USA > New York > Madison County > Our county and its people : a descriptive and biographical record of Madison County, New York > Part 62
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1835 1840 1845 1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1890 1892
2,231 2,100 1,976 1,965 1,876 1,797 1,717 1,730 1,649 1,350 1,350 1,339
These figures indicate a slow but gradual decrease in population in the town. This is not due to its being in any sense an unattractive or unprofitable locality for the prudent, industrious and economical farmer,
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
mechanic or tradesman. It is, rather, in keeping with the conditions in many other towns in the State and county, in which in the passing years, there has developed among the young men a desire to leave the homesteads of their ancestry for the alluring attractions and occupa- tions of cities and large villages.
As before indicated this town is a profitable dairying region. There are four cheese factories within its limits, one on the Richards estate farm, one in Nelson village, one at Erieville, and one four miles north - east of Nelson. The factory at Nelson was established in 1868 by A. T. Gaines and was later conducted during a period of more than fifteen years by William Richards, who at that time operated four other fac- tories in this vicinity. The factory northeast of Nelson is conducted by J. P. Davis. A large part of the farmers of the town at the present time are engaged in the production of milk, which goes to these facto- ries or to distant market. The fattening of veal has also in recent years become quite an important feature of the agricultural interest. Among the leading farmers of the town are Ward Smith, Orson Graves, W. L. Richards, D. M. Jones, Morey Brothers, W. D. Brown, M. D. Lyon, H. K. Smith, S. L. Jones, Abelbert Howard, Charles E. Richards, John H. Richards and Evan D. Davis.
There is a grist mill a half mile east of Nelson village, with which is connected a saw mill and cider mill, operated by L. H. Hutchinson; it was formerly for many years owned by H. P. Hutchinson, an old and respected citizen who died in 1897. There is also an old grist mill on the road from Erieville to Nelson, formerly operated by S. E. Bump, but now idle.
Erieville .- There are only two post offices in Nelson, one of which is in the village of Erieville, the largest settlement in the town. It is situ- ated in the south part of the town, with a station on the railroad. It contains a hotel on the site of the one built in 1820. The present four- story frame building was erected in 1883, soon after the burning of the first structure; the house is now occupied by Mrs. H. T. Griffin, who succeeded her husband. There are three general stores in the village, kept by C. E. Maynard, E. S. Jillson and G. C. Moore; two blacksmiths, two steam saw mills, a cooper shop where James Stevenson worked for many years, a cheese factory and a milk station. The village is an im- portant milk shipping point, being situated in the midst of an exten- sive and productive dairying region. The village has two churches; the Baptist, which is supplied from Hamilton College, and a Methodist
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GAZETTEER OF TOWNS-SMITHFIELD.
Episcopal, over which Rev. A. W. Battey is pastor; he also has charge of a church in Nelson village.
An extensive milk business is carried on here by C. E. Maynard, who in 1897 handled 3,946,065 pounds of milk, making 324,435 pounds of cheese, 22,592 pounds of butter, and shipping to the New York market 4,622 forty-quart cans of milk. Mr. Maynard is one of the leading business men of this section and served the district in the Assembly two terms.
An undertaking business is conducted by D. P. Maynard, and E. S. Jillson has a flour and feed business in addition to his general store. G. C. Moore, successor to G. C. Moore & Co., in a general store, is post- master. The village has a Grange Hall, a post of the G. A. R., and the lines of the Central New York Telephone and Telegraph Company pass through the village, having a local office in the store of G. C. Moore.
Nelson (Nelson Flats) .- This is a small hamlet in the north part of the town, containing a small collection of houses, a Methodist church, of which Rev. A. W. Battey is pastor, a school house, two general stores, one conducted by W. R. Richards, succeeding Gage & Whitney, and the other by W. H. James, a blacksmith shop, and a post-office, which is located in the store of Mr. James, with George W. Holmes, postmaster. This store formerly contained a stock of hardware and tin, and before that was a hotel in which Myron Hutchinson was the last landlord. Several years ago a large evaporator was established by C. E. Gaines, and the building is still standing in the main street of the village. In the fall of 1885 a large building was erected for a saw mill, grist mill and cider mill, a wagon shop and blacksmith shop, by the Nelson Manufacturing Company, in which L. C. Barnes, Arthur Bailey, Frank Taylor, S. N. Judd and Charles Judd were interested. Unfortunately for the place this building was burned in 1887 and not rebuilt.
The Town of Smithfield.
