Landmarks of Oswego County, New York, Part 29

Author: Churchill, John Charles, 1821-1905; Smith, H. P. (Henry Perry), 1839-1925; Child, W. Stanley
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1410

USA > New York > Oswego County > Landmarks of Oswego County, New York > Part 29

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The foregoing physicians are only a few of the more prominent prac- titioners who have pursued their professions in the several towns of the county. Nearly all of them as well as many others who have at one time or another occupied eminent positions in the medical fraternity are mentioned in the lists of members of the various societies. A num- ber of these and of the present practitioners are noticed biographically in Part III of this volume.

CHAPTER XVII.

OSWEGO AS A VILLAGE AND CITY,

Prior to the surrender by the British of Fort Ontario to the Ameri- can authorities, July 15, 1796, Oswego had no civil history. It had been for three- quarters of a century a military and trading post, but it still remained a part of the public lands of the State.

The first legislation affecting the shaping of the site of Oswego is found in the act of May 11, 1784 (Chap. 63 of the laws of that year), which provided that one mile square on each side of the mouth of the Onondaga River (as the Oswego River was then commonly called) should be excepted from the lands which that act made provision for distribut- ing among the New York soldiers of the Revolution.

Simeon De Witt became surveyor general May 13, 1784, and contin- ued such half a century, or until January 20, 1835, and all the maps and surveys of the public lands of the State during that period were made under his direction.

In 1790 maps of twenty-five townships of the Military Tract herein- before described, were filed in his office. One of these was of the town- ship of Hannibal, which was divided into one hundred lots, and com-

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OSWEGO AS A VILLAGE AND CITY.

prised the towns of Oswego and Hannibal and the north thirty lots of Granby, with that part of Oswego city which lies west of the river. Of these lots, lot number one represented the reservation on the west side of the river made by the act of 1784, and it was not included in the distribution of the lots of the Military Tract which soon followed, but remained the property of the State.

April 3, 1797, the year following the surrender by the British, an act was passed (Chap. 103; Laws 1797) requiring the surveyor-general to lay out a part of lot number one, above referred to, not to exceed one hundred acres, into streets and house lots, and so as to form in the most convenient place a public square upon which were to be re- served lots for all public buildings. He was also required to make a map of the part laid out and to submit the same to the Legislature at its next session. The act farther directed that so much of the lot as should be so laid out, "Shall be known and called forever thereafter by the name of Oswego."

The survey and map were made as directed and the map submitted to the Legislature at its next session, which began, January 2, 1798. March 9 an act was passed (Chap. 30; Laws 1798) directing the map to be filed in the office of the secretary of state, and of the clerk of the county of Onondaga, and also directing the surveyor-general to lay out the territory according to the map, the streets to be one hundred feet wide, and the public square, cemetery, public buildings, and market places, to be arranged as shown thereon. The map was filed accord- ingly April 14, 1798.

By the acts above referred to, and by Chapter 77 of the laws of 1800, the surveyor-general, with the approval of the governor, was author- ized to sell and convey such of the lots indicated on the map as were not reserved for public uses. As this map lies at the foundation of occupa- tion and settlement in Oswego it is herewith presented. It covers the ground from the river to the present West Sixth street, and from the lake to West Utica street.

The seven streets running east and west show the peculiar taste in nomenclature of the surveyor-general, and, beginning with Aries (now Schuyler) street, are named for the first seven signs of the Zodiac. This system was continued and extended in the subsequent mapping of the

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289

OSWEGO AS A VILLAGE AND CITY.

village and remained unchanged until March 1, 1837, when the village board (with other changes) exchanged the names of the signs of the Zodiac for the more euphonious 'and appropriate ones now used .- (Os- wego Village Records, page 241.)

