USA > New York > Onondaga County > Marcellus > The centennial history of the town of Marcellus : delivered in the Presbyterian Church of Marcellus, Onondaga County, N.Y., July 4, 1876 > Part 6
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Their first religious services were held in 1853 at the house of John McNally, and in 1854 a church of about twenty members was organized, and called the Church of St. Francis Xavier. Services were held for many years in the second story of the old corner Tavern, which was purchased by the society. On this site the present fine church edifice was built in 1867. Their pastors have been Rev. Michael Haes, Rev. Wm. McCallian, Rev. - Butler, Rev F. J. Purcell, Rev. J. J. Hayden and Rev. J. Mc Donnough who still remains. The last two have been the ouly res- ident pastors.
The church numbers one hundred and fifty families, many of them however are not residents of this town.
During the last six or eight years many of them have express- ed much interest in the cause of temperance. Some years since numbers of them organized themselves into an instrumental band for music, for the improvement of which, they have exhibited in- domitable perseverance and energy.
We are now, as a nation, celebrating the Fourth of July, the one-hundredth time. Probably there are none living now, who celebrated it intelligently one hundred years ago. But there was a large class of persons who gave additional interest to the occa- sion then, who, now are absent, and whose place in this national
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festivity will never be filled by them again. I refer to the old Revolutionary Soldiers who survived the war. Whenever this anniversary was observed in this village, these veterans were sure to be gathered in from all over the town, and in the earlier years they amounted to n numerous and imposing company. Their place of gathering was at one of the taverns At the appointed bour they would form into line under the direction of an officer, and carrying the colors, would be led by martial music - the fifes and drums and sometimes a bugle - up and down this village, keep- ing perfect time with the beat of the drum, and finally would be escorted to the old meeting-house on the site of which we are now gathered, and would occupy the body seats of the house, which were then called slips. Here they would listen to the same Decla- ration of Independence, which has been read to us this morning, and which, no doubt, they more thoroughly understood, then it is possible for us; and then to an oration which would so recount and picture the scenes of the war, that their hearts would thrill with patriotism and pride at having been actors in that great event, the American Revolution. This occasion would be richly interspersed with music adapted to the occasion, performed by a large choir, and the whole service having been opened with a pray- er, would also be closed with a prayer, and that a patriotic pray- er, full of recognition of the Divine power displayed in the preser- vation of our nation.
Then these veterans filed ont of the house first, in advance of all others, and again marched the length of the village, ending at the Tavern, where, either in the door-yard or ball-room, they sat down around a long table loaded with the good things of the land. Near the close of the dinner they would commence giving their toasts. On the announcement of each toast, a signal being given, a field-piece stationed on the Methodist Hill poured forth its volley in response to the toast.
As years rolled along that company of veterans began to les- sen in number, each succeeding year increasing the diminution, ro 1
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that by about the year 1840 they ceased entirely to appear upon this occasion. Although they were not all dead at that date, yet those who were left were so disabled by extreme age, as rendered them unfit to be present. It was sad in those latter years, to see on the Fourth, their diminished number, showing thereby that Death was surely doing his work; and their decrepit forms the result of a life of severe service, that the times in which they had lived, had imposed upon them. They were invariably stiffened in one or more parts of the body; some were bowed over almost doub- . le, others limped on one leg while occasionally there would be one walking with crutches. These were all that were left of those who fought our battles for freedom, through that long seven years war of the Revolution. We loved them for what they had done for us, and the memory of them is ever precious with us. It was pleasant to see their old age made happy year by year, by the payment of a pension of ninety-six dollars; a snug little sum that helped to make many an old man and woman comfortable through the long winter seasons.
In those earlier days the Fourth of July morning was herald- ed by the firing of as many guns at sunrise, as there were states in the Union, and this was all done in perfect order and safety, from the Methodist Hill-top. No placing a field piece or any piece smaller, down in our street, to sweep the street indiscrim- inately !
Prior to 1846 there was another day, which was akin to the Fourth of July, because it was a product of the Revolution. I mean the "General Training" day. On a certain day of every year, a regiment would assemble, alternately in this village and in Skan- eateles, all "armed and equipped as the law directs," for the pur- pose of military drill and parade.
