The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1, Part 17

Author: Landon, Harry F. (Harry Fay), 1891-
Publication date: 1932
Publisher: Indianapolis, Ind., Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 610


USA > New York > Franklin County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 17
USA > New York > Jefferson County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 17
USA > New York > Lewis County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 17
USA > New York > Oswego County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 17
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 17


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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All along the road, farmers and their families gathered to cheer the marching men. On the second day the long line came into sight of Sackets Harbor. Sol- diers and sailors rushed out to relieve the tired men of their burden. A drummer boy was hoisted to the top of the great cable. A flag was borne triumphantly in the van. And into Sackets the great rope was carried to complete the equipment of the new frigate, Superior, which gave the Americans, for the time being at least, the mastery of the lake.


In 1930, largely through the instrumentality of the Daughters of 1812 and with the assistance of the state historian and Mr. W. Pierre- pont White of Utica, who has contributed so much in the marking of historic sites, the route taken by the cable-carriers was marked by artistic tablets, preserving for all time this dramatic incident of our second war with Great Britain.


The American fleet on the lake was now formidable. The big American frigate, Macedonian, being laid up in the Thames, its crew and officers were immediately sent from the seaboard to Sackets


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Harbor. The crew of the Congress, laid up in Portsmouth, began to arrive at Sackets Harbor about the middle of June. The little fron- tier village, which before the war had been practically unknown, suddenly found itself the largest naval depot in the United States, its streets crowded with sailors who had fought the King's navy on the high seas to a standstill. Britain, too, shipped many of her sailors to Kingston and both sides prepared for what it was anticipated would be the greatest naval battle of the war. It was a battle which owing to the supercautiousness of Commodore Chauncey and Sir James Yeo never occurred.


THE NIAGARA CAMPAIGN


But if the fleet was idle the army was not. Dearborn, Wilkinson, Lewis, Hampton and most of the other older generals had passed out of the picture. A group of young, active men now led the Northern armies, Brown, Porter, Ripley, Scott and Miller, all men of no repu- tation before the war. And for the first time in the war they led troops who were really trained. Regiments famous from that day since came into being, the Ninth, the Eleventh, the Twenty-second and the Twenty-fifth. Brown, impatient, hot-tempered and too ready to fight, was such a contrast to the generals of the old army, that he became a national hero. He received the thanks of congress, the thanks of the state legislature and the freedom of the City of New York. Says a noted historian: "That Brown might have become a great general was possible, had his experience been larger; but whatever was his merit as a general, his qualities as a fighter were more remarkable than those of any other general officer in the war. Except immediately after receiving his wound at Lundy Lane, when his army was exhausted by four hours of extreme effort, he never seemed satiated with fighting. Among all the American major-gen- erals, he alone made raw troops as steady as grenadiers, and caused militia to storm entrenched lines held by British soldiers."


Brown's Niagara campaign was one of the few glorious chapters in the military history of the War of 1812. At Chippewa Scott's regulars crumbled the British line, despite the fact the Americans were seriously outnumbered. Then Brown with an army numbering less than 2,500 effectives won the smashing victory of Lundy's Lane,


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HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY


where Miller's men charged the heights and bayoneted the British artillerymen at their guns. For fifty years after every school boy knew the story and gloried in Miller's quiet "I'll try" with which he answered Brown when the general asked him if he could carry the enemy's position.


The war swung away from Northern New York. While there were constant alarms, the British never again threatened Sackets Harbor, but the village remained the most important military and naval post on the lakes. On one occasion the governor sent his aide de camp, Washington Irving, to Sackets with orders for the com- mander there. Describing his ride to the Harbor, Irving writes in his diary :


"The forest swept down from beneath my feet, and spread out into a vast ocean of foliage, tinted with all the brilliant dyes of au- tumn and gilded by the setting sun. Here and there a column of smoke curling its light blue volume into the air, rose like a beacon to direct the eye to some infant settlement, as to some haven in this sylvan sea. As my eye ranged over the mellow landscape, I could perceive where the country dipped into its second terrace-the foliage beyond being more and more blended in the purple mist of the sunset, until a glistening line of gold, trembling along the horizon, showed the distant waters of Ontario. .


. I, at length, came to where the country suddenly opened-Sackets Harbor lay before me; a town which had recently sprung up in the bosom of the wilderness; beyond it the lake spread its vast waters like an ocean, no opposing shore being visible; while a few miles from land rode a squadron of ships of war at anchor on the calm bosom of the lake, and looking as if they were balanced in air."


