USA > New York > Franklin County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 24
USA > New York > Jefferson County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 24
USA > New York > Lewis County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 24
USA > New York > Oswego County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 24
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 24
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).
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
The Scriba "mansion," as it is still called, a two-story structure with a genuine Dutch roof, stands on a knoll overlooking the lake. From its windows the first George Scriba probably looked out upon the placid waters and watched the pioneers in their Durham boats coming to settle his lands. Set far back from the road it commands a view of all the surrounding country,-Cleveland, up the lake to the right; Frenchman's Island, down the lake to the left; and directly across, the blue hills of Onondaga county. The Scriba mansion can never be sold, save to the state as a memorial. So the Scriba wills all provide, including the will of the latest Scriba to die, who passed away only a year or so ago, and there a Scriba still lives, surrounded by memories of other days.
The Scriba house might have been lifted bodily from some quaint, Mohawk Valley village and set down on the shores of Oneida Lake. Entering the front door, with its side-lights, and its great wrought- iron hinges, one enters a hall which runs all the way through the house, bisecting another hall, as mathematically perfect, which runs from side to side. Where the two halls meet is a little, square, box- like room, with doors on four sides. In the living room is the same, great fireplace, with its built-in cupboards on either side of the
259
HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY
mantle. Stairs of cherry wood with a graceful, curving mahogany hand rail, lead to the floor above. There are four rooms on either floor, not a large house to be sure but when all the other houses in the village were of logs they called it a mansion.
Here are still preserved many family heirlooms. There is an old grandfather's clock and an eight-day clock, too, telling in addition to second and minutes and hours, the months, days of the week and changes of the moon. One wonders if it was not brought from Hol- land when the Scribas came to this country to engage in the China trade. Then, too, one sees here pewter communion goblets, which probably at one time were used at old Trinity Church, Constantia, which the Scribas built. There is a Christening robe, carefully pre- served, some fine pieces of Sheffield ware, and a fine, old Adams mirror, with urn top.
With the Scribas, the Hamiltons, the Jays and the Roosevelts owning most of the land it is not surprising that Constantia and Mexico and Fredericksburg and Richland were usually to be found in the Federalist column on election day. Take the typical election of 1813 when Richland gave 125 votes to Van Rensselaer, Federalist, for governor, to seventy-one for Tompkins, Republican. That same year the vote in Mexico was seventy-three for Van Rensselaer to forty-three for Tompkins; in Williamstown, fifty-six for Van Rens- selaer to thirty for Tompkins; and in Constantia, twenty-three for Van Rensselaer to six for Tompkins. Of course the early land- owners or their agents got all the offices. John Meyer, land agent for George Scriba, was the first justice appointed for the territory comprising the present Oswego county, and he was also the first postmaster of Rotterdam, now Constantia. Nicholas I. Roosevelt, the land owner, was the first town clerk of Hastings and was also inspector of schools. James J. Coit, agent for the Governor Jay tract, held public office in Oswego county for thirty years, ending up with a term in the assembly.
In Franklin county, too, the landowners exerted an influence almost invariably for the Federalist cause. Judge William Bailey, the Chateugay landowner and slave-holder, represented Clinton and Essex counties in the assembly as early as 1801. In 1805 he repre- sented Clinton county, alone, in the assembly, and in 1806 he was appointed first judge of the county. In 1806 we find his political
260
HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY
opponent, Peter Sailly, then in congress, writing him that a post road was to be established between Plattsburgh and Ogdensburg and welcoming suggestions for post offices, but warning him that there must be "some respectable Republicans" in towns where postoffices were established. George F. Harison, another descendant of old Richard Harison, was named first judge of Franklin county by the Federalist Council of Appointment in 1814.
So long after the Federalist party had passed into the decline, the sons of its old-time leaders kept the light of the cause burning throughout the North Country. It was in Northern New York that New York state Federalism made its last stand.
CHAPTER X.
THE FRENCH EMIGRES
JAMES DE LeRAY de CHAUMONT AND HIS GREAT LANDHOLDINGS-THE BARONESS de FERIET-THE PLOT TO RESCUE NAPOLEON FROM ST. HELENA-JOSEPH BONAPARTE AND HIS NORTH COUNTRY POSSESSIONS -PRINCE MURAT-THE LEGEND OF THE LOST DAUPHIN.