Smithfield was one of the towns organized in the year 1807 and was set off from Cazenovia on the 13th of March. It was named in honor of Peter Smith, its proprietor. It is situated in the central part of the county and bounded on the north by Lenox and Stockbridge, on the east by Stockbridge, on the south by Eaton and Nelson, and on the west by Fenner. It contains about 15,630 acres. When organized it included what is now Fenner, which was taken off in 1823. The sur-
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
face is mostly rolling, with a large cedar swamp extending through the town from north to south, much of which is uncultivated. The soil on the hills is sandy and gravelly loam. The drainage of the town to the north is into the Chittenango and the Cowasselon Creeks, and from a small part in the south into the Chenango. The old Oneida turnpike traverses the town, going from Vernon to Cazenovia, while the Stone road from Morrisville to Canastota crosses it from north to south. Smithfield is wholly isolated from railroads and canals, and receives its mail from Canastota by stage. The principal industry at the present time is dairying; hops are grown to considerable extent and mixed farming is also followed in most parts of the town.
The territory of Smithfield constituted a part of the great purchase made from the State in 1795 by Peter Smith, after having procured a lease in the preceding year of the Oneida Indians of the same lands for a term of 999 years. The price paid to the State was $350 for the whole, comprising more than 50,000 acres. It became and is still known as the New Petersburgh Tract. Jasper Aylesworth was sent on by Mr. Smith in 1795 to begin the permanent settlement on his purchase, and he located on and cleared the land on which the village of Peterboro stands. John Taft was a settler near by not long after Aylesworth, and the latter married his daughter in 1797; this was the first marriage on Smithfield territory. In 1798 Oliver Trumbull came in and settled on fifty acres a half mile south of Aylesworth's clearing and there lived and reared his family. Between 1797 and 1799 inclusive the numerous and prominent family named Bump settled in the town and took up farms; the father's name was Ichabod, but the son, Ithamar, was the pioneer; he was soon followed by his father and his brothers, Moses, Nathan, David, Jonathan, Gideon, Jacob, and a sister who married Ebenezer Bronson, father of Greene C. Bronson.
Among the settlers of 1800 were Solomon Merrill, David Shipman, Samuel and Jacob Walker, Jabez Lyon, Robert Streeter, Shadrach Hardy, Gideon Wright, Ezra Chaffee, David Tuttle, Mrs. Moody and her sons, Samuel and David, Mrs. Mattison and her sons, John, Abraham, Eli and Nathan, the Northrup and Matthewson families, Francis Dodge, Salmon Howard, Stephen Risley, Moses Howe, John Forte, Reuben Rich, David Blodgett, Daniel Petrie, who became the first sheriff of the county, and Capt. Joseph Black. Other early settlers are mentioned and more at length in an earlier chapter.
Peter Smith came on from Utica with his family in 1806 and soon
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GAZETTEER OF TOWNS-SMITHFIELD.
afterward began the erection of the plain wooden structure which has been known as the Smith mansion, which was remodeled in 1854 by his son, Gerrit Smith, and is still standing. Peter Smith was the first supervisor of the town and in June, 1807 was elected associate judge of the county. Judge Smith in 1819 transferred all of his property to his noted son, Gerrit, and in 1825 removed to Schenectady, where he died in 1837.
The first town meeting for Smithfield was held April 7, 1807, "in the school house near David Cook's"; this was in that part of the town now included in Fenner. The polls were open three days and the vote cast numbered over 300. Daniel Petrie was chosen the first town clerk. At this meeting there was an active rivalry between the eastern and the western parts of the town, two tickets having been nominated; the details of the contest are given in the early history of the town of Fenner.
There are two post-offices in Smithfield, one of which is at Peterboro, the only village of importance in the town. The village was an im- portant one in its very early history as the site of a glass factory and a little later by two, which at one period employed a hundred or more hands. It was established about 1808. A distillery was built in 1802, which was succeeded by a second one in 1814. A tannery was estab- lished in 1810 by Benjamin Wilber and another by Abner Hall & Son in 1836; both long ago disappeared. A small grist and saw mill was built about 1802 by William Sayles which was owned by Peter Smith; it was superseded by second mills in 1850, which are not now in existence.
Samuel Stranahan built a dam across the stream here in 1807, erected a fulling mill and sold that and his privelege in 1816 to Perry Palmer and Wolcott Skidmore. The latter soon sold to his partner who in 1825 took down the building and erected near by a saw mill and shingle mill which he operated more than twenty years. George Peck had an early machine and wood working shop, where he invented the stave cutting machine which revolutionized the cooperage business. There is no manufacturing industry of account in the town at the present time.
