USA > New York > Cortland County > Pioneer history; or, Cortland County and the border wars of New York, from the earliest period to the present time > Part 20
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
312
HUNTING INCIDENTS.
approached the place of concealment he was discovered. Both hunters immediately discharged their guns, but only wounded the bear. He hastily left for other quar- ters, followed by his pursuers, who after camping out near Skaneateles lake for the night, drove him into a clearing some eight miles from home, in Sempronius, where they took off his hide, out of which they made each of them a cap, as they had lost theirs the day be- fore, and were therefore hatless.
There are numerous instances showing the firmness and forethought of many a matron lady. A single ex- ample will suffice to exhibit them in their proper light : David Scofield, of Virgil, informed us that when he was but a lad, and while playing upon a brush fence, he accidentally fell off into the brush. He was immedi- ately seized by a bear about two-thirds grown, who hastened away with him. It being near the house of his father, his aged grandmother observed them, and hastily snatching up a hot loaf of bread hurried to his relief ; and just as he was entering his den she threw him the bread, at which he dropped the child and secured the warm loaf, of which he made a hearty meal.
Wolves frequently followed the hunter's trail in droves, making the night hideous with frightful, fiend- ish howling. There is, perhaps, no other animal which exhibits so much of the real demon, as the half-starved, lean, lank wolf, as he pursues his intended prey, eager and anxious to surfeit on the warm, gurgling blood, of which he is particularly fond. We repeat, upon the authority of one who frequently engaged in the chase,- not merely for the sake of stilling their " eternal snap- ping and snarling," but because he liked the sport,-
313
HUNTING INCIDENTS.
a case in point, which, though it did not tend to immor- talize his name, gave him great credit for the courage which prompted the encounter. He had been out on the border line of Cortland and Chenango ; and while returning upon his almost indistinct trail through the snow, he was followed by a hungry gang of wolves. He was met by a huge panther, who appeared deter- mined to contest the right of soil on which they had thus unexpectedly met. With the wolves snapping at his heels in the rear, while the unterrified panther had blockaded his advance progress, he paused but a mo- ment's time for reflection. The moon, peering out from behind a dark cloud, enabled him to draw a close sight upon the barrel of his unerring rifle, when suddenly a leaden missile went whizzing through the panther's brain. A moment more, and the whole pack of wolves had seized upon the dead animal and were lapping up the blood and brains that were scattered around him. Taking advantage of this propitious moment, he hastily took refuge some thirty feet high in the branches of a bushy hemlock. Here he resolved to remain until morning, or conquer in the unequal contest. Hastily loading his gun, he again brought it to such a level as would enable him to see with exactness the forward sight, when the rifle cracked again, and the bloody ghosts of two of the ferocious wolves had departed ; and thus he continued until he had impartially extended the same treatment to three more of the gang. The others becoming alarmed at the frequent reports of the death-dealing weapon, made a hasty retreat for the unexplored lagoon.
During the early part of the present century, the
314
HUNTING INCIDENTS.
antlered deer bounded through the forest, not doubting their right to the supremacy of the territory through which they thus proudly ranged. They were almost as numerous as the dairymen's cattle are at the present day. Authority of the most positive character might be referred to in support of the truthfulness of our assertion. Twenty, and even thirty, noble bucks have been counted in a drove, as they swept through the woods pursued by the hunter's well-trained dogs. One old hunter, a Frenchman, whose home was among the Wyoming hills, came to this county to spend the winter with a brother, and during his stay killed upwards of two hundred deer. We have been told by the grey- haired veterans of those stern days of toil and trial, of numerous instances of a hunter sallying out at day- break, and before the hour of nine in the forenoon re- turning for lunch, having slain five, seven, and even as high as ten deer.
Notwithstanding the horrid crusade that has been waged for upwards of half a century against the grace- ful, sprightly, bounding deer, his progeny has not been fully exterminated, for even to this day, (1855,) an occa- sional buck, bearing aloft his noble antlers, may be seen bounding through the southern limits of this county. During the past autumn and early part of the winter, several were killed on and about Michigan Hill, in the town of Harford.
We remember how in our boyhood's days our young and ardent mind was inspired by the marvelous tales told by the hunters of our native county ; and we have always had a strong desire to bring down a noble buck. But of the numerous droves that we have seen
315
HUNTING INCIDENTS.
shaking their horns in the wild gorges of the North American forest, or as they tossed them aloft while they swept over the flowery glades of the sunny South, it has failed to be our luck to bring a rifle to bear directly upon them. The various interesting incidents told us by the stern veteran pioneers, would more than fill a volume of the size it is our province to write. And however interested they may have been in repeat- ing them, we have seldom heard one told with more felicitous feeling than one which is related by Charles Hotchkiss, of Virgil.
