USA > New York > Essex County > Elizabethtown > Pleasant Valley : a history of Elizabethtown, Essex County, New York > Part 20
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The Post Office was then kept in Mr. Hand's law office which stood a few rods west of his house.
By the first copy of the Essex County Times it is learned that Charles Armstrong and Edwin Salsbury were then tailors in Elizabethtown, conducting their business in the room under the printing office.
Charles H. Brainard was then making hats in Elizabethtown and advertised "Cash and Hats for Hatters Fur," G. W. Allen was conducting a shoe-shop "opposite the Printing Office," and E. F. Williams "wanted 1000 bushels of oats for which the subscriber will pay cash and the highest price."
The first number of the Essex County Times contained an account of the Republican (Democratic) Convention in and for Essex County which had been held at the house of D. R.
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Woodruff on the 24th of September. The Elizabethtown del- egates in that Convention were Cyrenus Newcomb, A. C. Hand and R. W. Livingston, A. C. Hand acting as one of the Secre- taries. The Town Committee appointed for the year consisted of R. W. Livingston, Luke Rice and John Catlin. At that Convention the following ticket was nominated :
For Assembly-Barnabas Myrick.
County Clerk-Edward S. Cuyler.
Coroner -Fortis M. Wilcox.
R. W. Livingston closed his signed address to the public in that first issue as follows : "How far and how faithfully we shall discharge our duty, time and your candor must determ- ine. Of this be assured, our own exertions shall not be want- ing, that we may not be found sleeping at our post, Nor will we forget that the object of every good citizen should be "Lib- erty-Union-and our Country."
Christmas Day, 1833, the Essex County Times appeared with the name of a new printer, C. S. Newcomb, but R. W. Livingston continued editor. One learns by this issue that H. Backman was about to open a "tavern stand opposite the Court House in Elizabethtown." E. F. Williams had a bid for hotel patronage in the same issue. C. & H. Noble then advertised that they had for sale "for ready pay or approved credit, upon reasonable terms, leather, boots, shoes, harness, saddles, bridles, trunks, also 100 bbls. of good beef and a few bbls. of fine mutton, all well packed in good casks and in fine order, in payment for most of which will be received grain, iron, hides, calf-skins, house ashes, lumber, labour, &c., &c." This "Ad." gives something of an idea of the exchange of bar- ter at the Noble store in the early 30s.
January 1, 1834, Charles Armstrong was evidently doing tailoring on his own hook, as only his name was attached to the "Ad." at that time.
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Jno. S. Chipman was, so far as is known, Elizabeth- town's first fire insurance agent, representing The Springfield Fire Insurance Company, having an "Ad." in the Essex County Times in the latter part of the year 1833 and the early part of 1834.
A select school for the instruction of young ladies was being kept here then by Miss Miner of Castleton, Vt.
January 1, 1834, Chas. H. Brainard announced that he con- ducted a boarding house opposite the store of C. & H. Noble, boarding and lodging for 50 cents per day.
January 1, 1834, Edward S. Cuyler, having been elected Essex County Clerk in November, 1833, moved to Elizabeth- town and occupied, officially of course, the new brick Clerk's Office which had been erected on the Plain (present location) in 1833. During the erection of the Essex County Clerk's Office the father and grandfather (on the paternal side) of the author of Pleasant Valley worked on the building, at which time and place the former narrowly escaped being killed by a falling brick wall. An attempt was made to put up an arch inside the Clerk's Office, a sort of "fire-proof" arrangement. It was this arch which fell. The brick for the County Clerk's Office were made just below what has since been known as the Valley Forge settlement.
The Essex County Times was printed on an old "Ramage press." William Naham Mitchell, formerly on the type setting staff of the Essex Patriot of Essex, N. Y., sorted the type and helped get out the first issues of the Essex County Times. He was an Elizabethtown man, then 23 years of age, having been born in 1810.
At an Essex County Democratic Convention held at the Court House Oct. 1, 1834, Oliver Person, Jno. S. Chipman and A. C. Hand served as delegates for Elizabethtown.
