USA > New York > Franklin County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 13
USA > New York > Jefferson County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 13
USA > New York > Lewis County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 13
USA > New York > Oswego County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 13
USA > New York > St Lawrence County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 13
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CHAPTER V.
THE BIRTH OF THE COUNTIES
THE ERECTION OF ST. LAWRENCE COUNTY-THE MEETING AT DENMARK OUT OF WHICH GREW JEFFERSON AND LEWIS COUNTIES-THE EREC- TION OF OSWEGO COUNTY-DAVID PARISH BUYS THE VILLAGE OF OG- DENSBURG-THE VISITS OF DE WITT CLINTON AND BISHOP ASBURY.
Hardly had the first settlements been established in the Black River Country before there was talk of a new county or counties. Every owner of a considerable tract of land realized full well the advantages which would accrue to him if a county seat could be located in his domain. Probably the subject was discussed as early as 1802 when Gouverneur Morris, the statesman and landowner; James Le Ray de Chaumont and Jacob Brown conferred at Brown- ville, but jealousies between the various proprietors prevented any tangible action being taken. Silas Stow at Lowville, Col. Walter Martin at Martins, Henry Coffeen at Watertown and Jacob Brown at Brownville all intrigued to locate the seat of the new county in their immediate locality and for a time it looked as though there would be as many counties as there were landed proprietors.
Constable heard of the intrigues while on one of his tours. "It seems that Stow and Martin have both made themselves obnoxious," he writes, "and they will differ about the division of the county on their side of it. Each will be supported by opposite interests and they will be defeated by the management of the proprietors of Redfield or that of Jacob Brown of Brownville."
But when Martin and Stow, Coffeen and Brown and the rest were busy with their schemes, the settlers of the Ten Towns along the St. Lawrence had acted. In 1801 the town of Lisbon, consisting of all the Ten Towns, was erected by the legislature of the state and at the
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request of the inhabitants, added to Clinton county. But it was any- where from 120 to 140 miles from the new town of Lisbon to Platts- burgh, the county seat of Clinton county, and the following year, largely through the energy of Nathan Ford of Ogdensburg, a peti- tion was circulated requesting the legislature to set up a new county along the St. Lawrence river to be known as St. Lawrence county. Considerably over a hundred names were signed to the petition and among them were the most influential residents of the Ten Towns. One of them was John Tibbets who had come from Troy a year or two before to settle on his tract of nearly 10,000 acres lying along the St. Lawrence, which he had purchased from Alexander Macomb for a little over $4,000. His son, John J. Tibbets, Jr., who also signed the petition, was one of the first assistant judges of St. Lawrence county. Alexander J. Turner of Lisbon was another signer of the petition who later became an important figure in the new country. He was the first supervisor of the town of Lisbon and one of the first judges of the court of common pleas when the county was erected.
Another whose name appears prominently on the petition is Joseph Edsall, land agent for the town of Madrid and a well known surveyor of that day. He was the first supervisor of his town and a judge of the first court of common pleas of the new county. Another signer was Stillman Foote, first permanent settler of Canton, who, at the time the county was erected was but nineteen years of age. De- spite this fact he was immediately made an assistant justice and continued to be an important figure in the county until the day of his death. Thomas J. Davies, whose name appears on the petition, became the first sheriff. Jacob Reddington, whose name also appears, owes his little claim to fame to the fact that when the first Fourth of July celebration was held in the territory now included in St. Lawrence county in 1798 it was Reddington who read the Declara- tion of Independence.
Nathan Ford's name of course heads the list. He was at the time thirty-nine years of age, strong, energetic and resourceful, a natural leader. He never failed to dominate the situation in St. Lawrence county during the days of his vigor. The county was erected on March 3, 1802, and Nathan Ford was at once elected first judge, a position which he held many years, handing out profane but impartial justice to the litigants who came before him.
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But jealousies still prevented the organization of a county fur- ther south. There were too many strong men and too many prospec- tive county seats. The proprietors wanted but one county formed because that meant but one set of county buildings and lower taxes. It was about this time that Nathan Ford was writing Ogden that nothing interfered with the settlement of a new country like high taxes. Finally, through action by the various towns, a meeting was called for Nov. 20, 1804 at the tavern of Freedom Wright in Den- mark. To this meeting came delegates from the several towns erected in the Black river and Sandy Creek country and the hopes of Cham- pion were high because a majority of the delegates were committed to the organization of but one county.
