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 97
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Turning from the medical to the spritnal department, we find the first church in town (the First Congregational) or- ganized on the 23d of July, 1817. The first settled min- ister was Rev. Oliver Ayer, father of Dr. John G. Ayer, who was installed over that church in 1822. There had, however, been a Methodist " class" organized as early as 1811.
Meanwhile, improvements were going on in all directions. For a few years Smith Dunlap kept a store at the creek settlement, then a cluster of houses without any particular name. There, too, about 1817, a carding-machine and fulling-mill were built by Anson Maltby, to the great con- venience of the people, for whom " fulled cloth" was then the principal wear. In 1821 it was bought by J. M. Hooker, who carried on the business for no less than thirty- seven years, and survives in a vigorous old age to tell the story of his early experience. He says that when he came, in 1820, the store at the settlements had been temporarily abandoned. There was one hotel, kept by Nathan Salis- bury, and five or six houses, mostly frames.
The farming population had increased much more rapidly, for Jotham Newton, who came only a year or so later, says there were nearly as many houses on the Ridge road as there are now, though they were all of logs, and were surrounded by comparatively small clearings.
All this time we have been talking about " Sandy Creek" and " the town," as a convenient designation for the terri- tory included in the present town of that name, feeling as- sured that our readers would understand that it was all Richland from the time when that town was set off from Williamstown, in 1807, until they should be notified of the formation of a change in the municipal arrangements.
But about 1824 and 1825 the people began to get their ideas up. It was thought desirable to have a local name for the little settlement where the Salt road crossed Sandy creek. Dr. Ayer and Anson Maltby proposed the some- what pretentious one of Washingtonville. It was assented to by the inhabitants, but it never stuck very close. A single word of four syllables is a little too much for an American village to carry, notwithstanding the example of Philadelphia.
By the beginning of 1825 the population of the north
William Bishof
Cynthia . S. Bishop
RES. OF WM. BISHOP, SANDY CREEK, OSWEGO CO., N.Y.
377
IIISTORY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK.
part of Richland was deemed sufficient for a separate mu- nicipal organization, and on the 24th day of March, in that year, the town of Sandy Creek was formed with its present boundaries by an aet of the legislature. The first town- meeting was held on the first Tuesday in May, 1825, when the following officers were elected :
Supervisor, Simon Meacham; Town Clerk, Edwin C. Hart ; Assessors, Anson Maltby, Thomas S. Meacham, and Amasa Carpenter; Commissioners of Highways, Barnabas Muuroc, Amasa Carpenter, Ellery Crandall, and Simon Hadley; Overseers of the Poor, Geo. Read and Truman Hawley ; Collector, John Pierce ; Constables, John Pierce, Peter Hinman, and Nathan Salisbury ; Commissioners of Schools, Asa Carpenter, Alden Crandall, and Charles Alton; Inspectors of Schools, John G. Ayer, Oliver Ayer, Jr., and Joseph M. Hooker; Fence-viewers, Cornelius Hadley, Ammi Case, and Andrew Place; Pound-master, Luther Howe.
In addition to the election of offieers the meeting voted to raise double the amount of school-money received from the State; to allow commissioners fifty cents per day for their services ; to levy two hundred and fifty dollars for roads and bridges ; to allow eattle to be free commoners ; and to require a lawful fence to be five feet high.
The next year it was resolved that each path-master should be a fence-viewer, and it seems that there were then thirty-two road districts in town. In 1828 the number of constables was reduced to two, which is the lowest number we have observed recorded in any town. Nearly all the early town-meetings were held at the house of Nathan Salisbury.
In 1831 it was resolved that cattle might go at large from the opening of spring to the first of November each year; and the height of a lawful fence was reduced from five to four and a half feet, when built of good rails or stone, but if logs or brush were used it must be five feet high. That year a bounty of twelve and a half cents was offered by the town on all erows killed within its limits. Speaking of bounties, one would infer that the people of Sandy Creek could not have been much troubled by wolves after the formation of the town, as no bounties for that animal are to be found on its records. The erow-bounty was raised to fifty cents in 1834.
The amounts raised for the support of the poor varied from fifty to a hundred dollars a year ; those for roads and bridges were generally about two hundred and fifty dollars.
Though there were few so poor as to need aid from the town, there were plenty who struggled along in their eon- fliet with the wilderness, submitting with true American pride and grit to the severest pressure of fortune rather than eall on others for assistance. There was generally something to eat, and every farmer's family calculated to make their own elothing, but money was scareer than peo- ple ean well comprehend at the present day, even in the hardest of hard times.