Upon this map, at the northeast corner, is seen the reservation of the " Old Fort." That has since been divided into Fortification Blocks one and two. West of this, between Second and Sixth streets, and north of a line one hundred feet north of Aries (Schuyler) street is the ceme- tery; the burial ground of the period of the military and fur- trading occupation of the place. On the hundred foot strip, between Aries street and the cemetery, sites are indicated for four churches, which were never built. Farther west, bounded by Aries, Fifth, Sixth and what is now Van Buren street, is a block marked "Parsonages " and which is still known as the " Parsonage Block." The three blocks next south of the cemetery were reserved for public buildings and marked respectively, Court-House, Prison, Academy. The three blocks next south were reserved for a public square, and, except the east block, are still used as such. The remaining territory is divided into lots, the location and numbering of which are retained to the present day. Un- der Chapter 28 1 of the laws of 1817 the blocks reserved for public build- ings were sold and the proceeds used to build a court-house in the vil- lage of East Oswego for the then newly formed county of Oswego. Under an act passed January 19, 1827, the ground reserved for a cem- etery, with the adjacent strip, was divided into six blocks, still known as " Cemetery Blocks," and which were sold, and the proceeds used in the purchase of the ground afterward used for a cemetery, and now known as Kingsford Park. Under an act passed March 28, 1828, the " Parsonage Block" was sold and the proceeds divided in equal propor- tions among the different religious denominations legally incorporated then existing in the village of West Oswego.

In 1794 Benjamin Wright surveyed Scriba's Patent, and, incident to that, he surveyed and located the reservation, one mile square, on the east side of the Oswego River at its mouth, called for by the act of May II, 1784, before referred to. He began at the point of land at the angle formed by the intersection of the shore of the lake and river under the bluff upon which Fort Ontario stood, and measured thence 37

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LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY.

south along the east bank of the river, one mile, to a point substantially identical with the western end of the north line of East Albany street as now located ; thence easterly, perpendicular to the general course of the river, one mile, to a point identical with that now known as the northeast corner of lot number one in the Hamilton Gore, in the seven- teenth township of Scriba's Patent; thence northerly, parallel with the general course of the river, one mile, to a point on the lake shore about four hundred and fifty feet east of the center of Thirteenth street as now located; thence westerly along the lake shore, one mile, to the place of beginning. The correctness of this survey as establishing the lines separating the lands reserved to the State from those granted to Scriba has always been acquiesced in by the State.

A century is just being rounded out since the British finally departed from Oswego. Few signs of peaceful civilization were left by them, and no white persons, excepting probably two white traders named John Love and Ziba Phillips, who left the place soon afterward. The first permanent settler was Neil McMullen, who had been in mercantile business in Kingston, N. Y., and located himself at Oswego in 1796 with his family. In order to have his family provided promptly with a home, he brought with him the frame of a small house, transporting it over the Mohawk and Wood Creek route. He built his house near the west river-bank on ground afterwards included in Seneca street. Here he began trading with the Indians. His son, Rankin, born in 1802, (died January 4, 1863), was probably the first white child born at this place. Captain Edward O'Connor, a Revolutionary soldier, an Irishman of good education, settled at Oswego in the same season with Mr. McMullen. He may have been attracted hither, to some extent, by the fact that he was one of Willett's band who braved the hard- ships of the winter wilderness in their effort to surprise and capture the post in 1783. O'Connor made a little clearing in the second growth timber, as McMullen had done, and built a log house, but the site is not known. The prospect of the approaching hard winter prompted O'Connor to remove to " Salt Point" (Salina), and there in the early part of 1797 his daughter was born, who became the wife of Alvin Bronson. O'Connor taught school at Salina, probably in the first winter of his residence there.

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OSWEGO AS A VILLAGE AND CITY.

