Memorial history of Utica, N.Y. : from its settlement to the present time, Part 2

Author: Bagg, M. M. (Moses Mears), d. 1900. 4n
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 936

USA > New York > Oneida County > Utica > Memorial history of Utica, N.Y. : from its settlement to the present time > Part 2

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1 Turner's " History of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase."

2 Dr. Coventry's journal.

FOHN POST'S PIONEERSHIP.

esee street not far from Whitesboro street. Mr. Post was of Dutch ex- traction and was born in Schenectady in December, 1748. He had faithfully served his country during the entire period of the Revolution, and was at the taking both of Burgoyne and Cornwallis. For some years prior to his settlement at Old Fort Schuyler he had been em- ployed in trading with the Six Nations, and removed to this place to engage in the same business. At first he kept his goods for sale in his dwelling, which from necessity was made a house of entertainment also, and until the year 1794 there was besides this and the extemporized lodging place of Major Bellinger no other tavern in the place. In the year 1791 he erected a store beside his house and near what now con- stitutes the northwest corner of Genesee and Whitesboro streets. His trade was principally with the neighboring Indians, who would bring him in the furs of the animals they killed, and also ginseng, a plant growing in the woods, and which was then in great request as an article of export to the Chinese. In return he furnished them spirits, tobacco, blankets, ammunition, beads, etc. It is said by his daughter to have been a common occurrence that thirty or forty Indian men, women, and chil- dren remained at his house through the night, and if the weather was . cold surrounded the immense kitchen fire of logs, or in the milder sea- son lay upon the grass plats by the side of the log and brush fences of the vicinity. From the journal of travelers 1 who took dinner and sup- per here in November, 1793, and then looked into his store, we learn that " it was well stocked and a favorite place for tipplers and custom- ers." But Mr. Post was an unwilling landlord; he kept tavern with reluctance and no longer than until others arrived to fill the duty. Gen- eral traffic by land and water was more suited to his tastes. He erected on the river bank a three-story warehouse of wood, which was after- ward moved a few rods above the site of the bridge and was still there at a comparatively recent period. Mr. Post owned several boats which were employed in taking produce to Schenectady and in bringing back merchandise and the families and effects of persons removing into the new country. He ran three stage-boats, as they were called, fitted up with oil-cloth covers and with seats, more especially for the accommo- dation of passengers.

1 Journal of the Castorland Company.

MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.

Within a few years of his arrival, viz., on the 13th of July, 1792, Mr. Post purchased of the representatives of General Bradstreet eighty-nine and a half acres of lot No. 95, which now includes the heart of the city. He had by his trade and by the early purchase of lands acquired what was deemed no little fortune, and it was said was about to cease from business.

Giles Hamlin was taken into partnership in May, 1803, and the bus- iness was recommenced on a large scale, for Hamlin's ambition was to do a wholesale trade. He went to New York and purchased on Post's credit a large stock of goods, which he soon sold to small dealers in the neighboring settlements, receiving in return their promissory notes. A second trip was made to New York and a still larger supply was bought and sold on credit. In 1803 Post & Hamlin advertised five tons of candles by the ton, box, or pound, also 1,000 hundred-weight of cotton yarn.

But just as their New York creditors were pressing them for pay- ment, and when in making collections they had received a large amount of wheat and pork together with a sum in bank notes, came a sudden end of all the prosperity of Mr. Post. Between 2 and 3 o'clock in the morning of February 4, 1804, a fire broke out in his store which was so far advanced before it was discovered that nothing was saved but a part of their account books and some silver money. Post behaved honorably and sold all his lands to secure some preferred debts, and became in his old age divested of all the property for which he had labored during his whole life.

In April, 1790, a small colony of two or three families arrived here from Connecticut, prominent among whom was Capt. Stephen Potter. Captain Potter was born January 12, 1739. He served throughout the war of the Revolution, and there is reason to think that although then young he was also a soldier in the old French war that preceded it. His several commissions as ensign, second lieutenant, first lieutenant, and captain are still in existence, bearing respectively the stirring names of Jonathan Trumbull, John Hancock, John Jay, and Samuel Hunting- ton. In July, 1775, he was second lieutenant in the regiment known as " Congress's Own," the same in which there was serving under the same rank the lamented Nathan Hale, who was executed by the British

2 7

CAPTAIN POTTER AND MATTHEW HUBBELL.

as a spy in the following year. Captain Potter was an excellent man and greatly esteemed. His piety was of the strict Puritan order and he was himself a worthy descendant of the Potters who signed the " Plantation Covenant " at New Haven in 1638. At a meeting held at Whitesboro in April, 1793, for the purpose of organizing a religious society he was put on the committee to draft a constitution, and when the society was incorporated shortly afterward, by the style of the United Society of Whitestown and Old Fort Schuyler, he was elected one of its trustees. When, in 1803, it was deemed advisable to elect a portion of the session from that part of the church residing in the latter place Captain Potter was created both deacon and elder.

