USA > New York > Madison County > Our county and its people : a descriptive and biographical record of Madison County, New York > Part 20
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One of the most interesting features of the industries of Madison county that came into prominence during the period under considera- tion, was the production of silk. The industry was taken up about 1840, and so confident were the public authorities of its success that the Board of Supervisors authorized the payment of certain percent- ages, or bounties, to producers, according to the number of cocoons and quantity of reel silk produced. In the proceedings of the board for 1842 is found the following list of awards:
C. C. Huston, Lebanon, 66 cocoons reported and allowed. $ 9.90 Jesse Watson, Cazenovia, 38 8-16 cocoons reported and allowed. 5.32
Willard Colton, Lenox, 40 do do 6.00
Harriet P. Coburn, Stockbridge, 15 3-4 cocoons reported and allowed 2.36
Mary Storms, Sullivan, 7 1-16 cocoons reported and allowed 1.06
John Lucas, Madison, 17 3-4 cocoons and 1 1-16 reel silk, re- ported and allowed 3.25
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William Doolittle, Fenner, 75 cocoons and 7 1-4 reel silk, re- ported and allowed 14.95
Clark Avery, Fenner, 56 cocoons and 4 1-2 reel silk, reported and allowed 10.65
David Irish, Fenner, 49 14-16 and 7 7-16 reel silk, reported and allowed 9.71
David Lindsley, Lebanon, 8 cocoons reported and allowed 1.20
John W. Avery, Eaton, 72 3-4 do do 14.03
It need scarcely be stated that this industry in such a climate did not meet anticipations, and no further bounty was paid in this county.
Meanwhile, in 1832, a most unwelcome visitor came across the At- lantic, entered the seaboard cities, crept along the Hudson and St. Lawrence Rivers, followed the Erie Canal westward and fell like a scourge upon the cities of Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo, and with less severity upon some of the large villages. This was the advent of the Asiatic cholera, then, as it is now, a deadly and mysterious malady, baffling to physicians and terrorizing every community where it gained a foothold. This scourge, which made one or two later though less severe visitations to our shores, needs little attention in these pages, for this county almost or wholly escaped its ravages. Indeed, as far as records go, there is nothing to indicate that it affected this imme- diate region excepting as a hideous story of deaths and midnight burials in other places. The disease disappeared from the country in the fall of the year, and the people again turned their attention to more agree- able and profitable matters.
Before the present century was half expired the court house erected in 1817-18 had become almost uninhabitable. At a special meeting of the supervisors held in 1848 action was taken to temporarily repair the building so that it would stand another year, and at the same time pe- tition the Legislature for authority to build a new one. On the 11th of April, of that year, an act was passed which authorized the comp- troller to loan Madison county $5,000 from the surplus of the State school fund, and directed the supervisors to proceed with the erection of the building. In the following year the loan was increased by the amount of $3,700, and the court house was finished and occupied until it was burned in the fall of 1865, when the present one was built.
The only serious check to general prosperity in the county, State and nation in the period under consideration were the financial panics of 1836-38 and 1857. In the fall of 1833 President Jackson withdrew
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from the United States Bank the deposit of national funds, amounting to $10,000,000, and the bank was finally closed, with consequences that were far-reaching in finance and politics. The New York Legislature, then strongly Democratic, passed a resolution early in 1834 endorsing the president's course. Numerous State banks were chartered, fre- quently under insufficient guarantees, and the national funds were de- posited with them. It was argued that the placing of a large sum of money in widely-separated State banks would be of great benefit to all business interests, through the facility with which loans could be ob- tained. While this was to a certain extent true, there was at the same time founded an immense credit system and an era of speculation opened which was soon to bring financial disaster upon the country. Money became plenty and business of every kind was abnormally ac- tive. No new enterprise could be put forward but men and money were forthcoming to promote it. Real estate, particularly in large communities, made rapid advances in price and an unhealthy fever of speculation reigned which should have foretold a coming downfall. By the close of 1836 the beginning of the end was in sight. Higher rates of interest began to prevail and soon those who could command cash reaped a harvest of usury. From three to five per cent. a month was paid in some near-by cities, and even at those figures there was a heavy demand. Finally, the issue of President Jackson's famous specie cir- cular precipitated the financial crash and the whole stupendous specu- lative fabric, founded on credit and held together for a time by dazzling expectations, came tumbling down, burying many in the ruins. Banks contracted their accommodations, a general suspension of specie pay- ments followed and bankruptcy was present on all sides.
