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 34
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If any new settlers came to Oswego in 1797, their names have escaped record. There were five or six more families eame between that year and 1802, but the precise time of their respective arrivals is unknown. It is pre- snmed, however, that two or three of them came in 1797 or the spring of 1798, for long ago the oldest inhabitants used to assert that in 1798 Miss Artemisia Waterhouse, of Fulton (afterwards Mrs. Ichabod Brockett, of Salina), tanght the first school in Oswego. It is needless to say that it was in a private house, and it could hardly have numbered over a dozen children. It is not pretended that there were but five families in the "distriet," and probably one of these was that of Asa Rice, who had settled three miles west of Oswego in 1797.
In 1798 Oneida county was formed from Herkimer, and the east part of Oswego became a portion of the former county.
The next year the collection district of Oswego was formed by Congress, embracing all the shores and waters of the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario, from the forty-fifth parallel to the Genesee river, and the president was author-
ized to establish a custom-honse and appoint a collector. For several years, however, it was not supposed that the duties would repay the expense of collecting them, and the whole frontier was left unguarded. Absolute " free-trade" prevailed. A few furs, however, and a little grain for the use of the pioneers, was all that was imported from Canada. There was plenty of lumber on this side then.
The principal business of the little port was eansed by the passage of emigrants, military stores, salt, and Indian goods to the west, and the bringing back of furs from the same locality. Westward-bound stores were brought from Rome through the Oneida lake and Oswego river; and often they were sent west in open sail-boats.
Peter Sharpe and William Vaughan eaine at a very early date, probably about 1798 or 1799. Sharpe kept a small tavern for the accommodation of travelers and. boatmen, and stored goods detained on their passage. Sharpe and Vaughan soon became the owners of a little schooner of abont fifty tons' burden; from the indefinite accounts handed down we should infer that it was not built here, but purchased from the Canadians. This was used in the modest commerce before mentioned.
In the spring of 1800, Archibald Fairfield, who had been a resident of Seriba's eity of Vera Cruz, at the mouth of Salmon ereek, discouraged by the loss of the only Vera Cruz vessel the year before, and by the general depressing appearance in that ambitious locality, moved to Oswego with his family, built him a house, and went to keeping tavern. In those days almost every man kept tavern who had two rooms in his house, and some landlords got along with one.
At Fairfield's tavern, in the summer of 1800, stopped Daniel Burt, of Orange county, New York, the grandfather of B. B. Burt and E. P. Burt, of this city, having made a canoe voyage from Kingston, Canada, where he had been on business. Pleased with the appearance of Oswego, he determined to make his abode in the vicinity, and on his way home purchased of one of the Van Rensselaer family, at Albany, military lot No. 7, now forming the upper part of the city of Oswego, on the west side.
There was another arrival, in 1800, of the utmost im- portance,-" a bald-headed stranger from No-Man's-Lind." This was Rankin P. MeMullin, the first white child born in modern Oswego. He, too, liked the country, and con- cluded to stay.
Whatever education was received by the few children of that period came from Captain O'Connor, who sometimes taught school here and sometimes at Salt Point. The lat- ter place contained the nearest post-office, and was the me- tropolis to which the inhabitants of Oswego (which was the jumping-off place of central New York ) made their way to catch the first glimpses of a doubtful civilization. There was no road between the two places passable by a wagon or even by a sled,-in fact, there was no road to Oswego at all. In summer every one traveled by boats; in winter there was no communication between the infant city and the outer world, save when some adventurous Oswegonian made his way on snow-shoes to Salt Point, learned the news from Europe, Asia, and America, obtained the letters ad- dressed to his neighbors, loaded himself with a demijohn of
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HISTORY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK.
whisky, if that article had become scant in Oswego, and returned the same way he went.
But in summer business was even then quite lively. Archibald Fairfield soon procured two schooners of about a hundred tons each, presumably by purchase in Canada, bringing the Oswego flect up to the number of three. With these he engaged in forwarding goods and stores to the Niagara, whence they were taken up the lakes. Cap- tain Rasmussen and Captain Ford, both masters of vessels on the lake, came about this time, but the exact year is unknown.