Finally the appointed day came and into Denmark rode the dele- gates. No such notable group had ever before gathered together in the North Country. From Brownville had come Jacob Brown with John W. Collins and Benjamin Cole and from far-away Ellisburg appeared the sturdy proprietor, Lyman Ellis, with his lieutenants, Capt. Matthew Boomer and John Thomas. Champion had a strong delegation including young Egbert Ten Eyck, the lawyer; Dr. John Durkee, who as one of the few physicians in the new country had a wide influence, and Olney Pearse, the merchant. Up from Lowville rode Silas Stow, Jonathan Rogers and Charles Davenport, while from Turin, further south, came Jonathan Collins, Major John Ives and Ilijah Wadsworth. Every town was represented because it was a meeting of the greatest importance. Henry Coffeen was there and so were Tilley Richardson, Solomon Robbins and Joshua Beals. From the rich, little town of Rutland came Cliff French, Abel Sherman and William Coffeen. Col. Walter Martin does not appear to have been present but his brother-in-law, Chillus Doty, was there and his friends, Asa Brayton and Clark McCarthy. So were Moss Kent, skilled in the ways of debate, Lewis Graves and Charles Wright.
Who were these men who gathered in the little, backwoods tavern at Denmark that fall day in 1804? Jacob Brown, Silas Stow, Jona- than Collins, Moss Kent, Egbert Ten Eyck, Henry Coffeen, Lyman Ellis, Cliff French and Simeon Hunt are today the best remembered. Jacob Brown was then but twenty-nine years of age. He was a native of Pennsylvania, his mother being a Quaker. For a time he taught school and surveyed land, taking the while an interest in
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politics that fortunately attracted the attention of that delightful cynic and statesman, Gouverneur Morris. Possibly as a result of the friendship thus formed, Brown made his purchase of land in the north and soon established the village of Brownville. Good looking, of firm but pleasant features, he early displayed indications of that ability to lead which brought him fame during the War of 1812. The majority of the delegates had gone to Denmark committed to the formation of one county, but not Brown. He knew the only hope for Brownville was in case two counties were organized.
Silas Stow of Lowville was two years' Brown senior. A native of Connecticut, he studied law there but through a connection with Nicholas Low, the merchant, was given the commission of land agent to manage the latter's possessions along the Black river. His capaci- ties were such that the council of appointment early named him a judge of Oneida county. Later he was to serve in congress and to vote against the declaration of war in 1812, following which he was to serve his county as sheriff and then for many years as first judge.
Jonathan Collins of Turin was older, being forty-nine, but per- haps he was as influential as any man at the meeting. He was a farmer of some means, had served in the Revolution and, after the county of Lewis was erected, was appointed first judge. In 1820 he was a presidential elector. A portrait of Collins shows him to have been a firm-jawed, clear-eyed man with bristling, dark hair, the kind of man one would pick to lead a charge or control a caucus.
Moss Kent we have already considered. He had been in the state senate and was to go again. He was a man of education and polish, one who was to spend many years of his life in the public service including two terms in congress, and had the prestige which comes to one whose brother was the chancellor of the state. Egbert Ten Eyck, the only college man in the group, had graduated from Wil- liams in 1800. He was still in his early twenties and he, too, was later destined to represent his section in various legislative and judi- cial positions, including a term in congress. Henry Coffeen of Water- town was in his early thirties, a pioneer by instinct, a follower of Jefferson and one who owned at that time nearly all that section of Watertown from the present Public Square to Black river.
Lyman Ellis, the proprietor of Ellisburg, was then the supervisor of that town. He was a native of Troy and 44 years of age at the
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time of the Denmark meeting. On his gravestone in the old Ellisburg cemetery are engraved the words, "Modesty, honesty and charity adorned his walk in life." Cliff French was the supervisor of the town of Rutland and Dr. Abel Sherman, another of the Rutland dele- gates, became the first sheriff of Jefferson county. Simeon Hunt of the town of Harrison, now Rodman, kept a well known tavern where religious meetings were often held. He was later a lieutenant in the War of 1812. Asa Brayton was supervisor of the town of Mar- tinsburgh. Chillus Doty, the brother-in-law of Col. Martin and one of the Martinsburg delegates, was an innkeeper, became the first sheriff of Lewis county, served in the assembly three terms and was surrogate of Lewis county for eight years.