" Your taxes are seventy-five cents," said the collector to a Sandy Creek farmer in the early days.
" Bless my soul, sir, I haven't got seventy-five eents in the world, and I don't know where I can get it, nor when I can get it."
" Well, now, that's bad," replied the official, "but you'll have to manage it some way. We have got to have the taxes, sure."
After much negotiation it was agreed that the collector should take two bushels of rye and assume the taxes him- self.
The schoolmaster, of course, always boarded around at that day, and his presence in a family was usually the signal for the best efforts of' which they were capable in the way of entertainment. One of the most prosperous citizens of Sandy Creek tells of the mortifieation his mother felt when, on handing the teacher a piece of pie at dinner, he laid it on the table, in default of a plate, to cut it into mouthfuls.
Between 1825 and 1835 times began to improve, so that frame houses generally took the place of log ones on the principal roads. This is usually considered as marking the transition from a pioneer settlement to a farming country. The section of the town adjoining Richland was especially devoted to dairying. This was before the age of cheese- factories, but no small amount of butter and cheese were produced by the personal labors of Sandy Creek house- wives. The Meachams, who have been mentioned as early settlers, were still the most prominent citizens of that locality.
Colonel Thomas S. Meacham, one of the younger mem- bers of the family, was a very enthusiastie personage, fond of remarkable enterprises,-one of the kind of men who are called great geniuses if they succeed, and great lunaties if they fail. In the autumn of 1835, when speculation was rife throughout the country, the colonel's farm, on the Salt road, about a mile from the Richland line, presented a euri- ous scene. An immense cheese-hoop and press had been constructed, the milk of all the proprietor's hundred and fifty eows was turned into eurd, and for five successive days it was piled into the great hoop. At first the projector had intended to content himself with a cheese weighing half a ton, but when it was completed it did not appear large enough, and so he added to his hoop from time to time, till he had an article weighing fourteen hundred pounds. It was designed as a present to President Jackson.
When completed the colonel was determined to have it sent forth on its travels in grand style. So he obtained forty-eight gray horses, placed the cheese on a big wagon covered with flags, and started for Port Outario. John Sage, now residing in the western part of Sandy Creek, worked for Colouel Meacham at the time, and, as he hap- peued to have a gray team, he was called on to take part in the display. All the farmers for miles around, even if not blessed with gray teams, were invited to drive before or after the monster cheese.
The procession, nearly a mile in length, moved to l'u- laski, where a halt was made, and the hoop removed from the large cheese, allowing the multitude gathered at that rural hamlet to feast their eyes upon the monster cheese of the world. They proceeded to the port, where the cheese was shipped on the 15th of November, 1835. The boat moved from the wharf amid the firing of cannon and the applause of the vast concourse of people, who waved fare- well to Colonel Meacham as he started on his tour.
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HISTORY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK.
Nevertheless, it was conveyed to Washington via Os- wego, Syracuse, Erie canal, Albany, and New York, and the entire trip was a series of ovations. That was a proud day for Colonel Meacham, when this cheese was uncovered at the capital of the nation and formally presented to the president of the United States in the name of the " gov- ernor and people of the State of New York."
This was doubtless the largest gift (in one sense) ever made to a president. General Jackson duly returned thanks for both the honor and the cheese, and presented Colonel Meacham with a dozen bottles of wine as a compli- mentary return.
Some men might have been at a loss in regard to the manner of disposing of this mammoth production. Not so Old Hickory. He kept it until the 22d of February, and then directed that it be cut in pieces, and that an invi- tation be extended to all the people in Washington to eat cheese! The following description of that scene was given by an eye-witness :
" This is Washington's birthday. The president, the departments, the senate, and we, the people, have celebrated it by eating a big cheese! The president's house was thrown open. The multitude swarmed in. The Senate of the United States adjourned. The representatives of the various departments turned out. Representatives in squadrons left the capitol,-and all for the purpose of eating cheese ! Mr. Van Buren was there to eat cheese. Mr. Webster was there to eat cheese. Mr. Woodbury, Colonel Benton, Mr. Dickerson, and the gallant Colonel Trobridge were eating cheese. The court, the fashion, the beauty of Washington were all eating cheese. Officers in Washington, foreign representatives, in stars and garters ; gay, joyous, dashing and gorgeous women, in all the pride and panoply and pomp of wealth, were there eating cheese. Cheese, cheese, cheese was on everybody's lip and in everybody's mouth. All you heard was cheese. All you saw was cheese. All you smelt was cheese. It was cheese, cheese, cheese. Streams of cheese were going up in the avenue in every- body's fists. Balls of cheese were in a hundred pockets. Every handkerchief smelt of cheese. The whole atmos- phere for half a mile around was infected with cheese."
