Our county and its people; a descriptive work on Oneida county, New York;, Part 29

Author: Wager, Daniel Elbridge, 1823-1896
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: [Boston] : The Boston history co.
Number of Pages: 1612

USA > New York > Oneida County > Our county and its people; a descriptive work on Oneida county, New York; > Part 29

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By this time the rapid settlement of the " Genesee country" and the Military Tract was attracting westward throngs of pioneers, most of whom passed through Utica. In the Annals of Albany it is stated :

In the winter of 1795 1,200 sleighs loaded with furniture and with men, women, and children passed through Albany in three days, and 500 were counted between sunrise and sunset of February 28th of that year. All of them were moving west- ward.

The taverns in the village were numerous in proportion to the nun- ber of inhabitants, and they were well patronized. The settlement was still chiefly confined to a single street (Main), the western end of which was called the Whitesboro road. A few settlers were located on the lower end of Genesee street, with others scattered about the vicinity.

Among the arrivals in the village in 1800 may be mentioned the following : Charles C. Brodhead, a prominent early surveyor, who was sheriff in 1800 and surveyed the eastern section of the canal, Albany to Rome, in 1816.

In July the firm of Kane & Van Rensselaer (Archibald Kane, Jere- miah Van Rensselaer) advertised that they had "opened a house in Utica, where may be had a general assortment of dry goods and gro- ceries on moderate terms." This firm already had a large establishment at Canajoharie, where Mr. Kane remained, his partner settling in Utica, where he became prominent in business, religious and social affairs.

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THE CITY OF UTICA.

Jesse Newell began business in 1800 with George Macomber as painters and glaziers, in which they were followed by Mr. Newell's son, and in recent years by his grandson.

In 1801 the names of Aylmer Johnson, brewer ; Martin Dakin, clerk ; James Ure, brewer ; Bela Hubbard, tanner ; Dr. Francis J. Guiteau, jr., Abraham Walton, Capt. James Hopper, Ebenezer B. Shearman, and Daniel Thomas, a merchant, appear for the first. Dr. Guiteau was descended from the Huguenots, was a son of a physician of Lanesboro, Mass., settled in Deerfield in 1792 and in 1803 formed a partnership with Dr. Solomon Wolcott, as druggists and practitioners. Each built a house on Whitesboro street. Calvin Guiteau, the early surveyor, and Dr. Luther Guiteau, both of whom lived in Oneida county, were brothers of Dr. Francis J. Dr. Wolcott came from Williamstown, Mass., where he had acquired some property and married.

Capt. James Hopper had commanded vessels in the English merchant service, and when he settled in Utica he bought land on the southern borders of the village which ultimately made him wealthy. He was father of Thomas Hopper.

Ebenezer B. Shearman early became interested in the manufacture of cotton goods and glass, for the sale of which his store was the agency. He aided in founding a cotton factory in New Hartford, the first one in the county, and with his brother, Willet H., were leading members of the Oneida Glass Factory Company at Vernon.

A few persons of the Welsh race were settled in Utica in or before 1801, and ere long they began to come in large numbers, ultimately forming a large and eminently respectable part of the community. The farmers among the early comers settled on the rich hillsides of Remsen, Trenton and Steuben, while mechanics stopped in the villages. Among them were several excellent builders. Of the early Welsh arrivals in Utica may be mentioned Elder Abraham Williams, Joseph Harris, Daniel Morris, David Reed and sons, the James family, Watkin Powell, Samuel George, and others.

In 1802 John C. Devereux, a native of Ireland, settled in Utica and the family became one of the best known and most popular in the county. His first business advertisement under date of November 8, 1802, states that he had " opened an assortment of dry goods and groceries at the

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store lately occupied by John Smith." Associated with him as clerks or partners were his brothers, Luke, Nicholas and Thomas. In 1821 John C. and Nicholas built the well known Devereux block where they had a large warehouse and store.

