Our county and its people. A descriptive work on Jefferson County, New York, Part 8

Author: Emerson, Edgar C., ed
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: [Boston] Boston History Co.
Number of Pages: 1368

USA > New York > Jefferson County > Our county and its people. A descriptive work on Jefferson County, New York > Part 8

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THE NEW Y 1 PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR. LENOX AND TILLEN FOUNDATIONS

GLACIAL GROOVINGS AND POTHOLES NEAK HUNTINGTONVILLE.

EVIDENCES OF GLACIAL ACTION.

In traveling by railroad from Watertown to Rome, at a point just before reaching the village of Pierrepont Manor, may be seen a belt of country, very thickly covered by granite boulders. These stones are so plentiful as to almost cover the entire surface of the ground; the area thus occupied extends for something like a half mile along the line of the railroad. This belt may be easily followed southwesterly and passes a little to the south of the village of Ellisburgh, entering Lake On- tario some distance sontherly of the mouth of Sandy Creek. Following northeasterly from Pierrepont Manor, the writer has detected this same belt about three miles southeast of the village of Rodman, and again at a point just east of Tylerville. Since all these places are in a straight line across the country, and this line is northeast and southwest, it is believed to be a great medial moraine where some glacier, descending from the higher country, brought with it the characteristic granite rocks of the Adirondack hills and deposited them here as it moved along in its southwesterly course. The direction of the line, and the character of the stones in a country where the natural rock is all Trenton lime- stone or slate, lead to the belief that this is a true medial moraine-and that these stones were transported by the ice during the glacial period.

There are numerous oval hills throughout the country, which glacial- ists call drumlins; they usually consist of boulders and stones, and ground up rock, frequently cemented together into hard pan, and are usually most abrupt on the northeast side, with the casiest slopes to the southwest. Prospect hill on the north side of the river in the city of Watertown is an example of one of these, as is also the small hill on State street just east of the Club House and owned by the Watertown Land Company.

Part way up the slope of the Rutland hills, there is a strip of beach gravel, showing unmistakably the marks of a former lake border; it is scen near East Watertown, at the Luther gravel beds, and again on the road between Huntingtonville and Black River village, near the prem- ises of F. E. Wilson; also it appears again in the ridge road near Tal- cott's, and again south of Watertown Center just above Brookside Cen- etery. These points are all practically at the same altitude as is found by leveling from one to another, and are about 125 feet above the pres- ent level of Lake Ontario. This elevated lake border has also been noticed at various other points, at practically the same altitude. Gla- cialists account for this phenomena in the following manner: When the glaciers were receding from this part of the earth; the seasons be- 9

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

coming warmer, and the summers of greater length; so that the great iee sheet, although still moving toward the south, found its front line gradually working backward to the north on account of the increasing warm weather, although this was doubtless a slow process and occupied a long period of years, as the southern limit of glaciation reached as far as Cincinnati, Ohio; there came a time when the great Ontario basin was free from ice, though the St. Lawrence river valley, its natural outlet was still dammed up, as was also the valley of the Mohawk, and the water was prevented from flowing down these channels to the sea. At this time the great lake valley was filled with water up to the point where it could find an outlet. This outlet, assuming there has been no change of level in the crust of the earth since that time, was probably at the south end of Lake Michigan; the natural surface of the country at that point being only a little lower than the ancient lake border of Jefferson county, the water would naturally flow over at that point, and down the Illinois and Mississippi rivers to the Gulf of Mexico, keeping the surface of the great lake at about the level where we find its indi- cations. During this time, and it must have been a long time, the lake borders along our hill slopes were formed; waves lashing the shores rounded and smoothed the stones into pebbles, and deposited the gravel beds where we now find them. At this time also the month of the Black river must have been somewhere between the present villages of Carthage and Great Bend and the great elevated sandy plateau, known as the Pine plains, was the sand bar under water, formed in this great lake, at the mouth of Black river, just as such bars are always formed where a great river flows into a lake, or the sea. Black river at that time was probably a very large stream, carrying a large volume of water from the melting ice, and very easily brought down the sand in its course, and deposited it, on meeting with the quiet waters of the great lake.

