USA > New York > Tompkins County > Dryden > The centennial history of the town of Dryden. 1797-1897 > Part 8
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The methods of dairy farming as practiced in the town have met with a wonderful change, since fifty years ago. Then the milk was all made up into butter and cheese at home, while now all that which is not consumed in fattening calves for the city markets is, in most local- ities, taken to the railroad stations to be shipped on the milk train, or to the nearest of the cheese or butter factories which are distributed throughout the township.
We should not pass over the present time without mentioning the now omnipresent "bicycle," which within the past twenty-five years has developed from its first appearance as the old "velocipede" and within the past few years has come into very general use as a means of pleasure and convenience even in the country. It promises at least to compel the farmers to build and maintain better roads, which will re- sult greatly to their own advantage and profit in the end.
In one respect there is some reason to complain of our times and that is in regard to the depreciation in the market value of real estate within the past twenty-five years. In the Pioneer Period, as we have seen, land was purchased for a few dollars per acre. For the first ser- enty-five years and until about the close of the War Period the value of real estate had a steady and constant upward tendency, until good farms in the town were readily sold at from sixty to one hundred dol- lars per acre. The young farmer who had invested in land and lived during that time, as old age came on often discovered that his in- creased wealth was as much due to the natural increase in the value of his farm as to the crops which he had raised and sold off from it, while
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the farmer of to-day, who invested his resources in land twenty-five years ago, finds to his sorrow that the depreciation in the market val- ue of his farm often counterbalances the labor and efforts of a lifetime expended upon it. The actual market value of the real estate of the town during that time, in spite of improved buildings, has depreciated nearly, if not quite, one half. From this tendency of the times, which was unforseen and unexpected, many, and especially those who had in- vested beyond their means in real estate, have suffered severely ; but in other respects these times are propitious. It is the abundance and cheapness of the necessities of life which now surround us, and not their scarcity as it was in the year 1816. In spite of this plenteous supply of its various products, labor itself is in good demand and well paid, and at no time, it is safe to say, within the century would the same amount of well directed labor purchase so much good common food or clothing as at present. The very prosperous times which have immediately preceded the present have unfortunately stimulated ex- travagance, and to this more than to any other cause is due the com- plaint of hard times so commonly heard.
As an illustration of this the writer remembers that about fifty years ago old Esquire Tanner used to keep in his postoffice at Dryden vil- lage, in two small glass jars with tin covers, and four square red boxes with sliding glass fronts, the stock of sugar candy which supplied the children of the village and surrounding country, more numerous then than now. One jar contained lemon drops-thirteen for a penny ; an- other jackson balls, at a cent apiece; and the four others contained stick candy of different kinds. His total sales of that commodity could not have exceeded twenty-five dollars per annum. Now the merchants tell us that the retail trade in candy in Dryden village exceeds one thousand dollars per annum, and is more than equalled by the sale of southern grown fruit, which fifty years ago was unknown to us. Not only is extravagance exhibited in such kinds of food, much of which is worse than useless, but so extravagant have people become in these " hard times" in the matter of superfluous clothing throughout the country, that during the past winter the Legislature of the great State of New York has in its wisdom enacted a law requiring the ladies who insist upon displaying such a profusion of flowers, ribbons and feath- ers in their head-gear as to eclipse the view of everything else, to re- move their hats when attending entertainments, and at the same time we believe an amendment was offered but lost limiting the number of yards of eloth which might be wasted by the ladies in making up their puffed sleeves.
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But in spite of the so-called hard times, useless extravagance and the depreciation in the value of real estate, there are many respects in which marked improvement has been made throughout the country with prospects of still greater advancement.
We read of many of the earlier settlers who lost the land which they had under many hardships and with much difficulty paid for, without any fault of their own, through defective and fraudulent titles, which were then very common. Now the system of recorded land titles is so perfect that very seldom does any such loss occur, and even then it re- sults from gross carelessness.
We learn that in early times there was a great deal of local litiga- tion, and that a number of pettifogging lawyers were kept busy in every hamlet of the township settling the disputes of neighbors by contested law-suits in Justice's Court over horse trades, dog fights, and other foolish matters. This state of things has almost entirely disappeared.
