USA > New York > Franklin County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 14
USA > New York > Jefferson County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 14
USA > New York > Lewis County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 14
USA > New York > Oswego County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 14
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 14
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"After dinner we continued our voyage with an adverse wind. As the evening shades prevailed, we were saluted with the melancholy notes of the loon. We passed three boats under sail going up the lake.
"This night we slept at Steven's (Oliver Stevens, who had long maintained a tavern at Fort Brewerton), at the outlet of the lake, nine miles by land and eleven by water from Rotterdam. Here com- mences Onondaga or Oneida river, the only outlet of the lake, about as large as the mouth of Wood creek. The bars at the outlet are rocky, wide, difficult to remove, and so shallow that a horse can easily pass over them. There are two eel weirs here, in which many are caught. Stevens has lived in this place, which is in the town of Constantia, eighteen years, has rented it for seventeen years, at $75 a year. He has no neighbors within four miles on this side of the river. On the other side is the town of Cicero, in which there are several settlements. This is a clean house, in which we were as well accommodated as the situation of the country would admit.
"Several Onondaga Indians were here. Numerous boats, travers- ing the river at night for salmon, and illuminated with fine flam- beaux, made a brilliant appearance. A curious fungus or excrescence of the pine, with thirty rings, denoting thirty years' growth, was
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shown here. It is used for bitters and is very scarce. Black rasp- berries grow wild in great abundance. They composed, with fresh salmon, the principal part of our supper.
"Stevens is twelve miles from Salina by land, and thirty-two by water. The salt used in the country is brought the latter way, and is purchased at the springs for 2s. or 1s. 6d. per bushel.
"Land in Cicero, or Cato, is worth from three to five dollars per acre. Stevens told us that they had no other preacher than Mr. Shepherd, who lived over the river in Cicero; that he formerly re- sided in Goshen, and got three military lots as captain or major of artificers, although not legally entitled to them-that Judge Thomp- son, a member of the senate, and of Orange county, received one lot as a fee for his services in getting the law passed.
"Stevens' house is one-quarter of a mile from the mouth of the lake. Deer come close up to it. We saw an adder and another snake sunning themselves on the ramparts of Fort Brewster (Brewerton) in the rear of house. This was erected in the French war, was a regular work, ditch, and bastions, all covering about an acre. This must have been an important pass to defend, and would now be an excellent site for a town. It belongs to Chancellor Lansing, who asks fifteen dollars an acre.
"July 15th. Sunday. The surveyor (Mr. DeWitt) being em- ployed in taking the level of the outlet, we did not get out until eleven o'clock. Our object was to reach Three River Point this day. The distance by land is seven, and by water, eighteen and three- quarter miles. The whole length of the outlet is, then, nineteen miles. In width it varies from forty to one hundred yards. The banks are low, and covered on both sides with nut, oak, and maple, and beech trees, denoting the richest land.
"Four miles from Stevens, Pomeroy creek enters the river, on the south side. For a considerable distance below there is shallow water with a stone bottom, rapid current and rift, more difficult than the one at the outlet, making a fall of three-and-a-half feet.
"On our way down, I saw several large flocks of ducks and two large eagles. Col. Porter shot one of them on the wing-he was alive, and measured eight feet from the extremity of one wing to another. He was a bald eagle ; his talons were formidable; head and tail white. At Three-River Point he beat off several dogs in a pitched battle.
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"After having dined aboard, near one Vickery's, whose house was well filled with Lyons' speeches, we proceeded and passed the grave of a drowned Frenchman, who once shot a panther when in the attitude of leaping at him, nine feet and eleven inches long. The head is now in Walton's store, at Schenectady.
"Before sundown we reached Three-River Point. This place de- rives its name from the confluence of the Oneida and Seneca rivers, and the river formed by this junction, is then denominated the Oswego river. It lies in Cicero, on the south side of the Oneida river, is part of a Gospel lot, and an excellent position for a town. All the salt-boats from the springs, and the boats from Cayuga and Seneca Lakes, rendezvous at this place; and we found the house, which is kept by one Magie, crowded with noisy drunken people, and the landlord, wife and son were in the same situation. The house being small and dirty, we took refuge in a room in which were two beds and a weaver's loom, a beaufet and dressers for tea utensils, and furniture, and there we had a very uncomfortable collation.
