USA > New York > Otsego County > In old Otsego : a New York county views its past > Part 4
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The Jarvis party of eight, from Cooperstown, Fly Creek and Hartwick, left February 18, 1850. It proceeded with a lumber wagon, inscribed "Bound for California" and drawn by four horses, through Gilbertsville to Deposit, thence by the new Erie Railroad to New York City. There H. Monroe Hooker and Gideon Russell decided to go no further. The rest completed the whole journey in 88 days and,
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like Doctor Halsey, found old friends. These were of the company from the Town of Otsego which had gone around the Horn the year before. Among them were Nelson Graves, ... Lloyd, Robert McNa- mee, Dr. A. D. North, H. Osburn, Chauncey Pease, Ed. Robinson, John Russell, A. Ten Eyck, Thomas Williams and Reuben Wright. Members of the two groups then worked in cooperation.
Mr. Jarvis was away 14 months, half of them spent in travel. He had a net loss of $200. Of the others, Lyman O. Hart was lured to the new gold fields of Australia in 1851 and became a lawyer at Mel- bourne there. Chester Babbitt accompanied him and after 15 months made his way home by London, completing a global circuit. Delos Eldred seems to have been the most fortunate. He brought back dust worth $2,000. In 1859 he was off again for the new discovery at Pike's Peak and is said to have wished to try once more when the Klondike strike became known in the 1890's. Eleazer Bliss IV, alone of this group, made California his permanent home. His brother Norman had been there some time. He had become a Mormon and was likely one of the large number of that faith who went from New York to California in 1846.
In the summer of 1850 a party of up-staters attempted the arduous and dangerous passage by Tampico and Mazatlan, Mexico. Many died on this journey, including Amos Perry, of New Lisbon.
In spite of all the hazards the press continued.
OVERLAND travel to the California gold fields created its own severe handicap. The Oregon Trail had been in use for more than a decade and this could be followed a good part of the way. Lack of forage was the difficulty. So heavy was the travel that unless a caravan got under way early in the spring no food was left for the draft ani- mals. These expeditions suffered appalling losses.
Neither was passage easy by the Isthmus of Panama. A railroad, projected in 1849, was not in operation until 1855. Meanwhile, any obtainable boat was rowed and poled up the stiff current of the Chagres River to Gorgona or Cruces, thence by trail the remaining distance, the gold seekers usually on foot, the baggage being carried by pack mules or native porters. Americans were astonished, as well they might be, at the individual porter's burden of 250 pounds and, thus loaded, accomplishing the 25 to 30 miles in a day and a half.
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Still there were no better ways to the goal than these two and after 1849 Otsegoans chose them almost exclusively.
Alfred J. Smith was born in Oneida County, but eventually a druggist at Richfield Springs. He was in Kentucky in 1844 and Ohio in 1846, returning each time. In 1850 he spent four months on the overland trail. Like many others, he was long ill in California and accumulated no wealth. He returned via Nicaragua and did much better for himself at Richfield Springs.
Marvin W. Duley lived in several places in this county but likely was at Mt. Vision when his venture by way of Panama began in 1852. He, too, was plagued by ill health, returned, then tried out Ohio and Indiana. After some years as a miller at Hartwick, he settled down at Unadilla in 1866.
Chester L. Harrington left also in 1852 to engage as a merchant at San Francisco, then at Shasta, Cal. and Dallas, Oregon. His later days were spent more prosaically in keeping store in his native town of Hartwick.
The letters of Russell and Edward Loomis * well illustrate the whole California episode. They were two of the twelve children of Collins Loomis, of Richfield, and set out at the ages of eighteen and twenty-three. Arrived at Panama, Russell wrote back, "There is some danger in crossing this isthmus unless there is a party together. The natives are a savage, treacherous set and will kill a man any time for a few dollars if they can single him out."
The next letter came from the diggings and was somewhat more reassuring, "Have a tiny little purse of gold-enough to take us home or pay for mending a broken leg." Soon they took in three partners and Ed. wrote again, "We have settled down a plump little amount under two feet of dirt-directly under our fireplace. I think it will keep until spring."
