USA > New York > Oneida County > Rome > Our city and its people : a descriptive work on the city of Rome, New York > Part 8
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About 1820 Levi Green resided in that dwelling and it was long known by his name. Martin Rowley resided there in 1828 and many years afterward.
The next house was the Grosvenor place erected as early as 1810 by Philip Filer. Judge Wardwell lived there in 1816-17 and was suc- ceeded by Judge Wiley. Oliver C. Grosvenor resided there a great many years and died there, and after his son, Oliver D. Grosvenor, 12
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resided there many years. Jacob Stevens owned the property and resided there at the time of his death in 1871.
On the west end of the Grosvenor lot was a small wooden building used at first by Mr. Filer for his shop, and after that Judge Wiley resided there a while and after him John Eddy, who kept a store in 1823 on the site so long occupied by G. N. Bissell & Son, and now by J. G. Bissell. Lynden Abell, Mrs. D. E. Wager's father, resided there about 1831 and after him Henry G. Giles. The building was after. wards removed to the rear of the lot.
Next west of the Grosvenor place is the Purdon lot. On the west end of this an old double house, eaves to the street, stood as long ago as 1804 or thereabouts ; it is not known who built it or lived there at that early date. Mrs. Bradley, sister of Luke Frink, resided there about 1817. About 1823, and perhaps earlier, it was occupied by G. W. Pope, and about 1828 by Capt. John Westcott, who went there to reside after he sold his residence on James street to Judge Roberts. After Mr. Westcott, Joseph B. Read, then Isaac Draper, Morris Chap- pell, S. R. Butterfield and others resided there. After James Purdon purchased the premises he built the house on the east end of the lot which is now occupied by Mrs. Henry Hager. Mr. Purdon was a car- penter and before his removal to town occupied the house on the Turin road where Nicholas Spring formerly lived; his daughters however occupied the old building and did dressmaking there. The first work done by Mr. Purdon after he located on that lot (about 1851) was the erection of the passenger depot of the Rome, Watertown and Cape Vincent Railroad just west of the Central depot. It was a small red frame structure and was afterwards used for a dwelling on John street a few rods from where it first stood.
East of where White's Hotel now stands there was a little old house standing seventy-five years ago, which was occupied in 1817 by John Lewis, father of L. L. Lewis, and soon after 1820 by John Shepard who
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worked for Deacon Worthington. Afterwards John Edy and then John Myers lived there, and still later a man named Mahany. The wife of Mahany was intemperate and one evening when she was drunk a child rolled out of her lap upon the hot cook stove and was burned to death. The husband came home and was so angry that he gave his wife a severe mauling. A coroner's inquest was held in the office of Judge Roberts on the body of the child. Francis Bicknell was coroner and Moses G. Watson one of the jurors. The verdict was condemna- tory of the woman and she was in jail some time, but was finally released without further punishment. To add to the misfortunes of the family, their boy was drowned soon afterward. A house on that site was erected by John B. Bradt about 1850, and gave way to part of White's Hotel and the New York store. On the next lot west at its west end and close to the old long house now there, a house stood before 1810, which was occupied about that time by a man named Elliott and after- ward by Elijah Snell. Richard Dunning, sr., lived there for some time. In April, 1818, Judge Roberts began keeping house there, continuing until 1829, when he removed to the house on James street where he died. Mr. Davenport afterwards resided there and then A. B. Blair. The house was torn down many years ago and the house on the east end of the lot, where the Hook block stood, was built by Glen Petrie, deceased.
The next house west and close to Judge Roberts's house, was an old long house where Jay Hathaway resided twenty years prior to 1836. Peter Frear, G. W. Taft and others occupied it afterwards.
Where the house occupied some years ago by Mrs. Henry Hayden stands there stood seventy-five or eighty years ago a small red frame dwelling owned and occupied by Simon Matteson as early as 1820; after him and about 1828 Alanson Bennett lived there, having there begun keeping house. It was finally torn down and Wheeler Barnes erected on the site a large frame house, which was burned and re- built fifty years ago. J. B. Brainard lived there at one period.
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The house that was removed by Dr. H. H. Pope to the west side of George street fifty or more years ago, formerly stood where Mrs. Henry Hager now lives. In that dwelling Horatio N. Carr, Mrs. Caleb Putnam, a Mr. Davenport and S. B. Stevens successively resided. Dr. Pope purchased the property and removed the dwelling, erecting the one now standing there. The new house was occupied at different periods by H. C. Vogell, Dr. Perkins, James Merrill, jr., and finally. J. P. Hager and Henry Hager, who died there.
