USA > New York > Oneida County > Rome > Our city and its people : a descriptive work on the city of Rome, New York > Part 5
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OUR CITY AND ITS PEOPLE.
location east of the Black River Canal bridge, and proceeded eastward. to the river.
We begin now sketches of places and buildings, beginning at the resi- dence of HI. K. White (formerly Virgil Draper) and which is located upon the southeast bastion of old Fort Stanwix. Prior to 1810 there was on . that site a large square frame dwelling owned by Dominick Lynch and occupied by him when here, but formerly. the residence of his son James. In 1825 the building caught fire at midday in midsummer and great effort was made to save it. An old hand engine, which in these days would hardly be considered a first- class squirt gun, was brought out, and in the effort to crowd it beyond its capacity "it bust," and then all hope of saving the building was abandoned. A few years later Mr. Draper purchased the premises, erected a portion of the house and afterwards made improvements and additions thereto. The doors throughout the house, trimmed with old- fashioned brass knobs, were taken from the burning house and are now used in the present building. In the southwest corner of the yard Mr. Lynch had an office in a small wooden building. The office of B. N. & E. Huntington was erected about 1840. A portion of the residence of Alvin Mudge was erected in 1828 by. Wheeler Barnes. At that time the trenches, embankments, and some of the pickets of the old fort remained. The old block-house was there, although much decayed and riddled with bullets. Nelson Dawly, later of Annsville, had the job of leveling down and clearing off the block- house and this part of the fort preparatory to the erection of the residence of Mr. Barnes. The house stood on the southwest corner or part of the site of the fort. In the erection of the residence in 1828 the late A. H. Brainerd was one of those who did the carpenter work and Ormond Butler did the mason work. The premises were purchased in 1837 by Mr. Mudge, who afterwards made additions and imp ove- ments to the building. The whole site of the fort was sold to Mr. Barnes for about $1, 100 and is now occupied by the residence of the
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EARLY BUSINESS AND BUILDINGS.
late John Stryker. It is to be greatly regretted that those grounds were not purchased by the town, village or State and kept sacred and un- divided.
The next building was what became and now is the Empire House. It was built and kept for a tavern ; Cicero Gould kept it in 1799 and later a Mr. Olmstead, father-in-law of Wheeler Barnes Mr. Barnes subsequently became the owner, and while residing there had his law office in a small frame building which then stood close by the street in the southeast corner of the yard. There Judge Denio, William Curtis Noyes, N. B. Judd, pursued their law studies. A little incident may be related as showing the history of those days. A. H. Brainerd had a law suit (the only one of his life) before 'Squire Numa Leonard, who kept his jus- tice office in the upper story of his hat shop across the street, to reach which a flight of stairs went up on the outside of the building. Mr. Noyes was employed by Mr. Brainerd, and after a sharp tussle, in which Mr. Noyes and his client were successful, the charge of the attorney was fifty cents ! "In later years Mr. Noyes received a fee of $10,000 from one client.
About 1830 Dr. Brown purchased those premises of Wheeler Barnes · and enlarged the dwelling. It subsequently passed to C. B. Gay, Judge Foster, and Miss Whittemore. Farthier westward on the site afterwards occupied by . Dr. Cobb, now the Palmer House, George Huntington about 1793 erected a small frame store It was later made into or used for a part of his dwelling, and now stands on the east side of James street where it is used as the Brighton Market, whither it was removed about 1850. The dwelling once occupied by Mrs. Merrill, now owned by Rufus Keeney, was erected about 1812 by George Huntington as an addition to his dwelling.
The Merrill block, northeast corner of James and Dominick streets, was erected about 1844. On the site prior to that was Levi Green's store, a large frame building which was removed and now stands on the
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OUR CITY AND ITS PEOPLE.
Black River Canal where it was used as a vinegar factory by P. Rath- bun. It is still standing, but unoccupied. In 1825 the Rome Repub- lican was removed from a building across the street to on or near the site of Armstrong's bookstore, where in an upper room of a frame. building it was published by Chauncey Beach. Mr. J. P. Van. Size was publishing at the same time the Oneida Republican. In 1830 the two papers united and removed to the Checkered building, north side of Dominick street. It may be a fact worth recording that a newspaper, the Rome Citizen, is now, sixty years later, being published on the same site.
In excavating for the foundation of the Merrill Block, or while dig- ging near there, the skeletons of three or four Indians were found. In fact, there have been found all around the fort many skulls, skeletons, guns, swords, etc, showing that this locality was an important point in the struggle between tribes or nations, and that it was the theater where were enacted some of the most important dramas in our nation's history.
