USA > New York > Onondaga County > Past and present of Syracuse and Onondaga County, New York : from prehistoric times to the beginning of 1908 > Part 32
USA > New York > Onondaga County > Syracuse > Past and present of Syracuse and Onondaga County, New York : from prehistoric times to the beginning of 1908 > Part 32
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THE WEIGH LOCK.
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY
CHAPTER XXVI.
FROM THE CLOSE OF THE WAR OF 1812 TO THE MEXICAN WAR, INCLUDING AN ACCOUNT OF THE SALT SPRINGS.
The war of 1812 had affected Onondaga bat little beyond eheeking immi- gration. Troops aud stores had passed through; sometimes trains of red- eoated prisoners also. The firing had been heard at Oswego, and the militia had marched there. Some had even gone to Niagara. At any moment they might be called out, and so a gloom was over every home. Of actual service and death there was little. Peace removed all fear. The dreaded Indians had proved friends here and at Buffalo, and have been friends from that day to this. As Amerieans, though not yet citizens, they rallied around the old flag in the civil war.
Peace is often uneventful. The old Hebrews summed up long periods in one brief phrase: "And the land had rest for forty years." With a young, progressive and growing people, however, every year brought some- thing of present importance. The cold year of 1816 cut off crops. snow fell in May, and a killing frost came on June 9. Flour in midsummer was sixteen dollars per barrel. That year. too, Onondaga county reached its present limits by the setting off of Oswego. Steamboats appeared on Lake Ontario in 1817, and canals were soon begun. These will be treated by themselves. The salt industry was developed: another subject of special interest. Railroads were projected and begun. Everything was booming, and even the dreaded Asiatic cholera did not greatly retard business. The natural financial crash of 1837 did. About that time came the "Patriot War," which in 1838 had special interest for Onondaga county. These things were preliminary to the picturesque political eontest of 1840.
While the incidents of canal construction and operation will appear elsewhere. it is proper to mention some effects here. The canals depreciated farm property, for they cheapened transportation. This is one effeet still. The people of New York maintain the canals for the benefit of the western states. The farmers pay canal taxes that western farmers may sell grain cheaply in the eastern markets. There is no doubt of that. The New York canals should be a national charge, and would be but for the opportunities they afford for local political patronage. There were at first many local bene- fits from them, and they paid as an investment while tolls were collected. There was a local loss, also. Farmers went west to better grain fields, and many improved farms here soll as low as ten dollars per acre. There eame a necessary change in farming here. Fruit growing, dairying. early vegetables, etc., attracted attention, as they increasingly will do. The demands of the eivil war swelled the prices of farm lands, but this was but a temporary inflation, and then came a period when they fell far below their actual value. The idea that there are now abandoned farms in this county met at onee with an indig- `nant protest, backed by solid proofs, but some spots certainly look much like it.
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY
On the other hand the diminished cost of transportation by canal lessened the wear and tear of roads. In 1826 teaming cost three to twenty times what canal freighting did, and the heavy loads, drawn by six to eight horses. left the turnpikes, and this lessened repairs. Light travel increased. Many trav. eled by canal, but the stages were full of those in more haste. The Seneca turnpike paid a dividend in 1823, though paralleling the canal, and indeed "proved the canal to be very beneficial to the interest of the road company." One factor in this was that people sought the growing towns along the canal. Jordan grew at the expense of Elbridge. Fayetteville at that of Manlius, Syra- cuse became a center of business. and yet for a time the older villages held their own.
