USA > New York > Madison County > Our county and its people : a descriptive and biographical record of Madison County, New York > Part 38
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
Treat began as a merchant about 1855 in the store afterwards occupied by S. A. Fitch, and continued to his death in 1866. J. V. R. Livermore began trade about 1850 in company with Lucius E. Beebe, and at the end of five years retired to a farm. Five years later he bought out Mr. Beebe and associated himself with D. S. Bennett, whose interest he purchased three years later. He took his son as partner, the connec- tion continuing about five years. After an interval of about three years another son, Charles O. Livermore, was taken in and the firm continued until January, 1879, when the son purchased his father's in- terest and continued until about 1893. This is now the Hibbard & York store. S. A. Fitch purchased the Treat store of Mrs. A. P. Treat in 1868 and continued in trade a number of years. This store is now conducted by W. T. Squyers. Dr. Lewis A. Van Wagner began a drug business in 1876, buying out E. C. Bennett and doing business in con- nection with the practice of his profession. He sold out to L. D. Con- ger and removed to Sherburne. This store was afterward burned.
After about 1850 this small village showed encouraging indications of business activity and growth. Wagon making in particular was ex- tensively carried on by Fitch & Boon and by King & Cheesbro, and by Orson S. Gorton, who for twenty-five years was a large manufacturer. There are now three small shops owned by H. N. Avery, S. D. Rams- dell and L. O. Hatch.
The North Brookfield grist mill was built in 1860 by Timothy H. Peck and operated by him until 1868 when it passed to possession of Hiram Collins; it is now run by Arvillo Kling and Walter C. Payne. The first mill in this vicinity was built about 1808 by a Mr. Balcom. It stood a few rods west of the later one and ultimately went to decay. The first mill on the site of the existing one was built in 1845, some of the tim- ber from the old one being used in it; it was burned in the year pre- ceeding the erection of the present mill. Two steam saw mills are in operation, one by Myron H. Forbes and the other by Frank Risley.
A cheese factory was established here which was for some time owned by Henry P. Keith, which is now operated by I. A. Wager. John Gray and Albert Morgan are blacksmiths and James Humphrey shoemaker. The three general stores of the place are now kept by W. T. Squyers, Hibbard & York and John E. Kenyon. The hotel, which was kept a number of years by W. S. Parks, is now conducted by M. E. Snow, and the Cedar Valley House by Hiram Loomis. Emery D. Morgan is post- master.
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Gilbert Birdsall, a graduate of the medical department of the Uni- versity of Buffalo in 1863, at once began practice in this village and still continues.
The district school at North Brookfield was changed to a Union Free school in 1881. The first Board of Education consisted of Thomas R. Gorton, Allen Risley, A. J. Marsh, O. M. Gorton. The principal of the school was W. E. Phillips, the present one being Homer T. Case, who is assisted by two teachers. A special building for the school was erected in 1882; it is a frame structure with sightly grounds and beautiful shade trees. The present board is as follows: Gilbert Birdsall, J. F. Garrett, W. T. Squyers, C. E. Mason, Henry Edwards, A. Kling and Paul Cheesbro.
A Baptist church has long been in existence here and is now under the pastorate of Rev. James Smith. A Universalist church was estab- lished more than forty years ago, but no regular services are held. The Catholic church, erected in 1893, is under the pastoral care of Rev. S. J. Cannane of Oriskany Falls.
South Brookfield is a small hamlet about five miles south of Clark- ville on Beaver Creek, where a considerable business interest was gathered in early years. The place has also borne the name of Bab- cock's Mills, from the fact that a grist mill and saw mill were built there early in the century by the Babcock family, as stated in earlier pages. There is excellent water power here and a number of indus- tries were established to make use of it. George W. Bentley formerly manufactured furniture quite extensively, obtaining his hard woods from neighboring forests and having them sawed in the mill. The post office here was established in 1845 with J. Deloss Clarke post- master. He held the office more than twenty-five years and was suc- ceeded by Eli Maxson. The present postmaster is Frank Huntington, who also conducts the only store, succeeding Henry Brown, who was postmaster for a term. William and Roswell Randall were very early merchants here and later in Cortland, N. Y., where they became very wealthy. They were succeeded by Adin Burdick, Herman A. Hull, J. Deloss Clarke, and perhaps one or two others. The old grist mill had many proprietors, finally passing to Willis De Long after having been rebuilt by John Eaton. It is now operated by Corry Maxson. A creamery was established here in 1879 by Abel Avery, which is still in operation. Perry Warren was a former blacksmith, a business now carried on by George Aylesworth.
