USA > New York > Oneida County > Rome > Our city and its people : a descriptive work on the city of Rome, New York > Part 2
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EARLY SETTLEMENT.
youngest children to the chamber and draw up the ladder after her, and thus be beyond the reach of the troublesome Indian. But her kind- ness to, and her uniform good treatment of these red men, eventually secured their good will; and for many years after she lived on good terms with them. Her remains are beside those of her husband on the old farm. In 1823 Mr .. Lester sold the Roswell Fellows place to Will- iam and Warren Rich. The latter in 1826 sold to. William Purdy, and the latter in 1836 to John Shafer. The latter in 1853 sold some eighteen acres to his son John, and in 1856 fifty acres including the old homestead to his son, Jabez. The latter sold to P. P. Smith, and it subsequently went into the hands of Dr. C. E. Fraser, William G. Den- nison and John Dorr.
Nearly opposite the residence of Roswell Fellows is a road running east to the covered bridge over the Mohawk River. Four acres on the northeast corner of those two roads were included in Mr. Fellows's 100 acres, and it has quite a history. As early as 1800 Nathan Peggs set- tled upon that corner and kept a tavern there. Mr. Peggs came from Vermont, and settled there about the same time Deacon Nathaniel Tracy located on his place further south. Nathan Peggs was the father of Mrs. T. G. Halley, and of the late Deacon Peggs, of Rome. He soon after moved on the place next north (afterwards Cyrus Fellows's farm) and the orchard to the east of the highway and near the present dwell- ing there, was planted by Mr. Peggs. He died many years ago, near the'".California House" on a farm where he then resided. A man nanied Timothy W. Wood succeeded Mr. Peggs in the tavern on that corner, and afterwards came Josiah Talmadge, father-in-law of Simeon Williams (son of Solomon Williams) After Mr. Talmadge, Benjamin Smith, a tailor, lived on that corner. He was father of Nathan, Ed- ward and Benjamin Smith and father-in-law of Dr. John P. Hartwell, the latter father of H. H. Hartwell, of Rome. Dr. Hartwell succeeded Mr. Smith on that place, and resided there at his death. The corner,
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OUR CITY AND ITS PEOPLE.
once so busy in the early days of Rome, has now all the quietness of any other farm. The houses once there have long since disappeared; and nothing but the memories of the oldest residents furnish evidence of its early activity.
The next fifty acres north of the Roswell Fellows farm belonged to his son, Cyrus Fellows, who died there in 1806. A daughter of Cyrus Fellows (Fanny) became the wife of Benjamin W. Williams; Caroline, another daughter, was the wife of Israel Starks, jr .; Polly, another daughter, the wife of Samuel H. Davis; George P., another child of Cyrus Fellows, went south at an early age, became a permanent resi- dent there, and died in Athens, Georgia. In 1823 the heirs of Cyrus Fellows sold the farm to Warren Rich. Rich sold to Ebenezer Gould in 1826; the latter to David Shafer in 1836. It subsequently passed into the hands of Nathaniel Brainerd, John Treadway, Jonathan B. Clark, W. W. West, John Shafer, jr., Henry Blazier, William Adams and Dan- iel Smith, jr.
Gates Peck was the owner of the fifty acres next north of the Cyrus Fellows farm, and Mr. Peck's land extended to the Rome town line. He came to Rome in 1803 and was a man of positive character and vigorous understanding. He was in the war of 1812 and went to Sack- . ett's Harbor in the defense of the northern frontier from British inva- sion. He died on the old homestead where his son-in-law, Capt. Dan- iel Smith, jr., afterward resided. On the southeast side of Gates Peck's old farm there stood a log house seventy or eighty years ago, where resided a man named Holcomb. At that house the eccentric Lorenzo Dow was a visitor when he came and preached in this locality, as he frequently did, and there Mr. Dow married his wife. On the south side of the highway leading from Roswell Fellows's old residence to the covered bridge, and perhaps one hundred rods from that residence are the remains of an old orchard and other signs of a former habitation. There Hope Smith resided from about 1813, to his death in the spring
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EARLY SETTLEMENT.
