USA > New York > Oneida County > Utica > Memorial history of Utica, N.Y. : from its settlement to the present time > Part 8
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73
Let us not imagine that the streets were thronged with traffickers or that they ever presented a scene analogous to those so often witnessed nowadays. Many years yet elapsed ere one of them was paved or lighted, while the sidewalks, not yet taken in hand by the trustees, were scarce distinguishable from the roadways. A single constable formed the total police, and he was often called in the discharge of his duties to distant points of the State, for Madison, Lewis, Jefferson, and St. Law- rence formed parts of his bounds. No bank had yet been established. The Welsh had the only church actually erected. Trinity was in progress, but not ready for use, and the sole mode of access to it was by a lane
88
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
known as Church lane, which anticipated the present First street; and. even this was entered through a gate. On the map of Whitestown made by Peleg Gifford in 1806, of which a part is shown below, this church is represented as standing quite alone in the rear of the row of houses that line the course of Main street. The other church pictured on his map was not yet begun. For most worshipers the school-house was the customary place of resort. Baptists who did not understand
Good Land
182 +25
N
89"981
OF
W-4.
+E
2
UTICA
105.96
S
FOR 1806}
Welsh attended the Welsh Baptist Church when there was preaching in English, and sometimes made a journey to Herkimer in order to wor- ship. Methodists gathered on the New Hartford road.
The village had its burying ground, and in 1806 a deed of the premises was obtained from Stephen Potter, the owner, but with a re- served clause that savors little of the modern taste and sentiment that is exercised in providing for the last resting place of our departed friends, as it reserved to the former owner the right of pasturing sheep and calves therein.
Ingb E. G. Wiliam ER Ber NY
89
PROVISIONS OF SECOND CHARTER.
CHAPTER III.
THE SECOND VILLAGE CHARTER.
Officers elected at the first Town Meeting - Their Proceedings and those of suc- ceeding Years - New comers Noticed.
T HE petition heretofore recorded which the citizens had addressed to the legislature was granted, and a new and more compre- hensive charter was accorded them. By order of Talcott Camp, clerk, the inhabitants were called to meet at the school-house on Tuesday, May 7, 1805, in order to choose five trustees and do any other necessary business, at which time " the law is to be read." This charter, which bears date April 9, 1805, secured all the privileges that were asked. The bounds of the village on the east were fixed as they now exist. Those on the west extended to the west line of lot No. 99. The free- holders were declared a body corporate with power to raise among them- selves a tax not exceeding $1,000 in one year for public buildings, fire expenses, and necessary improvements. Five trustees were to be elected annually at a meeting of freeholders to be held on the second Tues- day in May. Any person who declined to serve when so elected was liable to a fine of $25. To these trustees it was given to fix the price of bread, assess all taxes, appoint twenty-five firemen, make all by - laws necessary for protection against nuisances, and for the general regula- tion of municipal affairs, and to them was entrusted full power to enforce the same The president whom they should appoint was required, in addition to his duties as presiding officer of the board and superintend- ent of the public interests, to look after the utensils used at fires, while the trustees were to serve also as fire wardens. There was to be ap- pointed also at the annual meeting a treasurer and a collector who were to receive compensation for their services. The foregoing is an out- line of the charter which the inhabitants were now met to hear and in accordance with whose provisions they were to organize. Their pro- ceedings as well as those of subsequent annual meetings, and those also
12
90
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
of the monthly meetings of the trustees then elected, are preserved to us in the records which still remain, so that we may from this time onward trace the official history of the place and are no longer restricted to the individual histories of its citizens.
At this first annual meeting the former trustees presided. The fol- lowing were chosen trustees for the ensuing year: Jeremiah Van Rens- selaer, jr., Nathan Williams, Francis A. Bloodgood, Jerathmel Ballou, and Erastus Clark. Isaac Coe was chosen treasurer and Worden Ham- mond collector. It was resolved that the sum of $300 be raised by assessment on the freeholders, of which two and one-half per cent. was to go to the collector and one per cent. to the treasurer for their com- pensation, and the residue be devoted by the trustees to the payment of the expenses of digging wells, procuring pumps and fire utensils, and the contingent expenses.
