USA > New York > Onondaga County > Spafford > Spafford, Onondaga County, New York > Part 6
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household, Miner's Patent Wheelhead and the carding machine were two very useful inventions in lightening her labors.
In about the year 1814, Oliver Hyde, a soldier of the Revolution, built a sawmill in Factory Gulf, on Lot 69, Marcellus, above Miner's Pond, which supplied water for his wheelhead factory.
When Amos Miner sold out his interests in Factory Gulf, he moved to Lot 76, Marcellus, where he erecter a grist mill at the head of the Gulf, leading from near the center of said lot easterly to Otisco Lake, as has been before fully described in a paragraph relating to Miner under the head of "Early Settlers." This mill has been continued in one form or another until the present day.Near this mill was erected, at a very early date, a sawmill which was in opera- tion at a comparatively recent date.
About the year 1813, William Marsh erected a carding mill and clothing works, west of the highway and north of the stream at the head of the Pudding Mill Gulf, on Lot 76, Marcellus, near Miner's Grist Mill. Among the names of those who have been interested in this mill and works besides Mr. Marsh, are Eleazer Hillebert, Charles Richards, Jr., Richard S. Eggleston, William D. Potter, Roger Tolls, Jonathan S. Niles, Ichabod Sheldon and Ebenezer Failing. These works went to pieces many years ago and very few persons, if any now living, have any personal knowledge in reference to them.
On the east side of the same highway, and north of the Pudding Mill Gulf, was erected before 1819, by Alexander Webster, a distillery. Dr. Jonathan Kneeland, in speaking of this distillery said, " it did not last very long, as its owner soon boiled himself to death in his own mash tub." The widow, Barbara Webster, conveyed away the lands on which the distillery stood in 1825.
At a very early date the little huddle about Miner's mill gave promise of something more than it is at the present date. Eleazer Hillebert had a blacksmith shop there, David T. Lyon had a shoe shop, and there undoubtedly were other industries at that place. Borodino Village ultimately absorbed all that at one time seemed to give it promise of a better future.
Amasa Kneeland, at a very early date, carried on business
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as a tanner and currier, on the northwest corner of this same Lot 76, Marcellus, near the Borodino and Thorn Hill road. David T. Lyon, also, in after years, carried on this same business at Spafford Corners; whether he carried on this business while residing at the Pudding Mill huddle is not known.
Seventy-five or a hundred years ago public sentiment, in reference to the use of intoxicating liquors, was different from what it is at the present, and distilleries were deemed more of a necessity at that time, when the custom was to drink whiskey instead of beer. There were no restrictions in those times on the manufacture of whiskey; consequently it was very cheap, three cents a glass, and pure, as there was no object in its adulteration; and distilleries for its manufacture were everywhere. Before the year 1819, Jonathan Berry erected a distillery, in what was then known as the Stone Gulf, below the Little Falls, and a short dis- tance east of School House No. 1, in the Nunnery neighbor- hood. This was apparently run by a man named Ephraim Colby. Mr. Berry subsequently conveyed away the lands where the distillery stood to John K. Stone, in the year 1832, and nothing more is known of these works. In one of the deeds of the surrounding lands appears the following reservation, being a description of the distillery lands. " Reserving distillery land as follows: Beginning at the head of Little Falls and running thence westerly along the brink to the south bank of said Gulf to the Narrows - thence across the narrows to the brink of the north bank - thence easterly along said brink of north bank to the round rock - thence to the head of the Falls - and thence to the place of beginning. Also a log house standing on the brink of the Gulf (lately occupied by Ephraim Colby) ; also a road to pass and repass from said distillery in a north- easterly direction without interruption."
April 19, 1806, Dr. Archibald Farr purchased fifty acres of land on Lot 12, Tully, at the foot of the Bucktail Gulf, on the west side of Spafford Hollow, of Judge William Cooper, the father of James Fenimore Cooper, the great American novelist, and author of the Leather Stocking Tales, for the expressed consideration of one hundred silver dollars. At the foot of the lower Falls Dr. Farr, on this purchase, erected the same year a grist mill; being the first
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of its kind in the original town of Spafford. This mill went out of existence soon after its erection, probaby destroyed by a Spring freshet. Uriah Roundy, born in Spafford July 24, 1819, in speaking of this mill says: "The Archibald Farr mill was built and out of existence before I can remember. A man by the name of Earl Barrows built a second mill at the lower end of the Bucktail Gulf about 1848, or 1850. This was a feed mill only, and was destroyed by a Spring freshet."
