USA > New York > Madison County > Our county and its people : a descriptive and biographical record of Madison County, New York > Part 18
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Militia was now arriving from Onondaga, Oneida, Madison and other counties, but unfortunately most of the troops were too late to save Oswego. The British returned on the following day, effected a landing in spite of the old twelve-pounder, and outnumbering Mitchell's forces two to one, the place was captured, Mitchell retreated up the river, the enemy fortunately not pursuing him. Six killed, thirty-eight wounded and five prisoners carried away to Canada is the record of American casualties. Strange as it may appear, under the circumstances, the British did not occupy Fort Ontario, and it remained without a garrison until 1838.
The news of this battle spread rapidly and caused great anxiety throughout the territory with which we are here interested, which did not subside until the close of the war. Most of the militia, which had arrived too late to be of material assistance, returned home, carrying the news of the disaster. The stores of Oswego were soon afterward safely transported to Sackett's Harbor, after a desperate attempt to capture the flotilla of boats in Big Sandy Creek by the British, in which they were gallantly defeated, losing eighteen killed, fifty wounded and 170 prisoners. In this engagement, as well as during the whole journey between Oswego and Sackett's Harbor, the Oneida Indians performed valuable service, marching abreast of the boats along the shore.
Other principal military operations of the year 1814, ending with the final victory of General Jackson at New Orleans on January 8, 1815, were those of Fort Erie, opposite Buffalo, July 3 and August 13-15; at Lundy's Lane, July 25; on Lake Champlain and at Plattsburg Septem- ber 11; at Chippewa October 15, and the brilliant and victorious achievements of Decatur and other commanders on the sea. A treaty of peace was agreed upon at Ghent on December 24, 1814, which was
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ratified at Washington, February 17, 1815. The reception of the news of the close of the war was received with rejoicing throughout the country. No one is living and no records exist to tell us what took place on that occasion in the little villages of Madison county when the cheer- ing news drifted slowly northward; but we may well believe that in pro- portion to numbers of population the joy of the peace-loving inhabitants of the county was exhibited with the same enthusiasm elsewhere dis- played.
It is practically impossible at this late day and in the absence of local records to learn in detail of the part taken by men of Madison county in the war of 1812-15. Situated, as it is, near to the northern frontier, and having, in common with other counties at that time, a regular militia organization, it is quite certain that the people of the county responded to the call to arms with the same patriotic readiness shown in other local- ities. The records in Albany show that the brigade in existenee here in 1807 contained the following officers, many of whose names have already become familiar to the reader and whose descendants are still living in this section. Brigadier-General Nathaniel King of Hamilton; Lieuten- ant-Colonels Zebulon Douglass of Sullivan, and Nathaniel Collins; Ma- jors Amos Maynard and Erastus Cleveland, of Madison; Captains Daniel Petrie of Smithfield, William Hallock of Sullivan, Jacob Balcom, Na- than Crandall and Gaylord Stevens; Lieutenants Daniel Olin, Roswell Hutchins, Ambrose Andrews, Timothy Brown, Nicholas Woolaver, Ben- jamin Wilber, Seth Miner, Charles Huntington, William Bradley, Jabez Lyon, Daniel Jones, Stephen Lee, Samuel Rawson, Asa Randall, Oliver Clark and Sylvester Clark; Ensigns Pardon Barnard, Martin Lamb, William Abercrombie, Gilbert Reed, Albert Beecher, Jonathan Nye, John Chambers, Elihu Foote, Stephen Clark, jr., and Thomas Wylie; Adjutant Moses H. Cook; Surgeon Dr. Asahel Prior.
The election of 1809, after the establishment of the embargo, de- monstrated that in Madison county there was a very strong Federal element and that opposition to war measures was active and command- ing The county was then one of the important grain-producing dis- tricts, which industry promptly felt the effects of the blow upon do- mestic commerce. The Federal party succeeded in the State in that election, as well as in this county, where Daniel Van Horne, John W. Bulkley and Amos B. Fuller, all Federalists, were sent to the Assembly.
