Seeing Oneida County

Jay G. Williams

Gwenfrewi Santes Press

Jay G. Williams

Gwenfrewi Santes Press “Wherever the head rolls” 2015

2015

The front cover is a photograph of the Oriskany Valley taken from Roberts Road.

The inside back cover picture is of the Mohawk valley taken from Austin Road near where Asahel Grant was born.

Table of Contents

Introduction Maps

Chapter One: 1

Chapter Two: Settlement Begins 25

Chapter Three: A New World in the Making 67

Chapter Four: Transforming Society 91

Chapter Five: The Great Conflict and Its Aftermath 127

Chapter Six: Oneida County Comes of Ages 167

Indices 211

Further Reading 216

Introduction

I should make clear, first of all, that this is not an “official” introduction to Oneida County. In fact, one might say that it is highly “unofficial” and personal. It is just one person’s attempt to express his own delight with the history and riches and beauties of the world that surrounds us here in Central New York. I could have, of course, widened my focus to include the surrounding counties that have their own special places of interest, but I decided to leave that task for others. There is enough right here in Oneida County to make quite a big and many-sided book.

I should also say that this book is named “Seeing Oneida County,” so the emphasis will be upon pictures and not upon extended text. Yes, there will be explanations and an occasional footnote, but I do not intend this to be a scholarly tome. Most of the information contained herein can be found quite easily on the Web where there are sites for each of the several townships of Oneida County as well as for many of the historical figures mentioned in the text. Nevertheless, I believe that seeing may be more important than just “the facts.”

I should also emphasize that this is not meant to be an “aesthetic” book. The pictures are snapshots, sometimes just of old signs. The camera is very ordinary and so is my “aim” sometimes. The objective is not to overwhelm with beauty but to encourage the readers to see for themselves.

I should also apologize ahead of time for missing this or that important person, place, or event. I am sure that some readers knowledgeable about the area will ask “Why didn’t he mention this or that?” The truth is that although I have lived in Oneida County most of my life, there are many things I do not know about it. So I apologize even before you speak. But do speak, for maybe in the next printing (if there is one) I can include what you suggest.

My biggest regret is that the book includes very few important women in its discussion. That is not because I did not look for important women but because, during much of the period we are looking at, women were considered inferior to men. Christianity was highly patriarchal and it took years to overcome the belief that only men are made in the image of God. Women did not even get the right to vote until 1920!!!

I should also say that what I am looking for in the county are evidences of the past and not so much images of the present. Therefore, there are no pictures of the Utica Comets in their play-offs in 2015 nor even of the Boiler Maker. I offer very little by way of modern industries or modern housing or famous people living in the county today. Emphasis is upon where we have been and not where we are.

Although all townships are mentioned in the text, I should also admit that some are far more emphasized than others. That is not because of my internal prejudice but because several townships1 have far fewer residents and, quite frankly, far less history. Several townships, in fact, contain no incorporated villages and only a very small population. Others, such as Whitestown, contain four villages and, as a result, much more history to think about and see.

Some may criticize the fact that Clinton and the Kirkland township are more emphasized than many other places. Perhaps that is because I am a Clintonian, but it is also because Hamilton College was really, for many years, the county’s only institution of higher learning and hence attracted students and faculty with strongly intellectual interests and abilities.

In any event, I hope you enjoy this excursion into Oneida County. I encourage you to get in your car and see it for yourself.

Jay G. Williams

1 Townships without an incorporated village include Annsville, Ava, Bridgewater, Deerfield, Florence, Floyd, Lee, Marcy, Verona, and Western. Marshall escapes the list only because a small piece of the village of Waterville extends into the township. I should also say that Bridgewater was once a village but has recently unincorporated itself. Maps

Oneida County when settlement began.

Oneida County as it is today

Chapter I: Beginnings

Perhaps the most important geographical feature of Oneida County is the Mohawk River that flows down from the north and then turns eastward to receive the waters of other streams like the Oriskany, Sauquoit, and West Canada Creeks to form the Mohawk Valley. From Rome, the river runs from west to east, connecting with the Hudson River near Troy, N.Y. as its largest tributary.

This fact was very important for the history of America, for at the beginning, the colonies, and then the states, were hemmed in by the Appalachian Mountains that made slow going for those who sought to go west. The Mohawk River offered a way of sailing west, at least half way across the state. One should not assume, however, that there was no travel west before canals were built. Indeed, right after the Revolutionary War, many left their homes in Virginia, North Carolina, and several other states and headed to what is now the Midwest. Still, the Mohawk River, converted into the Erie Canal, made American travel and shipping much easier.

In the north country, the Mohawk appears as a relatively small brook. Here is the river in West Branch, in the town of Lee.

After it connects with its east branch, it begins to look like a river.

1 Here is the way it looks in Rome, N.Y. just before it turns east and heads for the Hudson.

2 It is interesting that flowing down the west side of Rome is another very small stream called Wood Creek.

When it reaches the area south of Rome, however, it turns west, not east, flowing toward Oneida Lake and then, in a different river on to the Great Lakes. Although much, much smaller than the Mohawk, Wood Creek became the link between east and west. Rome then is a watershed and that played a vital role its development.

3 Long before European settlers arrived, Native Americans used this area between the Mohawk and Wood Creek as a carrying place. Once across what they called the “Deo- wain-sta” they could continue their voyage from the Hudson River all the way to the Great Lakes and what we call the Midwest. Today, the marker for the carrying place is south of the train tracks in south Rome.

The Deowainsta marker

Oneida1 County is named, of course, for a major Haudenosaunee tribe that had long lived in the area. Their central Long House was in the western part of the county in what is now know as Oneida Castle. The “castle” refers to the Long House that once stood on what is now a park in that village.

1 Oneida is actually a corruption of Onyota’a:ka that means People of the Upright Stone.

Site of the Longhouse in Oneida Castle

Oneida Lake at Sylvan Beach

The Oneidas were also very active around the eastern end of Oneida Lake, the easternmost finger lake often described as the “thumb.” Many, many items related to

Native American life have been found near the lake where Oneidas apparently often fished, hunted, and farmed.

Today, of course, the eastern end of Oneida Lake has become a summer resort. In the southern part, in the town of Verona, we find Verona Beach, a lovely State Park with plenty of room for swimming and picnicking and camping.

The northern half is Sylvan Beach, a town with many summer homes, restaurants, and a large marina. Here is one of the many boats that may be seen on the lake.

Not far away is an amusement park that operates all summer.

Sylvan Beach Amusement Park

Our concern, however, is not with modern amusement but with those peoples who occupied this land for 10,000 years. This is, after all, Oneida County.

Oneidas were linked with other New York tribes: the Mohawks, who also, in part, resided in Oneida County, as well as the Onondagas, the Cayugas, the Senecas and the Tuscaroras who lived to the west. These “Iroquois” tribes, as the French explorers called them, occupied most of the central New York region from what is now Amsterdam to Buffalo. They also hunted in regions far beyond that.

Although the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts as early as 1620 and had spread through much of New England by 1750, very few people had moved to central New York. One reason for that is that the Hudson River area was occupied, for some time, by the Dutch and that inhibited western expansion by the English. So Albany and Schenectady had been founded, but to the west most of the land was occupied and defended by Native Americans and by the French who claimed the western part of what was to become New York State. When the British defeated the French, they still prohibited settlement in the area.

A few hunters for pelts did penetrate the region and someone as early as 1730 did dig a short canal to “straighten out” the Mohawk River a bit. It is difficult now to penetrate the area where the first little canal was dug, but a sign tells the story.

Although the land was not settled, the English did use the waterways and knew that the carrying place was an important area. Therefore they established three small forts in the area. The one closest to Wood Creek was Fort Bull, a small fort and storage area without cannon. It was named for Ltd. William Bull, the commanding officer. In March of 1756, during the French and Indian War, French Lieutenant Gaspard Joseph Chaussegros de Lery led a group of French troops, Canadian militia, and Indian fighters in an attack upon Fort Bull. More than one hundred defenders of the fort were killed and scalped. The fort stored a large number of munitions and these were blown up by the French. A force led by Sir William Johnson arrived too late to save the Fort and the destruction of munitions may have contributed to the loss of Fort Oswego. Nothing remains of Fort Bull, but a stone of commemoration exists at the site that is now within the Erie Canal Village.

The Sign of Fort Bull

By August 1756 the English were back, building a much more substantial fort, this time nearer the eastern end of the Carrying Place. Fort Stanwix, as it was called after the name of the commanding officer John Stanwix, was more strongly fortified but was not attacked by the French. After the war’s conclusion the fort fell into disrepair but in 1768 it did become the site of a major conference and treaty with the Native Americans. A few settlers were beginning to arrive and wanted to settle on the land. The treaty overseen by Sir William Johnson, specified a line of property beyond which the land was to be owned by the Haudenoshanee. A marker, indicating that line, exists near the foot of College Hill Road near Clinton.

It reads “The Line of Property between the American Colonies and the Six Nations Fixed by Treaty at Fort Stanwix, Nov. 5, 1768

A word should be said about Sir William Johnson (1715-1774) who, though not an inhabitant of what was to become Oneida County, visited here often. After tending to his uncle’s property in the Fonda region, he learned the Mohawk language and became friends with the local inhabitants. Eventually, he was appointed Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Northern Region by the British. He was, however, a Tory and strong supporter of the crown. If he had lived longer he would have had to flee to Canada because of his political views. His home in Johnstown is now a museum that deserves a visit as does his house located closer to the canal.

Again Fort Stanwix fell into disrepair only to be rebuilt at the time of the American Revolution. This time it was called Fort Schuyler, named after Peter Schuyler, the commanding general of the northern revolutionaries, and occupied by some of them.2 In

2 The name is very confusing, for what was to become Utica already had a Fort named Schuyler. Apparently the name Stanwix was abandoned because it was the name of a British officer and that hardly would do for an American Fort. To end the confusion, we have now reverted to the name Fort Stanwix. The Utica fort is called Old Fort Schuyler.

10 May of 1777, soldiers under the leadership of Peter Gansevoort arrived. By August, the British attacked. The conflict was part of a major three-pronged plan to split the colonies and thus stifle the revolution. General William Howe was to proceed upward from New York City to Albany, securing all the forts on the way. General John Burgoyne was to come down from Canada and conquer all the territory around and south of Lake Champlain. General Barry St. Leger was to begin in what is now Niagara and head eastward, destroying forts such as Fort Schuyler that were occupied by the American forces.

Statue of Peter Gansevoort in Rome, N.Y.

Things did not work out as devised. For some reason, General Howe never left New York; General Burgoyne did come as planned but was defeated in the battle of Saratoga and General St. Leger got as far as Fort Schuyler and was stymied. Col. Gansevoort simply would not submit but was able to hold off what were supposed to be over-

11 powering forces. It should also be noted that this was the first time the Stars and Stripes were flung in battle.

Along with this little marker showing where the British “dug in” we also find in Rome, near the former City Hall, a monument dedicated to the unknown American soldiers whose remains were found.

12 While the siege continued, General Herkimer, from a little way down the valley, gathered a fighting force and marched over to try to raise the siege. On the way, however, he, himself, was ambushed by English and Native American fighters and in that battle lost his life. A monument stands to commemorate the bravery of Herkimer and his men. They lost the battle, but St. Leger was, nonetheless, forced to retreat and the revolution went on. By the time Benedict Arnold arrived with 800 men, St. Leger had long gone. It was time for merry making.

Oriskany Monument where Gen. Herkimer was killed

So, though Oneida County was essentially unsettled, it became an important site in both the French and Indian and the Revolutionary Wars. Had Fort Stanwix (then called Fort Schuyler) not held out, St. Leger might well have come to Burgoyne’s aid and the revolution itself stymied.

In 1967, after careful archaeological study, reconstruction of the fort began and in 1976 the National Monument was first opened to the public. Here are some pictures from the modern reconstruction.

Fort Stanwix from the East

One small room at the Fort reminds us of another important person of the time. It is a re- creation of the room where Samuel Kirkland stayed as chaplain of the fort.

Samuel Kirkland (1741-1808) came originally from Norwich, Connecticut and studied with Eleazer Wheelock who had started a school for Native Americans and whites that eventually became Dartmouth College. Kirkland went on to study at the College of New Jersey (Princeton) and became an ordained Presbyterian minister. In 1765, with Sir William Johnson’s approval, he began his missionary work first among the Senecas and then, when that did not work out well, among the Oneidas.

He became fluent in the Haudenosaunee languages and a very good friend of the Oneida leader, Skenandoah. More than anyone else, Kirkland convinced Skenandoah and the Oneidas first to remain neutral and then side with the revolutionaries during the war. Along Route 5 in the town of Vernon one can see a large stone commemorating the life of the famous Indian chief.

The plaque, however, is not completely accurate. Skenandoah was first buried beside Kirkland near his home on what is now Harding Road, just outside Clinton. Later, both graves were moved up to the Hamilton College cemetery. A few years ago Skenandoah’s monument was replaced by a more appropriate one. This is how the monuments look today.

Skenandoah’s grave

Samuel Kirkland’s grave

18 The original plan was for Kirkland to promote Wheelock’s school in Connecticut, but it soon became clear that it was too far away to attract younger Oneidas. Kirkland, therefore, began creating grammar schools for Oneida children with the basic idea that there to be a fusion of settlers and Oneidas. Not only did he think that Oneidas should convert to Christianity (which many of them did) but that Oneida and colonist children should learn together.

He then began to plan for a higher level of learning for those Oneidas who were ready for it. Originally he lived near the Oneida Longhouse in what is now Oneida Castle, but after the war the Oneidas generously offered him a fairly large tract of land on their eastern border so that new comers to the area (which turned out to be what is now Clinton, N.Y.) could share their education with Oneida students. So Kirkland moved to the area between the Oriskany Creek and what is now College Hill and built a log cabin. The school began in a small building that eventually burned down. It was replaced by another small structure that today stands on the Hamilton College campus.

To make all this possible, Kirkland went to Washington and got the approval of Alexander Hamilton who, it is said, provided a small start-up fund from the National Treasury and became a trustee. So the name of the school became the “Hamilton-Oneida Academy.

Alexander Hamilton, A Trustee of the Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793

Unfortunately, the school did not attract many Oneidas but it did serve the new settlers. The story of its future will be told in later chapters.

At first Kirkland lived in a log cabin but eventually he decided to build a more impressive house for himself. Although it has been added to and redecorated many times, it still stands in something of its original splendor near the foot of College Hill on Harding Road.

The Kirkland Mansion, Harding Road (now a Bed and Breakfast)

For many years, Kirkland’s wife Jerusha and his children lived in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He would visit them there, for she decided the wilderness was not for her. She is buried in a cemetery in Stockbridge. Even before she died, however, some of his children came to live with him. Among them was John Thornton Kirkland who went on to become President of Harvard from 1810 until 1828. Samuel Kirkland’s second wife continued to live in the house for several years after his death in 1808.

In the meantime, new events were occurring with the Native American community. Several tribes in southeastern New York and New England had been decimated by warfare and disease. Remnants of these tribes, now converted to Christianity, formed a new “tribe” called the Brothertown Indians. They were allowed by the Oneidas to settle in their territory in what would become the town of Marshall. Although there are only a few physical evidences of their presence, the views from the land they inhabited are beautiful.

The rolling hills in Marshall are magnificent

One of the major leaders of the Brothertown Indians was Samson Occam who was a Christian minister and orator. Later he was chosen to go to Britain to raise money for Dartmouth College. That he did very, very successfully, convincing many hearers of the intelligence and faith of Native Americans. It might very well be that Dartmouth would never have gotten started had it not been for his enthusiasm for the project. He became one of the best-known Native Americans in Britain.

Along the road from Deansboro to Waterville one can see a sign indicating the site of his house.

The house nearby may or may not have been his.

Occom is buried in a small cemetery off Bogusville Road near the hamlet of Deansboro.