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The Elizabethtown subscribers for the Essex County Times were, according to a preserved list, as follows :
John Catlin, A. C. Hand, 3 copies, Lucius Bishop, David Judd, Oliver Abel, Nathan Perry, Elisha Yaw, Jeremiah Stone, D. R. Woodruff, Ira Marks, Edward Ames, Daniel Jackson, Levi Denton, Asa Stoddard, Jason Pangborn, Sampson Smith, John Sanders, James Estabrook, Hiram Calkin, Erastus Simonds, James Abel, Wm. Deming, John S. Goff, Jacob Deyo, Leland Rowe, Richard Rogers, Oliver Cady, Basil Bishop, Abijah Perry, E. S. Cuyler, Asa Haasz, F. Jenkins, O. Moreau, Jacob Allen, J. S. Chipman, I. Jones, Oliver Person, Cyrenus Newcomb, Joseph Blake, C. & H. Noble, Charles Miller, Eben. Hanchett, E. F. Williams, O. G. Matthews, Philip S. Miller, Norman Calkin, Lorenzo Rice, Benjamin Rice, Eben. Johnson, Robert Linton, Charles Armstrong, John Stearns, (undoubtedly the minister as "given" is marked after his name on list,) Charles H. Brainard, Jehiel C. Brownson, Ruel Eddy. D. H. Furnace, Jonas Blood, Rev. O. Miner, (given,) Wm. N. Mitchell, David Osgood, Manoah Miller, Jo- siah R. Pulcipher, A. Southwell, Henry Backman, John South- well, J. Bowers, Selah Westcott, Harry C. Blood, John Lewis, Daniel B. Miller, T. Murphy, Joshua Slaughter, N. Person, William Brittan, Simeon Rusco.
Several names appear on this list for the first time in our Elizabethtown history. Some of them were prominent in after life. Elisha Yaw came to Elizabethtown from the Shoreham, Vt., region early in the 30s and settled above Split Rock Falls. The saw-mill in his neighborhood was for years referred to as Yaw's mill; afterwards the settlement was known as Euba Mills. Elisha Yaw married Matilda Hanmer. His daughter became the first wife of the late Myron Lamb.
William Deming and sons Austin A., Willard F. and Horatio S. became prominent in town affairs. A son of Austin A.
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Deming, Austin R. Deming, married Jennie Sargent and they to-day own and occupy one of the most substantial homes on Water Street.
About this time the Denton brothers, Alanson, Levi, Wash- ington, Alexander, George, Salem and Truman settled in Eliz- abethtown and their children and grandchildren are now scat- tered throughout Elizabethtown and Lewis. Washington Denton was burned to death in an old time coal-pit at the upper end of the Boquet Valley half a century ago.
Milo Calkin, U. S. Consul to the Sandwich Islands.
As the author of Pleasant Valley commences to write of men and events of the early 30s his mind turns to Milo Calkin, son of Calvin Calkin and Kaziah Kellogg, his wife. Having had access to the Journal of Milo Calkin, who was born and reared on a farm two miles west of Elizabethtown village (known as the Jackson place for the past 60 years) I have decided to quote from it and give a brief sketch of his career, beginning with the following dedication :
"To his esteemed and valued friends and relatives in Eliz- abethtown, N. Y., the following chapter of accidents, incidents and other events, taken down as they occurred during ten years of travel by land and sea, is respectfully dedicated by the author, MILO CALKIN."
He starts his Journal by saying : "I can well recollect my mother gave me my first flogging when about two years old. As my only means of revenge I gave her the important piece of intelligence that I should run away clear down to the Ash House, a feat which I performed with so much ease and satis- faction that I determined from that hour that I would astonish the world by my travels and prove to my mother that she had
Elizabethtown Baptist Church. Erected 1837. Remodeled 1899.
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'born a Man,' notwithstanding she had given me a taste of Birch. My disposition to travel increased with my age and in due time I sallied forth, commissioned to find the Cows and drive them straight home. Soon after this I was put in charge and astride of a bag of corn and sent to the mill but my hap- piness was not complete until one day Uncle Isaac and Uncle Ben (two veterans of the Battle of Plattsburgh) took me on top of a load of hay and with Father's consent drove me off clear down to the corner. In my imagination I was now at the end of the world and Christopher Columbus never felt a greater degree of satisfaction on setting his foot on the new world than I did when Uncle Isaac took me by the hand and led me into Judge Ross's store." While in Judge Ross's store the future U. S. Consul heard Dr. Morse's Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho! Judge Daniel Ross's store stood where the Post Office block now stands.