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
In the west part of the town, where there was an early, numerous and thrifty settlement of Quakers, the locality taking the name of Mos- cow, and where the Collins brothers, Job, Peter, and Joshua, sons of Joseph Collins, and Gideon and Thomas Kenyon, Solomon and Heze- kiah Collins, James Larkin, and others settled early, there were small mercantile establishments and minor manufacturing industries in early years, all of which have passed away. A Quaker meeting house was built there about 1820 and the Collins families carried on harness making, blacksmithing, and wagon making, and Albert Button kept a store. When a post-office was established there it was given the name, De Lancy, in honor of John De Lancy; the office has been abandoned.
A part of the small village of West Edmeston (Otsego county) lies within the limits of this town. It is in the south part and on the Unadilla and has about 150 population. A grist mill and saw mill are in the town of Brookfield and have long been owned and operated by Truman Maxson. Orson Champlain and Albert Felton are merchants and with a few shopkeepers are on the Otsego side of the river.
The dairy interest in Brookfield developed several cheese factories, some of which have been mentioned. One was established in 1863 by D. M. Brown about two miles east of Clarkville, and was owned by him twenty or more years. E. D. Lamb was formerly extensively engaged at Unadilla Forks in the manufacture of cheese, with a number of factories extending from De Lancy to Edmeston. These were estab- lished in 1863 and had a capacity of 5,000 pounds of cheese daily. But, as before stated, the opening of the railroad has made a vast change in the dairy policy of the town incident upon the shipment of milk to dis- tant markets.
What was known as the Welcome Scott grist mill, saw mill and cider mill, were situated in the northeast part of the town and were started in 1835. The mills were built by Levi and Welcome Scott, the first named selling his one-third interest to Nathan Brown in 1842. In the follow- ing year Mr. Brown sold out to Welcome Scott, and for about forty years thereafter he was sole proprietor.
Among the prominent and successful farmers of this town may be mentioned J. H. and A. D. Chesebro, Leroy Larkin, A. E. Kenyon, J. F. York, J. G. Garrett, A. Faulkner, D. L. Fish, W. A. Payne, Am- brose Keith and William Stanbro.
In the town of Lebanon, situated centrally on the southern border of
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IMPROVEMENT IN TOWNS-LEBANON.
the county, the settlement and growth of which down to about the year 1810 has been fully described in Chapter VII, development since that time has been confined almost wholly to the clearing and improvement of farms, the gradual change from the mixed agriculture of early years to the raising of hops and dairying, the moderate growth of the small villages of Smith's Valley and Lebanon, the establishment of churches, schools, etc. Indeed, there has been a considerable decline in popula- tion in the town during the last eighty years and at the present time the number of inhabitants is little if any greater than in 1810. Although there was no very valuable water power in the town, aside from that on the Chenango River flowing through the east part, which was made use of by the building of the first grist and saw mills at Smith's Valley, there were still a number of early mills and a few other industries on the small streams tributary to the Chenango. As the forests disap- peared under the axes of the settlers, making saw mills of lesser impor- tance and also serving to greatly diminish the volume of the streams, many of the early mills went to decay.
The establishment of the first mills in the town, as the reader will remember, dates back to 1798, when Elisha Wheeler built a grist mill on the west side of the Chenango at Smith's Valley, which was soon followed by the erection of a grist mill by his brother Daniel on the east side of the river about a mile above Smith's Valley. Another grist mill was built about a mile and a quarter east of the site of Lebanon village as early as 1810 and a saw mill near by. The grist mill is still in existence and is now operated by George W. Phillips. In the north part of the town a mile from Smith's Valley was an early saw mill which has gone to decay. About a mile and a half west of the site of Lebanon village were two saw mills built many years ago, one of which was last operated by Clinton Stowell. He also operates a carding ma- chine near by which has been in existence many years. Mr. Stowell is also largely engaged in the cold storage business. . There was a small saw mill a mile above South Lebanon, and another a mile below that point, the latter dating from about 1867 and built by Martin Torrey, both of which are idle and in decay. About a mile southwest of Smith's Valley is a saw and a planing mill, and a cheese box factory, built about 1860 by Erastus Clark and still operated by him.
