Our county and its people; a descriptive work on Oneida county, New York;, Part 58

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 58

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).

580

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

Grains.

Uncombined Acids or Bases.

Sulphate of lime.

63.189

Grains.

Carbonate of lime

38.473

Sulphuric acid 37.170

Chlorine 418.411

Chloride of magnesium

27.109

Carbonic acid 10.047

Chloride of sodium

562.891

Hydro sulphuric acid 8.870

Chloride of potassium

4.057

Chloride of lithium

2.375

Lime

89.271

Magnesia

11.424

Potassa

3.562

Soda

298.487

Lithia

.838

Total

878.668

Gases in Solution .- Sulphuretted hydrogen 25.55 cubic inches.

Settlement began in this town in 1791 with the arrival of George A. Smith. He reached Judge Dean's public house in Westmoreland on Christmas eve of that year, and on the following day started with his family through the deep snow and the dark forest for their wilderness home in Verona. They did not reach their destination until January I, 1792, although they were within the town limits a few days earlier. Mr. Smith was prominent among the early settlers, and died about eleven years after his arrival. His daughter, Eve, born March 25, 1795, was the first white child born in the town.

After a considerable interval, the second pioneer arrived in the per- son of Asahel Jackson, from Berkshire county, Mass., who came in May, 1796, and at the mouth of Wood Creek built a dwelling where he kept a public house for boatmen Mr. Jackson died about ten years later and his widow continued the tavern another ten years, and married a man named Eggleston. At the time of Jackson's settlement, Mr. Smith was his nearest neighbor, eighteen miles distant.

In either 1796, or early in 1797, a Frenchman and his bride came into the town and located at what became known as Oak Orchard, on Wood Creek. His name was La Whiten de Wardenon, and both he and his wife, whose name was Celeste, were reputed members of dis- tinguished families, while romatic tradition credited them with fleeing from their native land to escape opposition to their marriage. Arriving in America it is known that De Wardenon, who had invested his for- tune in foreign merchandise and brought it over with him, lost most of his property and then sought a home in the wilds of Verona. A child

Silicic acid

.588

Grains in one imperial gallon __ 781.291

Silicic acid .588

Chloride of calcium_

82.609

DAVID A. WARREN.

581

THE TOWN OF VERONA.

was born to the twain, which died in 1797-the first death in the town. The parents were grief stricken and having nothing from which to con- struct a coffin, the little one was buried in its cradle. When the work- men on the Inland Canal were digging there a few years later, the re- mains of the cradle with its skeleton were unearthed.

The temporary settlement in this town of Jedediah Phelps in 1798 has been described in an earlier chapter. He had located at Fort Stan- wix in 1784. A considerable number of settlers came on in the spring of 1798, many of them locating in the southern part of the town where they had previously bid off lands at the auction sale of tracts in the Oneida Reservation Among the arrivals of that year were the fol- lowing :

Russell Brooks, Martin Langdon, Noah Langdon, Samuel Avery, Joseph Eames, John Bosworth, Oliver Pomeroy, Ithamar Day, Eleazer Ellis, Fisher. Ellis, Stephen Benedict, Jabez Loomis, Jonathan Warren, John Tilden, John R. Todd, Levi Skin- ner, Lieutenant Billington, Peter Whelan, Robert Robbins, Rodman Clark, Caleb Clark, Solomon Bishop, Moses Brown. The following came in either 1798 or not long after: Simeon Parsons, Joseph Couch, Benjamin Blackman, Achus Rathbun, Artemas Brewer, Nahum Joslin, Elias Cagwin, Daniel B. Cagwin, Dr. Alexander Whaley, Joseph Green and Gideon Todd. The first framed house in town was built by Robert Robbins.

