History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York, Part 114

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 114
USA > New York > Schuyler County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 114
USA > New York > Tioga County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 114
USA > New York > Tompkins County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 114

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).

Sidney Post, No. 41, Grand Army of the Republic, chartered Dec. 22, 1876, with the following members : K. S. Van Voorhees, Frank E. Tibbetts, Moses B. Sneden, Jas. H. Tichenor, Porteus C. Gilbert, Frank F. Snow, Ziba H. Potter, Linus S. Mackey, W. P. Van Ness, B. R. Williams, William Sullivan, George W. Gray, Henry Slaughter, John E. McIntosh, John Barnard, and James Gardner.

Royal Arcanum .- Organized Aug. 12, 1878, with the following members : J. L. Baker, John S. Gay, T. S. Cul- ver, David White, James Gardner, W. M. Jones, M. C. Jones, Arthur R. Hill, T. M. Drake, and C. H. Bumstead.

Fidelity Lodge, No. 51 .- No statistics of this lodge have been obtained.

Eagle Chapter, No. 58 .- Chartered Feb. 5, 1851, with the following officers : Wait T. Huntington, First H. P. ; Jacob M. McCormick, First King; and Caleb B. Drake, First Scribe.

Ithaca Council .- Organized -, with the following officers; Jacob M. Kimball, T. I. M .; Ralph C. Christiance, Dep. M. ; John C. Van Kirk, P. C. of W .; Eron C. Van Kirk, Treas .; Sidney S. Smith, Sec. ; C. B. Brown, C. of G. ; C. Fred. McWhorter, C. of C .; Samuel Holmes, Steward; Lute Welch, Sentinel.

St. Augustine Commandery was organized Oct. 2, 1867, with the following officers ; Joseph B. Chaffce, E. Com. ; S. L. Vosburgh, Gen .; P. J. Partenheimer, Capt .- Gen'l; J. M. Heggie, Treas. ; Marcus Lyon, Recorder ; W. W. Barden, Stand .- B .; J. M. Kimball, Warder ; Jno. Barden, Guard ; J. R. Wortman, Capt. of G.

Hobasco Lodge .- Organized Oct. 19, 1871. The fol- lowing were the first officers : Mills Van Valkenburgh, W. M .; William Andrus, S. W. ; Alfred Brooks, Jr. W .; W. W. Barden, Treas .; N. P. Roe, Sec .; A. D. Force, Sen. D .; James Quigg, Jr. D. ; A. O. Shaw, Tyler.

Ancient Order of United Workmen .- Chartered March 11, 1878. The following were the first officers : C. S. Taber, P. M. W .; H. M. O'Danicl, M. W .; T. M. Stew- art, G. T .; D. M. Fowler, O .; A. W. Goldsmid, Re-

Name illegible on the record.

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AND SCHUYLER COUNTIES, NEW YORK.

corder ; F. Fillingham, Financier; Harmon Hill, Receiver; G. W. Tupper, G .; W. Holmes, J. W .; George Love- less, O. W.

ITHACA COLLEGE.

It is worthy of a place in this history that the subjects of co-education, and of the founding of a university, sub- stantially upon the ground now occupied by the structures of " Cornell," found liberal advocates in and about Ithaca nearly sixty years ago. The Genesee Conference, in 1821, resolved to establish within its bounds " a university for the education of youth of both sexes." The go-ahead business men of Ithaca at onec took steps to secure the location at that place. The hamlet had lately arisen to the dignity of an incorporated village, and before even its academy was chartered, or building completed, its citizens made a bold effort to secure for themselves and posterity what in later years, in larger measure, they were destined to receive as a gift from one not then (1821) of their number.

An address to the publie appeared in the Journal of May 30, 1821, setting forth all the facts, and' appealing for gen- erous subscriptions to the needed fund. The address in closing says, "Our females may here acquire a useful and solid, as well as finished and polite, education ; and our young men will have all the advantages that a college can afford." The address is signed by Charles Humphrey, Luther Gere, C. P. Hcermans, Archer Green, and Augustus Sherrill, committee on behalf of the citizens of Ithaca.

