Our county and its people; a descriptive work on Oneida county, New York;, Part 46

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 46

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The post-office at Manchester (Kirkland post-office) was established about 1815, when the Manchester Company before described erected their mills The first postmaster was probably Robert Converse. At about the same time Robert Eells opened a store, and a few shops and taverns with a hamlet of dwellings soon gathered about. In the early days at one time there were three public dwellings there, one a half mile east, and eleven on the road between here and Utica. The first one opened at Kirkland was kept by Justin Little as early as 1805, and the next one by David Pixley, sr., who settled there about 1805. The

E. S. WILLIAMS.

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THE TOWN OF KIRKLAND.

latter was closed thirty or more years ago. Charles Hart was an early merchant and his old store is now used as one of the two hotels. David, Charles and Isaac Pixley were early merchants. The store is now kept by Thomas Joy, who is postmaster.

Besides this post-office, and the one at Clinton, there is one still re- tained at Franklin Iron Works, and one at Chuckery which was estab- lished in 1895.

The Methodist class which has been mentioned as having been formed at Clinton in 1818 belonged to the Westmoreland circuit, and preach- ing was begun in the village in 1819. Dr. Joseph Cornell located in the village in 1831 and in company with Walter Gillespie purchased a site for a church; it was built in 1832, repaired in 1849 and again in 1867 in its present form.

The Universalist society of Clinton was an outgrowth of the one at New Hartford, organized in 1805. In 1821 the Clinton society began an in- dependent existence and built a brick church, largely through the liber- ality of Joseph Stebbins. It was designated a Free church and the people worshiping in it were called the Free Church Society of Clinton. Methodists and Baptists used it to some extent in its early years. The society took its title as the First Universalist Society of Clinton in June, 1831. Rev. Stephen R. Smith, its founder, was the first pastor. A new church was erected and dedicated October 12, 1870. at a cost of about $18,000.

The College church (Presbyterian) was organized in the college April 20, 1825, and continued until 1831, when it was dissolved. In Decem- ber, 1861, it was reorganized and has continued a prosperous existence since.

The Baptist church of Clinton was organized September 21, 1831, with seventeen members. A church site was soon purchased and the present church was built at a cost of $2,000. It was subsequently re- modeled at a cost of $6,500.

St. James Episcopal church, Clinton, was the outgrowth of services held between 1841 and 1850 by Bishop De Lancey. In 1854 a Sun- day school was organized, and services were held by various pastors, but not continuous, until May, 1862, when the parish was organized. The corner stone of the church was laid on the 5th of June, 1863, and the

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

building was finished in March, 1865. It was consecrated in January, 1 869.

A Sabbath school was started at Kirkland in 1817, soon after the establishment of the cotton factory. Later meetings were held in the brick school house, where various pastors held services until 1834, when a church edifice was erected. About the same time a society of the Congregational faith was organized.

St. Mark's Episcopal church at Clark Mills, was an outgrowth of religious services held in the school house there in 1862, by Rev. Russell Todd. The corner stone of the church was laid on June 6, 1863, and the parish was incorporated in November of that year. There were then forty communicants.

A Methodist society has been organized here, and their new church has just been completed (1896).

St. Mary's Roman Catholic church, Clinton .- Rev. William C. Cough- lin made his first professional visit to Clinton January 6, 185 1, and cele- brated the first mass in a dwelling on the 14th of that month before a congregation of sixteen members. The present church edifice was begun in May, 1852, and finished and dedicated October 25, 1854. A parochial residence was built on Marvin street in 1872. The church is prosperous.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

THE TOWN OF LEE.

This town lies just north of the center of the county and embraces in its territory parts of townships 1 and 2 of Scriba's patent, and small sections of the Oothoudt, and the several smaller subdivisions clearly shown on the map of patents herein The area of the town is 27,771 acres. The west branch of the Mohawk flows across the northeast corner, and the east branch of Fish Creek forms a part of the western boundary ; other small streams give the town good drainage and water. The surface is rolling and moderately hilly, rising from the lowlands

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THE TOWN OF LEE.

gradually to a height of 500 to 800 feet above the canal level at Rome. The soil is a clayey, sandy and gravelly loam, in some places very stony, but generally productive.