Justus Smith was the first person to sell goods in this town, as stated in Chapter VII, and the first one to occupy a regular store was Jona- than Thayer, jr., son of. Jonathan, the pioneer of 1800. That store
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
was about two miles west of Lebanon village and was opened about 1808; he soon afterward removed it to the village where he occupied the Gilbert store, which was built by Sylvester Thayer, son of Jona- than, jr , in 1834. The first store was removed at that time and is the historic structure now constituting the rear part of the store of Irving Collins. Jonathan Thayer was in business until his death in 1830.
Orson and William L. Sheldon were in trade a year or two in the Gilbert store when the latter withdrew. Orson continued a few years longer when he sold to Curtis Hoppin, whose son in-law, Joseph A. Nor- ton carried on the business from about 1845 to 1853. At that time Edwin M. Lamb became associated with Hoppin, whose interest was purchased by Joseph D. Avery in 1859. Mr. Lamb withdrew in 1864. and Avery continued alone another year, when the business was closed and the stock sold at auction.
In the latter part of 1865 Benjamin Baker, who came here a little earlier from Washington county, began trade in the Gilbert store and continued about two years. From 1866 to 1869 Erastus Wellington, nephew of David Wellington, who was an early settler in Nelson, was in business in this store, and was succeeded by Milton E. Danforth, who soon took as partner Isaiah S. Head; the firm of Head & Danforth continued until July, 1870; they built a new store and failed just as it was ready for their use. This building was then occupied by Pike & Seymour, merchants, and by the late S. W. Seymour, who succeeded the firm.
The firm of Pike & Seymour, above mentioned, consisted of Leroy B. Pike and Silas W. Seymour, the former of whom established the business in November, 1871, with Abraham Martin as partner. Martin withdrew in the next year and in 1873 Messrs. Seymour & Pike were associated and continued until the withdrawal of Mr. Pike.
Irving Collins established a flour and feed store in 1889 to which he later added a general stock of goods and is still in trade. W. S. Niles is a dealer in hardware and boots and shoes, succeeding Niles Brothers on the death of I. Newton Niles in May, 1898. Their general stock of goods was taken by Frank D. Lyon, who is still in trade. J. H. Poole has a boot and shoe stock and C. M. Henry a blacksmith shop.
A hotel is still kept in the old building, before mentioned, and has had numerous proprietors down to the incumbency of George M. Cur- rier, present proprietor of the Currier House. Horace A. Campbell, son of the pioneer Charles Campbell, built the upright part of this hotel
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IMPROVEMENT IN TOWNS-LEBANON.
about 1834 for a store in which he did business a few years and then converted it into a tavern, of which he was proprietor until about 1853. He was succeeded by Henry A Leet, who kept the tavern and also sold goods until his death in 1861.
The old saw mill at Lebanon village is now in use as a store house by L. Ballard. The dam is destroyed. This mill was purchased in 1878 by L. D. Pope and E. M. Washburn of S. K. Hawkins, who operated it about three years and rebuilt it during the first year. The first tannery in the village was established by Thomas Bright in 1838, who operated it until 1841 when it passed to Alanson Bishop, who sold it three years later to Sylvester Thomson; he was afterwards associated with Lyman D. Swan. They changed the location to the present site in 1854 and continued business until about 1863. Subsequent proprietors for short periods were Jarvis A. Head and Lester Hayward, Solomon Baker, James Deyo, Sullivan E. Sabin, Samuel C. Gates, Roswell Whitman, who repaired it and sold it in 1875 to Anton Pfeiffer, who was associa- ted with his son Joseph from 1875 until his death in 1878. The build- ing burned in 1884 and was rebuilt in the following year. The tanning business was abandoned and the building was used for a time as a saw and grist mill but is now idle. It is owned by F. B. David and T. A. Beach.
The post-office at Lebanon was established about 1815 with Jonathan Thayer postmaster. He held the office until his death in May, 1830, when he was succeeded by his son Sylvester, who held it till 1833, and was followed by Orrin Thayer, second son of Jonathan. He was suc- ceeded by Horace A. Campbell about 1836. Later officials have been Orrin Gilbert, William L. Sheldon, H. A. Campbell, Edwin M Lamb, Reuben S. Hall, Joseph D. Avery, Milton E. Danforth, Charles W. Brasse, John D. Gilbert, who was in the office until 1876, since which time Silas W. Seymour has been postmaster in Republican administra- tions and James Mosher in Democratic administrations.
