The growth of a century: as illustrated in the history of Jefferson county, New York, from 1793-1894, Part 30

Author: Haddock, John A., b. 1823-
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Albany, N. Y., Weed-Parsons printing company
Number of Pages: 1098

USA > New York > Jefferson County > The growth of a century: as illustrated in the history of Jefferson county, New York, from 1793-1894 > Part 30

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missioners, although he was seconded by others of much ability. It is said that the site was marked at some distance below the business part of the village of Watertown, to conciliate those who had been disappointed in its location. A deed of the premises was presented by Henry and Amos Coffeen, which was, it is said, intended to include the triangular lot since sold to private indi- viduals.

The first meeting of the board of supervis- ors was held in the school house on the site of the Universalist Church, in Watertown, October 1, 1805, and the following persons constituted the first board: Noadiah Hub- bard, Champion; Cliff French, Rutland; Corlis Hinds, Watertown; John W. Collins, Brownville: Nicholas Salisbury, Adams; Thomas White, Harrison; Lyman Ellis, Ellisburgh; Asa Brown, Malta. N. Hub- bard was chosen president, and Zelotus Harvey, clerk. The meeting was adjourned to the house of Abijah Putnam. Cliff French, Thomas White and Corlis Hinds were appointed a committee to procure a conveyance of the land on which the court house and jail were to be erected. The following was the aggregate of the real and personal estate in the several towns : Ellis- burg, $80,109 ; Watertown, $69,986.50 ; Adams, $33,606; Brownville, $447,240; Har- rison, $43,395; Malta, $49,248; Rutland, $44,829; Champion, $42,578.50; total, $805,- 992. Henry Coffeen presented a bill of $85.86, and Jacob Brown of $100, for attend- ance at Albany, in procuring the division of Oneida county, which were rejected. The latter had been appointed by the con- vention at Denmark, for that purpose. Hart Massey was appointed sealer of weights and measures, and $45, and the next year $30 were voted to purchase a set of standards of specified materials.

In 1806 the board consisted of Jacob Brown. Corlis Hinds, Perley Keyes, Noa- diah Hubbard, Jonathan Davis, Augustus Sacket, Ethni Evans, Jesse Hopkins, Asa Brown and Nicholas Salisbury. J. Brown and A. Sacket were appointed to settle all accounts pending with Oneida and Lewis counties, by meeting at Whitestown, with committees to be chosen by them for the purpose. At a subsequent meeting they reported $328.61 due to Jefferson; $293.54 to Lewis, and $1,670.73 to Oneida counties, from the funds on hand at the time of division. Messrs. Hinds, Salisbury and J. Brown, were appointed to report the expe- diency and probable cost of a jail, and the most advisable course to be pursued. The expense of sending prisoners to Whitestown was found heavy, and it was apprehended that public officers would reluctantly spend their time in going to and from thence. "Hence many criminals might escape a just punishment, and the county might be infested with criminals, to the great danger and injury of its inhabitants." The com- mittee reported that two-thirds of all county

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THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

charges were paid by non-resident taxes, and a prospect then existed that this law would be repealed. They, therefore, ad- vised the immediate erection of a jail, and it was estimated it could be built for $4,500; that $2,500 would provide one better for the interests of the county than the existing system. J. Brown and A. Sacket were appointed to draft a petition to the Legis- lature, which procured on the 20th of Feb- ruary, a law authorizing a tax of $2,500 for erecting a court house and jail. and Feb- ruary 19, 1808, a further tax of $3,500 was applied for. In 1867. Noadiah Hubbard and Zelotus Harvey were appointed a com- mittee to meet a similar one from Lewis county, to ascertain the boundary of the two counties. William Smith, Gershem Tuttle and N. Hubbard were appointed to build a jail after a plan to be approved by the board. It was to be 40 by 60 feet, built of wood, and fronting eastward, and was built in 1807-8, by Wm. Rice and Joel Mix, after the plans of Wm. Smith. It contained a jail in the first story, and stood a little south of the present jail. On the 30th of January, 1808, the superintendents were empowered "to build a sufficient tower and cupola on the center of said build- ing, and cover the dome of said cupola with tin and so construct the said tower and cupola that it shall be sufficiently strong and conven- ient so as to hang a bell, and to erect a spire and vane, and also a suitable rod to conduct the lightning from said building." On the 5th of October, 1808, the accounts of the court house audited, including extra work and services of committee, amounted to $4,997.58. Wm. Smith, was directed to purchase the necessary fixtures for the court house and jail, at an estimated cost of $262.87.