:. These regimental drills occurred day by day, succeeding each other until all the regiments in the Brigade had been successively inspected by the Brigadier General. With the movements of the Brigadier General and his aids, from one General Training place
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to another, there followed a perfect caravan of peddlers, truckers and all sorts of people, who would arrange themselves, early in the morning of that famous day, in convenient places about the village, and when arranged gave the village the appearance of a great Bazaar. Then soon would begin to come from all di- rections those seemingly endless streams of people, who were to make up the various actors and spectators of the day. When once together, they numbered their thousands.
This occasion was always about the middle of September. In this Bazaar were numerous stands affording refreshments. Their various dishes were too numerous to mention; but no stand was complete without stacks of gingerbread and pumpkin pies. Also a barrel of new cider would protrude its tapped end out of the front or rear end of the wagon, Such constant patronage as was given to these places from morning till night, none here but those of us who were boys in those days, can fully realize. In the different establishments were all manner of wares for sale; and as the day drew towards a close, their sales would become more and more active, until finally, when the regiment was dismissed, the whole village became a perfect Babel, by the auctioncering going on from all of these places at the same time. Those sales- men seemed determined to clean out what they had by night; and the consequence was, that those who had patience to wait would finally make purchases at a great advantage. It was interesting to witness the departure of the crowd for their homes, which, though at first somewhat gradual, would finally become a regular - breaking up; and every street leading from the village would ex- hibit an array of vehicles, loaded with men and newly purchased · wares ; men and horses alike in haste.
I must not close the description of this day without a few words about the military portion of it. With the exception of an independent company of sixty, called the Rifle Company, the others were denominated Bare-foot and Flood-wood companies. Probably these names may have been given to them, on account of the
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striking contrast they presented to the Rifle Company, which was a trim, beautiful company of select men, with dress in uniform of a dark grey suit; pants with a black stripe running down the outside of the leg; dress coat single breasted, with one row of bright military buttons set closely together, extending from the waist to the neck, and a stiff straight collar, with three or four parallel stripes of yellow tinsel lace extending around its whole length ; there were also two stripes of the same extending over each shoulder, and around the cuffs of the sleeves. A tall beaver hat, with a thin brass plate, adorned with figures, and a little larger than a man's hand, fastened on the front of it, and from behind this plate, and apparently growing out of the top of it, was a tall bushy red feather.
Each man carried a first class rifle, in complete order, and a powder flask suspended from a belt fastened around his waist. Their first captain was Myron L. Mills, after him was Hervey Rhoades, and succeeding Mr. Rhoades was the present Sydney M. Cook of Camillus. I have never seen a company since then, that appeared more complete in every respect than did this com- pany; and if I am not mistaken, there would not have been many exceptions taken to them if they could have presented themselves on the parade ground at West Point. Every man possessed a pride for his company, and delighted to drill and be drilled. When they moved it was at the tap of the drum, and as one man.
Occasionally this company assembled on the Fourth of July for the purpose of escorting and doing honor to the old veterans.
But the Flood-wood companies, although made up of men like 'the Rifle company, had the appearance of having emanated from some dark region of the earth, on account of the utter care- lessness manifested by a portion of them, in dress and personal appearance. Having no uniform, every man was dressed to meet his own views of taste and comfort, so that when formed into one body as a regiment, and marching either in the field, or to and from the field, the rifle company invariably at the head of the
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regiment, there was very much the appearance of dazzling light leading hideous darkness. The Flood-wood company were equip- ped with a musket and its bayonet; a cartridge box hanging by one side and a bayonet sheath by the other, each suspended by a strap passing over the opposite shoulder.
Although on company training day, (which was always on the first Monday of September, ) there were many departures in the Flood-wood companies, from the regulations of the day; never- theless, on the "General Muster" day order prevailed, for the scrutiny of the higher officers peculiar to this day, was such that whoever ventured to violate rules was sure to be returned to Court Martial, and there to meet with a retribution, which de- stroyed all desire ever afterwards to repeat the misdemeanor.
