USA > New York > Franklin County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 20
USA > New York > Jefferson County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 20
USA > New York > Lewis County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 20
USA > New York > Oswego County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 20
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 20
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49
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course and few sidewalks, but the village boasted of two newspapers, there were the county buildings and quite a group of citizens, already beginning to accumulate some wealth. Micah Sterling, as we have seen, was the member of congress from the district and a lawyer of considerable note. Also there were Egbert Ten Eyck, who was later to go to congress; Judge Perley Keyes, the favorite of Martin Van Buren ; Isaac H. Brownson, lawyer and later also a member of con- gress; John and Loveland Paddock, merchants and bankers; Olney Pearce, merchant; Jason Fairbanks, deputy United States marshal, sheriff and county treasurer ; Orville Hungerford, merchant and later to become one of the leading Democrats in the state; Philo S. John- son, whose house, built in 1812, still stands; Norris N. Woodruff, for years one of Watertown's leading citizens, and many others. The village had been incorporated as early as 1816, the first president being Timothy Burr. In 1820, Egbert Ten Eyck was president. Dr. Amasa Trowbridge, who had served as surgeon in the War of 1812, was a leading physician and surgeon of these early days. Other early physicians were Dr. I. M. Crawe, Dr. Daniel Brainerd, Dr. Henry H. Sterwood, Dr. Reuben Goodale, Dr. P. Burr and Dr. J. H. Bragg. But by 1825, despite the increasing importance of the village, Water- town was still essentially a farming village. There were few me- chanics. The village was made up of small tradespeople, merchants who gained a livelihood by catering to the farmers and lawyers who existed on the numerous small cases incident to a farming commun- ity. Many operated small farms within the limits of the village. Cat- tle strayed from the poorly fenced fields and roamed about the ill- kept streets. Hogs left their pens to wallow in the mud of neighbor- ing front yards. The women spun and wove; the men went about their "chores." Not until Levi Beebe built his great cotton factory on Cowan's Island, now known as Beebe Island, in 1827, did me- chanics flock to the village and Watertown begin to take on the ear. marks of an industrial community.
Adams, as we have seen, was an early town, being erected from Mexico in 1802. The town was named, of course, after John Adams and the first town meeting was held at the house of Eliphalet Ed- monds. The first supervisor was Nicholas Salisbury, who served from 1803 to 1813. Salisbury had been the leader of the first group of settlers who came into the town in 1799, following up Sandy creek
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from Ellisburg. Others in that company were Robert Fulton, Caleb Ellis, Joel Guile and Elihu Phillips. Solomon Smith and Eliphalet Edmonds settled that same year. Peter Doxtater, the Indian fighter, came about 1800. Samuel Fox came that same year. David Smith took a tract of land where Adams village now is about 1801 and built a saw mill there. He gave the village its first name, Smith's Mills. It is related that when the services of a physician were needed in the winter of 1801-2 that one C. Smith went on snow shoes twenty-five miles to Oneida county to get one. As early as 1813 Smith's Mills was described as a "flourishing village." The people were devout New Englanders and a Congregationalist church was established as early as 1804 and by 1818 had built a little wooden church. The Baptists also organized in 1802 and in 1824 a church was built. The Seventh Day Baptists organized a church at Adams Center in 1822. The growth of Adams Center started about 1818, when it was known as Adams Five Corners. Settlement was begun in Smithville in 1804 by Daniel Hardy and he opened the first tavern there.
Settlement in the St. Lawrence river towns did not get under way much before the 1820s. Farmers had started taking up lands along French creek about 1818 or 1819 and in 1820 William H. Angel, who throughout his life was always known as "General" Angel, estab- lished a store on the site of the present village of Clayton and en- gaged in the lumber business. Gen. Angel bought square oak, pine timber and staves from the pioneers, usually paying for the timber with goods from his store, and then the timber was bound into rafts and floated down the St. Lawrence to market. This "rafting" busi- ness was for many years the leading industry of Clayton. Martin Herrick was an early settler in the village and a postoffice, French Creek, was established in the Angel store. In 1824 Vincent LeRay, owner of the land, had a village mapped out which he named Cornelia, in honor of his wife's mother. The village first built up along Water street and most of the houses were of logs. It is said that the first frame house was constructed by Col. James Smith, United States customs inspector, in 1826. In 1835 Clayton had about forty-five dwellings. The first church was erected in 1840 by the Methodists and Baptists, jointly, but a Catholic society had been organized in 1838 and in 1842-1844 St. Mary's Church was erected. The first church was replaced by the present Gothic structure in 1889. The
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firm of Smith & Merrick took over Gen. Angel's rafting business in 1827 and greatly extending it, also embarked in the ship building business. The name of Clayton was assumed in 1831 from Senator John M. Clayton of Delaware. The early history of Clayton is a story of ship building and rafting. It was not until after the Civil War that Clayton became an important resort point as will be seen in a later chapter.