In briefly noting the arrival of prominent persons in Utica from 1802 to the introduction of the second charter in 1805 we find that John H. Lothrop, lawyer, farmer, editor, merchant, and banker, assumed the editorship of the Whitestown Gazette and Cato's Patrol (before men tioned) in 1803, changed its name to the Utica Patriot and settled in the village to conduct the journal ; he also served as deputy in the office of the Supreme Court clerk. Having later sold his paper he removed to New Hartford in 1811, where he practiced law five years, when he was appointed cashier of the Ontario Branch Bank in Utica. Ira Merrell, who learned the printer's trade with William McLean and published Lothrop's paper for a time in company with his fellow apprentice, Asa- hel Seward, became well known as a printer and publisher. Thomas Walker was another printer who came into Oneida county and with Ebenezer Eaton founded the Columbian Patriotic Gazette in Rome, August 17, 1799. In March, 1803, he removed it to Utica, called it the Columbian Gazette and supported Jefferson for president. The first Utica number was dated March 21. In 1825 he sold the Gazette to Samuel D. Dakin and William J. Bacon, by whom it was consolidated with the Sentinel under title of the Sentinel and Gazette. They had already bought the Patriot, thus uniting the first three newspapers pub- lished in the county. The Patriot, mentioned as having been published by John H. Lothrop, was purchased of McLean in 1803, by Asahel Seward and Ira Merrell, and conducted under the names of Patriot, Patriot and Patrol, and Utica Sentinel. Mr. Seward retained an interest in its publication until 1824, in connection at different times with Mer- rell, William Williams, and William H. Maynard, when it passed to Dakin and Bacon, as stated. In 1806 Mr. Seward established a book printing plant and bindery and later a bookstore.

Within a year after his arrival Samuel Stocking erected a building on the east side of Genesee street which was known as Mechanics Hall, and there established his hat shop. In 1816 he removed to the brick store on Broad street where he remained permanently.

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THE CITY OF UTICA.

Abraham Varick, jr., settled in Utica in 1804. He was a lawyer, but was better known as agent of the Holland Land Company, a manager of manufactories and a dealer in real estate. In September, 1804, he bought the Kimball farm at the head of Genesee street for $5,000, mapped it and sold it in lots.

Other settlers of this period to whom only very brief reference can be made were David Ostrom. a Revolutionary soldier, who became county judge and also was landlord of the Coffee House, a well known hostelry on the site of the Devereux block. Dr. Marcus Hitchcock, who studied medicine at New Hartford with Dr. Amos G. Hull and practiced in Utica, carrying on also a drug store with Dr. John Carring - ton. Hugh Cunningham, who, with a partner, opened a store in 1804 and in 1810 built a store for himself on the corner of Genesee street and the square. Isaac Coe, the first village treasurer under the charter of 1805, and an enterprising citizen until 1810. Abijah and Anson Thomas, who came in 1804 and were many years prominent in business affairs. Dr. David Hasbrouck, who came in the same year and prac- ticed to about 1815. Enos Brown and Daniel Stafford, hardware dealers in 1804; William Tillman, a cabinetmaker; Ara Broadwell, a mason and contractor ; Alfred and Solomon Wells, carpenters, and Elisha Rose, blacksmith. In August, 1804, Walton, Turner & Co. took a store below Bagg's and also began a large forwarding business.

Up to 1801 the only existing and continuous religious society was that which was organized at Whitesboro in 1793 under the title of the United Society of Whitestown and Old Fort Schuyler, over which Rev. Bethuel Dodd was settled August 21, 1794. The services were held about two- thirds of the time at Whitesboro and the other third at Fort Schuyler, but after a few months they were discontinued at the latter place, chiefly because there was no public place of worship. This difficulty was removed in 1797 by the enlargement of the school house on Main street. In 1804, and possibly a little earlier, Mr. Dodd preached in Utica half of the time, and when he was elsewhere sermons were usually read by Talcott Camp, Hiel Hollister, Solomon P. Goodrich, and others, As the years passed, other churches and schools were added, as de- scribed further on.

The early growth of the village is shown in the fact recorded by Judge

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Jones in his Annals, that in 1794 there were about ten resident families in the place, while in 1796, according to Morse, the number of houses was thirty seven, which in 1798 had increased to fifty. Two years later Maude made the number sixty, and the population in 1801 is given by another as 200. In 1802 Rev. Mr. Taylor found here nearly ninety houses, and Dr. Dwight gives the number as 120 in 1804, with many

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stores and other buildings. All these were situated on Genesee, Whites- boro, Hotel, and a portion of Seneca streets. In 1805 not more than two brick stores had been erected. The corduroy road which had ex- tended from between what are now Broadway and Washington streets, in a winding way to New Hartford, had ere this been abandoned for the more direct turnpike continuous with Genesee street. While the in- habitants were more or less transient, there was on the whole an unusual amount of intelligence and good morals. Many of the settlers were far above the average in this respect and some of them were college bred.