A few other settlers arrived at Oswego previous to 1800, but details concerning them are almost wholly lost. Miss Artemesia Waterhouse taught school here in 1798, which was the first school in the place. She removed to Salina and became the wife of Ichabod Brackett, subse- quently a wealthy merchant and salt manufacturer. Peter Sharpe and William Vaughan came here probably one or two years before 1800. Sharpe kept a rude tavern near the river side and stored goods for transportation as far as he was able-the first storage and forwarding business done in Oswego. These two men soon became owners of a small schooner, which was probably built in Canada, and with it they began the commerce of the port-carrying salt, military stores and Indian goods westward, and returning with furs. All trade was free, but imports from Canada consisted of little else than furs, and grain in small quantities.

Asa Rice settled in 1797 three miles west of Oswego. He was father of Hon. Arvin Rice and came from Connecticut, arriving on the 6th of October. He settled on the site of Union Village and is further noticed in the history of Oswego town.

At the time in question the ground on the west side was mostly cov- ered by woods, largely second growth, the original forests having been cut away many years earlier by the garrisons in the fort. Through these woods the street lines were indicated by " blazing" trees. A large clearing had also been made on the east side after the construc- tion of Fort Ontario, which was overgrown by second growth trees, ex- cepting in the immediate vicinity of the fort, where garden and grass- land had been maintained.

In 1799 the Collection District of Oswego was established. The president was at the same time authorized by Congress to provide a custom house here and appoint a collector of the port. It was. how- ever, several years before these measures went into practical effect, and commerce meanwhile remained substantially free.

Returning to the details of early settlement in and after the year 1800, we find that in the first year of the century, Archibald Fairchild, who had first settled in " Vera Cruz" (see history of Richland) and become discouraged with the prospects of that embryo city, moved his family to Oswego, built a house and began keeping tavern. Among his

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LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY.

guests of 1800 was Daniel Burt, of Orange county, N. Y., who had made a canoe voyage hither from Kingston, Canada, where he had been on business. He was pleased with Oswego and determined to make it his future home. Passing through Albany on his return journey, he pur- chased of one of the Van Rensselaers, military lot No. 7, which forms a part of the present site of Oswego on the west side of the river. Calvin Bradner Burt, and Joel Burt, sons of Daniel, journeyed to Seneca county in the fall of 1801, and in the following year were joined by a young lawyer named Baird, and the three rowed a boat down the Cayuga Lake, Seneca and Oswego Rivers and stopped at the tavern of Peter Sharpe, in Oswego. When the two Burts and Baird arrived, they found only six families established here-those of Peter Sharpe, Archibald Fairchild, John Love, Edward O'Connor, Augustus Ford, and Capt. Andrew Erasmus Rasmussen, father of William Rasmussen. This list is according to the reminiscences of Bradner Burt, and nothing is said of the McMullen family. William Vaughan was here, unmarried, and these, with such unmarried sailors or boatman as made this their headquarters, constituted the population in 1802. No store was yet established. Young Baird. the lawyer, soon went elsewhere, and Joel Burt returned to Orange county for the season. Bradner Burt began in September, 1802, the erection of the first saw mill in Oswego. It stood about on the site of the old Exchange Mills on the west side. When the timbers were framed, Burt sought aid in raising the frame, but in all the region the most he could assemble for the work was twelve per- sons, By the use of tackle the timbers were finally put in place, and Burt again returned to Orange county.

In 1802 also came from Paisley Matthew McNair,1 to begin his long and active career. Before his death in 1880 he stated that of the dwellings nere when he arrived only two were frame structures. This is not surprising in view of the fact that there was no saw mill until that year, and boards must have been difficult to obtain. There was, how- ever, a warehouse, built in the same season by Benajah Byington,2 one of the early salt manufacturers of Salina.

1 Matthew McNair became a considerable builder of vessels in the early years, and was a prominent man in the community ; he held various local offices ; was supervisor in 1830. He died in California October 19, 1880.

2 Mr. Byington was for many years prominent in the salt industry of Salina, but in the later years of his life sacrificed his means in fruitless boring for new brine supplies on the high ground east of Onondaga Lake. He died February 18, 1854.

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OSWEGO AS A VILLAGE AND CITY.

