USA > New York > Oneida County > Utica > Memorial history of Utica, N.Y. : from its settlement to the present time > Part 5
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56
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
the title of the United Society of Whitestown and Old Fort Schuyler, and over this there was settled on the 21st of August, 1794, the Rev. Bethuel Dodd. One-third of the services were to be bestowed at Utica and two-thirds at Whitesboro, and the salary of the minister was to be . raised in rateable proportion from the two parts of his parish. After a few months the connection seemed to be dissolved ; the preaching at Utica was discontinued because there was no place in which public worship could be attended. In 1797 this obstacle was removed by the enlargement of a school-house on Main street. And to this building for a period of several years repaired all the church-going inhabitants of Utica of whatever denominational persuasion. Up to the year 1800 there were not above four members of the church who resided in the place, but as this number increased Mr. Dodd preached here more frequently, and before his death in 1804 one-half of the time. On days when his duty called him elsewhere the congregation were assembled to listen to the reading of a sermon by Talcott Camp, Hiel Hollister, Solomon P. Goodrich, or others. Nathan Williams, with becoming taste and pro- priety, conducted the singing and was assisted in the bass by the sten- torian lungs of Richard Kimball. Rev. Bethuel Dodd was a native of Bloomfield, N. J., and was graduated at Queens (now Rutgers) College in 1792. He followed the tide of emigration to the "Whitestown country," where his preaching being received with favor he was called to assist in forming the first Presbyterian Church that was established in Oneida County, those of Clinton and New Hartford being Congrega- tional. Dr. Dwight, who knew him personally and heard him preach at Whitesboro, says : "He was a very worthy and excellent person who left behind him a name which is as the odor of sweet incense." From one who was a child during his pastorate we learn that for a few months Mr. Dodd held at Utica, during the intermission between the morning and afternoon services, a meeting for the children. Requiring of them lessons from the New England Primer, and especially the catechism, he commented and taught them thereupon.
The old school- house, once the sanctuary of the fathers of Utica, the seat of learning for their sons, and a place of general assembly, still exists as a shed. It stands on the south side of Main street about midway between First and Second streets, with its end to the street; its longer
Most Succenly young
57
THE WHITESBORO ROAD.
side formerly faced the highway. It formerly embodied all of the char- acteristics of the old-time school-house-rough, uncomfortable, and gloomy. As a place of worship the building was used until the comple- tion of Trinity Church in 1806, when for a brief period the two congrega- tions alternately worshiped in the latter edifice. As a school-house and for town meetings it held out a little longer, but after its stove and lamp had been sold at auction in 1808 its usefulness we may presume had departed.
The settlement, as we have learned from Dr. Dwight, was mainly confined to a single street. This was known as Main street, the western end being called the "Whitesboro road." A few settlers were located on the lower end of the "Genesee road " and a few were scattered about in the vicinity. Manuscript maps of this date, now in existence, show two or three additional streets, but as yet they were unoccupied and without a name.
The westward course of the road to Whitesboro was after leaving Potter's along the lines of the present Varick and Court streets. The public square, formed at the intersection of the Genesee and Whitesboro roads and now known as Bagg's Square, was then more deserving of the name of square than in recent times, since its western side, instead of diverging from the eastern one as it now does, ran up from the river nearly parallel with it until it reached a point a little short of the north- ern line of Main, when it curved westward in a quarter circle toward the Whitesboro street corner. Thus its shape, in place of being tri- angular as at present, approximated to that of an oblong whose greatest length was east and west, and having an arm extending from its eastern end toward the river.
The year 1800 furnishes the first tax list of the population of Utica that is now extant. Merely as a list of inhabitants it is of interest, and more especially as the names follow pretty nearly in the order of resi- dence, beginning at the eastern limits of the settlement and proceeding along Main street and the northern side of Whitesboro as far as Potter's, thence back on the southern side, and a little way up Genesee. The extreme smallness of amount of tax when compared with the course of modern taxation would lead one to question whether it comprises the whole levy of the year or whether it is not rather some special assess-
8
58
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
ment. It is entitled, however, " Utica Village Tax List for 1800," and we print it verbatim as an interesting list worthy of preservation. It is as follows :
Dolls. Cts.
Dolls. Cts.
Silas Clark
50
Nathan Williams
75
J. D. Petrie.
25
Barnabas Brooks 50
Matthew Hubbell
25
J. Bissell. 25
Benjamin Walker, esq.
