Glass _L_LLi_L Riwlf> 9)7: H 1. Memorial History OF SYRACUSE, N. Y. From its Settlement to the Present Time Edited by DWIGHT H. BRUCE SVKACUSE, N. V. n. P. SMITH 4 CO., I'UBUSHEKs 1891 PREFACE. THE promised History ok Sykacusk lias been written, and it ;— f Irnwlh of the Village— Prominent Builders 85 CHAPTER X. Primitive Conditions of the Site of Syracuse— Map of 1819-TThe Walton Tract and its Sale- The First Treasurer— The First Buildings in Syracuse— The Earliest Tavern —The Original Names of the Place— The Old Red Mill— Salina Street— The Canal and its Influence— Forman, Wil.son & ("o.— Celeliration of the ()]iening of the Canal — Population in 1 820- Lowering of the Lake— The Name of Syracuse— Oliver Teal! and the Water Works— Conditions in 1825 93 Contents. CHAPTER XI. Incorporation of the Village — Rivalry between Salinaand Syracuse — The First Election of Village Ollicers — Proceedings of the Early Meetings of Trustees — Some of the First Ordinances— The First Fire Protection— Visit of Marquis de La Fayette — General Condition of the Village at thu Time of Incorporation— Early Improve- ments and Sales of Lots— Location of Buildings between 1825 and \SSQ 108 CHAPTER Xn. Pen-Picture of the Village of 1827— Lathrop's Lodging House— Yellow Brook— Clear- ing of Lands by the Syracuse Company — Buildings on Various Streets in 1827 — W. B. Kirk's Tavern— The Old Episcopal Church— Phelps's Blacksmith Shop— The Site of the Bastable Block— The Section South of the Canal and West of Sahna Street— William Malcom's Buildings— Description of the Western Part of the City Site— The Cinder Road 1-0 CHAPTER XHI. From 1828 to 1840— Improvement oi Streets— The Census of 1829— Captain Hiram Putnam— The Business Houses of the Village and where they were Located — Sam- uel Lamed and his Floating Store— The Approach of the Cholera— Measures adopted to Thwart the Disease— Deaths of Prominent Persons— The Canal t,|uarantine and its Eftects— Census of Business Houses in 1834— The Great Fire of that Year- The Coming of the Railroad— E. W. Leavenworth and his Early Influence— Changes in the Ordinances '-^ CHAPTER XIV. Further Progress of the Village— The Rose Hill Cemetery Purchase— A Brief Era of Turbulence— Additions to the Business Houses of the Village— Tlie Great Gun- powder Explosion— Lists of Killed and Injured- Public Action on the Casualties- Changes of Street Names — A Disgraceful Riot— Whisperings of a City Charter — Abolition of the Old Can.al Basin— Erection of a Public Market— Causes of its Fail- ure — Incorporation as a City ''•o CHAPTER XV. First Officers of Salina Village— Early Village Expenses— Opening of Exchange Street —The Old Cemetery .ind the New— The First Paving- Purchase of Fire Apparatus —Lists of Village Olliceis— Various Public Improvements -Preparations for Union with Syracuse as a City 159 lo Memokiai, Histdkv of Syracuse. CHAPTER XVI. The Dawn of a New Era— Plank Roads and their Influence— A Savings Bank— E. B. Alvord's Cahfornia House— The First Ref,'ular Theater- Salt Lands at Auction— Onondaga Creek Inii>rovenient— ( )iganization of the Franklin Institute— New Mflhod of Hoad Making— The Bu.-iiiiess Establishments of the Young City- Growth of the Place — A Disastrous Fire— The Jerry Kescue — Jenny Lind's Con- cert—Abandonment of the Public Market— Sale of the Old Court-IIouse Property — The New Wards and their Boundaries — Increasing Public Debt — A Reign of In- cendiarism — The Wietiiig Blo(;k Burned — Trouble in the Public Finances — A Great Political Meeting I'i'i CHAPTER XVII. How History was Rapidly Made — Charier Election of l!^6li — The Presiileutial Campaign — The Beginning of the War — Inteuse Patriotic Excitement — The First Military Organization for the War— The Great Freshet of 18G2— Raising of the 122d Regi- ment — Bounties to Volunteers — Stagnation in all Public Improvements — Prospects of u Draft — The Delegation to Washington — Further Generous Bounties — Special Election — The Last Regiment Raised — A Snow Blockade — Steam Fire Engines Purchased — City Iiuprovemenis Following the War 190 CHAPTER XVIII. John Greenway's Barbecue — A Protest and Warning— Charter Election — Public Im- provements—A New Water Supply Demanded — The Tully Lake Project — The Fire Alarm Telegraph — Democratic Victory — A Period of Prosperity — A Bank Run — Small Pox Flurry— The Chenango Valley Railroad -Funding of a Heavy Floating Debt — Mayor Ijraves Deplores the Existence of the Great City Debt— Development of Southern Suburbs— The Village of Danforth — Di.ssension between the City and Gas Company — Public Alarm at the Municipal Debt — The Committee of Ninety- six— The Belden Administration and its Benefits 207 CHAPTER XIX. The Last Decade— Application for a New (ias Company Charter — The " City Improve- ment Society "—Building of the Wot Shore Railroad— Removal of Police Com- missioners—Trouble with the Board of Education— City Annexation — The New City Hall Project -Charter Amendments— Better Water Supply Demanded — The Committee of One Hundred and its Work -William A. Sweet's Project— Annex- ation of Geddes— Gift of Burnel Park -The Kirk Administration— Pushing the Work for a New Water Supply — A Real Estate Boom —Extension of the Street Railway System — Conclusion 231 CONTKNTS. I I CHAPTER XX. Villa),'." OITicers— City Officers— Judicial Olliccrs of llerkiiner County— Supreme Court .Iutlj;os~-Surroocal Officers— Regimental Organizations down to ISl'i Sulisequent Changes down to 1822— Missing Records of Ten Years- Other Changes down to the War of the Rebellion— ( »nondaga in the War— Butler's Zouaves— Jenney's First Company— Jenney's Rattery— Organization of the 12th Regiment— Its Various Campaigns and Return Home— The r22d Regiment and its Record— Organization of the 149th Regiment— An Account of its Campaigns— The ISoth Regiment and its Brief and Brilliant Record— History of the 51st Regi- ment—Independent Military Organizations 2( 1 CHAPTER XXH. German Population in Cities— Their Chief Characteristics— Proportion of Germans in Syracuse— Where they Came From- The first Germans of Syracuse— Where they Settled— The Beginning of Larger Immigration— Prominent German Settlers and their Occupations — The German Press— German Medical and Other Societies 336 CHAPTER XXni. Syracuse as a Healthy Financial Center— The First Monetary Strmgency— Its Conse- quences—The Stringency in 1857--01d Bank of Syracuse- -Trust and Deposit Com- pany— Salt Springs National Bank— Merchants' National Bank— Onondaga County Savings Bank- -First National Bank— New York State Banking Company— Syra- cuse Savings Bank— Third National Bank — Bank of Syracuse — State Bank of Syracuse — Robert Gere Bank 3G4 CHAPTER XXIV. Sail in Olden Days— The Discovery of the Onondaga Salt Springs— The First Known Source of Salt away from the Sea Coa.^t— Comfort Tyler's Primitive Salt Works —Isaac Van VIeck's Operations— The Geddes Works— The Federal Company— Eli.sha and Dioclesian Alvord— The Establishment of Larger Blocks— The Early Methods of Boilmg— The First Wells— Relations of the State to the Salt Lands- Improvements in Processes— Early Markets for Salt -Statistics of Manufacture — Organization of Companies — Pi esent and Future of the Industry 378 12 Memorial History of Syracuse. chaptp:r XXV. The Western Inljiml Lock and Navigation Company- First Inception of the Erie Canal Project — The Kontes Discussed — Judge Kornians Early Work in Favor of the Ca- nal— The State Loan— Completion ot the Canal— The First Packet Boat— Railroads — The First One to Reach Syracuse— Its Rude Character — Other Railroads of Syracuse 404 CHAPTER XXVI. Early Ilistory of the Bench and Bar of America--The Courts of the State of New York — Appointment of Associate Judges of the Supreme Court — The Supreme Court — The Old Supreme and Circuit Courts — The Eight Judicial Districts — The Court of Common Pleas — District Attorney — The First Court-House — Rivalry for a New Court-House in Salina and Syracuse — The Compromise — The Last Court-IIouse — Its Enlargement — The Court of .\ppeals Lil)rary — Biographic Sketches — The Pres- ent Bar 4\~i CHAPTER XXVH. The Onondaga Medical Society — Its Organization — Records of Early Meetings — The First Cholera Epiiiemic — A Complimentary Dinner-- List of Presidents — List of Members — The Syracuse Medical Association— Proceedings of Various Meetings — Officers of the Association — Biograpliical Notes — -The Homoeopathic Medical Society ... 449 CHAPTER XXIX. First Religious Meetings in the Vicinity — Early Meetings atSalina and Goddes — Meet- ings in the Old School-House — Organization of the First Baptist Church— Burning of the Church — Other Baptist Churches--Pre8byterian Churches of Syracuse — Congregational Churches of Syracuse- -Methodist Episcopal Churches of Syracuse — Protestant Episcopal Cliurches — Catholic Churches 476 CHAPTER XXX. The Early Ilistory of the Schools of Syracuse— The Foundation laid for the Present Superior System— Languag.", Art, and Science Taught— Syracuse Academy Char- tered — Public Schools Before the City Organization — Public Schools Under the City Government 53q CoNTKNTS. 13 CHAITER XXXI. The Public Press — Its Character in Syacuse — Tlio Syracuse Standard and its Prede- cessors — The Syracuse Journal and its Ori';in — The Syracuse Couriir — The Evening Herald — Weekly Papers. — Tlie Rehgious Press — Defur.ct Newspapers ... 545 CIIAITKR XXXII. Music in Syracuse 557 CHAPTER XXXIII. The First PosloHice — Its In.sigiiificance — The First Postmaster — First tjuarterly Re- ceipts — A Stately Removal — First Free Delivery — The New Government Build- ing — List of Postmasters 559 CHAPTER XXXIV. Earl}' Protection from Fire — The First Engine — How it was Purchased — Fire Regula- tions — Members of the First Company — A Second Engine House — Purchase of a Third Engine — Re-organization of 1851 — Establishment of the Paid Department — Present Features — Commissioners 563 CHAPTER XXXV. The First Burial in the County — First Burial (rround in Salina — The Second and Pres- ent Burying Ground in the First Ward — The Old Burial Place of Syracuse Village — Rose Hill Cemeierj' — Movement for Establishment of Oakwood Cemetery- Dedication .570 CHAPTER XXXVI. Free and Accepted Masons — Tiie First Ma.sonic Lodge in Syracuse — Its Location in Salina — Syracuse Lodge, No. 501 — Other Masonic Lodges — The First Odd Fel- lows Lodge — Present Lodges and their Officers 577 CHAPTER XXXVII. The Police Department — The Syracuse Water Works Company — The Syracuse Gas Light Company — The Telegraph and Telephone in Syracuse — Onondaga County Orphan Asylum — The State Idiot Asylum— St. Joseph's Hospital— House of the Good Shepherd — The Old Ladies' Home — Business Men's Association — Bureau of Labor and Charities 586 14 Memorial History of Syracuse. CHAPTER XXXVHI. An Kstiniate of the City's Material Wealth— Its Growth, and tlie Reasons for it— A Uell<>etion of its Industries — Capital Em|>loyed and the Results Wrought Out— Its Sihools and Churches — A Sketch of its More Prominent Manufacturing Establish- ments — Hotels... GIO CHAPTER XXXIX. Notes anil Reminiscences with Wit and Humor interspersed — Interesting Anecdotes of Historical Importance 083 CHAPTER XL. Reminiscences of Hon. A. D. White— Present Recollections of Syracuse— Scenes and Incidents of H.ilf a Century ago— A Pen-Picture Closes the Volume 708 Biographical , Par^ n i MEMORIAL HISTORY OF SYRACUSE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF THE CITY OF SYRACUSE. CHAPTER I. OUTLINE OF INDIAN HISTOKV. Indian Occupation of Onondaga— The Five Nations— The Clreat Iroquois League— Tribal Characteristics- The Indian at Home- Emigration from the Old World to the New— The Jesuit Missions and their Work — Other Missions. THE history of the site of Syracuse, and the territory adjacent thereto, begins among the traditions of one of the most powerful nations of Indians of whom we have any knowledge, and still fainter traditions of white men who may possibly have visited this region many years previous to the time of which there are any existing records. The history of the Five Nations (ultimately the Six Nations,) of Indians— the Grand Iroquois," as they were termed by the French — illuminates thousands of brilliant pages from some of the ablest pens that this country has produced. Of these Five Nations the Onondagas, who were the original proud owners and occupants of the territory which comes distinctly within the province of this history, were, ♦The name Iroquois was given these Indians by the French, who prefixed the name " Huron " because their language indicated the Hurons, who were seated on Georgian Bay. to be a part of the Iroquois family, and. like them, were isolated in the midst of the Algonquins when discovered by the French. — Lossing. Memorial History of Syracuse. also, with one exception, the most influential and numerous, as well as the most intelligent.* Among the traditions of these Indians antiquarians and scholars have delved in efforts to trace their history back to their origin, but it can scarcely be said that the results have justified the labor. We know wMth a fair degree of certainty when white men first came here, driven by their ambition from the crowded acres of the Old World to a continent where a domain could be purchased with a cask of rum and the slaughter of a few natives; but whether those natives had occupied the soil fifty, a hundred, or a thou- sand years, we know not. The Five Nations of the Iroquois Indians were bound together in a League, the bonds of which were strong as steel and peculiarly adapted to secure permanence and the welfare of the several members in all the cir- cumstances of their lives. These nations were called Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, and they were located across the terri- tory embraced in the State of New York from east to west in the order just named. The time of the formation of this League is lost in the past. Some writers have placed it only a generation previous to the landing of the Dutch in New York : others a hundred years earlier. Webster, the first wliite settler on the site of Syracuse, and an Indian interpreter, gives the time as "about two generations before the white people came to trade with the Indians. "t It is, however, believed by those best informed on the sub- ject to have been formed at a much earlier date, and that nothing is left to indicate the actual time, excepting the tradition which is current among the Onondagas, of which the following is a brief summary: The origin of the League is ascribed to Hiawatha, the incarnation of wisdom, about the beginning of the fifteenth century. He came from his celestial home to dwell with the Onondagas, where he taught the related tribes all that was desirable to promote their welfare. Under his immediate tutelage the Onondagas became the wisest counselors, the bravest warriors, and the most successful hunters. While Hiawatha was thus quietly living among them they were attacked by a powerful enemy from the north, who laid waste their villages and slaughtered their men, women, and children in- discriminately ; utter destruction seemed inevitable. In this extremity they turned to Hiawatha, who, after thoughtful contemplation, advised a grand Council of all that could be gathered of the tribes, saying, " Our safety is not alone in the club and dart, but in wise counsels." * There were other tribes of Indians in the territory along the Atlantic sea board, at the time when white seillcnienls began, but in comparison with the Iroquois they were feeble and insignifi- cant. The Kivc Nations dominated them all and to such an extent that, with other active influences, Ihcy were soon practically exterminated. f Clark's Onondaga. Traditions oi' the Iroquois Lea(;ue. 19 The Council was held on the shore of Onondaga Lake and the fire burned for three days awaiting the presence of Hiawatha. He was troubled with forebodings of ill fortune and had resolved to not attend the Council ; but in response to importunities of messengers he set out with his beautiful daugh- ter, Minnehaha. Approaching the Council he was bidden welcome by all, and they then turned their eyes upward to behold a volume of cloudy dark- ness descending upon them. All fled excepting Hiawatha and his daugh- ter, who calmly awaited the impending calamity. Suddenly and with a mighty swoop, a huge bird with long and distended wings descended upon the beautiful maiden and crushed her to death, itself perishing with the collision. For three days and nights Hiawatha gave himself up to exhibi- tions of poignant grief. At the end of that period he regained his wonted demeanor and took his seat in the Council, which, after some deliberation, adjourned one day. On the following day Hiawatha addressed the Coun- cil, giving to each of the Five Nations their location and their degree of importance, as before described. The advice of the venerable sage was deliberated upon until the following day, when the celebrated League of the Iroquois was formed and its details perfected with elaborate and ex- tended ceremonies. Whether or not there is a foundation in fact for this traditionary source of the Confederacy, it grew into one of the most remarkable and powerful combinations known to history, a marvel to civilized nations and stamping the genius that gave it birth as of the highest order. The Onondagas have also had numerous traditions respecting their own origin, but their historical value is insignificant. For example, they have claimed to have come from the north, where they once inhabited the banks of the St. Lawrence : that a few of their hunters came down into this region, whither they were finally followed by the entire nation. Another story is, that the Bear and the Wolf tribes sprang out of the ground near Oswego Falls ; the Eel and the Tortoise from the same lowly source on the banks of the Seneca river; the Deer and the Eagle tribes from the soil of the Onondaga hills ; while the Beaver and the Heron tribes came out of the earth on the banks of Lake Ontario. There is nothing to suggest truth in these traditions, excepting the fact that the Jesuit missionaries found Onon- dagan villages at the four points mentioned. Of the Five Nations composing the Iroquois League, the Onondagas occupied the central territorial position, and with them was kept the Grand Council fire. They were, owing to their superior intelligence, bravery in war, and diplomatic skill, (though they were outnumbered by the Senecas, who were also further advanced in agriculture and the arts),* given the * The Senecas from the earliest limes have been the most numerous and powerful of the Five Nations. They have always been further advanced in agriculture and the arts than their neighbors, 20 Memorial History of Syracuse. general leadership of the League, and around their fires all public business was transacted. The Onondagas were divided into eight tribes, four superior and four in- ferior in character. The first four were named the Wolf, the Bear, the Beaver, and the Tortoise ; the latter four, the Deer, the Eagle, the Heron, and the Eel. From the superior tribes were selected the Chiefs of the nations, members of the inferior clans not being eligible to office. The line of descent was in the female branch of the family. The son or grandson of a chief's daughter or sister was eligible to office, but his own son would not be eligible. This great nation of Indians, with their four confederate nations, consti- tuted a power which, in a military sense, made itself felt and dreaded for many years, not only against the pioneers of civilization, but also against their savage enemies. For more than a century they resisted the hostile efforts of the French ; for nearly as long a period they were alike courted and feared by the French and English colonists, and they finally extermi- nated or subdued the neighboring Indian nations until they were sub- stantially dictators of the Continent, gaining for themselves from the pen of an admirer the title of " The Romans of the New World." But while this great Confederacy was superior to its savage neighbors, at least in respect to mental characteristics, there is little to indicate that it was ever much inclined to improve the conditions in which it was first found by Europeans. Some of their prominent characteristics have been thus summarized : " They were closely attached to their warrior and hunter life ; hospitable to friends, but ferocious and cruel to their enemies; of no mean mental capacity, but devoting their energies to the lower, if not the lowest, forms of enjoyment and animal gratification : they had little regard for the marriage tie, and lasciviousness and unchastity were the rule ; their dwellings, even among the more stationary tribes, were rude, their food gross and poor, and their domestic habits and surroundings unclean and barbaric ; their dress was ordinarily of skins of animals, until the advent of the whites, and was primitive in character; woman was degraded into a mere beast of burden ; while they believed in a Supreme Being, they were powerfully swayed by superstition, incantations by medicine men, dreams and the like; their feasts were exhibitions of debauchery and gluttony. An English writer who visited this country in 1792 and had an oppor- tunity to observe the efforts of Mr. Kirkland among the Indians, thus gives his opinion on the subject : "The Rev. Mr. Kirkland, who acts as mission- ary among the Oneidas, has taken all the pains that man can take, but his and, if oralory, statesmanship and determined opposition to the encroachments of the whites, be taken into account, they may be said to stand in the foremost rani*. With their neighbors, the Tuscaroras, they have yielded more readily to the advantages of education. — Clark's Onondaga. Mission Work among the Indians. 21 whole flock are Indians still, and like the bear which you can muffle and lead out to dance to the sound of music, becomes again a bear when his muffler is removed and the music ceases. The Indians will attend public worship and sing extremely well, following Mr. Kirkland's notes, but when the service is over, they wrap themselves in their blankets, and either stand like cattle on the sunny side of a house, or lie before a fire." Later ex- perience has, alas, only substantiated this view of the case, at least to a con- siderable e.xtent.* Against this somewhat repulsive picture others have found much in apology for the dark features of the Indian character, and brought to bear considerable evidence that if the whites — the final permanent settlers — had adopted a proper and humane course toward the natives, different and more satisfactory results might have been attained. Hundreds of pages have been written, picturing the savage horrors that awaited the immigrants from the Old World ; tales have been told of the bloody atrocity with which the families of hundreds of early settlers were slaughtered and their little homes burned according to the barbaric code ; and these stories have been handed down to civilized posterity until, maybe, we have become accustomed to look upon them as constituting the only truthful history of the red men and the settlements of Onondaga and surrounding territory, and to accept without reserve the dictum that the Indian was not only a savage from first to last and under all circumstances, but was from the outset an implacable, remorseless, and blood thirsty enemy to the white pioneers. This is, we believe, in its broad sense, not true. The thoughtful student of the cir- cumstances of the Indians when first visited by the pioneers of civilization, must reach the conclusion that at that time and afterward until they had been heedlessly, perhaps needlessl)', provoked into belligerency, they were essentially friendly to their unknown visitors. This is amply proven by their reception of the Jesuits, as will appear a little further on. Had they been otherwise — had they have fallen upon the immigrants as they did on many later occasions — it would have required a civilized army to effect a foothold on these shores, instead of its being done by mere handfuls of helpless men and women. When a country has been long possessed, even by civilized white people, and oncoming usurpers seek to wrest it from them, it is a custom held almost sacred for the possessors to fight to the last drop of blood for their hearthstones. Should we expect less from what we term a savage people ? ♦ In the year 1712 Rev. William Andrews was sent among the Mohawks by the Society for Propagating the Gospel, to succeed the Rev. Thoroughgood Moor ; but he abandoned the work in 1 719, failing in it, as his predecessors had. .\lluding 10 this particular effort a competent historical writer has made the following statement : "lie became discouraged and asked to be recalled, say- ing, there is no hope of making them better — heathen they are and heathen they must be." This is here quoted as one characteristic example of missionary work among the Indians. 22 Memorial History oi" Syracuse. The white man came to the Indian with professions of friendship on his tongue, but with a gun in one hand and a rum bottle in the other.* The Indian proved an apt pupil and took kindly to both. The consequences might have been foreseen, especially when the professions made by civilized governments and their representatives proved to be merely a cover for the most brazen attempts to wrest the new country from its former possessors. Of course the march of civilization must be onward, and the weak and ignorant must ever fall before the strong and wise: but retaliation, even though it be futile, in the necessary conflict, must be expected from the weak and ignorant. Leaving the uncertain traditions of the Indians, and other somewhat mythical evidences of the advent of white men into this territory previous to the beginning of the 17th century, we find that in the same year (1609) when Champlain, under authority of the French government, was shooting Iroquois Indians on Lake Champlain, an English navigator named Henry Hudson, then in the employ of the Dutch East India Company, discovered the river which now bears his name and thereafter the thrifty Hollanders soon established their trading post at its mouth, laying the foundation of the city of New York, and at the site of Albany. They also set up an in- definite claim to territory extending westward. f Previous to this, in 1606, * In 1609 .Samuel de Champlain came up the lake that now bears his name, lying between the States of New York and X'ermont, accompanied by a party of northern Indians and two Euro- peans, on a trip of discovery and conquest. He there met a body of the Iroquois. An extract from his journal reads thus : " The moment they saw me they halted, gazing at me and I at them. When I saw them preparing to shoot at us, I raised my arquebus, and aiming directly at one of the three chiefs, two of them fell to the ground by this shot ; one of their companions received a wound of which he died afterwards. I had put four balls in my arquebus. * * * The Iroquois were greatly astonished seeing two men killed so instantaneously. • * * Whilst I was reloading one of my companions (ired a shot, which so astonished them anew seeing their chief slain, that they lost courage, took to flight and abandoned their fort, hiding themselves in the depths of the forest, whither pursuing them, I killed some others." Thus was signalized the first hcstile meeting between the civilized white man and the untutored Indian. It is like a pathetic page from a romance to read that the " Iroquois were greatly astonished, seeing two men killed so instantaneously," while the in- genuous acknowledgment of Champlain, " I had put four balls in my arquebus," is vivid testimony of how little mercy the Iroquois were to expect from their civilized enemies. f It is a fairly established fact that Champlain visited the country of the Onondagas as early as i()i5, leaving Ijuebec for that purpose, with quite a party of French. The late O. H. Marshall, of Huflalo, a learned historian, discovered among the Champlain papers and translated for the New York Historical Society, an account of the expedition and battle which, he felt almost certain, was fought on the shores of Onondaga Lake Of the battle he wrote: "Some skirmishing ensued among the Indians which frustrated our design of not discovering ourselves until the next morning. * * * When I approached with my little detachment, we showed them what they had never before seen or heard. As soon as they saw us, and heard the balls whistling about their ears, they retired quietly into the fort." The battle was indecisive, and the besiegers relumed to Canada. " The village, ' Champlain says, " was enclosed by four rows of large interlaced palisades thirty feet high near a body of unfailing water. Along these palisades the Iroquois had placed conductors Mission Work among the Indians. King James of England had granted to an association of men in that country, called the Plymouth Company, the territory of New England, and on the 9th day of November, 1620, from the Mayflower landed the Tilgrim Fathers on Plymouth Rock. Thus, at the end of 1620 there were three distinct sources of emigration from the Old World, each under authority of its sovereign, and all tending toward occupancy and ownership of the territory embracing the locality of which this work is to treat. Besides these elements of civilization, the influence of which was soon felt in the New World, there arrived here in the year 1625 the vanguard of that remarkable order known as the Jesuit missionaries, which was in time to crowd out of Canada and what is now Northern New York, almost all other Catholic missionaries and substantially monopolize the territory. Those more intimately associated with the early history of this immediate region were Father Joseph Le Mercier, Father J. Claude Dablon, Father Chalonec, Father Le Moyne, Father Jean Quien, Father Paul Le Jeune, Father Paul Ragueneau, and Father Jerome Lallemant. As far as relates to the territory in which we are directly interested, the Jesuits left only slight traces of their work until 1650 and afterwards. In 1642 Father Isaac logues visited the Onondagas. Of him another Jesuit, Father Chalonec, wrote : " They (the Iroquois) had already gained some smattering of the gospel, which had been preached to them by Father logues and particularly those of Onontague, among whom this Father had fixed his residence." In the year 1653 Father Le Moyne was sent to the Onondagas to confirm a treaty with them in the name of the Governor-General of Canada, and it is recorded in favor of the Indians that "they showed him the most marked attentions" — " he was caressed in a royal manner." Father Le Moyne's journal of this journey is very interesting, but a few to convey water to the outside, to extinguish fire. Galleries were constructed inside of the palisades, prelected by ball-proof parapets of wood, garnished with double pieces of wood." Clark, in his history says, " (t is highly probable that it (this fort) was on the ground subsequently occupied by Sieur Dupuis in 1665, and also by Count Frontenac in his expedition against the Onondagas in i6g6, and by Col. Van Schaick in 1779. The locality was always described by the Fathers as being des- titute of trees and as a place of surpassing beauty." The location of this fort is still in doubt, but good authorities, among them Gen. John S. Clark, place it at a point south of and near the eastern ex- tremity of Oneida Lake. In an address before the Central New York Pioneer's Association in 1877, General Clark brought what seems to be strong proof that he was right, and said, among other things : " 1 challenge any investigator to show any indications whatever, by relics, history, or tradition, of any considerable Indian town site on Onondaga lake or its vicinity of any character or of any age, or of any other town site in Onondaga Valley, or east of this in Onondaga county, that can by any reasonable possibility be classified as prehistoric, or of the age and dimensions of the Champlain fort. They all show abundant evidence of European intercourse and in no particular meet the requirements of the problem." 24 Memorial History of Syracuse. brief extracts relating to this immediate locality are all that can be repro- duced here. He left Montreal on the 17th of July. After tracing his way up the St. Lawrence and into Lake Ontario, which he reached on the 30th, the journal says : " 2d. We began our march in the forest and, after traveling twelve or fifteen leagues, encamped about sunset. "3d. At noon we found ourselves on the bank of a river, one hundred or one hundred and twenty paces wide, on the other side of which there is a village of fishermen. An Iroquois, whom I had befriended at Montreal, set me across in his canoe, and kindly bore me to the shore on his shoulders, being unwilling that I should put my feet into the water. Every one re- ceived me with joy, and these poor people enriched me with their poverty. " 5th. We traveled four leagues before arriving at the principal Onon- daga village. I passed many persons on the way, who kindly saluted me, one calling me brother, another uncle, and another cousin. I never before had so many relations. At a quarter of a league from the village I began a harangue, in a solemn and commanding tone, which gained me great credit. I named all their chiefs, families and distinguished persons. I told them that peace and joy were my companions and that I scattered war among the distant nations. Two chiefs addressed me as I entered the village with a welcome, the like I had never before experienced among savages. Their women and children all treated me in a friendly and respectful manner. "6th. I was called to-day in different directions to administer relief to dying children. Some I baptized. I also confessed our old Huron Chris- tians, and found that God is everywhere : that he is pleased to labor silently in those hearts where faith has reigned. " 7th. I baptized a young captive taken from the Neuter nation, fifteen or sixteen years old, who had been instructed in the mysteries of our faith by a Huron convert. This was the first adult baptism made at Onondaga, for which we are indebted to the piety of a Huron." After further record of his experiences among the Onondagas, Father Le Moyne notes the start on his return journey, Aug. 15, and says that, "on the i6th we arrived at the entrance of a small lake (Onondaga). In a large basin, half dry, we tasted the water of a spring, which the Indians are afraid to drink, saying that it is inhabited by a demon who renders it foul. I found it to be a fountain of salt water, from which we made a little salt as natural as from the sea, some of which we shall carry to Quebec. This lake abounds in salmon, trout and other kinds of fish. " On the 17th we entered the outlet of the lake, and passed the river of the Senecas on the left, the addition of which enlarges the stream. It rises, they say, in two streams, among the Cayugas and Senecas. After three leagues more of pleasant traveling, we passed on our right the river of Journals or the Jesuit Missionaries. 25 Oneida, which seemed quite deep. A league further, we encountered some rapids, which gave the name to the village of fishermen." In the relation of Father Joseph Chaumonot and Father Claude Dablon, who made a journey to the Onondagas in 1656, we find references that are of interest in this connection. It says: " On this day (November 9) for the first time we visited the salt springs, which are only two leagues from here, near the lake Genentaha, and the place chosen for the French settlement, because it is in the center of the Iroquois nations, and because we can from thence visit in canoes various locations upon the rivers and lakes, which renders commerce free and com- modious. Fishing and hunting increase the importance of this place, for besides the various kinds of fish that are taken there at different seasons of the year, the eel is so abundant that a thousand are sometimes speared by a single fisherman in a night, and as for the game which does not fail through the winter, the pigeons gather in spring in such numbers that they are taken in nets in great abundance. The fountain from which very good salt is made, intersects a fine meadow surrounded by a wood of superior growth. From eighty to a hundred paces from this salt spring, is found another of fresh water and both flow from the same hill." In the relation of Father Dablon, (1656,^ who visited the Onondagas with several other missionaries and a party of about fifty Frenchmen, he says: " On the nth of July, at three o'clock, we found ourselves entering the lake Genentaha on whose shores we had destined to pitch our camp, when the old men, knowing it to be the place selected by Fathers Chaumonot and Dablon, awaited us with a great multitude of people. The size of this lake is two leagues long and half a league in width. We have remarked three things of importance. The first is, that several salt springs are formed upon the eastern side, although this lake is far distant from the sea. There are such, however, in Lorraine, but do not think that salt could be made as easily there, for we find salt ready made upon the ground about these springs, and it is readily deposited when the water is boiled. The second matter is that there gather around these salt springs so great a quantity of pigeons that thousands are caught in a morning." Father Paul Le Jeune (1656-7) also notes what took place on the shores of Onondaga lake on the i ith of July, as follows : " We entered the Lake Genentaha, on whose banks we prepared for abode, having advanced within a quarter of a league of this place. We dis- embarked five pieces of cannon, whose diminutive thunder rolled over the waters of the lake ; this was followed by a discharge of all our arquebuses. This was the first salute we had sent through the water, the air and the woods to the ancients of the country, who had expected us, with a great multitude of people. This sound boomed over the waters, burst forth loudly 4 26 Memorial History of Syracuse. in the air, and resounded very agreeably in the forest. We sailed after- wards in beautiful order, our canoes, or little batteaux, going four by four over this small lake. Our French made a second discharge upon coming in sight, with a grace which highly delighted all these poor people." The work of these Jesuit missionaries continued with little abatement down to about 1700, after which their labors and influence rapidly declined. Many of them fell martyrs in the wilderness during the later conflicts between the French and the Indians, and the English and the French. The good accomplished by them can be measured only by the Ruler of the Universe ; no traces of it can be seen by us in these later times. A German mission was established at Onondaga in 1750, by Moravian missionaries from Pennsylvania. These Moravian brothers "reached Onon- daga, the chief town of the Six Nations, situated in a very pleasant and beautiful country, and consisting of five small towns or villages, through which runs the River Zinochsaa. They were lodged at the house of Gon- a.ssatako, who received them with much cordiality. The object of this visit was both to fulfill the promise of a visit to the great Council of the Iroquois made last year to the deputies at Philadelphia, and to obtain leave for some brethren to live either at Onondaga or some other chief town of the Iroquois to learn the language and to preach the gospel."* These efforts by the Moravians continued five or six years but with no clearly marked results. There was a good deal of other missionary work done among the Iroquois, some of which related particularly to the Onondagas, notably by the Rev. Samuel Kirkland, to whose published life we refer the reader; by the Rev. Eleazer Williams, and by the Rev. Dan. Barnes, and others. CHAPTER II. THE STKl'CiGI.E FOR CONQUEST. The Three Rival Bands of Colonists— The Magnificent Royal Patent of Charles II.— Contest between the French and the English— The I'eacc of Breda— The French at War with the Irocjuois —Destruction of Montreal— The French Visit the Onondaga Country.— A Battle with the Indians- Treating with the English— Building of a Fort— Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle— France and England again at War— British Triumph— The Revolution. OF the three rival bands of colonists to which we have alluded in the preceding chapter, the French and the Dutch devoted their best energies to building up a profitable fur trade with the Indians, while the English •lleckwelder. The Strugglk kok Conquest. turned their attention to agriculture. Both the Dutch and the French en- deavored to win over and conciliate the Indians, at the same time losing no opportunity of inciting them against their rival colonists. On the I2th of March, 1664, Charles II of England conveyed by Royal Patent to his brother James, Duke of York, all the country from the River St, Croix to the Kennebec, in Maine ; also Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and Long Island, together with all the land from the west side of the Con- necticut river to the east side of Delaware Bay. The Duke sent an English squadron under Admiral Richard Nicolls, to secure the gift, and on the 8th of September following. Governor Stuyvesant capitulated, being constrained to that course by the Dutch colonists, who preferred peace with the same privileges and liberties accorded to the English colonists, to a prolonged and perhaps fruitless contest. Thus ended the Dutch regime. The English changed the name of New Amsterdam to New York. Strife and jealousy between the English and French increased after the accession just mentioned and led up to the long and bloody war that fol- lowed, in which the aid of the Iroquois and other nations of Indians was eagerly sought by both, with varying degrees of success. On the 23d of March, 1665, Daniel de Runy, Knight, Lord de Courcelles, was appointed Governor of Canada, and in September of that year arrived with a regiment, several families and necessaries for the establishment of a colony. In June of the same year, M. de Tracy was appointed Viceroy of the French possessions in America, and brought with him to Quebec four regiments of infantry. On the 9th of January, 1666, De Courcelles started with less than six hundred men on a long and perilous march in midwinter against the Iroquois. After untold sufferings the commander learned, when near the Mohawk's country, that most of the Indians had left their homes to make war " upon the Wampum-makers." The expedition returned dis- couraged and decimated in numbers. In June, 1666, a treaty was concluded between the French and Indians, and in the following year was concluded the peace of Breda, between Hol- land, England, and France. This gave the New Netherlands to the English and Arcadia (Nova Scotia) with fixed boundaries, to the French. But the period of quiet was of short duration, for in 1669 the French were again at war with their old antagonists. But in April, 1672, Count de Frontenac was appointed Governor of Canada and under his efficient administration confidence was restored and a treaty of peace concluded in 1673. In 16S4 another rupture occurred between the French and Iroquois. M. de la Barre was then Governor of New France (Canada) and Colonel Dongan, Governor of New York. The Frenchman led an expedition against the Senecas, but hearing that the latter would be reinforced by Dongan with " four hundred horse and four hundred foot," he gave up his purpose. 28 Memorial History of Syracuse. This pretentious expedition, which ended so ignominiously, subjected De la Barre to severe censure and in the following year he was superseded by the Marquis de Nonville, who came over instructed to preserve a strict neutrality. This he found to be impossible and so informed his sovereign. Reinforcements wore then sent to him for a determined attack upon the Senecas, and in the summer of 1687 an expedition of 2,oco French and Indians was organized and marched against that nation. This bold incur- sion into the countryof their strongest nation alarmed the Iroquois and they applied to Governor Dongan for protection. It was promised them, of course, with the stipulation that they should not make peace with the French. In July, 1689, twelve hundred Iroquois warriors landed on the island of Montreal, burned houses, sacked plantations, massacred men, women, and children, and retired with twenty-six prisoners, most of whom were burned alive. In October following they made a similar incursion at the lower end of the island and likewise devastated it. These failures of the French to defend their possessions caused many of their Indian allies to seek alliance with the English and open trade with them, thus again e.xciting the old rivalry. Count de Frontenac was reappointed Governor of Canada in May, i68g, and arrived there in October. He at once inaugurated a war- fare against the Iroquois and English, which continued with varying fort- unes until the treaty of Ryswick in 1697. On one of the incursions of the French into the Indian country, they reached the territory with which we are most concerned. On the 4th of July, 1696, the army, comprising two battalions of regulars, five hundred Indians, two large batteaux carrying two small cannon, with mortars, grenades, ammunition, etc., which force was followed by four battalions of infantry and a large number of volunteers, left the southern end of the island of Mon- treal. After twelve days march they arrived at Fort Frontenac, one hun- dred and eighty miles from Montreal. They then came b\' way of Lake Ontario to Oswego, on the 28th of July. Fifty men were ordered to march on each wing of the army to prevent surprise. A military road was cut around the falls, and, carrying their transports over the portage, they moved slowly along the Oswego river according to the intelligence obtained from the scouts. Finally the whole flotilla debouched upon the waters of Onon- daga lake. " It must have been a gallant sight to behold this warlike pageant float- ing on that lovely water, surrounded as it was by the lofty hills and un- broken forest, which for the first time, had now displayed their beauty and grandeur to an invading army. It must have been sublime to see the vet- erans who had served under Turenne, Vauban, and the great Conde, mar- shalled with pike and cuirass, side by side with the half naked Hurons and Abeaquis ; while gay and youthful cavaliers, in the tawdry garb of the DlI'LOMACV OK THE EN(;1.ISII. 29 court of the magnificent Louis, moved with towering plume and flowing mantle amid the dusky files of the wampum-decked Utowas and Algon- quins. Banners were there which had been unfolded at Steenkirk and Louden, and rustled above the troopers that Luxemburgh's trumpets had guided to glory, when Prince Waldeck's legions were borne down beneath his furious charge. Nor was the enemy that this gallant host were seeking, unworthy those whose swords had been tried in some of the hardest fought fields of Europe.