The railroads caused greater changes. Some were planned but never built. In 1829 the Salina & Port Watson railroad was chartered to connect Onondaga lake with the Tioughnioga river near Cortland. At that time consid- erable merchandise went down that river to Binghamton. In later days there came the Syracuse & Binghamton road instead. One of the earliest railroad plans here was to connect Skaneateles and Jordan. From time to time it revives, but the road has not been built. The incorporation of the Auburn & Syracuse railroad, May 1, 1834, was the first decided step. Five of the eleven incorporators were Onondaga men. Work began in December, 1835, and on January 8, 1838, horse cars ran over the wooden rails from Auburn to Geddes. Sherwood's stage horses supplying the power. June +, 1839, the first steam locomotive called Syracuse, drew an excursion train over the line. Steam had come to stay, but it was not very lively at first, the passengers often getting off to push the train. Indeed it is said that Philo N Rust would sometimes hitch up his fine team at either end of the road and offer to bet that he would go through first.
Flat iron rails were soon spiked on those of wood, but when the spikes became loose the rails curled up, and a "snake-head" might spear a man in his seat. The Utica & Syracuse railroad was opened in July, 1839, and for a time labored under restrictions. It must pay the Seneca turnpike company for any resulting damage, and also a toll for any freight carried. to the canal commissioners. At that time the Schnectady & Utica railroad could carry no freight whatever, even in winter. Up to 1844 it was all moved in that season in sleighs.
In 1836 the Syracuse, Cortland & Binghamton railroad company was incorporated, but the road was not built till 1854, and it has passed through some changes since. In 1839 the improvement of Oneida river for steamboat navigation was authorized, but commerce of this kind never rivaled that of carly days. It is curious that the new barge canal returns to some of the ancient waterways.
There follow two lists of names: one of the lawyers, and the other of the clergy of Onondaga county in 1835-36. both ineluding men of note. According to the old order of the Law and Gospel. the lawyers are placed first :
BALDWINSVILLE .- Samuel II. Hammond, John R. Hickcox, Isaac R. Minard, Elias Tuttle.
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY
CAMILLUS .- David R. Hillis, Grove Lawrence, James R. Lawrence.
ELBRIDGE .- Reuben Farnham, Hiram F. Mather. FAYETTEVILLE .- John Watson, Hicks Worden. GEDDES .- Elijah W. Curtis, Reuben S. Orvis. JAMESVILLE .- Isaac W. Brewster.
JORDAN .- William Porter. Lemmel B. Raymond.
LA FAYETTE .- Samuel S. Baldwin.
MANLIUS .- Samuel L. Edwards. John Fleming. Le Roy Morgan, Francis Randall, N. P. Randall, HI. C. Van Schaack.
MARCELLUS .- John Bixby, Sanford C. Parker, George A. Stansbury.
ONONDAGA ITILL .- Rufus Cossit. Jonas Earll, Daniel Moseley.
ONONDAGA HOLLOW .- Samuel Forman. William H. Sabin.
ORVILLE .- William Eager.
POMPEY .- Victory Birdseye, Daniel Gott, Daniel Wood.
SALINA .- Thomas G. Alvord, Jerome J. Briggs (District Attorney), A. C. Griswold, Enos D. Hopping.
SKANEATELES .- John S. Furman, Freeman G. JJewett, Augustus Kel- logg, Daniel Kellogg, Lewis H. Sandford.
SYRACUSE .- Charles A. Baker, Harvey Baldwin, Henry Davis, Jr., Thomas T. Davis, William Irving Dodge, John G. Forbes, Gardner Lawrence. E. W. Leavenworth, Levi S. P. Outwater, Jr., Finley Strong, Schuyler Strong, John Wilkinson, Richard Woolworth, Abijah Yelverton, Jr.
TULLY .- John Dorr, John J. Ostrander.
A list of the elergymen of the same period follows, though not of churches : APULIA .- John Truair, Congregational.
BELLE ISLE .- II. B. Fuller, Baptist.
CANTON (Now Memphis) .- Ira Dudley, Baptist.
CICERO .- Truman Baldwin. Presbyterian; A. I. Tilton, M. E .; Publius V. Bogue, Presbyterian.
CLAY .- William Ottman, Lutheran; Horatio Warner, Baptist.
DELPHII .- Mr. Wheelock, Baptist.
ELBRIDGE .- Cyrenius Fuller, Baptist ; Medad Pomeroy, Presbyterian.