In a deed dated May 11, 1844, by Mathew Morse (Moss) of Spafford, to Ebenezer Morse of Homer, mention is made of a furnace once existing on the Dr. Farr land, at the foot of the lower Falls, at the mouth of the Bucktail Gulf. Uriah Roundy says this furnace was out of existence before he had any memory on the subject; and no one seems to be able to tell who ran it, if not Dr. Farr, on whose land it was built.
On the top of the upper Falls, in the Bucktail Gulf, Capt. Asahel Roundy built a sawmill about 1840; a few feet south of this mill, Dr. Zachariah Derbyshire, at an earlier date erected and carried on a furnace; and a hundred rods or more further up stream, near the upper end of the Bucktail Gulf and road, Capt. Asahel Roundy, before 1828, erected a carding mill and clothing works. The latter is the same mill from which the machinery was stolen and carried away, as related in a prior paragraph of this work, under the title, "Early Settlers." Uriah Roundy, in a letter dated January 9, 1899, in speaking of this carding mill, furnace and saw- mill says: "The carding mill at the top of the Bucktail must have been built about 1820. I helped tear it down and move the building to Spafford Corners before I was married, and that was fifty-six years ago. I remember when it was doing business, I have carried wool and cloth there to be finished. Somewhere between 1828 and 1830 a man by the name of Worthington ran it. "The Furnace above the upper Falls of the Bucktail was built soon after the carding mill; I have nothing to show when it was built. I think Dr. Derbyshire built it. I remember that John Beeler, a one-legged soldier, had a cannon cast there to celebrate the Fourth of July; I was probably eight or nine years old at the time. It was loaded on the morning of the Fourth of July, and William Bell, a boy living with
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Sumner Allen, touched it off; it burst and broke his arm, and killed a cow for James Knapp. This must have been in 1828 or 1830. I have no recollection of having been to the furnace when in operation. About the furnace at the foot of the Bucktail Gulf, I know nothing, except I have been told there was one there. There was a grist mill built there since I can remember ; a man by the name of Barrows built it, but it did not run long ; it was only a feed mill.
"The sawmill at the upper Falls on the Bucktail was built by my father, Asahel Roundy, about 1840. My brother Charles and myself did most of the blasting of rocks, necessary to fix a place for the mill and flume. This was in 1840 just before Charles left home. Father owned the land where the sawmill, furnace and carding mill stood, ever since I can remember."
This saw mill, like all the other early mills in town, had an upright saw, standing in a wooden frame, which was raised up or down when sawing a log or board, the power came from an undershot wheel, which in this instance was suspended at the mouth of the flume, several feet down and over the edge of the Falls, which were seventy-five or more feet in height. The process of sawing was not a very rapid one and there was much waste of power; it required a freshet to make the mill an available one. This mill went out of use when the writer was a small boy; he can re- member it when in operation, a man by the name of Darius Plummer acted as sawyer at that time.
In 1810 Josiah Walker built a sawmill in Cold Brook, on the cross road running east from the main road, north of the school house. It was in the mill pond to this mill that Franklin Weston, Orange Norton and Lucius Pease, three small boys aged respectively 14, 13 and 9 years, were drowned June 24th, 1816. Franklin Weston was the youngest brother of Mrs. Asahel Roundy; and after the accident, was brought home to the residence of Mrs. Roundy, on horseback by her husband; Orange Norton was an older brother of Seymour Norton, who recently died at Spafford Corners at great age; and Lucius Pease was the oldest son of Horace Pease, one of the early settlers in Cold Brook. This accident at the time caused a profound sensation, which has been more enduring than the mill itself, which
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would have been long ago forgotten but for this terrible calamity.
The next sawmill erected on the Cold Brook stream was built in 1826 by Peter Picket, about a mile south of Walker's Mill, on a cross road leading east from the main road, just south of the Cold Brook M. E. Church and Cemtery. This mill, very soon after its erection, was transferred to Beza- lel Taft, and ever since has been known as Taft's Mill. The upright saw, formerly in use years ago, has been replaced by a circular one, and the mill is now, or was at a very recent date, in use, whenever it could find anything to do.
Soon after the sale of the Taft mill, as above stated, Peter Picket built another sawmill higher up stream, between the Walker and Taft locations, on a cross road leading east from the school house. This mill was after- wards owned and known as the Orren Cary's Mill; this, like the Walker mill, went out of existence years ago.
