USA > New York > Madison County > Our county and its people : a descriptive and biographical record of Madison County, New York > Part 25
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The tax list copied a few pages back informs us that in 1803 Hiram Roberts added to his trade of blacksmithing, the keeping of a tavern, and that Ebenezer Johnson was the other landlord of the place at that time. The record of possible tavern keepers in the first quarter of the century is not complete, but we know that the Lincklaen House was built in 1835 by John Williams and his associates in a stock company ; the property came into possession of Mr. Williams in 1839, and he re- tained it until his death in 1853. It was, however, leased to Oliver Jewell from 1841 to 1852 inclusive, and he purchased it upon the death of Mr. Williams and kept the house until his death in July, 1877. In October of that year Messrs. Clark & Jewett purchased the property, since which time it has had numerous owners and proprietors. The house is now kept by Walter H. Young.
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The Cazenovia House was built in the early years of the village, had a number of proprietors and in 1877 became the property of Perry Cran- dall who kept the house a number of years. The present proprietor is Charles E. Pratt.
What was formerly the Lake House has stood for many years and was purchased in 1879 by C. B. Stanton, who changed its name to the Stanton House and made extensive improvements. He was succeeded for a few years by John Finch and he by Edward Parker. In 1894 the house again came into possession of Mr. Stanton.
Cazenovia village has had a number of attorneys in past years who were prominent in the bar of the county. Among them were Schuyler Van Rensselaer, Samuel Sidney Breese, David Dearborn, David B. Johnson, Perry G. Childs, a man who had an honorable business and official career; Charles Stebbins, Justin Dwinelle, William J. Hough, Sidney T. Fairchild, Calvin Carpenter, Richard Thomas, Hobert G. Paddock, D. W. Cameron, William L. Storke, and a few others.
The first physician to settle in the village was Dr. Isaac Lyman who came from Northampton, Mass., in or before the year 1799, and con- tinued in practice until shortly before his death in 1854. Dr. Theoph- ilus Wilson began practice in 1814, after graduating at Dartmouth Col- lege. He was stricken down by death about a year later. Other early physicians were Drs. Jonathan Silsby, David Mitchell, Alvin Foord, Fordyce Rice, E. M. Adams, John K. Chamberlayne, Stephen M. Potter, Isaac Newton Goff, Elbert A. Ainsworth, A. D. Smith, Henry Foord.
Cazenovia has always had an efficient fire department and has not suffered as have many villages from the destructive element. At the first meeting of the village corporation $100 was voted for the purchase of a fire engine; that was in May, 1810. A month later it was ordered "that Hezekiah Strong, Jacob A. Dana, Daniel Gilbert, Nehemiah White, John M. Black, Joab Gillett, Caleb Ledyard, William Adams, Timothy Foster, M. P. Mather, William Wills and Isaac Dawson be firemen for the village of Cazenovia, and that they meet on Monday next at 8 o'clock A. M., to choose a captain from their number, who shall have the direction of the engine, and the firemen belonging to the fire company, and that the captain shall call out and exercise the company in using and exam- ining the engine at least once a month, which shall be on the last Sat- urday in each and every month, and that the time of meeting on said Saturday at sun two hours high in the afternoon and may be kept out
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till sun-set." In the closing month of that year the trustees ordered every merchant and tavern-keeper in the village to provide himself with five leather buckets, and every other owner or occupant of a house with one bucket for use in case of fire. At the first a fine of fifty cents was imposed for non-attendance at meetings of the fire company; this fine was increased to one dollar in June, 1812, and more buckets were or- dered in shops, offices, etc. In 1812 the first engine house was built at a cost of $55.
For some cause unexplained the fire company was disbanded in May, 1816, and on May 7, 1817, the engine was ordered to be sold; it was doubtless about useless, as later in the same year Ebenezer Reynolds and Sylvanus Dyer offered to put it in repair for $60 and that the vil- lage might then have the option of selling it to them for $15. The offer was accepted.
In May, 1822, residents of the village were ordered to provide ladders long enough in each case to reach the roof of the dwelling. On Octo- ber 4 of that year the engine house was ordered sold at auction on the next day. In May, 1827, the first hooks and ladders were provided for at a cost of $20.