In 1807 (Aug. 13), the jail liberties were first established, and deserve mention from the singular manner in which they were laid out. They covered a small space around the Court House, and a part of the Public Square, and included most of the houses in the villages, while between these localities, along the sides of the roads, and sometimes in the center, were paths, from four to eight feet wide, with occasionally crossings, so that hy careful observing this route, turn- ing right angles, and keeping himself in the strict ranges which the court had es- tablished, a man might visit nearly every building in the village ; but if the route was by an accident obstructed by a pile of lum- ber, a pool of mud, or a loaded wagon, he must pass over, or through, or under, or else expose himself to the peril of losing this precarious freedom, hy close imprison- ment, and subjecting his bail to prosecution for the violation of his trust. In several in- stances persons were thus dealt with, where they had inadvertently turned aside from the straight and narrow path, to which the statutes of that period allowed the creditor to consign his unfortunate debtor. A map

of these limits, prepared by Jonas Smith, who for several years had made these de- tails a subject of daily observation from necessity, was prepared in July, 1811, and deposited in the clerk's office It is interest- ing from its containing the names of those who then owned houses in the village, of whom they were about fifty. These limits were maintained till Feb. 23, 1821, when an act was passed defining a rectangular area around the village as the jail limits. A cur- ious feature of the " jail limits " jurispru- dence was that if a debtor went beyond the limits after 12 p. m. Saturday night and re- turned before 12 p. m. Sunday night, he could not be arrested nor his bail prosecuted, for the reason that those hours constituting a dies non, no precept could therein issue, and consequently no breaking of the law could be alleged. By this interpretation many a poor debtor was able to go to his home and visit his family for a few hours, and yet return in time to escape any penalty. Viewed from our later stand- point it seems to have been a cruel law. In 1808 a series of maps was directed to be prepared by Jonas Smith, for the comptroller's office, at a cost of $100, and at the same session Messrs. Richardson, Hubbard and Hopkins were appointed to petition the Legislature for a law to provide for the destruction of Canada thistles. On the 9th of October, 1815, the supervisors voted a petition for a tax of $1,000 to build a fire-proof clerk's office, and April 5, 1816, an act was passed accordingly, allowing a tax not exceeding $1,500 for this purpose, and Ebenezer Wood, Ethel Bronson and Egbert Ten Eyck were named as commis- sioners to build the same. The conduct of a certain senator, in substituting the name of another man for that of Judge Brown on the committee, was most strongly condemned by a subsequent vote of the supervisors. A clerk's office was according built between the old Episcopal Church and the Public Square, and was occupied until a better one was erected in 1831, in accordance with an act of Jan. 26, 1831. The supervisors in 1829 had appoined a committee to investi- gate the matter, and in 1830 had petitioned for the act, which named Daniel Wardwell, Eli West and Stephen D. Sloan, commis- sioners for this purpose, who were en- powered to borrow on the credit of the county $1,000 for the purpose, and to sell the former office and lot.

In December, 1817, the Court House was injured by fire, which occasioned a meeting of the board, and $500 were voted for re- pairs. On the 9th of Feb. 1821, the Court House and jail were burned, and on the 12th the supervisors met to take into considera- tion the measures necessary for the occa- sion. A petition was forwarded for a law authorizing a tax of $8,000 to rebuild the county buildings, and a loan of $6,000 for the same purpose. It was resolved to build the jail separate from the court house, and both

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ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY, PUBLIC BUILDINGS, ETC.