FABIUS .- O. Montague, Baptist ; W. Bachelor, M. E. ; D. W. Bristol, M. E.
FAYETTEVILLE .- Beardsley Northrup, Episcopal; Mr. Smith, Presby- terian.
JAMESVILLE .- Auburn Morse, Presbyterian; Marshall Whiting, Epis- copal.
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JORDAN .- Washington Thatcher, Presbyterian; C. Giles, M. E.
LA FAYETTE .- Alexander B. Corning, Presbyterian.
LYSANDER .- Peter Witt, Baptist; M. B. Williams, Dutch Reformed ; Judah Wright, Baptist; M. HI. Gaylord. M. E .; T. Van Tassel, M. E.
MANLIU'S .- David Bellamy, Baptist : A. Fuller, M. E .; J. G. Whitcomb. M. E .; W. W. White, M. E.
MARCELLUS .- Levi Parsons, Presbyterian; Jesse Worden, Baptist; C. Northrup. M. E .; J. E. Robie, M. E.
MOTTVILLE .- W. Queal, Universalist.
ONONDAGA .- Seth W. Beardsley, Episcopal ; Solomon Gardner. Bap- tist; John W. Prentice, Presbyterian ; J. P. Aylworth, M. E .; J. Watson, M. E.
ONONDAGA HILL .- D. D. Chittenden, Baptist.
ONONDAGA HOLLOW .- Elijah Buck, Presbyterian.
ORVILLE .- J. Foster, Unitarian.
OTISCO .- Levi Griswold, Presbyterian.
POMPEY .- Abraham Ernist, Baptist; Mr. Shaw, Presbyterian; A. Van- denburgh, Universalist; J. Kelsey, M. E .; D. Anthony, M. E.
SALINA .- J. Foote, Presbyterian.
SKANEATELES .- Samuel W. Brace, Presbyterian: Joseph T. Clarke, Episcopal: J. W. Taggart, Baptist; S. Stocking, M. E.
SPAFFORD .- Daniel Die, Baptist.
SYRACUSE .- John W. Adams, Presbyterian; Richard S. Corning, Pres- byterian ; Francis S. Todrigg, Episcopal; Stephen Wilkins, Baptist; V. M. Coryell, M. E.
TULLY .- G. S. Ames, Universalist.
Banks now became necessary, and the Onondaga County Bank was in- corporated April 15, 1830, by prominent men. The Bank of Salina followed in April, 1832, both having a long existence. There are many yet living who remember the terrible winter of 1835-36, with its severe cold and deep snows. It was impossible in many places to get into the woods, and fuel became scaree and high.
The country at large has never seen such a senseless inflation of values. and such reckless investments as preceded the financial panie of 1836-37. Any- thing sold; anything passed for money. Banks multiplied, speculation was nn- limited, living extravagant for the times, interest became usury and no one objected, wild lands were located and purchased unseen. Then President Jack- son required that all publie lands which had been bought should be paid for in specie. It seemed very unkind, "a raid on prosperity." Bank notes and promissory notes were plentiful. but specie! It is hard now for later men to understand what this meant then and how little gold and silver there was in the country. We had no mines of either and not much of the material. We
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had paper currency of a very cheap kind, some of it equaling the shinplasters of the Revolution. The banks could not pay specie ; the people had none, and a halt was called. Values fell faster than they had risen, and some have not recovered yet. Of course the change meant ruin to thousands, and men laid this to Jackson's folly.
As always here the times influenced politics. The anti-Mason movement had spent its force, and people were ready for new issues. It was easy to charge financial distress upon those in power, and property is sensitive. A man might lack head or heart; he seldom lacked a pocket, and knew when it was empty. So the times pointed to a political change. Another thing favored this. The "Patriot War, " so-called, stirred up the frontier of New York, and the necessary action of President Van Buren did not make him popular among the young men of the border. Hunter lodges were formed in many towns here, for hunting was popular, and guns were needed for this, and a little prac- tice with the rifle was not amiss. It was pleasant, too, to get together, lay plans, and tell hunting stories. The authorities did not view it thus. Van Buren issued a brief proclamation forbidding the lodges; perhaps with little effect. The late George JJ. Gardner belonged to one of these, and once agreed to give the writer the ritual. He was little more than a boy at the time. but remem- bered it well.
