USA > New York > Oneida County > Rome > Our city and its people : a descriptive work on the city of Rome, New York > Part 7
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Some time prior to 1800 there was erected on the grounds where now stands the stores occupied respectively by F. E. Bacon & Co., and D. L. Greenfield, (formerly by Miner & Jackson, and T. L. Kingsley & Son), a frame building long known as the McGraw house. Why it was so called or who built it is not known. In that building in 1799 was commenced the publication of the Columbian Gazette, the first paper printed and published in Rome, the later career of which is recorded further on.
About 1807 Elijah Worthington. for $500 purchased sixty-six feet on Dominick street which embraced the site of these stores and the ground where the store of Henry Wolff now is. The McGraw house was then standing there, and occupied the ground of the store of F. E. Bacon & Co. and half of that occupied by the store of Mr. Kingsley. It was a two story frame building, with green blinds, eaves to the street, the front door in the center of the house, and the hall running through. The house stood about a foot below the sidewalk and about 1820 it and the front yard were finely shaded by trees. West of the house was an alley ; and on the west end of the lot Mr. Worthington
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about 1810 built a small frame structure for a hat store, and which he used as such for nearly or quite twenty years. In this shop E. W. Wight worked for eleven years and about 1831 went into the same business in the shop, at first in company with his former employer, and afterward alone; and there Rufus Keeney commenced learning his trade nearly seventy years ago. In 1838 Mr. Worthington sold the premises to Jackson Tibbits and built and removed to the house on northwest corner of Dominick and Kossuth streets, west of Wood Creek. Mr. Tibbits converted the McGraw house into stores, occupy- ing the west part himself for a bookstore, while in the east part S. H. Sheldon had a shoe shop or store. About 1840 Mr. Howe kept the shoe store and the building stood there until it burned about 1851. In the hat shop Col. Arden Seymour kept a grocery in 1839 and several years after ; his advertisement of "Good tea, sweet molasses and sour vinegar " was long remembered. Still later Jeremiah B. Hays, a hatter, kept a saloon in that hat store, and after him John Harrington had a saloon there, and until he removed to the Spencer Hall block. That shop was burned at the time the dwelling house was. About 1839-40 Mr. Tibbits sold the premises to Alva Mudge and John Stryker, and the latter conveyed to A. Spencer the grounds where the two stores were, and A. W. Spencer about 1852 erected the stores of Miner & Jackson and T. L Kinksley, now F. E. Bacon and D. L. Greenfield. The store where J. C. Smith is was erected about the same time by J. C. Hoyt, who was the purchaser of the grounds.
The next lot west embraced the grounds now occupied by the stores of G. W. Jones and Jones & Roberts, and extended west to an alley which ran about where the dividing line was between the stores of Jones & Roberts and Williams & Edwards. About 1800 Nathaniel Mudge (father of Alva, S. W., and Nathaniel) purchased those premises and about 1804 erected a story and a half frame building on the east end of the lot, to be used as a tin shop ; this shop was rented and used by the
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United States government as a recruiting office in 1812. Military scenes were enacted there during the war of 1812, and many Romans responded to the call for volunteers. Major Samuel Dill, a Roman was at Sackett's Harbor in the war; Joshua Hathaway was a major and quartermaster-general and for a time in command of the post, and his son Jay was a lieutenant and for a time served as paymaster, and his subsequent son-in law, Judge Beardsley, was adjutant. John West- cott was colonel of the Rome regiment and Joshua G. Green, lieutenant- colonel, and Rudd, Hinckley, Fillmore, Church, Grannis and Peck were captains who went to the Harbor to defend the frontier. Dennis Davenport and Wheeler Barnes from about 1816 to 1826 occupied both buildings under consideration for general merchandise and grain and then R. H. Hulburt and Charles P. Wetmore were there in the same business and built a storehouse in the rear for grain. Mr. Daven- port went to New York about 1827 and was in business there, but re- turned to Rome and engaged in business here in 1839 in the second store from the corner of the Mudge & Doty block. Nor for from 1835 -40 the store was occupied by Mr. Draper as a grocery and by M. W. Pruyn as a saddler, and Elias Spencer had a store there; afterward from about 1843 to 1848 L. E. Elmer and J. M. Root had a bakery there. Those buildings were burned in 1851 or thereabouts and Virgil Draper erected the two stores now there.