We are told by old people that in those "good old times" there was never a town meeting held without more or less fighting being wit- nessed. These were not wrestling contests or boxing matches, but real bloody, brutal fights, in which the "bullies" of the town exhibited their powers of inflicting and enduring blows to the crowd of their as- sembled townsmen. Now happily such an exhibition would not be tolerated at our town meetings or elsewhere, and the most noted of pugilists are obliged to seek a refuge as far away as New Orleans or Nevada in which to exhibit themselves in their contests.
It is said that in the early days of Dryden the Lacy and Knapp families were noted for their pugilistic contests with each other in dead earnest. Think of the family from which our very exemplary late lamented John C. Lacy descended, being noted for its brutal fight- ing qualities, frequently exhibited at town meetings, and then tell us whether the times and the manners have not greatly improved during the century.
CHAPTER XXII.
DRYDEN VILLAGE IN THE PIONEER PERIOD.
We now return from our general survey of the whole town to take up each separate locality, giving to each its own particular local his- tory, commencing with Dryden village, where, as we have seen, the first settlement was made. There were then no corporate limits and we
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shall include with the village in these times all of the events and fam- ilies naturally connected with it without regard to definite boundaries
After the settlement of the Amos Sweet family on Lot No. 39, as we have seen, in 1797, the next to locate upon the site of Dryden village appears to have been Dr. Nathaniel Sheldon, who was the first physi- cian of the town and who built the first frame house on the corner now occupied by the brick store of D. T. Wheeler & Co. Ruloff Whit- ney, who, as we have seen, assisted Col. Hopkins, of Homer, to build the first saw-mill of the town on Fall Creek near Willow Glen in 1800, soon after had a saw-mill of his own where the Dryden Woolen Mill now stands, but the exact dates of these events cannot be given. Ser- ren H. Jagger, Sr., built one of the first frame houses on the premises since owned by D. J. Baker, where his oldest daughter, Betsey, was born in 1805, who afterwards became the second wife of John South- worth, and the grandmother or great-grandmother of nearly all of his living descendants. Mr. Jagger was a tanner and currier by trade and then operated a small tannery in the rear of his residence. The five Lacy brothers located in and about Dryden village in 1801, and the Seth Wheeler family from New Hampshire and the Edward Griswold family from Connecticut in 1802, as the former accounts have it; but some investigation leads us to believe that it was about two years later.
The first postoffice in the town and the only one for some time after, was established at Dryden village, as shown by the department rec- ords at Washington, October 1, 1811, with Jonathan Stout as post- master. He was, however, succeeded on July, 1812, by Parley Whit- more, who retained the office for a long time.
The most vivid and reliable pen picture which we can give of Dry- den village in this period is afforded by the dercription of the late John C. Lacy, furnished for publication by him on his eightieth birth- day, October 21, 1888, and from which we quote as follows :
" MR. EDITOR-Having some recollection of the situation of things in this village and vicinity seventy or more years age, and as this is the eightieth anniversary of my birth and residence here, I thought I could in no better way notice the event, than to state briefly some of my recollections of these times, to wit :
" There were but two roads in the village, and crossing at right angles, forming the four corners as now. They were rough and crooked, the one running north and south was difficult of travel and was noted for the frequency in which teamsters became mired with their loads of lumber and produce bound for the Homer and Syracuse
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markets and returning with salt, which sold at five dollars per barrel. A brook ran across the east and west road near D. J. Baker's (now Henry Thomas's) over which was a pole bridge. A branch of Virgil Creek crossed the road near the late Wm. West's (now D. T. Wheel- er's) residence, over which was a bridge, under which I have caught fish ; where Mr. Rockwell's factory (the Woolen Mill) now stands was a saw-mill owned by a man by the name of Whitney, and after- wards by Jason Ellis. Near this mill was a little shop where a man by the name of Ballard made nails by hand, which he sold at eighteen pence per pound. Where Mill street now is there was nothing but a foot-path, and the crossing of the streams was over trees that had fallen across them. The highway then ran on the west side of Whit- ney's pond (or Rockwell's) and entered the village road where Mr. Rockwell's wool house now is. On this road was a log house where different families had lived for several years before the road was dis- continued, to wit : R. Whitney, Joseph Thomas, and Stephen B. Lounsberry. James, Union, Pleasant, Lewis, George, Rochester, Marsh, and Elm streets were either in the state of nature or under cultivation by the farmer. The village was small, the houses small, few and scattering ; one small tavern where the Blodgett House stood, one store where C. Green's tailor shop is, one school house near H. Cliff's residence gotten up by private subscription, in shares-some took more and some less. (Benjamin Lacy had about one-fourth of the stock.) For a sample of the houses, I would cite you to the house on Rochester street, of which unknown miscreants made a bonfire on the Fourth of July not long since. This house, in its best days, stood where E. Rockwell now resides. With this exception there were no houses between J. Cole's and the creek. The other side of the road was equally vacant of buildings from D. J. Baker's down to the creek. Where Dr. Montgomery's office now stands there was a log distillery in full blast, and on the site of the Geo. Hill block was a small cab- inet shop. The best house was on the Moore lot, built and owned by Dr. John W. Phillips,-since having been moved and now owned by John McKeon. The four corners of the village, comprising six rods square each, were not then built upon, but remained a public green, as was intended by the several donors who gave them to the good people of the town for that purpose.