Led by General S. Von Schultz two hundred and fifty men invaded Canada, at Windmill Point, near Prescott, occupying the windmill and other buildings November 12, 1838. They expected to meet others there but were unsupported. Fighting began on the thirteenth and on the evening of the fifteenth the party surrendered. Of the party thirty-five were residents of Onondaga county, and nine of them were Germans. Von Schultz., Martin Woodruff, Christopher Buckley and Leman Leech, of this county, were executed. The other Onon- daga men were Cornelius Goodrich, Nelson J. Griggs, Chauncey and Calvin Mathews. Joseph Wagner and Charles Woodruff of Salina; Giles Thomas and Nathan Whiting of Liverpool; Edward Holmes, Peter Meyer and Edward A. Wilson of Pompey ; Hiram Kinney and Hiram Sharp, residence unknown. At the outing of the Onondaga Historical Association at Baldwinsville, June 6. 1900, William W. Stebbins, a member of the party (died in 1907) was present. Hle was but seventeen at the time of the battle and a resident then of Jeterson county. Because of his youth he was pardoned and sent home. Some went to Van Dieman's Land, and were pardoned in 1849. An indignation meeting over the execution was held in the court house here and was largely attended. Vivus W. Smith presented several resolutions expressive of local feeling. but the excitement continued till the MacLeod trial was over two years later.
In Pringle's "Lunenburgh, or the Old Eastern District," after an interest- ing account of the battle, there are the following statements: "In the mill were found several hundred kegs of powder, a large quantity of cartridges. pis- tols and swords, and two hundred stands of arms, most of which were of superb workmanship. Many of the swords and dirks were silver mounted, and their hilts elaborately carved. A silk flag, valued at one hundred dollars, was also taken, on which was displayed a spread eagle beautifully worked, surmounted
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by a single star, and beneath, also wrought in silk, the words, 'Liberated by the Onondaga Hunters.'. .. . The fate of Von Schultz excited great sympathy. Ile pleaded guilty to the charge against him 'of having been unlawfully and treasonably in arms against our Lady the Queen.' and died a victim of design- ing traitors who urged him into the enterprise and then cruelly abandoned him. "
The political campaign of 1840 was a picturesque episode in Onondaga and elsewhere. Party feeling always ran high in early days, and there was the usual amount of mud slinging. Van Buren's gold spoons and fine wines were contrasted with Harrison's log cabin and hard cider. As good wine could not everywhere be had, hard cider-very hard-became popular. It was a party duty to drink freely of it, and no one was thought the worse of for this. Tippecanoe supplied a pun, and one Tippecanoe club from Marcellus came into Syracuse in a fine dug-out. The writer has seen it many a time. There were ships of state in the great procession, and young ladies in white- most bewitching of all costumes-mounted wagons and represented common- wealths. To eap all, there rang out, night and day, the inspiring strains of "Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too." Log cabins appeared in every town, with a barrel of eider at the door and a coon skin at the gable. The song was true. "'Van, Van was a used up man."
Then came a movement of a different kind. There had been too much hard eider and most saw this plainly. The old temperance pledge allowed wine and cider in moderation ; a more stringent rule came in against all intoxicating bey- erages, a blessed rule for thousands, and effecting a much needed reformation for a time. It had a curious origin. Plenty of singing helped the cause, and new words were adapted to a familiar tune, proclaiming that
"In Baltimore the reform begun, in a grog shop, too;
Six drunkards pledged to turn from rum. to life anew and temperance. too. "
The pledge was the great panacea, and often did wonders. There were great meetings and celebrations, speeches by reformed men and able lectures, prohibition in some eases, and a general recognition of the dangers of mod- erate drinking. So sweeping a wave could not maintain its height. but with some natural reaction. the Washingtonian movement never lost all its force.