At the first meeting of trustees, which was held at the hotel four days afterward, Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, jr., was appointed president and D. W. Childs clerk. The early provisions for extinguishing fires are detailed in a later chapter devoted to the fire department. At the same meeting the trustees adopted a seal, which was a heart with the letter F in the center, and also passed an ordinance to restrain horses, hogs, and neat cattle from running at large. At the third meeting of the trustees an ordinance was passed in relation to fire buckets. Its provisions, which seem now so singular, but which with some modifications were in force for several years, were substantially the following: The owner of every dwelling, store, or workshop, or occupant of the same if the owner were a non-resident, was required to keep hung up in the principal hall, or in some conspicuous place in the building, one or more leathern fire buckets of the capacity of eight quarts, and in number proportioned to the fire-places or stoves the building might contain, though no one was expected to have more than six. These buckets were not to be used for any other purpose than to carry water at fires. For non-compliance with the ordinance the owner or occupant was subject to fine. The operation of the ordinance was to extend from the east line of great lot No. 93 to the west line of lot No. 96, that is to say from First street to the present State street, and as far south as the line of Blandina street. The next meeting was held on the 3d of June, when the assize of bread
91
PROCEEDINGS OF TRUSTEES.
was fixed. The price being regulated in accordance with the price of wheat, this first assize, which was made when wheat was selling at four- teen shillings per bushel, was as follows: A loaf of superfine wheat flour to weigh two pounds ten ounces, for one shilling; a loaf of super- fine flour to weigh one pound five ounces, for sixpence ; a loaf of com- mon wheat flour to weigh three pounds three ounces, for one shilling ; a loaf of common wheat flour to weigh one pound nine ounces, for sixpence.
It might be presumed from the desire the citizens had expressed for power by their charter to adjust the price of bread and the prompt exercise of this power by the trustees that baker's bread was the only kind in use, and that few if any families baked their own. And this was probably the case to a much greater extent than at present. The prac- tice arose chiefly from the difficulty of getting brewer's yeast with which to leaven their bread. The very earliest settlers made their own beer from wild hops they gathered in the woods, and the emptyings were used for yeast; but such yeast was troublesome to make and soon soured. After the erection of a brewery, and especially after Mr. Inman, the brewer, announced through the papers that private families would be waited on with fresh yeast every Tuesday and Friday, domestic bread, as we may conclude, came more into use. But that manufactured by the bakers was always in demand. Its assize was renewed or newly regulated at each monthly meeting, and was published in the weekly papers over the signature of the president. Any baker who violated the ordinance was subject to a fine of $5.
In July it was determined to dig three public wells for the supply of the village with water. These wells were all dug, were fitted with pumps, and in use for some time. The lower one on Genesee street was found to afford excellent water, and was so great a convenience to man and beast as to be kept open. It served as a notable place of rendez- vous for the inhabitants nearly if not quite down to the time when the village became a city. At the same meeting laws were passed forbid- ding the deposit of firewood any further in the street than fifteen feet from the sides, and requiring its removal within twenty-four hours after purchase; requiring the removal also of building material, potash ket- tles, hogsheads, standing wagons, and rubbish ; excluding slaughter-
92
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
houses between lots 90 and 97 ; forbidding the burning out of chimneys on other than rainy days or the burning of combustibles in the street before sunrise or after sunset. A week later the money raised by assess- ment was apportioned according to a schedule agreed on. The above was in substance all that was done by the trustees during the year, although they met every month to declare the assize of bread.
The firemen held also monthly meetings and were duly exercised at each of them. Those who failed in their attendance for three consecu- tive months were to be reported to the trustees. They supped together on the Ist of January, 1806, at the small cost to the company of $1. It would seem, however, that they presently devised another mode of expending the fund arising from the accumulated fines, for in February they voted that tickets in the Lottery for the Encouragement of Litera- ture to the amount of moneys in fund be purchased and that numbers be recorded by the clerk for the use of the company. The amount thus expended was $19.50.