buildings were to be of stone. Elisha Camp, Nathan Strong and John Brown were appointed commissioners to superin- tend the building. Premiums of $10 for a plan of a court house, and $15 for one of a jail, were offered. An act was accordingly passed. March 13, 1821, for the separate erection of these buildings, at a cost not exceeding $8,000, under the direction of Eliphalet Edmonds, Henry H. Coffeen and Jabez Foster. The courts meanwhile were to be held at the brick academy, and crimi- nals were to be sent to the Lewis county jail. A loan not exceeding $6,000 was au- thorized from the State. On the 28th of March the board met. and the plan for a jail offered by Wm. Smith, was adopted, and a resolution was passed providing for solitary cells. Tbe court house was agreed to be 45 by 48 feet, after a plan by J. H. Bishop. This necessity of an outlay for new buildings revived the question of a new site, and among others, the citizens of Sackets Harbor made diligent efforts, by petition, to secure their location, but without success; and in the same season a court house and a jail were erected. which continued to be occupied until 1848. when the Hon J. M. Comstock, one of the inspectors of county and State prisons, reported to the Hon. Robert Lansing, judge of the county, the entire failure of the county jail to meet the requirements of the statute in relation to the safety, health and proper classification of prisoners. and expressed his belief that the arrangements required by law could not be attained without the construction of a new prison building. This report, approved by the judge, and certified by the clerk of the board, was laid before the supervisors, a committee appointed, who visited the jail and confirmed the report, but after repeated efforts the board failed to agree upon a reso- lution providing for the necessary rebuild- ing of the county prison. This led to the issue of a writ of mandamus by the Supreme Court, in December, on the motion of G. C. Sherman, requiring the board of supervisors to proceed without delay to the erection of a new jail. or the repair of the one then existing. This necessity for a new prison suggested the project of the division of the county into two jury districts, and the erec- tion of two sets of buildings, at other places than Watertown, and the question became, for a short time, one of considerable discus- sion in various sections of the county. The question was settled by the erection of an extensive addition to the jail, two stories high, and considered adequate for the wants of the county for some time to come, at least if the course adopted was that recom- mended by the board of supervisors, Octo- ber 20, 1820, as set forth in the following resolution :

" Whereas, the maintenance of prisoners, committed to the county jail for small offenses, in the manner that they have been usually sentenced, has been attended with

great expense to the people of this county, and in many instances has operated to punish the county with taxes more than the criminals for offenses; and, whereas, some courts of special sessions have sentenced them to imprisonment upon bread and water, which lessens the expense to this county, and the same operates as a punish- ment more effectually than longer terms of imprisonment would in the ordinary way ; the board of supervisors therefore recommend generally to magistrates and courts of sessions in mittimuses, upon con- viction of petty crimes, to make the length of confinement less, and direct the jailor to keep the offenders upon bread and water during the time of their imprisonment. The board would recommend in such cases that the prisoners he not sentenced to be kept longer than thirty days in any case, as it may endanger the health of the convicts. " Resolved, that the jailor for the future be directed not to procure anything more expensive for criminals than moccasins, at 50 cents a pair, instead of shoes, nor pro- cure any hats, and to purchase as little clothing as possible, and that of the poorest and least expensive kind."

In 1857, a resolution looking to the erection of a new court house was passed at the annual session of the hoard of supervisors. A motion at the annual meeting in 1858, to proceed at once to the erection of the court house, was tabled, and then taken up again, and amended by changing the place of location, so as to leave it to the discretion of future boards to locate the same at Watertown or elsewhere in the county, and the amended resolution was laid on the table. The grand jury, in 1858, indicted the court house as a nuisance, and as unfit and insufficient to hold court in. In 1859, a motion to rent Washington Hall, in Watertown, for holding the courts until the court house could be repaired, at a rent of $250 per annuni, was lost, fifteen members voting in the negative ; where- upon, on motion of Supervisor Ingalls, the majority voting against the proposition were appointed a committee to report a plan for repairing or rebuilding the court house. This committee reported a resolu- tion to appoint a committee to repair the court house and rent Washington Hall, and receive plans and proposals, to build a new court house on the old site. On December 10, 1860, the committee assembled and re- ceived plans and specifications, and ap- pointed a sub-committee to visit several court houses in the State, or as many as they deemed necessary, and examine the same, and confer witli W. N. White, an architect at Syracuse. The sub-committee procured plans and drafts from Mr. White, and re- ported at a special meeting of the board, January 7, 1861, recommending the adop- tion of White's plans, which placed the cost of the new building, erected in accordance therewith, at the sum of $25,000. The re- port of the committee was adopted by the

