USA > New York > Franklin County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 26
USA > New York > Jefferson County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 26
USA > New York > Lewis County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 26
USA > New York > Oswego County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 26
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 26
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Central Square, too, on the stage route from Salina to Watertown was a busy place in those days. Here was Hastings Curtiss' brick tavern where the stages always stopped, and for good reason because Hastings Curtiss was a member of the company which operated the Watertown-Salina stage route. Other members of the company were Messrs. Stone and Field of Salina and Hiram Lewis of Pulaski. Rob- ert Elliott of Central Square had a wagon shop and made the first stage coach ever to run between Salina and Watertown. The com- mon route from Oswego to Rome was through Scriba, New Haven, Mexico, Albion and Williamstown. After the railroad had been built to Rome it was common for five coaches to be dispatched from Oswego to Rome the same morning, with nine passengers inside and eight outside, eighty-five passengers in all. The trip took ten hours.
Watertown was another center of stage coach lines. There were daily stages for Utica, eighty-two miles distant by way of Champion, to Rome, by way of Adams and Lorraine, to Salina, through Pulaski
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and Central Square, and to a number of points in St. Lawrence county. One route into St. Lawrence county went by way of Evans Mills, Antwerp, Gouverneur and Heuvelton and another by way of Pamelia Four Corners, thence by the military road through Theresa, Redwood and Hammond. There was a line of stages which went between Ogdensburg and Plattsburgh three times a week and another went to Fort Covington where it connected with the Montreal line. The route from Ogdensburg to Plattsburgh was through Canton, Potsdam, Parishville, Hopkinton, Bangor, Malone and Chateaugay, and the trip took two days. For passengers who wished to go from Watertown to Fort Covington without traveling nights, there was Fisher & Cogwell's line. Travelers left Watertown early in the morning on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and arrived in Can- ton, by way of DeKalb, that night at six o'clock. They left Canton the next morning, arriving in Hogansburg that night at six o'clock. The next morning they left for Fort Covington, arriving there that evening. Thus it took three days to go from Watertown to Fort Covington by stage coach. One wishing to go direct from Utica to Ogdensburg, a distance of 125 miles, according to the old stage schedules, could make it in twenty-four hours by straight traveling.
Ela Merriam of Watertown, N. W. Kiniston of Watertown, and Jonathan Thompson of Malone were leading proprietors of stage coach lines in Northern New York. Mr. Merriam at one time had lines from Denmark to Ogdensburg, from Rome to Sackets Harbor, through Redfield, from Oneida to Turin, from Rome to Turin and Denmark, from Rome to Watertown by way of Copenhagen, from Rome to Boonville by way of Western, and from Boonville to Low- ville. It was on Mr. Merriam's Utica to Sackets Harbor line that the fastest trip by stage ever recorded was made in February, 1829. The trip was made in nine hours and forty-five minutes and the mails were changed at every office. The snow at the time the trip was made was two and a half feet deep and the total amount of time consumed by the stops was thirty-nine minutes. When it is con- sidered that the distance was ninety-three miles, it will be seen that an average running time of over ten miles an hour was made.
Jonathan Thompson of Malone is said to have started carrying the mail from Plattsburgh to Ogdensburg on foot and it took him two weeks. Then he got a horse and finally an old coach and started
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to carry passengers. The business grew to such large proportions that when he sold it out in 1846 he is said to have had a hundred horses. The Plattsburgh-Ogdensburg stages ran three times a week. The stations between Ogdensburg and Plattsburgh were Graigville, Canton, Potsdam, Parishville, Hopkinton, Nicholville, Lawrence, Bangor, Malone, Chateaugay Four Corners, Ransom's, the Gate, Plattsburgh. Mr. Richard C. Ellsworth, whose research into North- ern New York history has before been mentioned, believes that Graigville was Grayville where the Grays kept a well known inn in stage coach days. Mr. Ellsworth also believes that the Ransom's mentioned is Robinson's Tavern. The terminal of the stage line in Plattsburgh was the Foquet House, which still stands.
