USA > New York > Tompkins County > Landmarks of Tompkins County, New York : including a history of Cornell University > Part 13
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David Ayres advertised for sale 340 acres of land, four miles north- west of "the famed village of Ithaca."
Dr. C. P. Hearmans announced that he was to stay here; and George P. Frost wanted those having deeds left with Archer Green, clerk, to get them.
Mack & Searing announced a dissolution of their partnership, Mr. Mack continuing the business; and John Dumond (the original John) was a bankrupt, as stated in the paper.
Ed. Preswick was dressing cloth at the Phenix Mills, Forest Home. Lyman Cobb, author of one of the first spelling books, advertised that he had a horse stolen; and Hiram Smith the same; while A. J. Miller had lost a cow.
Mrs. Ayres was carrying on millinery, and Lawrence & Humphrey built carriages just east of the Ithaca Hotel.
J. F. Thompson was in the hardware trade, and David Fields was tailoring next to the county clerk's office.
Jesse Merritt informed the public that he would pay the highest price for butter and cheese, and Simeon De Witt offered for sale farms, village lots, and his distillery and mill. 16
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Miles Seymour was a blacksmith, located east of the hotel, and How- ard & Lyons were bookbinders.
David Ayres announced that he was anxious for his debtors to "pay up," and he would take produce; and E. Thayer also wanted his pay for shoes or groceries. "If debtors pay in lumber, it must be within twenty days."
William Dummer advertised the removal of his barber shop to a room under Ackley & Hibbard's store; he had for sale the newly in- vented oil for blacking.
Julius Ackley was ready to buy sheared and pulled wool and sold hats. A month earlier Ackley & Hibbard were together in the hat trade. David Ayres advertised a general store in the Ithaca Chronicle in September, and Joseph Burritt a jewelry store. (Asis well known, the latter continued in business here until recent times).
George Henning had a hat store, and Peleg Cheesebrough a tailor shop on North Aurora street.
Benjamin Drake was a merchant, and Sam J. Blythe announced his wool carding business on North Aurora street.
Other advertisers in the Chronicle of the date under consideration were Mrs. Torrey, milliner. James Curry had a horse stolen. Rev. Lawrence Kean was to open a school. Spencer & Stockton sold tickets in the New York Literature Lottery. Lyman Cobb, before mentioned, published the copyright of "a just standard for pronouncing the Eng- lish Language." Luther Gere had 500 acres of land on lot 26, Dry- den, with mill sites on Fall Creek tract for sale; also 110 acres on lot 98, Ulysses. He also sold groceries, dry goods, crockery, etc. Abner W. Howland had a chair factory at Fall Creek.
In the Chronicle was printed a bank note table in which New York bank notes were at par; Albany, Troy, Schenectady, Lansingburg and Newburg, "if last signed in red," one-half per cent. discount. Jacob Barker's bank, 85 to 87 per cent. discount. Bank of Niagara, the same, etc.
We will close this review by quoting the substance of a call for a meeting which appeared in the Chronicle of September 8, 1821. The meeting was for the purpose of consulting on the subject of roads and bridges. J. F. Thompson announced that John Smith (aided by a monkey-faced pettifogger of this village), having circulated a report seriously affecting his (Thompson's) reputation, and wilfully and maliciously false, must permit me to honor him with the appellation of a liar! Thompson was ready to meet Smith before a court of justice.
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From a letter written by W. T. Eddy, in 1876, we quote the follow- ing note, which is worthy of preservation :
Suppose we stop and count the aged persons that were in Ithaca and old enough to have families when the village was incorporated in 1821. Joseph Burritt is the only male living; as for the then mothers we have Mrs. Eddy, the relict of Otis Eddy; Mrs. Bruyn, relict of A. D. W. Bruyn; Mrs. Ackley, relict of Julius Ackley; Mrs. Allen, relict of Moses Monell; Mrs. Drake, relict of Caleb B. Drake; Mrs. Hillick, relict of Humphrey Hillick; Mrs. Hill, relict of Samuel Hill; Mrs. Coon, relict of Levi Coon; Mrs. Johnson, relict of Ben Johnson.
These are nearly or quite all passed away since the date under con- sideration (1876).