During the summer of 1896, while the water commissioners of the city of Watertown were excavating a deep trench for the intake water pipe on the north side of the river, across the farm of Hubert Ishanı, there was found under eight feet of solid boulder clay, a thin stratum of peat, in which was embedded a great number of small trees or bushes, evidently a dense growth upon a low swampy tract, which was crushed down and buried up when the superincumbent stratum of clay came on. This boulder clay is the recognized detritus of glacial action, the ground up rock, fragmentary stones, rounded boulders and

TWO COUNTY PROJECT.

heterogeneous material which was pushed along by the moving glacier, and deposited wherever it might lodge in a place protected in some manner from the moving icc.

On the northerly side of Black river, in the towns of Brownville, Pamelia and Le Ray, there are frequent escarpments or ledges of the stratified Black river limestone, occasioned by faults in the dipping strata, the direction of whose strike is usually east and west, or south- east and northwest, making the upheaved edge of these ledges nearly at right angles with the line of motion of the great Laurentian glacier. These ledges invariably have the northeasterly face worn smooth, often showing deep groovings up their faces in the line of glacial movement, while the southwesterly sides are as universally sloped off with a filling of this boulder clay; the rugged and firm face of the rocks having pre- sented a sturdy barrier to the advancing ice, gave protection for a de- posit of the detritus on the sheltered side, thus making easy slopes toward the southwest, all more or less deeply covered with snow.

In the case of the buried forest of undergrowth, found on the Isham farm, it is believed to have been grown at a period just antedating the advent of the last glacier that covered this portion of the country, and having been covered deeply with an airtight eovering of this very eom- pact boulder elay, and the peaty stratum having been always fully saturated with water, this wood has been thus preserved through the unnumbered ages since it was first covered up; while many generations of trees upon the surface above them have grown up and gone to decay.

A specimen of this wood has been deposited with the Jefferson County Historical Society, and also one with the State Geologist, Prof. Hall, at Albany.

The creation of at least one new county in this part of the state was not only a convenience but a necessity, and the subject of two counties seemed to find much favor among the seattered inhabitants; still it was not then supposed that the legislature would create more than one. However, to get a fair expression of the inhabitats and secure the best results, each of the towns chose three delegates to meet at the house of Freedom Wright, in Harrisburgh, on November 20, 1804, to disenss the situation and agree on a plan of action; but the question which most interested the delegates at the meeting was the location of the county buildings in the proposed shire. Among the leading men in the region at the time who took an earnest interest in the project were Nathan Sage, of Redfield; Walter Martin, of Martinsburg: Silas Stow

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

and others of Lowville; Moss Kent, Noadiah Hubbard, Egbert Ten Eyck and others, of Champion; Henry Coffeen, of Watertown, and Jacob Brown, of Brownville. Of course cach available site for county build- ings had its zealous advocates, but it was understood that in case of the creation of a single county the little settlement founded by Noadiah Hubbard in Champion was the most convenient for all purposes. In fact it appears that several years before this meeting was suggested, Champion had been fixed upon as a probable county seat, and a little coterie of lawyers had established themselves at that place. But the diversity of opinion and interests shown at the meeting determined the delegates to favor two counties, which were created accordingly, upon which the hopes and opportunities of Champion as a seat of justice were lost. Lewis and Jefferson counties were the result of this meet- ing, and thereby the names of Thomas Jefferson and Morgan Lewis were duly honored and perpetuated.

The creating act provided for the appointment of three commission- ers, "who shall not be resident within the western district of this state, or interested in either of the said counties of Jefferson or Lewis, for the purpose of designating the sites of the court honses and goals, of the said counties respectively, and after exploring the same, ascer- tain and designate a fit and proper place in each of the said counties for erecting the said buildings," &c.

In accordance with the authority vested in them, the governor and council of appointment designated Matthew Dorr, David Rogers and John Van Benthuysen, commissioners to determine upon a site for the county buildings. In Lewis county the worthy commissioners were charged with misfeasance and unfairness, and while no such allegations were made against them in this county, they were nevertheless con- stantly and earnestly besieged with applications from several localities which coveted the desired designation. Jacob Brown of Brownville was perhaps the most earnest, but he lost through a report that his part of the county was incapable of settlement by reason of its very level and swampy character. He then offered a site in Pamelia, but the ar- biters were determined to locate the county seat south of Black river. At this time all the old advocates of Champion were silent, for the two county scheme destroyed her chances. The Watertown advocates were equally strong with the others, and led by Henry Coffeen they ulti- mately secured the designation. At that time Watertown was a hamlet of some size and considerable business importance among the settled

COUNTY BUILDINGS.

localities of the county ; and the selection of that place as the seat of justice of the county was wholly fair, although a serious disappointment to the champions of other sites. The site was deeded to the county by Henry and Amos Coffeen, the committee of supervisors appointed to see that the conveyance was properly completed comprising Cliff French, Thomas White and Corlis Hinds.