* A battle followed the arrival of the troops and though it was a nominal victory for the French, the Indians burned their homes and deserted them, rendering the victory a barren one, and the French returned to Montreal. With the accession of Anne to the throne of England in March, 1702, what is known as Queen Anne's was inaugurated and continued until the establishment of the treaty of Utrecht, April 11, 1713. But New York, fortunately, almost wholly escaped its consequences. The Onondagas and the Oneidas made a proposition on February 3, 169S, to the Governor of New York, in which they informed him that dep- uties were on the point of leaving Onondaga to treat with the French Gov- ernor of Canada, who had made them many fine promises. The Governor and Council were much surprised and proposed to at once send messengers to Onondaga to prevent the execution of such a plan. The messengers were dispatched and a Council was held on the 1st and 2d days of May, its proceedings being returned to the Governor. The Five Nations asked that assistance be granted them against the French and west- ern Indians, and gave assurances that they would thereafter hold the great Councils at Albany, and that one should be held at that place at the expi- ration of fourteen days. Soon afterwards Mr. Robert Livingston was dis- patched to the Onondagas and made his report to his superiors, in which he recommended that the king should purchase land and grant it to those Na- tions, to be located so " near the praying Indians that one minister might serve for both. That the Oneidas and the Onondagas be persuaded to remove nearer to Albany on the river, out of the way of being attacked by the French. The Onondagas to come twelve miles nearer Oneida, on the same account." Rethought it impossible to keep and secure the Five Nations to English interests, without building forts, and securing the passes to their country. " That a strong fort should be built at the mouth of Onondagas' river, where it intersects the Oneidas' river. This being well fortified, would secure all the Five Nations from the inroads of the French, by water, and be a key to the Indian country. " On the 26th of August, 1700, a Council was convened at Albany, agree- HofTman. Memorial History of Syracuse. able to arrangement. There the Earl of Bellomont reassured the Five Na- tions of the king's protection. " From this time forward, the Five Nations may be considered as having been entirely wedded and devoted to the in- terests of the English. Early in 1700 the Earl of Bellomont and the As- sembly of New York had passed a law, (severe indeed) for hanging every Popish priest who voluntarily came into the province. This was provoked by the great number of French Jesuits who were continually tampering with the Indians." * In 1 701, the king of England gave five hundred pounds for the erection of a fort in the country of the Onondagas, and eight hundred pounds to be laid out in presents to the Indians. In return for this the Indians con- veyed a large tract of the Mohawk country to the English to prevent the necessity of submission to the French, in case of further war. Assaults were afterwards made by the English upon Canada, but without decisive results, while the French and Indians repeatedly ravaged the northern frontier. Ail this was definitely ended by the treaty of Utrecht in 1713, as before mentioned. In the war between England and France, begun in 1744, and closed by the treaty of Ai.\ la-Chapelle, in 1748, the Si.x Nations+ generally main- tained their neutrality, though the Mohawks gave some aid to the English. During the eight years of nominal peace which succeeded that treaty, both the French and the English made numerous efforts to e.xtend their domin- ion, the former with most success. In 1756, after two years of open hostilities in America, war was again de- clared between England and France^the last great struggle for supremacy in the New World. In that war the Mohawks were persuaded by Sir Wil- liam Johnson, who had arrived in America in 1734 and had acquired great influence with the Indians, to take the field for the English. At first the French were everywhere victorious. Braddock was slain and his army cut in pieces by a force utterly contemptible in comparison with his own. Montcalm captured Oswego. The French lines up the lakes and across to the Ohio were stronger than ever. But in 1758 William Pitt entered the councils of George II as actual, though not nominal, chief of ministry, and then England flung herself in deadly earnest into the contest. * Clark. f About 1712 an impott.-»nt event occurred in the history of the Iroquois. The Five Nations became the Six Nations. The Tuscaroras, a powerful tribe of North Carolina, had become involved in a war with the whites, originating in a dispute about land. Phe colonists were aided by other tribes and the Tuscaroras were defeated, many of them being killed and others captured and sold as slaves. The greater part of the remainder fled to the Iroquois, who immediately adopted them as one of the tribes of the Confederacy, assigning them a seat near the Oneidas. They became the Sixth Nation. Close of the Long Struggle. 3' In that year Fort Duquesne was captured by an English and provincial army, its garrison having retreated. Northward, Fort Frontenac was seized by Colonel Bradstreet, and other victories prepared the way for the grand success in 1759. The cordon was broken, but Fort Niagara still held out for France. In 1759 yet heavier blows were struck. Wolfe assailed Quebec, the strongest of all the French strongholds, with a large body of Mohawk and Onondaga Indians. Almost at the same time, Gen. Prideaux, with two thousand British provincials accompanied by Sir William Johnson, with one thousand of his faithful Iroquois, sailed up lake Ontario and laid siege to Fort Niagara. The fort fell and the control of the Niagara river, which had been held by the French for over a hundred years, passed to the English. Soon the life-bought victory of Wolfe gave Quebec to the Britons; but still the French clung to their colonies with desperate but failing grasp, and it was not until September, 1760, that the Marquis de Vaudreuil, the Gov- ernor-General of Canada, surrendered Montreal, and with it Detroit, Ve- nango, and all the other posts within his jurisdiction. This surrender was ratified by the treaty of peace between England and France in February, 1763, which ceded Canada to the former power. With the end of these wars came temporary peace to the Six Nations. How much their services contributed to the result attained, it may be diffi- cult to estimate ; but it may be safely assumed that the final success of the English was due in no small degree to the valor and sacrifices of the Indians. After the conclusion of the war, difficulties between the colonies and the mother country increased, until finally the Revolution burst upon the land, to end only with the victory which gave to the nations of the earth the Republic of the United States. During that great conflict the Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas were often on the war path, and on various occasions rendered service to the crown ; for this they received at the end of the strug- gle, only neglect from the English, while the State of New York exhibited an inclination to drive them wholly from its territory. This course was successfully opposed by Generals Washington and Schuyler. Whether the Indians have been properly rewarded for their deeds we need not here as- sert ; but it cannot be denied that while a remnant of their number remains among us, they are deserving of humane treatment in the broadest sense of the term. A ground Council of all the Six Nations was held at Fort Stanwix in 1784, where a treaty was made which gave to each Nation a certain reserva- tion of territory, excepting the Mohawks, who had accepted a proposal from Gen. Haldimand to settle in Canada. This treaty took from the In- dians a large portion of their valuable lands and caused much dissatisfac- tion among them ; but this finally disappeared and in the war of 1812 the Onondagas took an active part, fought on its fields, and rendered invaluable services as scouts. 32 Memorial History of Syracuse. In 1788 another treaty was consummated between the Onondagas and the State of New York, by which the Indians relinquished all title to their lands, excepting a tract about ten miles square around their Castle. They also surrendered one-half of their right to the salt springs on their reserva- tion, and eventually gave up the remainder. For this they were granted a sum of money and an annuity. By other treaties made in 1793, 1795, 1817, and 1822, their reservation territory has been further reduced to its present limits of about 6000 acres. The Onondagas now number about 350 per- sons, and their number does not materially change. Their present annual annuity is about $i,6cx). It is believed by intelligent observers, that these successors of the once great nation are improving in their social, religious, educational, and domestic condition from j^ear to year; but their progress must necessarily be slow. CHAPTER III. THE MII.ITARV TRACT. Proceedings which Led to its Formation — Extent of Bounties in Lands to the Army — Laying Out of Townships— Terms of Settlement on the Grants— Balloting for Lots— Original Townships of the Military Tract — Relation of the Tract to Onondaga County. ON the 16th of September, 1776, while war measures were under consid- eration in Congress, the following resolutions were passed : " That eighty-eight battalions be enlisted as soon as possible, to serve during the present war ; and that each Stale furnish their respective quotas in the follow ing proportions, viz :" [The quota of New York was four battalions ; those of other States may be omitted here] " That twenty dollars be given as a bounty to each non-commissioned officer and private soldier who shall enlist to serve during the present war, unless sooner discharged by Congress. " That Congress make provision for granting lands in the following proportions to the officers and soldiers, who shall so engage in the service, and continue therein until the close of the war, or until discharged by Congress, and to the representatives of such olTicers and soldiers as shall be slain by the enemy. " Such lands to be provided by the United States ; and whatever expenses shall be necessary to procure such land, the said expenses shall be borne by the States in the same proportion as the other expenses of the war, viz : To a Colonel, 500 acres ; to a Lieutenant-Colonel, 450 acres ; to a Major, 400 acres ; to a Captain, 300 acres ; to a Lieutenant, 200 acres ; to an Ensign, 150 acres ; to each non-commissioned officer and soldier, 100 acres." By an Act of the 12th of August, 1780, Congress also made provision n:UOi^f^ ^iJl^^ a. /t Bounty Lands to Officers and Soldiers. 33 for land bounties for Major-Generals, 1,100 acres, and Brigadier-Generals, 850 acres. When the war closed, in 1783, the New York Legislature undertook the discharge of this obligation, and also granted gratuities in lands on its own account. This was accomplished by a resolution granting lands in addition to the before-mentioned bounties, in the following proportions : To a Ma- jor-General, 5,500 acres ; to a Brigadier-General, 4,250 acres ; to a Colonel, 2,500 acres ; to a Lieutenant-Colonel, 2,250 acres ; to a Major, 2,000 acres ; to a Captain and a Regimental Surgeon, each, 1,500 acres ; to each Chap- lain, 2,000 acres ; to every Subaltern and Surgeon's Mate, 1,000 acres; to every non commissioned officer and private, 500 acres. Another resolution contained the following provisions : " That the lands so to be granted as bounty from the United States, and as gratuity from the State, shall be laid out in townships of si.x miles square; that each town- ship shall be divided into 156 lots of 150 acres each, two lots whereof shall be reserved for the use of a minister of the gospel, and two lots for the use of a school or schools ; that each person above described shall be entitled to as many such lots as his bounty and gratuity will admit of ; that one- half the lots each person shall be entitled to shall be improved at the rate of five acres for each one hundred acres, within five years after the grant, if the grantee shall retain the possession of such lots ; and that the said boun- ty and gratuity lands be located in the district of this State reserved for the use of the troops by an Act entitled, " An Act to prevent grants or loca- tions of the lands therein mentioned, passed the 25th day of July, 1782." On the 20th of March, 1781, the State Legislature passed an Act which further provided for the raising of troops to complete the "line" of this State in the United States service, and for two regiments to be raised on bounties of lands, for the further defence of the frontiers of the State. The land granted by these last mentioned acts was known as "bounty" land, and those granted under the previous action of the State government were known as " gratuity ' lands. The original Acts granting these lands were afterward modified and amended until finally it was ordered by an Act passed February 28, 1789, "That the Commissioners of the Land Office shall be, and they are hereby authorized to direct the Surveyor-General to lay out as many townships in tracts of land set apart for such purpose, as will contain land sufficient to satisfy the claims of all such persons who are or shall be entitled to grants of land by certain concurrent resolutions, * * * which townships shall respectively contain 60,000 acres of land, and be laid out as nearly in squares as local circumstances will permit, and be numbered from one progressively to the last inclusive ; and the Commissioners of the Land Office shall like- wise designate every township by such names as they shall deem proper." 5 34 Memorial History of Syracuse. The same Act ordered the Surveyor-General to make a map of tliese townships, dividing each into one hundred lots of six hundred acres each, and number them from one upwards. The same Act ordered : " All persons to whom land shall be granted by virtue of this Act, and who are entitled thereto by any act or resolution of Congress, shall make an assignment of his, or her, proportion and claim of bounty or gratuity lands under any act or acts of Congress, to the Surveyor- General, for the use of the people of this State." It was also provided that for all lands thus assigned, an equal number of acres should be given by the State, and so far as possible in one patent, " Provided the same does not exceed one quarter of the quantity of a township." These grants were to be settled within seven years, or the lands would revert to the State. A tax was laid upon fifty acres in one corner of each six hundred acre lot, of forty-eight shillings, as compensation for the survey, which tax was to be paid in two years, or the lot would revert to the State and be sold at public auction. The proceeds of the sale were to be devoted to the payment of the expenses of the survey and sale, and any surplus funds to be expended " in laying out and making roads in the said tract." By an Act of February 28, 1789, six lots in each township were reserved, " One for promoting the gospel and a public school or schools, one other for promoting literature in this State, and the remaining four lots to satisfy the surplus share of commissioned officers not corresponding with the division of six hundred acres, and to compensate such persons as may by chance draw any lot or lots, the greater part of which may be covered with water." It was provided also, "That whenever it appeared that persons applying for bounty or gratuity land, and had received from Congress the bounty promised by that body, or in case they failed to relinquish their claim to such land, then the Commissioners were to reserve for the use of the people of the State one hundred acres in each lot to which such persons were en- titled ; designating particularly in which part of such lot such reserved part was located." This gave rise to the term, " State's Hundred," so frequently applied to sections of the Military Tract. At a meeting of the Land Commissioners held at the Secretary's office in New York city, on Saturday, July 3, 1790, there were present, " His Ex- cellency, George Clinton, Esq., Governor; Lewis A.Scott, Esq., Secretary; Gerard Hancker, Esq., Treasurer; Peter T. Curtenius, Esq., Auditor." The Secretary laid before the Board maps of surveys of twenty-five townships, made by the Surveyor-General, Simeon DeWitt. These town ships were named, Ly.sander, Hannibal, Cato, Brutus, Camillus, Cicero Manlius, Aurelius, Marcellus, Pompey, Romulus, Scipio, Sempronius, Tully I'"abius, Ovid, Milton, Locke, Homer, Solon, Hector, Ulysses, Dryden Virgil, Cincinnatus, Junius. The twenty-sixth township was added in 1791 Allotment ok tiik I, anus. 35 These townships were certain tracts of land, each containiiif^ one hundred lots, as described. In the early organization a town often embraced several townships. As settlements increased these towns were variously divided, for the public convenience, until they ultimately assumed their present boundaries. On January i, 1791, the Commissioners began to determine claims and ballot for individual shares. Ninety-four persons drew lots in each of the townships, and the reservations before alluded to were made. The adjust- ment of these individual claims was a source of almost infinite perplexity to the Commissioners, as well as to the real owners. On account of the many frauds committed respecting the land titles, an Act was passed in 1794, requiring all deeds and conveyances executed prior to that time to be deposited with the clerk of the county at Albany, and such as were not so deposited were to be considered fraudulent. Rut the trouble did not end here, and the courts overflowed with business relating to the claims. Sol- diers coming in to take possession of their lots often found them occupied by pugnacious squatters, and discouraging and costly litigation followed. Finally the inhabitants of the Tract became so wearied and exasperated with continued contentions that, in 1797, they united in a petition to the Legislature for a law under which the whole matter could be equitably ad- justed. An Act was accordingly passed appointing Robert Yates, James Kent, and Vincent Mathews as a Board of Commissioners, with power to settle all disputes respecting the land titles. After laborious investigation, the vexatious differences were all adjusted with reasonable satisfaction to all concerned. All of this immense Military Tract was originally embraced in Onon- daga county. Between 1772 and 1794 the territory of Onondaga county formed a part of, first, Montgomery, (formerly Tryon) and afterwards of Herkimer county. In 1789 Montgomery county was divided, Ontario county being cut from the western portion by a line drawn across the State through Seneca lake two miles east of Geneva. The territory of Onondaga county was then left undefined in the western part of Montgomery. In 1791 Herkimer county was taken from Montgomery (as it then existed) and included all of the territory west of Montgomery, north of Otsego and Tioga, and east of Ontario county. In 1794 the county of Onondaga was formed from the western part of Herkimer county, and included all of the Military Tract, the boundaries of which embraced, (besides the territory of the present Onondaga county,) all of what is now included in the counties of Cayuga, Seneca, Cortland, and all of that part of Tompkins county lying north of a line drawn west from the head of Seneca lake to the southwest corner of Cortland county. 36 Memokiai, History ok Sykacusk. and all that part of Oswego county lying west of the Oswego river. From this then great county, Cayuga was taken off in 1799; Cortland in 1808, and Oswego in 1816, reducing Onondaga to its present limits. When or- ganized the county was divided into eleven towns, viz : Homer, Pompey, Manlius, Lysander, Marcellus, Ulysses, Milton, Scipio, Ovid, Aurelius, and Romulus. A new organization in 1801, after Cayuga had been taken off, gave the county only nine towns. The territory to which this work is devoted lies in what subsequently became the towns of Onondaga, Salina, and Geddes. Of these, Salina was the first formed. In 1797 a law was passed directing the Surveyor-General to lay out a part of the original Salt Springs Reservation, preparatory to more extended operations in salt manufacture. On the map made in con- formance to this law, a portion of the marsh and the upland was laid out and named " Salina," and in the following year a village plat was laid out and also called Salina. But these steps were only preparatory to town or- ganization. The town of Onondaga was set off from the original town- ships of Marcellus, Pompey, and Manlius, by an Act of March 9, 1798. That part of the original Salt Springs Reservation on the west side of On- ondaga lake and creek became a part of the town of Camillus, formed 1799. Salina was set off and organized by Act of March 27, 1809, its territory having been a part of the original townships of Manlius and Marcellus. From the northwest corner of the first-named township, a triangular piece of territory containing nine and one-half lots was taken off, which, with the Salt Springs Reservation as then defined, constituted the town of Salina. Geddes was not formed as a town until 1848, though a map of the site of Geddes village was made as early as 1807, and several other maps a few years later. The town included all that part of the town of Salina west of Onondaga lake, not now embraced in the city of Syracuse. Of this immediate region, the annals of which may now be taken up, a writer in the Daily Advertiser, published in Philadelphia on the 26th of July, 1792, thus discoursed : " Gentlemen who reside on the .Militar)' lands in the county of Herkimer, inform us that that tract of country contains a very great proportion of rich land, well watered and timbered, that there is already a considerable number of settlers there, and that it bids fair to people as rapidly as any part of America. That sixteen bushels of salt are daily manufactured at Major Danforth's works at the salt springs, and that Mr. Van Vleck, formerly of Kinderhook, is erecting other works at the same place, for carrying on the like manufacture ; that salt now sells there for five shillings per bushel ; that it weighs about fifty-six pounds per bushel and is equal to the best Turk's Island. That the salmon fishing in that country must become an object of great improvement, as that fine fish (the salmon) abounds in their rivers and lakes in spring and fall. That it is not uncommon for a party to spear twenty to fifty in an evening, from fourteen to thirty pounds each. The lands sell in general at from one shilling to three shillings per acre, but some have sold as high as from eight to twelve shillings per acre." This is a brief, clear, and, doubtless, a truthful sketch of this locality and its prospects a century ago. OuTi.iNK OK Local Gkoi.ocv. In the Massachusetts Historical Collection is a rare pamphlet made up of a description of the country between Albany and Niagara, and written in 1792. From its pages we may add a little to the preceding extract : " After passinjj Clinton, there are no inhabitants upon tlie road, until you reach Oneida, an In- dian town, the lirst of the Six Nations ; here I slept and found the inhabitants very friendly. The next day I went on to Onondaga, leaving the Oneida lake on the right, and the Onondaga lake on the left, each a few miles distant. I slept at Onondaga, at the house of a Mr. * who is em- ployed in boiling down the waters of the Salt springs, which are about 7 miles north of his house, for supplying the country with salt — he told me that he made about fifty bushels per week, which he sold at live shillings per bushel, but that any quantity may be made, and at a less price. • * In- dependent of our own Settlements, we can supply the British in the whole of Upper Canada." * .\sa Danforth's, without doubt. CHAPTER IV. SKETCH OF GEOLOCV IN THE VICINITY OK SYRACUSE. The Oldest Land on the Continent — Layers of Rock in Onondaga County and what I'roduced Them — The Great Inland Seas of Early .-Kges — The Salina Croup — The Salt Deposit of Onon- daga — Hopper-shaped Casts from .Salina — The Water Lime Croup — Oriskany .Sandstone. THE oldest land on this continent was a V-shaped ridge which appeared above the vast waters then covering all of North America. This ridge stretched from a point just north of lake Ontario, northeast to Labrador, and northwest to the Arctic ocean, and belongs to what is known in Geology as the Azoic Age, or the Archaic Rock. It was upheaved at a time previous to the existence of life on the globe, and is now found overlaid in places by a series of layers of sedimentary rocks in which are found the fossil remains of the lowest forms of animal life. This series of sedimentary rocks, up to a certain point, constitute what is known in Geology as the Silurian Age, and in it is embraced the territory beginning at the north shore of lake On- tario and extending to about three miles south of Syracuse, where the series closes with a layer of coarse sandstone, known as the Oriskany Sand- stone. The Silurian rocks were formed mainly by the decomposition and grad- ual disintegration of the older rock mentioned, and the washing down of the material thus produced into the sea. In the course of the passing ages sufficient of this material was thus deposited and slowly hardened into 38 Memorial History ok Syracuse. stone, to form the lowest and oldest layer of the series, which was succeeded by another, and so on to the uppermost. A later upheaval tilted these vast layers of rock and lifted their northern edges above the waters, giving the layers a dip towards the south, driving the waters southward and forming a new shore, as will be explained. In crossing Onondaga county from north to south, we pass over these uptilted edges of the rocks, the dip of the layers being twenty-six feet to the mile towards the southwest as they dis- appear under the overlying hills. In other words they lie upon each other like the shingles on a roof, as shown in the accompanying sketch. The sur- face of the land, however, in going from northeast to southwest, rises about thirteen hundred feet in crossing the county : this causes the surface water to flow northward, while the dip of the underlying rocks causes the water beneath the surface to flow southward. The regular succession of these layers of rock is shown in the annexed diagram. As these layers of sedimentary rocks came into being and their edges appeared above the waters to the northward, the shore of the great ocean moved southward, each succeeding layer forming a step in the progression, until the first appearance of the Niagara Limestone is reached at Oneida lake. About this time a great upheaval occurred to the eastward and south- ward, in the region of what is now Maryland and West Virginia, which cut off from the main body of water several great inland seas, one of which covered the territory which now constitutes that portion of the State of New York lying south of a line drawn from Oneida lake to Niagara falls. The waters of this sea, thus cut off from the main ocean and having no large rivers flowing in to increase their volume, slowly evaporated under the heat of the sun, depositing the minerals which they contained, and thus forming, with the clay and impure limestones of the muddy bottom, the The Salina Rocks and Salt Deposit. 39 rocks of the Salina Period. The lower stratum of these Salina rocks, (see "Red Shale" in engraving,) which comes to the surface between Onondaga and Oneida lakes, was given its reddish color by the iron held in solution in the water. The upper portion of the layer is a green shale, which contains the deposits of gypsum now quarried at Fayetteville, and the salt which forms the source of the Syracuse supply. The dividing line between the Red and the Green Shales is very near the line of the Erie canal.* The evidence of the salt deposit in this rock exists in the numerous hopper-shaped casts (so-called on account of their resemblance to the mil- ler's hopper) which are found. An engraving of one of these is shown. The actual size of this cast was about five inches in diameter, and it was found on North Salina street, w^here it had been deposited with hundreds of others that were dug out under the foundations of the Church of the Assumption. They are also numerous just back of the Rock Spring brewery. Perhaps these hopper-shaped casts possess more local geological interest than any other of the group, as they are the almost indisputable evidence of the origin of the salt water which has been of such vast importance to this locality. These forms were produced by the crystallization of salt be- fore the hardening of the clay, the supposition being that while the whole mass was in the form of mud, having a large quantity of dissolved salt mixed with it, the salt (in precisely the same manner observable in the process of the manufacture of solar salt) was attracted particle to particle, and assumed the hopper-shape, the mud filling it up ; then, by the action of water falling on the surface and percolating through the mass that had be- come full of cracks in the process of drying, the salt was dissolved and * In regard to the formation of these rocks, some excellent authorities have adopted the follow- ino- theory : After the close of the Salina Period the roclcs of that series probably remained for a long time at the surface of central and southern New York. During this time the older granitic rocks toward the north were being disintegrated and ground up ; and when the great convulsion which ushered in the Devonian -Age occurred, this sandy material was washed down into the bottom of the new-formed sea. and re-hardened into the layer now known as the Oriskany Sandstone. When the Devonian sea became calm, the layers of the Onondaga Gray Limestone were deposited at its bot- tom by the carbonic acid gas of the heavy atmosphere uniting with the lime held in solution by the water. This sea tmally became shallower and was subsequently tilled up by the Hamilton Shales. A hard, regular limestone was formed in a deep sea, while a fragile shale indicates muddy water of no great depth. 40 Memorial History oh Syracuse. carried down upon the more compact strata below, and by the dip of the strata carried into, rather than out of, the hill. The absence of salt around these hopper-formed rocks is accounted for by their being so near the sur- face that the rains must long ago have carried it away. If an excavation were made farther south, where the overlying rocks are thick enough to protect the salt-bearing rocks from the action of the water, undissolved salt will be found. This is proven by the recent borings at Tully and Wyo- ming. There is, without doubt, an inexhaustible bed of solid salt underly- ing the whole southern part of this State. Besides the layer of rock containing these hopper casts, there are two other layers of porous, or cellular, limestone, one of them below the above- mentioned layer and cropping out on James street hill, and one above it on University hill. This stone is filled with holes of various sizes and running in all directions, and it is believed that these holes once contained salt, which has been dissolved and washed out. The rocks of the Salina Period are immediately succeeded by the Water Lime Group, so named because it contains two layers of hydraulic cement. This cement is an impure limestone mixed with clay and possesses the val- uable property of hardening under water. It is extensively quarried at Manlius, Fayetteville, Jamesville, and at Britton's quarry near the south line of the city. It is burned, ground and shipped in barrels to all parts of the country, and its existence here in large quantities and its valuable prop- erties, made it a large factor in the problem of building the Erie canal. The other layers of this group are extensively used hereabouts for cellar walls and in some cases for entire buildings. The Water Lime Group is succeeded by the Oriskany Sandstone. This layer marks an interesting period in Geological history, as it forms the dividing line between the Silurian and the Devonian Ages. The northern shore, (before alluded to) which stretched away southward, may be traced by the outcrop of this layer of sandstone from Manlius westward across the State, passing in this vicinity not far from the south line of the city. Along this line the outcrop is only a few inches in thickness, but if it were followed to a few miles farther south, it would be found from seven to ten feet thick, while as far south as Maryland it reaches a thickness of several hundred feet. Above the Oriskany Sandstone comes the Corniferous Period, which contains the Onondaga Gray Limestone, so extensively used for building purposes. Immediately succeeding this is the Hamilton Shale, which con- stitutes the bulk of the hills in the southern part of the county. Indian Trails and the Eaki.v Roads. 41 CHAPTER V. TRAILS AND ROADS. The First Trails and Roadways — The Old Stale Road — The " Oreat Oenesee Road " and its Improvements — The " Seneca-Road Company" — How the Course of the Seneca Road was Deter- mined — Karly Methods of Travel — Early Mail Coaches — Later Thoroughfares. Settlers in a wilderness are never long located before they feel the press- ing necessity of roadways of some description ; indeed, it is essential that they shall be opened through a wilderness preparatory to its settlement. When Major Danforlh and Comfort Tyler came into this region in 1788, no road properly so-called, had been cut through ; but there were numerous Indian paths and trails, more or less worn and distinct, east and w-est and north and south through the forest. Three of these were closely connected with this immediate locality, the more important one running east and west across this entire region ; it crossed the hills about a mile south of the site of Mahlius village, thence over the ground now covered by the north end of the Jamesville reservoir, and up the gulf directly west of the old stone school house, passing the house on the farm of the late Daniel Sherwood and down to the creek across lands on which Major Danforth located ; thence it ran diagonally across the lands of the late George Taylor, now owned by Fred- erick Kimber, and the lands of the late Oliver Bostwick ; thence up the Onondaga Hill, and on westward by nearly the same route now followed by the road passing the county house. The trail on the east side of the valley was the one over which Danforth first reached his settlement, and the one on the west side ended on the north near the site of Geddes, while both extended the whole length of the valley southward, and down into Cortland county and beyond. Besides these the forest was crossed and re-crossed by innumerable trails over which the dusky native trod his silent way in quest of game or foe. The first real road through this region was opened by a part)^ of emi- grants in 1790 or 1791, and extended from VVhitestown to Canandaigua through an almost unexplored w^ilderness. It was merely a cleared track or opening through a forest the greater part of the way. This was afterward improved and became the Old State Road. It ran through Manlius village on nearly the same line it now follows : crossed Butternut creek south of Jamesville, and then bore a little northwest and entered Onondaga valley at Asa Danforth's place, nearly a mile south of the site of the present village in the valley ; thence it ran northwest across the valley through the gorge 6 42 Memorial History of Syracuse. just south of St. Agnes cemetery and up the hill. It was afterward inter- sected by the later north and south road at a point a little south of where the latter highway is now intersected by the road from Syracuse to the hill- This early road, bad as it undoubtedly was, gave an impetus to the tide of emigration westward and settlements sprang up at various points, and many of them reached considerable importance by the beginning of the cen. tury or a little later. Previous to the opening of this thoroughfare the few settlers who came on from the east, transported their outfits partly by water and partly on pack horses following the Indian paths. Between the years 1792 and 1800, a man named Capt. Charles William- son was in this country as agent for some English land-owners, and wrote a series of letters descriptive of the Genesee country chiefly. The follow- ing from one of his letters bears especial interest in this connection : " To improve our communication with the coast seemed to be all that was necessary to render this countrj' equal to any part of America for comfort and convenience ; in many things, particularly the climate, we had much the advantage. To remedy this inconvenience as to roads, the Legislature of the State had, by an act passed in the session of 1797. taken the road from Fort Schuyler to Geneva under their patronage. A lottery had been granted for the opening and improving of certain great roads ; among these this road was included The inhabitants made a voluntary offer of their services, to aid the State Commissioner, and subscribed four thousand days work, which they per- formed with fidelity and cheerfulness. By this generous and uncommon exertion, and by some other contributions, the State Commissioner was enabled to complete this road of near one hundred miles, opening it si.\tyfour feet wide, and paving with logs and gravel the moist parts of the low country. Hence the road from Fort Schuyler, on the Mohawk river, to Genesee, from being in the month of June, 1797, little better than an Indian path, was so far improved, that a stage started from Fort .Schuyler on the 30th of September, and arrived at the hotel in Geneva, in the afternoon of the third day, with four passengers. This line of road having been established by law. not less than fifty families settled on it in the space of four months after it was opened." The route most used before the opening of roads, and consisting largely of waterways, was to proceed by land from Albany to Schenectady, and by boats through the Mohawk, Wood creek, Oneida lake, and into the Seneca and Oswego rivers. In 1793 John L. Hardenburgh, Moses Dewitt, and John Patterson were appointed a Board of Commissioners for laying out and making public roads on the Military Tract, and the sum of $2,700 was appropriated for the purpose. The roads were ordered to be six rods wide. In 1794 an Act was passed by the Legislature, appointing Israel Chapin, Michael Myers, and Othniel Taylor, Commissioners for laying out a high- way from Old Fort Schuyler on the Mohawk, to the Cayuga Ferry, " as nearly straight as the situation of the country will allow." This road was to be six rods wide, and the sum of ^600 was appropriated for opening so much of it as passed through the Military Tract. This thoroughfare is called in the various Acts relating to it, " the Great Genesee Road." As far as concerns this locality, this road followed substantially the line of the Tilt; Grkat Genesee Road. 43 " Old State Road," before mentioned, excepting that it passed through a ravine up the Onondaga Hill near the "Round Top" and just south of the present St. Agnes cemetery grounds, and on westward. It was to aid in the construction of this highway that two hundred and fifty acres of the Salt Springs Reservation were ordered sold in 1S04, and were purchased by Abraham Walton, to eventually become a part of the site of Syracuse. In 1796 Seth Phillips, William Stevens, and Comfort Tyler were ap- pointed Commissioners to make and repair highways in Onondaga county, for which an appropriation of $4,ocxD was made, $2,000 of which was or- dered expended on the " Great Genesee Road," from the eastern to the western boundaries of the county. The Commissioners were allowed two dollars per day for their services. Subsequently Amos Hall, Samuel Chip- man, and Michael Myers were appointed to superintend the improvements on this road. The same letter writer from whom we have already quoted, (writing be- fore 1800) gave a list of the principal taverns on the road from Albany to Geneva, and thence to Niagara, with their distances. Those between Fort Schuyler and Geneva were as follows: "From Fort Schuyler to Laird's on the Great Genesee Road, 10: Van Epp's, near the Oneida Reservation, 6; Sills's, at the Deep Spring, 11 ; Keeler's junior, 12 ; Tyler's, Onondaga Hollow, 10*; Rice's, Nine Mile Creek, 10; Cayuga Ferry, 20 ; Powel's Hotel, Geneva, 13. The importance of this highway at that early period, as well as the dif- ficulties encountered in making it fit for extensive travel, may be inferred from the oft-repeated and liberal appropriations for its improvement. In 1797 the Legislature authorized three lotteries for the purpose of raising $45,000 for the further improvement of the roads. Of this sum $13,900 was appropriated for opening and improving the "Great Genesee Road," throughout its whole extent from Old Fort Schuyler to Geneva. This Act indicates that some portions of the thoroughfare were not yet opened and certainly not much improved. + In the year 1800 what was known as " The Seneca Road Company " was given a charter for the improvement of the Old State Road from Utica to Canandaigua, (meaning the Genesee Road). The capital stock was $1 1,000, shares $50 each. Jedediah Sanger, Benjamin Walker, Charles Williamson, * We have not seen it anywhere stated that Comfort Tyler kept the early tavern at the Valley ; but he did so and his house is here alluded to. The house stood on the site of the present hotel on the east side of the valley, and the Genesee Road passed its door and bore off to the northwest and up the west hill. f An old resident, in alluding to the great importance of the " Old Genesee Road " in early days states that as soon as the salt manufacture had become active, scores of six-mule teams would often be congregated at the foot of Onondaga Hill either feeding or waiting their turn to be helped up the hill by a team owned by a man who made that his business. 44 Memorial History of Syracuse. and Israel Chapin were appointed Commissioners. A charter amendment in 1801 gave the Commissioners the right to deviate from the old road. As soon as it became generally known that the Commissioners had determined to greatly alter and straighten the line of the road, the inhabitants became deeply interested ; each one wanted it to pass his own door, or as near to it as possible. Reaching Chittenango the Commissioners met a delegation from Onondaga and Manlius all of whom were fearful that a more northern route would be selected in their vicinity, thus diverting public travel, then a very important source of revenue, away from the villages in Onondaga Valley and on the Hill. The settlers in this vicinity were earnestly opposed to the northern route and undoubtedly aided in deceiving the Commission- ers to such an extent that the old line was at first adopted. To accomplish this end, they led the Commissioners into several impassable ravines and swamps on the proposed northern line, thus convincing them that such a route was entirely impracticable. The road was therefore laid out through Manlius Square, Jamesville and Onondaga Valley. The Company soon learned that they had been imposed upon and in 1806 secured an amend- ment to their charter enabling them to " build a new road from Sullivan to the Onondaga Reservation near the Salt Springs, to Cayuga Bridge," and $50,000 was added to the capital stock. This road was finished in 1812 and was then known as the north branch of the Seneca Road. This name has, in course of time, become confounded and used synonymously with the name, " Genesee Turnpike." It was made through Onondaga county largely through the efforts of James Geddes, Squire Munro, and Dr. John Frisbie. The company was empowered to collect tolls. This road, as far as the city of Syracuse is concerned, now constitutes Genesee street. The late Timothy C. Cheney came here with his father in the winter of 181 1-12 and in his " Reminiscences" he thus wrote of this highway: * • * " It was a cedar swamp from the Corners to I.odi, and a corduroy road where the Genesee Turnpike now runs. The road was covered with an arch of cedars and it looked very- much like an arched tunnel of a railroad a mile in length. 'The Corners' at that time comprised the whole of Syracuse." This all goes to show that early in the century most of the now promi- nent roads in this section were opened and considerably improved, creating avenues for transportation necessary to the growing salt industry and other trafific, while the settlements at Salina, the Valley, and the Hill were yet quite insignificant, and before the first permanent settlement was made which was the substantial beginning of Syracuse. Over these roads in early times passenger travel as well as freight cart- age was quite extensive. Comfortable four-horse stage coaches made regu- lar and frequent trips across the State, while many men found profitable employment in bringing from the east provisions and goods of every descrip- tion, and carrying away salt and other products. 