The freeholders of Utica held likewise two other meetings during the current year besides the annual one already mentioned. The first was for the election of a new collector in place of one who resigned. The second was called to consider the means of supporting a night watch and was to be held at the hotel. Of the proceedings had on the occasion no record is left ; the result we may infer from the following vol- untary pledge, which bears date the following day. The original, a time - stained and much-worn paper, has attached the signatures of the trustees and a large number of the active men of the era, ninety-eight in all. This pledge reads thus :
" UTICA, Dec'r 10, 1805.
" We, the subscribers, esteeming a Night Watch in the Village of Utica as necessary to guard us against the dangers of fire, do hereby associate ourselves for that purpose, and mutually pledge our honor to each other to act during the winter ensuing as good and faithful watchmen, under the direction and superintendence of the Trustees of said village."
These watchmen, as we learn from other sources, were distributed into squads of five or six each and took their turns in patrolling the village from end to end of its two principal streets. This ample pro- vision both of watchmen and of firemen, and this extreme vigilance on the part of all the inhabitants to protect themselves against de-
93
VILLAGE TEACHERS- JOHN STEWART, FR.
struction by fire, though in part due to the fact that the buildings were mostly of wood, must have had some more cogent reason peculiar to this special time. And we are ready to believe as is reported that the settlers were in terror from the attempts of incendiaries, and there- fore the more ready to sacrifice their ease to oppose such evil minded marauders. The system once inaugurated was continued for some time longer as appears by a later though undated list of volunteers, and it is not until the year 1810, as we learn from the records, that paid watch- men were employed by the trustees.
Rev. Bethuel Dodd, the first Presbyterian clergyman, died in April, 1804. In October following Rev. James Carnahan arrived to succeed to his charge.
The first master who ruled the village school after the departure of Mr. Dana was a brother of Silas Clark, and next after him the first of whom we hear was R. Holcomb. The teacher of whom we next get any intimation was Gideon Wilcoxson ; and of him little is known as a pedagogue, though we have a better acquaintance with him as a law - yer. He was a student of Hamilton Oneida Academy and in Novem- ber, 1805, he opened the school-house on Main street for pupils. But he soon took to the law, becoming a student of D. W. Childs.
Another lawyer who spent a few years in Utica was Abraham D. Van Horne, a native of Montgomery County who pursued his studies with Joseph Kirkland at New Hartford and then began practice in Utica as the partner of A. M. Walton. In July, 1807, he was made village attorney, but resigned in October and returned to New Hartford to join his preceptor.
Among the newly established merchants were John Stewart, jr., who during the few years of his residence in this place was conspicuous for his enterprise, public spirit, and pecuniary success ; Jesse Doolittle, "a very synonym of gentleness and integrity," who lived here forty years, occupying positions of responsibility and usefulness; and Moses Bagg, jr., who soon relinquished an active share in mercantile pursuits and assumed the charge of the tavern that had been conducted by his father.
This tavern was a two-story wooden building on the corner of Main street and the square. Its meager dimensions when compared with the present enormous pile known as Bagg's Hotel may be judged from the
94
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
following : When the first Board of Canal Commissioners in the course of their preliminary surveys visited Utica in July, 1810, two of them, Messrs. Stephen Van Rensselaer and Gouverneur Morris, who had made the journey by land, occupied with their servants the whole of the tav- ern, while the rest of the commissioners who came on by the river were forced to seek quarters elsewhere. In 1812-15 Mr. Bagg erected on the site of this wooden structure the central portion of the brick hotel which bears his name, and to it he subsequently added on either side. This he conducted with brief intermissions until the year 1836, when it was sold to a company of individuals. In the latter part of his career in the hotel he became associated with Alfred Churchill, who eventu- ally bought the compa- ny out and joined also the Bleecker house on the north. Soon after the erection of the ear- lier portion J. Parker & Co. established their of- BAGG'S HOTEL IN 1815. fice in the basement corner, and thus the house became the principal stopping place for the stages from all directions and was more generally resorted to by travelers than any other public house of the village. On the opening of the Utica and Schenectady Railroad the nearness of the hotel to the terminus of the road gave it an advantage that was enjoyed by no other house but the one adjoining it, with which, as has been stated, it was shortly united. It has been kept as a hotel continuously to the present time.