This town was erected from Western April 3, 1811; Western from Steuben, March 10, 1797, and Steuben from Whitestown April 10, 1792. The town was reduced to its present area by setting off a small part to Annsville in 1823.

Settlement began early in this town. On the 8th of March, 1872, the 60th anniversary of the first town meeting was celebrated at Lee Center, which resulted, among other things, in the preservation of much valuable local history which might otherwise have been lost. An ad- dress was delivered by Hon. Anson S. Miller, then of Rockford, Ill., in which he reviewed the early settlement of the town as follows : 1

The first settlement in what is now Lee was made on the west side of the Mohawk River, near the present site of Delta, by Esek Sheldon and his sons, Stephen, Reuben, and Amasa, in 1790. Stephen built the first house, a little log cabin, between Potash Brook and the house afterwards built by Israel Stark. The father and the other brothers took up land on the flat west of the Mohawk, next above the land known as the Bugby place, just north of the road leading from Delta to Lee Center. At this angle in the roads under the hill was erected the first school-house in the town of Western, now Lee. It was a small, log house, with a Dutch fireplace, stick chimney, and slab-roof and seats. Joshua Northrup, a young surveyor, scarcely eighteen years old, was the first teacher. He settled in what is now Western, and was a mag- istrate there for many years. About the time of the Sheldon settlement, or soon after, David Smith and his sons, David and Russell, came to the Mohawk country, near Delta, described by a writer of that time as " away up the Mohawk country be- yond Fort Stanwix, inhabited only by bears, wolves and Indians." David Smith, jr., built a saw mill there soon after, which he subsequently sold to Judge Prosper Rudd, who came into the country from Franklin, Mass., with Eliza, his wife, and his sons, Jabez F., Benjamin, and Wyllis, and his daughter, wife of the late Captain Gates Peck. Jndge Rudd soon added a flouring mill, with one run of stone, and a carding machine, which were a great convenience to the country. The flouring mill has been

1 In attendance at this celebration were the following natives of Lee: Samuel Nisbet, Henry Hall, John Shaver, Asa Starr, Asahel Castle, Albert J. Wilkinson, Nathaniel Kenyon, Orrin Ken- yon, Lewis Eames, Walton Worden, D. G. Drummond, A. W. Cornish, Capt. Asa Fillmore, Ly- man Sexton, Albert J. Wentworth. Besides these there were present William Parke, Stephen Allen, and Nathaniel Kenyon (the last above named) were among the original voters in the town. Four other original voters were then known to be living but were unable to be present; these were Nathaniel Wood, A. B. Pease, Joseph Kenyon, and Tillotson Ross. Those natives of the town who were present from other localities were the following: George Hovey, of Herkimer county; Col. E. B. Armstrong, of Rome; Henry Twitchell, of Pulaski; Dr. H. N. Porter, of New York Mills; Smith Miller and Philetus Laney, of Annsville; Dwight Waterman, of Whitesboro; Calvert Comstock, of Rome; Anson S. Miller, of Rockford, Ill. This list includes, of course, many of the early settled families in the town.

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

greatly enlarged and improved by Eliakim Elder, Anson Dart, and Elisha Wals- worth. Soon after came 1790 Dea. Nathan Barlow,'and Lydia, his wife, late the widow of Joseph Miller, of Granville, Mass., and mother of Smith, Eliakim, Dan, and Luther Miller, pioneer settlers. They cut the first wagon-path from the residence of Ros- well Fellows, on the road running from Fort Stanwix to Elmer Hill, a mile and a half, to their residence in Lee Centre.

