USA > New York > Oneida County > Kirkland > History of the town of Kirkland, New York > Part 3
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The nucleus of the settlement was formed on a street
1 Mrs. Amos Kellogg relates that on the day of her arrival here, in the winter of 1788, her husband was obliged to shovel the snow out of their log- house before they could take possession for the night. This house had been built by her husband several months before. It stood on the site now occu- pied by the house of Mr. J. N. Percival, on Fountain Street.
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF KIRKLAND.
laid out north and south, and which extended from the house now owned by Marshall W. Barker, to the house of Seth K. Blair. Two acres of land were assigned to each family on this street for a building-site. In the course of a year, eight additional acres were set apart to each family adjoining the two acre lots first named. Having built their first rude huts, suitable for temporary use, the settlers commenced clearing a portion of their lands, and providing for raising their first crops of vege- tables and Indian corn. While these crops were grow- ing, they took time to select a name for their infant village, and finally fixed upon that of CLINTON, in honor of George Clinton, then Governor of the State. It is worthy of mention, also, that Governor Clinton was at this time a joint-owner with General Washington of several tracts of land in this county, and of a few within the limits of this town. Upon this fact in our history Judge Jones observes : " Lot No. 14, in the fifth grand division of Coxe's borough, of 316 acres, and composing the farm of the late Nathaniel Griffin (now John Bar- ker's) of this town, was held by a deed directly from President Washington and Governor Clinton. This deed was witnessed by Tobias Lear and De Witt Clinton. Within five years past, one thousand acres of the Mount Vernon estate have been sold at $25.00 per acre. Washı- ington could have hardly anticipated that these cheap, wild lands in the vicinity of the Oneidas would, within half a century, readily sell for twice or three times as much per acre as his beloved Mount Vernon." 1
Our first settlers easily foresaw that if corn were to be grown for eating, some provision must be made for grinding it. But as yet there was no grist-mill in the 1 Annals, p. 168.
25
FIRST GRIST-MILL.
settlement. One had been built the year before at Whitestown, by Judge White and Amos Wetmore (and which is still known as Wetmore's mill), and it was here that our pioneers carried their first sacks of grain. The first few trips were tedious enough ; for the road was only a narrow Indian trail, through woods and swamps ; and, in the lack of horses, the corn had to be carried on the backs of men. Wearisome, indeed, it must have been, but they were stimulated by the still greater pluck of their Whitestown neighbors, who for two years before had carried their grain on foot and on horse- back to a mill at Palatine, a distance of about forty miles ! During the summer of 1787, the Clinton settlers joined their forces and opened a road-way to Whites- town, and as soon as it was finished, Samuel Hubbard drove an ox-team to the mill and brought back six bushels of Indian meal.
But our people were not content with this privilege six miles away ; and accordingly, before winter set in, Captain Cassety built a small grist-mill on the east side of the Oriskany Creek, near the site of the present bridge on College Street. To signalize the opening of the new mill for business, Samuel Hubbard, Ludim Blodgett, and Salmon Butler each shelled a peck of new corn, and sportively cast lots to determine which should carry the joint grist to mill. The lot fell upon Mr. Hubbard, who slung it upon his back and marched off with it to Captain Cassety's. This being the first grist to pass through the hopper, custom decreed that it should be ground free of toll. It is worthy of note that this was the first mill built west of German Flats, except the Wetmore mill. This erection was followed the same year or the next by that of a saw-mill a few rods above, on the same dam.
26
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF KIRKLAND.
These early settlers, though not all of them professedly pious men, respected the institutions of religion, and desired to establish and maintain them in their new home. Accordingly, on Sunday the 8th of April, 1787, the inhabitants assembled for public religious worship. The services were held in an unfinished house of Cap- tain Moses Foot, a building belonging to no recog- nized order of ecclesiastical architecture, it being simply an enclosure of logs, " without floor, chinking, or roof." This building stood upon the ground now occupied by the hardware store of A. N. Owston. The exercises were opened with prayer by Mr. Foot. Barnabas Pond, Bron- son Foot, and Ludim Blodgett conducted the singing, and Mr. Caleb Merrill, living near what is now Middle Set- tlement, read a printed sermon. Religious meetings of this kind, and others less formal, continued to be held, with only occasional interruptions, until a church was regularly organized, and a minister installed over it.
