History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York, Part 109

Author: Peirce, H. B. (Henry B.) cn; Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Ensign
Number of Pages: 1112

USA > New York > Chemung County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 109
USA > New York > Schuyler County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 109
USA > New York > Tioga County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 109
USA > New York > Tompkins County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 109

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

John Landon came with his family to Ithaca in 1811.1 His first residence was near the Six-Mile Creck, on the east side of Aurora Street, where he also had a bakery. At that time the view up and down the creek was not ob- structed by buildings of any sort. A pasture or common occupied the space towards the mill of Mr. Buel.

From the door of this dwelling the now venerable Mrs. Hillick, daughter of Mr. Landon, witnessed sundry pranks of the members of the Moral Society, and well remembers the incident elsewhere related.

Mr. Landon built a wooden building on Aurora Street, on property now occupied by J. D. Carpenter's furniture- store, in the rear of which the old structure now stands. In 1816 he removed to the building erected by George Blythe as a factory, over the north branch.

William Linn came to Ithaca about the year 1812, and was agent for Simeon De Witt. He was a man of excellent learning and an orator of no ordinary powers. He was the author of the famous " Roerbach" story, of which we here give the history.

The Ithaca Chronicle of August 21, 1844, gave to the political world the Roerbach story that so nearly accom- plished the defeat of James K. Polk. Originating as it did in the office of William Linn, then a candidate for the office of justice of the peace, on the Locofoco ticket, the pro- mulgation of the hoax seemed inexplicable. Those, how- ever, best acquainted with the author were not puzzled by the scoming inconsistency.

None of Mr. Linn's contemporaries in Ithaca wielded a more incisive pen ; none a more flexible; and certainly none could so clothe a myth with plausibility. We give the Roerbach communication entire, as it appeared in the Chronicle :

" FOR THE CHRONICLE.

" Mr. Spencer.

" Will you have the goodness to insert in your paper the following extract from Roerbach's ' Tour through the Western and Southern States in 1836'? This work has received the approbation of every American critic, not only for its graphic descriptions of scenery, but

for its candid and impartial remarks on men and manners. Amidst the present turmoil and fanaticism of politics, I would furnish a statement made long before the contagion reached us, when there could be no inducement to disguise the truth or publish a falsehood.

"AN ABOLITIONIST.

"Just as we reached the Duck River, in the early gray of the morning, we came up with a singular spectacle, the most striking one of the kind I have ever witnessed. It was a camp of negro slave drivers just packing for a start. They had about three hundred slaves with them, who had bivouacked the preceding night in chains in the woods; these they were conducting to Natchez, on the Mississippi River, to work upon the sugar plantations in Louisiana. It resembles one of the coffles of slaves spoken of by Mungo Park, except that they had a caravan of nine wagons and single horse carriages, for the purpose of conducting the white people, and any of the blacks that should fall lame, to which they were now putting their horses to pursue their march. The female slaves were, some of them, sitting on logs of wood, whilst others were standing, and a great many little black children were warming themselves by the fire of the bivouack.

"In front of them all, and prepared for the march, stood in double files about two hundred male slaves, manacled and chained to each other. I have never seen so revolting a sight before! Black men in fetters, torn from the lands where they were born, from the ties they had formed, and from the comparatively casy condition which agri- cultural labor affords, and driven by white men, with liberty and equality in their mouths, to a distant and unhealthy country, to perish in the sugar mills of Louisiana, where the duration of life for a sugar- mill slave does not exceed seven years.

" Forty-three of these unfortunate beings had been purchased, I was informed, of the Hon. James K. Polk, the present Speaker of the House of Representatives ; the mark of the branding iron with the initials of his name on their shoulders distinguished them from the rest."

The sharp eye of the Albany Argus detected the fraud in time to ward off its threatened disastrous results. The exposure took place in September, and the election of Mr. Polk was secured. The authorship was traced to Mr. Linn, who, it proved, had taken the narrative bodily from " Featherstonhaugh's Tour through the Slave States," and appended thereto the paragraph in relation to the slaves of James K. Polk.

Mr. Linn edited several works, among which are the " Life of Thomas Jefferson," and " Momus at Home," the latter an odd production. His love of fun, however, was dominant, and the unflinching gravity of his features brought victims to the meshes of his wit. Could he find a gossipy, illiterate " codger," he would improvise in his presence, from behind a newspaper, some sensational story that was not long in making its way to the public ear, and many a start- ling rumor on the streets of Ithaca could have been traced to his office-door.