The Brothertown Indians stayed until the late 1820s but eventually were pushed out by more and more white settlers. In Deansboro there lived a Quaker missionary to the Indians by the name of Thomas Dean. He also served as the coordinator of Indian Affairs. His home is still there.

Thomas Dean’s Home

Behind the main building is another structure originally used as an office for Indian Affairs. It contains a large brick Indian oven.

It should also be mentioned that in nearby Madison County another group of Indians, this time from Stockbridge, Massachusetts, were granted land by the Oneidas. Since Kirkland’s wife lived in Stockbridge and he visited there often, it is highly likely that Kirkland had a hand in convincing the Oneidas to cede the land to them.

In any event, as pressure grew on the Native Americans to leave, Thomas Dean travelled westward to find land for them. After searching in Indiana and Illinois, he found land in Wisconsin. If one goes to eastern Wisconsin today, one will find towns and areas named for the Brothertowns, the Stockbridge, and the Oneidas. A considerable number of Native Americans still reside there, including more than 2000 who identify themselves as Brothertown Indians.

25 Chapter 2: Settlement Begins

Although German settlers from the Palatinate had been allowed to settle in 1722 in what is still called German Flats, located in Herkimer County, there had been no real settlement in Oneida County until after the Revolutionary War. One reason for that may be that French and Indian warriors had attacked and virtually destroyed the German settlement more than once. Even after the French and Indian war, this region may have been thought of as quite dangerous. This is part of the reason the British forbade settlement.

In any event, the first settler in the area now known as Oneida County, was Hugh White who had bought with others a huge tract of land. Among the others was General William Floyd who also settled in the area after the war. He had signed the Declaration of Independence, served as delegate to the Continental Congress, and acted as a Presidential Elector among other things. The town of Floyd is named after him, but his home was in Westernville in the town of Western.

The William Floyd Homestead, Westernville, N.Y.

White, however, bought Floyd out and was in charge of the huge tract that seemed to cover most of Western New York. Over the next few years other counties and then other townships were broken off from the “Mother town” of Oneida County. Even the city of Utica was once part of Whitestown.

25 White himself came from Middletown, Connecticut where life was very well organized, but he dreamed of the riches of land ownership and a new life in the “west.” He was not alone in this. In fact, within a few years central New York was filled with Connecticut and Massachusetts Yankees seeking a new life on better land and without the restrictions of the old Puritan culture.

So he, along with a few other co-owners of the land used a flat-bottomed boat and poled their way up the Mohawk in 1784. They stopped briefly in German Flats but then proceeded on until they found a stopping place where the Sauquoit Creek empties into the Mohawk River. They stayed there for the summer clearing land, but in the fall returned to Connecticut. The next summer they brought their families to their settlement by boat.

Thus began the “Mother Township” of the county. From it, many other townships were formed. In the meantime, the community of Whiteboro grew. In the middle of the village was erected in 1807 the Whitestown Townhall; it still is in use today.

Whitestown Town Hall

It should also be mentioned that in 1801, Henry Inman, who became one of America’s foremost portrait painters, was born nearby. Although his family moved to New York City in 1812, he seems to have preserved a warm spot in his heart for the place where he began life and returned to the area more than once.

The site of the new settlement was propitious, for it was not far from the Mohawk and therefore provided easy access. Surrounding them were rolling hills with plenty of rich farmland, exactly what Connecticut lacked. Here is a typical view of a farm in the town of Whitestown.

27 On the east side of the town of Whitestown was the site of Old Fort Schuyler that had fallen into disuse. It was placed there because the Mohawk was shallow at that point and that allowed fording of the river. Several Indian trails ran through the area that was once a Mohawk village.

The settlement, eventually to be called Utica, was first just a stopping point on the Mohawk. The meeting place for travelers was Bagg’s Tavern, at first just a log house. Eventually it became a stone building that still exists today near the site of the old fort.

Bagg’s Tavern

The population of Utica remained very small for some years. Indeed, New Hartford and Whitesboro were, for some time, much the larger and more prosperous communities. Utica was near a large swamp (now the Utica marshlands) and had no rushing stream to provide power for mills. People stopped for a rest but most did not stay. It was steam power that eventually turned the city into a great manufacturing area.

The State, however, did approve in 1800 the building of a road, the Seneca Turnpike, (now basically Route 5) that ran west through various towns to Canandaigua. This did help to make Utica a jumping off point for travel west by stage. Gradually, shopkeepers and craftsmen made their home in Utica. Everyone seemed to have something to sell. Utica became the commercial center for Oneida County.

Most people came to the area, however, for the agricultural land. Buying large tracts of land and then selling them off to prospective farmers became a popular enterprise. Even George Washington got into the act. Here is a sign found on Bristol Road in the town of Kirkland.

A new hamlet, however, needed more than just good land. Hugh White’s stop at a creek is not surprising, for creeks were very important for the founding of a hamlet or village. Not only was it a source of water for drinking; a creek also provided the power necessary for grist and sawmills. So it is not unpredictable that to this day most of our villages are near running water. In Clinton, it is the Oriskany Creek.

Oriskany Creek as it flows through Clinton

Nearby it is a sign that tells the story.

Before long Clinton (named after Governor George Clinton) became a thriving village with a Congregational Meeting House on the green. Eventually the church became Presbyterian, but until after the Civil War it retained its Connecticut, that is to say, Congregational, roots. Not surprisingly, the minister Azahel Norton was also from Yankee land. On the outskirts his house still stands, as one might expect, on what is now named Norton Avenue.

It should be added that Azahel’s brother Seth was also a Clinton inhabitant, an early teacher at Kirkland’s Hamilton-Oneida Academy. His specialty was Greek and Latin and that very fact may explain why Oneida children were not especially excited about the new academy. In any event, Seth Norton was still teaching when the institution moved via the Indian trail up College Hill to become New York State’s third college. After Columbia in New York City and Union College in Schenectady, Hamilton College was the third institution of higher learning recognized by the state. We will return to that subject a little later.

The Azahel Norton House

The primary founder of the town was Moses Foote who was born in Waterbury, Ct. in 1734. He was a strong, dedicated man who had fought in the Revolution and who became the “Patriarch” of the new community. He opened a tavern in the center of the

32 settlement. His house was also in the center of town and, as a result, is no longer standing. Even his grave remains unidentified.

His fellow settler, Barnabas Pond, however, built a little outside the hamlet and happily it still stands. It is interesting that the new settlers brought with them many of the basic styles of architecture popular in New England. In many respects, this area became “Little Connecticut.” Log cabins there were, but they were replaced just as soon as possible by large and sturdy homes. The wilderness look disappeared rather suddenly.

That does not mean that life was easy. Travel was difficult, for the roads still were essentially Indian trails. Stagecoaches sped along at about 4 miles per hour as long as the mud wasn’t too deep. Most travel was still upstream by the river. To the west lay open country but there was no easy way to get there. Forests were everywhere.

The Barnabus Pond House

Another early settler who left no house for us to see is Seth Hastings, a physician who came from Massachusetts. He not only served the area as a doctor but ran a farm, supported the church on the green, and acted as a trustee of the Hamilton-Oneida Academy. Most important, he gave to the world his son Thomas (1784-1872). We know little about Thomas’ education but he may have gone to the Hamilton-Oneida Academy. His field, however, was music. He became a director of singing-schools all over the area and then in New York City. He not only taught choirs and individuals how to sing. He wrote hymns and hymn tunes, anthems and cantatas, and several books about church music. In a word, he shaped dramatically the development of church music in America during the 19th Century. Although today remembered only for “Top lady,” the hymn tune for “Rock of Ages,” he should be regarded as one of Oneida County’s most illustrious sons.

Plaques on the Stone Presbyterian Church in Clinton

35 While Moses Foote and company were creating the village of Clinton, Jedediah Sanger (1751-1829) was doing the same for New Hartford. (Notice the Connecticut influence on the name.) Curiously, however, Sanger was born and raised in Sherburne, Massachusetts. He arrived in 1788 as the first white settler in what is now New Hartford. In 1789 he built a sawmill and in 1790 built a gristmill along the Sauquoit Creek. The town was in business.

Sanger was a very active and resourceful man. He was a partner in building and using the Paris Furnace. He became a judge and was involved in local politics. Like Alexander Hamilton, but not George Clinton, he was Federalist and therefore favored rule by the elite rather than the common man. It should also be mentioned that he was a Mason and really encouraged the whole Masonic movement that became so important in this area.

In 1791 a Congregational Church was formed in the community. This group was to receive the blessing and founding authority of the son of the famous Jonathan Edwards. In 1801, the congregation had grown enough to build a church that, though added to, still stands today in the center of the New Hartford.

New Hartford Presbyterian Church

36 One may wonder why this is not a Congregational Church today. It is because in 1801 Jonathan Edwards Jr. (the same minister who helped to found this church) proposed a Plan of Union for Congregationalists and Presbyterians. His plan was accepted. What this meant was that a congregation could call a minister from either denomination and could vote to join either denomination. Most congregations in New England stayed Congregational but in the new communities outside New England the tendency was to opt for the more structured organization of the Presbyterians. This helped to attract the north Irish Calvinists who also were settling in the area.

Jedediah Sanger’s influence extended beyond New Hartford. In 1788 Governor Clinton bought from the Oneidas a sizeable amount of land stretching down along the Unadilla River. He then, in turn, sold portions of the land to entrepreneurs. Sanger, though recently arrived in New Hartford, jumped at the chance and bought land that still bears his name, the town of Sangerfield.

The first settler there, Zerah Phelps, arrived in 1791, but he was soon followed by several others in 1792. In 1793 Sanger built a sawmill for them on the Waterville Creek. Soon there were stores and churches for families who settled in the surrounding area to engage in agriculture. South of the community was the Cherry Valley Turnpike (now Route 20), the one main road between Albany and Buffalo. Through Sangerfield also ran the Oneida Path, a trail used by Oneidas for many years. Although far from the Mohawk, Sangerfield and the hamlet of Waterville were “connected.”

In 1802 one family that was to greatly publicize the area arrived. It was the Loomis family. South of Waterville and Sangerfield is an area known as Nine Mile Swamp. It was in that swamp that the Loomis “gang” hid all the cattle and horses and other objects that they had stolen from their neighbors. Here is the way the swamp looks today.

Nine Mile Swamp

Although repeatedly caught and tried, good lawyers helped them to avoid punishment. Until 1865 the Loomis gang was surprisingly quite successful. Some of them died of natural causes before the family was attacked by mobs and uprooted in 1865. The real irony behind the whole crime is that the chief instigator was the mother, Rhoda Mallet Loomis, whose father had been imprisoned for embezzling money and who taught her children how to steal. Several books have been written about the Loomis Gang and all their nefarious work.

Despite the crime, southern Oneida County with its rich farmlands and wonderful scenic views, was a great place to settle. To this day, it remains one of the most beautiful parts of the world.

A view of the rolling hills near Waterville, N.Y.

To the west of Waterville, in the southwest corner of the county is a village that was first settled in the 1790s as Cassety Hollow. It was originally named after a Colonel Thomas Cassety who founded the village. Like so many other settlements it has a running stream (and falls) and is now known as Oriskany Falls.

According to Pomeroy Jones who wrote a history of Oneida County in 1851, Cassety’ father was a British officer, James Cassety who fought in the French and Indian war. When that was over he moved west, settling in Detroit. When the Revolutionary War broke out he was summoned to fight for the British. When he refused and the British sent a soldier to arrest him, Thomas shot the soldier and then fled into Indian territory. There he lived with the Shawnees and actually married a Shawnee woman. When the war was

39 over, Thomas returned east, leaving behind a son that some claim was none other than Tecumseh.1

The Oriskany Falls is right in the center of the village.

1 Pomeroy Jones, Recollections of Oneida County (Rome, 1851), pp. 109-112.

40 The village also features a Congregational Church, no longer in use, built in the 1850s.

A few miles north in Augusta, however, is a church where Samuel Kirkland preached that was started in 1793. It was founded by Congregationalists but, like so many other churches, is now Presbyterian. The structure was first built in 1812 but after the Civil

41 War the original building was “jacked up” and a floor was constructed beneath the main sanctuary. This church is still very much alive today.

In the meantime, over in what is now the township of Westmoreland, lived James Dean who came originally from Groton, Connecticut but at age twelve was sent to live with a Native American tribe on the Susquehanna River. There he learned to speak the Oneida language fluently. Eventually, he became an Indian agent who worked closely with both Samuel Kirkland and William Johnson. When the war began, he, along with Kirkland, convinced the Oneidas to side with the revolutionaries against the British.

After the war, he settled in what was to become the southwest part of Westmoreland.

The James Dean House today

He became a judge and a leader of the Westmoreland community. He died in 1823. Not too far away is the home of Pomeroy Jones who, in 1851, published the famous Annals and Reflections of Oneida County.

Meanwhile, new events began to take place at old Fort Stanwix. A few settlers had already begun to build homes near the site of the fort when Dominick Lynch, in 1786, bought the “Expense Lot.” Later he was to buy 2000 more acres of property. Unlike the

42 other “founders,” Lynch was not from New England. In fact, he was from a rich family in Galway, Ireland and came to America with plenty of money. Once here, he became a good friend of George Washington. He was, as might be expected, a Roman Catholic. In fact, the first Catholic mass said in New York City was offered in his mansion (now open to the public) on Clason Point in the Bronx.

In any event, by 1796 he had laid out plans for the village he was to name Lynchville. He built 35 houses and contributed space for city parks. Unfortunately, however, he refused to sell but would only rent the houses and other lands. The townsfolk disliked this intensely. The fact that he was a rich Irish Catholic from down state probably did not help either.

Lynch had big plans. Apparently he wanted his Lynchville to become the capitol of New York State and therefore gave the village a huge area to call its own. Even today the city limits are really far out in the country. What he dreamed of never happened and, in fact, the people decided they did not like the name Lynch in their town’s name and so changed the name to “Rome.” Nevertheless, it seems appropriate that right in the center of town is a large “Irish Catholic” Church near those parks that Lynch gave to the city so many years ago.

St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church, Rome, N.Y.

Few buildings in Rome remain from these early years, but there is the Hathaway House on North Washington Street, built in 1808.

The Hathaway House

Thus far, we have looked at townships in the south of Oneida County. What about in the northern sections? One of the things one learns is that when one goes up Stokes Hill the world is not the same.

The Beginning of Stokes Hill

Stokes Hill, in the town of Lee, doesn’t look very steep, but when one drives up it the climate changes. The growing season becomes noticeably shorter, the winters colder and snowier. By the time one reaches Ava, life simply becomes tougher. One is almost in Tug Hill, an area noted for deep winter snow and late springs. That doesn’t mean that no one lives there, but the population is small.

It is surprising, however, that the highest point in Oneida County is not in the north but is Tassel Hill found on the boundary between Marshall and Paris townships. This picture represents the area in which Tassel Hill is found.

Tassel Hill Area as the morning mist lifts

To return, however, to the north country, perhaps the most notable building in Ava is the Methodist Church located on Route 26.

It is the town hall, however, that is on the National Historic Register.

47 When one drives off the main road, there are a few farms.

And a great deal of woods.

Occasionally one sees a very old dwelling.

By and large, however, the townships of Deerfield, Ava, Steuben, northern Annsville, northern Lee and Florence, are thinly populated. Agriculture there is not particularly remunerative. There are no incorporated villages in any of these townships. Logging may be possible, but in some townships many of the forests are now protected on state land.

St. Mary’s Church, Florence

One of the few buildings from any of these townships that bears particular mentioning is St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Florence. Set high on a hill, it dominates the hamlet of Florence and the surrounding area. What is most interesting is that the building was built in the 1833-4 to house a Baptist Seminary. When the plan failed, the building was eventually sold to the Catholic Church in 1845. The bell from the church, however, was acquired by the Methodists and still calls them to worship.

Florence Methodist Church

Much of the township, however, is forest.

Fall in Florence

Just south of Florence is the township of Camden and “The queen village” of Oneida County. Although it may have begun as a logging town, it now “houses” the International Wire Company. Its downtown looks like this:

Dominating the center of town is the Presbyterian Church, now closed for lack of membership. Another congregation now uses the facility.

