YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Gift of the CENTRAL N. Y. ALUMNI COMMITTEE on the YALE LIBRARY AND MUSEUMS lap ~':t0 WILLIAM M. BEAUCHAMP. PAST AND PRESENT OF fy ^ Syracuse and Onondaga County NEW YORK From Prehistoric Times to the Beginning of 1908 By The REV. WILLIAM M. BEAUCHAMP, S. T. D. Author df Archeological Bulletins of the New York State Museum, Etc., President of the Clerical Club of Syracuse and Director of the Onondaga Historical Society. ILLUSTRATED Also Biographical Sketches of some Prominent Citizens of Syracuse and Onondaga County New York and Chicago: THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING CO. 1908 PAST AND PRESENT OF Syracuse and Onondaga County CHAPTER I. ONONDAGA COUNTY The county of Onondaga, as it now exists is nearly an irregular square, be ing thirty miles in general from east to west, and thirty-four miles in extreme length from north to south. The average length is but little more than the width. Skaneateles lake cuts off what would be a southwest angle, and Cross lake varies the western line. On the north and northeast Oswego and Oneida rivers, Oneida lake and Chittenango creek form an irregular boundary. There now remain six hundred and seventy-five military lots and the Onondaga and Salt Springs reservations were large enough for a hundred more. The history of the county, its natural resources and physical features, its fauna and flora, antiquities, military history, cemeteries, towns and villages, Indian habits and legends, will appear under distinctive heads. Pew parts of New York have proved so interesting. The rivers on its north ern line were thoroughfares in prehistoric and colonial times, and many are the rare and beautiful relies found near their banks. Aboriginal camp sites abound, revealing visitors from many parts. They were traversed by the French missionaries, traders, colonists and armies at an early day. At a later period came English traders and armies, and the Revolution was not without its stirring scenes. For pioneers they formed an easy road. - For nearly two centuries the bark village of the Onondagas was one of the most important places east of the Mississippi, and the "Court of Onondaga" was not a misnomer. Old fort sites yet show where the Onondagas successively lived, and reveal something of their history. Naturally this territory had early visitors of note, missionaries and ambas sadors, naturalists and soldiers. It seems well to take special note of their visits and observations, and to have their experience in their own words as far as possible. These form two groups; those who were here in the colonial period ; those who came in the days of early settlement. It is to be regretted 6 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY that so much has to be summarized. The Jesuits for a time kept ample jour nals ; so did the Moravians and others ; but it would require many volumes to give their every day experience. In fact in a growing country, making history all the time, there is a neces sity for condensation in modern things, and for this reason it may be well to give a table of some dates and events, many of which cannot be considered in detail. There was an early period when the aborigines were merely visitors or in habitants for brief periods. Some time after 1500 A. D. some of the Onondagas arrived in the northern part of the county. About 1570, more or less, came the true People of the Hill, settling in Pompey. A little before 1600 the Iroquois League was formed, and soon after we obtain exact dates. Champlain passed through part of Onondaga to attack Oneidas 1615 Onondagas first mentioned by French and Dutch 1634-35 Jogues meets Onondagas among the Mohawks 1646 Annenraes taken and released by Hurons , 1647 Onondaga location first described .¦ 1648 Scandawati, ambassador to Hurons, kills himself 1648 Onondagas destroy Huron towns 1649-50 Radisson, first Frenchman at Onondaga 1652 Onondagas go to Montreal proposing peace 1653 <£ Le Moyne goes to Onondaga and discovers salt springs 1654 Erie war begins and Onondaga leader is baptized 1654 Chaumonot and Dablon come to Onondaga • 1655 Treaty ratified with the French November 11, 1655 First chapel built in present town of Pompey November 18, 1655 X French colony enters Onondaga lake July 11, 1656 ? First burial of French at Onondaga lake 1656 x: French colony evacuates fort March 20, 1658 Le Moyne 's second visit to Onondaga 1661 Gamier and Milet resume mission there 1668 The great Chief Garakontie baptized 1670 La Salle at Onondaga 1673 Father Hennepin there 1675-76 Wentworth Greenhalgh there 1677 Onondaga removed to Butternut creek 1681 Council with De la Barre at Salmon river 1684 English traders reach Oswego falls 1686 De Nonville seizes Onondaga chiefs 1687 Father Lamberville safely sent away 1687 War fully resumed 1689 Arnold Viele at "Court of Onondaga" 1690 Frontenac's invasion and burning of Onondaga 1696 Colonel Romer at Onondaga, selecting fort site 1700 French attempt to build fort there 1711 English contract to build Onondaga fort and chapel 1711 Tuscaroras settle between Onondaga and Oneida 1714 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 7 Oswego trading post built 1727 Conrad Weiser 's first visit to Onondaga 1737 John Bartram there with Lewis Evans and Weiser 1743 Bishop Spangenberg and Zeisberger there 1745 Zeisberger and Cammerhoff there 1750 Sir William Johnson buys Onondaga lake and shores 1751 Johnson builds fort for the Onondagas 1756 Oswego destroyed by Montcalm 1756 Fort Brewerton and others built 1759 Fort Niagara taken by Johnson 1759 Amherst assembles his army at Oswego 1760 Pontiac confers with Johnson there 1766 Line of property established at Fort Stanwix 1768 Onondaga villages burned April 21, 1779 Colonel Gansevoort encamps there September 22, 1779 Brant encamps there March 178.1 Colonel Willett's unsuccessful expedition against Oswego February, 1783 Captain Thompson goes there to announce peace. April, 1783 Fort Stanwix treaty with the Six Nations 1784 Ephraim Webster comes to Onondaga 1786 Asa Danf orth and Comfort Tyler come there 1788 Fort Stanwix treaty with the Onondagas 1788 Military townships are named ¦ 1790 Military lots are drawn 1791 Onondaga county formed March 5, 1794 First court held at Onondaga July 21, 1794 First post office at Onondaga Hollow. 1794 State takes possession of salt springs 1797 First town meeting at Onondaga Hollow April, 1798 First Masonic lodge in Skaneateles January 8, 1799 Judge Joshua Forman arrived 1800 First Masonic sermon at Skaneateles June 24, 1802 Mail route established between Onondaga and Oswego 1806__ First newspaper published at Onondaga December, 1811.— "The Cold Year" 1816 Syracuse section of Erie canal completed October 22, 1819 First newspaper established in Syracuse April, 1823 Great canal celebration 1825 Village of Syracuse incorporated April 13, 1825 La Fayette passes through the county June, 1825 > Anti-Masonic party appears 1829 First political State Convention in Syracuse August 25, 1830 Onondaga County Bank incorporated April 15, 1830 Trial trip of steamboat Independence at Skaneateles July 22, 1831 Cholera in Syracuse July 17, 1833 First great fire in Syracuse March 16, 1834 8 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Auburn and Syracuse railroad incorporated May 1, 1834 Cobble stone pavement in Syracuse 1835 First great fire in Skaneateles September 28, 1835 "The Deep Snow" ...1836 Auburn and Syracuse railroad opened January, 1838 Onondaga Hunters at Windmill Point November, 1838 Syracuse and Utiea railroad opened July 4, 1839 Great Whig mass meeting at Syracuse 1840 Skaneateles railroad opened September 30, 1840 Syracuse powder explosion August 20, 1841 Onondaga made a Senatorial district 1842 Washingtonian temperance movement 1842 Coffee House riot in Syracuse January 1, 1843^ ' Silas Wright addresses Democratic convention at Skaneateles. .August 24, 1844 Salina annexed to Syracuse, which becomes a city December 13, 1847 Oswego and Syracuse railroad opened October 8, 1848 ' State Fair in Syracuse (Henry Clay was present) ,.1849 American Anti-Slavery convention in Syracuse May, 1851 Daniel Webster speaks in Syracuse on Fugitive Slave law . . Pt^.... 3mmr&, 1851 Jenny Lind sings at the National Theater July 16, 1851 Jerry Rescue and Anti-Slavery convention October 1, 1851 General Winfield Scott received at Syracuse 1852 Great freshet in Onondaga creek March 14, 1852 Louis Kossuth visited Syracuse May 31, 1852 Know Nothing party suddenly powerful 1853 Syracuse and Binghamton road opened October 23, 1854 First Republican State convention in Syracuse October 18, 1855 -r- John Brown speaks at National Theater 1856 Burning of Wieting Block J. January 7, 1856 Stephen A. Douglass visits Syracuse 1860 Social evil riot November 6, 1860 Lincoln passes through Syracuse, February 18, 1861 Departure of Butler's Zouaves for the war ApriL -186~1 Departure of Jenney's battery April, 1861 Departure of the Old Twelfth May 2, 1861 Departure of Pettit's battery August, 1861 Freshet in Onondaga creek .„ March 14, 1862 Departure of the 122d regiment August 31, 1862 Departure of the 149th regiment September 23, 1862 Funeral of General E. V. Sumner March, 1863 Return of the Old Twelfth August 21, 1863 Departure of the 185th regiment September 23, 1864 General freshet of great proportions 1865 Old depot destroyed February 18, 1867*" Charles Dickens reads at Wieting Hall March yg, 1868 Discovery of Cardiff Giant Octob^l6, 1869 Q PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 9 Greenway Barbecue in Syracuse January 1, 1870 Christine Nilsson sings at Wieting Hall December 9, 1870 Corner stone of Syracuse University laid August 31, 1871 Conkling-Fenton feud in Republican State Convention September 27, 1871 * Opening of Syracuse Northern railroad November 9, 1871 , Opening of Chenango Valley railroad ! February 12, 1872 - Samuel J. Tilden nominated for Governor September 17, 1874 Smallpox epidemic in Syracuse - July to October, 1875 Week's snow, blockade of railroads February, 1877 General U. S. Grant visits Syracuse September 9, 1880 • Sarah Bernhardt at Wieting Opera House March 2$r,1$8l' -Grover Cleveland nominated Governor September 21, 1882 Opening of West Shore railroad : October 1, 1883 James G. Blaine visits Syracuse September 24, 1884 State Fair permanently located at Syracuse 1888 Skaneateles water act becomes a law May 15, 1889 Snow blockade of railroacfe>^._ March 11, 1892 New Syracuse City Hall opened April 30, 1892 "Wet spring of 1894" ' May 19 to June 5, 1894 Celebration of Onondaga's centennial June 6-7, 1894 Natural gas found at Baldwinsville 1897 Syracuse semi-centennial celebration October 12, 1897 Opening of Syracuse and Baldwinsville electric road September 25, 1899 Barrow art gallery presented to Skaneateles Library October, 1900 Destructive floods December 15, 1901 President Roosevelt at Syracuse September 7, 1903 First Kanoono Karnival September, 1905 CHAPTER II. SOURCES OF ONONDAGA HISTORY AND PUBLIC ARCHIVES The sources of our local history are many and often hard to find. For this reason it may help some to mention a few whose details have to be summarized here. First of all are the works of Samuel de Champlain, the first -white man to enter this county in his memorable invasion of 1615. This particular journal is accessible in the original -and several translations, and the Magazine of American History had several good articles on the subject. Then come the voyages of Peter Esprit Radisson, published by the Prince Society, and the Jesuit Relations, which Clark quoted freely, but not always correctly, in his much prized history. They may now be read in an excellent translation or in the original, in the fine Burrows' edition, recently completed. Charlevoix's history of New France may be studied in J. G. Spea's fine translation, and it is well to read any thing of Shea's that is accessible. His Catholic Missions is 10 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY good, and has but few errors. The New York Documentary History has much from French, English and Dutch sources, while the New York Colonial Docu ments afford a rich field. Pouchot's Memoirs, translated by Hough, is another good French work, and Baron Lahontan may be read with moderate caution. Some gazetteers are valuable, especially those of French and Hough. Spaf- ford's is earlier and abounds in quaint conceits and information. Barber and Howe's Historical Collections of New York has interesting notes, with early views engraved on wood. This feature gives it present value. A brother of Mr. Barber lived in Skaneateles. Dunlap's history of New York has the first sketch of the Onondaga legend of Hiawatha. Clark's Onondaga marked an era in historic writing, and was a marvel of solid work and extended research. To him belongs the credit of first giving the Hiawatha legend in full, as well as the connected history of the French missions here in a popular form. Perhaps no county history in New York has been oftener quoted or more highly esteemed. Clayton's history came much later and supplied full and^ valuable accounts of the various companies and regiments which took part in the war for the Union, then a popular theme. Its histories of religious organizations are also meritorious, and it embodies much desirable information. To this succeeded Onondaga's Centennial, with fuller information on early times. In this will be found a valuable list of revolutionary soldiers who once lived here, which is now cousiderably increased. About the same time was issued Gurney S. Strong's Early Landmarks of Syracuse. This valuable volume has many illustrations of antique buildings in that city, as well as some rare historic material. In 1889 Mr. M. C. Hand issued a little volume of considerable interest, entitled "From a Forest to a City," embodying personal reminiscences. This has the earliest view of the old Syracuse House. Hon. George Geddes was one of the foremost agricultural writers of his day and in 1859 contributed an excellent account of Onondaga County to the St. ate Agricultural Report for that year. It should be better known. Beside many illustrations it had a large folding geological map of the county, prepared expressly for it. The geological part of this report was reproduced verbatim in Clayton's History. Mr. Geddes also wrote an article on Champlain 's ex pedition in 1615, for the Magazine of American History, and Orsamus H. Marshall of Buffalo did the same. General John S. Clark's identification of the fort besieged by the French and Indians prevailed. On the latter the late L. W. Ledyard of Cazenovia addressed the Oneida Historical Society, and this address was issued in pamphlet form. John Gilmary Shea took the same side. Timothy C. Cheney's Reminiscences of Syracuse, compiled by Parish B. Johnson and issued as a pamphlet in 1857, were reproduced in Mr. Strong's book and are unique and invaluable. What he learned by tradition may be set aside, but his personal recollections are of the most substantial kind. Of a somewhat similar character was "A History of Manlius Village," by Henry C. Van Schaack, from a series of lectures delivered by him in 1866. Mr. Van Sehaack had a remarkable collection of autographs, described by the Rev. W. M. Beauchamp in the Magazine of American History for 1887. It was divided between his three daughters. The Pompey Reunion of 1871 furnished a PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 11 memorial volume of interest and value. The late Dr. Israel Parsons, of Mar- cellus, published a history of that village and town, written in 1876. In the Skaneateles Democrat of 1876 appeared a series of papers by the Rev. W. M. Beauchamp, entitled "Notes of Other Days," and followed by "Notes Left Out." These embodied his own and his father's recollections of Skaneateles from 1829 to 1876. Mr. John D. Barrow wrote various papers on the history of that place and lake, a pamphlet of 1902 being entitled "Skaneateles Lake." A collection of his local poems has just been issued, selected by him just before his death. Mr. E. Norman Leslie's finely illustrated and unique history of Skaneateles is well known. A history of Spafford by George K. Collins exists only in three type written copies, one of them in the Syracuse Central Library. One volume deals in general matters ; the other in mortuary and family records, including inscriptions from various cemeteries. Captain Collins' unique and valuable volumes furnish an example well worth following by others. The Syracuse Herald had a series of highly interesting papers on the cen tennial of Ephraim Webster's coming here, under date of 1886. Unfortunately they now only exist in scrap-books and in files of that paper. The County Centennial of 1894 filled every city and village paper with reminiscences. In 1904 the Catholic Sun had a full account of the celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Father LeMoyne's first visit here. This was held at Pompey Hill, and the addresses were given in full. The Baldwinsville Gazette celebrated its jubilee with an illustrated memorial of great local value, and Mayor McGuire marked the close of his office by an illustrated exhibit of the progress of Syracuse under his rule. Of works relating solely to Syracuse, Dwight H. Bruce 's Memorial History stands first in importance. It is both full and concise, as well as accurate in most points, but naturally repeats some trifling early errors. Carroll E. Smith's Pioneer Times in the Onondaga Country is a series of interesting sketches by that able editor, first published in the Syracuse Herald. The History of the Schools of Syracuse, by Edward Smith, is another important book. Syracuse and Its Surroundings, by H. Perry Smith, is in the form of an agreeable story, well illustrated with stereoscopic pictures. Several illustrated manuals were issued by Mr. Smith. One treats of Oakwood cemetery, and another of successful business men in the city. One writer gave biographical sketches of one thousand prominent Syracusans in 1897, and did not exhaust the list either. Several Blue Books are devoted to persons of blue blood, a much smaller class. An illustrated manual of the Protestant churches of the city will be found useful, and many manuals and memorial volumes have been issued, most of which may be found in the Public Library. Picturesque Oak- wood is another notable volume by Mrs. Annie C. Maltbie, with fine illus trations. A. E. Costelto has published a book on the police department and commercial history of Syracuse, and in 1906 there was issued an illustrated history relating to the trades and labor unions. It is needless to mention other small works. 12 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY South Onondaga found a chronicler in 1904, in the person of W. W. New man, a venerable writer and resident. About the same time an illustrated history of the Baptist Church in Fayetteville was edited by the Rev. J. Byington Smith. There are but few town histories, but many interesting memorials of the town of Onondaga have appeared from the pens of John T. Roberts and Richard R. Slocum. A history of Oran, in Pompey, has also appeared. Going back to early times, the visit of John Bartram, the great naturalist, may be recalled. He was here in 1743, and what he saw and did may be read in his journal. Conrad Weiser, the interpreter, left several ample accounts of his visits, the first of these being in 1737. This may be found in Schoolcraft's Aboriginal Archives, volume 4. Those of 1743-45-50-51 are in the Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania. Bishop Spangenberg and David Zeis berger accompanied him in 1745, and Spangenberg 's journal was published in the Pennsylvania Magazine, of History, 1879, with notes by John W. Jordan. These Moravian journals are of great local interest. The second and fullest was that of Bishop Cammerhoff and Zeisberger, written in 1750. They came by way of Cayuga to Onondaga. The journal has been translated but never published. The third was in 1752, and part of this has been printed in the Moravian, the Pennsylvania Magazine for 1905, and in the third series of (American) Notes and Queries, volume 2. The remaining, and most important part locally, has been translated but not published. This is the case with that of 1754-55, and with the two of 1766. In the Magazine of American History for 1907 will be found briefer accounts of these Moravian visits to Onondaga. Interesting items occur in Loskiel's Moravian Missions, but especially in De Schweinitz's Life of David Zeisberger, for this missionary appears in all the journals mentioned. Zeisberger 's Indian dictionary, comprising English, German, Onondaga and Delaware words, was published for Professor E. N. Horsford in 1887, but is more Iroquois than Onondaga. This is the Harvard University copy. Zeisber ger 's Essay of an Onondaga Grammar was printed in the Pennsylvania Maga zine for 1888. His other unpublished works of local interest, now in Philadel phia, are Deutsch und Onondagaisches Worterbuch, seven volumes and Onondaga and German Vocabulary, a shorter work of the same character. J. Gilmary Shea published an early French-Onondaga vocabulary in 1860, but it is rather Iroquois than Onondaga. In Schoolcraft's Notes on the IroqUois is a short but useful list of Onondaga words. The Rev. W. M. Beauchamp has col lected about two thousand Onondaga words and over seven hundred names of Onondagas, early and latev, many with biographical notes. These are unpub lished, as well as the ten thousand Onondaga words which Mrs. Helen F. Troy, of Auburn, reports that she has obtained. J. N. B. Hewitt has published the Onondaga creation myth in the Report of the Bureau of Ethnology for 1900, with an interlinear translation. Various Onondaga customs and stories have been contributed to the Journal of American Folk-lore by the Rev. Dr. Beau- champ and De Cost Smith. The Onondaga Historical Association has issued a number of leaflets. One of the most painstaking and valuable of these is Franklin H. Chase 's account of PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 13 Revolutionary soldiers who have died here. The Rev. Dr. Spalding's paper on Ephraim Webster has a narrower field, but shows the same care and success. Other meritorious papers have appeared. The journals of those who took part in the raid on Onondaga in 1779 will be found in Sullivan's Campaign, published for the State of New York. In the Public Papers of Governor George Clinton is also an account of this expedition, taken from the New Jersey Gazette of May 12, 1779, and closely resembling the journal of Captain Thomas Machier. Another diary of great interest has also lately appeared in the Pennsylvania Magazine for 1903, being the journal of Lieutenant Robert Parker, who passed eastward through Onondaga county in 1779 with Gansevoort's men. Little was known of this march before. Some facts may be gathered from Sir John Johnson's orderly book of 1777. The Reports on the Canadian Archives at Ottawa have made much local material available, but we need fuller accounts of much of this. In pioneer days we have interesting items in the journals of Blkanah Watson and Francis A. Vanderkemp, with De Tocqueville 's visit to Frenchman's Island. The travels of Due de Rochefoucauld Liancourt will not be overlooked, and the letters of Colonel Stone, Buckingham and others are full of interest. In Stone's Tales and Sketches is the Grave of the Indian King, a legend of Skaneateles. The missionary journal of the Rev. Thomas Robbins, who officiated in Mar- cellus and Skaneateles for a few weeks in 1802, has interesting incidents, while botanists revel in the diary of Frederick Pursh, who discovered the hart's tongue fern here in 1807. Professor L. M. Underwood's Native Ferns has much to do with Onondaga. Mr. Philip N. Schneider has published a good deal about his remarkable geological discoveries in and about Syracuse. One is entitled "Limestones of Central New York." Dr. Beauchamp long ago issued a catalogue of our local mollusks, and Morgan K. Barnum a list of the birds of the county. The list of plants prepared by the efficient Syracuse Botanical Club has not yet appeared, but its collections are accessible. Other valuable scientific papers have been given in the public press. The early contact with the aborigines has been mentioned. Beside J. V. H. Clark's valuable notes in his history, he published a volume entitled "Lights and Lines of Indian Character, ' ' in which some stories have their fuller forms. Horatio Hale's Iroquois Book of Rites should not be overlooked, nor L. H. Morgan's League of the Iroquois, one of our most valuable works. Both illustrate life among the Onondagas, while not confined to it. The Rev. W. M. Beauchamp 's illustrated bulletins on New York archeology, issued by the State Museum, will help some, while his concise history of the Iroquois in that series will be of use to others. Nor is Colden's Five Nations to be overlooked. This standard work has been recently reprinted. The Life of Sir William Johnson and Mrs. Grant's Letters are of interest also. Work is still going on in Onondaga folk-lore and linguistics. In J. C. Pilling 's Bibliography of the Iroquoian Languages, Washington, 1888, there is quite a list of those who have used Onondaga words in some important way. The Hand-book of American Indians North of Mexico will contain notices of 14 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY all known Iroquois villages and many persons. Volume 1 has been already is sued by the Bureau of Ethnology and the second is in press. The report on the Indians of the United States, in the census of 1890, has a great deal relating to the Onondagas, with fine illustrations. Except for the repetition of some early errors, for which allowance may be made, this is a very valuable work. The finely illustrated report on the Six Nations of New York was issued separately. The Onondaga treaties will be found in full in the Indian Problem, published for the New York Legislature in 1889. It is a pity that the Indian names in this are often so poorly reproduced. Those who want notes on the officers of New York militia of rather early date will find much in the four volumes of Military Minutes of the Council of Appointment of the State of New York, as well as in the Public Papers of Daniel D. Tompkins, 1807-17. The rank and file have no place in these. Cap tain George K. Collins also wrote a full history of the 149th regiment, N. Y. S. V., in which he served, and this was published some years ago. New York at Gettysburg contains addresses made at the dedication of Onondaga and other monuments in 1888. Some interest was shown, a few years since, in the better preservation of our town and village records, which often have little care and sometimes have perished. These have become of increasing value as the study of town and family history has grown.' In many cases, however, valuable bits have been preserved or published of early settlers, and especially of the business men of given periods. Many are in manuscript still, but accessible. Thus the Onon daga Historical Association has various records made by Captain Oren Tyler, long a merchant at Onondaga Valley, contributed by his daughter, Miss Charlotte Tyler of Hartford, Connecticut. Her gifts comprise autographs of many prominent pioneers, military rolls, day-book and ledger accounts, school records, etc. Some valuable results have come from the examination of records in the County Clerk's office, a safe resort in many cases. In fact the Surrogate's office holds treasures for many, not as legacies, but according to their work and will. Genealogists know this well. Many historic facts are enriched by consulting old cemeteries, and a complete record of some of these is a desider atum. General J. S. Clark, of Auburn, has the field notes of the early surveyors, which have never yet been published, and these have local value. The maps will be found in the County Clerk 's office. Beside all this there is a vast amount of town and family history, prepared for private use, which is unpublished. At the time of the County Centennial many excellent histories of churches and benevolent organizations were written, and some of these are preserved by the Historical Association and other bodies. Some valuable papers have been printed by the Academy of Science, and other material has been gathered by the Sons and Daughters of the Revolution and the Genealogical Society. The Syracuse Public Library has made a specialty of local histories and genealogi cal works, and thus that city has become the headquarters of the New York State Genealogical Association. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 15 PUBLIC ARCHIVES In the Proceedings of the American Historical Association for 1901, page 147, is a report on the public records of Onondaga county, which is here summar ized. The earliest officers lived in the western part of the county, and when Cayuga county was set off the early Onondaga records remained at Auburn. Those since 1799 have been kept in a fire-proof building in Syracuse, all having been now transferred to the new Court House. At the date of the report the Supervisors' Records were in a separate room, with continuous files, 1829-1900. The early ones were probably destroyed at the removal of the county seat in 1829. After 1850 no manuscripts were kept, but printed files of proceedings. There was one volume of board minutes, 1812-24. The County Clerk's Records were in a suitable building, but were also re moved on the completion of the new Court House. The realty records were complete and well kept, as were all court recol-ds after 1850. The earlier ones were in a cellar, without care or order. Files of papers in court proceedings, 1806-1900, were in over one thousand file cases, well kept. The Surrogate's Records were mostly easy of access, but some early records were unbound and in a vault. The complete series was arranged in one thou sand three hundred file cases. They are often consulted. Town Records are often incomplete and poorly kept. Many have been injured or destroyed by accidental fires, while some have been purposely burned, as being of little or no value. They are usually in offices, stores or private houses. In Camillus the older records were lost by fire, and the later have little care. Cicero lost its early records by fire in 1851. Later records were kept in a safe. The early records of Clay are missing. In DeWitt the records are nearly complete. In Elbridge the records before 1854 have been lost. Fabius lost some records by fire in 1882. Geddes has kept most of its records,-but some were purposely burned in 1897. LaFayette has also preserved the larger part. Lysander has most of its town records, but early school records are rather rare. Manlius preserved its records till 1890, when they were lost by fire. Marcellus also lost its early records by fire in 1830. Those of Onondaga have been mostly preserved. Otisco has also most of its records. In Pompey they are almost complete, forming a valuable series in this old town. Those of Salina were then complete. Skaneateles lost its earlier records in the disastrous fire of 1835. Spafford has complete records. Its first town book bears the autograph of Horatio Gates Spafford, in whose honor it was named, and who responded to the complimentary name, the gift of the book. The records of Tully are incomplete. 16 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA' COUNTY In Van Buren the records were burned in the fire of 1861, and others were intentionally destroyed in 1894. Those of Syracuse are complete and are now well cared for. The villages show a varied experience, Baldwinsville having complete records. since 1848, while Brewerton has none at all. Camillus has complete records since 1852, East Syracuse since 1881, East wood since 1895. Elbridge lost records 1835-45, 1859-73, and 1878-80. Fabius has complete records. * In Fayetteville those of 1844-94 were lost by fire, and those of Jordan, 1835-76. Liverpool Manlius, Marcellus, Skaneateles, Solvay and Tully are complete. More care was advised, but their value is mostly of an historic kind. Besides these public records, many were made by private persons. Among lists of names of prominent people perhaps none is more valuable than that of Lewis H. Redfield, of those who were here from 1795 to 1825. It follows in his own words : "A few more daring spirits were here a little earlier — Danforth and Tyler came in 1788 — but the settlement of the county did not fairly begin till '95. The town of Onondaga furnished such men as Joshua Forman, Thaddeus M. Wood, Asa Danforth, Jr., George Hall, Rev. Caleb Alexander, Rev. D. C. Lansing, Nicholas Mickles, Dr-. Gordon Needham, Dr. John D. Bisselh William Kibbe, Jasper Hopper, L. H. Redfield, John Adams, John Van Pelt, Ebenezer Wilson, Jr., Job Tyler, Comfort Tyler, Joseph Swan, Dr. Walter Colton, Colonel Peter Ten Broeck, Medad Curtis, Judge Oliver R. Strong, Hezekiah Strong, Jonas Earll, Jr., Nehemiah H. Earll, Daniel Moseley, B. Davis Noxon, Rufus Cossit, General John H. Ellis, Jonas Mann, Dr. J. H. Parker, Dr. Thayer, Dr. Heally, James Geddes, James Webb, Elisha Marsh, William Ray, Ephraim Webster, Gideon Seeley, Oliver Cummings, James Beebe, Porley Howlett, Leonard Caton, Giles Cornish, Deacon Rowe, Ephraim Hall, Colonel Lewis, Silas Ames, Turner Fenner, Rev. Samuel Kirkland, Vivus W. Smith, Rev. Mr. Geer, Rev. Mr. Thacher, Samuel Forman, Charles Olmsted, George W. Olmsted, Samuel B. Woolworth, Pulaski King, John Gridley, Asher Tyler, Rev. James H. Mills, Willet and Harry Raynor, James Hutchinson, George Geddes. ' ' In the towns of Salina, Cicero and Clay were located such prominent men as Dioclesian Alvord, Elisha Alvord, Dr. William Kirkpatrick, Benjamin Bying- ton, Ashbel Kellogg, Daniel Gilbert, John G. Forbes, Thomas McCarthy, James Lynch, William Clark, Fisher Curtis, Dr. Daniels, Daniel Van Vleck, Thomas Wheeler, John Leach, Oliver Stevens, Patrick McGee, Jonathan Emmons, Isaac Cody, Moses Kinney, Elijah Loomis, William Wheadon, Dr. Orcutt, David Hamlin, Abraham Van Vleck, John 0 'Biennis, Ira Gilchrist, Amos P. Granger, John Wilkinson, Archy Kasson, Rufus Stanton, Timothy Gilehrist, Cornelius Scouten, Dr. Brace, Mars Nearing, Rev. John Shepard, Judge Stevens, James Johnson, Orasmus Johnson, Asa Eastwood, Judah Gage, Dean Richmond, Moses D. Burnet, Moses Kinney, Thomas Pool, Rev. Mr. Barlow, James Bogardus, Richard Adams, Dr. David S. Colvin, E. W. Leavenworth, Dr. Mather Williams, S. W. Caldwell, John Durnford, Matthew M. Davis, Stephen Smith, Philo D. Mickles, Thomas Spencer, Harvey Baldwin, Joseph Slocum, William D. THE ORIGINAL SYRACUSE HOUSE IN 1820. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 17 Stewart, John Rogers, A. N. Van Patten, Schuyler Strong, Rev. J. Watson Adams, Henry Davis, Jr., General Jonas Mann, Homer Wheaton, Thomas G. Alvord, Elihu' L. Phillips, John F. Wyman, Henry Gifford, Paschal Thurber, Henry Newton, Sterling Cossit, Dr. Jonathan Day, Charles A. Baker, Ichabod Brackett, Columbus C. Bradley, Hathaway Richmond, David Stewart, David S. Earll, Sampson Jaqueth, William Winton. ' ' The towns of Tully, Otisco, Marcellus and Skaneateles gave us such names as the gifted Willis Gaylord, Rev. R. S. Corning, John Meeker, who at one ¦ time had fifteen stores in the county, Rev. Levi Parsons, William M. Allen, the Kings, the Howells, Dr. Bildad Beach, Judge Bradley, Major Cossitt, Reuben S. Humphreys, John Herring (the paper maker), the Lawrence, Esquire Cobb, Daniel Kellogg, Alfred Northam, Judge Jewett, Dr. Porter, James Porter, John Legg, William L. Vredenburgh, Isaac M. Sherwood, Sr., John S. Furman, Hez. Earll, Jonas Earll, Sr., Robert Earll, John Briggs, James Sackett, Judah Hopkins, Josephus Barker, Stephen Pomeroy, Rev. Mr. Pomeroy, Alanson Edwards, Asahel Roundy, Daniel Baxter, Eli Godard, Samuel Rice, Chauncey Rust, Rufus Clapp, Jesse Swan, Dr. French, Dr. Judd, Warren Hecox, Dr. Munger, Judge Sawyer, Moses Legg, Isaac Hall, Josiah Walker, Elder Harmon, Dr. Farr, Moses Nash, Phares Gould, Dr. L. I. Tefft, Dr. Scovill, Samuel Tyler, Leman Gaylord, Chauncey Gaylord, Esquire Willard, James and Thomas Redney, Jesse Kellogg. "In the towns of Camillus, Lysander, Elbridge, Jordan and Van Buren, were such men as Judge Squire Munro and his sons, Nathan, David and John, Judge Stevens, James R. and Grove Lawrence, Dr. Jonas C. Baldwin, Cyrus Baldwin, Judge Bigelow, John Hamill, James L. Vorhees, Gabriel Tappon, Sanford C. Parker, Judge Stansbury, John Bowman, Cyrus H. Kingsley, Martin M. Ford, Henry Wells, John H. Tomlinson, Eliakim Edwards, James Bennett, Charles H. Toll, Asa Bingham, Calvin Bingham, Gideon Brockway, Dr. Frisbie, Peter Emerick, Hiram F. Mather, Chauncey Betts, Isaac Earll, Isaac Lindsay, Nicholas Lamberson, Mordecai Ellis, Isaac Strong, Theodore Popple, Dr. Buell, William Laughlin, Moses Carpenter, Dr. Jones, R. L. Hess, William A. Cook, M. T. C. Gould, R. S. Orvis. "Manlius and DeWitt gave us the names of Nicholas P. Randall, Samuel L. Edwards, Alvin Marsh, Dr. H. L. Granger, Dr. William Taylor, Nathan Williams, Azariah Smith, James 0. Wattles, Elijah Rhoades, Abijah Yelverton, Henry C. Van Schaack, Sylvanus Touseley, Colonel Sanford, Luther Badger, Colonel Olmsted, Elijah Rust, Dr. Holbrook, William Eager, William Barker, Thurlow Weed, Moses DeWitt, Jacob R. DeWitt, Leonard Kellogg, Charles B. Bristol, Colonel Phillips, Harvey Edwards, Aaron Wood, Timothy Teall, and the Kinneys, Aaron Burt, Oliver Teall, Elias Gumaer, Benjamin Morehouse, Daniel Keeler, Charles Moseley, Elijah Phillips, Samuel Ward, and J. V. H. Clark, the historian. "In the towns of Pompey, LaFayette and Fabius were to be found Victory Birdseye, Daniel Wood, Charles Baldwin, Daniel Gott, Elisha Litchfield, Henry Seymour and. his gifted son Horatio Seymour, Augustus Wheaton, and his son Horace, Luther Marsh, Judge Pettit, Elijah Miles, Dr. Miller, John Wilcox, 18 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Jonathan Stanley, John Stockham, Colonel Gould, Mr. Doubleday, Colonel St. John, Dr. Tibbals, the Keeneys and the Jeromes, Thomas Miles, David Caldwell, James Sherman, Jesse Butler, John Sprague, Rev. Mr. Barrows, Rev. Mr. Leonard, John Spencer, the Hinsdales and the Murrays. ' ' This excellent list renders the quotation of some others unnecessary. In 1894 the following statement was made, and is literally quoted here : ' ' Records in the surrogate 's court of Onondaga county date back to January 5, 1795, seven months after the erection of Onondaga county. The life of the court began with that of the county, and the surrogate 's court, therefore, is the oldest court of record in the county. Thomas Munford was the first surrogate, and the court was at his house in Scipio, that township being then a part of Onondaga county, although now in Cayuga. The first letters of administration issued have disappeared. from the crudely bound volume in heavy brown paper covers, but the second and all that followed for several years are on record, and in an excellent state of preservation. These second letters were issued on Jan uary 5, 1795, to Jane and Gilbert Tracy of the town of Onondaga, on the estate of Elisha Tracy. The letters are in the handwriting of the surrogate, upon heavy rice paper, no printed blanks having been prepared at that time. The printing followed soon after however, for the third letters were upon a printed blank. They were recorded February 16, 1795, and issued to Thankful Garnsey of the town of Jerusalem, county of Ontario, upon the 'estate of Titus Perkins, late a soldier in the line of artillery of the state of New York, lately serving in the army of the United States. ' Then follow letters upon the estates of Azeriakim Pierce, Scipio, June 1, 1795; William Ward, Manlius, December 3, 1795; William Whitten, Scipio, May 31, 1796 ; and to Thaddeus M. Wood of Manlius, on the estate of Lyman Hubbard of the same town, a yeoman, on July 18, 1796. Mr. Wood was chosen the second surrogate, but served only a short time/ issu ing his first letters on July 14, 1799. The records show that on September 29, 1800, George Hall was surrogate, and so continued to be until Medad Curtis was elected in 1810. "Among the many strong and characteristic signatures appearing upon old bonds. among the aged records are those of Ephraim Webster, Jasper Hopper, John Adams, John P. Sherwood, Comfort Tyler, Joshua Forman, Squire Munro, John H. Frisbie and Gordon Needham. The first will was recorded April 9, 1796, and that was of Samuel Jerome of Scipio. The will was dated November 23, 1795, and begins as follows : " ' In the name of God, Amen. I, Samuel Jerome, being weak in body but of sound mind and memory, blessed be Almighty God for the same, do make this my last will and testament.' ' ' Then is devised his small estate among his several children in equal shares. The record of the wills is in several cheaply bound volumes. The letters of administration and the bonds and letters of guardianship are arranged con secutively and held together with strings and enclosed in brown paper cover ing. With the exception of the first letters of administration, the records of the surrogate's court are complete." PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 19 The Historical Association has a valuable collection of old documents, with well preserved autographs of many noted pioneers. In Skaneateles Mr. E. N. Leslie secured valuable lists of old settlers, sometimes from those who knew them, and often from old account books. Lists of taxes and taxable inhabitants in early days have unique interest, as showing their landed estate, and some times personal property. The papers of Oren Tyler, merchant at Onondaga Valley, are of a very varied character, for he was trader, captain and school treasurer, with separate accounts for each. One striking feature of some store accounts is the quantity of brandy, rum and whiskey found necessary for family use. Three of his books were of accounts with the Indians. Election lists are interesting, where they have been preserved. Thus one in Fabius certifies that the polls were opened April 30, 1799, and were continued by adjournment to and including May 2, in which time eighty-three votes were cast for member of Assembly. In 1813 the polls were open in Salina, April 27- 29 inclusive, and thirty-two votes were cast for each office to be filled, about eleven men voting each of the three days. Mr. Louis D. Scisco contributed a series of papers on "Onondaga County Records" to the New York Genealogical and Biographical Register, 1899-1904, which were brought down to 1827. His concluding remarks are so good and suggestive that they are quoted in full : "From 1799 onward, the Syracuse records contain occasional papers executed by or referring to ex-soldiers of the Revolution, but the work of searching them out in the enveloping mass of documents has not been carried beyond the years named. Those memoranda of later date here following are but addenda to earlier documents. It is well to repeat, in closing, the statement made when the present series began, that it covers only the realty documents relating to the present county of Onondaga. Inasmuch as the original county of Onondaga covered an area embraced in at least six of the present counties of central New York it is evident that the series of memoranda now closed have merely made an entry upon an interesting field of research. Fully four- fifths of the material here embodied in the early Onondaga records is as yet untouched by genealogical inquiry. Its character is precisely the same as the matter already printed. It is prolific in clues for tracing of Revolutionary ancestry, though seldom giving details at length. Practically every soldier who fought in the New York line during the great struggle. has left somewhere in the Onondaga records one or more memorials of himself, in connection with the land granted him. The existence of these records should be kept in mind in the present general search for new sources of genealogical facts." 20 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY CHAPTER III. GEOLOGY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, TOPOGRAPHY AND LAKES The lowest surface point in Onondaga county is on the Oswego river, below the dam at Phoenix, and may be about three hundred and fifty feet above tide. Oneida lake, which the Hon. George Geddes took as his starting point, he made three hundred and sixty-nine feet above the sea ; the topographical map has it three hundred and seventy. He made the distance thence to Ripley hill in Spafford thirty-two miles, and the height of that hill one thousand nine hundred and eighty-two and three-fourths feet. The triangulation survey made the hill one thousand nine hundred and sixty-eight feet, and the United. States topo graphical map one thousand nine hundred and eighty-five, perhaps from a different point, but nearly that of Mr. Geddes. In this direction the estimated average dip of the rocks is twenty-six feet to the mile, or eight hundred and fifty-two for the whole distance. Of course this may vary, the dip not being everywhere the same, though sufficiently uniform for probable estimates. The outcrop is nearly east and west, and also modified by local conditions. The hills rise in a direction opposite to the dip of the rocks. In the indicated di rection and distance the surface rises over sixteen hundred feet, while the rocks at the base fall eight hundred and fifty-two feet, making an estimated thickness of the mass at the southwest of two thousand four hundred and sixty-five feet. Many faults occur in this. The surface waters mostly flow north and the under ground south. Springs are to be looked for in the sides of valleys, but there are notable exceptions. The Baldwinsville water supply seems to be from an old river bed. Attempts to secure artesian wells would fail, but have been made. The height of Pompey hill is not given in the following list of triangulation stations and altitudes from the United States topographical maps, but it is one thousand seven hundred and forty-three feet. The stations were selected for surveying purposes, and were not always on the highest points of the hills where they were placed. The topographical maps show height and contour, so that they do not always agree. Usually height is increased on the map, each site from which will be indicated. The station on Fabius hill, in that town, is at the height of two thousand and twenty feet. The map gives a height of two thousand one hundred and fifteen. Ripley, in Spaffo.rd, is one thousand nine hundred and sixty-eight ; the map makes it one thousand nine hundred and eighty-five, and another hill one and one-half miles north of Spafford, one thou sand seven hundred and forty. The map has still another hill, east of Borodino, one- thousand four hundred and twenty-five feet. There are many high points between the valleys of Otisco and Skaneateles lakes. On the map there is a hill three miles due south of Fabius which is two thou sand and sixty feet high, and another east of Labrador pond of one thousand nine hundred and sixty-four feet. Another a mile southwest of Apulia station is one thousand eight hundred and six on this map, while Dutch hill, southeast of Tully valley, reaches the height of one thousand eight hundred and eighty- seven feet. Arab hill, in Fabius is one thousand nine hundred and forty. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 21 Stockham hill, east of Carpenter's pond, on this map is one thousand six hundred and fifty feet; and a hill east of Otisco lake is one thousand four hundred and sixty-five. On the same map a hill east of Spafford creek has a height of one thousand nine hundred feet, and Bear mountain, west of Cordiff, sixteen hundred. This map makes a great hill on the Indian reservation, one thousand four hundred and seven feet high, and East hill, a prominent point northeast of this, one thousand four hundred and forty-five feet. It is a sightly spot. A hill northwest of Navarino is one thousand two hundred and thirty-five feet high on this map, and another between Thorn and Rose hills is one thou sand three hundred and sixteen. Both authorities agree on two hills in Skaneateles, Giles being one thousand two hundred and sixty-five, and Hoxsie one thousand one hundred and ninety-eight. On this map Indian hill in Pompey is about one thousand and twenty feet high. The Onondaga villages were sometimes on far higher land. The remaining elevations are from the New York triangulation survey. Clapp, in Pompey, one thousand two hundred and eighty. Seeley, in Skaneate les, one thousand one hundred and nine. Eagle, in Manlius, one thousand two hundred and fifty-three. Howlett hill, Marcellus, one thousand one hundred and thirty-six. Carpenter, Onondaga, one thousand one hundred and five. Cossitt, in the same, one thousand and twenty. Chestnut Ridge, Salina, four hundred and ninety-eight. Olympus, Syracuse, six hundred and eighty-one. Collamer, in DeWitt, four hundred and eighty-five. Green, in the same town, nine hundred and seventy-four. Davison, Van Buren, six hundred and thirty- one. Kingsley, in the same, five hundred and thirty-six. Sorrel hill, in the same, six hundred and forty-one. Draper, Geddes, six hundred and fifty-three. Fairmount, Camillus, seven hundred and thirty-six. Sherwood, in the same, seven hundred and ninety-nine! Davis, Lysander, five hundred and thirty-five. Beautiful views may be had from all these hills, especially when they over look some broad valley, but some spots take in the broad lower lands, stretch ing away northward till they melt in the dim distance, while Oneida, Onondaga or Cross lakes light up the nearer landscape. Part of the Clinton group shows the northernmost and lowest rock of the county, appearing on both sides of the west end of Oneida lake. Its shale appears along the outlet and in the hill at Brewerton. The northern parts of Lysander, Clay and Cicero are on this rock, and the soil partially originates from it. The Niagara limestone, next above this, outcrops at several places in Cicero, and creates the water power at Bridgeport, where the piers and abutments of the bridge are of this stone. The layers are thinner than in the western part of the State, and lack those which are highly fossiliferous. Whiting's quarry is two miles southwest of South Bay, and a good deal of stone has been taken from it, though little is quarried now. Some material has been taken from it for the electric road. The entire thickness is five feet, and the lower courses are useless. Large boulders of the true Niagara were once abundant in the fields, and many remain. It is a good building stone, and has been used for 22 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY lime. Other quarries are Young's, Clay; Bigelow's, Baldwinsville, where it is thicker and a mile north of the village ; and Dietrick 's, near Lysander village, where it is still quarried. The Onondaga Salt group follows, the red gypseous shales being usually below the green, but thin bands of green or red may appear in each. The red shale, in its harder layers, forms reefs in the Seneca river. In the green shales are the gypsum beds and the vermicular limestone. The Erie canal forms very nearly the division of these two shales through the county. The average sur face width of the red shales, mostly north of the canal, is about seven miles. On the south side the green shales average about three. Geddes estimated the thickness of the red shales at three hundred and forty-one feet at the Erie Canal in Syracuse. The green shales vary in thickness, but will average about two hundred and ninety-five feet. / The trap dykes and serpentine rocks in Syracuse, explored and described by Mr. Philip F. Schneider, have awakened much interest, because they are in trusive and also have characters closely resembling some features of the dia mond fields of South Africa. These curious forms have been examined in and near the city. Gypsum is quarried in several places, but has its best development in the eastern part of the county. The crystalized gypsum varies much in character. At the railroad cut, near Fayetteville, it occurs in large masses, transparent or almost black. In Marcellus the snowy fibrous kind abounds. At the Oswego Bitter it may be had coated with pure sulphur. Its crystals are conspicuous in many places. The vermicular limestone appears in several places in the red shales. It is bluish when first broken, changing to grayish drab or dark gray on exposure. It is full of holes, varying much in size. A retaining wall in Renwick Avenue, Syracuse, shows large blocks and large pores, some of the latter being over a quarter of an inch in diameter, but they are usually smaller. At the south line of St. Mary's Cemetery, Syracuse, the extension of Van Buren street exposes this rock, and there are other exposures not far away. This seems the upper and thinner layer, while the lower and thicker, with smaller pores, occurs near James street. It is found in other places. Between these layers are the hopper- formed masses, suggestive of crystals of salt. In Syracuse they have been found five inches in diameter, and occur at Marcellus station and elsewhere. The water line rests on the upper gypseous shales, with a thickness of one hundred and twenty-seven feet, according to Geddes. It includes the tenta- culite limestone. Schneider says that a vertical section through the former, at Alvord 's quarry, Manlius, would be seventy-six feet thick, and that the other is twenty-two feet thick in Hinsdale's quarry, near this. The part used for cement is at the top, with thinner courses between the blue lime below. The blue lime is also used for quick lime, and large quantities of both are employed. The group forms falls on Limestone creek and elsewhere, and is exposed at Jamesville, Onondaga Valley, Split Rock, Nine Mile and Skaneateles creeks. The average width of land on this outcrop is about a quarter of a mile. There is a long list of quarries. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 23 The Oriskany sandstone succeeds this, and is very variable in thickness. It is a few inches thick at Manlius ; a Split Rock only a trace is seen. Southwest of Onondaga Valley it reaches seven feet. Half a mile south of Jamesville it is less than three feet thick. East of the Glenside mills in Skaneateles it is twenty feet thick, and on the road between Skanaeteles and Elbridge it has a thickness of thirty feet. The stone is coarse, and only large fossils appear. The Upper Helderberg limestones are in three divisions, the Onondaga gray, the Corniferous, and the Seneca blue limestones. The first is the finest lime stone in the State for building purposes. Geddes says it is twenty-four feet thick at Split Rock, and the Onondaga Reservation quarries have a wide reputation. It is largely used in Syracuse, as in the post-office, city hall, old courthouse, and other prominent buildings. It takes a fine polish, and is nearly pure lime. The finest precipices formed by it are at the Green lakes near Jamesville, and at Split Rock, where it is eight hundred and ten feet above tide. But little of the surface is exposed. The Upper Helderberg ushers in the Devonian age, in which fishes first appeared. Above the Onondaga are the Corniferous and Seneca limestones, distin guished by a fossil. Corals of various kinds entered largely into the compo sition of all the rocks of this group. The Corniferous limestone has its name from the nodules of chert or hornstone occurring in parallel layers. These lessen its value for lime or building. The upper or Seneca limestone is quarried at Marcellus and elsewhere, with fairly good results. It is much inferior to the Onondaga and is not exported like that. Of the latter State Geologist Merrill said : ' ' The well known Split Rock and Reservation quarries in Onondaga county have produced an immense quantity of excellent and beautiful stone, which has found a market in all parts of the State." There are outcrops of the Seneca and Corniferous all through the county, often forming plateaus, but the general exposure is not half a mile wide. Geddes gives the formation at Split Rock as forty feet thick and eight hundred and forty-nine feet above tide. Schneider says the Seneca, at a quarry a little southeast of Marcellus, shows a ledge on the south side which is ten feet thick. At Jamesville, below the falls, are interesting faults and over thrusts. A black rock, resting on the Helderberg group, has been called the Marcellus shales, and is so suggestive of coal that many excavations have been made for this. In the lower part of this is a dark-colored bituminous mass, called the Goniatite limestone, from the curious chambered shells which it contains. This layer is about two feet out from the base, and its best exposure is about two miles west of Manlius, where a fine fold may be seen. It is about three feet thick but is not a durable stone. This fossil appears for the first time in this rock. There are also oval concretions in the Marcellus shales, similar to those found in the Hamilton group, in which these shales are often included. The Hamilton group is of high interest for its fossils, which are varied and abundant. It includes the larger part of the southern towns. The thickness of this and the last is estimated to be six hundred and' ninety-one feet by Geddes, who says the top of the group opposite Glenhaven, is one thousand one hundred and eleven feet above tide. Some make the thickness less. Be- 24 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY sides shells and corals there are a few sea-weeds, and at least one land plant. Leaves of a sea-weed may be found south of Ten Mile point on Skaneateles lake. Shells are often found retaining their lustrous nacre, and darker ones may be picked out entire from the loose shales. Many forms of corals are found, but especially the cyathophylloid forms, or cup corals. They appear in incredible quantities just south of Staghorn point, Skaneateles lake, where not less than a dozen species of this form are found, beside several other families. These cup corals occur in the ledges on George Patten's farm in Spafford, along the roadside three miles north of Otisco Center, and in the ravines near Vesper. There are other places where they crop out in the middle of the road. The group is divided into deep valleys, running north and south, with con necting valleys or depressions in a few places, suggesting puzzling questions for geologists. The sides of these valleys are everywhere cut by streams or ravines, whose course is mostly east and west. Sometimes a harder rock appears, giving variety to the deeper ravines. Pratt's falls and those near Delphi, Tinker's falls, the Pitch-off in Marcellus, numerous ravines and the shores of Skaneateles lake are among the favorable places for studying this interesting group. The Tully limestone succeeds the group just considered, and is from four teen to twenty feet thick, according to Geddes. Mr. Schneider says it has "its greatest development in Onondaga County, where it is thirty or more feet in thickness." Mr. E. B. Knapp, of Skaneateles, who has studied this rock thoroughly, makes it over thirty-one feet, and part of his account follows : "Among the notable places where it may be easily studied are those on Mr. Ousley's farm, and on the bluff about a mile south from Vesper in Tully; at Tinker's falls, near Apulia in Fabius; at Split Rock,. about one mile south from Borodino, in Spafford, and in any of the many deep ravines on the east side of the Skaneateles lake south from Henry Weston's farm. The most northern outcrop of the Tully is at Split Rock, near Borodino. Here the Tully is a mass of broken crinoid columns intermixed with many species of fossils which characterize the Hamilton group. Its altitude at this place is one thousand three hundred and forty-nine feet above the sea and four hundred and seventy feet above the Skaneateles lake, and the dip of the rock is southward, about thirty-eight feet to the mile. At Ripley's ravine, one and one-half miles north west from Spafford Corners, is a nearly vertical exposure of this limestone, con sisting of ten layers, having an aggregate thickness of thirty-one feet and two inches. It is an excellent building stone and on long exposure to the air weathers to a light blue color. The 'Nunnery' schoolhouse near, Borodino was built of this." Two beautiful fossils distinguish this limestone from all other rocks. Geddes says its most northerly exposure is in the northeast part of Otisco, underlying most of that town, and that it is sometimes burned for lime. Its line is easily traced on both sides of Otisco and Skaneateles lakes. Mr. Schneider described a fine exposure of this rock at the Solvay quarry, one and one-half miles south east of Vesper, where it is fine-grained and thirty feet thick. The bottom layer not then quarried, (1897) was three feet thick. He added: "It is undoubtedly PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 25 due to the occurrence of this heavy layer so near the bottom of the mass and just above the soft Hamilton shales, that projecting ledges and caves are present in nearly all of the glens where this rock crops out. The Buck-tail falls, Otisco, and Tinker's falls, Fabius, are notable examples." Above this is the Genesee slate, forming the hills and part of the soils of the southern parts of Pompey, Fabius, Tully, Otisco and Spafford. It is black and slaty, with but few fossils. Above this again, and capping the highest hills, Mr. Knapp places the Port age slate of the Chemung group, which he describes as a dark-colored, fine grained slate. Mr. Geddes calls it the Ithaca group, and says the rocks are a hard coarse and dark shale. Northern boulders are found in the fields, and the glacial drift in the cross valleys is full of these. Marl is found both north and south of the Helderberg range, that on the south being of small extent, but valuable when burned for lime. The Tully lakes still deposit marl, their tributaries flowing over limestone pebbles. But little of it seems organic matter. Onondaga and Cross lakes have deep beds of it, largely organic. In the latter a large island has appeared within fifty years, almost entirely composed of shells. Cicero swamp is underlaid with lake marl. In many places it is corrosive and soon destroys small shells. Along the valley from Syracuse to Jordan it is much used in making cement. It has attracted less attention east of the city. Calcareous tufa is found in many places south of the Helderberg range, but is more abundant north of this, within the Salt group, often preserving the forms of leaves, mosses, twigs, and even trunks of trees. Some masses of beech leaves are especially fine. Such masses are usually found where springs emerge on the sides of hills or valleys, and are most frequent in Camillus, DeWitt and Manlius, but appear in the valleys of Onondaga, Skaneateles and Nine Mile creeks. John Bartram described one of these places at Onondaga, when he was there in 1743. On July 30 he said; "This morning after breakfast I went to the east hill, and found a fine spring on the west side, surrounded with Arbor Vitae, some a foot diameter. This water is of such a petrifying nature, that as it runs among the fallen leaves it incrusts them and petrifies in great stones as big as one can well lift; there was a great piece of ground covered with them, which had turned the water-course several times; I have seen three of these springs in my travels ; two before this. ' ' Ferruginous tufa, containing both iron and lime, forms a large deposit at a place not far northeast of Syracuse ; also on Nine Mile creek below Marcellus, on Oneida river and in Fabius on Limestone creek. In some places deposits of calcareous matter cement gravel into a hard rock or conglomerate, as at Half way, and on Seneca river, four miles west of Baldwinsville. In Hopper's glen, Onondaga Valley, are great masses of conglomerate of this kind. Peat or muck abounds in swamps and low lands, and vast quantities are contained in Cicero swamp. Efforts have been made to use it as fuel, but with out success. It can be done but does not pay. Mr. Geddes said:," As a manure muck is fast coming into use, and soon will be much prized." The increased use is not so great as he had expected, but these low lands are already in re- 26 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY quest for celery and some other vegetables, and some waste lands of the present may yet become our richest garden spots. A few are now the haunts of botanists, who find floral rarities in them and dread coming improvements. TOPOGRAPHY Five beautiful valleys traverse Onondaga, from north to south, terminating beyond the center in the lower lands, in modern days acording such an easy route for the railroads and canal. While most of- the water flows northward in these, each valley has a southern outlet and is the source^ of a stream tributary to the Susquehanna. Generally this source is not far from . the county line, but in Pompey, it is eight miles within it. Beginning on the east the hills on the west line of Madison county slope down to the east branch of Limestone creek in the towns of Fabius, Pompey and Manlius, affording many charming views of the valley through which it flows. At an early day Chittenango creek and Cazenovia lake, one thousand one hundred and ninety feet high, were included in the territory of the Onon dagas, who had forts but a mile from this lake in 1600 and later. A little southeast of Delphi are two charming -waterfalls, one succeeding the other on the stream. They are both high and picturesque, and seem never to want water, so great a lack in many places. Farther down the valley are the beautiful Edwards' falls, south of Manlius, at the terminus of the Suburban electric road. Farther east is the noted Deep Spring of early days, once beautiful but beautiful no more. Just before coming to the canal on the east of the valley the pretty Green lakes are reached, of which more will be said hereafter. Then three fine streams unite and Chitte nango creek becomes the eastern boundary before Oneida lake is reached. A long and high ridge divides the two branches of Limestone creek, but these come together at Manlius village, and form two branches of one valley. Between these is Indian hill, the principal scene of the French missions here. Between these branches too, were other Onondaga towns of earlier date. In the south part of this valley is Carpenter's pond, whose waters flow southward, and southwest of Watervale are Pratt's falls, one hundred and thirty-seven feet high, falling from the table land into a picturesque ravine. Some small ponds lie south of Fayetteville. West of these, but in the same drainage, are White and Green lakes, easily reached from Jamesville. Green lake has strik ing features of many kinds, and Brickyard falls deserve a visit. Pompey hill, with its grand views and early traditions, separates this valley from that of Butternut creek, but a cross valley through Fabius connects them. Fabius hill, two thousand one hundred and fifteen feet high and the highest point in the county, except the hill next east, is on the south side of this pass, but the view from it is less expounded than some others, on account of the high hills clustering all around. Between two of these is Labrador pond, and one or two others lie farther north. The waters of this pond, which is on the county line, flow south, while the headwaters of Butternut creek are but a few rods from its inlet. There are grand views from the hillsides all along this PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 27 valley, and the reservoir near Jamesville forms a beautiful lake. On the east side of this old Onondaga was burned in 1696. Picturesque falls and views with remarkable geological features, occur all through Jamesville and in its vicinity, while the stately Penitentiary adds a new feature and industry to the place. On the east lie two small lakes already mentioned; on the west is an other, even more picturesque and having Indian legends. From the southern part of this valley there is an easy transit to the Tully lakes in the valley next west. There are several of these ponds, all but one dis charging into the Susquehanna. Here begins the Onondaga creek, flowing north from the Tully flats. It soon enters the hills, passing Cardiff, the grave of the stone giant. Bear mountain rises abruptly on the west side of the valley there, affording fine views from its top. Farther north, on the same side, comes in the west branch of the creek through the strikingly picturesque valley of South Onondaga. The moraines and terraces in both these valleys are re markable features, Unequaled in all this region. The great hill on the reserva tion affords several grand views, and east of the quarries is another bold hill which is seen from every point of view. It commands a magnificent prospect. There is a picturesque waterfall east of the council house. Passing Onondaga hill, ' ' beautiful for situation. ' ' Onondaga lake and the salt springs are reached, the former flowing into the Seneca river. Contiguous to this broad valley are many stone quarries, the most notable of all being those of Spit Rock, through which an electric road passes. From the southern part of the valley an easy pass conducts one into that of Otisco lake and Nine Mile creek. In this also the waters flow both ways, and there are the usual waterfalls in the many ravines. From the head of Otisco lake the noted and picturesque Bucktail road ascends the bold western hill. The precipitous "Pitch-off" is in a ravine in the western slope, and the rapid creek is everywhere picturesque, especially between Marcellus and Camillus where is has a swift descent. In the lower lands it reaches the west side of Onondaga lake. There is no pass within the county limits by which one can cross from the southern part of this valley to that of Skaneateles lake. Ripley hill rears its great ridge between, nearly two thousand feet above the sea, and from its summit one of our grandest views may be had, taking in several counties, with the nearer lake and forest scenery. The ravines are full of waterfalls, when there is water, the finest on the east side of the lake being near Spafford Land ing. Two on the west side near Newhope Landing, are worth visiting at any time. The shores of Skaneateles lake are not only picturesque but they afford geologists fine opportunities for study. The Horn rocks attract many, so fine is the exposure there. After leaving the lake the outlet affords fine water power and picturesque scenes, the Hollow road, between Elbridge and Jordan, being especially beautiful. There the stream flows through the gypseous shales. Crossing the broad plain it reaches the Seneca river above Cross lake. Car penter's brook, another bright stream, flows into the river below the lake. In early days most of the water in Skaneateles creek disappeared in dry seasons, on reaching the limestone beds, but since the old crevices were filled little has been lost. 28 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY The drainage of most of the county is into the Seneca and Oneida rivers, both beautiful streams, which unite and form the Oswego. The only water power used on the Seneca is at Baldwinsville, though there are rapids west of this. The two dams on the Oneida are used for navigation. At Phoenix there is a fine water power, extensively used, all the water of the two rivers passing through this village. For the barge canal the water will be raised. THE LAKES OF ONONDAGA The highest of our local lakes are those of Tully, of which there are several. Crooked lake is eight hundred feet above the Erie canal in Syracuse, or one thousand one hundred and ninety-three feet above the sea, and Onondaga creek has its headwaters there. Big lake is but a few rods away and is four feet lower, its waters flowing into the Tioughnioga, and thence into the Sus quehanna. From this fact Zeisberger called it the Susquehanna lake when he was there in 1766. In 1745 Spangenberg spoke of it as Oserigooch. On the east side are grounds of the Chautauqua Assembly, intended for recreation and mental and religious culture. This is near the north end. On the west shore opposite is Tully Park, a cluster of, pleasant summer homes. The lake has two long and prominent points and one small island, and reviews the the waters of Green lake, lying farther north and over half a mile long. Crooked lake, lying west of Oseriogooch or Big lake, is quite irregular in form as its name indicates, and has two islands. It is less than a mile long. Some small ponds lie farther north in the drainage of this, and other lakes of the group are in Cortland county. They are classed as glacial lakes, being shallow depressions in the drift. The shores are mostly low, with occasional bold banks but in some places the hills add beauty to the scene. Sometimes the marly bottoms give a bright green hue to the water. Throughout the group are rare bog plants of luxuriant development, and the Onondagas have legends regard ing the shores. Two ponds, of no great beauty, might once be seen near Apulia, one being well named Stump pond. The other was Little lake, now dried up but having botanic attractions. These ponds discharge their waters into Butternut creek. About two miles south of the station is Labrador pond, between two high and steep hills, the outlet flowing southward. Part of the pond is south of the county line, and is one thousand one hundred and ninety-four feet high. Some day it will be a picturesque spot, but now lies in thick and marshy woods, which shut off the surrounding hills from sight. The spot is very attractive to botanists as the home of rare bog plants, and on the cliffs near the top of the eastern hill the beautiful cliff brake, Woodsia Ilvensis, grows with a luxuriance seldom seen. Bartram and Weiser seem to have traversed this pass in 1743. On the east line of Fabius the DeRuyter reservoir forms a beautiful lake about two miles long, at the headwaters of Limestone creek. Carpenter's pond in Pompey, half a mile long, is much like the Tully lakes, and is about one thous and two hundred and seventy feet high. Its source is due east of Pompey Hill, and it is tributary to the Susquehanna. -£$ few rods from it the waters flow northward. V PAST AND PRESENT £)F ONONDAGA COUNTY 29 A little pond two miles north of Manlius has been called Hermit lake. It was merely a mill pond which has been drained. Round lake lies a mile north of this, and was formerly called Lake Sodom, the water near the bottom being charged with sulphurated hydrogen. It is almost circular in form, whence its present name, and about one hundred rods in diameter. The encompassing hills are from fifty to one hundred feet high, but a road makes it easily ac cessible. The surface is forty-four feet above Onondaga lake, but the topo graphical map makes it four hundred and eighteen feet. Soundings made there May 30, 1906, by the Onondaga Academy of Science, gave a depth of one hundred and eighty-two feet, but a short distance might vary this. Prepara tory to this examination Mr. A. W. Bessee, of Fayetteville, wrote to the writer May 28, 1906: "Perhaps twenty-five years ago the Round lake was sounded scientifically by four Fayetteville men, and they found it one hundred and ninety-five feet deep in many places, and the other lake the same. It may be less now, as a vast amount of dirt washes in from the hillsides. Mr. Orson Smith, who owned land on the north side of the lake, (an old man now dead) told me that when his father came there he sounded the lake and found it three hundred and ninety feet deep. There were places where the ground seemed to have settled several feet, as if there were quicksand underneath. I think one place shows now several feet deep. I once let down a line one hundred feet in the lower lake, with a weight and small glass bottle attached, the cork being in quite loosely. When it was down I gave it a sudden pull and a slight jerk or two, and soon the bubbles came up. When they stopped I pulled up and found the bottle filled with strong sulphur water. I tried the same in Round lake but failed there. There is some sulphur in the Round lake, but I think not so much as in the other. ' ' The lower Green lake is the one of which Dr. Beck, wrote : ' ' Water drawn from the depth of one hundred and sixty-eight feet was found to be highly charged with sulphurated hydrogen. * * * Its specific gravity was scarcely above distilled water, and contained not even a trace of oxide of iron." Its shores are winding, and it is. of a generally triangular form and about half a mile long. Altogether it is a pretty and pleasant spot. Hooker's and the showy orchis are found near by. There are paths which connect the lakes. Evergreen lake is the name of a small but picturesque pond half a mile south of High Bridge, not far from Fayetteville and the outlet of White and Green lakes, which are accessible from Jamesville also. White lake is the larger but less picturesque of the two. They are connected by a small stream flowing from Green lake, which has cliffs on three sides about two hundred feet high and seven hundred feet above tide. There are several caves east of Jamesville, but they have few attractive features. West of Jamesville is another of these ponds which is much like Green lake, having cliffs two hundred feet high on three sides, and an area of about ten acres. Its depth is sixty feet, giving a total depth of about two hundred and sixty feet from the top of the cliff. On the east side is low land through which the water oozes till it forms a stream. The place has many points of interest and many visitors. Various theories have been given for these curious lakes, 30 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY the most recent and probable being that here were great water-falls in the mighty rivers connected with the glacial period, the falling water excavating deep holes in the well known way. The Jamesville reservoir is a beautiful lake. The old reservoir forms a pretty artificial lake at Onondaga park in Syracuse and Onondaga lake is three hundred and sixty-four feet above the sea. It is nearly five miles long and has much to interest the scientists, many rare birds visiting it, and several marine plants growing there. Its geological features have arrested attention, and its history is of the most striking kind. For over two and a half centuries has it been familiar to the white man, and here of old came missionaries and traders, statesmen and soldiers. Drainage has changed it much, and there will be steady encroachments at the south end. The con tact of a great city is also affecting its fauna and flora, but these are inevitable things. The lowering of its surface and straightening of its outlet in 1822 were blessings indeed, and any possible raising of the bed will be vigorously opposed for sanitary reasons. Oneida lake, three hundred and seventy feet above the sea, is not more than sixty feet deep, giving favorable fishing conditions, familiar to its earliest visitors. It will soon be reached by trolley at South Bay, as it is now by the Rome and Watertown railroad at Brewerton. Much of the shore is marshy and difficult of access. It was an early route for travel, and large armies have traversed its waters, as well as innumerable boats of traders and pioneers. Two beautiful islands lie off South Bay and belong to Oswego county, though much nearer the Onondaga shore. One of these is Frenchman's island, for a short time the residence of a Frenchman of the middle class, whom fancy has transformed into one of illustrious birth and romantic fortunes. Father Dablon crossed this lake on the ice in March, 1656, and Brewerton had noted visitors in the old French war, and in yet earlier days. Hiawatha is said to have given the lake one of its Indian names while passing through it on his great mission. Otisco lake was made seven hundred and seventy-two feet above the sea by Geddes before the dam was built, but the topographical map makes it seven hundred and eighty-four, increasing the figures in most cases. It is recovering its early beauty, somewhat marred by the raising of its waters. It is not deep, and was originally three and three-fourths miles long, being now five miles in length. There is a plan to increase its capacity and elevation still more. The hills on its west side rise from ten to twelve hundred feet above it, producing striking views. Perch and pickerel are said to have been introduced here. Skaneateles lake has an altitude of eight hundred and sixty feet according to Geddes, of eight hundred and sixty-seven on the topographical map. Its length is about fifteen miles and it gradually increases in depth from the foot till near the head. Early soundings gave two hundred and seventy-five feet ten miles from the outlet, with a bottom of clean white sand. Its shores are generally bold, often rocky, and these are favorite resorts for summer visitors and campers. Every stream makes a little point or delta, of which there are five of considerable size. Most of these streams have beautiful cascades, vary ing with the dryness of the season. The rocky exposures aid the studies of the geologist or artist, and are rich in fossils. A century ago the waters were PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 31 raised several feet by a dam, and these now form a water supply for the Erie canal and the city of Syracuse. They are of unsurpassed purity. The lake appears on early maps, but the earliest record of a visit there is that of the Moravians in 1750. The land gradually rises on either side till the hills lack but little of two thousand feet on the east at the head, and somewhat less on the west. From their summits grand views are obtained, Owasco lake, seven hundred and ten feet high, is a few miles west, but not in the county, though draining part of it. There are small and shallow mud lakes at some miles distance east and west of Marcellus village, but they have no remarkable features. Cross lake is an expansion of Seneca river, on the northwest line of the county, the river crossing the lake, which is about five miles from north to south, and about a mile from east to west. It is shallow and abounds with fish of many kinds. While much of the shore is marshy, there are many attractive spots, and it is a favorite resort of sportsmen. Its altitude is four hundred feet. Half way between this and Baldwinsville, and half a mile north of Seneca river is Beaver, or Mud lake. It is shallow, and its waters flow northeast, reaching Oswego river, a mile- north of the county line. Most of its shore line is marshy, becoming a sphagnous bog on the east side, which is a favorite resort for botanists. Two rocky points may once have been islands. The earliest distinct account of such a thing here was when Sir William period passed away, there came many changes. Thus it is supposed there was a lake at South Onondaga, whose waters flowed into another lake in the Otisco valley. This discharged into another lake in the Skaneateles valley, a larger lake than now. This flower into Lake Warren, through a conspicuous depres sion at Mandana. Indeed, it would take little digging to turn the waters that way now. A probable lake at Cardiff would have had its outlet southward. Similar lakes may have occupied parts of others valleys, or have been parts of the early Lake Warren. This once included the southern basin of Lake Huron, all of Lake Erie, and all of the Ontario basin not covered by the glacier. During the Lake Warren period, while the waters flowed through the Mohawk and Chicago outlets, the cross valleys were formed. Of course, most of these valleys were beds of rivers of varying depths and strength, causing waterfalls and great depressions, where hard rocks made a sufficient obstacle. In some cases high cliffs may have risen from broad ex panses of water, but apparently not in all. There are many curious questions to be solved before we can speak decidedly on all the phenomena of our lakes. In 1882 a remarkable tidal wave came in at Cleveland on Lake Erie, and this called forth a statement on the subject from an old skipper. He had seen several and knew of more. Another remarkable wave occurred on Lake On tario in 1895. It may be well to speak of some in Onondaga county of early and recent times. The earliest distinct account of such a thing here was when Sir William Johnson stopped with Lieutenant Brown at Fort Brewerton, October 23, 1761. These are his words: "Yesterday at 12 o'clock there was such a storm as 32 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY emptied the river at this point, of water, so,that severa.1 salmon and other fish were left dry for awhile." John Bartram, when at Oswego in 1743, may have alluded to something of this kind. ' ' These lakes are said to have a kind of flux and reflux peculiar, since it is affirmed to be sensibly ebb and flood several times in a quarter of an hour, though it be perfectly smooth, and scarce any wind." This refers to what Charlevoix saw in 1721. In the present writer's local experience on Skaneateles lake, these waves have come in the calm immediately after a storm. One was May 5, 1836, when, after a sudden gale, the water, otherwise still, rose from one and one- half to two feet every sixteen minutes all the afternoon, nor did the ebb and flow cease till the next day. This record the writer takes from his father's journal, but the next two he witnessed. The first was on June 26, 1842, which lasted about the same time, and also followed a sudden and severe blow. The one occurring in March, 1852, however, attracted the most general attention, and full accounts were published of what was seen at various points. At Geneva, on Seneca lake, the ebb and flow created a great commotion along the docks, and continued for several hours. At Ithaca, on Cayuga lake, a great wave swept in, and in its retreat brought up a canal boat, which lay sub merged off the steamboat pier. At Skaneateles the writer's attention was first attracted by the strange antics of a snag which usually came just through the . ice. It would rise several feet in the air and then gradually drop and disappear, only to come up in the same way again. Then it was observed that the whole field of ice was alternately approaching and receding from the shore as the water rose and fell. Where free from ice the lake was unruffled after the storm, but the water rose and fell about two feet, commencing early in the morning and continuing till night. The last phenomenon of this kind, of which he per sonally knew there, was October 20, 1870, but with this there was an earth quake shock. It followed a gale. CHAPTER IV. BOTANY AND BOTANISTS IN ONONDAGA. The first writers on the flora of Onondaga and the country of the Five Nations were the Jesuits, in 1657. They wrote of most things with more French vivacity than critical care, so that allowance must always be made for this. Read this, for instance: "Besides the grapes, the plums and many other fruits which are common to it, with the beautiful provinces of Europe, it possesses a number of others which surpass ours in beauty, in scent and in taste. The forests are almost all composed of chestnut and walnut trees. There are two kinds of nuts, some of which are as sweet and agreeable to the taste as the others are bitter; but their bitterness does not prevent one's ex tracting excellent oil .from them by making them pass through the ashes SYRACUSE IN THE LAST YEAR OF VILLAGE, AND FIRST YEAR OF ITS CITY LIFE. (FROM THE ORPHAN ASYLUM.) i BY P. M. OSTRANDER. FROM HIS ETCHING OF THAT DATE. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 33 through the mill, through the fire and through the water, in the same way in which the savages extract the oil of the sunflower. One sees there cherries with out a stone, fruits which have the color and the size of an apricot, the flower of the white lily, and the odor and taste of the lemon ; apples of the shape of a goose egg, the seed of which, brought from the, country of the cats (Erie's), is similar to beans, the fruit of it is delicate and of an odor very suave, and the trunk of the tree, of the size and height of our dwarf trees, is pleasing in marshy places and good soil. But the most common plant and the most mar velous of these countries is that which we call the universal plant, because its leaves, bruised, close up in a short time all kinds of wounds ; these leaves, of the size of the hand, have the figure of the lily pointed on armor, and its roots have the odor of the laurel tree. The most vivid scarlet, the most brilliant green, and the yellow and orange most common in Europe, are inferior to the different colors which our savages extract from the roots. I do not speak at all of trees as high as oaks, the leaves of which are large and open as those of cabbages, no more than of the quantity of other plants peculiar to this country, because we are yet ignorant of their properties." If the Onondaga botanist of to-day can not exactly identify all these wonderful plants, he yet exults in thinking that there are some peculiar to the place, and some yet to be found. John Bartram, of Philadelphia, our earliest native botanist, was the first one who came here with critical knowledge. His trip was made in 1743, in company with Conrad Weiser, Sheckalamy and Lewis Evans. At Onondaga and Oswego he made few notes of plants and trees, except of the white cedar on the east side of Onondaga, at a spring which has been called after him. Peter Kalm made a trip through the Iroquois country a few years later, and made interesting notes there and elsewhere, some of which follow: The broad plantain may have been introduced, the Indians "pretending that this plant never grew here before the arrival of the Europeans. They therefore gave it a name which signifies the Englishman 's foot, for they saw that where an European had walked, there this plant grew in his footsteps." Arum virginicum. Mr. Bartram told me the savages boiled the spadix and the berries of this plant, and devoured it as a great dainty. Sassafras was a large tree in Pennsylvania ; at Oswego he saw it but two to four feet high. A recent grove near Baldwinsville, however, had a height of sixty feet. Tulip trees were as high as oaks in Pennsylvania; at Oswego he found them not over twelve feet high. In Onondaga they are lofty trees. Sugar maples were three or four times higher in Canada than in Pennsylvania. "Squashes are a kind of gourds, which the Europeans got from the In dians." '.'Gourds are a considerable part of the Indians' food; however, they plant more squashes than common gourds. They declare that the Indians had gourds long before the Europeans discovered America." "Pumpions are prepared for eating in various ways. The Indians boil them whole, or roast them in ashes, and eat them then, or go to sell them when thus prepared, in the towns, and they have, indeed, a very fine flavor 34 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY when roasted. The Indians, in order to preserve the pumpions for a very long time, cut them in long slices, which they fasten or twist together, and dry them either by the sun, or by the fire in a room. When they are thus dried they will keep for years together, and when boiled they taste very well. The Indians prepare them thus at home and on their journies, and from them the Europeans have adopted this method." ' ' The Indians plant great quantities of watermelons at present, but whether they have done it of old is not easily determined. For an old Onidoe Indian (one of the six Iroquese nations) assured me that the Indians did not know watermelons before the Europeans came into the country, and communicated them to the Indians. The French, on the other hand, have assured me that the Illinois Indians have had abundance of this fruit when the French first came to them, and that they declared" they had planted them since times immemorial." "The Iroquese or Five (Six) Nations call the ginseng root garangtoging, which, it is said, signifies a child, the roots bearing a fair resemblance to it; but others are of opinion that they mean the thigh and leg by it, and the roots look pretty much like it." There are full accounts of gathering and caring for this. The Onondaga name is Da-kyen-too-keh. A tea was made from the maiden-hair fern for colds, consumption and pectoral disorders by the colonists. "This they have learnt from the Indians, who have made use of this plant for these purposes from time- immemorial. This American maiden-hair is reckoned preferable in surgery to that which we have in Europe, and therefore they send a great quantity of it to France every year." "The chief remedy of the Iroquois, or Iroquese, against the toothache, occasioned by hollow teeth, I heard of Captain Lindsey's lady at Oswego, and she assured me that she knew, from her own experience, that the remedy was effectual. They take the seed capsules of the Virginia anemone as soon as the seed is ripe, and rub them in pieces. It will then be rough and loose, like cotton. This cotton-like substance is dipped into strong brandy, and then put into the hollow tooth, which commonly ceases to ache soon after. ' ' In some places apocynum cannabium is still abundant. "The Swedes have given it the name of Indian hemp, because the Indians formerly, and even now, apply it to the same purposes as the Europeans do hemp, for the stalk may be divided into filaments, and is easily prepared. When the Indians were yet settled among the Swedes in Pennsylvnia and New Jersey, they made ropes of this apocynum, which the Swedes bought, and employed them as bridles, and for nets. These ropes were stronger and kept longer in water than such as were made of common hemp. The Swedes commonly got fourteen yards of these ropes for one piece of bread. Many of the Europeans still buy such ropes because they last so well. The Indians likewise made some other stuffs of this hemp. On my journey through the country of the Iroquese I saw the women employed in manufacturing the hemp. Thev made use neither of spinning wheels nor distaffs, but rolled the filaments upon their bare thighs, and made thread and strings of them, which they PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 35 dyed red, yellow, black, etc., and afterwards worked them into stuffs with a great deal of ingenuity." Quite recently the Onondagas thus made a strong and fine thread. More than half a century after Kalm another foreign botanist came here. This was Frederick Pursh, who came to America in 1799, dying at Montreal in 1820. He was sent to Onondaga by Dr. Barton in 1807. His route was through the Delaware Water Gap, Great Bend, Binghampton, Oswego, Tioga Point and Cayuga lake to Onondaga. His quaint journal of this trip was published in 1869, and is quite rare. July 7 he was at Sapony Hollow, eight miles from "Cayuga city," or as it is called sometimes, "Ithaca." There he noticed magnolia acuminata, or the cucumber tree. This "is very scarce about here, and the trees here in this place and two or three others I have seen, are of a creeply, small and old growth, nothing like to what they are in Virginia." Onondaga county is rather far north for this tree, and but two groups have been described, one near Baldwinsville, and the other at the mile point, Skaneateles lake. In both these the trees were of good size. July 10 he rode from Hardenberg Corners (Auburn) to Onondaga Hollow, and took up his quarters with John Adams, nearly opposite the postoffice. July -12 he visited the salt springs and observed samphire (salicornia) there. Only an occasional note will be made dn what he found. July 17 Captain Ephraim Webster guided him to the Indian reservation. "Cicuta maculata grows in great abundance throughout Onondaga; the Indians use it to poison themselves when they have an inclination in going out of this world; it is a most powerful poison, as Captain Webster tells me, who has seen the case on some Indians who had eaten the root and were lost, without being able to get anything as a remedy against it; it occasions lockjaw, and the patient is soon done." July 20 he went to Squire Geddes 's. He took him to Split Rock, which is graphically described. There he made a great find. Among other plants, "what I thought the most of, asplenium scolopendrium — this fern, which I don't find mentioned by any one to grow in America, I always had a notion to be here; and indeed I was quite enjoyed to find my prejudice so well founded in truth. It appears to be the same as the European, only smaller." Some early botanists supposed that he discovered this at Chittenango falls, where it occurs, but he did not go there. The principal localities now are at the Green lakes of DeWitt. "July 25. Made another excursion to salt point. As I observed nothing new through the swamp and marsh, I went on to a place called Little Ireland, or Liverpool. Here they have salt springs on the edge of the lake, most of them covered by the fresh water of the lake; there are about one hundred and fifty kettles at work here." The lake was higher then. July 29 he found gerardia flava in bloom north of Liverpool, as he went to Oswego. It is rare here now, but occurs near Syracuse. "After a tedious jour ney I came to Three Rivers point. This is a beautiful place — but only one house, whose owner keeps tavern near it." Near Oswego he found hydrocotyle urn- bellata, known in the interior of New York only on Seneca and Oswego rivers. 36 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY On his return, in a cove on the river, he "found a field of nymphaea odora, beautifully in bloom. It is astonishing in how deep water some of them grow. I pulled up flower stems eleven feet long, which did not seem to be entire neither." This is his only record of the water lily. August 3d he was on a boat. "Observed nothing new except a long-leaved grass which was floating on the water, the boatmen called it wild rice, and said I would see plenty higher up, which was the ease ; it covers here the shore, and is, when in flower, quite upright." August 4. "When we came to the outlet of Onondaga lake the creek was covered at its bottom with chara. which the boatmen call feather beds." Later, in Pompey, he said: "A sonchus, common almost everywhere, grew here to the astonishing height of ten feet and more." Speaking of height, in 1904 an evening primrose in a ravine near South Onondaga, measured nine and one-half feet. Pursh's account of Pratt's falls is interesting, but need not be repeated here. On the 18th he was at Salt Point again. He "had not before observed the gymnocladus conadensis grow on the banks of this lake, but I did not see one large tree of it, all being very criply and small." In 1897 Dr. W. H. Munson of Otisco wrote thus : "I am sure that you will be glad to know that two or three miles from here, in Christian Hollow, south of Cardiff and in the town of Tully, there still stands a solitary and veteran Kentucky coffee tree (gymnocladus canadensis). It is a large tree, over two feet through all the way up to eight or ten feet from the ground, tall and symmetrical. It blossoms in full every July, and is then a glorious sight, standing in the center of a valuable field. The owner allows the tree to remain, at much loss to him self, for sentiment's sake. I do not know of another tree of that species in this part of the country." Sentiment like this is much to be desired. In Syracuse the late Carroll C. Smith had several of these trees of moderate size. In the marsh Mr. Pursh found the small bladderwort and the purple gerardia, the former not reported by others here. North of Three River Point he found the pawpaw tree. Apropos to notable trees and plants, another extract may be given from Dr. Munson 's letter: "Last summer I was informed that a strange tree, with leaves as big as a horse, grew 'over in the Diggins,' in the east part of this town. They told me that it was covered with thorns, and that the leaves all dropped off in the fall. My friend and neighbor, Mr. Cowles, accompanied me on the quest in July. This find proved to be Hercules' club, aralia spinosa. We found the tree thoroughly acclimatized, growing in large numbers (for a limited section) along a' rocky hillside. We thought that the largest of the specimens were twenty or twenty-five, and perhaps more, years old. The wide spreading leaves, with their great petioles, were as big as a horse, too; and when the people saw them drop in the autumn they thought the boughs had fallen off. We have neither of us seen this aralia growing in Central New York, except in 'the Diggins.' " This shrub, or tree, was introduced in 1848, and has escaped and become naturalized. In Hough's report on New York forestry at the World's Fair, he says of the hackberry, or nettle tree, otherwise Celtis occidentalis, that it is "uneom- PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 37 mon generally, and looked upon as a stranger wherever found. Some trees have quite a local reputation in that way." He mentions two; one at Spra- ker's Basin, locally termed "the unknown tree," and one at Schuylerville, hav ing a circumference of fourteen feet. One on the bank of Crooked brook, Baldwinsville, near the electric road, is nine feet nine inches around, three feet from the ground, and is sixty feet high. One between Syracuse and Jamesville has been destroyed, and another in the vicinity of Fayetteville, was cut down long ago. This "unknown tree," as Miss Gage called it, was about forty feet high and one and one-half feet through. The Baldwinsville tree, if not the only one now in the country, may be the finest which ever grew here. Since Pursh's day there have been many enthusiastic botanists in the county, and it presents a remarkable field in its variations of altitude, rocks and soils. The salt marshes have marine plants, and the sphagnous swamps rare orchids and northern plants ; the oak, beech and pine woods their special species ; the rivers and streams notable aquatic kinds, while the cliffs of lime stone and slate are the haunts of other plants. The several long valleys, divided by high ridges, may be said to have each a local flora. Perhaps the first systematic plant catalogue published here was that con tained in Mr. Geddes 's agricultural report of 1859. It is entitled "List of Weeds Troublesome to the Agriculturist in Onondaga," prepared by W. M. Beauchamp, Esq., of Skaneateles. Though he collected the plants, the list was really prepared- by his daughter, Miss Mary E. Beauchamp. It comprised but sixty-nine kinds, the wild asters, golden rod and some others not being distinguished by species. That it was a list of weeds only, also limited the range. Still, this young lady's work made a beginning. In 1878, as the result of lectures by Rev. Samuel R. Calthrop, D. D., some ladies in Syracuse formed the Syracuse Botanical Club, which has kept up earnest and useful work ever since. Mrs. Stiles M. Rust (Mary Olivia) was the first president, for six years, succeeded by Mrs. L. L. Goodrich, who still holds the office. For a long time weekly excursions were made ; sometimes more for those who could go, and in this way much was done, though the whole county could not be reached. Occasional aid was had from those who were not members. The result is that after so many years' labor, the club has an excellent herbarium in the rooms of the Onondaga Historical Associa tion, and just presented to it, and a catalogue of Onondaga plants which should be published. A few species are yet in doubt, but these can be con- jecturally supplied. All that our space now allows is a synopsis. Although the club celebrated its twenty-first anniversary with the Rev. Dr. Beauchamp at Baldwinsvile, May 5, 1900, yet there was printed "A paper read before the Syracuse Botanical Club by one of its members, April, 1879." This was on the ferns of Onondaga, and the systematic list was accompanied by descriptive remarks. The list was of Polypodium one species, Phegopteris three, Pellaca two, Pteris one, Adiontum one, Woodwardia one, Camptosorus one, Seolopendrium one, Asplenium six and a variety, Dicksonia one, Cystop- teris two and a variety, Aspidium nine and four varieties, Struthiopteris one, 38 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Onoclea one and a variety, Osmunda three and a variety, Botrychium seven and four varieties, Ophioglossum one. To these some varieties may now be added, and Woodsia Ilvensis from Fabius, and Botrychium tenebrosum from Lysander, a new species growing in sphagnum. The writer of this paper said : ' ' We are rich in ferns. I doubt whether any county north can claim so many, while I know that many States further south can not. The main reason why we are so favored is that we have great variety of soil, high and low land, moist and dry, densely and thinly wooded, and so much limestone, which seems the favorite food of many species." Professor L. M. Underwood said: "In certain favored locations there is a marked diversity. As an instance, in one of the habitats of the rare hart's- tongue (green pond), the writer has collected twenty-three species, illustrating eleven genera within the radius of a thousand feet. Onondaga county, New York, possesses perhaps as many ferns as any county in the entire country, including forty-one species" (now forty-three). He did not allow one Botry chium in the foregoing list, and two ferns he received afterward, both dis covered here by the Rev. Dr. Beauchamp, near two opposite county lines. Apropos of ferns, John Goldie, who reported Aspidium Goldieanum, one of our finest local species, was here in 1819. His journal is in print, but his botanical notes were lost by fire. There was no Syracuse then, and he stopped two days in Salina, which he did not like, saying: "I have never been in a more disagreeable and unhealthy place than this. At this time a number of people were sick with fever and ague, a disease which is always to be found here. If it were not for the salt works I believe this never would be a village. Salt forms the only circulating medium about this part of the country. When a person brings anything to be sold, the first question is 'how much salt will he take?' " It is probable that he did some botanizing there, but there is no mention of this in his journal. No complete catalogue of Onondaga plants has yet been made, for every year sees some addition, but aside from algae, mosses, lichens and fungi, the true flora may embrace about thirteen hundred species, some of them rare. No list will be attempted here, but a summary will be given, with a few brief notes. It may be observed that while the old arrangement began with the higher forms, Britton's Flora, now largely used, more properly begins with the lower, which is the natural and scientific method. The new arrangement of scientific names perplexes many, and these will be avoided as far as pos sible. The ferns have been already mentioned, and it may suffice to say that the chain fern has its place north of the Erie canal, and all the rock ferns south of it, though the common poly pody has been found sparingly on Seneca river. The wall rue fern may be now extinct here. The Horsetail family includes five species here, and the club mosses four popularly known as ground pine and running cedar. The pine family has three species of pines, once forming great forests of immense trees. Geddes men tioned one cut down, in Camillus, which measured two hundred and thirty feet as it lay on the ground. In this family are the tamarack, black spruce hemlock, balsam fir, arbor vitae or white cedar, juniper and red cedar, making PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 39 ten local species in this family. The ground hemlock represents the yew family. The Cattail family has two species here, one in immense beds. Two species also represent the bur-reed family. The pond-weeds may have fourteen species, but a dozen more belong to the Cayuga flora, and probably to ours. The arrow-grass family may be credited with three species, and the water- plantains with five, including the common and variable Sagittaria, or arrow head. Two or three species represent the tape-grass family. The grass family has not been accurately reported, but may have not far from ninety species, more or less. The sedges may reach eighty species. The Arum family has six kinds, including Jack-in-the-pulpit, the pretty little calla, and the skunk cabbage. The first the Onondagas call the Indian cra dle. In the Duckweed family are four species. In the Pipewort family but one species has been reported. The Pickerel-weed family is represented by two species, the Rush family by about a dozen, to which others may be added. In the Bunch-flower family are three species, including two bellworts. The Lily family has ten species here, of which some repay cultivation. The Lily of the valley family has fourteen species, and includes Trilliums, which have surprising variations. Four species of Trilliums belong to the county. In the Smilax family are three species, one being the carrion flower, a good descriptive name. The Iris family has two local species, one being the common blue-eyed grass. The Cypripediums, or Moccasin flowers, include all six of the eastern United States species, mostly very handsome. The rare white variety of the stemless lady's slipper occurs at Beaver lake. The showy orchis is common and beautiful. Of the Habenarias eleven species have been reported, with two stations for Hooker's orchis. The white fringed orchis occurs at Beaver. lake, and propably in Cicero. Three Pogonias are found at Beaver lake, where the southern Listera is also found, a very rare plant so far north. The beautiful Arethusa and the swamp pink may be seen in several places. Helleborine (introduced) is one of the finds of the Botanical Club. There are four species of the ladies' tresses, and three of the rattlesnake plantains, with two species of tway blades. The coral roots are represented by three species, and the putty root, or Adam and Eve, by one. Thus the orchids of Onondaga are thirty-eight in number. In the Lizard 's-tail family is one species. The Walnut family has seven local species, and the Bayberry two. The sweet fern might be expected, but has not been reported. Our six poplars belong to the Willow family, and of the willows alone there are seventeen species. In the Birch family are eight species, including the ironwoods and alders. The Beech family includes oaks and chestnuts, ten species in all. In the Elm are found four species, one of which is the rather rare hackberry, found at Baldwinsville, and elsewhere noticed. The Mulberry family includes three species, one of which is hemp. The hop may be added. The Nettle family has six species. In the Sandalwood family is but one species. The Birthwort family has the same, being the wild ginger. The Buckwheat family includes that, the docks and smartweed, twenty-one species in all. 40 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY The Goosefoot family has nine species here, among them the glasswort, or samphire of Onondaga lake. The Amaranth family has five local species. The Pokeweed represents its own family, and ,was valued as a dye by the Indians. We have but one carpet weed. The Purslane family is represented by this, and the pretty spring beauty. The Pink family has twenty species, needless to describe, possibly there are more. The Water Lily family includes four species, mostly .porth of the canal. One Hornwort only appears. The Magnolia family and two species, the cucumber and tulip trees. Pawpaw trees were reported by Prush in 1807, near Three River point but no one else has mentioned them. In the Crowfoot family are thirty species, some rare. In the Barberry family are four species, the may apple belonging to this. But one species of the Moonseed family is found here. In the Laurel family are the spice bush and sassafras only. The Poppy family has nine local species. The Mustard family has thirty-four, and the Pitcher plant one, mostly north of the canal, where it abounds in sphagnum. In the Sundew family are two species of these curious plants. Both are found at Beaver lake. In the Orpine family are three species, perhaps more. In the Saxifrage family seven species occur. These include the mitreworts and the grass of Parnassus. The Gooseberry family has seven species here, the Witchhazel but one. The Buttonwood alone represents its family. The Rose family includes thirty-six species, some of which are berries. The Apple family has twelve species, including the thorns. The Plum family has six local species. The Senna family has but two species here, > one of them the Kentucky coffee tree. The Pea family has forty-six species, perhaps more. In the Geranium family are four species, and in the Woodsorrel two. The Flax family also has two. In the Rue family the prickly ash stands alone. The Polygala, or Milkwort family, has six species, some very pretty. The Spurge family has eight local species. In the Water Starwort family are two kinds. The False Mermaid alone represents its family. The Sumac family has five representatives, and a Holly three, perhaps more. The Staff Tree family is represented by the bittersweet and bladdernut. In the Maple family six species are reported, and the Buckeye family is represented by two. The Balsam family has two species, and the Buckthorn three. In the grape family are three species, the Virginia creeper making a fourth. The Basswood represents its family. In the Mallow family are six species or more, one being the great swamp rose mallow. The St. John's-wort family includes seven species. In the Rock Rose family are two species, and among the Violets are sixteen kinds or more. The Moosewood represents a family, but is rather rare. The Loosestrife family has two species, one of them very beautiful. The Meadow Beauty represents its family. The Evening Primrose family includes thirteen species, not all primroses. In the Water Milfoil family some species in Cayuga county may be looked for here. The Ginsengs have two representatives. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 41 The Carrot family has eighteen species, and probably more, one being troublesome. In the Dogwood family are eight species. The Wintergreen family has seven species, and the Indian-pipe family three. In the Heath family are seven species, including the azalea, swamp laurel, arbutus and true wintergreen. The Huckleberry family has eleven species, and the Primrose family eight kinds. The Olive family has five species, four being ash trees. In the Gentian family are seven kinds, including the fringed gentian and the small centaury. The Buckbean represents its family in bogs, and the Dogbane family has three species. In the Milkweed family are seven species, the handsome butterfly weed being one. The Morning Glory family has three species, and the Dodder one or more. Phloxes have but two representatives, and the Water Leaf three. The Borage family includes eighteen local species, and the Vervains two. In the Mint family are thirty-six species, and in the Potato eight species. The Figwort family includes thirty kinds, among which are wild foxgloves and painted cups, with mulleins. The Bladderworts are but three. In the Broom- rape family are also three species. The Catalpa stands by itself. The Plantain family has six species, one requiring salt. In the Madder family are eleven species, perhaps more. The Honeysuckle family includes nineteen, among which are elders and viburnums. In the Valerian family ap pears but one kind, the Teasel family has two. The Gourd family has the same. In the Bellflower family are nine species, these including four lobelias. The Chicory family has twenty-one species, perhaps^ more. The large thistle family has not far from a hundred, some of which are very handsome. This chapter may well conclude with some practical observations from Mr. Geddes 's agricultural report on Onondaga county. "From the first settlement of the county the 'oak lands,' as they- are called by the farmers, have been proverbial for their ability to produce wheat, and that belt of land, once covered with oak and hickory, is the true wheat land, while the beech and maple lands are best adapted to grazing, and the pine lands are generally well suited to both grain and grass. Dr. Em mons has analyzed the ash of many specimens of forest trees, and gives, as the results cause for the sap wood, heart wood, outside bark and inside bark, in separate columns. His investigations are interesting, but would take too much room in this place, and will be used only to show the average percentage of potash and lime that he found in the outside wood of some of the kinds of timber growing in the three divisions of the county, viz: The northern, central and southern. Potash. Lime. Northern division, represented by swamp white oak 20.49 52.26 Northern division, represented by elm 15.85 20.08 Middle division, represented by upland white oak 13.41 30.85 Middle division, represented by hickory 7.47 38.26 Southern division, represented by beech 12.13 31.56 Southern division, represented by sugar maple 8.77 49.33 Southern division, represented by basswood 10.12 41.92 42 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY "The swamp white and the elm abound in potash, while the upland white oak and hickory have much less. The beech, maple and basswood average but little more than ten per cent, of potash. The elm has only twenty per cent. of lime, while the swamp oak has over fifty-two. The low lands abound in potash and lime, but in the uplands there is much less potash." Wood ashes, once unsparingly removed, would restore potash, where now lacking. CHAPTER V. ZOOLOGY, INCLUDING MOLLUSKS, FISHES, REPTILES, QUADRUPEDS AND BIRDS. MOLLUSKS. In 1886 the Rev. W. M. Beauchamp issued a list of "Land and Fresh Water Shells of Onondaga County, ' ' which comprised one hundred and fifty-six mollusks, five of which were slugs, having a dorsal shield instead of a shell. Helicodiscus lineatus is small and depressed, and has revolving lines. Macrocy- clis eoncava has a greenish white shell, and is carnivorous. Limax agrestis, fla- vus and campestris are garden slugs. Helix alternata, perspectiva and striatella have simple lips and a wide umbilicus. Helix labyrinthica monodon, palliata, tridentata, albolabris, thyroides, Sayii, and pulchella have thickened lips when mature mostly with teeth, Cionelle subcylindrica is cylindric and shining, and often abundant on sidewalks in Syracuse. Pupa pentodon, contracta and corticaria are small and cylindric; the first two with teeth. Vertigo ovata, ventricosa, Bollesiana, Gouldie and simplex are similar, but smaller. The last has no teeth. Succinea ovalis, avara, obliqua and Totteniana are thin and almost amphibious. They are sometimes called amber shells. The following land snails have thin lips and shells. These are zonites fuliginosus, inornatus, intertextus, ligerus, nitidus, orboreus, viridulus, limatulus, minusculus, inden- tatus, multidentatus, fulvus, and some are minute. Tebennophorus Carolinen- sis is the large wood slug, and T. dorsalis is smaller. Carychium exignum is minute and thread-like. The water snails follow, those without an operculum coming first. Eleven species of the Linneas occur here, linneas stagnalis, two inches long, once abounding in Onondaga and Cross lakes. It is still found in Oneida lake. The other species are linneas columella, elodes, umbrosa, desidiosa, emerginata, catascopium, caperata, umblicato, humilis and pallida. Two genera follow which revolve in an opposite direction, and are called Bubble shells. The first comprises physa ancillaria, heterostropha, gyrina and Niagarensis. The second is Bulinus hynorum, a slender shining shell, found in wet woods. The genus Planorbis is of flat orbicular shells, comprising Planorbis campanulatus, trivolvis, lentus, bicarinatus, exacutus, dilatatus, deflectus, albus and parvus. Allied to these is Sigmentina armigera. The freshwater limpets PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 43 are Ancylus rivularis and parallelus. The remaining fresh water snails close the aperture with an operculum. Valvata tricarinata and sincera are small and depressed. Melantho decisus, integer and rufus are large, and usually green. Vivipara contectoides has recently become abundant in the canal, and is large, green and with red lines. Lioplax subcarinatus, Bythinella obtusa, Gilia altitis and somatogyrus isogonus are all small cana shells. Bythinia tentaculata, a European species found by Dr. Beauchamp at Oswego in 1879, is now abundant in the canal. The genus Amnicola has minute shells. Those here are annicola sayana, Cin- cinnatiensis, orbiculata, porata, pallida, limosa, lustrica and grana. Very handsome are the slender shells of the general Pleurocera and Goniobasis. The species are P. subulare, intensum, pallidum, G. livescens, depygis, Hal- demani, gemma and Virginica. The last is very variable. Two genera of quite small bivalves succeed. The first comprises Sphaerium simile, fabale, striatinum, occidentale, partumeium, truncatuen, teansversuen, secure, solidulum, stamineum; the second Pisidium compressum, variabile abditum, Noveboracense, Virginicum and ferrugineum.- The following are usually called clam shells. Unio has marginal and cardinal teeth. The species are unio alatus, cariosus, complanatus, gracilis, iris, ligamentinus, luteolus, Novi-Eboraci, occidens, parvus, pressus, radiatus, rectus, rosaceus, rubiginosus, siliquoideus, Tappanianus, undulatus, ventrico- sus. Margaritana has no cardinal teeth. The species are margaratina marginata, regosa, undulata, margaritifera. Anodunta has no teeth. The species are anodonta b'enedictii, decora, edentula, Ferussaciana, Footiana, fluviatilis, fra- gilis, imbecillis, lacustris, Lewisii, pavonia, Pepiniana, salmpnia, subcylindra- cea, simpsoniana, undulata and Williamsii. Some are very large and handsome. FISH AND FISHING. Prehistoric fishing in Onondaga county was largely done by spearing, though the net was employed, flat stone sinkers being common beside rivers and shallow lakes. Bone hooks were sparingly used, so that deep water fishing was rare, indeed. Even in rivers the shallow rifts were commonly sought, as favoring spearing, and at these stone fish-weirs were often constructed from shore to shore, with bays forming acute angles. The remains of many of these may yet be seen; and one, four miles west of Baldwinsville, is in perfect condition, except, for the removal of part of the wall near the northern shore, to permit the passage of boats. In the Lessee treaty of 1787-88, the second reservation made by the Indians was "one-half of the fall's, and convenient places for weirs, for the purpose of catching fish and eels from Cross lake to the Three Rivers. ' ' From there to Oneida lake they had equal rights in fishing. After the Moravians, Zeisberger and Frey, had crossed Oneida lake, August 6, 1753, they entered the river and said: "A short distance down the river we met quite a number of Onondagas fishing. They were much 44 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY pleased to have us come to them so unexpectedly. They had a fish dam there which closed the river quite. Chief Hatachsocu, to whom the fishery belongs, at once came to us and made an opening so that we could proceed. . . . We continued and came to a fishery where we met Chief Gajagaja, who told us about the war. He complained of hunger, and said he could catch nothing in his fish dam." They afterward visited the fisheries on the Seneca river, and what they saw does not support the communal theory: "It is plain to be seen that they have much order in all their affairs. For instance, each one has his own place, where he is permitted to fish, and no one is allowed to encroach upon his part. A chief is appointed to each fishing place, and he has his people, who belong to him." In 1654 Father LeMoyne said "Onondaga lake abounds with fish — with salmon, trout and other fish." In the same lake the following year, Father* Chaumonot said: "Beside the fish which are taken there at different times of . the year, the eel is so abundant there in the autumn that some take with a harpoon as many as a. thousand in a single night." Nor did the French fare badly going up the Oswego river in July, 1656. After taking twenty large salmon in the night, next day ' ' our men took, in going along, thirty-f otir other salmon by strokes of oars and swords ; there was so great a quantity of them we could strike them without trouble." What a sensation it would make now! Another note on fishing appears in the Relation of 1657. The waters did not fail, said the writer, of a fertility entirely their own. ' ' The fish which are most common here are the eel and salmon, which are fished for from the spring till the end of autumn, our savages managing so well their dykes and their weirs that they take there at the same time the eel which is going down, and the salmon which is coming up. They take the fish in another, way in the lakes, spearing it with a trident by the light of a bituminous fire which they keep on the end of their canoes." This will be mentioned again. One of the most interesting journals relating to Onondaga county in pioneer days, is that of Francis Adrian Vanderkemp, LL. D., who afterward did valuable work for the State in translating early Dutch records. He came from Holland, and in 1792 made a boat trip from Rome, New York, to Oswego and the shores of Lake Ontario, visiting the Frenchman on his island on the way. To literary acquirements he added those of a naturalist; we might say of an epicure, so toothsome were the repasts he describes. He was in search of a forest home for himself and friends, and nothing escaped his eye in woods and waters. Our tastes might differ. Thus he called a certain stream flowing into Oneida lake, "the Fresh Lobster creek, from the numbers we caught there of this delicious crustaceous fish, even superior to the sea lobster, and as exquisite a dainty as those in Guelderland and the Dutchy of Cleves — which affords there such a sumptuous and palatable dish to the modern descendant of Apicius." And yet our only use for these delicacies is as bait for black bass. Salmon, he said, were abundant. "One Oneyda Indian took with his spear forty-five salmon within an hour ; another, in the presence of Captain Simonds sixty-five during one night, and another eighty. ' ' He had little idea of modern PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 45 appetites and population, however, when he said: "Was the method of catch ing the salmon in fuyks and smoaking these introduced, as I advised several, with the offer of initiating them in this mystery. Oneyda lake with its tribu tary streams might supply an abundant provision for all the States, the West Indian market, that of South America included." The fish were good, too. "The- eel of the Oneyda lake is equal to the best of the Holland market, and far surpasses every kind which I have ever tasted here, in size, in fatness, in tenderness of the flesh." Beside, the waters swarmed with life. "Never did I see yet a country where all kind of fish was so abundant and good. It may be equalled, it cannot be excelled. I tasted within a short time of more than a dozen different species, the one contending with the other for the pre-eminence, the least of these affording a palatable food. Salmon, pike, pickerel, cat fish, if well prepared, boiled or stewed, re sembling the taste of the delicious Turbot, Otzwego Bass, an Epicurean morsel, yellow perch, sun fish, tziob (chub), three species of trout, river lobster, turtle, sword fish, and a green colored fish of an exquisite taste, white fish, etc." Tliey saw a pike (pickerel?) dead on the shore, which was three feet six inches long, and got a cat fish weighing twenty-four pounds, a delicious repast. They heard of those much larger. At Oneida lake he said: "We observed here two sorts of Trout (Forellen) both known by the name of salmon trout, although incorrectly. We could not obtain a specimen of the white species. These were the yellow and the red colored, properly named salmon trout. The first is generally of a smaller size, its color a dark brown with a yellow tinge ; the other is larger, the brown more lively, with reddish spots fringed with a color of gold, and sometimes between two and three feet long. The chub (tziob) is the usual bait, sometimes frogs. ' ' » They encamped "about ten miles from Three Rivers point, opposite to a handsome island in the Oswego river. The pickerel often weigh here thirty pounds — pike is of a similar size. We took a catfish of four span and a half, perch too, of which we obtained a few, is here in abundance." At Little Salmon creek, Oswego county, they saw a fish still found in Onondaga waters. "We speared a few of these and cut off their heads, armed with swords — of five and six inches in length — without tasting the flesh, as some of our crew pretended that it was of a poisonous nature, which I would doubt. It might be so in the sword ; it might be that this terrible weapon overawed the first examiners and roused their imagination to give birth to similar dreams. The meat certainly appears good, being solid, white and lined with a milky substance. ' ' • Fishermen are familiar with the way in which bass form and guard their nests. In the Oneida river he saw those of another fish. "I had now an oppor tunity of examining and witnessing the truth of what the Baron had told me before, of the curious manner by which the chubs (tziobs) hide their eggs. They deposit these along the rivers of Oswego and Onondaga (now Oneida) on shallow spots, and cover these afterwards with small pebbles, heaped in a conical form, somewhat below the surface of the water, while others were prominent above it." 46 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY It was not, however, the best time for angling. ' ' The lake was now covered as with a white cloak of hundred thousand millions of insects, which we call Haft in Holland, and which lay in some parts of the shore one and two inches deep. This insect appears here annually at a stated period, although some what earlier than in Holland. The eggs are hatched on the surface of the water, the winged insect flutters a short time in the air, and is burried after its short life in a watery grave, to supply the finny tribe a rich repast, from which man reaps in his turn the advantages. " It is the larva, not the egg, which reaches the surface, and this phenomenon is a striking feature of all our lakes. One farther quotation only will now be made from this charming writer. They were in their camp on the shore. ' ' We were, a little after sunset, sudden ly surprised at a number of fires in a semi-circular form on the lake. They were made by the Oneyda Indians spearing eels. They are usually two or three in a canoe, one steersman, one who spears in the bow ; the third takes care of the fires, made from dry, easily flaming wood, in a hollow piece of bark, first covered with sand." Bartram mentioned this way of fishing when at Oswego Falls in 1743, describing the spear also. "They strike them with long slender shafts eighteen or twenty feet long, pointed at the end with iron. The two splints of wood spreading each side, direct the point into the fish, which at a great depth it would otherwise be difficult to hit. I saw upon one of their canoes in the morning a large piece of bark spread across. On this lay gravel and sand, and on these coals and ashes, which I supposed had been a fire, and the gravel placed there to save the bark. And I took it to be a design of both to allure and see to strike the fish." The bone harpoons of the Onondagas usually were perforated at one end, and had barbs on one side. Earlier forms were barbed on both sides and without perforations. In a general account of Onondaga fishes some unimportant «pecies and nominal varieties may be passed over, giving brief notices of the more im portant. Many have been introduced, accidentally or intentionally, while others have vanished from our waters. Thus the salmon, once so abundant in New York, is not found here now. A few words may be added on the presence of salmon in our smaller streams. In 1874 Thurlow Weed said : " In the spring of 1810, with two other boys, I was walking of a pleasant evening in the vicinity of the Onondaga creek, a mile and a half south of the site of the present city of Syracuse, then a tangled swamp, inhabited mainly by frogs, water-snakes and owls. Upon the creek stood Wood's mill, below which for several rods were rifts. Our at tention" and surprise were excited by seeing bright lights moving, as we sup posed, along the banks of the creek. On approaching, however, we discovered Onondaga Indians with pine knot torches and clubs, killing salmon, whose fins and backs were seen as they were ascending the creek in shallow water over the rifts. The Indians good naturedly lent us clubs and gave us the benefit of their torches, until each had captured a salmon, with which we departed for our homes in jubilant spirits. Most of the inhabitants of Syracuse will find it hard to believe that salmon were ever taken south of that city. And yet such is the fact, for which my friend, Philo D. Mickles, recently deceased, would PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 47 have vouched, as he was one of my companions on that occasion." This was near Mickles' furnace, before Weed became a printer. Clark says that Bridgeport "was once a great place for taking salmon. It was not uncommon to take them from the nets weighing from twelve to twenty- five pounds. Before bridges were erected they were taken as high up as the Chittenango falls, twenty miles above the outlet." Of these fish at Manlius he said: "It was not unfrequent to run them into shoal water and dispatch them with clubs, ' ' and of this he gave several instances, with others on Skaneateles creek. The yellow perch was once fine and wonderfully abundant in Skaneateles lake, where in winter time they darkened the bottom of the shallower parts in dense shoals. The introduction of bass and pickerel has reduced them greatly. To Cazenovia lake they gave its Indian name. Early writers made several species of this. Thus DeKay said of the slender yellow perch : ' ' This species was obtained from Skaneateles lake, Onondaga county, by Cuvier. It is doubt less mixed with the true yellow perch of which I have obtained specimens from that lake." The one in question seems merely a young fish, age making a great difference in the form, and this was but four inches long. DeKay said that in 1825 perch were taken from Skaneateles to Onondaga and Otisco lakes, doing finely in the former. In the Seneca river they are small and of poor quality, being infested with parasites. The finest in size and quality are from Skaneate* les lake. The silver bass of Seneca river is fifteen inches long and four deep ,and is a handsome gamy fish. The wall-eyed pike occurs mostly in that river and Oneida lake. It does not reach the reported size of early days, but three were taken in Baldwinsville in 1869, weighing eight and one half pounds each. Rock bass also seem confined to the rivers and canals, affording good sport but no valu able results. The range of the black bass has been extended to Skaneateles lake, perhaps unwisely, but it is a fine fish there, abounding also in the rivers. The species and varieties of this family are somewhat confused, and a question might be raised on the abundance of the Oswego bass here. This is large and has an obscure longitudinal bar. De Kay made a species out of fish he had from the Onondaga outlet, which seems but nominal. He called it the obscure fresh water bass. The pretty and common sunfish occurs in all the waters including and north of the canal, and is taken in large numbers by those who are satisfied with any kind of fish. A local and introduced species occurs in Cross lake, called there the black sunfish. A much finer kind, of large size and handsome markings, is strawberry bass of Seneca river and Cross lake, and perhaps of other connecting waters. It has been accidentally introduced, and is an acquisition. One kind of stickleback was found east of Syracuse by Prof. L. M. Under wood many years since, and may have been accidental. It was a western species. A lake sheepshead was caught at Baldwinsville, June 2, 1876, which weighed twenty-one and one-half pounds, but it is not common here, preferring Lake Ontario. 48 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Among the soft-rayed fishes is the "great lake catfish sometimes still caught in Seneca river of a large size. It closely resembles the small catfish, of which some nominal species have been made. This was once everywhere abundant, and it was a pretty sight to see the parents guarding the infant broods. It is highly esteemed as a food fish, and likes muddy bottoms and plenty of grass. The chubsuckers may be passed over, as well as the horned dace, mud and common sucker. Of the latter De Kay made one local species, calling it the Oneida sucker, common in that lake. The sucker brooks were once famous resorts in the spring, when suckers ' ' ran ' ' and large numbers were taken from the old bridge in Skaneateles with flat nets. As food, however, they were not in high esteem. The large-scaled sucker is finer and of better quality, and is locally called the red fin, sometimes the mullet. A favorite sport in Baldwins ville is to drop hooks under them from the bridge, and catch them by jerking these up. They are often speared, but will take the hook. Though now abund ant they have, found their way here from waters farther south. Several small and pretty fish are usually classed as minnows, and are often used for bait. They will not be described now, but the shining dace seem to exceed their usual dimensions in Seneca river, being caught fully a foot long. Passing over some unimportant species we come to the pickerel, now wide spread here and often of large size. It has been placed in Skaneateles lake, but the only suitable ground for it there is at Glenhaven, and its introduction cannot be called a success. In Oneida, Otisco and Cross lakes it thrives, as well as in the rivers. In the spring it is found in Beaver lake, Lysander, reaching it by a long route from the Oswego river. In the summer none are found there, though the conditions are favorable. Its relative, the muscalonge, once fre quent, seems to have disappeared. Some are said to have been taken in the Erie canal near Fayetteville, February, 1890. The native brook trout,- once abundant, has now but a small range, partly from too much fishing ; quite as much from lack of proper food. Some western species have been introduced with very moderate success. All our creeks and rivers once swarmed with salmon in their season, and these often left their names behind. At Baldswinsville the Salmon Hole in the river is still well known ; a deep spring hole where the great fish used to lie. On the bank near by was a hollow log, in which a lucky fisherman would place his surplus catch, for the benefit of any one who came along. According to early writers the salmon trout, now restricted to Skaneateles lake, was found in other waters. The kind found there is not the lake trout of De Kay, but is said to be the true Namaycush or Mackinaw trout, and some taken there have weighed from six teen to twenty pounds. It is said to be now almost or quite extinct, introduced and inferior varieties taking its place. John Mellish passed over the Skaneate les bridge, November 9, 1811, and saw a boy with trout. "I inquired how long he had been catching them and he said ' about five minutes. ' Just as he spoke he pulled out a large salmon trout, and I stopped about five minutes, during which he caught three or four more. It was the finest fishing I ever saw, and the trout were beautiful." Thirty years later they were still occasionally taken from the bridge, then very long. m ¦ » lift i Ttiji i«MWff> i i' } ¦- **m mmji'tw" > .i^-^sffwwwtt;-: ' " ¦ '" ' - ^4>yrifagl>ll""*"iiJ^ ^ ^ - THE OLD TOLL GATE. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 49 Fine white fish, of excellent flavor, were formerly caught in Onondaga lake, but it is said they have left it now. They fed on a small crustacean living in the lake weeds, which have been destroyed. Of a small species, Professor T. II. Bean wrote to the Rev. W. M. Beauchamp, June 25, 1885: "Did I not write you about the white fish of Skaneateles lake? I thought I had long since done so. I described the species fully in proceedings, National Museum, 1882, pages 658-660. The species is Coregonus hoyi (gill) Jordan — the lake Mooneye or 'Cisco' of Lake Michigan. It has been found in the deep waters of Lake Michigan, Lake Ontario and neighboring lakes. It is the smallest of the white fishes, and belongs to the group with projecting lower jaws; although in some of the books you will find it incorrectly placed in another group. Seneca lake contains the species also." In summer the dead fish floating on the water attract attention, and for this reason the above extract is given. In some lakes it takes the hook. The river moon-eye, or herring, is found in Seneca river, and also the western mud-fish. This seems to have been first observed in 1880, but has rapidly increased. The curious bony pike, an antique fish, still occurs in Cross lake. This was described by Champlain in 1609. "Among the rest there is one called by the Indians of the country Chaousarou, of divers lengths. The largest, I was informed by the people, are of eight to ten feet. I saw one of five, as thick as a thigh, with a head as "big as two fists, with jaws two feet and a half long, and a double set of very sharp and dangerous teeth. The form of the body resembles that of the pike, and it is armed with scales that a thrust of a poniard can not pierce; and it is of a silver gray color. The point of the snout is like that of a hog. This fish makes war on all others in the lakes and rivers, and possesses, as those people assure me, a wonderful instinct, which is, that when it wants to catch any birds, it goes among the rushes or reeds bordering the lake in many places, keeping the beak out of the water without budging, so that when the birds perch on the beak, imagining it a limb of a tree, it is so subtle that, closing the jaws, which it keeps half open, it draws the birds under water by the feet. The Indians gave me a head of it, which they prize highly, saying when they have a headache they let blood with the teeth of this fish at the seat of the pain, which immediately goes away." As a distinction, DeKay called this the Buffalo bony pike, sometimes called the Alligator gar, and said it had been taken at Ogdensburg, three feet long. The spotted burbot, or lawyer, is found in Seneca river, and more abund antly in Oneida lake. It is very voracious, but is not a palatable food. Eels are still abundant in some places, and were taken in vast numbers in early days. The principal local fishery now is at Caughdenoy, where the weirs are a striking feature of the river scenery. The barge canal will destroy these.- Vanderkemp grew eloquent over the merits of this fish. On the other hand, Pursh, the botanist, hated it. At Oswego, in 1807, he said: "I had to wait till nearly sunset before I could get anything to eat, and then it was nothing but eel, which I never could eat." On his way to Three River 50 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY point he had another trial. "Water snakes are very plenty in this river, and lay sometimes on the logs in the water in swarms ; it is very disgusting to see them, and eat eel afterwards." Sturgeons were once plentiful in Seneca river, and occur there yet. One was taken at Jack's Reefs, June 27, 1895, which weighed sixty-seven pounds. The usual length is about four feet. These belong to fishes which have no true skeleton, but are strengthened by large plates, a feature of early fishes. The sea lamprey ascends to Cayuga lake, and probably to others. One was taken at Baldwinsville, January 25, 1887, which was sixteen inches long. The greatest length is thirty inches. This adhered to a stick, and they fasten themselves to fishes in the same way, making them their food. De Kay says: "They ascend stream and construct conical heaps of stones, among which they deposit their spawn." Carp are now taken of a large size, one of nineteen and one-half pounds having been caught at Camillus, May 30, 1907. They also thrive in Seneca river, but are not highly esteemed. Owing to changes in the water, caused by various manufacturies, to the diminution of food, and wasteful and indiscriminate fishing, the fish supply is not to be compared with that of early days. By stocking streams and by protective laws something has been done to repair the waste, but conditions are so changed that primitive abundance is now impossible. Various associa tions have done good work, and Onondaga has always been proud of Reuben Wood, whose fine portrait adorns the walls of the Historical Association. Professor Ernst Held, now over 85 years old — -young he would say — is still an enthusiastic angler, ascribing his vigor to his love of woods and waters. The Anglers Association of Onondaga offers annual prizes for fine game fish, taken on a specified day in June, and the list of prize fishes in 1907 will give an idea of what may still be had. Small-mouth Black Bass : First, sixteen and three-quarters inches long (two of these), second size, sixteen and five- eighths inches. Large-mouth Black Bass: First, seventeen and one-quarter inches; second, fourteen and three-quarters. Pike: First, twenty-three and one-eighth inches; second, twenty-one. Pickerel: First, twenty-seven inches; second, twenty-five and three-quarters. These are rather small sizes. Native Brook Trout: First, nine inches; second, seven and three-quarters. Brown trout: First, fifteen and three-quarters inches; second, fourteen and one- quarter. Lake Trout, twenty and one-quarter inches. Perch: First, eleven and fifteen-sixteenth inches; second, eleven and five-eighths inches, with a number slightly differing in length. At that time about eighty fish were offered in competition. This association now numbers 1,150 members. REPTILES. The reptiles of Onondaga will be briefly treated, and in a popular .way. The turtles appealed to the Indian as food, of which he was often in need • as rattles, to be used in his dances; and in a mythical way, because when the woman fell from heaven she was received on the back of a great turtle PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 51 and on this the world was formed. One of the three principal Iroquois clans, common to all the nations, was that of the Turtle. A soft-shelled turtle was taken in Seneca river, near Baldwinsville, in July, 1876, which weighed eight pounds, five ounces. The shell was nearly eleven inches long, while DeKay gives the length as five and three-tenths inches, so that this seems to have been unusually large. He also said that before the opening of the Erie canal it was strictly a southern species, and it certainly is rare here. He had heard of it in Cayuga lake and Lake Ontario. It makes a fine food. The snapping turtle is better known, and is found in many streams. It attains a large size, and occasionally is found at a distance from water. Its food is fishes and frogs, and sometimes even ducks. The painted or common mud turtle is still abundant in favorable situations, but the drainage of swamps and ponds has much lessened its range. It is fond of sunning itself on logs, where quite a company may often be seen. This is our most common species. The spotted turtle is smaller and less common, but has similar habits. Muhlenberg's tortoise has also been doubtfully reported here. The musk turtle is a small and inflated species, occurring in ditches near Bald winsville, and probably elsewhere. It has a strong odor, but easily escapes attention. The wood terrapin may still be found in woods, its moss-grown back suggesting a piece of coarse bark, and it might be seen, yet be unobserved. The box turtles have never bee"n reported here, though this region is within their range. Black snakes are still found. DeKay gives the length as three to seven feet. In 1876 three were killed by E. Shepard in the limestone rocks of Camil lus, which were said to be six and one-half to seven and one-half feet long. They are not poisonous. The milk snake is also a large and handsome snake, from two to five feet long, yet rarely over four feet. One seen a few days since was fully that length. Its habits are well known. The ring snake lurks under stones, rocks and decaying bark, and is rather pretty, having a white collar around the neck, and strong colors elsewhere. The grass snake is also a pretty species, of a bright green tint, and from one to two feet long. Beside other places, it frequents neglected cemeteries. The water snake has an appropriate name, and is harmless, though not pleasant to view. The striped snake has several popular names, and is common, but on the decrease. The small brown snake seems rare, but was observed at Beaver lake in 1897. The ribbon snake is also found, but is con sidered a southern species. The rattlesnake, our only local poisonous species, was formerly abundant, and a few are said to still lurk in Cicero swamp. The French missionaries gave a graphic account of these : ' ' There are encountered, in the same place, certain serpents which are not seen elsewhere, and which we call serpents with little bells (rattlesnakes), because they make a noise, when crawling similar to that of a little bell, or more like a grasshopper. At the end of their tails they bear certain round scales, joined one into the other, of such nature that in opening and contracting, they make this noise, which one can hear 52 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY for twenty paces. These little bells, or scales, cease not making a noise when one shakes them after the serpent's death, but it is not so great as that which they make when the serpent is alive. The natives of the land say that these scales are excellent against toothache, and that the flesh, which they find of as good taste as that of the eel, cures the fever ; they cut off the tail and the head, which is entirely flattened and almost square, and eat the rest. Its body is about three feet long; it is larger than a man's wrist, and marked all over the back with black and yellow spots, except on the tail, which is nearly all black. It has four teeth, two above and two below, as long as, but sharper, than our little needles. It bites like a dog, and makes its venom trickle into the bite by a little black sting, which it draws out of a purse, where this poison is contained. When any one is bitten by them he immediately swells, and if he is not promptly helped he dies in a little time after, all covered with red pustules. As soon as these serpents see a man- they hiss and beat the tail, making their little bells play, either to frighten their foe, or' to ani mate themselves to the combat, or more because God has given them this instinct in order that men may be on their guard at the approach of so dangerous an animal. I know not whether these serpents are attracted by the salt, but I know well that the place where we have erected our dwelling, sur rounded by beautiful springs of fresh water, is not infested by them, though it is on the shores of the same lake." Bullfrogs are now rather rare, and their grand accompaniment is much missed in the frog concerts of spring and summer months. The spring and marsh frogs have suffered much of late from the growth of French tastes, frogs' legs being now choice morsels. The wood frog, garden and tree toad may be found, and perhaps other species. Among lizards are the yellow- bellied, violet-colored, red-backed, red and scarlet salamanders, and the crim son-spotted Triton. The curious banded Proteus, here called dogfish, is fre quently found, either in canals or rivers, or in marshy pla.ces, and has fringed gills, red in color. It is elsewhere called the big water lizard, and may be from one to two feet long. QUADRUPEDS. It is unnecessary to mention all the smaller Onondaga quadrupeds, like bats, rats, mice and moles; some native to the soil, others introduced to our sorrow and loss. Some larger ones may be enumerated, thought mostly of the past. Domestic animals will be omitted, though of high importance. From the first there has been a strong interest here in cattle of all kinds, leading to a choice of the best, and even to their improvement. Cattle shows became a feature nearly three-quarters of a century ago, and many fine ani mals are annually exported. The black bear has left his name to Bear mountain, near Cardiff, and his teeth and bones often appear on Indian sites or in graves. Some of the PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 53 teeth were used as ornaments. The Indians sometimes had tame bears, kept in small pens and fattened, but the cubs were often sent to the eastern counties to be sold as pets. One was killed in a swamp near Memphis in December, 1907. Oneida lake was a favorite resort for this animal, fish being abundant there. Raccoons are still common, and the wolverine once lived here. The skunk is in as bad odor and as abundant as ever. The fur, also, which was once despised, is now of some value. DeKay said he had "seen some of their burrows running horizontally twelve to fifteen feet under ground, at about two feet below the surface." The fisher, or black cat, was once abundant in swamps and streams. DeKay said of this: "We are informed by a person who resided many years near Lake Oneida, where the Fisher was then common, that the name was derived from its singular fondness for the fish used to bait traps. The hunters were in the practice of soaking their fish over night, and it was frequently carried off by the fisher, whose well-known tracks were seen in the vicinity." The skin was then worth one dollar and fifty cents, and this may have been the animal mentioned in a Moravian journal at Onondaga, March 8, 1755; "David captured a Fish otter, which was very welcome, not alone for the meat, but the skin, being quite valuable, would go toward buying food, of which we have little." The sable and otter have both disappeared, but weasels and minks are yet found. When Pursh visited Ephraim Webster in 1807, he said: "I inquired about the Indian dog; but he told me that not one genuine one was to be found among those Indians any more, having degenerated by mixing with others to such a degree that hardly the traces could be seen in them." Though the white dog was burned for eighty years later, this is now the excuse for substituting something else. The sacred breed is extinct. Cicero was the haunt of wolves, though they were not confined to that town. They fed upon deer, and were fond of sheep. Being thus troublesome to farmers, Mr. J. V. H. Clark said that they resolved to have a great hunt in February, 1819, in which he joined, scour the town of Cicero, and destroy all the wolves in it. Men came from adjoining towns, forming a line nearly ten miles long, with the men a rod apart. As this would require thirty -two hundred men, the space may be increased and the line slightly shortened. At a signal the whole line moved northward toward Oneida lake, to drive the wolves upon the ice. Not one was seen all day, nor ever since. A few deer were taken. Clark credits panthers to the same town, though it belongs more to mountain regions. Old hunters say that the cry of some owls is often mis taken for this; it is the mystic nocturnal animal of Huron tradition, which "approached the lion by the tail." Wild cats have also disappeared, but foxes maintain their hold in many parts, especially the north and south county lines. They have lost nothing of their traditional cunning. Gray and black squirrels, once abundant throughout the county ,are now rather rare, and mostly in the southern part. Once the farmer found them a pest everywhere, and great squirrel hunts were quite the fashion. These 54 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY graceful animals could commonly be seen in the fall, gliding along the rail fences of the corn fields, while their bark was heard in every woodland. Red squirrels and chipmunks hold their own in country and town. From its note the former was sometimes called chick-a-ree. Most squirrels swim well. Chipmunks find old stumps and s±one walls convenient abodes. The flying squirrel likes hollow trees, and is nocturnal in its habits. While once of general distribution here, it seems to prefer the southern towns. The woodchuck is indigenous, but has thriven on civilization, liking old pastures and clover fields. In cultivated fields it has become a pest, and horses are especially afraid of its burrows. It enjoys swimming, in which it seems to have no object but pleasure. In the winter it closes its burrow and hybernates. The young vary much in markings, even in the same litter. Its senses are very acute. The beaver was once the most famous animal of New York, and has left its memorial here in the names of meadows and small lakes. It is nocturnal in its habits, making dams when in communities, but satisfied with a burrow when alone. Muskrats are still found and trapped, and were once quite an article of commerce. They burrow in banks — sometimes causing damage — or build huts in marshes. Their food is partly aquatic roots, and partly fresh water clams, the shells of which often show their holes. If the shell is thin one valve is torn off ; if thick, part is gnawed away. The porcupine was once plentiful here, and had not vanished fifty years ago. It figures in Indian legends, and its quills in Indian work, for which it is dyed. The Indians also highly esteemed its flesh. A tooth of the fossil elephant was found in a gravel bank, Lot 97, Lysan der, in September, 1878. It was six inches in height, and in good preservation. Other fossil bones have not been clearly identified, and no certain traces of the mastodon have been reported, though there is~Tittle doubt that it once fre quented our lower lands. The American deer was once abundant in some parts of the county, though the Indians kept them down near their villages. In the northern towns the pioneers found them a nuisance, from their depredations in fields of grain. The young are spotted with white, and older animals vary in color, according to the season. The young male has a single cylindric horn, but the spikes annually increase and the antlers spread. From an immense branch some Indian made a handsome and unique pipe, now belonging to the Rev. Dr. Beauchamp, of Syracuse. DeKay gives an interesting note: "Its horns are cast usually in the winter, but the period appears to depend much on the latitude, mildness or severity of the season. While growing the horns are covered with a velvet-like membrane, which peels off as soon as they have attained their growth. It has often been a matter of surprise that while so many horns are annually cast, so few are ever found. This is to be explained by the fact that as soon as shed they are eaten up by the smaller gnawing animals. I have repeatedly found them half gnawed up by the various kinds of field mice so numerous in our forests." PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 55 The elk and moose once lived here, the latter in the northern towns. In his account of Cicero, Mr. Clark said: "Two moose were killed by the In dians near the north line of the town, in the year 1789, since which the animal has not been seen in this part of the country." Rabbits are still killed in large numbers, and are sometimes destructive in their turn. In severe winters their presence may often be detected by their gnawing young trees or shrubs above the snow line, and they sometimes injure young orchards. Hares have always been much rarer. Traps and snares were used for small game by the Indians, but in spite of general abundance, they were often half famished. As they used no salt at first, meat could only be preserved by drying or smoking, and they feasted or hungered according to the day's supply. BIRDS. Much interest is now felt in the study of bird life, and there are keen observers even in the city. In 1886, Morgan K. Barnum issued a list of the birds of Onondaga, comprising two hundred and four species. Many have been added since, some of them rare. "A Revised List of the Birds of Central New York" had been published in Auburn in 1879, by Messrs. Rathbun, Fowler and Wright, containing two hundred and thirty-six species. This had forty-one kinds not in the Onondaga list, and lacked nine kinds found there. It is probable, however, that all birds found in the one list might be placed in the other. The Onondaga catalogue has twelve species in the family of thrushes, which need not be specified. The chickadee, white and red-bellied nuthatches and brown creeper follow. There are four wrens and the shore lark, the latter now breeding here. The tit-lark follows. Of the warblers we have the blue and white creeper, the blue yellow-backed, blue golden-winged, Nash ville and Cape May warblers, summer yellow-bird, black-throated blue, yellow- rumped, black and yellow, cerulean, chestnut-sided, black-poll and bay- breasted warblers, Blackburn's black-throated green, pine-creeping and red poll warblers, golden-crowned thrush, small and large-billed water thrush, Connecticut and mourning warblers, Maryland yellow- thro at, hooded, black- capped yellow and Canadian fly-catching warblers, and American redstart. The scarlet tanager often reaches us before the green has fully turned to red, and now sometimes appears in villages. Five swallows are in this list, the cedar bird and five vireos. Both the winter and summer butcher birds are found. The pine grosbeak, purple finch, red poll, American and white-winged crossbill are all frequent visitors ; aU but the finch in winter. The American goldfinch also occurs in winter, having been taken in January. The pine goldfinch, white snowbird and Lapland longspur, are all winter visitants. The Savannah sparrow, grass finch, English, white- crowned and white-throated sparrows are all well known here. The tree sparrow is a winter visitant. The chipping, field, grass, song, swamp, Lincoln 's and fox-colored sparrows are, all but one, common. The black snowbird 56 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY sometimes breeds here. The chewink is noted as common, but certainly is not widely distributed. It occurs on the Indian reservation. Cardinal gros beaks have several times appeared, and indeed have laid eggs, but may have been escaped birds. The rose-breasted grosbeak is increasing and becoming tame. Indigo birds love the berry patches still, singing in the heat of the day. In the blackbird family come the bobolink, cowbird, red-wing, oriole, meadow lark, rusty and crow blackbird. It is probable that the orchard oriole should be included. The crow and blue jay follow. The common and great- crested kingbirds, phoebe bird, wood pewee and least flycatcher are well known. The whippoorwill seems rare, but occurs in Van Buren and on the Indian reservation, probably elsewhere. Nighthawks have become frequent in Syracuse, and the chimney swallow is everywhere found. Some scarlet horse chestnuts in the city attract humming-birds in great numbers. The kingfisher and the yellow and black-billed cuckoo are frequent, and their notes well known. Of woodpeckers there are recorded the hairy, downy, yellow-bellied, crested, red-headed, golden- winged and black-backed. To these should be added the red-bellied, which occurs at Skaneateles. The owls are the long and short-eared, barred, saw-whet, little screech, great horned and snowy owls. Also the hawk owl, which has been shot twice at least in the county. The hawks are the pigeon, sparrow, fish, marsh, Coopies, sharp-shinned, hen, red-shouldered, broad-winged, rough-legged and goshawk. The bald eagle breeds here, and as many as four have been seen together. The passenger pigeon is now rare here, but once appeared in countless numbers. The mourning dove is common. Partridges are resident, but quails rare. They sometimes appear near the Seneca river, but an attempt to colo nize them on the Indian reservation failed. Of plovers three species are reported, and one turnstone in 1881. Wilson's and the northern phalarope are rare. In the snipes there are the woodcock and fourteen other kinds. The herons include the great blue, green and black- crowned herons, American and least bittern, and the great white egret. The latter was killed in Skaneateles about 1850, and one at Baldwinsville in 1896. But two of the rail family are reported in this list, bu£ others probably occur. To the common wild goose must now be added Hutchins's goose, one having been shot at Baldwinsville, September 13, 1897. It has never before been reported in the interior of the State, and is much like the other species, but half the size. Nineteen ducks at least have been found here, and three sheldrakes. Of the former some are rare. Both the common and double- crested cormorant have been shot here. Three gulls only are reported, one of which is the black tern, shot at Baldwinsville, May 22, 1878. The common winter gull is the Indians' Bird of the Clouds. It is probable that the Onon daga list may be much increased, as the other contains nine species of gulls. Two loons are reported, and three grebes, or divers. To this list should be added the white pelican, shot at Onondaga lake in the fall of 1893 ; the thick-bellied guillemot, shot at Baldwinsville, December 15, 1893, and December 19, 1896 ; and the white swan on Oneida lake 1886. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 57 CHAPTER VI. ANTIQUITIES OF ONONDAGA. There are three periods in the aboriginal life of Onondaga. The first is that distinctly prehistoric, when men came whom we can not directly connect with those whom Europeans found here. The next includes those of the Iroquois, who were here in prehistoric times, but who have left such traces as to establish a connection with the Onondagas of colonial and later days. The first are easily shown to have come from different directions, but their age. and sequence are not so clear. Some had vessels of potstone; others had none of these, or even earthenware; others again earthen vessels, but not of the Iroquois type. They also had many articles which never have been found on Iroquois sites. We have some knowledge of the direction from which many of these came; none at all of the time in which they lived. The second period has more definiteness, dealing with the prehistoric life of an historic people. In the main these early forts and villages had the same pottery, pipes and implements used by the Onondagas when first known to white men. The connection between the two periods is clear, but in the earlier the relative age requires closer study, because changes in articles used were slow, and change of location frequent. It would be rash to give definite dates to most villages here preceding European contact. In a few cases we can give probable ones, partly by dating back from historic sites, and allowing the usual time for their occupancy. Thus, four neighboring forts might have a period of fifty years, but often of much less. The length of oc cupancy may be judged from the blackness of the soil and the abundance of relics. The third period is more satisfactory, for we not only have historic ac counts of many towns, but the sites themselves show progressive contact. On the earliest may be one or two European articles, or a suggestion of a knowledge of these. The next will show more, to be increased by the next, till at last European articles may surpass the aboriginal. In this way the age of several early sites in Pompey is shown. Later removals are shown by history, and the various sites in Pompey is shown. Later removals are shown by history, and the various sites are described in Aboriginal Occupation of New York, a bulletin prepared by the Rev. W. M. Beauchamp, and published by the State Museum. Besides maps, this contains plans of earthworks and stockades. Other bulletins by the same author describe and illustrate local Indian relics, selected from a large number. The earlier relics show many articles wrought with great taste and skill. Many kinds of stone appear in the chipped articles, which are both large and small. One obsidian arrow has been found on the Seneca river, an extremely rare occurrence. Sinkers and hammer stones abound on camp sites, near lakes and rivers. Stone pestles are frequent, both fine and rude. Mortars are 58 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY very much rarer. Grooved stone axes are rare, but the chisel, or wedge form, is widely distributed and abundant. It is often of fine material, and may be handsomely polished or quite rude. The size also varies from less than two inches in length to those weighing several pounds. Much rarer are the polished stone gouges, some of which are nearly a foot long, and beautifully made. Occasionally these have a groove across the back. A short and broad form is almost flat, and seems local. The stone tubes are also well made. Some cylindric ones found at Otisco lake were of gray slate, and seem to have been nearly a foot long. They differ from others found here in being bored lengthwise almost to the end, where a small perforation is made in the center. In all other cases they are bored uniformly from end to end. They are usually cylindric, but may be angular, and the material varies from plain sandstone to the most beautiful banded slate. Occasionally an unfinished specimen is found. Excepting those which "were found at Otisco lake, and which differ from others, they are confined to the northern half of the county, and this is the case with a large part of the earlier articles. The bird and bar amulets, ranging from most of New England to Lake Michigan, are well represented here. The bar amulet is very simple. The. bar is flat on the lower side, thickened in the middle and at both ends, which are usually slightly raised. Whatever the variety, there are diagonal, holes at the bases of the ends. The bird amulets vary much, being compressed or broad and flat, the head and tail raised, and the head with or without project ing knobs on each side, suggestive of eyes or ears. They are always finely polished and beautifully wrought. Banner stones are more frequent, and are mostly symmetrical and polished, but sometimes an unfinished one is found. They may be cordate, pickaxe or butterfly shaped, or sometimes like a reel, and are always perforated in the center, which is usually thick. The nicely drilled perforation may be through the long or short axis, according to the outline of the stone. The material may be handsome or plain, and a broken one may have a secondary use. Gorgets are usually quite thin, symmetrical, flat and polished, but vary greatly in outline. There are one or more holes, perhaps to attach it to the dress. They are not rare, and are often of fine material. Stone pipes are both early and recent, and early ones sometimes occur unfinished, awaiting polishing and drilling. In design they are inferior to the Iroquois pipes of clay, excepting the bird pipes, which are of a recent date. One remarkable stone pipe from the Seneca river had a majestic human face, and inlaid eyes of hollow bone. Some very fine articles of native copper have been found in the northern towns, the Seneca and other rivers affording an early highway, as well' as excellent fishing grounds. This material came from Lake Superior, and these articles seem to have been wrought there. On the other hand, soapstone ves sels, whole or fragmentary, came from Pennsylvania, and two kinds of stone knives have a northeast origin, not improbably Eskimo. One is the arrow- shaped knife of polished slate, still used by that people ; the other is the better PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 59 known woman's knife of slate, half circular in outline, and sometimes having the back thickened. The Genesee river is the western limit of both. On camp sites of all sizes earthenware may be present or not. The Iroquois type is easily recognized, but there are fragments which seem much earlier. On all Iroquois sites it is abundant, gradually thinning out as the brass kettle took its place. It was sparingly made as late as 1700, but was probably con fined to the poorer Indians, after European trade became widely extended. Clay pipes held on longer and were often finely wrought. It was usual to have the human countenance, bird or beast on these, face the smoker, but some times several faces appear on the bowl. Later pipes may have the face turned from the smoker.- A little before 1600 the Onondagas added human faces and forms to the decorations of pottery, but brass kettles proved too strong for this advance in art, and in less than thirty years these forms had disappeared. The Mohawks and Senecas used this decoration about the same time. The early Onondagas used bone and horn articles abundantly. These were arrows, awls, fishhooks, ornaments, harpoons, and articles used in games. Shell was used moderately at first, but European trade made wampum and shell ornaments abundant, and metallic articles, glass beads and ornaments of pipestone and red slate were freely supplied. At first the favorite ornaments obtained in trade were of shell, brass or glass, but after 1700 silver took the place of brass, and was freely used for nearly two hundred years. Head-bands, wrist and arm-bands, gorgets, brooches, medals and earrings became conspic uous. They have now disappeared from use, but a few remain in public or private collections. Sometimes they are found in graves. On the Onondaga reservation the Indian bow and arrow survive, with the pestle and mortar, snow snake, burden frame, wooden spoon, cradle board, and a few other things. Some bead work is still made, as well as baskets and mats, but moccasins have disappeared, and blankets and forehead straps are but little used. Four kinds of rattles and the Indian drum still accompany some dance music, but all the wampum belts, and nearly all the wampum are no longer there. Wooden masks survive, and there are feeble reminders of early attire at some of the great feasts. Cornhusk dolls are ingenious relics of primitive conditions, and lacrosse rackets and balls are brought out for this fine game. Bone disks, peach stones and wooden bowls yet perpetuate the universal games of the American Indians, and boys may be seen throwing the javelin on any fine day. One may also find the carved wooden war club, for they are very ingenious in carving. The basket sieve and the bark tray are sometimes seen, but the blowgun is rare, and but few use the tally stick, though it has a place in ceremonies. The bark house long ago gave way to the neat cabin of squared logs, and this is being given up for pretentious framed houses. One Indian is preserving the primitive stairway from an old log cabin. It is simply a long and smooth piece of timber, with notches cut in one side. Our pioneers sometimes used the same. . While certain relics are scattered somewhat indiscriminately over the surface, there are places easily recognized as camp or village sites, from the blackness of the earth caused by frequent fires. If close to the shore of a lake 60 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY or river these may be sites of mixed age, occupied by successive camps. If in some more secluded spot the relics will probably be of one period. If the earth is very black and fireplaces are many, it may pay to dig, for ashes and cinders often form deep pits, and only where these materials are present need articles of bone be expected. Forts are rarely very near large streams, except when there is a commanding situation. Security was the first thought in selecting sites for these. It must be remembered too, that early forts were seldom long in a place. With the use of the metallic ax they remained longer. If a fort was on a ridge or hill a convenient dumping ground for rubbish was selected, and fine articles sometimes occur in this. A brief account of some sites will follow. CLAY — Burial place on lot 22; vessels of clay with the skeletons. Some lodges. Lot 16, cemetery and hamlet on bluff east of Schroeppel's bridges. Lot 23, hamlet with rude relics. Many fireplaces. Lot 74, hamlet with fine relics. Fish weirs in the rivers here and in Cicero. CICERO — Hamlets and graves on both sides of the river at Brewerton. Mixed sites, some quite early. Baldwin island yielded many fine relics. Camps on lots 8, 32, 33, 46, 69, 70. Hamlets on lots 47 and 73. DE WITT — On lot 32, East Syracuse, twenty skeletons were exhumed in June, 1878. Rude relics. ELBRIDGE — Several camps and a burial place on east side of Carpenter 's brook, Lot 35. A favorite fishing place of the Onondagas. A camp just west of the brook. Three hamlets and scattered lodges on lot 34. Three hamlets on Cross lake, lots 31, 32, 33. Camps on lots 57 and 59. On lot 83, south of Elbridge village, Clark described an unenclosed village where hundreds of grooved axes were erroneously reported to him. These are rare in New York, and the report had no foundation. Flint arrows were abund ant. He also described a circular earthwork on Caleb Brown's place, a little east of Elbridge village, enclosing an acre on lot 73. The supposed remains of a blacksmith's shop were probably traces of lodge sites, the whole group being prehistoric. Another circular fort on Mr. Brown's farm, lot 84, was forty rods south of the road and enclosed three acres. The bank was two feet high, and the outside ditch four or five feet deep. A wide gateway was on the west side and a smaller one on the northeast. A pit for corn was mistaken for a well. Pottery was abundant. On lot 81 the small fort seems to have been an irregular circle, as described by DeWitt Clinton. It is on high ground northwest of the Munro house, but is now obliterated. The bank was two feet high, and there is said to have been a gateway, twelve feet wide, on the west side. This is unlikely, as there is a PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 61 deep ravine there. Outside of the wall were lodge sites, earthenware, shells, and one large pit. Clinton's account of the fort on lot 70 is correct, while both the plan and description given to Mr. Clark were erroneous. It was somewhat elliptical, en closed three acres, and had gateways on the east and west sides. Pottery and river shells were abundant. The long axis ran north and south, and the work was on a broad elliptical hill. It could still be traced when Mr. Hunter occu pied the farm nearly seventy years ago. Colonel William Stevens described this fort in 1791 as of " an elliptical figure, the longest diameter extending north and south, containing two and three-quarter acres by estimate, with a gateway or sally port on the east line of it and another on the west side also. The hut ments on each side are plain to be seen." The Rev. Thomas Robbins visited and described it July 3, 1802. "It is situated on rising ground, which descends from it gently in every way. It is nearly four square, the corners a little rounded, facing very nearly the four cardinal points. It is a little more than twenty rods from north to south, and from east to west a little less. The mound is from two to three feet above the natural surface, and about six feet thick. The ditch is about two feet deep. On the west side are very plainly two places for gates, there being no rising at the mound or falling at the ditch. There is one similar on the east. On the west side are evident marks of violence, places in the wall being thrown down into the ditch." FABIUS — The oblong and angular fort on lot 99, Pompey, has its cemetery just over the town line on lot 10, Fabius ; and the fort on lot 98, Pompey, is also partly on lot 8, Fabius. Arrow heads are sometimes found in this town. GEDDES — There are camp sites all the way from the Onondaga outlet, on the west side of the lake, to Nine Mile creek, but none are of the historic period. Some may be termed hamlets. One burial mound was in the woods at Long Branch, and was oblong, about twelve feet long and three high, when first sketched by the writer. Bones and early relics of no great importance were taken from this. Another was circular and stood out from the bank just west of the present outlet. In this were skeletons, arrows, pipes and cetes. Kaneen- da, A. D. 1700, is the only recent site, and is near the lake and west of the out let. There is an earlier site on the east side. Another small early site is in the Third Ward, near the creek, and has rude relics. LA FAYETTE — The stockade burned at Frontenac's invasion, in 1696, was on lot 3, just in the rear of the large brick house on the east side of the reser voir. It was a triple stockade and built under English oversight according to the French. With European relics there may also be found Indian pottery and pipes. It was one of the three forts mentioned by Clinton, and is not always well described. Schoolcraft's account has no value. When Isaac Keeler first occupied the site there was an opening of about fifty acres, the fort enclosing ten, and the outline could be traced for a long time. Clark made it a long parallelogram, divided at the short axis by two rows of palisades, running east 62 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY and west and about twelve feet apart. Stumps of the cedar posts were plowed up, and inside the fort were refuse heaps and charred corn. The Onondagas came there in 1681, probably moving thence to Onondaga valley about 1720. The burial ground was west of the creek, but it is certain that a large part of the graves have never been found. The deserted town was often mentioned by early travelers, for the trail passed by it. The Indian village of Tueyahdasso, visited by Weiser in 1737, Bartram in 1743, and by the Moravians afterward, was on lot 13 in this town. It is yet known as Indian Orchard, and some wild apple trees mark the spot. Clark said that when William Haskins plowed the land in 1792, he found "almost every variety of implement used in agriculture and the common arts. The graves were arranged with great regularity, side by side, in rows of ten or fifteen rods in extent; in the vicinity were groups of graves, but not in regular order." Indian Orchard long supplied the early settlers with fruit. LYSANDER — This town had many early visitors, and the later Onondagas had fish weirs at Jack's and Bishop's Reefs, Baldwinsville and south of Three River point, as well as at Phoenix. Camps worthy of note were on lots 42, 53, 68, 70, 71, 75, 77, 79, 86, 87 and 91. There were hamlets on lots 74, 75, 76, 85, 86, 96, 99 and 100. On lot 78, a mile west of Baldwinsville, was an early stockaded town of long occupation. Broken pottery abounds there and very fine arrows are found. A bone fish-hook has also been found and ornamented awls. A circular earthwork, described by Clark, was on lot 89, about three miles southeast of Baldwinsville and on level ground. The relics were of a fine character. Clark said it had a gateway, and "a ditch about it four feet deep, and an embankment outside and inside the ditch, the outside one being a little the highest," as reported to him. Men who cleared the land and were long familiar with the fort, described it as having a broad depression on either side of a low circular bank. The part occupied was about eight hundred feet in diameter and the road passes through it. There are several Indian burial places in Baldwinsville, but mostly on the south side. MARCELLUS has no village sites, but arrow heads are frequent near the Nine Mile creek. MANLIUS also has no village sites, but arrowheads are frequent just north of Minoa, as they once were at the Deep Spring. In this town a large silver Indian medal was found, given to Caneiya, an Onondaga. ONONDAGA — A large cemetery was found in 1816 on Judge Strong's place, just north of Onondaga hill. The stockade built by Sir William Johnson in 1756, was on Webster's Mile Square and was burned in 1779, but some of the oak pickets still appeared a dozen years later. The graded way of field stone, leading from the terrace to the creek and interrupted by a ditch with sloping walls of stone, still remains. The roadway runs from the top of the bank eighty-four feet to the ditch, which is eight feet wide at the top, ex tending from this forty-eight feet to the bottomland, and terminating sixty' feet PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 63 from the creek. As the oak posts were set four feet in the ground, probably some ends remain in place. It had two blockhouses and a blacksmith shop. It was partly on the Clark farm and opposite the Kimber house. The Cannon Hole, thus called by the Indians, is near this in the creek. Whether the brass swivel lies there is a suggestive question. Two other villages, farther south, were burned in 1779. Clark mentioned a trench on the Pinckney farm, which seems natural. Several cemeteries east of the creek are of recent origin. There was an early hamlet on the Hudson farm, lot 161, but no prehistoric villages. A few early relics occur. OTISCO — Near Amber were some graves opened a score of years ago on lot 72. These held some long and curious tubes of soft green slate, nearly closed at one end, but with a small perforation there into the larger and uni form cavity. In 1887 a cache of a bushel of flint implements was plowed up near this village. Several have been found there. POMPEY — Clinton said there were eighty cemeteries in Pompey, then including most of La Fayette. Clark said, "These places of defense and burial were very numerous in the township of Pompey. There are not less than fif teen which have been pointed out to us, and which we have visited. They are scattered through several of the adjoining towns." An early Iroquois village was on a hill on lot 6, the situation being a com manding one, with pottery and fine bone articles. The fireplaces are many and deep. An early site, probably occupied by the Onondagas about 1600, is just east of the county line on the road west from Cazenovia, and facing Limestone Creek. It is locally known as the Atwell fort, just east of lot 44, on a long ridge between two deep ravines. A later measurement makes it somewhat larger than at first reported. The picket line is quite distinct at the east end, being about three hundred and thirty feet long, with a gateway ten feet wide at the northeast corner. The lines ran westerly along the edges of the ravine for about four hundred and fifty-five feet. There they are not over one hundred feet apart, and this is the average width for three hundred and thirty-five feet farther. The western line curves and is about one hundred and ten feet long. There are two small gateways there, with corn pits inside and outside the walls. The total area is about four and one-half acres. The post holes are two and one- half feet from center to center, and are not over two feet deep. A large barbed bone fish-hook was found here, and smaller ones without barbs. Also pottery with human faces and forms, like that on Mohawk and Seneca sites of the same period. One kind of clay pipe seems peculiar to this site. The "Old Indian Fort" in the southeast corner of lot 23 (not 33), is classed as recent. It affords only early relics now. It was described as having "an earthen wall running southeast and northwest, which, when first noticed by the early settlers was four or five feet high, with something of a ditch in front, from two to three feet deep. Within the enclosure may be ten or twelve acres of land. There is a burying ground within the enclosure." The line of the ditch is really northeast and southwest from one ravine to the other, and is about three hundred feet long. Lodge sites appear on both sides of it. The 64 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY large grooved stone in the ravine has been removed, and the characters XIIIII, given by Clark, fairly represent the arrangement of the grooves. They are from twelve to fourteen inches long and are of the usual width. Such stones are found elsewhere and are comparatively recent. This site may be nearly the age of the last. About a mile south is a cemetery. The plan of the stockade on Chase's farm, lot 99, and a mile south of Delphi is too large and broad in Clark's figure. The town was long and irregular and on a ridge. It lay north and south, and was about two hundred by seven hun dred and fifty feet. The remaining post-holes average about two feet from center to center. A natural trench misled early observers. The area of this recent site is about four acres. The graves were just south of the Fabius line and Clark described a burial place where alternate rows faced each other. The two grooved stones were smaller than Clark's dimensions. A circular stockade was on the south line of lot 98, Pompey, extending into lot 8, Fabius, and was about two hundred and twenty-five feet in diameter. Pottery with human faces has been found here, and some European articles. Another fort is on Lot 69, on a high and steep hill, south of the Hollow road. The abrupt bluff may be two hundred and fifty to three hundred feet high on the north side. The town occupied a plateau on the summit, four hundred and fifty feet from north to south, three hundred and fifty feet wide at the north end, two hundred and thirty at the south. It was occupied for a considerable time, and has European relics. The Indian Knolls site is on lot 68, and contains about three acres. It is about a mile south of Pompey Center and on the east bank of a branch of Lime stone creek. The long stockade, north and south, occupied two knolls, and was about three hundred feet wide at the south end, and six hundred and seventy- five feet long. In the center it was about two hundred feet wide, and the gener al form was that of an obtuse triangle. The post-holes were over a foot apart, and the end of an oak picket taken from one was nearly two feet long. From the relics it may have been occupied about 1640. East of this and on the road is Indian Spring, and a hundred feet north of the spring were two grooved boulders, now removed. A burial place lies farther east. Indian Hill, Lot 9 and two miles south of Manlius village, is the site of the Onondaga of 1654. The outline was elliptical, about one thousand six hundred and fifty by four hundred and fifty feet, on a broad plateau between two streams. On a lower plateau to the north was the principal burial place. The town had palisades in 1654, but lay open in 1677. Clark said that early settlers remembered an earthwork there, whose ' ' walls were then some four or five feet high. It was circular and from three hundred to three hundred and fifty feet in diameter. There was but one gateway and that quite narrow." Unless this served as a citadel this may be an error. European relics were abundant here, but earthen ware had not disappeared and a great boulder long showed where the Indians sharpened their tools. Indian Castle, lot 19, was occupied at the same time with this, and seems the small village mentioned by Greenhalgh in 1677, and had also a cemetery. On lot 6 were European articles, and on the Hinsdale farm were circles of stone "AUNT DINAH" AT THE AGE OF 106 YEARS. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 65 about fourteen feet in diameter, suggesting the circular lodge or tepee. On this lot were reported two small fortifications, which may be doubtful. Burial places and hamlets were also found on lots 5, 11, 18, 27, 28, 29 and 97. SALINA — In this town, between Liverpool and Syracuse, were the French forts of 1656 and 1696, both probably on lot 106. Clark mentions a burial place at Green Point, but with no particulars. Dr. W. G. Hinsdale says it was at the base of the bluff, near a camp site. A small site has been reported half a mile east of Onondaga lake and north of the marsh. Relics occur all along the east shore of the lake, mostly prehistoric. SKANEATELES — There were no villages in this town, but early relics have been found at Skaneateles and Mandana, and on lots 20, 22 and 24. At the first settlement five fishing huts appeared on the west shore by a brook, within the present village limits. The trail from Cayuga to Onondaga ran along the beach. SPAFFORD — There was a hamlet on the Mason farm, lot 68, about a mile east of Five Mile point on Skaneateles lake. Early relics have been found there and near by. Many fine relics have come from the Purchase farm, lot 12, south of Borodino, among others a very long gouge and fine grooved ax. SYRACUSE — There were Indian cabins on the west bank of Onondaga creek in Syracuse in 1793. Over a hundred skeletons were exhumed when the west locks were made, and some wer,e found in digging a canal on the east side for the red mill. Occasionally a modern grave is found near the creek yet. Newkirk 's grave was near the Syracuse pump house, and Mr. Cheney said that, a little east of this, he ' ' and other boys used to dig up the remains of Indians, for the purpose of getting possession of the beads, kettles, knives and other implements of warfare, or an ornamental dress that had been buried with them." TULLY — Only a few scattered relics are found in this town. VAN BUREN— Camp sites occur on Lots 1, 2, 3, 7, 14, 16 and 17, hamlets on lots 4, 5, 7, 41, with some in Baldwinsville, where there are also burial places, twenty skeletons being exhumed there at one time. On Mrs. Crego's farm Lot 6 was an irregular stockade. A barbed bone fishhook and shell beads were found there. The site is about one hundred and fifty by five hundred feet. A circular prehistoric stockade was by a brook on Lot 13, west of the road, having a gateway on the north. The diameter was three hundred feet, the relics much as usual, and postholes distinct. At lot 2 was a stone weir in the river, with two of the three bays remaining. The first wall begins on the south shore, running down two hundred and ten feet and returning three hundred and forty ; the next runs down one hundred and forty five feet from the angle, and returns one hundred and sixty, while the third bay has been removed for the passage of boats. Two circular earthworks were north of the county line in Granby, origi nally in Lysander. Two-thirds of the one on Lot 24 remain. It measures two 66 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY hundred and forty feet across, and has east and west gates. The one on Lot 32 was of the same size, but has been obliterated. Another small work was on the east side of the river at Oswego Falls. There is still another class of articles found on recent Indian sites, both useful and ornamental. The iron trade axes have been abundant, and were introduced by the Dutch. They vary much in form and size, and quite com monly, but not invariably, have a trade mark, three circles enclosing each a cross. The same form is still used in Europe. Brass kettles have been fre quent, and triangular arrows, cut out of sheet copper or brass, occur often. Knives are found, of course, and other useful articles. The Jesuit rings, crosses and medals are not found on sites earlier than 1654, but are plen tiful from that time onward. Glass beads of all sizes and forms occur before that date, the trade at that time being mostly with the Dutch. Some glass beads are very large and handsome, but the smaller globular blue and red beads are most abundant. Very long tubular ones, usually red, were used by the Jesuits, with the rings, as rewards for learning lessons well. Coins were often perforated for suspension, and in later days the Onondagas learned to make silver brooches and other ornaments. They were often very handsome, but have passed away. Two Onondaga Indian medals are figured in the Metallic Ornaments of New York Indians, on which there is a question of date. Mr. R. W. McLach- lan, of Montreal, thinks these and similar' ones were given to the Indians in 1761, by Sir William Johnson, in commemoration of the taking of Montreal by Amherst. The writer is as strongly of the opinion that another well-known medal is referred to, and perhaps the one which bears Amherst's name on one side, and the legend: "Montreal taken MDCCLX." Besides which, the Indian names on these disputed medals were those of the Revolution and resultant treaties, and not those of the French war. In Clark's Onondaga, one of these medals, found near Eagle village, is described, with a slight error in the name. It has long belonged to the Led- yard family, in Cazenovia, and the writer has often handled it. It is about the size of a silver dollar, and is of silver. There is a loop for suspension, and the obverse has a fortified town by a river, with the word MONTREAL above this. A small cartouch below encloses the initials of the maker, D. C. F. The reverse of all is plain, for engraving. This has ONONDAGAS in a straight line across the center, and the name Caneiya in script follows the upper curve of the rim. Out of hundreds of Onondaga names in the writer's hands, the only one resembling this is that of Kaneyaagh, who signed the Onondaga treaty of 1788. Mr. McLachlan kindly furnished the writer with a figure and description of another Onondaga silver medal of the same kind. This is his description : "Obverse, Montreal; in the expergue, D. C. F. stamped in a small oval. A view of a walled town, with a body of water in the foreground, into which a small stream flows. There are five church spires ranged along the middle of the town, and a flag displaying St. George's cross, to the right. Reverse, plain ; Onondagas is engraved in capitals across the field, and the name Teka- PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 67 honwaghse in script at the top. Some one has, at a later time, scratched across the lower part with a sharp pointed instrument, in three lines : Taken from an Indian Chief in the AMERICAN WAR, 1761." There was no war in that year, but there was in 1781, and the English termed it the American War, so that this inscription may have a defective figure. Tagonaghquase was appointed chief Onondaga warrior in 1770, and Takanaghkwaghsen signed the treaty of 1788 as an Onondaga chief. Other wise the name does not appear. The Mohawk medal, given to Aruntes suggests the Mohawn warrior Ohrante, who was with Brant in London in 1776. Otherwise he has no place in history. This medal was bought in London in extra fine condition, and the warrior probably disposed of it at once. There are other reasons for assigning these medals to the Revolution. Mr. George Slocum found a fine bronze medal between the Onondaga fort of 1756 and the reservation. The obverse has a fine bust of the Duke of Cum berland, and the legend following the edge, WILL : DUKE : CUMB : BRITISH : HERO. A scroll follows the rim below the bust, reading BORN 15 APR. 1721. Reverse, and next the rim, REBELION JUSTLY REWARDED ; and under a group, in two straight lines, is' AT CARLILE ANNO 1745. A bare-headed officer leads forth two prisoners on the left. One of them is a Scotchman, with a rope around his neck ; the mounted duke points with his sword to the right, as though ordering them to execution. Mr. Clark described a very fine and curious German medal, as well as some from the French. The crosses and crucifixes include many odd forms, but, in later days, many of the silver crosses were mere ornaments. They were often made of large size. The Jesuit rings were both rude and fine, mostly of a cheap bronze, but sometimes of gold. Their presence or absence often aids in determining the age of a grave or site. Many collections of local relics have been made, and some retained. Among the latter that of A. H. Waterbury has many fine articles, especially in bone, while his stone plummets are unequaled here. Otis M. Bigelow, of the Baldwinsville State Bank, has a collection of remarkable interest, containing both fine and unique articles. It is rich in those of native copper, and its best examples may be seen in the bank. Dr. W. A. Hinsdale, of Syracuse, has been an intelligent worker, but has placed his collections in the State Museum. Those of Rev. Dr. Beauchamp are the results of field work, and include many rude or imperfect articles, useful only for comparative study, yet there are some unique articles. They include a fine lot of wampum and silver brooches, with other things illustrating recent life. Some articles owned by the Onondaga Historical Association have considerable interest. Everything of value for 68 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY general purposes has found a place among Dr. Beauchamp 's fourteen thousand drawings of Indian relics, three-fourths of which are Onondaga specimens. All collectors have generously placed their finds at his disposal for drawing, de scription and record. CHAPTER VII. THE ONONDAGAS TO THE COMING OF THE FRENCH COLONY. While there is an indefinite history of man in Onondaga known only by camp sites and relics, the settled occupation commenced with that of the Iro quois, apparently considerable within five hundred years. In Onondaga county a century at least might be taken from this. The Iroquois came into New York by three or four different routes. The Senecas and Cayugas may have crossed the Niagara in their eastward course, while the Eries followed the south shore of Lake Erie, possibly preceded by the Andastes, or Susquehannas, who settled along that river. The others passed along the north shore of Lake Ontario, settling in three groups. The predecessors of the Onondagas occupied Jeffer son county, where they had many strongholds. Those of the Oneidas were near Ogdensburg, on both sides of the St. Lawrence, with a later occupation a little farther south. The Mohawks were still at Montreal and Quebec in 1535. A few years later they left those places, but did not reach the Mohawk valley before 1570; probably a little later. Between that date and 1600 the league of the Five Nations was certainly formed. The historic reason for the removal of the Mohawks was the treachery of the Algonquins, soon followed by the Huron war, which was raging when the colonization of Canada began. Between the Senecas and Hurons lay the kindred neutral nation, making a peaceful zone. Yet the Senecas saw fit to withdraw all their outlying towns, placing all east of the Genesee after this war began. The Onondagas had already some towns in this county, but with drew the others from near the St. Lawrence for greater security. The Oneidas had begun a southern movement, and found a refuge among the hills. The Mohawks seem to have wandered awhile before occupying their later territory, for it is difficult to place their first village there as early as 1570. Ten years later seems much better. According to general tradition, these several divisions of one family were often mutually hostile, and this their defensive works show. Hiawatha's mis sion was to reconcile them, and on a lasting basis to produce "the great peace." In due time he succeeded, after many vain efforts. Indeed, it is probable that during those efforts all observed a truce. Afterward mythic features were connected with his name and work, and the wise Onondaga chief seemed something more than man. It may be observed that some writers do not follow this evident mode of occupation of most of New York by the Iroquois, choosing instead the principal history of David Cusick, in which Hiawatha does not appear. Ac- PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 69 cording to him, Tarenyawagon first led the people eastward from Oswego Falls to the sea. Six families returned, five settling successively as Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas. The sixth reached the Mississippi, when part turned, eastward, becoming the Tuscaroras in North Carolina. In these divisions dialects began to form. The very recent Iroquois occupation of the St. Lawrence, however, is mentioned by all early writers. In M. Ponchot's Memoirs of the French War he said that Sandy creek, in Jefferson county, N. Y., "in Indian Etcataragenre, ' is remarkable in this, that at the head of the south branch, called Tecanonouaronesi, is the place where the traditions of the Iroquois fix the spot where they issued from the ground, or rather, according to their ideas, where they were born." The Onondaga tradition also was that they came from the St. Lawrence, gaining the name of Onondagas when they settled on the hills. They also say that the Bear and Wolf tribes originated near Oswego Falls ; the Beaver and Snipe on Lake Ontario ; and the Deer and Hawk on the Onondaga hills. Both Clark and Schoolcraft mention a story that the Oneidas originated with some Onon dagas who settled at the mouth of Oneida creek, removing thence to the vicinity of Munnsville, and thence to Oneida Castle. They were, however, closely allied to the Mohawks, and the three places mentioned were not occu pied till long after the league was formed. ¦As a people the Onondagas had their present name at an early day, mean ing a place on a great hill, to which was commonly added the word ronon, or people. There was a name of greater dignity, always used in councils, and sometimes borne as a title by the head chief. This is Seuh-no-keh-te, Bearing the Names. Each of the other nations had also a council name. Three clans, or tribes, were common to all the nations, the Turtle, Wolf and Bear, and the Mohawks and Oneidas had only these, but the Onondagas added five more. Their full list is now the Turtle, or Ho-te-neah-te ; Wolf, or Ho-te-kwa-ho ; Bear, or Ho-te-ska-wak ; Beaver, or Ho-te-hu-ne-wha-keh-ha-no, People of the Creek; Snipe, or Ho-te-ne-see-yuh, People of the Sand; Eel, or Ho-te-teu-ha-kah, People of the Rushes; Deer, or Da-hah-de-ge-nine, People of Hooffs; and Hawk, or Ho-te-swe-gi-yu, People of Boards, in allusion to the large pieces of wood in hawks' or eagles' nests. No one marries in his own clan, and children are of the clan and nation of the mother. Formerly, when traveling, they applied for hospitality to those of their own totem, conspicuous ly displayed on the house. Not long since there was clan burial. Out of the fifty original chiefs the Onondagas had fourteen, but this gave them no advantage in the grand council, for in this each nation had but one vote. Being always on the spot, however, the Onondagas were often given power to act for the rest. The first of their chiefs was Tah-too-ta-hoo, En tangled, the determined opponent of Hiawatha for a time. Then came Ho-ne- sa-ha, perhaps the Best Soil Uppermost ; Te-hat-kah-tous, Looking all over ; 0- ya-ta-je-wak, Bitter in the Throat ; Ah-we-ke-yat, End of the water ; Te-hah-yut- kwa-ye, Red on the Wing; Ho-no-we-eh-to, He has Disappeared; Ga-wen-ne- sen-ton, Her Voice Scattered; Ha-he-ho, Spilling now and then; Ho-neo-nea-ne, 70 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Something was made for him, or laid down before him; Sha-de-gwa-se, He is bruised ; Sah-ko-ke-he, He may see them ; Hoo-sah-ha-hon, Wearing a Weapon in his Belt ; Skah-nah-wah-ti, Over the Water. In the great condoling songs the names of the fifty chiefs are sung in Mohawk in this manner: " Jatakweniyosaon, Thatotarho! Jatthontenyonk ! Etho ronara rasehsen: Jatakweniyosaon, Enneserarenh ! Jatthontenyonk!" Which is : " Thou who wert ruler, Tah-too-ta-ho ! Continue to listen ! These were the cousins: Thou who wert ruler, Ho-ne-sa-ha, continue to listen!" Other particulars may be added. Hiawatha utterly failed in several attempts to gain his end with the Onondagas, for Tah-too-ta-ho opposed him at every turn. The peacemaker went to the Mohawks and was well received. He became one of their chiefs, and his name is still second on their roll. De-kan-a-wi-dah went with him to the Oneidas, who took time to consider, but approved of the plan. The Cayugas were gained, and then the Onondagas by making their chief head of all, and giving them the great council fire. Last of all the Senecas acceeded, and the first great council was held on the east bank of Onondaga lake, traditionally north of Liverpool. Each chief present had a successor who took his name, and thus has it been preserved to the present time. This is the story divested of mythic features. The league was at first merely for the preservation of peace by a yearly council for the settlement of difficulties, but it gradually became a closer union for offence and defence, eventually developing the greatest Indian power east of the Mississippi. Originally weak but now united and armed with guns, favored by a strong position between the French and English, all nations be came tributary to the Iroquois, and from the bark houses of Onondaga went forth the decrees which all must heed. Though for a time it was thought that Champlain attacked an Onondaga fort in 1615, it seems evident now that it was an Oneida town. He passed through the northeast angle of the county on his way. In 1634-35 both the Dutch and French mentioned the Onondagas by name, the former meeting some at Oneida and elsewhere. This meeting is described in another place. What visits may have soon followed we cannot say, for traders seldom recorded their doings, though of adventurous spirit, and more than one may have pene trated the wilds of Onondaga earlier than we are aware. We can only say that no records exist. In the Huron war, in the Relation of 1636, a young Seneca chief appears, who had married among the Onondagas that he might continue in the field, each nation making war or peace for itself. He was taken prisoner and fearfully tortured after being sumptuously entertained. In the list of Indian nations in the Relation of 1640 the Onontachronon appears again. In 1646 Father Jogues met some Onondagas in the Mohawk country, to whom he gave a message, but he never visited their towns. Then, in 1647, we have the tale of a Huron woman who escaped from the Mohawks, having been already a prisoner at Onondaga. Some Onondagas recognized her and persuaded her to go with them to that town. Being alarmed at what she saw and heard at Oneida, she escaped again PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 71 and shrewdly took the way to Onondaga. There for ten days she hid "herself in the thickest woods, as of the cedar and fir forests. ' ' She was without fire and nearly naked. At night she gleaned the cornfields in the snow, and at last reached Canada. The Relation of 1648 gives a fair idea of the location of the Iroquois towns, placing the Onondagas ten or twelve leagues from the Cayugas, and seven or eight from the Oneidas. In that year, too, the Hurons had made a good be ginning of a peace with the Onondagas, their greatest foes, and hoped to make peace with all but the Mohawks and Senecas. This independent action was always a striking feature of the confederacy. The opening of negotiations with ' ' the Onnontaeronnons, the most warlike of the five nations, enemies of our Hurons," has several curious incidents. Early in 1647 a band of Onondagas was defeated in the Huron country, and all the captives were burned except Annenraes, a noted chief afterward killed by the Eries. The Huron chiefs helped him escape that he might do them good service at Onondaga. On the south shore of Lake Ontario he found three hundred Onondagas building canoes, that they might go and avenge his death. Of the Cayugas and Senecas eight hundred would join the party. All turned back and sent a peace embassy to the Hurons. They sent ambassadors in turn, with gifts. ' ' Our Hurons use for these presents peltries, precious in the hostile country; the Onnontaeronnons use collars of porcelain," commonly called wampum belts. In twenty days they were at Onondaga, attending feasts and councils for a month longer. A second Onondaga embassy returned with them, their leader being Scandawati, a chief sixty years old. They were thirty days on the way, and brought back fifteen prisoners and seven belts of three or four thousand beads each: There were still one hundred Huron prisoners there but the Onon dagas seemed to think peace certain. The Hurons sent another embassy of six men in January, 1648, two of the three Onondagas remaining as hostages. Some Mohawks captured this party, killing all but the Onondaga, and two ambassadors who made their way to that town. The two hostages were men of high honor ; Scandawati disappeared and at first they thought he had escaped. Afterward he was found dead by his own act, on a bed of fir branches he had prepared. His comrade was sent for and said he had expected this, being mortified at the act of the Mohawks and Senecas. He added: "Although they are your enemies, they are our allies, and they ought to have shown us this respect, that having come here on an embassy, they should defer any evil attack till after our return, when our lives would be in safety." . Scandawati 's companion was equally but more reasonably high minded. While hunting with the Hurons one day, all were taken by the Senecas, who recognized him and made him join their band. A Huron woman fell to him in dividing the captives and he was permitted to go back to the Hurons with her. He told the Senecas "that they might kill him if they liked, but that he could not make up his mind to follow them, that he would be ashamed to reappear in his own country ; the affairs which had brought him to the Hurons for peace. 