Joseph Burritt, silversmith, came to Ithaca from Con- necticut, in 1816. He learned his trade in the city of Hartford. His wife and worldly possessions were brought in a one-horse wagon from Newburgh, and ten days were consumed in the journey. An axle having broken they pro- ceeded as best they could to a neighbor, seven miles farther on, and, by his help, replaced it with one of hickory. Ar- rived in Ithaca, he soon formed a partnership with William P. Burdick, whom he had known in Hartford. This was the beginning of a long business experience in the place.

He still continues the old routine of work, and is the only one now in business of all those who were in business when he came. A numerous family have settled around him. For nearly sixty years he has, with rare constancy, re- mained at his repairing-table ; and during that long period, with vision unaided and unimpaired-has literally watched the seconds in their flight.

In but few instances has he permitted the call to public service to interrupt his labors ; the principal occasions being

# Probably the Landon building, now in rear of Carpenter's furni- ture store.

" Reuben Buckley, from New Jersey, uncle to Mr. Landon, settled on west hill about the year 1802, on the farm now owned by Messrs. Day and Robinson. Betsy, a daughter, married Marcus Stigney-a merchant in Ithaca, about 1804.

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AND SCHUYLER COUNTIES, NEW YORK.

in 1825 and 1830, when he was chosen a trustee of the vil- lage.

David Woodcock became a resident of Ithaca prior to 1810. He was a lawyer of high standing, and took promi- nent part in whatever related to the well-being of the place, whether of civil or political import.

He was appointed master of the Court of Chancery, in 1808, assistant attorney-general, April 15, 1817 ; was the same year postmaster, and as such announced that after October 1 there would be no more trust for letter-postage. He became president of the "Steamboat Company" upon its organization in 1819; was president of the village in 1823-24-26, and represented his distriet (then the Twenty- fifth) in the Twentieth Congress-1827-29.

In 1809 Mr. Woodcock purchased two lots on " Owego" Street, lying next west of Tioga, and running through to Seneca, and built a small house at the southeast and an office at the southwest corner thereof. He afterwards built the brick house now occupied by the savings bank, at the northeast corner of this land.

The Tioga Street front of the lot became the favorite rallying-point for the increasing numbers of the legal fra- ternity, and was soon made to bristle with offiee-gables of various antique orders, some of which have now, alas ! departed.

Mr. Woodcock had several children, of whom Cornelia became the wife of Benjamin G. Ferris, and Mary the wife of Stephen B. Cushing.

Mr. Cushing was an attorney of fine abilities, the law- partner of Mr. Ferris, and occupied positions of trust and prominence. He was assemblyman in 1852, and elected attorney-general in the fall of 1855.

Mr. Woodcock died in 1835.

Other prominent and worthy citizens of Ithaca, whom we have no space to mention in any except the briefest way, made the village their home at an early period, and have continued, with few exceptions, identificd with her history and progress : Amnos Hixson, who purchased a farm on Westhill early in the century, upon which he always lived, and whose descendants have taken honored places as citi- zens of the town. Wait T. Huntington, who in 1818 made Ithaca his home, and as a merchant (partner of Wil- liam R. Collins), a brewer, and officer of the village in various capacities, a teacher in the academy during its in- fancy, and iu other active pursuits has spent within its bounds more than fifty years of his life. Joshua S. Lee, whom we find in Ithaca doing business as a druggist in the first quarter of the century, an earnest and honest citizen, and one among the few survivors who are still residents. Vincent Conrad and George McCormick, active business men of the middle period, promoting and sustaining the ac- tivities of that time, they, too, are here to hear and read the story. The Grants, whom we have had occasion inci- dentally to mention, and whose father came in 1811, while his son Chauncey L. was but a child. Nearly seventy years have flown since then, into which an almost unlimited busi- ness experience, identified with public aud private affairs, has been crowded. Few are they who have survived so long the wear and tear of such demands upon body and miud. Charles E. Hardy, without whose name we should

feel this history to be incomplete, synonym as it is for all that is honorable in whatever sphere. He, too, was one of the active men of Ithaca's middle period.

Isaac Beers, who came to Ithaca in 1809, was one of Ithaca's pioneers in business, built a fine brick block on State Street, and was in all respects a worthy citizen. He was once librarian of the first library, of which mention is elsewhere made.

Through several of the children of some of her pioneers, the county of Tioga is intimately joined in history to the county of Tompkins. Conspicuous among the names thus found are those of Drake, Ferris, and Mack.