This town was one of the first to adopt the manufacture of cheese in factories, and one was built at Peterboro, which was undoubtedly the first in the county. It was begun in the spring of 1861 at Peterboro and was the second one in the State. It was erected under direction of Mr. Williams, of Rome, who was the pioneer in this business. The
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
proprietor was Harry Blodgett. The business increased and before many years passed there were five factories in successful operation in the town. One of these was at Peterboro, one at Siloam, one near the southeast corner of the town, one at Mile Strip and one on the farm of Frederick Putnam. At the present time only three factories are in operation-one at Siloam by Albert Miller; one at Peterboro by Robert Warcup, and one in the west part of the town by Levi Miller.
The first store in the town was opened by James Livingston in the same building in which he kept a tavern in 1801. In the same year Daniel Petrie opened a second store. Among other merchants of the place have been William Solon and Myron Taylor, Elisha Carrington, Royal and Dorman Cooper, Asa Raymond, Charles H. Cook, Peter S. Smith, Samuel Forman, Dunham & Clink, Harry Curtis, J. G. Curtis, Eliphalet Aylesworth, Ives & Woodbury, Dr. N. C. Powers, Andrew S. Douglass, Dr. A. C. Baum, James R. Barnett, Charles Cutler, John A. Campbell, William T. Marcey, W. C. Ives, Charles N. Snow, W. E. Coe, Thomas O. Taylor, J. N. Woodbury, Lucius P. Faulkner, and possibly a few others. The present mercantile business of the village includes the following: J. N. Woodbury, who has conducted a general store more than forty years; W. E. Coe, has sold drugs and groceries sixteen years; J. O. Wright has conducted a general store more than twenty years; Geo. W. Davis, druggist and physician, nine years; T. O. Taylor, clothing; Charles E. Wagoner, confectionery, etc .; A. M. Bump operates the saw and grist mills; William Johnson, a tin shop; wagon shops by Wiley Conine and David Devan, and blacksmith shops by William Ginney and Timothy Ginney; M. L. Dennison sells agri- cultural implements, etc. The present physicians are Dr. F. E. Dewey and Dr. G. W. Davis.
The first hotel in the place was the one before mentioned as built in 1801 by James Livingston, in which he kept also a store. This house passed through many hands and was occupied as a hotel until after 1850. It is now used for a residence. David Ambler built a hotel in 1830, which was the first temperance house in the State. Gerrit Smith sub- sequently purchased it to prevent liquor being sold there, removed the building and added the site to his grounds. At about the same time he built another hotel which he offered free of rent to any one who would keep it without selling liquor; it shared the fate of its predecessor. What is now the hotel was opened about 1876 and had a license for the sale of beer and wine, the first license granted in the town since 1846.
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GAZETTEER OF TOWNS-SMITHFIELD.
It is kept by Frank Martindale. The Cameron House was built in re- cent years and is kept by Charles Cameron. The village is connected with Canastota by daily stages.
Peterboro Academy was built in 1853 with about $2,500, which was raised by subscription The buildings now occupied as the Orphan's Home were erected for its accommodation and the school opened in that year. The site was donated by Gerrit Smith. In 1864 the insti- tution received an endowment of $15,000. Like most other academies this one subsequently began to decline, and in 1871 Gerrit Smith pur- chased all of the stock at 29 per cent. and transferred the property to the Home, which was then being organized. He then bought the Presbyterian church edifice, which was not in use, and expended $7,000 in fitting it for a school building, with a public hall above. This prop- erty he deeded to the academy trustees, under provision that it should revert to his estate whenever it should be used for any other purpose. It is still in use for the school. The Union School in Peterboro was incorporated in 1896. The first Board of Trustees were Garrett G. Mil- ler, W. C. Dorrance, J. O. Wright, W. E. Coe and John N. Woodbury. The board is still in office, excepting John N. Woodbury, who was superseded by A. M. Bump. The present principal is Arthur H. Jack- son, who has two assistants. The school is kept in the old Presbyterian church building, which has been refitted for the purpose. The town has thirteen school districts with school houses, the value of the prop- erty being about $10,000. The number of teachers is sixteen.
Three different newspapers have been published in Peterboro, among them the first one in Madison county; all of them long ago passed out of existence. The first one was the Madison Freeholder, established in 1808 by Peter Smith and continued to about 1819. The Washing- tonian temperance movement brought into existence the Madison County Temperance Union, which died in 1852 after only a few years of feeble support. In 1854 the Christian and Citizen was founded and lived about three years.
