USA > New York > Tompkins County > Dryden > The centennial history of the town of Dryden. 1797-1897 > Part 12
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Abraham Tanner, 1 00
B. W. Squires, 2 00
Wyatt Allen, 2 00
D. Bartholomew, 1 00
Jesse Givens, 2 00
John R. Lacy, 3 00
H. C. Beach, 1 00
Jacob Prame, 1 00
We are thus able to give the names of the public spirited citizens who resided in and about Dryden village about fifty years ago, re- calling to the memory of old residents many familiar faces, only a very few of which can be seen among us to-day.
The list of the ministers who have succeeded each other at this church is also here given and is as follows :
Nathan B. Darrow,
Luther Clark,
William Williston,
George W. Pruden,
Geo. R. Smith, Anson G. Chester, Charles Ray,
Joshua Lane,
H. P. Crozier,
Timothy Tuttle,
R. S. Eggleston,
F. Hendricks,
G. H. Dunning,
Samuel Parker,
Charles Kidder,
C. O. Hanmer,
Elnathan Walker,
A. V. H. Powell,
G. V. Reichel,
Reuben Hurd,
W. G. Hubbard, A. McDougall,
Fred L. Hiller,
Isaac Patterson,
Samuel Robertson,
J. V. C. Nellis,
Wm. H. Miller, 2 00
T. Burr, 1 00
Isaac Ferguson, 1 00 J. W. Montgomery3 00
Collin Robinson, 2 00
John Southworth, 10 00
Jacob Stickles, 1 00
S. Cleveland, 1 00
Ralph Barnum, 1 00
Wm. Holmes, 2 00
H. H. Ferguson, 1 00
Milo Goodrich, 1 00
S. Goddard, 1 00
Leonard Griswold, 50 Bradford Kennedy,1 00 Joel Bishop, 3 00
John Ercanbrack 1 00 Gordon Johnson, 1 00 Stickle Hamblin, 50 Stephen Emory, 1 00
P. M. Blodgett, 5 00
A. Foster, 10 00
L. B. Corbin, 4 00
J. H. Hurd, 3 00
E. A. Givens, 1 00
A. L. Bushnell, 5 00
S. T. Wilson, 2 00
E. W. Root,
William Miller,
Oliver T. Mather.
Darius Givens, 1 50
Joseph McGraw, 1 00 Michael Butts, 2 00
Pardon Tabor, 5 00
Abram Emory, 1 00
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DRYDEN VILLAGE.
A Methodist Episcopal class was first organized at Dryden Corners about the year 1816, with Selden Marvin, Edward Hunting, and Abra- ham Tanner among the original members. They had no church build- ing until about 1832 when a church society was organized with the following charter members :
Parley Whitmore, Selden Marvin,
Asa Phillips,
J. W. Montgomery,
Robert Dier,
George Carr,
Daniel Godfrey, M. C. Brown,
Erastus Bement,
Philo Godfrey,
Elias Ferguson,
Abraham Tanner,
Daniel Coleman,
Andrew Guile,
Pardon Tabor.
Their church edifice erected in 1832 was destroyed by fire in 1873, while being repaired and enlarged, and the present building, a view of which is given on page 10-, was erected in the following year at an ex- pense of about eleven thousand dollars.
The clergymen who have supplied this church are as follows :
J. T. Peck,
O. M. McDowell,
David Keppel,
Wm. Bailey,
S. B. Porter,
I. Harris,
M. Westcott,
O. Hesler,
James Gutsell,
P. R. Kinne,
E. Owen,
W. H. Goodwin, L. L. D.
M. Adams,
L. D. Tryon,
M. S. Wells,
M. W. Rundell, S. Minier,
C. W. Harris,
M. M. Tooke,
David Keppel, Robert Townsend,
W. H. Pearne,
E. G. Curtis, S. S. Barter,
H. E. Luther,
T. D. Wire,
James R. Drake,
D. Lamkins,
J. H. Barnard,
R. N. Leake,
George Parsons,
E. Owen,
J. H. Ross,
W. W. Rundell,
B. Shove,
A. C. Willey,
A. Cross,
L. Hartsough,
Worth M. Tippy,
Hagar,
A. L. Lusk,
J. W. Terry,
Win. C. Cobb,
Selah Stocking,
George Britten,
C. W. Harris,
H. Meeker,
C. W. Walker.
The first death in Dryden village was probably of some member of the family of Amos Sweet, all of whom are said to be buried in the grounds opposite to the Dryden Springs Sanitarium. Tradition in- forms us that a grave-yard was early started near the corner of Main and Mill streets and some evidence of this fact was recently found when the village water pipes were being laid in that locality. The early habit of using private family burying grounds has already been referred to and the first public ground of which we have any record in the village was located on the gravel knoll west of the fair-grounds. How early this site was in use we are unable to determine, but a deed
112
HISTORY OF DRYDEN.