Next in the Journal he records how he spilled his father's rye in the field, untying the bag and letting "the whole run out in a funny little stream. This was capital fun until fath- er's voice like a peal of Thunder changed my tune to B flat. O you little rascal, now I'll whip you. I'll learn you to spill the rye. Of course my jig was up, but my answer I shall never forget. Never mind dad, we can pick it up again." He re- cords that his father flogged him but believes his answer "cut off half the length of the lash," for he felt it lightly. He says "Don't cry for spilt milk" was his motto through life. "This disposition used to undergo a severe trial, however, at times, for instance, when living with Uncle John. My good Aunt Lucy used to skim her milk twice and put the cream in the wooden churn, then she would turn it over and skim the bottom and give me the sum, not the substance, of this last process. I used sometimes to think it better to cry for spilt milk than to swal-
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low double refined skim milk without the privilege of crying to take the taste of blue out of my mouth."
Speaking of his absorbing desire to see some of the world he says : "Accordingly on the 23d day of September, 1833, I cut loose from my moorings and set out to seek my fortune and go up and down the earth. I reached Nantucket and attached myself to a Whale ship bound into the Pacific Ocean. This I was advised to do by my Physician who said I might take my choice, either go to sea or to the grave. I replied that I preferred the voyage to the former place decidedly, though I half repented it afterwards. November 18 we got under weigh and put out to sea in company with the ships Susan and Lydia. We must have sailed on an unauspicious day, for the Lydia was afterwards burnt at sea and the Susan was set on fire, which was extinguished after serious damage and after- wards got on a rock and damaged her bottom and returned a dead loss to her owner. Our ship, the Independence, was wrecked after two years, so out of the three only one returned to tell the tale but I am anticipating my story. At one o'clock P. M., I took a parting look at the blue hills of my native land as they were just sinking in the dim distant horizon and in a few minutes my eye found nothing on which to rest save the clear blue sky above the deep blue wave, which was rolling beneath me. Sweet, sweet home, the scenes and friends of my youth far behind-and an unknown train of events about to break in upon me ; thus I mused as the ship was rushing through the water on her course but my musing soon took another turn. The crew began to feel the motion of the ship and on casting my eyes around I saw them in all directions, some vomiting, some trying to vomit and others wishing to vomit but could not ; fortunately for me, I was not in the least sea sick.
Our ship's company consisted of the Captain, 2 mates, 3
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Boat Steerers, 1 Blacksmith, 1 Carpenter and 14 hands, 22 all told. I officiated as carpenter and lived in the Cabin.
After having been at sea a few days one of our crew, a native of the Sandwich Islands, died of consumption. He had left his sunny Isle of perpetual summer to try our cold northern clime-had taken cold and died of quick consumption, and we were called upon to witness the solemnities of a funeral at sea. The ship was hove to the wind (which means placing her in such a position that she would not go ahead) the body was brought to the gangway, sewed up in a Blanket and laid out on the rail of the ship's side and after a short prayer from Cap- tain Brayton, the plank was tipped up and the body slid gently into the blue wave and sunk to rise no more till the sea shall disgorge its countless dead. I have often followed my fellow clay to its narrow house and seen the earth close over the vic- tims of Death but never had I before experienced so great solemnity of feeling as on this occasion, my first ocean funeral. Nature too seemed clothed in the garb of mourning, the sky was o'ercast, the wind groaned audibly through the ship's rig- ging and the treacherous wave rolled in majesty as if triumph- ing over its victim, veiling forever from human eyes --
The Ocean tomb-the coral cave, Where lies the lonely seaman's grave.
About the 1st of January we took our first whale. We were all seated at dinner (not around a mahogany table) when the man aloft sung out 'There She Blows,' meaning there she spouts. 'Whales,' cried a dozen voices at once. Everything was instantly in commotion and 'All hands-Stand by the Boats -- Lower away-Shove off --- Pull hard Boys-Lay back I say' was issued from the stentorian voice of Capt. B. before I fairly knew where I was or what was to pay. When I did come to myself I found myself making desperate use of an oar in Capt. B's Boat which was fairly flying through the
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water in pursuit of the whales which were about a mile from the ship. A few minutes passed as time is wont to pass some- times and Bang went 2 Harpoons into the Broadside of one of the greasy monsters, who expressed his views of the insult by slapping his tail on to the water with such tremendous force as to half fill our boat with water and then started off with the speed of an arrow and we being fast to him by a long line at- tached to the Harpoon were delighted to find ourselves moving over the water in a manner calculated to make one think that Railroads were but small affairs, after all. Finding escape im- possible, he stopped suddenly and we hauled in the line which brought the Boat close alongside of him and 2 or 3 darts of the Lance set him to spouting blood and in a few minutes he lay a helpless mass on the water. When we first went alongside of the Whale I confess I wished myself up Roaring Brook catching Trout but being in for it I put the best face on that I could for my eyes which stuck out of my head like two wooden balls on a Bull's horns. But when we went up to kill him after he had stopped running my courage came to the rescue and before the Whale was dead I was quite as enthusiastic as any one and ever after I preferred going in the Boat rather than stay in the ship when Whales were in sight." Next fol- lows a picture of a sperm whale, drawn by Mr. Calkin himself. It may be added here that the Journal of Milo Calkin is adorned with several commendable illustrations, all the handi- work of himself.