Although the town of Alexandria was not erected until 1821, Alexandria Bay was selected as a desirable site for a village as early as 1804. Consequently some years later when most of the land be- longed to James D. LeRay de Chaumont he reserved a square mile of land at this site for a village. The first improvements there were made about 1818. Mr. LeRay built a tavern and a warehouse at the location and the little village soon attained some importance as a lumber shipping station. The first grist mill was erected at Plessis about 1817 by Mr. LeRay. A store was erected in 1820 but as late as 1830, only four families resided there. Redwood was not settled until about 1833. The later history of the St. Lawrence river towns, when the Thousand Islands came into fame as one of the great play- grounds of the continent, is treated in the chapter entitled "The De- velopment of the Resort Region."
Antwerp had a population in 1820 of 1,319. Although the town was not erected until 1810, the village of Indian River, which later came to be known as Antwerp, was quite a little hamlet even before that time. It is supposed that the first settler in the town was Cap- tain William Lee, who built a tavern three miles north of the present Antwerp village on the old state road. Gen. Lewis R. Morris at this time owned the town and he caused to be built a saw mill on the site of the village of Antwerp in 1806. It seemed to be an ideal site for a village, being the point where the state road crossed the river. Moreover roads were soon opened to Philadelphia and to Gouverneur. Some early settlers were Peter Vrooman, John Jenison, John C. Foster, David Coffeen, William Fletcher, Richard McAllaster, Wil- liam McAllaster and Daniel Sterling. In 1808 when David Parish, referred to in an earlier chapter, made extensive land purchases in the north he bought 29,033 acres in this town. The two great roads leading into St. Lawrence county intersected in this town and during the embargo trouble a company of troops was stationed there to
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prevent smuggling. Peter Vrooman was the first settler on the site of Oxbow, coming in 1803. The second church in Jefferson county was built in the village of Antwerp by Mr. Parish in 1817-18. It was a fine, little brick structure and intended for the use of all de- nominations. The Presbyterian society was the first to organize.
The town of Brownville, it will be recalled, was formed from Leyden in 1802 and within a year or two the village of Brownville was quite an important settlement, carrying on a flourishing business with Montreal. Jacob Brown was the guiding spirit in those early days, ably assisted by such men as John W. Collins, for many years a supervisor ; John Brown, Peter Pratt, Samuel Brown and Samuel Starr. By 1820 the village contained some sixty houses, about 300 inhabitants, a stone hotel, the Brownville Hotel, a stone church, a cotton factory of 1,000 spindles, a nail factory, various mills, two distilleries, a school house and several stores. George Brown, Jr., was supervisor from 1819 to 1820 and Hoel Lawrence from 1821 to 1828, inclusive. As early as 1802 the first bridge was built at Brown- ville at a cost of $1,000. Until the public buildings were located in Watertown, Brownville was the most progressive and prosperous settlement in the county. The Black River Navigation Company had been organized in 1810 and wooden locks were built in 1815, per- mitting navigation of the river to the lake. The village was not in- corporated until 1828, when Thomas Loomis, Jr., Hoel Lawrence, George Brown, Peleg Burchard and Tracy S. Knapp were elected trustees. The Brownville Manufacturing Company, already referred to, was incorporated in 1814 with a capitalization of $100,000 for the manufacture of cotton and woolen cloth. A factory was erected and operation started but within a year or two the factory was closed. It was reopened in 1831 under the name of the Brownville Cotton factory and continued in operation for some years. The settlement of Dexter, early known as Fish Island, was later, and in 1837 the place contained only a dozen houses. The Brownville Presbyterian church was organized in 1818 and a stone church built in 1820. Rev. Noah M. Wells was the first pastor. St. Paul's Episcopal church was organized in 1826 with Rev. William Linn Keese as rector.
