USA > New York > Oneida County > Utica > Memorial history of Utica, N.Y. : from its settlement to the present time > Part 13
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Dr. John McCall, a physician long resident, was born in the town of Hebron, Washington County, N. Y., on the 25th of December, 1787. His father and mother emigrated from Scotland and commenced their married life upon a new farm in Hebron. After reaping the advantages of two courses at Columbia College from Drs. Post, Stringham, Mitch- ell, Edward Miller, and others he was for four months the private pupil of the distinguished surgeon, Valentine Mott. Upon his recommenda- tion chiefly the doctor obtained the appointment of assistant surgeon in the army, and was in May, 1812, assigned to duty in the Thirteenth Regiment of Infantry. In September of that year he was with the regi- ment when they marched through Utica on their way to Sackets Harbor. He was present at the battle of Queenstown, and dressed the wound of Capt. (afterward Gen.) John E. Wood. Subsequently and when he had been promoted to the rank of surgeon he was at the capture of Fort George, and under General Wilkinson went down the lake to French Mills, where the army spent " the Valley Forge winter " of 1814. In July, 1815, he left the army at Sackets Harbor, and after making a brief visit home returned and commenced practice in Deerfield. In April, 1818, he formed a partnership with Dr. Alexander Coventry, which
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DR. JOHN M'CALL.
somewhat later was succeeded by a longer one with his son, Dr. Charles B. Coventry. Still later he was alone in practice, and thus he remained until disabled by illness, some two years before his death, which latter event occurred October 5, 1867. During all this period of nearly fifty years he remained in constant employment at Utica, rarely absenting himself, and that mostly to attend some medical meeting.
In his practice Dr. McCall was strictly conservative, relying more on careful nursing and the reparative efforts of nature than on the effects of medicine. Not only toward mercury, which was his especial abhorrence, toward bleeding, and the other heroic means, once so much in vogue, was he decidedly averse, but toward much less harmful appliances he was sparing of favor. He had many admiring and attached employers who felt the fullest confidence in his skill, for they knew it to be based upon careful reading, large experience, and much sound sense. He was faithful in attendance, watchful as a nurse, and ready in expedient; in manner wise and oracular he knew how to magnify his office and com- mand respect ; he was cautious in forming his opinions and secretive as to their utterance. He was interested in the elevation and standing of his profession, and himself took rank among its leading members in New York. The County and State Medical Societies conferred upon him their highest honors, for he was president of both. He was also a fellow of the College of Physicians of New York. Phrenology, or cerebral physi- ology as he would call it, engaged the doctor's attention for more than thirty years and to the doctrines of Gall, Spurzheim, and Combe he was a thorough convert. He possessed in a marked degree what are con- sidered the elements of the Scotch character. He was positive, firm, peremptory, and unyielding to opposition. The opinions he held ad- mitted of small modification and his rules must be carried out to the bitter end. He was honest in its broadest and fullest sense. He shrank with disgust and hatred from everything mean or dishonorable, and de- spised the man who would resort to trickery to get business or "flatter that favor might follow fawning." His two accomplished children died not long after reaching adult life.
Theodore Sedgwick Gold as a merchant obtained a fair amount of success, and his discretion in matters of business made him a bank di- rector. But his literary tastes drew him much into diverging and more
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
congenial pursuits, and these gave occupation to his time and pen. He took interest in the Utica Library, the Utica and the State Lyceums, etc. I Ie was a large reader, possessed a good degree of intelligence and re- fined taste, and was able as a writer. For two years or more he edited the Oneida Whig and proved a vigorous and entertaining journalist and a formidable adversary. In 1837 he was chosen mayor of the city. For a short time also he was a trustee of Hamilton College as he was also of the Utica Academy.
Oren Clark, a merchant who also made wall paper, removed about 1834. Thomas M. Francis, half-brother of William Francis the car- penter, was successively deputy scribe for the county clerk, canal col- lector, and receiver at the office of the Central Railroad. Two com- panies of Welsh emigrants arrived in the county, leaving in Utica among others David Lewis, Watkin, father of Hon. Ellis H. Roberts, and Ed- ward Morris, father of two sons, of whom one is a professor at Oberlin ' and another at Cornell.