Camden is also known for its old Victorian homes but to me the most impressive sight in Camden is Forest Park. It is a huge natural forest just outside the downtown area that offers hiking trails, pavilions for picnics and a wonderful sense of nature.

Forest Park, Camden

Between Camden and Rome is the little hamlet of Taberg founded on the banks of the east branch of Fish Creek.

Downtown Taberg today

54 Fish Creek in Taberg

In 1809 The Oneida Iron and Glass Co. that manufactured shot and shell for the United States Army during the war of 1812 was founded in Taberg. After the war the company produced “hollow ware,” that is, bowls and other non-flat serving dishes. Today, that company along with several others that existed in Taberg has long disappeared but Taberg does have a tannery.

The northland did have one particularly significant resident during the years of settlement. That was Baron Frederick Wilhelm von Steuben. Baron von Steuben had been a successful military officer in Prussia but eventually was accused of homosexual activity and hence knew he would not be hired in any new military capacity. Benjamin Franklin convinced him to immigrate to America where he worked organizing and training the revolutionary army.

After the war he was given a small pension and a house in New Jersey that needed repairs. He ran out of money, however, and therefore had to sell the house. Finally, New York State granted him land north of Utica in a township that now bears his name. There he lived during the summer in a rude cabin. While in the area he laid the corner stone for what was to become Hamilton College and became a regent for the State University of New York.

“Cornerstone Laid by Baron De Steuben, July1, 1794”2

Steuben is remembered at Hamilton College, for the football field is named for him.

2 Although he is usually referred to as Baron von Steuben, he himself preferred the French form “de.” Therefore he liked his whole name to be pronounced in a French way rather than as in German “von Stoyben.”

On the Memorial Parkway in Utica one finds his statue.

Up in the town of Steuben, there is a reconstruction of his cabin. Behind the cabin, in the woods is his burial place.

Views from Starr’s Hill in the area are quite extraordinary.

At his death in 1794, Steuben bequeathed his land to his aides de camp, Benjamin Walker and William North. Walker worked at the immigration office in New York City and in that capacity met some Welsh immigrants who had come to seek a new life in America. They were tired of English oppression. The established church called them dissenters; the schools would not even allow their children to speak Welsh. Moreover, bad weather for several years had caused financial ruin. They looked for a better life far from English prejudice. South Welshmen who had mined coal in Wales had moved to the Scranton area of Pennsylvania. Welsh slate miners found a home in Vermont. But these were farmers from north Wales.

Walker very much wanted to sell or lease his newly acquired acreage and so invited the Welsh immigrants to the land of Steuben. The trip was not an easy one. After landing in Old Fort Schuyler it took them four days by ox cart to arrive in the area. Happily, they liked what they saw. Now Welsh farmers were to try out the slopes of north central New York. Letters to friends and relatives in Wales brought a steady stream of immigrants to the area. Soon Welsh houses and churches were popping up not only in Steuben but in Remsen, Floyd and other townships as well. Here are some remnants of that massive migration.

Bethel Church (1838) on route 12

Many of the churches were small, wooden structures. Most have been taken down; some, turned into private housing. Others were used for worship until well into the 20th Century. A few are still open for worship on occasion. No matter how hard one tries, however, as ethnicity fades so too do ethnic churches.

Capel Cerig in Remsen

Camroden Church in the town of Floyd

Capel Enlli, north and east of Remsen

French Road Church in the town of Steuben, open for a summer service

61 Welsh Congregational Church in Holland Patent, now a private home.

None of these buildings function any longer as churches. But they remind us all of the Welsh presence in Oneida County. Before long there were also substantial Welsh churches in both Utica and Rome. For many years the services were conducted entirely in Welsh so that even American-born children were fluent in Welsh too. Few in Oneida County speak the language today, but there still is a thriving St. David’s Society in Utica and several Gymanfa ganus every year..

The Welsh also loved to build stone houses.

In the village of Remsen today there is a blacksmith shop built in 1802 that must have served the new immigrants. Since Thomas can be a Welsh name, it was probably built by an early member of the Welsh community.

Thomas Blacksmith 1802

Because Welsh, as a language, has largely disappeared in America, most people no longer remember the very successful Welsh poet, John Edwards, who immigrated to America and lived in Oneida County for many years. His grave can be found in the Wright Settlement cemetery a few miles west of Camroden where many other Welsh immigrants are also buried.

The grave of John Edwards

South of Remsen and north of Utica, on the border of Herkimer County is the town of Deerfield. In 1916 Utica annexed the southern and most settled portion of Deerfield and it became north Utica. North of that there are beautiful views and some farms, but, quite frankly a small population and little industry. Here are some of the glorious scenes from the northern part of Deerfield Township.

The only major industry in Deerfield township that seems visible is on Smith Hill where WUTR, an ABC affiliate, is located. Not far away is WKTV, an NBC affiliate. It is Utica’s first television station and was launched in 1949. WUTR did not begin until 1970.

Chapter Three: A New World in the Making

The beginning of the 19th Century brought more growth, but also some serious problems. In 1807 Thomas Jefferson signed the embargo act that curtailed both the selling and the buying of goods from abroad. This was meant to “punish” the British, but in fact made it difficult for Americans to acquire many important items not yet made in America. Eventually that might have stimulated American industry, but the bill was rescinded in 1809 before new manufacturers could really begin their work.

Perhaps more important for the Mohawk Valley was the declaration of War in 1812 by President Madison. Although Madison’s aim was, in part, to conquer Canada, there was a general fear that British soldiers might descend from the north or, even worse, sweep through the Mohawk Valley from the west. In part to meet that threat, an arsenal that still exists was built in Rome.

The Arsenal on Dominick Street

Happily, the United States did not conquer Canada nor did the British invade upstate New York either. The fear subsided.

67 In the midst of this major threat, Oneida County’s first institution of higher learning became a reality. Back in 1794, Baron von Steuben had, with much pomp and circumstance, led a group up College Hill to lay the corner stone for the new institution. Hamilton Hall was begun, but after some basic work the local residents ran out of money and construction was stopped. The local sheriff, in fact, wanted to repossess the building because of unpaid bills. In 1808 Samuel Kirkland died with his project quite unfinished. Finally, however, after several years, construction was more-or-less completed, a Charter was granted by the state, and the college, in May 1812, opened its doors.

Only a stone remains to remind viewers of where Hamilton Hall was.

There are other buildings on campus, however, that existed at the time of the founding.

The Azahel Backus House was the first refectory for students and then the home of the first President Azahel Backus. Before the new President arrived the college did build a new refectory, now called Buttrick Hall. It has gone through so many changes it hardly resembles the first version of the building at all.

Buttrick Hall

This was originally a tavern across from the college.

By almost any standard, Hamilton began as a very small college. There was a Professor of Greek and Latin, a chemist, a mathematician, and the President, a minister from Connecticut who taught philosophy and theology.

There were only a few students, but some turned out to be outstanding graduates. For instance, the valedictorian of the first full graduating class of 1816 was Edward Robinson (1794-1863) who was from Southington, Connecticut and could have attended Yale as his father and older brother had. His mother’s brother, however, was none other than Seth Norton who taught Greek and Latin classes and, as a result, Robinson made the long, several day trip to study classical languages in the wilderness.

After graduation Robinson read law for a year but then returned to Hamilton as a tutor. He married Eliza, Kirkland’s youngest daughter. When she died in childbirth, he spent some time managing her father’s estate and then headed off to Andover Seminary to learn Hebrew. From there he traveled to Germany to study with some of the foremost German scholars. Eventually he came back to America and taught at Andover Seminary.

By chance, he met a missionary by the name of Eli Smith and together they set off to the Holy Land. They met in Egypt, rented camels, and traveled to Mt. Sinai. From there they went up, through the desert, to Beersheba. He then visited many sites, trying to determine what their ancient names were. Thus Robinson became the first Biblical scholar from the West to visit Palestine to study the geography and history of the country. His massive tomes became an inspiration to generations of scholars who considered and still consider him the founder of Biblical archaeology.

70 Robinson ended his days as a professor of the Bible at Union Theological Seminary in New York. For many years he also served as President of the American Oriental Society that so greatly increased and improved our knowledge of the whole of Asia.

If you go to Israel today, you still can see “Robinson’s Arch” jutting out from the wall of the ancient temple. He developed a theory as to its purpose and so it still bears his name.

Robinson’s Arch

The other man from Hamilton’s early days who certainly bears mentioning is Gerrit Smith (1797-1874) from the class of 1818. Smith was born in Utica, New York, though his family moved to Peterboro (named after his father, Peter) in Madison County in 1804. His father had been a partner with John Jacob Astor and had accumulated a great deal of property and wealth. His son Gerrit increased that wealth significantly.

Gerrit’s interests, however, were not just about becoming rich. After an abolitionist meeting in Utica in 1835 ended in a free-for-all fight, he became a leader in the abolitionist movement. Following the lead of his cousin Elizabeth Cady Stanton, he also strongly favored woman’s suffrage. Moreover, he supported the temperance movement and actually opened in Peterboro one of the first “temperance hotels”.

He helped to found the Liberty Party and was nominated for President in 1848. His only national office occurred when he was elected to Congress on the Free Soil party ticket.

71 He resigned after one term because he was disgusted by the Kansas-Nebraska Act and because of the heavy drinking that took place even while Congress was in session.

Most notable was his support of John Brown. He had established an area near North Elba, N.Y. for the use of former slaves. Eventually he gave the tract to Brown. He was also one of the “Silent Six” who supported Brown’s attack upon Harper’s Ferry. He strongly supported the Civil War, but also emphasized kindness to the southern leaders once the war was over. Over all, it is said that he gave more than $8,000,000 to support various worthy causes.

The Canals

While Hamilton College was struggling in its opening years to survive, other, very important things were happening in what would eventually be named Rome, New York. For many years people had talked about the possibility of building a canal across New York State to connect the coastal states to the Midwest. President Jefferson thought the idea ridiculous because of both the cost and the engineering problems. Nevertheless, successful new canals in Europe and Britain stimulated new fascination with the idea. Finally, Governor Dewitt Clinton became interested and authorized money to undertake the project.

It must be remembered that building the canal was no simple task. Many (in fact thirty- six) locks had to be built. There were major creeks and streams that somehow had to be crossed. Unlike the fairly short canals of Europe this one was 363 miles long. Perhaps most important, because the United States had no engineering colleges, this project had to be carried out by men who had little knowledge of the basic problems they faced.

Nevertheless, in July of 1817 the project was begun. The chief engineer was Benjamin Wright (1770-1842) who had been born in Connecticut but who moved with his family to Fort Stanwix in 1789. With little or no education he became a surveyor and worked to chart out the territory around the decaying fort for future settlement. Such was his training for building the canal.

One of his aides was another inhabitant of the area, John Jervis, whom he hired as an “axe man.” That is, his primary job was to cut down trees in order to clear the area for the canal. Jervis also studied at night to learn how the Europeans built their canals. Soon he became much more than a clearer of trees.

The work proceeded fairly quickly at first, for the route between Rome and Utica was relatively flat. The Mohawk was very curvy, but the canal was fairly straight, running parallel with the river’s basic course. The canal was forty feet wide and five feet deep with a towpath on one side. Just to dig that much earth took many strong men. Happily new immigrants from northern Ireland helped to solve the problem. After more than eight long years the canal was finally opened in October of 1825.

72 The opening created a major change for America. New York City became the nation’s primary port, for now goods meant for Europe could be sent all the way from Minnesota and goods from Europe could follow the same path to the Midwest. Buffalo grew enormously as a village. Hamlets along the canal became centers for manufacturing and industry. By modern standards, shipping was still very slow, but it was still much faster-- -and safer---than trying to transport goods by mules over Indian trails.

In one sense, Oneida County suffered because of the canal. Since settlers could travel faster and much farther by packet boat than by stage, many chose to bypass Oneida County to settle in the western part of the state or even in Ohio. Ohio also became, for a time, “little Connecticut.” Still, local settlements grew and prospered. Utica became the popular stop between Albany and Buffalo and that led to more taverns, more hotels, more shops, and, consequently more jobs.

The Erie Canal as seen in the Erie Canal Village in Rome, N.Y.

After the canal was finished, Benjamin Wright went on to build the Chesapeake and Ohio canal. In 1969 he was declared the father of American engineering.

In many ways, even more impressive was the work of John Jervis. After serving as the chief engineer for the central section of the Erie Canal, he went on to become chief engineer for the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company. Although it was a canal company, its leaders began to think about the possibility of constructing a railroad. So, in 1832 Jervis designed the “Stourbridge Lion.” Built by a British firm, it was the first steam locomotive to operate in the United States.

The same year (1832) Jervis became chief engineer for the Chenango Canal that ran from Utica to Binghamton, N.Y. In 1836 he became chief engineer for the Croton Aqueduct that supplies water to New York City. (Port Jervis is named for him.) But he also went on to serve as chief engineer for many railroads both in New York State and in the Midwest. In other words, there is probably no one more important for the development of transportation in America than John Jervis.

In 1864 he returned home to Rome to retire. Even then, in 1869, he helped to create the Rome Iron Mills. Before his death in 1885 he had also written The Question of Labor and Capital, a book about economic issues. He gave his house, which still stands, to the city of Rome as a library.

Jervis Library, Rome, N.Y.

John Jervis, probably more than anyone else, began the whole movement to improve transportation in America. It was the start, first of all, of canal mania. In Oneida County this meant feeder canals. The Chenango Canal was designed to connect the southern tier with the rest of the state. It ran from Utica, through Clinton and Deansboro down through the valleys. It was unique because the canal was fed by reservoirs.

75 In Clinton about all that is left if the Chenango Canal is a dry streambed.

The Chenango Canal in Clinton today

In its day the canal did invigorate business; some hamlets really blossomed because of it. Nevertheless, it was not an unqualified success. Shipping was not as lively as on many other canals and in 1878 it closed.

The other feeder canal was the Black River Canal that connected the Erie Canal in Rome and the Black River in the north at Lyons Falls. Although only 35 miles long it had 109 locks. It was proposed in 1833 but was not finished until 1855. On the other hand, it remained functional until 1920 and seems to have been particularly useful for the logging industry. Although originally planned to connect to the St. Lawrence River it really only went as far as Carthage, New York.

In Rome, the canal has been replaced by the Black River Boulevard, but north of Rome one can hike along what remains of the “ditch.”

77 In Boonville, there is a museum dedicated to the canal.

There one can also see what the canal looked like.

In between, there are many vestiges of the old locks that brought boats up the steep slopes.

By the way, while you are looking for the locks why not stop at Pixley’s Falls.

Pixley’s Falls

The Boonville Gorge is one of the most popular places to drive through when autumn colors are at their peak. Pixley’s Falls attracts many each year when the leaves turn red and yellow.

Beyond Boonville, a feeder canal from Forestport connected with the Black River Canal, providing transportation, particularly for lumber, from the northeast corner of the county. Today the lumbering industry is much diminished. The Black River flows just south of the hamlet of Forestport that appears pleasant and old fashioned, much more peaceful than the place several years ago when people there actually blew up portions of the Black River Canal to create repair work for themselves.

Downtown Forestport with the Presbyterian Church in the center.

What is most beautiful about Forestport are not so much the churches and houses but the Black River that flows nearby. To the east is a reservoir created by damming the river. The spill way is just south of the hamlet.

It should also be noted that the Town of Forestport is a major gateway to the Adirondack State Park, a huge area of some 6.1 million acres that was first conceived near the end of the nineteenth century and made official in 1902.

The park boundary lies well within the town of Forestport so that White, Round, Long and Otter Lakes are part of the Park. There are no mountains in this part of the Park, but the lakes and the forest areas are beautiful. White Lake is the first to be seen as one travels to the northeast. Round Lake and Long Lake are off the main road and are reached by turning off before one gets to White Lake.