" All' was in a rude state-the farms but partially cleared, stumps, straggling and girdled trees all over, swamps not drained. The peo- ple worked and suffered many privations and hardships, unaided by modern labor-saving machines ; the work of both men and women:
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was done by hand-the haying, with the scythe, the harvesting, with the sickle and the grain cradle, and the threshing with the flail. The wearing apparel was spun and woven by the women on the hand wheels, and on the hand looms. This, in addition to their household work, made it doubly hard for them. When they rode out they either rode on horseback or in lumber wagons and sleds, but oftener went on foot : if to parties or to get married, all the same. No fine carriages or railroad coaches, no mowing machines, no reapers, horse pitch- forks, sulky rakes or sulky plows, no threshing machines, no Woolen Factory, no meeting houses, no grist-mill or tannery, no newspaper, no Dryden Springs Place. The mineral springs were discovered by the Lacy brothers while digging and prospecting for salt in 1820-21. No. free school. The boy that went to school a few days in the year fur- nished his own wood and paid his own tuition. No two-cent postage on letters ; a letter to a friend five hundred miles away required eight- een pence postage, and for friends to separate such a distance was almost equal to separating forever ; for the parties had but little time to write and still less money to pay the heavy postage and telephon- ing and telegraphing were not then thought of, so they would lose track of one another altogether. Money was hardly thought of in deal, except to pay taxes, the payment of which was one of the most im- portant matters that annually perplexed and disturbed the people, money was so hard to be got. Barter was the order of the times. A bushel of corn was the price of a common laborer's day's work, and a bushel of wheat the mechanic's.
" The cold seasons of 1818, '19 were times that tried the men's souls. Corn was entirely cut off by the frosts, wheat and other products were scarce and dear, eighteen to twenty shillings per bushel for wheat, lit- tle or no money to buy with. If it were better in older and larger places the transportation of produce was so difficult and expensive it did them no good. This is the time when Capt. Geo. Robertson, then a well-known citizen of another part of the town, refused to sell his grain to men who had money, but sold it to those who had no money, on the ground that those who had could get it somewhere else, (in Lansing.) This is the time one of my neighbor's boys told me he "lived three days on two cold potatoes, and nothing under Hea- vens else, " and another neighbor's little girl told me she had had nothing to eat for two days and was as weak as a little frog. This was a time, too, when a dollar to a man was more than a pound ster- ling would be to-day. The snows and frosts of those years have nev- er since been equalled here for severity."
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We think that Mr. Lacy was mistaken as to the years of the famine, which were 1816, '17 instead of 1818, '19.
As corroboration of the six rods square from each of the four cor- ners intended as a public common referred to by Mr. Lacy, we find on the county records a deed bearing date May 18, 1812, executed by " Abram Griswold, Nathan Goddard, John Taylor, and Joshua Holt, all of Dryden, Cayuga Co., " to " The Good People of the town of Dry- den, " purporting to convey six rods square from each corner, consti- tuting 144 square rods, nearly an acre, in the exact center of the vil- lage. As a matter of law " The Good People of the Town " constituted a grantee too indefinite to hold the property, and each corner was afterward appropriated for private use, except the M. E. church corner, which was afterward conveyed with other premises to the Presbyte- rian society subject to the rights granted to "The Good People" as aforesaid.