Continuing, he says: "Having the privilege of Capt. B.'s Books I applied myself diligently to the study of Navigation and in a few weeks had made myself so familiar with the science that Capt. B. made it a part of my duty to give him the ship's Lat- itude and Longitude every day for the whole voyage. This I found both amusing and instructive. In fact I began to look forward to the day when I should be Captain of my own
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ship, which I should have been had not a more agreeable business presented itself and I have a thousand times thanked my stars that I gave up the sea for a livelihood."
Milo Calkin passed Cape Horn on the 8th of March, 1834, and a little later visited the city of Lima and also moored in Payta, (Point Blanco). He visited the Gallipagos Islands. He says in his Journal : "We cruised near the Equator in Longi- tude from 100 to 130 deg. west where we took in 800 Bbls. of Sperm Oil and on the 2d day of November the man at the Mast head delighted our ears by the welcome cry of Land ho ! being the Marquesa Islands, and in a few minutes we found ourselves among a school of Whales numbering 50 or 60." The boats were lowered and 14 were killed, only 7 being saved, "the others having sunk."
April 1, 1835, found Milo Calkin at the Sandwich Islands, destined to be his home for some years.
A little later he says in his Journal: "During this last cruise on the coast of Japan we took 800 Bbls. of Oil and met with no accident except having a Boat knocked to pieces by a whale and the crew tossed up in every direction but nobody hurt.
On the 19th of November, 1835, we took anchor and stood out to sea, intending to cruise a few weeks and shape our course homeward but on the night of the 14th of December at eleven o'clock our good ship struck the rocks on the shore of Starbuck Island and very quietly laid her bones to rest. * * The ship struck the rocks with such force as to crush her bottom and she lay embedded in the rocks where she broke in the middle and every breaker, as the surf came tumbling in, dashed over her deck in a sheet of foam. The Island is uninhabited and destitute of wood or water, a barren sand bank. We remained here 10 days and 12 of us took the Boats and steered for Society Islands, leaving ten men on the Island by the wreck. After 18 days passage in the
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Boats we landed on the Islands of Raratonga, having sailed 15 hundred miles in a small Boat in the Broad Pacific. After re- maining here a month a ship hove in sight and took us off and proceeded to the Society Islands where my comrades took passage for home. As for me, my object was not accomplished and I could not think a moment of returning home penniless. I had lost six hundred dollars by the ship wreck and now 'stood in' the whole amount of my earthly goods and chattels. I had during my short visit to the Sandwich Islands formed an attachment to that climate and as the ship which had res- cued us was bound to that port after a cruise of six months I joined her. * * * * * * * *
On my arrival at the Sandwich Islands, (Nov. 1, 1836) the Missionaries gave me employment as a teacher of Music and in taking charge of the students of the Seminary when out of school hours. There were about 70 Boys from 10 to 16 years of age and I found my hands full to keep them out of mischief.
The Sandwich Islanders are a very docile, inoffensive people and filthy.
Having remained at the Seminary seven months I received a proposal from Messrs. Ladd & Co., merchants, in Honolulu to fill the place of head clerk in their establishment, which I did. Ladd & Co., my employers being extensively engaged in the manufacture of sugar, were carrying on a very large business."
He records that he remained in the employ of Ladd & Co. till Jan. 20, 1842, when he embarked for his native land and on the 23d day of June following landed on the shores of America after a continuous absence of nearly nine years.
On August 3d he records that he paid $1.50 for "Private Carriage to Elizabethtown," presumably in from Westport steamboat dock.
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He figures that he traveled 3,130 miles at a cost for fare only of $138.50.
He records that he spent a large part of the summer of 1842 alternately in Hallowell, (Maine) Boston and New York City, "during which time I transacted my necessary business and also perpetrated Matrimony which was not exactly necessary but quite convenient."
Writing from Boston under date of Oct. 25, 1842, to his cousin, Mrs. Eliza Perry, he says: "I am at last driven to the necessity of saying good by to you and all my Elizabethtown friends by letter. I have tried hard to find time to visit you again but must disappoint myself as well as my friends by my inability to do so. I am to embark on the first of Novr. for my 'Island home,' am taking out with me fifteen thousand dollars worth of goods and fifty thousand dollars worth of 'wife,' making a snug little invoice of the necessaries and the luxuries of life. My time of course must be pretty much occupied in making purchases. I was 'tied up' night before last to one Miss Eveline Johnson of Hallowell, Maine."
