The growth of a century: as illustrated in the history of Jefferson county, New York, from 1793-1894, Part 39

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 39

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We present, upon another page, a diagram showing the location of the buildings at Watertown, as they existed in 1804.

During the first summer of the settlement, it being entirely impossible to procure grinding at any mills nearer than Canada, a stump standing on the public square, a few rods east of the American Hotel, had been formed into a mortar, and with a spring-pole and pestle attached, served the purpose of a grain-mill to the settlement. This primitive implement, suggestive of rustic life and the privations of a new colony, relieved the pioneers, in some de- gree, from a necessity of long journeys to mill, through a pathless forest. The hard- ships of this early period had a tendency to create a unity of feeling and sympathy from the strong sense of mutual dependence which it engendered, and which is recalled by the few survivors of the period with emotions of gratitude for the manifest mer- cies of Providence. These hardy adven- turers were mostly poor. They possessed few of the comforts of life, yet they had few wants. The needful articles of the household were mostly made by their own hands, and artificial grades of society were unknown.

In 1802 an inn was opened by Dr. Isaiah Massey, and settlers began to locate in every part of the town, which, in September of that year, numbered 70 or 80 families. A dam was built by Cowan in 1802, and in 1803 he got in operation a small grist-mill. During two or three succeeding years, John Paddock, Chauncy Calhoun, Philo Johnson, . Jesse Doolittle, William Smith, Medad Can- field, Aaron Keyes, Wm. Huntingdon, John Hathaway, Seth Bailey, Gershom Tuttle, and others, several of whom were mechan- ics, joined the settlement, and at a very early day a schoolhouse was built on the site of the Universalist church, which served also as a place of religious meetings.

In 1805, John Paddock and William Smith opened the first store in the place, their goods being brought from Utica in wagons. An idea may be had of the hard- ships of that period, compared with modern facilities, from the fact that in March, 1807, seventeen sleighs, laden with goods for Smith and Paddock, were twenty-three days in getting from Oneida county to Water- town by way of Redfield. The snows were in some places seven feet deep; and the val- leys almost impassable from wild torrents resulting from the melting of snows. The winter had been remarkable for its severity, and the spring for destructive floods.

In 1803 a bridge was built below the vil- lage, near the court house, by Henry Coffeen and Andrew Edmunds, over which the State road afterwards passed, and in 1805 the dam was built below the bridge, at which, the

same year, a saw-mill was built on the north side, and in 1806 a grist-mill by Seth Bailey and Gershom Tuttle. A saw-mill was built on the Watertown side by R. & T. Potter, a little helow, and a saw and grist-mill soon after by H. H. Coffeen, since which time many large mills have been erected along the river.

The first brick building erected in the county was built by William Smith, in the summer of 1806. It was two stories in height with a stone basement, Mr. Smith working upon it with his own hands. The bricks were manufactured by Eli Rogers, on the point of land between the mall and Franklin street. The site of this building is now occupied by Washington Hall.

It is a singular fact that the village of Watertown, in common with the whole county of Jefferson, while it vies in wealth and enterprise with the most favored por- tions of the State, owes very little if any- thing to imported capital. In most in- stances the wealth now existing has been acquired on the spot, by those who at an early period were thrown upon their own immediate exertions for support; and from the ashes of the timber that covered the land, and the first crops which the virgin soil yielded in kind profusion, they received the first impulse, which, seconded by indus- try, prudence and sagacity has not failed to bring its reward. With a strong convic- tion that the place would at a future time become an important village, Jonathan Cowan, Henry Coffeen, Zachariah Butter- field, Jesse Doolittle, Medad Canfield, Aaron Keyes, Hart Massey and Isaiah Massey, who owned property adjoining the present public square and Washington street in Watertown, held, early in 1805. an informal meeting, and agreed to give forever to the public for a pub- lic mall a piece of land twelve rods wide and twenty-eight feet long, and another running south at right angles to this, nine rods wide and about thirty-two long. They then directed to be made by John Simons, a surveyor, a map of the premises, which was done, and deposited in the town clerk's office, but this was afterwards lost. An at- tempt was subsequently made to resume the title and sell portions of the public square, but the question having been brought into the courts, was decided by Judge Nathan Williams in favor of the public, as Mr. Cowan, the claimant, al- though he had never deeded land on the public square, had acknowledged its exist- cnce by his bounding certain conveyances upon it. In the same year the site of the court-house was determined hy the commis- sioners appointed by the Governor for that purpose, not without the most active influ- ences being used at Brownville; and it is said to have been located upon the plot where the jail adjoined it, at some distance below the business portion of the village, by way of compromise.