In company with Captain Potter came his son-in-law, Benjamin Plant, from Brantford, Conn. Purchasing a portion of the Potter lot he set- tled thereon, remaining a farmer all his life. Among the reminiscences of Benjamin Plant, jr., the eldest son, who was born in 1794 and who resided on the New Hartford road for upward of fifty years, is of having once come very near to encountering a bear with her cub in the road near his father's. He was in company with the latter, who, seeing the bear approaching, advised the son to lie down and keep quiet. This he did, when the mother, being intent on getting her young one through a brush fence that impeded their course, passed near and went on her way.

Another settler of 1790 was Matthew Hubbell from Lanesboro, Mass. Born in 1762 he was drafted into military service at the age of fifteen and took part in the battle of Bennington. Before he came to this place he had occupied for a single season a farm on the Phelps and Gor- ham purchase in Ontario County. But his wife being discontented in so savage a wilderness, where bears were too plenty and neighbors too few, he sold at sixty-six cents per acre the land he had bought at thirty- three cents, and leaving Bloomfield returned eastward. He bought Salyea's interest in the River Bend farm and subsequently obtained a deed of it from Agatha Evans and Sir Charles Gould, heirs of General Bradstreet. This purchase cost him at the rate of $2.50 per acre. Selling a part on the west he continued to cultivate the remainder until his death, and here he reared a large family. Possessed of a fair share of New England energy and enterprise, with the moral and virtuous

MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.

habits there inculcated, Mr. Hubbell was a useful and respected citizen. He was a member of the first grand jury that ever sat in this State west of Herkimer. He was among the earliest and most prominent of the Baptist denomination in this section, having received immer- sion in 1803 at the hands of Elder Covell, a Baptist elder then on a tour of visitation and preaching throughout the State, and who has published a journal of his labors. During some years Mr. Hubbell was a respected magistrate of the town. He died October 12, 1819, in con- sequence of sickness contracted at Sackets Harbor, whither he carried supplies in the War of 1812.

Yet another comer of the year 1790 was Benjamin Ballou. His native place was somewhere in Rhode Island, whence he came, bringing a family of grown-up children. He had a lease from the Bleecker family in 1797 of 126 acres of lot No. 92, and occupied a house east of the Big Basin near the site of the boatyard. Besides farming he also carried on a small tannery.

So destitute were the Mohawk settlements at this period of articles that are now of almost daily use and abundant wherever stores exist that a gallon of wine could not be found throughout the valley. Such is the testimony of a settler of Palmyra who journeyed eastward in 1790 in quest of wine for an invalid neighbor, and without success until he reached Schenectady. 1

In July, 1791, Thomas and Augustus Corey purchased 200 acres of lot No. 95, and they resided nearly on the site of the brick house now standing on the northeast corner of Whitesboro and Hotel streets. Their house was remarkable as being shingled on the sides as well as above. In 1795 they sold out to Messrs. Boon and Linklaen, agents of the Holland Land Company, and left the place. Peter Bellin- ger purchased this year 150 acres of lot 89 lying in the gulf east of Mr. Hubbell. He remained there until his death.

In 1792 Joseph Ballou, a brother of Benjamin, from Exeter, R. I., embarking on board a sloop at Providence with his wife, two sons, and a daughter, proceeded by the route of Long Island Sound and the Hud . son to Albany ; and thence, passing overland to Schenectady, came in boats up the Mohawk and landed a short distance below the ford. Mr.

1 Turner's " History of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase."

BUILDINGS AND A BRIDGE ERECTED.