46 MKMdRIAl, HlSlDRV f)F S\ RACUSE. The first United States mails were carried through here in 1797-98 on horseback by a Mr. Langdon. He was succeeded by a Mr. Lucas, who drove a wagon for the purpose. He also established a two horse passenger wagon with which he did a lively business. The first four-horse mail coach was sent through once a week by Jason Parker. In the ne.xt year he ran his coaches twice a week from Utica to Canandaigua, carrying the mail and passengers. In that year by Act of Legislature, Mr. Parker and Levi Stephens were granted the exclusive right for seven years of running stages for passengers at least twice a week along the Genesee Road or Seneca Turnpike between Utica and Canandaigua. They were required to furnish substantial covered wagonsor sleighs and the fare was limited to five cents per mile. They were also required to run through in forty-eight hours, accidents excepted, and not more than seven passengers were allowed in any one carriage, except by consent of the seven. If four others applied for passage the proprietors were bound to immediately start an "e.xtra" for their accommodation. This line of stages began run- ning daily in 1 808, and several others were established before the opening of the railroad. A few of the older inhabitants are still left who delight to talk of the coaching days and the pleasures of bowling along over the turn- pike behind the spirited horses, guided by a skillful driver, the sharp crack of whose whip echoed in the forest by the roadside. But time had not acquir- ed the value in those days that is ascribed to it in these times. In 1806 $800 were appropriated by the Legislature, out of duties on salt, to " improve the road along the northeast shore of Onondaga lake." In 1S07 two roads were laid out under the Commissionership of Moses Carpenter, Medad Curtis, and Asa Rice. One of these ran " on the most practicable route from Onondaga Hill to 0.x Creek, and from thence to Oswego ; the other from the village of Salina to Ox Creek." In the same year (1807) the Surveyor-General directed Moses Carpenter and two other surveyors to lay out a State road six rods wide, north and south from the Walton Tract, through the State lands. This road became and is Salina street in Syracuse, excepting that its direction has been changed at various points, the present Cortland Avenue having been a por- tion of it. As at first constructed it ran for a considerable portion of its length through swamps and was rudely made of logs and brush. It was often almost impassable until June, compelling the inhabitants with teams to follow the higher ground to the eastward in passing from the Valley to Salina. This latter route was the one oftenest followed by the Indians, to whom distance was of little account ; but the white settlers sought to shorten lines of travel as soon as it was practicable. The finding of the quickest and easiest passage from south to north was made necessary by the growing importance of reaching Salina. There lay the great Salt Eldorado. OPENiNf; or TuuNiMKi': Roads. 47 We have not learned the precise date of the opening; of what is called the west road to the valley, but it was very early in the century, and was doubtless demanded more as a means of reaching the Mickles furnace from the valley and from the salt works of Geddes, than for any other pur- pose. On April 3, 1S07, an Act was passed incorporating the Chenango and Salina Turnpike Company, which was authorized to build "a good and sufificient turnpike road, beginning at the Village of Salina, and running thence south through the Onondaga Hollow to the north line of Tully," and so on southward. We have not learned the date of the opening of what is now West On- ondaga street, but it was quite early, and constituted a new and more direct means of reaching the Hill. For many years it was, like most of the early roads in this vicinity, almost impassable for a large part of the year. This continued down to comparatively recent times ; but the street was event- ually made one of the best roadways in the valley, by carting cinders from the Mickles furnace. On the loth of April, 1824, the Onondaga and Cortland Turnpike Com- pany was incorporated by Barak Niles, John Miller, Elijah Miles, and Joshua Forman. The stock was issued in 1,250 shares of $20 each. April 16, 1827, Oliver W. Brewster, Archie Kasson, and Howell incorporated the Tully and Syracuse Turnpike Company. This organiza- tion appears to have been rechartered in April, 1831 ; and in this year the Syracuse and Pulaski Turnpike Road Company was incorporated with a capital of $25,000. Gordon Williams, of Salina, and Moses D. Burnet, of Syracuse, were among the incorporators. In April, 1833, the Salina and Oswego Turnpike Company was incorpo- rated. John G. Forbes, the pioneer attorney, was one of the incorporators. The route of this line may be inferred. Elkanah Watson, who was a large land-owner on the Military Tract in the latter years of the last century and the early part of the present one, and from whom Port Watson, on the Tioughnioga river near the villaf^e of Cortland, was named, made a trip from Albany to Geneva, and this chapter may be closed with an extract from his account of the journey as follows : " We re-embarked, ascending the Seneca river against the current coming from the west. In about a mile we encountered a rapid and an eel-wear, and saw a party of Indians encamped for the purpose of fishing. After about eight miles sailing, passing two of these rapids, and low lands heavily timbered, we entered a small, narrow river, leading south into the salt lake, one mile from the Seneca river. * * We steered by our compass and map, and with some difficulty found the creek on which the salt works are now erected, half a mile from its mouth at the foot of the hill. These works are in a rude, unfinished state, but are capable of making about eight thousand bushels of salt per annum, which is nearly the quantity required for the present consumption of the country. 48 Memorial History of Syracuse. The mines are so abundant as to be equal to the supply for the United States, even when our popu- lation shall reach one hundred millions." Sanguine and prophetic writer ! And so, just a century ago, they navi- gated Onondaga lake with compass and map ! CHAPTER VI. ONONDAGA VALLEY. Early Settlement South of the Site of Syracuse — Ephraim Webster — Asa Danforth and Comfort Tyler, the Valley Pioneers — Where they Located — The Birth of the Salt Industry — Biographic Sketches of Danforth and Tyler — Judge Joshua Forman and his Early Labors — The First Town Meeting — Early Lawyers and Merchants — The First Post Office — .Schools and Churches — Rivalry with Onondaga Hill. A HISTORY of the City of Syracuse may properly be preceded by brief annals of those villages which in the course of settlement sprang up in this locality many years before the site of Syracuse itself was occupied by more than a few scattered settlers — villages which were not, like Salina, finally absorbed to create the preseut thriving and populous city. We allude particularly to Onondaga Valley, or " Hollow," as it was almost universally known in early times, and Orfondaga Hill. It is a fact not without interest that the first white settler in Onondaga county located within the present limits of the city of Syracuse. This pioneer was Ephraim Webster, who took up his humble abode on the west side of Onondaga creek near where it empties into the lake. In the very early years of settlement this place was known as " Webster's Landing." But Webster's interest during the greater part of his life lay more with the other pioneers who located in the Valley a few miles to the southward, than it did in the immediate vicinity of his home, and before Syracuse itself had reached inorc than the dignity of a very small hamlet, he had passed from earth. Ephraim Webster must always remain as the central figure in the ear- liest history of Onondaga county and the settlements surrounding the site of Syracuse. He was born in 1752, in the town of Hempstead, N. H. His father removed to the State of New York in February, 1773. Some time in the year 1778, Webster enlisted in the United States service and served to the close of the war. Returning to his home, his natural roving disposi- V-VwAC«^©-'t/ ^J The First Settler. 49 tion led him to migrate to the country of the Oneida Indians, and he began trading with them. He was accompanied by a man named Leavitt. They purchased a stock of goods in Schenectady for transportation to their place of destination. During the journey Webster's companion became discour- aged and returned home. Webster located at Oriskany, where he placed his goods on sale. He soon discovered that in order to be successful he must master the Indian language, which he soon accomplished. He re- mained two years at Oriskany and during that period made several excur- sions with Indian hunters to Onondaga. Webster became quite a favorite with this tribe, who invited him to come and trade with them. The invitation was cheerfully accepted. In the spring of 1786 he came to On- ondaga with a man named Newkerk, (or Neukirk) with a small boat-load of goods transported from Schenectady by water. These goods were opened for sale on the historic spot on Onondaga creek. Their venture was suc- cessful and resulted in their accumulating a valuable pack of furs. About the time for closmg up their season's work, Newkerk died and was buried near by. Webster took his furs to New York, and came on again in the following spring, accompanied by two other traders named Campbell and Maibee ; the latter proceeded on up the valley, but Webster remained at his former location. In the fall they all departed to dispose of their furs. This course was followed for several years by Webster, after which he win- tered with his Indian friends. " During the controversy with the western Indians, which was soon fol- lowed by the Revolutionary war, between the years 17S8 and 1794, he was, on account of his knowledge of Indian manners and languages, employed to gain intelligence in the vicinity of the Miamis. He was fully successful in his mission, reported to the satisfaction of those by whom he was em- ployed, and received a suitable reward. He was often with the Onondagas at Oswego while the fort was retamed by the British, and was, by the ofificers of the garrison, supposed to be a full-blood Indian, so completely was he usually disguised. From some cause they at one time mistrusted he was a white man and charged him with being a spy. In order to induce him to declare his real character, or to expose himself in some way, they plied him freely with strong liquor, and then used every device to effect their purpose. They awakened him suddenly from sleep, saluted him familiarly in the English language, of which he expressed entire ignorance ; being always guarded and prepared, they gained no advantage over him, and he left them as much in the dark as when they commenced." In the early part of Webster's sojourn with the Indians they granted him a mile square of land, which extended from the present east and west road across the valley, southward, on the west side of the creek. This was long known as " W^ebster's Mile Square." This lot of land, containing 640 7 so IVIkmoriai, History of Syracuse. acres, was finally granted to Webster " as a free and voluntary gift " on the part of the people of the State of New York, by the Legislature in 1795, and the Commissioners of Indian lands, consisting of Philip Schuyler, John Cantine, John Richardson, and David ]?rooks, were directed to execute a deed therefor on the part, and in the name of, the people of the State of New York. Webster had been living with an Indian woman previous to this, as was the custom with many Indian traders, and she died soon after the land was granted to him. He then married a white woman named Danks, by whom he had a family of sons and daughters, who became respectable inhabitants of Onondaga Valley. Webster was in the service of the United States in the war of 181 2, with about three hundred Onondaga warriors on the Niagara frontier. At that time he held a Captain's commission in the New York State militia and was very influential with the Indian allies. He took part in the battle of Chippewa and acted as interpreter in the transmission of orders. To- wards the close of the action, Webster found himself alone and passed from the woods to the open field. He soon saw Doxtator, an Oneida chief, pursued by five or six mounted Wyandottes. They passed near him and knowing well the rules of Indian warfare, he stood erect and firm, looking them full in the face. They passed leaving him unharmed. Doxtator was shot just as he leaped a fence near by, when the Wyandottes wheeled and rode off. Mr. Webster was for many years Indian agent and interpreter for the Onondagas. For several years he held, by lease from the Indians, 30x3 acres of land, the title of which was afterwards confirmed to him and his heirs by the State Legislature. Many anecdotes of the deepest interest are related of Webster's life among the Indians, but we can only find space here for one or two. He was, on the whole, a great favorite with the Indians and enjoyed their warm confidence, but at times, for real or fancied wrongs they would become offended with him and even threaten his life and make alarming demonstra- tions towards taking it. On one of these occasions they tied him to a tree and then amused themselves by hurling tomahawks at the tree, just escaping his head, but never touching it. Sometimes the whistling weapon would graze his hair. During a half hour of this nerve trying sport, Webster never flinched or moved a muscle, and his conduct was greatly admired by the Indians. He was finally liberated with shouts of exultation and pride for his bravery. On his return from a trip to Canada, Webster employed a young brave of the Onondagas to pilot him through the forest from near Oswego to Onondaga. While on the route the young Indian seemed sad and moody Ei'iiRAiM VVEnsTER's Cakker. 5 I and after endeavoring to rouse him from his gloom, Webster insisted on being told what was troubling him. "Me going to die, " said the Indian. Webster paid little attention to this, deeming it a transient whim of the Indian, and they tramped on through the fore.st and finally approached the " Castle." Here si.K Cayuga Indians made their appearance, and without a word one of them walked up to the young Onondaga and drove his weapon through his skull. The Cayugas then retired as if nothing unusual had occurred. It developed that this act was the final consequence of a long feud between a small number of each tribe, which had been continued by several murders. The young Indian who was killed had been instrumental in killing a Cayuga, whose brethren had thus watched their opportunity and taken revenge. The young Onondagan knew that he was being watched and would probably meet his death on his return ; but to have fled would have shown cowardice — a trait unknown to the native Indian. During Mr. Webster's early life among the Indians he was often in great peril and threatened with immediate death, through the strange fancies of the natives by whom he was surrounded ; but he seemed to be watched over by a special Providence and his life was spared. On one occasion, for some real or fancied wrong, he was condemned to death by the Indians. They seemed so determined on taking his life that for once he gave up all for lost. His grave was dug and he was told to prepare for immediate death. A ring was formed around him and his four executioners took their places. A sturdy brave on each side took him by either hand and held his arms extended, while four gleaming tomahawks were brandished in the air. Just before the fatal blow was to fall, he was asked if he had any request to make before he expired. He replied that he wanted only a cooling draught of water. " None, none, "shouted the warriors. He then appealed to them in affecting tones, begging them not to deny his last simple request. Then the venerable war chief stepped forth, while the tomahawks were swung aloft over Webster's head, and exclaimed, " Hold. Stay your hands. Offend not the Great Spirit. Let him drink one cup of water for the last time." The cup was then presented to him and one hand released that he might drink. Webster took the cup, gracefully bowed to the group, and then most cor- dially drank the health of the Chiefs and brave warriors of the Onondaga nation. This act was so unexpected, exhibited such bravery and nonchalance in the face of death, and was so characteristic of the Indians themselves, that with one voice they shouted, " Let him go free. He is one of us," and he was instantly released. This quick perception of the right thing to do in emergencies, when deal- ing with his savage companions, was a prominent trait with Webster, and was either the result of inspiration on such occasions, or had been instilled 52 Memorial History or Syracuse. into him by his experience among the Indians; and it often gained from them considerate treatment and strengthened his position in their friendship. Webster is remembered by the few men now left who knew him inti- mately, as a man of gentle, obliging and l]' .he large brick residence back of the Academy, which is still standing .orms ci part of the Sabine estate. Mr. Sabine as an attorney, possessed ii...."-"d ability and reached a high position in the county Bar. He died SeptL .bcr 4, 1842, aged si.xty-three years. He had three sons, Joseph and William, who were twins, and Joshua R.; Joseph was a lawyer and practiced in Syracuse, where he married Margaret, daughter of James R. Lawrence. William removed to Chicago, and Joshua R., remained on the homestead. His wife was a daughter of Judge Mosely. Joseph Sabine, now of Syracuse, is a grandson of William H. It is stated in various publications that some of the early town meetings were held at the house of Reuben Patterson. He was one of the first settlers and married a daughter of Asa Danforth. His home was for a time on the Danforth place, and he afterwards kept a tavern for a short time on the west side of the Valley, just west of the north and south road, which was called " The Owl's Head." He had two sons, Sier and Alvord. Job Tyler was a brother of Comfort Tyler, but he did not attain special prominence and died March 10, 1836, at the age of sixty-nine years. He had two sons, Orin and Asher. The latter was a lawyer in Seneca Falls. George Hall opened a law office at the Valley in 1802 and in the same year was made postmaster. At a little later date he became a partner with Thaddeus M. Wood, thus forming a leading law firm in opposition to For- man & Sabine. Mr. Hall attained a high position in the Bar and held sev- eral prominent positions. I'^orman & Sabine were Federalists, while Wood & Hall were Democrats. Hence they were opponents in politics as well as in business. Roger Tcnbroeck came to the Valley in the early years of its settlement and for a time kept a store where Edward Fuller's house now stands. Dr. William Needham came to the Valley in 1793, as the first physician, and was followed by his brother, Gordon, two years later. The latter 6o Memorial History of Syracuse. taught the first school, in 1796. They built between what is now the dyke and the creek, and William kept a store where Leonard Church now lives. George Kibbe established the first store at the Valley and was made postmaster in 1801, for one year. His store was on the east side and just below the site of the old arsenal. Jasper Hopper was appointed Clerk of Onondaga county in 1802 and immediately came on from Albany (where he had been a clerk in the office of the Secretary of State,) and settled at the Valley. He was a lawyer by profession and had served as Deputy Secretary of State. He located first on the east side of the Valley and had his dwelling and office together for several years, when he removed to the west side, remaining there until his removal to the Hill, about 1820. He was Clerk of the county until 181 8, excepting a year, and held many other positions of trust. He died at the Valley on June 30, 1848, aged seventy-nine years. Cornelius Longstreet was among the very early settlers of the Valley, and several members of the family in later years became identified with the history of Syracuse. He located on the hill-side east of the Valley and about a mile south of the present village. He married Deborah, daughter of Comfort Tyler, and died in 18 14. He had a son, James, who lived at the village in the latter years of his life. He operated a plaster mill at the foot of the hill where the Mickles furnace stood, and was Superintendent of the Poor many years. He died at his home in the Valley on May 22, 1873, aged sixty-seven years. He had three sons, Rev. Joseph B. and Rev. Ol- iver, both of whom are dead, and Cornelius, now in Florida. Another son of the pioneer was Cornelius T. Longstreet, who was prominent in Syra- cuse history, and will be mentioned in a later chapter. Nicholas Mickles settled at the Valley at an early day and became a his- torical character, especially in connection with one of the earliest manufac- turing enterprises of this vicinity — the establishment of a successful furnace. This was done soon after the beginning of the century. It stood on the west side of the west road from Syracuse to the Valley, just north of where the Hill road turns westward, on land now embraced in Elm wood park. This furnace was used largely in the war of 1812 for casting cannon shot for the government and men are still living who saw many pyramids of shot stacked up awaiting shipment. He lived near the furnace and was an esti- mable citizen m every sense. He died in August, 1827, and his tombstone bears this record : " He was one of the original enterprising citizens of this county. As a citizen he was esteemed and respected. As a friend, warm and sincere. As a husband and father, tender and affectionate. In his views, upright. In his actions, just. In his intercourse with mankind, benevolent and hospitable. In all the duties of religion, consistent and devout. " Religious anp Eoucational. 6i A law was passed in 1808 autliorizing the (jovernor of the State to deposit five hundred stand of arms at Onondaga and such other military stores as would be necessary in case of an invasion. The Governor was also authorized to appoint a suitable place to store such munitions. For this purpose the Old Stone Arsenal, the walls of which are now fast crumb- ling away, was erected in 18 12, under direction of the Governor, on the hillside east of and overlooking the village at the Valley. It was not used many years as a military store house, the apparent necessity for it having passed away. I' THE OLD ARSENAL. Among other early settlers at the Valley was James Rowland, who had one of the first blacksmith shops. Morehouse Hickok was a cabinet maker, probably the first. He was a merchant at one time, his store being west of the west road. As a cabinet maker he had an excellent reputation and it was said he could " make any- thing. " One of his daughters is the widow of the late Earl Alvord, and another married the father of Henry E. Warne of Syracuse. Dr. Daniel Huntington was an early physician at the Valley where he died July 17, I S37, aged si.\ty-five years. He lived in the first house south of Henry Card's. Dr. Joseph W. Brewster also practiced there in early years, and died there on September 6, 1849. 62 Memorial History of Syracuse. In 1S09* tlie " Onondaga Hollow Religious Society" was organized, and John Adams, Aaron Bellows, Nicholas Micklcs, Thaddeus M. Wood, and Joshua Forman, were chosen Trustees, and George Hall and Joseph Sloan presided at the meeting for organization. A few members from Salina joined in this Society, and Rev. Dirck C. Lansing, then of Salina was called as pastor in February, 1810, and continued as such until May, 1814. The church edifice was erected in 1810-11, the inhabitants in Salina aid- ing liberally in the work. Although there were in 1803 only eight frame houses in the settlement, it grew quite rapidly under the energetic labors of its enterprising people and gave early promise of some day becoming a populous center. A log school house, the first one in the place, was built near the later site of the academy, and in 180S a frame building was erected and occupied for school purposes. In 1813 the Onondaga Academy was incorporated, and the original building was erected in 18 14. The institution was endowed by the State with a gift of land from the Literature Fund, and has always been a pros- perous institution of learning. Rev. Caleb Alexander was the first Princi- pal, and he also preached at the Valley and in Salina. He was a man of fine attainments and great enthusiam in the cause of education. He was instrumental in the founding of Fairfield Academy and was elected first President of Hamilton College, but declined tlie honor. He was also author of several educational works, translations, etc. He died at the \'al- ley April 12, 1828, aged seventy-two years. The first newspaper was established at the Valley by Thomas Crittenden Fay, in December, 181 1. It was called Tlic Z,j7/.r, and adopted for its motto, " Liberty and my Native Country." This paper was a small affair, and was published every Wednesday at $2.00 per annum. It was in the office of this journal that Thurlow Weed gained his first knowledge of the printer's art, and of the profession that was afterward to make him famous. In September, 1814, Lewis H. Redfield established at the \'alley the Onondaga Register, a journal that flourished under the wise and prudent management of its founder for many years. Mr. Redfield's office was on the north side of the east and west street, nearly opposite the present church. The Register was issued at the Valley, gaining an excellent name, until May, 1829, when it was removed to Syracuse and continued as the " Onon- daga Register and Syrneiise Gazette. Onondaga Lodge No. 98 of Free Masons was established at the Hollow in the winter of 1803. The charter obtained from the Grand Lodge of the * The records of the Presbytery of Geneva give the date of this organization as March 20. iSio.and Rev Dirck C. Lansing's call as November 10, iSlo, while Mr Clark's history gives the date above quoted. The records are probably correct. DECLixii OK TiiK Hii.i. Village. 63 State was dated January 21, A. L., 1803. Jasper Hopper was appointed W. M. : Walter Colton, S. \V. ; George W. Olmsted, J. W. The records of the county were for a few years kept in the dwelling of Mr. Olmsted, on the east side, and later in a building erected by Jasper Hopper for a store, nearly opposite the Dickinson place, on the west side. In a later chapter of this work will be found an account of the build- ing of the court house on the Hill, which was first occupied in 1S05 ; but the county records were kept at the Valley a few years longer, when the clerk's ofifice, which was constructed of stone, was finished on the Hill and they were removed thither. There was considerable rivalry between the two villages, but it never acquired the bitterness that some writers have ascribed to it. There was a good deal of strife over the location of the county seat, but when that question was disposed of, the inhabitants of the two places pursued their several ways without much friction. More or less of the people of the Valley removed to the Hill, but the reason in most cases was either that the Hill was considered the healthier of the two points, or that the county seat drew them thither for business considerations. As far as any great growth was concerned for cither village, that prospect was killed when the settlement at Syracuse was begun by the many energetic men who founded the present city. It is said that when Judge Forman first became interested in the Erie Canal project, before he removed to Syracuse, he endeavored to secure the co-operation of the inhabitants at the Valley, with the intention of laying out the course of the canal through that village and thence northward along the west side of the valley to the vicinity of its present course westward. But the people at the Valley, like those at Salina at a little later date, received the scheme only with ridicule, and thus lost their one grand opportunity for be- coming a city. 64 Memorial History of Syracuse. CHAPTER VH. ONONDAGA HIl.L AND ITS VltlNITV. ICarly Settlement on the Hill — Location of the Village — Influences Leading to the Selection of the Site— Sketches of Prominent Karly Residents — The County Seat — Early Lawyers and Judges — Pioneer Mechanics — The Newspaper — Mercantile Operations — Decline of the Village. w 7HILE the foregoing historical events were occurring in the Valley, / similar one? were being enacted on the Hill. The earliest settle- ments began there about the year 1795, one of the first to locate in that vicinity being William Laird who, it is said, kept a tavern in his log house for a time. He committed suicide by hanging, in October, 1S02. In 1796 Nehemiah and Daniel Earll, and Jabez Webb located on the Hill. Nehemiah Earll afterwards built the large dwelling subsequently oc- cupied by William P. Walker, a lawyer, and now by Oscar Britton. He was a pioiTiinent citizen and the first postmaster on the Hill, in 1800. In later years he removed to Skaneateles and died there. Jonas Earll was a brother of Nehemiah, and was also prominent in the history of the lo- cality. He was for a time a merchant in the old stone store, still standing, was Sheriff of the count)-. Canal Commissioner, and member of the State Senate. Onondaga county being erected in 1794, included all of what is now Oswego county and parts of Cayuga and Cortland counties. In 1798-9 a number of leading men of the county, including Judge Stevens, Elisha Lewis, Comfort Tyler, John Ellis, Parley Howlett, Asa Danforth, Thad- deus M. Wood, William Laird, Medad Curtis, and others, developed the project of establishing a village somewhere near the center of the county. After ample investigation and discussion, they settled on Onondaga Hill as the most desirable location. Although there was then considerable settle- ment in the Valley, it was avoided for this ambitious project, on account of the supposed greater healthfulness of the Hill. This company of men made purchases on the Hill and employed Judge James Geddes to lay out the proposed Village into lots and streets, with a suitable site reserved for court house and jail. But for a few years later, in spite of the efforts of those energetic men, the village in the Valley grew with considerable rapidity. Joseph Wadsworth bought about two hundred acres of land between the site of the village and the present Poor House, in 1802. His son Am- brose was a cooper and followed that occupation. Ambrose S. Wadsworth, who is still living at the Hill and has furnished much data for these pages, \ Qy/^Zr^^ cjA^^^TyC Prominent Settlers on the Hill. 65 is a son of Ambrose. He is a carpenter and builder and has assisted in the erection of nearly or quite two hundred buildings in the village. Reuben and Simeon West came to the Hill in 1805. Simeon combined farming with his trade of hatter and had a shop where Mr. Hoyce now lives. Reuben was a merchant and in 1823 built the old stone store before mentioned and carried on business there. He also built on the site of the Catholic church. Medad Curtis was among the prominent early settlers. He first lived on the Cossit place, his dwelling afterward serving as Mr. Cossit's corn- house. He subsequently located where the Noxons afterwards lived. He was a lawyer, a Justice of the Peace, and for a number of years was con- spicuous in all the public affairs of the place. He removed from the Valley to the Hill about the time of the establishment of the county seat there. After his death his widow married Dr. Daniels, of Salina. Oliver R. Strong took up his residence at the Hill in i8o3. The first school was established there in November of that year and was opened in a log building, iMr. Strong being the first teacher. It stood near the site of the court house, and the school continued there during three winter terms. The old Strong place, now occupied by Charles Bryant, is opposite the old hotel, recently burned. Mr. Strong was elected County Judge and was Deputy Sheriff under Col. Elijah Phillips; he also held other positions of honor. His wife was a sister of the wife of James R. Lawrence. Judge Strong died in Syracuse October 3, 1872. His brother, Hezekiah Strong, kept a store several years, directly opposite the old hotel site in a building now being used as a horse-barn. This store was afterwards kept by Charles Potter and still later by Edward Strong, a son of Hezekiah. Josiah Bronson.sr., was a pioneer at the Hill, and was a farmer. He also built and for a time kept the old hotel, now burned. Josiah Bronson, jr., was his son, and his granddaughter married Dr. Tefft. This old hotel was next kept by a man named Ingalls, and then by Mr. Giddings, who was succeeded by Zebulon Rust. After Zebulon and George Rust (^father and son) had managed the hotel, it was taken by Philo Rust, and he was succeeded by Allen Taylor. It was afterwards kept by Jonathan Stanley, jr., and then by Augustus Norton. He was followed by Charles Potter, who was succeeded by Jonathan Langworthy (now living in the Valley), who built on an addition. John W. Stackhouse then became the landlord and also improved the house. It was on the piazza of this old hotel that Gen- eral Lafayette stood in June, 1825, to listen to an address of welcome from Thaddeus M. Wood, before going down to the city to meet a similar welcome. Zebulon Rust settled at the Hill early in the century and became some- what conspicuous. He lived where John Wright now resides, and was a 9 66 Memorial History of Syracuse. butcher, the first in the place. About the year 1815 he moved into the old hotel, already alluded to, and kept it for some years, his sons, George and Philo N., being with him a part of the time. George Rust succeeded his father as proprietor of the house, while Philo N. removed a little later to Syracuse, where he became prominent as a landlord. Another son of Zebulon Rust was Charles, who was a cabinet maker and had his shop and built the house where George Curtis now lives. In a later chapter of this volume, devoted to the Courts and Bar of the county, will be found a full account of the steps taken that led to the building of the first court house and the location of the county seat on the Hill. As already stated, there was considerable strife between the two villages, in the Valley and on the Hill, for the location of the court house. The claims of the Valley rested principally upon the facts that the courts had always been held there, the records were kept there, and the village was easy of access. On the other hand the Hill set up the claim that that village, chiefly on account of its beautiful, sightly and especially healthful situation, and having a site all provided, should have the court house. By the activity of the strong men living on the Hill, with 'Squire Medad Cur- tis prominently in the foreground, and with the liberal offers of assistance to erect the building, the court house was built there and first occupied by the courts in the year 1805. A clerk's ofifice constructed of stone, was built there a few years later, just south of the present stone school-house, which was erected from the materials in the clerk's ofifice when the latter was abandoned and the records taken to the city. The court house stood a lit- tle farther north, very near to or partly in the road now running northward from the main street of the village; this road was not opened until after the court house was removed to the city. The location of the court house on the Hill gave a great impetus to settlement and business operations ; lawyers, doctors, merchants and others came in rapidly, and the village grew apace. Mr. Wadsworth states that at one time there were seven public houses and eight stores, besides numer- ous shops of various descriptions, in the village. Daniel Mosely settled at the Hill in 1S09 and began practicing law. He had studied his profession with Forman & Sabine, at the Valley. He lived in the large dwelling now occupied by John Q. Fellows and had his ofifice on the same premises. He was Judge of the Supreme Court and an able man. He died October 3, 1 851, at the age of sixty-five years. William T. Mosely, son of Daniel, was a merchant at the Hill, where Charles Bryant now has a store. He died February 11, 1876, aged sixty years. Charles Mosely, another son of Daniel, was a farmer two miles south of the village. B. Davis Noxon, the eminent attorney, (a sketch of whose career will be found in a later chapter of this work) located at the Hill soon after the Churches and Schools on the Hii.i.. (tj courts were established there. He lived next to the brick house still stand- ing which was built by Josiah Hronson, jr., on the south side of the main street. Mr. No.xon followed the county seat to Syracuse. He had sons, Robert, George, James, B. Davis, and Henry. James and George Noxon were attorneys and prominent in the profession. James Mann established a large store at the Hill in i8io. He also had stores in Camillus and Baldwinsville. His partner for a time was Joel Dick- inson, his son-in-law, and the store was on the north side of the road, just east of the lower hotel. Having large business interests elsewhere, Mr. Mann did not begin his residence at the Hill until 1817. The house occu- pied by him and Mr. Dickinson was burned in October, 1820, and soon afterward Mr. Mann took the lower hotel and kept it one year, when he removed to Syracuse and kept the " Syracuse Hotel," afterwards called the Syracuse House. A few years later he went on a visit to his daughter in Aurora, Cayuga county, and died there September 22, 1835. Joel Dickin- son kept a store also opposite the lower hotel, which was removed in 1833, by Charles Judd and Joseph Stanley, to a lot opposite Mr. Fellows's resi- dence. St. John's church (Episcopal) was organized on the Hill in November, 1S03, by Rev. Davenport Phelps. It afterwards became the Zion church. It stood on what is now the Luther property and nearly in front of the old building now used for a barn. Adjoining this church was what was called a " hearse house," in which was kept a sort of public hearse. This building is still standing against the old barn mentioned, and is used as an ice-house. The records of the Presbyterian church state that "The First Presbyte- rian Society of Onondaga was formed on the Hill at the log tavern kept by Daniel Earll ; present, Joshua Forman, Jasper Hopper, John Ellis. Jonah Ellis, Jonas C. Baldwin, John Adams, and Oliver R. Strong." The pastors of this church previous to 1806 were Revs. Higgins and Healy. Rev. Dirck C. Lansing was called and settled in 1806; Rev. Jabez Chadwick in 181 1, and numerous others have since occupied the pulpit. The church edifice, which is still standing, was erected in 1819. Other early business enterprises, besides those mentioned, were the fol- lowing : Capt. James Beebe, who died on the 12th of September, 1812, at the age of sixty years, owned and kept a public house near the court house, which was at a later date kept by Judge Jonathan Stanley. John Wright now lives in that ancient building. Major William A. Cook also kept this house at a later date. Augustus Ellis carried on a blacksmith shop near Mrs. Howd's present home : and Roger Billings who, in later years, became a prominent wagon- maker in Syracuse, had his iron-work shop in the tottering old stone build- ing still in existence on the south side of the main street. Mr. Billings died October 21, 1869, at the age of seventy-three years. 68 Memorial History of Syracuse. Silas Ames was a harness-maker and had his shop over the store which stood opposite the old hotel site. Franklin S. Hovey also was a harness- maker and had a shop where the post-office now is. A Mr. Howland was an early shoe-maker and built and occupied the house where Reuben West died and Owen Higgins now lives ; and William P. Morse had a wagon shop where Mervvin Tripp now lives. Sylvester Munger was a jeweler and had a shop in the village, and there was a tannery near where the Widow Griffin now lives. Daniel Case kept a tavern about opposite the lower hotel and later had a wagon shop across from the upper hotel recently burned. He died Octo- ber 20, 1840. Another public house was kept for a time where Miss Eaton now lives, by a Mr. Cheney, who was by trade a hatter. Major John Ellis had a store where John Lynch is now located, and he also built a carding mill and a saw mill on the brook at that point, but they were never very extensively operated. As the village grew, physicians came in, as they always do in the track of settlement. The first that are remembered were Drs. Mann and Heale)', who were in partnership during an early period. They were followed by Dr. Salmon Thayer. He had a long and successful practice and died in Geddes. Dr. Jared Parker came ne.xt. He was father of Richard H. Par- ker, now of the city. Dr. George Smith also practiced there and removed to the city. The late Dr. N. R. Tefft practiced at the Hill many years and lived on the Hezekiah Strong place. The late Dr. E. W. Phillips came to the Hill at a later date, and enjoyed a successful practice for many years, and subsequently removed to the city and joined his brothers in a large leather business. Moses Johnson and Ebenezer Wilson at a very early day built the old wagon shop that is still used for that purpose. They carried on a store there and had a distillery nearly in the rear of that building. Moses John- son was father of John Holland Johnson, who became a conspicuous figure in later Syracuse history, and owned a large tract of land on West Onondaga street; he died February 10, 1868, aged sixty-nine years. The village had become a thriving community by 1816, a fact that is indicated by the establishment of a newspaper there in that year by Evan- der Morse. The first editor of the paper, which was named the " Onondaga Gazette," was William Ray, who had something of a local reputation as a poet. Mr. Morse sold the establishment to Cephas McConnell, and in August, 1821, the title was changed to the Onondaga Journal. McConnell sold out to Vivus W. Smith, father of Carroll E. Smith, now of the Syra- cuse Journal, who continued the paper there until 1829, when he removed it to Syracuse and joined it with Mr. Wyman to form the Onondaga Standard. The first Agricultural Society in the county was organized at the Hill in Mercantile OrEUAXioNS on the Hill. 69 the spring of 18 19. A fund had been provided by the State for the advancement of such societies, of which this county was entitled to $300, provided the county raised an equal amount and organized the society. The first fair was held at the Valley November 2, 1819, and premiums amounting to $200 were awarded. The first officers of the society were : Dan Bradley, president; Squire Munro, Martin Cossit, Augustus Wheaton, vice-presidents; Job Tyler, recording secretary; George Hall and A. Yel- verton, corresponding secretaries ; Leonard Bacon, treasurer ; H. I>. Gran- ger, auditor; L. H. Rcdficld, D. W. Forman, O. W. Brewster, committee of publication. Among the merchants at the Hill at somewhat later dates were Charles and Henry Easton, who kept a store in a building now occupied by Andrew J. Betts as a dwelling. The I^astons are both deceased. William T. Mosely continued his store, already mentioned, until a com- paratively recent time, and John W. Stackhouse had a store in the old hotel that was burned. Charles Potter had a store opposite the old hotel, which was kept in early years by Hezekiah and Oliver Strong. Samuel Howd had a store about the time of the last war, in the building now used as a dwelling by his widow. Mercantile business here in recent years has grad- ually diminished until now there is very little done. It is proper that something should be here recorded of the farmers who were prominent in early settlements and cleared the lands that afterwards became so productive, and contributed so largely to the wealth and pros- perity of the county. Rufus Cossit .settled in 1818 on the well-known Cossit farm, where he died August 27, 1878, at the age of eighty-eight years. He studied law with Mr. Noxon, who was his brother-in-law. Major Davis Cossit. son of Rufus, now occupies the homestead and is a prominent breeder of sheep ; has held the offices of Sheriff and Supervisor. Joseph and Ezra Bryant came in as early as 1800 and settled and cleared the farm purchased in 1833 by Nathaniel Potter, two miles south of the village. Joseph Bryant died there September 30, 1835. Ezra Bryant re- moved to Michigan. Nathaniel Potter, who cleared sixty acres of this land, subsequently sold it to Alfred Hewlett and purchased the farm now owned by his son, Lyman Potter. This farm was settled and cleared by Bensley Mann, father of Enoch Mann, now living in Syracuse. Nathaniel Potter died July 12, 1869. Levi Huntington settled on the farm on the same road which is still owned by his son Lewis. His other sons were Andrew, and Jeremiah, and he had three daughters. Silas Carpenter located on the farm adjoining the Huntington place. He was an excellent farmer and had a son Charles who taught school at the Hill, and a daughter Lois who married John Wright ; 70 Memorial History of Syracuse. they live in the building that was formerly a hotel, opposite the court house site. On the other road running southward from the village Jeremiah Hunt- ington, brother of Lewis, cleared an excellent farm two miles south of the village. He had two sons, Edward and Asa, who died on the place. Walker Knapp lived many years on the next farm north. He was a pushing, energetic man and subsequently removed to a farm of two hun- dred acres a little east of the city, and fitted it up for the accommodation of drovers. He was a brother of Noah Knapp, who still lives at the Hill; and both were sons Eben K. Knapp, one of the pioneers of the town. Williams Partridge settled on the farm now occupied by DeWitt Ran- dall. He was a prominent farmer and connected conspicuously with the Presbyterian church. His sons were Edwin, Bidwell, Theodore, and George B. James Hutchinson was an early and prominent farmer two and a half miles west of the village. His sons were Orrin (father of Captain Charles Hutchinson) James, and Seth. The elder James died March 24, 1826, aged fifty-four years. Across the road settled Porter D. Lawrence, an excellent farmer, who is still living there. Ebenezer White was a pioneer west of the village and died April 10, 1839, ^^ ^^^ ^S^ °^ seventy-five. His son was Royal White, who also lived west of the village, and died May 10, 1871, aged seventy-four years. Parley Howlett, father of Alfred A. Howlett, now of Syracuse, settled early about a mile west of Loomis Hill church. He was an energetic man and engaged successfully in meat packing and shipping from the west. He died on the farm May 18, 1861. John Morse, who died in 18 16, settled a mile west of the village. John Raynor, father of William and Jacob Raynor, both deceased, cleared and settled the farm now occupied by his son, John, a little southeasterly of the village and adjoining the Bensley Mann farm. Giles Cornish lived about four miles west of the Hill and was a histor- ical character. He was a professional surveyor and laid out much of the land in that vicinity; he was a Justice of the Peace and widely known. Levi Pitts settled west of the Hill in 1801. He was uncle to Levi Pitts, now living in Syracuse. He died January 20, 1856, aged ninety-one years. The Village on the Hill and, for that matter, the one in the Valley^ were bustling and thriving places for many years and he who should have predicted their early stagnation and decay would have been laughed at and scorned. But they were doomed. A little too far distant to be absorbed by the young Municipal Giant by the lakeside, and too proud in their strength of priority of settlement and possession of the county buildings, they neglected possible opportunities which would, maybe, have given them a prosperous future ; and the day of decline came. Early History of Sauna. 