THE OLD PACKET LINES
When possible the traveler of that day went by water. In the thirties there were four steamships plying between Ogdensburg and Lewistown-the Lady of the Lake, the Rochester, the St. Lawrence and the Oneida. These boats ran daily, Sunday excepted. For ex- ample, a St. Lawrence county man of that day having business in the southwestern part of the state or in Salina would likely go by stage to Ogdensburg where he would board the Lady of the Lake, for example, at 8 o'clock in the morning. At 5 o'clock that afternoon he would be in Kingston, Canada, and at 9 o'clock the same evening in Sackets Harbor. Here he would likely stay in the old Union House until early the next morning when he would depart for Oswego, arriving there just before noon. If he were going to Syra- cuse or Salina, he would likely transfer to a canal packet at Oswego and in seven hours he would be in Syracuse, the voyage of thirty- eight miles from Oswego to Syracuse costing him $1.50. But if he was going to the southwestern part of the state, he would remain on the Lady of the Lake and be in Rochester at 6 o'clock that evening. Thus the trip from Oswego to Rochester by lake steamer took less time than the trip from Oswego to Syracuse by canal packet.
For example in 1838 Elisha Risdon of Hopkinton, whose diary today is an interesting bit of North Country historical source ma- terial, took a trip to the home of his brother near Geneseo. On August 23 he left Hopkinton, going by stage to Ogdensburg and at
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Ogdensburg that afternoon went aboard the steamer, Oneida, for Rochester. He landed at Rochester two days later, taking the stage from there to Geneseo. Returning he traveled from Rochester to Syracuse by canal packet, the trip taking two days and a half. At Syracuse he took the canal packet to Oswego. He did not arrive there until the following day, when he boarded a steamer for Ogdensburg.
In good weather it was comfortable traveling on a canal packet. Then passengers could spend much of the time on deck, and, if the going was slow, at least there were interesting sights. But inside it was stuffy and usually overcrowded. There was a main cabin, from thirty-five to forty-five feet long, part of it sometimes being divided off into a ladies' cabin. The cabin served as a saloon and dining room in the day and a bedroom at night. Berths were fast- ened to the walls at night, one side being suspended from the ceiling. There were always three or four beds in a tier. Usually there were beds enough for thirty-five to forty people, but often there were many more who either stayed up all night or slept on the floor.
STAGE COACH TAVERNS
If the trip by stage was more tedious and less comfortable than that by water, at least there were plenty of taverns by the roadside where the journey might be broken for a few moments. With so much travel by roads, taverns in the thirties thrived like tourist lodg- ing houses today. Later when the railroad came, the roadside inn passed away not to return until the day of the automobile, but in the thirties there was a tavern of sorts every two or three miles along any well-traveled road. Consider the road from Adams to Pulaski, on the Rome-Watertown stage route, for example. First came Deacon Brown's tavern at Allendale; then the John Alger house and the Chester Gillman house at Lorraine "Huddle," Lem Hunt's tavern at Lorraine Four Corners, the old Risley House, the Hesketh place and the Dick Hart place near the Boylston line, all taverns of standing and reputation within seven or eight miles. And, numerous as they were, these taverns were well patronized. The proprietor of a log inn in Lorraine recalled sleeping and feeding as many as seventy-five guests in one night.
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At first most of the taverns in the north were taverns only in name, being usually simply log dwellings where the traveler paid for the privilege of stretching out on the floor in his own blankets. Even in the larger taverns, the traveler who insisted upon a bed by himself was considered over-fastidious. A lodger might start out with a bed of his own but it was no uncommon thing for him to be awakened during the night by the landlord who, with flickering candle, was showing another guest to the same bed. The early log taverns of the north have been described in another place. James Constable, De- Witt Clinton and other travelers in the early North Country knew such taverns well. But with the stage coach came other taverns, usually long, rambling structures, with porch extending along the front, set back from the road so the stage could swing in to the door. Sometimes there were upper "piazzas," as they were called then, too. Always there was a bar room and on the second floor the ball room, utilized for sleeping quarters when there was no dance.
Some of these stage coach taverns were widely known and had a reputation throughout the north. For example on the road from Rome to Mexico was the Checkered House, so called because it was painted in black and white checks. At Oswego were the old Welland Hotel, the United States Hotel, the old Oswego Hotel, familiar to all early visitors to Oswego with its balcony and cupola, and the old Eagle Tavern. At Hannibal was the one-story American House, at Central Square, Hastings Curtiss' well known brick tavern. At Mexico Village was the old Whitney House, and at Pulaski, the Pulaski House. At Sackets Harbor stood the old Union House, where President Munroe stopped in 1817. At Adams was Talcott's stone hotel and at Watertown the American House, from whose wide, upper balcony President Van Buren greeted the citizens of Water- town.