Early in the spring of 1803 Bradner Burt made his way from Orange county to Oswego, stopping over night at Mexico. On his arrival he found Fort Ontario garrisoned by a sergeant and two men. Reaching the river bank he called for a boat to take him across, upon which one was promptly supplied, while every resident of the place turned out to give him a welcome. It was the fact that he was the first comer of the year that caused the general joy. After four months or more of confinement by snow and ice, an arrival from the outer world, with letters, newspapers, or personal news, would be sure to receive a cordial welcome. Of roads through the wilderness to Oswego there were none that were passable in winter, while in summer the travel was by water. Salina was the nearest settlement of importance, which could be reached in winter only on snow shoes, and the journey was seldom made. Captains Rasmussen and Ford came to Oswego about this time, the exact date not being obtainable, and later became prominent vessel masters. Already Archibald Fairchild had pro-

cured two schooners.

In the summer of 1803 Daniel Burt, who had obtained from the State a ten years' lease of 100 acres of land extending eastward from the river and embracing all of the cleared ground around the fort, came to permanently settle at Oswego, with his sons, Joel, George W., and Daniel, jr. The lease cost Mr. Burt $10 a year. He left his own land on the west side (lot number seven, which he had bought two years before), and built a log house on his leased land about in the center of what is now East Seneca street-the first building on the east side not connected with the fort.

Mr. Burt had already obtained a charter for a ferry across the river, and began its operation from the foot of Seneca street. An act of April 8, 1810, gave Joel Burt the right to operate a ferry "in and across the Oswego River, at said village, fourteen years." The collec- tion of customs for this port began in 1803, and Joel Burt was ap- pointed collector, holding the office until 1811, and operating his ferry under his own or his father's charter at the same time. Governor Clinton was an Orange county man and friendly to the Burt family, to which fact may reasonably be attributed the several appointments alluded to.

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LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY.

In the same year that saw the custom-house established, the garrison was taken from Fort Ontario, and it was left to idleness and decay until it was repaired and re-garrisoned in the war of 1812.

During the year 1803 Matthew McNair entered the list of early shippers, purchased the schooner Jane of Sharpe & Vaughan, and began forwarding, while Fairchild continued business in the same line ; river traffic was increasing ; Burt's saw mill was turning out much needed lumber for contemplated frame buildings; and Captain O'Connor's school was probably in existence, though the scholars must have been very few.

The year 1804 witnessed considerable advancement. C. B. Burt was chosen pathmaster and under his direction a road was cut through to the falls, while in the same season four men in Cato (now in Cayuga county) came to Oswego and arranged with the leading men here to open a road between Cato and Oswego for $40. The sum was a large one for those days, but it was raised by subscription and the road opened, the contractors first riding over it on an ox sled and coming thus into Oswego in triumph. These two roads were much needed im- provements.

This year two schooners were built, one (the Linda) by Mr. McNair, and the other (the Fair American) by a Mr. Wilson, a contractor in shipping government stores westward. Mr. McNair further added to his fleet about this time by the purchase of some small Canadian vessels.

In the spring of 1805 (possibly in the previous year) the family of Daniel Hugunin arrived in Oswego, and from that time forward were prominent members of the community. Mr. Hugunin was descended from French ancestry, but he was reared among the Dutch settlers in the Mohawk valley. With him came his grown sons, Peter D., Daniel, jr., and Abram D. ; his younger sons, Robert, Hiram and Leonard ; and four daughters. With the aid of Mr. Burt, Daniel Hugunin, jr., built in the year of his arrival the first frame store building in the place. It stood in First street between Cayuga and Seneca, on the west side.

In 1805 Edwin Morris Tyler, a sailor and father of Joel F. Tyler,1

1 Joel F. Tyler, son of E. M. Tyler, was born in Connecticut and came with his parents to Oswego in 1805. He began sailing on the lakes about 1823 and in 1833-4 was sailing master of the steamer United States. He subsequently commanded many vessels, and died May 23, 1878, aged seventy-six years.