72 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY not permitting that he should do anything else than to die with them sooner than to appear to have acted as an enemy." Yet men like these were called savages. The powerful Onondagas had a prominent part in the Huron overthrow in A 1649, books belonging to the martyred missionaries being afterward found in their town. While negotiations were going on the Huron chief, Charles Ondaaiondiont, went to the Andastes with "the voice of their dying fatherland. He came from the Country of Souls, where war and the terrors of the enemy had laid waste everything, where the fields were covered only with blood, where the cabins were filled only with corpses, and that there did not remain to them selves any life except what was needed to come to tell their friends, that they might have pity on a land that was drawing to its end. ' ' Why the Onondaga negotiations failed we know not, but fail they did and the end came swiftly on. One Huron town after another fell before the fierce onslaughts, and thousands who escaped the knife perished in the woods. The fate of the Tionontaties or Petun nation was as- pathetic and sudden. The Neutral nation was even more terribly wiped out, and then came the swift downfall of the proud Erie towns. The Iroquois lost men, but filled their towns with captives whom they soon made Iroquois. In 1665 a Huron chief said that not one-third of the Iroquois warriors were native born. Some captives were always slaves, but many were thoroughly naturalized. The Iroquois character survived to the end. In this conquest of the Hurons the Onondagas had but one great loss. After the defeat of the former, part fled to an island where they built a fort and were soon besieged by the Iroquois. Under pretense of a capitulation thirty chiefs came into the Huron fort, where they were siezed and killed. Most of these were Onondagas, and the surviving Hurons feared they would avenge this perfidy for many a long year, and apparently they did. But for the French the Hurons would have been extinct long ago. They cared for this luckless and conquered people, and thus only they survived. There came from this down fall a remarkable result. The Huron tongue was a dialect of the Iroquois and many Hurons were captives or adopted in every Iroquois village. Among the Senecas one village was distinctly Huron. The captive Huron converts quite generally adhered to their faith, and had much to say in praise of the French, especially the missionaries, and in this way created a desire to know more of them. The more politic, too, saw there would be an advantage in making the French and Dutch competitors in trade. The French had needlessly interfered with the Iroquois in Champlain 's time, but after that kept clear of hostilities for awhile. This could not con tinue while they favored the Algonquins and Hurons. Father Jogues was taken with a party of the former ; Father Poncet at a later day, both by the Mohawks. In 1655 we learn that a young Frenchman, Charles Garmant, had been for several years among the Oneidas, apparently as a prisoner, for it was necessary to make a large present for him. He may have visited , Onondaga. Another figure passes across the stage at Onondaga, though not resident there. The Mohawks had captured and adopted Peter Esprit Radisson in 1651, calling PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 73 him Orinha, and the next spring he accompanied a small war party on an expe dition to the northwest. On the seventh day they arrived at Nojottga or Oneida, where a young man joined them. Then they went to Nontageya or Onondaga, where they stayed four days, being feasted nine or ten times a day. Farther west the Indians wondered much at seeing a Frenchman in an Iroquois war party. He came back successful, making his escape later and going to France. He returned in time to go to the fort on Onondaga lake in 1657, and share in the flight. We will meet him later. Next came a direct meeting between the French and the Onondagas, when the former were in great straits. "The fear of the Iroquois was everywhere when at Montreal, June 26, 1653, there appeared sixty of them, of those who are called by the Hurons, Onontaerons, asking at a distance a safe conduct for some among them, calling out that they were sent on the part of all their nation to know if the French had a heart disposed for peace." They had a glad reply, and were so well received at Montreal that the Oneidas also wished to be in the treaty. At this time the Mohawks had a war party in Canada, and a curious scene followed, resulting in a visit of both Mohawks and Onondagas to Quebec, the former at once inviting the French to place a colony in their country. The Onondagas came again the same year with more definite plans, and the joy of the French was great because they were asked to "make a residence in the midst of the hostile country, on the great lake of the Iroquois, near the Onnon- taeronnous." These had chosen a place for the house, describing it as the best in the land. Soon after both the Mohawks and Onondagas planned to bring the Hurons from Quebec to strengthen their respective nations, and their conflicting in terests increased their mutual jealousy. The Hurons did not wish to go, and were afraid to refuse. Their evasive course caused future trouble. While the Onondagas were at Montreal, in May, 1654, a young French surgeon was carried off by the Oneidas. He was sent for at once and immedi ately returned, Sagochiendagehte (Garakontie) remaining as hostage till he came. Twenty belts were presented, four from different nations, and three treating of missionaries. The Mohawks did not like all this, as it was not according to etiquette and touched both their pride and interests. Several times had they proposed a French colony, and now the Onondaga offer was preferred. Before this all the Iroquois went through their country for Euro pean goods, and now another market would be opened. They were the eastern door of the Long House, through which all messages passed. The Hotinnou- chiendi, or finished cabin, had no door at Onondaga. If the French entered through the chimney there they might fall into the fire. Presents and promises pacified them. July 2, 1654, Father Simon Le Moyne left Quebec to go to Onondaga. He was joined by a young Frenchman at Montreal, leaving there July 17. His journal is simple in its style, but has a graphic relation of his voyage up the St. Lawrence well worth reading. July 29-30 they were stopped by a storm "at the entrance of a great lake named Ontario. We call it the lake of the Iroquois 74 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY because they have their villages on the south side." The French had called it at an earlier day Lake St. Louis. August 1 they came to an Onondaga fishing village at the mouth of Salmon river, occupied by Huron and Petun captives. There Le Moyne confessed an old friend of the latter nation. After a thirty miles tramp through the forest next day they camped in the woods, reaching Oneida river at noon August 3d, and resting in a fishing village south of the river. There he baptized "little skeletons, who waited perhaps, only this drop of the precious blood of Jesus Christ." The next day he baptized another. In a village, two miles thence, he was feasted by a young chief because Le Moyne bore the name of his father, Ondessonk. Other dying children were baptized there. At noon of August 4th dinner waited for them on the road, prepared by Garakontie's nephew, and they camped again for the night, probably near the site of Collamer. Ten miles more the following morning brought them near the Onondaga, then on Indian hill. "In the road there are nothing but comers and goers, who come to give me good-day. One treats me as brother; another as uncle; another as cousin; never had I relations so numerous." Half a mile from the town "I began a harangue, which gained me much credit. I named all the captains, the families, and the principal persons, in a drawling voice, in the tone of a captain. I told them that Peace marched with me ; that I drove away war into the distant nations, and that joy accompanied me. Two captains made me their harangues at my entry, but with a joy and cheerfulness which I never had seen among savages." He talked with the principal men that night by two presents, to which they replied with two others even richer. "The 6th, they called me to divers places, to give my medicine to weakly and hectic little ones. I baptized some. I con fessed some of our old Huron Christians, and found that God is everywhere. ' ' That night Garakontie encouraged him. Four nations desired peace, and doubtless the Mohawks would agree. On the 7th Therese, a Huron captive, was confessed by him at her field cabin, where she desired him to baptize a Neutral captive who lived with her. He asked why she had not done this herself, but she thought this allowable only in danger of death. He baptized her by her foster-mother's name, adding, "this was the first baptism of adults at Onon- tague, for which we are indebted to the piety of a Huron. ' ' "The 8th I baptized three little moribunds. I give and receive consolation, seeing myself in the midst of a church of Christians all formed. Some to confess, others to tell me all their miseries, and all together the good fortune that remains theirs, that their faith is not made captive in their captivity. ' ' He learned much of their misfortunes. About noon on the 9th the death whoop was heard, and news came that three of their hunters had been killed by the Eries. War would certainly follow. Next day Le Moyne opened the Grand Council "by a public prayer, which I made on my knees, and in a loud voice, all in the Huron tongue. I addressed myself -to the Great Master of heaven and earth, to inspire us with that which should be for His glory and for our good ; I cursed all the demons of hell, who are spirits of division, and I prayed the tutelary angels of all the PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 75 country to speak to the heart of those who heard me, when my word should strike their ear. I greatly astonished them, when they heard that I named them all by nations, by tribes, by families, and each person in particular who was of much note, and all this by favor of my manuscript, which was to them a thing as wonderful as new. ' ' He spoke to them by nineteen words or presents. Onontio (Governor of Canada) spoke by him, and four presents were to aid the four nations in the Erie war. The nineteenth present consoled them ' ' for the death of their great captain, Annencraos, a short time since prisoner with the nation of the Cat." He was two hours making this speech ' ' in the tone of a captain, promenading after their custom, like an actor on a stage." An Oneida chief was much im pressed by this mingling of themes and said: "Thy voice, Onontio, is wonder ful, to produce at the same time in my heart two totally contrary effects. Thou animatest me to war and softenest my heart by thoughts of peace." The Onondagas summed up all in a final speech : They would recognize the true God, plant a tree of peace at Onondaga, give the French a place in their country, fight the Eries and maintain peace with the French. The Erie war originated thus: They had sent thirty ambassadors to the Senecas to confirm a peace, but a Seneca was killed by an Erie warrior. The enraged Senecas put all but five of the amhassadors to death. These escaped and war followed. Two Onondaga hunters were taken by the Eries, but one got away. The other was Annencraos, a leading chief, and through him the Erie chiefs hoped matters might be arranged. He was given to the sister of a dead ambassador and handsomely clothed and feasted. She proved obdurate and demanded his death, even if war followed. "He cried out before dying that they were going to burn all people in him, and that they would cruelly avenge his death. This was true, for the news of it was no sooner brought to Onontague than twelve hundred very determined men started to take satis faction for this affront." The Eries were destroyed, but the woman main tained her rights. Le Moyne had asked the Onondagas to be instructed in the faith. They replied that the French must come and open a house of instruction for them, "Have for us the care of fathers, and we'll have for you the submission of children." Huron influence had brought these results. On the night of August 11 he saw a fire which destroyed twenty Onon daga cabins, just after great rejoicings at the peace made. Next morning he baptized a dying girl and consoled many of the Hurons. He secured also some treasures. "I recovered from the hand of one of these barbarians the New Testament of the deceased Father Jean de Brebeuf, whom they cruelly put to death five years ago ; and another little booklet of devotion, which was used by the late Father Charles Gamier, whom they also killed four years ago. ... I shall make more account of these two little booklets all my life, their cherished relics, than if I had found some mine of gold or silver. ' ' August 14 the young chief, who was to lead the Iroquois against the Eries, strongly urged him to baptize him, pleading the danger of delay. This he did early the next morning, and this first Onondaga convert was known 76 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY as Jean Baptiste Ochionagueras. "Meantime they seek me everywhere to make my feast of adieu, all the principal men and women being invited into our cabin in my name, according to the custom of the country, to do honor to; my departure." Half a league away were gathered the old men and members of the council to say good-by and wish for his return. They were many miles from Onondaga lake, but reached it next day and camped there that night. This is the account : ' ' The 16th we arrive at the entrance of a small lake in a great basin, half dried; we taste the water of a spring, which they dare not drink, saying that there is a demon within which renders it fetid ; having tasted it, I found that it was a fountain of salt water; and, in fact, we made salt from it as natural as that from the sea, of which we carried a sample to Quebec." At that time the Indians of Canada and New York used no salt at all. This is the earliest mention of these salt springs, a reference to them elsewhere having been dated ten years too soon. Apparently they did some fishing there, continuing their journey next day. ' ' The 17th we enter into their river, and at a quarter of a league we meet on the left that of the Sonnontouan (Seneca), which: increases this ; it leads, they say, to Onioen (Cayuga), and to Sonnontouan in two nights' lodg ings. At three leagues of a fine road from there we leave the river of Oneiout (Oneida), which appears very deep. Finally, a good league lower down, we meet a rapid (Three River rift, at Phoenix), which gives the name to a village of fishermen. I found there some of our Christians, and Huron Christian women whom I had not yet seen. I confessed them with much satisfaction on the part of both. "The 18th. While my boatmen are putting their canoes in order, one of thsee good Christian women made me baptize her two-year-old child, in order, said she, that it may go to heaven with its little sister, formerly baptized, -whom this people here have massacred. I baptized there another little innocent, who was gasping in death. "The 19th. We pursue the journey on the same river, which is of a fine width and deep throughout, except some rapids, where it is necessary to get into the water and draw the canoe, fearing lest the rocks should break it. "The 20th. We arrive at the great Lake Ontario, called the lake of the Iroquois. This lake is in a fury for the rage of the winds after a storm of rain." As far as we know this was the first time a white man had been down the river, or stood at Oswego, and Le Moyne was the first European to set foot on the sites of two important cities of New York. They quietly coasted the shores of Lake Ontario. August 23d. "We arrive at the place which they destine for our house, and a French settlement. There are charming prairies, good fishing, an access for all nations. I found new Christians there, who confessed themselves and furnished me devotion in their sentiments of piety. ' ' This was at Salmon river, the customary landing place in going to Oneida and Onondaga. Leaving there after the gale was over, they were cast on an island in Lake Ontario. September 6th Le Moyne was at Montreal, and ' ' at Quebec the eleventh day of the month of September of this year, 1654." PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 77 In 1655 some Onondagas came to Quebec and ratified the peace, bringing twenty-four presents, of which eight were for the Hurons and Algonquins. There were eighteen in the party, and they asked for French soldiers to defend their town against the Eries. "They also appointed us a place in the center of all their nations, whence we hope, if God favors our enterprises, to erect us a new Ste. Marie, similar to that which we formerly saw flourishing in the land of the Hurons." At this time the Mohawks were termed the Lower Iro quois, "and we take the Onnontaeronnons and other nations for the Iroquois from above, or the upper Iroquois, because they advance further ascending toward the source of the river St. Laurens, and they inhabit a country full of mountains. Onontae, or else, as others pronounce it, Onontague, is the prin cipal village of the Onontaeronnons, and it is this place where our journey is made." Fathers Joseph Chaumonot and Claude Dablon were to arrange prelimi naries for the colony. "The first possessed the tongue, the heart and the spirit of the savages ; the second is newly come from France, in the design and desire of this mission." Dablon wrote this picturesque journal, full of humor and a quaint philosophy, and one is tempted to give it entire. As usual at that time they placed the entrance into the lake below the Thousand Islands, giving a graphic account of these, "after which one discovers nothing but water ,on all sides." September 29 they came to Otihatangue, at the mouth of Salmon river, having a hearty welcome there, and describing the place at length. "Otihatangue is a river which empties into Lake Ontario. It is narrow at its mouth, but very wide in its ordinary bed. It is rich in prairies, which it fertilizes, and which it divides into a number of higher and low islands," etc. Thence came most of the salmon used at Onondaga. The Hurons wished for public prayers, and were gratified. Chaumonot also met Otohenha, a Petun friend, who gave him much news, having gone the previous winter with the Onondagas against the Eries. A town was de stroyed, and he found a Huron Christian among the dead, and some Huron women were among the captives. On the 30th they left the lake to go by land to Onondaga, meeting a war party of sixty Oneidas in the afternoon, led by Atondatochan, who had been at Montreal on the second Oneida embassy there. A merry council followed, the sixth present made the French masters of the river Otihatangue. This meeting detained them, but they were on the way to Onondaga November 1, meeting that day Therese Oionhaton, a Huron woman, who had come three leagues to see Chaumonot. After marching a dozen miles or less they camped by a stream. One more camp was made before they came to Tethiroguen. "This is a river which leaves the lake called Goienho (now Oneida). Oneiout (Oneida), the village of one of the nations of the upper Iroquois, is above this lake, which, contracting, forms the river Tethiroguen (now Oneida), and afterward a sault or a cascade of a high fall (Oswego Falls), called Ahaouete. As soon as we had arrived at this river, the most notable among a good number of fishermen that we met there, came to make their compliments, and afterwards conducted us to their best cabins. The 78 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 4th, November, we made about six leagues, always on foot, encumbered with our small baggage. We passed the night in a field at four leagues from Anontague." Two miles or a little more to a league is a fair estimate for these leagues in the woods. Next day a great chief, named Gonaterezon, met them a league from the town, greeted them pleasantly, and led them to a spot where the Ancients awaited them, half a mile from Onondaga, probably near the foot of Indian Hill. Okonchiarennen, an old chief, made an address of welcome for a quarter of an hour, to which Chaumonot made a proper reply. This good old Indian custom has come down to us. "All the people listened with attention and admiration, enraptured to hear a Frenchman speak their language so well." Then they were led through two rows of people. "Others ran after us, others presented us their fruits until we arrived at the town, whose streets were very clean, and the roofs of the cabins covered with children. At last we entered into a great cabin, which had been prepared for us, and with us all those it was able to contain." Feasting followed, but that day, being Friday, they declined all but beavers and fish. The next day they could urge no scruples, yet Chaumonot found time to visit the sick. "Sunday terminated by a great concourse, as much of those who came to worship God, as of those drawn there by curiosity. " At a secret council of fifteen chiefs that day they agreed to build a chapel. "The 11th, while the father was working to raise again the foundations of the Huron church, a visit was made to the salt fountain, which is only four leagues from here, near the lake called Gannentaa, the place chosen for the French habitation, because it is the center of the four (upper) Iroquois na tions. . . . The fountain, of which one makes very good salt, intersects a beautiful prairie, surrounded by a wood of high forest trees. At eighty or one hundred paces from this salt spring is seen another of fresh water, and these two opposites take birth from the bosom of the same hill." These springs were not at the fort site, as some have supposed, but at Salina, the prairie being the marsh. A later relation (1657) distinctly says there were no salt springs near the fort. The Erie war was not yet over, though the power of that people was broken. An Erie boy, nine or ten years old, was to be burned November 12, and Chaumonot resolved to baptize him. Ordinary means seemed impossible. "The father then, having seen him and spoken to him, made a semblance of thirst ; they gave him water. He drank it, and in doing so purposely trickled a few drops into his handkerchief. It needed but one to open the gate of heaven to him. He baptized him before being burned. ' ' Though tortured for two hours he uttered not a cry. "The 14th, which was a Sunday, could not better commence than by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which we celebrated on a little altar in an oratory used in the cabin of Teotonharason ; this is one of the women who went down to Quebec with the ambassadors. She is highly esteemed for her nobleness and wealth, but notably because she has openly declared herself for the faith. ' ' The influence of women is often alluded to, nor has it yet been lost. The PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 79 council opened with public prayers that day, but Cayuga deputies came, and their formal reception delayed business till the next day. November 15 Chaumonot again opened the grand council with public prayers, the French kneeling, while the Indians were silent and attentive. He also made thirty presents, each with a speech, which Dablon praised in high terms. On the most beautiful belt of all he preached. "He had a rea sonable space for promenading and for publishing with pomp the word of God." His symbols of dead branches for their former chiefs, and green ones to show their successors, in whom they were restored, of the ashes which represented Teotegnisen, who had died at Three Rivers, Canada, and others emblematic of the French who were dead, mingling these to show their lasting union, appealed effectually' to the Indian mind. Altogether Dablon had reason to be proud of Chaumonot. No Dutchman could talk like him. The results of the Erie war thus far raised their opinion of the fathers. Three or four thousand men of that nation had been conquered by twelve hundred Iroquois, after desperate fighting, and it was well known that the Onondaga leader had been baptized by Le Moyne. Because they had promised to receive faith they were victorious, some said. November 16 suitable responses were made, Sagochiendagehte, the princi pal chief, otherwise Garakontie, making these through another. Six songs were used, all joining in the refrain. Beautiful, indeed was the land in which the French would consent to dwell. This was good news, a heavenly speech, indeed. Beautiful were the voices on either side that spoke of peace." They saluted these new friends, and accepted the heaven of which they were told. Away with war, with all its horrors! They had been insane ever to wield the ax. Now they would be brothers and bid farewell to arms. Everything was beautiful, for the great peace had come. Four fine presents followed. "The third, and the most beautiful of all which appeared here, was a collar composed of seven thousand beads, which was nothing, however, in comparison of his words : It is the present of the faith, said he, that is to say, I am really a believer ; it. is to exhort you not to be weary in instructing us ; continue to go about through the cabins ; have patience, seeing our little wit in learning the prayer; in a word, put it well into the head and heart. Thereupon, wishing by an extraordinary ceremony to make his ardor shine, he takes the father by the hand, makes him rise, leads him into the midst of all present, throws himself on his neck, embraces him, hugs him, and holding in his hand the beautiful collar, makes a belt of it for him, protesting that he wished to embrace the Faith as he embraced the Father." A Cayuga chief followed, speaking first, and then singing and dancing. This is what he sang : A, A, ha, gaiandere ! gaiandere ! That is to say prop erly, in the Latin tongue, Io : Io : triumphe ! and then E, E, he gaiandere, gaian dere !0, 0, Ho, gaiandere! gaiandere! He explained what he meant by his Gaiandere, which signifies among them very excellent things. He said that what we others called to ourselves the Faith, ought to be called Gaiandere among them. . . . The Onontagueronnon, who is the Father, and Oigoen and Onneiout, who were his children, would embrace the Faith." All went off well. 80 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY the day having begun with the Eucharist and the baptism of three children. Of two of these Dablon said: "Behold properly two baptisms, with some services of the church." Often they were quite informal. This was not all. ' ' This beautiful day was ended by the instruction of a score of persons of this town, who presented themselves anew to pray." On the 17th "they brought us to take the measures of a chapel. It was built the next day, and as a good omen, it was the day of the dedication of the church of St. Peter and St. Paul. It is true that in place of marble and all precious metals, one used only bark. As soon as it was constructed it was sanctified by the baptism of three children." This first Christian chapel in New York west of Albany was on Indian hill, Lot 9, Pompey, and two miles south of Manlius village. Another was built there the following year. November 28, "the first Sunday in Advent, there was made" the first sol emn catechism in one of the most considerable cabins, of Onontague, our chapel being too small." The whole service was spirited. Soon after there were baptisms of old and young. The second Sunday in Advent was much like the first, concluding with the baptism of Teotonharason 's grandmother, the oldest women in the country. "The oldest say that when they were children this one was already old, and as wrinkled as she now appears, so that she passes for many hundred years." Christmas Eve Father Chaumonot made a feast, and there were early serv ices in the chapel on Christmas Day. Teotonharason was the first one baptized in 165'6, and she died the following year. A large number of Cayugas and Senecas came to Onondaga in February, and with them were many Huron Christians, whom Chaumonot was glad to meet. Dablon described many curious customs, and among these what followed the killing of an Erie girl. Toward evening it was cried "through the streets and by the cabins, that such a person had been put to death. Then each one began to make a noise with his feet and hands; some struck with sticks on the barks of the cabins to frighten the soul of the deceased, and to drive it away." - He told of the war feast, and that of the New Year, which was a Satur nalia of the wildest description. Then there is the pathetic tale of the Erie boy, whom Ahahiron first adopted, and then tortured as the forty-first victim to the memory of his brother. With these are mingled bits of folklore. But the Onondagas became impatient for the coming colony. They told the missionaries the people "have not ceased all this winter to go in a crowd into the chapel to pray and be instructed. You have been very well received in all our cabins when you have been there to teach; you can not doubt our good will." Was their request for a French post to be disregarded? Something must be done at once or not at all. So Dablin crossed the rotten ice of Oneida lake, and after a fearful journey of three weeks reached Mon treal. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 81 CHAPTER VIII. THE FRENCH COLONY AND FORT. Dablon 's arrival in Canada had the desired effect, though in the face of some Mohawk opposition. Some time before some Seneca ambassadors were in Canada, and one was accidentally shot by a Mohawk while hunting, near Three Rivers. This nearly occasioned war between the two nations, but it was settled by arbitration. It was some time, however, before the Mohawks ceased to fear an attack from the Senecas, asking Dutch protection in case of war. Of the Onondagas they were often jealous, all the more now because their pride and interests were both touched. The French had slighted their offer of a residence in the Mohawk country; the Onondagas had disregarded official etiquette, but the question of trade came in also. The Mohawks were angry, "having a great interest for their commerce, as the Onnontaeronnons were always obliged to pass through their country." Just what their board of commerce resolved does not appear, but there came aggressive action. For instance, a Mohawk chief spoke strongly against the Onondagas at Three Rivers. Just in time to answer him appeared "Jean Baptiste Ochionagueras, Onnontagueronnon captain, who, having embraced the faith within two years, and from that time having a heart entirely French, procured by his influence the peace which we have with the upper Iroquois." Then a Huron who had escaped from Onondaga, tried to hold back the colony, perhaps with good rea son, but failed to do so. At last the colonists were ready to depart. Of the Jesuits there were Fathers Francis le Mercier, Rene Menard, Claude Dablon and Jacques Fremin, with Brothers Ambrose Broat and Joseph Boursier. Father Chaumonot was still at Onondaga. The French escort of fifty men was under Mons. Du Puys. When they left Quebec, May 17, 1656, there were in the fleet some Senecas, Onondagas, and -a few Hurons. A party of Mohawks maltreated the French, Onondagas and Hurons in the rear canoes, but at last made excuses, fearing a war with the Onondagas, for the league was yet new. An advance canoe was sent to Onondaga from Montreal, that town being left the 8th of June. There the party had embarked in twenty canoes, one of which bore a banner, ' ' which was a great name of Jesus painted on a beautiful white taffeta." The Onondagas retaliated on a party of Mohawks that day, taking all they pleased from them. June 27th they passed the last rapid and provisions began to fail. July 3d they reached Otiahataugue, hoping for relief at that noted fishing place. They fired cannon, but no one was there, as it was not the fishing season. A messenger was sent to Onondaga for relief. They could catch nothing, but found a few cranberries. "It had almost no taste or substance, but hunger made us find it excellent." From this suffering the place became known as Famine river. Charle voix connected it with De la Barre 's army, but it appeared before that time. 82 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY They were still hungry when they reached Oswego. The rapid water there appalled them, but in the morning they faced the breakers, which were almost too much for them. They advanced but one league in all the day. Then came relief. First a small canoe .and then two large ones reached them with pro visions sent by Chaumonot and the Onondaga chiefs. Feasting followed, with hearty rejoicing, for, said the writer, "One fine day effaces the memory of ten bad." The salmon, too, were in the river and were easily killed with swords and oars. A great chief met them in the evening of July 10th, welcoming them to the country in the name of the four upper Iroquois nations. The Mohawks did not share in this. At 3 p. m. on the eleventh they entered Lake Gannentaa. When they reached the site of Liverpool they fired their five small cannon, a new sound in Onondaga, followed by a discharge of all their small arms, in which the Onondagas were equally expert. In five ranks of four canoes each, the little fleet came on. Then a second salute was adroitly fired before landing, to the great delight of all. On two high platforms the Ancients made them welcome, but the stately ceremonies were interrupted by a heavy rain. This did not prevent personal congratulations. "The next morning, the 12th of July, we chanted the Te Deum, in giving thanks for our happy arrival, and took possession of all this land in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, dedicating and consecrating it to him by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. . . . The Sunday following, which was the 16th of the same month, we accomplished a vow which we had made in the dangers of our voyage, promising God to commune all together if He would give us grace to see ourselves in the land which we sought. Having obtained this favor, all our French received the holy bread in a Mass, which was chanted very solemnly. It was there that we displayed all our ornaments, which seem poor in France, but which passed here for very magnificent. ' ' The taking possession of Indian lands involves some curious questions. The New England doctrine was simply set forth by the excellent Governor Winthrop of Massachusetts: "If we leave them sufficient for their use, we may lawfully take the rest, there being more than enough for them and us." In New York and afterward in the United States generally, Indian lands were to be purchased, usually at nominal prices, and perhaps under a very gentle pressure, or by sharp practice, but still purchased. This was so in Pennsylva nia, where the Walking Purchase long disturbed the public mind. Even Wil liam Penn. did not hesitate to tell the great Onondaga chief, "the Emperor of Canada, ' ' that ' ' The King of England, who is a Great Prince, hath for divers reasons granted me a large country in America, which, however, I am willing to enjoy upon friendly terms with thee." The French disdained half-way measures. Within certain limits all Indian lands belonged to them, and might be disposed of as they saw fit. So in the allied documents of the Bur row 's edition of the Relations is a translation of a deed given to the Jesuits at this time, part of which follows. There was granted and given to them : "Ten leagues of space in every direction— that is to say, ten leagues front and ten leagues depth — and where they shall choose to establish themselves PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 83 in the country of the upper Irocois, called Onondageoronons, be it in or near the village of Onondage, or at Gannentae, or, as is said, in that place where they shall judge most convenient to them, the said space and extent of ten leagues square is to be possessed by the said reverend Jesuit fathers, their successors and assigns, in freehold forever. ' ' The grand seneschal of New France was enjoined to put them in posses sion. The governor had also "caused a fort to be erected on Lake Gonontaa, and granted to sundry private persons some Iroquois lands, for which deeds have been executed." This was dated at Quebec, April 12, 1656, five weeks before the colony left. Within this space was the Onondaga town, but its people probably never knew that it had been given away without asking their . ^consent. The site of the fort was on Lot 106, Salina, as is generally agreed. Dr. Holbrook told -Rev. Dr. Adams that the French fort was nearer Liverpool than Salina, and was a picket of four acres. The fort proper enclosed one acre, with a blockhouse at the northeast corner, and a bastion in another. "There Dr. H. dug up brick. An oak tree, sixteen or seventeen inches through, over a grave." Dr. Adams said also that the traces of Frontenac's fort, south of LiverpooJ^eould still be seen in 1834. There were no rattlesnakes there, as there were near the salt springs, and the account goes on : " Monday, the 17th, they commenced to work in earnest to lodge us, and to make a good redoubt for the soldiers; we have placed it on an eminence, which commands the lake and all neighboring places." While work went on there Father Le Mercier went with fifteen soldiers to the Onondaga town, ' ' distant five small leagues from our dwelling. ' ' * They made a fine salute on entering, and were well received. Soon after another band came, beating the drum, and in fine style. The grand council would meet next day. July 24, Aehiendase, as the Onondagas called the Father Superior, reconciled the Senecas and Mohawks, while Chaumonot arranged the presents tastefully and spoke on each one. Before these were made, how ever, there was another striking scene. "All our French threw themselves upon their knees, put down their hats and joined their hands, intoning with a high voice the Veni Creator at length." This appealed to the Iroquois, who habitually used intoning in their councils. July 27 they returned to the lake, where a house was being built, to be called Sainte Marie of Gannentaa. A new chapel was built at Onondaga in August, for the mission of St. John Baptist, and part of the fathers remained there. Father Menard went to the Cayugas with two Frenchmen, and Chau monot went to the Senecas. At one time Chaumonot and Menard visited the Oneidas, returning thence safely, though they had been warned of danger. At the lake the French suffered greatly from sickness, forty-eight persons being sick with a fever, two of whom died, but the Onondagas were kind and the rest recovered. Then came the killing of the Hurons who were on their way to Onondaga with Father Ragueneau, and at last all were aware of a plot to cut off the colony. 84 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY There are several accounts of the evacuation of the French fort at Onon daga lake, two of which are well known, and may therefore be briefly sketched. The other is that of Peter Esprit Radisson, who went there in 1657, and this is given quite fully, for two reasons. One is that a sadly garbled account of it has appeared in popular form, which might mislead some. The other is that it is proper so graphic an account should have a prominent place for the first time in a history of Onondaga. Of course, Radisson 's journal, as we have it, was written much later than the events it describes. One summary of this journal describes the fort thus, and may be com pared with Radisson 's own words: "Two high towers, loop-holed for mus ketry, occupied the center of the courtyard. Double walls, trenched between, ran round a space large enough to enable the French to keep their cattle inside the fort." Then the summary goes on to say that in the winter there "came four hundred Mohawks, who not only shouted their war songs, but built their cabins before the fort gates and established themselves for the winter, like a besieging army." Not a Mohawk was there. This also graphically describes the second day's feast: "The trumpets blew a deafening blast. The Mohawks answered with a shout. The French clapped their hands. The outer gates were thrown wide open, and in trooped several hundred Mohawk warriors, seating themselves in a circle round the fire. Another blare of trumpets, and twelve enormous kettles were carried around the circle of guests. A Mohawk chief rose solemnly and gave his dieties of earth, air and fire profuse thanks." This is a fine description, but no Mohawks were there, and but a hundred Onondaga warriors, with as many women, not one of whom entered the fort. It is evident that Radisson should speak for himself. He met some Frenchmen at the mouth of Salmon river, Oswego county, Then at Oswego he ' ' came into a river from towards the fort, which was dan gerous for its swiftness," Then at Three River point "We came into a nar rower river from a small lake, where a French fort was built. This river was two leagues long and the lake five in compass. About it is a most pleasant country, very fruitful. Going up that same river we met two Frenchmen that were fishing a kind of fish called dab, which is excellent, and have done us great kindness, having left us more provisions, then what we needed much. "Having come to the landing place att the foot of the fort, we found there a most f aire castle, very neatly built, with great trees and well tyed in the topp wth twiggs of ashure (osier) strengthened wth two strong walles & two bastions, wch made the fort impregnable of the wild men. There was also a fine fall of wood about it. The French corne grewed there exceedingly well, where was as much as covered half a league of land. The country, smooth like a boord, a matter of some three or four leagues about. Severall fields of all sizes of Indian corne, severall of French tournaps, full of chestnutts and oakes of aceorns, wth thousand such like fruit in abundance. A great company of hoggs so fatt that they were not able to goe. .A plenty of all sortes of fowles. The ring-doves were in such a number that in a nett fifteen PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 85 or sixteen hundred at once might be taken. So this was not a wild country to our imaginations, but plentyfull in everything. "We weare humanly receaved by the Reverend ffathers Jesuits and some other 40 Frenchmen, as well domestiques as volontiers. We prepared our selves to take ye country's recreations, some to hunt, some to fish, but pre vented by a feaver that seised on us all. Some continued a month, some more, some less, wch is the tribut that one must pay for the changement of climat. ' ' A Jesuit came with news. "We went to meet the father, I meane those that were able, to bid the father welcome & his company. Being come safe & in a good disposition together, we rendered God thanks. There weare many that waited for us, desiring to tourne back again to Quebecq, obtaining their desire from the fathers & the governor of ye fort. They weare thirteen in number & one father. After six weeks we recovered our health. So we went to bring them a part of the way, some to the water side, some to the laksende, where we took of one another farewell, wth such ceremonys as are used when friends depart." Six days he spent at the Onondaga capital, seeing many cruel sights. Their return showed shrewdness. "We brought above one hundred women, Hurron slaves and others, all loadened wth corne. We weare alwais in scarcity for pollicy, though we had enough for certainty is farre better than incertainty. " A Huron adopted by the Mohawks, stirred that nation up by false reports about the Jesuits, leading to all that is said about that people in this journal. "The autumn scarce began but we heare yt ye lower Iroquoits contrived a treason against the Ffrench. So having contrived & discovered that they weare resolved to leavy an armie of five hundred men of their auxiliary nation, who are esteemed the best soldiers, having the Anajot to assist them ; a bold, rash nation, and so thought to surprise the inhabitants of that place. . . . . We discover dayly new countryvances of treason by a councellor. There is nothing done or said but we have advice of it. They dayly exercise in feasting, or warre, songs, throwing of hattchetts, breaking kettles. What can we do? We are in their hands. It's hard to gett away from them. Yea, as much as a ship in full sea wthout pilot, as passengers wthout skill. We much resolved to be uppon our guard, being in the middle of our Enemy. For this purpose we begin to make provisions for the future end. We are tould that a company of the Aniot (Oneida) nation volontiers was allready on their march to break heads, & so declare open warres. . . . We, seeing no other remedy, but must begon and leave a delightful country. The onely thing that we wanted most was that we had no boats to carry our baggage. It's sad to tend from such a place that is compassed with those great lakes that compose that Empire that can be named the greatest part of the knowne world. At last they contrive some deale boards to make shipps wth large bottoms, wch was the cause of our destruction sooner than was expected. "You have heard above said how the ffathers inhabited the Hurron coun try to instruct them in Christian doctrine. They preached the mighty power of the Almighty, who had destroyed the world for to punish the wicked, saving our father Noe, wth his familie, was saved in an arke. One came, bringing 86 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Indian corne, named Jaluck, who escaped the ship-wrake that his countrymen had gone, being slave among us. He recalled such instructions on these deale boards, & reflected soundly upon the structure that he thought verily they weare to make another arke to escape thair hands, and by our inventions cause all the rest to be drowned by a second deluge. They imputing such power to us, as Noe had that grace of God, thought that God at least com manded us so to doe. All frightened (he) runns to his village. This comes back makes them all afraid. Each talkes of it. The elders gathered together to consult what was to be done.. In their councell (it) was concluded that our fort should be visited, that our fathers should be examined, & according to their answer deliberation should be taken to preserve both life and country. We had allwayes spyes of our side, wch weare out of zele and obedience. The ffathers Jesuites and others voluntarily ventured their lives for the preserva tion of the common liberty. They remained in the village of those barbars to spie what their intent should be, houlding correspondence wth some of those of the councell by giving them guifts to ye end that we might know what was concluded in the Councell & give us advice wth all speede. We by these means had intelligence that they weare to come & visit our fort. "To take away all suspicion of our innocency from thinking to build any shipp, wch if it had come to their knowledge had don a great prejudice to our former design, a shippe then uppon the docke almost finished. Heere we made a double floore in the hall where the shippe was abuilding, so that the wild men, being ignorant of our way of building, could not take any notice -of our cuningnesse, wch proved to our desire. So done, finding nothing that was reported, all began to be quiet and out of feare. By this we weare warned from thenceforth, mistrusting all that came there, so preserved our selves, putting nothing in sight that should give the least suspition. "Both shipps weare accomplished; we kept them secretly & covered them wth twelve boats of rind yt we kept for fishing and hunting. The wild men knewed of these small things, but suspected nothing, believing that the French would never suspect to venture such a voyage, for the difficulties of the way and violence of the swiftnesse of the rivers and length of the way. We stayed for opportunity in some quietnesse, divising to contrive our game as soon as the spring should begin. The winter was past, not without appre hensions, having had severall alarms, false as (well) as true ; for often weare we putt to our arms, in so much that one of our sentrys was once by force drawn from the doore of the fort. He, to avoid the danger, drawes his sword & wounds one of them, and comes to the fort, crying, 'To your armes.' This was soon appeased, some guiftes healed the wound. . . . "We lett them understand that the time drew near that the French uses to trait their friends in feasting and meriment, and all should be welcome, having no greater ffriends than they weare. They, to see our fashions as well as to fill their gutts, gave consent. By that means the considerablest persons are invited, the ffather & two Ffrench. There they weare made much of two days wth great joy, wth sounds of trompets, drummes and flageolets, wth songs in .French as wild. So don they are sent away, the ffather wth PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 87 them. He was not a mile off, but fains to gett a falle and sighed that his arme was broken. The wild man, being much troubled att this accident, brings the father back and makes guifts that he may be cured. A plaster was stuck to his arme, wch don (he is) putt into a bed. Then all the wild men came to see him; he incouraged them that he should soone recover and see them. The French that knewed not the plott, cryed for the ffather, wch confirmed the belief of the wild men. They all retyred to their village and we (sought) the means to embarke ourselves. "We resolved once more to make another feast when we should have everything ready for our purpose ;r that is, when the father should be well of his payneful sicknesse, ffor they allso doe delight in feasting, wch was to be don for the safe recovery of the ffather 's health. We dayly had messages from the elders of the country to know how he did, who (after the lake was opened from ye ice, that was covered wth ice) should be in good disposition. Many wished to have the suneshine ardently, their desire was so great to be gone. At last our patient begins to walke with a scharfe about his armes. "When the shipps and boats were ready, we sent them word that the father was well, & for joy would make a feast. The elders are invited. They weare sure not to faile, but to be first. Being come, there are speeches made to incourage them to sit and eat. It's folly to induce them to that, for they goe about it more bould than welcome. They are told that the morrow should be the day of mirth. Heare is but play and dances, the Ffrench by turns, to keepe them still in eexrcise, showing them tricks to keep them awake, as the bird-catcher doth to teach the bird to sing and not to fly away, as we then intended. Not one wild man was admitted to come into the fort that day, saying it was not our coustumes to shew the splendour of our banquetts before they should be present att table. The wild men have no Other than ground for their table. "In ye meantime we weare not idle, the impatient father exercising him selfe as the rest. The evening being come th wild men are brought to the place destinated, not far from our port. Every one makes his bundle of provisions and merchandises and household stuff, gunnes, etc., some hid in ye ground, and ye rest scattered because we could not save them. We made excellent bissquetts of the last year's corne, and forgott not the hoggs that weare a fatning. Att last the trumpetts blowes, putt yourselves in order; there is nothing but outcryes, clapping of hands and capering that they may have better stomach to their meat. There comes a dozen of great kettles, full of beaten Indian corne dressed with mince meate. The wisest begins his speech giving heaven thanks to have brought such generous ffrench to honnour them so. They eatt as many wolves, having eyes bigger than bellies ; they are rare att it without noise. The time was not yet com'd to acknowledge the happiness we receive from such incompareable hosts. Heare comes two great kettles full of bustards broyled and salted before ye winter, wth as many kettles full of ducks. As many turtles (pigeons) was taken in ye season by ye nett. Heere att this nothing but hooping to man 's admiration, whilst one was a eating, and other sorts come, as divers of fish, eels, salmon and carp, wch gives them a 88 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY new stomach. Weare they to burst, heere they will shew their courage. The time comes on. The best is that we are sure none will forsake his place, nor man, nor woman. A number of French entertaines them, keeping them from sleeping in dancing and singing, for that is the custom. Their lutrill, an in strumental! musick, is much heere in use. Yett nothing is don as yett, ffor there comes the thickened flower, the oyle of bear, venison. To this ye knif is not enough; their spunes also are used. We see allready severall postures; the one beats his belly, the other shakes his head, others stopp their mouths to keep in what they have eaten. They weare in such admiration, making strange kinds of faces, that turned their eyes up and downe. We bid them cheart ap, and told them it was an usuall custom with the ffrench to make much of them selves and of their friends. They affect you, and yee must shew such like to them by shewing yo 'r respects to them that so splendidly trait you. Cheere up like brave men. If yo'r sleepe overcomes, you must awake; come, sound (the) drumme, it is not now the beat of the Gian; come, make a noise. Trumpett blow and make their cheeks swell, to make their belly swell alsoe." "In the end nothing (is) spared that can be invoked to the greater confu sion. There is a strife between the French which will make the greatest noise. But there is an end to all things ; the houre is come, ffor all is embarked. The wild man can hold out no longer; they must sleepe. They cry out, Skenon, enough; we can beare no more. 'Lett them cry Skenon! we will cry hurray, we are all going, ' sayes we. They are told that the Ffrench are weary and will sleepe alsoe awhile. They say, 'Be it so.' We come away ; all is quiet. Nobody makes a noise after such a hurly-burly. The fort is shutt up as if we had been in it. We leave a hogg attached to the doore for sentery, with a rope tyed to his foote. He wanted no^meate for the time. Here we make a proposal, being three and fifty Ffrench in number, to make a slaughter without any difficulty, they being one hundred beasts not able to budge, and as many women. That don, we could goe to their village att ye breake of ye day, where we weare sure there were not twenty men left, nor young nor old. It was no great matter to deale with five or six hundred women, and may be one thousand children, besides the huntsmen should not be ready this two moneths to come home." Of course the Jesuits at once vetoed this sanguinary proposal, saying ' ' that they were sent to instruct in the faith of Jesus Christ and not to destroy, and that the cross must be their sword. ' ' Radisson then tells of the voyage and of the surprise and actions of the Indians, the latter of course being conjectural. When they came near the door the hog rang the bell, and other things made them think the French still in the fort. At last they climbed the wall and no one was there. The account given by Charlevoix many years later, and that of the Jesuits almost at once do not materially differ from this. Charlevoix's words imply several houses, the boats being built "in the store-room of the house occupied by the Jesuits, which was more secluded than the others and much larger. ' ' A later official record also says that the "sixty Frenchman cleared and planted lands with French grain and other legumes, built many large houses, and lived PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 89 there peaceably. ' ' The Relation mentions but one large house, probably using this in a collective sense. When the French did not appear and the day de clined tho Onondagas scaled this; that is, the outer wall. "They open the door; the principal men enter everywhere ; they ascend to the granary ; they descend into the cellar; and not a Frenchman appears, neither living nor dead." The fifty-three Frenchmen went off in the two bateaux and eight canoes. But ten of these were soldiers, a number having returned to Canada. At 11 P. M., March 20, 1658, they took French leave of the fort, and reached Montreal at nightfall, April 3d, where they were welcomed as men from the grave. They traveled with little baggage. The bell was taken by the Onondagas to Indian Hill, where its fragments were found a century and a half later. When the Indians burned a Frenchman there in 1660 they tortured him with "hatchets red hot, files, saws, ends of gun barrels, and other such things, which we had left in our house of Gannentaa when we went away." The most interesting relies of all may await future search. Thirty years later it was said that there "were conveyed there four pieces of bronze cannon, which have remained there, and will be found again by the French who were there at the time, and are still living." Of these there is no further record. The location of the fort is a matter of interest. It is usual to place it at the so-called Jesuit spring, Lot 106, Salina, near the railroad bridge. This is reasonable, but the proof is not exact.. The Relation expressly says that it was not near any salt spring, though some have claimed that it was. The words are, "the place where we have set up our dwelling is surrounded by beautiful springs of fresh water," not located by any particular one. The fort was "placed on an eminence which commands the lake and all the neighboring places. Fountains of fresh water are in abundance." The evacuation makes it near the shore, and the spot satisfies all requirements. The work which James Geddes surveyed in Salina in 1797, may well have been on the same spot, but seems that occupied by Frontenac forty years later. It was a square, flanked by an angular wall at one corner toward the lake. Both the fort and this had a gateway toward the water. There were no bastious and of these the Jesuits approved. Their fort seems to have had a gate on the land side. The houses there also had cellars, of which this plan shows no trace. Clark said: "On this ground have been plowed up brass kettles, gun barrels, musket balls, axes, grape shot, etc. Burnt earth and calcined stones, and broken bricks, where their fires had been kept, are to be seen even to this day. The work embraced about half an acre of land." It is at the distance from the old salt springs which Frontenac gives, and in 1656 the French also said that Onondaga was "five small leagues" from their dwelling. The later work probably obliterated the surface traces of the earlier, and one monument might point out the site of both. During most of this time the Jesuits made encouraging reports. The flight took place in 1658. In 1657 it was said: "That one performs the Divine Office there, that there they administer the Sacraments, that there they practise the christian virtues with as much modesty, as much care and as much fervor, as in the provinces of the most Catholic and the most devoted of Europe. More than 90 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY two hundred baptized in a short time, among whom there are five of the most considerable of this nation, are the living stones which compose the first founda tions of this church." Beyond building and the cultivation of the soil, and a hint at some mechan ical arts, the Relations tell us little of life at the lake. There may have been a military drill ; possibly a raising of the flag. There were five small cannon and a bell . One item we have from ' ' the curiosity of a woman of Onnontaghe, who, taking herself to Gannentaa only to see the French, entered by this meeting into the house with the catechumens, and receiving "some of the little charities that we make there, took still more from our instructions ; so that she presented her daughter to be baptized and asked to pray God among the catechumens." Beside the good Hurons, too, who came with a right heart, there were others who stayed longer, that they might have material as well as spiritual sustenance. They aided them the best they could, "so that the support of a good number of French who have accompanied us into this land, we solace the misery of all these poor wretches, maintaining, thus to speak, a table open to the savages. ' ' The missionaries were fortunate in the colonists, often speaking of their piety. Ragueneau said that but ten private soldiers remained, "nine of whom had already of themselves resolved to abandon us;" and that the Onondagas were near the fort all the time, suspicious of every movement. He exulted in all that had been done. Driven from the field they had come like victors, having again established the Faith among the Hurons and delivered many souls. Jeremiah Gould, who came to Salina with his father in 1790, and to James ville soon after, gives the following story which he had from Ephraim Webster, as told by the Indians. It seems very persistent among them, with variations, though it has hardly any foundation. It reminds one of De Witt Clinton's story of a massacre, and relates to the termination of the French settlement in Onondaga. Mr. Gould wrote the account in 1847, for Adams and Barns, while living in La Fayette, and Clinton may have had this story from him. "Their tradition, as stated to me by Esquire Webster is that the French came few in numbers at first, and matters went on very harmoniously for a season; but additional numbers continued to arrive till the colony became so increased that it resolved to throw off its hitherto (in some measure) state of dependence on the dictation of their neighbors, as to location and the extension of their settlements. To further their treacherous designs, they instigated a quarrel with a tribe of Indians somewhere up lake Erie, and having induced the warriors to go to the war they seized the opportunity of their absence and commenced a general massacre of old and young. Meantime runners hastened to apprise their friends of what was going on and on discovery of the plot they immediately made peace with their foes, and brought them back as allies to take vengeance on the treachery of their supposed friends. They halted near the French settlement, which was in the north part of Pompey, and arranged their plan of attack. With their allies they were able completely to surround the French ; the war whoop was given ; the onset commenced, and indiscrimi nate slaughter ensued, till with one solitary exception, not an individual was PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 91 left to report their fatal overthrow to their friends in Canada. This individual was a friar or priest engaged in missionary service. He resided at the Salt lake near to Green Point, at, or about the place where the road to Liverpool crosses the canal. On a little rise, apparently thrown up by the wash of the lake, which separated between the lake and the marsh in the rear, was the house of the priest, the outlines of which I have seen consisting of the banking of the sides around the area, the center of which was a number of stones which had been burnt, in the place usually appropriated by the Indians for their fire. This, Esquire Webster informed me, was pointed out to him by the Indians, as the residence of the priest, where he closed his mission with his life. When the work of destruction was completed at the settlement, they came down to the priest and related to him the fate of his 'countrymen, and as they considered him a good sort of a man, they offered him his life on condition of his immedi ate departure. Thishe declined, choosing rather to incur the merit of martyr dom, and to die at his post. Upon this determination they prepared to torture him. They had a plow share which had belonged to the French, which they heated red hot and hung it by a chain over his neck, resting on, or against his breast and thus broiled his vitals and his spirit took its flight. There was a story current in early days of Indian tradition, but whence its origin I know not, that the last flight of the French was at the falls of Dunlop 's mills, where the last Frenchman was killed. How well founded the story is I cannot say. ' ' This may be compared with the tale related by Daniel and Thomas La Fort in the account of the wampum belts. Whatever may have been intended, it may suffice to say that no French priest was ever killed in Onondaga county, nor was there ever a French massacre there. As this story is often referred to, it is given here to show the unreliability of Indian tradition. There is generally a nucleus of fact, but the details cannot be trusted. The facts here are the colony and its location, the Erie war and the intended massacre. The rest is fiction though still told by the Indians. CHAPTER IX. FROM THE FRENCH RETREAT TO THE END OF THE MISSIONS. A terrible war now waged everywhere and the French suffered greatly, losing many prisoners, some of whom were cared for by Garakontie, the great Onondaga chief. The Onondagas at first had no special prominence in this, but late in the winter of 1660 a band of forty chosen Hurons left Quebec on a war party with eighteen Frenchmen. At Three Rivers some Algonquins joined them, and all took post on the Ottawa river below the Sault de Chau- diere. Iroquois hunters often passed there in single file and might be slain as they came. Some of these saw the ambush and warned the rest, who were soon arrayed as warriors. They needed no secrecy. Solemnly and openly two hundred Onondagas came down the Sault in their canoes, ready for the fight. Their astonished foes took refuge in an abandoned fort, making there a 92 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY vigorous defense. Then the Mohawks came to the aid of the Onondagas, the siege lasting for ten days. Water could be had only at the peril of life, and part of the Indians deserted to the foe. When the French fired on a flag of truce the Iroquois were enraged. Guarded by mantelets of wood they rushed at the palisades to cut them down. The French grenades were exhausted and they used disabled gun barrels. When they tried to throw a barrel of powder over the wall, that it might explode among their foes, it caught in a branch, fell back, exploded within, and the fight was soon over. Not so the cruelty of the victors. This disaster was deeply felt by the Hurons and French and Quebec was blockaded by the foe. One of the Huron captives was taken to Onondaga and gave a vivid ac count of what happened to him. The sight of the town itself alarmed him. He said : ' ' When we arrived at the top of the mountain whence one discovers the town of Onnontaghe, I was seized with horror at the sight, I cannot deny it; but much more when, on advancing closer, I discovered a multitude of people who were waiting for me, to expend upon my poor body all the cruelty with which fury and revenge could inspire them." He afterward escaped. A Frenchman was tortured there just before this Huron came. The . harrowing tale need not be repeated here, but ' ' they had prepared the scaffold in a fashion more than barbarous, and altogether unusual in the most cruel barbarity. ' ' Red hot irons from the mission fort were applied to his flesh, part of which the Onondagas ate and part they gave to the dogs. At the gloomiest moment, in July, 1661, "there appeared above Montreal two canoes of Iroquois, who, bearing a white flag, came boldly under the auspices of that standard to put themselves in our hands. ' ' They were sent by the Onondagas and Cayugas, and brought back four French captives. A Cayuga chief led the party and spoke by twenty presents. He freed these prisoners, promising the liberty of twenty more, still held at Onondaga, and producing a leaf of paper on which all had written their names. Their lives however, depended on the return of a Black Robe with him. The returned captives told of their life at Onondaga. ' ' One of the princi pal men (Garakontie) took care to sound a bell every morning, to assemble the French and savages to prayers, which were made every day; that they spoke there publicly and advantageously of the Faith ; that these French captives had even liberty to baptize children." Le Moyne was the man for the occasion, and, thinking "the day of his departure as one of the happiest days of his life," for the fifth time he went to the Iroquois on his errand of peace and love, though war still raged in places. He wrote from the chapel at Onondaga, August 25, and September 11, 1661, telling of his enthusiastic reception. Garakontie and other chiefs met him two leagues from the town, a great honor, an eighth of a league being the usual distance. All the way thence to the town he met people who seemed never satisfied with seeing him. He must tell his own story : "It is he who shall take the better place in order to see me pass ; who shall clear the roads ; who shall bring me more fruits, who shall give me more greet ings, who shall shout the loudest as a mark of rejoicing ; they wait for me as PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 93 far as they see me, and they measure me from head to foot, but with gracious glances, and all full of affection ; and as soon as I had passed, those who have seen me leave their posts, in order to run before me, to hold a place again, and to see me pass a second, a third, and a tenth time. So I walked gravely between two hedges of people, who give me a thousand benedictions, and who load me with all kinds of fruits, with pumpkins, with mulberries, with bread, with strawberries and others. I kept making my cry of ambassador while walking, and seeing myself near the town, which was scarcely visible to me, the pickets, the cabins and the trees were so covered with people, I stopped before making the first step which would give me entrance into the town, then having re turned in two words, my thanks for this good welcome, I continued my journey and my cry." The council met at the sound of the bell, August 12, assembling in the great cabin where Le Moyne was entertained. He spoke both in Onondaga and Huron, the latter. dialect closely resembling the Mohawk. The result was that seven French captives at Onondaga and two at Cayuga were sent to Montreal with Garakontie, the rest remaining at Onondaga with Le Moyne through the winter. The Senecas united in this embassy, all setting out about the middle of September. They met an Onondaga party returning with scalps, and one of these was that of a priest. They were alarmed, but still went on. Then came an Oneida war party whom they persuaded to seek other foes. October 3 they reached Montreal. In 1662 Onondaga war parties went against the Cherokeas, of whom they knew nothing till after the Erie war. For a hundred years this southern war continued. Le Moyne was busy, ministering to three churches, "let us say eight or ten, since there are in Onnontaghe as many conquered nations." The three were the Onondaga, Huron and French, all worshiping in the same bark chapel. The French captives of course had some trials. One was a great favorite, and the Onondagas lovingly wished him to take an Indian wife. He refused and they persisted, warming up until the alternative was, marry or die. He died. Another served two women who gave opposing orders. Weary of trying to satisfy both he escaped to a rocky islet in Limestone creek. Great was the search for him, and just as it was agreed his life should be spared, hunger compelled him to give himself up. The last of August, 1662, Le Moyne reached Montreal with the eighteen Frenchmen whom he had freed, and escorted by -a score of Onondagas. It was a scene surpassing description. "These happy Argonauts made a discharge of all their guns, in order to salute the land so much desired, publishing peace by the mouth of war itself. ' ' The Iroquois sought new foes, and "a war party of Maquaes, Sinnekes and Onondakas" passed through Albany in December, 1663, returning from a raid on the New England Indians. Some of these had said to the Mohawks, "We from the Onondake will go and see where the northern savages live." They went as far as Maine and were defeated. An Onondaga expedition against the Andastes that year also was disastrous. 94 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Garakontie still labored for peace, but an unfortunate event delayed it. He led an embassy of thirty Onondagas and Senecas into Canada in 1664, with "a prodigious collection of- wampum," over one hundred belts in all, some of them over a foot wide. The ambassadors were waylaid by Algonquins at the Long Sault, and were killed, captured, or put to flight. Garakontie 's hopes were dashed by this event, for he loved the French and had made feasts for the captives on Sundays, and saw that a- bell was rung for their meetings. His influence was everywhere powerful in their favor. They were not ungrateful. "They related with pleasure all the caresses they had bestowed on them, all the feasts to which they were invited, the joy they took in seeing them, the charity they exercised toward them, in order to clothe r them well, to lodge them well and to furnish them with all the conveniences of which savage life is capable." In fact their accounts took on a picturesque form. Often they found their number "increased by several savages, especially some Huron families, who, after their example, made a second choir of music, very melodious, and very agreeable in the ears of God, who received at the same time the vows and prayers of several very different languages. That which they prized most was the liberty with which they assembled in a cabin of which they made a chapel ; and there sometimes they exhorted one another to the fear of God and to keep themselves in innocence, since they had no priest to confess them; sometimes they made their prayers, not alone and privately, but all together and aloud ; sometimes they made the town resound with the canticles of the church, the Litanies of the Virgin, which they chanted with the admiration of the people ; and all this in a silence aryi repose as great as if they had been in the midst of Kebec." Such privileges Garakontie had procured for them. No wonder is it that he was known as the Father of the French. Yet his efforts for peace had failed. Another power did more when De Tracy made his successful expeditions in 1666 against the Mohawks. All of the Five Nations were at once anxious for peace. In the negotiations Garakontie of course was prominent, and a new era began. The missions were soon resumed. Father Julian Gamier went to Onondaga in 1668, being the first Jesuit ordained in Canada. A new chapel was built two days after Gamier 's arrival and services were at once resumed. In October, 1668, Father Pierre Milet also went to Onondaga, "a great town, the center of all tiie Iroquois, and the place of the general assemblies, which they make each year. ' ' On account of its importance it often had two missionaries. Captives were often burned there, and this made frequent work for them. "This office of assisting the captives, who are burned all alive, and who are eaten in the presence of the missionaries, is an exercise which demands great courage." They never lacked it. August 29, 1669, all met at Onondaga for a conference, Pierron coming from the Mohawks, Bruyas from the Oneidas, Carheil from the Cayugas, and Fremin and Gamier from the Senecas, whither the latter had soon gone. They returned to their stations September 6. This was the year of the mythic massacre. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 95 The great event of 1670 was the baptism of Daniel Garakontie at Quebec. The Sun that advances had long been the head chief of the Onondagas and the friend of the French from the first. "Monsieur the Governor offered to be the godfather, Mademoiselle Boutroue, daughter of Monsieur the Intendant, was the godmother. Monseigneur the Bishop wished to give this sacrament with his own hands, and then that of confirmation. It was in the principal church of Canada, and in the cathedral of Quebec that this ceremony was performed. The concourse of people who were present there could not be greater, and he had the satisfaction of having, as witnesses of his baptism, a crowd of people, gathered from all the nations who inhabit New France. ' ' This was not all. He went to the Chateau to thank Governor de Calliere. "At his entrance he saw himself saluted by a discharge of all the cannon of the fort, and of all the musketry of the soldiers, who were ranged in line to receive him ; and as a conclusion of the festival they presented him with something to regale bountifully all the nations assembled at Quebec, and to make them a sumptuous feast." Such were the honors of this Onondaga chief, all well deserved. In Advent, 1669, Milet made some special efforts at Onondaga. He made the ordinary cry in the morning to call the people to the chapel, saying: "As I am in the mission of St. John Baptist I believed that God asked of me that I should imitate this great saint, in crying like him in these deserts." He told what his varying cries were, and used wampum and other symbols to illustrate his words. Portraits, charts, and the Bible itself were thus used. His congregations grew. He introduced the Benedicite at feasts, con formed to their usage in singing, by Garakontie's advice talked more to the old men. "Five or six days before Christmas, our chapel not being large enough to receive the people who were coming in crowds to receive the in structions, I was obliged to divide them into two bands, and to make two catechisms the same day. I borrowed for this purpose a bell which they had had thirteen or fourteen years ago, of those of our fathers who were at this mission. About midnight (Christmas) our christian men and christian women rendered to him their devoirs, while I went to sing some Motets in their language, and to ring the bell, in order to wake the people through all the town, and invite them to come to the chapel. The crowd was great all the morning, and the Ancients were present as in a body. ' ' In April, 1670, Bruyas wrote at Oneida: "I went to pass the feasts of Easter with Father Milet at Onnontaghe." And again in May: "I passed the feasts of Pentecost at Onnontaghe, where Father de Carheil had also returned from his mission of Oiguen" or Cayuga. Soon after the worship of Agreskoue was abolished at Onondaga. Once, while teaching some Andastes before their torture, Milet sang the one hundred and seventeenth Psalm, and added: "It has often happened since that they have begged me to sing my death song." Father Jean de Lamberville now came to aid Milet at Onondaga and soon took his place. In 1673 Count Frontenac sent LaSalle to Onondaga to invite the chiefs to meet him at Cadaraqui (now Kingston) to consult about a French 96 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY fort at that place. This noted explorer was several times at Onondaga that year. Lamberville mentions him in a letter dated at Tethiroguen (now Brewer ton) September 9, 1673. "I am come on purpose from Onnontague to present myself here to see M. de La Salle, and to give him this letter. M. de La Salle who is in haste to depart, to go and bear the news of the retaking of Manathe and of Orange by the Dutch," etc. In July Frontenac held a successful conference with the Iroquois at Cada- raqui, and Fort Frontenac was at once built. Garakontie was the principal speaker out of "more than sixty of the oldest and most influential of the sachems." At Christmas, 1675, he took a severe cold while attending the midnight mass, and died soon after. Just before he died he said to Lamberville : ' ' Write to the Governor that he loses the best servant he had in the cantons of the Iroquois, and I pray my Lord Bishop, who baptized me, and all the mission aries, to pray that my stay in purgatory may not be long." Then he gave directions for his burial, and said, 'Onne ouage che ca — Behold, I die!' All fell on their knees, and he died while they prayed." Lamberville himself prepared his coffin, and a lofty cross marked his grave. His brother or near kinsman took his name but not his office, becoming a kind of French agent and dying in 1702. August 23 of that year, Dekanissora said to M. de CalliereS: "Garagontie greatly loved the French. He is dead, but here is his nephew, Garagontie, who loves them also." He became the French correspondent. In 1679 Bruyas took Lamberville 's place at Onondaga, but' held it but a short time. Of this period Mr. Jerome H. Fort of Syracuse, has a curious memorial, being the translation of an original letter from Bruyas, formerly held by Daniel G. Fort of Oswego. As the La Forts of Onondaga were former ly Oneidas, to whom Bruyas long ministered, it is possible this accounts for the origin of their name, the Indians often taking that of some white friend. Bruyas, however, left the Oneidas in 1672. The letter or certificate follows : "I, the undersigned, certify that Jean Le Fort has lived in my service nine years, during which he has shown me the respect, obedience and faithful ness which can be expected from .a family heir. He now withdraws from his own free choice, and with my consent. I am under obligations to render this testimony to the truth, and I beg those who. may read it to place confidence in it. "At Onondaga, 29th June, 1680. "JACQUES BRUYAS, "Minister of the Society of Jesus." Jean de Lamberville resumed his mission at Onondaga in 1681, being a great favorite there. He was called Teiorhensere, Dawn of the day. He con tinued at Onondaga for six years, his brother Jacques being with him most of the time, both becoming prominent in political affairs. In 1677 Wentworth Greenhalgh was sent from Albany through the Iro quois country to call the Five Nations to a council on southern difficulties. His account of Onondaga is given elsewhere. Dekanissora, the eloquent Onon- SOLVAY PROCESS WORKS. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 97 daga speaker, began to be prominent in 1678, and was made much of by both French and English. In 1694 the former said "he spoke with as perfect a grace as is vouchsafed to an unpolished and uncivilized people," with other complimentary words. Colden said: "He was grown old when I saw him, and heard him speak; he had a great fluency in speaking, and a graceful elocution, that would have pleased in any part of the world. His person was tall and well made, and his features, to my thinking, resembled much the busts of Cicero." The Onondagas had been quite successful in their southern wars, the Nanticokes becoming subject to them in 1680, and the Andastes about the same time. The Delawares also were tributary. By conquest the Pennsylvania lands belonged to the Onondagas and Cayugas alone, and they soon conveyed these in trust to Governor Dongan. There was a standing quarrel about these lands for a long time, and an Oneida chief became a sort of viceroy to look after the tributary nations there. The year 1684 saw some stirring events. In their distant wars, reaching to the Mississippi, the Iroquois had again come in conflict with the Illinois and others whom they had once dispossessed. The French took the side of these. commanding the Iroquois to desist, which they refused to do. On this De la Barre, the French governor, prepared for war, asking Governor Dongan of New York, first of all, not to supply the Indians with guns and ammunition. Dongan at once sent a messenger to Onondaga to look after English interests there, and to set up the English arms in all the castles, promising such aid as he could give. The French had no confidence in De la Barre, and freely predicted failure. He took nearly nine hundred men with him to Fort Frontenac, most of them going with him to La Famine, and in both places the larger part became sick. Lamberville thought war would be disastrous, and labored for peace. He arranged a council, which a few Onondagas attended, but M. de Meulles said they "fooled the general in a most shameful manner." The principal Onondaga there was Hotreouate, called Grangula by La- hontan, Garangula by Colden, and La Grande Gueule, or Big Mouth by the French in general. He was both a good speaker and eater. De Meulles called him a "sycophant who seeks merely a good dinner;" Lamberville said he had "the strongest head and loudest voice among the Iroquois," while his speech, as given by Lahontan, is a masterpiece of oratory. It left De la Barre almost frantic. Lahontan, then a young French subaltern, has left us a full account of this notable council, with a sketch of the camp, corresponding with the site at the mouth of La Famine, or Salmon river. In this De la Barre sits at one end of the hollow square, the chief and his few followers at the other. The French spoke first. Lahontan said: "While Mr. De la Barre 's inter preter pronounced this harangue, the Grangula did nothing, but looked upon the end of his pipe. After his speech was finished he rose, and having took five or six turns in the ring that the French and savages made, he returned 98 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY to his place, and, standing upright, spoke after the following manner to the general, who sat in his chair of state." It was a masterly address, but part only can be given here. After the usual introduction, he said : "Yonnondio, you must have believed when you left Quebec that the sun had burnt up all the forests which render our country inaccessible to the French, or that the lakes had so far overflowed their banks that they had surrounded our castles, and that it was impossible for us to get out of them. Yes, surely you must have dreamed so, and the curiosity of seeing so great. a wonder has brought you so far. Now you are undeceived, sinec that I and the warriors here present are come to assure you that the Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas and Mohawks are yet alive. I thank you in their names for bringing back into their country the calumet which your predecessors received from their hands. It was happy for you that you left underground that murdering hatchet so often dyed in the blood of the French. "Hear, Yonnondio, I do not sleep. I have my eyes wide open, and the sun which enlightens me, shows me a great captain at the head of a company of soldiers, who speaks as if he were dreaming. He says that he only came to the lake to smoke the great calumet with the Onondagas. But Garangula says he sees the contrary; that it was to knock them on the head if sickness had not weakened the arms of the French. I see Yonnondio raving in a camp of sick men, whose lives the Great Spirit has saved by inflicting this sickness upon them. "Hear, Yonnondio. Our women had taken their clubs, our children and old men had carried.their bows and arrows into the heart of your camp, if our warriors had not disarmed them and kept them back when your messenger, Ohguesse (Le Moine) came to our castles. It is done, I have said it." He defended the course of the Senecas. They had plundered the French who carried warlike munitions to their foes. It was contraband of war, and they would pay no damages. "Our warriors have not beavers enough to pay for all these arms that they have taken, and our old men are not afraid of the war." They would trade with whom they chose. "We are born free, we neither depend, on Onondio or Corlaer. We may go where we please and carry with us whom we please and buy and sell what we please. If your allies be your slaves, use them as such." De la Barre abandoned the cause of the Illinois, patched up such a peace as he could, and left the place September 6, having embarked his sick troops before day, "so as not to be seen by the Indians," who saw the whole. These troops were in one hundred and fifty canoes and twelve bateaux. At Fort Frontenac he found one hundred and ten invalids more. In this trip he wished to meet the Iroquois at Oswego. The Onondagas replied: "As you advised them not to be troubled at the sight of your barks and gendarmes, they likewise give you notice not to be surprised when you will see faces painted red and black at Ochouaguen. ' ' Oswego was several times mentioned by this name in 1682, but it was the name for the river, where it issues from Cayuga lake ten years earlier. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 99 After De la Barre had retired forty Onondagas went at once against the Illonois. They had told him that "the entire Iroquois nation reserved to itself the power of waging war against the Illinois as long as a single one of them lemained on earth." The incompetent governor was removed, De Nonville taking his place. The English traders were pushing westward, twenty of their trading canoes passing Oswego Falls in 1686, while a treaty was probable with the Ottawas. Charlevoix said of this: "Nothing was fraught with greater danger than this opening of trade between New York and the nations whom we had till now regarded as our most faithful allies." Dongan 's men were busy at Onon daga and Lamberville was away. De Nonville sent him back with presents, and Charlevoix adds: "His presence in a moment changed the face of affairs. He spoke to the chiefs with that frankness and that insinuating manner that had won him the esteem and affection of that nation; he dispelled almost all the suspicions that had been instilled into them." De Nonville now meditated an invasion of the Senecas for 1687, to be followed by the destruction of the Cayugas and Onondagas the following year. He began his plan by an act of treachery. Louis XIV. had written to De la Barre in 1684: "As it tends to the good of my servants to diminish as much as possible the numbers of the Iroquois, and moreover, as these savages, who are very strong and robust, will serve usefully in my galleys, 1 will that you do everything in your power to make a great number of them prisoners of war and have them embarked by every opportunity that will offer, in order that they be conveyed to France." De Nonville planned to have such prisoners at once, and though the details of his treachery are confused, all agree that the methods were disreputable. He employed Jean de Lamberville to draw the Iroquois chiefs to Fort Fronte nac for a conference, and then seized sixty men, thirteen of whom he sent to France. He said "the poor father, however, knows nothing of our designs," and left him to his fate. The Onondagas were of the same opinion, having known the missionary long. The chiefs told him they knew him incapable of treachery, but the young warriors might be less considerate, so they escorted him to a place of safety. This may be said to have ended the Iroquois missions here, all but the Lambervilles having been for some years withdrawn. There were brief visitations later, but not on the old scale. 100 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY ^ CHAPTER X. FROM DE NONVILLE 'S INVASION TO THE PEACE OF UTRECHT. De Nonville 's invasion of the Seneca country made no great difference. Corn was destroyed, but it grew again; houses were burned, but quickly rebuilt. His treachery enraged the Iropuois and drew them closer to the English. Through Dekanissora the Onondagas proposed an English fort at Oswego, and were themselves assured of full protection. Indeed, the Onon dagas wanted, cannon for their new fort on Butternut creek, but the English thought this useless, and none were sent. The usual causes for the removal of an Iroquois town had led the Onon dagas to leave Indian hill. Lamberville told of what he saw when he came to Onondaga in 1681: "On my arrival I found the Iroquois of this village occupied in transporting their corn, their effects and their cabins to a place two leagues distant from their former residence, where they had dwelt for nineteen years. They make this change in order to have there their firewood in convenient proximity, and to secure fields more fertile than those that were abandoned. This is not done without difficulty; for, inasmuch as carts are not used here, and the country is very hilly, the labor of the men and women, who carry their goods on their backs, is consequently harder and of longer duration. To supply the lack of horses the inhabitants of these forests render reciprocal aid to one another, so that a single family will hire sometimes eighty or one hundred persons; and these are in turn obliged to render the same service to those who may require- it from them, or they are freed from the obligation by giving food to those whom they have employed." Hotreouate, or Garangula, and other Onondagas, met De Nonville in Mon treal in June, 1688. The chief was very haughty, and the French again abandoned the Illinois, a declaration of neutrality being made. He was to come again, but a strategem prevented this. Kondiaronk, or Adario, a Huron chief, called the Rat, did not wish for peace between the Iroquois and the French. He waylaid the ambassadors at La Famine, killing one, capturing the rest, and pretending surprise when told of their errand. He gave all but one liberty, and said the French had told him what to do. The prisoner retained he caused to be shot by French soldiers, taking care that an account of this should reach Onondaga. This led to the bloody war of 1689, the darkest page in Canadian history. In that year the Iroquois fell upon the island of Montreal like demons. Nothing withstood them till they were at the city gates. Forts Frontenac and Niagara were abandoned, and all seemed doomed to destruction. In this dark hour Count Frontenac came back to his old post, and hope revived. A vigorous old man, he was the only one capable of dealing with the Indians, and his power was soon felt. England and France were soon at war, with the Iroquois on the side of the former. In 1690 the Onondagas reminded the French that they still held some of them prisoners. Four had been eaten but PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 101 they spared the rest to show that they were better than the French, who had tortured some of their men. That year a great council was held at Onondaga, described only by Colden and Smith, and very unwisely, on the English part, "no person of note, that had any influence on the Indians, went." Unfortu nately the changes in the royal dynasty created dissensions in New York. In November of that year a commission was given to "Aernout Corne- lisse Viele, resident agent among the Indians at their court of Onondaga; Gerrit Luycasse to act as agent till Vielle arrives." Chevalier d'Eau had been sent there in June with four Frenchmen and four Indians, to draw them to the French side, and the English wished them sent to Albany. On this "the Five Nations, being met by their chieftains together at Onondague aforesaid (which is their court), seized them and bound them instantly, despoyling them of all their money, presents, and what they had, presenting them to the Sinneks, Coiegues, Oneydes and Macguaes, each one of the French men to be treated in their barbarous manner." D'Eau was given to the English and allowed to escape. Next year a Mohawk brought news from Canada that there was "a designe to goe out and fight against Onondage and thirty praying Indians were ready to goe out the next day to annoy the Onnondages. " Frontenac told the Indians he would go with a large force against the Five Nations, ' ' and fall upon them vizt first on the sennekaes, and then on the Cayougas, Onnon dages, and Oneydoes, and passe by the Maquaes and soe come down and fall on the Christians at Albany." In 1692 Kanadgegai or Black Kettle, a noted Onondaga chief, headed a party at the Long Sault, making another successful dash July 15. Canada was in constant alarm. Charlevoix said this chief overran the country "as a torrent does the lowlands, when it overflows its banks, and there is no with standing it. The soldiers had orders to stand upon the defensive within their forts." That year his wife was killed while trying to escape from a mission town in Canada. A prisoner, escaping from Onondaga in 1693, said there was now a strong fort there, built by the English, and having eight bastions and three rows of palisades. There is no record of this otherwise, but a warrant was issued to Peter Schuyler for making a well there in 1695. In June, 1692, the Iroquois renewed the covenant with the English, desir ing that the important blacksmith's anvil might be retained at Onondaga, and a'smith live there. This became a heated question later. In August, 1693, Dirck Wessel attended a council at Onondaga, and Aqueendera, chief sachem there, was brought in by four men. He is better known as Sadekanahtie. A blacksmith was sent there in November. In February, 1694, a council was held in the street in the city of Albany. The Onondaga chief could not be present because of sickness, which Colden thought a convenient excuse. He was helpless the summer before, and when this Albany council was proposed, "the Onondages replyed, no, let us send for Quider hither with the Maquaes, since Kagueendaronda is not fit to travail." Nothing important was done. 102 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Two Onondagas now went to Canada to see if Iroquois deputies would be well received. One was a nephew of Hotreouate. Dekanissora followed in May, with two chiefs from each nation. The Onondaga speaker was a favorite and had every attention. They returned home in June, but were recalled. "All were every day, while they staid in the place, entertained at the governor's table, or at the tables of the most considerable officers. Decanesora, on his side, made a good appearance, being cloathed in scarlet, trim'd with gold, and with a laced bever hat on his head, which had been given him by Colonel Fletcher." These and other things seriously alarmed the English. Governor Fletcher wrote to the other colonies, saying there was no safety but in united effort- New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts responded, and a - council met at Albany in August, opened by Dekanissora with a song of peace. Rode, the Mohawk, and Sadekanahtie, the Onondaga, spoke. In a council at Onondaga in 1695, Agueendera, or Sadekanahtie, spoke severely on European pretensions. He said : ' ' We, warriors, are the first and the ancient people, and the greatest of you all. These parts and countries were all inhabited and trod upon by us, the warriors, before any Christian (then stamping hard with his foot on the ground, he said). We shall not suffer Cedarqui to be inhabited again." All that summer, however, seven hundred men were repairing that fort, preparing it for the coming year. Before Frontenac left Montreal to attack Onondaga in 1696, four- Onon dagas were burned there. His force consisted of sixteen hundred French and four hundred and sixty Indians, occupying four hundred boats. The* Indians were mostly with the vanguard, which changed every day. A horse was brought for M. de Callieres, who was lame, and the artillery consisted of two small cannon and two light mortars. The army left La Chine July 6, reaching Fort Frontenac twelve days later, and remaining there till July 26. On the 28th it was at Oswego. One night the troops encamped there and then breast ed the rapid river. Fifty scouts scoured the forests on either side of the stream, close to which marched the main body. Hard work it was pushing the bateaux against the strong current, but the second day brought them to Oswego falls, and the portage began. There the enthusiastic Indians seized the canoe in which the aged count sat, lifted it from the water, and bore it with shouts to the quieter water above. Some battalions did not pass till July 31, making about ten miles after this, probably reaching the favorite camping ground on the site of Phoenix. They were on the east bank, crossing Oneida river next day, and landing on the east shore of Onondaga lake before night. On the way they found a "descriptive drawing of our army on bark, after the manner of the Indians, and two bundles of cut rushes, indicating that fourteen hundred and thirty- four warriors were waiting for us. ' ' The songs of the voyageurs enlivened the trip up the river. Boat after boat took up the old boatman's song, "En Roulant Ma Boule." PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 103 "Derrier' cheznous, ya-t-un etang, En roulant ma boule. Trois beaux canards s'en vont baignant, Rouli, roulant, ma boule roulant. En roulant ma boule roulant. En roulant ma boule. "Trois beaux canards s'en vont baignant, En roulant ma boule. Le fiis du roi s'en va chassant, Rouli, roulant, etc. When the dozen verses came to an end others took up another song, and there rang out: "Dans les prisons de Nantes (bis) Lui ya-t-un prisonnier, gai, f aluron, falurette, Lui ya-t-un prisonnier, gai, faluron, donde. "Que personn ne va voir (bis) Que la fill' dugeolier, gai, faluron, failurette, " etc. More plaintive was the sound when another song told of separation, for some might not return : "II n'est point dans la danse, il est bien loin d'ici ; II est dans la Hollande ; les Hollandais 1 'ont pris, Gai Ion la, gai le rosier du joli mois de Mai." The picturesque army entered the lake in two divisions, remarking how easily the outlet might be defended. They coasted both shores and landed on the east, where the mission house had been. So well had the land been cleared that they had to go nearly a mile for suitable timber for their fort. This was quickly traced out and was completed in two days. August 3d the army advanced a mile farther, carrying their cannon across the marsh, and Ley and Bear creeks. That night, says the journal, "we encamped at a place called the salt springs, which in truth they are. They produce enough salt to make us wish they were near Quebec." This camp was in what is now the First Ward of Syracuse, probably touch ing Washington square. Two Senecas had deserted, carrying such reports of the French army that the Onondagas burned and evacuated their town on the evening of August 2, the French seeing the light from the lake. It was on the east side of the reservoir, a mile south of Jamesville. Frontenac described the fort "as an oblong, flanked by four regular bastions. The two rows of stock ades that touched each other were of the thickness of an ordinary mast, and • outside, at a distance of six feet, stood another row of much smaller dimen sions, but forty or fifty feet in height." The army formed at sunrise in two divisions, August 4, the artillery being in the center of the first, while Count Frontenac was borne in a chair between the two. The most probable route would be not far from Lodi street, a little east of Oakwood, and thence not far from the Jamesville road, if not along it. 104 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY So hard a road was it that it took from sunrise to sunset of an August day to reach the town. On the return the army left Onondaga August 9, camping near the east line of Syracuse, midway to the fort, which was reached and destroyed next day. Three days were spent at Onondaga in cutting down the corn, which ex tended from four to five miles from the fort. Caches were pillaged, filled with grain and goods. An aged Onondaga was tortured on the spot. The official account says that when a savage gave him some cuts of a knife as he stood in the flames : "I thank thee, ' ' saio" he, ' ' but thou oughtest rather to complete my death by fire. Learn, French dogs, how to suffer; and ye savages, their allies, who are dogs of dogs, remember what you will have to do when you occupy a position like mine." The French were impressed by his fortitude. This is the account usually followed, differing widely from that of Lamber ville, who saw his death and knew him well. Indeed he had baptized him when last there, and described him as a benevolent and devout old man, who had been kind to the French. His Canadian relatives asked a quick death for him, the French insisting on a slow fire. The French made quick time down the river, the water of which was falling. They lost their times and harvests ; the Indians their bark houses and crops, but the English made good part of this loss. Charlevoix gave a graphic account bf Frontenac at this time, representing him as a jealous, peevish and obstinate old man. At first he proposed going to Cayuga, destroying the towns and building French forts, not a difficult task. All approved and some volunteered to remain. Before night he resolved to go home, in spite of all remonstrances. To these he replied: "They want to ob scure my glory, and it is time that I should take a little repose." Charlevoix added "that no one of the projects which he formed for completely humbling them succeeded." All went on as before. That the Onondagas did so little to annoy this expedition may be ascribed to the existence of a large French party among them. They certainly were not lacking in courage, but the abandonment of their fort was the only sensible course. Albany was much alarmed by the event, and Governor Fletcher proposed sending a force in pursuit, but this was thought useless. Supplies of corn, however, were not sent down the Hudson till the needs of the Onondagas were relieved. They hunted on the Susquehanna till their fields could be replanted and their town rebuilt. In February, 1697, thirty-three Oneidas went to live at Caughnawaga in Canada, and others wished to take the whole town there, but this the Onondagas woud not allow, resolving that none of their own people should live in Canada. ' In November they sent a peace embassy there, but this returned no prisoners and had a cool reception. The peace of Ryswick came, and soon after, early in 1698, Black Kettle and his party were hunting near Fort Frontenac, having made peace with the French. Over thirty Onondagas were in this band. The French informed the Algonquins, who surprised the party, killing twenty, including Black Kettle and four chiefs, and taking eight prisoners, who were sent to Montreal. The PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 105 Onondagas complained, but Frontenac flung their belt from him. The chief's death was a trifling matter; he would give them something worth crying about. Of Black Kettle's death Colden said: "After he was mortally wounded, he cried out, 'Must I, who have made the whole earth tremble, now die by the Hands of Children?' for he despised the Adirondacks." Frontenac made some threats of a further invasion of Onondaga but Bellomont notified him that he would send troops to protect it, and Captain Nanfan, at Albany, was ordered to march at once to any part of the Iroquois territory threatened by the French. The fiery old Frenchman died late in 1698, at the age of seventy-seven years. Both French and English now saw the need of having agents at Onondaga, and at a great council held there in April, 1699, Captains John Schuyler and John Bleecker, John Baptist Van Epps the interpreter, and Arnout Cornelisse Viele were present. The latter two remained for some time. The French had released all the Onondagas, but the young Indians kicked away their belts. Another council met in Albany June 13, and the Onondagas proposed the building of a fort in their country, and the sending of a minister there. Gover nor Bellomont thought a sod fort with one hundred soldiers quite desirable. In 1700 Father Bruyas wished to go among the Onondagas again, but Bellomont did not approve of this, justly fearing French intrigues ; nor did he like the provisioning of Fort Frontenac by the. Onondagas. That year, how ever, Bruyas came to Onondaga when prisoners were exchanged, but did not remain. Robert Livingston was at Onondaga in April. It was still east of Butter nut creek and was no place for a fort. The town itself must soon be moved for lack of fuel, and was sixteen miles from water unless they went to Kaneenda on Onondaga lake. The people were dejected and uneasy about the French. The French wished to build a fort at Kaneenda, and he thought the English should have one at Three River point. Three commissioners, Peter Schuyler, Robert Livingston and Hendrick Hansen came to the Onondaga fishing place on Chittenango creek, called Kachnawaacharege, April 23. This was near the site of Bridgeport. Three Onondaga sachems met them there. Agueendera was at his fishery beyond Oneida lake, but soon arrived. In a few days all went to Onondaga and were feasted there. The delegates remained for some time, refuting French stories. Stories of poisoning were then prevalent, and Aqueendera went to live awhile on Schuyler's estate on this account, nor did he long survive. At this time Ottawa ambassadors came to Onondaga to make peace for three strong nations. Governor Bellomont held a conference in Albany, August 20, with fifty Iroquois sachems, not allotted as in the condoling song. There were eleven of each nation except the Oneida, and this had six. They were glad to be promised ministers. The French clothed all whom they bap tized, but probably the English would not do this. Plenty of arms now came from England for the Iroquois, and five hundred pounds for the Onondaga sod fort. As much was appropriated by the colony, 106 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY and Bellomont bespoke four hundred wheelbarrows and other tools, but no results followed. The Albany traders did not want it, nor did the French party among the Onondagas, which was quite strong. Thus when Colonel Romer came to select a site he was coldly received, and Dekanissora advised him to wait till all the Five Nations were consulted. His party reached Onondaga on horseback, September 26, and a house was assigned them, but when they wished for a canoe at Kaneenda, they could get none till October 3, when they went to Three River point. It was not a suitable place, and they next visited Kachnawarage, on the River Quohock or^ Chittenango creek, where a good site was found. This seems the high land on the Terwilliger farm, east of the creek and opposite lot 100, Cicero. A stockade was afterward built there. The British engineer went no farther west, but returned to Oneida and visited the carrying place belonging to that people. His map shows his route, and has some odd features. Onondaga lake is the Lake of Canada, usually called Kaneenda by the English, and Gannentaa by the French. Oneida river is the Onondages; Lake Erie is Swege, and Ontario is Cadraggua. Seneca lake is Senagrawen, and Cayuga is -Techero. The village of Onondaga appears on the east side of Kachioiahte, now Butternut creek. The ledge, or perhaps lodge as in one journal, of Sachnawarage as on the map, is on Chittenango creek, here called Quiehook or Quohock. Through some oversight Clark placed these on Oswego river, crediting the names to the early Jesuits. A nameless fort at Oswego was probably a later addition. The Cajouge river takes the place of the Seneca, while the latter enters the Oswego between the Oneida river and Lake Ontario. This map should be used in reading Romer 's journal. The project fell through and after Lord Bellomont 's death, it was agreed in 1702 that Lady Bellomont should refund the money the colony had raised for the fort. An Iroquois embassy to Canada, early this year, had occasioned the visit of Maricourt, Bruyas and Joncaire. This deputation condoled Frontenac 's death and asked that Bruyas and Lamberville might return. A council was held at Montreal July 18, with the Onondagas and Senecas, to arrange pre liminaries. September 8 a treaty of peace was signed, thirteen French prisoners being brought back. At Onondaga Bruyas profited by the tone of Bellomont 's message. Dekanissora went to New York with Lieutenant Governor Nanfan in 1701, and had also dined with the Governor of Canada, who told him of his picture in Paris. These and other attentions pleased him, and the French were in favor again. Bleecker and Schuyler were at Onondaga June 10, but the sachems would do nothing without a full house. June 19 Maricourt came again to Kaneenda, the landing place at Onondaga lake and eight miles from the town, to which he was escorted by the sachems under the French flag. The English were invited, but would not go. Maricourt carried things with a high hand, and Bruyas was with him, to the great delight of his many friends. They were surprised to find Englishmen there. Dekanissora went to Kaneenda to arrange matters with them, and allowed all French captives at Onondaga to return. Some had married and would not go. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 107 That year Dekanissora made a shrewd speech in the council. He wanted good clothes to wear to church. A bearskin was not the proper thing. Also he would have a minister from those who sold the cheapest goods. Aqueendera or Sadekanahtie had died during the winter, and his suc cessor took his title. In the notice of the former's death he is called Sakoghs- innakichte, equivalent to the council name of the Onondagas. Nanfan now held a conference with the Five Nations at Albany, July 10, when the first Beaver land trust deed was given, covering an immense tract. This was done for ?their security. The new chief signed this, as he did the later one. At a council in Philadelphia, April 23, 1701, Ahookassongh was present, and was called "the brother of the great Emperor of the Onondagas." William Penn had addressed a letter from London, June 25, 1682, "To the Emperor of Canada, ' ' intending the same ruler, which is curious. He said : "The Great God that made thee and me, and all the world, incline our hearts to love, peace and justice, that we may live friendly together, as becomes the workmanship of the great God. The King of England, who is a Great Prince, hath for Divers Reasons Granted to me a large country in America, which, however, I am willing to enjoy upon friendly terms with thee. And this I will say, that the people who comes with me are a just, plain, and honest people, that neither make war upon others nor fear war from others, because they will be just. I have sett up a Society of Traders in my Province, to traffick with thee and thy people for your Commodities, that you may be furnished with that which is good at reasonable rates. And this Society hath ordered their president to treat with thee about a future trade, and have joined with me to send their messenger to thee, with certain presents from us, to testify our willingness to have a fair correspondence with thee. And what this agent shall do in our names we will agree unto. I hope thou wilt kindly receive him and comply with his desires- on our behalf, both with respect to land and trade. The Great God be with thee. Amen." In 1702 Dekanissora said half the Onondagas desired a French priest, half an English. Lamberville had a house and chapel there in 1702 and Maricourt installed him in this. A smith and lay brother remained with him. He was well received by all except Dekanissora 's family, and of them there are con flicting accounts. The second Garakontie died that year, and Charlevoix said that the old chief "found more than once the means of defeating the intrigues of the English, and to him we were frequently indebted for safety in the most serious difficulties." His nephew became French agent. At Philadelphia in 1706 an Indian showed a belt of twenty-one rows "which Belt, he said, was a pledge of peace formerly delivered by the Ononda- goe Indians, one of the Five Nations to the Nantikokes, when they made the said Nantikokes tributaries," which was twenty-six years before. The next year they took twenty belts and some strings to Onondaga. As they went the Conestogas told them not to be afraid. "You will find the King of the Five Nations a very great one, and as good a king as any among the -Indians." Nearly half a century later the Onondagas removed the Nanticokes to what is 108 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY now Broome county, where the name still occurs. They "had the singular practice of exhuming and carrying with them their dead when th^ formed a new settlement. In 1704 Baron de Longueuil succeeded Maricourt at Onondaga, he having died. The resuming of Jesuit operations alarmed the. New York council, their political influence being feared and in April, 170$, Major Dirck Wessel had been ordered to go to Onondaga and report what was going on. Nothing farther was said about this for several years. French soldiers often deserted and one of these was killed by an Onon-.* daga in 1708. The French asked redress ; the Onondaga replied that they had declared such men already dead, and they had to yield. An Englishman spent some months that year among the Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas. When he proposed a fort at Gaskonchiague or Oswego Falls, and another at the head of Lake Thiroguen or Oneida, the Onondagas refused the first request and referred the other to the Oneidas. Father d'Heu also wrote from Onondaga, May 24, 1708, that two Ononda gas had gone to the Gannaouans in Virginia, they having had an ambuscade near Onondaga the year before. They carried several belts. They were also troubled over the pretended settlement of Ottawas at Fort Frontenac and Niagara, and the French posts at Niagara and La Galette. All this would be to their disadvantage in case of war. The English blacksmith had returned to Onondaga, but the French party hid the anvil in the priest's house, eventually giving it up. They wanted a French smith, which he thought "would be very important for the good of religion and the French colony. ' ' That year the Indian Montour family attracted attention. The father was a Frenchman who had a son and two daughters by an Indian wife. By Vau- dreuil's order Joncaire killed him in 1721. In 1708 the son brought a party of the Far Indians to trade at Albany, who had come eight hundred miles. There may have been other families of the name but this seems the notable one. The active Joncaire could not be everywhere and in 1709 while he was with the Senecas, Abraham Schuyler came to Onondaga to sing the war song. He gave the hatchet to the Indians, induced Father Lamberville to report at Montreal, and then persuaded Father de Mareuil that his life was in danger, and took him to Albany. Some Onondagas then pillaged and burned his 'home and chapel. Joncaire heard of this and returned to the Senecas, where Father d'Heu then was. De la Chauviniere, however, came to Onondaga the next year and was well received. De Longueuil and Joncaire also made proposals there to the Onondagas and Oneidas in July, threatening to destroy them if they took the English side. Then the Onondagas wished for an English fort, and also that strong drink might be forbidden in their castles. It was destroy ing them. De Lonqueuil, Joncaire and others were at Onondaga in April, 1711, to build a trading house, bringing with them six hundred pounds in presents, mostly ammunition. Colonel Schuyler was sent there at once with six men. The Onondagas had given the French a lot in the midst of their castle, and they began work April 19. Schuyler reached there May 17, but the French had PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 109 stopped work and gone to Kaneenda, at the lake. A council was held next day and Sehu^Ir obtained leave to destroy the block house, which was done the following day, with the lumber that had been sawed for a chapel. The block house was twenty-four and one-half by eighteen feet, covered with boards and nailed. In the French party were twenty-four officers and men. Five hundred Iroquois came to Albany, August, 24, receiving a salute of five guns as they passed the fort, after the French custom. In the council each nation sat by itself. Lieutenant General Nicholson had brought a set of pic tures of the four chiefs who had lately visited England, which were in glazed frames, and were to be hung up in the council house at Onondaga. Queen Anne had ordered forts to be built and missionaries sent. She also sent two# communion sets, one of which was for the Onondagas, and is now in St. Peter's church, Albany. As there was then no Onondaga chapel the full gift* may not have been made, but the following articles were given the Mohawks : "One Communion Table cloth, two damask napkins, one carpet for the Communion Table, one Altar cloth, one pulpit cloth, one large cushion with tassels for the pulpit, one small ditto for the desk, one Holland surplice, one large Bible, two common prayer books, one wholly for the clerk, one book of Homilies, one large silver salver, one ditto small, t"*o large silver flagons, one silver dish, one silver chalice with four of her Majesty's Imperial Arms painted on canvass, one for the chapel and three for so many castles. Beside which his Grace of Cantebury, for their edification and comfort has sent by the Sorling : two large octavo Bibles very finely bound for the use of the two chapels amongst the Mohawks and Onondagas, with two painted tables containing the Lord's Prayer, the Creed and Ten Commandments, at more than twenty guineas expense. To which the Society have added a table of their Seal, finely painted in proper colors to be fixed likewise in the chapel of the Mohawks, with some few sermons in quarto and octavo to be distributed in the Province ; all which as per advice of his Excellency Governor Hunter, were safely ar rived last fall with Mr. Andrews, who, 'tis hoped will not be long without a neighbour and colleague among the Onondagas ; for whose chappel when built the like furniture is prepared and sent over by order of her Majesty and power is given to General Nicholson and Governor Hunter to forward a missionary thither, if need be, till the Society shall make other provision." The above is from the Abstract of the Society for the Propagation of the gospel, 1712-13. St. Peter's church has added a cup in facsimile. The in scription on the several pieces of the Onondaga set is "The Gift of Her Majesty Ann, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland, and of Her Plantations in North America, Queen, to her Indian chapel of the Onon- dawgus." Each of the flagons is twelve and one-half inches high, with a basal diameter of seven and one-fourth inches. The cup is four and one-half inches across the top; the large paten eight and seven-eighths and the smaller five and three-fourth inches, while the alms basin is just a foot in diameter. Each piece has centrally the British arms without supporters, A being on one side instead and R on the other. The inscription follows the circular outline of the 110 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY alms basin and patens, being on the underside of the smaller. On the flagons and chalice it is in horizontal lines. No date appears on these. " In 1711 a contract was made to build these forts and chapels, all to be completed by July 1, 1713. When the Mohawk work was done the contractors were to ' ' Repair to Onondaga and there Build Another ffort, Chapel and block houses of the same demensions and under the same restrictions and directions as ye aforesaid fort, chaple and block houses in the Mohawks Country, except ing only that ye chaplee and block houses in Onondage may be singled upon laths instead of boards, and ye ffort, chaple and block houses may be made of such logs as may be conveniently got there, Provided they are good and suffi cient for that service and the flores to be laid wth splet wood, in ye place and stead of boards." The specifications referred to were that the fort was to be " One hundred and fifty foot square the curtains made with loggs of a foot square laid one upon another and pined together .till they reach the. height of twelve foot. At each corner a block house twenty-four foot square two storyes high, duble loop holes, the rofe to be covered with boards and then shingled, the undermost part or ground room to be nine foot high the upper eight foot, both well floured with boards, the logs of ye block houses to be nine inches square and bedsteads and benches in each B (1) ock house for twenty men and in each block house a chemney towards ye inside of ye said ffort with scaffolds five foot wide along Each cortain from one block house to another. And also a chaple in the middle of the ffort of twenty-four foot square, one storye ten foot high with a garret over it well coverd wth boards & singled & well flowrd. A seller of fifteen foot square under it, covered with loggs and then with earth, the whole chaple to be well floured." The Onondaga fort was to be near the town and water, but was not built. At this council the Five Nations wished the war to continue, and De kanissora said they did not fight like the whites : "When we have war against any nation we endeavor to destroy them utterly. ' ' The queen V arms in their castles would not defend them ; they wanted powder and ball. In 1712 Joncaire was at Onondaga, and Vaudreuil sent Longueuil and Chauvignerie there, as Peter Schuyler had been there twice and had brought Madame Montour and her husband to remove jealousies created by the French. Lawrence Claese went with them. The Delawares also brought thirty-two belts to Onondaga, having been subject to the Iroquois since about 1650. Some of the Senecas went to Montreal, but the other four nations continued their meetings at Onondaga, and built war canoes. The peace of Utrecht came and the hatchet was taken out of their hands. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 111 CHAPTER XL FROM THE PEACE OF UTRECHT TO THE WAR OF 1754. The most important event of 1714 was the settling of the Tuscaroras be tween the Onondagas and Oneidas, and their reception as the sixth nation of the league, though not on a level with the rest. There were idle reports the next year of an intended French fort at Onondaga, the French still contin uing their intrigues there. These troubled those in power only as they affected trade, private profit eclipsing public good. Longueuil was at Onondaga in 1716, and thought a fort was necessary at Niagara. The next year the Onondaga speaker asked Longueuil and his son, Joncaire, and Chauvignerie to come to their villages freely, they having adopted the last two. In 1721 Longueuil was adopted by the Onondagas, and was much of the time with them. June 20 John Durant, a French chaplain, met Joncaire at Oswego, returning from Onondaga. He said he had beaten the bush and De Longueuil would take the birds. Next day Durant met the latter and Chauvignerie above Oswego Falls, and he said four nations had given him good words. These falls had the same name as those on the Genessee river, causing some confusion of places. At a council in 1724 Governor Burnet said that he had kept some young men two years in the Seneca country, with a smith, and heard they had a good house. Others were willing to live among the Onondagas, and would build a house at the mouth of their river. This led to a fuller examination of Wood creek and the Oneida carrying place. Colden 's papers, that year, helped the founding of Oswego, which Burnet preferred to Oneida lake. Dekanis sora was still speaker, and was to advise with Burnet on all important matters. Charlevoix described the mouth of Oswego river as he passed in 1721. In 1725 the Canadian Iroquois sent word that if the Five Nations al lowed the English to build a fort at Oswego they would make war on them, but they thought better of this. Longueuil met one hundred Englishmen at Oswego Falls, who made him show his pass, on which he told the Iroquois they were no longer masters of their own country. At their town the Onon dagas told him they had agreed to the English going to Gaskonchiague, or Oswego Falls, six leagues from the lake. Rules were made about trading there, which were soon transferred to Oswego. De Vaudreuil had before said "that the English had proposed a settle ment at the mouth of the River Choueguen, on the banks of Lake Ontario, a territory which had always been considered to belong to France." This must be prevented, for it meant the loss of Niagara and all the western Indian trade, but if the Onondagas approved of the plan, it could not be stopped. He went to Onondaga in October about this, and got permission to build a stone house at Niagara, and place two vessels on Lake Ontario. There are some references to Oswego before it was built. De Longueuil, July 26, 1726, ordered his son not to return to Niagara "until the English and 112 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Dutch have retired from Choueguen, where they have passed the entire sum mer, to the number of three hundred men, and to have their canoes plundered should he meet any of them trading in the lake." His son replied in September "that there are no more Englishmen at Choueguen, aloug the lake, nor in the river." In May, 1726, the Duke of Newcastle wrote to Horatio Walpole (uncle of Horace), on the demand of the French governor, for the demolition of a fort built at Oswego by Governor Burnet. Meantime the French proposed erecting a fort there themselves. The Five Nations had signed a trust deed of their beaver lands in 1701, and now the Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas confirmed this, adding another trust deed to the English of their residence lands on the south side of Lakes Erie and Ontario, sixty miles inland. The Mohawks and Oneidas were not parties to this, having no lands along these lakes. Sadegeenaghtie, the Onon daga chief, who signed the first deed, signed this also. Governor Burnet got three hundred pounds from New York for building the Oswego house, and commenced it in the spring of 1727. Being advised that the French might interfere he sent sixty soldiers there, besides the workmen. Two hundred traders were on the spot. The permanent garrison would be an officer and twenty men. The walls were four feet thick, and it was finished in August. The French demanded its abandonment and destruction, but the matter was referred to the two crowns. When Chauvignerie went on an embassy to Onondaga in 1728, then in Onondaga valley, the sachems met him on the lake three leagues from Oswego, and told him he must fire the first salute and lower his flag when he passed the fort. He refused and asked whose land it was. The Onondagas said it belonged to them. He landed, pitched his tent, but refused to enter the fort or strike his flag, which he kept up day and night while he stayed. No salutes were exchanged, and he would not allow an Onondaga to raise a British flag over his canoe. Half a. league from Onondaga the chiefs met him, and he marched in under the French flag, placing it over Ononwaragon's cabin. He employed some sachems to bewail that chief's death, that of his nephew and of the Onondagas generally. Too much rum was carried to the Indians, and in 1730 Jacob Brower, a trader was murdered by an Onondaga at Oswego Falls. The Indians made satisfaction, and testified that he was duly interred. The names of many officers at Oswego might be given, but this is not required here. The lands belonging to the Onondagas and Cayugas in Pennsylvania now caused frequent visits there. Sonachahregi and six other Onondagas were at Philadelphia in 1734, and the next year Togohaghski, an Onondaga chief, was sent to persuade the Shawnees to return from the south. He was killed. Con rad Weiser, the Pennsylvania interpreter, was sent on a perilous trip, to Onon daga in 1737, nearly perishing in the snow. He was a favorite with the In dians, who called him Tarachwagon. A few years later, in a Pennsylvania council, Canassatego said they had adopted him and "divided him into two equal parts ; one we kept ourselves, and one we left for you. He has had a great deal of trouble with us, wore out his shoes in our messages, and dirtied NEW COURT HOUSE, SYRACUSE. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 113 his clothes by being among us, so that he is as nasty as an Indian." They therefore gave him money to buy new clothes, and wished the governor to do the same. This Onondaga chief was both able and witty, and Dr. Franklin told a good story of one of his interviews with Conrad Weiser. The chief said : "Conrad, you have lived among the white people, and know something of their customs. I have sometimes been at Albany, and have observed that once in seven days they shut up their shops, and assemble all in the great house; tell me what it is for; what do they do there?" "They meet there," says Conrad, "to hear and learn good things." "I do not doubt," says the Indian, "that they tell you so; they have told me the same, but I doubt the truth of what they say, and I will tell you my reasons. I went lately to Albany to sell my skins and to buy blankets, knives, powder, rum, etc. You know I used generally to deal with Hans Hanson, but I was a little inclined this time to try some other merchants. However, I called first upon Hans, and asked him what he would pay for beaver. He said lie could not give more than four shillings a pound ; but, said he, I can not talk on business now, this is the day when we meet together to learn good things, and I am going to the meeting. So I thought to myself, since I can not do any business to-day, I may as well go to the meeting, too ; so I went with him. There stood up a man in black, and began to talk to the people very angrily. I did not under stand what he said, but perceiving that he looked much at me and Hanson, I imagined he was angry at seeing me there; so I went out, sat down near the house, struck fire, and lighted my pipe, waiting till the meeting should break up. I thought, too, that the man had mentioned something of beaver, and I suspected it might be the subject of their meeting.- So, when they came out, I accosted the merchant. Well, Hans, says I, I hope you have agreed to give more than four shillings a pound. No, says he, I can not give so much. 'I can not give more than three shillings and sixpence. I then spoke to several other dealers, but they all sang the same song, three and sixpence — three and six pence. This made it clear to me that my suspicion was right, and that what ever they pretended of meeting to learn good things, the real purpose was to consult how to cheat Indians in the price of beaver." This chief was thus described in 1744: "He was a tall, well-made man, had a very full chest and brawny limbs. He had a manly countenance, mixed with a good-natured smile. He was about sixty years of age, very active, strong, and had a surprising liveliness in his speech." He died in 1750. The Onondagas and Senecas went to Canada in July, 1742, and Onon- waragon, grand sachem of Onondaga, spoke. The Senecas said the Onondagas took down the French flag when they reached Oswego on their way home, and hoisted the English. The Senecas kept up the French flag, shrewdly adding that they had thus worn it out, and wanted another. The Onondagas had moved westerly some years before, and were now on the east side of Onondaga creek. In 1743 John Bartram and Lewis Evans came there with Conrad Weiser, who was on public business. They visited Oswego, where Bartram cut his name on the wall of the fort. 114 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY June 22, 1744, there arrived at Lancaster, Penn., two hundred and fifty- two Iroquois to attend a council, of which Witham Marshe gave a full and picturesque account. Some of the squaws and children were on horseback. The men brought their guns, bows and arrows and tomahawks. "They marched in very good order, with Canassatego, one of the Onondaga chiefs, at their head, who, when he came near to the courthouse wherein we were dining sung in the Indian language a song, inviting us to a renewal of all treaties heretofore made, or about to be made. (Materials were supplied for huts.) They will not, on any occasion whatsoever, dwell or stay in houses built by white people. They place their cabins according to the rank each nation of them holds in their grand council. The Onondagoes nation were placed on the right hand and upper end. ' ' Beside Canassatego and others, Tocanuntie, or the Black Prince of the Onondagas, was a prominent speaker. Marshe described him as a "tall, thin man; old, and not as well featured as Canassatego. I believe he may be near the same age with him. He is one of the greatest warriors that ever the Five Nations produced, and has been a great war captain for many years past." He died while on his way home from Philadelphia in 1749. War between France and England began again early in 1744, and caused a great fright at Oswego. Governor Clinton said to the Assembly August 20 : "It must be inferred that the province has suffered considerable damage this summer by the precipitate retreat of our Indian traders from Oswego, upon notice of the French war ; most of them, you will find, left the place im mediately upon the alarm, sold what they could of their goods to those few of their brethren that had sense, courage and resolution to stay behind, and brought the remainder back with them. . . . How mean an opinion must the savages entertain of us when they find our people so easily frightened, as it were/ with a shadow." The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, /October 18, 1744, restored peace for a con siderable time, and the Indian trade again flourished. Much of it had its way along the Oneida river, and the Onondagas close by watched and profited by this. Oswego could undersell Niagara, and became an important center. With a new embassy to Onondaga in 1745, confided to Conrad Weiser, came the first Moravians here, Bishop Spangenberg being one of the party. Their visits will be treated separately, being barely noticed in the general history. Of Weiser 's acts at this time a full account has been preserved. The route was that of 1743; up the Susquehanna to Owego, and then across the country by way of the Tully lakes to Onondaga. The party left Weiser 's May 19 and reached Onondaga June 6. The two journals are quite distinct. The Iroquois would not go to Williamburg, Virginia. It was too far ; but they would go to Philadelphia about the Catawba war. The , next year Colonel William Johnson became prominent among the Mohawks, his influence rapidly extending. He reported that a great council was to be held at Onondaga in the winter, and was ordered to attend. The French were not idle. Chauviniere went to Onondaga in 1747, to condole those who had died of smallpox. He tried to make peace by a great belt seven PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 115 feet long and six inches broad, but was told the Iroquois had taken up the English hatchet. All along the rivers Canadian scalping parties interfered with supplies for Oswego. In 1748 Johnson got six months' provisions through, holding a council at Onondaga in the spring. It was the hardest trip he ever had taken, but his kind reception made full amends. The Indians, however, were angry and disgusted because of imbecile measures. In that year Father Picquet chose a spot for a fort and new mission on the site of Ogdensburg, at the mouth of the Oswegatchie river, where he built a fort and storehouse in 1749. Many Onondagas went there to live, and it be came a thorn in the side of New York, the military features being more promi nent than the religious. M. DuQuesne said that Picquet was worth more than ten regiments, and others, that to him the French were indebted for the de struction of all the English forts. Encouraged by this the French asked leave to build a fort at Onondaga. In a letter dated September 30, 1750, Weiser spoke of the discouraging prospects at Onondaga, where he then was: "Our friend Canassatego was buried to-day before I came to Onondaga, and Soleonwanaghly, our other good friend, died some time before. He that is on the head of affairs now is a professed Roman Catholic, and altogether de voted to the French. The French priests have made a hundred converts of the Onondagas, that is to say, men, women and children, and they are all clothed, and walk in the finest clothes, dressed with silver and gold, and I believe that the English interest among the Six Nations can be of no considera tion any more. ' ' They spoke contemptuously of the English, and especially of the New York colonists. When Weiser arrived there that year, he said: "I took my lodging, as usual, with Tohashwachdiony, a house which stood now by itself, the rest of the Onondagas having moved over the creek, some a mile, two miles, three miles off. Saristquouh came to see me; so did Hatachsogu, two chiefs." His host was the French partisan of whom he had spoken, and of whom Johnson soon made a strong friend. Weiser was allowed to condole Canassatego, and thus do business, though this was unusual so soon after death. In 1751 a grand council was held at Albany, in which peace was made with a large embassy of Catawbas. "Having lit their pipes, the king and one more put them into the mouths of the chief sachems of the Six Nations." Soon after Johnson became discouraged at the lack of means and energy, offered his resignation, and sent a belt to all the nations to say he was no longer their agent. The French were again scheming for a fort at Onondaga lake; to prevent this he now held a conference with the Onondagas, and they granted him the lake, with the land for a mile all around. He paid them three hundred and fifty pounds, and had a deed duly made and signed before witnesses. As he did this for the public good, he asked the Assembly to reimburse him and take the title. This was refused, but his title was confirmed. He took no further steps, and bequeathed it to his son, Sir John. The title was lost through confiscation. That year, too, the Bunt came to Oswego, telling 116 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY of the French forts further west. He was an influential Onondaga chief, who retired from office in 1774 on account of old age. A great friend of Johnson, he did much for the English. His proper name was Otsinoghiyata, or the Sinew. Many of the Onondagas were now living on the Ohio, and a Dunkard tried to buy some land there, but "the Indians made answer that it was not in their power to dispose of lands; that he must apply to the council at Onondaga." Weiser was sent there in June, but met the Indians at Albany, delivered his message and returned. Governor de la Jonquiere held a council with some Onondagas July 11, 1751. They claimed the Ohio land through the Erie conquest, and he said no settlements should be made without their consent. This was thought a mis take, as La Salle discovered the river, when no Iroquois were there, but only Shawnees, who were friends of the French. The Shawnees, however, had no title, being placed there as Iroquois tributaries. War parties went against the Cherokees in 1752, and that year three Mo ravians visited Onondaga. French traders also came, and in that year Johnson was there buying ginseng, then an important article of trade. In the spring of 1753 part of a French army passed Oswego, going to the Ohio, alarming the Indians and diminishing French influence. Weiser again came from Phila delphia by way of New York. He was kindly received by Johnson, who told him he might go to Onondaga, but thought it needless. Johnson himself went there in September to bury the hatchet, condole the death of three sachems, and thus rekindle the council fire. It had been extinguished by their deaths, and they must be condoled before business could go on. The sachems met him a mile east of the town, according to custom, and Kaghs- woughtiony, or Red Head, made a speech. It was now customary to hold a council at Albany every other year. Governor De Lancey thought a messen ger might profitably be sent to Onondaga in the intermediate year, with a small present. Andrew Montour, was also sent to Onondaga that year to invite the Indians to a council at Winchester, Virginia, but they declined going. He said "he saw plainly the Indians were frighted, and that there was a strong party for the French among the Indians, and the Senecas particularly were in their interest." He was there in February and again in August. That year two Moravians came to Onondaga by way of Susquehanna and. Tioughnioga rivers, nearly all the way in a canoe. This was a new route from Pennsylvania, though Weiser returned by water in 1737. Part of the way they were with the Nanti cokes, then removing to New York. The next year Zeisberger and Charles Frederick went to Onondaga by way of the Mohawk river and Oneida lake, being there from July 21, 1754, till May 18, 1755. This. was the last and longest Moravian residence there, their Delaware missions now engrossing their atten tion. The western Indians were restive. George Croghan wrote to Governor Hamilton May 14, 1754, "ye government may have what opinion they will of ye Ohio Indians, and think they are oblig'd to do what ye Onondago Counsel PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 117 will bid them, butt I ashure y'r honour they will actt for themselves att this time without consulting ye Onondago Councel." The emigration alarmed those remaining at home, for their power was thus weakened, and the nation was exhorted to live in one castle, as it had done in earlier days. Most of those who had gone to Oswegatchie were Onondagas, and some said half of that people were there. It was time that the English should see their danger. Johnson said the French should be kept out of Onondaga river by a stricter watch at Oswego, and that Englishmen should be placed in each of the Six Nations. Besides this there should be forts, with missionaries, among the Onondagas and Senecas. Educated young men should go, and these might be come interpreters and catechists. Governor "De Lancey said the commander of a fort at Onondaga might be made a sachem, and have a voice in councils. The French increased their influence by such adoption. A digression may be made here on the subject of blacksmiths. Primitive implements could be repaired by the Indians themselves, but when iron and steel were used, there was need of a higher art. The Indians must carry their injured articles to the whites, or the smiths must come to them. It was soon seen that the smith might have political influence through personal contact. He would soon know every man, and his smithy would be an attractive place. The Indians would love to "see the flaming forge and hear the bellows roar." The experiment had been tried elsewhere. Even at Onondaga, in the preceding century, there had been a strife to see who should have the anvil, and provide the important smith. So it was proposed to the colonies of Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York in 1747, "that a gunsmith be sent to each of the tribes following, viz: The Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas, and two men with each gun smith, to continue until next spring, and that goods valued at three hundred and sixty pounds, New York currency, be sent by them," as a sort of politi cal fund. A blacksmith's pay varied from sixty pounds to seventy pounds, with some extras, but he usually remained but six months. William Printup was the smith at Onondaga in 1750, and had sixty pounds for services, and for sundries, five pounds twelve shillings nine and one-half pence. Hendrick Herkimer was gunsmith there from October, 1748, to April, 1749, having two helpers. For services and materials he was paid seventy pounds. At about the same rate, Ryer Booen was paid from November, 1747, to May, 1749. He carried goods to Onondaga, with two men and a gunsmith. For this he was paid eighty-eight pounds twelve shillings. In 1742 it cost twenty-one pounds seven and one-half pence to set up the bellows, anvil and vise at Cayuga. A congress of seven colonies met at Albany, June 19, 1754, planning to have a colonial union established by Parliament. Those represented were Con necticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylva nia and Rhode Island. Carolina and Virginia desired to be considered pres ent. There was also an Indian conference. Weiser was at this council, and the Pennsylvania land treaty was adjusted. The Half King had died and the Indians were disturbed by French aggressions. So they sent Scarrooyady and 118 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY two other chiefs to Onondaga to report general conditions. He was an Oneida, succeeding the Half King, or Tanacharisson. These two had warned the French three times to leave the Ohio lands, according to the Iroquois custom. The former gave this reason: "Because, said he, the Great Being who lives above, has ordered us to send Three Messages of Peace before we make War; and as the Half King had before this Time delivered the third and last message, we had nothing now to do but strike the French." CHAPTER XII. FROM THE BEGINNING OF WAR IN 1754 TO THE CONQUEST OF CANADA. Hostilities began near the Ohio in 1754, without a formal declaration of war. The New York Assembly strengthened Oswego and doubled its garrison. Governor Shirley, of Massachusetts, was next in command to Braddock, and at a council of war, April 14, 1755, advised an advance on Niagara by way of Oswego, and the placing of a fleet on Lake Ontario sufficient to command its waters. This would cut the French line in two, and the western forts would fall. Braddock thought otherwise, and marched to his fate. Colonel Williams and King Hendrick were killed at Lake George, but Johnson was knighted and made a major general for his moderate success. Governor Shirley was active and two independent companies from Albany, and two companies from Sir William Pepperell 's regiment were sent to Oswego, where a twelve-gun schooner was launched in June. He also sent three hun dred ship carpenters there to build ships. Colonel Schuyler's New Jersey regiment followed in July, and in August Shirley embarked at Schenectady with about fifteen hundred men, reaching Oswego August 21. He pushed forward the building of the fleet, quickly adding two row galleys and eight whaleboats, with more later. For the Niagara expedition he chose six hun dred regular troops, placing the ordnance stores and guns on the Ontario, part of the provisions on the Oswego, while the rest was made ready for the galleys and boats. Storms detained him thirteen days, the troops became sick, and the expedition was given up. The plan was successful at a later day. Colonel Lydius had made a fraudulent purchase of the Wyoming and Shamokin lands for a Connecticut company in 1754, which caused much trouble later. Hendrick and some Mohawks were in Philadelphia January 15, 1755, and said this deed should be destroyed, but he could not do it. It could only be done at Onondaga. He advised a meeting of two chiefs from each nation to settle the matter: "But then, as it is a War Time, We advise that this be done as soon as possible, for we who are here to-day may not be here to-morrow."" He was killed that year. Scarrooyady made a report March 31. The Mohawks advised him to go to Onondaga, "but hearing on all sides that the Onondagas were not well PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 119 affected to the English," he stopped at Oneida, where French influence was really much stronger. The Oneidas said this was wise, and added : ' ' Nobody cared now to do business at Onondaga. All persons who were in the English interest and had business to do with the Six Nations of late came round about Onondaga and passed by the town." Till 1755 a large French trade was carried on at Albany with the Caugh- nawagas, the Indians preferring English strouds to French goods, and it was much the same at Oswego. In June Johnson had a warrant from General Braddock as sole superintendent of the Six Nations, their allies and depend ents. June 21 we have "Hon. Wm. Johnson's first public speech to the In dians" as superintendent, translated into Mohawk by Daniel Clause, and de livered for Johnson by Red Head, the Onondaga speaker. Pie removed the council fire from Albany to Mount Johnson, and his emblem of a bundle of sticks was as much applauded by the courteous Indians as though it were new to them. There were eleven hundred and six present, more men than he had ever seen at a council. The Elder Brothers (Mohawks, Onondagas and Sene cas) made Red Head speaker, and an Indian reported that the Oswegatchie settlement had been broken up for want of provisions. Oh the other hand, Fort Frontenac had been strengthened. The Onondagas asked for a fort, as they would fight the French. At this time the French governor said all were in the French interest except the Mohawks and Onondagas. The year 1756 was a disastrous one for New York. In March Lieutenant de Lery destroyed Fort Bull, at the Oneida carrying place. Three expeditions planned by the English against Ticonderoga, Niagara and DuQuesne, failed. Niagara and Frontenac were strengthened by the French; Oswego surrendered to them. The Earl of Loudon was now commander-in-chief, and was author ized to furnish all Johnson required for forts or smiths among the Indians. Some Onondagas condoled Johnson for the loss of Fort Bull in April, and desired an early council in their town. As it would be large, and they had few provisions, they wished him to send some for their guests. Orders we're given for the Onondaga fort, April 30, a century after the French fort was built at Onondaga lake, affairs having changed meantime. The site is on the terrace above the creek, on Webster's Mile Square, and the building specifications have been preserved. They are as follows : "Instructions to Mr. Jacob Vroman, head carpenter, going to Onondaga to build a fort for the Indians : "You are to repair with your best diligence, with the men under your direction, to Onondaga, and there to consult with the Indians of that nation on a proper spot to build a fort, which fort is to be one hundred and fifty feet square, the logs to be either pine or oak, sixteen feet long, four feet of which to be set in the ground; well rammed and pounded; two sides of each log to be square, so that they may stand slose to each other ; proper loopholes to be cut at four feet distance; the height from the ground to be left to the Indians; two good block houses to be built at either gate of the opposite corners. Each block house to be twenty-four feet square below the upper 120 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY part; above the beams to project a foot, so as men may fire down upon the enemy. "You are to floor the block houses, shingle the roofs, and build a good sentry box on the top of each house, and two strong gates of oak plank, of three inches thick, to be set up in the properest places, with strong iron hinges. You are to keep an exact account of the number of days each man works, and of the horses also, and see that they work faithfully .- "Lastly you are to take care that none of your party quarrel with or, use any of the Indians ill, or sell them any liquor, at their peril. "Given under my hand at Fort Johnson, this 30th day of April, 1756. WM. JOHNSON." June 18, 1756, Johnson condoled the death of Kaghswoughtioni, or Red Head, at Onondaga. His name means Belt of Wampum lying down. Sir William had changed his love for the French into love for himself. He was the host of Spangenberg in 1745, and Weiser always lodged at his house. The Cayugas, as Younger Brothers, took charge for the Older Brothers, who were mourning. The procession was formed a mile from the town, and marched to the wood side fire in sight of the castle. There the Onondaga chiefs 'and warriors sat silently in a half circle across the road. In the hour's halt there the usual ceremonies took place, hands were shaken and the visitors wel comed. The procession formed again, Johnson at the head, the sachems falling into line and continuing the great condoling song. As they entered the town a salute was fired by both sides, and under a green arbor addresses concluded the day. The full ceremony took place on the next day. At this time the Onondagas asked that Lieutenant Mills might command their fort, and that William Printup might be their smith. The latter name is still found at Onondaga. Van Seiee was then interpreter there. Johnson also gave the Six Nations "the largest pipe in America, made on purpose," to be hung up in the Onondaga council house as a token of peace, and smoked at all important councils. Many belts were used on this occasion. June 20 Johnson encamped by the lake, five miles from the castle, td be near his boats, provisions and presents, and a long council followed. An Oswe- gatchie Indian reported that the French meant to build a fort at Oswego Falls, and another at the west end of Oneida lake. Other parties were to ravage the Mohawk valley. Messengers announced the death of the Nanticoke king at Otseningo. Delawares, Shawnees and others came June 27, and the new Half King was present. It was a great council. June 28 the war song was sung, and Johnson promised them a roasted ox at the war dance next day, the first barbecue at Onondaga lake. July 1 they gave him leave to open a road to Oswego. The Oneidas and Tuscaroras would help make it from German Flats to Canaseraga, and the Onondagas thence to Oswego. He also placed a medal on the Onondaga speaker's neck. The road mentioned would cross the Seneca river above Three River point and follow the west bank to Oswego. He also had leave to build a fort at Oswego Falls, but it must be destroyed at the end of the war. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 121 August 4 Montcalm left Fort Frontenac with a strong army. The first division reached Niaoure (now Chaumont) bay August 6. This was the general rendezvous. The second division arrived two days later. That day a vanguard was sent forward, which landed at a cove some miles east of Oswego, and thence the army went to another about a mile from the river. Siege operations began on the 11th and ended on the 14th, after a moderate defense. Colonel Mercer was killed and the fort was surrendered, with the work known as Fort Oswego, on the west bank of the river. The French outnumbered the English at least two to one, and of the fifteen hundred and twenty prisoners, many were mechanics and laborers, but the French were surprised at the ease of their task. The spoils were seven vessels of war, two hundred bateaux, and a great amount of ordnance and stores. By August 21 they had destroyed everything possible and left for home. Previous to the fall of Oswego there had been many skirmishes in the vicinity, of which the most notable was that at Battle Island and Oswego Falls. De Villiers had a camp of nine hundred men on Niaoure bay, whence he sent out war parties. One of these attacked Colonel Bradstreet and his bateaumen July 3, about nine miles above Oswego. French and English accounts of the affair differ, of course. According to the latter Bradstreet, with three hun dred men, was attacked by seven hundred French and Indians, who were on the east shore. He landed on quite a small island, just above what js now called Battle Island. Six men enabled him to hold this against the first at tack, and with six more the second attack was repulsed. More aid came and the French were driven back a third time. Then the assailed crossed to the west shore that they might not be cut off. The pursuers were driven back with great loss. Another large party of French crossed a mile above and the fight covered a distance of two miles, lasting from 3 to 6 p. m. After the final retreat of the French, Captain Patten arrived with one hundred grena diers. He was going from Onondaga to Oswego, and heard the firing when four miles farther up the river. The French reported that they defeated five hundred English and destroyed two hundred out of three hundred bateaux, with but small loss. There can be no question as to the massacre of part of the Oswego garri son. The French themselves said their Indians "perpetrated a multitude of horrors, and assasinated more than one hundred persons included in the capitu lation, without our being able to prevent them, or having the right to remon strate." The Onondagas proved their character as "men of business" by securing some of the provisions left at Oswego, nor did they hesitate to con gratulate the victors. They and the Oniedas had sent eighty deputies to Mon treal in July, and De Vandreuil kept them there till Oswego had fallen, that Johnson might be deprived of their expected aid. The dilatory General Webb had just reached the Oneida portage when he heard of the surrender of Oswego. He at once destroyed all the forts at the carrying place and marched back. Such a show of weakness and fear dis gusted the Indians, who said it looked like giving up. So some Onondagas and Cayugas went to Montreal late in November, They noticed that some usual 122 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY ceremonies were omitted, for, when the Five Nations came, it was customary to send an interpreter with wampum to meet them, and to salute them with five guns. Others came later, and about one hundred were present at the council December 13-30. All were very friendly, and the Oneidas gave up their English medals. The council was expensive, but unavoidable. The meeting was thus summed up: "Such has been this famous embassy of the Five Nations, the most im portant that has occurred for a long time, and which ought to be regarded as indeed important under existing circumstances. . . . The neutrality of these Nations is one of the greatest advantages we could obtain over the English." A council was held at Onondaga in the spring of 1757, and the Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas resolved to remain neutral. They afterwards told Johnson that they had not used the hatchet given them to fight the French last winter, but the council at Onondaga had resolved to hold fast the English covenant chain. They were weak, and their aid ought not to be expected. Many belts had arrived at Onondaga, and there would be a general council in July. Peace was formally made with the Cherokees. Then came the loss of Fort William Henry and the destruction of German Flats. In the spring of 1758 the French commander made unfriendly comments at Fort DuQuesne on the Six Nations, and sent Wyandot spies to Onondaga, who told their errand and wished a trading post might be built there. In July General Abercrombie was defeated at Ticonderoga with heavy loss. The Indians despised him from the first, and few shared in the fight on either side. Two of the three great movements of the year, however, were disastrous to the French. General Bradstreet went to the Oneida carrying place, and took command of three thousand troops who were building Fort Stanwix. Major Philip Schuyler hurried on to Oswego with an advance guard, and at once began building a schooner called the Mohawk. In three weeks she was ready for service and carried the guns and heavy stores when the fleet of whaleboats and bateaux set out for Fort Frontenac August 20. On the 25th Bradstreet landed about a mile from this, erected a battery, and on the 27th opened fire at short range. The small garrison surrendered the same day. It was unfor tunate that he was ordered to destroy all the stores, some of which would have been useful in later operations. Two vessels were reserved. Forty Onondagas under Red Head (not the earlier chief of that name) had joined Bradstreet at Fort Stanwix, and a year later this chief made a map of the St. Lawrence for Sir William Johnson, often appearing as a warrior. A creek near Oswego was called after him at that time. In that year, too, Captain Fonda marked out a road from the nearest Oneida station to the ford a little south of Three River point, being the one already projected by Johnson. In September, 1758, General Amherst took full command and -affairs be came more hopeful. The Indians advised sending an army against Niagara at PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 123 once, saying, "the sooner the thing is done the better." Their wise advice at other times would have saved trouble had it been heeded. Johnson's wonder ful tact and influence alone had kept them on the English side. Canada was now almost in a state of famine, and the troops had little meat but horseflesh — rather poor at that. Forts Frontenac and DuQuesne had both fallen. The Indians were abandoning the French cause. Even the brave' Montcalm was disheartened. In April, 1759, he wrote from Montreal that "Canada will be taken this campaign, and assuredly during the next, if there be not some unforeseen good luck, a powerful diversion by sea against the English colonies, or some gross blunders on the part of the enemy. The English have sixty thousand men, we, at the most, from ten to eleven thousand. Our government is good for nothing; money and provisions will fail." The fourth council, at Easton, Pa., met October 8, 1758, and the attendance was large, the ancient rites being fully observed. The Iroquois, Minisinks and Delawares came. Three old land disputes were to be settled; the Iroquois land sale of 1754, the Walking Purchase, and the Minisink claims in New Jer sey. The lands west of the mountains were deeded back to the Iroquois. On the question of land sale on the Susquehanna the chiefs said: "We have no power to convey lands to anyone, but will take your request to the great coun cil fire for their sentiments, as we never convey or sell lands before it be agreed in the great council of the United Nations." It will be readily seen that this was but a convenient excuse. In April, 1759, Johnson held a council at Canajoharie castle, at which the Bunt and other Onondagas were present. Tuscaroras spies said that some Oswegatchie Indians wished to return to Onondaga. The French had told them that the English would soon build a fort at Oswego Falls, and one at each end of the Oneida lake. A little later this was done. All agreed to go against the French. The Onondagas then made a feast of a roasted ox, which Johnson had given them, and the war dance was shared by some from each nation present. Johnson told them that the Pennsylvania people had given up the Ohio lands sold to them in 1754. The deed of surrender would be kept in the council house at Onondaga. May 18, Colonel James Montressor had orders to prepare plans for "three posts, to be made as follows : At the northeast end of Oneyda lake, fifty men ; at the west end of Oneyda lake, 50 do ; at Oswego falls, 100 do. The above posts to be retrenched with a ditch and a blockhouse in the center, with flank ers at each opposite angle, on which swivel guns are mounted." There was some change the same day, for the general ' ' desired I would sketch plans of the several blockhouses proposed in the posts of the Mohock river, Lake Oneyda and Oswego Falls, for fifty, one hundred and one hundred and fifty men." There are no further specifications, but plans of the three posts still exist. The Royal Blockhouse, east of Oneida lake, was on the south side of Wood creek, near its junction with Fish creek, appearing on maps as late as 1825. It is now locally forgotten, the creek having cut into the site, but the place is 124 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY easily recognizable. A bare trace of the Oswego Falls fort also lately re mained, but the banks and ditch of Fort Brewerton are not only fairly well preserved, but are to be kept in good condition. Figures of all three are in "A Set of Plans of Forts in America, 1765." The blockhouse was one, but inclosed in a rectangular palisade. The forts had the outline of an octagonal star. General John Prideaux was to go against Niagara, and took his army of two thousand regulars and provincials to Oswego by the usual route. The force embarked on Oneida lake June 21, passed Fort Brewerton June 23, and encamped at Three River point. It was the largest army that thus far had appeared in Onondaga. It was at Oswego Falls June 24-27, and left Oswego July 1. Clark quoted an interesting manuscript relating to this expedition, it be ing "the original orderly book of Sergeant John Degarimo, of the 44tb regi ment of Highlanders, company of Captain John McKenzie, found among the archives of the New York Historical Society. ' ' The local part follows : "On the 21st of June, 1759, General Prideaux and Sir William Johnson, with the army, set out from Oneida lake, on an expedition against Niagara, which terminated at Oswego, August 19, 1759, after the capture of that post. "Boats, bateaux, etc., were prepared for the conduct of the whole army. Among which are mentioned masons, sawyers, bricklayers, wheelrights, colliers, carpenters, house and ship joiners, turners, blacksmiths, gunsmiths, etc., etc. Orders were given to have all the bateaux ready in three divisions, each one to be numbered, as soon as a sufficient number of them shall be assigned to each. During the march, the most particular regard was paid to order and precision in discipline. On the 23rd, the army passed Fort Brewington, and encamped at Three Rivers. On the 24th, at five o'clock, A. M., all were ordered to be in readiness for the march. The piquet guard and quarter guard to march along the shore. "24th arrived at the great falls and encamped, and remained there the 25th and 26th. On the 27th arrived at Oswego, and were engaged in procuring provisions, 28th, 29th and 30th, and in making preparations for the march." Niagara surrendered July 25, but meanwhile there had been an attack on Oswego, of which M. Pouchot gave a graphic account. The English had left there about five hundred men, who, not having time to intrench themselves at once, had made a wall round their camp of barrels of pork and flour, of which they had a great supply. They felt quite secure, and most of them were scattered about cutting wood for their fort. M. de la Corne brought a large body of his men as far as where Fort Ontario had stood east of the river, and fired upon the English, who found their camp in confusion when they reached it. Those in the camp resisted. Had de la Corne followed his advance guard at once the English would have lost everything ; but the Abbe Picquet thought it his duty to exhort and absolve the troops before they made the attack. Time was lost, the English flew to arms and placed themselves behind the barrels. The sur prise thus failed, and the French retired. Had the attack succeeded Pouchot thought Niagara would have been saved. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 125 The fall of Quebec soon followed. General Thomas Gage, of Boston fame, succeeded Prideaux in command at Oswego, having arrived there August 16. Before this Johnson was in command. August 13 the latter said: "I sent Captain Fonda, Lieutenant Hair, an interpreter, and others, to Onondaga, to call the young men of that nation here, to go upon service. I sent a black belt of wampum by him to speak with, and to send it to the other nations' from thence." "Wednesday, 13. This day I sent some Onondagas to Swegatchie as spies, and on their return they are to bring me a prisoner if possible, for which they are to have one hundred dollars." "Monday, 20. I gave General Gage a rough draft of the River St. Law rence from Frontenac to the island below La Galette, drawn by the Red Plead, an Onondaga Indian." "Wednesday, 22. Captain Fonda returned from Onondaga with the Bunt and others of that nation, and tells me there will be about one hundred of that nation here tomorrow." "Sunday, 26. The interpreter Prinduip arrived from Onondaga with about fifty warriors, and a number of women and children. Encamped them over the river, and sent them word I would meet them all this afternoon." On the 30th he had a council with the Indians, and "privately spoke to Bunt, the speaker, and others, to encourage their young men to go upon immediate service. They said they would," and some went, Red Head among them. It was impossible, however, to get General Gage to do much, while Johnson wished immediate work. The latter said, September 20, "I have observed, since I gave my opinion for going to La Galette, that the General is not free or friendly with me, but rather shuns me, " so he and the Indians soon went home. In consequence of Gage's slowness the French had ample oppor tunity to fortify an island near Oswegatchie, and obstruct the way to Montreal! Gage, however, did something, or-thought of it. at least the following spring April 22, 1760, he wrote on "The little use of taking men from Onondaga to reinforce the Falls, the men being as sickly at the one as at the other, and the former more likely of a visit from the enemy." Presumably this Onondaga was Brewerton, as being on the Onondaga, now Oneida river. This is the case in another letter of his to General Haldinand, dated May 5, 1760. "There must be a post at the Three Rivers and a large scow for the transportation of men and cattle; the swamps between that and the Onondaga post must be bridged." Early in 1760 all prepared for the final struggle. Governor de Vaudreuil collected all his strength at Montreal and on the river above. General Amherst planned three expeditions ; one up the St. Lawrence from Quebec, one by way of Lake Champlain, the main army going by way of Oswego and the St. Law rence. Of this body of ten thousand men he took personal command. He left Schenectady July 12, and was reinforced at Oswego by one thousand three hundred Indians. This was the greatest army that had visited our borders, all traversing Oneida river. 126 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY There are several journals of this expedition, one being that of Colonel Nathaniel Woodhull, Third New York Provincials. His notes on places here are brief, but may be given. July 3 they encamped at Fort Bull. "On the 4th we encamped at the neck, on the 5th at the west end of Oneida lake, on the 6th at the Three River rift, on the 7th at the falls, and on the 8th we reached Oswego. General Amherst arrived here the next day, and on the 15th our vessels arrived from Niagara." Mr. Clark quotes from another journal, ascribing it to Sergeant Degarimo. It -treats of a division of troops under Colonel Woodhull, and made up of the 44th Highlanders, and others from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hamp shire, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island. The journal reads thus : "July 6th, 1760, camp at Fort Brewington. No man to presume to damage anything belonging to the Indians on penalty of receiving one hundred lashes, without benefit of court martial. The officers commanding companies to give in a return of what number of bateaux, with the number of barrels each will contain, and of what species. That a man shall be assigned to each boat to stay with it all night, and keep her always bailed out, and that man is to be answerable for it. A return of the state of each company to be given in to morrow morning, at six o'clock, to the sergeant major. "Camp at Fort Brewington, July 7th, 1760. "The third New York Regiment to be ready to embark on board their bateaux at half past nine o'clock, and to push off at ten o'clock. The sergeants to see that their men cook immediately. "Camp at Three River rift (now Phoenix), July 8. "R. 0. A regimental court martial to sit immediately, to try such prison ers as shall be brought before them, consisting of Captain Yates, president, Lieutenants Deneyck, Vrooman, Hanson, Cannon, members. ' ' The army proceeded to Oswego Falls and again encamped. ' ' At Oswego all was bustle and preparation. The plaided Highlander, the Briton with his scarlet coat, the hunting shirts of the colonial troops, the blanket and plumes of the Indian were everywhere to be seen. Boats were built, supplies hurried forward, while such men of note as Amherst, Gage and Johnson encouraged all to zealous activity. On the 10th of August the army was embarked and coasted the lake till the river was reached. On a fortified island near the site of Ogdensburg, Captain Pouchot awaited his foe with a handful of men. August 25 he surrendered and the way was open to Montreal. That also capitulated September 7, 1760, and the conquest of Canada was made. Syracuse has furnished two curious relics of the closing scenes of the long war. One is a powder horn which belonged to William A. Plant, and which bears this inscription: "Solomon Plant, his horn. Made at Oswegatchie in Canada September ye 14, 1760." It was made on the return up the river by Mr. Plant's grandfather, then in the army and about twenty years old. The other is also a powder horn, long in the hands of Mr. Alfred Higgins, to whom it came as an heirloom from an ancestor who was at the taking of Quebec. He has placed it in the care of the Historical Association. On this PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 127 is a conventional picture of "Queback", and this inscription: "Abraham Higgins, his horn; Maid September 27, 1759." Quebec was taken on the 18th. A great many of these historical powder horns were made during that impor tant war. The Moravian visits to Onondaga have been casually mentioned, but the following chapter will be devoted to a fuller account. They are little known and some journals have been but recently translated. For these reasons it seemed best to treat the subject by itself, restricting it mainly to Onondaga. CHAPTER XIII. THE MORAVIANS IN CENTRAL NEW YORK AND EARLY TRAVELERS Count Zinzendorf landed at New York, December 2, 1741, reaching Phila delphia on the 10th. He lost little time in expressing his opinion about the Indians, and in 1742 said: "The Onondagos are ye chief Nation in Reality; ye Judah amongst their Brethem." At London, March 7, 1743, he expressed himself more at length, after de scribing the Mohawks and Senecas. "The second nation, and which properly governs the rest is the Nation of the Onondagos. Those are Philosophers and such as among us are called Deists. They are brave honest People who keep their word ; and their general weakness is that they delight in Heroick Deeds; and this will be the main Difficulty in the way of their Conversion, to make them forget these their heroick Notions; for they have the Principles of the old Romans, that they look upon every one as a miserable Creature, scarce worth a Thought, who will not submit himself to them. Their Govern ment is very equitable and fatherlike, but who ever will not stoop to them they are ready to root out that Nation from among the Indians. On the other Hand they carry themselves very civil and orderly towards the Europeans (as may be seen from the Compacts between them) and altho' they in general hate the Europeans in their Hearts, and call them Assaroni or Assyrians (which is the same as Enemies) yet they have a particular Respect for several private Persons Nevertheless 'tis as much as an Indian life is worth, who belongs to their Nation, if he is discovered to have a good Reputation among the Europeans." Caxhayton, an Onondaga principal chief, came to Philadelphia in February, 1742, and, with his wife and children, lodged fourteen days in Zinzendorf 's house. The grand embassy came June 30, and included thirteen Onondagas. He met the whole party of over ninety Indians soon after, or rather the twelve chiefs. Zinzendorf said: "I came into an House where all the Kings of these Nations were assembled together. Kackshajim was among them, with his Wife and little Child, who all 3 had been in my House at Philadelphia. The Child ran to me and fell about my Neck in the Presence of all the Indians, which made them look one upon another, and enquire among themselves how that came about." Another incident gave them still more pleasure. Count Zinzendorf made a speech, and said that then Canassatego, "the chief of them, the King of the Onondagos spoke to me after this manner : 128 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY ' ' Brother, thou art come hither ; we have known nothing of thee, nor thou of us ; and thou art also come quite unexpectedly by us, as we by thee. The chief Spirit must have some hand in this. We hear that thou art come over Two Seas and over the great Sea, and that thou hast something to declare from the Great Spirit, and no worldly thing. We wou'd only let thee know that thou and thy brethren when they come, shall always be welcome to us ; and tell us then what you have to say when you come. And as a Proof that thou and thy Brethern shall be welcome, we give thee this Fathom of Wampum." This wampum was a string of one hundred and eighty-six white beads, carried to Onondaga by Bishop Spangenberg on his visit in 1745, white signify ing peace. Bishop A. G. Spangenberg set out from Bethlehem, Pa., May 24, 1745, with David Zeisberger and. John Joseph Schebosch. At Tulpehocken, the home of Conrad Weiser, they were joined by him. At Shamokin, Shikellimy, with his son Andrew, and Andrew Sattelihu, son of Madame Montour, were added to the party, making seven in all. June 10 the three Indians gave the three Moravians Iroquois names, as they could not pronounce those they had, ' ' Span genberg they named T'gerhitonti (i. e., a row of trees) ; John Joseph, Hajin- gonis (i. e., one who twists tobacco), and David Zeisberger, Ganousseracheri (i. e., on the pumpkin). By these names they were ever after known. June 14 they were at Owego in New York, and followed Owego creek till they come to Tiatachschiunge creek (catatonk), which flowed from the north west. Leaving this they crossed another creek the next afternoon, called Ganowtachgerage, and having gone over Prospect hill, they found a creek at its foot, which flowed into the St. Lawrence. Beyond this they camped in the Dry Wilderness. June 16 their course was east northeast, and early in the morning they passed Ganiataragachrachat, a small lake in Cortland county, beside five others beyond. They nooned at Lake Ganneratareske, in Preble, and camped at night at Oserigooch, the largest of the Tully lakes. The horses strayed to Ganneratareske, and this detained them till noon. "Soon after starting we got the first Onondaga water to drink, which tastes salty. ' ' After dinner' they reached Onondaga, where they had a hearty welcome and were "invited into the King's house." June 19. "In the evening the Indians paraded through the town to the music of a couple of violins, flutes and a drum." The next night there was a dance in their honor. "The dance lasted three hours, and it appeared impos sible for them to hold out so long. The men dance abreast, and the women follow, whoever can appear the most grotesque and leap the highest receives the most praise." Shikellimy, Sattelihu, Weiser and Spangenberg went to Oswego, and on their return, except a detour to Tiatachtout, where Weiser and Sattelihu left them, the party took the same road back to Pennsylvania. A journey was made to Onondaga in 1750 by Zeisberger and Bishop Cam- merhoff, commencing in May. At Wyoming a Cayuga guide met them, with T3-3TT ' _ ._ CLINTON SQUARE PACKET DOCK IN THE EARLY '80s. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 129 his family, and they went up the Susquehanna with two canoes. The journal is full and circumstantial, but has never been published. June 9 they reached Ganatocherat, a Cayuga village on the Chemung, near Waverly, N. Y., staying there till June 12, when they started through the wilderness to the lake and towns of the Cayugas, reaching the latter on the 16th. The account of the journey is filled with picturesque incidents, but they have no special relation to Onondaga. June 18 they set out for that im portant town. It was literally a wilderness journey from Cayuga, without a dwelling all the long way. Imagination affects us and they remembered there were salt springs at Onondaga lake. The thought tinged the wilderness they were entering. "We named it the Salt Desert, because of the many salt marshes and salt springs we found there." They rode through the water at Owasco lake, meeting some Indians there. They also rode through the waters of "Lake Sganiatarees." Night found them at Nine Mile creek, at a spot they called the French camp, because the trees had been adorned with pictures by Canadian Indians. Next morning they crossed the ridge to Cedarvale, and the next one to Onondaga, calling them the Prince's Peaks, but giving no reason for the name. The one nearest Onondaga was the first. Ganassatego was at the council, but a room in his large house was quickly prepared for them. An English flag floated from a large pole in front of it. Meantime they were invited to the council, and went, finding there ' ' a goodly assembly of important people sitting around their fire." They shook hands all around and were seated with the council. Their guide, "who, much aston ished, had followed us at a distance, sat down near the door in order to listen." Though kindly received, their business went on slowly, and they had time to look about. "David and I crossed the creek Zinschoe (to the east side), and passed through the rich corn fields, going up the creek to the house where Brother Joseph had lodged with his company when he was here. At that time there were a number of huts, of which we could still distinguish the sites and ruins, but only two houses remained standing. ' ' On the bank of the creek they found a pleasant spot for their fervent prayers. "Then, resting on the promise of the Lord's presence, where two or three are gathered together in His name, we celebrated the Holy Communion, and we fully experienced the blessings of the promise. We named the spot the Brethren's Chapel in Onondago." June 21 they had a consultation with Ganassatego, and told him what they wished said. "We seated ourselves on a tree, not far from his house, and made this our Council Chamber." This was often done, a chief speaking for the one who brought the message. They went over it string by string, till all the wampum was understood. However, he did not wish to present the business at once, thought it was very simple, and they determined to make the Senecas a visit. They started for the Genessee river June 24, and arrived in the evening at Skaneateles lake, "where we built a hut, for which we procured the bark at a great distance. To-day was St. John's Day, so we named our quarters 130 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY The Pilgrims' Hut at St. John's Beach. . . . We spent the evening in sing ing hymns together, and then slept well." The journey to the Genessee country is of great interest throughout, and has thrilling episodes, for they were in great danger part of the time. Besides this Cammerhoff was sick, and at times they were half starved. They could get no corn at Cayuga on their return, and consoled themselves with thinking this made their packs lighter. David shot a partridge on the way, and caught some fish in Skaneateles lake, where they camped again. Next day they were at Onondaga again, eating at every opportunity. Their business had made no progress, but they got a hearing July 20, and received permission to have two Brethren live at Onondaga to learn the lan guage. That day they left the town. The young people were surprised at the size of Zeisberger 's pack, but Ganassatego told them that Cammerhoff "was a great man, not accustomed to carry heavy burdens." The chief took an affec tionate leave of them, and they went on their way rejoicing. Cammerhoff added: "Our feelings in leaving Onondago we can scarcely describe. We actually felt some regret." That night they spent at the French camp. Next day. they stopped at Skaneateles for a kettle they had left there, dining at Lake Achsgo (Owasco), and reaching one of the Cayuga villages in the even ing. Thence they returned as they came. Three Moravians went to Onondaga in 1752, J. Martin Mack, David Zeis berger and Gottfried Rundt. At Little Falls, on the Mohawk, they found one hundred Oneidas and Cayugas digging ginseng. August 10 they reached the last white man's house on the Mohawk, and the Indians warned them to go no farther. Next day a council was held on the matter, and they were allowed to proceed. August 18 they reached Anajot (Oneida), but the men were ab sent, and they went on to Ganatisgoa, a Tusearora town in Madison county. There they "found almost thirty houses, large and regularly built, with a wide street through the middle of the town." Next day they passed through other Tusearora villages, and the following day "came to a place where many posts were standing, from which we con cluded that a town must have stood there formerly.. The old Seneca told Brother David that when he was a child of eight years of age, Onondaga stood on the spot, but was burned by the French." This was the old fort east of the Jamesville reservoir, burned in 1696. They reached Onondaga that afternoon, and were well received. August 23 they appeared before the council, about thirty chiefs being present, and a Cayuga chief spoke for them on three strings of wampum, intoning' the mes sage, as usual. The presents were divided into three parts for the three na tions present. The Onondaga portion was then* divided for Upper and Lower Onondaga. The strings of wampum — fourteen hundred black and fifteen hundred white — were also divided. The council met again at 4 p. m., and Zeis berger and Rundt (Thaneraquechta) were invited to live there for two years, learning the language. They could go to the Senecas and Cayugas also. August 25 Mack set out on his return, escorted by his brethren. Next day they passed through Ganatisgoa and come near Anajot, passing through PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 131 next morning and stopping on a hill a quarter of a mile beyond. "Here we must part. We sang some verses, wept like children, and blessed one another — so we parted." On their return that day Zeisberger and Rundt visited the Turcarora towns of Ganatisgoa and Ganochsorage (Canaseraga), but camped on Chit tenango creek, reaching Onondaga in good season the next day. August 30 Otschinachiatha, or the Bunt, visited them, being solicitous for their comfort. Ganatschiagaje would be their host, and they were invited to attend the coun cils, that they might learn how business was done. There were French traders in the town, and they dug and sold ginseng to them. There was also much drunkenness. September 7 a woman died. "Shortly after a number of old women as sembled and began to weep and moan most pitifully. . . . For a certain time they were to lament every day at sundown, and every morning at sunrise." On the 10th a war party set off. "They marched through the town in order to make a display of their whole procession. David went to the creek and succeeded in catching some fish. The Indians were surprised, as they were not in the habit of catching any here." September 12. "We visited the chief, Hatachsoka, who takes great pains to teach us the language. David conversed much with him, and put down a number of words." September 23. "Most of the inmates of our dwelling went to Tiojataiksa, the nearest town." This was Tueyahdasso at Indian Orchard. "October 1st. David went with one of our Indians to visit the town of Tiojatchso, situated on a hill four or five miles from here. Brother Joseph (Spangenberg) had visited there seven years ago." On that occasion he bled the brother of Ganassatego, an operation of which the Onondagas were quite fond. The Black Prince died at this town on his way home from Philadelphia in 1749. It seems to have been an aristocratic kind of place, out of the way of trade and drunkenness. The latter was a curse, indeed. October 12 they went to the lake to boil salt, and found three nuts there. They "inquired where the best salt spring was to be found, as there are a great number there." The Indians "advised us not to spend the winter in Cayuga, but rather to remain in Onondaga. For, as they said, we now felt a little at home with them, and had learned to understand their language tolera bly well, but if we went to Cayuga we would be obliged to learn a different language, and thus might mix the two. Hence it would be better to learn one language thoroughly and then proceed." This wise advice they disregarded. October 16 they heard that Johnson's boat was at the lake, and when they reached the shore nearly the whole town was there. It was a bargain day. The chiefs were seated in the agent's tent, to which they were invited. "The trading began. The people rushed with such great eagerness that they nearly tore down the tent," and so the Moravians went back to the town. They were pleased to find that Johnson and his agent were perfectly indifferent to them and to their work. "October 26th. A terrible storm had been raging for three days. At times we feared houses would be carried off. There was a continual crashing 132 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY of trees falling in the forest. We were very glad not to have started on our journey to Cayuga, as had been our intention." Preparatory to this David went to Oswego for supplies November 1st, returning on the 4th. Six trading boats were at Oswego Falls, whence goods were carried by land to Oswego. November 6 they started for Cayuga, passing through the French Camp on Tistis (Nine Mile) creek, and rain stopped them before reaching Skaneateles lake. At noon next day they were at Owasco lake, becoming chilled by wading its cold waters. Ganatarage, the first Cayuga town they reached in the even ing, leaving for the principal town in the morning. There David nearly lost his life through the violence of a trader, and they started for Onondaga again November 10. At noon they were at Skaneateles, where two Seneca Indians joined them. Onondaga was reached the next noon, and the Bunt was indig nant over the . treatment they had received, and said such a thing could not have happened at Onondaga. They said: "We saw plainly that the whites have more respect for Onondaga than for any other town, for when they come here they are obliged to conduct themselves properly and quietly. ' ' Notwithstanding all this there was so much drunkenness that they deter mined to go home for the winter, and started early November 25th. "On the top of a hill near Onondaga we kneeled down, and thanked God for His gracious help thus far, and invoked blessings on Onondaga and its inhabitants, and prayed that the peace of God might rest upon them, and that He would reward them richly for all their kindness toward us." They passed through two Tusearora towns, Tiachsochratota and Tioch- rungwe, and "then went on to the last town of the Tuscaroras, S'ganatees." This was before called Ganatisgoa by them. They were at Anajot (Oneida) in the evening, where there were cries of "Welcome, Brethern!" thence they went eastward to the settlements. Zeisberger had promised to return the folowing year, and it was necessary he should keep his word. So he left Bethlehem for Onondaga with Henry Frey, April 23, 1753, going on the river to Owego. There they tried to follow the overland trail, but lost their way and had to return to their canoe. Above Owego they overtook the Nanticokes, removing to Zeniinge (Otseningo) on the Tioughnioga. It was a picturesque sight. "As far as the eye could reach you could see one canoe behind the other along the Susquehanna. There were twenty-five canoes, and we were the twenty-sixth. Three canoes' were still behind and would follow. ' ' This was May 27th. On the 29th they reached the site of Binghamton, remaining there till the 31st, when all went to Zeniinge six or seven miles up the Tioughnioga, which was an Onondaga village, but included a few Shaw nees. The Nanticokes settled about three miles below. Jurie 4 they went up the river in a canoe, and came to Chenango Forks, the branch there being called Anajotta, because it led to Anajot. The main stream was then the Tiohujodha. The next branch on the east side was called Schio, now Otselic. Near the site of Cortland the east branch retained the river's name, but the west branch was the Onogariske, flowing from the Tully lakes. It was then shallow, though the direct course, and they followed the east branch for some PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 133 distance, crossing over the ridge and the Onogariske creek to the Owego trail. At noon they were at Lake Ganiatareske in which the creek rises. Beyond this the trail divided, one leading to Tueyahdasso, and the other to Onondaga. Soon they were at Lake Oserigooch, where David found his camp of nine years before, and the names they cut on the trees. Beyond this lake they camped for the night, descending a steep mountain in the morning. "At the foot we came to a creek which flows north through Onondaga, and is called Swenochschoe. The Lakes on the mountain, of which there are three, flow in a southeasterly direction. The trail leads down along the creek and is crooked as snake fences, because of the trees which often lie across the road, and the sloughs." The road grew better and they soon reached the town. "We passed through the plantations where the Indians were hoeing the corn ; they hailed us, saying, ' Welcome, Brethren ! ' " June 9 they appeared before the council and their message was intoned as usual. The Moravians made themselves useful, chopping down trees for the women and cutting wood. At the end of the month Andrew Sattelihu came with a message from Virginia. July 18 they began a trip to the Mohawk river, passing through the Tusearora towns of Tiochrungwe and Sganatees. On their return they passed through Oneida lake reaching Oneida river August 6th. "A short distance down the river we met quite a number of Onondagos fish ing." Notes on this have already been given. Two fisheries were in the river below this, and they came to another in the Seneca river. August 8 they were at Onondaga again. The wife of their host died on the 12th, and the Bunt asked them to make a coffin, which they did. "The whole day long we heard nothing but wailing and howling, all ornaments were laid aside and torn rags put on. At noon food was brought for the dead one, and they partook of it all together." The Bunt now proposed they should visit his fishery at Tioncton (Cross lake) and they reached it on the 15th. Eels were abundant there. The Bunt led them "to a place near the river where there were two stones which, he said, had once been an Indian who had been petrified, and these were his head and body. They offered sacrifices to him so that they might catch much fish, and we found tobacco there that they had sacrificed." The chief Zagana was also fishing there. On the 25th they finished and launched a canoe for the Bunt. "They were much pleased and said there had never been a canoe of that kind in the neighborhood." At the fishery at the site of Baldwinsville they visited the chief Gaschwechtioni, who was in charge there. He was Red Head who died in 1756. September 6 "Mr. Johnson came into the lake with three boats. In the evening the Six Nations held a general dance. Saturday, 8th. The treaty was held, and we went there also. A place in the lower part of the town was pre pared, where they assembled. All the people went to the lake to meet John son and led him forward. We greeted him, and he greeted us in passing. Many Indians of all Nations who knew us, came and shook hands with us. and greeted us very kindly. When all the ceremonies were ended, the Treaty 134 PAST AND. PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY began and lasted until evening. After it Mr. Johnson came and asked us how long we had been here, and how long we intended to remain, whether we were pleased with the place, and what we thought of the Indians. Did we find them approachable? (For he said we would be obliged to learn their language in order to promote the cause of religion among the Indians) . We told him that as yet could express no opinion, we were. pleased with- the place, but must first of all know the language. He took leave of us, and returned to the lake with his people." Next day they "went to the lake, as almost all the inhabitants had gone there to. close the treaty. No refreshments were offered today." Some Oneidas told Zeisberger that, having partly learned their language he should have come to their town and continued it. "Instead he settled in Onondaga, and had thus become half an Onondaga and half an Oneida," a true remark. On the 11th they built a cabin as a shelter from drunken men. "We had scarcely finished our work when the whole drove came up from the lake. Johnson had made them a present of some rum." A drunken row followed. "They almost killed each other; some burned themselves, and others were beaten to cripples." It was merely a little worse than frequent scenes. On the 22d ' ' We repaired the bridge for the Indians, who called out many a 'Niarwo.' The whole town rejoiced to have a good bridge, particularly the old people. They brought us plenty of food." Then the head chief wished them to make him a Moravian canoe, which they did. This chief told them "much Indian history and related how the first Indians had come into the land. He said it must be more than one thousand years since they were in this country, and that the first Indians had come down from Heaven. He also told us that the Six Nations were a very bad people, for they had eaten human flesh ; however only during war time. ' ' October 13 they started for home and reached the end of Onondaga creek. Next day they "reached the Susquehanna Lake Onokariske (Big lake in Preble), went down the outlet of the lake for some distance and camped in a hunting lodge." On the 17th they finished a canoe at the fork below Cortland and went down the river. At Zeniinge they visited the Onondagas and Nanti cokes on either bank, spending some time with Old Cossey, head chief of the latter, and then went prosperously home. The next Moravian visit to Onondaga was in 1754, where Charles Freder ick and David Zeisberger remained till the following- year. This journal is not so full as could be desired, nor are all the dates accurate. They went by way of Albany and Oneida lake. July 21 they reached Onondaga in the after noon, having stopped at Onondaga lake over night ; a council was immediately held. The Nanticokes sent a message on the liquor trade, and on this a council was held on the 24th. "Toward evening they again assembled, and brought with them eight or nine women. The women usually bring in the supplies of rum, therefore they should be interested listeners also." The Nanticokes sent belts and "a letter written on a piece of wood with black paint, in which one stroke represents God; a second a city; a third the PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 135 Devil ; a fourth hell, etc., etc., showing that it is of no use for a man to do his drinking in secret." The Devil would torment him. "He has a great kettle of boiling water, and will say to such an Indian: 'Come here! You were fond of drinking much rum ; now you shall have a great plenty. ' He will throw the Indian' into the kettle, where he will be cooked without dying. Occasionally he will be given a little rest for catching his breath; then he will be boiled again." The council could not agree. They went to the lake for salt, and when they returned "fell to writing and studying the language as hard as possible." August 9 "David finished a little log hut for the bear's cub belonging to our hostess." 15th. "A woman from Canada came to our lodge. She was attended by two bateaux, for the purpose of buyfqg the well known root." This was the ginseng. The woman. was enterprising, but perfectly safe among a people like the Iroquois. October 21 they began building a house on which they got a roof Novem ber 10, and lodged there that night. "Dimensions: thirteen and one-half by twelve and one-half feet inside; the walls of hewn logs, roofed with shingles, for we could get no bark at this time of the year. It is, moreover, the smallest but the best house in Onondaga." That month they went to German Flats for supplies, reaching Onondaga again on the 22d. They earned "a little bread occasionally by grinding axes, sharpening tools, felling trees, etc." They were very short of provisions, and David started on a few days hunt with the head chief December 12, leaving Frederick alone. Their hostess hoped he would return with game. "She often says that she doesn't like a lean soup, and I have learned the same by experience. Thus far she has managed to utilize old deer or fish entrails, or sometimes very old blood, so that if it were not for extreme hunger one would rather run away from it than eat thereof. I often wish for just one piece of bread. How we would enjoy it, even if it were Cascava." January 2, David returned, but with no game. They kept Epiphany, partaking of the Holy Communion. On the 16th ' ' David bled some patients in the town." They were fond of this. 25th. "David finished making a door for some one, and in pay got a little corn." He did a great deal of this kind of work. In April they went overland to German Flats, returning through Oneida lake in a canoe, seeing many bateaux. May 11 they were at Onondaga again, but left for home on the 18th, returning by the Susquehanna route. The 25th saw them paddling down the Tioughinoga, and they reached Wyoming May 31. One episode of this visit has been unduly magnified. Zeisberger was not made official keeper of the wampum, but it was placed in his cabin because that was safe. This appears in the Bethlehem Diary for August 2, 1755 : "Two points were brought out showing with what esteem Brother David Zeisberger (who was also present) is held at Onondaga. First, when, for example, the children on the street would say: 'That is an Assaroni' (because he is white) the elders will correct them: ' Aquanouschioni ! not Assaroni!' Since he and Charles Frederick have built them their own house the council has given into these brethern's care their entire archives, a whole pile of belts. L36 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY "Queery: Where now are these archives, since you have left there? Answer: Our people (as one says, our family to which we belong), have moved into our house, and the archives are still there." Three Moravian Indians went to Cayuga in 1765 on a question of location, the celebrated Logan being their interpreter. The Cayugas wished to place the Moravian village at the head of their lake, and the deputies said they would report and send an answer "when the corn would be ripe." They failed to do so, and the Cayuga chief sent this message early in 1766 : "Cousins ! What kind of corn have you at Machiwihilusing ? You promised an answer to my propo sition when your corn would be ripe. My corn has been ripe long ago. It is nearly consumed. I think of soon planting again. Why do you not fulfil your .promise?" The Indians were alarmed and at once sent a deputation to Cayuga, which included Zeisberger and four Indians. April 26, 1766, Zeisberger 's journal has this note: "We came to Oweke (Owego), an outpost of the Cajugas, where they keep a chief as watchman on the Susquehanna. We were welcomed and quartered in their visitors' lodge, which has been erected for such purposes." Thence they went to Cayuga on foot and had a good reception and satisfactory answer. Later that year it was reported that the Cayuga chief had exceeded his powers, and Zeisberger and Seusemann went to Onondaga to inquire about this. They reached the Nanticoke village at Zeniinge (Otseningo) October 17, and next day "made an early visit to the near by Onondaga town." October 21 they were on their way up the river. "About a mile beyond the Nantikok Town we passed a small Mohikan Town and about 10 or 12 miles further, where the river, which is here about as wide as the Lehigh, again' divides, (Chenango Forks) we come to an Onondaga Town." October 23, near the site of Cortland, they tried the east fork, but had to return, and the next day were detained by snow. October 25 they reached one of the Tully lakes, three or four miles from Onondaga creek, and were at Onon daga in the evening. Next day they appeared before the council. "The Council House now is the house of Otschinochiata, which is built upon a very high and steep hill, from whence can be overlooked the whole town and sur rounding country. During our sessions, and to our honor, the English flag was raised and floated over the house." They had a warm reception and a satisfactory reply. The Onondagas hoped Zeisberger would stay awhile. "Otschinochiata said: I thought that you would again build yourself a house, as the old one has gone to decay. Whereupon Brother David answered : You, Onondagas ! I am very glad and rejoiced thereat, that I am still in good remembrance among you, and am welcome here. You acknowledge me as an Aquanochschioni, which I also am. Of this I am glad." They resolved to visit Cayuga again to make all sure. This they did, re turning November 1. "The chief Tianoronto, the speaker, permitted Brother David to loqk through his documents, among which was his Warrant from Sir William Johnson, appointing him the Chief and Speaker of the Onondaga PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 137 nation, together with the great Seal." November 3 they started on their re turn. In passing we bade farewell at different houses, and all expressed their joy that we had visited them. We rested over night in our former quarters at the Susquehanna lake." "November 6. Noon; we called in at the Onondaga Town in the Fork. There were, however, very few at home. In the evening we arrived at Zeniinge, and put up again with the Nantikok Chief, where we were welcome. November 7. Visited Canai Town across the water." Thence they went down the river. This was Zeisberger 's last visit to Onondaga, but two of his adopted rela tives visited him the next year. One was Hachsitagechte, his elder brother and a distinguished Onondaga sachem. Tiozihostote was a younger brother, who visited him earlier. The former died at Bethlehem, and the Moravians sent a message of condolence to Onondaga, concluding thus: "Herewith we wipe the tears from your eyes. Grieve not. Hachsitagechte has gone to God." This branch of local history is somewhat fully treated here because some parts have been heretofore unknown, reposing in the .German originals at Bethlehem, Pa. All have been now translated, but all are not yet in print. It will be noticed that these visits were not missions in the usual sense, but pre paratory to them through mastering the language. Not a sermon was preached, not a public service, not a baptism occurred. This must be remembered when terming them missions. They made little impression, and this explains School craft's note: "I called Le Fort's attention to the residence of the Moravian missionary, Zeisberger. He said there was no tradition of such residence, that' the oldest men remembered no such mission; that they were ever strongly opposed to all missionaries after the expulsion of the Jesuits, and he felt con fident that no such person or any person in the character of a preacher, had lived at Onondaga Castle; that there must be some mistake in the matter." EARLY TRAVELERS BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. The first white men known to have been in Onondaga county were Cham plain and his companions, in 1615. He came from the Huron country, toward the Georgian bay, with a large party of Hurons and Algonquins, to attack an Oneida fort about three miles east of Perryville, New York. To do this he crossed the east end of Lake Ontario, coasted the southeastern shore for many miles, leaving the canoes hidden near the bank. "We continued our journey overland some twenty-five to thirty leagues. In the course of four days, we traversed a number of streams and one river issuing from a lake which empties into that of the Entouhonorons. This lake is twenty-five to thirty leagues in circumference, with many beautiful Islands. and is the Iroquois fishing ground, fish being in abundance there." This lake was Oneida, and that of the Entouhonorns or Senecas, Lake Ontario, being called thus by the Hurons from the hostile nation nearest them. This is all he had to say about Onondaga, not going near the town, and prob ably crossing Chittenango creek at Bridgeport. The attack was repulsed and he thought of something beside scenery on the return. He had been wounded 138 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY and the Indians "began to make certain litters to convey their wounded, who are put in them, tumbled in a heap, doubled and strapped in such a way that it is impossible to stir ; less than an infant in its swaddling clothes ; not without considerable pain, as I can certify, having been carried several days on the back of one of our Indians, thus tied and bound, so that I lost all patience. As soon as I had strength to bear my weight, I got .out of this prison, or to speak plainer, out of hell. ' ' The next recorded visit to this region was in December, 1634. The journal is usually called that of Arent Van Curler, but seems to have been written by some other prominent man before Van Curler came to America. The writer came as far west as Oneida, then situated near Munnsville. ' ' January 9, 1635. During the evening the Onondagas came. There were six men and four women. They were very tired from the march, and brought with them some bear skins. I came to meet them, and thanked them that they came to visit us ; and they welcomed me, and because it was very late I went home." "January 11. At 10 o'clock in the morning the savages came to me and invited me to come to the house where the Onondagas sat in council. ' They will give you presents;' and I went there with Jeronimus; took our pistols with us and sat along side of them, near an old man of the name of Canastoge- ' cora, about fifty-five years of age; and he said: 'Friends I have come here to see you and to talk to you ; ' wherefore we thanked him, and after they had sat in council for a long time an interpreter came to me and gave me five pieces of beaver skin because I came to visit them. I took the beaver skins and thanked them, and they shouted three times, ' Netho ! ' And after that another five beaver skins that they laid upon my feet, and they gave them to me because I had come into their council. We should have been given a good- many skins as presents if we had come into his land; and they earnestly requested me to visit their land in the summer, and after that gave me another four beaver skins and asked at the same time to be better paid for their skins. They would bring us a great quantity if we did; and if we wanted to come back in the summer they would send us three or four savages to look all around in their land and show us where the Frenchmen came trading with their shallops. And when we gathered our' fourteen beavers they again shouted as hard as they could, 'Zinac netho!' and we fired away with our pistols and gave the chief two knives, some awls and needles; and so we took our departure, as they permitted us to leave the council." This was the first white man's council with the Onondagas, and the first chief of theirs mentioned in recent history. The journal has been ascribed to Wolfert Gerritsen. Omitting the Jesuit Relations and Radisson 's Voyages, the journal of Wentworth Greenhalgh, 1677, is the next detailed account of a visit to the Onondagas. He was sent on horseback with a companion and Indian guides to invite the. Five Nations to a council at Albany. He said : "The Onondago 's have butt one towne butt itt is very large, consisting of about one hundred and forty houses, nott fenced, is situate upon a hill thatt is very large, the Banke on each side extending itt selfe att least two miles. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 139 all cleared land, whereon ye corne is planted. They have likewise a small village about two miles beyound thatt, consisting of about twenty-four houses. They ly to the southward of ye west about thirty-six miles from the Onydes. They plant aboundance of corne which they sell to the Onyades. The Onon dagos are said to be about three hundred and fifty fighting men. They lye about fifteen miles from Tshirogui. " This town was on Indian hill, a little south of Manlius village, and was the largest ever occupied by the Onondagas. It was abandoned four years later. The small village seems the site locally known as Indian Castle. Tshi rogui was Oneida lake, a name sometimes applied to the site of Brewerton. The town occupied but a moderate portion of the hill, and had a stockade some years earlier. The Moravian and Jesuit accounts appear incidentally else where, as well as that of Colonel Romer, and the journals of Conrad Weiser. That of John Bartram, in 1743, is of considerable interest. Conrad Weiser and Shikellimy came to Onondaga that year on business, and Bartram and Lewis Evans, the geographer, took advantage of the oppor tunity and accompanied them. They seem to have entered the county by way of Labrador pond, in this way reaching the village of Tueyahdasso, now known as Indian Orchard, a sightly place. There they found "apple trees full of fruit; the Indians had set long bushes all round the trees at a little distance, I suppose to keep the small children from stealing the fruit before they were ripe; here we halted and turned our horses to grass, while the in habitants cleared a cabin for our reception; they brought us victuals, and we dispatched a messenger immediately to Onondago to let them know how near we were, it being within four miles. All the Indians, men, women and chil dren, came to gaze at us and our horses, the little boys and girls climbed on the roofs of the cabins, about ten in number, to enjoy a fuller view, we set out about ten and traveled over good land all the way, mostly an easy de scent, some limestone, then down the east hill, over ridges of limestone rock, but generally a moderate descent, into the fine vale where the capital (if I may so call it ) is situated. "We alighed at the council house, where the chiefs were already assem bled to receive us, which they did with a grave, chearful complaisance, ac cording to. their custom; they shew'd us where to lay our baggage, and repose ourselves during our stay with them ; which was in the two end apartments of this large house. The Indians that came with us .were placed over against us; this cabin is about eighty feet long and seventeen broad, the common passage six feet wide; and the apartments on each side five feet, raised a foot above the passage by a long sapling hewed square, and fitted with joists that go from it to the back of the house ; on these joists they lay large pieces of bark, and on extraordinary occasions, spread matts made of rushes, this favour we had ; on these floors they set or lye down every one as he will, the apartments are divided from each other by boards or bark, six or seven feet long, from the lower floor to the upper, on which they put their lumber, when they have eaten their hominy, as they set in each apartment before the fire, they can put the bowel over head, having not above five foot to reach ; they 140 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY set on the floor sometimes at each end, but mostly at one; they have a shed to put their wood into in the winter, or in the summer, to set to converse or play, that has a door to the south ; all the sides and roof of the cabin is made of bark, bound fast to poles set in the ground, and bent round on the top, or sett aflatt, for the roof as we set our rafters; over each fire place they leave a hole to let out the smoak, which in rainy weather, they cover with a piece of bark, and this they can easily reach with a pole to push it on one side or quite over the hole." Though he described the council house, others were much the same. Onondaga was then mostly east of the creek. Seven years later it was on the west side. His account of the place follows : "The fine vale of Onondago runs north and south, a little inclining to the west, and is near a mile wide, where the town is situated and excellent soil, the river that divides this charming vale, is two, three or four feet deep, very full of trees fallen across, or drove on heaps by the torrents. The town in its present state is about two or three miles long, yet the scattered cabins on both sides the water are not above forty in number, many of them hold two families, but all stand single, and rarely above four or five near one another; so that the whole town is a strange mixture of cabins, interspersed with great patches of high grass, bushes and shrubs, some of pease, come- and squashes, limestone bottom composed of fossils and sea shells." That night they were entertained by one of the False Faces, precisely as they appear at Onondaga yet. July 23 they procured a guide to the salt spring, "down the river, on the west side of its mouth; being most of the way good land, and near the mouth very rich ; from whence it runs westward near a quarter of a mile, a kind of a sand beach adjoining to the bank of the river, containing three or four acres. Here the Indians dig holes, about two feet deep, which soon filling with brine, they dip their kettles, and boil the contents until the salt remains at bottom." It will be observed that he places the boiling west of the creek, and Zeisberger, a few years later, gave a similar account. The historic spring was on the east side. The next day Bartram and Evans went to Oswego, enjoying the trip greatly. Bartram said, on the return: "At three, o'clock we entered the Onondago lake, the upper end of which we gained by five, the land about the lake is pretty good, and some large marshes and rich low ground, mostly on each side, but here and there the hills come close to the water. I think it must be eight miles long and above one broad, very brackish at the salt plain ; very deep in some places, but shallow for one hundred yards from the shore." His visit to the calcareous spring has been mentioned, and the place has been identified. A feast came after a council: "The conference held till three, after which we dined, this repast consisted of three great kettles of Indian corn soop, or thin homony, with dry'd eels and other fish boiled in it, and one kettle full of young squashes and their flower's boiled in water, and a little meal mixed; this dish was but weak food, last of all was served a great bowl full PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 141 of Indian dumplings, made of new soft corn, cut or scraped off the ear, then with the addition of some boiled beans, lapped well up in Indian corn leaves, this is good and hearty provision." The Rev. Samuel Kirkland was at Onondaga in 1764, and was received at the council house, which he described much as Bartram "did, adding that it had four fires. This, however, was not the one which Bartram saw, that be ing east of the creek. This one was the home of Bimt, also called Otschino chiata, or the Sinew, and stood on a hill north of Dorwin's spring, near where E. F. Rice's house now stands. When Zeisberger was there, two years later, the English flag floated from a staff before it. As early as 1750 this flag was raised at councils in the town. Kirkland was told that a messenger of importance must be received in the day, and the council met at ten next morning. Pipes were lighted, and then the Bunt said they were ready to receive any message. Sir William Johnson had sent a belt and speech, and these were given by an Indian with Kirkland. He rose, holding the belt in his left hand, that the right might be free for gestures, and spoke for three-quarters of an hour. "At the end of every sen tence they expressed their assent, if pleasing to them, by crying out, one after another, or twenty all at once, nat-hoot-o-gus-keh, i. e., 'It is so,' 'very true.' When my convoy had finished his address, the venerable old chief replied, and spoke like a Demosthenes, for more than half an hour. He then took me by the hand, and embraced me, kissed one cheek and then the other. I sup posed I must return the compliment; I accordingly kissed his red cheeks, not disgusted at all with the remains of the paint and grease with which they had lately been besmeared. He gave me many blessings while he held me by the hand. They came, one after another, to shake hands with me, perhaps nearly a hundred. ' ' In the charming "Journal of An American Lady,-" written by Mrs. Grant in 1808, she tells of a journey she made from Albany to Oswego in 1760, when she was but little more than five years old. Her recollections are thus those of a child, vivid, but imperfect, and this must be remembered in reading her pleasant story, written forty-eight years later in Scotland. Her father was an , officer in the Fifty-fifth regiment, made up of Highlanders, and stationed for a time at Oswego. He came to America in 1757, his wife and little girl fol lowing him the next year, and remaining awhile with the Schuylers in Albany. Late in 1760 her father took her to Oswego for the winter, a trip she greatly enjoyed. Fort Brewerton had been built over a year, and was garrisoned by a com pany of soldiers, among whom they found friends. "The last night of this eventful pilgrimage . . . was spent at Fort Bruerton, then commanded by Captain Mungo Campbell, whose warm and generous heart, whose enlightened and comprehensive mind, whose social qualities and public virtues I should like to commemorate. . . . Here we were detained two days by a premature fall of snow. Very much disposed to be happy anywhere, I was here par ticularly so." 142 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY At Oswego Major Duncan, the good and gouty commander, had a house on wheels, which moved about the parade ground as occasion required. One part was a bedroom, the other a breakfast parlor and library, where his captains dined with him once a week. His books, games and instruments were accessible to all. He made improvements, and his men appeared on parade as though the world were looking on. Vegetables throve so that "they used in the following years to send them down to astonish us at Albany." Summer came again, and with lighter and faster boats, Duncan McVickar took his little girl back to Albany. She had hoped for forest camps again, but not a night did the little girl spend in the open woods. Peace reigned every where, and every night a roof sheltered their heads. Again they stopped at Brewerton, where she had a delightful time with the good captain. So much did she admire his copy of Paradise Lost — not the words, but the pictures — that he gave it to her. Very proud was she of this, but her pride had a fall, when the big words and grand thoughts proved too much for her young mind. Mention has been made of La Salle's visits here. Of course, with Fronte nac, Amherst, Johnson, Gage and others came many men of note. Some now are only names. That early explorer, Father Hennepin, was here in 1675-76, making a winter trip, but his record is brief. He visited the Oneidas, and also "the Honnontagez, who received us very well. This nation is the most war like of all the Iroquois." He went to the Mohawks also. "We remained some time among this last nation, and were lodged with a Jesuit father, born in Lyons, in order to transcribe a little Iroquois dictionary. ' ' This was the work on the roots of Mohawk words, so much esteemed by philologists. Charlevoix coasted along the Onondaga territory as he traversed Lake On tario in 1721, without penetrating the interior, and the Marquis de Nonville did the same in 1687. The Schuylers and other Albany men were often here, and French agents were too numerous to mention. Through the whole colonial period Onondaga was a center of plans and power. CHAPTER XIV. FROM THE CLOSE OF THE FRENCH WAR TO THE REVOLUTION. After the conquest of Canada there were more decided efforts made to educate and make Christians of the Six Nations. For some years the Church of England had sent missionaries to the Mohawks. In 1761 the Honorable Scotch Commissioners, in and near Boston, planned to educate Indian youths from a distance. Joseph Brant was one of those selected. In November Sam uel Kirkland, afterward the noted missionary to the Oneidas, visited Johnson, who approved his plan of learning the Mohawk language. Others followed him in several places. July 17 Johnson was at Fort Brewerton and met a Tusearora chief who wished for powder and lead. Johnson said he "complained greatly of the PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 143 deamess of goods, and the low prices of beavers, furs, etc." "It was an old and common complaint, in various ways repeated since Johnson sent to the Bunt and other Onondaga chiefs to meet him at Oswego. Part of those he mentioned had gone to a council in Pennsylvania. Sir William left the fort, or rather his camp across the river, where some New York companies were also encamped at nine a. m., ijeaching Three Rivers at six p. m. Captain Baugh was then at Brewerton. At Three Rivers he was detained by rain till noon of the 18th. At five p. m. he reached Oswego Falls, supping with Mr. Malto, the officer in command. About noon next day he was at Oswego, dining with Major Duncan, the old Scotch officer whom Mrs. Grant so charmingly described. In the evening of the 20th two Onondagas arrived and said that forty more were encamped a mile away. The next morning he "met the Onondaga and other chiefs" and "condoled their late losses, agreeably to custom; ac quainted them with the reason of my not calling them to a general council since my return from Canada; and then let them know the reason of my going to Detroit. . . . Then delivered the medals sent me by the general for those who went with us to Canada last year, being twenty-three in number." On that expedition two hundred and three Onondagas had promised to go, but some did not keep their promise. They made a sharp reply, among others things, saying : ' ' We are surprised at your going to call a council at Detroit, when you know that the chief and only council fire burns at your house and Onondaga; besides, these Indians you are going to do, ought rather, as being aggressors, to come to you." They complained of bad treatment since the war. Kanadacta, who was present, had had his hunting lodge near Oswego recently plundered, but Johnson prom ised to make this good if the offender could not be found. On his return he left Oswego for home October 19. "I set off at 9 o'clock and arrived at half way creek (Black creek in Volney) at twelve, where I found several hunts and a house, which were built for parties who cut timber here. I was obliged to wait here all day, without victuals or drink, my boats not hav ing come up. . . . My boats came up at eleven o'clock in the night, with all my baggage wet." "He reached Oswego Falls at eleven a. m. next day. "At five p. m., dined with Ensign Meut, and embarked at six p. m., and encamped on the little island. I walked from the half way creek to the falls, which increased the pain of my thigh greatly." On the 21st he met Sir Robert Davis and Captain Etherington at Three River rift, and encamped three miles above Three Rivers, where he was de tained by rain all the next day. He remarked that there was "some very good land about the Three Rivers on both sides." October 23d he left camp at eight o'clock. "Met several sutlers' and traders' boats going to Oswego. Ar rived at Fort Brewerton at five o'clock. Supped with Lieutenant Brown, who told us General Amherst was to go home." The next day he reached the Royal blockhouse and supped with Captain Bau, Gray and Mr. Burns. At the Easton (Penn.) council, August 3, 1761, many Onondagas were present. A Conoy chief called Last Night said: "I would acquaint you that 144 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY the chief of the Mohickons & Opies have settled with the Six Nations at a place called Chenango, where you may always find them if you should have occasion to speak to them." In December, 1762, Guy Johnson had a conference at Onondaga about the murder of two Englishmen in the Seneca country. He arrived at Onondaga December 4, and wag welcomed by the Bunt. In 1763 Johnson reported the Onondagas as having "one large village, six miles from the lake of their name (which is the place of congress for the confederates), with a smaller one at some distance." The latter was Tueyahadasso. May 26, 1763, a council was held at Johnson's house. The Onondaga speaker spoke for all, repeating the old agreements and relating later history. Now that the French were dead, the building of more forts made them uneasy. They feared that western traders might have trouble, and advised that trade should be restricted to Oswego, Niagara and Detroit. After the council an Indian came to say that the French had ascended the Mississippi and invested some English forts. They had sent a large belt with English scalps to the Six Nations, but it had been refused. The Indians were positive, but Johnson thought it an old belt, and sent to Onondaga and elsewhere to learn more In June the Onondagas sent wampum to the Indians on the Susquehanna, saying : "This string of Wampum comes to let you know that the French that was killed is come alive again, and that there is seven of your outposts taken, and all the people killed by the French, and a number of wild Indians that have tails like bears," alluding to a peculiarity of costume. Pontiac's war had begun and the Senecas were involved in it. Johnson said the Onondagas still showed a strong attachment, and he kept an inter preter at Oswego to save trouble with the Indians there- At a meeting at Onondaga the Senecas spoke with three belts. They had . loosed all their warriors against the English, and wished the others to do the same. All re jected this proposal, the Onondagas sending a large belt to the Senecas, desir ing them to stop at once. The Onondaga speaker at a later council that year took the great covenant belt of 1754, brightened the chain of friendship and renewed the same on behalf of eighteen nations. Peace soon followed with the Senecas. At that time Johnson said he thought the northern Indians "the most formidable of any uncivilized body of people in the world." The Ottawa confederacy and the Six Nations looked on the northern parts of North America as their sole property. The great Iroquois grievance was the chain of small forts, made in 1759, and reaching Lake Ontario. These were Fort Schuyler, on the Mohawk, the Royal blockhouse at east end of Oneida lake, Fort Brewerton, and the fort at Oswego Falls. These they wished abandoned, for this had been promised. Good interpreters were needed to prevent misun derstandings, and missionaries should live among them to do them good. In December, 1763, the Six Nations were in their best mood, and ready to join the English against the Ottawa confederacy, which was already inclined to yield. They also gave their aid against the hostile Delawares at the forks THE OLD ST. PAUL'S CHURCH. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 145 and branches of the Susquehanna, the following winter and spring. Captain Montour led a party of Iroquois up the Cayuga branch in April, 1764. and de stroyed some Delaware towns. May 21, 1764, Captain Elias Dayton left the Royal blockhouse at daybreak to join Bradstreet 's expedition. He added: "Came this day to Onondago or Oswego Falls, with all my boats. A most in conceivable distance for a war party of soldiers to get in one day." It was in 1765 that the Rev. Samuel Kirkland met with a cordial reception at Onon daga as he went to the Seneca country. That year, too, Pontiac agreed to meet Johnson at Oswego the following summer, having made peace at Detroit. July 23, 1766, this notable council began, Pontiac and the western chiefs having arrived. A bower of green branches had been prepared for the meet ing, and every officer of the garrison that could be spared was in or near the arbor. Johnson and Pontiac certainly two of the most remarkable men of the day, were the chief persons, but others were there who had their briefer celebrity. Of the Onondagas Teyawarunte, the speaker, was there, with the Bunt, Deiaguande and other chiefs. This was the only time in which the use of the great pipe of the Onondagas was mentioned. The Six Nations were asked to reply to Pontiac's string of wampum, "upon which the Onondaga speaker lighted a calumet of peace, which Sir William had left in their hands many years ago for this use." This was smoked by the western Indians, and speeches followed from two Onondaga chiefs. The council met for several days with impressive scenes and speeches, and on the last day of July Pontiac, with chiefs and warriors from four western nations, took their departure, laden with gifts. It is easy to imagine the in terest with which, their canoes were watched as they glided away over the blue and placid lake. Johnson's appointment as commissary of trade in 1766, made him general supervisor of barter with the Indians of New York and Canada. For the rest of his life he had almost autocratic power, and lived in baronial style, as he was entitled to do. All the trade possible was concentrated at Niagara and Oswego, and safeguards against fraud were adopted. Land troubles, however, increased, and lawless acts of violence incensed the Indians. The Moravian Zeisberger made his last visits to Onondaga and Cayuga that year, obtaining a grant of land for the Moravian Indians at and about Wyalusing. These unpublished journals contain much that is interesting. In 1767 Johnson went to Onondaga under pretence of a tour for health, to look into affairs quietly, returning in October. Things did not look favorable there. The French were again busy, and at a council the Indians showed their many grievances. The Onondagas said they did not wish to be hostile, but would answer for no one, injured as they were. He spent three weeks at Oneida lake at this time, probably at Brewerton, but also "met the Indians at Tusearora (Chittenango) creek, in Oneida lake. They were greatly affected at the death of a remarkable chief of the Onondagas," and he "was obliged to perform all the ceremony on that occasion." That year, too, another peace treaty was held with the Cherokees at Johnson Hall, with unique ceremonies. The great boundary question was settled at Fort Stanwix in 1768. The 146 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Indians came in slowly, though Johnson and the colonial commissioners were there September 19. By October 14 there were nine hundred and thirty In dians present, each of whom ate more than two white men, and did not like to be stinted at councils. Johnson opened the council October 24, when three thousand Indians had come. In New York the new property line followed the Susquehanna from the south to Owego, thence due east to the Delaware river, and up that stream to a point due south of Tianderra, or Unadilla creek, and thence to that stream. From thence the line ran nearly north to Canada creek, a tributary of Wood creek. The country east and north still belonged to the Oneidas and Mohawks, and might be bought at any time. Besides his signature, Otsinoghiyata, alias Bunt, made a hill for the Onon- gadas on the deed. Johnson offered to have Fort Ontario, at Oswego, evacuat ed, or put on the same footing with Fort Stanwix. The Indians answered that it might stay, and the others also, as long as they were civilly treated there. The next year he went to Onondaga, arriving there July 10, 1769. The chiefs of that nation and neigboring villages were in great need of corn from a failure of crops. Before the council he held private conferences with several chiefs in their hunting lodges. Returning late one night his canoe upset, and in climbing the bank he hurt his wounded leg. When a little easier he held a council. Thence he went to the Cayugas and Senecas, who were to attend a grand council at Onondaga in September, at which Cherokee deputies would be present. In July, 1770, he held a great Indian Congress at German flats. The Bunt and the Onondaga speaker told him that Diaquanda, their head warrior, had refused to attend to business and had encamped with another nation. As he was the particular friend of Johnson, he soon persuaded him to do better. There were twenty-three hundred and twenty Indians present at this treaty, a great number to feed in a time of dearth. In 1771 Johnson gave an interesting account of the Indians, some of whom had lost or changed old customs from contact with the whites. The Onondagas, however, were well versed in ancient customs, and called them selves the People of the Great Mountain. Red was a sign of war ; castles were square white figures ; alliances were shown by human figures holding a belt ; a hatchet meant war, and their tokens showed their names or clans. Symbols of this kind are largely illustrated in Beauchamp 's State Museum Bulleton on Wampum, etc. A paper on Indian customs by Guy Johnson will be found of interest. He made a map of the Iroquois country for the Rev. Charles Inglis's memorial in 1771. In that year the Shawnees were ordered to come to Onon daga and answer for their acts, but they promised to do better. A great Indian council was held in Ohio in 1772, which was attended by the Six Nations. Those present promised to come to. Onondaga and bring all the belts, but were not there at the appointed time. However, a council was held there the following winter, and the Senecas were brought to a better mind. Johnson said that it was of the utmost importance to have the friend^ ship of the Iroquois in case of war, for they could be the best of friends or most dangerous of enemies. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 147 In 1773 the Six Nations summoned the Piankeshaws and other trouble some western nations to Onondaga, saying: "We have already called upon them twice, and agreeably to our ancient customs, shall do so the third time before we strike." They objected to being called to account for the death of every lawless trader. The French were much more reasonable. Johnson himself complained of the pioneers. He was but fifty-nine years old when, in April, 1774, he nominated Colonel Guy Johnson, his son-in-law, as his succes sor at his death, agreeably to the wish of the Six Nations. His health, he said, was very precarious, and death might come at any time. The chiefs, his old and esteemed friends, also realized this, and the disasters that might come if he died having no authorized successor. Events showed the wisdom of this. In the midst of a great council at his home, July 11, 1774, he suddenly died. Soon after the funeral the council broke up, but in September two hun dred and thirty-five Iroquois chiefs and warriors came again to confer with Guy Johnson. Among these were their best men, who went through formal condolences, the Bunt being especially eloquent. Teyawarunte, the Onon- - daga speaker, with three strings, covered the grave, wiped away tears, re moved grief, etc. The Bunt's oldest son produced the several marks of Sir William's regard for him, and, according to custom, laid them down before Colonel Johnson, who restored them. Others did the same. They renewed the old covenant chain of twenty-one rows, and. gave Guy Johnson an new name, Uraghquadirha, Rays of the Sun Enlightening the Earth. The Onon dagas, considering the great age of the Bunt, Sir Williams' friend, had nomi nated ' ' Onagogare, who is to succeed the Bunt at Chenughivata. ' ' This should be alias Chenughivata, one form of Otischiniata. His name occurs later. At this time eighteen western nations had deputies at Onondaga, where a council opened November 5. The great union belt of thirty rows, given before the last war, and always kept at Onondaga, was now placed with the Senecas. Another, now given them by Colonel Johnson, would be carefully kept among their great belts at Onondaga. They would often look at it that they might forget no part. A vigorous message was sent to the Shawnees as an extract will show: "We have been twice here to advise you to peace, but you have not attended, and in compliance with our ancient customs, we are come the third time to tell you you must be at peace, this is the third time, and the last that you shall hear from us if you do not hearken to us. . . . Leave the business of war, repent and mind peace alone and then you will be preserved. Quarrel some people are dangerous. We advise you for your good, we pity you. . . Mind our words, they are strong, they are words of the Six Nations." 148 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY CHAPTER XV. THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. Hostilities had not actually begun when Guy Johnson held a conference with some Oneidas and others, February 10-16, 1775, when he told them to look to the king as their protector in all difficulties, and to shun all evil advice. They chose a Mohawk and an Oneida to carry his words, who would ask the Bunt at Onondaga to send two of his family with them. Colonel Johnson approved, and sent a "belt with a particular message from himself to the Onondaga fireplace." A little later thirty-two Indian "chiefs of the two tribes at Chenango, the Chugnuts, Owego, and Tioga, being five several nations," came with con gratulations and with complaints of the boundary. Producing a map he showed how the mistake came. It affected four villages, but would be con sidered, and all would be satisfied. It was a time of good promises, nor were the royalists inactive in other ways, for in July King George ordered Colonel Johnson, in consequence of the rebellion, "to lose no time in taking such steps as may induce the Six Nations to take up the hatchet against His Majesty's rebellious subjects in America." May 14 Colonel Johnson heard that the Americans were coming to arrest him, and fortified himself. He complained of illegal acts, and resolved to move westward with two hundred and fifty Mohawks and some white men. At Fort Stanwix he conferred with the Oneidas and others, whom he soon left, the country being in arms behind him. Going through Oneida lake and river, he stopped at Oswego, where he held another council at Fort Ontario, fourteen hundred and fifty-eight Indians, and one hundred white men being present. With some difficulty he secured the aid of the former, and left for Montreal July 11, reaching there July 17 with two hundred and twenty Indians. Joseph Brant was then his secretary. A council followed at Montreal, with sixteen hundred and sixty-four In dians of Canada, who promised aid and were placed in camps. Little was done, and on August 12 some of the Six Nations and St. Regis Indians "re turned with their war belts to Onondaga, after assuring Colonel Johnson they would be ready to return whenever there was a prospect of vigorous meas ures." Desultory hostilities followed, and a message came from "the Six Nations that the rebels had employ 'd agents to negotiate a treaty with the Caughnawagas. ' ' Two commissioners of "the twelve united colonies" met the Iroquois chiefs and warriors at German Flats, August 15, 1775, inviting them to meet them and the other three at Albany, to rekindle the fire their ancestors had placed there. Other matters were brought up, and then an Oneida said : ' ' The day is far spent, and we defer a reply till to-morrow, as we are weary from PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 149 having sat long in council. We think it time for a little drink, and you must remember that the twelve United Colonies are a great body," evidently ex pecting full glasses. It was an Iroquois principle not to hurry business. A proposal must be carefully considered and not answered the same day. The next day they accepted the invitation for themselves, but it would take a year to invite their distant allies. So the Albany council met August 23, being the last one held there, and effecting little. Colonel Barlow said that about five hundred In dians came. They were "very likely, spry, lusty fellows, drest very nice for Indians. The larger part of them had on ruffled shirts, Indian stockings and shoes, and blankets richly trimmed with silver and wampum." On the day of the council he said they made "a very beautiful show, being the likeliest. brightest Indians I ever saw." The Indians proposed to be neutral, as the Americans wished, stay at home in peace and smoke their pipes. The commissioners had the great pipe lighted and sent around, and then made a long speech which they wished might remain at Onondaga, giving a calumet to be kept at the same place. This would be done. The Indians said it was usual, when a council fire was kindled or a tree of peace planted, to appoint some one to watch them, having a wing to keep the hearth clean. The Americans should appoint one, as they had done, and two were named. In Novemebr, 1775, Brant and other chiefs went to England with Colonel Johnson, where they spoke in March and May, 1776. They said: "We are tired out in making complaints and getting no redress." This, of course, was promised when the troubles were over. Brant landed at Staten Island in July, and became active almost at once. Congress also wished the aid of the Six Nations, and while deputies from four of these were at Philadelphia on a peace embassy, the Onondaga speaker conferred on John Hancock the name of Karanduaan, or the Great Tree. . Meanwhile Sir John Johnson was secretly active at his home. General Philip Schuyler wrote him in January, 1776, that this was well known, and asked for a meeting. The reply was unsatisfactory, but the baronet at last was paroled. As his acts continued orders were given for his arrest in May, and he fled through the woods to Montreal. His house was seized by the Americans, and Captain Bloomfield made some interesting notes. May 22d he said: "I had a view of Sir Wm. Johnson's picture, which was curiously sur rounded with all kinds of beads of Wampum, Indian curiosities and trappings of Indian finery, which he had received in his treaties with the different Indian nations — curiosities sufficient to amuse the curious; indeed this search gave me an opportunity of fully- satisfying my curiosity in seeing everything in Johnson hall. We saw all Sir Wm's papers on all the treaties he made w"ith the different Indian nations,, with medals of various sorts sent him from Europe and others, which he distributed at his treaties to the Indians, etc. ; with innumerable testimonials, etc.; which showed Sir Wm. Johnson's char- 150 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY acter in every important station of life, and that he merited, greatly merited, the warmest thanks of his country." November 20, 1776, Captain Fraser was directed to have British officers reside in Indian villages; preferably those who had served with Indians. Presents were to be made only by Fraser 's order as Indian superintendent. The years had been a gloomy one for the Americans, and with the inspira tion of success, the British made great preparations . for the work of 1777. Burgoyne invaded New York by way of Lake Champlain, and the history of his campaign is well known. Colonel Barry St. Leger went to Oswego with a force of regulars, Canadians and Indians, intending to sweep through the Mohawk valley and join Burgoyne at Albany. Both expeditions failed. Colonel Butler had left Niagara July 13, and arrived at Oswego on the 25th, where he found Brant with a large party. He had sent one hundred and fifty Indians to St. Leger, who arrived at Oswego July 23, with two regiments and two hundred and fifty Indians. July 26 the first detachment left Oswego under Lieutenant Bird, the main body following. Three River point had been chosen for the Indian rendezvous, and Bird reached it on the 28th, having trouble with his Indians there and afterward. Fort Stanwix was reached August 2, but the siege need not be now described, though one of the most important events of the war. Some local notes may be given of incidents on the way. Thus the Oneidas were excited and interested. Thomas Spencer, an Oneida chief, wrote to the Americans, July 29 : " To-morrow we are going to the Three Rivers to the treaty. We expect to meet the warriors there, and when we come and declare we are for peace, we expect to be used with indifference and sent away. ' ' The details of this council may be in St. Leger 's unpublished journal, but are not • available now. Bird was joined there by sixteen Senecas and seventy or eighty Mississaugas. He encamped seven miles up the river, probably at Oak Orchard, a delightful spot, with a fine spring of water. The next night he was at Nine Mile point on Oneida lake, on the north shore. Sir John Johnson's orderly book has given us a good idea of the British force and preliminary operations, but it abruptly ended at Oswego Falls. Familiar names were often used as passwords, and on the 18th of July the password was Onondaga, and the countersign Fort Bull. The failure of this expedition ended one great danger, but there were frontier ravages all through the war. The discomfited invaders retraced their steps, disappointed of their prey. Oswego was abandoned as a post. St. Leger led his regulars back to Montreal, Johnson's Royal Greens went to Oswegatchie, and Butler and Brant to Niagara. Returning to Niagara from an eastern trip December 14, Colonel Butler wrote toCareltonthat he would have come back by Ontario (Oswego), but was told the Onondagas, Tuscaroras and Oneidas were in the rebel interest. They had taken the hatchet and made prisoners, but were then behaving well. The Six Nations were preparing to act vigorously against Pennsylvania and Virginia. He had been unable to send Indians to Burgoyne until too late. They wished to have Oswego occu pied again. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 151 Another council met at Johnstown March 9, 1778, with seven hundred Indians present. Few Cayugas and no Senecas were there. The latter had lost heavily at Oriskany, and wanted revenge. All but the Oniedas and Tus caroras were accused of treachery, and these warned the Americans against the Onondagas. An Onondaga chief, however, truly said the sachems were all for peace, but, like the whites, could not always restrain the young men. A little later a small band of Onondagas joined the hostile warriors. Early in July Colonel Gansevoort sent some men under Lieutenant McClel- lan, to destroy Fort Ontario at Oswego, to prevent its possible occupation by the British. As far as possible all the works were destroyed, and all the houses but one, which was left for a woman and her children, who were found there. Parlow's house was one of those burned. Though the American attack on Onondaga in 1779 was intended to be a sur prise, some intimations of it were heard earlier. December 6, 1778, Captain Aubrey wrote from Carleton island to General Haldimand: "Some Indians have come in here and have given me some strings of wampum, they have acquainted me of their having come from Onondago castle, where they say the rebels are expected every Day, as they have ben informed there is a large party of the rebels coming there from Fort Stanwix with an intention to destroy that Castle." It was said they would also attack Carleton island. This alarm passed away, and Aubrey again wrote to Haldimand, February 25, 1779, "sending a message from the Five Nations that a large body of rebels had left Albany to take post at Oswego, and that half of the Onondagos intend ed to join them." April 8 Haldimand wrote to Colonel Butler on reported rebel intrigues among the Indians, and their success in reducing the Onon dagas, chiefly through the influence of the Oneidas. Then came conjectures to Powell, April 9, from Sergeant Cooper, as to the destination of bateaux building at Saratoga. He did not think they were for the Mohawks, nor were there any extra bateaux at Schenectady. In January, 1779, the Oneidas were again invited to join Brant, but de termined to adhere to the Americans. Some principal Onondaga chiefs, then on their way to Fort Stanwix, approved of their answer. They had been asked by the western nations to extinguish the council fire, but would not do so. On returning home they would insist that all in their nation should declare what they would do. In this the Oneidas fully trusted, and were in high spirits. Unfortunately the fourteen Onondaga chiefs who went to Nia gara to bring their people back, and who might have saved trouble, were not allowed to return. It does not appear that many of the Onondagas had yet mingled in the strife, and it seems certain that the older men kept the hostile element in check as far as they could. Now a blow was to fall which would make every Onondaga an enemy. Thirty bateaux carried five hundred and fifty-eight American officers and men through Oneida lake, and they landed opposite Fort Brewerton at three p. m., April 20. There are three published accounts of the expedition in detail ; 152 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY one by Lieutenant E. Beatty, of the Fourth Pennsylvania regiment, one by Cap tain Thomas Ma chin, of the Second New York artillery, the third appeared in the New Jersey Gazette, May 12, 1779, and closely resembles Captain Machin's account, which follows : "Early on Monday morning, 19th of April, 1779, marched from Fort Schuyler,, with a detachment of troops, consisting of five hundred and fifty- eight men, including officers, and after moving eaight Days provision into battows, wich had been conveyed over a carying place in the night, and leav ing sufficient Number of Soldiers to assist the Battows men to get the boats down Wood Crick, with five officers to hurry them on — 'The Remainder of Troops marched to the old scowplace, twenty-two miles by land, but much more by water; the Troops ar'vd by three o'clock p. m., but the Baots did not all arrive until 10 o'clock, having been much obstructed by trees which had fallen across the Crick; as soon as the Boats arrived the whole of the Troops Embarked, and on entering the onidahogo was much Impeded by a cold head wind. Made one halt in the night for the rearmost Boats to come up, and then proceeded to Posser's bay, whare we Arrived at 8 o'clock in the morn ing of the 20th, to wait again for the Coming up of all the Boats, when we continued with as much Expedition as possible to the Onondago Landing, opposite the old 'fort, and arived there at 3 o'clock p. m. ; from whence after leaving the Boats with Proper Guard, -we marched Eaight or nine miles on our way to the Onondago Settlement, and lay on our Arms all Night without fire, not being able to continue our marching. Dark. The Night cold. Very early on the 21st proceaded to the old Salt lake, and at 9 o'clock a. m. Forded an arm of that Lake, two hundred yards over, and four feet Deep a con siderable part of the way. Pushed on to the Onondaga Breech (creek) whare Captain Graham, with his Company of Light Infantry, took an Onondago War rior prisoner, which was the first Indian discovered — ordered Captain Graham to Endeavor to surround the first onondago Settlements, wich ware about Two miles of, and hastning on the troops By Company as fast as he crost the Creek upon a Log, the Creek not being fordable, I soon arrived with the whole De tachment at the principle Castle, but was before apprised of their haveing discovered our advanced Partie while they ware takeing some prisoners, upon which I ordered Different Routs to be taken by several Different Detachments, in order to surround as (many) of their settlements as possible at the same time, which Extended Eaight Miles in Length, with some scattered habitations laying back of the Costs, and on the opposite side of the Creek ; but notwith standing entred their first settlement in the most secret manner, and quite un discovered by them, thay soon reed the alarm throughout the whole, and fled to the woods, but without being able to carry off anything with them. We took thirty- three Indians & one white Prisoner & killed twelve Indians; the whole of their Settlement, consisting of about fifty Houses, with a quantity of corn, and every other kind of Stock we found whare killed ; about one hundred guns, some of which ware Rifles, was among the Plunder, the whole of which. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 153 after the men had Loaded with as much as they could carry, was Destroyed, with a Considerable quantity of ammunition. One Swivel taken at the Counsel House had the Trunions Broke off and otherways Damaged; in fine, the De struction of all their Settlements ware compleat; after which we began our march back, Recrossing the Creek and forded the arm of the Lake, along side of which we Encamped on very good ground. Haveing been once Interrupted in our Return by a Small party of Indians, who fired at us from the opposite side of the Creek, but were soon beat off by Lieut. Evens Rifle, with the Loss of one killed on the part of the enemy, and none on. our own. Fair Weather all this Day, 22d, marched Down to the Landing. Found Bateaus in good order; Reimbarked, and Rowed to the Seven Miles Island, whare we Encamp. "Fair Weather — 23d. Crossed the Lake and Landed two miles up Wood Creek at two o'clock; left two companies to guard and assist the Bataus Men in getting up the Boats, marched Eaight Miles, and Encampt along side Feals Creek. "Fair Weather, Saturday 24th. Small showers of Rain on our march to the fort, whare we arrived at twelve o'clock, having been out five Days and half, the whole distance of going out and Returning Being One Hundred Eighty miles, not having (lost) a Single Man." The Onondagas did not have three warnings, or the loss might have been on the other side, nor would it have taken a whole day to divide the spoils on the return. Concerning this a noted collector of curios wrote to Governor Clinton the next year: "I am credibly informed that the quantity of plunder of all kinds, particularly of articles in use among the Indians (and with men's scalps and valuable curiosities) was immense ; perhaps from that quarter, your Excellency might procure Something for my Collection. ' ' The main differences in Beatty 's and Machin's accounts are in matters of detail. Thus Colonel Schaick took command, with three companies of his regiment. His field officers were Lieutenant Colonel Willett and Major Cochran. The men marched in two columns one hundred yards apart. Cap tains Graham, Gray, Hicks and Henshaw forming the right with their com panies; Captains Louis, Johnston, Fowler and Blecker on the left, the rifle company being equally divided between the two flanks. The inoffensive Onondaga warrior was shooting pigeons. Beside Indians, men and women, they killed several horses and a number of hogs. On the whole it will rank very well with the raids made by the Indians themselves. If it .was not a breach of faith it certainly proved a colossal blunder. The Oneidas were astounded, not knowing but their turn might come next. The Onondagas treated it in a manly way. They asked "whether all this was done by design, or by mistake. If it was a mistake, we hope to see our brethern the prisoners — if by design, we will still keep our engagements with you and not join the King's party. But if our brethern, the Americans, mean to destroy us also, we will wait here and receive our death." Peace was still possible had there been a soft answer. Colonel Van Schaick replied : ' ' They were cut off not by mistake but by design. I was ordered to do it, and it is done." 154 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY The first camp may have been near Woodard station, the second between Liverpool and Salina, the arm of the lake being between those two places. The creek may have been crossed near Colvin or Brighton avenue, the principal town being on Webster's Mile Square. It was reported that a child of Brant 's was among the prisoners and he was much concerned about this. British officers hoped that the Onondagas would be enraged by this blow, as they were. A few of the Onondagas adhered to the Americans for sometime longer, but the most of them went to Niagara, or to the Genesee valley, where they planted corn with the Senecas, to be again dispossessed before the winter's snows. Most of the men went on the war-path, having lost their homes. This they felt deeply for the time, complaining that the British had given their country up, after drawing on them the resentment of the Americans. They even threatened to make terms with the latter, but presents and fair promises held them still. Sullivan's desolating expedition need not be described, as the whole course of his and Clinton's army did not touch our present borders. Colonel Ganse- voort's party, however, passed directly through Onondaga on its return from the main body. No details of this have been accessible until quite recently. The journal is that of Lieutenant Robert Parker, Second Continental Artillery, and is given in full in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History for 1903. He was with Clinton's army, which left Otsego lake August 9, 1779. The larger part of the journal is much like several others, though it has much also of individu ality. When the army reached the site of Binghamton, called by him the mouth of the Sheninga river, "a party was sent to Shenango, two miles above, to destroy it." It was already deserted. The main army was left on the return at Seneca lake, September 20, and the party of one hundred men encamped that night at Scharoyos, now Water loo. Thence it went east by way of Skaneateles and Owasco lakes, crossing Onondaga county, and that portion follows : "September 21st: Marched at sunrise, the country open and free from hills and withall very fertile for six miles ; then we crossed some low land and deep swamps, arrived at the Cayuga lake, ten o'clock, distance ten miles. crossed the mouth of the lake, which was about four hundred yards wide and in most places four feet deep, with at least a foot of mud in .the bottom, then proceeding about a mile up the lake struck off near a N. E. corner. The country continued open for ten miles, and the timber chiefly oak. Then we entered thick beech and elm land. (He evidently meant to say here that they came to Owasco lake). Crossed the outlet of it and encamped on the bank. (Where Owasco Lake Park now is). This lake is about a mile and a half in width and the length uncertain, some say thirty miles. There is a beautiful beach here of a very great extent, the outlet forms a considerable stream of a gentle descent. Distance today thirty miles. "September 22d. Marched at sunrise. The land and timber the same as yesterday. Arrived at the outlet of a lake (Skaneateles) that appeared nearly PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 155 of the same dimensions of the Wasco, halted a few minutes and then descended into a very deep valley, where 'there was a considerable brook (Nine Mile creek), then ascended a very high hill, and the land and the wood nearly the same as before. Arrived at Onondaga (Webster's Mile Square) about sunset; this was the capital of the Onondaga nation and was destroyed last Spring by a detachment of our army from Fort Schuyler under the command of Colonel Vanschaick. Distance thirty miles. "September 23d. Marched a little after sunrise, crossed the Onondaga River and ascended the hill. The woods continued open for five miles. Our advance parties discovered two Indians on the path before them, who immedi ately fled and left one of their packs. The woods then was thick and the land very good in most places and filled with a number -of crystal rivulets, halted at Sunken Spring (deep spring at the county line) in the road. Arrived at Cana seraga, a handsome village and capital of the Tusearora Tribe. The inhabi tants appear very hospitable and presented us with boiled corn and eels, with every other thing their town afforded, they likewise congratulated us on the success of our arms, and insisted on our tarrying with them all night. After staying with them sometime, we marched about six miles further and en camped in an old field. Distance thirty-one miles. "September 24th. Marched at sunrise, the land very good. Arrived at Oneida Castle about nine o'clock; the inhabitants received us very kindly, made a genteel apology for their not being apprised of our coming and also congratulated us on our success. Halted a short time and then marched for Fort Schuyler, where we arrived at three o'clock: met with a great reception from the garrisons. Distance twenty-six miles." His estimates of distances are too great and may be reduced to about three-fourths of his figures, a common thing in forest journeys, in which two miles often seem three. The trail followed was the same traversed by the Moravians twenty-five years earlier. That summer three hundred Onondagas attacked Cobleskill, drawing some troops into an ambush and killing twenty-two of their number. General Haldimand had a conference at Quebec August 20, with the Onondaga chief Teyohagweanda and three Cayugas. They asked why Oswego was not occu pied, as they had long wished. He answered that they need fear no American invasion of their country, for that people only cared to secure their frontier. Yet Sullivan and Clinton were even then on their march and burning the Indian villages, while Colonel Brodhead was destroying the Seneca towns farther west. Well did the Indians name Washington, by whose order all was done, the Destroyer of Towns. Eleven years later Cornplanter said to him: "When your army entered the country of the Six Nations we called you the Town Destroyer, and to this day when that name is heard, our women look behind them and turn pale, and our children cling close to the necks of their mothers. When you gave us peace, we called you father because you promised to secure us in the possession of our lands. Do this, and so long as the lands remain, that beloved name shall live in the heart of every Seneca." 156 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY October 10 Colonel Guy and Sir John Johnson left Sodus bay with a con siderable force, accompanied by Brant and his warriors, but the Canadian Indians refused to go against the Oneidas or Fort Stanwix and all went into winter quarters. Some Onondagas went to Carleton island. It has been said Harbor brook had its name from Sir John Johnson's leaving his boats there in 1779, but, as here stated, he got no farther than Oswego. There has been some natural confusion of dates and names. Sir John Johnson's raid in May, 1780, was by way of Lake Champlain. He took a different route in October,, meeting troops from Niagara at Oswego, and going thence by the shortest route to Schoharie valley and returning by way of the Mohawk river to Oneida lake. He left Oswego October 2, having his artillery and provisions in the boats, the troops and Indians marching along the shore. October 9, Leake wrote to Haldiman that he left Johnson with the troops at Onondaga creek (Oneida river) on the 6th. Captain Nelles, with twenty men, joined him there. With the return march we are more especially concerned, and in this there is a confusion of names. October 18, General Robert Van Rensselaer wrote from Canajoharie, having heard "that Sir John intended to return by way of Crown Point ; that he had left his Boats in the Onondaga lake, but had since altered his intended Rout." Captain Lawrence also wrote to_ Colonel Drake from Fort Stanwix, October 24, that on the 22d a party of fifty privates, with their officers, was sent out under Captain Vrooman to harass and if possi ble to destroy the Boats in Onondaga Lake, which, could it have been effected would have been the means of the whole of their force falling into the Hands of General Rensselaer who was following them in their rear. On their arrival at Canasheaga (Canaseraga) they found the Enemy had just moved off." On this they returned about three miles, were surrounded and captured. Governor Clinton also spoke "of their Boats lying at Onondaga Lake" but not of their destruction. Official accounts of Vrooman 's capture do not place it at the creek which he does not seem to have reached, and remains of boats there are of a later date. "The wife of Captain Vrooman, who last fall fell into the hands of the enemy between Fort Schuyler and Oneida lake," wished for his exchange the next winter. Major Hughes also wrote of the pitiable" situation of unfortun ate Oifficers and Soldiers who were captured the 23rd of October last, detached from the Garrison at Fort Schuyler to Onondaga. ' ' The Colonial History of New York also mentions the capture of James Rose, Fifth regiment, Second Com pany New York State Line ; taken prisoner at Onondaga lake, October 18, 1780. The place in this is certainly erroneous. It seems certain, as Clark said, that Johnson's boats were that year left at Chittenango creek, at the bend opposite Lot 100, Cicero, where other boats were left and some destroyed a year later. The rest of the story does not agree with the reports made at the time. There was an old palisade there; possibly the one built to defend Canaseraga, after which the creek was named. In the popular story a guard was left there and some stores, as was the case, the army carrying its light artillery on pack horses. The usual account is that Vrooman PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 157 was sent from Fort Stanwix, captured the guard and destroyed all the boats but two. In turn he was surprised and taken without firing a gun. The story goes that the enemy was exasperated at finding the boats sunk, and that three prisoners became victims of their rage. The stump of the "Turtle Tree" to which one was said to have been tied, may still be seen east of the road. On this tree a large turtle was carved, probably by members of that clan. The stbry of his wonderful leaps is confused with another well known spot, south of Centerville. This prominent place on Chittenango creek was the one chosen for a fort in 1700, by Colonel Romer. Clark says : "John Adams, Esquire, who first surveyed a considerable portion of the lands in that region, and the late Judge John Knowles, who first settled there in 1805 or 1806, saw the pickets then standing, and they occasionally found guns, knives, hatchets, bullets, etc., and at high water many persons have seen whole boats and fragments of boats, driven up among the floodwood, with timbers very little, if any, decayed, leaving more than presumptive testimony in corroboration of the facts before stated, on the authority of Mrs. Storms, of Sullivan, who was a prisoner there at the time, and was taken in this expedi tion of Johnson's and carried into Canada, and of a man who was one of John son's party, and known as Tory Foster, who, in former years was a resident of the town of Cicero, and a frequent visitor to his friends in the town of Manlius. ' ' Early in 1780 the Mohawks, Onondagas, Cayugas and Delawares made a speech in which they said they were never stronger for the king, but they wanted soldiers to help them. In May, however, when a party was sent out from Carleton island to join Sir John, the Onondagas and Cayugas refused to go anywhere except to Fort Stanwix. In Frank H. Severance's "Old Trails of the Niagara Frontier," is an ac count of the captivity of David Ogden, who was taken at Fort Stanwix March 2, 1781. After this Brant marched east and then west, coming to a camp of one hundred Indians and fifty tories. "The next day's march brought them to Oneida Castle, often the headquarters of Brant in his expeditions. Here the Indians dug up from the snow a store of unhusked corn, and shelled and pounded a quantity for their long march." The place had been deserted. They left there at night and made a forced march. "The next encampment was on the Onondaga river, south of the lake ; and here occurred an incident as characteristic of Indian character as was the row of shoe buckles in the road. Some Indians found a small cannon, which had probably been abandoned by one of the detachments sent out by Sullivan on his retreat from the Genesee in '79. Brant, who had plenty of powder, ordered his American prisoners to load and fire this gun a number of times, the Indians meanwhile yelling in delight, and the Tories and British enjoying the chagrin of the helpless Americans. They were on the site of the old Onondaga fort which had a brass swivel whose trunions the Americans broke off before leaving the spot in 1779. In the creek, near by, is a place which the Onondagas still call 'the cannon hole.' 158 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Guy Johnson gave an account of an action which took place, September 8, near German Flats, between a party of Americans and some Onondagas and Cayugas. Majors Ross and Butler came to Johnstown October 24, by way of Oswego and Oneida lake. After his return Major Ross gave an account of this expedi tion to General Haldimand, from which a few lines may be taken : "I had the honor to write your Excellency from Oswego the 10th ultimo intimating the arrival of the Troops from Niagara, at which time I made no mention of the Indians which I was made to believe were coming by land to join me on the march ; a very few came with the Troops ; on the 11th I left Oswego and proceeded to Oneida Lake as far as Canasarago Creek, where I left some provisions and a Guard." He found the Americans were ready for his coming. In consequence the expedition was disastrous and Walter Butler was killed. Ross tried to retreat partly by the way he came, as being the best, but added: "There was another circumstance which equally determined me. It was not impossible that the Boats and provisions left at Canasarago might fall into their hands, which they could not fail to have information of ; in this case a march to Niagara or Carleton island, without provisions and almost bare footed at this season of the year presented a disagreeable prospect." He did not then reach Chittenango creek on his retreat, but after reaching Carleton island he wrote: "I have taken every precaution to secure and get brought to this place the provisions left at Canasarago and Oswego." He was successful in this, and wrote again, November 22, that the parties and pro visions left at these two places had arrived, with the best of the boats. Seven old bateaux had been destroyed, but they were some merely patched up for the expedition. The boats on the creek were thus _ destroyed by him and not by Vrooman, as often reported. This immunity was made possible by the evacuation of Fort Stanwix that summer, and the defection of five hundred Oneidas, and all the Tuscaroras and Onondagas at Canaseraga the previous year. Oswego was again occupied early in 1782, and another expedition under Major Ross was planned, but failed because the Indians would not go with him. There was a growing feeling that the British would not succeed, and loyalists were already making terms. Soldiers were deserting. There was a rumor, too, that the Americans would attack Oswego before the next spring. General Haldimand thought this would be unfair, when there were prospects of peace. However, the attempt was made by Colonel WiUett in February, 1783, but was unsuccessful through losing the way, and soon after peace was made. The- closing act of this frontier war in New York may be briefly given. There is extant the "Journal of a Tour from the American Garrison at Fort Rensselaer in Canajoharie, on the Mohawk river, to the British Garrison of Oswego, as a Flagg, to announce a cessation of hostilities on the frontiers of New York, commenced Friday, April 18, 1783," by Captain Alexander Thomp son. Four men accompanied him. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 159 They had intended going by the north side of Oneida lake, but finding an old boat near its east end they repaired and equipped it, and sailed along the' north shore, camping about half way. April 23 was a beautiful day, and they enjoyed the sail and scenery, dining on one of the "Six Mile" islands. Then they passed Fort Brewerton, dropping swiftly down the river and noting its crooked course. Water fowl were abundant, but they had but one gun and would not fire that lest some lurking savage should fire on them. Two miles before reaching Three River point they did meet a war party in three canoes, made up of three white men and eight Indians. Not seeing the white flag at first these landed and took to the trees, expecting a fight. For tunately the flag was seen in time and a parley followed. Then Lieutenant Hare came on board and all headed for Oswego, Captain Thompson's boat in the center, a canoe on each side and one behind. Six miles below the point they camped for the night, and word was sent ahead. At Oswego Captain Thompson was blindfolded and taken to the fort, giving his message, which created great surprise. The British were strengthening the fort and were disgusted with the treaty terms. However, the party was courteously treated and provision made for its safe return. Major Ross was then in command at Oswego and was much esteemed. This practically ended the political power of the Onondagas, and some account of their social life and character will follow before entering on the period of settlement after the Revolution, which was a new era. CHAPTER XVI. ONONDAGA CUSTOMS, TRADITIONS AND STORIES. The Onondagas had some advantages from possessing the great council fire of the Five Nations. At this were gathered the wisest and most powerful chiefs, and in their absence the Onondagas attended to less important business. Thither came all envoys, to treat of peace or war, to pay tribute or ask favors, and these were not Indians alone, but English, Dutch and French ambassadors and agents. They were thus more familiar with etiquette, oratory and diplo macy than the others were. In a sense they were a barbarous people, and yet early writers made no mistake in speaking of the court of Onondaga. The clan system extended through all the nations, and the Onondaga Bears were brothers to the Mohawk Bears, or those of others. When a man reached a distant village he looked, for his clan totem on a lodge. He would be welcome anywhere, but there he had a claim. In games the eight Onondaga clans divide into two equal bodies, and at the New Year's feast meet in separate houses. A man must not marry into his own clan, and even in adoption this rule is applied. Some time ago Bishop Walker, of Buffalo, was adopted by the Senecas ; his wife wished to be in the same clan, but was told this could not be. It was against the good old rules. Two clans at least always were found in one family. 160 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY The children are of the mother's clan and nation, never of the father's, so that chieftainships do not descend from father to son. The son may possibly be a chief, but not in his father's clan or with his title. The women choose the chiefs; the men install them at the appointed condolence. Women have a voice in the sale of land, and had power to forbid war or decree peace. Gov ernesses were appointed to safeguard their interests, and the names of these sometimes appear subscribing to treaties. They did not speak in councils, but selected a chief to speak for them. In early days they decided on the removal of villages, when they chose. Cultivating the fields, of which they made sport, providing the light fuel, once no difficult task, it was theirs to say when the land was unproductive, or the woods too far away. At their word there came a moving day. Marriage was a simple affair, and dissolving it quite as simple, though this was discouraged; in fact the present religion is rather decided on that point, in theory at least. Cards must not now be played, but gambling with the old games of peach stones or deer buttons is stoutly maintained. The former is found in some form among all Indians, and is sometimes called the game of the bowl or dish. It creates the intensest excitement. Two players alternately hold the bowl and strike it on the ground. Six peach stones in this are ground down and blackened on one side. Five and six are the only winning points. Five of either color make O-yu-ah, or the Bird. Six make O-hen- tah, or a Field. The deef buttons are eight in number, nicely formed and variously marked or colored on one side. These are hot placed in a bowl, as in the other game called Ta-yun-e-oo-wah-es, but are thrown" on a blanket. Hence this is called Ta-yu-nyun-wat-hah, or Finger Shaker. The counting is different. Six of one color count two, called O-yu-ah, or the Bird. Seven count four, called O-nyo-sah, or Pumpkin. All white or black count twenty, called O-hen-tah, or a Field. Gambling at a feast is called Ken-yent-hah. Lacrosse is still a popular ball game'. Two poles form gateways at either end of the ground, and the game is to carry the ball through these. The ball must not be touched with the hand, but may be carried on or thrown with the bat, which has a long handle and is bent like a hook at the other end. This part has a network of sinews on which the ball rests. When hundreds joined in this game it was exciting indeed. From its boisterous character the Onon dagas called it Ka-che-kwa-ah, Hitting with their hips. The snow snake game, called Kawhentah, is a test of power and skill in throwing a long and slender rod on the ice or snow. This rod is flattened, and is from five to seven feet long, having an upturned and pointed head, loaded with lead. The resemblance to a gliding snake is very striking. The game is to see who can throw farthest, and the distance is sometimes very great. Sides are often chosen. Children have many games. One is that of interlocking violets and pulling apart. This gives its name to the flower, Ta-kyah-noon-wi-tahs, Two heads en tangled. Mumble the peg is popular and called Da-yu-sah-yeh-huh. Other games have been adopted from us. Two games of the javelin survive. Another in door game is that of the bell and the shoe. A bell is hidden in one of three THE OLD ARMORY. THE NEW HIGH SCHOOL. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 161 shoes, and the game is to guess in which it is. This is an old Indian game, changed by circumstances, and sometimes called that of the moccasin. Many early games have disappeared. For preparing food the log mortar and double pestle are less used than formerly, but may still be seen. The same is true of the bark trays and bowls, finely carved wooden spoons, splint sieves, cornhusk bottles, and other articles of domestic economy. The burden frame, borne on the back and very con venient, is now rare, as well as the burden strap. Indian cradles are still used and are often handsome. They are convenient, too, for they can be set up, infant included, against a wall or hung on a bough; "Rock-a-by baby, on the tree-top," being emphatically an American song. The Onondaga cradle board is about two and one-half feet long, a little broader at the top than at the base, where there is a small foot-rest. Near the top is an arch over which a screen may be cast to shade the head, while the child lies beneath, extended on its bed. A long band of finely braided elm bark, stretched across the mother's brow, enables her to carry it with ease. y^A- Fake faces of comic or hideous design, are yet used in some ceremonies. They are elaborately carved in wood, with metallic plates on the eyes, and often with horsetails for hair, differing in no respect from those described nearly two centuries ago. There are those of cornhusks for certain officials and societies, very neatly made. The Indian drum appears in some songs and feasts, not in all. This is the case with the rattles, of which there are four kinds. Thqse made of gourds and turtle shells represent the oldest kinds. Those of horn of course are modern. Another neat rattle is made of young hickory bark, doubled over and partly rolled. In all these corn or pebbles are placed. One large turtle shell rattle is weilded by both hands. Councils are of several kinds, the ordinary business council lacking the stately etiquette of early days. The council of adoption may be simple or elaborate, as every Onondaga has the right to adopt a brother if he so chooses. The religious council is but a preaching service, a successor of Handsome Lake relating his revelation from day to day. White wampum calls this council, and several long strings of this are held while the story is told. The preaching is usually from ten o'clock till noon, never in the afternoon, the Great Spirit requiring that time to rest. The mourning council or condolence, is quite elaborate, but has no religious significance, being merely an expression of sorrow for the loss sustained, and the installation of the new chief. If the Elder Brothers, the Mohawks, Onon dagas, or Senecas have lost a chief, the Younger Brothers take charge of every thing, the mourners being so dejected that they cannot act for themselves. Purple wampum is sent out as a mourning message. The notched tally stick shows how many days will elapse before the council. On the appointed day the condoling friends come and a runner announces their presence and number. The chiefs of the bereaved nation gather at the woodside fire to receive them as they come from the forest. There the invitation wampum is returned and mutual greetings are given. These done the procession is formed, the visiting 162 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY brethern in the rear, chanting the condoling song as they go to the council house. There are six of these songs, the longest or roll call of the chiefs con taining the names of fifty chiefs, with a few words about each. In this song the word Hai occurs several hundred times, long drawn jaut. The third song "Hail! my grandfathers!" is sung in the council house tSfefore the hanging of the curtains, which are then stretched across the long roTSm. Then the fourth song is sung. The fifth song follows over the mourning wampum, arranged in seven bunches. This includes the Great Hymn. The curtains are then removed and each bunch of wampum is successively delivered to the mourners, with an intoned speech. The curtains are rehung, and all is repeated with a slight change. The presiding chief then says: "Show me the man," and each is brought forward in turn and duly installed with appropriate charges. The Onondaga feasts are several, and have naturally changed much. The principal one is that of the New Year. This was the Dream feast of the seven teenth century, called by the Jesuits Honnonouaroria, a Huron term for a turning of the brain, and it was then a time of the maddest license. Among the Onondagas now it is Ko-no-why-yah-ha in the feminine; for men Hoo-no- why-yah-ha. Either from custom or originally it means the Asking or Begging feast. One feature is still the interpretation and granting of dreams. The white dog originally had nothing to do with this feast, but was introduced in the eighteenth century. At one time two white dogs were burned at Onon daga, then but one, and now a white basket, duly adorned, is thrust into the stove in the council house. Properly this feast lasts fourteen days beginning late in January or early in February. Three days are for penitential exercises and confession of sins. Three days of gambling follow, with four clans on a side. On the last of these days two men go singly to every pagan house, stir ring the ashes and inviting the people to the council house. Then the clans remain apart, guessing dreams, for three days, on the last two of which the False Faces make their rounds. On the ninth day, about noon, the white dog was burned. This day is called Koon-wah-yah-tun-was. They are burning dog. On the tenth day there is a dance for young children, who then receive names. On the eleventh day is a dance for the Four Persons, Ki-yae-ne-ung-kwa-tah-ka ; these being the four angels of Handsome Lake's revelation. On the twelfth day are dances for Ta-en-ya-wah-ke, the Holder of the heavens, followed by dances for A-kee-so-tah,the Thunder gods, meaning They are our Grandfathers. These are on the thirteenth day. On the last day the men and women take opposite sides in gambling. If the men win the corn will be tall and the ears long, like men, not short like women. The Planting feast, Ne-ya-yent-wha-hunkt, or Planting time, comes in May or when the ground is ready. Eight days belong to this. The Strawberry feast, Hoo-tah-yus, comes when the berries are ripe, and one day suffices for this. There are dances for the Thunders and a feast on strawberries. At an early day it was more important. The Green Bean feast comes next, and is called Ta-yun-tah-ta-t 'kwe-t 'ak- hunkt, Breaking the bellies, that is, the protruding beans in the pod. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 163 The Green Corn dance comes at its appropriate time, and is called T'unt- kwa-hank cha kah-neh-host-ha. This tak:\s a full week, and is now the most noticeable of the Onondaga feasts. The Thanksgiving or Harvest feast, T 'unt-kwa-hank cha ne-unt-hent-tees- ah-hunk, All is Done, comes in October, and is observed much like the last. The Maple feast, Heh-tyis-ha-stone-tas, Putting in syrup, has ceased with the mak ing of sugar. Besides these there is the annual Dead feast, O-kee-we, which commemorates the dead as a body, and has some curious features and special dances. The Dead feast ten days after death is called Ah-tya-hak-hoon-sa. One kept in con sequence of a dream has the same name. At the former a feast is held in which a portion is set aside for the dead, and property is also divided. The latter feast comes from the suggestion of the dead in dreams. Ideas of the condition of the dead are very little like those of early days. The worship of Agreskoue, the god of war, was abandoned in the seven teenth century, but Ta-en-ya-wah-ke is still reverenced as the Holder of the heavens. Ha-wen-ne-yu, an Indian word framed by the Jesuits to express the Great Spirit, is the usual name of God. Sone-yah-tis-sa-ye, He that made us, sometimes takes its place. Early ideas were quite vague on such subjects, and divinities of minor importance were as abundant as among the Greeks. A mountain, rock or waterfall had its proper demon or spirit, and even the spirits of the lower animals might very strangely affect the fortunes of men. When first known to Europeans the lives of all the Iroquois were controlled by their dreams. A powerful class of beings were represented by the False Faces. Those whom they typify had tests of strength with the Good Spirit, but when he put forth his full power they agreed to use theirs for the benefit of men, not for their harm. Through their representatives they would heal sickness and avert evil, if due heed was given these. The False Faces recalled the Flying Heads, once a scourge of the Iroquois. By an underground passage it was thought the False Face society could reach Green pond west of Jamesville, where they loved to resort. One night a hunter, passing by the lake, heard singing. Crawling to the verge of the cliffs he saw the False Faces coming from the water, loaded with fish and full of merriment. As they passed into a hole in the rocks he heard them singing beneath his feet till the sounds died away in the depths of the earth. The Indian fairies, Che-kah-eh-hen-wah, Small people, were also good to them if properly treated, but were seldom seen. Hopper 's Glen was one of their haunts, and they loved to slide down its steep banks. Like the brownies they had favorite houses, doing the owners many a good turn. Among the Mohawks they were Stone Throwers, like some small people we have known. Among other early trials were the Stone Giants. Some started to devour an Onondaga village, but were led into a deep ravine by the Great Spirit. When they were asleep he rolled huge stones down upon them, and no one has seen them since. One lived south of Cardiff, and used to come to Onondaga for his morning meal. One Indian a day sufficed if in good condition. Not liking 164 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY to be eaten up, even if but gradually, they devised a remedy. In the low land through which his trail ran they made a deep pit and covered it with branches. The giant had more body than brains, and was an easy prey. They killed him in the pit, and it made a very convenient grave. So when the Cardiff Giant was exhumed the Onondagas knew who he was at once. Another Stone Giant chased a hunter through the gorge near Jamesville to the little lake west of that place. Luckily for him there was a natural stairway to the top of the cliffs. Reaching the top he looked down at his pursuer, and saw that he held a little bone pointer which seemed to direct his movements. When near enough the hunter snatched this from his hand and the giant was helpless. Piteously he begged for his charm, promising anything and every thing in re turn. At last his offers were so good that the hunter relented. Best of all the giant kept his word. Of course they had trouble with serpents, but less than their neighbors did. The Seneca snake stories are current among the Onondagas, but their own are mild in comparison. One is of a young hunter who marries a serpent wife dwelling in one of the Tully lakes. He has the power of living under water with her, and after some evasion tells a friend all about it. Meantime the Thunders have something to say, in a very quiet. way for them. They tell the friend that he must get the wife to come ashore and they will take care of the rest. .She comes in a dramatic way, resplendent in her serpent beauty, and garb, and at the proper moment the Thunders come. Terrific is the conflict, deafening the uproar, but the serpent and her husband become a heap of ashes and another scourge is removed. Another snake story belongs to another lake yet farther south, but the details of this have been lost. Close by one of the Preble lakes rises Mount Toppin, formerly Onasgarix- sus, where the daughter of the Great Spirit came down and told some Indians to come there again next year for precious gifts. They came and where she had sat grew tobacco, where her right hand rested was corn, and where her left hand touched the ground beans were growing. Bartram and Weiser both observed this hill, substituting squashes for beans. At the Tully lakes, too, was an episode in the Hiawatha tale. He came alone to one of these just at evening, and a great flock of ducks entered the pond. On a sudden alarm they flew away, and, as it was not deep, carried all the water with them. On the bare bottom lay countless white shells, and of these the Indian sage made the first wampum, the use of which he soon taught the Mohawks and others. Three supporters of life the Onondagas honor as minor duties: they are Tune-ha-kwe, Those we live on: corn, beans and pumpkins, all special gifts of the Great Spirit, and usually called three sisters. A pretty story changes this. A young man lived alone on a small hill, who wore flowing green robes and had nodding plumes on his head. A silky fringe hung down by his side. His name was Onahah, the Corn. Every day he sang : ' ' Che hen, Che hen, Sone ke kwah no wah ho ten ah you ke neah. Say it, Say it. Some one I will marry." A tall young woman came, her flowing mantle adorned with great golden bells. She was Oo-nyo-sah, the Pumpkin. She would marry him, but he would none of PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 165 her. She ran about too much ; he wanted his wife at home. Then came Oo-sa- ha-tah, the Bean, her simple dress adorned with flowers and groups of bangles. To use a common phrase, she filled the bill. They met with a loving embrace, and since that early day the slender bean thrives around the corn, he support ing her and she cherishing him. In the Indian fields corn and beans were planted together. There are stories about the stars, one of these being of the Pleiades. Some children were playing together and became very hungry; so empty in fact that they floated off in the air. One looked back and was lost to the rest, but the others sailed off in the sky and became the well known group of stars. The north star came to a party of lost hunters, as a beautiful girl, and became their guide. The Great Bear is called O-na-joos-kwah or Kah-nah-joos-kwah. Great dipper, but also appears as a wounded bear, pursued by two hunters. From his dropping fat and blood came the yellow and red tints of autumn. Animal stories are frequent, some animals becoming the friends of men. A boy is left in a hollow log and the animals decide who shall take care of him. The bear brings him up with her cubs, and he acquires some of their traits. At last a hunter kills the. bear and takes the boy home, but he always shows kindness to bears. The porcupine figures in some stories, and foxes and dogs have their places. In one long story a boy with magic powers kills a giant, and then goes out to seek his fortune. Many adventures follow, in which he recovers some of his uncles. At one place he gathers a large number of human bones and arranges them as best he can, but in a row. Then he goes to a tall pine tree, pushing hard against it and crying out: "Euch! Euch! Look out! Look out! this tree will fall upon you!" The bones come to life and run away, but all did not have the right legs and arms, and he has to rearrange them as best he can. This particular act is found in many Indian stories. The story of the Great Mosquito is independent of but often attached to that of Hiawatha. Two of these monsters guard the Seneca river above Cross lake, devouring the Indians as they come along. Ta-en-ya-wah-ke slays one on the spot, killing the other after a long chase in Cicero swamp. From the de caying bodies arose clouds of smaller mosquitoes. The tracks of the monster and his pursuer were quite recently to be seen at Brighton in Syracuse. One tragic story is of a man and his wife pursued by a vampire, from whom they escape. The tales of witches are many, and the belief in witches is persistent. At the beginning of each year a decided effort is made to rid the reservation of them. Witches usually assume the form of some bird or beast, and often meet for wicked ends. The native tobacco, having a yellow flower, is a safeguard against many evils, and may bring good luck. It is always burned at the New Year's feast, and is an acceptable offering to the Thunders. Sacred medicines are also made with peculiar ceremonies and uses, but space cannot be given them here. Before leaving these mythic subjects Clark's story of Hiawatha may be summarized. Dunlap, in his history of New York, gives the simplest form, 166 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY which he had from Ephraim Webster in 1815. The Iroquois warred against each other, but an inferior Onondaga chief thought this needless, and "con ceived the bright idea of union, and of a great council of the chiefs of the Five Nations; this he said, and perhaps thought, came to him in a dream; and it was afterwards considered as coming from the Great Spirit. He proposed this plan in a council of his tribe, but the principal chief opposed it. He was a great warrior and feared to lose his influence as head man of the Onondagas. This was a selfish man. The younger chief, whom we will call Oweko, was silenced ; but he determined in secret to attempt the great political work. This was a man who loved the welfare of others. To make long journeys and be absent for several days while hunting, would cause no suspicion, because it was common. He left home as if to hunt ; by taking a circuitous path through the woods, for all this great country was then a wilderness, he made his way to the village or castle of the Mohawks. He consulted some of the leaders of that tribe, and they received the scheme favorably; he visited the Oneidas, and gained the assent of their chief ; he then returned home. After a time he made another pretended hunt, and another; thus by degrees visiting the Cayugas and Senecas, and gained the assent of all to^a great council to be held at Onondaga. With consummate art he then gained over his own chief, by con vincing him of the advantage of the confederacy, and agreeing that he should be considered the author of the plan. The great council met, and the great chief of the Onondagas made use of a "figurative argument taught him by Oweko, which was the same that we read of in the fable, where a father teaches his sons the value of union, by taking one stick from a bundle and showing how feeble it was and easily broken, and that when bound together the bundle resisted his utmost strength. ' ' This, in substance and with variations, is now the accepted account of Hiawatha and the formation of the Iroquois league. Clark received the more picturesque version from Onondaga chiefs, and this has been very popular, as it could hardly fail to be. In this poetic form it is often told among the Iroquois yet. In this the Holder of the heavens comes to earth to free men from many enemies, meeting with two Onondagas at Oswego, who accompany him through all adventures. The white canoe ascended the river, and a great serpent was slain which kept the fish from spreading, and the Indians from traversing the river. Another was slain above this, and the fish were free and the Indians had safe passage. The magic paddle made an outlet for Onondaga lake with similar results. The enchantress Oh-cau-nee lost her power, and the chestnut trees on Seneca river were free to all comers. The great mosquitoes were en countered above Cross lake, one being slain at once, and the other long pur sued. Two great eagles were killed at the Montezuma marshes, and the water fowl went everywhere. Then the Holder of the heavens became a man indeed, dwelling at Cross lake as Hiawatha. An invasion from the north began and Hiawatha was called to a council at Onondaga lake, whither he went with his daughter in his white PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 167 canoe. As he landed at the high shore north of Liverpool the white bird of the Great Spirit came headlong from the skies, crushing the great man's daughter in its fall. According to the present Onondagas this was Hah-kooks, or the white winter gull, defined as "the bird of the clouds," or "one never on the ground." When Hiawatha recovered the league was formed, and Mr. Clark said he himself composed the parting speech put in his mouth. Then he seated him self in his white canoe, which rose from the earth and disappeared in the heavens, amid the sweetest sounds. In a Mohawk account Thannawage, a Mohawk chief, proposed the league, but this may be from the fact that Hiawatha left Onondaga and became a Mohawk chief, having successors to this "day, bearing his name as a title. It is curious that Tadodaho is not mentioned in Clark's legend, nor does Hiawatha appear in Cusick's history. Schoolcraft appropriated Clark's story, to the latter 's great indignation, and Longfellow took little more than the name for his poem. He did, however, preserve the leading thought: "How he prayed and how he fasted, How he lived and toiled and suffered, That the tribes of men might prosper, That he might advance his people. ' ' The meaning of the name has been in question. Mr. Horatio Hale inter preted it as "He who seeks or makes the wampum belt." One objection to this is that the true wampum belt was probably not then used. Lewis H. Morgan made it "He who combs," in allusion to his combing the snakes out of Tadodaho 's head. Father Cuog suggested "The river-maker." Clark de fined it "The very wise man;" Daniel La Fort "The awakener." Albert Cusick, an Onondaga interpreter, said it meant essentially "One who has lost his mind, and seeks it knowing where to find it." To his friends he seemed crazy, but he knew what he was about. These different meanings from good authorities, show some of the perplexities of translation. Canassatego (not the Onondaga, but) a Seneca chief, had the story of the creation of the Five Nations. One of the gods came down to the beautiful land of the Konosioni, and sowed five handfuls of seed. These became children after being worms awhile. Nine years he nourished them, nine more he taught them useful things. They became five nations. Then he called them together for his parting words and gifts. To the Mohawks he gave corn ; to the Oneidas nuts and fruits ; to the Senecas beans ; the Cayugas had ground nuts and other roots ; and the Onondagas received grapes and squashes to eat, and tobacco to smoke at the council fire. Then in a bright cloud, he returned to the sun. The story of the Good and Evil Minds is old and wide spread, but a little confused. A woman falls from heaven and is received on the back of a great turtle, there being no habitable earth as yet. The diving animals bring mud from the bottom of the sea, affix it to the turtle's shell, and a continent is gradually formed. The woman has a daughter, who in turn has two sons, good 168 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY and bad, and these are at variance, the one at last killing the other. Beyond this the story varies greatly, especially as regards the sun and moon. The religious system of the Onondagas had been sensibly affected by missionary teaching and about 1800 was to undergo a more definite change. The Seneca prophet, Handsome Lake, a brother of Cornplanter, taught a revelation made to him. He was especially successful at Onondaga, turning an intemperate community into one perfectly sober. He died while on a visit there in 1815, and in 1906 a handsome monument was placed over his grave near the council house, and on the site of the old one. It bears this inscription : "GA-NYAH-DI-YOU| Author of the Present|INDIAN RELIGION|Born at|GA- NOH-WA-GUS|GENESEE CO., N. Y. 1735.|Died August 10, 1815.|At Ononda ga Reservation. |" His teaching was of a highly moral character, and his revelation is regu larly recited at intervals of about two years. The preachers confine themselves mainly to his recital of what he saw and heard, adding nothing of their own. In the course of years of oral transmission there has been some natural varia tion, but the whole has now been reduced to writing in the Seneca tongue. Before this some translations were made. A few notes on the prophet's teaching follow, concluding this sketch of Indian life. While expecting to die he fell into a trance, and was supposed to be dead, but revived. Three of the four angels who were to talk with him appeared. The fourth, whom he saw later, was Christ. A voice three times called him to the door and he went out. Never before had he "seen such handsome royal men," so nobly clad. They gave him huckle-berries of every color and as he ate his strength came beck. Then he had directions about the In dian feasts, which were to continue but with new rules. The Creator had given whiskey to the pale-face as a medicine, and he had perverted its use. The Indian must not use it at all. Witchcraft must be done away, as well as secret poisons. Prevention of child-bearing must cease, and short marriages. "God ordained that when people marry it is for a life time, forever, as long as the people live." If a man married three wives and deserted them, there was a sure hell for him who left two, being mothers, "but the Creator alone knows the store for him that deserts three." Trouble between man and wife was always to be avoided. Children were not to be punished unjustly, and punishment was to be by immersion in water. If there was no child in a house, one or more should be adopted. Kindness must be showed to the old, and all must be hospitable. "It is wicked not to take what is offered. The visitor must take two or three bites at least, and say Niawe;" that is, "Thank you." "The Creator loves poor children, and whosoever feeds the poor and unfortunate does right before Him." Scandal must be shunned and vanity avoided. Three things the white man did were not wrong for them. They might have good houses, farms and cattle. Two from each nation were to be educated. "So many white people are about you that you must study to know their ways." Men were to help PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 169 one another. Thieving must cease. There were two many dance-songs, and those in honor of any animal were wrong. Secret societies were to be dis solved, but this failed. For happiness and mirth the Creator had given the Great Feather dance, the war dance, war songs, and the peach stone game. With the use of these the Evil Spirit might interfere, and proper rules were given. "There are three grades of sin : the sins of chiefs, the sins of overseers, and the sins of the whole community." Repentance was required from all. Of religion there could be no perfect understanding, but the angels would tell what they could from time to time. In heaven there was a constant dispute between the Great Spirit and the Evil. He who followed the Great Spirit must call him (in Seneca) "Hodia nokda Hediohe, our Creator. And whosoever speaks of the devil must say Segoyinatha (the punisher)." Tobacco was to be used as incense, and medici nal plants were not to be gathered without ceremony. Payment for healing was not to be accepted, but tobacco might be a fee if afterward sacrificed. Their "forefathers are in a place of enjoyment wholly unknown to us." "It is impossible to grieve always, and you must now grieve only ten days. Make a feast when the ten days are up, in honor of the departed one, who will return and eat with you." Various signs would show the approaching end of the earth. "We think that when the end comes, the earth will be destroyed by fire and no one will escape, for the earth will be enveloped in flames. And those who do not repent will be in it." There come also symbols to illustrate oral teaching, and these were strik ing. A church was a dark and bad place, while the council house was full of light. No white man could go to heaven, but he was shown Washington's house just outside, where he dwelt alone though happy. Plowever, he had a little dog with him. Toward the conclusion he meets the fourth person, who is Christ. "He held up his hands, and they were pierced; and likewise his feet; and in his breast was a spear wound. His hands and feet were torn with nails." The prophet gave this sight a politic turn. Christ had been rejected by white men : "Now tell all your people that when they embrace the religion of the white men they will be lost." There are many minor rules, as the prohibition of cards and the fiddles, and the returning of little things when found, but the above gives a fair outline of the preaching now. At the preaching at Onondaga in 1894, the return of the invitation wampum and various addresses occupied the first day, and the religious part five. An ascription of thanks opened each morning's proceed ings, in which thanks were returned to the Great Spirit, the Four Persons, the Thunders, and the sun, moon, and earth, their benefactors. Responses were made, the wampum was displayed and the speaking began. This ended at noon, for "our religion teaches that the early day is dedicated to the Great Spirit, and the late day is granted to the spirits of the dead." 170 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA^ COUNTY A letter from General Dearborn in 1802, speaks of the prophet 's teachings and influence, and of a special message which he claimed to have had from the four angels. It was in 1800, not in 1790, that he received this. The Onondagas at once adopted the new faith, and on their return from a council astonished Ephraim Webster by refusing to take a friendly glass with him. They ex plained why. In 1809 some Quakers visited them. They were better clothed than the Oneidas and received the visitors courteously, who had a satisfactory time, "which was greatly increased when we were informed, not only by them selves but the interpreter, that they had totally refrained from the use of ardent spirits for about nine years, and that none of the natives will touch it. ' ' There and elsewhere are now strong temperance societies, the Six Nations' Temperance League being the most important. John Jacobs, or Kenentoote, Hemlock sticking up, gave Albert Cusick, or Sagonaquate, the Onondaga names of months in full. The White Dog feast in January or February is that of the New Year, but like the Hebrews, they also begin a year in the fall, the commencement of the hunting season, and thus these months are arranged : October — Chut-ho-wa-ah, little cold. November — Chut-ho-wa-go-nah, large cold. December — Tis-ah, little long day (not very long). January — Tis-go-nah, longer day. February — Ka-na-to-ha, winter leaves fall (those that have stuck to the trees) . March — Ka-na-to-go-nah, winter leaves fall and fill up the large holes.. That is, the high March winds blow the leaves into the hollows in the woods. April — E-sut-ha, warm and good days, but not planting time. May — O-yea-ye-go-nah, leaves in full size and strawberries ripen. Gonch is added only when the intercalary month comes. June — Ses-ka-hah, sun goes for long days. July — Ses-ka-hah-go-nah, sun goes for longer days (the longest day). A natural mistake, but the months are not exact as with us, an intercalary month being used. It follows that of May, and is sometimes called the Dead Month, because an Indian was killed in a dispute about it. August — Ken-ten-ah, the deer sheds its hair. September — Ken-ten-ah-go-nah, deer in its natural coat (large hair). The days of the week are Sunday, Ah-wen-tah-to-ken-te, holy day. Mon day, Ah-wen-tah-ten-tah-ee, holy day over. Tuesday, Te-ken-wah-tont-ah, second one, that is, after Sunday. Wednesday, Ta-wen-to-ken, between the days, or middle of the week. Thursday, Kah-yea-te-wah-tont-ah, fourth one. Friday, Wicks-wah-tont-ah, fifth one. Saturday, Ent-tuk-tah, near the (holy) day. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 171 CHAPTER XVII. SOLDIERS OF THE REVOLUTION. A bronze tablet to the memory of the soldiers of the Revolution was placed in the wall of the Syracuse post-office, in 1902 by the Daughters and Sons of the Revolution, inscribed "In Memory of the Soldiers and Sailors of the American Revolution who lived in Onondaga County. "Erected by the Onondaga Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, The Syracuse Chapter Empire State Society Sons of the American Revolution, A. D. MCMII." The names were not given on this, but a record at the time was largely taken from a descriptive list compiled by Franklin H. Chase and published in Onondaga's Centennial. A larger record by Mr. Chase was issued by the Onondaga Plistorical Association in 1895. Most of the names came from court records and local histories, and some from the Baldwinsville soldiers' monument. A few are added here to Mr. Chase's valuable record, which follows in an abridged form. He supposed that full three hundred of these soldiers at some time lived within the present limits of the county. As his list alone includes two hundred eighty five, this is a fair estimate, and three hundred seventeen are now recorded. The Syracuse Gazette of July 7, 1824, said that about thirty of these veterans took part in the first celebration of Independence day in Syracuse that year, march ing with others. The next year about half as many were there. The court records of 1820 added at least one hundred to these thirty, and in 1840 there were one hundred and twelve drawing pensions in Onondaga county, all over seventy years old. There are many men now here who knew some of these these veterans. POMPEY. — In Pompey, including La Fayette, fifty-eight are mentioned Three Hessians also lived in this town who had been prisoners. Ages without dates are for 1820. Elisha Baldwin, sixty-one years old, served in Captain Thomas Converse's company, Colonel Heman Smith's regiment, Connecticut line, for three years. David Blackman, aged sixty-two, also served three years, enlisting in Captain Whiting's company, Colonel Samuel Webb's regiment, Connecticut line, May, 1777. Amos Benedict, aged sixty-two, in 1775, ¦ enlisted in Captain Joseph Smith's company, Colonel Water bury 's regiment of the same line, and served seven months. Enlisted again May, 1778, in Captain Stone's company, Massa chusetts line, Brewer's regiment, for ten months. Daniel Bunce, aged seventy-one, enlisted in Captain Miller's company First Massachusetts regiment, and served until the close of the war, in 1783. 172 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Lemuel Cook, aged fifty-five, served two years and six months, from December, 1780, to June, 1783, in Captain Stanton's company, Colonel Shel don's regiment. Hezekiah Clark, aged sixty-five, appointed surgeon's mate in Third Con necticut regiment, by Governor Trumbull, and served two years in the Third Connecticut regiment, Colonel Samuel Wyllis. Jekiel Foot, aged sixty, served from April, 1781, to June, 1783, under Captains Drew and Cooper, in Colonel Ebenezer Sprout's Second Massachu setts regiment. Enos Greenfield, aged seventy-one, enlisted November or December, 1775, for one year, in Colonel Charles Webb's regiment, Connecticut line, served until January 1, 1777, and was discharged. He was in several battles. Samuel Humphreys, aged sixty-three (lived in La Fayette), enlisted in 1777, in a company of artificers under Captain Pigeon or Peon. Neither name is in the army lists. Francis Hale, aged sixty-four, enlisted in James Buckstone's company and was transferred to Oliver Rouse's,- Colonel Jackson's regiment. Samuel Johnson, aged sixty-eight, served in Captain Starr's company. Colonel Huntington's regiment, Connecticut line. Jeremiah Jackson, son of Colonel Jeremiah Jackson, a captain in the Revolution, and an early settler in this county. The son enlisted in Colonel Wm. Shepard's regiment, Massachusetts line, and served three years. He was sixty years old in 1820. Phineas Meigs, aged sixty-four, enlisted in Captain Samuel Barker's company, Colonel Meigs' regiment, Connecticut line, for three years. Proba bly the one who died in Van Buren in 1835, aged seventy-seven. He was a pensioner who moved to that town in 1812, and who was buried at Sorrel Hill. Isaac Moore, aged fifty-six, enlisted in Captain Isaac Hubbell's company Colonel Lamb's artillery regiment, for the war. Moses Moulthrop, aged fifty-six, served April, 1781, to the fall of. 1783, in Captain Peter Robertson's company, Colonel Swift's regiment, Connecticut troop. Joseph McMillen, aged sixty-three, served a year in frigate Warren, Com modore Hopkins, September, 1777, to fall of 1778. His brother, Peter McMillen, aged seventy-one, served with him. John Nearing, aged sixty-seven, served in Captain Aaron Austin's com pany, Colonel Charles Burrall's regiment, Connecticut troop. John Spoor, aged seventy, served in Captain Thomas DeWitt 's company, Colonel Peter Gansevoort's regiment, New York line, four years from 1776. He was an ensign. Benjamin Sutton, aged seventy-five, enlisted January 1, 1777, discharged January 1, 1780. Served in regiments of Colonels Seth Warner and Jeremiah Burroughs. Ambrose Squires, aged fifty-four, served in Captain Pray's company, Col onel Joseph Vose's regiment, 1781 to fall of 1783. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 173 Richard Townsend, aged sixty-three, enlisted in April or May, 1778, in Captain Johnson's company, Colonel Gansevoort's regiment, New York line. Discharged in the spring of 1780. David Watkins, aged fifty-eight, served from June, 1777, to June, 1780, in Captain Maxwell's company, Colonel John Bailey's Second Massachusetts regiment. John Wilcox, aged fifty-nine, joined a company of artificers in Connecti cut, December 12, 1777, under Captain Pigeon or Peon, stationed at West Point. Served thirteen months and was discharged. In 1821, he made a new petition, saying he also enlisted in Captain Abner Granger's company, Colonel Samuel Campbell's regiment of Connecticut, serving from April, 1781, to April 1, 1782. Ebenezer Wood, aged sixty-six, enlisted in Captain Samuel Sloan's com pany, Colonel Paterson 's regiment. He served ten months, and was discharged at Trenton, N. J., January 1, 1777. The following are not from court records, but from local histories, etc. -. Conradt Bush was eighty-four in 1840, and had served at Long Island, Trenton, Princeton and Yorktown. He drew Lot 47 in Pompey. Sylvanus Bishop lived to the age of ninety-five, and came to Pompey from Columbia county in 1793. He served in the Revolution. Ebenezer Butler, Sen., died in 1829, aged ninety-six. He served in a Connecticut regiment, both in the Revolution and the French and Indian war. Ebenezer Butler, Jr., born in 1761, was the first white settler on Pompey hill, though not the first in the original town. During his army service he was taken prisoner and suffered much on a prison ship in New York. David Beard, a pensioner of 1840, was then eighty-five years old. James Bookhunt was seventy-nine at the same time. Captain Selah Castle died at Pompey Hill and was buried there in 1817. Not in original list. Paul Clapp, who died in Pompey in 1845, was carried to Canada as a prisoner. William Cook, a pensioner of 1840, was then seventy-nine. He was a prominent man. Adonijah Cole was then eighty-three. Jeremiah Crandall was eighty-four at that time. Thomas Dixon drew Lot 4, and was eighty years old in 1840. He was one of the last four survivors of Colonel Lamb's regiment of artillery in 1848. Caleb Green died March 29, 1817, aged sixty-three years. He is thought to have marched to the relief of Fort Stanwix in 1777, and came from Wash ington county, New York. Jacob Goodrich, a pensioner of 1840, was then eighty-six. Nathaniel Gage was seventy-seven the same year. 174 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Hoyt. — In Clayton's history the father of Charles W. Hoyt, born at Pompey in 1804, is given as a captain in the revolution, who came here in 1798. He may have been Stephen Hoyt, lieutenant in New Hampshire troop. Benjamin Hayes, a pensioner of 1840, was then eighty-two. Baruch Holbrook is said to have been on Washington 's staff with the rank of major. He came to Pompey in 1794. David Hibbard's family history calls him a Revolutionary soldier. Richard Hiscock served as a private through the Revolution. He was a pensioner of 1840, and was then eighty-one. Isaac Hall was a captain in Gardner's Massachusetts regiment, May to December, 1775. Samuel Jones, a pensioner of 1840, was then eighty, and keeping house. Benjamin June was then eighty-seven. He settled in La Fayette in 1794. Colonel Jeremiah Jackson died in 1802. He was at Wolfe's capture of Quebec, and served as a captain in the Revolution, having three sons with him. Moses Knapp, pensioner of 1840, was then eighty-six. James Midler appears in a history of Oran as a soldier who settled there about 1800. Christopher Midler, his brother, came with him and drew Lot 32. Zenas Northway, pensioner of 1840, was then seventy-five. Hezekiah Olcott died at Pompey hill 1804, and was buried with military honors. He was sergeant in Baldwin's artillery, artificer regiment (Connecti cut), October 1, 1777, and second lieutenant November 12, 1779, serving thus till the end of the war. Timothy Sweet served long under Colonel Seth Warner, and was at Ticonderoga and Crown Point. He was a prisoner for a long time and came to Pompey in 1794. Zadock Seymour, a pensioner of 1840, was then eighty-three. Ralph Wheeloek was eighty-four at the same time. Benjamin Webb was of the same age. Jedediah Winchell was then eighty-eight. Asa Drake, in north part of La Fayette, may be added from Clayton's history. Elisha Smith, Sen., also, who came to Pompey in 1804. He served under Gates and was at Burgoyne 's surrender. ONONDAGA. — Mr. Chase credited thirty-seven veterans to Onondaga and their names follow: William Abbe, aged fifty-two, served in Captain John Reye's company, Colonel John Durkee's regiment, Connecticut line, and was regularly dis charged. John Balch, aged sixty-one, was in Captain Benjamin Throop's company, Colonel Huntington's regiment, Connecticut troop. Afterward in Captain Ezra Selden's company, Colonel Starr's regiment, from which he was dis charged. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 175 Jesse Bannister, sixty-eight years old, enlisted in Captain Harwood's com pany, Colonel Larned's regiment, Massachusetts line, April 24, 1775. Dis charged January 1, 1776. At once re-enlisted in Captain Asa Danforth 's com pany for one year. Richard Caton, aged fifty-five, in Captain Christopher Woodbridge's company, Colonel John Greaton's Third regiment, Massachusetts line, in 1781. Served till close of the war, but partly in other companies. Ebenezer Covil, aged seventy, January 1, 1776, he joined Captain Tim othy Percival's company, Colonel Jedediah Huntington's regiment, Connecti cut line and served thirteen months. Solomon Huntley, aged sixty-six, enlisted in Captain Throop's company, Colonel Starr's regiment, Connecticut line, in 1777, and served three years. Ebenezer Moore, aged sixty, enlisted in Colonel Olney's regiment, Rhode Island line, serving three years, or to the end of the war. William McCracken, aged fifty-seven years, enlisted in Captain Joseph McCracken 's company, Colonel Van Schaick 's regiment, New York line. Served three years and three months. Ozias Northway, aged sixty-two, enlisted November, 1775, in Captain Pettibones' company, Colonel Mills' regiment. Discharged January, 1777. Gideon Pitts, aged sixty-three, served in Captain Arnold's company, Colo nel Shepherd's Massachusetts regiment. Richard Reed, aged sixty-three, served in Captain Ely's company, Colonel Meigs' regiment, and others afterwards, all in the Connecticut line. Benjamin Robinson, aged sixty-one, served one year in Colonel Durkee's regiment, Connecticut line. Simeon Smith enlisted as a drummer boy at the age of sixteen, in 1776, in company of Captain Soule, Colonel Tappan's regiment, Massachusetts line. Served through the war. Samuel Stone, aged fifty-six, served in Colonel Meigs' regiment, Hum phrey's company, and in Colonel Scammel's and Samuel B. Webb's regiments, Connecticut line. John Walter, aged sixty-three, served three years in Colonel Heman Swift's regiment, Connecticut line. Elisha Waters, aged sixty-three, served in Darius Wilcox's company, Major Elisha Painter's battalion, Connecticut line, in 1777. Transferred to Colonel Baldwin's regiment, Massachusetts line, and discharged in 1780. The records of others follow : Captain James Beebe was a captain in the Connecticut line, and promi nent in Onondaga, being in charge of the arsenal in the war of 1812. He was drowned in Seneca river that year. Dr. Joseph W. Brewster was born in 1764, joined the army when he was sixteen and was at Yorktown. He died at Onondaga Valley, September 4, 1849, in his eighty-sixth year. 176 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Jonathan Belding, a pensioner of 1840, was then eighty. George Clarke was eighty-two years old at that time. A George Clarke drew Lot 49, Camillus. Jabez Cole was then eighty. Jonathan Conkling, another pensioner, was also eighty. General Asa Danforth was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, July 6, 1746. He was in the battle of Lexington, and joined the regiment of Colonel Danforth Keys. He served through the war with the rank of major, and settled in Onondaga, May 22, 1788. William Evans, pensioner of 1840, was then eighty. John Ellis enlisted when but fourteen, and was from Pittsfield, Massachu setts, serving through the war. He was a colonel in the war of 1812, and a major-general when he died in 1820. Ephraim Hall, pensioner of 1840, was then seventy-nine. Justus Johnson was then eighty-four. David Lawrence rests in the South Onondaga cemetery with two other veterans. Caleb Potter, pensioner of 1840, was then seventy-eight. Simeon Phares came to Onondaga in 1803. Died in Geddes in 1820. Daniel Peck was eighty-two years old in 1840. Benony Reynolds, who was buried in South Onondaga, died in his one hundredth year. Jacob Sammons came to that part of Onondaga which became Geddes, dying in 1815. Gideon Seely, buried at South Onondaga, was a prominent citizen. . Comfort Tyler was born at Ashford, Connecticut, February 22, 1764, and entered the army when but fourteen, serving in and about West Point. Peter Ten Broeck seems to have served in the department of Quartermaster General Timothy Pickering, and was a prominent man of Onondaga Valley. Ephraim Webster served through most of the war and became Indian interpreter. MANLIUS- including DE WITT.— Chase enumerates forty-three Revo^ lutionary soldiers here. Levi Carr, aged fifty-nine, was in Captain Zebulon King's company, Colo nel Brook's regiment. John Cockley, aged sixty-four, served July, 1775, to June, 1783. He was at first in Colonel Goose Van Schaick 's regiment, and then in Colonel Nicholson's. In February, 1777, he enlisted in Captain McKean 's company, Colonel Van Schaick's New York regiment for the war. Samuel Clark was seventy-one in 1827. He served in Captain Carr 's company, Colonel Archibald Crary 's regiment, under General Sullivan, for nine months ending in 1779. This was before the Indian expedition. Benjamin Darling was seventy-eight in 1840, and served for nine months in 1782, in Captain Andrew Moodie's company, Colonel Lamb's regiment, New York line. in 2 s **~"Z~'\ 3* u c 5 rr g U !; ."ifV ' JJ|3 '31.1 ^r-'^tyiiijiilS* .'.HI JIMIUH. -we. EAST GENESEE AND SALINA STREETS AT "BANK CORNER." VIEW OF THE UNIVERSITY BUILDINGS. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 177 Dr. George Eager, aged seventy-four, served as surgeon in Colonel Timothy Bedel's regiment of New Hampshire rangers during the war. Ephraim Eaton, aged sixty-five, served in Captain Mills' company, Colonel Michael Jackson's Seventh regiment, Massachusetts line. George Grinned, aged sixty-four, was in Captain Arnold's company, Colonel Lippitt's regiment, Rhode Island line. Hendrick Higbee, aged sixty-one, was in the company of Captain John Polhemus, First regiment New Jersey troop, for one year. Discharged at Ticonderoga. Joseph Hennigan, aged sixty-one, served in Colonel Wynkoop's regiment, New York line, for one year. Then in the same company, Colonel Moses Hazen's regiment, for three years. Discharged at Fishkill. David Holbrook, aged sixty-nine in 1829, enlisted July 1, 1779, for nine months in Captain Smart's company, Colonel Spraut's thirteenth regiment, Massachusetts line, and was discharged April 20, 1780. Uriah Keeler, aged sixty-six, served nine months in 1776, in Captain Northrop 's company, Connecticut line. Enlisted April, 1777, in Captain Com- stock's company, Colonel Chandler's regiment, for the war. He was after ward transferred to Captain Munson 's company, Colonel Sherman's regiment. Phineas Kellogg, aged sixty-four, served from November, 1775, to Novem ber, 1776, in Captain Ebenezer F. Bissell's company, Colonel Jedediah Hunt ington's regiment. Stephen Leonard, aged sixty-seven, enlisted in May or June, 1778, for nine months in Captain Cox's company, Colonel Jonathan Dayton's regiment, New Jersey line. Caleb Merrill enlisted when but seventeen years old, in the spring of 1781, serving till June, 1783. He was at first in Captain Hunt's company, Colonel Henry Jackson's Ninth Massachusetts regiment. Next year he was transferred to Captain Robert Bradford's company, Colonel Spraut's Second Massachusetts regiment. Asa Merrill, aged fifty-eight, served May, 1777, to May, 1780, in Captain Hugh Maxwell's company, Colonel Bailey's regiment, Massachusetts line. William Orcutt, aged sixty-nine, served in Captain John Mills' company, Colonel Vose's regiment, First Massachusetts. Asa Parks, aged sixty-five, served January 1, 1776, to January 1, 1777, in Captain Allen's company, Colonel Jonathan Ward's regiment of Massachus etts troop. George Ransier, aged sixty-nine in 1825, volunteered with his company early in 1776, serving six months mainly near New York. In 1777 he was twelve months in service, three months in Captain Herrick's Rangers, after ward under Captain Hill and Colonel Dubois. In April, 1778, he enlisted in Captain Jonathan Titus's company, Colonel Henry B. Livingston's regiment, and was discharged at Fort Plain, New York, February, 1779. He at once re-enlisted in Captain McKean 's company, Colonel Rensselaer's regiment, for nine months. During 1780 he was a bateau man for eight months, carrying 178 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY supplies on the Mohawk. Enlisted in 1781 in Colonel Willett's regiment for nine months. Still living in 1840. John Smith, aged eighty-four, enlisted as sergeant for one year in 1776, in Captain Jacob W. Seeber's company, Colonel Cornelius D. Wynkoop's regi ment of the New York line, and was sent to Fort Stanwix. Discharged in the spring of 1777. Then he was a lieutenant in Captain Robert McKean 's com pany for two years. John Sparling, aged sixty-five, served one year in Captain Daniel Pratt's company, Colonel Winds' First New Jersey regiment. Thomas Whipple, aged sixty, served in Captain Flower 's company, Colonel Greaton's Second Massachusetts regiment. Afterward in Captain Sonney's company in the same. Amos Wilkins, aged fifty-four, served in Captain Watson's company^ Colonel Henry Jackson's regiment, Massachusetts troop, for one year. Trans ferred to Lieutenant White's company, Third regiment, Massachusetts line. William Yarringtoh, aged fifty-nine, served in Captain Smith's company, Colonel Cortlandt's regiment, New York line. He drew Lot 5, Marcellus. Other Manlius records follow, but do not embrace all. Lewis Bishop was seventy-nine in 1840, and one of the last three survivors of Colonel Lamb 's regiment of artillery, raised in New York in 1781. Andrew Balsley was eighty-five in 1840. (De Witt). Silas Burke, pensioner in 1840. (De Witt) . Henry Bogardus was seventy-seven that year. (De Witt). Roswell Cleveland was eighty-one at that time. John Cole was seventy-five in 1840. Jacob G. Gow was eighty-four, and lived in De Witt. Absalom Denny was a pensioner of 1840._ George Edick was then eighty-four, and in De Witt. Elijah Gridley was eighty, died May 9, 1845, aged eighty-five, and was buried at Oran in Pompey. Caleb B. Merrell was born at Great Barrington, Massachusetts, 1754, and died in 1842. Zebedee Potter, pensioner of 1840, was then eighty-six. Pelham W. Ripley was then seventy-six. (De Witt) . Timothy Teall served for six years, and for eighteen months was a prisoner. William Vermilyea, pensioner of 1840, was then seventy -four. (De Witt) . Joseph Williams was a captain, and came to Manlius in 1795, from Con necticut. Robert Wilson was appointed ensign at eighteen and soon after lieutenant. He served through the war and received the British colors at Yorktown for the sergeants. David Williams is said to have been a captain, but records do not show it. He was also at Yorktown, and presented a sword from thence to Military Lodge of Manlius. Major Watson, pensioner of 1840, was then ninety-three. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 179 Samuel Wilcox was born in Massachusetts January 2, 1744, and was a prisoner during part of the war. He was at Bunker Hill and also in Mont gomery's repulse at Quebec. John Young was an early settler, three miles east of the present city line in 1788. He makes the forty-fourth in Chase's Manlius list. He afterward added Joseph Walter of the New York troop, who drew and settled on Lot 79, Manlius. The usual list has it Jacob Walter. Nehemiah Carpenter is also mentioned by Clayton, as going to Manlius in 1816, clearing a farm and dying there. MARCELLUS, including SKANEATELES, set off in 1830. In the old town were thirty-three soldiers. Stephen Albro, aged fifty-nine, served through the war in Captain Peck- ham's company, Colonel Jeremiah Olney's regiment, Rhode Island line. He was called eighty-one in 1840. John Bristol was eighty-three in 1825. (Skaneateles). He enlisted for one year in October or November, 1775, in Connecticut, in Captain Titus Watson's company, Colonel Burrell's regiment, and served till August, 1776. He was in the Canadian Campaign. James Baker was in Captain Luke Day's company, Colonel John Brook's regiment. In 1820 he was sixty-four years old. Louis Baker, aged fifty-eight, was in Captain Cogswell 's company, Colonel Michael Jackson's regiment, Massachusetts line. Joseph Coy, aged seventy-nine, served December 1, 1775, to January 3, 1777, in Captain Jedediah Waterman's company, Colonel John Durkee's regiment. Nehemiah Cleaveland, pensioner of 1840, was then eighty-seven (Skanea teles) . Enlisted for one year early in 1776, in Massachusetts, in Captain Jona than Allen's company, Colonel Jonathan Ward's regiment. Discharged 1777, at Peekskill. Died in 1843, aged ninety years. His widow died many years after in her one hundred and fifth year. Reuben Farnham, aged seventy-one, served for one year in 1776, in Captain Thomas Grosvenor's company, Colonel John Durkee's regiment, Twentieth Continental Infantry. Noble Gunn, aged fifty-eight, served three years in Captain Jenkin's company, Colonel Samuel Brewster's regiment. Stephen Hagar, aged sixty, served in Captain Job Sumner's company, Colonel William HuU's regiment, during the war. Jonathan Howard was seventy years old in 1823. He enlisted at Rensse laer, New York, in the spring of 1776, in Captain Bentley Howard's company, Major Van Buren 's regiment. He was at Saratoga. Zebulon Moffett, aged seventy-two, served in Captain Joseph Hind's company, Colonel James Reed's regiment, New Hampshire line, for one year. 180 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA. COUNT Y, William Miles, aged sixty-three, was chief gunner in Colonel John Crone's regiment, Third Massachusetts artillery. He was in Captain William Tread- well's company. Discharged in 1781. Ephraim Marble, aged sixty-eight, served ten months in Captain Sloan's company, Colonel Patterson's regiment, Massachusetts troop. Then in Captain Ashley's company for six weeks. Freeman Norton, aged sixty-six, was a mariner on the frigate Warren for one year.David Northrup, aged sixty-four, enlisted in Captain Lewis' company, Colonel Christopher Greene's regiment, January 1, 1780. Transferred to Captain Dexter 's company April 1. Served through the war. Samuel Rounds was sixty-five in 1825, and enlisted for one year at Boston in 1776, with Colonel Brewer of the Massachusetts line. Then for three years in Captain Knapp 's company, Colonel Sheppard's regiment. Re-enlisted in the same company for nine months; then for one year in Captain Seagrave's company, Colonel Joseph Vose 's regiment. Discharged at Peekskill in 1782. Simeon Skeels, aged sixty-one, served in Captain Nathaniel Tuttle's company, Colonel Webb's regiment, Connecticut line. He lived on the west side of Skaneateles lake. Daniel Smith, aged sixty-five, served seven months in Captain Knowlton's company, Colonel Putnam's regiment, in 1775. In 1776 one year in Colonel Durkee's regiment. Isaac Staples, aged fifty-six, served in Captain Joseph Kellin's company, Colonel Vose's regiment, First Massachusetts. (Skaneateles). William Webber, of Skaneateles, was seventy-seven in 1840. He enlisted in Captain Pray's company, First regiment Massachusetts line, March, 1781, and served till June, 1783. John Walsh of Skaneateles was eighty-one in 1821, and served through the war. He enlisted in 1775 in Captain William Scott's company, Colonel Paul Dudley Loyrant's regiment, and served six months. In the spring of 1776 he entered Captain John Vader's company, Colonel Van Schaick 's regiment, for six months. Then he enlisted for the war in that regiment, serving under Captain John Copp and Captain Charles Parsons till 1783. Other records follow for the same towns. Job Barber, pensioner of 1840, was then eighty-six. The eight following are of the same year. John Beach, of Skaneateles, was seventy-six. Lemuel Barrows was seventy-eight. Jonathan Baker was the same. Joseph Bishop was eighty-one. Robert Dorchester was ninety-two. John Dalliba was seventy-five. Died December 15, 1843, aged ninety- eight. On his gravestone, Marcellus, is this: "A Patriot in the sanguinary struggle which achieved that American Independence." Chauncy Gaylord was eighty-three. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 181 Robert McCullock was seventy-nine, and lived to be over ninety. Jared Smith was a second lieutenant in Whitcomb's Massachusetts regi ment, May to December, 1775, and second lieutenant in the Twelfth Continen tal infantry from January 1, 1776. He came from Berkshire county, Massa chusetts, to Marcellus before 1800. His later record in the Revolution was lost. John Wilkinson, Seneca, entered the army when but seventeen, and was in a prison ship for nine months. He came to Skaneateles in February, 1799. David Welsh was in the battle of Bennington. He came, to Skaneateles from Fort Ann, New York, and settled on Lot 73 in 1798. Camillus included Elbridge and Van Buren, and in these three towns Mr. Chase includes forty-three names. One or two of these may be placed else where. John Brittin, aged sixty-four, enlisted in Captain Jonathan Pierson's com pany, June 1, 1777, for the term of three years. In 1840 he was recorded as living in Van Buren, at the age of eighty-four. He died there July 21, 1842. Called John C. Britton in Onondaga's Centennial. Reuben Clark, aged sixty-one, enlisted in Captain Ball's company, Colonel Arnold's regiment, Massachusetts line, for one year in 1776. John Clark, aged sixty-four, served in Captain Thomas Hotchkins' com pany, Colonel John Lamb's Second artillery regiment. He was living in 1840. Curtis Chappell, aged sixty-five, enlisted in 1777 in Catlin's company, Colonel Meigs' regiment, Connecticut line. He was transferred to Captain Tinybe's company, Colonel Zebulon Butler's regiment, and served till the end of the war. James Dunham, aged sixty-two, enlisted for nine months at Morristown, New Jersey, 1778, in Captain Mead's company, Colonel De Heart's regiment, New Jersey line. Sherebiah Evans died August 8, 1821. Mr. Chase said he was buried at Warner. He died in his sixty-fifth year, and his gravestone may be seen in an old cemetery northwest of the village of Memphis. John Ingalsbe, aged sixty-seven, was a Lexington minute man, and enlisted in Captain Wheeler's company, Colonel Nixon's regiment, Massachusetts line. He lived in Van Buren. Reuben Kidder, aged sixty, served in Daniel Livermore's company, Colonel Reed's regiment, New Hampshire infantry, till end of the war. William Lakin was sixty-four in 1821, and enlisted in Captain Clois' com pany, Second New Hampshire regiment, April, 1777, and was discharged in 1780. He then enlisted in Captain Scott's company, First New Hampshire regiment, for the war. He was in the battle at Bemis' Pleights, etc., and was discharged November 9, 1782. Atchison Mellin, aged seventy-two, served for three years, July, 1775, to July, 1778. His first year's service was in Captain Matthew Smith's com pany, Colonel William Thompson's regiment. The next two years he was in Captain Michael Simpson's company in the same regiment, then commanded by Colonel Howe. 182 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA. COUNTY . Ebenezer Moseley, aged sixty -four, enlisted in Captain Joseph Thompson's company, Colonel Nixon's regiment, Massachusetts troop, in 1776, and served till discharged. Robert Pain, aged seventy-three, enlisted at West Point, 1780, in Fourth Massachusetts regiment. Nicholas Pickard, aged sixty-seven, enlisted April, 1776, in Captain Mc Kean 's company, Colonel Van Schaick 's regiment, New York line, and served six months. In the fall of 1777 he enlisted in Captain John Van Anglen's company, Colonel Ogden's regiment, New Jersey line, for three years. Stephen Robinson, aged fifty-seven, was in Colonel Philip Van Cortlandt's regiment, Second New York. Freelove Roberts, aged sixty-three, served in Colonel Sheldon's regiment, Connecticut line, till end of the war, being six years and one month. John Scott, aged fifty-nine, enlisted in Captain Hinckley's company, Colonel Sherman's regiment, Connecticut line, in 1777, for three years. Elijah Ward, aged sixty-one, served in Captain Hugh Twogood's company, Colonel Thomas Nixon's regiment. Afterward in Captain Haywood's com pany. Calvin Waterman was eighty-five in 1840. Served in Captain Brewster's company for one year in 1775, in Colonel Jedediah Huntington's regiment, Connecticut line. A prisoner from August, 1776, to the next spring. Denison Whedon was sixty-five in 1825, and served in Captain Malachi Henry's company, Colonel David Brewster's regiment, Massachusetts line, for eight months in 1775. In 1776 he served for eleven months in Captain Warham Park's company, Colonel Learned 's regiment, Massachusetts line. Nathan Betts of Van Buren has his name on the Baldwinsville monument. Miles Bennett of Camillus was seventy-four in 1840. Henry Becker's name is on the Baldwinsville monument. John Cunningham settled on his Lot 38 in Van Buren in 1808, and died in 1820. He was in Captain Machin's artillery company, and thus at the burning of Onondaga in 1779. Benjamin Depuy's name is on the Baldwinsville monument. John Dill of Camillus had an interesting record, and died at that place September 21, 1846, in his eighty-eighth year. He enlisted at the outset as orderly sergeant in Captain John Graham's company, Colonel Paulding's regiment. After Burgoyne 's surrender he was in Captain James Young's company of artificers, and was discharged in 1780, when he went on staff duty. George Trayer's name is on the Baldwinsville monument. He lived in Lysander, and on his monument in Chase's cemetery is the inscription, "Our Father, George Travor, Died December 17, 1858, aged one hundred and two years." Thomas Farrington's name is on the Baldwinsville monument. Samuel Gilbert's name is on this and in Revolutionary records. John Herrick is also on this monument. Thomas Ingersoll also appears there. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 183 Squire Manro (Munro) settled in Elbridge, and was from New England. John McHarrie moved to what is now the south side of Baldwinsville in 1792, and came from Maryland. He died there November 26, 1807, aged fifty- five. The rifts in the river there were called after him. Gill Mallory of Elbridge was eighty-five in 1840. Thomas Marvin of Van Buren has a place on the Baldwinsville monument. Stephen Pratt was seventy-nine in 1840, and lived in Elbridge. Silas Scofield's name is on the Baldwinsville monument. Douw Smith of Van Buren was one hundred and five in 1840, and died the next year. He settled on Lot 20. Austin Smith's name is on the Baldwinsville monument. He and his wife are buried in the Jacksonville cemetery in Lysander, the former dying in 1846. On the stone is the inscription : "Austin Smith, a Soldier of the Revolution. Ag. 92. "Rebecca Smith, aged 70 years "In erly life our country called, "And we its voice obeyed; "By foes our bodies was inthralled, "But now in death we are laid." John Tappan was a pioneer of Van Buren in 1796 and served in the New Jersey troop. He was born in 1756 and died November 22, 1818. Enoch Wood of Camillus was a pensioner in 1840. Joseph White came to Camillus in 1804 from Massachusetts, and died at Amboy in 1830, aged eighty-one years. George Wagoner's name is on the Baldwinsville monument. CICERO includes CLAY, set off in 1827. Nine soldiers at least lived here. John Caldwell was sixty-seven in 1827, and enlisted May, 1778, or '79 in Massachusetts in Captain Keith's company, Colonel Jackson's regiment, serv ing one year. He afterward enlisted in Captain Adiel Sherwood's company, Colonel Livingston's New York regiment, and was stationed at Fort Ann, New York. He was taken prisoner and kept at Montreal till November, 1782. Henry Desbrow was sixty-seven in 1821, and enlisted in the spring of 1777 in Captain Chapman's company, Colonel Swift's regiment, Connecticut line. He was in many battles and was discharged in 1780. Israel Hooker, aged sixty-two, enlisted for 1776 in Captain Joseph Head's company, Colonel James Reid's regiment. Elijah Loomis was eighty-six in 1847, and was then living at South Bay, where he was the first settler in 1804. John Shepherd was sixty-four in 1821, and enlisted in the spring of 1777 in Captain James Young's company, Colonel Udney Hay's regiment. In 1779 this company was annexed to Baldwin's regiment, and Shepherd was placed in command. He drew Lot 11, Cicero, and is said to have been the only soldier there living on the lot for which he served. In 1781 he left the army because of ill health, and died in 1821. 184 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY. Other records follow. Samuel Bragden of Clay was a pensioner in 1840, being then seventy- eight years old. John Lynn, of the same town, was then a pensioner, aged eighty-eight. . Patrick McGee is credited with being the first settler in Cicero, but this is a mistake. There were settlers at Brewerton and a tavern at Three River point before he came to either place. He was taken prisoner at Chittenango creek in 1780. James Smith of Clay was a pensioner in 1840, and was then eighty years old. LYSANDER has been divided, but Mr. Chase credited twelve soldiers to the present town. In doing this he repeats Israel Hooker's name, but there are other names to supply the deficiency. Joseph Delong, aged fifty-nine, enlisted in Captain Swarthout's company, Colonel Lamb's regiment, 1782, for three years. He filled out part of the time in other companies. Loam Nearing, aged sixty-three, enlisted in Colonel Huntington's regiment Connecticut line, in June, 1776. He was in the battle of Long Island. William Johnson, Sen., aged sixty-four, served in Captain William King's company, Colonel Ward's regiment, Massachusetts troop, till dis charged. A William Johnson drew Lot No. 94, Manlius. Other records follow, outside of court proceedings. William Foster, pensioner of 1840, was then eighty-eight. Stiles Freeman was then a pensioner, and his name is on the Baldwinsville monument. Jacob Northrop was a pensioner of 1840, and his name is on the Baldwins ville monument. His pension was drawn in that year by Abigail Northrop, who was eighty-eight years old. Jonathan Palmer drew Lot 36 and settled on it in 1793, being the first settler there. Nathaniel Palmer, his brother, was also in the New York line. He died in 1826, aged seventy-three. Shubal Preston was a pensioner of 1840, and was then eighty-two. Nathaniel Root, another pensioner, was seventy-three. John Slauson was then seventy-six. To the above should be added from the Jacksonville cemetery, 1838: "Nathan Kellogg, a Soldier of the Revolutionary war, aged 72 years." SALINA is credited by Mr. Chase with nine resident soldiers. He places the story of "Cabbagehead Moore" here, but does not reckon him among the nine. William Conner, aged sixty-three, enlisted in the spring of 1775, in Colo nel Van Cortlandt's regiment, and was discharged February 1, 1779. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 185 Albert Van de Werker, aged, seventy-five, was a lieutenant in Captain Robert McKean 's company, Cornelius D. Wynkoop's regiment, and was dis charged in 1776. Those which follow are not from court records : Dennison Avery, pensioner of 1840, was then ninety. Vine Coy was seventy-four in that year. Hobart. Regarding a military road cut through Geddes by a party of two hundred sent from Fort Stanwix by General Sullivan in 1779, there was cited "particularly a Mr. Hobart, late of Salina, who was one of the ex pedition." Unfortunately there was no such expedition, though the soldier's name remains. Solomon Huntley, a pensioner of 1840, was then eighty-six. Mentioned in Onondaga. Lewis Sweeting, another pensioner, was eighty-eight. Calvin Tripp, another, was eighty-two. Joseph Wilson was eighty-one in that year. "Samuel Blackman, a Soldier of the Revolution. Died Jan. 28, 1857. Ae. 96 y'rs." is an inscription in the Liverpool cemetery. FABIUS had part of its area set off for Tully in 1803, and another part for Cortlandt county in 1808. To the present town Mr. Chase assigned twelve veterans. Jonathan Brooks, aged fifty-six, enlisted in 1781, in Captain Houdin's company, Colonel Putnam's Fifth Massachusetts regiment. Afterward he served in Captain Mills' company, Colonel Vose's First Massachusetts regi ment. Heartwell Barnes, aged seventy-two, served in Captain Judd's com pany, Colonel Samuel Wyllys's regiment, Connecticut line. He- was discharged at the end of the war. John Caldwell, pensioned under the law of 1832, died March 3, 1834. William Clark, aged fifty-nine, enlisted May 1, 1777, at Weathersfield, Connecticut, in Captain Tallmadge's company of dragoons, Colonel Elisha Sheldon's regiment, Connecticut line. He was discharged in June or July, 1782, being then in Webb's company in the same regiment. Daniel Conner, aged sixty-seven, in 1775, enlisted in Captain William King 's company for six months, and then for six months more. Then he enlisted in Captain Warren's company, Colonel Bailey's Second Massachusetts regi ment for three years. Then in Captain Bradley's company, Colonel Sprout's regiment. The company was afterward Captain Pritchard 's and Goodale served in it till June, 1783. Nathan Goodale, at the age of sixteen, enlisted January 1, 1777, in Cap tain Robert Oliver's company, Colonel Greaton's Third Massachusetts regi ment. The cmpany was afterward Captain Pritchard 's and Goodale served in it till June, 1783. 186 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY John Ives, aged fifty-eight, enlisted in 1777, in Captain Strong's com pany, Colonel Bradley's regiment, Connecticut line. After thirteen months and six days he was transferred to Washington's life guard under Captain Colfax, and served three years. The following are from records at Washington : Rufus Carter, pensioner in 1840, was then seventy-five. Ebenezer Foot was eighty-seven the same year. Ambrose Gron was then eighty-three. Daniel Hills was seventy-eight. Manuel Truair was a pensioner in 1840. TULLY had but six Revolutionary soldiers on record, in Chase's original list. James Fuller was called sixty-three in 1825, and sixty-seven in 1831. In 1825 he said that he enlisted in 1781 at Barrington, Massachusetts, under Captain John Nash, Sixth Massachusetts regiment, and served till January, 1784, when he was discharged at West Point. In 1831 he said that he enlisted in Great Barrington, April, 1780, in Captain Frost's company, Colonel Smith's regiment, Massachusetts line, and was discharged in 1783. Oliver Hyde was sixty-seven in 1822, and enlisted for three years at Le banon, Connecticut, in Captain Brigham's company, Colonel Putnam's regi ment, Connecticut line. He served out his time and was discharged in New Jersey. Died in Spafford, November 15, 1837. Jedediah Winched served two years in Captain Noah Allen's company, Colonel Wigglesworth 's regiment, enlisting in 1777. Henry White, aged sixty-seven, enlisted in Captain Isaac Warren's com pany, Colonel Bailey's regiment, Massachusetts troop. The following two are from other sources : Enoch Bailey, a pensioner of 1840. Micheal Christian drew Lot 18, Tully, and settled in Christian hollow in 1792. This was called after him. OTISCO had eight soldiers recorded in Chase's list. Leavett Billings, aged sixty-seven, served three years in Captain Haines' company, Colonel Wigglesworth 's regiment, Massachusetts line. Ebenezer French, aged sixty-three, served one year in Captain Jonathan Allen's company, Colonel Artemus Ward's regiment, Massachusetts troop. Came to Otisco shortly after 1802. John Ladow, aged sixty-three, served in Captain Williams' company, New York line. Afterward in Captain Gray's company, Colonel Weisten- feldt's regiment. Christopher Monk was sixty-seven in 1825, and enlisted at Stoughton, Massachusetts, in Captain Webb's company, Colonel Sheppard's regiment, for nine months. Discharged at West Point. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 187 Elan Norton, aged eighty-two, served in Captain Stephen Hall's company, Colonel Heman Swift's regiment, Connecticut line, from March, 1777, to the close of the war. A few are in other records. Chauncey Atkins, pensioner of 1840, was then seventy-seven. Eliakim Clark, father of Willis and Lewis Gaylord Clark, an early resident. Apollos King, pensioner of 1840, was then seventy-six. Isaac Robinson is also mentioned in the Pompey re-union, as a soldier who came from Saratoga county, and died in Otisco. SPAFFORD has six soldiers in Chase's list: Thompson Burdick, aged sixty-eight, enlisted May or June, 1775, in Captain Samuel Ward's company, Colonel Varnum's regiment, Rhode Island line, for eight months. Enlisted again for one year, February, 1776, in Cap tain Elijah Lewis's company, in the same regiment. Discharged January 1, 1777, in Pennsylvania. Died October, 1830, aged seventy-seven. Daniel Owen, aged sixty-one, served in Captain William Hall's company, Colonel Charles Webb's regiment, Connecticut line, for one year. Discharged in 1776. Samuel Prindle, aged sixty-three, served nine months in Captain Wil liams' company, Colonel Patterson's regiment, Massachusetts troop. Re-en listed in Captain Orrin Stoddard's company, Colonel Vose's regiment and served three years. Transferred to Hollister's company. He died in 1850, aged ninety-two. Allen Breed, pensioner in 1840, was then eighty-one, and died April 3, 1842. Jacob Green was seventy-nine in the same year. Gilbert Palmer bought Lot 76, on which he settled in 1792, dying in 1839, and probably at Homer. Clark said he served for this lot but George K. Collins shows that he purchased it of Thomas Ostrander, by whom it was drawn. Charles Warner, a soldier, lived for some time in Spafford, but died in Geddes. John Churchell of Spafford, died September 27, 1817, aged fifty-nine years and six months. A pencil note says he was a Revolutionary soldier. James Hiscock lived on Lot 69, and Job Harvey!" his great grandson, says he was a Revolutionary soldier. He died in 1834, aged seventy-five. Samuel Holmes, at one time living in Spafford, was born November 17, 1754, and served as first lieutenant and captain in third company of Smithfield battalion, Rhode Island. He came to New York in 1795, and died near Canan- daigua some time after 1812. Moses Legg was also called a soldier, and was the son of Reuben Legg, who was active in the Revolution. 188 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA. COUNTY Job Smith, who died in 1827, aged eighty, was a paymaster in the Revo lution. These six names are taken from Mr. Collins' Mortuary Records of Spafford. The following are credited to the county at large, the town not being always named: William Dean, aged sixty-two, served January 1, 1776 to January 1, 1777, in Colonel John Durgus' (John Durkee's?) regiment of Connecticut troop. He was at first in Captain Thomas Dyer's company, then in Daniel Tilden's. John Helmer, aged sixty-two, enlisted early in Colonel Willett's regi ment at German Flats for six months, and assisted in repairing Fort Stanwix. About August, 1775, he enlisted in Colonel Lewis Dubois' regiment, serving till April, 1777, when his company was disbanded. He shared in Sullivan's Indian campaign, and was afterward a prisoner to the close of the war. John Hurlbert, aged sixty-nine, enlisted for one year, December, 1775, at Weathersfield, Connecticut, in Captain Ezekiel Scott's company, -Colonel Samuel Wyllys' regiment, Connecticut line. He was discharged December, 1776, but the next spring enlisted in the same regiment for eight months in Captain Henry Champion's company. He was in the battle of Long Island. Israel Sloan, Sen., was a soldier who came to Pompey about 1804, from Ringe, New Hampshire. William Stevens was an officer, and is said to have been in the Boston Tea Party. He was made first superintendent of the salt works, holding that office when he died at Salina in 1801. Captain William Stevens, who drew Lot 45, Pompey, may have been another person. Jesse Teague enlisted for three years in May, 1781, but was discharged in the fall of 1783, the war being over. He was at first in Captain Hill's com pany, Colonel Jackson's regiment, from Massachusetts. In 1782 he was transferred to Colonel Ebenezer Sprout's regiment, Massachusetts troop, and also served in Captain Pritchard 's Rangers. Martin Walter, aged sixty-eight, served ten months, March, 1776, to Jan uary, 1777, in Captain Zinglord's company, Colonel Goose Van Schaick 's First New York troop. He again enlisted in the same, January 9, 1777, for the war, and was discharged June 8, 1783. To these Mr. Chase added a supplemental list in 1907, some of which are in the foregoing. The others follow, with other supplementary names: CAMILLUS. — Nathali Bennett, Isaac Clute, Jeremiah Dunham. FABIUS. — Captain Phineas Cadwell, Eighteenth Connecticut militia, and in another regiment of Connecticut troops. Came to Onondaga county in 1845, having been a pensioner in Madison county since 1818. Resident in Fabius. In 1849 he went to Wisconsin, where he died aged ninety-nme years, eleven months, eleven days. The next four are near Apulia. John Cross, died October 18, 1843, aged ninety-one. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 189 William Fox. In St. John's cemetery, one mile east of Apulia, is a slab with this epitaph : ' ' Wm. Fox, soldier of the Revolution, died April 3d, 1852, in the 90th year of his age." James Penoyer, died May 17, 1820, aged seventy-four. William Perry, died October 18, 1843, aged ninety-one. CICERO. — Clayton's history says that Dr. Joslyn's father, a Revolu tionary soldier, died at his house in 1836. MARCELLUS. — Edward Annable, a lieutenant, died in 1836, aged eighty- three, and was buried at Marcellus. He was one of the guards at the execu tion of Major Andre, October 2, 1780. Major Martin Cossitt, according to Onondaga's Centennial, was a soldier who settled in Marcellus village in 1798. Elephalet Curtis, 1734-1806, was a sergeant in Captain Abel Pettibone's company, Second regiment, and was at the Lexington alarm of 1775. He was Second lieutenant, Fifth company, Colonel Samuel Mott's battalion; was a captain in the Eighteenth Connecticut regiment in 1778, and was in the New Haven alarm of 1779. He was also member for Sinsbury in the Connecticut General assembly for 1780, while the war continued. Daniel Sherman settled six miles west of Onondaga hill in 1796, and died in 1824. ONONDAGA. — Rev. Daniel Waldo, who at one time lived in Onondaga. and who died in Syracuse over a century old, is classed with Revolutionary soldiers. POMPEY. — Dr. Joseph Ely was a surgeon's mate for two years. He came to Delphi in 1804, and was a member of the Onondaga Medical society in 1806. He afterward removed. SALINA. — Onondaga's Centennial mentions Captain Edward O'Connor, who taught school in Salina in 1797. He also lived in Oswego. His daughter born in Salina in 1797, became Mrs. Alvin Bronson, of Oswego. He was in Colonel Willett's winter expedition against Oswego in 1783, and Clark said he was in command of a company giving him the name of Captain Edward Connor. SKANEATELES. — Charles Pardee came to Skanteateles in 1804, and died in 1836, aged seventy-six years. He had a pension of ninety-six dollars. This and the next are from Leslie's Skaneateles. Captain Samuel Rhoades served with Massachusetts troops, and died at Skaneateles, March 18, 1823, aged eighty-six years. He was also a captain be fore the Revolution. , , TULLY. — In the Miles family cemetery, a mile west of Apulia station, is a monument with this inscription: "Nathaniel Miles, a soldier of the Revo lution. Died May 19, 1819, aged 82 years." Captain John Sager has no available record, but has been claimed as a Revolutionary soldier of Tully. 190 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA. COUNTY VAN BUREN. — Ebert Hart, Sen., came from Providence, Rhode Island, to Van Buren in 1800. He died in 1842-43, and was buried at Sorrel Hill in that town. Ebenezer Morley is probably Ebenezer Moseley, before recorded. Edward Tylee lived and died near Warner. It is said that Deacon Tylee was a Troy merchant of some means, coming to Onondaga, 1834-36, and that he had been a Revolutionary soldier. SPAFFORD. — Elias Davis is mentioned in Onondaga's Centennial as coming from Skanaeteles to Spafford in 1806, and dying there June 17, 1851, aged eighty-eight. This would make him but seventeen in 1780, but mere boys enlisted in that war. Quite a number of Revolutionary soldiers are in the Cazenovia cemetery, and in others near by. The monuments there, and in Fabius and Pompey are quite uniform in character. Mention has been made of the presence of thirty of these veterans at a Syracuse celebration of Independence day, 1824, where they were great fea ture of the day, as they were in other towns. In the Syracuse Gazette of July 14, 1824, appeared the following card: "TO COLONEL AMOS P. GRANGER, AND THROUGH HIM TO THE COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS: "At the request of those soldiers of the revolution present at this day's celebration, the undersigned take this occasion to express their gratitude for the polite and generous attention shown them on this interesting occasion. To us who are now tottering on the down hill of life, whose now feeble limbs were once strong in our country's cause, who went forth to perish or gain that liberty we this day enjoy, the satisfaction of a cheerful welcome, re sponded by our children and our children's children, cannot fail to reach our hearts and inspire us with respectful gratitude. In you we witness that re publican spirit which actuated us in times past, and sustained us in the dread ful conflict, and now holds the world in awe. In the height of your prosperity you were not unmindful of us, a small remnant of the army of the revolution, but conferred on us the honor of leading you to the festive board, under the banners of our hard earned independence. Gentlemen, accept our thanks, and may the God of mercy lengthen your days, strengthen your hands and unite your hearts, in patriotic devotion to' the honor and welfare of our be loved country. JOHN YOUNG, ASA PARK, BENJAMIN DARLING, HENRY BOGARDUS, GAD MILLER PETER BOGARDUS. Committee in behalf of the '76 men. SYRACUSE, July 5, 1824." PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 191 Of the above Peter Bogardus and Gad Miller do not appear in the fore going list, though this card would imply that they belonged there. Among prominent men who drew lots here was Colonel Philip Van Cort- landt, who drew Lot 76, Lysander. General James Clinton drew Lot 87, Lysan der, 93 Manlius, 3 Pompey and 3 Tully. General George Clinton drew 98 Ci cero, and 4 Tully. Colonel Peter Gansevoort, of Fort Stanwix fame, drew 53 Camillus. Colonel Marinus Willett drew Lot 88, Lysander, long occupied by one of his sons. Recently it has been known as the Collins place. CPIAPTER XVIII. EARLY CLASSICAL AND RECENT LOCAL NAMES IN ONONDAGA. While so few of our people can define or give an account of our common local names, it is not surprising that many Indian names are a mystery, and that even the Indians cannot always. tell or agree upon the meaning. No less than four widely varying meanings of the word Cayuga have come to us from as many intelligent Indians, though the word is so well known. Another element of uncertainty is the imperfect transmission of names and their fre quent corruption. The Indian languages are as full of delicate gradations in sound and meaning as our own, and the omission of a letter may change the whole. Without discussing this it may merely be said that the Iroquois languages have no labials, and that when these are present in any Indian name in Onondaga county, they show that the name is not native to the soil. Be cause of a general interest in this subject a full list is given of all the Indian names known here, often with varying interpretations. Amboy is an introduced Algonquin name, applied to a hamlet on Nine Mile creek. According to Heckewelder it is derived from the Delaware word, Emboli, A PLACE RESEMBLING A BOWL OR BOTTLE, and properly be longing to a bay or pond. Ar-non-i-o-gre may be an error in transcribing, or it may have been the name of a small village between Limestone and Butternut creeks, now called Indian Castle. Father Lamberville dated a letter at this place in 1686, he being there alone. It gave news from Onondaga about Oswego Falls, etc. Onondaga had been recently removed to Butternut creek, and it is conceiva ble that the name may be an erroneous transcript of Onontague. Canaseraga is an old name for Chittenango creek and Cazenovia lake, derived from a Tusearora town, a little east of the county line. Major John Ross thus mentioned it in his expedition of 1781: "On the 11th (Oct.) I left Oswego and proceeded to Oneida Lake as far as Canasarago Creek, where I left some provision and a Guard." In an act incorporating Cazenovia village, the lake is called Canaseraga. According to Morgan, Ka-na-so-wa-ga means SEVERAL STRINGS OF BEADS WITH A STRING LYING ACROSS. This is also. Seaver's interpretation, which the Onondagas say is correct. Ca-hung-hage is a name for Oneida lake on a map in the Secretary of State's office. 192 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA .COUNTY * Caugh-de-noy is from T 'kah-koon-goon-da-nah-yeh, WHERE THE EEL IS LYING DOWN. This beautiful spot is still a fine fishing place for eels. Quaguendenalough is the same place on Southier's map and seems the same word, but a different interpretation has been givn this. An Onondaga chief had his fishery here in 1753, but the Oneidas claimed rights there at a later day. "Chenughivata (ODJINO-HIA-DA, it is a sinew, — Hewitt). An Onon daga village in New York in 1774." This appears in Handbook of American Indians, Washington, 1907, and comes from an error in the New York Colonial History, volume eight. It is there printed "Bunt at Chenughivata, " hut should be ' ' Bunt al Chenughivata, ' ' these being his English and Indian names. The definition is correct, but there was no such village. It is mentioned to prevent mistakes. Chit-te-nan-go creek is on the northeast line of the county, but. once belonged to the Onondagas. Morgan rendered it Chu-de-naang, WHERE THE SUN SHINES OUT. Sylvester defined it RIVER FLOWING NORTH, but there is no basis for this. A still weaker definition is WHERE THE WATERS DIVIDE AND RUN NORTH. On a map of 1825 it is Chitening, much like Morgan's form. Spafford called it Chitteningo, and in land treaties it is Chittilingo. A Cusick thought this meant MARSHY PLACE, the stream flowing many miles through the lowlands before reaching Oneida lake. The Indians now know it as O-wah-ge-nah or Perch creek. De-a-o-no-he, WHERE THE CREEK SUDDENLY RISES. , Limestone creek at Manlius. Clark said : "Limestone Creek, passing through Manlius — Indian name, Te-a-une-nogh-he, the angry stream or Mad Creek; otherwise, a stream that rises suddenly, over flowing the country through which it passes." An appropriate name. De-is-wa-ga-ha, place of many ribs, is Morgan 's name for Pompey. In the eleven names next to be considered, the first form of each is Morgan's. De-o-sa-da-ya-ah, deep basin spring. He said this meant "the spring in the deep basin, and was a favorite stopping place of the Iroquois in their journeys upon the great thoroughfare." A journal of Colonel Gansevoort 's party in 1779 speaks of it as the "Sunken Spring in the road." It is mentioned in the land treaties of 1788 and 1795, but in no others. By a natural change of the initial letter J, V. H. Clark made this Te-ungh-sat-a-yagh, but defined it by the fort at the spring, and added : ' ' Near this spring was anciently the eastern most settlement of the Onondagas. They had at this place an earthen fort, sur rounded with palisades. There were always stationed at this place a party of warriors, to hold the eastern door." If this was the tradition, there is nothing in history, in the name, or on the spot to prove it. The first definition is correct. De-o-nake-ha-e, oily water. Morgan gave this as Oil Creek in this county, but I know of no such stream, nor is it on his map. De-o-nake-hus-sink, never clean. Christian hollow. De-o-wy-un-do, wind mill, from an early mill on Pompey Hill. Ga-ah-na, rising to the surface and then sinking. This is connected with o >w o I— I w 3 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 193 an unrecorded story of a drowning man in Otisco lake. A Cusick's definition harmonized with this, the last seen of any thing, but he knew not the allusion. Ga-do-quat is an Oneida name for Brewerton, which the Rev. Albert Cusick defined, I got out of the water. It may allude to fording the river or landing from the lake. In 1654 an Indian bore Father Le Moyne to the shore lest he should get wet. The place has many names. Ga-na-wa-ya, great swamp. At the village of Liverpool and its vicinity, but it should have been Cicero swamp. Ga-che-a-yo, lobster. Limestone creek at Fayetteville, meaning that fresh water cray fish were abundant there. The Onondaga name for this crustacean is O-ge-a-ah, meaning claws. Ga-nun-ta-ah, material for council fire. Onondaga lake. A Cusick, how ever, defined it near the village on a hill; that is, Onondaga. Ganentaa was the early French form and Kaneeda the English. The Indians now call it Oh-nen-ta-ha. Ga-sun-to, bark in the water. Butternut creek and Jamesville. Clark said of the creek: "Indian name Ka-soongk-ta, formerly called by the whites, 'Kashunkta;' literally, barks in the water, or a place where barks are placed after being peeled in spring, that they may not curl in summer, and thereby become unfit for covering their cabins for winter, or that they may always be in readiness for use." The Indians give the same account now. The town burned in 1696 was just east of Butternut creek. Gis-twe-ah-na, little man, according to Morgan an Indian village near the present village of Onondaga Valley. This seems an error, there being none so far north. The allusion is to the pigmies, or little men, who lived in the ravines west of Onondaga Valley, on good terms with the Indians. Goi-en-ho, a name for Oneida lake in 1655, which A. Cusick translates crossing place. It may refer to the Brewerton crossing place, or to passing the lake elsewhere. In some way the water had often to be crossed. Ha-nan-to', small hemlock limbs on the water, is Morgan's name for Jordan and Skaneateles creek. An old map has the same name. Clark said: "It is called Hanauttoo, water running through thick hemlocks, or hemlock creek;" an appropriate name. Elias Johnson said the Tuscaroras had a settle ment there, called Kan-ha-to, limbs in the water, but there was no such village. Kai-oongk is Clark's name for Otisco lake, though he gave others. This is a name for the wild goose, from its note. Kah-che-qua-ne-ung-ta is Clark's name for Onondaga West Hill and he added: "On Mitchell's map of the British and French dominions in America this range of hills is called ' Tegerhunkserode mountains,' and in an ancient Dutch map they are called the 'Table Mountains.' " According to the trust deed of 1726, however, Tegerhunckseroda was a hill of the Cayugas, near Lake Ontario. On a map of 1839 Onondaga Hill appears as West Hills. Morgan gives the prefix to the name first mentioned, making it Te-ga-che-qua-ne-on-ta, hammer hanging. The allusion is now forgotten. 194 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA . COUNTY , Kai-ehn-tah, trees hanging over the water, is A. Cusick 's name for Nine Mile creek. Kia-heun-ta-ha is Clark's name for its estuary at Onondaga lake, and seems the same word. Clark called ' ' Green Pond, in the town of De Witt, Kai-yah-koo, satisfied with tobacco," and said that the main trail from Oneida to Onondaga passed near this pond, as it may have done at a late day. An Indian woman lost her child and was told that an evil spirit had borne it away. It could not be re gained, but the Great Spirit would keep it safe if she and her family would cast tobacco into the pond every autumn. This was done till white settlers came, and hence the name of Kai-yah-koo, satisfied with tobacco. He gave the full story later. The Onondagas have lost the story and give this name to Green lake near Kirkville, a customary halting place between Oneida and Onondaga. Here they satisfied themselves with a smoke, and called it Kai- yahn-koo, a resting place. There seems no doubt of this, but Green pond had good stories of the Stone Giants and False Faces, the latter once making it their secret resort. Ka-no-wa-ya, skull on a shelf, is Morgan's name for Elbridge, hardly differing from his name for Cicero swamp, and it might thus be translated and applied to the swamps in the north part of the town. Ke-quan-de-ra-ge was said to be the only rapid in the Oneida river in 1792, which is hardly true, but Caughdenoy seems meant. A Cusick defined this as the red place, and another form will appear. Kach-na-wa-ra-ge, red or bloody place, was a ledge (lodge?) on the Chitte nango, below Butternut creek in 1700. Kaquewarage and Kachnawaacharege were the same. Clark, for some reason, placed the name at Oswego Falls, and credited it to Le Mercier. It will be found on Romer 's map and in his journal. Ki-ech-i-o-i-ah-te was Butternut creek on this map. Kah-yung-kwa-tah-to-a, the creek, is one of Clark's names for Onondaga creek. Ka-na-ta-go-wa, large village, is the village at the present council house. At one time there were other small hamlets on the reservation. Kun-da-qua, the creek, is contracted from a name above. Mr. Clark had it from a map made by Mr. Thurber of Utica. Ku-na-ta-ha, where pine trees grow, is the present Indian name of Phoenix alluding to the fine grove west of the river. "Ka-nugh-wa-ka, where the rabbits run, great swamp, where is plenty of game." Mr. Clark gives for Cicero swamp. This is descriptive, great swamp being the definition. Ka-na-wah-goon-wah, in a big swamp, is a better form given by A. Cusick. Ku-na-tah, where the hemlocks grow, is a local name on the reservation near Cusick 's. Ku-ste-ha, to the stony place, is on the reservation near Printup 's. Ka-no-a-lo-ka is Oneida lake on Thurber 's map, derived from Oneida Castle and meaning head on a pole. The name varies much in form. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 195 Ka-na-sah-ka, sandy place. Brighton, now the vicinity of Colvin street in Syracuse. In the sand there Vere the traditional footprints of the great mosquito and of Taenyawahkee, his pursuer. The former were twenty inches long and often renewed. Kah-yah-tak-ne-t 'ke-tah-keh, where the mosquito lies. Cicero swamp near Centerville. There the great mosquito died and decayed, originating the smaller forms. Kah-ya-hoo-neh, where the ditch full of water goes through, is one of Clark's names for Syracuse. Also received as Ken-tue-ho-ne, a creek or river which has been made. The Onondagas call the city Sykuse. Kot-cha-ka-too, lake surrounded by salt springs, is Clark's name for Onondaga lake. A. Cusick called it Ka-chik-ha-too, place of salt, applying this to the salt springs and works. Morgan also gives the name of Te-ga-jik-ha-do, place of salt, the word lake not being included. It will be observed that in many of these names the initial syllable is dropped in common use. As the Indians did not at first use salt, the name meant something disagreeable. Ka-ne-en-da, at the inlet of Onondaga lake, was often mentioned about the year 1700 as a sort of port for Onondaga, then on Butternut creek. It was the English form of Ganentaa, and was applied to the lake. Colonel Romer wrote it Canainda. Nan-ta-sa-sis, GOING PARTLY ROUND A HILL, is Morgan's name for a village on the west side of the valley, three miles south of the council house. The village seems an error. Na.ta-dunk, PINE TREE BROKEN, WITH TOP HANGING DOWN, ap plied by him in Syracuse. Clark gives a fuller form saying: "The estuary of the creek and neighborhood of Syracuse, was formerly called OH-NA-TA- TOONK — among the pines." A. Cusick gave it as Tu-na-ten-tonk, A HANG ING PINE. O-nun-o-gese, LONG HICKORY, is Morgan's name for Apulia, and may be compared with some names in Moravian journals. On-on-da-ga, ON THE MOUNTAIN, and thence PEOPLE ,ON THE MOUNTAIN, or great hill. To express people in full RONON was formerly added. Among themselves jthe Indians now pronounce it On-on-dah-ka, but in talking to white people almost always give the long instead of the broad sound to the third vowel. The name was first known to the whites in 1634. The Relation of 1656 says that "Onontae," or, as others pronounce it, Onon tague, is the principal dwelling of the Onontaeronons. ' ' In the relation of 1658 is a full definition: "The word Onnonta, which signifies a mountain in the Iroquois tongue, has given name to the town called Onnontae, or as others call it, Onnontaghe, because it is on a mountain, and the people who dwell there call themselves Onnontaeronnons from this, or Onnontagheronnons. " In his essay of an Onondaga grammar, Zeisberger uses gachera for ON or UPON, and gives Ononto for a HILL or MOUNTAIN, and Onontachers as UPON THE HILL, with the latter meaning also for Onontacta. Spafford said: "Onondaga is purely an Indian word, signifying a swamp under, or at the foot of a hill or mountain." This is 196 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY erroneous, but he added: " Onondagahara, a place between the hills. I wish the people of Onondaga Hollow* would take a hint from this, and let their village be 'Onondagahara,' and that on the hill 'Onon daga,' the capital of the County of Onondaga." In the earlier edition he said: "Onondaga, on the authority of Mr. Webster, Interpreter to the Oneidas, sig nifies in the dialect of the Indians, a swamp under, or at the foot of a hill or mountain." Mr. Clark referred to this explicit statement, and made special inquiries about the word. He said: "From the best information we have ob tained, we set it down as the- 'RESIDENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF THE HILLS,' the word swamp having no connection with it." The successive towns were at first on hills near Limestone creek, but the name followed the later sites on lower lands. The Oneida and Oswego rivers once had this name, and Onondaga creek and lake retain it. O-nun-da-ga, ON THE HILLS, is Morgan's name for Onondaga creek. O-tis-co or Otskah lake appears as Ostisco on a map of 1825. Spafford said: Otisco is from Ostickney, signifying waters dried away; "perhaps from supposing that the lake was once much larger. The derivation is reason able. Zeisberger has the Onondaga word Ostick, THE WATER IS LOW; in the perfect tense Ostisqua, THE WATER HAS BEEN LOW. It might also be derived from Usteka, the name of its outlet, but the resemblance is less. Ote-ge-ga-ja-ke, for Pompey and La Fayette, is correctly given by Clark as "a place of much grass — openings or prairies." This alluded to the many fields abandoned in removing villages, for the Onondagas occupied several places in these towns. Mr. Clark added: "Another name given to this locality, not often re peated, and about which there is much superstitious reserve, is Ote-queh-sah-he- eh, the field of blood, or bloody ground — a place where many have been slain. It has been said that no Indian ever visits this neighborhood. They certainly very much dislike to converse about it." A. Cusick did not know Pompey by this name, but defined it as BLOOD SPILLED. There is no evidence of battles there, but the allusion is to the numerous cemeteries. In Iroquois speech any death may be considered as the shedding of blood, however peace ful, and to call a place a field of blood was merely to say many were buried there. O-ser-i-gooch, the large lake in Tully, so called, by Spangenberg when there in 1745. O-ya-han, APPLE SPLIT OPEN, is Morgan's name for Camillus. For Brewerton Clark gives " Ohsahaunytah-Seughkah — literally where the waters run out of Oneida lake." In this case Seughkah is the name of the lake. Oneida lake and river had their name from the PEOPLE OF THE STONE ; Oneida being more exactly the STANDING STONE. Onida-ho-go is the name for the lake in Captain Thomas Machin's journal of 1779. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 197 Oh-nen-ta-ha is the present name of Onondaga lake. Oswego river or Osh-wa-kee, FLOWING OUT, was' an old name for the Seneca river in its downward course. Going up above Onondaga creek, it was often called Cayuga. Below Three River point it is now the Oswego. O-wah-ge-nah is applied both to Cazenovia lake and Chittenango creek, more properly to the former. " Ploh-wah-ge-neh (Onondaga), O-wah-ge-ha-gah (Oneida). LiteraUy, the lake where the yellow perch swim, or yellow perch lake," is" J. V. H. Clark's definition, and both Oneidas and Onondagas say this is essentially correct. Of course the word yellow does not enter into the combination, the name merely specifying a well known fish. In his gazetteer for 1813, Spafford speaks of Cazenovia lake, "called by the Indians Hawhag- hinah, and sometimes by the English Canaseraga." Qua-quen-de-na-lough, RED PLACE, according to A. Cusick, is on South- ier's map and apparently at Caughdenoy. Qui-e-hook was defined as WE SPOKE THERE, by A. Cusick, and was a creek flowing into, not out of, Oneida lake in 1700. Its correct location ap pears on Romer 's map of 1700, where the name is applied to Chittenango creek below Butternut. It was also called Quohock, and was mentioned then as "Quiehook by the Ledge called Kagnewagrage about 1% Dutch mile from the Lake of Oneyda." Clark erred in saying "An Indian village, at the Os wego Falls, was called by Mercier, 'Quiehook,' and the ledge over which the water falls, he calls, 'Kagnewagrage.' " Both names belong to Chittenango creek and a later day. Ra-rag-hen-he, PLACE WHERE HE CONSIDERED, as defined by Cusick, was a place on Oneida river in 1788. Skan-e-at-e-les, LONG LAKE, is one form of this frequent name, Morgan gives this as Ska-ne-o-dice in Onondaga and Seneca, Ska-ne-a-dice in Cayuga, Skon-yat-e-les in Tusearora, Ska-ne-o-da-lis in Oneida, and Ska-ne-a-da-lis in Mohawk. The last is nearest the local pronounciation. The Moravians wrote it Sganiatarees in 1750, but their guide was a Cayuga. Clark gave the Onon daga form as Skehneahties, or VERY LONG LAKE, and it has since been received as Skaneateles. It is Lac Scaniatores on the map of Charlevoix. Spafford made a note on the name : ' ' SKANEATELES, in the dialect of the Onondaga Indians, signifies Long, and the lake has its name from them The inhabitants say I must write this Skaneateles, but why, they do not tell me." It will be observed, however, that the word is in the Mohawk dialect. There is a groundless but persistent belief that this means BEAUTIFUL SQUAW, but all good authorities, as well as the Onondagas, assert that it is LONG LAKE. So great was the local opposition to this prosaic definition, that Mr. Clark put on record the deposition of two Onondaga chiefs in 1862. Among other things they said: "We would here distinctly state that we have never known among the Indians the interpretation of Skaneateles to be 'Beautiful Squaw,' nor do we know of any tradition among the Onondagas, 198 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY connected with Skaneateles, that has any allusion to a 'Beautiful Squaw,' or 'Tall Virgin,' or any 'Female of graceful form.' The Onondagas know the lake by the name Skeh-ne-a-ties, which, literally rendered, is 'Long Water.' Nothing more or less. We have inquired of several of our chief men and women, who say that it is the first time they have ever heard that Skaneateles meant 'Beautiful Squaw.' They, as well as ourselves, believe such interpre tation to be a fiction." This was signed by Harry Webster and Captain George. . So-hah-hee, Clark's name for Onondaga outlet, is the title of one prin cipal chief, which means WEARING A WEAPON IN HIS BELT. It may be a corruption of O-sa-a-, MUDDY, a name of putty and paste, but appropriate for marly shores. Sta-a-ta, COMING FROM BETWEEN TWO BARREN KNOLLS, is his name for the east branch of Onondaga creek. Swe-nugh-kee, CUTTING THROUGH A DEEP GULF, is his name for the west branch. Cusick gave the name of Swe-no-ga for this, defining it as A HOLLOW. Swe-noch-so-a was Zeisberger 's name for the whole stream in 1752. Sen-e-ca river has the Algonquin name of the Seneca nation, which ap pears on the Dutch maps of 1614 and 1616 as Senecas, and was long applied to the four nations west of the Mohawks. General J. S. Clark and Hon. George S. Conover, derived it from the Algonquin Sinne, TO EAT. The reference might be figurative, as when the Senecas called Washington THE DEVOURER OF VILLAGES, or it might refer to cannibal propensities. Mr. Hale said that Sinako was Delaware for STONE SNAKES, and Mr. Squires was told that here it meant MOUNTAIN SNAKES, or enemies. This lacks proof. Another erroneous derivation is from cinnabar, a name of vermilion, but the name is too old. Mr. Conover 's derivation seems most satisfactory. Ste-ha-hah, STONES IN THE WATER, is the name of Baldwinsville, either in allusion to the rifts or to two huge boulders in the river above the village. It was one of the great fishing places, and was assigned to Koghs- wughtioni in 1753. Sa-gogh-sa-an-a-gech-they-ky, BEARING THE NAMES. This is the council name of the Onondagas, and was applied to their town in a council in 1743. It was often borne by the principal chief as representing the nation, and then was often shortened in common usage. Another instance of naming the town in this way occurs in Zeisberger 's journal at Onondaga, September 29, 1752: "Next we called on the chief Gachsanagechti, who is the principal chief of the town, and after whom it has been named Tagachsanagechti. He is quite aged." Sah-eh, a name of Clark's for the Oneida river, seems a contraction of the first part of the name he assigned to Brewerton. Otherwise it might be from O-sa-a, MUDDY, in allusion to the low lands through which the river flows. Of Oneida lake he said: "The Onondagas call it SE-UGH-KA— that is, PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 199 striped with blue and white lines, separating and coming together again. In order fully to comprehend this interpretation and signification, the person should occupy some one of the high grounds of Manlius or Pompey, where the whole extent of this lake may be distinctly seen some ten or twelve miles distant. At particular times the surface presents white and blue lines distinctly traceable from its head to its outlet. At such times it is strikingly beautiful, and its Indian name peculiarly significant." This seems a good deal to be comprised in one small word, but it is much like the name and definition given by A. Cusick, Se-u-ka, STRING DIVIDED IN TWO (by islands) AND UNITING AGAIN. ¦ This name is said to have been given by Hiawatha as he passed through the lake. The following two are derived from this. Se-u-ka Kah-wha-nah-kee, TPIE ISLAND IN SEUKA LAKE, Frenchman's island, according to A. Cusick. In the Onondaga dialect Kahwhanoo is ISLAND. Se-u-ka Keh-hu-wha-tah-dea, THE RIVER FLOWING FROM SEUKA LAKE,that is, Oneida river. This name given by Cusick, differs from Clark's but has the same meaning. Tue-yah-das-soo, HEMLOCK KNOTS IN TPIE WATER, is Cusick 's name for Green pond, west of Jamesville, and its appropriateness is evident to anyone looking down on it from the high cliffs around. This is Clark's Kai-yeh-koo, but the former is the present Onondaga name. The village at Indian Orchard may have been named from this. Tu-e-a-das-so, HEMLOCK KNOT IN THE WATER, is described by Mor gan as a village four miles east of Onondaga Castles. It is not quite three, and was occupied in late colonial times. Locally it is known as Indian orchard, and was known among the pioneers. Conrad Weiser called it Cajadachse in 1743, and the Moravians Tiatachtout, Tiachton, Tiojatachso, etc. Due allowance must be made for German -spelling. The first of the last three might be de rived from Untiatachto, meaning ASTRAY, according to Zeisberger. It would then allude to a village which had gone astray from the main body, and this name seems distinct from some others. The Black Prince died there while on his return from Pennsylvania in 1749. Tis-tis, a name of Nine Mile creek mentioned by the Moravians in 1752, and perhaps derived from Otisco lake. Near it was a place they called the French camp, where were paintings on the trees made by Canadian Indians. Te-ka-ne-a-da-he, LAKE ON A HILL, is Morgan's name for Tully and its lakes. "TE-KANEA-TA-HEUNG-NE-UGH— Very high hills, with many small lakes, from which water flows in contrary directions. It implies also an excel lent hunting ground." Clark applies this to Fabius, Tully, Truxton, etc., but includes too much in his descriptive definition. For this group of lakes, A. Cusick gave the name of T 'ka-ne-a-da-her-neuh, MANY LAKES ON A HILL. These have several legends, but they have no relation to the names. The Moravians several times camped here. 200 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY T'ka-sent-tah, THE TREE THAT HANGS OVER, or ONE TREE FALL ING INTO ANOTHER, is one of Cusick 's names for Nine Mile creek. Te-was-koo-we-goo-na, LONG, or rather BIG BRIDGE. A modern name for Brewerton. Ta-gu-ne-da, Oneida river on Thurber 's map. Perhaps from the next. " Te-u-ung-hu-ka, meeting of waters or where two rivers meet," is Clark's name for Three River point. Cusick 's name is Teu-tune-hoo-kah, where the river forks, like Tioga. Te-yo-wis-o-don, a place on the river west of Brewerton, mentioned in 1788, was 'defined by Cusick as ice hanging from the trees. Tun-da-da-qua, thrown out, was given by Morgan as a name for Liverpool creek. The only stream near that village is. Bloody brook. On his map the name is applied to a tributary of Oneida river, which seems intended for Mud creek. Had it been at Liverpool the reference would have been to canal exca vations. Tou-en-ho, was an Indian hamlet south of Brewerton in 1688. Te-thir-o-guen and Tsir-o-qui were early names for Oneida lake and outlet referring to something white. The names are nearly the same, the first being used in 1656. It had many variations. On the Jesuit map of 1665 appears Lac Techiroguen. Greenhalgh wrote it Teshiroque in 1677. In 1728 the French spoke of "the Lake of Thecheweguen, or of the Oneidas." In 1747 the French were informed that there were "many Dutch and Palatine traders at the place called Theyaoguin, who were preparing to come and do a considerable trade at Choueguin." E. P* O'Callaghan thought this referred to the portage at Rome, New York, but it was more probably Oneida lake. King Hendrick was called Theyaoguin, or white head. T 'kah-skwi-ut-ke, place where stone stands up; perhaps the high brick chimneys at Liverpool were intended, where the name belongs. It is a Seneca word, sometimes shortened by dropping Te from the prefix. Te-ka-jik-ha-do, place of salt, is Morgan's name for Salina. Tu-na-ten-tonk, hanging pine, is one of Cusick 's names for Syracuse. T 'kah-en-too-tah, where the pole is raised. South Onondaga. Te-o-ha-ha-hen-wha, turnpike crossing the valley, is Morgan's name for the village of Onondaga Valley. Clark's name is " Teuaheughwa, where the path crosses the road." Cusick called it Tu-ha-han-wah, to the crossing road. The eight following are from him. Te-u-swen-ki-en-took, board hanging down. Castle hotel. Tah-te-yohn-yah-hah, or Tah-te-nen-yo-nes, place of making stone. Reser vation quarries. ^ Teu-nea-yahs-go-na, place of big stones. Geddes. Ta-ko-a-yent-ha-qua, place where they used to run. Old race course at Danforth. Ta-te-so-weh-nea-ha-qua, place where they made guns. Navarino. T 'kah-skoon-su-tah, at the falls. Falls on the reservation. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 201 T 'kah-nah-tah-kae-ye-hoo, at the old village. Place on east side of the reservation. T 'kah-neh-sen-te-u, stony place, or stones thrown on the road. Road to Cardiff. Te-ka-wis-to-ta, tinned dome, is Morgan's name for the village of La Fayette. Te-ungt-too, residence of the wise man, according to Clark, is the name of Cross lake. He added : "There is a singular tradition alive, among the Ononda gas, respecting an aged and very wise chief, who lived on the eastern shore of this lake many hundred years ago. His name was Hiawatha." Clark first gave this legend in an extended form. Pliawatha was at first an Onondaga chief, but was adopted by the Mohawks, among whom his successors yet rule. Te-on-to was Schoolcraft's name for this lake. Teu-nen-to, at the cedars, was A. Cusick 's name for this lake. Ti-oc-ton is Cross lake on the map of Charlevoix. This and the next may be a contraction of Tionihhohactong, at the bend of the river. In 1750 the Moravians mentioned that the Seneca river flowed through Lake Tionctora, afterward calling it Lake Tionctong, which is preferable. U-neen-do is Morgan's name for the lake, rendered hemlock tops lying on the water. Interpretations vary much. Yuneendo is also Cross lake on Thurber 's map, and both these may be like Teuneuto. Zi-noch-sa-a, house on the bank, was a name for Onondaga creek in 1752, when the west bank was newly settled. It was written Swenochsoa in 1752, and Zinschoe and Zinochtoe at other times. Zi-noch-sa-e was also a name for Onondaga lake in 1750, but this use may have been accidental, from receiving the- creek. The Iroquois dialects have no labials, all words being pronounced with the open mouth. L is not used by the Onondagas, but the Oneidas employ it freely. R is now rare in Onondaga words, but frequent in Mohawk. There are singu lar, dual and plural numbers. When an adjective coalesces with a noun it usually concludes it. Pronouns exceed those in European languages, and verbs have three modes. D and T, G and K are interchangeable. The frequent differences in local and personal names are often due to dropping or adding a pronoun or particle. Philologists have spoken in high terms of the language. CLASSICAL NAMES In 1885 Harper's Magazine had its little joke on the way in which "Simeon De Witt shook his classical pepper pot over Central New York, and left its innocent little villages smarting with the names of Ovid, Pompey, Marcellus," etc. The same year it took all back. The retraction was most ample and follows : 202 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY "The simple and conclusive facts are that in 1786 the Legislature, in an act authorizing the Commissioners of the Land Office to direct the Surveyor- General to lay out land in tracts, ordained that 'the said Commissioners shall designate every township to be laid out by such name as they shall deem proper.' In 1789 the Commissioners were Governor George Clinton, Secretary Lewis A. Scott, Attorney-General Egbert Benson, and Treasurer Gerard Bancker, and they resolved that the Surveyor-General should lay out twenty- five townships on the military tract, and the Board, not the Surveyor-General, nor upon his recommendation, overwhelmed the helpless townships with the torrent of classical nomenclature. As other townships were surveyed and added to the list, they meekly suffered the same martyrdom at the hands of the Board, and not of the Surveyor-General, who knew nothing of the appalling names until they were officially communicated to him. "But the stigma had become so inseparably affixed to General DeWitt 's name that a Revolutionary officer who was 'geographer' or topographical engineer-in-chief to the army, and subsequently Surveyor-General of New York, and appointed by Washington Surveyor-General of the United States, a position which he was unable to accept, and who was elected Chancellor of the University of New York, a man worthily distinguished and beloved, is known almost exclusively as the author of the absurd township nomenclature of Western New York, or, as Halleck and Drake, in one of the Croakers in 1819, called him, ' godfather of the christened West. ' Yet he was no more that god father, and was no more concerned in the absurd nomenclature, than the reader who smiled at the Croaker's onslaught, or who threw with the Easy Chair a little pebble of good-natured fun upon the cairn which commemorates a deed that he did not perform. "Halleck and Drake, of course, are the chief sinners. The 'Ode to Simeon De Witt, Esquire, Surveyor-General of the State of New York,' is one of the most elaborate of the Croaker poems, a series of verses from which the humor has exhaled, notwithstanding that they are full of good spirits. It is preceded by a note in which the absolute misstatement of fact is made with contempt uous comment and the innocent De Witt is then pelted with rhymed sarcasm. These poems were generally read, and the hapless and defenceless Surveyor- General was covered with a universal laugh, as the bull in the arena is stung with a storm of winged darts to arouse and irritate him. But General DeWitt was not provoked to reply. A few years later, however, when the story was repeated in a newspaper in the city, he wrote a quiet note to the editor stating that he knew nothing of the obnoxious names until they were communicated to him." As this statement has never appeared in a history of Onondaga a few verses are quoted from Halleck and Drake. They, are nothing wonderful, but some may show the taste of those days, the authors writing only for immediate effect. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 203 "Godfather of the christened West! Thy wonder working power Has called from their eternal rest, The poets and the chiefs who blest Old Europe in her happier hour. Thou givest to the buried great, A citizen's certificate; And aliens now no more, The children of each classic town Shall emulate their sire 's renown In science, wisdom or in war. The bard who treads in Homer's earth Shall mount upon the epic throne, And pour like breezes from the north, Such spirit stirring stanzas forth As Paulding would not blush to own. What man, where Scipio 's praises skip From every rustling leaf, But girds cold iron on his hip, With 'shoulder firelock' arms his lip, And struts a bold militia chief ! And who that breathes where Cato lies But feels the Censor's spirit rise?" Similar lines follow, good or indifferent, but the sting is in the last : ' ' Surveyor of the western plains ! The sapient work is thine ; Full fledged it sprang from out thy brains. One added touch alone remains To consummate the grand design: Select a town and christen it With thy unrivaled name — De Witt. ' ' In due time the name came in the division of the townships, but the new town had its name from Moses De Witt, and not from his distinguished uncle. The latter received an appointment as assistant geographer or topographical engineer in the American army in 1778, and on the death of his chief in 1780 was made head of the department. In this capacity he planned the works at Yorktown, and was present at the surrender of both Burgoyne and Cornwallis. He was Surveyor-General of New York from 1784 till his death, December 3, 1834. His system of dividing public lands into mile squares, with quarter ' sections of one hundred and sixty acres each, has been followed in the survey of western lands. He died in Ithaca, owning much land there. His duties often detained him in Onondaga county. Eight towns here retain their old classical names. Salina is descriptive, and Syracuse is called after a Sicilian city. Seven are named after white men of 204 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY modern days. Three have Indian names. Men of New England stock have a fondness for certain local names or nicknames. Several towns have their Hardscrabbles. In his History of Manlius village Mr. Van Schaack says : " In going to our Green lakes from this village, I should advise visitors to go over Dry Hill, and for variety sake, after visiting 'Lake Sodom,' return by way of 'Satan's Kingdom.' " The writers experience was similar in attending a funeral in another town. He went up Seneca river to Dead creek, along Dead creek to Bangall, and thence through Whiskey Hollow into Satan's Kingdom, where the funeral was held. There is a Buck-tail road in Spafford, recalling that old branch of the Democratic party, very strong at that end of the town. Borodino, Navarino and Wellington recall Napoleon's wars, while Clay and Van Buren suggest political feeling. Liverpool was once Little Ireland, and Salt Point survives as an equivalent for Salina. Memphis was once Canton, the change being made because a larger town had the same name. Some nicknames it is needless to - quote here. Christian Hollow did not express the piety of the people, but was the name of an old soldier who lived there. Legs than a century ago hollow was used in many places instead of valley. Nine Mile creek was that distance west of Onondaga creek, and Butternut creek had its name from the tree. CHAPTER XIX. EPHRAIM WEBSTER AND DES VATTINES. Two men, in our early local history, have had more than common interest in the eyes of some, and really deserve special mention. They were Ephraim Webster, the Indian trader and interpreter, and Des Vattines, from whom Frenchman's Island has its name. For some facts regarding the early history of the former we are indebted to the research of the Rev. George B. Spalding, D. D., of Syracuse. The latter was described by several who met him at Oneida lake. John Webster came from Ipswich in England, to Ipswich, New England, in 1635, dying there in 1646. His youngest son was Nathan, born in that year, and living, in Bradford, Massachusetts, till his death in 1694. He married Mary Hazeltine, and one of their children was Samuel, born September 25, 1688. He married Mary Kimball, August 13, 1713, and died in Bradford in 1769. One of their children was Ephraim, born May 13, 1730, at Bradford, who married Phebe Parker, December 21, 1752, and soon went to New Hampshire. Their* sixth child was Ephraim, (the interpreter) born June 30, 1762,' in Hampstead, New Hampshire. There were four younger children. Thence the family went to Newbury, now in Vermont, but then claimed by New York. In the New York Roll of Revolutionary soldiers is a list of the ' ' Cumber land County Militia," who were called Rangers, and acted merely as scouts. Among the privates in 1776 was Ephraim Webster, then but fourteen years PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 205 old. Cumberland county was claimed and named by New York, and in this was Newbury. In lieu of rations Ephraim received ten shillings a week as a private. He had a gun, powder horn, bullet pouch, tomahawk, blanket and knapsack. In September, 1777, he enlisted a second time, under Colonel Thomas Johnson of Vermont. In relating the story of his life Webster told of an incident which happened that fall, and which Dr. Spalding corroborated by the statement of his com panion Richard Wallace, on file at Washington. The troops were in two divi sions near Ticonderoga, on Lake Champlain, here stated to be three miles wide. A British flotilla came along and anchored between them. It was necessary to open communication, but no boats could be had. Wallace and Webster volun teered to swim the lake and carry dispatches, though it was October (really September) and the water cold. They stripped for this, making as small a bundle of their clothes as possible, and strapping these on their heads. The passage follows in Webster's words: "We passed near the enemy's fleet, and when almost under the stern of one of the vessels, heard the sentinel call out, 'Past eleven o'clock and all is well.' 'So let it be,' I mentally exclaimed, and kept on my course. Hitherto I had kept about two rods in advance of my companion, and when about a hundred rods from shoar he called to me saying that his package had become loose and prevented him from swimming any further. I told him to remain where he was by treading water, and swimming back I adjusted his pack and we then continued to swim side by side. "Previous to the before mentioned accident I had retained my energies, but the extra exertion of swimming back or from some other cause, as we ap proached the shoar I found my strength rapidly failing. I exerted myself to the uttermost, but in spite of my efforts, when within about four rods of where I could gain a footing, I began to sink. My companion perceiving my condi tion placed himself under me and bore me to shoar. After stoping a moment to recover our breath, we dressed ourselves and sought the camp by different routs, so that should either of us fall into the hands of the enemies scouts, the other could bear the message on which so much depended." Webster had enlisted for eighteen months and then returned home for three months. A Massachusetts record reads thus : ' ' Ephraim Webster enlisted from Bradford, Essex County, to service in the Continental army, July 10, 1779, for nine months; age seventeen years; height, five feet, four inches; complex ion light." Dr. Spalding adds that he was discharged April 10,- 1780, having served his full time. He may have enlisted again at once, for he says he was under his old Colonel Johnson, "and continued in the service till the end of the war," but not necessarily with him. Dr. Spalding thinks this was not Colonel Thomas Johnson, as one would infer from Webster's words, but Colonel Samuel Johnson of the Essex County troops, with whom Webster came favorably in contact by his exploit in 1777. In a letter to his family in that year, Colonel Johnson wrote : ' ' We marched all 206 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY day arriving about eight o'clock in the evening (September 16, 1777) within two miles of Mount Independence. Soon after our arrival we were waited upon by two messengers who had swum the lake, bringing letters from Colonel Brown," It is uncertain when he left the service, but it was probably late in 1782 or early in 1783, as war continued in New York till that time. His narrative goes on as follows : "During the last part of the service I was stationed at Greenbush, and while there I formed an acquaintance with a Mohawk Indian by the name of Pete Gain. Being desirious of hearing the Indian language, after receiving my discharge, I returned home with him, whose residence was on West Canada creek. Here I spent three months without speaking a word of English during the time. "Being now able to converse with the Indians in their own language, when the spring was fairly set in I went to the mouth of Onondaga creek and commenced a very brisk trade with the Onondagas, for furs and other articles of native merchandise. After three weeks traffic, having accumulated a pretty good stock in trade, I went to Albany, employing several of the Onondagas to accompany me to assist in transporting goods." As this account was not written by Webster but taken down by others, there seems an omission here. It is highly improbable that he would at the outset, have passed by Oneida and come to Onondaga. The Oneidas were many and friendly; the Onondagas had lately been hostile, and but few had re turned. Clark said he came here in 1786 with Newkirk, having spent two years in Indian trade at Oriskany. This is every way likely. Spafford also, who was here making notes in 1811, and who knew and liked the interpreter, said he came in 1786, and probably had just had this date from him.' New- kirk's arrival and death have been placed in 1787, perhaps erroneously. Web ster had both happened the second year after his return. There is a circumstance tending to fix the date. He relates his employ ment on a western mission of a delicate nature, in which he appeared as an adopted Indian. In 1786.. he was twenty-four years old, and if he had spent two years with the Oneidas his age and experience might fit him for this trust. He said he undertook the task the year he came to Onondaga. Now there was no great western council till 1786, and this was held in December near the British posts and with their aid. Many of the Six Nations attended, and the Americans wished to know what was going on. Webster says he was sent, disguised, to learn what he could. The events of that year might run something like this : He may have come to Onondaga by the middle of April, remaining three weeks. By the middle of May he would be in Albany. Thinking over, accepting and preparing for the mission, would bring his re turn a month later, and he would not reach Buffalo before July, where a halt would be made. Thence they went on leisurely, hunting and fishing and ' ' vis- PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 207 ited the different posts along the frontier without molestation or suspicion." He remained six months in the country, the council opening in December. He graphically describes Newkirk's death and burial, but said not a word, about his own escape from death, or the tragic end of Mantinoah. Both these are highly improbable, and it may be added that Mantinoah is not an Iroquois name. Clark, however, said that Webster often told the latter story. Webster's camp or landing is said to have been at the mouth of Onon daga creek, on the east side. There he continued to trade for some years. Why he should have been there rather than nearer the Indians may have been due to convenience of transportation. After aiding in land surveys he went to live on the Mile square granted to Ephraim Webster, his Heirs and assigns forever as a free and voluntary Gift on the part of the people of the State of New York," April 12, 1796. This had been previously bought of the Onon dagas with other lands in 1793 and 1795. Having a new home he soon married Miss Hannah Danks, November 19, 1796. He had previously had an Indian wife and several children. She either died or he parted from her. When Pursh visited him in 1807 he was on his three hundred acres, three miles south of Onondaga Valley, where one of his sons still lived in 1876 and later. Pursh said he found him "a plain, friendly man," and very busy. He became lieutenant and captain in the mili tia, and in 1803 was appointed inspector of beef and pork. He was also an official interpreter and Indian agent. In 1798 he was supervisor of the town of Onondaga and at a later date was justice of the peace. These facts and others show that he was a man of fair education for the times. For that day, also, he was well off. He left, by his will dated July 21, 1821, his farm of two hundred acres to his "beloved wife, Hannah Webster," for her natural life, together with all his personal property of about $2,000. In this were included notes and cash amounting to $483.55, horses and colts $270, horned cattle $157.50, sheep $35, hogs $62, bees $60, beds, etc., $162.50, furniture $232.75, grain $228.13. After his wife's death the land was to be divided between his and her five children. There were Amanda Adams, Alonzo, Lucius H., Iantha, and Caro line E. Webster. Besides this he gave his wife's mother, Lucy Danks, sixty- two and a half acres during her natural life, afterward to revert to his heirs. The last note given to Webster was dated June 21, 1824, perhaps the day on which he went to Tonowanda, for a letter was written by him from that place which is now owned by the Onondaga Historical Association, a gift from Miss Charlotte Tyler, to whose father, Mr. Oren Tyler, it was addressed at On ondaga Hollow where he had a store. After having been duly signed and sealed it seems to have occurred to him that Mr. Tyler might be away, so he added "Mr. Redfield, please forward this and oblig E. Webster." The letter fol lows, as it may have been the last he wrote, and at least gives his style : 208 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY "Tunawant Villig, 30th Augst,1824. Dea sir — Your favor of the 22d of June was receted yesterday. It is now two late to think of giting roots at Catarages. I, however, hear the same story about that place as I did about this. I don't know how I shall make out hear. I have not more that one hundred bushels on hand. I have bin three weeks a colecting them. The Indiens sais thair will be more by and by. "I left Wiman to colect at onondago, but have not heard ennything about him. I wrote a few days ago to Docter Needham by his request & desired him to write to me, but I hear nothing from him. If Wiman is not colecting now and does not intend to try, then you might take that mechean and do what you could, and I would do what was right. Provided you let me have the roots we could settle well enough. I wish you would write to me and let me kno what is going on at onondago respecting ginsang, little Thomas tells me that som person at Siracus oferd 20s pr bushel before he came away. "I do not beleave him. A number of the Indiens talk of coming hear but they do not com. If you can find out ennything about it Pleas let me know. Heylin talkt of coming, if you know enny thing pertikaler respecting him or my famaly Pleas let me know, at all events write me by return of mail & direct a letter to me at Pembrook, ginase county, & oblige your ould frind, EPHM. WEBSTER." It may be that Tyler 's letter was sent August 22, instead of June ; other wise, it was long on the road. Heylin Webster has his name usually spelled Halen. The Syracuse Herald in 1886 made special efforts to learn the facts about Webster.'s death and burial at Tonowanda, but mistook the year, his will having been proved December 10, 1824. Isaac Doxtator, of Tonowanda, spoke of him as Ne-ah-ton-gah (white man) called So-go-kon-is by the Onondagas. "He lived in a cabin near the Council house, right in the center of the Tono wanda village. He was an old man and had gray hair and gray whiskers." He was buried near the council house, but was removed to a cemetery on the Lewiston road, west of Alabama Centre in 1831. Gurney S. Strong dates his ¦ death October 16, 1824, as in the family bible, and it could not have been far from that time; certainly between August and December. His old home on the three hundred acre tract, was burned May 3, 1891. The corrected date of his birth made him sixty-two years old when he died. While passing through Oneida lake in 1791, Elkanah Watson wrote thus : "Near the west end of the lake are two small islands, on one of which resides a respectable Frenchman, who came from France a few years since, and has voluntarily sequestered himself from the world, and taken up his solitary abode upon this island, with no society but his dogs, guns and library, yet he appeared happy and contented." James Cockburn passed through the lake in 1792, surveying the northern shore. He said: "There are two islands in the lake, the- one about thirty, the other about twenty acres. On the westernmost lives a Frenchman and his - *C f' *&H1L ^7^ VIVUS W. SMITH. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 209 family." Then came Francis A. Vanderkemp, a scholar and a gentleman, on an exploring trip with Baron De Zeng. He landed at the island, and in his delightful journal described what he saw. "Here was the residence of Mr. and Madame des Wattines, with their children. They live there without servants, without neighbors, without a cow; they lived, as it were, separated from the world." It was their second year there, and the youngest daughter, Camille, had been born in their island home. They were cultured people, and, in Society phrase, "entertained delightfully." In fact the French man was of the middle class, and had come to America in 1786, before the French revolution. Business had not prospered with him, and after various losses he had come to the island in 1791. The travelers landed, and followed a path through the woods, admiring the Frenchman's taste and skill. "It seemed a Paradise, which happiness had chosen for her residence." They reached the garden. "A small cottage of a few feet square stood nearly in the center of this spot. It had a bark covering and to the left of it a similar one, three-fourth uncovered, an-1 ap propriated for a kitchen. Plere was the residence of Mr. and Madame de Watines with their three children." He came forth to greet them. "The well educated man was easily recognized through his sloven dress. Ragged as he appeared, without a coat or hat, his manners were those of a Gentleman ; his address that of one who had seen the higher circles of civilized life." His wife sat by the door, ' ' dressed in white, in a short gown and petticoat, gar nished with the same stuff; her chestnut brown hair flung back in ringlets over her shoulders." Her babe she held to her breast, while the two other chil dren stood on either side. Details are given here, for the group may suggest a picture or tableau. The furnishing was simple. "Few trunks, few chairs, an oval table, two neat beds, was the principal furniture; a double barreled gun, a pretty collection of Books, chiefly modern Literature in the French language, the chief ornaments of the cottage." A pretty garden lay behind this. Flowers of many kinds were in this, vegetables to tempt the epicure, but hardly a weed to be seen. Beyond these were young apple trees, potatoes, and a half circle of wheat. All had been done with an axe and hoe. What a breakfast Madame served for them next morning! Vanderkemp said: "I was seldom better re galed." They called on their . return, and their host went with them to Oneida creek. His wife came to the shore to see them off, her boy and girl beside her, and so they left her. "There stood that lovely, deserted fair one! Not deserted as Ariadne — but nevertheless left alone — with three helpless child ren — alone! on an island on Oneyda Lake." The Duke de Rochefoucauld met them in 1795, after they had removed to Constantia. There Des Vatines had the reputation of being a fine gardener, and he told his visitor his story. He once had a viscount's estate near Lisle, but his father spent part of the property and he was rather prodigal himself. So, before the French revolution he sold his small estate for twenty-four 210 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY thousand livres, and came to America: He soon was rid of this, and turned to agriculture. For over three years he had lived near Oneida lake, and one year he spent with the Oneida Indians. On Frenchman's island he cleared twenty acres, but had now been at Rotterdam (Constantia) for fifteen months, where he had bought one hundred acres of Mr. Scriba. "He is about thirty years old, sprightly; obliging, always merry, inured to labor, and never troublesome with complaints of his fate." Most of his books he had sold, and though fairly prosperous then, meant to return to France. Madame Vatines (the Duke did not use the prefix) "is about twenty- four years of age, pretty and good: her eyes are beautiful; her look has much sweetness and expression, and it seems that she, like many other wives, loves her husband with more tenderness than he returns She is mother of three children the oldest of whom is ten years old; she is of a mild and cheerful disposition, sensible and judicious. She makes hay, bakes bread, cooks, and yet her hands are very handsome." It was before this, in 1793, that Baron De Zeng again visited his island friend, October 31 ; this time at Constantia. His house there was not yet cov ered, and was as ' ' open as a cage. We found his wife and three little children as jovial as Cupids. They made the most they could of their poor barrack, where they would be obliged to spend the winter, as from all appearance it could not be finished that season." That year, also, the Castorland party met them. The subject interested M. Alexis de TocqueviUe, author of Democracy in America, and he visited the island July 8, 1831, riding from Brewerton to South Bay through a dense forest. One house only he passed on the road. He said: "Lake Oneida stands in the midst of low hills and of still original forests. A belt of thick foliage surrounds it on every side; its waters bathe the roots of the trees, which are reflected in its calm, transparent face. About a mile from where we stood were two oval shaped islands of equal length. These islands are covered with trees; they look like two thickets floating quietly oh the surface of the lake." Many years before he had read a book called "Voyage au lac Oneida," which told the story of the young Frenchman and his wife in the most approved style of romance. It made a lasting impression on him. He and his companion often talked of it, and would end by saying, "The only happiness in this world is on Lake Oneida." So, being in America, they "determined to visit the French pair, if they still lived, or at least to explore their dwelling." They entered a fisherman's hut and questioned an old woman who had lived there twenty-one years. The island, when she came, was a beautiful spot, with fruits, flowers and vines, but the house was already falling to pieces. "The wife had died and the man had abandoned the island." No. one knew what became of him. They were soon on the spot, but it was an hour before they found any vestige of the forsaken dwelling. An old apple tree and a grape vine were the first indications. ' ' Of the remains of her who had not feared to exchange PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 211 the pleasures of a civilized life for a tomb on a desert island in the New World, we could not find a trace." And no wonder. Then they imagined the unfortunate man, first as an exile and then as a widower, not suspecting what a jolly fellow he was. "He is no longer fit for solitude, nor for the world. He can live no longer alone, nor with other men." Like a dead forest tree, "He is still erect, but he lives no longer." With these parting reflections they returned to the mainland, never dreaming they had wasted their sympathy. CHAPTER XX. FROM THE CLOSE OF THE REVOLUTION TO THE OPENING AND EARLY HISTORY OF THE MILITARY TRACT. Returning from this digression to the general course of events, we are reminded that in concluding peace Great Britain made no provision for her Indian allies. This caused great indignation among them and the Canadian authorities. Officers there called "His Majesty's speech the most humil iating that ever came from the Throne." One wrote to Haldimand from Ni agara, ' ' With respect to the boundaries, alas ! they were perfectly well known on the 23d April to every ranger in Butler's corps. Few of the Indians yet knew them, and he would endeavor to keep them in good humor. ' ' A few days later he added: "The Indians look upon our conduct to them as treacherous and cruel. .. .They were the faithful allies of the King of England, not his subjects; that he had no right whatever to grant away to the States of Amer ica their rights or properties without a manifest breach of all justice and equity, and they would not submit to it. ' ' In 1784 the treaty of Fort Stanwix was held.- The Americans proposed having it at Albany, and the English thought the Indians should insist or. having it still further west, but the place chosen was generally satisfactory. To a large portion of the Six Nations the treaty was not. The Onondagas were secured in the possession of their old home territory, though most of them were living at Buffalo creek. In a treaty at the same place September 12, 1788, the Onondagas did "cede and grant all their lands to the people of the State of New York forever," except certain reservations. They were to have the ' ' right of hunting in every part of said ceded lands and of fishing in all the waters of the same." Also, "The Salt Lake and the lands for one mile around the same shall forever remain for the common benefit of the people of the State of New York, and the Onondagas and their posterity for the purpose of making salt." The Onondagas reserved a tract for their own use "beginning at the southerly end of the Salt Lake," where Onondaga creek reached it, and run ning easterly three miles; then southerly according to the general course 212 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY of the creek, till it intersected an. east and west line three miles south of their village. This line ran west nine miles. Then the line ran north, parallel to the second line, till a line due east would reach the place of beginning, which would form part of the north line. For this they were to have a present pay ment, and an annuity of five hundred dollars in silver. This was afterward confirmed and signed by twenty-eight Onondaga chiefs and warriors, as follows in the Indian Problem, June 16, 1790 : Tehonwaghskwenton Rononghsionne TakanaghkwaghsenAonghwenj agehte alias Land Carrier Skonawadigh alias One Rift Atthaghseranon Skayaness Ayanoo Oyadageghte Annhiente Otkwentageghte AronghgowanenghKaghicktoton Onaghsadegeagh alias Flaming Arrow Skayendahhen Rasseghstoghare TakeneghsateAronghyeaghtha Joghahilen Sagoyenaghs Karonghyatsigowa Onaakaronton Tehoghweakaronto Kaghnenrayen Agwirontongwaghs Anonghsighraghtha Oniata Riyoo Kaneyaagh The Indian witnesses were Peter Otsieguette, Aghwistonisk, Oneyanha and Coll, Honyery, Oneida chiefs; Onongaiekhon, Thoghuawayen, Senecas. Of those who signed the first treaty, September 12, 1788, Clark gave quite a different list as follows: BEAR. Kahiktoton, Tehojiskeaiyea,Waghselonyahhe, by the chief of the clan. WOLF. Tehoenagalaongh, Shagohaasegh, by the chief of the clan. Onoewileghte, by the chief of the clan. DEER. Kanaghssetegea, Agogighkwayewa, by his cousin. Skawyadaliyo, Kalonghyo, by his brother. EEL. Agwelondongwas, Thanehaaghkawa, by the chief of the clan Hyanoenwe. TURTLE. Tehonwaghstoweaghte, Shagoyenawaghskwe,Kanadaes,Sagoeyoris,Sagosaiewas, by the chief of the clan. BEAVER. Kanadakeawaghte, Adahsweandaahsea,Waghshaine, by the chief of the clan. GOVERNESSES, Tjeanoenikhe and Kaeghhewa- The Indian witnesses were Louis Nyadeghhalongweah of the Oneidas; Kayendatsyona, chief governess of the Senecas; Shagodyadyeatha, Hanowean- tho, Joayhgwalet, Sheanooewa, Shagokanyos, Senecas; Kaneongwe and Hagh- gouthiyo, Cayugas. A chapter of the D. A. R., at Fulton, New York, is named after Kayendatsyona, which signifies a hewed log. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 213 A treaty was held at Onondaga, November 18, 1793, by which the Ononda gas ceded all the land east of the creek from a point seven miles south of the northeast angle of the original reservation, except the salt lands. They also sold a second tract, beginning in the south bounds, four miles west of the south east comer running north till due west of the corner of the seven mile line; then east to a point half a mile west of the creek, and northerly to the salt reservation. All west of this general line was sold. This was signed by twenty- four chiefs and warriors ; Clark said twenty-five. At the treaty of Cayuga Ferry, July 28, 1795, the annuities were changed, and the salt lands and the half mile strip west of the creek were sold. This treaty was signed by seventeen Onondagas. Clark said eighteen, probably reckoning again one who signed for another. Another treaty was held at Albany, February 25, 1817, at which about four thousand acres were sold east of the present reservation, and the title to Webster's three hundred acre tract was confirmed. This was signed by ten Onondagas. The last land treaty with the Onondagas was at Albany, February 11, 1822, when they sold a strip of eight hundred acres off the south end of the present reservation. Five Onondagas signed this, Ossahinta appearing as Asahent. There was no legal title to lands occupied by white settlers, in what is now Onondaga county, till 1791, yet settlers came, the first of these being Asa Danforth and his family. Ephraim Webster, hunting with two Onondagas in Montgomery county in February, 1788, stopped at his house in Mayfield, and asked a night's lodging in his barn. He took them into his house instead, and gave them a warm meal. Webster praised Onondaga, a much better place than Mayfield, and offered to ask permission for Danforth to settle there. His hos pitality had won the hearts of all the party. If permission was given, an Indian messenger was to be sent, who in due time appeared, and Danforth pre pared for the journey. Mr. Danforth 's son, Asa, with Comfort Tyler, was sent across the country with the necessary stock, arriving at Onondaga before his father, and meeting him at the mouth of the creek. Danforth himself came with two bateaux, in which were his family, furniture and farming utensils. They came up the Mohawk, through Oneida lake and river, and thence through Onondaga lake. At the creek the boats were lightened and pushed up the stream to Danforth 's Landing, where he disembarked and settled May 22, 1788. The site of his home has been recently marked by a flagstaff, east of the creek and near Mrs. Tolman's. At that time the Onondagas were hard drinkers, and the family had many alarms from this. Kahiktoton, Thorn tree with fruit on it, was then principal chief, and proved very kind. Tawhisquanta, Lying flat on his stomach, was also kind. He was commonly called Captain John, and had been a great warrior. The Onondagas called Major Danforth Hateeolhotwas, The man who plows the ground, and some wished to drive him away, instigated by some 214 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY traders who supplied them with rum. The chiefs took his part and he re mained. However, he, his wife and child, did make a visit to their old home in December. They were on a sled, and spent the first night on this at Chitte nango; the next night they were with Skenandoa at Oneida Castle; the third night they lodged with Judge White at Sauquoit. Thence they went to Brook- field, Massachusetts, leaving there on their return about the middle of March. In the spring their land and that of the Indians was prepared and planted. Tennyson says: "In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love," and this proved the case with young Danforth and Tyler. They made eastern trips and brought back wives. Thus Asa Danforth, Jr., and wife became the parents of the first white child born here. She was afterward Mrs. Amanda Phillips, wife of Colonel Phillips of Syracuse. Of course living in the wilderness meant many privations. There was no mill nearer than Herkimer, sixty-seven miles away, and Danforth adopted the Indian mortar, adding to this a hand-mill a little later, in both cases sifting the corn and meal. It was the day of slavery in New York, too, and he soon had a stalwart negro "niggering corn." As soon as settlement was enough ad vanced Danforth built saw and grist mills, but under many difficulties. In fact he was a leader in almost every enterprise. There was also a settlement at Salina before the opening of the Military Tract. Colonel Jeremiah Gould came there with his family in August, 1790. Beside his wife there were three sons and a daughter. He found there Deacon and Nathaniel Loomis, Hezekiah Olcott, Thomas Gaston, John and Asa Dan forth, Jr., with their families. Ryal Bingham was near Three River point in 1789 ; and in the same year Oliver Stevens was on the north side of the river at Brewerton, but with a garden opposite in Cicero. In the township of Manlius Mr. Benjamin More house settled in 1789, but of course had no title to land then. David Tripp was the first settler in the present tow,n in 1790. Morehouse came, April 26, 1789, with a wife and three small children. He built his log cabin on Kasoongkta Flats, afterward called Morehouse's Flats. Here he opened his tavern in 1790, a few rods west of where the old church stood, and it became a noted place at once. His daughter Sarah, born February 16, 1790, is supposed to be the second white child born in the county. This was in the present town of De Witt. John Wilcox came to the present town of La Fayette in the spring of 1789, settling at Indian Orchard, the site of an abandoned Onondaga town. So said Clark, but he afterward changed it to 1791, the more probable date. Camillus is credited with Captain Isaac Lindsay as a settler in 1790 ; more likely a year or two later. These are the only two towns claimed to have had any white inhabitants before the opening of the Military Tract, as no one could buy a home till then. Onondaga and part of Salina were not parts of this. Inn keepers could settle any where almost at once, as they at first re quired but little land, and needed not to buy. This general survey brings us to the time when nearly the whole of Onondaga was open for settlement. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 215 The land had been purchased, surveyed, divided by lot, and now it was but a question between man and man who should have it. Some incidents of settlement can appear under the headings of towns, but a brief general his tory of the tract and county will be included in this chapter. THE MILITARY TRACT AND ONONDAGA COUNTY. On September 16, 1776, Congress provided bounties for eighty-eight battalions to serve through the war. Massachusetts was to raise fifteen of these and New York four, not being then the Empire state. Non-commissioned officers and privates were to have a bounty of twenty dollars, and a grant of land of one hundred acres each. Ensigns were to have one hundred and fifty acres, lieutenants two hundred, captains three hundred, majors four hundred, lieutenant-colonels four hundred and fifty, and colonels five hundred. In 1780 the land bounty for a brigadier-general was to be eight hundred and fifty and that of a major general one thousand one hundred acres. In 1783 New York made provision for these bounties, adding a quantity of state lands to New York troops. A major general was to have five thous and five hundred acres, a brigadier general four thousand two hundred and fifty, colonel two thousand five hundred, lieutenant colonel two thousand two hundred and fifty, major two thousand, captains and regimental surgeons one thousand five hundred, chaplains two thousand, subalterns and surgeon's mates one thousand, non-commissioned officers and privates five hundred. There were some later modifications. Townships were to be laid out of one hundred lots each, each lot to contain six hundred acres. These were to be settled within seven years from the first of January after the patent was issued. Fifty acres in one corner of each lot were to be subject to charges of forty-eight shillings for surveying. In 1789 it was resolved that six lots in each township should be reserved, one for promoting the gospel and schools, one for the state literature fund, and four for possible claims. It was originally provided that if persons applying for these lands had received from Congress their bounty, or failed to give up claim to it, one hundred acres in each lot was to be reserved for the use of the state. Hence came the term, "State's Hundred." When a map of twenty-five townships was presented in 1790 "the Board .... designated them by the names of distinguished men." Simeon De Witt was not present. Of these townships Lysander, Camillus, Cicero, Manlius, Marcellus, Pompey, Tully and Fabius were wholly or partially within the present limits of Onondaga county. For a time a town might be composed of several townships. The deed given for a military lot was as follows, changing the antiques, and using a deed as filled out. Some are yet preserved : "The People of the State of New York by the grace of God, free and independent: — To all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting: — Know ye, that, in pursuance of an act of our legislature, passed the sixth day of 216 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY April, one thousand seven hundred and ninety: entitled "an act to carry into effect the concurrent resolutions and acts ¦ of the legislature, for grant ing certain lands, promised to be given as bounty lands, for the purpose there in mentioned. ' ' We have Given, granted and Confirmed, and by these Presents, Do Give, Grant and Confirm unto Abraham Tompkins, All that certain tract or lot of land, situate, lying and being in the County of Montgomery and in the Township of Marcellus known and distinguished on a map of the said Township (filed by our Surveyor-General in our Secretary's Office, agreeable to law), by Lot number Twenty-fourj containing six hundred acres; Together with all and singular the rights, hereditaments and appurtenances to the same belonging or in any wise appertaining; excepting and reserving to our selves all gold and silver mines, and also five acres of every hundred of said tract or lot of land for highways; To Have and to Hold the above described and granted premises, unto the said Abraham Tompkins, his heirs and assigns, as a good and undefeasable estate of inheritance forever. On Condition nevertheless that within the term of seven years, to be computed from the first day of January next ensuing the date hereof, there shall- be one actual settlement made on the said tract or lot of land hereby granted, otherwise these our Letters Patent and the estate hereby granted shall cease determine and become void. In testimony whereof we have caused these our Letters to be' made Patent, and the Great Seal of our said State, to be hereunto af fixed. Witness our trusty and well beloved George Clinton, Esquire, Governor of our said State, General and Commander-in-Chief of all the militia and Admiral of the navy of the same, at our city of New York, this eighth day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and ninety and in the fifteenth of our independence. Approved of by the Commissioners of the Land Office, and passed the Secretary's office the 20th day of November, 1790. ROBT. HARTNER, D. Sec'y. GEO. CLINTON. January 1, 1791, the drawing commenced ninety-four persons getting lots in each township, six lots being reserved. Three more townships were laid out later. Litigation followed from conflicting claims and frauds, for there were frauds even in the good old days. Commissioners were employed from 1797 to 1802 inclusive in settling these claims. Before this came the organization of Onondaga county. New York included twelve counties in 1,683, of which Albany was then the northern most. In 1772 Tryon county was set off from Albany, becoming Montgom ery in 1784. In 1789 Ontario county was formed of all that part of Mont gomery lying west of a line drawn north and south through Seneca lake. Herkimer county was taken from Montgomery in 1791, including all the country west of Montgomery, east of Ontario, and north of Otsego and Tioga. In 1794 Onondaga county was formed from Herkimer, embracing all the military tract. This event had a centennial celebration at Syracuse in 1894, and Pioneers' day June 6, has been a memorial of it ever since. The Military Tract included Cayuga, Cortlandt, Onondaga and Seneca counties, part of PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 217 Tompkins, and all of Oswego lying west of Oswego river. The townships were then divided into eleven towns, Aurelius, Homer, Lysander, Manlius, Marcellus, Milton, Ovid, Pompey, Romulus, Scipio and Ulysses. Cayuga county was set off in 1799, Cortlandt in 1808, and Oswego in 1816. Since then no change has taken place in the county boundaries. All Onondaga was included in Whitestown in 1788. In 1791 it was in the town of Mexico, bounded on the east by the west line of Madison county as it now exists. The first town meeting in this was at Morehouse's Flats, a little east of Jamesville. One of the three days' poll for the first general election in Whitestown was held at Benjamin Morehouse's tavern. In the old county of Onondaga courts were to be held twice a year, one being at Scipio in November, and the other at the house of Reuben Patterson at Onondaga Hollow, then in the town of Manlius, on the first Monday in May. These were Courts of Common Pleas and General Sessions, and a week was allowed for each term. Prisoners were to be held at Herkimer until a jail could be budt in Onondaga county. The first court under the new .rule was held in General Danforth 's corn house on the first Monday in May, 1794. Seth Phelps was the presiding judge, and John Richardson, Silas Halsey and William Stevens were also there. The first Court of Oyer and Terminer was held at Asa Danforth 's house, late Patterson's, July 21, 1794. Hon. Egbert Benson presided. In those days of primal innocence but one indictment was made by the grand jury. The accused party was promptly convicted, another early feature. The same judge presided at the next circuit court at Onondaga Valley, June 14, 1797. No indictments were made. Courts continued there till 1805, at the houses of Danforth, Patterson, John Adams and Samuel Tyler. Then the unfinished court house at Onondaga Hill was used when the weather permitted. It was not completed till 1807. The court house and jail were used till new ones were finished at Syracuse in 1830. The records were kept at Onondaga Val ley till 1813, when a clerk's office was built at Onondaga Hill.. Before the county organization Moses De Witt and Asa Danforth were resident justices of the peace, the former being surrogate. Comfort Tyler, Jasper Hopper and George W. Olmstead were some of the clerks after the or ganization. Comfort Tyler and Ebenezer R. Hawley were among the early sheriffs within the present limits. Moses Carpenter and Jacob R. De Witt were early treasurers. Comfort Tyler was the great grandfather, and George W. Olmstead, grandfather of Charles Tyler Olmstead, Bishop of Central New York. In the- tenth Congress, Reuben Humphreys of Onondaga represented the thirteenth district, and William Kirkpatrick of Salina the eleventh. Hon. James Geddes was in the eleventh Congress, followed by other eminent men. Senators from the old Onondaga county, attending sessions at Albany, 1799-1801, were Moss Kent, Jadediah Sanger and William Stewart. Com fort Tyler was the first local member of assembly, 1798-99. Ebenezer Butler was member for 1800, followed by Asa Danforth, 1801-02. The Onondaga Historical Association has the later records of the Board 218 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY of Supervisors, whose first meeting was held at Asa Danforth 's house, Onon daga Valley, then in the town of Manlius. The members were Silas Halsey of Ovid, .Benaijah Boardman of Romulus, Ezekiel Crane of Aurelius, Comfort Tyler of Manlius, John Stoyles of Scipio, Moses De Witt of Pompey; not present, Wyllys Bishop of Milton, Robert McDowell of Ulysses, William Stev ens of Marcellus. The towns of Homer and Lysander were not yet organized. Clark says that "Considerable sums were yearly allowed for wolf scalps, varying from five to ten dollars per scalp; and for fox scalps at fifty cents per scalp; and an occasional panther, at ten dollars per scalp." The board gave the following census and valuation of towns now in the county in 1797: Pompey, 262 inhabitants Valuation $20,327 50 Marcellus, 133 inhabitants Valuation 18,392 50 Manlius, 116 inhabitants Valuation 13,203 25 Lysander not organized or included. In 1798 these figures were considerably increased. Fabius, 82 inhabitants Valuation $ 5,342 Manlius, 131 inhabitants Valuation 15,503 Onondaga, 80 inhabitants Valuation 9,000 Pompey, 250 inhabitants .Valuation 20,000 Marcellus, 159 inhabitants. . -. Valuation 11,471 Lysander, 15 inhabitants Valuation 1,500 In 1799, Cayuga having been set off, the towns now in the county were credited with the following inhabitants: Camillus, fifty-four ; Fabius, one hundred and seventeen ; Lysander, sixteen ; Manlius, one hundred and thirty-one; Marcellus, one hundred and fifty-two; Onondaga, one hundred, and Pompey, three hundred and nine. Total eight hundred and seventy-nine. The census of 1905 gives to Camillus two thousand five hundred and eighty-six ; Cicero two thousand four hundred and fifty-one ; Clay two thousand four hundred and ten; De Witt six thousand two hundred and fifty-two ; Elbridge three thousand and forty-one ; Fabius one thousand five hundred and forty-five; Geddes four thousand four hundred and ninety; La Fayette one thousand four hundred and eighty-nine; Lysander four thousand three hundred and seventy-nine; Manlius five thousand eight hundred and twenty-one ; Marcellus two thousand seven hundred and forty-four ; Onondaga five thousand three hundred and twenty-four ; Otisco one thousand one hundred and thirty-one; Pompey two thousand three hundred and eighty-one; Salina three thousand eight hundred and twenty-six; Skaneateles four thousand two hundred and sixty-one; Spafford one thousand one hundred and thirty; Syracuse one hundred and seventeen thousand five hundred and three; Tully one thousand four hundred and sixty-three; Van Buren three thousand one hundred and forty-seven; Indian Reservation five hundred and twenty-five. Most country towns have lost since 1900. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 219 The dates of settlement have been reported as follows, but there may be slight errors. Onondaga, 1788; De Witt, Manlius and Pompey, 1789; Camillus, Clay Cicero and Salina, 1790; LaFayette, 1791; Elbridge, Geddes, Lysander, Ska neateles and Van Buren, 1793; Fabius, Marcellus and Spafford, 1794; Tully, 1795 ; Otisco, 1801. In 1795 the Board of Supervisors considered the inconvenience of varying modes of taxation, and recommended a uniform scheme of assessment, as follows: "Improved lands of a medium quality, 20s. per acre. Working oxen of a medium quality, £16 per yoke. Cows of a medium quality, £5 per piece. Young cattle of three years old and under, 20s. per year. Horses of a medium quality, £10 per piece. Colts, 3 years old and under, 40s. per piece. Hogs that will weigh 100 weight, 20s. per piece. Negro men, £50 per head. Negro wenches, £30 per head. Grist mills, £50 per piece. Saw mills, £30 per piece." So that a negro man was worth a grist mill, and a negro girl a saw mill. They recommended also, that persons having ratable property, should give a written list of this to the assessor. The last recommendation concerned pioneer life : "And further, we also recommend to the towns to adopt a uniform mode of granting a bounty on wolves, and render the reward of each man in his exertions for the destruction of these animals. Therefore, with submission, we think a reward of forty shillings, in addition to the bounty allowed by the county, to be adequate for the bounty for each wolf. ' ' In 1801 the Legislature declared certain streams public highways, and no obstructions were to be allowed in these. Among these were Nine Mile creek, from its entrance into the Salt lake to the north line of the town of Mar cellus in the county of Onondaga, and the- outlet of the said Salt lake into the north line of the Onondaga Reservation : the two branches of the Chittenango creek, known by the names of the Limestone and Butternut creeks, until the first falls on each of the same. Other streams were already highways. Some leading citizens selected Onondaga Hill as a convenient county seat, on account of its central position and fine sanitary conditions, and laid it out for this in 1798-99. The courthouse was built in 1805, but not then finished. The clerk's office came later, standing just south of the stone schoolhouse. The courthouse was farther north, near or in the road running westward. Court business brought people there, and the village once had seven taverns and stores, beside shops of various kinds. By prompt and quiet action a majority of the tax-payers of the county were induced in 1827 to petition the Legislature to establish the courthouse at Syracuse. The bill was passed March 19. The next year the Board of Super visors held a meeting to consider the question. Many sites were proposed, but two only were considered. The Syracuse Company made advantageous offers but they were not accepted. Salina also made an offer, and a site was chosen on North Salina street, half way between the two villages. A good brick courthouse— fine for those days — was built, and Judge Earll held the first court there, May 13, 1830. 220 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Mr. Hand tells a curious story about this: "In those days it was quite common to place on courthouse domes a figure of Justice with her emblems. Some of the Building Committee thought best to omit the figure, as there had been so, many complaints of extravagance, but Mr. Archie Kasson, one of the committee, said that rather than leave it off he would furnish one at his own expense. His offer was accepted and the figure was placed on the dome. A few years later, while the court was engaged in a very exciting case, which had continued to fill the house for many days with interested listeners, the jury rendered a decision contrary to what nearly every one thought to be right and just, and great surprise and dissatisfaction was the result. The most remark able part of this affair was that the same day of the decision, the scales in the hand of the goddess fell with a crash to the courthouse roof." The new penitentiary, not far off, was built in 1854, and a proposal to change the site of the courthouse was made in 1847. It was annually con sidered till the old courthouse was burned February 5, 1856. Then the beauti ful courthouse on the north side of the canal was completed in 1857. When the present fine building was finished in 1907, people were unwilling to lose the old one, and it was purchased for city uses. Meantime, also, the county re quired more space for records, and the cornerstone of a fine brick building for a County Clerk's office, etc., was laid with Masonic ceremonies, August 11, 1880. This also now belongs to the city, changing hands in 1907. The present fine courthouse, just completed, affords space for all departments of official work, and is a building of which the county is justly proud. CHAPTER XXI. EARLY TRAVELERS AFTER THE REVOLUTION George Washington did not quite reach the present limits of Onondaga county, but came near enough to appreciate some natural advantages. He was interested in internal navigation, and in a letter to the Marquis of Chastellux in 1782, said : "I have lately made a tour through the lakes George and Champlain as far as Crown Point: — then returning to Schenectady, I proceeded up the Mo hawk river to fort Schuyler, (now Rome, N. Y.) crossed over to Wood creek which empties into the Oneida lake, and affords the water communication with Ontario. I then traversed the country to the head of the eastern branch of the Susquehanna, and viewed the lake Otswego, and the portage between that lake and the Mohawk river at Canajoharie. Prompted by these actual observations, I could not help taking a more contemplative and extensive view of the vast inland navigation of these United States, and could not but be struck with the . immense diffusion and importance of it ; and with the goodness of that Provi dence which has dealt his favours to us with so profuse a hand. Would to God we may have wisdom enough to improve them. I shall not rest contented until I have explored the western country. ' ' PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 221 Notable among the early journals of pioneer days are those of Elkanah Watson, who went through here in 1791 with Messrs. Van Rensselaer, Van Cortlandt and Bayard, all interested in canal projects. They traveled in two bateaux, and reached Fort Brewerton September 14, where they found two families improving the land. In Oneida, then Onondaga river, they observed the rifts, the piles of stones made by some fish to protect the spawn, and the stone fish weirs of the Indians, which he described. "In the evening we pitched our tent at Mr. Moses De Witt's camp at the Three River Point, who is locating the military lands, destined for the troops of the New York line. . . . Two or three white families are settled there. The situation is high and healthy, fronting the communication with Canada, and a central point from east, west and north. In my view a large city will arise at this spot during the coming century," but it did not rise. "Sept. 15. — This morning we were visited by old Kiadote, king of the Onondaga Indians, with several warriors and the queen, who brought us some excellent fresh salmon and eels in a basket slung to her back, for which we gave them in exchange rum and biscuits. Kiadote possesses a sensible, sedate face ; the queen appeared modest and humble. The name of Kiadote means a tree with thorns, and fruit upon it. The queen is called Kanastoretar, meaning a good housekeeper. ' ' Above. Three River Point they came to an Indian camp and eel weir, and then entered Onondaga lake. "This lake opened most pleasantly before us, six miles in length, N. W. and S. E. . . With a light breeze we hoisted our sails, and contemplated a country pleasantly situated on each side of us as we sailed along. . . We steered by our map and compass, and with some difficulty found the creek on which the salt works are now erected half a mile from its mouth at the foot of a hill. These works are in a rude unfinished state, but are capable of making about eight thousand bushels of salt per annum. ' ' That night they had a hard time on the beach in the wind and rain. Next morning "we ascended the Onondaga Creek, discharging from the south into the Salt Lake. We landed at an old Indian camp crossed over a neck of land to a hard beach, which I presume is an entire bed of salt at no great depth, as, by making little holes with our canes in the hard sur face, salt water immediately oozed in, as strongly impregnated as at the springs. "Here the Indians were making salt, of which they use but little. From hence we coasted north, on the west side of the lake, with a strong gale ahead. We passed several birch canoes with Onondaga Indians, strong gale ahead. We passed several birch canoes with Onondaga Indians, returning from fishing, accompanied by all their families, children, dogs, cats, fowls, etc. These birch canoes are extremely light — they sail like ducks upon the water, and some of them are whimsically painted. In one of these canoes the king and queen were paddling and their son steering. We hove to, and were some time talking by signs, and trafficing biscuit and rum for smoked eels and salmon. ' ' 222 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY The morning of September' 17 found them in Cross lake, and they "landed on a high piece of ground at the east entrance of the lake, where we saw a multitude of names cut upon large beech trees." We leave them at the county line. Some quotations have already been made from .. Vanderkemp in 1792, but a few will be given here. Leaving Frenchman's island and the French family he said: "We arrived at Fort Brewerton about noon, situated at the North western corner of the Lake. Here is a location of about four hundred acres, obtained by Mr. Staats during the late Brittish war. It was inhabited by two families, viz. that of our Capt. Bingham and our Mr. Simonds, the latter from Cagnawagha. They had rented it at £20 a year, and desired to make a purchase of it," but Mr. Staats, acquainted with its value had constantly de clined their offers. I was highly gratified with excellent bread and butter, feasted on milk for my beverage, and purchased two pints of it, which we carried to our Bateau." He seems to have mistaken Simonds for Stevens, the earliest settler there, but Gould also called him Simmons. "Next day about three in the afternoon we reached three-River Point, eighteen miles from fort Brewerton. Here join the Onondago and Seneca River, that of Oswego, flowing to Lake Ontario in a southwesterly ( ?) direc tion. One Barker lived at the east side of this point, whose chief employ ment was to conduct the Bateaux over the falls in Oswego River. He might have been independent, had he possessed virtue and strength of mind suffi cient to take advantage of his situation. Every Bateau bound to or coming from the Genesees — Onondago — Oswego — Cataraqui and Niagara stops here, and their crews would often deem it a happiness, could they there be supplied with refreshments of bread, butter and milk — of rum and gin. He knew scarce the first so seldom did he see these articles, and the latter he wanted for himself exclusively." They came to the sight of Phoenix. "Here were the Onondagos collected in large numbers — some fishing — some smoaking in their huts — others from time to time arriving and passing us in their bark canoes, with much art con structed — so light and easily manageable that a squaw with her little daughter gained on us, and left us soon behind by her velocity." When they returned he said: "We arrived at three river point about seven, discharged Mr. Barker, and pitched our tent in the vicinity of his house, crowded with travellers from several bateaux and canoes, which tarried there since yesterday." They made good speed up Oneida river. "Fort Brewerton, which we reached at four in the afternoon, was to us a delightful sight. Capt. Bingham was from home on the Salmon-fishery, and Simonds with the women on a visit to the Island. His eldest daughter, nevertheless! a smart young girl, prepared us a good supper — a baas of two pound — a. dish with stewed eel, with fresh bread and butter. ' ' James Cockburn also passed through here in 1792, and the following ex tracts are from his journal as a surveyor: "Fort Brewington is now in ruins, It "was a square without bastions, mounting four guns, and commanded the river .... There are two islands in the lake, . the one about thirty, the other PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 223 about twenty acres. On the westernmost lives a Frenchman and his family. . . . About eight miles from Fort Brewington is a fine spring, which is very un common in this country There is one rapid in this (river) which is called Kequanderaga; the passage is not difficult. About four miles from Three Rivers is a creek called Peter Gaats At Three River Point Barker lives on the Military Tract Three miles below this is a rapid called Three River Rift and very dangerous for bateaux in low water. The passage thence to Oswego or Onondaga Falls is pretty good The British had a saw-mill here, and a fort to protect the portage." The Duke de Rochefoucauld-Liancourt was in America for three years, beginning in 1795. In that year he came to Lake Ontario from Pennsylvania, and on the lake found the British naval cutter Onondaga, of eighty tons, pierced for twelve six-pounders, but carrying only six in time of peace. He went to the British fort at Oswego in July, where they despised the Yankees, and then ascended Oswego river with Mr. Van Allen. It was hard work. Mr- Van Verberg had a house below the falls. Wm. Shorten was at that place. His inn had but one room for all lodgers and it was full. He fed guests on salt pork and rum. Above the falls the whole party, with the family, slept in a twelve foot room. This was Penier's house. There were traces of a French (English) fort on the right bank. Between there and Three River Point not a tree had been cut. Three Rivers was an interesting place. "The time cannot be distant when this spot, where at present stands no building but an inn, will become the site of an inportant town. As yet it is one of the most unhealthy spots in a country by no means remarkable for salubrity." The inn was Squire Bingham's. "Every one in the house was ill. The landlord, another 'Squire, was just recovering from the ague, but his wife was still indisposed with it, and in bed. His children and the servants were in the same condition." The duke was persuaded to give some medicine to a young woman who was very ill, though he knew little about it, but his success was greater than the doctor's. "The spot on which the inn stands, belongs to Squire Bingham, who also possesses a few acres contiguous to the building, and a considerable quantity of land at some distance from it." The land was good but marshy, air bad, water abominable. They ascended the Oneida. "We stopped at Fort Brompton, at the en trance to the lake. This structure also is surrounded with palisades erected last year; it stands at the foot of an ancient entrenchment, constructed by the English during the American war, on an advantageous ground command ing the entrance to the lake. The work was thrown up in a zigzag figure, but from the remains no distinct idea can be formed how the cannon could be pointed to advantage." All military remains he said were of 1756 or 1776. Fancy, therefore, must wait for a later day before it could indulge in romantic flights. The owners of the house had gone to Rotterdam (Constantia) three days before. A girl of fourteen cared for the house and her little sick brother. ' ' We should have been obliged to content ourselves with a few small potatoes, 224 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY which we pulled up in the fields, if the Indians, — who were encamped on the opposite bank of the river, had not brought us a large pike, which they had caught in the morning with a harpoon." At Constantia he met with the Frenchman of Frenchman's island, but this has appeared in another chapter. In Clark's history he notes that Alexander Wilson, the celebrated ornith ologist, passed a miserable night in the village of Manlius, in November, 1804,. I "There, he says, he was obliged to sing nearly the whole night, to dseam^the melancholy groans of his disconsolate companion, who could scarcely make his way through the snow and mud. He spent a day here, collecting speci mens of birds and other information. " . . . . Wilson published a metrical account of this pedestrian journey, which began in Pennsylvania and included Nia gara and Oswego. Of the latter place he gave a graphic account, reaching it from Cayuga lake by river. The prosperous farmers and pleasure seekers at Cross lake may smile at his account of that pretty sheet of water, and this part of the trip follows: As morning dawned, our little skiff we trimmed, And through the misty flood with vigor skimmed; Now, gliding smooth, we hail with songs the morn; Now, down white boiling breakers headlong borne. Again enclosed the gray woods round us rise, We pass where Cross lake green and stagnant lies; And marked the snakes, amid the wat'ry way, With heads erect our dripping oars survey. Dead lie the lonely woods and silent shore, As Nature slept, and mankind were no more. How drear! how desolate to ear and eye! What awful solitudes around us lie ! Sad were his fate, too dreadfully severe, For life condemned to linger hopeless here ; From such lone thoughts of gloomy exiled wo, All human ties forever to forego; The heart shrinks back, dejected and dismayed, And owns that man for social joys was made. Yet still, whate 'er our doubtful hearts may say, Even Nature's self to habit will give way, And these vast solitudes, so deep and drear, As more frequented will become more dear. On yonder island, opening by degrees, Behold the blue smoke, mounting through the trees! There, by his fire, 'mid sheltering brush obscured, His bark canoe along the margin moored, With lank jet locks that half his face conceal, The Indian hunter eats his morning meal. Stakes rudely reared his little pot suspend, JAMES STREET, SYRACUSE. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 225 Amid the smoke his busy partners bend, Beyond, sly peeping, fearful to be seen , Two copper chubs their favorite shell-barks glean. Another night another hut supplies, In half an hour the crazy fabrics rise ; The roof with bark, the floor with spmce bespread, The stakes around with skins and venison clad; At our approach suspicion lours his eye, That scarce regards us gliding swiftly by. His life, how simple, and his wants how few: A blanket, leggins, rifle and canoe, Knife, hatchet, mockasins — not much beside, And all beyond him is empty pride. O'er these lone swamps the Muse impatient flies, Where mightier scenes and nobler prospects rise, Nor stops, in due rehearsal to detail Each roaring rapid and each adverse gale, What vagrant tribes, what islands meet our view, How down Oswego's foaming Falls we flew, Now plunging in, our sinking bark to save, Now headlong hurried -down, th' outrageous wave; Now through the deep still flood, with sounding oars, We swept, and hailed with songs the echoing shores. These had their pleasures, and perhaps their fears ; But terrors flee where dauntless courage steers. A thousand toils, a thousand dangers past, The long expected lake appears at last. Seen through the trees, like Ocean 's boundless blue, Huzza! huzza! Ontario is in view! In 1794 there was quite an alarm all along the frontier, and a distinguished party came to Onondaga to see to its defense. Two of the four were Baron Steuben and General Stephen Van Rensselaer. They ordered some block houses built. The former distinguished soldier did his last military service in this work and in reviewing some Onondaga milita, but he did something more. On the return the party stopped at John A. Shaeffer 's log tavern in Manlius, neither large nor convenient and yet full of strange noises that night. The Baron wanted to sleep and was furious. His greeting to the land lord next morning was not a blessing. He denounced the house in unmeasured terms. The astonished landlord could not say a word, but a woman was equal to the situation. She placed a new born child before the Baron and said: "Here is the cause of all the trouble and noise." He recovered his good humor, and the little Baron Steuben Shaeffer had not only a sounding name, but a deed of gift of two hundred and fifty acres in Oneida county. In the English edition (1815) of Chateaubriand's Recollections of Amer ica there is a note to "A Night among the Savages," implying that he had re- 226 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY served but little more. He said: "Almost all that follows is taken from the manuscript of my Travels in America, which perished together with several other incomplete works. Among them I had begun one, Les Tableaux de la Nature, which was the history of a savage tribe in Canada, moulded into a sort of romance Of all this work only a few detached leaves remain in my possession, and among them is Night which I now insert." This Night was among the Senecas. In another work he tells of his visit to Onondaga in 1791, when twenty-two years old. He was on his way from Albany to Niagara, with his Dutch interpreter, and arrived here late in the spring. The Syracuse Herald was fortunate in securing the record of his visit from a contributor, who obtained it from Mr. De Cost Smith. In a bookstore in Paris he chanced to see the rare volumes of Chateaubriand's travels here, and being of Onondaga birth, when he saw a chapter headed "Les Onon dagas, ' ' bought the books at once. Chateaubriand said : "We had arrived at the edge of the lake to which the Onondagas and Iroquois nation have given their name. Our horses had need of rest. With my Hollander I chose a suitable place for our camp. We found one in a gorge of the point where the river comes seething from the lake. This stream does not. run a hundred fathoms to the north in a direct line before bending to the east where it flows parallel to the shores of the lake beyond the'rocks which encircle the latter." In the bend of the river they built a bark hut, kindled a fire, placed the saddles for pillows, put bells on the horses and turned them loose. "From our hut we enjoyed ,a picturesque scene. Before us spread the rather narrow lake bordered with forests and rocks, while around us the river enveloped our peninsula, with its limpid green waters sweeping its banks with impet uosity. ' ' As it was four o 'clock on a May afternoon he took his gun and went look ing for game and flowers, without much luck. First he tried the river, then the lake. He saw a beautiful azalia, and chased a little owl. In a little valley he found an Indian hut, a thin cow, which some white men chased away, re placing her with their own fat animals. A young and widowed squaw soothed the poor creature, and Chateaubriand tried to be friends with both, with moderate success. "On the morrow I went with my guide to visit the principal Sachem of the Onondagas, whose village was not far distant. We arrived about 10 o'clock in the morning. I was soon surrounded by a crowd of young savages, who accosted me in their own language, mixed with English phrases and a few words of French, making a great noise, and appearing pleased." They inspected his gun thoroughly. "The Sachem of the Onondagas was an old Iroquois." He had "great mutilated ears, a bead nose-ornament, face streaked with various colors, a little tuft of hair on the crown of his head, blue tunic, mantle of skin, belt of hide with a knife and war club, arms tatooed, moccasins on the feet, belt or chaplet of porcelain (wampum) in the hand. He received me well and made me sit on his mat." PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 227 He spoke English and understood French; in fact was sorry the French had lost Canada. He had tried to help the widow, but without success, and thought Indian prospects rather poor." After partaking of a repast served by the squaws we took our departure. On the day after this visit to the Onon daga chief I continued my journey. This old chief had been at the fall of Quebec, and was present at the death of General Wolf, and I, stepping from the hut of a savage, had but recently escaped from the palace of Versailles and had just dined with Washington." CHAPTER XXII. MITITARY organizations. When General Washington took command of the American army, July 4, 1775, it consisted of fourteen thousand five hundred men, assembled at Cam bridge, Massachusetts. It came from several colonies, but he "hoped that all Distinctions of Colonies will be laid aside, so that one and the same spirit may animate the whole." In October, 1776, provision was made for a Contin ental army proportioned to states according to their population. The levy on the different states reads curiously now. Thus Massachusetts and Virginia furnished fifteen regiments each, Pennsylvania twelve, Maryland and Connec ticut eight each, New York four. These were designated as the New York line, Pennsylvania line, etc., as in the published muster rolls. Each state quota formed a body commanded by local officers, and cared for by Congress and its own state. At the same time Congress provided a simple style of clothing. Each officer and soldier that year was to receive "two linen hunting shirts, two pair of overalls, a leather or woolen waistcoat with sleeves, one pair of breeches, a hat or leather cap, two shirts, two pair of hose, and two pair of shoes." March 23, 1779, Congress authorized Washington to fix and prescribe the uniform. The army was to have "woolen overalls for winter and linen for summer." Groups of states had different facings. Thus New York and New Jersey had blue faced with buff, buttons and linings white. Four states had white facings, three red, and three blue. Artillery and artillery artificers had blue faced with scarlet, scarlet linings, yellow buttons and yellow bound hats, coats edged with narrow lace or tape, and button holes bound with the same. Light dragoons had the whole suit blue, faced with white, and with white buttons and linings. Most of these were worn by Onondaga pensioners. Washington also had a life guard selected by himself. He wanted' men of good character, good height, "clean and spruce." This was in March, 1776, and one hundred and eighty men were selected. The next year Washington gave further directions to Captain Gibbs. "If blue and buff can be had, I should prefer that uniform, as it is the one I wear myself. I shall get men from five feet nine inches to five feet ten inches for the Guard ; for such sized men, there- 228 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY fore, make your clothing. You may get a small round hat, or a cocked hat, as you please." The life guard at one time had two hundred and fifty men, all native born. The question of uniforms was a serious one in border warfare. Thus three officers at Sorel, December 2, 1778, represented to Governor Haldimand, of Canada, "the danger to the loyalists of wearing the clothing in store (blue faced with white) as it is the same as the uniform of some of the enemy's troops, and asks to be supplied with red." It thus appears that many of the Americans wore blue before it was the regulation uniform. A famous partisan corps, often in Onondaga in the Revolution, was the Royal Yorkers or Royal Greens. They are said to have worn green coats at the battle of Oriskany. De Peyster conjectures that "At first it was deter mined to uniform the Provincial corps in green, and some were originally clothed in this color, but had it changed; others, exceptions to the rule, re tained it to the end of the war." However, this may be, a uniform of this famous company is preserved at Cornwall, Canada. "The coat is of scarlet cloth, with blue facings and gold lace, a small epaulette of gold fringe on each shoulder. The buttons are gilt, with the letters and word 'K. R. R., New York,' stamped on them. The dress waistcoat is scarlet, with gilt buttons. The undress waistcoat and breeches are of white cloth. The suit requires only the cocked hat, stockings, boots or buskled shoes, and crimson sash to be complete," The proper title was the King's Royal Regiment of New York, and six companies ascended the Oswego and Oneida rivers with St. Leger. Joseph Brant was with this party, in his war paint, but an account of him written in 1782, described his holiday garb. "He was a likely fellow, of a fierce aspect — tall and rather spare — well spoken, and apparently about thirty years of age. He wore moccasins, elegantly trimmed with beads, leggings and breech-cloth of superfine blue, short green coat, with two silver epauletes and a small laced round hat. By his side hung an elegant silver mounted cut lass, and his blanket of blue cloth, purposely dropped in the chair on which he sat, to display his epauletes, was gorgeously decorated with a border of red. ' ' He was too sensible to wear such a costume in the wilds of Onondaga. Green was a favorite color with the American militia of a century ago. A rifle company organized at Manlius, September 19, 1809, by Captain Charles Mosely, wore green rifle frocks and trousers, with yellow fringe, black gaiters, round black hats with yellow buttons, black loops and short green feathers. Artillery and cavalry usually wore blue, elaborately trimmed. In the actual warfare of 1812 general rules applied to New York troops. Light infantry were to wear dark blue coats with white linings, scarlet facings, collars and cuffs, white underclothes, and buttons of white or yellow metal. Rifle com panies had blue roundabouts or sailor coats without fringe, but with yellow buttons and laced button holes, blue trousers with yellow cord edging, boots or black gaiters, and a helmet. Some artillerists were to "uniform in long dark Blue Coats on the model of those worn by the Artillerists of the United States, with scarlet linings, facings, collars and cuffs; yellow Buttons, white PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 229 under-clothes, and cocked hats, with the cockade of the Artillerists of the United States." The writer remembers well the uniform of a rifle company of Skaneateles and Marcellus, which delighted his eyes seventy years ago. Greyish blue coats with white trousers were encircled by a red sash, and the tall hat had a brass plate supporting a towering crimson plume. A little later came an artillery company in Spafford with hunting shirts. The rank and file had these of white with red fringe and bore swords. The artillerists had black frocks and trousers trimmed with red. All wore pointed caps with red and white pompon. With the Mexican war military uniforms began to follow the army fashion, though some old organizations adhered to early traditions. In the "floodwood" companies the captain usually wore a military costume. The privates armed and dressed as they pleased. In fact they drilled much in the same way. Seventy years ago there was an officers' driU of two consecutive days, in which they were supposed to learn enough to give all necessary instruction in the one day's company drill. Then came the great day of all the year, the general training day. Fourth of July was nowhere alongside of this. Every company of the regiment must appear for inspection, and broomsticks and shotguns would not pass muster. "Ah! then and there was hurrying to and fro" for the needful equipment. Drums beat, and fifes played, and plumes and banners waved. Ambitious youths wore unaccustomed clothes and weapons, and pranced on unaccustomed steeds, happy if they could keep their seats. All the pomp and panoply of war appeared without its cruel sights. There was the expected peddler, and the wonderful gingerbread, and the sweet cider not yet deemed hurtful. There was the grand outburst of drums and fife, heard once a year when the colors were presented and returned. Curiously enough the United States flag had no place in the parade. Without formal treatment a few incidents may be given from Onondaga's military history. In 1791, while stfll a part of Herkimer county, a number of Onondaga men received commissions in Major Abraham Hardenburgh 's bat talion, General Veeder's brigade. Moses De Witt, Benjamin Dey and Ros- well Franklin were captains, and Hezekiah Olcott and Josiah Buck were among the lieutenants. There was some organization even earlier. In 1789 that part of Montgomery county lying west of the old line of property, and south of Wood creek, Oneida lake and Onondaga (Oneida) river, east of the line of cession to Massachusetts, and north of the town of Chemung and lands purchased of the Oneidas in 1785, was organized into a battalion dis trict. Abraham Hardenburgh was major, John Hardenburgh and John Thorn ton captains, and Moses De Witt and Benjamin Dey lieutenants. Two regiments were formed in this district in 1791. The one under Lieu tenant Colonel Timothy Tuttle had some Onondaga officers, as Ebenezer But ler, Caleb Merrell and others. In 1792, in one battalion of Herkimer county, Moses De Witt and Asa Danforth were majors ; Hezekiah Olcott was captain of one company; Jeremiah Gould lieutenant, Comfort Tyler ensign. In another Asa Danforth, Jr., was captain, Orris Curtis lieutenant, and James 230 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Clarke ensign. Josiah Buck was also a captain. In 1793 the captains were Jeremiah Gould, James Clarke and Samuel Forman; the lieutenants Comfort Tyler, Samuel Jerome, James Greene, John Lamb and Elijah Phillips. In 1794 the battalion commanded by Danforth and De Witt was divided, and John Lincklaen was made major. Samuel S. Forman, James Greene and Samuel Persons were captains. In April, 1795, Othniel Taylor was com mander of a brigade in the counties of Onondaga and Ontario. The same year -Walter D. Nichols was appointed captain of a troop of horse, formed from the battalions of Majors Hardenburgh and Danforth. There was much war like feeling at that time. In 1796 Asa Danforth 's regiment included Hannibal, Lysander, Cicero, Manlius, Pompey, Fabius, Solon, Cincinnatus, Tully, Homer, Virgil, Camillus, Sempronius, Locke, Dryden and the Onondaga reservation. Hezekiah Olcott and Josiah Buck were majors. In 1798 a brigade was formed of Onondaga and the north part of Chenango, with Walter D. Nichols as inspector and brigade major. In that year Jeremiah Gould became major and Nehemiah Earll captain. Among others Ephraim Webster, then first appeared as lieu tenant, becoming captain in 1801. . David Williams was . also a captain, and a major later. That year Edward Paine became brigadier general and Heze kiah Olcott commanded a regiment. He was the first town clerk of Pompey. In 1800 Winston Day, first merchant in Skaneateles, was paymaster of Ol cott 's regiment, and Elijah Rust was captain of a new company. Thaddeus M. Wood also appeared as captain of a troop of horse. In 1801 there were four regiments in Onondaga county. Lieutenant Colonel Jeremiah Gould commanded one of six companies, with a company of light infantry. Elijah Phillips commanded the second, with six companies and one of light infantry. Robert Earll was in command of the third, with seven companies. The fourth was commanded by Moses Hopkins, with eight companies. This included the south part of the county and a portion of Cortland. In 1802 Captain Samuel Sherwood formed a company of artillery in General Danforth 's brigade. Robert Earll was made brigadier general in 1804, and a separate batallion was formed in that year for that part of Lieutenant Colonel James Knapp 's regiment which was in the town of Fabius. Captains Coleman J. Keeler, Israel Smith and Jonathan Browned at this time had Onondaga troops of horse, belonging to the second squadron of cavalry, fifth division of militia. Another regiment was formed in 1807, and Captain Daniel Mulholland organized a battery, attached to Lieutenant Colonel Kirkland's artillery regi ment. In 1809 Captain Silvanus Towsley had a company of horse artillery. That year a battalion was set off from the regiment in the towns of Camillus, Lysander and Hannibal. Onondaga was formed into one brigade, with Isaac Hall as brigadier general, and the regiments were newly arranged. There were then three companies in Pompey. Cortland county was set off for another brigade. In the new arrangement Onondaga had at first but two regiments, increased to three and a battalion in 1810, and to five regiments in 1811. These included artillery and some grenadier companies. Lieutenant PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 231 Colonel Thaddeus M. Wood commanded one regiment. He was fond of mili tary display. In 1812 six Onondaga regiments formed the Twenty-seventh brigade of infantry under Major Charles Moseley, succeeded by John EUis, of Onondaga. Major D. Mulholland commanded the Twelfth regiment; Lieutenant Colonel Jacob Chandler the Sixteenth; Lieutenant Colonel Jacob Johnson the Sixty- second; Christopher Clark the Ninety-eighth; Thaddeus M. Wood the One Hundred and Forty-seventh, and Warren Hecox the One Hundred and Fifty- ninth. The regiments had not been numbered before. In 1811 the commander- in-chief proposed to organize a battalion of riflemen in this brigade, there being many expert marksmen here. Accordingly one was formed in 1812 under Captain Charles Moseley. Hostilities seemed certain, and it was ordered, April 2, 1812, that "The detachments from Onondaga, Madison and Cortlandt Counties will, upon their arrival at Oswego, be formed into one corps, to be commanded by a field officer whom the Commander in Chief will assign for that purpose. ' ' Follow ing the declaration of war, a dispatch addressed to Brigadier General John Ellis, June 23, 1812, said: "You will therefore be vigilant and attentive to the safety of the frontier of Onondaga. You are by this letter authorized to order out Major Moseley 's battalion of riflemen (two companies), Capt. Mulholland 's company of artillery, or any other part of the volunteers or detached troops of your brigade, to reinforce the Oswego detachments, upon the requisition of the Commandant of that post." During this war there came into existence many companies of Silver Greys, or exempts, organized for home defense. They were made up of elderly men and boys. The Aurelius Silver Greys were organized September 16, 1812. Some persons in Marcellus formed such a company. The governor "does hereby organiz.e the said association as a company of Infantry, and brevets and assigns Timothy Copp to be the Captain ; Levi Appleby to be the Lieu tenant, and David Widard to be the Ensign of the said Company." Another company of exempts was formed in Fabius the next year. The Governor ' ' brevets and assigns Nathaniel Bacon as Captain ; Elisha Fox as Lieutenant, and Jeremiah Smith as Ensign." Another company was organized in Cam illus, November 13, 1812, and the Governor made them a "company of Infantry, and brevets and -assigns Squire Manro [Munro] as Captain, Moses Rogers as First Lieutenant, Isaac Lindsay as Second Lieutenant and Nichobod Lam- berson as Ensign of said Co. ' ' Some special orders were given in 1813. August 28 : The artillery com panies of Onondaga and Cortlandt counties would not rendezvous for the present, but were to be ready to march. September 4: The militia of Onon daga and some other counties were ordered to enter the service of the United States, for the defence of the border, September 14, at 10 A. M. The rendez vous of the Onondaga- troops was to be selected by the commander of the- Twenty-seventh infantry brigade. Regarding services at Oswego, in 1812, following the declaration of war, 232 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY J. V. H. Clark said: "The following July, Col. George Fleming, of Cayuga, took the command, having under him nine companies of militia, and made some movements towards repairing the works, which amounted to nothing. At this time Charles B. Bristol, of Manlius, was a large army contractor, and furnished the troops at Oswego and other posts with provisions. Mr. McNair, of Oswego, was his commissary. Major Charles Moseley, Captains C. B. Bristol and Leonard Kellogg, of the riflemen, and Captain Mulholland, of the artillery, with Lieutenants Melancthon Smith, William Gardner, Seth Gros- venor and Hezekiah Ketchum, of the riflemen, and Lieutenants John Dela- mater and Robert Cummings, of the artillery, all of Manlius and Pompey, were ordered to Oswego, and there spent the greater part of the season till the close of the campaign. Several companies were present from other parts of the county, viz: Captain John Sprague of Pompey, Captains Forbes and Mead from Onondaga, Captain Turner from Marcellus, who died during the summer, and Captains Davidson and Dodge from Madison County. These were mostly volunteers of independent companies, some of whom volunteered for a year, were caUed to Queenstown, and participated in the battle there, on the 11th of October. In the month of November, Col. Fleming left for home, and the command devolved upon Col. Cleveland, of Madison County, who had just arrived with a re-enforcement of militia. The terms of service of the militia who had spent the summer, expired the 1st of January, 1813, upon which they returned home. ' ' In 1812 a new feature appeared, the Rev. Dirck Lansing being appointed chaplain in Col. Thaddeus M. Wood's regiment. They were good neighbors, however. In 1814 the Rev. Levi. Parsons of Marcellus, was made chaplain in Col. Warren Hecox's regiment, almost as curious a conjunction. Both chaplains were Presbyterian ministers. It should have been said above that Captain Asa Weds' Onondaga company first occupied Oswego in 1812. In 1809 he was lieutenant in Captain Robert Swartwout's company, the latter being made brigadier quartermaster general that year. Some well known names appear in 1814, as David Munro, captain, and James L. Vorhees, ensign in the Eighteenth regiment ; Oliver Teall, lieutenant in the One Hundred and Forty-seventh, and Dr. Gordon Needham, adjutant in Major Moseley 's rifle batallion. Cyrus Johnson was also captain of the second squadron in the Eighth regiment of cavalry. In 1815 the rifle battalion was commanded by Major Charles B. Bristol, with Samuel L. Edwards as quartermaster. Amos P. Granger became a cap tain of light infantry, and in the One Hundred and Fifty-ninth, Seth Hall of Skaneateles was made a captain. Six companies of grenadiers were in the various regiments. In 1816 Michael Mead was commander of the One Hundred and Forty- seventh regiment, and Gabriel Tappen colonel of the Sixteenth, with Charles H. Toll as quartermaster and Seth Warner as a captain. Truman Adams was the major. Norris Case was lieutenant colonel of the Ninty-eighth, and Azel St. John commanded the Sixty-second. The One Hundred and Seventy-second regiment was also organized from the Sixteenth, James Adams being colonel. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 233 A batallion was formed from the One Hundred and Forty-seventh, Major John G. Forbes being in command. In 1817 Samuel Baker, of Pompey Hill, was paymaster of the Ninety- eighth regiment. Stephen W. Baldwin of Baldwinsville, whose portrait hangs in the public library of Syracuse, was a captain quartermaster, and James L. Voorhees had become a captain. The One Hundred and Seventy-sixth regiment was organized under Colonel John G. Forbes. Dr. William Taylor was surgeon's mate in this, and Reuben H. Bangs was a lieutenant. Oliver Teall now became a captain. Nehemiah H. Earll was brigade major and in spector of the Twenty-seventh brigade. In 1818 a new brigade of infantry was formed in Oswego county and part of Onondaga, denominated the Forty-eighth brigade of infantry. Ste phen Tappen was colonel of the One Hundred and Seventy-second, and John Munro major in the Sixteenth. David Williams became colonel of the Sixty- second, and Amos P. Granger major in the One Hundred and Seventy-sixth. William A. Cook was brigade major and inspector. The Rev. William A. Clark was chaplain of the One Hundred and Seventy-sixth, and the Rev. Ezekiel G. Geer was chaplain of the One Hundred and Forty-seventh. In 1819 the Rev. Amos Pardee was made chaplain of the One Hundred and Fif ty-ninth. All three were Episcopal ministers. Lyman Cook became colonel of the One Hundred and Fifty-ninth in 1818, and James Hall, a carriage maker of Skaneateles, captain in the same. He was always afterwards familiarly known as "Captain Jim." B. Davis Noxon, later an eminent law yer, was made an ensign. In the Ninety-eighth Asa Weds became colonel, and John Sprague major. Salmon Thayer was lieutenant colonel of the One Hundred and Forty-seventh. In several regiments this was the highest of fice. The later ones had colonels. At this time the Twenty-seventh and Forty-eighth brigades were united as the Eighteenth division under Major General John Ellis. In 1819 Charles H. Toll was made adjutant of the Sixteenth regiment, with John McHarrie, son of a Baldwinsville pioneer, as paymaster. Richard Lusk and John Inglesbee were made captains. In the same regiment James R. and Grove Lawrence were made ensigns. Both were afterward notable men. Levi Mason was now colonel of the One Hundred and Fifty-ninth. John Sprague was lieutenant colonel of the Ninety-eighth. Thaddeus M. Wood was brigadier general of the Twenty-seventh brigade, and Alvan Marsh, judge advocate. In the Eighteenth division of infantry Henry Seymour, father of Gov. Seymour, was division inspector, and Amos P. Granger, always prominent in Syracuse, was a quartermaster. Jabish Castle commanded the Ninety-eighth, Garret Van Hoesen, Jr., the Sixty-second, and Elijah Phillips was major of the One Hundred and Seventy-sixth. In 1820 Dorastus Lawrence became colonel of the One Hundred and Fif ty-ninth. Dr. Judah B. Hopkins, grandfather of Judge Edward T. Bartlett, was surgeon's mate. Stephen Horton, a Skaneateles merchant, was a new captain. Dr. Samuel Porter, of the same place, became hospital surgeon of the Eighteenth division, and Thaddeus M. Wood was made major general of 234 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY the Eighteenth division, General Ellis having died. Phineas Hutchins was now colonel of the Sixty-second, Amos P. Granger of the One Hundred and Forty-seventh, and Ralph R. Phelps of the One Hundred and Seventy-sixth. In the One Hundred and Forty-seventh, B. Davis Noxon, Orrin Hutchinson and John Raynor were now captains. Thomas Wheeler was lieutenant colonel in the same. Samuel Forman was also a lieutenant, and Orrin Tyler ensign. In 1821 Stephen W. Baldwin was captain of a light infantry company at Baldwinsville, and Richard Smith lieutenant. Jabish Castle became briga dier general of the Twenty-seventh brigade, John Sprague colonel of the Ninety-eighth, John Monro of the Sixteenth, John Butler of the One Hundred and Seventy-second, and Salmon Thayer of the One Hundred and Seventy- sixth, (really One Hundred and Forty-seventh). In the One Hundred and Fifty-ninth, Freeborn G. Jewett, in later years Judge of Court of Appeals, was captain of a rifle company. In the Sixteenth regiment Squire M. Brown of Elbridge, was captain of riflemen, and James Wells, of Baldwinsville, was captain of light infantry. In 1822 Lauren Hotchkiss was lieutenant colonel of the Sixty-second, and there were five companies forming the Fifteenth regiment of artidery in Madi son county. In this year the minutes of the Council of Appointment closed. They preserve many names not mentioned above. In succeeding years the One Hundred and Fifty-ninth had among its col onels, Samuel C. Wheadon, Augustus Fowler and Alford Lamb, all of Skanea teles- Payn Bigelow at one time held the same office at Baldwinsville, hav ing been appointed colonel of the Sixteenth in 1838, but the military spirit was on the decline and the old system passed away. Bruce 's Memorial History of Syracuse, as well as Clark, gives July 4, 1820, as the first celebration of Independence Day in Syracuse, but in Cheney's Reminiscences it is placed in 1824, on Monday, July 5, and an account is there quoted, taken from the Syracuse Gazette of July 7, then published by Mr. H. W. Durnford. The celebrations differed. The later account follows, in a thoroughly Fourth of July style : "At the morn's early dawn the day was ushered in by the thunder of can non bursting upon the stillness of the hour ; and at sunrise a National Salute was fired from Prospect Hill, on the north side of the village. As the spiring columns of the cannon's smoke disappeared the star spangled banner of our country was then seen floating majestically in the air, from the top of a tower ing staff erected on the summit of this hill for the occasion. At about twelve o'clock, a procession was formed in front of Mr. Williston's Hotel, under the direction of Col. A. P. Granger, marshal of the day. An escort, consisting of Capt. Rossiter's company of Light Horse, an Artillery Company under the command of Lieut. J. D. Rose, and Capt. H. W. Durnford 's company of Riflemen, with their music swelling and banners flying, preceded the proces sion which moved to the new meeting house — (the old Baptist Church). Here the usual exercises took place, and an oration was pronounced by J. R. Sutermeister, Esq., which was received by the large assembly with a PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 235 universal burst of approbation. The procession then formed again and moved through the village to the summit of Prospect Hill, where under a bower a numerous company partook of a cold collation prepared by Mr. Williston — (landlord of the Mansion House). "It was a truly interesting sight to see among our fellow citizens who participated in the festivities of this day, about thirty of the remnant of that gallant band of patriots who fought in the revolution. These spared monu ments of our country's boast honored the company with their presence through out the day, giving a zest to the festivities rarely to be found in common celebrations of this National Anniversary." Mr. Cheney added: "The principal object of attraction on that day was the rifle company, composed of the young men of the county, and com manded by H. W. Durnford, Lieutenant James H. Luther, and Orderly Zophar H. Adams. They were dressed in red Scotch plaid frocks and pants, trimmed on the bottom and sides with a bright red fringe. They wore leather caps with long red feathers, and carried the long Indian rifles, with powder horns and bullet pouches. As they marched through the streets they presented a gay and imposing appearance. Prospect Hill was full forty feet higher than at present (1857). The trees and bushes were removed from its sum mit for the purpose of the celebration." It is said that in 1843 there was no military organization in Syracuse, so that ex-President John Qunicy Adams was escorted from Auburn by the Auburn Guards, one of the finest companies of that day. Preliminary steps were taken July 31, 1843, to supply this lack, and the famous Syracuse Citi zens' Corps was organized September 4, 1843, with Isaac T. Minard as cap tain, and Elijah T. Hayden as first lieutenant. It was attached to the One Hundred and Forty-seventh regiment. October 14, the Germans organized the Syracuse La Fayette Grenadier Guard, with Jacob Pfohl captain, and Adam Listman, first lieutenant. It has been claimed that this company has the older date ; that of February 22, 1843, with John Graff as captain. The uniform in 1844 was a dark blue dress coat and trousers with red trimmings ; a tall bearskin cap with brass shield, with white cord caught up at the sides and drooping under the chin ; white- feather with red at the top. The company was mustered in after the Citizens' Corps, and had likewise a high reputation. The National Guard, an Irish company, was organized July 25, 1850. Edward Prendergast was captain, and William S. Thompson first lieutenant. July 29, 1851, the Fifty-first. regiment was formed, the older arrangement hav ing been abandoned. Among the regimental officers were Origen Vanderburg colonel, Charles C. Richardson lieutenant colonel, and Henry P. Adams major. Captains I. T. Minard, Jacob Pfohl, Edwin R. Prendergast and Lewis Springer were some of the company officers. The first regular encampment of the Fifty-first was held October, 1851, near the Messina Springs road, back of the late Charles B. Sedgwick's house, and was called Camp Peck, after Major Peck. October 16, 1852, the regi ment was called out to meet General Winfield Scott, then visiting Syracuse. 236 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY January 5, of that year, the Onondaga Light Guard was organized, with Chand ler as captain. He was succeeded in July by Francis P. Minier. April 7, the Syracuse Light Dragoons organized, with Alfred Hovey as captain. Camp Onondaga was ordered for September 22 — 26, 1853, on Col. John son's farm, north of West Onondaga street, known later as the Kellogg tract. A good picture is preserved of this camp, there being a large gathering. Governor Horatio Seymour reviewed the fine companies there assembled. Those belonging to the Fifty-first regiment were the Citizens ' Corps, Grenadier Guard, National Guard, Onondaga Light Guard, Washington Artillery and Light Dragoons. Other companies were the Oswego Guard, Bruce Guard, Cleveland (Ohio) Light Artillery, Rochester City Dragoons, Rochester Union Grays, Rochester Union Guard, Rochester Grenadiers, Rochester City Corps, Canaseraga Light Infantry, Truxton Light Guard, Virgil Guard, and Utica Citizens ' Corps ; eighteen companies in all. That year Charles C. Richardson was elected colonel of the Fifty-first; Isaac T. Minard lieutenant colonel, and Jacob Pfohl major. In 1854 I. T. Minard was colonel, and a small encampment was held at Baldwinsvile in the fall. Strict discipline was maintained and thorough work was doue. In 1855, Company F was formed on Pompey Hill as the Pompey Guard. A German company was organized in 1857 as the Hawley Guard. J. Dean Hawley became major in 1858, and Dr. Roger W. Pease adjutant. The Syra cuse Grays were also organized, and in that year an armory was built, which was dedicated September 16, 1859. The camp was formed at Onondaga Val ley September 9, 1858. In 1860 a new company appeared, called the Munroe Cadets, of which Gustavus Sniper was captain. The Zouaves appeared September 24 of that year. The stirring scenes of civil war in 1861 drew attention from home organi zations, and volunteers from their ranks greatly weakened them. Their serr vices as a body were offered, but the general plans for active operations pre vented acceptance. The honorable record made by those in the field required separate consideration, but a few more words may be said of the reserve forces at home. Changed conditions required a readjustment. The Twenty-fourth bri gade now comprised Onondaga and Oswego counties, and of this John A. Green, Jr., became brigadier general. In July, 1861, J. D. Hawley was colonel of the Fifty-first regiment, John Schnauber lieutenant colonel, and Peter Ohneth major. Since then our military companies have been mainly confined to cities, with occasional exceptions for very brief periods. The re-organization was effected in June, 1863, and Gustavus Sniper became lieu tenant colonel. Four new companies were formed in July. These were the Union and Seymour Guards, Alvord Corps and Woodruff Zouaves. July 14, 1863, Col. Hawley was ordered to have the regiment in readiness to aid in quelling the New York riots. It went to Binghamton on the 17th, but was ordered back next day. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 237 The Woodruff Zouaves soon became the Westcott Zouaves, the Alvord Corps the Salina Guard, the Grenadier the Comstock Guard. In 1869 Gus tavus Sniper became colonel, vice J. D. Hawley resigned. In 1870 the Union Guard became the Bennett Guard, and the Comstock Guard was again the La Fayette Grenadier Guard. A company formed in Liverpool in 1871 was equipped as the Cornue Guard in 1873. James Randall was colonel of the regiment in 1871. The armory was burned and the military records were destroyed in 1873, but a new armory soon rose, and was dedicated February 20, 1876. In 1875 Nicholas Grumbach became colonel of the Fifty-first, but it was re-organized in 1877, with twenty-two commissioned officers and eighty-six non-commissioned. Col. Gale was now in command, vice Grumbach resigned. Rev. H. R. Lockwood was chaplain. Among the captains were R. M. Beecher, T. M. Barber, and Henry J. Knapp, captain of a new company at Fayette ville. The Washington Guards became the Price Cadets. In 1865 a battalion of cavalry had been attached to the Twenty-fourth brigade, and this was con solidated in 1876 into one company under command of Michael Auer. In 1882 this was re-organized as Battery A. W. A. Butler was colonel in 1879. General J. D. Hawley resigned the Seventh brigade, and Dwight H. Bruce succeeded till his resignation in 1884. The regiment was disbanded January 23, 1882. Out of the remains of this regi ment there came forth the Fortieth Separate company, Edson J. Stearns, cap tain; Forty-first Separate company, W. B. Randall captain; Forty-second Separate company, Theodore M. Barber captain. The latter was disbanded Feb. 15, 1883, at the end of their term of service. • In 1907 John B. Tuck be came captain of the Forty-first. Several independent -companies have been prominent in Syracuse. The Syracuse Cadets were organized in 1843, with Timothy Teall as Captain. Their notable act was in suppressing a small riot soon after. The Greenway Guards were organized as an Independent Rifle Company in 1869. In July they became the Price Independent Rifle Company; in March, 1870, the Independent Zouaves ; August 20, the Greenway Guards. An drew Mahl was the first captain. The Central City Veterans were made up of G. A. R. men of Lilly Post, and were organized in 1873 by Gustavus Sniper, but not equipped till 1876. Continental uniform. The Sumner Corps was organized August 7, 1871, and called after General Sumner, under Theodore M. Barber as captain. It was an outgrowth of the old Citizens' Corps, and was attached, August 16, 1877, to the Fifty-first regi ment as Company G. At the disbanding of the regiment it continued as the Forty-second Separate company till its time expired. Col. Wm. H. Verbeck, of St. John's Military School, has been for some years conspicuous in military affairs, being for a time captain of the Forty-first. Troop D was organized in Syracuse quite recently. In 1907 Lieutenant Howard K. Brown succeeded Captain Barton Cruikshank in command. Every member is a qualified marksman. 238 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Beside a rifle company already described in the early days of the One Hundred and Fifty-ninth, that regiment had two fine light infantry companies toward its end. One of these was the Skaneateles Guards, cadet gray uni form, flint lock muskets and knapsacks. This was commanded and admirably drilled by Capt. Fowler. The other was the Marcellus Grays, differing only in darker clothes. St. John's Military School, Manlius, stands high in its line, and always has an army officer on its staff. Its well drilled cadets are a familiar and welcome sight in the holiday parades of Syracuse, Colonel Verbeck taking great interest in city affairs of this kind. It may be added that many fra ternal organizations, whose objects are. benevolent and social rather than martial, are as well drilled in evolutions as military companies. There is usually a United States recruiting station in Syracuse, both for the army and navy, and many men are obtained there for the service. The old State Armory, after thirty years service, was removed, and on its site a new and more convenient one was built, and completed early in 1908. The Onondaga Centennial addresses were made in the old building, and many interesting events occurred in it. President Grant once made a brief address there. In January, 1908, a very important step was taken in assimilating the organization of the State National Guard to that of the United States army. This was proposed by the U. S. Government as being more effective in case of war, and readily gained the approval of the State. CHAPTER XXIII. ROADS AND TRAILS. Aside from lakes and rivers the early routes in our forest land were mere footpaths through the woods, leading in the easiest way to the desired destina tion. No pains were taken to make these. A marshy place, a fallen tree, simply caused a detour. In many places there was little effort to keep the trail. In a broad valley it was sufficient to follow its course, the eternal hills clearly defining the general route. When Indian towns changed their sites the traiis changed also. There was no law compelling their maintenance. They were made and kept distinct by human feet. When the feet ceased to pass the trail was obliterated. It is evident, of course, that this happened in many cases. There were groups of Indian forts in Elbridge, Lysander, Van Buren and Pompey, all hav ing their own trails, of which no one claims to know a trace now. They soon disappeared when no longer used. They were not as distinctly marked as many have supposed. The Indian's bare foot or light moccasin made no great impression. Our modern ideas are of paths trod almost as much by the white man as the Indian, trails along which horses trod and cattle were PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 239 driven. We forget that horses traversed Onondaga county from east to west in 1677, now two hundred and thirty years ago, and were frequently here after ward. Bartram came here from Pennsylvania on horseback in 1743. Spangen berg 's party followed the same route on horseback two years later. The Onondagas used horses themselves. When they went to a council at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1744, most of the women and children were on horses. The trails they followed thus assumed a new character. When the historic towns of the Onondagas were in the southern«and cen tral parts of Pompey, and the homes of the Oneidas were high on the hills in Fenner and about Perryville and Munnsville, the trails conformed to the situation. In the first recorded visit of the Dutch to the Oneidas, in 1634, we find that the trail left the Mohawk east of Canajoharie, and went direct westward over the hills to Oneida on the high hillside. This was the general direction sixty years later, as shown by maps. When the Oneidas came to the lower lands the trail changed. Thus it was in Onondaga and everywhere else. One early trail came to Onondaga from the east, crossing Indian hill, two miles south of Manlius. Thence a trail led to Brewerton, and another to the salt springs of Onondaga lake. A third went due west to the Cayugas, probably near Skaneateles and Owasco lakes, as in later days. The removal to Butternut creek, in 1681, did not materially change this, and the subse quent removal to Onondaga valley, forty years later, did not affect it at all. Early travelers often speak of the blackened palisades of the old town. This later trail, affected by Oneida changes of sites in recent days entered Onon daga county at the Deep Spring. In 1750 Onondaga was about a mile south of the site of Onondaga Valley, and the trail came from the southwest, partly from the old town, and partly from the village at Indian Orchard. Two trails led to Onondaga lake, the Indians then living on both sides of the creek. A little north of Dorwin's Spring a trail ran westward to Cayuga, crossing Cedarvale and the ridge on either side, following the route of the electric road to Skaneateles from Nine Mile creek, leaving the lake at the western angle, and taking a direct course to the foot of Owasco lake. Of course there were trails to hunting and fishing resorts. Mr. L. H. Morgan, in his League of the Iroquois, gives a different route for this main trail, and it may have been a very modern one. Noting the en trance into the Onondaga territory at the Deep Spring, he continued : ' ' This spring was known under the name of DE-O-SA-DA-YA-AH, signifying the 'spring in the deep basin, ' and was a favorite stopping place of the Iroquois in their journeys upon the great thoroughfare. Leaving this locality, and con tinuing west, the trail forded the Limestone creek, DE-A-O-NO-HE, at the site of Manlius, and proceeding mostly on the line since pursued by the turn pike, it crossed the Jamesville creek, GA-SUN-TO, at the site of Jamesville, and from thence descending into the Onondaga valley, it crossed the Onondaga river, O-NUN-DA-GA, and entered the Indian village of GIS-TWE-AH-NA, which occupied the site of the present village of Onondaga Hollow. ' ' 240 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY There he falls into some errors of location and history, but continues as follows : "After crossing the valley, the trail passed up a small ravine to the top of the hill, where it took a northwest direction, and crossing the Nine-mile creek, US-TE-KA, at the site of Camillus, O-YA-HAN, it went, up to a stop ping place where Carpenter's tavern was subsequently erected, near the site of Elbridge, KA-NO-WA-YA. From thence fording the Jordan creek, HA-NAN*TO, and passing through the town of Sennet, the trail came upon the Owasco outlet, WAS-CO, at the site of Auburn and forded this stream a short distance above the prison, at the point where the 'Red Store' was sub sequently erected. This locality was in the territory of the Cayugas, and its name signifies !a floating bridge.' " This specific account Mr. Morgan had from an intelligent young Seneca, but otherwise there seems nothing to support it. It certainly was not the trail used in the middle of the eighteenth century or that described by early survey ors. In 1743 at least two trails entered Onondaga valley from the south. Both passed the Tully lakes, but one bore to the east, passing near Labrador pond and thence to Indian Orchard and Onondaga; the other came directly down the valley to Onondaga from the Tully lakes. There were other obscure trails. The one from Indian hill to the site of Brewerton was much used, and one of importance led from near Jamesville to the fishing place at Bridge port. The founding of Oswego led to an advance in road making. A good deal of trade and travel followed the waters of Oneida lake and the rivers, but land communication was also desired. In 1756 Johnson obtained leave from the Indians to open a road to Oswego. The Oneidas and Tuscaroras would help make it from German Flats to Canaseraga, where the Tuscaroras had their chief town near Chittenango creek. Thence the Onondagas would make it through their territory to Oswego. It would cross Seneca river a lit tle above Three River point, at a fording place called the Gaskon, and follow the west bank of the Oswego to Lake Ontario. It was probably a primitive and rude road, with plenty of corduroy in the low lands, but it was the be ginning of the white man's highway system. Clark (Onondaga, ii. 152) speaks of an early road through Geddes, not easily explained. His words are: "Although the author is in possession of no recorded historical or documentary proof of a party of about two hundred men proceeding from Fort Schuyler [Stanwix] through this country, to aid General Sullivan in his Indian expedition of 1779, yet from several revolu tionary soldiers, and particularly a Mr. Hobart, late of Salina, who was one of the expedition, there is no doubt but such was the fact. They were bur dened with supplies and baggage. The road which was cut through by them, was easily traced at the time the first settlements were made in the county. They crossed the Onondaga valley at Geddes, and from there to the Seneca river, below Montezuma, traces of their march were plain to be seen, trees had been cut close to the ground, and young bushes had filled the path." ' it iJPt SALT YARD SCENES. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 241 As Clark said, documentary evidence is absolutely lacking. In the many journals of Sullivan's campaign there is not the slightest allusion to such a party, and the route is altogether improbable. To strike Seneca river below Montezema would be a strange course indeed. Colonel Gansevoort 's party of one hundred men left Sullivan and marched to Fort Stanwix, but the march was rapid, and the route was by Owasco and Skaneateles lakes, Web ster's Mile Square and the Deep Spring. The road must have had some other origin. To Mr. Clark all historians are indebted for his painstaking accounts of early roads. He said (Onondaga, ii. 383) : "The first road attempted to be made through this country was in 1790 or 1791, by a party of emigrants under the direction of the late Gen. Wadsworth, from the settlement at Whitestown to Canandaigua, through a country then very little explored, and entirely a wilderness. After this, the old State road was cut through, enlarging and fol lowing the one cut by the emigrants. From the east it crossed the county line a little north of the Deep Spring, where William Sayles kept a tavern in 1793. Through Manlius village that road was essentially where it is now. After passing Morehouse's Flats, it bore south and crossed the Butternut Creek near a mile south of Jamesville; then bearing a little south of west, entered Onondaga Hollow at Danforth 's, near a mile south of the present road; then northwest across the hollow to Mickle's furnace, then around the hill, the present road intersecting it near General Hutchinson's. After this road was cut through, the tide of emigration greatly increased. Winter was the season usually chosen for emigration from New England to the 'west ward.' Then, as the country was wholly shaded by dense forests, there was commonly snow enough for good sleighing through the winter months. Most of the settlements from Utica to Canandaigua, along this road, began to attain some consequence, as early as the year 1800. Previous to the laying out of this road, which was somewhat improved by sundry appropriations from the State, the western settlers moved on pack horses through the country, along the Indian paths. ' ' This route, from the Deep Spring to Danforth 's was almost the same as the Indian trail of 1756. In 1793, John L. Hardenburg, Moses De Witt and John Patterson became a board of commissioners for laying out and making roads on the Military Tract. The principal one was from the Deep Spring to Cayuga Ferry. They were to be four rods wide, and an appropriation of two thousand seven hundred dollars was made for them. In 1794 Israel Chapin, Michael Myers and Othniel Taylor were made commissioners for laying out a road from old Fort Schuyler (Utica) on the Mohawk river, to the Cayuga Ferry, as straight as might well be. From Cay uga Ferry it was to go to Canandaigua, and thence to Canawaugus (Avon Springs) on the Genesee river. It was to be six rods wide, and six hundred pounds were appropriated for the part in the Military Tract. In 1796 some lands on the Onondaga reservation were to be sold and five hundred pounds of the proceeds used for improving the Great Genesee Road through Onondaga 242 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY county. In 1796, Seth Phelps, William Stevens and Comfort Tyler were made commissioners to make and repair Onondaga county highways. The State ap propriated four thousand dollars for this, and two thousand dollars were to be expended on the Genesee road. The commissioners each received two dollars per day for work done, but did not strike for higher wages. Lotteries were once considered beneficial and moral institutions, and the Legislature authorized three in 1797, to raise forty-five thousand dollars for road improvements, of which the great Genesee road was to have thirteen thousand nine hundred, to be laid out between Utica and Geneva. In 1800 the Seneca State Road company had a charter for improving the old state road from Utica to Canandaigua. The capital stock was one hundred and ten thousand dollars and shares fifty dollars each. The first commissioners were Jedediah Sanger, Benjamin Walker, Charles Williamson and Israel Chapin. The charter was amended in 1801, and deviations from the old route allowed. Ev ery man wished it to pass his door. There was some anxiety on this point, and by a shrewd strategem a route was decided on through Manlius Square, Jamesville and Onondaga Valley. Our noble and excellent ancestors led the commissioners till the wilderness shut them in, and they concluded that the old route was best after all — which it was not. When the company learned that it had been misled, it obtained an amendment to its charter in 1806, allow ing it to build a new road from Sullivan, through the Salt Springs reserva tion, and thence to Cayuga Bridge. To do this fifty thousand dollars were added to the stock, and thus the north branch of the Seneca road was completed in 1812. James Geddes, Squire Munro and Dr. John Frisbie promoted this. The Third Great Western, or Cherry Valley Turnpike, was chartered in 1802 and finished in 1807, with a capital of seventy-five thousand dollars, and shares at twenty-five dollars each. These roads increased the population in a double way. People settled along the route, and others found employment. Thus the Rev. Thomas Rob- bins, coming into Marcellus in 1802, said: "Many people have come into this part of the country from Connecticut to work on the roads." He was not averse to turning an honest penny himself, and after preaching in Skaneateles, June 20, next day he said he "worked some on the road." Though he soon quitted his task he wrote August 4, that "The turnpike from Albany to Canan daigua progresses very fast." In 1797 Captain Charles Williamson wrote that the earlier road was so much improved that a stage leaving Utica with four passengers, reached Geneva on the third day. Nor was this great speed all. Fifty families had settled on this road within four months after it was opened. This date seems early for stage travel. In 1807, John Swift, Grover Smith and John Ellis were appointed to lay out a four rod road from Salina to the northwest corner of the township of Galen. The same year, Moses Carpenter, Medad Curtis and Asa Rice were di rected to lay out a road six rods wide, on the best route from Onondaga hill to Ox creek, and thence to Oswego. This passed through Baldwinsville, and is yet known as the State road. Another road was to go from Ox creek to PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 243 Salina, and it was sadly needed. Pursh described it that year between Liv erpool and Three River point : ' ' The path sometimes comes close to the Sen eca river and sometimes is pretty distant from it; the travelling exceeding fatiguing, having to go for several rods round mire holes, to find a place to cross, and then to look with all precaution to get in the right path again ; it is very seldom traveled, and in some places. so blind as if never a man had went that road." As early as 1810 the most prominent county roads were in use or laid out, several of them receiving tolls, a practice almost extinct here, but not quite. Tolls are yet received on the Onondaga lake boulevard, and the Jamesville and Fayetteville roads. These give the traveler a taste of the good old times when they were many in number. A Mr. Langdon first carried the mail through here on horseback in 1797 or 1798, going .from Whitestown to the Genesee river, distributing papers and letters by the"vway. Mr. Lucas succeeded him, and in 1800 the mail required a wagon. He established a two-horse conveyance for passengers, and thus did a good business. In 1803 the first four horse mail coach was sent through once a week by Jason Parker. The next year this ran regularly twice a week from Utica to Canandaigua, carrying passengers and the mail. That year Jason Parker and Levi Stephens secured the exclusive right of running a line of stages from Utica to Canandaigua, along the Genesee or Seneca turnpike. . They were to run twice a week, with sufficient horses, and four good covered wagons or sleighs were to be provided. The fare was not to exceed five cents a mile, and fourteen pounds of baggage were allowed each passenger. Sara toga trunks had not appeared. Accidents excepted they were bound to go through in forty-eight hours. No more than seven passengers could go in one coach except by unanimous consent, and if four more than the seven applied an extra coach must be sent. A daily line was established in 1808, and others afterward, till the rail road put an end to the direct lines. Side routes more or less continue, where railroads do not penetrate. "An Itinerary to Niagara Falls in 1809," has notes of what may be expected on the way: "At Utica quarter at the Hotel (Bagg's), a large Brick house very good fare, this place is half-way from Albany to Geneva. Taylor's to breakfast, — bad enough. This is at the commencement of the Oneida Indian Reservation, which extends 6 miles along the road and contains about 80,000 acres; the tribe consists of about 1,000 persons; you pass through their town. There is a good tavern about 11 miles from Utica, where you had bel ter breakfast; stop at Warner's 18 miles from Taylor's as good a house as you'll meet with on the road. Stop at the 37-mile stone to see the deep spring about 50 yards from the road; at the 45-mile stone is a newly discov ered cave close to the road side. Fobes's to lodge 10 miles from Warner's; table tolerable, but you must look sharp for good lodging. Ten miles to Ske- neatles Lake; breakfast at Andrews, good. Cayuga Lake to dinner at Har ris 's, a poor lodging house but pretty good table. ' ' 244 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY A letter in 1799 said: "All last winter two stages, one of them a mail stage, ran from Geneva and Canadargua to Albany weekly." This does not exactly harmonize with other statements, but the writer of it was then a pr jm- inent resident of the Genesee country, being Capt. Charles Williamson. He gave a list of the principal taverns on the road. Wemp's was in the Oneida reservation, twenty-two miles west of Utica ; Sill 's at the Deep Spring was eleven miles beyond; Keeler 's junior, twelve miles from this; Tyler's, Onondaga Hollow, ten miles ; Rice 's, Nine Mile creek, ten miles ; Cayuga Ferry, twenty miles. It is elsewhere said that James Porter built a large tavern at Skaneateles in 1797, but his name does not appear in these early lists. The first plank road in the United States was built by the "Salina and Central Square Plank Road Company," incorporated April 12, 1844. It was sixteen and one half miles long and cost twenty-three thousand dollars. It proved so profitable that several more were in operation here by 1850, but they have gradually disappeared. The tendency then was to the macadamized road, for which there was abundant material. The roads from Syracuse to Jamesville and Manlius are of this kind, and all the old turnpikes. Under the stimulus of the laws providing for good roads, a number have already been made in the most approved way, though not always, but the test will be in endurance. For some roads crushed limestone pulverizes too quickly, and a hard stone may be more economical. There is also as yet a lack of system in making these roads. They are not always placed where they will do the most good, nor made in the best way, nor are contracts al ways satisfactory, increased expense also causes complaint. Some graded ways to the town of Lysander are worthy of attention, as they have made easy and safe some hills always hard and sometimes dan gerous. As trolley roads have made country life pleasant, it is very sure that good roads will make farms more valuable, but natural difficulties are great in many cases. On some hilly and stony roads the hair naturally takes an up right position. On others one assents to the formula of four miles up and three miles down. A question has also arisen as to the effect of automobiles on the roads themselves. The effect on timid drivers and humble pedestrians are well known. The latter realize that men and roads are made of dust. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 245 CHAPTER XXIV. EARLY ONONDAGA INDUSTRIES. It is in the nature of things that industries should change with the growth of a country and the creation of new needs and tastes. The red man was a warrior and hunter, with an eye to statesmanship and display. With the com ing of the white man came the fur trade, and later the digging of ginseng, both maintained after the settlement. In local pioneer life the salt industry was a great factor. Wood was cut to boil it, barrels made to pack it, trains or boats provided to take it away. At one time it was the greatest local indus try, but other fields were opened, mostly cutting off salt boiling, but leaving solar salt still in the field. The clearing of the forests necessitated some economic disposal of the trees. Thus came the potash industry. Immense log heaps were reduced to ashes and these were sold and drawn away, the best ashes bringing six cents per bushel ; sometimes a little more. Family consumption of fuel added to this trade, but thrifty housewives saved enough for their own leach and made their own soap. The lumber business was one of importance. The dense pine forests on Seneca river, so many of which Colonel Voorhees cleared away, gave him his title of "the Tall Pine of Lysander." There were many saw mills at Baldwinsville, one of these in 1826 having fifteen saws. Not one re mains now. They abounded on all the larger streams and often on the smaller. Their occupation is gone. A small place on Limestone creek was called Slab Hollow from the great number of these its mills produced. Its first post master in 1820 thus announced a new name : "The hemlocks are gone, The Slabs have set sail, And we'll call it Slab Hollow No more, but Watervale." Oak and hemlock then abounded, and tanneries were in proportion. They are rare or absent in villages now. This also made a market for hides. Farmers often reserved some for home use, and others would buy a tanned hide or two for the annual shoeing of the family. Many were sent off to larg er markets. Sheep were often killed for their pelts, the meat being thought of small account. Cattle were commonly driven in large herds to Albany or New York, but the drover's occupation is gone. While it lasted it maintained many country taverns a mile or two outside of important villages, where abundant pas ture might be had. These also furnished good and economical quarters for teamsters and emigrants. The heavy wagons of the one and the white covered wagons of the other were common sights on country roads. They are seen no more. 246 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY While spinning and weaving were done at home the numerous woolen and carding mills were a great convenience, but they have vanished from many places. Skaneateles was once renowned for its carriage works. All are gone. This is true of the flouring mills in many places, and this has affect ed the cooper's trade, already diminished by lack of material. Paper mills have done better, but methods have changed. Of course railroads and canals have been factors in these changes. To do much business there must be convenience of access and transportation. Two railroads are better than one for this, and three are better still. A canal helps to some extent, but all these may be disadvantages if the people of a place do not rise to their opportunities. A railroad may bring business or take it away. Among the changes in agricultural industries may be considered the rela tive importance of some crops. Wheat and corn are no longer the leading products. Hay has gained, and the growth of alfalfa has helped dairy men. Their industry has increased in importance. Beside all that goes to New York City, it is no small task to supply Syracuse, and seven cents a quart for milk should pay, but half is for delivering. Fruits are of more importance, and market gardening is a leading feature in many parts. Greenhouses for vegetables and flowers appear on an extensive scale in suburban villages. Low lands, once valueless, now produce many things highly profitable. Cabbages, beets, tomatoes, corn and peas are now largely raised for canning and expor tation. Poultry has a new importance and is likely to maintain it, with occa sional drawbacks. Teasels do not hold their own in Skaneateles, and Marcel lus, but tobacco improves under better methods along the Seneca river. Of course electricity has brought new needs and employments. A small army is required to man the trolley roads and lighting wires. The old rail roads in their shops, yards and stations employ a host of men. Bicycle factor ies may do less than formerly but automobile shops have taken their place. The many factories of typewriters in Syracuse have a wide reputation. The. ex panding Morris Machine Works at Baldwinsville send their pumps and engines all over the world; and these are but a sample of what is being done on every hand. To describe the important industries of Syracuse alone would require much space. One branch of work has had a great development. It would be easy to compare the number of teachers, janitors, etc., in any village with what it was fifty years ago. We may be wise or unwise in this, but the fact remains. One instance may be mentioned, which is on a large scale. Syracuse University has some thousands of students and instructors, but those who are incidentally employed in caring for the comfort and welfare of all these form a host beside. The Solvay works give another instance where a flourishing village of five thousand people has grown out of a single industry. Some one said he was a benefactor of the human race who makes two blades of grass grow where one grew before. What shall be said of multiplied industries ? The village of Liverpool is the center of the willow basket trade, two species of willow being grown there for fine and coarse work, and these thrive PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 247 in the low lands. The Onondaga Indians also make many baskets, but they are of ash splints, now hard to get. A fair business is still done in ground plaster, but more in water lime, while other kinds of limestone figure largely in fine buildings and common foundations, and in making roads. A moderate output comes from the Onon daga penitentiary at Jamesville. Large cement works have been built at inter vals near the canal between Syracuse and Jordan, but seem less profitable than at first. Syracuse has also acquired a good reputation in book and other fine printing and its department stores have a wide notoriety. Several paving companies do a large business in that city, and will find employment for a long time to come. When someone finds a profitable use for the Solvay refuse — and it will be found — another great industry will spring up. Early days here knew nothing of police squads or paid firemen, of letter carriers and white wings, but these make a large body of men. The number of clerks absolutely necessary in city and county work is quite large. If we add to these all those employed in stores, in banks and business offices, the aggre gate is great. The mere delivery of goods employs a host of horses and men, and many other new industries might be cited. With the disappearance of our forests the use and supply of fuel has taken on new features. The strong and expert chopper is no longer in demand, and the saw-horse and bucksaw are rarely seen. Coal comes in immense trains to village and city alike, and furnaces and gas ranges take the place of stoves and the ample fireplace. The cutting and drawing of wood was once an impor tant part of rural life in the winter. Plow few wood sleighs are to be seen now. It suggests the future. Perhaps we may find a fuel far better than coal. There are still local weavers in the county who make rag carpets, but early days saw those who devised and wove the blue and white counterpanes, so highly valued now. Often a weaver made his own designs. Spinning was almost universal, and was not confined to wool. Flax and hemp were also spun at home, and that not long ago. The writer has a double thread flax wheel, a family heirloom, which the late Edward Shephard, of Skaneateles, once came to see for a very good reason. "My mother," said he, "had such a wheel, and I had a twin brother. She put me on one knee, my brother on the other, held two babies and spun two threads of flax at the same time. What Onondaga man can match that story?" The writer gave it up. Mr. E. N. Leslie tells another story about the spinning wheel and the once familiar wheelhead, giving a picture of the latter. Amos Miner came to Skaneateles in 1800. "In the course of a year. or two after his arrival here, while engaged in breaking up some new land, he was accidentally injured, so much so as to be confined to his bed, and was kindly cared for by his immedi ate neighbor. While lying in the bed in the primitive log cabin of the times, and in the same apartment where the females of the household did their house hold work, Miner noticed the disadvantages the women had to undergo in the use of the spinning wheel, which was a big wheel, with a band over a whirr or small band wheel about three-quarters of an inch in diameter, single geared and 248 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY slipped over the spindle. Sufficient velocity to spin the thread satisfactorily required herculean power, yet this power had to be furnished by the woman with one hand, while the thread was drawn out with the other. Miner lay in his bed day after day in the presence of this spinning heel, thinking how he could improve this old-fashioned device, and before he was well enough to go to work had mentally accomplished his contemplated improvement. His first attempt to put it into practice was to add to the staff which supported the spindle a wooden arm with an upright attached to it to hold a wheel, which was separately geared to both spindle and the large wheel by two bands. This was a great improvement, but the sale of it was confined to his immediate vicinity, because every old spinning wheel had to be brought to him to have the device attached. It soon became self-evident to him that, in order to meet the growing demands, he must so arrange his improvement as to be portable, so that it could be attached to any spinning wheel without his personal assistance. This he soon accomplished by great perseverance in what he called Miner's Accelerating Wheel-Head, for which he obtained a patent April 11, 1810." This was in the days of cattle driving and he hired out as a drover. ' ' Tak ing his model under his arm, he faithfully followed that drove down through the back woods to Philadelphia, where he received his wages and put right out for Washington City. He had no difficulty in obtaining his patent right, and, paying the expenses thereof from the wages he had received for driving the cattle, he returned to Skaneateles on foot." Other useful inventions followed. He died in 1842. There were slaves in New York in those early days, and a score of years ago some survived who were born thus. Every town had a distillery, some times several, and hard drinking was common. In fact it showed a manly spirit to be occasionally drunk or so some thought. Most men took their early bitters as a safeguard of health, and occasional beds of tansy remind us of this. A few barrels of cider in the cellar were a recognized family necessity. Pumps were long unknown and the lofty well sweep was a familiar sight. Ice houses were very rare. When tea was scarce or high there were substitutes for this. Before stoves were used the ample fireplace had various aids in cooking. The iron crane, with its many hooks, was no bad device for pots and kettles of every kind and size. The long-handled frying pan served other purposes. Sometimes a great griddle hung from the crane. Large baking-kettles were an early article, bringing the fire above and below. Tin reflectors were sometimes used for baking meats. The writer has turned a fowl for hours — it seemed so — suspended by a string before the fire. The old brick Dutch oven, however, insured perfect cooking. Many old men will recall the time when they molded or dipped candles for home use, or dipped splinters into melted sulphur to make matches when few houses could afford the friction match. They will remember the fire care fully buried at night for preservation, or carried in a firepan to some place. The warming pan for cold beds in colder rooms exists yet, and many remember the foot stoves used in poorly warmed churches. Those are fewer who recall PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 249 flint, steel and tinder for kindling fire, or pine knots and hickory bark slivers for lighting a room. Whale oil, lard oil, camphene, burning fluid, were pro gressive steps toward gas and electric lights. Bees of various kinds for needed aid yet occur in rural districts, but they were many in early days and had striking social features. People met to pare apples, to spin and quilt, to chop and log wood, to husk corn and raise houses. The latter was of great importance when solid timbers made heavy and strong frames. Beside all this, bees promoted matrimony and led to honeymoons. A list of prices from 1802 to 1806, of some leading articles of the day, ran like this: Ashes six to eight cents per bushel; pumpkins twelve cents per hundred; hay was six dollars per ton; mutton was five cents per pound, and butter one shiilling; honey was ten cents a pound, and cordwood was seventy- five cents per cord. In later days it went up to three and four dollars. The silver coinage, till after the Mexican war, was mostly Spanish or Mexican, and was legal tender. Eight shillings made a dollar. The pounds, shillings and pence, often used, were reckoned from this, the pounds being twenty shillings of twelve and one-half cents each. Reckoning by shillings and pence is still common. In rural districts log houses still occur, but are now too costly for common use, though capable of picturesque effects. They were very comfortable and often large. Originally the floor might be the bare earth, or of split wood termed puncheon. This could be taken up if a pin or needle fell through, as the writer has known. The logs were notched near the ends, and might be hewed or left plain. The "cat and clay" chimney was built up of alternate courses of clay and sticks, plastered within. Bark or shingles formed the roof. Often there was but a single room below, and the loft was used according to family needs. This was reached by a ladder or by an inclined sapling with notches cut for the feet. A fine example of the latter is preserved on the Indian reservation. Ox teams were largely in use, and stone boats and sleds supplied many a need. The winter was welcome to those who drew their produce to market, and the fuel delivered one winter was for the next year's supply. When people got good lumber wagons, chairs were sometimes taken from the house to seat the family for a ride, but oftener a plain board, with a blanket or cushion, supplied the seat. The annual going of the merchants to New York was an important matter. They provided for general needs, but had many specific commissions. A country store of early days would be a novel sight now. Conspicious in its adornments were the loaves of white sugar, suspended from the beams over head. If a ball game were going on in the street axe-helves in every store supplied convenient clubs for the time. Eggs were a sort of legal tender, and one or two might be handed over for some small article as we would pay cents now. Store pay, as distinguished from money, has its significance yet. Hours of labor were long and wages low, and a man worth five thousand dollars was wealthy. Money was scarce, and yet people managed to be happy. 250 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY CHAPTER XXV. FROM THE SALES OF LANDS TO THE END OF THE WAR OF 1812. The immediate effect of the allotment of the military lands was to stimu late emigration to them. Few of the veterans went, but others readily bought their lands and settled on them. Many lots were bought on speculation. Men traveled, and taverns were opened ; men wanted goods or had something to sell, and stores were established for both purposes. In clearing the land sick ness became frequent, and it is astonishing how young a doctor could make a good living. There were frequent disputes, and debts were hard to collect. The lawyers flourished. Workmen of every kind were in demand; the only difficulty was to get money to pay them. One great local source of irritation was the retention of the forts at Oswego and Niagara by Great Britain, and her avowed antagonism to any forts or even settlements on or near Lake Ontario to be held by Americans. They could not pass Oswego without examination. The fort was in poor con dition when Vanderkemp was there in 1792, but he said : " I saw, nevertheless, in this paltry, despicable fortress, seven barrels of salt, taken from an Ameri can Bateau by an American run-away, now a Brittish custom-house officer. It is forsooth ! a port of entry, which a sturdy Yankee might pass without a fee." Some did. One reason for holding these two posts concerned the Six Nations. Dor chester wrote to Sir John Johnson, December 14, 1786, that their opinion was to be learned about these forts. If they were indifferent they might be given up, but if the Americans tried to take them by force, resistance must be made^. In another letter in January, 1787, he said Oswego should have a battalion instead of fifty men. Then it could hold out till relieved by the Canadian militia. If the posts were given up the Americans could reduce the Indians, and Canada would lose most of the fur trade. A little later he thought Ameri can posts at Sodus and Erie would hurt this trade. They must be stopped. In March, 1790, Dorchester thought the troops raised by the United States, ostensibly to subdue the Indians, might be. to attack the frontier posts and secure the fur trade. Fort Ontario could not be made defensible. When Simcoe came to office in Canada he proved a fire-eater. May 4, 1794, he wrote to Dorchester that the Onondagas intended to quit their country privately, and go to Buffalo creek, by way of Oswego. This would alarm the Genesees, "and particularly Danforth, the most virulent enemy of Great Britain in that country." June 2 a report was made of "Oswego sur rounded by lawless banditti, fomented by Danforth, probably by higher author ity. Boats plundered, and the Kings subjects detained; complaints sent to the Gov. of N. Y. Reported that Oswego is to be attacked ; firing heard on Thurs day." August 5, Simcoe reported that "N. Y. is establishing posts at Fort Stanwix, Ft. Brewerton and Oswego Falls, and means to erect a post to cover the Onondaga Salt Works." He resented also the application of the French PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 251 colonists in Jefferson county, for flour, and a similar application of Williamson at Sodus bay. It was against the King's interest. He would send officers to Sodus to protest against an American settlement there, and perhaps others to Oswego and Hungry bay. The progress of Wayne's army must be stopped; but it was not. This is the British side of the account, and they knew what was going on to some extent. The people of Onondaga were alarmed and held a meeting at Morehouse's tavern to see what should be done. Jonathan Russell was sent to Albany to report the situation. In the middle of May General William North, General Stephen Van Rensselaer, Adj. General David Van Home and Baron Steuben were sent to the spot. The militia were reviewed by them at More house's, and then they went to Salt Point and ordered the erection of a block house there, which was soon built. It was of squared oak logs, with a stockade around it of large cedar posts. The site was a bluff on the right of the present Oswego canal bridge, almost in front of the pump house. The State supplied a six-pounder and other arms and munitions, and Captain Jonathan Russell's grenadiers, mostly from Pompey, garrisoned it for a time. A depot for military stores was placed near Jamesville, and all men and boys over fourteen were ordered to be ready for any call. Three men were also drafted from each military company as minute men. They were armed at the military depot. The Salina block house at last became a storehouse for salt. One was to have been built at Three River point. Another was built at Brewerton by Oliver Stevens for the state, and long remained there, part of it still standing in 1850. After the alarm had passed it was used as a dwelling till 1811. It had a trench and a stockade of stout logs about four rods from the house. The gate was toward the river. Mr. James Geddes with his men attended the review at Salt Point and re turned unconcerned. He said : ' ' Not so with the people of Salt Point ; for while the block house and stockade was building before their eyes, at the expense and by the authority of the State, it seemed that as loyal people they could be no less than afraid. And one afternoon terror took such hold of them that all the houses were emptied, and men, women and children all took to the woods, and spent that night and the following there for safety-." The firing of a salute at Oswego on King George's birthday also created alarm. No special cause for this excitement appears in the Canadian Archives, though plundered boats are mentioned, but the current American story is that Sir John Johnson had ordered a boat load of stores from Albany in the spring of 1794. This was seized at Three Rivers by a large band of men, who divided the cargo among them. Johnson was angry at this, hastened to Oswego and told his wrongs. The British were also angry, and agreed that Johnson should raise a band of soldiers and Indians in Canada and destroy the Onondaga settlement. Other circumstances are added, but no allusion to this is in the Canadian documents beyond the general statement above. It is rather probable that the people were vaguely uneasy over hostilities in the West, where Wayne was making his way after the defeats of St. Clair and Harmar. In the movements there Indians and Americans were alike inter- 252 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY ested. Fortunately Wayne was victorious and the clouds passed away. The peace which followed led the way to the surrender of Oswego, Niagara and Detroit. At the same time there was lawlessness. The plunder of Johnson's boats seems well sustained, though not his consequent action. The laying of tolls at Oswego was unjust and exasperating, and it is said that some boats had been seized and confiscated, informers having reported their intention of running the fort. Two of these spies had been seized and publicly whipped at Salt Point. With the surrender of Oswego in 1796 this irritation ceased. In this whole affair of the posts the first intention on the part of Great Britain seems to have been to give them up at once. Delay brought other thoughts. By holding them the whole of the great lakes might be secured. If the Indians would not yield, a new boundary might be drawn, and Simcoe did not hesitate to say .that thus the Genesee valley might be included in Canada. With Wayne's victory this hope vanished. In 1796 the American flag floated at Niagara and Oswego, and New York regained its natural frontier. Nothing occurred here to disturb the peaceful development of the country till the war of 1812 drew near. The alleged right of search and the impress ment of American seamen made this inevitable. Insulted and injured by both France and Great Britain the new nation had to prove its manhood like a new boy at school. It gave and received blows, and then was let alone. No one exactly yielded, but shook hands and became friends. The making of roads, improvement of navigation, military organizations, the manufacture of salt, etc., are separately treated, but some incidental re ferences may be made to them from time to time. Meantime there was the usual progress of a new country. Farms were cleared, villages founded, mills of all kinds built, churches and schools provided, industries established, means of transportation found, stores opened everywhere to supply local wants. The air of long culture was lacking, and prosperity was of a crude kind. ^ The optimist passed through and saw a land of promise. The pessimist plodded after and growled at every step. Oswego was alarmed when war seemed near. It affected Onondaga differ ently, for Onondaga had be'come a county in 1794, and had developed, while Oswego was still in British hands. When the war began it was yet partly in cluded in our limits, and the interests of both were one, being practically on 'the frontier. The old Onondaga arsenal, on the hillside at East Onondaga, is the sole military vestige of that war, the only historic ruin of which we can boast. It was built preparatory to the war of 1812, pursuant to a law of 1808, authoriz ing the governor to deposit five hundred stand of arms here, to be used on the frontier in case of invasion. It was a substantial but rather plain stone edifice, on a plateau formed by retaining walls. A well known artist, Mr. George K. Knapp of Syracuse, has painted a series of views, representing this at various times. The deed for the land was given by Cornelius and Deborah Longstreet, November 23, 1809, the consideration being five dollars. It conveyed part of PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 253 Lot 120, and embraced an acre and a half of land, together with "the right of passing to and from the said premises in any manner and in any direction which the said People or their proper Agent or Officer shall from time to time elect and also the right of making and Repairing from time to time such road or roads as the said People or their proper Agent or Officer shall also choose to occupy." The land was deeded to "the said people for the purpose of erecting an Arsenal or other Publick building or buildings for the use and benefit of the said people." This was witnessed by William H. Sabin and John Adams, and ac knowledged before Judge Asa Danforth. It was filed by Archibald Campbell, Deputy Secretary of State, January 14, 1812. The building was two stories and a half high, surmounted by wooden cannon, which long ago decayed; the roof has long been gone, and a large part of the walls. Strong makes the date of erection 1810, which is probably correct. During the civil war General John A. Green had State arms deposited there, but it has not been used since. Steps were taken at one time by the Historical Association for its possession and preservation, and later the Daughters of the Revolution took up the matter, but the decay goes on. Mickles' furnace was also a prominent feature in that war, and kept up business till the death of Nicholas Mickles in 1827. It was on the west side of the west road from Syracuse to Onondaga Valley, just north of where the Onondaga Hill road turns off, in Elmwood Park. During the war Mr. Mickles cast shot and shell for the army and navy. Elisha and Dioclesian Alvord shipped these from Salina to Oswego and Sackett's Harbor. Clark said that a large quantity was once lying at the furnace, and was wanted on Lake On tario. Secretary of War Armstrong looked at the map, on which the creek appeared as Onondaga river, and ordered a vessel to go up Oswego river and this to Onondaga Hollow, and remove the stores to Oswego. The falls at Fulton interfered with this order, and it was not carried out. A wayside memorial, mentioned in the chapter on cemeteries, is not far off, on the south side of the Seneca turnpike, close by Hopper's ;G1 en. The late William Kirkpatrick and Major Theodore H. Poole took an interest in this. The latter had a letter from the Adjutant General's office in Washington about one grave there, the letter being dated July 9, 1889. "The records of the office show that Captain Benjamin Branch, United States Light Artillery, died October 14, 1814, at Onondaga Hollow, New York. Captain Arthur W. Thorn ton, United States Light Artillery, was at that time absent from the company, sick, at the same place ; but he died in 1836, in Florida. There is no record of the death of any other man of the United States Light Artillery in October, 1814 when a detachment of the company passed through Onondaga. From the data furnished it cannot be determined who the other deceased soldier, herein re ferred to, is." It appeared later. Captain Thornton bought the- burial plot of Amasa Cole, the day that Cap tain Branch died. The company was then encamped on the green at Onondaga 254 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Hill. Captain Branch was a Virginian and had recently served at Plattsburg. The other soldier was Captain Henry Crouch of Conhocton, an officer of the New York volunteer militia, who died of small pox, April 22, 1815. He had been captured at Fort Erie, September 17, 1814, taken to Quebec and Halifax, and then sent to Salem, Massachusetts. On his way home he was taken ill at Leonard's Inn, Marcellus. When the cause was ascertained he was taken to a suitable place and well cared for, but died fourteen days after he was taken sick. The Cayuga Patriot of May 10, 1815, in giving a full account said: "He was decently interred by the side of a brother officer, at a distance of five miles from the place of his death." His servant recovered. There is another curious memento of the period here, though not of the war. In his field book of the War of 1812, p. 854, Lossing said: "The Wash ington Benevolent Societies (Federalist associations) had made Napoleon's disasters the subject of orations and toasts on the anniversary of Washington's birthday (22d of February, 1814) ; and in Albany, where the Dutch element was very predominant in the population, the emancipation of Holland from his thrall was celebrated. Religious services were held in the Dutch church on the occasion, and a sermon was preached by the pastor, Rev. Dr. Bradford. These were foUowed by a dinner at the Eagle Inn. These Washington Benevolent Societies originated in Philadelphia very soon after the declaration of war in the summer of 1812. They were political organizations, with attractive social and benevolent features. The first organization was fully completed on the 22d of February, 1813, under the title of the Washington Benevolent Society of Pennsylvania, and each member was required to sign the Constitution and the following declaration : ' We, each of us, de hereby declare that we are firm ly attached to the Constitution of the United States and to that of Pennsyl vania; to the principles of a free republican government, and to those which regulated the public conduct of GEORGE WASHINGTON ; that we will, each of us, to the best of our ability, and so far as may be consistent with our re ligious principles respectively, preserve the rights and liberties of our country against all foreign and domestic violence, fraud, and usurpation; and that, as members of the Washington Benevolent Society, we will in all things comply with its regulations, support its principles, and enforce its views. ' . . These associations rapidly multiplied throughout the country during the war, but disappeared with the demise of the old Federalist party. ' ' Two certificates of membership have been /found here which do not at all agree in date with Mr. Lossing 's statement. The New York societies were earlier. In one the title page is gone and the date and place not filled in. It certifies that Asa Woodruff has been made a member, Reuben Folger being president, and William Hudson secretary. This belongs to the Onondaga Historical Association. The other is or was owned by Joseph Drake of Syra cuse, and is complete in every way. The title page is this: "Washington's Farewell Address to the People of the United States. Printed at the. Balance Press, No. 80, State Street, Albany, 1811." A head of Washington is the frontispiece in both and both have the address. The certificate reads: "No. 83. This certifies that Mr. Richard Adams, of the Town of Onondaga, has been PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 255 s regularly admitted a Member of the 'Washington Benevolent Society of the County of Onondaga,' instituted on the 29th day of October, 1810. July 8, 1811. Gordon Needham, President. John D. Bissell, Secretary. ' ' Little happened at Oswego till June, 1813, when a British fleet appeared, opening fire on Fort Ontario, but soon retiring. May 5, 1814, it came again with an armament of two hundred and twenty guns. Colonel Mitchell was there with three hundred men and five old cannon. Stores had been stopped at Oswego Falls, some removed and some concealed. There was little to defend or defend with, but he sent off horsemen for aid. The schooner Growler was sunk at once, and a squad of men was sent to the shore with an old twelve- pounder. The fleet anchored a short distance off and fifteen boats approached the shore. The old cannon went off with terrible effect, and all the boats that could went back to the ships, which quickly disappeared. Next morning they came back, part of them coming near the mouth of the river. A landing was soon effected, and Colonel Mitchell, finding the fort could not be defended, soon fought in the open field. After a struggle there he retreated up the river in good order, to defend the stores at Oswego Falls. There was no pursuit. The enemy raised the Growler, took what stores they could and departed. All heavy stores intended for Sackett's Harbor had to be carried through Oneida lake and river to Oswego, and thence to their destination in any way possible. This led to the battle of Sandy creek, where a fleet of boats with naval stores was attacked: The enemy was repulsed and a safe landing place reached, but one great cable was too much for ordinary means. It weighed nine thousand six hundred pounds, and was twenty-one inches around. The distance to Sackett's Harbor was sixteen miles, and two hundred men bore it on their shoulder, marching a mile at a time. One incident must not be forgotten. In a previous war the Onondagas fought against the Americans; now they fought for them. They lit a council fire at Onondaga, September 28, 1812, to which they invited the Oneidas, Tuscaroras and their white brethren. They said to the President of the United States: "Brother, — We see that the tomahawk is lifted up between you and the British; we are uneasy about it, and therefore we have met and deter mined to tell you our minds about it. "Brother, — At the close of the late war, Gen. Washington told us to be sober, and attend to agriculture, and to refrain from shedding blood. Our good prophet of the Seneca tribe, who is now with us in this council, has given us the same advice, and our tribes have entered into a league to follow this advice. We wish to hold fast to it, and not to take any part in the contest between your people and the British. 256 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY "We have been repeatedly told by your agents, that it was your wish that we should remain neutral, and therefore we are much surprised and dis appointed at the council held lately at Buffalo creek, in being invited to take up the tomahawk. "Brother, — You must not suppose, from what we have now told you, that we are unfriendly to you or to your people. We are your decided friends. We reside among your people. Your friends are our friends, and your enemies are our enemies. In the former war betwen your people and the British, some of us took up the tomahawk on their side. When the peace took place we buried it deep, and it shall never be raised against you and your people. "Brother, — We are few in number, and can do but little, but our hearts are good, and we are willing to do what we can; and if you want our assist ance, say so, and we will go with your people to battle. We are anxious to know your wishes respecting us as soon as possible, because some of our young men are uneasy, and we fear they may disperse among different tribes, and be hostile to you. Pray direct your communication to the chiefs and warriors of the respective tribes, to be left at Onondaga Post Office. ' ' This was witnessed by Ephraim Webster, Indian agent and interpreter, Jasper Hopper, clerk of Onondaga county; Thaddius Patchin, captain of ar tillery, and Polaski King, justice of peace. It was signed by sixteen chiefs and warriors. Many Onondagas went to the frontier, the names of some ap pearing among the killed and wounded. Among the former was Hohaho- agua, or Captain La Fort, from whom the noted La Forts of later days were descended. Clark said he was made the Indian leader at the battle of Chip pewa, July 6, 1814, but this was a mistake, Captain Pollard being unanimously chosen. Old Tawhisquanta, or Spring the Trap, commonly called Captain John, and old Onondaga chief, had hoped for this honor, though seventy-five years old. He was not even named, and was cut to the heart, realizing all at once that he had passed the dead line. The tears rolled down his cheeks as he said to Mr. Tyler : ' ' They think me too old, and that I am good for noth ing." Sadly he left the council and went back to Onondaga. He did not live long, having strayed away in the spring of 1816, and dying in the bushes on the west side of Onondaga lake. It was the "cold year," when frost came in every month. It was sickly, too, and the Onondagas held a council to know why the Great Spirit was angry. Clark adds: "It was decided that it was because Capt. John lay cold, and the white people were solicited to turn out and bury him, which they did on the spot where he expired." This was opposite Liverpool. "There was a place near the first gate on the plank road, north of Salina, formerly known as Capt. John's bear trap, a spot where he had been accustomed to bait and trap these animals." THE WEIGH LOCK. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 257 CHAPTER XXVI. FROM THE CLOSE OF THE WAR OF 1812 TO THE MEXICAN WAR, INCLUDING AN ACCOUNT OF THE SALT SPRINGS. The war of 1812 had affected Onondaga but little beyond checking immi gration. Troops and stores had passed through; sometimes trains of red- coated prisoners also. The firing had been heard at Oswego, and the militia had marched there. Some had even gone to Niagara. At any moment they might be called out, and so a gloom was over every home. Of actual service and death there was little. Peace removed all fear. The dreaded Indians had proved friends here and at Buffalo, and have been friends from that day to this. As Americans, though not yet citizens, they rallied around the old flag in the civil war. Peace is often uneventful. The old Hebrews summed up long periods in one brief phrase: "And the land had rest for forty years." With a young, progressive and growing people, however, every year brought some thing of present importance. The cold year of 1816 cut off crops, snow fell in May, and a killing frost came on June 9. Flour in midsummer was sixteen dollars per barrel. That year, too, Onondaga county reached its present limits by the setting off of Oswego. Steamboats appeared on Lake Ontario in 1817, and canals were soon begun. These will be treated by themselves. The salt industry was developed ; another subject of special interest. Railroads were projected and begun. Everything was booming, and even the dreaded Asiatic cholera did not greatly retard business. The natural financial crash of 1837 did. About that time came the "Patriot War," which in 1838 had special interest for Onondaga county. These things were preliminary to the picturesque political contest of 1840. While the incidents of canal construction and operation will appear elsewhere, it is proper to mention some effects here. The canals depreciated farm property, for they cheapened transportation. This is one effect still. The people of New York maintain the canals for the benefit of the western states. The farmers pay canal taxes that western farmers may sell grain cheaply in the eastern markets. There is no doubt of that. The New York canals should be a national charge, and would be but for the opportunities they afford for local political patronage. There were at first many local bene fits from them, and they paid as an investment while tolls were collected. There was a local loss, also. Farmers went west to better grain fields, and many improved farms here sold as low as ten dollars per acre. There came a necessary change in farming here. Fruit growing, dairying, early vegetables, etc., attracted attention, as they increasingly will do. The demands of the civil war swelled the prices of farm lands, but this was but a temporary inflation, and then came a period when they fell far below their actual value. The idea that there are now abandoned farms in this county met at once with an indig nant protest, backed by solid proofs, but some spots certainly look much like it. 258 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY On the other hand the diminished cost of transportation by canal lessened the wear and tear of roads. In 1826 teaming cost three to twenty times what canal freighting did, and. the heavy loads, drawn by six to eight horses, left the turnpikes, and this lessened repairs- Light travel increased. Many trav eled by canal, but the stages were full of those in more haste. The Seneca turnpike paid a dividend in 1823, though paralleling the canal, and indeed "proved the canal to be very beneficial to the interest of the road company." One factor in this was that people sought the growing towns along the canal. Jordan grew at the expense of Elbridge, Fayetteville at that of Manlius, Syra cuse became a center of business, and yet for a time the older villages held their own. The railroads caused greater changes. Some were planned but never built. In 1829 the Salina & Port Watson railroad was chartered to connect Onondaga lake with the Tioughnioga river near Cortland. At that time consid erable merchandise went down that river to Binghamton. In later days there came the Syracuse & Binghamton road instead. One of the earliest railroad plans here was to connect Skaneateles and Jordan. From time to time it revives, but the road has not been built. The incorporation of the Auburn & Syracuse railroad, May 1, 1834, was the first decided step. Five of the eleven incorporators were Onondaga men. Work began in December, 1835, and on January 8, 1838, horse cars ran over the wooden rails from Auburn to Geddes, Sherwood's stage horses supplying the power. June 4, 1839, the first steam locomotive called Syracuse, drew an excursion train over the line. Steam had come to stay, but it was not very lively at first, the passengers often getting off to push the train. Indeed it is said that Philo N. Rust would sometimes hitch up his fine team at either end of the road and offer. to bet that he would go through first. Flat iron rails were soon spiked on those of wood, but when the spikes became loose the rails curled up, and a "snake-head" might spear a man in his seat. The Utica & Syracuse railroad was opened in July, 1839, and for a time labored under restrictions. It must pay the Seneca turnpike company for any resulting damage, and also a toll for any freight carried, to the canal commissioners. At that time the Schnectady & Utica railroad could carry no freight whatever, even in winter. Up to 1844 it was all moved in that season in sleighs. In 1836 the Syracuse, Cortland & Binghamton railroad company was incorporated, but the road was not built till 1854, and it has passed through some changes since. In 1839 the improvement of Oneida river for steamboat navigation was authorized, but commerce of this kind never rivaled that of early days. It is curious that the new barge canal returns to some of the ancient waterways. There follow two lists of names : one of the lawyers, and the other of the clergy of Onondaga county in 1835-36, both including men of note. According to the old order of the Law and Gospel, the lawyers are placed first : BALDWINSVILLE.— Samuel H. Hammond, John R. Hickcox, Isaac R. Minard, Elias Tuttle. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 259 CAMILLUS. — David R. Hillis, Grove Lawrence, James R. Lawrence. ELBRIDGE. — Reuben Farnham, Hiram F. Mather. FAYETTEVILLE.— John Watson, Hicks Worden. GEDDES.— Elijah W. Curtis, Reuben S. Orvis. JAMESVILLE.— Isaac W. Brewster. JORDAN. — William Porter, Lemuel B. Raymond. LA FAYETTE.— Samuel S. Baldwin. MANLIUS. — Samuel L. Edwards, John Fleming, Le Roy Morgan, Francis Randall, N. P. Randall, H. C. Van Schaack. MARCELLUS. — John Bixby, Sanford C. Parker, George A. Stansbury. ONONDAGA HILL.— Rufus Cossit, Jonas Earll, Daniel Moseley. ONONDAGA HOLLOW.— Samuel Forman, William H. Sabin. ORVILLE.— William . Eager. POMPEY.— Victory Birdseye, Daniel Gott, Daniel Wood. SALINA. — Thomas G. Alvord, Jerome J. Briggs (District Attorney), A. C. Griswold, Enos D. Hopping. SKANEATELES.— John S. Furman, Freeman G. Jewett, Augustus Kel logg, Daniel Kellogg, Lewis H. Sandford. SYRACUSE.— Charles A. Baker, Harvey Baldwin, Henry Davis, Jr., Thomas T. Davis, William Irving Dodge, John G. Forbes, Gardner Lawrence, E. W. Leavenworth, Levi S. P. Outwater, Jr., Finley Strong, Schuyler Strong, John Wilkinson, Richard Woolworth, Abijah Yelverton, Jr. TULLY. — John Dorr, John J. Ostrander. A list of the clergymen of the same period follows, though not of churches : APULIA. — John Truair, Congregational. BELLE ISLE.— H. B. Fuller, Baptist. CANTON (Now Memphis).— Ira Dudley, Baptist. CICERO.— Truman Baldwin, Presbyterian; A. H. Tilton, M. E.; Publius V. Bogue, Presbyterian. CLAY. — William Ottman, Lutheran; Horatio Warner, Baptist. DELPHI.— Mr. Wheelock, Baptist. ELBRIDGE. — Cyrenius Fuller, Baptist ; Medad Pomeroy, Presbyterian. FABIUS.— 0. Montague, Baptist ; W. Bachelor, M. E. ; D. W. Bristol, M. E. FAYETTEVILLE.— Beardsley Northrup, Episcopal; Mr. Smith, Presby terian. JAMESVILLE. — Auburn Morse, Presbyterian; Marshall Whiting, Epis copal. 260 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY JORDAN.— Washington Thatcher, Presbyterian; C. Giles, M. E. LA FAYETTE. — Alexander B. Corning, Presbyterian. LYSANDER.— Peter Witt, Baptist; M. B. Williams, Dutch Reformed; Judah Wright, Baptist; M. H. Gaylord, M. E.; T. Van Tassel, M. E. MANLIUS.— David Bellamy, Baptist; A. Fuller, M. E.; J. G. Whitcomb, M. E. ; W. W. White, M. E. MARCELLUS. — Levi Parsons, Presbyterian; Jesse Worden, Baptist; C. Northrup, M. E. ; J. E. Robie, M. E. MOTTVILLE.— W. Queal, Universalist. ONONDAGA. — Seth W. Beardsley, Episcopal; Solomon Gardner, Bap tist; John W. Prentice, Presbyterian; J. P. Aylworth, M. E. ; J. Watson, M. E. ONONDAGA HILL.— D. D. Chittenden, Baptist. ONONDAGA HOLLOW.— Elijah Buck, Presbyterian. ORVILLE.— J. Foster, Unitarian. OTISCO. — Levi Griswold, Presbyterian. POMPEY. — Abraham Ernist, Baptist; Mr. Shaw, Presbyterian; A. Van- denburgh, Universalist ; J. Kelsey, M. E. ; D. Anthony, M. E. SALINA. — J. Foote, Presbyterian. SKANEATELES.— Samuel W. Brace, Presbyterian; Joseph T. Clarke, Episcopal; J. W. Taggart, Baptist; S. Stocking, M. E. SPAFFORD.— Daniel Die, Baptist. SYRACUSE. — John W. Adams, Presbyterian; Richard "S. Corning, Pres byterian; Francis S. Todrigg, Episcopal; Stephen Wilkins, Baptist; V. M. Coryell, M. E. TULLY.— G. S. Ames, Universalist. Banks now became necessary, and the Onondaga County Bank was in corporated April 15, 1830, by prominent men. The Bank of Salina followed in April, 1832, both having a long existence^ There are many yet living who remember the terrible winter of 1835-36, with its severe cold and. deep snows. It was impossible in many places to get into the woods, and fuel became scarce and high. The country at large has never seen such a senseless inflation of values, and such reckless investments as preceded the financial panic of 1836-37. Any thing sold; anything passed for money. Banks multiplied, speculation was un limited, living extravagant for the times, interest became usury and no one objected, wild lands were located and purchased unseen. Then President Jack son required that all public lands which had been bought should be paid for in specie. It seemed very unkind, "a raid on prosperity." Bank notes and promissory notes were plentiful, but specie! It is hard now for later men to understand what this meant then and how little gold and silver there was in the country. We had no mines of either and not much of the material. We PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 261 had paper currency of a very cheap kind, some of it equaling the shinplasters of the Revolution. The banks could not pay specie ; the people had none, and a halt was called. Values fell faster than they had risen, and some have not recovered yet. Of course the change meant ruin to thousands, and men laid this to Jackson's folly. As always here the times influenced politics. The anti-Mason movement had spent its force, and people were ready for new issues. It was easy to charge financial distress upon those in power, and property is sensitive. A man might lack head or heart; he seldom lacked a pocket, and knew when it was empty. So the times pointed to a political change. Another thing favored this. The "Patriot War," so-called, stirred up the frontier of New York, and the necessary action of President Van Buren did not make him popular among the young men of the border. Hunter lodges were formed in many towns here, for hunting was popular, and guns were needed for this, and a little prac tice with the rifle was not amiss. It was pleasant, too, to get together, lay plans, and tell hunting stories. The authorities did not view it thus. Van Buren issued a brief proclamation forbidding the lodges; perhaps with little effect. The late George J. Gardner belonged to one of these, and once agreed to give the writer the ritual. He was little more than a boy at the time, but remem bered it well. Led by General S. Von Schultz two hundred and fifty men invaded Canada, at Windmill Point, near Prescott, occupying the windmill and other buildings November 12, 1838. They expected to meet others there but were unsupported. Fighting began on the thirteenth and on the evening of the fifteenth the party surrendered. Of the party thirty-five were residents of Onondaga county, and nine of them were Germans. Von Schultz,, Martin Woodruff, Christopher Buckley and Leman Leech, of this county, were executed. The other Onon daga men were Cornelius Goodrich, Nelson J. Griggs, Chauncey and Calvin Mathews, Joseph Wagner and Charles Woodruff of Salina; Giles Thomas and Nathan Whiting of Liverpool; Edward Holmes, Peter Meyer and Edward A. Wilson of Pompey; Hiram Kinney and Hiram Sharp, residence unknown. At the outing of the Onondaga Historical Association at Baldwinsville, June 6, 1900, William W. Stebbins, a member of the party (died in 1907) was present. He was but seventeen at the time of the battle and a resident then of Jefferson county. Because of his youth he was pardoned and sent home. Some went to Van Dieman's Land, and were pardoned in 1849. An indignation meeting over the execution was held in the court house here and was largely attended* Vivus W. Smith presented several resolutions expressive of local feeling, but the excitement continued till the MacLeod trial was over two years later. In Pringle's "Lunenburgh, or the Old Eastern District," after an interest ing account of the battle, there are the following statements: "In the mill were found several hundred kegs of powder, a large quantity of cartridges, pis tols and swords, and two hundred stands of arms, most of which were of superb workmanship. Many of the swords and dirks were silver mounted, and their hilts elaborately carved. A silk flag, valued at one hundred dollars, was also taken, on which was displayed a spread eagle beautifully worked, surmounted 262 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY by a single star, and beneath, also wrought in silk, the words, 'Liberated by the Onondaga Hunters. ' . . . . The fate of Von Schultz excited great sympathy. He pleaded guilty to the charge against him 'of having been unlawfully and treasonably in arms against our Lady the Queen,' and died a victim of design ing traitors who urged him into the enterprise and then cruelly abandoned him." The political campaign of 1840 was a picturesque episode in Onondaga and elsewhere. Party feeling always ran high in early days, and there was the usual amount of mud slinging. Van Buren 's gold spoons and fine wines were contrasted with Harrison's log cabin and hard cider. As good wine could not everywhere be had, hard cider — very hard — became popular. It was a party duty to drink freely of it, and no one was thought the worse of for this. Tippecanoe supplied a pun, and one Tippecanoe club from Marcellus came into Syracuse in a fine dug-out. The writer has seen it many a time. There were ships of state in the great procession, and young ladies in white- most bewitching of all costumes — mounted wagons and represented common wealths. To cap all, there rang out, night and day, the inspiring strains of "Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too." Log cabins appeared in every town, with a barrel of cider at the door and.-a coon skin at the gable. The song was true. "Van, Van was a used up man." Then came a movement of a different kind. There had been too much hard cider and most saw this plainly. The old temperance pledge allowed wine and eider in moderation; a more stringent rule came in against all intoxicating bev erages, a blessed rule for thousands, and effecting a much needed reformation for a time. It had a curious origin. Plenty of singing helped the cause, and new words were adapted to a familiar tune, proclaiming that "In Baltimore the reform begun, in a grog shop, too; Six drunkards pledged to turn from rum, to life anew and temperance, too." The pledge was the great panacea, and often did wonders. There were great meetings and celebrations, speeches by reformed men and able lectures, prohibition in some eases, and a general recognition of the dangers of mod erate drinking. So sweeping a wave could not maintain its height, but with some natural reaction, the Washingtonian movement never lost all its force. Wfien the next general election came around the Democrats had learned wisdom, and the Whigs were disorganized. The former appealed to popular feelings with the cry of Texas and Oregon; the latter had not secured "two dollars a day and roast beef" for the working man. They might sing: ' ' Ha ! ha ! ha ! such a nominee as Jimmy Polk of Tennessee, ' ' but the Democrats sang yet louder: "0, Harry, Harry Clay, hear what the people say; You never can be President, so home you 'd better stay. ' ' And he stayed. His opponents got up wonderful processions, adorned with log cabin traps, coons in every conceivable posture to represent the Whig PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 263 party — no such gathering of coons has been since that year. They had poles of young hickory, for the slogan was "Polk our young hickory, Dallas and victory." There were wonderful banners. Onondaga county has not seen their like since. At one of these monster meetings in Skaneateles Silas Wright spoke, and more than ten thousand people came from near and far to hear him; some said twenty thousand. So with song, and march, and a new en thusiasm, Polk and Dallas came into office, and a new era dawned with the Mexican war. SALT AND THE ONONDAGA SALT SPRINGS. It is well known now that the Indians of Canada and New York did not originally use salt, and that white men who lived among them often lost their relish for it. For this reason, when the Onondagas showed the spring to Le Moyne in 1654, they thought a demon defiled it. This was the earliest men tion of salt springs here, a supposed earlier quotation being an error in date. Le Moyne boiled a little, which he took to Quebec, and its reputation soon spread, with frequent references to this spring and others in the Jesuit Rela tions and other French papers. In 1700 Colonel Romer called the spot the salt pan. When Conrad Weiser was at Onondaga in April, 1737, he said: "I went with my host and another old friend to see a salt spring, of which there are great numbers, so that a person cannot drink of every stream, on account of the salt water. The Indians boil handsome salt for use." They had overcome their dislike of it, and used it sparingly. John Bartram came to the beach at the head of the lake July 23, 1743. ' ' Here the Indians dig holes, about two feet deep, which sopn filling with brine, they dip their kettles, and boil the contents, until the salt remains at bot tom. . . . We filled our gallon keg full of water and brought it to Town, where we boiled.it to about a pound of salt." Similar words are used by later travelers. He thought there was a fossil salt bed near. At the time of his death Sir William Johnson owned Onondaga lake and a tract of land around it. Then and long afterward it was called the Salt lake. A Revoluntionary document dated January 6, 1777, had the report of a com mittee on salt, who said that they had "employed Peter Sim to repair to Onon daga in order, to make an Experiment on the waters of a Salt Lake & certain Springs at that place." The Commissioners of Indian affairs and others were requested to "prevail on the Indians of the Six Nations to permit Such Ex periment to be made. And further, if on Such Experiment a Salt Manufacture there shall be thought practicable & of publick advantage, the said Commis sioners shall be& they are hereby authorized to enter into an agreement with the Indian proprietors for the use of the said Land and Springs. All for the sole purpose of manufacturing Salt, & to allow them a- reasonable Rent or Compensation for the same. And if a Treaty shall be necessary, to make them a present at the Expense of this State not exceeding the Value of Two hundred pounds, and thereupon to procure the necessary materials & employ proper persons to set such manufacture on foot." 264 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY This ignored the Johnson title, and was the first step toward state con trol of the salt springs. The war cloud grew dark in that direction, and a dif ferent plan followed. June 16 of the same year, Jonathan Lawrence and William Harper addressed the Oneidas at Oneida. "The Great Council of the State of New York, at their council fire at Esopus, having been informed that large quantities of salt may be boiled from spring waters within the ter ritories of their old friends the Five Nations, have thought proper to appoint a committee to contract with you concerning the making of salt. ... If any of our friends incline to make salt and deliver it at Fort Schuyler, we will appoint a person there to receive it, who will pay for every skippel (three bushels) delivered there, four dollars." The Indians offered to show Comfort Tyler the spring in May, 1788: "Accordingly I went with an Indian guide to the lake, taking along an iron kettle of fifteen gallons capacity, which he placed in his canoe, and steered out of the mouth of Onondaga creek, easterly into a pass called Mud creek. Af ter passing over the marsh, then overflowed by about three feet of water, and steering towards the bluff of hard land, since the village of Salina, he fastened his canoe, pointed to a hole apparently artificial, and said there was the salt." In nine hours he made thirteen bushels. At the treaty of Fort Stanwix, September 12, 1788, the salt reservation of a mile around the lake was made for the benefit of the Onondagas and the people of New York. Danforth and Tyler kept a chain and kettle there that year, boiling what they wanted, and then hiding these till they came again. In 1789 Nathaniel Loomis came there by water with a few kettles, and the next winter made about six hundred bushels, selling for a dollar per bushel. Jeremiah Gould had the first kettles in an arch, but in 1793 Moses De Witt and William Van Vleck built an arch with four kettles, which supplied a large demand. A year later James Geddes had salt works west of the lake, and this dis turbed the Indians, who thought they were to have one shore and the white people the other. Mr. Geddes made presents, but they did not see their way clearly. A happy thought came : ' ' We will adopt this pale face into our tribe, and then being one of us, he will have a right to make salt on our side of the lake." So he became Don-da-dah-gwah, place where canoes discharge their freight; perhaps from Harbor Brook. A year later the Indians sold their com mon right, but were to have one hundred bushels of salt yearly. In 1798 the Federal Company was formed, all of its members being leading men. They were Asa Danforth, Jedediah Sanger, Daniel Keeler, Thomas Hart, Ebenezer Butler, Elisha Alvord and Hezekiah Olcott. Their large building had eight blocks of four kettles each. The term "block" was always after ward applied to salt boiling. The year before the state assumed control, with William Stevens as superintendent, and he held this office till his death in 1801. His powers were ample and the details were exact. Four cents a btishel was paid for water and rent, and each kettle or pan must produce at least ten bushels annually. Lots of ten acres, with five acres of marsh land, could be leased for three years. No salt was to be sold for more than sixty cents a PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 265 bushel, nor on the leased premises. All was barreled, stamped by the super intendent, and placed in a public store house till sold. One cent per bushel was paid for storage; the superintendent selling for sixty cents, deducting rent and storage, and paying the maker fifty-five cents. The first year two thousand bushels were always to be in store, and five hundred bushels addi tional every year there after. Of course the old block house of 1794 soon proved too small. The business outgrew the rules in other ways, and many changes were made in 1798. The next year two qualities were established, but all must be put up in white oak casks with twelve hoops, and there were stringent rules for inspection. All salt was to be shipped from the public wharf, under pen alty of five dollars for each bushel. The superintendent had eight hundred dollars a year, and one hundred dollars for an assistant. , In 1801 the rules on keeping salt in store were abolished, and Sheldon Logan became superintendent in February, and Asa Danforth in October. He was succeeded by William Kirkpatrick from April, 1806, to March, 1808. Mr. Kirkpatrick was superintendent again from 1811 to 1831. For 1806 he reported one hundred and fifty nine thousand and seventy-one bushels made. The amount steadily increased, and the canal gave it great impetus. It rose from three hundred and forty-eight thousand two hundred and thirty-four bushels in 1817, to nine hundred and eighty-three thousand four hundred and ten in 1827. In 1837 it was two million one hundred and sixty-one thousand two hundred and eighty seven and in 1848 four million seven hundred and thirty- seven thousand one hundred and twenty six bushels. In 1884 it reached nine million six hundred and forty-two thousand two hundred and sixty-nine bushels. From the opening of other fields this industry has declined, and in 1907 but one million eight hundred and twenty-three thousand one hundred and forty- five bushels were inspected. The first well was at Salina, and was but a large hole, twenty feet square and thirty deep, in which each man put his own pumps, conducting the water to the several works. This was when Kirkpatrick was first superintendent. A curious paper in the Central library may belong to this period, or more exactly to 1800 from the names. It seems the report of a Mohawk Dutchman to his eastern friends. There is a diagram of the lots and a plan of houses on the re servation, with many names of persons there. Among these are Elisa (Elisha) and Crase (probably Dioclesian) Allvord, William Stev for William Stevens; Vonvlak for VanVleck; O'Blans for O 'Biennis; Silas Balliy (Bailey); -John Carpender (John Carpenter) ; William Spomheyer, etc. The notes are curious, and almost require translation: "The onondage lak is Calt on salt Lak it is a fresh watter lak and an blak stinken mut an sam Blasses and du grow a moos an this mut if horses act that mos they geat sick the salt springs are low I opnet one and made a 4 sqar from roent it 28 fathhey to put the pomp in I trijt all the springs Coault 1 gall of water of my sprng I hat 1 p a 12 onces of salt. 15 houzes an town lots." The salt springs are indicated. "Black mut holes in Drey wather thy stink Salt masch all under watter in spring saem time 2 months." In proper form this is :"The Onon daga lake is called Salt lake. It is a fresh water lake, and a black, stinking 266 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY mud in some places, and do grow a moss on this mud. If horses eat that moss they get sick. The salt springs are low. I opened one and made a four square frame around it twenty-eight feet ( ?) high to put the pump in. I tried all the springs. Boiled one gallon of water of my spring. I had,one pound and twelve ounces of salt. Fifteen houses on town lots. Black mud holes. In dry weather they stink. Salt marsh all under water in spring ; sometimes two months. ' ' Not an agreeable place. A patent hand pump soon helped matters, and when John Richardson was superintendent in 1810 he brought the water of Yellow Brook to Salina, and raised the brine by .water power. Horse power was afterward used. In 1812 there was a deputy for Geddes, Liverpool and Salina respectively. The superintendent was to lay out two acres for making solar salt, free of rent if he chose, for this was something new. It became a success in 1821. In 1816 a duty of twelve and one-half cents per bushel was imposed, to increase the canal fund. In the course of time it came down to one cent. In 1820 a large part of the reservation was laid out in lots for sale, not being needed. In that year Major Byington was authorized to bore for rock salt at any point on the reservation. None was found. In 1826 the state acquired a title to all the wells, pumps, reservoirs and pipes, and a new well was sunk, thirty feet deep and twelve across, and new res ervoirs were made for the solar salt fields. A well was sunk at Liverpool, and boring followed at Geddes and Salina. It is needless to go over all these things in detail, but the wells continually became deeper, and the material penetrated became of interest to geologists. Two deep wells were sunk in 1884, the one being the Gale well, between Salina and Liverpool, beginning about fifty feet above the Oswego canal. At five hundred and twenty-two feet weak brine was found, five feet above the Niagara limestone. A second brine was five hundred and thirty-two feet deep. A true limestone appeared at six hundred and five feet. Then came pure Clinton ore at from nine hundred and seventy-six feet to nine hundred and eighty-six feet, succeeded by Medina sandstone at one thousand and five feet. Light gray sandstone came at one thousand and seven teen feet. At one thousand three hundred and ninety-five feet the third and strongest brine was reached, and the fourth at one thousand five hundred feet. The total depth was one thousand six hundred feet. There was no rock salt. In the state well, one thousand feet east of the lake, deeper borings were made, but no veins of brine were found. Niagara limestone (bituminous) was reached at five hundred and seventy-eight feet; true limestone at six hundred and fifty ; Clinton ore at nine hundred and ninety-five ; Medina sandstone at one thousand and seventy-five; red sandstone and gray at one thousand one hundred and seventy five, and mostly sandstone to the depth of one thousand nine hundred and sixty-nine feet. At a later day the Solvay wells at Tully opened up rich beds of fossil salt. Solar salt differs from boiling in the slower process. One uses the sun, the other fire. For the solar process there are long parallel rows of shallow wooden vats, sixteen or eighteen feet wide, supported by wooden posts. The brine passes back and forth, after leaving the reservior, for nearly a mile, till rid PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 267 of oxide of iron. In a similar way it runs to and fro till the sulphate of lime is gone. Rid of these impurities and saturation being complete, the last series of vats receives the coarse crystals of pure salt. Every cover (moveable roof) is expected to average fifty bushels in a season. In 1884 the average was seven ty-four and thirty-six hundredths bushels. These covers slide over the vats in wet weather and are removed when it is clear. There are about sixty to the acre. Space has to be allowed for sliding them off and for roads between the rows. In general about fifty bushels of salt can be made with a cord of wood. As with coal, this will depend on the quality of the fuel. From seven to eight pounds of American coal will evaporate a cubic foot of water, and Mr. George Geddes said "eight pounds of water are now evaporated with a pound of coal in a common salt block." CHAPTER XXVII FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE MEXICAN WAR TO THE WAR FOR THE UNION. Two men of note repose in Syracuse tombs who were active in the Mexican war. One of these was General Edwin V. Sumner, who died March 21, 1863. He made a good record in that war, and his fairness and efficiency in the Kansas troubles arrested public attention. He was one of the best leaders in the civil war, but saw only a part of it. General John J. Peck, who died here April 21, 1878, was born at Manlius, and also won laurels in the Mexican war. The civil war gave him higher responsibilities which were well discharged. Captain Rufus D. Pettit, of Baldwinsville, also served in Mexico, his experience there training him for his fine artillery work in the civil war. Other Onon daga men served also. Though this war had wonderful results there was a strong protest against it from the first. There was a growing feeling against the extension of slavery ; even a strong protest against slavery itself, so that the fighting without had its representative struggle within. This increased in intensity till secession came. A brief sketch of political progress seems desirable here. In 1796 Onondaga county had two members of Assembly, Silas Halsey of Cayuga, and Comfort Tyler of Onondaga. Asa Danforth was elected over the latter in 1800. Political lines were closely drawn and the Federalists were in power. The Council of Appointment filled many offices which are elective now. Locally, however, the Republicans of that day carried elections here, and gained strength so fast that, in 1803 they carried every senatorial district, though quite equally divided in this county. Factional strife weakened this party in 1807, the Republican Clintonians proving strongest. When Cortland county was set off in 1808, Onondaga still retained two members of the Assembly. Next year the Federalists won in Onondaga. This election gained them the Assem bly but not the Senate. In 1810 the Republicans regained power. Every war has developed strong opposition, and President Madison's war policy had this fate. The Republicans again divided, and the Federalists gained control, but not here. The success of the war had weakened them greatly 268 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY when another issue came up — that of canals. This proved the death of the old Federal party, At the same time there were two factions of the Republi can party — Clintonian and Bucktail. The Bucktail road in Spafford is a memento of the latter, and all the Onondaga assemblymen elected in 1819 were Bucktails. For awhile the state contests were between these and the Clintonians. The last election under the old constitution was in 1821. By that time the Bucktails were known as Democrats, and were in the majority in the state. In 1825 Clinton was removed from the office of canal commissioner, and was nominated for governor by the Democrats and elected. Parties were evenly balanced here, Onondaga giving him three thousand two hundred and eighty votes against three thousand one hundred and seventy-six for Young. The leading question of 1826 was that of a great public highway from the Hudson to the lakes, through the southern tier of counties. This was defeated. In 1827 the Democrats came out for Jackson, and their opponents for Adams. In 1829 the anti-Masons became a party, and the question of- Sunday mails was prominent. At the same time the doctrine that "to .the victors belong the spoils" was dominant, and great was the army of office-seekers. The anti- Masons lost power in 1831, and disappeared as a party soon after, giving place to the Whigs in 1834. The latter were badly defeated that year, but again became active in 1836, though without success. A natural feeling against slavery had resulted in a demand for its aboli tion by some, especially in the District of Columbia. For a long time, however, such views were frowned upon, and their expression sometimes repressed by violence. Nevertheless the feeling grew and a later incident follows here : This interesting episode of early abolition days has had no place in books. In September, 1839, there came to Syracuse a wealthy Mississippi planter named Davenport. He stayed for some time at the Syracuse House and was well re ceived. With him were two ladies; one his wife, and the other young and beautiful. They always drove out together and were both elegantly dressed. Soon ladies found that they were not introduced to the younger, and awkward scenes occurred. Then they learned that she was a slave. Tom Leonard, a colored waiter there, learned her desire for freedom and told this to John B. Owen, who laid a plot to secure it with William M. Clarke, father of H. W. Clarke. Mr. Clarke made the outside arrangements. Mr. Owen communicated with the girl through Leonard. Mr. Davenport was to return home October 8, and the night before a farewell party was given at Major William A. Cooke's. Clarke engaged Abraham Nottingham, of De Witt, to be on Onondaga street with a buggy and the girl was to be secreted at Mr. Shep- pard's, a mile southeast of Marcellus. The evening came. The girl laid Mrs. Davenport's young child in her lap for a few minutes, left the house, and was gone. Leonard met her -at the door; the others at the earirage. She had neither hat nor shawl, and one of her colored friends wrapped his overcoat around her. Soon she was missed. Driv ers were sent in every direction. The Oswego packet was searched, and spies sent to the homes of James Cannings Fuller of Skaneateles, and Gerrit Smith of PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 269 Peterboro. All abolitionists houses in Syracuse were searched. Nothing appeared. Davenport offered a reward of two hundred dollars. She was described as "so fair that she would generally be taken for white;" character irreproach able, and he had been offered two thousand five hundred dollars for her several times. Leonard was arrested for larceny in hopes of a clue, but this failed. The abolitionists kept away from the examinations, which were reported to them by a friend. Harriet had been at Sheppard's a week when Owen dropped a remark which was carried to the searchers by a traitor, and next morning these were on the spot, finding Mr. Sheppard smiling and unconscious of all harm. The girl was not there. On the evening before the intended recapture there was a mass meeting of abolitionists at the First Congregational church. Mr. Clarke collected enough to "ship a bale of southern goods," and laid the proposed route before Gerrit Smith. He was told to send her to his house and he would do the rest. Arrange ments were made to send her to Dr. John Clarke's in Lebanon, New York, in a short time. Then Owen came, saying all was known. Time was precious, and Mr. Clarke said she must be moved that night. So Clarke and Owen tramped three miles to Nottingham's in the dark. It would have been unsafe to try a livery. Then Owen and Nottingham drove to Sheppards; and before daylight Harriet was on another farm, miles away. Soon after she was at Dr. Clarke's, then at Gerrit Smith's, where she received an outfit. Thence she was sent to Kingston in Canada, where she married and lived happily. Davenport issued a parting address on the subject, in which, very natur ally, the abolitionists were not spared. The writer well remembers a circular printed by his father for James Cannings Fuller about this affair. It was pasted on the wall just where he used to "change and distribute" the ink, and as the press went back and forth his eye often fell upon it. It described Harriet's arrival in Canada, concluding with the statement that she was sup posed "to hail from Davenport." At this time there was anti-Slavery societies in the county, one of the most active of which was in Skaneateles, where a library was maintained by it, and where every prominent leader was at some time heard. The hill country of Onondaga furnished convenient routes and stations for the underground railroad, and it seems to have been the strongest center of organized action. Sometimes quickly, often insensibly these things were affecting the public mind. Apparently the party was ridiculously small, but it was the leaven in the meal. In 1837 the Whigs were triumphant in the state, and there was a local di vision between the radical and conservative Democrats, both having a paper in Syracuse for some years. Whig success in 1838 gave the party canal pat ronage, and there was a general change, one great object of a canal maintained by the state. Then came the memorable election of 1840, with its great Whig mass meeting at Syracuse of sixty thousand people, its great processions filled with picturesque sights. Can we describe it? "0," said the Journal, "for 270 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY the pen of the Wizard of the North to describe the indescribable glories of the ever-to-be-remembered sixteenth day of October, 1840!" We give it up, of course. If "Vivus" could not do it, who could? In 1841 the Abolitionists had a full ticket, and in Onondaga polled three times the vote of the preceding year. About this time two names among the Democrats took on stronger significance — the Barnburners and Old Hunkers. New York has always been famous for its party names and divisions. That of Locofoeo was commonly applied to Democrats. In a caucus of that party in New York feeling ran high, and one faction put out the lights, declared the meeting adjourned and dispersed. The others quietly remained, got out their locofoeo or friction matches — then new — relit the lamps, and did busi ness their own way. The name stuck. The Old Hunkers, of course, had all the offices, and meant to have them. The Barnburners wanted them out of the way, even if they smashed things. So the story was applied of the old Penn sylvania farmer who burned his bams to get rid of rats. In 1842 the Democrats, Whigs and Liberty party held conventions in Syra cuse. In that year Onondaga county became a senatorial district. In 1843 the Abolitionists polled over seven hundred votes, and the Whig county con vention resolved that ' ' slavery is a relic of savage and unenlightened conditions ; that Locof ocoism in the North is the strongest bulwark of slavery in the South. ' ' In 1846 all the towns in the county, except Pompey, voted in favor of local option on the license question, but all reversed this within two years. The Hunker and Barnburner fight went on, resulting in a Democratic defeat in 1846. Onondaga now had four assemblymen, and was also a senatorial dis trict. The temperance party was organized for political work in 1848, and in that year the Free Soil party came out of the split of the Democrats. Gen eral Taylor's nomination offended some Whigs, and the new party grew in strength, and polled four thousand nine hundred and forty-two votes here out of twelve thousand six hundred and forty-six. There were three prominent candidates, Taylor receiving five thousand five hundred and forty-two in the county. A partial reconciliation of the two factions came in 1849, bringing but moderate success, but stimulating the Liberty party. The passage of the fugi tive slave law increased its strength. Then came the convention of that party in Syracuse, October 1, 1851, and the famous Jerry rescue at the same time. In 1852 the defeat of Scott ended the power of the Whig party, though it had. a name awhile longer. In 1853 the American or Know Nothing party suddenly appeared, with conspicuous success. Temperance men helped the Whigs elect Governor My ron H. Clark in 1854. There were now both Free Soil Democrats and Whigs ; also the Silver Grey Whigs, said to be so called "from the gray and flowing locks of Francis Granger," but probably a reminiscence of the Silver Greys of early war times. Next came the Republican party, holding its first county convention in Syracuse, October 18, 1855. The party elected James Noxon as senator by one thousand five hundred majority. The next year it sent Amos P. Granger back to Congress and elected all the assemblymen. In 1858 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 271 it elected Edwin D. Morgan as governor, and sent Charles B. Sedgwick to Congress from Onondaga. That it polled a large vote here for Lincoln was a matter of course. Events of political importance since the civil war have been few and local, without any special significance, though not without re sults. The Oswego and Syracuse railroad was opened in October, 1848, and the Syracuse and Binghamton road October 23, 1854. The direct road from Rochester to Syracuse was opened in 1853, when the roads between New York and Buffalo were consolidated. The first telegraph office in Syracuse was opened May 1, 1846, and there were two wires there in 1850. The State Asylum for the feeble minded was built in 1855, and the County Agricultural society was reorganized in 1856, but did not last long. For a time town societies were popular and successful. There came also financial distress in 1857, when the banks stopped specie payment, to the great relief of most people. There were many failures, but on the whole the county stood the strain quite well. Political excitement had been great all through I860; all kinds of conven tions were held, and many strong efforts made to avoid the impending crisis. The Wide Awake clubs, with their torches, were a picturesque feature of the campaign, but there were none of the grand rural processions of earlier days. Onondaga gave Lincoln three thousand nine hundred and eighty-one majority, and Republicans rejoiced. Then came secession, state after state going out, and a feeble hand holding the reins of government. At a meeting in Syracuse in the last week of 1860, a committee of thirty-three was appointed who straightway resolved that "the Union must and shall be preserved." January 13, 1861, a general Union meeting pledged the government hearty support. A minority report advised concessions to the South. The Fifty-first regiment was placed on a war footing, and January 29 an abolition meeting was broken up as being productive of evil. It assembled next day only to be broken up again. Lincoln passed through Syracuse February 18, but remained but a few minutes, briefly addressing the crowd. Fort Sumter was fired on, and Onon daga was all ablaze. April 22 a great mass meeting was held in Syracuse, and the next day the Common Council appropriated ten thousand dollars for fam ilies of volunteers. Some accounts of those who went to the war will follow. 272 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY CHAPTER XXVIII. THE WAR FOR TPIE UNION. On account of the nearness of Auburn many Skaneateles and Elbridge men enlisted in the Nineteenth and Seventy-fifth regiments, which represented Cayuga county. Captain John G. Butler had organized a company of Zou aves in Syracuse in 1860, and this went into service among the first. Following this came Pettit's Battery from Baldwinsville, though the Twelfth regiment preceded this as a regimental organization. The One Hundred and First reg iment was partially made up of Onondaga men in 1861. The One Hundred and Twenty-second and One Hundred and Forty-ninth were distinctly county or ganizations in 1862, as was the One Hundred and Eighty-fifth in 1864. Onon daga men were also in the New York Third, Tenth, Twelfth, Twentieth and Twenty-fourth cavalry. Beside Jenney 's and Pettit 's light artillery companies, Onondaga was well represented in the Ninth New York heavy artillery. Onon daga and Cortland furnished eight companies of the Second regiment of the Ira Harris light cavalry in 1864. Part of the Nineteenth, Forty-fourth, Seventy- fifth, Eighty-sixth and One Hundred and Ninety-third was partly raised here in April, 1865, and the One Hundred and Ninety-fourth was also mustered in. CAPTAIN BUTLER'S COMPANY. Captain John G. Butler formed a company of Zouaves in 1860, and its services were at once offered after the fall of Fort Sumter. It was recruited to seventy-seven officers and men, and became Company D of the Third regi ment, New York volunteers. One of its officers, Lieutenant S. Jenney, raised another company in Oneida county, of which he became captain. This was Company I, of the Third regiment. Captain Butler was ordered to Albany at once, thence to New York, and then to Fortress Monroe. The company there was placed under General Butler, and was engaged at Big Bethel, June 9, 1861. After the battle of Bull Run the regiment was assigned to garrison duty at Fort McHenry near Baltimore. It was mustered in May 14, 1861. Captain Butler was assigned to the One Hundred and Forty-seventh regiment in 1863, soon becoming its colonel. PETTIT'S BATTERY. Battery B, First New York light artillery, was better known as Pettit's Battery, and had a high reputation. Captain Rufus D. Pettit had served in the Mexican war, and easily raised this company from among his friends in Bald winsville. It entered the state service at Baldwinsville, August 24, 1861, and the United States service at Elmira, August 31. He was fruitful in exped ients and had his company well in hand before leaving Elmira. At Washing ton it was the first volunteer battery fully equipped, and at once attracted at tention by the precision of its firing. It took the field in the spring of 1862, ill!' ill I !'. r CITY HALL, SYRACUSE. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 273 and was at the battle of Warrenton Junction, March 28, 1862. At Fair Oaks, in June, General Hazard said, "The firing of Pettit 's Battery has never in my observation been excelled." Yet this was the second action of the bat tery. At a later day General Walker called its men "peerless gunners," and said elsewhere that "Pettit had cannoneers who could hardly be matched in any battery of the regular army." He imparted his coolness and skill to the men who served under him. With the exception of Antietam and Gettysburg, in both of which it did valuable service, all its engagements were in Virginia. It took part at Peach Orchard, Savage Station, White Oak Swamp, Malvern Hill, Centerville, Charlestown, Snicker's Gap, Falmouth, Fredericksburg; Chancellorsville, United States Ford, Mine Run, Spottsylvania, North Anna, Tolopotomoy, Bethesda Church, Petersburg, Hatcher's Run. It was mustered out June 23, 1865. Lieutenant Albert S. Sheldon became captain after the battle of Gettysburg, and was succeeded by Robert E. Rogers, December 30, 1864. Its field service had then ended. A fine monument marks its position on Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg. JENNEY 'S BATTERY. After some service in the New York Volunteers, Captain Edwin S. Jenney was authorized to raise a battery of light artillery, at first known as the Tenth New York Independent Battery, and composed of one hundred and forty- two men. Under the rules, however, it could not then be independent, and was attached to the Third New York Artillery as Company F. As such it was mustered in December 18, 1861, and soon went to New York City where it was drilled in infantry tactics. February 22, 1862, it took post at Fort Corcoran, on Arlington Heights opposite Washington. March 25 it had orders to join Burnside's expedition, and landed at Newbern, North Carolina, April 2d. By July 1 it was fully equipped. In November it was with the army, march ing upon Tarboro, but no battles occurred. December 11 the march on Golds- boro began. The battery participated in the conflicts at Kinston and White hall, but was held in reserve at Goldsboro, having suffered severely. Captain Jenney was made major, but retained command till July, 1863. In the expedition to Hilton Head, January 31, 1863, the battery was tem porarily divided, part remaining in Newbern till the next winter, when it re joined the main portion in South Carolina. The part detained, however, did efficient service in several actions in North Carolina. That which went to South Carolina encamped on St. Helena island, where it remained inactive till April 1st. Then it had marching orders and went to Folly island, becoming part of Vogdes' brigade and with Major Jenney still in command. In the as saults on Morris island Battery F successfully defended the crossing troops. During the siege of Fort Wagner it held an advanced position till the fort was taken. In April, 1864, the battery went to Beaufort, North Carolina, and in Sep tember to Florida. November 29 it returned to South Carolina, taking part in the battles of Honey Hill, Dereauxheck, Camden, Ashapo and others. In May, 1865, it was mustered out. 274 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY THE TWELFTH REGIMENT, NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS. The Twelfth regiment was filled April 15, 1861, with two years' men, un der Colonel Ezra L. Walrath. Captain Morris H. Church headed Company A; Jacob Brand Company B; Dennis Driscoll Company C; George W. Stone Company D ; Jabez M. Brower Company E ; Milo W. Locke Company F ; Joseph C. Irish Company G; George W. Cole Company H; Henry A. Barnum Com pany I; Augustus J. Root Company K. It left Syracuse for Elmira May 2, 1861, and was mustered in May 13. Leaving Elmira June 2d, it encamped a few weeks on East Capitol hill, Washington, being ordered across the chain bridge into Virginia July 15, and taking part in a skirmish at Blackburn's ford on the 18th. It was in the battle of Bull Run, and was part of the rear guard of the retreating army. Near Washington it occupied various camps tid the advance on Upton's Hill, September 27, when it established a permanent camp, remaining in this till early in February, 1862: February 3 it was consolidated with the New York Militia, so caded having been reduced to four hundred and fifty officers and men. The new body had five hundred and fifty men. The old Twelfth was under Lieutenant Colonel R. M. Richardson, but he gave precedence to Colonel Henry A. Weeks, who commanded the new recruits. The ten com panies of the old Twelfth were reduced to five, A, G, H, I, K, commanded respectively by Captains Root, Randall, Wood, Truesdell and Coombs. This allowed the Twelfth to go into the Army of the Potomac, instead of being left to do garrison duty. The Army of the Potomac was organized March 13, 1862, the Twelfth reg iment being attached to General Butterfield's brigade of five regiments. It worked in the trenches at Yorktown, but had skirmishes in the field. Thence it was sent to West Point, Pamunkey river and the Chickahominy. It was in the Fifth corps, under General Fitz John Porter. The Fifth corps was in the engagement at Mechanicsville, June 26, but was ordered to evacuate its strong position early next day, and fall back to Gaines' Mill, as StonewaU Jackson was approaching. This was successfully done, and the Twelfth found itself in the extreme left, on the Chickahominy. In the stubborn conflict that ensued the Union works were stormed and taken. In this battle the Twelfth lost one hundred and fortydiour men. During the night the Union forces were withdrawn. Next day the Twelfth went to Savage 's Station, crossing White Oak Swamp June 29, and engaging in the battle of Malvern Hill July 1st. The Twelfth was again on the left, where the Confederate General D. H. Hill opened the conflict at 3 P. M. At the outset Major Henry A. Barnum here received a dan gerous wound. The regiment next went to Harrison's Landing, on the James river. Thence it went to Yorktown and Newport News, reaching the latter August 18, and leaving on transports for Aquia creek on the 20th. It was in the second bat tle of Bull Run, August 30, 1862. In this the Twelfth again lost heavily, the PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 275 roll call next morning showing only one hundred and six men, one staff and six line officers. The brigade lost nine hundred out of fifteen hundred men. , After camping at Arlington Heights it shared in the battle of Antietam, September 17, this time in the center, but not engaged till late in the after noon. September 19 it was in a sharp skirmish at Shepherdstown Ford. Some duty was done at Sharpsburg, and then it went to Stoneman's Switch, near Fredericksburg, remaining there till December 13, when Burnside 's disastrous assault was made. In this the Twelfth again had severe losses, lying all night and all the next day on the field of battle. It was the last to cross the pontoon bridge on the retreat. It went to its old camp at Stoneman's Switch, and was ordered to Elmira April 27, 1863, being mustered out May 17th. No one who saw it can forget its enthusiastic reception at Syracuse, May 21 of that year. THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIRST REGIMENT. This was organized at Hancock, New York, and was raised in Delaware, New York and Onondaga counties, being mustered into service from September 2, 1861, to February 28, 1862. Among the Onondaga officers were Lieutenant Colonel Johnson B. Brown and Captain Gustavus Sniper, who became Lieu tenant Colonel on Brown's resignation. THE ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SECOND REGIMENT. The One Hundred and Twenty-second regiment responded to the call for three hundred thousand men in 1862. At this time the state was divided into regimental districts, corresponding to the senatorial districts, with a war com mittee in each. In Onondaga county this committee was appointed : Hon. Charles Andrews, Grove Lawrence, Dennis McCarthy, Elias W. Leavenworth, Hamilton White, Austin Myres, Thomas G. Alvord, L. W. Hall, Thomas T. Davis and J. Dean Hawley. After organization the committee met every evening. The roll for the One Hundred and Twenty-second was opened July 20, and closed August 20, the regiment being full. The towns had been arranged in groups, and thus each company had a local character. Company A was from Lysander and Van Buren, and was commanded by Joshua B. Davis, who was soon made major. This was the first one filled. Company B was from Syracuse, Geddes, Cicero and Clay, with Webster R. Chamberlain as captain. Letters are in the order of organization. Company C was from Manlius and De Witt, commanded by Alfred Nims. Company D from Syracuse, Onondaga, Spafford, Otisco, Captain Cornell Chrysler. Company: E, Syracuse, Captain Augustus W. Dwight, succeeded by Horace H. Walpole. Company F, mostly from Marcellus. Captain Lucius Moses. Company G, Elbridge. Captain Harrison H. Jilson. 276 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Company H, mainly from Camillus. Capt. James M. Gere. Company I, Syracuse and Salina. Captain John M. Dwight. Company K, Syracuse, Skaneateles and Tully. Captain Noah B. Kent. Silas Titus was colonel, and the regiment was mustered in at Syracuse, August 28, 1862, leaving for New York and Washington August 31, reaching the latter city September 3, where it went into immediate service. It was un der command of Brigadier General John Cochrane of Couch's division, arriv ing at South Mountain just in time to see the battle's end. McClellan was now advancing up the Potomac, with that river on his left, and in his left wing was the One Hundred and Twenty-second. It had no direct share in the battle of Antietam, its division having been ordered to the left to outflank a supposed flanking movement. September 20 it was at Williamsport, where Stewart's confederate cavalry was driven off. Three days later it went into camp near DownsviUe, remaining there two months for drill. Several unim portant movements followed, and it crossed into Virginia November 3d. The regiment was now in the left grand division of the Army of the Poto mac, and stiU in the same brigade. It joined the march to Fredericksburg, November 10, via New Baltimore, Stafford Court House and Belle Plaine, and crossed the river December 11th. On the disastrous 13th of December the One Hundred and Twenty-second was well to the. left and suffered but little. December 15 it recrossed the Rappahannock, went into camp at Falmouth, and remained there till January 20, 1863. Then it marched in the "mud cam paign. ' ' General Hooker took command February 16, and for two months drilled his men. The One Hundred and Twenty-second had mostly picket duty. April 25 it moved with the sixth corps and was engaged all night laying pon toons below Fredericksburg. When the general advance was made it remained at Franklin's crossing, in front of the enemy .'s works. May 2 orders came for the sixth corps to cross the river, which was done, and the next day the heights were carried. The victorious foe returned from Chancellorsville and attacked the corps at Salem Church, but was repulsed. The One Hundred and Twenty- second held the extreme right through the night. Next morning the situa tion was critical, and Sedgwick was driven back with loss-. In the night the bridge-head was held by the One Hundred and Twenty-second till 3 A. M., and it was the last to cross. May 8 it was in a new and safe camp not far from the river. June 6 Hooker sent a division of the sixth corps across the Rappahannock to see what Lee was doing. In this was the One Hundred and Twenty-second. Lee was now in motion northward, and the regiment took up its march to Gettysburg, arriving there at 3 P. M. July 2, and going into the front line at once, soon finding themselves next to the One Hundred and Forty-ninth, also from Onondaga, and in the right wing. General H. W. Slocum, an Onon daga man, commanded that wing then. For several days after the battle they followed the retreating enemy, and then camped at Warrenton till November 7th, when the regiment took part in the successful attack on the works at Rappa hannock station. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 277 January 3, 1864, the regiment went to Sandusky to guard prisoners, re turning to Virginia April 13. General Grant was now in command, and in the new organization the One Hundred and Twenty-second was assigned to the Fourth brigade, First division, Sixth corps. It left Brandy Station May 4, reaching the Rapidan at night, and crossing the next afternoon. Next day it was engaged, with some loss ; and in a following charge by the enemy it was driven back with further loss, Captain Gere being made a prisoner. May 7 an attack was repulsed, and next day the regiment fought at Spottsylvania. Engagements now came thick and fast, and will not be closely followed. At Cold Harbor,- May 31, out of one hundred and forty men the regiment lost seventy-five killed and wounded. It remained in front of Petersburg till sent in August to Washington, and thence to the Shenandoah valley. It was in the battle of Winchester with Sheridan, and took part in other battles there. This being done it returned to Petersburg in time for the closing scenes of the war. A month it was in Danville, and later was reviewed at Richmond . and Washington. The final discharge took place June 27, 1865. THE FIFTEENTH CAVALRY. The Fifteenth New York Cavalry, though organized in Syracuse, had its companies from Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Genesee, Oneida, Onondaga, Ontario, Orange and Tompkins counties, and was mustered in August 8, 1863. Captain Michael Auer commanded Company A, and six of the eleven original captains were from Onondaga. Colonel R. M. Richardson was also from this county. The regiment took part in the engagements at Lynchburg, 1864, New Market, Winchester, Piedmont, Martinsburg, and the series of fights about Petersburg, resulting in Lee's capture. THE ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-NINTH REGIMENT. The One Hundred and Forty-ninth regiment was mustered in September 18, 1862, under Henry M. Barnum as colonel. It had some peculiarities. Company A was composed of Jews and organized in the Synagogue, under Captain Solomon Light. Company B was exclusively German, under Captain Nicholas Grumbach. Company C was nearly all Irish, under Captain James Lynch. Company D was commanded by Captain J. Forman Wilkinson. Company E by Captain Ira B. Seymour. Company F by Captain Judson H. Graves. Company G by Captain E. G. Townsend. Company H by Captain Robert E. Hopkins. Company I by Captain David J. Lindsay. Company K by Captain James E. Doren. 278 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY The regiment left Syracuse for Washington September 23, 1862, going thence to Harper's Ferry. It was in camp at Pleasant Valley till October 30. Thence it went to Louden Valley and then to Bolivar Heights. The active command soon devolved on Major A. G. Cook. December 10 the regiment went to Fairfax station, where it barely survived the ocean of mud. January 28, 1863, it marched thence to Aquia creek, where it had comfortable but unhealthy quarters. February 15 to April 9th it found a better place at Brook's station. At ChancellorsviUe it had a share in the successive battles, and these were its first engagements. The regiment returned to its quarters at Aquia creek, but soon joined in the pursuit of Lee northward to Gettysburg, which it reached late in the day of the first battle. The One Hundred and Forty-ninth was in Geary's division of Slocum 's corps. In following Lee's retreat the regiment passed for the fourth time through Frederick City, reaching the Rappanhannock August 1st. Soon after the One Hundred and Forty-ninth found itself in the Twen tieth corps under Slocum, but going south with Sherman. In a night attack in the Wauhatchie valley it suffered severely, but the result was important. Then came the battle of Lookout Mountain, with its striking features never to be forgotten. In this the One Hundred and Forty-ninth led the way. This was on the 24th of November and another successful action followed Decem ber 2d. Then came a lack of supplies and a removal to a better place at Ste venson, where the regiment remained till spring. May 2, 1864, the great Atlanta campaign began, with over three months' constant fighting. At Peach Tree creek, July 20, the One Hundred and Forty- ninth lost heavily. Atlanta was entered September 2d. There the soldiers took part in the presidential election before leaving Atlanta, November 16, for the famous "march to the sea." Raleigh was reached April 14, 1865, and news soon came of Lee's surrender. The regiment was mustered out June 12. 1865. THE ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-FIFTH REGIMENT. The One Hundred and Eighty-fifth regiment was mustered in September 22, 1864, leaving next day for City Point, Virginia, arriving there September 30 and going at once into action at Warren station. It was under command of Colonel E. S. Jenney and Lieutenant Colonel Gustavus Sniper. Captain Stephen 0. Howard commanded Company A. John Listman Company B, Henry D. Carhart Company C, Daniel N. Lathrop Company D, Robert P. Bush Company E, John W. Strowbridge Company F, Albert H. Barber Com pany G, Daniel Christler Company H, Jared F. Abbott Company I, and Abram H. Spore Company K. October 4 it was assigned to the First brigade, First division, Fifth army corps, under' General S. Warren. General Sickles was brigade commander. Oc tober 8 the regiment aided General Ayers of the Ninth corps at Poplar, Grove church, repulsing an attack. October 16 it was in camp before Petersburg, participating in a battle on the South-side railroad on the 27th. In the move- PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 279 ment on the Weldon railroad December 3 it did important work. December 12, 1864, to February 4, 1865, it was in camp at the Gurley House near War renton station. Then it marched to Hatcher's Run, suffering severely in the battle there. In this fight Colonel Jenney was left in command of the bri gade and did excellent service. He soon left the regiment and Colonel Sniper took his place. The One Hundred and Eighty-fifth left the camp at Hatcher's Run, March 29, 1865, taking part in the severe conflict at Fort Steedman, March 25th. On the 29th the advance began, and in a desperate charge at Quaker farm the reg iment suffered heavily but saved the day. The color bearears were successive ly shot down till Colonel Sniper seized the flag and led the charge. Other engagements followed and the regiment reached Appomattox station before Lee's surrender. There Lieutenant Hiram Clark of Company G was killed while the flag of truce was being sent in. He was in command of the skirmish line and was struck by a shell, being the last man killed. He was buried near Appomattox Court House. The regiment now went with the army toward Danville, and was three days in camp at Burksville. Then it went to Wilson's station on the South-side railroad, remaining there till the first of May, and moving thence to Manchester, opposite Richmond. May 5 it marched for Alexandria, arriving at Arlington Heights May 13, where it remained in camp till mustered out May 30, but tak ing part in the grand review of May 23d. It had a warm reception at Geneva, New York, on the way home, and another at Syracuse, where it arrived June 3d. It was paid off and discharged June 10. Though less than a year in service this regiment was in some of the hardest fighting. It has been estimated that Onondaga furnished about ten thousand men in this war, one thousand above its quota. There was no abatement of public spirit to the very last. Some of the old flags have been placed with the Onon daga Historical Association and may be seen in its rooms. Baldwinsville and Skaneateles have soldiers' monuments, and one for the county is to be erected at Syracuse. Several Grand Army Republic posts exist, and there are camps of the Sons of. Veterans. A fine bronze equestrian figure of Sniper is on North Salina street, Syracuse, and in St. James' Church, Skaneateles, a bronze tablet commemorates the soldiers who went from that parish. Aside from the loss of life the financial cost of the war to Onondaga was heavy. Private contributions were liberal, but large sums were voted to relieve families of volunteers, to pay for bounties and other needs. Once a draft took place, and the wheel is preserved by the Historical Association. In 1865 the state refunded seven hundred and fifteen thousand dollars of the amount paid for bounties here. In January, 1864, the bonded debt of the county was two million two hundred and ninety-six thousand four hundred and ninety-nine dollars and ninety-six cents. Corrected figures with additional issues, made it two million four hundred and ninety-eight thousand one hundred and forty- four dollars and eighty-eight cents, December 1, 1865, mostly contracted during the war. The final issue of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars war bonds was made from January 16, 1865. Nearly a year earlier Syracuse had been 280 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY asked for tw© hundred and thirty-one thousand three hundred and forty-six dol lars as its share for bounties. The cost was met, the victorious troops came home, and only in saddened homes was there lasting regret. Of the whole of our share in the conflict, Hon. Carroll E. Smith gave an eloquent summary at the centennial celebration of 1894 : "The county sent out to the war more than ten thousand volunteers, con stituting five infantry regiments, nearly a regiment of cavalry, a cavalry bat talion, two artiUery batteries, and many companies and contingents, each re newed as numbers were reduced by casualties .and vicissitudes. There was no campaign in all the range of contested territory which was not participated in by Onondaga troops. It is-a record of honor throughout. No reproach rests upon it. The roll of Onondaga's soldiers and sailors bears the names of Slo cum and Sumner, Peck and Barnum, Porter and Townsend, Sniper and Dwight, Root and McLennan, Randall and Lindsay and many others. The chronicles of the campaigns are illustrated not only with brilliant and success ful leadership, but with innumerable examples of personal courage, daring and achievement. No flag that was carried by Onondaga volunteers was lost; these volunteers brought with them as trophies, several flags taken by them from the enemy. ' ' Three monuments of special interest to Onondaga people are at Gettysburg. One is of Pettit 's Battery, on Cemetery Ridge. The inscription reads in front : Battery B, First New York Light Artillery. Artillery Brigade Second Corps. (Reverse). Position held afternoon of July 3, 1863. Casualties, Killed 10, Wounded 16. (Right Side). Mustered into service August 31, 1861. Par ticipated in seventy-eight days of battle. Mustered out of service June 18, 1865. (Left Side). Organized at Baldwinsville, Onondaga County, New York. Another at Culp's Hill bears this inscription: (Front). One Hundred and Twenty-second New York Infantry, Sixth Army Corps. (Right Side). Third Division. (Reverse). Assisted in repulsing the attack on the morning of July 3, 1863. Loss, Killed 10, Wounded 34. (Left Side). First Brigade. Organized Onondaga County, New York. Mustered into service at Syracuse, New York, August 28, 1862. Served continuously with the Sixth Corps until the close of the war. Another at Culp's Hill tells a varied tale. The inscription is: (Front). One Hundred and Forty-ninth New York Infantry. Third Brigade, Second Di vision, Twelfth Corps. Flag was planted in works. Shot down and mended under fire. (Reverse). Five P. M. July 1, 1863, occupied position near Lit tle Round Top. Four A. M. July 2, moved here, built these works and de fended July 2 and 3. Killed 6, wounded 46, missing 3. Mustered in at Syracuse, New York, September 18, 1862. Total enlistments one thousand two hundred and seventy. Total losses six hundred and two. Mustered out June 12, 1865. Engagements: Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Wauhatchie, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Ringgold, Rocky Face Ridge, Resaca, New Hope Church, Pine Mountain, Lost Mountain, Kole's farm, Kenesaw Mountain, Peach Tree creek, Siege of Atlanta, March to the sea, Siege of Savannah, Cam paign of the Carolinas, Bentonville. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 281 There were organizations there with Onondaga men, but which were raised elsewhere. Those named are sufficient to give interest in Gettysburg. The Grand Army organizations of the county are Lilly Post, No. 66, and Root Post, No. 151, Syracuse ; Allen, No. 54, at Fabius ; Benjamin H. Porter, 164, Skaneateles; R. S. Parks, 172, Cardiff; Moses Summers, 278, Bald winsville; E. A. Knapp, 340, South Onondaga; Joseph Jones, 358, Marcellus; M. Seager, 405, Jordan; Saunders, 457, Cicero; Goodelle, 593, Tully; William Pullen, 595, Brewerton; George H. Balster, 608, Manlius; Anthony Stacey, 647, Elbridge; Colonel Randall, 648, Liverpool; R. D. Pettit, 663, Lysander; R. B. Hayes, 667, Fayetteville ; Benjamin L. Higgins, 670, East Syracuse. Organi zations of the Woman's Relief Corps and of the Sons of Veterans are attached to some of these. CHAPTER XXIX. THE ERIE AND OSWEGO CANALS. Before the Revolution the subject of a canal at the Little Falls of the Mo hawk had been discussed and some steps taken. The war was hardly over be fore the improvement of internal navigation was before the people. Chris topher Colles presented memorials on the subject to the Legislature 1784-85, and one hundred and twenty-five dollars were allowed him to examine the Mo hawk river. Then he proposed an association to improve navigation, but this did not come at once. Others took up the matter, and in 1791 surveys were made on Wood creek, resulting in the incorporation of the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, to connect the Hudson river with Seneca lake and Lake Ontario. Fifteen years were allowed for the work. In 1795 the canal and locks at Little Falls were completed, and in 1800 boats could pass all the way to the proposed destination. In 1803 came the proposal to tap Lake Erie, but no survey was ordered till 1808, when James Geddes, of Onondaga, was appointed to make it. In 1809 he reported three different routes, the third of which left out Lake On tario, and this he favored. In 1810 canal commissioners were appointed, but it was not till 1816 that work was authorized, and the comparatively level land from Rome to the Seneca river at Montezuma, was selected as the first section to be opened, the first contract being dated June 27, 1817. In 1817, this sec tion, then extending from Utica to Seneca river, with a lateral canal to Salina, was completed, being a navigable line for ninety-four miles; a great achieve ment for those days. This section cost about thirteen thousand dollars per mile, but Dr. Morse placed it at eleven thousand eight hundred and fifty dollars. It thus happened that the canal was in use through Onondaga county long before it was completed in some other parts. Elkanah Watson had been one 282 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY of its projectors, and was here in 1818, as in the printed journal, but really in 1820. He said: ' ' On the 7th of June I left the village of Manlius, as well for the purpose of viewing the canal as to accept an invitation to an excursion upon the first packet boat on her preliminary trip. I found lads and lasses, old and young, pour ing in from all quarters, to profit by the same invitation. It began to rain as I arrived, and we aU pressed into the long narrow cabin, packed to its greatest capacity. In a short time, however, the shower abated, the artillery of heaven ceased its incessant and terrific peals, the vivid flashes of lightning disappear ed. .. . As soon as the rain ceased, the cabin began to disgorge its load. The gallant swains handed up their lasses, and spread the deck with chairs and benches, which were filled by a happy, joyous crowd, full of life and hilarity. I had observed some distance in advance a bridge that seemed unusually low, and watched our rapid approach to it with some anxiety, although relieved from apprehension by the feeling that the officers' of the boat knew and would dis charge their duty in watching the safety of the passengers. My alarm and agitation increased to the utmost intensity when I perceived that we were only two or three rods from the bridge, that no notice was taken of the danger, and that inevitable destruction was impending over the whole happy and unsuspic- ious mass. I cried out in the highest pitch of my voice — "Down! down! off the deck!" Fortunately the boat had a considerable space between the cabin and gunwale, and into these gangways the greatest proporton precipitated them selves, while the rest tumbled into promiscuous heaps in the narrow spaces at the bow and stern. In another instant the chairs and benches were crushed into atoms with a tremendous crash, the fragments flying in every direction. To the astonishment of us all, upon regaining our feet, after the passage of the bridge, we found that not a person had been injured. It turned out that the captain was engaged in administering at his bar, and that the helmsman was an ignorant novice." The "low bridge" was the great peril of the "raging canawl," and will be mentioned again. The Rev. Jedidiah Morse has left us an account of an early trip: "In May, 1820, the time I was on it, it was finished 96 miles, from Utica to Montezuma, with a branch of a mile and a half, to the salt works at Salina. In this distance are nine locks, each 90 feet long and ten feet wide, and one un broken level of 67 miles, a fact probably unparalleled in any other Canal in the world. The width of the Canal 40 feet on the surface of the water, 28 feet at the bottom, and four feet deep." "The passage from Utica to Montezuma, 96 miles, is made in 36 hours, the whole expense, provision as in steam-boats, $4. Our passage was more leisurely in the boat named Montezuma, commanded by Capt. Buss. This boat is 76 feet long, by 13 feet wide ; will carry 60 or 70 tons, is well fitted for the accom modation of passengers, by night as well as by day. We passed a raft of 446 tons of timber, coming down the Canal, drawn by three horses, at the rate of 18 miles in a day and a half. The expense was estimated at $50; while the transportation of the same quantity by land, would be $1200. ' ' PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 283 In 1820 it was ordered that the Salina canal, then terminating on the south line of Salina village, should be connected with Onondaga lake and Seneca river. This eventually became the Oswego canal. Joshua Forman and James Geddes had been prominent in canal matters and the former was chosen as speaker at the grand canal celebration in 1825. There was an earlier one in 1820. Clark said that "the first packet-boat on the canal, named the Montezuma, arrived at Syracuse on the 21st of April, 1820. It was built and fitted up by a company of. gentlemen at Montezuma, from a model furnished by Comfort Tyler." . It will be seen that Watson is made- to speak of one at Manlius two years earlier, in his journal, but internal evidence makes it 1820, thus corresponding with other accounts. Clark also described the 4th of July celebration of 1820 as the first one held in Syracuse, adding that "invitations had been extended to the friends of the canal throughout the State, particularly in the Western District." He enumerated among the guests, "Gov. Clinton and suite, General Van Cortland, Myron Holley, Thomas J. Oakley, and John C. Spencer, Judge Van Ness adjourned the Circuit, then in session at the Court-House, and the Court and Bar attended in a body. Thad deus M. Wood, Esq., presided on the occasion. The Declaration was read by N. P. Randall, Esq., and the Oration delivered by Samuel Miles Hopkins, Esq., to more than two thousand people." There was a procession, escorted by the Salina band, and the exercises were in a pine grove in the rear of the Townsend Block. This was but a preliminary fete. The great one came November 1, 1825, when the boat bearing Governor Clinton and his suite passed through Syracuse, on the first passage from Buffalo. As president of the village Judge Forman made the address, Governor Clinton replying. Judge Forman went with the party, attending the ceremony of mingling the waters of Lake Erie with those of the Atlantic, off Sandy Hook. Line boats, in early days, carried emigrants as well as freight, and had sleeping accommodations. Packets were long and narrow, with berths put up and taken down, much as in sleeping cars now. While this was being done, or tables set, men were usually sent on deck. Horses were ready for relays, and went at a brisk trot, usuady about five miles an hour. It was a delightful way of traveling, perfectly safe if one looked out for low bridges, which occa sionally hurt a careless passenger. There are many stories told of those bridges. Several are of the identifi cation of persons once employed on canals. If there was a ducking at the sound of ' ' Low bridge ! " it was enough. One is of an abolitionist who was bothered with straw votes, in which he made no show. He saw his chance. The boat approached a low bridge. At the critical moment he shouted, "All those in favor of Birney, down ! ' ' The vote was unanimous. That inimitable impersonator of a past generation, Winched, used to tell a canal story; first as an old Scotch lady, who thought the Americans the most gallant people in the world, they so often named their states, towns and vil lages after women. There were Mrs. Sippi and Miss Soury* Mary Land and Louisa Anna, Sail Ina and Sarah Kuse, etc. Then an accident happens to a 284 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Frenchman, who complains because they tell him to look out when he should look in. It is a case of "low bridge." The doctor comes with swelling cheeks and pompous air, to be instantly succeeded by a lean faced Yankee, asking anx iously: "Say, doctor! where 's the critter smashed?" Bishop Huntington, on his first arrival in Syracuse, was much interested in canal life from its novelty, but may have not heard a parody on his brother- in-law's song: "A Life on the Ocean Wave." The local version had this chorus: "A life on the Erie Canal, a home on the tow-path side, Where the horses go up and down, and sail against the tide. ' ' There came enlargement, free canals, double headers, steamboats, and now we are to have a barge canal, much of it on natural lines. A statement of the work follows, as far as it applies to Onondaga. The section known as the Syracuse contract extends from Oneida lake to Mosquito point, a distance of forty-three miles, and the work is to cost three million five hundred thousand dollars. It begins a mile east of Brewerton, and the lake and river are to be deepened to a point a mile west of that place. That village will become a harbor, with one thousand feet of pile docking on the north side east of the river bridge, and six hundred and fifty feet of crib docking on the south side, west of the railroad bridge. The highway bridge will be raised about seven feet in the center, and three feet at the ends. Several cut-offs will reduce the distance from Brewerton to Three Rivers from twenty-three to ten miles. The first will leave the river a mile west of Brewerton, reaching it two miles west of Caughdenoy, and will be about four miles long. The famous eel weir at the latter place will be destroyed, and a new dam built there. There will be a small cut-off near Oak Orchard, where the old dam and lock are to be removed, and a new bridge built. The dam and lock will be replaced by a lock of seven f^eet lift, at the lower end of the first cut-off. A mile below Oak Or chard wiU be another cut-off, reaching the river again less than a mile east of Three River point, and saving a distance of five miles. From Three Rivers to Baldwinsville there will be little lessening of the river distance, on account of intervening hills. The work will be deepening the chan nel. At the Cold Spring bridge will be a short cut-off, making an island of seventy-five acres where the river makes its greatest southern bend. So near will the main line of the barge canal approach Syracuse, which, however, is to have a harbor. At Baldwinsville the canal will take the south side of the river, instead of the present route on the north. Just west of the highway bridge a lock with an eleven foot lift will be built, and the dam will be raised three feet. Like the proposed dam at Phoenix, this will involve serious questions of land damages. Between Baldwinsville and Jack's Reefs there will be two small cut-offs, most of the work being dredging, and excavating soft rock. At Jack's Reefs the river PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 285 wiU be left, and the State Ditch, four thousand feet long, will be greatly en larged. There the material thrown out in the early excavation was heaped up on either side, and must be removed. The remaining work is in shaly rock, and a much greater depth must be reached. When the long excavation of the river bed was made at Jack's Reefs fine specimens of alabaster were found. Leaving this the canal passes Cross lake, following the river to Mosquito point. The channel will be dredged and the bridge raised. At Brewerton the channel will be two hundred feet, but generally one hundred and fifty feet, with a depth of twelve feet everywhere. All the cut-offs will be seventy-five feet wide. Antiquarians, naturalists and geologists should be on the watch for inter esting finds. The work will require about four years, the contractors being Stewart, Kerbaugh & Shanley. Should the state barge canal be changed to a national ship canal, as seems just and wise, the route may remain essentially the same. The formal celebration at the opening of the Erie canal was too novel and picturesque to be slightly passed over. A new mode of telegraphing had been arranged, cannon being placed at intervals of a few miles all the way from Buffalo to New York. The first one was fired when Governor Clinton's boat entered the canal at Buffalo at ten A. M., the last at New York at eleven twenty. Then the reports went back to Buffalo. Three boats left Buffalo with the official party, the Seneca chief being fitted up in sumptuous style. The Superior and Buffalo were the other two. "Noah's Ark" fell into line, having on board a bear, two eagles, and other birds and beasts, with two Indian boys in native costume. The Niagara joined the party at Black Rock. At length the fleet reached Roch ester, where eight uniformed military companies greeted them. They were met by the Young Lion, a Rochester boat, and this dialogue followed : "Who comes here?" "Your brothers from the West, on the waters of the great lakes." "By what means have they been diverted so far from their natural course." "By the channel of the great Erie canal." "By whose authority and by whom was a work of such magnitude accom plished?" "By the authority and by the enterprise of the patriotic people of the State of New York." The fleet entered the canal basin and a grand time followed. Of what happened at Syracuse, Colonel Stone said : "The floating procession reached this place at 2 P. M. of the 29th. The Honorable Joshua Forman, in behalf of the Syracuse committee, addressed in highly appropriate terms the distinguished guests on board, and he was replied to by Governor Clinton in his usual felicitous style. The guests were then escorted to Williston's Mansion House, where a large number partook of an excellent dinner, and drank many good toasts. Immediately after dinner the guests were escorted to the boat, which proceeded on her voyage under the dis charge of cannon, and Judge Forman here joined the committees as a represen tative of the village of Syracuse to New York." 286 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY It is also gratifying to know that Manlius "celebrated in a praise-worthy manner. ' ' It was a wonderful trip all the way, with a still grander culmination when a great fleet went down New York bay to Sandy Hook for the ceremony of mingling the waters of Lake Erie and the Atlantic. In her account of the Malcolm family Mrs. Dillaye said: "A packet boat containing passengers went through twice a week, and afterward daily, stopping for a few moments at the canal basin, opposite my father's store. This was a great event, and when the dock bell -rang out announcing its arrival, the news spread that 'the packet boat had come.' " The weigh-lock at Syracuse hardly has its original importance, since tolls are no longer levied on boats or cargoes, but it is useful in determining the weight of cargoes for all concerned. The weight of each canal boat is registered in the Collector's office. When the cargo is to be weighed the boat is run into a slip behind the weigh-lock house. The gates are closed and the water passes out by a tunnel into Onondaga creek. The boat is left high and dry on a cradle, ready for weighing. This also serves as a dry dock for disabled boats. It would be easy to quote many accounts from delighted early travelers of their impressions and experiences of this novel, safe and pleasant mode of travel. They are found abundantly from 1820 to 1825. The first charm wore off but the travel long continued. The introduction of steam on the canals added a new feature, and even pleasure boats more or less frequent their waters. Artists will not soon forget the famous Arkell excursion. This chapter may well conclude with an advertisement of 1820, before the completion of the canal but while the "long level" was in use. "Boats for the accomodation of passengers 100 miles on the canal, are now in operation by the ' Erie Canal Navigation Company. ' They sail every Monday and Thursday morning from Utica, at 9 o'clock, and arrive at Canistota (Lenox) at 7 P. M., proceed next day at 2 A. M. and arrive at Montezuma at 7 P. M. "Returning — Sail from Montezuma on Mondays and Thursdays at 8 o'clock a. m., arrive at Syracuse (Salina) at 7 p. m., proceed next day at 2 a. m., and arrive at Utica at 6 p. m. Price of passage through the route, including pro vision and lodging, $4. Way passengers three cents per mile. A small advance to be made on the price of passage when the Toll and Lockage are established. Baggage at the owner's risk. For passage apply to Doolittle & Gold, or at the Stage Office, Utica. To Richard Smith, innkeeper, Montezuma, or the captains on board. ' ' A word may be added on one or two events of 1907. The Erie canal passes over Onondaga creek, and at this spot successive breaks occurred late in the summer, tying up navigation for several weeks in the busiest season. These were at last temporarily repaired, and completely so when the usual closing .came. The canal also passes over the New York Central railroad, where a similar break would have disastrous consequences. The Central officers took no chances, and in December commenced rebuilding the tunnel in a thorough manner, at an estimated expense of one hundred thousand dollars, though the franchise runs but a few years more. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 287 CHAPTER XXX. ONONDAGA WRITERS. To give anything like a full account of the writers of Onondaga, who have done creditable literary work, would take large space, for every town and period has produced those who have affected thought and produced tangible results without being strictly literary people. Our lawyers, physicians, clergymen, editors and teachers are doing such work all 'the time; work which elevates instructs, refines, improves and entertains, yet is not preserved in permanent form. Judicial opinions are expressed in the clearest and most concise way ; sermons are written and delivered in the most forcible and eloquent manner; addresses are made which stir the heart; editorials are written which shape public policy; papers are elaborated which prevent disease and promote sani tary reforms ; and yet a weak poem, going on unequal feet, a story with little plot and poor expression, may pass for inspiration. In the following list of writers, it will be seen that a large number of our public men — men who write weU — do not appear. The fact that they write for a definite business purpose will explain this. They are too busy for literary rambles, and rarely publish books. It is fortunate that many others, of cultiire and taste, are willing to please, instruct, console or arouse men in a different way. Some years ago Mrs. Marlette made a list of about ninety Onondaga women who did more or less writing for the public ; some of it very good indeed. Others have been added since, for history, art, and literary clubs have furnished a stimulus less felt by men. Rev. John W. Adams, D. D., lived in Syracuse, 1826-50, and was buried in Oakwood cemetery. He planned a work to be called "Annals of Onondaga Valley," some extracts from which were published. His collected materials went into Clark's "Onondaga." Much of it he gathered before 1834, and the following receipt will show how long he carried on this work : "Syracuse, April 17, 1847. "Received of Rev. J. W. Adams, on contract for services in obtaining materials for History, four dollars. J. N. T. TUCKER." He himself published two sermons: "The Ministry we need," and "The Crisis. ' ' Patrick H. Agan, born at Watertown, June 10, 1817, was fond of historic writing as a side study. His articles on the Adirondack State Park, while editor of the Standard-, helped much in its establishment. John Albro was a popular writer of verses for city papers some years ago, and some will recall his humorous prose. Later he published a volume of serious poems. 288 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Rev. Caleb Alexander, first principal of Onondaga Academy, published several educational works, and died at the Valley in April, 1828, aged seven ty-two years. ' Mrs. William S. (Mary R.) Andrews, mentioned by Mrs. Marlette in 1894, is now a successful writer of stories. Among these are "Kidnapped," 1895; "Vive l'Empereur," 1902; "Bob and the Guides," 1906; "Militants," 1907. Judge Elliott Anthony was born of Quaker parentage in Spafford, June 10, 1827, and afterward became a lawyer in Illinois. Among his legal treatises were the Law of Self Defense ; Trial by Jury in Criminal Cases ; New Trials in Criminal Cases; The Story of the Empire State. Rev. Maltbie D. Babcock, D. D., whose tragic death so shocked his friends, published in 1901, "Thoughts for Everyday Living," and "Letters from Egypt and Palestine" in 1902. He was a man of fine abilities, and a friend gathered fragments for a recent book. Miss Helen H. Backus, with Miss Helen D. Brown, wrote "Great English Writers," some years ago, and was on Mrs. Marlette 's list. Charles B. Baldwin was born in Syracuse, October 26, 1858, becoming editor of the Baldwinsville Gazette in 1888. In 1894 he wrote a bright poem for the Centennial celebration at Baldwinsville. At the same place he read a fine paper on the battle of Windmill Point, at the outing of the Historical Associa tion, June 6, 1900, afterward issued in pamphlet form. His jubilee number of the Gazette was a valuable contribution to local history. Charles W. Bardeen was born in Groton, Massachusetts, August 28, 1847, but has long lived in Syracuse, founding the School Bulletin in September, 1874. As editor and publisher he was led to write many works on education. Some of these are the Public Manual of School Law; Roderick Hume, Song Budget, The Little Old Man, Dictionary of Educational Biography, Manual. of Civics, etc. William Barnes, born in Pompey, May 24, 1824, was a noted compiler of insurance statistics, and assisted his father at Baldwinsville and Syracuse, 1843-44, in the first teacher's institutes held in the state of New York. George Barrow, of Skaneateles, found leisure in his earlier law practice to write for the Atlantic and other standard magazines, and his daughter, Bessie, has published two novels. John D. Barrow, his elder brother, was born in 1824, and died in Skanea teles, December 7, 1906,. He was an artist with literary tastes, and made the centennial address there in 1876. A pamphlet of twenty-nine pages was devoted to Skaneateles Lake in 1902, and an earlier one to Charles L. Elliott, the artist. Just before his death he selected thirty of his occasional poems for publication, and these became a handsome memorial volume, labeled "Around Skaneateles Lake," which is the general theme. It was edited by his old friend, Rev. Dr. Beauchamp in 1907. L. Frank Baum has written popular children 's story books, as ' ' Life and Adventures of Santa Claus," 1902; "Enchanted Island of Yew," 1903; "Mar velous Land of Oz, " 1904, etc. CLINTON SQUARE, SYRACUSE. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 289 Miss Rosemary Baum was credited by Mrs. Marlette with "That Box of Cigarettes," and other plays. Mrs. Elizabeth T. Porter Beach was the daughter of James Porter, one of the pioneers of Skaneateles village, where she was the wife of John C. Beach. She wrote "Pelayo: An Epic of the Olden Moorish Time." This pleased the Queen of Spain, and she sent her one of her own jeweled bracelets. The Em press Eugenie also sent her a gold medal, with the inscription, "To Mistress Elizabeth T. Porter Beach." In 1866 this poem was adopted as a text-book in Packer Institute, Brooklyn. Mr. E. N. Leslie gave a spirited lyric by her, entitled "The Last Broadside," and founded on the sinking of the Cumberland in Hampton Roads. She was going down when Lieutenant Morris called out: ' ' Shall we give them a broadside as she goes ? " A verse follows : "Shall we give them a broadside once more, my brave men? "Aye, aye!" rose the full, earnest cry. "A broadside! A broadside we'll give them again! Then for God and the Right nobly die ! " Miss Mary E. Beauchamp, of Skaneateles, was born in England, June 14, 1825, and died June 23, 1903. In 1839 her father published her first little book, the Memento, and thereafter she wrote a great deal, both in prose and verse, as the "Filia Ecclesiae, " mostly for religious journals. Her poems showed taste and feeling. While in England in 1854 she wrote a Handbook of Wells Cathedral, published by her uncle there. In 1867 she published "The Emigrant's Quest." A paper on "The Early Quakers of Skaneateles," read before the Historical Association January 11, 1897, was of great interest, and just before her death she had completed a story suggested by this, and entitled, "Thee and Thou." Rev. William M. Beauchamp, S. T. D.., was born in Coldenham, New York, March 25, 1830. In his school days, at Skaneateles, and later, he wrote some songs which were vigoriusly sung on sundry occasions, but has repented of these sins of his youth. He also ventured on some short stories, with which weightier matter soon interfered. He has long been a contributor to local, reli gious, scientific and historical journals, and for some years largely employed in preparing archeological bulletins for the New York State Museum, not only popular here but often quoted in Europe. There are thirteen of these, amply illustrated, and a volume on Iroquois mythology and folk lore is in preparation. Among other publications have been the Iroquois Trails and Indian Names in New York, and he is contributing to the "Hand Book of the Indians." Miss Virginia Beauchamp, daughter of the above, was born in Skaneateles, but has long been a teacher in the Colorado Springs High school. In 1896 she published ' ' The Creed of Lucius Annoeus Seneca, ' ' and has for some time been vice president, for the state of Colorado, of the Western Classical Association. Among Mrs. Jennie Z. Belden's stories are "Antonia" and "Fate at the Door." She also edited the Genealogy of the Belden Family, 1898. 290 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Miss Jennie M. Bingham, formerly at Syracuse University, has written a life of Lord Shaftesbury and some religious poetry. Also, ' ' All Glorious With in." The Rev. Artemas Bishop was born in Pompey, December 30, 1795, and sailed for Honolulu in November, 1822. He was at Kailua for about twelve years, and translated much of the Bible while there for native use. For twenty years more he was on the island of Oahu, where he translated Pilgrim's Progress, etc., dying there in 1872. Andrew B. Blodgett was born at Mottville in 1850, and has long been at the head of the Syracuse public schools. His address on the "Relation of the Principal to the Community" was published in 1898. Mrs. A. B. Blodgett has published readers for primary grades. Mrs. Celeste P. Bostwick is credited by Mrs. Marlette with the compilation of "The Libarian," 1858. Andrew Boyd published a "Memorial of the Central Baptist Church in Syracuse, " in 1874. Dr. John F. Boynton, long a noted citizen of Syracuse, was born at" Brad ford, Massachusetts, September 20, 1811, and died October 20, 1890. He was of great inventive ability, and the most popular lecturer of his day on electricity and geology. Mrs. Caroline H. Boynton, his wife, said he wrote but one lecture : that on microbes and their relation to disease. This he dictated while painting a room. A history of the Boynton family was the joint work of himself and wife. Mrs. Amelia R. Bradley, a teacher in Manlius in 1831, went to Siam, and prepared a Siamese dictionary ; also, a grammar, geography, arithmetic, hymns and tracts in Siamese. Hon. Dan Bradley, born in Connecticut, June 10, 1767, came to New Hartford as a Congregational pastor in 1792, removing to Marcellus village in September, 1795. Then he became a farmer and a judge. He wrote much on agriculture, and Clark said: "In his essays on the various subjects which he discussed, he displayed a master mind, deeply imbued with the principles of philosophy and experience In the New England Farmer, the Baltimore Farmer and the Plough Boy, are found numerous forcible efforts of his sagacious and penetrating mind." His son, Isaac, took a strong interest in historic mat ters, and sometimes wrote upon them. Dr. Dan Bradley, son of Judge Bradley of Marcellus, became a medical missionary to Siam in 1835, dying in 1873. He compiled a Siamese dictionary. James M. Bronson, who came to Syracuse on the Herald's staff in 1892, had already a name as a poet, and at that time intended issuing a volume of poems. Mrs. Josephine K. Brown is credited with Outlines of Geography and the Keble Tablet. Miss Maria Brown was one of the later Mormon converts in Spafford, fol lowing the earlier ones of 1832. She married Elder Ward in Salt Lake City, but afterward renounced this faith, returned east, and published "Female Life Among the Mormons ' ' in 1857. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 291 Rev. Isaac K. Bronson, a retired Baptist clergyman of Fayetteville, had two poems in "Local and National Poets," 1890. General Dwight H. Bruce, born June 21, 1834, has been a prominent and able writer for many years. "The Easy Chair" of the Sunday Herald was long edited by him, and he has been a contributor to many journals. His Memorial History 6f Syracuse is full of interesting matter, and Onondaga's Centennial merits high praise. He also edited the Empire State in Three Centuries. Prof. C. C. Bushnell, of Syracuse University, is the author of Latin and English verses. Rev. Samuel R. Calthrop, D. D., has a wide reputation as a writer and speaker, contributing to many literary and scientific journals. His articles on and forecasts from sun spots have been widely read. Among his published works is "God and His World," issued in 1905, and his graceful mood is shown in his poem read at the unveiling of Rev. Dr. May's bust in July, 1875. Miss Alvira Campbell, of Pompey, was born about 1800 and died in 1823. One of her teachers retained some of her poems for more than fifty years, "writ ten between the ages of fourteen and twentyr, which show more than ordinary perception of the beautiful and the true." Mrs. Ella B. Candee is the author of "Human Passions." Dr. Frederick A. Castle, born in Fabius, April 29, 1842, now of New York city, has long been editor of the American Druggist and a contributor to medi cal journals and has also edited Wood's Household Practice of Medicine, etc. William H. Catliff, of Elbridge, wrote a small and early volume of poems on ' ' Life in a New Settlement. ' ' Mrs. Izora C. Chandler wrote "Anthe" in 1886, "Methodist Episcopalian- ism" in 1889, and afterward "Elvira Hopkins of Tompkin's Corners." Franklin H. Chase, recording secretary of the Historical Association and court reporter, made an important contribution to local history in his paper on the Revolutionary soldiers of Onondaga county. Part of this history has been prepared by him, his long familiarity with Syracuse fitting him for such work. Timothy C. Cheney, an early resident, published "Reminiscences of Syra cuse in 1857, edited by Parish B. Johnson. Rev, Anson G. Chester published a memorial of Mrs. E. W. Leavenworth in 1880, and another of Charles and Edith Powers in 1883. Miss Emily Chubbuck, (Fanny Forester) third wife of Rev. Adoniran Jud- son of Burmah, once taught a select school, corner of Clinton and Water streets, Syracuse. She was long a popular author, writing the life of the second Mrs. Judson, whose parents lived in Skaneateles. Joshua V. IT. Clark's name every local historian delights to honor, so great are their obligations to him. In a local sense he is "the father of history." He was born in the town of Cazenovia, February 6, 1803, moving to Eagle Village in 1828. In 1847 he bought the materials which Rev. John W. Adams had gathered for "Annals of the Onondaga Valley," but this was but a small part of the two volumes which appeared in 1849, entitled ' ' Onondaga ; or Reminis cences of Earlier and Later Times." In 1854 he published "Lights and Lines of 292 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Indian and Pioneer Life, ' ? now somewhat rare. He was a corresponding mem ber of many societies, and wrote much for the press before his death in 1869. Lewis Gaylord Clark was born in Otisco in April, 1810, and became the famous editor of the Knickerbocker Magazine. In 1855 he published "Knick Knacks from an Editor's Table." Mrs. W. H. H. Smith quoted from a letter of his, dated in 1867 : "What can I give you that will serve any historical pur pose, touching the press of my good old county of Onondaga? Nothing, in fact, except that I set types as a 'prentice boy, on the Onondaga Register of' my old friend, Lewis H. Redfield, and that my twin brother did the same for John Durnford on the first paper issued in Syracuse, the very name of which I cannot now recall ! My cousin, Wyllis Gaylord, one of the noblest men God ever made, was a frequent contributor to both journals. ' ' Willis Gaylord Clark, brother of the above, wrote the humorous Ollapo- diana and many poems. These were reprinted in his Literary Remains in 1844. Rev. Joseph M. Clarke D. D., born in Connecticut in 1827, came to. Skantea- teles in 1831, where his father ministered for fourteen years. He himself came to Syracuse in 1858, dying there in 1899. In his memorial it is said: "His pen was never idle, and he was a constant contributor to the discussion and thought of the day in the periodical press. ' ' Some of his lighter writings were humorous, but his graver productions were profound and able, yet simple and clear. He published "Six Letters to Protestant Christians," and a second edi tion of this in 1886. His pamphlet "Was John Wesley a Methodist?" was issued in 1894. Many of his annual addresses were printed, and some are of perma nent value. W. W. Clayton edited a History of Onondaga in 1878, containing valuable matter. Paul K. Clymer published "The Boxer, by Pung Kwang Ching," in 1900. Rev. Herbert G. Coddington, D. D., published a geneaology of the Codding- ton family in 1907, and occasional addresses for private circulation. His father, Professor Wesley P. Coddington, has also published sermons, addresses and educational papers. George K. Collins, born in Spafford, published a history of the One Hundred and Forty-ninth regiment in 1891, in which he was an officer; and also "De scendants of John Collins of Charlestown and' Susanna Daggett, his Wife," 1901. He also issued in 1900 (type-written only) "Mortuary Records of Spafford, ' ' and in 1902 a similar history of the town. Mrs. Anna M. Comfort was born at Trenton, New Jersey, January 19, 1845, and is the author of Woman's Education and Woman's Health; also, of occasional poems and prose. Professor George F. Comfort, her husband, was born at Berkshire, New York, September 20, 1833, and superintends the Syracuse Art Museum. He has published "Art Museums in America," and "Modern Languages in Educa tion, ' ' a series of text-books. Also many critical articles. Prof. John R. Commons, Syracuse University 1895-99, but now in Brooklyn, published "The Distribution of Wealth," 1893; "Social Reform and the Church," 1894; "Proportional Representation," 1896, etc. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 293 Miss Cordelia Congdon, who died in Otisco, aged 18, wrote "Guardian An gels, ' ' etc. A. E. Costello wrote a Commercial History of Syracuse. William Cowie is credited in Onondaga's Centennial with "a sufficient number of poems to make a choice volume, many of them being of rare Scotch construction. ' ' They were afterward entitled ' ' Latter Day Poems. ' ' Stephen Crane has published "Great Battles of the World," 1896; "The 0 'Ruddy or Red Badge of Honor," 1896; "War is kind," 1899; "Willomville Stories," 1900, etc. Mrs. Martha Foote Crowe is a well known writer, author of "Elizabethan Sonnet Cycles." She has now in press a book on the interpretation of Mrs. Browning's poems. Mrs. S. M. Henry-Davis wrote ' ' The Life and Times of Sir Phillip Sidney, ' ' 1859. Mrs. Thomas T. Davis wrote a hymn sung at the dedication of Oakwoo(? Cemetery, 1859. Mrs. Mabel P. Daggett wrote "Summer Charities" and "Fads and Frills in Education" for the Broadway Magazine. Miss Mary A. Dawson is credited by Mrs. Marlette with ' ' Puzzles and Oddi ties." Chancellor James R. Dey, LL. D., has written much, sometimes putting in strong words for great corporations, as in "The Raid on Prosperity," 1907. Richard E. Day was born in West Granby, April 27, 1852, and was connect ed with the Syracuse Standard. He wrote "Lines in the Sand" in 1878; ' ' Thor, a Lyrical Drama, ' ' in 1880 ; Lyrics and Satires ' ' in 1883 ; and ' ' Poems ' ' in 1888. Miss Bessie Dickinson is not a civil engineer, but has just finished a book on "Bridge Essentials," in addition to "Bridge Abridged." She had before published ' ' The Conversation of the Cards, ' ' and ' ' Skat in Brief. ' ' Mrs. Ellen E. Dickinson wrote "New Light on Mormonism" in 1885, with an introduction by Thurlow Weed. Dr. Henry P. Didama was born in Perryville, New York, June 17, 1823. Beside printed addresses and papers on his practice, he wrote many spicy ar ticles for the Syracuse dailies as Amos Cottle. Levi W. Dodge, of Syracuse, was born in Whitefield, New Hampshire, July 21, 1834, and left an unpublished history of that town. He wrote ' ' In the Foot steps of the Pioneers," " Cooashauke, " "Summer Saunterings, " "Along the St. John's River," etc. Dr. William Duncan was born at Oswego in 1837, and since 1883 has been secretary and superintendent of Chautauqua University, Chautauqua Lake. His work has been largely educational, and his daughters aided in some of his liter ary work. Miss Alice E. Durston (Dame Durdin) wrote "Mabel Howard." Edward N. Emmons, born at Brewerton, January 24, 1833, compiled and published the Emmons Genealogy, 1905. 294 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Francis E. Englehardt, born in Germany, June 23, 1835, chemist and milk inspector for Syracuse, has written many reports and scentific papers. Daniel Widard Fiske, once a resident of Syracuse, has a high standing in literature and is an authority on Scandinavian languages and lore. Charles E. Fitch, editor of the Syracuse Standard 1866-73, stands high as a writer. His address before the Historical Association on "The Press of Onon daga" was issued in pamphlet form. He has long been a Regent of the Uni versity and resident in Rochester. Prof. Alexander C. Flick was born at Galion, Ohio, August 18, 1869, and came to Syracuse in 1896. Among his published works are History of Loyalism in New York during the Revolution, A Short History of New York, and History in Rhymes and Jingles. Rev. John B. Foote, of Syracuse, compiled the appendix to a memorial of Elder Adoniram Foot of Turin, New York, 1867' This contained the funeral sermon by Rev. E. B. Parsons, afterward pastor of the Presbyterian church, Baldwinsville. Joshua Forman wrote a series of articles in 1817 on the Erie canal. Clark said : ' ' These papers were written with great ability, and are said by competent judges to be inferior to none that had been written upon that subject. ' ' Miss Clara French wrote ' ' The Dramatic Action and Motive of King John, ' ' 1892. Myles T. Frisbie read a centennial poem at the celebration at Onondaga Valley, 1894, published at that time, and also published "The Partnership" in 1907. Mrs. Celesta B. Fuller wrote "The Child of the Covenant" in 1880, mem orial sketch of Caroline M. Fuller. Mrs. Francesca C. Fuller was the author of "Major Hall's Wife." She was born in Skaneateles. Mrs. Matilda Joslyn Gage both wrote and spoke on "Woman's Rights." Her father edited the "Carson League" and died in Fayetteville in 1865. Her monument there has this inscription : ' ' There is one word sweeter than Moth er, Home or Heaven. That word is Liberty. ' ' Her daughter, Helen L. Gage, also wrote much. George J. Gardner, an authority on local history, Masonry and Odd Fellow ship, wrote several historical papers and prefaces. He died in July, 1902. Wyllis Gaylord, of Otisco, was born in 1792 and came here in 1801. A crip ple in body he was strong in mind, and valued contributor to literary and scien tific journals. His contemporaries said "that he had not his equal in the land as a ready prose writer," but no collection of his writings has been published. He died at Howlett Hill, March 27, 1841. Hon. George Geddes was born at Fairmount in 1809, dying there in 1883. While he wrote much for various journals, one of his most valuable produc tions was an account of Onondaga county in the State Agricultural Reports for 1859. Letters from Cape Cod were of great interest, and he wrote Erie Canal papers for the Buffalo Historical Society in 1880. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 295 Rev. John F. Genung, born in 1850 and now professor of rhetoric in Am herst College, was pastor of the Baptist church, Baldswinsville, 1875-78. He has published several excellent works. Mrs. Elizabeth Edwards Gifford, born in Skaneateles in May, 1828, publish ed "Our Patronymics" in 1886, treating on several old Skaneateles families, as that of her husband. Miss Martha C. Gifford de N. Gillespie, now of Michigan, was a missionary at Liverpool, England, in 1840.. He is author of "The Season of Lent," and "The Communion of Saints." Dr. W. P. Graham has published a ' ' Handbook of Mechanical Engineering. ' ' Miss Charlotte E. Graves issued "Maud Harcourt" in 1897; also, "Happy Thoughts Happily Expressed" in 1906. Rufus W. Griswold, born at Benson, Vermont, in 1805, died in New York city, 1857, at one time was a clergyman in Syracuse. He compiled the Poets and Poetry of America in 1848, as wed as similar works, and had con siderable talent as a writer. Mrs : Irene B. Hale wrote newspaper articles of value. Mrs. Anna B. Halliday wrote many beautiful poems while living here. Professor James B. Hamilton published ' ' Savings and Savings Institutions ' ' in 1902. M. C. Hand published "From a Forest to a City" in 1889, being his own valuable reminiscences of Syracuse. He was a newspaper contributor as well. Professor Charles W. Hargitt was born in Indiana and came to Syracuse uni versity in 1891 as professor of biology. Beside many contributions to scientific journals he has published "General Outlines of Biology," etc. Forbes Heermans, born in Syracuse, October 25, 1856, is author of Thir teen Stories of the Far West, Silent Witness, Rancho of Heavenly Rest, Be tween Two Fires, Down the Santa Fe Trail. Professor Ernst Held, the man who grows not old, has a poem for every public occasion, not neglecting the birthdays of his friends. Soon after coming here he did most of the translating from the French for Clark's Onondaga and still translates German songs. With the power of adapting his words to his own music he has long been a recognized part of Syracuse public and artistic life. All will heartily say, "O, King of Song, Live Forever!" Rev. George Morgan Hills, D. D., now dead, issued a concise but interest ing history of St. Paul's church while here, and a service for the Indians in 1870. After leaving Syracuse he published his large and valuable "Church in Burlington, N. J.," in 1876. Mrs. Eureka L. Hood wrote "Life at the Snowball House," and other stories. 296 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Mr. J. W. Hooper, long a teacher in Onondaga county, was born in Living ston county, July 5, 1827, and in his "Fifty Years in School," 1900, related his experience. Rev. David C. Huntington, late of Ad Saints' Church, Syracuse, now of Indiana, has recently published "Laws for the Laity." Bishop Frederic D. Huntington was born in Massachusetts in 1819, coming to Syracuse in 1869. Among his many writings were Sermons for the People, Christ in the Christian, Year, Personal Religious Life in the Ministry, Helps to a Holy Lent, Lectures, etc. Pie was a clear, forcible and cultured writer. Miss Arria S. Huntington, his daughter, has written, "Under a Colonial Roof tree," and "Memoirs and Letters of Frederic Dan Huntington." Mrs.. Ruth H. Sessions, another daughter, wrote "Roger Ferde's Faith," etc. Rev. George E. Hutchins issued "A Century of Methodism in the First Ward of Syracuse," in 1907. Dr. Nathan Jacobson, born in Syracuse, June 25, 1857, is a noted medical writer. Mr. W. R. Jillson read a fine poem at the Onondaga Centennial in Syra cuse, 1894. James B. Kenyon published "The Fallen and Other Poems," 1876; "The Oaten Pipe," 1895; "Poems," in 1900; "Loiterings in Old Fields" and "Re membered Days" in 1901. Also, a semi-centennial ode read at Wieting Opera House October 10, 1897. George K. Knapp, the well known artist, was born at Onondaga Hill, Octo ber 29, 1833, in the center of Onondaga's early history, his later residence in Syracuse putting him in touch with later leading men. The announcement that Mr. Knapp is preparing a book which "will contain reminiscences of Onondaga county and its people that have never been given to the public before" is a pleasant one indeed. Those who have sat in Mr. Knapp 's studio know how well he can tell old stories, and how full his story is. Charles A. Larkin published a valuable "History of Military Lodge, Man lius," in 1893. Mrs. Linda H. Larned wrote "Hostess of Today," and "Little Epicure." Elias W. Leavenworth was born in Canaan, New York, December 20, 1803, came to Syracuse in 1827, and died there November 25, 1887. He wrote a series of papers on the city's early history, of which he was a great part. Edmund N. Leslie was born in Massachusetts August 13, 1817. He first visited Skaneateles in 1842, settling there in 1851, and becoming interested in its early history at once began gathering valuable material. As the result he issued a handsome volume in 1902, entitled ' ' Skaneateles, History of Its Earliest Set tlement and Reminiscences of Later Times. ' ' Mrs. Sarah J. Lippincott (Grace Greenwood) was born in Pompey, Sep tember 23, 1823. Her earlier sketches were reprinted as "Greenwood Leaves" in 1850. She wrote many children 's books ; History of My Pets, 1850 ; Recollec tions of Childhood, 1851; Stories from Familiar Ballads, 1860; Stories and Sketches, 1893. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 297 Olin L. Lyman wrote the "Trail of the Grand Seigneur," published in the Syracuse Herald. Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, or the War on the Lakes," 1905. Professor William H. Mace has written a "Working Manual of American History," 1895; and a "School History of the United States," 1904. Harold MacGrath has written Arms and the Woman, 1899, Grey Cloak, 1903 ; Hearts and Masks, 1905 ; Princess Elopes, 1905 ; Half a Rogue, 1906 ; Best Man, 1907, etc. Mrs. Anna C. Maltbie wrote Gathered Records, A Rescript of the Tread- well and Piatt Genealogy, 1874'; a centennial song and ' ' Picturesque Oakwood, ' ' 1894. Mrs. Francis W. Marlette prepared, in 1893, a list of local female writers from which some in this list are taken. She is active in historic work. - Mrs. Nettie Parrish_Martin, of Auburn, was born at Mandana on Skaneate les lake ancTis a granddaughter of Jasper Parrish, the Indian interpreter. Her grandmother used to tell her Indian tales, and five of these she has reproduced in verse, her book being called "Indian Legends of Early Days," 1905. Judge William Marvin, of Skaneateles, was born at Fairfield, New York, April 14, 1808. Eminent as a legal writer, a jurist and statesman, in 1885 he wrote a book on the "Authorship of the Four Gospels." A pamphlet contains his story of the American flag. Rev. Samuel J. May was born in Boston, September 12, 1797, came to Syra cuse in 1845, and died there July 1, 1871. He was preacher, lecturer, editor and writer, publishing occasional tracts on important themes, and was a man of ability and influence. Mrs. D. McCarthy translated the Prisoners of St. Lazar. Professor William H. Metzler published "Cultural Value of Mathematics." Charles De B. Mills wrote on Oriental mythology and religion, and trans lated poetical gems of the Orient. He also published the Indian Saint and Tree Mythology. His daughter, Miss Harriet M. Mills, is a well known and able writer and speaker. Mrs. Ellen M. Mitchell, beside her instructive lectures, has written "A Study of Greek Philosophy," and other works of interest. Georgine Milmine has written "Club Facts" and "History of Christian Science. ' ' James W. Norris was born in 1831, and died at Baldwinsville, June 23, 1876. He wrote humorous sketches for the Knickerbocker Magazine, signed K. N. Pepper, and a volume of these was published. He also ranked high as a muscial composer. Rev. Henry D. Mulford printed a centennial address, delivered in the Dutch Reformed church, May 27, 1894. Many other historic sermons were printed at that time. Rev. John F. Mullany was born at Deerfield, New York, July 19, 1853, and came to Syracuse in 1887. He has translated and written much. Among his many productions are Our True Position, Phases of Thought, 1893; Pioneer Church of the State of New York, 1897. 