The Board of Trustees created by the election of 1819 did not differ materially from that of the preceding year. Messrs. David P. Hoyt and Gurdon Burchard replaced Messrs. Brown and Van Santvoort as trustees in the Second ward, the last named having left the village, and William Alverson was elected in lieu of Marcus Hitchcock in the Third ward. In the Third ward Apollos Cooper was elected assessor in lieu of Thomas Walker. The supervisor, constables, collector, and clerk remained the same. E. S. Cozier was made treasurer in place of Judah Williams and there were a few other changes. The only business transacted during the year that is of importance enough to be noted was the engaging of A. l'Amoureux to take charge of the public school and the appoint- ment of ten persons from among the firemen to form a ladder company, which so reduced the force of the two established companies as to make it advisable to petition the legislature for a change in the charter in order to allow of an increase in the number of firemen.
The Erie Canal, begun in July, 1817, and on which work was steadily progressing, was still far from completion. The eastern portion of its middle section, or so much of it as is included between Rome and Utica, was, however, rendered fit for navigation by the fall of 1819; and on the 22d of October the first boat sailed on the canal from Rome to Utica,
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HENRY SEYMOUR.
the channel having been filled from the Oriskany Creek the day prev- ious. It was an elegant boat, constructed to carry passengers, and was called the Chief Engineer in compliment to Benjamin Wright. On the ensuing day the governor of the State and the Board of Commissioners, attended by about seventy ladies and gentlemen of Utica and vicinity, embarked upon it to return to Rome. The embarkation took place amid the ringing of bells, the roaring of cannon, and the loud acclamations of thousands of spectators.
There is one able commissioner among the eminent persons appointed by the State to supervise and direct its cherished work, the story of whose life falls within the compass of our records, since toward Utica he held the relations of an honored citizen and for a time was its official head. This is Henry Seymour. Henry Seymour entered into business as a merchant at Pompey Hill, Onondaga County, N. Y. By his integrity, sound judgment, and capacity to execute he became so well and favor- ably known that from 1816 to 1819 he was sent to represent the West- ern District in the State Senate. On the 24th of March, 1819, he was appointed a commissioner of the canals of the State and was actively engaged in the duties of this office until he resigned in May, 1831. Soon after becoming commissioner he removed to Utica and continued to reside here during the remainder of his life. In 1820 he was elected to the Assembly and in 1822 he became a second time a senator. In March, 1833, he was appointed mayor of Utica, being the second per- son who held the office, and the same year was chosen president of the Farmers Loan and Trust Company of the city of New York. The change from an active life in the country to the sedentary one of an office in the city destroyed his health and he died at Utica, August 26, 1837.
Justus H. Rathbone acquired his knowledge of law in the office of D. W. Childs, and though versed in his profession he was precluded by grave physical infirmity from attendance on the courts. He was a mas - ter in chancery and a zealous custodian of the first Utica Library, of which he was virtually the founder. He was an elder in the Reformed Dutch Church as well as its treasurer, and was methodical, accurate, and self- denying in all he undertook. Dr. Newell Smith was a physician and druggist and a fair kind of man. Henry Burden, inventor, produced in 1820 the first cultivator in the country, and after his removal to Troy
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
became the artificer of numerous important improvements. George & Bradford S. Merrill, book-binders, continued their work for many years, the latter until 1874, busy and respected.
The village trustees of the year 1820 were E. S. Cozier, John E. Hinman, James Hooker, Abraham Culver, Ezekiel Bacon, and Thomas Walker. Rudolph Snyder was appointed president by the State council on the resignation of Judge Williams. Measures were initiated this year for the construction of a new road above the canal running westward from Genesee street and in continuation of Bleecker, a road which met with opposition from individuals owning land along its intended course, and which not until after litigation and much delay resulted in the year 1823 in the present Fayette street. Other matters that engaged the attention of the corporation, and in which they felt called on to advise and direct, were the location and construction by the canal commissioners of bridges over such part of the canal as was included within the bounds of the village, the proper adjustment of Liberty street in its relation to the canal, the sanctioning of a basin and slip which John R. Bleecker had obtained leave to construct, the basin on the south side of the canal, and the slip extending from it to Catharine street.