Rudolph Snyder, a prosperous cabinetmaker, was long a trustee of the village and for two terms its president. For five successive years he was president of the Mechanics Association and for two years one of the commissioners of common schools. In the Methodist Society he
95
OTHER SETTLERS OF 1805-06.
was a person of consideration and influence, and was elected one of the first trustees on the incorporation of the society and the erection of their chapel in 1815. At an earlier period he had put up a school- house on ground adjacent to the Parker block which was used by them as a place of worship.
Other residents of 1805 not before mentioned were James A. and Lynott Bloodgood, ironmongers who continued here about five years, but of whom the latter returned at a later period and spent his declin- ing years with his daughter and her children; Seth Dwight, by turns merchant and hotel-keeper; George Tisdale, another tavern-keeper ; Joseph Barton, watchmaker ; Benjamin Payne, fashionable tailor; Will- iam Hayes, earthenware maker; William Baxter, gardener and baker and progenitor of numerous later Uticans; Samuel Hickox, builder of the noted political boundary, the "Cayuga bridge"; and B. B. Rathbun, whose chief notoriety was acquired at Buffalo.
At the annual meeting of freeholders and inhabitants held in May, 1806, the former trustees were re-elected. The proceedings of five of their monthly meetings are duly recorded, those of the remaining seven months being wanting in consequence of the sickness and absence of Mr. Childs, the clerk. The sum of $200 was deemed sufficient for the expenses of the year. The determination of the assize of bread seems to have been the only business occupying the attention of the trustees that is deemed worthy of a place in their minutes.
By direction of the Whitestown commissioners of highways Wash- ington street, which had just been opened on the property of Mr. Bell- inger, was now declared a public street as far as the present Liberty, and the last named street, extending from Hotel to meet it, was also recognized as public.
In the year 1798 John Post had received as an inmate of his house- hold his nephew, Abraham Van Santvoort, who became eventually his successor in the business of transporting on the Mohawk. He informs the public in 1806 that he has commenced the storage and forwarding business to and from Schenectady, Albany, and New York, and any part of the western country, for which purpose he has taken one of the large and convenient stores of John Post on the dock in Utica. He has made arrangements with Eri Lusher for conveying by water between
ยท
96
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
this place and Schenectady and with David Boyd between Schenectady and Albany. The storehouse he at first occupied was originally above the bridge, but very near to it. It was afterward moved up the stream to the foot of Division street. And nearly on the last named site Van Santvoort in company with Mr. Lusher and others erected toward the close of the War of 1812 a brick warehouse which has remained stand- ing until a comparatively recent period.
Mr. Van Santvoort held during the war the office of sub-contractor for the supply of provisions for the soldiers and acted as government storekeeper.
Others of 1805 were Jonathan Child, teacher and afterward first mayor of the city of Rochester ; Bennett Bicknell, cabinetmaker, after- ward a leading politician of Madison County ; Henry Kip, brother of James, ropemaker here and at Buffalo; two brothers Oudenarde; and the mechanics John Culver, carpenter, Thomas James, wagonmaker, and John Queal, shoemaker, who were much less transitory in their abode.
At the freeholders' meeting of May, 1807, the trustees who were elected were the same as those of the two preceding years, except that John Hooker was substituted for Francis A. Bloodgood. The board made Erastus Clark their president. The principal business recorded as done by them throughout the year related to the fire company. Having in July examined the books of the clerk of this company and discovered frequent absences they resolved that every fireman noted as absent from the monthly meetings seven times between May, 1806, and June, 1807, should be ordered to appear before them. Twelve ap- peared agreeably to such citation, and after a full examination of their several excuses all were excused except one, who had been absent twelve times ; he was removed. The clerk of the company was directed to report thereafter every quarter such firemen as were absent from the monthly meetings, and as a consequence a few were subsequently re- moved and their places supplied from the list of ready candidates. The coming of the Fourth of July brought its troubles to the officials of 1807 just as its approach entails anxiety and care upon the authorities of today; and trivial as would seem the prank which now occupied their attention the author of it was not thought unworthy of detection
97
TRUSTEES' PROCEEDINGS- A TRAVELER'S NOTES.
and punishment by the village fathers. Under date of July 6th we find the following :
" Resolved, That five dollars be given to any one who will discover the person who took away the bolt from the pump at the lower end of Genesee street on the evening of the 3d instant, so that the offender may be prosecuted ; and that the same be ad- vertised three weeks in both the papers."