Up into the half-wilderness of the Black River Country in the early part of the eighteenth century came a notable company. Here were men whose very presence in the United States was enough to keep Hyde de Neuville, Bourbon ambassador to the United States, in a state of perpetual excitement. One was that devoted friend of the First Consul, Count Pierre Francoise Real, who, during the Hundred Days, had been Napoleon's prefect of police. The Marquis de Grouchy, his head bent under the tragedy of Waterloo, was an- other. Then there were General Jean Francois Rolland, Camille Arnaud, Paul Charboneau, Louis Peugnet, Professor Pigeon, Prince Charles Lucien, and finally royalty, itself, in the person of Joseph Bonaparte, brother of the Emperor, a king without a country since he had fled from Spain. Not for nothing did M. de Neuville write his royal master of plots of the Bonapartists to rescue Napoleon from St. Helena and to put Joseph on the throne of Mexico.
It was a shaky throne upon which the Bourbons sat once more. True Napoleon was a prisoner at St. Helena, his armies scattered, his power gone and some of his most devoted generals dead. But there were many of the faithful left, men who had followed the Eagles of the Emperor on battlefield after battlefield. As long as Napoleon lived they would hope and plot, and what better place to plot than in the secluded wilds of the North Country.
Was it a plot to rescue the Emperor from St. Helena that brought Real and the rest to Northern New York? The tradition is firmly
261
262
HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY
rooted at Cape Vincent where many of the Napoleonic refugees gathered. The story has been handed down from generation to generation and while there is not a scrap of written evidence to support it, there seems good reason to believe that a more or less definite scheme was in existence to spirit Napoleon away from his island prison and bring him to this country. At any rate there was a room in the grotesque residence which Real built looking out on the St. Lawrence at Cape Vincent which was known as the Em- peror's room. Here were gathered many of the personal possessions of Napoleon which may still be found in Northern New York. Whether these mementoes were gathered together in this room sim- ply out of reverence for the beloved leader of the Cape Vincent emigres, or whether they were there to welcome him when at last he should safely arrive in the Northern New York wilderness of course will never be known.
It would be difficult to find a more colorful chapter in the history of any section than that of the French regime in Northern New York. Here was a primitive land still but half cleared. Great forests hemmed in the crude, little villages. It was a pioneer land, still almost devoid of roads. Yet to this country came these men fresh from the boulevards of the Paris of the Empire, and here they bought land and in some instances built their homes. It was a gloomy country of gray skies and great, brooding forests to which they came, but here was safety and peace and as Gouverneur Morris, who interested many of the French in Northern New York "wild lands," said, "So far as thinking the forests a disadvantage, they are captivated with the idea of having their chateaux surrounded by magnificent trees."
JAMES D. LeRAY DE CHAUMONT
Nor were the Napoleonic refugees the first of their race to be attracted to Northern New York. We have learned how the Castor- land colonists came into Northern New York and attempted the first permanent settlements there. Then, soon after the turn of the century, that charming gentleman of old France, James D. LeRay de Chaumont, purchased vast holdings in Jefferson and adjoining coun- ties, owning in all, it was said, a quarter of a million acres. No man contributed more to pioneer Northern New York than did James D.
263
HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY
LeRay. When the American colonists were trying to wrest their freedom from England one of the first to come to their aid was Jacques Donatien LeRay de Chaumont, at that time Honorary Su- perintendent of the Hotel des Invalides. He had been one of the Council of Louis XV and seemed to have considerable influence with the young king. From the first he warmly espoused the cause of the colonists and served as an intermediary between the American commissioners and the French government. He contributed largely of his personal fortune to aid the American patriots and it was on M. LeRay's estate at Passy that Benjamin Franklin lived for some nine years.
James Donatien LeRay de Chaumont was born Nov. 13, 1760, at the Chateau de Chaumont. According to the custom of the time he added the name of the estate to his own but never took the title of count to which he had a right. During much of James LeRay's youth he was in intimate association with Dr. Benjamin Franklin, and soon after the return of Franklin to America young LeRay, then in his twenties, came to America in an effort to get some action on his father's claims. Both Dr. Franklin and Gen. Washington aided him and finally an adjustment was made. In 1790 LeRay, then thirty years of age, marrried Miss Grace Coxe of New Jersey. LeRay returned to France with his bride and was there during much of the French revolution. He secured the release of his father from prison where he had been confined as an emigre and in 1799 sent Madame LeRay, who was then in poor health, back to America in the company of Gouverneur Morris. With them went the cure of Chau- mont, Pierre Poulin, who had refused to take the oath of allegiance to the new government. In 1802 LeRay returned to America also and soon after made his first purchases of "wild lands." He bought a tract in Otsego county but a much larger tract in Northern New York, then poorly surveyed and but little known.
