Onondaga's centennial. Gleanings of a century, Vol. II, Part 10

Author: Bruce, Dwight H. (Dwight Hall), 1834-1908
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: [Boston] : The Boston History Company
Number of Pages: 1094

USA > New York > Onondaga County > Onondaga's centennial. Gleanings of a century, Vol. II > Part 10

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).

This town was named in honor of Major Moses De Witt, whose re- mains are buried near Jamesville, and a sketch of whose life is given

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in Chapter XXIV. His residence was on lot 3, Pompey (now in the northeast corner of La Fayette), which was drawn by his uncle, Gen. James Clinton. Near his grave is that of his brother Egbert, and the now weather-beaten tombstone bears the following inscriptions : " Moses De Witt, Major of Militia and Judge of the County Courts; one of the first, most active and useful settlers of the county. He was born on the 15th of October, 1766, and died on the 15th day of August, 1794." "Also of his brother, Egbert De Witt, born 25th of April, 1768, died 30th of May, 1793." The latter's was the first white death in the town.

Benjamin Morehouse was the first white settler within Dewitt terri- tory, where he arrived with his wife and three children on the 26th of April, 1789, a little less than one year after Asa Danforth and Comfort Tyler came to Onondaga Valley. Morehouse built a log cabin on the flats about two miles east of Jamesville and there in 1790 opened the first tavern in the county. This was the house where so many meet- ings of various kinds were held in early years and which has neces- sarily been so often mentioned in these pages. It was rudely but com- modiously constructed to accommodate "man and beast," a sign read. He possessed all the elements of a popular landlord, and from his general intelligence and his dignified manner became well known as "The Governor." He was first quite alone in the wilderness of that locality. It was seven miles to Danforth's, his nearest neighbor, and privations and difficulties were his daily experience. Clark is authority for this anecdote, which spreads some light on early experi- ences: "In 1481 he carried a plowshare on his back to Westmoreland (now in Oneida county), and leaving it there to be sharpened pro- ceeded to Herkimer, where he purchased thirty pounds of flour. He returned on foot with both articles. The flour lasted about a year and was the first introduced into his family after their arrival. Like other pioneers he resorted to the stump mortar or mill for his meal." More- house came from Fredericksburg, Dutchess county, and followed the Indian trail from Oneida to what was then called by the Indians Kasoongkta flats, where he settled. His daughter, Saralı, born Feb- ruary 16, 1790, was the first white child born in this town.

Between 1790 and 1800 Morehouse was joined by Dr. David A. Hol- brook, Jeremiah Jackson, Roger Merrill, William Bends, Stephen Angel, James and Jeremiah Gould, Stephen Hungerford, Caleb North- rup, Oliver Owen, Benjamin Sanford, Daniel Keeler, Joseph Purdy, Matthew Dumfrie, and others, all of whom settled in or near James-

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ville. Dr. Holbrook, the pioneer physician, first located on the More- house flats in 1792, but about 1800 removed to the village of Jamesville where he continued in practice until his death in November, 1832. He presided at the first public meeting held in this part of the country, at Morehouse's tavern, for the purpose of taking measures for dividing the county of Herkimer. Jeremiah Jackson was a prominent pioneer. The first saw mill in the town as well as the first in this county was that of Asa Danforth, on Butternut Creek, in 1792, in which year he temporarily moved to his newly acquired land on lot 81, a little north - west of Jamesville. The mill was originally covered with bark and the saw was brought by Danforth from Fort Schuyler on his back. Near by in 1793 he built a grist mill, the master builder being Abel Myrick In order to raise the frame white men and Indians were gathered from Whitestown, Utica, and elsewhere to the number of sixty-four. The site of these primitive enterprises has long been known as Dunlop's Mills. In 1795 Oliver Owen erected a saw mill near where Josiah N. Holbrook's blacksmith shop now stands in Jamesville village, and in 1798 Matthew Dumfrie built a distillery, malt-house, and brewery on the east side of the creek, where portions of the old walls are still standing. He manufactured the first beer and some of the first whisky made in the county. In 1797 Jeremiah Jackson erected the first frame dwelling in Jamesville and about the same time Joseph Purdy started the first blacksmith shop.