White Lake

82 A few miles up the road is Otter Lake.

Otter Lake Community Church that is on the National Historical Register

Railroads

Ironically, John Jervis, who was so important in canal construction, also helped to originate train travel and shipping in the United States and, in many ways, it was the train that did in the canals.

We tend today to think of trains as running a relatively long and mostly flat route between New York and points north and then west. Today only a small number of people travel by train and so passenger trains are few in number. Because of the great trucks, even cargo trains are not as common as they once were. Trains, however, developed long before the automobile or truck and moved much more rapidly than a canal boat. It was also somewhat easier to lay a train track than dig a canal.

So, every village wanted a train to run through it. Therefore as one travels around the county one finds vestiges of trains everywhere.

In Paris township, for instance, there once ran a train.

84 Not far away, in Bridgewater, is a building that used to be a train station

Deansboro had one too.

This tavern, now in the Erie Canal Village, once served as a train station in McConnellsville. Industry still flowers there at the Harden Furniture Company, but the trains carrying goods no longer run.

86 Harden Furniture Company

The train station in Remsen still is used because a scenic railway runs from Utica up through the Adirondacks.

87 Holland Patent Station is also open occasionally.

And at the Utica Railroad Station, an old time locomotive.

88 In Clayville, train tracks are still omnipresent.

This is the way Clayville, an old manufacturing town looks today.

89 Not far away is a beautiful 19th Century mansion, but one cannot overlook the tracks nearby.

So, by the 1840s the old wilderness was largely gone, replaced by canal boats and the chugging and smoke of the locomotives. There is a price for progress.

I should also add that the train that ran through Clayville was the DL&W (Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western) commonly known as “The Delay, Linger, and Wait.”

In the late nineteenth century, it should be added, trolleys came into being, connecting villages and hamlets across the region. They remained in use until well into the twentieth century, but today little evidence of their existence is left.

Chapter 4: Transforming Society

When the Revolutionary War began, religion in America was, at least on the surface, quite simple. In Virginia and New York City and environs the Church of England was the established church. In Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire the established church was Congregational. These churches were supported by taxation. There were few Roman Catholics (maybe 20,000 for the whole thirteen colonies), and neither the Methodist nor the Baptist Church had many members either. Until 1784, in fact, Methodists constituted a society that still nominally belonged to the Church of England. Outside the Church of England, Calvinism seemed to prevail.

The war, however, brought changes. As one might suspect, members of the Episcopal Church were often loyalists. Ministers had actually taken a vow to be loyal to the King of England. So, when the war began many priests and not a few members fled to Canada. Others quietly left the church. The Church did not die, but had many fewer members. Moreover, the church found it difficult to find a legitimate bishop because the English Church refused ordination to anyone who would not vow to support the king.

Nevertheless, the Episcopal Church did come to the county, first as St. Paul’s Church in Paris. The parish was formed and the first church built in 1797.

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Paris, N.Y.

91 The first church in Paris burned but was replaced by the photographed building in 1816. Ten years later, in New Hartford, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church was constructed. Even though Sanger had strongly supported the creation of the Presbyterian Church, he actually became a vestryman at St. Stephen’s. It is probably through his good offices that the congregation met in the Masonic Temple before the church was constructed. Here is the way it looks today:

Most churches, however, were Congregational/Presbyterian and the northern Irish who migrated to the region kept the Presbyterian churches strictly Calvinistic. Things were happening in New England, however, that radically changed the theological scene there. A growing number of ministers in the eastern part of Massachusetts were raising questions about the doctrine of the Trinity. In fact, by the beginning of the war, many Congregationalist Churches had adopted a Unitarian theology. In 1805 Henry Ware, an outspoken Unitarian, was appointed professor of theology at Harvard University.

Today many people speak about the “Founding Fathers” as enthusiastically Christian, but that was hardly the case. George Washington remained a member of what had been the established church but, because of his doubts, refused to take communion. John Adams became a Unitarian, and Benjamin Franklin, though he believed religion necessary for society, rarely attended services at all. Thomas Jefferson believed that the whole nation, before long, would become Unitarian.

92 Strangely enough, however, Unitarianism did not come to Oneida County directly from New England. In 1793 Gerrit Boon arrived as agent of the Holland Land Company, a Dutch company that rather illegitimately had purchased land in the Unites States and now sought to develop and sell it. Boon, who gave his name to Boonville, tried to develop a maple syrup industry but failed and eventually returned to Holland. He was followed by Gerard Mappa who built a substantial home in what is now called Barneveld.

Mappa Hall, a private residence, in Barneveld

Mappa was an Arminian and, among other things, built a community church that purveyed a liberal religious message. That church became, after a few years, the first Unitarian Church west of Albany. It should be noted that Congregationalists and Unitarians did not officially split until 1825.

The Unitarian Church of Barneveld

The interior of the Unitarian Church of Barneveld

94 The church still preserves a Bible given to the congregation by William Ellery Channing, one of the great leaders of early Unitarianism.

Another Unitarian Church was built in Holland Patent in 1842-3. It is now a private home.

While Unitarianism was appealing to the more educated (and moneyed) class in New England, Universalism attracted more rural European settlers. Its message was simple. If God is love, as the Bible says, God would not damn a large segment of the human population to hell because He made them the way He did. For the Universalists, God loves everyone. Double predestination is a great and horrible mistake.

The building in Utica, once used by the Universalists, is on Genesee Street right near the turnabout. In 1961 Unitarians and Universalists united. The united church is now located on Higby Road.

The former Universalist Church of Utica

Over all, however, the period following the Revolution was a down time for churches of all types. Developments in science and philosophy led to doubts among the educated class, but even more important was the lack of religious community for many settlers in “The West.” Oftentimes families would move to what had been wilderness with only minor contact with other settlers and little means of transportation.

Such was the case for a Connecticut family that moved to an area near Deansboro, N.Y. There was no church nearby and little by way of educational opportunity, though some believe the son actually attended the Hamilton-Oneida Academy. After several years of loneliness the family moved north, to Adams, N.Y. in Jefferson County, and the son began reading law with a local lawyer. At first, he had little interest in religion but he did discover that many American laws found justification in the Bible so he began reading the Scriptures. He also began playing the bass viol in church because the congregation had no piano or organ.

In any event, one day while walking through the woods, the young man had a sudden, deep, spiritual experience. He was converted and transformed. He began to study theology and the Bible with his pastor and eventually was licensed to preach. The young man, of course, was Charles Grandison Finney (1792-1875). What he was to ignite was the Second Great Awakening. He began in Jefferson County but then, almost by chance, met his pastor, who had become ill and was living in Westernville, N.Y. Hence, his

96 revivals in Oneida County began in that little hamlet. Those revivals initiated a preaching tour that would change the county into a central part of the “Burned over District.”

The minister, George W. Gale, was, like most ministers, a thorough-going Calvinist but there was much more to him than met the eye. He himself became caught up with the young man’s conversion and took up some of the causes that Finney preached about. Indeed, he eventually helped to found the Oneida Institute in Whitesboro and then traveled west to found Galesburg, Illinois and then Knox College.

This is not the church in Westernville where Finney, in 1825, began, but it was erected, in part, because of the power of his revivalism.

First Presbyterian Church of Westernville.

Behind the church is a cemetery where General William Floyd, among others, is buried.

The First Presbyterian Church, Rome, N.Y. built in 1850.

After working in Westernville, he moved to Rome where Gale became minister. Again, the Presbyterian Church pictured here was not standing at the time but in 1850 was built on the site where he originally preached.

Finney, of course, was attacked by the old guard. Henry Davis, the President of Hamilton College would not allow him to preach in the chapel and did not allow students to go elsewhere to hear him. Finney’s strongly spiritual message, however, affected thousands, transforming communities as far away as Rochester. At first, New Englanders resisted his message, but ultimately even Lyman Beecher gave in and Finney was invited to preach in Boston. He eventually moved to New York where Tabernacle Church was built for him. Before long, however, he was called to Oberlin College in Ohio, first as a professor and then as President. It should also be noted that his immediate predecessor, Asa Mahan, the first President of Oberlin, was a graduate of Hamilton College.

Throughout his career Finney’s message was highly spiritual, but it also had implications for society that greatly affected Oneida County and upstate New York. He was a strong advocate of the abolition of slavery, of women’s rights, and of temperance. All these issues became flaming movements in Oneida County. Indeed, this really uneducated man who grew up in Deansboro and got his real start in Westernville, in many ways defined the culture of America for the next several decades.

It should also be remembered that it was at the Rome Presbyterian Church in the 1830s that the minister, George Gale, developed the idea of founding a college in the “West.”

98 After many discussions, the result was Knox College in Galesberg, Illinois. Like Oberlin, Knox was coeducational and strongly supported the abolitionist movement; it is still very alive and active today.

One important result of Finney’s message was the effect that his abolitionism had upon the newly nationalized churches. Presbyterians split again, this time into Old Light and the New Light churches, the Old Light representing the rather stiff and dogmatic Calvinism of the past, the New Light emphasizing more personal, spiritual awakening. This distinction really goes back to the first Great Awakening in the 18th Century, but was revived and deepened by the Finney revivals. It is noteworthy that Utica today has two Presbyterian churches, Westminster and First, that originally were Old and New Light congregations. The old theological differences, however, no longer exist.

It should also be noted that one of the primary spokesmen for New Light Presbyterianism was Albert Barnes who was born in Rome, N.Y. He studied at Hamilton College and Princeton Theological Seminary and then, after ordination, held ministerial positions in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. A strong abolitionist, he was often quoted by those who wished to rid America of slavery.

Westminster Presbyterian Church, Utica

The Methodist Episcopal Church tried valiantly to avoid the problem of abolition but ultimately could not. It is significant that in 1843 a group called the Wesleyan

99 Methodists split from the Methodist Episcopal Church over two issues: slavery and the possibility of holiness. Although the schism started in Michigan, the final creation of the new church took place in Utica, New York in October of 1843. Although there were surely other influences, Finney’s emphasis upon personal salvation and the power of the spirit along with his call for abolition doubtless had its effects upon Methodism.

Wesleyan Church, Jay and Liberty Streets, Rome, N.Y.

Eventually both Methodists and Baptists split into northern and southern churches. Only the Protestant Episcopal Church was somehow able to avoid the problem and its consequences.

There were other influences as well. During one of Finney’s swings to the West, a young man listened to him preach and apparently was affected by his emphasis upon inspiration of the spirit. The young man was Joseph Smith who went on to claim his discovery of hidden spiritual treasures and to found the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints, otherwise known as the Mormons. How direct an influence Finney had on Smith is difficult to say. Certainly their messages were very different. Nevertheless, the fervor of Finney’s preaching and the ecstatic response by the listeners may have had strong effects that even Smith did not understand.

Another person deeply affected by Finney’s preaching was a young Vermonter and graduate of Dartmouth, John Humphrey Noyes. Noyes was on his way to becoming a

100 lawyer when he heard Finney preach and was converted. He decided to become a minister and went to Yale Divinity School. Soon he had developed new ideas about the nature of sin and the possibility of the perfect life. He decided to start a utopian community in Vermont, but when he was threatened with prison he moved to Sherrill, N.Y. in western Oneida County and founded the Oneida Community.

His ideas were utopian, for he believed that sin can be avoided completely. At the same time, he believed that one of the worst human problems is marriage. Therefore, within the community there were sexual relationships established between individuals by the head of the community (Noyes, of course), but no marriage. So children could be conceived and born without the egotism and possessiveness that marriage entails. Eventually, Noyes had to flee the country because of those views, but left behind an active community that together produced animal traps and canned food and other items that garnered revenue for the community.

He also left behind a large community “house” that stands just over the town line in the county of Madison. Because it was central to his Oneida County community, I include a picture of it here.

The Mansion House

After Noyes left for Canada, his son eventually decided to turn to silver for the company business. For years the company produced silverware and Sherill became known as “The

101 Silver City.” Although it is a small community, not much larger than some county villages, Sherrill became, in 1916, a city by a special act by the New York State legislature. With a little more than 3,000 inhabitants, it remains today the smallest city in the state.

The Silver factory in Sherrill

Some believe that another effect of the Finney revivals was Spiritualism and the belief in the existence of spirits around us. The table rapping experience of the Fox sisters took place near Rochester, but a belief in ghosts spread everywhere. Some estimate that as many as five million Americans became Spiritualists. Many of them continued to go to their family church but also engaged in seances, etc. Universalists seem to have been particularly attracted to Spiritualism.

Today, there are few Spiritualists left but the belief in haunted houses does not go away. In Camden the W. H. Dorrance house, once a magnificent Queen Anne style mansion, remains empty, unless, of couse, you treat the ghosts as occupants.

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W. H. Dorrance House, Camden

People do frequent Hulbert House built in 1812 in downtown Boonville, but some claim it too is haunted.

103 Just how much Finney’s revivals influenced spiritualism is debatable, but it does seem clear that the movement was particularly popular in the Burned Over District.

One other, less positive result of Finney’s revivals is connected with Rev. John Ingersol who served the Congregational Church in Westmoreland in the 1830s. He became a great Finney supporter, but when he tried to convince congregations, he was criticized and taken to trial for being uncalvinistic. His son was appalled by the way his father was treated and turned against Calvinism and then against Christianity. Robert Ingersol thus became the great spokesman for atheism and agnosticism in America. He was a very persuasive orator, much applauded by many people, including Walt Whitman.

Education

Many Americans knew from the start that education was an important way to create and transform society. Puritans insisted that both boys and girls learn to read so that the Bible would be available to them. For them and for many who followed, education and religion were very much tied together. Only slowly did education become desacralized.

Talking about, even believing in universal education is one thing, but making it happen in a world without school buses, but with very long walks to a school, deep snow for months, and the need for children to work on the farm is another. If a child lived ten miles from the nearest hamlet, and many of them did, it would probably take them two and a half hours of steady walking in good weather just to get to school and then the same amount of time to get home.

Some people found solutions. One man drove his team from Point Rock in the town of Lee to Rome, carrying produce---milk, eggs, etc.---for sale. On Mondays he also carried several students who roomed and boarded in Rome for the week. On Fridays, he picked them up and took them home. It was not until the 1930s that his son Cleatus Paine followed the same route with his bus to carry rural children to school in the city.

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Point Rock today, The Methodist Church

One solution for the well-to-do was to send children to a boarding school where they lived away from home. There was a large one in Westmoreland, another even in Augusta Center. Clinton became known as the village of schools because so many were founded there. Most of them have long since vanished, but one house, now privately owned, was once a school.

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Among the students who went to a school in Clinton (but not this one) was a very famous American. Clara Barton probably attended the Liberal Institute because she was a Universalist.

Most people, however, could not afford private schools so local communities and then the state provided education, at least up to the 8th grade, in one room school houses. Remnants of that tradition are found across the county. Some, like the one in Paris Township, is a kind of museum that can be visited.

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The same is true of this one in the Erie Canal Village

107 Up in Trenton between Barneveld and Holland Patent is one preserved as a National Historic Site.

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Many more, like this one near Ridge Mills in Rome, have been converted to homes.

Schools varied somewhat in size but usually had one teacher and eight grades. School houses would accommodate at least twenty pupils. Heating was from a wood stove. Toilets were privies outside. Often the teacher had little education beyond the eighth grade. Nevertheless, the education was not all bad. Children learned the basics without many frills. They heard what went on at each of the eight levels and so learned what was ahead and relearned what was behind. Very bright children could leap ahead; slow students could repeat.

Because children were only required to attend school until the age of fourteen, communities found no need to provide free schooling beyond that point. In other words, high school was an extra that families had to pay for. So, private schools, like the ones in Clinton mentioned earlier, thrived. Eventually, however, some communities saw the need for more education for all children. In 1853 Utica Academy became Utica Free Academy. In 1869 the same happened with the Rome Academy. Eventually, the state required free high school education and many of the private academies closed their doors.