Caleb B. Drake, a son of Benjamin Drake, one of the first settlers in Spencer, became a resident of Ithaca about the year 1805, and purchased from Luther Gere 66 feet on Owego Street, now the southeast corner of Tioga and State Streets, where for some years he lived and had an office. He was appointed justice of the peace for Ulysses as early as 1819, and was from time to time elected to that office for the county of Tompkins until 1857. He served also as police justice, by appointment from the corporate authorities, and administered the duties of that position rigorously towards " old offenders," so much so that " Five dollars and thirty days" seemed the stereotyped court expression.

Mr. Drake married in 1810 Aurelia, the daughter of Salmon Buell, who was then the widow of John M. Pear- son, and afterwards married for his second wife Lucy Ann Buckley. His death occurred about the year 1857 or 1858. A number of his children, of whom there was a large family, are residents of Ithaca.

Three sons of Stephen Mack, the pioneer printer of Tioga County, came to Ithaca from Owego, and made permanent settlement, after the death of their father, in 1814.

Stephen, a graduate of Yale in the class of 1813, took up the profession of law, pursuing his studies in the office of Mr. Sherwood, of Delhi, N. Y., and removed, in 1814, to Owego, and thence soon to Ithaca, where he commenced the practice of his profession. He was never married. As a lawyer, he was diligent and methodical, and often a formid- able adversary. His death occurred Jan. 7, 1857, at the age of seventy-one.

Ebenezer, born in 1791, was reared a printer, and after a short partnership with Stephen B. Leonard in the publi- cation of the Owego Gazette, sold out, and removed to Ithaca in 1816, where he in turn became the principal pioneer of the press of Tompkins County, and placed it upon an enduring basis .* He was asserublyman in 1830, and four years State senator, representing his (then the sixth) senatorial district frour and after 1837. Hc united the business of book-selling and publishing to his other interests at an early period, and finally that of paper-making in 1823, when the firm was Mack & Morgan. His life was one of unusual application, sagacious foresight, and public spirit, and served in no small degree to mould the character of the institutions and of the people in the place of his adoption. He died at Ithaca, iu August, 1849.

Horace came also from Owego about 1817. At first a

* See history of the press of Tompkins County, in another depart- ment of this work.

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HISTORY OF TIOGA, CHEMUNG, TOMPKINS,

merchant's clerk, he stepped soon to a like business of his own, which he continued, with small divergences and with various partners, until 1849. He was a director of the Tompkins County Bank from its organization until his death. He represented his district in the Assembly of 1832. Besides these, he filled other positions of honor and trust, among which were those of county clerk and president and trustec of the village. He was identified with many enterprises favoring the growth and prosperity of the place. His nearly forty years of life in Ithaca was marked by a generous and honorable activity, ending only with his death, in 1855.

Joshua Ferris* came to Ithaca from Spencer, where hc had first settled, and built the brick dwelling on Green Street in 1836-37. In 1839, at the age of seventy-eight, he was elected trustee of the gospel and school lot, and each succeeding year, save one, until 1846, was re-clected.

The surveys of the several " sections" known as " Watkins & Flint's Purchase" were made by Mr. Ferris, in conjunc- tion with James Pumpelly, in 1808. He died in 1848, at the age of eighty-seven.

Of his children, three came to reside in Ithaca,-Ben- jamin, Myron H., and Eliza A.

Benjamin married, in 1830, Cornelia, a daughter of David Woodcock, and is still a practicing lawyer of the Ithaca bar. He was appointed Secretary to Utah, under Millard Fillmore, and with his wife journeyed thither by wagon-train, of which trip, and of the Mormons among whom they sojourned, they have given us the story in book form.

Eliza became the wife of Horace Mack, elsewhere men- tioned. She died in December, 1876.

Myron married Augusta Langstaff, and was a long time a resident of Ithaca.

Joshua H. has always resided in Spencer, Tioga County, where his father first scttled.

Jeremiah S. Beebe came to Ithaca in 1817 as agent for Mr. Stephen B. Munn, of New York City, who was largely an owner of lands in the Watkins and Flint's Purchase, including many thousands of acres in the present town of Newfield. He embarked in the mercantile business at the corner then lately occupied by David Quigg, whose stock he purchased. He made several changes in his business, which we have noticed elsewhere, each change character- ized by foresight and vigorous enterprise. A sort of jealous rivalry ensued upon the removal of his business to the corner

Between 1778 and 1783 Joshua Ferris served about two years and a half in the militia of the county of Westchester, N. Y., attached to the regiment of Colonel Samuel Drake, and doing duty in scouting parties and patroling against Tories and cow-boys.