Peterboro is a quiet and attractive village, built about the public "Green," in the center of which stands a handsome monument which was presented to the town by Aaron T. Bliss of Michigan, who was for- merly a resident of Smithfield and joined the Union army. The monu- ment was unveiled July 4, 1893, and bears this inscription : " Erected in honor of the men of Madison county who served their country in the war which preserved the Union, destroyed slavery, and maintained the con- stitution."
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
Siloam. - This is the name of a hamlet and post-office on the Oneida turnpike two and a half miles east of Peterboro. A tavern was built here as early as 1804 by Joseph Black, and in 1808 a second was built and kept by Samuel Ellinwood and John Black. In 1810 Jeremiah Ellinwood and Elijah Manly built a grist mill and a saw mill was added in the same year. A store soon followed by Mr. Black and Alexander Ostrander, and the post-office was established. The construction of the Chenango Canal and other general causes made a large demand for beer and whiskey in this vicinity and in 1880 there were here three dis- tilleries and two breweries. The post-office was abandoned for a time, but was subsequently re-established. One store is kept here by Fran- cis Wright, and no hotel. There is no grist mill now, but a saw mill and distillery are operated by Harmon Holmes, who is also postmaster.
About half a mile from the northern line of the town on the Stone road at a four corners is a postal station called Mile Strip. In 1813 a young mechanic who had a small shop here made the first steel hay forks turned out in this State. His name was Oren Soper, and he gained fame and made money in this work. The post-office, with Ros- coe Gates in charge, is over the line in the town of Lincoln. Mr. Gates conducts a store.
The first church organized in Smithfield was the Presbyterian, at Peterboro, formed in 1806. For a number of years it prospered and at one period had a membership of 200. It finally declined and in 1870 was dissolved.
The Baptist Church was organized in 1807 and also had an active ex- istence many years, its membership reaching at one time about 260; but it also fell into decline and its services closed in 1866.
Siloam was originally known as Ellinwood Hollow, and in 1820 the the Baptist Church of Ellinwood Hollow was organized and an edifice was erected in the next year. This passed out of active existence. The Methodist Church at Siloam was erected in 1896. It is a branch of the Stockbridge society.
The Mile Strip Methodist Church was organized in 1830 and after 1865 was attached to the Peterboro charge. It is still in existence.
What was known as the Church of Peterboro, organized in 1843 at the instigation of Gerrit Smith, was free from sectarian ruling, as he believed all churches should be. In 1847 he built a chapel and offered its use to all clergymen. It was long used as a free church, but was ultimately converted into a dwelling.
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GAZETTEER OF TOWNS-STOCKBRIDGE.
The Methodist Church of Peterboro was organized in 1854, and ser- vices were held at various places until 1858 when a small church was built. This society has maintained its existence and improved the edifice in recent years. Rev. George W. Reynolds is pastor.
The Home for Destitute Children of Madison County is situated in Peterboro, and is fully described in a previous chapter.
The population of Smithfield in the years when the census has been taken is shown in the following figures:
1835
1840
1845
1850
1855
1860
1865
1870
1875
1880
1890
1892
2,750
1,699
1,629
1,669
1,514
1,509
1,366
1,227
1,247
1,226
1,043
1,015
Following is a list of supervisors of this town from its organization to the present time with the dates of their election :
1807, Peter Smith, Roswell Glass; 1808-10, Asa Dana; 1811-13, Elisha Carrington; 1814-19, Nehemiah Huntington; 1820, Daniel M. Gilbert; 1821-24, Nehemiah Huntington; 1825, Elisha Carrington ; 1826-29, Nehemiah Huntington; 1830-34, Daniel Dickey; 1835, John M. Messinger; 1836-38, Czar Dikeman; 1839, Daniel Dickey; 1840-42, John G. Curtis; 1843, Stafford Green; 1844, George W. Ellinwood; 1845, Silas W. Tyler; 1846-47, James Barnett; 1848-49, Alexander McGregor; 1850, Amzi G Hungerford; 1851-53, Caleb Calkins; 1854, Isaac Bartlett; 1855-56, Charles D. Miller; 1857-58, Joseph E. Morgan; 1859-60, Abi A. Phipps; 1861-62, James Riley Stone; 1863, Alex. Mc- Gregor; 1864-66, Abi A. Phipps; 1867-69, Edward Bliss; 1870, W. J. Wilbur; 1871, Gerrit S. Miller; 1872-74, R. J. Hollenbeck; 1875-77, James G. Messinger ; 1878-79, Alex. O. Johnson; 1880, R. J. Hollen- beck ; 1881-83, Leander W. Burroughs; 1884-91, W. Emmet Coe, 1892- 98, Albert L. Cameron.