About the year 1843 a second independent company of sixty young men was organized in this regiment, who also did honor to the regiment, as well as to themselves. Their uniform I do not sufficiently hold in remembrance to warrant a description. Al- though fine, it was not as attractive as that worn by the Rifle Company. Training days being soon over deprived this company of the opportunity of making much history for itself.
But I must close this discription, for if I were to attempt to picture out all that was interesting on that day, more time would be required, than would be proper on this occasion.
On this Centennial day it would be gratifying, had we a centenarian in all our population within the bounds of our original town, to bring before you in discourse if we could not in person, for reason of decrepitude of age, but we are unable thus to do. However, next to that, I will take the liberty to introduce to you two individuals who are so near to becoming centenarians that we may regale ourselves upon them, almost as though they were. These are Mrs. Polly Stewart Birdwell and Mrs. Esther Sherman Northrup.
Mrs. Bardwell was born at East-Haddam, Conn. Ang. 19th 1776; so that she is close on to one hundred years; only lacking
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forty-six days to complete her centenary round. She was the daughter of one of the men of those days, who were thoroughly inspired by the wonderful events then transpiring. He fought in our battles for independence, and was a soldier through most all of the war of the Revolution. At the age of twenty-six she was married to Zenas Bardwell at Belchertown, Mass. and resided there until 1813, when they removed to the town of Otisco, where she still resides. Mrs. Bardwell kept house until she was eighty- one, when she consented to live with her worthy son Mr. William Bardwell. At the age of ninety-six she expressed a wish to spend her remaining days with her daughter, Mrs. Jacob P. Clark, which was granted her, and there she now lives. She is the moth- of nine children, (the oldest living is now seventy-five, ) the grand- mother of thirty-three, the great grand mother of thirty-five, and the great, great grand mother of one.
I am happy to say that she is in the comfortable possession of her mental and physical powers. Her general health is good, and as a rule she has thus far in life made herself useful day by day. She attends to all the arrangements of her own room, besides aiding in the lighter household duties. Thus far she is in no way cumbersome. Being intelligent and possessed of a cheerful dis- position, besides having added thereto something which is rare in extreme age - beauty of face - she is really an ornament to her home. She has been a devoted member of the Congregational Church in Otisco since 1831.
Mrs. Northrup was born Oct. 3rd 1778. Although not so old by two years as Mrs. Bardwell, still the difference even of two years at that great age is hardly perceptible to us in our imagin- ations. However there is a real advantage that Mrs. Bardwell possesses over Mrs. Northrup, in the fact that in speaking of her age we may use the numbers one hundred, for although she is not one hundred years old, yet she is in her onc-hundredth year. I wish that we had before us in this house, those two venerable ladies, that we might hurrah over them, and cry, God save our
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only two remaining Revolutionary Mothers, until they shall num- Ler one hundred years old !
As Mrs. Northrup's lineage has been carefully kept, it will be interesting to recite it at this time. This lineage dates back as far as 1634, when her ancestor Samuel Sherman with his brother John, and his cousin John, and also his intended, Sarah Michel, came from Dedham, Essex Co. England to America. Samuel and wife settled in Stratford, Conn. Samuel had eight sons and one daughter. One of these sons, Benjamin, had seven sons. One of these, Job, had four sons One of these, John, had five sons and four daughters. One of these, Daniel, had two sons and five daughters. One of these daughters - Esther - is our present Mrs. Esther Sherman Northrup.
The original Samuel Sherman of 1634 is also the ancestor of Gen. W. T. Sherman.
Mrs. Northrup is the mother of our townsman Joel G North-" rup. She was born in Zoar Parish, town of Newtown, Fairfield Co. Conn. She was married to Hezekiah Northrup in 1803, in the town of Bethlehem, Litchfield Co; in 1804 removed to Wood- bridge, New-Haven Co. Removed to Cortland, N. Y. in 1828 and to Marcellus in 1858, where she now lives with her son, Joel. Her general health is good. She is an old lady of strong mind, and her memory is very retentive, being able to repeat a great num- ber of hymns that she committed to memery in her earlier years. Her attachment to her son Joel is so great, that she depends upon him by day and by night, as her stay and her staff. Although this is a great tax upon the time and strength of Mr. Northrup, still he is ever cheerful in making sacrifices for the comfort of his mother.