Settlement progressed rapidly, excepting in the northern and north- western parts. These sections filled up faster after the opening of the middle section of the Erie Canal. Among the pioneers living in the town in 1802-4, aside from those previously mentioned are the follow- ing :

Eli Whelan, Eleazer Ellis, Alexander Beebe, John Bozworth, Oliver Pomeroy, Keeler Starr, Dan Bozworth, Noah, Joseph, Martin, and Reuben Langdon, Daniel Hall, Nathan Ellis, Thaddeus Wilson, Calvin Giddins, Robert Robins, Thomas G. Day, Ebenezer Loomis, Jabez Loomis, Simeon Parsons, Obed Williams, Enoch Hitchcock, Richard Brown, Thomas R. Clark, James Bewel, John Gray, Joseph Eames; and in 1805, Stephen Clark, Ephraim Robbins, Samuel Pratt, Achus Rath- bun, Constant Bozworth, Samuel Whaley, Dr. Alexander Whaley, Elias Cagwin.

Abel Gillete came from Hartford county, Conn., in 1806 and settled on a farm east of the site of Verona village, where his son, Justus E. Gillett afterwards resided. Noah Leete settled a mile and a half south of Verona village in 1809 and with later members of the family became prominent in the town. Solomon Bishop, from Whitingham, Vt., set-

582

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

tled first in Westmoreland in 1797, and moved to Verona in 1803, locating finally on the farm where his grandson, Calvin W. Bishop, resided in recent years The latter was the youngest of eleven children of Calvin Bishop, son of the pioneer and who passed his long life in the town. Achus Rathbun, a Quaker, settled in the town in 1802, and was father of Wells Rathbun, who passed a long life here. Orville Elmer, L. D. Smith, Henry Bissell, Peter Whelan, John Bosworth, Alexander Enos, and others who will be mentioned, were prominent settlers of this town. Eliphalet Frazee was the first settler on the site of Durhamville, in the northwest part of the town, where he located in 1811. Shubael Brooks was the first pioneer at Verona village, in the fall of 1797, and Dr. Brundage, the first physician in the town, settled there very early. Dr. Alexander Whaley. father of Dr. James Whaley of Rome, and grandfather of the present Dr. James H. Whaley, also of Rome. was an early practitioner in Verona, and was a conspicuous man in his profession, and a leading citizen. He lived to the age of nearly ninety two years and died in Rome. Samuel Whaley, brother of Dr. Alexander Whaley, was also long a resident in Verona.

The first town meeting in Verona was held on March 2, 1802, at the house of Martin Langdon, half a mile west of the site of Verona village, and the following officers were elected :

Supervisor, Jedediah Phelps; town clerk, Eleazer Ellis; assessors, Martin Lang- don, Peter Whelan, Caleb Clark ; collector, Stephen Bencdiet ; poormasters, Jonathan Warren, Noah Langdon; commissioners of roads, Isaac Weld, John Bosworth, Alex- ander Enos; constable, Stephen Benedict ; overseers of highways, Reuben Langdon, David Shed, George Seton, Simeon Parsons, Isaac Weld, Thomas R. Clark, Eleazer Ellis, Squier Holmes, Eliel Nichols, Park Adams; fence viewers, Jedediah Phelps, Caleb Clark, Jabez Loomis; poundkeeper, Joseph Eames.

Following is a list of the supervisors of this town from 1803 to the present time :

1803-6, Jedediah Phelps; 1807-19, Stephen Benedict; 1820, Joseph Grant; 1821, Stephen Benediet; 1822-23, Joseph Grant; 1824-25, Stephen Benedict; 1826, Alex ander Whaley, M. D .; 1827-31, Nathaniel Fitch; 1832, Ichabod Hand; 1833, Alfred Patten; 1834-37, James J. Carley ; 1838, De Witt C. Stevens; 1839, James O. Gates ; 1840-41, Justus E. Gillett; 1842-43, Alfred Patten; 1844, no record; 1845-46, James S. Whaley; 1847, Willet Stillman ; 1848-49, Thomas G. Halley; 1850, Archibald Hass; . 1851, James S. Whaley: 1852, no record; 1853, Solomon P. Smith; 1854, Calvin Bishop; 1855, no record; 1856, Martin Tipple; 1857-58, Orson Foote; 1859-60, Sal- mon Tuttle; 1861-62, George Benedict; 1863-64, J. Platt Goodsell; 1865-66, George

AMOS F. BREWSTER.