The enterprising colonel also sent off a number of cheeses weighing seven hundred pounds each,-one to Vice-Presi- dent Van Buren, one to Governor William L. Marcy, at Albany, one to the mayor of New York, and one to the mayor of Rochester. From the latter he received in return an immense barrel of flour, containing ten ordinary barrels, and weighing, of course, nearly a ton.
Several years later Colonel Meacham got another grand idea in his head. He would build a fine agricultural hall on his farm, on the Salt road, to be devoted to agricultural and horticultural fairs, lectures on agriculture, etc. In this case, as in that of the cheese, he kept adding to his origi- nal design until he had a long, two-story frame building, with the head of the great Rochester flour-barrel built into its front,-a structure far beyond any possible wants of that quiet neighborhood. "The hall," as it is still called, yet stands where the colonel built it, but all idea of using it for its original purposes has long since been abandoned.
Meanwhile Washingtonville grew very slowly. In 1837,- |
when Oren R. Earl came there to live, there were two public-houses, two small stores, and about a dozen frame houses.
In 1840 Sandy Creek shared the general excitement over the great log cabin campaign ; and the largest meeting ever held in that part of the country was convened in the north- west corner of that town. It was a joint meeting for Oswego and Jefferson counties ; and the log cabin for the occasion was built partly in Sandy Creek and partly in Ellisburg, close where the Methodist church now stands. The Whigs for forty miles around assembled almost en masse, and some of the most distinguished orators of the party poured forth their eloquence on the occasion, within sound of the place where old Stephen Lindsay struck one of the pioneer blows in the town of Sandy Creek.
For many years little occurred in Sandy Creek requiring the notice of the historian. The progress of time sbowed itself in improved buildings, better farms, finer carriages, handsome school-houses, and all the usual indications of prosperity. In 1851 the people at town-meeting voted two hundred and fifty dollars to provide for a town-hall at Washingtonville; and a large room was accordingly fitted up for the purpose.
But though the name of Washingtonville was still re- tained on official documents and on published maps, yet it was never a popular favorite. Washington might have done very well, but Washingtonville was too heavy. The place was more often called Sandy Creek, and at length the quadro-syllabic appellation was entirely dropped, leaving Sandy Creek master of the field.
The town-hall was evidently provided for when the peo- ple were getting their ideas worked up by the Watertown and Rome railroad. That thoroughfare was opened through Sandy Creek and as far as Pierrepont Manor in May, 1851. It ran about three-fourths of a mile east of Sandy Creek village; consequently the idea soon arose of building an- other village around the depot. After a few houses had been erected the question of a name came up, and the very convenient and euphonions one of Lacona was adopted.
In looking over the town records of Sandy Creck, one cannot but notice an extraordinary growth of the poor expenses almost coincident with the railroad and other improvements. They rose from a hundred and ninety dol- lars in 1854 to six hundred dollars in 1856, to thirteen hundred dollars in 1864, and to seventeen hundred dollars in 1870, besides large sums to pay indebtedness on the poor account. This is certainly astonishing. For several years the sum appropriated for that purpose has been a thousand dollars.
In the war for the Union, Sandy Creek took her full share, as is shown by the list of her soldiers appended to this sketch, and by the record, elsewhere given, of the regi- ments to which they belonged.
At a special meeting held in August, 1864, a resolution was carried, by a vote of three hundred and one against three, to raise the sum of fifteen thousand six hundred dol- lars to pay bounties to volunteers. At a special meeting, held on the 1st of January, 1865, it was resolved that twenty-one thousand dollars should be raised by bonds to pay bounties and fill the quota of the town ; the money to
Onun 72 Eaula
RES. of O. R. EARL, SANDY CREEK, OSWEGO CO., N. Y.
379
HISTORY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK.
be used at the discretion of a committee consisting of O. R. Earl, W. T. Tift, P. M. Newton, II. E. Root, B. G. Robbins, and Monroe Sargent.