The end of the war on such favorable terms to the United States surprised no one as much as the Federalists. They were discredited on every side and practically ceased to exist as a political party. Mr. Madison had won his war, all of which changed the situation de- cidedly.


CHAPTER VII.


A PRESIDENT RIDES THROUGH THE NORTH


THE BOOM DAYS WHICH FOLLOWED THE WAR OF 1812-THE ST. LAW- RENCE TURNPIKE-THE FIRST STEAMBOAT ON THE GREAT LAKES- "THE YEAR WITHOUT A SUMMER"-PRESIDENT MONROE'S TOUR OF THE NORTH COUNTRY-THE FIRST BANKS AND THE FIRST COUNTY FAIRS- EARLY POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS.


The favorable terms upon which the war was concluded aston- ished no one more than the Federalist landowners of the North Country. A few months before the treaty of peace was signed Vin- cent Le Ray, who managed many square miles of territory in Jeffer- son and Lewis counties for his father, James D. Le Ray de Chaumont, had written David Parish in Philadelphia: "If the English have sent us a message of peace they are very condescending indeed, chiefly after their late brilliant victories." But peace was secured and upon terms more than favorable to the new republic. The old boundary line along the St. Lawrence was reaffirmed. Brown's valiant defense of the frontier had made that possible. No longer did the cloud of war hold back immigration to the rich lands bordering the St. Law- rence river and Lake Ontario. The militiamen returned to their farms. Residents of Ogdensburg and other St. Lawrence towns who had deserted their homes when war blazed along the border came back. Land sales were stimulated. There was talk of new postoffices and new post routes, of ship building, of manufacturing and even of a bank.


The war with all its hardships in the long run reacted to the benefit of the North Country. Soldiers from many states and prin- cipally from New England had seen its rich lands. The country had read of Brown's victories and Sackets Harbor was known far and


184


NEW R. C. CHURCH AT BRASHER FALLS, N. Y.


Street, looking Bast, Natural Bridge


MAIN STREET, NATURAL BRIDGE, N. Y.


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HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY


wide. Spafford's Gazetteer of the state had just been published, giv- ing for the first time in compact form accurate information regard- ing villages and towns in Northern New York. Rough ox carts pumped along the state road piled high with household goods, as im- migrants from New England came to the North Country seeking lands. Land agents did a rushing business. Farm values increased. Northern New York was no longer the rim of the world. In the great expanse of the forest, panthers and wolves still roamed but the population increased by leaps and bounds. Fine stone residences were beginning to make their appearance, adding an atmosphere of permanency to the new country. There were slaves in the big manor houses, some of them wearing the livery of well known families, and here and there luxury such as one would never expect to experience on a frontier, but in the main it was a crude country, primitive and rough, with its villages few and far between.


THE ST. LAWRENCE TURNPIKE


Five years before James D. LeRay de Chaumont had written to his friend, David Parish, in his quaint English: "If we make a good road to come to us, it will fix forever the destiny of our country." And a year later the St. Lawrence Turnpike Company had been incor- porated by the state legislature, with the same James Donatien LeRay de Chaumont heading its list of incorporators. The early history of the North is bound up in those whose names appear on the incorpora- tion papers of the company. Here we find Daniel McCormick and Abijah Hammond, David Ogden and David Parish, Joshua Wadding- ton, Richard Harison, Michael Hogan, David M. Clarkson, Frederick DePeyster, Theodosius Fowler, Russell Attwater, Roswell Hopkins and others. Their names still live in the North in village and college and town. Chaumont, who had done so much to promote the road, was elected president of the board of directors. "It will be a very advantageous road to you," LeRay wrote David Parish and Parish alone is said to have spent $10,000 on the road, while many of the other landowners contributed liberally. Russell Attwater, after whom the town of Russell in St. Lawrence county is named, was appointed superintendent of construction and the work progressed rapidly. On Jan. 3, 1814, Vincent LeRay was able to write David


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HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY


Parish, "They begun two or three days ago to take toll on the St. Lawrence turnpike and the beginning is very good."


The turnpike extended from Wilna, now Fargo, in Jefferson county to Malone in Franklin county. At Wilna the road connected with earlier roads leading to Lowville, Turin and Rome, Watertown, Brownville and Sackets Harbor. The immigrant of that day who entered Northern New York by way of Plattsburgh and Malone found the St. Lawrence turnpike a road such as was seldom to be seen in those days in frontier territories. Malone he found a sprawling, country village of a half hundred buildings, crude enough, certainly, but boasting the Franklin county courthouse high on a hill beside the road and the beautiful residence of the Harisons. The substan- tial, stone arch bridge across the Salmon was not constructed until 1817 but here were kindly New England people always ready to advise regarding lands to the westward and to lend a helping hand as well if needs be.