About 1820 there was a small building erected and used as a cooper shop by one Gorton on the northeast corner of Dominick and George streets, where Mrs. McPhee's house now stands. Joshua Kirkland owned it prior to 1820. About 1828 Don A. Lewis lived there, hav- ing had it fitted up as a dwelling. Tarsus Hungerford built the latter residence there about 1830.
The old part of Dr. H. H. Pope's house on the next corner west, where Mr. Pope has just died at the age of ninety, was built for a carpenter shop about 1816 by Moses Gilman, and was afterwards fitted up for a dwelling and Mr. Gilman lived in it, building another shop on the same lot and farther west. This was also made into a dwelling and Albert H. Pope resided there. About 1828 Rev. M. A. Perry, an Episcopal minister, resided on the Dr. Pope corner and had a school in the Albert Pope dwelling in the rear, which he successfully con- ducted a number of years.
The next house west, where William Parker resided twenty- five years ago, stood seventy or eighty years ago on the site now occupied by W. N. Rudd's store. It was the residence of Stephen White and in 1828 was purchased by Moses G. Watson and removed to its later location ; he resided there a number of years and in 1834 sold it to Peter Servey, who also lived there.
On the grounds now occupied by the dwellings of Sanford Adams and Mrs. Eri Seymour there stood seventy-five years ago two small
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houses, one occupied by William McClenehan for his residence and the other for a cooper shop. Later the shop was transformed into a dwelling in which a son of Mr. McClenehan lived about 1828. About 1835 Seymour & Adams purchased the premises, tore down or re- moved the houses and built the frame residences there now.
The two-story frame house with eaves to the street just west of the premises just described was Philip Perry's blacksmith shop in . 1820, and was remodeled into a dwelling by Martin Galusha. About 1823 it was occupied by Rev. David Morris, who was the second Baptist minister in Rome. The house was afterwards built over.
Prior to 1830 there was no other building on that side of the street until the farm house of Dominick Lynch was reached. That house, with two or three barns around it, stood on the east part of the farm at that point. On Liberty street the farm extended down to Washing- ton street and in 1830 a fence ran across that street from the Universalist church to what was then Francis Bicknell's residence. The Lynch farm was carried on in 1825 by one Massey, and about 1830 by Daniel Dickinson, father of Ed. Dickinson. Thomas Dugan resided there at one time. The house near by, which was occupied some years ago by C. M. Greene, was built by a Mr. Coates, who came from Trenton and worked for Seymour & Adams.
The small house standing until within a few years on the northwest corner of Jay and Dominick streets, was there seventy years ago, when it was occupied by Mr. Larkin, who worked in the arsenal. That was the last house on the street going west before reaching the arsenal. There was a small house occupied by 1826 by David Stillman, who also worked in the arsenal, which stood cast of Jay street near the corner where Edward Evans lives. The house where Dr. Post resides was begun by Peter Warner in 1848, but was purchased and finished by Mr. Lewis in that year.
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CHAPTER X.
CANAL VILLAGE IN EARLY YEARS.
No part of this city presents greater changes and improvements than the section south of the canal, which has been known far many years as Canal Village. Prior to 1820 there was not a solitary build- ing of any kind between the railroad track and what became the site of the County Poor House, now the Custodial Asylum. All that in- tervening space was simply a swamp, so wet and miry that if a man slipped off from a log, which here and there stuck above the surface, he was quite sure to sink in to his knees and in some places to his hips. This swamp was also covered with timber and large thick underbrush, and as late as 1825 there were woods on the site of the Franklin House and also where the freight house was built. A road had been cut through this swamp and a crossway of logs laid down the whole distance, so that teams could pass over it in winter ; but in spring, summer and fall, up to 1819, the crossway was impassable. In the winter of 1817, the Legislature granted a charter to Jeremiah B. Brainard and Isaac G. Green and their associates to construct a turnpike on that route. The road was built and on October 20, 1819, the first tolls were taken. J. Burr Brainard, who came here Septem- ber 10, 1813 (the day of Perry's victory on Lake Erie), shoveled the first gravel upon this turnpike and took the first tolls. He was also a worker on the Erie Canal when it was commenced in 1817.
