USA > New York > St Lawrence County > Our county and its people : a memorial record of St. Lawrence County, New York > Part 31
USA > New York > St Lawrence County > Our county and its people: a memorial record of St. Lawrence County, New York > Part 31
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120 | Part 121 | Part 122 | Part 123 | Part 124
The First Congregational Church .- This church was the outgrowth of a revival, conducted by Rev. Lewis A. Weeks, in the summer of 1842. On November 26 following, a church was organized with fifty two members. The society was incorporated March 3, 1843, William Briggs, John Dings, James Martin, Thomas McCarter, James Norway and William H. Reynolds, trustees. In 1844-5 they built a neat
Af Gabriels Bs. Ogdensburg
335
THE TOWN OF OSWEGATCHIE.
wooden church at a cost of $1,200, on Lot No. 5, situated about a mile southwest of the Centre. The society has a parsonage on a lot contain- ing eleven acres of land. The church has been enlarged and is now undergoing extensive repairs, including circular seats and other modern improvements. The Rev. Morgan L. Eastman served this church more than twenty-one years. Rev. R. C. Day is the present pastor.
The First Wesleyan Methodist Church was formed February 14, 1843, with a membership of 100. The first trustees were Joseph Platt, David Akin, Isaac Storms, Thomas Martin and John Martin. Its first pastor was Rev. Lyndon King. They erected a frame church in 1843 at a cost of $800, located on lot 3, range 2, of mile square lots, or about two miles east from Lisbon Centre. In 1890 the society decided to change the location of the church to Lisbon Centre. A lot was secured and during the following year a beautiful frame house of worship was erected at a cost of $3,000. On the completion of this church the members in the vicinity of the old one decided to continue services there. Rev. J. R. Wylie is the pastor, and preaches in the old church Sabbath mornings and in the new one in the evenings. The member- ship of the body is fifty five.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE TOWN OF OSWEGATCHIE-ORGANIZED IN 1802.
T HIS town was one of three, incorporated with the county March 3, 1802, and was taken from Lisbon's jurisdiction. It comprises the original township No. 8, fronting ten miles on the St. Lawrence River, and covering the mouth of the Oswegatchie, from which river its name was taken. The town included the military station, Fort Oswe- gatchie, so named by the British, which place was used by N. Ford for the first few years as a base of operations in the settlement of the county. The first settlement made at this point has been given in the county portion of this work, wherein it is fully described. The first settlers, apart from the Ford party, was Captain Joseph Thurber and
336
HISTORY OF ST. LAWRENCE COUNTY.
his two sons, Kelsey and John R., and Mrs. Thurber. The family moved from New Hampshire to Plattsburg, and shortly after removed to Augusta, Canada. From here they moved to the American side and settled on the west side of Black Lake, some four miles above Ogdensburg, in the summer of 1797, where some of his descendants now reside.1
Mr. Jacob Pohlman, formerly from Germany, a millwright, whom Mr. Ford met at Albany, and employed in 1797, to work on his grist mill at Oswegatchie, shortly after settled on lands near the Narrows, where he spent the remainder of his life. A few years later David Rose, David Judson, Thomas J. Davis, and several other families moved into the neighborhood and settled on farms.
The Settlement, on the river road towards Morristown, began about the same time, Mr. Thomas Lee being the pioneer settler. Capt. David Griffin, Adam Mills and Elijah Carley also located on this road, and several other families moved into the neighborhood soon after. Settlements were made on the central road or midway between the lake and river.
Francis Bromaghim, in 1798, settled on a tract of land a mile square, about five miles above Ogdensburg, and one and a half miles back from the St. Lawrence. Within a few years, Harvey Lyon, Uriah Van Waters, James Roberts, and several other families moved into the neighborhood, which has since been known as the Bromaghim Settle- ment. It was several years before roads were laid out and worked to this place. In the mean time, the people were guided through the woods, to and from, by blazed trees. Wolves were very plentiful at this time, which is shown by the following incident. In the spring of 1799, two of Bromaghim's boys, Peter and William, the oldest about seventeen years of age, went to Ogdensburg to fish for suckers below the dam. Each, having caught a fine string of fish, started for home, but darkness overtook them before they got a quarter of the way back. While groping their way along the foot-path, they heard the snarl of wolves, and could just discern their gaunt forms moving about in the fad- ing twilight. As they hastened on, a howl now and again went up from
1 Mr. Clark F. Nichols and wife came to the settlement from Vermont in the summer of 1798, with a yoke of oxen. Mrs. Nichols rode most of the way on the back of one of the oxen, with a few goods carried on the back of the other ox, saddles having been fitted for the occasion.