Bangor was simply a fringe of stone houses along the highway but after one crossed the St. Regis and followed the turnpike into Hopkinton he found a prim, cozy little New England village with village green and town meeting house. Perhaps the immigrant would spend the night in the Thomas tavern in Hopkinton, painted a bright red by paint smuggled across the Canadian border, so it was said. If so he would probably see 'Squire Roswell Hopkins, who but a few years before was secretary of state in Vermont and was now the proprietor of many broad acres in this town. But very likely he would choose to press on to Parishville which under the generosity of the Parishes was experiencing a great boom. Here he would find one of the largest taverns in all the North, with busy little stores, a distillery and forge and many new houses.


If the immigrant wished to go still further into the new land, he would move on to Russell with its big, stone arsenal, surrounded by a high, stone wall, bristling with iron spikes crowning the hill. Further on was the East branch of the Oswegatchie and John Park- er's saw mill. Then came a lonely expanse of country until the road finally wound its way into Wilna where the old tavern still stands, set back from the road so the stage coaches could swing in with their passengers. One can follow the route of the old road today by the ancient, stone houses that line it. It cuts into the present Carthage-


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Antwerp state road at a point half mile beyond Fargo's. In part the present state roads are followed, giving a surface such as no stage coach driver would ever have dreamed, but for miles the road is just about the same as it was when Russell Attwater finished his construction, a difficult automobile road, it is true, but literally a boulevard for the pioneers from Vermont with their faces pointed towards the promised land.


It would be hard to over-estimate the influence of the St. Law- rence turnpike on the settlement of Northern New York. It brought the tide of settlement to the towns of southern St. Lawrence county. Toll gates were established every ten miles where one driving one ox, or horse or mule paid six cents, but the driver of a "chariot" or "coachee," stage coach or pheaton, drawn by two horses, must pay twenty-five cents. In 1827 the corporation seems to have been dissolved and the road turned over to the several towns through which it ran.


Little impetus was given to road building in Oswego county un- til after 1815. With the exception of the old state road from Rome to Sackets Harbor, which extended through Redfield, and the post road from Oswego to Onondaga by way of Three Rivers, Liverpool and Salina, there wasn't a decent road in the county. But in 1817 the old "ridge road" from Oswego Falls to Rochester was improved and made a post route, and a number of years later (1825) a post route was established from Watertown by way of Sandy Creek to Richland, Union Square, Colosse, Central Square and Syracuse. In 1816, Jacob L. Lazalere, James Geddes and John McFadden were authorized to lay out a road, four rods wide, from the bridge in Lysander through the towns of Lysander and Hannibal to Oswego. The next year came the first attempt at a turnpike road. George Scriba, Adonijah Church, Obadiah Adams, James Mudge and their associates organized themselves into the Sodus Bay Turnpike Road Company and started the construction of a road from Oswego Falls to Port Glasgow on the eastern shore of Sodus Bay. The same month, the Oswego and Sodus Branch Turnpike Company was in- corporated to construct a road from a point on Owasco creek in Mentz through Cato, Sterling and from thence to Oswego.


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HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY


THE FIRST STEAMBOAT ON THE GREAT LAKES


Scores of men had been trained in the trade of ship-carpentry at Sackets Harbor during the war. Now that there was no longer need for war ships, the attention of those with capital turned to the possibilities presented by lake shipping. A dozen towns along lake and river vied with one another in turning out trim, swift-sailing sloops and schooners but Sackets Harbor excelled them all. But early in 1817 the residents of Northern New York learned through their weeklies published in Watertown, Ogdensburg and Sackets Harbor that a new kind of ship was soon to make its appearance on the lake. It was the Ontario, the first steamboat ever to sail the Great Lakes. The vessel was constructed at Sackets Harbor in 1816 and the following spring it was announced that it had been "ele- gantly fitted for passengers and capable of carrying 2,000 barrels."