"Col. Porter erected his tent and made his fire on the hill, where he was comfortably accommodated with the young gentlemen. I reconnoitered up stairs ; but in passing to the bed, I saw several dirty, villainous-looking fellows in their bunks, and all placed in the same garret. I retreated from the disgusting scene, and left Gen. North, Mr. DeWitt and Mr. Geddes, in the undisputed possesion of the attic beds. The Commodore and I took possession of the beds below; but previous to this we had been assured by an apparently decent girl, that they were free from vermin, and that the beds above were well stored with them. Satisfied with the assurance, we prepared our- selves for a comfortable sleep after a fatiguing day. But no sooner were we lodged than our noses were assailed by a thousand villainous smells, meeting our olfactory nerves in all directions, the most potent exhalation arising from boiled pork, which was left close to our heads. Our ears were invaded by a commingled noise of drunken people in an adjacent room, of crickets in the hearth, of rats in the walls, of dogs under the beds, by the whizzing of mosquitoes (sic) about our heads, and the flying of bats about the room. The women in the house were continually pushing open the door, and pacing the room for plates, and knives, and spoons; and the dogs would avail themselves of such opportunities to come in under our beds. Under
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such circumstances sleep was impracticable; and, after the family had retired to rest, we heard our companions above rolling about restless in their beds. This we set down to the credit of the bugs, and we hugged ourselves on our superior comforts. We were, however, soon driven out by the annoyance of vermin. On lighting a candle and examining the beds, we found that we had been assailed by an army of bed-bugs, aided by a body of light infantry in the shape of fleas, and a regiment of mosquito (sic) cavalry. I retreated from the disgusting scene and immediately dressed myself, and took refuge in a segar (sic) .
"July 16th. We left this disagreeable place as soon as the light would permit, and gave it the name of Bug Bay which it will probably long retain.
"Three-Mile Rapid commences about two miles from the Point. Here we saw salt-boats below the rapid, which unloaded half their cargoes in order to get over it-also rafts from Cayuga Lake, which had been detained four weeks, by the lowness of the water. The rafts intended to form a junction at Oswego, and to proceed over Lake Ontario, and thence down the St. Lawrence to Quebec. It is supposed they will bring $20,000 at that place. The attempt is extremely hazardous. Below the rapids, there was an encampment of Onondaga Indians; some of their canoes were composed of elm bark.
"Two or three miles farther we passed a rapid, called the Horse- Shoe Rapid. The Oswego river is about twenty-four miles long. The fall from Three-River Point to Oswego, is about 112 feet. The river scenery is delightful. The large and luxuriant trees on its banks form an agreeable shade, and indicate great fertility.
"After proceeding seven miles, we breakfasted at a fine, cool brook on the north side, and at the foot of Horse-Shoe Rapid. Our break- fast consisted of common bread, Oswego bread and biscuit, coffee and tea, without milk, butter, perch, salmon, and Oswego bass; fried pork, ham, boiled pork and bologna sausages, old and new cheese, wood- duck, teal and dipper. Some of these, luxuries as they may appear on paper, were procured by our guns and fishing tackle, on our descent. We saw plenty of wild ducks, some wild pigeons and partridges, some of which we shot. We were also successful in trolling for fish. The crane, the fish-hawk, the king-fisher, and the bald-eagle, we saw, but no bitterns on the descending river. At this place we tasted the wild
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cucumber, the root of which is white and pleasant, with a spicy, pleas- ant taste. Why it is called the cucumber, is not easy to imagine, as there is no point of resemblance.
"In a smart shower we arrived at the celebrated Falls of Oswego, twelve miles from Three-River Point, and twelve miles from Oswego. There is carrying place of a mile here, the upper and lower landings being that distance apart. At both landings there were about 15,000 barrels of salt, containing five bushels each, and each barrel weigh- ing fifty-six pounds. It is supposed that the same quantity has already been carried down, making altogether 30,000 barrels. The carriage at this place is one shilling for each barrel. Loaded boats cannot with safety descend the Falls, but light boats may, notwith- standing the descent is twelve feet, and the roaring of the troubled waves among great rocks terrific. Pilots conduct the boats over for one dollar each; and being perfectly acquainted with the falls, no accidents are known to happen, although the slightest misstep would dash the vessels to atoms.