The turnpike having been finished and the old Erie Canal opened from Utica to Montezuma in 1820, so that tolls were being taken on both, Mr. Brainard built in 1820 a tavern called the Mansion House at the old canal. As it was difficult, if not impossible, to purchase
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land of the then owner, the Mansion House was built on the south side of and close to the canal, and across the turnpike, on land belong- ing to the Turnpike Company. That was the first building erected south of where the railroad now is and was kept as a hotel at the toll gate. The names of the persons who at different times kept the hotel were James Thompson, Benjamin I. Starr (both of whom also kept the American in later years), J. B. Brainard, Charles Mosely, and M. D. Hollister.
The next building erected, and in the same year, was by the State, and was on the west side of the turnpike and extended over the canal. As the Dutchman said of the pig he was trying to drive out of the lot where there was a stream of water, " She vas on both sides of the vater at the same time." Here the canal tolls were taken, and underneath and across the canal a gate or chain was stretched to intercept boats until the tolls were paid. B. B. Hyde was the first collector, and Thomas J. Hyde, clerk. Col. John Westcott, of Rome paid the first canal toll upon a raft of timber. The building under consideration was painted yellow and was built on piles sunk in the marshy ground. A year or two afterward the building was purchased by B. B. Hyde, placed wholly on the north side of the canal, additions made to it and converted into and used by him and N. H. Leffingwell for a warehouse ; it was the first one in Rome. It was then painted red and subsequent- ly became the brewery of John O'Neil; later it burned.
The next house built there was the Canal Coffee House, in 1824, by Daniel Whedon, father of Alva ; it stood on the north side of the canal and east of the turnpike. It was a two story tavern and was kept at different times by Alva and Hiram Whedon, Norman Butler, Samuel Henderson, A. J. Roe, and Marvel & Sons. It was burned years ago after the canal was moved to its present channel. The next building erected was in 1826; it was a small cheap grocery, built by John O'Neil, just west of the Mansion House.
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The first private dwelling built in that section was by Hiram Whedon in 1826, and is there now on the corner of the turnpike and Wright street. Alva and Hiram Whedon resided there a number of years. They also erected in the same year a cooper shop a little farther north of the dwelling. It was used in 1835-38 as the first place of worship of those who afterwards formed the St. Peter's church. Father Beecham took charge of the congregation in 1836 beginning his long and useful career in Rome. The building was later changed to a dwelling. The next house was built about the same time by William Rich. In 1825 E. Shepard, a watchmaker, built a small dwelling a little far- ther north on the same side of the turnpike, where Peter Goodier after- wards resided. About 1826 James Farquharson erected a dwelling west of the turnpike and on the corner of Wright street and went into the butchering business. Within a year or two he erected three more houses near by. These stood there many years.
The next year William White erected a dwelling and blacksmith shop adjoining or near Farquharson's building. The White dwelling became the kitchen part of Barbara Reh's house. In 1823 Elisha Wals- worth, sr., erected for Samuel Henderson a bakeshop near where the public school house now is, which was occupied in 1871 by Joseph Williams. Alva Whedon went there to keep house first in 1829 after his marriage and resided there until 1837, having built an addition. In 1826 J. D. Gage erected a dwelling north of the canal and east of the Canal Coffee House on the tow path of the old canal.
In 1826 Holloway Brown erected the upright part of the building known as the Leffingwell place, near the railroad. B. B. Hyde pur- chased those premises and built the addition to the house and resided there some years. After him H. N. Leffingwell owned the premises and lived there. The property was later owned by St. Joseph's church.
In 1828 the building so long occupied by L. Hower & Son, corner of James and Harrison streets, was erected by A. Parmalee, a boot and
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shoe dealer who had his shop where Casey Brothers now are. B. B. Hyde resided there a while before going into the Holloway Brown house. Giles Hawley first began keeping house there in 1833. M. L. Brainard resided there a number of years.
About 1827 Orrin Powers erected a red storehouse south of the canal and east of the turnpike nearly opposite the Canal Coffee House. It afterwards passed to Judge Roberts and was known as Roberts's storehouse. Samuel Henderson was in it for a time and afterwards (1832) Levi and Jotham Scovil traded there. R. Dunning was in busi- ness at the old canal and L. Abell kept a bakery there some sixty years ago. We have now enumerated all the buildings that stood be- low the railroad prior to 1830.