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THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

THE WHITTLESEY AFFAIR.

FOR the purpose of refreshing the memo- ries of our citizens on the subject, we pub- lish the story in full, as related in " Hough's History of Jefferson County." The public will probably be as much interested in read- ing it as in any thing we could publish:

Samuel Whittlesey, originally from Tol- land, Ct., had removed about, 1808, to Watertown, and engaged in business as a lawyer. On the 12th of February, 1811, he received the appointment of district attor- ney for the territory comprised in Lewis, Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties, and on the 6th day of February, 1813, he was superseded by the appointment of Amos Benedict, who had preceded him. Events connected with this led to some sympathy for him, and the office of brigade paymas- ter, which had been tendered to Mr. Jasan Fairbanks. was by him declined in favor of Whittlesey, and he, with Perley Keyes, be- came security for the honest discharge of the duties of the office. At the close of the war a large amount of money being due to the drafted militia, for services on the fron- tier, Whittlesey went to New York, accom- panied by his wife, to obtain the money, and received at the Merchants' Bank, in that city, $30,000, in one, two, three, five and ten dollar bills, with which he started to return. At Schenectady, as was after- wards learned, his wife reported themselves robbed of $8,700, an occurrence which greatly distressed and alarmed him, but she advised him not to make it public at that moment, as they might thereby better take steps that might lead to its recovery, and on the way home she, in an artful and gradual manner, persuaded him that if they should report the robbery of a part of the money, no one would believe it, as a thief would take the whole, if any. In short (to use a homely proverb), she urged him that they might as well " die for an old sheep as a lamb," and keep the rest, as they would inevitably be accused of taking a part. Her artifice, enforced by the necessities of the case, took effect, and he suffered himself to become the dupe of his wife, who was, doubtless, the chief contriver of the move- ments which followed. Accordingly, on his return, he gave out word that his money had been procured and would be paid over as soon as the necessary papers and pay-roll could be prepared. In a few days. having settled his arrangements, he started for Trenton, on horseback, with his portmanteau filled, stopping at various places on his way to announce that on a given day he would return to pay to those entitled, their dues, and in several instances evinced a carelessness about the custody of his baggage that excited remark from inn-keepers and others. On arriving at Billings' tavern at Trenton, he assembled several persons to whom money was due, and proceeded to pay them; but upon open-

ing his portmanteau, he, to the dismay of himself and others, found that they had been ripped open and that the money was gone ! With a pitiable lamentation and well-affected sorrow, he bewailed the rob- bery, instantly dispatched messengers in quest of the thief, offered $2,000 reward for his apprehension, and advertised in staring handbills throughout the country. in hopes of gaining some clue that would enable him to recover his treasure. In this anxiety he was joined by hundreds of others who had been thus indefinitely delayed in the receipt of their needed and rightful dnes; but although there was no lack of zeal in these efforts, yet nothing occurred upon which to settle suspicion, and with a heavy heart and many a sigh and tear, he returned home and related to his family and friends his ruin. As a natural consequence the event became at once the absorbing theme of the country, for great numbers were affected in their pecuniary concerns by it, and none more than the two indorsers of the sureties of Whittlesey. These gentlemen, who were shrewd, practical and very observing men, immediately began to interrogate him, singly and alone, into the circumstance of the journey and the robbery. and Fair- banks in particular, whose trade as a sad- dler led him to be minutely observant of the qualities and appearances of leather, made a careful examination of the incisions in the portmanteau, of which there were two, tracing upon paper their exact size and shape, and upon close examination noticed pin holes in the margin, as if they had been mended up. Upon comparing the accounts which each had separately obtained in a long and searching conversation, these men became convinced that the money had not been stolen in the manner alleged, but that it was still in the possession of Whittlesey and his wife. To get possession of this money was their next care, and after long consultation, it was agreed that the only way to do this. was to gain the confidence of the family, and defend them manfully against the insinuations that came from all quarters that the money was still in town. In this they succeeded admirably. and from the declarations which they made in public and in private, which found their way directly back to the family. the latter were convinced that although the whole world were against them in their misfortunes, vet they had the satisfaction to know that the . two men who were the most interested were still by their side. To gain some fact that would lead to a knowledge of the place of deposit, Messrs. Fairbanks and Keyes agreed to listen at the window of the sleeping room of those suspected, which was in a cham- ber and overlooked the roof of a piazza. Accordingly, after dark, one would call upon the family and detain them in con- versation, while the other mounted a ladder and placed himself where he could overhear what was said within, and although they