A committee was appointed by the Conference composed of Charles Giles, George Harmon, Jonathan Huestis, Joshua Hathaway, Joseph Speed, David Woodcock, Jesse Merritt, Charles Humphrey, and Elijah Atwater, in whose address of Deecmber, 1821, are the following signifieant paragraphs :

" The committee of general superintendence appointed by the Con- fereneo have estimated that a fund of $40,000 will be required for the ercetion and completion of the necessary buildings. More than $6000 has already been subscribed by the citizens of the village and vicinity, and ten acres of ground, embracing the intended site for the buildings, have been gratuitously presented to the institution. . . .

" The Ithaca College is designed to combine all the branches of male and female instruction, from the first rudiments of an English education to the higher sciences usually taught in American univer- sities. And the committee are authorized to givo assurances that although it has been announced under the auspices of the Mothodist Episcopal Church, and will be conducted ostensibly under their direc- tion, yet that it will be established on as broad and liberal principles as any college in the United States, and a system of instruction adopted without regard either to particular religious or political opinions."

The committee resolved to have erected three buildings of brick, a central or eollege building, 40 by 100 feet, four stories high, and two academies, 40 by 62 feet, three stories high, one of which was to be appropriated exclusively for the education of females.

Joseph Speed, Esq., of Caroline; Dr. Lewis Beers, of Danby ; Elijah Atwater, of Ulysses; and Charles Hum- phrey, Jesse Merritt, William R. Gregory, and Henry Aekley, of Ithaea, were appointed a building committee.

The ten acres set apart and donated for the purpose by a gentleman of New York City was upon the brow of the eastern hill, between the ravines of the Cascadilla and Fall Creek,-in fact the very site of the present University.

The coincidenec between the Ithaea College and the later

university, as regards breadth and liberality of design and place of location, is so striking that it is difficult to believe it matter of pure accident.

For this reason is so much space given to the history of the Ithaca College which failed to BE. The project failed beeause of insufficient subscriptions, only ten thousand dollars having been thus pledged.

CORNELL UNIVERSITY.

The existence of Cornell University, by far the most important of the institutions of the town, is due to the combined bounty of the United States Government and of Ezra Cornell.

On the 2d of July, 1862, Congress passed an act grant- ing to the several States and Territories which should pro- vide schools for the promotion of agriculture and the me- chanie arts thirty thousand acres of publie lands for cach of its senators and representatives in Congress. The share of the State of New York amounted to nine hundred and ninety thousand acres, and was represented by land-serip.

In 1865 the Legislature of the State of New York trans- ferred the entire proceeds of the land grant to Cornell Uni- versity upon compliance with certain conditions, of which the most important were that Ezra Cornell should give to the institution five hundred thousand dollars, and that pro- vision should be made for the education, free of all charge for tuition, of one student from each Assembly district of the State. At the first meeting of the trustees thereafter Mr. Cornell fulfilled the requirements of the charter. He then made the additional gift of over two hundred aeres of land, with buildings, to be used as a farm in connection with the department of agriculture, and also gave the Jewett collection in geology. He has made since that time many other large gifts, amounting to several hundred thousand dollars.

The University now has an invested fund of more than $1,000,000, and about 400,000 acres of lands, chiefly pine, in the State of Wisconsin, still unsold. The income of the institution, from all sources, aggregates about $100,000. Since its organization the University has received gifts, from other persons than its founder, amounting to more than $1,000,000.

The number of trustees when the board is complete is twenty-three. Of these, the eldest son of the founder is, by the law of the State, a non-elected trustee. Seven others are members of the board by virtue of their office, viz. : The President of the University, the Governor of New York, the Lieutenant-Governor, the Speaker of the Assein- bly, the Superintendent of Publie Instruction, the President of the State Agricultural Society, the Librarian of the Cor- nell Library. The remaining fifteen are elected for a term of five years, three retiring each year.