Jonathan Collins acted as chairman of the meeting and Egbert Ten Eyck, secretary. There were thirty-six delegates present and apparently there was considerable spirited debate. All votes were close and in two instances the members divided eighteen to eighteen. Finally the proposition that there be two counties erected, the division line to be determined by a disinterested committee named by the governor and the council of appointment was carried by a vote of twenty to sixteen. A committee of five was named to draw up a petition to be presented to the legislature asking that a bill creating the two counties be passed, this committee consisting of Jonathan Collins, Jacob Brown, Henry Coffeen, Cliff French and Joseph Beals. On March 28th, 1805, the legislature passed the act creating the two new counties of Jefferson and Lewis, Jefferson after President Jeffer- son and Lewis after Governor Morgan Lewis.
Then came the fight for the county seats. Finally Martinsburgh and Watertown were selected to the dismay of Silas Stow and Jacob Brown. But Henry Coffeen, who had been largely responsible for the selection of Watertown, caused the county buildings to be erected far on the outskirts of the village near the river in an effort to con- ciliate Brown. Today those buildings, if they still stood, would be in the heart of the city.
Franklin county, which as late as 1810 had only 2,719 residents, did not petition the legislature until 1808 to be erected into a county separate from Clinton. The petitioners had asked that the new county be called Norfolk but when the bill finally emerged from the legislature what was the surprise of the applicants to know that the
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name of their new county was to be Franklin. The towns then were Chateaugay, which had been erected in 1799; Harrison, later Malone, erected in 1805; Constable, which had been erected in 1807, and Dick- inson, erected in 1808. Gates Hoit was the supervisor from Chateau- gay, Albon Mann from Constable, Samuel Pease from Dickinson (elected 1809) and Nathaniel Blanchard from Harrison, later Malone. The first sessions of the little board of supervisors were held in the old academy building, but the year after the county had been erected, the movement for the construction of a court house started. By 1812 the county building was finished, a hip-roofed structure standing on a hill, containing living quarters for the sheriff as well as cells for prisoners. Its entire cost was $5,757.25, excluding $3 spent for cus- pidors and $2 paid to one of the judges for expressing an opinion as to the sufficiency of the "gaol." The three supervisors received a total of $38.84 for their services that first year while John H. Russell, clerk of the board, got $14.
Oswego was the last of all the Northern New York counties to be organized. The legislative act, creating the county, was passed in March, 1816, and the boundaries were the same as now. There were nine towns in the new county, Scriba, New Haven, Volney, Mexico, Richland, Redfield, Williamstown and Constantia, all taken from Oneida county, and Hannibal, taken from Onondaga county. A con- troversy developed between Oswego and Pulaski as to which would be the county seat and it was finally decided that there should be court houses in both places. Barnet Mooney, who had been a member of assembly from Onondaga county and who was an important resi- dent of the town of Hannibal, became the "first judge;" Henry Wil- liams, Smith Dunlap, Peter D. Hugunin, David Easton and Edmund Hawkes, judges; Daniel Hawks, Jr., assistant justice; and Elias Brewster, surrogate; James Adams, county clerk, and John S. Davis, sheriff. The population of the new county was between six and seven thousand. The first court of common pleas was held in the school house in Oswego village. The second court was held in the school house in Pulaski. In 1818 work on the two court houses was begun and a year or so later they were completed.