298 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Professor J. H. Myerse has written "Transfigured Life." William W. Newman, born October 5, 1821, has long been a writer for the public press of no ordinary standing. In 1895 he issued a pamphlet on the South Onondaga Cemetery, which had good results. In 1904 he published the Septu- agenary of the South Onondaga Methodist Episcopal Society, a history of the place. Hon. Ansel Judd Northrup, president of the Historical Association, wrote "Camps and Tramps in the Adirondacks" and kindred subjects. In 1884, he published the Northrup Genealogy; in 1900, Slavery in New York; in 1901, Sconset Cottage Life, and various works at other times. His grandfather, Ansel Judd of Pompey had a taste for rhyming. Milton H. Northrup, brother of the above, was born April 3, 1841, and was once editor of the Syracuse Courier. He wrote on "Sunset Cox," and died in 1906. Rev. Edward N. Packard wrote the "Illustrated Manual of Protestant and Protestant Episcopal Churches of the City of Syracuse ' ' in 1895. Paul M. Paine, literary editor of the Post-Standard, indulges in floral arti cles also. His Monday Sermons were of interest. In 1895 he wrote the pre face for Syracuse in the ' ' Paines of Athens — Their Ancestors and Descendants. ' ' James A. Parshall, born in Syracuse, June 30, 1859, wrote "The History of the Parshall Family" in 1903, and was then preparing the genealogy of Eph raim Barker, of Pomfret, Connecticut. Dr. Israel Parsons, of Marcellus, wrote a ' ' Centennial History of Marcellus ' ' inl876, which was published in 1878. A lifelong residence made it valuable. Mrs. Mary L. Lennox (Edith Cornwall) is a special contributor to the Herald. Charles H. Peck is the author of "The Jacksonian Epoch." Mrs. Catharine R. Pickard wrote "Peter Still," and "The Kidnapped and the Redeemed" in 1856. Edward A. Powell wrote "Olympian Games of 1906," and "Royal Homes of Sport," a series of fifteen articles in Badminton Magazine. William Ray was editor of the Onondaga Gazette about 1816, and wrote "Horrors of Slavery." To children of half a century ago the following lines by him were familiar and precious, and he had a local reputation in poetry : My bird is dead, said Nancy Ray ; My bird is dead, I cannot play. He sang so sweetly every day ; He sings no more, I cannot play. She wiped her eyes, poor Nancy Ray, And sat and sighed, but could not play. "Poor Nancy Ray" afterward died at the Old Ladies' Home, Syracuse. Mrs. Anna M. T. Redfield was an enthusiast in natural science, and her best work — "Zoological Science, or Nature in Living Forms," 1858, was com- PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 299 mended by Professor Agassiz. She was born in Canada, January 17, 1800, and came to Onondaga in 1820, as the bride of Lewis PL Redfield ; a noble woman in every way. Mrs. Grace Richmond wrote the "Juliet Stories" for the Ladies Plome Journal. John T. Roberts is a well known writer on horticulture and local history. James 0. Rockwell, was born in Connecticut in 1807, coming to Manlius at an early age, where he worked in a factory. One account says: "He made a small book, on each right hand page of which was a picture of different parts of the factory, and on the opposite page a verse describing it. On the outside was a front view of the factory with an overseer on the foreground, dragging a boy towards the door, and under it this verse — "The factory life Is full of strife I own I hate it dearly; And every boy That they employ Will own the same, or nearly." He wrote for the papers when but sixteen, was assitant editor of the States man, Boston, at twenty, and in 1829, was editor of the Providence Patriot. He died in 1831, and Whittier wrote some verses on this. He was then one of the most promising of American poets. Willis G. Clark wrote to Whittier in 1829 : ' ' Rockwell promises, — but he must write something newer. I would give double for your prospects than for Willis 's or his. ' ' And he was right. William IT. Rowley, born in Syracuse, May 1, 1858, went west, where he is known as the soldier's poet, composing spirited songs for the annual encamp ments. Two of these appear in "Local and National Poets." Mrs. Margaret L. Sabine wrote ' ' Travels in the Holy Land. ' ' Mrs. Irene Sargent, editor and contributor to the Craftsman, is a well known writer. Her paper on Bishop Huntington was especially good. Philip F. Schneider is well known by his work and writings on local geol ogy, most of which have appeared in pamphlet form, all being valuable contri butions to science. Rev. Karl Schwartz, born in this state, November 21, 1862, has published a Catechism, Nature's Correction of Inherited Criminal Tendencies, The Chris tian Year, Before the Cross, etc. Louis D. Scisco, born in Baldwinsville, published Early History of Van Buren in 1895, and a valuable Series on Onondaga County Records in the New York Genealogical and Biographical Magazine, 1899-1904. Miss Bessie E. Sherlock was credited with many stories by Mrs. Marlette. Charles E. Sherlock published "Your Uncle Lew" in 1901. Professor Frank Smalley is editor of Roman authors, and a writer on the classics. 300 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Carroll E. Smith, the veteran editor, was born in Syracuse, December 25, 1832, and died there August 21, 1903. He was much interested in local history, and some sketches were collected and published in 1904 as "Pioneer Times in the Onondaga Country." His father, Vivus W. Smith, was one of the most in fluential editors of his day. E. Reuel Smith, born February 2, 1829, came to Skaneateles in 1852 on his return from Chili, where he had been on the United States Astronomical ex pedition. While there he visited the Araucanians, and published a book on this in 1854, often quoted. He also published a poem in pamphlet form about ihe same time, entitled "Our Village," and showed decided talent as a humor ous writer. His son, De Cost Smith, as an artist, illustrates Indian life, and pub lished papers on the "Witchcraft and Demonism of the Modern Iroquois," having been adopted by the Onondagas. Professor Burnett Smith of Syracuse University is his brother. Edward Smith was born in Skaneateles in 1817, coming to Syracuse as a teacher in 1845. In 1866 he became superintendent of its schools, till his resig nation in 1889. He afterward published a valuable history of the public schools of Syracuse, and has just passed his ninetieth year in good health. Mrs. Erminie A. Smith was born in Marcellus, April 26, 1836, and at her' death, June 9, 1886, was one of our best Iroquois authorities. Her "Myths of the Iroquois" appeared in 1883, and her other writings were on Iroquois phil ology. She was adopted by the Tuscararas. H. Perry Smith is an original writer, as well as an excellent compiler of lo cal histories. "Modern Babes in the Woods" is a tale of Adirondack life. "Syracuse and its Surroundings," and Oakwood Cemetery have local interest "A Summer Picture," 1879, is a volume of poems. . Rev. J. Byington Smith has published the centennial celebration of the Bap tist church in Fayetteville, held in 1897. His wife died there in 1907. Dr. J. Lewis Smith, a Spafford boy, became an eminent physician in New York city, and wrote several medical works, among them "Diseases of Chil dren." His brother Stephen of the same place, equally eminent as a physician and writer, makes his summer home in Skaneateles. Mrs. W. H.1 H. (Margaret T. R.) Smith has written much and well on local history, and her "Annals of the Onondaga Country," 1894, was a paper of great interest. Rev. George B. Spaulding, D. D., published his historical address at Ports mouth, New Hampshire, October 26, 1881. Papers on Ephraim Webster, the Book of Common Prayer, etc., have appeared, and he compiled a Presbyterian liturgy. His son, Rev. George B. Spaulding, Jr., issued "The Golden Gate to New York by way of Cape Horn," in 1899. De Witt C. Sprague read a fine poem, "Onondaga in the Rebellion," at the Centennial celebration in Fayetteville, 1794. Mrs. Esther B. Steele, born at Lysander, 1835, aided her husband in his historical and scientific works, taking full charge of the biographical notes and sections on civilization, and publishing enlarged editions of some works after his death. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 301 W. 0. Stoddard, born in Homer, September 24, 1835, and once a school boy in Syracuse, has written many children's books. Two are of local interest, "Among the Lakes," 1891, is a story of Tully, "Saltillo Boys," 1891, is a Syra cuse tale. "On the Old Frontier," appeared in 1893. Gurney S. Strong issued his valuable "Early Landmarks of Syracuse" in 1894. H. J. Sutherland published "Syracuse and its Resources" in 1893. Homer D. L. Sweet published the "Averys of Groton," and a volume of poems. Rev. T. De Witt Tallmage was pastor of the Reformed church, Syracuse, 1859-62. Beside published sermons he wrote "Crumbs swept up," "Around the Tea Table, "etc. Mrs. W. W. Teall, daughter of General Sumner, is the author of valuable historical papers. Mrs. Phila C. Thomas wrote "Nobody's Child." Mrs. Helen F. Troy, a student of Indian lore, now of Auburn, but formerly of Syracuse, wrote seventy-seven poems, 1894-97, published at Syracuse, 1897. Two are Indian legends of some length. Prof. Lucien M. Underwood (deceased) is best known by his excellent work, "Our Native Ferns." William W. Van Brocklin edited "The Pompey Re-Union," 1875, held in 1871. Henry S. Van Shaack wrote a "History of Manlius Village," 1873, and other historical works. He was born April 3, 1802, and died at an advanced age. Mrs. Avis Stearns Van Wagennen wrote the "Stearns Genealogy," 1901. Caroline Walch wrote "Dr. Sphinx" in 1878. Edward R. Wallace wrote the first ' ' Guide to the Adirondacks, ' ' which had several editions. Thurlow Weed was a boy and editor here, and may be placed among Onon daga writers. They are interesting reminiscences of his Onondaga life in his autobiography. Edward Westcott is best known as the author of "David Harum," a phen omenal success. Rev. Frank N. Wescott of Skaneateles, brother of the last, published "Catholic Principles," "Sermons to myself," and other religious works. Andrew D. White was born at Homer, November 7, 1832. He is author of "History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom," 1896; "Paper Money Inflation in France," 1896 ; his admirable autobiography and oth er works. Dr. J. M. Wieting, one of the most popular lecturers of his day, was born February 8, 1817, and was resident in Syracuse 1837-88. Mrs. Mary E. Wieting, his wife, published in 1889 a sketch of his life and their tour around -the world. She has been a contributor to the press, both in poetry and prose. Alfred Wilkinson edited Reports of Decisions of the Court of Appeals, and wrote legal and scientific papers. 302 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Rev. Dr. William D. Wilson was author of "The Church Identified," and other works. Rev. W. De L. Wilson, S. T. D., his son, has also published "Parochial Or ganization," and other small but important works. Prof. Alexander Winchell, once chancellor of Syracuse University, published the Doctrine of Evolution, 1874; Geological Excursions, 1884; Geological Stud ies, 1887, etc. Newell B. Woodworth of Syracuse, is preparing the geneology of Walter Woodworth, of Scituate, Massachusetts. Rev. Jeremiah Zimmerman was born in Maryland, April 2, 1848. In 1902 he published "Spain and her People," and is now engaged on oriental life and religions. He ranks high among numismatists, and as a lecturer. As said before, this is by no means a complete list of writers here, many able papers being prepared by specialists for special occasions, and going no further. Occasionally some of these take permanent form, often imbedded in a society's proceedings. Leading journals often publish papers which would once have made a reputation, and some maintain a staff of writers whose names rarely reach the public. There are men and women in constant request as lecturers, whose opinions and statements are of recognized value, who have printed very little. Others are of importance in various organizations, dealing ably with the facts and principles of these, yet not posing as writers distinctly. These and others who have escaped notice in this list, will consider the indefinite- ness of the classification and the difficulty of obtaining names and facts, and pardon all omissions. If their names do not appear here, it may be they well deserve recognition. In enumerating those given many books have been con sulted, and a good foundation is laid for fuller work. Beside other men of national reputation two presidents of the United States have lived in Onondaga county. President Fillmore worked in Skane ateles when a boy, and President Cleveland was a schoolboy in Fayetteville. ONONDAGA ARTISTS. It seems proper to add a few words about another class of thoughtful and imaginative people, who have given some distinction to Onondaga county in the line of art. One of these was Charles Loring Elliott, one of the foremost Amer ican portrait painters, who did most of his early work here. Skaneateles is rich in his pictures, and Syracuse retains many good portraits. He seldom indulged in landscape painting, but there'is one picture of his of the head of Skaneateles lake, which is beautiful in color and effect, though not well drawn. Sanford Thayer, his warm friend, also spent some years in Skaneateles, but had his stu dio in Syracuse at a later day, where he left many fine portraits, as well as landscapes. His picture by Elliott made a great sensation in the world of art. Augustus Rockwell, born in Manlius but spending his later days in Buffalo, painted many portraits here, which are good likenesses, though florid in color. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 303 There was artistic ability in the family, but he seems to have confined himself to portraits, which were the only pictures which paid in those days. John D. Barrow was emphatically an Onondaga artist, painting some of our prominent people, but most at home in our grand landscapes, especially those about Skaneateles lake, which he loved and in which he reveled. He present ed the Barrow collection of pictures to the Syracuse Library, mostly land scapes; and built and filled a fine art gallery for the library at Skaneateles, for which his brother is preparing a unique catalogue. In that library is a striking portrait of Mr. Barrow, painted by Samuel M. Roosevelt, one of the Skaneateles family of that name. De Cost Smith, born in Skaneateles, and eminent as a painter and illus trator of Indian scenes, has a fine, picture in the Skaneateles library, entitled ' ' Conflicting Faiths. ' ' A recumbent Indian holds a wooden mask in one hand, and a crucifix in the other. Mr. Smith at one time had a studio on the Onon daga reservation, where he is well known by his Indian name. Mr. E. R. Smith, his father, made a promising beginning as an artist of the Dusseldorf school, but was diverted from this by business cares. Albert Edwards, of the same place, was an excellent copyist, but did little strictly original work. Mrs. Marie H. Luce, born in Skaneateles but now of Auburn, has a well earned repu tation in flower painting and still life. George K. Knapp, born in Onondaga and long a resident of Syracuse, has done excellent work in portraiture, executing some important commissions with great success, and indulging in historical work, still life and landscapes as side studies. In still life his deceased son did much of high merit. Henry Ward Ranger, formerly of Syracuse, has taken high rank among recent artists, and all Syracusans are familiar with the work of James Cant- well, Ferdinand Carter, F. C. Welch, Chester Loomis, Thomas T. Smith and others. It would be easy to extend this list in an unprofessional way, for there are many amateur artists who are doing excedent work in oil, crayon and water color, mostly for their own pleasure, but perhaps with occasional sales. Photo graphy has also brought a new departure, and many are the fine pictures pro duced by artistic arrangement or judicious selection. The Camera Club has aided much in this, producing many beautiful pictures of Onondaga life. The real "old masters" here, of course, were of the Rubens school, the red men of the forest, who are said to have produced remarkable and striking effects when they painted faces. Early travelers, too, tell us of picture gal leries in the wilderness, and the French archives have preserved for us pictures drawn by Hotreouati, the Onondaga. Little of this art remains, but Allen Big Knife, a deaf mute at the reservation, furnishes original paintings of In dian life for a small consideration. In sculpture there is a small but creditable list. Clark Mills was born here December 1, 1815, and was first a millwright, then a plasterer, and then a sculptor. His first work was a bust of John C. Calhoun, purchased for the town hall in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1846. This led to other work. In 1848, before he had ever seen an equestrian statue, he sent in a design for that of Andrew Jackson, at Washington, and it was accepted, and unveiled January 304 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 8, 1853. For his colossal statue of Washington at Princeton, unveiled on Washington's birthday, 1860, he received fifty thousand dollars. Erastus D. Palmer, born at Pompey, April 2, 1817, was for awhile a car penter in Utica, and began to cut cameos because he liked it in 1846. In this he did a successful business, but it tried his eyes, and he began an equally suc cessful career as a sculptor in 1852, producing many meritorious works. The curious experience of both these artists is well worth study. At one time Pal mer had a studio on the shore of Cayuga lake, at Aurora, New York, still called "the locomotive house," from its odd construction. Jerome Connor works mostly in bronze, often taking Indian subjects and employing Indian models. One of his groups is one of the Kirkpatrick foun tains in Union Place. The Onondagas gave him the name of Gaahqua, the sun. Mrs. Gail Sherman Corbett, born in Syracuse, but now having her studio in New York, has made monumental designs both in bronze and granite. Her first public work here was the well known memorial to Hamilton White in Fay ette Park, and the fine Kirkpatrick fountain in Washington Park is elsewhere described. Two large pictures in the Onondaga Historical rooms represent the land ing of Frontenac at Onondaga lake in 1696, and the burning of the old Onon daga a few days later. Creditable teachers and students, of course, are a permanent feature of Syracuse University, doing work of a more or less local character, and there are less prominent artists of whom it would be a pleasure to speak did space per mit. When the Central New York artists have an exhibition it is always of great interest. The constantly varying and valuable exhibitions of the Syra cuse Museum of Fine Arts are an inspiration, and both stimulate and correct the popular taste. CHAPTER XXXI. CEMETERIES, OLD AND NEW. The care of the dead seems natural to man, aside from sanitary require ments, and with it are connected many curious customs and superstitions. Mound burial had but a small place among the aborigines of Onondaga county, two burial mounds only having been reported, both on the west side of the Onondaga outlet at Long Branch, and but a few rods apart. In each were sev eral skeletons and some early relics. Nor are ossuaries or bone pits the rule. These were commonly used by the Hurons of the historic and earlier periods, and might have been expected among their kindred, the Onondagas, but traces of this do not occur. There is a tradition that they once placed the dead on scaffolds, and then took them down for common burial, as the Hurons did, but there is no reference to this in history, and no signs of it in burial places. HOSPITAL OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD. OLD LADIES' HOME. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 305 Few aboriginal cemeteries have been found near the old forts and villages of northern Onondaga, none at the most important, and a rich field of research awaits future explorers. In some cases, however, graves have been opened there, out of which a few relics have come. One such cemetery was on the south side of Seneca river at Baldwinsville, where the crouching posture in pits occurred. Two cemeteries, one on each side of the river, had extended burial and no relics. The cemeteries belonging to six early forts in that vicinity have never been found. This is also partially true of the group of forts in El bridge, where upright burial and relics may be expected. In the southeastern towns it is different. Aboriginal cemeteries there are of a more modern period and type, and were more easily found from being usually on hills or hillsides. The earlier ones have the crouching posture, the body being made as compact as possible, and placed upright in a pit. In the latter half of the seventeenth century the white man's method made some pro gress, but the simple palisade around the tomb, or the painted frame above it, commonly showed the grave. A warrior might have his painted post, recording his warlike deeds, but there was a place set apart for the village cemetery. For a long time clan burial prevailed, so that a woman might be buried with her children but not with her husband. When the Onondagas at last took up their abode in the valley that bears their name, early in the eighteenth century, they had adopted part of the white man's burial customs, but still placed articles in the grave to be used by the soul on its way to the happy hunting grounds. The dead feast, ten days after death, is still kept up, and the annual dead feast as well. The body, how ever, was placed at length in a coffin, it it could be had. Father Lamberville made one for Garakontie in 1676, and Zeisberger another for an Indian woman at Onondaga Valley in 1753. Several cemeteries have been found there. Clark gives a good account of Indian burial there, as f odows : ' ' The prac tice pursued when the whites first came among the Indians at Onondaga, was like this: - They dressed the corpse (if a man) in a shirt, a coat and leggings, sometimes made of skins, at others of cloth, as was most convenient. A pair of deer-skin moccasions covered the feet, and a cap of fur the head. The corpse was then ready for the burial. Their graves were usually dug about three feet deep. Barks were cut and peeled, of the length of the grave, pieces were fitted for the bottom, sides and ends, and then placed in the grave ; a single broad piece was fitted for a covering. The corpse was then brought to the grave on poles bound together for a bier. He was then lowered into his bark coffin, when an Indian woman approached with a kettle of provisions, a pair of mocca sins, with pieces of deerskin, and with sinews of the deer to sew the patches on the moccasins which it was supposed the deceased would wear out on his journey to the land of spirits. These were carefully deposited in the bark coffin. Then came an Indian with bows and arrows, (or sometimes, if a dis tinguished person, a rifle), a tomahawk and knife. These were also ceremon iously laid in the coffin, and were considered indispensable to a prosperous and happy journey in procuring provisions, on the way to the blissful re gions of Ha-wah-ne-u. After these things were deposited, the final covering was carefully placed over the whole, and the grave closed with earth. This 306 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY done, the Indian women kneeled down around the grave and wept. The men for a time were silent, but after a while they set up a doleful cry, chanted the death dirge, and all silently retired to their homes. In former years, after the burial of a friend, the Onondagas used to visit the grave for twelve successive days, before sunrise and after sunset, and there with sighs and moans made great lamentation over it. ' ' Mr. Clark had unusual opportunities for knowing the cemeteries in Pom pey and vicinity, and a few notes from his excedent work will be given. He placed the cemetery at Indian hill (1654) on a broad plain on the ridge north of the town, "where several acres were once covered with graves of men, women and children. The skeletons were- universally found buried in a sitting pos ture, facing the east, with some domestic utensil or weapon of war between the thigh bones. They are usually found two or three feet below the surface. The skull and bones of the body are uniformly sunk to a level with the legs. From appearances the bodies, after being placed in their graves, were covered with brush previous to casting the earth upon them." Of the stockade one and a half miles south of Delphi he said: "A short dis tance to the south of the fort is the main burying ground, which is quite exten sive. One of the peculiarities of this ground, from all others in which we have had knowledge, is that the corpses are buried, one row with their heads to the west, and the next row with their heads to the east, so that the feet of the two rows were towards each other, and very near together, with the arms folded across the breast. . . . The skeletons taken from here, have usually been of a size averaging far above that of common men. Several have exceeded seven feet. ' ' The date may have been about 1620. At Indian Orchard "the graves were arranged with great regularity, side by side, in rows of ten to fifteen rods in extent; in the vicinity were other groups of graves, but not in regular order. Upon examination the body ap pears to have been enclosed in a wooden or bark box." (1720 — 1760). For a long time it was thought that the Pompey Stone was a genuine rec ord of the earliest European burial in Onondaga county, but the exposure of that curious hoax in 1894 swept one historic myth away. .Spanish wanderers never entered the Onondaga territory. With the coming of the French some thing more definite appeared. The colonists of 1656 had a sad time with sick ness, and there were two deaths, aparently in the autumn of that year. Of course they were interred with Christian rites and near the mission house be tween Syracuse and Liverpool. The Onondagas lamented this loss in their usual way. "The chiefs among them having come with mournful cries to con sole us for the death of two of our Frenchmen, he who brought the presents of condolence, addressing the Father Superior, said to him : ' The Ancients of our country, being accustomed to dry each other's tears, when they are afflicted by any misfortune, we come, Achiendase, to perform for you this duty of friend ship. "We weep with thee, because misfortunes cannot touch thee without pierc ing us by the same stroke ; and we are unable, without extreme grief, to see thee PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 307 so ill treated in our land, after having left thine own in which thou wast per fectly at thy ease. Sickness casts thy nephews into the depths of an earth of which thou knowest not yet the surface. Ah ! how the cruel demon makes good the opportunity of afflicting those whom he hates. He uses precisely the time to make this evil stroke, when thou hast most need of thy nephews to build thy cabins, to fortify thyself, and to cultivate thy fields. Having ceaselessly harass ed them through all the summer time, and having found himself too weak to attack thee, he has made a league with the demons of fever and death, in order to join our loss to yours, making his ravages upon us even more than on you. But take courage, our brother, we wipe away the tears from thy eyes, so that thou mayest see that all thy nephews are not dead. We open thine eyes by this present, so that thou mayest think of those who remain to thee, and that by thy favorable looks thou mayest give them at the same time life and joy. As for our two nephews who are dead, it is not needful that they should go naked into the other world : behold a beautiful pall to cover them. Behold also some thing with which to put them in the grave, for fear that the sight of them may renew thy sorrow, and to take away from thy view every kind of doleful ob jects. "This present is to level the earth in which I have put them, and this other is to erect a palisade around their tomb, so that beasts and birds of prey may not disturb their repose. Finally this last is to restore thy mind into its repose and place, so that our peace continuing in the same stability, no demon can change it.' "These were the appropriate terms of the speech of this grave barbarian, which was accompanied by eight beautiful presents of wampum, which he made in the name of the public. ' ' Whatever were the Christian ceremonies at these funerals, and they were certainly as full and stately as circumstances permitted, this is the oldest ad dress extant at any European funeral in this county. It was that of an Indian ¦chief. A French prisoner was killed in 1661 because he would not marry an Onon daga wife. He was a favorite with the Indians and the many captives then had much liberty, so that he had Christian burial. This was in Pompey, and these are the three recorded cases of that period. In Bruce 's Memorial History of Syracuse, page five hundred and seventy, it is said : "On the shores of Onondaga Lake, in the rear of the residence of the late William A. Judson, on West Genesee street, now occupied by his wid ow, is the grave of a man who is supposed to have been the first white person buried within the limits of Onondaga county. ' ' He suggested, however, the pos sibility of early French burials here, though he knew of none. General Bruce gives the inscription over his grave as "Benjamin Nukerk, Died December 7, 1787, Aged thirty-seven years." Mr. Cheney differed from this, and his ac count also follows : "In 1824 that portion of our city now occupied by the Syracuse Pump House, was covered with a dense growth of small trees and bushes. Among 308 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY these trees, near the present sand bed, stood a grave stone which had been erect ed to the memory of a poor Indian trader who was murdered on that spot by the Onondagas. The inscription on the grave stone recorded the name of 'Benjamin Newkirk, 1783.' With Newkirk came a boy by the name of Web ster." An Indian cemetery (recent) was a little east of this spot. The date is certainly too early. Clark dates Webster's coming in 1786, with Selkirk [Newkirk]. Webster's own journal made his first visit here in 1784, but it was probably 1786. After his western embassy he came back, and the second year after his return, ' ' a Mr. Newkirk came into the country with two men in his employ," and plenty of rum and whiskey. Of this he drank freely, and his men left him. Webster also remonstrated, without effect. Instead of be ing murdered he died of delirium tremens and was buried by Webster. Clayton's Onondaga agrees substantially with the Memorial History, saying that Benjamin Nukerk came in 1786 with Webster. "He died December 7, 1787, and was buried on a little eminence which overlooks the Onondaga Lake and its shores, now embraced in Farm Lot No. 310, lying directly in the rear of the residence of William Judson, on West Genesee street. The head and foot stone are still standing [1878] , bearing the inscription BENJAMIN NUKERK, Died Dec. 7th, 1787, Aged 37 years. ' ' To the above is added that "About the year 1845, Joseph Savage, Esq., who owns the land occupied by this grave, had occasion to dig a trench two or three feet below the surface, and while doing so struck upon a line of graves. On examination they -proved to be placed in a direct line for some twenty or thirty feet, and consisted of quite a number of bodies. The bodies were mostly decomposed, except the skulls, and among them were found quite a number of bullets." In many cases places at first used for burial by white settlers were chang ed to suit circumstances. Frequently family cemeteries were set apart on farms, and some of these still remain. Small cemeteries were rather common as a convenience, but in sbme of these there has been no interment for many years. The condition o'f some of these is deplorable, but, while some are well cared for, the tendency now is to large central cemeteries, "beautified for sit uation," and with ample means for care and improvement. In Onondaga county the map gives over a hundred cemeteries for public use; some very small and without beauty; others large and picturesque. One visited recently, lying beside a rural church, had dense shade, prostrate fences, broken monuments, and weeds, weeds everywhere. Yet there were verses full of pious and tender memories, the dead pleading not to be forgotten, friends promising they should not be. Another had an iron picketed fence around it,- without a gateway, and bristling with magnificent weeds. It may make no dif ference to the dead, but excuse us from such resting places. It was with a view to bring about a better state of things that Mr. W: W. Newman and others founded the Onondaga Cemetery Association in 1895. For PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 309 a time it did excellent work, but gradually dropped out of sight, perhaps because its work was rural and its members scattered. City and village cemeteries feel the need of such societies but little, at least in most cases; the rural districts require them, and the whole subject might well form a part of grange work. A patient examination of some scattered cemeteries, large and small, shows that they have historic value — no news perhaps, yet a new thought to some. Verses and epitaphs form a curious literature, of which some illustrations may appear here, and any person may do a valuable work by compiling the inscriptions in any rural cemetery. The local proof of this is in Captain Collins' Mortuary Records of Spafford. The general proof is in the burial records so frequently published in the New England states. The opportunities here are great. The first burials in what was the village of Salina were made near the inter section of Spring and Free streets. Interments ceased there before 1794, and began in what is now Washington Park. This was found to be too near the dwellings of the living, and burials began on a ridge running through Block forty. This was abandoned in 1801, when Sheldon Logan laid out a cemetery on state lands. Some were removed to this, and it was used till 1829. Block fifty-nine, in the First ward, covers this. An act of the Legislature in that year substitutes Block forty-three for this. The village trustees removed the bodies to the new cemetery, which still remains in fair condition, and with some antique stones. In 1834 the people of Lodi had a small cemetery on the hill on South Beech street, south of East Genesee. About half an acre was enclosed, and it is still known as Lodi cemetery, though burials are not made there now. • The first burials within the village limits of Syracuse were near the crossing of Clinton and Fayette streets. Probably not more than thirty were buried there, and interments ceased before 1819. From 1819 to 1824 all Syracuse burials were at Salina, Onondaga Hill or Valley. Then the "Old Cemetery" came into use, continuing till 1841. In 1841 Rose Hill cemetery was bought, including a little over twenty-two acres. It still remains in the heart of the city, but burials are now few. Part belongs to the Reformed Jews, and the general care might be improved. A better site was discussed for a number of years, and the Oakwood Asso ciation was organized August 15, 1859. Oakwood at first contained ninety-two and seventy-one hundredths acres, costing twenty-four thousand five hundred dollars. Afterward fifty-five acres were added. The grounds were dedicated November' 3, 1869, with an opening address by Hon. E. W. Leavenworth, presi dent of the association, a poem by Alfred B. Street, an oration by Hon. Wm. J. Bacon, and a hymn by Mrs. Thomas T. Davis, sung by the Syracuse Musical In stitute. Beside its natural beauties Oakwood is notable for its fine family vaults. Woodlawn cemetery is tasteful and well kept, in the northeast part of the city, on Manlius street, and is also accessible by street cars. It includes one hundred and five acres. Morningside cemetery is another large and beautiful place on Comstock avenue, in the southeast part of Syracuse. The association was organized in 1899, and the fine grounds have not yet the personal interest 310 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY belonging to older cemeteries. The same is true of Greenlawn cemetery, oh the main tracks of the New York Central railroad, eight miles "west of the Syracuse station. St. Cecilia's cemetery was bought in 1864, in the northeast part of the city, east of Highland street. Difficulties were encountered and it was disused in 1877. St. Mary's cemetery is an old burial place on Ren wick avenue, much neglected now. This was purchased since 1843. St. Agnes' cemetery, on En- glewood avenue, has a situation of remarkable beauty, commanding many fine views. The grounds are extensive — originally forty acres — and the monu ments are of great interest. This was laid out in 1872. Among other cemeteries are St. Joseph's and the Assumption, both German and in the second ward ; the First Ward cemetery already mentioned ; the Jewish cemeteries on the Jamesville road ; and Myrtle Hill, originally the Geddes ceme tery, in the ninth ward. The village of Liverpool has a cemetery in the north part, with a fine situa tion and monuments, but the tmple grounds require more care. Many German inscriptions appear there, and some common English ones are lacking. The town of Clay has three cemeteries, all in fair condition, but of the usual mathematical rural character. Cicero has four; the principal one at Brewer ton being the site of an Indian burial place over two hundred years old. Ly sander includes nine cemeteries large and small, the Baldwinsville cemeteries being in Van Buren. One at Belgium has been practically abandoned for Myr tle Grove cemetery, on a high situation farther west. Those at Lysander, Jack sonville and Plainville are in good condition; the others like many rural ceme teries. Van Buren has five cemeteries, reckoning two associations as one, the River side cemetery at Baldwinsville practically including the old village burial place. This fine cemetery lies on the south bank of Seneca river, affording fine oppor tunities for future embellishment by the water side, if the barge canal does not interfere. Elbridge has five cemeteries, one being east of the village of that name on the old Genesee road. The new cemetery for the use of Jordan has a fine situa tion between these two villages. Two older ones are in Jordan. Camillus has five cemeteries, and Marcellus three, all of them at that vil lage. These are all well kept, and one, directly in the village, has interesting memorials of pioneers. An earlier one, opened in 1797 and abandoned in 1804, was at the site of the Bradley home in Marcellus. Skaneateles has eight cemeteries. One early one was soon abandoned, and the present Lake View cemetery had its earliest interment in 1802. A fine sol diers ' monument has been erected here. Mr. E. N. Leslie has given full details of the later history of this spot. The first burial place was at a considerable distance north of Skaneateles village ; the second on a hill within its limits. The third was the nucleus of the Lake View cemetery, first used in 1802, but a fam ily burial place till 1808. The Mottville burying ground was opened in 1819, and the Roman Catholics have one at Skaneateles village. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 311 De Witt has several cemeteries, the one belonging to Jamesville being pleas antly situated a mile east of that place. South of the village in the town of La Fayette, is that of the De Witt family and others, interesting, but sadly neglected. The tombstone of Moses De Witt is a slab over his grave. The record on this is : "Here lie the remains of MOSES DE WITT, Major of Militia, and Judge of the County Courts ; one of the first, most active, and useful set tlers in the county. Pie was born on the 15th day of October, 1766, and died on the 15th day of August, 1794. ' ' The town should care for its foremost citi zen. Then follows the above : ' ' Also of his brother Egbert De Witt, born 25th of April, 1768; died 30th of May, 1793." Manlius has but few cemeteries, but those at Manlius and Fayetteville are easily accessible, ample and well kept. Pompey has ten cemeteries, the oldest and most notable being at Pompey hill, but that at Oran will repay a visit, being well kept and with early tombs. Spafford has six, quite fully reported by George K. Collins, who has thus done a valuable work. La Fayette has the same number, and there are five in Otisco. Tully has four and Fabius five. These are mostly in good condition. The large town of Onondaga has fourteen cemeteries, of which W. W. New man has given quite an account. There are two on the Indian reservation, and most of the rest are small, those at South Onondaga and Onondaga Valley being the most notable, leaving out St. Agnes, which is essentially a city cemetery. In these and at Onondaga Hill many pioneers sleep. There was a burial place near the old arsenal, but most of the bodies have been removed. On the road between the hill and valley, on the brink of Hopper's glen, two stones have a military character. One is in memory of "Benjamin Branch, Captain Light Art. U. S. A. Died Oct. 10, 1814." The other is that of "Henry Crouch, Cap tain. Capt. Benj. Shaw's Co. First Hopkins N. Y. Military. Died Apr. 22, 1815." During that war many troops and prisoners passed through Onondaga Valley. Mr. Newman gave a list of fifty burial places in the town of Onondaga, most of tjiem family cemeteries, leaving less than a dozen for interments now. It would be gratifying to have so full a descriptive list in all the towns. This the Cemetery Association had for one of its aims. In an address before it in 1896, Mrs. W. W. Teall outlined a scheme for that and the Historical Associa tion, as follows : "First — A complete and accurate genealogy of every family in Onondaga county. "Second — Biographies illustrating the lives and characters of the inhabi tants of this county. "Third — Complete records of each town and parish, records of marriage, births and deaths. "Fourth — Copies of inscriptions on tombstones and monuments. "Fifth — Abstracts of wills and deeds that contain facts of interest. "Sixth — Copies of the originals of all records of the old Indian wars, the Revolutionary war, the war of 1812, and the Civil war. 312 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY "Seventh — We want a complete list of officers, soldiers and sailors; all who have served their country in any public capacity. ' ' Most of these wants all cannot supply. The fourth is in the power of any one with an eye to read and a hand to write, but may be most easily done by some one on the spot, who might add family or historic notes. If records of New England cemeteries are examined it will be seen that many mortuary inscriptions are inherited here. Even small burial places may be expected to furnish the familiar lines, often varied: "Afflictions sore long time I bore; Physicians were in vain, Till God did please to give me ease, And free me from my pain." He and she vary the person, and there are other slight changes. So there are in another very old and favorite verse, found almost everywhere : "Friends or physicians could not save This mortal body from the grave ; Nor can the grave confine it here When Christ shall call it to appear. ' ' The last line often reads: "When Christ in judgment shall appear." On a stone in Skaneateles is a change of the first line : ' ' Neither doctors nor minis ters could save. ' ' Another is not so common, though found in several places : "Silent grave, to thee I trust This mortal part of sacred dust. Keep it safe, 0 solemn tomb, Until a wife shall ask for room." In one case the wife survived for twenty-nine years. There is another favorite verse of which the first part alone is often given : » "Respected while living, lamented though dead, Her sanctified spirit to Jesus has fled. ' ' The sentiment of this is often given more simply: "He lived respected and died lamented;" and this has many variations. Another verse may be giv en by itself, or have differing terminations. In fact it may vary throughout. A simple form is ' ' A tender husband, a partner dear, A faithful friend lies buried here." In one case the following is added to this and to others : ' ' In love he lived, in peace he died, In heaven above may he reside. ' ' PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 313 But more women than men seem to get the good epitaphs, and probably de serve them, so this had to be changed again for a frequent inscription, "A loving friend, a wife most dear, A tender parent lieth here. Great is the loss we here sustain, But hope in Heaven to meet again. ' ' There is another verse found almost everywhere, with the customary vari? tions : "Look, friends, and see; behold my fate, This is the doom of small and great. As I am now so you must be, Prepare for death and follow me. ' ' A more frequent form may be the following, but the variations are many : "Pray drop a tear as you pass by. As you are now so once was I. As I am now so you must be ; Prepare to die and follow me." Still another. and longer form will sometimes appear: "Stop, my friends, as you pass by, And on my grave cast an eye. Your sun like mine may set at noon, Your soul be called for very soon. In this dark place you soon may be, Prepare for death and follow me." Space would fail to record all these general inscriptions, nor can all the touching or curious ones be now given out of a local collection of several hun dreds. Some quoted are found everywhere, but the larger part seem original here. Those in memory of children are often pathetic in their simplicity. We may smile at the following on a child but seven months old, but the parent's heart speaks in it : ' ' His friends they mourn, and well they may, Their lovely charge is snatched away. While here on earth so sweet and mild, He truly was a lovely child. ' ' Here is another on one but two months older: ' ' Another little cherub gone, His mother 's bright-eyed boy, A lovely little innocent, His father 's hope and joy. ' ' 314 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY The following, often varying much, seems a favorite for children a little older : "We laid him here with many tears, And felt when all was o'er, Our home had one bright angel less, And heaven one angel more." A host of such verses might be quoted. Here is one in a different vein for a woman twenty years old, the lines being apparently original: ' ' 'Tis done ! beloved of thy sex We've paid thee now our last respects. Farewell, thou virtuously renown 'd, Adieu, 'til gabriel 's trump shall sound. ' ' Mr. Myron Clift gives the following inscription from recollection, at How- lett Hill, saying of Mr. Howlett, in a note following the verse. "By his own re quest the above was lettered on a marble slab and placed at his grave. ' ' It may easily be verified: "Here Parley Howlett lies — No one laughs, no one cries; Where he goes, or how he fares, No one asks, no one cares." The following curious inscription is on a stone in Baldwinsville, exciting much comment : "The Mother of her Country dies, Nancy, the Wife of John Widiams, Esq., Died July 7, 1852, at 2 o'clock p. m., Ae. 79 y'rs. 3 mo. and 4 Da. She rests from her labors and her works do follow her. ' ' In the same cemetery, in the same year, is a wife's lament for her hus band: "Dearest husband, why did you die And leave your Wife and Children alone ? No Eye but God's saw you die. Oh, James, this world is not our home. ' ' In Spafford a young woman was thus eulogized : "She was a dear daughter, kind sister and friend, To her happiness and wishes she was ready to attend. In her long and painful illness not a word of complaint, She was always a true and obedient saint." PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 315 In the same cemetery an inscription tells a bit of family history. A young man died afar from home, but was eventually brought back by his brother : ' ' Removed he was and buried here By William Legg, his brother dear." This inscription is over a young man in a cemetery near the north line of the county, where there are many worth quoting : "You that pass by, stop and read my stone, Think how quickly I was snatched and gone. Death don't always a warning give; So pray be careful how you live. ' ' The inscription on the monument to Dennis McCarthy's parents is in excel lent taste : ' ' To the Memory of the just man, the good Father The charitable woman, the tender Mother In whom the needy ever found a friend ; As theirs 0 Lord such be our peaceful end. ' ' Another follows from the same cemetery, over a young man 's grave : "Just in my bloom and vigorous morn of age, Whilst in the tropic of my youthful days, God gave command that I should quit the stage, The messenger a short but sharp disease. ' ' Another early one over a two year old boy is suggestive of spiritual growth and occurs in New England : ' ' His soul enlarged to angel size Joins in the triumph of the skies." Lines like those which follow are extremely rare here, and these are over the grave of a pioneer who died in 1834, aged eighty-two years : "Here lies the body of John Young God's praises dwelt upon his tongue His heart was often filled with love, While here below, but now he's gone To join God's saints around the throne And shout and praise redeeming love." Slaves were once frequent here, and when freedom came they often clung to the old families, but their names would not be expected on the family monu ments. In one case the servitor's fidelity was not forgotten. In the Cardiff cemetery, on the Shue monument is this : ' ' Jack, 27 years a slave in the State of New York. ' ' 316 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY If they have not been expressed, no doubt many young men have felt what appears over one of their number in a rural grave in the town of Lysander : "And I had dreamed such glorious dreams Of what my life should be ; And must I die ? Not yet ! Oh, God, Remove this cup from me. ' ' Another has a sorrowful tone of a different kind : "My time was short, my days were few, And perfect health I never knew. Now in the cold grave I rest, To wake and rise among the blest. ' ' This unusual one from a cemetery in Van Buren for a two year old boy, has a business sound : "My prospects in the morning bright, Fair at noon, dead at night. ' ' Another of the brief, old and popular inscriptions appears in many places': ' ' Death is a debt to nature due, Which I have paid, and so must you." The following lines appear in Spafford and Skaneateles — probably else where : "Within this tomb by death overcome, A tender parent rests. With love sincere his children dear He frequently caress 'd. A master 's part with generous heart It 's known he acted well. May those he's left of him bereft His virtuous ways excell. ' ' These dnes are over the tomb of William Cobb, a pioneer of Marcellus, who died in 1826 : "With pain & toil I long did till the ground But in it now a resting place hath found. Old age & wearied toil without repose, At 77 years in death my eyes did close. ' ' A younger man died the year before, and his stone bears this inscription, which is both old and variable, and in its first form quoted from Pope : * PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 317 "How lov'd how valued once avails me not, To whom related, or by whom forgot ; A heap of dust alone remains of me, 'Tis all I am, & all that you can be. ' ' This is over a young woman who died in 1840, aged thirty-one, and has more comfort in it : "No honest marble better titles show Than this, for her who sweetly sleeps below. The Wife, the Mother, Christian and Friend, Meant what they should until her peaceful end. ' ' It is a pleasure to give the inscription from the tomb of the first and most noted historian of Onondaga, who rests in the Manlius cemetery: "Joshua V. H. Clark-died June 18, 1869, Aged 66 Y 'rs. Resurgam. ' ' Beside this another stone reads thus: "Phoebe A. Sims, Wife of Joshua V. H. Clark, Died Sept. 23, 1887. Aged 81 Y'rs. Requiescat. " These are as simple as their lives. One of the early printers and editors of Onondaga county is buried in Oakwood, and his tasteful monument has a characteristic inscription : ' ' Lewis H. Redfield, | Printer. | A worn and battered form, | | Gone to be recast | More beautiful and perfect. | Born November 26, 1793. | Died July 14, 1882." The following is a favorite, but sometimes has other lines prefixed : ' ' Dust to its narrow home beneath, Soul to its rest on high, They that have seen they look in death No more may fear to die. ' ' For a man seventy-five years old there is this inscription: "Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord, ' ' which does not suggest mourning. This may be read over the tomb of a woman ninety-two years old : "In view of death she selected her funeral text, 2 Timothy, 4 Chapter, 7 and 8 verses. ' ' A man of eighty-three years has these words: "He sought no eulogy, but was content to live and die an honest man." A mathematical inscription is just beyond the county line, over the grave of a child : ' ' He has gone to wing with the angles, The angles that inhabit the Sky. And some day we hope to see him, When we are soaring near by. ' ' These verbal errors are frequent, as well as lapses in grammar. There are many memorials of various wars, and one follows of a young man killed in Virginia : "No bugle call now disturbs the weary one; Rest noble spirit in the grave unknown. We will find and know you among the good and true, When the Robe of White is given for the faded blue. ' ' 318 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY We conclude with an old fashioned eulogy on a stone at Onondaga Valley : "Samuel Forman erects this monument to commemorate the virtues of his ex cellent & beloved wife Sophia, who departed this life October 18th, 1826, aged 32 years. Most amiable & lovely in life, but made perfect only through suffering by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, he humbly trusts that while her ashes hallow this spot, her spirit lives in the bosom of her Savior who will assuredly reunite them at the last day. ' ' CHAPTER XXXII. THE ONONDAGA RESERVATION. The treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1784 was between the Six Nations and the United States, and dealt with the land question in a general way. In the winter of 1787-88 the Lessee Company was formed. Lands could not be purchased of the Indians by private persons, except the Seneca- lands, which came under a New England claim. It was thought that a lease was not actually a sale, and so this company leased ' ' all the land commonly known as the lands of the Six Nations, in the State of New York, and at the time in the actual possession of said chiefs and sachems," for nine hundred and ninety-nine years, with an annual rent of two thousand dollars. The reservations in Onondaga county were "Reservation second. — One-half of the falls, and convenient places for weirs, for the purpose of catching fish and eels, from Cross Lake to the Three Rivers. Reservation third. — Reserving the exclusive right to one of the salt springs near Onondaga, with fifty or one hundred acres of land around the same, sufficient for fire wood and other conveniences for boiling salt, together with an equal right in common, for eeling and fishing as far as Oneida Lake." Payment of rents would begin July 4, 1791. Many reputable men were engaged in this, and Joseph Brant and Hendrick Tekarihogea signed it for the Mohawks. Red Jacket's and Little Beard's names appear among twenty-two Senecas. Beside these twenty-three Cay ugas, eight Onondagas, three Oneidas, and ten principal women. The scheme failed, and a law was passed, March 18, 1788, authorizing the destruction of all houses on Indian lands not built by the Indians' themselves. These lands lay west of the "Line of Property," of 1768, which in New York followed the Sus quehanna up to Owego, then due east to Delaware river and up that to a point due south of the mouth of the Tianaderha or Unadilla river, and to that place; then up the west side of the west branch of that river to its source ; ' ' thence by a direct Line to Canada Creek where it emptys into the wood Creek at the West of the Carrying Place beyond Fort Stanwix." Clark mistook in saying this line crossed "the Mohawk River, near where the dividing line, of the counties of Herkimer and Oneida now crosses the same." The treaty of 1784 secured the property title of lands in New York, west of this line, to the Six Nations, and title could be acquired only by the state, with the exception~of the Seneca lands. Some land at Oswego and along Niagara river belonged to New York. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 319 The first purchase of Onondaga lands was made at Fort Stanwix, Septem ber 12, 1788, and a definite reservation was then made, since much reduced. Six of the eight Onondaga clans signed this, and it was confirmed in 1790, as before mentioned. The fourth and last sale left six thousand one hundred acres in an oblong rectangular form. General Carrington prepared a good map of the reservation for the United States census of 1890, and this also appeared in Onon daga's Centennial. Since then the resident population has greatly changed. One conspicuous hill, south of the council house, has more the character of a mountain than is usual here. From the high plateau there is a steep descent on every side. An annuity payment of two thousand four hundred and thirty dollars to the Onondagas, calls out most of these once a year at the council house, and an nuities are also paid to the Oneidas at the same time. Another annuity comes to all from the United States. The payment of the Kansas claims two years ago made every Indian feel rich, and generally it was well used. When the Six Nations Temperance League holds its sessions here, it is also a great time on the reservation, as there are many visiting delegates. The national picnic is also a festive occasion for all. The rarer condolence, for raising or installing chiefs, has always a large attendance. The ancient feasts have lost their im- pressiveness, a majority of the Indians taking no part, and only the Green Corn dance attracting much attention from the whites. There is increased attention to farming and market gardening, and the lat ter would be popular and profitable under wise supervision ; a thing always here tofore lacking in efforts to improve conditions. Many young men are employed in Syracuse, having a natural attitude for some mechanical arts. With a bet ter and higher education, such as is now provided for them, will come business methods and advantages. Another element of progress has been increased inter course with the better class of whites, through church, temperance, and other, kinds of elevating work in which they have shared. The sad side is that the vices of the whites have influenced them also. With every drawback, however, no one who has known them long can fail to see an advance. Pleasant homes and the higher comforts of home are now common, schools are well attended, churches have good congregations. The Onondagas have reached their present abode by a well defined series of movements in historic times. Three centuries ago they were a little west of Cazenovia lake. They went thence farther south, and then gradually north be tween the branches of Limestone creek. The French found them a little south of Manlius in 1654. Thirty years later they were well established on Butter nut creek, going thence to Onondaga creek, near Onondaga Valley, and thence to their present village. Some events at these sites have been mentioned. Those who see the reservation merely from the public highway, are often impressed with its picturesque beauty, but one should climb the hills or traverse the byways to get a fair idea of what all is like. There is a great deal of cultivated land and many homes on which the white man 's eye has seldom rested. There are waste lands and very primitive homes as well. Charming spots and delightful views are to be found, and perhaps the easy going people have more 320 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY enjoyment of life than their neighbors in the great city, in their palatial dwell ings luxuriously equipped. Certainly between the poorest home on the reserva tion and the poorest house in the city there is room for choice. Through the reservation runs one of our finest country roads, maintained by the state for the convenience of its own citizens, not of the Onondagas. These have given the state a franchise with suitable conditions. For a long distance beside this are gravel sidewalks, and these extend along some byroads. The dif ficulty with some roads is the washing by rains. Still the worst roads here can be surpassed in badness by some in other hilly places. A cross road goes over the creek toward South Onondaga, intersecting another reservation road west of the creek. Another rugged one runs southeast from the council house, with sev eral branches, and from this one goes north through the quarries to the Castle Hotel. One very poor road ascends the great hill. Clark said of Kawhicdota or Kahiktoton, that "he was in possession of a beautiful trumpet, which he called the council horn; by a single blast of which he could at once summon more than half a thousand warriors to his cabin. . . . The last time it was sounded [1848] was at the funeral of [Abram] La Fort." This brings up the number of the Onondagas. It is doubtful whether they ever had five hundred warriors in their greatest days, and Greenhalgh gave them but three hundred and fifty in 1677. For a long time after the Revolution very few lived at Onondaga, and- it is this fact which discredits some of the stories told of Ephraim Webster. In 1793 some of Zeisberger 's Onondaga friends told him that "they no longer live at Onondaga, where there are now only twelve or thirteen families, but over the lake at Buffalo creek. ' ' In 1807 Pursh was one day with Ephraim Webster and said: "We took a walk to the Castle or Indian Village; this tribe is but very weak, they are very genteel and well behaved people and industry begins to propagate among them. ' ' Spafford is almost always quaint, and in his Gazetteer of 1834 said: "The Onondaga Castle, or the chief town of the remnant of the Onondagas in this State, is in the hollow, 3 miles south of the Village of Onondaga Hollow, de scribed below, on a small reservttion of theirs, and contains about 50 Indian houses, on a street of near 7 miles in length, and contains about 150 souls— 50 less than 10 years ago. Their houses are built of hewn logs, the spaces filled with masoned mortar-work, and are comfortable enough — quite com fortable enough for Indians, though they would not do for our 'Christian Missionaries, ' at the Sandwich Islands, in S. Africa, 'and the Lord knows where.' The present numbers of the Onondagas may be 500; — 150 of which are at Onondaga, 150 on Buffalo Creek, 100 on the Alleghany River, and 100 on the Ouse, or Grand River, in Upper Canada. They receive 2,000 dollars from the State of New York, being the interest on the sum for which they sold their share of the Military Lands. . . . The Onondaga Indians, once the lords of this favored region, are reduced to about 500 souls, (if indeed Indians have souls?)" In 1813 he noted that the Onondaga village on Buf falo creek was seven miles from its mouth. In the light of recent histories his remarks on this point in 1834 are interesting : SOUTH SALINA STREET BRIDGE IN 1840. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 321 "There is- probably no part of the United States whose Indigenal His tory is of such importance as that of Onondaga and the region thereabout. And, strange as it may seem, the early history of that region, which, of all others, is the most interesting in tracing the progressive history of the Man in America, will only attract the attention it so imperiously demands, in the remote periods of future ages. Time, which is so rapidly destroying all the records or memorials, increases their interest in perpetual progression. In anticipation of these facts, it were much to be wished that in the present age some person would collect all that yet remains of the history of Onon daga, with all that Indian tradition has preserved." Adams and Clark. read these words, and that very year Dr. Adams an nounced that he had for some time been preparing what might have been called "Annals of the Onondaga Valley." In 1847 part of this material passed into Mr. Clark's hands, and in 1849 his "Onondaga" was published. Spafford 's wish was gratified. In 1818 Jasper Parish reported that two hundred and ninety-nine Onon dagas resided at Old Onondaga village. In July, 1821, Rev. Dr. Morse visited them and reported two hundred and seventy-two people there, thirty- four being Presbyterians; the rest pagans. "Mary Doxtater, a pious, intel ligent, and well educated widow woman of the Stockbridge tribe, of her own accord, and without support from any society, or individuals, has kept a school among these Indians the last summer, and is probably, in the present season, in the same employment with them. The Onondagoes sustain a high and respectable rank for intelligence and improvement, among their fellow tribes of the Six Nations. ' ' In Dr. Morse's report there is a pleasant mention of the work of Lydia Mott, of Skaneateles, among the Stockbridge Indians of Oneida: "Among this tribe, I found a pious and respectable lady, of the Society of Friends, who, after the example of Dorcas, was piously employed in making garments for the Indians, and gratuitously instructing the Indian girls, how to make them. Having some property, she lives, and gives her instructions, among the Indians, respectably, at her own expense. Her zeal, activity and disin terestedness, are highly to be commended." The Quakers were also interested in the Onondagas, and visited them in 1809. "On reaching the settlement, which is about thirty-three miles from Oneida, we had an opportunity with them (the Indians) ; all of us sit ting on the grass, which was thought more convenient than meeting in the house. The natives appeared better clothed than the Oneidas. They re ceived us very courteously, and we had a satisfactory time with them. . . . They spoke of the Great Spirit and its divine influence, with as much per spicuity as perhaps could be conveyed in any language. ' ' That they could speak plainly is .shown by the following . letter, sent by four Onondaga chiefs to the Quakers in 1811 : "Friends and Brothers. We have heard from your council-fire once more; we have heard that you wanted to know whether the Onondagas have 322 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY left off the use of strong drink or not. Brothers, we have left off some time ago. You told us to leave off; the Great Spirit told us to leave off; we have listened to his voice. There are, some that visit us from the Oneidas that drink ; we think they will leave off by our good advice. "Brothers, We are in want of cattle, chains, ploughs, and all kinds of farming utensils ; you have told us that you would help us ; we were glad to hear you were willing to help us. "Brothers. We are in want of blacksmiths, carpenters and other me chanics; we want to learn our children to work; we have opened our eyes; we now see that we must work. We are willing to work,; we begin to raise wheat, and will do more if we can get help. "Brothers. A part of our tribe lives at Buffalo. They are of the same- mind with us; we are agreed. We wish, if you will help us to oxen and farming utensils, that you will send them on as soon as you can, as we are much in want. You will find us of the same mind as we were when you were here ; we hope to hear from you soon. "Brothers. We expect you and wish you all well; remember us at' your great council. We look to you as our friends. ' ' In 1813, it was said: "The committee have recently felt much inter ested for the Onondagoe tribe, who, having for some years past relinguished the use of ardent spirits, and become sober and industrious, requested the as sistance of Friends ; they have accordingly been supplied with oxen and farm ing utensils, and their agricultural improvement and advancement have been the most rapid of any of the tribes." The report for 1825 said: "The Committee has a Friend and his wife residing with the Onondagoe tribe, and as he is a blacksmith, and his wife a weaver, it is hoped their services will be useful. The principal men appear to be disposed to promote the views of Friends, and to dissuade their young men from habits of intemperance; they were encouraged and advised to wait on the Great Spirit, to dwell in his fear, that he might give them wis dom to bring up their children aright, to train them in habits of industry and the cultivation of their land. They having concluded and promised the cultivation of flax, we also encouraged them to procure sheep, and manu facture cloth, and it was satisfactory to observe that they appeared disposed to acquire the knowledge of the most useful mechanic arts. ' ' In speaking of Abram La Fort Mr. Clark mentions the last Quaker effort at Onondaga. La Fort returned there in 1826, and "opened a school, which was continued about three years. He was paid eight dollars a month for his services, by a Quaker, who resided among the Onondagas with his family. The efforts of this Quaker family were unremitting for a period of eight years, during which time several Indian girls were instructed in household duties, the benefits of which we see, even at this late day, exemplified in some of their habitations. The most strenuous exertions were used by this family to bring about a reformation in the morals and habits of the nation, and to hasten a knowledge of civilization and Christianity. Although ineffectual in their PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 323 efforts, traces of their labors still remain, and the services of Adin T. Corey and family will be long and affectionately remembered." The old "Quaker House" on the main road, was remodeled not long since. The writer well remembers Mr. Corey, and his funeral at Skaneateles in March, 1845, when a delegation of Onondagas came to see him buried. That he used "strenuous exertions" will not be doubted by those who knew him. One of his former hearers said : "He was a very energetic preacher, and used a good deal of bodily exer cise in the discharge of his duty. After he had preached a few minutes he would take off his hat and wipe his forehead. Then, after a few minutes more, his neckcloth would be loosened, and then laid on his hat. As he waxed warmer in his eloquence, the coat took its place beside the neck-tie; and finally the waist coat was taken off, and the man stood in his shirt sleeves, de claiming with a vigor that made the perspiration stream down his face." Just before Dr. Morse was at the reservation in 1821, Rev. Mr. Mills cele brated an Indian marriage at his house, and it was thought future marriages would follow Presbyterian forms, but there are no farther records of the kind. The Presbyterians mentioned may have been some of Rev. Samuel Kirkland 's Oneida converts. That eminent missionary had visited Onondaga, but there .seem no distinct records of his officiating there. In speaking of Rev. Sampson Occum, Mr. Clark said: "Both he and the Rev. Samuel Kirkland, were well acquainted at Onondaga, often visited and occasionally officiated there among the Indians." This is quite probable but hardly certain. In 1816 Bishop Hobart sent Eleazar Williams to Oneida as a catechist and lay reader. March 31 the latter visited Onondaga by request of some of the chiefs, remaiuing several days. He said in his journal: "Reached this village about ten o'clock this morning, and came thither by the special invitation of the principal chiefs and people, by whom I was received with much kindness. They gave me no time to refresh myself, but hurried me to their council house, 'to hear,' as they said, 'the words of Him who dwells in the Heavens.' " He often visited them that year and afterward. In 1816 the Rev. Timothy Clowes, rector of St. Peter's church, Albany, visited the Indians, with Mr. Williams as interpreter. July 18 he preached, and baptized eleven Onondaga children. In July, 1817, Rev. Messrs. Clark and Gear were there, preaching, and baptizing about twenty persons. Mr. Gear afterward married several couples at Onondaga hill, in his church, and bap tized many children there. It was through him that Mary Doxtater opened her school. A Methodist Episcopal church was organized on the reservation in 1814, services being held there once a month. A school building was used till a new schoolhouse was built in 1846, and that was occupied till the erection of the present church. This was remodeled in 1885. The Wesleyan Methodists reorganized in 1893, and built a church in 1895, in which Rev. Thomas La Fort officiates. He has the advantage of speaking in the Indian tongue. Rev. Dr. George Morgan Hills, with Rev. Dr. Breck, held a service at the 324 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY reservation in September, 1867, and Bishop Coxe, accompanied by nine clergy men of whom the writer was one, held another December 19, 1867. Out of this came the following letter to Dr. Hills, just before Christmas : "Rev. George Morgan Hills "I want you come down Christmas Day I want you baptize to little children Philip Jones her son and her girls four he got baptize that day and Another Wilson Reuben her girl and My little girl that be six children he wants you baptize Christmas day from Yours Truly DANIEL LA FORTE, Onondaga Castle" This is a characteristic Indian letter. May 20, 1868, some principal Indians- came to Dr. Hills for services, which began that year, and September 27, 1870, the Church of the Good Shepherd was consecrated, with continuous services since. A Chippewa Indian preached. In this church a native Ononda ga, Rev. Albert Cusick, was ordained October 1, 1891. For the writer he trans lated the Lord's Prayer into the Onondaga dialect, as follows: Squa-ne, kar-hea-ke tshe-tah, wa-kwa-seh-na-to-ker-tish-ta ; oonk-ta-weh na to-neh o-when-jaeh-ke-cha-ne-kucht na kar-he-ute-ke. Toon-da-kyoh toon-neh woehn-tah-te na oon-kwa-ha-kwa ; o-ne toon-ta-kwae-ye-wah-sah-goos na cha nate-ho-ne-yut ta-ya-kwa-yuchs na sa-ya-neh-sa cha nate-ho ne-yut ta-sha-ke-e- wah-seh-kwa-neek na cha kah-ye na ta-ha-te-yuchs na oon-kwa-yea-nah-sa ; o-ne a-kwe na-to osk-was-si-ni-tah cha non-we na ah-yoon-kwa-ne-gon-ha-tah-kwa na ki-e-wha-na-ahr-kwa-sa-toon-ta-kwa-yea-toont-ka teh-sa noon-wa-ne-ka-yeh na ka-yeh-na-ki-whin-o-gwas-seh. A-seh-keh is o-we-ho-gwa-ke is-how-wah o- ne na cha kah-yeh na guch-hah-tshe-sa o-ne na we-ah-neh cha ta-weh cha ta-weh. Na-to-ni-ya-wa-ha. In this "Forgive us our trespasses," etc., has been paraphrased as "For give us for breaking Thy laws, as we forgive those who break human laws." After the early schools mentioned, a few Indian children went to neighbor ing district schools, but in 1845 Miss Mary Hitchcock opened a school on the reservation for them alone. In April, 1846, the Legislature appropriated three hundred dollars for a schoolhouse, and two hundred and fifty dollars annually for expenses for five years. For quite a time a school was also maintained in connection with the Episcopal mission: A new public schoolhouse has good buildings and ample grounds, and has three teachers, with a fair attendance. This is to be replaced with a two-story house, with better accommodations and an assembly hall. A number of young people have been at Hampton and Carlisle, and one in Syracuse University. Commendable efforts have been made to promote temperance. A lodge of Sons of Temperance existed some years ago, and Ka-no-si-o-ni Lodge, No. 277, 1. 0. G. T., was organized November 2, 1877. At one time it had a junior branch. Beside this the Onondaga Temperance Society is connected with the Six PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 325 Nations Temperance league, which annually meets on different reservations in turn. These annual sessions are of great interest. The Onondaga Indian band was formed in 1862, and soon became famous, It played at the Centennial celebrations in Syracuse and Baldwinsville in 1894, and at the Madison County Centennial in 1906. For two years past it has been in New York for a few weeks at a time, and has had many changes. David Hill is now leader, and it is a large organization. Another band is led by Albert Cusick, and is called the Reservation Band, though not confined to Indians. Mr- Cusick has been a successful teacher of bands, and has aided many students in Indian philology, customs, folk lore, etc., as Horatio Hale, Mrs. Erminnie A. Smith, Mrs. Converse, J. N. B. Hewitt, and Rev. Dr. Beauchamp. By mother right he is an Onondaga, but the Tusearora Cusicks, his paternal ancestors, have long been a noted family, and he himself has been influential for good. His Indian name is Sa-go-na-qua-te, "he who makes every body mad." Many prominent Onondagas have died since 1900, leaving no successors of the same standing, and the rising generation has new ideas. Most distinctive features will soon disappear. The writer has seen this progressive change for seventy years, but at no time has it been as rapid as now. The Indian problem will solve itself. The frame houses on the reservation were fifteen in 1860, and are five times that number now; the twelve frame barns have trebled, to say nothing of schools, stores and churches built within that time. Mr. Cusick said that when he came there in 1860, "Very few of the Indians could express themselves in the English language, and when an Indian was discovered in the act of talking to a white man in the white man's tongue, he was made a subject of laughter and jest. It was a disgrace." This was on the reservation, where all councils with white men required an interpreter. The writer has several times stood with one at his side. In the census of 1890 are the names of sixteen Onondagas on this reserva tion who served in the civil war. Many New York Indians shared in this and in the war of 1812, with an honorable record. An account of existing customs, games and traditions will be found else where, but Harper's Weekly, 1872, had a picture of Captain George, and one of the same chief, January 18, officiating at the burning of the white dog. The account of this follows : "Captain George, who, as head chief of the nation, acted as high priest, entered the council house and proceeded to array himself in a white tunic, the sleeves of which were bound up with white ribbons. He then girded himself with a belt of beads, and placed upon his head an adornment that might excite the admiration of the most fashionable of milliners — it was so light and feathery. Taking his seat in the center of the room, he waited in solemn silence for a long time. At length the solemn moment arrived, and so impressive were the proceedings that the only white men permitted to be present felt themselves compelled to uncover their heads and cease their labors. Rising slowly and majestically, bearing a long white wand in his right hand, Captain George 326 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY commenced a chant in the Onondaga language; passing slowly around the typical dog from his position at the east he proceeded to the south, west and north, and then returned to his former position, where he consulted with one of the chiefs. This proceeding was repeated three times; and then, as if he had gathered all the sins of the people, he approached the dog and uttered a pathetic lament. After this the body of the victim, which was laid upon a rough bier, was gently lifted up and borne to the place of sacrifice by the hands of the chiefs of the nation. The high priest then, standing at the east side of the altar of sacrifice, solemnly committed the victim to the flames. The sacrifice was completed ; the atonement made. ' ' Clark's circumstantial account (1841) differs widely from this, two dogs being burned at that time. There was a procession, first in double and then in single file, and the dogs were brought in and laid on a low platform. The master of ceremonies was seated in the center of the house, and received offer ings before the arrival of the dogs, which were carried thrice around the room, with other ceremonies. Meantime the fire had been kindled without. In single file the procession was resumed, once around the council house and thrice around the fire, where, with prayers and singing, the dogs were successively cast in the fire. The writer has seen the ceremony since the basket was sub stituted for the dog. Except the procession through and around the council house all was performed indoors, the basket being thrust into a stove. When the French first came to Onondaga the principal chief was Garakon tie, who became their zealous friend and was styled the Father- of the French. His name means the Sun that advances, and for more than twenty years he threw all his influence on the French side. His brother, who inherited his name but not his office, was equally their friend. Hotreouati, often called Garangula, was the orator whose speech became so famous. Dekanissora was another famous speaker, who was prominent for nearly fifty -years. He was probably more of a statesman than warrior, but Canadgegai, or Black Kettle, was famous in the field, being killed in 1698. Canassatego was another famous orator, who died in 1750, and was often in Pennsylvania. Tochanuntie, the Black Prince, another great speaker, was his contemporary, dying at Indian Orchard in 1749. He was first mentioned in Pennsylvania in 1736, as Taginchuntee, but though Marshe said that the Governor of Canada would hold no council without him, it is difficult to find his name in French documents. Count Zinzendorf told two stories of him which follow, but they seem doubtful, and that writer was credulous. "The Black Prince of Onondaga is a terrible savage. On one occasion he broke into the stockade castle of the enemy, scalped the inhabitants and escaped unhurt. While on a visit to Colonel Nicolls, one of the Colonel's servants poured water on him. With a thrust of his knife, the' enraged Indian stabbed the man in the stomach, so that he fell dead at his feet. Straightway he informed Nicolls of what had occurred. 'This act,' said the latter, 'would be regarded a capital offence in Europe.' 'With us,' retorted the Prince, 'trifling with a warrior is regarded a capital offence, and hence I slew your PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 327 man. If death is decreed me, here I am; do with me according to your laws.' The Prince is still living." Caxhayton appeared in 1736, and was Canassatego 's principal adviser, dying 1749. Otsinoghiyata, Sinew, was best known as the Bunt, appearing first in 1752, and dying during the Revolution. He is noticed elsewhere. Kaghswughtiooni, Wampum Belt lying down, but usually called Red Head, became speaker in 1750, and was then a French partisan. His liking for John son led him to favor the English, and when he died in 1756, Johnson performed the condolence. Ganatschiagaye, or Old Kettle, was a chief of Upper Onondaga in 1752, and Zeisberger lodged with him, the chief aiding him in preparing his diction ary. He was a prominent chief, but Zeisberger mentioned many not otherwise known. There was another Red Head who died at Oswego in 1764, and who made a map of the St. Lawrence for Sir William Johnson. He was a great warrior. His Indian name is not given, but Red Head would be O-non-wa-hot kwah in Onondaga. Te-ya-wa-run-te was speaker in 1762, and as late as 1775. Tioquanta or Teyohagweanda spoke in 1756, and had a conference with Governor Haldiman at Quebec in August, 1779. Big Sky or Clear Sky, Sonkyoowauna, was the principal chief of the Onondagas on Buffalo creek in 1791. He spoke at councils in 1793 and 1794. Kawhicdota appears on the treaty of 1788 as Kahiktoton, and on the con firmation of that in 1790 as Kaghicktoton, meaning Tree full of thorns. He was head chief, and received a mile square of land in 1795. Pie was much esteemed, and died in 1808. Captain Cold, or Uthawah was one of four who signed the treaty of 1829, and kept the wampum belts at Buffalo creek till his death in 1845. He lived there, "and the Senecas appropriated a mile square of land on their reservation as a mark of distinction to the chief who kept them. ' ' His name came from the cold weather at the time of his birth. The inscription on his tombstone is: "TAYATOAQUE, or CAPTAIN COLE, A WAR CHIEF of the Onondaga Nation, Died May 25, 1845, Aged 75." Ossahinta, Falling Frost, was often called Captain Frost, and for a long time was principal chief of the Onondagas, ruling from 1830 to 1846. His picture is the frontispiece of Clark's Onondaga, and he lived to the age of eighty-six. Oundiaga, Path crossing a hill, is often pronounced An-te-au-gar. A name resembling his appears in two treaties, but it is said he never consented to a sale of land. His birth is supposed to have been in 1739, and he died in 1839, but Clark said he was ninety-one years- old. This would place his birth in 1748, and would not agree with his being in the old French war. He may 328 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY not have been at Fort Stanwix, as is claimed, but was probably at Cobleskill and Cherry valley. In 1806 or 1807 he was the first mailcarrier between Onondaga and Oswego, averaging about ten hours each way. It is said he once illustrated white encroachments by sitting on a log with a friend, and crowding him gradually to the end as they talked. Then he shoved him off, as he said the whites would the Indians. He became head chief in 1830. Hoh-a-hoa-qua, Pie lived with them, was the La Fort who fell at the battle of Chippewa, July 6, 1814. Clark said he was chosen leader then, but it now appears that Captain Pollard led the American Indians. La Fort was mortally wounded, and borne from the field by his son. The family were originally Oneidas, deriving their present name from the French. Tawhisquanta, Lying flat on his stomach, was commonly called Captain John, or Spring the trap. He was next in authority to Kawhicdota, and lived to a great age. A story of a cruel deed in killing and flaying a French child is not in agreement with his character, or with dates assigned to him. It is said that a French officer wantonly killed his child. He waited some years for revenge, and then killed and flayed the Frenchman's child. Now he died alone on the west side of Onondaga lake in 1816, being about seventy-eight years old. This would have made him twenty-two at the close of the war and it was not likely that he had a child killed by the French some years before. In fact, up to the last, the French used every means to secure, the friendship of the Onondagas. Abram La Fort's name was Te-at-gah-doos, Looking all over. He was a son of the one mentioned, and the Onondagas usually say that his mother was an Oneida, and that he became an Onondaga by adoption. Clark, however, said that his mother was a sister of Oundiaga, and. that Ossahinta and Tiungtakonea were his uncles. However that may be he was born in 1794, and lived in Onondaga in 1816, and probably from infancy. Eleazar Williams met him there in 1816, and others took an interest in him, so that he was with Rev. Samuel Fuller, Rensselaerville, from March, 1819, to August, 1823, for his education. Then he went to Geneva Academy for three years more, and then kept school on the reservation for another three years, attending the Episcopal church at Onondaga hill, where he was married in August, 1828. Through his wife's influence he relapsed and became the head of the Pagan party, dying at Onondaga, October 5, 1848. His coffin plate read: "Abram La Fort, Head Chief of the Onondagas, aged 54 years." Aunt Dinah, Ta-wah-ta-whe-jah-quah, The earth that upholds itself, was the best known Onondaga woman of modern days, and lived to a great age. Her monument reads: "Aunt Dinah John, died May 26th, 1883, aged 109 years." The Indians made her age less, as did many who had known her long. Circumstances favor this view, and she may not have been over ninety-nine, though something may be said on the other side. Her monument stands five feet above the base, and is of Onondaga limestone. She was married early in the ninteenth century, a fact derogating from her great age, and was with PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 329 her husband through the war of 1812, serving as cook. Under a law of 1878 she received a pension of eight dollars per month, and four hundred dollars arrearages. She was a general favorite, and Sanford Thayer painted a portrait of her as early as 1840. The fine picture owned by the Historical Association was taken when she was reputed a century old. She was of the Christian party. Captain Samuel George had the personal name of Soh-whe-no-nah, mean ing the calf of the leg, but his official title was more used, and this was No-we- yeh-te, Gone out of sight. In his statement on the meaning of Skaneateles, 1862, his name was written Ho-no-e-yah-teh. He was a thin and fine looking man, with strongly marked features, full of official dignity, shrewd and eloquent, and seldom condescending to speak English. In his younger days he had a repu tation as a runner, and remembered when the Onondagas moved up the valley to their present home. Pie was appointed physician to the Onondagas in 1870, dying three years later, about seventy-eight years old. Bishop Huntington officiated at his funeral. Captain George's great feat as a runner was in the war of 1812, when he ran from Buffalo to Canandaigua and back, making a record. In his recol lections of Parish and Jones, Hon. Orlando Allen said: "There were some six or eight runners that for several years came out very near together, seeming to be closely matched both as to speed and bottom. There was, however, an Onondaga by the name of Sam George, who took the first prize for several years in succession. He is now an old man, head chief of the Onondaga Nation, and calls himself Colonel Samuel George. He then lived on the Buffalo Creek Reservation, but for many years past has lived with his people at Onondaga. The second in the race usually was a Seneca from Alleghany, named John Titus. He was a much smaller man than George, who was never obliged to put forth all his powers to distance his competitors, and this seemed to be well understood. On one occasion Titus achieved by strategy what he could not by speed, and that was by keeping close up to George until within a few steps of the goal, and then just before crossing the line, putting forth all his power, slipped by, leaving George no time to recover the lost race, as he probably could have done in ten strides. George was exceedingly mortified at the result, and was careful not to be thus outwitted again. I think he was on no other occasion beaten in these races." Asking his appointment as physician, the Indian agent, R. H. Gardner, said: "I believe Captain George can doctor the Indians as well as a White man. After considerable experience on the subject, I believe that the Indians live under his treatment and are as healthful as when treated by any other Physi cian. I am in favor of letting him have the job of treating them next year." Pie had the endorsement of Bishop Huntington, Rev. Dr. Clarke, -Captain Stewart, Judge Riegel, A. Higgins, Moses Summers and Sanford Thayer, and became their physician in 1870. Harry Webster, the half bred son of Ephraim Webster, was much esteemed by white people, who considered him superior to the other sons by the second 330 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY wife. His name was To-to-wah-ga-ne-o, He contradicts things. He was also called Go-wah-ne-san-to. Frank Logan is the present To-do-dah-ho, but his proper name is Ha-wen- nah-tees, A voice among other voices, and he belongs to the Eel clan. Daniel La Fort was long at the head of affairs, though not the highest chief. His name was Hi-yun-wa-is, which may be translated either He strikes the golden rod, or Intestine bruiser. He believed in civilization, and took pride in his father 's education, but affected mystery on Indian matters. He was also called Te-hes-ha. Thomas Webster, O-ya-ta-je-wah, Bitter in the throat, was long wampum keeper, and his sale of part of these belts originated the famous Thacher wampum case. Jaris Pierce, Jah-dah-dieh, One sided body, translated Sailing whale by Carrington, is a shrewd and prosperous man, who acts as clerk for the Onon dagas. Baptist Thomas is So-hat-tis, He long feather, and he is now practically at the head of affairs. His title is So-hah-we, Wearing a weapon in his belt. Rev. Thomas La Fort is Sho-heh-do-noh, Large feather, and he is a Wesleyan minister with all the sagacity of his family. Though many more might be mentioned we conclude with Nellie George, whose name of Ka-na-te-nah, She is the leader of a town, is that of a club in Syracuse. It seems worth while to quote Spafford again on some early conditions : "Mr. Webster, the interpreter, who has resided at Onondaga since 1786, assures me the Indians have no altercations, and during 10 years he has not known an angry expression, not even so much as to say with any degree of passion, 'You are mistaken.' Their women are treated with respect and even tenderness. They use no ardent liquors or strong waters. In 1809 eight or ten of the principal Indians resolved to abstain from the use of strong drink, and within a year the whole united in this determination, from which they have not yet deviated. They drink cider, but with perfect temperance. Injuries done to their crops are fairly adjusted and without any ill will. ' ' In 1894 Thomas G. Alvord gave some reminiscences of Salt Point. He said: "I have seen the Indians in their war paint and trappings just as they appeared in the war of 1812, all mounted on spirited horses and executing their wild manoeuvres." In 1894 Thomas G. Alvord gave some reminiscences of Salt Point. He after he became postmaster at Syracuse, he "was chosen treasurer for the Onondaga tribe of Indians, and on pay day it was almost impossible to get in side the store for the crowd of Indians and squaws who brought their govern ment money for him to take care of. At these times, the numerous pappooses, strapped on frames, leaned up against the store front, much as bulletin boards do now, while the squaws transacted their business inside. Our house being so near the store, we had many friendly visits on those days, especially from 'Aunt Katie,' a very remarkable character among her people. Her portrait was PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 331 painted by Sanford Thayer, a Syracuse artist, for Eliphalet Welch, and may possibly be owned by the Historical Society. My father kept a strict account with each Indian, and squaw and pappoose up to the day ofj his death. When he was in his coffin, many were the tired feet which came down from Onondaga Castle to see the good man for the last time. Those simple hearts were true mourners. ' ' CHAPTER XXXIII. THE WAMPUM BELTS One of" the recent interesting episodes of the reservation is the famous Thacher Wampum case. The wampum belts had been kept at Buffalo creek by Ut-ha-wah, or Captain Cold, an Onondaga chief, until 1847. Then they were restored to Onondaga, and placed in charge of Dehatkatons, or Abram La Fort. He showed them to J. V. II. Clark soon^afiter. His interesting account is not without errors, but follows : "These archives consist of various belts of wampum, some twenty-five or thirty in number, which the author has had the satisfaction of seeing, (a sight rarely allowed a white man,) with explanations from the keeper. Here is shown a belt, sixteen inches broad by four feet long, representing the first union and league of the Five Nations, and is called the "CARPET," founda tion or platform, or as we may better understand it, the constitution ; literally, something to stand upon. The several nations are distinguished by particular squares, and these are joined together by a line of white wampum and united to a heart in the centre, implying the union of heart and hand as one. In connection with this is a second belt having the figures of several chiefs wrought in the wampum, all holding hands in a circle, which is to represent that there shall be no end to this league. "On one belt is figured the Long House, the Great Cabin, which no new- nation can enter until it has erected some little cabins around it; that is, the nation must perform some deeds worthy of note, before it can be entitled to admission to the great league of confederation. Around this, are five smaller cabins, emblems of the original Five Nations, before the league was formed, and on one side is a still smaller one, wrought since the first, representing the Tusearora nation, which was admitted at a subsequent period. Another long narrow belt, having a cross at one end and a long house at the other, a narrow white stripe connecting the long house and a large cross, was explained as follows: "Great many years ago," a company from Canada presented this belt, desiring that missionaries, from the Roman Catholic church, might be settled among the Five Nations, and erect a church at Onondaga, and that the road should be continually kept open and free between them. All the other belts were explained with particular minuteness. 332 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY "The bag which contains these relics is of itself a singular curiosity. It is made of the finest shreds of Elm bark, and a person without being apprised, might easily mistake for the softest flax. Its capacity would exceed a bushel. This bag is reputed to be as old as the league itself, and certainly bears the marks of high antiquity. The tubes or beads of wampum are of red, dark blue, pale blue, black and white colors, made of conch shell. They are about five- eights of an inch long, about as large as a small pipe stem, and hollow, strung, woven and wrought with sinews of deer and bark. ' ' All these belts are of modern make, the beads averaging one-fourth of an inch in length and half that in thickness. The width, and probably the length, of the large belt described is excessive, and the descriptions are not those of the later Indians. Because these have been considered antique records a more particular description will follow. Wampum of this kind was not made till after the coming of the Dutch. The white was often from any sea snail; the purple from the dark parts of Venus mercenaria. For full treatment of the subject reference is made "to the editor's Museum bulletin on "Wampum and Shell Articles used by the N. Y. Indians. ' ' The belts were not again seen by a white man till July 29, 1878, when Chief Thomas Webster showed them to the writer. The bag was as described by Mr. Clark, but smaller. The belts were but twelve in number, and the one with the Long House and smaller cabins was lacking. There were subsequent opportunities for examining them carefully, even with a glass, and the two finest belts the writer had in his possession for a while, having purchased them for the State. Soon after the writer's first examination General J. S. Clark, of Auburn, got photographs of them, and General Carrington also photographed them for the census report of 1890. In describing them reference will be made to his figures.. The figure in his first plate had lost nothing since first seen by the writer, but when he purchased it two of the sixteen white diamonds were gone. These formed a line between dark points and bars, making a chain belt, or one show ing a completed covenant. Carrington styled it "Presidentia of the Iroquois, about 1540." The true date may be about 1770. It is incomplete but is thirteen and one-half inches wide, with forty-five rows. It is on small buck skin thongs, strung with a hard red thread, and was probably made by the one who made the next. It was exhibited in 1886, with the explanation that it was "The first belt used by the principal chief of the Six Nations. Very old." Carrington 's second plate is of the widest belt on record, fifty rows, and is made with the same materials as the last, belonging to what are termed chain belts. It was as long when purchased by the writer as when first seen, but not of the original length. It is now but thirty-five inches long by fourteen and three-fourths wide, and both pattern and material are decidedly modern. The interpretation of 1886 was ' ' The second belt used by the principal chief of the Six Nations. Very old." Carrington 's note is similar: "Wing or Dust Fan of 1 Presidentia of Six Nations." Also "the wing mat used by the head man to shield him from the dust while presiding at the council. ' ' PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 333 A third plate of Carrington 's includes six belts. The upper one is of purple wampum, five open white hexagons representing the Five Nations, a rather frequent pattern, and is decidedly modern, made with buckskin thongs and black thread. It has seven rows. Webster said (1886) that it "represents the submission of each tribe when they joined the confederacy and were turned over to the wampum keepers." Carrington explained it as a belt "claiming to bear date about 1608, when Champlain joined the Algonquins against the Iroquois." A century and a half should be added, dating it about 1760. The perpendicular belt to the left in this plate is of twelve rows, with six black diagonal bars on a white ground. It had seven when first seen by the writer, and originally may have had more. According to Carrington it "repre sents a convention of the Six Nations at the adoption of the Tuscaroras into the league." It is a recent belt on buckskin thongs. Sloping lines are said to be temporary alliances, nor can it refer to the Tuscaroras. The next to the right is a white belt of seven rows, with four pairs of black diamonds, and a small white cross near one end. Carrington said of this that, having "the Five Nations upon seven strands, it illustrates a treaty with seven Canadian tribes before the year 1600." This is a wild conjecture. This kind of wampum was not used so early, and the Seven Nations, so called, came into existence in the eighteenth century. There seems no allusion to the Five Nations, for there are but four double diamonds. It is a modern pattern on buckskin thongs. The next is the so-called missionary belt mentioned by Clark, probably having no such meaning. At one end is a white diamond for a castle, a large human figure standing on this lengthwise of the belt, and from thence a white line terminating in a cross toward the other end. It is on buckskin thongs, strung with fine white thread, is two and one-half inches wide, and of modern character. Carrington said it showed "the guarded approach of strangers to the councils of the Five Nations." In 1886 Webster said it was a belt of admis sion to the league. Next comes a white or peace belt, two and one-fourth inches or six rows wide, made on twine thongs. It has now four (when first figured five) diagonal lines of small black squares. The dark beads in these squares are half the length of the white. Carrington, not knowing it was once larger, said it "showed a treaty in which four of the Six Nations were represented." Chief Webster (1886) said this "represents the submission of each tribe when they joined the confederacy." It may have been made before the Revolution. The last on this plate is a peace belt of seven rows on twine thongs, having a series of small dark crosses, with a zigzag pattern at one end. Carrington said this "embodies the pledge of seven Canadian Christianized nations to abandon their crooked ways and keep an honest peace." The interpretation of 1886 was ' ' St. Regis tribe belt, given to mark their submission to the power of the Six Nations, with a promise of peace." They were never at war. The upper belt in Carrington 's fourth plate is fifteen rows or five inches wide, and nearly six feet long. It has purple figures on a white ground, and 334 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY has twine thongs. There is a council house and fire with two small human figures. Outside are seven men on one side and six on the other clasping hands. These represent the thirteen original States. Carrington said this is a "mem orial of the first treaty made by Washington on behalf of the thirteen original states and the president of the Six Nations at the national capi-tol." It was probably given at the treaty of Fort Stanwix, 1784, but seems the one which Clark thought a memorial of the early Iroquois alliance. The large belt on this plate is the one styled by Clark the carpet of the league, but later interpretations slightly differ. Thus Thomas and Daniel La Fort said in 1898: "One heart of the Five Nations — that if any hurt of any animal would pierce that heart, then they would all feel it — all the Five Nations. This was in Hiawatha 's belt. That they are a united people. This is the original Hiawatha belt. — a record of the first agreement to make the league." It is a fine modern belt of thirty-eight rows, on buckskin thongs, the outer ones braided, and is strung with flax or hemp thread. It is much smaller than Clark described it. Instead of being forty-eight by sixteen inches, it was twenty- three by ten and one-half in 1878. The width, of course, has not suffered, but it has plainly lost part at each end. There is a conventional heart in the center, and four open castles remain in white beads. Two or more were outside of these. In 1886 it was said: "This belt was used at the great council which met to ratify the union of the Five Nations. The age is unknown; nothing but the tradition of the council remains." Carrington called it "the official memorial of the organization of the Iroquois confederacy, relating back to the middle of the 16th century. ' ' The style and materials are modern, but it may be nearly two hundred years old. Another fragmentary peace belt on this plate has four groups of purple diagonal bands, of three lines each, a modern design, yet used two hundred years ago. It is smaller than when first seen by the writer, but has thirteen rows on buckskin thongs. The La Forts described it as "a record of the first coming of the people with white faces." It is evident that meanings were conjectural. Another fragmentary one was in the bag in 1878, and the writer has part of a peace belt. One fine one here, but not on the reservation, has 1800 as a date at one end, and W. C. for William Claus, Indian agent in Canada. One Indian interpretation of the so-called missionary belt is this: "A record of this : The priest told the Onondagas that a building right by the mission house, and told them that there were goods there stored for the Onon dagas,. but he could not open them until the king came, and a white boy who had been captured had been told by the priest that it was full of arms, and when the king came they would annihilate the Onondagas. The boy told the chief, and they held a council and resolved to open the building. The priest tried to keep them from it, but they opened the door in spite of him, and found the building full of arms. They heated an axe red hot, and hung it upon the priest 's heart, and it burnt his heart out. The French did come, and the Onon dagas met them at Camden, and defeated them in a great battle, and then the Onondagas all renounced Catholicism. It was between Pompey and Jamesville, PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 335 about this side of Pompey Hill. Cross means Canada. The white line a road from Canada to the Onondagas and the village at the other end. ' ' The symbols are correct, but there was no battle and no martyr, yet it is curious how persistent part of this story is among the Onondagas. The Five Nations belt with the five hexagons, was also thus described by the La Forts. It "represents a sorrow meeting of the Five Nations. If a mis fortune happen — little boys and girls were taken and one killed, to consider what should be done for remedy that misfortune — a tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye. This is a Hiawatha belt. This belt is used when a meeting of that kind is called." The ground is purple, and that it was a mourning belt is probable. The design was frequent. The belt of forty-five rows, before mentioned, was explained as ' ' represent ing a superior man To-do-da-ho. That is a carpet for him to sit. You clean the carpet for him to sit and nothing evil can fall on the carpet. They have furnished two prominent women and having a broom so that it would be clean. This was in the lifetime of To-do-da-ho, and the Five Nations furnish him a stick, laying close by where he sits — represents as a limited power given to him by the Five Nations. If he sees something evil coming he would take the stick and throw away, and if the stick not strong enough then he would notify the Five Nations to come help him; that the animal and wild peoples come pre pared for war. The To-do-da-ho would speak to the animal and ask : What is thy business coming here without our knowledge ? ' ' The belt of fifty rows, already mentioned, and of the same date, had a lengthy description by the La Forts, which is so unique that it is quoted in full : "Between Bastable building and the corner of Genesee and Warren streets, Syracuse, was held the last council which copipleted the league. Both Hiawat ha and To-do-da-ho were there, about three hundred years (ago). Represents an everlasting tree — always keeps growing, reaching to heaven that all nations may see it ; and under they set a great fire to burn forever — the council place of the Five Nations — and that the council fire is to be kept at the Onondagas, and the Onondagas are the expounders of the law. "After they had ratified — it was understood — we look far away and we see a darkness, and in the darkness an unknown and strange face, and they could not understand what it was — and it came to be interpreted that we would be forced to adopt an unknown law — but it was coming before that generation passed away, and finally their heads would roll and roll away, and after a time they would recover their bodies, and then they would embrace the law that was once lost to them, and the tree would grow forever. After they will re store the original law their confederation will be more permanent than the first one, and their original law will remain forever. They say that one of the women said: 'You can use all the water of the ocean to wash away the Indian blood, and when you have done there is just as much water left in the ocean as before you began — so the law — you can take from it parts of the Indian law, and put another in its place, but it will come again and last forever. ' 336 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY "This was the last belt that was made at that ratifying time. When the belt was ready it was said by one of the orators to that council, "This is the last belt which we make confirming the laws which we have just adopted, ' ' and he encouraged the people of the Five Nations to instruct them with the meaning of the wampum to serve the laws. At the conclusion of his remarks he said: 'As long as you will fodow up the laws of the Five Nations you will be in prosperity and happiness, but whenever our people may not heed the in structions which we are instructing to you, then it will come in the way of dissension among our people — and the last remark — if you will disobey and disregard the laws we have made, that generation will suffer.' Hiawatha. made that speech. ' ' This belt is not the original which was there at that time, but a copy. It was made not a great while after the death of Hi-a-wat-ha. That each clan shall be entitled to one principal chief and war chief. When the council ended, Hi-a-wat-ha went up the Onondaga creek and distributed the belts among the clans — making the clans and chiefs. And in his speech he said: 'I have made a place for you under ground and a fishing ground. I have finished my work. ' It is claimed that he did not die, but went up in his canoe and. said: 'When you shall be in a state of confusion I will come back.' "That Hi-a-wat-ha saw the strange face in the midst of darkness, and he interpreted it that the unknown law which was coming, should prevail over the new law — that is, the law which had just been adopted and the tree that was just planted. The root spread from east to west and from south to north. Under the tree, while the root of the tree was spreading, all the Five Nations laid their heads on the root. That is the constitution. If any of their enemies should attempt to strike against the root — from their enemies destroying some of their people, and after striking against upon the root, the man who struck the root would turn, and the blood would come out of his mouth. That is revenge for blood. The roots of the tree would continue spreading in all directions forever ; and the fire would continue forever, and the smoke of it go all up to heaven, so that all the nations of the world would see ; and that the laws — that is the wampums — be read every year for ever. Between the Bastable and the corner of Warren and Genesee streets — last council. Hi-a-wat-ha would come again, but when he did not say. . He did not die, and when he came again he would renew the old, and it would be stronger than then, and that is the expectation we have. The former meetings of the Five Nations were on Onondaga lake, and some near Liver pool. He was the proclaimer of councils, and the only proper person to call a council. These wampums were made during these meetings, and were com plete at the last meeting when everything was ratified.". The belt of seven rows, with double diamonds, before mentioned, was thus explained by the La Forts: "This belt was used to call a meeting of the Five Nations, at which should be read all the laws. This was made when Hi-a-wat-ha was traveling and distributing the clans, and this belt made to 5 fc v ONONDAGA VALLEY SCENES. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 337 represent that the nations were divided into clans, and were to remain strictly so — that there could be no intermarriage. ' ' The twelve-rowed peace belt, with six broad diagonal bars; already men tioned, is thus discribed by the La Forts : ' ' The five upper diagonal rows are the Hi-a-wat-ha belt, and represent the union of the Five Nations.. When the Tuscaroras were taken in they added the sixth, which they call a brace. This is the taking in of the Tuscaroras." As the belt had seven bars in 1878, and perhaps more earlier, this interpretation will not stand. In fact these vary ing meanings show that the belts have little historic value. They are valu able as curiosities, and that is all. In 1890, while taking the Onondaga census, General Carrington bought three of these belts for eighty-five dollars or less, with the intention, as then understood, of having them safely preserved at Washington. This was a low but not unfair price. Then he said he found the Government would not allow the expense, so, to save himself, he sold them to the Rev. Dr. Oliver Crane for the low price of three hundred and fifty dollars, though he thought them worth five hundred dollars. They were in request for the Chicago Ex position, and though Dr. Crane said Yale College had offered him eight hun dred dollars, yet he thought they should go back to New York. In fact so desirous was he of this that he was willing to sacrifice three hundred dollars, and take five hundred dollars for the belts with this proviso. The commission ers had no money for this, and John Boyd Thacher, Mayor of Albany, bought them and they were exhibited. Then he took them home. After awhile they were demanded for the State Museum, and the demand was refused. Then began the famous wampum case. The suit was brought in 1897 in the name of Te-hes-ha or Daniel La Fort ; Say-ha-que or Baptist Thomas; Hos-hay-ha-qua or Charles Lyon; Jarvis (Orris) Farmer; Sho-heh-do-nah ; Ha-on-we-ga-wenle ; Ho-do-oh-go-oh, a Sen eca; Ha-ja-ah-gwysh, a Cayuga; in behalf of the University of the State of New York as wampum keeper, Mrs. Converse had signed the demand: "The Onondaga Nation (by) Harriet Maxwell Converse, Its Attorney in Fact." Daniel La Fort certified that she "had and has no legal authority to represent the Onondaga Nation in the matter described in the said paper." He testified that she wished the chiefs to demand the wampum, but only five appeared, seven less than a quorum, and added: "It was in no way a legal proceeding. I, as President of the Onondoga Nation, presided over the meeting, but I did it to please the others (the five men and Mrs. Converse). The meeting adjourned because there was not a quorum present and its action could not be legal." He had also said that "these were relics now; sort of heir-looms, like old spinning wheels, old almanacks, &c." However, the chiefs met and appointed the University of the State wam pum keeper, on receiving five hundred dollars. Baptist Thomas retained two hundred dollars to repair the council house, and twenty-five dollars for himself as the usual official fee. The other chiefs each took twenty-five dollars, and the rest ( !) went to the nation's poor. Practically it was an Onondaga affair. 338 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY The decision was uniformly against the claimants, though several times appealed. The "two pieces of great historical interest" which Thacher said the Onondagas still retained, were easily secured by the writer, but there was but one in the dozen that had any definite historic value. The case wonder fully inflated the wampum market. CHAPTER XXXIV. GENERAL HISTORY AFTER THE CIVIL WAR. One remarkable feature connected with the war for the Union was the readiness with which the army returned to old pursuits. In old times dis charged soldiers often turned to freebooting when war was over, or at best led a useless life. Here men took up accustomed work, or, with their larger experience, turned to new pursuits. Business was brisk and high prices prevailed, estimated values being about double the real. Many did not see that this could not continue, that prices must drop, and invested capital on a falling market. Several cases might be mentioned, of a local character, where large manufacturing enterprises begun or continued under these con ditions brought inevitable ruin. These were not frequent, and business was soon adapted to a new state of things. Preliminary to brief sketches of town history there will follow a short account of matters of more general interest, though it will be found that the city more and more represents the county, and is closely identified with it. Every trolley line, every good road tends to this end. People in villages and rural districts can easily attend meetings or entertainments in Syracuse, and pleasantly reach home at a seasonable hour. One may now have that delight ful experience which N. P. Willis called "country life within city reach." This ease of access has had two striking results. Certain kinds of busi ness in rural towns have retrograded ; others have improved. This well known fact requires no detailed account, but the general truth remains that no vil lage in the county is doing the business it once did. On the other hand there must be an advance in rural real estate for many purposes. Land in some picturesque situations, rocky and sterile as it is, has become valuable for summer cottages. There is not a village easily accessible by trolley lines, that might not be crowded with summer boarders, were there good accommoda tions for them. Pretty or fine homes are increasing on these lines, and will increase as people learn their advantages. Beside which Syracuse has to be fed, and men who can easily reach it will have the highest profit for their pro ducts. As a business investment land must become valuable somewhat in proportion to ease of access to the city. To be a healthy advance this must be gradual, and it is fortunate that it has not taken a speculative form. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 339 The larger political events have been shared in by the state and nation. The Tilden decision in the presidential election was unsatisfactory to many, but was accepted by all. The Roscoe Conkling fight had successful opposi tion. Hill's arrogant rule owed its success to the election of a Democratic supervisor — a good man, too — in a Republican town of Onondaga. The deaths of Garfield and McKinley called forth universal lamentation. Men from Onondaga shared in the great celebrations at Yorktown and Gettysburg, and the county was well represented in every great exposition, from Philadelphia to Jamestown. At the celebration of the evacuation of the fort at Oswego in 1896, Onondaga took part, and it had its own great celebration in 1894, of its erection as a county, the town celebrations all tending to the mammoth one in Syracuse. There are some societies whose work is mainly done in Syracuse, whose field is the county, and which should have active members in every town. Among these is the Onondaga Historical Association, now well housed and equipped. Its home — for it can have but one, and that should be central — is in Syracuse, but its members should be everywhere. The Onondaga Academy of Science has a similar center, but takes in the same broad and fertile' field. The Syracuse Chamber of Commerce has a restrictive title, but a broad and generous scope, and has been a wonderful success. A score of others might be mentioned, of general interest, which ought practically to unite country and city. Some are old organizations, but the great work of all is of recent date. One of the oldest of existing societies was organized in 1806 as the Onon daga Medical Society. John PL Frisbie was the first president ; Gordon Need ham vice-president; Daniel Tibbitts, treasurer; Walter Colton, secretary ; with a goodly membership for that early day. In 1823 a code of medical ethics was adopted, and in 1832 its counsels were beneficial when the cholera came, but otherwise its work was comparatively unimportant till after the civil war. Few essays were prepared, and there were but two meetings annually till 1870. After that there were four. Many of the members served as surgeons with the New York volunteers, and these gave impetus to the society on their return. Next came the ques tion of removing Geneva Medical College to Syracuse in 1871, which resulted in forming the College of Medicine as part of Syracuse University. The society aided in many important general and local measures. In 1881 twelve essayists were appointed; three for each quarterly meeting, and this has been followed since. The City Medical Association was organized in 1858, but did little before the war. When that closed it reorganized January 24, 1866, with Dr. A. B. Shipman as president. It disbanded January 16, 1894, and at once organized again as "The Syracuse Academy of Medicine," and as such it was incorporated, doing a useful work ever since. Though its work is in a way local, it has elevated the standard of physicians through out this region. Homeopathic physicians had no organization here till 1863, though Dr. H. H. Cator followed this practice in Syracuse in 1846. He was still here 340 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY when a society was formed as the Onondaga County Homeopathic Medical Society. The annual meetings became semi-annual, quarterly and monthly. Dr. Lyman Clary was the first president, but there has been a change almost every year. Out of this general society for Onondaga and Oswego counties, have come the Syracuse Homeopathic Medical Association, its Free Dispensary incorporated in 1892, and the Syracuse Homeopathic Hospital, incorporated December 30, 1895, whose new building has just been erected. The Onondaga Historical Association is mentioned elsewhere, and had its birth in war times, being formed in January, 1862, and incorporated in 1863. It prospered and then lanquished, holding only annual meetings for elections from 1881 to 1892. Its period of greatest usefulness in actual work came then after its union with the Onondaga Historical Club. Its part in the Centennial celebration of 1894 is elsewhere described, and since then it has maintained courses of lectures and rooms for the exhibition of' antique or interesting ar ticles. The gift of one of its presidents, William Kirkpatrick, provided it with a substantial home, and he also took care for fountains to beautify the north side of the city, one of which will be commemorative. This is a fine drinking fountain for man and beast on the south side of Washington Park, the materials being bronze and granite. The designer is Mrs. Harvey W. Corbett of New York, formerly Miss Gail Sherman of Syracuse. Between the granite base and top is a large cylindric column, on the rear of which is an extract from Mr. Kirkpatrick 's will, stating that it is a memorial of his father and of the discovery of the salt springs. Underneath is a translation of Father Le Moyne 's record of the event. The central figure is that of Le Moyne, holding some salt in one hand and looking intently upon it. On his right hand is Garakontie, holding a cup of salt in his left hand, and pointing to an Indian kettle over the fire with the right. Farther back is an Indian woman, holding a bark water pail and looking curiously on. Oak leaves furnish a background on that side; pine leaves on the other. On the left of the Black Robe is Jean Baptiste, his companion, gun in hand, in hunt ing costume, and behind him an Indian warrior. All face the south. The bronze work was cast by the Gorham Company. The whole was completed in the spring of 1908. Before 1826 the county had no public building for the poor, who were cared for individuady at a stipulated price. Preliminary steps were taken for the erection of one that year, and in January, 1827, it was agreed that it must be within ten miles of the court house. In February one hundred and forty- five acres were bought of Josiah Bronson on Lot 87, Onondaga, for eighteen dollars per acre. On this buildings were erected at a cost of two thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars, which lasted for many years. In 1860 a building for the insane poor was added. A water supply was fur nished in 1867 and enlarged in 1872. The buildings were enlarged at the same time, and again improved in 1879. In 1907 Henry D. Nottingham was superintendent; H. H. Loomis, deputy superintendent; Rufus H. Northrop, PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 341 keeper ; Dr. Edwin J. Gillette, physician ; Miss Arvilla Everingham, superin tendent of the hospital. The first Onondaga penitentiary was built in 1850, and Joseph A. Yard be came the first superintendent, with a board of three inspectors. It was en larged in 1859, and partly burned February 11, 1864, but immediately rebuilt and improved. A little later contracts were made to receive convicts from other counties, and for various manufactures. It was much enlarged in 1869 and later years. In 1878 separate wards were provided for women, and about the same time the contract system fell into disfavor. As it was necessary to employ convicts for their own health the desirableness of a rural site, where simpler work could be done, was considered, resulting in the purchase of land east of Jamesville, where stone could be advantageously quarried. There a fine stone building was erected, fully equipped in every way. A special car is used on the Suburban railroad for penitentiary pur poses, with a grated compartment for convicts. Suitable work is provided for women as well as men, and there were five hundred and forty-eight convicts there December 31, 1907, the largest number then on record, but considerably increased a little later. The building is a conspicuous object for many miles around. The officers in 1907 were Frank P. Bentley, superintendent ; Irving J. Broad, deputy superintendent, with minor officials; Arthur L. Somers, George S. Herrick, Willis C. Newell, inspectors. The Onondaga County Agricultural Society was first organized at Onon daga Hill in 1819, and its primary high character may be seen from the list of its first officers. These were Dan Bradley, president; Squire Munro, Martin Cossitt, Augustus Wheaton, vice presidents; George Hall and A. Yelverton, corresponding secretaries ; Leonard Bacon, treasurer ; H. L. Granger, auditor ; L. H. Redfield, C. W. Forman, 0. W. Brewster committee on publication. This died out but was reorganized in 1838 by prominent men, and again in 1856, with Squire M. Brown as president. This died out after some suc cess, but was once more reorganized as a joint stock company in 1878, Edward A. Powell being the first president, with a vice-president from each town and ward. This was successful, . and was maintained till the State Fair was estab lished in Syracuse in 1891. Then this flourishing society disbanded and divided its funds. The State fairs have continued with increasing interest. The Onondaga County Orphan Asylum is another general institution of long standing and deserving a large support. After preliminary work it was opened on South Salina street in May, 1845, and the next year its present site was purchased, the building now in use being erected in 1885, and somewhat enlarged since. Its needs are great for maintenance and equip ment. Every care is taken in providing children with homes. Beside the annual holiday visit of Central City Commandery there is now an annual donation day, in which gifts of all kinds are received. A state charitable institution is located in Syracuse, in which unfortunate ly every town is interested . It is the Syracuse Institution for Feeble Minded Children, opened in Syracuse in 1855, after being in Albany for four years. 342 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Dr. H. B. Wilbur was superintendent from its foundation till his death, Dr. James C. Carson now holding that position. The Syracuse trustees are Ed ward S. Van Duyn, Henry M. Rowling, Alta P. Crouse, Walter W. Cheney, Wm. H. Warner, Bishop Ludden and Frederick A. Lyman. The grounds embrace fifty-five acres, and a branch has been established at Newark, New York. Though not on the frontier Syracuse is a port of entry, with Ernest I. Edgcomb as custom house surveyor of port, and Frank J. Becker as special deputy. This is a recent advance. The United States Marshal's office at Auburn has a local deputy in Andrew W. Wilkin of Fayetteville. The United States Internal Revenue, Twenty-first district, Syracuse, is officered by Peter E. Garlick, collector, and nine assistants. The United States Pension Examin ers are under the presidency of William O'Donohue. Judge A. J. Northrup is United States Commissioner, and there is a civil service board. Morgan R. Sanford is local forecaster of the weather in a very perplexing region. In elective and appointment offices there have been many changes of course. The present superintendent of the salt springs is Hoyt H. Freeman. The division engineer of the Middle Division of the Canal is Henry B. Brew ster ; resident engineer, Frederick W. Sarr ; engineer of water supply, Russell R. Stuart ; financial clerk, ¦ Peter Sheridan, and clerk of Middle Division, F. J. Kinskern. The coroner in 1907 was Albert M. Wilier, and his three physicians were W. Y. Bliss, D. Babcock and B. F. Chase. The physician to the Onondaga Indians was L. A. Twining of Borodino, with Dr. Lewis H- Wheeler at the penitentiary. The loan commissioners for that year were George W. Nichols of South Onondaga, and Henry C. Cole of Collingwood. William M. Ross was county judge; Thomas F. Walsh of Marcellus, sheriff; William H. Turner, under sheriff; Edgar P. Glass, surrogate; James C. Butler, county clerk; W. W. Woese, county treasurer; William L. Barnum, district attorney; Herbert L. Smith, assistant; Augustus T. Armstrong, commissioner of jurors; Frank E. Bogardus, county superintendent of highways; Frank X. Woods, county purchasing agent, a new office; Joseph Fisher, superintendent of court house. Dr. J. Willis Candee was also chairman of Syracuse Board of Medical Examiners, and William P. Goodelle of the Board of Law Examiners. De Forest Settle was a state fair commissioner. There are three school commis sioners districts. The first is of Camillus, Clay, Elbridge, Lysander, Salina and Van Buren; Manford D. Greene, commissioner. The second is of Geddes, Marcellus, Onondaga, Otisco, Skaneateles, Spafford and Tully; John J. Jewell of Onondaga, commissioner. The third includes Cicero, De Witt, Fabius, La Fayette, Manlius and Pompey; George T. Fuggle, commissioner. These aU hold teacher's institutes. Syracuse is not included but has just adopted the institute system. William Nottingham is now a Regent of the University of the State of New York, and Carroll E. Smith and Rev. 0. D. Warren held the same office. Beside these Syracuse men, Charles E. Fitch of Rochester, formerly of PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 343 Syracuse, was an influential member of the same important board, but his term has now expired through a change of rules. He is now chief of the di vision of school libraries. In the report for 1907, Rev. Dr. Beauchamp is still on the list as archeologist of the State Museum, though his work is prac tically complete. In judicial and legal ability the county has always stood high, as will be seen in a special paper on the bar. Beside deceased and retired mem bers of the Court of Appeals, in its various divisions, Irving G. Vann holds office till December 31, 1910 ; and Frank H. Hiscock to the same date, in the Supreme Court of the Fifth district; William S. Andrews in the latter to December 31, 1913 ; and Peter B. McLennan to December 31, 1920. Edward T. Bartlett, re-elected 1907 to the Court of Appeals, was born and brought up in Skaneateles, where he is a frequent visitor. This court has also a library in Syracuse, of which George N. Cheney is librarian, with Frank L. Morgan as his assistant. In 19Q6 there were four hundred and fifty-two thousand five hundred and ninety acres of land assessed in the county. The real estate was valued at one hundred and twenty-two million seven hundred and thirty thousand and eighty-two dollars against one hundred and fifteen million two hundred and nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-two dollars in 1901. The personal estate was six million six hundred and sixty-seven thousand seven hundred and eighty-two dollars against eight million three hundred and sixty-six thousand and eighty-eight dollars in 1901, being a decrease. The aggregate equalized valuation was one hundred and twenty-eight million nine hundred and ninety-eight thousand six hundred and sixty-four dollars in 1906, against one hundred and twenty-three million one hundred and seventy- two thousand five hundred and eighty dollars. The election districts have been reduced to one hundred and twenty-nine, but with more polls. Onon daga and Madison counties now form the Twenty-ninth Congressional dis trict, represented by Michael E. Driscoll, but Onondaga by itself is a sena torial district, and has sent Horace White for several terms to the New York senate. There are nineteen city supervisors and the same number from the towns. The representation in the Assembly has been reduced, three Assemblymen being now elected, but with a prospect of having four again. The districts are 1, Cicero, Clay, Lysander, Elbridge, Van Buren, Salina, Camillus, Geddes, Skaneateles, Marcellus, Spafford, Otisco, and Wards 1, 2, 3, 9, in Syracuse. 2, Onondaga, La Fayette, Tully, Fabius, and Wards 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 18, 19 in Syracuse. 3, DeWitt, Manlius, Pompey, and Wards 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 15, 16, 17, Syracuse. The city being represented in each district, and working unitedly has a good chance for the nominations. The town elections now occur with those in the fall, but there is a strong disposition to return to the spring town meetings. Of late, too, the Board of Supervisors has been given more power, and now forms a minor legislature in many local matters. This seems wise. So much business thus comes before it that its 344 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY fall and winter sessions occupy several weeks. There are special and conven ient rooms for its meetings in the court house. Tragical events have not been rare. One of the most sensational of these was the murder of Colvin in 1875, whose body was hidden for some months in Seneca river. On its discovery a curious train of circumstantial evidence fastened the crime on Owen Lindsay, who was executed February 11, 1876. There have been several executions in the county. Though there have been occasional strikes they have not greatly affected business. The most serious was not local, but caused some inconvenience. This was the coal strike of May 12, 1892, which lasted many months and threatened great suffering. The local dealers took no advantage of the situation, but so regulated the trade as to satisfy all. Their wise and generous conduct was both a blessing and a lesson to the whole people. An earlier railroad strike was also a brief inconvenience, and a military force occupied the armory for a few days, in readiness for an emergency which did not come. The telegraphers' strike, in 1907 incommoded some, but was scarcely noticeable here. Other strikes have been amicably settled as a rule, the old Iroquois mode of arbitration prevailing. Occasional financial disturbances have occurred, and some cases of mismanagement in banks have been promptly punished, but banking houses have greatly increased, and on the whole have been wisely conducted. The stringency of 1907 does not seem to have greatly- affected the general public here, perhaps because there is so great a demand for skilled labor and farm produce. One striking case has elicited unusual attention, involving one of local reputation. After a long fight sentence was finally served on Benjamin D. Greene of New York, and John F. Gaynor of Fayetteville, December 24, 1907. This involved a fine of five hundred and seventy-five thousand seven hundred and forty-nine dollars and four years imprisonment. This remark able case covered several years, and included forfeiture of bail, a flight to Canada, singular extradition proceedings and a stubborn legal contest. It was carried to the highest court, and the final decision was given in New Orleans. CHAPTER XXXV. TOWN OF CAMILLUS. Camillus had its name from a celebrated Roman, five times dictator, and was No. 5 of the Military Tract townships, including then Elbridge and Van Buren. On the organization of the county it was in the civil town of Marcellus. March 9, 1799, it became a town with its original name, and the town of Elbridge and Van Buren were set off in 1829. Twenty-two lots of the Salt Springs reservation were annexed May 1, 1834. Captain Isaac Lindsay first settled there in 1791, and was soon followed by his three brothers, James, William and Elijah, who located on Lot 80, having \ i PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 345 purchased the land for twenty-five cents per acre. The next year William Lindsey found on Lot 90 the first plaster bed known in the United States. Gradually the fame of this spread, and in 1808 a company was formed with two hundred and fifty shareholders. Judge Forman was president and Josiah Buck manager. In 1810 a hundred tons were sold and plaster mills were soon operated in other places. Calcareous tufa was also burned for lime. Trans parent selenite is one form of the plaster here. Isaac Lindsay built the first frame house in 1795. He opened the first tavern in 1793. In 1798 James Geddes moved from the salt works to Fair- mount, where his son George Geddes, also lived. Both were eminent men. The Munros came later, David Munro settling on Lot 80 in 1808. He was postmaster of Camillus from 1811 to 1824, being succeeded by James R. Law rence, afterward a leading lawyer. His daughter used to tell how the village goat entered the church one summer morning, and mounted the pulpit stairs while the parson was preaching on the sheep and goats. Whether he had outside guidance did not appear. The "First Presbyterian Congregational Society of the town of Camillus" was organized September 17, 1802, but passed away. The First Congrega tional Society succeeded December 21, 1809, but built no church. Meetings were held in the schoolhouse and in an old distillery. The Second (afterward the First) Presbyterian Church of Camillus, was organized in a tavern — as often happened — August 11, 1817, with fifty-two members. A frame church was built in 1822, followed by one of brick in 1868, smaller than the first, but costing eight thousand dollars. The first pastor was Rev. Jabez Spicer, in 1817-19. The First Methodist Society was organized February 14, 1811, and reor ganized in 1827. In 1830 it built a church which still remains, though remod eled. At that time the circuit preachers were Revs. Isaac Peiffer and G. W. Dinsmore. In 1836 it became a station, served by Rev. Ross Clark. __,...£ The "First Baptist Church of Onondaga" was formed at Hawlett Hill in January, 1804, with six male and seven female members. A church was built and dedicated in 1821, but in 1844 the society removed to Camillus vil lage, erecting a church there in 1849, which was dedicated June 8, 1851, and replaced by one of brick in 1878. The name was changed, and the first pastor was Rev. Henry Brown. In 1845 a Presbyterian society was formed at Amboy, which dedicated a new church December 23 of that year. It began with forty-nine members from a Congregational church at Van Buren and the Presbyterian church at Camillus. The first pastor was Rev. Alfred C. Lathrop. An M. E. church was built at Belle Isle in 1851. First pastor Rev. Mr. Coop. In 1852 the first Roman Catholic priest made his residence in Camillus. This was Rev. William McCallion. This parish and one at Jordan were organ- ' ized by, Father Haias of Salina, the first services being held in a barn, and afterward in the brick parsonage. A brick church was built about 1870, Father Carroll being then in charge. 346 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY There have been occasional services of the Protestant Episcopal church. The first surplus grain was taken to Albany on sleighs in 1805, and great quantities were afterward sent in the same way till the canal was made. Settlers came slowly, the higher lands being at first preferred. The construc tion of the north branch of the Seneca turnpike in 1807-08 helped matters. Joseph White came to Amboy in 1804 as the first settler there, and soon budt a sawmill and fulling works. He was a surveyor. Others of his family came later. Samuel Hopkins came in 1807. In 1808 the village of Camillus had but two frame dwellings. In that year John Tomlinson opened the first store, and a log schoolhouse was built on the present school lot, succeeded by a frame building in 1813. Dr. Isaac Magoon was a physician there in 1808. In 1810 Memeo & Benedict opened a second store, and Captain Kimberly built the first tavern in Amboy. David Bennett came in 1813, and the Bennetts were representative farmers for a long time. Enos Peck came in 1815, his family living in Pompey twenty years earlier. John Tomlinson taught the first school in 1808. In 1812 there were seventeen school districts; thirty-four in 1823, and in the present limits sixteen in 1836. A brick schoolhouse was built in Camillus village in 1833, replaced by a fine structure in 1869. There are now but ten districts in the town. The Erie canal helped Camillus. In 1820, before division, the whole town contained six grain mills, seventeen sawmills, four fulling mills, five carding machines, a trip hammer, two asheries, and six distilleries. Most of these have disappeared. In 1835 the present town had four grist mills, ten sawmills, two fulling mills, two carding machines, a woolen factory, two distilleries, four asheries, and three tanneries. Ten years later these figures were reduced. Sawmills, tanneries, distilleries and asheries are things of the past. The western part of the town had places known as Oswego Bitter and Wellington ; the latter having a postoffice, store, two taverns and a conspicuous place on the map at an early day. The first existing town records begin March 26, 1829, after Elbridge and Van Buren were set off; but there are road records back to 1813, and school records to 1812. In the old town the first town meeting was held at the house of Medad Curtis in 1799, who was elected supervisor, Daniel Vail being town clerk. In the latter town the first town meeting occurred April 28, 1829. Miles W. Bennett becoming supervisor and Chauncey White town clerk. Grove Lawrence, cEthan Campbell and Alfred Stephens were justices of the peace in 1830, and George Geddes was elected in 1835. Sidney H. Cook, Sr., held this office for thirty-five years. Many early town meetings were held in samuei B. Rowe's tavern, who kept this house till 1858. The records often call Camillus village Nine Mile Creek, an early name also for Marcellus. George Kimberly was appointed to the new postoffice at Belle Isle in 1830. Soon after there were over a dozen dwellings there, and a store and tavern. Yet later and before 1870 many canal boats were built there and much repairing was done. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 347 When the Syracuse and Auburn railroad was built changes soon came. Amboy and Wellington lost importance, the nuclei of new hamlets appeared at Fairmount and Marcellus station, and Camillus received a temporary im petus. The latter had canal facilities as well, and was then the leading town here as a grain market. In 1860 James M. Munro alone bought and shipped to Albany two hundred and forty-eight thousand bushels of barley in sixty days. Grain growing, however, has yielded to mixed farming. In 1852 Camillus village was incorporated, with Gaylord N. Sherwood as president, Crayton B. Wheeler clerk, and Samuel B. Rowe, Ira Safford, Da vid A. Munro and Charles Land trustees. Its prosperity has been diminished by the great advantages possessed in transportation by Syracuse, so near at hand, but it may regain much of this at no distant day. Sapphire Lodge, No. 768, F. A. M., was instituted December 31, 1875. An ode is preserved sung at a banquet of Selected Friends' Lodge in Camillus in 1811. George J. Gardner had the records of this lodge, and said: "This was one of the "goodey-goodey' lodges of that period, excelling in moral vir tues all others in its immediate locality." Austin Hollow, near the south line of Camillus, does not appear on maps, but was once a stirring hamlet, with a grist and saw mill, distillery, wagon shop and school house. It is said to have been called "Bill Town," per haps because Dr. Bddad Beach and William Chatfield built the saw and grist mill before 1820. These were bought by Perigo Austin in 1826, and the place had a new name. The grist mill became a plaster, mill and in the freshet of 1865 was destroyed and not rebuilt. The first grist mill was built in 1806, a little south of the main bridge in Camillus village, by Squire Munro, William Wheeler and Samuel Powers, and a saw mill at the same time. The present mill race or feeder was made about 1832 by the Nine Mile Creek Association. It was two and a half miles long and furnished fine water power. Since 1835 it has been a feeder for the canal, but useful in other ways. A roller mill, built in 1888, has a daily capacity of two hundred barrels of flour. Knitting and woolen mills have been successfully operated. Newport is a canal hamlet, a little south of Warner and practically a part of it. The bed of the old canal may be seen there. There is a grist mill at Oswego Bitter, and there was once a saw mill. Fine petrifactions of recent leaves are found near there, as well as plaster coated with sulphur. Amboy is a railroad station and was once a busy place. It "is one of the most picturesque spots in the town. Its reed-grown mill pond, the deep, winding valley of the creek, the ruins of old-time mills and the many pretty landscapes have frequently been subjects for the artist's pencil. On the west bank of the creek, south of the road, numerous arrowheads and other Indian relics have been found." A call for a Free Soil meeting in Camillus village, January 17, 1852, had three hundred and thirty-six signers, and the meeting has been claimed as 348 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY the first in the United States distinctly on the lines of the later Republican party. It opposed the Fugitive Slave law and the admission of slave states. Mr. Geddes said: "Observations of the temperature have been taken at Fairmount, at a point 520 feet above the sea, for more than sixty years; and during that time a standard instrument in the shade, protected from all reflection, has never been observed to mark more than 94 degrees in the hottest weather, and this but once in many years; and there have been but few days in the coldest weather that the mercury was not, at some time- in the day, above zero. February 5th and 6th, 1855, were the coldest days ever known here, and deserve a permanent record. The severe cold commenced On the 4th, at 10 o'clock, P. M., 10 degrees below zero. On the 5th, at 2 o 'clock A. M., 19 degrees below zero. On the 5th, at 6 o'clock, A. M., 28 degrees below zero. On the 5th, at 9 o'clock, A. M., 22 degrees below zero. On the 5th, at 11 o'clock, A. M., 20 degrees below zero. On the 5th, at 1 o'clock, P. M., 17 degrees below zero. On the 5th, at 2 o'clock, P. M., 16 degrees below zero. On the 5th, at 3 o'clock, P. M., 16 degrees below zero. On the 5th, at 5 o 'clock, P. M., 18 degrees below zero. On the 5th, at 9 o'clock, P. M., 26 degrees below zero. On the 6th, at 6 o'clock, A. 1VL, 30 degrees below zero. On the 6th, at 8 o'clock, A. M., 26 degrees below zero. On the 6th, at 10 o'clock, A. M., 7 degrees below zero. On the 6th, at 11 o'clock, A. M., 0. On the 6th, at 12 o 'clock, M., 2 degrees above zero. "During this unprecedented weather the sky was nearly cloudless, and as there was no wind the severity of the weather was not so apparent; but the 5th of February, 1855, will probably stand on the records of observers as the coldest day of the century. The average annual range of the ther mometer at Onondaga is 96 degrees, while for the State generally it is 104 degrees. ' ' In a statistical way Camillus village had a Presbyterian and a Methodist church in 1836, a grist and saw mill, carding and cloth dressing mill, three taverns, four stores, and about fifty dwellings. In 1886, beside the mills, it had two general stores, meat market, hotel, chair factory, two coal yards, two blacksmith shops, cooper shop, tin shop, two harness shops, one cabinet maker and undertaker, one physician, one lawyer, one insurance agent, three clergymen (Baptist, Methodist and Roman Catholic). Amboy in 1836 had a saw mill, tavern, store and fifteen to twenty dwell ings. In 1886 it had added a* grist mill, grocery, wagon shop, two blacksmith shops, and had a physician. Belle Isle in 1836 had a tavern, post office, store and about a dozen dwell ings. In 1886 it had added a blacksmith shop, two wagon shops, a shoe shop, and saw and cider mdl. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 349 In 1836 Wellington, eleven miles west of Syracuse, had a tavern and sev eral dwellings. Fairmount is little more than a railroad station, but well situated for suburban homes. A little south is the fine old Geddes place, where two of the most notable men in the county lived and died. CHAPTER XXXVI. TOWN OF CICERO. The original township of Cicero embraced Clay, and was named after the great Roman orator, one of whose names was given to Tully also. Much re lating to it has been already given and will not be repeated. For civil pur poses it was at first included in the town of Lysander. February 20, 1807, it became independent. In April, 1827, half its territory was set off as Clay. The site of Brewerton saw many distinguished visitors, and there Champlain in 1615, and Le Moyne in 1654 crossed the river. It was a favorite spot in earlier days. Fort Brewerton was built in 1759 and is thus described by Clark: "It was a regular octagon, about 350 feet in diameter, surrounded by a wall of earth about five feet above the interior area of the works. In front of this wall was a ditch about ten feet deep, from the top of the inside wall, encom passing the whole. In front of the ditch, encircling the whole, was another embankment, not quite as high as the interior one, corresponding to it in all its lines and angles, with a covered gateway on the south side facing the river. In the interior embankment was set a row of palisades, about twenty feet high, with loop-holes and embrasures. It is situated on a gentle eleva tion, about forty rods from the river, and when garrisoned and armed for war could easily command the passage of the river, and must have presented a formidable barrier. A little east of the fort was built, at the same time with the fort, a mole of huge rocks, about ten rods into the river, at the end of which was placed a sentry's box, where a sentinel was continually posted to watch for enemies passing up the river." This seems an error. Cicero swamp occupies about four thousand acres; originally as much more. There is a good water power at Bridgeport, a village partially in this town. A blacksmith named Dexter is said to have located on the south side of the river at Brewerton in 1790, living there many years. He was not there, however, in 1791, 1792, and 1795. Oliver Stevens lived on the north side in 1792, having a garden on the south side, and soon living there. He built the block house on the north side in 1794, having come there in 1789. Ryal Bingham was there in 1791, but the statement that McGee was there that 350 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY year is an error, as is the statement that a school was kept there in 1792. Jona than Emmons came there in 1804 with his wife Mary, settling on Lot 10 and purchasing six hundred acres. He needed it, for he had eighteen children. In 1813 he obtained the exclusive right of maintaining a ferry there, holding this for many years. At his coming the town had no roads and no' physician nearer than Onondaga Valley. All the early settlers were on Oneida lake and river, and suffered from sickness. They had to go far for flour, and there was little water power for saw mills, but the development of the salt works after a time furnished an ample market for barrels, and this became a lead ing industry. A state road was opened in 1812 from Salina to Brewerton, known as the Salt Road, and this and the succeeding plank road helped the town much. Most of the travel was by the river for a long time. The Inland Lock & Navigation Company was chartered in 1792, and it became possible for Durham boats, sixty feet long and drawing two feet of water, to pass from Schenectady to Seneca lake or Oswego with short portages. In a single year three hundred boats passed the Rome portage. These boats varied in length and in the number of men. They had oars, setting poles and sails, as- well as ropes for towing, and were deep, flat-bottomed and pointed at both ends. In 1788 Elkanah Watson spoke of those on the Mohawk: "I was sur prised to observe the dexterity with which they manage their boats, and the progress they make in poling up the river, against a current of at least three miles an hour." Three years later he said of the men with him: "They occasionally rowed in still water, setting with short poles, at the rapids, with surprising dexterity. In this mode their average progress is three miles an hour," but very fatiguing. The first town meeting of the military township of Cicero, No. 6, was held at Three River point in 1807, Thomas Pool being elected supervisor and Elijah Loomis town clerk. The town records were burned in 1851. The passage of troops to Oswego and elsewhere made things lively in the war of 1812, and the cold year brought suffering. Asa Eastwood brought the first wagon and threshing machine into the town in 1817, and became a prominent man. Dr. Daniel Orcott came to Cicero village the same year as the first physician there. Mrs. Isaac Cody opened a store there in 1818, and her hus band became first postmaster in 1820. The mail was carried once a week on horseback. From them the place was called Cody's Corners. The second merchant was Samuel Warren in 1825, and Alexander Cook was the first lawyer in 1841. The first church in the town was built here by the Presbyterians in 1819. It was of logs, and was replaced by a frame edifice in 1830. The first pastor was Rev. Truman Baldwin. In 1832 it became the Reformed church. This building was burned in 1881, and a new one dedicated in 1882, costing three thousand dollars. Dr. Hezekiah Joslyn came to Cicero in 1823, and was long the principal physician of the town, and the father of the late Mrs. Matilda Joslyn Gage PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 351 of Fayetteville. Beside other industries the village once had Young's saw mill and Brunt's stave mill. In 1877 Loomis, Allen & Company's canning fac tory was established. A Baptist church was organized in 1832, which be came a Disciple society afterward. Brewerton was laid out as a village in 1836 by Orsamus Johnson, Miles W. Bennett, Harvey Baldwin and Daniel Wardwell. It became noted for its eel fisheries, as many as three thousand eels being taken in one night. This ceased in 1845, when the channel was deepened. Four steamboats were placed on the lake and river in 1846, by an Oswego company, Henry Guest being local agent. They were the Madison, Oneida, Onondaga and Oswego. William H. Carter continued this business for many years, but it gradually declined, and some of the early industries have vanished. Deacon George Ramsey, a Scotch Presbyterian, is said to have planted his faith in Brewerton in 1793 — perhaps later. He was a teacher, but there was no house of worship there till 1849, when a union church was built by the Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians and Universalists with the usual result. After 1869 it was used exclusively as an Methodist Episcopal church, a society having been organized that year under Rev. Ebenezer Arnold. The First Church of the Disciples, organized in 1835, built a church in 1851. The Stone Arabia Methodist Episcopal church was formed in January, 1845, at a schoolhouse one mile west of Cicero Center. , A church was built in 1847, and rebuilt in 1869. The Taft Methodist Episcopal church was organized by Rev. Barnard Peck in 1847, and a church built in 1857. The Cicero Methodist Episcopal church was formed in 1850 by Rev. Browning Nichols and a church was at once erected. In the same place the only Roman Catholic church in the town was built in 1889. A former Baptist church in Cicero village was transferred to the Universalists in 1867. It was rebuilt in 1871. This society was organized in 1859 by Rev. A. A. Thayer. Colonel John Shepard drew his military Lot 1-1 and settled on it near the lake, living there till his death in 1824. He became a Presbyterian minister late in life. Elijah Loomis, another Revolutionary soldier, came to Cicero Center in 1804, and became influential. In 1846 a lock was built at Oak Orchard, nine miles below Brewerton, and another about half way be tween. A new bridge was also built in 1847. November 9, 1871, a railroad was opened through Brewerton, from Syracuse to Watertown. This is now leased by the New York Central, and is an important part of its system. The consequent ease of access has made Brewerton quite a summer resort, and the trolley line to South Bay now building, will furnish new attractions. The barge canal will restore water traffic to its natural channels, and some old dreams may yet come true. The village of Brewerton was incorporated in 1872, with John L. Stevens president and E. N. Emmons clerk. Fort Brewerton Lodge, No. 256, F. A. M., chartered January 10, 1852, is located there. Frenchman's Island is else where described. 352 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Asa Eastwood came in 1817, bringing the first wagon and threshing machine into Cicero. He was much interested in the county agricultural society and held public offices. Although occasionally resident elsewhere, he died here February 25, 1870. Orsamus Johnson was once a merchant in Brewerton, and held several town offices. It is said he took the Albany Journal for over sixty years. Dr. Joslyn married the youngest daughter of Sir George Leslie, and lived in fine style for those days, having handsome furniture, carpets and a piano. He befriended a Baptist clergyman, Elder Samuel Thompson, the first in Cicero, who had made a runaway match in England. The parents were un forgiving, and the couple drifted to Cicero, where the young wife died. Dr. Joslyn provided a grave, and took the widower home for a year. He was a thorough abolitionist. The great Cicero swamp, a remarkable place, came before the Legislature in 1836, when three commissioners were appointed to make a map and estimate the cost of drainage. In 1852 three other commissioners were charged to drain lands in Manlius, Cicero and De Witt, first making maps and assessing cost, but this act was repealed the next year. In 1858 commissioners were appointed to drain the great Muskrat swamp, between Brewerton and South Bay. Ditches were made in both swamps and much land reclaimed. In 1791 John Thayer started from Salina to visit Oliver Stevens at Brew erton, following the Indian trail. He lost his way and was three days in the woods without shelter or food. In crossing Oneida river he broke through the ice, and his feet were badly frozen before he arrived at home They mortified and he was taken to Cherry valley on a sled, where both were amputated. Nearly sixty years later he was in good health in Oswego county Two of the Shepard girls were lost in the woods at South Bay in 1811 After three days search they were found asleep. Ground nuts and winter- greens had sustained them. Such incidents happen in most new settle ments. In the alarm of 1794, Oliver Stevens was charged with the erection of 'a block house near old Fort Brewerton, part of which was standing in 1849. Clark said: "A trench was dug about.it, and pickets, twelve feet long, erected, of heavy logs, about four rods from the house. It had a substantial gate and way, on the side towards the river. ' ' Mr. Stevens had adventures. In March, 1792, he went to the town meet ing of the town of Mexico, held at Pulaski, starting early with gun and knap sack. There was no road, but he was a woodman and felt safe. About the middle of the afternoon wolves were following him, and he found he had lost his way. He sought a clearing but found none, and the wolves came nearer. A black one was close upon him, and him he shot. The others were furious, but he faced them, and they went back a little and sat on their haunches. He built a 'fire, reloaded his gun, dragged the dead wolf to the fire, skinned it, and drove off the rest 'with firebrands. It grew dark. He gathered fuel and watched. Toward morning the wolves went off. He got a hasty meal TRAIN GOING EAST ON WASHINGTON STREET, SYRACUSE. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 353 and started homeward, carrying the skin. At night he was still astray, but built a fire and slept. Next morning he was off early and at ten o'clock came to Oswego. He was on his homeward way next day, and on the fifth day reached home. He got a large wolf bounty. The next year a half drowned man rushed in, saying a bear had attacked him and his companion in a boat, and the other might be killed. Mr. Stevens took his gun and went to the rescue, finding the man on shore, and the bear in the boat, drifting down the stream. A shot ended the tableau, and a bear feast followed. The town has little water power, except at Bridgeport, which lies mostly in Madison county, but Moses and Freeman Hotchkiss built the first saw mill in 1823. Of late the Whiting limestone quarry has been utilized by the South Bay trolley line, which is an important enterprise for the town, soon to be completed. In 1836 Cicero village had a Presbyterian and Baptist church, a benevo lent lodge, two stores, two taverns, and fifteen dwellings. In 1886 it had three blacksmith shops, four stores, two hotels and three physicians. The latter may be accounted for by the proximity of the great swamp. In 1836 Brewerton had two stores, one kept by Asa V. Emmons, and the other by Alexander Cushing ; Cyrus Hurd kept the toll gate ; George Walkup was the blacksmith, and Henry F. Marks the physician. In 1886 it had two general stores, two groceries, two wagon shops, two hotels (one being in Oswego county), two dealers in agricultural implements, clothing store, shoe shop, ice dealer, feed store, drug and jewelry store, and coal yard. There were also two churches. Baldwin island, now tastefully laid out, is close to the southern shore, and once abounded in early Indian relics. With in creased facilities for travel the place will have an increased summer popula tion, having already many summer cottages, the inmates of which take their choice of river or lake. The fishing there is good. A new railroad is planned to cross the town from east to west, passing through the village of Cicero, but an effort has begun to have it intersect Syra cuse instead. Should the original plan be adhered to it may have quite an effect upon the town. CHAPTER XXXVII. TOWN OF CLAY. The town of Clay, called after the American statesman, was taken from Cicero in April, 1827, and included fifty lots of the military tract. It is a common error to make Patrick McGee the first settler at Three River point in 1793. Two or three white families were near there in 1791 ; Barker alone occupied the point in 1792, and Vanderkemp, on his return from Oswego said : "We arrived at three river point about seven, discharged Mr. Barker, and 354 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY pitched our tent in the vicinity of his house, crowded with traveders from sev eral bateaux and canoes, which tarried there since yesterday." Jeremiah Gould (1847) said when they passed Three Rivers, 1790, Simeon Barker was there. In 1795 Ryal Bingham kept tavern there, and the land about it be longed to him. McGee may have come there in 1793, but his was not the first house in the town. He is said to have lived and died there, and to have built the first frame house in Clay about 1808. As far as early records go Barker was the first and Bingham the second settler in Clay. It is not easy to place McGee between them. No other settlers are known before 1798. In that year Adam Coon came to the northeast corner of Clay, and the next year Simeon Baker settled on Seneca river. In 1807 Joshua Kinne and Elijah Pinckney came, and John Lynn located in 1808 or earlier at the Lynn settlement. The Young, Dutcher and other families soon joined him. A log schoolhouse was built in 1808, the first in town, at Clay Corners, now Euclid. The first teacher was Mr. Hall. Another was built the next year at Belgium. Moses Kinne had taught in his own house, and now became teacher in this. A frame building took its place in 1812, and a larger one later. After 1810 population increased. Flour was brought from Jackson's mill near Jamesville, for a time, and often on the back all the way. Then in rotation one man took the neighborhood supply by ox sled or cart. The demand for salt barrels in Syracuse soon furnished profitable employment, and fuel could be taken most of the way by water. The lack of water power was felt. The Sodus Bay & Westmoreland Turnpike Company began building a bridge across Seneca river at Belgium in 1824. This was completed by Col. J. L. Voorhees, who got a charter and collected tolls till 1843. It was then rebudt as a free bridge, and became locally known as New Bridge, a title it still retains. There were but four dwelling houses there in 1827, but later it was a busy place. It had a post office called West Cicero in 1825, which was changed to Clay in 1827. Nathan Teall was the first postmaster. At the first town meeting Andrew Johnson was elected supervisor and Jacob Terrill town clerk. A post office was established at Euclid, and John son was supervisor, postmaster, grocer and tavern keeper. The Erie and Oswego canals were opened in 1825 and 1828, and at once affected the town, and Belgium began to grow. The improvement of Oneida river had its effect. Belgium grew rapidly on both sides of the river and reputable families settled there. Judge James Little was one of these, and the Rev. William M. Willett, son of Colonel Marinus Willett, had a fine residence quite near. Mar tin Luther opened the first store in 1828. Sylvanus Bigsbee had another very soon. Jonas C. Brewster opened one in 1829, and James Little another in 1830. Others soon followed. The first frame house here was the toll house east of the river. In 1832 the Wesleyan Methodists built a church on the west side of the river, now used as the Methodist Episcopal chapel. About 1826 an English PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 355 Evangelical Lutheran church was formed near Clay station, and a building was erected and dedicated in 1834. It is strictly a rural church. Clark called it Dutch Reformed, being in a Dutch settlement. It was reorganized in 1832 by Rev. William Ottman, the first pastor. The Disciples built a church in Euclid in 1837, which was used by others, eventually bought by the Methodists, and then made a warehouse and town hall. A new church was built in 1886. In 1835 an Methodist Episcopal society was formed at the Morgan settlement between Euclid and Liverpool. It built a neat church generally called the Morgan meeting house. The Rev. Abram Morgan was a principal founder. In 1847 Rev. William H. Delano formed the Plank Road Baptist church, and became its first pastor. This is at Centerville, where a church was erected. At Euclid a Baptist church was formed in 1845 by Rev. Horatio Warner. A church was built in 1868. At Centerville the Methodists built a church in. 1854 just west of the town line. In 1892 it was moved east of the line and rebuilt. Centerville Lodge, No. 648, F. A. M., was chartered in July, 1867. The opening of the plank road in 1846 gave existence to this place, often called North Syracuse, and formerly Podunk. It is in both Clay and Cicero. The old red tavern there was built at an early day, and Peter Weaver, its builder, gave the ground for the cemetery. About 1850 Centerville began to assume business airs, with stores, inns, a union schoolhouse, physicians, etc. Euclid continued to prosper, and quite a settlement grew up at Oak Orchard or Schroeppel's Bridge, an attractive spot. Belgium or Clay had also a period of prosperity, its business at one time exceeding that of Bald winsville. In 1848 it had one hundred and sixty inhabitants, three dry goods stores, four groceries, two inns, three blacksmith shops, and the "Oriental Balm Pill" manufactory, doing a large business and employing from thirty to fifty people. At a later day it was quite a place for boat building. Before 1820 Three Rivers had been visited by more distinguished persons than any one place in the county. It had not been a place for councils, as some have thought. Not one is recorded there, but noted men had often come to the meeting of the waters. A railroad in 1871 opened a new route to it. Leaving Woodard the Syracuse Northern road led to Oswego, eventual ly becoming part of a great system. This increased trade in Syracuse, but also added another to its summer resorts. An incident which Clark places in Cicero really -belongs in this town, but quite close to its eastern line. As told it closely resembles one story of the Turtle tree, but the locality is certainly on Lot 91, Clay, in the south west corner, and used to be called "the jumps." Mr. Clark's story differs little from the local version, and follows : ' ' One poor fellow bound hand and foot, was compelled to run the gauntlet, with the promise, if successful, of being restored to liberty. Two parallel lines were arranged, and the prisoner started to run, as best he could, between 356 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY them. He made several surprising leaps, bound as he was; and finally suc ceeded in passing amid sundry blows, beyond the lines, to the goal of promised safety. At this moment a young warrior drew up his rifle and shot him dead; who, for his treachery, was instantly pierced by more than twenty balls from the rifles of his companions. For several years the Indians re turned to this spot, renewed the tracks made in the sand by the murdered prisoner, held a war dance, and returned to their homes. This practice was continued long after the white people settled in the neighborhood. The last time they visited the spot, they got into a quarrel among themselves, and it is said, two of the party were killed and several badly wounded." The local report omits this tragic ending, but says they were so disorderly that the people ordered them to come no more. The writer had seen silver ornaments from the spot, lost by the Indians. Though there is much low land in this town several large streams give good drainage but no power. The soil is generally good. Below Belgium are beds of very fine clay, used for brick and containing some remarkable con cretions. The town has four highway river bridges. Cigarville or Clay station had the first name from cigar factories, and is a hamlet originated by these and the railroad. Three Rivers is also a favorite resort for picnics and fishing. In 1836 Euclid had a post office, William Coon's tavern, Jefferson Free man's store, N. Bunzey's wagon shop, George Thayer's blacksmith shop, Henry Schroeppel's steam saw mill. Dr. Church was then the local physician, and a Mr. Blossom had kept the first store in the place. In 1886 it had two saw mills, two blacksmith shops, wagon shop, cheese factory, two general stores, hotel, grist mill, and a physician. There seems always to have been a resident doctor. There were also two churches. In 1836 Belgium had a post office, which at first was kept by Nathan Teall at Teall's Comers, nearly a mile east of the river. John Colburn carried the mail once a week from Vernon, Oneida county, to Cato, Cayuga county. John Wieting kept the toll gate and a harness shop. Rome Van Wagner had a boat yard; James Lee a grocery and hotel; two general stores were kept by Enos & Little and Lounsberry & Hale; Peter Miller had a blacksmith shop; William Bruce a wagon shop. A. P. Adams was the physician, and E. B. Dykeman justice of the peace. In 1886 it had two saloons, general store, hotel, blacksmith shop, wagon shop, carpenter shop, general store, gro cery, and about one hundred and sixty inhabitants. Centerville (Plank Road post office) had two general stores in 1886, a grocery and feed store, shoe shop, blacksmith shop, carriage furnishing shop, drug store, three cigar factories, a butcher and a physician, between whom a choice might be made in payment, according to the old saying. In Clay and Cicero hay is an important crop. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 357 CHAPTER XXXVIII. TOWN OF DE WITT. The town of De Witt was erected from Manlius in 1835, embracing a little over thirty-six lots. The first town meeting was held at Orvide, April 7 and 8, when Zebulon Ostrom was elected supervisor, and William Eager town clerk. Long lists of the early settlers are preserved. Prominent among these are the Kinnes, Holbrooks, Youngs, Hotalings, Jacksons and others. The town had its name from Moses De Witt, a large landholder and promi nent man who died August 15, 1794, and was buried near the northwest angle of the reservoir, in a disused cemetery. Benjamin Morehouse was the first white settler, and his coming is dated April 26, 1789. He had a wife and three children, and the next year opened the first tavern in the county. He was dignified, genial and popular, and was known as "the Governor." Danforth was his nearest neighbor. Before 1800 he was joined by Dr. David A. Holbrook, Jeremiah Jackson, Roger Mer rill, William Bends, James and Jeremiah Gould, Caleb Northrup and others, all near Jamesville, then called Sinai. Sarah Morehouse was born February . 16, 1790, the first white child in the town. Dr. Holbrook, the first physician, located at Morehouse's Flats in 1792, moving to Jamesvdle about 1800. The first saw mill in the town and county was that of Asa Danforth in 1792. In that year he temporarily lived on Lot 81. The mill was then covered with bark, and he brought the saw on his back from Utica. In 1793 he built a grist mill, gathering sixty- four white men and Indians to raise the frame. These structures were on the site of Dunlap 's mills. Oliver Owen erected another saw mill in 1795, and in 1798 Matthew Dumfrie built a malt house, brewery and distillery east of the creek. Jeremiah Jackson built the first frame house at Jamesville in 1797, and Mr. Trowbridge opened the first tavern there in 1804. Two years later David Olmsted succeeded him, keeping the best house west of Utica. Benjamin Sanford built a grist mill about 1804, and Stephen Hungerford started clothing works, while Robbins & Callighan opened a store. Lime, plaster and cement works came later. The first school in town, a little east of Jamesville, was taught by Polly Hibbard, succeeded by Susan Ward. In 1806 a school was opened in the village, and in 1809 Thomas Rose was the first postmaster. The name of Jamesville was first proclaimed at a great celebration, July 4, 1810, following the incorporation of the "Jamesville Iron & Woolen Factory" in 1809. About 1790 John Young, a Revolutionary soldier, settled at Orville, on Lot 62. His six sons and three daughters grew up and settled around him, so that the place was called YoungsviUe. He opened and kept the first tavern, and built the first frame house there, dying in 1834. In 1814 358 ' PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY a post office was established and named Orville, dropping the old name of YoungsviUe and the later one of Hull's Landing. Hud's grist mill was reached by boats on the canal feeder, and became a great shipping point. In 1835 the name was changed to De Witt, but it is still known as Orville, and a branch of the Suburban road begins there. Cyrus Kinne was the first blacksmith in De Witt, coming there in 1792. His four sons had large families, and some went to Cicero. In that direction the Britton settlement, now Collamer, sprang up at a later day. The first settlers were the Brittons, Isaac Carhart, James and Walter Wright, Nathaniel Teall, Abraham Delamater and others. Nathaniel Teall was first postmaster there before 1835. Robert Dunlop came to Jamesville in 1833, founding the Dunlop mills, and manufacturing water lime, cement, plaster, etc. His son Robert, also deceased, had five large lime kilns in Jamesville, two flouring, and cement and plaster mills. Fiddler's Green, a picturesque spot now owned by the Suburban road, was part of this estate. The physical features of the town have been mentioned elsewhere, but there are some small caves of no special interest. Messina Springs were so named from Messina, near ancient Syracuse. They are sulphur springs, much like many others here. Gypsum was found in 1811, and this and water lime are important products. Here also are eruptive dykes described by Mr. Schneider, and faults and glacial formations are of interest. December 29, 1795, some residents of Manlius and Pompey formed the "First Presbyterian or Church of Bloomingdale, " a mde south of James ville. Jeremiah Jackson presided, but was not one of the trustees. No farther steps appear. In 1811, at Orville, a Methodist church was organized as "the Youngs Society," by Rev. Dan Barnes. In May, 1826, it was reorganized as the Methodist Episcopal Young Society of Orville. The original edifice was occupied from 1819 to 1863, and then became a school building. Then the Methodists obtained and repaired a disused Presbyterian church, also built in 1819. The Union Congregational Society, at Morehouse 's Flats, was thus organized and incorporated in September, 1805-. The next year it began building and finished a church in 1809. It was sold, and for about fifty years used as a barn, being burned in 1886. The writer has a sketch of this he made that year. In Jamesville a Congregational church was built in 1828, Episcopal in 1832, Methodist in 1832. Of the above the Congregational became a Presbyterian church in 1843. The name was changed in 1870, and the church was burned in 1882, rebuilt in 1892. The Episcopal church was organized as St. Mark's, July 13, 1831, Rev. Seth W. Beardsley, first rector. The church was remodeled in 1874, burned in October, 1877, and the new one was consecrated in 1880. A Roman Catholic church was built a few years since. In 1828 a Methodist church was formed in Collamer, Rev. Austin Briggs first pastor. A chapel was built 1830, which was repaired and rededicated in 1857 as the First Methodist Episcopal church of Collamer. In October!" 1842, PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 359 the First Presbyterian church of Collamer was organized at the "Britton Set tlement School House." A church was built in 1843, and Rev. Amos W. Seeley was the first pastor. In October, 1872, the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad Com pany bought one hundred and fifty acres for freight yards, shops, etc.,' on Lot 42, now East Syracuse. The growth was rapid, of course. Many miles of tracks were laid, and there has been expansion ever since, the field of operations now reaching Minoa on the east. Railroad affairs are paramount there, but other interests appear. The First Presbyterian Society of East Syracuse was formed March 8, 1875, and a church was built the following summer. The church was organized January 27, 1876, Rev. J. M. Chrysler being first pastor. A new church was built in 1896. St. Matthew's Roman Catholic church was built in 1880, under the pastorate of Rev. Michael Clune. The Methodist Episcopal church was organized in 1881, building the next year. Emmanuel Protestant Episcopal Church was built in 1883. The Young Men's Christian Association was formed in May, 1881, and built its home in 1888. The railroad company pays its secretary six hundred dollars a year, and aided in building. The first schoolhouse was built in 1832, in a country district. With the village the school rapidly grew, and in March, 1887, the Union Free School was organized, and a handsome build ing was erected in 1891, used in 1892, and completed and dedicated November. 28, 1893. There is also a circulating and reference library connected with thegehool. East Syracuse was incorporated November 21, 1881, Charles C. Bagg, president. The East Syracuse News was established in December, 1884, by Edwin F. Bussey and John L. Kyne. The latter became sole owner in August, 1887, and has been editor since its incorporation in 1894, beside being active in other ways. He has long been a leader in firemen's affairs. March 1, 1891, C. J. Sawdey became editor of the Onondaga Gazette. This was purchased by John A. Nichols, Jr., December 1, 1895. Water is now had from a reservoir near Jamesville. Electric roads, now double tracked in East Syracuse, bring the village in close contact with Syracuse. Allusion has been made to caves. One discovered in 1807 was about a mile east of Jamesville, and opened in sinking a well. It was twenty feet be low the surface, and about five feet broad by seven feet high, for six or eight rods, contracting and expanding. It has long been closed. Another cave, two miles west of Jamesville, is said to be several hundred feet long. A small one is at the lake nearer the village, and in other places cold air issues from rock fissures. The Jamesville road to Syracuse passes fine rock ex posures, and is a picturesque and pleasant drive. Clark said of Morehouse that "In 1791 he carried a plowshare on his back to Westmoreland, to be sharpened, and while the blacksmith was doing the work, he proceeded to Herkimer, purchased thirty pounds of flour, and re turned on foot, with flour and plowshare on his back." 360 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Morehouse's Flats had a lawyer at an early day, with students. He was William Edgar. Captain Samuel Wilcox located at Lyndon, west of Fayetteville. He was a large landholder and prominent business man. His son, Asel F., was there in 1823, and was also a leading man, doing a large business in plaster. He had flouring, plaster, and saw mills at High Bridge or Elkhorn, in Manlius. Van Vleck Nottingham was another leading man who came in 1833, the head of a notable family, and prominent in agricultural circles. Several of his sons settled in Syracuse. Eastwood was incorporated April 17, 1895, J. L. Jones being first presi dent. It has important manufacturing interests, and a trolley line connects it with Syracuse. A special car on the Jamesville line carries officers and prisoners to the county penitentiary, whose massive buildings are a con spicuous feature. Adjacent to its grounds is the great reservoir on Butter nut creek. Everywhere around are picturesque scenes, and the vicinity is a favorite resort for the artist, historian, botanist and geologist, or the mere pleasure seeker. Jamesville had a Presbyterian church in 1836, a post office, several stores, some mills and about forty dwellings. In 1886 it had two cement, lime and plaster mills, three general stores, three blacksmiths, two hotels, three grist mills, one cider mill, broom factory, sash and door factory, wagon shop, shoe store, a physician and two churches. The churches have since increased. Orville had a Presbyterian church in 1836, several stores, a tavern and about thirty dwellings, with a large trade in water lime. In 1886 it had a hotel, two general stores, a grocery, cider mill, and a dealer in agricultural implements. East Syracuse, incorporated in 1881, was founded by the purchase of a large tract of land in 1872, by the New York Central railroad. It was bought of Rufus R. Kinne, Elijah Clark, Eugene Bogardus and the Carpenter estate. At that time four farm houses occupied the site of the present village. Freight yards were laid out, and by 1886 the population was about two thousand. At that time there was but one dry goods store, and that business may never be large there, with Syracuse near. There were then two general stores, two drug stores, a furnishing store, news stand, jewelry store, hardware store, confectionery and tobacco store, two coal yards, four shoe shops, a shoe store, four physicians, four churches, one undertaker, three groceries, four dressmakers, three barber shops, five hotels, eight board ing houses, a meat market, millinery store, sewing machine dealer, two black smith shops, steam grist mill, lumber yards, etc. Also a newspaper. There has been a healthy growth ever since. Some "good roads" have recently been made in this town, of which serious complaints have been made, and the matter was taken up by the Board of Supervisors and carried to Albany for final adjustment. Two toll roads are yet kept up in this town. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 361 CHAPTER XXXIX. TOWN OF ELBRIDGE. Elbridge may have been named from Elbridge Gerry, a man of note and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. His second name was not popu lar, for he or his party rather, arranged towns in curious combinations for political purposes, and these strange figures his opponents feigned were a new kind of animal called Gerrymander. The species is not extinct yet. He was governor of Massachusetts at the time, and may have had nothing to do with the arrangement, but signed the bill. He was afterward vice-presi dent of the United States at the time of his death in 1814, and was really a noble patriot. The story of the Gerrymander follows :• "In Essex County, the arrangement of the district in its relation to the towns was singular and absurd. Russell, the veteran editor of the Boston Centinel, who had fought against the scheme valiantly, took a map of that county and designated by particular coloring the towns thus selected, and hung it on the wall of his editorial room. One day Gilbert Stuart, the emi nent painter, looked at the map, and said that the towns which Russell had thus distinguished resembled some monstrous animal. He took a pencil, and with a few touches added what might represent a head, wings, claws, and tail. "There," Stuart said, "that will do for a salamander." Russell, who was busy with his pen, looked up at the hideous figure, and exclaimed, "Salamander! call it Gerrymander!" The word was immediately adopted into the political vocabulary." Elbridge became a town March 26, 1829, with thirty-seven lots. Timothy Brown being chosen supervisor, and James McClure town clerk. The first postmaster was Seneca Hale in 1825. Mail came to Skaneateles before that date. Josiah Buck came there in 1791 as a surveyor, and chose a camp site for his party a little west of Elbridge village. There Colonel William Stevens and his surveyors and explorers found him in October. Colonel Stevens left Danforth 's October 26, and proceeded westward. The whole account is good, but we are now concerned with Elbridge: "We at last descended and came to a cedar swamp, the road causewayed through it. Then came to a beautiful stream of water (Carpenter's brook), the bottom covered with white pebbles of the nature of lime, and centered on a pretty flat tract of land with a handsome gradual ascent to the south. The timber much as before, with the addition of fine white pine, suitable for either boards or shingles, extending to a great height. The soil good, and came to the outlet of Skaneateles Lake, about five or six miles from the lake — a very convenient situation for mills and other water works. The land very good, and plenty of white pine timber for building. Two and one-half miles further down the stream is the falls, below which will admit 362 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY boats to come up to the foot of the falls. This situation struck my fancy for a seat more than any part of the country that I had been in yet, and if I should be lucky enough to purchase it would induce one to move into this part of the country. After viewing this situation attentively we proceed through a very fine tract till we arrive at Mr. Buck's, where we took lodg: ings." Next day he went to see an earthwork about thirty rods from the cabin, on Lot 81, and afterward another on Lot 70. Some published notes of locality on this journal, in Onondaga's Centennial are not satisfactory but we are indebted to it for the journal. Stevens settled on Lot 83, but a little east of this and the creek, in 1793, and opened the first store in El bridge, building also the first saw mill. His wife died in 1795, and he made a funeral address, no clergyman being available. This was afterward printed, and some other writings of his are preserved. He was a member of the Boston tea party, and filled important offices here. Josiah Buck was the first permanent settler, coming in 1791 as a sur veyor, bringing his family in 1793, when he opened the first tavern in town. Robert Fulton came the same year. James Strong came in 1794, and Colonel Chandler and Dr. Pickard soon after. A rude road, made by General Wads- worth in 1791 or 1792, aided emigration, and was near or on the line of the Genesee turnpike. Many emigrants went up Seneca river before and after this, but none seem to have settled here. Elkanah Watson found many names but no houses in 1791, nor did Wilson mention any. Isaac Strong built a saw mill on the Skaneateles creek in 1795, and in that year was the first blacksmith. Moses Carpenter opened a second tavern about the same time, which became a noted inn. In 1796 there came James Weisner, Nicholas Mickles, Jacob and Ezra Colmon, John and Ezra Brackett, all near the present village. Dr. John Frisbie came there in 1798. Isaac Strong built the first grist mill on the creek. Squire Munro and his sons, Nathan, John, David, and Philip A., came in 1799 settling on Lot 81, and becoming influential. Zenas and Aaron Wright were the first settlers near Jordan, in 1797, and a saw mill was built there in 1800. By that time settlers came fast. A little later Martin Ticknor, Isaac Smith, Jonathan Babcock, Jonathan Rowley, Rey nolds Corey and others were near Jordan, which soon became a busy hamlet. The first frame schoolhouse in Elbridge village appeared in 1801, John Healey being the first teacher. Education received attention, and in 1835 Nathan Munro founded the Munro Academy, the first term being held in Eze kiel Gardner's tavern. Next year it had a frame building, and was incor porated April 23, 1839. Mr. Munro died that year, leaving it the equip ment and an endowment fund of twenty thousand dollars. The first officers, elected July 13, 1839, were John Munro president, James Munro secretary, Hiram F. Mather treasurer. In 1854 the present Munro Collegiate Institute was built, and a chapel was added in 1859. At one time it had an attendance PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 363 of six hundred, and its graduates have a good record. Truman K. Wright was principal for thirty-four years, 1858-92, and had a high reputation. His strong resemblance to his twin-brother Norman, often caused a comedy of errors. Hon. Michael Driscoll studied there, and was enough for the other boys. "The First Congregational Society of the Town of Camillus" was or ganized October 30, 1800, but no church was built till 1823-24. This was in Elbridge village, and was repaired and remodeled in 1845, 1862 and 1889. The name Elbridge was" substituted for Camillus in 1829. The society was incorporated December 24, 1822, and for several years services were held in dwellings and school houses. The first minister was Rev. Seth Williston. Out of this came the Jordan society, fourteen members withdrawing to form this in 1829. The Baptist society of Elbridge was formed May 1, 1813, the Rev. Israel Craw being the first pastor. In 1816 a church was built in Elbridge village, replaced by another in 1858. Parlors were added in 1875. The Skaneateles and Jordan societies came from this. November 10, 1835, a Baptist church was formed in Jordan, Rev. E. D. Hubbell being the first pastor. In October, 1837, the church was dedicated. The First Presbyterian Society of Jordan was formed June 9, 1829, and incorporated July 2. The church was dedicated June 30, 1831. Christ (P. E.) church, Jordan, was organized November 30, 1840, Rev. Thaddeus Leavenworth being the first rector. A building, partly enclosed, was blown down July 11, 1846, but was completed and consecrated January 20, 1847. A new brick church was consecrated December 29, 1863. In 1887 this was partly refitted. A Methodist society was organized in Jordan about 1830, and a church was built in 1832, much improved since. Rev. Roswell Parker was then pas tor. A class at Peru followed, and a society was formed about 1850. A church was built there in -1852, now but little used. The class at Elbridge became a station in 1850, when a brick church was built. The Roman Cath olic (St. Patrick's) church occupies a fine position on a hill in the southwest part of Jordan, and was built 1864-65. Gideon Wilcoxson was the first lawyer and postmaster in Elbridge vil lage in 1813. A postoffice was also established at Peru, nearly four miles east of Jordan, Eli Tator being one early postmaster. The postoffice was called Jack's Reef from Jack's Rifts on Seneca river, a mile north, where Darky Jack lived and fished. At that place, between 1854 and 1857, a long excavation was made in the river to drain land above. An old covered bridge still spans the river there. At Peru Sherebiah Evans had an early tavern, two stores were opened, and it was once an important grain market and shipping point. On Carpenter's brook a saw mill was built in 1808, and others afterward. Abraham Mclntyre opened a store near these in 1810, and his son Calvin built scores of canal boats at Peru. Those were good days for boatmen, and it is said he received as high as twenty-seven cents a bushel 364 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY for carrying grain from Buffalo to New York. Indeed times have changed if this is true. The opening of the canal in 1825 gave a stimulus to the little village of Jordan, where a saw mill had been built in 1800, the "White" mill in 1825, and the "Red" mill in 1824. The next year came a postoffice, with Seneca Hale as postmaster. In 1836 Jordan had three grist mills, three saw mills, a sash factory, distillery, clothing works, tannery, five taverns, seven general stores, two drug stores, five groceries. May 2, 1835, Jordan was incorporated, but the early records have been lost. Among early merchants were Lewis Green & Sons, Homer P. Moulton, Mr. Thomas and Mr. Rhoades, James Mc Clure, Benjamin Coonley, Alonzo Case, Ebenezer Daggett, Harry Weed, R. S. Sperry and others. > The Jordan Courier was published by Frederick Prince in 1831, and P. J. Becker issued the Jordan Tribune in 1849. This became the Jordan Transcript in 1853, and later the Jordan Intelligencer. In 1882 C. H Bibbens founded the Jordan Times, still published. The Auburn and Syracuse railroad gave rise to Hart Lot and Half Way postoffices, Hart Lot being named from Josiah Hart, an early owner; and Half Way as being equi-distant from Auburn and Syracuse. The former is best known as Skaneateles Junction. A short railroad connects ,this with Skaneateles village. There are coal and lumber yards, a store and small inns there. Jordan Lodge, No. 386, F. & A. M., was instituted July 14, 1856, Rev. John G. Webster, W. M. Jordan Lodge, No. 230, I. 0. 0. F., was in stituted June 30, 1846, with W. T. Groves, N. G. Elbridge Lodge, No. 275, I. O. 0. F., was organized April 19, 1871, H. H. Porter was N. G. The direct line in 1853, from Syracuse to Rochester did not help Jordan, though a good deal of manufacturing survives. Some of Amos Miner's early works were here, making hollow wooden ware. There were large storehouses for grain, lumber and coal yards. The electric plant occupies the site of an old bedstead factory. Wheelbarrows and pumps have been largely made there. The West Shore road was built in 1883. The private bank of Westfall & Co. after a time failed. R. S. Sperry & Co. established another in 1870, succeeded by Rodger & Co. in 1874. This also failed. The Jordan Academy was incorporated January 12, 1842, and a building was soon erected. This flourished many years, but January 25, 1867, the Jordan Academy and Union Free School was incorporated, taking its place. Harry Weed was the president of the first board of education. In 1890 the present school building was erected at a cost of twenty thousand dollars. The village of Elbridge was incorporated April 1, 1848, the first president being Lucius Millen. Between there and Jordan, on the picturesque Hollow road, was a small cave, now fallen in, of which Clark tells quite a thrilling bear story. Evidently the bear must have been small. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 365 Clark noted some memorials of Buck's arrival. "The large elm tree is still standing in the road, a little west of Mr. Munro 's house by the side of a clear running brook, where Mr. Buck, with his family, took shelter till he could erect a comfortable cabin. They lived several weeks with no shelter but the forest, and the wagon served for parlor, kitchen, wardrobe and sleep ing apartments. On this account the tree was highly venerated by the peo ple in the neighborhood." Clark also said: "At Jack's Rifts, when the whites first settled this town, the Onondagas had a large settlement, with an extensive clearing and a valuable orchard. ' ' There were apple trees there, but it was only a fishery, not a permanent village. No travelers after the Revolution mention Indians there. He added: "They had also cleared off what is called the salt fields in the town of Cato, and had a small settlement there." He described also a cave in the gypseous shales, a mile below Elbridge village, on the west bank of the creek. It was "about twenty feet long, by ten broad in the center, oval shaped, and about seven feet high," and "was a notorious den and hiding place for wild beasts, and was first discovered in 1794, by Robert FultOn and William Stevens, who had quite an adventure with a bear which they slew." Elsewhere he gave a thrilling account of this. The dimensions of the cave seem exaggerated, but it has long since fallen im It may be added that his account of grooved stone axes in this town is an error. They are rarely found in this region. The likeness of Truman K. Wright to his twin brother has been men tioned. One story is that in the corridor of a Syracuse hotel he was sur prised to see his brother coming from the other end. The recognition was mutual, and with outstretched hands and smiling faces they hurried forward, only to meet at a mirror. The family does not vouch for this, but does for the following. - He was shaved and had his hair cut in Syracuse one day and sallied forth. Meeting his brother they arranged to dine together, and the brother thought he would visit the barber too. The latter was thunderstruck when the man he supposed he had just finished off, sat down in the chair, cer tainly needing the razor and shears. Elbridge village had a Presbyterian and a Baptist church in 1836, a grist, saw, carding and cloth dressing mill, three taverns, three stores, and about sixty dwellings. In 1886 its record was six blacksmiths, three carriage makers, two livery stables, two chair factories, three carpenters, two shoe shops, two dressmakers, two hotels, two general stores, marble and granite works, jewelry store, billiard room, cheese factory, saw mill, glove factory, straw board mill, barber shop, harness shop, grocery, news room, a lawyer, milliner, dentist, and four physicians. Jordan in 1836 had the following business men : H. Norton, Charles Morris, H. Dodge and Mr. Jenkins in storage and forwarding ; H. Bond, Isaac Otis and Gilley Miller, hotel keepers; B. Hawley, livery; H. Moulton, Williard Bemp, Benjamin Coonley and Erastus Baker, merchants; James Riggs, Dr. Beacon and H. Gunn, physicians ; Grove Gilbert, foundry ; Charles Combs and Ezra Breed, 366 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY cabinet makers; H. Hewitt, Elijah F. Wright and John Booker, boatmen; Sam uel Coffion and Duncan Grant, bakers; A. Woolsey, meat market; George Wright and James W. Redfield, blacksmiths ; Solomon Earll, W. T. and C. E. Graves, distillers ; Solomon Earll and Francis Gunn, miders ; Lewis Green, ash- ery ; Erastus Bond, Drayton Eno and Daniel K. Green, grocers ; P. Stevens, shoe maker; Silas Merrick, wooden ware; David Carson, tailor; Frank Sheldon, grain dealer; Stephen Morris and Edward Gould, tanners and curriers; H. Gunn, Sr., painter ; B. and H. Crofut, wagon makers. There were also a Metho dist and a Presbyterian church, sash factory, pail factory, clothing works, and one hundred and fifty dwellings. In 1886 Jordan had four churches, four hotels, two milliners, ladies furn ishing store, two meat markets, three lawyers, seven grocers, three physicians, four hardware stores, two bakers, two general stores, two harness shops, four shoe shops, three drug stores, three barbers, two tobacco stores,. two carriage shops, three wheelbarrow manufacturers, three blacksmiths, two machine shops, two grist mills, three coal dealers, two undertakers, two billiard rooms, three cigar manufacturers, a dry goods store, photograph gallery, tailor, straw board mill, restaurant, newspaper, dentist, marble shop, saw mill, lumber yard, bank, jewelry store, livery stable, bedstead manufacturer, and maltster. Busi ness has since declined greatly. While the water power is generally good it is affected by State and city ownership. CHAPTER XL. THE TOWN OF FABIUS. Fabius, named after the famous Roman general who successfully opposed Hannibal, was No. 15 of the Military Tract, originally embracing most of Truxton and Cuyler in Cortland county. These were taken off April 8, 1808, leaving fifty lots in the present town. The general elevation is from one thous and to twelve hundred feet above the Erie canal at Syracuse, including the highest points in the county. These have been noted. Timothy Jerome and Josiah Moore built log cabins here in 1794 or 1795. Simon Keeney also came, cleared land, built a cabin, and planted ground, pre paratory to bringing his family the next year. He was the originator of Keeney's settlement, and came to his cabin in 1795, with Benjamin Brown, Samuel Fox and Gurden Woodruff. His house was on Lot 47. He died September 17, 1831, aged sixty-five, and was buried in the old cemetery at Fabius village. The first burial was that of a colored man in April, 1798, who drank too much maple syrup. In the same month Elijah Keeney lost a young child. William Clark settled on Lot 25, being one of twelve Revolutionary soldiers living in the present town. Colonel Elijah St. John came in 1795, the PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 367 first settler in the west part of town. Several families came between then and 1798, and in 1797 Josiah Tubbs opened the first tavern in town, near the Tully line. Many early town meetings were held there. The civil town of Fabius, formed'March 9, 1798, embraced Fabius, Tully, Preble and Scott, most of Truxton and Cuyler, with the southern parts of Otisco and Spafford. The first town meeting was held at Josiah Tubbs' inn, April 3, and Timothy Jerome was chosen supervisor, Josiah Moore town clerk. The town records previous to 1854 were burned in December, 1882. Major Joseph Strong built the first barn in 1799, and Thomas Miles had a saw mill on Butternut creek in 1800. About 1802 Benjamin Brown taught school in the Keeney neighborhood, and Lucy Jerome and Eunice Fowler near Apulia much earlier. Thomas Miles built a grist mill on Butternut creek, west of Apulia in 1808. Stores were opened about the same time. Joseph Simons opened a second tav ern near the center of the town, and Colonel St. John a third near Apulia. Soon after the war of 1812 the Skaneateles and Plamilton turnpike was opened and Fabius village became a business center. Apulia shared in the general pros perity, and many of the buildings of that day survive. A post office was soon established in Fabius, and a tavern built in 1814 still stands. The Erie canal did not help the town, nor did the railroad increase Fabius and Apulia villages. In 1830 the town population was three thousand and seventy-one ; in 1850 two thousand four hundred and ten ; in 1870 two thousand and forty-seven ; in 1890 one thousand seven hundred and seventeen ; in 1905 one thousand five hundred and forty-five ; about half what it was in 1830. Fabius village was called Franklinville as late as 1850, and it is said that a Baptist society was organized at "Fabius Center, or Franklinville, as it was then caded," in 1803. This did not last. Another writer, quoting "from official documents," has the "First Society in Fabius, May 28, 1805," apparently an error, the "First Baptist Society in the town of Fabius, November 21, 1805," the "First Congregational Society in Fabius, August 9, 1808," the "United Presbyterian Society (Tully and Fabius), December 9, 1814," and the "First Baptist Church and Society of Fabius, January 25, 1817." The earliest Baptist society however, was formed in 1803, and recognized by a council convened August 24, in Samuel Webster's barn, three miles south of Fabius village. The first pastor was Rev. Rufus Freeman. In 1807 Rev. Peter P. Roots came to Keeney 's Settlement, ministering to this society for some years. The First Baptist Church and Society of Fabius was incorporated August 24, 1819, but built a church in 1818, with Rev. Mr. Blakesley as pastor. This was rebuilt in 1870. In October, 1826, the Freewill Baptists began meetings near Stephen Tripp's, forming a society the next year, and building a church in 1830. This was r.emoved to its later site in Fabius village in 1855, and rebuilt in 1869. A Baptist society at Apulia occupies the old Congregational church at Apulia. The Rev. S. A. Beeman was its first pastor. In 1804 a Presbyterian church was organized, and services were maintained in the west part of the town. This was changed to Congregational in 1830, and a large church was built in Apulia, the First Congregational Society of Fabius 368 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY having been incorporated. It became feeble and practically extinct, the Baptists now using the building. The Methodists built a church near Fabius village in 1821, removed it in 1835, and rebuilt it in 1860. They also had a church at Apulia, which was removed to Summit Station in 1870. The Universalists also built a church in Fabius village in 1845, struggling along for thirty-five years, and then selling this to the Roman Catholics. The village of Fabius was incorporated in 1880, Elmore Wheaton becoming president. In 1895 a union free school was organized, with an aca'demic de partment. Evergreen Cemetery, of six acres, was dedicated October 25, 1865. About as much more was added in 1885. Tanneries were a frequent early industry, and at one time the town had fifteen saw mills. Dairy farms are now many in number, and poultry raising is largely followed. Much milk is shipped to cities but some is retained for creameries and cheese factories. The raising of ginseng attracts much attention, George Stanton, of Summit Station being the founder of this new industry. Whetstones of fine quality are also found in this town, and have been an article of commerce. It would be easy to mention notable men -of this town ; we may content ourselves with referring to a woman, ' ' Grace Greenwood, ' ' who was born in Pompey, but whose father moved to Fabius in 1830. Dr. Clark lived half a mile north of Fabius vdlage, and his daughter Sarah attended school there. She became Mrs. Lippincott. On Limestone creek, in the northeast part of the town, is a hamlet called Gooseville, where there are kilns producing lime of fine quality from calcareous tufa. This is found west of the creek. Elisha Sprague came to Fabius in 1798, when but four years old, becoming an excellent surveyor, laying out most of the town roads, and aiding greatly in the development of the town. Hon. George Pettit came in 1800, and was an eminent jurist and notable citizen, the head of an able family. Hon. James J. Belden was- born and reared in this town. Fabius Academy was founded in 1840, and had a building the next year. As in other eases this afterward became the Union Free School and Academy. In 1836 the American Patriot/was published in Fabius village by Joseph Tenny, and was continued for three years. The local industries have been milling, wagon making, shoe factories, tanneries, cheese factories and creameries, foundries, etc. Summit Station, now called Apulia, and a little west of that place, owes its existence to the railroad. There was not a house there before 1854, but it has become a shipping center, with a church, shops, mills and factories. There are also hotels. Though there is good water power in the town it is not large,, and this limits manufacturing industries. The natural features have been mentioned elsewhere, and it wdl suffice to say that the highest land in the county lies south of Fabius village. Some hills are very percipitous, and from Summit Station there is a downward grade on the railroad, both north and south. FORMAN PARK IN EARLY '80s. FAYETTE PARK AND PARK PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 1880. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 369 Charles Moore was the first white child born in the town, in 1789. The first marriages were those of Abel Webster and Lydia Keeney, and of Luther St. John and Polly Joy in 1804. David Caldwell kept the first store in 1804. Fabius village had a Baptist, Methodist, and a Presbyterian church in 1836, also several stores, three taverns, a tannery, and from thirty-five to forty dwell ings. In 1886 it had three general stores, hardware store, grocery, drug store, clothing store, grist mill, harness shop, two hotels, three physicians and four churches. That year Apulia had a church, store, wagon shop, grocery, two shoe shops and two blacksmith shops. CHAPTER XLI. TOWN OF GEDDES. Geddes had its name from its noted citizen, James Geddes, who visited Onondaga in 1793, and came there permanently in Aprd, 1794, having formed a company to make salt. The others came in June. The Indian claims were soon arranged, but the Salt Point people were not friendly. However, a road was carried across the marsh from the works on the western side to the road from Onondaga Hollow to Salt Point. He lived near the lake for four years, and then settled on his land in Camillus for life. There was a reason for this. He married a Highland lassie, Miss Lucy Jerome of Fabius, in 1799, and did not propose to bury her in lowland marshes. He had been thinking that, as a good citizen, he ought to marry. In this receptive state of mind he was among the southern hills surveying land. Suddenly he saw a vision. A fair girl stood on a stump, in a graceful attitude, blowing a dinner horn. Presumably she invited him to a dinner prepared by her own fair hands, and 'men's hearts lie very close to another vital organ. Anyway it was love at first sight, a wise love, too. Freeman Hughs next came there in March, 1799, when there was no house in the town except the abandoned salt works, and was there three nights alone. Work was hard, too, and it cost about one hundred dollars per acre to clear the swamp lands. Logs, mixed with peat, lay about six feet deep, and some stumps were far below the surface. Mr. Hughs, however, stayed through, dying in Geddes August 29, 1856, aged seventy-five years. His son James was the first child born there. Judge Geddes made the first map of the village in 1807, with twenty lots on each side of Genesee street. This was resurveyed and mapped in 1812, and enlarged in 1821. In 1822 a map was made much as the village appeared when annexed to Syracuse in 1887. James Lamb came in 1803, building the first frame house that year, and keeping tavern till after the war. Simeon Phares came that year and began 370 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY saltmaking. John Y. Phares, his son, was born August 22, 1810, the second child in Geddes. The Root family came early, and Nancy Root taught the first school in Geddes in 1803. She married David Vrooman, another early settler. In 1819 a road was opened from the site of the present M. E. church to Onondaga Hill, but this was afterward abandoned. Curiously enough the vil lage of Geddes was incorporated April 20, 1832, before the town was set off from Salina. All its records, up to 1850, were burned that year. It received a new charter in 1867, and was annexed to Syracuse in 1887. In 1868 it had less than a thousand inhabitants. The first town election in Geddes was March 28, 1848, Elijah W. Curtis being chosen supervisor, Edward Vrooman clerk. After the civil war the village grew rapidly, and had nearly seven thousand people when annexed to Syracuse. John Dodge, Charles L. Skinner, Joseph Shepard, Sheldon and Charles Pardee were early merchants. The Terrys, Averys and Geres were also early people of prominence. Cyrus Thompson, founder of the Thomp- sonian system of medicine, came before 1830, and began making medicines. He bought a large building and used it as a sanitarium. For a long time- the "Apostolic Church" of Geddes was the only church in Geddes. It was an Episcopal church, organized in January, 1832, and bearing its name in large letters over the doors. Its position made it conspicuous. The Smith & Powell stock farm, near Lakeland, is of high reputation, its specialty being Holstein cattle and Percheron horses. Near by are the per manent grounds of the New York State fair, and the holiday attractions of the White City. On the banks of Nine Mile Creek are the power houses of the Syracuse, Lakeside & Northern electric road, and beyond these the Lakeside and Long Branch resorts. The Solvay Process Works in 1881-82 began to attract residents, and a village soon appeared. This was incorporated, and at the first election, May 15, 1894, Frederick R. Hazard was chosen president. The company has been liberal, and there is how a wellgraded system of schools, with kindergartens, libraries and public halls are among the equipments of the place. A water supply is provided, and a post office was opened in 1889. The drive along the Orchard road is one fine feature of the vicinity. Mr. Clark said that Harbor Brook had its name from the hiding of Sir John Johnson's boats there in the war of the Revolution, which is an early er ror, though a natural one, for the name of Onondaga had a large application at the time. His own account, however, of a similar circumstance on Chitte nango creek, on a better foundation, shows his mistake. The real explanation seems this: the Geddes settlers found it easier to cross the lake than the marsh, and the brook formed an excellent harbor, each man having his own landing. Thus Thomas Orman, a salt boiler and partner of Simeon Phares in 1803, used to cross, and the place where he kept his canoe, some distance up the brook and near the present pump house, was called " Orman 's Landing." There were other landings in this natural harbor, which may also have been PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 371 used by the Indians. Joseph M. Willey once did a large business in making the small, round boxes in which table salt was formerly packed. A pottery was opened at an early day by William H. Farrar, to make "red ware" from the clay at Geddes. This material was afterward changed for New Jersey clay. Robert Gere came in 1824, and afterward was a salt manufacturer and contractor on a large scale. He was engaged in various business interests in Syracuse, and others of his family have been likewise prominent. His farm was one of the best in the county and George Geddes 's had a wide repu tation. Before its annexation to Syracuse Geddes had several iron works, as the Onondaga Iron Company, the Sterling Iron Ore Company, the Syracuse Iron Works, the Sanderson Brothers Steel Company, etc., to which may be added now the Holcomb Steel Works and others. By the lowering of the lake considerable land along the shore was re claimed, though usually overflowed in the spring. This is a bed of shell marl. Nine Mile creek reaches the lake on the west, sometimes called the south shore. A little south of this was Geddes swamp, correctly named till cleared and drained by Smith & Powell for their stock farm. It was quite extensive. Through this and near the shore runs the Lake Boulevard. Parallel with it is the Lackawanna railroad and the electric road to Baldwinsville. The refuse of the Solvay Process Works is a striking feature of the south end of the lake. A little way down is the home of the Syracuse Yacht club, aquatic sports in summer and ice boats in the winter being features of the lake. The fleet of passenger steamers has vanished.- Lake View point is a large, low and flat expanse of land, reaching far out into the lake, and forming the delta of Nine Mile creek. Farther north, at Pleasant Beach, is the only place where the higher land reaches the shore. It was quite a resort at one time, having natural advantages, but has been for a long time abandoned. Some small resorts lie between this and the popu lar Lakeside' park. On the west side of the outlet is the favorite Long Branch, well kept and pleasant, having the advantage of lake, creek and river for those who love the water, and pleasant roads and hearty welcome for all. There were Indian mounds there. The outlet has been straightened, but through it passed many a noted man of early days. Through it went the French colony, going and coming, and Frontenac 's four hundred boats went over its waters on the alert for any ambushed foe. The vicinity was a favorite with the prehistoric aborigines of the land. Now it is the scene of the "only old original farmers' picnics," which are often on a grand scale. There one may meet small and great politicians, especially if an important election is pending; but there also the smallest party may have a quiet and pleasant time. Gordon's Gazetteer, in 1836, spoke of the village of Geddes as being "very pleasantly situated at the head of the lake, upon its left bank, and upon the Erie canal, 2 miles west of Syracuse, and about this time it acquired additional importance from the discovery of a new salt spring here, which supplied the 372 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY salt works. The village contained an Episcopal church, 2 stores, kept by Job Dickinson and — Bissell ; 2 taverns, kept by John W.- Woodward and Luman Northway; Wm. W. Tripp kept a boat yard; Henry Lake was a saddler; Dr. Thayer and Dr. Cyrus Thompson, physicians; Elijah Curtis, lawyer; John T. Phares, shoemaker; and 50 dwellings. From the heights around it are fine views of the lake, Salina, Syracuse and the Onondaga hill and village." In 1886, just before its union with Syracuse, Geddes village had four blacksmith shops, three boat liveries, one boiler manufactory, two shoe shops, bottling works, brewery, two brick yards, broom machine manufactory, one carpet weaver, two carriage shops, one casket manufacturer, china decorating company, clay pipe works, two clothiers, two coal yards, seven cont actors and builders, two coopers, two dry goods stores, steel works, engine and boiler works, two florists, flour and feed store, fourteen groceries, two drug stores, iron foundry, agricultural implements works, four meat markets, two nursery men, five physicians, two potteries, twenty-eight saloons, four tobacco dealers and a shirt factory. There was also a large blast furnace a little west of the village. Its population in 1880 was four thousand two hundred and eighty- three. This has greatly increased since it became part of the city. CHAPTER XLII. TOWN OF LA FAYETTE. The town of La Fayette was organized in April, 1825, from Pompey and Onondaga and named from the Marquis de La Fayette, who was at that time here, passing through the county early in June. Part of the town was bought of the Onondagas in 1817, and sold to settlers in 1822. East of the central ridge is Sherman Hollow, called after James Sherman, and west of it Christian Hollow, after Michael Christian, a soldier who drew Lot 18, Tully, on Onondaga creek in that town. John Wilcox was the first settler on Haskins' hill, a little east of Indian orchard, Lot 13, the site of the village of Tueyahdassoo. The orchard was then about twenty acres, well laid out and productive. The fruit was in demand and the sales profitable. The site commands a fine view. In 1792 Comfort Rounds settled two miles north of the center, and William Haskins came and gave name to Haskins' hill. In 1793 James Sherman came to the east hollow, named from him and Solomon Owen, settled in the same place. Sherman soon after built the first sawmill in town, on Butternut creek. In 1794 Isaac and Elias Conklin came and soon built a sawmill and grist mill on Conklin's creek. The latter was the first of its kind in Pompey, and was built in 1798. Three beautiful falls are below these, the stream descending five hundred feet within a mile. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 373 In 1794 came John Houghtaling, Amaziah Branch, Benjamin June, James Pearce, Samuel Hyatt, Amasa Wright and Reuben Bryan. Two Hessian sol diers settled here, Plendrick Upperhousen and John Hill. Ozias Northway, an early settler, kept a tavern in the west part of the town. Colonel Jeremiah Gould and Isaac Keeler were near Jamesville. Near La Fayette square were the Bakers, Joseph Smith, Jeremiah Fuller and Dr. Silas Park. Dr. Park's ride was from Liverpool to Cortland, and from Skaneateles to Cazenovia. Colonel Gould built the first frame house in 1800, and Isaac Hall built the next in 1801. Messrs. Rice and Hill are said to have been the first merchants at La Fayette square, about 1802-03. Mr. Cheney had the first tavern there, a little before that of Orange King. The first town meeting was held in that village March, 1826. Charles Jackson was elected supervisor and Johnson Hall town clerk. In 1801 a state road from Cazenovia to Skaneateles was laid out through the town. A number of sulphur springs have been described, and also a salt spring, to which deer used to resort. It is said that another Indian orchard was in Sherman Hollow, Lots 76 and 91, when Shermans came there, but there is no record of an Indian settlement, nor does Clark mention it. The first white child born here was Amy, daughter of John Wilcox, in 1791. In 1793 was the first marriage, that of Solomon Owen to Lois, daughter of Comfort Rounds. The latter lived to one hundred and five years. Asa Drake was another prominent settler of 1792. Ebenezer Hill came to the north part of the town in 1795, and was a powerful man and a noted hunter. Gen eral Isaac Hall settled a mile south of La Fayette village and was a wealthy man and large landholder. Clark Bailey and his family came in 1802, with some means. He and his son Richard settled on Lot 88, and his other son Lot 8, Tully, adjoining this on the south. The father donated a cemetery, Stephen opened a famous tavern, John conducted an ashery and general store, Richard built the Tully Valley mills, and led parties to kill rattlesnakes on Bear mountain, where they abounded. The last one was killed in 1854 by Solomon White. With the building of the Skaneateles and Cazenovia road the village of La Fayette was more carefully laid out. A central square was donated, and around this the village grew up. Amaziah Branch, who came in 1794, had studied for the ministry, but had not been licensed to preach. He soon began holding services in private houses, and the Columbian Congregational Society was organized October 14, 1805. In October, 1809, the Congregational church (now Presbyterian) was formed by the Rev. Benjamin Bell, at Stoughton Morse's tavern, where the Temperance House afterward stood. In 1819-20 a church was built, and a session house was added in 1846. The latter was re placed by another in 1861, each becoming a town hall. In August, 1884, the First Presbyterian succeeded to the title of Congregational. Early in the last century the Methodists had a church a mile east of Ona- tivia station. In 1853 it was removed near that place. In 1825 they formed 374 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY the Ebenezer church of Cardiff, building a chapel there, which was burned in 1857 and at once rebuilt. The Roman Catholics for several years held services in a hall in La Fayette village, but in 1888 St. Joseph's church was built under the pastorate of Rev. Michael O'Reflley. About 1838 Cardiff had shown some life, having better roads. In 1839 John F. Card built a large grist mill, which became Edward Voigt's in 1862. He added a sawmill and steam power. In April, 1878, it was burned, but an other grist mill has since been built. Mr. Card had a store and distillery, and was a favorite. So the people wanted to use his name in that of the village. Cardbury and Cardville did not suit, but Cardiff took their fancy. So we have a Welsh name among our Onondaga hills, and no one frets. It might have been worse. West of Cardiff and the creek is the grave of the Cardiff giant, the great hoax of 1869, of which a brief account will be given. Onativia was once La Fayette station. Its meaning is unknown, if it has one, but it commands a magnificent view. East of the reservoir was the Onon daga town of 1696, where the gallant French army spent some days that sum mer, cutting green corn. They might have done that at home. Considering that this town has a Bear mountain, bear stories might be expected, but they are few. Probably the Indians took charge of the game. Amos Palmeter had settled a mile south of La Fayette village in 1803, and had a pig pen well stocked. It was covered with logs to keep out bears and wolves, but one log got askew, and in the night there was a lusty squealing. Amos thought discretion the better part of valor, and stuck to the house. His wife thought of the pork barrel, of lard, hams and sausage, seized an axe and went to the rescue. Bruin poked his head out, received a blow and fell back. She replaced the log, took a firebrand and ran nearly a mile to a neighbor's through the woods, for aid. The bear, however, died from her first stroke, and Amos saved his bacon but not his reputation. The Onondaga village at Indian Orchard was probably abandoned before the Revolution, and when John Wilcox came there as the first settler he pruned the old trees. In each he found a bunch of small branches, enough to fill a bushel basket. The Indians told him this "was the work of bears, who as cended the trees in autumn gathering in the slender branches loaded with ap ples, with their paws, leisurely devouring the fruit, at the same time depositing the branches under them." Soon after gathering some earlier crops in stacks they were burned, and he , suspected the Indians. Their chief did not deny it but said: "You dig up no more dead Indian, no more will your stacks be burned." The reply was suffi cient, and digging and burning both ceased. Clark said: "This town was remarkable for the abundance of its game. Bears, wolves, foxes and wild cats were everywhere numerous ; and instances are still related of their having been frequently destroyed. They often did mischief among the flocks of the early settlers. Deer were very numerous, PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 375 and were often seen in herds of 20 or 30." Some add panthers, which is probable but not certain. "Stories of adventure are still extant, notably one in which Dr. Silas Park figured as a hero, when one of the party was so thoroughly frightened at sight of a huge bear that he actually tumbled down hill and fired his gun in the tree tops. Paul King and Erastus Baker killed a large wolf in Christian Hollow near the Tully line, while George King slew another in the vicinity of Suydenham Baker's, near the present village of La Fayette." . Parties of a dozen would formerly go to Bear mountain on a warm day in May to kill rattlesnakes, which lay there under or on large flat stones. On one hunt fifteen were killed, but half a century ago saw their end. In the war of 1812, Captain Richard Bailey, a leader in these hunts was twice called out with his company; once to Oswego and once to Sackett's Harbor, but saw no fighting. His sword now belongs to his granddaughter in Minnesota. Collingwood is a recent hamlet though the grist and saw mills there were established by Calvin Cole about 1838. It has a postoffice, store, carriage shop and school. In 1888 there was a project for building a dam across the narrows at Indian hill, north of Cardiff, to furnish a water supply for Syracuse. Borings were made and the hill was found to be of drift material, with solid shale on the east side. Eight feet below the surface the valley undisturbed flat rocks are found. General Hall has been mentioned as an early settler, and of him it was reported that he brought half a bushel of silver dollars with him, a favorite story of early men. He let cattle to his neighbors to double, often a profitable deal, and grew rich. When he died in 1830 his property was valued at sev enty thousand dollars, a great sum for those days. The south half of the Indian reservation was included in La Fayette by the act of 1825, but the town levies no taxes there, and exercises no legal juris diction. The law simply forecasted what might be if the Indian title were extinguished. The Cardiff Giant was "found" October 16, 1869, on William C. ("Stub") Newell's farm, and the scheme was devised by George Hull of Binghamton. He secured a suitable block of gypsum near Fort Dodge, Iowa, which was taken to Chicago and took on a human form. Many were the ingenious devices to give it the necessary appearance, but on its completion it was shipped to Union, Broome county, and thence taken by a four horse team to the Newell farm, buried, and in due time discovered. Up to this time it had cost about two thousand six hundred dollars, but at once began to pay. It was a very impressive sight in its long grave, under the friendly tent which welcomed all who had the fee. Nor was it easy at first to prove the use of tools, these being only clearly apparent on the face. ' It was fearfully out of proportion, — a child's head on a man's body, and limbs in impossible positions — but all the same it was impressive, and many were the surmises on the time when 376 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY "there were giants in those days." What had he thought? What had he done? Thousands visited the spot in the two weeks the statue remained there, and then it went to Syracuse for exhibition, where its success was great, but where there were opportunities for closer examination, and doubts began to arise. It is curious now to see how men of taste and knowledge overlooked its palpable lack of proportion, considered as a statue or as a really petrified man, but they did. Eventually some doubted, as a few had done from the first, and doubts began to strengthen. Things were put together, and at length the whole story came out, but not till the giant had been exhibited in Boston and Albany before the scientists of those places, bringing in a golden harvest and some very odd opinions. So many duplicates were made of this by Professor Otto that it is uncer tain what became of the original figure, which once brought forty thousand dollars. It is said it was destroyed by fire in Huron, Dakota, in 1885, but this may not be the original, which takes rank among the greatest humbugs of cen tral New York, which are not few. Stoughton Morse is said to have kept the first store in the town, and Ama ziah Branch was the first teacher. La Fayette village in 1835 had a Presbyterian church, two stores, a tavern, and twelve or fifteen dwellings. In 1886 it had two dealers in agricultural im plements, two blacksmiths, one furniture maker, two shoemakers, two hotels, three stores, wagon shop, three sawmills, a grist mill, two churches, a physician, milliner and butcher. Cardiff was still called Christian Hollow in 1835, but had a post office, Methodist church, tavern, two stores and ten or twelve dwellings. The first merchant was George Clark, and the first carriage maker was William B. Kirk, who removed to Syracuse and became a man of note. He was succeeded by V. A. Houghten, who carried on business for a long time. John Spencer was a tanner and currier and made shoes. B. D. Sniffin, Dyer Northway and D. P. Westcott were blacksmiths; Abiel Davison carried on wool carding and cloth dressing ; Archibald Garfield, William B. Kirk, and Asa Farrington were early hotel keepers. In 1886 the village had two stores, two blacksmith shops, a hotel, wagon shop, sawmdl, grist and cider mill, two physicians, two dressmakers and a Methodist church. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 377 CHAPTER XLIII. TOWN OF LYSANDER. Lysander was named after the famous Spartan general and was No. 1 of the military tract. When the town of Granby was formed thirty-three lots were assigned to that, leaving sixty-seven. As a civil town, in 1794, it included Hannibal and what are now Granby, Cicero and Clay. The township of Han nibal was set off in 1806, and that of Cicero in 1807. Elijah Snow became su pervisor in 1808, James Adams being town clerk. Rial Bingham did not live in the present town, but in Clay, and Jonathan Palmer is the first settler on record. He and his six brothers were revolutionary soldiers, and he drew Lot 36, part of it now Jacksonville, which has been called Palmertown, Jackson ville, Polkville and now Jacksonville again. Nathaniel Palmer, brother of Jonathan, settled near him and also the Bogardus, Fancher and Baker fami lies. Before 1800 came the Farringtons, Emerieks, Halls, Vickerys, Cowans and Manns. John McHarrie settled on the south side of the river at Baldwinsville 1792-94, helping boats through the rapids. He planted apple trees in 1798, about three and one-half miles northwest of Baldwinsville, on Lot 57. These were cut down about 1886. He also cut grass on Beaver meadow on that lot, in 1796. There were then dense pine forests in many places, with good hunting and fishing. The state road — thus still called — from Onondaga to Oswego, was laid out in 1806-07, and crossed the river at McHarrie 's rifts. A mail route was then established between Onondaga and Oswego. Before this, in 1797, Dr. Jonas C. Baldwin passed up the river with his wife, on their way to Ovid, where he lived till 1801-02. They looked around while their boats passed the rifts, and were delighted with the spot. Dr. Baldwin lodged that night with McHarrie, and bought the land the next year. From 1802 to 1807 he lived at Onondaga East Hill, and was then asked by the Lysander settlers to improve the water power and erect mills. He at once did so in spite of sickness and floods. That year the well were occupied in caring for the sick and burying the dead. Next year a wing dam, mill and raceway were finished, but suffi cient power was lacking. Sickness came on before the dam could be carried across the river, but it was finished in the autumn. As the river was a public highway boats had to pass, and he at once bought of the Inland Lock Navigation Company their rights between Oneida river and Cayuga lake. He made a canal, with the right to levy tolls for twenty years. This was changed with the opening of the Erie canal. In 1809 the dam was swept away, but was replaced the next year with increased facilities for work. The place was called Columbia till 1817, when a post office was estab lished called Baldwin's Bridge. Dr. Baldwin was the first postmaster. Before this some got their mail at Three River Point, but after this stages began run ning to Onondaga Hill. At one time Stephen W. Baldwin ran a boat to Salina 378 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY by way of the river and Onondaga lake, for passengers and freight. Dr. Bald win opened a store in 1807. In the cold year he cared for about two hundred and fifty Oneidas, who encamped east of the vdlage. Harvey Baldwin, his second son, was adopted by them in fud form on this account, with the name of Cohongoronto, said to mean a boat with a sharp prow. During the war of 1812, Governor Tompkins placed arms with Dr. Baldwin, to be used in case of need. He died at Onondaga East Hill, March 3, 1827, in his fifty-ninth year, and was buried at Baldwinsvdle. Another prominent citizen, Judge Otis Bigelow, opened a store there in 1863. He died June 21, 1864. His son, Payn, was also a leading man. John Hamill opened a store in 1816, and was supervisor at his death in 1827. The first lawyer was Reuben S. Orvis in 1816, and Dr. Silas Wallace came the same year, preceded by Dr. Cyrus Baldwin in 1814. Jacobus De Puy came in 1805, buying land east of the vdlage, on fifty acres of which he raised wheat the next year. Levi Calkins built his log cabin on Lot 80, in 1808 or 1809, and Jacob Dykeman cleared land and planted two orchards on Lot 80 in 1810. The Frazees came before 1811. Lyman MeHuron came in 1817, preceded by his father. A Starr famdy was near the site of Lysander vdlage about 1804. Richard Smith, father of Richard L. Smith, settled near that place in 1808, dying in 1865. The Vickerys also were near there about 1810, and from them it was called Vickery's Settlement. Chauncey Betts came in 1817, with Mr. Skinner, and they built a log store. Nathan Betts came soon after, and his other son, Jared, with him. Chauncey Betts became postmaster and built an ashery and distidery. The latter was not large, and when a pail of whiskey was brought to the store a tin horn announced the fact. If it was not "the mellow horn" it helped make men mellow. The place was called Betts' Corners till the Ly sander post office came. Thomas Ambler built a grist mill there at an early day, and Dr. Dennis Kennedy was the first physician and innkeeper. Andrew W. Baird went to Baird's Corner, at an early day, a small hamlet north of Lysander, where there was a post office. Near Plainville William Wilson came in 1806, and some of his descendants still live there, hence the early name of Wilson's Corners. The Carrolls, Towns and Scofields came in 1810. Peter Voorhees came in 1813, and was the father of James L. Voorhees, long known as the "Tall Pine of Lysander" and noted in the lumber trade. Raloff Schenck came in 1815, the ancestor of a conspicu ous family. His brother John came at the same time, and also Abram Daily and John Buck. The latter was an early merchant and postmaster. Benajah C. Upson came in 1812, and was the head of a prosperous family. Frederick W. Fenner came in 1817. A post office was first kept one and one-half miles south of Plainville. Lyman Norton was an early merchant, succeeding Dr. Schenck as postmaster. Near Little Utica Reuben Coffin came early, being collector in 1812. Elijah Baker was the first merchant there, and Dr. Ezra Baker was a mile away. The PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 379 Paynesville post office was established in 1832, Noah Payne being postmaster. Some years later it became Little Utica. Mr. Payne was both farmer and mer chant, and influential. In the town at large the Smiths, Emericks, Dunhams, Lusks, Fuders and others came early. The wolf bounty was at first ten dodars, but became twenty dollars in 1815, but bears were but five dollars. Hogs at first might run at large, which suited the bears, but in 1813 it was voted that if they weighed less than sixty pounds they should wear yokes. In 1809 it was ordered that ten dollars fine should be paid "for cattle brought into town to feed in our woods." One laudable penalty was that of 1809, being five dodars from "any man letting Canada thistles or burweed go to seed on his farm." Few now know what a pest these were. Schools had the usual course from the log house to the approved modern budding; from simple branches to those which task the brain. No one knows how many die from overeducation, but some are awake to modern defects. However much it lacked, the "old red schoolhouse" turned out men and women mentady strong. They could spell, they could figure, they could write a readable hand. In 1864 District No. 2 in Lysander, and No. 18 in Van Buren were united as the Baldwinsvide Union Free School, and the "Board of Education for the Baldwinsvdle Academy and Union Free School" was incorporated, with Henry Y. Aden as president. L. H. Cheney became principal. In 1867 steps were taken to enlarge the schoolhouse on the south side of the river, and to build a large' and modern one on the north side. For this seventeen thousand five hundred dollars were appropriated. A large and central site was bought, where the Baldwin house had stood, with the condition that it should always be used for schools. The building has since been enlarged and improved. In 1884 a fine school budding was erected on the south side, at a cost of eight thousand dollars, and this also has been enlarged. In the town of Lysander in 1895, there were twenty-one districts, beside two joint districts. In 1813 the Rev. Ebenezer Lazelle held his first service in a barn near the north line of Baldwinsvide, and organized a Presbyterian society July 13. Services were held in the village schoolhouse for many years, but a union church was built in 1830. This became the Presbyterian church. The present brick edifice was built in 1865, during the pastorate of the Rev. John F. Ken dall. The present pastor is Rev. F. W. Fuesse. Near Lysander village were Presbyterians and the Dutch Reformed, who united in forming the Second Presbyterian church of Lysander, October 20, 1820, under Rev. John Daven port. Services were held in the schoolhouse and elsewhere. The Dutch Re formed increased and formed the First Reformed Dutch church, under Rev. James Stevenson, March 1, 1828. That year these united in building, but difficulties arose, and after some years the latter society was awarded the church. In 1833 the Presbyterians built another. Both prospered awhile and then decayed. Thus in 1877 the two societies united as "The Congregational 380 -PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Church and Society of Lysander. ' ' The first pastor of this was Rev. Henry T. Snell. A deserted Baptist church is at Jacksonville, but no data are available. Baptist services began in Cold Spring in 1813, and Rev. Dudley Lamb formed a society in 1818 called "The Second Baptist Church of Christ in Lysander." Services were held in the schoolhouse, and were transferred to Baldwinsville in 1840, where, October 3, the society took the name of the Baldwinsville Bap tist church. A church was dedicated January 1, 1841 on the south side, and a fine brick one in December, 1871, under the Rev. Benjamin 0. True. The present pastor is Rev. G. L. Ford. Professor John T. Genung was the pastor, 1875-78, afterward becoming a professor in Amherst College. Methodist services began here in 1821, on the south side. Classes were kept up for many years. In 1843 the village became a station, a church being dedicated in December, 1844. One of brick was dedicated October 20, 1870. A class was formed at Lysander in 1831, and a church built in 1844, since much enlarged. The Palmertown class of 1832 built the Little Utica church in 1834. The White chapel at Cold Spring is called after George White, who began services there early in the nineteenth century. The church was built in 1861. The Christian church at Plainville began with Elder Obadiah E. Morrill in 1820, remaining there twenty years. A frame church was built in 1831, burned in 1852, and replaced with a brick structure. Grace (P. E.) church was organized July 27, 1835, Rev. Richard Salmon presiding. Occasional services followed, and a corner-stone was laid in August, 1853. The frame blew down and the church was not finished till 1860, when it was consecrated November 13. It was the first church in America to use electric lights. The Rev. Dr. Henry Gregory officiated till 1864, and Rev. W. M. Beauchamp, S. T. D., from July 1, 1865, to October 1, 1900. The present rector is Rev. J. M. Smith. St. Mary's (R. C.) church, on the south side, was built and consecrated in 1851, mainly through the efforts of Rev. Samuel Mulloy. It has a cemetery and is well equipped. St. Stephen 's church, West Phoenix, is served from this parish. In October, 1848, the Syracuse and Oswego railroad was opened, creating a larger market for Baldwinsville. This also built up Lamson's (caded from a resident), a station four miles north. A large hotel was built there by Harvey Slauson. The Syracuse & Baldwinsville railroad was opened April, 1887, but had a brief existence. The Lakeside electric railroad was opened September 24, 1899, and is now to be extended to Fulton and Oswego, providing ready means of reaching Syracuse, and vastly increasing travel. In May, 1895, Erwin Fairbanks began leasing land near Baldwinsville in search of natural gas. In February, 1896, a gas company was formed, and drilling was begun in March. June 27 immense quantities were reached, and other wells were sunk with varying success. It is largely used in the village. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 381 Tobacco culture began in Marcellus in 1845, but little is grown there now. In Lysander it began in 1850, and it soon became a great industry in that town and Van Buren. Some very fine crops were gathered in 1907. It is handsome in the field, and a large tobacco barn, half filled with fresh plants, is a delight to the eye. The smoker prefers it later. The whole treatment is interesting, but cannot be described here. It is a pity that it all ends in smoke, whether or no we believe the old couplet: "Tobacco is an Indian weed. It was the devil sowed the seed." The Indian does not think so. With him it is an offering acceptable to the Great Spirit. We use it differently. Baldwinsville mills have been on a large scale, whatever the kind. There were great sawmills at an early day; great grist mills always; knitting and woolen mills have not done so well ; paper mills have had some success ; a sash and blind factory lasted a good many years; carriage and wagon factories have had their ups and downs; ax, hoe, rake and fork factories have disap peared, but one establishment has had a wonderful development, and is now incorporated as the Morris Machine Works. The firm of Heald, Sisco & Company was doing a moderate business in the manufacture of centrifugal pumps until 1869, when William F. Morris took part in it. He saw the capabilities of this pump for tanneries, dockyards, dredging, wrecking, etc., and now they go all over the world. No agents are employed. The making of steam engines and machines was added to the pump business, and the capital is three hundred thousand dollars. The works are constantly extending. Other manufactories do a good business. The merchants, lawyers, doctors and clergymen have been many in num ber, some of them eminent in their callings. The village has provided the county with two surrogates and several members of Assembly — honest ones, too. In describing a notoriously corrupt Legislature, the New York Tribune once told of Jeremiah Emerick, who stood there in honest simplicity, inno cently supposing the rest were honest too. Former Mayor Amos has his home here. The First National Bank was organized February 2, 1864, James Frazee, president. The State Bank followed in May, 1875, George Hawley, president. Payn Bigelow succeeded Mr. Hawley on his death, and Otis M. Bigelow suc ceeded his father. Other prominent men have been Wallace Tappan, Jacob Amos, Isaac M. Baldwin, W. H. Downer, Samuel Bisdee, S. C. Suydam, D. C. Green field, Isaac T. Minard, Rev. Dr. Parsons, Dr. J. V. Kendall, Squire Munro. the Connells, Millers, Wells, Wilkins, Dr. Perkins and others. The Baldwinsville Republican was founded by Samuel B. West in 1844, and became the Baldwinsville Gazette under C. Mark Hosmer in October, 1846. The Gazette issued a fine historical jubilee number in 1896. After various changes the Gazette was published by the W. F. Morris Publishing Company, W. F. Morris, president. This was in May, 1895, and this arrangement contin ues. The Baldwinsville Era was founded in May, 1885, by Charles P. Cornell, now of Syracuse, and discontinued in 1900. Another paper was established afterward. 382 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY June 3, 1848, Baldwinsville was incorporated; the first election was held June 24. Le Roy (afterward Judge) Morgan was elected president. Later came police, a board of health, lock-up, town hall, fire department and, most important of all, water works. A large well was sunk on the south side in what seems an ancient bed of the river, furnishing limitless supplies of pure water. This is pumped into a stand pipe on Davis hill, and thence distributed. C. N. Bliss was president of the first board. Lysander and Van Buren joined in a centennial celebration May 30, 1894, anticipating the county celebration. Dr. J. V. Kendall was president of the day, and E. P. Clark marshal. Historical papers were read by Messrs. Abbott, Beauchamp, Nichols, Smith, Stevens and Tappan ; a poem by C. B. Baldwin. The village has long had electric lights, and these are effective in the bril liant water fetes now popular. The trolley line has made the place so acces sible that it is much frequented by Syracusans for fishing and water sports. The Baldwinsville Female Charitable Society is the oldest woman's or ganization in the United States, having been formed July 25, 1817, at the home of Mrs. Farrington. Minutes have been kept for ninety years. Mrs. Hamill was president for fifty years. Mrs. J. H. Morley holds that office now. From the town line at Cross lake to the north line on Oswego river, Ly sander has a navigable water front of over thirty miles. This is spanned by five river highway bridges, and two for railroads, with more to be built soon. Snow's bridge, in the west part of the town, Lot 96, was a notable point in early days. It succeeded Adam's Ferry, but has long been gone. Float bridge for canal use, south of Baldwinsville, is unique here. Above this boats pass from the river into the canal by a lock. This lock was once farther north. Beside the work done at Jack's Rifts there was an early cut-off called the state ditch, which is to be enlarged for the barge canal. There is a covered bridge there. A soldiers' monument was erected and dedicated October 12, 1887 at Bald winsville. Beside soldiers of the civil war it records those of the Revolution. There are two G. A. R. posts in this town, respectively at Baldwinsville and Lysander vdlages. Pleiades Lodge, No. 354, F. & A. M. was warranted December 7, 1822, Zadock Washburn, W. M., but made no returns. Seneca River Lodge, No. 160, was formed by dispensation, February 12, 1850, and warranted June 6. San ford C. Parker was the first master. Payn Bigelow was the first one initiated in 1850. Riverside Chapter, No. 260, R. A. M., was organized in February, 1871, and a charter was received the same month. D. M. Rankin was the first. H. P. Mohegan Lodge, No. 129, I. O. O. F., was organized in 1845, Daniel T. Jones being first N. G. The number became thirty-three in 1850, and after ward twenty-nine. It has a fine monument in the cemetery. There are many lodges and clubs of various kinds. Among local names are Hortontown, Fenner's, Fuller's and Wright's Cor ners, Cold Spring, and New Bridge. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 383 In 1836 Baldwinsville contained a Presbyterian church, two grist mills, three sawmills (two of these with four saws each), a veneer sawmill, machine shop, three taverns, four stores and from eighty to one hundred dwellings. In 1886 it had five churches, four wagon shops, eighteen tobacco dealers, a bil liard room, lumber yard, two harness shops, five grist mills, sawmill, tin shop, seven hotels, two banks, three meat markets, marble works, three painters, two undertakers and furniture dealers, four confectionery shops, three cigar fac tories, art store, veterinary surgeon, five general stores, grain house, two coal yards, photograph gallery, spring bed factory, liquor store, eight saloons, three drug stores, four shoemakers, four hardware stores, sash and blind factory, newspaper, five lawyers, bakery, pump factory, five blacksmiths, two jewelry stores, opera house, four groceries, five physicians, paper mill, three barbers, three clothing stores, brick yard, two millinery stores, knitting mill, two den tists, two livery stables, and a tool factory. Lysander village was generally known as Betts' Corners in 1836, and had then a church, tavern, three stores, a tannery and about forty dwellings. Cor nelius C. Hubbard and Chauncey Betts were storekeepers and Dr. Clark was the physician. In 1886 it had two general stores, hardware store and tin shop, harness shop, blacksmith and shoe shop, hotel, meat market, wagon shop, un dertaker, two insurance agents, two physicians, a cheese factory and dealers in agricultural implements and fertilizers. There were then two churches. In 1836 Plainville had a church, two taverns, a store and twelve to fifteen dwellings. There is but one tavern now, but more stores. Little Utica had a church in 1836, a tavern, store, sawmill and a dozen dwellings. CHAPTER XLIV. TOWN OF MANLIUS. The township of Manlius, No. 7, perhaps had its name more from a noted Roman family than any one member of it. Several were of note, and one early member delivered Rome from the Gauls. It once included DeWitt and part of Salina, and the civil town was in 1794 the same as the township. The first town meeting was held at Morehouse's, now in DeWitt, April 1, 1794. Com fort Tyler became supervisor and Levi Jerome, town clerk. David Tripp first settled within the present town limits in 1790, and built a cabin a mile northwest of Manlius village. His father died there in 1792, the first pioneer's death in the town. James Foster came to Eagle village in 1790, and opened a tavern. Joshua Knowlton and Origen Eaton settled at Fay etteville in 1791. Cyrus Kinne came there in 1792, and began blacksmithing. Conrad Lour settled near Mr. Tripp in 1792, building then the first frame 384 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA. COUNTY house in town. The materials came a long way. John A. Schaeffer made the first settlement at Manlius village that year, and soon kept an inn. His child was the first one born in the town of white parents. Nicholas Phillips settled there also, and was married there to Caty Gar- lock January 14, 1793, the first marriage in town. He died in 1854, aged eighty- three. Colonel Elijah Phillips came as early as 1792, and leased the property at Edwards' Falls. He at once built the first sawmill in town. In 1796 Butler & Phillips built a grist mill. William Warner and Mr. Jones opened stores. Charles Moseley opened a store and Mr. Staniford a tavern at Eagle village. A rude road ran through Eagle and Manlius villages, crossing Butternut creek near Jamesville. This was gradually improved. About one hundred and forty surveyed sections of road had been laid out in 1835. In 1798 the first log schoolhouse was built at Manlius village, and Sam uel Edwards was teaching another. There could be little system in school affairs then. Other early settlers at Manlius village were Charles Mulholland, Aaron Wood, Messrs. Cunningham and Leonard, William Ward and Jabez Colb. Mr. Dickout opened the first permanent store in the first frame house erected. Alva Marsh was the first lawyer in 1798, but others soon came. Charles Mulholland gave the place the name of Liberty Square in 1800, and the new post office received this name that year, Luther Bingham being postmaster. This name was soon changed to Manlius Square. In 1801 there were but six dwellings there, with one store and a few shops. Azariah Smith came in 1807, and for forty years was the foremost citizen, a merchant, manu facturer and legislator. He opened one of the many stores which John Meeker controlled in various places. A disastrous flood in 1809 took every bridge from Limestone creek, with some mills and dams. The stream sometimes does damage yet. The village grew rapidly till the opening of the canal, and was a place of culture and intelligence. For a little time it was called Derne, and in 1806 the first newspaper in the county was issued by Abram Romeyn as the Derne Gazette. It was unpopular and did not live long. The village changed its name to Manlius and had another paper. This was Leonard Kellogg 's Herald of the Times, first issued May 24, 1808. He wisely gave one side to the Demo crats, and the other to the Federalists. In 1811 it became the Manlius Times, and in 1818 the Onondaga Herald. Thurlow Weed issued the Onondaga County Republican June 21, 1824. In 1825 it was the Manlius Repository, and was dis continued in 1835. Later papers were Our Flag, Manlius Star, Weekly Moni tor and Manlius Eagle. Hezekiah L. Granger was mentioned as president of the village in 1816, but it was not incorporated till April 30, 1842, when Robert Fleming became president. It was reincorporated May 16, 1882, by a close vote. Dr. William Taylor was conspicuous among early physicians, of whom there were several. He was six years in the legislature. Joshua V. H. Clark, the historian, lived for many years here. He was born in the town of Caze novia, but moved to Eagle village in 1828. In 1847 he bought Rev. Dr. Adams' historic materials, and began his history of Onondaga. The difficulties were k. i i ¦ ' i ,fj 1 6 B ~1 sit | W He iHthfti £ ' ' ; ¦ I, -?• ••;"•: '¦it. ¦=© THE NEW Y. M. C. A. BUILDING. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 385 great, and he lost money in the enterprise, but produced a book of untold value. For nearly thirty years he was a trustee of Manlius Academy (founded in 1835), several times village president, the first president of the Onondaga Historical Association, and a member of Assembly in 1855. The Erie canal did not help this village, but it did Fayetteville, which was reached by a feeder. Carey Coats opened a tavern there in 1801, others fol lowed, and for a time the place was distinguished by these rather than churches, being styled in 1828, a "village having four taverns and no meeting house." John Delamater opened a store and it was known as Manlius Four Corners till the post office gave it its present name, May 6, 1844. John Sprague was the first president. It was reincorporated January 28, 1871. The Breeds, Collins and Wordens were early settlers, David Collin coming in 1797. Dr. Timothy Teall came in 1791, and Reuben Bangs in 1813. Richard F. Cleveland, father of President Cleveland, lived opposite the old academy, and Grover Cleveland was a school boy here. Harvey Edwards was an early merchant, and all the early industries were found, as tanneries, asheries, fulling and saw mills. Later merchants have been Nichols, Gage, Jewett, Blanchard, Austin, Snell, Smith, Tibbitts, Coon, Potter and the Beards. The cement works of Bangs & Gaynor came in 1818, and they were large contractors later. Milling of various kinds has always been prominent, the water power being excellent. Banks have not thriven, though the National Bank was founded in 1854, and the Farmers' Bank in 1870. The Fayetteville Recorder was established in 1866 by F. A. Darling, and published by the Re corder Printing Association in 1874, and H. C. Beauchamp in 1894. It was discontinued in 1899. A paper is now published by Mr. Dawley, called the Fayetteville Bulletin. The Fayetteville Hydraulic Company was incorporated March 14, 1836, to bring. water from Limestone creek through the village. This was called the Ledyard canal, with a fall of about one hundred feet. Water works now supply excellent water in houses, and the Suburban electric road has increased the fine residences between here and Syracuse. The canal created Manlius Center and Kirkville. The latter was called after Edward Kirkland, the first postmaster there in 1824. He built a store and made the canal basin at his own expense. An inn was soon opened by Mr. Cunningham. Lorenzo Adams was an early merchant, and Pardon Aus tin had a hotel, grocery and canal barn. Among early settlers were the Smiths, Wilcoxes, Wordens, and others. The Carr and Kirkville houses are recent additions. Drs. Avery and Palmer were early physicians, and Dr. Milton A. Curtis came in 1878. Eagle village had early importance. James Foster's inn, of 1790, was followed by the famous inn of Libbens Foster in 1794, and in this was a Masonic hall. Charles Bristol had a store there in 1804. Amos P. Granger of Syracuse began business there. Mr. Walker opened a law office there in 1804, and Asa Rice another soon after. Drs. Ward, Moore, Fisk and Wasli- burne were early physicians, and a library was incorporated there in 1811. an early day for such an enterprise. 386 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Manlius station, now Minoa, came from the opening of the Utica and Syracuse railroad in 1836. J. H. Fisher was a merchant there, and Joseph Heifer grocer and innkeeper. Ephraim E. Woodard and R. W. McKinley were postmasters. Among prominent men in the town were David Hibbard, Ambrose Clark, Garrett Cole, R. H. and Eli T. Bangs, the Knapps, Eversons, Snooks, Scovilles, and Townsends, N. P. Randall, Drs. Graves and Nims. This old town, with Pompey and De Witt, had an initial celebration of the County Centennial, May 30, 1894. The speakers were Revs. Theodore Babcock and C. P. Osborne, H. K. Edwards, W. H. Peck and W. W. Van Brock- lin. A Baptist society was formed in Fayetteville as early as 1800, Rev. Daniel Campbell being first pastor. This was recognized as a church in 1804, and Gershom Breed was licensed as a preacher, and ordained in 1812. A church was built, and dedicated in July, 1831. In 1843 the slavery question created a second Baptist church there under Rev. W. Kingsley. The present fine brick church was built in 1870. The Baptist church in Manlius village was built in 1828, the society being organized in 1813. Christ church (P. E.) is the oldest in the town, having been organized by Rev. Davenport Phelps in January, 1804, the church being erected on the hill at the east end of Manlius village in 1813. It was removed to its present site without injury in 1832. It has several fine memorial windows. Ser vices, however, were held as early as 1798. The first rector was Rev. Parker Adams in 1810. Trinity church (P. E.), Fayetteville, was organized in 1830, a church being built in 1831. The first resident minister was Rev. J. B. Engle in 1837. The beautiful stone church was built in 1870. The Church of the Immaculate Conception (R. C), Fayetteville, began with mission work of many years duration. The brick church was conse crated November 26, 1872. St. Mary's (R. C.) church between Manlius and Bridgeport was built in 1834, and rebuilt later. Trinity Presbyterian church, Manlius village, was formed August 29, 1815. In 1819 a church was built. The first pastor was Rev. Ira M. Olds, December, 1815. The Presbyterians of Fayetteville built a church in 1829, which was remodeled in 1857. The first regular pastor was Rev. Amos C. Tuttle, 1837. A union religious society was formed in Kirkville, January 16, 1849, and a church was built in 1850. Services were to be statedly held by Universa lists, Presbyterians, Wesleyan and Episcopal Methodists. A Congregational society has occupied it since 1893. The first Methodist Episcopal society in Manlius village was formed at an early day, and a church built in 1822. This was removed to its present site in 1844. The Methodist Episcopal church at Kirkville was built in 1872, Rev. Joseph Maxwell being the first pastor. At Manlius station a Meth odist church was erected in 1862. The Rev. Gideon Jones was then pastor. The present Methodist church in Fayetteville was built in 1836, and replaced an earlier one sold for academy purposes. There is also a chapel at High Bridge. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 387 When De Witt was set off in 1835, Manlius retained seven thousand seven hundred and fifty-two dollars and forty-two cents of the school fund. Fay etteville has a fine building for its Union school. Manlius Academy was in corporated April 13, 1835, and out of this grew the famous and flourishing St. John's Military School, south of the village. This was founded in 1869 under Bishop Huntington, and Colonel William Verbeck has given it a .wide celebrity. It has ample grounds, and the disastrous fire of April '8, 1902, was followed by larger and finer buildings, near the terminus of the Suburban railroad at Edwards' Falls. These provide for junior and senior depart ments. There are A, B and C companies, a troop of cavalry, two batteries of artillery, and signal and hospital corps. Frequent marches are' made to Syracuse eleven miles away, and there is an annual three or four day's march to some distant point. A camp on Cazenovia lake is another feature of sum mer training. Commencement day is a festive occasion indeed. Over two hundred boys are usually in attendance, with a faculty of twehty-four instructors. One of these is detailed from the United States army. The War Department has designated it as a "distinguished institu tion," one of six leading military schools and colleges "whose students have exhibited the greatest interest, application and proficiency in military training and knowledge." It is thus entitled to the annual appointment of an honor graduate as a second lieutenant in the army. The inspector in 1907, reporting to the War Department, said more in its praise than we can quote, among other things: "The appearance of the cadets at inspection compared exeel- lenty with what I would reasonably expect in a similar organization of regular troops. . . . The equipment of this school for practical military instruc tion is very extensive and complete ; moreover, it is all employed for its proper purpose. Its condition is excellent." Military Lodge, No. 93, F. & A. M., was the second Masonic lodge in the county, and was organized June 30, 1802, Caleb' B. Merrill, W. M. Several Revolutionary soldiers were among its members, as in other early lodges. After Azariah Smith erected the building in 1816, now called Smith Hall, the lodge rooms were held under a perpetual lease of one barleycorn annually, if demanded. The walls were covered with emblematic paintings, restored in 1902, and injured by fire later. The lodge was closed from December 25, 1830, to March 25, 1851, the doors being bricked up so that everything remained in safety. It was rechartered as No. 215, June 6, 1851, regaining its old num ber in 1877. It has the laudable custom of presenting each new initiate with a Bible, as his rule and guide in life. Fayetteville Lodge, No. 578, F. & A. M., was chartered July 10, 1865, Hiram Wood, W. M. Manlius Chapter, R. A. M., No. 72, was organized February 8, 1854, Illustrious Remington, H. P. There are many societies in Manlius village, several meeting in Smith Hall. The Manlius and Pompey Agricultural and Mechanical Association was 388 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY formed in 1849, and flourished for many years, but it has disappeared like many other useful societies of the kind. Deep Spring is on the county line, a little over three miles northeasterly from Manlius village, but has been elsewhere noticed. After the canal came the New York Central and West Shore railroads near it. The Syracuse & Chenango branch of the latter passes through Manlius and Fayetteville, and the suburban trolley line does the same, terminating at Edwards' Falls, a picturesque spot. The latter line will probably be extended southward. These roads tend to make Fayetteville and Manlius delightful residence suburban villages, and may eventually stimulate manufacturing in both. High Bridge is a hamlet on Limestone creek, Manlius Center on the canal, while Mycenae or Hartsville is southeast of Kirkville, and North Manlius northeast of Minoa. Some of the finest fruit farms of the county are in Manlius, and there are good dairy farms. Hops were raised for a time, but tobacco growing was not a success. Early days, however, were sometimes those of privation. David Tripp came in 1790, and at one time was short of food for three months. All they had, ' ' excepting wild roots and milk, was a bushel of corn which he pro cured at Herkimer, and brought home on his back. ' ' Captain Joseph Williams brought his family in 1796 to a home he had prepared. When he arrived wheat was three dollars and fifty cents per bushel, corn one dollar and a half, and common calico seventy-five cents per yard. Caleb Pratt came in 1793, and hu morously described the conditions when destitution was so great "that the lank, lean sided, long necked mice, would come peeping into the crevices of the log houses and shed tears of sorrow at the poverty of 'the inmates, and re tire without finding a crumb to satisfy their longing appetites." Speaking of a small trader, Clark said: "The formidable name of John Smith was rather more common then than now. Manlius village and vicinity could boast of no less than four, and they were distinguished by the appella tion of Long John, Blind John, Cross John and John Stout." This was a custom in early villages, where two of a name had some peculiarity. Our forefathers had humor. Carey Coats opened a tavern in Fayette vide in 1801, and to get a license swore that he had two spare beds, and stables for two span of horses or two yoke of oxen. Complaint was made of lack of beds, but he said he had told the truth, referring them to his father-indaw, who confirmed it, for he saw him make two garden beds, which must be spare, for he could not borrow seed to sow them. There was a Satan's kingdom, of course — more's the pity — but the people tired of the name, and met at the schoolhouse in 1814 to mend matters. Mr. Smith Burton was asked to furnish some lines for the Manlius Times on the change. They were these: PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 389 "Since the King no longer sits on his Throne, We, his name no longer will own, But around the standard we will rally, Of peace, and call the place Pleasant Valley." In June, 1795, there was a company training in front of James Foster's tavern, Eagle village. A hollow square was formed, and in the center of this Cyrus Kinne married Miss Jenny Mulholland to Billy McKee. We may sup pose a jolly time. At the county centennial celebration in 1794, Miss Eliza Cole of Fay etteville gave a representation of her school in 1845, when Grover Cleveland was one of her scholars. The boy who represented the president read a composi tion by him, on Time, which Miss Cole had preserved with others. It follows : "Time is divided into seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years and centuries. If we expect to become great and good men, and be respected and esteemed by our friends, we must improve our time when we are young. "George Washington improved his time when he was a boy, and he was not sorry when he was at the head of a great army fighting for his country. "A great many of our great men were poor, and had but small means of obtaining an education, but by improving their time when they were young and in school, they obtained their high standing. "Jackson was a poor boy, but he was placed in school, and by improving his time, he found himself President of the United States, guiding and di recting a powerful nation. If we wish to become great and useful in the world, we must improve our time in school." In 1836 Manlius village had an Episcopal, Methodist, and a Presbyterian church, a newspaper, academy, cotton factory, two grist mills, several saw mills, six stores, two taverns and one hundred and fifty dwellings. In 1886 it had two drug stores, lime kiln, two harness shops, three dressmakers, a lime mid, four physicians, three blacksmiths, two meat markets, saloon, foundry and machine shop, grocery, two grist mills, dentist, millinery store, two general stores, three hotels, lumber and coal yard, two hardware stores, restaurant, stone yard, livery stable, two wagon shops, feather bed renovator, cradle fac tory, cigar factory, two paper mills, foundry, undertaker and furniture dealer, machine shop, two shoe shops, a barber and two lawyers. Fayetteville in 1836 had a Baptist, Methodist and a Presbyterian church, six stores, four taverns, grist and sawmill and seventy-five dwellings. In 1886 it had two more churches, five physicians, four lawyers, a photographer, one lime, cement and plaster factory, two jewelry stores, two drug stores, paper mill, foundry, three hotels, marble shop, five saloons, lumber manufactory, sash and blind factory two millinery shops, veterinary surgeon, furniture factory, cooper, two billiard rooms, two blacksmiths, two banks, two meat markets, flour and feed store, four grocers, hardware store, undertaker, two furniture dealers, three wagon shops, insurance agent, four general stores, livery stable, cigar factory, lime mill, knife factory, meat market and a weekly paper. 390 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY At Kirkvdle in 1836 Clark Vibbard kept a general store and was post master. He also had a sawmill. Robert Cunningham and Harvey Eaton kept hotels. Lawrence was the blacksmith; Joseph Hoag, William Gillman and L. Delaney were boat builders, and Jonathan Worden had a grist and sawmill. Fifty years later, in 1886, there were two churches, two blacksmiths, two general stores, two groceries, two hotels, two carriage shops, a grist mill, cheese factory, boot and shoe store and a shoemaker. Where Manlius (now Minoa) Station is, in 1836 there were but two or three log huts and a blacksmith shop. In 1886 it was credited with two churches, a grist and a sawmill, two general stores, merchant tailor, two coal yards, produce store, three painters, marble shop, cigar store, blacksmith shop, two hotels, two shoe shops, livery stable, gunsmith, two meat markets, insurance agent, mason, carpenter and physician. CHAPTER XLV. TOWN OF MARCELLUS. The township of Marcellus, No. 9 of the military tract, was named after a Roman general, slain 208 B. C. His army was long successfully resisted at the siege of ancient Syracuse by the engines of Archimedes. It once included all Skaneateles, the north part of Spafford, and the northwest two-thirds of Otisco. The latter part lay south of Onondaga, and was known as the "L of Marcellus." The town retains thirty-two out of its hundred lots. Most of the grantees sold their claims for very little. The timber was heavy, with a dense undergrowth in the lowlands, and but little in the uplands. An Indian trail followed the line of the electric road from the west to Nine Mile creek, crossing the hills due east to Onondaga. The natural features have been described. William Cobb, Joab and Rufus Lawrence settled on East hill in 1794. The former was grandfather of Rev. Stephen Cobb. That year Cyrus Holcomb settled on West hill, and Samuel Tyler at Tyler hollow, called from him. He was the first justice of the peace in 1798. The Bowens and Codys came to Clintonville in 1794. Joseph Cody kept the first tavern there in 1806, and Manasseh Eaton was a merchant there in 1815. Hon. Dan Bradley and Deacon Samuel Rice came to Marcellus village in 1795, and found squatters there, who soon removed. Mr. Bradley had been pastor of "a Congregational church in Whitestown, New York, was afterward a judge of the county court, and first president of the Onondaga Agricultural Society in 1819. Deacon Rice kept tavern in his log house, and in 1802 Rev. Mr. Robbins said he "drew a plan for a public house in this place" for him. This was the third frame PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 391 house in town. This inn became popular and stood where St. Francis Xavier 's church does now. Dr. Israel Parsons, town historian, was Deacon Rice's grandson. Dr. Elnathan Beach, the first physician, came in the winter of 1795-96, and built the first frame house in town. He was the first postmaster, and was sheriff of Onondaga county in 1799, dying two years later. The winter he arrived Bradley & Rice built the first sawmill in town, on Nine Mile creek. As far as it had a name, this was the name of the village then. Rev. Mr. Rob- bins uniformly styled it "the east part of the town." Colonel Bigelow and his eight sons came to East and West hill about that time, owning about one thousand acres on these. His daughter, Asenath, is said to have taught the first school in Marcedus in 1796, but Dr. Parsons gives Judge Bradley prece dence. The first death was that of a traveler in 1797, buried in the first cemetery on the Isaac Bradley place. About twenty were buried there before a new site was chosen in 1804. The Rathbones, Earlls, Cossitts, Wiltsies, Wheadons, Godards, Kelseys, Cowles, Shepards, Dorchesters, Dunbars, Taylors, etc., came later. Stages went through in 1797. It can'hardly be said they ran. In 1800 a rude grist mill was built by Messrs. May and Sayles. In the old town William Stevens was supervisor, 1794-96, Samuel Tyler in 1797, and Winston Day in 1798. In 1801 Lemuel Johnson built a new store, and Samuel Bishop became the first lawyer. B. Davis Noxon was the second in 1808. Woolen mills and dis tilleries were matters of course. The first of the former was built about 1812, by Robert and Thomas Dyer. Several have followed. The site of the linseed oil mill of 1825, became that of the Marcellus Powder Company in 1881, after many changes. An explosion once took place there. There was an earlier powder mill built by Jeptha Cossitt about 1812. At the present time there are paper mills there, always a great local industry. The first is supposed to have been built by Mr. Cone in 1806. John Herring bought this in 1816, and became a noted paper maker. Tanneries, clock works, plaster mills, wooden ware, stone sawing, bark and barley mills, and machine shops have been some of the other industries on Nine Mile creek, some of these originating the vil lage of Marcellus Falls in 1806. It was at first called Union village, and nick named Algiers. Clintonville had a post office and shops on the Skaneateles and Hamilton turnpike, but has vanished. Thorn Hill has a Baptist church, and a name from the Thorn family. Good agricultural fairs were once held there. Rose Hill post office was established November 5, 1890, Frank B. Mills, postmaster. He is a successful seedsman, doing a large business in seeds and catalogues. Marietta is a hamlet near and on the outlet of Otisco lake. A railroad running to. the lake now makes these places easily accessible, and the lake is a favorite resort. Marcellus village was a busy place in the days of great stage lines. In the writer's boyhood it was well known as "Pucker Street," of which there are two stories told. One is that a young lady was annoyed, as she said, at 392 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY having to shout for her beau "right in the middle of Pucker Street," and the Lawrence brothers spread the story and the name. Another was that it came from the confab of a tailor and his customer about a misfit. The name proved popular. July 4, 1853, the village was incorporated, William J. Machan being chosen president July 23. The interurban electric road has proved a great convenience to the place, and it is becoming one of our prettiest towns. The Otisco Lake railroad also passes through it, connecting with the New York Central at Marcellus Station. The early settlers formed the "Church of Christ" October 13, 1801, fol lowed by the society called the "Trustees of the Eastern Religious Society of Marcellus," May, 1802. A church was built in 1803, two statements about which are erroneous. It was not the first house of worship erected in the county," for Clark says, in Pompey (vol. 2 : 244) : "The first house of worship in town was built at 'Butler's (Pompey) Hill,' of logs, about the year 1798." Next, at the dedication — as was the case — : "It was then remarked, that it was the only meeting house between New-Hartford and the Pacific Ocean. which was literally the fact." This was an error. The Rev. Dr. Robbins,who preached there in 1802, said he preached also in a church in East Bloomfield. built in 1801, the first in Western New York. (See also French's Gazetteer.) Rev. Levi Parsons was the first pastor, serving for thirty-three years, except an interval of two years in Otisco. The building has been much enlarged and improved. A Sunday School was organized in 1818. In January, 1819, the Third Presbyterian church was organized about five miles southeast of the village. This lasted till about 1850. The First Baptist Religious Society of Marcellus was organized at Thorn Hill, September 1, 1815. The first church was built in 1816, a little southwest of the present one, which was completed in 1849. The first pastor was Rev. Elias Harman, 1808-16. The first Methodist society was formed December 8, 1823, at Stephen Cobb's house, but a class of sixteen members preceded this in 1816. The first church was built of stone, on the hill used as a cemetery by the Roman Catho lics, and formerly called Methodist hill. The next was of stone, at the foot of this. The third was built of brick in 1858, on the present site. This was burned January 25, 1877, and the present fine edifice took its place the next year. The organization in 1823 was called the "First Zion Society of Mar cellus." In September, 1877, it became "The First Methodist Episcopal Church." A class was also formed at Marcellus Falls, and services were held there by Presbyterians and Methodists. In 1820 a Universalist society was organized, but it disappeared without building a church. February 8, 1824, St. John's (P. E.) church was incorporated, with Rev. Amos Pardee as first rector. A church was consecrated September 2, 1833. This was burned in December, 1866, and rebuilt in 1869. This also was burned in July, 1879, when the site was changed, and the third was consecrated Feb ruary 25, 1881. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 393 St. Francis Xavier's (R. C.) church was organized in 1854, with services in 1853 by Rev. Michael Haes. The Rev. J. J. Hayden became resident pastor in 1874. Morning Star Lodge, No. 254, F. & A. M., was instituted in 1862, E. P. Howe, W. M. Lodge No. 658, I. 0. 0. F., was instituted February 7, 1893, William Mc- Kenzie being N. G. Dr. Israel Parsons relates how Abraham Tompkins, owner of Lot 24, on part of which Marcellus village stands, came to see it, "viewed the wild- ness and darkness of the scenery" with disgust, went away and took the first offer for his land. Another of his stories follows, but as the writer recalls it as he heard it nearly seventy years ago, the man lived alone, lay down before his fire and had to await the coming of neighbors. "When Judge Bradley and Deacon Rice first came here, there was a man belonging to one of their families who, one night made his bed/ in a large hem lock bark. It resulted in a splendid night's sleep, but when he awoke in the morning how great was his surprise to find that he was firmly enclosed within the bark. The animal heat had caused the bark to roll up, and as it was from a large tree, it was very strong. His friends after enjoying themselves for awhile at his novel situation, released him from his imprisonment by cutting the bark open with an axe. New comers occasionally made shelves of nice bark, and sometimes would find their crockery shut up in the same way, and in some cases broken." Two or more stage coaches ran each way daily ; fare five cents a mile, and no extra charge for blowing horns. Among other incidents there was often alcohol in distillery refuse, and the hogs would get drunk on this, -acting as oddly as some bipeds. Every two years general training was held at Marcellus, and its broad central street afforded a fine place for display. In the last days of these the village had a fine infantry company, called the Marcellus Grays, from their uniform. The cessation of training days soon ended the organization. Dr. Parsons records the laying out of the Seneca turnpike in 1802, when the commissioners thought they would look at Camillus. Their welcome was cold and the dinner colder, at a round price too. They returned through Marcellus and had a great reception, the best of dinners, and nothing to pay. Is it necessary to tell what happened? In 1836 Marcellus village had a post office, an Episcopal, Methodist and a Presbyterian church, a stone flouring mill, sawmill, woolen factory, two paper mills, two taverns, four stores, and about eighty dwellings. In 1886 there was one more church, three general stores, one hotel, three blacksmiths, grist mill, two woolen mills, two drug stores, two groceries, saloon, two meat markets, two milliners and dressmakers, one lawyer and insurance agent, furniture factory, undertaker, newspaper, powder company, three phy sicians, barber, three omnibus lines, shoe store, tailor, harness maker, hardware store and tin shop. 394 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY In 1836 Marcellus Falls had a grist, saw and a paper mill, a woolen and a clock factory, a store and fifteen dwellings. In 1886 there were two paper mills, two groceries, drug store and a grist mill. At that time Marietta had two blacksmith shops, a general store, wagon shop, shoe shop, hotel, grist mill, sawmill and cooper shop. The business changes are many and rapid all along the creek. CHAPTER XLVI. TOWN OF ONONDAGA. The town of Onondaga had its name from its Indian inhabitants, people of the great hill or mountain. It was not strictly a town of the Military tract, being a reservation laid out in lots for later purchasers from time to time. In March, 1798, two tracts called the Onondaga and Salt Springs reservations, became the town of Onondaga, and the first town meeting was called at Allen Beach's house. This included most of what is now Syracuse, the south part of Geddes, and twenty-two lots in Camillus. Lots 1 to 12, east of Onondaga reservation, were annexed in 1817. Exclusive of these the original town had two hundred and twenty-one lots of two hundred and fifty acres each. Of these sixty-five have been set off. Early events have been- related in the general history. Ephraim Web ster came first as both trader and resident. Other traders were also there, followed by the Danforths, Tylers and others in 1788. Danforth died at Onon daga Valley, September 2, 1818, at the age of seventy-two, after an energetic and honorable life. He had been a soldier of the Revolution and acquired high military rank in Onondaga, as well as legal standing. Comfort Tyler, his associate, had been a Revoutionary soldier, teacher and surveyor, settling at Onondaga in 1788. He became a favorite with the Indians, and they called him To-Whau-ta-qua, one who can work and yet be a gentleman. In 1811 he moved to Montezuma, being interested in the salt works there. Before this he had been active as a surveyor and in public duties, opening roads, establishing schools and churches, holding legal offices, and serving in the Legislature. He was first supervisor of the civil town of Manlius. Un fortunately his connection with Aaron Burr's plans destroyed his public pros pects. As early in 1789 came John Brown, Abijah Earll, Levi Hiscock and Roder ick Adams. Among other early settlers were Job Tyler, Nicholas Mickles, Joseph Forman, John Adams, Peter Ten Broeck, General Lewis, George Kibbe, the Needhams, William H. Sabine, Joseph Swan and George Hall. Before 1793 the settlers in this town held their lands by sufferance of the Indians. After 1796 titles were obtained. In that year Gideon Seeley and Comfort PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 395 Tyler bid off at auction twenty-one lots of two hundred and fifty acres each, at two dollars per acre. Seeley opened a road to the south line of the town, building a bridge over the west branch of Onondaga creek. There Turner Fenner built the first sawmill in the present town in 1793, and Major Danforth a saw and grist mill the next year. Dr. William Needham came to Onondaga Valley in 1793, followed by his brother, Dr. Gordon Needham in 1795. The latter opened the first school in 1796, being sixteen years old, and received his medical diploma August 25, 1797, at the age of seventeen. They built the dyke. In 1794 Comfort Tyler opened the first post office in Onondaga county, and as late as 1812 this was the distributing point for Manlius, Pompey, Camil lus, Lysander, Marcellus, Otisco and. Spafford. George Kibbe opened the first store in 1800, below the arsenal site. Wadsworth's pioneer road, 1791, be came the old state road. It came from the southeast to Danforth 's, pass ing westward south of St. Agnes cemetery. This gave place to the Seneca turnpike, running westerly through Marcellus village. In 1800 Comfort Tyler's tavern was on this, on the east side of the valley. On the west side a team wras kept to assist others up the steep ascent to Onondaga Hill. In 1798 a road was surveyed from the salt springs to the reservation near the east bank of the creek. The cinder road, on the west side, soon followed. In 1794 Thaddeus M. Wood opened the first law office in the county. The name is "legion" now. Soon after Onondaga Hill was laid out for the county seat. William Laird kept a log tavern there in 1795. Jabez Webb and Nehemiah Earll settled there in 1796, the latter being the first postmaster, and an eminent man. The first town meeting was held at Major Danforth 's in April, 1798. Ephraim Webster became the first supervisor, succeeded by James Geddes in 1799. The general course of early legal events has been sketched, but for some time there was a rivalry between the valley and hill settlements about the county buildings, none of which were begun before 1801. The jail came first, with court room added, James Beebe being first jailer. This was used till 1829, but has disappeared. The county clerk's records, were kept at the Val ley till 1813, when a stone office was built at the Hill. The stones from this were used for a schoolhouse many years afterward. A road covers the site of the old courthouse, but a few early houses remain. The Presbyterian church is a good speeiman of some of early days. There are fine views all about, and the evening view from the hill,- when the city is lit up below, is grand indeed. Some day it will again be a lively place. Meanwhile Onondaga Hollow went prosperously on. Thaddeus M. Wood was there. Joshua Forman lived there, 1800 to 1825. William IT. Sabine came in 1801, dying there in 1863. George Hall was there for more than twenty years; Jasper Hopper also. Reuben Patterson kept the Owl's Head tavern, and that of John Adams was popular and good. Yet for awhile it was a rude sort of village, having but eight frame houses and a log school 396 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY house in 1803. Though some changes have come since, the following list of houses in Onondaga Valley as they were in 1894, is worth recording, and fol lows verbatim, ending with that of John Adams : The Pratt house, on the Tully turnpike, west side, is probably the oldest ' house in the valley. Opposite to it is the site of General Thaddeus M. Wood's residence. The Ephraim Webster house (1796) is on the Bostwick farm, west side of the vadey. John Forman 's house (1798) west end of vilage, on Seneca turnpike, known as the "red house," is occupied by Sidney Wood, colored, formerly a slave of Thaddeus M. Wood. John Hasting 's house (1800) is north of the village, west side. William Sabine's house (1808) is back of the academy, and occupied by his widow and T. W. Meacham. Joshua Forman 's house, (1808) on the Seneca turnpike, north side, is occupied by Dr. Whitford. Jasper Hopper's house (1800) is occupied by Mr. Loomis. Samuel Forman 's house (1812) south side of turnpike, is owned by Mark Potter. Philo Gridley's stone house (1812) east end of village, on turnpike, is owned by R. R. Slocum. John Van Pelt's brick house (1812) later known as Patterson's west side of the village, main street, is owned by E. J. Kline. John Adams' old stage house (1802) foot of west hill, is occupied by W. H. Harrison. Arthur Patterson's house and store (1820) are occupied by W. H. Card. Rev. Dr. Caleb Alexander's house (1820) south of the village, is owned by estate of Lemuel Clark. The town hall and Odd Fellows' hall (1808). The Mercer mill (1813) was built by Joshua Forman and others. The Fuller house, corner of Midland avenue and Main street, was con structed from several old stores and dwellings. Dr. Tolman's barn has a frame made from the timbers in the old Danforth house. The John Adams house, one of the oldest dwellings, is the Dorwin resi dence at the springs. This interesting list might be extended there and in the vicinity. Samuel Forman 's fine old house is now the postoffice, and a glimpse of its interior may easily be had. Part of the old Academy remains, and the old Presbyterian church is a fine example of its day. At Onondaga Hill, at various times, were Judge Daniel Moseley, B. Davis Noxon, Rufus Cossitt. Oliver R. Strong come there in 1802, opening the first school there in November. Hezekiah Strong, grandfather of John M. Strong of Syracuse, kept a store there. Josiah Bronson built and kept a tavern. One of his successors was Philo N. Rust. La Fayette stood on its PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 397 piazza in June, 1825, to listen to Thaddeus M. Wood's adddress. It was burned in 1884. La Fayette's arrival is the subject of one of Mr. Knapp 's pictures. Captain James Beebe, drowned in 1817, kept a tavern near the court house. Another inn was kept by Mr. Cheney. At one time there were seven public houses there. About 1810 there were forty houses, stores, etc., while the hollow had sixty-five and ' ' an elegant meeting house. ' ' In southern Onondaga settlers came before 1800, the first pioneers being Ebenezer Conkling, Phineas Sparks, Gideon Seeley, Gilbert Pinckney, Turner Fenner and Amasa Chapman. Before 1805 came John Clark, Obadiah Nich ols, John Carpenter, Zebulon Rust, Henry Frost, Oliver Cummings, Joseph Warner, Isaac Parmater and Daniel Chafee. These were in the vicinity of South Onondaga, which contained a Presbyterian church and thirty-five dwedings, beside a tavern and the usual trades.' Ten years later there were two churches, two grist and two saw mdls. The old Presbyterian church afterward became a public had. There is now a brick Methodist church there. In the vicinity is the home of W. W. Newman, superintendent of In dian schools. Cradleville, or East Navarino, is in the southwest part of the town, having its name from the grain cradles made there by the Chafee family, who came there in 1800. There is a Baptist church there. Navarino was at first called Had's Corners, from Shubael and Sarah Hall, who built their log cabin half a mile south of the corners in 1799. The intersection of the State with the Marcellus and Amber road took the name of Hall's corners, and af terward of Navarino. Freeman North kept tavern there in 1835, Andrew Cummings was a merchant, and Oren Hall postmaster. There is a Methodist church and stores. Cedarvale is of later date, with a grist mill and Methodist church. E. F. Lounsbury was postmaster in 1873. It is on the headwaters of Onondaga creek, and here the Solvay company had a test well. Howlett Hill was an early center, named from the Howlett family, Par ley Howlett having settled there in 1797. An early Baptist meeting house became that of the Universalists. In 1835 B. H. Case was postmaster. Change of travel destroyed its importance. Loomis Hill, farther east, had its name from Eleazer Loomis, an early set tler. The Methodist church there is conspicuous yet, but the brass angel on its spire once made it a notable building. With the opening of the electric road, and the development of the quar ries by the Solvay Process Company, Split Rock has become a small village, with a Roman Catholic church. The Split Rock Cable Road company, or ganized in June, 1888, has a cable line for transporting limestone to Solvay, and it is a novel sight' to see the great buckets going to and fro in the air. From the grade the loaded buckets going down are able to draw the empty ones up. The harts' tongue fern was first found here in America in 1807, and the rocks contain some ice caverns still. 398 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Danforth was incorporated December 21, 1874, with Edward Abeel as president. In February, 1887, it became a part of Syracuse. Elmwood was incorporated about 1894, W. W. Norris being postmaster. Enoch M. Chafee built a grist mdl, cradle factory, etc., here, and Henry Morris has greenhouses. Elmwood park, with its little lake at the stone mid, once made an attractive resort, and close by is St. Agnes cemetery, ' ' beautiful for situation. ' ' St. John's church (P. E.) was organized at Onondaga Hill, November 26, 1803, by Rev. Davenport Phelps, and was the first Episcopal parish in the county. It became Zion church, January 3, 1816, but the congregation was weakened by removals to Syracuse, and services were discontinued in 1840. The church building has disappeared, but the bell went to Trinity church, Syracuse. A mission is maintained at East Onondaga, caded St. Andrew's. The First Presbyterian church was organized at Onondaga Hill before 1806, in Daniel Eard's log tavern, the first pastors being Rev. Messrs. Higgins and Healy. The present church was built in 1819. The Onondaga Hollow Religious Society (Presbyterian) followed, completing its church in 1810, the Rev. Dirck C. Lansing being installed pastor in February. South Onondaga had also a Presbyterian church for many years, built in 1827. St. Michael's (R. C.) parish was commenced at Onondaga Hill as a mission about 1874, and St. Peter's church, Split Rock, was completed in 1892. The First Baptist church of Onondaga was formed at Howlett Hill, Jan uary, 1804, erecting a house of worship in 1821. The society moved to Camidus village in 1848, and the Universalists now own the church. Part of the members formed a Baptist church at Onondaga Hill in 1833. Another Baptist church was formed at Navarino in 1812, erecting a church in 1823, at East Navarino. The Universalists formed a society at Howlett Hill about 1848, Rev. Nelson Brown being the first pastor. Eleazer Loomis built a Methodist church at Loomis Hill in 1845 and a Methodist society was formed on the hid east of the reservation quarries as early as 1820, which built in 1847. The First Methodist society at the valley was formed about 1816, the church being budt in 1825, and replaced with the present edifice in 1885. The Methodist church in South Onondaga was built about 1837, and another at Cedarvale about 1840. Another is in Navarino, and the society at Onondaga Hill erected its church in 1874, Rev. Frederick De Witt being pastor. One important institution at Onondaga Valley was the Academy, which was projected in 1812, and incorporated April 10, 1813, the building being erected in 1814. Rev. Caleb Alexander was the first principal, and gave it a high standing at once. He died there in April, 1828. Like other academies it changed its form, and became a union free school April 28, 1866. Many persons of note were educated there, and in a letter to Whittier, referring to one of his poems, Willis G. Clark said: "The pleasure which you say you have in listlessly gazing upon the sky, makes me think of my old school hours at Onondaga Academy, when I used to sit and with my window open look out for hours upon the landscape, while the fresh winds were fluttering the neglect ed Horace or Virgfl." PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 399 One pleasant feature of the old Academy is the annual presentation of prizes by John T. Roberts, for excellence in subjects assigned by him. The old arsenal has been elsewhere mentioned. It was kept by Captain James Beebe in the war of 1812. Onondaga Lodge, No. 98, F. & A. M., was chartered January 1, 1803, Jasper Hopper being W. M. It ceased to work in the excitement of 1826, but the records have been preserved. An Odd Fedows ' lodge came later. The first County Agricultural Society was organized at Onondaga Hill in 1819, with Dan Bradley as president. The first fair was at Onondaga Valley, November 2, 1819, and fairs were held for about six years. The society was reorganized in 1838, and again in 1856. It then purchased grounds east of Onondaga creek, and near Danforth. These were sold in 1866. The town, with Marcellus and others, had a spirited celebration of the Onondaga County Centennial, in May, 1894. Among the speakers were Dr. Israel Parsons and Joel Northrup of Marcedus, Cyrus D. Avery of Geddes, John T. Roberts, R. R. Slocum, John M. Strong, and Rev. Dr. Beauchamp. Miles T. Frisbie read a spirited poem, and among the papers by ladies were those of Mrs. Harriet H. Wilkie and Fannie A. Parsons. A loan exhibition was a feature of the day. Slavery lasted in this town till about 1830, and wolves were killed as late as 1807. It was hard killing them then, and the bounty was doubled. In set tlement and early industries the town differs little from others. "Old things have passed away ; ad things have become new " in a large sense ; but there are old houses and places worthy of study yet. The County poor house is well kept and is a little northwest of Onondaga Hill. It was first authorized in 1826, and the site on Lot 87 was selected the next year. A better building was erected in 1859, and water provided in 1867. There have been various improvements since, and the farm of one hun dred and forty-five acres somewhat diminishes expenses. In 1888 the Syracuse Water Company sank tubes down to and through a substratum of gravel ten feet thick near Onondaga creek and proved, to their satisfaction at least, that south of Onondaga Valley village, through a tract twelve hundred feet wide, twenty million gallons of water passed from south to north every twenty-four hours. Through the entire valley it was thought - several times this amount passed. The third newspaper in the county, at Onondaga Hollow, was called the Lynx, and was founded in December, 1811, by Thomas C. Fay. He closed his prospectus thus: "I shall endeavor to promote the nation's interest with the industry of a BEAVER, while I watch its enemies with the eyes of a LYNX." Thurlow Weed learned printing in this office. Lewis IT. Redfield issued the Onondaga Register at the hollow in September, 1814, removing it to Syracuse in 1829. Webb & Castle published the Citizens' Press at the valley in 1832, for six months. The Onondaga Gazette was founded at the hill in 1816, by Evander Morse. It was changed to Onondaga Journal in 1821, and removed to Syracuse in 1829. 400 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY When the town was erected it was at once enacted that hogs might run at large if properly yoked. In 1803 there was added five dollars to the county bounty for wolves. In 1807 the bounty for foxes was fifty cents, and ten dodars for panthers. That year it was voted that all land owners must cut down "to the center of the road the weeds commonly called 'tory' under a penalty of $5." The name of tory-burr is obsolete now. It was Cynoglos- sum officinale, having this popular name from the troublesome loyalists of the Revolution. Quite a number of slaves were held, and some were freed before full emancipation came. One belonging to Thaddeus M. Wood died but a few years since. In speaking of the frequent rattlesnakes Clark said: "It was no uncom mon occurrence for these poisonous animals to insinuate themselves into the houses of the early settlers, and coil themselves snugly in the corners of the fireplaces, and beneath the beds, for the purpose of gathering warmth." Yet no one seems to have suffered. General Danforth died in September, 1818, aged seventy-three, and his wife January 6, 1837, aged ninety. In a note on his death the Onondaga Register said he had often been known, in early days, to divide his last loaf with a neighbor. These lines were added of one "Whose heart was generous, warm and kind; Whose lib 'ral hand oft clothed' and fed The naked, hungry, halt and blind, Or saints or savages might find And share with Danforth half his bread. He's gone, and we no more behold That bounteous hand stretched forth to give. That hand is stiff — that heart is cold; So died our patriot sires of old, Such is the fate of all who live." He has had many eulogies, and Henry C. Van Schaak, said: "He aided more than any one other man in laying the foundation and preparing the way for our present prosperity." The early Masonic lodge has been noticed. It is also said that a chapter of Royal Arch Masons was founded in 1807, by Dr. Gordon Needham, then master of the lodge. Mr. John T. Roberts does not mention this in his very interesting history of this early lodge. The first site he said was "exactly midway between the Adams and the Tyler hotels." He adds: "During the years of the lodge's occupancy of Masonic, hall, the annual dinner on the festival of St. John was held in quite regular alternation at Tyler's and Adams's, and the procession back and forth in full regalia was one of the Valley's great events of the year." In his "Evolution of Onondaga," Mr. Roberts imagines a gathering of pioneers at Mrs. Danforth 's, fen years after her coming. "Comfort Tyler PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 401 stands foremost among them, a handsome young fellow, well educated, " etc. "Young Thadd'-:: M. Wood is here also, paying attention to Maj. Danforth 's daughter Patty. He was the first lawyer in the county, a man of strong expression and strong aversion." "George Hall, his partner in business, . . . is more affable in manner, not so rich in land but more easy as to credit. Gideon Seeley, George Olmsted, George Kibbe, Reuben Patterson, John Adams, the tavern keeper, William Needham, and "Gordon Needham, just from college with the first medical diploma shown in the county." Others fodow who were of early note. "Cornelius Longstreet is introduced all round as a new comer. That highly dressed young man with fine manners is just from Albany. . . . His name is Jasper Hopper. Another young man of fine address is introduced as Joshua Forman, recently arrived on a tour of inspection. . . . That lit tle man with very bright eyes and rapid speech is James Geddes, already noted as an engineer. You would hardly recognize him in his dress-up suit, having seen him so often at his work. ... A fine looking military man drives up with his horse, 'Pomp,' and salutes the major. It is General John Ellis from Onondaga Hill, and he brings with him his young friend Oliver Strong, the schoolmaster. . . . That little Dutchman, a good talker and laugher, is Nicholas Mickel, from Elbridge, who is lqoking for a different loca tion. . . . There was that brightest of all the young pioneers, Moses De Witt, high born and splendidly educated, a gentleman every inch," and a host more undescribed. In 1894 an old inhabitant gave some account of slaves in Onondaga. ' ' There were lots of them. There was old Thad Wood, the lawyer ; he had a slave maid in his family. 'Squire Sabine had a man slave. Lots of the old settlers had them. They used them well, too, and sent them to school. Why, there was old 'Squire Sabine's slave, he used to carry a watch and dress like a lord. Judge Forman had a slave, and when she went away he made pro vision for her support. Then his son wanted to go, too, and he left the old negress 50 acres of land during her life." Lewis H. Redfield came to Onondaga Valley in 1814, issuing the Onondaga Register September 17, removing it to Syracuse in 1829. He said the hollow "was a good place for conducting a polite newspaper," the people being of high culture. Willis Gaylord Clark worked for him, and Thurlow Weed for a little time. He would not employ Horace Greeley, thinking him lazy. At the valley he replaced the wooden Ramage press with the first iron press used here. He also introduced the composition roller in place of the inking balls. For a time he was post master at the valley. His daughter, Mrs. Margaret Tredwell Smith, gave, in 1894, this account of La Fayette 's visit to the valley : "The magnates of the county were present — a very remarkable company gathered — old pioneers, Revolutionary soldiers and of the war of 1812, 'walk ing in picturesque twos and threes,' in procession, under the bowery shade of evergreen arches erected in his honor, over the broad main street of the Hol low. A multitude greeted him at Syracuse, where a dinner was given in his 402 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY honor, at the hotel on the site of the present Empire house. The Hollow had its special tradition of the occasion — as the procession passed along the street, it was arrested and stopped when it came in front of Mr. Redfield 's house, and Mrs. Redfield presented a bouquet of flowers, which the General gracefully accepted." Thurlow Weed came to Onondaga from Cortland, and he helped his father cut cord wood at Salt Point in 1809. In 1810 he worked on Joshua Forman 's farm, and afterward at Mickles' furnace, where he tempered sand for casting cannon balls. He was living near there when he caught his salmon in the creek. He sold it to Judge Forman for a silver dollar, the first he ever had. His father Joel Weed, lived at the head of the cinder road" and worked in the furnace. He was in the habit of going to Mr. Redfield 's office where Thurlow afterward worked for a time. In 1811 the latter entered the office of the Lynx, where he learned his trade, afterward becoming one of the most in fluential journalists of the state, "the power behind the throne." In speaking of Mickles' furnace, Richard R. Slocum said: "The furnace fires were not allowed to die down for six months or more, but were banked with religious scrupulousness every Saturday night. The following inser tion is found in the Onondaga Register, published 1817, by Lewis H. Redfield : * "TO SABBATH BREAKERS. The subscriber respectfully informs the above mentioned class of people that they will confer a favor on him by omitting to visit his works on that day. N. MICKLES. Onondaga Furnace." Onondaga Hill was no longer the county seat in 1836, but some of the buildings had not been removed, and there were fine residences there. It had an Episcopal and a Presbyterian church, four stores, two taverns, and from forty to fifty dwellings. It is now a very quiet place. Onondaga Hollow (now Onondaga Valley) had then a Presbyterian and a Methodist church, as it has still. There was the academy, a store, three tav erns, a grist and saw mill, and about sixty dwellings. In 1886 it had the academy and churches, two hotels, two grist mills, a cider mill, blacksmith shop, fruit* drying establishment, wagon shop, and shoe shop. South Onondaga is about ten miles south of Syracuse. In 1836 Oliver Jones kept the hotel; A. H. Bradley and Elijah Lawrence were merchants; Elijah Welch was the miller, and Orlando Fuller the maker of cloth; Ste phen Betts the tanner ; Amasa Chapman made bricks ; Allen Rice and Stephen Field were blacksmiths ; Himas Wood, tailor ; Samuel Kingsley, physician ; Olmsted Quick, shoemaker; Amasa Chapman, Jr., mason; Ira Rue, wagon shop; L. Hodgkins and Volney King, cabinet makers; Abner Chapman, justice and school teacher; Alanson West, constable; E. L. North, M. E. preacher. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 403 There were thirty-five dwellings and a Presbyterian church. Fifty years later (1886) the place had a Methodist church, two general stores, hotel, two grist mills, wagon shop, two blacksmiths, three carpenters, four masons, two physicians.Navarino, fourteen miles from Syracuse, had this record in 1836 : Free man North, hotel; Andrew Cummings, merchant; Morris Wells, tailor; Jehiel Hall & Son, foundry; Clark Bentley, shoemaker; William Weed, gunsmith; George Andrews, blacksmith; George Enney, harness shop; Bradley Curtis, broom factory ; A. B. Edmonds, physician. In 1886 the place had a Methodist church, two general stores, two carpenters, a blacksmith shop, millinery store, dressmaker, two paint shops, shoe shop, broom factory, wagon shop, saw and cider mill, apiary, and a physician. Onondaga Castle was the name of a post office just short of the Indian reservation line, now supplied by rural delivery. Twenty years ago over four hundred Indians and about seventy whites received their mail there. There is a hotel and blacksmith shop there, and at one time a flourishing store. Quite a street of houses runs along the north line of the reservation. East Onondaga in 1886 contained two stores, hotel, wagon shop, and blacksmith shop. There are two hotels, and the place is almost a part of Syracuse. In 1886 Danforth was an incorporated village, a suburb of Syracuse, and then had twelve hundred inhabitants. Brighton was then South Syracuse post office, and was described as "a hamlet two miles south of Syracuse, containing a hotel, store, and about half a dozen buildings." Of course these two places do not now belong to Onon daga, and it cannot be long before more of its territory will be added to the city, so rapid is its growth to the southward. CHAPTER XLVII. TOWN OF OTISCO. Otisco has an Indian name, apparently referring to waters dried up or gone away. It was formed March 21, 1806, from parts of Pompey, Marcellus and Tully, and is a picturesque town, full of lofty hills and lovely valleys. Bear mountain, west of Cardiff, has its name from that animal, once frequent there. The town contains twenty-three military lots, and the part taken from Marcellus was once called the L of that town, as it was a pro jection lying south of the original Onondaga reservation. Oliver Tuttlo, with his son Daniel, in 1798 settled on Lot 97, near the head of Otisco lake. They came from Cineinnatus, and on the south there was then no house nearer 404 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY than Homer. The father was taken sick, and they returned to Cineinnatus, remaining there four years. When they came back they found several families. Oliver Tuttle built the first frame house in 1804. Clark calls Chauncey Rust the first settler, as he brought his family there from La Fayette in April, 1801. That year and the next many came, mostly from New England. Among these were the Merriman, Cowles, Gaylord, French', Parsons, Thayer, Clark, Nichols and Judd families, etc. Lucy Cowles taught the first school in a log house in 1804. The first grist mill was built by Charles Merriman in 1806, and Daniel Bennett was the first merchant, two stores usually sufficing for the whole town, there being no large villages. The first postmaster was Dr. Luther French, at Otisco Center in 1814. A few years since the town had four post offices, Otisco Center, Amber, Zealand and Otisco Valley. Jesse Swan settled near Otisco village in 1809, opening a store and tavern, about a mile south of the center. Dr. Jonathan S. Judd began practice in Otisco in 1806. There were once a woolen and three saw mills on the small stream east of the center, and a large business was done there in making fanning mills. In 1855 Otisco held second place in the county in the yield of maple sugar and apples, and third in spring wheat, being strictly an agricul tural town. It raises men, and many born here have been clergymen, physi cians, authors and scientists. It did its part in the war for the Union, and in that of 1812. Wyllis Gaylord, an early writer of note, came to this town in 1803, when but nine years old. He was ingenious in mechanism, as well as able in writ ing. Willis and Lewis Gaylord Clark were born in Otisco in 1810. They had wonderful memories and fine literary tastes, and were famous men in their day. Dr. W. W. Munson and S. N. Cowles are well known among botanists. The first religious meeting was at Chauncey Rust's house in 1801, and these were steadily maintained. Rev. Thomas Robbins wrote, August 11, 1802: "Rode to the ell of this town, and preached. The first sermon ever preached in the place. There is now a flourishing settlement, where the first family went in April of last year. ' ' May 9, 1803, the ' ' Washington Religious Society of Otisco" was organized as a C°ngregational church. The first building was on the Bardwell farm, a little north of Otisco Center. A large church was built in 1816 in the center of the vdlage. In 1805 Rev. George Colton became the first minister, succeeded in 1807 by Rev. William J. Wil cox, who remained till March 15, 1821. The present church was built in 1892. St. Patrick's church was built in 1870 at Otisco Center, under Rev. F. T. Purcell of Skaneateles. December 25, 1886, it was burned, and rebuilt in 1889. About 1864 the Reformed Methodist society was organized, and now has a church a mile south of Otisco Center. The Amber Religious society was formed August 18, 1824, and a union church was built, but was used only by the Methodists. It overlooked the lake, and in 1866 the hill was lowered and PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY. 405 the church rebuilt. The Maple Grove Methodist Episcopal church was in corporated February 27, 1850, when a church was erected. This was rebuilt in 1876. The shores of Otisco lake have become a popular resort for cottagers and campers, the fishing being good and scenery fine. Alpheus Boutelle came to Otisco Valley at an early day, followed by Alvah Munson, Levi Rice and Oren T. Frisbie. Near Amber were Ladowick Hotch- kiss, Squire Willard, and Seneca C. Hemenway. At Amber was Killian Van Rensselaer, an ardent Free Mason. Alanson Adams was a merchant there for fifty years. Daniel and Ichabod Ross lived near Otisco Center. They "were brothers, and it is a curious fact that they lived in separate houses on their undivided farm, that no difference ever arose between them. If one started to plow a field the other kept out." One old story was "of an Indian family, said to have lived somewhere in the vicinity of the. foot of Otisco lake, the paternal of which and all of his children were thickly covered with a coating of hair, like that of a bear. The family was supposed to be possessed of an evil spirit and was shunned by all other Indians. This tradition still has firm believers among the Onon daga Indians, who once had a trail to the lake, whither they went to hunt and fish." The editor has not heard this story among them, though it resembles some bear stories. They did go there to fish, as late as sixty years ago. In 1863 a dam was built across the foot of the lake, and it became a feeder for the canal. This resulted in the overflow of some wooded lands, and heavy drafts on the water in the summer, but the area of the lake was much increased. A small steamboat now plies on its waters. Nearly sixty years ago it was said of Otisco that "Not a pauper or lawyer is there in town, nor a man unable or unwilling to pay his school bills. Gos pel and schools are well supported, hard times are unknown. It is said a hundred dollars could not be lent in this town. None are very rich, and none are very poor." In that early time the writer has seen a child come into a store in Otisco Center with an egg to buy a sheet of paper, as a matter of course, and it seemed the custom. The birth of the Clark brothers has been placed in 1808 and 1811, but was in 1810 according to the best authorities. In his account of Onondaga Academy, written in 1897, Mr. Richard R. Slocum vouches for the following story, not before published: "Their father, Capt. Eliakim Clark, a soldier of the Revolution, was a very pious Presbyterian of the Connecticut stripe, and the boys were required to attend church every Sabbath, and all the services of the day. One Sabbath morning they all prepared for church and left the house together for a walk. The boys went to the horse barn, saying to the father, 'We will soon overtake you.' The father traveled on for a while, but no boys were in sight, and he concluded to return for them. As he approached the barn he heard their 406 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY voices inside, and looking through a knot hole found they hade made a small box and, as they appeared to be very much interested in their work, he con cluded to await development. He soon solved the problem. They had killed a rat and were preparing for a funeral. "The rat was placed in the box, and one of the boys remarked to the other, 'You be the minister and I will be the mourner.' Upon this agree ment one mounted the half -bushel measure and said, 'Let us sing the hymn 'Broad is the road that leads to death, and thousands walk together there.' After singing the following text was selected for the occasion : 'A rat is born of a rat, his days are few and full of trouble.' After a solumn warning to all rats to forsake their wicked ways, the services were concluded by singing that good old Methodist hymn, 'Farewell, vain world, I'm going home.' I give this little episode to show the makeup of the boys. It is needless to say the father and the boys were a little late that morning attending church ser vice." Both were favorites in the literary world, and on the early death of Willis a letter came to his brother from Washington Irving, who said, "He has left behind him writings which will make us love his memory and lament his loss." In 1836 Otisco Center had a post office, Presbyterian church, two stores, a tavern, tannery and fifteen dwellings. Ashbel Searle and Horatio Smith were physicians there. Fifty years later it had two stores, two churches, a physician, and the dwellings had nearly doubled. Amber had a post office in 1836, a church, two stores, a tannery, tavern, Samuel Stearns' woolen factory, and ten or twelve dwellings. Franklin Bangs was the physician. In 1886 it had a church, tavern, two stores, black smith shop, harness shop, wagon shop and steam sawmill. There were then but fifteen dwellings. The date of the organization of the first religious society by Rev. Hugh Wallace has been assigned to 1803, 1804, and 1808 in different histories. The last is clearly erroneous, and the first most probable. Clark places it in 1804. One writer gives Michael Johnston the credit of opening the first store in 1808. The first white child born in the town was Timothy Rust, March 22, 1802. The first death was just after the settlement, Nathaniel Dada, Jr., being killed by the fall of a tree, July 19, 1801. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 407 CHAPTER XL VIII. TOWN OF POMPEY. Pompey had its name from the great Roman general, but is not as great as it was, retaining but sixty-four of its one hundred military lots, thirty-six of these now being in Otisco and La Fayette. In 1794 the civil town of Pompey included Pompey, Fabius, Tully, Preble and Scott, with parts of Spat- ford, Otisco, La Fayette, Onondaga, Truxton and Cuyler. The topographical features have been described. Carpenter's pond is the only natural body of water, and Pratt's Falls, one hundred and thirty-seven feet high, are well worth seeing. The botanist Pursh has left an account of his visit in 1807. Pie wondered where the falls could be in the level fields around, "but when I came to the mill I was very agreeably surprised, by seeing the water fall down a precipice nearly perpendiculare to the depth of above 300 feet in a deep gloomy hollow all at once ; I was anxious of getting down to the bottom. which I with some difficulty dit, and indeed a more romantick scene I never be held." He more than doubled the height. From Pompey Hill one can look into seven counties, and sufferers from hay fever find relief there. The town was the early home of the Onondagas, and their remains are abundant, as they lived here over a century. Pompey has sent out many notable men and women, not exactly be cause it is a good place to go from, but from native ability, high culture, and early training. It is said a Dutch blacksmith in Lysander got tired of hearing these emigrants tell of the superiority of Pompey work. At last he broke forth: "It's all Pompey! Pompey! I believe you folks dat come from Pompey, you tinks you go to Pompey ven you die!" They would certainly go up higher. When a Pompey man wanted Luther Marsh reap pointed high sheriff, De Witt Clinton replied: "Squire Birdseye, I wish you to understand that the good people on Pompey Hill cannot have ALL the of fices in the state of New York." So it has been said: "For years this vil lage was a power in the politics of the county and the state." The first settlement in the present town was by Ebenezer Butler in 1788-9. He bought Lot 65 in 1791, built a log house and brought his family there. It is said he gave a soldier "a horse, saddle and bridle" for this lot. His father, Ebenezer Butler, came at that time, and died in 1829. Both served in the Revolution. The son bought Lot 64, building the first frame house near there in 1797. On that spot he kept tavern for some years, be ginning in 1792, and removed to Manlius in 1802, and thence to Ohio, where he died in 1829. He was chosen supervisor in 1796. His brother Jesse came the same year with Jacob Hoar. Sally, daughter of Jacob Hoar was the first white child born in the town, and Orange, son of Jesse Butler, the first male child. Sweet makes Amy Wilcox the first in 1791, but this was in the present town of La Fayette. The Olcotts, Holbrooks, Hibbards, Hinsdales, 408 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Aliens, Burrs, Messingers, Westerns and Cooks closely followed, so that there were several neighborhood settlements formed 1793-94. Flour and other things at first were brought from Whitestown, and stump mortars were used for pounding corn. Some early enactments were like those of other towns. In 1795 it was voted that "hogs be free commoners," and that "five dollars be paid for the scalp of any full grown wolf." The first lawyer was Samuel M. Hopkins, who soon went away. Daniel Wood was a lawyer at Pompey Hill in 1800, and Victory Birdseye in 1807, Daniel Gott coming afterward. Dr. Walter Colton was the first to permanently practice medicine in the village. Dr. Samuel Beach was a physician in 1798, and Dr. Josiah Colton settled two miles east of Pompey Hill in 1801. Clark says the first school teacher was Mr. J. Gould, but Lucy Jerome taught in Fabius before her marriage to James Geddes in 1799, and some have thought she did in Pompey. Clark is probably right. Onondaga 's Centennial said : ' ' The first building erected for school purposes was a frame structure built in 1796 (1798) in the forks of the road on the village green; in its rear was the first primitive graveyard. The school house was afterwards moved farther north, and school was continued in it until the erection of the academy building." Clark adds that "The first person who taught any thing beyond the rudiments of an English education, was Mr. James Robinson, who taught the classics and higher English, at the Hill, in 1805, 1806, 1807." This prepared the way for the Pompey academy, some action on which was taken in 1800. In a petition to the Regents of the University eighteen trustees were named for the proposed Franklin Academy. The Board of Supervisors approved of this in October, 1800, and the Regents next year granted the charter, condi tional on the erection of a suitable building. A contract was made July 20, 1807, but work seems to have commenced in 1803, and the building was finish ed in 1810. A full charter was obtained March 11, 1811, and Henry Sey mour became first president. The building was of wood, two stories high, and forty by fifty feet in extent. A new building was finished and opened in 1835. Many notable people were taught there. The valley near Onativia was known as Sherman Hollow, from James Sherman, who came there in 1793. Solomon Owen came the same year, and they built saw and grist mills between 1795 and 1798. Reuben Bryan, Amasa Wright, Samuel Hyatt, James Pierce and Amaziah Branch came there in 1794. The latter was the first teacher there and at La Fayette village. In the north part of Sherman Hollow John Houghtaling, Comfort Rounds and Wil liam Haskins were living in 1792. Samuel Sherwood seems the first settler near Delphi, locating on Lot 84 in 1795. In 1800 Rufus Sheldon settled one and a half miles northwest of the village, and in 1798-99 Elijah Hill settled three miles north. Ensign Hill, James McClure, Samuel Draper, Benjamin Coats, Elihu Barber, and others followed. The place had been called Pompey Four Corners, but when a name was to be chosen for a post office, the Pompey Re-union says some one "de- PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 409 clared the valley and its surroundings were similar to one with which he was famdiar in Italy, and suggested that the name of a village in that valley be given to the vidage in this. The suggestion meeting the approval of the citizens, the Italian (?) name Delphi was given to the settlement." The pretty falls, southeast of the vidage, are picturesque indeed, and some mills have been opened there. Near the village Charles Merriman taught in a log school- house in 1793, and another of logs was afterward built in the village near the Baptist church site. Some noted men have taught there. Among early settlers of the vidage were the Savages, Hubbards, Sweets and Shanklands. Dr. Ely kept a tavern there in 1804, and was succeeded by Daniel Hubbard, who was the first merchant. Schuyler Van Rensselaer was the first lawyer, in 1805, and was also the first postmaster in 1809. James Scoville, Joseph Bartholomew, Roswell and Asahel Barnes came to Oran before 1798, Mr. Bartholomew building the first log house, followed by the first frame house next year, in which he kept the first tavern there. A school was soon established, and there is a union church whose ownership has caused some strife. The cemetery is very neat and attractive. Watervale was settled by Colonel James Carr in 1809, who built the first sawmill there. Willoughby Milliard followed closely and built another. The place was called for a time, Hemlock, Slab and Carr Hollow. Ansel Judd, grandfather of Hon. A. J. Northrup of Syracuse, came in 1812, building the first wool-carding and cloth-dressing establishment in the town. He became first postmaster in 1820, and thus announced the new name, entitled "Naming the Place:" The old appelations attached to this place Create inconvenience as well as disgrace. By some 'tis called "Hemlock," by others "Slab Hollow," And names too approbrious and various to follow. We boast not of wealth, but we justly do claim From all our good neighbors a more decent name. The hemlocks are gone, the slabs are made sale ; We therefore resolve it shall be Watervale. This is more euphonious than part of it elsewhere quoted. When he built his fulling mill his Pegasus took a new flight headed "Another New Establishment, August 30, 1819:" Look near Milliard's saw mill, and there you will see A new fulling mill, sir, as good as can be. A workman, whom clothiers to us recommend As one well accomplished, will superintend. And we do engage, if your cloth comes this way, It shall be dressed well, or the damage we'll pay. To every direction we'd strictly adhere, And work with dispatch and greatest of care. You may pay us in grain, or in butter and cheese, In tallow or cloth, or in cash if you please. 410 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY The Spra'gues, Sweets and Averys were near Watervale, and here a youngster of the latter family got off the hoax of the Pompey stone, which lasted seventy-four years. Pompey Center is a hamlet of a dozen houses, inn, store and church. Buellvide, northwest of Oran, is much like this, lacking the church and inn, and there are other spots almost hamlets. Log City was a mile northwesterly from the hill, and once rivaled it. The first mills in town were at Pratt 's Falls ; the grist mill in 1798, and a sawmill a little earlier. Henry Seymour's wind- mill at Pompey Hill in 1810, was not a success, but a later one did better, and there have been several mills on Limestone creek. Daniel Wood was the first postmaster, in 1811, at Pompey Hill, previously called Butler's Hill. Conrad Bush lived on Lot 37, which he drew as a sol dier, and came there in 1800. Dr. Holbrook, at Pompey Center, 1793, was the first physician in the town. The Pompey Re-union says that Mr. Dunham was the first transient lawyer, succeeded about 1800 by John Keedar, who re mained for some time. The "First Presbyterian society of the town of Pompey" was formed June 16, 1794, according to Clark, at Mr. Butler's inn. It built a log church in 1798 at Pompey Hill, but this does not agree with Clark 's farther words. Rev. Mr. Robbins preached there in 1793, and effected this organization. The first settled preacher was Rev. Hugh Wallace, a Congregationalist, who formed the "First Religious Congregational Society" of Pompey, April 8, 1800. Clayton and the Pompey Re-union call the first "The First Congregational Church of Pompey," organized by Rev. Ammi R. Robbins, October 19, 1796, probably correctly, and that a church was built in 1817-18, when school rooms were out grown. They do not speak of a second organization. The society became Pres byterian in 1810, and the church was consecrated in January, 1818. Clark also mentioned that "A Union Congregational Society was formed near Captain Moltrops, Pompey, May 18th, 1809;" and spoke of the organization of the "Central Congregational society, Green's Corners, 5th February, 1822." A Baptist church was built soon after the Presbyterian at Pompey Hill. In 1834 Rev. J. I. Lowell adopted Alexander Campbell's views, and most of his people followed him. May 3, 1834, "The First Congregation of Disciples of Christ, of Pompey" was formed, and built a church in 1837, which they used till 1868, when the present one was erected. The first Baptist society in Pompey was organized in 1803, at Delphi, by Rev. Mr. Baker, and their church was built in 1819. The Methodists built a church at Delphi the same year, according to Clark, but he also said that "Zion Methodist society was organized at Delphi, January 22d, 1822." The present Methodist church at Pompey Hill was built in 1839. The earlier history is not very clear. There is also a Methodist church near the Old Indian Fort, and a Union church building at Pompey Center. Rev. Hugh Wallace formed the "Second Congregational church of the town of Pompey" at Oran, January 27, 1806. It was reorganized later that PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 411 year. The church, built in 1807-8, was the first frame one in the town. It is usually called a Union church, is termed the Pleasant Valley Free Church, and is mostly used by the Universalists. The Church of the Immaculate Conception, Father Mahon, Pompey Hill, is a spacious edifice with a large congregation. Father Mahon has annual historic celebrations for the public, which prove very profitable. Christ Church (P. E.) was at Clapp's Corners, and was built in 1828-29, the parish having been organized in 1823. The congregation moved away, and the church is now a bam, in good preservation too. The Averys were a notable family near Oran, where Punderson Avery settled in 1796. He had eleven children, one of whom, William Avery, was an inventor. Six of the Bishop brothers settled in Pompey 1793-94. Elizar Brace came in 1796, and was father of Rev. Samuel W. Brace. Victory Birdseye, a prominent lawyer, came in 1807, marrying Electa, daughter of Captain James Beebe, who came in 1793. His first name was hereditary. At the baptism of one of his ancestors the minister was so elated over a victory over the French, that he named the child Victory by mistake, and Victory it remained. Elihu Barber came in 1801 and became a leading farmer, so successful in dairying that he was known as "Butter Barber." Samuel Clement came in 1794, and was a teacher 1794-5. Seven Clarke brothers came at an early day, "Grace Greenwood" was of this family. Paul Clapp came in 1798, and left three sons. Hezekiah and Ezra Dodge came in 1795. David F., son of the latter, was instrumental in establishing the Roman Catholic church at Pompey Hill. The Fenners were an early family. The Rice family sent prominent representatives to Syracuse. The Haydens came in 1800, and were a large and prosperous family. The Hinsdells came in- 1795-96, and were also a large family, as the fashion was then. The Hibbards, 1794, were also prominent, as were the Hills, Hinmans and Holbrooks. Manoah Pratt came in 1796, and with Abraham Smith built mills at Pratt 's Falls. The Shattucks came before 1800. Timothy Sweet came in 1794, and was a conspicuous man, with many noted descendants. Elijah Wells, father of Deacon Asa H. Wells, came in 1799. The Wheaton family came in 1810, and have been prominent. William C. Fargo, father of the noted express man, came in 1817. Governor Horatio Seymour was born here, and the list might be extended. One little item of the history of Pompey may be mentioned. William Avery, who lived near Oran, built a small steamboat in 1822, which was first tried on the mill pond at Buellvide, then went to Cazenovia lake, and then to the Erie canal. The Onondaga Gazette, of October 1, 1823, said: "A steamboat built at Buellvide, in Pompey, passed through this village last week. ' ' The Pompey Re-Union of June 29, 1871, was an occasion of great interest, and was preceded by the following invitation. No like gathering has ever taken place in Onondaga county, though there have been many recent "home 412 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY weeks" elsewhere. It was suggested in 1870, when preliminary steps were taken. In May, 1871, over fifty Syracuse people, former residents of Pompey, held a co-operative meeting, and the invitation was soon issued. RE-UNION AT HOME Pompey, Onondaga Co., N. Y., June 1, 1871. You are most cordially invited to attend a Re-Union of the former resi dents of the old Town of Pompey — now Pompey and Lafayette — which will be held at Pompey Hill on Thursday, the 29th day of this month. WELLS M. BUTLER, RICH'D F. STEVENS, FRANK JEROME, Cor. Sec'y, Syracuse, N. Y. Ree. Sec'ys, Pompey, N. Y. Addresses were from these former residents : ex-Governor Horatio Sey mour of Utica, ex-United States Senator George H. Williams of Oregon, Judge Charles Mason of Washington, Major-General Henry Slocum and Judge Lucien Birdseye of Brooklyn, Hon. L. R. Marsh and Leonard W. Jerome of New York, Hon. Wm. G. Fargo of Buffalo, Hon. H. R. Duell of Cortland, Hon. D. G. Fort of Oswego, Judge Leroy Morgan and Hon. C. B. Sedgwick of Syracuse, with others, among them Grace Greenwood, or Mrs. Lippincott; was invited, but could not come. Many notable people were there on the appointed day, and thousands were gathered. Hon. D. P. Wood of Syracuse presided, and there were reminiscent speeches, mingling pathos and fun. Out of this grew the valuable volume entitled "Re-union of the Sons and Daughters of the Old Town of Pompey." Among local stories it is said that Ebenezer Butler bought Lot 65 of the soldier who drew it "for a horse, saddle and bridle." When the Pratt & Smith mills were built at Pratt's Falls in 1798, everything came from Con necticut except the timbers. Marketing was at first done at- Whitestown, Utica or Herkimer. Oxen were used for a long time, and sleds were useful on the hills. The first grist mill on Limestone creek at Delphi had two run of French burr stone, drawn from Albany and costing one hundred dollars. But how they lasted! Among other places was the "Clapp Settlement," and "Williams Cor ners," both in the northwest part of the town. Most towns have early bear stories, and Pompey could not do without a big one, but has to concede that the big bear lived in Fabius. He disregarded town lines, and carried off Pompey pork. And no wonder. As Pompey led in other things, -were there ever such porkers as were raised there ? He came once too often, and his fresh tracks were seen in the new snow. Guns, axes, pitchforks, men and dogs turned out. All roads led to Pompey hill, as once they led to Rome, and Bruin knew the way. Occasionally he had to fight for it, and somehow guns and axes failed to stop him. A deputy sheriff tried his authority, and his legal papers saved him. To be sure, he was floored, PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 413 but the bear's teeth were fixed in the huge pocketbook and before he could free them a sharp axe settled the contest. Law was victorious. Of course, after this hogs increased and in 1808 a hog constable was ap pointed. It was voted "that hogs to run at large in the town be yoked and ringed, except within half a mile of Colonel Hopkins', and there not allowed to run." For a time, as in other towns, stump mortars were used in mealing corn, and one served for several families. Clark said: "The first settlers obtained flour from Whitestown, many of whom went there on horseback to mill, and some on foot. True Worthy Cook took a bushel of wheat on his back to Herkimer, and brought back the flour, and Jacob Hoar brought his seed po tatoes half a bushel, on his back from Whitestown to Pompey Hill." Beside the distance, altitude must be considered in these burdensome trips, Pom pey hill being reckoned four miles up and three miles down. Clark relates the adventure of a young woman at Pratt's Falls. She went berrying, and narrowly escaped a burying of another kind, for she fell from the edge of the rocks. The falls are but one hundred and thirty-seven feet high, but the descent of the stream makes the precipice higher below, and it is added: "the whole distance from the place from which she fell, to the place at which she finally landed, was ascertained by actual measure, to be over one nundred and seventy feet." Her dress may have formed a para chute. Another young lady climbed into a perilous position, and had to be drawn up by a rope ; all of which goes to show that there is a special Providence for the fair women of Pompey. About Delphi there was a plague of caterpillars in 1798, not only on trees, but on the smaller vegetables and grain. This did not last long, and crops were good. "These insects were so numerous that they congregated m heaps on the eaves and chimneys of the houses at evening, and when fires were kin dled in the morning were very troublesome, often spinning down the low stick chimneys into the cookery, and when their day was over, in such quan tities had they accumulated that the atmosphere was completely tainted with their decaying remains." At "Indian Fort." Lot 23, was an earthwork. Clark said: "A part of this ground, when first occupied in these latter times, was called 'the Prairie.' and is noted now among the old men as the place where the first battalion training was held in the county of Onondaga." Slaves, of course, were held in Pompey, but the De Witt and De Puys families had so many that they raised tobacco, the first in the county. Wagons did not appear before 1804, and horses were scarce. It is related that Samuel Talbot, a noted chopper, not only chopped and corded over seven cords of maple in a day, but that he carried a large tool chest on his back from Syra cuse to Pompey Hill. Those were the days of big men — and big stories. Pompey Hill is a favorite resort in the summer, from its cool breezes, fine drives and magnificent views. Mr. Geddes 's notes on its temperature may well be quoted, promising only that three hundred to three hundred and fifty 414 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY feet in altitude usually makes a difference of one degree in temperature, stated a little more exactly by Mr. Geddes. "Pompey Hill is 1743 feet above tide, Onondaga Academy 400, the dif ference in elevation is 1343 feet. The observed average temperature at Pom pey Academy for 17 years is 42.84; of Onondaga for 16 years is 47.18; the difference 4.34, gives a degree of the thermometer for every 309 1-2 feet. The influence of elevation on the temperature was illustrated on the 15th day of September, 1859. The extreme cold killed everything growing on the hilly part of the county. Personal observations in the towns of Otisco, Tully, Fa bius and Pompey, proved that the injury was frightful. Descending the hills towards evening to the town of De Witt, it was found that the leaves of unharvested tobacco showed slight injury, which grew less and less as the elevation diminished. "Below the Helderberg range the effect of the frost was trifling. The outer ends of the corn leaves were touched as by a breath of fire, but the husks of the ears were safe, and the crop went on to maturity. On the great level north of the Erie canal, except in a few localities, the crops were scarcely af fected, and the ameliorating influence of Oneida lake, combined with dimin ished elevation, was a perfect protection to vegetation on its borders. Every- other large body of water did good service to the farmers that morning. In the vicinity of Skaneateles lake, Lima beans were the only vegetables touched. A month elapsed before we had another such a frost. Light colored and sandy soils, especially if they contain considerable vegetable matter, suffer more from late spring and early autumn frosts than darker ones. "Returns from 58 different localities, scattered over this State, report as their mean temperature, 46.49. The mean of Onondaga valley is 47.18, which is 0.69 above the average of the State. Pompey has a mean of 42.84, being 3.65 less than the mean of the State. The climate of Onondaga Acad emy may be safely taken as that of all the country north of the canal, while that of Pompey may, with some allowance, be taken for that lying in the southern part of the county, while the mean between may be assumed as the average of that belt that lies on the salt group, Helderberg range, and the Marcellus shales. The range of temperature in Onondaga county from north to south is very great, the cold becoming more intense as we go south, owing to increased elevation. ' ' Mr. Coffin says of Pompey, " It is the coldest place reported in the State ; colder even than those in the extreme northern counties. But it is rather re markable that, while this is the fact, the thermometer does not sink so low there in the winter, nor do the autumnal frosts occur so early as in the State generally." The escape from autumnal frosts is probably due to the fact that there is more wind blowing at Pompey Hill than in the valleys and lower grounds of the county. "The annual average of water that falls in rain and snows at Pompey Academy is 29.46 inches ; at Onondaga 31.40. Pompey is on the summit of the highlands, and Onondaga Academy is at the base. The distance between the PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 415 two points of observation, in a direct line, is ten miles very nearly, and the difference in elevation is 1,343 feet, equal to 134 feet to the mile. Hills are condensers of the vapor in the air, but their own summits do not receive the benefit of the greatest fall of water. Along the base of the range the showers are the most abundant, as is seen by Onondaga valley receiving two inches more than Pompey." It may be added that the Syracuse weather station shows more cloudy weather here than in any part of the state. Mr. Geddes adds : "The average course of the winds in the county is south 67 deg. 8 min. west; while the average of the South is south 76 deg. 54 min. west; giving 9 deg. 46 min. more southing to our winds, and, of course, by so much greater warmth than the State generally." The first marriage in the town was that of Zachariah Kinne and Diadama Barnes, and the first death that of Mrs. James Cravath. Henry Seymour opened the first store. In 1836 Pompey Hill had three churches, academy, two taverns, four stores kept by Beach Beard & Sons, Wm. J. Curtis, Horace Wheaton, and Samuel Baker; Joseph Beach and Merrit Butler were blacksmiths; Alfred Kingsbury, wagon maker; Charles and Wm. Webb, furniture dealers; Daniel Gott, Vic tory Birdseye and Daniel Wood, lawyers; Jehiel Stearns and Riall Wright, physicians ; Timothy Butterfield, builder. In 1886 it had four churches, acad emy, three general stores, three blacksmiths, carriage shop, physician and lawyer. In Delphi in 1836 were Matthew B. Slocum and Herrick Allen, mer chants; James Larrabee, wagon maker; Samuel Thomas, harness shop; Sam uel S. Fisher, hatter; Charles Button, shoe shop; Caleb Perry, tanner; Homer Hayes and Sylvester Wires, coopers; Samuel and David Palmer, blacksmiths; Hiram K. Taylor, distiller ; Crosby & Estes, and Theophilus Tracy, millers ; Joshua Pete, wood corder ; Samuel Foot, fuller ; Alvin Fox, hotel ; John Good- ell, physician; Mr. Grodivent, cabinet shop; John Switzer, Baptist preacher; Elisha Littlefield, postmaster. In 1886 the place had three churches, two gen eral stores, one drug store, one hardware store, two cigar factories, two meat markets, two blacksmith shops, two grist mills, two sawmills, a physician, law yer, cooper, carpenter, undertaker, wagon shop, shoe shop, harness shop and hotel. There was but one minister. Watervale had Sprague & Sweetland's grist mill in 1836; Ira Curtis, hotel ; Wheaton & Keath, general store ; Charles Carr and 0. Abbott, sawmills ; Marcellus and Marcus Barnum, wool cording and cloth dressing; Lucius Bar num, tanner and harness- maker; Henry Hustiss, wagon shop; Samuel Wood- worth, blacksmith; 0. Abbott, maker of threshing machines; Adam Grove, tailor. The mails were carried by W. G. Fargo & Sons, one of these being afterward Hon. W. G. Fargo of Buffalo. In 1886 the village had a grist, saw and cider mill, blacksmith shop, wagon shop and a general store. Pompey Center in 1836 had a general store and post office, a firm of tan ners and shoemakers, shoe shop, tailor, two hotels and a physician, Dr. Briggs. It still has a store and hotel. 416 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY CHAPTER XLIX. TOWN OF SALINA. This town was formed March 27, 1809, having its name from its saline works and springs. It was mostly in the Salt Springs reservation, but in cluded nine and one-half lots from the northwest corner of Manlius. Part of the reservation was laid out in lots for making salt in 1797. Next year a village was laid out and called Salina, whence the town took its name. In 1847 the village became the first ward of Syracuse, reducing the limits of the town, as also by the erection of Geddes in 1848. The original village was a square of sixteen blocks, each six chains square. with intermediate streets.; each lot containing four house lots. No lot was to be sold for less than forty dollars, and a building gave a pre-emption right. Settlement began at once, with primitive and peculiar dwellings. Sills were laid on four posts, set up with plates on top. The posts were grooved on the sides facing each other, and into the grooves were dropped the ends of sticks laid horizontally, one on the other. These made four rude walls, which were then plastered with mud or clay, mixed with straw. In 1788 or 1789. Nathaniel Loomis, John Danforth, Asa Danforth, Jr.; Hezekiah Olcott, Thomas Gaston and Deacon Loomis came, and were soon prominent salt makers. Colonel Jeremiah Gould came with his three sons in 1790, and he built the first frame house at Salina and in the county in 1792. March 2, 1792, Isaac Van Vleck came with his wife and four children, and built the first arch used there. His family made the sixth permanent residents. "His son Abraham was born there October 16, 1792, apparently the first white child born in what is now Syracuse, and the first white male child born in the county. In memory of one just dead the Indians called him Ne-un-hoo-tah, i. e., sorrow for the dead, and by this name he was known to then}. His father was also called Ka-hunk-a-ta-wah, one spry enough to skip over water. Mrs. Van Vleck was Con-o-roo-quah, one of pleasant disposition, and her daughter, aft erward Mrs. 0 'Biennis was Jo-an-te-no. Many settlers had Indian names. A monument to Isaac Van Vleck in Oakwood, says he died May 19, 1801, aged fifty-eight, and that Bata, his wife, died March 1, 1816. aged fifty-three. This would make their respective ages at settlement forty-nine and twenty-nine. Another stone in memory of another early salt boiler, says that John 0 'Biennis was born in 1777, and died in 1813. He came in 1794. Several families came in 1793, and that year Van Vleck brought a large hand mill from Albany for use in grinding corn. That year John Danforth built the second frame house. Sickness was fearfully prevalent, and Dr. David Holbrook, at Jamesville, was the nearest physician, but faithful in his at tendance. Dr. Burnett settled at Salina in 1797 and drainage and the lowering of the lake gradually removed the fevers, yet as late as 1830 Hon. Thomas G. Alvord said he had seen the canal bridge covered with those just able to be out in the sun. GENESEE AND SALINA STREETS, LAYING FIRST PAVEMENT IN EARLY '80s. EAST GENESEE STREET NEAR WARREN IN EARLY '80s. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 417 The alarm of 1794 belongs to the general history. David Brace came that year, and is said to have carried mail on horseback to Oswego, guided by blazed trees. Benejah Byington and Oris Curtis came just after, and Ben jamin Carpenter opened a store in 1795. Elisha Alvord, father of Thomas G. Alvord, came in 1794, and his brother Dioclesian four years later. The former erected the first salt block, and in 1808 laid out the salt road, from Salina through Cicero to Sackett's Harbor. He was also first supervisor of the town in 1809, and prominent in all business and public affairs. Thomas Wheeler and Ichabod Brackett were merchants about 1800. Later merchants were Richard Goslin, Richard C. Johnson, Davenport Morey, Thomas McCarthy, Dean Rich mond, etc. William D. Stewart was born in Salina in 1805. After being with some stage lines he ran a packet boat for seventeen years, and was long the popular landlord of the Syracuse House. He was made mayor of Syracuse in 1865, serving three terms. In early days towns had three days' elections, changing from point to point, an admirable arrangement for repeaters. While Geddes and Salina were connected they were held one day in Geddes, half a day in Liverpool, closing with a day in Salina. Later and down to 1846, Geddes and Liverpool had each half a day, Salina and Syracuse each one. In rural towns these made lively times. From the central village forces were detailed to the outlying polls, and racing and cheering were features of the home trip. Elections were by no means dry, and one without a fight was a tame affair indeed. In 1809 the town valuation, including Geddes, was fifty-three thousand and forty-two dollars, the tax being about one per cent. Alas, for the good old days when we had unpaved and unlighted streets, no fire department, li braries or public schools, no police and no need of any, and therefore much less to pay. Elizur Clark came in 1823, and became a leading citizen, prominent in public affairs and banking interests. There were then twenty stores in Salina, and of course a distillery. What would Salt Point have been without one? The. old Eagle tavern was kept by Jonathan R. Beach in 1810, and burned in 1856. John G. Forbes was the first lawyer there as early as 1809. The first salt boiler settled disputes by a quicker process than the law afforded. Enos D. Hopping was also a lawyer there, but was made brigadier-general of volunteers by President Polk, and died in Mexico. In 1824 Salina village had one hundred dwellings and sixty salt works. There was a village pound in 1828, and the first paving record was in 1829. That year a fire department was equipped, the village having been in corporated March 12, 1824, with Fisher Curtis as president. Streets and sidewalks were improved, bringing it practically nearer to Syracuse, of which it became a part by act of December 14, 1847. March 18, 1848, the town of Geddes was set off. After that the village history is that of Syracuse. The openiqg of the Oswego canal helped Liverpool, or "Little Ireland," as it was usually called at first. Before 1800, and later, it was a shipping point with a lively trade, and was laid out as a village by the surveyor- 418 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY general, and given its present name. April 20, 1830, the village was incor porated, with Joseph Jaqueth as first president. He had a store, and there were two others. Rev. Phineas Kamp was a clergyman there in 1836. At an early day Mr. Connor, of O'Connor, taught school and made salt — Attic salt, perhaps, for his "high school" had a fine reputation. A brick schoolhouse was built in 1846, and enlarged in 1863. The Liverpool Union Free school was organized in 1874. Joseph and Sampson Jaqueth did much for the place and themselves, and were succeeded by other prosperous merchants and business men. Hotels were a feature of the place, and manufacturers of salt lived there, conspicuous among whom were the Gleasons, Gales, Jaqueths and Van Alstynes. After 1873 this industry declined, and the last block was abandoned about 1890. About 1855 the growing of basket willows commenced and gradually increased for a considerable time. The whole town was suitable for their cultivation, and they were grown in all parts. In 1870 there were made eight thousand dozen baskets ; in 1892 thirty-three thousand dozen ; and about twen ty-eight thousand dozen in 1895. At one time, also, boat building was an important industry. The Syracuse & Northern railroad was opened through here November 9, 1871. Soon after the Phoenix branch was opened at Woodard, which be came a post office. Both these roads are now included in the New York Cen tral line. The Rapid Transit has also an electric line here. The Brewerton and the Bridgeport plank roads were laid out through the east part of the town. The site of the Jesuit mission and of Frontenac 's fort is on the Moyer farm, and the Iroquois League is said to have been formed near the lake, just north of Liverpool. The first Methodist church in Liverpool was formed in 1820, and a build ing erected in 1826, since remodeled. The Presbyterian society was formed November 9, 1829, and its church was built in 1841. This was replaced by a brick edifice, dedicated March 4, 1863. The first pastor was Rev. Phineas Kamp. Ascension church (P. E.) was formed in 1840, and a church was built next year. The first rector was Rev. (now Bishop) George D. Gillespie. The society became extinct, and St. Paul's German Lutheran church, organized in 1852, bought the building in 1853, and still uses it. The -first pastor was T. W. Reichenberg. This society was preceded by the Salem church of the Evangelical Association of North America, formed in 1844. It built a chapel in that year, followed by another in 1886. The Roman Catholics erected a frame church here in 1890. Newspaper efforts have not thriven here. Since 1875 there have been three papers started, of which the Lakeside Press and the Liverpool Times had but a short duration. The Liverpool Telegraph begun May 21, 1892, by Wil liam F. Brand, had a longer life. The town gradually increases in population, and Liverpool and its vi cinity will become a desirable residence suburb of Syracuse. The barge canal may give it commercial importance. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 419 In early days there was sometimes a scarcity of provisions, and then fishing and hunting helped out. Deer were plentiful and often herded with the cows. "Bears, wolves, foxes, coons, and other small animals were also very plentiful. The Indians caught many young bears and traded them to the set- lers, who in turn exchanged them with the boatman for provisions. Prominent among the very early boatmen was a man known as Captain Canute, who ran a boat hither from Albany, bringing in provisions, etc., in exchange for salt, furs, young bears and other animals, for which he found a ready market to the eastward." Clark was told by old residents that "they at different times procured bread, biscuits, salted meat, and fish that were made and cured in England, which, though of inferior quality, were nevertheless accepted with a relish which hunger never fails to give." These came by way of Kingston, Canada, and Oswego. Mr. Lamb was an early settler at Green Point, and Mrs. 0 'Biennis told this story of the family. She was the daughter of Isaac Van Vleck, who came to Salina in 1792 : "In 1793, when Mr. Lamb's daughter was about fourteen years old, she was left alone in the rude house while he attended to his farm work. Hearing a noise in the house, Mr. Lamb approached and saw an Indian kissing his daughter and taking liberties with her. Mr. Lamb killed the Indian on the spot and fled to Salina. The Indians declared they must have his life, accord ing to their custom. The chiefs were called together, with Ephraim Webster as interpreter, and the facts were narrated. A council was held (the last one at Salina) and Kiacdote stepped forward, threw off his blanket and com manded attention. He then related the circumstances to the tribe and said it was the first time an Indian had ever been known to insult a white squaw. He declared that the killing was justifiable and that Mr. Lamb must not be punished. This decision was adopted, provided Mr. Lamb would pay to the relatives of the dead Indian, a three-year-old heifer which was to cement peace and good will between the posterity of both parties forever." The old chief's statement was true, and Indians do not favor kissing. In 1820 a son of Red Jacket and a Seneca girl were married by a missionary, who informed the bridegroom that a white man would salute his bride, though it was not necessary. The couple consulted, and said they would omit the kiss, seeing no use in it. In early days most of the barrels were made by Germans, and this eco nomic use of wood lessened the sale of ashes, while in many other parts trees were burned to get rid of them, men being employed to collect the ashes to make potash. Clark also said of that early period: "So common were wolves and bears at this time, that it was not unusual for these animals to be seen passing along the path leading from Cicero to Onondaga, as fearless and unconcerned as if entirely among the wild beasts of the forests, or completely domesticated. And 420 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY from the frequency of these recurrences, these paths were named the bear and wolf paths, and two of the streets running north from Main street, in the first ward of Syracuse, from this circumstance, are now called Wolf and Bear streets." He also tells how, when nearly all the thirty people of Salt Point were sick in 1793, Patrick Riley "drew all his own wood for salt block, boiled salt every day and half the nights, and every alternate night watched with the sick, for a period of two months without a single night of intermission." The Indians helped, with fresh fish and venison. They had drunken frolics there indeed, but exercised caution. Clark again said: "They almost invariably divested themselves of all deadly weapons, and deposited them in some safe place in the keeping of a confidential person, and went to the work of excessive drunkenness with all their might and main." Sometimes one remained sober to restrain the rest. It was a great improvement when a road crossed the marsh from Salina to Geddes. Bearings were got from Salina to a salt boiler's chimney in Geddes. Then brush was cut, laid across the line of the road and covered with earth. Logs are so mixed with peat in the marsh that clearing for cultivation, after drainage, proved very expensive. This marsh contained marine plants of several kinds. The double freight tracks laid here by the New York Central railroad greatly relieved Syracuse. When the salt sheds on the higher land are removed, it may be expected that fine residences will line the lake shore. The following account appeared in 1836, in Gordon's Gazetteer: "Salina, one and a half miles north of Syracuse, was formerly a very thrifty village, but has been overshadowed by its younger sister, Syracuse, where now the principal portion of the commerce of this region centres. So rapid, however, will be the increase of population at both villages, that a 'very few years must blend them into one. The village lies upon a plain rising near the centre of a marsh and extending southeastwardly and southerly, limited on one side by the Cedar swamp along Onondaga creek, and on the other by a marsh and swamp upon the same stream, running into the lake. It contains 1 Presbyte rian, 1 Methodist and 1 Catholic church, 3 taverns, 9 stores, The Bank of Sa lina, with a capital of $150,000 and 77 salt manufactories, and the great salt spring which supplies the works here, at Liverpool, and at Syracuse, the water being conveyed in subterranean logs. The brine is forced to the top of a reservoir 85 feet high, by pumps driven by the surplus waters of the Oswego canal, at the rate of 300 gallons per minute; whence it is distributed to the factories. ' ' In 1836 Liverpool, on the lake and Oswego canal, four and one-half miles north of Syracuse, contained two taverns, four stores, and about sixty dwell ings, mostly of wood. Phineas Kamp was a clergyman; Joseph Malton, school principal ; C. S. Sterling and Caleb Hubbard, physicians ; J. & J. G. Hasbrook, L. & J. Corbin, and Joseph Jaqueth, merchants. During the year 1834 a large reservoir was built between Liverpool and Salina, on the high ground midway, to accommodate the factories of the former village. In 1886 Liverpool had three hotels, four saloons, two barbers, three blacksmiths, five dressmakers, PAST. AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 421 three livery stables, two general stores, three physicians, two meat markets, three groceries, two confectioners, two painters, two drug stores, hardware store, wagon shop, shoe store, grist mill, sawmill, brick yard, lawyer, chemist, cooper shop, coal yard, undertaker, milliner and shoemaker. It is now a quiet place, where abandoned salt works may be seen. CHAPTER L. THE TOWN OF SKANEATELES. Skaneateles has its name from its lake, the word meaning long lake, a slightly differing form of which appears elsewhere. It was set off from Mar cellus February 26, 1830, and a small part of Spafford was annexed March 18, 1840. It now includes forty-one military lots, or twenty-four thousand six hundred acres. The town records were burned in 1836. John Thompson has had the credit of being the first settler in 1793, on Lot 18, a little northwest of the village. It now appears that, while he owned land there and elsewhere in 1794, he was not a resident there for some years later, his deeds giving his residence as Stillwater, Saratoga county, New York, in 1801, 1806 and 1819. In 1794 he bought fifty acres of Lot 18, and sold this January 12, 1821, giving his residence as Marcellus for the first time. In 1810, however, there is a record of John Thompson and Charlora Adams of Mar cellus, administrators. In no deed is his wife included, and he probably had none. Clark said: "Mrs. Thompson was the first white woman who came to this town, and lived here nearly a year without seeing a white person except her own family." Mr. E. N. Leslie patiently went through all the records, and established the facts above, making him a non-resident bachelor. Abraham A. Cuddeback came from Minisink, New York, arriving at Skaneateles June 14, 1794, with his wife and eight children. He was forty- three days on the way, and brought cattle. He did not at once buy lands, but leased from De Witt, purchasing later, on the west side of the lake, where he left many descendants. Elijah Bowen came the same year, settling on Lot 39, and purchasing part of this May 22, 1800. Mr. Leslie says that Elijah Bowen came in the spring of 1793, with a yoke of oxen, selected his land and did some clearing, made a temporary shelter, building a cabin the next year and bringing his family in the summer of 1794. Why he does not make him the first settler, instead of Cuddeback, does not clearly appear. Benajah Bowen settled near his brother, at a distance from neighbors, and the road leading there was known as the Bowen road. The Bowen log house became head quarters for all new comers. Winston Day was the first merchant in Skaneateles in 1796, on the north line of the present village, oh the road to Mottville, but in 1797 he had a sec ond store on the Lake House site. He was supervisor of Marcellus in 1798, 422 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY and senior partner of several firms at various times. For thirty-five years he was a stirring business man, dying September 5, 1831, aged sixty-four years. Nehemiah Earll came from Onondaga in June, 1796, settling near what was afterward called "the Red House." Nearby his father, Robert Earll, had a tannery by the creek in 1797. He is said to have been the first tanner in the county. The family became large and influential, and lived for some dis tance along the line of the creek. Robert Earll is credited with a saw and grist mill on the outlet about 1797. William Clift came in 1795, and his house was a tavern for nearly sixty years. Jacob Annis settled on the west side of the lake, at the village, in 1795. Lovell Gibbs built the first frame house at the village in 1796. Dr. Hall came that year, and erected the second frame dwelling. James Porter came in 1797, and built and opened the first tavern in town. The timbers are said to have formed the first raft on the lake. David Welch located on Lot 73, in 1798, building the first frame barn in 1800. Benjamin Nye came in 1798 and opened the first brick yard. Jedediah Sanger purchased land and made improvements, building the first dam at Skaneateles village in 1797, and a grist and sawmill there about the same time. There is some confusion of dates or facts. Clark says these were built in 1796, but then says that Warren Hecox, in 1799, sent a boy eighteen miles to Mottville in Sempronius, to get a bushel of wheat ground. The date of Colonel Hecox 's coming is a little uncertain. He was a shoemaker in Skaneateles in 1807, but then it is said "he learned his trade of David Sey mour, on the west side of the lake. ' ' The latter statement may be doubted, as he was colonel of the one hundred and fifty-ninth regiment in 1812, and a lieu tenant in 1801. He died March 29, 1852. It is said also that this David Sey mour settled on Lot 37, about 1804, and it is not likely he would have learned then. October 12, 1801, Judge Sanger sold Hecox a lot on the west side of the outlet, where he afterward always lived. He was a portly man, of much force of character. The Seneca Tumipke company built the first bridge over the outlet in 1800. It was twenty-four rods long, twenty-four feet wide, and stood on fourteen wooden piers. It was a fine place for fishing with lines or flat nets. In 1843 the length was reduced to twenty-four feet, and the State built an iron bridge in 1871. When the Moravians were there in 1750 they crossed as best they could. The Genesee turnpike was one and a fourth miles north of the lake; the Seneca turnpike ran through the village, where the Cherry Valley turnpike intersected it, so that it was a center for stages. General Robert Earll built a schoolhouse near his home soon after he came, Miss Edith Williams being the first teacher in this. Clark says there was a private school in the village, taught by Ebenezer Castle before 1798. In that year the first frame schoolhouse was built, Nicholas Otis being the first teacher. The Skaneateles Academy was incorporated April 14, 1829, and a brick building was erected. This became the Union School in 1844, and in 1855 a new schoolhouse was built, and afterward enlarged. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 423 The Skaneateles Telegraph was published by William H. Child, July 28, 1829, and became the Skaneateles Columbian, published by John Greves, in 1831. Milton A. Kinney became proprietor in 1833, and was editor till 1853. Part of the time it was owned by Pratt & Keeney, and by George M. Kinney.- Pratt & Keeney, and afterward Pratt & Beauchamp, published the Juvenile Depository for a time. The Skaneateles Democrat was started by William M. Beauchamp, January 3, 1840, and, after some changes, came into the hands of Harrison B. Dodge. He leased it to Will T. Hall, January 1, 1890, who conducted it till his death. It was suspended for a time, and then resumed by Wheaton & Dodge. Mr. Beauchamp issued the Minerva, May, 1844, continuing it for two years. The Communitist was also published for a time, in 1844, at Com munity place, Skaneateles Falls. The Skaneateles Free Press was started March 21, 1874, by J. C. Stephenson, under whose able management it has been a great success. April 19, 1833, Skaneateles village was incorporated, Freeborn G. Jew- ett being president. The corporate limits were enlarged in 1870 to about one mile square, and in 1855 the village was reincorporated under the new state law. In March, 1863, the Lake Bank was organized, Anson Lapham, president. In 1866 it became the First National Bank, and was finally merged in Charles Pardee's private banking business. The Skaneateles Savings Bank was in corporated April 16, 1866, John Barrow, president, and is still doing busi ness. The Bank of Skaneateles was incorporated under the state law, June 10, 1869, Joel Thayer, president. This also is well sustained. The most prominent hotels have been the Indian Queen in the center of the village at an early day; the Lake House, which succeeded, and which was burned July 19, 1870; the Sherwood House, west of the bridge, afterward Lamb's Hotel or the Houndayaga House, and later called the Packwood House; a tavern at the east end of the village, kept by Fuller & Rooks, and burned April 9, 1841. Several horses perished. Skaneateles has had many disastrous fires, the worst being that which destroyed most of the business places, September 28, 1835. Next to this was that of February 5, 1842, when the woolen factory, machine shop, flouring mill and storehouses were burned. A stone mill, which replaced the old one, was burned in its turn, and mulling in the village has long been abandoned. The Skaneateles Water Company was organized August 11, 1887, George Barrow, president. Water is pumped from the lake to a stand pipe. Elec tric light, comes from Elbridge. The lake also supplies water to Syracuse and the Erie canal. The Skaneateles Library Company was incorporated March 2, 1806, and lasted till 1840. There was a Mechanics' Library, 1834-42, with a literary association. William M. Beauchamp had a circulating library, 1833-50. There was also an anti-slavery library, and a fine library belonging to the school. The Skaneateles Library Association was incorporated October 20, 1877. In 1880 the commodious stone building was erected. It has a good cabinet, 424 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY many fine pictures, and an art gallery, built, filled and presented by John D. Barrow, the artist. Charles L. Elliott painted many fine pictures here. Several men of note came about 1800, as Jesse Kellogg, who owned mill property; Eli Clark and Asa Mason, Amos Miner the inventor, who built fac tories for his wares at several points; Colonel William J. Vredenburg, who gave the place an impetus when he came in 1803. He bought the unsold parts of Lot 36 from Judge Sanger, and some land nearly opposite St. James' church, where Levi Sartwell then kept a small tavern. Colonel Vred enburg 's own mansion — a palatial one for those days, was on the hill farther east, and was long known as the Kedogg place. On the land were sixteen graves without headstones. The remains were transferred to the present cemetery. In April, 1804, he became the first postmaster, and died May 9, 1813. The Halls, some of them noted carriage-makers, came in 1806. John Legg, successful in the same business, came in 1804. Aaron Austin came in 1796, establishing the first fulling mill in the county. Joseph Root came in 1804, Elijah Parsons in 1805, and Nathaniel Miller in 1807. Isaac Sherwood, the great stage proprietor, came at an early day, and owned a tavern. He built the Auburn House and died in Auburn, but was buried in Skaneateles. It is said of the men. of his family that any three would weigh a thousand pounds. Charles J. Burnett, postmaster 1817-43, married Colonel Vredenburg 's daughter, and was a merchant. Warren Hecox was a tanner and shoemaker, and a leading man. John Snook, of Snook's pills fame in England, came in 1832, and promoted the teasel industry. His son John was a stirring and influential man. Charles Pardee was a prominent early merchant. William M. Beauchamp opened a bookstore in 1834 and afterward a printing office. Dorastus Kellogg was long a woolen manufacturer in the village and town. William Gibbs, John S. Furman, Judges Kellogg and Jewett, the Sanfords, R. S. Wolcott, Phares Gould, Stephen Horton, C. W. Allis, Samuel Francis, Joel Thayer, Parsons & Rust, the Hawleys, etc., were men of early prominence in the village. Dr. Munger was the first physician, succeeded by Dr. Samuel Porter at a very early day. Dr. Judah B. Hopkins came later, and was suc ceeded by Dr. Levi Bartlett, respectively the grandfather and father of Judge Edward T. Bartlett, who was born in this village. Dr. Michael D. Benedict was a later noted physician. Nearly two miles south of the village, on the west shore, was the "Friends Female Boarding School," known as the "Hive," established by Lydia P. Mott, soon after 1818. It had a high reputation, but was discontinued about 1838. Many amusing stories are connected with it. Mrs. Mott died in the village April 15, 1862. Many temperance societies flourished and died out, and several literary and educational societies had the same experience, in which also various schools shared. There was an early agricultural society of brief duration, 1836-39. Another followed in 1845, merged into the Farmers' Club December 30, 1855. This flourished for many years. During the civil war a Ladies' PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 425 Aid Society did excellent work, and a soldiers' monument was unveiled Sep tember 4, 1895. A soldiers' tablet is also in St. James' church. In 1846 an Odd Fellows lodge was formed, lasting for some years, and there is now Skaneateles Encampment, No. 107, in place of an earlier one. .. In later years Elbridge Lodge, No. 275, has met here. Village Lodge, Marcellus No. 80, F. & A. M., was warranted January 8, 1799, Ebenezer R. Hawley, W. M. It was the first lodge of the county and he was the first justice of the/ peace in Skaneateles, and was sheriff of the county in 1801. The Rev. Thomas Robbins, by request, preached before it on St. John's day, June 24, 1802, and had a five dollar fee. In the Free Masons' Monitor for 1802 this lodge is eighty-second in order. It was never represented in the grand lodge, and its number was given to another lodge in 1819. Skaneateles Lodge has a framed certificate of membership issued by a lodge at Canton, Conn., September 19, 1827, to Correl Humphreys and ad dressed to Village Lodge, No. 29. He is said to have demitted from the latter lodge, December 1, 1868, and affiliated with Skaneateles Lodge on the same day, but on neither of these dates was Village Lodge in existence. This re markable man died October 17, 1885, aged eighty-one. In a letter he said that he became a Free Mason in 1827, and came to Skaneateles that year. In Leslie's History of Skaneateles is a good picture of him, wearing his antique Masonic apron. Corinthian Lodge received a dispensation March 26, 1852, and lasted for some years. Skaneateles Lodge, F. & A. M., was chartered June 12, 1862, John H. Gregory, W. M. December 10, 1869, Charles H. Piatt Chapter, No. 247, R. A. M., was organized, Henry J. Hubbard, H. P. The present H. P. is Frederick J. Humphreys. Paper, mills, woolen factories, lime kilns, chair factories, distilleries, brew eries, foundries, machine shops, etc., have flourished along the outlet forming several hamlets. Willow Glen or Kellogg 's Factory was one; Glenside another, and Hartlot another still. Mottville was often called Sodom, and was named after Arthur Mott, who had a woolen factory here about 1820. S. L. and H. B. Benedict, and Alanson Watson were successful merchants here. Skaneateles Falls has be come a thriving place. Near this was the old Community Place, once called "No God," from the atheistical views of its people. Mandana, named after the mother of the great Cyrus, is a small place in the southwest part of the town. The Shepard settlement, in the northeast part, has its name from early settlers. The Society of Friends was well represented on the western shore, where the Willetts, Frost and Lawton families were prominent. Silas Gaylord and Aiden T. Corey were influential men. The Talcotts, Fullers, Barrows, Lap- hams, Allis and others maintained the high standing of the Quakers in the village. A society was organized about 1812, and a meeting house was built near the octagon schoolhouse. In the division of 1828 the Hicksites retained this, and the orthodox party built another near the village. This was torn down in 1873, and another erected in a central spot. 426 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Church services were held in the Burnett homestead, and the "Red House," a mile north in 1803. St. James' parish (P. E.), was formed January 4, 1816, and reorganized April 19, 1829. Rev. Augustus L. Converse presiding. A church was built in 1827, enlarged in 1847, and made way for the present fine stone church, consecrated January .6, 1874. Rev. Frank N. Westcott has long been the rector. The Universalist church at Mottville was built in 1831, Rev. Jacob Chase being the first pastor. In 1834 a Methodist church was built at Skanea teles, and enlarged in 1853. The present brick church was built in 1859 as a free church, a character it did not long maintain. In 1869 it was remodeled and enlarged. At Skaneateles Falls a Methodist society was formed, and a church built in 1877. The edifice was dedicated February 6, 1878. The Methodists also fitted up an old schoolhouse for services in 1872 at Mottville, which was dedicated January 24, 1873. A new church was dedicated Sep tember 10, 1885. After services began about 1845, the Roman Catholics commenced a church in Skaneateles village in May, 1853, which was consecrated September 7, 1856. This was burned May 23, 1866, and a new brick church was conse crated June 30, 1867. This is St. Mary's of the Lake. Rev. William McCallion was the first pastor. Rev. F. J. Purcell succeeded him in 1865, and had an extremely long and useful pastorate. St. Bridget's chapel at Skaneateles Falls, was dedicated September 20, 1874. Steamboats were not at first successful on the lake. The Independence, the first one, made her trial trip July 22, 1831. She at last became the schooner Constitution. The Highland Chief followed, with a like fate. The Skaneateles, 1848, was fairly successful, but the Homer, 1849, proved a losing investment. The propeller Ben H. Porter, 1866, had a longer existence. The Glenhaven, Ossahinta and City of Syracuse have had a large trade, and now there are many launches and motor boats on the lake. There was some early attention to yachting, but regattas in which several lakes participated, did not come till 1847. The sport ran high for a number of years. In 1854 the Skaneateles Model Yacht Club was organized, with a code of signals, reviews, etc. Edwin E. Potter was commodore. This passed away with the dawn of more important events. A few years since interest partially revived, a yacht club on a broader basis exists, and there are some exciting contests. Skaneateles had early plans for railroads, and its first railroad company was incorporated May 16, 1836. Construction began in 1838, and it was opened to Skaneateles Junction September 30, 1840. The rails were of wood, and the motive power was a horse. The first depot for passengers was oppo site the Packwood House. The road was getting in fair shape when the plank road mania broke out, and it was abandoned. Later it was resumed with fair earnings as a steam road, and thus it is continued. Since the coming of the successful electric road its passenger traffic is less. Captain Benjamin Lee, father of Bishop Alfred Lee of Delaware, lived two miles south of the village, on the east shore. In early life he had been a PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 427 British midshipman and had a remarkable escape from death by court-martial. Between 1824 and 1827 he made many accurate soundings of the lake, of which a chart is preserved. Nathan K. Hall, postmaster-general under Fillmore, was born in the town, and Fillmore himself had worked here. Freeborn G. Jewett, chief jus tice of the court of appeals, was a notable man, and Judge Marvin no less so. The Skaneateles Religious Society was organized October 29, 1801, by Rev. Aaron Bascom. It was a Congregational society till 1818, when it became Presbyterian. The first church on the hill at the east end of the village, was dedicated March 1, 1809. A new brick church was built on the present site in 1830, and rebuilt in 1891. This had a high steeple with a fish for a vane, afterward replaced by a dome. The one on the hill was sold to the Baptists, who after a time rebuilt it on the present site in 1842. Their society was organized about 1832. The old church was thought a fine edifice in its day. April 26, 1841, a later Congregational society was organized, which occupied Congregational Hall for a few years. In the middle of the last century Skaneateles had no more venerated citizen than Nicholas J. Roosevelt, some of whose notable descendants make the village their summer home still. He died there July 30, 1854, at the age of eigh ty-seven years, after a residence of about eighteen years. Up to his coming he had led a busy life, and it has been said that none of his children were born at home. Among other things he became interested in steam navigation, and was at the trial of Fitch's boat in 1796. Two years later he launched a small steamboat on the Passaic river, and made a trial trip with invited guests. Chancellor Livingston proposed a partnership to him in December, 1797, and the result was an agreement between Livingston, Stephens and Roosevelt to build a boat propelled by steam. The trial then was a failure. Some years later Mr. Roosevelt, accompanied by his wife, made the first descent of the Ohio river by steam, a memorable trip in many ways. As he first proposed the use of steam engines for motive power on boats, he was asked why he did not anticipate Fulton in the application of these ; it seemed he was too busy a man, and replied: "At the time Chancellor Livingston's horizontal- wheel machine failed, I was under a contract with the corporation for supplying the city of Phila delphia with water by means of two steam- engines ; and, besides, I was under a contract with the United States to erect rolling works and supply the Government with copper rolled and drawn for six 74-gun ships that were then to be built." In his placid and dignified old age, no one would have thought him such a stirring man of affairs. ..His wife, who was much younger, had as delightful a character as her husband. The Roosevelt windows in St. James' church are striking features of that beautiful building. A noted early resident of Skaneateles was an English Quaker, James Cannings Fuller, who came there April 20, 1834, dying there November 25, 1847. He was indefatigable in anti-slavery and temperance work, sometimes 428 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY barely escaping being mobbed in the former. Before he died the scale turned, and Skaneateles even eclipsed Syracuse as an anti-slavery town. We sometimes complain of unseasonable weather. The cold year of 1816 has been mentioned; here are some facts from a Skaneateles diary of later date. May 13, 1834, the frost was severe; ice formed half an inch thick, and the young people of the village had a sleigh ride. January 11, 1836, the stage was twenty-three hours coming from Auburn to Skaneateles, the snow being four feet deep. The snow was three inches deep September 28, and October 8 it snowed all day, a disastrous time. June 11, 1842, there was snow on the Sempronius hills, near the head of the lake. There is little warmth in the subject. King David had an encounter with a lion and a bear when a shepherd boy, so that it was very natural that John Shepard, a settler of 1797, should have a bear experience if true to his name. Bears like pork, and when hd heard his hog squealing in the woods the pioneer knew what it meant. A pitchfork was the handiest weapon, and this was hurled at the bear but missed him. It was now the bear's turn and Shepard went up a tree, crying for help. His brother-in-law came, but declared that Shepard was hugging the tree and trembling, and not a bear in sight. Skaneateles had its full proportion of odd characters, and perhaps no one. attracted more attention than James Cannings Fuller, mentioned above. "British Fuller," as he was often called to distinguish him from another of the name. His costume was of the most antique English Quaker kind, and he used to tell his wife she wore the costliest bonnet in town. It came from London and had "to be just so." There were many marked English char acters, mostly from Somerset. One was a bow-legged, loud-voiced little man, whose cow got into the village pound. "A purty land of liberty this wur," he said, "where a cow couldn't run in the streets." He lost an eye while cutting teasels, and in telling of it afterward said he "wouldn't have los un for five dollars; now, nor yet for ten." Another was always running down America, till asked why he did not go back ; he would gladly be spared. Old Peter Pell, odd, honest and independent, was of good Hudson river stock, and delighted in his bass drum. He used to usher in the greater days with bass drum solos. He had a trick of throwing up his drum sticks with a twirl, and catching them in time for the next stroke. Didn't the boys think him a wonderful man ? He thought so himself. In 1860 he went to a Syracuse parade to hear and see a noted drummer. He said to the writer: "I've seen what they call the best drummer in New York, but I tell you he can't touch me; he can't touch me." Nor could he. Of all the genial, ingenious, eccentric men that ever lived in Skaneateles, no one surpassed in some ways Dr. Lord, the dentist. He was a great boat man, always just missing a prize at a race. His friends thought this a pity, and the club got up a scrub race in which he was to take the purse, though that was a secret. It worked famously one way, but the home stretch was before the wind. Two boats were in danger of passing him, and the genial German captain of one said: "Vot shall I do mit mine Plue Pell?" The other PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 429 was running wide of her course and having trouble with her sails. By towing pails and great strategy the desired end came. Among "good livers" no one was more noted in his day than "Sam Francis, "perhaps the best humorous story teller of his time. His inimitable look and manner added to the zest of every story, but the conclusion of his chipmunk tale may be enjoyed by some. The boys were late at school, for Gust Kellogg had persuaded them to go and catch four hundred chipmunks in a huge woodpile. They got but three, and Sam tore his trousers and was given one animal without a tail. Beside he had not learned his lesson, but Gust told him to learn just his own answer. The chipmunks escaped in school, and Sam may tell the rest : "I thought if the master only understood the circumstances he would favor me. I told him that the one' with the tail off was the only one I was to have, and that Gust said we would get at least four hundred chipmunks. 'Not another word out of your head,' said the master. 'Come up here, Gust Kellogg.7 'And,' said I, 'Add and Gurd Porter said we would get three hundred and fifty sure — ' 'Not another word out of your head,' says the master. 'Come up here, Add and Gurd Porter.' 'And,' says I, 'Jo and Charley Burnett said we could get three hundred chipmunks certain — ' Says the master, 'Not another word out of your head, sir.' And called up Jo and Charley, and placed us all in a row, and as I was the shortest, he put me at the foot, licked me first, and so on up to Gust, whipping him almost to death, and then we took our seats. The master asking if we had our grammar les son I said promptly, 'Yes, sir.' And he asked me, 'What is a pronoun?' I replied, 'A verb is a word that signifies to be, to do or to suffer.' 'What is a pronoun, sir?' Says I, 'You must begin at Gust Kellogg, and we can all say it through.' And with that he called us all out, and licked us all over again. I couldn't understand why he licked us, but, on going home, Gust licked me so that I understood all about it." John Legg was an early settler of Skaneateles, who commenced as a blacksmith, became a carriage maker of wide reputation and an influential citizen. He got quite a start in the war of 1812, when a troop of cavalry stopped to have their horses shod. He soon had every blacksmith for miles around on the job. But there were trials' ahead, and some years later he was feeling pretty blue, while his old mother told him it was always darkest before day. In the night there was a hail, and another blacksmith shouted that there was a chance for them. A large quantity of shovels was wanted for canal work at Jordan, and John Legg was the man to take hold of it. And he did. In old times apprentices were regularly indentured, with mutual responsi bilities. It was a frequent thing (not always easy) for apprentices to run away. To clear himself the master was then required to advertise the de linquent. Such notices were common seven years ago, and a reward might run from one cent to a dollar. One of these follows : 430 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY "One Cent Reward. Ran away from the subscriber on or about the 24th ult. an indented boy to the farming business, named Norman Hodges, aged 14 years. Whoever will return said boy to the subscriber shall receive the above reward. All persons are forbid harboring him or trusting him under penalty of the law. JOHN CARPENTER." Marcedus, Jan. 11, 1830. It has been often lamented that the block of shops and stores along the lake front should have been placed there, but there seems no help for it now. When Colonel W. L. Stone was there September 24, 1829, he scored this severely. After eulogizing the lake and most of the vdlage, he burst forth : ' ' One would have supposed that even the Goths and Vandals would have had genius enough to have preserved an open view to the lake, by having a smooth lawn or greensward planted, with locusts and the willow between the road and the lake! But contrary to every principle of taste or beauty, one of the churches and several blocks of stores and artisans' work-shops have been erected upon the shore, which in most cases intercepts the water pros pect. But for the privilege of taking now and then a sail, or a mess of fish, the good people might as well have had no lake at all. ' ' Fire companies were formed soon after the erection of the town, and there are now two hose companies and a hook and ladder company. The Skaneateles Guards, Captain Fowler, were the pride of Skaneateles at one time, and bands of music, many in number, have come and gone. In the old days when champagne flowed freely the Skaneateles and Auburn bands made a day of it at the Mile Point, and the mellow horn was the favorite of every musician. The old country taverns have been mentioned, and Myron Clift recently wrote of that of his father, two mdes west of Skaneateles village, back in the '30s, where travelers and neighbors met and discussed the news, farming, business, politics and the Bible, or played checkers. "The furnishings of the old bar-room consisted of fifteen splint-bottomed chairs, a twelve-foot bench and a good sized table made by a local carpenter. At one side of the room was a short shelf, upon which was always kept ready three or four tin lanterns, and at one end hung the conventional boot- jack, made from a short board having a V shaped niche cut in one end. The shovel, tongs and andirons stood in their accustomed place by the large old-fashioned fireplace, in which we kept a glowing fire of four-foot wood, making the old bar-room especially comfortable and inviting during the winter season. Above the fireplace was a large board, about a foot and a half wide and ten feet long, closely plastered in the wall." This was for handbills, etc. One of these was a rhymed tavern notice, in which the traveler had good. advice : PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 431 "Don't worry yourself nor drive too far — I keep refreshments, hay, oats and tar, My house is quiet ; no games nor betting ; Brandy and rum, if you want some, Or any other kind of wetting. Don't fail, my friend, come in and see — Your first visit is perfectly free." The "hay, oats and tar" he thus explained: "Tavern keepers were ex pected to supply their patrons with wagon grease or tar, and some of them were provided with large 'jacks,' with which very heavily loaded wagons could be raised, and the greasing done with little difficulty." A horse was fed for sixpence, in some cases, and a team for a shilling. Large and wide tired wagons had reduced rates of tod. Skaneateles village in 1836 had a Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist and Episcopal church, academy, public library, grist mill, sawmill, woolen factory, foundry, Milton A. Kinney's printing office; A. & C. Bates, N. Hawley & Com pany, Gibbs & Burnett, B. S. Wolcott, I. W. Perry, John G. Porter, merchants ; Richard Talcott & Company, grocery and hardware ; John Snook 's drug store ; Lawton & Stillson, leather and shoe store; A. M. Gaylord, millinery; W. M. Beauchamp, book store and library; Augustus Fowler, clothing store; two large carriage shops, many artisans and mechanics, two hotels and about two hundred and fifty dwellings. In 1886 were enumerated five churches and a Quaker meeting house, three hotels, three midinery stores, four lawyers, one artist, two hardware stores, two confectioners, four clothing stores, three small carriage shops, two livery stables, two undertakers, five meat markets, one stationer and news dealer, two shoemakers, three dry goods stores, one bakery, three insurance agents, three shoe stores, one furniture store, two photograph galleries, six dressmakers, four harness makers, two barbers, two weekly newspapers, two brick and tile yards, three billiard rooms, two jewelry stores, two lumber yards, two drug stores, two dentists, two banks, three blacksmith shops, six groceries, six physicians, two dealers in agricultural im plements, notion store, flour and feed store, restaurant, plumber, library, mar ble shop, etc. Mottville in 1836 had two churches a grist and a sawmill, stone quarry, lime kiln, foundry and about thirty dwellings. In 1886 it had two general stores, two blacksmiths, two paper mills, shoe shop, hotel, grocery, foundry and machine shop, woolen mill, flour and feed store, coal yard and chair factory. There are many mills and factories scattered along the creek, and good quarries as well. This stream has picturesque features from the lake almost to the river. 432 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY CHAPTER LI. TOWN OF SPAFFORD. Spafford had its name from Horatio Gates Spafford, author of an early gazetteer of the state, a man who had opinions and expressed them. It was set off April 8, 1811, from several towns. Marcellus gave it thirteen lots, Sempronius eight, and Tudy sixteen. The town is about ten miles long and three broad, occupying the ridge between two lakes and their valleys. With Skaneateles lake on one side, and Otisco lake on the other, it has the longest lake front of any town here, and abounds in picturesque ravines and falls. Ripley hid is not as high as Fabius hill, but commands a finer view. Gilbert Palmer was the first settler, locating on Lot 70 in 1794. His son had a nearly fatal accident that year, and Dr. White was summoned from Clinton. He and the father were guided on the return by an Oneida Indian, who promised to bring them to a log across the outlet at Otisco lake — and he did. Mr. Palmer and his crippled son had no near neighbors for about eight years. Captain Daniel Tinkham came about 1802, to Lot 89, south of Borodino, but soon found another site. Jonathan Berry succeeded him on the first in March, 1803, and became a prominent man. Dr. Archibald Farr, the first physician, came in April, settling about a mile north of Spafford Corners. The road from Berry's to Farr's was the first in town. This was extended in 1804, about the time Isaac Hall came, and in September, 1806, Mr. Hall drove the first wagon from Spafford to Scott Corners, a road having been opened in 1805 by John Babcoek and Elisha Sabins, who came from Scott with sleds. In 1806 came Jethro Bailey, Abel Amidon, Elias Davis, John Hullibut, Peter Knapp, Otis and Moses Legg, Job Lewis, along the road from Scott to Borodino. Levi Foster, Benjamin Homer, James and Cornelius Williamson, Benjamin Stanton, John Woodward and others came elsewhere. Knapp 's landing was on Skaneateles lake. In 1807 Asahel Roundy and James Bacon settled at Spafford Corners, the former becoming an influential citizen, and the first postmaster in 1814. He built a tavern there in 1820, selling it to William W. Legg in 1843. Samuel Conkling also came in 1807, building the first frame house near Borodino. In Cold Brook, about 1808, Luke Miller raised the first log cabin. Daniel Wallace settled at Borodino in 1807, and was the head of a large family, one of his grandsons being the first volunteer from Spafford in the Union army. Dr. Farr built the first grist mill in the town in 1808, in Otisco Hollow, and opened the first tavern the same year near Spafford Corners. The first school there was taught that year by Miss Hannah Weston, who came on horseback from Skaneateles. She was afterward Mrs. Asahel Roundy. This was not the first school in town, that being in a log house a mile north of Borodino. This was taught by Miss Sally Packard. Jared Babcoek opened PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 433 the first store in town in 1809, at Spafford Corners, and Lauren Plotchkiss had another there the next year. In fact, that part of the town made most progress, and its people were always on the alert. Two instances of this may De cited in more modern days. The Bucktail road is yet a witness of the strength of the early Democrats there. In 1844 these built the great "Spaf ford Buggy," an immense structure, all of hickory, and drawn by twenty- four horses. In this' they visited Skaneateles and Cortland. In 1856 the Demo crats lived mostly at the south end of the town ; the Whigs at the north, with the town meeting at Borodino. A great snow storm blocked the roads on the day for this, but a few nearby Whigs voted and went home, as all seemed safe. Late in the day every Democrat from the south end was there. They had turned out in a body, shoveled their way through, and quickly turned the scale. In 1810 and 1811 Josiah Walker and Judge Walter Wood each built sawmills on Cold brook. The town received its name in 1811, from Mr. Spaf ford who bought land there, intending to settle, and offered a library to the town if it received his name. He sent books, Asahel Roundy being librarian a long time. . A small portion of land was set off to Marcellus and Skaneateles in 1840. The first town meeting was in April, 1812, John Babcoek being chosen supervisor and Sylvester Wheaton town clerk. Asahel Roundy was elected in 1813, and held the office for nine years, but not continuously. Job Smith, who came in 1806, was grandfather of Hon. Sidney Smith of Skanea teles, and of two eminent New York physicians, Drs. Stephen and J. Lewis Smith. Among other notable families were the Harmons, Hiscocks, Strongs, Burdicks, Harveys, Fishers, Kneelands, Fitzgeralds, etc. Spafford made a good record in the war of 1812, and in that for the Union, developing a class of hardy men. Captain Asahel Roundy was noted in this way. physically and mentally. He came on horseback from Vermont in 1807, and many stories are told of him. A man who had settled at Spafford Landing broke his leg. Most people are breathless who climb the hill without a burden. Captain Roundy took the man on his back, and carried him up the steep ascent more than a mile away. He was indeed a Green Mountain boy. Pie took a hand at law occasionally, both in pleading and executing it, varied by deciding as a judge. One noted decision of his was against all evidence, but he knew the real culprit, who was himself. Right in deciding he may have been right in acting. Daniel Burroughs, the first merchant in Borodino, sold goods in a log house, and was succeeded by Horace and Stephen Child. Among later mer chants were William W. Legg, Thomas Anderson and Zachariah Berry. The first tavern there was built by Isaac Ryder, and the second by Lewis Davis. The first physician was Dr. J. Whiting. At one time the village had three stores, three taverns and three blacksmith shops. Also two churches. Strange as it may seem the town has no record of early distilleries, but there was one convenient across the lake, and reached by the "Jug Handle Path" from Apple tree point. 434 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY A Freewid Baptist church was organized in 1816, and a plain church was built a little east of Spafford Corners. About 1835 most of the members be came Mormons and went west. Their chapel was moved to the corners and became a dwelling. About 1836 another Baptist society was formed there, building a church in 1839. The society became extinct, and the chapel became a store in 1867. The present Methodist church there was built as a Union church in 1840, by Methodists, Universalists, and the remaining Freewill Baptists. A Methodist society was formed in 1809 at Borodino, where the first church stood on the site of the town hall. A Methodist society was also organized at Cold Brook before 1817, where a church was built in 1852. Another Methodist church is east of Spafford creek. The shores of Skaneateles lake have proved ideal for summer cottages, and with these the old names of localities have often changed. Five Mile point was often called Factory point, from Miner's Wheelhead factory there. It is now Edgewater. Pork point, not far from Borodino Landing, retains its name. Some say that a cargo of pork was shipwrecked there, others that the first barrel of pork in Spafford was there unloaded. Hardscrabble presents fine sites for three cottages, as yet unoccupied. Ten Mile point is attractive for large picnics. Hall's Landing is pleasant and picturesque. Then comes a long succession of cottages. Staghorn is one of the best-known points on the lake, and then comes Spafford Landing, once Randall's point, with boarding houses and cottages, and easy of access from many places, with good fishing nearby, picturesque views on every hand. Among the local stories is that of Abel Amadown, who one day took a drop too much and went down literady. A man tried to raise him and failed. Then he asked his name and had the reply, "Amadown." As this came every time he got angry and said: "Are you down? Of course you are, and if you won't get up, stay down." He got up with help. The name is now Amidon. Elias Davis, a Revolutionary soldier, settled in Skaneateles in 1803, and came thence in a boat in 1806. He died in Spafford in 1851, aged eighty-eight. He kdled a great bear one winter, between the corners and the lake, one of the last in the town. Captain Roundy has been mentioned as sometimes taking a hand in legal matters. Hon. Daniel Gott, a once noted lawyer, said he was one of the strongest advocates before a jury of any man he knew. The picturesque Bucktail road perpetuates his political faith, and there, are good stories of how he managed things. He was captain of a militia company in 1812, which was called to Sackett's Harbor. His descendants may have inherited literary tastes from their mother, the school teacher. Daniel Wallace, son of the pioneer of 1807, gave all his sons names of noted men, beginning with Napoleon Bonaparte and ending with Santa Anna. The latter was the first Spafford volunteer April 28, 1861. The name of Boro dino may have come from these historic tastes, for Daniel lived and died there, owning over four hundred acres there at one time. Daniel Burroughs, before mentioned, once swam from Mandana to Pork point on a wager, a distance of three miles. Others have occasionally crossed PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 435 the lake in this way, but at narrower parts. In early days deer often did this. Before the lake was raised it was sometimes possible to ride around it on horseback, on the beach, as was done by one early resident. In early times, too, there was a fancy for giving names at the raising of any conspicuous building. In this way a store built by Joseph R. Berry, in 1831, was called the "Proud Farmer's Ruin." He was expected to spend money for costly things, not within the reach of poorer neighbors. The first child born in the town was Alvah Palmer, and the first mar riage was that of Elisha Freeman and Phoebe Smith. The first death was that of Benjamin Chaffee, in August, 1801. In 1836 Borodino had a church, two taverns, two stores, and about twenty dwellings. In 1886 it had a church, two general stores, two blacksmith shops, two shoe shops, hardware store, wagon shop, harness shop, spring bed fac tory, meat market and hotel. At the same time Spafford (originally Spafford Corners) had three general stores, hotel, wagon shop, two blacksmith shops, a shoe shop and church. One can rest there "far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife," and look on forest, lake and hill. Tully limestone has been quarried in the town to some extent, and on the higher hills there have been opened quarries of paving stone, but the cost of transportation was too high for profitable work. CHAPTER LII. TOWN OF TULLY. Marcus Tullius Cicero had double honor in the military tract, Tully being one of the original towns, suffering greatly from the spoilers' hands, so that it retains but twenty-six of the one hundred original lots. It became a civil town April 4, 1803, and Phineas Howell was elected first supervisor, and Amos Skeel town clerk, May 1. In March, 1806, ten lots were taken off, and fifty lots April 8, 1808. In April, 1811, fourteen more were set off, leaving little more than a fourth of the original area. Several lakes are included in this, often mentioned by early travelers, and not without Indian legends. Clark makes David Owen the first settler, locating on the site of Tully village in 1795. F. H. Chase's list of Revolutionary soldiers, places Michael Christian on Lot 18 in 1792, and this seems probable, as he had drawn his lot before that time. From him, and not from the worthy people there, the valley had the name of Christian Hollow. Owen was followed at once by James Cravatte, Timothy Walker, William Trowbridge and Phineas Hender son. Christian had promised the latter one hundred acres of his claim if he would build a house and clear land. He came by way of the Tioughnioga river, walking thence with his wife and little daughter, early in 1796. He 436 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY built a house, and in this Peter Henderson was born March 14, 1797, the first white child born in the town. The next year Mr. Henderson brought the first colony of bees known in the town, from New Jersey, though wild bees may have been near at hand. Timothy Walker, in Tully village, built the first frame house in town, in 1797. Moses Nash, the first merchant, budt the second. Eli Farr settled on the Tully flats in 1801, dying there in 1808. The oldest burial place is known by his name, but a son of Mr. Mattoson was the first to die, and was buried on Farr's land. Farr left ten children, and his widow had three more by her second husband. Before 1810 there came Jacob Johnson, Job L. Lewis, Nicholas Lewis, John Meeker, Milo Trowbridge, Amos Skeele and Peter Van Camp, mostly prominent men. At Tully village Moses Nash opened the first store in 1803, succeeded by John Meeker in 1805. The latter had stores in many places. Nicholas Lewis opened a tavern in 1802, and was followed by Jacob Johnson in 1807. Miss Ruth Thorpe opened a school in Timothy Walker's barn in 1801, south of the present village, and in 1804 a log schoolhouse was erected in the village, each the first in its way in the town. A frame schoolhouse succeeded the one of logs in 1809, and when this was burned there came the ' ' old red school-house. ' ' A better building followed in 1846-48. The opening of the Hamilton and Skaneateles turnpike in 1806 stimulated business. Tully village grew, and Vesper and Tully Center had their begin nings. In 1810 Peter Van Camp built the first grist and sawmills in town, at Tully Center on Onondaga creek, a great blessing to those who had to traverse horrible roads in going long distances to mill. The writer passed through Tully flats April 22, 1831, when but a year old, and remembers noth ing of it, but his father made this record: "Got to Tully to sleep about 9. We were 3 hours going the last 3 1-2 miles. Roads bad." Of course they were, in the days of mud and corduroy. Nicholas Howell was the first postmaster in 1815. Mail came to Pompey Hill or Preble before that time. Timothy Walker built a grist mill at Tully village in 1818, on a stream tributary to one of the lakes. In 1874 it became a steam mill. There were three grist mills, five sawmills and two fulling mills in town in 1824, and one amusing comment of that year is that one going "from Tully to Hamilton, a distance of forty miles, could count twenty-six taverns, all doing a brisk business." The Tully and Syracuse Turnpike Com pany boomed the town for awhile. It was incorporated in 1827, and rechar- tered in 1831. The Chenango and Salina Turnpike Company had been chartered in 1807, and the Onondaga and Cortland Company in 1824, but really good roads had not yet come. William Clark was the first postmaster in Vesper in 1827, and it was once a, thriving place, with a store, tavern, etc., containing four grist mills, two carding machines, and a woolen mill in 1845. Its Vesper star has set, and little business remains. A post office was established at Tully Valley, near the La Fayette line, in 1836, but that hamlet is now inactive. Its first postmaster was George Salis- - PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 437 bury. The opening of the Syracuse & Binghampton railroad in 1854 was dis astrous to the smaller places, but Tully village became a shipping point, and has now many summer residents, mostly from Syracuse. It is an important place for dairy products. It was incorporated in 1875, and John Outt was chosen first president January 26, 1876. William L. Earle has been its most stirring business man. A good deal of manufacturing is done here, and there are good hotels and boarding houses. The Tully Times was started December 29, 1881, by Raymond Wright, as an advertising sheet. It became a weekly paper, and then passed into the hands of Richard R. Davis, who made it a successful journal. Water works and electric lights came in 1896. There are Indian stories connected with the Tully lakes, classed as Big or Tully, Green, Crooked, Jerry's and Mirror lakes, but the following may be taken with some grains of allowance, about "Big Lake, which was called by the Indians 'Sacred Waters' and held in great veneration by them. Tradi tion says that the Indians would never allow a fish to be taken from its crystal depths, nor a canoe to float upon its glassy surface, yet they considered an accidental drowning therein to be an especial desire of the Great Spirit." W. W. Newman tells nearly the same story of a prehistoric lake at South Onon daga. Occasional camping parties led to the formation of the Tully Lake Park Association, incorporated May 7, 1888, M. J. French, of Syracuse, president. A tract of sixty-four acres was purchased, and a park was laid out. The first cottage was built in 1889, and over fifty later. Assembly Park was opened on the east shore in 1892, and annual sessions are held there of an edu cational nature. The Solvay Process Company, in boring deep wells in 1888, struck a bed of rock salt in the Tully valley, about fifty feet thick. Then six hundred acres, of land were purchased and many wells were sunk, the depth varying from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred feet. By flooding these wells a saturated solution of salt is obtained, and conveyed in a twelve inch main to Solvay, eighteen miles away. A pipe line company was formed to do this in 1889. The land is now used for supplying all kinds of produce to that village. The First Baptist church of Tully was formed at Uriel Smith's, February 28, 1816, and a church was built in Tully Center, and dedicated February 11, 1825. In 1848 some members withdrew to form a society in Vesper, on which the church was removed to Tully village and rebuilt. The first pastor was Rev. Squire Abbott, in 1818. The society at Vesper was organized in December, 1848, and a church was dedicated January 18, 1849. In 1820 the Methodists held meetings in Vesper, and their church was in corporated July 7, 1840, erecting a chapel the same year. Near Tully village a society was organized in 1828, under Rev. Mr. Sayers. He was followed by Rev. Mr. Puffer, known as "old chapter and verse," from his frequent quotations. The present society was formed from this in 1832, and built its first church in 1834, rebuilt in 1862, again in 1877, and again in 1894. 438 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY May 9, 1840, the Disciples of Christ formed a society at Hamilton A. Chase's house, a mile east of Tully village. Their church was built in the village in 1845, Rev. J. M. Bartlett being the first pastor. Roman Catholic services had been occasionally held for nearly a score of years, when St. Leo's church was organized by Rev. Daniel Doody, July, 1891. The church was dedicated in Tully village, July 25, 1893. The Tully Union School was founded in 1893, Adelbert Butler, president, and placed under the Regents of the University in 1894. While there were scalp bounties, bears, wolves and wild cats found a refuge here for many years. Early modes of conveyance were rude. Drays were made of crotches of trees with boards pinned across, on which ten bushels of wheat or corn were considered a large load. These went to mill twenty or thirty miles away, and were drawn by oxen. Mills nearer home were a boon indeed. Some of the lakes are connected by winding streams through swampy lands, and it was usual to make one of the lakes in Preble the head of canoe navigation in colonial days. The lakes abound in fish, and their shores are rich in rare bog plants. The soil is generally good and well tilled. A Young People's Christian Association was organized here in 1877, and the same year Morning Star Lodge of Good Templars was instituted. There are several well kept cemeteries, with graves of early date. Clark said: "The Rev. Mr. Riddle, a Presbyterian missionary from New England, was the first clergyman who officiated in this town. ... He organized a Presbyterian society in 1804. It was organized anew under the Rev. Mr. Parsons. This society was kept up till about 1830, when it was discontinued, so that there is no society of that denomination in town." The first marriage was that of Timothy Walker and Esther Trowbridge. Clark also mentions, about three miles west of Tully village, "an almost perpendicular fall, of about ninety feet, with only one break, which in high water presents a very beautiful and picturesque appearance." The town gives its name to the Tully limestone, in which so many beautiful waterfalls occur. They may be found in every ravine. In 1836 Tully village had two churches, two taverns, three general stores and thirty dwellings. In 1886 there were three churches, four physicians, two sawmills, two hardware stores, two general stores, two groceries, two drug stores, newspaper, coal yard, hotel, billiard room, cabinet shop, wagon and blacksmith shops, meat market, cheese factory, milliners, etc. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGO COUNTY 439 CHAPTER LIII. TOWN OF VAN BUREN. Van Buren was set off from Camillus March 26, 1829. Two years before Clay had been called after the great Whig statesman; the Democrats now got even by calling this new town after Martin Van Buren, then governor of New York. It includes thirty-six of the original military lots, but as some bordered Seneca river they were irregular in size. Most of the rectangu lar lots averaged about six hundred and twenty acres, but of the river Lots No. 9 contained about six hundred and sixty- three acres, and No. 17 about seven hundred and six; No. 43 had about five hundred and thirty-four, and No. 7 less than five hundred acres, that being the amount to which each sol dier was entitled. In such cases the "State's hundred" was affected. Lot 15 was given to Pompey Academy by the state in 1813, but that school found little timber left on it. But one soldier, James Cunningham, ever lived on the lot he drew in this town. From 1791 to 1800 Van Buren lots sold at from sixty to eighty cents per acre. In 1795 John McHarrie agreed to give seventy-five cents an acre for land now occupied by the south part of Bald winsville. The Seneca river was a highway, and squatters here and there occupied its banks for a time, who have left no record beyond the burnt earth which marks their homes. In some cases trappers did the same in more secluded situations. One such was found on the site of Warner in 1791. John Dunn came in 1791, on Lot 12, staying for several years. When his wife died he went away, having no land title. The first permanent settler was John Wilson, an Irishman, who settled on Lot 38 in 1792, leaving several children at his death. John McHarrie was the first permanent settler in the north part of the town, on Lot 7, now mostly in Baldwinsville. The falls in the river there were called McHarrie 's Rifts from him, and old maps show Macksville on the southern bank. He came probably in 1792, possibly later, and died there November 26, 1807, aged fifty-five years. His grave, with others, be came the nucleus of Riverside Cemetery. David Allen settled on the same lot in 1793, and his cabin was probably in the western part of the present cemetery. He may have died or removed before 1807. David Haynes came in 1795. He settled on Lot 12, and got a deed of one hundred and fifty acres of this in 1798. After his arrival he mar ried Martha Wilson, and their daughter, born in 1799, was the first white child born in the town. They have still descendants there. Ebenezer Spen cer, John Wigent, William Lakin, John Tappen and Samuel Marvin came soon after, and all but the first of these have resident descendants. The Taber family, 1800, was prominent in early days. Phineas Barns, Jr., commenced the settlement of Ionia in 1803, and his frame house of 1808 seems the first in the town. Not far off Amos and Ezra Warner settled in 1803. Eben Hart came the same year, and was buried at 440 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Sorrel Hill in 1842. Moses Rogers settled on Lot 19 in 1804, and Jonathan Molby bought part of Lot 12 in 1804. The same year Joel Foster bought part of Lot 25. Ebenezer Wells came about 1806, on Lot 7, and left a family of note. The same may be said of Reuben Smith. Seth Warner, with Henry, settled in 1807 just west of the village of War ner. The Parishes were in the southeast part of the town, Stephen Crego on Lot 23, and the Lindsays on Lot 29. All these were prominent families. Clark mentions Benjamin Bolton and Gilbert Totten as early residents at Jack's Rifts. McHarrie found occupation in taking boats up through the rifts. For some years a rude road terminated at this ford, at the east end of the present cemetery. About 1806 the State road was laid out, crossing the river as now. In 1807 Dr. Baldwin built a toll bridge which had a long existence. This and the canal, mills, etc., drew settlers there. In the war of 1812 this became an important thoroughfare, and many of the settlers took part in the struggle. Stephen and Gabriel Tappen were officers, and others were prom inent. Before the erection of Van Buren, Linus Squire, within its limits, was supervisor of Camillus in 1818, and town clerk for several years. In the new town Gabriel Tappen was the first supervisor, and Abel Lyon first town clerk. The old State road was to be laid out "From the court house in Onon daga to Ox creek near where it empties into the Oswego river, and from thence to the village of Oswego." The road is not remarkably straight, and tradition has it that the surveyors went from cabin to cabin, so as to.be sure of good meals. Another state road was ordered laid out in 1811, "from the bridge over Sodus Bay, on the most direct and eligible route, to the new bridge over the Seneca River, at Adams 's Ferry, and from thence, on the most direct and eligible route, to the house of Gideon Brockway in the town and county of Onondaga." The road was surveyed in 1813, running eastward toward Warner. It crossed Seneca river at Snow's bridge, which was on Lot 9, and appears on old maps. It was a convenient place for a bridge, but was' abandoned about ten years after the opening of the canal. Landings on the river were frequent for shipping wood to Salina, and early roads led to these which were abandoned later. On the river bank, a little west of Dead creek, was a blacksmith shop where one road ended. Ionia was once called Barns 's Corners, and a tavern was kept there by Charles H. Toll, who was also justice of the peace there in 1814, as well as merchant. When Ionia became a post office in 1816 he was first postmaster. Dr. Jonathan S. Buell was there in 1815, the first physician in the town, and Theodore Popell came in 1818 as the first lawyer. The canal changed all this. The first schoolhouse in the town was built there, about 1813, and some years before John Tappen donated the first burial ground, a little west of the corners. The first teacher in the town is said to have been Augustus Robin son, and the first library, the Alexandrian, was founded in Ionia in April, 1816. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 441 The first sawmill in town was built at Sand Springs, commonly called Bangall, in 1815. The stream flowing through the picturesque Whiskey Hol low afforded a good water power for successive mills, and a hamlet grew up there. At the southeast corner of Lot 22 was the hamlet of Van Buren Corners, where Charles Turner was the first postmaster in 1829, but there was no mer cantile business. Saw mdls were built in many places, and the first grist mill was near Bangall in 1817. The first on the south side at Baldwinsville, was on the Mercer and Clark site in 1827. Many manufactories have been located there, of varied kinds. Memphis was originally called Canton, and was once a flourishing place, succeeding to the business of Ionia soon after the opening of the canal. The first postmaster was Charles H. Toll in 1828. For a long time it was an important center for the grain and lumber business. Warner was less im portant for a time, but has developed much in later years, partly through the establishment of cement works, which have had variable fortunes. The first postmaster there was John Skinner in 1837. The village charter of 1848 included the south side or Macksville as part of Baldwinsvdle, of which it has long been the first ward. Some things re lating to this appear under Lysander, especially the churches and schools. A fine school, however, was founded some time after 1830, known as Smith's Academy, and having a prosperous existence for twenty-five years. The mercantile business had an early hold there, and it is now a favorite residence part of the village, with two churches and a fine school building. The water works are just south of the village, apparently in an ancient river bed. The well kept cemeteries are on that side also, and on that side will be the route of the barge canal, the dam and locks costing five hundred thousand dollars. The town- rejoices in many local names, as Satan's Kingdom (the first word now dropped), Dead Creek once Camp Creek, Bangall, Beatall, Shacks- burg, Whiskey Hollow, Pleasant Valley, Pine Hill, Sorrel Hill, etc., and there are many pleasant drives, making it an attractive region to visitors. The churches at Baldwinsville have been mentioned. The second Baptist church of Camillus was formed near Warner in 1815, and a schoolhouse was used. With the growth of Memphis services were held there, the first one in the schoolhouse, February 25, 1826, and a society was organized March 30, 1830. Services were held alternately at these two places till a church was built in the winter of 1833-34. Presbyterians have been associated with societies in other towns. The Christian connection effected an organization in 1818. January 26, 1829, the "Congregation of People called Christians" elected trustees in the Ionia schoolhouse, and incorporation took place April 3. The first church edifice in the town was then built a little south of Ionia. It was afterward abandoned, and another was built at Memphis in 1868. "The Central Congregational Society of Camillus" was formed in Ionia May 19, 1827, but had a brief existence. A Union society of Methodists, 442 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Presbyterians and Universalists was formed at Warner, January 18, 1831, and a church was built. The second of these withdrew about 1841, and formed "The First Congregational Society of the Town of Van Buren," May 10, 1841, but it had no active existence. The Methodists absorbed the Union society in 1846, and took the building, which has been recently remodeled. A class had been formed there in 1830. A Methodist Protestant church was formed at Van Buren Corners in 1842, but was soon dissolved. St. Paul's church (P. E.) at Warner, was begun as a mission in 1901, by Rev. J. E. Ramsdell of Baldwinsvide. It is not an organized parish, but has a tasteful chapel. Emmanuel Mission, Memphis, has also a neat church, and is supplied from Jordan. Both these missions have zealous congrega tions. The swamps were a refuge for wild beasts. In 1814 Benoni Sherman received ten dollars bounty for wolf scalps, and so did Jonathan Howe in 1815; David Cornell, William Lindsay, Benjamin Weaver, John Paddock and Hiram Nichols in 1816 ; and Isaac Lindsay in 1817. Abel Weaver and William Lakin had bounties in 1819 for killing wild cats. It was in 1819 that the last wolf disappeared from Cicero. Lot 7, now a part of Baldwinsvdle, had several early owners. It was granted to Benjamin Epton in 1790, and in the same year was successively owned by Charles F. Weisenfels, William J. Vredenburgh and Samuel Mere dith. In 1792 it was bought by John McHarrie, and had the name of Macks- vide from him. The canvass of 1807 showed all persons entitled to vote through owning and occupying land, and all of the thirty-eight known in Van Buren, several left descendants there. The list is of value as showing permanent residents, and follows : Ira Barns, Phineas Barns, John C. Briton, John Clark, Peleg Cornell, Stephen Crego, Isaac Earll, Jonathan Foster, David Haines, Eber Hart, Wil liam Laken, Isaac Lindsay, John McHarrie, Daniel McQueen, Peter McQueen, David Parish, Jonathan, Josiah and Samuel Parish, Elijah Rice, Joseph Rob inson, flbrnlrTTnTTl "M"--""" t*"^ , t* ""ni Pl,"^r"iTi/ Benjamin and Daniel Tabor, Asher, Gabriel and John Tappen, Amos, Hannel and Seth Warner, Calvin Waterman, Joseph Wdson, Reuben Woodward, John Wygent, James Young. The names of some of these are now differently speded, and some have descendants only in the female line. Some families have disappeared. Memphis (then Canton) had three stores in 1836, two taverns and fifteen dwellings. In 1886 it had two general stores, three physicians, harness shop, shoe shop, carriage shop, furniture store, cigar factory, hotel, blacksmith shop and grocery. In 1836 the south part of Baldwinsville was the village of Macksville, and had a tavern, two stores, grist mill, sawmill, and about thirty dwellings. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 443 CPIAPTER LIV. THE CITY OF SYRACUSE. Many things relating to Syracuse and its people are mentioned else where, and some will be omitted here. We may disregard Daniel La Fort's story that the final formative council of the Iroquois League was held on the site of the Bastable block, for that was in the deep swamp through which Onondaga creek from the south and Yellow Brook from the east, found their way. Webster's Landing, of 1786, is placed on the creek near its mouth, and Le Moyne, Chaumonot, Frontenac, Joncaire, the Schuylers and Livings tons, Chauvignerie, Bartrom, Johnson, Weiser, Zeisberger, and other notable men, trod the trails through the swamp before the Revolution. These trails ran to the lake on either side of the creek, mostly on the higher land, but all within the city limits. On the west bank of that stream were recent Indian cabins and a cemetery. Early notes of settlers in Salina properly now belong to Syracuse. Clark mentions Mr. Butler in 1797, and Mr. Hopkins in 1799, a little west of the first bridge over the Oswego canal on James street. In 1800 Calvin Jackson built a log cabin near the junction of Montgomery and East Genesee streets. Albion Jackson was born there December 28, 1800, the first white child in the old city limits. James Geddes laid out the Walton tract of two hundred and fifty acres in 1804, giving it an irregular outline in an effort to include the mid site and exclude the swamps. This tract was purchased in June for six thousand five hundred and fifty dollars, by Abraham Walton. As this was full twenty-six dollars per acre, the advantages of location must have been seen even then. Mr. Walton at once laid out part of the tract in village lots, selling Henry Bogardus half an acre, provided he would erect and keep a tavern there. Walton also built the first mill in 1805, partly on the old High School site. The log dam was about where West Genesee street crosses the creek. The mill was known as the red mill. The first dam was swept away after about a year's use, and the second was replaced by a stone one in 1824. He also built a saw mill in 1805, and a little later Rufus Parsons had a linseed oil mill. A tannery was farther south. At that time the village site was called South Salina, and North Salina street was Cooper street, from that great industry. Then came the title of Bogardus 's Corners in 1806, from the Bogardus tavern. When Sterling Cossitt kept this in 1815, it became Cossitt 's Corners. About 1809 it was Milan for a time, and then went back to South Salina. In 1817 it received the name of Corinth, retaining this as one name for several years. Between 1818 and 1824 it became Syracuse, and Simeon De Witt cannot be blamed for either name. It was proposed by John Wilkinson. Judge Forman favored Corinth, but there was a post office of that name in New York in 1819, and a new name was necessary. Part of M. C. Hand's account of the choice follows, as he had it from Mr. Wilkinson himself. 444 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY In a friend's library "He took up an English publication which contained a lengthy poem on the subject, 'Syracuse;' his eyes had not glanced over more than a dozen lines before he became deeply interested. It was a prize poem by Edward Stanley, and had won the chancellor's prize at the University of Oxford. The poem commenced with a description of the island of Ortygia long before the foundations of the ancient city of Syracuse were laid. He then gave the myth of the beautiful nymph Arethusa, who while bathing in the river was seen by the hunter Alpheus, who became enamored with her, but the nymph not responding to his ardent love fled to the island of Ortygia at Syracuse. When about to be overtaken by Alpheus, the nymph prayed to the goddess Diana for protection, who changed her into a fountain which ever after was called Arethusa. Being deeply interested in the poem Mr. Wilkinson began to study the history of Syracuse, and the geography of its surroundings. He found a wonderful similarity between the celebrated foun tain and our lake; more careful study revealed the closer resemblance be tween the two, they were nearly the same size, on the margin of both were springs of salt and fresh water mingling together. It was believed by many that there was an underground passage from some distant deposit which sup plied our salt spring. In like manner there was said to be an underground passage that led to the fountain at ancient Syracuse. . . . Mr. Wilkinson said to complete the similarity between the two places, there was a town on the- north of the Sicilian Syracuse, named Salina." Mr. Bogardus built the first Syracuse tavern on the site of the Empire House in 1806, and Mr. Merrell erected a small frame house east of this. Wil liam Lee and Aaron Cole had opened a blacksmith shop in 1805, and in 1807 Mr. Blake made a small clearing half way between the corners and Salina, part of Salina street being laid out that year. The place was not healthy, and made little progress till the opening of the canal. The celebrations of that have been mentioned. In 1811 Rufus Stauton opened a tavern on the east side of North Salina street, and south of the Oswego Canal bridge, while Sidney Dole and Milan C. Taylor had the first store in 1814, at the site of the Wieting block. Judge Forman at first tried to have the Erie canal touch Onondaga Valley, but the people did not respond, and his efforts to interest Salina were fruit less. So he went to Syracuse and had more success, securing the present route. Pie came there in 1819, acting as land agent for Daniel Kellogg and William H. Sabine, then owners of the Walton tract. His brother Owen and John Wilkinson laid out the track in village and farm lots that year, and many sales were made. Mr. Wilkinson became first postmaster February 24, 1820, in Amos P. Granger's store, on the site of the Syracuse Savings Bank. When he wanted to move in 1824, he carried everything in one load on his shoulder. After ward the office was kept in the Syracuse House. In 1819 Oliver Teall came to Lodi, once a village near the tunnel in Syracuse, bought land, and built mills operated by surplus canal water. In 1829 he furnished the first water supply for Syracuse. About two hundred and fifty people lived there then, PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 445 or tried to live, for fatal fevers often prevailed. In consequence of this meas ures were taken to lower Onondaga lake in 1822, a great benefit to Syracuse in giving better drainage and diminishing malaria. In 1820 the first schoolhouse seems to have been built, in which Hiram Deming taught in 1821. That year the First Baptist Society was organized, and in 1824 its first church was built, west of the old Court House on West Genesee street. A stone bridge arched the Erie canal in 1823, followed by a wooden, and then an iron bridge. The Syracuse Hotel was built of brick, 1820-22, and rebuilt in 1827 as the Syracuse House, a grand structure for those days. The unsold part of the Walton tract was bought for thirty thousand dol lars, by the Syracuse Company in 1824, and the sale of lots was pushed. A new feature appeared. The Onondaga Gazette was issued in April, 1823, and had then but one mercantile advertisement. In fact Syracuse had little business, and Ezra Town, when he opened a grocery south of the canal in 1825, was told that he would fail, but he did not. At the beginning of that year Syracuse had about fifteen stores of all kinds, with mills and various industries, but the prospect was good, and the village was incorporated April 13, 1825, with Joshua Forman as president. Four tavern keepers and thir teen grocers were licensed. In those days grocers might be licensed to sell liquor. Various streets were laid out, Sunday rules were made, and hogs could no longer run at large. It was also ordered that care should be taken of the four street lamps used. These were to be lighted only on dark nights. The burial ground was to have a decent painted fence and a gate. "A decent pall and bier" were to be provided. This cemetery was at the corner of Franklin and West Water streets, and Mrs. Eliza Spencer, who died April 2, 1824, was the first one interred there: Marquis de La Fayette passed through Onondaga county in 1825, making brief stops at Skaneateles, Marcellus, Onondaga Hill and Valley, and Syra cuse, going thence to Utica on the packet boat Rochester. He was escorted from the Valley to the Mansion House in Syracuse, where he responded to an address by Judge Forman. Mr. Forman also made an address that year when the first boat came through from Buffalo. The enterprising village that year bought a fire engine, the Albany In surance Company lending one thousand dollars for this. Housekeepers were ordered, a little later, to provide themselves with leather fire buckets, and some of these are preserved by the Historical Association. An engine house was also built on the southeast corner of the Bastable block site, and in 1827 a hook and ladder company was formed, with seven members. There were twenty-one in the engine company. The Syracuse Advertiser, a Jackson paper, was the second journal, started in 1825. The First Presbyterian church was formed December 14s 1824, and St. Paul's (P. E.) May 2, 1826. Dr. Bassett succeeded Dr. Ziba Swan, and had an enormous business during the building of the canal. Then came Dr. Colvin, and Dr. Jonathan Day, who died of cholera in 1832. A little earlier, in 1827, James street was known as the Foot road. There were no blocks in 446 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY the present Fourth Ward, none west of West street on the north side, none south of Fayette street, nor east of State street. Robber's Row did a lively canal business, but, except part of James street, Salina street was the only one which was worked north of the canal. The Mansion House stood on the Empire House corner, and was removed 1844-45. The old Greyhound Tavern was occupied by Gilbert Fitch. Between North Salina and Warren streets, on the north side of Church street, was "the circus house," a large wooden structure used for shows. On the south side there were no houses between Fayette Park and Crouse Avenue. Near the Lodi locks Capt. Oliver Teall had a grist and two small saw mills. The roads were the Genesee Turnpike, Jamesville road and Beech street. Yellow Brook followed Water street from Lodi to Forman street, then crossed Genesee street east of Almond almost to Harrison street, and crossed Jefferson street about midway between Salina and Warren. From a point on South Salina street, about three hundred feet south of Fayette, it ran southwesterly to Onondaga creek. There were no buildings south of this brook on the west side of Salina street, nor on the east side south of Jefferson. The part now traversed by West Onondaga street was a cedar swamp, where blackberries and game might be had. In the east wing of the Syracuse House was Colonel Elijah Phillips' stage office, and by this the law office of Harry Baldwin and Schuyler Strong. In 1830 sidewalks were ordered, and these were of brick. Fayette Park was then called Center Square. One item of that year may be quoted. James Pease came from Lysander before this, and sold boots and shoes. He cut timber on his father's farm, drew it to Baldwinsville and had it sawed and framed, and in 1820 brought it on a scow through the lake and river, and thence tfv Syracuse for his store. It occupied part of the Wieting block site. On the map of 1819 Salina street appears as now ; East and West Genesee streets are simply the Turnpike ; the canal is the Grand Canal ; Mechanic is Fenner street; Water street is Canal street, and Robber's Row is Dock street. Willow, Washington, Fayette, Franklin, Clinton, Warren, Montgomery and James appear without names, and the mill pond occupies a large space in the southwest corner of the tract. The map of 1834 shows a large number of unnamed streets laid out, with an increase of those named. Those named on the north side are Apple, now West, Chestnut now Butternut, Church now West Willow; Genesee, Hickory, Laurel, Lock, Foot now James, Salina, West, Willow, First, Second and Third North streets, just north of the canal. On the south side were Almond, Beech, Cherry, Chestnut now South Crouse, Clinton, Fayette, Genesee, Grape, Irving, Jefferson, Lemon now Forman, Maple, Montgomery, Mulberry now State, Onondaga, Orange, Pine, Salina, Spruce now Comstock, Walnut, War ren, Washington, Water, First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth South streets. The mill pond reached from near the canal to Gifford street. It was in 1829 that Colonel William L. Stone made his often quoted trip. Under date of September 22, he said: "Arrived in Syracuse at half past ten PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 447 o'clock and had the unexpected pleasure of being greeted at the landing by my old and intelligent friend, Seth Hunt,Esq., a gentleman of extensive travel and general information. I looked about as I stepped on shore, with still more astonishment than at Utica. 'Another enchanted city!' I exclaimed, as I glanced upward and around upon splendid hotels and rows of majestic buildings, streets crowded with people, all full of life and activity. Nine years before I had passed a day here, among some five or six scattered tene ments, one of which had just been erected, and was then occupied by Joshua Forman, the village being surrounded by a desolate, poverty-stricken, woody country, enough to make an owl weep to fly over it. " 'Never mind,' said Forman, 'You will live to see this place a city yet.' And truly the prediction is already realized. As the county buildings now erecting upon an extensive scale have been located midway between Salina and Syracuse, the two towns will soon be united as Greenwich now is to New York. Within twenty years therefore, Syracuse will be equal to the present size of Albany. . . . The village of Salina has grown prodigiously since 1820. It now contains many large and well-built stores, flouring mills, hand some streets and dwellings, and there are four beautiful churches, including a great edifice belonging to the Roman Catholics. "Wednesday, September 23. . . . At one o'clock we left the village in a carriage with L. H. Redfield, editor of the Syracuse Gazette, and his lady. As we wished to strike the mail stage road at Onondaga Hollow, to take the stage that evening, Mr. Redfield thus handsomely facilitated our object. We passed the marsh where the great battle between the French and the Six Nations was fought in the old French war. A field piece used on that occa sion, was recently dug out of the marsh." The last paragraph not only treats of some interesting peopLf but alludes to a curious circumstance. Two traditions exist of a battle near the creek — a great one — between the French and Indians, or between Sullivan and the Indians, both without foundation. The finding of a peculiar cannon, how ever, is true. How it came there is a mystery. With Mickles' furnace near, and with the Pompey Stone and Cardiff Giant in mind, not to mention things less successful, some suspicion of the origin of the gun may be pardoned. Hon. Amos P. Granger came to Syracuse in 1820 or 1821, and was one of the first board of trustees. He was all his life here a prominent man. Moses D. Burnet was also on this board, and came in 1823. Thomas Spencer came in 1819, and was one of the first trustees. John Durnford published the first paper in 1823, and was the first village treasurer. Henry W. Durnford came at the same time, and was one of the first village constables, and an early grocer. In 1827 he received twenty-five dollars for police duties, and Charles Cook the same. John Wilkinson came in 1819 as a law student, and was the first village clerk. His office was long on the Globe Hotel corner, and his house a little south. Daniel Gilbert was the first village justice of the peace. 