The general faculty of the University is divided into thirteen special faculties : those of agriculture, architecture, chemistry and physics, eivil engineering, history and politi- cal seience, ancient classical languages, North European lan- guages, South European languages, mathematics, mechanie arts, military scienec, philosophy and letters, and natural history.

The courses of study, as laid down, are as follows : arts,

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HISTORY OF TIOGA, CHEMUNG, TOMPKINS,

literature, philosophy, science (containing five subdivisions), agriculture, architecture, civil engineering, mechanic arts. Besides these are optional and post-graduate courses.

There is a corps of about forty professors, a few of whom are non-resident, and render service by courses of lectures at stated periods. Of these are Goldwin Smith and Bay- ard Taylor; and recently, James Russell Lowell and Theo- dore Dwight.

State students are selected by yearly competitive exami- nation from the various public schools and academies of New York State. The trustees, construing the law most liberally, admit one fromn cach Assembly district each year, thus swelling the number when the scholarships are full to 512 in the four years, and entailing a cost to the University, through remission of tuition fees, of nearly $40,000 pcr annum.

The buildings of the University are nine in number, two of which, the chemical laboratory and gymnasium, are of wood. Of the others, four are of blue stone, quarried near by, and trimmed with Medina sandstone and Onondaga gray limestone, and three of these-the north and south halls and the McGraw building-face the west, and overlook tlie village and lake at an elevation of 400 feet ; the latter, with its magnificent stone tower, 22 feet square and 130 feet in height, being in the centre.

In McGraw Hall is the library, comprising 40,000 vol- umes, inclusive of the Anthon, Bopp, and Goldwin Smith collections, and the White, Architectural, the Kelly, Mathe- matical, and the Cornell, Agricultural sections, and the Sparks collection, mainly history, comprising 5000 volumes and 4000 pamphlets.

The reading-room is furnished with a vast number of home and foreign periodicals,-critical, general, and scien- tific.

This building also contains the well-furnished museum, with its Ward casts of the great saurians and other mon- sters of by-gone ages; the rare models of plows, 187 in number; thic Auzoux veterinary models; and the large collections in geology and palæontology of Jewett, Hart, Ward, Comstock, Simonds, and Jones ; the Silliman collec- tion of minerals ; the Greene Smith ornithological cabinet ; and the Newcomb conchological collection, including about 25,000 species.

The fourth building, the gift of the Hon. Hiram Sibley, of Rochester, is devoted to the school of practical mc- chanics, and stands on the north side of the campus, which it faces, and derives power from Fall Creek, by means of a turbine-wheel and wire cable, for its machine and press-rooms. Attached to this building, on the north side, is an engine-room and stereotype foundry.

The Sage College, for women, is the munificent gift of the Hon. Henry W. Sagc. It stands south from the cam- pus, is of brick, with tasteful decorations and graceful towers, and is in the form of a quadrangle, inclosing a court.

The style is Italian Gothic, and it has a front of 168 feet and depth of 41 fect. The north wing is 85 fect long ; the south wing 112 feet.

This structure is a home or dormitory for the women students ; but all arc at liberty to select other quarters in

the homes of the citizens or otherwise as they may prefer. Their privileges and opportunities in matters of study arc on a par with those of the male students.

The cost of this building was $150,000; and, as if this were not sufficiently generous, Mr. Sage added $100,000 as an endowment.

The museum of this college contains the Horace Mann Herbarium, the gift of President White, and the Auzoux botanical models.

The Sage chapel, the gift of Mr. Dean Sage, occupies a prominent central position, and is also of brick, ornamented with rich trimmings in stone and colored brick. During the first and third terms of each year discourses are de- livered in this chapel by cminent clergymen, selected from time to time from the various Christian denominations.