When the next general election came around the Democrats had learned wisdom, and the Whigs were disorganized. The former appealed to popular feelings with the cry of Texas and Oregon; the latter had not secured "two dollars a day and roast beef" for the working man. They might sing:
"Ha! ha! ha! such a nominee as Jimmy Polk of Tennessee,"
but the Democrats sang yet louder :
"O, Harry, Harry Clay. hear what the people say ;
You never can be President: so home you'd better stay."
And he stayed. His opponents got up wonderful processions, adorned with log cabin traps, coons in every conceivable posture to represent the Whig
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party-no sneh gathering of coons has been since that year. They had poles of young hickory, for the slogan was "Polk our young hickory, Dallas and victory." There were wonderful banners. Onondaga county has not seen their like since. At one of these monster meetings in Skaneateles Silas Wright spoke, and more than ten thousand people came from near and far to hear him; some said twenty thousand. So with song, and march, and a new en- thusiasm, Polk and Dallas came into office, and a new era dawned with the Mexican war.
SALT AND THE ONONDAGA SALT SPRINGS.
It is well known now that the Indians of Canada and New York did not originally use salt, and that white men who lived among them often lost their relish for it. For this reason, when the Onondagas showed the spring to Le Moyne in 1654, they thought a demon defiled it. This was the earliest men- tion of salt springs here, a supposed carlier quotation being an error in date. Le Moyne boiled a little, which he took to Quebec, and its reputation soon spread, with frequent references to this spring and others in the Jesuit Rela- tions and other French papers. In 1700 Colonel Romer called the spot the salt pan.
When Conrad Weiser was at Onondaga in April, 1737, he said: "I went with my host and another old friend to see a salt spring, of which there are great numbers, so that a person cannot drink of every stream, on account of the salt water. The Indians boil handsome salt for use." They had overcome their dislike of it, and used it sparingly.
John Bartram came to the beach at the head of the lake July 23. 1743. "Here the Indians dig holes, about two feet deep, which soon filling with brine. they dip their kettles, and boil the contents, until the salt remains at bot- tom. . . We filled our gallon keg full of water and brought it to Town. where we boiled it to about a pound of salt." Similar words are used by later travelers. He thought there was a fossil salt bed near.
At the time of his death Sir William Johnson owned Onondaga lake and a tract of land around it. Then and long afterward it was called the Salt lake. A Revolutionary document dated January 6, 1777, had the report of a com- mittee on salt, who said that they had "employed Peter Sim to repair to Onon- daga in order to make an Experiment on the waters of a Salt Lake & certain Springs at that place." The Commissioners of Indian affairs and others were requested to "prevail on the Indians of the Six Nations to permit Such Ex- periment to be made. And further, if on Such Experiment a Salt Mannfacture there shall be thought practicable & of publiek advantage, the said Commis- sioners shall be & they are hereby authorized to enter into an agreement with the Indian proprietors for the use of the said Land and Springs. All for the sole purpose of manufacturing Salt, & to allow them a reasonable Rent or Compensation for the same. And if a Treaty shall be necessary, to make them a present at the Expense of this State not exceeding the Value of Two hundred pounds, and thereupon to procure the necessary materials & employ proper persons to set such manufacture on foot."
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This ignored the Johnson title, and was the first step toward state con- trol of the salt springs. The war cloud grew dark in that direction, and a dif- ferent plan followed. June 16 of the same year, Jonathan Lawrence and William Harper addressed the Oneidas at Oneida. "The Great Council of the State of New York, at their council fire at Esopus, having been informed that large quantities of salt may be boiled from spring waters within the ter- ritories of their old friends the Five Nations, have thought proper to appoint a committee to contract with you concerning the making of salt. . If any of our friends incline to make salt and deliver it at Fort Sehnyler. we will appoint a person there to receive it, who will pay for every skippel (three bushels) delivered there, four dollars."
