USA > New York > Oneida County > Rome > Our city and its people : a descriptive work on the city of Rome, New York > Part 6
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We will now consider the sonth side of Dominick street from the Black River Canal and including the site of the Hill block, southeast corner of James and Dominick streets. In 1820 the following struc- tures were standing on that portion of the street :
Ist. A frame blacksmith shop erected prior to 1820 and occupied by one Holden, and to whom Lyman Briggs succeeded about 1819. The shop stood on the east end of the lot and was the first building west of where the canal (then the feeder) now is. In that shop Col. John B. Bradt commenced work seventy years ago for Lyman 'Briggs,
THOMAS M. FLANDRAU, M. D.
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THE GREAT FIRE AND REBUILDING.
and subsequently, about 1831, went in company with his employer. The shop was removed later to make room for a dwelling which was erected on the site and afterwards, about 1850, burned.
2d. On the west end of the Briggs lot was a small dwelling stand- ing prior to 1820 and about 1812 ; who built or who lived there ex- cepting Mr. Holden, no one can tell. About 1819 Lyman Briggs pur- chased the premises and went there to reside and to carry on the black- smith shop. That dwelling was afterwards made into a double house. The space between the shop and Mr. Briggs's house was then unoccu- pied.
3d. The next building west was a smali frame dwelling standing in 1820 and prior thereto, on the site occupied by the residence of George Barnard, sr., now occupied by John Singleton.' There was then a vacant space of thirty feet, perhaps, between the Briggs house and this small frame dwelling. Who built the house or when it was built is not clearly known, though it is remembered that it stood there as early as 1812. In this building Elisha Burrows, father of Capt. Orange Bur- rows, resided along about 1812-16; he was a recruiting officer in the United States service and was so engaged at this place in 1812. He died about 1828. James Graves resided there nearly seventy-five years ago ; lie was afterwards drowned. In the same dwelling John Sheldon, father of Samuel H. Sheldon, lived many years ago, and Loren Will- iams, father-in-law of D. W. Healt, also resided there.
4th. The next building west was the Luke Frink house, standing on the east end of his lot and very near if not close to the building above I described. It was built by Mr. Frink about 1810 and he resided there until about 1830, when he removed. to the Long House and, it is said, died there about 1837. This dwelling was known at one period as the "little yellow house," from its color. Elijah Wight, who came here in 1819, resided in the Frink house from 1836 to 1841 ; subse- quently Rev. Chauncey Goodrich, who died in Utica, resided there for : « a time. 9
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OUR CITY AND ITS PEOPLE
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5th. Next west was a small frame building occupied by Numa Leonard in 1819, and prior, as a hat shop. It is said to have been occupied prior to 1812 by a man nanied Edes. In that shop Esquire Leonard manufactured hats, commencing with stripping the fur from the hides of animals, whipping it out, and going through the entire process until the hat was completed. , There 'George Barnard, sr., de- ceased, learned his trade over seventy- five years ago ; he subsequently became a partner of his employer, and then carried on the business under his own name. A flight of stairs ran up on the outside and east part of the building to the upper part, where Esquire Leonard held his courts while justice of the peace; the shop was afterwards converted into a dwelling.
6th. The next building west was the Numa Leonard house, occupied by him for nearly forty years, now the site of the residence of Mrs. Martin Hyde. The kitchen part was erected about 1800 and tradition says that it was used as a store about that period. About 1819 · Esquire Leonard built the upright part of the dwelling, afterwards owned and occupied by Charles E. Saulpaugh. Mr. Leonard came here about 1815, and his name often appears in the records of the town as holding the offices of supervisor; justice, and assessor at differ-
ent periods. About 1810 Sidney Smith resided in the old part of the house, and subsequently removed to Troy. The premises where the dwelling stood were at one time owned by Samuel Starr and by. his executors were conveyed to Numa Leonard.
7th. The premises next west were those of Henry Huntington. He came here prior to 1800. In 1807 he purchased of Robert Dill for $500 the land extending from the Leonard lot on the east to James street on the west, being 396 feet on Dominick street and 200 feet wide, extending back from said street. The old house of Mr. Hunt- ington is said to have been built by Mr. Dill quite early in the present century ; the addition to it, afterwards occupied by Dr. Flandrau, was erected by Mr. Huntington about 1822,
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THE GREAT FIRE AND REBUILDING.