The president's house, a fine mansion, of the Swiss- Gothic order, constructed of brick, stands on an elevation at the east of the campus, which it overlooks from its pretty grove of chestnuts and pines. It is a gift of Presi- dent White to the University, and is designed for the use of his successors for all time. Its cost was $50,000. To the north, and also facing the campus, are a number of professors' residences.

Cascadilla Place, on the south bank of Cascadilla ravine, is a large and substantial cdifice of stonc. It has a look of impregnability, and it were no crime to mistake it for a generously-windowed fort. In size it is 190 by 100 fcet, and contains about 200 rooms. It was originally designed for a sort of water-cure or infirmary, in which Mr. Cornell and many of the citizens of Ithaca were stockholders ; but it was never used for any other than the purposes of the University, to which it now belongs. It occupies the site of the old cotton-factory of Otis Eddy. To the east is the famcd and romantic Willow Pond ; also charming rustic strolls along either bank of the Cascadilla,-connected by an iron bridge that spans the gorge at a most picturesque point (over the " Giant's Staircase"), from which a vista of unequaled beauty opens upon the village and plain below.

The University chimes are deserving of separate mention. That many bells have already been suspended at " Cornell " is not damaging to the cause of co-cducation.

Ten bells hang in the McGraw tower, whose combined weight is about 11,500 pounds, and whose notes are repre- sented, commencing with the largest, by the letters, D, G, A, B, C, D, E, F, F sharp, and G. "Magna Maria," the largest, weighing 4889 pounds, bears the inscriptions : " The Gift of Mary, wife of Andrew D. White, First Presi- dent of the Cornell University, 1869;" " Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, good will toward men ;" " To tell of Thy loving-kindness early in the morning, and of Thy truth in the night season ;" together with the fol- lowing stanza, written expressly for it by Prof. James Russell Lowell :

" I call as fly the irrevocable hours, Futile as air or strong as fate, to make Your lives of sand or granite; awful powers, Even as men choose, they either give or take."

The nine smaller bells all bear couplets taken, with his permission, from Tennyson's " In Memoriam," commencing with the smallest :

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AND SCHUYLER COUNTIES, NEW YORK.

First Bell.

. Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring out the false, ring in the true ;

Second Bell.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind ; Ring in redress to all mankind.

Third Bell.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,

And ancient forms of party strife ;

Fourth Bell.

Ring in the nobler modes of life,

With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Fifth Bell.

Ring out false pride in place and blood ; Ring in the common love of good.

Sixth Bell.

Ring out the slander and the spite ; Ring in the love of truth and right.

Seventh Bell.

Ring out the narrowing lust of gold ; Ring out the thousand wars of old;

Eighth Bell.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease ; Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ninth Bell.

Ring in the valiant man and free,

The larger heart, the kindlier hand; Ring out the darkness of the land ; Ring in the Christ that is to be.

This ninth bell bears, also, the following : "This chime, the gift of Miss Jennie McGraw to the Cornell University, 1868."

The chimes are played-both pcals and tunes-for chapel service at 8 A.M .; for the cessation of University exercises, at 1.15 P.M. and 5.45 P.M. The great bell is struck for the lectures at the beginning of every University hour; it has been plainly heard at the distance of ten miles.

The great four-dialed clock of the University is con- nected with the chimes, and indicates cach quarter-hour by distinet peals upon the lesser bells, and the full hours by strokes upon the great bell.

COMMUNICATIONS.

TURNPIKES, STEAMBOATS, RAILROADS, AND CANALS.

The only means of communication between the carly settlers on the east and west sides of the valley was by a circuitous route, substantially what is now called the " Five- Mile Drive," except that the Six-Mile Creek was crossed at Aurora Street instead of Cayuga.

The precise date of the first road across the valley is not known. About two years ago, many logs of what was evi- dently an old corduroy-road were exposed at the depth of four feet from the present surface, by workmen who were digging a trench for water-pipe, in State at its junction with Geneva Street. These logs were about six inches in diameter, and quite solid .*

A publie road built from Oxford, on the Chenango River, directly through to Ithaca, in 1791, '92, '93, became the great highway for immigration in the southern part of the State for many years. This road was built by Joseph Chaplin.