448 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Ambrose Kasson was an early grocer, and Archy Kasson built a two story house in 1824, on the corner occupied by the Western Union Telegraph. At that time Kasson & Heermans had a hardware store on the Wieting Block corner. James Mann kept tavern in 1825, his being the Syracuse House; and at the same time 0. H. Williston kept the Mansion House, on the Empire House corner. Pascal N. Thurber was a grocer in 1825, and afterward noted as a con fectioner.. James Sackett was an early comer, and an eccentric resident and land holder. Elias W- Leavenworth came in 1827, and was long one of the most con spicuous men in Syracuse, holding many public offices. He was president of the village, 1838-40, and in 1854 laid out part of the salt lands, which now< include Leavenworth Park and Avenue. Elisha F. Wallace, father of Judge William J. Wallace, came to Syracuse as a lawyer in 1825, but became a large salt manufacturer, dying August 15, 1870. He was consul to Cuba 1861-69. Dr. John W. Hanchett came in 1826, having been two years at Onondaga Valley. He kept a drug store, and died October 17, 1844. Captain Joel Cody, of packet* boat fame, came in 1820, and was long a resident. Joseph Slocum, merchant and father of Mrs. Russell Sage, was an early resident on West Genesee street. B. Davis Noxon, eminent among lawyers, came in 1829. Henry Gifford, an early settler, salt maker and real estate holder, built a house on the corner of Genesee and Franklin streets in 1824. He held import ant positions, and died June 20, 1872. Harvey Baldwin, first mayor of the city of Syracuse, erected a two story brick building before 1827, on the site of Francis Hendrick 's block. Colonel Elijah Phillips lived on the Vanderbilt House corner in 1827, and was long an influential citizen. William Malcolm had a storehouse and hardware store in 1824. Harmon W. Van Buren came in 1825, having then a tannery on Water street, near Grape. He kept a leather store also till his death in 1887, and held important offices. Henry Raynor came to Syracuse in 1826, and built a block of dwelling houses in West Water street in 1832. He was long in business with his brother and died in 1866. William B. Kirk, a wagon maker, came from La Fayette, and bought Garrison's tavern, corner of Fayette and Salina streets, to save a debt, and became a successful landlord. He built the first Kirk block in 1869, his son building the present one. George T. M. Davis, who married Judge Forman 's daughter in 1828, built the first house on the Cinder road in 1829, on the corner of Onondaga street and South Avenue. The Cinder road then ended at South Salina street. The I''1.. -1 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 449 Yellow Brook was partly filled in 1827, and Washington street was extended eastward. In 1838 the brook was all filled. In 1830 Samuel Larned announced that "The Boat Vendor, or Floating Store, owned by Mr. John Converse of the city of Troy, is now lying at the village of Syracuse, opposite Brockway's Mansion House." A list of groceries followed, with a notice that "all liquors are warranted of the purest quality;" as though any were not. In the end Mr. Larned became wealthy, and his name is perpetuated in the Larned block. Jason C. Woodruff, the veteran stage driver, was then in the livery busi ness, and was always a man of note. He was noted for his skill with big teams. Christopher C. Bradley came in 1822, and was long at the head of the principal foundry at Syracuse. An active business man, he died July 3, 1872. William Winton, who came about. 1826, was landlord of the Exchange Hotel, northeast corner of South Salina and Washington streets, and later of the Globe Hotel. He was elected mayor in 1866, and died March 18, 1871. E. B. Wicks came in 1828, in the hat and fur business, and afterward in the leather business and banking. He was village treasurer 1837-39. William H. Alexander settled here in 1828, and was a pioneer in the foundry business. He held public offices, and died August 20, 1863. Cornelius T. Longstreet came from Onondaga Hill, first to Geddes, and in 1830 to Syracuse, Where, with Henry Agnew, he led the merchant tailoring business. From 1846 to 1852 he was in a successful trade in New York city. He died July 4, 1881. Captain Hiram Putnam came in 1829, and held public offices. He was with T. B. Fitch in the drug business, and interested in banks, dying November 8, 1874. Jacob S. Smith was a successful business man, who came in 1825. Between 1830 and 1840 he was in the dry goods business with Levi Chapman, and later in the leather trade with H. W. Van Buren. He died January 20, 1881. Henry Shattuck came from Pompey in 1826, owning much real estate. He held some offices, and died April 20, 1881. Dudley P. Phelps was in Dr. Jonathan Day's office in 1829, afterward studied law, was railroad ticket agent, and then treasurer of the Onondaga County Savings Bank, and Trust and Deposit Company. He was county treasurer 1864-66. T. B. Fitch came in 1830, and conducted the "Green Drug Store" with Captain Putnam. He was interested in banking, and died August 27, 1879. Richard Savage, born in Syracuse in 1817, was a large lumber dealer, and built the St. Charles Hotel — afterward the Remington block. He died April 11, 1885. Hiram Judson came in 1824; Timothy C. Cheney and Samuel Hurst, in the same year; Jabez Hawley and Pliny Dickinson in 1825. John Durston, born in 1817, learned boat building of Thomas Spencer, and in 1843 bought his property. 450 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Andrew N. Van Patten was an early settler of prominence, and built "The Old Line House," of brick in 1836, on the west line of Salina street, near Onondaga. Dr. William Kirkpatrick came to Salina as Superintendent of the Salt Springs in 1805, holding the office twenty-two years. He died September 2, 1832, leaving two sons, Donald, who died September 19, 1889, and William, whose bequest established the Onondaga County Historical Association in its present home. He died May 18, 1900. Lewis H. Redfield has been several times mentioned, and was born Novem ber 26, 1792. He began publishing the Onondaga Register at Onondaga Val ley, September 17, 1814, and afterward went to Syracuse. Part of the time he sold books. He died July 14, 1882. Some later comers of prominence may here be added to these, as Dr. J. M. Wieting, who came in 1837 as a civil engineer, and acquired a high reputa tion as a lecturer, and whose name is associated with the Wieting block. Peter Burns came in 1836, and his saddlery works had a wide reputation. Horace White came here in 1838 ; his brother Hamilton, the next year Both became prominent men. Philo D. Mickles, son of Nicholas Mickles, the fur nace man, was a prominent hardware and foundry man of Syracuse. Sylvester P. Pierce came in 1839, and at a later day was the head of the firm of Pierce, Butler & Pierce. He died November 5, 1893. Charles A. and Horace Wheaton were early citizens of promise, and built the Wheaton, afterward the Wieting block. In 1832 came the Asiatic cholera, and the consequent alarm caused some curious measures. Boats were quarantined for fifteen days at Lodi, if there was cholera on board, and a fleet soon gathered there. Then the authorities thought it best to hurry the boats on their way, and this was done. About one hundred persons died in Syracuse and Salina, some being prominent peo ple. The disease passed away, but there was a milder recurrence in 1834, and on the last Sunday of July in that year there were ten funerals. Street paving was ordered in 1834, but nothing was done till 1835, and not much then. It went on faster the next year, when the sum of six thousand seven hundred and eighty-two dollars was expended for street improvement. In 1838 steps were taken for building a public market. We do not take strangers to admire ours now. Yet a market house was built, used a while, and then deserted, except as meetings were held in the hall. It did not pay. Our present market is less expensive. It is heated by the sun, cleansed by the rain, and has the blue sky for its dome, the earth for its floor. Railroads have been mentioned elsewhere, and will be passed over now, except to quote from the New York State Tourist of 1842, a note on the road to Split Rock, a minor enterprise of that day : "By taking a ride by the rail-road five miles up the hill to the quarries, where a thousand men are seen at work raising stones from the surface, and in hewing, shaping, modeling, &c, for the new locks that are to be made on the Erie Canal, and in entering the cave or chasm that is here found, and in enjoying the extensive prospect from the summit, we can promise the explorer and geologist a rich treat. ' ' PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 451 It' may not be amiss to quote from Gordon's Gazetteer an account of Syra- cuse in 1836 : / "Syracuse, one of the magnificent canal creations, is situated near the center of the county (of which it is the seat of justice) at the point where the great Seneca turnpike crosses the Erie canal, and at the junction of that canal with the Oswego canal, 278 miles N. W. from New York, 133 W. from Albany, and by the canal 171, from Utica 61, and from Rochester 99 miles; the meeting of the canals and turnpike renders it the great thoroughfare to Canada. The village, incorporated in 1825, extends on both sides of the canal, and contains 1 Episcopal, 1 Presbyterian, 1 Methodist, and 1 Baptist church, the court house, prison, and clerk's office, 2 lyceums, 2 printing offices, each issuing a weekly newspaper, 2 book stores, 1 incorporated high school, "Syracuse Academy," 16 lawyers, 11 physicians, 16 general stores, 22 grocery and provision stores, 4 drug stores, 2 hardware, 4 clothing, and 5 large shoe stores, 3 furnaces and machine shops, 2 flouring and 1 saw mill, 1 planing machine, 3 tin and copper manufactories, 2 leather, 1 morocco, 3 marble, 2 carriage, 3 cabinet ware, and one soap and candle manufactories, an extensive manufactory of steam engines and other castings, 1 brewery. 1 distillery, 2 tanneries, 1 boat yard and dry dock, the Onondaga Bank (capital $150,000), 2 fire companies with engines, 1 hook and ladder company, 2 companies, each with a capital of $150,000, for the manufacture of coarse salt, making 163,000 bushels annually, and 15 salt blocks for making salt by fire. The increase of this village is most rapid, and it already assumes a city-like appearance, pre senting many and spacious streets and large blocks of four storied stores; near the canal is one of the most splendid hotels in the State, of brick, four stories high. The number of dwellings is about 700 ; population in 1830, 2,565 ; in 1835, 4,103. The Onondaga creek, affording valuable water power, runs through the village, over which the canal is carried in a stone aqueduct of 4 arches. One mile east terminates the Utica long level of sixty-nine and a half miles." As president of the village 1838-40, Mr. Leavenworth accomplished much in beautifying the growing town. In 1840 Forman Square was made a park, Washington street was extended to Crouse, and Fayette to Cherry street. In 1838 a city charter was talked of, but nothing was done for some years. Germans who came here before 1821 settled mostly in Manlius and Cicero, but about 1830 some came to Salina. In 1804 Henry P. Bentz, John J. Mang and Christian Usenbents had come there. Mang was a physician, and Bentz was his 'nephew. The latter 's sister married Usenbents. The family went into the salt business, and Usenbents was prominent in this. Mang welcomed all German immigrants to his house, and died December 16, 1842, at his home near Wolf street, at the age of eighty years. John Graff came in 1826, and Nicholas Grumbach in 1828. He was the father of Colonel Nicholas Grumbach. Jacob Drumma came in 1829, and was long overseer of the poor. Frederick Schneider and John M. Werner came the same year. Henry Herbener, famous as a band leader, came in 452 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 1831, and by 1840 there was a large German population there. Another col ony came from Cape Vincent in 1833. Among these was Ernst Hoecher, whose name survives as Hier. In 1840 the Germans number over a thousand. That year the Rose Hill cemetery was bought for three hundred dollars per acre, and that on Franklin street was abandoned. Cemeteries are treated elsewhere. Police matters attracted attention in 1840, and it was resolved to have a police justice. The village had then a reputation for lawlessness. Pessi mists should read the record for 1841. ¦ Syracuse was not a large place, but there were seventy-five places where liquor was sold ; gambling places existed ; horse racing brought disreputable characters; incendiarism was feared. A resolution of August, 1841, says : "We will unite our best efforts with those of the civil magistrates, not only in bringing to punishment and driving out from among us the numerous blacklegs, gamblers and incendiaries by whom we are said to be infested, but also in uprooting the infamous dens and resorts in our town, in which they are made,, sustained and concealed, whether existing as groceries, billiard rooms, bowling alleys or brothels." A night watch was sustained for a few months, but it was not till 1856 that Syracuse had a chief of police, directing its eight policemen. It seemed to need one. In 1857 Thomas Davis, the chief, reported five hundred places where liquor was sold on Sundays, and proposed to enforce the law. In 1860 a mob raided some disreputable houses, and a young man was killed. Mat ters had not been in a satisfactory condition previous to the appointment of a chief, nor did Davis hold the place long. Meetings had been held looking to the suppression of "rowdyism and incendiarism," resulting in better rules. Since then there has been comparative peace, though laws might have been better enforced. To return to the course of events, it appears that in 1839 cattle were abridged of their liberty to roam the streets for a part of the time, and Syra cuse lost some of its rustic character. The packet boats long vied with the new railroads in carrying passengers, but the end was sure. This pleasant way of traveling was not to last. August 20, 1841, the great gunpowder explosion stunned the whole county with its horrors. At 9 :30 P. M. a fire broke out in a shop by the Oswego canal. The fire engines were playing on the flames, when an alarm was given that there was gunpowder in the building. Some persons fell back, and some remained. A terrific explosion followed, and after the momentary still ness, shrieks and groans were heard on every side. The dead numbered twenty-five, and the badly wounded forty, and twenty-four were slightly hurt. It was a terrible calamity, often referred to yet. The Syracuse Library and Reading Room Association was incorporated in 1840, and did a good work in its day. The first water pipes were laid in 1842-3, and several streets assumed their present names. In 1844 the popu lation was estimated at 10,000, and talk of a city charter was resumed. One PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 453 city feature appeared, for the streets were cleaned for two hundred dollars. The city feature was not in the cost. The Granger Block was erected in 1844, and the Townsend block on West Water street in 1842. The Empire House was begun in 1844, and finished in 1847. It passed into the hands of Colonel James L. Voorhees, one of the builders, and was long known as the Voorhees House. The Globe Hotel block was built in 1846. In 1845 the large canal basin was done away, and in 1846 the new market was occupied and the Malcolm block begun. Early in 1847 measures were taken for uniting Salina and Syracuse under a city charter. In January meetings in both villages favored this, and. a committee was appointed to draft a charter. The incorporation took place, December 14, 1847, and included all within the corporate limits of Syracuse and Salina. The latter formed the first ward ; the second took in intervening territory north of the Erie canal; and the third all of Syracuse south of the canal. January 3, 1848, both places accepted the charter and Plarvey Baldwin became the first mayor. In 1846 the first plank road was built, from Syracuse to Brewerton, and others soon followed. To give it a city air Syracuse had its first permanent theater, the National, the same year. That year, too, saw the direct railroad to Rochester under survey, though many thought it a foolish expenditure. Another forward step was forbidding ringing of dinner bells in the streets, and whipping of carpets in Fayette Park. Cities are hard on personal liberty. Elias W. Leavenworth was elected mayor in 1849, and the filling in of the old' mill pond and reclaiming of lands on Onondaga creek soon followed. The Armory Park resulted from this. One impressive act of 1850 was the dedica tion, in October, of the fine new First Presbyterian Church on Salina street, but recently removed. In 1851 there came a great depression in the salt business, from which it never fully recovered. That year, too, was marked by the Jerry Rescue, always a stirring theme for some Syracuse people. The American Anti- Slavery Society had met here in May, not being allowed a meeting in New York City in any suitable place. William Lloyd Garrison said this action of "New York has covered that city with historical infamy, the receiving of it in Syracuse will cover this city with historical renown. ' ' The society used strong language. While noted Abolitionists were holding a convention in the fall, Jerry, a fugitive slave, was arrested October 1, 1851, and this was thought a direct challenge. It was accepted. Jerry had no lack of counsel, and it seemed probable he would be released. His friends took no chances. Jerry was brought before Commissioner Sab'ine, made a break for liberty, was cap tured and lodged in the police office. In the evening this was broken open, the officers were dispersed, and the prisoner was borne away. He remained hid in the city for ten days and was then taken to Canada. Some arrests and indictments followed at much cost but without convictions. The leading Abolitionists were discreetly full in sight everywhere at the time. So the Jerry Rescue building became one of the city sights, and Garrison's promise was fulfilled. 454 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY « Syracuse was growing. In 1852 the Bastable, Norton, Dillaye and Shel don blocks were occupied, and the Wheaton block was being erected. This was soon sold to Dr. Wieting, and was burned in 1856, and again in 1881. Jenny Lind sang here July 16, 1851, and eleven hundred seats were sold. May 31,1852, Louis Kossuth had a public reception, and that year Gen. Win- field Scott held a military review here. In 1853 Dennis McCarthy became mayor, and the four city wards became eight. In 1854 the city funded its debt of seventy thousand dollars. The year before- the old court house had been sold, and new County Clerk's offices were built this year. The creek was also straightened, and other improvements were made. Among these was the sale of salt lands and removal of salt vats from the Fifth to the Third Ward. There was a spirited mass meeting in February, in favor of canal enlargement, generally popular here. The year 1856 had many fires. January 5 the Wieting block was burned. January 20 a building on the site of the present Jerry Rescue block was con sumed. February 2 the Dillaye building was destroyed, and February 5 the old court house was burned. It has been said: "These and other fires at about that time caused a storm of popular indignation, which was intensified by a simultaneous era of lawlessness and crime; a condition caused less by depravity among the people than by inadequacy and inefficiency of the police force and lack of vigor in other branches of city government. ' ' Some reforms were made for a time, but many laws have been almost a dead letter. In 1856 Charles F. Williston became mayor, and in November there was another disastrous fire in the First Ward. The next year was one of financial disaster through the country, and Syracuse did not escape. It was found, too, that the city's finances had been loosely managed. Reforms were intro duced, with good results, but the year closed with a debt of eighty-four thousand dollars. William Winton became mayor in 1858, and was followed by E. W. Leav enworth in 1859, Dr. Amos Westcott in 1860, and Charles Andrews 1861-62. The military history of the county, recorded elsewhere, covers much of that of the city up to the summer of 1865. Charters for two street railways were granted in 1860. The first one was from the canal bridge through North Salina street to the First Ward. The opening of this for horse cars was duly celebrated. In 1871 another was opened to Oakwood Cemetery, and about 1886 others rapidly followed, built by independent companies, but eventually, under the trolley system, merged in the Rapid Transit lines. The first was the Central City Radway, from the canal to the First Ward, opened in August 1860 ; Syracuse and Geddes Railway, built in 1863 ; the Syracuse and Onondaga Railway, opened July 25, 1864; the Genesee and Water Street Radway about 1866. The Water street track was taken up in 1878, and the Crouse avenue branch added in 1873. The Fifth Ward Railway was opened in 1868. The People 's Railroad Company of 1887, and the Consolidated Street Railway Com pany of 1890, absorbed the others. In 1863 Daniel Bookstaver became mayor, and the council resolved to pay the water company eight thousand dollars per year for five years, if it PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 455 would provide a new reservoir costing twenty thousand dollars. This was done. In January, 1871, a citizens' committee reported in favor of the Tully lakes as a source of water supply, but the scheme was dropped. William D. Stewart became mayor in 1865, and again in 1867. In March, 1865, there was a disastrous flood on Onondaga creek, several bridges being moved out of place or carried away. Creek improvement followed, but was unwisely stopped on account of the expense. Two steam Are engines were bought in 1867, and a high school building was begun on West Genesee street, and occupied in 1869. The Fayette street sewer was built in 1867, at the ex pense of the city and the New York Central railroad. The system has been gradually extended since. Charles Andrews again became mayor in 1868, soon finding that author ized expenses had been largely exceeded, perhaps not without reason. The funded debt ,was one hundred and fifty-three thousand five hundred dollars, and there was a temporary loan of twenty-five thousand dollars for "steam fire engines and current expenses. The old railroad depot was removed from Van- derbilt Square February 28, 1869. About that time several fine buildings were erected, as the Vanderbilt House, opened March 16, 1868 ; the Agan and Barton blocks, the Larned and old Onondaga Savings Bank buildings. Much interest had been felt in the establishment of Syracuse University here, and the corner stone of its first college was laid August 31, 1871. This gave a great impetus to that part of the city. Forman Park was also im proved, and will soon have other artistic features provided by Mrs. W. H. IT. Smith. Danforth was incorporated as a village in 1875, afterward becoming part of the city. The preceding year a swing bridge was built over the Erie canal, the earlier one having been much like that on Warren street. In 1877 the funded debt was one million, four hundred and eighteen thousand dollars, and expenses were examined. In 1879 the city was paying two dollars per thousand for gas, and a proposed new company might furnish it at from one dollar and fifty cents to one dollar and seventy-five cents. That year the telephone was first exhibited in Syracuse. The corner stone of the new county clerk's office was laid August 11, 1880, with Masonic cere monies, and General Grant was welcomed October 26. A city improvement society was organized in 1881, and July 19 the Wiet ing block was again burned. The West Shore railroad was opened October 1, 1883, and low rates led to immense travel. The present post office building was begun in March, 1884, and in that year electric lights were first used, in the streets. Faces brightened, too, for the funded debt was reduced to one million, two hundred and twenty-two thousand dollars. In 1887 Geddes and Danforth became parts of the city in February. Just before this Major John D. Burnet presented one hundred and thirty-five acres to the city to form Burnet Park, destined to be one of the most attrac tive here, its drives commanding many fine views. Charles P. Clark had become mayor in 1870, and that year the city aided the Syracuse Northern railroad by a bond issue of five hundred thousand 456 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY dollars, which was added to the funded debt of two hundred and eight thou sand, five hundred dollars. Francis E. Carroll thus came in as mayor in 1871, with a funded debt of nearly eight hundred thousand dollars, to which was soon added one hundred thousand dollars for Syracuse University, and a floating debt of fifty-eight thousand dollars. Carroll was again elected in 1872, and was succeeded by William J. Wallace in 1873. The latter found a funded debt of one million, two hundred and twenty-six thousand dollars, and a floating debt of one hundred thousand dollars. The latter he severely condemned. N. F. Graves became mayor in 1874. That year occurred the terrible dis aster at the Central Baptist church, June 23, in which fourteen were killed, and one hundred and forty-five injured by the fall of the floor. The smallpox that year had one hundred and eighty-two deaths out of eight hundred and ten cases by November 10, and there were others later. Beside the loss of trade the direct cost to the city was over sixty thousand dollars. John J. Crouse became mayor in 1876. The debt was about the same, but the city agreed to pay twenty-five thousand dollars annually to the company for water. Retrenchment became the cry, and a committee of ninety-six was formed, with Charles P. Clark as chairman and P. H. Agan and R. A. Bonta, secretaries. A compromise ticket was nominated, but failed, and James J. Belden became mayor, with one thousand, seven hundred and forty-five ma jority. The funded debt was then one million, four hundred and eighteen thousand dollars, and the floating was ninety-five thousand, seven hundred and sixty-three dollars and ten cents. New books were opened, and business methods successfully used. Mr. Belden was again elected in 1878. By that time one hundred and sixteen thousand and forty dollars and forty-eight cents had been paid on an actual floating debt of one hundred and forty-one thou sand, three hundred and seventy-three dollars and seventy-six cents, and the cash on hand was nine thousand, one hundred and forty-nine dollars and eighty-eight cents. No debt had been incurred during 1877. That year the paid fire department was established. It had four steam engines, one chemical, one hook and ladder truck and apparatus, five hose carts, eleven thousand feet of hose, and sixteen horses. The total street ex pense was thirty thousand, two hundred and thirteen dollars and nine cents. The first city attorney, Martin A. Knapp, had disposed of a lot of claims, and the funded debt was reduced. Irving G. Vann became mayor in 1879, and Francis Hendricks in 1880-81, with improved financial standing. John Demong was elected in 1882 by sixty- nine votes, and Thomas Ryan in 1883 by eighty-six. The latter was re-elected in 1884-85. The city debt was now one million, two hundred and twenty-two thousand dollars, and principal and interest, amounting to one hundred and eleven thousand, seven hundred and two dollars and fifty cents, were due in 1884. Out of the Geddes annexation that year came the ninth and tenth wards, and part of the third. Danforth added much to the south part of the city. The latest addition was the Huntley tract, January 1, 1908, on the northeast. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 457 In 1888 bonds of three hundred thousand dollars were issued for a new city hall on the site of the old. This was begun in 1889 and finished in 1891, Some changes in the charter were made in 1885, and about that time there was much fraudulent street paving. A little later the water supply again came to the front, the question being between Salmon river and Skaneateles lake. In 1886 Willis B. Burns was elected mayor for two years. That year came Major J. B. Burnet's gift of Burnet Park before mentioned, with the conditions that the city should at once expend three thousand dollars in sur veying and mapping the tract, ten thousand dollars annually for four years, and three thousand dollars annually thereafter for park improvement. The tax levy was now four hundred and seven thousand, eight hundred and twenty- four dollars and twenty-four cents, and many salaries were fixed. A summary of the business of Syracuse in 1886 follows. The city had thirty-four furniture dealers, ninety-four shoemakers and dealers, forty-eight carriage makers, one hundred and ninety-nine clothiers and tailors, twenty-two coal dealers, fifty-eight fruit and confectionery stores, one hundred and nine teen contractors and builders, one hundred and. sixty-seven dressmakers, twenty-five dry goods stores, thirty-seven drug stores, two hundred and eleven groceries, fifty-eight hotels, twenty-six hardware, and thirty-seven jewelry stores, one hundred and sixty-seven lawyers, eighty-four meat markets, twenty- three millinery stores, one hundred and twenty-six physicians, twenty-six printing offices and newspapers, twenty-seven publishers and agents, twenty- seven salt manufacturers, ninety-six cigar makers and dealers, six saddlery hardware dealers, eleven iron founders and machinists, thirty dentists, four hundred and twenty-one saloons, twenty-nine blacksmith shops, seven boiler- makers, two brick yards, three florists, twelve coopers, four gun makers, sixty-six barbers, fifty-seven insurance agents, three insurance companies, thir ty-nine livery stables, thirteen laundries, eleven lumber dealers, two planing mills, three pork packing houses, one pottery, seven pump makers, thirty-five real estate agents, seven shirt factories, five telegraph companies, seventeen stove dealers, three tanneries, seven tea and spice stores, seventeen wood dealers, three silverware makers, four umbrella makers, one tube works, eleven architects, one typewriter factory, eight agricultural implement dealers, twen ty-one artists, two art dealers, three awning makers, twenty-six bakeries, four baking powder makers, one bar iron factory, seven basket makers, one belt factory, twenty-two billiard parlors, three billiard table makers, four blank book makers, eleven book sellers and stationers, eight bottling works, four box factories, four brass foundries, eight brewers and maltsters, twenty- four brokers, one business college, ten carpet weavers, six carpet dealers, three chemical companies, four cider mills, eight crockery stores, five sash and blind dealers and makers, five dyers, one ear phone maker, thirteen flour and feed dealers and mills, thirty-two furniture makers, eighteen men's furnishing stores, fourteen harness and trunk dealers, seventeen hat and fur dealers, seven leather stores, eighteen wholesale liquor stores, two lithograph offices, nine marble shops, seven music stores, thirteen news rooms, six oil companies, ten paint dealers, three paper warehouses, twelve photographers, two organ 458 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY makers, thirty-two painters, nine patent medicine factories, thirteen plumbing shops, two screw factories, four seed stores, three cigar box factories, four sewer pipe makers, eleven sewing machine' dealers, four soap and candle fac tories, five sporting goods stores, four spring bed makers, one spring factory, two steel factories, seven stone yards, stove polish factory, one maker of sur gical instruments, twenty-two tin and coppersmiths, two truss makers, eight undertakers, nine variety stores, five veterinary surgeons, eleven wallpaper dealers, three theaters, fifty-six churches, eleven banks, university, eighteen public schools, yeast and whip and glove factory, etc. Beside street railways before mentioned, others came about this time. The Seventh Ward Railway was built in 1886, and was followed by the Eleventh Ward line in 1889, reaching the eleventh ward by different routes. The Third Ward railway was used as an electric line in 1888, and led to Sol vay. The Woodlawn & Butternut railway was organized in 1886, and all these were absorbed by the Consolidated Railway Company. All the city lines were in the hands of the Syracuse Street Railway Company by 1895. William B. Kirk became Mayor in 1888, and a board of water commis sioners was soon appointed, which reported in favor of Skaneateles lake. A special election was held in June, 1889, with a majority of ten thousand, three hundred and ninety-five for the report. In that year Mayor Kirk reported the bonded indebtedness of the city as one million, one hundred and thirty- nine thousand, five hundred dollars, of which one million dollars were in railroad bonds, and one hundred thousand dollars in university bonds. The sewer system was greatly extended. William Cowie became mayor in 1890, and that spring the water supply was assured, new sewers were laid, and Burnet Park improved. Mr. Cowie was re-elected, and was followed by Jacob Amos, during whose administration Skaneateles water was first used in Syracuse July 3, 1894. Thus far the editor follows the course of city life. Of the many changes and improvements of a score of years past in Syracuse no one is more compe tent to speak than Mr. Franklin H. Chase, secretary of the Historical Asso ciation, and to him the task has been committed. Of some persons and or ganizations the editor will have a little to say, regretting only that all cannot have the full treatment they deserve. There are over one hundred churches in Syracuse, nearly three hundred lodges and unions, and about two hundred mis cellaneous clubs and societies, probably more; some both important and in teresting. May their number increase. They promote social feelings and often quicken the heart and mind. We wish we could tell all about them, but it is impossible. Accept good wishes instead. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 459 CHAPTER LV. SYRACUSE CHURCHES. The First Baptist church of Syracuse was organized in February, 1821, with Rev. J. G. Stearns as first pastor. He was succeeded by Rev. Nathaniel J. Gilbert in 1823. That year a church was erected on West Genesee street, where the Universalist church was afterward built. This edifice was enlarged in 1839, and was used till 1848, when a brick church was erected on the lot next east. This was burned August 23, 1859, and the present one was dedicated November 1, 1860. This church had the first Christian Endeavor society in Syracuse. The Central Baptist church was formed in 1848; and in 1849, under Rev. A. Pinney, built a small chapel on East Genesee street. In 1869 the present site was bought and a chapel built, the main brick structure being erected in 1872. In 1874 occurred the terrible accident in which fourteen lives were lost. Rev. George T. Dowling (now an Episcopal minister) was pastor 1873-77. Immanuel Baptist church was formed January 15, 1886, under Rev. R. A. Vose. Its frame church is on Hawley avenue. Delaware Street Baptist church was organized March 6, 1889, under Rev. R. E. Burton, who is still in charge. Its brick church was dedicated November 13, 1890. The Fourth Baptist church was formed in 1883, and its frame church, comer of Grange and Sizer streets, was occupied in 1885, under Rev. B. R. Smith. It does not appear in the directory now. First German Baptist church, organized June 28, 1877, and located at corner of Ash and Lodi, now appears in the directory as German Evangelical Friedens church, with a church built in 1890. Bethany Baptist (colored) church was formed May 12, 1887, as the Union Baptist church, Rev. George E. Stevens, first pastor. Its chapel, erected in 1903, is 610 East Washington street. Lowell Avenue Baptist church, Lowell avenue, was erected in 1899. Olivet Baptist church, on Lexington avenue, was organized in 1891. Tabernacle Baptist church built its chapel, 1416 South Salina street, in 1902. The First Ward Presbyterian church was organized January 23, 1822, Presbyterians there having previously belonged to the Onondaga Valley church. The first chapel was built in 1822, and one of brick in 1855. The first pastor was Rev. James H. Mills. The Rev. Alfred PI. Fahnestock, of Syracuse, was there twenty years. First Presbyterian church of Syracuse, organized December 14, 1824, had its first chapel just north of a later one. This was built in 1825, and Rev. John W. Adams became its first pastor, continuing in charge till his death, April 4, 1850. A new brown stone church on South Salina street, recently 460 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY removed, was dedicated November 24, 1850. The present fine edifice is on West Genesee street, occupying ample grounds. The Park Central Presbyterian church was formed December 24, 1846, and the church was dedicated February 3, 1848. Rev. William W. Newell being then pastor. The property was sold in 1855, and the society reorganized. The present stone church was dedicated June 24, 1875. The Fourth Presbyterian church was fully organized February 20, 1870, and its edifice was dedicated February 27, 1873. Rev. John S. Bacon was the first pastor. Westminster Presbyterian church was organized November 15, 1886. and occupied its new building in September, 1887, under Rev. Alfred E. Myers. first pastor. Memorial Presbyterian church grew out of a mission, and dedicated its first chapel May 1, 1863. The present edifice was dedicated May 6, 1886, but organization did not take place till September 8, 1887. The East Genesee society built in 1891 ; the Elmwood in 1893 ; the West End in 1896 ; the South Presbyterian in 1892, rebuilding in 1906. There is also a Reformed Presbyterian or Covenanter church, on South Salina street, built in 1862. The society was formed in 1849, and Rev. John Newell was the first pastor. The First Congregational church was organized May 25, 1838, Rev. John T. Avery, pastor. Its first "chapel, on East Genesee and Washington streets, was dedicated August 16, 1838. It was disused and the society became extinct soon after 1850. Plymouth Congregational church was formed September 24, 1853, Rev. M. E. Strieby being first pastor. Its first chapel was dedicated in February, 1855. The corner stone of the brick church was laid in 1860. This was en larged in 1871, and again in 1889. Good Will Congregational church was formed April 14, 1885, dedicating its new edifice September 24, 1886. As it now stands it was completed in 1890, and dedicated January 15, 1891. Rev. J. C. Andrus was first pastor. Danforth Congregational church was formed February 1, 1884, and a fine brick church, was dedicated June 20, 1885. The first pastor was Rev. D. F. Harris. Geddes Congregational church, organized November 15, 1886, dedicated its chapel May 1, 1888. Rev. F. A. S. Storer being the first pastor. The South Avenue Congregational church was formed in October, 1883, Rev. F. L. Luce first pastor. The church was built in 1886. Pilgrim Chapel was built in 1872. The First Ward Methodist Episcopal church, as a class, had a chapel in 1829, and the corner stone of the present edifice was laid in 1864. First Methodist Episcopal church built a brick church in 1836. Its high steeple offended some of the congregation, and wind and lightning twice de stroyed it. The church was renovated and enlarged in 1856 and 1869. Geddes Methodist Episcopal church, now West Genesee, built its present church in 1870. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 461 The Centennary Methodist Episcopal church was formed January 6, 1867, completing its fine brick edifice in 1868. University Avenue Methodist Episcopal church was organized in 1867, and again in 1868. After -erecting a small chapel the present fine building was erected in 1871. The Brown Memorial Methodist Episcopal church was at first the Dela ware Street Methodist Episcopal society of 1873. Its brick church was built in 1876, and named after Alexander J. Brown. Furman Street Methodist Episcopal church built a chapel in 1871, and a brick church was dedicated in July, 1887. La Fayette Avenue Methodist Episcopal church was built in 1899 ; Bellevue Avenue in 1900 ; East Solvay in 1898; Erwin Memorial in 1889; Nelson Street in 1870; Olivet in 1892; Park Avenue in 1889 ; Woodlawn in 1900. There are also an Italian Methodist Episcopal church and the Rockefeller Memorial. Beside these is the African Methodist Episcopal church, which built in 1851 ; the Free Methodist church, which built in 1874, and the Wesleyan Meth odist, which built in 1845. St. Paul's church (Protestant Episcopal) was organized May 22, 1826. and built in 1828. The corner stone of a stone church was laid July 12, 1841 on the site of the present post office. The corner stone of the present church was laid June 25, 1844, and the late Rev. IT. R. Lockwood had the longest rectorship, a man esteemed by all men. St. James' church was organized as a free church August 14, 1848, under Rev. Dr. Henry Gregory, succeeded by Rev. Dr. J. M. Clarke. The first stone church, built 1851-53, was burned in 1891. The present one on James street was erected in 1891. It has been called Church of the Saviour since 1.898. The Rev. Karl Schwartz is the present rector. Trinity church was organized in 1856, and a -chapel was consecrated November 25, 1855, before organization. The present church was built in 1869. The Rev. IT. N. Hyde is now rector. Grace church was organized March 27, 1871, having then a frame chapel. The present fine stone church was built in '1876. Rev. Dr. PL G. Coddington is the rector. Calvary church was founded in 1873, but not organized till 1881. Its church was built in 1877, Bishop Huntington and his son Rev. J. O. S. Hun tington, conducting the services till 1883. Church of St. John , the Divine was not organized till 1889, though it had a chapel in 1870. Thisvwas burned, and the present church was opened in October, 1892. All Saints' church was formed December 15, 1896, and its church was built in 1898. St. Mark's church was organized as the Apostolic Church, January 10, 1832, and then had a conspicuous frame church. It was reorganized under its present name, April 8, 1885. The chapel was burned that year, and the corner stone of the present stone church was laid September 22, 1885. The 462 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Rev. E. W. Mundy was then in charge, the Rev. Dr. W. De L. Wilson being now the rector. St. Philips (colored) church was organized as a mission by Rev. H. G. Coddington, D. D., January 16, 1901, and continued long under his care. The Reformed (Dutch) church was organized March 10, 1848, Rev. James A. H. Cornell being the first pastor. Its first church was dedicated July 16, 1850, and was burned July 23, 1878. The present fine building was dedi cated February 10, 1881. There is a second Reformed church. The Church of the Messiah (Unitarian) was organized October 4, 1838, and a chapel was built in January, 1839. A brick church was dedicated November 23, 1843, of which Rev. Samuel J. May took charge in 1845. He served till 1868, and from him comes the name of May Memorial Church. Rev. Dr. Catthrop has been in charge since 1868. The Church of Christ (Disciples) was organized February 8, 1863, erect ing its church in 1864. The First Universalist society was formed in 1859, and built its first church in 1862, its second in 1869, and the third in 1906. First English Lutheran church, organized July 6, 1879, by Rev. Jeremiah Zimmerman, purchased the Independent church, and dedicated it October 1, 1880. St. John's Evangelical Lutheran church (German) was incorporated Jan uary 1, 1840. The first church was built in 1841, and burned December 28, 1856. A finer church followed. German Evangelical St. Peter's church, incorporated August 6, 1843, built its present church in 1860, remodeling it in 1880. ' Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Redeemer was built in 1898 ; the Ger man Evangelical Friedens church in 1900; Mt. Tabor Evangelical Lutheran church in 1901; St. Paul's German Evangelical Lutheran church in 1882; and Zion's Evangelical Lutheran church in 1868. Immanuel Church of Evangelical Association was built in 1854, and Salem Church Evangelical Association in 1869. The First Church of Christ, Scientists, purchased a building on East Fay ette street, 1898. The Roman Catholic churches are many and fine. The Church of the Assumption was originally St. Mary's, and built a chapel in 1844, which was soon enlarged. The new church was begun in 1865, and consecrated May 3, 1867. The two towers were finished in 1872. This large society has a school on Townsend street. St. Mary's church bought the old St. Paul's church building in 1844, but now has the most costly church edifice in the city, on Montgomery and Jef ferson streets, erected in 1885. It has founded several orphan asylums and schools. St. John's Cathedral, or Church of St. John the Evangelist, is an out growth of St. Mary's, and was finished and opened in 1854. It is the center of several institutions. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 463 / The Church of St. John the Baptist was built in 1870, and is now under the charge of Rev. John F. Mullany. St. Patrick's church was built in 1871; Church of the Sacred Heart in 1892 ; Holy Trinity church in 1891 ; St. Joseph's (German) in 1882 ; St. Joseph's (French) in 1869; St. Lucy's in 1873; St. Peter's (Italian) bought the old Unitarian church; St. Vincent de Paul's built in 1895; St. Anthony of Padua is on Midland avenue. There are eight Hebrew synagogues in the city, well supported. The Society of Concord was organized November 21, 1841, and built its present synagogue in 1850. This became a reformed congregation. The New Beth Israel was formed August 7, 1854, building its synagogue in 1856, and remodeling it in 1887, Adath Jeshurun was organized June, 6, 1864, building the present synagogue in 1887. Adath Israel was organized June 1, 1882, and built a brick synagogue the same year. Adath Yeshurun was chartered in 1872, and built a synagogue in 1877. The Congregation of Poily Zedeck was organized in 1888, building in 1896. Congregation Chevra Tilim built a synagogue in 1900. Congregation Avis Shakum is a recent society. Nearly all these have their special cemeteries. SYRACUSE SOCIETIES. Prominent among Syracuse organizations are many of the Masons and Odd Fellows, Improved Order of Red Men, Modern Woodmen, Grand Army, Independent Order of Foresters, Foresters of America, Ancient Order of United Workmen, Daughters of Liberty, Harugari, Knights of Maccabees, Pythias and Columbus, Temperance societies and Good Templars, Catholic Benevolent Legion, Ancient Order of Hibernians, etc., to which may be added a host of trade unions. Political parties, churches, schools and business men have their clubs or societies, and but few of these can be noted now, though many are doing excellent work. The Anglers' Association meets monthly; the Elks weekly; the Bureau of Labor and Charities and S. P. C. C. meets bi-weekly; the Chamber of Commerce semi-monthly, or when need requires. In connection with the Mystic Krewe it has wonderfully stimulated public spirit. There are several Jewish clubs. Historical, literary and art clubs abound. The Kanatenah Club (she leads the town) has naturally a front rank among women's clubs, but the Morning Musicals are deservedly favorites, as well as the Portfolio and Social Art clubs. The Syracuse Clericus, the Ministers' Asso ciation, and that of the Methodist Preachers, help many clergymen. The Onondaga Academy of Science has done much good work, and much may now be expected from the Onondaga Historical Association. The Farmer's Club deserves more attention than it gets, and the Golf Club at least takes people into the country. The work of the Syracuse Botanical Club has been of a very high nature and important in its results. In a different way 464 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Mothers' Clubs have been of benefit. Some of the German societies have done a great deal in music and athletics, and such bodies as Christian En- deavorers, Young Men's Christian Associations, with those for women, hold a high rank. The Rescue Mission and the Salvation Army have earnest workers and supporters. Salina Lodge, No. 327, F. & A. M., was warranted December 2; 1819, met on the corner of Wolf and Salina streets, and had but a brief existence. Syracuse Lodge, No. 484, had a dispensation January 2, 1826, and a charter in June. Henry Newton was W. M., Joseph Slocum S. W., and William Malcolm J. W. It was closed about 1831, and opened again July 23, 1844, as No. 102. It met in the Empire block till 1849. After several removals it surrendered its warrant in 1860, and a new warrant was at once issued to Syracuse Lodge, No. 501. Central City Lodge, No. 305, F. & A. M., was warranted June 7, 1853, with W. George N. Williams, W. M., and has maintained a high standing. Salt Springs Lodge, No. 520, received a dispensation September 17, 1861, and a warrant the next June. John F. Sherwood was then W. M. It removed from the First Ward to a more central location in 1867. Central City Chapter, No. 70, R. A. M., was warranted as Salina Chapter February 9, 1821, William Baldwin first H. P. The name was changed to Central City in 1864, having been Syracuse Chapter since 1849. Central City Council, No. 13, Royal and Select Masters, was warranted June 5, 1860, and Central City Encampment received a dispensation March 17, 1856. A warrant was granted the latter February 6, 1857, as "Central City Commandery, No. 25, of Knights Templar and Knights of Malta." The Central City Council of Princes of Jerusalem received its warrant November 27, 1862. This comprises four bodies, in the A. & A. S. Rite, conferring the thirty-third degree. Beside these are the Masonic Club, Masonic Veterans, Order of the Eastern Star, and Mystic Shriners, the latter represented by Kedar Khan Grotto, No. 12. The Odd Fellows have also three encampments and eight lodges, of which Onondaga, No. 79, is the oldest, its first officers having been installed in 1842. The encampments are Cynosure, Lincoln and Salina; the lodges Alphadelphia, Americus, Lessing, Lincoln, Onondaga, Salina, Syracuse and Westminster. There are also five Cantons of Patriarchs Militant, and four Rebekah lodges. King Solomon Court, No. 13, Independent Order of Foresters, was or ganized in 1875, but the name does not survive among the twelve courts now existing. These are West End, Tirrell, United States, Durker, Fire Brigade, Mayor Baldwin, Umbria, Dana, Central New York, Kruger, Hotchkiss and Caldwell. The Foresters of America form a large body in Syracuse, having eleven lodges, and seven circles; the latter being female societies. The Ancient Order of United Workmen numbers nine lodges, and the Knights of Macabees six tents and five hives. The Knights of Pythias have V ***' ¦**¦ I i fc P i 2 S i J 'rVf!.'.fi'-w . mLmm THE STATE ARSENAL. THE STATE SALT BUILDING. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 465 fourteen organizations of various kinds, and there are least thirty temperance societies. The Catholic Mutual Benefit Association has ten branches, and the Catho lic Benevolent Legion seven councils. The Ladies' Catholic Benevolent As sociation numbers nine branches, and the Ancient Order of Plibernians eight divisions and two auxiliaries. The Improved Order of Red Men has eight councils, and the auxiliary Daughters of Pocahontas three. Harugari numbers seven lodges, and the Imperial Oirder of Tycoons four. The Knights of Pythias have also twelve organizations of various kinds. The Onondaga Historical Association elected its first board of directors January 22, 1862, and of these no one survives. The first president, 1862-66, was Joshua V. H. Clark, and of those who succeeded him but one ex-president survives. Homer De L. Sweet was secretary for twenty-eight years. For some time the society flourished, and then came a long period of inaction. The Onondaga Historical Club was organized in 1892, quickly uniting with the Historical Association, and giving it an impetus which it never lost. The Centennial celebration of 1894 added to the interest, and was an occasion long to be remembered. The society is now partially endowed, and has a fine build ing and valuable collections. Its annual field days are on the 6th of June, and it is elsewhere noticed as a county institution with a home in Syracuse. The university has an historical society for general study, and there is a Ladies' Historical Club of long standing, meeting weekly from October to April. The Onondaga Academy of Science was organized in April, 1896, and has done fine local work in all departments of natural science in this inter esting region. The Society for Mutual Instruction, 1844, assigned a branch of natural science to each, of its members, with fine results. Of late another society, interested in physical geography, has made valuable researches. Its work is mainly done on semi-annual field days. The veteran society in natural science, however, is the Syracuse Botanical Club, of nearly thirty years' standing, which has reported several plants before unknown in New York. Until this year its active membership was solely of ladie "-"d it has had but two presidents, Mrs. Rust and Mrs. Goodrich. Its valuable local and general collections were presented to the Historical Association October 18, 1907. The several hospitals of the city, as St. Joseph's, Good Shepherd, Wom en's and Children's, Homeopathic, etc., have societies working with them. There are many asylums for orphans as St. Vincent's, House of Providence, Onondaga Orphan Asylum, etc., but these are better enumerated in a direc tory with many others. The public schools, including the high school, and one in prospect, are about forty in number, and there are many parochial, private, preparatory, commercial and other schools, culminating in the Syracuse University. Libraries attracted early attention, the Rev. Palmer Dyer, rector of St. Paul's church, establishing the first circulating one, known as the Parish 466 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Library. The Syracuse Library and Reading Room Association had one of over one thousand volumes, afterward merged in that of the Franklin Insti tute and Library, which had a long and prosperous career. Others succeeded and the Central Library came from consolidating the city's school libraries and was opened May 1, 1855. This was moved into the old high school building in 1869, and in 1880 the present librarian, Rev. Dr. E. W. Mundy, was appointed, filling the office efficiently ever since. The library is now one of the most valuable in the state outside of New York and Buffalo, and is especially rich in historical and genealogical material. It maintains some local branches, and is well housed. In its. building is the Barrow Gallery of paint ings, and also the Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts, admirably managed by Pro fessor Comfort. Syracuse University has the valuable Von Ranke Library, beside books of more modern date. The first school within the present city limits was taught "by Capt. Edward O'Connor, probably in 1797, in Salina or Liverpool, or both." He was a Revolutionary soldier, and had a daughter born in Salina, Mrs. Alvin Bronson of Oswego. His name has not- appeared in previous lists of sol diers, unless as Conner. Later schools left no records till Mrs. Wealthy Ann Lathrop began a select school in 1826, continuing it for many years. The "cold water school" at Lodi, in 1828, had its name from the temperance standing of Oliver Teall. Beside other teachers, Judge George F. Comstock taught for six months in 1835. The Salina and the Montgomery Institutes were later schools. Miss Chub buck's school has been mentioned, and Madame A. J. Raoul's school, 1847-61, was a feature of Syracuse. A high school of several years after 1840, was called the Church Street High School, J. L. Mayo, principal, with two assistants. Many prominent Syracuse people were in this. A charter for the Syracuse Academy was obtained in 1835, and a build ing was erected on "Lodi Hill," East Fayette street. It did not prosper, and the property became that of the Onondaga County Orphan Asylum. The public schools began with District No. 1, in the first ward, near the present Jefferson school, and Principal Edward Smith has described succeeding progress in the city. In 1848 the four wards had ten schools and twenty-two teachers, with salaries varying from fifteen dollars to fifty dollars per month. Principal W. W. Newman alone had the latter. A high school department in 1854 was under Principal Charles C. Roundy. This had several removals before it was established on West Genesee street in 1869. Before that time schools began to assume names, and by 1895 there were twen ty-five of these ward schools, beside the truant and high schools. There were then three hundred and thirty-six teachers. The ward schools are now thirty- three, with five hundred and eleven teachers in all city public schools. To the ward schools may be added six others under the board of education. Keble school was ably maintained for many years by Miss Mary Jack son, and the Goodyear-Burlingame and other schools are doing good work. In 1867 Syracuse voted an appropriation of one hundred thousand dollars for a university here, if four hundred thousand dollars endowment PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 467 were added to this. A Methodist Episcopal convention took hold of this in 1870, and recommended the raising of five hundred thousand dollars by that denomination. Provisional trustees were elected, and a charter was secured. In January, 1871, pledges reached four hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, and the city issued bonds for one hundred thousand dollars, April 24. Gifts of real estate followed, and the College of Liberal Arts was opened in the Myers block, September 1, 1871, remaining there till the Hall of Lan guages was dedicated in May, 1873. The Medical College was established in December, 1871, commencing work the next year. The College of Fine Arts, established in June, 1873, was opened in September. In 1886 the Holden Memorial Observatory was built, and the next year the Von Ranke Library was presented. The Crouse Memorial College for Women followed these gifts, and other later equipments will be described elsewhere. The additions have been on a grand scale in the last few years. The chancellors have been Daniel Steele, 1871-72 ; Alexander Winched, 1872-74 ; E. 0. Haven, 1874-80; Charles N. Sims, 1881-93; James R. Day, present chan cellor. In the number of students it ranks high. Though controlled by Meth odists it claims to be non-sectarian, and has a liberal attendance of others. Of the original faculty Rev. Wellesley P. Coddington alone keeps his place. The charter is dated March 25, 1870, and provides for forty-one trus tees. Of these twenty-seven represent the Methodist Episcopal conferences of the state of New York; nine are trustees at large, of whom only three are to be Methodists ; three are chosen by the graduates ; the Chancellor represents the faculty, and some state officers are trustees ex-officio, giving the denomi nation a safe working representation of three-fourths. Beside its libraries the university has fine cabinets of various kinds, and is justly proud of its athletic organizations. Its situation is fine and its grounds ample. The system is that of co-education, and its musical and art advantages draw many young ladies to its halls, while large numbers of Syracuse people may be seen at the frequent musical recitals. The presence of a trained body of professional men has had a marked influence on the city, and the increas ing number of its fine and conspicuous buildings adds to its scenic effects. In architecture, drawing, modeling and painting, creditable work is con stantly done, and laboratory work and engineering have special' attention. 468 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY CHAPTER LVI. ONONDAGA'S CENTENNIAL. This has been briefly mentioned, but a few of its striking features may be added as seen in the city. Following up a suggestion of a Centennial cele bration of the erection of the county for June 6, 1904, proper committees were appointed to take matters in charge. A loan exhibition was provided, and a grand procession organized, with suitable addresses and other things. Beside this a week's entertainment of tableaux, etc., at the Wieting opera house was arranged, and this, with the procession, appealed to spectacular tastes. The day was favorable, and the city was crowded to see the former. There were eight divisions promptly in motion at 10 a. m., under Colonel H. N. Burhans, marshal of the day. The first included war veterans, military companies and G. A. R. posts. Major T. H. Poole was a director of the His torical Association, but he left his carriage to march with his old companions, his empty sleeve attesting his bravery. The second comprised city officers and those of the Historical Association, and several societies. The third was of Catholic organizations of the city. The fourth, Odd Fellows, St. John's Cadets, etc. The fifth, Knights of Pythias. The sixth, the fire department. The seventh, cycling and athletic associations. The eighth, historical and industrial floats, a fine feature of the parade. One float had a fac-simile of the old Mansion House. Another bore seven veteran supervisors, with antique mahogany table and chairs. One had a block house, another a canal boat, another a canoe with an Indian family. Ephraim Webster, with his flat boat and Indian friends furnished another. Five floats showed features of salt making. The American Express Company was well represented, as well as many other industries. The Solvay Process and the Syracuse Chilled Plow companies had flne floats, the latter showing "Sowing grain 1794." Hiawatha of course appeared in his white canoe. Mayor Jacob Amos's float had twenty young people representing statuary, with the Goddess of Liberty over all. The procession passed a given point in two hours and ten minutes, countermarching on West Onondaga street, which added much to the interest and effect. The historical tableaux were directed by Mrs. Charles E. Fitch, aided by Henry J. Ormsbee. The first was the reception of Hiawatha by the Iro quois at Onondaga lake. The second was his farewell and ascent heavenward in his white canoe. Next came Le Moyne with the Onondagas at the salt springs, with the singing of hymns, and features more picturesque than his toric. Between the tableaux came singing by leading vocalists of Syracuse, a fine feature of the occasion. "Salt Boiling in Early Times" showed Comfort Tyler, Asa Danforth and Indians making salt in 1788, with an old-fashioned kettle. A painting then showed the old store of Thomas McCarthy in 1805, and the new one of D. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 469 McCarthy & Company in 1894. This was followed by an old-fashioned singing school, which ended with "Polly, put the Kettle on." This was funny enough, but the climax of fun was in the quilting party at Onondaga Hollow, sup posed to be in 1820, and Mrs. Delia Colvin Hatch was the life of this. La Fayette's reception followed. Then came a primary singing school, and the Fayetteville school which President Cleveland attended in 1845. This was under Miss Eliza Cole, his former teacher. The Jerry Rescue of 1853 followed, and then the Syracuse Musical In stitute of 1849, mostly the old members. The Bifrning of Wieting Block in 1856 was quite effective and realistic, old-fashioned fire apparatus being used. Three war scenes by old soldiers succeeded; the first being the presentation of colors and departure of troops; the second a bivouac of veterans with camp songs; the third the return of the troops. As far as possible pioneers were represented by their descendants; in the later tableaux some actors had shared in the historic events. A medal was struck on this occasion ; the obverse being an Indian group and log house, with legend: "The Commemoration of the Hundredth Anni versary of the County of Onondaga, March 5, 1794." Reverse, map of the military tract; legend: "The Bounty of the -State of New York to the Sol diers of the American Revolution." This was provided by William Kirk patrick. KANOONO KARNIVAL. In the fall of 1904, Mayor Fobes suggested the plan of giving wider inter est to State Fair week by four nights of spectacular parades of a varied char acter, part of which might be legendary or historic. The proposal found favor. The Chamber of Commerce took hold of it with enthusiasm, and out of this came the Mystic Krewe, based on the Iroquois- League. A syllabus was adopted, designs secured and floats built, and in September, 1905, the first series of entertainments was given, an annual series following. It is needless to describe all these, but as the first was distinctly local in character. as regards the historic floats, this may be taken as representing the rest. The electrical displays have always been good, and the customary military and civic parades fine, but the floats manned by the Mystic Krewe were in tended to be the culminating feature. After the manner of the Mardi Gras a king and queen are annually chosen and received in a stately way; usually with a water pageant. The term Kanoono was selected as a name for the carnival, being that of the city and bay of New York, and thence applied to the state. The Mohawks now define this fresh water basin. It might be derived from one of two early Mohawk words : Gannonna, to guard, as though soldiers were on duty ; and Gannona, bottom of the water, as in the present definition. The last suits best a well watered land. In accordance with Mayor Fobes' suggestion the Hiawatha of Onondaga was chosen for the general subject, with a few historic floats added. A dozen 470 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY floats were devoted to the Indian sage. 1. Hiawatha's Advent. He lands from his white canoe, and greets two hunters, who become his companions. 2. Opening the Rivers. He fights with and destroys a great serpent. 3. Re storing Fruits. The three overcome the enchantress who guards the trees. 4. The Fight with the Great Mosquito. The terrible monster is slain. 5. The Arrow-maker and his . Daughter. Hiawatha and Minnehaha meet. 6. The Benefactor. He distributes nuts, grain and fruits. 7. The Maker of Wampum. Two Indian spies curiously watch Hiawatha as he makes and strings shell beads. 8. The Oneidas, or People of the Stone. Hiawatha visits ,them as they gather around the great boulder or Oneida Stone. 9. Hiawatha finds the Eel Clan. They are among the rushes. 10. Death of Hiawatha's Daughter. She is crushed by the great white bird. 11. The First Atocarho. The messengers come to the -terrible chief. 12. Hiawatha's Departure. He ascends in his white canoe. All this is legendary with some historic basis. The remaining floats had purely historic themes. 1. Le Moyne at Onondaga. His address to the Indians in 1654, at Onondaga. 2. First Boiling of Salt. The missionary and Indians are engaged in this. 3. The Sick Frenchmen. An incident of the French colony at Onondaga lake. 4. Count Frontenac at Onondaga, 1696. He is carried through the woods in a chair. 17. The Moravians at Onondaga. An incident of 1750. 18. General Herkimer at Oriskany. The wounded general is giving orders. 19. American Troops in Onondaga Valley, 1779. A group is crossing the creek. 20. Ephraim Webster's Trading House. He deals out goods to the Indians after the Revolution. Later parades have had less of local color, but some have been of great beauty and interest. There has been no abatement of zeal, nor any of pleas ure in the results, and every year sees some new feature. The real value of this plan for pleasing and instructing partially appears in the increased attendance at the state fair, and in the successful efforts to put it on a better basis. That it pleases young and old, the crowded streets testify. These are not the least part of the show, every person possible attending and in the greatest good humor. The "Mystic Krewe," by which this is managed, is an adjunct of the Chamber of Commerce, and on the alert for matters of public interest. Its- latest project was the presentation of a garrison flag to the city at the cele bration of Washington's birthday, 1908, and this was carried out with fine effect. The Mystic Krewe is also a reformer of spelling, and has a well arranged Kavern, not in the style of the cave-dwellers of old, but a place whence arises the primitive American incense of tobacco, "volumed and vast, and rolling far." There may be seen veterans who have saved their scalps, but lost their scalp locks, old lawyers with feathers rising from their heads, instead of "quills behind their ears; representatives of every club but the war club; young clerks and old merchants, alike eager for the trader's profits, but polite and persuasive as becomes their calling. The Krewe represents the Five Nations, and "Lo, the poor Indian," finds a new importance in teaching the white man how to sing and dance. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 471 There is a frequent rivalry to see which can secure most captives for adoption. Now the Oneidas are ahead, and now the O'nondagas; now the Senecas, and now the Cayugas. Then the real Onondagas, of our first families, take a hand, adopt some leading pale face, and give him a resonant name. For two hundred and fifty years past this honor has occasionally come from the Onondagas to those for whom they have some special regard. The early Jesuits and Mora vians, later missionaries and teachers, leading pioneers, interpreters and offi cers, the first Mayor of Syracuse and later friends of the Indians, have had this honor, for some good reason. The latest recipient is the President of the Mystic Krewe, Joseph A. Griffin, who was adopted in full form in the Onon daga council house. As showing popular estimation of all this the following is quoted from a recent Harper's Weekly: "Do not let them tell you that an American town cannot enter into the carnival spirit, and still preserve her graciousness and a certain underlying sense of decorum. Tell those scoffers to go to Syracuse during State Fair week. They will see a demonstration of the contrary — Salina street ablaze with incandescent beauty, and with row upon row of eager citizens. The street is cleaned off for a broad strip of stone carpet down the center of the thor oughfare, and over this carpet rolls float after float, typifying the nations of "the world, and Mr. Syracuse and Mrs. Syracuse, Master Syracuse and Miss Syracuse stand open-eyed in pleasure, and go home very late at night on trol ley cars that are crowded as are trolley cars in very big cities, convinced that there may be other towns, but that the City of Syracuse is unique. ... A stanch civic pride is the skeleton construction that supports this city of the classic name; it is a construction that admits of an infinite growth being placed upon it — ^and Syracuse stands ready for infinite growth." LAST TWENTY YEARS OF ONONDAGA COUNTY By FRANKLIN H. CHASE. CHAPTER LVII. SYRACUSE'S GREATEST CHANGES. To the man who has not the gift of a statistical mind nor a mental grasp upon measurements, the changes in Syracuse limits in the last twenty years are more expressive and impressive when given descriptively. To the north the city line has been pushed from a point where the Geddes street line touched the creek in the salt marsh lands to and including the lake shore and cutting the' quarter of the lake nearest the city ; to' the west the line has been moved from Geddes street to take in the old village of Geddes; to the south the city line which cut at Castle and Salina streets, has been moved to within half a mile of the old Seneca turnpike at the Valley, taking in successively the old village of Danforth and the later village of Elmwood, while upon the east' there have been few changes in the city line except those made neces sary by north and south extensions. Syracuse did not burst its boundaries all at once, but the changes were many and gradual, the latest being the passage of the bill in 1907 which took the Huntley tract upon the Salina side, going into effect January 1, 1908. The act which annexed Geddes to Syracuse was passed May 17, 1886, and that of Danforth on June 15, 1886, the latter place coming in on the third Tuesday of February, 1887. With the changes of the farm lots of twenty years ago into the handsom est residence sections of the city today, have also come many changes of opinion as to street names and, indeed, the street configuration of several im portant parts of the city. West Onondaga street, from the Circle at Delaware street west, was Lincoln avenue, while the present Lincoln avenue was known as Johnson street. Bellevue avenue, quite decidedly "way out in the coun try," was known as South street, and in truth all south was the old Vivus W. Smith farm and west of Geddes street in this section was also productive farming land. "Happy Cal" Wagner, the minstrel, owning one of the well known farms out on South street )when it was only a country road. Up 474 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Geddes street to the foot of the hill was a short branch one-horse car line, connecting with the old Fifth Ward belt line, which ran up Gifford street to Niagara, through the horse car barns to Holland, to Delaware, to Geddes and to Gifford streets again. There were no conductors on that line, one of the first and most successful, in the city, the passengers putting their fares in the poor boxes at the end of the cars, and making their own change from en velopes furnished by the driver. In this same section South avenue was known as South Onondaga street; the western end of Midland avenue was called Rust street, while Massena street was Ontario street, being separated and lost from the northern end of Ontario street by three solidly built up blocks between. The change of the famous old Mulberry and Lock streets into South and North State streets is fairly modern, but the calling of Williams and Chestnut streets North and South Crouse avenues, and Spruce street Walnut avenue dates' back to the '80s. Comstock avenue was mostly a picture on a map twenty years ago, which also showed a park called Monument Park at the intersection of the ayenue and East Adams street, with no monument or park ever appearing except on the map. Lexington avenue was the eastern end of East Genesee street, while the present route of East Genesee street ran off toward the old Syracuse Driv ing Park under the name of East avenue. The streets east and south are prac tically all new ones of the past two decades. When Church street lost its churches and was changed into a .business street, the residents evidently thought it was time to change the name and it became West Willow street. There have been many other interesting changes in this locality, the most important being Judson avenue into Park avenue and the opening into one of the city's most beautiful parkways of land originally laid out into building lots. Liberty street had the prosaic name of Smith street, while Greene. street has dropped the "e" and therefore the significance of its naming. To the south, crossing Salina street, was Ridgeway street, which afterward became East Kennedy street to conform with the street west, and which was practically the southern limit of the suburb of Danforth, so far as there were buildings erected. There were no streets laid out between Ridgeway and the Colvin road in the early '80s, not even upon a map. The story of the absorption of farms into city lands may not differ from that of other progressive cities, but Syracuse had a boom in that line which, while disastrous during the hard times of 1893 and some years later, finally reached a healthy tone that has been steadily sustained. In the summer of 1889 Barnum 's circus was seen upon the Tallman Park property, where the old Onondaga fair and races were held, and in less than four years that entire tract was covered with homes. That was one of the most rapid spurts in home building in the city's history to that period. The building up of the Kirk tract, the Comstock property on University hill, Burt tract on Cortland avenue, Bellevue Heights and other places, are just a few instances of the city's phenomenal spreading out. It was Lyman C. Smith's purchase of the Stolp property on Bellevue Highlands on October 3, 1894, that aided mate- PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 475 rially in attracting attention to that section, which was just above the large Palmer tract, already opened. Not until the Bellevue car line was completed in 1907, however, were these two tracts completely opened. M. A. Graves and E. L. Loomis, by their purchase of the Comstock tract on University hill, on -October 16, 1894, made much more rapid progress in the building up of that section. Some contrasts can be guaged from the selling prices of 1887, when lots on South Crouse avenue went for twenty-five dollars a front foot; on Irving street for twenty dollars; on West Onondaga street at seventy-five dollars a foot; James street, best locations, one hundred and twenty-five dol lars to one hundred and fifty dollars, and South Salina street, just south of Jefferson, three hundred dollars. The village of Eastwood, a busy manufacturing suburb, was incorporated April 16, 1895. The bill to annex Elmwood to the city was sent to Albany on March 2, 1899, and it became a law with Governor Roosevelt's signature on April 19 following. On March 10, 1899, Governor Roosevelt also signed the bill for the bridge at Rich street across the creek, while in that year the North Side citizens were busy with schemes for extending Butternut street across the Oswego canal with a hoist bridge, holding a meeting for that purpose on February 18, 1899. It was several years later before the bridge was erected. The boulevard upon the west shore of Onondaga lake, extending from Geddes street diagonally to Hiawatha avenue, where an artistic toll-gate and keeper's house was erected, and thence to Long Branch upon the outlet, was the work of private capital, and was opened upon August 7, 1894. For years it was a favorite drive until the raising of the dams in Seneca river raised the level of the water in the lake, causing annual overflows which wearied the boulevard association in the work of repair. Since 1902 only the city end of the boulevard was kept in order. During the years of bicycle popularity a cinder path was constructed along the track, and for several years the boulevard was lighted its entire length. When the Syracuse, Lakeside & Baldwinsville electric railway was laid, it was with a curve upon Hiawatha avenue and an angle to Liberty street. On the northeast of this angle at Hiawatha avenue and Liberty street, upon the flat marsh lands, was built Lakeside Athletic field, opened in 1900, and count ing more failures in athletics and spectacular affairs than any similar park in the city. In 1905 and 1906, after Star Park, at the junction of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western tracks and Salina street, was filled in and turned into building lots, the Lakeside field was used for State League ball games. Ath letic games, fireworks and shooting tournaments were frequently held there, but seldom were the grand stands, which would seat ten thousand people, wholly occupied. In the fall of 1906, when the University campus oval was given over to* new buildings and the Stadium not yet completed, the Lake side park was used for the football season, the ill-luck of the park still appar ently pursuing it, for in the Syracuse-Colgate game of October 20, 1906, a section of the "bleacher" stands fell injuring many and causing the death of Rev. C. J. Donigan. 476 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY The transformation of Clinton Square from a cobbled and littered public market to the park site of a stately and beautiful Soldiers' and Sailors' monu ment, the most artistic and expensive memorial erected by the county, was not without bitter contest. Since village days the square was used for mar ket and packet dock purposes, the latter use still surviving to some extent. The old square had a central stone flagging walk, either side being paved with cobble stones. Farmers with garden truck and peddlers with many wares backed their wagons to this walk, and from early morning until late after noon bartered their stocks every day in the year except Sunday, a late Satur day night making up for the day of rest. The market crowd always varied with the weather and the date. In summer and just prior to the holidays the market frequently overflowed to the north sidewalk of the square and extended into nearby streets. Objectors, because of the bucolic aspect and the comment of visitors, were ably seconded by merchants in farm truck in the endeavor to have the public market removed. The first' effort was made during the McGuire administration. The completion of the new Clinton street hoist bridge on September 2, 1894, replacing an overhead structure, with the subsequent change in the fronts of the Jerry Rescue and Clinton blocks, started the controversy for the removal of the market. Drawing rhetorical pictures of Clinton Square with a flower garden in it, surrounded by a smooth pavement, the administration attempted to estab lish a market in the Hughes stoneyard upon Gifford street, just west of Onondaga creek. Although farmers and peddlers refused to go to the new stoneyard market, the Common Council on June 10, 1899, passed the resolu tion to turn Clinton Square into a park, and park it was made, a pretty and bright spot in the midst of a hustling business section, until it gave way for the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument. The emphatic action in turning the square into a park and the stand taken by the patrons of the market and produce peddlers resulted in the establishment of the public mar ket under closer city control, upon the Haymarket site at the junction of North Salina and Pearl streets. The last market on Clinton Square was held on May 15, 1899, for the next day the work of tearing up the cobblestones was begun. The square had become a market place without either village or city administration appointment, and it took a long fight to change the custom. Country pro duce dealers just gathered there as a matter of convenience and because of canal trade possibilities in the early days. For many years the farmers weighed their produce in nearby stores, and then John Ingle, who kept a saloon next to the old Court House, established a set of scales in front of his place of business and for a long time they were the scales of the market. In 1877 Mayor James J. Belden appointed John Connor city weighmaster, with the additional office of meat inspector, and for fifteen years Mr. Connor served in this dual capacity. During the first administration of Mayor Jacob Amos, in 1892, the office of meat inspector was separated from that of weigh master and Mr. Connor resigned. Jerry McGirk was the successor, serving until his death in 1897. Until the market was abolished in Clinton Square PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 477 the post was filled by Mr. McGirk's daughter, assisted by Thomas Timmins. It was curious that after the first appointment these officers served through varying administrations without authorization and without molestation, much in the happy-go-lucky way in which the market came into being. At the new market George IT. Gilbert first had charge, W. W. Wheeler being the weigher of hay, and Mr. Gilbert was succeeded by A. F. Stinard. For more than thirty years the subject of an appropriate soldiers' monu ment, representative of the entire county, and to be located in Syracuse, had been discussed. Many villages had erected monuments to their heroes, but not until the placing of the statue of the soldier upon the G. A. R. plot in Oakwood cemetery was there any substantial erection to note the pub lic appreciation of the war veterans within the limits of Syracuse. There had been several monument committees and the public offer of one monu ment which was never built, when one committee, showing more energy than the others, led the Common Council to designate Hanover Square for a soldiers' monument. This was upon February 20, 1899. In anticipation and to improve the appearance of the square, long occupied as a stand for drays, a small plot was laid out and fenced in, being dedicated as Veterans' Park on July 4, 1899, with a memorial iron urn as the principal mark of the park's purpose other than as a garden ornament. It was at a regiment reunion in August, 1905, that former Attorney General Theodore E. Hancock spoke again upon the old old subject of a soldiers' monument and called attention to the legislative enactment permit ting the issuing of bonds for monument purposes. Newspaper agitation fol lowed, resulting- in a call for a public meeting to express the sentiment at the Bastable Theater on Sunday afternoon, December 12, 1905, and hearings before the Board of Supervisors. Then came the appointment of an advisory committee on January 9, 1906, consisting of Mrs. Max IT. Schwartz and Mrs. Dwight H. Bruce from the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument Association, incorporated in 1904; Hon. Dennis McCarthy, Donald Dey and Hon. T. E. Hancock from the Chamber of Commerce ; William Sears and Nicholas Grum bach from the veterans of Onondaga, acting jointly with Supervisors Moses D. Robin, Floyd R. Todd, John F. Hayden, Frank J. Carr, John B. Brilbeck, Sidney H. Cook and James P. Blanchard. This committee on February 15, 1906, not only reported in favor of a monument, but that a suitable tribute could not be erected for less than fifty thousand dollars. At this same meet ing the resolution was passed to bond in that amount for a soldiers' monu ment. On July 20, 1906, Clinton Square was designated as the site of the soldiers' monument. The remainder of the story of the endeavor to secure the most suitable and artistic memorial is one that both astonished the people who had become accustomed to art and architecture by political "pull" without competition, and reflected credit upon the committee. To its aid the committee called three experts whose judgment in matters of public art was held in the highest opinion, J. Q. A. Ward of New York, C. Howard Walker of Boston and Daniel C. French of Glen Dale, Mass. Each expert was allowed one hundred 478 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY dollars besides actual expenses and they were to choose- the several sculptors of undoubted merit who were to be allowed to submit models in competition. Several designs were submitted and on October 5, 1906, the design of Cyrus E. Dallin of Boston, was accepted, the experts and two members of the com mittee passing upon the winning model. It was readily seen that this design would come to more than the fifty thousand dollars for which the county had bonded, and was susceptible of broader treatment upon a more liberal expenditure. The Board of Supervisors on December 7, 1906, agreed upon an additional appropriation of twenty-nine thousand dollars, to be met in the county budget for the three succeeding years, thus making seventy-nine thour sand five hundred the county's share in the monument, to which was added the fund of about one thousand five hundred raised by the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument Association. Other monument acquisitions of Syracuse in recent years include the Eckel stone memorial in Nor.th Salina street and the General Gustavus Sniper equestrian statue a short distance north, which was unveiled with appropriate exercises on May 30, 1905. The will of William Kirkpatrick provided for three monuments to mark historic spots, two in Union Park, which have been placed, the work being the artistic efforts of Jerome Connor, and the more important one of the Indian hunter being unveiled November 17, 1904. The third, a design to commemorate the early occupation, placed in Washing ton Park in 1908, is a drinking fountain, the work of Gail Sherman Corbett. In 1905 Margaret Tredwell Smith offered the city a memorial to Lewis H. Redfield, pioneer citizen, newspaper man and merchant, to be placed in Forman Park. The design for this memorial arrived September 3, 1905,. and on Septem ber 7 the gift was accepted by the Common Council and Forman Park desig nated as the site. Signor Fidardo Landi was the sculptor, and the bronze fig ures of Lewis H. Redfield, Judge Joshua Forman and the symbolic figure of Hiawatha, the law giver, were cast in Florence, Italy, in 1908. To the memory of the soldiers and sailors of the American Revolution who had lived in Onondaga county, a tablet of bronze was placed upon, the east outer wall of the south entrance to the Government Building at East Fayette and South Warren streets, by Onondaga Chapter, National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, and Syracuse Chapter, National Society, Sons of the American Revolution. The two chapters purchased this effective and spirited relief from Isadore Konti, the sculptor, of New York city. The bronze was presented to the county of Onondaga for the chapters by Louise Van Loon Lynch and Lucy Mosely Donohue, James M. Belden and Ernest C. Moses, on June 11, 1902, and public exercises in unveiling were held upon June 17 following. The chapters conveyed all title in the bronze to the peo ple of Onondaga, the gift being without stipulation or condition, leaving it to the official representatives of the county, in their discretion, to place the tablet in or on the new Court House. Fought upon the ground that the burden of expense was more than the county should assume at this time, court necessity prevailed and the new Court House was erected upon a plan so liberal in expenditure that only PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 479 satisfaction with the general result and the assurance that the county had received its money's worth saved criticism. In truth the people were proud of their new Court House from the first, and the last vestige of opposition disappeared when a glimpse was given of the interior, its conveniences and adequacy for all demands for many years to come. Its opening for work took place on January 1, 1907. For many years the need of a new court house was discussed and the situation temporized by alterations and the building of the Court of Appeals Library annex. In the late '90s the movement took definite form by newspaper discussion and resolutions of the Onondaga Bar Association, and on June 30, 1899, the Board of Supervisors passed the resolution which decided that a new Court House was necessary. Junkets and more discussions, especially as to a site, followed. On December 4, 1901, the decision was reached to place the Court House upon the entire block facing Clinton Square, the western third of which was already occupied by the old Court House, annex and County Clerk's building. The resolution was to either acquire by compromise or condemnation to public uses the remainder of the block. A compromise not being affected, condemnation proceedings were begun and met opposition from the realty owners. The situation encoun tered became so strenuous that theJBoard of Supervisors again passed a reso lution upon May 2, 1902, to acquire the Empire House site. Then the matter was taken up in public meetings by business men 'and lawyers, resulting in the calling of a special session of the Board of Supervisors on June 12, 1902, to consider both the question of a Court House site and good roads under the Armstrong-Higbie act. The contention was again one of expense — that the price at which property was held upon the Empire site was beyond the desire of the county to pay. 'JT A At the special meeting of Supervisors' on June 12, 1902, the privilege of the floor was given to the citizens who ^wished to speak, and the Board heard Hon. William P. Goodelle, Hon. TheeSaore E. Hancock and Hon. Ceylon IT. Lewis for the Bar Association, A^-6: Powell, C. H. Scoville, Dr. W. IT. Greis, Salem Hyde, Senator Horace White, James E. Newell and John J. Cum mings. The result of that meeting was a resolution rescinding the resolu tion of May 2. On June 13, 1902, the resolution to acquire by compromise or condemnation what was known as the Montgomery site, being bounded by Montgomery, Cedar, South State and Jefferson streets, was passed. On August 26, 1902, Archimedes Russell of Syracuse, was chosen archi tect, and on December 6, 1902, his plans were approved and adopted by the Board of Supervisors. It was then decided that a committee of seven, to be known as the Court House Building Committee, should have superintendence and control for the county. The committee named was Anson N. Palmer, Ernest I. Edgcomb, Herbert L. Smith, Patrick H. Keohane, Edward P. LaFren- iere, Frederick M. Power and Charles Hiscock. Upon the death of Mr. His- cock, Thomas F. Walsh was added to the committee, and these names are now upon the bronze tablet in the vestibule of the Court House, with the dates, "Erected 1904- '06." Upon June 30, 1904, the corner stone of the new 480 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Court House was laid, the principal address of the exercises being made by Hon. Charles Andrews. It was in 1892 that the Dey Brothers, recognizing the need of expanding the business center of the city, made the move southward which has been so important to the community, and, purchasing the old Milton S. Price resi dence property at South Salina and Jefferson streets on December 19, 1892, erected in 1893 the Dey store building at a cost of one hundred and twenty- five thousand dollars. This same year, 1893, the Robert Gere Bank build ing upon Hanover Square was erected, sixty thousand dollars being invested in the artistic business structure. The principal industrial property addi tion of the year was made by the Sweet Manufactoring Company in West and Tully streets, at a cost of thirty-five thousand dollars. The Dey Brothers set the pace for D. McCarthy & Company, and in 1894 the handsome McCarthy department store building was erected at South Salina and Fayette streets, at a cost of two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. The old Granger block also took an upward course, three stories being added at a cost of. fifty thousand dollars, and it is now known as the Sedgwick, Andrews and Kennedy building. The most "pretentious flats built outside the downtown center, were erected in 1894 at Gifford and Niagara streets at a cost of thirty-five thousand dollars. The St. Vincent Asylum school was also built that same year at a cost of forty thousand dollars. The Medical College in Orange street was built by the University in 1895 at a cost of fifty-five thousand dollars, and it was this year that the Central New York Telephone and Telegraph Company erected the exchange at 311 Montgomery street, which was afterwards taken by the Onondaga Historical Association, the first cost being forty-five thousand dollars. The Syracuse Cold Storage Company put up its warehouse in North West street at a cost of twenty-five thousand dollars in 1895, and W. E. Hookway erected the large warehouse which bears his name in East Water street, the estimate being thirty thousand dollars. The year 1895 was also the building year of the Charles M. Warner block, afterwards the Warner Hotel, at West Fayette and Franklin streets, thirty thousand dollars; the Thomas Hogan Block in West Fayette street and the Whitlock Memorial in South Salina street, at thirty thousand and forty thousand dollars respectively, and the Armour & Com pany South West street warehouse, costing twenty thousand dollars. The total increase in building in the city in 1896 over 1895 was three hundred and thirty-five thousand three hundred and sixty-five dollars. The Onondaga County Savings Bank building was responsible for the increase, its estimate of four hundred thousand dollars being found in the permits of the year. It was on January 29, 1896, that the bargain was made for the historic old Syracuse House and upon November 5 following that the corner stone was laid. The artistic building of the Bank of Syracuse adjoining the Onon daga Savings Bank was another important business erection of 1896, the per mit giving the cost as fifty thousand dollars. In this same year John P. Hier built the business block and factory occupied by the Weeks, Goodale and Bull clothing manufactory at West Willow and North Clinton streets, at a Li- i i .¦ BUSINESS HOUSE OF C. W. BARDEEN. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 481 cost of seventy-five thousand dollars. D. Mason & Company also ventured into a building for factory purposes, putting up the structure at East Water and South State streets at a cost of twenty thousand dollars. Also in 1896 was erected the Women's and Children's Hospital in West Genesee street, costing twenty-one thousand dollars; St. Anthony's Convent in Court street, fifty thousand dollars, and the synagogue of the congregation Poley Tsedeck, eleven thousand five hundred dollars. The office building of the Bartels Brewing Company in North West street was an erection of 1896. In the attempt to revive interest in a county fair, as the State fair was not attracting the attention of the city people as much as was expected, the Onondaga Fair Association put ten thousand dollars worth of buildings upon the Kirk Park property, and the county fair was opened September 9, but not with the suc cess of the old county fairs at Tallman Park. The Syracuse Street Railway Company before its receivership in 1896, started the Tracy street power house at an estimate of twenty thousand dollars, and the South Salina street ear barns were built on a thirty thousand dollar permit. The year 1897, the last of general financial stress before a period which broke all records of continued prosperity in the nation and especially in the Onondaga section, was but slightly marked in the building operations in Syracuse, because it was in this year that the University Block was erected at a cost of four hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and, fires having destroyed the Wieting Opera House and the Dillaye Block in South Salina street, the new Wieting was built upon a permit which placed the cost at one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and the Dillaye Memorial building at a cost of one hundred thousand dollars. It was January 26, 1897, that the University trustees decided to erect the University Block upon the site of the old Rem ington Block, which had been a gift to the University. This same year three grammar schools were erected costing about twenty thousand dollars apiece. The Hospital of the Good Shepherd put up a new building at a cost of thirty thousand dollars, and an addition to the Home in Townsend street was' made for fifteen thousand dollars. The Eleventh Ward, which had not yet been changed to the Nineteenth, was showing the greatest activity in home building operations even then, as it has every year since. In this one ward three hundred and two thousand six hundred and fifty dollars was put into homes, the Thirteenth Ward coming next with an expenditure of two hundred and thirty one thousand six hundred and thirty dollars. During the year four hundred and seventy-five new buildings were erected in the city, but the decrease in operations over the previous years was forty-one thousand one hundred. and thirty-eight dollars. In 1898 the total of building investment fell off materially because of the heavy operations of the year before being necessary for comparison. There was a loss of eight hundred and thirty thousand two hundred and seventy-one dollars in the amount of money put into buildings, and the number of new structures was decreased sixty-four. The principal business building of the year was the Mason Block in South Salina street, the cost of which was placed at forty thousand dollars. The Hall of Science upon the University campus 482 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY was the most expensive building of the year, costing forty-five thousand dol lars. In 1898 Frederick Frazer built the Frazer Flats in James street, twenty thousand dollars; the city built the engine house in Oak street, ten thousand dollars, and John Dunfee erected the city's first garbage reduc tion plant in Hiawatha avenue, which was afterwards destroyed by fire. At East Syracuse the New York Central began the work of freight yard enlargement and built a thirty-five thousand dollar round house. There was even less building in 1899 than in 1898, the records showing but three hundred and seventy-four new structures as against four hundred and eleven the previous year. But- it was in this year that the new building of the Hospital of the Good Shepherd, costing one hundred thousand dollars. was started. The Pierce, Butler & Pierce Manufacturing Company' built its handsome and distinctive office and warehouse at James and Pearl streets at a cost of thirty thousand dollars in 1899. In the Walton street wholesale district, the Schwarzchild & Sulzberger warehouse was built at No. 233 at a cost of twenty thousand dollars, while in the new manufacturing quarter the General Chemical Company built a factory in Hiawatha avenue costing thir teen thousand, and the Oak Knitting Company built the mill at Division and Fulton streets at a cost of sixteen thousand dollars. If it had not been for the burning of the Alhambra, the building opera tions' of 1900 would have fallen off eighty thousand dollars, for that was the cost of the new building. The High School, built in this year, was the prin cipal public work. The Moore Fiats in James street were built in 1900 by John Moore at a cost of one hundred thousand, and W. C. Herriman erected flats at West Onondaga and Seymour streets at a cost of fifty-four thousand dollars. The Thomas Ryan brewery at Butternut and McBride streets was a fifty thousand erection of 1900. In 1901 work was commenced upon the Carnegie Library building, the gift of Andrew Carnegie announced on January 17, 1901, the cost being placed at two hundred thousand dollars. In this year the Snowdon Flats in James street, built upon the site of the old Keble School, were put up at a cost of seventy-six thousand dollars; the E. B. Curtis Flats in South War ren street, sixty thousand dollars; the Bartels Brewery in Basin street, fifty thousand dollars; the new Shelter, which succeeded the burned building, twenty-one thousand dollars, and the Syracuse Wall Paper Company factory in North Clinton street, thirty thousand dollars. There were two hundred and fifteen new buildings erected in 1902 as against two hundred and sixty-five in 1901. In the North Franklin street section there was erected the Syracuse Typewriter factory, costing seventy thousand dodars; Clinton Knitting mill, sixty thousand dollars, and C. C. Bradley Company factory, thirty-five thousand dollars. The H. IT. Franklin Company put up a factory in South Geddes street, to take care of its expand ing business, costing thirty-five thousand dollars, and both the New York Central and D., L. & W. railroads erected freight houses, costing respec tively one hundred thousand dodars and thirty-five thousand dollars. Besides these big items in the year's building, the city put up the engine house in PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 483 Euclid avenue at a cost of twenty thousand dollars, while the New York Central erected the East Syracuse coal shute for seventy-five thousand dol lars, and the Solvay Process Company built the picric acid plant. In 1902 the Oakwood Cemetery Association built its gate, offices and greenhouse at an expense of twenty thousand dollars. There were building permits for one million seven hundred and seventy- five thousand eight hundred and forty dollars worth of work given in 1903 as against one million six hundred and twenty-four thousand and forty-five dol lars the previous year, an indication of the growing prosperity in the build ing trades.. It was in 1903 that the Smith Premier Typewriter Company put up the building in Gifford street at a cost of two hundred and forty thou sand dollars, which was added to quite extensively in 1907. The Smith Brothers Typewriter Company also erected their seventy-five thousand dollar factory at Washington and Almond streets. The Hyle Steel Company fac tory in Greenway avenue was also planned upon an expenditure of eighty thousand dollars, but met with reverses after about thirty-five thousand had been put into the building. The Christian Brothers' school at Willow and North State streets was erected in 1903 at a cost of thirty-five thousand dollars. The permit was also given for the First M. E. Church to cost sixty thousand dollars. Upon th'e marsh lots Merrell & Soule put up their eighty thousand dollar factory, while the Syracuse Casket Company built a business block in South Clinton street worth forty thousand dollars, and the Dey Time Register Company built its thirty thousand' dollar factory in South West street. Upon University Hill was erected Haven Hall at a cost of fifty thousand dollars, and the eighteen thousand dollar heating plant for the college buildings. The building permits for 1904 reached the high figure of two million seven hundred and thirty-nine thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven dol lars, but this included the new Court House, placed at nine hundred thousand dollars in the permits, but greatly exceeding that figure before its comple tion. The power house on the opposite side of Cedar street was figured at ninety thousand eight hundred dollars. Outside of the public structures the year was noted for the number of houses erected. In 1904 the permit was given for the First Presbyterian Church in West Genesee street at one hundred and forty thousand dollars. In the business line the new factory of the R. E. Dietz & Co. in Wilkinson street was erected, costing seventy-five thousand, and permits were also given for the Great Northern Brewery building at North Salina and Exchange streets for forty-five thousand dollars, and the John Single Paper Company building in South Clinton street for sixty thousand dol lars. Building material could not be procured fast enough and worker's were not too numerous to suit contractors in 1905, any more than in the two years succeeding'. The new Court House was being built and University buildings and many other immense structures occupied thousands of workmen. In 1905 the Halcomb Steel Company built its great plant in Solvay at a eost of close upon five hundred thousand dollars, and that year the University took out permits for the one hundred and fifty thousand dollar Carnegie Library 484 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY and the two hundred ^thousand dollar Lyman Hall building. The most artis tic church structure in the southern part of the city, the South Presbyterian Church at Salina and Colvin streets, to cost sixty thousand dollars, was started in 1905, and also St. Cecilia Church in Solvay, on the West Woods road, to cost fifty thousand dollars, was started. The First Universalist church was still another handsome edifice to be commenced upon a site at Warren and Adams streets, the cost being forty thousand dollars. It was in 1905 that the historic and architecturally beautiful First Presbyterian Church at Salina and Fayette streets, so long a pride and landmark to Syra cuse, was taken down, and the store structure. to cost fifty thousand dollars, the' land being leased, was begun by Marcus Rosenbloom. After some little ineffectual opposition, which took the form of an attempted street opening across Onondaga creek, the D., L. & W. Railroad Company erected its coal trestle on South Clinton street, the expenditure for the structure being twenty- three thousand dollars. Then the Independent Telephone Company built over the ornate Crouse stables at Washington and State streets, for a telephone office, the stated expenditure being one hundred and sixty-four thousand dol lars. The principal industrial building of the year was W. S. Peck's store house in Franklin street, the eost being forty-five thousand dollars. The Sol vay building total for the year was six hundred and fifty-four thousand dol lars, which included a fifty-thousand dollar dynamo house for the Solvay Pro cess Company. The total building permits of the city for 1905 was two mil lion two hundred and seventy-five thousand six hundred and ten dollars. This was also a great year for home building, there being two hundred and ninety-four new homes built and not a single apartment house. The Nine teenth Ward led with one hundred and twenty-two hew houses at a cost of four hundred thousand four hundred and sixty-five dollars, as against one hundred and -two houses the previous year. The year 1906 was the greatest building year which had been known to that period in the history of the city. Permits were granted for four hun dred and seventy-nine structures at a cost of two million seven hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred and thirty-six dollars, which, with a total of additions of three hundred and eighteen thousand eight hundred dollars, brought the year's investment in buildings to three million seventy-seven thou sand three hundred and thirty-six dollars. The southward trend of home building which started with the development of the Kirk tract reached a cli max of one hundred and thirty-four new buildings in the Nineteenth Ward costing four hundred and forty-nine thousand seven hundred dollars. The Thirteenth Ward was second in the matter of house building, also showing the southward trend of homes, with fifty-three new buildings at a cost of one hundred . and fifty-eight thousand seven hundred dollars, as against forty-six the previous year costing one hundred and eleven thousand three hundred and twenty-five dollars. It was in 1906 that the new Armory was started at a cost of two hundred thousand dollars; the Central New York Telephone and Telegraph Company put a one hundred and fifteen thousand dollar addition to its new exchange in PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 485 Montgomery street; the Homeopathic Hospital in East Castle street to cost sixty-one thousand dollars was commenced, and the University added a one hundred and eighty-thousand college and the Stadium costing nearly four hundred thousand dollars to the group upon University hill. The industrial progress was noted by the Butler Manufacturing Company factory in Spencer street, eighty-five thousand dollars ; Elgin A. Simonds Company factory, North Clinton street, forty-three thousand dollars; 0. M. Edwards factory, Plum street, fifty-thousand dollars; Onondaga Pottery Company building, West Fayette street, seventy-two thousand dollars, and the Brown-Lipe Gear Company factory, West Fayette street, sixty thousand dollars. A Solvay the Frazer & Jones Company foundry was erected costing one hundred thousand dodars, and the Solvay Process Company put one hundred and fifty thousand dollars into additions. In 1907 one of the most important works of the year was the building of the Y. M. C. A. structure in Montgomery street, opposite the Carnegie Library, at an estimated cost of two hundred and sixty-four thousand dollars, half of which was the gift of Benjamin Tousey, whose munificence was a spur to others to complete the fine building. The work upon the great Stadium at the University was also continued during the entire year. It was a new record in building which was made in 1907, exceeding the prior year, also a record one, by one million one hundred and forty-four thous and nine hundred and forty-six dollars. This was a new-dwelling year, with four hundred and sixty-nine additional homes erected in the city, the Nineteenth Ward again' leading, this time with one hundred and twenty-five buddings, and the Thirteenth Ward a close second with eighty-nine. It was in this year that the Rapid Transit Railroad Company built its new shops at a cost of one hundred thousand dodars, and storage barns costing twenty- one thousand dollars, in the First Ward, and the city started the Salina school to cost ninety thousand dollars. The North Side High School went up in the Second Ward at^ a cost of two hundred thousand dollars. Changes were made in the Bartels Brewery buildings in North West street, costing one hun dred thousand dollars, and D., L & W. Railroad Company put in its Tenth Ward trestle at a cost of two hundred thousand dollars. The Herald build ing in South Warren street, also built in 1907, cost fifty-five thousand dol lars, and work was commenced upon the new home of the B. P. 0. Elks, upon the site of the Lyceum Theater, to cost one hundred thousand dollars. Three well known apartment houses were erected in 1907, the C. S. Ball apartments at South West and Seymour streets, the M. Z. Haven flats in Midland avenue, and the John W. Cronin flats in East Onondaga street near Warren, each cost ing twenty thousand dollars. The public buildings office of Fire Marshal was established in 1892, and the record of building progress since then is as follows : 486 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 1892 $1,929,035 1893 1,986,185 1894 1,490,265 ' 1895 1,771,205 1896 2,061,530 1897 1,890,602 1898 1,252,020 1899 1,242,578 1900 1,583,023 1901 1,624,443 1902 1,402,575 1903 1,755,503 1904 2,739,827 1905 2,275,610 1906 3,077,336 1907 4,222,282 The fire which did more to change the appearance of the business sec tion of Syracuse than any other single happening, occurred upon the morn ing of March 14, 1891. It was 6:30 o'clock when fire was discovered in the new Thomas Hogan block at West Fayette and Franklin streets. The flames swept across the street, and before that fire was stopped fourteen buildings had been destroyed, the longest burned distance being upon the north side of West Fayette street, the fire line reaching to the former home of Mayor Charles F. Williston, midway in the block to Clinton street. It was believed that an ember from this fire, carried by a fierce west wind, ignited the upper story of the Christian Cook block in East Railroad street, occupied by B. F. Roscoe as a wholesale fruit store. The entire fire department and practi cally all the city's fire fighting apparatus were at the West Fayette street fire when the Cook budding started to burn. To the west of the Cook building was The Journal and to the east the Montgomery Flats, which had been the old A. C. Yates block. The falling wall of the Cook block crushed The Jour nal building, which was already on fire, and then the entire Montgomery followed. One life was lost in the Montgomery Flats, that of an occupant who was endeavoring to. save his property. Assistance from other cities saved the Myers Block across from the Montgomery, and the spread of the flames was stopped with a loss estimated at one million dollars. The fol lowing morning the Lyndon Flats at James and Lock streets, now North State street, and the St. James Church adjoining, were burned. On November 20, that same year, 1891, the Bastable block, then a four story structure with Shakespeare Hall and the old Arcade, was burned. Part of the walls are today used in the reconstructed Bastable building. On January 5, 1893, the fire occurred in the old Yates Block in North Salina street. Upon the night of December 8, 1893, the Hoyt Block, occupied by the John Single Paper Company^ in West Water street, nearly midway between Clinton and Franklin streets, was burned. To the east the fire also PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 487- took the building of McCarthy & Redfield, occupied by Robert McCarthy & Son, and the old Alexander Smith dye house, the first stone building in Syracuse, having been built about 1830. To the west the fire partially destroy ed the Kennedy building, occupied by Walrath & Company. Five days later the fire occurred at the Women's and Children's Hospital. On the night of May 10, 1894, the Baker lumber yard on the Oswego canal at Willow street, was burned with the Rescue Mission boat, Good News, and two occupants of the boat were drowned in their efforts to escape. September 3, 1896, the Wieting Opera House burned. The Dillaye Building in South Salina street was destroyed on January 25, 1897, the Yates Block fire in North Clinton street having occurred just prior on January 12. In 1902 the Washington Block fire occurred, when Albert D. Soule was killed while endeavoring to save property from the Masonic headquarters. The New York Central freight house was burned on May 2, 1902, with a loss of fifty thousand dollars. The year 1904 proved a rather serious one for fires with the burning of the Kane & Roach machine shops on January 6, the Lyceum Theater in Clinton street on April 26, the Economy foundry at Belden avenue and Sand street on September 14, the Tavern at Onondaga Valley on September 22, and the Dietz Lantern Company works in Wilkinson street on October 13. The Mowry Hotel at South Salina and West Onondaga streets was burned on the night of February 10, 1907, many of the occupants escaping in their night clothing. On Sunday morning the House of Providence Orphan Asylum, located just over the city line upon the Split Rocks road, was completely de stroyed by fire. The public interest was such that by March 1, 1908, more than thirty-five thousand dollars had been raised by public subscription for a new fire-proof building, a site purchased upon West Onondaga street within the city limits, and on February 28, the plans of Archimedes Russell for a four story brick and stone fire-proof structure accepted. The building) was planned for a length of two hundred and twenty-five feet with a depth of sixty-seven feet. Upon the night of March 13, 1899, at a small fire in a South Salina street block, Hamilton S. White inhaled gases and smoke, and died a short time later in the Brown & Dawson drug store. The death of the volunteer fire fighter and public spirited citizen moved the city deeply, for Mr. White had given his best years to the service of his native city and performed many acts of heroism in the saving of life and property. Memorial services were held in the churches on April 16, 1899, and thousands of men, women and children contributed to the twelve thousand dollar fund for the White Monument in Fayette Park, the endeavor being to have this memorial the gift of many rather than the few. In the first effort to honor the dead, the name of Fay ette Park was changed to White Park, but this action was quickly rescinded. On June 27, 1905, the monument, the work of Gail Sherman, was unveiled, public exercises joined in by thousands being held. From a boy Hamilton White had been fascinated with fire fighting, and through the stages of a hand chemical extinguisher upon a basket phaeton to the latest design in a chemipal engine with a model house and the world's 488 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY record for quick hitching and getting into the street, was the evolution of this man's work, and all given without cost to his fellows. On November 27, 1882, Mr. White sent the communication to the Board of Fire Commis sioners that he would discontinue Chemical Engine No. 2 after January, 1883, giving the whole outfit and the use of the house erected four years before, to the city. Later the .house was also turned over to the city. Mr. White was named honorary member of the department and made Second Assistant Chief. The House of Providence just over the city line burned on December 8, 1907, and, upon the night of March 16, 1908, the Heffron-Tanner factory and warehouse in East Water street made a spectacular fire with a loss of one hun dred and forty-five thousand dollars. CHAPTER LVIII. WHAT CHANGED THE CITY. The story of rapid transit — not entirely of the Rapid Transit Company, for- trolley extension and service by any other name would have been as efficient — is the story of the building up of the suburbs and transforming them into populous city wards. All this is practically the work of the past twenty years. That the city trend followed the trolley has been proven again and again. The southern part of the city was built up for miles while nearer vacant places went begging for lot buyers because the South Salina street line was the first to give frequent service, and the University hill, eastern part of the city and southwestern sections all woke to life as they felt the pulsing of these iron arteries. It was in 1888 that the first electric line was established in this city, being the Third Ward Railway to Solvay, and from that time onward the horse car gradually disappeared from the city streets, the last horse car in the city making its last trip on the Green street line on Monday, October 1, 1900, being drawn by two horses. There was just forty years between the appearance of the first horse car upon the streets of Syracuse and the disappearance of the last, for while the Central City line from the Erie canal bridge at Salina street to Wolf' street was begun in 1859, the line was not opened until August, 1860. The street railroad as a real builder, however, did not begin until the later years, when the policy of laying tracks into unoccupied territory and growing up with the section was adopted by the Rapid Transit. In 1889 there were twelve separate and distinct lines of railway which were the nucleus of the single system today. These lines were the Central City ; the Syracuse & Gedde's, built in 1863 ; Syra cuse & Onondaga, opened July 25, 1864; Genesee & Water street built in PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 489 1866 ; the Fifth Ward, opened in 1868 ; Syracuse & Oakwood, 1871 ; Seventh Ward, 1889 ; Woodlawn & Butternut street, 1886 ; Burnet street 1886 ; Third Ward, 1888, and the People's, 1887. In 1890 the People's, Central City and Syracuse & Oakwood companies became the People's line, and all the other lines went under one management as the Consolidated. The first car over the Brighton extension of the South . Salina street line was run on October 1, 1891. The Peoples' and Consolidated lines were purchased by a syndicate on December 20, 1892, formal control of the Consolidated being taken on Jan uary 1, 1893. But legal complications followed from holders of minority stock of the Consolidated who refused to part with their holdings at the price paid for the remainder of the stock. There were injunctions, arguments, delays and then a mortgage foreclosure with a sale to the secretary of the bondholders' committe for eight hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars on August 17, 1895, and the consolidation was consummated on August 24 follow ing, the name being the Syracuse Street Railway Company, which had been incorporated on April 20, 1894, with a capital stock of four million dollars. In the railroad fight of that year the Syracuse Street Railway Company gained six hundred and sixty-five thousand one hundred and forty-one pas- sengers carried more than the year before, and the Consolidated lost three hun dred and thirty thousand and seventy-four in comparison with the year be fore. In 1895 the Grace street line to Delaware street was built, being opened to traffic on December 28, 1895. Power house buildings were begun in Tracy street in 1894 and the Syracuse Street Railway Company started fur ther work of the sort in 1896, the year in which the street car barns in South Salina and Tallman streets were commenced. But the Syracuse Street Railway Company also had complications, and on March 7, 1896, E. B. Judson and W. Judson Smith were appointed receiv ers. Upon May 21, 1896, the Rapid Transit Railway Company was incor porated for four million dollars, and upon August 26 following the Sheriff sold the Syracuse Street Railway Company property upon mortgage fore closure to the reorganization committee. The consolidation of the roads was completed on September 1, 1896. Then the work of building the road for larger Syracuse was begun. The common center was completed October 4, 1896, and put into use nine days later. On April 1, 1897, the transfer system went into operation, while the fender was adopted on April 15 following. It was this same year that Wil- lard R. Kimball got control of the road, the announcement being made on April 7. But the Rapid Transit was not the only road in Syracuse at the time. The franchises were granted for the Eastwood Height's Company on August 27, 1894, and the East Side Railway Company was incorporated three days later. Upon February 16, 1895, the Syracuse & East Side road was opened, and, after a fitful and uncertain life, passed into the hands of George D. Chapman and Mathew J. Myers, as receivers for creditors, on May 7, 1898. When the sale came it was to a reorganization committee for thirty thousand dollars. The 490 v PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY committee in turn sold out to Clifford D. Beebe, the event marking that finan cier's entrance into Central New York railroad life and the beginning of that power which was later known in suburban trolley extension as the Beebe syndicate. On March 8, 1898, was organized the Eastwood and East Syracuse Railway Company with capital stock of two hundred thousand dollars. The Beebe people later parted with their holdings to the Rapid Transit, which closed the deal to buy the East Side on July 22, 1899. It was in 1898 that the most successful of the Syracuse trolleys financed with local capital came into the suburban passenger game. This was the Syracuse & Suburban line, incorporated June 29, 1895, for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, to be operated on the Genesee turnpike to Fayetteville, Manlius and Edwards' Falls. The first car from the city line to Fayetteville was run on May 13, 1898. In 1903 the Suburban put in the branch line to Jamesville, where the new penitentiary had been located. The first car over the Jamesville extension was run on August 1, 1903. The record then was eighteen and eight-tenths miles of track, seventeen cars and fifty-three employes. In 1907 the road carried two million eight-two thousand eight hundred and seventy-four passengers, an increase of ninety-eight thousand seven hundred and sixty-eight above 1906. The Syracuse, Lakeside & Baldwinsville railroad, also a local invest ment both in construction and the matter of finance, was mainly built in 1899. the opening to Balwinsville taking place on September 24, that year. Prior to that date the road had been operated to lakeside resorts, the first run being to Pleasant Beach, and stirred up a lively opposition from the D., L. & W. steam railroad, which laid a branch track at Maple Bay and made war upon rates, both to the, resorts, and, when the Lakeside tracks were completed to Baldwinsville. The Lakeside found a way out by the purchase of the Maple Bay branch of the W., L. & W. road on February 7, 1899. By 1903 the road had twenty-two and a half miles of track, seventeen cars and fifty employes, the power house being located on Nine Mile creek. The novelty for several years was the running of double-deck cars, the first and only ones in Central New York, which were finally abandoned for reasons of safety. The later story of the Lakeside proved another sad page of inexperience in trolley work bringing financial trouble, not only to the company but to the men who stood by it so gallantly for the benefit of the city and the north western suburbs. Upon December 12, 1903, the road went into the hands of Captain W. B. Rockwell as receiver, and in the summer of 1905 was pur chased on mortgage foreclosure by Clifford D. Beebe for five hundred and thirty thousand dollars. The road was taken over by the Syracuse, Lake- shore & Northern Railway Company, which in 1907 made material progress upon plans to extend to Oswego. Upon March 5, 1907, the State Railroad Commission gave permission for the increase of capital stock for which it was incorporated in 1905, from two million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to three million five hunderd thousand dollars and six hundred thous and dollars of the bonds of the road were taken by banks in Syracuse. The extension to Phoenix was begun and nearly finished in 1907. The Baldwins- PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 491 ville line had twenty-three cars in operation in 1907, and the earnings for the fiscal year were one hundred and thirty-eight thousand dollars. The year 1898 was one of labor troubles for the Rapid Transit. On August 5 a strike of conductors and motormen was ordered and the cars were peaceably run to the barn and all the roads tied up. After two days, in which many odd conveyances were pressed into service, the strike was settled, the State Board of Arbitration having been called here and some accessions made to the employes. However, on November 17 following, there was still some dissatisfaction among the men and another strike was ordered. Only twenty men responded to this call, and the movement was then started by the Rapid Transit for the organization of a mutual benefit association among the employes. This was upon November 19, and December 4 following the asso ciation, which has since been so popular with the employes and had club rooms above the offices of the Rapid Transit in the Gridley building, was organized. The year 1899 was another exciting one for the Rapid Transit Company, only in a different way. New transfer rules went into effect on February 28, and on March 14 William P. Gannon was made president of the company. The day following the election of officers Mayor McGuire demanded the aboli tion of the transfer rules, which was followed by exciting discussions, as to people's rights and railroad rights. On April 21, 1899, North Side citizens with a grievance, took the law into their own hands and tore up the tracks in Butternut street. The Rapid Transit Company enjoined the city and citi zens, while citizens in turn enjoined the operation of cars in Butternut street. The incident proved but one of the passing storms of railroad extension. It was in 1898 that the Grace street line was extended up Dudley street to West Onondaga street and thence almost to the city line, and this route was opened on February 12, 1899. By 1903 the Rapid Transit had reached an extent of seventy-two and thirty-nine one-hundredths miles of track, one hundred and fifty-eight cars and five hundred employes. The extension of the road, requiring new cars and equipment, made necessary the additional car barn in Cortland avenue, commenced in 1904 and completed and put in use in February, 1905. In 1905 the Crouse avenue line was rebuilt and extended to the University grounds, making the old terminal once used by a horse car line, which had. been abandoned for the Marshall street addition past the Hospital of the Good Shepherd, which was also in turn abandoned. In 1906 and 1907 the Bellevue avenue extension was built, connecting with the South avenue and Elmwood line at Rellevue avenue, turning on Summit to Stolp and thence to the city line. South Salina street between the city line and the Seneca turn pike was also doubletracked in 1907, and the Park street line built and opened on December 2. In 1906 the Rapid Transit began the use of Niagara electric power. The power was turned on to the limits of Syracuse on July 2, 1906, and the cars were run by that power on and after July 31, 1906. The Rapid Transit reached an earning power in 1907 of one million two hundred and sixty thousand eight hun dred and fifty-four dollars, as against one million one hundred thousand dol- 492 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY lars in 1906, and carried twenty-four million nine hundred and fifty-thre thous and four hundred and six passengers exclusive of passes and six million three hundred and eighty thousand seven hundred and ninety-two transfers. There was an average of six hundred and fifty employes, an increase to eighty and seventy-three one-hundredths miles of trackage, with one hundred and seventy- nine passenger cars, twelve work cars and thirteen snow plows. In 1907 seven hundred and thirty-two thousand nine hundred and seven dollars was spent in improvements. Another failure of railway hopes which had the usual mortgage fore closure finish was the Marcellus Electric Railroad Company, which was in corporated on June 8, 1897, with a capital stock of sixty thousand dollars. The road was not completed for trolley purposes, but became of use with a small engine. The Marcellus & Otisco Lake Railroad Company was incorporated in 1905 for two hundred thousand dollars. It took several roads upon paper and a sensational failure before the operation of a single car, with considerable litigation and the downfall of several local capitalists, to accomplish the laying of the tracks to South Bay, Oneida lake, for years the hope of suburban trolley promoters. Early in the '90s the work of getting franchises through the town to South Bay was begun, and these were extended again and again with blasted hopes of an immediate railroad. In 1904 Willard R. Kimball, whose reign in the Rapid Transit offices had ended some time before, began to make things move in the project. Upon April 12, 1905, the State Railroad Commission gave the Syracuse & South Bay Railroad Company permission to build, and the Bay Road Construction Company spent the greater part of the year 1905 in the work of construction, the plans being upon the most liberal scale and com prehending the purchase of summer resort hotels, rights of way and a pleasure park at the lake. The mutterings of trouble began when work was stopped in the fall of 1905, and with the opening of another year the storm came. There was a flood of judgments filed against the Bay Road Construction Com pany on January 19, 1906, and then came a year of litigation and strife for control, until, early in 1907, the road was sold upon mortgage foreclosure, Clifford D. Beebe bidding in the property for the Beebe syndicate. It was also the Beebe syndicate which put through probably the most successful suburban line to Syracuse, the Auburn & Syracuse road, which was first completed to Skaneateles as the Auburn & Skaneateles road, and then to Syracuse. The only previous railroad connection between Skaneateles and. Syracuse had been by the Skaneateles steam railroad, which William K. Niver bought on August 1, 1898, which extended five miles to Skaneateles Junction on the old Auburn road to the New York Central. Later the road went into the hands of the Skaneateles Railroad Company, of which M. F. Dillon was made president, succeeding John McNamara of Skaneateles, on October 21, 1907. The first car over the Skaneateles & Auburn trolley ran on June 23, 1903. The Auburn & Syracuse line operated ten cars in 1907, and the earn ings for the fiscal year were three hundred and fifty-two thousand dollars. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 493 The Rochester, Syracuse & Eastern was another immense enterprise in which the Beebe syndicate was interested. The consent to build was given by the State Board of Railroad Commissioners on September 1, 1902. By 1907 the road was operated from Rochester to Clyde, with the work from Clyde to Port Byron well under way. "The electrification of the West Shore tracks by the use of the third-rail system was completed in June, 1907, and then the Oneida Railway Company began the operation of cars between Syracuse and Utica. The story of the Iron Pier, which was neither iron nor painted in imitation of iron, was one of financial loss from the time it succeeded the old Gehm pier on the shore of the lake nearest the end of Salina street, until the demo lition of the pier in 1907. The pier was taken by the Syracuse Street Railway Company on May 4, 1895. The greatest thing for Syracuse in modern steam railroad history was the building of the artistic New York Central Railway Station. The first office in the new station was opened August 1, 1895, and the station itself was opened for business October 6, 1895. Another item of historic railroad interest was the first run of the Empire State Express on October 26, _1891. The November time table of the New York Central in 1907 showed one hundred and sixty trains a day out of Syracuse both east and west. Perhaps the most important achievement of Syracuse, in the matter of health and, therefore, finance and the enjoyment of life, was the securing of Skaneateles lake water and the building of the present water system. But the decision to have better water was not reached in a day, and there were many influences with which the workers for pure water had to contend. It was when the contract of the old city water company with the city expired in 1885 that opposition to renewal brought on the water campaign and can vass of sources of supply. Propositions from new corporations and injunc tions frpm old ones tied up the situation until 1888, when, upon a resolution by the common council, the legislature authorized a commission of investiga tion. Mayor William B. Kirk appointed E. B. Judson, Alexander H. Davis, James B. Brooks, William IT. Warner, Peter B. McLennan and William K. Niver upon that commission, and in June, 1888, work was begun. The advan tage of Cazenovia, Oneida and Skaneateles lakes and Salmon river were in vestigated, and Skaneateles lake was recommended. The decision was left with the people at a special election, preliminary to which there was a cam paign of education with many of the city's foremost citizens making cart-tail speeches. The vote favored the project by a majority of ten thousand, three hundred and ninety-two, only nine hundred and ten voting in the negative. By condemnation the city acquired the old water company's plant at a cost of eight hundred and seventy thousand dollars. There was heroic work at Albany to obtain permission to use Skaneateles water, as that lake was a canal reservoir, and the litigation to extinguish the rights of the mill owners upon Skaneateles Outlet extended to nearly a dozen years beyond the turning on of the water. The awards in the Skaneateles cases came to two hundred and fifty-nine thousand dollars, and were made March 1, 1898. The conduit 494 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY line was laid in 1893-94 and the Woodland reservoir built in 1893-95, the estimated cost of the entire plant, including litigation, being four million, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The conduit line of thirty-inch cast iron pipe, nineteen and one-fourth miles long, with its capacity of fifteen million gallons a day, was sufficient for more than twelve years, but in 1906 the agi tation was begun for a second conduit, which resulted in legislative action in 1907. The gates at Skaneateles were turned and the water started for Syracuse on June 29, 1894. Upon July 3, following, Skaneateles water was turned into the city pipes and there was a celebration by the whole city. It is thirty years since the first arc light was shown here by Professor Anthony of Cornell. Upon the top of the Wieting Block this light sparkled to the astonishment of great crowds of people. In that thirty years electric lighting has been at once the subject of more progress, investment and inves tigation than almost any other public utility. The night that electricity was first shown as a novelty the dynamo was in the cellar of the Pierce, Butler & Pierce store in South Salina street, and was run by that firm's engine. The lamp used was an old-fashioned carbon eight inches long and three inches broad, upon which the sparks would travel from one end to the other, wherever they could find the shortest space. It was this exhibition which put into the minds of well known business men the idea of lighting the streets of the city by electricity, and very soon Pierce, Butler & Pierce engaged in lighting the heart of the city, but upon a very small scale. The apparatus was finally turned over to the Thompson-Houston Company, which established a plant, and in 1884 turned it over to the Electric Light & Power Company of Syracuse. Under the Thompson-Houston Company management the city had twenty-five arc lights. But capitalists were skeptical, and when the Syracuse Electric Light & Power Company was organized only seventeen thousand dollars of the one hundred thousand dollar capital stock was taken in the city, the Thompson- Houston Company holding the remainder. The first officers of the company were W. T. Hamilton, W. Allen Butler and J. M. Ward, with F. IT. Leonard, Jr., general manager. The original capital was increased to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in April, 1886, and to three hundred thousand dollars March 28, 1888. The Thompson-Houston Company bought up the stock of the Syracuse Electric Light & Power Company on May 1, 1892, took control August 18, and September 12, 1892, the Electric Light & Power Company of Syracuse was organized, and the property of the old company turned over to it. On January 1, 1892, Warren H. Girvin became general manager of the light and power company. It was at this time that the plant in Fulton street had its beginning, although property near it had already been occupied by the Thompson-Houston people. The Onondaga Electrical Company was absorbed by the Electric Light & Power Company, the agreement being made January 24, 1893. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA. COUNTY 495 The capacity of the plant finished in 1893 was forty-four two hundred- horse power boilers; six one thousand and fifteen hundred horse power engines and about eight thousand horse power dynamos and power engines. The chimney was the largest in Syracuse, being two hundred feet high, eight feet core and twenty feet square at the base. The production capacity was one thousand arc lights, twenty-five thousand incandescent lights and fifteen hundred horse power for railways, motors, etc. In 1893 the com pany furnished the power for the consolidated street ear lines. The history of lighting, municipal and private, and efforts to form new companies as well as control those occupying the field, has been unusually variegated and interesting. The Onondaga Gas Company made a start by laying mains on April 15, 1891, and that was the last the public heard of it. The old Gas Light Company was sold out on Ootober 15, 1895, and .the Syra cuse Gas Company was incorporated. Upon January 7, 1896, the Boston bondholders obtained control of the Electric Light & Power Company. During this period, as at all later times, both the electric light and gas companies were busy with extensions and enlargements of plants to the needs of a growing city. In 1899 the Electric Light & Power Company put up another power house in Fulton street at a cost of thirty thousand dollars. Upon February 26, 1900, the gas and electric light and power companies were consolidated, and with the new century the people had the habit of paying all bills at one office and breaking out sporadically with discussion of the feasibility of municipal ownership and the value of investigation. On February 8, 1889, a bill was introduced in the Assembly providing for inves tigation as to the advisibility of municipal ownership of light and heating plants, but that was as far as the matter went then. Dollar gas came in after considerable agitation on December 1, 1904. Attorney Ceylon H. Lewis was put at the head of the company, and it came to one of its most properous periods. In 1903 and 1904 the lighting company was supplying an area of thirty-five square miles. In 1905 the lines were extended to Fayetteville and the new works of the Halcomb Steel Company at the State Fair grounds gates, and that same year twelve three hundred and twenty-five horse power boilers were installed in the Fulton street plant. Mr. Lewis resigned and the John J. Cummins regime came in on January 23, 1905. In 1905 there was another agitation as to the price of lights which resulted in the hearing before the State Lighting Commission. The preliminary hearing took place on January 20, 1906, and a decision was reached on September 6, 1906, which reduced the price of electricity to nine cents a kilowatt until October 1, 1907, and after that eight cents; the rate of gas to ninety-five cents a thousand instead of a dollar, and the rate of street lighting to not more than sixty-eight dollars per lamp a year, a reduction of seventeen dollars and seventy-seven cents from the old contract. Then followed the attempt to lease the entire plant to the United Gas Improvement Company of Philadelphia, through the Onondaga Lighting Com pany, a new corporation to be organized by the United Gas Improvement Com pany'. The terms of the lease were of such a character that it would be possi- 496 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY ble to considerably increase the fixed charges which must be met by the busi ness transacted by the Syracuse Lighting Company. The existing fixed charges of the Syracuse Lighting Company amounted to three hundred and sixty thousand dollars per annum. The hearing before the State Commission was had at Albany on December 28, 1906, and later the Commission reported adversely upon all the applications of the lighting company. However, prac tically all the stockholders of the Syracuse Lighting Company agreed to the change in control under an agreement and deed of trust and a new regime in lighting affairs came in with 1907, but subject to the new laws of the state under the Public Utilities Commission. An important part of this fight before the State Commission on Gas and Electricity was made by the Committee of the Chamber of Commerce, consisting of F. R. Hazard, Charles, W. Snow, George W. Driscoll, Donald Dey, Giles H. Stilwell, Nicholas Peters and F. B. Scott, working with Mayor Allan C. Fobes and Corporation Counsel Walter W. Magee. In 1907 there was another agitation for municipal ownership with an application pending for' a franchise to take up Niagara power. Mayor Fobes on January 29, 1907, appointed a lighting commission to investigate this sub ject, the members being Charles W. Snow, Chairman, William H. Warner, Prof. John H. Barr, George W. Driscoll, Dr. John H. Matthews, Adam Voiles and Peter Eckel. Upon September 3 following this commission reported adversely to municipal ownership. The Bureau of Gas and Electricity was established in 1907, and the first offices taken were in the new Court House. Henry J. Blakeslee was the first superintendent named. In the latter part of the year Superintendent Blakeslee made a count of the lights in the city, and on December 20 reported one thousand three hundred and eighty-eight street arc lights upon twenty- one circuits. It was necessary for the superintendent to travel two hundred miles in the making of this count. Many attempts and propositions to organize other companies than the one which had the franchise for lighting and power, have been heard — but - only heard. The Steam Heat & Power Company had a plan to pipe natural gas from Baldwinsville, and on December 20, 1897, received a franchise. In the spring of 1907 came the proposition to furnish light by Niagara power, but this was considered only a collateral incident of the electric light contract fight. The telephone is both a barometer of increase in prosperity and apprecia tion of telephone facilities. From a branch office of the Central New York Telephone and Telegraph system, popularly known as the Bell, the city has become an important center with many administrative offices and an investment which places it among the leading industries. Some idea of the growth of the use of this 'phone in Syracuse alone can be gained from these figures : GLOBE HOTEL BLOCK IN EARLY '80s. DURSTON BLOCK AND OLD ALHAMBRA IN THE EARLY '80s. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 497 Number of Telephones in Service. January 1, 1901 1,808 January 1, 1902 1,958 January 1, 1903 2,611 January 1, 1904 3,016 January 1, 1905 4,957 January 1, 1906 6,831 January 1, 1907 10,400 January 1, 1908 10,000 It was in 1897, after a sensational fight in the Common Council for sub ways, made by Eugene Hughes & Co., that the Central New York Telephone Company asked that it be given the privilege of laying its own subways. In September, 1896, the Council had granted three subway franchises, which would force all telephone companies to go into the subways of the applicant, Eugene Hughes & Co. Mayor James K. McGuire vetoed the franchises, and, on the night of September 28, citizens crowded the Council chamber to pro test. Speeches were made by Donald Dey, president of the Business Men's Association, Daniel Crichton, John William Smith of the West End Business Men's Association, Daniel Rosenbloom, John McCarthy, Rev. F. W. Betts and A. R. Gillis. The Council adjourned the matter from meeting to meet ing, but the taxpayers, without reference to party, were watchful and suc cessful. The following year was devoted to a subway campaign, the Bell company not objecting to putting its wires underground but to paying toll in the subways of others. On July 12, 1897, the franchise to lay subways was granted to the Central New York Telephone Company. Mayor McGuire vetoed this franchise, but on August 2 his veto was overriden, and five days later the contract was given to John Dunfee to build the first telephone sub ways in the city. From the Wieting Block the Central New York Telephone Company moved to its own building at 311 Montgomery street, which was outgrown and disposed of to the Onondaga Historical Association in 1905. Then was begun the new building to the south of the old one, at a cost of two hundred thousand dollars, which was by necessity followed by the building added in 1907. The Syracuse building is the general headquarters for three telephone companies, the Empire State, the Central New York and the New York and Pennsylvania companies. Syracuse became the headquarters for the Central New York lines in 1904. In 1905 the Bell company began doing things by doubles, doubling sta tions, capacity, employes and call averages. The daily call average in 1904 was twenty-six thousand five hundred and sixty-six, and in 1905, fifty thousand one hundred and sixty-nine ; the employes average in 1904 was two hundred and seventy-nine, and in 1905 it was four hundred and eighty-six; the wages paid in 1904 made a total of one hundred and seventy-two thousand eight hundred and sixty dollars, and in 1905, two hundred and eighty-five 498 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY thousand seven hundred and thirty-two dollars. In 1905 fourteen miles of conduits were laid, and in 1906 there were twenty miles put down. This practically meant a subway service for double that number of miles of streets, for the distributing plan is from poles placed in the center of blocks. In 1906 there were nearly nine hundred employes, about three hundred and fifty being in the building, with a weekly payroll of nearly ten thousand dollars. The annual report of the Central New York Telephone & Telegraph Company, made at Utica in 1908, showed twenty-six thousand one hundred and twenty- nine stations in 1907, as against twenty-eight thousand one hundred and twenty in 1906, the difference being accounted for by the increase in price for home telephones. In 1907 a count was made of all poles, telephone, telegraph, trolley and lighting in the city, an ordinance requiring each to be named and numbered, and it was reported that there were nineteen thousand in all. The Independent Telephone Company, to take over the independent telephone system of the Syracuse Telephone Company, which had its central exchange in the Snow building in South Warren street, was incorporated June 29, 1905, with a one midion dollar capital stock. In 1905 about twelve miles of subways were laid and the palatial Crouse stables remodeled for an exchange, being occupied early in 1906. The Independent Company was formed as a part of the Independent Telephone Securities Company, which controlled lines in Utica and Rochester, besides toll lines and smaller exchanges in the state. In 1907 and 1908 there was a reorganization of the company. Syracuse as an economic body may not have reduced taxes or the public debt in a score of years, but it at least has something to show for its dili gence in expenditures. In that period it built the city hall, already out grown ; achieved the finest water in the country, with water works now need ing an additional conduit; laid more than sixty-five miles of pavements. for it was not until 1889 that the first asphalt was put down in the city ; dug more than one hundred and fifty miles of sewers; bettered that by nearly twenty miles in the length of water mains, and reached a bonded debt of seven million three hundred and forty-six thousand dollars, with more than four million and eighty thousand dollars productive assets. The outgrowth of public buildings and system, although reflective of short-sightedness in building, is also a matter of congratulation for by those things is the city's growth more readily guaged. The enumeration of new schools, demands of the fire and police departments, expenses of the department of public works, engineering, charities, etc., all tell of the healthy growth of the city. There may be many claims as to this and that accomplishment by the succeeding Republican, Democratic and Republican administrations, the possible extrava gances under the White charter which began the century so liberally, some ground for the charges of the results of excesses in politics, but it willbe ad mitted by the unbiased critic that the city has fared as well under one admin istration as the other when it comes to the consideration of the spirit that does things. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 499 During Mayor Willis B. Burns' administration in 1887, Burnet Park was surveyed and four and one-half miles of driveways were graded there at an expense of twenty thousand. William B. Kirk became mayor in 1888, and then began the actual work of securing the new water system. In 1888 the charter was amended to do away with the board of city auditors, and their functions were transferred to the common council. The second year of the Kirk administration the financial operation of the city departments was simpli fied by including the expense of maintaining the board of health and police and poor departments directly in the city budget instead of having it put first in the county budget and afterward paid by the city. In this year the act was obtained authorizing the bonding for three hundred thousand dollars to build a new city hall and police station. Also legislation was obtained creating the Twelfth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth wards. In 1888 sheet as phalt pavements were laid in West Onondaga street from South Salina to Baker streets; Townsend, from James to Willow streets, and James street was paved part with asphalt and part with sandstone block. William Cowie became mayor in 1891, the period when the city was authorized by the legislature to own its own water plant and bring water from Skaneateles lake, with an issue of three million dollars in bonds. ' During Mayor Amos' administration in 1893, four miles of pavement were laid, including one and one-half miles of sandstone block in Washington street, which was laid by the New York Central. The old hoist bridge over the Oswego canal in North Salina street was constructed and the new South avenue bridge across the creek was put in. It was in March, 1893, that the Burnet heirs began their futile attempt to recover the park property from the city. Five miles of pavement went down in 1894 and nearly the same amount in 1895, the last year of the Amos administration. In 1895 the adoption of the new State Constitution made it necessary to increase the assessed valuation of property in the city. In 1894 the total assessed valuation was forty-eight million, six hundred and sixty-five thousand, three hundred and eighty-five dollars, and in 1895 the valuation was sixty-four million, eight hundred and eighty-five thousand dollars. During the six years of the McGuire administration, from 1896 to 1901, inclusive, the number of schools was increased from twenty-eight to thirty- three; the salaries of teachers from one hundred and ninety-seven thousand, two hundred and seventy-three dollars to three hundred and two thousand, nine hundred and thirty-seven dollars; the. number of teachers from three hundred and thirty-six to four hundred and eighty-five, and the number of pupils from twelve thousand, five hundred and seventy-eight to twenty-one thousand and ninety; the fire engine houses from ten to sixteen, and the number of firemen from eighty-nine to one hundred and fifty-six ; the number of police from eighty-two to" one hundred and thirty; the paved streets from sixteen and one-half miles to thirty-eight miles ; the flushing system for pave ments was introduced, and the street electric lights increased from seven hundred and twenty-seven to one thousand, three hundred. 500 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY The increase in the size of the city and its industrial activity made neces sary, during the Fobes administration, preparations for a second conduit from Skaneateles lake to supply the city's need for more water. This required both legislative action and constitutional amendment, the amendment being voted upon at the elections of 1907. In. 1906 the city had its first park commission, appointed by Mayor Fobes July 16, in active operation, giving valuable assistance in making the city beautiful, planning for the future and wresting from the march toward filling up every available spot, suitable playgrounds for the boys and girls of the city. Mayor Fobes appointed as members of this commission five men noted for their broad sympathy with public movements. They were John W. Pennock, named chairman; Walter R. Stone, William K. Pierce, Emil Kotz and George W. Driscoll. The saving of a great plot adjoining Schiller Park in the northeastern section of the city, which was about to be sold at auction, and its dedication for use as playgrounds, was one of the first practical works of this commission. Then came a great plan for a future boulevard about the city, connecting the park systems, the value of which will be more appar ent as the city expands. This plan is filed as something to work towards in the final laying out of Greater Syracuse. George E. Kessler was the lands cape artist brought here to aid the commission in its great work. CHAPTER LIX. MAKING AN INDUSTRIAL CENTER. That the salt which made Syracuse should play such an important part in its later industrial growth and activity, is a curious consideration for the investigator of causes and effects in the trend of industry. The reservation by the state of great tracts of land for salt manufacture, now located north of West Genesee street and west of the Oswego canal, preserved territory near the later railroad center, which, upon the decline of the salt industry, was found admirably adapted for factory uses. Any man conversant with the business story of Syracuse in the past ten years, asked the greatest thing which had happened for the progress of the city, would quickly reply that it was its industrial activity. Upon the acquisition of these old salt lands at state land sales, the prices and convenience of the properties quickly appealed to manufacturers, with the resultant transformation from broken and ruined salt covers to a busy factory section. It is as astonishing a change to former Syracusans visiting their old home as the high and pretentious buildings nearer the center of the city. Just as the seven to eleven-story piles of masonry in the down-town sec tion are hives for professional workers, and speak eloquently to the observer PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 501 of the business activity of the city, the block after block of extensive factories, shops and yards tell of the work of the industrial hives. The increase in factories was more responsible than anything else in bringing thousands of workmen, causing the great demand for homes which began in 1905, sending up rental values and resulting in the greatest activity in home building known in the city's history in 1906 and 1907. At the November election in 1893 the vote in the state was taken upon the proposed amendment to the Constitution permitting the legislature "to provide by law for the sale and disposition of the salt springs and the lands adjacent thereto belonging to this State, making just compensation to all persons having rights therein." There was no opposition to this amendment, as there had been an annual deficiency in the production of salt on the Onondaga reserva tion since 1882, and the year prior to the vote upon the amendment the cost of operation was twenty-four thousand dollars in excess of the revenue. The result of the permission given the legislature to sell salt lands was the appointment by the Senate of a commission to investigate the matter, but not until after the State Land Commissioners had made several sales in 1894. Upon January 5, 1895, the coarse and fine salt manufacturers met and consid ered the sale of salt lands, outlining a course of procedure. At the Yates Hotel on February 18, 1895, the Senate committee met salt manufacturers and took evidence, among the men interested in salt pro duction present being former Senator Frank Hiscock, former Justice George N. Kennedy, Superintendent P. J. Brumelkamp, former Lieutenant-Governor Thomas G. Alvord, Colonel James B. Gere, Duncan W. Peck, Lewis Plawley, John J. Hallock, Philip Carkins, Edward Lynch, Michael R. Hayes, Lucius Luddington, N. E. Loomis, Michael Prell and John Molloney. These men were really in attendance upon the obsequies of the old method of salt production from the wells about Onondaga lake, for since then the. brine used has been drawn from the Tully wells. The principal witness before the Senate com mittee was Mr. Alvord, who said that there were only about five hundred and fifty acres of land then devoted to coarse salt, and of that there were two hundred acres in Salina. The remainder of the salt lands were taken for fine salt or were lying in neglected disuse. Myles Tyler Frisbie, in writing of "The Passing of a Great Industry," in Collier's in April, 1896, said that but forty thousand salt covers then re mained, covering about two-fifths of the salt reservation. Covers were of uniform size and numbered sixty-six to the acre. In 1895 the output in round numbers was three million bushels, and three hundred men were employed. The first year of the new century the Syracuse Wall Paper Company plant was in operation in the salt marsh district, and the second year the Monarch Typewriter Company was equipped for business, the C. C. Bradley & Son plant in North Franklin street and the Clinton Knitting mill in course of construction, the Merrell-Soule Company planning for its new factory, E. I. Rice building a fifty-thousand-dollar coal yard, and the Syracuse Lighting Company constantly adding to its extensive plant just east in Fulton street. 502 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY In 1903 the Monarch typewriter factory was in operation, with a capacity of one hundred and fifty typewriters a day, the factory being three hundred by fifty-five feet, five stories high, and one of the most prominent buildings in view upon the entrance over the West Shore from the west. Silas W. Cran- dall was the president of the company. The Syracuse Wall Paper Company was dissolved March 7, 1904, and the Syracuse Paper & Pulp Company, in corporated March 9, 1903, increased its working force from one hundred and fifty to three hundred and sixteen men before the close of that year. Both companies had many of the same men interested, the incorporators of the latter being Nicholas P. Moses, Leonard A. Saxer, Richard Rose, George W. Adams and Nicholas Latterner. In the summer of 1903 the Bradley company went into its new plant, which had a main building three hundred and ten feet long, one wing being one hundred and fifty feet long. In April, 1904, the Merrell-Soule Company, which had been established in 1869 and incorporated in 1883, went into its new plant from the old loca tion just east of the creek in West Fayette street. The new plant consisted of a manufacturing building two hundred by eighty feet, and a warehouse of the same dimensions. The working force of two hundred hands was then doubled. The company had a record of fifteen million packages of food pro ducts shipped in a year. The Merrell-Soule Company, on December '3, 1907, increased its capital stock from one million, eight thousand, five hundred dol lars to one million, five hundred thousand dollars. The New Process Rawhide Company had erected its new plant on Plum street, one hundred and sixty- four by ninety-two feet, at a cost of thirty thousand dollars. The Hotaling- Warner Company also put up a plant in North Clinton street, the permit for which placed a value of twelve thousand dollars' upon it. In 1904 the Regal Textile Company absorbed the Clinton Knitting Company. In 1905 the O. M. Edwards Company, manufacturing patent car windows and vestibules, had a plant in the new industrial section which employed eighty hands. The Merrell-Soule Company had become the third largest shipper in Syracuse (the Solvay Process Works being first and the Syracuse Chilled Plow Company second), and was turning out one million packages of mince meat, enough for two million pies, a month. The Warner Broom Company had reached a force of sixty employes in 1905, and used a concrete factory, forty by eighty feet, three stories in height. The New Process Raw hide Company, with T. W. Meacham as president, had made an increase of thirty-five per cent over the year before, doing one hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars of business upon a capital of forty thousand dollars, with eighty-one employes. In 1905 the Hotaling-Warner Company had increased its capital stock from ten thousand dollars to one hundred thousand dollars and had fifty employes. The Syracuse Paper & Pulp Company had become the largest distributor of wall paper in the world, sending out twenty million rolls a year. Upon a capital of six hundred thousand dollars the mill had been run night and day since starting in 1899, the product was invariably sold a year ahead, and there were five hundred hands employed. The Regal Textile Company reported two hundred and fifty hands at work in 1905. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 503 The Elgin A. Simons Company was another factory builder, putting up its building at Spencer and North Clinton streets in 1907. In this marsh lot section, at West Division and North Clinton streets, was 'also erected the furniture factory of the Butler Manufacturing Company. In Spencer street, occupying an old factory, was the P., B. & IT. Molding Company, and the municipal baths were also located in this section. The Justfood Company located in north Clinton street, and further north, upon Hiawatha avenue, were the General Chemical Company, the American Malting Company and the Syracuse Reduction and Manufacturing Company, the latter having the contract for the disposal of the city's garbage for five years. The former plant of the Butler Manufacturing Company was taken by the IT. E. Wana- maker Company, also in the furniture business, and employing more than one hundred men. The right to be called the "Typewriter City" was gained in 1903 by the completion of three distinct* typewriter factories. In this year the Smith Premier Typewriter Company constructed the largest and finest typewriter building in the world. It was early in 1903 when the business world was as tonished to hear that the four Smith brothers, Lyman C, Wilbert L., Monroe C. and Hurlbert W. Smith, had severed their connection with the Smith Pre mier Company. Upon January 27, 1903, the Smith Brothers Company was organized with a capital of five million dollars, and in that year spent half a million. Upon the old Myers homestead lot at East Washington and Almond streets, purchased February 6, 1903, an eight-story factory was erected in eight months, by day labor and with Syracuse workmen, the building permit placing the cost at seventy-five thousand dollars. The Monarch Typewriter Company, which put up its building that same year, was in the so-called trust, the Union Typewriter Company, making a visible typewriting machine. Former Lieutenant-Governor Timothy L. Woodruff was elected president of the Smith Premier Company February 10, 1903, and for three years spent much of his time in Syracuse in the interests of the company. In two years the company reported one thousand employes in the local factory and three thousand employes in one hundred and fifty branch offices. The L. C. Smith & Brothers Typewriter Company placed a writing-in-sight machine upon the market in 1905, and had a factory production of one thousand machines a month and six hundred employes. To two men belong the chief credit of giving Syracuse the typewriter in dustry. They are Alexander T. Brown, the inventor of the Smith Premier typewriter, and Lyman C. Smith, whose manufacturing spirit and business genius saw its possibilities. In 1886 Mr. Smith, who had previously made the L. C. Smith gun, began the manufacture of the typewriter which Mr. Brown had invented. It was a decided improvement which Mr. Brown's mechanical genius had evolved over any previous machine, and a ready market was found for it by diligent and appreciative introduction. At first the typewriter was made in the Smith gun shop, but it soon required a building of its own. In 1906 the E. C. Stearns Company, the old hardware specialty firm which reached its highest fame in the making of bicycles, was into the type- 504 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY writer game with the Stearns typewriter, the invention of August Schmeelock, who had much to do with the production of the Underwood typewriter. The slump of the bicycle business was a hard blow to Syracuse, for, in the full flush of the craze, five of the largest factories in the country were located here, and within a single year they were all practically wiped out. There were the Stearns, Frontenac, Olive, Empire, Dodge and other well- known wheels manufactured here. However, with the resiliency of a good pneumatic tire, business rebounded, and, in a short time, four of the factories were occupied by new industries. The fifth building, that of the old Syra cuse Bicycle Company, in West Fayette near West Genesee street, was turned into a factory for finishing automobiles by the H. H. Franklin Company on August 15, 1907, thus completing industrially the cycle from bicycle to auto mobile. The manufacturing of automobiles began to displace the bicycle industry, which for ten years was one of the chief manufactures of the city, in 1901. Practically the last of the great bicycle industry was when the E. C. Stearns business was sold to the Pope Manufacturing Company November 24, 1903. The Stearns plant had been absorbed by the American Bicycle Company August 17, 1899. Much of the earlier automobile manufacturing efforts were but experiments, and some of them expensive. In 1903 the Century Motor Vehicle Company and the J. S. Leggett Manufacturing Company went out of business, while the H. H. Franklin Manufacturing Company, destined to send the name of Syracuse over the roads of the world, began to branch out. The Franklin Company took possession of its new building, soon to grow too small for its work, in 1903, and increased its employes from seventy to three hundred. In another year the increase was to five hundred and seventy-three employes, and in 1905 the business had doubled and one thousand three hun dred and fifteen men were employed. In the fall of 1907 there was a slump in the automobile business, but in the spring of 1908 a hopeful revival began. In January, 1908, the E. C. Stearns Company purchased from the receivers of the Pope Manufacturing Company their interest in the old Stearns plant for twenty-five thousand dollars. The pride of the Syracuse industrial field has been the Solvay Process Company, for many years doing more shipping than the remainder of business Syracuse combined, with a year where only one hundred thousand dollars' worth of structural additions to its plant being considered an "off year," and the greatest employer of labor in the city. The growth of the Solvay works has been like that of a Western boom town. The original capitalization of three hundred thousand dollars at the time of the organization in 1881 has been frequently increased. In 1895 it had reached four million dollars, and on July 29, 1903, was increased from five million to six million dollars, being again increased in January, 1908, to eight million dollars. There has also been a constant reaching out for new products of manufacture, and the establish ment of kindred manufactures in the neighborhood. Among the manufactures are soda ash, caustic soda, refined carbonate of soda, soda crystals (concen trated sal soda), precipitated sulphate of lime, chloride of calcium, coke and PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 505 ammonia salts. In 1903 the Solvay works had a traffic of thirty-one thousand and twenty-three cars in and out for the year, with two thousand, six hundred employes, and in 1904 it was thirty-five thousand, one hundred and seventy- two cars. The business steadily increased, the investment in 1908 being placed at twenty million dollars. In 1888 rock salt was discovered at Tully and brine piped to Solvay, the Tully Pipe Line Company being formed in 1889, with a capital of three hundred thousand dollars. Limestone was brought from the Split Rock quarries by a gravity cable operated by the Split Rock Cable Road Company, with a capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars. The Solvay Process Company is the largest individual producer of soda in the world. The directors who took the move to increase the stock to six million dollars, the certificate being filed January 10, 1906, were Frederick R. Hazard, William B. Cogswell, R. G. Hazard, Colonel Osgood V. Tracy, Edward N. Trump, George E. Dana and Plendrick S. Holden. Upon July 9, 1896, the Church & Dwight Company established its great salaratus factory, with a capitalization of two million dollars, and in 1905 the By-Products Coke corporation was incorporated for five million dollars. Another thing in which Syracuse has led the world is the manufacture of time recorders, the instrument to record the working time of people, which has become almost indispensable in factories where any considerable numbers are employed. Within a short distance in the South, West and Jefferson streets sections were located four factories which in 1906 had reached an annual out put of nine thousand time registers and adding machines, and gave ample em ployment to three hundred men. One-half of the time registers made in the world were then being produced in Syracuse, while of all the typewriters of the world this city turned out one-third. The making of time registers began shortly after the opening up of the typewriter industry in the early '90s, the Dey Time Register Company being the pioneer in the field. Into the business also came the Hawley Time Regis ter, made at the Crouse-Hinds factory, the W. IT. Bundy Recording Company, which in addition to a recorder made the Columbia Adding machine, and the Syracuse Time Recorder Company. For nearly fourteen years and down to December 1, 1905, John and Alexander Dey conducted the Dey Time Register Company, either as a part nership or corporation. The incorporation of 1903 was for five hundred thou sand dollars. Upon December 1, 1905, it passed into the control of a group of New York and Syracuse business men, with C. H. Warfield as president and William Rockwell general manager, and an authorized bond issue of three hundred thousand dollars. The West street four-story factory was built at a cost of thirty thousand dollars in 1903, the company occupying the building in January, 1904. It is one hundred and seventy-one by fifty feet, with forty- five thousand square feet of floor space. In 1906 there were one hundred and seventy-five men employed. The Dey Time Register Company consolidated with the International Time Recorder Company in January, 1908. In 1904 the Hawley Time Register Company was absorbed by the Crouse- Hinds Company, with H. B. Crouse as president, J. L. Hinds as vice-president, 506 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY and W. C. Blanding general manager. The main office of this company was at 308 East Jefferson street. The W. PL Bundy Company took the old plant which had successively been the Dodge and Olive wheel companies' places of business, at 501-515 South West street, on August 2.0, 1903. In 1907 this factory was again built upon. The Bundy Company was organized in 1903, the officers in 1906 being G. Osgood Andrews, W. H. Bundy and Robert S. Morrison. In 1905 the time recorder invented by W. H. Bundy was put upon the market, and the first calculating machine, the invention of W. L. Bundy, was shipped July 9; 1906. In 1905 the Syracuse Time Recorder Company practically began its work, and the men who brought it into notice were Jacob Amos, president, and Calvin McCarthy, manager, with A. K. Hiscock, H. P. Denison, Albert Spencer, H. S. Fulmer and Adolph Schwartz in the directorate. The Will & Baumer Company, manufacturers of the greater part of the candles used in this country and doing considerably more than a million dollars business annually upon a capital of seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars, has not allowed a year to go by recently without the addition of sub stantial structures to its manufactory upon the Liverpool road. Upon July 7, 1896, the company was incorporated. Down to the close of 1902 there had been two hundred thousand dollars' expenditure in five buildings upon the ten-acre site, and from 1902 to 1905 the increase was from one hundred em ployes to two hundred and seventy. In 1906 was erected a three-story con crete office costing forty thousand dollars, the first in a series of cement buildings to cost one hundred thousand dollars. The Syracuse Chilled Plow Company, giving employment to five hundred hands, added a five-story building, eighty by one hundred and seventy feet, to its plant in Wyoming street in 1902. In 1905 the four-story storehouse, fifty by eighty feet, was built at Wyoming and West Fayette streets. The Kemp & Burpee Company, also in the business of manufacturing agricultural imple ments, had risen to a manufactory employing seventy-five men in 1902, and the factory in West Fayette street has been frequently extended with the growing business since. March 17, 1908, the capital stock of the Kemp & Burpee Company was increased from two hundred thousand to five hundred thousand dollars, and one hundred and seventy-five men were employed, with W. C. Brayton president. Work was begun on the plant of the Continental Can Company in East Washington street, between University and Walnut avenues, in 1904, the company beginning the work of making cans in April, 1905, a machin'e shop employing forty men being removed from Rochester that year. In 1905 a seventy by two hundred foot addition was built, and the company became one of the important manufactories of the city. In iron work the Sanderson Brothers works employed eight hundred men, and the Frazer & Jones Company four hundred and twenty-five men. The Syracuse Safe Company, incorporated on December 31, 1903, took possession of a part of the old Phoenix foundry building in East Water street on February 15, 1904, the twenty men employed at the start being increased to seventy-five before the following November. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 507 Ground was broken near the main entrance of the State Fair grounds in May, 1905, for the Halcomb Steel Company, one of the greatest accessions to the city's industrial life of the year. In the first year the completed plant comprised seventeen buildings, with four hundred workmen employed, and capital stock of nine hundred thousand dollars. Charles H. Halcomb was the president of the company. In January, 1908, Horace S. Wilkinson became interested in the general management of the company, Mr. Halcomb still re taining his active interest. February 3, 1908, the capital stock of the Plal- comb Steel Company was increased from one million, five hundred thousand dollars to one -million, seven hundred thousand dollars. The Solvay Foundry Company, with Frederick Frazer, Charles R. Jones, Hendrick S. Holden and W. W. Wiard as directors, to manufacture malleable iron castings in a Solvay plant, was incorporated in 1906. While these same business men were interested in the Frazer & Jones Company, it was a note upon the increase of busmens that the foundries did not interfere, but plans were made at the same time to expand the Fayette street plant. In 1902 Dey Brothers & Company was incorporated, extending the already huge department store business. On April 14, 1894, the new building at South Salina and Jefferson streets was opened for business, the crown of a commercial life started at Elmira on March 28, 1877, and begun in Syracuse in January, 1883, by the purchasing of the E. I. Rice stores in South Salina street, between Washington and Fayette streets. Just prior to the opening of the new building at South Salina and Jefferson streets, the stores were thrown open for a brilliant charity ball. This was upon April 10, 1894. Bacon, Chappell & Company leased the old Dey Brothers stores on March 20, 1895, and became a corporation in 1907, under the name of the Bacon- Chappell Company, with a capitalization of two hundred thousand dollars. In 1907 another store was added and the enlarged building completely re modeled. In their expansion of the dry goods business, which was first established in 1832 by M. S. Price, and taken by E. W. Edwards & Son in 1889, the latter firm not only occupied all the old Milton S. Price stores on the west side of South Saiina street, between Washington and Fayette streets, but in 1906 purchased the historic hotel block, which in 1907 was completely rebuilt into a mammoth department store. On April 2, 1908, Edwards & Son was incor porated for one million dollars, to conduct dry goods stores in Syracuse, Rochester and Troy; and the Murray Realty Company was incorporated for six hundred and fifty thousand dollars to manage the real estate. Edwards & Son came to Syracuse from Johnstown and Gloversville. In 1908 they had seven hundred employes. in Syracuse. Another dry goods house of many years' standing was that of H. G. Stone, started on July 1, 1871, in the old Shakespeare Hall block, facing Hanover Square. In April, 1896, the Stone store was moved to the Rosenbloom block, adjoining the Kirk building in South Salina street, and on April 22, 1903, the removal was made to the present situation, the extensive stores in the Masonic Temple block in South Salina street. 508 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY The Rosenblooms, pioneer boot and shoe men in Syracuse, having the Shakespeare Hall block stores for many years, moved into the Rosenbloom block in South Salina street and in the fall of 1903 established their dry goods and department stores. In 1896, on November 20, D. McCarthy & Sons decided to discontinue their wholesale business at Clinton and Washington streets, but the extensive trade established was not allowed to go down, and the Syracuse Dry Goods Company, incorporated December 29, 1896, succeeded. Thomas McCarthy had started in business in Salina in 1805, taken his son Dennis McCarthy in the firm in 1834; in 1838 Thomas retired, and Dennis moved the business to Syra cuse in 1846. The wholesale department was established in 1862 by McCarthy & Sedgwick, and in 1867 the latter member retired and David K. McCarthy came into the firm. Dr. Thomas Emory went into the firm in 1869, and Dennis McCarthy, Jr., in 1875. The firm became D. McCarthy & Company, and on May 8, 1894, was begun the demolition of the old store to make room for the new building at Salina and Fayette streets. The new building was completed in 1895, an event being the charity ball which was held there on February 25, 1895. The store was opened for business on March 29, following. As D. McCarthy & Sons, to succeed D. McCarthy & Company, the business was in corporated on January 11, 1898. A flourishing period followed and then Dennis McCarthy, who had assumed active management, taking up public work, outside interests came into the corporation and in 1906 it became the Hunter Tuppen Company. Many dates in connection with business firms have become historic because of the prominence secured by those business houses. The big clothing firm of Wilber S. Peck & Company, so long a great employer and manufacturer, was dissolved on January 24, 1898, being succeeded by W. S. Peck & Company, composed of Herbert R., Wilber S. and W. S. Peck, Jr., which continued the big factory at 231-239 West Water street. The Syracuse Hardware & Iron Company was incorporated to succeed Bradford Kennedy & Sons, with a capitalization of one hundred thousand dollars, on January 12, 1898. Justin's Seubert, whose cigars had become well known in Central New York, incor porated his business in 1904 for one hundred thousand dollars. In the spring of 1903 the Syracuse Metal Trades Association, composed of employers, was organized. In January, 1904, Nicholas Peters retired from N. Peters & Com pany, a firm which has made the name of Peters a household word in the city as well as along the countryside. The Star Clothing Company, which had a long run in the Kirk building, was sold out in May, 1894. In 1907 A. Finck's Sons incorporated for one hundred thousand dollars, to deal in leather ; the A. E. Nettleton Company, shoes, five hundred thousand dollars ; the Caldwell & Ward Brass Company, two hundred thousand dollars ; Clark Music Company, three hundred thousand dollars; C. E. Mills Oil Com pany, one hundred thousand dollars, and General Foundry & Machine Com pany, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The builders of industrial Syracuse are many, and to give even a partial list, allotting to each the proper place earned by the energy of push and ven- PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 509 ture of moneys, would take a small volume in itself. Many have come for ward in the city's history, however, by note of big things done and public work. Among these are the Paragon Plaster Company, manufacturers of various building materials, which under the managership of William K. Squier has built an extensive plant in the western part of the city, near West Fayette and Magnolia streets, and taken a block at West Water and Frank lin streets for down-town offices; the Engelberg-Huller Company, with a spe cialty of coffee machinery for export to all parts of the world; the IT. A. Moyer Wagon Works, with a great factory at Wolf and Park streets employ ing more than three hundred men ; the R. E. Dietz Company, lantern works, with more than two hundred employes, the company building a new factory, four stories and sixty by two hundred feet in 1904-05; the Direct Separator Company, which started a new shop, thirty-two by two hundred and eight feet, in the fall of 1903 ; the Syracuse Malleable Iron Works, giving employ ment to more than six hundred men, incorporated as the Malleable Iron Com pany, with Willis B. Burns as president in 1.905; the Pierce, Butler & Pierce Manufacturing Company, with a pay roll of more than eight hundred men, a large wood working shop being moved from Oswego to Syracuse in 1905 ; the Syracuse Stove Works, which has branched out considerably in later years; Kane & Roach, occupying the site of the old Fifth Ward car barns and employers of more than half a hundred workers ; the Reddin Iron Works, which leased the old Van Wie foundry in 1905 ; the Syracuse Twist Drill Com pany, which ran to close upon one hundred employes ; Woodhull, Goodale & Bull, clothing makers, who employed more than three hundred hands, besides contract workers ; the John Marsellus Manufacturing Company, limited, in corporated for one hundred thousand dollars to manufacture undertakers' ar ticles, reached considerably more than one hundred employes ; the New York Brick and Paving Company, which has not only furnished the bricks for many well known Syracuse pavements, but has given employment to one hundred and twenty-five and more workers during busy seasons ; Gustav Stickley, furni ture manufacturer, whose name has been carried around the world by artistic and distinctive lines in furniture as well as by the Craftsman Magazine, es tablished by Mr. Stickley, the furniture shops giving employment to two hun dred and fifty workers; the People's Ice Company, with fifty regular em ployes, and one hundred and fifty to two hundred in summer; the A. E. Net tleton Company, with a factory at Pearl and East Willow streets, was incor porated in January, 1908, with five hundred thousand dollars capital stock, the business being founded in 1879 by A. E. Nettleton, who was still president of the big shoe concern in 1908. As a manufacturer of beer the name of the city has been taken to other places by such brands as the Haberle Crystal Spring, Bartels, Thomas Ryan, Greenway, National, Zett and others. The George Zett brewery was incor porated for one hundred thousand dollars on November 2, 1898. The old John Greenway brewery in West Water street, one of the historic buildings of the city, was taken over by the Third National Bank, and on March 11, 1905, was sold to Charles K. Underwood for one hundred and fifty-two thousand, 510 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY eight hundred dollars. A stock company was- then formed to carry on the ale and porter business. The historic Jerry Rescue Block was purchased by Jacob Crouse from George M. Finn on January 30, 1899. The 17th of that same month the old crockery firm in South Clinton street of the Pierces was acquired by R. A. Stowed. March 20, 1899, the C. A. Whelan Company purchased the John P. Hier tobacco business, which for so many years had been known in the Syra cuse business list. The Eckel Brothers Steel Company was formed ten days later. The business changes have been many and marked, one of the most serious losses to the city being that of the Sweet Steel Company, which decided to go to Williamsport, Pa., on July 12, 1903. In the spring of 1904 the move was made and an employing manufactory of three hundred men was lost. Of the old Sweet Company, so long famous in manufacturing Syracuse, Robert Dey was named receiver on December 28, 1895. Upon the reorganization the Sweet Steel Company was incorporated February 25, 1898. A well known old bookstore went out of business on January 9, 1897, when, through financial reverses, the store of Thomas W. Durston & Son was closed. The Central City Building & Loan Association failed on February 7, 1898,. In 1899 the Adamant Manufacturing Company failed, was rejuvenated as the Adamant Plaster Company, and played its part before a second failure in the taking down of the American Exchange National Bank. But one build ing and loan association, the Syracuse Co-operative, survived to carry out the promises of/ the loan association fever, which the city caught severely in the '90s. The Syracuse Co-operative was conservative, carried upon strict business principles by a board of directors and secretary that had pride in their work, and won out, being one of the strong financial associations today. The Onondaga Savings and Loan Association, with seventy thousand dollars liabilities, assigned with Henry Lyon as assignee on May 13, 1899. The Eastern Building and Loan Association, the most prominently advertised of any in this section, went into liquidation later, finally closing up its affairs in 1907. The Cosmopolitan was another, with promise of years of usefulness, which was liquidated. The changes in merchants and manufacturing concerns in a score of years have been numerous, a new generation taking down many signs so familiar in the old days. Among the old firms, whose names were household words twenty years ago, that have been absorbed, transformed and closed upon the books, are the J. F. Pease Furnace Company, Dow, Short & Company, Joseph Seymour, Sons & Company, A. C. Belden & Company, G. N. Crouse & Company, Kennedy, Spaulding & Company, Penn & Lee, Francis & Company, Porter Manufacturing Company, Duguid & Wells, Phoenix Foundry & Machine Com pany, George P. Hier & Company, J. Dean Hawley, Hier & Aldrich, Milton S. Price, Stinard & Edwards, Theodore Dissell & Company, Thomas Whitbread & Company Syracuse Glass Company, G. W. Ingalls, C. S. Ball, Everson & Company, Kent & Miller, Leeret & Blasdel, Lewis & Whelan, S. H. Starin. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 511 In 1903 the old hardware firm of Grant & Dunn, which had been dis solved upon Mr. Dunn's retirement and conducted hy Mr. Grant's sons upon his death, was incorporated as Alexander Grant's Sons with a capital stock of eighty thousand dollars. E. I. Rice also incorporated his coal business for one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in 1903, a year in which the aggre gate capital stock of new local corporations came to ten million eight hundred and sixteen thousand nine hundred dollars, as against five million one hundred and twenty-seven thousand seven hundred in 1902. During 1906 the figures of the United States Industrial Census were received, making comparisons with 1900, but they do not show the remarkable industrial activity and growth during the latter part of 1905 and the two following years. The figures as to manufacturers are as follows: 1905 Number of Establishments 638 Capital 38,740,651 Salaried Officers: Clerks, Etc 1 728 Salaries 1,960,187 Wage Earners : Average Number 14,578 Wages 7,129,707 Miscellaneous Expenses 4,250,826 Cost, Materials Used 16,171,650 In the making of men's clothing the city of Syracuse had the largest number of worker's engaged in 1906. There were fifty-two factories with one thousand four hundred and forty-four workers engaged earning six hun dred and ninety-three thousand one hundred and eighteen dollars, with a capi tal of two million thirty thousand two hundred and fifty-nine dollars invested. There were one thousand three hundred and eighty-five men employed in foundries and machine shops, earning eight hundred and thirteen thousand two hundred and fifty-four dollars, and the capital two million five hundred and thirty-eight thousand five hundred and eighty-eight dollars. In iron and steel works there were ten hundred and twelve engaged, wages and salaries coming to six hundred and thirty-three thousand nine hundred and thirteen dollars, and the capital three million nine hundred and eighty thous and seven hundred and thirty-four dollars. The second largest amount of capital involved was in the making of malt liquors, which took three million six hundred and eighty-seven thousand two hundred and twenty-seven, but only three hundred and twenty-two workers earning two hundred and thirty thousand two hundred dollars; typewriters and supplies had one thousand one hundred and five employes in the three factories, the capital two million four hundred and ninety-five thousand four hundred and fifty-five dollars, and the wages of the employes, seven hundred and seventy-six thousand and Per Cent 1900 Increase 630 1.3 28,928,312 33.9 1,246 36.7 1,315,821 49.0 11,809 23.4 5,303,407 34.4 2,944,374 44.4 26,546,297 31.2 512 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY fifty-five dollars; in printing and publishing newspapers, etc., there was a capital of seven hundred and eighty-two thousand three hundred and sixty- four dollars invested in twenty-three offices, four hundred and fifty-four employed, earning three hundred and fifty-one thousand five hundred and ninety-nine dollars; book and job work had thirty-nine offices with a capital of four hundred and ninety-nine thousand six hundred and forty-eight dollars and two hundred and eighty-nine employes earning one hundred and sixty- seven thousand one hundred and fifty dollars; there were eighty cigar and cigarette factories running on five hundred and three thousand six hundred and two dollars capital, employing four hundred and sixty-one people who earned two hundred and forty-two thousand six hundred and ninety-five dol lars ; the fifty-three factories making bake stuffs had eight hundred and twenty- four thousand two hundred and thirty-three dollars capital; the three shoe factories, six hundred and ten thousand eight hundred and eighty-two dol lars ; the four candle makers, eight hundred and ninety thousand five hundred and ninety-nine dollars; five hosiery and knit goods factories, five hundred and sixty-three thousand one hundred and twenty-nine dollars, with four hun dred and eighty-eight workers ; eighteen furniture factories, six. hundred and fifty-two thousand and twenty-nine dollars invested and four hundred and ninety-seven employes; eight food preparation factories, four hundred and thirty-five thousand seven hundred and seventy-six dollars; eleven carriage and wagon makers, five hundred and twenty thousand and thirty-one dollars ; ten lumber and planing mills, four hundred and fifty-eight thousand seven hun dred and seventy dollars ; four hardware makers, five hundred and ninety-six thousand three hundred and ninety-six dollars, and salt, five hundred and seventy-three thousand nine hundred and twenty dollars. The shipments of Syracuse for 1907 give an idea of the volume of busi ness done for the year in this busy business center, only some of the larger shippers being mentioned in this list: E. W. Edwards & Son, from New England, aggregate in value, sixty thousand nine hundred' and thirty-seven dollars ; Dey Brothers & Company, from New England, valued at between seventy thousand dollars and one hundred thousand dollars; W. S. Peck & Company, total outgoing, three hundred and forty-three tons, incoming, three hundred and forty-four tons; H. H. Franklin Company, fourteen thousand tons; Syracuse Hosiery Company, from New England, forty thousand'dollars; Syracuse Dry Goods Company, from New England, five hundred tons; H. R. Olmsted & Son, four hundred and sixty thousand six hundred and fifteen pounds; Horace G. Stone, from New England, twenty thousand dollars; Fra zer & Jones Company, received, seven thousand tons, outgoing, five thousand tons ; Kemp & Burpee Company, incoming, eleven thousand tons, outgoing, ten thousand tons ; R. C. McClure Company, incoming and outgoing, nine thousand tons; F. L. Walrath & Company, incoming and outgoing, ten thousand tons; 0. V. .Tracy & Company, incoming, two thousand four hundred tons, outgoing, fifteen hundred tons; Syracuse Chilled Plow Company, incoming and out going, thirty thousand tons; Hotaling- Warner Company, outgoing, two mil lion pounds, all macaroni; Butler Manufacturing Company, incoming, two \> ' ' SCENE AT LONG BRANCH. VIEW ON THE OUTLET AT LONG BRANCH. SENECA RIVER AND OSWEGO CANAL. OUTLET OF ONONDAGA LAKE. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 513 thousand two hundred tons, outgoing three hundred and fifty tons ; A. E. Net tleton, incoming, seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds, outgoing, eight hundred thousand pounds; Gates Thalheimer, incoming, nine thousand six 1 hundred tons, outgoing, two thousand and fifty tons ; L. C. Smith & Brothers, total, five hundred tons; Syracuse Supply Company, total, two thousand five hundred tons ; Pierce, Butler & Pierce Manufacturing Company, incoming one hundred and thirty thousand tons, outgoing, one hundred and eighty-seven thousand tons; Merrell-Soule Company, twelve thousand five hundred tons; Will-Baumer Company, incoming, fifteen million pounds, outgoing, sixteen million pounds ; Paragon Plaster Company, sixty thousand tons ; Crouse-Hinds Company, one thousand five hundred tons; Standard Guage Company, two hundred and fifty tons ; Hunter-Tuppen Company, incoming, five hundred and seventeen tons. The compilations of the Chamber of Commerce of industrial Syracuse, made in 1907, give valuable information of what has been accomplished in this city of varied industry. In six hundred and thirty-eight factories there was an invested capital of thirty-eight million seven hundred and forty thous and six hundred and fifty-one dollars, with one thousand seven hundred and twenty-eight clerks drawing a total of one million nine hundred and sixty thousand one hundred and eighty-seven dollars in salaries, and fourteen thous and five hundred and seventy-eight wage earners taking seven million one hun dred and twenty-nine thousand seven hundred and seven dollars a year. The miscellaneous expenses of these factories came to four million two hundred and fifty thousand eight hundred and twenty-six dollars ; the cost of materials to sixteen million one hundred and seventy-one thousand six hundred and fifty dollars, and the value of the product thirty-four thousand eight hundred and twenty-three thousand seven hundred and fifty-one dollars. In typewriter manufacture the city had reached first place in the United States with a production for the census year valued at one million five hun dred and fifty-three thousand one hundred and seventy-three dollars. In candles it was first in the state with a production of eight hundred and ninety- four thousand three hundred dollars ; first in the manufacture of salt, and first in the value of its iron, steel and rolling mill products, with a value of two million one hundred and seventeen thousand five hundred and eighty-five dollars. In the matter of boots and shoes, Syracuse was third in the state with a value of one million two hundred and fifty-three thousand four hundred and eighty-three dollars produced annually; third in the production of bread and bakery products, value one million two hundred and eighty-nine thousand and sixty-seven dollars; third in food preparations, value six hundred and fifty- six thousand seven hundred and forty-two dollars, and fourth in the produc tion of men's clothing, value three million eighty- two thousand and fifty-two dollars. The listed active stocks of Onondaga industries in January, 1908, with the prices asked for shares and bonds shows, makes an interesting table, although the great bulk of the securities were not in the market : Syracuse 514 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Reduction Company, fifty ; Haberle Cyrstal Spring Brewing Company, eighty- five; Bartels Brewing Company, one hundred; Thomas Ryan's Brewing Com pany, one hundred and twenty; W. H. Bundy Recorder Company, eighty; Salt Springs Salt Company, thirty; Pierce, Butler & Pierce Manufacturing Company, common, two hundred ; first preferred, one hundred and ten ; Morris Machine Works, common, one hundred and nine; preferred, one hundred and forty; Syracuse Time Recorder Company, seven, preferred, sixty; Syracuse Gas Company, bonds, ninety-six; Syracuse Lighting Company, preferred, ninety-five, common, seventy. A study of corporation taxes for a score of years, although not showing full values of properties, being notoriously under actual values, is interesting for showing changes, growth and additions. In 1887 the Solvay Process Company was assessed for two hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars, and in 1906 for two million seven hundred and thirty-nine thousand eight hundred dollars, with seventy-three thousand two hundred dollars in the Ninth Ward, and twenty-six thousand three hundred dollars in the Seventh Ward. The Syracuse Savings Bank was assessed two hundred thousand dollars in 1887 for its building, and in 1906, three hundred and twenty-six thousand dollars. Upon its old building the Onondaga County Savings Bank also paid a tax for a value of two hundred thousand dollars in 1887, while in 1906 the assessment for the new building was eight hundred and thirty-one thousand dollars. The Third National Bank, assessed for thirty thousand dollars in 1887, had to pay on fifty-five thousand dollars in 1906. Upon the old Remington Block the Syracuse University was assessed eighty thousand dollars, and in 1906, upon the new University Block, five hundred and seventy-six thousand five hundred dollars. Some interesting changes of old companies are seen in the following assess ments : 1887 1906 Sanderson Brothers $75,000 $268,000 Straight Line Engine Company 7,000 103,000 Butler Manufacturing Company, personal 7,000 20,000 Onondaga Pottery Company 33,600 161,200 Syracuse Tube and National Tube Works 25,000 152,200 Kemp & Burpee Manufacturing Company 400 54,650 Boomer & Boschert Press Company 25,000 50,000 Syracuse Stove Works 20,000 55,000 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 515 The corporation assessments in 1906 were as follows : First Ward $ 665,657 Second Ward 23g 305 Third Ward .'.'.'.'.'.'.'.".".'.' ." 160,095 Fourth Ward 79 925 Fifth Ward .'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.' 497,435 Sixth Ward 689980 Seventh Ward 1,673,230 Eighth Ward 1,923,250 Ninth Ward 357620 Tenth Ward 962;400 Eleventh Ward 912 300 Twelfth Ward 54700 Thirteenth Ward 159900 Fourteenth Ward '. '. 3,673,083 Fifteenth Ward 604 500 Sixteenth Ward 218 500 Seventeenth Ward 425 225 Eighteenth Ward 210,490 Nineteenth Ward 68010 Camidus 924,'l80 Cieero 65,950 Clay 187,913 Dewitt 1,287,690 Elbridge 624,762 Fabius 81,900 Geddes ". 3,657,575 Lafayette 213,800 Lysander 349,338 Manlius 1,025,200 Marcellus 310,800 ^ Onondaga 457,600 Otisco 3,900 Pompey 22,875 Salina 264,077 Skaneateles 410,150 Spafford 5,550 Tully 331,250 Van Buren 511,832 An advantage of suburban territory for economy in public expenses was shown in the tax rates of Solvay, which in 1906 and 1907 were close upon twelve dollars and fifty cents per thousand dollars. Of course the princi pal tax payer was the Solvay Process Company, assessed in 1907 upon three million four hundred and fifteen thousand eight hundred dollars valuation, of which two million nine hundred and fifteen thousand eight hundred was 516 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY property valuation and the remainder personal. The Frazer & Jones plant, started late in 1906, was assessed at twenty-five thousand dollars ; the Halcomb Steel Company at one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars; Pass & Seymour Company at thirty-one thousand five hundred, and the Iroquois China Company at thirty thousand dollars. No chapter upon the business of Syracuse would be complete which did not pay tribute to the Chamber of Commerce, which has become the active mover in everything which concerns Syracuse, economically, commercially, and in an advertising and expanding way. Again and again the Chamber of Commerce has been referred to in these pages, because no truthful history of modern Syracuse could be written which did not show the spirit of this body of business men in almost everything important which the city has done to extend its fame as an industrial center. The way the Chamber has fought the people's battles appears in the amounts of those fights for better condi tions. Started as the Business Men's Association, which was organized March 29, 1889, there is a long record of helpfulness to the city. In the early days the rooms in the Larned building, as have the present quarters in the University building, were the popular meeting place, serving more frequently than the City Hall for a gathering place for the people to discuss popular ques tions and movements. In 1907 the Chamber increased from six hundred and thirty-seven paying members, comprising eight hundred and forty-two per sons, to one thousand two hundred and sixty-eight paying members, comprising one thousand three hundred and ninety-two persons. Some idea of the work done can be gained by giving the names of the most efficient committees besides those which handle the routine work. There was a Boomers' Committee, and Committee on Education, Entertainment, Health, Legislation, Municipal Affairs, Ownership and Beautification of Homes, Parks and Streets, Promotion of Manufactures, Public Services and Railroads and Transportation. On February 11, 1907, at the Alhambra, the Chamber of- Commerce gave to its members the largest dinner party ever held in the state outside of New York city. Through the efforts of the Chamber of Commerce the Park Commission was created; a system of medical inspection was secured in the schools; a successful opposition waged to the leasing of the Syracuse Lighting Company to the United Gas and Improvement Company of Philadelphia ; secured many conventions for the city ; abated the smoke nuisance, and in truth took up and urged along every important public question. This work was not that of one man but of many men, and the Chamber of Commerce reflected the spirit of Syracuse better than even the various administrations in municipal control, for the Chamber was absolutely nonpplitical. The rooms in the University building were opened on June 2, 1898, and in August, 1905, the monthly Chamber of Commerce Bulletin was started. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 517 CHAPTER LX. OTHER THINGS THAT HELPED SYRACUSE. Liberal to the point of being the most potent force in the city's indus trial activity, and conservative and watchful to a degree which has given a faith and strength that is the city's financial anchor, the banks of Syracuse have been built to a point that is the pride of every person conversant with the financial situation of recent years. In 1907, when banking operations in large Eastern cities were quickly reflective of the panicky and flckle money and stock market, the banks of Syracuse, month after month, reported record clearances. Even in August, usually the lowest point of the year, the clear ances of the Syracuse Commercial banks led all the cities in the Middle Atlan tic states in gains over the two previous years. The clearances in August, 1907, were nine million three hundred and eighty-five thousand eight hundred and seventy-two dollars, a gain of forty-four and three-tenths per cent above 1906, when they were six million five hundred and two thousand nine hundred and twenty-eight dollars, and fifty-seven per cent above 1905, when the figure of five million nine hundred and eighty thousand six hundred and seventy-three was reached. To the banks of Syracuse, and of course that means the men who have composed their boards and rosters of officials, the industrial progress of the city is directly attributable. The liberal employment of their capital in manufacturing, trading and the many industries that make the city's place in the marts of the state and nation, and the brave way in which financial crises have been met and passed, are the important things that have pushed the city forward. It is all a chapter upon which the bankers have a right to look back with pride — a chapter not always given its due credit, but none the less the absolute sinew and backbone of the city's stability, past, present and future. Some idea of the changes in business can be gauged from these surplus figures advertised by the banks of 1894 when compared with those of the present : Onondaga Savings $1,365,409 Syracuse Savings 770,983 First National 200,000 Third National 100,000 State Bank of Syracuse 100,000 Merchants' 220,000 Robert Gere 200,000 Bank of Syracuse 85,000 Commercial 45>000 New York State Banking Company 60,000 Salt Springs 100,000 518 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY The changes in banks in twenty years shows in a measure how solid in general have been these institutions. In. this period the New York State Banking Company and Robert Gere Bank have been lost, the American Exchange National Bank organized and lost, and the Commercial Bank and Syracuse Trust Company gained. The oldest bank, with the exception of the Syracuse Savings Bank, is the Merchants' National, organized as the Merchants' Bank in 1850. Besides age the bank achieved a reputation for conservatism, coming to its present strength and influence under the regime of President George N. Kennedy. Today the' bank boasts a surplus of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars with the capital stock of one hundred and eighty thousand dollars of the '80s still unchanged. At the present time Hiram W. Plumb is president, William G. Tracy, vice-president, and Charles A. Bridgman, cashier. The list of directors elected in 1908 included these officers and Charles B. Everson, Fred Frazer, George G. Kenyon, Grant D. Green and L. L. Thurwachter. In January, 1908, the dividend was placed at fourteen per cent, two hundred and twenty-five was bid for the stock and two hundred and fifty asked. The Salt Springs National Bank, organized as the Salt Springs Bank in 1852, after long periods of success came through a trying out process which has made it even a greater institution than when Alfred A. Howlett was the stanch financier in the president's chair. Starting with a capital of one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, which was increased to two hundred thousand dollars, chartered as a national bank in 1865, it today boasts of a surplus of one hundred thousand dollars. On September 4, 1899, the Salt Springs National Bank was removed from the Syracuse Savings Bank building to the former Onondaga County Savings Bank building, which had become the Gridley block by the purchase of Francis W. Gridley on January 26, 1899, and handsome chambers were built. From January 3, 1860, to January 11, 1897, Alfred A. Howlett was president and from January 11, 1897, to January 17, 1898, George B. Leonard and later Francis W. Gridley had control. Other presidents who have served with honor to the bank and worked indefatigably for its success have been T. Jefferson Leach, Williams H. Stansfield and Senator Francis H. Gates. Senator Gates was re-elected president in 1907. Mr. Stansfield was made vice-president, Leonard H. Groesbeck cashier, and G. Howard Avery assistant cashier. Besides Messrs. Gates, Stansfield and Groesbeck, the other directors were John W. Gates, Charles A. Hitchcock, Isaac H. Munro and Edward H. O'Hara. In 1908 there were bids of one hundred and twenty-five for the stock and one hundred and thirty-seven and a half asked. The New York State Banking Company, so long located in the Wieting block upon the Clinton Square corner, had its doors closed upon September 18, 1902, its business finally being taken over by the First National Bank. The New York State Banking Company originated in the Burnet Bank in 1852, became the Fourth National, and in 1872 took its last title. Strength was piled upon strength in many ways to build the First National Bank of today, the most famous bank in Syracuse. Conservative to a PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 519 degree, taking pride in a surplus and adhering to the interests of its cus tomers during hard times as well as in fair financial weather, gave it an enviable record. The influence of Edward B. Judson who organized the bank in 1863 and remained its president until his death, was never lost, for Edward B. Judson, Jr., thoroughly inheriting his father's qualities, succeeded in the bank. This was the sixth national bank in the United States. In 1907 there was a surplus of five hundred thousand dollars joined to the capi tal stock of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. In 1900 the Robert Gere Bank, established May 8, 1880, with James J. Belden, president and Frederick W. Barker, cashier, .was consolidated with the First National Bank. The Robert Gere Bank, until June, 1888, occupied rooms on the second floor of the Larned building, and was then removed to the Snow building, and in January, 1895, occupied its own bank building east of the old Onondaga County Sav ings Bank building. When the new Onondaga County Savings Bank build ing was erected, provision was made for the First National bank upon the ground floor, Genesee street side, as in the old building, and the new quar ters were taken up in 1897. In 1907 there was put in the great steel vault which is known as the safest "strong box" in the city. C. W. Snow was vice-president in 1907, F. W. Barker second vice-president, and Edward S. Tefft cashier. Besides Messrs. Judson, Snow and Barker, the directors were Dennis McCarthy, Horace White, Osgood V. Tracy, Frederick R. Hazard, Hendrick S. Holden, E. I. Rice, Charles M. Crouse and Albert F. Fowler. The building up of a bond department became an important feature of the bank in later years. With a dividend of fourteen per cent the stock January 1, 1908, had reached three hundred and seventy-five offered and four hundred asked. Upon January 1, 1864, the Third National Bank, which had been organized in 1863, began business. It was the first commercial bank in the city to put up its own building, and such a one that it is still artistic in appearance in the day of pretentious office buildings. It was in 1887 that the Third National Bank went from the White Memorial building to the new home at North Salina and James streets. James Munroe, the first president of the bank, was succeeded by Allen Munroe, and in January, 1871, Lucius Gleason was elected and served until his death in 1891, when he was succeeded by Henry Lacy, the president of today. That this bank came through a litiga tion that would have swamped an institution less secure, was not only proof of its strength but of the desire for the control of its stock. In 1908 Jacob Amos was vice-president, and Lucius G. Lacy cashier, with Edward N. Wilson, Charles M. Warner, Edward Moir, Alexander T. Brown, H. A. Moyer and W. C. Lipe upon the directorate. With its last dividend ten per cent, the stock had reached one hundred and fifty bid on January 1, 1908, with one hundred and seventy-five asked. The State Bank of Syracuse, organized on February 1, 1873, with a capi tal stock of one hundred thousand dollars, became one of the best known banks in Syracuse, handling many public funds and by its reliability and carefulness successfully warding off criticism which so frequently comes to 520 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY depositaries of city, county, state and government funds. Many county treasurers had their offices in and did all their business through this bank, and when the last bankruptcy law went into effect the State Bank was named depositary. Francis Hendricks was the first president of the bank, and he was succeeded by Albert K. Hiscoek. In 1908 the directors elected were Francis Hendricks, Frank Hiscoek, Albert K. Hiscoek, George A. Wood, George Doheny, Carlton A. Chase, John J. Cummins, William A. Dyer, William K. Pierce, James Barnes and Alfred Mercer. Francis Hendricks was vice- president and George A. Wood cashier. There were bids of four hundred and twenty-five for the stocks with five hundred asked on January 1, 1908, and the last dividend was sixteen per cent. The Bank of Syracuse organized under the state laws in the spring of 1884, afterward became the National Bank of Syracuse increasing its stock until in 1907 there was six hundred thousand dollars capital stock and two hundred and fifty thousand dollars surplus and profits, the value of the stock being placed at one hundred and forty. Upon October 17, 1907, the stock was sold at one hundred and sixty-two dollars and fifty cents a share and went up to one hundred and sixty-five. The first rooms of the Bank of Syracuse were in the White Memorial building, but in 1896 the ornate and beautiful building to the east of the Onondaga County Savings Bank building in East Genesee street was erected, and these offices were occupied in 1897. In 1907, L. C. Smith was president, John Dunn, Jr., and F. C. Eddy, vice-presidents, C. H. Sanford cashier and Frank L. Barnes assistant cashier. Besides Messrs. Smith, Dunn and Eddy, the directors consisted of W. L. Smith, W. S. Peck, IT. C. Hemingway, J. F. Durston, A. R. Peck, F. C. Soule, A. E. Nettleton, Douglas N. Green, H. W. Smith, Robert Dey, B. L. Smith and T. G. Cranwell. The Commercial National Bank was incorporated on April 13, 1891, with a capital stock of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and Henry J. Mowry president, Hendrick S. Holden vice-president and Anthony Lamb cashier. The first banking offices were in the Larned building upon the Washington street side, and, upon the completion of the University build ing the handsome banking offices were taken which are now occupied on the Warren and Washington streets corner, second floor. By 1908 the capital stock had been increased to five hundred thousand dollars, and to this was linked a surplus of two hundred and sixty thousand dollars, with deposits of more than two million dollars. While the bank was organized under the general banking laws of the state in 1891, it was converted to the national system in 1903. In 1907 Hendrick S. Holden was president, George M. Barnes vice-president and Mr. Lamb cashier. The directors were Messrs. Holden, Barnes and Lamb, F. R. Hazard, William Nottingham, Donald Dey, Jacob Amos, Willis A. Holden, John S. Gray, Charles A. Hudson, Charles M. Warner, Edward Joy, Louis Will, James M. Gilbert and Ralph S. Bowen. With a dividend of seven per cent there was one hundred and forty offered and one hundred and forty-five asked for the stock on January 1, 1908. The ill-fated American Exchange National Bank was organized in 1897 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 521 with a capital stock of two hundred thousand dollars, and opened on Decem ber 1 of that year. If the value of stock and general popularity are factors, then the Trust and Deposit Company of Onondaga will have to be deemed the most suc cessful banking institution in the city. It has been a common thing upon the stock boards of the city to see six hundred and seven hundred bid for shares and no offerings, for very little of the stock is trans ferred. The. Trust and Deposit Company was the pioneer in the trust com pany business in Syracuse, being organized in 1869, building up its prestige with business-like care and consideration. Dudley P. Phelps was the first president. In 1907 Francis Hendricks was president, Albert K. Hiscoek and Frank Hiscoek vice-presidents, James Barnes secretary and Lucius M. Kinne assistant secretary. Besides these officers the trustees were Alfred Mercer, George A. Wood, William K. Pierce, John J. Cummins, Carleton A. Chase, William A. Dyer and George Doheny. Bids of eight hundred were made for the stock in 1908 with eight hundred and fifty asked, the last divi dend being twenty-eight per cent, the best bank dividend in the city. The Syracuse Trust Company, the youngest of the .city's banking institu tions, commenced business on July 1, 1903, and upon July 1, 1907, had assets of four million three hundred and two thousand dollars, deposits of three million five hundred and eighty-two thousand dollars, and more than five thousand five hundred depositors. During the year 1907 there were one thousand new names added. Frederick R. Hazard was president, James M. Gilbert secretary, and George M. Barnes treasurer. The capital stock on January 1, 1908, was three hundred thousand dollars with three hundred and forty-three thousand three hundred and forty-five dollars surplus and profits, and deposits of two million six hundred and thirty-one thousand six hundred and twenty-three dollars. The resources were three million three hundred and thirty-six thousand one hundred dollars. Besides Messrs. Haz ard, Barnes and Gilbert, the directors were William Nottingham, Wilbert L. Smith, Hendrick S. Holden, Willis A. Holden, William H. Stansfield, Frank C. Soule, Gates Thalheimer, John S. Gray, Edwin Nottingham, Albert E; Net tleton, Edward Joy, Anthony Lamb, George J. Sager, J. Wiltsie Knapp, Hiram W. Plumb, Lewis C. Merrell, J. Frank Durston, Michael E. Driscoll and Dean E. Brown. With the last dividend eight per cent, stock was offered at two hundred and fifty January 1, 1908, and eight hundred and twenty-five bid. The oldest existing savings bank is the Syracuse Savings Bank, incor porated March 30, 1849, just after Syracuse had become a city. On July 1, 1907, the assets had reached thirteen million seven hundred and forty thous and three hundred and twenty-five dollars, with a surplus of seven hundred and seventy-five thousand three hundred and fifty-eight dollars. The bank building, one of the first pretentious structures to be erected in the city, and occupied first in June, 1876, cost three hundred and fifty thousand dollars, but was carried on the ledgers of 1907 as worth two hundred thousand dol lars. This bank showed its loyalty to Syracuse by carrying city bonds, which in 1907 amounted to one million two hundred and fourteen thousand two 522 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY hundred and fifty dollars with sixty thousand six hundred and thirty-five dol lars in county bonds. When E. W. Leavenworth resigned the presidency of the bank in February, 1883, Hon. Charles P. Clark was chosen to the vacancy, holding faithfully and efficiently to his trust until his death in 1907, when George Doheny, long the attorney for the bank, succeeded. The trustees then were Frank Hiscoek, Francis Hendricks, John Dunn, Jr., Wing R. Smith, Jacob Amos, J. Frank Durston, Nicholas Peters, Carleton A. Chase, William Cowie, A. Judd Northrup, E. D. Dickinson, Edward Joy, Dennis McCarthy, Harvey A. Moyer, Allen C. Fobes, DeForest Settle and William Muench. In 1894 the bank made extensive alterations in its building at a cost of thirty thousand dollars, and again in 1903, there were quite radical changes, the cost being fifteen thousand dollars. Incorporated on April 10, 1855, the Onondaga County Savings Bank has reached the high record of savings institutions in deposits, loans, building and contribution to the city's growth. During the presidency of Edward S. Daw son, a charter member of the board of directors to his death, the efficient board achieved the finest business building in the city. The corner stone of the new bank building was laid November 5, 1896, Charles L. Stone making the chief address. At this time the bank reached fourth in increase of sur plus of savings banks of the state outside New York and Brooklyn. The Building Committee was composed of Alva W. Palmer, Chairman, William H. Warner, Edward A. Powell, Charles W. Snow, George M. Barnes, Rasselas A. Bonta and Edward S. Dawson. Robert W. Gibson of New York, was the architect, and the Moulton-Starrett Company of Chicago, the builders. The structure is of granite, Indiana limestone and steel, and is strictly fireproof. The assets in 1887 were seven million five hundred and eighty seven thousand five hundred and fifty-seven dollars; in 1890, nine million one hundred and seventy-five thousand four hundred and thirty-two dollars; in 1895, twelve million thirty seven thousand nine hundred and thirty-nine dollars; in 1900, seventeen million four hundred and twenty-two thousand seven hundred and fourteen dollars, and or* January 1, 1908, twenty-four million five hundred and nineteen thousand six hundred and eighty-three dollars. On July 1, 1897, there were thirty-four thousand two hundred and thirty-six open accounts, the aggregate deposits being twelve million six hundred and eighty- eight thousand seven hundred and seventy dollars, with a surplus of one mil lion five hundred and one thousand six hundred and twenty-nine dollars. On January 1, 1908, the open account list had reached fifty-four thousand nine hundred and sixty, the aggregate deposits being twenty-three million four hun dred and forty-two thousand six hundred and eighty-three dollars. There have been but four presidents, Hon. Allen Munroe from June 1, 1855, to June 3, 1876; Hon. Daniel P. Wood to May 1, 1891; Edward S. Dawson to his death in 1907, Rasselas A. Bonta being the successor. It was this bank which furnished three hundred thousand dollars to build the City Hall and seven hundred and ten thousand dollars of the city's water bonds. George B. Kent was vice-president at the time the new building was erected, and Wil liam E. Abbott had the record of being a member of the board of directors PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 523 from the chartering of the bank until his death. The trustees in 1908 were Rasselas A. Bonta, Charles L. Stone, Anson N. Palmer, Edward A. Powell, Salem Hyde, George N. Barnes, William D. Dunning, Adolph IT. Schwarz, Charles W. Snow, Henry M. Rowling, Hiram W. Plumb, Frederick R. Hazard, Osgood V. Tracy, Clinton T. Rose and Charles A. Hudson. The business done during the year 1907 amounted to eight million eighty-five thousand five hundred and twenty-eight dollars, and the net surplus was one million seventy-six thousand eight hundred and twenty-five dollars. Clinton T. Rose was the treasurer, and A. E. McChesney went upon the board in 1908, succeeding William H. Warner. The report of the Committee on Rank Stock, made to the Board of Super visors in 1907, is interesting for showing the values, acknowledged to be extremely low and conservative, in the year 's assessments : Shares Lysander — First National Bank of Baldwinsville $1,000 State Bank of Baldwinsville 600 Skaneateles — National Bank of Skaneateles 600 Tully— First National Bank 250 Syracuse — Commercial National Bank of Syracuse 5,000 First National Bank 2,500 Merchants' National Bank 1,800 Salt Springs National Bank 2,000 National Bank of Syracuse 6,000 State Bank of Syracuse 1,000 Third National Bank 3,000 Assessed Value Value of Stock Per Share $23,750 $129,564.70 129.5647 85,770.22 142.9503 161,123.98 268.5399 30,000.00 120. 