583

THE TOWN OF VERONA.

HI. Sanford; 1867-69, Henry S. Stark; 1870, Willard H. Bennett; 1871-73, Henry S. Stark; 1874, Delford Patten; 1875-76, William Williams; 1877-78, Henry S. Stark ; 1879-83, Gottlieb Merry; 1884-85, Jacob F. Gettman; 1886-89, Carl T. Siebel; 1890- 91, Joseph M. Palms; 1892-95. H H. Miller; 1896, Hugo Keller.

Records of the early schools of the town are not in existence, but it is probable that the first ones were taught on or near the site of Verona village. One of the very early ones was at Blackman's Corners and another at what is now Verona Station. A select school was kept sev - eral years near what was known at the Bishop place, first by a Mr. Ayres and afterwards by Miss Phelps. The town has now twenty- six school districts that have school houses in the county. Verona village constitutes a Union Free School district, for which a handsome school building was erected in 1895 at a cost of $4,500. A principal and three teachers are employed. There is also a Union Free School at New London, a hamlet on the canal in the eastern part of the town, where a neat two story brick school building was erected more than twenty years ago. The village of Durhamville constitutes a Union Free School district and has a good graded school.

As an agricultural district Verona has always ranked high among the towns of Oneida county. Miscellaneous crops were grown in the early years, and later hops were largely cultivated. In more recent years, dairying has come into greater prominence and at the present time may be considered the leading industry. There are eight cheese factories in the town, which take the milk of about 3,500 cows and manufacture 200,000 pounds of cheese annually. Among the prominent farmers of Verona, past and present, may be mentioned E. E. Brewer, Charles A. Pratt, Charles P. Frisbie, I. L. Amann, J. J Loomis, D. Patten, William M. Peckham, Charles H. Warren, W. B. Osgood, R. H. Barber, J. H. and Thomas Dunn, Martin Stevens, G. W. Frisbie, and others.

The first settlement of the site of Verona village in 1797 has been described. The place is situated on the road from Rome to Oneida Castle, and was known in early years as Hand's Village, taking that name from Capt. Ichabod Hand, who long kept a popular public house here. A hotel was built on the corner in 1830 by Calvin and Harrison Bishop, brothers. There was an earlier hotel built and conducted by James Clark. His brother, George Clark, owned the first store in the village ; this was in the first decade of the century. The post-office was estab .

584

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

lished very early and one of the pioneer postmasters was a tailor named Hess, who kept the office in his shop in the western part of the village. There are at the present time two hotels here, kept respectively by A. Hinman and F. C. Phelps. The present merchants are C. E. Crandall & Son, who have been in business many years. H. M. Leete bought out the store of A. B. Webber in 1842, conducted it successfully many years and was succeeded by his son, R. B. Leete; the present firm is R. B. Leete & Son. W. H. Kline deals in agricultural implements. Gottlieb Merry is the present postmaster. The Oneida Canning Com- pany has a canning factory on the railroad near the station. Verona Station is a little westward from the village, where a small business has been carried on since the opening of the railroad. H. H. Miller is the present merchant and postmaster here and H. C. Arnott conducts a hotel.

The village of Durhamville is situated in the southeast part of. the town and is a station on the Midland railroad. The canal passes through it, and in former years it was a place of considerable business impor- tance. In 1811 Eliphalet Frazer made the first settlement here. The village took its name from Eber Durham, who located here in 1826, coming from Manlius. There were then only four log houses on the site of the village, indicating that its later growth was due largely to the canal. Mr. Durham leased the surplus water from the canal and used it for power purposes. This right was abolished some years later. A tannery was early operated here, a foundry, and several mills, all of which have disappeared.