The first summer and autumn witnessed many changes in the new settlement, and much progress. It saw in- roads made upon the forests, and it saw fields of corn and pumpkins ripening under the propitious sun. It beheld new settlers arriving each month from New Eng- land, and casting in their lot with those who had pre- ceded them. The fathers tell us how pleasant it was to see new lights gleaming at night from new windows along the hillsides. They tell us how warmly the new- comers were welcomed, their families being treated with the best fare which could be set before them, and be- stowed at night in the cabins of their friends; and how in the early morning all parties joined in felling trees, cutting them into suitable lengths, stripping the bark, piling the logs, covering the roofs, and escorting their
27
MORE FIRST SETTLERS.
guests into their new habitations before the going down of the sun. Nor do they fail to tell also of evenings spent in merry house-warmings, in making inquiries about old friends in New England, and in forming plans and projects for the future. Well does Judge Williams here observe: " What in March was a wilderness, gloomy, sad, and cheerless, in October began to seem like home ; and even with the child and the delicate woman, the longing for New England's rocky hills and happy villages had grown faint and almost vanished before the attrac- tions of this fertile land, and the mutual kindness and hospitality of these dwellers in the wilderness. I hazard nothing in saying that this place has known no days more delightful than its earliest." 1
During the summer of 1788, about twenty new fami- lies were added to the original settlement, contributing much to the improvement of its society and to its financial prosperity. Among these we find the following names : Rev. Samuel Kirkland, George Langford, Timothy Tut- tle, Benjamin Pollard, Zadoch Loomis, Theodore Man- ross, Andrew Blanchard, Silas Austen, Joshua Morse, Elias Dewey, Joseph Gleason.
When the lands now covered by this town were first selected by Captain Foot and his party, it was supposed that they had never been surveyed, and were not em- braced within the limits of any patent. They considered themselves " squatters," presuming that when the land came into market they could claim it by preemption right. What, then, was their surprise, on exploring and clearing up the forests, to find lines of marked trees ; and on further inquiry to learn that they had settled upon Coxe's patent, " a tract of land granted by the colony of
Hist. Address, p. 8.
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF KIRKLAND.
New York, May 30, 1770, to Daniel Coxe, William Coxe, Rebecca Coxe, and John Tabor Kempe and Grace his wife." Their settlement was found to be located on " the two thousand and sixteen acres tract," by which descriptive name it was long known to the older inhabit- ants and surveyors. This plot was bounded on the north by the farm now owned by Henry Gleason, on the east by David Pickett's, on the south by Sethi K. Blair's, and on the west by the Oriskany Creek. On further search, it was found that this tract had already been divided into twenty lots of nearly equal size, and that the proprietors had offered it as a gift to any colony of twenty families who would take it up and occupy it as a perma- nent settlement. At once our settlers hoped that they might enjoy the benefit of this generous offer; but the patentees, learning that their lands had already been oc- cupied in ignorance of their proposal, refused to make the gift, and required the squatters to buy the land at the rate of ten shillings an acre. Accordingly, in the summer of 1788, Captain Foot was sent to Philadelphia to pur- chase the whole tract on the best possible terms ; and eventually, the several lots were. parceled out at cost among the different settlers. The triangular piece of land which afterwards became the site of the village was c alled " the handkerchief lot," from its resemblance on the map to a half-handkerchief, and this was bought by Cap- tain Foot.
While the affairs of the young community were pro- gressing thus happily, an incident occurred which filled all hearts with sadness. In the spring of 1788, Miss Merab Tuttle, daughter of Col. Timothy Tuttle, and about seventeen years of age, started, one afternoon, with Miss Anna Foot, daughter of Moses Foot, to make a
29
THE FIRST DEATH.