Like many Protestant Churches such as the Universalists who supported the Liberal Institute in Clinton, Catholics had also created schools for their children. With the state-

109 wide support of public schools came a major issue. Should the state also support Catholic schools? Although the answer was finally “no,” the issue did not go away for a long time.

Another, very different innovation took place in Rome in 1874 with the founding of The Central New York Institution for Deaf Mutes. Today it is called The New York State School for the Deaf and still provides education for those who cannot hear. Since the state officially took it over in 1963 its campus has been greatly expanded and modernized.

New York State School for the Deaf, Rome, N.Y.

Another kind of school was founded in Rome in the late nineteenth century. Since 1827 there had been a poorhouse for those who were destitute located just south of Rome. In 1893 the property was taken over and used to house and care for the “unteachably mentally defective.” Eventually the name was changed to the Oneida State Custodial Asylum better known locally as the Rome State School. It turned out that not all the people were totally “unteachable.” Those who could learn often became “colony boys,” living and working on various farms in the area. One such farm was located on the corner of the Elmer Hill and Potter Roads. Here is how it looks today.

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The “colony farm” On Potter Road there is a small cemetery where some of the colony boys were buried.

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Today the Rome State School is gone. In its place is the Mohawk Correctional Facility.

Along with the school for mentally retarded, we should also note that in Utica in 1843, the State founded the first facility in New York State for the mentally ill. It was called originally “the New York State Lunatic Asylum.” It was handsomely designed.

Utica Psychiatric Center

The first head of the Center was Arariak Brigham who believed that the mentally insane should not be shackled like criminals but treated kindly. He published the first edition of The American Journal of Insanity that still exists today under another name. Although his “Utica Crib” has received much criticism, his work marked a great leap forward in psychiatry.

Today the main building is not used and is in bad shape but other buildings on the campus are used for psychiatric care.

Beside this facility there was also, in Marcy, an institution called the Central New York Psychiatric Center that also treated mental illnesses. Although some mental problems are still addressed within, it became in 1986 part of the Marcy Correctional Facility.

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That is also adjacent to the Mid-State Correctional Facility.

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It should also be remembered that in 1893 the Grand Lodge of Free Masonry decided that Utica should be the site for a new Masonic Care facility. Free Masonry may be regarded by many as a secret society, but Masonic acts of social assistance certainly are not secret. The facility has greatly expanded over the years and still operates at a very high level of care in east Utica. The medical research laboratories are also very important.

It is also the center for a Masonic Library and for the storage of important papers and documents in this building.

114 The great Masonic symbol that is so prominently displayed is a sign of just how much Free Masonry has meant to the people of this county.

Let us return once more to the history of higher education. While Hamilton was gradually growing, a second school of “higher learning” in Oneida County was founded in Whitesboro in 1829 as the Oneida Institute. It was a “labor school” in which students both studied and worked to improve their bodily strength. In 1833, Berriah Green (1795- 1874), originally from Connecticut, was appointed President and he very quickly altered the nature of the Institute. Green was a confirmed abolitionist and made that his central message. Not only did the institute become a stop on the Underground Railroad; the Oneida Institute became the first educational institution to admit Afro-Americans and whites on an equal basis.

It was Green who, more than any one else, converted Gerrit Smith to the abolitionist cause. Indeed, it was Green more than anyone else who underlined what Finney also was saying. Even today we are discovering more and more Underground Railroad sites in places ranging from New Hartford and Utica to Florence and Boonville.

No signs indicate where the Institute was in Whitesboro, but Mechanics Hall, where so many abolitionist meetings were held still stands, also without identification, on the corner of Liberty and Hotel Streets in downtown Utica.

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Mechanics Hall

Unfortunately, the economic crisis of 1837 severely affected the Institute. Because Green also strongly encouraged people who believed in abolition to form their own separate congregations, he got into difficulty with conservative Calvinists. Finally in 1844 the Institute was closed and its assets sold, but the effects of Green’s presence did not die. Oneida County abolitionism became part of one of the major movements that was to radically reshape America.

In the meantime, Hamilton College, after struggling with President Davis’ conservatism, seemed to get on its feet. In 1827 the College Chapel was built and the “new” campus began to take shape. The building was designed by Philip Hooker of Albany who also designed the Rome Courthouse.

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The Rome Courthouse

One would hardly guess the chapel and the courthouse were created by the same architect.

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Hamilton College Chapel

118 One of the funnier stories about the Hamilton College chapel concerns a student named Henry Wheeler Shaw (1818-1885). When Shaw was a sophomore he literally climbed up the steeple to remove the clapper from the chapel bell. It was that bell, of course, that told students when classes were to begin and end and was rung by students who actually lived in the chapel. Shaw, as a result of his prank, was dismissed from the college and never graduated. Eventually he moved to Poughkeepsie, N.Y. and under the assumed name of “Josh Billings” became one of America’s greatest humorists. Abraham Lincoln, it has been said, frequently quoted him during Cabinet meetings.

Another famous American who attended but did not graduate from Hamilton was Daniel Huntington (1816-1906) who was persuaded by a portrait painter visiting the college that he had rare ability and should become a painter himself. He did so and, after studying with Henry Inman, produced not only a number of great portraits but other types of art as well. His allegorical painting, “Mercy’s Dream” was particularly well received. He served as President of the National Academy of Design from 1862 until 1870 and then again from 1877 until 1890. He also wrote several books and served as Vice President of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Still a third non-graduate was Theodore Dwight Weld who attended Hamilton from January to May of 1826 before transferring to the Oneida Institute. From there he went to Lane Seminary in Cincinnati and then moved on to Oberlin College. Although he had very poor eyesight, he was a staunch abolitionist who wrote several books and influenced many, including the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Certainly less well known is Samuel Eells (1810-1842) from Westmoreland who went to Hamilton and founded there, in 1832, the mother chapter of the first Hamilton fraternity (Alpha Delta Phi) that was not just local but that eventually was also founded at many other institutions such as Cornell, Dartmouth, and Princeton. Eell’s father was the minister of the Congregational Church in Westmoreland and was a strong spokesman for temperance. It seems ironic that his son founded a fraternal order that was probably not quite so enthusiastic about the message of the “Drys.”

119

Eells’ house, minus, of course, the trailer, is in the background

The following picture is of the building that for years housed Eells’ fraternity at Hamilton College. Today, because fraternities no longer have houses at the college, this is simply a residence hall for students. It is, however, appropriately named the Eells House.

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The Eell’s House

In the next chapter we shall return to some other famous American associated with Hamilton College, but we also must remember that some very important people never went to college at all. Such is the case of Alexander Bryan Johnson who was born in England and immigrated to America when he was sixteen. He was of Dutch, Jewish descent and arrived in Utica without much formal education. Nevertheless, he read law and became a lawyer. He did not, however, practice that profession but instead became a successful banker.

Among the many impressive things he did, he married Abigail Adams (1798-1836), the daughter of John Adams, and that gave him close ties with John Quincy Adams, with whom he corresponded, and many other noted Americans who were entertained at his home. Unfortunately his mansion was torn down to make way for the construction of the Gold Dome Bank, one of the most conspicuous features of Utica.

Stephen M. Babcock (1843-1931), after whom Babcock Hill in the Bridgewater township is named, was a farmer boy who became highly educated, earning degrees at Tufts and Cornell before receiving a Ph.D. in Germany. It was he who developed the way to determine the butterfat content of milk, the effects of cows eating but one kind of grain, and many other subjects. Most of his life he taught at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

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M&T Bank (formerly the Savings Bank of Utica) “The Bank with the Gold Dome”

What makes Johnson especially important today is not so much his wealth or his contacts but his writings. American philosophy got off to a slow start in large measure because most colleges were founded to prepare men for the ministry rather than to raise heretical questions about the nature of reality and thought.

Johnson, however, became very interested in, and then wrote extensively about, the nature of human language. Few read or understood what he had to say. It seemed all very abstruse, even to American intellectuals. Nevertheless, today it is clear that living in Utica, New York, in the mid nineteen century was a man anticipating one of the central issues of twentieth century philosophy. If people had really sought to understand what he was saying, philosophy in this country would have taken a very different track.

We must also remember Frances Miriam Berry Whitcher (1811-1852) who was born in Whitesboro. Best known for The Widow Bedott, she was a humorist who satirized the genteel life of her era. Some, however, took offense at her laughter. When her husband,

122 an Anglican rector, lost his job because church members thought she was writing about them, she stopped writing.

Out on Pinnacle Rd. in Sauquoit is a sign reminding us of yet one more famous American born in Oneida County.

Asa Gray was, indeed, a famous botanist. He taught at Harvard University and became good friends with many other scientists including Charles Darwin. He was one of Darwin’s supporters in America and thus helped to precipitate the struggle that ensued between science and religion. Until this point religious thinkers had been able to accept the various scientific discoveries as generally consistent with the Bible. Darwin’s theories about how life and the various species developed seemed difficult to reconcile with Scripture. So began a struggle that still goes on today.

One of the features of nineteenth century religion that we have not discussed is the great interest in missions, both national and international. Samuel Kirkland, of course, was a missionary to the Oneidas and his work was paralleled in many other places. There was also considerable interest in missionary work among the new settlers in the vast land beyond the Appalachians. Oftentimes, the immigration to unsettled places led to heavy drinking and various forms of anti-social behavior. The Methodists with their circuit riders and the Baptists with their farmer-preachers were far more successful in winning converts than the stiffer Presbyterians and Episcopalians.

And then, of course, there was the great increase in immigration from abroad due to the potato famine in Ireland and political turmoil in Germany. Literally millions of new settlers came to America, frequently poor and often somewhat disturbed by the changes they faced. The Catholic Churches had much work to do to assimilate people who were

123 Catholics but who did not care for the traditions of Catholics from another country. So, very frequently a village would have both an Irish Catholic and a German Catholic Church. In years to come Italian and Polish Catholic Churches were added too. In any event, a great deal of home mission had to be accomplished. By the time of the Civil War, the Roman Catholic Church had become the largest denomination in America.

Beside home missions there was also a strong desire to carry the message abroad, to various parts of Asia, Africa, and islands like those of Hawaii. One such person caught up in the call to take the message to the world was Asahel Grant. A sign to remember him is found where he was born on Austin Road between Clinton and Waterville.

He was a physician who decided to join the missionary movement and became the first American to take the gospel (as understood by Americans) to the Nestorian Christians in northern Iraq and Persia. It was not by any means an easy task, for the Nestorians were tribal and did not even get on well with each other to say nothing of the Muslim majority. They were very suspicious about missionaries and thought them to be the first step in the development of Western imperialism. (They may very well have been right.)

Grant, in any event, healed some and showed his love for many, but found the Nestorians so wrapped up in their own struggles, hates, and suspicions that he could accomplish little. His description of his trials and experiences, however, greatly interested many back in the States. He left the place of his mission and died in Turkey at the age of 37.

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Lest we think that everything in Oneida County involved religion and social issues, we should end by reminding ourselves that other developments were taking place as well. The county, of course, began as a very agricultural area; in some ways it still is. In the early nineteenth century, in any event, the vast majority of people survived by growing their own food plus a little more to sell to others.

A modern map of the region indicates, however, that changes were occurring, for just outside Utica there are places named Clark Mills, New York Mills, Washington Mills, etc. As early as 1808 a mill had opened in New York Mills in the town of Whitestown that did more than saw lumber or prepare grist. It was a knitting mill and before long there were similar mills in various areas of the county. Indeed, by the late nineteenth century, Utica and environs was the knitting capital of the nation. Today the knitting industry has disappeared but many of the mill buildings remain as testimony to an age gone by.

Here is one of the mills still used by various businesses in New York Mills.

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In Westmoreland a sign reminds us that there was industry there too.

Of a very different sort was the “factory” created by Jessie Williams north of Rome. In a place now occupied by the Rome Fish Hatchery, Williams created the first cheese factory in America. Farmers had, of course, made cheese for themselves and perhaps sold a little on the side. This was the first time, however, that a firm bought milk products from several dairies and then processed them to make cheese to be sold on the open market.

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127 Chapter Five: The Great Conflict and Its Aftermath

There were no battles of America’s great Civil War fought in Oneida County. The conflict that abolitionists from the area helped to ignite ravaged elsewhere, but the county remained untrampled. One interesting event, however, took place in the area during the war that should not be forgotten. In 1863 William Seward invited a number of foreign diplomats to the county to show them the agricultural and industrial power of the North in order to convince them that they should not support the South either diplomatically or militarily. The meeting took place in what was then one of the most scenic spots in the nation. The diplomats stayed at the hotel at Trenton Falls.

Because a power company tapped into the power of the falls and badly destroyed much of its feral beauty, few visitors come any more and then only when the area is open to the public one weekend in the spring and one in the fall. Huge pipes and remains of earlier works dot the landscape, but if one uses imagination, something of the old falls can still be seen .

The Trenton Falls Gorge

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One of the falls

Another Falls

128 The beauty of the falls and Seward’s success, however, certainly does not mean that the county was unscathed. That is because so many men from the region engaged in the conflict. For instance, from the township of Augusta alone some fifty-five young men went to fight. The 14th regiment from Oneida County, that served from May 17, 1861 until May 24, 1863, lost, in the course of the war, four officers and one hundred enlisted men. Several were not killed in action but died in the Andersonville prison camp in Georgia. Many others died of various diseases.

What that meant was that while they were serving in the war, their wives took care of the farm and the family, a difficult task at best. Many of those wives never saw their husbands again. Other husbands returned wounded and unable to work. Some young women could find no one to marry. It was a bleak and difficult time for many people. Utica erected a monument, now the center of a “turnabout” on Genesee Street, to commemorate all those who served in the conflict.

Civil War Memorial

129 The caption reads as follows:

In the Rome Cemetery there is a special place is reserved for Civil War veterans.

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Civil War Graves, Rome Cemetery

As beautiful and appropriate as this site is, it is too bad that nothing is said to thank all the wives and mothers who stayed home and worked so hard to keep the home fires burning. One may suspect that the whole dreadful period did a great deal to strengthen the cause of women’s suffrage and to transform the nature of marriage.

The old agricultural family was very patriarchal. The men were in charge. By the later Victorian era, however, that had softened. Men tended to work outside the family and at home women took charge. A new world was dawning.

Among the most famous men to serve the Union was a man by the name of Henry Halleck who was born in 1815 in Westernville, N.Y. He hated farming and at a fairly early age ran away from home to stay with his uncle in Rome. Eventually he got an education at the West Point Military Academy and then spent some time strengthening the military defenses for the New York harbor. He wrote books on military strategy and even translated a work from the French.

131 During the Mexican War he served in California and was an important contributor to the creation of the state of California. It was he who really wrote the state’s constitution. While in California he became involved very successfully with a law office and land speculation and for a time left the army. He married Elizabeth Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton’s granddaughter. When the Civil War broke out he was made Senior Union commander of the Western division. Then he served for two years as General-in-Chief. Finally, he became Chief-of- Staff in 1864 under Grant.

Although he was very bright and knowledgeable (his knickname was “Old Brains”) he was also very slow to act and has often been blamed for his hesitation in conducting the war. Still, his contribution to America was certainly considerable. It is almost unimaginable that yet another great man came from the little hamlet of Westernville.

Before we move past the Civil War, we should also look at the gravesite in the Rome cemetery of another important Roman, Francis Bellamy.

132 Born in 1856, he was five years old when the Civil War began. His father was the minister of the First Baptist Church in Rome. His chief claim to fame, of course, is that he wrote the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. It is interesting that although Bellamy was very young during the war, the Pledge arises directly out of the Civil War experience.

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

The nation has but one flag (and it is not the confederate one). It is one nation, indivisible (no states can break away) and has liberty and justice for all. And the “all” includes blacks and women and minorities of many sorts. It is interesting that Bellamy, the son of a Baptist minister, did not include God in his pledge. The phrase “under God” was not added until the time of the Eisenhower administration.

