USA > New York > Oneida County > Utica > Memorial history of Utica, N.Y. : from its settlement to the present time > Part 25
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The city water works were completed this year and the council voted to pay the company $1,300 for water to extinguish fires, and also voted $1,500 for fifty hydrants. The gas company was organized in 1848-49 and the laying of pipes in the city was prosecuted through the summer. The principal public improvements were an iron bridge over the canal at Breese street and the construction of various sewers ; Kirkland street was opened, a plank road laid in Hopper street, Philip street was graded, and sidewalks were laid on Spring and Eagle streets.
The California gold fever began this year and a few went from this vicinity, and during the following year the number of gold seekers was greatly increased. The number of wards in the city was now increased to six, the Fifth and Sixth being formed from the southern portions of the Third and Fourth. The privilege, more than once asked, of electing one supervisor from each ward was now granted. The population of 1840 was reported as 12,783; that of 1845, 12,190 ; that of 1850 was found to be 17,556- showing a marked increase, due unquestionably to new manufacturing enterprises proposed or actually begun, two large woolen factories having been put in operation and an extensive cotton factory being ready to receive its machinery.
1850 .- The principal officers elected were: Mayor, Thomas R. Walker ; aldermen, M. McQuade, H. C. Pond, John C. Hoyt, John W.
34
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
Stevens, James S. Lynch, Russel Wheeler, Alvin White, Richard Lee, Egbert Bagg, William Clark, Benjamin S. Platt, Nicholas A. White ; treasurer, Uriel H. Kellogg ; clerk, James McIver ; surveyor, L. M. Taylor; street commissioner, Horace Halbert; attorney, Morris M. Mitchell. The last five officers had up to this time been appointed by the council. The amended charter now went into operation. The number of watchmen was increased from two in each ward to three, and the street names were placed on the corners where they intersect.
Sewers were laid in Lafayette, State, Burchard, Warren, Carna- han, Bridge, Whitesboro, and Washington streets. South and John- son streets were extended. The increase of new buildings on Genesee street was noticed in the newspapers. April 8th an act of the legislat- ure was passed to provide for the erection of a city hall. By its terms the city was authorized to borrow $24,000 for site and building. The commissioners were J. Watson Williams, E. A. Wetmore, John J. Fran- cis, Thomas Hopper, E. A. Graham, and John Dagwell.
1851 .- Officers elected : Mayor, John E. Hinman ; aldermen, Hub- bard C. Pond, Charles H. Sayre, John W. Stevens, John C. Hoyt, Russel Wheeler, Isaac Tapping, Richard Lee, Luke Wilkins, William Clark, Charles Millar, Nicholas A. White, Benjamin S. Platt ; treasurer, U. H. Kellogg; attorney, William A. Spencer ; surveyor, William B. Taylor ; street commissioner, H. Halbert; clerk, James W. Bond.
There was at this time complaint of insufficient school accommoda- tions. There were 4,000 children between the ages of five and sixteen years and accommodations for only 1,500. In the charter election a vote was taken for and against " new school-houses." The result showed 784 votes for and 146 against the measure. This led to the prompt addition to the school facilities. In the clerk's report, besides the $10,- 000 ordinary tax, the expenses of the city were as follows :
Special tax for water for 1850, $1,300.00
for two school-houses, 1850, . 2,666.66
" for one-third of $16,000 for four school-houses and lots, 5,333.33
Last year's deficiency, 525.25
Interest, 147.78
Common school purposes, 3,000.00
Second installment city hall, 3,000.00
Special tax for hose and hydrants, 1,600.00
Total,
$17,573.02
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INCENDIARIES- SITE OF THE CITY HALL.
The First Presbyterian Church was destroyed by fire on the 13th of January. This was about the first of a series of fires, most of which were incendiary, which led to the disbandment of all the fire companies early in April and a re-organization of the department. Two arrests were made and convictions followed, and both persons were sentenced to be hanged; one was executed on the 2Ist of November. The in- cendiary fires grew in part out of rivalry and bitterness among the vol- unteer fire companies, but still more from an eagerness for the excite- ment of a fire that was sought chiefly by hangers-on who delighted to run with the engines, but were not firemen. On the 16th of April, 1851, a committee which had been appointed to submit a plan of re- organizing the fire department made their report, which resulted in the prompt re-organization of the department, as related in a later chapter devoted to the fire and police departments.