Some interesting reminiscences of this locality in 1820-21 have been preserved in writings by Anson Spencer, who came to Ithaca at that time to learn the printing business with his brother, D. D. Spencer. In the first year or two of his apprenticeship Anson acted as newsboy, or post rider, as they were called then. His route was through Enfield to Burdette in Hector; thence down the lake to "Peach Orchard " (North Hector); thence across "Hector's Back Bone " to Reynolds- ville; thence by way of "Slab Harbor " (Waterburgh) to "Shin Hol- low (Trumansburgh); thence home on the turnpike, through "Har- low's Corners" (Jacksonville). Other similar routes were established for the delivery of papers and mail. He traveled in a one-horse wagon and usually carried a small mail. If the roads were bad he went on horseback. At that time there were four public houses; the Hotel was kept by Timothy Edwards, and a Mr. Dwight kept a public house in an old white building which was removed to make the site of the Wilgus Block; the other public houses were Grant's Coffee House and the Columbian Inn. A store was kept on Aurora street by Benjamin & Drake; on State street by Augustus Perkins, Luther Gerc, Nichols & Luce, and by David Quigg. Joseph Burritt had a jewelry store on Aurora street; William Lesley a grocery on State street. There were no stores below Tioga street. David Woodcock occupied a story and a half house on the corner of State and Tioga streets, and just below was his office (Woodcock & Bruyn). Next below that was the resi- dence of Dr. Ingersoll, and next below a small building occupied by Timothy Titus as a residence and a wagon shop. Next below Titus had a residence and a millinery shop, and then came the residence of Mrs. Crane, and then Grant's Coffee House. On the opposite side of the street, commencing with the hotel, the first building west was an old red storehouse, afterwards used by Mr. Esty as a tanncry ; Peleg
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Chesbrough had a tailor shop next, and then came Linn's office; then the old Chronicle office. Below this was the hat store of Ackley & Hibbard, with a large sign of a painted military hat and lettered : " Under this we prosper." In the same building was the printing office of Ebenezer Mack, with a barber shop in the basement by Will- iam Dummer. Next was the office of C. B. Drake, and on the corner below was his residence. On the opposite corner was the public house of Dwight, with a low building, in which was the post-office. Below this was the dwelling of Dr. Miller, and next the house of Isaac Beers. Next below were the stables of the Coffee-House. This comprised about all there was of State strect in 1821.
Among the notcd men of that time were Nicholas Townley, sheriff ; Col. John Johnson, county clerk; Miles Finch, his deputy; Arthur S. Johnson, justice of the peace. Major Comfort Butler had charge of the De Witt farm, as it was called, occupying all the territory north of Mill street to Fall Creek. Major Renwick was postmaster, with Sam- uel Gardner as deputy. Deacon Henry Leonard operated the old Yellow Mill, with a distillery in connection. Phineas Bennett was run- ning the mill on the site of the Halsey Mill, and Archer Green owned a mill below the bridge, on the site of the later hotel barns. Miles Seymour and John Hollister were blacksmiths, the latter on the site of the Treman, King & Co.'s stores. Dr. Miller had a drug store in con- nection with his practice.
In writing of this same period W. T. Eddy states that the first menagerie he ever saw in Ithaca was a lone lion in a cage, exhibited in the stable yard of the Ithaca Hotel; and the second was a solitary elephant and a monkey in 1823. George Henning started a hat factory in 1825; hats were then made of wool and real beaver. In 1826 John Hawkins and J. S. Tichenor werc apprentices in this business with Mr. Ackley, and afterwards began in partnership on their own account. In 1818 Mr. Eddy and Thomas Matthewson built the first paper mill in Tompkins county ; they were partners. The mill was on Fall Creek, and in 1820 Mr. Eddy sold his interest to Chester Walbridge, who sold in 1822 to James Trench. The property soon passed to Mack & Andrus.
In 1820 a severe hail storm passed over the village, which broke be- tween four and five thousand panes of glass; the Presbyterian church had 245 panes broken, and the Methodist chapel on Aurora street 240. Crops and vegetation were destroyed, and there was a panic among the children in the school. Abner W. Howland had the first chair factory
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in the place, and Howard & Lyons were the first bookbinders. Mr. Eddy built a brick building in 1820 for Joseph Benjamin, on the corner of State and Aurora streets, which was the first of the kind in Ithaca, excepting one immediately east of it which had a brick front and stone walls in rear. In writing of the " Flats," as they were termed, and their improvement, Mr. Eddy said:
At first these flats were difficult to improve. As the improvements have been going on the center of business has changed several times. The corners made by Aurora and Seneca streets were once headquarters. Luther Gere built a tavern on the southeast corner of these streets before he built the Ithaca Hotel. At that time State street did not go east of Aurora street, and some of the old inhabitants have told me of catching suckers in the Six Mile Creek at the east end of the building on the corner opposite and east of the first named hotel. The first settlers avoided the streams and swamp holes, so when they came from the east into the valley they made the road to turn north as soon as it came on the flats, close to the hill, and came into the east end of Seneca street, and for a time that was the principal place of businesss. There was also a tavern on the corner where the Tompkins House now stands, and the old "Bee Hive," which was on the corner of Buffalo and Aurora streets, remembered by many, was once a store. After the hotel was built, State street was finished east up to the foot of the hill. Then, and for a long time, the corners made by State and Aurora streets were the center of business. There was a store on each corner, except that where the hotel stood. In 1820 J. S. Beebe moved his store from opposite the hotel down to the corner of Cayuga and State streets. For a long time there was opposition and competition between what might be called the two centers of business in Ithaca.
