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 9
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Cayuga Lake was a famous resort of large black ducks, which gathered there to feed upon the lily-pods. At what is known as the Mud Lock, at the foot of the lake, John Story mounted a gun that would carry nearly a pound of shot upon the bow of his boat, and when a discharge of the piece was made into a large flock of these ducks as many as forty were killed at a time.
Squirrels were so numerous, and depredated so upon the erops, that the set- tlers formed in companies, headed by their best marksmen, and gave a day to hunting them. Two thousand squirrels were slain at a single hunt. After the sport, came supper and spirits at some log tavern, the bill being paid by the side
having least scalps. Black squirrels preceded, and gray followed, the advent of the white race. In the year 1805, or thereabouts, a boy of sixteen, living nearly two miles south of Cayuga, heard his dog barking in the woods about half a mile distant, and purposed to go and see what he had there. It was about nine o'clock and the night was very dark; the mother objected to his going, as her husband was away at the time. The boy gained his point and set off with gun and axe, accom- panied by his younger brother, carrying a lighted torch of hickory-bark. The dog barked louder as the light drew near. Pushing their way through a thicket, they found there was something concealed in the thick leaves and branches of a large tree-top. While the younger boy held the torch, the elder, creeping under the top from the opposite side, groped his way up to some animal which turned towards. him, and then to the dog, which had come closer. The glimmer of the light gave to- it a white appearance, and the boys, concluding it was a stray sheep, called off the dog and went home. The father discredited the idea of a sheep, and next day saw signs of some animal and tracks of the dog, but no sheep. One day, some weeks later, father and son were seated upon a log, resting from their work of getting out timber, and eating their luncheon, part of which was roast venison, when their dog, growling, crouched at their feet. Set on, he bounded forward with a bark, and the back and tail of an animal were seen as it leaped away through the brush. The father, turning pale, exclaimed, "My God! what a painter!" The panther prowled about the house all night. The father being called away on a journey, the boy determined to try a shot at the wild beast during his absence. The gun was cleaned and loaded with two balls, and John Updike and brother invited to come over and help " top" turnips, and bring along their "bear" dog. Night came; the dog was left out-doors, a torch made ready to light, and turnip-topping began. Presently the large dog in the house began to growl, and the dog outside was heard loudly barking. The torch was lighted, the boy stole out, and some eight rods off saw the panther's glaring eyes fixed upon the house. Gun in hand at the coroer of the house, the boy could presently see the dark form outlined by the torchlight held by John Updike, while by him his brother Wil- liam held their dog. The gun was aimed between the panther's eyes, the trigger pulled, and the gun flashed. The torch fell, the dogs sprang out and seized the animal as he bounded upon his assailant. The Updike boys rushed into the house and closed the door. The panther's paw struck close to the youth as the dogs caught and held him. Successive blows laid out the wounded animals, and the fierce panther escaped to the woods and troubled them no more.
A farmer named Weyburn lived near Kidder's Ferry some time about 1800. Finding signs of a bear, he armed himself with pitchfork and hatchet, and with his son, a boy of ten or twelve, set out to find it. Presently the bear was seen in a ravine under a projecting cliff, and not far below was a basin or pool of water. Weyburn, pitchfork io hand, advanced to the charge from below. When six to eight feet distant, instead of a lunge with the fork-tines at the bear, the latter threw his paws about the farmer and sunk his teeth in his left arm. In the struggle bear and man rolled over and over towards the pool. Weyburn managed to thrust his right hand and arm partly down the bear's throat to strangle him, and together they rolled into the water. By a desperate effort the man forced the head of the hear under water, and, his son reaching him the hatchet, he sank it in the bear's skull and dispatched it. Weyburn dearly earned the four hundred pounds of bear-meat, as his arms were badly injured and his breast severely torn.