from Abram Griswold to the Trustees of the First Presbyterian Soci- ety of Dryden of an acre of land in this locality bears date February 10, 1830, and contains this commendable statement from the grantor : " The true intent and meaning of this indenture of said piece of land is that all sects and denominations have the privilege of burying their dead and using the same as a burying ground." Probably the use of this site as a burial ground for the inhabitants of the village ante- dated this public dedication of it for that purpose. More land was af- terwards added but no incorporation was perfected, and the locality is now neglected and abandoned as a cemetery, and has grown up to a second wilderness ; some graves marked by dilapidated stones re- main, while numerous pit-holes here and there show where the re- mains of others have been taken up to be removed to more modern cemeteries. A visit to this locality, where many of the pioneers of Dryden still lie buried, will afford striking suggestions of the brevity of human life and of the rapidity with which after death our mortal remains will be absorbed by mother earth, and the places which once knew us will know us no more. The gravel from the parts of this. knoll which have not been used for burial purposes is now being rap- idly removed for filling and grading purposes and the existence of a burial place there is likely to be entirely forgotten.
In the year 1863 the people of the village united to organize a ceme- tery association and to purchase a new site for a permanent cemetery. The Green Hills cemetery is the result, located in the southwest sec- tion of the village and comprising nearly fifty acres of land, only a small part of which has yet been used for burial purposes. The site is upon the highest ground in the corporate limits of the village, so that the home of the dead commands a beautiful view of the homes and business places of the living. The association has been some- what crippled in its operations by a considerable indebtedness in- curred in the purchase of its extensive grounds, but this debt is now being paid off and great improvements have been made in opening and grading its main avenue, to the site, which is remarkably adapted by nature for this purpose and which will in time be so improved as to be one of the most commodious and beautiful cemeteries to be found in a country village.
113
THE SOUTHWORTH LIBRARY. CHAPTER XXIX.
THE SOUTHWORTH LIBRARY.
JENNIE MCGRAW-FISKE.
If any one could have claim- ed to unite in her veins the flow of the blue blood of Dry- den pioneer aristocracy, that person was Jennie McGraw- Fiske. Her great-grandfather was Judge Ellis, " King of Dryden " in its early years. Her grandfather was John Southworth, Dryden's million- aire farmer, while her father was John McGraw, Dryden's barefooted farmer boy in 1827, who soon after commenced his business career as a clerk in a Dryden store at eight dollars per month, becoming later a Dryden merchant, and after a life of great business activity and success died possessed of an estate worth two millions.
She was born in the house on North street in Dryden village now owned and occupied by Mrs. E. H. Lord, nearly opposite to the South- worth homestead, in September, 1840. Her mother died and her father moved from Dryden before she was ten years of age. She was educated at Canandaigua and at a school in Westchester county. Her health being always delicate, she was encouraged to gratify her taste for foreign travel, which she did, first visiting Europe when about twenty years of age, and several times afterwards.
Of her marriage to Prof. Willard Fiske in 1880 and her death in the following year, which was subsequently followed by the cele- brated litigation as the result of which the bequest of the bulk of her estate to Cornell University was defeated, we need not speak here at length.
In the distribution of the estate of her grandfather, John South- worth, she received a share as representing her deceased mother, and it seems to have been her desire to return to Dryden village a sub-
8
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HISTORY OF DRYDEN.
stantial memorial to her grandfather out of this portion of her estate, for in her will she makes the following provision :
"I give and bequeath unto Jeremiah W. Dwight, John E. McEl- heny and Dr. J. J. Montgomery, all of Dryden, N. Y., the sum of thir- ty thousand dollars, in trust, for the following uses and purposes, to wit : I desire that they, with such associates as they may select, shall procure, under the laws of the State of New York, a corporation or association to be organized at Dryden aforesaid under the name of The Southworth Library Association, the object and purpose whereof shall be the building, support and maintenance of a public library in the said village of Dryden ; that said trustees shall transfer said trust funds to said association upon the trust and condition that not more than fifteen thousand dollars of said sum shall be expended in real estate, buildings and furniture, and that the remainder shall consti- tute a fund to be invested and the interest or income thereof to be ap- plied to the purchase of books and other necessary expenses of said association, excluding, however, salaries of officers and pay of servants thereof.