Edward Curran

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THE CITY OF UTICA.

Whitesboro and New Hartford still surpassed Utica, and Rome at least equaled it. The courts were held in Whitesboro, drawing thither a coterie of lawyers and attracted business generally. The soil of much of the present thickly settled parts of the city was still being tilled by farmers; what is now the Second ward was famous for large crops of wheat. Almost no manufactories existed; William Smith was making wrought nails on the east bank of Nail Creek, and there was a small cut- nail shop on the south side of Main street a little east of the square, which was succeeded by another on Genesee street operated by Mr. Devlin. Ure's and Inman's breweries were in operation, and there were four tanneries. Abijah Thomas had his wagon shop and Samuel Stock- ing his hat factory. A few other small shops comprised all the manu- factures of that day. As a center for mercantile trade the village was active and was beginning to draw custom from a wide extent of terri- tory. The Welsh settlers had the only church edifice, but Trinity was in process of erection. The village had its burial place and in 1806 a deed of the premises was obtained from Stephen Potter.

The improvements thus far made and the growth of the village in population finally prompted the citizens to procure a new charter, which was done under date of April 9, 1805. Under this the bounds of the village on the east were fixed as the limits of the city now exist, while those on the west were extended to the west line of lot 99. The charter made the freeholders a body corporate, with power to raise by tax not to exceed $1,000 in one year for public buildings, fire expenses and necessary improvements. Five trustees were to be elected annually in May, and they were given authority to fix the price of bread, assess taxes, appoint twenty-five firemen and make laws for the government of the corporation. A treasurer and a collector were to be appointed, who were to receive pay for their services. At the first annual meeting the following trustees were chosen : Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, jr., Na- than Williams, Francis A. Bloodgood, Jerathmel Ballou,1 and Erastus Clark. Isaac Coe was chosen treasurer, and Worden Hammond, col- lector. It was resolved to raise $300 by assessment for various public

' Theodore P. Ballou, born March 18, 1808, was a son of Jerathmel Ballou, the pioneer. After some years of service as a clerk he engaged in the lumber business, owned large mills at Pros- pect, and erected the Ballou block on the site of his father's store. He died February 28, 1887.

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expenses. Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, jr., was appointed president and D. W. Childs, clerk. A fire company was organized, of which Benja- min Paine, a fashionable tailor, was an early captain, and in which Moses Bagg was an early officer. The owner of every dwelling. store or work- shop was required to keep hung therein one or more leather fire buckets, to be used for no other purpose than the extinguishment of fires. In July it was determined to dig three public wells to supply the village with water ; the lower one of these on Genesee street gave excellent water and was kept open a number of years. The firemen held monthly meetings, and a night watch was established as indicated in the follow- ing document dated December 10, 1805 :

We, the subscribers, esteeming a Night Watch in the village of Utica as necessary to guard us against the dangers of fire, do hereby associate ourselves for that pur- pose, and mutually pledge our honor to each other to act during the winter ensuing as good and faithful watchmen, under the direction and superintendence of the Trustees of said village.

This paper was signed by ninety-eight persons, who were organized in squads of five or six and took turns in patrolling the village streets. This system continued until 1810, when paid watchmen were provided.

Of the village in 1807, a traveler named Christian Schultz, jr., wrote as follows :

It contains at present about 160 houses, the greatest part of which are painted white, which gives it a neat and lively appearance. Foreign goods are nearly as cheap here as in New York, which, I presume, is owing to the merchants undersell- ing each other; for this, like all other country towns, is overstocked with shopkeep- ers. Most of the goods intended for the salt works are loaded here in wagons and sent on overland, a distance of fifty miles. The carriage over this portage is fifty cents a hundred weight.

About this time Moses Bagg, jr., relinquished mercantile business and took charge of the tavern that had been conducted by his father. It was a two-story building on the corner of Genesee street and the square. In 1812-15 he built on the site of the old tavern the central part of the brick hotel which bears his name, and later added to it on each side. This he conducted with brief intermissions until 1836, when it was sold to a company.

During the summer of 1808 Broad street was opened, and in the next year a lot for an engine house in the rear of Trinity church was donated

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by the agent of the Bleecker family. In the same year the following were adopted as public streets : First and Second streets from Broad to the river; Third street from Main to Broad and thence to be continued to the intersection of the road to Slayton's Settlement; and Water street from First across Genesee to Hotel street.