The first physician in Lebanon was Joseph Stowell, a Massachusetts school teacher who settled about 1800 in the southeast corner of the town and practiced until his death about 1832. He was succeeded on the homestead by his son Kittridge.
The second physician was Dr. Constant Merrick who settled about 1803 on Billings Hill and removed to the village about 1806, practicing until his death in July 1828. Dr. John Clark settled in 1806 on lot 45 where he resided until his death at the age of ninety-five years. Dr.
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
Erastus B. Burroughs settled in the village in 1827 and gathered about him a number of students whom he located in surrounding places for the purpose of increasing his patronage to consultations. Among these students were Albert G. Purdy, who located first in Eaton, removing thence to Oneida; Milton Burnett, a native of Georgetown who settled at Morrisville and eventually removed to Oneida; Frederick Bradley, a native of Georgetown; Ralph Shepard, also a native of Georgetown, both of whom settled in Michigan ; James Stewart and others. Dr. Bur- roughs went to Florida in 1841 to improve his health, returned in 1842 and died in 1843. Dr. Lyman O. Horton, a native of Hamilton, set- tled in the village in 1843, practiced about ten years and removed to Illinois. Dr. John Baker and Cyrus his brother, homeopathists, were contemporary with Horton and practiced in company from about 1848 to 1853 and removed to the west part of the state. Dr. Frank D. Beebe practiced from 1855 to 1862, removing to Hamilton, Dr. E. Lamb Root taking his place. Dr. James Mott Throop began practice in the village in 1866 and continued many years. The only present physician is Dr. M. D. French who has been in practice about four years.
The Congregational church of Lebanon was organized October 2, 1802, as the Third Congregational Church of Christ in the Town of Hamilton. The records of the society in early years are very meagre, but a pastor was probably not settled before July, 1825, when Rev. Preston Cummings was called and served about two years. Succeed- ing pastors were Rev. S. Scott, called in 1831; Rev. Jeremiah Pom- eroy for a short period; Rev. William B. Tompkins, 1836-39. During his pastorate the church building which was erected in 1825 a mile north of the center was removed to the village. In 1840 Rev. G. W. Finney was called to the joint pastorate of this and the Georgetown churches. Later pastors have been Reverends Redfield, Copeland, Wyn Root, G. M. Smith, T. A. Wadsworth, C. Barstow, W. W. War- ner, Abisha Scofield, Ovid Miner, E. D. Reed, J. D. Woodruff, Ward Batchellor, Seward M. Dodge, and perhaps a few others. Since its re- moval the church building has been greatly improved, the gallery taken out, new seats and windows put in, etc. Rev. Hugh Ivey is the pres- ent pastor.
The early settlement and industries established at Smith's Valley on the east border of the town have all been described. The place at the present time possesses very little business importance, containing only two stores, one conducted by George Waite and the other by Riley
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IMPROVEMENT IN TOWNS-LEBANON.
Arnst, the post office and a milk station on the railroad. For a long period previous to the building of the railroad the little village was a quiet country hamlet, but with the opening of the railroad a consider- able impulse was given to business enterprises. J. Dayton F. Smith began mercantile trade in 1870, was associated with his son Adon N. Smith from 1873 and sold about 1874 to Charles E. Montgomery. A year and a half later he sold to Sidney Dayton Smith, who continued business several years. E. C. Bixby kept a grocery for some time after 1877. A cheese factory was built in 1863 by a stock company com- posed of M. M. Campbell, A. L. Brown W. C. Russell and D. B. Shap- ley; this is not now in operation. The first postmaster here after the opening of the railroad was Peter L. Beers. Among his successors have been Henry T. Robinson, J. D. F. Smith, C. Montgomery, Sid- ney D. Smith. Mary C. Hutchings has been postmistress about ten years past.
The Baptist church of Lebanon resulted from the efforts of Thomas Jeril, then residing in Georgeton, who was converted during a revival experienced between 1808 and 1811 under the labors of Elder Hosmer of Lebanon. Mr. Jeril prepared a room in his dwelling for meetings. A band of twenty-seven members was finally recognized as a church by a council June 26, 1816, and Mr. Jeril was ordained pastor. A meet- ing house was erected in the winter of 1819 about 100 rods south of the site of the present church. The latter was completed early in 1835. Among the pastors who have served this church since Elder Jeril, who resigned in 1836, were Elders Washington Kingsley, Benja- min Putnam, E. D. Reed, Daniel Hascall, E. D. Reed, C. V. Patterson, George B. Simons and a few others. An old Baptist church located a mile and a quarter northeast of Lebanon village, built many years ago, was removed to the village in 1889 and rebuilt. The society is in a fairly prosperous condition and the pulpit is supplied from Colgate Uni- versity. About a mile east of the village of Lebanon was formerly a Universalist church, which had a precarious career for some years, and is now used as a store house by S. B. Yates.