"If this purpose be not accomplished within three years after my death the trust shall cease and the fund shall be paid to and distribut- ed with my residuary estate."
In pursuance of this bequest the Southworth Library Association was incorporated April 22, 1883, with Jeremiah W. Dwight, John E. McElheny, John J. Montgomery, Henry B. Napier and Erastus S. Rockwell as incorporators. In the following year the Baucus proper- ty on the corner of South and Union streets was purchased and re- modeled so as to afford temporary accommodations for the Library, and here it was first opened to the public September 25, 1884.
For about ten years the Library was accommodated in a portion of this building, the rent of the remainder, which was leased for a dwell- ing, being used to pay the expense of employing a librarian.
In the meantime a permanent site was purchased on the new corner on Main street formed by opening Library street, and a fine, substan- tial building here erected of which we are able to give the accompa- nying pictorial illustration.
It is constructed of Ohio sandstone in a very thorough and sub- stantial manner at an expense of about fifteen thousand dollars. The building is fire-proof and includes commodious and elegant reading rooms. Here the trustees intend, among other things, to provide for a collection of historical relics, which will be securely preserved for future generations. The structure was completed in the year 1894,
115
THE SOUTHWORTH LIBRARY.
since which time there has been presented to the association and placed in the tower of the building, a Seth Thomas clock, the gift of Mrs. D. F. Van Vleet, of Ithaca, as a memorial of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. John C. Lacy, who were for a long time residents of Dryden.
Some unhappy differences of opinion among the citizens of the vil- lage as to the intention of Mrs. Fiske in excluding from the purposes for which the funds of her gift could be used "the salaries of officers and servants thereof" has caused the building to be closed for some
1
THE SOUTHWORTH LIBRARY.
portion of the time, for the lack of a provision, as the trustees claim, for the employment and pay of a janitor and librarian, and these ques- tions are not yet settled to the satisfaction of all; but it is believed that these matters will soon be determined by the courts or otherwise.
According to the last report of the librarian, in the month of April, 1897, the number of volumes in the Library was 6994. These vol- umes comprise a careful selection of the best works in the whole field of literature, including the latest editions of all standard authorities. The invested interest-bearing funds of the association now amount to
116
HISTORY OF DRYDEN.
about seventeen thousand dollars, the income from which is to be de- voted principally to the purchase of books and will continue to sup- ply the reading matter best adapted to the wants of the people in ever-increasing accumulations of the best works of the best authors. Prof. Willard Fiske, although sojourning in Italy for the past few years, has been made a trustee of the association and has shown his interest in the institution by presenting to the Library a valuable and unique set of the complete works of the bard, John Dryden. The fol- lowing is a list of the present officers and trustees of the association :
TRUSTEES.
John E. McElheny, President, Dr. J. J. Montgomery, Vice-President,
Dr. F. S. Jennings, Secretary, Willard Fiske.
D. R. Montgomery, John W. Dwight, D. E. Bower,
Treasurer, - - -
-
H. B. Lord
CHAPTER XXX.
WILLOW GLEN.
A stranger now passing through the quiet locality of our town which formerly was known as "Stickles's Corners, " but latterly called by the more romantic name of "Willow Glen, " upon looking about him would naturally inquire, "Where are the willows and where is the glen ?" for both are at present a little obscure. It is said, however, that over fifty years ago, when this name was first applied to the local- ity by one of its inhabitants, Miss Huldah Phillips, the banks of the little stream which flows down through the "Corners" from the hill- side were lined with large willow trees, forming with them a glen which made the name very appropriate.
As we have already seen, the settlement of Willow Glen dates back as early as 1798, when three of the very earliest pioneer families of the town located there, and during all of the Pioneer Period it was a formidable rival of Dryden village. During that time it contained a tannery upon what was afterwards the Phillips corner, a grist mill (one of the earliest in town), and two saw-mills (one of which was the earliest in town, being completed in 1802), upon Virgil Creek, two stores, two distilleries, one hotel, a blacksmith shop, an ashery and a large wagon shop, all constituting a good business equipment for a
117
WILLOW GLEN.