Where the store of II. J. Carmody & Co. (formerly Williams & Ed- wards) now is, there stood prior to 1800 a small frame building which was occupied not far from 1819 by Ephraim Shepard as a dwelling. It was the Lynch estate property and the land and block now there have not passed out of the hands of the owners of that estate. It was afterwards occupied by Judge Roberts as a law office, and continued in such use until it was burned about 1851. The brick store on the site was built in the next year by the Lynch estate. The next brick build- ing was erected in 1817 by B. B. Hyde for a store.
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Some eighty-five or more years ago there was erected on the site of the Tremont House, now the site of stores occupied by Karl Burkard, A. M Jackson & Co., and W. J. Lasher, a two story frame house with a wing on the east side. There was a passage way between it and the brick building last above spoken of. Who built the house or when is not known. The first person living there, as near as can now be ascer- tained, was Dr. Alden, whose wife was a sister to the father of Mrs. Dr. H. H. Pope. Dr. Alden used the wing for his office; he removed to Redfield. After him and about 1820 Judge Beardsley was residing there, using the wing for his law office. After him and not far from 1824, Leonard Dunton, brother-in-law of B. P. Johnson, resided there and had his tailor shop in the wing. There William McPhee worked sixty five years ago. Mr. Dunton died there about 1832 ; he was an active member of the Presbyterian church and had taken part in form- ing the Second Presbyterian (Congregational) church, but the day of its dedication was the date of his funeral. Nathan Lawton, wagon- maker, resided there afterwards and after him J. M Orton. The build- . ing was burned not far from 1838 and Mr. Orton soon afterward erected a part of the Tremont Honse and used it as a cabinet shop. Jacob Stevens subsequently purchased the premises and about 1850 converted the building into a hotel. In 1856 he gave it the name, Fremont House, that being the year in which Fremont ran for presi- dent. A few years afterward Mr. Stevens changed the " F " to a " T" making the name Tremont.
Prior to 1825 there was standing on the grounds where the block which Hamman and George Benner built about 1868 stood, a two-story frame house, which was used by tenants and belonged to Caleb Put- nam. That was the only building then standing between the Dunton house and the site occupied by Ethridge & Co., and it was there as early as 1810. It was occupied by the lowest class of tenants, was most always filled, and was considered a disgrace; it was the "Five
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J. S. HASELTON.
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Points" of Rome. At one period it was called the Catterfield House, but why no one can tell. Old citizens referred to it with shame over its existence, and at the same time with suppressed laughter over the fate which befell it. It at last became so obnoxious to the Romans that about 1828, one night in the early part of June, a crowd collected and demolished all of the upper story, first driving the inmates out. The next Monday it was currently reported and generally believed that as only the upper story was destroyed, it would be rebuilt ; to prevent such a calamity a crowd collected that evening and leveled the whole building to the ground. It is said that John Myers, who died many years ago, was the leader of the party. A judgment was obtained against him for the offense and he remained on the limits a long time, not being able or willing to pay.
About 1831 Allen and Lyman Briggs erected a frame blacksmith shop on the part of the site of this Catterfield House. A few years later, when the shop had became too small for their business, they sold it about 1834 to J. B. Bradt, who removed it to James street. There Mr. Bradt worked long and successfully at his business. Subsequently the shop was removed to the premises afterwards occupied by Rev. Mr. Harris and there made into a barn. Messrs. Briggs erected a brick shop on the site of the one removed and about 1837 it was purchased by Mr. Bradt, who carried on his trade there.
Not far from 1830 Nathan Lawton erected a wagon shop with a brick front on the site or near it of the Hagar block. That was burned about 1837. On the site about where Hammann Brothers now are, M. G. Watson about the same time erected a small building for a harness shop, which was burned at the same time with the wagon shop above men- tioned. Mr. Watson then built on the same spot another small shop, which was used for many years as a beer saloon by J. Wolf and George Benner. It was erected about the time the Astor House in New York city was built and so Mr. Jasper Lynch jokingly called it the Astor 11
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House, and by that name it was quite generally known. That shop was removed to the rear when the present block was built. The Hagar block was erected some forty- five years ago by Benjamin Lehmaer, for some time a merchant here and who removed to New York city. J. P. Hagar and George Hammann purchased the block.