337
THE TOWN OF O8WEGATCHIE.
the wolves, apparently calling others to the place, as other howls were heard in answer at different points in the distance. Shortly after their number and boldness increased to such an extent that they were afraid of being attacked, when one of the boys taking a fish from his string, threw it as far as possible behind him. The wolves made a fierce scramble for the fish, and while fighting over and devouring it, the boys made good time on the home stretch. Yet it was not long before the wolves renewed the eager chase, when the process of throwing fish was repeated until the two strings were exhausted. Being still a mile from home, it seemed only a matter of a few moments ere they would fall a prey to the ravenous beasts, which fate was only prevented by the timely arrival of their father, bearing a large torch and accompanied by two fierce dogs. By this time a large pack of wolves had gathered about them and were only held at bay by the torch and the dogs; yet they often ventured so near that their eyes could be seen glistening in the dark. The wolves followed them home and kept up a continuous howl about the place until daylight.
The Bromaghim home was always open to strangers. At the siege of Ogdensburg in 1812-14, about thirty of the soldiers stopped there a few days on their retreat. Several of the wounded soldiers remained until they recovered, which was in the spring following. The father of Henry Lovejoy, who came over from Canada when a boy twelve years of age, was working for Mr. Bromaghim at the time, and helped to dress the wounds of the soldiers. He subsequently married one of the Bromaghim daughters and settled on a farm near by, where he lived until his death. The place is now occupied by his son Henry.
The first death among the American settlers was that of Mrs. John Lyon, who came in with the Ford party. The first marriage among the settlers was that of James Chambers to Elizabeth Thurber, of Black Lake, in the fall of 1797. As there was no clergyman or magistrate on the American side, nearer than Fort Stanwix, the party crossed over to Canada in a canoe, where they were legally married.
When Mr. Ford took possession of the property at Fort Oswegatchie there were several French families living there, who tilled small patches of the land cleared by Father Piquet. But the English made no use of the clearings, which had become mostly grown over with bushes,
43
338
HISTORY OF ST. LAWRENCE COUNTY.
making a lurking place for wild animals. The following incident is said to have happened shortly after Ford's arrival, and was some time after described in the Palladium, the first paper printed in the place. The occupants of the settlement procured water for domestic purposes at the " Cold Spring," about a quarter of a mile above the barracks, near the west bank of the Oswegatchie River, or just above the site of the present upper iron bridge. On a summer afternoon two French women, one having a babe wrapped up in Indian style, started out for water and to pick berries for supper. On arriving at the spring, the child was carefully laid in a comfortable place in the shade of the bush, where it soon fell asleep, while the women entered upon their task. They dili- gently moved about from one cluster of bushes to another, and had nearly filled their baskets, when a sudden screech from the child alarmed the women. They hastened to the spot, and when the mother caught a glimpse of her babe in the mouth of a panther that was trotting leisurely along an Indian path leading to Black Lake, she gave such a scream as only a mother can when seeing her child in peril, threw up her " capine," and cried out " A mon dieu, mon enfant." The two women followed in hot pursuit of the animal, screaming at the top of their voices; yet the panther held on to the child, and hastened on toward the swamp. A man from the barracks, with dog and gun, was on the hill above them in search of a deer for his evening meal. Hear- ing the cries of the women, he at once hastened to their relief. The dog being in advance, overtook the panther on the brow of the hill overlooking the swamp below. The panther, now hard pressed by the dog and women, leaped upon the leaning trunk of a low- branched elm, and walked out on a projecting limb about fifteen feet from the ground. When the man came up the panther was holding the child by its clothes, with its head downward, watching the dog. The mother was standing by, wringing her hands in agony of mind, as she listened to the pitiful moaning of her babe. The man, taking in the situation at a glance, brought his rifle to bear on the panther and fired. At the crack of the gun the child dropped on the limb and rolled from one branch to another to the ground, when the panther leaped to the earth and started for the swamp. The mother, seeing her babe drop and the panther leap from the tree and run away, cried out " Mon enfant tue," and fell insensible on
339
THE TOWN OF OSWEGATCHIE.
the ground. Her companion hastened to the babe and found that, except a few scratches made by the panther's teeth, and dust in its eyes, it was all right. She then turned to assist the mother, who was soon restored to consciousness, and was overjoyed to find her child once more safe in her arms.