In 1804 the Susquehanna and Bath Turnpike was in- corporated, running through the (present) towns of Caro- line, Dryden, Ithaca, and Enfield. What is now State, late Owego Street, formed a part of this road.

The Owego and Ithaca Turnpiket Company was incor- porated in 1807, and the road finished in 1811, in which year was also completed the road to Geneva, by the Ithaca and Geneva Turnpike Company.

Many of the middle-aged men can remember with what eagerness the far-echoing toot of the stage-horn was daily awaited by the loungers at " Grant's Coffee-House," the " Hotel," or the "Columnbian Inn," or, carlier still, at " Gere's." At these famous inns did the weary travelers alight from the old-fashioned thorough-brace coach for a thorough bracing of the " inner man," at bar and board,- two days, only, from Newburg or Catskill !

In view of the following, one should hesitate long before applying to these modes of travel the epithet " slow-coach." We quote from the American Journal of Dec. 15, 1819 :

" Through the politeness of a gentleman by the Newburgh Line from New York, we received on Saturday morning, a copy of the President's message, delivered on Tuesday, at 12 o'clock. It was re- eeived in New York in eighteen hours and a half from Washington, -a distance of 240 miles ; was there republished; and (allowing for the time of reprinting and delay in New York) was about three days from Washington City to this place,-a distance of four hundred and eighty miles,-a rapidity of communication seldom surpassed in any country."

The Cayuga Steamboat Company was organized Dec. 15, 1819, by the election of David Woodcock, President, and Oliver Phelps, James Pumpelly, Joseph Benjamin, and Lewis Tooker, Directors for the ensuing year.

At this meeting it was determined that a steamboat should be built "to ply from one end to the other of Cayuga Lake."

At a subsequent meeting of the president and directors, Charles W. Conner was appointed Treasurer, Charles Hum- phrey, Esq., Secretary, and Oliver Phelps, Agent, for the building of the boat.

The steamer " Enterprise" was the result of this action of the company, and was the first steamboat launched in the waters of the Cayuga. She was the most notable of the productions of the middle period of Ithaca's history. Her keel was laid March 18, 1820, and the finished vessel launched, " midst the huzzas of the people and the firing of cannon," on the 4th of May following. The machinery for

# This cireumstanee reveals the former condition and the extent of the "filling-in" process in that now thickly-settled part of the village.

A story is told of a boat of the " Durham" elass, whiel had been

constructed on or near the ground now occupied by the old Ithaca Bank building (then-1812-by the stables attached to "Grant's Coffee-House"), and was being hanled to the inlet by twenty teams, -ten of cattle and ten of horses. The boat had been placed on wheels, and despite the great power applied, became immovable in the mire at a point a little west of present Albany Street. The next day,-Sunday,-with additional aid, the journey was completed.

+ The measurement of the Owego Turnpike, from the north bank of Fall Creek, "near the great liberty post," to Ely's house in the village of Owego, is recorded as "29 miles 240 rods and 60 links."

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HISTORY OF TIOGA, CHEMUNG, TOMPKINS,

the boat was made in Jersey City, and brought to Ithaca by teams .*

A trial trip was made June 1, with a party of 150 ladies and gentlemen on board. The loeal press, which gave way to mueh jubilation over the event, hands down to us the important faet that " the boys testified their rustie surprise by daneing along the beach, and even the floeks and herds left their feeding, and assembled to gaze at so strange an animal."

A bar at the mouth of the inlet for a time proved an obstruetion to her passage into the lake.

On this trip the boat reached Cayuga at six P.M., eight hours after leaving Ithaea, having made several landings, and taken on board at Kidder's Ferry the Genou Band.

This magnificent vessel, at whose launching the " pride and strength and beauty of Ulysses gathered, and May as- sumed her brightest smiles and put on her fairest gar- ments," was 80 feet by 30 upon deck, and of 120 tons burden. Her engine was of 24 horse-power.