Adventures with the deer were numerous and exciting. One moroing two brothers were sent into the " sugar-bush" for an iron pot which had been used in " sugaring off." The vessel secured, the boys were returning Indian-file, when suddenly from a thicket out dashed a herd of deer. A buck leaping a rotten log slipped, and, turning a somersault, fell upon his back with heels in air. One boy was for running in to cut his throat, but in a moment the deer was up and lunging forward, with lowered head and risen hair; the boys ran behind trees, hotly pursued. At once, the buck stopped; his tongue hung from a frothing mouth, his bloodshot eyes with malicious cunning watched a chance to rush upon the boy behind the tree. The latter caught a club and struck the deer upon the nose, and stunned him, so he fell, his neck between a sapling and the tree. A moment, and the boys had bent the sapling down upon his neck, and held him fast. The hoofs flew like drum-sticks in the air, but soon the jack- knife severed the jugular, and the exultant boys lastened home to tell their parents, " We have killed a deer." The Cayuga and Seneca were frequent resorts for deer when pursued by men or dogs. One day the baying of some hounds, esch moment sounding louder, told a party which stood below the high bank on the west shore af Cayuga that game was heading towards them; presently a deer sprang from the bank above, upon the ice, out from the shore. The impetus carried him forward several rods, and then he rose to run. The ice gave way; the luckless deer, in trying to regain a footing, broke both forelegs, sank back exhausted, and drowned.
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
Among the reptiles of the early day, rattlesnakes were most conspicuous. They lived in dens among the rocks in winter, and in the spring days crawled out to bask amid the sunshine. Of their resorts were the rocks near Cayuga Lake, in Ovid, a den half a mile west of Canoga Spring, the present site of the Courier office at Seneca Falls, and the Restvale Cemetery. A Mrs. Conner, a widow, died from the result of a bite received near the " Old Red Mill," at Sencea Falls. The power of imagination is shown by the following in this connection : A pioneer was engaged in cutting some whortleberry bushes with a sharp bush- hook. As he struck among the brakes with hand low down, a huge rattlesnake sprang ont and struck his arm above the elhow. The settler fell back, and, groaning with pain, called to his son near by that he was bitten by a snake. And so he seemed to be, with blood upon his shirt-sleeve. The boy, looking at the writhing serpent, saw that the head was severed from the body, and hung by a shred of skin, and that the bloody stump had struck the sleeve. The father seeing this forgot his pain, and charged his son with silence.
Among the many casualties upon Cayuga Lake, in early days, a few are noted. Dr. Jonas C. Baldwin, of Ovid, bought at Baileytown, on east side of Seneca, an old pirogue, and brought it round to Sheldrake Point for a ferry-boat. The ferry was discontinued, and the boat sold to Captain Robert White, who used it for transportation purposes. One morning, about nine, the boat ran out from Kidder's Ferry, and, abont a mile away, was struck by a squall and overset. Spectators on the shore saw the boat's side rise on the swell, and a man clinging to the lee-board. A boat was manned, and White, the only occupant of the wreck, was rescued, and taken to the house of Joseph De Witt, where he soon recovered. A son of Colonel Humphrey expected his father's arrival home aeross the lake, and, seeing a signal on the opposite shore, importuned DeWitt, the ferryman, to eross and bring the traveler, the colonel, over. A thunder-storm came up, the boat went like an arrow before the wind, the sail fell, and the fall- ing rain hid the scene from sight. Those on shore were filled with liveliest apprehension, but the wind lulled, the rain ceased, and at sunset the colonel met his family, and all rejoiced so much the more,-their sorrow changed to joy. In 1808 or 1809, a man named Beldon fell overboard from a ferry-boat when opposite Levanna, and was drowned. In 1811, Richard Britten, of Sheldrake or Ovid, was drowned in a like manner. The legends and authentic incidents con- nected with the lakes of Seneca and Cayuga would fill a volume full of romance and narratives of adventure.
CHAPTER XI.