of 1823. He was born in Rhode Island, married early, and was a thrifty farmer in that State at the time of the Revolution ; he was in the ser- vice of his country during the stormy period, and lost most of his prop- erty. About the close of that war, in addition to his pecuniary embar- rassment, a domestic misfortune befel him ; his wife, after bearing him two sons and a daughter, became a confirmed maniac, and so remained until her death. He married a second wife about 1787, and the next year removed to Albany, in this State, and in the fall of 1794, to Floyd, . . in this county, and thence to Rome as above narrated. Mr. Smith pos- sessed strong native talents, was temperate and industrious, but the loss of his property and his domestic afflictions seem to have discouraged him, and to have made his future life one of ill luck. A painful, and protracted disease broke down the vigor of his intellect, and almost destroyed his memory. He was the father, and his second wife was the mother, of Rev. Stephen R. Smith, the noted Universalist minister and . the founder of Clinton Liberal Institute. It was while Hope Smith re- sided on that little farm on the cross road, struggling with poverty, that his dutiful son, Stephen R., was pursuing his studies, teaching school and at the same time contributing largely to his father's support.
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OUR CITY AND ITS PEOPLE.
CHAPTER II.
CANTERBURY HILL.
This is some three miles north of the business portion of Rome, and is from 100 to 150 feet above the valley of the Mohawk, a mile distant to the west. From the summit of that eminence a delightful view is obtained of the surrounding country, To the southeast can be seen a basin in which nestles the city of Utica; more to the southward looms up to the eye the hill on which Hamilton College stands ; in the distance are dimly seen the shores of the Oneida Lake; while still further away are seen the Stockbridge hills and rolling meadows and cultivated fields of the county of Madison. This locality was settled very early.
The best accounts are that Zaccheus Abell was the first settler on Canterbury Hill. He came from Lisbon, New London county, Conn. He married Eunice Colburn, daughter of Cornelius Colburn, and sister of the wife of D. W. Knight, sr., all of Lisbon. The pre- cise year Mr Abell came to this locality cannot now be learned. The account books of George Huntington & Co. show that Mr. Abell be- gan trading at the store of that firm in November, 1794, thus showing that he was a resident here two years before Rome was formed into a town. As Mr. Knight came in 1790 no doubt Mr. Abell came soon after. He settled on the top of Canterbury Hill, in a log house east of the highway, and on the next farm north of Mr. Knight's. Prior to 1810 he erected a frame house, and there he died about 1813, leaving a widow and one child. Rev. Horace Bushnell, now of Cincinnati, but who resided on Canterbury Hill over fifty years ago, writes as follows of Mr. Abell: "He was industrious and a kind-hearted man, and
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CANTERBURY HILL.
respected for his social virtues" The only child of Mr. Abell (Clar- issa) became the wife of Isaac Saxton, and the family resided on the old homestead until after the death of Clarissa, which occurred about 1834 At her death she left four minor children and her mother sur- viving her, and in 1835 Philander Selden became the purchaser of the premises. Mrs. Abell died many years ago at the residence of Mr. Knight.
The next settler on Canterbury Hill after Mr. Abell, and the first one from Canterbury, Conn., was Gideon Butts. He and his family came in the spring of 1803. Gideon and Jolin Butts were brothers. Both of them had married sisters of D. W. Knight, sr. John Butts came the same year, but later, and he settled upon the 100 acres next south of his brother-in law, Mr. Knight, at the foot of Canterbury Hill. The family Bible of the Butts family has this record in it: " Mr. Gideon Butts and wife ; Elihu Butts and wife (son of Gideon) ; moved from Canterbury, Conn., to Rome, New York State, April 13, 1803 ; arrived at Rome the 24th of April on Sunday. Moved to the new house on Wednesday, 20th of November, 1816." These dates are doubtless correct, and they show not only the time that the family came, but also that they were eleven days in making the journey.