In this period there was an earnest rivalry between this settlement and Willow Glen as to which should become the metropolis of the town, and from the active part which Edward Griswold, Sr., took in it, giving a blacksmith forty acres of land off from his lot in order to induce him to locate here, and from his successful efforts through his son Abram to establish the Presbyterian church with other enterpris- es here, as well as the gift, through his son, of the corner to "The Good People " and the knoll to the east for a cemetery, we believe he is entitled to be regarded as the "Father" of the village as Captain Robertson was of the town. In addition to the description by Mr. Lacy of the village in the early times, we can say that in the year 1816 Hooker Ballard kept the tavern, Joshua Holt had a grocery store, and afterwards manufactured chairs at the old oil mill on South street. Parley Whitmore kept a store as well as the postoffice near where the M. E. church now stands. James H. Hurd and Timothy Stowe were cabinet makers. Thomas L. Bishop had a saw-mill west of the village ; Jesse B. Bartholomew was a distiller on Main street ; and Ebenezer Tuttle was a carpenter and builder. Of the farmers, Seth Wheeler, Edward Griswold and Selden Marvin lived north of the village ; David Foote, Abram Griswold, Nathan Goddard and Ne- hemiah Tucker east ; Michael Thomas, Daniel and Thomas Lacy and James Bowlby south ; and Benjamin and Richard Lacy west. Jedidi- ah Phelps was a brick maker, and John Phillips as well as John Tay- lor and Nathaniel Shelden were the physicians.
As Mr. Lacy remarks there were no streets then in Dryden village except the two main roads crossing at right angles and forming the
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four corners, and the place, for the want of another name, was for a long time called "Dryden Corners."
CHAPTER XXIII.
PIONEER FAMILIES OF DRYDEN VILLAGE.
It is recognized that this chapter and other similar memoranda of the pioneer families is incomplete, there being others which de- serve a place among the pioneers of Dryden village if we only could have obtained the material out of which to have written their early history.
BAKER, DAVID J., was born at Great Bend, Pa., March 3, 1795, but when he was two months old his father's family moved to Homer, N. Y., the mother and child being conveyed from one place to the other in a canoe on the Tioughnioga River, there being no roads at that time for transportation. There he lived until eighteen years of age, when he went to Aurora, and a few years later (1816) he came to Dry- den. Here he soon built a house on the premises now owned by his son Albert and his daughter, Mrs. Thomas, where he continued to live until his recent death at the age of ninety-five years. On Nov. 10, 1823, he married Samantha, daughter of Hooker Ballard, whose hotel at that time was located just west of where the stone block has since been built. Mr. and Mrs. Baker occupied the same house on Main street in Dryden village for nearly seventy years and he was a member of the Masonic order for nearly seventy-five years, being at his death the oldest Mason in the state. In about 1832, he organized a fine cav- alry company in the old state militia, of which he was captain, and he afterwards held the rank of major. His death occurred January 11, 1890, his wife surviving him less than two years. Of their five chil- dren all survive except their daughter Samantha, who died recent- ly, and all of the remainder are residents of Dryden village except Mrs. Helen A. Frost, of Wheatland, Iowa.
Mr. and Mrs. Baker are among the few residents of Dryden who, by their long and useful lives, were able to connect the Pioneer Period with the present time. Both were too well known to the present gen- eration to require any extended history to be given here. They were very exemplary citizens in their domestic as well as in their social and public relations, she being always a devoted, industrious and dignified wife and mother as well as a leading and active member of the M. E. church, and he being a prominent, public spirited and prosperous business man.
