History of Seneca Co., New York, with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, palatial residences, public building and important manufactories, Part 14

Author:
Publication date: 1876
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts, Ensign & Everts
Number of Pages: 294


USA > New York > Seneca County > History of Seneca Co., New York, with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, palatial residences, public building and important manufactories > Part 14


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The stirring and radical changes since 1861, still in progress, are viewed with the same patriotic spirit from different stand-points, and find able champions whom it would seem invidious to designate by name. The County is fully recognized as Democratie, the strength of which party, compared with the Republican, is illustrated by the popular vote of 1875 for Secretary of State. In the general election held in Seneca on November 2, 1875, John Bigelow, Democrat, re- ceived 2883 votes ; Frederiek W. Seward, Republican, 2379 votes; and G. B. Dusinberre, Prohibition candidate, 63 votes, from a total of 5327 votes polled. The following table of Sencca's population, at indicated intervals, shows the prog- ross of the County in that respect. In 1810, 16,609; 1820, 23,619 ; 1830, 21,031; 1840, 24,874. The population of towna for semi-decades from 1860 ia shown as follows :


1860


1863.


1870


1875,


Covert


2,410


2,201


2,238


2,097


Fayette ..


3.742


3,509


3,304


3,371


Junius.


1,310


1,412


1,420


1,313


Lodi


2,067


1,892


1,826


1,896


1860.


1865.


1870.


1875.


Ovid


2,538


2,382


2,403


2,397


Romulus ...


2,170


1,973


2,223


2,073


Scueca Falls.


5,960


6,490


6,860


7,076


Tyre ...


1,437


1,348


1,280


1,216


Varick.


1,904


1,833


1,741


1,731


Waterloo ..


4,594


4,523


4,469


4,102


Totals


28,138


27,653


27,823


27,274


CHAPTER XVIII.


TRACES-ROADS-TURNPIKES-BRIDGES-SENECA LOCK NAVIGATION AND ERIE CANALS, AND NAVIGATION.


EFFORTS made to render communication casy and expeditious have always characterized civilization, contributed to internal strength and development, and yet remain ancient and honorable evidence of former power and intelligence. The Roman ways were models of labor and permanence. The causewaya around Mexico, when assaulted by Cortez in 1521, the broad roads among the Peruvians, the Chinese and Venetian canals, existed as substantial monuments of persever- ing enterprise, indefinite periods in construction, and masses of laborers, in the far- away past. In the New World its occupants, limited in number and widely scattered, possessing no wheeled vehicles, and devoid of commercial knowledge, found the trace or trail all sufficient for their purposes of communication, and the frail canoe of ample strength and size to bear tbem along or across the lakes of Seneca and Cayuga.


Between the villages of the Iroquois were well-beaten trails, which proved a con- stant intercourse. An .ancient trail led from the source of the Delaware; an- other from the forks of the Susquehanna. A juaction was made at Catharine's Town; thence, passing north and through "the Peach Orchard," it crossed a ravine at Breakneek Hollow, touching Mill Creek at Shallow Ford; thence to " Appletown," whence it coursed the western margin of Seneca Lake, across the outlet to Canadesaga, now Geneva. At different points along this Indian road side-paths led off to various corn-fields and orchards. Along this road came the New Jersey and Pennsylvania settlers, and in the construction of the existing road the windings of the old trail are mainly followed, the ravines dyked, the streams bridged. The survey of lots with lines running at right angles into areas of a mile aquare suggested the establishment of roads along the lot lines, and hence these exist in parallel lines, east and west, north and south. The nature of the soil renders these numerous routes of travel almost impracticable in spring, but at other times they are excellent. The laws relating to highways allow each owner a road to his land. The certified oath of twelve freeholders is necessary to open or close a road. New roads cannot be run through orchard or garden of above four years' growth and inclosures without consent of the owner. Mile-boards and gnide-boards are required, and to deface them is criminal. The annual labor on highways must be equal to three times, in days, the number of taxable inhabitants. Owners along roads three or more rods wide may plant trees adjacent to their line, and recover damages for any injury to them. This regulation gives, wherever observed, a pleasant, avenue-like appearance to the roads, and its general adoption would greatly enhance the value of lands and beauty of scenery.