The question of a new city hall was settled during the year and com- missioners were appointed by the legislature to report a site, etc. Two sites were discussed, one on the corner of Pearl and Genesee streets and one called the Thorn and Maynard lot on Genesee street. A special elec- tion was held October 2d, when 417 votes were cast for the Pearl street corner and 173 for the other, resulting in the selection of the former. The court-house and jail were also built this year. There was much discus. sion over the location, but the academy lot was finally selected as the place for the court-house. The jail was erected on Mohawk near the corner of Eagle street.
Rutger street was opened from Third to Webster, South street from Third to the Minden turnpike (now Albany street), and Bleecker street was paved from Genesee to John. There was much public discussion of the project of building a railroad to Binghamton and a public meet- ing was held January 4th. Jenny Lind sang in the Bleecker street church and 1,033 tickets were sold at $5 each.
About 1850 there sprang into existence four or five local insurance companies conducted on the stock and mutual principle. Four of them, the Utica, the Ætna, the Globe, and the American, were under control of Utica directors and one, the Farmers, chiefly of citizens of Deerfield. They were not durable. The Central City Savings Institution was now incorporated and opened in the Ontario Branch Bank building.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
Of the eighteen or twenty deceased or non-resident lawyers who be- gan practice during the era of 1849-51 those who remained the longest were Roscoe Conkling, William A. Spencer, J. Wyman Jones, N. Curtiss White, and Grove W. Bagg. Mr. Conkling will be noticed in the chapter on the Bench and Bar. Mr. Spencer, Mr. Jones, and Mr. White, after living here a few years, removed the one to St. Paul and the others to New York. Mr. White has more recently returned, as did also Mr. Bagg, who was away a few years.
Among the doctors the longest to remain here were Drs. D. G. Thomas, William Russell, Isaac J. Hunt, and Herbert Hastings. Dr. Daniel G. Thomas, who removed from Whitesboro in 1848 to enter into partnership with Dr. Charles B. Coventry, had already been some years in practice. A native of Dutchess County he removed in his childhood to Columbia, Herkimer County, studied medicine with Drs. Peck and Clark, of Whitesboro, attending lectures at Fairfield and subsequently in Philadelphia, and began his professional work at Norwich in this county. Thence he removed to New Hartford and from there to Whites- boro, where he was quite busily engaged. With Dr. Coventry he con- tinued until 1860, taking afterward his own son into connection with him. As a physician he was skillful and his practice was large both in Utica and its vicinity. He was a leading member of the Oneida County Medical Society and held in turn every office of honor and trust in that organization. He was a contributor to the literature of his profession, and was several times sent as a delagate of the society to the American Medical Association. Brought up in the Society of Friends he remained in that connection until 1848, when he became a communicant of the Protesant Episcopal Church and was both vestryman and warden, as well as delegate to the diocesan conventions. His death occurred March 26, 1880, in his seventy-fifth year.
A sketch of Dr. Russell will be found in the Biographical Department of this work.
A successful dentist, but recently withdrawn from the city and busi- ness, was Dr. L. W. Rogers. D. S. Heffron became superintendent of schools and so remained until his removal to Chicago. Rev. William A. Matson now assumed the editorship of the Gospel Messenger, previ- ously edited by Rev. Dr. W. A. Rudd, and Ellis H. Roberts that of the Oneida Herald.
269
CHARLES E. BARNARD AND BROTHERS.
Among the dry goods dealers were Willard & Sheffield, successors of Alfred Wells; Alexander Rae, who came here from Vienna as county clerk and at the expiration of his office entered into trade, an active politician, an open-hearted, companionable, and fair-minded man, cut off by an early and sudden death; Seward & Thurber were booksellers ; William H. Dutton succeeded his father, George Dutton, as an organist and dealer in musical instruments.
Charles E.Barnard, son of Harvey Barnard, was born on the spot where was situated the store of his father, and where the sale of paper hangings was conducted by him and his brothers. Remarkable for his energetic devotion to his own affairs, for his interest in those of a public nature, and his zealous discharge of every service assigned him he re- vealed himself as one of Utica's most respected and honored citizens. He occupied a seat in the common council for two successive seasons and in 1876 was mayor of the city, performing its duties with scrupu- lous and fearless fidelity. Before that time, in the days of the volunteer fire department, he was one of its most stirring members and after its disbandment was as much valued as one of the exempt firemen. He was a trustee of the Cemetery Association, a member of the Citizens Corps, and a participant in two or more Masonic bodies. He died May 4, 1888, leaving one son and one daughter, whose mother, the wife of Mr. Barnard, was the daughter of Lewis Lawrence.