Late in 1851 brother Dan sought advice about joining them. Rus- sell replied frankly, saying that the climate was healthy but that "the miner must work in water the year round. Some become stiff in the joints and otherwise debilitated, but it has not affected us as yet. I suppose it is because we are of the lean, ganderlegged kind. ... No one must come here with the expectation of making a fortune in one
* (The items from the letters of the Loomis brothers were kindly furnished by Janice C. Neal, of Oneonta.)
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month or one year. ... Our main dependence is to work old ground that has been once worked by a rocker and by using a sluice are enabled to make very good wages." Reflectively, he added, "I think the majority of those who have come to this country would have been better off if they had stayed at home."
By the spring of 1853 the brothers had practically abandoned mining. They had relocated in Colusa County, west of the Sacramento River and the important gold fields. They were selling hay and grain to immigrants, buying travel-worn cattle, fattening them and resell- ing at a handsome profit. Then they lost $10,000, much of it hay, in a flash flood. They removed 60 miles north to Tehama, and well back from the river. There they raised hogs, horses and cattle. Late that fall Russell reported that their farm was doing well, and that they had four teams hauling hay sixty miles to Shasta, where it sold at $100 a ton.
The last letter preserved was written by Ed. to his brother Hill in 1855. Ed. tells that the brothers were prospering, that towns were springing up all around their farm and that he had decided to make Tehama his permanent home. One important item was missing-a wife. We are left in the dark on the outcome.
We will stretch Otsego's claims a trifle to cover the two final examples. Isaac Cooper was a grandson of William, the Cooperstown pioneer, but he had started westward at the age of twenty and before the gold rush days. He tarried awhile at Toledo and Chicago before reaching Iowa in 1838. He went overland in 1849 with an ox-cart and developed the Cooper mine. Returning to Iowa, he was a Polk County citizen of consequence, but was again in California by 1873 and of equal prominence there until his death in 1902.
No career embraces more of the romance of the early West than that of Henry T. P. Comstock, "Old Pancake," from whom the fabul- ous Nevada "Comstock Lode" derived its name. Otsego's tenuous connection with him is only through his father Noah, who came early from Connecticut to Cooperstown, but had moved on before this son was born. "Mountain man," soldier in both the Black Hawk and the Mexican Wars, forty-niner, Henry sold his one-fourth interest in the famous Lode too soon and too low. His end came by a bullet in 1870 at Bozeman, Montana, but who fired the shot nobody knows.
RICHFIELD'S MINERAL SPRINGS
Adapted from a more complete account prepared by Mrs. Greta G. Hughes, Historian for the Town of Richfield.
THROUGHOUT the ages the waters of mineral springs have been valued for the treatment of a host of ailments. American Indians appreciated their virtues. Innumerable such fountains occur in this state. One need only recall the word "Springs" appended to New York place names-not to go too far away-Ballston, Saratoga, Sharon. The usual evolution at such locations has been, first Indian knowledge and use, then development by physicians of a "water cure" and a final transition into a summer resort patronized by persons of means and fashion. So it was with the one-time highly esteemed mineral waters at Richfield Springs. Here the Iroquois came to treat frost bite and other afflictions. Here, as the location became readily accessible, were established baths for the ailing. Here, in a stimulating summer climate and amid enjoyable surroundings, arose vacation facilities for a century known far and wide.
To young and enterprising Dr. Horace Manley goes the credit for exploiting the local opportunity. He was already practicing at Mon- ticello in 1817. In 1820 he acquired the site of the Great White Sulphur Spring. The Great Western Turnpike had been extended past the place in 1808 and East Richfield (now Richfield Springs) was displac- ing in importance the earlier settlements of the area. Doctor Manley erected a bath house and the first patients arrived in 1821, twenty-five of them. They were housed at the Richfield Hotel, existing since 1816. Greater accommodations were soon needed, which business men were quick to provide.
In 1823 Page's Tavern was built on the spring property. Fre- quently enlarged, it could care for 60 guests in 1840, and later, as the Spring House, an ultimate 450. Ready in 1830 was the American Hotel, in later days the Earlington. Burned in 1850, it was immediately rebuilt, added to, and had a final capacity of 450 also. A copious spring was discovered in its basement in 1865, making it an independent establishment. The National (Majestic) opened in 1852, presaging the change toward resort purposes. Harper's Magazine for June 1856
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lists Richfield along with Chittenango, Saratoga and Sharon as the preferred fashionable watering places. However medical treatments long continued. In point is a quotation from a letter written by famous James Fenimore Cooper to his wife from the American on July 28, 1849, "I am very comfortably lodged here and much better off than when here before. I am not without hope that the water will do me good. I find the long, warm baths very penetrating, and think I shall benefit in the skin if not in the foot. ... There must be near a hundred people here."