About 1800, the rage for speculation was directed to the construction of turn- pikes, and ten years later the nominal stock in turnpike and toll-bridge charters was over $8,000,000. As early spoken of, the turnpike from Albany west- ward to Buffalo opened a channel of emigration all along its route. Settle- ments were begun, and from either side turnpike and nther roads branched off in every direction, and while investments in turnpike atoek were of little valuc, the model of construction for the great network of roads was of much benefit. A turnpike now known as the " Old Turnpike," formerly as the " Ithaca and Geneva Turnpike," was constructed through Seneca County, connecting those two points, as carly as 1815. The windings of this pike are accounted for on the ground that it followed the lines of heaviest local subscription. The various steps in the perfection and character of roads start with the survey. Brush was cut, fallen timber turned aside to make a roadway, and trees blazed. Later, trees were chopped down, stumps dug out, corduroy built over swampy tracts, and roads cx- tended; then came the turnpike, the plank road, and finally the gravel road.


It was in 1850 that C. W. Seely and Jacob Chamberlain, authorized by Act of Legislature, laid a plank road extending through Seneca Falls to Jason Smith's,


43


HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY, NEW YORK.


northward, in Tyre, and from the Falls southward to Bearytowa. Capital stock was issued in shares of fifty dollars, and much of it was taken by the farmers . along the road. The plaak was not durable; being laid upon oak stringers and composed of clun and soft maple, it soon began to break up, and the stock rapidly depreciated to less than forty per cent. of its face value .. In the course of six or eight years the road became worthless, and then the portion north of Seneca Falls was graveled and the remainder repaired with broken stone. The toll-gates still stand, but no tolls have been taken since the fall of 1875. Hundreds of these cor- porations were organized between 1848 and 1852, and several thousand miles of plank roads built, but almost all have been abandoned and divided among the road districts as publie highways. The famous long bridge over Cayuga Lake was of de- fective construction; the bends were separately framed, properly placed, and held in position by striogers which were notched on the caps, and those outside bolted down. Some of the bends began to settle and lean to the west, and in 1808 the whole mass gave way. The plank, railing, and stringers floated off down to the marsh at the foot of the lake. The bends were to be acen years after lying in order on the bottom.


The second bridge was commenced in the winter of 1813. Piles were driven from the cast shore one-third of the way across, the pile-driver being worked on the ice. When the ice went out a scow was constructed and anchored at the work ; on this scow the horse went round and round upon bis weary circle, wind- ing up the rope which drew up the hammer. The work was vigorously pressed ; hands received a dollar and a half per day and paid the same suin for a weck's board. Fever and ague being prevalent, a ration of half a pint of whisky daily was furnished to each man by the company.


A third bridge was built in 1833 on the north side of the old one, while it was still passable. A large amount of travel, foot, horseback, and wagon, centered at the Cayuga bridge to cross the lake. Daily, horse- and ox-teams were scen on the bridge. The wagons, covered with canvas, contained families bound for the West, while parties of from two to ten men on horseback, equipped with valise and saddle-haga, were on their way to find them homes in the Genesee country. The bridge was regarded then as the best paying stock in western New York. Receipts reached the sum of $25,000 a year. The stock was chiefly owned by residents of New York City, Asa Sprague, known later as the Superintendent of the Syracuse and Rochester Railroad, was the toll-gatherer. The lower bridge across the outlet belonged to the same company owning the long bridge. W. Mynderse was Treasurer; John Hagerty, Secretary ; and Josiah Crane, Collector on lower bridge. Other toll-gatherers were, James Bennett, Lucas Van Buskirk, father of Lucas Van Buskirk, Jr., and Marsh, who was the collector till the bridge was abandoned on account of railroad competition in travel, about 1842. The rates of toll were, carriage with four horses, 10s .; two horses, 8s .; two-horse wagon, 4s. tid .; one horse, 3s. 6d. ; man and horse, 2s. ; and footinan, 6d. Cattle paid 6d. per head, and droves of several hundred passed over at a time. Hogs were two to three cents per head. Tolls of from $300 to $500 were taken daily. Then, a sight of the bridge without a traveler upon it was a rarity. Few now live who recollect the building of the second bridge. One of these is Harvey Larzelere, son of Judge Jacob L. Larzelere, an old surveyor, and a legislator in 1816; Henry Moses, now aged ninety-three years, and living with his son in Fayette ; Peter Brown, William Travis, James Bennett, Isaac Goodwin, and John and Amos Oliver were of the carly residents.


