USA > New York > Tompkins County > Dryden > The centennial history of the town of Dryden. 1797-1897 > Part 16
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Mill Street.
2 Brewer & Son, grist-mill,
3 Chas. Shultz,
4 Sarah Lisdell
5 Mrs. Mary Mineah,
6 M. D. Shaver,
7 Byron Brewer,
9 Mra. A. Ellis,
II George Seager.
42 F. E. Darling, hardware,
43 Jerome Heffran, 44 F. Ray Willey, store,
45 Geurge Watson,
46 H. D. W. DePuy, grocery, 47 O. Luther,
49 Ernest Blackman,
50 John Edsall, barber,
51 F. Reeves, hay warehouse,
52 C. Parker, jeweler,
53 F. Dobson, planing mill, 54 De Witt DePuy, harness,
55 Myrou Bronson,
56 Brotherton blacksmith shop,
57 J. M. Shaver,
58 W. J. Shaver,
60 R. Duryea.
Dryden Road.
2 E. M. Seager,
3 C. L. Johnson,
4 D. H. Snyder.
6 Frank Burton.
Watson Street.
I Watson & George, planing mill.
Yates Avenue.
14 H. A. Strong.
15 Albert Tripp, 16 William Monroe,
17 Luther Greenfield, 18 School-house,
19 M. E. Church,
20 D. M. Peck,
21 M. E. Parsonage,
22 J. M. Carr,
23 Wm. Fisher,
24 Sarah Bowers,
25 Will Cady,
26 Freeville Leader, 27 Wm. Skillman,
28 Mrs. C. Chaptuan, 29 N. J. Ogden,
3° Blacksmith shop,
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I Glass Factory, 2 Genrge Cady.
36 Chauncey Hanshaw,
37 Dr. H. Genung, 38 George Cady, market,
39 J. M. Carr, druga, 40 Dr. H. Genung, 41 J. Kells,
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157
THE GEORGE JUNIOR REPUBLIC.
The George Junior Republic is a project which, for the past few years, has excited great interest throughout the whole extent of our country, and its influence as an educational force is rapidly becoming world-wide. In 1887 W. R. George, born near West Dryden, the son of John F. George and Eleanor Baker (George), went to New York city to engage in business. Being at heart a philanthropist, he spent many spare moments in forming friendships with the urchins on the streets of the East Side, and in striving to benefit them.
Their wretched surroundings so impressed him that, in the summer of 1890, aided by the Tribune Fresh Air Fund, he brought twenty- two children with him to spend his vacation of two weeks. These children were fed by kind neighbors and friends in the vicinity of
THE GEORGE JUNIOR REPUBLIC.
Freeville. For the next four years Mr. George brought out nearly two hundred and fifty children each summer for a stay of two weeks. During these years the plan of the Republic was slowly evolving. Mr. George saw that, while the two weeks of vacation gave the children a breath of fresh air and were helpful to them in many ways, the bene- fits could not be very permanent ; the problems of pauperism and crime were still far from being solved. Brought up in homes of deg- radation and vice, having received most of their education from the. slums, many of these children were accustomed to living "from hand to mouth." Many had been trained by their parents to depend on charitable societies for their subsistence, and their self-reliance was almost entirely lost. Others had come to consider it a glorious thing to be a " tough " and to be brought before police courts.
Mr. George tried experiments in making them work for their food and clothes and in having juries, composed of their peers, to judge-
158
HISTORY OF DRYDEN.
them for their misdemeanors. These attempts showed him that the children were more self-reliant and more careful of their possessions when they paid their way ; that, in trials by jury, these miniature men and women were more just in their decisions than were adults, because they could much better appreciate the situation; and that to be ar- rested, tried, convicted and imprisoned by citizens of their own size was a real punishment for the offenders. From these premises he argued that they might be trusted to make and enforce their own laws, to be entirely self-governing. Accordingly, in the summer of 1895, the Republic was formed.
It will, of course, be impossible to enter into details concerning the courts, the police department, the industrial classes, the school, the legislature, and all the varied activities of this little state. Much has been written concerning this enterprise in the best papers and maga- zines of the country.
The George Junior Republic is duly incorporated under the laws of the state and owns and occupies a farm of forty-eight acres, formerly a part of the Cady place, situated nearly one mile southeast of the Free- ville postoffice, but within the corporate limits of the village. Other land, adjoining this farm, is rented and in the near future the Associa- tion will develop more fully the property which it owns. A view of their grounds is here given, and the location of their buildings as they now exist is shown on the map of Freeville.