We should not underestimate the pain and suffering that the war brought to many people. The war to keep America one nation was devastating, particularly because most people thought it would be over in a few days and never expected such disastrous consequences. Nevertheless, there were some positive results of the war for Oneida County and vicinity. War demands equipment and gear and that greatly enlarged the mills of Utica and the surrounding region.

When the war was over the mills greatly expanded and that brought many new immigrants to town and so increased the population. Utica, and to a somewhat lesser extent Rome, were becoming a part of the age of industrialization. East Utica is still filled with old mills. Most stand idle, a simple reminder of days gone by.

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Old mills, east Utica

We must also remember that Utica was known not only for making, but for selling goods. One event took place that is worth remembering. On February 22, 1878, a young man who had worked in Watertown, opened in Utica his first store. His name was Frank Winfield Woolworth and the store “Woolworth’s Great Five Cent Store.” After a successful start, the Utica store failed, but he tried elsewhere and finally created one of the most successful Five and Tens in America.

In any event, more industry and business led to many more working class houses, but along with them more palatial homes for the burgeoning middle and upper classes. A drive down Genesee St. in Utica or up George St. in Rome, or even along College Street in Clinton reveals a new kind of housing.

This does not mean that earlier housing was small and unattractive. For instance, a home on Route 31 in the town of Vernon that was built in 1799 still reveals some classic grandeur.

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The Pettibone Mansion (1799) near Vernon Downs

135

This home was built by Gen. J. J. Knox (1791-1876) in 1820 in Knoxboro.

Another, in the town of Western was built in 1834 and retains something of that “first settler” aura.

1834 Town of Western

136 In 1826, this house was built in New Hartford. The first owner of this Georgian style home was Samuel Hicks.

137

Post Civil War housing, however, became much more ornate.

Here is a Second Empire House in Clinton.

138

The Dodge, Pratt, Northern House in Camden

Still another second Empire house in Utica

139

And a Queen Anne style in Rome.

A very fancy Queen Anne building in Rome, now used by the VFW,

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Nearby, North Washington Street in Rome reveals a variety of styles.

A neo-Gothic house in Clinton

141

Greek Revival homes were also very common.

Occasionally one sees octagonal houses like this one in Barneveld

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Italianate architecture with its almost flat roofs also became surprisingly popular in an area with heavy snowfall. .

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The Italianate Fountain Elms

Most impressive is “Fountain Elms” an Italianate building on Genesee Street in Utica. Once the home of Marie and Thomas Proctor, it is now an important part of the Munson- Williams-Proctor Institute of Utica and contains a rich collection of nineteenth and early twentieth century materials. In a word, the region had left the settler stage and had become even a little opulent.

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In Clinton, N.Y.

While houses became more ornate, churches also changed enormously from the simple white clapboard building with a spire pointing upward. In 1850, for instance, Zion Episcopal Church was constructed in Rome. It should be mentioned that Episcopal Churches had recovered from their flirt with disaster after the Revolutionary War and now attracted particularly people from the educated and moneyed class.

The Episcopal service featured the beauty of an ancient liturgy without ranting and raving from the pulpit and that appealed to many who were turned off by revivals and sermons by the uneducated. The style tended to be Neo-Gothic, in part to remind people that the Episcopal Church was directly connected to that ancient tradition of Christendom.

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Zion Episcopal Church, Rome, N.Y.

Trinity Episcopal Church in Camden, N.Y.

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Grace Church, Utica N.Y.

Grace Episcopal Church was begun in 1856 and opened its doors for worship in 1860. The steeple, however, was not completed until 1875. It is an extraordinarily beautiful edifice that emphasizes both Gothic splendor and great music. Among those who made the building possible were the same people: the Munsons, Williamses and Proctors who also, in 1917, made the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute a reality.

Not to be outdone, the Second Baptist Church of Utica that was founded in 1809 when the First (Welsh) Baptist Church ousted twelve members who couldn’t speak Welsh, built a new church in 1865.

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Tabernacle Baptist Church

Although not as breath-taking as the very ornate Grace Church, it nevertheless is a good example of the new architecture of Victorian America.

Still another church building of the time needs mentioning. In Rome, after beginning in a person’s home and then over the years moving to several different locations, the First Methodist Church decided to build something more monumental. Sections have been added to it since 1868; new stained glass windows were installed later, but the essential building remains as it was first constructed.

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First Methodist Church, Rome, N.Y.

Among the more impressive church buildings in the area is the First Presbyterian Church of Utica. Designed by the famous architect Ralph Adams Cram who also was the architect for such buildings as St. John the Divine in New York, it was completed in 1920. Here is the way it looks today.

First Presbyterian Church, Utica

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Catholics were later in coming to the area in any great numbers, but by 1869 a Utica congregation had built the historic Old St. John’s, now the oldest church in the diocese.

Historic Old St. John’s

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In 1909 Catholics in Clinton followed with a masterpiece of their own, St. Mary’s.

Some of the people of the Oneida County who lived during this illustrious period also appear highly impressive too. Most of the important people of that era were, of course, born before the Civil War was fought.

Horatio Seymour, for instance, moved to Utica in 1820 as a ten year-old. He was educated in local schools and then matriculated at what is now Hobart College. In 1833, at the age of 23, he was appointed military secretary for Governor William L. Marcy, a Democrat. He was elected to the New York Assembly, served briefly as mayor of Utica, and became Speaker of the Assembly in 1845. He was elected Governor of the State in 1852 and then again in 1862. Finally, rather against his own will, he ran for President against Ulysses S. Grant in 1868. It is no wonder that his bust adorns the front lawn of the Oneida County Historical Society.

151

Horatio Seymour Bust

One should not imagine, however, that everyone loved Seymour. Thomas Nast, America’s great cartoonist was a strong supporter of Grant and did numerous cartoons attacking Seymour. In the first cartoon following, he is in the background leading Democrats as Samson (an image of the freed blacks) looses his hair and thus its power. Seymour in this picture holds the big sign over his head.

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Thomas Nast “The Modern Samson” Harper’s Weekly October 3, 1868

Thomas Nast “Lead us not into temptation” Harper’s Weekly Sept. 19, 1868

153 In the second picture Seymour is portrayed as like the devil with tufts of hair appearing as like little horns. Behind him, almost invisible in this picture, is the road to the underworld and hell. This is certainly not a very pleasant picture about a man running for President.

Another very important politician from Utica was Roscoe Conkling (1829-1888). Although born in Albany he came to study law in Utica with Joshua Spencer and Francis Kernan. He was both physically strong (he loved to box) and mentally alert (he loved to argue). Soon he was appointed District Attorney for Oneida County. In 1858 he became mayor Utica. Very soon, however, he was elected to the House of Representatives and there he remained until 1863.

In 1867, he was appointed by the New York State Senate to the United States Senate where he became a leading Republican spokesman. He had supported abolitionism before the war; after the war he fought for Afro-American rights during the time of reconstruction. Above all, he was a Stalwart, supporting Grant even for a third term. Twice he was offered a position on the Supreme Court, but he refused the offer both times. He believed his place was in the Senate.

The one major issue he had with other Republicans concerned Civil Service Reform. He strongly supported the existing patronage system (which was of great financial benefit to politicians). Finally, he could not abide the changes proposed by President Garfield and, with his fellow New York Senator, relinquished his seat---with the belief that Albany would reappoint him. That did not happen, in part because of Garfield’s assassination, and he returned to private life as a lawyer. He died in a tremendous snowstorm (the Blizzard of ’88) in New York City.

154

The Conking House on Rutgers Street designed by Philip Hooker

Although Thomas Nast also supported the Republican cause, he took issue with Conkling’s resignation from the Senate. Therefore, he produced a number of cartoons taking Conkling to task.

155

Thomas Nsst, “Pound Him” Harper’s Weekly July 9, 1881

A third major political figure to live in Oneida County is Grover Cleveland. His stay was brief, but noteworthy nonetheless. He was born in Caldwell, New Jersey to a father who was a Presbyterian minister. Soon they moved to Fayetteville where Grover spent most

156 of his boyhood. Then it was on to Clinton, N.Y. where his father served as minister of the then Congregational Church.1 They lived in this house on Utica Street.

Unfortunately, the Clevelands had nine children and the Clinton church did not have the means to support such a large family. So, after a brief stay, the family moved on to Holland Patent. Again the service to the church was brief because Rev. Cleveland suddenly died, leaving behind his widow and several fairly young children.

Mrs. Cleveland continued to live in Holland Patent with her daughter Rose who was only seven at the time of her father’s death. Grover, though barely sixteen, was determined to help his mother financially and went to New York where he taught in a school for the blind. His mother eventually expired and Rose continued to live in the house for some time. Today the house still exists in Holland Patent and looks like this:

1 The church did not become Presbyterian until after the Civil War.

157

While Cleveland was President he took the train up to the Holland Patent station and then walked the fairly short distance to this house. (see page 88)

Cleveland’s path to become President was amazingly brief. After teaching in New York, he returned home and was offered money, by a member of the church, to go to college if he would prepare for the ministry. He declined the offer but instead went to Buffalo and there read law in a law firm. In due season, he was licensed and worked for some time as a lawyer. He was then, in 1870, appointed Sheriff of Erie County. That job was relatively uneventful, though he did personally execute two convicted criminals.

Then, in 1880 he ran for mayor of Buffalo and was elected. In 1882 he was elected Governor of the State and then, before he hardly had time to prove himself as Governor, he was elected President of the United States in 1884. No Democrat had been elected to the office after the Civil War until he was. Because he seemed thoughtful, honest, and relatively conservative even Thomas Nast liked him. He was as yet unmarried, so his sister Rose served as First Lady for two years.

In 1888 he ran again and, although he won the popular vote, he lost the election to Benjamin Harrison. Harrison did not prove himself to be especially successful, so in 1892 Cleveland beat him and became the only American President to hold office in two non-consecutive terms. He was also the only Presidential candidate “from” Oneida County to actually win that high office.

158 Another extraordinary Oneida County resident was Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters who was born in what was then Denmark in 1813. He studied mathematics and astronomy in Berlin and earned a doctorate. He worked on a project there for some time and then traveled to Italy for a project on Mt. Etna. The revolution of 1848, however, broke out and because of his liberal views he had to flee, first to Turkey and then, in 1854 to America.

Very soon after arriving he was appointed Professor of Astronomy at Hamilton College, a position he held until his death in 1880. A telescope was constructed for him and during the course of his work he discovered more than forty-five asteroids, a periodic comet, and several nebulae and galaxies. In other words, he was a major contributor to the science of astronomy in America.

After his death, the astronomical center fell into disuse. All that is left today of the old telescope is its base.

A monument in tribute to Peters on the Hamilton Campus

A much more local person is James Schoolcraft Sherman who was born in Utica in 1855 and, after education in local schools, attended and then graduated from Hamilton in 1878. He attended law school and was admitted to the bar in 1880. He began work as a lawyer in Utica but also served as president of Utica Trust and Deposit and the New Hartford

159 Canning Co. In 1884, when only 29 he was elected Mayor of Utica. In 1886, however, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and served there for 20 years. In 1908, he ran as Vice-Presidential candidate with Taft on the Republican ticket and won. He died in 1912 after he had been nominated for a second term.

Today his statue faces Baron von Steuben on the Memorial Parkway in Utica.

James Schoolcraft Sherman 1855-1912

Finally we will conclude this chapter by briefly honoring a man whose career spanned the last half of the 19th Century and much of the first half of the 20th Century. His name was Elihu Root. The sign in front of Buttrick Hall at Hamilton College summarizes the reasons why he was so famous.

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Elihu Root was born in the building behind the sign, the son of Oren Root, a professor of mathematics at the college and Whitney, the daughter of Horatio Gates Buttrick, the superintendent of buildings and grounds who lived in this building. Elihu attended Hamilton College and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1864 at the age of nineteen.

After teaching at Rome Free Academy for a year, he headed off to law school at N.Y.U. and proceeded to become a very successful lawyer, handling cases for Jay Gould, Chester A. Arthur and, of all people, Boss Tweed.

From 1899 until 1904 he became Secretary of War and was successful in modernizing America’s very disorganized military and enlarging West Point. He also devoted a great deal of time to the place of Cuba and the Philippines that the country had “won” in the Spanish-American War. He worked to put down rebellions in the Philippines but really was looking for a way to give each country its freedom.

In 1905, he became Secretary of State. Then, in 1909 he became one of New York’s senators, holding that office until 1915. In 1912 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his diplomatic work. In other words, he was one of the great politicians of his day who labored hard to bring peace and understanding to a very troubled world.

It should also be mentioned that he was responsible for convincing Andrew Carnegie to give to the college a new dormitory that is called today Carnegie Residence Hall.

161

Carnegie Residence Hall, one of the several new buildings created early in the 1900s. His summer home at Hamilton College, the Elihu Root House, is on the National Register of Historic Places.

162 It should also be noted that his daughter Edith married Ulysses S. Grant III and also used this house as a summer home for years. His son Elihu Jr. became a lawyer and moved away but married the daughter of one of the college’s more renown Presidents, Melancthon Woolsey Strycker. The third son, Edward Wales Root became Professor of Art at Hamilton. His collection of art now is part of, and greatly enhances, the holdings at the Munson Williams Proctor Institute in Utica.

Finally, he and his wife Grace were instrumental in creating the very popular “Root Glen,” a natural garden that attracts many visitors. Here are a few views of the Glen.

163

164 While the wealthy continued to build fancy, ornate homes and Utica became the source of much political activity, manufacturing continued to expand and grow. The First World War did much to keep the mills operating at a high level. Everything seemed to be “onward and upward.”

It is also important to add to all this that in the southern part of the county, around Waterville, the hops industry began to blossom as early as 1830 and continued to expand during the rest of the century. Hops, of course, were essential for the making of beer and, though temperance advocates must have objected, Waterville became the hops capital of America. Everything went well until, in 1909, the hops were hit by a downey mildew called sphaerothera humuli. In 1914 aphids attacked the crop. The big blow, however, came with Prohibition in 1920 that squelched the whole enterprise. The hops industry never quite recovered.

Today only a few hops barns are left.

Happily, the Matt’s Brewery (that in 1920, the year Prohibition took effect, began producing Root Beer) did survive and today is one of Utica’s most stable and longest- lasting industries. It began in 1888.

165

In any event, in the midst of protest meetings and revivals, others were creating new institutions and industries that were to grow exponentially during and after the Civil War. Agriculture remained central for the economy, but industries of various sorts began to grow and prosper. The world hardly stays the same for long.

166

167

Chapter 6: Oneida County Comes Of Age.

As the new twentieth century dawned, the world seemed ready to change again. It is difficult for us to imagine that in 1900 the automobile was just coming into existence. There were various experiments with steam-powered and electricity-powered autos. The internal-combustion engine had been invented but not widely used. Everything was still in an experimental stage. By 1910, however, magazines were filled with automobile ads.

Automobile travel, of course, needs more than the car itself. One must discover the oil, refine it, and then find a way to get it to the customer. Without gas stations, internal combustion automobiles would not be saleable. Will electric cars make them obsolete?

A Sears gas station as it looked in 1930, Corner of Liberty and George St. Rome, N.Y.

Then too, one also needed paved roads. There were, of course, paved roads as far back as the Roman Empire, but America was a big country and for a long time, even in many cities, roads were just rutted dirt that turned to mud when it rained. Sometimes plank roads were used. For instance, Turin Road (Rt. 26) north of Rome was once a plank road. Replacing the planks with macadam or some other material took time and money. Many side roads were not paved until well into the twentieth century. In any event, the invention of the automobile not only improved travel; it also radically altered the way cities and villages looked and how business was done. Life would never be the same again.

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The invention of the automobile was just the tip of the iceberg. In 1900 the radio was invented, but Marconi thought of it as primarily a way to contact ships at sea. The first true radio station in America was not licensed until 1921. The first regular radio station in Oneida County, WIBX, began in December of 1925. Before this time music either was heard live or from a record. Now one could hear new music without having to visit a vaudeville show or buy a record. A new age of rich popular music had begun.

