard J. Hill; Second Lieutenant, Ten Eyck G. Pawling.

Company F, Captain, Archibald Preston ; First Lieuten- ant, Patrick Cleary ; Second Lieutenant, Thomas Murray.

Company G, Captain, William D. Ferguson ; First Lieu- tenant, Calvin Burch ; Second Lieutenant, Henry B. Corse. Company H, Captain, Albert Taylor; First Lieutenant, Henry Sandorel ; Second Lieutenant, Edson D. Goit.

Company I, Captain, Levi Beardsley ; First Lieutenant, Theo. Dalrymple ; Second Lieutenant, Norman Holly.

Company K, Captain, Andrew J. Barney ; First Lieu- tenant, John P. Buckley; Second Lieutenant, Jonathan R. Ayers.

After being uniformed and equipped the regiment pro- ceeded to Washington, via Baltimore, marching through that rebellions city with loaded muskets and bayonets fixed. They first encamped on Kalorama Heights (Mnd Hill), and soon after marched to Meridian Hill, where they remained until the battle of Bull Run, disciplining and perfecting themselves in the school of the soldier.

On Sunday, the 21st day of July, 1861, was fought the disastrous battle of Bull Run. During the day the boom- ing of the guns from that sanguinary field was plainly heard in the camp of the Twenty-fourth, and at the close of the day an order was received to move to Chain Bridge. Night had already set in when the regiment marched to the arsenal and exchanged their Springfield muskets for the more effective Enfield rifle. While preparations were being made during the night, an order came to move to Fort Al- bany, about three miles distant from Washington. On the morning of the 22d the First Oswego Regiment steadily and beautifully marched down Fourteenth street, in Wash- ington, and, notwithstanding the heavy shower there was falling, they were cheered and animated by the waving of hats, handkerchiefs, and small flags, which were occasionally to be seen along the march through the not over-loyal capital city of our country, and nowise disheartened by the retreat- ing and demoralized forces in full flight from the scene of

our first defeat. In twos and threes and larger groups they met the Garibaldi Guards and other regiments, with broken weapons and lost accoutrements, and bleeding with wounds, filled with dismay and tidings of disaster, with stories of pressing hordes of Black Horse Cavalry,-men without officers, and officers without men. It was any other than a cheering prospect for the members of the Twenty-fourth, but, never daunted, they passed them by with words of encouragement and pressed to the front.

At Bailey's Cross-Roads the regiment was deployed as a picket guard, and through the night rested on their arms,- the only organized force between the victorious Confederates and the city of Washington. An occasional shot exchanged during the night told to the pursuing and victorious army that it had met with a barrier to its further progress.

During the following three weeks, without a tent, blanket, or baggage of any description, the Twenty-fourth held the picket-line, and awaited the organization of the scattered army. It is a part of the history of this regiment, and merits mention, to state that while. stationed at the cross- roads it was supported by two guns of Sherman's battery, and when, at the close of the three weeks, it was relieved by another regiment, its discipline and bearing was in such marked contrast with that of the Twenty-fourth that the officer commanding the battery deemed it no longer safe to remain on the outpost, and retired within the earthworks.

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History of Oswego County, New York, with illustrations and Biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 18

Author: Johnson, Crisfield. cn Publication date: 1877 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & co. Number of Pages: 798

Author: Johnson, Crisfield. cn
Publication date: 1877
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & co.
Number of Pages: 798