An act of the legislature was passed this year incorporating the Utica Savings Bank, but for some reason now unknown the bank did not go into operation until the year 1839, when a new charter was procured. This first charter was probably in advance of the actual necessity for such an institution and the stock was not taken. The president named in this first charter was the same as the one who headed the later board, viz., John C. Devereux.
A merchant who, after five years' residence in Utica, returned to New York, became bankrupt, and then burst upon the world as an admired actor of comedy was James Henry Hackett. His earlier and less dis- tinguished but, for our purpose, most interesting career he himself relates as follows : "Early in 1819, when just turned of nineteen years of age, I married. In April, 1820, I chose Utica, in the State of New York, as a promising town to settle in, and I took there a stock of groceries and began business. I had a cash capital of about $3,000, and obtained credit, too, through the late John Beekman, my mother's first
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JAMES HACKETT- DR. POMEROY.
cousin, and also the father-in-law of my own first cousin, Abraham K. Fish, with whom I had been a clerk for some two years before my mar- riage. Finding no regular dealer in earthenware in Utica at this time I resolved to try a small assortment of this article, and accordingly pur- chased it. It proved a valuable adjunct to my grocery business, and I soon became a wholesale dealer in it, and occasionally imported earth- enware from the Scotch manufacturers. I was cordially received there and was regarded as an enterprising and industrious young man of busi- ness. My society was generally courted for my acceptable manners and good humor, and that of my dear wife for hers and her proficiency as an accomplished singer. We lived there very happily full five years, when, having accumulated about $18,000 and thinking that New York city afforded a more favorable locality for my capital and enlarged facil- ities, I changed my residence back to New York in March, 1825." 1 Here was born their son, James K. Hackett, the late esteemed recorder of New York, and here he afterward imbibed his law.
Dr. Theodore Pomeroy, who came from Cooperstown, was born at Southampton, Mass., March 14, 1785, was graduated at Yale Col- lege in 1808, studied medicine with Dr. James, of Albany and after- ward of Utica, and also with Dr. Chester, of Hudson, attended lectures at Pittsfield, and had made a successful stand in Cooperstown. His new venture in Utica was a fortunate one, for he soon fell into a large and profitable business, and for ten or a dozen years at least was the medical adviser of some of the best families of the place. His pleasant manner and his engaging exterior attracted admirers who were changed to friends when they realized the purity and uprightness of his life. He loved his profession as an art more than as a science. He cared less for brilliant exploits in surgery than to relieve the common ailments of humanity, and win the rewards of his exertion as well as the gratitude of those on whom he waited. Other pursuits akin to medicine into which he was drawn tended to lead him more and more from his chosen calling and eventually took him wholly out of it. With Thomas R. Walker he had become interested in an oilcloth factory from their having loaned money to J. D. Edwards, its founder, and which the latter was unable to re-imburse them. They assumed the.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
charge of the factory and for many years continued its management. After Mr. Walker withdrew, about the year 1854, Dr. Pomeroy kept on in the concern in company with his son Theodore. As a citizen, neigh- bor, and friend the rank of Dr. Pomeroy was among the liberal, the useful, and the trusted. He died at St. Anthony, June 26, 1860. His first wife and the mother of three of his children was Mary, daughter of Dr. Thomas Fuller, of Cooperstown. His second was Miss Cornelia Voorhees, of New Brunswick, N. J.
James Sayre, a long continued hardware dealer, served considerably as a bank director, at first in the United States Branch, then for a short time in the Ontario Branch, and later for many years in the Oneida National, of which he was president at his decease. Of the Black River Railroad he was a director from its organization, and participated in all labors and responsibilities until stricken down by disease,-" a valued and pleasant associate, in whom the public placed such confidence that his name was a symbol of strength to the enterprise." For many years he was a trustee of the First Presbyterian Church and for no little period its treasurer. Of the Utica Cemetery Association he was also for a time the prudent and judicious head.
The village corporation of 1821 was constituted as follows : Ezra S. Cozier, president; Benjamin Ballou, jr., and John Baxter, of the First ward, James Hooker and John H. Handy, of the Second, and Thomas Walker and David P. Hoyt, of the Third, trustees; Benjamin Ballou, jr., Stalham Williams, and Apollos Cooper, assessors of their respective wards; John H. Ostrom, clerk; John Bradish, treasurer; Thomas E. Clark, overseer of the poor ; Daniel Stafford, superintendent of streets ; and Joshua Ostrom and Robert Jones, constables.