The Town of Stockbridge.
With the exception of the two towns of Oneida and Canastota, erected from Lenox in 1896, Stockbridge was the latest formed town in Madi- son county. It was set off from Vernon and Augusta in Oneida county, and Smithfield and Lenox in Madison county on May 20, 1836. Of course most of its early history is embodied in that of those towns. It lies on the east border of the county and is bounded on the north by Lenox and Vernon, on the east by Vernon and Augusta, on the south by Eaton and Madison, and on the west by Lenox and Smithfield. It contains nearly 19,000 acres, of which more than 15,000 are improved.
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
The surface is high upland, broken by the beautiful valley of Oneida Creek, which extends north and south through the central part of the town, the hills on either side rising in continuous ranges to the height of from 500 to 800 feet. These hills, while steep in many places and dif- ficult to work, are tillable to their summits. The valley broadens to- wards the north and becomes merged in the plain that characterizes the northern part of Lenox. The soil is gravelly and clayey loam, fertile in most parts. Hops have been in the past and still are in a compara- tive sense a large product. For a number of years it was second in the county in the quantity of this crop; in recent years the production has somewhat declined, while more attention is given to dairying, in the products of which the town ranks high. Large quantities of milk are shipped to the eastern markets from the railroad stations at Munnsville and Valley Mills. There were twenty years ago five cheese factories in the town. Considerable attention is given in some localities to the growing of small fruits, and the apple crop in good years is large.
Oneida Creek is the only principal stream in Stockbridge, the main branch of which rises in Smithfield, traverses that town from northwest to southeast and enters Stockbridge in the southwest part, uniting with the direct branch south of the center of the town. As it flows down the west hill to the valley bottom it forms many falls and cascades, which add beauty to the scenery and in the past years turned many industrial wheels.
There are extensive deposits of limestone and gypsum in this town, both of which are quarried. The gypsum is found in the east ridge in the north part of the town, around Valley Mills; the limestone in the hills on both sides of the valley in the southern and central parts; it has been quarried and burned at various points. A number of caves are open in the limestone, in some of which noxious gases exist, prevent- ing their full exploration. In the bed of a small stream that flows down the east hill in the vicinity of Munnsville, were found years ago certain identations which local discussion characterized as the foot prints of an - imals and men. This theory is now dispelled.
The New York Ontario and Western Railroad extends along the slope of the east hill from north to south across the town, giving a fine view of the beautiful valley from its cars. There are stations at Munns- ville (now called Munns), at Valley Mills and at Pratts. The popula- tion of the town by census of 1892 was 1, 704, about fifty less than the census of 1890 and about 300 less than the census of 1880.
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GAZETTEER OF TOWNS-STOCKBRIDGE.
The first settlers in Stockbridge were Nathan Edson and his sons, John, Barney and Calvin, who located in the southeast part in 1791. There were also four daughters in the family, one of whom was the wife of Robert Seaver. Descendants of the pioneer long remained in the town. Oliver Stewart came in a little later than Edson and located near him. Jonathan Snow also settled about the same time on the southeast corner lot of the town. William Sloan, George Bridge, and James Taft were pioneers of the last century, Sloan settling on a part of the Edson lot and Taft on part of the Oliver Stewart lot. Descendants of Mr. Bridge still live in town. Matthew Rankin, father of Jairus, who was the first physician in the town, and Aaron, a justice of the peace, settled early on a part of the Snow lot in the southeast corner of the town. Benajah House was a pioneer in the south part. Many per- sons leased lands of the Indians in this town and finally became per- manent residents; but most of them came in between about 1820 and 1830.
The first town meeting in Stockbridge was held at Munnsville on June 7, 1836, when the following officers were elected: Henry T. Sum- ner, supervisor; Hiram Whedon, clerk; Orin Wright, justice; Elisha A. Clark, William Page and James Cowen, assessors; John Hadcock and Thomas Wilson, poormasters; Jesse Bridge, Luther Hathaway, and John Potter, commissioners of highways; Orange R. Cook, Danforth Armour, and Albert G. Bartholomew, school commissioners; William Temple, collector; William Temple, Levi Johnson, and Jonathan Car- ter, constables; Aaron Rankin, Ores Ranney, and Ephraim C. Brown, school inspectors; Clark Buck, sealer of weights and measures.
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