USA > New York > Oneida County > Our county and its people; a descriptive work on Oneida county, New York; > Part 16
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The following shows the towns of Oneida county in 1803, the number of residents and non-residents, the names of the supervisors, and the aggregate valuation in each town :
153
1788 TO 1806-FORMATION OF THE COUNTY.
1803.
SUPERVISORS AND TOWNS.
No. of Residents.
Non-Residents.
Aggregate
Valuation.
1. Jedediah Phelps, Verona
107
28
$ 48,129.00
2. Daniel Kelley, Lowville
161
41,300.00
3. Sheldon Parmelee, Augusta
224
-7
82,271.00
4. Gershom Hinckley, Jr., Remsen
53
24
57,544.00
5. Joseph Jones, Westmoreland
171
17
211,223.00
6. Jesse Curtis, Paris.
758
28
403,139.00
7. Henry Huntington, Rome
248
25
189,748.00
8. Geo. Doolittle, Whitestown
600
6
705,113.00
9. Samuel Wetmore, Vernon
160
9
65 966.00
10. Nathan Sage, Redfield
55
17
52,537.50
11. Henry Wager, Western
252
30
127,043.00
12. Isaac Brayton, Deerfield.
181
16
240,532.00
13. Henry Coffeen, Watertown
163
24
46,412.10
14. Asa Brayton, Martinsburg
53
13
45,418.80
15. Silas Southwell, Leyden
183
42
287,885.77
16. David Coffeen. Rutland
129
18
29,734.00
17. Samuel Sizer, Steuben
143
25
75,209.11
19. Noadiah Hubbard, Champion
93
16
27,263.00
20. Jacob Brown, Brownville
124
6
484,856.75
21. Jarvis Pike, Floyd.
142
25
149,332,00
22. Lewis Graves, Harrisburg
110
9
54,006.00
23. Nicholas Salisbury, Adams
120
12
83,455.37
24. Reuben Hamilton, Mexico
121
45
628,071.00
25. John Humaston, Camden
194
29
129,499.00
26. John Storrs, Trenton
158
17
116,250.70
27. Asher Flint, Bridgewater
187
12
145,441.00
1
I
1
t
i
4
145
279,824.00
18. Eleazer House, Turin
1
By an act passed March 24, 1804, the towns of Adams and Mexico, then in Oneida county, were divided, and the towns of Harrison, Malta, and Williamstown formed out of such division. February 16, 1805, the town of Camden was divided and the town of Florence formed therefrom.
And now the time was near at hand when it was self- evident that the county of Oneida was to be divided and one or more counties formed from the territory detached. The settlement in what are now Jefferson and Lewis counties, and in the town of Redfield and contiguous terri- tory, placed the inhabitants of those localities at a great inconvenience in going to Rome for a county seat, as the settlers in Oneida and Herki- mer counties had suffered in going to Johnstown and later to Herkimer for county seats, before Herkimer and Oneida counties were or- 20
154
OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
ganized. In 1804 the excitement ran high. The towns of Redfield, Champion, Watertown, Brownville, Lowville, and Martinsburgh aspired
to be county seats. The first two named did 'not expect the honor if two counties were formed. At Redfield Square was quite a settlement, made prior to 1800. The leader there was Capt. Nathan Sage ; he had
teen guns and one hundred men, and came from Connecticut about been in the Revolution, commander of the war vessel Middletown, six-
1795. At Champion was Judge Noadiah Hubbard, father of the late Judge F. W. Hubbard, of Watertown. He went in 1797 from Steuben in Oneida county, with a number of others, to settle on the new town -
(Champion and Storrs). He started in the fall, went down Black River ship now known as Champion, and to act as agent for the two owners
to Carthage, then known as Long Falls ; thence across the country eight to ten miles through an unbroken wilderness to Champion. There
tion that it would be selected as the county seat, viz. : Moss Kent, were also in 1804 settled at Champion three young lawyers, in expecta-
Egbert Ten Eyck, and Henry R. Storrs. Mr. Kent was brother of Chancellor Kent and land agent for land owners; later assemblyman
judge and member of congress and of the Assembly ; he was later the and congressman from Jefferson. Mr. Ten Eyck was later county
father-in-law of the late Judge Mullin. Henry R. Storrs was son of one of the proprietors of the township and went from Whitesboro to Champion ; when that town did not become a county seat he returned to Whitesboro, became one of the most eloquent jury lawyers in the State, judge of Oneida county and member of congress four terms. At Watertown was Henry Coffeen, the first county clerk, and a host of other strong men. At Brownville was Gen. Jacob Brown, who settled there in 1799 and was agent for Le Ray. He, like Colonel Willett, was of Quaker origin, yet both became military heroes, Colonel Willett in the Revolution, and General Brown in the war of 1812. At Lowville was Judge Stow and at Martinsburgh General Martin, both with large landed interests to be benefited by the location of the county seat. All of these men, as well as most of those who settled in the " rural dis- tricts" early in the present century, and seventy - five or even fifty years ago, were generally remarkable men. "They were giants in those days." Those in this county whose names readily come to memory, without
