Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection T$frl/Tfj Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection GIFT Not for Circulation NOT TO BE PHOTOCOPIED Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection GERRIT SMITH A BIOGRAPHY OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM NEW YORK G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 182 FIFTH AVENUE 1S78. Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection COPYRIGHT, 1877, G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS. Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PARENTAGE CHAPTER II. HEALTH CHAPTER III. RELIGION CHAPTER IV. HUMANITY ..... v CHAPTER V. TEMPERANCE CHAPTER VI. SLAVERY CHAPTER VII. THE WAR CHAPTER VIII. THE PEACE CHAPTER IX. PHILANTHROPY CHAPTER X. THE END Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection LIFE OF GERRIT SMITH. CHAPTER I. PARENTAGE. TO one who looks into the beginnings of any local society, the influence of individuals is apparent. The interest centres in a few men. This was the case in central New York. One of the men who made him­ self felt there in the first quarter of the century, was Peter Smith. He was born in Greenbush, Rockland Co., November 15, 1768. His ancestors, who were Hollanders, had lived and died there, for several gen­ erations. Petrus Smith died January 24, 1767, aged eighty years, two months, four days. Annitje his wife, died January i, 1803,. Gerrit P. Smith, their son, (born June 15, 1743, died October 7, 1826) married Wintje Lent (born July 16, 1750, died at her son's house in Schenectady, February 17, 1834). Peter was their oldest child. They lived on the farm near Tap- pan, which was made famous by the execution of John Andre. Peter was about twelve years old when that tragedy was enacted. At the age of sixteen or there­ abouts he became clerk to Abraham Herring, an im­ porting merchant in New York City. At this time, it is said, he exhibited the taste for theatricals that is usual with very young men, and, as an actor of subor- Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection 6 LIFE OF CERRIT SMITH. dinate parts on the stage of the old Park Theatre, gave signs of a faculty which if cultivated and directed might have enabled him to shine in another career. He was of sensitive temperament and quick emotions, easily moved to tears by consideration of his religious duties and by reflection on his relations to the Supreme Being and the destinies of the hereafter. Versatile and persuasive, a man to impress himself on others, and win confidence, his clerk life was suc­ ceeded by a partnership with John Jacob Astor, a poor youth like himself, but like himself adventurous, and endowed with the qualities that ensure success—patience, endurance, industry, and the sagacity that divines, as by instinct, the way to wealth. They kept a little store and traded in furs which they procured at first hand from the Indian hunters at the North. It was their custom in the summer months to go to Albany by sloop, thence on foot to penetrate into the interior of the State, mak­ ing their way as they could across rivers, swamps and other natural barriers, climbing, wading, swimming until they reached the tribes, Mohawks, Oneidas, Cayugas, Senecas, who held the treasures of winter spoil. The price paid was not dear, the " Indian money " as it was called, consisting of beads, shells, bits of glass, of no value except in savage eyes ;—but the Indians were sat­ isfied, and helped the traders to transport the skins, on man-back and by canoe to Albany, whence they were taken down the river to New York. The business was profitable for those times. It was perhaps to make it more profitable that Smith took up his residence in central New York, in the valley of the Mohawk, and opened an Indian trader's store in a corner of his house, Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection PETER SMITH. J on what is known as the Bleecker property at Utica At this period the" furs were sent to his partner in New York. But other interests engrossed him, and the part­ nership with Mr. Astor was dissolved. Astor bought real estate in the heart of the city, and Smith bought acres in the centre of the State. Two little pocket journals exist, written rudely in pencil, containing notes of journeys northward from Albany, in the summer and autumn of 1822. The de­ scriptions suggest hardships of nearly every description ; bad roads, scant accommodations, sparse populations, hard climates, vile weather, but they disclose a sturdy resolve, a keen vigilance, an appreciation of natural ad­ vantages and a foresight into future possibilities, an in­ telligent, humane interest, too, in the prospects of civili­ zation, such as belong only to men of genuine power. The purchases of land were, even at the start, immense in extent. At this period the Indians in his neighbor­ hood outnumbered the whites, who were mostly Dutch. His native language was Dutch, but he was able to com­ municate with the Indians, and even to address them effectively in their own speech. His frequent excursions in search of skins had made him acquainted with the land in different parts of the State and given him hints in regard to the probable sites for towns and villages, which he was quick to act on. As it was illegal to buy land outright from the Indians, Mr. Smith leased a large tract for the technical ninety-nine years, and then by arrangement with the authorities obtained permission to purchase a tract of some sixty thousand acres, for which he paid three dollars and fifty-three and a half cents per acre. Of this enough was sold at auction in 1802, to Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection 8 LIFE OF GERRIT SMITH. repay the purchase money and still leave him a large estate. Mortgages on the lands that were sold on credit were transferred to the State in discharge of his indebt­ edness, and formed in part the capital of the Common School Fund. The tract of sixty thousand acres was divided into four parcels. The first contained seventy- four lots; fifty-five in Oneida County, in the present town of Augusta ; fourteen in Stockbridge, and five in Smithfield. The second contained sixty lots; most of them in the present town of Smithfield ; the rest in the adjacent township of Fenner. The third contained fifty-six lots, all but three in Fenner. The fourth con­ tained forty-seven lots, mostly in the town of Cazenovia, then in Chenango County. Mr. Smith, then Judge Smith, was, it is said, the largest purchaser of land in the Oneida Reservation, embracing nearly the whole of the Second Assembly District of Madison County, and sev­ eral large towns in Oneida County, which was sold in tracts of various sizes and shapes to speculators. He bought largely lands that were sold for taxes, often at a merely nominal sum, and either remained in his hands as permanent possessions, or were redeemed at enhanced prices. Among these later purchases, were eighty thou­ sand acres in the then county of Oneida, for which he paid to the State three dollars an acre. Of the amount offered at auction in Utica, twenty-two thousand two hun­ dred and ninety-nine and a half acres remained unsold. The highest price paid was eight dollars and forty cents per acre. Whole townships of unoccupied land were sometimes bought at a single purchase. Thus Mr. Smith became one of the largest landholders in the Union, certainly the largest in the State. His posses- Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection PETER SMITH. 9 sions comprised acres by the hundred thousand, nearer a million than half a million; they were measured by square miles. Judge Smith resided in the county of Madison and presided at the County Court. The township where he lived was named Smithfield, and the village Peterboro. Here he kept open house and exercised generous hos­ pitality. He was one of the burgomasters of his day when the Dutch Huguenots and the active merchants of Holland were colonizing and civilizing the central portion of the State. The Vanderkemps and Schuylers and Van Rensselaers and Kips, were welcome guests. The great landholder could be social and even jovial. His latch-string was out for his friends ; and he was too wise if not too kindly to make enemies. To the last he remained on good terms with the Indians ; the Oneida chief, Skenandoah, was a friend so fast that Mr. Smith named his first born son after him, Peter Skenandoah. In fact, his influence with the Indians was so great as to cause uneasiness to the general government, which dis­ patched an agent to break up what threatened to be an embarrassing intimacy. The danger however was im­ aginary. The agent reported accordingly, and the savage associations continued as long as he lived in the neigh­ borhood. The Indians made free with the hospitality of the Peterboro mansion, camped in the halls and out­ houses, and lay loose about the piazza, not always de­ sirable, though still useful visitors. To those who knew Judge Smith casually, he seemed a hard, sharp, shrewd man, close at a bargain, selfish and grasping, too much occupied with himself to make others happy, or to be genial of intercourse.