The subject of improving inland navigation was discussed as carly as 1725, but no result was reached until 1791, during March 24 of which year an Act was passed directing an exploration of the waters between Fort Stanwix and Wood Creck. Two companies were created by Act of March 3, 1792. One of these, the " Western Inland Navigation Company," was incorporated on March 30 Ful- lowing, for the purpose of opening the lock navigation from the navigable waters of the Hudson to Lakes Ontario and Seneca. A committee appointed reported the cost to Oneida Lake at about $175,000. Work was begun at Little Falls in 1793. The first boats passed November 17, 1795. In 1796, boats reached Oneida Lake. In 1797, the work had cost $460,000, and tolls were so high as to limit navigation. The company sold its rights west to Seneca Lake in 180S.


Prior to April 1, 1813, Elisha Williams constructed a hydraulic canal on his lands at Scauses to create a water-power from the waters of the outlet. Samuel Bear, in 1794, had constructed another long prior to canal undertakings .. On the 6th of April, 1813, the Legislature incorporated the Seneca Lock Navigation Company, with power " to take and use land, whether under water or not, for navigation purposes during incorporation." This company constructed their canal along the bed of Mr. Williams's old race as a part of the work. compensating him therefor by the payment of $2000, and a concession of rights to cut into the canal for hydraulic purposes, which rights he studiously reserved, aml from time to time conveyed to others as a secondary privilege. The work was completed about 1816, and was in use about eleven years. The masoury was done upon


the locks by Benjamin Sayre. In 1825, April 20, the Legislature authorized the construction of the Cayuga and Seneca Canal. The Canal Commissioners were disqualified from proceeding in their duties until the State should have acquired by purchase the franchises and property of the Sencca Lock Navigation Company. In 1826, the company received from the Stare, $34,095.83, and in 1827, $19,776.05, and thereupon ceased to exist. The Cayuga and Seneca Canal con- nects the Erie Canal at Montezuma with Cayuga Lake at East Cayuga, and with Seneca Lake at Geneva. About half the canal is formed by slackwater navigation, the remainder is a channel parallel to the river; when enlarged it permitted the passage of large boats from the Erie Canal to the lakes Seneca and Cayuga. Work was begun in 1826, and ended in 1828. The cost was $214,000. There were twelve locks between Geneva and Montezuma, by which a descent of seventy- four. feet was effected.