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THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

board, and after a brisk and animated struggle, the present site, corner of Arsenal and Benedict streets, in Watertown, was selected, the same being donated by the citizens of the city. A loan of $25,000 was authorized and made from the State at 7 per cent., and a contract made with John Hose and Joseph Davis to erect the building for $24,000, and W. H. White appointed supervising architect, and the following named supervisors a building committee : Joseph Atwell, A. W. Clark, A. C. Middle- ton, C. A. Benjamin, John H. Conklin, Henry Spicer and Jacob Putman. At the annual meeting of the board in October, 1861, this committee was discharged as be- ing too expensive on account of size, and a new committee appointed, consisting of J. H. Conklin, D. W. Baldwin, and Octave Blanc. The building was completed in 1861, at a cost of $25,488.89, furnished. The roof over certain portions of the building was imperfect, and considerable sums of money were expended to repair and com- plete it. The basement was ill-drained, and until the sewerage of the city was completed along Arsenal street, it was in a foul and un- healthy condition : but drains connecting with the main sewer soon obviated that difficulty, though at considerable expense. The entire expense of the court house as it now stands is not far from $35,000. It is built of brick with stone trimmings and portico, and has an area of about 70 feet front on Arsenal street by 120 feet on Benedict street. It has two stories. In its rear is the fire-proof clerk's office. The court house proper is surmounted with a tower of good proportionate dimensions to the balance of the edifice, and with a well- kept lawn is an ornament to the city and a credit to the county.

In 1892 the board of supervisors author- ized a complete overhauling and almost entire rebuilding of the jail, which is still re- tained upon the same site as that first se- lected. The full amount expended in this rebuilding is not yet fully known.

Previous to the adoption of the poor house system, each town supported its own poor. and the records of the board show annual appropriations in many of the towns for that purpose, of from $50 to $800. In 1817, $50 was voted to build a town poor-house in LeRay, and in 1822 the supervisors recom- mended to the several towns to take into consideration at their next annual meetings the propriety of building a poor house and house of industry for the county, as advised by an act of March 3, 1820. In April, 1825, a meeting of the board was called, and a committee, consisting of Messrs. Hubbard, Hart and Stewart, was appointed to ascer- tain the most suitable site for erecting a poor house, and the price for which a farmi could be purchased, within five miles of the court house. The cost of buildings was lim- ited to $2,000. They were directed to adver- tise for proposals for purchasing a farm, if

they should think proper. On the 7th of June an adjourned meeting of the super- visors met to hear the above report. After visiting the premises in a body, it was re- solved to purchase the Dudley farm in Le- Ray, five miles from Watertown, containing 150 acres, at $10 per acre. Committees were appointed to procure titles, and fit up the premises, which continued to be occupied for that purpose until November, 1832, when the supervisors voted a petition for power to sell the property and borrow $4,000 on the credit of the county, for building a new one on a new site, if the interests of the county required it. They procured an act, January 25, 1833, granting this power, and providing for the execution of this trust, by three commissioners to be appointed by the supervisors. At their following session, tlie board, after much discussion, finally agreed to erect a new poor house on a farm of 100 acres, purchased of J. Foster, for $1,500, about a mile below Watertown, north of the river, and Orville Hungerford, Joseph Graves and Bernard Bagley were appointed to carry the resolution into effect.

The distinction between town and county poor was abolished by a vote of the super- visors in November, 1834, and this has been since several times changed. In 1832, the experiment of picking oakum was tried with a profit of $154 the first year. The culture of the mulberry has also been attempted, but with small success. The first superin- tendents of the poor house, appointed in 1826, were Orville Hungerford, Wmn. S. Ely. Peter Yandes, John Hoover, and Asher Wil- mot, and an equal number was annually appointed until the adoption of the present Constitution. The persons elected under the general law were David Montague, Charles F. Symonds and Phineas Hardy, in 1848: Martin J. Hutchins, 1849 ; Peter S. Houck, 1850; Austin Everitt, 1851. It being thought by certain ones that the general law was not the best that could be devised for the county, an effort was made in 1852, which procured on the 12th of April an act which directed but one overseer of the poor to be hereafter elected in each town in this county, and the duties of overseers of the poor were conferred upon the supervisor and such overseer in the several towns, who were to be associated together in affording relief to the indigent within certain limits, to be prescribed by the board of supervisors for each town. No superintendents of the poor were to be thereafter elected, but one is to be appointed by the board of super- visors, to hold his office during their pleasure. He was to reside at the poor house, and be the keeper thereof. In case of vacancy, the county judge, clerk and treas- urer, or any two of them, are to fill the vacancy by temporary appointment until another is chosen. In the fall of 1854, and annually afterwards, two visitors are to be appointed by the board of supervisors, to visit the poor house every two months, and

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examine its books and management. Con- tracts for medicines and medical attendance are to be made by the supervisors, individ- ually, in the several towns, and as a board for the poor house. They have also the power of directing the manner in which supplies for the poor house shall be pur- chased, which directions the superintendent is obliged to follow. The provisions of this act apply to no other county than this. The board of supervisors in accordance with powers thus conferred, appointed Alpheus Parker, superintendent, who entered upon his duties Jan. 1, 1853. His salary was fixed at $600, by a resolution of the board, passed November, 1852.