The sum of $723.25 was raised for contingent expenses and $400 for the support of the poor ; the market, that former source of conten- tion and which had been banished to Water street, was sold to Daniel Thomas for $50; an alley was ordered to be opened from Genesee to Hotel street, starting from between the stores of William Tillman and Peter Bours. A deed was obtained from the Seneca Turnpike Company of that part of the turnpike lying east of the Supreme Court clerk's office, and a fresh committee was empowered to treat with landholders along the line of Bleecker street continued.
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GEORGE DUTTON AND OTHERS.
The sons of St. Patrick were now numerous enough and their enthu- siasm ardent enough to prompt them to a public observance of his natal day. About seventy persons, Irishmen and their guests, sat down to an elegant repast, during which much conviviality prevailed.
Born with an instinctive passion for music George Dutton had played on several instruments from his boyhood, and had when quite young taken an organ in pieces and reconstructed it. Moreover he had the high wrought organization, the lively susceptibilities of the enthusiast in musical art, his keen delights and his proneness to melancholy. In Philadelphia he received a quarter's lessons on the organ, and this was all the instruction he ever had ; his taste was innate, his skill wholly self. acquired. While there his inclination showed itself so strongly that he was supplied by a house of that city with the goods to furnish a music store in Utica. His was the first of the kind that had been opened here and the pianos were a curiosity to most of its citizens. On Sundays he handled the organ of one of the churches, at first of Trinity and after- ward of the Presbyterian Church. In concerts, in the rehearsals, private and public, of the Musical Academy, and in all musical exhibitions where the piano or violin accompanied a chorus or solo he directed the entertainment, for his skill was unrivaled and his taste was law. He trained two sons until they attained unusual musical excellence, and lived to see one of them succeed him in the trade and become as much of an oracle in the art as he himself had been. His death occurred December 21, 1854.
Other citizens of 1820-21 were as follows: Levi Cozzens, innkeeper and much longer a dealer in lumber, twelve years treasurer of the Me- chanics Association, and a trustee of the First Presbyterian Church ; the four brothers Thurber, for the most part bakers, of whom Philip, a hardware merchant, built the first brick house on Fayette street ; Jabez Miller, baker ; Edward Bright, brewer; Elisha Backus, stage proprie - tor - most of them fathers of sons who held relations of interest with the subsequent affairs of Utica ; Otis Whipple, of protracted residence, justice of the peace; Major Satterlee Clark, United States paymaster ; Robert Jones, grocer and provision dealer ; Elisha Wells, shoe dealer ; Joseph Blake, tailor ; Cyrus Grannis, innkeeper; Robert R. Rhodes, carpenter ; Thomas Sidebotham, butcher.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
The trustees of the year 1822 consisted of Benjamin Ballou, John Baxter, Ezekiel Bacon, Richard R. Lansing, Thomas Walker, and David P. Hoyt. Ezra S. Cozier was the president; Erastus Clark, supervisor ; Thomas Walker, overseer of the poor ; the clerk and treas- urer remained as before. In June it was resolved that Genesee street be paved from the canal to the south line of Whitesboro and Main streets, and a committee of five prominent citizens was appointed to make the necessary estimates and assessments. The cobblestone used at that time were larger than those subsequently used, and this first pavement was well laid and of a durable character. The board determined to open a new street from Broad to Catharine. This likewise was done, and in October the new street was recognized by the name of Franklin street. The project broached two years before of continuing Bleecker street westward to the intersection with the Whitesboro road was attended with more difficulty and delay. A committee that was appointed to treat with the owners and occupants of land along the line of the proposed road found that a majority of them were unwilling to treat, or else asked more for their land than the committee deemed reasonable. A jury of twelve men were then called together to assess the damages they thought each person might sustain, and their assessment was ratified by the trustees. From this adjudication several of the landholders appealed to the Court of Common Pleas. Their appeal was sustained by the court so far as respected that portion of the intended road lying between Genesee and Seneca streets inasmuch as it involved the removal of a building stand- ing on Genesee street and in the line of the proposed road. The court having confirmed the appraisal as to the remainder of the road, and such a road being deemed essential to the prosperity of the place, a new committee of freeholders was created to prepare a fresh assessment on a line slightly varying from the former one. Their assessment was ratified May 6, 1823, and on the 28th of the same month Messrs. Cozier and Ballou, of the board of 1822, were authorized to contract for the making of the road. Other proceedings of the trustees of 1822 were the ordering of sidewalks on the south side of Jay street and the fixing of the assessment for the support of the poor at $400, that for contin- gent expenses at $1,029, and that for the common school at $65.