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OSWEGO AS A VILLAGE AND CITY.

arrived in Oswego. Capt. Theophilus Baldwin also came about the same time, as also did Dr. Caldwell, who taught school in connection with his limited practice. The first school house was built in 1805-6 by Bradner Burt. It stood on the corner of what are now West Third and Seneca streets, and served for many years for church as well as school purposes.

The erection of the town of Hannibal (February 28, 1806), and Fredericksburgh (March 21, 1806,) placed the section of Oswego vil- lage on the west side in the first named town, and that on the east side in the last named town. On the 21st of April, 1806, a post route was established " from Onondaga Hollow to the village of Oswego, in Lysander."] The post-office in Oswego was not opened until autumn of that year, when Joel Burt came in for another official position, through his appointment as postmaster ; his commission was dated October 7. An Onondaga chief named Oundiaga carried mail weekly over the route from Oswego to Salina with great regularity and in all kinds of weather. Capt. Elizur Brace, of Salina, was the first contractor for car- rying the mail, and David Brace (probably a son of Elizur) often per- formed the task, when he found his way by blazed trees along parts of the distance.

Milton Harmon was a settler of 1806 and carried on for many years a mercantile business on the east side. It was he and Edwin W. Clarke who procured the building of the first school house on that side. He died February 16, 1885, the last of the oldtime merchants.

Thomas Wentworth, father of Thomas H. Wentworth, passed through Oswego in 1806 on his way to Canada. He saw the prospective value of the water power and other advantages of Oswego, and obtained the refusal of water-lots 5 and 6, with other property belonging to Archi- bald Fairchild. He returned in the spring of 1807 and completed the purchase, and Mr. Fairchild soon removed to Sackett's Harbor. Mr. Wentworth engaged in the forwarding business with success. He possessed native artistic talent of a high order and was in later years a successful portrait painter.

Dr. Deodatus Clark, father of Edwin W. Clarke,2 settled in Oswego

] 'An error made in Washington ; the name of the town should have been Hannibal, the new town.

2 Edwin W. Clarke was born in Pompey, Onondaga county, September 10, 1801, and came to Oswego with his parents; he was an early school teacher and among his pupils was B. B. Burt.

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LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY.

in 1807, as the second physician in the place. He first located on a farm about two miles east of the village, now adjoining the boundary line of the city. Between his log dwelling and the house of Daniel Burt, sr., corner of East Seneca and First streets, was then a dense forest. There were at this time about fourteen dwellings in the village on the west side of the river, a few of which were frame structures. The road along the river in the vicinity of the starch factory site was over a log causeway, while the ferry at the foot of Seneca street was the only public means of crossing the stream. About this time Mr. Burt sold his ferry franchise to Edwin M. Tyler, who purchased also the house built by Mr. McMullin, which had previously passed to the possession of Captain Rasmussen.

In 1808 Henry Eagle, a native of Prussia, where he was born in 1784, came to Oswego to take a place among its enterprising citizens. Henry Eckford was at that time building the brig Oneida, and Mr. Eagle entered his employ, under the general supervision of Lieu - tenant Woolsey. Mr. Eagle became a foreman and superintended the construction of many vessels during the war of 1812. Later in life he was a merchant. He was the father of ten children and died Janu- ary 26, 1858.

The brig Oneida was launched in the spring of 1809, and McNair & Co. built a large schooner of eighty tons during that season. Forman & Brackett (both probably non residents at that time), built a small grist mill on the west side, the first one in the place, and a second saw mill. Other interests were advancing proportionately and immigration was bringing to Oswego a class of men capable of promoting the wel- fare of the village. Among these was Theophilus S. Morgan, who is further mentioned on a later page, and in 1810 came Alvin Bronson, to soon occupy the foremost position in the commercial and public life of the village and county. Mr. Bronson came to Oswego when he was twenty seven years old as the representative of the firm of Townsend, Bronson & Co., and immediately began building a schooner, for which

Mr. Clarke studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1829, but gave up practice in middle life, to connect himself with the Northwestern Insurance Company. He was the first clerk of the village and held the office till 1833, and again from 1835 to 1838 ; was one of the original trustees of the Gerrit Smith library, a prominent Mason, and influential in public affairs. He was par- tially disabled by paralysis in 1856, and retired from active business. He died August 24, 1886.