call at Mr. William Cook's, who lived in a log-house just beyond the west bank of the Oriskany. In girlish sport- iveness, they stopped on their way at Cassety's mill, and whitened their locks with mill-dust, in imitation of the French hair-powder then in fashion. On their return, they found the stream, swollen by the spring freshet, had risen above its usual height, and was dashing furiously down its channel. No bridge then spanned the creek at this place, nor indeed at any point from its source to its termination. The settlers had felled two trees across the stream just below the site of the present bridge, and it was on this narrow and slippery footing that the young ladies must cross. They hesitated, at first, and shrank back with fear, but Miss Foot, the more courageous of the two, led the way, and was followed by her companion. When about half-way across the creek, Miss Foot was startled by an exclamation of fright from her friend, and on looking back saw her reel and fall into the water and
soon disappear. Miss Foot's loud cries for help quickly drew several persons to the spot. Mr. Cook, who was first on the ground, sprang into the creek, and nearly caught hold of the drowning girl's garments, when a sudden sway of the current bore her from his reach and his sight, under a pile of drift-wood. The news of this sad event soon spread through the little community, and all joined in the search for the lost child. Hooks made by the blacksmith and fastened to poles were used to drag the stream. The night was spent in fruitless search. In the morning the body was found on the shore of the creek about half a mile below, near the site of the pres- ent Clinton Factory. At the funeral, no clergyman be- ing present, prayer was offered by Captain Foot, and a sermon was read by Nehemiah Jones, the text being
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF KIRKLAND.
taken from 1 Samuel xx. 3: " There is but a step be- tween me and death."
No piece of land having yet been selected for a public burial-place, her grave was first dug upon the Village Green ; but this being thought too wet, she was finally interred on her father's farm, in a field which afterward became the south part of the present " burying-ground." Her grave was dug by Barnabas Pond, and it is said on his own authority that he dug every grave in that burial- place until there had been over one hundred interments. There does not appear to be any record of the first desig- nation of this land for a public cemetery. Rev. Dr. Norton informed me, near the close of his life, that in the spring of 1796, Mr. Bartholomew Pond, who then owned what is now called the Royce farm, made a donation to " the Society of Clinton," of one acre of land " to be used as a burying-yard," which was accepted, and is the south- east portion of the present old cemetery.
The second death in this little community was that of Thomas Fancher, Jr., who was killed by the falling of a tree, in 1791 ; the third was that of Mrs. Mercy Steb- bins, in 1792, who was the wife of Judah Stebbins, Jr., and the mother of the late James D. Stebbins.
These early inhabitants were married and given in marriage, like their fathers before them. For we read that in the second year of the town, Elias Dewey was wedded to Anna Foot, and Andrew Blanchard to Mary Cook. This Mr. Dewey built his house on the land now occupied by the residence of Hon. O. S. Williams. This year was signalized also by a public wedding, at which Roger Leverett was married to Miss Elizabeth Cheese- borough. The ceremony took place in a log-house which stood upon a knoll on the road to Utica, just east of Slo-
31
A FAST HORSE !
cum's bridge. Among the invited guests was Jason Par- ker, of Utica, afterwards widely known as a stage pro- prietor and mail contractor. We find record, also, of the marriage of William Stebbins and Lydia Branch, Novem- ber 25, 1790. In this case, the bans were solemnized by Rev. Samson Occum, the Indian minister.
The year 1789 witnessed the arrival of many new set- tlers, among whom was Jesse Curtiss, whose long and useful life terminated within the memory of the present generation. In addition to Mr. Curtiss, we find the names of Timothy Pond, Eli Bristol, Joel Bristol, Jonah Sanford, Samuel Curtiss, John Curtiss, Ebenezer Butler, Theodore Gridley, Bartholomew Pond, Rufus Millard, William Marsh, and William Carpenter.
There is a tradition of a horse being owned here at an early day, by Captain Foot, and of his being soon stolen by the Indians. But, this half-mythical beast aside, all sorts of team-work in the settlement had hitherto been done by oxen. During the third summer, a few horses began to appear, two of whom were owned respectively by William Carpenter and Nathan Marsh. It is doubt- ful whether history would have preserved the record of these animals had it not been for their singular display of bottom and speed on the road to Albany ; for it is credibly reported that their owners having set out on horseback for that city on a certain day, " Jesse Curtiss and Bartholomew Pond started on foot at the same time, and arrived at Albany some hours before them !"