The Republic has, at present, accommodations for about two hun- dred summer citizens and about fifty that stay throughout the entire year. It is achieving success and will undoubtedly attain to large proportions as the years pass by. But, better than all the material success which has been gained, are the mighty steps forward in the solution of that vast problem, the dealing with the poor in large cities.
The postoffice was established at Freeville during the War of the Rebellion, the Rev. I. Harris becoming the first postmaster. Mr. Harris was connected with the Sanitary Commission, which required a visit to Washington, upon which he presented a petition to the post- office department and secured the location of the Freeville office with himself in charge of it.
After one or two unsuccessful efforts to maintain a newspaper at Freeville, The Leader, in charge of E. C. Smith, is now a lively weekly sheet which seems to be permanently established.
It should be remembered that as a business place Freeville is only about a quarter of a century old. Thirty years ago the locality of the railroad station was a lonely farm, then owned by George W. Tripp.
159
THE OCTAGONAL SCHOOL HOUSE.
A stump fence even then lined a large part of what is now the main street of that village. After the establishment of the railroad junction in 1872 it was through the earnest and well-directed efforts of such men as Otis E. Wood, Albert C. Stone and John W. Webster that the destinies of Freeville as a village were cared for and properly shaped.
Freeville is too young to claim much connection with the pioneers of the township. Elder Daniel White, the first settler in this locality, has already been mentioned in connection with the building of the grist-mill and the settlement of the town itself, and we may also speak of the Shaver family, whose ancestor, John C. Shaver, originally from New Jersey, early in the century came to Ithaca, where he was active- ly engaged in building boats and boating on the waters of Cayuga Lake and through the Montezuma Marshes, Wood Creek, Mohawk and Hudson rivers to Albany, N. Y., which was the chief navigation from Ithaca to Albany and New York at that time. After leaving Ithaca he located with his family, May 6, 1823, on the farm where Wm. J. Shaver now resides.
Of his children, Ira C., the eldest, born in the year 1817, still resides at Freeville with his son Willard, one of the Centennial Committee ; Julius M. and Wm. J. also reside in Freeville on the old homestead ; Elizur W. lives in Portland, Oregon; Marcus D. also lives in Free- ville ; Ermana married Samuel Hanshaw, who is one of the most prominent farmers of the town of Ithaca; Mariah A. married Jacob Kline, also a wealthy and prominent farmer of the town of Ithaca. Mr. and Mrs. Kline are the parents of J. B. Kline, of Syracuse, N. Y., a foremost lawyer of that place and at present district attorney of Onondaga county.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
THE OCTAGONAL SCHOOL HOUSE.
Doubtless every old school house in the township has a record and a history, which, if properly reduced to writing, would be interesting and instructive reading. There is something especially fascinat- ing connected with the education of children, and the story of the experiences of both the teacher and the pupil in their combined efforts to impart and develop, as well as to receive and apply, in- struction is always interesting; but we cannot undertake here to write up the history of every school-house in Dryden, and what we shall say of this one, which has some especially interesting features
160
HISTORY OF DRYDEN.
about it and which is, in a general way, typical of the rest, must suf- fice for all.
If the plain and dingy walls of the brick building, a likeness of which is here given, commonly but inaccurately called the "Eight Square School House " could but tell their own story in such a way as to be fully understood, they would furnish an eloquent history which the writer of this chapter can but imperfectly imitate. They could truthfully say that within their inclosure were taught at least four school children who became supervisors of the town of Dryden, viz : Jeremiah Snyder, Smith Robertson, Hiram Snyder and Lemi Grover ;
THE OCTAGONAL SCHOOL-HOUSE.
two, sheriff's of Tompkins county, viz: Thomas Robertson and Smith Robertson ; two, school commissioners, viz : Smith Robertson and Al- viras Snyder ; one, a presiding elder, Wm. Newell Cobb; two, county superintendents of the poor, Jeremialı Snyder and Wm. W. Snyder ; one, a millionaire, Orrin S. Wood ; numerous others who became bank, telegraph and insurance managers as well as railroad superintendents, and last, but not least, one pupil of the gentler sex, Mary Ann Wood (Cornell), who in after years was destined to become the wife of a mil- lionaire philanthropist and the mother of a distinguished governor of our Empire State.
161
THE OCTAGONAL SCHOOL HOUSE.