BAGGS HOTEL IN 1815.

Progressive men now began to turn their attention to the establish ment of manufactures, and in February, 1809, the Oneida Glass Fac. tory Company was incorporated with a capital of $100,000, which continued in successful operation until 1836. The need of banking facilities soon began to be felt, and a branch of the Manhattan Bank of New York was established here in 1809, and the Utica Bank in 1812. The first was organized by Montgomery Hunt, with Henry B. Gibson, teller and bookkeeper. The directors for 1810 were William Floyd of Westernville ; James S. Kipp, Francis A. Bloodgood, Solomon Wolcott, John Bellinger, Thomas Walker, Apollos Cooper, Marcus Hitchcock, Henry Huntington, of Rome; Nathan Smith, Ephraim Hart, then of Clinton, and Nathan Williams, who was president. With one exception these men left this bank in 1812 to take an interest in the Utica Bank. The Manhattan existed until 1818. The bank of Utica was incorpo-

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rated June 1, 1812, and began business on the 8th of the following De- cember. The capital stock was placed at $1,000,000, but it did not in reality exceed $600,000. Its first president was James S. Kipp ; Mont- gomery Hunt, cashier; Henry B. Gibson, teller. At the first annual election Abraham Van Santvoord succeeded President Kip as director and Henry Huntington as president. Thomas Walker succeeded Mr. Huntington in 1845, and he was followed in 1863 by Benjamin N. Hunt- ington. In 1876 Publius V. Rogers, then cashier, was chosen presi- dent and held the office until his death, when he was succeeded by Charles B. Rogers, then vice-president.

In 1810, a subscription was started to provide a watch for the year, and another for the purchase of a new fire engine. Several new streets were adopted, and a map made by Mr. Broadhead for the Bleecker heirs, shows all the streets parallel to Broad as far up as South as they now exist. The village was prospering, and the local paper of October 9 said that "a small triangular lot on the corner of Genesee and Whitesboro streets has been sold at the rate of $300,000 an acre, which same land twenty-five years ago might have been purchased for $1 an acre." The village now contained 1,650 inhabitants and 300 houses.

The freeholders' meetings were now, and had been for a few years, held in Mr. Dixon's school house. The only event of importance was the arrival of the new engine, and the appointment of a committee to select a site for an engine house near the store of Hugh Cunningham. The firemen were cautioned to test the new engine weekly and to keep the old one in repair. An English traveler, J. Mellish, passed through the village at this time and made notes of what he saw, from which we quote as follows :

The village lots are from fifty to sixty feet front and one hundred to one hundred and thirty deep and sell for from $200 to $1,000. The out-lots contain twelve acres and $500 is asked for them. House rent for mechanics is about $60 to $100; wood $1.25 per cord, flour $8 per barrel, potatoes two shillings per bushel, turnips thirty- one cents, cabbages four cents each, beans sixty-two cents per bushel, onions seventy-five cents, beef, mutton, and veal five cents per pound, venison four cents, fowls nine cents each, ducks two shillings, geese four shillings, turkeys five shillings, butter one shilling, cheese seven cents, hog's lard six cents, beer $5 per barrel, whisky twenty-five cents per gallon, boarding $2.50 per week.

In 1812 it was voted to build a market house on the public square

SAMUEL FARWELL.

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between Bagg's tavern and the store of John C. Devereux, at a cost of $300. This location did not please everybody and within a few weeks efforts were made to find a more satisfactory site. In July a meeting of the people was held to reconsider the action of the annual meeting on this subject ; the vote to repeal such action was lost. The market was built and in November ordinances for its government were adopted.

The war with England was now precipitated and no village in the interior of the State, perhaps, saw more of the activity resulting from it than Utica. Thousands of soldiers from all quarters passed through the place, many of them stopping for longer or shorter periods, as fully described in Chapter XV. The local company under command of Capt. William Williams, which had been the pride of the village, en- tered the service, and in the latter part of February, 1813, about sixty volunteers were enrolled at Utica, forming a company which was at. tached to the 134th Regiment. Among the prominent names of men who had some share in that war are those of Nathan Seward, Thurlow Weed, Nathan Williams, John E. Hinman, Nicholas Smith, Thomas Skinner, in the land service and Samuel Breese and William Inman, of Utica ; John G. Young, of Whitesboro; Antill Lansing, of Oriskany ; and Edward and Benjamin Carpenter, of Whitesboro, in the navy.