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thus became convinced that the money was still in their possession, no opinion could be formed about the hiding place. Security upon their real estate was demanded, and readily given.

A son of the family held a commission in the navy, and was on the point of sailing for the Mediterranean, and it was suspected that the money might thus have been sent off: to ascertain which, Mr. Fairbanks, under pretext of taking a criminal to the State prison, went to New York, made in- quiries which satisfied him that the son was innocent of any knowledge of the affair, and ascertained at the bank the size of the packages taken. He had been told by Whittlesey that these had not been opened when stolen, and by making experiments with blocks of wood of the same dimen- sions, they readily ascertained that bundles of that size could not be got through an aperture of the size reported. and that in- stead of a seven it required an eighteen inch slit in the leather to allow of their being extracted. Some facts were gleaned at Albany that shed further light-among which it was noticed that Mrs. Whittlesey at her late visit (although very penurious in her trade), had been very profuse in her ex- penses. After a ten days' absence Mr. Fair- banks returned: his partner having listened nights meanwhile, and the intelligence gained by eaves-dropping, although it failed to disclose the locality of the lost money, confirmed their suspicions. As goods were being hoxed up at Whittlesey's house at a late hour in the night. and the daughters had already been sent on to Sackets Harbor, it was feared that the family would soon leave: decisive measures were resolved upon to recover the money, the ingenuity and boldness of which evince the sagacity and energy of the parties. Some method to decoy Whittlesey from home, and frighten him by threats, mutilation or torture, into a confession, was discussed, but as the lat- ter might cause an uncontrollable hemor- rhage, it was resolved to try the effect of drowning. Some experiments were made on their own persons. of the effect of sub- mersion of the head, and Dr. Sherwood, a physician of the village, was consulted on the time life would remain under water. Having agreed upon a plan, on the evening before its execution they repaired to a lonely place about a mile south of the vil- lage, screened from the sight of houses by a gentle rise of ground, and where a spring issued from the bank and flowed through a miry slough, in which a little below, they built a dam of turf that formed a shallow pool. It was arranged that Mr. Fairbanks should call upon Whittlesey, to confer with him on some means of removing the sus- picions which the public had settled upon him, by obtaining certificates of character from leading citizens and officers of the army: and that the two were to repair to Mr. Keyes' house, which was not far from

the spring. Mr. Keyes was to be absent re- pairing his fence, and to leave word with his wife that if any one inquired for him, to send them into the field where he was at work. Neither had made confidants in their suspicions or their plans, except that Mr. Keyes thought it necessary to reveal them to his son, P. Gardner Keyes, then 17 years of age, whose assistance he might need, in keeping up appearances, and in whose sagacity and fidelity in keeping a secret he could rely.