On the 16th of May, 1837, State laws were passed relieving all banks from such acts as refusal to pay their notes in specie, which would have otherwise made them liable to forfeiture of charters; this provision continued in force one year. About the middle of May, 1837, the New York banks resumed specie payments and recovery from the hard times began. A general banking law was passed in 1838, under the influence of which business gradually resumed its former activity. From the unfortunate consequences of this period of financial fever Madison county inhabitants largely escaped, as they had a few years previously from the cholera. Containing no very large villages and lying a little on one side of the great arteries of travel, its interests being mainly agricultural, there was little opportunity offered for the heavy business
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and bank failures that took place in other localities. That the money stringency, high prices of the necessities, and general stagnation was reflected to every community in some measure is true; but the sun shone and the rain fell on the productive Madison county farms as in other years and the people went quietly and peacefully on their way.
The ten years beginning with 1844 may be properly called the plank road era in this State. On the 12th of April of the year named the first plank road company incorporated in the United States came into existence under a State act; this was the Salina and Central Square Plank Road Company, and its road was the first one completed in the country, though two other companies were formed in the western part of the State the same year. The State now experienced a repetition of canal enthusiasm of a few years earlier, with the construction of plank roads as the object. Companies by the score sprank up in every direc- tion and it seemed that at last a roadway was discovered that would enable farmers to transport their produce and merchandise to and from market with comparative ease and speed. The first cost of the roads was not excessive and the money taken for tolls was entirely satisfac- tory. The Rome and Oswego road company was incorporated in 1847, and in the following year those extending west eight miles from Albany and southward from Syracuse, to eventually be extended to Cortland, were built. In 1849 the number of these companies was too large to need mention here. In the proceedings of the Board of Supervisors for the year 1848 we find application made to the board for permission to lay out the Hamilton and Deansville plank road, which was to ex- tend from Hamilton to Deansville in Oneida county, passing through the towns of Hamilton, Eaton, Madison, Augusta and Marshall.
On the 15th of December, 1849, a meeting of citizens of Georgetown and Otselic was held in the former town to arrange for receiving sub- scriptions for the purpose of constructing a plank road to extend from the southern terminus of the already projected road between George- town and Eaton, southward to Otselic. The capital stock of this com- pany was $4,400. The contract for building this road was let to Truman Armsby at $312 per mile.
On June 27, 1851, the Canastota and Morrisville Plank Road Com- pany was authorized to borrow $5,000 to complete their road, and in the following year the Madison and Earlville Company was likewise authorized to borrow money to finish their highway from Oriskany Falls to Hamilton. In 1853 the Cazenovia and Chittenango Plank Road
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Company received legislative authority to convert a part or all of their plank road into a turnpike. On April 4, 1854, the Oneida Plank Road Company was incorporated to construct a road from Oneida Castle by way of Main and Mill streets to Oneida village. There was also a road from De Ruyter northward.
These many plank roads served their purpose for a time, but it finally became evident that one important feature of the calculations had been overlooked; this was the element of durability. A few years of travel and the effects of weather on the planks made it necessary to to relay the roadways, involving expense that the receipts would not meet, excepting on a few of the most frequently traveled routes. On this account many were abandoned as plank roads, and nearly all were finally given up.