The Indians offered to show Comfort Tyler the spring in May, 1788: "Accordingly I went with an Indian guide to the lake. taking along an iron kettle of fifteen gallons capacity, which he placed in his canoe, and steered out of the mouth of Onondaga creek. easterly into a pass called Mud creek. Af- ter passing over the marsh, then overflowed by about three feet of water, and steering towards the bluff of hard land, since the village of Salina, he fastened his canoe, pointed to a hole apparently artificial. and said there was the salt." In nine hours he made thirteen bushels.
At the treaty of Fort Stanwix. September 12. 1788. the salt reservation of a mile around the lake was made for the benefit of the Onondagas and the people of New York. Danforth and Tyler kept a chain and kettle there that year. boiling what they wanted, and then hiding these till they came again. In 1789 Nathaniel Loomis came there by water with a few kettles, and the next winter made about six hundred bushels, selling for a dollar per bushel. Jeremiah Gould had the first kettles in an arch. but in 1793 Moses De Witt and William Van Vleck built an arch with four kettles, which supplied a large demand.
A year later James Geddes had salt works west of the lake, and this dis- turbed the Indians, who thought they were to have one shore and the white people the other. Mr. Geddes made presents, but they did not see their way clearly. A happy thought eame: "We will adopt this pale face into our tribe. and then being one of us, he will have a right to make salt on our side of the lake." So he became Don-da-dah-gwah. place where canoes discharge their freight ; perhaps from Harbor Brook. A year later the Indians sold their com- mon right, but were to have one hundred bushels of salt yearly.
In 1798 the Federal Company was formed, all of its members being leading men. They were Asa Danforth, Jedediah Sanger, Daniel Keeler. Thomas Hart. Ebenezer Butler, Elisha Alvord and Hezekiah Olcott. Their large building had eight blocks of four kettles each. The term "block" was always after- ward applied to salt boiling. The year before the state assumed control. with William Stevens as superintendent, and he held this office till his death in 1801. His powers were ample and the details were exact. Four cents a bushel was paid for water and rent, and each kettle or pau must produce at least ten bushels annually. Lots of ten aeres, with five arres of marsh land. could be leased for three years. No salt was to be sold for more than sixty cents a
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bushel, nor on the leased premises. All was barreled, stamped by the super- intendent, and placed in a public store house till sold. One cent per bushel was paid for storage; the superintendent selling for sixty cents, deducting rent and storage, and paying the maker fifty-five cents. The first year two thousand bushels were always to be in store, and five hundred bushels addi- tional every year there after. Of course the old block house of 1794 soon proved too small. The business outgrew the rules in other ways, and many changes were made in 1798. The next year two qualities were established, but all must be put up in white oak casks with twelve hoops, and there were stringent rules for inspection. All salt was to be shipped from the publie wharf, under pen- alty of five dollars for each bushel. The superintendent had eight hundred dollars a year. and one hundred dollars for an assistant.
In 1801 the rules on keeping salt in store were abolished. and Sheldon Logan became superintendent in February, and Asa Danforth in October. Ile was succeeded by William Kirkpatrick from April. 1806. to March, 1808. Mr. Kirkpatrick was superintendent again from 1811 to 1831. For 1806 he reported one hundred and fifty nine thousand and seventy-one bushels made. The amount steadily increased, and the canal gave it great impetus. It rose from three hundred and forty-eight thousand two hundred and thirty-four busheis in 1817, to nine hundred and eighty-three thousand four hundred and ten in 1827. In 1837 it was two million one hundred and sixty-one thousand two hundred and eighty seven and in 1848 four million seven hundred and thirty- seven thousand one hundred and twenty six bushels. In 1884 it reached nine million six hundred and forty-two thousand two hundred and sixty-nine bushels. From the opening of other fields this industry has declined, and in 1907 but one million eight hundred and twenty-three thousand one hundred and forty- nive bushels were inspected.
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