In May, 1802, we come to the first definite information regarding the progress of Oswego since its foundation. Al- though informed by McMullin that he would starve there, Daniel Burt had not given up the idea of settling at Os- wego. His sons, Calvin Bradner Burt and Joel Burt, went to Ovid, Sencea county, in the fall of 1801, and the next year, in company with a young lawyer named Baird, they made their way down Cayuga lake and Seneca and Oswego rivers in a skiff to Oswego, and took up their quarters at Peter Sharpe's tavern. At that time, as stated by Mr. Bradner Burt in his reminiscences, published long after- wards, there were but six families living in Oswego,-those of Peter Sharpe, Archibald Fairfield, John Love, Edward O'Connor, Augustus Ford, and Captain Rasmussen. Wil- liam Vaughan was still unmarried, and McMullin's family was perhaps temporarily absent. There were also a few unmarried lake-sailors and river-boatmen who made their headquarters here. There were no stores, but at least two taverns.
Young lawyer Baird thought there was not much of an opening here for legal talent, and left. Joel Burt also went back to Orange county for the season. After a short ab- sence Bradner Burt returned in September, and began the erection of the first saw-mill in Oswego. It was on the site of the " old red mill," and nearly on that of the present . Exchange mills. When the timbers were ready young Burt sent out to Rice's and up to Oswego Falls to invite help, and all responded with great willingness. But when every man within reachable distance was mustered, there were but twelve, and it was only by the most strenuous ex- ertions and the use of tackles that they were able to get the timbers into place. After the mill was finished Mr. Burt again returned to Orange county.
That same year Matthew McNair, a native of Paisley, Scotland, made his way to Oswego and began a residence there which terminated only with his death in extreme old age. He has stated that but two of the few residences he found here in 1802 were frames. Besides these there was a warehouse built here that same season by Benajah Bying- ton, of Salt Point.
Early in the spring of 1803 young Bradner Burt made his way to Rome, and thence on foot to Oswego, stopping in Mexico to dance all night in a house where the young men had to bow low to escape the joists which supported the chamber floor. When he arrived at Fort Ontario he found the whole garrison ont under arms. It consisted of a sergeant and two men. Proceeding to the river-bank, he called for a boat to take him across. One was imuediately sent, and while it was crossing the whole population of the
city, men, women, and children, turned out and came down to the west bank of the river to welcome him. If he had been the long-lost brother of every one of them, with straw- berry-marks all over him, he could not have been more warmly greeted. Eager hands were stretched out to him from every side the moment he touched the shore, aud happiness beamed on every countenance.
And why this excess of joy over the return of a com- parative stranger, not related to any of the citizens ? Sim- ply because he was the first arrival of the season. For four months, more or less, Oswego had been snow-bound and ice-tied, its people shut out from the sight of all faces but their own, which were but few in number (even including the gallant garrison of Fort Ontario), and the first arrival of a man, proving as it did that spring had really opened, was a subject of more excitement than was the first arrival of a steamer in the palmiest days of steamboating.
Meanwhile his father, Daniel Burt, through his acquaint- ance with the Orange county governor, George Clinton, had obtained a lease from the State of a hundred acres of land, extending from the river eastward, so as to include all the cleared ground around the fort. The lease was for ten years, at ten dol'ars per year. He moved to Oswego in the summer of 1803 with his sons Joel, George W., and Danicl, Jr. His son William soon after moved to Scriba. Daniel Burt, Sr., leaving his own land unimproved for the present, built a log house on his leased ground directly opposite Taurus street, and in the centre of what is now East Seneca- street. This was the first building, not con- nected with the fort, on the east side of the river. Having received a charter from the legislature, Mr. Burt estab- lished the first regular ferry in Oswego, on the present line of Seneca street.
By this time it had been discovered at Washington that a port called Oswego, on Lake Ontario, was doing con- siderable business, and the president determined to estab- lish a custom-house there, as authorized by act of Congress. It was doubtless on the recommendation of Governor Clin- ton that Joel Burt was selected as the collector of the new port. His commission was dated August 1, 1803. He was certainly the first United States civil officer at Oswego, and so far as we can learn he was the first civil officer of any kind. There is neither record nor tradition of even a constable previous to that time.