Only brief records of comparatively few of those who went to the field in this war are now available. Gen. Nathaniel King, before named,
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served in that high rank at Sackett's Harbor and was distinguished in his military career. Joseph Bruce of Lenox, the ancestor of the dis- tinguished family of that name, was a lieutenant of a light artillery company when war was declared. His next superior officer was Cap- tain Jennings, who was ill, and as a consequence Lieutenant Bruce as- sumed command of the company, which he held throughout its term of service. He was successively promoted to captain and to major.
Gen. Ichabod S. Spencer, the earliest settled lawyer in Lenox, where he located in 1802, and his eminent brother, Joshua A., both served on the frontier in this war, and the former rose to. the rank of brigadier- general. The artillery company before mentioned was raised in the town of Lenox, which was at that time quite a center of military ac- tivity. The other principal officers of the company were Second Lieut. Argelus Cady, Cornet David Beecher and Orderly Sergeant J. Austin Spencer. The 75th Regiment had its headquarters at Qual- ity Hill; of this organization Zebulon Douglass was the first colonel and was followed by Thomas W. Phelps, and he by Stephen Lee. In this immediate neighborhood the embargo had a remarkable effect in one direction. The embargo excluded the Nova Scotia gypsum plaster from the markets of the country, making an opportunity for the devel- opment of the immense beds in Madison and Onondaga counties. Thousands of tons were quarried in this locality, most extensively in the vicinity of Canaseraga.
Horace Munger, of the town of Fenner, son of Jonathan, who was a soldier of the Revolutionary army, inherited his father's patriotism and fought in the war of 1812. In the same town Col. Arnold Ballou was one of the pioneers and prominent citizens. He held the rank of col- onel in the militia and participated in the war. Jeremiah Blair, of the town of Nelson, son of Enoch, one of the pioneers of that locality, en- listed in the army and served at Sackett's Harbor. Curtis Hoppin, a prominent citizen of the town of Lebanon, was an officer in the militia early in the century and was ordered to Sackett's Harbor in 1814. Joseph Clark, one of the nine children brought by their parents, Capt. Samuel Clark and his wife Chloe, in 1801, to Clarkville in the town of Brookfield, served on the northern frontier as ensign and later rose to the rank of colonel. He was one of the most prominent citizens of that town, held the office of postmaster about thirty-five years, and many other positions of honor and trust.
Amos Maynard was a pioneer and the first militia captain in the town
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of Madison, served in the army in the war of 1812, and rose to the rank of colonel. Erastus Cleveland, for many years the leading citizen of Madison and one of the foremost men of the county, commanded a regi- ment at Sackett's Harbor and later was commissioned brigadier-gen- eral of militia.
Charles Stebbins, of Cazenovia, a graduate of Williams College, and later an attorney of prominence, served in the war on the staff of Gen- eral Hurd. Doubtless there were many others who lived for longer or shorter periods in this county, whose services were freely given to the country in its last struggle with Great Britain, of whose part in the war it is now difficult to learn. Within a few years after the close of the war, in the organization of the State militia a brigade was formed which included the counties of Madison and Chenango; this organization con- tinued many years, during which Gen. Ichabod S. Spencer, before men- tioned, was in its command. It was the 35th in number and comprised two regiments.
During the progress of the war immigration into this county was al- most wholly checked, and public civil affairs were to a great extent neglected. Considerable legislation was enacted relating to projects bearing more or less local interest, particularly with the object of pro- moting and improving facilities for transportation and communication within and through the State; some of this has been noticed. Previ- ous to the spring of 1813 there had been 180 turnpike companies incor porated in this State, a number of which were for the purpose of constructing roads that were important to Madison county, and have been noticed in an earlier chapter; but these were subordinate in im- portance to the early efforts to improve navigation across the State by various waterways, natural and artificial. The first of these was the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, incorporated March 30, 1792, at the instigation of Gov. George Clinton, which has been de- scribed in Chapter III.