LINE OF ORGANIZATION-SENECA IN 1810-COUNTY SEATS-FIRST COUNTY OFFICIALS-EXECUTIONS-PRESENT BOUNDARIES AND TOWNS-POOR FARM.
WE have seen Tryon formed from Albany, in 1772: Tryon changed to Mont- gomery, and Herkimer taken therefrom, in 1791 ; Onondaga ereeted from IIerki- mer, in 1794; Cayuga from Onondaga, in 1799, and Seneca from Caynga, on March 29, 1804. At this date, Seneca County was bounded. north, by Lake Ontario; east, by Caynga County ; south, by Tioga County, and west, by Steuben and Ontario Counties. Lying between Caynga and Sencea Lakes, it extended to Lake Ontario, and was a strip of territory some sixty-three miles long by an average width of eleven miles; its area was seven hundred and forty-four miles. or somewhat less than half a million acres. The capital of the County was located at Ovid Village, -. sometimes called Verona,-upon Lot No. 3, near the north line of the town of Ovid. IIere, in 1806, a court-house was built. and a park laid ont in front. The court-house is of brick, and of' a substantial character. The eivil officers appointed for the County, on April 2, 1804, in Albany, by a council, of which George Clinton, Esq., was President, and Hon. John Broome, Caleb Hyde, and: Thomas Tredwell, Esqs., were members, are known to have been, Judges and Justices of the Peace, Cornelius Humphrey, Grover Smith, and John Sayre; Side Judges and Justices, Jonas Whiting, of Ulysses, James Van Iforn, of Ovid; Asa Smith, of Romaulus, and Benajah Boardman; of Washington. Justices of the Peace of Ovid, James Jackson, Stephen Woodworth, and John Townsend, Jr .; of Ulysses, Thomas Shepard; of Hector, Daniel Evarts; of Washington, John Hood; and of Junius. Lewis Birdsall and Jesse South wick. Silas Halsey was appointed County Clerk ; William Smith, Sheriff; Jared San- ford, Surrogate, and Charles Thompson, Coroner. Seneca County sent John Sayre to the Assembly, as her first member, in the year 1805, and Cornelius Humphrey for the years 1806 and 1807. In 1811, Sencea had nine post-offices, and Ithaca, the principal place, contained forty houses. The County contained
seven towns, of which Ovid was the most populous, the census of 1810 giving its enumeration at 4535 persons. In the County there were twenty-five grain- and forty-two saw-mills ; and a salt establishment, in the town of Junius, reported a daily average yield of 150 bushels. Illustrative of manufactures at that date, we find a report of six hundred and one looms, producing 49,473 yards of woolen cloth, valued at 874 cents per yard : 115,585 yards of linen cloth, worth 373 cents per yard, and 5602 yards of mixed and .cotton cloth, averaging 33! cents per yard. There were seven mills and clotheries, which fulled and dressed 19,050 yards of cloth, priced at $1.25 per vard ; ten carding machines, which had carded 35,200 pounds of wool, at a cost of 50 cents per pound. Cotton eloth, to the amount of 2035 yards, was manufactured, whose price per yard was 32 cents. Of tanneries there were fifteen, which turned out nearly 4000 tanned hides, whose average prices were 84.25 for sole, and. $1.75 for inferior grades.