155
1806 TO 1812.
consulting records, are such men as Judge Amos Woodworth of Florence ; Caleb Goodrich and Richard Hurlburt, of Boonville ; Judge Israel Stoddard, of Camden the " king of the Fish Creek nation," who carried the towns of Camden, Annsville, Vienna, and Verona in his pocket ; Delos De Wolf, of Bridgewater ; "King" David Moulton, of Floyd ; Hiram Shays and the Prescotts, of New Hartford ; John D. Leland of Deerfield ; Aaron Stafford, of Sangerfield ; Judge Truman Enos, and Pomroy Jones, of Westmoreland ; David and Squire Utley, and the Wagers and the Braytons, of Western; Israel S. Parker, of Vienna.
Well, the outcome of the division of Oneida county was that two counties were taken off, Jefferson and Lewis; the one named after the then president of the United States, and the other after Morgan Lewis, then governor of the State. The county seat for Jefferson was located at Watertown ; the one for Lewis at Martinsburgh. The act incorpo- rating those counties passed March 28, 1805 ; and by the same act the town of Boonville was formed from that of Leyden which remained in Oneida county.
CHAPTER XIV.
1806 TO 1812.
On March 21, 1806, an act was passed dividing the town of Mexico, then in Oneida county, and forming the town of Fredericksburg (now Volney, Oswego county) from a portion of the territory.
On the 2d of April, 1806, an act was passed authorizing the Board of Supervisors of Oneida county to raise $4,000 for the purpose of build- ing the court houses in the county, one to be erected near the jail at Whitesboro, and one near the jail at Rome. These two court houses were erected accordingly and completed about 1807. Both were built of brick. The one at Whitesboro is still standing and is now used as the town hall ; over the front door is a marble tablet bearing the inscription, " Erected in 1807." The court house in Rome was erected at the same
156
OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
time and was destroyed by fire March 15, 1848. At the time of the fire there were three prisoners in the jail (two men and one woman), and one of the prisoners was first to give the alarm ; he stated the smoke found its way into his room, and seemed to come from the roof of the jail, and the fire had made such headway when first discovered, it was evident
ing; that was torn down to save the court house, but of no use. The from the jail, and between the two buildings was a wooden build- the jail could not be saved; the court house was forty feet westerly
prisoners were removed and Mrs. Calvin Washburn, the jailor's wife, was sick in bed ; she, too, was carried to a place of safety. The west
wind was blowing furiously, and carried burning cinders and shingles
to near dwellings, and also to the roof of the M. E. church, which then
stood in close proximity. A burning shingle was carried by the wind
to the spire of that church and lodged above the dome and set it on fire.
A number of men went up the steeple on the inside, and Albert Soper,
more venturesome than the rest, broke a hole through the top of the
clung to the edges of the loose tin with which the dome was covered, dome, and went to the outside, and at that dizzy height, with one hand
thor the story of that fire, as that daring, fearless adventure of Albert was so vividly impressed on their memories, as they related to the au- the fire. A number of old residents remember that fire ; but nothing and with the other hand and a tin dipper, dashed water on and put out
Soper. A sketch and a picture of Mr. Soper, appear elsewhere in this volume. It is supposed both court buildings were very much alike, if not exactly the same, and smaller than the present Rome court house. Where the brick were made which were used in the buildings is uncer-
tain. They were brought from Albany via the Mohawk River. John Healt came to Rome in 1816 from Herkimer county. His son, David W., now over seventy-five years old, and John Healt's daughter, Sarah, now over eighty, relate that they often heard their father say that he helped pole the boats up the Mohawk from Albany which carried those
brick; that their father in those days did much of that kind of work and
that his shoulders were as raw as a piece of uncooked beef, caused by the pole resting against them while pushing boats up the stream. When the Rome court house was burned in 1848, Woodman Kimball, an old Rome contractor, had the job of building the present Rome court house
157
1806 TO 1812.
and the right to the old brick. The brick were used by him in erecting the dwelling which was his, and which now stands on the corner of George and Court streets.