The Journal of June 7, 1820, made the following an- nouneement : " The ' Enterprise' is connected with the line of stages from Newburgh to Buffalo, and thus furnishes to travelers from New York, and others going west, one of the inost expeditious and pleasant routes in the State. The stage runs from Newburg to this village in two days. Thus travelers may leave New York at five o'clock P.M., in the steamboat; the second day arrive at Ithaea ; go on board the steamboat ' Enterprise' the same night; receive good aeeommodations, and rest in comfortable births during . the passage; resume the stage next morning at Cayuga bridge, and the same night arrive. at Buffalo; making the whole route in three days !- one day sooner than it is per- formed by the way of Albany."

Among the directors subsequently appointed we find the names of Augustus Perkins, Luther Gere, and William R. Collins. Oliver Phelpst was first master and part owner.

The " Enterprise" was used for passengers and freight until the appearance of the "Telemachus," when she was degraded to the towing business. In 1827 a majority of the stock was transferred to Elijah H. Goodwin, Richard Variek De Witt, and S. De Witt Bloodgood.

The " Telemachus" followed the " Enterprise," in 1828; and one year afterwards, August, 1829, the " Dc Witt Clinton" made her appearance. The latter, in 1833, was commanded by Captain Enos Buekbee, and was run as a passenger boat, while the " Telemachus" was made the ser- vant of a mixed traffic for some time afterward. The "De Witt Clinton" was 100 feet long, 28} feet beam, and 9 feet depth of hold.

The "Simeon De Witt" was added in 1836, and was

also commanded by the veteran " Captain" Buckbee, who still lives to read the story of his service or repeat the many incidents of flood and storm that him befel.

The steamboats which followed the " Simeon De Witt" were the " Howland," " Forest City," " Beardsley," " Kate Morgan," "Sheldrake," " Aurora," "Ino," "T. D. Wil- cox," and " Frontenae,"-the last two now in use.

All the last named, ineluding the " Simeon De Witt," were built or owned by Captain T. D. Wileox, who has spent a lifetime in the steamboat business, and is to-day the veteran captain. None in this country, and probably none abroad, have seen more years of service.t

The Ithaca and Owego Railroads was incorporated Jan. 28, 1828, and opened in April, 1834. Its charter was the second railroad charter granted in the State. The first directors were Francis A. Bloodgood, President ; Richard V. De Witt, Treasurer ; Ebenezer Maek, Secretary ; S. De Witt Bloodgood, Andrew D. W. Bruyn, Cornelius P. Heer- mans, Myndert Van Sehaick, James Pumpelly, and Alvah Beebe. The old style flat or strap rail was used through- out. The road was twenty-nine miles long, and had two "inclined planes" aseending from Ithaea, the first, 1733 feet long, with a rise of one foot in 4,28 feet, making a total rise of 405 feet ; the second or upper, 2225 feet long, with a rise of one foot in twenty-one feet.

For six years horse-power was used exclusively. The steeper plane was overcome by stationary power in the form of a huge windlass housed at the summit, and worked also by horses,-generally blind.

The road was sold at auetion by the comptroller May 20, 1842, on stock issued by the State, for non-payment of interest, and was bought by Archibald MeIntyre and others, who were incorporated April 18, 1843, as the " Cayuga and Susquehanna Railroad Company." In 1849 New York partics bought the road and rebuilt it, laying heavy iron as far as the " upper switch" station in Deeember that year. In the spring following the road was extended to the pier at the head of the lake, descending the hill by a cireuitous route, as now, thus avoiding the planes. Jan. 1, 1855, it was leased to the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company, who have sinee operated it as the Cayuga Division, under the efficient management of Mr. William R. Humphrey. The road as now laid is thirty-three miles long, its northern limit being the steamboat landing. Coal forms the principal item of business. In September, 1878, the gauge of the road was changed from six feet to four feet eight and a half inehes.

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History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York, Part 114

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