Mr. Parker served as superintendent from 1853 to 1858, and was succeeded in the latter year by Nathaniel Havens, Jr., who held the position until 1860, when he was suc- ceeded by Colonel Heman Strong, who con- tinued to receive the appointment annually until his death, which occurred in April, 1876. From the commendatory reports of the inspectors and committees appointed to visit the poor house and report thereon, we gather that Colonel Strong was peculiarly fitted for the delicate and arduous task of caring for the unfortunate class committed to his charge. Colonel Strong was suc- ceeded by A. W. Wheelock. John R. Washburn, of Rodman, followed Mr. Whee- lock, and has proved an able and con- scientious official, with high intelligence. He is the present incumbent of this highly responsible position.

Besides the care given to the poor in the county institution, a greater amount of re- lief is afforded in the towns outside, in the support, of partial relief, of the town poor, the distinction between county and town charges being now (1894) maintained.

OTHER CHARITIES.

The late Mrs. Robert Lansing was the one who originated and brought to a successful organization the

JEFFERSON COUNTY ORPHAN ASYLUM.

She was a lady of much refinement and benevolence, and her Christian character greatly aided in giving confidence to the effort. But with her usual modesty she gave another person, her earnest assistant, the greater meed of praise. She wrote, in 1878:

" The Watertown Asylum for Orphan and Destitute Children was opened March 1,1859, and without a day's preparation, that a home might be made for the reception of two orphans, whose mother had been acci- dentally killed the night previous. Miss Frazier, from the highlands of Scotland, a woman of devoted piety, manifested in gathering the little waifs of our community into a Sunday-school and most persistently caring for them, had been asked if an

exigency like this should occur, would she at once take charge of a 'Home' as matron? Without hesitation she assented. A small tenement-house in the suburhs of the town was rented, needful furniture from several homes sent in, wood supplied, a fire kindled, which has burned brightly now these eigh- teen years, and the Watertown Home was fairly begun. Many years before this a char- ter for a similar institution had been granted by the Legislature, but the business men of the town advised postponement of proceed- ings under the same from year to year, as ' this year was financially hard; ' that many whose hearts were in sympathy with the project could not now co-operate in it, but that ' the next year would be more favor- able ;' so expired the charter. An im- promptu effort suggested itself, was tried, and succeeded. From this beginning came the ' Jefferson County Orphan Asylum; ' the name being changed when the board of supervisors of the county resolved to send to it as boarders the pauper children of the county in 1863. From the commencement of the 'Home' the number of children multiplied so rapidly that several removals of location were necessary, and then was agitated the feasibility of a permanent horne. Already the benefit from the insti- tution had exceeded expectation. Two years found thirty children crowded into the small home, while quite a number had homes found for them elsewhere. Now there was an imperative necessity for an appeal to the benevolent. It was made, and five thousand dollars resulted there- from, and which exhausted our liberality for a short time only. One year passed, and then a petition sent to Albany gave us, through the Legislature, another five thou- sand, which enabled us to build the large, convenient three-story brick building, with a plentiful supply of good water, well ventilated, warmed. and drained, built in the midst of a grove, and which is now emphatically an Orphan's Home. It was finished, furnished, and occupied April 20, 1864. Fifty children came in from the old home. The institution had no endowment, and had been sustained these five years by personal effort. Each month, as it came, all bills were paid. The sole management, dis- ciplinary, educational, and moral, with dis- bursements of funds, devolved upon a board of directresses, the president and trustees being advisory and fiscal managers. The Divine blessing has been given them, mak- ing their intercourse a joy and refreshment instead of laborious duty, - not a discord marring the harmony of eighteen years' as- sociation. More than 500 children have gone out from this institution, and more than half of this number into homes by adoption.

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The growth of a century: as illustrated in the history of Jefferson county, New York, from 1793-1894, Part 30

Author: Haddock, John A., b. 1823- Publication date: 1895 Publisher: Albany, N. Y., Weed-Parsons printing company Number of Pages: 1098

Author: Haddock, John A., b. 1823-
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Albany, N. Y., Weed-Parsons printing company
Number of Pages: 1098