During the years of 1834, 35 and 36 there was a great em igration of our population to the then Territory of Michigan. It was an era in the history of our town. Then for the first time did the descendents of the old families begin to sell their inheritance in the old town of Marcellus, to strangers. It was a great breaking
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up time among the people; a going to and fro from family to family, to inquire of those who had returned from the exploring visits to the West, of that goodly land Michigan. It was an inter- est not confined simply to the young men, but it was a general stir-up of the inhabitants; old and young, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, were alike aroused. Every man's farm was for sale to all appearance ; although this was not the truth, but so many of them were for sale as to give rise to that idea. And yet on our South Hill it proved to be almost literally true, for the neighborhood was almost entirely cleaned out. And a valuable class of people they were too; no neighborhood was their' super- ior
Several of these families chartered a canal boat to carry them as far as Buffalo. And here I will mark an incident in their jour- ney, worthy of record. When Saturday night came, they stopped at a village to remain until Monday morning. Allattended church on the Sabbath, except a few who were needed to take charge of the boat. A regard for the sacredness of the Sabbath that few of the present day appreciate!
These families settled in Pontiac, Oakland Co. Mich. But Marcellus sent emigrants very largely to St. Joseph's Co. and these were principally from South Marcellus. Ann-Arbor, Ypsi- lanti, Jackson, Allegan, Detroit, Flint, Saginaw and the surround- ing country have their share from Marcellus. It required a week to go to Detroit: the landing place for all. Four days on our canal and two or three on the lake.
Many became siek in making their prospecting tour, and that sickness was denominated the Michigan Fever. However these cases of sickness were not so mich attributable to the influence of Michigan malaria, as they were to the course pursued by the individuals themselves. So much excitement and enthusiam at- tended their journeys that they moved on quite regardless of the laws of health. For instance one company from this place made up of both young men, and men in middle life, on arriving at
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Detroit started on foot for Ann-Arbor, a distance of forty miles; and as forty miles had always been considered a common day's journey for travelers with horses, they seemed to have forgotten that they were not horses, and one and all determined to make the distance in one day. And they proved equal to the task, so far as accomplishing it; but what a company of individuals they presented that night on their arrival, and for days, and, in the case of some of them, for weeks following. All were unable . to use their feet the next day; swelled legs, sore fect, and head- aches were the order of the following days, and with one of their number it proved the beginning of a slow fever, with which he died after his return to Marcellus. Another became so disheart- ened, that on his recovery, he returned immediately to Marcellus, so disgusted with Michigan that he never went back.
It is worthy of notice that all who made their homes in Mich- igan at that period, have almost without exception done well, and proved an honor to the town of their nativity.
The first four months of the year 1836 are ever memorable as the "Winter of the Deep Snow " The snow storm began Thurs- day night, January 7th and continued without any cessation un- til the Monday morning following, a period of eighty-four hours.
I will here introduce a few items pertaining to this storm from the diary of the Rev. Levi Parsons.
"Friday, January Sth. Began to snow last night and con- tinued all day; now quite deep.
Sat. 9th. The snow continued to fall all day. Doctor Beach had a shed fall by the weight of snow, which killed a cow.
Sab. 10th. Continued to snow all day. Had no public wor- ship. The first time that it has been omitted here, on account of the weather, since I came into this place. It was omitted one or two Sabbaths about twenty years ago, owing to the prevalence of Small Pox.
Mon. Jan. 11th. It has pretty much ceased snowing, and has fallen to the depth of four feet. Teams are out breaking the
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roads. The sheds of the Methodist church were crushed by the snow. The western stage arrived about night; not any stage be- fore since Saturday. The eastern had not come in at sunset ; the last of that was Saturday evening. Ther. 28 deg. above zero.
Tues. Jan. 12th. The eastern stage came in, in the afternoon. The roads are beginning to be passable.
Jan. 25th. Snowed most of the night, and till afternoon to- day - a fall of one and a half feet, and now is quite deep, roads very bad, little traveling.