The little hamlet of South Lebanon, situated in the southeast part of the town, contains at the present time a general store kept by Sidney Catlin, a steam saw mill operated by Charles Bills, a blacksmith shop by Cornelius Downey, and a school house. Samuel Benedict was a former wagonmaker here and Stephen J. Wedge a blacksmith. The first merchant was W. H. Williamson, a native of Lebanon, who came
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
from Hamilton about 1871 and sold out in 1876 to Lewis H. Wedge. The saw mill was originally built about 1860 for a carriage shop by Sidney Bills, and in 1871 was converted to its present use. An addi- tion was erected by Mr. Bills, which was built for a cider mill in which was subsequently placed a feed mill. It is operated by steam. About the close of the first quarter of a century a Methodist society was formed and a church built at this point which was used a number of years but finally declined and the building has been demolished.
CHAPTER XX.
PROGRESS OF IMPROVEMENT IN TOWNS CONTINUED - MADISON AND NELSON.
The history of the town of Madison succeeding the date of the forma. tion of the county to which time it is brought down in Chapter VIII, embodies a brief story of quiet, peaceful agricultural development and the moderate growth of the several small villages. As seen by the population statistics in the later Gazetteer of the town, the number of inhabitants remained about stationary through more than half a cent- ury, while in recent years it has slightly decreased through the same causes that have operated in that direction in other rural districts.
The improvements made by Gen. Erastus Cleveland in the town prior to the beginning of the present century and during some years thereafter have already been described. The most important of them to the pioneers was the building of what were long known as Cleve- land's mills, which were erected in 1795 on the site of the present mill of F. M. Fiske on Oriskany Creek east of Solsville. He had built a saw mill the previous year and continued in that business until his death. He was for many years the most conspicuous citizen of the town. A few years after his erection of the first mill, which had be- come inadequate to the wants of the settlers, he built another half a mile east of the first, which later became known as Gray's mill. Still later he built another at Solsville, which he transferred about 1832 to his son-in-law, N. S. Howard. The latter operated a distillery opposite. When the water power here was greatly impaired by the construction
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IMPROVEMENT IN TOWNS-MADISON.
of the Chenango Canal, Howard was reimbursed by the State and the mill was idle some ten years. It was then repaired and put in use. The distillery building was ultimately demolished, and a cheese fac- tory built on the site, which for several years past has been used as a storehouse. The mill property passed in later years from Howard to his brother Adin and from him to A. C. Wheeler, who sold it to William A. Simmons; he sold to William S. Pierce and he to James H. Parker. The property is now owned by George Smith, who succeeded Smith & Spooner.
Among other prominent men of this town in early years was Samuel Goodwin, father of Daniel B. Goodwin. He was the founder and owner of the first line of stages through the village of Madison, which carried the mail. He was associated also in other stage business be- tween Utica and Albany with T. L. Faxton and Jason Parker, both of Utica. Goodwin acquired considerable wealth and sold his stage prop- erty to Col. Thomas C. Nye, of De Ruyter, who operated the lines many years, making his home in Madison. He extended the business and made this a very important stage headquarters. When staging de- clined and became less profitable he abandoned most of his routes and for a period kept the Park House in Hamilton.
The site of Madison village was known in early years as "The In- dian Opening," and became the scene of early business operations which gave promise of later large extension. This promise was so far fulfilled that the little village was incorporated on the 17th of April, 1816, the boundaries including "all that district of country compre- hended in lot number 36 of the third town of the Twenty Townships, as laid out into lots by Nathaniel Locke." The government of the vil- lage was, of course, for many years extremely simple. The first meet- ing for the election of officers was held at the house of Benjamin I. Starr on the first Tuesday in May, 1816, and there the following officers were elected: Samuel Goodwin, Truman Stafford, Alfred Wells, Ed- ward Rogers, and Adin Howard, trustees; Asa B. Sizer, Amos Burton, and John Lucas, assessors; Asa Curtis, collector. At the first meeting of the trustees on June 4 of that year, Samuel Goodwin was chosen chairman, and Adin Howard, treasurer.
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