00
John Bellinger 62
J. Bocking
25
John C. Hoyt. 50
Peter Smith, esq
75
Samuel Rugg 25
Benjamin Ballou.
25
Barabas Coon.
12₺
James S. Kipp, esq
75
John Cooper
12₺
Widow Dawson (Murphy)
25
Jeptha Buell
25
Samuel Carrington
1 12}
Stephen Potter. 25
Sylvanus P. Dygert
37₺
Ramsey & Co.
1 25
Samuel Forman
37₺
Gurdon Burchard
75
- Clark
373
Francis Bloodgood.
00
John Curtis
37}
William Halsey
1 00
John Hobby
1 121
Nathaniel Butler
1 12}
Benjamin Ballou, jr
37₴
William Williams
75
Jere. Cowden.
25
Peter Cavender
50
Richard Smith.
1 123
Jan Garrett
25
Joseph Ballou
75
Jonathan Foot 25
12}
John House
1 00
Joseph Peirce.
25
John Post
2 00
G. Boon's house
25
Daniel Budlong
1 25
William Pritchard.
12}
John Watley.
25
James Bagg.
12}
William McLean
75
Moses Bagg
00
James P. Dorchester
50
Worden Hammond.
50
Samuel Hooker
871
John Smith
87%
Watts Sherman
50
Byran Johnson
1 00
Erastus Clark
50
Administrator of Daniel Banks. .
62₺
Charles Easton
37%
Clark & Fellows
87%
- Van Sykes
123
Remsen
50
Proprietors of Hotel
1 00
$40 00
The brief notes of another traveler deserve a few words of comment. This was an Englishman named John Maude, whose " Visit to the Falls of Niagara in 1800." was published at Wakefield and London in 1826. And this is what his journal contains under date of Thursday, July 3,
-
O. & J. Ballou
87₺
Simon Jones.
Apollos Cooper 25
Gurdon Burchard
25
Nichols, Bagg's house
75
59
THE GREAT GENESEE TURNPIKE.
1800: "Utica [Fort Schuyler] ninety-six miles. Schwartz's hotel ; excellent house and miserably kept ; built by Boon & Linklaen [agents for the Holland Land Company]; the proprietors of a considerable num- ber of the adjoining building lots. Those east of these are the property of the Bleecker family, on which the principal part of the present town is built ; built, too, on short leases of fourteen years, after which the houses become the property of the owners of the soil to the certain loss and probable ruin of the present residents. Utica is in the township of Whitestown, and contains about sixty houses. No genteel family, save Colonel Walker's, and he resides at a small distance east of the village. The great Genesee road turns off at this place. An act has lately passed for making it a turnpike road to Genesee and Canandaigua, a distance of 100 miles and upwards ; the expense is estimated at $1,000 per mile; the road to be four rods in width. The inhabitants of Utica subscribed to finish the first mile; they formed twenty shares of fifty dollars each ; these shares they afterward sold to Colonel Walker and Mr. Post for forty-four cents on the dollar, who have finished the first mile ; thirty miles it is expected will be finished before winter sets in. Bridge here over the Mohawk ; the river narrow, clear, and shallow ; no fish ; seven boats at the wharf ; heard a bull frog; groves of sugar maple, a tree very common here." Friday, July 4th, Mr. Maude writes : "Mounted horse ; passed Inman's at noon, and arrived at Whitesboro, 100 miles."
With reference to the great Genesee road here spoken of by Mr. Maude, and whose construction was so important, not to Utica alone, but to the whole Western country, a few additional facts may be sub- joined. As early as 1790 a road along the course of the Great Trail had been opened by William and James Wadsworth on their way to the Genesee country, where they planted a colony. The State afterward, in the year 1794, appointed three commissioners to lay out a road from Utica, by Cayuga ferry and Canandaigua, to the Genesee River at Avon, and in this and the following year made appropriations for its con- struction. Though laid out it seems not to have been constructed at this time, for in June, 1797, Colonel Williamson, of Ontario, repre- sents the road from Old Fort Schuyler to the Genesee as little bet- ter than an Indian trail. In this latter year a law was passed by the
60
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
State authorizing the raising of $45,000 by lotteries, which was to be expended in improving various roads in the State, of which sum $13,- 900 was to go toward the betterment of the Genesee road in all its ex- tent. The improvements now made upon it were such that on the 30th · day of September, 1797, a stage started from Old Fort Schuyler and arrived at Geneva in the afternoon of the third day. The extension of this thoroughfare to the most westerly county of the State, and the un- exampled passage of a stage in three days over a distance of nearly 100 miles, sixty of which had been the same season in their original state, were to the dwellers along the western terminus just causes of gratu- lation. This road was as yet a simple highway of earth ; and through swamps and in low places the crossing was made over layers of logs, such causeways occurring even within the limits of the village. There was therefore great need of still further improvement, and in the year 1800 the Seneca Turnpike Company was chartered to effect it. The capital stock was to be $110,000 in shares of $50 each. Jedediah Sanger, of New Hartford, and Benjamin Walker, of Utica, were associated with Messrs. Charles Williamson and Israel Chapin, of On- tario, as commissioners. According to one traveler one mile of the road was finished in July, 1800. A citizen who rode over it in April following as far as New Hartford tells us that he met squads of men at work along the way, and that this portion of it was then a good passa- able road.