Among the public county affairs that received attention in 1841 was the publication by the general school committee of new school regula- tions, to which many persons took exception, and two additional mem- bers were placed on the committee. There was considerable discussion of the matter, but the action of the committee was finally approved. In the same year the State made an appropriation of $8, 500 for the promo- tion of agriculture; of this sum Madison county received $120. In that year the Madison County Agricultural Society was organized with the following board of officers: J. D. Ledyard, of Cazenovia, president ; Elijah Morse, of Eaton, H. G. Warner, of Sullivan, and J. H. Dunbar, of Hamilton, vice presidents; Alexander Krumbhaar, of Cazenovia, corresponding secretary; A. S. Sloan, of Eaton, recording secretary ; Uriah Leland, of Eaton, treasurer. During several years the society held annual fairs in different parts of the county, and a widespread and salutary influence was exerted by it, which is indicated by the organization of several other agricultural societies, among which were the Brookfield Agricultural Society, organized in March, 1856, and still in prosperous existence, through the organization in 1898 of "The Madison County Fair " and its consolidation with the old society; the Lebanon Agricultural Society, organized August 19, 1856; the Farm- ers' and Mechanics' Association of Fenner, organized January 3, 1851; the Hamilton Agricultural and Horticultural Association, organized August 22, 1857; the Nelson Farmers' and Mechanics' Association, organized June 5, 1858; the Farmers' and Mechanics' Association of Cazenovia, organized January 12, 1859. While all but one of these organizations have passed out of existence, they all aided in awakening
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added interest in agriculture in the county and thus served a beneficial purpose.
The course of the business world was again seriously disturbed in 1857 through the usual causes that are apt to grow out of a period of unusual prosperity such as was brought to a close at that time. Busi- ness of all kinds had been greatly overdone during a number of pre- ceding years ; railroads and other large undertakings had been recklessly projected in all parts of the country; banks had multiplied and inflated the currency beyond necessity and prudence, and another financial crash came. The climax was reached when, in the fall of 1857, the New York banks suspended specie payments. The effects of this crisis were more widespread and more severely felt by small communities and individuals than in 1836-8; but there is little to record in connec- tion with it of a local character. Aside from a very few business fail- ures in the largest villages in Madison county, and the great scarcity of money among all classes, the crisis passed and was soon almost for- gotten.
With brief reference to the further State legislation relating to the county previous to 1860, this chapter may be closed. Several villages in the county were incorporated: Oneida Castle on May 26, 1841; Chittenango on March 15, 1842; Madison on April 28, 1847. An act was passed on the 18th of April, 1843, appointing Delos De Wolf, Oliver R. Babcock, and David Carrier to investigate and settle the dis. puted boundary between the towns of Plainfield and Brookfield. On May 14, 1845, an act was passed authorizing the laying out of a high- way along the Chenango Canal from Cherry Valley Turnpike to Oris- kany Falls. Jonas Earll, jr., Smith Coman and Portous Root were the commissioners named. On March 23, 1852, Levi D. Carpenter, Anson Rider and Charles A. Mann were named in a legislative act to examine the Unadilla River at Leonardsville and testify as to the necessity of a bridge at that point, and how much of the cost Plainfield and Brook- field should each pay. On the 16th of April of the same year an act was passed naming Oliver Pool, Edward Button, James D. White, com- missioners from the town of Nelson, to lay out a road at a cost of not over $1,500, from a point on the east side of the Erieville reservoir around the north end of the reservoir to intersect the road on the west side. On the 15th of April, 1859, eighteen men, a few of whom were from Madison county, were given legislative authority to organize a company and a lay a single track railway along the berme bank of the
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
Chenango Canal. Many of these improvements were carried out and were of great benefit to the community.
CHAPTER XII.
POLITICAL CHANGES-THE CIVIL WAR PERIOD.