At that time Gideon Butts was forty-five years of age, and the father of three children, viz .: Ruby, Daniel and Elihu. The first named was the eldest and then the wife of Silas Wightman, also of Canterbury, but who subsequently settled on Penny street. Daniel was the next oldest. He came in the fall of 1802, when twenty years old, and erected a log house for the family, on the four corners on Canterbury Hill, where Mr. Eychaner resided some years ago, and where Mr. Story subsequently lived. He then returned to Connecticut, 'took to' him a wife, and came back to Rome with his father and brother* Elihu in 1803, the latter then being nineteen years old and married, he . and his brother Daniel having married sisters; The
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OUR CITY AND ITS PEOPLE.
county. records show that in December, 1804, Gideon Butts pur- chased of Benjamin Huntling 313 acres in lot 48, Fonda's Patent, that purchase extending northerly towards the big gulf, and easterly so as to include the residence of Alex: Bowman. The east and west road was nearly the boundary line. The price was $1,882.
, About 1810 Gideon Butts erected a frame house on the north and south road, and north of his log house. In 1808 he conveyed to his son Elihu fifty acres off from the northwest corner. Elihu erected a frame house on his land, north of his father, in 1816, and it was into that " new house " he and his family moved on " Wednesday, 20th of November, 1816," as mentioned in the family Bible. Daniel Butts erected a house about the same time on his land, and there he lived until he sold out to a Mr. Burgess, and the latter to Alex. Bowman. Deacon Daniel Butts died on Huntington street, in Rome village; in in 1859, at the age of seventy-seven, universally respected, and leaving a large family of children. He was a surveyor of considerable note, as will be remembered by older residents. Gideon Butts died on his old homestead in 1830, at the age of seventy-two. Elihu Butts died on his homestead May 31, 1829, at the age of forty-five, and his widow died in 1868 at the age of eighty-three. Ruby (Butts) Wightman died in 1846 at the age of sixty . five.
About 1802 Grant Wheat, brought up in Lisbon, Conn., came from . Norwich, in that State, to what is now Wright Settlement. That year he worked on the farm and in the woods of D. W. Knight, sr., for a year, and then made a brief visit to his native State. When he returned to this locality in 1803 he, in December of that year, married a daugh- ter of John Butts, and went to living in the log house along with Zaccheus Abell. Grant Wheat took a contract of Mr. Huntling of fifty acres of land on the south side of the east and west road on Canterbury Hill, and next east of Mr. Abell's forty-eight acres, and about 1804 erected a log house. In 1806 he had a deed of his land
.
JAS. S. ABEEL.
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CANTERBURY HILL.
for $300, and in 1820 a frame house was erected, and where he lived until his death in 1861 at the age of eighty-one years. His was the third family that settled on that hill.
The next settler on Canterbury Hill was Abiather Seekill. He came from Canterbury, Conn., as early as 1803, and settled upon a small parcel of land nearly opposite the house of Alex. Bowman, and the the next east of Grant Wheat, on the same side of that highway. That he arrived here as early as that year is evidenced. by his signature to two subscription lists gotten up in 1802, to pay a minister in that year, of the First Religious Society of Rome. That was three years before any regular minister was installed. The first list bears date in January and the other in August of that year. On the first Mr .. Seekill subscribed fifty cents and on the other " one bushel of corn." For the erection of the church edifice in 1807 he subscribed $5. Mr. Seekill, about 1813, with his two daughters, and four sons,, removed to what was then known as the " Genesee country."
As early as 1806 there was living next east of Mr. Seekill's place, and on the same side of the road, Samuel Smith. That he was here is at- tested by his subscription of $5 to erect the church edifice, the list bear- ing date December, 1806. He had a family of eleven children and was from Canturbury. One of the daughters married Joshua Wells, of Western. The rest of the family, in 1827, moved to Waterloo, or in that vicinity, and the other children married there.