Blodgett's Tavern at Denmark was of course known to hundreds of stage travelers, and so was the Wayside Inn at Constableville. There was of course the Wilna Tavern, which later became known as the Checkered House and even later as Fargo's, Kendall's Hotel at Somerville, Baldwin's Hotel at Ogdensburg from which the state line to Plattsburgh started, the old Prentice House at Canton, where Silas Wright met his political friends, the Frontier House at Morris- town and Northrups. Tavern on the Canton-Ogdensburg road. On
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the old Hermon road, near the junction with the Gouverneur road, stood the old Forest House, a large colonial building, 120 feet in length, so named because it stood in the midst of a forest. Standing near the junction of two plank roads, one from Heuvelton to Hermon and the other from Canton to Gouverneur, it became a well known tavern. It is now burned. Another well known St. Lawrence county tavern of stage coach days was the Half Way House, sometimes called French's Tavern, on the Canton-Potsdam road, which still stands.
At Evans Mills in Jefferson county was another well known stage coach tavern which still stands. This was the "Brick Hotel," built and long operated by Captain John Hoover. Near the door were the big, home-made, iron letters, "J. H." The "Brick Hotel," so legend has it, was the scene of the celebrated poker game between "Prince John" Van Buren, son of the president, and George Parish, the landed proprietor, the stake for which was no less than Madame Vespucci, whom Parish is said to have won.
At Ellenburg Center still stands the old Hammond House, a stage coach tavern. At Chateaugay was the Union House, now remodeled and still operated as a hotel under the name of the Chateau. The Dickinson House, on the turnpike from Ogdensburg to Plattsburgh, just west of the cross-road from North Bangor, still stands. The old red Half Way House, so named because it was half way between Ogdensburg and Plattsburgh, stood a mile and a half west of West Bangor. It burned in 1883. At Fort Covington were the "Old Red House," kept at one time by Judge James Campbell, and Spencer's Tavern, sometimes called the American House. At Malone was the Miller House and at Westville, the Plastered Tavern House.
THE OSWEGO CANAL
When the Erie canal bill was up in the state senate in 1817, having already passed the assembly, Senator Perley Keyes of Jef- ferson county was opposed to it, although Martin Van Buren, who was then in the senate, and many of the other Democrats of the Van Buren school favored it. Says Van Buren in his autobiography : "My shrewd friend, Senator Keyes, who was opposed to the bill, informed me that he intended to offer an amendment providing for a branch
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canal from the main trunk to Oswego, in which place I was largely interested, and that the success of the amendment must depend upon my vote. I remonstrated with him on the unkindness of his course in seeking to connect my action upon so important a subject with my private interest, but told him that I should assuredly vote against the amendment on that ground, if there was no other. He notwith- standing offered it; I voted against it, and it was defeated. The construction of that branch many years afterwards proved of great advantage to the interests both of Oswego and the state.
Had Martin Van Buren not had private interests at Oswego and therefore felt constrained to vote against Senator Keyes' amendment, the Oswego canal would probably have been completed as soon as was the main trunk of the Erie canal. As it was it was not opened until 1828. The people of Oswego had vainly sought to have the Erie canal follow the so called natural route, that is by way of Wood creek, Oneida lake and the Oswego river. They argued that this route had been employed for a century. If a canal was built around Niagara Falls into Lake Erie, all the purposes of the other route, which afterwards was adopted, would be served, they contended. When the Oswego route was rejected, the people of the county were indignant. In the election of 1820 the voters of Oswego county cast 455 votes for Tompkins, against 311 for Clinton, the canal candidate.
But when the Erie canal became a certainty, the people of Oswego were not slow to see the necessity of a connection with it.
At this time Oswego county was represented in the legislature by two energetic men, Theophilus S. Morgan in the assembly and Alvin Bronson in the state senate. Through their efforts $25,000 was appropriated in 1820 for the improvement of the Oswego river. In 1822 the legislature ordered a survey made of the route with the idea in view of a canal from Salina to Oswego. As a result of this survey an act was passed in 1824 authorizing a canal between Syra- cuse and Oswego and the following year $160,000 was appropriated for the work. The canal, when completed, cost $525,115. However, the people of Oswego had a bad scare before one bit of work was done on the canal. Word reached Oswego that a Buffalo member had introduced a bill repealing the act which authorized the con- struction of the Oswego canal. Although Alvin Bronson was no
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longer a member of the senate the people looked to him to protect their interests, so he mounted his horse and rode to Albany. The story is told that the first man he met when he entered the city was Aaron Burr, then in his old age making a living from practicing law.