Much of the early history of Champion, which, as we have seen, was one of the earliest towns in the entire north, has already been given. Champion experienced its heyday prior to the selection of
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Watertown as the county seat. Like Brownville, Champion had visions of being selected. If one county had been agreed upon at the Denmark meeting instead of two, probably Champion would have been chosen. But the decision to erect two counties and the selection of Watertown as the county seat of Jefferson county ended Cham- pion's dreams of greatness. Its lawyers flocked to the county seat. Champion became a quiet rural hamlet, distinguished then as today for its fine, stone houses and its atmosphere of peaceful charm. The town had a high intellectual standard. Here, as we have seen, was built the first church in all Jefferson county, and here the Rev. Nathaniel Dutton settled for a record pastorate, always surrounded by a group of students to whom he taught Latin and Greek. Noadiah Hubbard, that pioneer of the pioneers, was the first supervisor of the town, even when it was a town of Oneida county, and he served for fourteen years. In 1818 he was elected for two years more and again in 1822 he was selected and served for the next four. Wrote Noadiah Hubbard many years after, referring to the early days of Champion : "Perhaps there was never a more intelligent and interesting people congregated together in an obscure little inland town, than in this, within a few years of its first settlement."
Lyman Ellis was the energetic character responsible for the settle- ment of Ellisburg. The town was erected from Mexico in 1803. The first town meeting was held at the home of Mr. Ellis and Edward Boomer, long a prominent citizen of the town, was elected supervisor. Early settlers of prominence were Caleb Ellis, Amos B. Noyes, Jere- miah Mason, Samuel Rhodes, Benjamin Boomer, Matthew Boomer and Timothy Harris. There is something of a question as to which settled first in the limits of the present Jefferson county, Noadiah Hubbard of Champion or Lyman Ellis of Ellisburg. However that may be, certainly Ellis was the first settler to raise corn and potatoes in that territory. Ellisburg village contained several mills and four- teen or fifteen houses as early as 1813. It was originally called Ellis village. Belleville was also early settled, Metcalf Lee, Joshua Free- man, Martin Barney and the McCumbers being early settlers, but did not receive its present name until after the War of 1812. Prior to that it had been known as Hall's Mills from Giles Hall. It was in Belleville that Union Academy, which became one of the best known educational institutions in the North Country, was early lo-
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cated. Woodville received its name from the Wood brothers, Ebenezer, Ephraim and Jacob, who settled in 1803. The present village of Pierrepont Manor was settled by Joseph Allen, Pardon Earl and Arnold Earl about 1802; Mannsville was settled later by David I. Andrus, as agent for Samuel Wardwell of Rhode Island, to the land owner. In the twenties Mannsville had a cotton factory, three stories high, which, however, was consumed by fire after three years of operation. The Baptists were the first to form a church in the town and in 1819 a union meeting house was erected, costing about $3,300.
Henderson, as we have seen, was formed from Ellisburg in 1806. Jesse Hopkins was elected the first supervisor. He was the agent of William Henderson, who owned the township, and served as super- visor of the town until 1810. In 1809 among those living in the town were A. Jones, R. Favel, Jeremiah Harris, Horace Heath, Samuel McNitt, Amos Hart, Daniel Hardy, Benjamin Hammond, Samuel Jones, Daniel McNeil, Martin T. Morseman, Appleton Skinner, Asa and Ira Smith, Samuel Foster, William Waring, William White, Daniel Pierce, John B. Carpenter and Thomas Bull. The importance of Henderson Harbor as a commercial site was early realized and a site for a village was laid out there to be known as Naples. Here Mr. Hopkins erected a house and later a large school house was erected. Henderson village was early called Salisbury Mills after Lodowick Salisbury, an early settler.
Hounsfield was organized from Watertown in 1806 and Augustus Sacket was elected the first supervisor. It is Augustus Sacket, of course, who gave his name to Sackets Harbor. In 1802 there were thirty families living in the vicinity. Elisha Camp became the resi- dent agent in 1804 and was for many years a leading citizen of the town. During the War of 1812 Sackets Harbor became known far and wide and after the war its prosperity continued. Especially was Sackets Harbor a place of commercial importance in those days and as has been related the first steamship ever to sail the Great Lakes, the Ontario, was built and launched from this port. A Presbyterian society was organized in 1816 and in 1818 a church was constructed. Christ's Episcopal Church was organized in 1821 and the corner stone of the quaint old church, which still stands, was laid in 1823.
