USA > New York > Madison County > Our county and its people : a descriptive and biographical record of Madison County, New York > Part 15
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For some years after that the town meetings were held alternately at Fenner Corners and Peterboro.
The customary regulations for the new town were voted and soon the simple machinery of its government was in working order. When the subject of dividing the county into half shires was agitated in 1813, Smithfield adopted the following :
Resolved, That we do highly disapprobate measures taken to half shire this county.
Two churches were organized in Smithfield which must be noticed in this chapter, one in 1806 and the other in 1807. The Presbyterian
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Church of Smithfield was organized in 1806, under the direction of Rev. Joshua Johnson, a school teacher in Peterboro. He remained with the church many years and the society prospered to such an extent that the membership was at one period about 200. Meetings were held in the school house until about 1812 when a small session house was built and occupied. In 1819 Peter Smith donated to the society a lot and other gifts and the edifice afterwards used for an academy was erected. The church began its decline about 1840 and was disbandcu in 1870.
The Baptist Church of Smithfield was organized February 14, 1807, by a council; there were originally nine members. Samuel Barnum and Joseph Black were chosen deacons in 1809, and in 1810 Elder Ros- well Beckwith became the first settled pastor. Meetings were held in the school house until 1820, when a church was built on land donated by Peter Smith in 1819. The anti-Masonic controversy almost de- stroyed the society, but with aid from sister churches the breach was healed and the church attained a membership of 250. But a period of decline began about 1840 and in 1866 the society was dissolved. The old cemetery adjoining the property of this church was laid out in 1805.
Smithfield and Peterboro enjoy the distinction of being the home of the first newspaper published in Madison county. This was the Madi- son Freeholder, established in 1808 by Peter Smith, and edited by Jonathan Punce.
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CHAPTER IX.
SETTLEMENT AND ORGANIZATION OF LENOX, FENNER, AND GEORGETOWN.
There were still four other towns to be organized in this county to complete its subdivision as it remained until 1896.1 These are Lenox, (1809), Georgetown (1815), Fenner (1823) and Stockbridge (1836). The early history of the settlement and organization of the last named town has already been treated, from the fact that its pioneers were among the very first to locate and make permanent homes within the limits of the present Madison county.
The first of the remaining three towns, in respect to date of forma- tion is Lenox. This was, until its recent subdivision into three towns, the largest in area in the county and also the most important in a com- mercial sense, and contained the greatest number of inhabitants, with the largest villages in the county. While this is true and while it is a fact that its territory was first settled within two years of the date when the first Madison county pioneer built his log house in the wilderness, it is also true that the greater part of the commercial and manufactur- ing growth of the town has taken place since the county was erected, receiving much of its impetus from the construction and operation of the Erie Canal and of the great railroads that traverse its territory.
Lenox was set off from Sullivan on March 3, 1809, and retained its original area until 1836, when a part was taken off in the formation of Stockbridge. It was, previous to the division of 1896, the northeastern town in the county, and was bounded on the north by Oneida county, from which it is separated by Oneida Lake and Creek; on the east by Oneida county and the town of Stockbridge, on the south by Stock- bridge and Smithfield, and on the west by Sullivan. Its area after taking a small part for Stockbridge was about 50,000 acres. The sur- face is level and swampy along the Sullivan line, excepting in the
1 As the town of Lenox remained almost throughout its long existence as at first organized, it is deemed advisable to treat its history as a whole, describing its very recent subdivision at the close.
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southern part, while in the north part it is dry and gravelly. In the southern part the land becomes rolling. Oneida Creek, which consti- tutes a part of the eastern boundary, takes a large part of the drainage of that section, while the more central part is drained by Cowasselon Creek, both flowing to Oneida Lake. These streams and the lake have always been favorite resorts of fishermen. Gypsum is found in the town to some extent, and salt and iron in small quantity. A salt spring was found in the marsh near Canastota and in 1818 a boring was made nearly 200 feet deep, but the brine developed was too weak to be profit- able in making salt. Another attempt was made in 1844 with a similar result, and again in 1855 a company was formed with a capital of $100,- 000, and further experiments were made, but without any profitable success. In 1863 a second company with the smaller capital of $25,000, to which $5,000 was added by the State, made the final and still unsuc- cessful effort to profitably manufacture salt in this town.