Asa Smith, brother of the above (and the two married sisters), was also from Canterbury, but he did not come until about 1811; he settled next east of his brother, on the north side of the highway. He died in the spring of 1815 leaving, a widow and three children. His widow be- ยท came the second wife of Jason Bushnell, and step-mother of Rev. 1 Horace Bushnell. One of the daughters of Asa married Daniel Bush- nell, and who resides in Oberlin, Ohio: One of the sons (Asa, jr.,) learned his trade of Rufus Barnes, and married a sister of Ralph W. 3
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OUR CITY AND ITS PEOPLE.
. Kirkland. Samuel is down for "$5.00 in masonry" on the above sub- scription list for the erection of the church edifice, thus showing that he. was here as early as 1806. He was from Canturbury, and resided, in 1811, on the east corner of Zaccheus Abell's land, but in 1815 he resided on the south side of the above road, next east of Asa Smith. His wife was half- sister of Asa and Samuel Smith. They had a family of eight children ; most of them moved to the western part of this State. Mr. Williams died in 1815. One of his daughters married Harry, a brother of Bill Watson.
As early as 1806 Hazel Lathrop came from Norwich, Conn., and set- tled east of Samuel Wilson, and on the last farm in Rome on that high- way before reaching the town of Floyd. The above-mentioned sub- scription list for the erection of the church edifice has Mr. Lathrop's name down for $5. Mr. Lathrop married Abby Kirkland, a niece of Joshua Kirkland. He went to Sackett's Harbor in the war of 1812, and was a captain of one of the companies. After the war, and about 1815, Mr. Lathrop moved from the above farm on to one further north, in Western, and there lived for a couple of years. In the fall of 1817 he left his family and his debts in the night time, went to Ohio, and then to Virginia, where he died. His wife, an estimable woman, took her chil * dren and went back to her father's home in Springfield, Mass., where she died. 'The children are worthy and respectable people.
Jason Bushnell, father of Rev. Horace Bushnell and grandfather of Rev. Albert Bushnell, two somewhat noted ministers, came to Canter- bury Hill in 1811 from Connecticut. He had served in the Revolution- ary army and married a sister of Joshua Kirkland. When he arrived in Rome, Mr. Bushnell occupied a log house standing on land of Gideon' Butts on the four corners at the hill. Mr. Bushnell was then forty- seven years old and had ten children. In 1845 he removed to Cincin- nati and died there in 18:49.
To the foregoing account of the early settlers of that locality may be .
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CANTERBURY HILL.
added the following record of the location of the various farms and honies as they were in 1811, when Mr. Bushnell came, even at the cost of some repetition.
At that time the residence of the late Andrew Vandenburgh on the road running through Wright Settlement to Western, by way of the big gulf, was the residence of Joseph Wright. The next place north was the residence of Thomas Wright, father of Joseph, who came' with his brother Ebenezer and his nephew Ebenezer, jr., from Weathers- field, Conn., in 1789 and settled there, as elsewhere recorded ; William West resided in that neighborhood in 1811 as he had for ten or twelve years previous. On the three corners next north was the residence of Dr. Clarke, and the next residence north was that of Joshua Kirkland, who died in 1833 at the age of seventy seven. It was in that house that the first steps were taken to organize the First Religious Society of of Rome. E. W. Wright lived in 1811 where his son, E. Wright, jr., resided in recent years. The next residence north on the west side of the road was that of John Butts, who came from Canterbury, Conn., about 1803 and died on the homestead in 1820. On the next place north, at the foot of Canterbury Hill, lived Col. D. W. Knight, who came from Lisbon, Conn., about 1790 and died in 1830. His son, D). W. Knight, afterwards occupied the place.