Many important highways were opened early in the century, besides those already noticed. The Cherry Valley Turnpike probably exerted a greater influence upon the prosperity of this county than any other road; it was known also as the Third Great Western Turnpike, and was completed in 1806. Many Madison county men, and particularly citi- zens of Cazenovia were prominent in promoting this enterprise. This, and the other great turnpike which followed the old Indian trail enter- ing the county from the east at Oneida Castle and passing through
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Lenox, by way of Wampsville and Quality Hill, through Sullivan by Canaseraga and Chittenango, and leaving this county at Deep Spring, were supremely important thoroughfares in early years, the latter be- ing improved under the incorporation of the Seneca Road Company after 1801. The Skaneateles Turnpike was finished about the begin- ning of the century, across the southern part of the county. In this connection a word should be written regarding the old and nearly for- gotten State Road, which came into the county in the southwestern part, entered the town of Eaton near the Leland Ponds, passed on over the hills in a northwesterly direction to the village of Morrisville; there passing between the mill pond and the Cherry Valley Turnpike, it passed over the west hill and on through the towns of Nelson and Caz- enovia. At some points this road's course was identical with that of the turnpike, while at others it was departed from for miles.
The Peterboro Turnpike, so called, extending from Vernon through Peterboro to Cazenovia, was constructed about 1804 by a company in- corporated in that year. The so-called Peterboro road was laid out in 1812 and constructed by county aid; the road extends from Hamilton to Canastota almost directly through the center of the county, and was subsequently laid with plank as one of the many plank roads, and still later covered with stone. Other highways of less importance to the in- habitants were laid out as necessity demanded. In the legislation con- cerning roads is found an act of April 8, 1808, under which Robert Avery, David Tuttle, and David Barnard were appointed commission- ers to lay out a road four rods wide " beginning near More's mills, in the town of Eaton, in the county of Madison, thence running north- wardly to intersect the Seneca turnpike road in the town of Sullivan, in said county, at or near the place where the courts are now holden."
Again on April 11, 1811, the Madison County Turnpike Company was incorporated by eighteen men, among whom were Peter S. and Gerrit Smith of Smithfield, for "the purpose of making a good and sufficient turnpike road to commence on the Third Great Western Turn- pike in the town of Eaton, in the valley east of the great hill, known as Gates' hill, and running from thence by the most direct and con- venient route in a northwesterly direction, passing by the inn of Elijah Pratt, in Peterboro, and to intersect the Seneca turnpike at such point as may be found eligible, between the foot of the great Chittenango hill and the inn of Benjamin Drake in Sullivan." The stock of this company was divided into 800 shares of $20 each. Two toll gates were
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permitted, neither of which could be situated within three miles of Peterboro.
In this same year (1811) under date of April 9, a law was passed under the provisions of which Madison county was paid $1,600 out of $2,300 raised by the sale of State lands for the repair of bridges. The money was paid to Sylvanus Smalley and Zebulon Douglass. These same men were directed by act of April 13, 1813, to build a bridge across Oneida Creek in the town of Lenox and were authorized "to take the timber necessary for building the said bridge from any of the land belonging to the people of the State."
Two other turnpike companies were incorporated before 1820 in which the people of this county were interested. An act dated April 17, 1816, incorporated the Madison County South Branch Turnpike Company, naming as among the incorporators John Matteson, Windsor Coman, David Gaston, Thomas Morris, and Aroswell Lamb, with au- thority to construct a road "to begin where the Sherburne and Leb- anon salt spring turnpike ends or intersects the Hamilton and Skane- ateles turnpike; thence running on the most eligible and direct route to Morris flats, near the house of Thomas Morris, in the town of Eaton, and thence on until it intersects the Madison county turnpike road, in the village of Peterboro." The stock of this company was constituted of 1,200 shares of $20 each, and they had five years in which to com- plete the road.
The other company mentioned was the Cazenovia and Chittenango Turnpike Company, which was incorporated April 10, 1818, by William K. Fuller, Samuel Sizer, jr., Elisha Carey and others, to construct a road beginning at Cazenovia and running thence on the west side of Chittenango creek to the Seneca turnpike in Sullivan; the capital stock was only $1,600.
The building and maintenance of roads in early years was the princi- pal public business in every community, and the duties of the large boards of highway commissioners were onerous. On the care and con- dition of the highways depended the possibility of all business and social intercourse between points separated by a few miles or more. When from any cause they were impassable, settlers in their homes and the small communities that gathered about the mill, the store and the shop, were absolutely isolated; but when in favorable seasons of the year the principal highways were dry, smooth and hard, the farmer drove his team to market with a cheery heart; the inland merchant or
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shopkeeper transported his goods and produce to and from his place of business with comparative ease and expedition, and over the long turn- pike reaches the old stage bowled along, the bordering forests echoing to the crack of the driver's whip or the loud sallies of the outside pas- sengers.