February 20, 1807, the town of Williamstown, then in Oneida county, was divided and the town of Richland formed, and a part added to the town of Redfield. By an act passed April 3, of the same year, the town of Camden was divided and the town of Orange was formed from it. On April 6, 1808, Orange was changed to the town of Bengal, and on April 12, 1816, that town was changed to the present town of Vienna. On April 8, 1808, the town of Williamstown in Oneida county was again divided and the town of Constantia was erected.
In February, 1808, an act was passed authorizing the governor of New York to distribute military stores in different parts of the State, and among other places Rome was designated as the depository of 700 stand of arms. The records of Oneida county clerk's office show that in June, 1809, Dominick Lynch deeded to the State by gift a parcel of land now occupied by St. Peter's church in Rome, on the road leading to Floyd. The premises were 98 by 200 feet and were to be used for a deposit for military stores ; and when for three years they ceased to be used for that purpose, the land was to revert to the grantor. A brick building with a stone foundation was erected about 1809 or 1810 and used by the State for storing arms until 1822. On May 22 of that year that building was destroyed by fire, after which the arms not burned were removed to the U. S. Arsenal, then on Wood Creek, Rome, now the bath tub factory.
On March 19, 1810, an act was passed directing the supervisors of Oneida county to raise money not exceeding $1,000 for the purpose of completing the court houses in the county.
April 5, 1811, the town of Fredericksburgh, Oneida county, was divided and the town of Scriba was formed from its territory, and the rest of the town of Fredericksburgh took the name of Volney.
March 1, 1816, the towns of Constantia, Mexico, New Haven, Red- field, Richland, Scriba, . Volney, Williamstown (all then in Oneida county), and Hannibal in Onondaga county, were formed into a new county named Oswego. Whatever other changes were subsequently made in the towns of Oneida county will be described in the history of
158
OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
the respective towns. The matters contained in preceding chapters relative to the formation of Oneida county show how it happened that our county was given two court houses and two jails-in fact two county seats.
Members of the local bar half a century ago, whose memories went back a quarter of a century farther. stated to the author that they re - membered when stocks and the pillory were in use in this county for the punishment of minor offenses. Hamilton Spencer, son of the late Joshua A. Spencer, stated that among his early recollections of Whites- boro jail, was seeing a man in the stocks standing in the court house yard for some minor offense. The stocks were made of two upright posts and a platform on which the offender sat, while his legs were thrust through two holes in a board in front of the platform, and there fastened. The pillory was similar except that the offender's head and arms were put through the board in front. The late Harmon Pease and Hon. Philo White, of Whitesboro, related seeing in their younger days the stocks in the court yard in that village, about midway between the court house and Main street.
By an act passed March 24, 1787, punishment for petit larceny by whipping was authorized, not to exceed thirty-nine lashes in one day ; and whipping posts were in use and in jail yards after the American Revolution ; but by an act passed March 26, 1796, that mode of pun- ishment was abolished. By an act passed February 7, 1788, for cer- tain offenses and in certain cases the offenders were ordered " set in the pillory for the space of one hour, in some town or public place, where the offense was committed." Cooper, in his " Pioneers," describes the punishment of Leather Stocking, in what is now Otsego county, by placing him in the stocks. That old Indian hunter and trapper, whose domain was the boundless woods, and who never knew what fear, con- finement, or restraint was, was humiliated beyond measure to be thus deprived of his liberty, even for one hour.
February 23, an act was passed authorizing convicted offenders to be placed in the stocks for two hours for drunkenness, profane cursing and swearing, and similar offenses. This mode of punishment was abolished in this State about the time of the adoption of the Revised Statutes, not far from 1830.
159
1806 TO 1812.
April 30, 1890, Congress authorized for certain offenses against the United States, that the offender should be punished by whipping, not to exceed thirty-nine lashes in one day. February 28, 1839, that mode of punishment was abolished by Congress, as was the pillory and the stocks. It is understood that Delaware is the only State in the Union where the whipping post is retained. It is a matter of interest, as well as astonishment, to read in this enlightened age of the various offenses which were punishable by death in England as late as 1806. There were 160 of them, of which the following are a part : Treason, murder, arson, rape, counterfeiting coin, falsifying judicial records, hunting in the night in disguise, writing threatening letters to extort money, pull- ing down toll gates, assembling to produce riots, smuggling, marrying a couple except in church without a license from the Archbishop of Canterbury, wandering as gypsies for thirty days, burglary in the night, stealing from the person over twelve pence, stealing fish, hares, or rob- bing on the highway, soldiers or sailors found begging without pro- ducing testimonials of their discharge from service. A British soldier who had lost a leg in the battle of Oriskany, or a sailor an arm fighting against Paul Jones off the coast of Great Britain, was liable to the death penalty if found begging, without producing evidence of his discharge from service ; and in addition to the punishment the offender might be dragged to the place of execution at the heels of horses, or disemboweled while alive, or quartered and the parts nailed up in a conspicuous place, or his skeleton left to rot on the gallows, or his hands and ears cut off and his nose slit, or be branded on the hand or cheek, before execution. With such barbarous laws existing on the statute books of England, is it a wonder that some of the minor punishments should have found their way into the laws of the colonies and remained there for years after we became separated from the mother country ?