About 1830 Dr. David Mellen built a grist mill, a few rods south and down stream from Taft's saw mill; this was burned in 1852 and a feed mill was erected in its place by John P. Taft in 1863. The latter mill is still in opera- tion and owned by the builder.
At an early date David Carver built a saw mill in Spafford Hollow on lot 34, Tully; this was afterwards operated by Lorenzo Boutell; on the same stream, leading into Otisco Lake, near the northern line of said lot 34, as early as 1822, was a carding mill and clothing works, supposed to have been built by Samuel Draper; and still further down stream at the first cross roads leading easterly across the Hollow, was a saw mill, at one time operated by Frank Smith, son of Ira Smith. These mills and works have long passed out of existence, and even the memory of them is confined to a very few of the older inhabitants of the town. At Brom- ley, in the town of Tully, a little huddle formerly known as Shawville, near the Spafford line, there was a grist mill and saw mill at a very early date; these were in operation in recent years, as well as a sawmill on Lot 13, Tully, in the town of Otisco, just over the Spafford line, on a cross road leading easterly from the Bucktail road. Of late years there has been very little use for these mills, once so flour- ishing and so necessary to the early settler.
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ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION TAVERNS, STORES, SHOPS, POTASHIRES, TANNERIES.
The first merchant at Spafford Corners was Jared Bab- cock, who came first to Scott, Cortland County, N. Y., in 1804, probably from Leyden, Mass., where most of the Babcocks in that place came from, and from there to Spaf- ford, where he opend a general store, in 1809. The building occupied by him is supposed to have been located on a half acre of ground owned by John Babcock, also from Scott, situate on the west side of the Skaneateles and Homer road, between the present blacksmith shop of John Pendergast and the residence lately occupied by Parmenus Norton. Mr. Babcock conducted this store for a short time, sold out to Anthony Mason, and moved to Homer, N. Y.
Mr. Mason conveyed his interest in this store property, December 12, 1822, to Isaac Knapp, who in connection with his brother, James D. Knapp, carried on a general mer- chandise business at the same place until about 1827 or 1828, when they failed and were sold out by Sheriff. The store property was conveyed by that officer January 16, 1829, at which time Joseph R. Berry was in occupation as a general merchant at that place. From that time forward Mr. Berry carried on business there, until his new store was in readiness for occupation, which was erected by him on the northeast corner of the cross roads at the "Corners" in 1831. The old building then went into decline and was not occupied for mercantile purposes afterwards. At the raising of the frame of the new store building it was christ- ened, according to the custom of the times, " The Proud Farmers' Ruin." The new building has been occupied sub- sequent to Mr. Joseph R. Berry by the following merchants : Nelson Berry, Zach. Berry, Thomas B. Anderson, Levi Hurl- but, Asahel M. Roundy, James Churchell, T. Maxson Foster, and John G. Van Benschoten, the present occupant.
Lauren Hotchkiss, a brother-in-law of Captain Asahel Roundy, opened a store for the sale of general merchandise on the southwest corner of the same cross roads at the Corners, in 1810. The land on which this store stood was subsequently occupied after 1840 by the Baptist Church; but before it went into occupation of that society, and sub- sequently to Mr. Hotchkiss, these lands were owned by Dr.
BERRY'S STORE, SPAFFORD CORNERS
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Ashbel Searl (subsequently of Otisco), Thomas Stevens, John Evans and Nelson Berry; but whether any of them had a store there is not known.
About 1867, after the Baptist Society became extinct, Uriah Roundy purchased the church site and converted the church building into a store for the sale of general mer- chandise, for which purpose it has been in use ever since. The mrchants who have occupied this reconstructed church building for store purposes since 1867 are: Uriah Roundy, Benjamin McDaniels, George King, Caleb E. King and Andrew Lieber and son, the present occupants.
Early in the forties, Jonathan F. Woodworth opened a store at the " Center," in a building on the west side of the road subsequently occupied by Samuel Purchase as a dwell- ing house. Soon afterwards he erected a new store build- ing on the east side of the road and just south of the hotel at Spafford Corners, where he carried on a general mer- cantile business for many years. Subsequent to Mr. Wood- worth's occupation this latter building was owned and used by Charles B. Lyon as a shoe shop.