Perhaps it was supposed that the new collector would be sufficient to guard the entrance to Oswego; at all events the sergeant, with his army of two men, was withdrawn this year, and Fort Ontario, so long the object of intense solicitude to rival nations, was left to fall into ignoble decay.
Mr. MeNair, whose arrival the year before has been mentioned, purchased the old schooner " Jane," of Sharpe & Vaughan, and went into the forwarding business. Fairfield still continued his transactions in that line. Numerous boats came down the river. Burt's saw-mill gave. promise of frame houses instead of log, and Oswego began to look up. Still there was not a house north of Cancer (now Bridge) street.
In 1804 the progress was sufficient so that it was de- termined to have a land communication with the outer
RESIDENCE OF HON. GEORGE B. SLOAN, Corner of West Eighth and Van Buren Streets, Oswego, New York,
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HISTORY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK.
world. C. B. Burt was chosen path-master, and under his direction a road was cut through as far as the falls.
This good example was quickly followed. That same season a man named King came from the settlement in Cato, in the present county of Cayuga, and on the part of himself and three neighbors offered to open a road from that settlement to Oswego for forty dollars, being ten dollars for each man engaged. The "solid men" of Oswego de- termined to have the road. Forty dollars in cash was a big sum here in those primitive times, but after much financiering the required sum was subscribed by responsible parties, and King began the work. It was no slight task, the ten dollars per man was well earned; but in time the road was completed, and when the midsummer sun was shining most brightly King and his companions, seated on an ox-sled, rode triumphantly into Oswego, amid the cheers and congratulations of the people. It was very cheap road- making, but it should be remembered that " opening a road" in those days meant merely cutting out the underbrush, logs, and small trees from a space perhaps a rod wide, making a track barely passable for an ox-sled or cart.
Captain O'Connor taught school in 1802, the first in the place according to Mr. Burt, who had no knowledge of the little educational effort of Miss Waterhouse. It was taught in a log house, built as a workshop by Captain Ford, and situated near the bank of the river, between Gemini and Cancer (Cayuga and Bridge) streets.
It was in this year also that a man named Wilson, a con- tractor for the carrying of government stores to the west, built a schooner of ninety tons, called the " Fair Ameri- can," and Mr. McNair built one, called the " Linda," of fifty tons. The latter gentleman then or soon after also bought some Canadian vessels, showing that the commerce of Oswego was rapidly rising into prominence.
In the spring of 1805 there came to Oswego a family long and creditably known in its early history, and, from the number, vigor, and intelligence of its members, ex- ercising a strong influence over the destinies of the infant city. The head of this family was Daniel Hugunin, Sr., a man of French extraction, but brought up among the Dutch of the Mohawk valley. With him came his adult sons, Peter D., Daniel, Jr., and Abram D .; the younger sons, Robert, Hiram, and Leonard; and the daughters, Lucretia, Eliza, Catharine (afterwards Mrs. John S. Davis and mother of Henry L. Davis), and Mary (afterwards Mrs. John Grant, Jr.). The last named was then a girl of nine, aud is now the earliest surviving resident of Oswego. Of all her youthful companions not one is left who as early as she looked upon the pleasant woodlands, the scattered cabins, the brawling river which constituted the Oswego of seventy years ago, and of which, even now, she speaks with enthusiastic praise.
We fix the date of the Hugunins' arrival from the state- ment of Mrs. Grant, though C. B. Burt has stated it a year earlier. At all events, the first year of their coming, whether 1804 or 1805, Mr. Burt helped Daniel Hugunin, Jr., to build a small frame store, the first in the place. It was on First street, between Cayuga and Seneca, and still " sur- vives," so to say, as the fruit-store of Thomas Hart, being now the oldest building in Oswego.
In 1805, too, but shortly after the IFugunins, came Edwin M. Tyler, another of the sca-faring men of whom carly Oswego was so largely composed. With him was his son, Joel F. Tyler, a child of three, since long known as Captain Tyler of the lake service, and now, at the age of seventy-five, the second earliest resident of Oswego. Cap- tain Theophilus Baldwin came about the same time.