Proceeding westward from the Merrill Block, with pencil and note book in hand, and spectacles on our nose, looking this way and that and taking notes and observations of the changes, and stepping cau- tiously and carefully about, lest we tread upon some relic or overlook something of importance, we came as near as any one can of falling into a well which was dug more than ninety years ago, at the intersec- tion of James and Dominick streets All that saved us from tumbling headlong into. that " hole in the ground " was the fact of its being filled up and paved over. Those now living here whose memories do not go back more than fifty years have no personal knowledge of its exist- ence; but they who remember sixty or seventy years ago speak of its having a curb around it and afterwards "a town pump" in it, with a wooden trough close by where cattle and horses were watered. No one can tell us when that well was dug.
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EARLY BUSINESS AND BUILDINGS.
We reach the American corner and on that spot dig up the fact that prior to 1800 a three story wooden frame hotel was erected on that site, extending west to a ten foot alley which was near where the jew-" elrý store of G. A. Harrington now is. In that year or prior thereto, a man named Logan kept the hotel. . Previous to 1820 the hotel was kept by one Isaac Lee and others, and since then at different times by James Thompson, Forman Coleman, Freedom Tibbetts, Benjamin Starr, Brainard Rowe and others. Mr. Rowe was landlord when the building was burned in 1846. Daniel Whedon, father of Alva Whe- don, was landlord in 1822-23.
In one of the rooms of that hotel, about 1824-25, General La Fay- ette, as he passed through Rome, held a sort of levee and was called upon by a large number of our then citizens; one related that he was then only a boy but he went in and had a site of the old marquis. .
Next west of the hotel was the "Dr. Stephen White lot " which embraced the five stores of the old Empire block. Just across to the west. from this ten foot alley was a small story and a half frame build- ing kept about 1810 by Dr. Stephen White as a hotel. The doctor in 1797 kept a tavern at the lower landing on the Mohawk, about a mile or so east of here and near where Robert Mccutcheon formerly resided. It is likely the doctor finding his tavern stand rather lonely, concluded , business would be more brisk in the village and so removed to town. About 1820 this hotel was used for stores, the west one being occupied by Peter White, son of Dr. White, as a bookstore, and afterwards by the late Jay Hathaway as a store, and who kept the post office as late as about 1840, when he removed to the southwest corner of James and Dominick streets, and afterwards to the Arcade. In the east part of the White Hotel and next to the alley, where the Cummings tailor store now is, A. A. Pavey traded thirty-two years ago. On the east side of this building and next the alley a pair of rickety stairs led to the upper. room, which was once used as a ball room and still later as a hall. In
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OUR CITY AND ITS PEOPLE.
this hall public meetings and shows were held. It was there that "Sickles's Show" of figures was first exhibited to the Romans, to the great delight and wonder of the boys as well as the men of that period.
Not far from 1843 Simon Matteson who, about 1830, had purchased this Dr. White lot of which we have been writing, overhauled that ho- tel, put a brick front thereon and closed up the alley and used it for stores. This is now a part of the site of the Empire block.
At the west end of the White lot and about where N. P. Rudd now is, there stood, the fore part of the present century, a small frame build- ing, used as a dwelling about 1820 by Stephen White, son of Dr. White; between this building and the White Hotel ran an alley to a wagon shop in the rear, used by Stephen White. This dwelling was subsequently used as a grocery by Aylmer Keith, Datus E. Valentine, and others. About 1833. Simon Matteson closed up the alley and erected a frame structure with brick front on the sites now occupied by W. II. Rudd, N. P. Rudd and John W. Wilson, and which stood there at the time of the fire of 1846. This structure was occupied in 1843-4 by Ralph Hulburt, afterwards by Howland & Hill, and still later by Nathan Smith & Co., and then by Parker & Mudge. .
The next lot west was the Samuel Starr property, or the Stephen Hubbard lot in more recent years, now occupied by P. S. Kingsley. This property embraced the four stores, or nearly so, now occupied by Wardwell Brothers, Edward Halstead, Grogan Brothers and M. M. Davis. On the site now owned by M. M. Davis there was, about 1800, a small frame building once owned and occupied by Samuel Starr, afterwards by Stephen Hubbard, and still later by Alva Mudge, who began keeping house there for the first time in 1826, and after that by Robert Walker. Mr. Starr died early in the present century and the late William Wright was his executor. After the death of Mr Starr the family removed west, most of them to St. Louis, and one of the daughters married Henry C. Geyer, who was United States senator
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ALFRED ETHRIDGE.