As early as about 1800 there was standing where the store of A. Ethridge & Co. now is, a story and a half frame dwelling with barn in the rear, occupied about 1810 and many years after by Nathaniel Mudge, father of Alva, Nathaniel and S. W. Mudge. David Warner lived there in 1820 and many years thereafter. Jesse and E. B. Arm- strong purchased the premises of Mr. Warner and moved the house to the rear of the lot, and continued its use as a dwelling. On the site thus made vacant Messrs. Armstrong erected another frame building which was used by Tibbetts & Culver for a cabinet shop, and the east part by O. Wheeler & Son (who is now living in Vineland, N. J, ninety years old), as a plow factory. This and the Warner house were burned about 1837.
In the center of the two streets where Dominick and Washington cross each other there stood a well seventy-five years ago, from which residents in that vicinity supplied themselves with water. There was also a well at the same time in the public square at the American corner, and also one at the corner of James and Embargo streets. These three landmarks (or rather water marks) indicate where the chief part of the population of Rome was at that time. That supply of water seemed sufficient for the Romans then for extinguishing fires and for domestic purposes. The house once familiarly known as. the Deacon Peggs place, stood on the southwest corner of Dominick and Washington streets, where the Glessman- Hower block now stands, or a portion of it, eighty-five years ago. As early as 1816 a man named Cooley resided there, and had a blacksmith shop in the rear. It was for a long time called the Coorey place, Afterward the father of
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Stephen Brewer resided there, and subsequently Gurdon Huntington became the owner ; he repaired the house, added to and otherwise im- proved it. In 1830 Robert Walker resided in the rear part and in that year William Curtis Noyes went to housekeeping in the front part, there being no intercommunication between the two parts. In after years when Mr. Noyes became one of the most celebrated lawyers in this State and lived in his own mansion on Fifth avenue, when he was worth $300,000 with a steady yearly income from his profession of some $30,000, he frequently inquired of his Rome acquaintances about that house, and always referred to his residence there as among the happiest and most satisfactory experiences of his whole life, although there were then only two or three rooms in the dwelling, and nothing grander or richer on its floor than a rag carpet. Deacon Peggs moved there about 1845 and carried on the carriage business in the rear. S. R. Butterfield was then Deacon Peggs's foreman in the blacksmith shop.
The next lot west was the Parker Halleck lot. Mr. Halleck lived as early as 1813 and Judge Beardsley as early in 1817 in a house on the site where the block owned by Mrs. Purdy now stands, and used the house east where the New York Millinery is as his tailor shop. In that shop as early as 1818 the first Sabbath school in Rome was held under the guidance of William Hammill. W. E. Wright was one of the pupils. In 1823 and later it was used for a private school, where Har- riet Alden, Almira Selden, Abby Bullock and others taught at different times. There and then Jabez Wight, George F. Bicknell and others went to school when barefooted striplings some sixty-five years ago. Subsequently Mr. Gillett, father-in-law of J. M. Orton, resided there and he added to and improved the building. Afterward Warren G. Brain- ard lived there, then Dr. Cobb (1842), and after that A. A. Pavey re- sided there many years until he sold out to Mr. Applegate.
In the Parker Halleck dwelling house on the site of the Purdy block,
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Mr. Wilbur, a wagon maker, resided after Mr. Halleck. About 1823 Dr. George Brown resided there and after him Leonard Dunton, who afterward went into the dwelling on the site of the Tremont House. About 1828 Anson Parmalee resided there and after that J. M. Orton, and then Solomon Purdy, who went to. California. That house was built before 1800, and was raised and improved after 1830. We must not forget the small "vine-covered cottage" which then stood next west, and where Marriott's blacksmith shop stood in later years, and where the Smith Corcoran block now stands ; it was about half a story high and sunk in the ground. That was an old building and the first man residing there was probably Levi Howard, a Rome constable. That was seventy years ago, and it was an old house then. In those days the usual mode of conveyance into the country was on horseback; Mr. Howard did most of his riding in that way and his business was consid- erable. He had a boy ten or twelve years of age and full of mischief. The following incident was related of the lad by one of his playmates, who lived to be a gray-haired citizen of Rome: The boy was taken ill and a blister was placed on him; ne slept in a trundle bed in the same room with his parents. After they were sound asleep, and he wide awake on account of the energetic blister, he quietly arose, re- moved the blister from his own person, and put it on his father. That blister, like a faithful team, was warranted to " draw," and it did so ef- fectually that Mr. Howard did not find it comfortable to ride on horse- back nor sit anywhere for several weeks afterwards. Solomon Perry resided in that house many years and until he moved into the Halleck house.