THE GOUVERNEUR MORRIS MANSION, NEAR GOUVERNEUR
THE OLD BRICK TAVERN AT GOUVERNEUR, A FAMOUS STAGE COACH TAVERN
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THE PARISH PURCHASE
The year after Jefferson and Lewis counties came into existence, David Parish, one of the wealthiest men of his day came to this country from Europe and settled in Philadelphia. He was then head of the banking and commission house of David Parish & Company of Antwerp, a company closely related to that of Parish & Company of Hamburgh. Almost at once he became acquainted with Gouverneur Morris, Robert Morris, the Ogdens and James D. LeRay. These men were all interested in "wild lands" in Northern New York and here was a potential customer who could hardly be ignored. Soon after Joseph Rosseel, a native of Ghent, arrived in this country and almost at once found employment with Mr. Parish. Rosseel was then but twenty-five years of age but of remarkably shrewd judgment, never- theless. He went all through Northern New York in 1807 in the interests of his employer, inspecting the lands and writing entertain- ing reports back to Parish. While in the heart of the woods of St. Lawrence county he was seized with a severe toothache. There wasn't a dentist of course in all Northern New York at that time and outside of Dr. Richard Townsend, who, with a few pioneers, was established on the site of Gouverneur, Rosseel didn't know of a phy- sician nearer than The Garrison (Ogdensburg), on the one hand, and Sackets Harbor, on the other. Fortunately he found Dr. Town- send without great difficulty. Townsend agreed to extract the tooth but made such a bungling job of it that he broke it and Rosseel, unable to stand the agony, fainted. The doctor, however, proceeded "to kill the marrow" with oil of vitroil and Rosseel survived, but the incident made a vivid impression on his mind as well may be believed.
Parish bought large tracts of land in both Jefferson and St. Law- rence counties. For one tract of 72,000 he paid $1.50 an acre, which represented quite an advance over the amount paid by Macomb twenty years before. But Parish became primarily interested in Ogdensburg. Early in 1809 he bought the whole village for $8,000, but it should be remembered that but thirty-eight lots were sold there at that time and there were probably not more than thirty buildings in the settlement, including the old stone garrison buildings. Even in 1811 there were but fifty houses in the village.
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No more fortunate thing could have happened to Ogdensburg than the change in ownership. Ford had done what he could but the capital at his command was limited. But Parish with plenty of money was accustomed to do things on an elaborate scale. He made Rosseel his land agent and delegated him at once to build a mansion, a large store and warehouse and two schooners. It was a large order. Northern New York had no skilled artisans or mechanics. It was 150 miles from Ogdensburg to Utica over the worst possible kind of roads. It was 120 miles to Montreal and excepting in the winter the going was hard. But Rosseel was equal to the task. New York, Philadelphia, Albany, Utica and Montreal were scoured for me- chanics. Rosseel, himself, made the trip down the frozen St. Law- rence to Montreal by sleigh in three days. Good, red cedar for plank- ing the new schooners was found in the Thousand Island region and rafted down the St. Lawrence to Ogdensburg. The sails and riggings had to be purchased in New York for $3,600 and were brought to Ogdensburg at great expense.
The Experiment, the first of the schooners, was launched July 4, 1809. It was a gala day for Ogdensburg. A great dinner was held at which Rosseel writes ninety-six were present and although Parish was not there he was toasted frequently and with fervor. The new vessels at once engaged in the carrying trade on the lake. Freight then was one dollar per barrel on flour from any Lake Ontario port to Montreal. The two Ogdensburg schooners were only fifty tons each but this was the average tonnage of vessels plying on Lake Ontario at that time. There were but sixteen vessels owned at Ameri- can lake ports at that time, Oswego having eleven, Genesee River one, and Niagara two, besides the two at Ogdensburg. The Canadian ports, Kingston and York, had a total of ten schooners, ranging all the way from twenty-eight tons to ninety.
Ogdensburg now began to experience a boom. In 1809 there were five stores there and by the following July eight new houses were building, including the three-story brick Parish mansion, probably the finest residence in Northern New York at that time, and by 1811 there were fifty houses in the village. The big stone warehouse, built by Rosseel for Parish, was the pride of the North Country and there Parish put such a supply of merchandise as had never been known in Northern New York before. As a matter of fact, Ogdens-
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burg, within the space of a couple of years, had become one of the most important ports in the Northern and Western part of the state. Buffalo was at this time a village of but thirty or forty houses and Oswego a huddle of some twenty houses, six of them log.
Nor was Parish the only landowner to attempt to improve his possessions in Northern New York. The Ogdens transferred their attention to Hamilton (Waddington) and built up a thriving village there. Some years earlier Dr. Richard Townsend, as agent for Gouverneur Morris, had established himself near the site of the present Gouverneur. Then it was Cambray and not until about 1810 was the name, Gouverneur, applied. In 1809 Morris decided to visit his St. Lawrence county possessions in person. So a "mansion" was built for him, a stone house, one side built into a hillside and the north end utterly devoid of windows, at a place then called Morris' Mills but now known as Natural Dam. The one-legged statesman seems to have stayed at Morris' Mills most of that summer and fall, limping about his estate, supervising the building of saw and grist mills and laying out a village. But the tide of settlement came rather to Gouverneur and Morris' ambitious project failed to materialize.