new country settlement. One by one these elements of business have disappeared, and all which now remains in that line is the old black- smith shop, converted in these latter days into the factory and store- house of Mosso's Tempering Compound, and the wagon shop across the way conducted by Andrew Simons. Willow Glen has always had and still maintains a good school, and with it is connected an incident which is still remembered by some of the oldest inhabitants, who were children when the events took place. It is the "Story of the Bison" and reads as follows :
On a certain autumnal Saturday afternoon about seventy-five or more years ago two men entered Willow Glen by the highway from the west, leading between them a wild, shaggy animal, a buffalo re- cently captured on the prairies, being the first one seen in this part of the country. They stopped at the hotel, then kept by William Wigton, in whose barn they exhibited the buffalo to those who would pay ten cents for the opportunity of seeing him. During the after- noon the school was let out-Saturday was a school day in those times -- and some of the scholars had ten cents with which to purchase the privilege of seeing the exhibition, but many others did not, and as an inducement to the owners of the animal the older school boys pro- posed that those who could should pay, but that all of the school children should see the buffalo; but the proposition was not accept- ed and none of the scholars were admitted to the barn. As night ap- proached, Mr. Wigton, who had overheard some plans among the boys, who were displeased with the rejection of their proposition, informed the proprietors that he would lock up the barn at night but he would not be responsible for what might happen to the buffalo. They re- plied that there was no danger that any one would molest the animal for it was all that they could do to manage him and no one else would venture to undertake it.
Matters were left in this way, but in the morning the barn doors were open and the buffalo was gone, no one knew where. There was a long watering trough which extended into the barn and some one during the night had drawn the plug, letting the water out so that he could enter the barn through the empty trough and unfasten the doors from within. The proprietors in vain spent the morning look- ing after the source of their income, but no track or trace of him could be found.
Early that morning Darius J. Clement, the old gentleman who died a few years ago in Dryden village, but who was then a boy living with his parents where John Card now resides, went out before it was fair-
118
HISTORY OF DRYDEN.
ly daylight to the barn to do the milking. He returned soon after saying to his parents that he believed the Evil One himself had taken possession of the barn during the night, for such pawing and bellow- ing, by a large animal with short horns, a large shaggy head, fierce, glaring eyes and a long tail, he had never seen or heard of before. Mr. Clement, who was a very religious man, decided that the Sab- bath was no time to investigate the matter and directed that nothing should be done with the animal until the next day. But the news began to be circulated that the buffalo was in the barn of Mr. Clement and the people from all about began to congregate so that by noon all the men and boys from the neighborhood were assembled, and Mr. Clement was very willing that the cause of the disturbance should be removed. Some of the boys, presumably the same who had brought him there in the night, readily undertook the task of removing him and in so doing they led him through a clearing in which a vicious bull was being pastured. No sooner did the bull see the intruder of something like his own species approaching than he came rushing toward them ready for a contest for supremacy. Those who then had charge of the buffalo were very willing to let go their hold, which they did, thereby having the fun of witnessing a Sunday bull fight. The result proved that the buffalo, with his short horns and wild, vig- orons habits, was too much for his domesticated cousin, who was com- pelled to recognize the superiority of the intruder. The fun being over the boys returned the buffalo to his owners, who went on their way sadder if not wiser men.
Willow Glen, as well as the northwest corner of the township, claims a share in the invention of the power threshing machine, an inventive genius by the name of Miller having there developed one of the first threshing machines ever seen, which, with subsequent in- provements, has revolutionized that part of the farmer's labor.
We have as yet failed to secure very satisfactory notes of the pion- eer families of Willow Glen. Of the first three families to locate there in 1798, so far as we are able to learn, the Clausons have no descend- ants now residing in town, while Ezekiel Sanford and David Foote are the ancestors of quite a number of the present inhabitants. Jolin Southworth, whose father, Thomas Southworth, came to Willow Glen in 1806, will be the subject of a separate chapter. Joshua Phillips, who owned and perhaps built the tannery on the now vacant corner of Willow Glen, was early a prominent citizen, being a Member of Assembly from this county in 1820 and a supervisor of the town in 1839. He came to Dryden from Nassau, Rensselaer county, about
119
WILLOW GLEN.