March 26, 1810, Congress authorized the third United States census to be taken, the enumeration to begin on the third Monday in August in that year. For convenience the fourth census of 1820 is also here given, and also the votes for governor in each of those years. In 1810 Jonas Platt, who then resided in Whitesboro, was one of the candidates for governor, which may account for the large vote he received in this county ; his majority was 377 in the county, but he was defeated in the
160
OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
State by 7,514. Mr. Clinton's majority in the State in 1820 was only 1,457. Following is the record of votes in each of those years in the towns then in Oneida county :
Population.
-Governor, 1810 .-
Governor, 1820 .-
1810.
1820.
D. D. Tompkins.
Jonas Platt.
1). D. Tompkins.
De Witt Clinton.
Augusta
2,004
2,771
150
200
66
104
Boonville
393
1,294
15
52
24
36
Bridgewater
1,170
1,533
63
88
35
86
Bengal (Vienna)
454
1,307
46
20
149
Camden
1,132
1,772
68
110
89
166
Constantia
153
Deerfield
1,232
2,346
62
55
97
Floyd
970
1,498
99
28
61
Florence
396
640
33
29
16
41
Mexico
845
61
61
Paris
5,418
6,707
187
465
199
430
Remsen
489
912
19
14
Redfield
362
54
3
Richland
947
73
79
123
Rome
2,003
3,569
100
82
96
140
Steuben
1,105
1,461
83
57
44
51
Sangerfield
1,324
2,011
44
133
26
142
Trenton
1,548
2,617
45
82
41
133
Verona
1,014
2.447
98
53
78
95
Vernon
1,519
2,707
88
102
20
196
Westmoreland
1,135
2,791
18
93
95
135
Whitestown
4,912
5,219
161
372
103
260
Williamstown
562
34
48
64
Western
2,416
2,237
255
25
134
24
Scriba
328
16
108
Utica
2,972
25
122
-7
19
6
. -
Lee
2,186
5
Fredericksburgh
31
1
Whatever Oneida county history there is from this period down to the close of the war of 1812 is so closely interwoven with that war that it is difficult, as well as unnecessary, to treat it separately. A brief sketch of that war, in which Oneida county figures, is given in the next chapter.
161
THROUGH THE WAR OF 1812.
CHAPTER XV.
THROUGH THE WAR OF 1812.
With the close of the war of the Revolution the long-harassed inhab- itants of the Mohawk valley turned to peaceful vocations, intent only upon providing homes for themselves and their children ; and before the loud alarms of war again resounded through the land fifteen years later, marked and important changes had taken place in the territory of which this work treats. Many settlers had come in and at various points formed the nucleus of hamlets, usually where mills were built; forests fell before the pioneer's axe leaving clearings around every log house that year by year extended their boundaries and gladdened the owner's heart with larger crops; early mills were built and primitive stores were opened where the settler and his family could procure their limited sup- plies without the long journeys of the first years ; schools and churches were established and roads opened in many directions, making it possi- ble for distant neighbors to meet for social and other purposes and ren- dering communication with mill and store more easy. But this prog- ress was slow and followed only upon arduous and unremitting toil and many hardships.
It will be correctly inferred that the first settlers in the Mohawk val- ley were a patriotic band ; it could scarcely be otherwise after their pro- longed and bitter experience at the hands of the enemy, in whose ranks had fought a considerable number of their former neighbors and ac- quaintances-the so-called tories. When the war closed there was shown a disposition on the part of many of the tories to return to the State and occupy their former homesteads. This prospect called forth from the Whigs the most emphatic protests and practical opposition. At a meeting of the inhabitants of the Canajcharie and Mohawk dis- tricts, proceedings were enacted that demonstrated in the most remark- able manner the feelings of the patriots towards their recreant neigh-
21
162
OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
bors. After recounting in a preamble the barbarities of the tories the following was adopted :
Therefore, Resolved unanimously, That all those who have gone off to the enemy. or have been banished by any law of this State, or those who we shall find tarried as spies and tools of the enemy, and encouraged and harbored those who went away, shall not live in this district under any pretence whatever; and as for those who have washed their faces from Indian paint, and their hands from the innocent blood of our dear ones, and have returned either openly or covertly, we hereby warn them to leave this district, before the 20th of June next, or they may expect to feel the just resentment of an injured and determined people.