In 1792, Colonel Alpheus Wheelock and Rachel, his wife, a famous female physi- cian, settled at Elmer Hill, and about the same time Edward Salisbury and his seven sons, Nicholas, Edward S., Enon, Alexander, Lodowick, De Estaing, and Smith, settled near Delta. Nicholas, the father of Mrs. Abigail Rudd, wife of Colonel Ben- jamin Rudd, was the first resident on the Bugby place, next south of Esek Sheldon's. Edward S. took land further up the Mohawk River, on the west side, near what be- came the residence of Silas Morse. Another early settler, Otis White, father of Moses T., Willard, Otis, jr., and Israel, took up land in the same neighberhood. Edward Salisbury, sr., settled with his other sons on the land since the farms owned by Adin and Rensselaer Sly, on the road from Delta to Lee Centre. The Sheldons, Smith, Wheelocks and Salisburys emigrated from the State of Rhode Island. Hezekiah Elmer and Elizabeth his wife, and his sons Andrew, Eliakim, Hezekiah, and his daughters, subsequently the wives respectively of Dr. Enoch Alden and James Ben- edict, came from Connecticut at that early day, and settled near what is known as Elmer Hill. Colonel Wheelock opened the first tavern west of Fort Stanwix at the Hill. In 1792 the inhabitants near Delta were joined by John Spinning and his sons, John, jr., Daniel, and their brother-in-law, Luther Washburn, and sons, Martin, Rufus, Freeman, Luther, jr., and Calvin ; also their relative, Benjamin Crittenden. These were from the State of Vermont. Crittenden was the first settler on the land afterwards the home of James Baker, father of Miles and Lorenzo D., where Daniel Twitchell subsequently resided. Near this time Deacon Andrew Clark, father of Joseph Clark, grandfather of Mrs. Stokes, built a house near Nisbet's Corners. Ephraim Ballard was the first settler on the Nisbet farm, and Abiel Kenyon lived near. Matthew Clark and Jonathan Bettis took the land afterwards occupied by Hazzard Steadman. Joseph Hale and his brother were the first residents on the land sold by Simeon Gunn to Alban Comstock, and Frederick Sprague took up the land adjoining, on which Colonel Wheelock subsequently built a large frame house, after- wards occupied by John Dye, Peter Husted, John Shaver, and others.

Smith Miller built the Mallory House, in which the Rev. Lorenzo Dow was mar- ried with Margaret (Peggy) Holcomb, the younger sister of Mrs. Miller. Early in the settlement of what is now Lee, James Young and Hannah, his wife, and his sons, James, Jr., Benjamin, David, and Alvan, and a number of daughters, emi- grated from Lee, Mass., and settled a half a mile south of Lee Centre. Deacon John Hall had previously located on land near Mr. Young, which John Smith purchased of Hall, now owned by William Graves. There was a neighborhood west from Lec Centre, known as Brookfield Settlement, where West Waterman, William Lany, Tillotson Ross, and Messrs. Fish, Walker, Hitchcock, and others, from Brookfield, Mass., settled. Dan Taft settled on the State road, towards Taberg, and Tom Law- rence settled on the west branch of the Mohawk at an early day. The land in Lee was mainly embraced in four patents, which cornered on the south side of Canada

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THE TOWN OF LEE.

Creek, where Ezra Hovey afterwards had his garden. Fonda's and Oothoudt's Pat- ents were lease-land. Jellis Fonda sold much of his extensive patent to Stephen Lush, of Albany, and other land dealers, for ten cents per acre. The other patents were Scriba's and Banyar's. There were other lands in what is now Lee, known as Matchin's, Boon's and Mappa's tracts. A part of Scriba's Patent, known as the 6,000-acre tract, in township No. 1, afterwards known as Fish Creek Settlement, and a part of the 4,000 acre tract, in township No. 2, were sold to Daniel C. White, John W. Bloomfield, John Hall, George Huntington, and others.