Since the war the two villages of Sandy Creek and La- cona have gone forward with rapid steps. The space of three-quarters of a mile which formerly lay between them has been almost entirely built up on the old street connect- ing them, and several new avenues have been laid out which are already taking on quite a street-like appearance. No other village in the county has shown so rapid a progress in the same time. The population of Lacona and Sandy Creek is about thirteen hundred. The following are the principal professional men, hotels, mercantile and manufac- turing establishments of the town, besides blacksmith-shops, shoe-shops, etc .:
SANDY CREEK.
THE SANDY CREEK TANNERY .- This was established in 1826 by John B. Smith. It was owned and managed by him until 1857, when he sold it to Oren R. Earl. That gentleman carried it on until 1868. Since then it has been owned by A. N. Shepherd & Co., Shepherd, Dunn & Co., A. H. Dunn & Co., and now by Alexander Mosely & Co., all of Boston. It turns out eight hundred hides per week, and its business is constantly inereasing. It is run by steam, and employs about eighty hands. Most of its bark comes from Boylston. It has a forty horse-power engine, two boilers, and ninety-two vats. Since 1868 it has been under the superintendence of L. J. Brown.
Oren R. Earl's bank (private) ; established March, 1870, by Earl & Newton ; now owned by O. R. Earl; M. M. Earl, cashier.
Wright, Sherman & Wart's marble- and granite-shop ; established by Warriner & Soule; employs twelve men.
Henry Soule's marble-shop.
M. J. Salisbury's grist-mill.
Leman Baldwin's machine-shop.
A. C. Skinkle's machine-shop.
Sargent & Harding's general store.
Byron Allen's general store. Pitt M. Newton's general store.
C. Seeley & Son's general store.
E. S. Harding's grocery, etc.
E. Williams' grocery, etc.
S. R. King's elothing-store.
Cooke & Salisbury's drug-store.
L. A. Baldwin's book-store.
C. V. Harbottle's boot and shoe store.
I. K. P. Cottrell's boot and shoe store.
C. W. Colony's stove and hardware store.
N. M. Moulton's furniture-store.
Mrs. C. B. Bush's millinery and fancy goods store.
Mrs. C. S. Henderson's millinery and fancy goods store. The Salisbury House, by B. F. Salisbury.
The Sandy Creek House, by P. D. Clark .
Azariah Wart, counselor-at-law. Henry L. Howe, counselor-at-law.
D. E. Ainsworth, counselor-at-law.
Allen L. Thompson, M.D., physician and surgeon. J. L. Bulkley, M.D., physician and surgeon.
S. J. Crockett, M.D., physician and surgeon.
D. W. Lewis, dentist.
J. S. Thompson, dentist.
LACONA.
B. F. Pond's tannery ; built in 1876; capable of tanning five or six thousand hides per year.
Salisbury & Powers' grist-mill.
Irwin E. Finster's cheese-factory, making thirty cheeses a day.
Wm. T. Tifft, land agent, and produce and commission merchant.
Gilbert N. Ilarding, insurance agent, ete.
Fuller & Son's grocery and drug store.
Hydorn & Tilton's grocery and provision store.
Nathan Davis' flour and feed store.
C. R. Grant's stove and tin store.
Albert Powers' boot and shoe store.
The Union Centre House, by J. Mareness.
Besides the foregoing, there are in the town, outside of the two villages, four cheese-factories; one, half a mile north of Sandy Creek, carried on by J. W. Porter, which makes fifteen cheeses a day ; one, by Wm. Weaver, in the west part of the town, making twelve per day ; another, also in the west part of town, by Mr. Hollis, making twelve per day; and one, in the southeast part of the town, by Geo. S. Meads, making ten per day.
In the southeast part of town, too, there is a tannery, bnilt about 1836 by Miles Blodgett, who still owns it. It turns out from ten to twenty thousand calf-skins a year.
There is also a saw-mill by Mr. Woodward, three- fourths of a mile east of Lacona; another, by Aaron Peck, two miles west of Sandy Creek ; and a shingle-mill, by Jerome Hadley, half a mile below Sandy Creek.
A hotel, kept by Charles Lindsay, in the northwest part of the town, closes our list.
The farming interest is, of course, the most important in town. The number and capacity of the cheese-factories show the extent to which dairying is carried, nor are stock- raising and grain-raising by any means neglected. Nearly the whole town is composed of arable, rolling land, just be- ginning to rise into hills at the eastern line, and though the sand is sometimes rather profuse near the lake, it adds warmth to the soil without causing barrenness. It is well watered by Sandy creek and its branches, but there are so many Sandy ereeks that the name is somewhat indefinite. Even the maps are quite dubious. According to the best authority there are Big Sandy ereek and Little Sandy creek, each with two main branches. Big Sandy is entirely in Jefferson county, and its north and south branches unite in Big Sandy pond on the west part of Ellishurg. Little Sandy creek also has a north and a south branch, the for- mer running through Maunsville, Jefferson county, and thence into the town of Sandy Creek, the latter flow- ing through Lacona and Sandy Creek villages. The two branches of Little Sandy unite in Little Sandy pond, which occupies the west part of the town now under consideration. It is much larger than Big Sandy pond, -that is, it is the largest pond but the smallest Sandy.