After Ithaca became the county seat there was put up on each of the roads going out of the village a post about six feet high with a white board nailed across it and on it was painted in black letters, "Gaol Limits." These denoted the limits outside of which debtors who had been confined in jail could not pass. After having been vouched for by a responsible friend, these prisoners could have the privilege of working in the village for their daily bread, and the posts stood until the law of imprisonment for debt was abolished.
The reader of the foregoing personal notes regarding many of the representative men of Ithaca in past years will find many more men- tioned in another department of this volume who have in various ways contributed to the growth and well being of the place. Of the former merchants of Ithaca, Lewis H. Culver long occupied a conspicuous position. He was born in what is now Covert, Seneca county, August 15, 1808; learned the tanner's trade at Halseyville, in Ulysses, but abandoned it after four years on account of his health. With $100 capital he began the grocery business in Ithaca, and from that time on to 1842 his business increased rapidly. Previous to 1842 Mr. Culver
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admitted William Halsey and Charles V. Stuart as partners, the firm being Culver, Halsey & Co. On the 28th of July, 1842, the store and all buildings west to Tioga street were burned. The firm was after- wards dissolved, the brick building now occupied by the Bool Company being erected meanwhile. Mr. Culver afterwards formed a partner- ship with Charles W. Bates. Bates died and Mr. Culver associated himself with his sons, Lewis and Thomas. This firm afterwards dis- solved, and at the time of Mr. Culver's death he was sole proprietor. Mr. Culver died July 18, 1876.
Josiah B. Williams, whose name has already been mentioned, was for many years one of the prominent business men of Ithaca. He was born in Middletown, Conn., in December, 1810. In 1825, when the Erie Canal was about to open Western New York to the advantages of eastern commerce, he left his eastern home with two brothers to take up his residence in this county. Upon the opening of canal navigation he took an active interest in devising plans and constructing boats suit- able for lake and canal navigation, as well as to other internal improve- ments- the enlargement of the canal, the construction of roads, bridges, mill, manufactories, churches and schools; in the construction of rail- roads and establishing of telegraph lines. In these varied interests the brothers worked together until the death of the two elder brothers, one of which occurred in 1840 and the other in 1849, after which Mr. Williams continued alone. He early gave attention to the principles of banking, and in 1838 organized a bank in Ithaca. He was one of the incorporators and a trustee of Cornell University; was a member of the State Senate in 1851-56. He was also very efficient in the pro- motion of the cause of the Union during the War of the Rebellion. His death took place on September 26, 1883.
John Rumsey, son of James, was a prominent business man of Ithaca many years. His father's family were early settlers in Enfield. In 1844 John Rumsey came to Ithaca and entered the hardware store of L. & L. L. Treman as clerk; there and with E. G. Pelton he passed about ten years. In 1858 he purchased the store and interest of E. G. Pelton and continued the hardware trade with gratifying success until his death on March 22, 1882. The business has since been carried on by his son, Charles J. Rumsey. John Rumsey occupied several positions which showed that he possessed the confidence of his fellow citizens.
This list might be continued indefinitely with notes of deceased and living men who have been in active and successful business in Ithaca,
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but want of space renders such a course impossible, and the reader is therefore referred to Part II for further personal records.
VILLAGE INCORPORATION .- On the 29th of November, 1820, a notice appeared in the American Journal under date of November 22, that an application would be made to the Legislature at the ensuing session, for an act to incorporate the village of Ithaca. The notice was signed by Joseph Benjamin, David Woodcock, Edward Edwards, Benjamin Drake, Isaac Beers, Henry Ackley, Ben Johnson, Jesse Merrill, Charles Humphrey, Daniel Bates, Ebenezer Mack, Ira Tillotson, Benjamin Pelton, Luther Gere, and Jeremiah S. Beebe.