Ballou settled himself upon lot No. 94. This it will be remembered is the lot of which Rutger Bleecker leased 273 1/2 acres to George Damuth for the term of twenty-one years. Previously to the date agreed on for the first payment (July, 1793) Mr. Ballou would seem to have obtained from Damuth or his widow an assignment of a part of this lease, the remainder being held by Mr. Post since this first payment was made jointly by them both. The payments of 1794 to 1797 inclusive are also endorsed as made in part by Mr. Ballou, while those which follow, of 1802-07, were wholly received from him. This farm, or so much of it as reached from the river to a line south of where the canal now runs, he had under cultivation. In August, 1800, he and his sons procured each of them, from the executors of Mr. Bleecker, a deed of a lot on Main street near the present John, and upon these lots they erected a house and a store. The house stood where John street opens out of the square. It then fronted toward the square, but when John street was opened it was faced about to the latter street and made a part of a public house. This house, once known as Union Hall and subsequently by many different names, occupied the site of the present Ballou block. His sons were merchants and occupied a store which was adjacent to the farm-house on the west. He was one of the village trustees, elected at the first meeting held under the charter of 1805, and held the office by successive re-elections for four years.

In the summer of 1792 a start seems to have been given to the settlement by the erection of a bridge across the Mohawk. The peti- tion to the legislature asking aid to build it fortunately still survives. It is valuable at the present day, not only because it shows the difficulty of the work without such assistance as well as the inconveniences that had been previously felt, but because it has preserved in the names of its signers what may be termed a tolerably complete enumeration of the people then living in the vicinity. No apology, therefore, can be needed for transferring it in full. Those of the petitioners known as settlers of Old Fort Schuyler are designated by italics :

"To the Honorable the Legislature, Evc., &c .:

" The petition of the subscribers, Inhabitants of the County of Herkimer, Respect- fully sheweth :

" That having for a long time endured the inconveniences and dangers of fording the Mohawk River at Old Fort Schuyler, did some time past associate and by voluntary

MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.

subscription attempt to raise money to erect a bridge across the river at said place, but after their most strenuous exertions, find themselves, on account of the infant state of the adjacent settlements, incapable of effecting said purpose ; and your Peti- tioners beg leave to state that in addition to the inconveniences of fording said river, (which at some seasons of the year is very dangerous,) the public in general are highly interested in the erection of a bridge at said place, as it is one of the greatest roads in the State of New York, being the customary, (and in consequence of the erection of bridges over the Canada Creeks below,) the most direct route from the eastern to the west part of the State. In this situation, while the more interior parts of the State are enjoying liberal donations from the State for building of bridges, your Petitioners earnestly implore the Legislature to extend a helping hand to those who, having but recently settled in almost a wilderness, have devolved upon them a very heavy burden in making roads and building bridges; they therefore pray the Legislature to grant them the sum of Two Thousand Pounds toward defraying the expense of erecting a bridge at the place above mentioned, as it will require nearly double that sum to com- plete the same ; and your petitioners will ever pray.

" Herkimer County, October 24, 1792.

" Thos. R. Gold, Nathan Smith,

Thomas Hooker,

George Doolittle,

Asa Brunson, Robert Bardwell, John Post,

Silvanus Mowry,

Aaron Bloss, John Foster.

Jacob Hastings, Elias Kane,

Ezra Hovey, Benj'n Johnson, Philip Morey, Henry Chesebrough, George Staples, Solomon Harter,

Abr'm Braer, William Sayles, Nathaniel Darling, John Crandal, Sam'l Wilbur,

Shadrach Smith, Daniel Follett, John Bellinger,

Claudius Wolcoot, Archibald Bates, John Cunningham, Joseph Harris, Samuel Wells, fried riegbauman, Uriah Sayles,

Oliver Trumbull, Ab'm Bmm (Boom) Daniel C. White, Matthew Hubbell, Solomon Wells, David Andrew, Theodore Sprague, Benjamin Carney, Abram Jillet,

Jacob Christman, Obadiah Ballou, Ellis Doty, Augustus Sayles, George Wever,

John Christman, John D. Petrye,

Jeremiah Read, William Sayles, jr., Seth Griffetlı, Henry Fall,

John Whiston,

Daniel Campble,

Solomon Whiston,

William Alverson,

Francis Guiteau,

Isaac Brayton,

Peleg Briggs,

Caleb Austin,

Townsin Briggs,

Samuel Barnes, William haile,

Elizur Moseley, Gaius Morgan,

Peleg Hyde, Daniel Reynolds,

Phillup Alesworth,

Edward Johnson,

Just's Griffeth,

Nath'l Griffetlı,

John Lockwood,

John H. Pool,

John Richardson,

Noah Kent,

Jeremiah Powell, Asa Kent,

Jacob (illegible),

Samuel Griffith, Thomas Scott,

David Stafford,

Samuel Stafford."