Lenox was first settled to a considerable extent by representatives of the early Dutch pioneers of the Mohawk valley, some of whom had passed through this immediate region while prisoners of Sir John John- son in his memorable campaign of 1780, and then noted the fertility and beauty of the land. As early as 1790, as related in a preceding chapter, some of the pioneers passed through the territory of Lenox to locate upon the inviting lands of Sullivan. In the year 1792 Conrad Klock and his sons Joseph, John, and Conrad, settled on Lenox territory as the first pioneers, locating on the Cowasselon Creek on the site of Clockville, which took its name from them. To that vicinity also came in the Snyder, Moot, Forbes, Tuttle, Bruyea, Kilt, and Betsinger fami- lies, names that are still familiar in the town and represented by de scendants of these sturdy settlers. Before 1800 Angel De Ferriere, a native of France, born it 1769, came to this country and married a daughter of Louis Dennie, a prominent family of the Oneidas living near Canaseraga, and traveled to Cazenovia with John Lincklaen, whose acquaintance he had made. He purchased land, and afterwards greatly added to his possessions until at one time he was owner of about 3,000 acres of the best of the Lenox lands. He presented his wife's brother, Jonathan Dennie, a fine farm near the site of Wampsville. His homestead was situated a little east of the Cowasselon Creek, on the Seneca Turnpike. He built a tavern, a saw mill and grist mill, a distillery and a brewery, and in many ways advanced the welfare of the early settlers in his vicinity. The creek at that point is crossed by
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a bridge substantially built of stone, on which is a tablet bearing the following inscription: "S. R. Co. Erected 1817. John Young, Super- intendent. R. Wilcox & Sons, Builders. De Ferriere's Bridge." The tavern mentioned was kept by a Dr. Stockton and the grist mill was operated by a Mr. McCollum, a Scotchman; it stood on the site of the later McDougall mill. De Ferriere also started a blacksmith in busi- ness, and a shoemaker, and opened a small store. In later years he sold much of his land to other settlers.
According to the authority of the late Judge Thomas Barlow, in 1802 there were no dwellings on the north side of the turnpike from Wamps- ville westward to Quality Hill,1 and nearly all was woodland, with only one road opened southward between those two points. There was con- siderable settlement near Federal Hill and westward along the turnpike, of which Quality Hill was the nucleus. Sylvanus Smalley was one of the prominent pioneers in that locality and kept a popular tavern at Quality Hill during a number of years; it was the first public house in the place and was constructed of logs, with a frame front. He subse- quently built a good frame residence on that site and lived there many years. He held the office of judge. John P. Webb kept the tavern after Judge Smalley. In 1802 there were living on the Hill, Dr. Asahel Prior, David Barnard, Aaron Francis, Abiel Fuller, David Barnard, jr., Dea. Ebenezer Cadwell, Isaac Senate, Samuel Louder, Nehemiah Smalley, Selah Hills, Job Lockwood, Nash Mitchell, Ichabod Buell, Dr. Harris, and a Mr. Tucker. Mr. Mitchell was a tanner and currier.
Jason Powell settled at the Hill in 1801, and worked in a brick yard that had been established on the flat not far away. He boarded with a Mr. Handy and finally married his daughter, Lovina. A distillery was, of course, one of the first business institutions there. On the south side of the road toward Federal Hill was in the early years a tavern kept by Joseph Phelps, while on Federal Hill on the south side of the road, Thomas Menzie settled and sold goods, trading mostly with the Indians.
1 According to Mrs. Hammond, the name Quality Hill was bestowed by Miss Lucinda Harris, daughter of Dr. Harris, who resided in a log house on the site of the Sylvanus Stroud residence. She regarded the women on the hill as somewhat superior to their neighbors in other parts of the town, and with the enjoyment of greater advantages, past and present, and therefore applied this term of distinction to the locality.
Another version is to the effect that the title grew out of the local political situation. The dominant parties were in early years the Democrats and Federals, corresponding to Republicans and Democrats of the present day. The Democrats it was thought arrogated to themselves su- periority over their political opponents. The Bruce fainily were prominent in that party, and hence the locality of their residence was given the title ; while the eastern hill, where the Spen - cers and others of the Federal party resided, was named Federal Hill.