"We left our squadron above the Upper Falls, and hired a boat to conduct us to Oswego, from the lower landing. The wind was adverse, and the weather showery, but the descent was so favorable that we progressed with great rapidity. The river downwards is full of rapids, which I shall notice, and the banks precipitous and rocky. We dined at L. Van Volkenburgh's tavern, two miles on our way, and on the north side. This situation is very pleasant; two islands opposite the house. .
"We arrived at Oswego at seven p. m., and put up at a tolerable tavern, kept by E. Parsons, called colonel. He was second in com- mand in Shay's insurrection, and formerly kept an inn in Manlius- Square. He was once selected as foreman of the Grand Jury of Onondaga county. He appears to be a civil man of moderate intel- lect; determined, however, to be in opposition to the government, he is now an ardent Federalist. He gives two hundred dollars rent for an indifferent house. Another innkeeper gives three hundred for a house not much superior ; and this little place contains already three taverns."
Mr. Clinton then goes on with a description of the laying out of Oswego and the original plans for the village as prepared by Mr. De Witt, the surveyor-general. "The houses are not built on
-
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this plan," he writes, "and are huddled together in a confused manner. There are at present fourteen houses, six log-houses, six warehouses, and five stores, and five wharves, covered with barrels of salt, at which were four square-rigged vessels. A postoffice, cus- tom-house, three physicians; no church, or lawyer.
"The salt trade seems to be the chief business of this place. There was a brig on the stocks. There belong here eleven vessels, from eighty-two to fifteen tons, the whole tonnage amounting to 413. To Genesee River, one of twenty-two tons; to Niagara, two-one of fifty, and one of eighty-five, making 135 tons; to Oswegatchie, two, of fifty tons each; to Kingston, in Upper Canada, eight, from ninety to twenty-eight tons; and to York, two, of forty tons each, all engaged in the Lake trade.
"In 1807, 17,078 barrels of salt were shipped from this place. In 1808, upwards of 19,000, and 3,000 were not carried away for want of vessels. In 1809, 28,840 barrels were sent directly to Can- ada, and this year it will exceed 30,000. Salt now sells at Kingston at $4.50 per barrel, and at Pittsburgh at from $8.50 to $9.
"A barrel of salt in Oswego costs $2.50 in cash; and at Salina $2, probably $1.50. By a law of the State salt cannot be sold by the State lessees for more than 62 cents per bushel.
"The conveyance of a barrel of salt from Salina to the Upper Falls of Oswego is, in time of good water, two shillings-in low water, three shillings. The same price is asked from the Lower Falls to Oswego.
"The distance from Oswego to Niagara is 160 miles. It takes a fortnight to go up and return. The vessels carry from 170 to 440 casks, and the conveyance of a cask costs fifty cents. The lake can be navigated six and a half months in the year. The wages of a common sailor are $20 a month.
"The collector says that the value of property exported from Oswego in 1808, amounted to nearly $536,000. In the time of the embargo, the value of property carried out of a district was known. None of this went directly to Canada. In 1807, it was $167,000 more. Upper Canada is supplied with teas and East India goods through this place. The press of business is in spring and fall. In winter this is a place of no business, and all the stores are shut up. Now two of their merchants intend to carry on trade in the winter.
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There is no fur trade. The value of the carrying trade from Oswego Falls here, last year, amounted to $40,000.
"At Parson's house there was a girl making straw hats. She could make one worth six dollars in nine days. In various places people make their own hats of coarse straw."
Mr. Clinton and the other commissioners left Oswego on July 18th, walking five miles on the south side of the river to Pease's Tavern. They spent that night in Van Valkenburgh's Tavern again. The next day they were back at the Upper Falls. Here they found that during their absence there had been a ball and "one of the boatmen broke it up by cutting off a dog's tail, and letting the animal loose among the young women, whose clothes it besmeared with blood." That same afternoon they were back at Three-River Point, where, according to Mr. Clinton, they found all the family sober, but most of them sick with the dysentery, although the house was comparatively clean and decent.