It is difficult for the present day reader to appreciate the remote- ness of the Northern New York of that day. There was a much closer contact with Montreal and the Canadian settlements along the northern bank of the St. Lawrence than there was with Utica and Albany. It is not surprising to find Americans in St. Lawrence county therefore referring to those living along the seaboard as being "in the states." In 1809 government mails were four weeks in going from Philadelphia to Ogdensburg and one letter from Scotland to John Ross at Ogdensburg was nine months on the way.
THE VISIT OF DEWITT CLINTON
About this time two noted figures visited Northern New York and left in their journals about as vivid a picture of this frontier land which may be found anywhere. Strangely enough the county his- torians seem to have completely overlooked the tours of DeWitt Clinton and Bishop Asbury. DeWitt Clinton was at this time a member of the board of canal commissioners. He was already an important figure in state politics. Within two years he was to be a candidate for the presidency as a Federalist, although at the time of
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this tour through the present Oswego county DeWitt Clinton claimed to be a Republican, that is, a Democrat, viewed from present day standards. He had already been a member of the United States senate and mayor of New York. Later he was to serve for several terms as governor of New York, the faction of the Democratic party supporting him being generally known as Clintonians. He was the son of Gen. James Clinton of Revolutionary war fame, the nephew of George Clinton, governor of New York state and vice president of the United States, and a graduate of Columbia College. At the time of his Northern New York tour he was forty-one years of age.
The members of the canal commission were Gouverneur Morris, whom, as we have seen, was the owner of large tracts of land in Northern New York; Stephen Van Rensselaer, the patroon; DeWitt Clinton; Simeon De Witt, the surveyor general; William North; Thomas Eddy, and Peter B. Porter. The commissioners followed the Mohawk river westward from Schenectady in 1810, stopped at Utica, then a flourishing village of some 300 houses and 1,650 in- habitants, with four churches, a bank, postoffice and two newspapers. They then moved on to Rome, twenty-one miles by water from Utica and 106 from Schenectady, where they put up at Isaac Lee's tavern, a large, three-story frame building, called simply The Hotel. Here, too, they saw the ruins of Fort Stanwix, defended so valiantly in the Revolutionary war. From here the water route was by canal to Wood creek, past the ruins of old Fort Bull, destroyed by de Lery in his raid from Oswegatchie in the French war, to Gilbert's tavern, which DeWitt Clinton found a "decent, comfortable house." Near the junction of Wood creek and Oneida Lake, they came to Mrs. Jack- son's tavern. As they proceeded the accommodations grew worse. They were now entering the limits of the present Oswego county. From this point on the journal will be quoted :
"As we approached Rotterdam, we saw a seine drawn at the mouth of a small cold brook, and six salmon caught at a haul. A kingfisher, as large as a hawk, was also flying about for prey. We amused ourselves on our voyage over the lake (Oneida Lake), by trolling with a hook and bait of red cloth and white feathers, and caught several Oswego bass, yellow perch, and pikes.
"We dined at Rotterdam, a decayed settlement of George Sinba's (Mr. Clinton meant George Scriba's), eleven miles from the outlet,
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containing eight or ten houses, and exhibiting marks of a premature growth. There are mills on a small creek, and, while at dinner, our men speared several fish in it-among others, one eighteen inches long, spotted, the head like a cat-fish, and downwards resembling an eel, but like a dog-fish in shape. Some called it an eel-pout, and others a curse. It appears to be a nondescript.
"Sinba's (Scriba's) agent, Mr. Dundass, was absent at Salina. We were well received by his housekeeper, and dined on chowder, prepared by Gen. North. The thermometer here was at 75 degrees. We were told that fleas infest all new settlements for the first two years, particularly in pine or sandy countries, and that we must not expect to escape them. Our commodore (Thomas Eddy) appeared old and decayed, although there were two older men among the com- missioners. Supporting himself upon a stick, he attracted the commiseration of an old man, seventy years of age, in the log-house this morning, who rose from his seat and said, 'Old daddy, shall I hand you a chair.' We were happy to see our chief revive under the potent influence of port and chowder.
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