Little Sandy pond is the most marked topographical
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HISTORY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK.
feature of the town of Sandy Creek. It is divided into North pond and South pond, the former covering over a thousand acres, the latter from two to three hundred. A narrow sand-bank, a few rods wide, stretches for five miles between the lake and the ponds, the waters of which are conveyed into the lake through the ridge by an estuary near its centre.
That long line of sand, once considered worthless, has now become quite valuable as a base of operations against the white-fish. A boat starts from the shore, between ten and three o'clock at night, with a large seine and several miles of rope. From a mile to a mile and a half of rope is paid out at right angles with the shore. Then a hundred rods or so of seine is thrown into the water parallel with the shore, the upper end being attached to the rope; and then the boat goes back, paying out another mile or mile and a half of rope made fast to the lower end of the seine. Then the two ropes are drawn in with windlasses, and in still water immense numbers of fish are caught in the seine. Mr. O. R. Earl states as high as thirteen thousand white- fish have been caught in one seine at one haul. This was extraordinary, but it was not uncommon to pull in at once five or six thousand fish, weighing from three to four pounds apiece. They are not as numerous now as formerly, but even this summer several hundred fish have been caught at a haul. Bass and pickerel are also caught in the ponds in winter by cutting holes in the ice.
Thus Sandy Creek is not without some sport to remind its people of the pioneer times of seventy years ago, though the most of their energies are devoted to the prosaic duties of the farm, the store, and the workshop.
THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
This religious body was organized as a Presbyterian church on the 23d day of July, 1817, by a council of three ministers of that denomination, when the following persons united with it : Thomas Baker, Mary Baker, Allen MeLcan, Vada Rogers, Phobe Rogers, Nathaniel Baker, Sally Baker, George Harding, and Polly Baker. Thomas Baker and George Harding were ordained as ruling elders.
For five years there was no regular minister, only occa- sional supplies, among whom were Rev. John Dunlap, Rev. Oliver Leavitt, and Rev. Jonas Coborn. During this time sixteen additional members were received. Rev. Oliver Ayer, the first settled pastor, was installed in March, 1822. A society for secular purposes was organized the same year, -Nathaniel Wilder, Solomon Harding, Smith Dunlap, and Simeon Duncan being the first trustees. It was ten years, however, before they had any church edifice to attend to, -school-houses, private houses, and barns being used in- stead. Mr. Ayer was succeeded by Rev. Caleb Burge, under whose administration, in 1831, there was a powerful revival commenced by a four-day meeting in David Ben- nett's barn. Prayer-meetings were continued in this barn until it was wanted for hay. Meetings were then held at a barn in the village until cold weather, when they were transferred to the school-house. Between thirty and forty converts joined during this revival. Doubtless, too, the erection of a church edifice on what is now Railroad street,
which took place in 1832, was the result of the increased vigor caused by the revival of 1831.
Mr. Burge was succeeded by Samuel Leonard, he by Chas. B. Pond, and he by Rev. Wm. B. Stow, who remained from 1839 to 1844. In December, 1842, the church adopted the Congregational form of government, but remained connected with the presbytery, on what was called the "accommodation plan." There were several in- tervals between ministers. Rev. Fred'k Graves preached a year, beginning in 1845, after which the pulpit was vacant till 1849. Rev. H. H. Waite then occupied two years, Rev. R. A. Wheelock one year, and Rev. Richard Osburn seven years. The church was rebuilt during the adminis- tration of Mr. O., and eighty-five new members were admitted.
Rev. J. R. Bradnach served from 1860 to 1864, Rev. N. B. Knapp from 1864 to 1868, Rev. H. H. Waite from 1869 to 1872, and Rev. J. N. Hicks from 1873 to 1876. Rev. J. H. Munsell, the present pastor, was installed in April, 1876. Under his administration the church and the so- ciety have been invited and placed in full connection with the Congregationalists. Their commodious edifice has been remodeled this season, having received a Gothic front and a spire a hundred and thirty feet high.
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