USA > New York > Onondaga County > Pompey > Re-union of the sons and daughters of the old town of Pompey > Part 22
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After retiring, he was seen to be sleeping with the natural easy breathing of a healthy old age; when sought to be aroused at the dawn of the next day, he was found cold in death ! Not a limb had moved ; not a pang had been felt ; nor had even the fingers been clasped ! The machinery of life had simply stopped,-the Great Landlord had merely repeated His notice,-the tenant had obeyed, and gone with- out a struggle, whither he was summoned ! Thus peace- fully ended this long, laborious, useful, peaceful life in the night of Friday, or on the morning of Saturday, the 16th and 17th of September, 1853.
Mr. Birdseye was a kind husband, a fond father, a good neighbor, a faithful friend, a wise counsellor, a public spirited citizen, an incorruptible servant of his fellow-citi- zens in every office and in every trust. He loved children
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ardently-in fact he loved all his fellowmen. His aim in life was to make all his fellowmen wiser and better; his aim in his business life was to make all with whom he had to do, honest, true and just. He was an unerring judge of men and their character ; he knew whom to trust and whom not to trust. In fact, it may be doubted whether this pro- found knowledge of men, and this sagacity in weighing and measuring them, and their motives and actions and charac- ter, was not his most remarkable endowment; but he possessed also a singular knowledge of affairs and events, both of his own time and of the past; he continued all his life to read largely, and he seemed never to forget anything he had read ; every fact in history, science, philosophy and polities seemed to be assimilated with, or made a part of his own thoughts; he preserved to the last his fondness for the classical studies of his youth, and Tidd and Blackstone never drove from his memory Virgil, Horace, Tacitus and Homer.
As a lawyer, he had few superiors in those parts of his profession to which he devoted himself.
His knowledge of men and things, his full mastery of the principles of the science of the law, his sagacity, his patience, his industry in preparing, and his coolness in the trial and argument of causes, secured for him a success in his cases that was indeed remarkable. Not that the first success- that before a jury-was always his ; for his tastes and habits, the very frame of his mind, fitted him rather for the argu- ments at the bar of the Court than for captivating juries ; but he seemed ever to try his causes for the ultimate tri- umphs and success of the final judgment ; hence it was, no doubt, that it was truly said of him, that although he was sometimes beaten in the Courts below, he was almost uni- formly successful in the Appellate Courts.
Of this soundness of judgment, this accuracy of knowl- edge, this thoroughness of mental action, it will not be easy to speak too strongly; he used ever to inculcate them, as he
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ever inculcated kindness and honesty and truth. Once, in answering an objection that such accuracy could not possi- bly be secured in the great majority of cases, and was, there- fore, scarcely to be expected or striven for, he rephed that that was not so. And, among other things, he said he would venture to cite his own experience, and he went on and stated that experience. He said that, during the four years of his acting as Justice of the Peace, he rendered about 4,000 judgments, being, on an average, 1,000 per year. That only four of them were ever sought to be re- viewed in the higher Courts; that three of the four were affirmed in the Common Pleas, (the first Appellate Court,) and no further appeal was ever taken ; that, in the fourth case, his judgment was reversed in the Common Pleas; but that that reversal was itself reversed in the Supreme Court, and his original judgment was affirmed. So that not one of his judgments was ever in fact set aside. He stated also, that, during the fifteen years of his service as District At- torney of Onondaga County, (then the fourth or fifth County of the State in population and wealth and standing, perhaps even higher than that in the extent, variety and importance of its criminal business,) he had with his own hand drafted, he believed,every indictment found in the County, and had tried every one that was tried ; and that, during the whole period, he did not remember that a single indictment was quashed, or found defective on a demurrer, or a single pris- oner was ever acquitted by reason of any technical failure or flaw in an indictment; of course, he had not convicted all the criminals indicted and brought to trial during his long term of office ; but none of them had escaped, so far as he could recollect, by reason of any fault or flaw of his in preparing the indictment. When he was told that this im- plied an accuracy, a care and a patience that were almost super-human, and which it was therefore useless to try to equal, he replied : Not at all; it was simply the result of carefully applying ordinary powers to the faithful discharge of ordinary duties; that another could do all that he had
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done and more; and that probably he owed as much of his success in the discharge of these important duties, to the good will and confidence of the public, and of the members of his own profession towards himself, as to anything else; that they believed he meant to do his duty fairly and hon- estly, and so failed to look for, and of course to see, the errors he must no doubt have committed-that it was not human to avoid every error or mistake ; and that there was the best authority for saying, " Loquando dormitat bonus Homerus.'