The first session of the board of supervisors was held October 1, 1805, in the little school house which stood on the site of the Universalist church of later years; but the board was so ocenpied with matters pertaining to the towns and the settlement of affairs with Lewis county, that the subject of county buildings was not discussed until 1806. It had been provided that until the jail was built the county should send prisoners to Whitestown, but this was a source of much inconvenience and gave rise to a feeling that many criminals might escape punishment from the fact that officers disliked the long journey from Watertown to the Oneida county seat. Therefore, to provide the necessary building, Corlis Hinds, Nicholas Salisbury and Jacob Brown were appointed a committee to examine and report as to the expediency and probable cost of a jail. The committee duly in- quired into the matter and found and reported that two-thirds of the county tax was paid by non residents; that there was a probability of a change which would exempt the non-residents, wherefore it ap- peared that the interests of the county demanded that a jail be built. The report also stated that a building would cost about $4, 500, but that a jail built at a cost of $2,500 would be better than the system then in operation.

Thus informed, the board selected Jacob Brown and Augustus Sack- ett to prepare a petition to the legislature for an act authorizing a tax levy of $2,500 for the erection of a court house and jail. The act was passed, the levy made, and on February 19, 1808, another act authorized an additional $2,500 to complete the work. William Smith, Gershom Tuttle and Noadiah Hubbard were selected to supervise the construc. tion of the building after plans to be approved by the board. The work was done during the years 1807-8 by William Rice and Joel Mix, and the structure when finished was of frame, 45 x 60 feet in size, having an eastern front, and cost $4,992.58. The furnishings cost an addi- tional $262.81. The first jail limits were established August 13, 180 ;. The present jail limits comprise the city limits.

1 The first jail limits included a small space around the court house, a part of the public

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

In 1815 the supervisors determined upon the erection of a substantial clerk's office, and accordingly applied to the legislature for an enabling aet, which was passed April 5, 1816, authorizing an expenditure of not more than $1,500 for the purpose. It was also provided that Ebenezer Wood, Ethel Bronson and Egbert Ten Eyck comprise the building committee. The clerk's office was accordingly erected, and stood on land between the Episcopal church and the square. It was used by the county until 1831, when a new clerk's office was completed in pursu- ance of action of the supervisors during the years 1829 and 1830. Daniel Ward, Eli West and Stephen D. Sloan were commissioners to borrow moneys for the purpose of constructing the new building, and also to sell the old office and site.

The second county elerk's office stood on Court street, north side, and was a substantial stone building, sufficient for a time, but the growth of the county in later years rendered it inadequate for its in- tended purpose. On the completion of a new court house, in 1862, the clerk's records and papers were removed to that structure and placed in rooms especially arranged for them. In 1864 the supervisors made a contract of sale of the Court street lot to Harmon M. Minthorn, and on December 21, 1868 conveyed the property to him by deed. The building was removed and replaced with one of brick, and is now used for mercantile purposes.

The old combined court house and jail, built in 1807-8, was damaged by fire in December, 1817, but was repaired at a cost of about $500. On February 9, 1821, the entire structure was burned and destroyed, thus necessitating new buildings. Then arose the question of removal of the county seat, and among the localities which put forth a strong claim for the proposed new building was Sackets Harbor, a delightful situation and one surroudded with many historic associations, but the appeal was in vain, and Watertown still contained the county buildings.

The county again had recourse to the legislature, and on March 13, 1821, an act was passed authorizing a tax of $8,000, and a loan on the credit of the county for $6,000 more, to be used in erecting two build-

square and nearly all the dwellings in the village, while between these localities, "along the sides of the road, and some'imes in the centre, were paths, from four to eight feet wide, with occasional crossings, so that by carefully observing his route, turning at right angles, and keeping himself in the strict ranges which the court had established, a man might visit nearly every building in the village ; but if the route was by any acculent obstructed by a pile of him- ber, a pool of mud, or a loaded wagon, he must pass over, through or under, or else expose him- Self to the peril of losing this precious freedom " (Hough.)