BISHOP ASBURY'S VISIT
It will be seen a journey to Northern New York in that day was nothing to be undertaken lightly and called for strength and youth. Yet the same year that De Witt Clinton and his fellow commis- sioners visited Oswego the venerable Bishop Asbury of the Methodist Church essayed a visit to Northern New York and Canada. The old bishop with two companions came into Northern New York by way of Vermont and Plattsburgh, at the later place preaching in a bar- room. The route from there was the familiar one through the Chateaugay woods, across the Chateaugay and Salmon rivers to St. Regis. Here the bishop's horse went through a pole bridge and the saddle bags fell into the river. The party went across the St. Law- rence in novel fashion, three canoes being lashed together and the fore-feet of the horses being placed in one canoe and the hind-feet in another. It was a singular load, three passengers, three canoes, three horses and four Indian guides.
The old bishop preached at many points on the Northern bank of the St. Lawrence until the party reached Kingston. From there it was decided to proceed to Sackets Harbor by boat. The trip was to be made "in an open sail-boat, dignified by the name of packet." Overtaken by a storm they were forced to take refuge at Grenadier
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Island where the captain cursed so hard that a female passenger was forced to reproove him, whereupon the captain "made no reply, but he swore no more that night." The bishop was made as com- fortable as possible on the boat and a tent of sail cloth rigged over him to protect him as much as possible from the storm. The follow- ing morning the packet set sail for Sackets Harbor, arriving there safely and the bishop, despite his exhaustion and the fact that he was suffering from rheumatism, insisted upon setting out at once in a thunder storm for the annual conference at Paris.
But despite the roughness of the country and the difficulty of travel, here and there one found a measure of luxury even in the wilderness. Three residents of the Gouverneur of this period owned slaves, Dr. Richard Townsend, Dr. John Spencer and Benjamin Leavitt, Judge Nathan Ford of Ogdensburg owned one, as did Major John Borland of DeKalb and Louis Hasbrouck, first county clerk of St. Lawrence county. The Harrison family at Malone had at least one slave and Judge William Bailey of Chateaugay also owned one. There were thirty slaves in Jefferson county and a number in both Oswego and Lewis counties.
Such trade as Northern New York had was almost entirely with Canada. Montreal was the port which the American lake vessels visited and much of the goods displayed in Northern New York stores were bought in that city. While -Northern New Yorkers as well as anyone else were ready to condemn the impressment of American seamen by the British yet sympathy in a section where the contact with Canada was so close was rather with England than with France in the Napoleonic wars and the policy of President Jefferson was quite generally condemned, particularly among the landowners and their agents, who saw that the fear of a possible war with England was hurting the sale of their lands.
Under such circumstances the embargo act, prohibiting com- merce with Great Britain or her possessions, was almost a last straw. The law was tremendously unpopular in Northern New York where everyone violated it who had the opportunity. The embargo resulted in enormously increasing the price of potash which rose to $300 and $320 a ton in Montreal and made the inducements for smuggling even greater. Troops were stationed at Sackets Har- bor, Cape Vincent, on the Oswegatchie road and at Ogdensburg in
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an attempt to stop violations of the law, but still it went on. Tem- porary roads were built through the wilderness, leading to the St. Lawrence, over which potash was smuggled to Canada, one of these roads from a point near Brownville to French creek being known widely as the "Embargo road." Hart Massey, collector of customs for the Sackets Harbor district, seized fifty-four barrels of pot and pearl ashes and twenty barrels of pork at Cape Vincent, only to have the entire property openly rescued by a force of armed men from Kingston. Writing to Washington soon after this event Mr. Massey complains that "they appear determined to evade the laws at the risk of their lives. More particularly at Oswegatchie, I am informed, they have entered into a combination not to entertain, nor even suffer any other force to be stationed in that vicinity, and their threats are handed out that if I, or any other officer, should come there again, they will take a rawhide to them, which they have prepared for that purpose. It is with difficulty that I get any assistance for the conveyance of property to the public store. If I have not armed men with me, the inhabitants will assemble in the night and take the property from me. There are some who wish to support the laws, but they are so unpopular that they shrink from their duty. My life and the lives of my deputies are daily threatened; what will be the fate of us, God only knows."