A gentleman by the name of Turpening came up from Newburg, and felt very desirous to take a hunt. Mr. Hotchkiss told him that it would be very unsafe for him to proceed alone, for if he should happen to kill a deer it would bleat, and that would arouse every deer in hearing distance, and that they would assuredly kill him. His brothers, however, persuaded him to go. Having equipped himself in hunting order, he sallied forth for glorious war. Approaching the deer-lick south of Virgil Corners, he espied a young fawn just upon its outskirts. Keeping one eye on the gun and the other on the deer, he waited for the appearance of more, but not being gratified with their approach, he blazed away. As the gun cracked the fawn leaped several feet from the ground, gave a bleat, as is usual, and fell dead. Presuming the story of Mr. Hotchkiss to be true, and expecting a whole clan of mad, frightened deer to be upon him with their bloody antlers poised to gore him to the heart, he hurriedly made tracks for home, strip- ping off hat, coat, vest and boots, and hurling them to the ground ; puffing and blowing for the want of breath,
316
HUNTING INCIDENTS.
and with impeded powers of locomotion, he entered the pioneer's home declaring that every deer in the lick was at his heels, frothing and foaming ; and that they had gored him almost to death.
John H. Hooker, son of Increase M. Hooker, an early pioneer of Truxton, now residing in New Brunswick, N. J., recently related to us some interesting incidents with reference to trapping the various animals of the wilderness. One plan was to dig a pit about six feet wide by twelve deep. Around this a pen, or kind of curb, would be raised from two to three feet high. Over the pit a pan would be placed, balanced properly, so that when an animal should spring upon it for the pur- pose of obtaining the bait, which was appropriately hung above it, the pan would turn and precipitate the monster into the pit. In this way Mr. Hooker and two other gentlemen caught in one night the very respect- able number of five wolves. They were lassoed in the morning and led round and exhibited to the neigh- bors, after which they were dispatched.
In 1803, Mr. Hooker was watching at a deer-lick, and in consequence of the almost impenetrable darkness, was compelled to remain all night in the woods, a dis- tance of five miles from his father's log cabin. During the night he heard the approach of an animal, and pres- . ently discovered, a few feet from him, two balls re- sembling liquid fire. The animal undoubtedly antici- pated a warm meal. Mr. Hooker, not a little excited, raised his unerring rifle, looked quickly over the barrel, and fired. The monster gave a piercing scream and bounded away in the darkness. He was found at a little distance with his under jaw broken, and dead.
317
HUNTING INCIDENTS.
Mr. Hooker was much surprised on finding that he had killed a panther nine and a half feet in length. It was not an uncommon circumstance for him to be followed by panthers and wolves when in pursuit of his father's cattle. On one occasion he made a rather hasty flight from the sugar bush. A panther had made him a visit and desired to contest the right of soil ; Mr. Hooker, however, preferred to defer the matter, and, as he in- formed us, if ever he made tracks he made them then, and he presumed them to be few and far between, for he could distinctly hear every jump of the huge mon- ster behind him, and he was only relieved when within a few rods of the house by the watchful and ever trusty old dog.
CHAPTER XV.
LITERARY AND BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS.
"I'll note 'em in my book of memory."
THERE are but few, if any, counties in the State at present in the enjoyment of greater educational facili- ties than Cortland county. The Cortland and Cortland- ville Academies-the former located at Homer and the latter at Cortland Village-are enjoying a good degree of prosperity. The New York Central College, located at M'Grawville, has had a somewhat chequered exist- ence, and the Cincinnatus Academy, located in Cincinna- tus, is in a flourishing condition.
The light of the sun was scarcely let in through the dense forests of Homer, upon its extended and fertile plains, ere the light of science sent its genial rays among her people.
The first settlers, being chiefly from Connecticut, brought with their books and their love of books, their school-master and their high regard for literary institu- tions.
Among the earlier school-teachers of Homer was Maj. Adin Webb. The active business men and the efficient housewives now living in Homer look upon that venerable
319
LITERARY AND BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS.
priest of Minerva-still bearing high alike his whitened locks and his golden honors-with mingled feelings of gratitude and reverence.
From the common school, which he so long and so successfully taught on the spacious common in the cen- tre of the village, grew the Cortland Academy, which has been, for forty years, nestled among the churches which adorn the same Common, and whose graceful spires so significantly point to the same great Source of Light and Love, as does the less pretending spire of the academic edifice.