According to tradition, Dr. Archibald Farr in 1803 set- tled on the southwest corner of Lot 11, Tully, and the following year Isaac Hall located at Spafford Corners; and each of these gentlemn threw open their log cabins as public inns for the entertainment of guests. In the absence of direct knowledge on the subject, we infer from circum- stances, that this means no more than being the first settlers in the southern portion of the town, they were obliged to and did open their houses for the entertainment of the numerous prospecting parties, seeking unoccupied lands for purchase and settlement, and for which they very probably received a compensation. Very little is known of these two public houses, but it is probable they ceased to be such as soon as the temporary demand for them passed away. In the case of Dr. Farr we are unable to verify the date of his reputed settlement, as his deed was never recorded, but as to Mr. Hall, we find his deed is dated in 1805; he may, however, have gone into occupation a year earlier under contract.
Mr. Hall's log house stood in the garden connected with the present hotel, just east of the horse barns. Mr. Hall sold out his possessions at the " Corners ' in 1811, and was
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followed in occupation by John Williamson from Minden, Montgomery County, N. Y., in 1814. The latter gentleman sold to Captain Asahel Roundy in 1821, who erected that year the presnt hotel building, then known as "Roundy's Tavern." This has been the only public house at the Corners since its erection. Mr. Roundy kept the place until 1843; then sold it to Col. William W. Legg, who has been succeeded by Thomas Babcock, Amon J. Ripley, Dr. G. Eugene Barker, John C. Van Benschoten, Andrew Lieber and Thomas McAuliffe, present occupant.
About 1828, Elias Woodworth opened a house of enter- tainment on the southwest corner of Lot 13, Sempronius, east of the main highway near the Center; this was suc- ceeded by a new tavern, supposed to have been built by Thomas Babcock, just south of Woodworth's, and on Lot 14, Sempronius, known as "The Center House." This house was subsequently owned by Isaiah Buffington, Hop- kins Perkins, Daniel Vail, Jr., Edward M. Allen, Amos Austin, Willis S. Nelson, John C. Tinkham and William Cowan. The building was destroyed by fire in the fifties and has never been replaced.
It would be unprofitable to attempt to recall the names of all who have worked at blacksmithing and wagon making, in the original town of Spafford, since its settlement; suffice it to say, that in olden times there were those who worked at one or both these trades at the Center, the Corners, Cold Brook, East Side Hill, and in Spafford Hollow. Early in the thirties Edward Baxter, Thomas Mitchell and Gershom Lewis opened a wagon and blacksmith shop on the site of the present Union Church at the " Corners "; their interest in this site was afterwards purchased by the Trustees of that Church, July 7, 1838, and Gersham Lewis immediately thereafter erected a new shop for the prosecution of the same business, just south of the Baptist Church, where the late Alexander Green subsequently resided; here he remained until his decease about 1850. In wagon making Mr. Lewis never had a successor at the " Corners "; but in repairing of wagons and farm implements and in smithing he had many; among whom are the following: Asa Wellington, Franklin Roundy, Alexander Green, Perry Norton and John Pender- gast. At an early date Anson Churchell did a very profit-
ROUNDY'S TAVERN, SPAFFORD CORNERS
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able business for many years as blacksmith in the northern end of the village; he died in 1849.
Just south of Mr. Churchell's blacksmith shop Mr. Loami W. Johnson had a cooper shop; he came from Cambridge, in this State, and first settled north of Borodino. From there he came to this village at an early date and carried on a profitable business as cooper until his decease, which occurred in 1861; he had no successor in business.
There never was but one resident tailor at the Corners, William Quick, who was born in London, England. . He first came to Canada, and from there to this village, where he married a Miss French. He remained here a few years and then moved to Borodino. Before his coming a tailor residing in some other place came to the tavern on stated days, cut the clothes of the people, and they were then made up in the family or by a practiced seamstress who went from houses to house for that purpose. The business of a tailor and seamstress in those days was a respectable and profitable one.
Another lucrative business in olden times was that of currier and tanner and shoemaker. There are those still living who can remember when a shoemaker, carrying his kit of tools with him, went from house to house, shoeing the family from skins taken from the domestic herds, and prepared by a neighboring tanner and currier. Among the itinerant shoemakers who came to the "Corners" was David Havens, father of Clark and Ebenezer Havens. He came from Rhode Island, was a Seventh Day Baptist, and was buried in their cemetery at Scott, New York. Among the early tanners and curriers were Sumner Allen, father of William Bulfinch Allen, now a resident at the Corners, and David T. Lyon ; each carrying on business west of the main road, in the northern part of the village at Spafford Corners. Mr. Lyon was also a shoemaker, and with his coming here the itinerant business came to an end; he and his sons Charles B. and Cyrus Lyon were expert craftsmen, and for many years made the foot wear of the southern residents of the town.