At the risk of incurring censure for what may be considered an attempt to dispel some of the romance from our Revolutionary history, we must give, as history, Mr. Ferris' version of the facts concerning the retention of Major Andre by his three captors. His acquaintance with at least two of them was such as a citizen is apt to gain of the " characters" or chronic idlers of his native village. Conversing on a certain occasion with one of them (we think Paulding), Mr. Ferris asked him why they did not accept the watch of Andre and let him go. The answer was that they were " too d-d afraid of one another," and that Andre's anxiety led them to think that more would be ob- tained by keeping him. Mr. Ferris' opinion was that they were free- booters, and he often laughed at suggestions of their patriotism.

at Cayuga Street, Mr. Beebe becoming the leader of the " British" of the west end,-William Lesley being the most prominent of the opposing forces at the east end. There was no marching up and down with fixed bayoncts, but a liberal use of the suaviter and printer's ink. The Clinton House was one of the noble outcomes of this westward march, Messrs. Becbe, Ackley and Hibbard, the owners thereof, being chief among the pioneers. Mr. Beebe was short in stature, rotund and jolly, with a quick eye and firm step that retained their flash and steadiness midst fortune and adversity.

David Booth Beers came to Ithaca from Hobart, Dela- ware Co., N. Y., in 1817. He soon after began the ercc- tion of the dwelling now owned and occupied by Chauncey C. Tolles, meanwhile residing at the old " Tompkins House." Nov. 14, 1817, he bought from John A. Collier the prem- ises at the northwest corner of Aurora and State Streets, now owned by Jeremy Smith. The lot was then occupied by a small wooden building. Here, with Nathan Herrick as partner, he pursued for one year the business of a merchant. The partnership was suddenly terminated by the death of Mr. Bcers, on the 22d day of December, 1819, after a brief illness, resulting from an injury received at the burning of Miles Seymour's blacksmith-shop. This was the first fatal casualty in the fire-service of Ithaca.

Mr. Beers left one son, Samuel B., who still resides in the village, and to whom we are indebted for much con- cerning its history. Blessed with a rare memory, he has freely given of its accumulated store.

Charles Humphrey came to Ithaca prior to 1820. A man of distinguished ability, he made it available for high public uses. He was twice chosen president of the village ; served his district (the Twenty-fifth) in the Nineteenth Congress, and in the Assembly, in the years 1834-35- 36-37, did a noble work,-the last two years as Speaker. His service in this body was of vast and enduring benefit to Ithaca.

William R., a son, for nearly thirty years superintendent of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Com- pany, still resides in Ithaca, and holds the positions of trustee of Cornell University and trustee and librarian of Cornell Library. He served long and efficiently as trustee of School District No. 16.

" Samuel Hill, Nurseryman, Seedsman, and Florist," was so long a prominent sign at the corner of Green and Cay- uga Streets, that the many years since it ceased to be have not dimmed it to the eye of memory. Mr. Hill settled in Ithaca about the year 1822, and was the first to introduce a system of English gardening upon an extended scale. His garden, inclosed by a high board fence, occupied nearly the whole block on the south side of Green Street, between Cayuga and Geneva Streets, to the depth of 231 feet. After a few years this garden became a popular resort, with wind- ing walks and grateful shades, where "music from the band" gave zest to the pleasures of the summer evenings, and where, on the Nation's birthday, were sent off the rockets and Roman candles, and from the lips of well- loaded orators burst the hotter flames of eloquence.

Mr. Hill, however, made no spceches; he was a prac- tical man, known by his fruits, and was in fact the means

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AND SCHUYLER COUNTIES, NEW YORK.

of introducing to the people of Tompkins County many of the fruits and fruit-trees, which are to-day pronounced the best of their kind.

INITIAL EVENTS.

About the year 1800, eleven years after the first settle- ment, the first frame house was erected. It was placed immediately over the spot where the rattlesnakes' den had been broken up as already deseribed. The owner was Abram Markle, who employed a carpenter named Roger Delano, assisted by Luther Gere, his apprentice at the time. Peter Bois, who afterwards married " Polly" Yaple, was also em- ployed upon the building.

This house now stands, somewhat altered in late years, and is the third north of Cascadilla Creek on the west side of Linn Street.