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In 1802 there was no other dwelling from that point to Wampsville. West from Quality Hill, on the turnpike, settlers came in early and in 1802 considerable land had been cleared. " Squire " Ebenezer Calkins, then a young man, lived in a log house where he later built a frame residence. Col. Zebulon Douglass was keeping tavern on his farm west of Colonel Calkins. Reuben Hale lived on the hill nearly south of what became the Culver home, and Gen. Ichabod S. Spencer lived on the flat between Hale and where Col. Stephen Lee afterwards re- sided. Opposite Colonel Lee's place, Col. Thomas W. Phelps worked at harness making, and a Mr. Pettibone kept a tavern near there before 1802, which was subsequently burned. Settlers in that vicinity soon after 1802 included Harvey G. Morse, Edward Lewis, Thomas W. Phelps, William I. Hopkins, Joseph Bruce, and Squire Wager. Dr. Thomas Spencer and his brother Joshua A., both of whom were broth- ers of Ichabod S., were early residents of Quality Hill. It may be in- ferred that these names of men of exceptionally strong character, some of whom became eminent, formed plausible ground for the quaint title of the Hill.
The first actual and permanent settlement at Quality Hill was made in 1806 by Joseph Bruce, who came from New Hartford, Oneida county, and Dr. Nathaniel Hall, from Litchfield county, Conn. Of these two Mr. Bruce was a native of Boston where he was born in 1781. His mother settled at New Hartford, Oneida county, while he was still a young boy, and in 1806, as stated, when he was twenty-four years old, he located on the Hill. He was father of five children named Benja- min Franklin, Edom N., H. K. W., Nancy A., and Joseph W. Bruce. He was a prominent man in the community and was chosen to fill the offices of justice of the peace, under sheriff, postmaster, and for many years he was president of the Bank of Whitestown. He held a commis. sion as lieutenant in the army in the war of 1812, and in the absence of his captain on sick leave, commanded the company during its term of service. Later he was promoted to captain and to major. He died in 1872, at the age of eighty-three years. Gen. Benjamin F. Bruce, son of Joseph, was also a prominent citizen. He was born in 1812 and dur- ing his long life remained a resident of Quality Hill. He became a leader in politics in the Whig and Republican parties and was honored with several positions of influence and trust. He was inspector general of the State, canal commissioner, a member of the Constitutional Con- vention of 1846, and member of assembly. He was an eloquent ora-
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tor and a man of broad views and extensive and varied information. Among his children is Gen. Dwight H. Bruce, present postmaster of Syracuse.
South and southwest from Quality Hill, on the Clockville and Can- aseraga road, Walter, Sylvester, Hezekiah and Linus Beecher were pioneers of an early date. Walter and Sylvester held the office of judge of the County Court. Deacon John Hall settled on Oak Hill in 1806, coming from Guilford, Conn. Deacon Nathaniel Hall and Dr. Nathaniel Hall, his son, came on in 1807, and located in the Beecher neighborhood. Dr. Hall lived near Quality Hill and there practiced his profession many years. Dr. Thomas Spencer began practice in the same year, and Dr. Asahel Prior, before mentioned, was contemporary with him at the same place.
Other early settlers in that region were Everard Van Epps, John Hills, Gift Hills, Martin Vrooman, Willard Cotton and Benjamin Smith ; the latter kept an early tavern. The first store was opened on Quality Hill by Capt. William Jennings. Very soon afterward Maj. Joseph Bruce established a second store and had as a partner Dr. Hall in the sale of drugs and general merchandise. Other merchants of a little later date were Harvey C. Morse, Fiske & Howland, Curtis C. Baldwin and Jarvis Langdon, the last to engage in the business; the latter re- moved to Elmira many years ago and became a prominent and very wealthy citizen of that city. The first post-office in this part of Madi- son county was opened at Quality Hill, and for many years Major Bruce was in charge. When the Federals came into power he was turned out and Harvey C. Morse appointed to the place. John P. Webb was the next incumbent, and was followed by Major Bruce when his party was again in the ascendant. The office was maintained until comparatively recent years, but was finally abolished.
A school was established at the Hill in the early years of settlement and the few children received such advantages for obtaining education as the meagre facilities then offered. It is not known when the first school house was erected, but a new one was built in 1814, when Joseph W. Palmer taught.
Gen. Ichabod S. Spencer, whose settlement in 1802 has been men- tioned, was the first lawyer in Lenox, his practice dating from 1808. Joshua A., his brother, also began his practice in this town. Both served their country in the war of 1812.