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OSWEGO AS A VILLAGE AND CITY.

purpose he brought men and tools with him from Connecticut. This vessel was the Charles & Ann, to which allusion has already been made in the general history. Mr. Bronson also erected a warehouse on the corner of West First and Cayuga streets, and there the firm en- tered upon their large forwarding and mercantile business. Sheldon C. Townsend came to Oswego in the employ of the firm at the age of fifteen years, and in later years he gave his recollections of the business conditions of the village from about 1810 and a few years thereafter as follows. He said :

During my residence your fort was in ruins, the British after its capture, having destroyed all that was destructible before abandoning it. Although your population was small there was much business done, chiefly on the west side of the river, and all north of Cayuga street, except a tannery conducted by Judge Hawks. The most westerly house stood on or near the spot occupied by the Episcopal Church. There was one house between Cayuga street and the lake, probably on Fifth street. There was no church in the place, or settled minister. The property (salt, goods, etc.,) was brought down the river from the falls in a class of boats smaller than those used above, of very light draft of water, clinker built, movable mast, two square sails, main and top, a crew of three men and propelled by oars and poles when sails were not used. Among the vessels belonging to the port were the Ontario and Minerva, be- longing to the Hugunins; New Haven and Henrietta to T. S. Morgan; Traveler, Morning Star and Julia to Matthew McNair ; Charles and Ann, and Fair American to Townsend, Bronson & Co .; Sophia to Ichabod Brackett; Alphia to Crocker & Hooker ; Hunter to Townsend, Bronson & Co. and M. McNair; Niagara and Oswego (twin vessels) to Henry Eagle and Townsend, Bronson & Co. . The forwarders were Alvin and Edward Bronson, Thomas H. Wentworth, Matthew McNair, Henry Eagle, T. S. Morgan and some others. The merchants were William Dolloway, I. Davis, Crocker & Hooker, while some of those concerned in forwarding were also engaged in merchandising. The doctors were Walter Colton and Benjamin Coe; the tavern keep- ers, Wood, and I think both Col. E. Parsons and Matthew McNair kept a public house ; the blacksmiths, Masters and Carter : cabinetmakers, Nathan Baker and Chauncey Cooper; the lawyers, Burr, James F. Wight, John Grant, jr., Theodore Popple, George Fisher, and Samuel B. Beach. The future Judge Foster was studying with Mr. Popple ; shoemakers, Eli and Philo Stevens, William Squires, and Mr. Manwaring (father of Hiram C.) ; hatter, Moses Stevens ; cooper, - Dudley ; baker, Asahel Hawley; ship carpenters, Thomas Collins, Aldridge, and others; tinsmith, F. T. Carrington ; Joseph Sutton ran a saw-pit and was man-of-all-work. Bradner Burt was, I think, both house and ship carpenter, and, with his brothers William, Joel, George, Benjamin and James, a resident of the village or vicinity, their father residing near Oswego rift. There was a burial place near the fort on the east side of the river, not inclosed, in which were monuments to the memory of officers and soldiers who had composed parts of the gar-

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Landmarks of Oswego County, New York, Part 29

Author: Churchill, John Charles, 1821-1905; Smith, H. P. (Henry Perry), 1839-1925; Child, W. Stanley Publication date: 1895 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason Number of Pages: 1410

Author: Churchill, John Charles, 1821-1905; Smith, H. P. (Henry Perry), 1839-1925; Child, W. Stanley
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1410