Our county and its people; a descriptive work on Oneida county, New York;, Part 44

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 44

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Settlement in Floyd· began several years prior to the formation of the town, with the advent of Capt. Benjamin Pike about 1790. He had a son, Jarvis Pike, who came in early, possibly with his father, and took a lease from General Floyd of a lot north of Floyd Corners under date of October 26, 1793. He was supervisor from 1801 to 1811.

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

Contemporaneous with Benjamin Pike's settlement was that of Stephen Moulton, jr , a musician in the Revolutionary army, who lived to the age of ninety-one years and died February 1, 1851.

As early as February, 1795, the different members of the Moulton family, from Stafford, Conn., had settled in this town. As before men- tioned, Stephen Moulton, the younger, was among the earliest settlers. Within five years after his arrival, his father, Stephen Moulton, and four other sons, Salmon, Joseph, Benjamin, and Ebenezer, had moved into the town. The Moulton family were among the staunchest Whigs of the Revolution in the land of " steady habits," and sacrificed much in the cause of their country. Salmon was taken prisoner on Long Island, and suffered all the horrors of a confinement in the "Sugar House," a place more noted for the suffering of its inmates than the " Black Hole" of Calcutta, because more protracted. Mr. Moulton was kept so short of provisions that he and his compatriots used to chew pieces of the oak staves of the sugar casks left in their prison, for the little nutriment they contained. His father, Col. Stephen Moulton, was afterward taken prisoner (as is understood) at Fort Washington, and there confined. After a tedious confinement in the "Sugar House," Salmon was paroled to leave for Fort Washington, and soon after, both father and son were paroled to go to their homes.1

Stephen Moulton, sr., was elected the first supervisor of Floyd and the family has been a prominent one in the town. William and Nathaniel Allen and James Chase came in at about the same time with the Moultons, and were soon followed by Elisha Lake, Hope Smith, and two brothers named Howard; Mr. Smith was father of Stephen R. Smith, who became a popular Universalist preacher. David Byam, James Bartlett, and a man named Putney settled very early in the north part of the town.

The first town meeting was held in the spring of 1796, at the house of Samuel J. Curtiss, another early settler, and Stephen Moulton, sr., was chosen supervisor, and Moses Coffeen, town clerk. The town rec- ords for 1797 are missing. The supervisors of the town from 1798 to the present time excepting from 1851 to 1863. of which year the records are missing, have been as follows :

1 Jones's Annals.

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THE TOWN OF FLOYD.

Abel French held the office of supervisor in 1798-99; Jarvis Pike from 1800 to 1811; Nathan Townsend, sr., in 1812; Ephraim Robbins from 1813 to 1819; Nathan Townsend again in 1820-21; Ephraim Robbins again from 1822 to 1824; Salmon Pel- ton from 1825 to 1832; David Moulton from 1833 to 1837; Samuel C. Brooker, 1838- 39; David Moulton 1840-42; Hosea Clark, 1843-44; David Moulton again from 1845 to 1851; 1863, Alonzo Denison: 1864-66, Philip A. Hale; 1867, George W. Davis; 1868, David Moulton; 1869-71, William A. Davis; 1872-73, David Moulton ; 1874, Thomas D. Roberts ; 1875, Wm. A. Davis; 1876, T. D. Roberts; 1877, Matthew J. Bar- ker; 1878, Charles A. Ward; 1879-80, M. J. Barker; 1881, Orris B. Tripp; 1882-83, J. Henry Powell; 1884-85, Philip J. Baker; 1886, Owen J. Evans; 1887, J. Nicholas Jacobs; 1888-90, J. W. Potter; 1891, Griffith D. Thomas; 1892, G. M. Soule, 1893- 95, P. J. Baker; 1896, Griffith W. Jones.

It is noteworthy that very early in this century Floyd was the residence for a time of Israel Denio, father of the distinguished Judge Hiram Denio, who is elsewhere noticed in this volume. Israel Denio was a son of Aaron Denio, who was a Revolutionary vet- eran, and was born in Deerfield, Mass. Learning the blacksmith trade, he married in 1791. Ester Robbins, daughter of John Robbins (another Floyd pioneer) and in 1795 settled in what is now the town of Floyd, about a mile south of the late farm of Alfred Robbins. There was born in 1796 his daughter who became the wife of Joseph Kirkland. About the year 1797 Mr. Denio removed to Wright Set- tlement, in the town of Rome, and there followed his trade many years. He later worked at other points and died in 1846. His son Hiram was born in the town of Rome in May, 1799.