For a short time this building was occupied by Mr. Mar- kle, who brought up a small stock of goods and opened the first regular store. Becoming involved, his indorser, Mr. Simeon De Witt, succeeded to the ownership of this struc- ture and the small lot upon which it stood. Henceforward it was known as the De Witt " farm house," and being then an important and conspicuous monument became the initial point of the surveys for the principal turnpikes afterwards constructed through the town.

This is undoubtedly the building that for a time was oe- cupied as a " tavern" by Archer Green .* It was the first public-house in Ithaca, and contrasts oddly with the superb accommodations of the present day. There was little danger then that careless guests would either leave the gas burning all night or blow it out upon retiring, or leave a water-spigot turned to deluge the lower stories. Not far away, up the Cascadilla, Mr. Yaple had built the first mill,t in 1791, as already deseribed. The first complete grist-mill in the town, with bolting-cloth, etc., was erected by Joseph S. Sidney, father of Edwin Sidney, prior to the year 1796. This was situated on Fall Creck, at what is now ealled Forest Home, but better known as Free Hollow. Mr. Sidney afterwards removed his mill to the Cascadilla, near the site of the present mill of John S. Dwyer.

The first public library in Ithaca was secured by the efforts of Mr. Sidney, who for a time was its librarian. About three hundred dollars were raised for the purpose. Some years after, with few additions, it became the property

of the " Ithaca Lyceum," and still later of the " Minerva Society," connected with the Ithaea Academy. About the year 1835 the society ceased to exist, and the books were scattered or distributed among the members. The late Isaae Beers was librarian in 1820.

THE FIRST AND EARLY TAVERNS.

It is difficult to determine to whom Ithaea is indebted for the first building intended for a tuvern, but probably the glory belongs to Luther Gere, who put up a wooden hotel on the southeast corner of Aurora and Seneca Streets in 1805, of which he was both proprietor and landlord.

" In 1806," says Mr. King, " the number of buildings had increased to twelve, six or seven of which were frame. One was the small building just across the street south of this (village) hall, now oeeupied as a dwelling-house and then as a tavern, the landlord of which was a Dr. Hartshorn ; another was situated where the Tompkins House now is, and was also kept as a tavern by Jacob S. Vrooman, a step- son of Abram Markle; and another was the house on the southeast corner of Aurora and Seneca Streets, which was afterwards kept as a tavern by Mr. Luther Gere."

The first-named building, built by David Quigg for Dr. Hartshorn, was removed in 1865 to give room for the " Cornell Library ;" of the second, but little of the original is now to be seen, the " light of other days" coming down to us through the quaint little window-panes of what is now the kitchen of the Tompkins House, while the last has either entirely passed away or lost its identity in the later improvements.

Mr. Vrooman swung out his sign with the words " Ithaea Hotel" emblazoned thereon, adopting the name which Mr. De Witt had given to the little growing village several years before. The place had been known by divers uncouth names, such as " The Flats," " The City," and " Sodom," but they all disappeared like ghosts at dawn before the later title.

Four years later (1809), Mr. Gere built the then grand structure known far and wide for so many years thereafter as the " Ithaca Hotel." The house of Mr. Vrooman had dropped the original name, and taken that of the new Governor, Daniel D. Tompkins.

The new hotel of Mr. Geres overshadowed, if it did not

* Mr. Green occupied, previously, the abandoned cabin of Mr. Hinepaw, which, in 1804, served as the temporary store of Mr. Quigg, and then as a sheep-pen for Mr. De Witt's choice Merinos, and still lator as the residence of Mr. Peleg Hammond.

t " Tho proprietor of this village (Ithaca) is the Surveyor-General. . . . He has selected a beautiful and very elevated spot, on the east hill, for a house, on which thero is a small grove of the white pine, from which you have a fino view of the lake and country.

" On the north of this mount, you see below you a precipice of 100 fect, at the foot of which there passes a considerable stream. The remains of the first mill in this country are there visible. It is not much larger than a large hog-pen, and the stones were the size of the largest grindstones ; a trough led the water to the wheel. It ground about forty or fifty bushels a day ; was the first mill in this country, erected about sixteen years ago, by ono Hancock, a squatter, and was resorted to by peoplo at a distance of thirty miles."-Diary of De Witt Clinton, p. 161, August, 1810.

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History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York, Part 109

Author: Peirce, H. B. (Henry B.) cn; Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Ensign Number of Pages: 1112

Author: Peirce, H. B. (Henry B.) cn; Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Ensign
Number of Pages: 1112