When the State assumed control of the canal between Seneca Falls and Waterloo, in 1827, it gave the contract for reconstructing the locks between those villages to Andrew P. Tillman. The former material of stone was replaced with wood, and the seven locks demanded a large quantity of timber, whose supply cleared a tract of several hundred acres of its timber, near Seneca Lake. It is said the contractor lost heavily upon the job, and received, later, some appropriations as à reimbursement. The construction of the Erie Canal, which traverses the north- eastern part of Tyre, and has the connections south ward just described, was the crowning work of the period, and gave an impetus to like projects elsewhere which tended to a general relief of commerce and an awakening of enterprise. The original idea of a canal from Erie to the Hudson is credited to Guvernor Morris, in 1800. He spoke of the plan, in 1803, to Simeon De Witt, who, in turn, stated the plan to James Geddes, a land surveyor of Onondaga County, who, after various movements, surveyed a route for a canal and gave a favorable report. In 1810, a committee, headed by De Witt Clinton, was appointed to explore a canal route through the State. Ou April 8, 1811; measures were taken with a view of entering upon the work, but the war came on and suspended action. A definite survey was provided for by an Act passed April 17, 1816. The canal was begun at Rome on July 4, 1817, and the first boat passed from Utica to Rome on October 22, 1819. The Canal Commissioners were Stephen Van Rensselaer, De Witt Clinton, Joseph Ellicott, Samuel Young, and Myron Holley. In March, 1819, Ilenry Seymour replaced Ellicott, and William C. Bonck was added to the number in 1821. Chief Engineers were James Geddes, of Onon- daga County, and Benjamin Wright, of Rome, whose work, without precedent to them, and based on a knowledge gained alone from land surveying, was remarka- ble. The entire length of the canal, from Albany to Buffalo, is three hundred and fifty-two miles. The completion of this great work was celebrated by an extraordinary celebration. A company of State officials, the most prominent being Governor Clinton, set out at Buffalo, iu two boats, the "Scacca Chief" and the " Young Lion of the West," to make the trip through to New York City. Thirty-two-pound cannon had been brought jo scows and placed at intervals on the canal bank along the entire distance, and when Clinton, at 10 o'clock in the morning of October 26, 1825, entered the canal, the booming of those heavy picces, fired in quick succession, proclaimed from one end of the State to the other the successful termination of the work. A little party of Seneca people went in a pleasure-boat to greet the excursion. Of these were William Larzelere, Wilson N. Brown, Hoa. L. F. Stevens, D. B. Lum, Mr. St. John, John Isaacs, and two oarsmen, Price Center and Thomas Blaisdel. The thunder of the heavy gun at Montezuma announced the approach of the Governor; a committee niet him at the wharf, and he went with them to Van Velzor's tavern, made a few remarks, and, re-embarking. passed on. Of that Seneca party, Mr. Lum is the Stile survivor, being then twenty years of age and the youngest of the number. An old citizen of Rochester, in a diary of date May 10, 1834, says he " left Rochester on the boat Van Rensselaer, Captain Smith, of Hartford; passod righty- there boats, and reached Albany at 2 r.M. of May 13." The bateaux and their three-handed crew of two oarsmen and a steersman were superseded by the large, unw eldy Durhan boats, the first one of which, built in 1814, at Seneca Falls, for river navigation, was called the Adeline. The second, built in 1816, was named the Miller, and was used on the Erie Canal in 1821. The Durhan boat was open and exposed to the weather, and had runways on cach side upon which cleats were nailed. The boat was propelled by a crew of six men, three on a sidle, equipped with long poles shod with iron at the bottom. These men placed their poles, and, bracing their feet upon the cleats, urged the boat forward till they reached the steru ; then, together, marched Indian file to the bow, adjusted their poles, and back as before. The first canal-boat built at Seneca Falls on the Rat was the work of a Mr. Haskeil, of Geneva. She was run in 1823 on the Washington line by Captain Jacob Ilinds, afterwards a Canal Commissioner. Her name was the Merchant. Steamboat navigation began earliest upon Cayuga Lake. A steamboat called the Enterprise, built at Ludlowville by Oliver I'helps,


44


HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY, NEW YORK.