John Robbins, mentioned above, came from Bennington, Vt., into Oneida county in 1790, locating at first in the town of Rome near New- ville Finding fever and ague prevalent there he removed into what is now Floyd and settled near the town line on the farm occupied in recent years by his grandson, Alfred Robbins. The father of the latter was Henry Robbins, who passed his life and died in Floyd.

Samuel Dyer was an early settler, who spent several years on a farm in this town and removed to Marcy. He was a man of excellent char - acter, and is doubtless the one referred to in the following extract from the diary of Rev. John Taylor, a missionary who passed through this region from Massachusetts in 1802 :

August 2 .- Started for Floyd; rode 11 miles to a Captain Rice's. Preached in the evening. I know not what remarks to make upon the inhabitants of this town; a half dozen excepted, they seem to be the fag-end of man in disorder and confusion

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

of all kinds. The Baptists have some regularity, but the Methodists are producing the scenes which are transpiring in Kentucky. Women here, Methodists, pray in their families instead of ye men, and with such strength of lungs as to be distinctly heard by their neighbors. I had almost as many nations, sects, and religions pres- ent to hear me preach as Peter had on the day of Pentecost. In this town there is an excellent character,-Esq. Dier; he tells me that Clinton has given commissions to five men for justices in this place, one of whom is a renegade Irishman, without character and without prayer, and another has no Bible in his house. In fact, this is a most miserable place as to inhabitants. The land is good, too good for such in- habitants.

It is more than probable that some of the statements of this mission- ary were unjustifiable under the circumstances ; they certainly do not indicate a Christian spirit. Coming westward from older settled locali- ties to encounter the rude scenes of life in the wilderness, with many privations that may have touched his own person harshly, this mission- ary appears to have little understood or appreciated the situation. It is very certain that the pioneers of Floyd no more deserved the obloquy of this itinerant, than those of any other similar locality in the early years.

Captain Nathan Townsend settled in 1801 in the southeast part of the town, on a farm which had been purchased by Gov. George Clin- ton, and where a "squatter " named Turner Ellis had previously lived. Mr. Townsend was supervisor in 1821, and had a son of the same name. He was father of Ingham and William F. Townsend.

Thomas Bacon and Samuel Cummings were early settlers on Floyd Hill, the locality being known for a time as "Bacon's Hill." Asa Clark settled on the Hill about 1805. He served as a teamster in the war of 1812 and was father of A. S. Clark, one time postmaster at Floyd Corners.

Robert Nutt and his son David came into the town about the begin- ning of the century and both lived and died in the town. The father was a Revolutionary soldier. David's son, Austin A, was born in Floyd in 1800. Samuel Denison settled in town in 1800, and about the same time came James Chase, Latham Denison, and others. An epidemic of dysentery swept over the settlement in the summer of 1796, during which the wife of Col. Stephen Moulton and three children of his son died, all within a week. Nathan Thompson was the second person to die in the town, and was killed by a falling tree.

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THE TOWN OF FLOYD.

Benjamin Gardner came from Rhode Island and settled in Floyd about 1804, with his father, Amos Gardner. Benjamin served in the war of 1812; his wife was a daughter of Eli Kent, who was five years old when her parents came into Oneida county in 1795 and settled in the edge of the town of Rome. In that neighborhood but within the Floyd town line settled early three families named Kilborn, and Israel Denio, before mentioned. It was probably one of these Kilborns who taught a very early school, about the winter 1795-6, in the Kent neigh- borhood in the town of Rome. A school was taught as early as 1810 in the Nutt neighborhood. The town was later divided and subdivided into districts which numbered eleven in 1860. There are now nine dis- tricts, with good school buildings.

One of the earliest churches in this town was built as a Union church at the Corners, where for a number of years services were held as opportunity offered by Methodist, Baptist or Presbyterian ministers or missionaries. Free Methodists and Episcopalians occasionally occupied the church in later years, until finally the services were confined mainly to the Methodists.

A Baptist society was organized on the Hill in 1807, and for many yeaas was prosperous. It finally declined and went out of existence.

Camroden post-office and the little hamlet of that name is situated about three miles northerly from Floyd Corners, where numbers of Welsh settlers located and gave it the peculiar name. The post-office was established in 1872. Here is located a Methodist church society organized about 1840, who built their present church about 1866; ser- vices where held previous to that time in the building that was subse- quently used for the post office and residence of R. M. Williams. The Welsh Congregational church at Camroden was originally under Presby - terian authority and was organized about 1834. A church was erected north of the present building, which was built in 1854.

Besides the post office and hamlet at Floyd Corners (the post-office having the name of Floyd), there is a post-office called East Floyd in the eastern part of the town. The saw mill here is operated by P. J. Baker, who is postmaster.

