USA > New York > Franklin County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 36
USA > New York > Jefferson County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 36
USA > New York > Lewis County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 36
USA > New York > Oswego County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 36
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 36
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"In those days all engines had pop-strings until No. 38, Gardner Colby, blew up just east of Canton station in Harrison's cut. A joke in rhyme is told of No. 30, run by Jim Simonds with 'Zebe' as fire- man :
" 'Says Jim to Zebe, "Pull down the pop Or with the slack we'll surely stop." 'Says Zebe to Jim, "At this here rate, We'll reach Watertown four hours late." '
"I have seen the mail, express and passengers loaded onto the train at De Kalb Junction and delivered into Norwood, making the two stops, Canton and Potsdam, in thirty-five minutes, the distance being twenty-five miles. The braking was all done by hand. The main line train made the best run. Ben Batchelder, the engineer from Watertown to Ogdensburg, made the eleven stops in one hour and forty-eight minutes.
"In January and February of 1880, there was a severe snow- storm. It tied up the Cape Vincent branch for twenty-eight days. Three trains were stalled and remained there for the twenty-eight days. The mail was drawn from Watertown to Cape Vincent by teams.
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"Oil for station use, section use and engines was all supplied from De Kalb Junction pump house. The repair shop for all tools and rails was located there also. Woodsheds were located in the following places in the east end: Norwood, De Kalb Junction, Gouverneur, Philadelphia and Watertown. Wood was racked in one-cord racks and also one-half cord racks. Each engine had a check with its number and amount of wood taken. This check was given to the wood-piler and turned into the station agent each month.
"Our coaches were heated with wood, a common box-stove being used in the end of the coach. They were lighted with sperm candles, four in a coach. Three snowplows afforded us winter protection. They were called 'Storm King,' 'Snow Bird' and 'Pathfinder'."
THE BLACK RIVER & UTICA
In January, 1853, the Black River & Utica Railroad Company was formed, capitalized at $1,000,000. For the purpose of building a railroad from Utica by way of Boonville to Carthage and Clayton. Actual work was commenced in August, 1853, a contract being signed with Case, Lund & Company. Bridges were constructed, costly exca- vations were made and the roadbed graded. By 1855 the railroad was finished as far as Boonville and there for a time it stopped. The Black River & Utica Railroad Company was reorganized and for a time there was talk of continuing the construction of the road but the Civil War came on and this resulted in a further postponement.
Late in 1867 the line was extended to Lyons Falls and by October, 1868, it had reached Lowville. This village remained the terminal until 1871 when the line was extended on to Carthage. All towns along the right of way were bonded heavily to aid in the construc- tion of this railroad. Lowville was bonded for $100,000 and Mar- tinsburg for $30,000. Many of the stockholders were Lewis county farmers who took this stock as payment for rights of way across their farms.
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By 1882 the line extended from Utica to Philadelphia, a distance of eighty-seven miles and leased lines to Ogdensburg, Watertown, Sackets Harbor, Clayton and Theresa gave the company a total of 180 miles of track. At that time the equipment of the railroad con- sisted of twenty-two locomotives of the balloon-stack type, ten bag- gage and mail cars, 277 freight cars and three service cars. It is interesting to note that one of the first conductors on the old Utica & Black River Railroad was Richard Marcy, who later founded an extensive coal business in Watertown, now known as Marcy-Buck and Winslow, Incorporated.
So it was that the railroad came to the North Country and brought with it a new era. By 1870 most of the important villages were connected with the outside world by rail. The old wayside tav- erns, which had depended upon the stage coaches for their patron- age, disappeared. New hotels, located near the railroad terminals, took their places,-the Whitney House at Norwood, Hurley's at De Kalb Junction and the Woodruff at Watertown, to name only a few. The coming of the railroad to the North brought about a trans- portation revolution. Not only did the old stage coach lines, in which thousands of dollars were invested disappear and agitation for canals stop, but the lake passenger business suffered. No longer were the big sidewheelers which plied up and down Lake Ontario touching at Kingston, Oswego, Sackets Harbor and Ogdensburg, filled with pas- sengers. Travelers preferred to take their carpet bags and ride in the "cars."