Associated in business with the above were his two brothers, Harvey and Horace Barnard. Of Harvey it may justly be said that punctuality and fidelity were the rule of his action. He was an active member of several civic associations and took a keen interest in municipal affairs. The only office in the gift of the city which he ever held was that of su - pervisor of his ward, refusing afterward all offers of public station. He was, however, a member of the old Columbian Artillery and then of the Citizens Corps, one of the chartered associates of the Tiger Hose, one of the body of Free Masons, and was elected eminent commander. Less active in temperament, and less forward than either of his brothers in matters of general concern, Horace was light hearted and genial, of warm impulses and generous nature. He, too, was a Mason. His death occurred November 2, 1873 ; he left a wife and two daughters. Har- vey died nearly ten years later, April 2, 1883. His young wife he had
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
laid in Forest Hill Cemetery the summer before, where he had placed a beautiful monument to her memory.
Edward Evans, the tinner and brazier quartered on lower Genesee street, whose former associate had been T. J. Newland, now received . into partnership Thomas W. Chatfield, a new comer from England. Mr. Chatfield was the inventor of hot air furnaces, ventilators, and refriger- ators that have been in general use. He died November 9, 1881, leav- ing a family behind him.
William France, plumber and gasfitter, found employment from the recent introduction of gas, as did Dwight E. Ray, superintendent of the gas company.
About this time there came from Paris Hill with his family Jesse Thompson, the father of four sons who have since been stirring partici- pants in the business concerns of the city. Mr. Thompson opened an office and dealt chiefly in loans and exchanges. He did not long sur- vive his removal, having ere this already passed the more active stage of his career.
The Utica Museum, so long under the charge of Comfort Butler, now fell to V. W. Roth. Others of this date were I. J. Knapp, grocer ; Tim- othy Cronin, carpenter; John R. Jones, wagonmaker, sheriff of the county in 1850; Thomas Lennebacher, upholsterer.
CHAPTER VIII.
THIRD DECADE OF THE CITY'S HISTORY.
The Black River Railroad Project - Extensive charter Amendments - A Period of severe financial Stringency -- Failure of local Banks - A Citizens' political Move- ment -- Beginning of the War Period.
T HE principal officers for the year 1852 were : Mayor, John E. Hin- man; aldermen, Charles H. Sayre, M. McQuade, John C. Hoyt, Truman K. Church, Isaac Tapping, William H. Ferry, Luke Wilkins, Richard Lee, Charles Millar, David Perkins, Benjamin S. Platt, Paul
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PROCEEDINGS OF 1852.
Keiser ; treasurer, John W. Fuller; attorney, M. M. Mitchell ; sur- veyor, William B. Taylor ; street commissioner, Christian Costleman ; clerk, James W. Bond. On the 9th of January a resolution was adopted in the council declaring that the condition of the poor demanded a public work-house and a hospital without delay. Some progress was reported in the matter, but nothing was really accomplished during the year. On the same date it was resolved that the sum of $10,000 was wholly inade- quate for city expenses and that a petition be made to the legislature for an amendment to section ninety of the charter so as to read "not exceeding $15,000." This was promptly tabled ; but it is an indica- tion of the growth and financial needs of the city. In the same line was an attempt on March 12th to petition the legislature for a charter amendment providing that in addition to the $10,000 authorized to be raised the amount necessary for street lighting be raised by a tax on personal property. This was not carried out. On the 23d of January a resolution was adopted that a special election be held on the 11th of February to vote upon the raising of $2,000 for expenses incident upon holding the State Fair in the city.
On the 12th of May a petition signed by ministers and others was presented to the council requesting them to stop milk selling after 9 A. M. on Sundays. A long and facetious reply was adopted, one sentence of which was as follows : "Consistence would seem to require that these reformers should have extended their scheme of moral reformation so as to prohibit smoking, drinking, riding, walking for pleasure, reading novels, laughing, sneezing, snoozing, sighing, dreaming, posting books, absence from church on Sunday, any and every of which are more tangible violations of a Christian observance of Sunday than the pur- chase of an article of diet always necessary and frequently indispens- able."