Cortland Academy was incorporated by the Regents of the University of the State of New York on the 2d day of February, 1819. The first trustees were Dr. Lewis S. Owen, Hon. John Miller, John Osborn, David Coye, Chauncey Keep, Hon. Townsend Ross, Rufus Boies, N. R. Smith, Elnathan Walker, Andrew Dickson, Matthias Cook, Reuben Washburn, Jesse Searl, Martin Keep, Benasjah Tubbs, David Jones, and George Rice.
Of the original trustees, David Coye, Rufus Boies and Noah R. Smith have continued to serve as trustees-the places of the others having been made vacant by death or by resignation.
The present members of the Board of Trustees are Jedediah Barber, President ; Hon. E. C. Reed, Secretary ; Noah R. Smith, Treasurer ; David Coye, Rufus Boies, Hon. Geo. W. Bradford, Hammond Short, John Sherman, Prof. S. B. Woolworth, Hon. Geo. J. J. Barber, Wm. An- drews, Ira Bowen, Caleb Cook, Geo. Cook, C. H. Whea- don, Rev. C. A. Clark, Noah Hitchcock, Thomas D. Chollar, J. M. Schermerhorn, Giles Chittenden, Esq., Wm. T. Hicok, Manly Hobart, and Rev. Albert Bigelow.
320
LITERARY AND BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS.
The late Rev. Alfred Bennett, Joshua Ballard, Charles W. Lynde, C. Chamberlain, A. Donnelly, Tilly Lynde, and Horace White, also served as Trustees.
The first Principal, under the charter, was Oren Catlin. He was, also, the sole teacher. To him succeeded suc- cessively Mr. Ranny, Noble D. Strong, Charles Avery, A. M., Franklin Sherrill, Oliver S. Taylor, M. D., Samuel B. Woolworth, A. M., (now LL. D.), and S. W. Clark, A. M.
Since 1821 there has been a Female Department con- nected with the Academy, under the supervision, suc- cessively, of Flavilla Ballard, Caroline R. Hale, Melona D. Moulton, Elizabeth Steele, Harriette A. Dellay, Cath- arine A. Coleman, Mary Bascom, Mary S. Patterson, Helen H. Palmer, Esther L. Brown, Anna J. Hawley, and Harriet S. Gunn.
Since 1830 the Musical Department has been con- tinued under the supervision and instruction of Frances Rollo, Harriet Foot, Julia A. Gillingham, Abigail F. Moulton, Maria L. Reston, Mary Fessenden, Sarah E. Reed, J. M. Palmer, and Isabella Livingston Brunsch- weiler.
Of the Assistant Teachers there have served in the Department of Ancient Languages, Abel F. Kinney, A. M., Charles E. Washburn, A. M., (now, also, M. D.,) Henry A. Nelson, A. M., Ezra S. Gallup, A. M., J. M. Woolworth, A. M., and Heman H. Sanford, A. M.
In the Department of Mathematics, A. F. Ranney, A. M., Geo. R. Huntington, L. S. Pomeroy, A. M., Alvin Lathorp, A. M., W. H. Lacey, E. M. Rollo, A. M., A. J. Kneeland, Louis A. Miller, Charles S. Lawrence, and Joseph R. Dixon, A. M.
321
LITERARY AND BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS.
In the Department of Modern Languages, Augustus Maasberg, and Oscar M. Faulhaber.
In the English Department, there have been eighteen different teachers.
At the present term, (1859), the various departments are filled by the following :
TEACHERS.
Stephen W. Clark, A. M., Principal ; Miss Harriet S. Gunn, Preceptress ; Heman H. Sandford, A. M., Lan- guages ; Frederick B. Downes, A. M., Mathematics ; Miss Harriet Taylor, Modern Languages ; James S. Foster, Natural Sciences ; Miss Lucy B. Gunn, Eng- lish Department ; Mrs. Mary Lund and Miss Harriet D. Gaylord, Instrumental and Vocal Music ; Almon H. Benedict, Penmanship.
Of the sixty-six teachers who have been connected with the Academy, two only have died while at service. The first was Abel F. Kinney, "a man who will not cease to be loved and venerated so long as any live who felt the power of his soul, and observed the strong fel- lowship which existed between his principles and his life. It was his rare privilege to say, on his death-bed, that he never received the slightest insult from any pupil -a fact which those whom he taught may remember with gratitude, and which his biographer may record as eloquent praise on his character as an instructor. Mr. Kinney commenced teaching before he was twenty years of age, and died before he was thirty-five. Most of his life as a teacher was spent in Cortland Academy, and few persons have done more to make it what it is. Within our village burial ground his pupils have placed
15
322
LITERARY AND BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS.
a marble monument to his memory. But still richer memorials of him are to be found in the personal recollections of those who knew him, and in the Wednesday evening meetings for prayer which he es- tablished.