The little village of Floyd Corners is in the southern central part of the town, whese a post-office was established in early years, with Benja-

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

min Pike postmaster. There has always been a small mercantile busi- ness here, the store at present being conducted by M. J. Barker, who has been a merchant for twenty- five years. He waspreceded during many years by P. A. Hale. G. W. Martin has a second store. The hotel which has long been conducted is now in charge of S. A. Thorp. The first hotel here was kept by Capt. Benjamin Pike.

The first cheese factory in this town was built in 1862 by T. D. Rob- erts. There are now three, and one for the manufacture of limburger cheese. Some of the leading farmers of this town, past and present, are Germaine Soule, Ingham Townsend, and his brother William F., Thomas D. Roberts, H. M. Hemenway, William Jones, O. B. Tripp, Frank Tripp, Thomas H. Vandenhoff, G. D. Thomas, Robert Evans, Charles H. Owen aud John Evans.

CHAPTER XXXV.

THE TOWN OF FORESTPORT

This is the northeasternmost town in Oneida county and its territory includes in the southern part a small section of the Remsenburgh patent, all of the Woodhull tract in its central portion, and the Adgate eastern patent in the north part, as shown on the map. Black River forms its southern boundary, while many small streams flow through parts of the town, and numerous lakes and ponds exist in the northern part ; among these are Long Lake, White Lake, Otter Lake, and Deer and Round Ponds. Big and Little Woodhull Creeks flow southeasterly across the town and into Black River. The surface of the town is elevated from 1, 500 to 2,000 feet above tide and is much broken by hills and ridges. The soil is mostly a light sandy loam, suitable for the ordinary farm crops, and hops have been raised to some extent in the central part.

This town has only a brief history, either as a civil organization or as to its settlement. Lying in the outskirts of the great northern wilder- ness, its forests were not penetrated until comparatively recent years, and most of its dwellers have in some way been associated with the

G. M. STUDOR.

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THE TOWN OF FORESTPORT.

leading industries of lumbering or tanning. Foresport was erected from Remsen November 24, 1869, and the first town meeting was held in Forestport village on the Ist of March, 1870, at which time the follow- ing officers were elected :

Supervisor, Harry Weed; town clerk, Charles E. Barber; justices of the peace, Daniel Nugent, Judson W. Rockwell; assessors, Stephen Millard, Thomas Ryan; commissioners of highways, Christopher Herrig, John Bellinger; collector, Thomas J. Alliger ; poormasters, Philip Studer, John Lindsey ; constables, James H. Jackson, Henry Herrig, Asaph Learned, William Elthorp, George Thurston; inspectors of election, Giles C. Hovey, Edward Coughlin, Cephas Weeks; sealer of weights and measures, James McKenzie.

Following is a list of the supervisors of the town from its organiza- tion to the present time :

1870-75, Harry Weed; 1876-80, Timothy Coughlin; 1881, Evan R. Jones; 1882, Roselle Putney : 1883-1, A. B. Baker ; 1885, Oscar F. Huber ; 1886-93, F. X. Sulzman ; 1894-96, J. B. Coughlin.

The building of the great dam at Forestport by the State in 1849-50 to create the feeder for the Black River Canal, stimulated settlement at that point, and the lumber business was soon active. A man named Smith built on the west side of the river the first saw mill there, and the first dwelling on the east side of the river was built by Alfred Hough. Truman Yale had settled there about 1840 and carried on a chair fac- tory, the first industry in the place. A hotel was opened in 1851 by Anson Hayden, and a store was opened early on the west side of the river, in the town of Boonville, by Loren Miller. This was the first store, and the first one on the east side was established by Enos S. Howard while the canal feeder was being constructed. The place was at one period known as Williamsville, when the post-office was located at Woodhull, which is now practically a suburb of Forestport. The office was finally removed to Forestport and given that name, with Alfred Hough, postmaster. It is now the only post-office in the town.

George Hovey settled permanently in Forestport in 1847, having visited the locality some years before. A school was opened about 1840 in the hamlet, since which time the town has been subdivided into more districts, having now ten. Forestport village now has a graded school, with David R. Lloyd, principal, and two assistants.

Among other early and prominent settlers in this town may be men-

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

tioned Gen. Jonathan A. Hill, who located here in 1867, after having won high military distinction in the war of the Rebellion, and became associated with Thomas E. Proctor, of Boston, in carrying on a great tannery at Woodhull.

An early grist mill in Forestport was erected and carried on by Hough & Hulburt, and a later one was built by Philip McGuire. These mills are now operated by George Farley and C. M. Bingham, both of whom have been in the business many years.