COUNTY BUILDINGS.

ings, one for a court house and the other for a jail. The committee to superintend the construction comprised Eliphalet Edmonds, Henry 11. Coffeen and Jabez Foster, under whose direction in the same year the work was done. The court house was a substantial structure for its time, 45 x 48 feet in size, but in the course of the next thirty-five years it became unsuitable for its intended use, was not complete in all its appointments and altogether out of fashion as such buildings were then constructed. The need of a new and larger court house was acknowl- edged but the supervisors were slow to act, and the result was that in 1858 the grand jury declared the building a public nuisance. Various means were suggested to remedy the defects, but a resolution to re- build at last prevailed and was adopted. On January 4, 1861, plans were accepted, and about the same time a site was selected at the corner of Arsenal and Benedict streets, the same having been generously do- nated by publie spirited citizens. State moneys to the amount of $25,000 were borrowed by the county, and a contract was at once made with John Hose and Joseph Davis to construct the building, under the charge of W. Il. White, supervising architect, and Joseph Atwell, A. W. Clark, A. C. Middleton, C. A. Benjamin, John H. Conklin, Henry Spicer and John Putman, supervisors' committee. The committee, however, proved to be a rather large and expensive body, hence was discharged and replaced with another comprising J. II. Conklin, D. W. Baldwin and Octave Blanc. The original cost of the new court house was $25,488.89. The building was formally dedicated October 7, 1862.

The Jefferson county court house is a substantial brick building, with stone trimmings, two stories high, about "0 x 120 feet on the ground, and is in all respects an attractive structure in the view of an observer. It is surmounted with a tower and otherwise presents a good appear- ance, while the well-kept lawn and grounds add to the attractiveness of the property.

However, in the course of time the constant increase of business de- manded more commodious quarters for county officials, and the question of a removal of the elerk's records from the main building was seriously considered as a measure of safety. On November 22, 1881, a resolit- tion was presented to the board then in session to the effect that the office as then situated was unsafe as a depository for public records, whereupon a committee comprising supervisors Bingham, Kelsey and Mitchell was authorized to examine the premises and recommend some action to be adopted by the board at its next session. The matter

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

again came up for discussion in December, 1882, but the committee asked for more time, which was granted. At the next session ( Dec., 1883), plans and proposals for a new, detached, fire-proof building were presented, with a suggestion to the effect that the Ilowland lot, on Benedict street, could be purchased at a cost of $2,600, and that the additional cost of a suitable building would be about $22, 400; that $25,000 would cover the whole expense. Later on, however, an addi- tional sum of $1,500 was asked for to furnish the office. The board determined to aet and appointed T. C. Chittenden, W. D. Arms, Ralph Gurnee, the county judge and county clerk as a building committee, authorized to purchase the Howland lot and cause the building to be erected. The plans of architect J. W. Griffin were adopted, and the contract for construction was awarded to John Hardiman. The work was done during 1884, and on Nov. 25 the committee reported to the board that the cost of the building was $21,384.23; for architect's fees, $1,010, and that $1,532.39 had been expended for furniture and fix- tures.

After the destruction of the old jail in 1821, county prisoners were confined in the Lewis county jail until the burned structure was re- placed. This was done in 1821, and by a resolution adopted by the su pervisors solitary cells were provided. However, the jail, like the old court house, at last became insufficient and not in keeping with the advanced sanitary regulations of the state. The question of recon- struction was presented to the board Nov. 29, 1892, and a special com. mittee comprising supervisors Yost, Strough and Arms was authorized to make the needed alterations and repairs, with such additions as were required by law. The work was done in 1893; the interior of the jail was substantially remodeled, and a new sheriff's residence was erected, at a total cost of $13, 480.08. and the result was a good, substantial jail building, amply sufficient for all present purposes of the county.