Next west of the vine-covered cottage was John Edy's blacksmith shop, where he and John Meyers labored together sixty years ago, and Mr. Edy lived in the house next west. That house and shop were there about 1820, but were burned about 1835, and another house and shop built on the site soon afterward; there Mr. Edy worked alone until his death.
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Prior to 1830 the next house west was a small one standing where the double frame house now is, east of the brick block, on the south - east corner of Dominick and George streets. That small tenement was one of thirty-five similar structures which John Barnard had erected for Dominick Lynch in different parts of Rome, very early in the present century. The double house afterwards on that site, as well as the two between it and the brick block, were erected about 1830 by Isaac M. Pinckney, a merchant here ; Virgil Draper afterwards became the owner of the house.
Where M. M. Burlison resided, next west of the Edy house and east of the steam mill site, Dr. H. H. Pope went to keeping house in 1828. After him Isaac Draper lived there and about 1835 D. C. Bancroft re- sided there. In 1835 the steam mill building was erected by J. M. Orton, but steam power was not put in until 1845, when Michael Burns became the purchaser, put in steam, and made sash, doors and blinds. It was burned in 1856 and soon after rebuilt by Mr. Burns. A. H. Brainard & Son occupied it thirty five years ago for grinding feed, and after them, John Hook.
Reaching the corner of George street, we find that in 1815 Chauncey Filer, a carpenter and joiner, erected on that site for Col. Arden Seymour a story and a half frame dwelling. Colonel Seymour came here in 1813 and in that year procured Mr. Filer to erect a pottery on the rear of the same lot near the canal; there Colonel Seymour made earthen ware from common clay a number of years. Afterwards he removed his shop across the canal opposite where the furnace of S. Adams & Son now is, and there he manufactured stone jars from clay obtained in New Jersey, which was brought to Rome after the completion of the Erie Canal in 1835. Mudge & Doty purchased the land where the dwelling stood, removed the frame house and in 1850, or thereabouts, erected the brick block now there ; this was subsequently purchased by John West and afterwards owned by Dr. M. C. West.
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Going west on Dominick street we find that on the southwest corner next beyond where Arden Seymour lived was another of the thirty- five small dwellings built by John Barnard for Dominick Lynch. A man named Rich lived there as early as 1816 and worked in Colonel Seymour's pottery. About 1820 Palmer Cleveland lived there and had a cooper shop in the rear. About 1830 John Healt, father of D. W. Healt, moved upon the place as owner and fitted up the building. Previous to that Mr. Healt lived in a brown house which stood in the rear of where Father Murphy resides, and kept his team in stables which then stood in the rear of the Baptist church, and said to be stables John Barnard erected in 1793 when he built and kept the first hotel in Rome in that locality. Mr. Healt and Holloway Brown were the only two persons then (1828) who worked out and did jobs with teams. Mr. Healt lived on that corner until his death.
The next house west was where David W. Healt lived in recent years, erected about 1820 by Andrew Perry, father in-law of L. L. Lewis. Mr. Howard, a minister, resided there a while. He became insane, went west, and was taken to an asylum and died there. He was a brother of Mrs. Daniel Matteson.
On the next lot west was a small building occupied soon after 1820 by James McHarg, father of John B. McHarg. James McHarg worked in the arsenal, but about 1826 he started a gunsmith shop there in the front part and lived in the rear.