In May, 1829, the trustees were given authority to purchase "one of Daboll's fire engines." On July 14 of that year a new fire company was organized with thirteen members, of which John W. Birge was elected captain. When this company disbanded in 1831 a new one was formed of eighteen members, of which Rufus Allen was captain, and Elisha Allis was chosen chief engineer. On September 16, 1834, the trustees were ordered to purchase a fire engine at the price of $700 from William Platt & Co. In May, 1835, they were given authority to construct "three sufficient reserviors," holding about 10,000 gallons each, and to pay Elisha Allis a reasonable sum for building an engine house; this house cost $92. In the following month a hook and ladder company was organized.
On the first of May, 1843, the fire company adopted a code of by- laws and took the name Cazenovia Fire Company No. 1. In July of that year Fire Company No. 2 was organized with sixteen members. In August of the next year a second engine was purchased, with hose and other appurtenances. The new engine was purchased of L. Button & Co. at a cost $550. Cazenovia Fire Company No. 2 was organized with thirty members on December 21, 1844.
The sum of $2,000 was voted on March 5, 1854, for building a hall
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in association with the town, which also voted that amount at the annual town meeting of that year. The village was to have right of perpetual use of the basement for the fire department, and the hall for village meetings. In March of the following year the school house in district No. 1 was purchased for an engine house at a cost of $400, with half that sum for adapting it to its new purpose.
The Owaghena Fire Company No. 1 was first organized July 12, 1862, with Abram Lockwood, foreman. Deluge Fire Company No. 2 was formed on the same date, with H. A. Gifford, foreman. In August, 1863, the trustees authorized the chief engineer to purchase a new Cowing engine for $1,150. A reorganization of the department took place im- mediately after a disbandment of the whole department, on March 30, 1875, when two fire companies numbered 1 and 2 were formed and a hook and ladder company. This arrangement did not continue long and in 1877 Owaghena Engine Company No. 1 and Deluge Engine Company No. 2 were organized. Ledyard Hose Company No. 1 was organized in September, 1879.
In 1890 an efficient water works system for the village was estab- lished upon which has thus far been expended $42,000. This action was taken as a result of a vote at a special meeting. A reservoir with a capacity of 8,000,000 gallons was constructed at an elevation of 178 feet above the lake, giving an average pressure of sixty pounds. The reservoir is fed by springs in the vicinity and the auxiliary pumping station operated by Marshall & Card, before mentioned; this station has a daily capacity of 280,000 gallons and is in use about six months in each year. About 300 taps are now in use and eight miles of pipe have been laid. The income from the system in 1897 was $2,100. The water commissioners are Edgar C. Bass, William Watkins and D. H. Doremus.
The introduction of this system rendered the fire engines substantially useless and the fire department now consists of two hose companies and a hook and ladder company; the hose companies are named Citizens' Hose Company, Owaghena Hose Company No. 1, and the other organ- ization is Cazenovia Hook and Ladder Company. In case of a fire a general alarm is sounded on the Baptist church bell by push buttons in various parts of the village, a system inaugurated in 1893. C. H. Bar- rett is chief engineer.
What is known as Cazenovia Hall was erected in 1897 by the Caze- novia Hall Association, a stock company, in which Henry Burden was
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by far the largest owner and the principal promoter. He was made president of the association; William Watkins, vice-president and mana- ger; John R. Watts, treasurer; Charles S. Fairchild, William W. Rice, directors. The building is a symmetrical structure of brick and cost about $12,000. The village corporation leases from the association a commodious office for its business and records.
Cazenovia is efficiently drained by a complete sewer system, work on which was begun in the fall of 1894 and finished in the following year. The cost of the system was $31,000, for which bonds were issued to run twenty years.
The church next formed in Cazenovia after the organization of the Presbyterian in 1798, as before noticed, was the Baptist, which was the result of meetings held in 1803 in the school house two miles south of the village, and conducted by Elder Bacon, pastor of the church in New Woodstock. Other elders conducted the meetings there until 1813, when they were held in the court house in the village until 1817. In that year the foundations of a Baptist meeting house were laid and in the following year it was in condition for occupancy. On September 6, 1820, thirty-six male and fifty-five female members were dismissed from the Baptist church of New Woodstock and a separate organiza- tion was effected in Cazenovia. After two years of pulpit supply, Elder David Pease was called and served five years, during which period in 1823 the Sunday school was opened. In March, 1827, Elder Lewis Leonard became pastor and continued eight years until 1835, in which year the church was repaired and improved. Rev. William Clarke was the next pastor, beginning his term in 1836 and serving until 1851, to be succeeded in the following year by Rev. George Mathews; he con- tinued only two years when Rev. Mr. Clarke was again called and re- mained pastor until April, 1864. From 1865 to 1868, J. B. Childs, a student at Hamilton, filled the pulpit. In the year named last exten- sive changes and improvements were made in the church and Rev. John C. Ward was called to the pastorate, serving until March, 1873. In June, 1875, Rev. Samuel H. Greene was ordained. The present pas- tor, Rev. J. J. Keyes, began his pastorate in 1893. The church edifice was burned in 1871, and the society rebuilt its present handsome brick church at a cost of $15,000, which was dedicated in June, 1880.