Another industry of considerable importance in early times, now in disuse by reason of changed conditions. was that of Potashery. At a very early date a building for the manufacture of potash from wood ashes stood where the
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present residence of Mrs. Benjamin McDaniels now stands, on the south side of the east and west road, just west of the " Corners." Here " Uncle " Eli Fisher, under the manage- ment of Levi Hurlbut and Asahel M. Roundy, year after year gathered wood ashes from all the neighboring farmers, and in the Fall of the year boiled the lye from them into potash, for the eastern market; and here many a good house- wife came with her pot grease to have " Uncle " Eli assist her in making her annual barrel of soft soap for domestic use. Uncle Eli was a familiar character of those early years, and his coming and going, as the years went round, was watched by the villagers with pleasurable satisfaction. His glowing open arch fire always gave out a generous heat and light, and many a man will recall with pleasure the memory of, when a boy, he spent the cold Fall evenings in that light and heat with Uncle Eli, as the latter pursued his evening toil.
Jeremiah Van Rensselae Coon and his father David Coon, at an early date carried on the business of harness making, the former at the Corners, and the latter at the cross roads east of Spafford Cemetery; David Coon died in 1857, and his son moved away soon afterwards; they had no successors in business.
The following business references to the Village of Boro- dino are taken in part from Bruce's History of the County of Onondaga. The first merchant there was Daniel G. Burroughs, who kept a store in a log cabin on the site of the present dwelling house and store of Alphonso Deerman, east of the Skaneateles and Homer road, as well as the one leading to Thorn Hill. It is said he was an expert swimmer, and at one time swam from Borodino Landing to Mandana, a distance of thee miles.
Borodino at one time had three stores for the sale of general merchandise, thee taverns, three tailor shops, three blacksmith shops, and other things in proportion; but, like Spafford Corners, was materially affected by the building of the Binghamton and Syracuse Railroad, and the conse- quent diversion of travel to that road.
Mr. Burroughs was succeeded in business by Stephen and Horace Childs, said to have been natives of Connecticut, but before or after coming to Borodino resided in Owasco, N. Y. Other merchants in Borodino were Daniel Baxter, Messer
BORODINO STORE AND TAVERN
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SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK
Barker, Washington Wallace, William Legg, David Becker (his son-in-law), Thomas B. Anderson, Charles M. Rich, Churchell & Eddie, Grinnell & Howe, William Quick & Son, Captain Zach Berry, Caleb E. King, and Alphonso Deerman.
The first tavern was built by Ira Rider in 1823, on the present site of the Churchell House; the second was erected by Col. Lewis C. Davis, where John Uncless now resides; and the third was kept in the house lately occupied by Mark Harvey as a residence, on the northwest corner of the cross road in this village. The two latter taverns were discon- tinued many years ago, and the former is still in use and occupied as a hotel by Mr. Churchell.
The first blacksmith shop was kept by Eleazer Hillebert, on the site where the Legg Block recently stood. Other blacksmiths in the village were William Legg, Mr. Stowell, Isaac Wallace, Orrin F. Eddy, A. Griffin and John Weston.
The first wagon maker was William Legg; who had as workmen John Babcock, Solomon Sprague, Seymour Warner, and Simeon Morchell.
Among the early shoemakers were Milton Streeter, Renona A. Cady, and Harman Cady. Thomas Howard at one time had a tannery here; Daniel Baxter a Potashery; and William Hayford a tinshop and foundry.
In May, 1856, a fire destroyed the tinshop and foundry, a tailor shop, and other things, entailing a loss of about $8,000.00; and on September 12, 1871, the business places of William W. Legg & Son, William Quick, Charles M. Rich, H. Linus Darling, and Charles Benton were burned; destroying nearly the whole business center of the village. The site of the major portion of the burned district was subsequently built upon by Col. William W. Legg, for a business block adapted for the use of stores, shops and offices; this was also destroyed by fire in 1901, and has not since been restored. Since the destruction of the Legg Block three stores have catered to the wants of the Borodino people, two on the site of the original Burroughs store, and one in the building known as the Town Hall.
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