Succeeding the first tavern kept at the Hill by Sylvanus Smalley was
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the Stage House, kept for many years by Col. John P. Webb, who made it a favorite stopping place. Oliver Clarke also kept an early public house, the two houses being well patronized in the days of stage travel over the turnpike. There has been no public house on Quality Hill in many years, and the business importance of the locality has passed away, with the later development of Oneida and Canastota. But for a number of years the community of Quality Hill, with its quota of strong men, exerted a large influence politically, socially and financially in the county. The courts were held alternately in Hamilton and Lenox up to 1810, and Sylvanus Smalley was judge. The courts in Lenox were held mostly in the " school house near David Barnard's." The first murder trial in Madison county, that of Hitchcock of Madi- son, for poisoning his wife, as elsewhere described, was held in Judge Smalley's barn, in order to provide larger accommodations for the many who desired to hear the proceedings. Judge Van Ness of Utica pre- sided at the trial.
Among the few other pioneers of this town who made settlements before or very soon after the formation of the county was Thomas Law- rence, who moved to Clockville in 1806, built a stone house near the hamlet, was prominent in the construction of roads in the vicinity and built the first plaster mill. He died in May, 1866, aged eighty four years. Little is known of the early storekeepers at that point. Peleg Card was the first postmaster and was succeeded by Col. Stephen Chap- man and he by his son, B. Franklin Chapman ..
Thomas Y. Kneiss was a settler of 1806 on Federal Hill and became quite prominent. He was a man of ability and unblemished integrity. He was an early justice of the peace and held other town offices. Capt. Daniel Lewis, who settled on Quality Hill in 1806, had previously lived with his parents in Vernon and later at Oneida Castle, where they were among the first settlers. Later Mr. Lewis purchased lot 78 of the Can- astota Tract, and part of lot 82. He became a prominent citizen through his own endeavor; worked on the canal and was appointed superintendent of this division, and later was in the employ of the Sy- racuse and Utica Railroad Company and the Hudson River road in re- sponsible positions.
It is exceptional that in the early history of this town, which was of such importance as a subdivision of the county, there was no regular church organization until more than fifteen years after the town was erected. That religious services were held before that is without ques-
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
tion, but no records of them exist and the details of their proceedings are lost. The first church organized in the town was the Congrega- tional of Quality Hill; but this was not accomplished until 1809, and its history, with that of other churches, must therefore be left for a later chapter.
It will be seen from the foregoing few pages that the principal part of the growth of this large town has taken place during a period of comparatively recent years, as will be more fully shown in subsequent pages. It is well remembered that the village of Canastota suffered severely in 1873 from fires. At that time the town records and many other valuable documents were destroyed, making it impossible to give the proceedings of early meetings and lists complete of officials, as well as greatly curtailing the sources of general information.
Shifting now the scene of the story of settlements in Madison county to the southern part, we will trace the record of Georgetown, leaving only the town of Fenner to complete the early history. Georgetown was set off from De Ruyter on the 7th of April, 1815, just three months after General Jackson struck the closing blow of the last war with Great Britain at New Orleans. The inhabitants of Georgetown terri- tory wished to have their town named Washington, but the present name was applied at a suggestlon made in the Legislature. George- town is one of the southern border towas of the county, lies west of the center and is bounded on the north by Nelson, on the east by Lebanon, on the south by Chenango county, and on the west by De Ruyter. It contains nearly 24,000 acres, of which more than two-thirds is im- proved. The surface is hilly upland, consisting of two ridges extend- ing north and south, with the deep valley of the Otselic Creek inter- vening; the summits of the hills rise from 400 to 500 feet above the bottom of the valley. The Otselic Creek flows in a southerly direction through the eastern part of the town, which with its numerous small tributaries forms the principal drainage. The headwaters of the Tioughnioga River touch the northwest part of the town. The soil on the hills is a yellow loam and in the valleys a gravelly alluvium. At the present time the principal farming interest is dairying and hop growing, the latter industry having in recent years declined from its former prominence. The manufacture of cheese in factories was taken up early in the period of greatest activity in that method and has continued in the town to the present time, though not to so great an extent as formerly. There are only two factories at the present
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time. Georgetown is No. 6 of the Twenty Townships and was patented to Thomas Ludlow, jr., of New York city, in March, 1793. The pro- prietor caused a survey to be made in 1802 and settlement began in 18 14, by Ezra Sexton, who came on from Litchfield, Conn., in the sum- mer and settled near the Otselic, on lot 58, a little south of the site of the railroad station, where the widow of Barnett Wagoner now resides. Mr. Sexton gained some local prominence and was an early justice of the peace, and a captain in the militia. In the next year he cleared ten acres of land on the Lebanon road east of his dwelling place, which was the first opening made in the forests of Georgetown. That road was opened at about that time, and another passed north and south through the town substantially parallel with the Otselic. It began on the then well-travelled road between Eaton and Erieville, on Eagle Hill, and entered Georgetown near the northeast corner of lot 9, crossed lots 22 and 34 where there has not been a highway in half a century, and then struck the old stage route between Eaton and Georgetown, and on down the valley of the Otselic. Mr. Sexton had a family of children, but they removed from the town in early years. The cemetery near the railroad in the east part is on what was some of his land and was given for that purpose when one of his children died; this is said by some to have been the first death in the town, but French's Gazetteer of 1860, a generally reliable work, states that the death of Mrs. Sexton in 1807 was the first.