71 As far as the Hill was concerned, this condition of its prospects was directly created when it was settled that the court house should be removed to the city. This was accomplished after much strife, (as related in another chapter of this work) in 18289, and soon afterward there was a hegira of leading men, lawyers, merchants, doctors, and others to Syracuse, and the village gradually took on its present quiet, peaceful, rural character. CHAPTER Vni. HISTORY OF SAUNA VILLAGE. Formation of the Town — Laying Out the First Village — The Tioneers of " Salt Point " — The First Dwellings — Isaac Van Vleck's Settlement — Natural Beauty of the Site — Unhealthfulness of the Lowlands — Difticulty of Obtaining Provisions — The First Grinding Mill — Indian .-Knecdotes — Elisha Alvord's Settlement — The First Krick Hnilding — Fears of British Invasion — The Hlock House — Sketches of Settlers — Mercantile Operations — Mechanics and their Shops — The Growing Salt Industry. LET us now turn our attention to events which had occurred on the shores of Onondaga Lake during the progress of the settlements described in the two preceding chapters, which resulted in the building up of the village of Salina into a thriving community, to become at a little later period an extremely active and aggressive rival of Syracuse and eventually to be absorbed to swell the importance of the present city. Going back to the year 1794, in which Onondaga county was organized we learn that the town of Salina, as briefly stated on an earlier page, was comprehended in the original towns of Manlius and Marcellus. From this latter territory the town of Onondaga was set off in 1798, and Camillus in 1799. At the same time, that portion of the Salt Springs Reservation not included in the town of Onondaga and lying on the west side of the Lake and Creek, was attached to Camillus. In 1809 a triangular tract of territory containing nine and one half lots, was taken from the northwest corner of the town of Manlius, which tract, with the land embraced in the Salt Springs Reservation, formed the town of Salina. Within the boundaries of the town of Salina, as thus described, grew up first, the settlement and village of that name, then the settlement and hamlet of Geddes, and finally, the settlement and village to be subsequently named Syracuse, all of which, with more recently added territory, now con- stitute the city. ^^ Memorial History of Syracuse. But previous to this, in 1797, the Surveyor-General was authorized by law to lay out a part of the Reservation in order to provide for the manu- facture of salt, and a portion of the marsh and upland was thus laid out and called " Salina." In the following year (1798) according to Act of Leg- islature, a village was laid out which also was called Salina. The language of this Act is as follows : " Be it enacted, that the Superintendent shall, on the grounds adjoining to the southeast side of Free street, so named on the map of the Salt Springs, made by the Surveyor-General, lay out a square for the village, consisting of sixteen blocks, each six chains square, with intermediate streets, conforming to the streets laid down on the said map, made by the Surveyor-General, and divide each lot into four house lots, and deliver a map and description thereof to the Surveyor-General," etc. The Act further provided that no lot should be sold for a less sum than forty dollars ; and that no lot on which was a building worth fifty dollars, should be liable to be sold, if the owner or occupant should agree to secure a deed for it, at the average price of other lots sold. We have already described in detail the arrival in Onondaga valley in 1788 of Asa Danforth and Comfort Tyler, and their very limited operations in salt making in the same year. These salt springs were already quite well known, and it is not surprising, therefore, that within a very short period, men of foresight should have turned their attention towards those saline fountains bubbling from the earth in the midst of a great extent of territory then otherwise wholly unsupplied with salt, as probable sources of wealth. The salt springs were, undoubtedly, the chief incentive in bringing the pioneers to Salina. Almost simultaneously with the settlement of Tyler and Danforth in the Vallej-, the first settlers located their homes near the salt springs. Dur- ing the year 1789, and possibly in one or two instances in 1788, Nathaniel Loomis, Ilezekiah Olcutt, Asa Danforth, jr., John Danforth (brother of the pioneer in the Valley) Thomas Gaston, and a Deacon Loomis, whose chris- tian name we have been unable to learn, came to Salina and took up their permanent homes, and most of them soon became prominently identified with the young salt industry. Asa Danforth.jr., who came in 1789, was, without doubt, already initiated by his father into the mysteries of boiling brine in a kettle swung on a pole in the open air. Hezekiah Olcutt at a little later date became a member of the "Federal Company," organized for the express purpose of carrying on the manufacture of salt on a large scale. In 1790 Colonel Jeremiah Gould, with his three sons, Jereiniah, James, and Phares, and one daughter, caine from Westinoreland to Salina, (being most frequently called "Salt Point," a name that the old settlers still love to roll as a sweet philologic morsel under their tongues). The Gould family became quite a prominent one in the community and Jeremiah (the son) built the first frame house in 1792, which was also the first one in the Isaac Van Vleck's Settlement. 73 county. The building of those early frame houses was somewhat peculiar and is thus described in Clark's "Onondaga:" Sills were laid, and posts set up at proper distances, and the beams and plates put in. Grooves two inches wide were cut in the posts, and sticks laid in horizontally, and the whole plastered up with mud, tempered with straw, which made very com- fortable dwellings. Chimneys were made of sticks and clay, and the fire places had no jams, only a plain stone wall on the back." In 1791 Samuel Jerome came from his home in Saratoga county on a tour of observation, visited the salt springs, and on his return took a little salt with him through the towns of Pompey, Fabius, Homer and Manlius, reporting to ready listeners that he had found the "promised land." This was the means of inducing several families to come to Salina to locate. A family named VVoodworth and another named Sturges,* of whom we have been unable to learn particulars, settled at Salina in 1791. On the 2d of March, 1792, Isaac Van Vleck arrived at Salina, coming from Kinderhook, Columbia county, with his wife and four children. This was the si.xth family to make a permanent home there. Mr. Van Vleck is given the credit of building the first arch for a kettle in which to boil salt. He was a conspicuous character at Salina until his death, which occurred about the year 1800. His son Abraham was born at Salina October 16, 1792, and is believed to have been the first white child born within the pres- ent boundaries of Syracuse, and the first male child born in Onondaga county. About the time of his birth an Indian was accidentally drowned at Oswego Falls, and the grief of the dead man's friends bore so heavily upon them that they named Abraham, " Ne-un-hoo-tah," meaning, sorrow for the departed. He was always called thus by the Indians, whose friendship for him was unwavering. They gave him a mile square of land near the outlet of the lake, but the title was not recognized by the State. Abraham Van \'leck was born in what was afterwards called the " Schouton house," which was used later for a blacksmith shop, corner of E.xchange and Free streets. Isaac Van \'leck's family eventually consisted of three sons and three daughters ; the sons were Matthew, Abraham, and Henry. The latter re- moved to Illinois, where he died. Matthew became a prominent citizen and a large landowner; was a Member of Assembly in 1833, and Super- visor many years. He was owner of a large tract of land at Mud Lock, with three hundred acres now owned by Smiths, Powell & Lamb. He was killed on a hand car in a collision on the Syracuse and Oswego railroad. After Isaac Van Vleck's death his widow removed to Pittstown, Rens- selaer county, where Abraham learned his trade of tanner and currier, and * The absence of several given names and other minor details is much to be regretted, but una- voidable. The records of the town of Salina down to 1830. as well as most of those of the village, are missing, with the exception of scattering reports of otticials. How, when, or by whose careless- ness this calamity occurred, no one seems to know. To the historian the loss is a grievous one. 10 74 Memorial History of Syracuse. he followed it at Kinderhook. He came back to Salina in 1834 with his family, and died there in 1867. James Van Vleck, now living in Salina, and Isaac, living in Clay, are sons of Abraham. The late Mrs. O'Blennis was a daughter of the pioneer, Isaac Van Vleck, and before her death sup- plied memoranda to various persons of the early history of Salina. She stated that there were in Salina in 1792, besides those above mentioned, Josiah Olcutt, who was a surveyor and laid out several of the early roads, and James Peat. Nearly all of those who came here in early years were in some way connected with the salt industry, and located here with that end in view. In this year (1792) Phares Gould built what was then called a mud house. It was constructed by laying up narrow strips of boards flat-wise on the four sides, lapping the ends at the corners of the house, and filling between the boards with mud or clay. The roof was made of rough planks split from logs, running from the eaves to the peak. By the end of the year 1792 there had been built eight or nine dwellings, two of which were of mud, one frame (Jeremiah Gould's) and the others of logs. Three of these houses stood on what is now Salina street, (called m early times. Canal street) and as many more on Free street near Carbon, as those streets now appear. The latter were built either directly against each other, or very near, with an entrance for each. No sales of land had yet been made and settlers erected their rude houses wherever their fancy dictated. These few families thus far mentioned were, with the exception of Ephraim Webster, the pioneers of civilization in what is now Syracuse. Let us see what manner of country it was to which they had come, and what circumstances befell them in the early days of their wilderness life. Whether or not those men noted the fact, it is true that no fairer spot for a village or a city could be found in many a day's walk, than the grace- fully swelling slope that rises from the lake shore at that point. E.xcepting a few isolated spots (in one of which were situated the saline springs) this rounded, rising lake shore was covered with original forest, or a large second growth of timber, from among the shore-line shadows of which could be seen the placid lake and the distant wood crowned hillsides, now thickly studded with the dwellings, shops, ard stores of Geddes. This lake and the streams near by were filled with e.vcellent fish for the table, with the noble salmon first among them, and the surrounding forests abounded in game of various kinds. It was fortunate for the early settlers that this was the fact, for other provisions were for a few years very scarce and difficult to get" Such as could be obtained at all, came from Tioga, or Herkimer, or Whites- town, and were brought only in small quantities and at infrequent intervals. The settlers actually suffered at times for those articles necessary for whole. some food in connection with fish and game. On several occasions in 1792- Circumstances ok the Settlers. 75 93, when there was a scarcity of provisions, boats were sent from " Salt Point " to Kinfjston, Canada, by way of Oswego, to procure the needed articles. Mr. Clark says, ("Onondaga," p. 140,) he was informed by old resi- dents " that they at different times procured bread, biscuits, salted meat and fish that were made and cured in England which, though of inferior quality, were nevertheless accepted with a relish which hunger never fails to give." It should be remembered that there were then no grist mills or saw mills in this section, the nearest saw mill being Asa Danforth's small affair near Jamesville, already described. The first corn raised or brought here was pounded into coarse meal in the top of a hollowed stump. But the scarcity of provisions ceased to exist after a few years. In those days deer were so plentiful that they often herded with the cows and came home with them at night. ]5cars, wolves, foxes, coons, and other small animals were also very numerous. Wolves and bears were often seen in the road leading to Cicero and exhibiting very little fear of man. The names of Bear and Wolf streets were derived from this circumstance. The Indians caught many )oung bears and traded them to the settlers, who in turn exchanged them for provisions with the river boatmen. Prominent among the earliest of these was a man known as Captain Canute who ran a boat hither from Albany, bringing in provisions, etc., in exchange for salt, furs, young bears and other animals ; for the latter he always found a ready market at the other end of his route. Such was the country and such the surrounding circumstances of the first settlers of Salina. During the year 1793 a number of families joined their fortunes with the little community at "Salt Point." Thomas Orman came and brought the first cauldron kettle in which to boil salt, and Aaron Bel- lows, a good cooper, was a welcome accession, as he could and did supply barrels to hold the staple product. Simon Phares (followed in 1796 by An- drew Phares) and William Gilchrist also located there in that year. The latter has been given credit for having kept the first public house ; but it is certain that Elam Schouton kept a tavern earlier (1791-92) and was succeeded by Isaac Van Vleck in 1793. Andrew Phares was Justice of the Peace from 1808 to 1 82 1, and held a military ofifice. He, with his wife and daugh- ter Lois, then one year old, made a journey to New Brunswick, N. J., on horseback in the year 1812, when there was no wagon road over much of the route. Andrew I'hares removed to Geddes at a later date. During the year under consideration (1793) Isaac Van Vleck rendered the little settlement a great service by journeying to Albany and returning with a large grinding mill, which he set up in Mr. Bellows's cooper shop, and thither all the families came to grind their corn. In the same year John Danforth, a brother of v\sa Danforth, built the second frame house in the place, and about the same time Isaac Van Vleck and Asa Danforth, jr., •]6 Memorial History ok Syracuse. built better dwellings for themselves. The lumber for these structures was brought in batteaux from Little Falls and Tioga Point, and the nails came from Albany. One of the early settlers at Green Point was a Mr. Lamb. The follow- ing anecdote concerning the family was related by Mrs. O'Blennis: In the year 1793, when Mr. Lamb's daughter was about fourteen years old, she was left in his rude house alone while he attended to his farm. Mr. Lamb heard a noise in the house and approaching, saw a young Indian kissing his daughter and taking liberties with her. Lamb killed the Indian on the spot, and fled to the Salina settlement for safety. The Indians declared they must have his life, according to their custom. The people called the chiefs together and, w'ith Webster as interpreter, related the circumstances of the occurrence. A council was called at Salina (the last one held there) and Kiacdote stepped into the ring, threw ofT his blanket, gave three whoops and made a motion with both hands at the same time. The mean- ing of this performance was, " pay strict attention." He then related the circumstances to the tribe, and said it was the first time an Indian had ever been known to insult a white squaw. Although they had had many pris- oners of white blood, no Indian had ever been found so low as to degrade himself and tribe by insulting a white squaw until this occurrence. He de- clared that the killing was justifiable, and that Mr. Lamb must not be pun- ished. His decision was adopted, providing that Mr. Lamb would pay to the relatives of the Indian killed, a three-year-old heifer, which was to cement peace and good-will between the posterity of both parties forever. The Indian was buried where he was killed. The progress of the little settlement thus far will be understood by the fact that at the close of the year 1793 there were only si.xty-three persons in the community, and of these, more than twenty were ill. No sooner had the early settlers taken up their homes here, than the fact developed that it was a most unhealthy locality. The decaying vegetation of the marshes which were alternately overflowed and then left to give out their deadly vapors, and perhaps other conditions not so well understood, caused an alarming prevalence of fevers of the various types, and the resultant sick- ness and mortality were frightful. Often there were not enough well per- sons in the community to properly care for the sick. Under these circum- stances the Indians were exceedingly kind and lightened the burdens of many families. Dr. Molbrook, who had settled at Janiesville, probably as the first physician in Onondaga county, came over daily and was very faith- ful in ministering to the sick. Dr. Burnett was probably the first physician to locate in Salina (1797) and during his residence contributed not a little to the healthfulness of the people. It is a question that is, perhaps, open to discussion, whether the new TiiK First Bru k Huh. ding. n settlement would not have been depopulated on this account before the beginning of the century, had it not been for the stimulating incentive of the probable future importance of the place and wealth to its inhabitants through the medium of salt. By about the year iSoo these prevalent fevers were much reduced by drainage of the lowlands, but they were not wholly dispelled until the outlet of the lake was lowered in 1821-22. The Hon. Thomas G. Alvord states that as late as 1830 he has seen the canal bridge covered with persons just well enough to get out of doors, leaning on the railings to get the benefit of the sunshine. But in spite of all obstacles, "Salt Point" grew in population. Such was its destiny. In 1794 came hither Elisha Alvord, to be joined four years later by his brother, Dioclesian. Both of these men became promi- nent citizens and foremost in developing the infant salt industry, as detailed in the chapter devoted to that interest. They were from Farmington, THE OLD ALVORD BUILDINC. Conn. Immediately upon his arrival in the new settlement Elisha Alvord made his presence felt. He engaged in the salt industry and acquired the honor of erecting the first permanent structure under which salt was manu- factured. In 1806, he was appointed to lay out what was called the "Salt Road," extending from Salina north through Cicero and on to Sackett's Harbor. In 1808 he and his brother built the first brick building within the present limits of Syracuse, which is still standing on the southeasterly corner of Salina and Exchange streets. The brick for this building, were made by David Marshall on the banks of the Yellow Brook near where it crossed South Salina street, between Jefferson and Onondaga streets, and the stone in the cellar were quarried in the line of what is now Center street 78 Memorial History of Syracuse. in the First ward. The Alvord Brothers kept a hotel for a few years in this brick building. At the organization of the town in 1809, Elisha Al- yord was elected Supervisor, and rose in the militia service to the office of First Major. He was largely instrumental in the organization of the "F"ed- eral Company" in Salina for the more extensive manufacture of salt. The company was composed of himself, with Jedediah Sanger, of Oneida, Thomas Hart, Ebenezer Butler, of Pompey, Hezekiah Olcutt, Daniel Keeler, and Asa Danforth. Owing to disagreements this company was bought out by Mr. Ah'ord and his brother after about two years, and their interests were thus combined. Mr. Alvord removed from the county in May, 1 81 3, and died in July, 1S46, at Lansingburg. Dioclesian Alvord died in Salina March 10, 1868, aged ninety-two years. The Hon. Thomas G. Alvord, of Syracuse, is a son of Elisha. During the year 1793 the little settlement at Salina became fearful of active antagonism and possible assault by hostile Indians, and perhaps by the British in Canada. The western Indians were then at war with the settlers in Ohio and Indiana and the belligerent feeling reached eastward to some extent among the si.x nations. A little later, about the beginning of 1794, fears of incursions by the British became more prevalent even than dread of the Indians' attack. The principal event that led to these appre- hensions occurred in the spring of 1794, when Sir John Johnson had been passing from Albany to Oswego with a boat load of supplies for his Mohawk settlement, then recently made on Grand River, and had been waylaid and plundered near Three River Point by a party of some thirty or forty men. Johnson, highly incensed, proceeded to Oswego, where the British garrison was still kept, and there related the story of his wrongs. This at once aroused the ire of the British officers, and it was forthwith determined that Johnson and Brant should at once raise a body of soldiers and Indians in Canada and make a sudden descent upon the Onondaga settlements, where it was presumed most of the aggressors resided. Indians soon gathered in considerable numbers in the vicinity of Niagara and Oswego, and it was reported that five hundred Messasagues were on their way to destroy the settlements in this county. At this time, too, a number of disaffected Onondagas had joined the western Indians against General Wayne, expect- ing he would be defeated, as had been his predecessors, Generals Harmer and St. Clair, in which case they were all to return and with the remaining Onondagas assist the common enemy in the destruction of the Onondaga settlements. The action of the liritish garrison at Oswego in assuming the right to collect duties on all American boats passing the fort was the exciting cause of the Americans committing the act complained of. The British had employed spies to give notice of any boat designing to "run" the fort, and Fears of Militakv Invasion. 79 through this agency several had been seized and confiscated. Two of the spies had been captured by the Americans and publicly whipped at Salina. No active military collision occurred, however, and affairs became settled under the treaty with Great Britain in the following year. But while the troubled circumstances existed, the little hamlet at Salt Point was in a state of dread and foreboding. Many families there, as well as at other places in the valley, thought seriously of leaving the borders. For consultation upon the situation a meeting was held in Onondaga Val- ley and, as a result, Johnson Russell was sent to Albany to explain the situation to Governor Clinton. In response to this appeal for protection, the Governor sent General William Worth, General Stephen VanRen.sselaer and Adjutant-General David Vanllorne to visit Baron Steuben at his home in Oneida county and with him proceed to Onondaga county. These men belonged to a Commission which had been appointed by the Legislature for the erection of such fortifications on the frontier as should be deemed necessary. The sum of /■ 12,000 was appropriated for this purpose. They came to Onondaga Valley, stopped with Mr. Morehouse, reviewed the coun- ty military force and then proceeded to Salina. After an examination of the locality, they recommended the erection of a Block House. A Com- mittee of Public Safety was named, consisting of Moses DeWitt, Isaac Van- Vleck, Thomas Orman, Simon Phares, and John Danforth. These men, in company with Baron Steuben and several military officers, staked out the ground for the structure and Major Asa Danforth and Major Moses DeWitt were authorized to superintend the erection of the block house. The site chosen was on the bluff at a point just across to the northerly side and on the right of the present Oswego canal bridge, nearly in front of the pump house. The block house was built by Cornelius Higgins, who finished it before the beginning of the year 1795. It was made of oak timbers hewed square, and was surrounded by a high palisade of cedar posts. The building was about twenty feet high and was pierced with square port holes through which to fire upon an enemy. It was manned by a volunteer company called the "Grenadiers," whose headquarters had been at Onondaga llill. A six-pounder cannon and other arms and munitions were supplied by the State commissary. The old block house was not long occupied as a mili- tary post, the necessity for it passing away, and it subsequently served a more peaceful purpose as a State storehouse for salt. It is, of course, impossible to follow in detail the arrival and settlement of every one of the pioneers of Salina ; such a task is especially difficult in the absence of records. But brief notes have been obtained regarding most of those who attained to any early prominence in the community. Benajah Byington came in before the beginning of the present century 8o Memorial History of Syracuse. and devoted his energies to the salt industry. He spent portions of many years boring wells on the high ground away from the lake shore, in the be- lief that he would strike a bed of rock salt. In this manner he lost much valuable time and considerable money. He died February i8, 1854. David Brace came to Salina in 1794, and himself and descendants be- came prominent in the history of the village. Horace Brace, brother of David, was also an early settler. Both were merchants for many years. When a boy David Brace carried the mail on horseback from Onondaga Valley to Oswego, finding his way through the wilderness by marked trees. Oris Curtis was a pioneer as early, probably, as 1795. He was father of Fisher Curtis, who became quite prominent as a merchant and manufacturer. Fisher Curtis was at one time a partner in mercantile business with Elisha Alvord, and he also had a store alone on the corner of Free and Spring streets. He was elected the first President of the village in 1824 and was Town Clerk in 18 10. The Curtis family came from Farmington, Conn. Oris Curtis died when only thirty-eight years old, on January 23, 1804. Fisher Curtis died at fifty-one years of age on the 27th of April, 183 1. In 1795 the first regular store was opened by Benjamin Carpenter. He traded in furs, trinkets, ammunition, etc., with the Indians, and in general goods with the settlers. He died at Salina and his widow removed west. Judge William Stevens, who was the first Salt Superintendent, lived at Salina before 1795, and in connection with Mr. Gilchrist and Isaac Van Vleck, took the preliminary steps in 1795 for placing a duty on the manu- facture of salt. Mr. Stevens died in 1801. Ryal Bingham was the first Justice of the Peace at Salina and came there from Three River Point about 1796. William Kellogg settled there probably before 1800, and died on the 21st of March, 1819, aged si.xty years. He came from Vermont. Hewasfather of Ashbel Kellogg, one of the able men of the place and a well known surveyor. He lived and died on the corner of Bear and Lodi streets. Ashbel Kellogg's daughter became the wife of the Hon. Thomas G. Alvord. Thaddeus Ball, who died on the 15th of January, 18 15, must have located before 1800. His sons were James and "Jack", the latter being honored with the office of Salt Inspector. He finally removed south to New Orleans and established coarse salt fields there. The widow of Thaddeus Ball married James Matthews, brother of Samuel R. Matthews. Thomas Wheeler was a prominent Salina pioneer at about the beginning of the century, and died March 30, 1862, at the age of eighty-one years. He was also a practical surveyor and kept a store on the north side of the canal, where most of the early business was carried on. His wife was a daughter of John J. Mang, who was probably the first German to settle there. Mr. Wheeler was also interested in salt manufacturing. His sister married Dioclesian Alvord. 1/ -c Growth of the Village. Tchabod Brackett reached Salina about 1800 and became a leading mer- chant and accumulated wealth through his business ability and shrewdness. He was also interested in the salt industry. He built a dwelling and store combined, on the corner of E.xchange and Park streets. He died Oct. 1832. The foregoing names embrace nearly all who settled at Salina previous to the beginning of the century, and who became at all prominent in the history of the place. Quite a large portion of the settlers during this pe- riod and for many years afterward, were laboring men, possessing little else than sturdy muscles to give them position in the community ; the record of their lives has passed away, except as their deeds have left an imperishable impress on the general prosperity of the place. During the first decade of the present century the village increased considerably, keeping pace with the increasing magnitude of the salt indus- try, but its most rapid growth was during the succeeding ten years. In the entire absence of the records of this period, we are obliged to confine these brief annals, down to the incorporation of the village (1824) to such matters as could be gathered from the few old residents of the village who are living. Among those men who located at Salina to carry on some kind of busi- ness during the period just preceding, or soon after, the incorporation of the town (1809) may be mentioned the following: Richard Goslin had a store on the north side of Free street and was at ore time a partner of Elisha Alvord. Richard C. Johnson also kept a store in that vicinity and near the pump house. Isham West located early as a hatter, on Salina street, where John Bierhardt is now established. West's sister married Fisher Curtis. Davenport Morey was one of the early mer- chants and also started a distillery near the site of the present Excelsior Mills. In connection with Ashbel Kellogg he also had a brewery at the foot of Bear street. He afterwards established a distiller}- where the Green- way brewery is located. Mr. Morey 's daughter was the second wife of the late Vivus W. Smith. Samuel P. Smith was a cabinet maker (probably the first of any promi- nence). His shop was on Exchange street near Salina. Thomas ^IcCarthy settled at Salina in 1808 and won the foremost po- sition as a merchant and salt manufacturer. His early store was located on Free street. He also attained prominence in public affairs ; was a Member of Assembly one term ; Trustee of the village many years, and one of the directors of the first bank established there. Mr. McCarthy was father of the late Dennis McCarthy, one of the leading merchants and public men of Syracuse. David W. HoUister settled in Salina in 1808. He carried on a bakery for a time and later became a prominent man. He built the first saw-mill at Geddes, where he afterward lived. He held the ofifice of Poor-Master II 82 Memorial History of Syracuse. and was a soldier in the war of 1812 at Oswego. His son, the late James W. Holh'ster, who was Deputy Sheriff 1865 to 1877, was born at Geddes in the year 1822. Dean Richmond's father and his uncles, John and Anson Richmond, came to Salina from Vermont before 1810, and were connected with the salt industry. Anson died of cholera in 1834. Dean Richmond resided at Salina for a period and was interested in boating operations, and at a later date as a merchant on Exchange street. He was a man of great capacity and, as is well known, eventually became one of the leading railroad presi- dents in the country, with his residence in Batavia. Hon. William D. Stewart, son of David Stewart, was one of the noted men of Syracuse. He was born at Salt Point in 1805, and was soon forced to depend upon his own efforts for a livelihood. After the school attend- ance of his youth he was employed in the old Eagle Tavern for two years, and then was employed by Philo D. Mickles, who was running a boat be- tween Salt Point and Oswego. Later he worked as tavern clerk, and was connected with some of the early stage lines. In 1829-30 he took up salt manufacture. The Erie canal was now open and transportation facilities were not equal to the demand upon them. Mr. Stewart saw his opportunity and fitted up a packet boat which he commanded with great success for seventeen years. He then conducted the Welland House in Oswego two years, after which he came to Syracuse and became the proprietor of the famous Syracuse House, which attained its greatest popularity under his management. During the ten years of his proprietorship the Syracuse House was one of the best and most widely known hotels in the country. In 1865 Captain Stewart was elected Mayor of the city by the Democrats and was re-elected the two following years. In this and other positions held by him, he sustained his reputation as an honest and capable citizen. He died on April 9, 1874. Russell Buckley was another early boatman and is said to have carried the first boat-load of salt through the Erie canal to Utica. His son, Chris- topher, was one of the unfortunate victims of the Canadian rebellion and was executed. The town of Salina was incorporated in 1809 and the first town meet- ing was held at the house of Cornelius Schouton, on the nth of March of that year, when the following ofificers were elected: Elisha Alvord, Super- visor, and Fisher Curtis, Town Clerk; Rufus Danforth, Martin Wandle, Richard C. Johnson, Henry Bogardus, Assessors; Michael Mead, William Buckley, jr., and Jonathan Fay, Commissioners of Highways. In 1810 Cyrel Hunt was elected Supervisor, and Fisher Curtis, Town Clerk; Rufus Danforth, Daniel Wheadon, Nathan D'Lamater, Asses.sors. The early elections were held one day in Geddes, one-half day at Liverpool, closing Sai.ina in riiK War ok 1812. 83 with a day at Salina ; and later, down to 1846, they were held one-half day at Gcddes, one-half day at Liverpool, one day in Syracuse, with the last day in Salina. The polls in this village were held in the old Eagle Tavern. The salt industry, the key to the prosperity of the place, at the begin- ning of the 19th century began to assume large proportions. That neces- sary commodity brought a high price during the next few years, and the market was practically unlimited. While there was no manufacturing of any account outside of salt, that in itself was sufficient to engross the atten- tion of a large portion of the inhabitants. Mercantile operations also multiplied and a general air of thrift and growth characterized the village during this period. The opening of the middle section of the canal in 1820, and the cutting of the lateral canal to the salt works in the same year gave still further stimulus to the community. The war of 1812 had little appreciable effect on the community in a business way, but it excited the apprehensions of the inhabitants to a con- siderable e.xtent, who anticipated a possible invasion by the British by way of Oswego. Communication by water to Lake Ontario was comparatively easy and it was considered extremely probable that the fort at Oswego might be captured. It was on this account that a man-of-war was built at Sacketts Harbor (but never entirely finished) and the old Arsenal was erect- ed at the Valley. American soldiers passed through Salina on their way to the frontier, which fact tended to further stimulate their apprehensions. But with the close of the war, all fears from this source permanently disappeared. Elizur Clark came to Salina in 1823 and from his memory we are able to give a reliable account of the situation in the village at that date. Several years previous to Mr. Clark's arrival, Henry Seymour, father of the Hon. Horatio Seymour, and Sylvester Peck had built a saw mill about on the site of the present chemical works. This mill was then operated by water brought in a ditch from Onondaga creek near the Chlorine springs, where a low dam turned a portion of the water into the ditch. The mill had two upright saws and a general lumber business was carried on. It was the first of the kind in what is now Syracuse. This old mill was burned in 1840 and a new one erected, which was taken down in 1S52, and a steam mill was then built containing a gang of upright saws, a circular saw, a planer, and other machinery. In 1834 Mr. Clark began business for himself under lease from Mr. Seymour, and was for a time in partnership with Horatio Seymour. In 1846 Mr. Clark purchased the entire business and subse- quently sold one-half to the Hon. Thomas G. Alvord, and the firm of Clark & Alvord carried on the business until 1863, when it ceased. The mill property was rented to the Salt Company of Onondaga, and it was de- 84 Memorial History of Syracuse. stroyed by fire about 1876. Mr. Clark has been prominently identified with the salt industry, director in the Salt Springs bank, and a trustee of the Syracuse Savings bank; was one of the first Aldermen from the First ward of the city, and represented his district in the Legislature in 1863. In 1823 there were about twenty general stores in Salina, many of which have been alluded to. One of the leading establishments was that of Wil- liam Clark, which was on the westerly side of the Oswego canal near the site of the present State reservoir, on Free street. Most of the business of the place was then congregated in that locality. Mr. Clark bought the old brick hotel, (heretofore described as having been built by Elisha Alvord in 1808) now used by Horace P. Freeman. Thomas McCarthy's store was near Mr. Clark's. Ezra M. Knapp located there about 1822 and built the old distillery already described and also a flouring mill near it, which was burned. He had a store at a later date on Salina street. The old Eagle Tavern was an ancient institution conducted as early as 1810 by Jonathan R. Beach. He was an excellent player on the violin and for many years was a teacher of dancing and polite behavior for Salt Point and its vicinity. He was afterwards a merchant of the firm of Beach & Foot. He died some years ago, beloved and honored by all. The Eagle Tavern was afterwards owned by Mrs. Field and managed by her son, Al- bert. It stood about opposite the site of the street car barns, on Salina street. Richard Sanger, father of Augustus H. Sanger, kept this house a long time and was a prominent citizen. Another hotel stood near the car barn site on the eastern side of Salina street, which was kept for a period by Augustus H. Scoville. These buildings and others in that vicinity were of wood, and were all burned in the destructive fire of 1856. Alonzo Crippen had a grocery on Free street and engaged in salt making. He subsequently built the brick building on the site of the Moj-er wagon works. The firm of Williams & Co., composed of Coddington, Gordon, and Frank Williams, had a store near the canal, which t-hey eventually removed and then built on Exchange street a brick structure which is still standing. Ira H. Williams, a brother of Frank, subsequently bought out the others. Hezekiah Barnes, Noah Wood, Jeremiah Stevens, Richmond, Marsh & Clark, Barnes & Fifield, Hunter Crane, Felt & Barlow, Crane & Risley, Williams & Allen, James Lynch, and others, had stores on Exchange street, after it was opened in 1827-28. Asa Foot and Roger Bates were a firm of early blacksmiths, and later Mr. Foot had a shop alone on the site of the Kearney brewery. Christopher Nott was a wagon-maker on Carbon street, and Albert B. Congdon was a carpenter and builder who lived in later years in the central part of the city. He was killed by a run-away horse, in September, TlIK I'OUNDIXG OF GkDDES. 8S 1880. Seth Castle was also a carpenter who lived at about this time, ami died in January, 1872. Deacon Stanton P. Babcock came early to Salina from Connecticut. He was a wealthy citizen and his son, who had preceded him, was at one time a partner in mercantile business with Ira H. Williams. Deacon Bab- cock died April 7, 1857, aged seventy-eight years. Charles O. Holbrook, who was for many years a clerk for Dioclesian Alvord and Thomas McCarthy, reached Salina at an early date. He was a son of Dr. Holbrook, whom we have before mentioned, and lived in the house now occupied by Widow Maloney, corner of First North and Bear streets, which is one of the oldest dwellings of the old village. John G. Forbes was about, if not quite, the first lawyer to locate in Salina and became a prominent figure in its history. He was considerable of a politician and served in the Assembly in 1S25. He entered the militia as Lieutenant in Col. Thaddeus M. Wood's regiment in May, 1S09, and was gradually promoted to the office of Colonel in 1817. He resigned in 1820. He removed to Syracuse in later years, and died there. Enos D. Hopping practiced law at Salina at a little later date. He was a brother-in-law of Dean Richmond, was appointed Brigadier-General of the Volunteers by President Polk and died in camp at Mier while in command there during the Mexican war. Dr. Daniels was one of the first physicians who practiced in Salina. This record brings the history of Salina down to its incorporation as a village, its continuation after that event being reserved for a later chapter. CHAPTER IX. THE SETTLEMENT OE (lEODES. Sketch of James Geddes— Opening New Roads— The First Salt Works at Geddes— Map of the Early Village— Biographical Sketches of Pioneers— Early Merchants and Mechanics -Growth of the Village — Prominent Builders. TAMES GEDDES was born on the 22d, day of July, 1763, near Carlisle, I Pa., and was of Scotch descent. As a boy he made the most of his limit- ed opportunities for acquiring knowledge, and from the time he reached his majority he taught school much of the time until he was thirty years old. 86 Memorial History of Syracuse. In 1793 the spreading fame of the Onondaga Salt Springs drew him hither and the prospect was so gratifying to him that he returned home, organized a company for the manufacture of salt, and early in 1794 came on by way of Seneca lake to the site of Geddes (which derives its name from him) bringing with him kettles, etc., and began the first operations of the salt industry in that locality. The other members of the company followed in June of the same year, and the little settlement thus formed was given the name of Geddes. The salt works were located near the lake shore, which then overflowed a large area of the present lowlands. In 1798 Mr, Geddes removed to Fairmount, in the present town of Camillus, where he settled upon land acquired by him from the State, which remained his home until his death. Very soon after his settlement, Mr. Geddes was called upon to fill a public station, and from that time forward his energies were almost wholly given to official work of various kinds. Being employed by the Surveyor- General as an assistant, he took up that profession and made it his chief life- work, in which he rendered the State the most valuable services in survey- ing the canal, as elsewhere described. He was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1800 and in 1804 was elected to the Legislature. In 1809 he was appointed Associate Justice and in 1812 a Judge of Onondaga County Common Pleas. In 1S13 he was elected to Congress and in 1821 was again sent to the Legislature. After a life of great usefulness he died at his home August 19, 1S38. He was the father of seven children, one of whom was the late Hon. George Geddes. Such is a brief sketch of the founder and the founding of the village which finally became and now is a part of the city of Syracuse. It will be noted that the settlement at the head of the lake was begun only a few years after that at Salina, and long before any one had thought of a village on the site of Syracuse. At the time of the settlement. Judge Geddes found a rude road extend- ing from Salina to Onondaga Hollow. This was the only means of com- munication with either that point or Salina and Judge Geddes and his as- sociates saw the necessity of connecting with it by a new road. By the aid of a fund then in the hands of Commissioners, and by large contributions, a good road was constructed connecting with the Salina and Onondaga Hollow road.* Mr. Clark in his " Onondaga," p. 151, says of another early road attributed to Judge Geddes: "One of the earliest, and greatest im- provements about the village of Geddes, was the making of a road from * \Vc have been unable to trace the line of this highway: but it is quite probable, according to the belief of old settlers, that it followed near the line of the Seneca Turnpike (now Genesee street); for that was the most natural course for a roadway, and as such would be the one most likely to be selected by Judge Geddes. Just how or where it joined any road then e.xisting between the " Hol- low " and Syracuse we cannot determine, nor is it very important. Early Punuc Improvements. 