Bloodshed was narrowly averted at Oswego. Some sixty armed men, many of them from Jefferson county, entered the harbor in the summer of 1808 with the intention of seizing a quantity of flour held there and if they were resisted to burn the village. Dragoons, hastily summoned from Onondaga, prevented the mob from carrying out its intention and the men fled to the woods leaving their boats in the custody of the collector.
That same fall a detachment of soldiers marched from Oswego into the town of Ellisburg, Jefferson county, to the home of one Captain Fairfield, seized a quantity of potash stored there and de- parting taking with them also a small cannon belonging to the captain. Captain Fairfield made complaint to a justice and a war- rant was issued and given to a constable to serve. He summoned a posse of armed men and attempted to serve the warrant but his men were disarmed by the soldiers and all arrested and taken to Oswego.
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The most intense excitement reigned all over Northern New York. Some 200 armed men assembled at Ellisburg under the direc- tion of a constable and for a time it looked as though the whole force would march on Oswego. But a conference of magistrates was called and the judges, unwilling to take the responsibility for the bloodshed which might follow, advised the men to disperse. The incident excited state-wide interest. The magistrates of Jefferson county were accused of being Federalists who were willing to resist the laws of the United States with force. They replied with a spirited statement published in many of the papers of that day, de- fending their actions and deploring the "rapid strides towards despotism and martial law, the establishment of which must occa- sion a total deprivation of the rights for which our fathers and many of us have fought and bled."
The troops stationed in Ogdensburg were so unpopular that a civic celebration was ordered when they left town and Joseph Ros- seel, agent for David Parish, referred to them as "a banditti of rapscallions." All of this served to make the administration of Thomas Jefferson and that of James Madison, which followed, un- popular in the north. War clouds were looming along the frontier once more. In the scattered settlements throughout the North Country the people waited, embittered against their own government for its policy towards England, unarmed, unprepared and helpless.
CHAPTER VI.
"MR. MADISON'S WAR"
NORTHERN NEW YORK IN THE WAR OF 1812-THE NORTH COUNTRY NOT IN SYMPATHY WITH THE WAR-THE CAPTURE OF OGDENSBURG-THE BATTLE OF SACKETS HARBOR-WILKINSON'S EXPEDITION-THE CAP- TURE OF OSWEGO AND THE CARRYING OF THE CABLE.
For some time past the pioneers who lived in the scattered vil- lages throughout Northern New York had realized that President Madison was bent upon a war with Great Britain. It was by no means an encouraging prospect for them. For one thing their social and commercial contact was much closer with Canada than it was with Albany and New York. It was a good week's trip from Utica to Ogdensburg over the land routes then followed while in the winter one could go from Ogdensburg down the St. Lawrence to Montreal in three days. Residents of Prescott and Ogdensburg alike referred to New York and Philadelphia as in "the states," and it took government mail four weeks to go from Philadelphia to Ogdens- burg.
Then, again, many of the residents of the Northern New York of that day were from the Mohawk region and had a vivid, childhood memory of the Indian raids of Revolutionary days when the whole "Valley" was aflame with burning villages and when men, women and children, alike, were slaughtered by the Indians and their Tory allies. Descendants of these same Indians and Tories still lived in the villages north of the St. Lawrence, scarcely more than a stone's throw from the defenseless American hamlets on the other side of the river.
Also there was a feeling that the Republicans, that is to say the party of Jefferson and Madison and Monroe, the modern Democratic
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party, were promoting a war with England for political purposes. The Federalists, who were far in the majority in Northern New York, would have preferred a war with France. Even Jacob Brown of Brownville, who had just been made a brigadier general of militia by Governor Tompkins, and who, if a Republican had Fed- eralist leanings, did not hesitate to write the governor that he was not one who thought that a war with Great Britain was the best thing that could happen to his country, but rather thought that the honor of the nation would have been preserved had congress de- clared war on the "tyrant of the continent" (Napoleon) .
The great landowners of the north, who were almost without exception Federalists and therefore opposed to anything Madison was for, had another reason, more vital than politics, for opposing a war with England. Fear of war had already ruined emigration to the Northern New York settlements. It was almost impossible to get anyone to buy any land there. As early as 1807 Nathan Ford, land agent at Ogdensburg, had complained to his employer, Samuel Ogden, that "the sound of war has palsied the sales of land in this county. Many are for flying immediately and others are so frightened they do not know which way to run."
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