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 9
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, Hezekiah Shepard. ,
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Rhoderie Smith. ,
, Dan Moses.
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Dr. Alexander Cowies. .
, Ralsimon Kellogg.
Mr.
, John Plant.
. B. F. Moses.
William Colton.
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, Luther Coltou.
Mr. Norman Todd.
Dr. Israel Parsons.
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Myron L Mills. ,
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Joseph Phillips. ,
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Goodwin.
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, Samuel Ball.
, Warren.
, John Curtis. ,
, Martin Cossit.
ยท
David Bonta. ,
B. N. Parsons.
, Samuel Wood.
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, J. G. B. White. ,
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, Goodrich.
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Mrs. Sophia Ball.
Mrs. Betsey 'Taylor.
Mr. & , Samuel Ball Jr.
Mr. & , Nathan G Hoyt.
, John Carpenter.
, Joseph Taylor.
, Edward Talbot.
Harry Kennedy. .
, Abbott.
John Tompkins. John Landon.
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Timothy Lee. ,
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Worthy Rozier.
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, Addison Farnham,
Mr.
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Thos. Walwork.
, Caleb Gasper ..
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Pettibone.
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, Amory Wilson.
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, Medad Lawrence.
Guy Moses. ,
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Edward Wilder.
, Caroline Back.
, Joseph Phillips.
The first list numbers seventy-four. In 1850, twenty five of these were dead, and at the present date (1876) iifty nine are dead, leav- ing a balance of fifteen, ten of whom are living, and the remaining five are unknown.
The second list numbers one hundred and nine, and at the present time, fifty-five of them are dead.
Usually they have passed away one by one; one from this home and another from that; because these lists contain simply the heads of each family, which are only two, consequently at the most, there could but two die at once or near each other. And this nearness has only occurred in one family so far as we have been able to ascer- tain, that of Luther Colton and wife, who died within five weeks of each other.
Of the more numerous portion of our population, - the chil- dren - we have taken no data. Yet there have occurred repeated instances among them of proximity in deaths in the same family, as in the families of Win. J. Machan and Alfred Rockwell 2nd. where in the former, two daughters - young ladies - were sick at the same time, and died within four weeks of each other; and in the
Chester Moses.
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Misses. Amidon Samuel Ball Sen.
Arthur Machan. ,
, Thomas Walker. .
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Sanford Dalliba. ,
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family of the latter, two were dying at the same time, one on the lap of the mother and the other, a daughter of fifteen, in bed. Also some large families of children in different parts of the town have, in either one of these periods mentioned, been nearly whol- ly or in part removed by death. Among these were Capt, Martin Godard's family in the beginning of this century, when four sons were swept away by one epidemic; and, during the same epidemic, in the Millen family two sons were buried in the same grave, and not long after two more sons died. And later, the family of Alfred Rockwell 2nd., numbering in all nine children, eight of them have been buried in our cemetery.
The Typhus Fever prevailed throughout the town as an epi- demic in the spring of 1807, and proved fearfully fatal.
Previous to 1830 an epidemic dysentery prevailed to a disas- trous extent in the Shepard settlement.
In 1850 the family of Erastus West was visited by severe dysentery in which the whole family (excepting a daughter who was absent,) were visited, six in all. Three of them died.
Malignant diptheria visited this town in 1861 and 62. There were some cases in this village, a few on the turn-pike south-west; on the South-Hill several families were visited, and three children died, one of Addison Armstrong's and two in Jason Merrill's fam- ily. But its most fearful ravages were in the south-east corner of our present town, and were confined principally to children. In many of these cases, death was the beginning as well as the end- ing.
In August and September, 1865 a malignant dysentery pre- vailed in the families of Abraham Brinkerhoff and Joel Crane on the East-Hill. Three of the Crane family and two of the Brinker- hoffs died.
The same disease swept the State-road, from Tyler Hollow east to the vicinity of the Baptist Church. The number of deaths I do not remember, but it was very great, Dr. Hall of Navarino was one of its victims after long practice in its midst. That epidemic
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swept, indiscriminately, adults and children.