The incorporating act passed April 2, 1821 (seventeen days after the formation of the town from Ulysses), and the territory of the corpora- tion was bounded as follows: Beginning at a point sixty rods east of the intersection of the south side of Owego street with the west side of Aurora street; thence south fifty rods; thencc west one mile; thence north two hundred rods; thence east one mile; thence one hundred and fifty rods to the place of beginning.
The survey was made by Wait T. Huntington, who found almost imsuperable difficulty in getting through the miry jungle in the vicin- ity of the present fair ground. 1 The accompanying maps of the village show the boundaries of the first corporation. The act provided for the election of "five discreet freeholders," resident in the village, to be trustees ; empowered them to erect public buildings; to raise not more than $500 the first year, nor more than $400 for any one year there- after for erecting public buildings (engine houses, markets, etc.), procuring fire engine and other utensils, repairs or improvements, and for making reasonable compensation to the officers of the corporation, etc. The act also made Cayuga Inlet a public highway; provided for
1. It is true that all the territory in that vicinity was formerly almost an impenetra- ble jungle of bushes and logs, with here and there a few large trees-a tract which has since been reclaimed by the enterprise of public spirited citizens. Two young men, one of whom is now a gray haired citizen of the city, planned a raid into that jungle along in the fifties to shoot a great family of crows that had long flown in there at nightfall to roost. Armed with two heavily loaded shot guns, their trousers in their boots, they started a little before dusk and waded, and crawled and floundered through the jungle to the crow roost, and there patiently awaited the coming of darkness and the family. And the crows came. When the tree was black with them and the darkness combined the two hunters blazed away. They heard more or less rustling through the trees and bushes, but it was then too dark to hunt for game among the bushes, and they toiled homeward. Visiting the spot next morning they earned the laurel for the greatest shots ever made, probably, at crows. They picked up twenty-three of the dead birds.
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the appointment by the village president of a company of firemen not exceeding thirty in number, and the usual other provisions for village government, collection of taxes, etc. (See session laws, 1821).
The first Board of Trustees under the charter were as follows: Daniel Bates, president; William R. Collins, Andrew D. W. Bruyn, Julius Ackley, George Blythe. The other officers were Nathan Herrick, Henry Ackley, Isaac Beers, assessors; Charles W. Connor, Miles Sey- mour, Jesse Grant, fire wardens; Charles W. Connor, treasurer; Augustus P. Searing, clerk. The officers appointed were Thomas Downing, collector; Phineas Bennett, pathmaster; David Curtis, poundmaster.
Some of the early ordinances of the trustees are worthy of notice, and are often amusing to the younger generation. On the 31st day of May, 1821, it was enacted that after the 15th of June "no hog, shoat or pig, or other swine " (italics our own), should run at large in the streets, nor "on the open space of ground south of the court house and meeting house, commonly called the public square." The penalty for violation of this ordinance was fifty cents. To this penalty was added a fee to the poundmaster, and if an animal taken up was sold, "any surplus unclaimed by the owner " should be paid to the over- seers " of the town of Ithaca."
A penalty of one dollar was attached to the encumbrance of a street "with any carriage, plaister, salt, stone, brick, casks, barrels, mill- stones, grindstones, sand, lime, firewood, timber, boards, planks, staves, shingles, or any other thing." A comprehensive list, surely, and apparently wholly covered by the final word "any other thing." Our early law makers were prodigal of words.
The discharge within the village limits of "any fire arm, or setting off of any rocket, cracker, squib, or fireworks " cost the offender three dollars, and to fly a kite or play ball " in either of the two main streets commonly called Owego avenue and Aurora street," involved a penalty of one dollar. But perhaps the most astonishing provision was that prohibiting driving "faster than a trot, or to run horses in the streets or roads, or on the public square, under a penalty of three dollars." It might be interesting to learn what were the receipts for penalties under such regulations.
An ordinance of June, 1822, was adopted requiring the owner or occupant of a lot " to sweep, collect and remove all filth and rubbish as far as the center of the street opposite said lot, on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month of the year, except December, January,
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February and March." A wise regulation and one that is to this day in operation with good results in some villages of this State with popu- lations among the thousands, one of them being, we believe, Johns- town, Fulton county.