As the lumber business developed, large mills were erected at various points, among those now in operation being Denton & Waterbury, Forestport Lumber Company, Syphert & Herrig, James Gallagher (all in Forestport village), and those of W. R. Stanburgh, a mile out ; Joseph Ano, four miles east ; Henry Nichols and Jerry App, on Bear Creek. A pulp mill was built in 1888 by H. Nichols and a shingle mill by Frederick Brown The Adirondack Lumber Company is located at White Lake, where a chair factory is operated. The hotels at Forest- port are the Getman House, built about eight years ago by Charles Getman ; the American by Michael Doyle ; the Clinton House, built by Robert Boyle, and George Buckley's hotel. Merchants here are Den- ton & Waterbury, Boyce & Downing, George R. Ainsworth, who bought out W. R. Stanburgh, Henry Nichols, Herbert Helmer. Older merchants, now gone, were S. F. Traffarn and Hough & Hurlbut. The village has an active fire department and in 1891 purchased a Howe combined chemical and water engine. A graded school is maintained with three teaehers.

At Woodhull the large tannery formerly operated by Proctor & Hill is not now in use. A planing mill is operated by Charles Hayes, and a store is kept by the Woodhull Lumber Company. The Central Hotel is kept by Cornelius Breen ; the Hasney House by R. J. Monihan, and the Forestport House.

The Presbyterian society, organized as the Presbyterian church of Forestport, Alder Creek and White Lake, built its frame house of wor- ship in 1881. Prior to that services were held in the school house, in the M. E. church and in Temperance Hall. Rev. William N. Cleveland (brother of President Cleveland) was the first pastor and remained about ten years.

PHILIP MCGUIRE.

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THE TOWN OF KIRKLAND.

The Catholic church was organized and its church built fourteen years ago. It is in charge of the society at Boonville.

An Episcopal society has been in existence here many years.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

THE TOWN OF KIRKLAND.

Although it was organized at a comparatively recent date, the town of Kirkland is in many respects one of the most important in Oneida county. It was organized under an act of the Legislature passed April 13, 1827, and then included what is now the town of Marshall, which was set off in 1829. In 1834 a small section was annexed to New Hart- ford, and in 1839 a small part of Paris was annexed to Kirkland. The town now embraces an area of 19,716 acres, and received its name in honor of the Rev. Samuel Kirkland, the noted missionary. It lies in the interior of the county, south of the center, and its surface is divided into two general ridges by the Oriskany Creek which flows northeasterly through near the center. The hilly uplands rise 200 to 500 feet, often with steep declivities, presenting in many places scenery of picturesque beauty. The soil is generally a rich calcareous loam, well adapted to fruit growing, which has been extensively followed. Along the shores of Oriskany Creek are rich alluvial deposits. Iron ore of good quality has been found in the town, and in past years thousands of tons were annually shipped to distant furnaces by the Chenango Canal. Good building stone is quarried near Clinton village. The town is noted throughout the State for the number and high character of its educa- tional institutions.

The settlement of this town was begun on the 3d of March, 1787, by Moses Foote and seven families. The event is commemorated on a stone now standing in the park at Clinton village by the following in- scriptions :

Moses Foote, Esq., in company with seven other families, commenced the settle- ment of this village March 3, 1787.

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

The north face has the following :

Nine miles to Utica. Moses Foote, James Bronson, Luther Foote, Bronson Foote, Ira Foote, Barnabas Pond, Ludim Blodgett, Levi Sherman.

Mr. Foote and a few other persons had visited this locality in the fall of 1786, and James Bronson came in February, 1787, passing the night of the 27th of that month under shelter of the roots of a tree on what is now Clinton Green. Five of the eight families mentioned were from Plymouth, Conn., whence they had a few years earlier migrated to German Flats. In coming to their later home they followed what was known as the Moyer road, which followed a part of the Indian trail from Buffalo to the Mohawk valley. 'That road brought them to Paris Hill, where they turned northward. After some discussion the party located the site of their settlement on the site of Clinton village. The family of Solomon Hovey is thought by some to have come in with those pioneers ; if he did not, he followed them very closely, and his wife was the first white woman to come into the town. The summer of 1787 found thirteen families living on the Oriskany, and this number had in - creased to twenty, this addition including the families of John Bullen, Salmon Butler, James Cassety (see history of Augusta, herein) William Cook, Samuel and Noah Hubbard, Amos Kellogg, Aaron Kellogg, Oliver Porter, Randall Lewis, Cordial Storrs, Caleb Merrill, Levi Sher- man, and Judah Stebbins.