87 that place to Salina. The ground over which the road was to pass, was a perfect ([uagmire, filled with thick cedar timber and low brush-wood. It was so miry, so thick with underbrush, and so much covered with water that it was completely impassable and could not be surveyed by the ordi- nary methods. In this case the surveyor set his compass at the house of Samuel R. Mathews, at Salina, and took the bearing of Mr. Hugh's chim- ney, above the trees, and from this observation the route of the road was commenced by cutting brush and laying them crosswise on the line of the road and covering them with earth. The process was slow, but time and perseverance has accomplished the work, and an excellent road, perfectly straight between the two villages, is the result." This road ran nearly or quite on the line of the present road across the marshes. In these works, which were more or less for the general public good, the people who had located at Salina evinced no interest, and it was recorded that they were somewhat jealous of the incipient salt works of the Pennsyl- vania Company at Geddes. If this is true, it could not have endured long, for the market for salt was soon found to be greater than could be supplied. But the Indians were certainly jealous. They claimed an exclusive priv- ilege of the use of the salt springs at the head of the lake. Through the influence of Ephraim Webster a council was called and Judge Geddes was present. After due deliberation he was adopted into the tribe and given the name of "Donda-dah-gwah," thus solving the problem in a peculiarly Indian fashion. The next settler at Geddes was Freeman Hughs who came from West- field, Mass., when eighteen years of age. There was then not a single house in the town of Geddes, except at the salt works, and they had been abandoned. Mr. Hughs became a prominent citizen, especially in the later operations in salt, and was a Justice of the Peace. Hebuilt the house where Col. W. R. Chamberlain now lives. He died in Geddes at the age of sev- enty-five years, on the 29th of August, 1856. His son James was the first child born at Geddes. In 1807 Judge Geddes made a map of the "village laid out atthe settle- ment commonly called Geddes Works, Onondaga county, with the pasture and marsh lot belonging to the manufacturers at said village." This map was made for William Kirkpatrick, then Salt Superintendent, and is on file in the Surveyor-General's office. This map shows about twenty lots on both sides of what is now Genesee street. The village was re-surveyed and mapped by Judge Geddes in 1812, and in 1821 the map was enlarged. In 1822 John Randel, jr., laid out the village substantially as it now appears. The streets were laid out one hundred feet wide. Isaac Fharis came to Geddes in 1811 while young and afterwards mar- 88 Memorial History of Syracuse. ried Lavina Root. He subsequently bought a lot on Emerson avenue, (formerly Orchard street) and spent his life there. He died July 14, 1845, aged forty-nine years. His sons were Charles E., Isaac R., Mills P., and Sheldon P. The first three of these have been prominent in the history of Geddes. Mills P. Pharis, who still lives there, was connected with the salt industry nearly forty years, during nineteen of which he was in State em- ploy as Inspector. He manufactured quite largely and built blocks. I. R. Pharis was also prominently identified with the industry and was a man of ability. He died in October, 1889. Charles E. was also in the salt business and one of the leading men in the American Dairy Salt Company. He died September 13, 1877, aged fifty-eight. Sheldon P. was engaged in boat- ing a few years, when he went to California and engaged alone in the man- ufacture of shingles and lumber in the mountains, overcoming almost insur- mountable obstacles and accumulating wealth. When he died, March i, 1884, he owned nearly 6000 acres of land in California, besides much other property. Jacob Sammons, a veteran of the Revolutionary war, lived at Geddes in the early part of the century, and died there in 1815. His son, Thomas, served in the war of 1812, and was a boatman and salt-maker at Geddes. He died in 1876 at the age of eighty-two years. The Root family into which Isaac Pharis married, had an eventful expe- rience. The father with his family started for the Western Reserve from Connecticut in 1810 with an ox team. Reaching Buffalo, an acquaintance induced them to hire a farm and remain there. Two years later, when the British came across and sacked Buffalo, the family fled to Batavia and Mr. Root soon returned to Connecticut. He afterwards went west to the Re- serve, but his sons, Jesse, Erastus, and Jonathan, and daughters, Nancy, Lavina, (who married Isaac Pharis) Sally, and Maria settled at Geddes. When the village was mapped the public square was laid out and a lot was reserved for school purposes east of the park. There, in a very primitive school house, Nancy Root taught a very early, if not the first, school in the village. The old school house was displaced ere many years by a brick one and there Simeon Spaulding taught in 1825. Mr. Spaulding was an early resident of the place, was Justice of the Peace and highly esteemed. James Lamb settled at Geddes in 1803 and built the first frame house in that year and kept a tavern until after the war of 1812. It stood on the site of Dr. A. L. Whedon's present home on Genesee street. He came from near Seneca lake and died in Geddes. Simeon Phares was a soldier of the Revolution and located at Geddes in 1803. He was a brother of Andrew, who settled in Salina. Simeon built a log house where the Lake Shore house now stands and lived there until his death about the year 1820. His wife was Anna, daughter of James Early Mkkciiants and Manufacturers. 89 Lamb, the pioneer tavern keeper. Simeon Phares engaged in salt making with Thomas Orman, another Salina pioneer. Orman used to go back and forth, as others doubtless did, between Geddes and Salina in a canoe, and the place where he habitually moored his craft near the site of the present pump house, was then called " Orman's Landing." John Y. Phares, who is still living at Geddes, son of Simeon, was born August 22, 1810, and was the second child born at Geddes, and has always lived there, doing bus- iness as a shoemaker. Me learned his trade with John Sanborn, who was the first resident shoemaker in the place and had his shop just east of the site of Dr. Whedon's house. Andrew Phares, a brother of John Y., also learned the shoemaker's trade and died at South Onondaga. But long before he began shoe-making he taught what was doubtless the first school at Geddes, in a log house that stood near the site of the present school house. This honor has been ac- credited to Xancy Root (as above noted) but her mother did not come here to live until after the close of the war of 1812-14 and there was certainly a school taught there previous to that date. One of the earliest merchants was John Dodge who had a store where Dr. Flint's house now stands. Dodge afterwards, and before 1824, built a store on the line of the canal, where the Gere block now stands, and carried on business there. He subsequently removed from the place. Charles L. Skinner in company with Joseph Shepard kept a store in the Dodge building after Dodge left it, and in 1S31 built for himself on the site of the present Geddes House. Li 1825 Sheldon Pardee kept a store at the end of Furnace street (now West Fayette) and in 183 1, Charles Pardee, his brother, put up a building on the site of the present street railroad building. He was a resident of Skaneateles. Joel Dickinson was an early merchant in the old "Green" store, on the canal. He failed and James H. Mann, son of James Mann (who has been mentioned in our history of Onondaga Hill,) came and helped to continue the business for a time ; but both finally gave it up. Dickinson was son-in- law of Mann. David Vrooman was here very early. He was a carpenter and hewed the timbers used in the construction of the old salt reservoir before 1812. He married Nancy Root. Noah Smith was another pioneer in the salt industry at Geddes, going there before 1812. He removed to Phcenix in 1833 and died there in De- cember, 1 86 1. In 1 8 19 a road was opened running from the site of the present Meth- odist church to Onondaga Hill. This highway is nearly abandoned. In 1S19 on the site of the Methodist church, Andrew Wilson kept a tavern. 12 90 Memorial History of Syracuse. Charles Carpenter came to Geddes first in 1812, but went away and after- wards returned and took up his permanent residence in 1816. He was prominently identified with the salt industry, was Inspector for a period, and was a Justice of the Peace. He first lived in a log house that stood directly in what is now Willis avenue, very near the line of Genesee street. Mr. Carpenter is still living at the age of ninety years. Capt. John G. Terry was an early settler. He had five sons, John, Erasmus, Ralph, Norman, and Griswold ; and four daughters named Sa- brina, Louisa, Phcebe, and Chloe. Captain Terry died in 1838 at the age of sixty years. We have thus named most of the early settlers and business men of Geddes. The village amounted to almost nothing, except as a station for the manufacture of salt, until the opening of the canal in 1825. This gave it quite an impetus, the population increased and several new places of bus- iness were opened. William W. Tripp located at Geddes very soon after the opening of the canal and began boatbuilding. His yard was at the old canal basin. He died at Geddes August 2, 18S4, aged eighty-eight years. Harvey Stewart came in at about the same time and opened a grocery in the old brick building near the bridge, where Nathaniel Kelsey, a son-in- law of Mr. Stewart, now carries on business. Mr. Stewart afterwards en- gaged in the salt industry. This building was erected by Mr. Stewart and Simeon Spaulding just before 1850. Joseph M. Willey had about the first manufacturing industry here, aside from salt, where he made the small, round wooden boxes in which fine salt was formerly packed, and he did quite an extensive business in that line. He died in 1857, aged sixty-three years. Joseph Shepard, who died in Geddes in June, 1867, at the age of eighty- eight years, came there about the year 1S31. His son Joseph bought the stone-ware pottery not far from 1855. This pottery was started some years earlier by William H. Farrar, for the manufacture of " red ware " from the clay found at Geddes. This was afterwards given up and gray ware made from clay brought from New Jersey by boat. The pottery burned down a few years ago. Joseph Shepard's daughter Elvira married John Y. Phares. Oliver Barker located in Geddes about 1825 and kept a grocery in a building erected by Mr. Pardee, before alluded to. He lived to be more than ninety years old and died in November, 18SS. In the spring of 1824 Robert Gere settled on a farm about one and a half miles west of Geddes village. His two brothers, William S. and Charles, also located there on adjoining farms. At a later date Robert Gere became an extensive manufacturer of salt and engaged largely in the Sketch ok Roheki- Gkre. 91 lumber business. In 1835-36 he was a large contractor and associated with Elizur Clark in supplying ties for the railroads of the State. In 1843 he removed to Syracuse and associated himself with William H. Alexander and C. C. Bradley in the foundry and machine shop business. He was Su- perintendent of the Salt Springs from 1848 to 1851 and al.so filled other stations of honor and trust. With the late Horace White he founded the Geddes Coarse Salt Company, situated west of the village, of which he was president, and for many years he was widely engaged in active and prosperous business pursuits, and was in every sense a representative citi- zen. He died in 1887 at the age of eighty-one years. His sons, the Hon. R. Nelson Gere, George C. Gere, Hon. W. H. H. Gere, and the late N. Stanton Gere, have all been prominently identified with the manufacturing interests of Geddes, Syracuse, and other places. Robert Gere's only daughter is the wife of the Hon. J. J. Belden, Member of Congress. In the early history of Geddes, burials were made in a lot in what is now the Sackett Tract, but in the year 1854 the beautiful lot on the high- lands overlooking the village, the lake, the city, and the adjacent territory was secured and has since been used as a cemetery. Ferris Hubbell came to Geddes about 1827 and became somewhat con- spicuous in the community. He was connected with the salt industry and at a later date with other manufacturing interests of the place. He was father of Charles E. Hubbell, president of the Onondaga Pottery Company. He died in Geddes in January, 1885. Charles Woolson was a resident of Geddes and father of Albina Wool- son and of Gardner Woolson, who was a contractor. Benjamin Avery took up his residence at Geddes before 1830, and was engaged with Parley Howlett, of Onondaga Hill, in buying and slaughter- ing cattle. His slaughter house stood on the bank of the canal and a large business was carried on. After the canal was opened Mr. Howlett establish- ed a packing house opposite the present weigh lock and did a large business there. There are men living who remember his hanging fresh hides on the rude fence then surrounding Fayette Park, but this was soon stopped by the authorities. Cyrus Avery was a son of Benjamin, and his daughter married Col. W. R. Chamberlain. The cattle and packing business was afterward carried on by Alfred A. Howlett, son of Parley, on the site of the Sanderson steel works. Stephen W. Smith who came to Geddes about 1289, kept a tavern soon afterwards, just west of the Methodist church site. He died there in 1864. In 1 83 1 Messrs. Piatt & Durkee built the large brick structure near the canal bridge, with pillars fronting the first story. This was intended for stores, but very little was done there in that line. Cyrus Thompson the founder of the so-called "Thompsonian" system of medicine, came to Geddes 92 Memorial History of Syracuse. sometime before 1830 and began his business of manufacturing remedies. He afterwards bought the large building and used it as a sort of sanitarium on his plan, and accumulated wealth. He died in the west, though his resi- dence continued in Geddes until his death. At the same time that this building was erected (1831) Jonas Mann had a large grist-mill built where Genesee street crosses the canal, but his death put an end to the enterprise and the mill was never operated. C. T. Longstreet carried on a tailoring business in Geddes for about three years, beginning with 1832. Edwin R, Smith, who is still living in Geddes, and was born there in 1819, learned his trade with Mr. Longstreet and followed that business down to recent years. The town of Geddes was erected in 184S and included all that portion of the town of Salina west of the lake and not embraced in the city of Syracuse. The first election was held on the 4th Tuesday in March, 1848. Elijah W. Curtis was elected Supervisor; Edgar Vrooman, Clerk; George E. Tefft, Henry G. Stiles, and James H. Luther, Justices of the Peace. The village of Geddes was incorporated by Act of Legislature passed April 20, 1832. The first election of village officers was authorized to be held on the first Tuesday in June, 1832. All of the village records down to 1850 were destroyed by fire on the night of the 8th of February, 1850 ; consequently no proceedings of the village authorities, or lists of officers, can be given for the interval of eighteen years. Following is a list of Trustees, Clerks, and Postmasters, down to the time of its admission to the city, in February, 1887 : TRrsTF.KS. — 1S50, Simeon Spaulding, Stephen W. Smith, Isaac R. Tharis, Albina Woolson. 1851, Daniel D. Smith, R. Nelson Gere, Edgar Vrooman, Daniel W. Coykendall, Albina Woolson. 1852, Thomas Sammons, Joel V. Paige, Hiram Slade. Sullivan H. Morse, John Whiting. 1S53, Joel V. Paige, Albina Woolson, Joseph Shepard, jr., Thomas, Robinson, William W. 'I'ripp. 1S54, Elijah W. Curtis, Daniel Coykendall, Edgar Vrooman, \Vm. J. Sammons, John V. Phares. 1855, Elijah W. Curtis, Daniel W. Coykendall, Wm. J. Sammons, Mills P. Pharis, Wm. Boulian. 1856, Thomas Sammons, R. N. Gere, Isaac. R. Pharis, Henry Duncan, Elijah W. Curtis. 1S57, James W. Patten, A. Cadwell Belden, Henry Case, John D. Stanard, Henry Duncan. 1858, B. V. Willey, E. R. Smith, Wm. J. .Sammons, Norman Vrooman, Wm. W. Tripp. 1859, Wm. H. Far- rar, liurlingame Harris, R. N. Gere, Francis H. Nye, Ferris Hubbell. i860, Francis H. Nye, R. Nelson Gere, Gardner Woolson, Harvey Stewart, Joel F. Paige. 1861, Joel F. Paige, R. Nelson Gere, Francis H. Nye, Gardner Woolson, Harvey Stewart. 1862, Joel F. Paige, Harvey Stewart, Francis H. Nye, R. Nelson (iere, Isaac R. Pharis. 1S63, Joel F. Paige, Harvey Stewart. Stephen W. Smith, Perry C. Rude, Hiram Slade. 1864, Thomas Robinson, Mills P. Pharis, Richard G. Joy, W. H. H. Gere, Wm. D. Coykendall. 1865, Thomas Robinson, Mills P. I'haris, Richard G. Joy, W. H. H. Gere, W. D. Coykendall. 1866, Samuel E. Barker, llarviy Stewart, Charles F. Gere, (jilbert Sweet, John V. Phares. C/nJfr New Charier.— K. Nelson Gere, 1867. Mead Belden, 1867 to 1874 inclusive. Samu- el E. Barker, 1867-68-69. Charles E. Pharis, 1868 to 1873 inclusive. Reuben C. Holmes, 1870 to 1875 inclusive. Terrence E. Hogan, 1874 to 1877 inclusive. Richard Tremain. 1875 to 1878 inclusive. George C. Gere, 1876 to 1884 inclusive. George A. Cool, 1878 to 1881 inclusive. A. M. Smart, 1879. Austin G. Ward, 1880. Henry C. Day, 1881-83. Barnard Wente, 18S3-84-85. Philip Gooley, 1884-85-S6. James C. Rann, 18S5-86. Martin Lawler, 1886. The Site of Syracuse. 93 Cl.K.KKS. — J. \V. Woodwaril, 1S50. James II. Luther. 1S51. Ferris Ilubbell, 1852 and 1S55. Charles IC. I'haris, 1S54. N. Stanton (Jere, 1856. Stephen Duncan, 185S. K. K. Smith 1859 to the end, excepting 1863, when B. G. Lewis was Clerl<. Until after the war of 1 861-65, Geddes still remained a .small village, having a population of less than one thousand in iS68;but the impetus given to all kinds of manufacturing and business operations by the close of the war and the general feeling of confidence incident thereto, with shipping and other advantages of the place, contributed to give it a very rapid growth. Its population had reached more than 6,000 by the year 1880, much of the increase being due to the influx of working families whose presence was demanded by the establishment of several iminense manufactures, among them being the Onondaga Iron Company, the Onondaga Pottery Company, Sanderson Bro's Steel Company, the Syracuse Iron Works, the Sterling Iron Ore Company, and several salt companies. All of these are properly de- scribed in the chapter devoted to the manufactures of the city at large. CHAPTER X. THE SITE OF SVK.VCUSE. Primitive Conditions of the Site of Syracuse — Map of i8iy — The Walton Tract and its .Sale The First Treasurer— The First Uuildings in Syracuse — The Earliest Tavern — The Original Names of the riace — The Old Red Mill — Salina Street — The Canal and Its Influence — Forman, Wilson & Co.— Celebration of the Opening of the Canal — Population in 1820 — Lowering of the Lake The Name of Syracuse — Oliver Teall and the Water Works — Conditions in 1825. WHILE the settlements which we have described in the preceding chapters were progressing, the site of Syracuse as originally laid out reinained almost wholly in its primitive condition, except as it had been invaded here and there by the road-builders and the wood choppers em- ployed by the salt-makers. No one will marvel that such was the situation — that the beautiful, sloping lake shore at Salina, and the rising hillside of Geddes, should attract the early settlers as being far inore desirable sites for pleasant and healthful homes, than the low and swampy jungle where the first buildings of Syracuse were subsequently erected. It is not, perhaps, too much to say that no city in the United States was founded in such a dismal, uninteresting, and impracticable spot as this Central City of the Empire State. It was not until some years after 1800 that it was deemed 94 Memorial History of Syracuse. possible that a good road could be maintained across it, except it was made of logs laid in the mud — the "corduroy" road of early days. Even the great turnpike from east to west, finished in 1812, was thus constructed across the swampy jungle on which now stands the business center of the city. And the Indians shunned it also, for their trails passed over the high grounds on either side. Quite extensive tracts of this territory would not produce even forest trees of any considerable size, and were overgrown by the rank shrubbery and large and small saplings that constitute the ordinary cedar swamp. The Onondaga creek, then much greater in volume than now, wound its wonderfully devious way from south to north across the tract, and the Yellow brook flowed into it from the northeastward, trailing its sluggish current among the logs and sinkholes, and creating a paradise for frogs in numbers sufficient for an Egyptian plague. No, it was not in any sense (except, perhaps, its centrality in a great State) a spot to com- mend itself to intelligent human beings as a site for a city. The site of Syracuse, originally in the town of Manilas, remained as a part of the Salt Springs Reservation in that town until the organization of the town of Salina (1809). In the year 1804 an Act of Legislature author- ized the Surveyor-General, Simeon DeWitt, to survey and sell two hundred and fifty acres of the Reservation and apply the proceeds to the improve- ment of the Seneca Turnpike in Onondaga county. The boundaries of this tract are shown on the map of 1S19 herein, and embrace the original site of Syracuse. The survey was made by James Geddes, who endeavored as far as possible to shun the more swampy por- tions, but the effort was largely fruitless. The tract was advertised for sale and was bought in June, 1804, by Abraham Walton, for $6,550, about $26.20 per acre. The least valuable acre of that land is now worth a far greater price than that ; but the person who can now clearly realize the general character of much of the tract and the surrounding circumstances at that date, wonders that a man could be found who would pay so much for it. The advertisement of this land contained a statement that on the tract was a good mill site. This announcement elicited the ridicule of the dwell- ers in the Valley and at .Salina, but Judge Geddes understood his business and to silence these scoffers the Surveyor-General drove in a gig from Al- bany and with the assistance of Mr. Geddes, took the level of the creek and the fall was found even greater than the surveyor had reported. The mill was eventually built and operated with the water power for many years. Three Commissioners were appointed by the State to disburse the money received from the sale of this land, which has ever since been known as the " Walton Tract;" they were James Geddes, Moses Carpenter, and TiiK First Buildings in Syracuse. 95 John Young. Mr. Geddes was made the treasurer, but on account of his absence from home much of the time, Mrs. Geddes handled the fund and made most of the payments to the contractors on the turnpike. She was, in realit}-, the first acting treasurer in the earliest financial operation in which Syracuse was directly interested. Moses Carpenter was the first treasurer of the county and held the office five years. The first permanent building on the site of Syracuse was the cabin of Mphraim Webster, which has been described on an earlier page of this work. There were also in the last decade of the last century, quite a collection of Indian dwellings along the west bank of the creek near the lake. In the springof 1800 Calviti Jackson came to the site of Syracuse and built a log house just south of where the Central Railroad crosses East Gen- esee street, near the corner of Montgomery street. There Albion Jackson was born on the 28th of December, 1800, the first white child born within the limits of Syracuse, excluding Salina. Calvin Jackson was father also of John G. Jackson, formerly Indian Agent at the Reservation. There is no clear record of other residents on the site of Syracuse, until the year 1805. Mr. Clark says that two or three log cabins had been built as early as 1797-99, in the vicinity of Bogardus's tavern site, one by a Mr. Hopkins, and another by a Mr. Butler. They were not far from the site of the first bridge over the Oswego canal (James street) near Salina street where there was a spring of water. If this is true, it is the only record left of those cabins. Amos Stanton came here to reside in 1805 and was one of the first per- martent residents. During winter seasons for a period he engaged in mak- ing salt. He was the father of Isaac and Rufus Stanton. He bought an acre of ground on the east side of Salina street, then commonly called " Cooper " street, at about the point where it is crossed by the Oswego canal. He cleared this lot soon afterward and it continued as a wheat field several years. He also hired a few acres adjoining his land on the south- east, which he worked as a small farm. Rufus Stanton came with his father and was then about seventeen years old. He assisted in clearing the lot for Mr. Bogardus's tavern, on the site of the Empire House, and in 1807 began baking and brewing. He continued this about two years when he turned his attention to the salt industry. He afterwards kept a tavern in Salina. He mingled farming with his other pursuits, raised rye on the site of the Syracuse House in 18 16-17, and in 1820 worked a large farm on a part of what is now University hill. He died September 10, 1874. In 1S05 William Lee and Aaron Cole located here and opened a black- smith shop. In the terms of sale of the Walton Tract was a stipulation that the pur- chaser should, within a specified period, cause to be erected a suitable build- g6 Memorial History of Syracuse. ing for a tavern for the accommodation of travelers. In the same year of his purchase, Mr. Walton laid out a portion of the tract into village lots* and sold to Henry Bogardus for $300, half an acre of ground, binding him to erect the tavern conformably to the original stipulation, and to keep it, or cause it to be kept, as a public house. The tavern was erected on the site of the present Empire house in the year 1806, and was the first perma- nent building of much pretension on the site of Syracuse. The tavern was, according to Mr. Clark, two stories high and 35 x 45 feet in dimensions; but Timothy C. Cheney, in his " Reminiscences," stated that it was a story and one-half structure and about 20 x 30 feet square. He had staid in the house with his father within a few years after its erection. He says, " I do not recollect of seeing any other houses, though there may have been two or three small ones." When Mr. Walton laid out his little village it was called "South Salina," and the Bogardus tavern was known as the " South Salina Hotel." To many the locality was known as " Bogardus's Corners." Mr. Bogardus was succeeded by Burlingame in 1S08, and two years later Joseph Lang- don took the house. He kept it two years and in 181 2 James Ingalls be- came the proprietor, to be succeeded in 1 8 1 5 by Sterling Cossitt, from whom the name of the place was changed in the ordinary speech of the locality to " Cossitt's Corners," and a little later to "Milan." A small house was built by Mr. Bogardus, in which he lived while erect- ing the tavern. It stood about on the site of the Convention block, and was occupied in 1824 by Paschal Thurber. Henry Bogardus died in 1841. in the same year that Mr. Bogardus built his tavern, or the year after, a Mr. Merrell erected a small frame house nearly opposite on the east, but the prevailing sickness of the locality and his dismal prospects caused him to take down his dwelling and go away. The need of saw-mills and grist-mills was felt as soon as the settlement began to show signs of increase, as is always the case in new communities. In 1805 Mr. Walton built the first grist-mill on the site of the city. He constructed a dam of logs across the creek about where it is crossed by West Genesee street, and the roadway was made on the top of the dam. This created a pond of considerable depth and area, extending southward beyond the site of the present D. L. & W. railroad station, and eastward to Clinton street. (See accompanying map, of 1834.) The grist-mill stood on • The inference is given by this statement (which is from MSS. of Judge Ceddes and, there- fore, quite authoritative) that a map of some kind was made of the lots thus laid out. Hut if so, it must have been lost at an early day and never placed on record. The late 1 Ion. E. W. Leaven- worth made diligent search for such a map and became convinced that the first map made, aside from the map of the tract as a whole, was that of Owen Korman and John Wilkinson, made in 1819 and noticed a little further on. W.A.UTON 98 Memorial Histokv of Syracuse. the east bank of the creek near to the dam, partly on the High School site, partly in Genesee street, the water from the pond being carried to its wheel in a race way. The mill was two stories high with an attic, was painted red and bears historical interest. There were two "run" of stone in it, with other machinery common at that time. The first dam stood about one year, when a spring freshet carried it away. A new dam was construct- ed of logs and earth a few rods farther up the stream, about where Water street crosses the creek, and a wooden bridge was built across the creek at Genesee street. This dam was removed in 1824 and a stone dam built in its stead. It was then thought that this would be the business center of the place. This dam created a large pond which extended southward to the vicinity of Onondaga street, and eastward to Clinton street. In 1807, by direction of the Surveyor-General, a road running north and south from the Walton Tract, was laid out as a State road six rods wide. A part of this became and is now Salina street. In was laid out by Moses Carpenter and two other surveyors. This street has been encroached upon on the west side between Onondaga and Adams street in a manner that has called forth the condemnation of many good citizens. M. C. Hand, who owned property on the cast side of the street was one of the most deter- mined opponents of this encroachment and made the most thorough investi- gations to prove that the street was originally laid out six rods wide. The result of these investigations he has printed in detail in his work, "From a Forest to a City," p. 95, etc. It is sufficient for our present purpose to state that, in spite of all opposition, embodying applications to the Common Council and other legitimate efforts to accomplish the object, the owners of the lots on the west side of the street in that locality crowiled their side- walks, trees and buildings eastward, cutting down the width of the street several feet and forever destroying its beauty and much of its usefulness. This north and south road opened up more ready communcation with the valley and southward during the part of the year when it could be traveled at all. A Mr. Blake had made a small clearing in this year (1807) or before, about half way between Bogardus's tavern and Salina and begun farming on a small scale. From the date when Mr. Walton built the grist mill, families to use it gathered very slowly in its immediate vicinity, until the opening of the canal in 1820. One reason for this was the notorious unhealthfulness of the place. Andrew Young was miller for Mr. Walton for a time and the latter built a house about the year 1808 on West Genesee street, near his mill, in which lived his hired help. In the same year the grist mill was built (1805-6) a saw mill was erected nearly opposite across the creek from the grist mill and at a little later date Rufus Parsons built near by a linseed oil mill, First Agitation of the Canal Project. 99 both of which were ill operation down to about 1830; the oil mill subse- quently became an axe factory. Dr. Ziba Swan built a small frame house in 1807 and in 1S08 Jonathan Fay located near the site of the old Court House. The gri.st mill was operated in i8i4by Sidney Dole and Milan C. Taylor, and they opened a small general store at that time, about on the site of Wieting Opera House, next west of the one afterward built by William Malcolm. This was the first store in the place. Northrup & Dexter, who had a contract on the canal in 1817, succeeded Dole & Taylor and continued business until 1821, in which year Gen. Amos P. Granger came down from Onondaga Hill, bought land between James street and the canal where now stands the Syracuse Savings Bank Huikling and there built the largest frame building (excepting perhaps the Bogardus tavern) in the village. He opened a store and lived for a time in a part of the building. He was very successful in business, invested largely in real estate and became a promi- nent, useful, and wealthy citizen. He died August 20, 1S66. Rufus Stanton, who had before 1810 cultivated thrifty fields of wheat near the Salina street bridge over the Oswego canal, kept a tavern in 181 1 just south of the site of the bridge on the east side of the street in a build- ing that was standing until within a few years. By this latter mentioned date the prospects of the place began to im- prove, in spite of the unusual obstacles encountered. Judge Forman, Wil- liam H. Sabine, Daniel Kellogg, and other energetic men who have been mentioned, had lived at the Valley a number of years and that locality had felt the influence of their enterprising spirit in many ways. The salt industry was now growing rapidly and the canal project began to assume a definite character before 1810 — a project which was destined to revolution- ize the situation at the unpromising site of the embryo city. The details of the construction of the canal are given in a later chapter of this work ; but its inception, growth, and the final selection of the route are so inti- mately and directly connected with the very early growth of Syracuse, that the subject must be alluded to here. The agitation of the canal question began in a small way very soon after 1800, and Joshua Forman was one of the first and certainly one of the most enthusiastic advocates of the project. It was this simple, though very important, fact that answers the often-asked question, why a prosperous city like Syracuse came to be located in a swamp. When the building of the canal became almost a certainty and Judge For- man's public labors in its advocacy were far advanced, he naturally turned some attention to the possible benefits that would accrue to the locality in which he lived. He was then the owner of large tracts of land in the Val- ley, at some point in which he saw with the gaze of a prophet, a beautiful city uprising at an early day, nourished into rapid growth by the great loo Memorial History of Syracuse. water-way from the lakes to the sea. He therefore appealed to his friends and neighbors at the Valley to give liberally in influence and means for the final accomplishment of the object, strengthening his arguments with the promise that the canal should approach to or run directly through their village, continuing up the western side of the Valley to near the lake and thence on westward. Signatures to a memorial prepared by Judge Forman to the Legislature were quite easily obtained, but in many in- stances with a shrug of the shoulders and predictions of high taxes and eventual disaster. As to any particular advantage to the little village in the Valley, or that on the Hill, by the proximity of the canal, that was something simply ridiculous to many prominent citizens. Judge F"orman endured a good deal of opposition and more ridicule, until finally the latter had its legitimate effect. He transferred to Salina his prophecies, hopes, and promises, eloquently portraying the advantages that would surelj- fol- low if the canal passed through their midst. But the leading men of that village received his overtures with even less confidence and respect than had the people in the Vallej-. And then Judge Forman resolved to do his utmost to teach both vil- lages a lesson and use his powerful influence towards directing the line of the canal in the straight course where it was finally constructed, without making a detour for either Onondaga Valley or Salina.* He resolved and maintained his position in all places and on all occasions with the most per- sistent, unflinching, and eloquent argument that a city, and a great one, should bestride the canal on the shores of Onondaga Lake. The idea was a preposterous one, when calmly considered by a person who had looked over the site ; but Judge Forman's mettle was stirred, and he at once put the machinery in motion to accomplish his object, as we shall see. One of Judge Forman's first steps towards this end was to form the company of Forman, Wilson & Co., composed of himself, Ebenezer Wilson and John B Creed, in 1814, and purchase the Walton Tract at a cost of about $9,000. A part of this had been previously sold to Michael Hogan and Charles Walton, but they held their purchase in common with Abraham Walton. During the succeeding four years Judge Forman and his associates did not let a day or an opportunity pass when they could in any possible manner advance the interests of the site of Syracuse. The first of their enthusiastic labors soon became apparent, and Syracuse was founded. ♦The Salina route for the canal would undoubtedly have been a good and natural one, the course being from a few miles east of the present city, northwestward behind the liigh grounds of the Second and Third Wards, to Salina, and thence on westward. The Hon. Thomas G. Alvord believes that it was the general expression, even by opponents of the project, that if we were to have a canal at all, it ought to pass through Salina ; but the prominent people of the pl.ice at that time placed no faith in either the praclicability or desirability of the undertaking— and lost it. \'ii.LAGE Map or 1S34. lOI I02 Memorial History of Syracuse. It was learned about this time through an attempt to secure a post- office for the place, that the name, "Milan" could not be retained, as there was already an office of that name in the State. Judge Forman, therefore, applied the name of "Corinth" (i8 18-19) ^o the settlement, which name it retained, with its everyday appellation of "Cossitt's Corners," (from the then landlord of the old Bogardus tavern) until 1820. About the time of the purchase by Forman, Wilson & Co., they built and started a large slaughter house and packing establishment in a grove north of Church street, where a large business was done until 1817. During the latter part of the war of 181 2 they filled contracts for the army ; it was the first business of this nature in the place. We have alluded to the fact that Rufus Stanton had a field of grain in 181 5 on the lot of twenty acres on the northwest corner of which was built the Syracuse Hotel. It was afterward sowed with grassand enclosed with a rail fence. This lot was bought in 1820 by Luther Buell, brother of the grand- father of II. B. Buell, of D. McCarthy & Sons' wholesale house, and Shubael Safford, grandfather of John D. Safford, now of Syracuse, who began the erection of a brick hotel fifty feet square, two stories high with abasement. The roof slanted to the north and south, the end walls reaching to the peak, with two chimneys in each, as was common with such buildings at that time. During the work on the building Mr. Safford and another man fell from tiie upper portion. Mr. Safford struck on the bottom of the cellar and was killed; the other man's fall was stopped by a joist and he escaped with severe injuries. This accident delayed the completion of the building and the property passed into possession of Henry Eckford, who finished the hotel in 1822. A large yard was connected with the house and the stables were on the Genesee street side, well back in the yard, and were reached through a large gate in the high fence. The house was rebuilt and enlarged in 1S27 by the Syracuse Company, who re-named it the Syracuse House. This hotel, a portion of which remains to-day as it was remodeled in 1827, is one of the historic landmarks of the city. To its hospitable doors drove up the old-time stage coaches, and in its rooms and on tlie broad platform surrounding it were held many important consultations over village and county affairs and discussions of politics and other topics of interest to the villagers. Permanent settlers came in slowly during tliose early years. There was almost absolutely nothing to recommend the place for residence, except the elocjuent adjectives of its founders, while there was almost everything else to condemn it. Meanwhile the canal project was becoming an accomplished fact. Judge Forman was sent to the Legislature as an advocate of tiie undertaking and rapid progress was made. Judge Geddes made his final report upon the route in 1816, and in the following year the work was begun The Opening oi nii: Canal. 103 on the middle section, and on April 21, 1S20, the first packet boat arrived in Syracuse. It was a notable occurrence in the village. The event had been well advertised anil anticipation was keen. Crowds came in from all direc- tions, and the "doubting Thomases" were present also; they always are. The boat would never lloat a mile in that ditch, they cried, and Governor Clinton and others who had, through its construction, involved the State in lieavy indebtedness, were cheerfully consigned to the bottom of the canal. But the Monti-znma, as the boat was named, was smoothly and rapidly floating eastward, ami was soon welcomed by the exultant shouts of the people. A general feeling of hopefulness followed this auspicious event, and a new dawn opened to Syracuse. Men of means began to share the anticipations of the founders of the place and came to the village to engage in business, while the growing salt industry aided powerfully in attracting public attention to the place. To celebrate in a measure the opening of the canal, as well as Independ- ence Day, a very enthusiastic gathering was held in the village on the 4th of July. Invitations were sent out liberally to friends of the canal and thousands came to witness the novelty of canal navigation and celebrate the day. 'Thaddeus M. Wood was president, and many prominent men of the State were present. The Declaration of Independence was read by N. P. Randall, and an eloquent oration was delivered by -Samuel Miles Hopkins. The procession formed in front of Cossitt's tavern, under escort of the Salina band. They marched to a beautiful pine grove in rear of the Townsend block site and there under a lofty tree the exercises took place. This was the first celebration of national independence in Syracuse. Stirring and active the village undoubtedly was ; but new-comers still found a most unattractive hamlet in which to locate. We may briefly pic- ture the general appearance of the village in 18 19, the year in which judge Forman took up his residence in it, and only one year before the Montezuma called out the plaudits of the crowds on the banks of the canal. We must first imagine nine-tenths of the entire valley as covered with forest of some description. Along each side of the north and south road and the great turnpike east and west, now respectively Salina and Genesee street, the trees and bushes were cut away for a few feet, to enable loaded vehicles to pass. The " clearing " in which the village stood extended only from the canal near Clinton street south to Fayette street and east to War- ren street. North of the canal it reached to Church street and etist to Warren. The remainder of the dry ground of the village, as surveyed, was covered with pine trees and oak shrubs, and saplings. All not thus covered was a swampy jungle of cedar and other small trees. There were only two other frame houses in the village besides the tavern on the Empire House corner. Log houses were scattered about on the I04 Memorial History of Syracuse. dry ground, and numerous slab cabins had been erected and occupied by the canal laborers. Judge Forman's pasture ran back perhaps fifty rods from the present Clinton street, where his dwelling stood, and eastward to Salina street, most of it covered by an open pine grove. A lot of about twenty acres covering the block where the Syracuse House now stands and extending southward and eastward, was fenced in and used for tillage and pasture until 1820. The late Mrs. E. W. Leavenworth and Mrs. M. D. Burnet were lost during the most of one day in 1819, in the dense forest undergrowth that covered Prospect Hill and the highlands in that vicinity. By the year 1820 the population of the little village had reached only two hundred and fifty persons. One of the chief causes of this slow growth of the place was its notorious and continued unhealthfulness. During the building of the canal, fevers were alarmingly frequent and fatal. Thirty of the laborers died and were buried in ground at the corner of Fayette and Clinton streets. The stagnant waters of the eastern part of the city's site did not subside until May or June and then only to leave masses of decay- ing vegetation festering and bleaching in the sun. Often in the spring and in early summer teams being driven from Onondaga Valley to Salina, were forced to travel the high grounds east of the city, it being impossible to follow the road. \"ery much of the present city was a dreary waste of swamp, approached only by means of "corduroy" and "gridiron" roads. Along where now is located the beautiful Fayette Park, was then a famous shooting ground for partridges and rabbits and farther back were plenty of wood-cock, snipe, owls, and mud-turtles. This condition and the great un- healthfulness of the locality caused the founders of Syracuse not a little an.xiety. It was clearly seen that if something was not done and promptly to counteract the evil, Syracuse would remain a hamlet, even with the canal to give it impulse. Judge I'orman and his associates took the matter in hand with their usual energy. In the winter of 1 821 and 1822 Judge For- man took a careful survey of Onondaga creek and lake and found that the lake was nearly on a level with some of its surroundings when the water was the highest, that it set back from the creek and lake and flooded the low and swampy lands. After making a survey of the outlet of the lake into the Seneca River, he believed it was possible to lower the lake several feet by making its outlet much wider and deeper. He petitioned the legis- lature for an appropriation for this purpose and also for surveys and maps for a thorough system of drainage. A part of the expense was to be a local tax upon the lands as they were benefited. The Judges of the County Courts were authorized to appoint three discreet free-holders of the county, who should assess the amount of money necessary to be raised, on the owners of the lands contiguous to the drains, in proportion as they were supposed to be benefited by the same. In case Sale ok the Walton Tract. 105 of the non-payment of any assessment, the lands after being advertised four weeks, could be sold for taxes, and if not redeemed within six months, with ten per cent, interest and costs, the sale was made absolute and unchangeable. The law allowed the citizens to construct their own ditches on their own lands, according to rules prescribed by the Commissioners and the plan laid down on the map. In case they would not, the Commission- ers were authorized to build them and charge the owners with the cost of construction and collection. This law was considered at the time highly arbitrary, but it was the only feasible method by which the lands could be drained and the locality render- ed healthy. The great advantages resulting from the improvement soon reconciled all parties to the means employed. This has since been regard- ed by thousands who have enjoyed its benefits as the most beneficent meas- ure ever adopted in connection with Syracuse. The place assumed an air of healthfulnes, confidence was restored and prosperity increased. Moreover, against the former untoward state of affairs, soon was felt the stimulus of the great water-way and the results of the energy of those men who were determined that nothing should retard the growth of Syracuse. For reasons which need not be detailed here, the Walton Tract passed into possession of the firm of Daniel Kellogg and William H. Sabine (the latter being Judge Forman's law partner at the Valley) in 1818.