While the events of the preceding chapter were passing into history, the political field in this county, as well as throughout the State and country, had undergone many changes and was now approaching a crisis fraught with stupendous issues. Madison county after the forma- tion of the Whig party in 1833-4, succeeding the old Federal party, gave its steadfast allegiance to that organization, as it since has to the Republican party, which succeeded the Whigs and to a great extent adopted their policy. An exception must be made to this statement, however, regarding the great Anti-Masonic crusade of 1827-33. The Anti-Masonic party found its first inspiration in opposition to the ven- erable order in the alleged abduction and murder of William Morgan, of Batavia, N. Y., for his threatened publication of the secrets of Ma- sonry. At the very first this opposition had very little political signifi- cance; but shrewd politicians saw in it the possibility of founding upon it a great party, and during about six years the organization thus sired was a power in the politics of the State and nation. Leading politi- cians saw their opportunity for intrigue and possible rise to power and influence, and political lines between the Jacksonian Democrats and the Anti-Masons were soon closely drawn. In the fall of Jackson's first election (1828) the contest was exceedingly spirited and Madison county gave a majority against him. There were at that time three lodges of Masons in Madison county. Cazenovia had the United Brethren Lodge No. 78, organized May 9, 1799, the first one in the county. At Chit- tenango was Sullivan Lodge No. 148, which was instituted June 29, 1804. Hamilton had Hamilton Lodge No. 121, organized in 1805. All three of these lodges surrendered their charters soon after the Anti- Masonic movement was fully under way, and all were subsequently re- vived, the Hamilton Lodge in 1846 (it had previously been removed to Eaton (1817), but was revived in Hamilton); and the Cazenovia
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Lodge in June, 1849. The same fate befell nearly all the lodges in this State. Anti-Masonry developed immense and unexpected strength, not alone in this State, but in some others. In 1830 the Anti-Masonic party, which had wholly displaced the Adams legions, nominated can- didates for governor and lieutenant-governor and showed great strength; but Throop, the Democratic candidate for governor, was elected by a small majority. In 1831 the new party showed increased strength throughout the State In 1832 Jackson was up for president on issues raised by the so-called National Republicans in Congress. The latter held a convention in Utica and nominated Francis Granger for governor ; he was a leader in the Anti-Masonic ranks. In June of that year Onondaga and Madison counties were made the 23d Con- gressional District and the Democrats nominated Dr. William Taylor, of Onondaga, and William K. Fuller, of Madison, against Elijah Rhoades and James B. Eldrige, the latter of Madison. On these the Democrats had their usual majority, though it was not so large as in the previous year.
With the inauguration of the campaign of 1834 there was a change. The party in opposition to the Democrats had taken the name of Whigs in the preceding winter, a name which they were to bear many years. The Democrats held their congressional convention in Manlius and Dr. William Taylor and William K. Fuller were renominated. The Whigs met in Cazenovia and nominated Victory J. Birdseye and Jonathan D. Ledyard. The Whigs were badly defeated in the campaign and ren- dered very despondent. They had not the energy to even nominate a legislative ticket in 1835, leaving the local field in undisputed posses- sion of the Democrats. The recurrence of the presidential campaign of 1836, however, brought the Whigs again into action. The two con- gressional nominees from Madison county were Bennett Bicknell, Dem- ocrat, and Eliphalet S. Jackson, Whig, and again the latter were defeated.
Anti-slavery agitation was now beginning. Anti-Masonry was dead and buried forever, and the radical Abolitionists, whose names were in after years to be enrolled among those of the great reformers of the world, began the crusade against slavery that was to result in its de- struction a quarter of a century later. In the year of 1837 the Whigs in this vicinity elected their whole ticket, astonishing even themselves; this was owing to a great extent to the factional differences of the con- servative and the radical Democrats. The action in the House of Rep-
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resentatives in 1839, refusing to receive petitions in favor of anti slav- 1 ery, produced effects directly opposite to what was anticipated. The Abolitionists arose in their growing strength and were first in the field with a ticket. Gerrit Smith, among others, spoke at their convention in Syracuse. The gubernatorial nominees were William C. Bouck, Democrat; William H. Seward, Whig, and Gerrit Smith, Abolitionist. The enlargement of the Erie Canal was then in progress under Seward's "new impulse " policy, and the discharge of 1,000 of the employees on the work on the Jordan level, constituted one of the exciting features of the campaign. The Whigs swept the State and the local Democracy were much discouraged.
The details of other important campaigns down to 1860 consitute an interesting part of the history of this State, but do not properly belong in these pages. The anti-slavery sentiment grew steadily, bringing with it the determination of a majority of the people of the country that there should be at least no further extension of slavery in States or Territories. The issue was to be settled only by the bloody carnage of the battlefield.