This document is dated May 9, 1783. Similar and more extended resolutions were adopted at a meeting held in Fort Plain on the 7th day of June, 1783. The patriotism of the people would not even tolerate the name "Tryon " as applied to the great county embracing a large part of the State, and it was changed to Montgomery on the 2d of April, 1784.
The reader has learned in the preceding chapter that the territory of Oneida county presented characteristics that would be sure to attract settlers as soon as guarantees of peace was established. No land fairer than the Mohawk valley exists anywhere, and the natural features of other parts of the county are little less attractive. Hence, when peace settled down upon the country, the pioneers came in rapidly, many of them having become to some extent familiar with the region during the Revolution. Whitestown and Vienna each received its first settler i 1784, Rome in 1785, Westmoreland about the same time ; in 1786 there were a few houses in the vicinity of Utica, and in 1788 New Hartford was first settled, while Kirkland had received her earliest pioneer in the previous year. Steuben, Paris and Western were settled in 1789, Floyd in 1790, and before the middle of that decade nearly or quite all of the towns of the county had welcomed their pioneers.1 Between the close of the war and the first year of the present century almost all of the ter- ritory of the county (including the colonial patents) had been granted in land patents which are described in Chapter X. The progress that had been made in the valley was recorded by Capt. Charles Williamson, an English land agent, who made a journey from Schenectady westward in I792. He said :
1 This, of course, leaves out of consideration the settlements of Fort Stanwix and Deerfield described in Chapter V.
163
THROUGH THE WAR OF 1812.
After leaving Schenectady I traveled over a most beautiful country eighty miles to Fort Schuyler (old Fort Schuyler, the site of Utica), where I forded the Mohawk. This extent was the scene of the British and savage cruelty during the late war, and they did not cease while anything remained to destroy. What a contrast now! Ev- ery house and barn rebuilt, the pastures crowded with cattle, sheep, etc., and the lap of Ceres full. I next passed through Whitestown. It would appear to you, my friend, on hearing the relation of events in this western country, that the whole was fable; and if you were placed in Whitestown or Clinton, ten miles west from Fort Schuyler, and could see the progress of improvement, you would believe it en- chanted ground. You would there view an extensive, well built town, surrounded by highly cultivated fields, which spot in the year 1783 was the " haunt of tribes" and the hiding-place of wolves, now a flourishing, happy situation, containing about six thousand people. Clinton stands a little south of Whitestown, and is a very large, thriving town. After passing Clinton there are no inhabitants upon the road until you reach Oneida, an Indian town, the first of the Six Nations. It contians about five hundred and fifty inhabitants.
Elkanah Watson from whose journal of 1788 we have already quoted in Chapter VIII made another journey in 1791, accompanied in the lat- ter by Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, and kept a voluminous diary, from which some pertinent quotations will be of interest in this connection. He left Albany on the Ist of September, and after noting events and places in his travels to this vicinity, he writes as follows under date of September 8 and later :
September 8 .- A pleasant sail of ten miles this fine morning brought us to Old Fort Schuyler. Here we were joined by General Van Cortlandt and Mr. Bayard, who were waiting for us, which completes our number to thirteen.
From Little Falls, thus far, the river is nearly competent to inland navigation, with the exception of a serious rapid, and a great bend at the German Flats, called, Wolf-riff, which must be subdued either by a cut across the neck of land, upwards of one mile, or by removing the obstructions.
An Indian road being opened from this place (now Utica) to the Genesee country, it is probable that the position at Fort Stanwix and this spot will become rivals as to the site of a town, in connection with the interior, when it shall become a settled country.
If, however, the canals should be constructed, I think Fort Stanwix will take the lead at a future day. Such was my impressions when there in 1788. Since that only a few houses and stores have been erected here, also a tolerable tavern to administer comfort to the weary traveler, which I experienced the want of three years past. In the afternoon we progressed thirteen miles, meeting many obstructions in conse- quence of the cruel conduct of the new settlers (who are wonderfully increased since I was here), filling the river with fallen trees cut on its margin, narrowing it in many places, producing shoals where the deepest waters had been accustomed to flow, and impeding the progress of our boats. We pitched our camp on the right bank of the river, in the midst of woods. All hands fell to work, soldier-like. We soon had a
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