The age of this venerable but well preserved school-house is about seventy-five years. We think that some one had given us the exact date of its construction and the name of its chief builder, but if so the memorandum of it has unfortunately been mislaid. However, the pre- cise date is not essential. From the year 1815 forward until it was built, a period of about ten years, upwards of one hundred pupils of school age were annually registered upon the records of the school district, (No. 5,) which, although occupying then, as now, a thinly set- tled agricultural section of the country, was remarkable in many re- spects, and doubtless afforded during the first half of our Century Peri- od the best educational advantages to the largest number of appreciat- ive school children to be found together in the township. At one time there were eight families residing in the district-coinciding in number with the eight sides of this unique form of a school building -- which numbered among their members eighty-seven children, lacking only one in the aggregate of giving an average of eleven to each, and two single families at one time supplied the school with twenty-one pu- pils. Prior to about 1825 a small frame structure occupied the present site. Even then the greatest efforts were made to secure the very best of teachers for this school, some of them being obtained from Cortland and further east. During this time William Waterman taught the school six years, Almon Brown, one year, and David Reed, three years, Elmira (Bristol), the oldest daughter of Benjamin Wood, serving as assistant.
It was during Reed's administration as principal that it was decided that a new school-house must be built, the old building being so crowded with the swarms of pupils that some had to be sent out to play in order to give others a chance to recite. Accordingly the frame school-house was removed to a point about eighty rods north, where it served temporarily while the new brick building was being con- structed, and afterwards it was sold and became a part of the Elijah Vanderhoef residence near the extreme northeast corner of the dis- triet.
We may well believe that the parents of these school children who were to be so successful in after life were not of the niggardly, narrow- minded class of citizens and did not begrudge the great effort under the circumstances required to construct a building which should be, as it was for half a century, the best of its kind in the township. The prime movers in the enterprise are said to have been Col. William Cobb, at the southeast, and Benjamin Wood, at the northeast corner of the district, and they were the first to have children who, after
11
162
HISTORY OF DRYDEN.
graduating from this school, sought higher institutions of learning ; but the trustees who had charge of the work and who together con- ceived of and carried out the particular design were Capt. Geo. Rob- ertson, Isaac Bishop and Henry Snyder, the nearest neighbors on either side, who employed as chief builder one Balcom from near Mc- Lean or Cortland. The brick was then made near by at the Grover- Hammond-Metzgar brickyard corners and the Jeremiah Snyder brick- yard corners, last operated by Russel Sykes. Many of the less able residents contributed the other material and work, while the poorest families had their shares contributed by their more fortunate neigh- bors. Thus with the greatest harmony, as it is said, and entirely free from the jangles and controversies which too often in modern times distract and disgrace communities in such undertakings, the eight- sided brick school-house became an accomplished reality.
Reed as school-master was followed by Grinnell, Pelton and others in early days and later by such excellent local teachers as Ebenezer McArthur, Smith Robertson, Merritt L. Wood, Levi Snyder, Joseph Snyder, Alviras Snyder, Orrin S. Wood, William W. Snyder and Ar- temas L. Tyler.
While the Octagonal School House is still serviceable as an institu- tion of learning we leave the reader to supply its present success and surroundings from other sources, our object being in this as in all other matters to emphasize and preserve that which is old and in danger of being lost to local history.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
FURTHER HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST SECTION.
The pioneer families of this section of whom we have been able to gather sufficient data with which to make suitable mention are as follows :
BROWN, REUBEN, came from New Jersey to the town of Lansing about the year 1795.
In 1804 he removed to Dryden, locating on Lot 24. The most of the original purchase has remained in the family and is included in the farm of his grandson, S. N. Brown. In 1797, while living in Lan- sing, Reuben Brown was appointed leader of the first Methodist class at Asbury, being one of the very first in the county. He continued to lead this class for several years after his removal to Dryden, himself and wife often going on foot and carrying a child a distance of six
163
THE NORTH-WEST SECTION.
miles through the then almost unbroken forest to attend church and lead his class. This continued nntil 1811, when a class was formed at West Dryden. The oldest and last surviving son, Freeman Brown, was born in Lansing in 1800 and died in 1889. Reuben Brown died in 1862, aged 86 years.