664,926.00 132.9832 795,393.00 318.1572 360,179.00 200.0994 255,675.00 127.8375 756,486.00 126.081 421,146.00 421.146 371,579.00 123.8598 $4,031,842.88 The newspaper changes of the past decade have been more radical than for any previous period, many of the old stand-bys even being swept up by the tide of reorganization. The Evening News, a penny paper, was estab lished by former Mayor Thomas Ryan in 1892, the first issue being on February 8 It lasted for five years, being proceeded against for insolvency by the Attorney General on January 19, 1897, a receiver named the following day, purchased by Thomas Ryan on March 4, and publication suspended on July 20 1897 The Catholic Sun Company was incorporated on April 60, l»yz. The Courier Printing Company went into the hands of a Teceiyel°^^eT 14, 1893, and was sold on January 31, 1894. Upon February 6, 1894, Milton 524 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY H. Northrup retired from the editorship of the Courier, after continuous ser vice since May 1, 1870. Again, on April 22, 1897, the Syracuse Courier Com pany went into the hands of a receiver, and was sold to John F. Nash, who then came here from Albany, on November 6, 1897. Upon April 30, 1898, the Courier was sold to the Commercial Bank, and the Courier Publishing Com pany was incorporated on May 18 following. Later the Courier was Changed into the Telegram, becoming an evening penny paper, and, upon November 22, 1905, that paper suspended publication, being followed by receivership pro ceedings. James Devine and James E. Ratchford purchased the Sunday Times on February 15, 1897, and upon February 27 following the Syracuse Times Publishing Company was formed. On April 20, 1899, the Times Publishing Company took dissolution proceedings and James E. Ratchford was named receiver. The 13th of the following January the paper made its exit. The Skaneateles Democrat, after five years' suspension, was revived on December 28, 1905. The postoffice as an indication of the city's business has been an interesting measure. The first time jn the city's history when the sales at the stamp window exceeded two hundred thousand dollars was in 1892, when they reached two hundred thousand two hundred and twenty dollars and forty-three cents, a gain of ten thousand six hundred and five dollars and sixty-four cents over 1891, and thirty-one thousand and forty-four dollars more than 1890. In 1907 the receipts of the postoffice exceeded five hundred thousand dollars for the first time, being slightly more than five hundred and fifteen thousand dollars. In 1906 the receipts were four hundred and eighty-three thousand dollars. In 1907 the monthly gains showed an average of close upon ten per cent. At this time the postoffice had twenty-four stations besides the main office. For six months preceding December 31, 1907, the mails were weighed. The report made by Superintendent of Mails Charles W. Rhines to Postmaster Dwight H. Bruce, showed a total weight of one million five hundred and sixty-eight thous and eight hundred and twenty-seven pounds for the six months, of which nine hundred and eighty-six thousand five hundred and sixty-three pounds, or sixty-three per cent, was second class matter, the receipts for which were seven thousand six hundred and seventy-nine dollars and sixteen cents, or less than three per cent of the total receipts. In 1906 Congress passed the bill appropriating one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for a site for a new Federal building. In 1908 Wilfred M. Scoville was superintendent of the Money Order division ; John J. Murray superintendent of the Registry division; Edward M. Bostwic'k superintendent of the Free Delivery division, and John P. Listman superintendent of the Inquiry division. Dwight H. Bruce was named postmaster to succeed Milton H. Northrup, and upon December 19, 1905, was re-appointed for the second time. Milton H. Northrup was first appointed postmaster March 14, 1888, succeeded by Carroll E. Smith, October 16, 1889 ; Milton H. Northrup, May 23, 1893, Dwight H. Bruce, July 24, 1897, re appointed January 10, 1902. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 525 The Internal Revenue office of the Twenty-first District, located in the Federal building in Syracuse, with Peter E. Garlick as Collector, showed a gain in collections in 1907 of nearly twenty per cent over 1906, the total being two million one hundred and thirty-four thousand two hundred and seven dollar approximately for the year, while in 1906 the collections exactly were one million seven hundred and forty-five thousand six hundred and forty- three dollars and twenty-one cents. The chief deputy collector at this time was Jesse W ^Clarke. — - \u •'¦' Upon July 1, 1904, the Syracuse Journal published its sixtieth anniver sary edition, the birthday of The Journal as a daily publication being July 4, 1844, — the oldest newspaper in Syracuse by thirty-five years. It was the unique and happy thought of Managing Editor Harvey D. Burrill in 1904, to bring together upon one page of the anniversary issue, reprints of the various headings of The Journal from the time of its weekly appearance as the. Western State Journal in 1840, down to the date of the anniversary, — an evo lution not only in type styles, but from the period when the first page was only used for advertisements down through the patent medicine display and old English type fashions to the cartoons and scare headlines of today. It is an historic story which few newspapers can tell, and relate with that satisfaction which comes with having kept up with the times. The Journal has never lived in the past, and in that has been its success, keeping in line with every movement of the greatest modern newspapers in the larger cities. It was in appreciation of the truth that the greatest evening newspapers in other cities were the penny papers, which led to the reduction to a cent on March 4, 1906. Started as the Western State Journal, a weekly, on March 20, 1839, by Vivus W. and Silas F. Smith, as an organ of the Whig party which the fol lowing year elected William Henry Harrison to the presidency. The Journal had a weekly issue until January 3, 1894, when it became a semi-weekly. On July 4, 1844, when the daily was commenced, the "Western" part of the name was dropped. January 3, 1904, the semi-weekly became a tri-weekly, and in three years that had also been dropped to meet the demand brought about by the rural free delivery for daily newspapers on the countryside as well as in the city streets. For sixty-three years there was a weekly, semi- weekly or tr-i-weekly Journal and for sixty-two years The Journal was a party organ, but on January 1, 1906, during the management of Harvey D. Burrill, it became independent, again reflecting the trend of the greatest newspapers in the land. The Journal really had its inception at Onondaga Hill before Syracuse was recognized as anything but a hamlet in a mud hole, for it was at the hill .when it was the county seat that Vivus W. Smith, who had come here with his five brothers from Berkshire, Massachusetts, in 1827, became editor and pub lisher of the Onondaga Journal. When the courthouse went to Syracuse in 1829 The Journal went too. Then Mr. Smith united his paper with the Syra cuse Advertiser, published by John F. Wyman, and the consolidated papers were first issued September 10, 1829, being named the Syracuse Standard, which, after a long and honored career, was merged with the Syracuse Post. 526 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY The division in the Democratic party was the direct cause of the establishment of the Western State Journal in 1839. The Syracuse Daily Journal was the first venture in daily journalism in Syracuse, and Silas F. Smith its editor and publisher. In 1847 he retired, and V. W. Smith,, who had spent several years in Cqlumbus, Ohio, as editor of the Ohio State Journal, came back and resumed connection with The Jour nal. The list of publishers is interesting: 1839, V. W. & S.-F. Smith; 1844, S. E. Smith; 1847, Barnes, Smith & Cooper; 1849, V. W. Smith; 1851, Haight & Terwilliger; 1853, S. Haight & D. Merrick; 1854, Thomas S. Truair; 1855, Smith. & Miles ; 1872, Truair, Smith & Company ; 1874, Truair, Smith & Bruce ; 1884, Smith & Bruce; 1885, The Syracuse Journal Company; 1898, Syracuse Journal Printing & Publishing Company; 1907, Syracuse" Journal Company. For close upon half a century Carroll E. Smith was editor as well as being interested in the ownership of The Journal, the stock company, of which he was principal, being dissolved in 1898. The first sale of the newspaper at that time was to Harvey D. Burrill on April 17, 1898, but an arrangement was later made by which a stock company was formed. The editors of The Journal have been Vivus W. Smith, Edward Cooper, Andrew Shuman, George Terwilliger, Anson G. Chester, Rodney L. Adams, Carroll E. Smith and Harvey D. Burrill. Associates upon the editorial staff, have included Daniel W. Fiske, later of the faculty of Cornell University; Harvey H. Boone, George G. Truair, Dr. Alex ander Wilder, Thomas S. Truair, Dwight H. Bruce, John H. Horton, John Kimberly Mumford and Franklin H. Chase. Three times has The Journal been burned out, but it has never missed an issue. In 1849, in the old Granger block, was the first fire, and the second in the same block in 1864. Located in its own building on East Washington street, afterwards the site of the Nottingham building, The Journal was again completely burned out in the great fire of March 14, 1891. The Journal issued an extra telling of the fire, while its building was still burning, from the Courier presses. Until the new plant could be fitted up in the Robert Good win building at 130 and 132 James street, the Standard offices were used. Early in 1900 . The Journal purchased its present building at 312 and 314 South Warren street, the first issue from that plant being made on June 7, 1900. The Western State Journal was printed upon an old Washington hand press in a brick building next south of the old Syracuse House, which stood on the site of the Onondaga County Savings Bank building- The daily was first published in a frame building on South Salina street, on the site of the U. C. Adams hat store. Then an Adams power press came into use, but still the big wheel had to be turned by hand. The Journal's next move was to the Jerry Rescue block, and then the newspaper went to the Granger block.' In 1846 came the first steam power press. Single, double and then the big quadruple turtle press which went down with the fire of 1891, were put in. An eight-page cylinder press with stereotyping plant followed, only to give way to the Goss straight-line perfecting, which the demands of the business required to be rebuilt with extra decks in 1907, completes the history of presses PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 527 to date, but not of the additions of typesetting and stereotyping machinery to keep pace with the increasing business. The Journal was the first newspaper in the state outside of New York city to establish a local news department. It was a daily newspaper two years before the telegraph came into use. Today there is hardly a process, method or style in newspaper publication which has not been revolutionized, .and The Journal has encompassed this complete cycle and is prepared to make another revolution if the times demand it, for the spirit of its progenitors not only to keep up with the period, but look to ahead of it, has never lagged. In 1908 the president of The Journal Company was Louis Will; vice- president, Charles E. Crouse; secretary and general manager, Harvey D. Bur- ' rill ; treasurer, Inez A. Stilwell, and the other directors, Charles M. Crouse, Alexander T. Brown, T. E. Hancock, Charles B. Everson and Anthony Will. CHAPTER LXI. ENLARGING A CITY'S INSTITUTIONS. It has become a habit of Syracusans interested in the beauties of the city to visit University hill every few months just to note the changes. No single stitution in the city, unless it is the Solvay Process Works, has acquired the expansion habit equal to the Syracuse University under the fostering and gainful care of Chancellor James Roscoe Day, S. T. D., D. C. L., LL. D. Those struggling years just after the inauguration on August 31, 1871, when it was thought so much was being accomplished, have become but puny efforts in comparison with the work done in the past ten years in college founding, building and increase of work. The College of Medicine followed a year after the founding of the College of Fine Arts, with which the institution began, and the College of Fine Arts dates from 1873. Although the latter college was but an experiment / in American education, the success of later years has justified the wisdom of the departure. The College of Law was opened in 1895, the College of Applied Sciences was authorized by the trustees Janu ary 22, 1901, and the Teachers' College June 12, 1906. Upon more than one hundred acres, now laid out in a well defined and beautiful park on the most commanding and beautiful heights of the city, there were but the Hall of Languages and the Charles Demarest Holden Obser vatory in 1887. Since then the transformation has been complete with the John Crouse Memorial College edifice, the gymnasium and Christian Association building, the library building, the Esther Baker Steele Hall of Physics, the Lyman Cornelius Smith College of Applied Science, the Carnegie library, the Hall of Natural History, which bears the name of John Lyman, the mechanical 528 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY laboratory, the Boone Hall of Chemistry, the stadium and the heating plant. Besides these buildings about the university campus, there is the College of Medicine in Orange street, the Teachers' College in the Yates Castle, the gift of Mrs. Russell Sage, and the University block down town, which belongs to the institution. Comprehended in the scheme are Winched Hall, Haven Hall and Sims Hall, three great handsome dormitory buildings. The Hall of Languages is of dressed limestone, four stories, one hundred and eighty by ninety-six feet, and is occupied by some of the departments of the College of Liberal Arts. The Holden Observatory, the second building to be erected, is of rock-faced gray limestone, and equipped with an eight-inch Alvin Clark telescope, a three-inch reversible transit, spectroscope and appa ratus for meteorological observations. The library building stands out mod estly but effectively of limestone and brick with terra cotta trimmings. Until 1908 the building contained the great historical library of Leopold von Ranke, purchased and presented by Mrs. Dr. John M. Reid. Upon the completion of the Carnegie library building the old library building was used for other uni versity purposes. The Carnegie building has a stack room for half a million volumes, besides ample reading and seminar rooms. The John Crouse Memo rial building, the third to be erected, was built and furnished by John Crouse and his son, D. Edgar Crouse. The structure is of Long Meadow red sand stone with granite foundation, one hundred and sixty-two by one hundred and ninety feet, and four stories high. The College of Fine Arts occupies the building. The gymnasium is constructed of brick with limestone trimmings, one hundred and one by.seventy feet. The Esther Baker Steele Hall of Phy sics, erected in 1898, is of Onondaga rock-faced limestone, with red tile roof, one hundred and thirty by seventy feet, and three stories in height. Shops, laboratories, lecture and apparatus rooms are contained in the building. The main building of the Smith College of Applied Science is of Ohio sandstone and Onondaga limestone construction, with shops for metal and wood work, laboratories and lecture rooms. An added gift of Lyman C. Smith is the Me chanical Laboratory, two hundred and fifteen feet in length, to accommodate hydraulics, forges and foundries on the first floor, metal working machines on the second floor and wood machinery on the third. The Hall of Natural His tory is one of the most imposing buildings on the campus. Besides plans for laboratory work, it contains museums with illustration material of the dif ferent departments of natural science accommodated in the building. It was constructed in 1907. The Bowne Hall of Chemistry was the gift of Samuel W. Bowne of New York. It is constructed of hydraulic pressed brick and terra cotta, with interior construction of reinforced concrete. It boasts of one hundred thousand square feet of working space. The stadium, the gift of John D. Archbold, is built upon the ancient amphitheater plan and seats twenty thousand people, besides providing unusual accommodations for college sports and competitive games. The building permit gave a cost of three hundred and fifty thousand dollars, but estimates have placed its cost close to five hundred thousand dollars. This fodowed other gifts of Mr. Archbold, one of the first being of four hundred thousand dollars on January 18, 1901. UNIVERSALIST CHURCH, WEST GENESEE STREET IN EARLY '80s. FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, SYRACUSE. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 529 The libraries of the university contain about seventy thousand bound volumes, with more than twenty-five thousand pamphlets- In the university museums there is much material for illustrating geology, botany, chemistry, archaeology and the other subjects taught. The College of Medicine has a building in Warausja^' street, constructea y purposely for college uses, sixty by one hundred feet in area size, and four stories in height. It is built of brick trimmed with Onondaga limestone. The college is the successor of two once famous medical schools. The first was that of Fairfield, which was incorporated in 1812 and flourished until 1839. When discontinued part of its faculty went to the young Geneva Medical school. In 1872 this celebrated school became the medical department of Syracuse University. The building, opened October 5, 1896, has two large lecture halls and a library of six thousand bound volumes. In the departments of anatomy and pathology there is the fine collection of skeletons, manikins and special models that belonged to the late Dr. John M. Wieting, presented to the college by Mrs. Elizabeth M. Wieting.' Henry D. Didama, M. D., long dean of the college, was upon his death succeeded by Gaylord P. Clark, A. M., M. D., as dean. The death of Dean Clark in 1907 left a vacancy, John L. Heffron, M. D., becoming dean. The College of Law is located in the former handsome home of the Crouses, at East Fayette and South State streets on Fayette Park, which was purchased by the university. The college was decided upon February 19, 1895, and was inaugurated in September, 1895, with a course of two years. In 1898 the course was lengthened to three years. The William C. Ruger Law Library is in the College of Law. James B. Brooks, A. M., D. C. L., has been dean since the inauguration. The decision of the university trustees to build upon the old Remington block property, which it had secured by gift from Eliphalet Remington of Ilion, was reached August 3, 1895. The building fronting upon Vanderbilt Square is one hundred and seven by one hundred and thirty-two feet, of Re naissance architecture, Green & Wicks of Buffalo, being the architects. It is built of light granite, warm grey terra cotta and brick. A. Friederich & Sons, of Rochester, were the builders. The Assembly Hall was designed for the College of Law, but quickly became a popular hall for recitals and lectures. Over the entrance are statues emblematic of Education and Progress, the work of Max Bachmann, sculptor. As a nucleus to a museum in the College of Fine Arts, there has been pro cured, mostly from Europe, several thousand engravings, photographs and chromo-lithographs, illustrating many of the chief historic works in architec ture and painting. The Leavenworth-Wolffe collection of engravings, con taining twelve thousand sheets, is a valuable contribution to the art treasures of the university. The Hill collection of curios and articles of virtue from Japan and China is also very interesting and valuable. To these has been added the collection by loan of Rev. Whiting S. Worden, M. D., '81. George Albert Parker, Mus. D., is the present dean. 530 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY The College of Applied Science was authorized by the trustees on January 22, 1901. It entered its main building in September, 1902, and its new build ings for shops and laboratories in February, 1907- Four year courses are offered in civil, electrical and mechanical engineering. William Kent, A. M., M. E., Sc. D., is the present dean. The latest college is that of the teachers, for which the first step was taken at the midwinter meeting of the trustees on January 16, 1906, and in the uni versity system it takes co-ordinate rank with the College of Medicine, of Law and of Applied Science. Jacob Richard Street, Ph. D., is its first dean. Of the twenty-one trustees at large in 1907, eleven were from Syracuse. They were Hon. Francis Hendricks, Mrs. Eloise Nottingham, Ph. M., Horace S. Wilkinson, Charles M. Warner, Willis B. Burns, Alexander T. Brown, Lyman C. Smith, James M. Gilbert, A. M., Hon. Charles Andrews, LL. D., Donald Dey and Hendrick S. Holden. The alumni trustees from Syracuse were Dr- John L. Heffron, Willis A. Holden, B. S., Wilfred W. Porter, A. B., and Edwin Nottingham, Ph. B. Conference trustees from Syracuse were Rev. R. Dewitt Munger, D. D., George J. Sager, Dean James B. Brooks, D. C. L., Rev. James D. Phelps, D. D., and Rev. Theron Cooper, D. D. John D. Archbold of New York was then president of the board. Frank Smalley, Ph. D., was dean of the first and principal college, that of the Liberal Arts. Chancellor C. N. Sims resigned July 5, 1893, and James R- Day, of New York, was ap pointed chancellor November 15, 1893. Upon January 16, 1894, Dr. Day ac cepted the chancellorship, and was inaugurated June 27, 1894. The United States Government Weather Bureau was established in the Hall of Languages in 1902, the first observation being made on September 19. A weather map with a local forecast, based upon the reports received, is issued daily by the bureau. The permanent endowment of Syracuse University was reported at two million, one hundred and sixty-one thousand, six hundred and fourteen dollars and fifty-eight cents in 1907. The faculty that year numbered two hundred and fifteen. In the library were seventy-one thousand four hundred and twenty- two volumes and twenty-eight thousand four hundred and three pamphlets. There were twenty buildings with the stadium and new gymnasium, the corner stone of which was laid March 24, 1908, in course of erection. The total registration in 1907 was three thousand one hundred and sixty-four, as against three thousand and four in 1906. The stadium, to the people in general, was the most interesting structure upon the campus at the time of its building, being the third in this country. It was erected by the Consolidated Engineering and Construction Company. These figures give some idea of the size: Length on long axis, six hundred and seventy feet; length on short axis, four hundred and seventy-five feet; area covered, six and one-third acres ; normal seating capacity, twenty thou sand; possible seating capacity, forty thousand; excavation, two hundred and fifty thousand cubic yards ; reinforced concrete, twenty thousand cubic yards ; reinforced steel, five hundred tons ; Clinton wire cloth, two hundred end eighty thousand square feet, and galvanized metal lath, two hundred and twenty PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 531 thousand square feet- The stadium was built with the old Greek and Roman structures as models. No more changing history in the city is found than that of the public schools, advanced to meet the demands of a changing period, and brought under the extending and careful supervision of a board of commissioners, reflective of a city's pride in its schools rather than the political patronage. In less than twenty years ten new schools were built, ten schools were erected to replace old schools, substantial additions and alterations were made to twelve schools, and two high schools were added. In 1905 a merit system for the appointment of teachers, removing individual power in the board of edu- ation, was established — an indication in itself that the members of the board were broad and devoted enough to forego personal advantage for the sake of an enduring system. When the high school was built in 1902 upon Billings Park, to accommo date one thousand five hundred pupils, at a cost of three hundred and forty thousand dollars, it was believed that the needs of the city for higher educa tion were amply supplied for several years to come, but the school soon after its occupation in February, 1903, proved the incentive to attendance, and in less than five years it was found necessary to hold afternoon as well as morn ing sessions to accommodate the one thousand seven hundred pupils registered, while still another high school was being built in 1907 and 1908 at a cost of two hundred thousand dollars, upon the North Side, on the old penitentiary lot, which was selected January 4, 1906. The Billings Park site for the South Side high school was chosen June 9, 1899, and the school opened January 29, 1903. .. Governor Higgins signed the bill for the North Side high school June 1, 1905. In the following order have new schools been erected, with their location, capacity and cost: 1890, Delaware, corner Delaware and Geddes streets, five hundred and sixty, twenty-three thousand, two hundred and nine dollars and thirty-seven cents ; 1891, Merrick, corner South and Bellevue avenues, four hundred and forty-eight, fifteen thousand dollars ; 1895, Croton, corner Croton street and Croton court, six hundred and seventy-two, thirty-one thousand four hundred dollars; 1895, Tompkins, Tompkins street, four hundred and forty-eight, nineteen thousand dollars; 1895, Garfield, Butternut, near Griffiths street, four hundred and forty-eight, nineteen thousand dollars; 1898, Lincoln, corner of Vine street and Stuart avenue, four hundred and forty-eight, twenty thousand dollars: 1898, Bellevue Heights, Grant avenue near Roberts avenue, four hundred and forty-eight, twenty thousand dollars; 1898, Sumner, corner Bassett and Haw thorne streets, four hundred and forty-eight, twenty thousand dollars; 1898, Grant, Second North street, between Kirkpatrick and Danforth streets, four hundred and forty-eight, twenty thousand dollars; 1904, Wil liam McKinley, West Newell street, Pleasant avenue and Cannon street, six hundred, fifty two thousand dollars. The new schools replacing old were as follows: 1888, Putnam, corner of South State and Madison streets, eight hundred and ninety-six, forty-nine thousand seven hundred and eighty-three dollars and ninety-eight cents ; 1890, 532 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Brighton, corner South Salina and Colvin streets, six hundred and seventy- two, thirty-one thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars ; 1893, Grace, corner Grace and Massena streets, four hundred and sixty, eighteen thousand nine hundred and five dollars; 1893, Montgomery, Montgomery street, between Jackson and Adams streets, six hundred and seventy-two, twenty-nine thous and nine hundred and sixty-five dollars; 1894, Townsend, corner Townsend and Ash streets, five hundred and sixty, thirty-two thousand dollars; 1895, Clinton, Lodi street between Green and Gertrude streets, six hundred and seventy two, twenty-nine thousand dollars; 1897, Porter, St. Mark's Square, one thousand one hundred and twenty, fifty-seven thousand dollars; 1897, Andrew Jackson, Jackson street between Orange and Almond streets, four hundred and forty-eight, twenty-one thousand six hundred dollars; 1899, Washington Irving, Madison street, between Almond street and Irving avenue, four hundred and forty-eight, twenty-five thousand five hundred and sixty- one dollars; 1902, Gere, Willis avenue near Chemung street, six hundred and seventy-two, fifty thousand dollars; 1908, Salina, on Center street, ninety thousand dollars. Substantial additions to schools were made as follows : 1893 and 1897, Prescott, Willow street, between Townsend and North State streets, two hun dred and seventy-four, thirteen thousand seven hundred and eleven dollars; 1897, Brighton, two hundred and twenty-four, twelve thousand dollars; 1897, Delaware, one hundred and twelve, six thousand dollars ; 1900, Franklin, cor ner Butternut, South Alvord and Peters streets, three hundred and thirty- six, eighteen thousand dollars; 1900, Emma Williard, Adams street near Grape, ninety, three thousand one hundred dollars; 1900, Preparatory, corner East Fayette street and Irving avenue, eighty-three, one thousand five hun dred dollars; 1902, Elmwood, Cortland avenue near Purple street, two hun dred, ten thousand dollars; 1902, Danforth, West Kennedy street, between South Salina street and Midland avenue, two hundred, ten thousand dollars; 1904, Lincoln, four hundred, twenty-eight thousand dollars; 1905, Andrew Jackson, two hundred and twenty-four, fifteen thousand dollars. The old High School at the corner of West Genesee and Wallace streets became the Business High School when the new High School was occupied. The other old schools still occupied are Frazer (1886), corner of Liberty street and Park avenue; Genesee (1883), corner West Genesee and Wallace streets; Jefferson (1849), corner Park and Court streets; Madison (1872) corner Madison street and Walnut avenue; May, (1868), Seneca street between Otisco and Tully; Seymour (1883), Seymour street near West street; Vine, corner Henderson and Winton streets ; Truant, 824 South Salina street ; Onon daga County Orphan Asylum school, East Genesee, and St. Vincent's Orphan Asylum school, Madison street. The public school registration in September, 1907, made a new record. At the High School, Principal Charles F. Harper assumed his position, suc ceeding Prof. William K. Wickes, who took charge of the newly established chair of oratory and literature. The registration at tire Business High School PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 533 at the opening was two hundred and ten, an increase of fifty over the previous year. Upon the opening of the new Court House in 1907, the Board of Edu cation took up rooms in that building. The Board of Education then con sisted of Giles PI. Stilwell, president; Herbert W. Greenland, T. Aaron Levy, Bert W. Moyer, William A. Curtin, M. D., J. Richard Street, Ph. D., and George W. Schilly and Patrick D. Cooney, clerk. The report for 1907 showed thirty-nine schools, five hundred and eleven teachers of whom twenty- seven were men, a registration of twenty thousand four hundred and twenty- seven pupils and an average daily attendance of sixteen thousand three hun dred and ninety-one. In 1908, Commissioners John W. Church, Carl Sutter and Frederick W. Sager succeeded Commissioners Greenland, Curtin and Schilly. The cost" of the schools to the city since 1890, exclusive of permanent funds which go into school buildings, makes an interesting table for study, as follows : 1890 $191,040 1891 , 195,098 1892 210,776 1893 230,373 1894 230,578 .. 1895 230,977 1896 .' 286,196 1897 '. 271,244 1898 314,723 1899 280,530 1900 ' 364,645 1901 340,693 1902 331,394 1903 382,197 1904 416,955 1905 423,139 1906 444,695 1907 463,780 In 1903 the Christian Brothers Academy, a school which had steadily risen by good work and credit won by its students, was incorporated. In 1904 the Solvay High School on the West Woods Road, Solvay, another pro gressive school for higher education was erected at a cost of forty-five thousand dollars. Upon April 8, 1902, St. John's Military school at Manlius was burned, and a new and larger school immediately rebuilt. In 1907 one hundred and forty of the old students returned and there were seventy new students. 534 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Onondaga, outside of the city lines, is now divided into three commis sioner districts. The First District includes Camillus, Clay, Elbridge, Lysan der, Salina and Van Buren. Second District, Geddes, Marcellus, Onondaga, Otisco, Skaneateles, Spafford, Tully and the State school at the Indian Reserva tion. Third District, Cicero, Dewitt, Fabius, Lafayette, Manlius and Pom pey. Many handsome school buildings are found in the county, among them being the Baldwinsville Academy, Jordan High School, Liverpool Union School, Warner High School, Marcellus High School, Onondaga Valley High School, Skaneateles High School, Solvay High School, Tully High School, East Syracuse High School, Jamesville High Schbol, Fayetteville Pligh School and the Manlius High School. From a yearly circulation of thirty-nine thousand eight hundred and twenty-three to one hundred and Sjixty thousand two hundred and twenty- two; from eighteen thousand and sixty-two volumes to seventy-one thousand five hundred and thirty-two, and from an annual maintenance expenditure of three thousand and fifty-eight dollars to thirty-eight thousand four hun dred and eighty-seven dollars, is the history of the growth of the Syracuse Public Library in a score of years, told in brief. The year 1907 marked the semi-centennial of the library, for it was in 1857 that the work was begun of bringing into one room at the City Hall of the various libraries of the ward schools and forming the Central Library. Today, the library has cer tainly one of the most artistic buildings in the city for its home, and each day its admirable capacities for its purpose is being more generally appre ciated. In 1880, when the library was in the old High School building, where it had been moved in 1869, Rev. Ezekiel W. Mundy became librarian and he has remained at his post to the present, his work-results the best encomium and reward for twenty-seven years of effort. The library remained under the direction of the Board of Education until February, 1893, when that body, by reason of the change in the State Library laws, recommended that the library be placed under the supervision of the Board of Regents, and appointed President Giles H. Stilwell of the Board of Education to lay the matter before the Common Council. Charter amendment resulted in the appointment of a Library Commission consisting of Mr. Stilwell, Seckel Bron- ner, James K. McGuire, Nicholas Peters, Jr., and Horace White, Mayor Jacob Amos and Superintendent of Schools A. B. Blodgett being later added by the Board of Regents. This commission first met on August 23, 1893, made the name the Syracuse Central Library and applied to the Regents for a char ter, the grant being made December 13, 1893. Permission was then given to remain in the High School building another year, and the Council turned over books, furniture and funds to the trustees. The old Putnam school building was set aside for library use in 1894, remodeled, and, on July 15, the work of moving the books began. In 1895 J. William Smith went upon the board in place of Horace White, while in 1896, Mr. McGuire, by reason of becoming Mayor, was ex-offieio member of the board and Miss Arria S. Huntington was appointed to the vacancy. In PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 535 1896 Dr. Ely Van De Warker succeeded Mr. Peters. During the winter of 1895 and 1896 the reference department was first opened to readers on Sun day afternoons, with gratifying results, and it was at this period that the local history and genealogical departments began to attract notice as a result of the especial attention given by the library authorities. In 1897 the decision was reached to fit up a reading room for children, a provision which has since been continued with advantage. Hiram 0. Sib ley succeeded Dr. Van De Warker in this year. John J. Cummins came upon the board the following year, and services in this fine work have also been given by Charles E. Stevens, Hiram B. Danziger, Edward K. Butler, Dr. Roderick C. McLennan, George Timmins and Salem Hyde, as trustees, and Mayors Jay B. Kline and Alan C. Fobes, ex-officio members. In March, 1898, a distributing station was opened in the West End and proved an advantageous method in library work. The library was placed in a posi tion of financial safety and independence in 1898 by the enactment of an amendment to the city charter permitting a stated income for the library. Later, branches were established upon the North Side and in Elmwood. It was during Mayor McGuire 's administration that the most eventful thing happened for the public library. Each year Mr. McGuire . wrote to Andrew Carnegie of the needs of a library building until word was received that Mr. Carnegie would give two hundred thousand dollars for the pur pose, .under an agreement that the city would appropriate not less than thirty thousand dollars annually to the support of the building and library. The gift was accepted, James A. Randall was chosen architect, the trus tees gave time and effort to the project, the people bore with patience incon venient quarters in the remodelled Freeman building at Jefferson and Grape streets and in the University Block, and the result is satisfying with a public pride in the Carnegie Library building, that has the genuine promise of being lasting. Additional land was obtained at the Putnam school site by con demnation and the building took four years for erection. The corner stone was laid on September 1, 1902, and on March 23, 1905, the building was opened to the public with appropriate exercises. The total expense for site, building, furnishings, etc., was nearly three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The total shelving capacity is above one hundred and sixty thousand volumes; for newspapers five hundred volumes, and unoccupied space for forty thousand more volumes. In 1905 John D. Barrow of Skaneateles, gave sixty paintings of Onondaga, Central New York, Adirondacks, Lake George and Mohawk river scenes, painted by his own hand, to the library, which were framed and hung at the donor's expense. The Sons of the American Revolution set up in the juvenile room a copy of Dallin's equestrian statue of Paul Revere, the original of which is in the public gardens in Boston. Upon January 15, 1903, Andrew Carnegie gave ten thousand dollars for a library building in Solvay, and to this sum Frederick R. Hazard added a like sum on March 23, 1903. 536 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY The inaugural meeting of citizens for the purpose of establishing the Syra cuse Museum of Fine Arts, was held at May Memorial Church on January 22, 1897, and the movement which there took form resulted in the opening of the city's first museum in a gallery upon the second floor of the Onondaga County Savings Bank building, on November 21, 1900, with Professor George F. Com fort as director. The president in 1907 was Hon. Theodore E. Hancock; vice- president, Salem Hyde, and treasurer, James Barnes. The formation of the Central New York Society of Artists was the direct outcome of the advantage of a fitting gallery in which to hold an exhibition of work. The first exhibition was held in the Museum of Arts in November, 1902, and the second in December, 1905. With the addition of many handsome church edifices in the past few years there has come also the formation of new societies to fill the needs of growing suburbs, and an expanding interest that finds practically all the city churches in their most prosperous periods. The taking down of the handsome old brown stone church of the First Presbyterian Society at Salina and Fayette streets, made necessary by the crumbling effects of time, was a matter of regret to every Syracusan no matter his creed. The building had been so closely linked with the city's history that it seemed as if the city had suffered a distinct loss. Yet the succeeding edifice of the First Presbyterian Society upon the old homestead lot of James J. Belden in West Genesee street, proved such a judicious selection as to location and beautiful result in Gothic architecture, that it was but a transition of the city's pride from the old to the new. The taking down of the spire of the old church to prevent its falling, completed July 30, 1901, left the building so shorn in appearance that the society was prepared for the changes which followed. Upon January 18, 1902, the society accepted the offer of Mr. Belden of his property in West Genesee street, which was undoubtedly the moving cause as to location. The contract was let for the new edifice on November 24, 1903, the corner stone laid October 5, 1904, and in the spring of 1906 the dedication and first ser vices were held. The First M. E. Church had also outgrown its building at West Onon daga and South State streets, and before 1899 was begun the definite plan of a reconstructed property the work of erecting a chapel facing upon East Jefferson street, at a cost of nineteen thousand dollars, being done that year. Services were held in the chapel until the new church, erected at a cost of sixty thousand dollars, was completed. The corner stone was laid July 30, 1903. The South Presbyterian Society was organized on January 18, 1901. The installation took place May 17, 1901, with a congregation of seventy, and the society was soon so flourishing that the work of building one of the hand somest and most artistic church edifices in the city was undertaken. The chapel was completed and dedicated July 7, 1902,. and the building at South Salina and Colvin streets was dedicated April 21, 1907. The edifice cost about eighty thousand dollars. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 537 The corner stone of the Delaware Street Baptist Church, which had been organized March 6, 1889, was laid on June 17, 1897, and the church soon answered the need of that growing section. The Erwin Memorial M. E. Church was dedicated January 2, 1898. On March 15, 1891, the day follow ing the great fire in Syracuse which destroyed many properties, St. James Church in Lock street, was burned. A new location in James street, just east of the old site, was secured and the new church finished in 1892, a beau tiful Gothic doorway at the side entrance being preserved from the old church. On November 22, 1898, the church was. dedicated by Bishop Hun tington as the Church of Our Savior. During the notable pastorate of Rev. Cortland Myers at the First Bap tist Church from 1890 to 1893, the church was enlarged at an expense of nineteen thousand dollars. The Fourth Baptist Church was dedicated Novem ber 7, 1893. In the early autumn of 1887 the Westminister Presbyterian Church at Graves and Douglas streets was completed. The church was incor porated in 1897. The Good Will Congregational Church at Grace and Mas sena streets was dedicated on January 15, 1891, and the Elmwood Presby terian Church was dedicated on March 2, 1894. The South Avenue Congre gational Church building, adjoining Merrick school at Bellevue avenue, was started in November, 1907, the first structure, to be added to at a future date, to cost twelve thousand dollars. The new structure of the East Solvay Methodist Church, costing sixteen thousand dollars, the church having been organized ten years, was dedicated October 6, 1907. The Calvary Baptist Church in East Genesee street, was dedicated January 5, 1908. Many notable celebrations of church anniversaries have taken place,, such as the fortieth of the Plymouth on November 19, 1893 ; the twenty-fifth of the Fourth Presbyterian on February 3, 1895; the tenth of the Good Will on May 5, 1895 ; the seventy-fifth of the First Baptist on February 16, 1896 ; the golden anniversary of the Central Baptist from May 31 to June 3, 1896; the tenth of the Geddes Congregational on November 15, 1896; the Park Presby terian golden jubilee on January 3, 1897; the First Ward Presbyterian dia mond anniversary, January 24, 1897 ; First Baptist Sunday School, seventieth, January 31, 1897; the one hundredth anniversary of Rev. Samuel J. May's birth at May Memorial, October 20, 1897 ; the semi-centennial of the First Reformed, May 15, 1898; the seventy-fifth of the First Presbyterian on October 22, 1899 ; the tenth of the Delaware Street Baptist on March 6, 1899 ; the thirtieth of the University Avenue M. E. on June 8, 1899 ; the thirtieth of the Fourth Presbyterian on January 31, 1900, and the thirtieth of Grace Episcopal on December 9, 1900. At Pompey on August 15, 1904, the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Pere Simon Le Moyne 's coming to Onondaga was celebrated. Twenty years has seen the great work of Bishop Patrick A. Ludden come to fruition. It was in 1887 that Syracuse became the seat of a new diocese, and. the Rt. Rev. Bishop Ludden was chosen to preside over the new see, selecting the Church of St. John the Evangelist as his pro-cathedral and making 538 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY the Rt. Rev. J. S. M. Lynch, D. D., his vicar general and rector of the cathedral, and the Rev. P. F. McEvoy chancellor and secretary. Then the church was enlarged and improved to meet the requirements of these changes. A Cath olic academy, chartered under the Regents, was established at a cost of nearly one hundred thousand dollars. The Sisters of St. Joseph and the Christian Brothers were placed in charge and since then the Christian Brothers have also established a first class commercial college beside the acad emy, which is also chartered. In 1906 the Christian Brothers purchased the William Kirkpatrick homestead in East Willow street, adjoining the hand some academy built at Willow and North State streets, and the old Kirk patrick house was rebuilt and made into still another school building. Rev. Michael Clune succeeded Dr. Lynch as pastor of St. John's. St. Mary's, the second Catholic church in Central New York, which has the costliest church edifice in the city, erected by Rev. James O'Hara at a cost of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, is the present Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception at Montgomery and Jefferson streets, being dedicated as the Cathedral March 13, 1904. Rev. Father 0 'Hara 's untimely death occur red December 7, 1889, he being succeeded by Rev. John Grimes, who made many notable improvements in the church property, including the work which stands where La Concha bath house once stood at the western end of the church, that property being purchased by John Dunfee on October 8, 1902. In 1906 Rev. Father Grimes was made monsignor by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Lud den. Rev. Dr. John F. Mullany took charge of the parish of St. John the Baptist in 1897, and to the brick edifice which cost one hundred and twenty- five thousand dollars, he added much and enlarged the school, chartered by the Regents, besides building two mission churches in the suburbs at a cost of twelve thousand dollars. One of the notable celebrations was that of the Church of the Assumption, which on May 1, 1892, celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary. Two of the most flourishing schools have been built up in connection with this church, the girls' parochial school being completed in 1891, taught by the Sisters of St. Francis, and the church has properties valued at three hundred thousand dollars. Rev. J. J. Kennedy of St. Lucy's, succeeded Dr. Lynch as vicar general, and in 1890 was made monsignor. Monsignor Kennedy died during Holy Week, 1906, to his noble church record being added that of building a great school, St. Lucy's Academy, completed in 1892, and practically freeing the church from debt. Rev. P. F. McAvoy was appointed by Rt. Rev. Bishop Ludden rector of St. Lucy's on May 1, 1906; he was made vicar general of the Diocese of Syracuse on June 14, 1906, and received the title of monsignor on December 17 following. Among the new Catholic churches is the Sacred Heart (Polish) church organized in 1892. At present there is building a new church upon the prop erty adjoining the wooden structure in West Genesee street, which it is expected will be completed in two or three years at a cost of two hundred thousand dollars. It is being built of Gouverneur marble. The ReV. Francis PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY "539 Rusin is in charge, and also has a large parish school taught by the Sisters of St. Francis. The church was dedicated by Bishop Ludden on October 20, 1907. ' From a mission organized in 1891 the St. Vincent de Paul parish has sprung, the church being organized by Rev. William F. Dougherty in 1895. The corner stone of the beautiful new edifice in Vine street was laid by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Ludden on November 10, 1895, the permit being given for a forty-five thousand dollar building, but the property is now valued at close upon one hundred thousand dollars. The church was dedicated upon Novem ber 7, 1897. The Holy Trinity Church was organized in 1890 and in 1891 the building was dedicated. There is a property valued at twenty-five thous and dollars in charge of Rev. John Reuland, with a parish school. Rev. Francis J. Quinn organized the parish of St. Anthony of Padua in 1901, the temporary chapel being dedicated September 15, 1901. St. Peter's (Italian) Church purchased the old church property at Burnet avenue and North State streets for twelve thousand dollars on October 1, 1895, the parish being organ ized that year. One of the latest and most beautiful church edifices to be built is that of St. Cecilia's at Solvay. The parish was organized in the autumn of 1903 by Rev. James F. O'Shea, the corner stone of the new building being laid on September 24, 1905, and the church being dedicated by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Ludden on December 2, 1906, the cost of the building being placed at fifty thousand dollars, and the value of the property at seventy thousand dollars. The Rescue Mission, which has accomplished much in a general religious work, was established September 4, 1887, for the non-churchgoing masses. The first quarters were at 340 East Railroad street, near Mulberry street, in the heart of one of the worst districts of the city. In a short time, about a year, this small hall was outgrown, and then the place was taken at 115 Mulberry street, afterward- changed to South State street, which were still occupied in 1908, with Harlow B. Andrews long its president; A. M. Knickerbocker, secretary; W. J. Park, treasurer, and George Frank, superintendent. In 1888 and 1889 a gospel wagon service was inaugurated. 540 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY CHAPTER LXII. HISTORY AND ITS CELEBRATIONS. Two things contributed materially to the revival of the Onondaga Histori cal Association in 1892 and gave it that life as a public institution and stabil ity in the public interest which assure its continuance so long as mankind shad look to history for profit. These reviving things were the approaching centennial of the creation of Onondaga county and the formation of the. Histor ical Club for the purpose of reviving interest in Onondaga history. With a broad and beneficent charter the Onondaga Historical Association had been organized in 1862. Probably the chief credit for its inception was due to James Noxon, and it was in his office that the first meeting was held on January 16, 1862, to discuss the proposed society, which was along the lines of so many literary societies which existed in the cities of the East about that period. Six days later the formal meeting was held for organization under by-laws which had been drawn, and the first officers elected, Joshua V. H. Clark, the historian of the county, being the first president, with Charles R. Wright recording secretary, James Noxon corresponding secretary, and James S. Leach treasurer. With these officers the following were the first directors : Truman K. Wright, Jonathan Kneeland, John L. Stevens, Nathaniel B. Smith, Edmund B. Griswold, Lyman W. Conkey, Charles 0. Roundy, Homer D'L. Sweet, William Baumgras, Crayton B. Wheeler, John A. Green, Jr., Henry Didama, William Tefft, Jr., Robert Townsend and Samuel N. Holmes. The special act of the Legislature granting a charter which gave power to hold and transfer property with the privilege of exemption from tax, was passed April 29, 1863, and a flourishing period was entered upon with rooms in the old Corinthian Hall block on North Salina street. The succeeding presidents down to 1908 were James Noxon, Amos Westcott, William Kirk patrick, John M. Wieting, Elias W. Leavenworth, William A. Sweet, Alexander H. Davis, Henry D. Didama, Carroll E. Smith and A. Judd Northrup. In 1867 new exhibition rooms for relics were established in the Clinton Block, and in 1871 the collections were transferred to the Wieting Block. For three or four years these rooms were kept up, and then interest lagged, public lec tures and the social and literary features which had been so popular became less frequent, and finally the collections were stored in the Syracuse Savings Bank building and the association fell into obscurity. A social gathering at the home of Mrs. Eliza Lawrence Jones, May 31, 1892, to celebrate her eightieth birth anniversary, resulted in the formation of the Onondaga Historical Club, the interest in which was such as to suggest a union with the Onondaga His torical Association, which had for nearly twenty years kept up its organization by the election or the holding over of its officers. The brief history of the PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 541 Historical Club closed on October 25, 1892, when the board of directors of the Onondaga Historical Association voted to take in the members of the club. In 1893 William Kirkpatrick was elected to the presidency of the associa tion for the second time, and Homer D'L. Sweet, who for twenty-eight years had served as secretary, died on November 16 of that year. Before the close of 1893 the association began to plan for the proper celebration of the cen tennial of Onondaga, which came in 1894. With the substantial profits which arose from the historic tableaux, a great feature of the celebration given under the auspices of the association, steps were taken by the directors to secure quarters for future meetings and a museum. Rooms were taken in the Syra cuse Savings Bank building, the collections were transferred, and on October 2, 1894, the new quarters were thrown open to the members. Then began the period of the association's greatest activity. In 1896 and again in 1898 it was found necessary to enlarge the exhibition rooms until the whole eastern half of the fifth floor of the building was occupied. Upon June 6th, 1895, the anniversary of the celebration day of Onondaga's centennial, was begun the observances of Pioneer Day, annual events signalized by trips of the mem bers to some historic spot. With the society have become associated as active branches, the Botany Club, which had long done valuable work in the study of the botany of Onondaga, the Academy of Science, organized in March, 1896, and the Genealogical Society of Central New York, formed in 1898. In 1897 the historical association took the initiative and carried to a suc cessful conclusion the celebration of the semi-centennial of the incorporation of Syracuse as a city, holding in the Wieting Opera House, from October 12 to 16 inclusive, a series of historic tableaux in which the members of the asso ciation and pupil's of the Syracuse High School took part. Upon the death on May 18, 1900, of William Kirkpatrick, who for thirty-six years had been a director of the association and for four years its president, it was found that he had made the society residuary legatee of his estate, for the purpose of obtaining a fire-proof building to be dedicated to the uses of the association. This legacy brought to the association close upon sixty thousand dollars in money and property, including the Kirkpatrick library. Mrs. Elizabeth G. Kelley of Chicago, a life member of the association and a former resident of this county, was another benefactor of the association, who remembered it in her will, making the society a residuary legatee with four other public insti tutions. "This legacy, provided to be invested and the income used for the purposes of historical work, amounted to about forty-five thousand dollars. Mrs.. Kelley died on September 4, 1904. With the funds from the Kirkpatrick estate the association purchased the handsome building of the Central New York Telephone and Telegraph Com pany at three hundred and eleven Montgomery street, which had grown too small for the rapidly expanding telephone work. This building was recon structed, its five floors being done over for assembly hall, museums, library, Kirkpatrick memorial room and offices, and upon December 14, 1906, was dedi cated, being the first building in Onondaga devoted exclusively to historical 542 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY purposes. Former Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals Charles Andrews gave the dedicatory address, and the association was at that time the recipient from Mrs. Margaret Tredwell Smith of the silver service given Carroll E. Smith by the Associated Press, and of the silver service presented to Joshua Forman upon his return to Syracuse, from the Leavenworth heirs. It was during the presidency of Hon. A. Judd Northrup that the new building was acquired, the other officers at that time being Franklin H. Chase, Recording Secretary; Mrs. L. Leonora Goodrich, Librarian; William James, Corresponding Secretary; Hon. Charles P. Clark, Treasurer; Salem Hyde and Mrs. Frances Cheney Palmer, . Vice-Presidents, and Hon. Charles Andrews, Rev. William M. Beauchamp, John D. Barrow of Skaneateles, Henry R. Cooper, George G. Fryer, Miss Frances P. Gifford, General J. Dean Hawley, Hon. Theo dore E. Hancock, Miss Florence M. Keene, T. Jefferson Leach, Mrs. Ina Bagg Marred, Mrs. Frances W. Marlette, Edward A. Powell, John M. Strong, Hon. Charles L. Stone, Charles W. Snqw and Osgood V. Tracy, Directors. Upon the death of Mr. Clark, Mr. Snow was named treasurer, and Dr. John Van Duyn succeeded Mr. Barrow in the directorship upon Mr. Barrow's death, and Hon. Dwight H. Bruce succeeded Mr. Clark. Besides these officers, the association has had many workers who have given material aid in the preservation of records of the history of the county, many attaining literary prominence. Among those who have done this work in a substantial way are Miss Virginia L. Jones, Louis Dow Scisco, Mrs. Sarah Sumner Teall, Hon. Carroll E. Smith, Patrick H. Agan, Mrs. Mary E. Wieting- Johnson, Major Theodore L. Poole, M. W. Hanchett, Richard R. Slocum, John T. Roberts, Mrs. Fannie M. Hamilton, Miss Mary J. Jackson, Hon. Dwight H. Bruce, Mrs. Mary E. Bagg, George J. Gardner, James L. Bagg, James Geddes, Elias W. Leavenworth, Thomas G. Alvord, William A. Sweet, H. Wadsworth Clark, Hon. Charles E. Fitch, Lewis H. Redfield, Hon. Andrew D. White, Rev. S. R. Calthropy Rev. Albert Cusick, Rev. John F. Mullany, Prof. William H. Mace, Dr. Charles W. Hargitt, Mrs. Louise L. Fitch, Dr. Ernst Held, Mrs. Mar tha Thomson Held, George K. Knapp, Mrs. Mary T. Leavenworth, Mrs. Anna Bagg Halliday, William W. Newman, Prof. Philip F. Schneider, Silas F. Smith, Stanley G. Smith and Rev. Herbert S. Coddington. The most important celebration of an historic event was the county's centennial, celebrated first upon the hundredth anniversary of the day the county was created, March 5, 1894, and then continued during a more propitious season, the week of June 6 following. The year 1894 might properly be called a year of celebrations of historic events, so frequent were the occasions when events were commemorated in city and towns. At sunrise on March 5 a salute of thirty-eight guns, one for each town and ward in the county, was fired by Sergeant Melligan of the Forty-first Separate' Company. At noon, at the same place, there was a salute of a gun for every county in the state, for the State and for the Union, which also was the signal for the ringing of all the bells in the city and the blowing of all whistles for half an hour. At the Wieting Opera House, at 2 o 'clock, under the auspices of the Onondaga Histori- PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 543 cal Association, the exercises were held to commemorate the centennial, attended by citizens of the city and county and delegates from neighboring county historical societies. President William Kirkpatrick of the historical association, welcomed the audience, Bishop F. D. Huntington offered prayer and Hon. Carroll E. Smith was made chairman of the meeting, which was addressed by Thomas G. Alvord, Justice George N. Kennedy, Colonel John M. Strong, Hon. Luke Ranney, Hon. Robert McCarthy, Hon. Frank Hiscoek and Lawrence T. Jones. Upon the program was also an original song, "The Children of Onondaga," with the words by Louise Lawrence Fitch. Upon that same day centennial exercises were held in the public schools. In many of the churches on May 28 historical sermons were given, in response to the request of the historical association. In the towns there were several celebrations held. The town of Onondaga, with its sister towns of Marcellus, Geddes, Camillus and Otisco, held the first on. May 25. There was a parade followed by exercises at the Presbyter ian Church, at which Richard R. Slocum was chairman. Hamlet Worker was president of the day, and the speakers included John T. Roberts, Dr. Wil liam M. Beauchamp, Joel Northrup of Marcellus, Dr. Israel Parsons, Miles T. Frisbie, Mrs. Caroline Bridgeman Clark, Colonel John M. Strong, Fannie A. Parsons, Cyrus D. Avery, R. R. Slocum, Mrs. Elizabeth Snyder Roberts, Robert McCarthy, A. D. Ellis and W. W. Newman. At an overflow meeting at the Methodist Church Rev. B. F. Barker presided, and both Mr. Barker and Mrs. Harriet Hamilton Wilkie presented papers. A loan exhibition of relics in the historic Odd Fellows' Hall was also one of the interesting features. In spite of the rain the towns of Manlius, Pompey and Dewitt had the next centennial celebration upon May 30, 1894, at Manlius. The exercises were held in the Methodist Church, E. U. Scoville being president of the day. The speakers were Rev. Theodore Babcoek, H. K. Edwards and W. W. Van Brock- lin, with the singing of an original song written by Cordelia Young Wil-' lard. The centennial spirit brought out not only an important celebration of Lysander and Van Buren at Baldwinsvide, but, on May 17 and 18, a play called "Ephraim Webster Up to Date," was produced in true carnival spirit. May 30 the public celebration took place in Baldwinsville. After' a month of almost incessant rain, the skies cleared for the great celebration of the entire county on June 6. The city's buildings and parks were generously decorated, business was generally suspended and homes were thrown open to thousands of Onondagans who returned to join in the fitting recognition of the county's birth anniversary. With parade, public meet ings, reminiscence sessions, camp fires, relic exhibitions and historic tableaux the period was commemorated. The day began with a sunrise salute of one hundred guns. At 10 o'clock was held the parade which brought together all military and fraternal organizations, fire departments of the county, relics of the old days and floats which told in tableaux and decorations of the ancient times and their evolution. Colonel Henry N. Burhans was Grand Marshal of 544 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY the parade, in which it was estimated that four thousand people participated, with Colonel John G. Butler as Adjutant and J. Emmett Wells Chief of Staff. The public meeting to tell in song and story of the achievements of Onon daga, and give the prophecy of the future, was held in the State Armory, the largest available auditorium in the city, which proved much too small for all who wished to attend. President William Kirkpatrick of the Onondaga His torical Association, presided, the vice-presidents being the supervisors of the towns and wards. The speakers at the centennial mass meeting were Harriet May Mills, Rev. Irene Earll, George Barrow of Skaneateles, Theodore M. Pome roy of Auburn, Marvin Crouse, William H. Seward of Auburn, Carroll E. Smith and Theodore L. Poole, while original poems were read by Virginia L. Jones and William R. Jillson, and an original song by Annie C. Maltbie was sung by the Centennial Quartette. At the State Armory, on the evening of June 6, was held the Old Set tlers' Camp Fire. Again the capacity of the large auditorium was tested to hear the stories of the past. Thomas G. Alvord was the chairman of the meet ing, and its speakers included Charles E. Fitch, Rev. John F. Mullany, William A. Beach and John S. Kenyon, with an original poem by Colonel Dewitt Sprague of Washington, D. C. Beginning on Thursday evening, June 7, and continuing twice on Friday, twice on Saturday and again on Monday evening, there was held in the Wieting Opera House the remarkable series of tableaux representative of scenes in Onondaga 's history, given under the auspices of the Onondaga Historical Asso- ciation. Mrs. Louise Lawrence Fitch was the general manager and Henry J. Ormsbee the stage manager, the participants ' being drawn from the descendants of the early families, members of the Onondaga Historical Asso ciation, old soldiers and representatives of many societies. The tableaux included the legend of Hiawatha, a Jesuit Mission scene and pioneer salt boiling. The other scenes were in the nature of vivacious acts to which were given truthful and picturesque surroundings. There was an old-fashioned singing school, a quilting party at Onondaga in 1820, the reception of Generat t Lafayette, primary singing class in costume, school scene in Fayetteville m/ 1845 with Grover Cleveland as a boy, the scene of the Jerry Rescue in 185#; the burning of the Wieting in 1856, and the war scenes in two parts, depicting the farewell and return of the troops. Centennial week also had a loan exhibition of historic relics, which was held in the Wieting Block. The Onondaga Historical Association had a bronze medal struck in honor of the centennial, and there were many souvenirs of the event circulated. The week of October 10, 1897, Syracuse celebrated its golden jubilee or fiftieth aniversary as a city. The semi-centennial celebration was opened with a union religious meeting in the new Wieting Opera House, on Sunday even ing, October 10. Rt. Rev. F. D. Huntington presided, and the principal SCENE ON THE OUTLET. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 545 speakers were Rev. S. R. Calthrop, Rabbi Adolph Guttman, Rev. J. E. C. Sawyer and Rev. George B. Spalding, D. D. The semi-centennial ode was read by Rev. James B. Kenyon. The following evening, in the Alhambra, a civic mass meeting was held. William Kirkpatrick was chairman of this meeting, and besides Mr. Kirkpatrick the speakers included former Senator Frank Hiscoek, Hon. Charles E. Fitch Robert McCarthy and Mayor James K. McGuire. Upon Tuesday, October 12, there was a great military, fraternal and civic parade in honor of the city's fiftieth birthday anniversary. The Grand Marshal was William A. Sweet, with Colonel John G. Butler Chief of Staff. The officers of the celebration were James M. Lynch, president; A. Morris Smart, treasurer; N. IT. Chapman, secretary, and H. J. Ormsbee, managing director. A feature of the day was a gigantic flag formed by school children upon a stand in Clinton Square. Beginning upon Tuesday evening and continuing through the week, a series of historic tableaux, giving scenes in the early history of the city and country, were presented at the Wieting Opera House, the programs being varied from night to night, and all under the auspices of the Onondaga His torical Association. The program Tuesday night was as follows: Cham- plain's Expedition in- 1615; Van Schick's Expedition to the Country of the Six Nations in 1779; Governor Clinton's Reception in 1820; the First Trustees of the Village of Syracuse in 1827 ; Donation to Dr. J. Watson Adams ; the Tip pecanoe Ball, and the War Scene. On Wednesday afternoon this program was repeated, and on that evening the following program presented: Mayor Baldwin's Prophecy in 1847; the First Mayor in 1848; Reception to Joshua Forman; the Cobleigh in 1858; Evolution of Syracuse and War Scene. On Thursday night the High School Congress was a valuable assistant in the scenes, which were of the Mayflower or Pilgrims at Plymouth; Benjamin Franklin's Dream; the Signing of the Declaration of Independence; the Mak ing of the American Flag and the Inauguration of Washington. The Tuesday program was repeated on Friday and that for Wednesday on Saturday. There have been several celebrations of lesser note, but of importance when the interest aroused is considered. The salt centennial was observed by the Onondaga Historical Association on June 21, 1897. At Onondaga Val ley on August 10, 1898, a centennial celebration was held. Upon December 14, 1900, the Onondaga Historical Association celebrated the seventy-fifth anni versary of Syracuse, the village having been created in 1825. 546 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY CHAPTER LXIII. SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR AND MANY EVENTS. That the spirit of the fathers needed but an awakening was the sure evi dence of Onondaga's contribution both in lives and service to the brief Span ish-American war, which, in 1898 was the soul-stirring* event, especially for young manhood in Syracuse. It was on February 15 that the blowing up of the Maine aroused every American from the lethargy of mere discussion, principally the members of the Forty-first Separate Company, so long the important State military organization in Syracuse, members of which were among the best known young men of the city. Upon April 13-~w"ar was declared, and before another month had passed the Forty-first company had offered its services to the country, been accepted and was upon its way to Camp Black. Other companies followed and the record of Onondaga is one of willing sacrifice to every demand, and, while the deaths of other Onon- dagans in the regular army had the glory of battle fields in Cuba and the Philippines, there was nevertheless the honor of giving life for the country among those volunteers, so many of whom were the needless victims of fever- stricken camps. It was on April 26, 1898, that the Forty-first company offered its services to the government, and three days later was ordered out, starting for Camp Black at Hempstead, L. I., after a farewell from all Syracuse which was heart felt ¦ and enthusiastic, on May 1, the fateful day when other Syracuse boys were fighting with Dewey in the battle of Manilla Bay. The Forty-first arrived at Camp Black on May 2, and was designated as Company C, Third New York Volunteers. In camp Company C was honored with more special details than any other company, and to the Third Regiment fell more special details than any other division, standing high in the estimation of General Davis, whose division it was. The Forty-first was the company under Cap tain John G. Butler, the veteran of the Civil War, hale and hearty at sixty-five, leading with the spring and agility of nearly forty years before. Captain Butler served until the mustering out of the regiment on November 30, 1898. Frank J. Miller was the First Lieutenant during the same period, his subse quent service being First Lieutenant in the Forty-first Regiment, United States Volunteer Infantry. From May 1 to June 20 James B. Mitchell was Second Lieutenant, when he became First Lieutenant and Battalion Adjutant, and on July 24 he was discharged to accept the appointment as Second Lieutenant of the Fourth Artillery. Harry C. Pierce succeeded Lieutenant Mitchell. ^ The departure of the Forty-first seemed but the needed signal for the others. The recruiting of the One Hundred and Forty-first Separate Company began in five days, on May, 5, and on May 21 was mustered into service. The PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 547 officers of the Two Hundred and Third Regiment arrived here preparatory to recruiting that regiment on July 6, and Company A of the Two Hundred and Third left for Camp Black on July 15, the recruiting for the Two Hundred and Third being finished on July 21. Under the provisions of the general orders of June 27 two battalions of the regiment were organized at the Armory of the Forty-first company here, and one battalion in New York. The regi ment left Camp Black September 11, and arrived at Camp Meade, near Middle- town, Pa., the next morning. On October 2 the camp was moved to Cone- wago, Pa., November 11 the regiment left camp and embarked for Greenville, S. C, established camp near that place, calling it Camp' Witherill, and remained there until mustered out on March 25, 1899. The Syracusans included John B. Tuck, Captain, Company A; George L. Baldwin, First Lieutenant, Company A, and Alexander D. Jenney, Company A. On December 13 Lieutenant Baldwin became Captain of Company F, and on October 27 Alexander D. Jenney was made First Lieutenant of Company G. George N. Cheney was Captain of Com pany L, with Austin J. McMahon Second Lieutenant. Events which followed the departure of the Forty-first sounded the war note closer at home. On June 26, 1898, Trooper Gustave A. Kolbe, Troop K, First Cavalry, was killed in the battle of Las Guasimas, and then Syracusans were sent after his body, a committee being named on July 26 to make arrange ments for a public funeral in this city. Trooper Kolbe 's body was received here on August 26 and on August 28 was held one of the largest military fun erals ever seen in the city, this event with the reception in September of the home-coming Forty-first being the principal local events during the war. The mortuary list was a long and sad one, considering the brevity of the war, from April 12 until the signing of the treaty on August 12. Private Andrew Thornton, Company B, Ninth Infantry, died in the theater in San tiago, July 29. Private John J. Kurtz, Company C, Third New York, died at Fort Myer, Virginia, August 9. Private John Barnum, Seventy-first New York Volunteers, died at Camp Wickoff, Montauk Point, August 17, and Lucius C. Barry at Fort Myer September 1. Upon September 4 were held the funer als of Barry of Company C, Fred C. Thomas, Company D, Third New York, and Joseph P. Greminger, Ninth United States Infantry. Sergeant J. Edward Durston, Company A, Two Hundred and Third. New York Volunteers, died on September 17, and two days later occurred the death of Sergeant Major Clarence E. Brayton of the Third New York, striking sadness to many hearts as he was one of the most popular of the city's younger social set. On Sep tember 23, Frank N. Parker, Company I, Two Hundred and Third, died at Camp Black, and the deaths of Privates Adelbert C. Nellis and John R. Plumpton, Company E, Two Hundred and Third, followed on October 17 and 20 respectively. On January 2 Daniel F. Roonan of the Two Hundred and Third, died of pneumonia at Camp Witherill. Upon September 3 the Third New York Volunteers was ordered to be mustered out. The regiment had been slated to go to the Philippines and also to reinforce General Miles in Porto Rico, but interference was said to have 548 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY altered both plans. The Third left Camp Meade on September 12, and on the 13th the Forty-first Separate Company, or Company C, was welcomed by more than twenty thousand Syracusans as the first home. Both uni formed civic and military organizations joined in the parade, and Mayor James K. McGuire made a short speech of welcome. In the evening the women of the many organizations which had done such efficient work in the making of "comfort bags" for the boys in camp and soldiers in Cuba, gave a banquet at the armory in honor of the returned company. Many individual members had achieved honors, however, during the brief period. James Brady Mitchell, who went out as second lieutenant of the com pany, after work as engineer on the staff of General Davis, tried the examina tions for a lieutenancy in the regular army and ranked second in the list of civil appointees. John C. Melligan, who left as quartermaster sergeant, was promoted to a second lieutenancy in the Two Hundred and Second regiment and went to Camp Meade, and on January 11, 1899, was made captain of Com pany C, Two Hundred and First New York Volunteers. Clarence E. Bray- ton was appointed sergeant-mayor and won many praises. John Shaefer acted as regimental quartermaster-sergeant with soldierly ability. Dr. H. C. Baum left with the Forty-first as a private, and became surgeon of the Second Regiment, New York Volunteers. Other men from the Forty-first were appointed on the hospital corps and the assignments all went to show the calibre of the men who volunteered. On November 30, Company C of the Third New York was formally mustered out of service. General Shaffer was in Syracuse on September 23, 1898, for a brief stop. It was on November 5 that the Two Hundred and Third was designated as one of the regiments to go to Havana with the army of occupation, and on the 16th arrived at Greenville, South Carolina. Fred W. Field received his pro motion to a second lieutenancy in the Two Hundred and Third on December 1. Changes of plans came swiftly in those days, and on February 20, 1899, the Two Hundred and First, Two Hundred and Second and Two Hundred and Third regiments were ordered to be mustered out. The Two Hundred and Third boys were welcomed home on March 27 following. Election day, 1898, came when many of the soldiers were in camp and provision was made for the taking of their votes in camp. On December 13 the package of votes of the Syracusans was received here and opened. Decem ber 20 the One Hundred and Forty-first company was ordered mustered out. In almost every important battle of the Spanish-American war there were Syracusans engaged, and in the fight at Manilla on March 25, 1899, it was found from the lists that no less than fifteen Syracusans fought with, the reg ular army. On January 31, 1899, Syracusans and the relatives of Syracusans who took a conspicuous part in the Spanish-American war, were honored by President McKinley, Harvey W. Miller being the recipient of especial honors by the President on February 3. Captain Andrew Kretschner was the first PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 549 Syracusan to receive a pension because of disabilities on March 31, 1899. On July 3, 1902, the Ninth Infantry reached Syracuse from the Philippines and was royally received. Among the many important military items since the Spanish-American war were the mustering of Troop D into the National Guard on April 26, 1904, giving Syracuse a mounted company, and the election of Colonel Henry N. Bur hans as Department Commander of the G. A. R., on June 16, 1904. During the rebuilding of the State Armory, the old Court House building was occu pied for militia purposes. Among the many famous visitors here in campaign addresses, have been Colonel Theodore Roosevelt on October 27, 1898, and David B. Hill on Novem ber 4, 1898. Sir Edwin Arnold lectured at Plymouth Church on November 17, 1891, and Edward Everett Hale at the same place on April 11, 1892. Wil liam J. Bryan came here August 26, 1896. Alexander Guilmant of Paris, the famous organist and composer, was heard in a concert at St. Mary's church on January 16, 1898. In 1902 the city entertained two distinguished foreign guests. Upon March 5 the brief stop of Prince Henry of Battenberg was made the occasion of a fete and reception, a special medal being struck off to present to the visitor. Upon one side was the seal of the city, and upon the reverse the following : "Presented to His Royal Highness, Prince Henry of Prussia, with the Free dom of the City: Syracuse, N. Y., U. S. A., March 5th, 1902." Copies of this medal were given members of the committee of reception. Admiral Evans of the United States Navy- accompanied the foreign visitor. A longer visit was that of the Crown Prince of Siam, who was the guest of Lyman C. Smith on November 3. The Chamber of Commerce in April and May, 1906, became the movers for a fund for relief at San Francisco of suffering caused by earthquake and fire, and Treasurer James M. Gilbert of the fund sent on seventeen thousand eighty-one dollars and thirty-seven cents raised here. In July, 1907, occurred the break in the canal when the water of the city level ran out into the creek through the acqueduct bottom, and the canal was tied up for months, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage and loss by the cessation of canal traffic. The largest estate ever administered in Onondaga was that of D. Edgar Crouse, estimated at four million dollars. When the will was offered for probate on February 1, 1893, contest was offered by Eulalia Kosterlitz, for Dorothea Edgarita Crouse, as the daughter of the descendant, finally resulting in a compromise by which half of the residuary estate was taken for the child and the remainder by the cousins as next heirs. The conclusion of the litigation was reached February 23, 1895, and the final distribution made April 30, 1896. In the courts, an important trial of 1895 was the suit of the Onondaga County Savings Bank to compel James Butler, Sr., County Clerk, to make a search under the law of 1892, which made the County Clerk's office a salaried 550 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY office. The argument in the February, 1895, special term, resulted in a vic tory for Mr. Butler. The General Term affirmed the judgment, but the Court of Appeals reversed both the lower courts, and Mr. Butler thus became the first salaried clerk under the new law, the office having been theretofore under the fee system. The General Term was succeeded by the Appellate Division in 1896, the last session of the General Term being held here on December 26, 1895. Upon January 1, 1893, the Municipal Court was established with Judges William G. Cady and Patrick J. Ryan, the present incumbents, as the first judges. The court had its first quarters in the Clinton Block, diagonally opposite the old Court House, was removed to the Nottingham building in Washington street, thence to the Kirk Block, and into the new Court House upon its completion, January 1, 1907. The chapter of recent crime and criminal trials in Onondaga county has been short but sensational. Probably no crime in the history of the county stirred more deeply than the deliberate murder of Detective James Harvey in Water street, less than a block to the west of the police station, upon the morning of July 31, 1893. Detective Harvey had arrested Lucius and Charles Wilson, notorious Western thieves and hold-up men, although this was not known at the time, and was taking them to the station, when the men broke away, Lucius leveling a large revolver across his arm and shooting Harvey in the head. A thrilling chase of Lucius resulted in his capture in North State street, and he paid the death penalty in the electrocution chamber at Auburn prison on May 14, 1894, his last words being that the man held in prison upon the charge of complicity in the murder was innocent. That man was Charles Wilson, Lucius ' brother, who had been captured within a few weeks after the murder. Charles Wilson was convicted of murder in the second degree on September 23, 1894, and sentenced to Auburn Prison for life. Upon the night of April 7, 1891, Antonio Glielmi shot Nicola Devita, through jealousy. The murder occurred on Clinton Square, then used as a public market, where Glielmi kept a peanut stand. Glielmi was sent to prison for life. George Cottle of Skaneateles Junction, who had befriended Thomas O'Donnell, a tramp, was shot on the night of November 23, 1892. O'Donnell was convicted of murder in the second degree and sent to prison for life. Another sensational trial for murder, because it involved a suicide pact, was that of Ernest Hecht, who was found upon May 25, 1900, beside the body of Louise Foster, in a block in East Genesee street, unable to carry out his part of the agreement. The trial resulted in an acquittal. Upon Decem ber 5, 1904, Frederick Mason was tried for the murder of his father-in-law, con victed of a lesser degree, and sentenced to Auburn Prison for twenty years. Probably the wildest and most daring of crimes in Onondaga was Oliver Curtis Perry's attempted robbery of a New York Central train on February 21, 1892. Upon May 19 following he was sentenced to Auburn Prison for forty-nine years. Later he was declared insane and transferred to the Mattea- wan prison for the criminal insane. Another daring crime of the hold-up PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 551 class was the robbery of three thousand dollars from the Solvay Process Com pany's paymaster upon the Split Rock highway, on May 13, 1892. For a long time there was a mystery as to the highwaymen, but good work in the Sheriff's office ran down Frank and Albert Mackinder for the crime, and they were each sentenced to fourteen years in prison on December 15, 1892. Robert Fitzsimmons, at that time champion prize fighter of the world, was charged with manslaughter in the first degree in killing Cornelius Riordan in a glove contest at the Grand Opera House, November 16, 1894. The trial took place in the Court of Sessions in May, 1895, and resulted in an acquittal. Marcus Marks, alias Charles D. Bennett, charged with grand larceny in steal ing a tray containing two thousand dollars worth of diamonds from Becker & Lathrop, furnished another sensational trial, which took place in the August Sessions in 1895, resulting in a disagreement of the jury. Syracuse, which produced Michael Dorgan, one of the best base ball players in the old National League, has had many ups and down in base ball as well as other sporting history. The team of 1876 was the most famous when Doran caught Henry McCormick, the defeat of the Chicagoes, 2 to 0, giving the nine a great reputation, followed by the famous errorless game with the St. Louis Browns. In 1878 and 1879 Dorgan again played with Syracuse. Games were played successively at Lakeside Park, Newell Park in South Salina street, Star Park, Athletic Field and lastly at the new Star Park near the old Iron Pier. Two popular old athletic clubs were the Cycling and Athletic Clubs, con solidated under the name of the Syracuse Athletic Association August 18, 1892. The Dunfee building in Jefferson street, between Salina and Warren streets, was built especially for this club and athletic purposes, and the rooms opened to the public on March 11, 1896. Upon the death of D. Edgar Crouse his hand some stables passed into the hands of Charles M. Warner, and in 1899, when Frederick R. Hazard was president of the Syracuse Athletic Association, the club began its occupation of that building, maintaining the quarters until the dissolution of the club a few years later. In boxing the city obtained some prestige by several bouts, such as the Ryan-McCoy affair at the Alhambra on September 8, 1897. In one affair at Maple Bay on April 4, 1893, Dan Donovan of Cleveland, was killed by a blow struck in a fistic contest. The first automobile to be owned in Syracuse was that of T. D. Wilkin, which arrived on April 15, 1899. A trotting and pacing racing revival began in 1897, when the Central New York Horse Racing Circuit was formed on May 18. On June 26, 1897, the Kirk- wood Racing Association was incorporated, and on June 24, 1898, the Kirk Park Racing Association. Kirk Park was used for desultory meetings until the destruction of the grand stands. With the increased interest in the State Fair and the arrangement of the second week in September for the fair, the Grand Circuit became a regular feature. The prominence of Syracuse University in athletics in recent years has added materially to the interest of the city in base ball, foot ball, rowing and 552 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY other sports. It was on June 28, 1904, that the University made its two great wins in the shell races at Poughkeepsie, and the crews' return the following day was made the occasion for a great reception. The Anglers' Association of Onondaga, to protect and preserve the game fish of the county, was organized in the spring of 1890, chiefly through the efforts of John N. Babcoek. On February 10, the first meeting of prominent fishermen and sportsmen was called at the Globe Hotel, and there the associa tion began. The first consignment of fry for the waters of Onondaga was received April 30, 1896, and during the time the association has been engaged in the work a grand total of nearly twenty-two million of fish, including fry, fin- gerlings, yearlings and adults have been planted here. Of this number about twenty-one million five hundred thousand were food fish and five hundred thousand game fish. The association was incorporated in 1903. In 1908, when Dr. F. S. Honsinger was president, the plans were made for the building of a club house at South Bay. CHAPTER LXIV. POLITICS AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT. No history of recent politcs in Onondaga could begin anywhere else than with the famous transposed ballots case, at once the most far-reaching event in State politics for a score of years, for it furnished the argumentative theme in the following State election and was credited with many changes in party power throughout the state. It was concededly an accident by which the Republican ballots for several districts in two towns were changed or trans posed. The election law with the blanket ballot was new and filled with possi bilities to the lawyer mind looking for a test case. David B. Hill was Gov ernor and the Legislature was considered a close fight for supremacy between the principal parties. The Onondaga Board of Supervisors was more evenly divided in regard to party power than it had been before in many years or has been since. Acting as a board of canvassers the question came up before the board as to whether or not the transposed ballots should be counted. The Senator of the Onondaga-Cortland district, one Assemblyman and the office of Sheriff depended upon the result of that count. The ballots were assailed upon the theory that the transportation brought the title of another district upon the outside of the folded ballot making it possible to distinguish each ballot when cast, therefore destroying the secrecy of the ballot and constituting a marked ballot. The hold-up in the board of canvassers while the matter was being argued or politically "jockeyed" by both parties to the controversy, resulted in man damus proceedings being started on November 17, 1891, by Rufus T. Peck, the PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 553 Republican candidate for Senator. This brought the matter into court, and then began a case which in forty-two days went before many judges and ended in the Court of Appeals. Justice George N. Kennedy was the one before whom the writ of mandamus was returnable, the most sensational proceed ings before him being the holding of a Democratic Supervisor guilty of con tempt of court, only to have a pardon issue from Governor Hill in less than twenty-four hours. Upon December 1 Justice Morgan J. O'Brien was sent here to hold the term of the Supreme Court, and the cases being affirmed pro forma in the general term, were submitted to the Court of Appeals, which rendered a decision with a divided court giving certificates of election to John A. Nichols and P. J. Ryan, Democrats, on December 31, thus holding the trans posed ballots void. Upon January 25, 1892, Philip S. Ryder, the Democratic candidate for Sheriff, began proceedings to oust John A. Hoxsie from the office, again bringing up the question of the legality of the transposed ballots. An extraordinary term of the Supreme Court was convened to try the case, but a settlement being reached upon August 1, 1892, between the incumbent and aspirant, the trial was never heard. Many events outside of the annual and perennial contests of factions in both parties, are of historic importance as marking epochs in local changes. In 1891 was held the Judicial Convention at which Justice Maurice L. Wright of Oswego was nominated on the one hundred and thirty-sixth ballot on October 2. The wing of the Democratic party calling itself Simplicity Democrats cele brated the anniversary of the birth of Thomas Jefferson, for the first time here, by a banquet at Congress Hall on April 13, 1892. Carroll E. Smith was the first presidential postmaster in New York State to be removed by President Cleveland for "offensive partisanship." This was upon May 23, 1893, when Mr. Smith was editor of The Journal, the principal Republican organ at that time. His successor as postmaster was Milton H. Northrup, editor of the Courier, the principal Democratic organ. What was called the gerrymander of the city wards by the Democrats at Albany, went into effect January 1, 1893, when Syracuse wards were increased from fourteen to nineteen in num ber. In February, 1894, the city elections then taking place in the late win ter, there was a Republican faction fight which achieved unusual propor tions and stirred deeply party politics. There was a registration of twenty- two thousand five hundred and fifty-one, several mass meetings were held and questions of the regularity of the so-called Beldenites, then in control, were raised. There was a contest and bolting convention on February 7, and Jacob Amos was nominated upon a Republican Independent ticket, as it was termed, being.elected by a plurality of two hundred and twenty-eight. In that same year, 1894, the Republican faction fights reached another climax when the Onondaga caucus contest took place, force being used to gain the building where the caucus was held on August 24. The later '90s saw the practical disappearance of Republican faction differences. 554 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Under the state census of 1905 Onondaga lost one assemblyman in the Legislature, the county being reduced from four to three districts. The re appointment was made on May 23, 1906, by the board of supervisors, and the districts were thus made up : First Assembly District — First, Second, Third and Ninth wards, Camillus, Cicero, Clay, Elbridge, Geddes, Lysander, Marcellus, Salina, Skaneateles, Otis co, Spafford and Van Buren. Aggregate population, fifty-six thousand five hun dred and nine citizens. Second Assembly District— Tenth, Eleventh, Twelfth, Thirteenth, Four teenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth wards, Fabius, Lafayette, Onondaga, Tully. Aggregate, fifty-six thousand, and twenty-nine. Third Assembly District— Fourth. Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Fif teenth, Sixteenth and Seventeenth wards, De Witt, Manlius and Pompey. Aggregate, fifty-six thousand, three hundred and forty-two. The growing up of a system by which the victors had the spoils in the shape of committee holdings with per diem charges that brought some super visors' salaries much more than others probably did more than anything else to change the law as to salaries of supervisors from two hundred to five hun dred dollars in 1906. At the same time there was a general renovation and modernization of the supervisors' law and a change from annual to monthly meetings. The change in salary did not take effect until January, 1908, but the holding of monthly meetings began in April, 1906. In order that business might not wait and accumulate, and bills be met promptly, the county being given the benefit of. the profits of quick payment, the change was made. With the change the clerk became disbursing agent, the office being kept open the year round, with commensurate increase in the clerk's salary. Also the Legislature of 1906 created the office of County Purchasing Agent and Frank X. Wood of Onondaga was the first incumbent, being ap pointed March 5, 1906. Syracuse was created a port of delivery by an act of Congress on May 18, 1896. President Cleveland signed the commission making John F. Nash the first surveyor of customs on June 6, and Mr. Nash entered upon his duties at once. Edward McLaughlin was chosen deputy, and the United States Treasury Department sent to this city Benjamin L. Peer, an expert, to instruct in the organization of the office and the details of delivering goods. The Solvay Process Company received the first consignment, a shipment of machin ery, through the local office. In five months the office was ranked as the eleventh among the twenty-three internal ports of the country. Frederick A. Kuntzsch succeeded Surveyor Nash, and was appointed for a second term, but died in 1897, before his second term had expired. Ernest I. Edgcomb was named to fill out the unexpired term. Prior to 1902 and from the beginning of the operation of the transfer tax law, inheritances were assessed by appraisers appointed by the surrogate for PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 555 each case. Upon January 1, 1902, the change was made in the law which gave Onondaga an appraiser for all cases. January 9, George IT. Bond was ap pointed the first appraiser, being succeeded upon a change in the political com plexion of the state comptroller's office by Willard A. Glen in January, 1907. In 1897 the law establishing a commissioner of jurors for Onondaga, in the hope of bringing in a better class of jurors to the courts, was enacted, and on April 26 Salem Hyde was named the first commissioner of jurors. He was succeeded by Augustus T. Armstrong, the present incumbent. The law increasing the number of wards from eight to eleven took effect on the third Tuesday in February, 1887. The change to fourteen wards was made on January 1, 1891, and the city took on its nineteen wards January 1, 1893. In the registry of 1907 the thirty thousand voters mark was passed for the first time in the history of the city. In 1904, presidential year, the registry was twenty-nine thousand five hundred and twenty-two; in 1905, twenty- eight thousand two hundred and fifty-five, and in 1906, twenty-nine thousand two hundred and fifty-two. Governor Frank S. Black signed the White charter for second-class cities on April 1, 1898. In fifty years Syracuse has had twenty-three Republican and seventeen Democratic mayors, and the pluralities accredited by official records and his tories are as follows: 1857— C. F. Williston, D 350 1858— William Winton, D 191 1859— E. W. Leavenworth, R 600 1860— Amos Westcott, R 200 1861— Charles Andrews, R 300 1863— D. Bookstaver, D 200 1864— A. C. Powell, R 30 1865— W. D. Steward D 100 1866— W. D. Stewart, D 100 1867— W. D. Stewa£$7D 239 1868— Charles Andrews, R 127 1869— Charles P. Clark, R 1870— Charles P. Clark, R 350 1871— Francis E. Carroll, D 250 1872— Francis E. Carroll,. D 191 1873— W. J. Wallace, R 300 1874— Nathan F. Graves, D 381 1875— George P. Hier, R 479 1876— J. J. Crouse, R 122 1877— J. J. Belden, R i.745 1878— J. J. Belden, R. .' 2>923 1879— Irving G. Vann, R 870 1880 — Francis Hendricks, R 1>782 556 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 1881 — Francis Hendricks, R 1,783 1882 — John Demong, D 69 1883— Thomas Ryan, D 86 1884— Thomas Ryan, D 1,703 1885— Thomas Ryan, D 119 1886— Willis B. Burns, R 1,912 1888— William B. Kirk, D 733 1890— William Cowie, R 803 1892— Jacob Amos, R 1,219 1894— Jacob Amos, R 223 1895— James K. McGuire, D 3,166 1897— James K. McGuire, D 1,223 1899— James K. McGuire, D 2,121 1901— Jay B. Kline, R '. 1,418 • 1903— Alan C. Fobes, R 2,300 1905— Alan C. Fobes, R 6,006 1907— Alan C. Fobes, R 2;326 It was on April 30, 1902, that the new city hall was opened to the public, and to January 1, 1908, there had been eight administrations in control of city affairs in the building, which was outgrown within a short time after its occu pation, but only four mayors. The history of this last city hall building dates back to Mayor Thomas Ryan's first administration in 1883, when competitive plans for a municipal building were submitted by local architects, but public sentiment was opposed and the idea dropped. In February, 1888, Mayor William B. Kirk, in his inaugural address, advocated a new building and Senator Francis Hendricks took the matter up at Albany, the Legislature, that year passing the bill for a new city hall and central police station. The non-partisan city hall commission appointed by Mayor Kirk consisted of Henry J. Mowry, August Falker, Erastus F. Holden and John Dunn, Jr., to serve until the completion of the building without compensation, the mayor to be chairman ex-officio. For site and construction three hundred thousand dollars was appropriated. The size of the appropriation influenced the se lection of the site of the old building, and in June, 1888, the commission chose Charles E. Colton as architect. The building, two hundred and four by seventy-eight feet, with the two departments separated by a heavy fire wall, and with a tower one hundred and sixty-five feet in height, was let by contract to the Hughes Brothers in the spring of 1889, for two hundred and eighty-eight thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars, work being begun in the fall of that year. In 1890 Mayor Kirk was succeeded by Mayor William Cowie, and Hendrick S. Holden succeeded his father upon the commission. The entire building was finished within the appropriation. The amount allowed for fur niture by the common council of 1892 was twenty thousand dollars. The tax rate of Syracuse for 1906 was seventeen dollars thirty-seven and eight-tenths cents upon each one thousand dollars, the average for five years PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 557 being slightly more than that figure, seventeen dollars fifty-six and eight- tenths cents. In 1907 the rate was determined at seventeen dollars and four cents, and there was an increase in realty valuations for the year of three million two hundred and sixty-nine thousand one hundred and twenty-nine dollars, making the aggregate realty valuation for the city for 1907 eighty- four million fifty-six thousand two hundred and eighty dollars. Personal assessments for the year were placed at four million four hundred and sixty- six thousand two hundred and eighty dollars, and the franchise valuation at six million seventy-nine thousand seven hundred and twenty-five dollars. This made the city's total assessed valuation ninety-four million six hundred and two thousand three hundred and twenty-nine dollars. The franchise valuations were placed in these wards : Eighth, two million five hundred and ten thousand dollars; Fourteenth, four million seven hundred and forty-one thousand and twenty-five dollars; Fifteenth, one million eighty-seven thous and two hundred dollars. The complete assessed valuation by wards was as follows : Real. Personal. Aggregate. 1 $2 260 175 $ 91 975 $2 352 150 2 1 793 850 52 225 1 851 070 3 2 052 145 24 950 2 077 095 4 2 996 775 136 975 3 133 750 5 3 604 060 292 100 3 896 160 6 4 032 805 185 625 4 218 430 7 2 791 310 135 650 2 926 960 8 6 381 175 577 600 7 210 275 9 1 550 270 82 850 1 633 120 10 ¦ 3 190 350 363 000 3 553 350 11 3 448 284 181 250 3 629 534 12 5 308 000 219 650 5 525 650 13 3 966 000 53 555 4 019 555 14 20 008 015 1 483 775 26 232 815 15 4 310 000 93 700 5 490 900 16 3 696 450 81 850 3 778 300 17 4 942 855 220 725 5 163 580 18 2 803 890 66 850 2 870 740 19 4 921 915 116 975 5 058 890 558 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY The city tax budget for twenty-one years is as follows : 1887 $ 525 000 1888 537 000 1889 813 000 1890 722 000 1891 747 500 1892 763 500 1893 .- 820 000 1894 884 000 1895 957,000 1896 1,064,000 1897 1,085,000 1898 1,245,200 1899 1,238,994 1900 1,752,509 1901 1,855,245 1902 1,552,701 ' 1903 1,379,202 1904 1,642,387 1905 1,504,086 1906 1,579,667 1907 1,611,750 The police department has been progressive without being obtrusive except to that element which makes such a department necessary. The things which count most today in police administration are all comparatively recent products. Changes in responsibility, methods of protection as well as detection, and the keeping to a higher standard of service are all recent notes of history. A police patrol wagon dates back to the summer of 1885, an automobile patrol went into service in 1906, the police elec tric alarm system was introduced in May, 1890, at a cost of twelve thousand four hundred and fifty dollars, and the police pension bill took effect Jan uary 1, 1893. The change to the White charter which went into effect January 1, 1900, abolished the old Board of Police Commissioners and the department came under the control of a Commissioner of Public Safety, the first Commissioner being Duncan W. Peck. Charles Listman became Com missioner in the succeeding administration, and under him the three-squad system was established, the patrolmen being assigned to regular beats. Dur ing Mayor Jay B. Kline's administration, 1902-1903, Captain Thomas W. Quig- ley acted as Chief of Detectives, and Chief of Police Charles R. Wright, who had held office since May 3, 1882, lost some of his former powers in the department. At the beginning of Mayor Alan C. Fobes' administration in 1904, there was a "shake-up" in the department. Ralph S. Bowen became Commissioner of Public Safety, -Chief Wright was given charge of the work ings of the department, Captain Quigley was assigned to duty as captain PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 559 of the night watch, and Detective William O'Brien was placed in charge of the Detective Bureau, with Lieutenant Charles Fessenmeyer as prosecuting officer. In 1904 the requirement went into effect for members of the police force to attend gymnasium, and Charles H. McCormick was appointed gym nasium instructor. Chief Wright was retired upon a pension of half his former salary by a bill signed by the Governor on June 2, 1905. Two days later the actual retirement took place, Chief Wright being succeeded by Martin L. Cadin. On January 1, 1908, Harlow W. Clark became Commis sioner of Public Safety, Commissioner Bowen retiring because of the demands of his personal business. The total arraignments in Police Court in 1907 were four thousand eight hundred and forty-three and the receipts from fines three thousand and fifty-three dollars. Police Department expenditures since 1890, exclusive of the Police Court, and since 1900 of the Department of Public Safety, are as follows: 1890 $ 67,000 1891 74,000 1892 84,500 1893 85,000 1894 85,000 1895 83,000 1896 83,000 1897 90,000 1898 90,000 1899 84,500 1900 142,940 1901 138,290 1902 142,330 1903 140,900 1904 149,270 1905 149,330 1906 152,320 1907 162,730 In seventeen years the cost of running the Fire Department for a year was practically multiplied by three, an indication in itself of the growing belief in fire protection. This was not a sudden growth by reason, say, of the big fire of 1891, or an aggravated loss because of a series of fires. Rather it was a steady increase of appreciation of the value of the service and a belief that it was better to pay in taxes than insurance. The bring ing in of Skaneateles water and a distributing service from the Woodland Reservoir was also an addition to the fire department which does not appear under the head of Fire Department disbursements. Prior to the high pres sure service it was imperative that an engine should get to a fire quickly. The high pressure increased the, number and usefulness of hose wagons, the force being sufficient in many parts of the city to raise the water one and 560 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY two stories in a burning building without the use of an engine. This resulted in the present efficient system of hose wagons and an immense saving to the city. In 1887 the electric fire alarms were received from but fifty-seven alarm boxes, and- in 1907 there were one hundred and eighty-four stations from which to send in alarms. The system was established in 1870, the first test being on September 5 of that year. In the meantime the telephone has come into service for the sending in of notices of fire and in 1907 the statement was made that more alarms were received by telephone than from fire boxes. Besides the improved apparatus for fire fighting, chemical engines, exten sion ladder, trucks, etc., the city established a life saving service with fire nets and scaling ladders, and put in a water tower. The first water tower was brought to the city on March 29, 1892. In 1887 there were seven fire com panies, which included Chemical No. 1, East Genesee street near Grape street; Engine No. 1, opposite the City Hall; No. 2, Division street near North Salina street; No. 3, Wyoming street near West Fayette street; No. 4, Wolf street near North Salina street; Hook and Ladder No. 1, opposite City Hall, and No. 2, Division street near North Salina street. In twenty years there has been added Engine No. 5, Fayette and Hamilton streets; No. 6, 524 South Clinton street; No. 7, 1019 East Fayette street, near University avenue; No. 8, 1410 South -Saliha street, near Colvin street, which went into commission August 22, 1898; No. 9, 608 Oak street; No. 10, Euclid avenue and Westcott street; Hook and Ladder No. 3, Park ave nue and Wall street; No. 4, 913 South State street; the water tower, 506 East Genesee street, and Combination Hose and Chemical No. 2, Elliott and South Geddes streets Also Engine No. 2 was placed at 729 North Salina street, and Truck No. 2 at East Division and Gebhardt streets. Upon the death from injuries received going to a fire June 1, 1886, .of Chief Eckel, Henry Riley was named Chief, holding the position until his death, December 3, 1895. He was succeeded by Nicholas Eckel on Decem ber 19, 1895, who died June 4, 1897. Then the present Chief, John P. Quigley, who with Nicholas Eckel and Hamilton S. White, was assistant in 1897, was named on August 30, 1897. Protection from fire as a matter of annual municipal expenditure has been as follows in the city budgets : 1890 $ 75,000 1891 93,000 1892 100,000 1893 100,620 1894 103,000 1895 105,000 1896 105,000 1897 110,000 1898 134,604 1899 140,000 1900 176,137 HOMEOPATHIC HOSPITAL. " ST. JOSEPH'S HOSPITAL. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 561 1901 173,151 1902 179,320 1903 182,890 1904 218,465 1905 202,215 1906 198,520 1907 205,080 The first Board of Municipal Service Examiners was appointed by Mayor Thomas Ryan in the spring of 1885, under the State law for the improvement of the Civil Service. The first Board consisted of Joseph A. Ploffman, E. O. Farrar and Charles R. Sherlock. With the changing administrations there were changes, and upon the coming in of the White Charter quite decisive alterations in methods. Syracuse was one of the first cities to provide a place other than a jail for the unfortunate penniless and homeless, with the Municipal Lodging House, which was established August 1, 1899, with John Hazeltine as the first superintendent. A bath, meal and bed were furnished applicants, who were then required to work upon the streets in payment. The lodging house was arranged in a building across from the City Hall in Market street. The succeeding superintendents were L. D. Dexter, Jacob Vroman and Floyd H. Prosser. In the winter of 1907-1908, when the financial situation caused not a little distress and the Salvation Army with its Industrial Home established a "bread line" and drove about the city with soup carts feeding the poor, the Municipal Lodging House was found to fill a need and was a valuable assistant in the dispensing of public charity. The relative valuations of real and personal property in the county, as presented by the Equalization Committee of the Board of Supervisors of 1907, showed the following estimates with a total of one hundred and twenty million nine hundred and sixty-six thousand three hundred and thirty-two dollars; Camillus, two million six hundred and one thousand and ninety-one dollars; Cicero, one million four hundred and eighty-seven thousand eight hundred and thirty-five dollars; Clay, one million seven hundred and eighty- three thousand seven hundred and ten dollars ; Dewitt, three million five hun dred and seventy- three thousand nine hundred and sixty-seVen dollars; Elbridge, two million three hundred and forty-one thousand one hundred and forty-five dollars ; Fabius, eight hundred and seventy-nine thousand two hun- . dred and eighty-one dollars ; Geddes, five million one hundred and sixty-eight thousand nine hundred and twenty-five dollars ; Lafayette, eight hundred and seventy-eight thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven dollars; Lysander, two million seven hundred and ninety-three thousand and sixty-nine dollars ; Man lius, three million two hundred and ten thousand eight hundred and ninety- seven dollars ; Marcellus, one million four hundred and fifty-one thousand nine hundred and twenty-seven dollars ; Onondaga, three million two hundred and fifty-five thousand four hundred and eighty-seven dollars ; Otisco, five hundred and twelve thousand and thirty-five dollars ; Pompey, one million four hundred 562 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY and thirty-seven thousand four hundred and four dollars ; Salina, one million four hundred and sixty-two thousand seven hundred and forty-seven dollars; Skaneateles, two million five hundred and twenty-seven thousand three hun dred and fifty-four; Spafford, five hundred and ninety-eight thousand and twenty-nine dollars ; Tully, seven hundred and eighty-eight thousand eight hundred and sixty dollars; Van Buren, two million one hundred and eighty- two thousand two hundred and fifty-five dollars; total of towns, thirty-eight million nine hundred and thirty-four thousand eight hundred and seventy- three dollars; Syracuse, eighty-two million thirty-one thousand four hundred and fifty-nine dollars. The first year of operation of the mortgage tax law in Onondaga, upon the report made in December, 1907, to the Board of Supervisors, showed a total tax collected in the county of forty-two thousand four hundred and fourteen dollars and forty-four cents, of which twenty-nine thousand three hundred and sixty dollars and forty-four cents came from the city, the tax being one-half of one per cent., fractions of hundreds up to fifty dollars not counting in the tax. The cost of collection was one thousand five hundred and twenty-six dollars and eighty-six cents. Of this tax twenty thousand four hundred and forty-three dollars and seventy-nine cents went to the State, nine thousand seven hundred and four dollars and eighty-three cents was applicable to the payment of school taxes and a like amount for State, County and town taxes. This tax meant a payment of a total of eight million four hundred and eighty-two thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight dollars in mortgages. It took a great many adverse reports upon the condition of the old peni tentiary, which stood close to the exact site of the North Side High School, to get a new penitentiary outside the city line. Although Governor Black signed the bill allowing the removal of the penitentiary on March 10, 1898, and the State Commissioners of Prisons on May 3, 1898, urged the Supervisors to hurry and build a new prison as the needs were great, it was not until December 19, 1898, that the Board decided in favor of a new penitentiary. After much political consideration of sites the Poffett farm at Jamesville was chosen on June 9, 1899, and the present substantial building had the first prisoner removed to it on April 15, 1901. Upon January 1, 1908, there were five hundred and forty-eight prisoners in the penitentiary, the largest num ber at that season of the year in its history, there being but one hundred and seventy-two prisoners on January 1, 1907. The plans for a Women's Building at the County Home at Onondaga Hill was approved by the Board of Supervisors on December 16, 1907. The esti mate was placed at one hundred thousand dollars. The committee of con struction named, to be known as the Women's Dormitory Building Com mittee was composed of Supervisors Moses D. Rubin, John P. Schlosser and Floyd R. Todd. The good country roads awakening in Onondaga got in just a little ahead of the fifty million dollar bonding of the state amendment to the PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 563 Constitution in 1905, and when the State Engineer announced that the allot ment to Onondaga under the issue of bonds would be two hundred and twenty-three miles of roads, about three hundred and fifty miles had already been petitioned for. This showed a good roads education, which, although begun late, was ahead of the possible supply. Already a new state road from Fabius to Tully was being laid, and in 1905 the office of Superintendent of Highways for the county was created by the Board of Supervisors, Frank E. Bogardus of Dewitt being the first appointee on March 17, 1905, his term of office being for three years from April 1, and a reappointment following in 1908. In 1905 the Supervisors' committee upon good roads, consisting of Robert E. Gilman, W. C. Newell, ,M. A. Maxwell, Daniel P. Gere and C. PI. Livingston, took up the subject of having a complete system of highways in Onondaga, and at a special meeting held on March 16 and 17, 1905, the Board of Supervisors considered and voted in favor of such a system. Upon Decem ber 1, 1906, the Superintendent of Highways reported to the Board that the total mileage of highways in the county, exclusive of city and village roads, was one thousand five hundred and eighty-three miles. Of this mileage, nine hundred and seventy-four miles were under the money system of care and five hundred and ninety-two miles under the labor system of working highways, while seventeen miles were in the Indian Reservation. CHAPTER LXV. THEATERS, HALLS, HOTELS, HOSPITALS. Not only have recent years witnessed many changes in the theaters, greater productions in the staging of the drama and the development of new forms of theatrical entertainment, but there is not a theater standing in Syracuse which was in use twenty years ago. Shortly before two o'clock on the morning of September 3, 1896, the fire was discovered which burned Wieting Opera House. It was the Wieting of which Lawrence Barrett said: "A very beautiful theater, in every way worthy of its founder and of the taste of one of the most cultivated cities in our land." Twice before, on January 5, 1856, and July 19, 1881, had theaters of Dr. John M. Wieting, upon practically this same site, burned. Wagner & Reis had taken the lease of the Wieting on April 21, 1891, and they were the lessees at the time of the fire. The loss was placed at ninety-nine thousand one hundred and fifty dollars. Mrs. Wieting decided to rebuild and enlarge the theater, acquir ing about twelve feet of land to the west upon Water street, taking in the historic stairway of the old Townsend Block. Upon March 6, 1897, the contract was let to A. L. Mason, the plans having been drawn by Oscar Cobb, the architect of the former Wieting Opera House. Upon the night of Sep- 564 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY tember 15, 1897, just a year and twelve days after the burning, the new theater was opened with Lillian Russell, Delia Fox and Jefferson De Angelis in "The Wedding Day." In 1895 Mrs. Wieting had had the opera house refitted at a cost of fifteen thousand dollars, and electric lights were put in. John L. Kerr was the manager for the Wagner-Reis circuit, as he has been since, continuing when the lease of the new ^heater was taken in the name of Moses M. Reis. Many notable productions have been seen at the Wieting, among the foreign actors being the late Sir Henry Irving for several performances and Bernhardt and Coquelin in "L'Aiglon" on April 3, 1901. The Bastable Theater was built in 1893 by Frederick Bastable upon a site to the east of that where Stephen Bastable 's old Shakespeare Hall was located. The cost of the Bastable, according to the Fire Marshal's books, was fifty thousand dollars. Upon October 10, 1893, the theater was opened under the management of Frank D. Hennessy, who had been formerly con nected with the Grand Opera House, the opening event being Richard Mans field in a repertoire of three plays. Upon December 14, 1897, Samuel S. Shubert secured the lease of the Bastable and began his short but brilliant career as a theater manager, having already been successful as a road manager. It was upon January 1 following that he reintroduced the stock system to Syracuse with the Salisbury Stock Company. The Shubert management at the close of five years was succeeded by Hurtig & Seamon, who used the theater for popular priced attractions in the drama and musical farce, Harry A. Hurtig acting as the local representative. This lease expired on July 1, 1908, when the theater was taken by the General Amusement Company, a local corporation in which the Bastable estate was interested. The Barton Opera House became the Park Opera House, and when recon structed by John Moore was rechristened the Grand Opera House, which the theater upon that spot has been to this day. Upon September 13, 1888, the Grand Opera House burned and was completely destroyed with the block. The Grand had played many of the highest class attractions and had a merry theatrical war with the Wieting, that its success as a popular house began when Jacobs & Proctor included it in their circuit of popular priced theaters. Upon September 1, 1896, Patrick Lynch bought the Grand Opera House property. Upon March 29, 1897, the A. A. Graff and H. R. Jacobs combination in the management was formed. April 15, 1899, Sam Shubert joined with Mr. Graff in the control of the Grand and the Shubert control extended after Mr. Shubert 's death, with the Shubert interests, the theater passing from melodrama, to vaudeville, back to melodrama and then to its greatest success with Keith vaudeville. The Dunfee theater was built by John Dunfee upon property on the east side of Clinton street, between Washington and Water streets, formerly owned by the Alonzo C. Yates estate. It was but a narrow theater, having only a double-store front, and was never a success by reason of the inability to accommodate sufficiently large audiences to make it a paying venture. It was opened on February 6, 1899, and in its career tried burlesque, stock PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 565 and vaudeville. A. A. Graff, who had the lease of the Grand for a number of years, took a lease of the Dunfee on May 1, 1899. Later the name was changed to the Lyceum Theater, and as the Lyceum it burned on April 21, 1904, and lay a charred wreck for several years. The property was finally taken in 1907 by the local order of Elks for its lodge building, which was begun late in that year. The Alhambra, built for a roller skating rink in 1884, became, because of its capacious auditorium rather than its acoustic properties or conven iences, a convention and concert hall as well as the scene of many charity balls and large parties. So necessary was such a gathering place found, when the Alhambra was completely destroyed by fire on Wednesday morning, December 20, 1899, it was rebuilt the following year upon the same site, the northwest corner of James and Pearl streets. It was in the midst of the roller skating craze, when the profits were such as to warrant the building of the Criterion rink in James street and the Empire rink in Dickinson street, that the Alhambra was erected. The Criterion burned in the height of its profit as a rink, while the Empire went through an evolution of factory and storage uses before it met a similar fate on September 5, 1902. The scandal-killed skating craze would have left the Alhambra a profitless hulk were it not for its convenience of location and that Syracuse had no other hall so large for "big things." Claims were made that the first Alhambra would hold from three thousand to five thousand people at a mass meeting, where the seats were not used in the floor space, but the Alhambra erected by George H. McChesney, Sr., in 1900, was built upon a smaller plan but similar arrange ment, the principal change being in the allowance of a smaller assembly hall in place of the old gallery above the entrance, and more spacious reception rooms. With decorations which committees invariably considered it necessary to hide by extra adornment and a stage which was built out for many per formances, the Alhambra was so indispensable to the city that the manager who engaged the hall frequently captured the attraction. One of the most famous political gatherings of recent years was that of the "Dandelion" Democrats held at the Alhambra upon May 31, 1892. Former Governor David B. Hill had the State Democratic Convention called on February 22, at Saratoga and the Cleveland Democrats, called the "Anti-Snap" convention to send a delegation to Chicago to protest that Hill was not the choice of New York State Democrats. Former Mayor Grace of New York city was the leading spirit of the "Dandelion" convention, with Frederic R. Coudert, E. Elery Anderson, Charles S. Fairchild, W. S. Poucher, John D. Kernan and William A. Beach, the latter a Cleveland appointee to the office of Internal Revenue Collector in this city. A protesting delegation was chosen, and, as a result of that May convention, Cleveland was nominated for President, even though his own state regular delegation was against him. In the Alhambra in October, 1893, was held the Republican State Conven tion in which was chosen the "accident ticket," as it was afterwards char acterized that won by such substantial results. Cleveland had swept all 566 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY before him the year previous, but Hill was master of the New York Democracy. The only nominations to be made were for the heads of State executive depart ments and a judge of the Court of Appeals. Thomas C. Piatt, Chauncey M. Depew and Louis F. Payn were the active spirits in that Syracuse convention, and Edward F. Bartlett was chosen to run against I. V. Maynard, the Hill nominee for the Court of Appeals, the campaign being waged upon Judge Maynard 's position in the transposed ballots case which arose in Onondaga in the fall of 1891. Upon this Republican ticket Theodore E. Hancock of Syracuse, was named for Attorney General. It was at this convention that the Credentials Committee had to determine between Hendricks and Belden delegates from the Second Assembly District, giving each delegation seats and each delegate half a vote. In 1895 the Democratic convention met in the Alhambra and nominated the ticket headed by Horatio C. King for Secretary of State, which was defeated. Other minor conventions were held in the old Alhambra, the last important one being that of 1898, when Van Wyck was named for Governor and the event was marked by the warm fight between Richard Croker and David B. Hill. Among the famous political speakers in the old Alhambra have been William McKinley, who spoke there before he was President. William J. Bryan, who was here April 20, 1899, Senator Joseph B. Foraker, J. Sloat Fassett on October 5, 1891, Roswell P. Flower, Roswell G. Horr, Senator John M. Thurston, Chauncey M. Depew on October 21, 1891, Warner Miller, Charles S. Fairchild, Frank S. Black, William R. Grace, Thomas B. Reed on October 24, 1892, and Governor David B. Hill on November 3, 1892. Famous lec turers heard in this hall have been Henry M. Stanley, ' ' Ian Maclaren, ' ' Robert G. Ingersoll and Rev. Dewitt Talmage. One of the greatest musical events in the history of the old Alhambra was the appearance of Mme. Adelina Patti on April 19, 1892, under the auspices of the Syracuse Press Club. Other famous musicians heard there were Emma Jueh, Lillian Nordica, Madame Schalchi, Pauline I'Allemand and Ignace Paderewski. On February 1, 1893, the Anton Seidl music festival was held in the Alhambra. With 1900 was begun the series of annual music festivals in the Alham bra, under the management of the Syracuse Music Festival Association, incorporated October 10, 1901. Emil Mollenhauer was the conductor of the first six festivals and Walter Damrosch of the seventh. The Music Festival Association had but one object, "the cultivation and advancement of the art of music." The training of the choruses by Tom Ward were begun early each winter season for the festivals held in April, and proved educational pleasures for the vocalists. Such soloists as Mme. Schumann-Heink, Mme. Louise Homer, Sig. Guiseppi Campanari and Mme. Blauvelt were heard in these festivals. The festival of 1908 was omitted. Upon June 23, 1904, the Alhambra passed out of the hands of George H. McChesney, Sr., being sold to the mortgage holder, an insurance company, for eighty-nine thousand five hundred dollars. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 567 It was on January 24, 1905, that Senator Horace White introduced the bill at Albany for a new Armory to replace the building which for more than thirty years had done excellent service. Upon June 4, 1905, Governor Hig gins signed the bill, and work was begun in 1906 and continued to the finish in November, 1907. The movement for a new Armory took form in 1900 in the presentation of a bill by Senator White, drawn by Captain John G. Butler, but the bill was sidetracked and not until five years later did it find its way back. The first Armory built in 1858 was burned in 1871, and the second building was constructed in 1872-74. The second Armory was the scene of three large charity balls, the last being held January 2, 1900, two music festivals with Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore's military band and local choruses, a demonstration when General Ulysses S. Grant visited Syracuse, and the cen tennial exercises of the county in 1894. The Armory had the first roller skating rink in Syracuse, when the craze swept over the country, and it was the impropriety of the State militia engaging in business and using State property which excited Major General Porter and caused the halt of the sport in that building. The Armory was used as quarters for troops during two strikes, was an assembling place during State Firemen's conventions, and the scene of the departure of companies during the Spanish-American war. In 1899 the State G. A. R. convention was held here, making the Armory its headquarters and convening on May 17. On May 21 the G. A. R. parade, a memorable gathering of old veterans, was held. In 1892 the Fortieth Sep arate Company was mustered out of service at the old Armory, and, upon August 17, 1893, a Memorial Monument Association was formed, but it was thirteen years later before public interest was sufficiently aroused to gain substantial action upon the project. The little town of Fabius had a soldiers' monument long before that, its monument, the gift of James J. Belden, being dedicated July 4, 1902. Although later years have seen the principal hotels reduced in number, the quality of the remaining hotels has been distinctly raised. The Yates, built upon the site of the burned Montgomery flats, was opened upon Sep tember 17, 18,92, with a reception to four thousand Syracusans, and has since been the scene of many banquets and conventions. The building was com menced June 1, 1891; enclosed December 19, 1891, and completed September 15, 1892. There was only as much architectural treatment as would obtain a pleasing and possible artistic effect. The Romanesque style predominated. In management the principal change from the old firm of Averhill and Gre gory came when Mr. Gregory devoted all his attention to the Gregorian in New York and Charles S. Averhill continued with the hotel here. One of the most historic hotel sites was that of the Vanderbilt, standing where once was Cook's Coffee House. For a long period the hotel was closed but in 1906 it was reopened and is today one of the principal hotels of the city. In the old house Cook & Sons were succeeded by Oliver E. Allen, who was followed by P. B. Brayton, that gentleman selling out to G. W. Day. George W. Tavlor followed, he in turn selling out to J. H. Fife of New York in 1891. 568 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Then the Vanderbilt Company was formed by Mr. Fife. On December 13, 1893, J. A. Barry bought the hotel. Several wed known hotel men have since been interested in the hotel, among them being Milo K. Like. Upon February 12, 1902, the hotel suffered a ten thousand dollar loss by fire. The Globe Hotel changes were many and the venture gradually lost its historic prestige until, on Augustl, 1906, it was closed by the receiver in bankruptcy for Alexander Briggs, its last proprietor, whose illness caused the failure. Reopened for one week in September, during the State Fair, it was then closed forever and built over for a department store. Henry Stev ens, William Winton, Winton & Butler, Ira Garrison, Austin & Dickinson, E. D. Dickinson, Dickinson & Austin, Dickinson, Austin & Bacon, A. R. Dick inson, Dickinson, Bacon & Ellis, and Bacon & Ellis were the proprietors whose names are found in the records from 1847. In 1893 James K. Spaulding and Henry S. Neally were in the business. Theodore IT. Coleman bought a half interest in the Globe on March 1, 1899, and on April 20, 1900, M. A. Roberts purchased Mr. Nealley's interest. Another hotel with a closed career was the Mowry, destroyed by fire on February 10, 1907. Built in 1889 upon the site of the old Line House at South Salina and West Onondaga streets, it had an unsettled career as hotel and apartment house. It was in the ascendant as a hotel in the early '90s when under the proprietorship of Charles Carroll Barnes. Two important hotel changes came when Charles E. Candee sold out the Candee House in East Fayette street in May, 1894, and it afterward became the Manhattan, and Elias T. Talbot went into bankruptcy and retired from the Empire House, afterward taking control of the old Jervis House at East Fayette and South State streets. The old Hotel Burns at Clinton and West Fayette streets became the St. Cloud and on January 17, 1908, Reeve & Wilcox celebrated the fifth anniversary of their proprietorship. St. Joseph's Hospital, one of the most beneficent institutions in Syra cuse, has been enlarged again and again- in recent years to meet the demands made upon it, until today it is one of the most famous institutions in Central New York. The big hospital annex was built in 1896. The new hospital chapel was dedicated May 17, 1897, and the new surgical pavilion opened with a reception the following day. In 1904 the St. Joseph's Hospital Train ing School for Nurses was incorporated. The Hospital of the Good Shepherd, so humbly started as the House of the Good Shepherd in 1874, with Right Rev. F. D. Huntington, S. T. D., as its first president, has become a pride to the city in extensive care of patients. From a wooden three story building upon land given by Hon. George F. Comstock in Marshall street in 1874, the building being completed in Decem ber, 1875, the property has expanded until now more than half a city block is covered with its buildings, and it is but a matter of time when the entire block will be occupied. Upon February 4, 1902, William B. Cogswell gave one hundred thousand dollars to the hospital, his total gifts to date -coming close upon two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, while many substantial bequests have aided the indefatigable directors to build a great institution, PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 569 which has never drawn the line as to color or creed. In 1885 the Syracuse Training School for Nurses was instituted, Mrs. Q. B. Mills being the first superintendent of the school, as she was superintendent of the hospital at that time. The Syracuse Hospital for Women and Children and Training School for Nurses which has come forward as . an almost indispensable institution and covers a great field of charitable endeavor as well as filling a want in especial cases in the western end of the city, was incorporated on April 25, 1887, and opened for patients on November 11, that same year. The new hospital, which cost originally ninety-five thousand dollars and has since been extensively changed, was opened at 1214 West Genesee street on December 1, 189ft. In 1907 the president was Mrs. 0. V. Tracy; secretary, Mrs. Gansevoort M. Kenyon ; treasurer, Mrs. W. S. Wales, and superintendent, Miss Laura A. Slee. The new City Hospital in Teall avenue, costing fifteen thousand dollars, was first opened to public inspection on October 25, 1907. The new diptheria pavilion had accommodations for sixteen patients and their nurses. Miss Midie Andre was placed at the head of the institution. In the corner of the yard was the little four-room cottage used for two years for diphtheria patients, and where, during the epidemic of 1906 there were forty-six cases cared for with but one death. Near the administration building was located the smallpox pavilion, with a capacity for eight patients. The main build ing was provided with accommodations for seventy patients, without crowd ing. The beginning of the City Hospital dates back to 1874, when Syracuse was swept with a disastrous epidemic of smallpox. In 1875 the disease was stamped out, and while there are no complete records of cases the vital sta tistics figures place the number of deaths at two hundred and twenty-one. It was estimated that the epidemic cost the city one hundred thousand dol lars. At that time the land was purchased for the site of the present City Hospital. The old shack, which answered for a City Hospital and was called the "pest house" at that time, stood until 1892, when the cholera epidemic in New York made the city look to the safety of the city, and, under the administration of Mayor Amos, the present administration building was erected to care for cholera if it should reach Syracuse. In 1905, during the scarlet fever epidemic, the administration building was remodeled into a modern hospital. The Municipal Tuberculosis Clinic and Dispensary was established at 508 East Fayette street on February 27, 1908. The Homeopathic Hospital was incorporated December 30, 1895, and Jan uary 21, 1896, the first officers elected were A. C. Chase, president ; E. A. Pow ell and O. D. Soule, vice-presidents; D. H. Gowing, secretary, and Anthony Lamb, treasurer. Milton H. Northrup succeeded Mr. Chase as president, and J: L. Cheney became treasurer. In 1898, E. Elmer Keeler started the Magazine, the Clinic, in the interests of the hospital, the monthly afterwards becoming an independent paper. In 1906-1907 the Homeopathic Hospital building of reinforced concrete with sand lime brick exterior and litholite trimmings, was erected in East 570 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Castle street, adjoining the old homestead used for hospital purposes at South State and Castle streets. The Eastern Concrete Steel Company of Buffalo was the contractor. The floors were laid with tile and concrete, six inches thick with stairs of the same construction. The spacious building on the southwest corner of Seymour and West streets was first used for hospital pur poses. The most important contagious disease scare in the city since that of the smallpox in the '70s was the spread of the scarlet fever in 1905. The city officers and physicians organized to fight the scarlet fever on February 8, 1905, when there were one hundred and twenty cases in the city. But the work did not become thorough until the following July, when the fear of the effect of the scarlet fever stories upon the approaching Ka-noo-no Karnival, inaugurated a short and sharp campaign, which included a business block canvass. In two months, by August 18, the disease which had been said to be beyond control, was declared to be wiped out. The experience cost the city about twelve thousand dollars, but there was left a more efficient system of school medical inspection. The statistics of the United States Census Bureau, published in 1907, showed that Syracuse was the healthiest city of one hundred thousand or more inhabitants east of the Mississippi. In low death rates of American cities of one hundred thousand or more inhabitants it was sixth. . In low death rate of cities of any size in New York State it was sixth. The, Syracuse Free Dispensary, now locarted at the junction of Warren and East Onondaga streets, was established September 5, 1888, for the treat ment of the poor of the city who are able to go to the dispensary. Some idea of the work can be gained when it is said that eight thousand eight hun dred and thirty-eight treatments were given in 1906. From 1897 to 1900 the Dispensary was located at 407 South Warren street. CHAPTER LXVI. STATE FAIR, MYSTIC KREWE, CLUBS AND ORGANIZATIONS. That Syracuse had the ability to make at least one agricultural fair a year successful was demonstrated when the old Onondaga County Fairs were held at Tallman Park, and it was not until the people of Syracuse "got together" and "took hold" that the State Fair became a paying venture for the state and the people. The State Fair, which had become a wanderer, really belonged here. It was in April, 1841, that the New York State Agricultural Society first decided to hold anannual fair in the village of Syracuse. After those first fairs the annual events were itinerant until September 11-18, 1890, when the fair in Syracuse became a regular thing. It was about 1887 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 571 that the tender of one hundred and twenty-five acres on the meadows near the lake and Solvay brought attention to the idea of bringing the fair back to its original home. There was a great deal of work done to get the fair here, and at the first disappointment with the results, for the fair annually had bad weather to contend with for several years that was disheartening, while the people longed for the old typical county fair, with its balloon ascensions, public weddings and cheap shows. Indeed, the Onondaga County Fair was again opened at Kirk Driving Park on September 23, 1898, but it never reached the popularity of the old fairs. Some years later the buildings burned and that was the last county fair ever held here. However, the Onondaga County Fair still survives and is a popular annual event, being held in Phoenix, the association having been incorporated in 1903. It was on February 16, 1899, that the state agreed to make an appropria tion to the State fair if the property was deeded to the state. The carry ing out of this arrangement on March 4, 1900, started things anew and the fair became a broader institution. Ad the Governors since the fair was established here have been guests, including Governor Roosevelt, and on Labor Day, September 7, 1903, President Roosevelt was a speaker to ten thousand people at the Fair, after having reviewed the Labor parade in the city. Upon September 12, 1907, Governor Charles E. Hughes was a guest. In 1905 the fair became an immovable feast by the establishment of the second week in September as the date of holding the fair, in order to secure the Grand Circuit meeting. The history of the races at the fair includes many sensational performances, one of the greatest being the equalling of the world's record of two, two and a fourth without wind shield by Major Delmar on September 7, 1904. The Legislature of 1908 reduced the Fair Commission in size and made the five commissionerships salaried offices, beside appropriating two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars as a begin ning for a permanent exposition. An ambitious enterprise fostered by the Chamber of Commerce through its energetic ally the Mystic Krewe, was the Ka-Noo-No Karnival, first given as an adjunct to the State Fair in the form of evening entertainments during the week of September 11, 1905. The Karnival was a brilliant and spectacular evolution. of the trade excursions for State Fair week, begun in 1903. The decidedly inauspicious weather of the opening night of the Karnival, which necessitated a double program on September 12, did not deter the enthusiasm which carried the Karnival to success and inspired greater efforts in decora tion and spectacle the following years. The inaugurating scene was in Clinton Square, three eras being presented, medieval times with D. M. Edwards and Miss Mary Elizabeth Evans as the King and Queen; the aboriginal, with Fred R. Peck as Hiawatha and Miss Beulah Chase Dodge as Minnehaha, and modern times, when Mayor Alan C. Fobes turned over the keys of the city to the King, and Karnival reigned for a week. The participants in the Karnival were drawn from well known business and professional men of the city. Members of the Royal Court included Frederick R. Hazard, Miss Hazard, Mr. and Mrs. E. G. Connette and W. 572 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY S. Peck, with Giles H. Stilwell, H. K. Chadwick, Dr. W. C. Dubois and Dr. Franklin J. Kaufman as guardsmen. The Dukes were W. L. Smith, Willis B. Burns, Gates Thalheimer, Nicholas Peters, W. A. Wynkoop, Dennis McCar thy, J. William Smith, Joseph Griffin, W. K. Pierce, James Dey, Salem Hyde, H. L. Wilkinson, W. W. Plumb, E. N. Trump, Anthony Will, Thomas Vickers, A. E. McChesney and Charles W. Snow. The feature of the parade upon September 13 were the sixteen beau tiful floats representing scenes from Hiawatha and the early history of Onon daga, each car being in charge of an Indian member of the Mystic Krewe. At the Alhambra on the evening of September 13 was held the Rex ball and at the State Armory the Hiawatha ball. Thursday night was given over to a parade of military and fraternal orders, the Karnival closing on Friday even ing with an automobile parade. In one way and another it was estimated that Syracuse spent forty thousand dollars upon its first Karnival. The second Karnival had Fred R. Peck and Miss Beulah Chase Dodge as King and Queen, and the experiences of the first year benefitted to an increas ing interest and beauty of effect. The third Karnival was even greater still, especially successful features being the commercial float parade of Thursday night and the school children's parade on Friday night, when the schools arranged floats and effects. .The Karnival was both of nations and symbols of the harvest. Giles H. Stilwell and Miss Reba Hitchcock were the King and Queen. The oldest social club of prominence, the Century, which today occu pies the historic Major Burnet mansion at James and Townsend streets, has its articles of association dated September 12, 1876, but' the club was the outgrowth of the Onondaga club, which was organized on March 5, 1866. Many of the most prominent men of Syracuse were organizers of the old Onondaga, and the succeeding Century always retained men of high stamp in the business and professional life of the city. The club was first located in what is now known as the Crichton block at James and North State streets, and in 1880 purchased and occupied the Burnet mansion, which has seen many changes to meet the needs of the club, but the comfort and con veniences of the old house were never lost. On Novembr 26, 1901, the Syra cuse Club, which had started originally as the Players in the Lynch building in South Salina street and became the Syracuse when occupying a building in South Warren street just south of Fayette, was absorbed by the Century. ¦ The first president of the Century club, elected in 1876, was United States Judge William J. Wallace, who served as president until 1879. In that year Major Alexander H. Davis was elected president and served for ten consecu tive years. Then Justice Irving G. Vann became president, and was fol lowed in office by William Kirkpatrick and Justice Peter B. McLennan^the latter serving in 1895, 1896 and 1897. George E. Dana was president in 1898 and 1899, and Charles E. Crouse in 1,900. Charles L. Stone became pres ident of the club in 1901 and served for two years, being followed by Albert K. Hiscoek in 1903 and 1904, when Hendrick S. Holden was elected and still presides over the board of directors. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 573 Not only is the Citizens' Club, the greatest social organization in Syra cuse, with a waiting list that runs constantly into the hundreds, but its suc cess has attracted attention throughout the American club world. From a beginning of twelve members in a single room, calling the meeting place the "headquarters," the club sprang, in the autumn of 1885. In 1907 the club had a membership of one thousand four hundred, a waiting list of more than five hundred, and a treasury balance close upon fifty thousand dollars. James Geddes was the president of the "headquarters" organization, and Richard W. Jones the vice-president. The other members were William A. Sweet, Willis B. Burns, John T. Bon, Edgar McDougall, Thomas D. Lines, Edwin D. Dickinson, George S. Leonard, Frank B. Klock, P. J. Brumelkamp and I. Henry Danziger. Six months later, with a charter membership of ninety- seven, the Citizens' Club of Syracuse was incorporated. On April 1, 1889, the first meeting of the Board of Directors was held in rooms secured in the Larned Building. Then the constitution and by-laws were adopted, the cardinal principles of which are the prohibition of intoxicating liquors and gambling — principles which have been rigidly adhered to and to which in great measure the success of the Club is attributed. At this meeting Mr. Geddes was made president, Mr. Jones vice-president, Charles H. Peck secre tary, and Frank B. Klock treasurer. The other directors were Messrs. Bon, Sweet, Lines, Dickinson, Leonard, Burns and Danziger of the original gather ing, and Henry J. Mowry. In December, 1890, with a membership of five hundred, the club took top floor rooms in the Larned building, and in 1893 had every room upon that floor. In June, 1898, the club took up the present beautiful quarters, the entire tenth floor of the University Building, made expressly for the purposes of the club. In 1906 and '07 the directors were Edwin D. Dickinson, president; William H. Warner, vice-president; Edward S. Tefft, treasurer. Charles A. Bridgmen, Edgar McDougall, William K. Squier, J. Frank Draime, Edward K. Butler, Leonard H. Groesbeck, Willis B. Burns, Jacob P. Goettel and George W. Driscoll, with William H. Horton, secretary. Upon the death of Mr. Dickinson in March, 1908, Leonard Groes beck succeeded to the presidency. One of the latest and lustiest of the social clubs of Syracuse is the Uni versity Club, one of the first requisites to membership being a college degree. The certificate of incorporation of the club is dated September 28, 1899, and was signed by ninety-two charter members. In 1907 Dr. John Van Duyn was president; Austin J. McMahon secretary, and John C. Boland treasurer. The habit, early formed, of bringing speakers of prominence to the club rooms and entertaining famous literateurs, artists, college men and other men of affairs, quickly made the club rooms in the Larned building a center of cul ture, and these gatherings have become noteworthy in the city's history. The club is gathering a fine library. From the sport of a dozen enthusiasts upon improvised links in the cow pastures on the Charles Hiscoek farm in De Witt, grew the Onondaga Golf and Country Club, which rose to a distinct feature in the social life of the city, with three hundred members, a waiting list, and quarters amidst most 574 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY delightful surroundings just west of Fayetteville on the Genesee turnpike. The management of the club is vested in a board of directors which has in variably taken pride in the work. Former United States Senator Frank His coek was president in 1907, Ernest I. White; vice-president, and Fred R. Peck secretary and treasurer, with Hendrick S. Holden, John S. Gray, Alan C. Fobes, Frank C. Howlett and Charles M. Harwood directors. In 1904 the Onondaga Golf and Country Club was incorporated. The Kanatenah Club, the most successful women's organization, which was outlined upon the broad lines of men's social clubs and which was the first to have a clubhouse of its own, was incorporated May 29, 1896. Mrs. Percy McCarthy Emory was the first president, and from the beginning the club was given a distinct individuality, finding a fitting home in the old colo nial mansion on Fayette Park, which had been the White homestead. In 1907 Mrs. Edwin S. Jenney was the president. Among the clubs which have played important parts in the social life of the city was the Syracuse Catholic Union, one of the few religious clubs to possess a clubhouse down town. In 1896 this club moved into the old Hawley homestead in East Onondaga street, which was opened as a clubhouse October 20, and maintained for several years under the presidency of Paul T. Brady. The Genesee Club was another with a long history of social usefulness. Dur ing the presidency of Gates Thalheimer, when the club occupied the D. Edgar Crouse home in Fayette Park, the Genesee and Standard clubs were united. This was on May 2, 1899. On May 4 the united organization took the name of the Fayette Club. The Solvay Citizens' Club, one of the most prominent of local clubs, was incorporated March 17, 1897. Exclusive of trade unions and hundreds of small social clubs, Syracuse had reached in 1907 the large number of two hundred and thirty-five fra ternal orders, lodges, clubs and miscellaneous societies, the great bodies of the country, like the Masonic orders, Odd Fellows, Red Men, G. A. R., Sons of Veterans, Foresters, Orange institutions, A. O. U. W., Harugari, Knights of Maccabees, Knights of Pythias and Tycoons, being represented in a way to almost give it the name of "the fraternal city." The Catholic societies alone number forty-four, of which there are ten of the Mutual Benefit Asso ciation ; six Catholic Benevolent Legions ; ten Ancient Order of Hibernian societies; nine Ladies' Catholic Benevolent associations; two of the Senior Knights of the Cross; five Catholic Relief and Beneficiary associations, and two of the Knights of Columbus. The list does not include the many societies in connection with the protestant churches. While the changes in the Masonic lodges of the county in a score of years have been mostly those of the acquisition of a great membership and the fit ting up of splendid new temples, the historic events have been mostly great meetings, the most important being the state session of the Knights Templar in 1899. In 1908 Mount Sinai Lodge applied for a charter. A magnificent Masonic Temple was fitted in the Washington block in 1903 by the Central City Commandery, and the building was given the name of the Masonic Temple Block. The Masonic Temple Club also fitted up beautiful club rooms PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 575 on the eighth floor of the University block, becoming one of the best social clubs of the city. In 1908 the city possessed the following Masonic organizations Lodges, Central City, No. 305; Syracuse, No. 501; Salt Springs, No. 520 Chapter, Central City, No. 70; R. & S. Masters, Central City Council, No. 13 Commandery, Central City, No. 25 ; A. & A. S. Rites, Central City Consistory, S. P. R. S. 32; Central City Council of Princes of Jerusalem; Central City Lodge of Perfection; Central City Chapter Rose Croix; Masonic Board of Relief, and Masonic Veterans' Association of Central New York. The Veter ans' association was organized May 24, 1879. The Order of the Eastern Star had Syracuse Chapter No. 70. Then there was Kedar Khan Grotto, No. 12, M. O. V. P. E. C. The Odd Fellows' Club of Syracuse was organized at Elks' Hall on Sep tember 23, 1907; the charter list closed on November 15 following with about one hundred and fifty names attached, and the club was granted the privilege of incorporation on December 18. The club took an extended lease of quar ters in the Duguid Realty Company's building at East Fayette and Warren streets, and established a convenient suite of club rooms. The motive of the club primarily is the fostering of social relations among the Odd Fellows of Syracuse and to move along the work of Odd Fellowship. "Unity, sociability and activity," is the motto of the club. The first president is J. R. Stott; Charles J. Weber, vice-president; Irving J. Higbee, secretary; W. E. Lynn, treasurer; and W. G. Masters, Everett E. Barber, IT. F. Patchen, G. Notting ham, G. D. Carpenter, Fred P. Smith, W. H. Egather, Judson P. Camp, Dr. Fred Fenner, Willis Swift, Oscar C. Hawley and Fred Knobel, directors. The beginning of the work to erect the Odd Fellows' Temple, a site for which has been chosen upon Billings Park and plans drawn, marks the highest tide in the waves of Odd Fellowship yet reached here. The idea of the lodges uniting to erect a temple had been considered since 1898. The Odd Fellows' Temple. organization was incorporated on April 17, 1900, and from February 17 to February 24, 1906, a great fair was held in the old State Armory for the benefit of the project. The history of the I. O. O. F. reaches back to the time when Syracuse was a village. The semi-centennial celebration of Onon daga Lodge No. 79 was held on January 6, 1893, when George Judd Gardner, fifty years a member, was a guest of honor, and Mr. Gardner was the recipient of a public reception, also in honor of his half century of Odd Fellowship, by Star Rebekah Lodge No. 52, on December 29, 1892. The strongest lodges to join in the temple project were Lessing, 163, instituted September 29, 1851; Americanus, No. 607, organized June 13, 1891; Alphadelphia, No. 44, insti tuted April 28, 1846, and Onondaga, No. 79, instituted January 6, 1843. Be sides there was Canton Syracuse No. 6. Patriarchs Militant, mustered into serv ice February 10, 1886, with which No. 46 was amalgamated in 1893, and Cynosure Encampment, No. 14, instituted November 13, 1843. It was with the institution of the Home Lodge on June 19, 1874, that Pythian Knighthood, which has been so prominent in fraternal work in later years, gained its foothold in Syracuse. So strong did the work become that it was the occasion of a great entertainment of the Knights of Pythias Grand 576 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Lodge, thirty-third convention, Grand Domain, State of New York, July 23, 24 and 25, 1901. The ceremonies of institution of the old Home Lodge were conducted in the Shakespeare Had bloek, which was used as the place of meet ing untd the block was destroyed by fire on November 23, 1891. The Bastable block, which replaced the Shakespeare Hall bloek, was again occupied until 1893, when the lodge moved to the Freeman block in East Jefferson street. Other lodges came in this order : Prospect, July 18, 1881 ; Syracuse City, May 30, 1884; Engineers' and Mechanics' July 29, 1891; Genesee, December 22, 1899. Of the Uniformed Rank, Knights of Pythias, there were Syracuse Com pany No. 7, organized June 14, 1892, and Prospect Company No. 15, besides Troop Phd Sheridan Mounted Division No. 32, organized August 22, 1892. Of Troop Phil Sheridan it was said that at the time of the organization of the company there was no cavalry company in the state and but a few in the United States organized under the Uniformed Rank, Knights of Pythias. For many years after organization it had the distinction of being the only cavalry troop of any kind in the city, and furnished a unique feature to parades and military demonstrations. Of the kindred societies of Pythian sisterhood, drawing membership from the wives, sisters and daughters of the Pythian Knights, there were Prospect Temple No. 9 of the Rathbone Sisters, organized June 23, 1897; Syracuse As sembly, Pythian Sisterhood, January 24, 1901, and Troop Phil Sheridan Auxil iary, January, 1894. In the list of societies in 1907 there were also the Past Chancellors' Asso ciation, and Endowment Ranks, Sections 236, 3162 and 3476. So great was the interest taken in the work of the Foresters of America in Syracuse that shortly after the convention of the Grand Court of the State of New York, held in Syracuse May 9 to 12 inclusive, 1899, there were five courts established in this city and nearby villages. These younger courts are Court Lodi, Court Montefiore, Court Ephraim Webster, named after the first settler of Onondaga, Court De Witt and Court Liverpool. The formation of Forestry in Syracuse was organized by L. A. Stimis, who came from Court Brooklyn, and in 1884 advertised in the newspapers for any Forester who, like himself, felt lonely. R. Potter and William Wildridge answered that.they were Foresters from England, and these three started out to get names for a court, which materialized with a charter on October 20, 1886. This first club, known as Court Syracuse, was instituted November 11, 1886. Court Onondaga, insti tuted July 11, 1892, was the second court for Syracuse. Court Central City was instituted April 29, 1896. Court Salina was organized November 6, 1890, but never flourished until its reorganization into a German-speaking court, which took place June 30, 1895. Court Salt City was instituted November 2, 1896, and Court Monarch followed on May 5, 1897. Court Solvay was insti tuted August 24, 1897, and Court Salt Springs the following November 15. Court Arsenal, instituted at Elmwood August 24, 1898, was the first court in Onondaga county to dedicate a hall to Forestry, and Northrup Hall, Elm wood, was the one chosen, the name soon after being changed to the Foresters 5 ik R^Kugp "-•"¦¦- ¦'-¦'-¦^*-"^ii ^ •¦--. *¦ *; «5 . ,,1-- -.- ONONDAGA COUNTY ORPHAN ASYLUM. UNIVERSITY HILL. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA C6UNTY 577 of America Hall. The place was fitted up, but on the evening of October 29, 1898, was completely destroyed by fire. Court LeMoyne, named after the Jesuit father who came to Onondaga in 1655, was instituted January 18, 1897. The formation of C. J. Cook Conclave, Knights of Sherwood Forest, dates back to the fall of 1893, when a club of sixteen members of Court Syracuse united for the purpose of giving entertainments to Foresters, formed the idea of making a Conclave, which was instituted April 18, 1894. The Companions of the Forest of America, which admits women, dates from 1888 in Syracuse, but the organization of that time was short-lived. In 1894 another trial was made and the Pride of Syracuse was instituted December 11, 1894. The oldest circles of the order now in Syracuse are, besides the Pride of Syracuse-, Central City, Crystal,' Alpine, Star of Syracuse, Salt City and Crescent. The Independent Order of Foresters boasted eleven courts in Syracuse in 1907. They were: Court West End, Court Tirrell, Court United States, Court Durker, Court Fire Brigade, Court Umbria, Court Dana, Court Burnet, Court Mayor Baldwin, named after the first mayor of Syracuse, Court Kruger and Court Hotchkiss. There was also Camp Columbia of the Royal Foresters, and Courts Martha Washington and Bernadette of the Companions of the Inde pendent Foresters. The Modern Woodmen of America have four camps in Syracuse, the Syra cuse Camp, Northside Camp, Solvay Camp and McKinley Camp. Fairly modern orders which have made great strides in the city are the Onondaga Council, Degree of Pocahontas, Onondaga Beneficial Degree Coun cil, Waseka Council, Mohawk Council, Modainim Council, the Central City Haymakers and the Syracuse Haymakers' Association. The Ancient Order of United Workmen, in the .'80s one of the strongest fraternal organizations in the city, had four lodges in 1907. They were the old Central City (November 20, 1878), Salt Springs (1879), Harmony (March 4, 1895), and Union Lodges (March. 2, 1894). - A record of six tents of the Knights of Maccabees had been made in 1907, with five hives of the Ladies of Maccabees. These were the tents : Alemania, Brown, Onondaga Oak, Solvay, Syracuse and West End. The hives were Alemania, Good Will, Solvay, Syracuse and West End. Three councils and the Unity Association made up the Daughters of Liberty roster for Syracuse in 1907, the councils being Acirema, Garfield and Harmony. The thirty-fifth annual convention of the Great Council, Reservation of New York State, Improved Order of Red Men, was held in the city hall in Syracuse on August 13, 14, 15 and 16, 1907. This fraternal order, which makes the claim of being the greatest purely American fraternity extant, has a strong and numerous following in Syracuse. The mother tribe in these hunting grounds is the De Kanissora No. 316, the council fire of which was kin dled October 22, 1896. Its name was taken from an old Onondaga chief, De Kanissora, prince of Indian orators and diplomatists, who flourished between 1680 and 1730. The Walla Walla tribe No. 387, was instituted April 20, 1898. Other tribes with large memberships here are: Oneutaha No. 400; Cayuga 578 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY No. 429; Scanandoah No. 441; Watonga No. 444, and Mosawa No. 401, of Cicero. The Syracuse Lodge, No. 31, of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, was instituted on March 1, 1885. The institution was held in the old county clerk's building at North Salina and Church streets, and the lodge has had several changes of quarters, the last previous to its own building, in process of erection on the site of the old Lyceum theater, being in the old Chase , Music Hall building south of the Onondaga Savings Bank building. The lodge has had a thousand names upon its roster. Many celebrated actors have been entertained by the Elks of Syracuse and have given benefits for the order, among the latter being Richard Mansfield and Frederick Warde. On March 23, 1908, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, Aerie No. 53, celebrated its eighth anniversary by opening a new clubhouse in the old Freeman build ing at Jefferson and Grape streets. The rooms were remodeled and redeco rated, and it was made one of the handsomest Eagle clubhouses in the state. Prior to this establishment of a clubhouse of their own, the Eagles occupied the rooms of the Elks order in South Salina street. The Supreme Yadoya of the Imperial Order of Tycoons meets in Syracuse once in three years, and it is in this city that there is located the Mikado Ya- doya No. 1, Yoga Yadoya No. 5 and Satsuma Yadoya No. 8. Of the Harugari Syracuse achieved seven lodges, the Walhalla Comtueri, which was No. 4, Augusta Lodge, Deutsche Wacht, Elizabeth, Freie Brueder, Humboldt and Walhalla Manie. The seventh annual session of the Grand Council, State of New York, United Commercial Travelers of America, was held in Syracuse June 7, 8, and 9, 1906, under the auspices of Central City Council No. 221. The Central City Council was instituted in Syracuse on January 3, 1902. The National Association of Letter Carriers held its fourteenth annual convention in Syracuse August 31 to September 5, inclusive, 1903. Branch No. 31 of the United National Association of Postoffice Clerks was organized in Syracuse on February 4, 1894. The General Dwight H. Bruce Branch No. 134, of the National Association of Letter Carriers, was organized. in Syracuse on January 11, 1891. The eighteenth annual convention of the New England Water Works Association was held in Syracuse September 13 to 15, 1899. The twenty- seventh annual convention of the International Association of Fire Engineers was held here from August 22 to 25, 1899. Syracuse also had the third annual convention of the League of American Municipalities on September 19 to 22, 1899. The American Water Works Association visited here on June 17, 1898. The first regular meeting of Thomas Merriam Camp No. 52, Sons of Vet erans, was held at the courthouse August 12, 1886, and William E. Walters was made the first captain. The subsequent history of the camp has been one closely identified with all patriotic movements of the city, with many de termined efforts to get a soldiers' monument. Sniper Camp No. 166, was ori ginally organized in August, 1886, as Camp No. 66, but at its reorganization in 1890 was given No. 166. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 579 The twelfth annual encampment, New York Division, Sons of Veterans was held in Syracuse July 2, 3 and 4, 1895. A public meeting, ball and parade were features of the encampment. Lilly Post No. 66, New York Department G. A. R., was organized June 29, 1869. Root Post No. 151, was organized April 16, 1880. Root Relief Corps No. 20, New York Department, W. R. C, was organized February 21, 1884. Lilly Relief Corps, No. 172, was organized in February 1891. A distinct impetus was given to broadening charitable work in 1902, when, on January 13, the Associated Charities of Syracuse was organized, uniting moribund and live efforts in both a generous distribution and a suppression of indiscriminate charity. The association was incorporated March 25, 1902. The able management and subsequent work of the Associated Charities proved the wisdom of the plan. The Associated Charities succeeded the Bureau of Labor and Charities, which had been organized in 1878 . The first office of the Associated Charities was in the Snow building in Warren street, with Miss Marion I. Moore general secretary and Minnie D. Crozier assistant secretary. Later Arthur W. Towne became general secretary, and when he took up pro bation work in Albany in 1907, J. J. Everson became secretary. In 1907 the Associated Charities was located in an old homestead at East Jefferson and South Warren streets. Upon October 14, 1907, there was celebrated on the occasion of the state convention of the societies for the prevention of cruelties, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Onondaga Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Chil dren, a society which had accomplished much in its long and honorable history of saving and starting the young right. For many years this society had had the advantage of the management of that scholar and humanitarian, Rev. C. D'B. Mills, and through his influence had risen to a prominent place in the city's charitable work. Miss Arria S. Huntington was the first president of the Syracuse society, and at the time of the anniversary celebration Abram T. Baldwin was president, Fillmore M. Smith the general secretary and Stanley Bagg the treasurer. The Bureau of Labor and Charities, from which the so ciety for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was an off-shoot, was organ ized at a public meeting held in the city hall on December 20, 1878. Rev. C. D'B. Mills resigned his long and faithful work as secretary of the Bureau of Labor and Charities on April 1, 1898. Although established in 1877 and incorporated in 1878, and always finding a field in which its noble endeavors seemed but to touch the outskirts, the Shelter for Unprotected Girls has grown into one of the most important and necessary institutions in more recent years. Its work is as broad and compre hensive as the name implies. The effort had been begun in a building at Irv ing and Adams streets, and later a new Shelter was erected at Irving and Van Buren streets, which in the later '80s was moved across town to a site in Roberts avenue. In the summer of 1902 the main building was burned, one assistant teacher losing her life. The loss proved a needed spur to the appre ciation in which the work was held and led to the building of the fine struc- 580' PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY ture where the work has been carried on under the supervision of Miss A. A. Kendall, with a board of trustees drawn from the charitable workers of the Protestant Episcopal church of the city. On November 1, 1902, the new Shelter was dedicated. In the work of caring for unfortunates, the Board of Supervisors on De cember 20, 1905, created the office of Superintendent for the Placing in Homes of Dependent Children, with a salary of $450. Mrs. Florence A. Grannis was named to this office on May 7, 1906, and it was resolved that after January 1, 1907, the annual salary of the office should be $900. The superintendent was provided with offices in the new courthouse. The Syracuse Boys' Club began in the Boys' Evening Home, which for nine years met in May Memorial church parlors. On January 17, 1901, the old home changed to the present name, under which it was incorporated in 1902, taking rooms at 429 South Salina. street until the fall of 1901. Then quarters were taken at 227 East Fayette street. In September, 1903, the three-story building at 240 East Water street, just west of the city hall, was taken and occupied until September, 1907, when quarters were taken in the basement of Prescott school. The president in 1907 was Benjamin J. Shove; secretary, Roderick S. Burlingame; treasurer, Charles F. Bennett, and super intendent, Arthur W. Towne. In the fall of 1884, the Bureau of Labor and Charities appointed as a com mittee to consider the establishment of a day nursery, Mrs. Celeste P. Fuller, Mrs. S. B. Larned, Miss Arria S. Huntington, Miss E. C. Lawrence and Mrs. E. C. Stearns. From this sprang the Women's Union for Home Work, of which Mrs. Fuller was the first president. A small house in Noxon street was rented from May, 1886 to 1887. In the fall of 1887 the name was changed to the Women 's Educational and Industrial Union, and a larger home in Onon daga street was taken until May, 1888, when the house at 329 Montgomery street was purchased for $10,000. The Union was incorporated January 18, 1888. There were several changes in the building, many charities had quar ters there, and it became the center from which sprang many noble efforts by women. Owing to the negligence of a contractor upon an adjoining build ing the Women's Union building collapsed and was ruined March 2, 1907. The Employment Society which had been doing a great work since 1870, was in corporated in 1904. The New York Trades School for Girls, which was established by the Women's Union and received the five thousand trade school fund from the State Federation of Women, was located in the Women's Union building, and, after the collapse, was moved to the old Hawley homestead in East Onondaga street. The Onondaga Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution was in corporated in 1904. The Political Equality Club, composed of many of the leading women of Syracuse and the county, had grown to such strength in 1908 that the city had become a center for woman suffrage work, and from here was published the New York Suffrage Newsletter, of which Harriet May Mills was editor. The Newsletter had reached Vol. IX. No. 4 in Aprd, 1908. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 581 The Home, founded by that noble society, the Syracuse Home Associa tion, which dates back to an original incorporation of 1853, had fifty-six in mates in 1908, every room in the building at Townsend and Hawley streets being occupied, and many worthy ones hopeful of an opportunity to come to the Home. One of its largest bequests of late years was fifty thousand from the estate of James J. Belden. The realty value of the Home property, with furniture, in 1908 was seventy-five thousand dollars, with total assets figured at two hundred thousand dollars. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union, auxiliary of the state W. C. T. U., organized in December, 1877, was incorporated August 20, 1892. In 1906 this work has reached the proportions of eighteen unions in the towns of the county, nine in the city, with seven senior loyal temperance legions and eight junior legions. It was a great response to women's organized effort to increase the interest in temperance reform in all classes. Of the Independent Order of Good Templars there were two lodges. In December, 1890, the Central New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was formed, the charter of the branch society which then existed being recaded by the parent society. In January, 1891, the society was incorporated, and O. Robinson Casey made special agent. Mr. Casey later became superintendent, a position he has held until the present time. In 1908 Wdber S. Peck was president of the society. The Educational Councd of Onondaga, composed of male teachers, has not only gained much by the meetings but has spread its influence by the pub lication of many thoughtful essays upon the work of the profession; The Councd was organized in 1884. Although the history of trade unionism in Syracuse is far from being en compassed within a score of years, it is within that period that the idea now so overwhelmingly prevalent has achieved its greatest local extension and power, uniting thousands of workers. Even a short history of unions would take a volume in itself, but there are many dates which should be preserved in the general history of the city. That union of unions, congress of interests and gathering of representatives of labor organizations of Syracuse and imme diate vicinity, the Central Trades and Labor Assembly, was the result of a call for labor union representatives to meet at Ryan's Hall on March 5, 1885, and, on March 15, a constitution was adopted. At the first meeting on March 16, these labor unions were represented : Typographical, Moulders ', Tailors ', Pro tective, Stone Cutters', Stone Masons', Painters' and Paper Hangers', and Cigarmakers'. The Ale and Porter Brewers' Union was organized October 19, 1887; Iron Moulders' No. 80 in 1864; Journeymen Tailors' No. 45, organized in 1863, locked out and ended in 1877, and reorganized as the Tailors' Protec tive in 1885; International Association Machinists' Lodge 381, organized in November, 1895; Malsters', 48, May 6, 1894; Meat Cutters' and Butchers', 5969, February 4, 1893; Brotherhood of Stationary Engineers', 6708, May, 1896 ' original Typographical Union organized in 1855 and went to pieces in 1861, "old union" organized in 1864 and met dissolution in strike of 582 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 1876, and Typographical 55 organized in 1883; John E. Sweet Council 6, American Order Steam Engineers, organized April 27, 1886; Assistant Pressmen and Feeders' 32, April 26, 1900; Barbers', 18, October 23, 1889; Bartenders', 76, 1897; Bakers', 30, 1887; Bedding and Cushion Workers', 92, May 15, 1902; Beer Drivers', 49, March 6, 1888; Boiler Makers', 157, June 15, 1903"; Boot and Shoe Workers', 159, September 30, 1899; Brewery Work ers', 11, March 23, 1887; Bridge and Structural Iron Workers', 60, February 10, 1903; Broom Makers', 72, December, 1902; Carpenters', 15 organized March 13, 1887, and No. 26, organized October 14, 18~96, consolidated July 1, 1903; Carpenters', 192, June 23, 1897, and then District Council, central head of all carpenters' locals, organized; Carriage and Wagon Workers', 39, May, 1898; Cigarmakers', 6, 1864; Cigar Packers', 241, November 19, 1892; Clerks' Local, 243, August 19, 1898; Clothing Cutters' and Trimmers', 128, 1886; Coopers', 98, August, 1886; Electrical Workers', 43, 1892; Elec trical Workers' (line men), 79, October 6, 1899; Garment Workers', 95, 1892; Garment Workers', 111, Aprd 12, 1891; Garment Workers', 135, Novem ber 22, 1897; Garment Workers', 142, March 25, 1897; Garment Workers', 143, December, 1897; Glass Blowers' Brotherhood, 32, 1890; Hod Carriers' and Building Laborers', 40, 1906; Horseshoers ', 36, July 3, 1891; Bookbind ers', 68, December 21, 1897; Machinists', 381, November, 29 1895; Machinists', 514, 1902; Metal Polishers', etc., 15, June, 1903; Musicians' Protective, 78, October 1, 1888; Painters', Decorators' and Paper Hangers', 31, June 1, 1887; Painters', 151, Baldwinsville, September 10, 1900; Pattern Makers,' April 14, 1905; Plasterers', 51, May 29, 1891; Plumbers' and Steam Fitters', 374, January 23, 1904; Produce Peddling Drivers', February 6, 1904; Sheet Metal Workers', 39, June, 1897; Sign Writers', 468, September 6, 1898; Silver Workers', 1903; Soft Beer Bottlers' and Peddlers', 8934, April, 1901; Stationary Firemen's, September, 1896; Steam Engineers', 11, June, 1896; Suspender Makers', June 22, 1903; Theatrical Protective, 9, May 10, 1891; Tobacco Workers', June 16, 1902; Wholesale Grocers' Employes,' May 13, 1906; Women's Union Label League, January, 1900; Wood, Wire and Metal Lathers ', 151, March 19, 1904. Other unions affiliated with the Trades Assem bly include the following: Allied Printing Trades' Council; Carpenters', 1211; Coal Drivers' and Carriers', 665; International Hod Carriers' and Building Laborers' Nos. 40 and 68; International Wood Carvers' Association, Syracuse Branch; Journeymen Stone Cutters' Association, Syracuse Branch; Laundry Workers'; Milk Peddlers' Protective; Printing Pressmen. 66: Stereo- typers', 23; Structural Budding Trades' Alliance; Garment Workers,' 112; Garment Workers', 128; Waiters' Alliance, 150; Women's Union Label League, 10. BENCH AND BAR OF ONONDAGA COUNTY By A. J. Northrup. CHAPTER LXVII. The history of the Bench and Bar of the county of Onondaga, properly begins with the year 1794. In that year Thaddeus M. Wood, the first law yer within the present limits of the county, came to Onondaga Valley, or Onondaga Hollow, as it was then called, and there began his professional and business life. He had a forceful and conspicious, and somewhat eccentric career long remembered. There was then no Syracuse, and the Valley, where the fair city now stands, was an almost impassable swamp. From the days of the one lawyer, a long procession increasing in numbers, of the now dead and the still liv ing, has followed, until in this year of 1907, according to the best estimates and records, there are approximately four hundred and seventy-five lawyers in the county, nearly all of whom are in active practice at the bar or serving on the bench. In March, 1794, the county of Onondaga was formed out of Herkimer county, and it then embraced a large territory covering all or portions of the present counties of Cayuga, Cortland, Oswego, Seneca, Tompkins and Wayne. Portions of the county were set off from time to time, until in the year 1816 it was reduced in area to its present limits. This sketch concerns only the county as at present organized. The first court held in the county as it now is, was a term of the com mon pleas, convened on the first Monday of May, 1794, in General Asa Dan forth 's corn house, in Onondaga Valley. Present: Seth Phelps, First Judge (then a resident of what is now Cayuga county), John Richardson, Silas Hal sey, and Wdliam Stevens, judges. The next, a court of oyer and terminer, was held July 1, 1794, in General Danforth 's house. Supreme Court Judge Egbert Benson presided, with Seth Phelps and Andrew Englis, justices of oyer and terminer, as associates. For several years the courts were held in private houses or in hotels, until in 1805-1807, the first court house was erected at Onondaga Hill. 584 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Meanwhile, the villages of Syracuse and Salina had sprung into exis tence and importance, and in 1829-1830 the second courthouse was built, and as a compromise between the rival villages, placed on the dividing line between the two; a most inconvenient location for all concerned. Syracuse outgrew its neighbor, the city absorbed both, a mysterious fire destroyed the misplaced edifice, and then, in 1856-1857, the third courthouse was built, situate on Clinton Square. It was a fine structure for its time, but gradually outgrew in its usefulness. A fourth and present courthouse, ample for all existing and anticipated needs, a large, magnificent building and an honor to the county, was erected in 1906, situate at the corner of Mont gomery and Jefferson streets. It was first formally occupied on January 7, 1907, when a trial term was held in "Part I Supreme Court;" Hon. Wil liam S. Andrews, justice of the supreme court, presiding. The judicial system of this state, with its courts, officers and practice, had its foundation in the system, and laws of the colony of New York, exist ing when in 1775 the state was organized. These in turn came from the Dutch and the English laws under which the colony had been living from its earliest existence as a colony. The influence of the English laws and prac tice, however, was predominant, and gave to us the fruits of a long and var ied experience in the administration of governments under legal forms. When the state adopted its first constitution, in 1777, it took over and continued, and made a part of the fundamental law of the state, such parts of the common law and of the statute law of England and Great Britain, and of the acts of the legislature of the colony of New York, as together formed the law of the colony, on the 19th day of April, 1775, excepting all recognition of British rule, and subject to such alterations and provisions as the legisla ture should make from time to time. From these beginnings the system and the laws were developed as time went on, according to the growing needs of a commonwealth finding its untried way along the lines suited to a government of a free and independent people. Courts were abolished, created and modified by successive consti tutions and statutes, until as the result of new conditions, experiment and development, we have the judicial system of today. The changes, however, have been rather in form and arrangement than in substance. In all parts of the structure we see as constituent parts the elements of the old laws and systems of the centuries immediately preceding our own. We have, how ever, Americanized the old English laws and systems to conform to the necessities of a new continent and a people working out their own destiny. Thus far the great experiment, with much of trial and frequent mistake, has been successful. A brief review of the constitutional provisions relating to the courts and judicial offices of the state will aid in the understanding of the. local history of the bench and bar. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 585 THE STATE CONSTITUTIONS IN RELATION TO THE JUDICIARY. The State of New York has had four constitutions, with important amend ments adopted from time to time. The organic law of the state has been thus gradually modified to meet the growth, development and needs of the people, and embodying their experience in self-government. What has proved unfit in practical experience, has been cast off and the principles and meth ods found to best minister to the public welfare have been retained. In other words, it has been a growth by evolution. The first constitution, adopted in 1777, accepted and recognized the com mon law, with certain exceptions, and most of the courts, then in existence and to which the people were accustomed. No important amendments to this constitution were made. The second constitution, framed in 1821 and adopted by the people in 1822, shows marked changes in many respects, but notably in its general transfer of power from the governor to the electors in the designation to office ; but the power of appointment of judges was still lodged m the governor and senate. The court for the trial of impeachments and the correction of errors was the highest court, and was composed of the senate and its president and the chancellor and the justices of the supreme court. This „ court, so far as being a ' ' Court for the correction of Errors ' ' was the imme diate predecessor of our court of appeals. The chancellor and justices of the supreme court held office for life, "or until they shall attain the age of sixty years." This "age limit" remained in force until it was changed to seventy years by an amendment to the constitution of 1846, adopted in 1880. No amendments, specially important in this connection, were made to the constitution of 1822. The third constitution, adopted in 1846, wrought great changes in re spect to the courts, their organization and powers. The "Court for the cor rection of Errors" was abolished and the court of appeals was created; the supreme court was reorganized ; the judges of both courts were made elective. and their terms of office were fixed at eight years ; the court of chancery was abolished; no "age limit" for holding judicial office was established until an amendment passed in 1880. This constitution was so amended from time to time and in so many re spects, as practically to make a new constitution. So far as they might affect the bench and bar of this county, these amendments were confined to the judiciary article of 1869, substantially as follows: The court of appeals was reorganized— to consist of a chief judge and six associate judges, with terms of fourteen years. A temporary commission of appeals was provided for. The election of additional justices of the su preme court was authorized. In 1880 the "age limit" for holding judicial office was fixed at seventy years. In 1882 a further increase of justices of supreme court was authorized 586 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY In 1888 a temporary "second division" of the court of appeals, to be com posed of seven supreme court justices, was authorized, to relieve the calendar of the court. General terms of the supreme court were provided for. The fourth and present constitution of the state was adopted by the people November 6, 1894, taking effect January 1, 1895. Article VI contains all the provisions relating to the courts and judiciary. Many changes are made ; certain local courts are abolished ; an increase in the number of supreme court justices is authorized"; four judicial departments are created; the appellate division of the supreme court, with seven justices in the first department and of five in each of the other departments, is established — in place of the "general term" of the supreme court; certain city courts are abolished, and their judges became justices of the supreme court; circuit courts and courts of oyer and terminer are abolished and their jurisdiction is vested in the su preme court. The court of appeals is continued without material change, except that Section 9 is changed in defining the jurisdiction of the Court. The age limit "of seventy years" is continued. The compensation of every judge of the court of appeals and of every justice of the supreme court elected prior to January 1, 1894 (but of no others) whose term of office has been or will be abridged by the "age limit" for holding office, and who shall have served as such judge or justice ten years or more, shall be continued during the re mainder of the term for which he was elected. The jurisdiction of county courts is extended in civil actions for the re covery of money only, where the complaint demands judgment for a sum not exceeding two thousand dollars (formerly one thousand dollars) ; also courts of sessions (except in the county of New York) are abolished and their juris diction is vested in the county court — a measure, the wisdom of which was for a long time indicated by experience. The "age limit" for holding judi cial office is applicable to county judges and surrogates. An amendment in 1899 provided for the relief of the court of appeals by the designation by the governor of not to exceed four supreme court justices to sit as associate judges of that court, until the calendar of the court shall be reduced to two hundred. Amendments were adopted November, 1905, authorizing the legislature to increase the number of supreme court justices and authorizing appellate divisions to transfer cases. DANIEL MOSELEY. Daniel Moseley, the only circuit court judge from Onondaga county, was appointed to that office by Governor Martin Van Buren in place of Enos T. Throop, resigned, and served from 1829 to 1844. He came from Westfield, Massachusetts, to Onondaga Valley, read law there with Forman & Sabine, and in 1809 began the practice of his profession at Onondaga Hill. He was appointed clerk of Onondaga county in February, 1821, and elected Novem ber, 1822, to the same office, which he held until the end of 1825. In 1827 he was a member of assembly. He died October 3, 1851, aged sixty-five years. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 587 FREEBORN G. JEWETT. The county of Onondaga has furnished to the court of appeals five judges elected thereto, of whom three have been chief justices and two su preme court justices, designated to sit with that court. Freeborn G. Jewett, the first member of the court of appeals from Onon daga county, and one of the four elective judges of that court after its organ ization under the constitution of 1846, was born in Sharon, Connecticut, in 1791 ; admitted as attorney in 1814 and as counselor in 1817, and commenced the practice of his profession in Skaneateles, with Hon. James Porter. He held many offices, judicial and other, before his elevation to the bench of the court of appeals. He was master in chancery and justice of the peace soon after admission to the bar. He was surrogate of the county from February 11, 1824, to April, 1831; member of assembly in 1826; presidential elector in 1828, casting his vote for Andrew Jackson; member of the twenty-second congress; appointed inspector of Auburn prison April 10, 1838; appointed justice of the supreme court March 5, 1845, continuing in that office until June 30, 1847. He was elected to the first court of appeals June 7, 1847, and in the allotment of terms of office among the four judges, held office for two years only, being chief judge for that period. He was re-elected November 6, 1849, and served until June, 1853, when he resigned on account of ill health. He died at Skaneateles in January, 1858. Judge Jewett is remembered as a man of great executive ability, upright and honorable, of marked intellectual quality, and profoundly versed in the science of the law. As a judge, he was untiring in the consideration of the cases before the court. He was a "liberal constructionist," regarded equity above technicalities, cited and analyzed many cases in his opinions, made a clear statement of issues involved, and authorities, and wrote with great clearness and not to ex cessive length. DANIEL PRATT. Daniel Pratt, justice of the supreme court for the fifth judicial district from 1847 to December 31, 1859, was born in Greenwich, Washington county, New York, August 22, 1806, and was a son of William Pratt, a native of Massachusetts. He was graduated from Union College in 1835, and the same year came to the village of Camillus, Onondaga county, and read law with David D. Hillis. He settled in Syracuse the following year and was admitted to the bar in 1837, in company with those afterward eminent men, George F. Comstock and Charles B. Sedgwick. He began practice with Mr. Hillis, his old preceptor. On February 23, 1843, he was appointed by Governor Bouck first judge of Onondaga county, holding that office until June, 1847, when he was elected justice of the supreme court under the new constitution of 1846 and re-elected for eight years in 1851. On January 1, 1860, he resumed practice in partnership with Daniel J. Mitchell, famous as an advocate, and Wilber M. Brown was added to the firm in 1862. The firm of Pratt, Mitchell & Brown occupied a high position in the bar of the county for fifteen years. 588 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY In 1872 Judge Pratt was appointed by Governor Hoffman one of the commissioners from the fifth judicial district to revise the constitution of the state, and in November, 1873, he was elected attorney-general, which office he held for two years. He died July 23, 1884. Judge Pratt was twice married and left two sons, Charles and Daniel, surviving him. Judge Pratt was of a strong, rugged nature, with a keen sense of humor, a good lawyer and a man of excellent character, both public and private. In politics he was a democrat, in religion a Presbyterian. GEORGE FRANKLIN COMSTOCK. George Franklin Comstock, judge of the court of appeals from 1855 to 1861, was born in Oswego county, New York, August 24, 1811, and died in Syracuse, September 27, 1892. He taught in a public school when a young man and afterward, in 1834, was graduated from Union College. He then taught languages for a time in a classical school in Utica, and for a short time in Syracuse and in 1835 became a law student in Syracuse in the office of B. Davis Noxon and Elias W. Leavenworth, and was admitted to the bar in 1837. His career as a lawyer and jurist from that time until a few years be fore his death was one of great success and distinction. He came to be recog nized as one of the ablest lawyers of the state. In 1846 he was appointed by Governor Young the first reporter of the newly created court of appeals. The first four volumes of the New York Reports were the result of his three years' services as reporter. In 1852 President Fillmore appointed him solicitor of the treasury of the United States, which office he filled during the remainder of that presidential term. In 1855 he was elected on the "American" ticket, judge of the court of appeals to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Hon. Charles H. Ruggles and served until the expiration of the term in 1861, being chief judge of the court for two years. The ability with which he had analyzed and digested the de cisions of that court in his reports, his arguments in cases before that court and his written opinions as a judge, gave him a wide reputation and placed him in the front rank as a great lawyer. He was renominated by the demo cratic party, 'but was defeated with the rest of the ticket. He returned to the practice of his profession, and for many years was engaged in important cases involving large interests and difficult questions of law. He edited Kent's Commentaries at the solicitation of that author's heirs. In 1868 he was a member of the constitutional convention as delegate at large for the state. He and Judge Folger are credited with the chief work in the formation of the new judiciary article adopted by the convention and ratified by the people. Judge Comstock was a noticeable figure in any company of men — tall, erect, with prominent and striking features, an expression that indicated firm ness and great mental qualities. He was reticent, awkward and embarrassed at social functions, reserved and rather forbidding in manner among strangers, PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 589 but genial, witty and jocose at small gatherings of congenial associates. In his office he Wrote his briefs at a standing desk, and walked about the room while solving the legal problems in his mind. When the United States income tax law was passed, imposing an annual license tax upon attorneys and requiring payment under penalty before en gaging in practice, he pronounced the law unconstitutional and refused to pay the tax and declared that he would submit to arrest and then fight the case to the- supreme court of the United States. The persuasions of his friends to avoid the issue by payment of the tax (only ten dollars) were without avail, and it was understood that the tax was paid by his friends in spite of his opposition. Judge Comstock took an active interest in founding benevolent and educational institutions, and in 1869 initiated the movement which resulted in the location of Syracuse University in Syracuse. He donated one-half of the one hundred thousand dollars necessary for the purpose. He was one of the trustees from the time of its organization in 1870 until his death, and for several years was vice-president of the board. He was virtually one of the founders of St. Johns School for boys at Manlius, and presented it with sixty thousand dollars. He was one of the incorporators of the Syracuse, Chenango & New York Railroad in 1868, and was trustee, director or origina tor of various other organizations, commercial or benevolent. He was married in 1839 to Miss Cornelia Noxon, daughter of B. Davis Noxon, one of his old law preceptors, of Syracuse. They had one son, George Franklin Comstock, deceased. LEROY MORGAN. LeRoy Morgan, late justice of the supreme court from 1868 to 1876, was born in Pompey, Onondaga county, New York, March 27, 1810, son of Lyman Morgan. He received his education at Pompey Academy, began the study of law in 1830, in the office of Daniel Gott, then of Pompey, and in 1831 removed to Manlius and finished his studies with Hon. Samuel L. Edwards. He was admitted as an attorney and counselor of the supreme court in 1834 and re mained in Manlius until 1839, when he removed to Baldwinsville, continuing there in practice until 1851. While there he was appointed district attorney for Onondaga county, serving as such from 1843 to 1848. He came to Syra cuse in 1851 and formed a partnership with David D. Hillis, who died in 1859. In the fall of that year Mr. Morgan was elected, on the republican ticket, a justice of the supreme court for the fifth judicial district for eight years, and at the end of that period was re-elected for another term of eight years, without Democratic oposition. In 1875, under the then existing provisions of the constitution relat ing to the court of appeals, he was designated to sit as associate judge with the judges of that court for the last year of his term. December 31, 1876, when his term ended, he returned to the practice of his profession in Syracuse and continued it until his death, May 15, 1880. 590 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Justice Morgan was conscientious and upright as a judge, a man of kindly dig nity, courteous, enjoying the confidence and good will of the bar and the esteem of the community. In 1832 he married Miss Elizabeth C, daughter of Mathew B. Slocum, of Pompey, and sister of the late Major General Henry W. Slocum, of Syra cuse, and afterwards of Brooklyn, New York. Theodore LeRoy Morgan, their eldest son,- and an attorney at law, was long the librarian of the court of apppeals library of Syracuse, whose death May 25, 1904, was greatly lamented by the bar. JAMES NOXON. James Noxon, late justice of the supreme court, was a son of the dis tinguished lawyer of the early history of the county, B. Davis Noxon. He was born at Onondaga Hill in 1817; was prepared for college at Pompey Academy; was two years a student in Hamilton College, and was graduated from Union College in 1838. He read law in his father's office and was a member of several firms during his practice as a lawyer. He was elected state senator for two successive terms, serving from 1856 to 1860. In 1875 he was elected a justice of the supreme court in the fifth judicial district, to succeed Justice Morgan, and died, while in office, January 6, 1881. Judge Noxon was an industrious and painstaking lawyer, a favorite referee, before he was elected a justice, and on the bench sought, with ill health obstructions, to do his full duty. His last years were saddened by illness and misfortunes. He was twice married and left a widow and a large family of children. WILLIAM CRAWFORD RUGER. William Crawford Ruger was chief judge of the court of appeals from January 1, 1883, to the time of his death, January 14, 1892. He was born in Bridgeport, Oneida county, New York, January 30, 1824, son of John Ruger, a prominent lawyer of that county, who removed in 1847 to Syra cuse, where he continued his practice until his death in 1855. Judge Ruger studied law in his father's office, was admitted to the bar in 1845, and prac ticed in his native village until 1853, when he came to Syracuse and formed a partnership with his father. After his father's death he continued his practice until his elevation to the bench, as a member of the successive firms of Ruger & Lester; Ruger & Jenney; Ruger, Wallace & Jenney; Ruger, Jen ney, Brooks & French; and Ruger, Jenney, Brooks & Marshall. Judge Ruger was a man of great reserve force; as a lawyer at the bar, earnest and direct, disdaining mere tricks of temporary advantage and in the trial of causes, giving all his strength to maintaining by logic and authority, the legal rights of his clients. He was a remarkably forceful and impressive speaker, both from native quality, and from his sincerity and earnestness in a cause, but without the special graces of oratory. In the trial of a cause he was always courteous to the bench and to his adversary, although he could on occasion very vigorously maintain his rights toward the one and PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 591 resent the impertinence of the other. He was a delightful social compan ion, always bearing a native born dignity, but fond of the play of wit with however, on occasion, wit with too keen an edge. When he went upon the bench, he retained all his old qualities of comradeship, but with fitting dig nity. He was a profound lawyer, a powerful advocate, a wise and just judge. In politics he was a democrat and was prominent in the politics of that party, and received from it many honors. On May 2, 1860, Judge Ruger was married to Miss Harriet, eldest daugh ter of Hon. Erastus S. Prosser, of Buffalo, New York. They had one son, Crawford Prosser Ruger, a lawyer in New York city, who died December 24^ 1907 WILLIAM SHANKLAND ANDREWS. William Shankland Andrews, justice of the supreme court, was born in Syracuse, September 25, 1858, the son of Hon. Charles Andrews, former chief judge of the court of appeals, and of Mrs. Marcia (Shankland) Andrews, daughter of the late Hon. William H. Shankland, justice of the supreme court in the sixth district. Mr. Andrews was graduated from Harvard University, A. B., in 1880, and from the Columbia Law School of Columbia University, LL. B., in 1882, and was then admitted to the bar. In the fall of that year he formed a partnership with Martin A. Knapp and Edwin Nottingham, under the firm name of Knapp, Nottingham & Andrews. Later, his brother, Charles Walker Andrews was admitted to the firm. In this firm he practiced his profession until his election as justice of the supreme court in November, 1899, for a term of fourteen years. His ability and success as a practicing lawyer. his character and his sterling quality as a man early marked him as one specially fitted for high judicial position. He possesses the finer grace and courtesy of his distinguished father, and inherits also the same high type of legal ability, sound judgment, firmness of conviction, integrity, deep sense of duty and marvelous industry. Few men have been elected to the bench with such general satisfaction of both the bar and the community in his native county and district, as in the case of Justice Andrews. His eight years of judicial service have deepened and strengthened that satisfaction and justified the choice of the people in his selection for the high office he holds, and inspires the hope that many years of usefulness and still higher honors may be his. Justice Andrews finds his summer rest and most delightful recreation in camping by the lakes in tire Canadian forests, accompanied by his wife and son, his eager and successful fellow sportsmen. He was married Decem ber 31, 1884, to Miss Mary Raymond Shipman, daughter of the late Rev. J. S. Shipman, D. D., rector of Christ's Church, New York city. She has earned a wide and deserved reputation as an author. They have one son, Paul, now a student in Yale University. 592 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY- ELIAS W. LEAVENWORTH. Elias Warner Leavenworth was one of the most conspicuous and useful citizens of his time in the history of Syracuse. He was born at Canaan, Columbia county, New York, December 20, 1803, and died at Syracuse, November 24, 1887. He was graduated at Yale College, with honor in 1824; pursued his law studies in 1824-1825, first, with William Cullen Bryant (who was then practicing law at Great Barrington, Massachusetts), and then in the Law School at Litchfield, Connecticut, until January, 1827, when he was admitted to practice in all the courts of Connecticut. He came to Syracuse in November of that year, on the advice of Hon. Joshua A. Spencer, of Utica. Syracuse was his home and the scene of his marvelous activities in public and business life, until his death sixty years afterward. He became a law partner first with B. Davis Noxon, the firm afterward includ ing George F. Comstock, James Noxon and others. This firm of Noxon & Leavenworth, with its various changes, continued, from February, 1829, until 1850, when Mr. Leavenworth abandoned his profession on account of his health, which had become seriously impaired by constant public speaking in the great campaign of 1840. Mr. Leavenworth became much interested, while a young man, in state military matters, rising, step by step, from lieutenant of artillery, in 1832, to brigadier general in 1836, and holding that office until 1841. From that time he was generally called by his military title, "General" Leaven worth. His interest and activity in the development and welfare of the village, and later the city of Syracuse, were earnest, wise and productive from the time he became a Syracuson almost to the day of his death. He was a "pub-' lie-spirited citizen" in the best and widest sense. As early as 1837, he became a trustee of the young village, and for the three years following was its president, and was elected mayor of the city in the spring of 1849, and member of assembly for the year 1850. In all these positions he worked indefatigably for the interests confided to him. Mr. Leavenworth was elected secretary of state in the fall of 1853; and again elected member of assembly for the year 1857. He was prominent in organizing Oakwood Cemetery Association in 1857-1858, and was president of its board of trustees from the date of its formation until his death. He was also one of the founders and long time trustee of the Syracuse Home Association for old ladies, a trustee of the Onondaga County Orphan Asylum, and several other charitable institutions, and of the First Presbyterian Church of Syracuse, from 1837; a director in numerous business corporations, a regent of the University of the State of New York, and president of Syracuse Savings Bank from January, 1862, until his resignation in 1883; member of forty-fourth congress, 1875-1877. His service in the Savings Bank closed the active life of a man who impressed himself upon every feature of the growth and development of Syracuse. PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 593 By judicious investments in lands, he accumulated a fortune which he used without ostentation, and for the help of every good public enterprise. He was a cultured, kindly gentleman, but somewhat firm in his opin ions. As a lawyer he was able, honorable and successful ; as a business man his integrity and wisdom were unquestioned ; as a public benefactor he had no superior among his fellow citizens. UNITED STATES JUDGES, ATTORNEYS AND COMMISSIONERS. William James Wallace, appointed United States district judge, April 7, 1874; appointed United States circuit judge, April 6, 1882. Resigned 1907, and became head of law firm, in New York city, of Wallace, Butler & Brown. Martin A. Knapp, member of United States inter-state commerce com mission, appointed by President Harrison, February, 1891, re-appointed by President Cleveland in February, 1897, by President Roosevelt in Decem ber, 1902, elected chairman in January, 1898, and still chairman of the commission, 1908. James R. Lawrence, United States attorney for northern district of New York, appointed September 24, 1850. He was the official prosecutor in the case of the fugitive slave "Jerry," before his son-in-law, Joseph F. Sabine, United States commissioner, October 1, 1851. Joseph F. Sabine, appointed 1850, United States commissioner; B. Davis Noxon, October 22, 1867 ; William C. Ruger, July 8, 1858 ; A. Judd North rup, appointed March 22, 1870, still in office ; Daniel F. Gott, April 2, 1872. Daniel F. Gott, register in bankruptcy, appointed May 10, 1867. Charles L. Stone, referee in bankruptcy, appointed in 1898, and still in office, 1908. UNITED STATES SENATOR. Frank Hiscoek, elected 1887, held office six years, is the only Onondaga county man ever having had this high honor. MEMBERS OF THE ONONDAGA BAR ELECTED TO CONGRESS. Freeborn G. Jewett, twenty-second congress, 1821-23. Daniel Gott, thirtieth and thirty-first congress, 1847-51. Charles B. Sedgwick, thirty-sixth and thirty-seventh congress, 1859-63. Thomas T. Davis, thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth congress, 1863-67. Elias W. Leavenworth, forty-fourth congress, 1875-77. Frank Hiscoek, forty-fifth to fiftieth congress inclusive, 1877-1887. Michael E. Driscoll, fifty-sixth to sixty-first congress inclusive, 1897- 1908. ATTORNEY GENERALS FROM ONONDAGA. Daniel Pratt, elected November 4, 1873. Theodore E. Hancock, elected 1895, and re-elected in 1897. 594 Past and present of onondaga county STATE SENATORS— MEMBERS OF THE BAR. Samuel L. Edwards, 1834-40, inclusive. Henry J. Sedgwick, 1845-6-7. James Noxon, 1856-7, 1858-9. George N. Kennedy, 1868-9, 1870-1. Daniel P. Wood, 1872-3, 1874-5. Horace White, 1896,1906-8. STATE BOARD OF LAW EXAMINERS. William P. Goodelle, in 1894 appointed by the court of appeals, state law examiner, and has since been president of the board. Still in office (1908). STATE BOARD OF TAX COMMISSIONERS. Ceylon H. Lewis, appointed member of the board by Governor Higgins in 1905, resigned after several months because of professional engage ments. COMMISSIONERS OF STATUTORY REVISION. A. Judd Northrup, appointed February 8, 1895, one of the commissioners by Governor Morton, and confirmed by the senate; remained in office until the close of the commission, January 1, 1901. THE MUNICIPAL COURT OF THE CITY OF SYRACUSE. The act of the legislature establishing this court was passed in 1892. Under the provisions of the act, Governor Flower appointed two judges, of different party affiliation, one to hold office for five years and the other for six years. At the close of their respective terms, their successors were to be elected for terms of six years each. William G. Cady, appointed January 1, 1893, for five years. Patrick J. Ryan, appointed January 1, 1893, for six years. These judges have been elected and re-elected as their several terms expired, and are stfll in office, 1908. COUNTY JUDGES. The judges of county courts were appointed by the governor and senate until the adoption of the constitution of 1846, but have since been elective. The county judges of Onondaga county have been as follows: Seth Phelps, appointed March 14, 1794, was a resident of what is now Cayuga PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 595 county, before the present limits of this county were established. Reuben Humphrey, appointed July 3, 1804 ; Dan Bradley, June 8, 1807 ; Joshua For man, March 21, 1811; Gideon Forman, March 9, 1813; Nehemiah H. Earll, February 1, 1823 ; Samuel L. Edwards, April 30, 1831 ; John Watson, Febru ary 16, 1833; Grove Lawrence, February 23, 1838; Daniel Pratt, February 23, 1843; James R. Lawrence, elected June, 1847; Richard Woolworth, appointed (in place of Lawrence resigned) October 18, 1850; Israel Spencer, elected November, 1850 ; Richard Woolworth, elected November, 1854 ; Henry Riegel, elected November, 1862, and by three re-elections held the office until December 31, 1882 ; A. Judd Northrup, elected November, 1882, and re-elected November, 1888, William M. Ross, elected November, 1894, and twice re-elected still in office (1908). DISTRICT ATTORNEYS. The original appellation of this office was that of assistant attorney gen eral. The districts embraced several counties. The office was filled by the governor and council during pleasure. The office of district attorney was created April 4, 1801. In 1818 each county was constituted a separate dis trict for the purposes of this office. District attorneys were appointive under the constitution of 1821 by the courts of sessions, until 1847, after which time they were elective. The following have been appointed or elected dis trict attorneys of this county: Victor Birdseye, June 17, 1818; Jerome L. Briggs, 1836; William J. Dodge, 1841; LeRoy Morgan, 1843; Henry Shel don, elected, June, 1847 ; Rowland H. Gardner, 1850 ; Charles Andrews, 1853 ; Henry S. Fuller, 1856 ; Frank Hiscoek, 1859 ; William H. Gifford, 1862 ; Levi W. Hall, 1865 ; Frederick A. Lyman, 1868 ; William P. Goodelle, 1871 ; William James, 1874; Nathaniel M. White, 1877; Harrison Hoyt, 1880; Ceylon IT. Lewis, 1883; Lawrence T. Jones, 1886; Theodore E. Hancock, 1889; Benjamin J. Shove, 1892; Jay B. Kline, 1895, and reelected 1898; William L. Barnum 1901 and re-elected 1904 ; George H. Bond, 1907. SURROGATES OF ONONDAGA COUNTY. The following is a list of the surrogates of this county, with the dates of their respective appointments or election: Moses DeWitt, appointed March 14, 1794; Thomas Mumford, October 1, 1797; Thaddeus M. Wood March 21, 1799; George HaU, April 2, 1800; Medad Curtiss, March 20, 1810; George Hall, February 18, 1811; James~ Porter, February 14, 1822; Freeborn G. Jewett, February 11, 1824; John Fleming, Jr., April 12, 1831; Isaac T. Minard, January 24, 1840; David D. Hillis, February 8, 1844; Isaac T. Minard, elected, June, 1847; L. Harris Hiscoek, elected November, 1851; Amasa IT. Jerome elected November, 1855; Samuel D. Luce, elected November, 1859; Oscar L. Sprague, elected November, 1863; DeWitt C. Greenfield, appointed October 9, 1865, in place of Sprague, deceased, and elected November, 1865; 596 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Cyrus Sweet, elected November, 1869; George R. Cook, elected November, 1874, and reelected and held office until December 31, 1891; Edgar P. Glass, elected November, 1891, and twice reelected and still in office (1908). FRANK HARRIS HISCOCK. Frank Harris Hiscoek, associate judge of the court of appeals by appoint ment from the supreme court, belongs to a family of distinguished law yers, to the honor of which he has notably added by his marked success as a practicing attorney and by his career as a judge. He. was born April 16, 1856, the son of an able lawyer, the late Hon. L. Harris Hiscoek, and a nephew of the Hon. Frank Hiscoek, former United States senator. His native instinct for the law was stimulated by these associations from his earliest years. He entered Cornell University when only fifteen years of age and was graduated with honor in the class of 1875. He has since been one of the influential members of the board of trustees of that institution, having been first elected in 1889 for three years and after an interval was again elected and is still serving. He studied law in his uncle's office and was admitted to the bar in 1878, becoming a member of the firm of Hiscoek, Gifford & Hiscoek. Later Mr. Gifford retired and the firm became Hiscoek, Doheny & Hiscoek, consisting of Frank Hiscoek, George Doheny and Frank H. Hiscoek. His labors in that firm were arduous, involving some most important cases, which he conducted to a successful termination. He speed ily won distinction as an able lawyer and his natural qualities of frank ness, sincerity and geniality won the confidence, good will and admiration of all who came within the circle of his acquaintance. He is a public speaker - of fine quality and power. While a practicing lawyer, he took a deep interest in politics as an ardent republican. In January, 1896, Mr. Hiscoek was appointed by Governor Morton, jus tice of the supreme court for the fifth judicial district to fill the vacancy caused by the apointment of Judge Vann to the court of appeals. In Novem ber, 1896, he was elected justice of the supreme court for a term of fourteen years, beginning January 1, 1897. In the fall of 1899 he was designated by Governor Roosevelt as one of the justices of the appellate division, fourth department, but declined the appointment in order to remain in his own district, which seemed to require his services in trial work. In October, 1901, he was again designated to the same position by Governor Odell and accepted. He served in that court until January, 1906, at which time he was appointed by Governor Higgins associate judge of the court of appeals under the provisions of the constitution authorizing the governor to appoint supreme court justices to that court on requirement of the elected judges when the business of that court became excessive. He is still serving in that capacity, a vital force in that learned body and with a usefulness and distinction which indicate the proper field of his future judicial career. Judge Hiscoek was married in 1879 to Miss Ma-ry Elizabeth Barnes, PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 597 daughter of the late George Barnes, a prominent citizen of Syracuse, who was engaged in large business and industrial enterprises. Their children are: Helen Lucy, the wife of William H. Eager; George Barnes; and L. Harris Hiscoek. PETER B. McLENNAN. Peter Baillie McLennan, justice of the supreme court and chief justice of the appellate division, fourth department, was born in the town of Lyndon, Cattaraugus county, New York, December 3, 1850, a son of Colin and Ann (Frazer) McLennan, who came from Scotland in 1846. He received his education at Alfred University, from which he was graduated in 1873, and has received the degrees of Ph. D. and LL. D. In September of that year he came to Syracuse and began reading law in the office of Bookstaver & Kings! ey, but after two months taught school in Geddes for a term, after which he resumed his law studies in the office of Fuller & Vann. He was admitted to the bar in October, 1876. He practiced alone for three months and then formed a partnership with Major E. 0. Farrar which relationship continued a year. He was next a member of the law firm of Vann, McLennan & Dillaye until 1881, when Irving G. Vann, the senior member, was elected justice of the supreme court. The firm of Waters, McLennan & Dillaye was then organized. Mr. McLennan had been the active trial member of the firm and as such had won a wide reputation. In 1882 he was appointed general counsel for the New York, West Shore & Buffalo Railroad Company, with headquarters in New York city, and continued as such until that com pany passed under the control of the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad Company. Returning to Syracuse, he resumed practice alone for a short time and then became a member of the firm of Tracy, McLennan & Oyling, which con tinued until January 1, 1893. In November, 1892, Mr. McLennan was elected justice of the supreme court in the fifth judicial district for fourteen years from January 1, 1893. In 1898 he was appointed by Governor Black an associate justice upon the appellate division for the fourth department and has since been continuously a member of that court. In 1903 he was appointed by Governor Odell, presiding justice of the court. In November, 1896, he was reelected a justice of the supreme court for a term -ending December 31, 1920, and was redesignated as presiding justice by Governor Hughes, in January, 1907. Justice McLennan inherits the best characteristics of his Scotch ancestors. In addition to all the solid qualities, he has wit and humor and a splendid faculty for friendship. His training has finely developed his strong natural ability. His tremendous energy made him a power at the bar. His knowl edge of the law mingled with a keen discerning judgment, his large experience and his genial qualities, make him one of the most useful judges of the state. With a happy home and domestic relations, hosts of friends, an hon orable, useful and successful public life, rugged health and a sane optimism, 598 PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY Justice McLennan may well be counted one of the most deservedly success ful men of the county and the state. He is a republican and a member of the Century Club, Citizens' Club and the University Club. He is a law lec turer in the College of Law of Syracuse University. Justice McLennan always spends his summers at his old home in Lyndon, where he has a fine stock farm. He is a very successful farmer as well as an eminent jur ist. Mr. McLennan was married December 1, 1881, to Miss Belle Barron, of Addison, New York. They have one son, Colin W., who graduated from Liberal Arts College, of Syracuse University, in June, 1907. He is also a mem ber of the class of 1908 of the Syracuse University College of Law. Their daughter, Marion, is a member of the class of 1908 of Smith College, at Northampton, Massachusetts, while the second daughter, Christina, is a mem ber of the class of 1909, of Syracuse University.