On the 29th of December, 1795, several residents of the old towns of Manlius and Pompey met at the house of Daniel Keeler and organized the "First Presbyterian or Church of Bloomingdale," with Daniel Keeler, Comfort Tyler, Jeremiah Gould, Capt. Joseph Smith, William Haskin, and John Young, trustees. Jeremiah Jackson presided. It does not appear that this society ever erected a house of worship.

By the year 1800 quite a settlement had sprung into existence in and around Jamesville, which for some inscrutable reason was called "Sinai." In 1802 John Post, from Utica, started a store on the More- house flats, but his efforts to establish a trading center there proved futile. Business operations naturally flowed towards the already developed water-power, which promised brilliant achievements at this time, and there, on the site of the present village of Jamesville, a Mr. Trowbridge opened the first tavern in 1804. Two years later he was succeeded by David Olmsted and under him it was popularly considered the best hostelry west of Utica. About 1804 Benjamin Sanford erected a

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a flouring mill, Stephen Hungerford started a clothing works, and Robbins & Callighan opened a store. These various enterprises gave the place a decided impetus. Sanford's mill was subsequently run by John B. Ives, George M. and William Richardson, Charles Butts, Conrad Hotaling, and Garrett H. Hotaling, who sold the establishment in 1868 to E. B. Alvord. The latter converted it into a lime, plaster, and cement mill, and was succeeded by E. B. Alvord & Co., who for many years carried on an extensive business.

Meanwhile other portions of the town were settled or being settled by the same sturdy class of pioneers. About 1790 John Young, a Revolutionary soldier, came from Saratoga county and located on lot 62, at Orville, his nearest neighbors being at Morehouse flats and Onon- daga Hollow. His family consisted of six sons and three daughters, who, attaining maturity, settled around him, and the place came to be known as "Youngsville." He opened and kept the first tavern in the vicinity, built the first frame house there, and was appointed the first justice of the peace of the town of Manlius, an office he held many years. He was largely instrumental in organizing a Methodist church there, in 1811, the result of meetings held in his house. He gave the land for a church lot and contributed generously to the erection of a chapel. His son, Rev. Seth Young, became one of the earlier preach- ers, died aged fifty years, and was buried in the family burial ground, where five generations of the pioneer's descendants sleep side by side. The old homestead built by Rev. Seth Young more than eighty years ago still stands and is owned by one of his relatives. John Young died in 1834, aged eighty-two, and was buried in the plat set aside by him. In 1814 a post-office was established under the name of Orville and the place dropped its old designations of Youngsville and Hull's Landing, the latter name arising from the fact that on the canal feeder half a mile south of the turnpike stood Daniel Hull's grist mill in connection with a landing and shipping place for goods carried by canal, and ac- cessible to canal boats. To this point products were brought for ship- ment to Albany from the eastern and central part of the county, and distribution of goods bought with such products was made from this point, even into what is now Cortland county. Vast quantities of pot- ash were shipped from this point, and not a few of the earlier settlers landed here. Several quarries were located in the vicinity, together with some water lime kilns, which gave employment to boatmen.

When the town of Manlius was divided in 1835 Orville was in turn

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changed to Dewitt, which name it has since borne, yet the former name still clings to it to some extent, though the railroad station at East Syracuse bears this name.

The church in Dewitt mentioned above was organized under the ministrations of Rev. Dan Barnes and took the name of "the Youngs Society," the first trustees being John Young, sr., John Young, jr., Benjamin Booth, Peter G. Van Slyke, and Zephaniah Lathrop, who with John and Freelove Russell, Seth and Elizabeth Young, John and Mary Scott, and Daniel Knapp constituted the first class. In May, 1826, the church was reorganized and incorporated as the Methodist Episcopal Youngs Society of Orville. The original edifice, built in 1819, was occupied until 1863, when it was conveyed to the school district. The Presbyterians, having disbanded, then turned over their building to the Methodists, who repaired it at an expense of some $1,200.