The summer of 1789 witnessed a great scarcity of food in this region. Wheat flour - then a rare luxury - was exhausted. Corn-meal and the last year's supply of potatoes were gone, and the new crop was still grow- ing in the field. Early in the spring, the stock of pota-
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF KIRKLAND.
toes was so small that the eyes were cut out for planting, and the remainder preserved for the table. Animal food was equally scarce ; for, to slaughter the few cattle which the inhabitants possessed would have entailed a loss such as they could have borne only in the last extremity. Money for buying food was also out of the question. All sorts of expedients were resorted to. Some persons scoured the woods for game, and for ground nuts and leeks ; the Oriskany and adjoining streams were plied with fishing-rods, and the hunter who chanced to come upon a bear and her whelps, rejoiced as one who had found great spoil. But men engaged in tilling farms could ill afford to leave their fields for hunting and fishing ; and at best these resources were uncertain, and could last only a short time. All persons were put on short allow- ance ; strong men denied themselves needful food, so that the weak and helpless might not suffer. When things had come to this pass, and famine stared them in the face, a small company of men started for Fort Plain, Montgomery County, to see whether supplies could not be obtained on some terms in that region. For it must be remembered that the settlements in the Mohawk Valley had hardly recovered from the depredations of hostile Indians during the Revolutionary War. Then, too, the whole annual produce of the country was quickly consumed by the emigrants pouring in from the East ; and, in the absence of railroads and canals, it was diffi- cult to transport hither grain and cattle from the older settlements.
As illustrating the straits into which the people were sometimes thrown, it may be mentioned here, that a few years before, the scarcity of animal food became so great in the adjoining settlement of Whitestown, that the in-
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SCARCITY OF FOOD.
habitants caught pigeons in the spring, and salted them down in barrels. This food answered in place of some- thing better; and those who ate it were accustomed afterwards to tell their well-fed children that " though not so palatable as some delicacies which miglit be named, yet it tasted nearly as well as the salt that was put upon it, besides carrying the idea of being actual meat victuals to boot." 1
But to return to our story. The party sent to Fort Plain found there a farmer and miller by the name of Isaac Paris, who listened favorably to their appeal. With a promptness and generosity wholly unexpected, he loaded a small flat-boat with flour and meal, and sent it up the Mohawk to the mouth of the Oriskany. Here it was met by a party of our settlers, who transhipped the precious cargo into a log canoe of their own make, and by means of paddles, ropes and setting-poles, worked it up the creek as far as the present Clinton Factory. From thence it was transported in carts to the village. The news of its arrival spread rejoicing through all hearts ; the very woods echoed with songs and shouts of gladness.
This cargo of breadstuffs was not wholly a gift from Mr. Paris. The settlers had no silver and gold to offer him, but their forests abounded in ginseng, and this he was willing to accept in payment, the same to be deliv- ered the following autumn. This plant, which cultivation has nearly extirpated from our farm-lands, once grew here in abundance. The roots, gathered in bundles and dried, were shipped from our seaports to Europe, where they were long esteemed an antidote to the plague.
The name of Paris was held in high regard, and when, in the year 1792, a new town, including Clinton, was set
1 Tracy, p. 36.
3
34
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF KIRKLAND.
off from Whitestown, the inhabitants called it Paris, in grateful honor of their benefactor.
Notwithstanding this temporary scarcity of food, the settlement continued to grow. In this year (1789) Colonel Timothy Tuttle built the first frame house, which still stands, and is the building lately used by Mr. Edward Alexander as an office at his coal-yard, on the Manchester road. The second frame building was put up this year, by Ebenezer Butler, Jr. ; it stood on the site of Mr. Asa Olmstead's present residence, and was kept as a store. The third was built in the fall by Jesse Curtiss. The circumstances attending the sawing of his lumber are worthy of mention, as illustrating the energy of the man and the spirit of the times. I give the ac- count substantially in the words of Judge Williams: His logs had been hauled to the mill ready for sawing, when (it was in the latter part of October) the snow fell to the depth of nearly two feet, upon a bed of mud well nigh impassable. The weather soon became cold and inclement, and exceedingly unfavorable to all kinds of business. Mr. Curtiss, however, bent on putting up a house before Christmas, plodded his way to Captain Foot's saw-mill, where, for three days and two nights, without cessation, and without help, he continued to drive the mill and work off the lumber necessary for his house. On finishing his task, " his hands had become glazed as by fire, by the constant use of the frosty iron bars of the mill ;" yet he made little account of it, for he was soon enabled to accomplish his purpose of erecting and enclosing a house before the final setting in of winter. This building is now a shed in the rear of his youngest son's barn, and every timber in it seems to cry out, -
" To what base uses we may return, Horatio ! "
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THE FIRST BIRTH.