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EARLY BUSINESS AND BUILDINGS.
from Missouri from 1851 to 1857. About 1831 Mr. Walker became the purchaser of the Ilubbard House, and, with Jeptha and Luther Matte- son, of forty- nine feet of land for $1,000. Mr. Walker moved the house on the rear of his lot and lived there, while in 1832 he built up a frame store with brick front on the site of the Hubbard House as above de- scribed. Mr. Walker came to Rome in 1826 and began work for Solo- mon Z. Lord, son of Zelotus Lord, who then had a tailor shop on the Merrill block site, just north of where the store of Levi Green was. In 1829 Mr. Walker bought out Mr. Lord, opened a shop in a room or corner store where the express office now is. But let us get back to the Hubbard House. That house was erected by Jonathan B. Brain- ard, and all of the nails used in its construction were made by Oliver Greenwood, who kept a shop on Liberty street about where the office of Dr. Scudder was twenty years ago. Prior to 1830 there was a va- cant space where the stores of Wardwell Brothers and the Grogan Brothers now are, but where Edward Halstead is there stood in 1820 and prior thereto a small 7 by 9 frame structure used for many years by Francis Bicknell as a jewelry store. About 1825 the shop was removed to the Floyd road. In 1831 Mr. Bicknell, in conjunction with J. & L. Matteson, erected a frame structure with brick front on the space above mentioned, leaving an alley between that block and Mr. Walker's store. In that building Mr. Bicknell and Martin Rowley opened the first hardware store in Rome. Lyman Briggs succeeded Mr. Bicknell in the hardware trade and the latter returned to the jewelry business in the same block and continued until about 1860.
Mr. Jeptha Matteson came here at first in 1820, and finally. removed and settled here and began business as a cabinet maker and dealer in 1824, and continued the same more than half a century. In the build- ing of J. & L. Matteson, Cheesebrough & Leonard had a drug store, and it was there in about 1843 Mr. Cheesebrough was killed by the bursting of a soda fountain. In one of the stores of Mr. Bicknell, Adam and 8
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OUR CITY AND ITS PEOPLE.
Peter Van Patten traded for a while; up stairs in the Jeptha Matteson store Alanson Bennett, about 1833-4, had his law office, and with whom was C. B. Gay for a year or so until he completed his law study, when he opened an office for himself.
Next west of the Hubbard lot was the Bill Smith lot, embracing the stores now occupied by J. Halstead and by Stowell. On this lot was erected about 1793 by John Barnard, a pioneer of Rome, a small low frame building, where a tavern was kept prior to 1800. Subsequently and not far from 1810 a store was kept there by Bill Smith, and after- wards it was kept as a saloon and grocery by Mr. Norton, father of C. H. Norton. That building occupied the site now covered by J. Hal- stead's store and perhaps a little additional. A little farther west and where Stowell's store now is, was, very early in the century, a small one story frame building occupied at one time prior to 1820 as a saddler shop and afterwards about 1820-5 by Jay Hathaway as a store. In 1826 or thereabouts Dr. Brown purchased the Bill Smith lot, raised the roof of the Bill Smith store, added a story to the upper part and called it the " Checkered building." The store of Mr. Hathaway remained as it was until it was burned in 1846.
On each end of this Checkered building was a flight of stairs going to the upper rooms, which were used as offices. Here Judges Hay- den, Foster and Noyes had their offices. In one of the upper back rooms the Rome Republican was published by Eber P. Moon, and afterwards by James H. Harris, until it was removed in the course of a year to the brick building on the site of the block now owned by Mrs. Fanny Stevens Brooks.
In the Checkered building mentioned Alva Mudge in 1823 (the year of its completion) commenced his career in business in the east part, and the late Gen. Jesse Armstrong also began his business career in the west part. That building seems to have been an important and eventful one in many respects. There Alva Mudge, and then Mudge
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EARLY BUSINESS AND BUILDINGS.
& Brown, and Mudge & Smith, and others traded, carrying on quite an extensive business in buying grain, selling groceries, etc. There Col. E. B. Armstrong began his clerkship nearly seventy years ago, and there S. W. Mudge commenced his when only thirteen years of age. Calvin Comstock related that when a boy at work, on a farm he remembered of drawing rye (which seems to have been the staple kind of grain raised north of us in those days) to that store for sale, and of a large class of patrons going there from the northern section of the county to trade. It was in that building that the fire originated in 1846 which swept away all that side of the street from the American corner to the old Rome Bank.