Population increasing, Seneca contributed a portion of her arca to the forma- tion of Tompkins on April 17, 1817. and on April 11, 1820, gave up Wolcott and Galen towards the organization of Wayne County, and thus reduced her territory to 197,500 acres. In the year 1809, Elisha Williams, Esq., of Hudson. New York, bought of John McKinstey the six-hundred-acre lot on which that part of Waterloo north of Seneca Lake outlet stands. The price paid was $2000. In 1816, he built, through his agent, Reuben Swift, the Waterloo Mills, two saw-mills and several houses, aod originated an extensive business. The formation of Tompkins County, in 1817, made Waterloo about the centre of Seneca, and Mr. Williams successfully used his influence in removing the County courts from Ovid to Waterloo, which thus became the shire town. A spur was given to improvement ; Swift, Daniel Moshier, Colonel Chamberlain, Quartus Knight, and others, immediately set about the erection of large, fine taverns, and the County began the erection of a new court-house and clerk's office upon the public square donated by Squire Williams. This movement proved a check to Ovid, and raised sectional feeling. When Wayne was formed. in 1823. Waterloo was near one end of the County ; hence it was found desirable to divide the County into two half-shires, and hold the courts alternately at the court-houses of Ovid and Waterloo. Fayette and the towns north constitute the northern jury district, and Variek and those towns south of it the southern. The court- house at Waterloo was finished, and the first courts held, in 1818. At these courts. John McLean, Jr., officiated as Judge, and Lemuch W. Ruggles as District Attorney, these men being nominated to their position by Governor De Witt Clinton, and confirmed therein by the Council of Appointment. The courts at that day were conspicuous affairs. Crowds of lawyers aod clients came from far and near, and sessions continued from one to three weeks. In early days a path to the court-house ran diagonally across the square. This path was often filled with water, and bush and brake grew rank on either side in wild profusion, and hence gave origin to the soubriquet. "The Swamps of Waterloo." The legal talent of that day was splendid, and. with due respect to present members of the bar. has never been excelled. Among the prominent lawyers were John Maynard. William Thompson, Ansell Gibbs. and Alvah Gregory. of Ovid ; Jesse Clark. Samuel Birdsall, and John Knox, of Waterloo; and Garry V. Sackett and Luther F. Stevens, of Seneca Falls.
Contemporary with the courts, and an essential to the enforcement of their de- erces, was the press. An early newspaper, remembered by old settlers to have circulated in Seneca, was the Genren Gazette, published by James Bagert, as The Expositor, from 1806 to 1809, and for many years later known as the Grace Gazette. It was not until 1815 that the pioneer newspaper of Seneca County was published at Ovid, under the name of The Sencca Patriot. The proprietor changed the name, in 1816, to The Ovid Gazette, and following the removal of the county seat to Waterloo, in 1817. continued it there as the Waterloo Gazette. George Lewis, the editor and proprietor, from financial troubles, sold out to Iliram Leavenworth, in October, 1817. James McLean, Jr., for a brief time assisted Leavenworth, who then continued on alone for several years. Political feelings ran high, and offended parties, entering the printing-office by night. took the entire establishment, press, type, and all, and threw them into the Senera River, so demonstrating the power behind the throne.
But two publie excentions have ever occurred within the present organization of Seneca, and these the punishment of murder. In 1810-12, a man named Andrews killed an assistant in a distillery, and was hung at Ovid. Years after- wards, the stumps of the gallows were pointed out, in a vacant lot, as some spec- tator recounted the details of the siekening scene. On May 28. 1828. one George Chapman expiated the crime of shedding blood. by being hung, at Waterlno. The killing was without palliation, and a negro was the unfortunate victim. The names of those engaged upon this, the last trial resulting in publie excention in Sencea County, are 'as follows: Circuit Judge. Daniel Mosely ; First Judge, Luther Stevens; Junior Judge, James Seely ; Counsel for the people, Jesse Clark, District Attorney, assisted by Messrs. Thompson. Whiting, and Park ;
1
33
HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
Prisoner's counsel, Messrs. Hulbert, Mott, Stryker, aod Knox. Seventeen wit- nesses were examined, and the case finally submitted to the following-named jurors : John Norris, Anry Marsh, Abial Cook, John White, Tyler Smith, Israel B. Haines, Benjamin Cuddeback, Robert Livingston, Garvin Stevenson, Peter Whitmer, George Bachman, and Jacob Sell. The gallows was erected on the " Island," and when the doomed man met his fate a body of troops surrounded the scaffold ; boats upon the water and buildings far around were crowded by curious spectators, whose memories will never efface the scene. Conforming to a belief that such exhibitions demoralize, the criminals of modern days perish igno- minionsly in the seclusion of the jail-yard, in presence of officials only, and time will be when the details will not be in print.