Some of the early settlers on the 6,000-acre tract were Charles Ufford and John, his son ; Ephraim Pease, and Arvin B., his son; Elam Pease; Jotham Worden; Jesse Sexton and his sons, William and Amasa; David Webster; Gideon Perry and his sons, Freeman and Gideon B .; James Eames and his sons, Simeon N., Lewis, George, and Daniel; George Cornish, with his sons, Hosea and George; Asahel Castle and his sons, John J., and others; Roswell Spinning, the son of Benjamin Spinning; Joseph Park and his son, Joseph, Jr. ; Daniel Park, and the sons of Jacob Park, Elisha, Abijah, and William; Oliver Armstrong, father of Wheeler, Jesse, Enoch, and Earl; Deacon Samuel Wright and his wife Vienna, and his sons, Will- iam B., Arunah, Eben, and Samuel, Jr., and his nine daughters, originally from Connecticut, settled on this tract ; James Wood and his sons, Amasa and Nathaniel; Ephraim J. H. Curtis; Apollos King; William Taft with his sons, Paul and Shays, who first settled near Luther Miller, on land afterwards owned by Adonijah Barnard, where George Sheldon afterwards resided; and many others settled on the 6,000- acre tract.

The lease-land proved to be a great curse to the town. What is the town of West- ern, once embracing Lee, dates back one year before the settlement of the Sheldons. Henry Wager, Asa Beckwith and his sons, Asa, jr., Lemuel, Reuben, and Wolcott, came to the Mohawk country in 1789; and soon after Josiah Church and his sons George, Brayton, Jonathan, Ivan, Allan, Frazier; Joshua Northrup; Jabez Halleck and his sons, Joseph and Jabez, Jr .; William Cleveland; Daniel Paddock and sons; Otis White and sons; William Olney; Daniel and Robert Felton; and other well- known citizens settled on the Mohawk, above Fort Stanwix. In this early settlement the people built the first bridge across that river. It was back of the residence of Dr. Zenas Hutchinson, near Elmer Hill, where John Treadway, Anson Dart, and George Williams afterwards lived. The river here was narrow, with a high bank on the south. The bridge had only one set of stringers, and there was not a stick of hewn or sawed lumber in it. At this time all this region was in the town of Whites- town.

One of the first mills built on the Mohawk River was erected by Roswell Fellows, Smith and Luther Miller. It stood in the notch or little gulf nearly opposite where John Barnard afterwards built a mill. The water was raised by a wing-dam. Sub- sequently, General William Floyd, who bought a large tract of land at an early day on the upper Mohawk, built a mill on that stream near what is now Westernville, and erected a saw-mill and grist-mill on Canada Creek,1 a few miles below Lee Centre. At the first settlements in what are now Western and Lee, and before the

1 Authority of Jones's Annals.

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

erection of these mills, the early settlers got their grain ground at Wetmore's on the Sauquoit, and other distant places. The gigantic William Remington is said to have carried on his shoulders the flour of two bushels of wheat from Wetmore's, mill near Whitestown, to his residence in what is now Lee, without resting. Very few of the roads at this time could be used for wagons, and journeys were therefore made on horseback or one foot. Henry Wager and Asa Beckwith, Jr., walked to German Flats, and there procured one bushel each of seed-potatoes, which they brought home on their shoulders.

The first saw mill built in Lee was the one erected in 1791 or 1792, by David Smith, on the Mohawk in the village of Delta. The second one was built in 1796, by John Hall and Smith Miller, on the Canada Creek at Lee Center. The first grist mill in the town was built by Gen. William Floyd in 1796, on Canada Creek south of Lee Center and near the Rome town line Another was built at Lee Center in 1798 by Thomas and William Forfar, settlers from Scotland. A third mill was erected on the Mohawk previous to 1800 by Luther and Smith Miller and Roswell Fellows a few miles from Fort Stanwix. The grist mill at Lee Center was built by Ezra Hovey, not far from the site of the old Forfar mill, and is running in about the same condition that it has been in for many years by P. B. Scothon. Near the old Lee post- office a grist mill was in operation previous to 1812, built by David Bryan. The grist mill and saw mill here on the old site are now operated by Frank Hyde.