A comparison of early prices with those of the present is eye opening. Those first patients in 1821 paid $1.25 for weekly board! At the Spring House in 1840 the similar charge was $12, but reduced to a $96 total for a twelve week stay. At the American this cost was $20 to $25 in 1871.
Stage coaches brought all the early visitors. As the Turnpike passed the site, such service was superior for the times. Steam trains reached Utica in 1836 and the horse drawn ride was then shortened to the trip from Herkimer. The Lackawana railroad spur came very near in 1870 and entered the village the next year. The two daily trains each way of that time became six in the 1890's and through parlor car service from New York was then provided. In 1902 an inter- urban electric line was running from Oneonta to Herkimer and hourly service was maintained for some years, but by then personal auto- mobile transportation was on the horizon. This boded no good to resorts depending on long staying vacationists.
The lush days for Richfield Springs came with the railroad and these extended into this century. Many new hotels were then built, among them the Canaderoga, Central, Davenport, International and Washington Hall (Waiontha) . In addition were numerous boarding houses, some of large capacity. Simultaneously in operation were 18 to 20 hostelries, capable of housing 2,000 guests. This was not too much. Often 3,000 visitors came during a season and these left half a million dollars in Richfield coffers annually.
Entertainment was provided for every taste. Carriage drives and horse back rides were leading features, some guests bringing their own liveried coachmen and conveyances. The daily coaching parade was a spectacle. A summer theatre was started in 1886, said to be the first at a
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resort in the nation. Imported musicians gave symphony concerts daily. Each new type of recreation was introduced as it became popular -roller skating, tennis, cycling, golf. Of course, baseball, dancing and cards had their devotees.
The summer colony supported a whole series of publications. The Richfield News came out Sunday mornings from 1886 to 1897 and was succeeded briefly by Richfield Life. The Richfield Springs Daily began in 1888 and continued into this century. The Resorter, a Utica monthly, gave good local coverage.
The roster of guests over the years reads like a list of the nation's greats in varied fields. General George B. McClelland, Admiral George Dewey, James G. Blaine, Thomas A. Edison, Walter Damrosch, even Ward McAllister, dictator to New York's social "Four Hundred," were among them. Latin-America sent its contingents, over a hundred eminent Cubans were at the Waiontha in 1919.
The Spring House burned in 1897 and was not rebuilt, notice that an era was passing for Richfield Springs and for watering places in general. Visitors came in decreasing numbers until the depression of the 1930's. The hostelries have now been mostly razed and replaced by filling stations, a commentary in itself. Advances in medical science, changing social patterns and particularly the opportunities opened by the automobile provide the explanation. The use of Richfield's mineral waters now belongs to our county's cherished history.
OTSEGO COUNTY MISCELLANY
THE intent of this article is to salute some high lights in Otsego County history, but to make each mention comparatively brief, as most of the topics have been previously treated to some extent in print. How- ever the various topics here presented should not be entirely neglected in this Year of History and we would not wish any reader to think that we are not constantly aware of them.
The County
Otsego County was erected in 1791 with its county seat at Coopers- town. It covers 1,013 miles, or 648,320 acres, so in area it ranks 17th among the 62 counties of the state. Since it has a rural location with none of the large cities or industries, in population it stands much further down the list, being 38th in order. This has been by no means always so. According to a late census 85% of the state's residents have urban, and 15%, rural dwellings. A century and a half ago, this was just the other way around. Then Otsego, with nearly the same number of people as now, was one of the most populous counties of the state. It ranked 10th in 1810, topping every one of the counties which now contain the largest upstate cities, namely, Utica, Albany, Syracuse, Troy, Rochester, Buffalo, and Schenectady. Oneida County went ahead of Otsego in 1820, Albany and Onondaga in 1830, Rensselaer, Monroe and Erie in 1840, but Schenectady not until 1910. Otsego was allotted one assemblyman at its formation, but grew so rapidly that it had five in 1795, and never less than four for the next 40 years. By then the cityward movement was well under way and Otsego's relative position dropped. Three was its assembly representation from 1836 to 1857, then two until 1893, when this became one as at present.