"So you are here to look after your canal, are you?" the veteran politician asked. Mr. Bronson assured him that that was so, and Burr told him that he was on his side.
"I believe all sensible men are," Bronson is reported to have said. "Ah, my young friend," said Burr, "if you have none but sensible men, there is a vast majority against you."
However, the bill of the Buffalo member was defeated and the corner stone of the first lock in the Oswego canal was laid July 4th, 1826, at Fulton. Impressive Masonic services were used. Jonathan Case was the chairman of the ceremonies and David P. Brewster came from Oswego to deliver the main address. Peter Schenck read the Declaration of Independence and Hastings Curtiss of Central Square was marshall with Kingsbury E. Sandford as assistant. An 18-pound cannon used in the ceremonies exploded, but without serious results.
In the meantime a number of appropriations had been made for the improvement of Oswego harbor. Gen. Daniel Hugunin, who was elected to congress in 1824 as the first member of congress from Oswego county, secured the first appropriation of something over $30,000. In 1828 another appropriation of a little over $9,000 was made, and the following year the breakwater was completed. Yearly appropriations were made and the pier and lighthouse constructed. These harbor improvements made it possible for Oswego to accomo- date the greatly increased commerce which came as a result of the completion of the canal.
In 1829 the population of Oswego was about 1,400, the total ar- rivals of vessels from the lake about 200, the value of imports about $150,000 and of exports about $127,000, and canal tolls collected at Oswego, $14,660. But yearly the canal brought wealth and pros- perity to the village of Oswego as it did in fact to the entire county. By 1837, the population of Oswego village was nearly 5,000, the volume of commerce more than doubled and canal tolls collected at Oswego had mounted to $31,560. During the year, 1837, 118 Ameri-
HOSPITAL BUILDING AND BARRACKS, FORT ONTARIO, OSWEGO, N. Y.
--
BARGE CANAL LOCK AND OSWEGO RIVER, OSWEGO, N. Y.
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can vessels entered and cleared at Oswego and 302 foreign vessels, of a total tonnage of 74,119. Total value of imports was $1,517,578 and total value of exports, $1,527,498. That year 1,773 canal boats cleared from Oswego taking forty-one tons each as the average cargo.
These statistics are given simply to show what the building of the Oswego canal meant to Oswego. Almost overnight Oswego, which had been if anything a backward village, became a bustling, busy town. The canal packet always signalled its approach by a blast from a bugle, very much as the stage coach came dashing into a vil- lage to the accompaniment of a note from a trumpet. The horses that towed the boat were whipped into a gallop so that the finish could be made with the same flury as characterized the arrival of the stage coach at the village tavern. The old landing place was at the foot of Bridge street opposite the Arcade Block, and daily there was a crowd of villagers on hand to watch the canal packet come in. Passengers with their carpet bags were helped ashore and were soon hurrying to get aboard one of the steamers in the harbor or were safely located at the old Oswego House, or perhaps at the Welland House or the United States Hotel.
THE OSWEGO BOOM
As a result of the canal Oswego soon became the fastest growing town in all Northern New York. In 1828 when the canal was opened, there were 180 tons of shipping belonging to the port. In 1840, Oswego had three steamboats and seventy-six rigged vessels, whose aggregate tonnage was 7,568 tons. There was intense rivalry be- tween Oswego and Buffalo. In one year, between 1830 and 1831, the population of Oswego increased twenty-five per cent. The Oswego bank came into existence immediately following the com- pletion of the canal, the Episcopal church was built, new hotels were opened and the village trustees began to make generous appropria- tions for the improvement of streets. Money was plentiful and speculation was rife. It was freely predicted that the population of the village would be 10,000 long before 1840. Real estate values in- creased many times and a farm of 119 acres near the village of Oswego brought $19,000. In 1836 a farm of eighty acres on the out- skirts of the village brought $250 an acre, and a farm of ninety
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acres, sold two weeks before for $25,000, was resold for $40,000. A business block bought for $2,000, sold for $16,000 in less than a year. Finally the old Oswego House was sold for $100,000 but the transaction was never consumated.