HO, FOR CALIFORNIA
During this period when surveyors were staking out routes for railroads and construction gangs were laying bright, new rails, the people of Northern New York had other interests besides attending railroad meetings. It was a colorful decade in the life of the North Country, the time of the forty-niners, the Mexican War, and the "Big Blow" in Franklin county, the day of the Anti-Slavery agita- tion, the period when the state fair was held at Watertown, the day of the Underground Railroad and the birth of the Republican party, but most important of all, if one takes as a criterion the impression made upon the minds of the people of that time, it was
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the time of Haddock's famous balloon ascension which focused the eyes of the entire nation upon Watertown.
Ho, for California! Hardy adventurers in covered wagons mak- ing the long trek across the desert or the heart-breaking voyage by water. Stories of fabulous wealth and marvelous adventure. Small wonder that adventurous, young men from Northern New York found the appeal irresistible. Soon the Northern New York papers had a standing head, "Letters from California," and these letters make interesting reading to this day. As early as the fall of 1848 the first party from Northern New York set out for California. They were from Carthage, John Hammond, Charles Hammond, Marcus Bickford, - Buck and Dr. Seth French, and they fol- lowed the Cape Horn route. And then started the exodus. From every county in the North Country they went. John Stilwell, D. W. C. Brown and George Gilbert of Ogdensburg left early. So did F. B. Hitchcock and W. Hopkins of the same county. The Jefferson County Democrat informs us that "six of those who started for California from the town of Ellisburg have died. Mr. Brewster died on his way there. E. Finn, Mr. Barney and three others, whose names we do not recollect, died in California."
Bishop Sheldon was one of the first Watertown boys to take the long journey across the plains to the gold lands. He writes back to Watertown that the most he has dug up in any one day is $20. Dr. Alley, G. S. Ramsey and Gen. A. N. Corss went from Watertown to California, finally ending up in the Trinidad region. R. C. Adams wrote the Reformer, published at Watertown, that he was disgusted with California and anxious to get out if "he could take a pile with him." Writing from San Francisco he says that scarcely a night passes that someone is not murdered in the streets. Bishop and John Sheldon, he says, were twenty miles from Sacramento City and Gen. Corss had arrived in San Francisco a few days before. William Nellis wrote that he was averaging $10 a day digging gold. He experienced great dangers with Indians and buffaloes in cross- ing the plains. One Watertown "forty-niner" wrote to his home- town paper that wages were $50 to $60 a month in California but that this was not as good as $10 a month in Watertown.
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THE MILITARY BALLS
It was the day of the spectacular, military ball, too. Every vil- lage had its militia company, its Guards or its Rifles. They were always available to head a parade, whether it be the funeral of a leading citizen or a celebration of the coming of the railroad. The uniforms must have been gorgeous. A Watertown boy of the forties describes a military review in that village graphically, the Rifles with their gay uniforms of Kentucky hunting shirts and white pantaloons, the cavalrymen in scarlet tunics and the artillerymen with blue coats, trimmed with red, and white cross-belts. At fre- quent intervals these companies held "grand balls," always an im- portant event in the social life of the North Country villages. Thus when the Jefferson Guards held their ball in the American Hotel in Watertown, muskets, trumpets, swords, bayonets, helmets and drums were used in the decorations, and mirrors were hung on every side to reflect the glow of the great, hanging lamps. One who was present counted seventeen sets of quadrille on the floor at the same time.
There was divided opinion as to dances in the North Country even as late as the fifties. Thus we find a North Country newspaper of the period commenting as follows: "Were we to judge by the number of balls and cottilion parties which have been given in this place during the fall and winter months we should conclude in truth that this was a dancing community. Now, we are not intending to object to this, for we believe it is right. We are not the advocate of the low dance or the boisterous frolick, and poor music with less of good dancing than awkward kicking, but we can see no reasonable objection to dancing as it is being conducted in this place. Dancing parties are not like tea parties, composed exclusively of the male sex, too often the scenes of drunkenness, revelry and noisy mirth, but they are parties in which both sexes engage throwing around each other a restraining influence. If the ladies are disposed to tattle among themselves, they are restrained by the presence of the gen- tlemen. If the gentlemen are tempted to drink too deep they are prevented by the bright eyes of the ladies."