Late in the season of 1817 the awkward, little side-weeler of 400 tons made its first voyage. The trip from Ogdensburg to Lew- istown required ten days and the cabin fare was $16 and the deck fare, $8. What a sensation the vessel must have made, puffiing and wheezing and splashing its way along the shore at the speed of five miles an hour, the black smoke pouring from its high funnel. The Ontario was 110 feet long and twenty-four feet beam. She had a low pressure beam engine but was fully equipped against emer- gencies with two masts and full fore and aft rig. At Oswego the whole countryside turned out to greet the new wonder of the lakes and a great cry went up when she nosed her way into the harbor. The celebration there, it is recorded, lasted all night and until the vessel steamed out of port in the morning. Says Curtis in his "History of St. Lawrence County:" "In every village that could muster a cannon and from every steeple that had a bell, went forth a joyous welcome and crowds of eager citizens from the adjoining country thronged the shores to salute its arrival. Bonfires and il- luminations and the interchange of courtesies signalized the event." The little Sophia, of only seventy-five tons burthen, was the next steamboat to be constructed at Sackets Harbor, but in the meantime the Frontenac of 700 tons had been constructed at Kingston and from then on there was a merry race between lake ports in both nations.


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HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY


The following list gives the early steamboats constructed on the eastern end of Lake Ontario, the place of their construction and the date:


American Steamships


Date


Name


Where Built


Tonnage


1816 Ontario


Sackets Harbor


400


1818 Sophia


Sackets Harbor


75


1823


Martha Ogden


Sackets Harbor


150


1830 Brownville


Brownville


150


1831


Charles Carroll


Sackets Harbor


100


1831


Paul Pry


Ogdensburg


50


1832


United States


Ogdensburg


450


1833


Black Hawk


French Creek


200


1834


Oswego


Oswego


400


1836


Oneida


Oswego


300


1837


Telegraph


Dexter


200


1839


St. Lawrence


Oswego


450


1841


George Clinton


Oswego


100


1841


President


Oswego


60


1842


Lady of the Lake


Oswego


425


1843


Rochester


Oswego


400


Ericsson Propellors


1841


Vandalia


Oswego


150


1842 Chicago


Oswego


150


1842


Oswego


Oswego


150


1843


New York


Oswego


150


Canadian Steamships


1816


Frontenac


Kingston


700


1817 Charlotte


Kingston


150


1819 Dalhousie


Prescott


350


1824


Toronto


Toronto


200


1825


Canada


Toronto


250


1825


Niagara


Brockville


400


1828


Alciope


Niagara


450


1829


Sir James Kempt


Kingston


200


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HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY


Canadian Steamships-Continued


Date


Name


Where Built


Tonnage


1830 Great Britain


Prescott


700


1831


Iroquois


Prescott


100


1832


John By


Kingston


100


1832


William IV


Gananoque


450


1832


Transit


Oakville


350


1833


Britanica


Kingston


200


1833


Coburg


Coburg


500


1833


Kingston


Kingston


200


1833


Brockville


Brockville


350


1834


Commodore Barrie


Kingston


275


1834


Union


Oakville


300


1835


St. George


Kingston


400


1837


Sir Robert Peel


Brockville


350


1837


Gore


Niagara


200


1838


Queen Victoria


Niagara


200


1839


Henry Gildersleeve


Kingston


250


1839


Ontario


Oneida


300


1840


Highlander


Coteau du Lac


300


1840


Albion


Brockville


200


1840


America


Niagara


300


1840


City of Toronto


Niagara


500


1840


Sovereign


Niagara


475


1841


Princess Royal


Niagara


500


1841


Canada


Prescott


450


1841


Frontenac


Kingston


200


1841


Sir Charles


Kingston


200


1842


Prince of Wales


Kingston


200


1842


Admiral


Niagara


400


1842


Chief Justice Robinson


Niagara


400


1842


Eclipse


Niagara


400


THE "YEAR WITHOUT A SUMMER"


In the midst of this period of prosperity and progress, that strange phenomena of nature, the "year without a summer," de- scended upon Northern New York, bringing suffering and distress


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HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY


in its wake. Never in the history of the North Country has a sim- iliar season been experienced. It was in 1816 and even to this day the memory of that year and what it meant lingers throughout the northern part of the state. It even drew comment from the presi- dent in his message to congress. There were a few abnormally warm days in early April and residents of Champion sat on the ground in perfect comfort watching the erection of their church. But then came the cold. There was a frost every month that sum- mer and fall. So great was the distress among the St. Regis In- dians because of the destruction of their corn that the legislature directed that their annuity payable in August might be paid in ad- vance of that date.