Since the settlement of this town many diseases have chang- ed their character very decidedly; others have disappeared while new diseases have taken their places. What was called Typhus Fever is now extinct. Acute Pleurisy is but rarely if ever seen. Even Quinsy appears less frequently than formerly, and Pneumonia is seldom found alone, oftener combined with other diseases. Neu- ralgia is a lawless disease and covers a large surface in its opera- tions. It has become not merely the disease of this town, but of this nation. There is hardly any disease with which it does not unite sooner or later, and aid very decidedly in making the patient uncomfortable. Formerly it had but a name, now it has a true ex- Istence.
Since the settlement of this town, the people have changed as. well as the diseases. 'They have changed in their physical powers, and in their modes of life. The variations in diseases may be at- tributable in part to these changes in the people, and part to the almost entire absence of the forests. 'Those who first came from the east, and looked about this immense forest-land, to find for themselves new homes, were people of no degenerate race. It re- quired no ordinary amount of stamina, while in their comfortable homes in old New England, even to conceive the project of a re- moval into this wilderness; and how much more, to really put it into execution.
By prospective acres of corn and wheat, was understood the felling of trees a hundred feet in height, and three or four feet in diameter, and also consuming them by fire before even the ground could be approached for cultvation. What heroism was implied in accomplishing all this; and how strikingly in contrast with those men of the present day, without a foot of land that can be called their own, to every one of whom Uncle Sam offers a farm, with the forests already removed, if they will but go in and occupy, who spurn the offer lest they should be obliged to contend with difficulties. Placed by the side of these New England men, they
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seem but children.
And here let us remember that it was not the men alone, but those noble revolutionary women too, that took a decided part in this great movement. Think of Mrs. Cody, of whom we have al- ready spoken, as procuring a home here on her own horse. She was in the mercantile business in the vicinity of Boston, but fear- lessly did she, after having purchased her land here in 1796, re- move the following year, with her five children, on to the hill south of Clintonville, and there build and fill a store with dry goods and groceries, and pursue the traffic with success.
Why should not diseases be changed when existing under such widely opposite conditions of mind, body, and surroundings? When a strong man of heroic mind is sick, his disease is also well- defined, deep and determined; but when a puny man, with waver- ing mind is sick, his disease is diffused, wavering and puny. Is it any wonder then, that the physicians of that period used the ar- tillery, the cavalry and the battle-axe when contending with an enemy that showed his face, and his body too, every time, any more than at the present time, they should make use of masked guns, infantry, pop guns and even moral suasion, to meet the rustling of the leaves, a skulking behind the trees, or & feeble worn out enemy?
The lancet, the active cathartics and the emetics, had not merely their day, but their true place. Our father physicians, (I speak as a physician, ) were not a pack of fools or illiterate men, any more than the physicians of the present day. Produce siek today, one of those Goliaths who, from early morning until late at even- ing, from day to day, and month to month, with his axe howed down those immense forest trees into windrows, preparatory for the flames, yes I say, produce one such sick here to-day, and of what avail would be the milk-and-water practice, or the conserva- tive practice even of these times, to save life?
Our village attained its principal growth in the number of houses, amount of business and population, in its first forty years
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of existence. The great exodus to Michigan in 1835 and 36,and the removal of the stages by the completion of the rail-road in 1837, followed by the rapid diminution of travel in private conveyances, produced sadness and gloom and a depression of business, not merely in this village, but also in all the old villages between Skaneateles and Utica - places through which the rail-road did not pass. Co-existing with all this, Syracuse began to take on pro- portions as a mercantile place, thus diverting trade from these towns. Step by step, business diminished, enterprising men re- moved to larger places, houses began to show signs of dilapida- tion, until about 1850, when the desolation proved to be com- plete.