The thoroughfare leading eastward from the settlement would seem to have been at this time in no greater forwardness than the western one if we may infer the truth from an advertisement of the Mohawk Turnpike and Bridge Company that appeared in the village paper bear- ing date October 21, 1800. The company therein solicits proposals until the first of January following for the building of a bridge across the Mohawk at Schenectady, and also for completing ten miles of turnpike road, or any part of the said ten miles, beginning at the bridge at the village of Utica and running easterly, as well as for completing other portions of the road toward its eastern end. As the result of the efforts of this company a beneficial change was effected. The portion of the road lying between Utica and Deerfield was straightened, it having be- fore been a devious way that meandered carefully from point to point
CHARLES C. BRODHEAD.
along the swampy interval. But it was not until after many years had elapsed that this section of the road was put in a state fit to be traversed with ease and comfort.
Among the new arrivals of 1800 we notice first one whose remark- able previous experience, his long residence of fifty years, and the con- spicuous position he held justify ample consideration. We refer to Charles C. Brodhead. While yet a lad he began the business of sur- veying, serving under the instructions of W. Cockburn, an eminent sur- veyor of Kingston in his native county of Ulster. In 1793 Messrs. Desjardins and Pharoux, agents of a French company owning a large tract of land on the Black River and known as the Castorland Company, employed him to assist in laying out this tract. This appointment was regarded as a high compliment to young Brodhead, both as a surveyor and an honorable man ; and the manner in which he fulfilled his engage- ments pleased his employers so well that in addition to the covenanted remuneration they gave him a valuable lot of land as a testimonial of their appreciation of his scientific and moral worth. In the course of this survey, which occupied about three seasons, Mr. Brodhead en- countered several hazardous adventures and made more than one hair- breadth escape from death. After the expiration of his term of service with the Castorland Company he was employed as a deputy by the Hon. Simeon De Witt, surveyor-general of the State of New York, and to him were confided all important surveys and negotiations. He like- wise carried on one or more treaties with the Indians, and these he con- ducted with singular ability and discretion, in every case winning the confidence of the redmen. After a negotiation of this kind with the St. Regis Indians of the northern border of the State he was adopted as a member and honorary chief of the tribe. When not engaged else- where Mr. Brodhead's headquarters during this period would seem to have been at Whitesboro. In the year 1800 he received from the Gov- ernor and Council the appointment of sheriff of the county. In August of the following year it was required of him to officiate at the first ex- ecution which took place in the county. The criminal was an Indian, a native of Montauk Point, who was convicted of having killed his wife and was hung on the hill west of Whitesboro in the presence of a large assembly of people.
62
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
When the construction of the Erie Canal was resolved on the surveyor- general was charged with the preliminary surveys, and Mr. Brodhead was in the year 1816 entrusted by him with the eastern section, extend- ing from Albany to Rome, a part of the work of greater extent, im- portance, and difficulty than any other, and requiring great discretion, science, and practical skill. From the earliest period of his residence here Mr. Brodhead was often called upon to survey lands for individuals both in town and county. His accuracy of work was much confided in, and numerous are the landholders of the vicinity who are indebted to him for the carefully executed and trustworthy maps which define the limits of their property. Mr. Brodhead was one of the commissioners who ran the lines of the town of Utica when it was set off from Whitestown in 1817. From this period he ceased to act professionally except when Mr. De Witt, in the fullness of his confidence, pressed him into the service of the State to execute some work demanding great accuracy and prudent negotiations. For a few of his more cherished friends he would consent to run the lines of their estates, but otherwise engaged in no occupation, and for thirty years lived almost a recluse. Previous to the War of 1812 he had accumulated a competent fortune, but had invested a large portion in business. The reaction of the peace caused the failure and dissolution of the firm. By economy and prudence as well as by the rise in the value of real estate he, however, retrieved his loss, so that for the last twenty years of his life he lived in comparative affluence.