Among other public improvements of early days was the attempt to drain and reclaim portions of the large swampy tract in the northern part of the county in the towns of Sullivan and Lenox. That low region was not only a waste as far as agriculture was concerned, but was also a cause of serious sickness in the vicinity. On the 18th of March, 1814, an act was passed by the Legislature providing that the actual settlers in the town of Sullivan, on account of loss of " crops for several years past, and of the sickness which has been prevalent amongst them, occasioned by the stagnant waters in the vicinity and the lowness of the country they inhabit," should have their payments of interest remitted. On the 12th of April, 1816, an act was passed " for draining the great swamp and marsh, on the Canaseraga creek, in the towns of Sullivan and Lenox." The act made it lawful for the proprie- tors of lands overflowed to drain them by cutting " ditches or canals from said creek or marsh, by the most direct or convenient route or course, into Oneida Lake." Three commissioners were to be appointed by the Court of Common Pleas to direct the work, which was to be paid for by assessment upon the lands improved. Under this author- ity a ditch was cut through the ridge between the great morass and the lake and made to form the channel of the Cowasselon and Can- aseraga Creeks which join in the central part of the swamp, the latter stream having thus been diverted from its natural channel. By this improvement large tracts were reclaimed and the condition for tillage improved at many different points in that section.
Meanwhile an attempt was made in 1813, which is surprising in the light of the present day, except as it indicates the relative importance of the town of Lenox, particularly in the vicinity of Quality Hill and Federal Hill in the first quarter of the century, as already alluded to in preceding pages. On the 6th of April, 1813, an act was passed by the Legislature incorporating the Lenox Water Company, by which Moses Cook and others were given the necessary authority for "supplying that part of the town of Lenox in the county of Madison, situated on the Seneca turnpike road, called Federal Hill, with pure and wholesome water, for the use of such of the inhabitants thereof, and others" who
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might desire it. The incorporators were authorized to hold $500 worth of real estate.
The time had now arrived when popular protest against the perma- nent location of the county seat in Cazenovia was sufficiently powerful to cause its removal. While the change was not made until the latter part of 1817, the subject had been agitated and proceedings prepara- tory to the removal were in progress long before that time, as indicated by the offer for sale of the old court house as early as 1815, to which reference was made a few pages back. The new court house was in process of erection in 1816, the supervisors of that year adopting a res- olution that the sum of $2,000 " be raised for building a court house at Morris's Flats." In the same year Elisha Carrington was allowed $85 for services on the court house. Joseph Morris, Capt. Eliphalet Jack- son and Elisha Carrington were appointed to superintend the erection of the building; but at a later date and before it was finished, the names of the building commissioners found in the proceedings of the supervis- ors are Nehemiah Huntington, R. Barker and Isaac Lewis. The first court was held in the new building on the 7th of October, 1817. This court house was in use until 1847.
Although it takes us a little out of chronological order, it is proper to here notice the removal of the county clerk's office also. In the Board of Supervisors in 1818 a resolution was adopted that the Legislature be petitioned for authority to "remove the clerk's office to Morris Flat; " that a room be fitted up for its reception in the court house, or, to build a fire proof clerk's office. This project was much delayed and no record is found of the petition being drawn until 1820, while the resolution of the supervisors directing the erection of a building was not adopted until February 10, 1824. The building was erected in that year, by Andrew P. Lord, at a cost of $674. The question of a site for the clerk's office caused considerable discussion and was settled in the Board of Supervisors on the 19th of February by ballot.
The first jail was a wooden structure which stood contiguous to the court house and was erected in 1817, at a cost of $4,523.51. David Gas- ton and Thomas Greenly were the commissioners. Although it was a homely and inadequate structure for the purpose, it sufficed for the needs of the county, with such improvements as could be made, until 1872, when the present handsome brick jail and residence were built, as described further on.