The other was Louis A. Miller, a mathematician of rare promise, and a teacher of remarkable tact and energy. Beautiful and appropriate monuments, the offerings of grateful pupils, mark the resting-places of their dust in the village cemetery of Homer.
Since the organization of the Academy more than eight thousand different students have been instructed in it. Of these many are numbered among the most distinguished men in the State, in the Church, and in the various professions of science and art. "Many are now occupying places of usefulness and honor in their own country ; others have gone to show the benighted millions of heathen lands the way of life, and others have gone to the land of rest and seraphic bliss, which knows no change, and where dwell the good, the pure, and the great."
Among the various Academies of the State, the Cort- land Academy has been uniformly distinguished for its giving decided prominence to its Classical Department. During the last three years the average number of pupils in the department of Ancient Languages has been eighty, while the average number in attendance in all the departments has been 240.
The number of students annually reported to the Re- gents of the University, "as having pursued, for four months or upwards, classical studies or the higher bran- ches of English education," has increased in each suc-
323
LITERARY AND BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS.
cessive year to the present time-the report of 1858 showing 642 students thus reported :
The growth of the Academy has been gradual and healthful. The assets of the corporation are,
Value of land and building,
$5,100
66
library,
995
66
apparatus, .
1,243
other property, 6,375
Total,
$13,713
Its annual income for 1858 from tuition bills, litera- ture fund, and interest, was $4,449 58
Annual expenditure, ยท
4,208 78
The Cortland Academy is pleasantly situated on the public square. It embraces various apartments for study and recitations, a well-selected library, philosophi- cal apparatus, and every facility needed to impart a good, thorough, and practical education. Indeed, it is with much pleasure that we refer to Prof. S. W. Clark, the gentlemanly and accomplished Principal, and his able and competent assistants, under whose faithful dis- charge of duties the Academy is made an ornament to the place, as well as one of the best educational Aca- demic Institutions in our State.
The Cortlandville Academy was incorporated by the Regents of the University in the year 1842, and com- menced in August of that year.
The original officers were Joseph Reynolds, President ; Henry S. Randall, Secretary ; Joel B. Hibbard, Treasurer. The Trustees were J. Reynolds, Wm. Elder, H. S. Ran-
324
LITERARY AND BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS.
dall, Wm. Bartlit, James S. Leach, John J. Adams, Jno. Thomas, W. R. Randall, Asahel P. Lyman, Frederick Hyde, J. B. Hibbard, Horatio Ballard, Henry Stephens, Abram Mudge, James C. Pomeroy, Clark Pendleton, An- son Fairchild, Parker Crosby, L. S. Pomeroy, and Otis Stimson.
Among the first instructors were Joseph R. Dixon, A. M., Principal; Henry E. Ranney, Assistant ; Miss C. Ann Hamlin, Preceptress ; Miss Fanny M. Nelson, As- sistant ; Miss Sarah M. Parker, Assistant during third term ; Miss Mary E. Mills, Teacher of Music.
The number of pupils reported August 1, 1848, was 216.
The Trustees made a very flattering report, and an- ticipated increasing prosperity. They congratulated themselves upon their good fortune in being able to re- tain their very able and popular Principal, Joseph R. Dixon. Mr. D. continued Principal for four successive years.
The present members of the Board of Trustees are Frederick Hyde, President ; J. A. Schermerhorn, Secre- tary ; Morgan L. Webb, Treasurer ; Joseph Reynolds, Henry S. Randall, John J. Adams, Horatio Ballard,. Henry Stephens, James C. Pomeroy, D. R. Hubbard, Henry Brewer, Ebenezer Mudge, Horace Dibble, Hamil- ton Putnam, Henry Bowen, W. O. Barnard, Madison Woodruff, Martin Sanders, Rufus A. Reed, James S. Squires, W. P. Randall, Thomas Keator, R. H. Duell, and George Bridge.
325
LITERARY AND BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS.
TEACHERS.
Henry Carver, A. M., Principal ; Miss Maria S. Welch, Preceptress ; Ridgway Rowley, Languages ; Miss Mary M. Bartlit, Primary Department ; Frederick Hyde, M. D., Lecturer ; Mrs. F. R. Mudge, Instrumental and Vocal Music ; Mrs. A. R. Bowen, Drawing and Painting.