The panther made a few leaps down the bank and was overhauled by the dog, but the unerring bullet of the hunter had done its work.
The rapid increase of the settlements on either side of Ogdensburg soon cut off the runways of wild beasts, and drove them further back into the larger body of woods.
The settlement at Heuvelton was commenced several years later than the Black Lake and River road settlements, principally on account of the impassable roads leading to the place. In the fall of 1802 Mr. Ford wrote Mr. Ogden, informing him that he had got all the worst places cross-wayed from Ogdensburg by the way of Heuvelton to the Mohawk River, and he had finished the bridge over the east branch (now Heuvelton) and had three settlers out upon the road fifteen miles from Ogdensburg, and several more were intending to go soon. Mr. Ford was very anxious to have the place, then called "East Branch," (where the State road crossed the Oswegatchie River), settled. He had a village plat surveyed by Judge Edsall, of Madrid, before it had an inhabitant, and he named the place Fordsburgh. He succeeded in getting Truman Bristol, with other families named Havens, Jones and Osburne to move in and they made some improvements in 1805. In the fall of 1806 Jairus Remington, formerly a Presbyterian minis- ter, a native of Massachusetts, but then from Putney, Vt., moved in by way of the Black River country, with his family, and began keeping a public house on the site where the Pickens dwelling house now stands. The first bridge crossed the river at that point. Mr. Remington had been on several times before, and had made an arrangement with Judge Ford to establish an inn at this place, where it was very much needed for the accommodation of the travelers who were coming into the country by the State road, then lately opened.
In 1808 Judge Pinney and family and a Mr. Redfield and family came in and settled. In 1811 David Burroughs, from Shaftsbury, Vt., arrived. Later on several families, mostly from Vermont, took up
340
HISTORY OF ST. LAWRENCE COUNTY.
their residence there as follows: William Thurston, George Seemon, Grove T. Howard, Alpheus Wright, Amos H. Hulett, Robert Fifield, Dexter B. Edgel,1 and others. Jacob A. Vanden Heuvel (whose name was subequently changed to Van Heuvel) settled in the place in 1820. He purchased the unsold village plat and an extension tract of land ad- joining, erected a grist mill, built a church and made numerous other improvements. A dam and saw mill had previously been erected by Mr. Remington, which he purchased. The name of the village was changed in 1832 to Heuvel in compliment to the new proprietor, and later it was again changed to Heuvelton.
The first bridge built in this place in 1802, was carried away by the spring flood, and a second one was built in 1805, and a third one in 1832. This one was built on the present site; the other two were located several rods above. The fourth, a covered bridge, was built in 1847, and was carried away by a flood in the spring of 1862, and a fifth bridge (covered) was built that summer, which was also carried off by a freshet in the spring of 1874, when the present iron arch bridge was built that summer.
A wooden bridge was built across the Oswegatchie at the eel-weir about 1840. A covered bridge was built on its site about 1858. In 1887 $1000 was laid out in repairs on the bridge. The bridge was condemned in 1889, and November 2d following a vote of the town naming and authorizing a committee of five (approved by the board of Supervisors), to issue town bonds, not to exceed $10,000, and to build an iron bridge at the eel-weir. In the meantime the town commissioner of Highways, J. E. Wagoner, bargained with the Berlin Bridge Company for an iron bridge to cost $9,200, without the knowledge or consent of the town committee, who commenced to carry out the contract. The town committee served an injunction on them, and purchased a King bridge for $6,000, and commenced its erection, when the Berlin Com- pany served an injunction on them. A series of law suits followed, which ended in establishing the right of the town committee to build the bridge, which was completed in the spring of 1892.
In the winter of 1878 several owners of lands located in the town of Depeyster, united and built a bridge, supported on piles driven into the
1 Mr. Edgel was killed by lightning while sitting in McNally's grocery store in Ogdensburg in the summer of 1853.
341
THE TOWN OF OSWEGATCHIE.
mud, across Black Lake, near the Wall farm. In 1879 the town of Oswegatchie voted to pay the parties $350, in consideration that the public may use it.