It was something like the modern Florida real estate boom, and the collapse was just as sudden and just as fatal. The panic of 1837 hit the country and real estate values at Oswego dropped over night. Probably no two towns in the state were affected worse by the col- lapse in values than Oswego and Buffalo, where speculation had gone beyond all reason, based on the conviction that both places had a glorious commercial future before them. Oswego, however, quickly recovered and by 1840 business was in full swing there again.
THE PROPOSED CHAMPLAIN CANAL
The tremendous impetus to trade given by such canals as the Erie, the Oswego and the Champlain caused a general cry for canals all over Northern New York. From every section of the state re- quests poured in upon the legislature to authorize the building of canals upon the public credit. In one year no less than seventy-three routes for canals within the state were suggested and of these seven- teen were authorized to be surveyed. It may be a surprise today to know that the proposal was actually made to cut through a canal from the St. Lawrence to Lake Champlain across the Adirondack divide and that a member of assembly from St. Lawrence county made this the major issue in his campaign for election. Of course the canal was never constructed, but a survey was made, $1,500 being appropriated by the legislature for that purpose.
There was vigorous agitation for the Champlain-St. Lawrence canal in 1822, even before the Erie canal was completed. The pro- posed route was to start at Plattsburgh by way of the Saranac river to Saranac Lake, and thence via the St. Regis system to Hopkinton, and from there by way of the Grass, Indian and Oswegatchie rivers to Ogdenburg. Another proposed route was to leave the Saranac river at Loon Lake and follow the Salmon river to Malone. In a petition sent to the legislature in 1823, the petitioners contended that the expense of building such a canal as this would be no more than the cost per mile of the Erie canal. The petitions also stated
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that once such a canal was constructed New York city would become the natural market for Northern New York rather than Montreal as was then the case. This appealed to New York interests and there was considerable sentiment in that city for the construction of the proposed canal.
In 1824 the legislature made an appropriation of $1,500 to pay part of the expense of a survey of the proposed route, it being under- stood that $1,000 more would be raised in the northern part of the state. The survey was made that same year by Holmes Hutchinson who reported to the legislature in 1825 that the route followed was 133 miles from Ogdensburg to the Chazy river near Champlain and four and a half miles by the river to the lake. The highest point in the proposed route was 811 feet above Ogdensburg and 960 feet above Lake Champlain. The survey followed the course of the Oswe- gatchie and the Grass to Canton, then to Potsdam, Moira, Bangor, Malone, Burke and Chateaugay. The whole cost, it was estimated, would be $1,744,673 if wooden locks were used and $400,000 more if locks were built of stone. It was a splendid dream but unfortunately geography stood in the way. The only effect of the canal agitation was to bring a number of people to the section in the expectation that something would come of it.
THE BLACK RIVER CANAL
De Witt Clinton in his annual message to the legislature in 1825 suggested a connection between the Erie canal and Black river as one of several desirable canal routes. That same year a survey was ordered from the Erie canal in Herkimer county to the head waters of the Black river and thence to Ogdensburg, while another survey was ordered from Rome to the Black river and on to Ogdensburg. These two routes became known as the eastern and the western routes. On the eastern route it was found that the summit at Rem- sen was 841 feet from the descent to the lake 985 feet. On the west- ern route it was found that the rise from Rome to Boonville was 700 feet and the drop to the river below the falls 422 feet. The Camden route to Ogdensburg was found to be 129 miles and was estimated to cost $655,630, while the cost of the Boonville route, it was estimated, would be $931,014, the distance being 114 miles.
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The canal commissioners reported in 1826 on the three proposed routes, from Rome, from Herkimer and from Camden, but other than to say that the Herkimer route was deemed inexpedient, nothing further was done. By this time the people of the Black River Coun- try were thoroughly stirred and the village newspapers teemed with articles favoring the construction of a canal. Finally on December 4th, 1827, a meeting was held at the court house at Martinsburgh, attended by delegates from many towns. The Rev. Isaac Clinton delivered the main address at this meeting, urging that if the state would not make an appropriation for the canal that the necessary amount be raised by private subscription. To this end the Black River Canal Company was incorporated in 1828, and among those listed as incorporators were George Brayton, Rev. Isaac Clinton, Levi Adams, Peter Schuyler, James McVickar, James T. Watson, Seth B. Roberts and Vincent LeRay de Chaumont. However, the stock was not taken and although a proposal of taxing the several towns was considered, nothing came of it.
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