8th. The rear or east end of the Hill block, now Saulpaugh block, and perhaps a small part of the grounds now occupied by the Opera House, were occupied in 1804 by a frame structure, which tradition says was used as a store about that period, making three small stores in that vicinity about that time, the others being George Huntington's store, on the site of the Palmer House, lately the residence of Dr. Cobb, and one in the building which afterwards became the residence of Numa Leonard. It was a two-story dwelling and occupied as early as 1812 and also later by James Sherman (father of Mrs. Judge Foster), who had his law office and -a justice's office in the wing part on the west side of the building. There Judge Foster pursued his law study and subsequently resided in the dwelling. Still later Pelatiah . Rawson resided there and had a school in or near a building on the site of the new bank building-the Central National; still later Dr. Cobb resided there until about 1850. The property then changed hands and the building was removed at first to the corner of Liberty and Jay streets, and afterwards to the south side of Dominick street, where it was occupied by Mr. Bell, or Bell & Pond, as a carriage shop; it was.subsequently burned.
9th. Not far from 1800 John Barnard, one of Rome's early settlers, erected a frame dwelling on the southeast corner of James and Dom- inick streets, fronting on James street, where the Saulpaugh block now In this building Mr. Barnard resided for a while. He was father of Rev. John Barnard, a somewhat noted divine. In this building Bill Smith kept store about 1814 (he having about 1810 kept a store on the site of the old Checkered building, as before stated), and for a few years he was alone in the store, and'then it was kept by him and Amos Flint until about 1823. Not far from the latter year Mr. Smith went out and Mr. Flint erected a dining room and parlors ,on the rear or east end of the building, changed it to a hotel and kept it as such until about 1832 or 1834. About that period there was considerable agitation in rela-
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OUR CITY AND ITS PEOPLE.
tion to the temperance cause-the old ,Washingtonian principles taking a pretty strong hold upon some of the people, and Mr. Flint left the hotel and was succeeded by Thomas Dugan, who in turn was suc- ceeded by Horace Putnam about 1836. The latter continued there until the Hill block was erected about 1852 and the old building torn down. Bill Smith died in Rome about 1835 and Mr. Flint died at Nyack on the Hudson a little before 1870.
The foregoing are the several structures on the south side of the street . in 1820. About 1822. Lyman Briggs erected a frame wagon shop occupied at different times by the following : Preston H. Grover as a carriage trimmer ; J. & L. Matteson as furniture dealers ; James Graves for a carriage shop; Nathan . Lawton in the same business. In that shop Isaac Knox worked some sixty-five years ago. Not far from 1831 the building was cut into two parts and one part made into a small dwelling and removed to the rear of Esquire Barnard's lot, and the other part converted into a dwelling where it stood. That building and the blacksmith shop of Mr. Briggs disappeared about the time of the construction of the Black River Canal. Subsequently two or three houses were built by Mr. Armstrong on the sites occupied by the wagon and blacksmith shops, and in one of which William H. Parkhurst resided at the time of the fire about 1850, when those buildings east of the Briggs house were destroyed.
Not far from 1830 Esquire Barnard purchased the premises he owned at the time of his death, and erected the dwelling on the west end of his lot mentioned above in 3d and where he resided for some years. A few years later he erected a dwelling next to the Briggs house, into which he moved. The dwelling he thus vacated M. D. Hollister occu- pied a while, also Nathan Lawton, John Wood and Israel S. Parker. The latter purchased the building, but afterwards conveyed it back to Esquire Barnard.
Starting from the store on the southwest corner of James and Dom-
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THE GREAT FIRE AND REBUILDING.
inick streets, and proceeding westward we note the following: Prior to 1837 Messrs. George and Henry Huntington owned sixty-six feet fronting on Dominick street, which included the sites of the Kingsley block, corner of James and Dominick streets, and the First National Bank, and extending back the same width 240 feet to the canal. There was then one building, the old store of that firm, fronting on James street, and only one on those grounds, which then stood on Dominick street, and that was the store which was occupied many years by Gur- don Huntington, and which stood on the site of the bank. That store was a lean-to east of and adjoining the Rome Coffee House, having a roof which sloped to the east. That building was erected about 1808 and was occupied as a store by Gurdon Huntington until about 1836. This store was moved off and placed on James street and there used as a grocery or saloon by the late Joseph Beecham. The only build- ing upon the lands above described prior to 1838 were those two men- tioned. That space sixty years ago was used as a common over which cattle and sheep and swine roamed at pleasure and across which ran well trodden foot paths and pretty well beaten wagon tracks. Piles of lumber lay scattered here and there upon those grounds, interspersed.' with potash kettles, among all of which the boys of that early time played hide and seek ..