In 1845 De Witt C. Stephens built a glass factory at Durhamville and operated it a few months, when it passed to Fox, Gregory & Co., who had a factory at Sand Lake, N. Y. The firm became Fox & Son, who successfully carried on the business many years. During one period sixty to seventy hands were employed, 15,000 to 20,000 bushels of sand, 1,000 bushels of salt, 100,000 pounds of German clay and 20,000 pounds of Jersey clay, and 2,500 tons of coal and 1,500 cords of wood were used annually in these works. After the formation of the United Glass Company, which controls most of the glass works of the country, this factory passed under its control and in pursuance of the policy of restriction of product, was closed down in 1890.

CALVIN BROWN.

585

THE TOWN OF VERONA.

A pipe factory was established here in 1877 by E. N. & G. F. Kelsey, which was successfully operated about ten years. The village suffered severely from fire in 1886 and again in 1888, and this factory was part of the property destroyed. It was not rebuilt. There is now no manufacturing in the place aside from a steam grist mill built in 1893 by Hugo Keller, who also conducts one of the two stores in the place. The other is kept by Maher & Son. Hotels are kept by Albert Felts, Dennis Megan, and Jacob Schwartz.

What are known as the Dunbarton Glass Works are situated on the canal about four miles northerly from Durhamville. This was also at one time an extensive establishment, employing over fifty hands and turning out 30.000 boxes of glass annually. It went under control of the United Glass Company and was closed down in 1890. There is a post office, but no business at Dunbarton.

The hamlet of New London is situated on the canal in the eastern part of the town, where Ambrose Jones was the first settler in 1824. He afterwards removed to Vienna. A post-office was established about 1825. Boat building was formerly extensively carried on here and it was a shipping point of importance. A store is kept by R. B. Wright & Son and hotels by Thomas Drummond and George P. Wright.

Rathbunville, better known in later years as Verona Mills, which is the name of the post-office, is in the extreme eastern part of the town, where settlement was commenced in 1802 by Achus Rathbun, a Quaker. He was a worthy citizen, as also were later members of his family. His son. Solomon Rathbun, became proprietor of extensive business establishments, including a large flouring mill, a store, and a woolen factory. The grist mill was burned, and the present one has been owned and operated many years by Williams & Bennett A store is kept by E. Lea.

Higginsville is a postal hamlet, George B. Fitch, postmaster, on the canal a little northerly from Durhamville, and was built up on the strength of canal traffic. A small mercantile business has been con- ducted there and stores are now kept by Frederick Wendt and Charles Ackerman. One of the cheese factories is also located here. A hotel is kept by Anthony Berical.

State Bridge is a post-office on the canal near Durhamville, A store

586

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

is kept by Webb Potter and a hotel by Michael Dunn. Other hamlets in the town are Tilden Hill in the northeast part, where Merritt Clark settled in 1798 and kept a small store. John Tilden, from whom the locality took its name, came in ISoo. It is now no more than a farm neighborhood. Sconondoa, in the extreme northwest corner, on the creek of that name, was the site of an early cotton factory, operated by Samuel S. Breese, and discontinued about 1845. Fish Creek is a post-office and hamlet on the Midland Railroad near the shore of Oneida Lake, with a small collection of houses and shops. A store is kept by John Roberts

Stacy's Barn is a postal hamlet on the canal where Ephraim Jordan and Thomas Jordan are residents, and near by Captain Weismantel and Henry Leight carry on mercantile business.