The town of LeRay was erected in 1806 from Brownville. It derives its name, of course, from James D. LeRay de Chaumont, the
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great French landowner. James Shurtliff was the first supervisor. The first settlers were Joseph Child, Benjamin Kirkbride, Thomas Ward, Roswell Woodruff and Dr. Horatio Orvis. The first agent of M. LeRay was Pierre Joulin, cure of LeRay, but he was soon suc- ceeded by Moss Kent, who served two terms in congress and a number of others in the state legislature. Kent lived in the LeRay chateau at LeRaysville and from this spacious mansion rode out through the county on his various political campaigns. LeRaysville was never a large village but standing in the shadow of the great chateau it re- ceived many famous visitors in its early days. Evans Mills is named from Ethni Evans, a millwright, who early settled there.
Lorraine, as we have seen, was erected as the town of Malta from Mexico in 1804, its name being changed to Lorraine in 1808. The first town meeting was held at John Alger's tavern and Asa Brown was elected the first supervisor. Other early settlers were Clark Allen, William Hosford, Warner Flowers, William Hunter, Asa Sweet, Elisha Fox and John Griswold. A Baptist church was formed in 1806 but a church structure was not built until 1830.
The town of Lyme was not erected until 1818, but long before that there were several flourishing little settlements within its limits. Settlement began within the limits of the town in 1801 when a double log house-a residence and a store-and a frame building were built two and a half miles up the Chaumont river on the west bank, the site of the settlement being determined by the cold springs which furnished delicious drinking water and are still a great source of attraction. By 1803, however, this settlement was abandoned and the settlers moved down to the mouth of the river. Several houses were built near the present site of the long bridge and in 1812 there were fifteen families in Chaumont and on Point Salubrious. In 1817 Musgrove Evans, a Quaker, came as the agent for James D. LeRay, the proprietor, a church was built and the first Sunday school opened in Lyme. It was Evans who built a stone inn at a delightful location overlooking Chaumont Bay. Later it became known as the Chau- mont House and has now been completely restored and is the property of Mr. Charles H. Congdon of Watertown. It was Evans, too, who in 1820 built the so called Dillenbeck house on the Depauville road. In 1835 Chaumont had thirteen houses, all clustered near the long bridge. In 1815 John Reed, Clark Northrop and others built houses
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between the present site of Three Mile Bay and Putnam Hill. In 1835 D. J. Schuyler and William Carlisle opened their well known store at Three Mile Bay and Asa Wilcox began the ship building operations which made Three Mile Bay known all over the Great Lakes. Dozens of schooners and brigs were constructed in the Wil- cox yards in pre-Civil War days. It is interesting to note that the first celebration of Independence Day to occur in Jefferson county took place on Independence Point in the town of Lyme in 1802.
A dispute between residents of two sections of the town of Brownville resulted in the erection of the town of Orleans in 1821. Penet Square was embraced in this town. When the treaty of 1784 was made with the Six Nations at Fort Stanwix, the Oneidas in- sisted that a tract of land ten miles square anywhere north of Oneida Lake that he might desire be ceded to Peter Penet by the state. Penet selected the section within the limits of the present Jefferson county which has ever since been called Penet's Square. The Square passed through numerous hands and titles became so clouded that squatters took advantage of the situation to settle there. Some of the early settlers seem to have been James C. McNett, Henry S. Nash, Joseph B. Buskirk, Jonas Everett, Brainard Everett, Isaac Niles, Ebenezer Eddy, M. S. Tanner, John Tallman, Lyman Britton and David Gregg. The first supervisor was Amos Reed. John La- Farge, a Frenchman who had served in the Napoleonic wars, ac- quired a large portion of the town by purchase about 1824. He proceeded to clear his title through ejectment actions and soon won the reputation of being a stern, uncompromising landlord. He built himself a mansion near Perch Lake which he subsequently had to abandon because of the habit of disgruntled tenants of shooting out his widow panes. Later he constructed the great LaFarge mansion near the present LaFargeville, a wing of which still stands. The village of LaFargeville, first known as Log Mills, was settled about 1819 by Dr. Reueben Andrus of Vermont. In 1823 the name was changed to LaFargeville. The old stone Orleans House, which, still stands, was erected by LaFarge about 1828 and in early days was a famous tavern. The first church at LaFargeville was the Baptist church. The society was organized in 1821 and the church structure erected in 1837. Stone Mills was early known as Collins Mills and was originally settled in 1806 by Roderick C. Frasier. In 1807 came
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Peter Pratt. In 1820 J. B. Collins and P. Platt built a stone grist mill which gave the hamlet its present name. Omar was originally Mudge's Mills, named from William and Treat Mudge who erected a grist and saw mill there prior to 1820.