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CHAPTER IX.
THIE CANAL ROUTE CHANGED AND THE CONSEQUENCES.
It is important to bear in mind that prior to 1838 and in fact up to the . spring of 1841, the Erie Canal ran through "Canal Village," and that its present route through Rome was once the channel used many years by the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company -- a canal constructed about 1798 to connect the waters of Wood Creek near the arsenal site with those of the Mohawk River about a mile east of here and near where Robert Mccutcheon formerly resided. In 1837 and prior there- to the Ronans were much interested and considerably agitated over the question of changing the old route of the Erie Canal to its present one. It was quite generally believed' that if the proposed change could be made, real estate in the business portion of the then village would greatly increase in value. Delegations went to Albany and great ef- forts were made to procure the passage of a law directing the alteration proposed. The younger men of that time and those then in the printe of life who had not secured a competence for themselves and were looking forward with hope and bright anticipations to the future, were nat- urally more zealous in the movement and more sanguine as to its. good results, than they who had acquired an ample fortune, or were on the down hill road of life and nearly at its foot. The subject of the proposed change was long under discussion in Rome and the topic of general conversation. In the spring of 1836 in a casual con- versation between the Messrs. Huntington and Alva Mudge, the latter was asked by the former what in his opinion the grounds above mentioned would be worth, provided the canal was changed. Mr. Mudge, with no previous thought of purchasing, inquired what they
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THE CANAL ROUTE CHANGED.
considered a good fair price for those premises then. Five thousand' dollars was the answer. Mr. Mudge said in reply that if the Legisla- ture made a change of the canal route, he and his partner, R. S. Doty, would give $10,000 (just double what the land was then considered worth). The offer was accepted and, although the Legislature did not pass a law directly making the change, the matter was left to the canal commissioners to do as they thought best. This was deemed equiva - lent to an alteration and the premises were transferred in 1837 to Mudge & Doty. In 183'8 the firm erected the three stores, or buildings, in one block on the site of the Kingsley block and First National Bank.
Before the buildings where the bank now is were completed, John B. Jervis purchased those premises for $4,000 and continued owner until 1851, when he sold to the Rome Exchange Bank for $6,000. In that year the bank was incorporated and started in August, with the late R. B. Doxtater, president, and F. H. Thomas, cashier. All the three buildings at that time were only three stories high with shingle roofs. After that the respective owners, added a fourth story and tin roofs. On the completion of the block in 1838, Mudge & Doty occupied the . corner store for dry goods, Dennis Davenport the second one, and Ben- jamin F. Jervis and a Mr. Brayton the third one. About 1840 George Brown succeeded Mudge & Doty in the corner store and the latter took the third store, vacated by Jervis & Brayton. In 1839 Mudge & Doty erected the brick block on James street known for a long time' as Wash - ington Saloon, and subsequently occupied it for a hardware store in connection with their dry goods. About 1842. a portion of the corner store was occupied by Dr. Cobb for a drug store, and about 1844 Mudge & Doty again occupied the corner store for groceries, the sec- 'ond one .for hardware, and the third one for dry goods.
The Fort Stanwix Bank was organized in 1847 and began business on that corner in February, in 1848, with David Utley, president ; and H. T. Utley, teller. In the third story of the corner building the Roman
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OUR CITY AND ITS PEOPLE. .
Citizen was published from 1845 to 1849. About 1850 and later P. B. Langford occupied the second store for hardware, and afterward Pell & Wright and then H. W. Pell carried on the same business there ; still later L. L. Lewis used the store for an insurance officeand built up a large business.
Not far from 1849 Nathaniel Mudge, one of Rome's pioneer mer- chants, conducted a dry goods trade in the third store and after him Isaac T. Miner carried on the same business there and was succeeded by the Rome Exchange Bank.
The Rome Sentinel was removed to the second and third floors over the bank early in 1852 and on July 15 of that year the first number of the Daily Sentinel was issued. The weekly was published there until 1863, the daily having meanwhile, in 1860, been discontinued ; in 1863 the office was removed to its present location on James street.