The wife of Mr. Birdseye, who was almost eleven years younger than himself, survived him more than seven years, dying ou the 5th day of October, 1860.
They reared a family of twelve children, viz :
Victory James, married Betsey Anne, second daughter of Daniel and Anne Marsh, of Pompey, now residing in Pom- pey.
Ellen, married Charles A. Wheaton, then of Pompey and subsequently of Syracuse.
Ebenezer, died in New York City, May 12, 1846.
Emma Rawson, resides in Syracuse.
Lucien, graduated at Yale College, August 16, 1841, married Catharine Mary, daughter of Samuel and Philena Baker, of Pompey, resides in Brooklyn, N. Y.
Henry Clay, graduated at Yale College, July, 1844; died at Albany, N. Y., Feb. 18, 1847.
John Clarence, Lowell, Mass.
Albert Franklin, married Mary Catharine, daughter of Elias and Hannah Post, who died Sept. 4, 1875. Resides in Pompey.
Charlotte Amelia, married to Harrison V. Miller, M. D., of Syraense.
Horatio, married to Laura Amelia Chapman, resides in Pompey.
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Julia Catharine, married to Rev. John F. Kendall, D. D .. then of Baldwinsville, N. Y., and now of LaPorte, Ind.
Eunice Electa, resides in Syracuse.
BARBER FAMILY.
Elihu Barber was born at Hebron, Conn., March 17th, 1768,and was the seventh and youngest son of David Barber, who at that time was a rich merchant, buying his dry goods in Boston, but shipping potash, beef and horses, from New London, Conn., to the West Indies in exchange for rum, sugar and molasses for his trade; like most younger sons of rich men, Elihu was a petted, indulged and I might say, poiled boy, thinking his father rich enough to supply his every want, without any exertion of his own ; and this state of things continued till the close of the Revolutionary War ; when in consequence of a forced payment of a bill for several thousand dollars due a Boston house, for goods bought just at the commencement of the war, (the parties going to Eng- land during its continuance as they were Tories) he was ir- retrievably ruined; having armfuls of Continential money which at that time however was of very triffling value, as we read that Thomas Jefferson gave $6,000.00 of it for an over- coat.
A little farm of thirty acres, in the sterile town of Hebron, and a tract of two hundred and fifty acres of wild land in the extreme northern part of Vermont, was all that was left of his father's large fortune, and a life of toil and privation was. before him, where before, was case and plenty. January 25th, 1791, he married Hannah Gott, and together they toiled on ; her busy hands, ripe judgment and sterling good sense, helping to cheer and direct him, until in the early part of 1801, they sold out for $700, and started for Pompey, having all their worldly goods upon an ox sled drawn by two yoke of steers, all their own.
In the latter part of February they reached Pompey and moved into a log-house, on lot 84, and the property of Maj.
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Sherwood, where they lived three weeks; buying in the meantime one-hundred acres out the north-west corner of lot 69, from Stutson Benson, paying therefore his hard earned seven hundred dollars, the deed bearing date March 7th, 1801. They almost immediately moved into their new home, and the ringing of his axe as he labored to increase his three acre clearing, and the clang of her loom as she wove woolen and linen cloth for the neighbors at the rate of ten yards a day, and doing her own work, soon began to tell in the way of bettering their circumstances, the clearing steadily enlargening, a fruit orchard of all kinds suitable to the climate soon in bearing, with thrift and plenty every- where. In a short time a large frame barn was built, and in 1810, a thirty by forty house after the pattern so common in dear old Connecticut is furnished, and moved into-that busy loom having paid for the brick in the chimney, the saw- ing of all the lumber, and the carpenters'wages for the labor in shingling and clap-boarding the house.
About this time, they began to enlarge their boundaries, adding piece after piece, until they had paid for, and owned, over five hundred acres; the request the active house-wife making when told from time to time, I can buy a hundred acres of Mr. -; "can we pay for it?"always was "get me fifteen more cows and you may buy it."