In that year (1804) John C. Payne removed from Hamilton, where he had married a daughter of Benjamin Pierce, and settled on lot 115 about a mile and a quarter south of the site of Georgetown village, where Herbert J. Brown, son of Loren Brown, now resides. Payne sold out to Elijah Brown in 1812 and returned to Hamilton. Apollos Drake settled in Hamilton about the same time with Mr. Payne; but three years later removed to Westford, Otsego county, and thence in 1804 to Georgetown, where he took up fifty acres; this tract was subse- quently owned by his son, Theron O. Drake, and is now owned by Allen Drake. The pioneer made a small clearing and built a log house that fall; there were at that time only three log houses in the town-those of Mr. Payne, Ezra Sexton and Elijah Olmstead. Mr. Drake and his wife died on the homestead; four of their children were born in this town. Theron O. succeeded to the homestead; Laura married William Brown, and Sophia married Russell Niles, and most of the others, excepting one daughter who died in infancy, removed to Ohio.
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Elijah Olmstead, before mentioned, was a settler of 1804, but soon sold to Josiah Purdy, a blacksmith from Sherburne, who located about a mile south of the village and died there. Joseph Bishop and Eleazer Hunt, the latter from Stafford, Conn., settled on the site of the village in 1804, and were probably the first to locate at that point. In 1807 they built the first saw mill in the town, on the site of a later one which was burned in 1875. The mill stones used, as well as those in the second mill, were from the native rocks of the town. Nathan Smith built a mill on that site not far from 1825, which subsequently passed to Benjamin Kinney. The privilege is now owned by Judge Irving G. Vann, of Syracuse. Messrs. Bishop and Hunt built also, in 1807, on the same privilege, the first saw mill in the town and operated it many years; these early mills were a source of great convenience and benefit to the pioneers, giving them lumber for a better class of dwellings, which soon displaced the log houses, as well as grinding their grain near by their homes. Mr. Hunt was a practical carpenter and cabinet maker, and established a chair factory in which he did a large business for those times. Bishop moved from the town early, and later Hunt went to Hamilton where he died. He was father of Sherebiah Hunt, a large cheese manufacturer of East Hamilton.
Bethel Hurd settled in 1804 on lot 69, a mile and a half north of the village site, on the farm now owned by William Trask; he died there in 1817. His five sons settled on the same road between his place and the village and lived there many years. Ezra and Benjamin died here; Daniel removed to Erie county, and David and Stephen moved to west- ern New York. A man named Truesdale kept the first store in the town in Mr. Hurd's house. Olmstead Brown settled also in 1804, on fifty acres which he purchased of John C. Payne, on lot 115.
The little community received several additions in 1805, among them Mitchell Atwood, who came from Litchfield county, Conn., and located two and a half miles north of the village site on the farm subsequently owned by Mitchell Sanford and now by Charles Wilcox. He resided there until his death in 1874 at the age of ninety-seven. He built in that vicinity the saw mill which is believed by some to have been the first in the town; it was replaced by him in 1820 with another which he operated until it fell into decay. The third mill was built there by Hiram N. Atwood, son of the pioneer. Matthew Hollenbeck settled also in 1805 in the north part of the town on the farm subsequently owned by Austin Hawks and now by Charles Brown; he died on that
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