* They sold it five years later (1823) to Henry Eckford of New York city and in May, 1824, "The Syracuse Company" paid him S30.C00 for that part of it then remaining unsold. Under these various ownerships a good many lots had been sold. Judge Forman acted as agent for Kellogg & Sabine while they owned the Tract, and his interests as well as those of other leading men, soon centered at "Corinth." In 1819 he removed from the Valley and built and occupied a substantial frame house, which stood about in the line of what is now Clinton street, a little south of Water street. His family ' Kollowing is a copy of the old deed under which the transfer was made. It is recorded in Book \ , p. 319, in the County Clerk's office: Jonas Earll Junior, Sheriff of Onondaga County, To Daniel Kellogg, and William II . Sabine. DKEl) Dated October 26th, 1S18. Consider.ition |io,ql5.oo. Hy virtue of a Writ of fieri facias, issued out of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, against the lands of Joshua Forman, Ebenezer Wilson Junior and John B. Creed. He sold at public auction to the highest bidder, a large quantity of l,ind in the town of Onondaga, on Lots 74- 75-88-89-90-91-106 and 107. ".Mso all that tract or parcel of land, granted by the People of the State of New Vork, by Letters I'atent to Abraham M. Walton, dated the first of January, 1807, for two hundred and fifty acres, lying and being in the town of Salina, in the County aforesaid, at the place commonly called the four corners, saving and excepting thereout, one small lot, of one half of an acre of land, and also two small lots, of one quarter of an acre each, and heretofore conveyed to Henry Bobardus, Ziba -Swan, and one Van Tassel, etc. etc." 14 io6 Memokiai. IIistokv of Syracuse. consisted of his wife and daughters, one of the latter soon to become the wife of the late Hon. E. W. Leavenworth. In the same year John Wilkin- son also remo\'ed from the Valley and was the first lawyer to settle on the site of Syracuse. Me had pursued his studies with Judge Forman and was admitted to the Bar in 1819. A little later he built a small office 12 x 14 feet on the Globe Hotel corner, where he had purchased land. He after- wards built a substantial dwelling a little farther south and lived there many years. In the spring of 1819, Owen Forman, a brother of the Judge, and Mr. Wilkinson, acting under direction of Judge Forman as agent for Kellogg & Sabine, laid out the Tract into village and farm lots. It was a tedious task owing to the difficulty of ascertaining the lines of the original survey. There has been at various times considerable dispute as to who had the honor of bestowing its final name upon the village of Syracuse, but the matter is definitely settled, and doubtless with entire authority, by M. C. Hand in his work, " From a Forest to a City," p. 15. He gives the entire credit to John Wilkinson and supports his position with proof that cannot be controverted. The name was suggested to Mr. Wilkinson while reading a poem on ancient Syracuse, in which he noted the similarity between that city and the site of the modern village, with a " Salina " near both. It having become necessary to find a new name for the post office, a committee was appointed consisting of Judge Forman, Rufus Stanton, Mr. Wilkinson, and two others. The proposed plan was that each should select a name and from those submitted choose the one that seemed the best. Judge Forman had expressed himself strong!}' in favor of Corinth, but as it had already been displaced, he would decline to propose another. Mr. Wilkin- son then proposed the name of Syracuse and gave his reasons as above indicated. This name was then selected by a unanimous vote of the com- mittee and gave general satisfaction. Oliver Teall settled in Syracuse in 18 19 and located in that [jart which had received the name of Lodi, (see map of 1834). He bought largely of land in that locality and built mills there which were operated by the sur- plus water from the canal, for the use of which he obtained a concession from the State. On the 27th of March, 1821, a law was passed by the Legislature (chap. 176,) entitled, "An Act to supply the Village of Syracuse with wholesome water." The franchise under this Act was transferred to Mr. Teall in 1829 and he constructed the first water works in the village, as fully described in a later chapter. Mr. Teall became a superintendent of the repairs on the middle division of the canal, and was among the active men in securing the construction of the Syracuse and Utica Railroad. He was one of the managers of the Onondaga County Bank, and conspicuously identified with the temperance First Church, School, and Printing Office. 107 movement. He entered the militia service as Lieutenant in Major Forbes's battalion in March, 1814, and was commissioned Captain in 1817. Harvey Baldwin becaine interested with Mr. Tcall as a land owner and for many years was a leading citizen. He was Mayor of the city in 1848 ; was conspicuous in the promotion of education, and enjoyed to an eminent degree the esteem and confidence of his fellows. Aaron Burt, also, was associated with Mr. Teall and Mr. I5aldwin in the improvement of the Lodi section of the village. In 1S20. as nearly as can now be ascertained, the first school house was erected in the village. It stood on the north side of Church street on the first lot east of the present Northern railroad crossing, where subsequently the brick school house of district No. 4 was built. In 182 1 the late Hiram Deming taught the school there and was succeeded by William K. Blair. In the year last mentioned (1S21) the First Baptist Church was also organized, as described in the chapter devoted to the religious institutions of the city, and the first church edifice was erected in 1824, on the present site of the Universalist church. Previous to the organization of this society the inhabitants had met for religious worship in private residences and in the old school house. After the transfer of the Walton Tract to the "Syracuse Company" in 1824 and the draining of portions of it, new vigor characterized the village. This locally noted Company was composed of William James, John Town- send, Isaiah Townsend, and James McBride. The deed transferred the land in trust to Moses Burnet and Gideon Hawley, and the sale of lots was pushed energetically, the growth of the village being \ery rapid. The Com- pany had a map made of their property by Mr. Lathrop and nothing was left undone by them to promote the growth of the place. Thus far Syracuse had progressed without the "lever that moves the world" — a printing press. Onondaga Valley had been favored with an ex- cellent newspaper since 1 8 14, besides an earlier one started in i8ii, and Onondaga Hill also had a public journal in 1816. In April, 1823, the first number of the Onondaga Gaizctte was i.ssued in Syracuse by John Durn- ford, which is further described in the chapter devoted to the city press. The appearance of this first newspaper was another indication of the pro- gress of the village. It contained only one mercantile advertisement, that of Kasson & Heermans. By the beginning of the year 1825, in the spring of which the village of Syracuse was incorporated, there were about fifteen merchants in the place, with the usual complement of shops of various sorts; streets had been extended in a limited degree ; the canal was almost completed (finished in November, 1825); the salt industry was experiencing an exceedingly prosperous era, and all outward signs pointed to the rapid advancement which followed, and which we shall attempt to describe in future chapters. io8 Memorial History of Syracuse. CHAPTER XI. SYRACUSE AS A VILLAGE. Incorporation of the Villnge— Rivalry between S.ilina and Syracuse— The First Election of Vil- lage Ofiicers— rroceedings of the Karly Meetings of Trustees— Some of the First Ordinances— The First Fire Protection- Visit of Marquis de La Fayette— General Condition of the Village at the Time of Incorporation— Early Improvements and Sales of lots— Location of Buildings between 1825 and 1830. AN Act of the Legislature incorporated the village of Syracuse on the 13th of April, 1825. It was still a very insignificant hamlet, with a few hundred inhabitants, and with scarcely any indication of its ever grow- ing to be a great city, excepting a certain unusual degree of enthusiasm and enterprise among the citizens, and salt, and— the canal. But it appears that these three elements were all-sufficient ; and they were, moreover, the chief incentive to the incorporation of the village at so early a date. There was al.so one other factor which, unseemly and unwarranted as it appears to us of to-day, undoubtedly had not a little influence upon the early incorpora- tion of the place, as well as upon its growth during the period from 1820 to 1830. We refer to the active and aggressive spirit of rivalry which sprang up between the contiguous villages of Syracuse and Salina and reached disagreeable, if not disgraceful, proportions and continued down as late as 1843. It should be stated that the larger share of the bur- den of opprobrium for the consequences of this rivalry must be bestowed upon a class of the inhabitants of Salina ; chiefly because they were prompt- ed to take the initiative by the circumstances of the case. Salina was a village when Syracuse was an unsettled swamp ; it was, therefore, wholly natural that the people of Salina found it dif^cult to stand idle and uncon- cerned while a rival was coming into being at their very doors. For a num- ber of years the extreme paltriness of Syracuse and the rank improbability that it ever could become a rival of the older village, excited merely the ridicule of the dwellers at Salt Point : but the time came when they saw with dismay that Syracuse would probably overtake, and perhaps pass, them in size and importance. This feeling of jealousy was greatly intensi- fied by the opening of the canal. The far-seeing men of Salina began to realize that the influence of the great artery would surely give Syracuse an impetus which, added to the energy that was being displayed by her found- ers, mu.st eventually produce the very results that have followed. It .should not be inferred that this spirit of rivalry caused any overt act on the part of the authorities of the village of Salina, (incorporated March 12, 1824, a little earlier than Syracuse) or by the better classes of the inhabitants, in order to gain any advantage over, or gratify spite against, the young rival. Such was not the case, with the exception of the active and unremitting TiiK First \'ii.lage Officers. 109 opposition to the location of the Court House in Syracuse (1828-9); but the spirit of antagonism and jealousy was communicated to the younger generation and even pervaded the social strata of the two villages. While there were very many excellent citizens in Salina, there was also an clement of the laboring classes connecteil principally with the salt works, who were rough in their natures and cjuite ready to presume that Syracuse had no real right to be a more important village than their own ; that it never could be, and never should be, if they could prevent it. And they supported this argument on all possible occasions, and often with their fists. That is, the "roughs" of Salina visited Syracuse as occasion arose and so provoked the young men of their rival village as to bring on conflicts which some- times reached almost the proportions and desperation of a riot. On one occasion, as will be related, the military was called out to quell one of these brawls. The old Mansion 1 louse was the usual scene of these disturbances in the early days, and they were afterwards frequently transferred to the Syracuse House and other popular resorts. The first village election in Syracuse was held at the school house on the 3d day of May, 1825, when the following officers were elected : Joshua Forman, President; Amos P. Granger, Moses D. Burnet, Heman Walbridge, John Rogers, Trustees ; James Webb, Alfred Northam, Thomas Spencer, Assessors; John Durnford, Treasurer; John Wilkinson, Clerk; Henry Young, Pound-master ; Jesse D. Rose, Henry W. Durnford, Constables; Daniel Gilbert, Justice of the Peace. The trustees began holding meetings with great frequency and were verj' active in establishing the village government. The corporation was divided into two highway districts, with Henry Young as overseer of No. i, and John Garrison, of No. 2. The canal was made the dividing line be- tween the two districts from the east line of the village to the " stone bridge ; thence along the center of the Turnpike to the Onondaga Creek ; thence up the same to the canal, and from thence along the line of the same to the west line of the village." All the territory south of this line was com- prised in district No. 2. The accompanying map shows the village bound- aries. The ne.xt meeting of the Trustees was held on the following day (May 4) and a resolution was passed to the effect " that Othniel H. Williston, George W. Palmer, Hiram C. Woodworth, and James Mann are severally fit persons to be licensed tavern keepers in said village." Provision was made for a village seal. At the meeting of May 8, several important measures were adopted. Grocer's licenses were then in vogue and were issued to Joseph Thompson, Henry Newton, Stephen W. Cadvvell, Paschal N. Thurber, Joel Owen, Peter \'an Olinda, Henry W. Durnford, lla\-den Rice, William T. Arnold, no Memorial History of Syracuse. Ambrose Kasson, Bush & Vose, Andrew N. Van Patten, and Ralph Waldby. Any of these men could sell liquor by the payment of §25 in addition to their grocer's license fee. As almost all dealers of that day who sold any- thing at all, sold groceries, it may be safely assumed that the list embraces nearly all the merchants of the place, excepting, perhaps, any who may have sold hardware exclusively. What has since been commonly called " Robber's Row," was ordered to be opened, four rods wide. Canal street, (now Pearl) "running parallel to the Lateral Canal, (from the Erie canal to .Salina, now a part of the Oswego canal) at the distance of one hundred feet therefrom," was ordered opened from Foot street to Salina street. Willow street was opened from Lock street to the lateral canal, and Lock street from Foot to Willow. Heman W^albridge was appointed to ascertain the e.xpense of opening these streets. At a meeting held May 9, measures were adopted to "procure a good fire engine," and Moses D. l^urnet was appointed to ascertain on what terms one could be purchased. This step was the beginning of the present mag- nificent fire department of Syracuse, which is fully described in this work. On the lOth of May ordinances were adopted providing, among other things, that the " streets and canal should be kept clear of logs, lumber, etc. ; that no property should be landed on the banks of the canal on Sunday, penalty $5 ; that liquor shops should be closed on Sunday and at 1 1 o'clock evenings, penalty $2.50 ; that no guns should be fired in the village, penalty $1 ; that no hogs be permitted to run at large, penalty 25c; that no bois- terous noise, profane or obscene talk should be permitted, penalty, $5. At the meeting of May 13, Salina, Warren, Clinton, Water, Washing- ton, Fa)-ette, and Church streets were authoritatively named and it w^as enacted that " the Seneca Turnpike through said village shall be called ' Genesee street.' " " The street leading east from the public square north of the canal " was named Foot street. "The street running from the Turn- pike to the canal, next west of Giffcrd's house with its continuation," was called South Franklin street. " The street leading to the mill race, north of the canal, thence along the same to the Seneca Turnpike," was made Mill street. The street west of Onondaga Creek from the turnpike to the canal, which had been known as Apple street, was re-named West street. At this meeting steps were also taken for building the canal bridge in James street, and for opening " Clinton street, on each side of Washington." On the 24th of the same month it was ordered that proposals be adver- tised for, for lighting and trimming the four lamps "now put up, and such as may be put up." It was also provided that " persons applying shall state the price they will charge per lamp, to be lighted only on dark nights." The somewhat chaotic condition of the streets and squares at that time may be inferred from a resolution passed at the meeting of the 0th of June, Tiiii Visit of LaFavette. m ordering that the lumber, etc., which had been left on the " Public Square be removed to-morrow, and John Wilkinson sec to this order." Mr. Wil- kinson himself had to remove the lumber and the owner diJ not appear — unless, perhaps, it was Mr. Wilkinson himself. At the meeting held June 15, $125 were appropriated to enclose the "burying ground with a decent fence, painted, with a gate." M. D. Burnet was also authorized to provide a "decent pall and bier." At a meeting held on the 14th of July, §450 were appropriated for open- ing and improving Clinton street, and $250 " for improving the road to the furnace." On the 9th of June, 18J5, the M;ui[uis de Lafayette visited Syracuse, lie was escorted from Onondaga Hill by a large body of citizens on horse- back (by way of the Hollow) to the Mansion House, where he received a cordial greeting from the citizens of Syracuse and the surrounding country. Judge Forman, as President of the village, addressed the veteran in behalf of his fellow citizens in an appropriate address replete with generous affec- tion, tendering to the guest the heartfelt hospitalities of a grateful people. During the delivery of Judge Forman's address, the illustrious hero stood with his hat in his hand, leaning on his cane, the other on his hip, giving his undivided attention to what was said. The gallant General responded in appropriate and feeling words which were received with generous ap- plause. A bountiful repast was then furnished for the guests. After break- fast the General and suite, together with the Onondaga Committee of Es- cort, left the village in the packet boat Koc/ustcr, for Utica, to which place the Committee accompanied him. The condition of the streets in 1825 will be appreciated when we state that at a meeting held on the 1st of August, the overseer of the district north of the canal was authorized to expend the necessary labor to " render Foot street from Lock street to the village line passable for wagons." This h'oot street, one of the finest avenues of the city, has undercrone "reat changes. The late General E. W. Leavenworth thus speaks of it and its immediate vicinity as existent many years ago, in his recently published Reminiscences:" " On the north side of James street all the land was in woods, except a narrow strip on each side of North Salina street, north of the bridge. Hlock No. 35 was then higher than any part of it now is, and extended of 3 uniform elevation to the west end of the block. There it crossed the I-oote road and extended north to the south end of Prospect hill. It was a solid bed of pure gravel, and brought their lots down nearly to the level of the Foote. " Between Block No. 35 and Willow street there was a perennial frog pond, which was grown up to alders and other bushes, and was full of old rotted lags. It extended south to about the mid- dle of the Foote road, west to the Dr. Colvin lot, and east to the west line of the second lot east of Townsend street, now owned by Mr. Butler. "No attempt was made to drain this till Mr. Forbes built his house, when he induced the trustees of the village to put an eight-inch wooden pipe across James street not far from the east line of Townsend street. When the lot owners graded James street in 1833-4, they cut through the bed 113 Memorial History of Syracuse. of gravel crossing the street at Lock street and used the gravel to grade the street from tlic canal to Lock street, and to fill up the north half of James street occupied by the frog pond. The pond must also have been filled six or eight feet nearly its entire length. The south end of the second hill, in front of the west half of Hlock 31, was cut down at the same time, and the low ground filled in that came away in front of the east half of said block." A meeting of the Trustees was held on the i ith of October, at which Judge Forman announced that he had engaged a fire engine at the cost of $935, and Thomas B. Heermans was appointed captain of a fire company, with authority to enlist thirty-five men as members of the company. It will be seen by the foregoing procceedings of the meetings of 1825, that the Trustees were thoroughly aroused and determined to do their best to advance the material interests of the village. Their very frequent early meetings and their ardent zeal again suggest a part, at least, of the answer to the oft-repeated inquiry why Syracuse became a city. At this point we can do nothing that will so adequately complete the history of the village down to about 1830, as to compile a brief account of the actual conditions existing here during that period, which task is ren- dered comparatively easy by the published reminiscences of the late Timo- thy C. Cheney (1857) and of the late Hon. E. W. Leavenworth (iSyo), the latter referring to the village as he remembered it in 1827. There were only about five hundred inhabitants in the village in 1825, and the map of 1834 shows considerable change from the conditions of 1827, which gives Gen. Leavenworth's annals of the latter date great value. "There were then," he wrote, " no blocks in what is now the Fourth ward ; none north of the Walton line ; none west of Apple street on the north side of the canal ; none west of Clinton street on the south side of the canal; none south of Fayette street and none east of Mulberry street. They were all laid out by Judge Forman, excepting three unimportant blocks east of Montgomery street." In describing that portion of the village lying north of the Erie canal and east of the Oswego canal, it should be stated that no street in that sec- tion had been opened or worked in 1827, excepting North Salina street, though the " Foot Road," Lodi and Lock streets had been laid out on the map of the Salt Springs Reservation made in 1821-2. When the Syracuse Company laid out this part of the city, they gave their names to several of the prominent streets, as McHride, Town.send, and James, while Burnet and Hawley streets were named from Major Burnet and Gideon Hawley, who were agents of the company. The only bridge over the canal east of Warren street was at the Lodi locks. Maj. Moses D. Burnet had built a cottage house on the lot now occu- pied by the Century Club. Dr. David S. Colvin lived there in 1829. Nel- son Gilbert lived in a small white house on the corner of Lock and Willow streets, the site of the cathedral parsonage. On the small block between ■^^^iryF, i^Harriii'.. .'■' '^ ' \ A ^. P'-^tJ-e.-^l^ %^ JwiKS Strket in Rari.n' Times. 113 the two 'canals, an old Scotchnnan named John Boyd had built a very small dwelling, little more than a hovel, surrounded it with a high, tight board fence, and obtained a living by raising and selling vegetables. He dwelt in great seclusion and was popularly known as a hermit. In the year of the cholera epidemic he was found dead in his bed. There was a small house on block 281, near the present corner of Mc- Bride and Ash streets. There were a few white-washed shanties along the Oswego canal, north of Willow street, bearing the pretentious name of "White Hall," probably from the white-wash. I'eter Wales was the first butcher in the village and lived in a small house just north of the Oswego canal bridge on the west side of Salina street. This lot, and the old structures still on it, constitute what is still known as the Wales property. On the same side of the street, at the corner of Division, was the tavern kept at that time by Henry Blake. This was known at various times as the "Center House," and the " Half Way House." "There was then," (1827) wrote General Leavenworth, " no way to reach Major Burnet's cottage on foot except by the towing path of the Erie canal east to the lock, and then by a fine, broad gravelled walk leading up to the front door which was on the south side of the house. The lock was then as near to Lock street as it now is to McBride street. No plough had then been used on any of the streets east of the Oswego canal and of Salina street north of the bridge. A sort of log causeway had however been made some seventy-five or one hundred feet long in front of the east half of block No. 31, to the residence of William Malcolm. The Foote road could not be used by teams except west of Lodi street. The gulf at the residence of Dvvight H. Bruce extended across the Foote road and rendered it substantially impassable, and the hill extending easterly beyond Oak street, was too steep and too rough for a road. South of the Foote road there was no cleared land east of Lodi street. From Lodi street west to about Catharine street, and south of Gertrude street, the woods had been cut off and the stumps still remained. From the neighborhood of Catharine street west to about Townsend street, there was a very fair meadow. From Townsend street west to the Oswego canal the land was cleared, but there was little cultiva- tion. All the residue of this portion of the village was in woods of second growth." In 1830, Mr. Leavenworth secured a refusal of Major Burnet of the lot where he subsequently erected his handsome residence. This was the first lot sold on James street. Within a few years after this date all of the lands then owned by the Syracuse Company in what is now the Fourth ward were laid out in blocks, lots, and streets. Blocks 30 and 3I, and the two blocks in their rear on Willow street, were each divided into two lots, the front lot 15 The Early Occupants of "TlonBER's Row." 115 being offered at S600 and the rear ones at $250 each. Those four blocks were bought by Mr. Leavenworth, John G. P""orbes, the Salina lawyer, then about to remove to Syracuse, Volney Cook, and George S. Fitch. The reader's attention is now called to that section of the village lying north of the Erie canal and west of the Oswego canal, the early streets and blocks of which will be understood by reference to the map of 1846. Block 88 faces James .street, between Salina and Warren. Of this block Mr. Cheney says: "In 1824 that portion of James street styled ' Robber's Row' had been surveyed and laid out as a street but had not been worked. The trees and brush had been cleared off, and the passage of teams had made consid- erable of a trail. Stores and houses on the south side of the street had their front entrances ojjening on the towing path. The gable ends and back yards of the houses were on James street." In 1827-30 " Robber's Row " was a very busy part of the village, made so largely by the canal traffic. Columbus C. and David Bradley occupied the basement of General Granger's building fronting on the canal at the Salina street corner. Thomas and Elisha George occupied the next store on the east, and Dexter Pepper next. William K. Blair's store occupied the next thirty feet, where he carried on a large and profitable business, and subsequently built a sub- stantial four-story block. The site of these structures is now covered by the Syracuse Savings Bank building. Stephen W. Cadwell and Paschal Thurber carried on for many years a grocery, the largest one in the village; the next store on the east and adjoining them was owned and occupied by Deacon Henry Chamberlain. These firms were all grocers. Next to Deacon Chamberlain's, Robert I. Brockway had a butcher's shop before 1830, and was succeeded by Caleb Davis, from Salina, father of Thomas Davis, who was chief of police of the city many years. The north side of James street (block 82) was built up before 1824, but by insignificant structures. The old Greyhound hotel was on the corner of James and Warren streets and was occupied in 1827 as a dwelling by Gilbert Fitch. Thomas Spencer, lived in a small dwelling next on the west. Mr. Fitch and Deacon Spencer were brothers-in-law. The next building was a two-story dwelling owned and occupied by the families of Messrs. Cadwell and Thurber. On the Salina street corner was a small wooden building oc- occupied by Hugh Hancock as a shoe store. It fronted on Salina street. On the Salina street side of this block (82) were in 1824 the dwellings of Dr. Colvin, Lewis (a brother-in-law of Sterling Co.ssitt) and James Sackett, the latter a very eccentric and peculiar old bachelor. "In 1874," .says Mr. Cheney, "he contracted with a man to build him a house about 22 X 40 feet. The contractor did not come and put up the house as he agreed. He then contracted with another builder to put up the same kind of a house, which was immediately done. While the second contractor was finishing ii6 Memorial History of Syracuse. the first house, the first contractor came with the second house. Although Mr. Sackett was under no obligation to accept the house, he said to the builder, ' Here, put it up at the end of this one.' Of course he had a house 22 X So feet. He had a rough board fence put around the lot, which was entered by a gate swinging on a post in the center." Mr. Sackett had also singular tastes in the matter of dress. He wore a frock coat reaching down to his heels, a wide brimmed hat with a large veil over his face. Such an outfit on a tall, fleshless man like Mr. Sackett, made him an object of notice to every person. He always hired masons to fill his ice houses, so that the work should be well done. He usually traveled about the country in an old rickety sulky, with a patched top of various colors, drawn by a splendid horse. Whenever he went on foot he carried an old umbrella with a large white patch on top. But with all his oddities he was a well disposed man, and correct and prompt in business matters. He died possessed of an estate valued at $150,000. In 1827, just north of the building on the northwest corner of Salina and James streets, was a plain, painted twostory building, the lower floor of which was occupied by General Thaddeus M. Wood and his son-in-law, Charles A. Baker, as a law ofifice. On the second floor was John F. Wyman's printing office, and in rear Alfred Northam's law ofifice, also occupied by Mr. Leavenworth until 1828, when the firm removed to the east wing of the Syracuse House. All north of that to Willow street was still owned and occupied by James Sackett. There were no houses on the Willow street and Warren street sides of the block. The block now covered by Andrews Brothers' grocery was then unoccu- pied, and the block north of it was used for a boat yard and a small dry dock by Deacon Thomas Spencer. We here quote from Gen. Leavenworth : " There was a small stream of water in what is now Canal street, which came down from the Lodi swamp, running in a ditch probably made for it. On reaching the Oswego canal it turned north and ran nearly northwest to the canal, to about the center of this block, where it was taken under the canal and to Warren street, .\t the same point there was a waste weir from the canal, the water from which was taken into this brook. The brook passed along Warren street and diagonally across Willow street and onward to Salina street, which it crossed nearly on the Walton line ; it then ran north nearly parallel with West street and about fifty feet west of it, making its way through the swamp north into Knapp's mill race and thus to the lake. When the new weigh lock was built, the water was carried away by a culvert across the Erie and under the Oswego canal, into this brook. As the land on the west side of North Salina street increased in value, this water on crossing Salina street was taken in a culvert direct to Onondaga creek. On the block next north of Willow street on Salina street the first house was occupied in 1827 by Elisha F. Wallace, father of Judge William J. Wallace. It .stood perhaps 100 feet north of the corner, which was vacant. A little north of this and on the ground now occupied by the We.st Shore railroad, stood the house built by Rufus Stanton in 1808. Location of Early Stores and Dwellinos. 117 On the l-.mpire House corner (block 81) stood the historic Mansion House. In 1827 it was kept by (). H. Williston. It was a rather old tliree- story wooden building fronting on the square with a hail through the center of the original building, an office and bar-room in the corner, a sitting-room on the west side of the hall, and still west of this was a spacious dining-room which had been added to the original building. There was no building on this block on Salina street north of this. The old Mansion House was re- moved in 1844-5 to clear the site for the Empire block. Just west of the Mansion House and fronting Clinton Square was a cheap onestory building containing three stores. They were occupied in 1827, the eastern one by \'olney Cook and George S. Fitch as a dry goods store. It was then the fashionable store of the village. The next one was first used as a harness shop, and Silas Ames came from Onondaga Hill soon after 1827 and carried on the same business there. The next building on the west was a brick block of considerable size, erected by Asa Marvin and John D. Norton as a firm. Marvin was Norton's father-in-law and lived in Oneida county. They occupied the two eastern stores where they had a large bus- iness as hatters and furriers, and Adonijah Root the west room as a shoe store. The remainder of the space to "Clinton Alley" (now North Clinton street) was covered by a cheap two-story wooden building, used as a dwell- ing on the second floor, and by Benjamin 15. Batchelder in the corner store, with dry goods and notions, where he was succeeded by Samuel Ketchum. The other store was taken about 1S27 by Frederick Rhyne, and other transient tenants were there. The only dwelling on Clinton alley then was on the southeast corner of that and Church street. It was built by Asa Marvin for his daughter, Mrs. Norton, and remained there until the erection of the county buildings. In 1824 there were large stables on the east side of the alley carried on by John A. Green. They occupied a part of what is now the Court House premises, and were removed previous to 1827. A little east of the Norton house on Church street, was a small one-story house built by John Wall for the Syracuse Company, which was occupied in 1827 by Gardner Lawrence and family. The remainder of this block was given up to the grounds and stables of the Mansion House. It was on the corner of Salina and Church streets the first circus in the village was exhibited. It was numerously at- tended by both red and white men, and on that account Andrew N. Van Patten and John Rogers built in 1825 what was long known as the " Circus House," on the north side of Church street, between Salina and Warren. It was a large wooden building which sheltered the "ring" and gave rough seats to the audience. It was afterwards occupied as a stable for the Onon- daga House. Block So is surrounded by Church, Clinton, and Genesee streets. On ii8 Memorial History of Syracuse. the southeast corner of tliis block and fronting Genesee street, was a small yellow two-story building, kept as a hotel in 1 827 bj' a Mr. Gates, who was a son-in-law of Sterling Cossitt ; he soon afterward removed to Louisiana. Capt. Joel Cody, the popular canal boat "skipper" between Syracuse and L'tica, lived in the next dwelling west. Matthew W. Davis, son of Matthew L. Davis, the early merchant, lived in a pleasant house standing back from the street, next west of the Haptist church. The house was burned with the church in August, 1859. The ne.xt building west of Mr. Davis's is still standing. It was occupied for many years by Joseph Slocum, who was the father of Mrs. Russell Sage. On the lot next east of the old Baptist church on Church street, was a small one-story house where lived the mother of Seneca and Royal Stewart. On the west corner of Church street and the alley, was the two-story wooden house of Philander Denslow. On the corner of Church and Salina streets, opposite (north) of the On- ondaga House, was Isaac Stanton's stone-cutting shop, and there was also a small house on the lot. Mr. Stanton died with the cholera in 1832. The three lots next west of the corner were bought in 1829 successive!}- by B. Davis Noxon, Iliram A. Deming, and Amos P. Granger. They built the brick houses still standing there, the lots having previously been occupied by cheap houses built by the Syracuse Company. The ne.xt house west stood partly in what is now Clinton street. In it lived Capt. Ezra Foster and later Silas Ames. Joel Canficld built and lived in the next house west, and Samuel IJooth occupied the ne.xt one. West of the school house was quite a large vacant lot running back to the Walton line, through which access was had to the salt fields of the Syr- acuse Salt Company. The map shows the extent of these salt fields, all of which have been removed and the ground covered by buildings. On the southwest corner of Genesee and Clinton streets was erected in 1 824 by Booth and Elliott what became known as " the old saleratus factory." It bore a general resemblance to the present structure there and in it were three stores in the first story of the building. When business drifted away from this locality the building was taken by James Taylor & Co., who for a number of years manufactured .saleratus there. The building was burned on the 23d of August, 1859. On the ground west of this block was in 1S27 the Eagle Tavern, first opened by Frederick Rhyne and afterwards kept by Wm. A. Robinson, who in later years was proprietor of the Onon- daga Hotel. The house next west of the tavern was built by Judge For- man about 1820 and the next three were owned by I^liny Dickinson, Rev. Dr. John W. Adams, of the First Presbyterian church, and Josiah Wright. The house on the corner of Genesee and P'rankiin streets was built in 1824 by the late Henry Gifford, and was occupied in 1S27 by Dr. George Hooker. This dwelling and that of William Malcolm, corner of Washing- Till-; (XxiM'ANTS OK Various Hi.ocks. 119 ton and Salina streets, were then the finest residences in the village. Henry Gilforil built and occupied the first house south of Genesee, on the east side of Franklin street, until he erected his handsome residence, corner of Gen- esee and North West streets. IMock 76 then included the small block 198 (see map.) On this lot, partly on the site of the present High .School building and partly in the line of Genesee street, stood the old red mill, which has been described. On the corner east of the mill was a cheap dwelling called the " mill-house." On block 85 were three small wooden houses fronting on Genesee street, near the east end of the block, and two on Franklin street which remain substantially as they were in 1827. West of these and near the center of the block lived Archibald L. Fellows, a mason, and a man who was much re- spected. On the northwest corner of the block was a small house then occupied by John Smith, who was a teamster. On the west side of Frank- lin street was a two-story house then recently built by Heman and Chester Walbridge, the successful merchants. Block 197 was occupied at the time under consideration chiefly by the saw mill, the oil mill and a tannery. On block 66, west of the creek, there was a small dwelling nearly on the site of the Allen Munroe residence. Sterling Cossitt lived there for many years. Near the southern corner of block 65 stood a large two-story dwelling fronting on Genesee street, which was built by Judge Forman, and was occupied in 1827 by Moses D. Burnet. There were then only two buildings on these two blocks. There were only a few poor houses on Apple (now North West) street, occupied at that tfme by Herman Hyde, William James, the miller in Burnet's stone mill, and Gilbert Horton, a cooper. West of blocks 68 and 72 as far as Van Rensselaer street, and from the Erie canal to the bluffs on the north, the entire tract was covered by the coarse salt fields of the Syracuse and Onondaga Salt companies. Just east of Leavenworth avenue and on the north side of Genesee street the On- ondaga company had a large house, occupied by Joseph Savage, the su- perintendent of the company, and their employees. West of the salt fields on Genesee street, there were no dwellings of any value. John Rowley lived in one and Henry and Andrew Young in two others. All the land about the head of the lake, and south of the road leading from Salina to Geddes, and below the bluffs was an undrained, uncleared, swamp. I20 Memorial History of Syracuse. CHAPTER XII. THK VII, LACK oK SYRACUSE, 1S24-30. Ten Picture of the Village of 1S27— I.athrop's Lodging Mouse— Yellow Brook— Clearing of Lands by the Syracuse Company— liuildings on Various Streets in 1S27— W. 1!. Kirk's Tavern— The Old Episcopal Church— I'helps's lil.icksinith Shop— The Site of the Hastable ISIock— The Sec- tion South of the Canal and West of Salina Street— William Malcolm's liuildings- Description of the Western Tart of the City Site — The Cinder Road. In continuing our description of Syracuse from 1820 to 1S27, we will take up that section of it lying south of the canal and east of Salina street. Of the eastern portion of it General Leavenworth gives this picture as he rode through it on the 17th of November, 1827: " When I came from the east through what was then dignified with tlit name of the vilUage of Lodi, I saw no symptoms of a village. There was one poor small wood-colored house on the north side of the road, about half way down the eastern hill, occupied by a family named Krooks. .Another small house, which was called a tavern, stood on the south side of the road just west of Spruce street. This was hcpt by John U. Lathrop. He had a fine well on his premises affording the best of water. Teople coming from the east to trade in Syracuse, would stop with Mr. Lathrop, and from his house they would go to the village and trade during the day, returning as the shades of evening fell on the gloomy swamp, to his house for food and lodging. They did this in preference to stopping at one of the village taverns and running the risk of taking the ague. Calvin Mitchell, a contractor, lived in another small house west of University avenue and nearly on the ground occu- pied by the residence of Jacob Crouse. And at or near the foot of the hill on the south side of the ro.ad. lived a very worthy old man and his family, named Rufus Moss. These were the only dwell- ings on the Turnpike. The only other house worthy of notice was the large and, for those days, fine dwelling of that worthy and public-spirited citizen. Captain Oliver Teall, which is still standing on lieech street, north of the Central railroad. There were two or three small tenements near Cap- tain Teall's and occupied by his saw-mill employees.* M the foot of the hill, near the Ccnesee road. Lemuel Benton began making brick in 1825, and the late Henry Shattuck worked in his yard." Between what are now Chestnut street and Fayette Park, and from the canal .southward there were no buildings, no improvements, no cultivated land. The woods had been cut on the north side of the Turnpike, but the stumps were all standing at that time. On the south side the swamp and its shrubbery and trees were still in their primeval condition. The land was, of course, undrained, always impassable for teams, and most of the year by the footman. The early roads or streets in the eastern part of the city as late as 1827 were the Turnpike, the Jamesville road, and the short piece of Beech street " Captain Oliver Teall owned and ran two small saw mills and a grist mill near the Lodi locks. He obtained the w>itcr which moved his mills by tapping the canal. He was then Canal Superintend- ent under Henry Seymour, as Commissioner, and obtained the right to use the water for running his mills from the State. — Cheney's Reminiscences. TiiK V.vvK OK \'i:i.i.