Now there were also soap operas and comic shows and news as it had never been communicated in the past. Before long, people were listening to sporting events and becoming fans of players they had never seen. The radio became central to human life. Conversation often ceased when the radio came on during dinner. And then there were the ads with catchy jingles to sell everything from toothpaste to soap powder. Those who lived through this era can often repeat one jingle after another by heart.

The making of movies was first invented in Thomas Edison’s studio in the 1880’s. It took several years, however, before “The Great Train Robbery,” a ten minute silent film of modest quality was shown in 1903. Before long, however, silent films, accompanied by live music, were being shown in vaudeville houses. The age of the movie had begun.

It took until 1927, however, before “talkies” became available. One of the first theaters in Utica that showed the new non-silent films was the Uptown. It still stands today.

168

A year later, the Stanley, a magnificent, huge theater opened its doors.

The Stanley Theater, Genesee Street, Utica

169 The same year, the Kallets opened their second theater in Rome.

The Capitol Theater, West Dominick Street, Rome, N.Y.

Soon the era of great movies began. In Rome, the “oaters” (the cowboy movies) were shown at another theater, the Strand. Other lower ranked films were shown the first three days of the week at the Capitol. The big blockbusters, however, came on the weekend. And then they were gone. Only a few films were “held over” for a second week. So movie theaters were jammed with people. Some went faithfully, every Friday or Saturday night. Movie addiction had become a reality.

Meanwhile, new events were taking place in the world of transportation. In 1903, the Wright Brothers experimented with flight at Kittyhawk and began a new era in travel. World War I hastened the development of airplanes as weapons. In 1923 Charles Lindbergh became the first aviator to cross the Atlantic by air. Slowly but surely passenger travel by air became a reality.

By 1952 Mohawk Airlines flew out of Oneida County Airport. The Airline lasted until 1972. The airport is now used for other purposes.

While major airlines were forming, there was also great interest in private planes. In Marcy there was an airport where one could go and watch the planes come and go. Eventually, for a small sum one could pay to be given a short flight in a private plane.

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In a totally different sphere, sports also came into their own. Baseball had been around since before the Civil War but basketball was not invented until 1891 and hockey did not enter from Canada until 1893. Golf had been a very old sport in Scotland but really only became popular in America in the 1890s. Football in some form had been played since the 1870s, but anything like modern rules did not come into effect until about the beginning of the century. With the development of radio and then television, local games were turned into national attractions.

While so many new inventions were changing American life, New York State (and Oneida County) had to deal with some old problems. After its construction, the Erie Canal had been deepened and widened several times, but by 1900 it was vastly out-of- date. Therefore, it was decided to completely alter the canal so it no longer would run through the cities and could accommodate much larger vessels. Construction began in 1905 and was completed in 1918. Today, in Rome, the canal looks like this. .

Originally the canal was unofficially renamed the Barge Canal. Today it is again called the Erie Canal.

Another great project connected to the canal was the creation of a reservoir north of Rome both to feed the canal with water and to protect the city of Rome from flooding by the Mohawk River. What was created was Delta Lake that today exists between Rome and the towns of Western and Lee.

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Construction of the dam that created the lake was begun in 1908. Although there have been repairs on the dam, it is still very much as it was when completed.

. Delta Dam

One of the major changes that the Dam necessitated was the destruction of the hamlet of Delta that existed where the lake now stands. That meant that the inhabitants had to move and find other homes. The buildings were all taken down and many of them moved to other locations.

Among the buildings moved was a little white church that now exists in the town of Annsville, in the hamlet of Blossvale. Here is how it looks today, about 15 to 20 miles away from its original location.

172

Blossvale Church

Blossvale is a rich agricultural region with plenty of farms around it.

173 Parenthetically, the Blossvale Church is not the only one that has been moved. This beautiful Episcopal Church in Sherrill, before 1924, stood in Westmoreland, N.Y.

Gethsemane Episcopal Church, Sherrill N.Y.

When the water is drained out of Delta Lake, which it rarely is, one can still see where the roads ran and where some of the houses stood. Usually, however, the lake looks like this.

174

A scene from Delta Lake State Park

The Park is a pleasant place to go on a hot summer day.

175 At about the same time that Delta Lake was being created, the State, also in 1915, built a dam across the West Canada Creek to produce in Oneida and Herkimer Counties the Hinckley Reservoir that provides both water for the canal and drinking water for Utica and vicinity. Although it has no State Park, Hinckley Reservoir is also a pleasant place to own a summer home.

Hinckley Reservoir in Oneida County

So, out of the State’s attempt to improve the canal system, Oneida County received two rather attractive new lakes and a canal that no longer cuts cities in two.

The new canal was also quite active for several years as barges carrying freight navigated the waters. During World War II, the canal seemed particularly utile. The development of much larger tractor-trailers and a better interstate road system, however, greatly reduced its use by barges. Today the canal is used primarily by pleasure craft going across the state.

The trucks that have replaced the barges travel largely on the New York State Thruway (opened in 1954) that goes from New York to Albany and then to Buffalo and on to the Pennsylvania State line. In Oneida County there are exits at Utica, Westmoreland, and Verona.

176

The Thruway at Westmoreland

In many respects this highway has not only curtailed the use of the canal but has lessened the use of the railroad as well. Amtrak still runs, but on a greatly reduced schedule.

At its height what was called the New York Central Railroad was a very busy operation with passenger trains leaving almost every hour. For such use, the railroad built a station in Utica that finds few rivals anywhere. Here is how it looks today from the outside.

177

Within, the station is even more impressive.

178 Today there are but a few passenger trains a day going in each direction. The station now serves as the bus station as well. Various other events also take place within its beautiful interior.

In the twentieth century both Rome and Utica experienced great fluctuation in industrial development. In the late nineteenth century Utica lost most of its knitting mills as many businesses moved south. (Notice the development of knitting mills in Utica, South Carolina during this period.) The old mills were soon replaced, however, by other national companies like General Electric and Lockheed Martin. The Second World War, like the first, produced many industrial jobs. Utica grew to a city of over 100,000.

Rome too experienced considerable expansion. Revere Brass and Copper was formed in 1928 and Rome became known as the Copper City. The city was famous for the large lighted sign featuring Paul Revere riding on his horse that could be seen for miles. There was also General Cable, and Alcoa, and Union Fork and Hoe. Immigrants streamed in from Italy and Poland; Rome became very much an industrial town.

On top of all that, in 1941 the Federal government chose Rome as the site of a new military airbase named for Ltd, Col.Townsend Griffiss, the first American pilot to be shot down during World War II. Soon a steady stream of aircraft was coming to and leaving the airbase. The base brought to the community many military men with their families

179 and also became a big employer of civilians. Rome blossomed into a city of more than 50,000.

After the war, the industries continued to operate full steam but then, slowly, began to fade. One after another of the big companies pulled out. Some industries discovered that what they had been producing was no longer needed. Some moved overseas to find cheaper labor. Some did not entirely disappear but became significantly smaller. In 1993, the Federal Government decided that Griffiss Air Base was no longer needed and closed the base. Not all of the elements of the base disappeared, but the military aspect of it largely dissolved. Utica shrank to a city of 65,000. Rome became once more a small city of 33,000. The Burned Over District had become the Rust Belt.

Before we look at the effects of so many companies leaving, we should pay our respects to some of the famous people who came from or at least were educated here. If one starts up Hopper Street from Genesee St., one will see a building that houses Hummel’s Office Supply Company. A careful look reveals, however, that the building was once a church.

11 Hopper Street, Utica

This is what remains of the Welsh church where the father of Arthur Bowen Davies was the minister. Arthur grew up in Utica, but then moved with his family to Chicago. There

180 he studied art at the Chicago Academy of Design and the Art Institute of Chicago. Finally he went to New York and studied at the Art Students League. Although he began his career in art as an illustrator, he soon became a symbolist painter of some note, though he was known to display his works with realists like John Sloan. The Munson- Williams-Proctor Institute in Utica has a fine collection of his work, but one of his most famous symbolist paintings featuring a unicorn is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

What made Davies particularly important was that he was the primary organizer of the 1913 Armory Show that showed Americans for the first time the works of European artists like Van Gogh, Picasso, Cezanne, Matisse, and Duchamp. Some were shocked, some disgusted, many intrigued. The American art world would never be the same again.

Another local lad who became famous was William McClaren Bristol (1860-1935) who came from an old Clinton family. He must have been ill as a child, for he did not graduate from Hamilton College until 1887, presumably when he was 27 years old. His friend and colleague John Myers was born in Cleveland in 1864. After they graduated they bought a failing drug company in Clinton and started their new Bristol, Myers Company on the second floor of a building on West Park Row in the village. It took some time to become profitable but by 1900, a year after Myers died of pneumonia, the company saw black for the first time. The name was then changed to Bristol-Myers, with a dash instead of a comma.

It was a dash all right. Anyone who lived during that era will certainly recognize the names of some of the items the company sold: Sal Hepatica, Ipana toothpaste, Vitalis, Mum. Clairol, Excedrin. The firm developed penicillin and became well known in the field of anti-biotics. It was an international firm that sold goods all around the world. And it was all developed by men with only B.A. degrees and virtually no experience in either science or marketing.

181

Where Bristol-Meyers began---on the second floor A sign tells the story.

182 Still another businessman and inventor of considerable renown was George Eastman (1854-1932) who was born in Waterville, N.Y.

Sign on Route 12 in the village of Waterville

Like many other famous men of the time, Eastman had very little by way of education. He did go to private school in Rochester for a few years after his family had moved to that city, but his father died and he vowed to support his mother. He never went to college. Nevertheless, in 1884 he patented the first roll film and in 1888 the Kodak camera, designed to use such film. By 1892 he had founded the Eastman Kodak Company and the rest is history.

Kodak became amazingly successful and Eastman raked in great profits. He never married and had no children, but he gave huge sums to a variety of charities. It is estimated that he gave away during the course of his life more than 100 million dollars. He loved music and so founded Eastman School of Music, but he also gave large sums to hospitals, to M.I.T. in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and to many other worthy causes.

In his later life, he was afflicted by severe pains in his back that physicians could not stop. Finally, he ended his life with a bullet through his heart in 1932.

One of the zanier people ever to set foot in Oneida County was Alexander Woollcott (1887-1943) who was born and brought up in what remained of a commune in Colt’s

183 Neck, New Jersey. His father was something of a drifter who did not hold a job for long and the family lived close to poverty most of the time. Eventually they moved to Kansas City, Missouri where Woollcott was inspired by one of his teachers in the field of literature. Why he chose to return to the east to study at Hamilton College, however, is not clear.

He graduated from the college in 1909 after helping to found the Charlatans, a theatrical organization. He became, the same year, a cub reporter for the New York Times. In 1914 he became the newspaper’s drama critic, a position he held until 1922. (He did serve briefly in the armed services and contributed to The Stars and Stripes, a newspaper specifically designed for service men.) After 1922 he wrote for The New York Herald and then for The World.

He published several books, including While Rome Burns, was a member of the Algonquin Round Table, and had regularly shows on C.B.S. radio. Because of his wit and often caustic remarks, he was one of the most quoted people in America. He was stricken with a heart attack in the middle of a radio show and died shortly thereafter at the age of 56. His ashes, sent first by mistake to Colgate U., arrived at Hamilton College with $.67 postage due. They are interred in the Hamilton College Cemetery and a residence hall is named for him.

Alexander Woollcott’s very mossy gravestone in the Hamilton College Cemetery

184

Woollcott House, Hamilton College

Still another Hamilton College graduate of literary fame was Samuel Hopkins Adams (1871-1958) who came originally from Dunkirk, N.Y. He attended Hamilton and graduated in 1891. Almost immediately he became a reporter for the New York Sun, a position he held until 1900. That year he joined the staff of McClure’s Magazine, a somewhat “left wing” journal that featured numerous of muckraking articles by people such as Ida Tarbell. Adams fit right in.

In 1900 he was hired by Collier’s to do a series on patent medicines. These articles, so critical of the lies companies told about their so-called medicines, led, in fact, to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. When the Congressional law only seemed to cover the ingredients, Adams was ready with another series of stinging articles.

Adams also wrote many novels and short stories that were very popular in their day. The last, Tenderloin, was turned into a musical by the same name. The author had died of a heart attack in 1958, just before this work was published.

185

Samuel Hopkins Adams, his portrait in the Hamilton Library

Still one more Hamilton graduate to be mentioned is Clinton Scollard (1860-1932). Unlike Woollcott and Adams, Scollard was actually born in Clinton, N.Y. and lived part of his life in Oneida County. He graduated from the college in 1881, after playing varsity baseball as a pitcher. He is credited with having introduced the curve ball to college baseball.

He did not go on to play professional ball, however. Instead, he studied in the graduate program at Harvard and then at Cambridge University in England. He returned to Clinton in 1888 to serve as Associate Professor of English until 1896. Therefore he may have influenced Samuel Hopkins Adams who was a student during that time. Except for a one-year return to Hamilton in 1911, Scollard became a full time poet, publishing widely in many popular magazines and in books of his own.

His was, and was meant to be, poetry for the masses and not for the specialist. His verses are carefully constructed and readable. One seldom has to ask, “What does he mean by that?” Therefore, today he is not considered notable or includable in collections of

186 American poetry. When he wrote, however, people really read his work and enjoyed what he had to say. Often his work accompanied a picture done by another, sometimes very popular, artist.

Charles Dana Gibson with a poem by Clinton Scollard, Life, July 26, 1900

187 Here is the poem in readable form:

Another local person to make a name for himself in the world of letters was Harold Frederic (1856-1898). He was born in Utica and quite early in life went into the world of journalism, working for The Utica Herald and then The Utica Daily Observer. In 1882 he became editor of The Albany Evening Journal; two years later he was sent to London as a correspondent for The New York Times.

It was there, in London, that he began to write short stories and novels. In 1896 he published his most famous work, The Damnation of Theron Ware (or Illumination as it was known in England) that became an instant success in both Britain and America. That work was followed in 1898 by Gloria Mundi. Unfortunately, however, he had a heart

188 attack and died in 1898 at the early age of 42. He is buried in Forest Hills Cemetery in Utica.

Finally we must pay our respects to Walter D. Edmonds (1903-1998) who was born in Boonville and who spent many happy days at the family home called “Northland” on Edmond Road in Hawkinsville, N.Y.

He was educated at Choate School in Connecticut and then at Harvard University from which he graduated in 1926. Three years later he had published Rome Haul, a novel about the Erie Canal. The novel was adapted to become a play “The Farmer Takes a Wife” and a movie by the same name. In all, he wrote thirty-four books and a number of short stories. Drums along the Mohawk was on the bestseller list for two years and was also turned into a film. Many of his works were about places and events of this region. One might say that he is the premier popular novelist of Oneida County, if not of the whole nation.

His home, Northlands, is set back from the road and is privately owned. Therefore this picture is of the Black River that flows just to the west of the homestead. It is this river that often provided him with renewed inspiration and peace.

189 We could go on to mention many more famous people connected with Oneida County. Ezra Pound, the great, if not always patriotic, American poet graduated from Hamilton College in 1905. Alex Haley, the author of The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Roots, the Saga of an American Family lived in Rome, enjoyed frequenting the Savoy Restaurant, and was for a time a Writer in Residence at Hamilton College. There was B. F. Skinner, perhaps the most famous psychological theorist of his day. There are also sports stars and officials and some inventors of note. The list could go on and on. This book could become like the Encyclopedia Britannica in length. Instead let us spend a little time thinking about the present.

Where are we now?

In what seems to me a very short time, this part of the world has gone from complete wilderness through settlement and transformation and retransformation, until we entered the modern world and then promptly were transformed again. Where are we today? Well, the old mills and industries have now largely gone. There still are plenty of companies but they seem much smaller; “Mill Workers” are fewer in number.

Instead we have Griffiss Park with the Rome Laboratory and an International Airport and many new businesses starting up. In both Rome and Utica there also seems no end to more and more commercial enterprises. Once “downtown” was the place to shop. Utica had the Boston Store and Rome had Nelsons. Now there seem to be shopping malls everywhere. The same is true with restaurants. The population has gotten smaller but the number of places to shop and eat has grown exponentially.