On June 6th, 7th and 8th the snow was ankle deep in Lewis county and many freshly shorn sheep perished. Those same three days it snowed in Eastern St. Lawrence and Franklin counties. In the town of Denmark, Lewis county, snow was a half an inch deep June 9th and ice formed a quarter of an inch thick. Corn and vege- tables generally were killed. A heavy frost came Aug. 26th killing what remained of the corn while in Franklin county the heaviest frost came in September, blighting such crops as had escaped de- struction during the earlier months. Wheat, rye, oats and vege- tables were so badly damaged that none was worth harvesting. Potatoes were no larger than hen's eggs. There was actual suffer- ing in Malone owing to the scarcity of flour which sold for $16 a barrel. In Lisbon that year corn sold for $2.50 a bushel. Wild game and fish constituted a large part of the food used and probably pre- vented actual starvation in some cases.


The diary of Artemus Kent, an early settler of Hopkinton, St. Lawrence county, reflects the suffering of that year. Following are some extracts :


"March 9. Snow is two and one-half feet deep in the woods.


"April 12. Full four inches of snow has fallen. We now feel the distress due to frost and rain last Fall. Flour is $18 per bar- rel; pork, thirty, and potatoes one dollar per bushel, and not to be had at that. Hay is twenty dollars per ton. Indeed it can't be bought at any price. There is the greatest scarcity ever known in this country.


"April 22. Snow fell three inches in depth last night.


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HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY


"May 15. Has frozen for the last three nights uncommonly hard.


"May 23. Many people are out of provisions of nearly every kind. Though flour begins to come from the Westward, money is so scarce and the prices so high that it is impossible for poor people to buy it. The season is cold and backward and the prospects look dark for another year.


"May 29. It froze so hard last night that the mud will bear a man when it is three inches deep.


"June 6. Snowed from early morning until one p. m., melting as fast as it fell, excepting on the north side of buildings.


"June 7. Very cold. Froze ice one-half inch thick.


"June 8. Snowed till nine a. m. and in the afternoon. Melan- choly aspect.


"June 14. It has frozen every night since June came in, ex- cept a few rainy, foggy nights.


"July 11. We are alarmed not only as to present want but fu- ture stores. All crops are very backward and promise but little. Our present necessities are great. Many of our best neighbors are without bread. The prospect of getting it from abroad is almost 'dried up.'


"Aug. 4. Last night there was considerable frost . . . Vines and even corn in some places are ruined.


"Sept. 1. Melancholy time indeed. The people have been re- duced almost to a state of starvation and now have little prospects.


"Oct. 17. Snow fell eight inches. The backward season and frost have entirely cut off the crop of corn and very much damaged late wheat, so that grain will be very scarce."


THE VISIT OF PRESIDENT MONROE


The following year Northern New York with its scattering vil- lages and makeshift roads was called upon to welcome a distin- guished visitor, no other than James Monroe, president of the United States. It was a tremendous journey which Monroe, almost 60 years old, undertook for that day and age, a visit to the far-distant frontiers and the inspection of posts which had figured prominently in the late war. Nor was the motive military alone. It had a poli- tical aspect. Virginia had furnished four out of the five presidents.


7


ADMINISTRATION BUILDING, ST. LAWRENCE HOSPITAL, OGDENSBURG, N. Y.


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220999


OGDENSBURG FREE ACADEMY, OGDENSBURG, N. Y.


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HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY


But the time had passed when Thomas Jefferson could dispose of the presidency to his lieutenants, one after another. Formidable opposition was developing from New York, Massachusetts and other states. James Monroe, a shrewder man than Madison, decided to show himself to the people. He proposed a trip such as no other president had ever undertaken, hoping in this way to heal the bit- ter party feelings which were the heritage of the war and to con- solidate the nation where only two years before the voice of seces- sion had been raised.


It was a happy thought and caught the fancy of the people. Monroe's tour was a triumphant procession. Wearing the undress uniform of an officer in the Continental army, with cocked hat, his appearance fanned anew the patriotism of Revolutionary days. A newspaper coined the expression, "The Era of Good Feeling," and so it seemed it was. Monroe's reception was no more enthusiastic in Democratic New York than it was in Federalistic Massachusetts.


It was May 31st when Monroe left Washington and not until July 26th did he reach Plattsburgh on the borders of Northern New York. There was a garrison of United States soldiers at Plattsburgh and Major General Brown who was to accompany the president on his North Country tour. The band of the 6th United States Infantry played, school girls strewed roses in his path and in the evening a grand ball was held in the military hall in honor of the nation's chief executive. Escorted by a detachment of cavalry the president proceeded through "the Chateaugay wood" to Malone. At this vil- lage of some fifty houses a bridge across the Salmon river was in the process of building and the nation's chief executive was forced to cross the river on a plank while his horse was led across further down the stream. Despite this hazardous traveling on July 31st, six days after he had left Plattsburgh, the president arrived in Hamilton, now Waddington.




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