The first school taught in this settlement was a small one by Mr. Dyer Badger in the winter of 1808. After the State road was made passable it became the principal highway for strangers or emigrants from the east to reach this part of the country. Heuvelton was for a number of years at first one of the noted stopping places on the route. The so-called taverns of that day were provided with large bar- rooms, where the noted characters of the settlements (who claimed to have their eye teeth cut) passed most of their evenings and stormy days, especially in the winter season. Here, before the strangers and a few back-woodsmen, the " smart" Alecs had an opportunity to display their knowledge of the country, as well as to get free drinks with friends. They also amused them still further by badgering each other in billingsgate style, which vocabulary of blackguardism emanating from the Erie Canal scum was frequently indulged in by the graduates of that school. Heuvelton was not the only place where such ribaldry was practiced. This custom in the earlier days of the settlements was general and largely indulged in by many who passed for good people. Even opposing lawyers would indulge in abusive language to each other before commencing to try a case, in order to sharpen their wits. They thought it was smart and witty, and was looked upon as such by the masses of the people who considered it only an innocent pastime. But the custom passed away with that generation.
The place, soon after Van Heuvel came, increased quite rapidly, as he freely spent the large fortune he brought with him. Being brought up in the city of New York, his business experience there did not fit him to compete successfully with the affairs of a new country. He was a man of considerable literary ability, but was ignorant or stupid in the common things of every-day life. For example, it was said that when visiting one of his tenants in the sugar making season, and seeing the sap freely flowing from some of the maple trees, he asked the man why he did not tap all the trees, pointing to a clump of basswood, beech and hemlocks. After receiving a satisfactory reply, and learning that the man had earned over two dollars per day making sugar, but was
342
HISTORY OF ST. LAWRENCE COUNTY.
about to stop making, he said to him: "At that rate you could soon pay for your land. Why don't you keep on making sugar the year round ?" At another time while on a visit to a field where the man was plowing among the stumps, Mr. Van Heuvel for amusement kicked over some of the small rotten ones and said to the man, "This is only fun to clear land." He then came to a good sized pine stump and made two or three ineffectual kicks, when he stepped back a few paces and rushed forward with a determination to level the stump; but instead of it giving away as he expected, he went over backward to the ground. Picking himself up he rubbed his leg and with a disappointed look left the field. After Mr. Van Heuvel had spent his fortune in trying to build up the place he passed the remainder of his declining years with a friend near New York.
John Pickens, a successful merchant and general trader, built a fine brick dwelling and a stone block of stores about 1858. N. Giffin car- ried on a tannery for a number of years, and about 1860 he erected a stone grist mill at the southerly end of the bridge, which was driven by steam. He abandoned the enterpise after a few years and the building has since been used for a cheese factory. Just below this building, on the river bank, J. Palmer built a steam saw mill which has since been abandoned. A steam grist or provender mill is now operated in the Giffin tannery at the northerly end of the bridge by Anderson & Mc . Fadden. The water saw mill and sash shop is now run by Thomas Clarkson. The old grist mill, equipped with rollers, is now owned and run by J. C. Colon. There are at present four blacksmith shops, seven grocers, two dry goods stores, two hardware stores, two shoe shops, one harness shop, one jeweler shop, one meat market, one drug store, one millener and dressmaker, one justice of the peace and two lawyers. The population of the village is about 500.
The details of the settlement at Fort Oswegatchie by Nathan Ford, down to the completion of the grist mill and saw mills, has been given in another part of this work. Mr. Ford would not sell farms very near the barracks, as he wished to keep it for his dominion, and those seek- ing farming land were directed to the settlements outside already begun ; yet, a few desired to remain in the place. Therefore, in the third year from his arrival, in 1799, he had a village plat surveyed on
Dan& Griffin.
343
THE TOWN OF OSWEGATCHIE.
the east side of the Oswegatchie, as shown in the cut on page 145, ex- tending from the river northerly to Paterson street, and easterly from the St. Lawrence to Jersey avenue. He named the village Ogdensburg, in honor of the land proprietor, Samuel Ogden, of New York. That portion of the road laid out from the bridge site down the St. Lawrence was named " Ford " street, and the one crossing it running from the St. Lawrence towards Heuvelton was called " Euphemia " street ; this name was changed in 1824 to "State " street, as it was the starting point of the "State road." For the names of the other streets and avenues, the reader is referred to the present city map, as many of them were then named after the daughters or friends of the Ford families. A burial place was selected on the elevated ground about half a mile north of the Oswegatchie, now called Hamilton Park, the bodies some years since having been removed to the present cemetery. In 1800 the village was fairly commenced, a few lots having been taken up and small buildings erected. A fulling mill was put in operation and an ashery erected ; and in the following summer a road was surveyed through to Black River, and one from Heuvelton to Louisville.