A Methodist class was formed in Cazenovia as a part of the Cortland Circuit which was organized in 1816. Previous to that year services had been held in the village by circuit preachers. Rev. William Cam-
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eron formed the class in 1816, and in the next year Elisha Bibbins and George Peck were the preachers; the latter described the Cazenovia church as consisting of "John Rowland, his wife and two daughters, Grace and Hannah; Eunice Parsons, subsequently extensively known as the devoted Sister Cobb, . . Stephen Dodge and his sister; Luany Martin, Dolly Codwell, and a few others we cannot name, to- gether with some half a dozen who lived out of the village.
Mr. Rowland owned the grist mill on the outlet, and was a man of some means; the remainder of the class were poor, a majority of them single persons." There are no records of this church prior to Novem- ber 4, 1830, when a meeting was held and the title, The First Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Cazenovia was adopted; Timothy Crandall, Russell G. Allen, Whitman Cobb, Augustus W. Smith, Will- iam Sherman, Newell Wright, and David B. Johnson were chosen trus- tees. A subscription was soon started to obtain funds with which to build a chapel, the subscriptions not to be binding unless $3,000 or more was subscribed. As only a little less than $2,000 was pledged, the project was abandoned. On January 25, 1832, it was resolved to raise a fund by selling the pews of a contemplated church to be built on the corner lot south of the Seminary, of brick or stone. The sales of pews continued at a few intervals until January 1, 1833, at which time little more than $4,000 had been realized. In the spring of that year work on the building was begun and it was probably finished dur- ing the year. This building was used until 1873, when the present fine edifice was completed at a cost, with furnishings, of about $39,000, The church was first constituted a charge in 1825, with Rev. Fitch Reed, pastor.
The organization of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in November, 1844, was the result of meetings which had been held in the high school room on the public square. On November 4 of the year named Will- iam Greenland, Anson W. Spencer, Sherlock W. Perkins, Martin W. Shapley, J. Dean Hawley, Kendrick N. Guiteau, John Ryan, James A. White, Rollin A. Mitchell, D. Ira Baker, George Adams, and John Adams met for the purposes of incorporating a church. Rev. Mason Gallagher was then a missionary in Cazenovia and occupied the chair. A resolution of incorporation was adopted and William Greenland and Anson W. Spencer were elected wardens, and Martin W. Shapley, Ken- drick N. Guiteau, J. Dean Hawley, Sherlock W. Perkins, Charles G. Warden, John Ryan, Edward F. Pratt, and David G. Keeler, vestry-
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men. On December 1, 1844, the congregation worshiped for the first time in the room at the northeast corner of the square, which had been appropriately fitted for the purpose. Owing to informality in the pro- ceedings of organization above described a reincorporation of the church was effected November 17, 1845. In January, 1847, a site for a church was selected and the edifice there erected was completed and conse- crated on December 28, 1848. Rev. J. T. Rose was installed as pastor in 1891.
St. James's Roman Catholic Church was organized in 1849 by Rev. Michael Hayes, of Syracuse, who had previously conducted meetings in dwellings in the village. The brick church edifice was erected in 1849-50, and the first services were held there in May of that year. In 1853 Rev. James Cahill became the resident pastor and was succeeded in 1856 for two years by Rev. Michael Rooney. The other pastors have been Rev. Bonaventure Carney, 1858-62; Rev. C. P. Brady, 1862- 75; Rev. C. A. Reilly, 1875-82; Rev. John L. Reilly, 1883-85; Rev. Edward M. Brady, 1885, leaving in fall of that year; James L. Mahar, 1885-95; Rev. Father Doody came October 20, 1895, and is the present pastor. The church is a prosperous one, free from debt, owns a good parsonage and a cemetery.