All of which seems to have been accepted as a pretty good argu- ment in favor of dances.
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THE "BIG BLOW"
Franklin county, called by an early gazeteer "the Siberia of New York," was noted for its winds. There is a crude couplet entitled a "Chategee Thaw"-
"Thirty below And a hell of a blow,"
which one still hears occasionally in that county. But Franklin county never had a "blow" like the "Big Blow" of 1845. It was probably the most terrific storm that ever touched Northern New York. Its point of origin was on the Grass river in St. Lawrence county and it swept eastward, forking at the Franklin county line and cutting two half-mile swaths through the woods for many miles. It is recorded that not a tree was left standing in the path of the cyclone. Years later hunters set fire to the tangled mass of fallen trees, making a wide road as bare as a pasture. Now second-growth timber covers the area but the path of the famous storm can still be traced.
THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
The Underground Railroad-what a picture these words present, long trips in the dead of the night, a soft knock at the door of a darkened farm house, a few low-spoken words, a frightened black hurried to a loft, another station reached on the way to Canada and freedom.
When Perley G. Keyes ran for state senator on the Abolitionist ticket in the district composed of Jefferson and Lewis counties in 1841 he received a total of 270 votes of which 205 were polled in Jefferson county. Three years later when the Liberty party (the Abolitionists) held their convention at Dexter in Jefferson county, they called upon all ministers of the gospel to attack slavery in their pulpits. The Watertown Jeffersonian, the most powerful newspaper in the county at the time, was horrified at the suggestion and commended the Rev. Mr. Mattison of the Watertown Methodist Church who had announced that he would never preach politics from his pulpit. Mr. Mattison had suggested that the Abolitionists go to the south where the evil of slavery existed and there preach their doctrines.
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But all Northern New York ministers were not of the same mind. The Methodists held back for a time because of their slave- holding bishops but other clergymen smote slavery at every oppor- tunity. Conservative citizens frowned and the editor of one North- ern New York newspaper, speaking of the increasing tendency of the clergy to preach abolition, wrote: "If our churches are to be transferred to political theatres, the sooner the fact is known, the better. If our clergymen insist upon preaching political doctrines let them find support where they may."
But gradually there was a change in sentiment. In the fifties few people in Northern New York were disposed to defend slavery, although many were still reluctant to ally themselves definitely with the Abolitionists. But there were some. Over at North Elba in the Adirondacks a man with wild, burning eyes had just settled his large family in a four-roomed farm house, only two of the rooms of which were plastered. But the life of a farmer was not for him and the little North Elba farm saw him at but infrequent intervals. One spring day in 1859 he left never to return alive. Every year thousands of people visit his grave on the North Elba farm where on a great boulder is cut the simple epitaph, "John Brown, 1859."
While old John Brown was dividing his time between Bloody Kansas and his peaceful North Country farm, laying plans the while for the raid which was to cost him his life, another man whose name within a few years was to be on everyone's tongue was living the quiet, uneventful life of a convalescent in the tiny village of Henderson, in Jefferson county. Wandering aimlessly along the lake shore, confining himself to a diet largely of buttermilk, Major Thomas Jackson, United States army, was regaining his health under the skillful care of Dr. Lowery Barney, of Henderson. In less than a decade this man, the "Stonewall" Jackson of the Con- federacy, was to prove himself one of the greatest military geniuses of his time. So in the fifties when the slavery issue was coming more and more to the fore, residing within a compartively few miles of each other in Northern New York were two men who were to figure most conspicuously in the struggle which was to settle that issue for all time.
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It is a difficult matter today to gather facts on the operation of the Underground Railroad in Northern New York. Those who were interested in it in the days before the Civil War when to aid in the escaping of a slave was a criminal act, naturally said nothing about their connection. But it is known that there were many stations on that railroad in the North Country and that an important branch of the railroad crossed the Canadian frontier from Franklin county.