North of the school house in 1811 Zacheus Abell lived; he was from Lisbon and died about 1813. On the north end of his farm, and on the four corners, was a log house where Samuel Williams resided in 1811; he subsequently moved into a house further toward the Floyd town line; he, too, was from Connecticut. About 1810 Asa Colburn built a house and settled on the west side of the north and south road, on the four corners ; he died there at the age of eighty years; he, too, was from Lisbon, Conn., and brought with him his aged parents. North of the four corners was the residence of Gideon Butts, with whom then resided his son, Elihu and wife. Gideon was a brother of John Butts, and came
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OUR CITY AND ITS PEOPLE.
from Canterbury about 1802. Gideon Butts died in 1830, at the age of seventy- two. Elihu died in 1829, aged forty-five years. Daniel Kirkland, son of Joshua, lived on the farm next north, known as the " Gulf farm"; he came from Connecticut about 1807 ; he lived in dif- ferent places, was steward for a while of the Oneida Institute at Whites- boro, moved west and died in Wisconsin. Returning to the four cor- ners on the hill and going east, the first residence on the south side of the road was that of Grant Wheat, a native of Norwich, Conn., and came to Rome about 1802. He died in 1861 at the age of eighty- two ; his wife died a few months previous at the age of seventy-four. Next east of Mr. Wheat and on the same. side of the road was the residence of Abiather Seekill ; he moved there from Connecticut very early in the present century, and left Rome for the Genesee country about 1813; in his place came Mr. Preston, a brother-in-law of Mr. Colburn. Daniel Butts, son of Gideon, lived next east, on the place known as the'" Bur- "gess " or Alex. Bowman place. Mr. Butts died in Rome forty or more years ago; he, too, was from Connecticut, coming to Rome a short . time previous to his father. On the south side of the road and a little further east, Samuel Smith resided ; his brother, Asa, lived further east on the north side of the road, where he died in 1816. Both of the Smiths were from Canterbury. Next east (and at the Floyd town line) Hazel Lathrop resided. He came there from Connecticut about 1807. He was captain of a company (Bill Watson, lieutenant) in the war of 1812, and went with others to Sackett's Harbor to defend the northern frontier from invasion. About 1817- he went to Ohio, thence to Vir- ginia, where he died. The Bushnells resided on the east and west road near the " big rock," a little way from the Floyd line.
In the fall of 1810 Asa and Walter Coburn (brothers) came from Lis- bon, Conn., and located on the four corners on Canterbury Hill. The next year Asa erected a house nearly opposite Mr. Abell's residence and in the fall went back for his aged parents (Mr. and Mrs. Cornelius
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CANTERBURY HILL.
Colburn) and brought them on, the father being then eighty-one years old. Asa was twice married, both times in Connecticut. By his first wife four children were born; one married Silas W. Butts (son of Elihu Butts), and one became the wife of George Holzman, a former Roman. The second wife of Asa Colburn was Susan E. Parish, an aunt of Rev. A. I. Bushnell, the well known missionary. By this second marriage two children were born, one of them, L. Manning Colburn, of Wright. Settlement. Asa Colburn, a worthy and esteemed citizen, was captain in the 157th Regiment of Infantry in 1818, and his commission was signed by De Witt Clinton, then governor of this State. He died in 1868 at the age of eighty-five years, within a few rods of where he first settled, and where he had lived nearly sixty years. His father died in 1824 at the age of ninety three years, and his mother four years later, at the age of eighty four.' Walter Colburn moved to Rome village and old residents remember of his living not far from 1820, and having a meat shop.
Joseph Preston married Nabby Colburn, only daughter of Cornelius, and came from Lisbon soon after 1811, He located on the place va- cated by Mr. Seekill, and had a numerous family. They moved from Rome many years ago, and she died in 1842, in Wayne county, in this State, and the husband subsequently moved to Wisconsin and died there.