John Young was soon followed by Benjamin Booth, Zephaniah Lathrop, Peter G. Van Slyke, John Russell, Jonas Scott, Daniel Knapp, and others. These settlers and the north branch of the Seneca, or the Genesee turnpike, which passed through Orville, as it was then called, contributed to make the hamlet a place of considerable activity for many years. By 1835 the hamlet contained several stores, a tavern, and about thirty dwellings, and George S. Lewis was postmaster. A special act of the Legislature passed April 17, 1815, gave Isaac Osgood and Benjamin Booth authority to build a dam across Butternut Creek at or near this point.

Other residents of the territory now embraced in this town prior to 1820 were William Edgar, who at an early period opened a law office at Morehouse flats, where he had Moses D. Rose and Luther Badger as students. In 1798 Capt. Samuel Wilcox, an officer and a prisoner in the Revolutionary war, came from Peru, Mass. (where he was born January 2, 1744), and located on 640 acres at what is now Lyndon, west of and near Fayetteville, where he died June 28, 1827. Of his six children, Asel, born in Peru, Mass., April 8, 1784, became one of the largest landowners in the county and was long a prominent business man. He volunteered in the war of 1812, and during that conflict had a contract to furnish parties in Albany with 2,000 tons of plaster in the rock, at the quarry, for $2 per ton. This plaster bed he opened on the Wilcox homestead about 1812; he was succeeded by his son, Asel F., who was born here in 1823 and became prominent in civil affairs. The

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bed, covering about eighty acres, is now operated by H. H. Lansing. Asel Wilcox had flouring, plaster, cement, and saw mills at High Bridge, now Elkhorn, in Manlius, and was also extensively engaged in boating.

But very few families in this country have a longer or more honor- able record than the Kinne family, the ancestry of which is traced back to Henry Kinne, who, it is believed, was born in 1624 at Norfolk, En- gland, where his father, Sir Thomas Kinne, lived, and settled at Salem, Mass., in 1653. Cyrus, the progenitor of the family in this county, was born in Voluntown, Conn., August 11, 1746, being one of six children, and removed in 1779 to Rensselaer county, this State. In 1791, while at Troy, he heard of a sale of State lands in Onondaga county, and after examining the map made a journey to examine them, and bought several lots situated in the town of Manlius. Returning home he quickly closed his business, and in the month of March, 1792, he started with his four sons, Ezra, Zachariah, Prentice, and Ethel, and one horse, a yoke of oxen, and a sled laden with some utensils and supplies to oc- cupy his purchase. West of Utica they had to cut much of their road and ford every stream, for there were no bridges. They reached what is now Fayetteville early in the following April. In June he returned and brought the remainder of his family to the log cabin which had been built. The nearest grist mill at that date was at Oneida, and Albany the nearest market, and salmon were caught with pitchforks. Pigs and sheep had to be housed at night to save them from the wolves. Cyrus Kinne was the first blacksmith in the town. He was a prominent man among the early settlers, was one of the first justices of the peace and supporters of religious worship, and died where he had lived since coming to the county, August 8, 1808. His chil- dren were Ezra, who married Mary Young and had twelve children ; Zachariah, who married Diadama Barnes and had ten children; Pren- tice, who married Elizabeth Kinne and had eleven children; Ethel, who married a Miss Eaton and had five children ; Zebulon, who married Lucy Markham and had eight children; Moses, who married Betsey Williams and reared eight children; Joshua, who married Melinda Leach and also had eight children; Cyrus, jr., who married Asenath Warner and had four children; Japhet, who married Temperance Palm- er and had four children; Palmer, who married Polly Carr and reared six children ; Rachel, who married William Williams and had four chil- dren; and Comfort, who married Jerry Springsted and had six children.