Proceeding westward from the Checkered building and passing the small store occupied about 1820-5 by Jay Hathaway and crossing an alley which then ran just west of that store, and about on the site of the third store east of the passage way under the Willett House, we reach, the Hollister store, which was on the site now occupied by the store of .. F. M. Hamlin and the store next the alley now vacant. This Hollister store was a story and a half building, gable end to the street, and was built about 1810 and occupied by Alexander Lynch as a store about that time. Afterwards Mr. Hayes, subsequently a partner of the late William Wright, kept a store. In 1823 Cornelius Hollister, who owned a farm and distillery towards Lowell, had a store in company with Dr. Brown in the east part of the building, Dr. Brown having a drug and grocery store in the west part. About 1824 Dr. Brown asso- ciated with himself in business with Dr. H. H. Pope, then just beginning business, and the two continued in the trade and practiced medi- cine. About 1826 Dr. Brown went to the Checkered building. Mr. Hollister continuing alone. Joseph B. Read had a law and justice's office about 1830 in the drug store of Brown & Pope, and afterwards Mr. Hollister had a drug store there. A little west and about where the Willett House was, I. Fowler kept a saloon or grocery store.
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OUR CITY AND ITS PEOPLE.
Afterwards Dr. H. H. Pope had a drug store underneath and lived overhead. About 1832 a wooden building, used as a cabinet shop and standing on James street on the site of the residence of the late G. W. Pope, was moved to the site of the alley that led to the Willett House stables, and therein Drs. G. W. & H. II. Pope carried on. a drug store and grocery business and practiced medicine. In 1840 the rooms over . these stores of Drs. Pope were used by Albert D. Wright as a female seminary. It was in the upper story of that building that the Roman Citizen first saw the light, with Calvin B. Gay, editor, and Horace N. Bill, publisher. The first number was dated June 8, 1840. The paper, after being published in that building, was removed in 1845 to the 'Mudge-Doty block, southwest corner of James and Dominick streets.
Just west of the drug store and residence of Dr. H. H. Pope, above mentioned, and a little east of the old Bank of Rome, there stood more than ninety years ago a small frame tenement, 20 by 30, where Nathaniel Mudge lived (the father of Alva, S. W., and Nathaniel Mudge). In that house Alva Mudge was born in 1804. A few years later that tenement was removed to Liberty street to the site after- wards occupied by the residence of Edward Huntington, and was there for many years and up to about 1845, occupied by Zelotus Lord. Some of the former old men of Rome mention that when boys they went to Mr. Lord to have their shoes made or mended by the village shoemaker. :
About 1821 the late Benjamin Wright erected for a residence the brick building afterwards known as the old Bank of Rome- the third brick building erected in Rome. In this dwelling Lynden Abell began keep- ing house in 1829, paying $30 rent per annum ; and the whole premises being offered him for $1,200. In 1832 the Bank of Rome was incor -. porated and the building purchased for a residence for the cashier. A year or so later the wing part was erected for the banking house.
West of this building was the " Long House " and covering the sites
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EARLY BUSINESS AND BUILDINGS.
now occupied by the Spencer Hall block and the stores of R. Dun - ning, I. B. Adams, and the Farmer's National Bank. This Long House property was owned by Benjamin Wright and Bela B. Hyde, and prior to 1820 was occupied by them respectively as residences. Mr. Wright removed to his brick residence when it was completed, and later to New York city, and Mr. Hyde about the same time re- moved to a building below the railroad. Isaac Draper resided in the Long House for a while and not far from 1812 Abby Bullock taught school there. It. was destroyed by fire after 1850, having become quite dilapidated and the abode of dissolute and vicious persons. In front of the Long House from about 1812 to 183.5 was a row of large locusts, and so along farther east in front of the Hubbard lot at about the same time was a similar row of poplars.
About where the office of the Arlington Hotel is there was erected by. a Mr. Sweatman about 1812 or 1814 a two story frame building used
: by him for a harness shop. About 1818 E. Dorchester published in that building for a year a paper called the Oneida Observer and then went back with it to Utica. The circumstances of its being published here were as follows: In 1818 an effort was made by Utica people to procure the courts to be held in that city and which were then held in Rome and Whitestown. The Romans opposed the effort with , great zeal and were aided by the Whitestown people. To oppose the effort the more successfully the Romans prevailed upon Mr. Dorchester to remove the Observer plant to this place. He did so in the fall of that year and changed the name of his paper to the Oneida Observer, and started the paper at the place above mentioned. After battling manfully and successfully in behalf of the Romans, he returned to Utica in 1819 with his press, changed the name back to the Utica Ob- server and continued its publication there. In 1828 Moses G. Watson had a harness shop in this same building.