In 1806 LeRay sent an agent, a Dr. Beaudry, to Northern New York to erect a residence on his estate, and into this residence he and his family moved in 1808. LeRay was compelled to spend much of his time in Europe and while in Switzerland his wife died and there she was buried. When LeRay returned to America in 1816 he brought back with him his only daughter, Therese, who had married the Marquis Amedee de Gouvello. At the LeRay residence
A
264
HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY
in LeRayville, Jefferson county, she gave birth to a daughter which a little over a year later died and was buried on the estate.
THE LeRAY MANSION
In 1822 the original villa of LeRay at LeRaysville burned and the imposing Georgian mansion which exists to this day was built. At the time of its erection it was considered the finest house west of the Hudson. Today it is perhaps as prized a memorial as there is in all Northern New York. It stands today much as it stood a century ago, four great, white columns upholding its roof, hemmed in still by the forests as it was in the days when LeRay sallied forth from its doors to visit his villages and farms. Edward Hungerford has called it one of the "most glorious old-time Georgian houses in all America." And, despite its Georgian architecture, much of a French atmosphere was attained. In a way it was a miniature Ver- sailles. In the rear is the tiny lake which LeRay created and close by his spy house where he could view the activities of his village through a telescope.
Inside were stored the LeRay treasures as many of them are to this day. Every detail of life in the great chateau at Chaumont on the Loire LeRay tried to retain here in the Northern New York wilderness. To the chateau in Northern New York he brought china, furniture, books, pictures and gold plate from France. The china is still there, nearly a thousand pieces each bearing the monogram of Therese de Gouvello, LeRay's daughter. The same gay-figured Brus- sels carpets cover the floors of the twin drawing rooms and the same faded, silk hangings are at the broad windows. In the bed chambers above are the massive, wooden beds of a century or more ago, in one of which slept President James Monroe and in the other, Governor DeWitt Clinton.
Nor was the great manor house at LeRaysville the only LeRay house in Northern New York. At Cape Vincent, on the rim of the United States, he built another, a house of gray hewn stone over- looking the mighty St. Lawrence. This house, too, stands to this day preserved in much of its ancient appearance. The delicate balustrade surmounting the two stories and the arch over the win- dows of the first floor place the French accent on a Georgian house. Today it stands in the midst of ancient trees, the marvelous vista
/31#8
BOLDT CASTLE FROM THE AIR, ALEXANDRIA BAY, THOUSAND ISLANDS
THE LE RAY MANSION, AT LE RAYSVILLE, BUILT ABOUT 1820
JAMES D. LE RAY, DE CHAUMONT
265
HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY
of the St. Lawrence spread out before it. And at Chaumont, at the other end of the vast LeRay estate, a third home was built looking out on beautiful Chaumont bay, and this house, too, still stands, a solid, gray-stone structure in the midst of park-like grounds and surrounded by an ancient lilac hedge of rare beauty.
In the big chateau at LeRaysville LeRay lived like a feudal lord surrounded by slaves, engineers, artisans, land agents and the Curè, Father Poulin, to look after the spiritual welfare of the little com- munity. On occasion he would sally forth in coach and four with livried outriders to visit his villages and farms. All through his domain he erected little settlements. Alexandria Bay, Cape Vincent, Theresa, Plessis and Chaumont bear LeRay family names. He was generous to a fault, always ready to grant land for a church or other public building, donating to the building of roads, constructing wharves and warehouses, interesting himself in advancing agricul- tural methods, promoting in a thousand ways the North Country where for the better part of thirty years he resided.