After passing three or four vacant lots, on which afterwards stood three white frame dwellings erected after 1840 by Seymour & Adams, there stood an old house with an end to the road, with a large chimney in the center of the building. That building was erected in 1814 by Col. Arden Seymour, for Henry Cadwell, father of Mrs. D. B. Shelley. Mr. Cadwell worked in the pottery for Colonel Seymour a number of years after that house was built. In 1828, and prior thereto, James Merrill, sr., resided there and until he went into the tanning business
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near the Seymour House site. A constable named Orrin J. Fuller re- sided in that house a number of years, and the following bit of history connected with him will doubtless prove interesting : A man named Cavana living toward Westmoreland, was some thirty years ago con- fined in the Rome jail on account of his insanity ; he seemed to talk rational and reasonable at times on most subjects, yet he was a dan- gerous man to be at large. While in Rome jail or yard he got away and went to his house, and news came that he was burning up his wife's clothing and committing other depredations. S. G Stevens, Thomas Dugan and Constable Fuller went over to arrest Cavana and " bring him back, but he, pitchfork in hand, threatened to kill the first man who came near enough to be reached ; he made a lunge at Mr. Stevens and came near running the fork into him. The three returned for reinforcements, and a number armed themselves with pitchforks and went over a second time. They surrounded him, and when he found that he was thus hemmed in he gave up. Cavana was brought to Rome, and from here S. B. Stevens and Constable Fuller started with him for Hudson, below Albany, to put him into an asylum there, the State Asylum at Utica not being completed. While the three were crossing the State Street bridge over the canal basin at Albany, pre- paratory to taking boat down the river, Cavana made an attempt to escape ; an excitement was created, a large crowd gathered on the bridge, the weak structure fell, and Fuller and Cavana and some twenty others were drowned. But to return to that building. Henry Wager, of Western, at one time owned the premises, and there Freeman Snow, millwright, lived many years and died about 1850.
About 1820 Benjamin Wright and B. B. Hyde erected a small frame dwelling near where the corner of Dominick and Madison streets is (there was no sign of any Madison street there then) where Charles Leffingwell, father of N. H. Leffingwell, resided about 1828 and L. L. Lewis in 1832 ; nearly back of that, toward the canal, was an ashery
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William E. Wright built in 1826, and which C. Hollister carried on a few years later. There was no other building sixty-five years ago until the Arsenal was reached.
About 1830 a Quaker named Wood erected, on the grounds in the rear of the three white houses before spoken of, a small furnace ; all of his business was done by horse power, and he hired teams to do that and the blowing in the furnace. About 1835 Seymour & Adams pur- chased the premises, enlarged the building and the business, and car- ried on a successful business there; about 1850 they built the furnace on the south side of the canal.
It is a matter of history that the United States Arsenal (now Bath Tub Works), where it now stands, was erected in 1813; the old State Arsenal, built before 1810, stood where the old St. Peter's church now is. Dominick street at the Arsenal prior to 1825 did not run directly west as it now does, but instead thereof turned off to the southeast of the shops west of the Bath Tub Works and between the shop and a small house, crossed Wood Creek on a low, frail bridge, and then went west parallel with but a number of rods south of the present route. The house of Daniel Matteson and other old buildings there, were erected where the road then run.
When La Fayette visited Rome in 1825 he embarked from the canal packet at the White, or Jervis storehouse, which stood southwest of the arsenal. There he was met by a large Rome delegation, many young ladies with bouquets for the distinguished guest, military on foot and on horseback, etc., and was thence escorted by that route to the Arsenal and to the American Hotel. Col. B. P. Johnson was on horseback in regimentals, having command of the militia, and Col. Arden Seymour of the cavalry, was near by on horseback. When crossing Wood Creek Colonel Johnson's horse became restive and made a sudden plunge and leap forward, leaving the rider sitting as flat in the mud as a tailor ever sat on his bench. Colonel Seymour instantly dismounted and gallantly offered his own horse to Colonel Johnson, and the offer was accepted.
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Commencing at Washington street we will now go west on the north side of Dominick street. As early as 1810 there was standing on the site where R W. Pritchard and N. Kling erected a brick block in 1871, now Roth building, a small dwelling, part of which was removed and long stood on Washington street just north of that brick building and was occupied twenty five years ago by Mr. Kling. Marcus W. Gil- bert, who afterwards removed to Watertown, occupied that house about 1814.
An amusing incident was told by an old resident relative to this Gil- bert house. There were a number of fine young ladies residing there in 1815 and a dancing master came to town in that year who took a "shine " to one or more of the girls. He went late one evening to give them a serenade. . A serenade in those days was an entirely new experience to all Romans, except dancing masters, and the family did not understand the matter at all when the Frenchman's voice and vio- lin disturbed the night air. A brother of the young ladies got out of his bed, went into the yard, drove the dancing master off, broke his fiddle into pieces, and gave him such a trimming as made him keep step quite lively to music of another sort. The brother was under the impression that the man was a burglar, or had come there to make a disturbance. The dancing master in describing the occurrence was very indignant at what he termed Tom Gilbert's boorishness, and declared that Tom knew nothing of fashionable life or how to salute a lady.
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