June 4th a report was made by the paving committee stating that a part of Genesee, Fayette, and Bleecker streets were in a deplorable con- dition, and that there was no money with which to repave them. They recommended a petition to the legislature for authority to raise money for this purpose by special tax.
May 22d a public meeting was held in relation to the reception of Louis Kossuth. He came on the Ist of June and was given a warm
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
welcome. In the evening a large assemblage gathered at the museum and W. J. Bacon made a brief address. He was followed in an elo- quent speech by the Hungarian patriot. Gen. Winfield Scott, the Whig presidential candidate of the year, paid the city a visit on the 16th of October. On the 18th of August a fire destroyed the Lewis Lawrence planing-mill on Seneca street ; loss $30,000.
The Utica Scientific Association was inaugurated in August, 1850, under the name of the Amicable Library. Its plan was subsequently enlarged and a more suitable name adopted. Its object was stated as " the promotion and encouragement of scientific knowledge." Several prominent physicians and others were in the list of officers of 1852. A small scientific library and a small collection of specimens, mineralogical and geological, etc., were gathered. The association was short lived.
The business of glass-staining was first introduced about this time. Its founder was Charles P. Davis, an Englishman.
1853 .- The officers of the year were as follows : Mayor, Charles H. Doolittle ; aldermen, M. McQuade, H. C. Bond, Truman K. Church, Franklin J. Clark, William H. Ferry, James S. Lynch, Richard Lee, Paul Brentnall, David Perkins, Griffiths G. Roberts, Paul Keiser, Peter Clogher; treasurer, John W. Fuller ; attorney, Samuel J. Barrows ; surveyor, Egbert Bagg; street commissioner, Christian Costleman ; clerk, Andrew H. Green.
The city went Democratic strongly at the charter election. Charles H. Doolittle was elected mayor, and the Whigs elected only one super- visor, two aldermen, four assessors, one constable, and one collector. The outgoing mayor congratulated the city on its general quiet and freedom from rowdyism, and trusted that the time had come when the people elected to office would no longer lend their countenance in any sense to such acts. The incoming mayor called attention among other things to the fire department, which he hoped might be made more efficient ; reported the city debt at the beginning of the fiscal year as $4,323.34 and other outstanding accounts as about $500; balance owing on the court-house, $666.66; $15,000 yet to be raised in three annual installments for the court-house ; amount to be applied to school- houses for the year, $5,333.39 ; contingent expenses of schools, $3,000; water, $1,300; lighting, $2,500 ; general expenses, $10,000. The whole
au Sincerely,
Amtantic Porbusming & Engraving CONY
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PROCEEDINGS OF 1852.
amount collected by general tax, $29,337 ; from county tax for schools, $5,500; State school fund, $5,000; from licenses, $1,938.24; carriage licenses, $500 ; left over from fund to build the Miller bridge, $297,55 ; from local tax, $12,000. A committee was appointed to inquire into the state of the city finances and their report was chiefly remarkable for its bitter denunciation of the "street commissioner and his drunken satellites " who had squandered a good deal of money ; it demanded better methods, particularly in that department.
Brick sewers and many plank drains were laid. Bleecker street was extended to the east line of the Bowman farm; Schuyler street from Warren to the Chenango Canal; Walker street from Kimball to Gen- esee ; and Jay and Elizabeth were opened from Hubbell, Mary from Albany street eastward, and Blandina from Mohawk to Albany.
There were two incendiary fires in March, and two men were ar- rested and committed for trial. It developed through the evidence that there was a regular gang of conspirators who had been in the habit of setting fires at such intervals and such places as would enable them to escape detection. They would meet in saloons and on street corners and coolly discuss where and when the next fire should occur and the prospect it would offer for fun. A remarkable state of affairs which attracted attention throughout the State! Circumstances like these con- curring with similar ones some two years previous led doubtless to the placing of the firemen on a paid basis as before noted.
The year was signalized by the beginning of the agitation which finally resulted in the building of the Utica and Black River Railroad. A large meeting was held at Bagg's Hotel on the 25th of January and another on the 28th, when the organization was effected. Many prom- inent citizens were in the Board of Directors, and the city by consent of the legislature took $250,000 of the stock, which was eventually lost except as it may have been a source of benefit to the growth and pros- perity of the city. An act of the legislature passed May 27th gave the council the power to make this appropriation.