REV. CHAS. GILES AND M. LeRAY
The Rev. Charles Giles, an early Methodist circuit rider in North- ern New York, has left an interesting contemporary account of Le- Ray, illustrating his generosity in religious matters. Mr. Giles was anxious to secure means to erect a church in the town of LeRay and it having been intimated to him that Mr. LeRay might help Mr. Giles decided to call upon him. He writes: "Accordingly on the day appointed I arrived in due time at Mr. LeRay's mansion, where some formalities were introduced to show that I was expected there- the attendants inquired whether Mr. Giles had arrived. His lord- ship answered them in the affirmative. Being known by the dis- tinguishing epithet, presiding elder, doubtless led Mr. LeRay to imagine that, in virtue of my office, I was some consequential dig- nitary-he was not acquainted with the unpretending orders in the Methodist church. Indeed, I was politely received there, and treated with as much attention as if I had been a duke.
"While we were pleasantly seated, and passing on from subject to subject, the post came in, bringing letters to Mr. LeRay, from several renowned personages: one was from ex-President Adams: I was requested to look at his autograph, which clearly indicated
266
HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY
that the last moving sand, in life's transient glass, was running out- so all must go.
"Mr. LeRay's mansion was modeled after the French style-in its location secluded and romantic. Groves of nature's planting stood at a respectful distance, as their lord directed, and inbowered his spacious park, where the domesticated deer bounded in sport, and enjoyed a local, quiet life. The situation of the garden was beautiful, the hothouse likewise, where vegetation flourished and spread its gaudy blooms, laughing at the frigid storms without-it was winter when I was there. In a spacious hall stood a costly billiard table; though it was neatly made, and highly polished, it did not appear, in my inquisitive eyes, as a very pious piece of furniture.
"The hour appointed for preaching was drawing near, so I intro- duced the object of my visit, by briefly stating that the Methodist society, in that town, had no convenient house for worship; and they were anxious to have one erected, as their number was increasing, but means were wanting, and, in their extremity, they were induced, through my agency, to call upon Mr. LeRay for assistance. The gentleman was very prompt to express his willingness to aid them in their moral exterprise. He commended the society, particularly for their morality, and thought that they merited encouragement. Moreover, he said he wished the church to be located about one mile from his residence, where a village was then growing up; and added, that he would give a building lot, and furnish all the materials necessary for the construction of the house, leaving the society with- out any expense or burden except putting the building up, which, in his opinion, they were able to do. This proposal exceeded my ex- pectations, and everything was going well.
"When the time arrived to attend divine service, a sleigh having four horses attached to it, was driven up to the door : at Mr. LeRay's request I took a seat with him, and we rode on about one mile to the place of worship. The room designated for the meeting was in the upper story of a large dwelling house which was unfinished, and without partitions. The people were gathered as we came in; so we waited awhile in a room below, which was occupied by the master of the house. The time having come to begin the exercise, we went up and found the spacious apartment filled with a large assembly. On one side of the room two chairs were standing, which were pro-
267
HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY
vided for Mr. LeRay and myself-probably he never attended a Methodist meeting before. He carefully watched every movement, and politely conformed to every part of the devotional exercise. I felt at home in the congregation, and enjoyed much light and liberty in speaking.
"The exercise being closed, Mr. LeRay and myself walked out of the room together; in going down he passed by me on the stairs, and, as we reached the hall, he turned and grasped my hand in both of his, shaking it at the same time expressively, saying, 'That is right- warm them up, warm them up!'-a pleasant complimentary allusion to what he had been hearing."
Some idea of LeRay's generosity may be obtained from the fact that he had surveyed and constructed roads from Carthage to Alex- andria Bay and from Cape Vincent to Perch River. He sold a tract of land to a body of Quakers and gave them a lot of 440 acres for religious and educational purposes. This lot embraced the present village of Philadelphia. He aided in the construction of the Presby- terian church at LeRaysville and in the Baptist church in Evans Mills. He donated a site to the Presbyterians at Cape Vincent and to the Catholics at Clayton. LeRay was also instrumental in the building of the first Catholic church in Cape Vincent, the corner- stone of which was laid with imposing ceremonies in 1832. It is re- lated that on this occasion the soldiers of Napoleon residing then in the wilds of Northern New York determined that the bishop who was coming for the ceremonies should be received in proper manner. When the bishop and Mr. LeRay arrived they found a double line of soldiers drawn up stiffly, all in the uniform of the Imperial army. They had found their way from their farms into Cape Vincent and with arms presented welcomed the church dignitary and the pro- prietor in true French fashion.