Having been assigned to a committee of the House on the supple- mentary bill favorable action was taken. The bridge had been raised, however, the previous summer. It was placed on the line of Second street where the banks were somewhat higher than at the site of the

ADDITIONAL INHABITANTS.

present bridge. The raising took place on Sunday in order that more of the inhabitants of the vicinity might be at leisure to assist. There was living in Deerfield a few years since a man who, when a child, was present at the raising. This was Elder George M. Weaver, who was born in January, 1788, and was then in his fifth year. An incident which he related as connected with the event must have contributed to fix the fact in his memory. On the way over with his parents from Deerfield they spied a bear in a tree by the side of the road. While Mrs. Weaver bravely remained at the foot of the tree with her young son and another child in arms, keeping watch of the bear, the father returned home, procured a gun, and shot the animal, after which they continued their course to the river.

From the preceding list of signers we gather a few additional names. They represent farmers who lived near rather than within the settlement and some actually outside of the limits of Utica as determined by the first village charter. These limits then reached from the eastern line of lot No. 82 on the east to the western bounds of No. 99 on the west.

In the year 1793, as we learn from the inscription on his tombstone, came Gurdon Burchard and Elizabeth his wife. They were from Nor- wich, Conn. Mr. Burchard was a saddle and harnessmaker, and occu- pied a lot fronting on Whitesboro street, south side, but reaching through to Genesee, a gore separating it from the corner of the latter. About 1810 he abandoned this business and opened a tavern, under the sign of the " Buck," nearly on the site of the present Dudley House. And here he continued, with the exception of a brief period when he was in the " mercantile line," until his death.

James P. and Stephen Dorchester, who are known to have been liv- ing here in 1794 and who were related to Mr. Burchard, probably came at the same time with him. They were hatters, and occupied a shop on Genesee street a short distance above the rear end of the Burchard lot. On this site James P. erected the first brick store that was built on Genesee street. He soon left the place.

We come now to the year 1794, when we find that the hamlet is in- creased by the presence of several additional inhabitants. Inasmuch as their names are not to be previously met with it is presumed they had newly arrived. Prominent among them was James S. Kip, who would

MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.

seem to have been in his own house as early as May of this year, for therein was received the agent of the Castorland Company, who came with a letter of introduction to seek aid in securing workmen and wagons for the furtherance of the enterprise. Mr. Kip, who was for long years afterward a conspicuous member of society, was a native of New York and the son of a Dutch gentleman whose farm on Kip's Bay had so increased in value with the rise of real estate in that vicinity as to prove a fortune to the possessor. He was a nephew of Abraham Herring, with whom, as we have seen, Peter Smith had been an appren- tice, and we may surmise, therefore, that it was through the influence of the latter that he was led to settle at this place. On the 19th of July in the same year he bought of Evans & Gould-the daughter and devisee and the executor of General Bradstreet-lot No. 96, con- taining 400 acres. This lot embraces at this day a very precious por- tion of the city, extending in width from a few feet east of Broadway to a little west of the line of Cornelia street, and stretching back from the river some three miles.

. The purchase of No. 96 Mr. Kip does not seem to have proceeded at once to occupy, for after having parted with a fraction-a portion, however, large enough to enrich the family of the purchaser-he settled himself upon a leased farm of 366 acres in lot No. 93, which included the site of the old fort. Here he built a small log store near the eastern end of Main street, establishing a landing on the river at the mouth of Ballou's Creek nearly in front of his house, and strove by these means to divert the commerce from Mr. Post and other rivals who were located a little higher on the stream. He built also a potashery and was soon a con- siderable manufacturer, although for his products he soon found in Bryan Johnson and Kane & Van Rensselaer more successful vendors than he himself had been.

But Mr. Kip was ambitious to shine in other spheres. Quite early he figured as a military man, and at the very beginning of the century he was making tours of the Northern towns as inspector of militia. Moreover his public spirit and his ardent temperament soon drew him into public life, and he became an eager politician and a warm partisan. He was made sheriff in 1804, and continued to hold the office at inter- vals and by repeated appointments for nine years. Prominent in social

PIONEER SETTLERS.

life, interested in all matters of a local nature, and endowed with enter- prise and independence he devoted himself assiduously to the general interests, and became more successful as a public man than he was in acquiring property for himself. He was one of the first Board of Di- rectors of the Utica Bank, and at its election he was chosen as its first president. In 1812 he had the honor of being one of the presidential electors.