Canal Village had a slow growth during the first ten years of its ex- istence, as the foregoing history shows. Not far from that year German emigrants began to arrive in Rome but most of them went north to Constableville, Leyden, Turin and elsewhere. They began soon after that year to remain in Rome ; some went to Coonradt Settlement and some settled in Canal Village. A change in the canal in 1844 to its present route resulted in coaxing away about all the Yankees in that section. The German immigrants increased, and as land was cheaper there, they settled in that locality, and the principal growth was within the next twenty-five years thereafter. The Central railroad was com- pleted through here on July 4, 1839. The Railroad House, now the Ontario and W. R. R. Depot, was built the same year by H. A. Fos- ter, Edward Smith doing the carpenter work. It was built on piles, the surface of the earth all around that locality being some ten or fifteen feet lower than it now is.
In a little house which stood fifty or sixty years ago in a corner near the railroad, west and back of the Railroad Hotel barn, Barney Hoy, father of Tom Hoy, lived and died. As that family was one of the well known institutions of Rome, it should not be neglected here. The wife 13
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of Barney died in the county poor house, she being insane, and there Tom and his sister, the latter also insane, afterward lived. Barney Hoy and Tockle Hempstreet were both great wood sawyers in their day and introduced into Rome the modern saw horse. Hempstreet reformed and became a sober man before he died.
The locality between the railroad and canal must now be considered. Frequent mention has been made of John Barnard, one of Rome's early settlers and as one of the enterprising business men of this place and erected more buildings in his day than any other dozen men. He was about the only man who had the ear of Dominick Lynch, the landed proprietor, and who could obtain lands on which to erect buildings. In looking through the records in the county clerk's office in Utica we find that Mr. Barnard, becoming involved in pecuniary matters, in August, 1799, assigned to Caleb Putman, a tanner, all his property for the bene- fit of his creditors. . The deed of assignment was drawn by T. R. Gold, a noted lawyer of Whitesboro, and among other real estate, con- veyed all the lands that Mr. Barnard owned south of the present Erie Canal. The real estate was mentioned as being seventy-two acres of " pepper corn lots," and also embraced the land now covered by the Bingham, formerly Armstrong block, and so down south, as to include the site of the Railroad House, and depot buildings. The house occupied by Mr. Putnam was nearly opposite the site of the office of E. B. Armstrong, a little way east from James street, and not many feet from the then canal of the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company. The tannery building was in the rear of the dwelling, but nearer the canal. The barn was in the rear of the later blacksmith shop of Joseph Hig- gins and his son. The remainder of the land in the triangle formed by the canal, James street and the railroad, was occupied by vats and bark mill (and in 1820 by a slaughter house) and covered by tan bark. The grounds thereabouts and below the railroad was marshy and tan bark was spread thereon down to near the Franklin House, where the woods
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commenced, to better enable a person to keep on the surface. Who erected the foregoing buildings is not known, but probably Mr. Putnam had some share in it, as he was an enterprising and wealthy business man. This was the first tannery erected in this part of the country and was a costly one. Mr. Putnam also owned the Catterfield House, be- fore described, and what was known as the Butler farm north of Rome on the road to West Branch, beside other property. In 1819, while lookin , through the woods to the south, he fell upon a log and a knot penetrated his abdomen, inflicting an injury from which he died. On his death his property went to his children and Horatio N. Carr, his ~ son in-law carried on the tannery a while, but the building gradually went to decay and the business did not flourish. An execution was issued against Carr not far from 1837, and the grounds in the triangle and where the Armstrong and Beecham blocks and the Railroad Hotel were built (he having purchased of the other heirs) were sold on the execution and bid in by Judge Foster. About 1837 Rufus Tiffany lived in the Putnam house, and used the barn and other out buildings for a livery and to keep his horses in, he at that time running a stage from Rome to Tnrin. When the Erie Canal was changed to its present loca- tion in 1844, the Putnam house and tannery were torn down to make room for the enlarged canal, and the other buildings had in the mean time been removed or gone to ruin.
In 1843 B. B. Hyde and N. H. Leffingwell erected the red storehouse which stood on the east part of the Putnam property on the bank of the canal ; that storehouse was sold to James Merrill, jr., and then to N. B. Foot, John Stryker and B. G. Bloss. It was burned in 1853 and on a portion of the site the later brick block of N. B. Foot was erected by Mr Foot and H. E. Shaffer about 1855.