BUSH, CAPTAIN CALVIN, was born in Vermont in 1781, and at the age of twenty-one years came to Lansing and was employed by Samuel Baker, who owned a large tract of land near Teetertown. Soon after, he married Sarah Moore and removed to Dryden, locating first on Lot 34, on land now owned by W. H. Moore. His son Loren took this land and he purchased one hundred acres on Lot 3, now owned by Larkin Smith and Alvah Snyder. This was then a dense forest of heavy timber, which he cleared off, and here he lived until old age disqualified him from longer caring for the farm. Here the old peo- ple were cared for by their son-in-law, Freeman, and by their grand- son, S. N. Brown, where Captain Bush died in 1864, aged 83 years. Before coming to Dryden he was at the head of a company of militia, and during the War of 1812 he led his company to the frontier.
GROVER, ANDREW, came in 1806 from New Jersey and first settled on the property since known as Woodlawn, which he afterwards lost from defective title. He then, about 1812, settled where his grandson, John S. Grover, now lives, and died in the year 1871. Of his chil- dren, Peter was the father of Major Grover, of the 76th Regiment, af- ter whom Grover Post G. A. R., at Cortland, is named ; Jacob is still living in Michigan, 90 years of age; Andrew P. was a justice of the peace of Dryden in 1849 and 1852, afterwards removing to Michigan. Others moved to Michigan and Steuben county, and a daughter, Par- nelia Johnson, is still living in Dryden.
HANCE, THOMAS, SR., and sons, Thomas, Jr., and William, also two sons-in-law, Cornelius Conover and Benjamin Cook, came from New Jersey in 1800 and located one and one-half miles west of "Fox's Cor- ners." Cook afterwards lived on Lot 5. Thomas, Sr., died in 1838, at the age of 97, and is buried at Asbury Church. The families were Quakers, among the first in town of that sect. Wm. moved to Ithaca in 1826, where he and his sons became prominent in business circles. William was known in his latter years as "Major Hance," from his prominence in the militia.
KNAPP, SAMUEL, was born in Belvidere, N. J., in December, 1759, and lived to the age of 91 years. He was a soldier in the Revolution- ary War and was engaged in the battles of Trenton, Princeton, Stony Point and many others, and many were the stories told by him to his
164
HISTORY OF DRYDEN.
grandchildren of his trials and suffering. His wife, Charity West- fall, was born September 26, 1764, near Trenton, N. J.
About 1800 they started their journey into the interior, having all their possessions in a wagon drawn by a pair of horses. Thus they journeyed on, living in their wagon and by the aid of the gun and fishing rod, their only means of support, until they reached a place near where Varna is now located, from whence they cut their way through the woods to their destination and settled on Lot 14, where James Lumbard now lives, living in their wagon until a log house could be erected. Eight children were born to them, six girls and two boys, Mary, Catharine, Sarah, Betsey, Amy, Cable, Samuel, and Ann, who married Wm. Skillings.
MCCUTCHEON, GEORGE, was about two years old when his parents, Andrew Mccutcheon and wife, Jean Adair, came from Scotland in their own merchant sloop to this country. Finding acquaintances in the family of Robert Robertson in Saratoga township, N. Y., they were induced to remain there. When George was about sixteen years old he was pressed into the ranks of the Revolutionary Army and was in the first battle at Bemis Heights. He subsequently en- listed, in August, 1777, in Capt. Ball's company, Col. Shepard's Mass- achusetts Regiment, and served six years, being honorably discharged June 8, 1783, from Capt. Fuller's company, Col. Jackson's regiment. He was conspicuously brave in battle, in one of which he led his company in the capture of several Hessian regiments. He served in the battles of Monmouth, Valley Forge, at Saratoga during the sur- render of Burgoyne, and many others. He returned home and after several years married Nancy Robertson, sister of Capt. Robertson, and they named their eldest son, born September 4, 1790, Robert, after her father, Robert Robertson. At the time Capt. Robertson moved to Dryden this son Robert desired to go with him and when about six- teen years old helped his uncle drive some cattle to his new farm.
Being greatly pleased with the new country he induced his father, George Mccutcheon to move to Dryden. They left Saratoga on Feb. 26, 1807, performing the journey by land in ten days, camping by the way where night overtook them, sleeping on blankets on the ground, and arrived in Dryden, at Capt. Robertson's, on March 7, 1807.
They purchased a farm of Philip Robertson, now known as the Weaver farm, near Etna, bringing up their eleven children and living there until the mother's death and the father became too. old and feeble to care for the farm. George Mccutcheon died at the age of 85. Robert Mccutcheon married Mary, daughter of Peter Snyder,
165
THE NORTH-WEST SECTION.