()\v Br(iok. 121 extending from the Turnpike to the canal. There was a sort of wood road running from the Turnpike southward about on the line of Renwick ave- nue, and continuing on to the valley. This road was probably traveled to some extent before what is now Salina street was opened. Yellow Brook came down from Lodi in Water street as far west as Lemon street, where it turned south and southwest, crossing Genesee street east of Almond street. It rambled about through the swamp as far south as the neighborhood of Harrison street, when it turned northwesterly and passing under the west end of the Farmer block crossed Warren street at right angles in front of the residence of the late Dr. Powers, and across the lot or lots next north of his. Then it ran northerly, bearing west, and crossed Jef- ferson about midway between Salina and Warren streets, and Salina street about three hundred feet south of Fayette street, then turning southwester- ly ran into the Onondaga creek. All along the course of the stream from Warren street there was a gentle depression of from five to eight feet in which it ran. The Yellow brook was finally disposed of in 1838. A few years prev- ious to that, when improving South Salina street, the Syracuse Com- pany almost filled the bed of the brook between Jefferson street and the creek; but in order to make a permanent improvement, the Company laid a culvert from a little east of Salina street to the Onondaga creek. But in 1838, when the Syracuse & Utica railroad was built, the railroad company was induced to wholly fill up the brook, in consideration of franchises grant- ed to the company. There was no building on the west side of Salina street, south of the Yellow brook, now on the east side farther south than the fourth lot south of Fayette street. A small bridge crossed the brook. When the Walton Tract came into possession of the Syracuse Company in 1824 they found that portion of their property lying along Salina street south of Fayette street covered with stumps and underbrush, the forest having been cleared away. They built a farm house and a barn not far from the corner of Jef- ferson and Salina streets and placed therein a German named Jacob Husen- frats, (or Hausenfradt) with whom they contracted to clear their lands and cultivate them. Hausenfradt worked faithfully and soon had the lands in that vicinity covered with grain and vegetables. There was quite a deep ravine in Salina street where Yellow brook crossed it, and there were other considerable depressions. Mr. Cheney says that in 1824, "Salina street was fully six feet higher than at the present day, and very irregular, passing over a series of mounds or hillocks the whole distance, making a bad road to travel with a loaded team." These were all leveled when the street was sub- sequently graded by Moses D. Burnet. Olmsted Quick built for himself a boat house on Yellow brook and there 16 122 Memorial History of Syracuse. kept the craft in which he fished along the stream and pond. He was a shoemaker and occupied in 1827 the south part of the last house on the east side of Salina street. Zophar Adams was making brick in 1824 on the west side of Salina street near Yellow brook. That portion of the city through which extends Onondaga street was in 1824 a cedar swamp with its many old logs, stumps and trunks of fallen trees slowly going to decay and filling the air with no.xious vapors. Wher- ever the land was sufficiently firm and dry to afford a suitable soil, a very luxuriant growth of blackberry bushes had sprung up. This swamp was also a great resort for game and has been the scene of many hunting and blackberrying adventures. The block bounded by Salina, Washington, Warren and Fayette streets was in 1824 wholly vacant, with the exception of a few large trees. In 1825 the First Presbyterian Society built a church where the McCarthy retail store now stands. A frame house had been erected on the corner by the Syracuse Company in 1824. Coming up to the Syracuse House corner (block 101) we learn that in 1824-27 a part of that building stood about as it does to-day. The south wing was built at a later date. On the southwest corner of that block Archy Kasson built a plain two-story dwelling in 1824, which was at a later date displaced by the Exchange Hotel, and soon after 1827 a row of one- story wooden ofifices with roofs sloping eastward were built between that house and the Syracuse House. Ambrose Kasson, who was the village Justice, had his ofifice in one of them. In the east wing of the Syracuse House, Col. Elijah Phillips, for years the agent for the line of stages that ran between Albany and Buffalo, had an office. To this ofifice Jason C. Woodruff was wont to drive his well-kept stage horses with a grand flour- ish. This stage-driver became one of the leading citizens and Mayor of the city in after years. Adjoining the stage ofifice in 1827 was the law ofifice of Harvey Baldwin, a prominent early citizen, and Schuyler Strong, and next east of that the drug store and ofifice of Dr. Mather Williams. Adjoining this stood the same building now there. In 1824, a Mr. Waterbury owned a small wooden house adjoining the gateway to the Syracuse House stables, where he kept a little grocery and lived in the chambers, to which led out- side stairs. In that year Joel Owen bought Waterbury's place and for sev- eral years kept a bowling alley there. He came from Massachusetts and afterwards built the brick block now occupied by his son of the same name. Next east of the Waterbury building was a two-story wooden structure in which Jabez Hawley had his cabinet shop. Mr. Hawleydied in 1885. Be- tween this building and the corner of Warren and Genesee streets the lots were vacant in 1827. On the corner was the red blacksmith shop of Henry Van Heusen, brother of S. V. R. Van Ileusen, who is still living in the city. South Sauna Street in Early Days. 123 In the very early days of the village Henry W. Durnford owned the two lots adjoining the southeast corner of this block, and on the corner was a small house surrounded by a flower garden and picket fence. These lots were purchased by Capt. Samuel Lamed and he erected a plain brick build- ing, which he occupied for a time as a hotel, with stores in a part of the lower story. It was called the " Alhambra," and afterwards, while kept by Mr. Durnford, the " Tremont," and still later the " Sherman House." This building was burned and the present Larned Building erected. Block 1 1 1, bounded by Salina, East Fayette, Warren, and Jefferson streets, was almost vacant in 1824. A small unpainted house stood on the Washington block site, occupied by Mrs. Stewart, motherin-law of John Hurst. Besides this, there were only the buildings of Jacob Hausenfradt. On the corner north of his dwelling was the barn of the tavern built by Joel Kinney and conducted by him as the " American Hotel," a temperance house. The lots on this corner were sold originally by the Syracuse Com- pany, lot No. I to Archibald Perkins, and it passed through the hands of Archibald and Henry Perkins, Lewis Averell, and Lewis Kinney. Lot No. 3 was sold to Amos P. Granger and by him to Lewis Kinney. On the 1st of April, 1848, the First Presbyterian Society bought the property for $10,000. Just south of the tavern barn, on South Salina street, stood in 1S27 two small one-story dwellings, and next to them on the south had been built a two-story house with a door in the center of the front. In this house Mrs. Dickinson taught a young ladies' school with success. On the north side of this block, on the site of Francis Hendricks's present building, Harvey Baldwin built, before 1827,3 good two-story brick building. There were also in that vicinity several wooden dwellings built by the Syracuse Com- pany about 1828. The corner of Fayette and Warren streets was vacant later than 1827, but just south of that on Warren street, 1. DeBlois Sher- man in that year built the brick dwelling long occupied by Dr. Lyman Clary and which is still standing. There were no buildiugs on the west side of Warren street below this point. On the site of the Granger block stood the old Episcopal church, now standing on the corner of Madison and Mont- gomery streets, and for many years known as St. Mary's (Catholic) church. This church was finished in 1825. Block 109 bounded by Washington, Montgomery, Fayette, and Warren streets, was considerably built up by 1S27. Col. Elijah Phillips, the stage manager, lived near the corner of Washington and Warren in a twostory wooden house fronting on Washington street. Mr. Cheney says this was built by Jonas Mann in 1824-5. It became the historic "Cook's Coffee House," and was removed to make way for the Vanderbilt House. About the middle of the block stood the house of John H. Johnson, a two-story 124 Memorial History of Syracuse. wooden structure. On the corner of Montgomery street was a story and a half house built just before 1827 by Andrew N. VanPatten. On the Warren street side of the block Jason C. WoodrufT lived and carried on the livery business in the rear. There were no other buildings on this block as late as 1827. The next block south of this (112) had received very little improvement in 1827. There were three small houses on the east side of Warren street, just south of Fayette, built by the Syracuse Company, and on the south- east corner of Jefferson street was another small dwelling ; there were no other buildings south of Fayette street. Blocks 55 and 122, the one occupied now by the Myers Block and ad- joining buildings and the other by the Joy Building and other structures, were vacant in 1827, with the exception of Samuel Phelps's blacksmith shop on the site of the Myers Block. Of this shop in 1824 Mr. Cheney notes as follows: "Samuel Phelps kept a blacksmith shop on the lot now (1857) occu- pied by the Home Association. The shop was in a two-story building, with the front towards Genesee street. The second story Mr. Phelps occu- pied as a dwelling. The family reached their rooms by means of stairs on the outside. The ground on which the shop stood was so low and marshy that the fall rains made a large pond all around the building. In the winter this pond formed a famous skating ground for the boys of the village." Block 97, as constituted to day, was in 1827 and earlier, divided, the part now covered by the Onondaga Savings Bank Building being numbered 93 ; it was separated from Block 94 by an alley, extending to the canal, and came to a point at its western end. This point was widened when the bank was built. Where the bank stands were three wooden stores, in the west- ern one of which was Pliny Dickinson's jewelry store. John Van Epps sold dry goods in the middle store, and in the upper part of the building in April, 1823, was printed the first number of the first newspaper of the vil- lage. To this building was also removed the post office, soon after 1820. East of this building and extending to Warren street, the block was origi- nally built up with stores for the forwarding and commission business with a covered passage way next to the canal, the buildings above it being support- ed on posts. They were partly of brick and partly of wood, three-stories high, and were all swept off by fire in 1834. Adjoining the alley Jonas Mann and Humphrey Mellen had a general store, and ne.xt to them was Madame Raoul's fancy goods store. Henry Newton's grocery was near the middle of the block, and Joseph Slocum occupied the two eastern stores. Block 95 borders the canal just east of Warren street. It was built up largely between 1824 and 1827 — a period of great activity. The western end was of brick, three stories high and occupied by John Rogers for stor- age. This building was burned on the night of November 18, 1827. East 7rz^i^i^t4^^^c^o^<. I\ HIE Vkimtv (IK TiiK CiTV Hall. of this were a number of cheap wooden buildings, until the east end of the block was reached, whore stood the same building now on the site ; it was erected by William Malcolm. On the north and east sides of Block 103 (bounded by Genesee, Water, and IMulberry streets) there were no buildings until after 1827. On the site of the Bastable block in 1824 was a small frame house occupied by a Mr. Walker. In 1827, Daniel Elliott owned this site and a few years later built on it a wooden structure two stories high for stores and offices. Next east of this was another wooden building erected in 1827, which was kept as a tavern at that time. Then came the brick dwelling of John Rogers, built in 1825 ; this was one of the first brick houses in the place and is still stand- ing in the heart of the city, substantially as originally built. Directly east of the Malcolm storehouse was the canal basin, extending south to about the front line of the old City Hall and covering a large part of Montgomery and Market streets in that square. South of the basin were lots reaching down to Washington street. (See map of 1S34.) On the block east of the present market street was located the small pottery of Mr. Russell, and east of this was a small wooden house occupied by Nathan \'an Benschoten. He afterwards built the dwelling on the northeast corner of the block, still standing, and died there. In 1828 he was in the marble business with Alfred Palmer. Blocks 48 and 52 on either side of the canal and east of Mulberry street were almost unoccupied until considerably later than 1827. The late H. W. Van Buren lived in a wooden house built by his father, Peter Van Buren, on the east side of Mulberry street, until he afterwards built his brick residence on the south side of Water street. His tannery and shoe shop were in a building near his early residence. Mr. Van Buren became one of the solid men of the place and always carried on the leather trade. Block 56, fronting Fayette Park, was vacant until after 1824. Much of the block was covered with a grove of large trees, which were cut down and hewed or sawed into shape for building. Henry Gifford cut the timber here for his first dwelling on West Genesee street. John Daniels bought the lot now occupied by the Grouse residence before 1825 and built there a public house. He sold it to a Mr. Luce, who also used it as a tavern. It was kept in 1827 by Jared Phelps and was afterwards owned and occupied by Judge Sylvanus Tousley, and was finally torn down to make a place for the residence of the late John Grouse. Fayette Park was still a dream of the future, most of its territory being occupied b\- the Turnpike running diagonally across it. .Mulberry street extended south only to Genesee street, and there was no other house east of Mulberry street in 1827, and no streets on which to build them, excepting Genesee. In that section of the village lying south of the canal and west of Sa- 126 Memorial History of Syracuse. lina street the improvements were very limited in character at the time under consideration. There was in 1824 a foot bridge across the canal a few yards east of the present Clinton street bridge, and near the northerly end of it Deacon Chamberlain had a meat market in a small frame building. On the north side of Water street, west of Clinton, (Block 92) Hiram Hyde had two adjoining store houses. Mr. Hyde was son-in-law of Joshua Forman and died of consumption in 1825. This building was re- moved about 1830 by Willet and Henry Raynor and the brick block erect- ed which still stands as the Jerry Rescue Block, though much changed. There were no other buildings on that side of Water street to the creek. LeGrand and William Crofoot were making brick where Greenway's Malt house was erected. Block 100. — Kasson & Heermans were carr\-ing on the hardware business on the corner of Salina and Water streets in 1824 and in that year replaced their small wooden building with a three-story brick block seventy feet deep. This structure closed up the windows on the Salina street side of William Malcolm's hardware store, which he had in 1824 located thirty feet west of the corner. This corner lot was purchased by Archie Kasson and the erec- tion of the building was in part in retaliation against Mr. Malcolm, who had offended him. Elam Lynds and his son soon afterwards bought the Kasson building and carried on the same business. They were succeeded by Horace and Charles A. Wheaton. William Malcolm was a leading business man in Syracuse for many years and attained an honorable position. He was for a period a partner of A. A. Hudson. West of Malcolm's store the Syracuse Company had built a row of small wooden buildings for stores and shops. These remained until after 1827. Henry S. Green, a tailor, occupied the one next west of Malcolm's store and John Durnford taught a school on the second floor. Ross and Joseph Leslie were in the ne.xt one, and Hiram Judson, the early jeweler, in one still farther west. Moses D. Burnet, agent of the Syracuse Com- pany, built a small office just west of this row of buildings, and a little later erected another for John G. Forbes, who came down from Salina to prac- tice law. West of these offices was a wooden house of two stories which remained there until after 1827. Next south of Kasson's store on Salina street was a narrow alley running back behind three of the West Water street lots. The shoe store of James Pease stood next to the alley, and adjoining that the store and cabinet shop of Theodore Ashley, with whom Charles F. Williston learned his trade and was in partnership for a number of years. On the corner of Washington and Salina streets stood for many years the residence of William Malcolm ; it was quite the pride of the vil- lage. On the northwest corner of the block Gen. James Mann had a sub- stantial wooden house fronting on Clinton street. The Heart of thic Village in 1827. 127 Block 99, bounded by Clinton, Water, Washington, and Franklin streets, was occupied on the northeast corner by the house of Judge Forman ; it originally stood in the line of the street, but was moved back when the street was opened. After Judge Forman left the village the house was oc- cupied by Calvin Riley, whose soap and candle factory was the only build- ing then on block 91. The Forman house remained until Jacob Crouse purchased the corner for his brick block. The next building on the west was erected before 1827 substantially as it now appears. The stone house at that point was built at a very early day and was occupied in 1827 by Judge James Webb. West of this was the two-story brick dwelling built, owned and occupied by John Wall in 1827, and after his removal to Phienix, and for many later years by the late Columbus C. Bradley. The only other building on this block then was on the west side of Clinton street, south of the site of the Crouse building. It was a brick dwelling built and for a time occupied by Dr. Mather Williams. It was taken down in 1882-3 to make room for the block now standing there. Daniel Elliott, the builder, had a shop and lumber yard on Washington street west of the line of Clinton street. Blocks 97 and 98 contained no improvements until after 1827, except that 98 was used as a burying ground from 1824 to 1841. Block 107, bounded by Washington, Salina, Fayette, and Clinton streets and now in the business heart of the city, was very little improved until after 1830. In 1S27 the little one- story law office of John Wilkinson stood on the Globe Hotel corner and his story and a half dwelling, where he lived for many years, was a little south of it on the same lot, which was 4x8 rods. On the lot next south stood the dwelling of Thomas B. Heermans, and next to that the house of James Manning, which was of the same gen- eral character as the others. The corner of Fayette street was occupied by John Garrison's two-story tavern. This lot was purchased by him in 1824 and the house erected fronting on Salina street, with a piazza along the front. For this building he cut some pine trees west of Clinton street, and had them sawed at the mill near Water street. He had purchased a wagon of William B. Kirk, the Lafayette wheelwright, and at Mr. Garrison's death in 1826, Mr. Kirk bought the tavern, being to some extent forced into the deal in order to collect the price of his wagon. Thus his future business career was changed from wagon making to tavern-keeping. He made his hotel very popular, particularly with country people. Investing quite heavily in Central railroad stock in early days, and later in real estate, and being a prudent and far-seeing man, he became wealthy. In 1859 he erected the first Kirk block on his corner, which was kept as a hotel a number of years.* The stately Kirk Building, the finest business block in Syracuse, recently erected by his son, now covers the site. ' From a Forest to a City," p. 74. 128 Memorial History of Syracuse. On the northwest corner of the block was the two-story brick house of Dr. Jonathan Day, who in 1832 fell a victim to his unselfish labor in the Cholera epidemic. He was the leading physician of the village, a promi- nent man in public affairs, carried on one of the earliest drug stores hereon Genesee street, and was much lamented by the community. These five were all the buildings in 1827 on this now important block. Block 1 10, south of the one just described, had only three buildings in 1827. On the corner of Fayette and Salina streets was a house similar to the Garrison tavern, which was also kept as a hotel by Clark Ilebard. This was soon afterwards bought by Thomas J. Keeler, who in later years im- proved his property. Next on the south was a large unpainted building which was used for tenements and just south of this and near the Yellow brook was a small brick building used for a tobacco factory. In a further general description of all that portion of the western section of the city, which had scarcely felt the hand of improvement in 1827, General Leaven- worth wrote as follows : " The woods on that part of the fourth division lying west of the creek were of course the sec- ond growth, principally oak and hickory, interspersed with some hemlock. Near the junction of the Cinder road and Kurnace street and north of the Cinder road, there were many acres of land with very little wood growing on it. This ground was cleared in 1827-8 and a race-course made there. The bridge across the creek on the Cinder road was known as the High Bridge, as it was quite high above the water, and also in contradistinction to the bridge on Water street, which was very low. At the west end of the High Bridge, on the north side of the road lived Zophar .\dams. He had a brick yard between his house and the creek. He did much of the early village jobbing, and made Warren street from Jefferson street to Billings Park. His was the only house west of the creek." Properly speaking the first house built on the Cinder Road was by George T. M. Davis in the year 1829, and was on two acres of ground about where Carroll E. Smith's house now stands. This old house now forms part of a dwelling in South avenue. He came to Syracuse in 1824, and stood by the side of Judge Forman on the north side of the canal, just west of the swing bridge, when he made his address to Governor Clinton as he passed through here on his route from Buffalo to New York at the opening of the canal in 1825. In 1828 he married Susan Webb, the Judge's oldest daughter, and in 1829, built his house on the Cinder road. About half way from the Cinder road to the canal there was a very small, very poor and un- painted shanty then occupied by the father of the late Albert Congdon. Perhaps these were the only dwellings in this division of the city west of the creek. There was, however, another structure on the west side of the creek. This was Major Burnet's stone flouring mill, which was afterwards destroyed by fire. It stood on the same ground now occupied by the Amos flouring mill. In 1827 West Water street extended across the creek to .Major Burnet's stone mill, just mentioned. Washington and Fayette streets terminated on Clinton street, the latter reaching from Clinton Square to the Yellow brook. Tni: Viu.AGE I'KOM 1828 TO 1S40. 129 It was very little used at that date. Salina street extended southward only to what is now Cortland avenue, the latter being then a part of the highway to the valley. The Cinder road terminated at Salina street and it was not until several years later that what is now East Onondaga street was opened. The old map of 1S34, herein, shows many of these early features, with the course of the creek before it was improved, in 1838-9. CHAPTER XIII. THE VILLAGE OK SVRACUSE DOWN TO 1S40. From 1S2S to 1S40 — Improvement of Streets — The Census of 1829 — Captain Hiram Putnam — The Hiisiness Houses of the Village and where they were Located — Samuel Earned and his Floating Store— The Approach of the Cholera— Measures Adopted to Thwart the Disease — Deaths of Prom- inent I'ersons — The Canal Quarantine and its Effects — Census of Business Houses in 1S34 — The Great Fire of that Year — The Coming of the Railroad — E, \V. Leavenworth and His Early Influ- ence — Changes in the Ordinances. CONTINUING the history of the village of Syracuse, the condition of which from 1824 to 1828 has been so minutely described in preceding pages, we find that its growth was almost, if not quite, as rapid during the suc- ceeding ten years, as it had been before, while the village officers continued their activity in most directions to render the place healthful and prosperous. Streets were opened, extended and repaired, nuisances of various kinds abated, bridges built and sidewalks multiplied, and the foundations laid for the great changes that were to follow. 1827. — Several hundred dollars were appropriated for filling up the mouth of Yellow brook and otherwise improving it in the summer of 1827, and Washington street was extended eastward. Clinton street must have been greatly improved, as we learn that Calvin Mitchell was paid " $49.46 for making S3 rods and 7 links of road in Clinton street." The original condition of the public squares in the center of the city may be inferred from the fact that a tax of $200 was imposed in 1827 for " im- provement on the south side of the square south of the canal, from the stone bridge to the Engine house." The sum of $26.CX) was appropriated for "widening the bridge on Salina street," and $10 more for an embankment for the bridge. 130 Memorial History of Syracuse. The " Public Square" (Clinton) was improved this year on both sides of the canal at a cost of S52.35, which was paid to Cadwell & Thorber, and J. N. Lathrop was paid S3 1.22 for similar services. The dry dock and canal at James street were bridged about this time at a cost of §225. 1828. — At a meeting of the Trustees held December 10, 1828, a resolu- tion was passed that the Foot street hills be " reduced," and persons in need of earth were allowed to take it away. Notices were posted in the village to the following effect ; " For the purpose of improving the road on Foot street and for the purpose of doing it with the best economy, any person needing earth for filling up lots or other purposes, may take it from Foot street hill, provided it be done in such a manner as to leave the road bed level, and in all cases to be taken between the stakes on each side of the road." West street was extended in this year from near the stone mill northward and was known as Apple street. 1S29-30. — A census of the village was taken in 1829 and the population found to be 2,565. For doing the work Levi Chapman was paid $4.00. The village ordinances were amended also in this year, especially with a view of securing better sidewalks. The following ordinance was published in Au- gust, 1830 : " The Trustees of the village deem it necessary to order side- walks on the several streets hereinafter specified, viz : On Salina street from the Yellow brook (between Fayette and Jefferson streets) to the canal. From the north side of Salina street to the side cut (Oswego canal) ; from that point on the east side of the street to the Court House. Also, from the bridge at the red mill, on Genesee street to Montgomery street and from that point along the south side of Genesee street to Center Square, (Fayette Park) and on all sides of the public squares. All of the above ordered walks must be laid in such a manner as to leave six feet for cellar- ways." In those times brick, either eight inches square, or four by eight inches, were extensively used for sidewalks. In the year under consideration Lock street was ordered extended. Division street between Salina and Lodi was opened and also "a public street between the Cinder Road and the Erie canal." This year (1829) saw the end of the bitter struggle for the location of the county buildings, and although Salina ostensibly won the victory by their erection midway between the two villages, still Syracuse was not wholly disappointed; she had succeeded in having the buildings removed from the Mill and could afford to bide her time for seeing them in her midst. Captain Hiram Putnam arrived in Syracuse in 1829 and was a prominent and estimable citizen. He was born January 30, 1786, in Danvers, Mass., Business Houses of the Village in 1830. i^i and began life for himself at sixteen years of age as a sailor. In 1827 he retired from the sea and two years later settled in Syracuse. He was trustee of the village in 1S32 and 1841 ; assessor in 1834 and 1836, and treasurer from 1S43 until the city was incorporated. In 1835 he associated himself with Thomas B. Fitch in the drug business, which partnership continued until 1846, when he retired from active business. He was one of the incor- porators of the Onondaga County Bank, and a trustee of the Syracuse Sav- ings Bank to the time of his death. Captain Putnam died on the 8th of November, 1874, aged eighty-four years. His daughter became the wife of Dudley P. Phelps. During the four or five years preceding 1830, the business of the village had rapidly increased and building operations had also been expensive. The newspaper of the village is usually the mirror that reflects the condi- tion of business affairs in an enterprising community and from those of Syr- acuse in 1829-30 we gather some notes of interest, as follows: A. Abbott and S. F. Myers had in a " new supply of medicines, paints, and dye stuffs." They were located in the east wing of the Syracuse House. Samuel Goodwin's stock of goods in the store " in the brick block east of C. Walbridge &Co., on the south side of the canal," comprised " dry goods, hardware, cutlery, and nails, groceries. Cognac brandy, Holland gin, St. Croix rum, canister powder, shot," etc. At this time Chester and Heman Wal- bridge had a factory for the manufacture of chairs and other household fur- niture near the canal locks not far from the present crossing of Mulberry street. This was burned a few years later and was not rebuilt. Bradley and Josiah Wright were in the " west store in the brick building erected by W. and H. Raynor, on the bank of the canal, near the wooden bridge in the west part of the village of Syracuse," where they offered Spanish hides, sole, upper and harness leather; also an assortment of choicest groceries, storage, and forwarding. Johnson & Huntley were merchant tailors in the "east wing of Amos P. Granger's building" (on the canal) where "garments were made with precision, and ready-made clothing sold," probably the first goods of this kind in the village. It is noticeable that this firm consid- ered it worth while to advertise their place of business as " on the canal." Marvin Devoe & Co. had taken the store recently occupied by C. Wal- bridge & Co., where they had a general store. Volney Cook advertised carpeting, paper hangings, and looking glasses. His store was just west of the iMansion House. Kellogg & Fitch announced that they had just re- turned from New York " with a good assortment of dry goods." Dr. Jonathan Day says he " keeps his ofiRce in his drug store, sign of the mortar and pestle, where all calls in the way of his profession will be thank- fully received and punctually attended to." His store was then in the Syracuse House Block. E. Brewster wanted 30,000 sheep and lamb skins 132 Memorial History of Syracuse. delivered at " Chauncey Woodruff's market in the west part of Syracuse." Woodruff was located on West Water street. Henry Judson had "just re- ceived from New York, military goods, watches, Brittania ware, musical in- struments," etc. ; his store was on Water street near Clinton. D. & M. Dana would " pay cash for wheat " and sold flour, "dye woods. Shaker brooms, Novia Scotia grindstones," etc., in the "Yellow Buildings." They also had on hand a "few barrels of superior whiskey." John Rogers, that excellent citizen, had just " removed to the brick building formerly occupied by David Griffith & Co.," where he carried on storage and forward- ing, and also had a stock of shoes to sell at wholesale. This building was on the corner of Warren and East Water streets. Newton & Humphreys had received on consignment 200 fancy chairs. They soon removed "to the store lately occupied by Ambrose Kasson, opposite Clinton Row." G. T. M. Davis would pay cash for rags and offered 500 Minor's pails, from the Waterloo Pail Factory, and paper of all kinds. His store was in the Yellow Building. Henry VanHeusen & Peter Moshell had entered into partnership as blacksmiths on the corner of Warren and Genesee streets where the for- mer had long had his shop. James Pease, "one door south of A. Kasson's hardware store," Salina street, advertised boots and shoes. Mr. Pease came from Lysander, where he cut timber on his father's farm, drew it to Bald- winsville, had it sawed and framed and soon after 1820 floated it on a scow via. the new water-way, and the Seneca River to the lake and thence to Syracuse, and built his store. It stood on the site afterwards occupied by the Mechanic's Bank building and now by part of the Wieting Block. A. S. Tilden had just opened a saddlery and harness shop " one door west of Williston's Mansion House." Pliny Dickinson had his jewelry store "oppo- site the Syracuse House," on the north side of Genesee street, and about this time Elam Lynds and son purchased the hardware business of A. Kas- son. Dr. R. Belden, one of the earliest dentists in the village, had his rooms at " O. B. Teall's Onondaga House," or he would " be happy to wait on them (his patrons) at their homes." He would prepare " artificial teeth which will in most of cases be as firm and useful for mastication as natural teeth." Perhaps the quaintest advertisement of those days was that of Samuel Larned and one that announced the business which laid the foundation of a liberal fortune. He said : "The Boat Vender, or Floating Store, owned by Mr. John Converse, of the city of Troy, is now lying at the village of Syracuse, opposite Brockway's Mansion House." Then followed a long list of groceries offered for sale, and the important statement that "all liquors are warranted of the purest quality." Mr. Larned commanded this floating store with great success and became a strong rival of the local grocers. An Ancient Fourth ok Julv. 133 Jason C. Woodruff carried on his livery at the old stand on Warren street, and announced that he would continue to run a daily line of stages to Homer. E. W. Leavenworth was rapidly winning the fame that increased in after years, by arduous law work in his office in the east wing of the Syr- acuse House. H. Winchester announced that he had removed "from the select school room lately occupied by Mr. Walker, to Masonic Hall, east of the Mansion House." The " Syracuse School " was announced to open on December 10, 1829, under the general superintendence of Rev. G. S. Olds. Jonathan Day and Henry Newton were the trustees. II. Bennet had a lottery ofifice in the village and S. C. Brewster announced that on January 7, 1829, he would open a second one " in the first brick building west of the Mansion House." This lottery office carried the largest advertisement in the local newspapers. A new daily line of mail post coaches had recently been established between Syracuse and Watertown ; one of the various managers was O. H. Williston, of Syracuse. Reuben West & Son carried on a general store, and Ambrose Dunbarwasthe village barber, "two doors west of Williston's IMansion House." In those days the general feeling of prosperity inspired the people with patriotism and almost every year the Fourth of July was celebrated " in the good old way." That of 1828 was the source of much local congratulation. The usual day-break gun was fired, with a salute at sunrise, flags were dis- played, and at 10 o'clock the military "paraded on the Public Square in front of the Mansion House." The Declaration of Independence was read by E. W. Leavenworth, an oration was delivered by Harvey Baldwin, and an address by Rev. W. Thacher. John Rogers was Marshal. The pro- gramme ended with a dinner at the Syracuse House. The volume of business transacted in Syracuse and Salina at this time was larger than would be indicated by the same number of merchants in other places, owing to the large operations in salt manufacture and sale. This industry formed the sound and active substratum of business, which kept alive the confidence of the community and gave them a source of in- come that was most encouraging. Consequent upon the increasing business of the village, the inhabitants began to feel the need of banking facilities, and to meet this requirement the Onondaga County Bank was incorporated by the Legislature, under date of April 26, 1830, and the institution was organized on the 13th of June. 1831. — The few years subsequent to 1S30 were uneventful in Syracuse if we except the visitation of the cholera, but the general progress of the place continued. On the 21st of March, consent was given to the "Canal Commissioners to take down the stone bridge across the Erie canal in Sa- lina street and rebuild the same." The Clinton street bridge was repaired 134 Memorial History of Syracuse. at a cost of $111.27, by Daniel Elliott, and Warren street between Foot and Church streets was opened. 1832. — At a meeting held September 22, 1832, a contract was let to Ebenezer Hopkins for S300, for making and improving a road "through the swamp south of the village leading to Onondaga Hollow, on the east side of Onondaga Creek." It was during the summer of this year that forebodings reached Syra- cuse regarding an anticipated visitor that was for a period to paralyze busi- ness in the village and bring mourning to many families. The Asiatic cholera ravaged portions of Europe in 1831, and in June, 1832, the first cases reached Quebec and Montreal. It was seen that the scourge would, in all probability, strike Syracuse, and that it could be successfully fought only by efficient sanitary action and conditions. A public meeting was held June 30, 1832, to consider what were the best measures to adopt to ward off the plague. It was resolved that two men should be stationed at the Lodi locks under instructions to inspect every boat arriving from the east, and if any passenger who was ill was found, the boat should be stopped until the case could be examined by a village physician. The physicians of the village were constituted a Board of Health and they issued an address to the public. It was designed chiefly to instruct the people in simple san- itary matters, urge their adojjtion and encourage the timid. The Trustees were authorized to raise a sum of money, not exceeding $1,000, to be used in promoting the health of the village. A meeting of the Trustees was held June 23d, at which the village was divided into four wards, the canal and Salina streets being the division lines. The northwest division was called Ward No. i ; the southwest, Ward No. 2 ; the southeast. Ward No. 3 ; the northeast, Ward No. 4. A resolution was adopted, " that E. B. Wicks and Silas Ames, for the First ward ; Henry Raynor and Theodore Ashley forthe Second ward; W. H. Alexander and Daniel Comstock for the Third ward, and Taschal Thurber and Benjamin C. Lathrop for the Fourth ward," be appointed a "Comrnittee of Inspection to carry into effect the village ordinances." One of the duties of this committee was to cause a quantity of lime to be kept in each ward and to see that it was lib- erally used. These measures were adopted almost wholly with a view of fortifying the village, as far as possible, against the oncoming malady. On the 1st of July the cholera broke out in New York city and during that month and August more than three thou.sand deaths were recorded from the terrible disease. The knowledge of these events, accounts of which were widely published in the newspapers, excited grave apprehensions. Another Trustees' meeting was held on the 25th of June at which it was resolved that no canal boat having cases of cholera on board should approach within one mile of the village, until it had been quarantined fif- Visitation oi- the Cholera. 135 teen days, or until a village physician certified that there was no cholera on board. Dr. Jonathan Day was then the leading physician of the village, and under commission of the Governor of the State, secured by request of the inhabitants of Syracuse, he was sent to Montreal to study the disease and ascertain the best methods of treatment. As would now be expected, noth- ing worthy of mention was gained by this measure. The first case of cholera occurred in Syracuse on the 17th of July. The day had been ex- cessively hot and the man, who was a laborer, drank freely of cold water. It was hoped that this was the prime cause of his death, but the second case on the following day proving fatal in twelve hours, was conclusive evidence the disease was at hand. The Rev. Nelson I. Gilbert, who had been pas- tor of the First Baptist Church since 1824, preached the funeral sermon of the first victim, and on the following evening was stricken down with the disease and died in a few hours. Very few funerals were held after this during the epidemic, the contagiousness of the disease rendering such a course dangerous. Mrs. Gilbert was attacked within a few hours of her hus- band's death, and Dr. Jonathan Day attended both cases. Mrs. Gilbert was taken very neardeath's door by the disease, but finally recovered. Two domestics in the family left the house when the scourge appeared, but both were taken down and died within a few days. Cases now increased daily and a general feeling of dismay ensued. The physicians of the village labored heroically, and the appalling tasks of the undertakers were per- formed with a readiness that was most commendable. The officials who had been stationed at the Locks had detained two boats well filled with passengers, whose complaints were added to those of the boat captains at such interference, and the authorities of the village found themselves face to face with an emergency from which they saw no escape. At the same time a boat called the " Western Barque" left Albany after the cholera had appeared there, having on board about sixty emigrants as passengers. When the boat reached Utica the disease broke out, the captain being the first victim. The boat came on westward and by the time it reached Syracuse there were a number of dead bodies aboard and several other cases. Another boat with about fifty passengers came on in which cholera had broken out when it reached Utica, and six were dead when it stopped at Syracuse. It was apparent that if this quarantining of boats bearing the infection and dead bodies was to continue, the conse- quences were likely to prove far more disastrous than if they were hurried on their way through the village. This course was, therefore, adopted. In the midst of the scourge, when fear filled the hearts of many, faith- ful Dr. Day was stricken down and died with the disease. This, of course, added to the general dismay, and while there were many who rose above 136 Memorial History of Syracuse. personal fear and passed through the ordeal on a high level of resignation, others were terror-stricken and possibly thus invited the disease. The mal- ady raged in all parts of the village and in Salina with equal virulence. In some instances almost entire families were prostrated within a few hours and in many cases two, three, or four, out of a family fell before the plague. " When persons died they were rolled up in their clothing, laid in their cof- fins, and thus found their resting-place. Every countenance wore the ex- pression of seriousness. The voices of mirth and merriment were every- where hushed, and sadness and gloom seemed to hang like a pall over the town."* Among the more prominent victims of the disease were Dr. Wil- liam Kirkpatrick, one of the best educated and most influential citizens of the place, Anson Richmond, an uncle of Dean Richmond, I. Dunscombe, Halcombe, Dr. Jonathan Day, Rev. N. I. Gilbert. The prominent physicians of the place at that time were Drs. Day, J. W. Hanchett, George Hooker, Lyman Clary, James Foran, R. R. Davis, Hiram Hoyt. There were about one hundred deaths in Syracuse and Salina dur- ing the epidemic, which extended over to the summer of 1834, while in 1833 the village was in a more than usually healthy condition. On the last Sunday in July, 1834, Theodore Ashley, the cabinet maker and undertaker, had ten funerals of cholera victims to care for. Charles F. Williston, who was then learning his trade of Mr. Ashley, and is still living, took charge of seven of those funerals. 1833. — In the year 1833 extensive improvements were made on the canal bridges of the village. The new bridge on Salina street had been finished and at a public meeting held May 20th, it was resolved to "raise by tax $1000, to be applied in constructing two bridges across the Erie Canal," one at Lock street and one on Franklin street. A. N. Van Patten was given the privilege of building " a packet boat office at the southeast corner of the new Bridge on the Public Square," for which he agreed to pay $20 an- nually, beginning with April, 1834. This A.N. Van Patten was quite a conspicuous figure in Syracuse, in his way, in early years. He bought the lot fronting on South Salina and West Onondaga streets where the stately Florence flats now stand, and built for a tavern the house recently re- moved, in which Samuel Larned lived a number of years. These premises he wagered on the election of 1829 and lost; moreover, he paid his bet. He then built on the west side of Salina street, near Onondaga, what was for years known as the " Old Line House," a large brick building. He was interested in various other projects, among which was the building of the Old Circus House on Church street. He died January 29, 1847, and is buried at Rose Hill. " From a Forest to a City," by M. C. Hand. 'lrlD^^4rf.tt;c A Census of Business Houses in xiit; \'ii,i.Ar:E. 137 1834. — The usual street improvements were continued in 1834, particular- ly in the line of sidewalks, and the increase of business and population was most encouraging. The population had reached about 3,800. Moses D. Burnet, John Wilkinson, B. Davis Noxon, Stephen Smith, Miram Putnam, E. W. Leavenworth, L. H. Redfield, llarvey Baldwin, and Henry Davis, were appointed in February to supervise an extensive revision of the char- ter. In July the Trustees made public the following: "The following named streets are required to be paved according to the graduation thereof made by William Jerome in the year 1834, viz., Salina street from the bridge across the Erie Canal on the line of said street, to the south line of Church street ; also the south side of Clinton Square from Salina street to the west line of the intersection of Clinton street; also Water street from Salina street easterly to the east line of Warren street, then Warren street from Water street to the south line of Genesee street, and then Genesee street from Warren street to Salina street ; also Genesee street from the east line of the intersection of Warren street, to the west line of Center Square ; also, Genesee street, from the west line of Salina street to a line running from the northwest corner of Lot No. i, in Block No. 85, to the south- west corner of Lot No. g, in Block No. 76 in said street. The said pave- ment to embrace the north half of Clinton Square and Genesee street, be- tween the lines above mentioned. Also, the half of Salina street fronting the tavern and lot owned and occupied by William B. Kirk ; to be done in- side of three months." This work was not done at that time. There were now in the village the following number of business establish- ments : 22 grocery and provision stores, 16 variety stores, 2 hardware stores, 4 clothing stores, 5 boot and shoe stores, 4 drug stores, 2 book stores, 3 print- ing offices, 3 silver smiths, 2 flouring mills, i lumber mill, i planing mill, 3 tin shops, 3 furnace and machine shops, 2 carnage shops. 