Under date of July 10, 1800, there appeared in the Columbian Ga- zette the following announcement: " Archibald Kane and Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, jr., under the firm name of Kane & Van Rensselaer, have opened a house at Utica, where may be had a general assortment of dry goods and groceries on moderate terms." This brief announcement pre- ludes the establishment here of one branch of a widely ramified and prosperous mercantile house that long held a leading place in the vil- lage, and which, from its far-reaching and successful enterprise, was well known throughout the State. Its resident member and his family were conspicuous in society, and contributed by their intelligence and refine- ment, by their liberality, public spirit, and moral purity, not less than by their wealth and aristocratic connections, not a few of those traits that
63
THE FIRM OF KANE & VAN RENSSELAER.
gave a charm to early Utica. Uniting with Archibald Kane he settled at Canajoharie, Montgomery County, in 1795. Here they soon com- manded a trade which was the largest in the interior of the State. Ere long, however, encroachments were made upon their customs by stirring rivals in Utica and they determined to repair thither. Mr. Kane did not himself remove, though he continued a partner in the house. The store here was conducted by Mr. Van Rensselaer, assisted at the out- set by his brother James, with whom was presently associated Fortune C. White. It was situated on the east side of Genesee street a little north of the corner of Broad, and was graced by the sign of the " Eagle." It was oblong in shape, presenting its broader side to the street. When on the laying out of Broad street its upper end was found to encroach upon the projected highway and it became necessary to turn it half way round ; this was accomplished by balancing the building on a cannon ball as a pivot, after which it was easily swung into place. The store soon became popular and the business an extended one. It was the fountain head whence many a country store drew its constant supplies. They advertised freely and constantly, occupying a conspicuous place in the weekly papers for a long series of years.
Mr. Van Rensselaer built himself an elegant mansion on what were then the outskirts of the village, on grounds as remarkable for their ex- tent as for the taste expended upon them. They were situated on the east side of Genesee street and included nearly the whole space that is now bounded by Devereux, Genesee, Carnahan, and Charlotte streets. But when several years of prosperity had rolled over him there came at length a change. The firm of Kane & Van Rensselaer encountered the commercial storm which followed the resumption of specie payments after the War of 1812-15. It prostrated the house of John Kane in New York and with it fell all the associate houses. Resuming business alone Mr. Van Rensselaer carried it on for a few years, but was at length obliged to suspend. About 1825 he left the village and went to Can- andaigua, where his son-in-law, Mr. Granger, resided, and was there secretary of a fire insurance company.
As a foremost participant in the business interests of the place as well as in its benevolent and religious affairs, not less than as a dignified and courtly gentleman, Mr. Van Rensselaer ranked high. He was of the first
64
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
Board of Village Trustees under the charter of 1805 and two years their president ; of the first Board of Directors of the Ontario Branch Bank and president of the Capron factory ; of the first Utica Board of Tustees of the Presbyterian Church ; and president of the first Board of Trustees of the Utica Academy. When the site for the academy was in contemplation he offered to give for the purpose a fine lot on Gene- see street adjoining the grounds which he himself occupied. He was also a trustee of Hamilton College until his removal.
There came in the year 1800 Jesse Newell, who opened a department of business which is still prosecuted by later members of the family, and which is doubtless the oldest establishment in Utica. Together with George Macomber, eldest son of Captain Macomber, he set up as a painter and glazier. To the practice of their art they added the sale of materials pertaining thereto, and ere long the manufacture of brushes. Their partnership continued twenty eight years and the business was continued by Mr. Newell, after the retirement of his partner, in company with his son, Norman C. Newell; next by the latter; and now by the grandson.
Passing on to the year 1801 we find evidence of the residence of the following persons : Aylmer Johnson, brewer; Martin Dakin, clerk; James Ure, brewer ; Bela Hubbard, tanner.
Dr. Francis Guiteau, jr., and Abraham M. Walton justify more de- tails. The former was a descendant of one of those exiles from France, the Huguenots. His father was a physician in Pittsfield and after- ward in Lanesboro, Mass., but passed his latest years in Deerfield in this county. Francis was the eldest of several sons, of whom two, Cal- vin, the surveyor, and Dr. Luther Guiteau, of Trenton, became early denizens of Oneida County. He moved into the town of Deerfield and assumed his professional charge as early as 1792. His circuit of prac- tice was extensive, embracing not merely Utica and its environs, but sometimes transcending the present bounds of the county. He occu- pied a farm east of the Corners, the same which was afterward held by Abraham Walton, and he was the first supervisor of the town. April 4, 1803, he announces that ill health induces him to call for a settlement; but in July of the same year he enters into partnership as practitioner and druggist with Dr. Solomon Wolcott. They built each a house on
65
PERSONAL REMINISCENCES.