The subject of county maintenance of the poor was first seriously discussed by the supervisors in 1822, but not until three years later was clefinite action taken, when members Hubbard, Hart and Stewart were constituted a committee to ascertain the probable cost of a farm prop- erty, situated within five miles from the court house, and well suited to its intended use. Several sites were offered the committee, and were reported to the board, which body selected the Dudley farm of 150 aeres in Le Ray, five miles from the county seat. It cost $1,500. The buildings were repaired and arranged for their new tenants, and

SUPERINTENDENT OF THE POOR.

here the county poor were maintained until 1832, when the supervisors determined to sell the property and secure another location. On Jan- uary 25, 1833, the legislature passed an aet authorizing the supervisors to borrow $4,000, and at the next session of the board it was resolved to purchase the J. Foster farm (situate one mile below Watertown, on the north side of the river) at a cost of $1, 500. The committee appointed to carry out the resolution of the board comprised Orville Hungerford, Joseph Graves and Bernard Bayless. Thus the present county poor farm and property were secured, although since that time the building has been remodeled, enlarged and repaired as occasion has required.

In 1852 (April 12) the legislature passed an aet relating to this county which authorized the election of only one overseer of the poor in cach town, which officer, associated with the supervisor, performed all the duties of overseer therein, subjeet, however, to the restrictions and lim- itations prescribed by the board of supervisors. At this time the office of county superintendent of the poor was abolished, so far as the elec- tion of that officer was concerned, and the board was authorized to ap- point a person to fill the position during its pleasure. The appointec was to reside on the farm and perform the duties of keeper, in addition to those incumbent on him as superintendent.

This system, while perhaps a novel one, has its benefits in reduction of county expenses, and at the same time the proper committee of the board, and indeed the board itself, is able to know what expenditures are made, and how made, and are in no manner at the mercy of a gen eral county superintendent, as might be the case under the provisions of the law as it now exists.

Under the original system, after the purchase of the Le Ray farm, superintendents were appointed, and were Orville Hungerford, William S. Ely, Peter Vandes, John Hoover and Asher Wilmot for the first year, and a like number annually until 1848, when the office became elective. The first elected incumbents of the office were David Montague, Charles F. Symonds and Phineas Hardy, 1848; Martin J. Hutchins, 1819; Peter S. Houck, 1850; and Austin Everitt, 1851. Under the new and present system the first appointee was Alpheus Parker, whose term be- gan January 1, 1853, and who was succeeded in 1858 by Nathaniel Ilavens, jr. Colonel Heman Strong followed in 1860, and served until his death in April, 1876. The later superintendents have been A. W. Wheelock, 1876-82, and John R. Washburn, 1883-9%.

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

CHAPTER IX.

A Brief Tribute to the Pioneers of Jefferson County-Creation and Settlement of the Towns-Subsequent Growth as Indicated by the Census Reports-Boundaries of the County Permanently Established in 1813-Town Boundaries also Defined.

In general and in particular the pioneers of Jefferson county were a determined and courageous set of men and women, many of whom came to the new region from more comfortable homes in the east to contend against the privations and hardships which always beset life in an undeveloped country. Many of them had seen service during the revolution, and were now prepared to face new dangers and possible death in the hope that they might establish fortunes for their own and their families' comfort which they could not gain in the rugged, hilly regions of New England. The character and condition of the St. Lawrence region was told in the east by the soldiers of the last French wars, and was repeated anew by the patriots of the revolution after that memorable struggle had passed. After the state had acquired title to the lands, the speculators, operators and companies came and received patents for consideration, and under their inspiring influence and rep- resentations came the sturdy pioneer who cleared the land of its forest growth, built the cabins and the primitive mills, and thus prepared the way and made lighter the path and the toil of his family and followers. All honor, then, to this vanguard of new civilization, whose struggles and hardships gave being to a county in just seven short years after the first improvement was begun. All honor to the pioneers of Jefferson connty, be they alien or citizen, foreign or native, for through their lives and work, the county came into life and took a place among the civil divisions of the state; a jurisdiction as grand, as vast, as beautiful, as diversified with the wildest and most remote extremes of nature's fancies, as rich and fertile in all the staples that agricultural industry can produce, and possessing natural resources and wealth equal to any region in this great commonwealth.

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Our county and its people. A descriptive work on Jefferson County, New York, Part 8

Author: Emerson, Edgar C., ed Publication date: 1898 Publisher: [Boston] Boston History Co. Number of Pages: 1368

Author: Emerson, Edgar C., ed
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: [Boston] Boston History Co.
Number of Pages: 1368