Agriculture was once the biggest industry in Oneida County. There were farmers everywhere. Then changes came to the dairying industry as big companies began to take over the preparation and sale of milk. Prices fell and many farms went out of business. The fact that Birdseye no longer received crops like peas and beans in Rome did not help either. Unpainted, neglected houses and barns ready to collapse are signs of what happened.

190 Today, however, there seems to be a turn around. Some farms, of course, weathered the storm and may have even have become larger. Cow barns in the town of Marshall house scores, possibly hundreds, of milking cows.

191

Here is a view of a farm that stretches across the Bridgewater Flats.

192

A prosperous farm in Lee Center

193

The Humphrey Farm in New Hartford

And there are new developments. There is a growing interest in creating smaller farms that produce “natural foods” without the use of chemicals. Furthermore, in the last decade, many of the old, abandoned farms have been repopulated by Mennonites and Amish. As one travels the back roads of the county, this may be the sight in front of you.

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Signs warning of buggies on the road have become common. The Amish, of course, don’t use automobiles or electricity. Their farming is natural but seems successful nonetheless. Old houses and barns are refurbished; horse power has become more literal.

There are, of course, other arenas of growth and change. One of the areas that has grown enormously in the county is higher education. For almost a century and a quarter, Hamilton College was the only institution of higher learning in the county. In 1946, partly in response to the G.I. bill, Syracuse University opened a branch college in Utica. It started in a few rooms in the Plymouth Bethesda Congregational Church in downtown Utica.

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The Plymouth Bethesda Church Building

Today Utica College is no longer just a branch of Syracuse University but is independent and has a beautiful campus of its own. It has about 2,880 undergraduates and 1,150 graduate students. It offers sixty different areas of study.

A view of a small part of the beautiful Utica College Campus

196 At almost the same time the State University system decided to create two-year community colleges. By 1950 Mohawk Valley Technical College was up and running. In 1954 a branch of the college was opened in Rome and in 1963 the name of the Institution was changed to Mohawk Valley Community College. Today it serves 7,200 full and part-time students in both Rome and Utica.

One of the many buildings at MVCC, Utica

Then there is the State University of New York Institute of Technology that was founded in 1966 with a campus in Marcy. Recently it has merged with another state institution and has become the State of New York Polytechnic Institute. There are almost 3,000 students at that campus studying technical subjects. The introduction of a whole new program in nanotechnology will make this an important center for new developments.

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A Nanotech building being erected

We must also remember that Hamilton College was, during much of its history exceedingly small. In 1950, there were only about 600 men enrolled. In the next twelve years, the enrollment escalated to a thousand and then, shortly thereafter, the college founded Kirkland College, a sister college for women. In 1978, the two colleges merged. Today the college, now coeducational, has well over 1800 students.

Although it is not exactly a “regular college,” we must not forget the Utica School of Commerce with branches in Canastota and Oneonta that train students in the world of commerce. More than 300 students currently study in this school. There are also schools of nursing that educate many each year.

We should also not forget MWP-Pratt Institute a school of Art that offers the first two years of a four-year program to be completed at Pratt Institute in New York City. About 180 students are enrolled. This connection with Pratt was made in 1999 but long before that the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute had been offering education in art to students in the area.

198

Pratt Institute Campus

All this means that with well over 16,500 students these institutions have turned Utica-Rome into an intellectual center. One must remember that these colleges bring to the area professors and administrators and staff members who greatly enhance the whole community. They also bring speakers and musicians of note to campus. They not only educate our young adults but are likely to contribute greatly to the general society as well.

Along with added intellectuality in the area comes a radical increase in the arts. Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute has been active since 1919. As early as 1941, the Institute was granted the authority to confer the Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree. In 1960, the Institute erected a whole new art center that rivals every other museum in the whole area.

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The Munson-Williams-Proctor Museum of Art

So, long before our own era, Oneida County appeared as a center for the arts. New developments, such as the Pratt Institute addition have only increased that role. Everywhere you look interest in the arts is flourishing. In Rome, the Carpenter House on Bloomfield Street has been turned into the Rome Art and Community Center that emphasizes the visual arts.

Rome Arts and Community Center

200 In Utica, on Whitesboro Street, one finds Sculpture Space, a special center for sculptors from all over the country (and perhaps the world) to create new works.

Sculpture Space

Although the exterior looks rather unkempt, the sculpture garden in Griffiss Park, in Rome, reveals the skill and imagination of the sculptors. Here are some examples of what one can see there.

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202

Sculptures at Griffiss Park

In any event, the county has become over the past few years an expanding area for the visual arts. The Edith Barrett Gallery at Utica College, the Kirkland Art Center and the Remsen Art Center and several other smaller centers add significantly to this development. There are also, of course, many, many private studios in which are kinds of art are produced. Hamilton College has also contributed by adding to the campus a new Museum of Art and a sizable Arts building, the Kennedy Arts Center.

203

The Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College

The Kennedy Arts Center, Hamilton College

204 Along side the visual arts, the dramatic arts have also grown enormously. There is the new Player’s Theater of Utica and the Rome Community Theater on Turin Road.

The Player’s Theater

Both the Capitol Theater in Rome and the Stanley Theater in Utica have become homes to a great variety of stage and musical productions. Hardly a week passes without some new performance to attend. Few counties could really offer more.

There is still one more area that needs exploration. Utica is designated as a center for immigration and has received immigrants from many different parts of the world. Some stay in Utica, some move on. It is significant, however, that something like nineteen percent of Utica’s population is composed of recently arrived immigrants from such diverse countries as Myanmar, Bosnia, Haiti, Russia, and Cambodia. Some, such as the people of Myanmar, were largely Christian before they arrived. Tabernacle Baptist Church is now filled with people from the land that was once called Burma.

People from Bosnia, on the other hand, tend to be Muslim. Today the building that used to house Central Methodist Church in downtown Utica is now a mosque.

205

On the right is the Fort Schuyler Club, a private club for Utica’s finest, but in the middle is a mosque with a most beautiful and impressive interior. The juxtaposition is, I think, significant and may say much about Utica’s future..

Also in North Utica is a Buddhist Temple. Like the mosque, it inhabits a former Christian church. The cross still is in evidence, but the symbols of Buddhism cannot be missed.

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207 It is particularly interesting that many of the new immigrants find work with the largest employer in the county. In the Town of Verona, near the hamlet of Verona is the Turning Stone Casino owned and run by, you guessed it, the Oneida Indian Nation. Somehow the people who were cheated out of their land by the invading “white men” and forced to live in poverty on a reservation for years, have finally gotten a piece of what is rightfully theirs. The Turning Stone offers not only a casino but hotel accommodations, places to eat, many special performances by famous performers, a great golf course, et al.

We should all be grateful for the presence of the Oneidas among us. Anything that can be done to right the wrongs done to them should be high on our agenda.

The Hotel at The Turning Stone, Verona, N.Y.

As we think back to the Buddhist temple shown earlier, how different is the impression created by the historic Baptist Church also found in North Utica! We must remember that this church was also founded by immigrants to the county and helped to meet the social as well as the theological needs of the new people.

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Needless to say, most of the people in Oneida County who are religious are Christian, though there is a significant community of Jews too. At the same time, one must also admit that in many ways the historic churches and denominations are in serious trouble. Both Catholic and main line Protestant congregations are dwindling. The culture has become much more secular.

For instance, few take the observance of the Sabbath very seriously. The stores are open, the teams play games, many work. Ethnic ties to particular denominations have weakened. There has been too much intermarriage for ethnicity to retain the power it once had. Moreover, our holidays are no longer really holy days but secular events. Even Christmas has become a time for shopping at Walmart or Macy’s. For some, religion has become rooting for the Yankees. Their favorite hymn is “God Bless America.”

The old churches struggle on until financial problems become too great. In the meantime a whole host of non-mainline churches have sprung up. Some are very evangelistic and fundamentalist. A few have a very different sort of message. Some have grown considerably; some struggle on with only a few members.

One should not be too distraught. Religion has faced such perils before. Today, however, it is unlikely that Charles Grandison Finney could have the same effect that he had in the 1830s. Indeed, many of his religious causes have now become secular

209 ones. It well may be that one reason why religion is faltering is that the ethical causes that move America are now largely secular issues.

These, however, are all problems that we will have to attend to as time marches on. It is time to summarize.

Summation

As I look back at the history of Oneida County I can only say WOW and again WOW!!!

The wars and the canals; the railroads and the revivals; the generals and the missionaries!!!

Three inhabitants ran for President and one of them won twice. Another local Utican became Vice President. Still another local inhabitant served as Secretary of State and Secretary of War and won the Nobel Peace Prize. The Pledge of Allegiance was written by someone from this county!

At least three important people in the field of art and one significant for the development of church music were born or lived here. There have been theologians, Biblical scholars and abolitionists, novelists, essayists and poets, engineers, scientists, and inventors. And then, of course, the founder of the American Red Cross studied here too. America, indeed the world, would not be the same without Oneida County.

Travel around, read the signs, explore the woods and trails, look at the buildings old and new. And above all, enjoy the views of the valleys and the hills. This is not only an historic area but a vastly beautiful place to enjoy and treasure. Whether the crocuses just peep from the earth or the corn stands tall and eared or the leaves shine yellow and red or the white snow glistens as down the slope you sled, this is a beautiful world to return to again and again and again.

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Indices

Persons Mentioned in the Text

Adams, Abigail 121 Adams, President John 92, 121 Adams, President John Quincy 121 Adams, Samuel Hopkins 185-186 Arnold, Benedict 13 Arthur, Chester A. 161

Babcock, Stephen Backus, Azahel 69 Bagg, Moses 28-29 Barnes, Albert 99 Barton, Clara 106 Beecher, Lyman 98 Bellamy, Francis 132-133 Billings, Josh 119 Boon, Gerrit 93 Brigham, Arariah 112 Bristol, William M. 181-182 Brown, John 72 Bull, Ltd. William 8 Burgoyne, Gen. John 11,13 Buttrick, Horatio Gates 161

Carnegie, Andrew 161-162 Cassety, James 39 Cassety, Col. Thomas 39 Channing, William Ellery 95 Chaussegros de Lery, Gaspard Joseph 8 Cleveland, Rose 156-158 Cleveland, Grover 156-158 Clinton, Dewitt 72 Clinton, George 32, 36 Conkling, Roscoe 154-156 Cram, Ralph Adams 149

Darwin, Charles 141 Davies, Arthur Bowen 180-181

211 Davis, Henry 98, 116 Dean, James 42 Dean, Thomas 24

Eastman, George 183 Edison, Thomas 168 Edmonds, Walter 189 Edwards, Jonathan I 36 Edwards, Jonathan II 36-37 Eells, Samuel 119-121 Eisenhower, Dwight David. 133

Finney, Charles Grandison 96-100, 102, 104, 209 Floyd, Gen. William 25, 97 Foote, Moses 32, 36 Franklin, Benjamin 53, 92 Frederic, Harold 188-189

Gale, George W. 97-98 Gansevoort, Col. Peter 11 Garfield, Pres. James A. 154 Gibson, Charles Dana 187 Gould, Jay 161 Grant, Asahel 124 Grant, Ulysses S. 132, 154 Grant Ulysses S. III 163 Gray, Asa 122-123 Green, Berriah 115-116 Griffiss, Ltd. Col. Townsend 179

Haley, Alex 190 Halleck, Gen. Henry 131-132 Hamilton, Elizabeth 132 Hamilton, Alexander 19, 20, 36 Harrison, Benjamin 158 Hastings, Seth 34 Hastings, Thomas 34-35 Hathaway, Joseph 43-44 Herkimer, Gen. Nickolas 13 Hicks, Samuel 137 Hooker, Philip 116 Howe, Gen. William 11 Huntington, Daniel 119

Ingersol, Rev. John 104 Ingersol, Robert 104

212 Inman, Henry 26-27

Jefferson, Pres. Thomas 67, 73, 92 Jervis, John 73, 75-76, 84 Johnson, Alexander Bryan 121-122 Johnson, Sir William 8-10, 42

Kernan, Francis 154 Kirkland, Eliza 70 Kirkland, Jerusha 21, 24 Kirkland, Samuel 16-21, 41, 42, 66, 123 Kirkland, John Thornton 21

Lincoln, Abraham 137 Lindberg, Charles 170 Loomis, Rhoda Mallet 38 Lynch, Dominick 42-43

Madison, Pres. James 67 Mappa, Gerard 93 Mahan, Asa 98 Marconi, Guiglielmo 168

Nast, Thomas 170, 171, 174, 176 Norton, Azahel 32 Norton, Seth 32 Noyes, John Humphrey 100-101

Occam, Samson 22-23

Paine, Cletus 104 Peters, Christian Heinrich Friedrich 159 Phelps, Zerah 37 Pond, Barnabus 33-34 Pound, Ezra 190 Proctor, Marie 144 Proctor, Thomas 144

Robinson, Edward 70-71 Root, Edith 161 Root, Edward Wales 163 Root, Elihu 160-162 Root, Grace 163 Root, Oren 161

St. Leger, Gen. Barry 11, 13

213 Sanger, Jedediah 36-37, 92 Schuyler, Gen. Peter 10 Scollard, Clinton 186-188 Seward, William 127, 129 Seymour, Horatio 151-154 Shaw, Henry Wheeler 119 Sherman, James Schoolcraft 159-160 Skenandoah 16-18 Skinner, B.F. 190 Sloan, John 181 Smith, Eli 70 Smith, Gerrit 71-72, 133 Smith, Joseph 100 Spencer, Joshua 154 Stanton, Elizabeth Cady 71 Stanwix, John 9 Stryker, Melancthon Woolsey 181 Steuben, Baron Frederich Wilhelm von 56-58, 68

Tecumseh 40 Tweed, William “Boss” 179

Washington, George 29, 30, 42, 110 Walker, Benjamin 57 Ware, Henry 92 Weld, Theodore Dwight 119 Wheelock, Eleazar 16, 19 Whitcher, Frances Miriam Berry 122 White, Hugh 25, 26, 30 Whitman, Walt 104 Williams, Jesse 126 Woolcott, Alexander 183-185 Woolworth, Frank Winfield 134 Wright, Benjamin 72, 74

Photographs Listed by Township or City

Towns

Annsville 55, 173

Augusta 40, 41, 136, 195

Ava 45, 47- 48

214

Boonville 78-80, 103, 189

Bridgewater 85, 192

Camden 52- 54, 103, 139, 146

Deerfield 66-67

Florence 50-51

Floyd 61, 65

Forestport 81-83

Kirkland 10, 18- 21, 30-35, 56-57, 68-70, 76, 106, 118, 121, 138, 141-143, 145, 151, 157, 159, 161-164, 182, 184-186, 204

Lee 1, 45, 105, 193

Marcy 8, 111, 198

Marshall 22-24, 45-46 85, 113, 124, 165, 191

New Hartford 36, 92, 137, 194

Paris 45-46, 84, 89-90, 91, 107, 123

Remsen 59-61, 63, 87, 176

Sangerfield 38, 39, 45, 183

Steuben 56, 58, 62

Trenton 62, 88, 93-95, 108, 127-128, 142, 158

Vernon 5, 17, 135

Verona 208

Vienna 5-8, 86

Western 25, 97, 136, 175

Westmoreland 42, 120, 126, 177

215 Whitestown 13, 26, 27, 125

Cities

Rome 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 42, 43, 63, 67, 73-75, 77, 98, 100, 107, 109-111, 126, 130-132, 140, 141, 146, 149, 167, 169-172, 200, 202-203

Sherrill 101, 102, 174

Utica 28, 29, 57, 96, 99, 112, 114-116, 122, 129, 130, 134, 139, 144, 147-149, 150, 152, 155, 160, 166, 166, 168-169, 178-180, 196-197, 199-201, 205-207, 209