Reference to the Journal shows that on the 2d day of No- vember, 1842, he embarked for the Sandwich Islands "on the Bark Bhering, Captain B. F. Snow, Master, paying for the passage of myself and wife 400 Dollars."
On the last page of his Journal is recorded the fact of the arrival of himself and wife at Honolulu, Sandwich Islands, on the 17th day of March, St. Patrick's Day, 1843, which singu- larly enough was the day of the first hanging ever performed in Elizabethtown, Essex County, the birthplace of Milo Calkin.
April 4, 1845, Milo Calkin wrote from the Sandwich Islands to his cousin Mrs. Eliza Perry as follows :
Your kind, good letter of last July came to hand a few days since and was like a bucket of cold water upset on a scalded pate-'really refreshing.' I am a married man, a merchant
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and a U. S. Consul and have but little time to communicate with my distant friends but I cannot neglect you. My official duties require all of my attention, together with the assistance of a smart clerk and a smarter little wife. I am perhaps too much engrossed in business for my own health. My office is worth 3 thousand dollars per year and my mercantile business about $1500 but enough of dollars and cents. We are as happy in our beautiful Island home as mortals may well be in this world. When I am tired and weary Eveline sits down to the Piano and with her gentle voice drives away every cloud from my brow and our voices mingle in some beautiful senti- ment and all care is dispersed like a flock of sheep over a 5 rail fence ! * * * * * * *
Speaking of his manifold duties, he says in the same letter: "I have to be Court Martial, Judge, Jury, Lawyer and Execu- tioner all in a breath."
Thus we find our Elizabethtown boy (he who was born on that hillside farm through which the Jackson Brook winds its way) serving as United States Consul to the Sandwich Islands under President Polk.
August 16, 1846, he writes from Honolulu, S. I., to his cousin, Mrs. Eliza Perry : ยท "I have sold out my stores and merchand- ise and coming home again as soon as I get all settled up." All these letters were of the old-fashioned folder kind, sealing- wax, and costing 25 cts. each to send by mail.
May 12, 1847, he writes Mrs. Perry from Marlboro House, Boston : "I have just landed with my wife and daughter, all well; 128 days from the Sandwich Islands and am roaming about at large, though it is supposed by some that I am per- fectly harmless, considering I have been in a 'semi-savage' country for the last 14 years.
When you receive this please consider it only my Bark-my
ELIZABETHTOWN
I, made by J. W. Steele Showing Streams and Boundaries of Elizabethtown Since Westport was Set Off.
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Bite is to come and a good grip it shall be, somewhere about the region of the knuckles.
I have to visit Washington City before I come home as I am the bearer of a private despatch to the President of U. States from the U. S. Minister in the Pacific, but shall be with you ere long, if I live, with my family."
During the summer of 1847 he visited Elizabethtown and found much to enjoy here among his native hills, from which he had been away so long.
Nov. 18, 1847, he writes from Brooklyn, N. Y., "I am going into the wholesale drug business in New York on the 1st of Jan'y. My health was never better."
March 7, 1848, he was in the drug business in New York, on which date Mr. Barrett of Elizabethtown visited him.
A little later Milo Calkin went to San Francisco, Cal., and from there he addressed a letter dated March 18, 1857, to Mrs. Perry in which he spoke of his daughters Gussie and Kate as "fast budding into womanhood." 'Tis said that Milo Calkin has not been heard from since the latter part of the civil war period and he is supposed to have gone to his grave in that greatest of sundown sea States, California. If so, peace be to his ashes.
Milo Calkin, while on an island where there was nothing but salt water, improvised a method of distilling so that people could drink it.
It will not be out of place to state here that Milo Calkin Perry, ex-District Attorney of Essex County, was named after the loyal son of Elizabethtown who served as U. S. Consul to the Sandwich Islands.1
1 In mentioning the sons of Elijah Calkin in a previous chapter the name of Ransom Calkin was omnitted. Ransom Calkin was a shoemaker and for years lived on Water Street. He was twice married. His first wife is said to have been a Barnum. The children by his first wite were Hiram, Almina and Elnora. His second wife was a Rand. The children by the second wife were Albert, Ivers and Daniel. Ransom Calkin lived in Willsboro after leaving Elizabethtown.
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