MADAME De FERRIET
When LeRay's daughter, Therese de Gouvello, came to America in 1816 with her husband, they were accompanied by Madame la Baronne de Ferriet, a talented French woman said to have been a lady in waiting to Queen Marie Antionette of France. She built a beautiful residence on the Black river above the present village of Great Bend. She constructed a stone bridge across the river and
268
HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY
laid out her grounds with great taste. The house, itself, was known as the Hermitage. There was a conservatory with rare flowering plants and lemons and oranges. Madame de Feriet was an artist, a wit and a linquist. In her residence she had one of the few grand pianos in the Northern New York of her day. With her French servants she lived for twenty years in her lonely house at the great bend in the Black river, occasionally entertaining the French refu- gees and her friends from Watertown in a manner that savored of the France of the days before the revolution. Her correspondence, which is preserved by the Jefferson County Historical Society, shows her to have been kindly, sympathetic soul, interested in her flowers and pets and given to mothering her servants and their children. Among those who received the hospitality of Baroness de Feriet in her Northern New York home were Joseph Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon, and his nephew, Prince Lucien Marat, son of Napoleon's great cavalry leader who later became king of Naples. The baroness returned to France soon after 1840 and a little later the Hermitage was burned to the ground. The village of DeFeriet near Carthage bears her name.
JOSEPH, KING OF SPAIN
Reference has been made to Joseph, former king of Spain and brother of the emperor, who had a rather intimate association with Northern New York over a period of several years and who has left his name at Lake Bonaparte in Lewis county. Joseph, after his escape to this country, had established a home at Bordenstown, New Jersey, assumed the title of the Count de Survilliers, and settled down to the life of a country gentleman. Some years previously Joseph had made a large purchase of Northern New York lands from James D. LeRay in France, paying in all the equivalent of $120,000 for the estate. Payment was made in diamonds which Joseph brought with him when he fled from Spain. Joseph seems to have made his first trip to his Northern New York lands in the summer of 1818. The Sackets Harbor Gazette dismisses his visit there with a paragraph. "Joseph Bonaparte arrived here in the evening of the 24th and left early in the morning. Despite his short stay, many of our citizens satisfied their insatiable curiosity for novelties, which is a conse- quence of human frailty."
269
HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY
To Joseph Bonaparte Northern New York presented an ideal retreat. Napoleon, whose opinion of his elder brother was not of the highest, said that Joseph liked nothing better than to go rabbit hunting or to play blind man's bluff with the ladies. Here in the great North Country was an opportunity to gratify both these in- stincts. There was hunting aplenty in his forest estate and what was more it was an ideal place to bring his Quaker mistress, Annette Savage. Also here was safety from the Bourbon and British spies Joseph imagined were always dogging his footsteps. So he built himself a house at Natural Bridge, not failing to make the walls bullet-proof, and a more pretentious villa at Alpina, while high up on the bluffs above the present Lake Bonaparte he erected a log hunting lodge. In these rustic homes he established his "beautiful Quaker girl" and prescribed she should be called "Madame Bonaparte."
It was a gay company which Joseph brought to his North Coun- try estate. Tales are told to this day of the former king with his retinue arriving at some rustic tavern on their way to Joseph's "Little France" in Northern New York, of a tap room filled with a jolly throng, of four giant grenadiers who never strayed far from their royal master, and of money spent like water. There are stories, too, of dinners eaten on golden plate under the spreading trees of the forest with Joseph in green hunting attire master of ceremonies, of a great six-oared gondola, like those Joseph had known in Venice, fashioned from the trunks of giant forest trees, gliding across the placid bosom of Bonaparte's Lake Diana, as he called it, a name still borne by the town in Lewis county in which it is located. Here Joseph and his friends spent four summers and here he entertained many noted figures of the France of the Empire. Among them were Joseph's son-in-law, Charles Lucien, Prince of Canino, his nephew, Prince Lucien Murat, the Count and Countess de Balmat, the Duke and Duchess of Ogdensburg and the Marquis de Grouchy. It was at Lake Diana that Joseph received letters offering him the throne of Mexico. Napoleon at St. Helena heard of the offer and laughed. But many of the Napoleonic officers residing in the United States would have had Joseph accept. He, however, either too wise or too timid, would have none of it. "I am happier on the little lake in 'Little France' than I ever was in Spain or probably ever would be in the Mexican country," he wrote.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.