A Congregational society was formed in this town August 5, 1803, by Revs. Peter Fish and Timothy Cooley, missionaries, one of whom was of the Congregational and the other of the Presbyterian faith. The number of members of this society was twenty-three. In November, 1806, a religious society was organized " to provide the privileges of the gospel for themselves and families," and sixty five heads of families signed the agreement. In the fall of 1805 a Methodist preacher held a revival at Lowell, in Westmoreland, which spread over into this town and about forty were added to this church. The first pastor was Rev. Israel Brainard, installed September 23, 1807. A church was built early two miles east of Verona village, and in 1828 the society divided and a second Congregational church was formed, which built a house of worship in the village. This condition continued until 1837, when the two societies reunited and thereafter occupied the church in the village. The building has been at various times improved, and the congregation now worship in the Presbyterian faith.

The Methodist church at Verona village was organized as a separate station in 1833. Previous to that time it was connected with the old Westmoreland Circuit, for which a church was erected in 1830. Since that time it has been extensively improved, especially between 1868 and 1870. The society also owns a parsonage and has a vigorous ex- istence.

The first church organized on or near the site of Duarhamville was

587

THE TOWN OF VERONA.

the Baptist. In 1812 Eliphalet Frazee, the first settler there, joined with Benjamin Newcomb, Dyer D. Ransom, Roswell Barker and a few others, and began public religious worship; this was continued to 1815, when they organized a church with twelve members. Mr. Newcomb was the preacher most of the time until 1819, and in that year was ordained the pastor. In 1883 a church was erected which is still in use, but has been much improved in later years.

Durhamville was many years ago a missionary station of the Episco- pal church, and meetings were held between 1860 and 1880 in the old Presbyterian church building, that society having declined and ceased to hold services. This building was taken down in 1886, removed to State Bridge by the Methodists in that vicinity and there rebuilt. It is still used by that society. The Episcopals built their present church on the Presbyterian site in the year last named.

The Methodist Episcopal church at New London, was in existence prior to 1843, in which year they purchased a building moved it and fitted it for worship. This was used until 1888, when the society bought of the Lutherans in the Churchville neighborhood near Verona Mills, a church building and removed it to New London, near the site of the former one. The adherents of the Lutheran faith had erected two buildings near Verona Mills, one of which is now used by them and the Baptists in union.

A Methodist society was organized at Durhamville prior to 1850, and is still in existence.

The church of the Franciscans, near Durhamville, was erected nearly or quite forty years ago, soon after the organization of the society. The church was placed in charge of the Franciscan Fathers of Syracuse.

In 1808 the families of Daniel Williams and his brother Joshua, num- bering about twenty- four persons, and living near Rathbunville, but in the town of Rome, formed themselves into an organization "for re- ligious improvement and Sabbath worship;" this association was the nucleus of the later Seventh Day Baptist organization, which was formed in 1820 with fifty-one members. A reorganization was effected in 1828 as the "First Seventh Day Baptist Society of Rome and Verona." A house of worship was erected in the next year. Services continued un- til 1837, when the Second Seventh Day Baptist church of Verona was

588

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

organized at Durhamville with forty- one members. They built a church a mile east of Durhamville in 1850.

In 1879-80 a church was erected near Higginsville and dedicated in January, 1880, as a Presbyterian church. It is now used as a Union church.

There was formerly a Baptist church at Higginsville and another at Verona depot.

CHAPTER XLIX.

THE TOWN OF VIENNA.

The town of Vienna is situated on the western border of Oneida county, upon the north shore of the eastern end of Oneida Lake. The east branch of Fish Creek forms part of the eastern boundary, and Wood Creek a part of the southern. Other smaller streams are numerous, some of which have supplied good water power. In the southern part the surface is comparatively level, and some of it low and marshy ; in the northern part it is broken and hilly. The soil is generally sandy, with alluvium along Fish Creek Good building stone have been quarried in the east part and bog ore has been found in the marshy section along the lake. The original pine and hemlock forest that covered much of the territory developed a large lumber interest in early years.