Of the proceedings which led to the division of the town of Western and the erection of Lee, and the first election of officers, Judge Miller said :

In 1811 and previous the people of Western had discussed the question of dividing the town, and a committee consisting of James Young and Joshua Northrup, both emigrants from Lee, Mass., acted as a committee for getting an enabling act to divide the town. The act was passed by the Legislature, attended to in the Senate by Jonas Platt, then a senator, and in the Assembly by George Huntington, then a member from this district. The name "Lee" for the new town was inserted at the request of Messrs. Young and Northrup. The question of division was determined at the next town meeting of Western (1811), at the house of Silas Morse. George Brayton was chosen moderator, and after the election of officers for the ensuing year, the crowd of voters, finding the house too small for their accommodation, re- tired to the yard, where a division was agreed on with great unanimity. Henry Wager, from Western, John Hall, from Lee, and George Huntington, of Rome, were chosen commissioners to fix the boundaries, with Benjamin Wright as surveyor. The boundaries were harmoniously agreed on, and Lee remained under Western till the 3d of March, 1812, when the first town-meeting was held in the old West school-

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THE TOWN OF LEE.

house, the only framed one in the town, the first building north of Luther Miller's and about three-fourths of a mile southeast of Lee Centre, at the road-crossing near which the late John Calvin Capron resided.

James Young was elected supervisor and West Waterman town clerk; Jesse Dut- ton, Earl Fillmore, and Joseph White, assessors; John Hall and Dan Taft, overseers of the poor; Jotham Worden, Dan Taft, and Thomas E. Lawrence, commissioners of highways; George Hawkins, Samuel Hall, and Zebediel Wentworth, constables ; Adonijah Barnard, Dan Taft, and Asahel Castle, fence-viewers. There were then 22 road districts in the town, and overseers were duly chosen. Justices of the peace were at that time appointed by the State executive for the county, and there were no inspectors of common schools till 1816, when the justices of the peace-Jesse Dutton, James Eames, and Joseph White-appointed Dr. Jonah B. Burton, Eleazer Bushnell, Simeon N. Eames, William B. Wright, George Hawkins, and Samuel Hall such inspectors.

In 1813, James Young was re-elected supervisor and West Waterman town clerk. The town meeting was held at the school-house before described, which answered in that day as a school-house and for religious and political meetings. Nearly all the officers elected in 1812 were re-elected except the assessors and collector. Charles Ufford, Luther Miller, and Charles Ladd were chosen assessors, and Simeon N. Ames, collector.

In 1814, John Hall was elected supervisor and James Young town clerk. General election : Nathan Williams, Republican, for member of congress, 89 votes; Thomas Gold, Federalist, for member of congress, 43-Republican majority, 46. These elec- tion returns are certified by James Young, John Hall, Luther Miller, Charles Ladd, and Charles Ufford, inspectors of election.

The pioneers of Lee were people who believed in educating their children and they early adopted measures to provide the means. The first school house, the one in which the first town meeting was held, was situated southeast of Lee Center. School was first taught there about 1798 by Elijah Blake. The first school in the neighbor- hood of Delta was taught by a daughter of Prosper Rudd, who after- wards married Gates Peck; the latter kept the first winter school in that region on Elmer Hill in 1804, and had an attendance of over eighty. Miss E. A. Peck, a daughter of Gates Peck, was also a suc- cessful teacher in the town. Rev. Thomas Brainerd, for thirty years pastor of the old Pine Street, church, Philadelphia, was an early and be- loved teacher in Lee ; in the winter of 1823-4 he taught in the Dutton district, where Albert Barnes had previously taught .. So successful was Mr. Brainerd that in the following winter the trustees of the larger district at Lee Center secured his services. Mr. Brainerd afterwards taught in Rome. Among the long list of names of male teachers in 59

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

this town are found those of such later eminent men as Hiram Denio, Anson S. Miller, Rev. Dr. Albert Barnes, and Rev. Dr. Gideon B. Perry, with many others of lesser fame. For the past half century the town has had seventeen school districts, with good school buildings as a rule. The Union Free School building at Lee Center was built in 1872, and the first principal was Prof. William P. Robinson. The present principal is Frank Niess, who has one assistant.