May 4th, 1812, after having volunteered on April 22, 1812, marching with his company in June to Buffalo, where he was in the command of Gen. Peterson at Buffalo, along Lake Erie, at Black Rock, and Niaga- ra Falls, where they guarded the line. Most of the time he did scout- ing duty rarely being with his command, and with his company was honorably discharged May 22, 1813, and marched home, arriving in July of that year.
Peter Snyder had given to each of his sons one hundred acres and to each daughter as a dower fifty acres of land about one mile west of Etna and along Fall Creek. On the south side of this farm Robert built a log cabin of two rooms in July of the same year and in No- vember the young couple went to housekeeping. The land was a heavy wilderness and Robert cut down the first trees and made the · first clearing ever made on this land, putting in a crop of wheat about the cabin. In after years he added to this land 146 acres, put up good buildings on the north side of the same land, which is still in the family, being occupied and owned by his sons, Newton and Wm. Mccutcheon.
Robert was active in educational affairs, helping to promote the building of the eight-square brick school-house and to form the libra- ry association for which it was noted, and especially active in naming the books to be purchased for the school library, which were so excel- lent in choice that he derived the benefit of almost a college educa- tion from them.
He and his wife were known as Uncle Robert and Aunt Polly to the whole neighborhood and his judgment was much sought after by the younger generation in all the affairs of life. They raised a family of fourteen children : Anna, Rensselaer, Parmeno, Betsey, Delilah ( Em- mons,) Jane (Fulkerson,) Marietta ( Raub,) Miles, Arvilla ( Emmons,) William, Catharine ( Freeman,) Newton, Norman, Paulina (Peters,) of whom only five survive. Robert, after a long and useful life, seven- ty-three years of which was spent on the home farm, died in the nine- ty-fourth year of his age on February 2nd, 1884.
SKILLINGS, JOHN, was born in Ireland in 1756. In 1772, at the age of sixteen, he came to this country. He was a soldier in the Revolution- ary War, having been captured by the Indians but afterwards making his escape. At the close of the war he married Miss Betsey Camel near Philadelphia, Pa., and about 1800 they came to Dryden and set- tled on the farm now owned by N. H. Mineah. They reared a family of six children, four girls and two boys, John, Jr., Margaret, Eleanor, Sally, Betsey, and William Skillings.
166
HISTORY OF DRYDEN.
William Skillings married Miss Ann Knapp in the year 1827 and commenced keeping house on the farm now owned by N. H. Mineah. In 1836 he bought the farm now owned by James G. Sutfin, where he lived a few years and then moved on the farm now owned by S. M. Skillings, where they lived and died. Five children were born to them : John, who died in infancy; Eastman, who died at the age of 26 ; Betsey, who married Enos P. Moseley and now lives near the old homestead ; Charity, who married Wm. J. Sutfin and lives across the way from the old homestead ; Helen, who married James G. Sutfin, and now lives on the old Ward farm near by, and Samuel, who now owns and occupies the old homestead.
This briefly is the history of the Skillings family in Dryden. Chil- dren and grandchildren there have been, but among them all there is- now but one left to hand the name of Skillings down, and that is Fay, the only son of Samuel Skillings.
SMITH. In the early years of the century five brothers, Benjamin, Isaac, Jacob, John and Henry Smith, with their widowed mother, left Stroudsburg, Pa., and came into the wilds of New York State. They selected land on Lot 11 in Dryden and began clearing off the timber. At the breaking out of the War of 1812 the four brothers first named volunteered and served throughout the war. Soon after returning Benjamin died. Isaac removed to Danby and later to Ohio. Jacob, John and Henry remained on the original purchase until their deaths. Their mother lived to the age of 104 years. The land is still held in the family, Ex-Sheriff William J. Smith and the heirs of James Smith, who were descendants of John Smith, being the present owners.
VAN NORTWICK, SIMEON, with his family, came from New Jersey early in the year 1804, settling on the extreme northeast corner of Lot No. 15, for which he traded property in Monmouth county, N. J., the transfer having been made in the year 1802. Among the witnesses to the deed as now appears upon the old document itself was Jacob Van- derbilt, the father of Cornelius Vanderbilt, who afterwards accumu- lated such a vast fortune, and whose descendants now wield such a powerful influence in the financial world. Upon their arrival in their new home it was found necessary to go four miles, nearly one mile west of West Dryden, to obtain a live coal to start their first fire. William Van Nortwick was six years old at this time, afterwards was a well known and prominent farmer until his death in 1866 at the age of 68 years. Saralı Van Nortwick still lives on the same farm where her grandfather settled ninety-eight years ago.
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