This butter business was carried on until Elihu Barber was as well known by the name of "Butter Barber;" for during the war of 1812, it was his custom to carry, on certain days of every week, three pails of golden rolls of butter to market; one in each end of a bag across the saddle, and one in front of him, thus riding into Manlius, nine miles distant, and arousing the proprietor of the hotel from his slumber with his customary call of "halloo the house," and by nine o'clock he was back on his farm.
Atintervals of a few years, now that want was no longer probable, they made their pilgrimage to the land of their birth, toward which, notwithstanding its roughnesss and
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sterility, their hearts turned as faithfully as the needle to the pole. When the First Baptist Church of Pompey was or- ganized, and a house of worship erected, Elihu Barber took an active part in its construction, and gave liberally toward it, and his wife was one of its most zealous and influential members ; showing her faith by her works, and being a con- stant attendant and worshiper until old age prevented-and truly it may be said of her, " she did what she could" for the glory of God.
This long walk together was sundered March 27th, 1848, by his death at the homestead, four score years of age. In 1857 she died at the house of their youngest son, David Bar- ber, at Manlius, aged over eighty-eight years. The early years of their married life, were years of toil and privation ; but industry, economy and an indomitable energy that knew no such word as failure, brought them while yet they were middle aged, to comfort and plenty. And although the monumental marble that marks their resting place records no victories won on tented field, still when in early life, grim want and pinching poverty threatened to assail and overcome them, they, by steady advances, utterly routed them. The forest that encircled their home, at first, echoed the howling of wild beasts; but soon was heard the looing of cattle and bleating of sheep, whose wool the humming spindle and elanging loom, transformed into clothing ; and the forest itself melted away before the continuous strokes of the axe, and in place of it came luxuriant harvests. Plain and assuming people were they, in the front rank of pio- neers, whose onward tread has carried civilization from ocean to ocean; by whose industry, the desert now blos- soms like the rose; and by whose examples of stern integ- rity, unbending principle and Christian faith, towering temples and modest churches dot the land, spreading the gospel of peace. Truly their victory has proven greater than any record written in blood.
Four children were born to this couple, viz : Henry Bar- ber, born February 13th, 1792, died in 1850; Lydia Barber,
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born June 6th, 1797, died in 1804; Hannah Barber, born October 14th, 1799, died April, 1872; David Barber, born September 8, 1802, died January 21, 1867. Henry Barber was some nine years of age when his parents moved into Pompey, and being a strong, vigorous boy, soon bore a hand in the labors of the period. About 1819, he married Sarah Shields, and lived about one mile from the old homestead until his death, which occurred in 1850, leaving four sons and two daughters. Hannah Barber was married about 1816, to Daniel W. Carver, living for a long period in the Valley, two miles north of Delphi, afterward removing to Saratoga Springs, where Carver died in 1857, and Mrs. Carver died at the home of her son in Illinois in 1872. They had three children, two sons and one daughter. Da- vid Barber was married to Harriet Hinsdell, Oct. 6th, 1828, and settled close to the homestead, where he lived until 1852, when he moved near Fayetteville, living there until his death, which occurred Jan. 21st, 1867. His wife is still living, as also are their two sons and one daughter. Being possessed of a strong constitution, great energy and per- severance, and a farsightedness and good judgment, that would have made him successful in any occupation or pro- fession, it is not strange that David Barber succeeded as a farmer. Earnest in purpose, when his decision was once made, nothing turned him aside from the prosecution of his plan, and he was often successful in an undertaking, in which a weaker man would have met with a disastrous de- feat. He was proud of his occupation, and stood in the front rank of agriculturists. Firm and unyielding in what he thought right, still his social qualities were of a high or- der, his integrity unquestioned and his word as good as his bond.
REUBEN BILLINGS' FAMILY.