Sab. April 3rd. Roads so bad on account of the depth of snow, and in a thawing state, that many could not come to meet- ing with their horses."
The storms of snow were so frequent all through the winter, that not merely the depth of four feet was retained in spite of the settling by its own weight, and by thawing, but a depth of nearly five feet was reached. Ordinary fences were buried entirely from sight. As the sunny days of Spring appeared, with their freezing nights, the snow finally became so hardened, that in the forenoon , of each day succeeding a freezing night, it would bear up a team with its loaded sleigh, any where about the fields.
There was a young man who, at that time became so inter- ested in this compacted condition of the snow, that in drawing wood every forenoon, on his way to and from the woods, he would drive hither and thither about the farm, through this field and that field, over this fence and that, (or rather, where the fences were, as they were not to be seen, ) not merely for convenience, but also that in after years he would have it to think about, and communicate to others.
Early in the morning the snow would be so rock-like, that the runners of a sleigh carrying half a cord of wood, would only occasionally leave an impress of their passage. Never under such circumstances would the horses or the sleigh slump.
On the day that the first storm ceased, (Jan. 11th) some of the villagers constructed an immense triangular shaped snow
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scraper, of heavy plank, two feet in width, and flared to the width of eight or ten feet. They then placed in front of it, from fifteen to twenty yoke of oxen to draw it, and in front of them, about twenty mounted horses, to tread a pathway for the oxen. This interesting retinue proceeded breaking and scraping the roads in and about the village. A large concourse of men and boys follow ed the scraper, tossing each other into the new made banks of snow as opportunity offered, which was so frequent that there were white forms perpetually issuing out of the snow ; a very in- teresting as well as a növel exhibition.
The great three and a half days storm came from the North- east, so that the snow laid heavily on the South and West roofs of all buildings; but as the frames of buildings in those days, (ex- cept in some instances of carelessly constructed sheds,) were com- posed of large timbers well braced, disasters from the weight of snow seldom occured.
As the winter progressed, each succeeding storm of wind would fill the trodden road-paths with new snow, so that finally, all the road paths throughout the country became lifted up even above the level of the surface of the snow. Then horses in teams became so afraid of being crowded off the path, the one by the other, that it was neccessary to change the order of driving them from two abreast, to one ahead of the other. Many men instead of riding in cutters rode horseback, for the convenience in meeting teams. The great depth of snow and riding on so high a path, made the houses throughout the country appear vory low. Some of the one and a half story houses were almost covered up, by the additional snow about them shoveled from the roofs.
The arrival of this great snow storm found the villagers prin- cipally, on a limited allowance of wood. It was the custom of the farmers in those days to chop their wood, and prepare it for market as much as possible in December, and after the "January thaw" to commence drawing it to market. In this winter the great storm followed so immediately the "January thaw," as com-
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pletely to shut off the usual flow of wood into the the village. This state of things soon produced a panic among the inhabitants; one man with a numerous family of children, became so exercis- ed, that he planned to have fire only long enough to prepare breakfast and supper, and kept his family in their beds the rest of the time. But this extremity was not of long duration, for it soon reached the philanthropic heart of a Major May on the East Hill, so that he at once devised a way for their relief by announc- ing to them, that if they would combine as a village, they were welcome to all the wood they could chop and draw from a certain portion of his forest, which he wished to have cleared.
So the villagers united with a hearty good will in the work, and with all the teams they could muster, they started for the woods, cach man with a shovel in hand. The woods were back from the highway three quarters of a mile, and the whole of that distance had to be opened with a shovel ! But even with so many men the procuring of the wood proved to be a very slow process. It was no easy matter to wade about the woods from tree to tree; also, as the trees were felled many of them would be buried in the deep snow, and before they could be chopped into sled lengths, the shovels had to be plied quite vigorously. Then again the wind would blow occasionally, and obstruct with snow their great alley-way through the fields, so that it must be reopened from time to time; thus it was with great difficulty. (although they had a forest before them at their pleasure,) that the villag- ers were enabled to supply themselves with wood sufficient for the winter.
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