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BOWLBY, JAMES, came with other early settlers between 1805 and 1810 and located upon two hundred eight acres where Martin E. Tripp now resides sonth of the village. Of his nine children all early went west or to Bath, N. Y., where some of them still reside, except Nancy A., wife of Henry H. Ferguson, who still resides here in the town where she was born in 1816. She recollects many interesting inci- dents of the old times. Her father was drafted here in the War of 1812 and her mother to help raise money to hire a substitute to go in his place sold her wedding dress, the most valuable article of clothing which she had. Mrs. Ferguson recollects the old log distillery in Dry- den village referred to by Mr. Lacy, and says that at one time when her father emptied out the barrel to be taken to the distillery to be refilled, he threw out some cherries which had been kept in the liquor to give it flavor, and that she and the other small children after eating some of the fruit which was well preserved and very nice, felt a very peculiar sensation from the effects of which for a time they could not see, and they did not know what was the matter of them. Perhaps those who have had some similar experiences with the prod- ucts of the modern "still" can appreciate what was the trouble. When she was about twenty years of age her father and mother and the rest of his family moved to Bath where he died.
BURCH, JOHN, SR., settled in Dryden as early as 1810, coming here ยท from Lewis county, but originally from Connecticut. Soon after lo- cating in Dryden he married Betsey Topping, and their oldest son, John, who is the ancestor of the members of the Burch family now living in Dryden, was born here in 1811. In 1812 John Burch, Sr., joined the army and served near Sackett's Harbor. He was after- wards a pensioner by reason of that service and died in Dryden about twenty years ago. His son, John, Jr., was a captain of militia and is also dead. His daughter Nancy, widow of Thomas Lormor, is still living in Dryden, and his daughters, Martha Burch and Mary Win- ship, are living at Newark Valley, N. Y. Many of his descendants are living in the West.
GRISWOLD, CAPTAIN EDWARD, is the ancestor of a now numerous Dry - den family. He was early a sea captain residing at Killingworth, Connecticut. Having served in the War of the Revolution, his wife, Asenath (Hurd), prevailed upon him, after peace was declared, to abandon his sea-faring life and cast his fortunes in the undeveloped West, which then included a large part of New York state. They first settled in Fairfield, Herkimer county, from which so many Dryden pioneers came, where they sojourned several years and where their
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younger children were born. They are said to have come to Dryden in 1802. The deed to Edward Griswold of Lot 39, including the. northeast quarter of Dryden village, is dated October 16, 1805, con- veying six hundred forty acres for a consideration of $2,250.00. He must have been a man of considerable means for those days and was prosperous. He was short and thick-set in his make-up and honor- able and upright in his character. There is no evidence that he ever built a log cabin, but he early constructed near the center of his lot the little red house, not far from where the Dryden village reservoir is now located, in which he lived. He died at the age of 84, his wife surviving him to the age of 95.
Their children were : Abram, who married Margaret Givens, leav- ing many descendants, among whom are A. G. Hunter and Mrs. La- fayette Sweetland, both of Dryden; Polly, who married Timothy Stowe, having no descendants ; Asenath, who married William Hoag- land, leaving a number of descendants ; Nancy, who married George Carr, and left descendants all now non-residents ; Charles, who married Hannah Tauner, leaving many descendants including the late Leon- ard and Luther Griswold ; Jerusha, who married Daniel Bartholomew, and after his death, Jesse Topping, leaving descendants of whom one is our present Daniel Bartholomew ; Edward, who married Polly Tyler, leaving numerous descendants, mostly non-residents ; and Na- than, who married Patience Lindsey, and left descendants, among whom are Benjamin Griswold and Mrs. Chester Carmer, of Dryden.
HURD, JAMES H., migrated from Killingworth, Conn., to Seneca county, N. Y., in the year 1800, and a few years later he moved to Dryden, where he built, in the year 1817, what is still known as the Hurd house, now occupied by Benjamin Griswold on East Main street. He was a cabinet maker and for many years the undertaker of Dry- den, like all undertakers of those days, manufacturing usually to or- der in his own shop as well as trimming, staining and varnishing the coffins which he sold. They were usually made of pine, the price of such an article being from five to nine dollars, some undertakers charging one dollar per foot for the box, according to its length. Be- ing hastily made after the death of the person for whom they were designed they were freshly varnished and thus the odor of varnish was always associated with the grief of the mourners at funerals of the olden times. Among the children of Mr. Hurd were Denison, the father of Mrs. J. H. Pratt, late of Dryden but now deceased ; Clemen- tine, the wife of Jesse Givens, and Laura, the only child surviving, who is the wife of Benjamin Griswold. James street was laid out.
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