Frame barns were also put up this year, -one by Judah Stebbins on the farm now owned by John Elliott, and another on the Kellogg property east of the village.
Immigration continued steadily to increase the popula- tion and resources of the town, so that before the year 1793 most of the land within two miles from the centre of the village, and some beyond that distance, had been parceled off into farms, and sold to actual settlers. Among the new-comers of 1792 was Thomas Hart, a man of great natural force, and some of whose descend- ants afterwards became distinguished in other parts of the State. Nor should we omit to mention, as one evi- dence of the prosperity of our settlement, that children were born unto it. The first was Clinton Foot, son of Luther Foot, who died before reaching manhood. The second born was Fanny Kellogg, daughter of Amos Kel- logg, and afterwards the wife of Orrin Gridley. The third was Julius Pond, born July 26, 1789, and the fourth was James D. Stebbins, born September 11th of the same year, and whose death has but recently trans- pired.
We have now reached a period of great interest in our narrative. The years next to come include the history of the formation of the Congregational church in this town, the installation of its first pastor, the Rev. Dr. Norton, and the building of its first house of worship ; they take us to the founding of Hamilton Oneida Acad- emy, and Hamilton College ; they introduce us to Sam- uel Kirkland, Azel Backus, and other men of like mind, who were engaged here in laying the foundations of things to come. But these topics, so inviting, must be postponed to future chapters.
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CHAPTER II.
BEFORE proceeding with the regular course of this history, I propose to turn aside briefly and gather up a few miscellaneous facts which could not well be woven into the previous narrative.
The Oneida, Stockbridge, and Brothertown Indians were familiar visitors in this region, whether on hunting and fishing excursions, or in pursuing that easy-going, vagabond. life which became them. Mrs. Amos Kellogg used to relate that she was often waked from sleep at night by the tramping and whooping of large bands of Indians returning from the chase or other expeditions. Whether they meant it as a sort of calathumpian exer- cise, to discipline the nerves of their white neighbors ; or whether, being intoxicated, they little knew or cared how much disturbance they made, she could not tell; but she was very sure that such demoniacal howlings did not promote sound sleep in her cabin. She also related that often when alone in her house, engaged in domestic duties, perhaps with a child in the cradle, Indians would open her door without knocking, and steal in softly with moccasined feet, unperceived, and, tapping her on the shoulder, say with deep, guttural voice, " Indian want 'tater ; Indian hungry ; me want 'tater." Trembling with fear, yet feigning unconcern, she uniformly gave them what they desired, and they soon left her without moles- tation. Sometimes it would be a squaw, with sad face and mournful voice, drawing her blanket about her shoulders,
37
HABITS OF THE INDIANS.
and whining, " Me hungry ; senape (her husband) gone, pappoose dead ; me hungry !"
Mrs. Eli Lucas remembers that roving bands of In- dians, both Oneidas and Stockbridges, used to come to her father's house just at evening, and beg permission to stay over night. Leave being granted, if none were intoxicated, they stretched themselves on the kitchen floor, with their feet to the fire of huge logs, and so, after crooning awhile to one another, they fell asleep. At daybreak, they rose and silently left the house, seldom purloining anything from their host.
Rev. Dr. Lothrop, in his Memoir of Rev. Samuel Kirkland, relates that Mr. Kirkland's house in Clinton " was the constant resort of Indians from all the Six Nations in their wanderings to and fro, and particularly of those on the territory of the Oneidas, and in his im- mediate neighborhood. They were continually coming to him for assistance or advice in things temporal and spiritual ; and when they came they expected to be en- tertained. Fond of nocturnal conferences, they com- monly arranged it so as to pass the night at or near his house, and supper and breakfast had to be provided for them. It was no unusual thing for him to furnish seventy, eighty, and sometimes one hundred meals to Indians in the course of a single week." It is also said that when any of the Indians came to Mr. Kirkland's house drunk, he locked them up in his corn-house until they became sober.
Several of the Stockbridge tribe were quite conspicuous in these parts for a season, of whom I cannot speak particularly. Among these were John Quinney and his brother Joseph, John Metoxin, Captain Hendricks and his strong-minded and most excellent wife Lydia, Mary Dox-
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