I have before quoted the record of prices of many articles of daily
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MARKET PRICES.
use which was made by a traveler of 1811. Another foreign visitor who was at Utica in September, 1822, gives also its market prices. These with some other particulars he furnished to a magazine published in Wales. They are as follows : " A barrel of 196 pounds of white wheat flour, $5; of medium flour, $4.50; Indian meal, 3s .; oats Is. 9d. per bushel; beef and mutton, 5c .; cheese, 6 to 7c .; potatoes, Is. 6d. to 2s. per bushel; best tobacco, 2s. per lb .; beer, $4.50 per bar- rel; cider, $1 a barrel; rum, $1 ; brandy, $1.25 a gallon ; whisky, 2s. a gallon ; tea, 5s .; coffee, 2s. 6d .; white sugar, 2s., and best brown, IS. Wages : Carpenters, from $I to $1.25 a day ; masons, $1.372 .; laborers, 6s. as a rule, but sometimes more ; servant girls from Ios. to 16s. a week, though many get twice as much; servant men, about the same as laborers. They can be taught any trade and paid for their work; I know some who are learning trades and earning $8 a month. Shoes from 12s. to 20s. per pair ; a tailor for making a good suit of clothes, $6; blacksmiths for shoeing a horse, $1, iron being about the same as with us. Instead of coal they generally use coke, which is very cheap." By the word coke the writer probably means charcoal, for coke was not made until the introduction of gas, being a product of its manufacture. In stating the wages of servant girls at Ios. to 16s. a week it is reasonable to surmise that the writer was influenced by a desire to encourage emigration among his countrywomen, and has presented mat- ters in the most favorable light, since it is a fact that very many girls received at that time only about half that amount of wages, 8s. a week being common and 6s. not a rare amount.
Edmund A. Wetmore was admitted to the bar in October, 1820, and not long after became the partner of Judge Morris S. Miller. After the premature death of the latter he formed a partnership with Hiram De- nio, which continued nearly thirty years and was ended by the elevation of Judge Denio to the bench of the Court of Appeals in June, 1853. Mr. Wetmore now gradually withdrew from the active duties of his pro- fession, though he kept himself informed in the current legal lore, and was in all respects a sound, judicious, and trustworthy counselor. Soon after the organization of the State Lunatic Asylum he was elected its treasurer, a position of much responsibility and care. The duties, dis- charged as they were with unsurpassed fidelity, filled up a large measure of his time throughout the remainder of his life.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
" Public honors might well have been his had he aspired to them, for no man would have more faithfully served his constituents. His fellow citizens sought him more than once, and in 1845 he was elected to the mayoralty of the city and re-elected the following year with great una- nimity. After this he declined all public life and devoted himself to other interests in which he rendered invaluable service. On the organ - ization in 1843 of the admirable public school system of Utica he was elected as one of the original six commissioners and continued to be re- elected as long as he could be prevailed on to serve, performing duties little appreciated, but of the most important and far reaching character He was elected a trustee of Hamilton College in 1849, and continued in that office while he lived, rendering the institution a large amount of valuable and gratuitous service." As trustee of the Female Academy the attention he gave to its duties and the work he performed during a long series of years were surpassed by those of scarce another member of the board, while outside of it he was the special and trusted adviser of the principal and her teachers. In the Cemetery Association, the Water Works Company, and the cotton and woolen-mills he took an active part from their incipiency, concurred heartily in the management of them, and was much depended on by reason of the cautious and dis- creet advice he gave. One of the most important offices he held was that of trustee of the Utica Savings Bank. He was named as trustee in the original charter and after the death of Judge Denio was, by the common voice of his associates, elected to the presidency, which he held at the time of his death.
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