An attempt was made to take a fugitive slave in Watertown in 1851. His owner traced him to Rochester and from there to Water- town, where he was employed. The former slave learned of the coming of his master in time, however, and fled to Canada. In the New York Reformer, published in Watertown, on April 9, 1857, appeared this significant item: "A fugitive slave passed through our town the other day on the Underground Railroad." The present Isle of Pines in the Thousand Island between Fishers Landing and Fine View was prior to the Civil War known as Nigger Island. It received this name from the fact that for several years an escaped slave from Virginia made the island his home, and this same escaped slave often furnished aid to other fugitive slaves with the result that there were sometimes several negroes on the island. One terminal of the Underground Railroad was supposed to be located not far from Clayton. A mile back from the St. Lawrence at Fishers Landing there stood an old log house. In this log house for some time resided another fugitive slave with his family. It was quite a thing for the settlers to visit the house to get their first glimpse of a negro baby. When the Fugitive Slave Law was passed the negroes on Nigger Island and in the old log house near Fishers Landing lost no time in getting to Canada.
Elmira and Syracuse were important "receiving stations" on the Underground Railroad in this state. Especially were many escaped slaves transported through Onondaga county and from thence to Northern New York. Those who guided the fugitives and sometimes transported them were known as "conductors." Those who received them into their homes were called "station masters," while those who took no active part in the work but aided by giving money were called "share-holders." The work of the organization was so secret that often one worker did not know who the workers were in his immediate vicinity. Gerrit Smith, the noted abolitionist, who owned
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extensive property in Franklin and Oswego counties, was an im- portant figure in the Underground Railroad organization. He founded a negro colony at North Elba and established several negro families on farms in Franklin county. The late Frederick J. Seaver in his Historical Sketches of Franklin County lists a number of blacks who resided without molestation in Franklin county in the days prior to the Civil War. Henry Jones, who was sexton of St. Mark's Church at Malone, was one; Alexander Hazard, who lived for many years in the vicinity of Bloomingdale, was another; and John Thomas and Jesse Runyon were two others. Jabez Parkhurst, a well known Fort Covington lawyer, was a "station master" on the Under- ground Railroad. He was president of the Franklin County Anti- Slavery Society for a number of terms and was at one time a candi- date of the Liberty party for member of assembly. Those who lived near Mr. Parkhurst recalled years afterwards of the wagons which used to rumble by their doors late at night. Another "station mas- ter" on the Underground Railroad in Franklin county was Major Dimick, who lived on the Fort Covington road and who often con- cealed escaped slaves in his cellar.
Eber M. Pettit in his authoritative book, "The Underground Rail- road," says that one of the most active agents of the road was a farmer by the name of French, living in the town of New Haven, Oswego county, and relates an experience Mr. French had with an escaped slave who had been warned in Georgia that abolitionists always fed fugitive slaves so that they could fatten them and eat them. So firmly was this belief held by the negro that although he was starving it was all that Mr. French and his family could do to persuade him to eat.
THE BIRTH OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY
It is not surprising that with anti-slavery sentiment so strong in Northern New York that the newly organized Republican party should be received so enthusiastically in all the northern counties. By the early 1850s the slavery issue had become by far the most important of the day. Times had changed since the day when Perley G. Keyes and other abolitionists mustered their handful of followers amid the jeers of the great mass of the people of the North. Silas Wright from his place of vantage in the United States senate had
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seen long before that steps must be taken to prevent the spread of slavery. He was a pioneer in that school of political thought which developed eventually into the Free Soil party with Silas Wright's old leader, Martin Van Buren, as the candidate for president.
The passage of the fugitive slave law and the Kansas-Nebraska trouble had done much to increase the anti-slavery sentiment in the North Country. Frequent meetings were held to protest against Douglass' "squatter sovereignty" doctrine. By the dawn of 1855 there was great discontent with the conduct of the national parties with respect to the slavery issue prevailing all over Northern New York. The Democratic party was hopelessly split. The so called "hards," successors of the "Hunkers," were allied with the slave- holding interests of the South. The "Softs," lineal descendants of the "Barnburners," who for a time had held the people, were following a "milk and water" policy with respect to the slavery issue. The so called "Know Nothing," or American party, which at one time had considerable of a following in the North Country, was founded upon religious bigotry and took no stand on slavery. The "Wooly headed" and "silver gray" Whigs were fighting among themselves and the party nationally avoided the slavery issue. The Free Soil party was losing ground. The time had come when the people of the free states demanded a new party, one which would declare without equivoca- tion for "freedom, free territory and free men." And it was that very year that such a party was founded.