White Men Come To Stay
The first settlement was made at Cherry Valley in 1741 by a company of Scotch-Irish from Londonderry, New Hampshire. It is an interesting example-and the only one in present Otsego-of the New
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England practice of establishing a near self-sufficient community by persons professing a common religious faith and under the leadership of their pastor. (Elsewhere the American frontier was most commonly penetrated by individual families, often of diverse denominations, so religious societies could not well be organized until more settlers came with the elapsing years.) From the Cherry Valley center several other early settlements were made, as in Newton-Martin (Middlefield) , Milford and at Harpersfield and Sidney Plains, both now in Delaware County.
In the Wars
Until the end of the Revolution the struggling Otsego settlements were frequently in danger of invasion. During the French and Indian War threats came from both north and south, causing many residents to seek protection at Albany and missionaries to withdraw from their stations down the Susquehanna. The nearest a hostile force actually came was the one which destroyed the settlement at German Flats (Herkimer) . Immediately following British success in this war the formidable conspiracy of western Indians led by Pontiac affected the Delawares of Pennsylvania and the Senecas of western New York. At least three successful punitive expeditions were sent down the Sus- quehanna in 1764 to meet each recurrence of the threat. Except for numbers involved, all these much resembled the later Sullivan cam- paign. It is of interest that throughout this period the Oquaga Indian mission school was transferred to the shore of Otsego Lake, exactly where does not appear.
When the Revolution broke out, local supporters promptly took the necessary first steps for its prosecution. A Tryon County Committee of Safety was organized in May 1775. Among its members were John Moore, Samuel Campbell and Samuel Clyde, all of Cherry Valley. That may have been also the home of another-Thomas Henry. Correspon- dence was held with other localities, the measures taken by the Con- tinental Congress were approved. Representatives were sent to the provincial congresses, which were administering an ad iterim govern- ment. John Moore and William Harper were two of them. The line was drawn between patriot and loyalist. Some dangerous British
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partisans were expelled and a strict watch kept upon professed neutrals. Colonel Clyde was elected to the first Assembly held under the new 1777 state constitution. The Indians were quiet for a time, but the Iroquois were mostly won over to the British cause in time for them to participate in the St. Leger-Burgoyne invasion from Canada in 1777. From then through 1781 this utmost New York frontier was the scene of almost constant military activity. Main Otsego incidents were the conference of General Herkimer and Brant (both accompanied by considerable armed forces) at Unadilla in the summer of 1777, the Tory and Indian raids and massacres at Spring- field June 18, 1778 and at Cherry Valley on November 11 following and the encampment of General James Clinton's brigade at the foot of Otsego Lake from June 17 to August 8, 1779, while waiting to join in the retaliatory expedition against the western Indians. All these and their enemies used the Susquehanna-Finger Lakes route.
Space is lacking in this resume to recount the many war exper- iences of families and the exploits of small armed bands and scouts in this area. 1781 witnessed the end of fighting here and two years later came formal peace. Soon survivors of patriot pioneer families returned to their former homes, but the Unadilla did not mark the New York frontier. The Iroquois lost their prestige and power through defeat of their British allies and the land to the west was opened to the citizens of the new republic.
Otsego County has borne a full and honorable part in five inter- national, and one civil, wars since but opposed forces have never again met within its borders.
William Cooper and Son
In the fall of 1785 William Cooper came from Burlington, N. J. for his first view of the Otsego Country. With financial backing from his home town, he had already acquired an interest here through pur- chase of a judgment against foreclosed mortgaged lands formerly belonging to George Croghan. Title was secured the following January and sales to settlers began in the spring. Cooper shrewdly and success- fully fostered his infant settlement, soon bought other tracts, acted as agent for many non-resident owners and became the leading business
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and political figure in all the surrounding area. When he moved his family permanently to Cooperstown in 1790, along came young son James, whose later writings have made him ever since the most widely known of all Otsego residents.