The first provision for sidewalks in the public proceedings is found in the records of 1814, though possibly temporary walks had been laid before that. It was in 1814 also that the village authorities issued cor- poration bills on account of the scarcity of currency. These bills were made payable at the Manhattan Branch Bank, which had agreed to ac- cept them, and were all in fractional currency.

The first Utica directory was published in 1817, containing a list of the inhabitants, occupying eighteen small pages, and a census. No other directory was issued until 1828.

Utica now contained 420 dwellings and a population of 2,861. For various reasons a new and broader charter was demanded and it became a law on the 7th of April, 1817 ; but before considering its features let us quote from Dr. Bagg's history a description of the Utica of 1816, and note further some of the arrivals of leading citizens before that date. Dr. Bagg wrote as follows :

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Standing on Deerfield Hill four or five miles away, the country below you seems like a level swamp covered with forest, the clearings being scarcely discernible. Be- yond the river you perceive the houses on the hill at Utica and an extensive opening in the vicinity. Directly south and west nearly one-third of the country is denuded of wood. To the southeast there are only small patches of clearing. Coming down toward the plain you discern the more conspicuous features of the village. Two church steeples enliven the scene, the Presbyteriau and the Episcopal, which stand like sentinels guarding the approaches on the west and the east, the latter rejoicing in a pointed spire, the former equally happy in its rounded cupola. As you cross the dyke you see plainly before you and towering above their fellows the imposing York House on the right and its closely contesting rival, Bagg's Hotel, directly in front. Having passed over the bridge you are at once within the heart of the settle- ment, the very focus of the town. For the limits of Utica at the time I treat of were mostly confined between the river and the Liberty street road to Whitesboro; from the square as a center they spread westward along Whitesboro street to Potter's bridge and eastward along Main and Broad to Third street. The course of Genesee street was pretty thickly lined with stores-a few residences only being here and there interspersed-as far upward as Catherine street, beyond which private houses predominated over business places, and these were scattered in a straggling way even to Cottage street. The roadway was guiltless of pavement and the mud at times profound. The sidewalks were paved, if such it might be called, but the pave- ment-of flagging, of cobble, of gravel, or of tan bark, as suited the convenience or the taste of the householder-bore little resemblance to the modern conventional sandstone. "Stately but graceless poplars stood in unbroken row from Bleecker street to the hill-top." On the west Genesee had no outlet higher than Liberty street, and on the east none above Catharine, for through Bleecker was known by authority it was neither fenced nor housed and was only a path to pastures beyond. The buildings on its business part were mostly wooden and of moderate size and preten- sion. A few were of brick. On the hill were the spacious grounds and beautiful houses of Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, Arthur Breese, and Alexander B. Johnson. In Whitesboro street were the Bank of Utica, the Manhattan Branch Bank, and the York House as well as the inns of Burchard and Bellinger. This was the Wall street of the village; it harbored several stores and was more populous than any other except Main, containing probably nearly as many inhabitants as it now does. Hotel, in proportion to its length, was quite as thickly peopled. Seneca, Washington, and Broadway reached only to the Liberty street road, Broadway bringing up at the elegant stone mansion of James S. Kip, while Washington conducted passengers no farther than the Presbyterian meeting-house.

The public square contained the town pump and the market-house. Main street was lined with the comely residences of prosperous citizens, and was terminated by the Methodist chapel and the pleasant home and grounds of Judge Miller. Broad street was occupied as far as the line of Third street, but contained only a small fraction of its present number of buildings. Between it Whitesboro and upper Gen- esee the best dwelling-houses of the village were unequally distributed. John street had here and there a residence, which in all reached a little higher than Jay, while beyond were the rising walls of the academy and in the rear of this two tenements on Chancellor Square. The faint attempts of Catharine to rival its fellow below

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were effectually crushed when stakes were planted along side of it to mark the course of the future canal. This settled its fate and consigned it the rank it has held ever since. Water street, now robbed of its importance, was nearest of all to the then channel of commerce, and besides its houses for storage aad forwarding was also the home of a few well-to-do folks.

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Our county and its people; a descriptive work on Oneida county, New York;, Part 29

Author: Wager, Daniel Elbridge, 1823-1896 Publication date: 1896 Publisher: [Boston] : The Boston history co. Number of Pages: 1612

Author: Wager, Daniel Elbridge, 1823-1896
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: [Boston] : The Boston history co.
Number of Pages: 1612