Towns are subdivisions of counties, and territorial. A city or village is specially incorporated, restricted to a small arca, and vested with certain immuni- ties and privileges, and civil. This distinction explains the use of town for town- ship. An area ia, civilly, a town ; the tract comprised, a township. When Seneca was organized, in 1804, it was comprised within the limits of four towns, Ovid, Romulus, Fayette, and Junius. Since 1830, the number has been ten, derived as follows: Ovid and Romulus were formed March 5, 1794. Washington was formed from Romulus in March, 1800, and the name changed to Fayette on April 6, 1808. Junins was taken from Washington, February 12, 1803. Wal- cott, now in Wayne County, was formed from Junius, in 1807, and Galen (Wayne County) from the same town, in 1812. Hector (Schuyler County) was taken off Ovid in 1802, and Covert, April 7, 1817. Lodi was taken from Covert, January 27, 1826; Tyre, Seneca Falls, and Waterloo from Junius March 26, 1829, and Varick from Romulus, in 1830. A striking dissimilarity between the United States and other countries is the absence of beggars from the streets and high- ways. Ample provision is made in each county for the support of its unfortunate, infirm, and indigent. No reference is made to that horde of wandering men, known as " tramps," who infest the whole land, and live by importunity upon the benefactions of the generous. Overseers of the Poor were chosen in 1794, at the first town meeting held in the County, and a liberal allowance furnished. But it was not till March 17, 1830, that the superintendents of the County poor bought for $2720 one hundred and one acres of land for a poor farm. This land included the place then recently occupied by widow Silvers. On the prem- ises were a two-story house, twenty-six by forty-two feet, a framed barn forty by fifty feet, an orchard of apple- and peach-trees, and two stone-quarries. Zeph- aniah Lewis, of Seneca Falls, was appointed the first keeper. The farm, in 1866, contained one hundred and twenty-six and a half acres; it is located on the town line, between Seneca Falls and Fayette, four miles southeast of Water- loo. The buildings are ample, and the management creditable to all concerned. On December 1, 1866, there were 63 inmates: males 34, females 29. Of these, 14 were foreigners, 11 lunatics, and 4 idiots. Of those relieved during the year 1866, 959 were foreigners, 24 lunatics, and 19 idiots. From a total of 1663 persons relieved or supported, 704 were natives of the United States, and 719 of Ireland. 450 trace the cause of pauperism to intemperance, and 350 were left indigent and destitnte. On November 1, 1875, it was reported by Robt. L. Steven- son, William Parrish, and Peter S. Van Lew, Superintendents of the Poor, aa follows: Paupers in Poor-House last report. 45; received during year, 207. Total 252. Died, 7; discharged, 207 ; remaining, 38. Of these, 3 are idiots, 2 lunatics, the rest common paupers. Born in the United States, 28; foreign- born, 10. In the Orphan Asylum, at Syracuse, 9 children are chargeable to Seucca County. There are in the Willard Asylum for the Insane, at Ovid, 30 insane paupers ; of these, 9 are chargeable to the County. The sum of $4500 was asked for supplies for the present year (1876), and the expenses of the year past was $5740.66. The product of the farm, for 1875, was nearly 2500 bushels of produce, 35 tons hay, and 450 pounds butter. The farm is well sup- plied with stock and tools, and has a value of about $25,000.
CHAPTER XII.
TOWN-MEETINGS-CELEBRATIONS-EARLY MANUFACTURES-SCHOOLS FOR SINGING AND DANOING-VISITORS, JOSEPH SMITH, LA FAYETTE, LORENZO DOW, AND ANDREW JOHNSON-RAISING MILLS AND CHURCHES-BURNING A WHALE.