It was in 1805 or 1806 that the first school-house in Oswego was erected. Mr. Bradner Burt was the builder, and, according to his recollection, it was in the former year ; but the weight of evidence is in favor of the latter. It owed its existence to private enterprise, for the school system of the State was not then organized so as to provide for the crection of school-houses at the expense of the pub- lic. Joel Burt, Matthew McNair, William Vaughan, and others contributed liberally, and the resulting structure was extremely creditable to the educational enterprise of the pioneers of Oswego.
It was a one-story frame, no less than thirty-five feet square, with a cupola on the top intended for a bell, which, however, it never received. In fact, it would perhaps be more correct to speak of it as a school meeting-house, for it was intended from the first for the use of traveling preachers, and was provided with a pulpit for that purpose. This, doubtless, accounts for the comparatively large scale on which it was built.
The first school in the new school-house was taught by a Dr. Caldwell, who had lately arrived, and who practiced medicine and taught school conjointly for several years. He was Oswego's only physician for several years. Those who did not appreciate his medical services used to send for Dr. Squires in Hannibal.
In the early part of 1806 both sections of the present city became parts of new towns. On the 28th of February the town of Hannibal, Ouondaga county, was formed from Lysander, comprising the present towns of Granby, Hanoi- bal, and Oswego, and the west part of Oswego city. It will be observed that while the survey-township of Hanni- bal came only to the line of the State reservation on the west and south, the political town included the reservation also within its limits.
On the 21st of March the town of Fredericksburg was formed from Mexico, including the present towns of Scriba, Volney, Schroeppel, and Palermo. This change of juris- diction on the east side of the river, however, did not affect many people in the present city, for Daniel Burt was then on that side.
On the 21st of April following, Congress seems not to have learned of the change of names, for on that day it established a post-route from Onondaga Hollow to the vil- lage of Oswego, "in Lysander." Yet no post-office was established at Oswego till the next fall, when Joel Burt, already collector of the port, was appointed postmaster, his commission being dated the 7th of October. The practice of appointing the same man to several federal offices appears to have been quite common in those days. In Buffalo, at the same period, one person was collector, postmaster, and superintendent of Indian affairs, by appointment from Wash- ington, besides being a judge under State authority.
It was about this time that Onndiaga, the Onondaga
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chieftain, carried the mail weekly from Onondaga Hollow to Oswego, with such exemplary punctuality, as narrated in chapter xii. of the general history of the county. Captain Elizur Brace is said to have been the first contractor for carrying the mail between the places first mentioned,-pos- sibly Onudiaga was hired by the citizens before any regular contractor was employed by the government.
Thomas H. Wentworth, father of the well-known resident of that name, passing through the village on his way to Canada in 1806, and forming a high opinion of its com- mercial facilities, obtained the "refusal" of water-lots 5 and 6, and of the other property belonging to Archibald Fairfield. The original contraet, which in curious language gave Wentworth the privilege of going to Canada and re- turning to Utica, is now in the hands of his son, and is certainly one of the oldest business contracts extant relating to Oswego, if not the very oldest. Milton Harmon was a new settler of this year.
The oldest native of Oswego now resident in it was born in September, 1806. She then received the name of Nancy Hugunin, being the youngest daughter of Daniel Hugunin, Sr., but is now better known as Mrs. Goodell.
Early in 1807, Mr. Wentworth returned, in accordance with his previous arrangement, and bought out Fairfield, the latter soon after moving to Sackett's Harbor. He was one of the first citizens of the place while he lived here, and an incident related by Captain Tyler would tend to show that the first citizens regaled themselves with food which would hardly be acceptable to those of similar posi- tion now. Just before Fairfield left, little Joel went with his mother, who was paying an afternoon visit to Mrs. F. Scarcely were they seated when the child's curious eyes discovered something hanging from a joist, which to his eye appeared to be a baby denuded of its skin.
" Oh ! oh !" exclaimed the terror-stricken boy, " what you going to do with that baby ?" pointing to the object which had caused his excitement.
" Why," replied Mrs. Fairchild, laughing, " we are going to eat it, of course."
" Oh, ma! take me home! take me home !" pleaded the frightened child, who felt that if they had got to eating babies at that house they might soon have an appetite for four-year-old boys. His mother pacified him, but through- out his stay he cast many a wary glance at the object which had aroused his pity and his fears.
He afterwards learned that it was a porcupine, dressed and prepared for eating. At present a good many would ahout as soon think of cating a baby as a hedge-hog.