The First Universalist Society was organized March 23, 1853, at a meeting at which William G. Burr, Rufus May, and Chester S. Bates were chosen trustees. S. B. Ward, Francis Parsons, Thomas Worlock, Albert Cook, and Amasa Swift were appointed a building committee and their meeting house was built during that year. The society has always been small and was served by Revs. C. E. Hewes, D. Skinner, J. M. Austin, and J. C. B. Heath. After 1857 only occasional services were held.
There is very little existing record to denote just what was done in the very early years for the promotion of education in Cazenovia; but it is quite safe to assume that schools were established from the first and were supported with such liberality as the circumstances allowed. The town was early divided into districts the number of which was for many years eighteen. This number was reduced in 1874 by the con- solidation of districts Nos. 10, 17 and 21 to form a Union Free School district. Two earlier attempts were made for this purpose, which were unsuccessful. This district and the old and well known Seminary are properly described in the chapter on Education.
Cazenovia supports an excellent public library containing about 5,000
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volumes, which is now located in the old Williams Holmes residence. This property was purchased by R. H. Hubbard and presented to the village for its present purpose. This library was supported during a number of years by individual subscriptions, and partly by fees. The present librarian is Miss Emma Hutchinson.
While the progress thus described was taking place in the central and northern parts of this town, similar advancement was made in the southern part in the vicinity of New Woodstock. It has already been noted that David and Jonathan Smith and Charleville Webber were the pioneers in this section of the town, and were soon followed by Isaac Warren, Robert Fisher, John Savage and others of the sturdy men who subdued the wilderness. A hamlet sprang up on the site of New Woodstock at an early day, the place being easily accessible by a good road from Cazenovia southward. The Baptist meeting house of the parent society was built here in 1803, and a tavern, store and shops were soon in existence. The first merchants of whom there is definite knowledge were Harvey and Alvin Smith, brothers, who traded from 1816 to 1830; they also established that necessary institution of the pioneers, a distillery, which they subsequently sold to Philetus Lathrop. Joseph F. Clark was a merchant contemporary with the Smiths, his store being opposite theirs, just east of the railroad on the north side of the street. He continued in business until his death in 1834. Jesse B. Worden was a merchant here from about 1816 to 1819; he left it to be- come a Baptist minister. Harvey Morris, from Eaton village, opened a store about 1834 in the building that afterwards became a part of the store of T. F. Huntley; he continued until his death in 1842. T. M. Avery succeeded Mr. Morris. Baum & Stanton were in trade a few years previous to the Civil war, and were succeeded in 1862 by O. D. Huntley & Son, who came from Sharon, N. Y .; they continued until the death of the father in 1866, when the business was sold to another son, T. F. Huntley. He admitted his brother William as a partner a year later, who sold back his interest three years afterwards and T. F. Huntley continued a few years, when he sold to James Reed and moved to Syracuse; after other brief periods of proprietorship the store came into possession of Perry Jaqueth and his son. William W. Huntley opened a store in 1875 and continued a number of years, when he was succeeded " by C. A. Fox, present proprietor. E. W. Gunn and F. W. Tucker, as the firm of Gunn & Tucker, were in trade before 1880, and the former was an earlier. merchant, beginning in 1856; his partners at different
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periods were J. J. Tucker and Alonzo Tucker, who purchased the store subsequently occupied by the firm. The hardware business started in 1865 by R. J. Sunderlin was carried on by Sunderlin & Tucker after 1867, through the admission of J. J. Tucker as a partner. Henry Ryder bought Sunderlin's interest and William Huntley recently pur- chased the whole. Orrin S. Smith began trade in 1866 with John Fer- guson, whose interest he purchased a year later.
New Woodstock has not been noted for manufacturing. The New Woodstock. Mills, formerly including a flouring mill and a saw mill, were built a little before 1840 by Samuel Walker, who had previously owned and operated a grist mill and saw mill built in the early years of the village by Nathan Smith; these were carried away in a freshet just before the present mills were built. The mill property passed to Wal- lace & Corbin who sold in 1869 to J. J. Randall. At his death it passed to his son-in-law, Merritt C. Wood.
A wool carding factory was established many years ago on this stream below the grist mill, which later was converted into a machine shop and cider mill which was subsequently at different times burned and rebuilt. In 1855 it passed to possession of G. W. Wightman who sold it in 1861 and repurchased it two years later; it was burned in 1862 and was rebuilt in 1863, and was again burned in 1871 and rebuilt by Mr. Wightman in 1872. The property passed to W. H. Cardner and from him to the present owner E. K. Cardner. It now consists of a saw mill, planer and shingle machine. It has been twice burned since 1872.