Whitesboro street a little west of the Globe Hotel. Their announce- ments occurred from time to time in the village weeklies until January, 1807, when they dissolved and Dr. Guiteau devoted himself exclusively to practice. He was deemed skillful and held in high esteem as a phy- sician, and his practice was considerable. His only near rivals were Dr. Alexander Coventry, who was still a resident of Deerfield, and Drs. Hasbrouck and Stockman, of Utica, both of whom as well as Dr. Wol- cott were in part druggists also. In manners Dr. Guiteau was genial and pleasant, but decided in his opinions and free in the expression of them. A leading man among the Baptists, and a zealous advocate of their principles of belief, he was sensitive to any opposition to his relig- ious views. He was also a strong Democrat. His death occurred about 1823. He had ten children, five sons and five daughters.
Although the home of Abraham M. Walton was in Deerfield and not in Utica, yet the latter was his place of business, and with its people he was in daily intercourse. He was the son of Abraham Walton, of New York, and a descendant of one of the old families of that city. He opened an office in Utica, and besides the care of the estate he was sent to manage did something in the practice of his profession and some- thing more in the purchase and sale of lands. His brother Charles was associated with him in a part of his transactions; his law partner was Abraham D. Van Horne.
A notorious member of one of the proprietary families was Martha, daughter of Maj. Samuel Bradstreet, of the Fortieth Regiment of Eng- lish Infantry, who was a stepson of Gen. John Bradstreet. She was born on the island of Antigua, W. I., August 10, 1780, and married in Ire- land to Matthew Codd, April 16, 1799. They came to America in the fall of the same year and not long after were living in Utica. After her divorce from Mr. Codd she became notorious as a strenuous and perse- vering claimant of a large part of the soil of Utica. She harrassed numbers of its citizens with suits at law and besieged the courts with her causes. These trials are fully reported in the law reports, so that it will be hardly worth the while to present here anything more than the barest outline of the points at issue.
General Bradstreet, one of the joint owners of Cosby's Manor after a division had been made between the purchasers, devised his share to his
9
66
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
two daughters, Martha and Agatha. Martha, who died unmarried, de- vised her portion as follows : one-third to her sister Agatha, one-third to her half-sister Elizabeth, and one-third to the children. of her half- brother Samuel, of whom one was Martha, who became afterward Mrs. Codd. Elizabeth willed what Martha had left her solely to this same Martha. Thus, by a double devise, Mrs. Codd derived title to a large share of the lands of General Bradstreet. The executor of the first
above mentioned will was Sir Charles Gould, and he by its terms was au - thorized to sell and dispose of the real estate therein devised. Through his attorneys, Edward Gould and Daniel Ludlow, this was done, and be- tween the years 1790 and 1794 several of the earlier settlers thus re- ceived titles to the land which they then or afterward occupied. Mrs. Codd in the suits which she brought against the occupants of these lands insisted that the conveyances by these attorneys of Sir Charles Gould were not valid, because no authority for that purpose was shown . to have ever existed, and because Sir Charles Gould could not have legally delegated to another the power he possessed under the will of Martha Bradstreet. This position of the plaintiff was offset by the production of a deed executed by Gen. Philip Schuyler, executor of General Bradstreet, to Agatha, daughter of General Bradstreet, wherein in order to invest Agatha with her portion he empowers Edward Gould to sell and convey the lands of the other devisees and to divide the pro- ceeds between them. This Edward Gould, who became a bankrupt, executed afterward a deed to Mrs. Codd conveying to her all the real estate held by him, but with covenant of warranty that he should not be held responsible for any sales which he might have made prior to his bankruptcy. But the sales to the occupants of the lands, the same lands which Mrs. Codd was now laying claim to, were made years before the bankruptcy of Edward Gould and while he was acting as attorney of Sir Charles Gould. Such, in brief, was the claim of Mrs. Codd, and such the ground of defence made by the defendants in her suits, which defence was moreover strengthened by the fact of possession for thirty years, for it was not until after the lapse of this length of time and not until she had resumed her maiden name that the suits were in prosecution.
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