Vienna was formed from Camden April 3, 1807, with the name of "Orange." On the 6th of April, 1808, the name was changed to " Bengal," which title was retained until April 12, 1816, when the present name was adopted. A part of Annsville was set off in 1823, leaving Vienna with an area of 38, 102 acres. The town includes what were townships 9 and 10 of Scriba's patent and is part of the Nicholas Roose- velt grant ; the latter not complying with the terms of sale, a large share of his purchase was resold to George Scriba, and the remainder, which included the territory of this town, was acquired under chancery proceedings by Gen. Alexander Hamilton, John Lawrence, and John

589

THE TOWN OF VIENNA.

B. Church. The early records of the town are lost, depriving us of much of its history down to 1871.

The first settler in the town was Ephraim Church, who located prob- ably in 1797 on the farm owned in recent years by William Bailey and John Humaston. He afterwards sold out to a Mr. Jarvis Isaac Cook came probably in the same year with Church, and Timothy Halstead, the third settler, in 1798 or 1799. The latter built the first frame house and was the father of Henry N. Halstead who passed his life in the town. Mr. Halstead was from the town of Trenton, and the next year after his removal from there to Vienna he was followed by Eliphalet Pierce from the same town. Others who came into the town about the beginning of the century were Luther Fisher, Alexander and Jonathan Graves, John Tully, Peter Gibbons, Isaac Babcock, a Mr. Kilbourne, and a Mr. Smith, a blacksmith. Two children of Luther Fisher were about the first to die in the town and Alexander Graves was killed very early in a saw mill at McConnellsville. Mr. Gibbons settled about 1803 half a mile below McConnellsville, on a farm afterwards owned by Alanson Tuttle. Jonathan Graves built the first frame barn and Mr. Gibbons the second on this farm. Luther Pike settled in 1815 on the road between McConnellsville and North Bay ; he was father of David Pike. Andrew Palms located above McConnellsville prior to 1812 and took part in that war. Oramon Tuttle, who settled first in Camden, re- moved to this town in 1815 and settled a mile above McConnellssville, where his son afterwards lived. John Wheelock, who served seven years in the Revolutionary war, father of Otis Wheelock, settled in 1813 near Fish Creek, where his son subsequently lived ; the latter came into the town in 1814 with his brother Curtis. At the time of his arrival the settlers were few and nearly the whole town was covered with a heavy growth of hemlock. At that time George Haskins, the first settler on Fish Creek in that vicinity ; Roswell Seeley, next above the the Wheelock place, Enoch Strong, Elisha Risley, and possibly a few others were living in the southeast part. Samuel Sawyer lived near Otis Wheelock's late residence and was the first settler west of the Humaston place ; the latter kept a tavern on the main road to Rome near the bridge over Fish Creek. William and John Paddock were early settlers just above Vienna post-office, or

590

()UR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

" South Corners," as it has been called. This place in 1813 had a tavern kept by Rufus Kinne, and quite a settlement gathered about it. Eliakim Stoddard, who had settled in Camden in 1799, removed there in 1803 and lived five years on the site of the present tavern, which is opposite the old stand. He was the first supervisor of this town, but returned to Camden in 1808. Silas Jewell settled in the southwest part of the town in 1817 ; he came from Massachusetts. Later he lived at West Vienna village.

These pioneers and others mentioned further on and in Part III of this volume, were instrumental in transforming the wilderness into the succeeding prosperous farming region. The clearing of the forest gave them and many others an ample field of toil for many years. Saw mills were built at every available point and at one time there were thirty - seven in operation in the town. Most of these have disappeared and it is now almost impossible to locate them. Wild beasts were numerous and very troublesome in early years, and many stories have come down of encounters with them. Wolves were " thick as blackbirds," as one old resident stated, down to the time when the canal was finished, and sheep suffered. The following anecdotes of early hunting experiences are from Jones's Annals, the Halstead referred to being the late Henry N. Halstead :

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Our county and its people; a descriptive work on Oneida county, New York;, Part 58

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