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The ten sons each received 100-acre farms. Of these Zachariah, Ezra, and Prentice were settled by their father in what is now the town of Dewitt. Ethel, born April 3, 1775, moved to Cicero and died there January 30, 1857, leaving sons, Parsons, Palmer, Jackson, and Harry, and one daughter, Abulah, wife of Jonathan Emmons. Zebulon and Moses, twins, were born January 12, 1780; the former located on a farm of 180 acres where the village of East Syracuse now stands, and died in August, 1865, being the father of James and Rufus R. (who died in 1880). Moses settled in Cicero, and died in Euclid on September 20, 1855; of his children Abigail married Ephraim Soule, of "Sovereign Palm Pill" fame; Moses, jr., born August 15, 1805, was a farmer in Clay, and died July 5, 1852; Albern, born October 17, 1807, married Phoebe Breed, settled in Clay, had children Allen B. and Julia, and died at Woodard, May 12, 1879; Harriet married Samuel Lounsbury; Almira (Mrs. Way) was born October 17, 1813, and died in 1868; Je- rome and Ora located in Oswego county ; and Julia and Frank moved to Michigan. Moses Kinne was a member of the Legislature in 1825, and also served his town as supervisor and justice of the peace. Joshua Kinne was born August 31, 1782, moved to Cicero, became a prominent minister of the gospel, and died in Le Roy, N. Y., October 17, 1858, leaving among his children two sons, Niles and Alfred B., who fol- lowed their father's profession. Cyrus, jr., remained upon the home- stead and died in 1824. Japhet settled in Cicero in 1810, subsequently lived in Cayuga and Oswego counties, and died in Michigan in 1873. Palmer Kinne also located in Cicero, but in 1835 removed to Illinois, where he died in 1869. William Williams, who wedded Rachel Kinne, settled just east of Manlius Center, where both died; their son, Kinne, moved to Cicero, where Comfort Kinne and her husband, Jacob Spring- sted, also located.

Prentice Kinne and Elizabeth Kinne, whose grandfathers were brothers, were married in Plainfield, Conn., January 16, 1800, and very soon afterward commenced housekeeping on a farm in this town. He was born October 16, 1773. He held a major's commission in the war of 1812, and twice went with his regiment to the defense of the Can- adian frontier. He died July 19, 1830. His first wife died November 5, 1820, and in 1821 he married Eunice Jones, who died July 19, 1830, and by whom he had one son, George N., born January 24, 1829; died November 8, 1856. His children by his first marriage were Julius C., born October 19, 1802; Emerson, born February 16, 1804; Marvin, born

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in 1806, died in 1813; Eunice, born October 22, 1807; Mason Prentice, born November 30, 1808; Elbridge, born May 26, 1810; N. Hildreth, born March 20, 1812; Emily (Mrs. Curran Elms), born December 4, 1813; Salome (Mrs. De Witt C. Peck), born May 8, 1815; Atlas, born May 27, 1817; and Ansel, born May. 17, 1820. Julius C. Kinne married Mrs. Rachel Willard, served in the State Legislature in 1845 and 1846, and died August 5, 1857, leaving two sons, Howard A. and Edward D., of whom the latter became a prominent lawyer and mayor of Ann Arbor, Mich. Emerson Kinne settled in Dewitt, became colonel of militia, and was for many years an active and influential citizen. He was married in 1833 to Janet Luddington. Eunice Kinne, the eldest daughter of Prentice, married, in 1833, Wesley Bailey. He was born in Vermont in 1808, and taught school at Dewitt just previous to his marriage. They had six children, the eldest of whom was E. Prentice Bailey, born August 15, 1834, in the town of Manlius. At the age of nineteen, in 1853, the latter entered the office of the Utica Daily Ob- server, with which journal he has since remained, in later years being its principal editor and owner. He is now (1896) serving his second term as postmaster at Utica. Mrs. Wesley Bailey died July 9, 1860. Mason P. Kinne, another and a gifted son of Prentice, married Mary Jane Spaulding, remained on a part of the homestead, and died Febru- ary 2, 1890. One son, Charles Mason Kinne, born in 1841, rose to the rank of captain and assistant adjutant-general in the Civil war, while another son, Dr. A. B. Kinne, is a prominent and highly successful physician in Syracuse. Dr. Porter S., another son, is also a physician ; he has an extensive practice at Paterson, New Jersey. Elbridge Kinne married Sophronia, youngest daughter of Rev. Seth Young in 1837, and died where he had always lived, December 12, 1895. He was officially connected with the Orville M. E. church for upwards of sixty years. Of his children Theodore Y. became assistant sur- geon in the Rebellion, and afterward a physician in Paterson, N. J .; E. Olin adopted the same profession, and is now a prominent physician in Syracuse; Elizabeth M. married Rev. B. F. Barker, of East Onon- daga; S. Janet became the wife of W. H. Peck, of Dewitt. N. Hil- dreth Kinne removed to Oswego county and later to Michigan. Atlas married Renette Palmer, of Fayetteville, and died in 1845. Ansel E. spent most of his life as a teacher. He married Emma Merrick, of Syracuse, and was the father of Charles W., Lucius M., Mary A., Kittie E., and Chlobelle.