TOWN-MEETINGS, in the early day, in their pure democracy and perfect freedom, were the unconscious agencies which fostered that love of liberty and the power of local self-rule which made the government by the people of themselves a pos-
sibility., Electiona were honestly conducted. Men voted for what they regarded as the best man. Tickets lay upon the table, and every one took his choice. Elections were held on three auccessive days, and each day at a different point in the town. If a man in Junius did not get to the polls at Hooper'a, to-day, to- morrow, he could go to Nate Matthews's ; failing to go there, he atill had a chance at Jacob Stahl's, by Cayuga Bridge. When Junius was formed, in 1802, a meet- ing was held, and Lewis Birdsall was chosen Supervisor, and Gideon Bowditch, Town Clerk. Other officers, later distinguished in County history, were three Assessors, Asa Moore, Hngh W. Dobbin, and Elisha Pratt; three Commis- sioners of Highways, Jesse Southwick, Jabez Disbrow, and Nathaniel J. Potter ; two Constables, Jacob Chamberlain aud Severus Swift; and a Pound-Master, Samuel Lay. Early acts of these authorities were given to making roads, build- ing fences, controlling stock, and a war unceasing npon wolves and Canada thistles. That education was not an essential to business in those days is illustrated by the following chronological enactments: 1804. Voted, a bounty of five dollars per head on wolves. 1806. Voted, that hoggs under thirty pounds shuld not runn without yoaks on the highway. 1807. Voted, that all fences shall be five feet high, and two feet from the ground. 1809. Voted, that no man shuld let Can- nerda thistles go to sced on his farm, under the penalty of five dollars. 1810. Voted, that any person keeping more than one dog, shall pay a tax of fifty cents a year. The will of the people was law in all save the thistles. The urgency was denoted.by increasing the penalty of negligence, in 1818, to twenty-five dol- lars. The contest was waged in vain, and the thistle, like the white race, came to stay.
The farms of Seneca were allotted, the gift of the State, to her veteran soldiery. Remembering their struggles in arms, and settled upon lands whose deeds recalled appreciation of services, it was from the old Revolutionary fathers that the Anni- versary of American Independence received its most hearty honors. A week before the 4th of July, 1817, verbal notice was given at Ovid, and a committee of arrangements chosen to duly celebrate the day. By ten o'clock in the morn- ing a large concourse of people had assembled in the village. At half-past eleven a procession was formed in front of the hotel, uoder the direction of Cap- tain John Reynolds, marshal of the day, and marched to the grove esst of the court-house, attended by military music. The ceremonies began by an able prayer, by Rev. Stephen Porter. The Declaration was read by Rev. Moses Young, in good style. A. Gibbs, Esq., orator of the day, delivered an oration well adapted to the occasion. Another prayer by Rev. Mr. Young, then vocal music and refreshments were in order. Dinner was served on the court-house square. Patriotic toasts were read by the President, Silas Halsey, Esq. An elegant brass six-pounder cannon, a trophy acquired by the capitulation at York- town, responded in thunder-tones, under command of Captain Ira Clarke, and as night gathered its shades each went home, well satisfied. The toast, in those. convivial times, was the main feature of any public meeting for honors or rejoicing. On the occasion of the visit to Waterloo of Governor De Witt Clinton, accom- panied by Commodore Bainbridge, Lieutenant-Governor Philips, of Massachusetts, and the Russian Admiral, Tate, a public dinner was held at the house of James Irving. General I. Maltby and Colonel S. Birdsall presided at the table, and thirteen toasts were given and acknowledged. The last, Governor Clinton having retired, was couched in these words: " De Witt Clinton-The projector of the Great Western Canal, the faithful guardian of the people's rights, the un- deviating patriot and incorruptible statesman." Six hearty cheers greeted this sentiment by the friend of the Canal Governor.
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