The oldest living couple (residents of the Town) who were present at the Re-Union, at Pompey, held June 29th, 1871, were probably Reuben and Sally Billings ; the former being
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in his 83d, and the latter in the 86th year of her age ; and while making mention of this fact, it may not be deemed a miss to give a brief synoposis of their history, as follows : Reuben Billings' was born in the Township of Long- meadow, Hampshire (now Hamden) County, Mass., Februa- ry 13th, A. D., 1789; he was the second son of a large family, (12 in all) and has survived them all, except his youngest sister, who lives at Warehouse Point, Conn., and is upwards of 73 years of age. On April 30th, 1809, he was married to Sally Denio, eldest daughter of Joseph Denio, of Delhi, Delaware County, N. Y .; she was born on George Washington's birthday, February 22d, 1786; she has also outlived all the members of her father's family, (8 in all) the last one having died over 20 years ago. From Delhi they first went to Longmeadow, Mass .; but in June, 1812, they moved to Pompey, N. Y., arriving there the 23d of the same month, after a tiresome journey of thirteen days, being hauled the whole distance by an ox team. They first mov- ed into a house on the "Cape" as it was called in School District, Number 8, a few rods south of where Dr. Hezekiah Clark formerly lived, and is now owned and occupied by John H. Clark, Esq .; he had not been in town three hours before Peter Ostrander, the path master, warned him to work on the road. In the winter of 1812 and 1813, he taught the School in District Number 8, but. a few rods from the place where Grace Greenwood was subsequently born. In
1813 he moved on to a part of lot number 96, one mile south, where he has ever since resided. In those early days of our town's history, he taught singing school at Pompey Hill and various places, and was leader of the Choir at the Dedica- tion of the Presbyterian Church, in 1818, and when Rev. Jabez Chadwick was ordained its pastor. He also vividly remembers about the sale of pews and the little incident that led little Horatio Seymour to afterward become a noble friend of temperance.
In those early times, a tailoress was deemed of as much use to society, perhaps, as a tailor, and Mrs. Billings was
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considered an expert as a tailoress, dress and cloak maker, and also milliner : she used to make all sorts of wearing ap- parel; besides she could cut coats, vests and pants, equal to the best of tailors. She used to keep apprentices to the trade, while she, day after day, was kept busy in cutting "mens' clothes ;" and people from the adjoining Counties of Madison and Cortland were generous patrons of Mrs. Billings, or "Aunt Sally" as she was frequently called. Many a tailor in those days en vied Aunt Sally her skill and reputation. Reuben and Sally Billings, had but two chil- dren-a daughter and ason ; Amanda M. Billings, was born May 19th, 1811 ; married, May 13th, 1832, to Pierce Ellis, who died December 9th, 1864; consequently she is now a widow and lives with her aged parents. Her brother Homer Augustus Billings, was born in Pompey, N. Y., on the old place September 4th, 1826; consequently is a native citizen of old Pompey. On Nov. 9th, 1835, he commenced the profes- sion of School Teacher, and has taught fifteen terms of four and five months each ; he also traveled for several years in several States as Agent for the sale of Patent Medicines. On April 14th, 1862, he married Helen M. Smith, of Dublin, Wayne County, Indiana ; he brought his wife to Pompey shortly after, and has since resided with his parents and sis- ter, on the farm where lie was born.
ELIAS CONKLIN. --
Elias Conklin, one of the pioneer settlers of Pompey, came from Long Island and settled in Pompey in 1797. He cut his way through the forest from Pompey Hill, making the first road to the place where he built the first saw and grist mills in the town, which then covered a large territory, if not the first in the County. These mills are still known as the Conklin Mills, now in LaFayette, and are owned by Conklin Brothers. Mr. Conklin married Rachael Haight, and they reared a family of five children. Betsey, the oldest daughter, was born January, 1801; Harriet, February, 1803;
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Daniel N., October, 1807; Sarah A., February, 1810; Josiah D., June, 1812. Daniel'N. died September, 1836; Mrs. Elias Conklin died in August, 1840. The subject of this sketch died April, 1854. Harriet Conklin married Publius V. Woodford, and died February 14, 1872; Betsey Conklin married Warren Butts, and died April 15, 1872; Sarah Ann Conklin married Samuel P. Hayden, and died May 7, 1872. The three sisters all dying within less than three months. Mr. Elias Conklin, commonly known as " Boss Conklin," a carpenter and joiner by trade, was a large and successful farmer, as well as miller. He employed a large number of workmen, and built houses and barns and did other mechanical work for his neighbors, such as mak- ing wagons, sleighs, carts, ploughs, &c. ; at an early day he made very many coffins, sometimes for pay, sometimes when persons were poor, without pay, and would assist in digging graves without charge, so great was his sympathy for the unfortunate. He was a very active and prominent man in society and church matters, being Trustee, and very effec- tive and liberal in building the "First Congregational " and Baptist churches at Pompey Hill. He was a very benevolent man, giving very many bushels of grain to the poor, and never turning any away empty from his tables or his mills.