The old Presbyterian church building had been suffered to become dingy, its once fine fence to be torn down, its beautiful encirclement of trees to be cut down by a class of people, who, at that time imbibed a mania against all ornamental trees, claiming that no trees should stand near a house, unless it was a fruit bear- ing tree. Then the old tavern on the opposite corner, no longer a public house, standing in bold relief, forlorn and almost forsaken; the Episcopal church building in a similar condition; the formerly fine graveled walks, enclosed by painted railings, permitted to wear out and in the wet season become gutters of mud, and the railings demolished by rude hands; all these were such marks of a deserted or a discouraged village, that even the full grown youths were really ashamed, and, in many instances, ignored the place of their nativity.
As this village waned from 1835 untill 1850, so from 1850 to the present time has it waxed, until it has become an object of pride to its inhabitants, and of admiration to strangers. Those who once fled away from it in disgust, hoping never to see it again have, for the last decade of years, been rapidly returning to visit it, and some have selected it again for their home, above all other places in the wide world.
Although there is by no means the amount of trade here as
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formerly, yet limited as it is, "it is "healthy, " prompt and active. Every man possesses the Wall St. gait, even though the capital stock invested may be small. The Woolen Factory of Moses & Sayre is a model, for its size, in that department of business, that even Lowell would acknowledge. The firm of Hooper & Beach, in Cab- inet ware, gives to this village an air of business that is gratify- ing.
Lastly in the line of new business, we are glad to notice the Printing Office of Edmund Reed. Although small we must not "despise the day of small things." Benjamin Franklin once be- gan. The first printing office is a marked step in the elevation of a place. Its very business implies intelligence, and it also begets it. It is a great educator.
The business at the Falls has increased in the line of manu- facturing of paper. Formerly the Herring Mill was a permanent- ly running and prosperous mill. The brothers John and Absalom Herring lived to over four-score years, and even before their deaths, by their declining years the business of that place seemed to decline. That old paper mill was among the ancient land- marks, and when fire did its work in removing it, the desolation it produced remained through quite a period of years. Although the site is unoccupied, still three large paper-mills have been erected on other sites. Some fifteen years ago the Ryan mill, one of the three, was burned, and a much larger one has taken its place.
In the Fall of 1874, at about noon one day, a fire broke out in the barn adjacent to the floaring mill of B. C. Johnson; the south wind blowing a perfect gale, swept the mill, and three fine buildings just south of the mill;two belonging to Jefferson Herring and one to Edward Steele. Also to the north, the iron and black- smith shop of Truman Eggleston; the large woolen factory on the former Robert Rhoades site, and then the dwelling house of Mrs. Iliram Eggleston, on the hill a quarter of a mile still farther North.
With a promptness and energy that usually is confined to
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large places, did these men rebuild. 'The flouring mill and the iron shop were put up on a larger and much improved plan. The people rallied and rebuilt the house of Mrs. Eggleston, so that she was able to commence the winter in it.
While writing this history I feel that I have been living a- mong a people of the past, who settled this wilderness and organ- ized this good society. I have had to make their acquaintance through writings they have left to us, through our oldest inhabi- tants who are their children, and even grandchildren, and through frequent visita to their last dwelling-places in the cemetery, to read what is said of them there. I have found them a noble peo- ple, and if time had permitted I would gladly have lingered a- mong them, so that I might tell to you more of their worth, by relating incidents in the lives of such men as Moses, Howe, Camp, Platt, Kennedy, Healy, Dorchester, Hilyer, Hunt, and others whose names are sacred to us, but I must forbear.
We have now, fellow citizens, been considering the history of our town in brief; we have not had time to dwell at length, on the various topics which our subject has produced, much less to in- . troduce new ones pertaining to this history.
We are interested in the changes which, step by step, have been taking place during the last eighty-two years, to convert our town from a vast wilderness, uninhabited, into fruitful fields and pleasant homes. The wilderness has been made to blossom as the rose, and the solitary places jubilant by the voice of mirth and gladness.
Our forefathers sowed the seed, trusting in God, and we are reaping the harvest. They originated for us a government based upon the Bible - "peace on earth, good will to men" - and they have handed this government sealed in their own blood, and the Bible, sealed with the blood of our Redeemer, down to us, to be kept together; a precious legacy for us to protect, and hand down through our children's children, to the remotest generations.
Fellow-citizens let us be faithful to the trust committed to our care.
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