Mr. Wentworth succeeded to Fairfield's forwarding busi- ness. Though bred to mercantile pursuits, he was an artist of mueh ability, and in after-years was in great request as a portrait-painter in the eastern cities. He was also the producer of many more elaborate works, some of which are still in the possession of his son. He was the first devotee of the fine arts who made his home in Oswego, and should the lovers of those arts ever dedicate a gallery in their honor, his portrait would be entitled to especial prominence.
The reminiscences of early settlers that have been pub- lished make no mention of any religious services in Oswego
until 1807, but in all probability there were such services held there before that time.
Next to Dr. Caldwell, the first physician who settled within the present limits of Oswego was Dr. Deodatus Clarke. His point of location, however, was then nearly two miles from the village, being on a farm adjoining the present eastern boundary of the city, or rather in the forest, where he made a farm. Among his numerous children was Edwin W. Clarke, then six years of age, afterwards an able member of the Oswego bar, and still surviving in an honored old age. From his father's new house to the house of Daniel Burt, Sr., at the corner of West Seneca and First streets, all was a dense forest, though partly of second growth. After erecting a log house, Dr. Clarke was unable to procure shingles for the roof. He paid two dollars per thousand for drawing boards for that purpose from the river-side. The transportation was accomplished on an ox-sled in midsummer, about a hundred and fifty feet being drawn at a time.
There were then about fourteen families on the west side of the river, the houses being partly log and partly frame. A log causeway facilitated travel along the road in front of the site of the starch-factory, and a rude ferry, on the line of Taurus (Seneca) street, served a similar purpose for those who wished to cross the stream. Near this time the ferry was transferred from Mr. Burt to Mr. Tyler, who bought the house originally erected by McMullin, but which had passed into the hands of Captain Rasmussen.
Rude indeed would now seem the little frontier village, with its six or eight log houses and a similar number of frame ones ; with its one diminutive store, its two or three taverns and barn-like warchouses; but to those who were children then it appears almost another Eden. Mrs. Grant, especially, grows as enthusiastic over the charms of Oswego seventy years ago as her namesake, the celebrated authoress, was over the spring-time delights of the same locality half a century earlier.
" Ah !" exclaims the old lady, her memory reviving as she dwells on the beloved theme, her imagination kindling, and her language taking on the glow of youth, " those were happy days ! How beautiful everything was! How beautiful ! The trees were so green ! the air was so fresh ! the lake was so sparkling ! wild-flowers bloomed at every step. All kinds of berries and nuts abounded. The old fort-ground was covered with strawberries. Cranberries were thick along the river-shore. Beech-nuts, hickory-nuts, and especially chestnuts, could be gathered by the bushel. Wild plums were equally abundant. Game was plentiful beyond conception ; any man with a rifle could obtain it, and the Indians brought it in to sell for next to nothing. A saddle of venison could be bought for twenty-five ceuts. And the salmon ! what great shoals of them went up the river ! Thousands at a time ! their fins breaking above the surface of the water, and flashing like floating silver in the sunlight ! There was no need of doctors then ; everybody was healthy. There used to be two or three years at a time without a funeral. There were no lawyers then, and no uced of them; everybody was honest. Ah! what happy times ! what a beautiful, beautiful country !"
Once in three or four months an itinerant preacher would
RESIDENCE OF THOMAS KINGSFORD, West First Street, between Utica and Mohawk Streets, Oswego, New York.
RESIDENCE OF THOMSON KINGSFORD, Corner of West Third and Oneida Streets, Oswego, New York,
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HISTORY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK.
come along, and then notice would be given out of a meet- ing on Sunday at the school-house. As the hour for ser- vice approached a horn would be blown at the school-house door to notify the villagers, and when the appointed time was reached, the same primitive sounds again rang out upon the morning air. The pioneers set great store by the bap- tism of the young; all being anxious that their children should receive the benefit of that rite, though they were not all of them very particular regarding the language used towards the holy man who administered it. On one occa- sion an itinerant had preached on a week-day evening, and was about to move on, when he was requested to stay over Sunday and baptize some children. He was directed to one person who was especially anxious to have the rite per- formed. The preacher found the individual at work near the river, and was at once accosted by him :
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