Major Kip's earlier residence was on Main street, where he occupied for a time the handsome house on the corner of Third street which was subsequently the home of Judge Miller. About the year 1809 he built and occupied on a portion of his first purchase the finest mansion in the village. This, which was of cut stone, stood on the westerly side of Broadway within a very short distance of where the canal was after- ward laid out. It was surrounded by handsome grounds, which formed on the south a fine esplanade for military parades.

One Joseph Pierce was an occupant of a part of the territory acquired by Mr. Kip in his purchase of July, 1794, and is known to have been living thereon in April previous ; how much longer it is impossible to say. Mr. Pierce had been a soldier of the Revolution and bore the title if not the rank of captain. His farm-house was near the eastern line of Broadway a little way up from Whitesboro street. Captain Pierce afterward lived in Deerfield and built the covered bridge across the river, which in 1810 succeeded the two earlier structures. His sons were Joseph, jr., John, and Parley. The former removed to Cayuga County. John was constable and village tax collector and afterward deputy sheriff. As constable he was often traveling over the country and serving processes in what are now Lewis, St. Lawrence, and Jeffer- son. He once went to Ogdensburg to serve a summons.

Thomas Norton, who married Sarah, second daughter of Stephen Potter, had been a sea captain and afterward returned to a sea-faring life. His residence while here was on the upper end of the Potter lot and subsequently on the turnpike near the residence of Mrs. Butter- field, where he kept a public house.

Another resident of this date was the village physician, Dr. Samuel Carrington. He was a young man of very gentlemanly appearance and manners and of good literary education. He was a druggist, though

MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.

he was titled doctor, and may have taken the degree. In an advertise- ment of his drugs, paints, and dye woods dated November, 1800, he says he has "determined to sell them at very low prices for ready pay. Having found from sad experience that credit is the bane of trade I decline granting that indulgence in the future and would rather cry over than after my goods." He succeeded Mr. Post as postmaster on the Ist of April, 1799, and was a very prosperous man in a pecuniary way, though his emoluments from his office could not have been very profit- able.

Stephen Ford, a merchant, occupied for a short time a store on the south corner of Genesee and Whitesboro streets, his lot being the larger end of the gore next Mr. Burchard. He married the third daughter of Stephen Potter. . He failed and left the place. After his death his widow married William Alverson.

Aaron Eggleston was a cooper whose shop during most of his resi- dence stood at a long distance from other buildings, viz., near the site of Henry W. Millar's store on the east side of Genesee. With the ex- ception of a brief stay in Clinton, whence he returned in 1804, he lived here in the exercise of his trade until his death.

John Hobby was a blacksmith, his shop being just above the site of the Central Railroad depot. He had a brother Epenetus, a tall, stout man with but one eye, who was a good hand at fires; and another brother whose name was Elkanah. The three formed the chorus of a song that was a favorite with the jolly band which sometimes met of an evening at the village inn. The song was entitled " All on Hobbies." At the end of the first verse all would shout: "That's John Hobby !" after the next: " That 's Neet Hobby !" etc. John died February 6, 1812.

Thomas Jones was a black and whitesmith who sometimes worked for Hobby. He was a superior workman and is said to have been so expert a picklock as to have been in durance in England for the unlaw- ful exercise of his skill. Another Jones, Simeon by name, lived in a house on stilts that stood upon a knoll in a swamp. That swamp was near the eastern end of the site of the Globe Hotel.

The parties who are known to have been new comers of the year 1794 were Moses Bagg, John House, Jason Parker, and Apollos Cooper.

EARLY TAVERN-KEEPERS: 1295448

Moses Bagg, of Westfield, Mass., with his wife and two sons landed from the river about two miles above the ford in the autumn of 1793, and after tarrying through the winter at Middle Settlement arrived at Old Fort Schuyler on the 12th of the following March. In August Mr. Bagg obtained from Joseph Ballou four acres of his leased farm,-for which he subsequently got a title from Mr. Bleecker,-and began to practice his trade of blacksmith on what is now Main street a little east of the corner of the square. His house, a log structure, or, as one eye- witness avers, a shanty made of hemlock boards nailed to the stubs of trees, stood directly on the corner ; and this he opened for the accom- modation of travelers. Shortly afterward he put up a two-story, wooden building on the same site.

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Memorial history of Utica, N.Y. : from its settlement to the present time, Part 2

Author: Bagg, M. M. (Moses Mears), d. 1900. 4n Publication date: 1892 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason Number of Pages: 936

Author: Bagg, M. M. (Moses Mears), d. 1900. 4n
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 936