A library was established very early in the century at Delta, called the Union Library of Lee and Western. This was succeeded by the one established at Lee Center by the Harmony Library Association in March, 1820. The trustees were Dr. Elijah Ward, Charles Ufford, William Lany, Thomas E Lawrence, and James Young. A resolution stipulated that the library should be kept " within one mile of the North Meeting-House, in the town of Lee." James Young was librarian until his death in 1836, and many prominent citizens interested themselves in its welfare. The library was permitted to go to decline not long after the death of Mr. Young.

There are and have been for many years six post-offices in Lee, around some of which is gathered a hamlet or village. The oldest one is Lee, in the extreme southwest corner of the town, on the State road. Jesse Matteson, if not the first, was one of the very early postmasters, and kept a public house. There had been one or two earlier taverns at that point, but there has never been much business there. William Fisher is the present postmaster, and the factory of the Lee Canning Company is located here.

A post-office was early established and still continues, called Stokes near the eastern town line south of the Center, where a little hamlet gathered, with a hotel and shops. This post-office was removed in 1827 to Lee Center, but was not long, if at all, discontinued at the former place. Charles Stokes was the first postmaster at that point, and when the office was removed he became the first postmaster at Lee Center, while James M. Husted was the next one at Stokes. Lee Center has been an active little village and is connected daily by mail and express lines with Rome. When Charles Stokes removed hither he established an ashery, having previously operated one at Stokes ; he also opened a store on the site of the brick block erected by A. A. Cornish in 1878.

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THE TOWN OF LEE.

The old Stokes store was built by William and Abijah Park, and leased to a Mr. Sherman who kept the first store in the place. Eleazer Bush- nell, and others succeeded as merchants. A tannery was established at this place in 1830-31 by Asa Adams ; it was a small affair and was sold to Asa B. Sexton. Later it passed to Eames & Smith, who conducted it successfully. It burned in 1888, and was not rebuilt. A large tan- nery was put in operation here about 1871 by a Boston firm, and a great business was done ; it was afterwards burned in 1876 and not re- built. George and Aaron Stedman began their foundry about 1840; it was discontinued many years ago. The Lee Center House is now kept by John Bowman, and C. B. Hitchcock has another hotel. The present stores of the village are kept by Carl Simon, who has been many years on his present site, where he succeeded A. A. Cornish ; he is also post- master. Henry J. Hitchcock, in trade since 1868 at his present place. W. H. Wyman, millinery, Mrs. Ingalls, grocery, Merritt Knight, cloth- ing, and James R. Rogers, who succeeded Reuben R. Richmond. David Swanscott has a large lumber business with a steam mill in Lewis county.

The village of Delta is situated in the extreme southeast corner of the town, on the Mohawk and is partly in the town of Western. Anson and Oliver Dart, brothers, settled there early and gave the place its name. About the year 1834 Anson Dart built the grist mill and called it the Delta Mills; it was subsequently burned. In the same year two men named Catlin and Hartoon, brothers-in-law, built a brick store. Prior to 1828, probably, a post-office was established at Newbernville (Elmer Hill) with Andrew Elmer, postmaster. In 1834 it was removed to Delta, the name changed, and Franklin Peck appointed postmaster. He was a son of Gates Peck, the pioneer. Daily mail communication was established with Rome. In early years Moses Hall built and oper- ated a distillery, over the Western line, which afterwards passed to Horace Putnam. Another was built by Jared C. and Elisha Pettibone ; this was later converted into a cheese factory. These factories increased in number in late years, as the dairy interest grew, until there are now fourteen in operation. The town is now a leading one in Central New York in dairying. A. J. Sly operates a saw mill at Delta, and the old carding mill is carried on by W. C. Bacon. Frank Herington has a store.

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Our county and its people; a descriptive work on Oneida county, New York;, Part 46

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