Accordingly, on the morning of July 17th (1815), Mr. Keves, telling his wife that the cattle had broken into his grain, shouldered his axe and went to repair the fence which was thrown down, and Mr. Fairbanks called upon Whittlesey, engaged him in conversation, as usual, and without excit- ing the slightest suspicion, induced him to go up to see his partner, whom they found in a distant part of the field at work. Call- ing him to them, they repaired as if casually to the spring, where, after some trifling re- marks, they explicitly charged him with the robbery, gave their reasons for thinking so, and told him that if he did not instantly disclose the locality of the money, the pool before him should be his grave. This sud- den and unexpected charge frightened their victim : but with a look of innocence he exclaimed, "I know nothing of the matter." This was no sooner said than he was rudely seized by Mr. Keyes and plunged headfore- most into the pool, and after some seconds withdrawn. Being again interrogated, and assured that if the money were restored, no legal proceedings would be instituted, he again protested his innocence, and was a second time plunged in, held under several moments and again withdrawn, but this time insensible, and for one or two minutes it was doubtful whether their threats had not been executed; but he soon evinced signs of life, and so far recovered as to be able to sit up and speak. Perhaps nothing but the certain knowledge of his guilt, which they possessed, would have induced them to proceed further ; but they were men of firmness, and resolved to exhaust their resource of expedients, rightly judg- ing that a guilty conscience could not long hold out against the prospect of speedy death. He was accordingly addressed by Mr. Keyes in tones and emphasis of sober earnest, and exhorted for the last time to save himself from being hurried before the tribunal of Heaven. laden with guilt - to disclose at once. In feeble tones he re- asserted his innocence, and was again collared and plunged in, but this time his body only was immersed. It had been agreed in his hearing, that Fairbanks (be- ing without a family), should remain to accomplish the work, by treading him into the bottom of the slough, while Keyes was to retire, so that neither could be a witness of murder if apprehended ; and that on a given day they were to meet in Kingston.

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Keyes paid over about $90 to hear expenses of travel, and was about to leave, when the wretched man, seeing these serious arrange- ments, and at length believing them to be in awful reality, exclaimed, "I'll tell you all about it!" Upon this, he was with- drawn, and when a little recovered, he con- fessed, that all but about $9,000 (which he now, for the first time, stated to have been stolen at Schenectady), would be found either under a hearth at his house, or quilted into a pair of drawers in his wife's posses- sion. Mr. Keyes, leaving his prisoner in charge of his associate, started for the house, and was seen by his wife, coming across the field, covered with mud, and, to use the words of the latter, " looking like a murderer; " and although in feeble health, and scarcely able to walk, she met him at the door, and inquired with alarm, " What have you been doing?" He briefly replied, " We have had the old fellow under water, and made him own where the money is ; " and hastily proceeded to the village, related in few words to his friends, Dr. Paul Hutchinson and John M. Canfield, the facts, and with them repaired to the house of Whittlesey. Seeing them approach, Mrs. Whittlesey fled to her chamber and on their knocking for admission, she replied that she was changing her dress, and would meet them shortly. As it was not the time or place for the observance of etiquette, Mr. Keyes rudely burst open the door, and en- tering, found her reclining on the bed. Disregarding her expostulations of impro- priety, he rudely proceeded to search, and soon found between the straw and feather bed, upon which she lay, a quilted garment, when she exclaimed: "You've got it! My God, have I come to this ?" The drawers bore the initials of Col. Tuttle, who had died in that house, under very suspicious circumstances ; were fitted with two sets of buttons, for either the husband or wife to wear, and contained about 30 parcels of bills, labelled, "For my dear son C-, 250 of 5;" " For my dear daughter E -- , 150 of 3 ;" etc., amounting to $15,000 to her five children; the remainder being reserved for her own use. The garment also contained a most extraordinary document, which might be called her Will, and about which she expressed the most urgent solicitude, imploring that it might be destroyed, by the earnest appeal that, " You have children as well as me!" It was soon after pub- lished in the papers, and was as follows :