In order to judge rightly of the gravity of the offence it should be re- membered that the town pump was an important auxiliary in the ex- tinguishment of fires, as it was the usual place and means of drill for the firemen at their monthly meetings; and though a missing bolt could be easily replaced it might be lacking when most it was needed, and hence exemplary punishment was required. An ordinance was passed in amendment of a previous one which was designed to prevent the erection of buildings on a street and to cause the removal of build- ings already so erected. Besides the foregoing proceedings the board granted a license for the erection of a slaughter-house. Before the ex- piration of the year they resolved that with their consent seven per- sons and no more be licensed to keep tavern in the village during the ensuing year.
Another traveler has left us his impressions of the appearance of Utica as he saw it in the summer of 1807. This was Christian Schultz, jr. He speaks of it as a flourishing village, and tells us it "contains at present about 160 houses, the greatest part of which are painted white, which gives it a neat and lively appearance. Foreign goods are nearly as cheap here as in New York, which, I presume, is owing to the mer- chants underselling each other; for this, like all other country towns, is overstocked with shopkeepers. Most of the goods intended for the salt works are loaded here in wagons and sent on overland, a distance of fifty miles. The carriage ' over this portage is fifty cents a hundred- weight."
Peter Bours, at first a hardware merchant, was very active in organ- izing the Utica glass factory, a manufactory started at Glassville, so called, in the present town of Marcy. He acted for some time as its superintendent and moved thither with his family. The factory proved unsuccessful as will be shown in a future notice of its operations, and in " 1818 Mr. Bours opened a land office in Utica for recording and exhib-
13
98
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
iting for sale unsettled lands and improved farms. This, too, bringing him no compensation he next entered upon the profession of an auction- eer, a profession in which his active spirit and plausible address soon secured him plentiful employment. The frequent noisy cries of his sturdy negro as he patrolled the streets, bell in hand, proclaiming a sale, and calling bystanders to walk up to Mr. Bours's auction rooms, are recollections fast in the memory of all older citizens of Utica.
Stalham Williams, who had been a clerk and a merchant in Utica, was appointed collector on the newly opened middle section of the Erie Canal and served some time as such. From the expiration of this service until he again entered the employ of the Messrs. Devereux he was a short time book-keeper for James Dana, and during a still longer period acted as secretary and treasurer of the Erie Canal Packet Boat Com- pany. After John C. and Nicholas Devereux had retired from active business they retained an office on Bleecker street and managed a sort of unchartered savings bank. Here the scant savings of poorer citizens who confided in the integrity of these gentlemen were sacredly guarded and regular interest was paid on all accumulated balances. The routine work was performed by Mr. Williams and was performed with rare fidel- ity. When in process of time the deposits had grown so large that it was deemed best for the accommodation of all classes of depositors that a savings bank should be organized Mr. Williams was made its secre- tary and treasurer. This was in 1839, and the office he continued to hold until his death. When he had reached the age of seventy he ten- dered his resignation to the directors of the bank, fearing that age had impaired his usefulness. But they refused to part company with their faithful officer and he remained long after he had passed his ninetieth year in the daily performance of his duty. He reached nearly a century.
Another long continued establishment, started in November, 1807, was that of Bagg & Camp. John Camp, eldest son of Talcott Camp, became a clerk for William Fellows, and two years after the latter had associated himself with Moses Bagg he bought out the interest of Mr. Fellows and the new firm was formed. Under the name of Bagg & Camp the two carried on for some years the usual miscellaneous business of the time. When the former ceased from its active prosecution the firm assumed the name of John Camp & Co. Next it was changed to
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.