SAMUEL CLEMENT.
Samuel Clement was born in the town of Northbridge, Worcester County, Mass., January 1st, 1772. At the age of three years, his parents emigrated to Croydon, Sullivan County, N. H., a newly opened region, where they were ex- posed to, and encountered the trials and hardships of pioneer life. Their situation was rendered more embarrassing by the distracted state of the country, placed as they were upon the border of civilization, between the demands of their friends on the one hand and the encroachments of foes on the other. The aggressions and treacherous warfare of the Tories and Indians were particularly distressing at this
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period, and the border settlements were often thrown into consternation and danger at the sudden and stealthy ap- proach of the savage enemy. Many in this little settlement were the atrocious murders committed, and the dwellings plundered and consumed by the torch of the incendiary. Thus early was Mr. Clement schooled in the hardships of frontier life and to face danger and death in its most ap- palling form. The lack of educational advantages was se- verely felt by the rising generation at this Revolutionary period ; but Clement, not daunted by the want of teachers or the scarcity of books, availed himself of all the means in his power. While his hands were employed with the axe or hoe, his brain was busy with reflections upon what little science he had acquired ; at the age of twenty he was con- sidered competent to teach a district school, and he com- menced teaching at Milton, Saratoga County, N. Y. In the autumn of 1793, in company with Timothy Sweet, he visited Pompey, and concluded to make it his future home. He spent the winter of 1793 and 4, teaching in Westmoreland? Oneida County, and early in March came with his axe on his shoulder to his forest home, by the aid of marked trees, (there being no roads laid out) and built himself a log cabin and covered it with the bark of trees. Early in April, he lent his aid to organize the town of Pompey and acted as .clerk of the meeting which effected that object. In the fall of 1794 he married Ruth Hibbard, daughter of David Hib- bard, who battled with him in life's stern necessities for thirty years, when she died leaving eleven children. Mr. Clement taught school in the winter of 1794 and 5, on Lot No. 28, Pompey, about a mile from his residence. This is believed to have been the first school taught in the County : Major Danforth sent his brother's son, and in the summer of 1795, his own daughter; some of the scholars who at- tended that school are still alive. He continued to teach in that district for some time, till the growing cares of the farm and a rising family, compelled him to relinquish the occu- pation. He died in Pompey, May 29th, 1856, in the 85th
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year of his age. Five of his children are still living ; Polly, Diantha, Lucy, Elihu, Jacob and Charles, are dead. Of those living, John Clement resides in Cold Water, Mich. ; David, in Darlington, Wisconsin ; Hiram, in Pompey, N. Y .; Julia and Charlotte, in DeRuyter, Madison County, N. Y.
HENRY CLARKE.
Henry Clarke, the oldest son of Dr. Hezekiah Clarke, was born January 25th, 1789, in Lanesboro, Berkshire Co., Mass., and came with his father to Pompey in 1805. He entered the law office of Wood & Birdseye, as a student un- der them. While there, in 1812 or '13, he was drafted as Sergeant-Major in the army, with quarters at Oswego, N. Y. At the close of his term he was offered a Captaincy in the Regular Army ; but he declined the flattering offer, and re- sumed his studies. When Wood & Birdseye dissolved their partnership, he continued and finished his course with Vic- tory Birdseye, Esq., and was admitted to the Bar of the Supreme Court in February, 1814, then in session at Albany.
In March of that year he formed a co-partnership with Caleb B. Drake, Esq., in Ithaca, N. Y., where he closed his life February 19th, 1817. Few young men in so short a time have acquired so flattering a reputation for ability in his profession and moral worth, as he. It is believed that he was the first student at law in Pompey.
At the same time that Henry Clarke was in Wood & Birdseye's office, Daniel Gilbert, (son of Rev. Joseph Gil- bert, a Congregational Clergyman, who lived and died on the farm now owned by Albert H. Butterfield, on lot No. 66, Pompey,) was a student at law in Cazenovia. He estab- lished himself in his profession in 1813, in the village of Salina, now First Ward of Syracuse.
CLARKE FAMILY.
As all, or nearly all, of the early settlers of the town of
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Pompey have passed away, the responsibility of rescuing their names from forgetfulness, especially those of them who, by their intelligence, thrift, skill or moral worth, have been prominent in their generation, devolves upon, and is the imperative duty of their descendants who have the knowledge of their worth.
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