"It is my last and dying request, that my children shall have all the money that is contained in the papers which have their names on, which is $3,000 for each; and let there be paios and caution, and a great length of time takeu to exchange it in. God and my own heart knows the misery I have suffered in con- sequence of it, and that it was much against my will that it should be done. I have put all that is in the aame hank by it, that I had from prudence, and a great number of years been gathering up; and when I used to meet with hill on that bank in your posses- sion, or when I could, I used to exchange othera for them, as I supposed it was the beat, and would be the most permanent bank. You know the reason of

your taking this was, that we supposed that from the lock of the small trunk being broken, and the large one being all loose, and the nails out, that we were robbed on the road of $8,700. You know that I always told you, that I believed it was done in the yard, where you, as I told you then, put the wagon imprudently in Schenectady. Oh! how much misery am I borne to see, through all your improper conduct, which I am forced to conceal from the view of the world. for the sake of my beloved offsprings' credit, and wherehy I have got enemies undeservedly, while the public opinion was in your favor! But it fully evinces what false judgments the world makes. Oh! the God who triea the hearts, and searches the reins of the children of men, knows that the kind of mis- ery which I have suffered, and which has riled and soured my teniper, and has made me appear cross and morose to the public eye, has all proceeded from you, and fixed in my countenance the mark of ao ill- natured disposition, which was naturally formed for loves, friendships, and all other refined sensations. How have I falsified the truth, that you might ap- pear to every advantage, at the risk and ill-opinion of the sensible world towards myself, when my con- science was telling me I was doing wrong ; and which, with everything else that I have suffered since I have been a married woman, has worn me down and kept me out of health ; and now, oh! now, this last act is bringing me to my grave fast. I consented because you had placed me in the situation you did. In the first place you were delinquent in the payment to government of eighteen or nineteen hundred dol- lars. Theu this almost $9,000 missing, I found when you came to settle, that you never could make it good without sacrificing me and my children, was the reason I consented to the proposal. I did you the justice to believe that the last sum had not been missing, that you would not have done as you did ; but I am miserable! God grant that my dear chil- dren may never fall into the like error that their father has, and their poor unfortunate mother con- aented to! May the Almighty forgive us both, for I freely forgive you all you have made me suffer."

The money being counted, and to their surprise found to embrace a part of the sum supposed to be stolen, Mr. Keyes went back to release Whittlesey. The latter, mean- while, had related the circumstances of the robbery, and anxiously inquired whether, if the whole was not found, they would still execute their purpose ; to which Mr. Fair- banks replied in a manner truly character- istic, "That will depend on circumstan- ces." No one was more surprised than Whittlesey himself, to learn that most of the money was found, and that he had been robbed at Schenectady by his own wife. He begged hard to be released on the spot, but it was feared he would commit suicide, and he was told that he must be delivered up to the public as sound as he was taken, and was led home. The fame of this discovery soon spread, and it was with difficulty the villagers were restrained from evinc- ing their joy by the discharge of can- non. Mr. Whittlesey was led home and placed with guard in the room with his wife, until further search ; and here the most bitter criminations were exchanged, each charging the other with the crime, and the wife upraiding the husband with coward- ice, for revealing the secret. The guard be- ing withdrawn in the confusion that ensued, Mrs. Whittlesey passed from the house, and was seen by a person at a distance, to cross the cemetery of Trinity church, where, on passing the grave of a son, she paused, falt- ered and fell back, overwhelmed with awful emotion ; but a moment after, gathering

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new energy, she hastened on, rushed down the high bank near the ice-cave, and plunged into the river. Her body was found floating near the lower bridge, and efforts were made to recover life, but it was extinct.

The sympathies of the public were not withbeld from the children of this family, who were thus cast penniless and disgraced upon the world. Many details connected with the affair we have not given ; among which were several attempts to throw sus- picion upon several parties by depositing money on their premises, writing anony- mous letters, etc., which served but to ag- gravate the crime, by betraying the exist- ence of a depravity on the part of the chief contriver in the scheme, which has seldom or never been equaled. The marked bills, amounting to $400, had been dropped on the road to Sackets Harbor, and were found by Mr. Gale, who prudently carried them to a witness, counted and sealed them, and after the disclosure brought them forward. Mr. Whittlesey stated that he expected some one would find and use the money, when he could swear to the marks, and implicate the finder. Mr. Gale, upon hearing this, was affected to tears, and exclaimed : " Mr. Whittlesey, is it possible you would have been so wicked as to have sworn me to State prison for being honest ?"

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The growth of a century: as illustrated in the history of Jefferson county, New York, from 1793-1894, Part 39

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