and commanded by him, commenced running July 4, 1820, between Ithaca aud Bridgeport, carrying passengers and towing boats. In the spring following Captain E. H. Goodwin took command and ran her a number of years. In the summer of 1822, a second boat, the Telemachus, was built and put on the lake as a tow-boat. The first, steamboat built on Seneca Lake was called the Seneca Chief, and was owned by Rumsey Brothers. . She was run a few years, and then sold to John R. Johnson and Richard Stevens, of Hoboken, New Jersey. Being rebuilt and enlarged during the winter of. 1831-2, her name was changed to the Geneva, or, more familiarly, Aunt Betsy .. . She was furnished with four plain cylinder boilers, snd a cylinder eighteen inches in diameter with a seven-foot stroke. Her average speed was about ten miles an hour. The officers were: Captain, H. C. Swan ; First Engineer, Aaron Stout; Pilot, Fred King ; Second Pilot, William Roe. ' The agent and one of the chief proprietors was John R. Johnson. In 1835, the Richard Stevens was built for a passenger-boat. Among other old-time boats were the Chemung, Canadesaga, Seneca, and Ben Loder. The last was constructed in 1848, at a cost of $75,000. The Sencca Lake Steamboat Company was organized April 6; 1825, with 820,000 capital, and on February 25, 1828, the Cayuga Lake. Inlet . Steamboat Company was formed, with a capital of $50,000. From the birchen canoe to the bateau, the scowl to. the packet, the steamboat of 1820 to the model boats of 1876, are seen the elements of progress and convenience; but there had arisen a new method of locomotion, destined to cclipse the splendors of the canal and lake, and carry the agents of civilization into forest and out on the plain, and work a wonderful transformation. That new agency was the railroad system.


CHAPTER XIX


FIRST RAILROADS-THE AUBURN AND ROCHESTER RAILROAD, PENNSYLVA- NIA AND SODUS BAY RAILROAD, AND THE GENEVA AND ITHACA RAIL- ROAD-OLD TRACKS-INCIDENTS.


THE introduction of a locomotive, in August, 1829, to America from England, by Horatio Allen, marked the commencement of an inland growth which, still progressing upon the Great American plains westward, kuows no precedent nor equal. Wherever, the engine has gone, trailing its cars, there lands become en- hanced in valuc, towns grow, and prosperity succeeds. The first railway in the. United States was two miles long, and was located between Milton and Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1826; the cars were drawn by horses. The first passenger.' railway in America was the Baltimore and Ohio; the road was constructed a dis- tance of thirty miles in 1830; a locomotive built by Davis, of York, Pennsylva- nia, was put on the track in 1831. The first charter authorizing the construction of a railroad was granted to the Mohawk and Hudson River Railroad Company, in 1826; it was limited to fifty years, and allowed the State to become its pur- chaser on the expiration of the charter. Although rudely constructed, and at great and unnecessary expense, its advantages were appreciated, and within a few years the Empire State had inaugurated a transit system unexcelled for safe and swift travel and volume of business. Work was begun in 1830 and finished in the year following. The road extended from Albany to Schenectady, a distance of sixteca miles ; the rails were of wood, and the cars were drawn by horses; sta- tionary engines upon hill-tops were used to pull up and let down cars, by means of strong ropes attached; brakesmen used hand-levers, bolted to the truck, and used by pressing downward with the hands. During the year 1830 an engine named " John Bull" was brought over from England, and in 1831 the first steam railroad passenger train in America, was run upon the road ; the engine weighed but four tona, and the engineer was named John Hampsen. The train had two coaches and fifteen passeugers; the first passenger coaches were modeled after the old-fashioned stage coaches-hung above the truck, upon Jeather through braces, with compartments, and both inside and outside seats.


In 1836, a charter having been granted to build the Rochester and Auburn Railroad, and the greater part of right of way obtained, ground was broken and work begun at Slab Hollow, near the present Fisher's Station, during the year 1838. During 1836, a locomotive made its first trial trip from Buffalo to Niagara Falls; a heavy-laden freight train ran on the Utica and Schenectady Road, from the latter place to Johnsville; books were opened for building the Utica and Syracuse Road, and a survey of the Erie route commenced. In 1837, the Legislature authorized the Utica and Schenectady Road to carry freight, and later conceded the privilege of transporting baggage free. Contracts had been taken upon the Rochester and Auburn Road by various parties ; a mile and a half