In 1842 Parker & Mudge erected the white storehouse which stood west of the red storehouse and extended to James street. In the part next to the street W. O. McClure opened in a small room and in a
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small way a bookstore forty-five or more years ago, but he enlarged his business so as to require his removal to more commodious quarters 'Parker & Mudge sold the white storehouse to Edgerton & Gage and that firm' sold to the Rome & New York Line about 1853. In the course of two years thereafter the building was consumed by fire, burn- ing to death a man named Miller, who lodged there. Miller was an eccentric person who had got out, but returned to secure a bag of hoarded gold and lost his life. The Rome and New York Line built the storehouse building now occupied by H. L. Rose, southeast corner of James street and the canal, and which covers part of the site of the white storehouse. The store occupied by R. M. Bingham for many years on the northeast corner of James street, was erected by N. B. Foot and H. L. Rose about 1869.
.On the opposite side of the street from the tannery property there stood close by the canal and near James street, a building with a base- ment .; it faced the canal, appearing to have been built for a tavern. It was rickety and out of use seventy-five years ago. Close by this tavern, but a little to the west and on a knoll stood a small meat shop occupied in 1820 by Mr. Andrus and afterwards by Walter Colburn. It was re- moved and in its place was erected a small frame dwelling occupied by Ormond Butler, Walter Colburn and Martin Rowley, where the latter died about 1841. This house stood back of or near the rear part of E. B. Armstrong's office. It was in 1842 removed to the north side of Liberty street across the street from N. P. Rudd's house. ·
It is important to bear in mind that Front street, now running west toward the lumber and coal yards, was not there fifty years ago ; in- stead a lane or alley ran out from James street about where the express office stood in 1870 (the store of L. Hower, jr., now), in the middle of the Armstrong block, and so off toward Washington street. On the south side of that lane and on the corner of James street a barn stood about 1830-40, which was used by Bill Smith and Amos Flint in con-
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nection with their hotel on the Hill or Saulpaugh block corner. Going west on that alley was a dwelling house owned by Mrs. Hoag, erected and occupied by her about 1828; afterward about 1835 by Peter White. A few feet farther west was another dwelling erected about the same time by Elisha Walsworth, father of the second Elisha, and where Mr. White died ; that house was occupied in 1835 by Giles Hawley. Still farther was the pottery operated as early as 1813 and near which was 1 a pottery house for the potter to reside in. About where T. W. Ed- wards's coal yard is, G. & H. Huntington had an ashery as early as 1804 and which was afterwards carried on by Levi Green. Going on toward Washington street and next beyond the ashery thus described was a shop for the manufacture of hats erected about 1822 by Elijah Worthington. It was across the canal from and in the rear of his then residence and place of business on Dominick street. About 1840 a livery barn stood on the north side of the alley opposite the residence of Giles Hawley, carried on by M. D. Hollister, the first one he started in Rome. The enlargement of the canal crowded that alley farther south and made Front street, and caused the removal of all of the above de- scribed buildings which stood in the way.
The Armstrong block on the east side of James street near Canal, now Bingham block, was built in 1842 by Jesse and E B. Armstrong, and there the Rome Sentinel was published from 1845 to 1852. Not far from 1837 Allen Perry had a blacksmith shop on the site afterward oc - cupied by the Beecham block, on southwest corner of South James and Front streets.
The dining saloon of A. W. Churchill was erected by A. K. Adams and Jacob Stevens about 1851.
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CHAPTER XI.
JAMES STREET NORTH OF THE CANAL.
Taking up James street north of the canal, it is to be recorded that not far from 1800 John Barnard built a tavern on the site of the Saul- paugh Armstrong block and the two stores south towards the Erie Canal. It was fifty feet on James street and extended back forty feet. It was an old fashioned two story building, besides basement, with a piazza and flight of steps in front. Next towards the canal and adjoining this tavern were sheds and a narrow driveway to the barns in the rear. Still far- ther towards the canal and directly on the corner of James and Whites- boro" streets, where the south part of Stanwix Hall now stands, was a small red frame building occupied as early as 1812 by Nathaniel Mudge, sr., as a grocery. The tavern was kept in 1812 by Benjamin Hyde, sr .. father of Benjamin and B. B. Hyde. After him Enos Gil- bert was landlord and in 1815 he sold out to Elisha Walsworth. Elisha Walsworth, sr., kept the hotel until 1825, when Thomas Ford became the purchaser, repaired the building and put in a brick front. lle kept it until about 1833 when his son, John A. Ford, became pro- prietor and named the House Stanwix Hall, by which name it has ever since been known. Giles Hawley kept the hotel from 1840 to 1842, when John A. Ford again went in as landlord.
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