A mass convention was held in Pittsburg on February 23, 1856, to perfect the new Republican organization, the proceedings of which were harmonious and effective. The Democratic-Republican (as it was called in that year) State convention assembled in Syracuse, Sep tember 17, and the Liberty and Radical Abolitionists met on the same day. The Democrats nominated John A. King for governor, his op- ponents being Amasa J. Parker and Erastus Brooks. The ensuing Fremont and Dayton campaign is well remembered. The Know- Nothing party split and a faction joined each of the other parties. Border-ruffianism in the West, with veiled hints of disunion or submis- sion to the South, were the weapons used against the Democrats, but did not stem the tide, and James Buchanan was elected president. Old party lines disappeared and a heated canvass continued from mid-sum- mer until election. Madison county gave a majority for Fremont and Dayton.
From that time until the memorable campaign of 1860 the Repub- lican party, as well as the body of radical Abolitionists rapidly in- creased in numbers. That campaign was the most important and the most prolific in momentous consequences that the country has ever seen. There were four national tickets in the field, headed respectively by Abraham Lincoln, John C. Breckinridge, John Bell, and Stephen
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A. Douglass. The Democratic party was hopelessly divided into fac- tions, a condition sought by Southern leaders to force the issue which all statesmen knew must sooner or later come, and as a consequence the Republican victory at the polls was sweeping and decisive. The majority given in Madison county for the Republican candidates was over 4,000. There was great rejoicing throughout the North, but it was mingled with a swelling volume of dissatisfaction and rage which rolled up from the South and finally culminated in open rebellion and secession of those States. These demonstrations were looked upon at the North for some months as idle boasts and intimidating threats of the slave-holding element, and few then believed that the misguided Southerners would resort to war.
The newspapers of April 15, 1861, were burdened with tidings of the bombardment of Fort Sumter on the 12th and 13th. Many are still living in this county who passed through the exciting scenes of the days that immediately followed. Business of all kinds, public and pri- vate, was largely neglected for discussion of the portentous event. War was almost the sole topic of conversation; but even yet it was thought by most men of intelligence and judgment that the moment the strong arm of the government was uplifted against the offenders, they would abandon their rebellious purpose. Many months elapsed, blood was shed in the border States, and millions of treasure were ex- pended before even the highest government officials realized that a long and bloody war had begun.
On the 15th of April, the day of the evacuation of Fort Sumter, President Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for 75,000 militia for three months' service. This call was in itself sufficient evidence that the officials in Washington believed the war would be only a summer- long conflict. The quota under this call was 13,280 for this State and it was promptly filled. On the 3d of May another call for troops was issued under which, and acts approved July 22 and 25, 500,000 men were required. In response to these calls the whole North arose in enthusiasm. Flags leaped from thousands of windows and every ham- let showed its patriotism in numerous enlistments and efforts to pro- vide for the families of the men who marched to the scene of war. While the comparatively small number of inhabitants in Madison county precluded the possibility of raising an entire regiment within its bounds at that time, it is true that no section of the State responded more promptly or more generously in enlistments, and during the year 1861 a considerable number left the county for the front.
13
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The Madison Observer, a leading Democratic newspaper published in Morrisville, said in its issue of November 15, 1860: " Scarcely had the excitement attending the Presidential election began to subside, be- fore the general attention was attracted to the dark cloud of Secession which looms up portentously in the South." Edward Norton, the able editor of the Observer for many years, although an earnest Demo- crat, gave moderate support to the Union cause through the war.
The first notice in the Observer appeared April 25, 1861, and was headed, " Madison County, Arouse." The notice was as follows: "A public meeting of citizens without distinction of party will be held at the Presbyterian church in Peterboro on Saturday, the 27th inst., at 1 P. M., to express their sentiments and feelings in relation to the present alarming state of our national affairs." The call for this meeting was numerously signed. Another early reference to Morrisville in relation to the crisis stated that " A stranger passing through our village could have no doubt that Madison county is 'sound' on the Union question."
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