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THE TOWN OF DEWITT.

Ezra Kinne died in 1829; the death of his wife, Mary Young, occurred in 1824. Of their children Hannah married James Van Slyke, and died in 1823; Aaron became first a jeweler, and later a Universalist clergy- man, and died in 1846, leaving a son, Thomas Jefferson, who held the commissions of captain and colonel in the Rebellion, and became a prominent officer in the revenue department; Elizabeth married James Breed, and died in 1840.

Zachariah Kinne died July 1, 1850. Of his children Diana married Cromwell Cook, settled in Salina, and died in 1840; Rite married Polly Strong, located in Dewitt, and died in 1865; Phineas also settled in De- witt, was a miller, and died in Manlius in 1865; Esop married Lydia Beebe, located on a farm in Salina, now a part of the First ward of Syracuse, and died in 1871.

It is doubtful if another family which can be termed of Onondaga county growth has a more numerous and respected progeny than has that of Cyrus Kinne, the original founder. His descendants are re- lated by blood or marriage to a very large number of the county's pres- ent inhabitants, and for more than one hundred years have been closely identified with every branch of local development. They have occu- pied responsible and influential positions in the social, civil, educa- tional, and religious life of many communities, especially in Manlius, Dewitt, and Cicero, where the first of that name acquired extensive landed properties, which, in some instances, have been handed down from father to son to the present generation.

David S. Miller, born in Ulster county in 1796, located at an early day on a farm near Messina Springs, and for nine years was proprietor of a hotel in the vicinity of Merrill's mill. He was the father of John, Clark S., Henry J., Chandler S. and Edward F. Miller.

The following list of settlers and pioneers of the old town of Man- lius, including Dewitt, between 1795 and 1825, was preserved by Lewis H. Redfield, editor of the old Onondaga Register, and is worthy of preservation here :

Nicholas P. Randall, Samuel L. Edwards, Alvin Marsh, Dr. H. L. Granger, Dr. William Taylor, Nathan Williams, Azariah Smith, James O. Wattles, Elijah Rhoades, Abijah Yelverton, Henry C. Van Schaick, Sylvanus Tousley, Colonel Sanford, Luther Badger, Colonel Olmsted, Elijah Rust, Dr. Holbrook, William Eager, Will- iam Barker, Thurlow Weed, Moses De Witt, Jacob R. De Witt, Leonard Kellogg, Charles B. Bristol, Colonel Phillips, Harvey Edwards, Aaron Wood, Dr. Timothy Teall, the Kinne family, Aaron Burt, Oliver Teall, Elias Gumaer, Benjamin More-

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house, Daniel Keeler, Charles Moseley, Elijah Phillips, Samuel Ward, and Joshua V. H. Clark, the historian.

Many of these resided in what is now the town of Manlius, but one. and all contributed materially by their sterling worth and enterprise to the growth and development of this section.

The first town meeting for the town of Dewitt was held at the tavern of George F. Grinnell in Orville on April 7 and 8, 1835: Elijah C. Rust, justice of the peace for the old town of Manlius, presided and William Eager acted as clerk, and $250 were voted for the support of common schools. The following officers were elected :

Zebulon Ostrom, supervisor; William Eager, town clerk; David G. Wilkins, and Adam Harroun, justices of the peace; Jacob I. Low, Joseph Yarrington, and Aaron Chapin, assessors; William Wheeler and John Furbeck, commissioners of highways; Vliet Carpenter, Edmund D. Cobb, and George Richardson, commissioners of com- mon schools; William Barker, Smith Ostrom, and Hiram Holbrook, inspectors of common schools; James Van Slyke, collector; James Sisson, overseer of the poor; Josiah Millard, Charles Lewis, and William Barker, trustees of town lot; Calvin C. Palmer, sealer of weights and measures; and twenty-seven overseers of highways.