A charter amendment of this year authorized the raising of $12,000 instead of $10,000, as theretofore, for general expenses. The city at this time was mentioned publicly as being practically free from debt. Under the head of improvements the following is from a paper of the 35
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
day : "Any one who will take the trouble to note the different improve- ments of the present time going on in our quiet little city will, we ap- prehend, be no little astonished as well as gratified at their extent, variety, and importance."
The corner-stone of the city hall was laid September 27th with proper ceremonies. Buildings in process of erection were the city hall, Kel- logg & Ferry's warehouse, steam planing-mill, and many dwellings.
1854 .- The officers were : Mayor, John E. Hinman ; aldermen, H. C. Pond, Franklin J. Clark, James S. Lynch, Paul Brentnall, G. G Roberts, Peter Clogher, M. McQuade, Truman K. Church, Cordon Hackett, Richard H. Francis, John B. Owens, William White; attorney, Alex- ander Coburn ; treasurer, Lansing Thurber ; surveyor, John M. Barnes ; street commissioner, Jefferson Allen ; clerk, James G. French.
The city went Democratic, John E. Hinman being elected mayor. The Whigs elected their treasurer, attorney, surveyor, and overseer of the poor. In Mayor Hinman's inaugural he recommended greater facilities for extinguishing fires and a better water supply ; also the ap- pointment of a secret night watch by the mayor when deemed neces- sary and the erection of a city hospital and work-house. On the 21st of July a committee appointed for that purpose reported in favor of building a city hospital and work- house near the corner of Mohawk and South streets; by a special election on August 17th 135 votes were cast, 100 of which were in favor of the plan.
Several brick sewers were laid in the course of the year. By amend- ment of the charter the bounds of the city were enlarged on the west by the width of one great lot, about seventy feet, and on the south to the extent of upwards of a mile; there were to be six wards ; two alder- men were to be elected annually from each ward; the recorder was to be elected once in five years ; a Board of Excise was to be elected an- nually, having the powers before exercised by the council, and at an election previous to theirs ; two daily papers were to be designated an- nually by the council in which the proceedings should be published.
There were a few cases of cholera in the city, but not sufficient to ex- cite much public alarm. In December the completion of the Utica and Black River Railroad as far as Boonville was observed by a public cele- bration at that place, to which and the excursion thither a large num ber of people were invited and many attended.
275
DRS. S. G. WOLCOTT AND H. B. DAY.
Not more than two of the seven or eight lawyers who were admitted during the era embraced in the years 1851-54 remained long enough to identify themselves with the place. William B. Dana made himself a reputation elsewhere, less, however, as a lawyer than as an editor. Of the like number of physicians more than one-half practiced for some time, maintaining a position of credit. The first of the profession in Utica who made of surgery his nearly whole occupation was Dr. Samuel G. Wolcott, who was born at Hanover, Mass., in 1820. Mr. Wolcott's early education was obtained at Phillips Academy, Andover. He after- ward entered Trinity College, Hartford, and was graduated in 1847. He began the study of medicine with Dr. Winslow Lewis, of Boston, and at the same time was a student in the Medical Department of Har- vard, where he was graduated in 1850. He settled in Utica in the fall of 1850, directing his attention to surgery and afterward making it a specialty, and doing a large share of the surgical business of the city and county. He was one of the corps of auxiliary surgeons appointed dur- ing the Civil war and rendered valuable aid in the field and hospital. He was afterward appointed examining surgeon for pensions. He was a prominent member of the Oneida County Medical Society ; also a member of the State Medical Society and one of the censors for the middle district of New York; a permanent member of the American Medical Society ; a member of Grace Church and for years a member of its vestry ; a director of the Utica Savings Bank and interested in sev- eral of our manufacturing associations. He showed also a scientific taste and zeal in horticulture; his conservatory contained one of the best collections of ferns and orchids in the State. He was a man of quiet manners, with good natural capacities, and was cultivated in many directions. He married, in 1854, a daughter of Thomas H. Hubbard, of Utica ; by her he had four children, all of whom are now living. His wife died in 1867 and he married afterward a daughter of William C. Pierrepont, of Pierrepont Manor, Jefferson County, N. Y., who survives him. He died June 3, 1883.
Dr. Horace B. Day was born in West Schuyler, Herkimer County, N. Y., in January, 1819. He graduated at the Albany Medical College in 1844 and soon afterward began practice in Herkimer County. He practiced in Utica about nineteen years, devoting his best powers to his
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