So far as this writer has been able to determine after diligent search the first meeting in all Northern New York to form a "Repub- lican party" was held in Philadelphia, Jefferson county, February 2nd, 1855. This name had been suggested in the west as an appro- priate one for the proposed new party. It should be remembered that the party of Thomas Jefferson was originally called Republican and it was not until the time of Andrew Jackson that the name Democrat became generally used. Probably the name for the new party was selected in order to convey to the people that the idea that the new party was one of the plain people similar to the party which Jefferson headed.
H. L. Curtiss was chairman of the Philadelphia meeting and G. W. Baker was secretary. The following were appointed a committee to call future meetings : D. J. Wager, A. W. Danforth, J. F. Lattimore,
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J. H. Comstock and J. C. Allen. And so these men were the pioneer Republicans of the North Country, the men who took upon themselves the task of organizing in that particular section the new party. Sept. 20th, 1855, the first Republican county convention was held in Watertown and the following delegates were elected to the state convention to be held in Syracuse September 26th : Daniel Wardwell, Joseph Mullen, Gardner Towne, D. J. Wager, John Bradley and Beriah Allen. A county committee was also chosen consisting of James J. Bates, John Sheldon, Jesse Ayer, Leonard Mosher, Joshua Main, M. H. Merwin and S. D. Sloan. Daniel Wardwell had been a prominent Democrat and a member of congress. Joseph Mullen was a well known Whig leader and had also been a member of congress. That very fall he was the Republican nominee for justice of the court of appeals. Gardner Towne had been an active Democrat, belonging to the "Hard" wing of the party. Jesse Ayer had been a Whig and A. W. Danforth had been a Democrat and a former member of assembly.
In Franklin county, a young man named William A. Wheeler, des- tined to later become vice president of the United States, was the leader of the new party but the man who lent prestige to the new movement in Northern New York was Preston King of Ogdensburg. King had succeeded Silas Wright as the great Democratic leader of Northern New York. For many years he had been a member of con- gress and no man was known better on the floor of the House of Rep- resentatives than he. Slavery had no more fearless enemy in the Halls of Congress than the man from Ogdensburg. He fought the fugitive slave bill and he fought the Kansas-Nebraska Compromise. He had been a recognized leader of the "Soft" Democrats of the state. His prompt enlistment in the ranks of the new party probably more than anything else contributed to make the Republicans from the first strong in Northern New York.
It will be seen that the early Republicans in Northern New York were recruited from the ranks of all parties. The so called "wooly- headed" Whigs went into the new party almost to a man headed by their Northern New York leader, Joseph Mullen. The "silver gray," or conservative Whigs generally stayed by their own party. Few of the "Hard" Democrats bolted, but great numbers of the "Softs" followed Preston King of St. Lawrence, Beman Brockway, editor of
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the New York Reformer, published at Watertown, and Charles B. Hoard of Antwerp into the Republican ranks. The "Know Noth- ings," under their North Country leader, Moses Eames, also largely joined the new party. And so from all parties, men who stood for the restriction of slave territory and protested against the slave state control of the major parties rallied to the standard of the new Re- publican party.
In 1855 Preston King headed the Republican state ticket for sec- retary of state. He carried Jefferson county by a majority of nearly 2,000. In Franklin county he received 177 votes. But organization work went on and by the following year the Republican party had been firmly organized in all the northern counties. Fremont, Repub- lican candidate for president, carried Jefferson county by nearly 5,000, Lewis county by nearly 2,000, while old Democratic St. Law- rence county, under the guidance of Preston King, rolled up the tremendous majority of 8,000 for Fremont over Buchanan. Gardner Towne of Jefferson and William A. Wheeler of Franklin went to the state senate as Republicans and Charles B. Hoard from the Jefferson- Lewis district, Francis E. Skinner of the St. Lawrence-Herkimer district, and Henry C. Goodwin from the Oswego-Madison district, all Republicans, were sent to congress. Oswego county sent its Re- publican leader, D. C. Littlejohn, former mayor and former Whig, to the state assembly and in 1859 he was elected speaker.
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