On the northeast corner of Washington and Dominick streets ninety
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OUR CITY AND ITS PEOPLE.
or more years ago Caleb Hammill, father of the late George Hammill, lived in a small frame dwelling then standing there. Afterwards and prior to about 1820 Reuben Hoag used the building as a blacksmith shop, having his residence in the rear, fronting on Washington street. Afterwards Amos Peckham used the building on the corner as a plow factory, and his son after him. Subsequently and not far from 1835. Henry N Kellogg had a plow factory there, and then it was occupied by Orson and H. Wheeler, and so on. The buildings on that corner have been several times destroyed by fire.
Following is the recapitulation of the buildings from the American Hotel to Washington street just before the fire of 1846 :
Ist The American Hotel, a three story frame structure.
2d Dr. White hotel building just west of the alley. Two stores with brick fronts.
3d. Two frame stores with brick fronts, where the Matteson and Budd stores were.
4th. Frame store, brick front, of Robert Walker.
5th. Just west of an alley three frame stores with brick fronts of Matteson and Francis Bicknell.
6tlı. The Checkered building.
7th. A story and a half building occupied in 1820 by Jay Hathaway.
8th. Hollister store, west of an alley.
7th. Drug store of Dr. Pope and female seminary.
10th. Banking house.
11th. Long House.
12th. Small frame structure corner of Washington street.
There were then no flag sidewalks or paved streets; hardly a plank walk the entire length ; no gas to light the streets and stores, but in- stead tallow candles shed their feeble and fickle rays in store and dwell- . ing, tending to make darkness visible, and when business closed for the night and the "tallow dips" were extinguished, Rome of fifty years ago reposed as it were in .a cloud of midnight darkness.
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TILE GREAT FIRE AND REBUILDING.
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CHAPTER VIII:
. THE GREAT FIRE AND THE REBUILDING OF DOMINICK STREET.
Before daylight of January 6, 1846, occurred the great fire in Rome, sweeping away every structure from the American corner to the Bank of Rome, and leaving not a vestige except a mass of smouldering ruins and here and there a few tall black chimneys, like so many sad, sorrow- ful, yet mute witnesses of the desolation around. The fire originated in the shoe shop of John McCarrick in the west end, up stairs, of the Checkered building, the flames spreading each way, licking up with its. forked tongues the wooden structures and making a barren waste where a few hours before were heard the hum of busy trade and the tread of thriving industry. It was a clear, cold, still night, the flames going skyward as straight and swift as an arrow, and yet spreading each way with almost equal rapidity. The next morning on the American prop- erty near the alley, George Fox, a relative of Roland Fox, was instantly killed by. a brick from a falling chimney hitting him on the head. Mr. Gordenier Freer told the writer that he stood close by the side of Mr .. Fox when he was hit and was the first to go to his assistance.
That indeed seemed a dark day for Rome, for there were at that time only a few wealthy business men here who could stand such a loss. But in that month of seeming disaster, Rome took a new departure, and by shaking off the ragged and worn out habiliments with which she had been encumbered for the previous fifty years, and putting on a new garb and appearing in better and brighter apparel, her citizens from that time took a more elevated standpoint. It often happens that what are deemed alllictions at first are but blessings in disguise, and that it is essential sometimes that villages as well as nations shall be purified by
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OUR CITY AND ITS PEOPLE.
fire, that they may be purged of the dross and come out of the trial all the purer for the ordeal. The purifiation was what was needed, and Rome has profited thereby.
In the course of a few months the work of rebuilding began and in that year Jesse Matteson and S. W. Mudge erected the new American fronting on Dominick street. In the same year Simon Matteson built the Empire block. Robert Walker at the sanie time in connection with Luther and Jeptha Matteson, closed up the alley between them and erected new stores. The late Judge Seth B. Roberts in the same year erected the store next east of where Wardwell Brothers now are ; in 1847 Mudge & Doty erected the store long occupied by them where Joseph 1I. Halstead now is, and HI W. Wilcox in the same year erected the store where Stowell now is, and E. B. Armstrong that adjoining on the east. D.r. H. H. Pope in the same year erected the three stores of Archer & Snyder, Hall & Co., and G. T. Jones & Son (now A. I. Grouse, F. M. Hamlin and the store adjoining the alley), and the Willett House, and after 1860 erected the other stores between there and the Bank of Rome, and altered that over to be uniform with the rest of the block. About 1864 A. W. Spencer built the Spencer Hall block, now owned by F. Morton, and in the same year F. W. Oliver erected the store next beyond. . About 1850 Peter Toepp built a three story brick store, now the Farmer's National Bank.
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