The Academy is large and conveniently arranged, and is located in a healthy and pleasant part of Cortland Village, and the students in attendance number about 150.
The Institution is furnished with a new Philosophical and Chemical Apparatus, an extensive Library, and all the necessary means to impart a healthful and practical education. The prospects were, perhaps, at no time more flattering than at the present.
Prof. Carver, the accomplished Principal and instructor in Natural and Moral Science and the Higher Mathe- matics, is deservedly worthy of his well-earned reputa- tion. His zealous and active efforts to promote and advance the interests of the Academy are justly and fully appreciated.
The well-arranged lectures of Prof. Hyde on Anatomy and Physiology, are like the sands which descend with La Plata's rushing torrent, rich with golden ore. They are, indeed, of marked importance to the Institution.
And it is but just to add that the Assistant Corps of Instructors are admirably fitted for their various posi- tions ; hence the Academy will flourish, and continue to rank among the best educational institutions in the State.
New York Central College .- In 1846 the attention of
326
LITERARY AND BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS.
gentlemen of enlarged views and liberal sentiments, residing in this and other States, was turned to the ne- cessity of establishing a Collegiate Institution which should be entirely free from sectarianism, while the ten- dency of its teachings should be favorable toward a true hearty christianity. They felt that the opportunity to gain a liberal education should be extended to all as impartially as are the light and air, and that the minds of students should rather be made free and independent, than moulded according to creeds or the dicta of fashion. They reflected long and earnestly upon the subject, and finally resolved to found an Institution of Learning, in which character, not circumstances, color, or sex, should be the basis of respect ; in which the course of study should be full and useful to those who looked forward to a life in one of the learned professions, as well as to those who expected to devote their lives to honorable toil ; in which labor should be regarded as eminently honorable, and facilities for engaging in it should be furnished as fully as practicable ; in which the minds of students should be untrammeled by the restriction of the freedom of speech, and undarkened by the shadow of some great name; in which the most noble life of usefulness, and practical, impartial Christianity, and every incitement to such a life should be placed before the student. Calling upon those who sympathised with them in their effort for assistance, they raised an amount of money sufficient to found an Institution, and on the 12th day of April, 1848, a charter was granted by the Legislature to New York Central College, located at M'Grawville, and on the 5th of September following it was opened to students. The buildings were large and
327
LITERARY AND BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS.
commodious, and to which was connected a farm of 167 acres, upon which students could labor for a fixed compensation, or, if preferred, might rent pieces of land to cultivate for themselves.
The number of students at first was small, and has not at any time been large. Everything that an able faculty could do to advance the interests of the Institu- tion has been done, and yet the College has not pros- pered. Its friends are discouraged, and the Board of Directors disheartened. Present appearances indicate that the College will either pass into the hands of its col- ored friends, or be purchased by the citizens of M'Graw- ville, and be renovated and reorganised into a seminary or academic institution, or finally cease to exist as a College.
Prof. Leonard G. Calkins, the hitherto active and efficient Principal, has resigned his position, and entered an eminent law school in Albany, with a design to fit himself for the bar. He is a finished scholar, an accom- plished orator, and a true gentleman ; a deep thinker, of active temperament, and is in all respects admirably qualified to fill the position to which he now aspires, and we doubt not he will prove an ornament to the legal profession.
CINCINNATUS ACADEMY owes its origin to the spir- ited efforts of a few of the citizens of Cincinnatus, through whose exertions a meeting was held in Decem- ber, 1855, when a committee was appointed to solicit subscription for the purpose of erecting a suitable build- ing for an academic school. A sufficient sum having been obtained, and plans and stipulations adopted, a building was erected by George L. Cole. It is delight-
328
LITERARY AND BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS.
fully situated in a retired part of the village of Cincin- natus, in the Otselic valley, and commands a beautiful view of the surrounding country. It is by far the most tasty educational edifice in the county. The rooms are spacious and airy, and are arranged with a due regard to comfort and convenience. In short, the building is in all respects an ornament to the town, and especially to the village in which it is located. And while it is honorable to the taste and enterprise of its founders, it reflects great credit on the architect.
On the 19th day of December, 1856, the Academy was first occupied as a school-room. Prof. Hatch, Prin- cipal, was a graduate of Madison University .. Miss Mary T. Gleason, Preceptress, and Miss Mary Winters, Assistant. The school opened with the most flattering auspices, but for a variety of reasons, at the close of the first term Mr. Hatch resigned his position, and was succeeded by A. P. Kelsey, A. B.
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.