Prior to 1800 John Ely came from New Jersey to this locality, and was for some time the right hand man of John Barnard. The firm of Thomas Selden, Roswell Edgerton and John Ely was formed, and they were extensive jobbers and large contractors, and engaged in erecting buildings and other enterprises. . Before 1800 Mr. Ely leased of George Clinton 288 acres by the "big gulf," next north of the Butts farm. Mr. Ely, prior to 1807, resided on the " hill," west of the highway. About that year Daniel Kirkland, from Lisbon, Conn., located on the place which Mr. Ely then vacated, who went on the town line road north of
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OUR CITY AND ITS PEOPLE.
the big gulf, and subsequently moved near the Martindale place, where he died. He left a large family of children, among whom were Henry F. Ely, David and James Ely, who moved to Illinois, and the late John Ely of Rome.
About 1815 Thomas Jewett came from Canterbury, Conn., and set- tle upon the place east of where Daniel Kirkland first located, and there he resided until his death. His second son, Elijah Jewett, succeeded to the ownership and lived there until about 1839, when he sold out to John Lawrence, and went to reside on the road east of Grant Wheat's residence. He subsequently moved west and died there .. Elijah Jewett married first Ruth, the only daughter of Philander Waters, who many years ago resided on Penny street.
James Collins was also from Canterbury, Conn, and he came .about 1816. He married Eliza, a daughter of Thomas Jewett, and located east of Grant Wheat, and died there. His widow returned to Canter- bury. Clarissa, a daughter of Thomas Jewett, became the wife of Levi' Otis, a son of Joseph Otis, one of the pioneer settlers of Rome. She died in Clayton, Jefferson county.
About 1820 and later, there lived near the " big rock," Daniel Kirk- land and his father Joshua, and William Kittrick and others. About 1815 Lemuel Williams and his brother Loren came to Rome from Can- terbury. They were brothers of Samuel Williams, heretofore men- tioned, and both died here.
Latimer Bailey, who married a daughter of Joseph Otis, lived over sixty or seventy years ago on Canterbury Hill, west of the present school house. He died in Lee about 1877 at the age of ninety-two. In mentioning the Canterbury school house, it brings to mind, that it, too, has a local history. Over eighty years ago, a log school house, the first one on the hill. stood on the north side of the east and west road, east of the Story corner. Benjamin Wheat said that the first school he ever attended was at that log school house. Not far from
-
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CANTERBURY HILL.
1810 a frame one was erected on the brow of the hill south of Mr. Abell's house, on the same side of the highway. There Rev. Horace Bushnell attended school in 1816, and taught there eight years later. Wm. N. Adams taught in that school house prior to r815, and in that school house the great revival meetings were held in 1814, and again in 1826, the latter year under Rev. Mr. Finney, and where evening prayer meetings were held and so largely attended. About 1840 that school house was sold and converted into a woodshed, and a new school house erected on the opposite side of the highway, but nearer the corners.
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OUR CITY AND ITS PEOPLE,
CHAPTER III.
THE RIDGE AND OTHER LOCALITIES!
In June. 1790, one of the owners, of Fonda's Patent leased to Elisha Walsworth 159 acres, which included what is now known as the Ridge. Mr. Walsworth's lease required him within ten years. to plant on his land an apple tree. for every two acres. . It is not improbable that in the orchard which stood fifteen years ago near the water works res- ervoir were some of the trees planted by Mr. Walsworth a hundred years ago. Mr. Walsworth sub-leased parts of his lands to various persons and by about the year 1806 quite a collection of houses had been built and some business was carried on. Not far from that year a grist mill and saw mill were built on the west side of the river at the Ridge a little way below the bridge. This grist mill was doubtless the next one built after that of Mr.' Fellows. About the year 1812, the little settlement at the Ridge began to grow rapidly. In that year Samuel Wardwell, of Rhode Island, father of the late Judge Wardwell, settled there, bought out the various leases, demolished the old grist mill, built a new one and carried on quite an extensive business. "In 1815. he sold his mill privileges and about forty of his three hundred acres of land to David Driggs for $1.3,000, and the next year the latter sold to John Driggs. About that time a carding factory, a fulling mill and a woolen or satinet factory was operated, furnishing: employment to many persons and giving a busy and thriving air to the place. Dur- ing that active period the inhabitants of the locality believed that their settlement was to become the business center of Oneida county.
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