Pamelia, erected from Brownville in 1819, got its name from Pamelia Williams Brown, the wife of Gen. Jacob Brown. John Stewart was the first supervisor. It is said the first location there was made in 1799 by two men by the name of Boshart and Kitts. Originally the north side of Watertown was in Pamelia and was known first as Pamelia Village and then as Williamstown. Early settlers of the town were the Havens, John Gould, J. M. Parish, Stephen Farr, Benjamin Cole, Aaron Dresser, John Folts, Smith Scoville, and David Augsbury, whose stone house still stands. Pa- melia Four Corners did not start to settle until after the War of 1812. Aaron Dresser kept the first tavern there. Later Abram H. Harger erected a stone hotel in the village.
As early as 1804 a company of Quakers purchased a large tract of land in the present town of Philadelphia and when the town was erected in 1821, the Quakers of course gave it its present name. Cadawallader Child, Mordecai Taylor and Samuel Evans made the first explorations for the Quaker purchasers in 1804. Mr. Child made the first clearing. John Petty and Daniel Coffeen later moved into the tract. Thomas and John Townsend came in 1805 and others who came at that time were Robert Comfort, Josiah Walton, Thomas Coxe and Daniel Roberts. The first Quaker meeting house was erected in 1810. There was about a dozen houses in the vil- lage of Philadelphia in 1827 and perhaps seventeen families. Samuel Chase built the first tavern in Philadelphia, or, as it was then known, Friends Settlement, in 1815. Sterlingville came into prominence in the thirties when James Sterling organized the Sterling Iron Company and established a furnace there. A postoffice was estab- lished in Sterlingville in 1839.
Rodman was erected as the town of Harison from Adams in 1804, being named from Richard Harison, the great landowner. Simeon Hunt conducted an early tavern in the town and it was here that the first town meeting was held. Thomas White was the first supervisor. Among the first settlers were Simeon Hunt, Jonathan, Noah and Aaron Davis, Benjamin Thomas, William Rice,
U. S. VETERANS HOSPITAL NO. 93, TUPPER LAKE, N. Y.
VIEW OF AMERICAN LEGION CAMP ON PARADISE POINT, TUPPER LAKE, N. Y.
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Ebenezer Moody, Thomas White, George H. Thomas, Cyrus H. Stone and Calvin Clifford. It is from Thomas White that Whitesville, East Rodman, takes its name. Abel Cole was early a prominent figure in the history of the town and was a member of the legislature in 1818. Dr. Joseph Woodman was an early physician of East Rodman. The Congregationalist church was organized in Rodman in 1805 and in 1809 Rev. Daniel Spear was installed as pastor at a salary of $220 a year. Known far and wide as Father Spear he served this one pastorate fifty-seven years. The first church was built prior to 1820.
The town of Rutland was organized in 1802 from Watertown, the first town meeting being held at the home of David Coffeen and David Coffeen was elected the first supervisor. Early settlers were Levi Butterfield, Perley Keyes, Amos Stebbins, Israel Wright, Abel Sherman, John Earl, Solomon Tuttle, Turner Ellis, Thomas-M. Con- verse, William Coffeen, Thomas Dunton. The town early came into prominence, largely because of the unusual type of settlers attracted there. Abel French, who became land agent in 1803, was a mem- ber of assembly from Oneida county before Jefferson was created. So was David Coffeen. Levi Butterfield kept a well known tavern. Abel Sherman became the first sheriff of Jefferson county and Perley Keyes later became the Democrat leader of Jefferson county, served as judge and state senator. Ethel Brownson became land agent in 1804 and moved to the town where long he was a prominent figure. With him came David Tyler and Josiah Tyler and their families. Ethel Brownson settled in the center of the town and the Tylers in the southern part. Tylerville is named after them. Levi Butterfield's inn was the first in the town and was located on the site of the present Rutland village. David Coffeen built the first grist mill in the town and indeed in the county on the site of the present Felts Mills in 1800. John Felt acquired the property in 1813 and it is from him that the village takes its name. The his- tory of Tylerville dates back to 1805 when the first settlement was made. A woolen factory established here in 1811 was the first in the county. In 1817 the machinery was sold to Daniel Eames for $400. Black River was originally known as Lockport and settlement was started there in 1806 when Isaac and Harvey Cleveland erected a. saw mill. The town of Rutland in early days was noted for its model rural school erected in 1836, which attracted state-wide at-
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