of the road between Waterloo and Seneca Falls was taken by Messrs. H. F. Gustin, present resident of the former place, and Benjamin Folsom ; contracts. were low, and little made on them ; closely following the grading was the laying. of the track. The first time-table was published in 1840; trains were to run on. September 10, leaving Rochester at 4 A.M. and 5 P.M., and, on their return, leave. Canandaigua at 6 A.M. and 7 P.M. This arrangement was changed on Septem -. ber 22, by running three trains daily, leaving Rochester at 4.30 A.M, 10 A.M.,' and 5 P.M., and Canandaigua at 6.30 A.M., 2.30 P.M., and at 5 P.M. The first. cars on this route were conveyed upon a canal-boat, from Utica to Rochester : the first car-load of freight shipped on this line was of mutton tallow, from Victor to. Rochester. Trains were withdrawn on the approach of winter, and William Fail- ing, with an assistant, was placed in charge of a construction train at Canandaigua, and worked upon a fill known as the Paddleford embankment. So steadily did work progress during winter and the ensuing spring, that on Monday morning,. July 5, 1841, an excursion train from Rochester passed over the road to Seneca Falls, where many of her business men were invited to make the trip to Roches- ter. The bridge over Cayuga Lake was completed the last of September, and by. November the route was complete to Auburn, and a railroad extended from Rochester to Albany.


H. F. Gustin, of Waterloo, was conductor of the first through freight train to Albany. The bill authorizing the road passed in the Assembly April 27, 1836, and in the Senate on May 11 . following. The estimate of cost was made in' December, 1836. The distance was found to be ninety-two and one-half. miles. Total cost of construction, fences, depots, rolling-stock, etc., was estimated at $1,012,783. Books for stock subscription were opened August 2; 1836, at villages along the line. The towns of Seneca Falls and Waterloo came forward promptly and liberally, and made a gratifying exhibit. The books were held open but three days, during which $122,900 was subscribed by Seneca Falls, and $40,000 by Waterloo, while the total on the route was 8595,600. The railroad track consisted of six-by-six scantling, fastened to the ties by L-shaped chairs, placed outside the rail, and spiked to it and the tie beneath. Upon the scantling, up with the inner edge, a bar of iron, two inches wide and three-fourtha of an inch thick, was spiked. Occasionally a bar end came loose, and endangered the safety of the car .. The first engines were single-drivers, with small trail- wheels under the cab, which consisted of a roof hung round with oil cloth in winter. The weight of the locomotives was from four to six tons. The first cars had four wheels. The conductor came along outside the compartments, which had two seats cach, and collected. his fares. A dark-hued second-class train was run for a time, but the " Hyena train," as it was called, from its low fare, took most of the passengers, and was soon withdrawn. In 1843, the cars had no projection over the platforms, and were low and ill-ventilated. Locomo- tives, with four drivers, were placed on the road. Parallel rods counceted from the cylinder to the rear driver, and from it to the forward one. Smoke-stacks were made straight about one-fourth of the length from the boiler, then bent back at an angle of forty-five degrees for one-half the entire length, then perpen- dicular upwards, expanding in width from bottom to top. The bend was to arrest sparks. There were no pilots. With some, two splint brooms were set in front to just clear the track ; others had a row of flat iron bars, carried downward and forward, and sharpened at the ends. This was the "cow-catcher." In winter, a large wooden snow-plow was placed in front of and attached to the engine. The first track was soon superseded by an eight-by-eight inch timber track, with a narrow strip upon the centre of the wooden rail, the same width as the iron-strap rail above. An iron rail was laid in 1848, and steel rails during the summer of 1875. An Act was passed on April 2, 1853, and became of effect May 17, by which various roads, among them the Rochester and Auburn, were consolidated to form the New York Central Railroad,-one of the best and cheapest in the Republic, the passenger fare being but two cents per mile, and the equipments of the best character. Its route through Seneca County is in a north-of-cast course through the town of Waterloo, east to Seneca Falls village, thence northeast to the bend of the Sencca River, where it crosses to the south and over the foot of Cayuga Lake, then in a southeast direction,-an entire dis- tance of about thirteen miles.




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