1806, or, as some say, in 1811, and was a major in the State Militia. His wife, whom he married in Rensselaer county, was Huldah Bram- hall, a very estimable wife and mother. They had no daughters, but twelve sons, one of whom, Archibald, now resides on the former home- stead of his father-in-law, Peter Mulks, near Slaterville, and another, Albert, who married into the Twogood family, is still living at Merton, Waukesha county, Wis., 91 years of age, with another brother, Henry, whose age is 80. Among the others was George W. Phillips, who was once prominent in business in Dryden village. Joseph Bram- hall, a brother of Mrs. Phillips, was a carpenter and an early resident of Willow Glen, leaving children who still perpetuate from him the name of Bramhall. He was an assessor of the town at the time of his death, which resulted from consumption. His widow afterwards mar- ried Israel Hart and became the mother of Chas. I. Hart, of Dryden. We have already mentioned Elias W. Cady as a prominent citizen in public affairs, Member of Assembly, supervisor and first president of the Dryden Agricultural Society, who died in 1883 at the age of nine- ty-one years. He came here from Columbia county in 1816, and also married into the Bramhall family. His oldest son, Oliver, recently died, but his youngest son, Charles Cady, of Auburn, N. Y., and daugh- ters, Rebecca A. (Dwight), Harriet S. (Ferguson), and Mary Cady, all of Dryden village, are still living. His daughter Sarah (Wilson) died, leaving numerous descendants now residing in the town. Aaron Fos- ter was not a pioneer of Dryden, but settled in the year 1829 upon the farm which he sold to Joseph McGraw, where, for a number of years, he operated the lumber and grist mills of Willow Glen, there still be- ing no grist mill in Dryden village, and later he removed to the village. His daughter was the wife of Geo. D. Pratt and his son, A. H. Foster, of Superior, Wis., was one of our guests at the Centennial Celebration.
Aaron Lacy, from New Jersey, settled on the Stickles corner in 1799. His only surviving child, John R. Lacy, afterwards lived and died on the corner still held by his family one mile north of Dryden village.
Willow Glen has had no churches, but the barn of Elias W. Cady afforded the Presbyterian society accommodations for preaching and communion service before their building was completed in Dryden village.
The inhabitants have suffered somewhat from religious fanatics, the first visitation being from a band of some fifty "Pilgrims, " as they called themselves, who came from Vermont in 1818, and are thus de- scribed by the "Old Man in the Clouds :" " When they moved in they
120
HISTORY OF DRYDEN.
had several wagons, some of which were drawn by four horses. One team carried the large tent beneath which the entire family was housed in all kinds of weather. The name of their Prophet was Thad- deus Cummins, a very stout, healthy and well proportioned man, with sandy hair, and about thirty-five years of age. The name of the woman whom he brought as his wife was Lucy. A priest also ac- companied the Prophet, whose name was Joseph Ball. There were some two or three brothers by the name of Slack; the rest of the company was made up of the off-scourings of wretched humanity. When the Prophet and his followers arrived near the residence of David Foote they pitched their tent and rested over night, but moved the next day into the woods then on the Stickles farm, where they re- mained a week, when they again moved upon the north bank of Fall Creek near the former residence of Jacob Updike. Here this singu- lar people remained for fully six weeks, practicing all kinds of deviltry upon themselves and the people in the neighborhood. They had no beds, but slept in nests of straw, each sex in common with the other, they having no belief in or respect for the marriage ceremony. They did not believe in beds, chairs, or tables. They stood up to eat and sucked food through a goose quill, and could not be persuaded to eat in any other way. They wore large white cloths upon their backs, which, as they said, were marks for the Devil to shoot at. Their an- tipathy against the Devil was very great and every morning early they might be heard howling and yelling like a parcel of wolves for two miles around, driving the Devil out of their camp."
When they left town they went to an island in the Mississippi river, unfortunately inducing some Dryden and more Lansing people to fol- low them, where they finally disbanded. They should not be con- founded with the "Taylorites," who flourished here later and some of whom afterwards joined the Shakers.
There is perhaps no better index of the degree of thrift and refine- ment which exists in a community than the condition of its grave- yards. The principal burial place now used by the people of Dryden at large is the Willow Glen Cemetery, located very near the center of the town, the Green Hill Cemetery in Dryden village being patronized more especially by the residents of that village. Both are laid out and maintained in a manner indicative of the prosperity and intellect- ual culture of the people of the township. The former, which we now consider, has been especially fortunate in its financial management and the devotion which its officers and friends have shown in its de- velopment. It already has a surplus fund of over three thousand dol-
121
WEST DRYDEN.
lars, invested at interest, and this surplus has been for the past few years rapidly increasing from the sale of lots. The interest from this money, with such contributions as are added to it, enables the officers to keep its beautiful grounds, consisting of about thirteen acres, in ex- cellent condition, and for a country burying ground it has few rivals either in the natural beauty and extent of its grounds or in the good taste exhibited in its adornment.
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