The settlement was formed on a road extending north and south from the house owned in recent years by Marshall W. Barker to the house of Seth K. Blair. Each family was given two acres of land on this street for a building lot, and in the course of a year eight acres additional werc set off for each family, adjoining the first assignment in each case. These pioneers cleared some of their land, planted crops, and named their set- tlement in honor of the governor of the State, Clinton. They labored under the privations and inconveniences common to the first settlers in many other localities; they carried their corn on foot or horseback to the mill at Whitestown, built in 1788, over a narrow trail, six miles, until a little later they joined their labor and cut out a road wide enough for teams. Soon afterward Colonel Cassety built a grist mill on the east bank of the creek, near the site of the bridge on College street, and in the same year a saw mill was built a few rods above. This saw mill

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THE TOWN OF KIRKLAND.

property is now owned by E G. Coleman and the grist mill by Van Buskirk & Co., and known as the Clinton Roller mills.

During the summer of 1788 about twenty new families were added to the settlement, among whom were the Rev. Samuel Kirkland, George Langford, Timothy Tuttle, Benjamin Pollard, Zadock Loomis, Theodore Manross, Andrew Blanchard, Silas Austen, Joshua Morse, Elias Dewey, and Joseph Gleason.

When the lands now covered by this town were first selected by Captain Foot and his party, it was supposed that they had never been surveyed, and were not embraced within the limits of any patent. They considered themselves ' squatters,' presuming that when the land came into market they could claim it by pre-emption right. What, then, was their surprise, on exploring and clearing up the forests, to find lines of marked trees, and on further inquiry to learn that they had settled upon Coxe's Patent, 'a tract of land granted by the colony of New York, May 30, 1770, to Daniel Coxe, William Coxe, Rebecca Coxe, and John Tabor Kempe and Grace, his wife.' Their settlement was found to be located on 'the two thousand and sixteen acres tract ' by which descriptive name it was long known to the older inhabitants and surveyors. This plot was bounded on the north by the farm now owned by Henry Gleason, on the east by David Pickett's, on the south by Seth K. Blair's, and on the west by the Oriskany Creek. On further search it was found that this tract had al- ready been divided into twenty lots of nearly equal size, and that the proprietors had offered it as a gift to any colony of twenty families who would take it up and occupy it as a permanent settlement. At once our settlers hoped that they might enjoy the benefit of this generous offer; but the patentees, learning that their lands had already been occupied in ignorance of their proposal, refused to make the gift, and required the squatters to buy the land at the rate of ten shillings an acre. Ac- cordingly, in the summer of 1788, Captain Foot was sent to Philadelphia to purchase the whole tract on the best possible terms; and eventually the several lots were parceled out at cost among the different settlers. The triangular piece of land which afterwards became the site of the village was called the 'handkerchief lot,' from its resemblance on the map to a half handkerchief, and was bought by Captain Foot. 1

The first death in the town occurred in the spring of 1788, when Miss Merab Tuttle, seventeen years old, a daughter of Timothy Tuttle, was drowned in Oriskany Creek ; the sad event cast a shadow of gloom over the little community,

On account of loss of the records of this town prior to 1866, the list of supervisors can be given only from that year, as follows :

1866-7, Charles Kellogg; 1868-9, Henry S. Armstrong; 1870-2, Elliott S. Williams; 1873-4, Silas T. Ives; 1875, Anthony N. Owston; 1876, Henry N. Gleason : 1877-78, Henry C. Earle; 1879-81, Robert W. Evans; 1882-83, Lathrop N. Brockway; 1884-

4 History of Kirkland (1874) by Rev. A. D. Gridley.

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

87, Andrew L. Williams; 1888-89, Thomas W. Onyon; 1890-93, George E. Norton ; 1894-95. Amos Armstrong; 1896, Willard G. Pickert.

Within the boundaries of Kirkland are included the Kirkland patent, a part of the tract of the Brothertown Indians, a part of Cox's patent. This latter section made the early settler considerable trouble, as de scribed a little further on. (See also Chapter X, and the map of patents).

The first marriage in Kirkland was celebrated in 1788, when on the same day Elias Dewey and Anna Foote, and Andrew Blanchard and Mary Cook were united. Mr. Dewey built a house on the site of the Judge Williams residence of recent years. Roger Leverett and Eliza- beth Cheesebrough were also married in that year, in a log house that stood on the road to Utica, east of Slocum's bridge. The first child born in the town was Clinton Foote, who died before reaching manhood ; the second was Fanny Kellogg. daughter of Amos Kellogg and later the wife of Orrin Gridley ; the third was Julius Pond, born July 26, 1789.

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Our county and its people; a descriptive work on Oneida county, New York;, Part 44

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