The Otsego Herald
A PIONEER newspaper, The Otsego Herald, began weekly publi- cation at Cooperstown in 1795. It was maintained until 1821, but had long had competition in its own home town. In 1808 The Impartial Observer appeared. Shortly the name was change to The Cooperstown Federalist, but the original name was restored in 1810 and used until 1818, when today's designation-The Freeman's Journal-was adopted for the same paper. So The Journal became 150 years last year, an age which few American newspapers have managed to attain. It does not show its age. Otsego's first and only regular daily-The Oneonta Star- was established in 1890.
Manufacturers
Otsego's hilly terrain insured swiftly flowing streams and abun- dance of water power. In the days when this power was the prime mover and small industries the rule, much manufacturing was done. Linseed oil, hand agricultural tools or anything requiring wood, tin pails, cottage organs are a few of many examples. Larger establish- ments were paper making and book publishing. Most extensive was cotton manufacture. This activity began at Toddsville in 1806, but at least nine other plants of the type have existed in various parts of the county.
On the Farm
The earliest phase of agriculture was one of self-sufficiency, the farmer producing for himself every necessity that conditions permitted, but with some surplus to barter or sell for those needed articles which neither Nature nor his own labor could provide here.
Dairying has always been a leading factor. A London publication
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of 1795 stated that the best cheese in New York was being made "on the borders of Oaks Creek." Cheese making was long a domestic indus- try and many a farm had its separate cheese house. In the 1850's cheese factories began to appear and before New York City absorbed the local milk supply this convenience was not far from any farm. In the county 1,650,000 pounds of cheese were made in 1864 and over three million pounds of butter.
New York led the nation in beef production until the 1850's. Hundreds of horned cattle were driven to Philadelphia each fall in the 1790's, later over the turnpikes also to Albany and New York City. In 1840 Otsego was New York's top county in sheep and wool and ranked very high in hemp and flax, potatoes and apples, honey and beeswax. How many persons now recall that beeswax was once a house- hold staple? General farming continued to be the rule until the end of the last century, but two Otsego specialties deserve separate mention.
Maple products. Before 1790 a national movement began to replace cane sugar made by West Indian slave labor with that from the American maple. The project received the enthusiastic support of all classes of influential men and the rapidly growing Otsego Country was considered the best source of supply. Not only hard sugar, for better keeping and shipping, was advocated but also maple beer, spirits, vinegar and "molasses," as the syrup was then called. This patriotic scheme lost momentum after Louisiana was acquired in 1803. There cane sugar could be made on American soil. However, a long and fascinating story of Otsego sugar maples could be written, extend- ing it down to the present day. The crest in production, both for the county and for the state, was attained in 1860, but recourse to this sweetening has since been stressed in every time of war. Thus in 1865 Otsego produced a half million pounds of maple sugar and led the state in the marketing of maple syrup. Vermont is commonly regarded as the banner state for these products, but in World War I, New York, with its greater area surpassed Vermont, as it had before and during the Civil War.
Hops. Hop culture vanished in this state forty years ago but vivid memories of it remain among our people. This crop is said to have been first commercially grown here in "the 12,000" in 1823. Before 1840 Otsego had become the premier county in the premier state for
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the product. Those attending the 1846 meeting of the American Agricultural Association heard that "the climate of New York is peculiarly favorable to their perfection, and the hops of this state are acknowledged by brewers of all countries to be very superior and they command twenty per cent more in the market than any other hops. The county of Otsego is celebrated for the excellence of its hops; they are probably the best that are grown." Otsego remained in first place until 1875. Thereafter, the yield gradually dwindled and ceased with the adoption of The Prohibition amendment in 1919.
The Dominie's School
Hartwick Seminary, the first Lutheran divinity school in America and the second such institution for any denomination in this state, opened its doors in 1815. Housed under one roof were an old-line academy, a department equivalent to a junior college of today and a theological school. In line with advancing educational trends, the collegiate department in 1928 became Hartwick College and was relocated at Oneonta. With free public schools, High and Centralized arising all around, the academy closed in 1934. The divinity school was removed to New York City in 1930 and ceased operations in 1940. During the long lives of the discontinued portions of the institution they were a mighty force in the cultural life of the county.
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