Among these names will be recognized many prominent settlers not previously mentioned, but to them may appropriately be added the fol- lowing list :

Colby Dibble, John and Michael Laden, Enos and Lyman Burk, David A. Sher- wood, Benjamin L. Gregory, Alva and Hiram Church, James Norris, David Merrill, Travis Swan, George S. Loomis, James H. King, Valentine Gifford, Ambrose Smith, Charles and Harvey Annable, Jesse Worden, Joseph Thompson (long the town clerk), Thomas Green, Henry P. Bogardus (justice of the peace for several years), Dennis Peck, Joseph W. Bostwick, Newton Otis, William Hare, Silas Chesbro, Selah Strong, William Richardson, Thomas Blanchard, Thomas Sherwood, Egbert Judson, Joseph Breed, Franklin Hibbard, Jacob I. Marsh, Gordon Adams, William and Adam Ains- lie, Alva Trowbridge, Clinton Love, John Ostrander, John Reals, Jacob and William Hadley, Benjamin Scott, Lyman W. Higby, Wareham Campbell, Joseph Edwards, Archibald Britton, William and Thomas Shull, Aaron Miller, Joseph and Philander Eaton, William Hotchkin, Larkin Bates, James A. Keeler, John S. Coonley, William Clark, and Gideon Bogardus.

Among other settlers prior to 1850 were:

George H. Alexander, William B. Sims, Josiah Millard, Edmund H. Bunnell, Jared and Liberty Ludington, George L. Marshall, James Tallman, Hosea Ludington, Philo Eaton, John Putnam, Abram and Richard Sparling, Harvey Spencer, Jeremiah Barnum, De Witt Peck, Jacob Reals, David Potter, Nathan Bunnell, Anthony Ward, Ephraim Bailey, John Wright, Peter Rust, David H. Leonard, John Pinney, Horace B. and Joshua B. Gates, Daniel Hall, John I. Devoe, Nelson and Joseph Yarrington, Oliver C. Gilson, Peter Mosher, Job Slocum, Samuel Wheeler, David Dodge, Addi- son Sherwood, Henry G. Hotaling, Levi J. Higley, the family of Holbrooks, Loomis

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THE TOWN OF DEWITT.

Marshall, William Burrell, Gershom and Jacob S. Hungerford, William Loucks, Moses Chapman, Ebenezer Perry, Peter and Jacob Hausenfrats, Solon Foster, Henry C. Goodelle (town clerk most of the time from 1847 to 1871), Elias B. Gumaer, Will- iam S. Smith, Emulus Green, Daniel Gifford, Peter D. Quintard, Stephen Wickham, John Rowley, George Terrill, Solomon Jones, Daniel Hull, Abram Lane, William Hodgkin, Alson Gates, James Hamilton, Martin Smith, Archibald Fuller, Thomas Wands, James Warner, Abram Fillmore, John F. Blodgett, Philip P. Midler, Milo K. Knapp, M. P. Worden, Peter W. Harroun, James M. Barton, Franklin Bronson, George Stevenson, Uriah Phelps, Henry Shattuck, Nelson Butts, Henry L. Pixley, William and Cadmus Clark, Lewis Moss, James Terwilliger, William L. Crossett, Lester Avery, Warren Gannett, Frederick Reals.

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Onondaga's centennial. Gleanings of a century, Vol. II, Part 10

Author: Bruce, Dwight H. (Dwight Hall), 1834-1908 Publication date: 1896 Publisher: [Boston] : The Boston History Company Number of Pages: 1094

Author: Bruce, Dwight H. (Dwight Hall), 1834-1908
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: [Boston] : The Boston History Company
Number of Pages: 1094