Previous to 1800 a tavern called the Rome. Coffee House was erected on the ground now occupied by Jonas W. Armstrong and Smith & Hammann, formerly E. H. Shelley and H. W. Mitchell. The main part was of wood, three stories high, and on the east was a wing or lean- to two stories high with the roof sloping to the east, while on the west side was a similar wing, the roof sloping westward .. It was, kept in 1800 by Solomon Rich who subsequently removed to Western. Not far from the year 1804 and later Parker Halleck kept the hotel and be- ing a tailor he worked at his trade in the bar-room. In the chamber of the upright part the Columbian Gazette, the first paper printed in Rome, was published for a while in 1800 by Walker & Eaton ; it was removed to a building then standing on the west side of James street. The Masonic fraternity of Rome held their regular meetings in one of the. upper rooms of the Coffee House prior to the erection in 1824 of the Masonic Hall, which later became the Universalist church.
Not far from 1818 the Coffee House was kept by Charles Graham, and soon afterward by his wife. On the Ist day of April, 1827,
THE CANAL ROUTE CHANGED. 73
Henry Tibbits became its purchaser for $1,100 and kept it as a hotel until April 1, 1839. A jollification meeting was held in that old Coffee House by some old Roman citizens who were interested 'in the Bank of Rome in 1832, when they received news of the passage of the law authorizing the establishment of the bank ; that ' was indeed a great era in the history of Rome and had an important bearing on her future prospects. In 1839 the lower part of the Coffee House was converted into stores and the upper part used for dwellings. The east store was occupied by E. W. Wight as a hat store, where he was succeeded about 1842 by a Mr. Avery who kept a dry goods store. He was succeeded by William McPhee, who · was a tailor. The west store was occupied in 1839 and two or three . years later by Alva Whedon, S. B .: Stevens, and Thomas Dugan as a grocery store, and afterward by G. B. Morse and E. M. Hinckley, and still later, in 1843-4. by H. W. Tibbits & Co., who were there at the time of the fire.
On the 22d of February, 1844, all the buildings then standing between where the First National Bank now is and the new building of the Central National Bank were destroyed by fire ; in the same year Henry Tibbits built the block now occupied by James W. Armstrong, and Smith & Hammann. In its third story was Tibbits Hall, for many years the main and only public hall in Rome and which was in its day 'considered as much of a hall. as the later Opera House was. In it shows, concerts, public meetings and lectures were held as they were at a much earlier date in the hall of the Stephen White hotel. In 1848-50, when Rome was without a court house, the courts were held there, and the writer remembers .a number of legal contests and forensic efforts in important trials between J. A. Spencer, Henry Foster, C. P. Kirkland, Thomas H. Flandrau, A. Bennett, Charles Tracy, B. Davis Noxon, and other eminent lawyers of that time.
On the first day of April, 1867, just forty years to a day from the 10.
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OUR CITY AND ITS PEOPLE.
time when the property was purchased by Henry Tibbets, his son, H. W. Tibbits, devisee, sold the premises for $15,000 to H. W. Mitchell. The alley just west of it was originally a ten foot alley. Where the store occupied by John G. Bissell, formerly G. N. Bissell, is there stood very early in the present century a red frame store one and a half stories high, which was used as such about 1814 and several years later by Jay Hathaway. When Mr. Hathaway moved across the street about 1823, John Eddy succeeded him in this red store. It was an old building and rotted down or was taken away about 1828. In that year Gen. Jesse Armstrong and Martin Galusha, who had become the own- ers of the premises, erected a three-story frame building on that site, in which they carried on business in general merchandise, stoves and tin- ware. That building was burned in the fire above mentioned and the present building was erected in 1844 and occupied by Mr. Bissell.
The next building west and where the store of F. E. Brockett, formerly J. D. Ely, now is was a two-story frame structure erected about or soon after the year 1800. Dr. Matthew Brown conducted a drug store there prior to 1810, and afterwards he and Dr Blair were associated there in the same business. In 1811 Dr. Brown sold out and removed to Rochester. Not far from 1815 Stephen Hubbard had a store there and a year or two later he and Oliver Grosvenor were in company there, and continued until 1826. In 1827 Dr. Arva and Abner B. Blair kept a drug store there ; afterwards Charles Brown was in business there and also Lyman Briggs, and then Merrill & Hayden had a grocery and continned there until the fire. Over the store the law firm of Foster, Stryker & Tracy had an office prior to 1838, in which year Tracy retired and went to Utica and C. Comstock took his place in the firm. The present building was erected by Henry G. Giles in 1844, who purchased the premises of Dr. Blair and sold them to Leonard House, and he sold in 1866 to J. D. Ely.
It was in the upper part of this building that Oliver Grosvenor had his school, which is noticed further on,
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THE CANAL ROUTE CHANGED.