In September, 1821, two hundred dollars were voted, a part of it to be paid for ringing the bell, and the remainder for "bringing water into the village to extinguish fires." A public well was dug in that autumn, but it was not sufficient, and in September, 1822, a contract was made with Messrs. Bennett to construct an aqueduct from Six Mile Creek, " near their mills," to the corners of Owego, Aurora and Tioga streets. In the same month a further sum of one hundred and fifty dollars was voted to extend the aqueduct to Cayuga street. It was a wooden tube about a foot square, laid under ground, with pen- stocks and tubs at street corners. This was the inception of public water supply in Ithaca. The fire ordinances then required each build- ing to be supplied with leather buckets and a ladder.
A public meeting was held in the court house July 24, 1824, at which the trustees were given authority to build and control a public market. In pursuance of this action a building 20 by 40 feet in size was erected at the junction of Tioga with Green street, under supervision of Lucius Wells and Nathan Herrick. It was finished on the 25th of August and the stalls were sold for the first year as follows: No. 1, Jacob Wood, $16.75; No. 2, Job Beckwith, $19.00; No. 3, Eutychus Champlin, $13.81; No. 4, Jack Lewis, $14.25; No. 6, David Curtis, $14.25; No. 7, Eutychus Champlin, 13.75; No. 8, Samuel Hill, $12.25; total, $104.06. Every day excepting Sunday was "appointed a public market day," and after 10 A. M. any stalls not let were used by others with provisions, etc., to sell. A little later a market was erected on what is now the northeast corner of Mill and Tioga streets.
On the 6th day of April, 1824, a record appears of the first action of the village trustees relative to a burial ground, when $100 was voted "for clearing and fencing " the lot. This cemetery was used by the first settlers, probably by consent of Mr. De Witt. On the 26th of April, 1826, a law was passed by the Legislature amending the village charter and changing the boundaries of the village as follows: Begin- ning at the northeast corner of lot No. 94 (Ulysses, now in the town of Ithaca), and thence west to the northwest corner of said lot; thence south to the northeast corner of De Witt's Location; thence west to the west line of said Location; thence south along the west line of said 17
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Location to the southwest corner of the same; thence due east to the east line of lot No. 94; thence north along the east line of said lot to the place of beginning. Two additional pieces of land have been made, and these additions with the original make the present ceme- tery.
On the 6th day of June, 1823, the trustees resolved to purchase a fire engine, the first in the village. It was obtained in New York at a cost of $300. The following persons were then appointed firemen:
Otis Eddy, Charles Humphrey, Jolin Johnson, Julius Ackley, Henry Hibbard, Samuel L. Sheldon, Robert J. Renwick, Joshua S. Lee, Nathan Cook, Henry K. Stockton, John Tillotson, Ebenczer Thayer, Samuel Reynolds, Ira Patterson, Lucius Wells, Horace Mack, Newton Gunn, Jonas Holman, Edward L. Porter, Edward Davidson, Amasa Woodruff, Samuel Buchannan, Ephraim Porter, James Chapman.
On the 1st of July of the same year the following fourteen persons were added to the company, the eight whose names are in italie in the above paragraph being at the same time relieved from duty :
Joseph Esty, Willard W. Taber, George P. Frost, Frederick Deming, Charles Hinckley, Henry S. Walbridge, Henry H. Moore, Daniel Pratt, Joseph Burritt, Stephen B. Munn, jr., Henry W. Hinckley, Gifford Tracy, Jacob Wood and Andrew J. Miller. Not one of this entire company is now living.
May 12, 1828, a fire company was formed by the appointment of the following persons to be firemen attached thereto: Sylvester Munger, J. Newton Perkins, Sylvester Hunt, George Hollister, Adolphus Col- burn, John R. Kelly, John M. Cantine, Benjamin G. Ferris, Hunt Pomeroy, William D. Kelly, Elias Colburn, Uri Y. Hazard, Ithiel Pot- ter, Elbert Cane, Daniel Young, Ira Bower, Isaiah Hunt, R. A. Clark, Anson Spencer, Urban Dunning, James Wynans, Elisha H. Thomas, Charles Cooley, David Elliott, George McCormick, David Ayres, Jacob Yaples, John Colston, Stephen Tourtellot, James W. Sowles. This company took the old engine, and was thenceforward known as " Red Rover Company, No. 1." The original company took the new engine purchased at that time, and became "Rescue," No. 2.
At a meeting of the trustees, held January 31, 1831, it was resolved that Benjamin Drake be authorized to raise a fire company of sixteen men to take charge of fire-hooks, ladders, axes, etc., to be known as " Fire Company, No. 3."
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