Silas E. Morse has been in the wagon-making business here since 1850, during the first five years with Ralph Bell and James L. Savage. This shop was ultimately closed. Henry S. Gorton also carried on this business many years, but finally failed.
The first cheese factory in the town was established at this village in 1862-3 by E. W. Gunn and J. J. Tucker, the merchants before men- tioned; it was subsequently owned by J. M. Lounsbury & Sons, and has been conducted by C. A. Buckingham since 1883. He also con- ducts the milk station and handles the milk of 1,800 cows. Seven other cheese factories were afterwards opened between that time and 1873, in different sections and for many years this business was very active. A factory is now in operation at Webster's, another at the head of the lake by Wager & Reynolds, and Burr Wendell has a butter factory near the Chenango Valley station.
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Although the legal profession has not been actively represented by resident members in the village, a number of physicians have followed their profession here in past years. The first doctor in the place was Joseph Moffett, who settled here about 1810 and practiced until his death in 1820. He was followed by Dr. Levi Gibbs who removed to Perry, N. Y., some years later. Dr. Stephen P. Collins was in practice from 1828 to 1838. Dr. John Goodell, jr., practiced several years just before his death in 1850. Others who were in practice here only short periods were Drs. Lorenzo Heffron, C. W. Adams, A. D. Smith Joseph Ferry, Franklin W. Root, N. P. Warner and perhaps a few others.
The only church at New Woodstock besides the Baptist, which has been described, is the Methodist, which was organized in 1830; at that time it was in the Pompey Circuit. The members of the class at that time were L. Davis and wife, N. Abbott and wife, James Allen, B. Pad- dock and W. Batchelor. Services were held in the West Woodstock school house. The meeting house at New Woodstock was built in 1850 and was subsequently enlarged and improved. The records are so im- complete that a list of the pastors cannot be given.
Webster's is a station on the Chenango Valley branch of the West Shore road about two and a half miles south of Cazenovia. A post- office was established about 1876, with P. A. Webster, postmaster. T. C. Farrell is the present official. A cheese factory and a milk station are the only business interests of the place.
What are known as Bingley's Mills are situated on the Elmira, Cort- land and Northern Railroad, two miles above Cazenovia on Chitte- nango Creek. A grist mill was operated here among the first in this sec- tion. It was owned by William Atkinson from 1831 until his death in 1871, and is still operated by members of that family.
Two miles north of New Woodstock, at what is called Belmont, is a grist mill which is now operated by Erastus Seymour. E. P. Jepson was a former proprietor a number of years. About a mile above on the same stream is a saw mill built by Clark Taber, which has been oper- ated many years by the Judd Brothers.
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CHAPTER XXV.
PROGRESS OF IMPROVEMENT IN TOWNS CONTINUED-HAMILTON.
Since the organization of Madison county in 1806, the town of Ham- ilton, formed from Paris March 5, 1795, the settlement of which has been adequately described in an earlier chapter, has been one of the most important in the county. While public affairs, legislation, etc., in which the town at large was directly and deeply interested have not been of such significance as to demand particular attention, the villages of Hamilton in the northwest part of the town, Earlville, a part of which is in the extreme southwestern part, and Poolville in the central part have become business centers of importance, where large interests are represented and fine churches, excellent schools, societies, and all of the institutions of advanced civilization have been established and actively supported. The town as a whole constitutes a rich agricul- tural district and in past years was one of those in the county noted for extensive cultivation of hops-an industry that in more recent years is being superseded by dairying with more reliable and larger profits.
The early town records, after giving the list of officers and other brief proceedings of the first town meeting, held in April, 1795, con- tained the customary simple results of votes for the regulation of pub- lic affairs as they then existed. Until 1807 the town embraced an immense area, including what are now the towns of Lebanon, Eaton and Madison, giving such officers as were chosen an extended jurisdic- tion and their edicts an influence that was far-reaching. In Hamilton village, then a mere cluster of dwellings with a tavern, a store, and a few shops, were held the first Courts of Common Pleas in Chenango county, of which the town was a part until 1806. The first court met in a log school house near the pioneer home of Elisha Payne, in June, 1798. After the formation of Madison county the courts alternated be- tween this school house, and another one in the town of Sullivan. But there was very little litigation among the peacefully-inclined people of those times; they had had personal interests of greater import to at- tract their attention than waiting upon the slow progress of the law.
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