Prior to 1810 the grounds between the store of G. N. Bissell & Son and the building erected by the Central National Bank were owned by Stephen Hubbard, who had a store on the site where F. E. Brockett now is. Next west was an alley and then on the grounds where the New York millinery store (kept by Miss Milligan) now is was a small frame structure, supposed to have been erected by Mr. Hubbard, and which was occupied by a millinery shop about 1816 by Miss Marsh, who afterwards became Mrs. Arden Seymour. Henry Hayden, father of Cyrus Hayden, and Mrs. A. Sandford, occupied the building as a shoe store about 1826, and after him Numa Leonard sold hats there, and after him Esquire Barnard was engaged in the same business in the same building at the time of the fire in February, 1844. Next west, where the stores of Casey Bros. and S. G. Visscher stand, was a story and a half wooden building occupied prior to 1820 by Dr. A. Blair for his office and drug store ; after him Silas Lewis had a shoe store there and after him Amos Parmalee erected a building below the rail- road where Morgan L. Brainerd formerly resided, and later L. Hower & Son had a store. Jesse Bennett, brother of the late Alanson Ben- nett, kept a jewelry store there. He afterwards removed to Oswego, and after him and not far from 1832 Francis Butler conducted a jewelry store in one side of the building and his wife a millinery shop on the other side. About 1836 Francis Bicknell succeeded Mr. Butler and kept a jewelry store there, and Miss Charlotte Cowles succeeded Mrs. Butler in the millinery business in the same store. In about 1842 Andrew Conlon kept a dry goods store about where Wolff & Doyle's store now is, and in his place of business the fire originated in Febru- ary, .1844, which destroyed all the buildings from that point east to and including the Rome Coffee House. Not far from 1827 and per- haps prior thereto A. & A. B Blair purchased of Stephen Hubbard all of this property from the store of J. G. Bissell (successor to G. N Bissell & Son) to the Central National Bank building. In 1844 were
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OUR CITY AND ITS PEOPLE.
erected the buildings now there. The west building was an arcade in which the post-office was kept from about 1845 to 1852, when it was removed to Elm Row.
The ground where the bank building is was vacant until 1817, when the late William Wright built on that site a brick building to be used by him for a store. Mr. Wright occupied the building a number of years. Not far from 1834 Joseph Stringham, who was the first cashier of the old Rome Bank, became the owner of the brick store and also the grounds across the alley where Spencer & White's store now is, which also belonged to Mr. Wright. Mr. Stringham sold the store which was afterwards the bank building, about that year to Judge Roberts and he to J. B. Bradt, and the latter conveyed to the bank. The building was twice burned out, although the walls were not de- stroyed. Peter R. Worden, afterwards of New York city, had a store there about 1839. In 1844 Peter Van Patten occupied the west part of the store with dry goods and Henry Seth Roberts the east part as a book store. Judge Roberts sold the premises for $7,000 to the bank in 1854, when that institution was incorporated.
Passing across the alley we reach the site where Spencer & White now are. These grounds were purchased by William Wright of John Barnard about 1804. There was on that site about that time a frame building, one and a half stories high, used by Mr. Wright for a store ; on the east side next the alley was a lean-to which he used for a count- ing room. After he built and moved into the brick store east of the alley he rented the frame building thus vacated for a store and the lean- to for a shop or office. In the store Isaac Draper traded previous to or not far from 1820. Elam Warner was also there, and after him and not far from 1823 Drs. Blair and Furniss had a drug store in the build- ing. After them Charles Brown kept a grocery there and made a spe- cialty of selling Rochester flour; he was formerly a soldier at the United States Arsenal, and not far from 1826 kept a bake shop on
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James street, a little north of T. J. Broderick's store, formerly Mr. Mi- ner's bookstore. About 1835 he built the house on Liberty street where Mrs. L. E. Elmer now resides. A. Bennett had his office in that lean-to not far from 1825. In 1834 or thereabouts John Bryden pub- lished the Rome Telegraph in the back part of the main building, the entrance to the printing office being from the rear part of the alley. In that office George F. Bicknell served as a printer's devil and learned the art of type setting more than sixty years ago. Not far from 1835 Jacob Stevens became the owner of the premises and soon afterward changed the building to a hotel, calling it the Farmer's Hotel. It was kept by him until about 1850 when Messrs. Doxtater, Brayton & How . land purchased the premises and erected thereon the store now occu . pied by Spencer & White.
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