One of the happy events that took place in the fall of 1801, during a salt famine, was the arrival of a vessel from Oswego with 120 barrels of of salt, which proved a great boon to the settlers. In the following year (1802) Mr. Ford erected a tannery and commenced to tan hides, both of cattle and of wild animals, for the settlers. He also built a still of 150 gallons capacity and rectifier of 50 gallons, which size he thought would be sufficient to supply the demands of the people for a few years.
In the summer of 1803 several of Mr. Ogden's friends from New York visited the new settlement, and stopped with Mr. Ford. Among them was the noted American author, Washington Irving, then a young man. While here he signed several deeds, as a witness, given by Mr. Ford to the settlers. Mr. Irving was ever on the alert for a fit subject to write about, and he considered it a good opportunity, while in the Northern wilderness, to study the character and habits of the Indian. Taking a guide one day they rowed up the St. Lawrence, about a mile above the barracks, to an Indian camp on the shore of the river. He noticed in front of one of the wigwams, a comely young squaw cooking
344
HISTORY OF ST. LAWRENCE COUNTY.
a leg of venison in a kettle, which was suspended on a tram over a fire, supported by branches stuck in the ground. Her Indian was lounging in front of the door of the wigwam smoking his pipe. Mr. Irving approached the squaw and endeavored to enter into conversation with her, but she was silent, and gave her whole attention to recruiting the fire. He then turned and spoke to the Indian, who excitedly answered in a gruff and incoherent manner. At this moment the squaw, through her nervousness in turning the venison, loosened the prop that sup- ported the tram, which tipped the contents of the kettle into the fire. Mr. Irving, in true politeness, hastened to assist her in readjusting the tram. This act enraged the Indian, who stepped behind Mr. Irving and dealt him a blow on the head with a club, felling him to the ground. The Indian then grabbed his squaw, threw her into the wigwam, and started off on a lope into the woods. The guide assisted Mr. Irving to his feet, conducted him to the boat and rowed back to the barracks. Mr. Irving concluded that he had studied Indian character sufficiently for one day.
Indian stories were very common with the early settlers. One of a romantic kind, which terminated near the mouth of the Oswegatchie, soon after the close of the Revolutionary war, was given from memory by one who read the story some years ago, in a printed pamphlet. A party from Albany, early in summer held a picnic on an island in the Hudson river, above the town. On leaving for home, about dark, a girl of sixteen, named Isabella Wilton, having left her shawl on the opposite side of the island, returned alone for it. An Indian had taken the shawl, and when the girl came up he threw it over her head, thrust her in his canoe and paddled away. Her not returning in due time created a sus- picion that she had been captured. Her brother and a friend, well armed and provisioned, started out to search for her. It was many weeks before they struck the trail, which lead them by way of Cran- berry and Black Lakes to the mouth of the Oswegatchie River. Just as they came up to the shore of the Oswegatchie, above the barracks, they discovered an Indian with the girl in a canoe landing on the oppo- site side about where the Morgan store now stands. As the girl stepped ashore they made a motion which was recognized for her to stand one side. The Indian not observing the move, attempted to draw
345
THE TOWN OF OSWEGATCHIE.
his canoe on the land, when he was shot dead by the friend of the girl across the river. They crossed over, buried the Indian on the bank near by, and from the girl learned the circumstances of her capture. She had been kept a number of weeks at his wigwam near a spring by a pine tree, up a creek that emptied into the St. Lawrence, about where the elevator now stands, or at a point between Knox and Green streets. The girl was taken home and eventually became the wife of the friend who assisted in rescuing her. In the summer of 1845 or 1846, this girl, now a gray-haired matron, came with a party of excursionists, on the steamer Lady of the Lake from Lewistown to Ogdensburg, and to them she related the story of her capture. The place having changed from a wilderness to a thriving village, she found it difficult to locate the spot where the Indian was buried ; but after taking observations from Light- house Point and the ruined walls of the old French barracks, she stated that the place could not be far from where a man was at work digging a hole for a hitching post. Some of the party stepped forward to the spot just as the man threw out some human bones, which were said to be those of the Indian in question, proving to the satisfaction of those present the truthfulness of the lady's statements. Many will no doubt remember the article appearing at the time in the Frontier Sentinel, which gave the substance of this story, and the finding of the Indian's bones.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.