Meanwhile another road of considerable importance was ordered con-
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structed across the Oneida Indian Reservation "from Oneida Creek to Chittenango Creek," the act being passed April 14, 1817. John Joslin was appointed to do the work at $1.50 per day. On the same date an act made it the duty " of the supervisors at the next annual meeting to levy and raise by tax on the freeholders and inhabitants of the town of Cazenovia, $1,500 to be paid to the Commissioners of Highways for building a bridge across the mill pond in Cazenovia village."
CHAPTER XI.
THE CANAL AND EARLY RAILROAD ERA.
During and soon after the period to which the preceding chapter is devoted a project of magnificent possibilities was undertaken and car- ried to successful completion, which for a time revolutionized travel and transportation across this State, widened the markets for every product of Madison and other counties, increased the tide of western travel beyond the most sanguine expectations of those days, and became a pre-eminent and ruling factor of the political field. This great under- taking was the inception and construction of the Erie Canal.
It is uncertain who first originated the idea of a canal across the State of New York, 1 nor is it a question that needs consideration here. It is well known that such master minds as De Witt Clinton, Myron Hol- ley, Benjamin Wright, Joshua Forman, James Geddes, Stephen Van Rensselaer, Joseph Ellicott, and others who might be named, were in the front ranks of those who believed in the practicability and success of the great waterway, in the face. of thousands of other men, great and small, who condemned, ridiculed, and in every way opposed it from first to last.
The general history of the Erie Canal is quite well known. A reso- lution passed the State Legislature, under direction of Joshua Forman of Onondaga, in February, 1808, ordering a survey and appropriating $600 for the purpose and appointing Simeon De Witt to superintend
1 Judge Jonas Pratt, of Oneida county, who was a State senator from 1810 to 1814, said : "As to the merit of the first design of a canal from Lake Erie to the Hudson, it belongs in my opinion exclusively to no person. It was gradually developed to the minds of many who were early acquainted with the geography and topography of the western part of the State."
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the work. The survey was made by James Geddes and Benjamin Wright, who reported favorably upon the project. This was the first legislative action on the subject. In 1810 commissioners were appoint- ed by the Legislature to further explore the entire route for the pro- posed canal, and on June 19, 1812, the canal commissioners were au- thorized to borrow $5,000,000 and proceed with the work. The events of the war of 1812-15 suspended the undertaking; but on the return of peace the matter was revived with greater ardor than ever, and intense opposition was manifested in all parts of the State, particularly in the rural districts and far from the line of the waterway. Governor Clin- ton, Joshua Forman, Mr. Geddes, Jonas Platt and others were most active in promoting the project, and it became known among the op- position as Clinton's big ditch. In 1816 a Board of Canal Commission- ers was created by act of Legislature and in the following spring the law was passed ordering the prosecution of the work. The act passed the Assembly on April 15, the last day of the session, and the contract for the middle section, from Utica to Seneca River, was let in June to John Richardson of Cayuga county, and the first work on the great waterway was begun at Rome on the 4th of July. The work went forward rapidly and in Governor Clinton's message of 1820 he reported ninety-four miles completed on the middle section, with a lateral branch at Salina. On October 26, 1825, the whole work was finished. The first packet boat was called the Oneida Chief; it left Montezuma on the 21st of July, 1820, and past eastward to Utica. Her captain was George Perry of the town of Sullivan. Crowds had gathered at the various villages along the route, in which was mingled the usual contingent of doubters, ready, if not anxious, to witness the failure of the enterprise. But when the boat came floating along smoothly and rapidly all ad- verse opinion disappeared like a wraith and expressions of ridicule were changed to shouts of exultation. This boat made three trips a week, each occupying two days, and the fare, including board, was $4. On the 1st of June of that year we are informed in an advertisement that "boats for the accommodation of passengers 100 miles on the canal are now in operation by the Erie Canal Navigation Company. They sail every Monday and Thursday morning from Utica at 9 o'clock and ar- rive at Canastota at 7 P. M .; proceed next day at 2 p. M. and arrive at Montezuma at 7 P. M. Price of passage, including provisions, $4." This company's headquarters were in Utica. To the first packet boats, the second of which was the Montezuma, were soon added freight craft
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