3 cabinet shops, 2 leather manufactories, I morocco manufactory, 1 soap and candle manu- factory, I distillery, i brewery, 3 marble yards, 1 boat yard, 15 salt blocks, I Episcopal Church, i Methodist Church, i Baptist Church, 2 lyceums. Building operations were active. What were long known as the Frank- lin Buildings, on East Genesee street, were put up in that year and still re- main in part as then erected. New structures were erected about this time on the east side of Salina street south of the Syracuse House, an improve- ment that was doubtless hastened by the crushing down of some of the small wooden structures on that block by the falling walls of the brick building on the corner of Salina and Washington streets. This building was begun in 1831 and the end walls (north and south) were blown down while it was in process of construction. It was long known as the Exchange Hotel and was first kept by \^an Patten & Crane. Library Hall was in the upper portion of the hotel and was for a number of years the most impor- 18 138 Memorial History of Syracuse. tant public hall in the village. Here many lectures and entertainments were given. Hoyt & Billings built about this time a large carriage manufactory on the southwest corner of Fayette and Mulburry streets, which gave place about ten years later to the Sheldon Block, built by Harvey Sheldon, which is still standing. In 1839 ^^''- Billings built his large wagon factory, which was recently removed from the site of the Frazer flats. Austin Myers came to Syracuse in 1833 with no money, but a vast amount of energy. He found employment in the harness shop of Silas Ames and at the end of a year went to Jordan, where he remained until 1840, when he returned to Syracuse and established a line of packet boats on the canal which he conducted with great success. He built the Myers Block and was quite a large owner of real estate. In his later years he engaged in many broad business undertakings in various places throughout the country. At the junction of Montgomery, Washington, and Genesee streets stood in 1833 a one-and-a-half story wooden building with outside stairs. L. H. Redfield bought this corner and lived on the southern part of the lot. He removed the wooden building and erected a small brick block of one story. Here Christian Cook had a little upholsterer's shop, from which small be- ginning he has become the possessor of a large fortune. The corner of Fayette and Warren streets had been built up in 1832 by a Mr. King, of Tully, with a two-story wooden dwelling. It was sold to a Mr. Partridge, who kept a hotel there a number of years, when Josiah Brintnall and his brother became the owners and began the long career of the Brintnall Hotel. They added to and greatly improved their house and it became a popular resort, particularly for country people. The village records show that on several occasions the proprietors were warned that they must not permit the street in front of their hotel to be so often blockaded by teams. In 1834, B. F. Rogers kept a store on East Water street, nearly oppo- site the Syracuse House. Early in the evening of March 16, fire broke out in this store and spread with such rapidity that in a short time and in spite of the efforts of the firemen and citizens, eleven of the buildings on the north side of, and then facing, the canal, and ten on the south side, were destroyed, sweeping Water street in that block clean. Of the ten buildings burned on the south side of the canal, five were of brick and either three or four stories high. The number of persons in business who suffered from this fire was over fifty, several of whom were heavy losers. The district burned over was in the heart of the village and the entire community felt the effects of the calamity severely ; but the devastated district was soon rebuilt upon with substantial, if not very handsome, brick structures. On the site of the old Granger store was erected in 1835 Introduction of Pavements in the Village. 139 what was long known as the Star Building, from its having been occupied by the office of the Syraiiisc Star. It was three stories high, the lower floor being considerably below Salina street and reached by entrances from James street and from the tow path. 1835. — This year was chiefly notable for the introduction of paved streets in the village. A meeting was called on the i8th of June, to con- sider the advisability of paving Salina street " between the bridge over the Erie canal and the north line of Fayette street; also, the paving of Salina street from the Erie canal bridge to the south line of Church street, the south side of Clinton Square from Salina street to Clinton street, and Gen- esee street from Warren street to Center Square." The result of the vote of the citizens was to pave only that portion of Salina street between Fayette and Church streets. Hanover Square was paved at a little later date. The Salina street contract was let to Utica pavers, there being none in Syracuse at that time. At a public meeting in June it was voted to raise $1,600 for building a bridge over the canal on Clinton street, " the said bridge to be similar in construction and material to the bridge across the canal on the east side of Clinton Square." The sum of $300 was paid for filling in Mulberry street and a part of Lock street, and a large quantity of brick and gravel side- walk was constructed. The Syracuse Academy was incorporated by Act of Legislature dated April 28, 1835, the incorporators being Oliver Teall, Harvey Baldwin, Aaron Burt, William I. Dodge, Thomas Spencer, L. H. Redfield, Elihu L. Phillips, Thomas Rose, and S. W. Cadvvell. This became a useful and successful educational institution. 1836. — The paving of streets was considerably extended this year. J. I. Bigelow was paid about $250 for " paving the square formed by the cross- ing of Salina and Foot streets." Salina street was ordered paved from Fayette street to Onondaga street, and Warren street from the south line of Genesee to the north line of Jefferson street. These were extensive improvements for those days and cost considera- ble money. In the month of July the sums of $437.54, $692.62, $644.10, $1,057.33, 'i"*^ S504.O0 were ordered raised for paving expenses. A public well was provided for Hanover Square at a cost of about $200, and $75 were appropriated for a railing around it. The amount paid over to the Street Commissioners from May 6, 1835, to April, 1836, for labor, materials, and tools, was $2,007.88. The Clinton street bridge cost $1,730, and the work and material on squares, angles of streets south of the canal, crosswalks, etc., $3,044.79, making a total of $6,782.67. Among the incorporated companies of this year which bear a local inter- I40 Memorial History of Syracuse. est, at least as curiosities, were, " The Syracuse and Onondaga Railroad Company," with a capital of $75,000, and Vivus VV. Smith, James Beards- lee, Elam Lynds, Daniel Elliott, and Henry Raynoras incorporators. This road ran from Syracuse to certain stone quarries, and was operated for some years. "The Syracuse Stone Railroad Company," whose road was to run to " Benedict's quarries." The incorporators were Moses D. Burnet, Elihu Walter, S. VV. Cadwell, H. VV. Van Buren, and Stephen Smith, all good Syracuse men. The capital was $75,000. " The Brewerton and Syracuse Railroad Company," with Dean Rich- mond, James Beardslee, John L. Stevens, J. H. Parker, and James Manning, as incorporators, and a capital of $80,000. The last two roads mentioned were not built. It will not be uninteresting to learn something of what was provided for the amusement of the fathers, which can be done by the following notice from a local paper : " Syracuse Museum. In the Yellow Building over L. O. Phinney's store west side of the square. The proprietors of this establishment have lately been at great expense in making additions to their extensive collection of curiosities and in fitting it up in elegant man- ner for the reception of visitors. It is now opened and the public are in- vited to extend to them the patronage which their exertions may have mer- ited. Some of the principal curiosities in this museum are a splendid Forest, containing upwards of three hundred Quadrupeds, Birds, Reptiles, etc., etc., from all parts of the world, Shells, Minerals, Fossils, Petrifaction, etc., between two and three thousand, among which are rare specimens, a large collection of Miscellaneous curiosities consisting of war implements of all nations, Turkish, East India, and Chinese workmanship of all kinds. American and Foreign antiquities, Domestic Utensils of the Indians, Skel- etons, with a great variety of other articles. An embalmed head of a New Zealand Chief, handsomely Tattooed, and in a fine State of preservation. An ancient Blunderbus from England. Wax figures. Grand performance every evening of the Italian Phantasmagoria or Optical Illusions ; the whole to conclude with the comic and ludicrous scene of the dance, or multiplica- tion of witches. Admittance twenty-five cents." Referring to a sale of land on Prospect Hill at $1,000 an acre, the editor of the Onondaga Chic/ volunteered the information that it would cost another $1,000 an acre to level the ground, " which was very uneven," and that the sale made to gentlemen from New York, makes it "worthy of observation that, notwithstanding the great scarcity of money, real estate has risen in this village during the last six months nearly one hundred per cent." He speaks confidently of Syracuse as the future capital of the State (quite as we sometimes do in recent days) and adds that " capitalists Early Village Indebtedness. 141 are already learning that a village where seven railroads terminate affords them a fair opportunity for safe and profitable investments." Some of those railroads must have been the ones the incorporation of which (but not the building) we have just noticed. Again, on August 3d the same paper an- nounces the sale of forty acres of land near the Lodi locks by the Syracuse Company for §40,000. Also, "the farm of Mr. Forman, lying about one and a half miles east of the village, has been purchased by H. Baldwin, esq., for $40,000, being $200 the acre." 1837. — The liberal expenditures of the past year or two, by which the village had incurred considerable indebtedness, seems to have impelled the authorities to restrict appropriations for public improvements, and very little was done this year in this direction. Warren and Montgomery streets were improved between Jefferson and Genesee streets, by turnpiking and by paving the gutters. At a public meeting it was voted to raise $500 "to pay indebtedness to individuals." In July $400 were raised " for paving squares and streets," and in December a tax levy was voted for $500 for highway purposes. Moreover, the financial crisis of this year was felt to a considerable extent, though with much less severity than at many other points in the State. Business was somewhat crippled for a time, but it is unquestioned that Syracuse had a foundation of financial prosperity, a rep- utation for stability, as well as a natural source of income and profit not vouchsafed to many places, and these co-operated to carry the business community through the period of stringency. 1838. — In May of this year a loan of $3,500 was authorized " to pay the village debts for street improvements," thus laying substantial founda- tion for the present imposing obligations of the city. The most important action of this year, as far as the village was con- cerned, was the taking of preliminarj' steps toward? building a public mar- ket. The old canal basin, which the misguided policy of the authorities had permitted in the heart of the village, had long been an almost intolera- ble nuisance. A pu'olic meeting was called on December 6th, at which it was resolved to obtain by loan $15,000, with which to build " a market and town house." Although the project of a public market was not consum- mated until four years later, this was the first step towards it. This year was also a memorable one for Syracuse on account of the building of the first railroad through the village. The Auburn and Syracuse Railroad Company received its charter in 1835 and work was begun in December of that year. In January, 1838, the road was opened from Auburn to Geddes and it was soon afterwards continued into the village, the sale of the neces- sary lands for tracks and a station having been authorized by the Legisla- ture in April, 1837. This was not much of a railroad, but its importance 142 Memorial History of Syracuse. was appreciated by the people of Syracuse ; they looked upon it as the sure forerunner of others. It was equipped with wooden rails and until June, 1839, the cars were drawn by horses. It was the noted landlord, Philo N. Rust, who used to hook up his excellent team in Syracuse or Auburn, at the hour for departure of a train on this early road, and wager that he would travel the country road and reach the other end of the line ahead of the cars. It is said that he found no takers of his offers, and not infre- quently accomplished the feat. During this period, too, the Syracuse and Utica railroad was becoming a fact. Chartered in 1836, its construction was pushed along and it was opened July 4th, 1839. John Wilkinson, with other prominent residents of the village, was very influential in advancing this enterprise. The opening of these railroads and the relief that soon followed the financial stringency of that period, gave another impulse to the growth of Syracuse and brought to it men of means and energy whose labors still further advanced its prosperity. Horace White came from Homer to Syr- acuse in 1838, and his brother Hamilton in 1839. Perhaps no two men left a more enduring impress for good upon Syracuse than Horace and Hamil- ton White. Horace founded the Bank of Syracuse, which was subse- quently changed to a National Bank, and was interested in other banks. Hamilton White was cashier of the Onondaga County Bank until 1854, when he became a private banker. The two brothers were largelj' inter- ested in what are now the New York Central, Lake Shore and Michigan Southern railroads, and for many years held seats in their directorship. They acquired extensive business interests, not only in Syracuse but also elsewhere, and were leaders in all public enterprises. They were excep- tionally sagacious and industrious and their large fortunes were honorably earned. They were also influential in politics, were contemporaries of Wil- liam H. Seward, Thurlow Weed and other Whig politicians of their day. They gave liberally of their means to advance the interests of their party, upon the success of which, they believed, the progress and prosperity of the country largely depended. To these men the Syracuse of to-day is largely indebted for their business foresight and energy which gave it impulse when it was but a village, and evidences of their busy and successful lives and of their public spirit are visible everywhere to-day. Horace White died in 1861, leaving a widow and two children — Andrew D. White and Horace K. White. Hamilton White died in 1865, leaving a widow and five children — Antoinette W., Clara W., Barrett R., Hamilton S., and Howard G. Dr. John M. Wieting came to Syracuse in 1837 as a civil engineer for the Syracuse and Utica railroad. He surveyed many of the streets of Syr- acuse, also Rose Hill Cemetery, and in later years became an enterprising builder and a large owner of real estate. He died in 1888. FuRTiiKK General Improvements. 143 Peter Burns, who first came to Syracuse in 1836, began his long and successful career as a merchant and manufacturer soon after 1840 and is still living to look back upon a successful and well spent life. George and Peter Waggoner built up the northeast corner of James and Salina streets and were for many years successful business men. Many other names of men might be added, the work of whose lives in Syracuse, coupled with that of those earlier citizens whose energies were expended as well for the good of the community at large, as for their own, has contribu- ted towards building up this great city. The late Gen. E. W. Leavenworth had been appointed a village Trustee in 1837, to fill a vacancy caused by the election of Elihu L. I^hillipsas Sheriff. In 183S, 1839, and 1840 he was I'resident of the village, and during that period he was indefatigable in intelligent and advanced efforts for the proper upbuilding of the place. While the many reforms instituted by him were eminently practical, his work was always tempered with his natural appreciation of the artistic side. Broad streets, ample shade trees, numer- ous parks — all these beautifiers of any village or city — were constantly pres- ent in his contemplation of neetled improvements. It was, doubtless, this characteristic which impelled him in 1838 to write the resolutions that pre- served what is now Vanderbilt Square, by granting a portion of it to the Syracuse and L'tica railroad company as a site for their historical depot, and compelling the company to buy twenty-six feet on the south side and four feet on the north side, to be devoted to public use. Here the old de- pot was erected by Daniel Elliott, to stand until it had long outlived its usefulness. The railroad company was also compelled to set shade trees through Washington street and to build the first sewer that reached the Yellow Brook and drained the swamp between the village and the highlands eastward. In the winter of 1839, General Leavenworth drew the law under which the Trustees were enabled to contract with the Turnpike Company to so change the course of the road between Mulberry and Grape streets as to pass around what is now Fayette Park — that beautiful oasis in the heart of the bu.sy city. Third South street (Fayette) was opened this year from Beech to Cherry street; also, "the street running from Franklin to the Mill Race, between the canal and Genesee street " (now Mechanic street). Water street be- tween Warren and Montgomery streets was ordered paved. With all the advancement thus described ; with the canal meeting the expectations of the community ; with its enlargement then in progress ; with railroads coming into the village from the east and the west, and with an all- pervading feeling among the really far seeing men of the place that Judge Forman's early predictions would be fulfilled, as far as they related to a 144 Memorial History of Syracuse. large community growing up here, it is not to be wondered at that the ques- tion of incorporating the village under a city charter was thus early broached. A resolution was brought before the Trustees in December, 1838, that application be made to the Legislature for a city charter. The matter was, however, destined to be postponed several years. 1839. — But in many respects Syracuse was still a rural hamlet, when compared with the modern city. Cattle were restrained from roaming in the streets in 1839 only between the 15th of December and the 15th of March. They could find no friendly pasture during that portion of the year. This year was prolific in new sidewalks, brick and gravel being the chief materials used in their construction. In March it was resolved that the vil- lage would pay S50 towards covering Warren street with gravel, if the resi- dents of the street would pay $150. Gravel or brick sidewalks were made on portions of James, Grape, Fay- ette, Genesee, Salina, Washington, and possibly other streets. The high- way tax for the year was $3,500, and by an Act of Legislature (April 9, 1839,) the Trustees were empowered to pledge the credit of the village for funds not to exceed $10,000. Washington street was extended from Almond to Chestnut, and " Forman Square " was declared a " public square." Sweep- ing changes and additions were made in and to the ordinances this year, giving the Trustees extended powers, by which street signs might be ordered; buildings and fences that encroached on streets, moved back ; de- positing of garbage and running of animals in the streets, prohibited ; the meat markets closed on Sundays; stagnant pools abolished ; the storage of gunpowder restricted ; boats and rafts kept out of the canal basin, except for twenty-four hours or less, etc. The opening of the railroad to Auburn was celebrated with considerable enthusiasm on the lOth of September, when an e.xcursion embracing many prominent people went over the road. This was a year of political activity and several eminent politicians and statesmen visited the village, among them being Henry Clay and William H. Seward. Building operations con- tinued and several prominent structures were erected. About this time Horace and Hamilton White contracted with Daniel Elliott for the erection of the two-and a half story brick building on the corner of South Salina and Washington streets, in which were located the Onondaga County Bank and the Bank of Syracuse. The lower floor was used for many years by the American Express Company. The building was removed to clear the site for the splendid edifice which the children of Horace and Hamilton White erected to their memory — the White Memorial Building. ^a^^ PuRCiiASK or RosK IIii.i. Cemetery. 145 CHAPTER XIV. FROM 1840 TO INCORPOR.\TION AS A CITY. Kurihcr Progress of the Village — The Rose Ilill Cemetery Purchase — A Brief Era of Turbu- lence — Additions to the Business Houses of the Village — The Great Gunpowder Explosion — Lists of Killed and Injured — Public .\ction on the Casualties -Changes of Street Names — .V Disgraceful Riot — Whisperings of a City Charter — Abolition of the Old Canal Basin — Erection of a Public Market — Causes of its Failure — Incorporation as a City. FROM the date under which the last chapter closed until the village was incorporated as a city, many important events occurred and many radical changes were effected in various directions. E. W. Leavenworth was still President of the village and his firm and progressive hand was felt in the inauguration of many improvements. In May the Syracuse and Utica railroad company were made to properly drain the premises " around their car house on Washington street, as agreed." The subject of disposing of the old cemetery on Franklin street, just north of Washington, had been frequently discussed, and this year the whole matter was referred to John Wilkinson, Lyman Clary, and Samuel Earned. The result of this action was the purchase of the Rose Hill tract, at S300 per acre, in December. Early in this year (1840) a meeting was held to consider the application to the Legislature for a city charter, but it was decided as " not expedient " at that time. It would appear that at this time the village suffered somewhat from a turbulent spirit in the rougher element of the population, and the authori- ties deemed it necessary to take some action towards securing more strin- gent and arbitrary government. This resulted (Januar>-) in a resolution to the effect that the "Trustees and three other individuals be apppointed a committee to report amendments to the ordinances that will give the villaf^e a more vigorous police." The persons appointed, besides the Trustees, were Thomas T. Davis, John Wilkinson, and David S. Colvin. In May it was resolved that "there shall hereafter be a Police Justice in Syracuse, who shall be appointed in the same manner as the Judges of the County Courts." The sum of $4,000 was raised for highway purposes, and among the street improvements made was the turnpiking of Jefferson, Grape, Cedar, Madison, and Montgomery streets. The volume of business had by this time considerably increased and we find record of the following establishments then in existence, being mainly in addition to those already mentioned : 19 146 Memorial History of Syracuse. Butler & Hobby, " No. i, next door to the Onondaga County Bank," announced the receipt of new goods "by railroad." They were in the dry goods trade on East Genesee street. The Onondaga Bookstore and Syra- cuse Bazaar was the rather pretentious title selected by Madame A. J. Raoul for her store, which was on Water street, opposite Hanover Square. J. F. & A. Wind advertised the arrival at their music store (on the west side of South Salina street, just north of Railroad street) of " two superior Iron Harp Chickering Pianos." S. Gardiner, jr., kept a music store in the Franklin Buildings. The " City Drug Store " was kept by E. Hough ; it was on the west side of Salina street, a little north of Railroad street. Lewis H. Red- field had a bookstore in connection with his printing business, on East Wa- ter street, and Barnet & Gurnsey, boots and shoes, had then recently taken the store " lately occupied as a dry goods store, second door west of the Mansion House." A. Root & Co. sold boots and shoes about where J. Dean Hawley's store is now located. Cook & Fitch (Volney Cook and George S. Fitch,) were selling dry goods on East Water street, near War- ren street, while at the same time, in connection with Ezra Town, who is still living, they sold groceries under the style of Cook, Fitch & Town. The " Syracuse Crockery Store" was kept by Ransom Curtis and S. P. Pierce at No. 2 Slocum Building. This was about where Covell & Morris's grocery now is. Sylvester P. Pierce came to Syracuse in 1839 and is now one of the oldest business men in the city. He began the crockery trade here with Mr. Curtis, as stated, and has ever since been connected with it, either at retail or wholesale. Charles Pope carried on a plating business, about the first in the place, " fifty rods east of the Syracuse House on Genesee street." He was in a part of the old Unitarian church building. Mr. Pope became a man of prominence in the community and was suitably honored by his fellow citizens for his sterling qualities. Charles Rust sold furniture in the " Prison Wareroom " adjoining W. & H. Raynor, one door west of Wright & Wheaton, who were in the dry goods line. These latter stores were on West Water street. Philo D. Mickles, stoves and hardware, " sign of the padlock." This store was on the Weiting block corner, where hardware had been sold many years. Philo Dorwin Mickles was the eldest son of Nicholas Mickles and was born on the 2d of August, 1798. Two years later the family moved to Onondaga Hill. In 1827, on the death of his father, he removed to Salina and a little later to Syracuse, where he es- tablished the first furnace in the village ; it was located on Canal street, and there he made plows and some of the first stoves in use. In 1837 he was involved in the general financial wreck, but he recovered and in 1838 opened a "temperance grocery store," where McCarthy & Redfield were afterwards located. He is said to have been the first man in Syracuse to do a business of $150,000 a year. In 1839 he engaged in the hardware trade, and in 1849 Competition of the New Railroad. 14; went to California and for two years followed mining operations with varying success, returning then to Syracuse. He died on the 19th of April, 1874. Barnes & Stapley had a furnace and machine shop on the Oswego canal, "a little north of the weigh lock." Jason C. Woodruff, associated with J. Uutterficld & Co., of Utica, advertised their stage lines in opposition to the new railroad. The competition between this mode of travel, the packet boats, and the railroad became very active, and for a few years it was an open question which was the most desirable one— and even which was the quickest of the three. Runners from the packet docks haunted the railroad station and used all of their eloquence to persuade passengers to come on board their delightful and safe vessels, which they guaranteed would make as good time on the average as the cars, while the advocates of the stage lines were little less persuasive and imaginative as to the safety and expe- dition of their elegant coaches. But the boats and the coaches were soon relegated to a slower age. Hargin & Shaw were dealers in stoves and hardware on the corner of Water and Warren streets, and the " New York Cheap Bookstore," Louis D. Pomeroy, proprietor, was on West Water street. H. W. Durnford & Co. were grocers on the corner of East Water and Warren streets, opposite the Bastable block site. Hall, Rhoades & Sherman did a large hardware business on the site of the new Everson building. William H. Alexander & Co. offered stoves, etc., " at their furnace," which was on the corner of Water and Franklin streets. Malcolm & Hudson were in the hardware business at the second door west of the corner of Salina and West Water streets, and Zophar H. Adams was the leading brick-maker, his yard then being about on the site of the Novelty Manufacturing Company on Dick- inson street. Zaccheus T. Newcomb and Charles A. Baker had joined the already mentioned attorneys of the village. The latter was a son of Eras- tus Baker, a pioneer in the town of LaFayette. He married a daughter of Thaddeus M. Wood and lived for a time in Salina, removing to Syracuse when the village began to improve rapidly. He lived for a time in what was known as the Larned house, on the site of the Florence fiats. He pur- chased one hundred acres, which included "the swamp" in the Seventh and Eighth wards, and his wife became possessed of eighty acres from the lar^re estate of her father, which extended along both sides of Salina street tn the southern part of the city and including much of the most desirable part of Danforth. In later years Mr. Baker built the brick residence now occu- pied by H. R. Olmsted. Mr. Baker was an able and public spirited man and was honored with many evidences of the confidence of the community. He died in October, 1881. 1841.— The crowning disaster of this year, and indeed of any year in the history of Syracuse, was an explosion of gunpowder, which occurred / 148 Memorial History of Syracuse. on the 2ist of August, by which twenty-six persons lost their lives and many more were seriously injured. Various accounts of this terrible occur- rence have been published, but we are assured that no more reliable record of it can be expected than the one which appeared in the Onondaga Standard. Having been written at the time and amid the harrowing de- tails of the distressing event, it bears the impress of accuracy and vivid particularity. It is as follows : FIRE AND GREAT LOSS OF LIFE »Y THE EXPLOSION OF GUNrOWDER. "One of the most deeply afflicting events that ever occurred in our town, took place last night. About half past nine o'clock, the alarm of fire was given, which brought most of our citizens to a wooden building situated on the tow path of the Oswego canal, nearly in rear of the County Clerk's office, and occupied as a joiner's shop by Charles Cloings. At the time we had reached the spot, the roof of the building was completely enveloped in flames. The engine companies were near the fire and appeared to be doing good e.xecution. Presently we heard the cry of 'Powder! Pow- der! There is powder in the building! ' When this cry was first given, nearly the whole crowd rushed back, but the move was but momentary. Most of those nearest the fire, maintained their position, and very few appeared to place any credit in the report. At this time we were standing within 50 or 60 feet of the flames; the building had been on fire perhaps fifteen minutes, when a tremendous explosion took place, completely checking the fire and demolishing the building. This explosion lasted we should think three or four seconds, filling the air with fragments of the building, and creating the greatest consternation imaginable. The noise of the explosion having ceased, all was still for a moment, and then the most heart-rending groans that ever reached our ears, were distinctly heard. "The first person whom we met after the shock was Mr. Myers, the lock-tender, a tall, athletic man, with part of his face blown off. and his head and shoulders completely covered with cinders and blood. He begged some one to go home with him, and two persons readily accompanied him. The next was a person brought out dead; one side of his head having been blown off, and his brains fallen out. Oh, Mercy, what a sight. From this followed other scenes which it is impossible to describe. All was confusion. .•\lthough the sight of the dead and dying was horrible, it was scarcely less than that of the living, inquiring for their relatives— parents for their children, and wives almost frantic with despair, for their husbands. "Fverything, we believe, was done that could have been done under the circumstances. An extra train of cars was run to .Auburn for physicians, and our hotel keepers threw open their doors for the reception of the wounded. We were on the ground an hour after the explosion occurred, and witnessed the greatest kindness on the part of all. Every effort was made to extricate the bodies, and to afford all the consolation that could be afforded. "As to the origin of the fire, it is unknown; but it is supposed that it was the work of an in- cendiary. The fire appeared to have commenced in the top of the building. The powder — some say ten, others fifteen kegs — was placed on the lower floor, under a work bench, and belonged to Malcolm & Hudson. "Such is a brief and imperfect sketch of this awful calamity — a calamity which, from the care- lessness, avarice or malignity of one, or two, or three, has sent or probably will send not less than thirty of their fellow beings from time into eternity, and most of them without a moment's warning. What a subject for reflection. Let those who escaped — and we were one among the number — feel grateful to that good Being, whose ways, though inscrutable, are always just. Mr. Hudson, firm of Malcom & Hudson, the owners of the powder, in his testimony before the jurj', stated that there were twenty-three kegs, containing twenty-five pounds each, and four kegs containing twelve and a half pounds each, making in all, six hundred and twenty-five pounds deposited in the upper story of the building in the northeast corner, if we recollect rightly, on or about the 12th instant. Had The Powder Explosion of 1841. 149 the powder been in the lower story, as we at first stated, or deposited in the western part of the building, the destruction of lives must have been far greater, as the great majority of the people on the ground stood on the western side, and were unhurt. Most of those killed were on the eastern side of the building, which stood within lo or 15 feet of the canal. Here the several engine com- panies stood, the space between the building and the canal scarcely affording them room to work advantageously. "So great was the force of the explosion on the eastern side of the building that the west side of Dr. Parker's salt block, 100 feet distant, was badly shattered, and a small dwelling the same distance, torn from its foundation. It is evident that, by the location of the powder, the principal timbers of the building were thrown in an east and south-easterly direction. The smallest number of people stood in that direction, and so far as we can learn few there even heard the cry of powder, and those who did failed to put much confidence in the report. Mr. Hudson, Mr. Goings and others who knew that there was powder in the building, stated an oath yesterday, that they did all they could do to spread this information at the time of the fire, but it is evident, we think, that they scarcely knew what they were about, or that they neglected their duty, and are therefore greatly to blame. Such was the force of the concussion that nearly whole windows were broken out of the Mansion house, 100 rods distant. People from the country inform us that the shock was sensibly felt 20 miles distant. "The list we now publish of those killed may be relied upon as correct, it having been furnished us by the Coroner. .\s for the wounded, although we have but 65 names on our list, there must be many more whose names have not been handed in, perhaps not less than 80 or 90 in all, who are more or less hurt. "The fimerals of most of the deceased were followed to the grave by our citizens, firemen, five companies of firemen from Utica, and a large number of people from the country. Business was completely suspended. Hundreds of people from different parts of the country came to witness the effects of the fire, and altogether our place presented such a scene as we never before witnessed, and we earnestly hope we shall never witness again. ''Xatnes of persons killed, furnished by tht Coroner. — Thomas Betts, tallow chandler, friends reside in Rochester, aged about 30; Elijah Jones, carpenter and joiner, man of family, aged 40 years, resides at Skaneateles; Zebina Dwight, kept a livery stable, has a wife, age 30; \Vm. Conk- lin, butcher, single man, aged about 21, has a widowed mother; Benj. F Johnson, farmer, aged 17, resides in Florence, Oneida county; Elisha Ladd, salt boiler, from Richland, Oswego county, aged 23; Geo. W. Burdick, canal boat captain, aged 24, has a wife and two children, reside in Clay; Isaac Stanton, stone cutter, has a marble yard, aged 35, has a wife and two children; Hugh T. Gibson, salt manufacturer, foreman of Engine No. 3, aged 40 years, has a wife and two children; \Vm. B. Close, cooper, aged 45. has a wife and three children; George Gorman, laborer, aged 35, has a wife and three children; Horace T. Goings, carpenter and joiner, aged 23; Charles .\. Morfit, clerk for Bradway & Co., aged 34, has a wife and two children; Horatio N. Cheney, weigh master, aged 36, has a wife and three children; Loren L. Cheney, weigh master's clerk, aged 24; John Durnford, jr., attorney at law, aged 23; Hanson Maynard, clerk for J. M. Richards, aged 18; Noah Hoyt, blacksmith, aged 28; John Kohlhamer, carriage maker, aged 34, has a wife and three children; Matthew Smelt, tailor, employed by Longstreet & Agnew, aged 23; Ezra If. Hough, druggist, aged 25, parents reside at Summer Hill, Cayuga county; James M. Barker, aged 21, clerk for his father; Charles Miller, carpenter and joiner, aged 20, resides at Pompey; Benj. T. Baker, aged 16, son of B. Baker; Charles Austin, aged 16, son of Ezekiel .\ustin. " Wounded dangerously. — David Meyers, Z. Robinson, \V. Durant, son of John Thorn, Elisha Austin, D. C. LeRoy, Luther Gifford, S. \V. Cadwell. " Wounded badly. — Hugh Rogers, Paul Shaw, J. Goodrich, P. Balin, Thomas R. Hall, E. Morehouse, John McDermot, Patrick Denfee, John Eliker, P. Thurber, John Jones, Iland- wright, L. J. Benton, Lucas, Jerry Stevens, Mrs. Appleson, Miss Elliston, Thomas Poe, Myron Jacobs, son of Peter Lelo, Orson Putnam, Elisha Jones, B. L. Higgins, E. Rosebrook, L. W. Hement, George B. Walter, George W. Benedick, Jonathan Baldwin, John McCaslin, Frederick Strongman, Lewis Corbin, Lake. 1 50 Memorial History of Syracuse. Woundtd slighlly. — William B. Durkee, Richard Culvert, Oliver Drew, Clozen Spencer, John li. I'helps, Pr. James Koran, David Wheeler. Robert Armstrong, Nelson Gilbert, Mr. Martin, John liurns, D. lirown, Lewis Smith, Luke Collins, Henry lloag, Thomas II. Ostrander, P. Lowe, John Conklin, S. Packwood, J. Crawe, 1. D. Lawson, S. Hurst, John Shoins, H. S. Sloan." Following is an account of a public meeting held after the casualty : ".Monday Evening, August 23d, 1S41. "At a meeting of our citizens, held this afternoon at the Presbyterian Church, for the purpose of taking into consideration the proper mode of relieving the necessities of those whose situation may reeiuire aid, Hiram Putnam, president of the village, was called to the chair, and D. D. Ilillis, esq., appointed secretary. ".■Vfter the names of the de.^d and wounded had been read, and inquiries made relative to the condition of such as stand in need, it was resolved that a committee of five be appointed to ascertain the situation of the sufferers and their families, and to afford them such relief as may be obtained by subscriptions from our citizens. The committee for this village is composed of Daniel Dana, M. D. Burnett, -V. P. Granger, Charles L. Lynds and Wing Russell. For Salina, .Vshbel Kellogg and Col. E. D. Hopping. "At the meeting above mentioned, about $iSoo were subscribed on the spot; of which Malcolm & Hudson subscribed !{!500, and \Vm. Malcolm I500. "In consequence of the great and unprecedent loss of life at the fire and e.xplosion of gun-pow- der in this village, on the night of the 20th of August, inst.. Parley Bassett, esq. the Coroner, sum- moned the following persons to form a jury of inquest, to make inquisition over the bodies of those killed : "[ohnson Hall, as foreman, Pliny Dickinson, Lewis H. Redfield, D. S. Colvin, William A. Cook, Thomas T. Davis, Samuel Earned, Rial Wright, Philo D. Micklcs, Harmon W. Van Buren, Daniel Elliott, Ashbel Kellogg, Thomas G. Alvord, Elijah W. Curtis, Jared H. Parker, Amos P. tiranger. "The Coroner's jury closed its business on Monday evening, August 23d. The report con- cludes as follows: " 'That Hugh T. Gibson, (here follows a repetition of the list of dead), came to their deaths on the night of Eriday, the 20th of August, 1841, by the explosion of 27 or 28 kegs of gun powder, in a carpenter's and joiner's shop, then on fire, in the village of Syracuse, and which the said deceased and others were attempting to extinguish; that the said powder was the property of Wm. Malcolm and Albert A. Hudson, of Syracuse, and was secretly stored in said shop by the said Albert A. Hudson and Charles Goings, the owners of said shop, with the knowledge and consent of said Wm. Malcolm, contrary to the published and known ordinances of the village of Syracuse, and without the cognizance or consent of the trustees thereof.' " This terrible calamity cast a pall of gloom over the entire community, which was not dispelled for many months, and public feeling against those who were responsible for it was very bitter. We have noticed on a previous page that the authorities had taken steps to secure better village government. To this end a committee was ap- pointed which reported in August that there were seventy-five places for the sale of intoxicating liquor, and called for " extraordinary measures for the protection of citizens and property." Gaming houses in the village were also alluded to as destructive of good government, and a series of horse races that had been announced to be held in September were especial- ly condemned as likely to bring to the village a retinue of disreputable The First Village Niciu Watch. 151 or dancferous characters. A resolution passed August 28 recommended that officers attend the horse races, endeavor to disperse the crowd, and an- nounce the illegality of the proceedings and issue warrants for the partic- ipants. The Overseer of the Poor was instructed to arrest the owner of any animal used in the races. "We will unite our best efforts," said one resolution, " with those of the civil magistrates, not only in bringing to punishment and driving out from among us the numerous blacklegs, gam- blers, and incendiaries by whom we are said to be infested, but also in up- rooting the infamous dens and resorts in our town, in which they are made, sustained and concealed, whether existing as groceries, billiard rooms, bowl- ing alleys, or brothels." This is strong language and it seems difficult to believe that it was en- tirely justifiable. It is possible that, smarting under the awful sacrifice of human life which had just occurred, a picture of the situation was drawn in the resolution, not warranted by the facts. To effect a change in these conditions, the sum of $600 was raised with which to provide a Night Watch. Nathan W. Rose, Joseph Flick, Joseph Mesmer, James Burrell, Charles A. Huntoon, and Thomas Griffith, were appointed as the Watch, with the first named as Captain. Their pay was one dollar per night. There is no doubt that these measures were instituted mainly on account of the feeling engendered by the powder explosion, the fire by which that cas- ualty originated being charged to incendiaries. When this feeling had be- come somewhat modified, after a few months, the Night Watch was with- drawn. 1842.— A meeting was held January 13 to consider the application of the coarse salt companies having fields of vats within or near the village boundaries for an extension of their charters, and the policy was discus.sed of petitioning the Legislature for a law authorizing the sale of the lands. Resolutions were passed strongly favoring the sale and protesting against a recharter of the companies. The salt fields in question are shown on the map of 1834 herein. The lands had become too valuable for such purposes. A resolution of February 6 authorized the Trustees to " cause a sewer to be built, commencing at Harrison and Mulberry streets, and runnino along Harrison and Onondaga streets to Onondaga creek, for the purpose of carrying off the surplus waters of Yellow Brook, the sewer to be 2^ feet in width by 3 feet in height in the clear, agreeably to the plan of J. M. Wieting and the specifications of John Townsend, esq." That tells the story. A tax of $1,600 was levied for this work, which was done by Mason Young. There was very little other public work done this year. On the 5th of April, at a meeting called to consider " measures in refer- ence to the discharge of the waters of the Yellow Brook," the matter was referred to Johnson Hall, J. C. Woodruff, Rial Wright, C. A. Wheaton,and ,52 Memorial History of Syracuse, Daniel Pratt. In May it was resolved by the authorities to raise $800 " for a good, covered stone culvert in Sixth South (Harrison) street and Onon- daga street, from the Yellow Brook to Onondaga Creek." The railroad company co-operated in these improvements and were, therefore, relieved from obligation to continue " their stone sewer any farther east." The sum of $4,000 was raised this year for highways, and stone side- walks were ordered on Fayette street from Clinton to Mulberry street ; crravel sidewalks on portions of North Salina street and Fayette street, and Almond street from Third- North to Foot street was opened and improved. At a meeting held May 19 a resolution was passed to the effect that the Trustees be authorized to take possession of the Seneca Turnpike within the limits of the village, if the company would pay $2,000 and give the right to use the gravel bed " in the eastern part of the village." This meas- ure was carried out in the summer of 1S44. On June 14 the " Packet and Steamboat Company of Oswego and Syr- acuse" asked the privilege of erecting "a sign and bell on the dock in front of Marsh, Wheaton & Co.'s store." In the course of the year 1842 all of the buildings covering the site of the Townsend Block on West Water street were removed by the Syracuse Company, and the Townsend block built from Onondaga limestone, which greatly improved that locality. The year was further noticeable on account of the establishment of the first system of water supply for the village. Legislation with a view to this enterprise was begun as early as 1829, when the Trustees conveyed to Oliver Teall the rights of the trustees of the Syracuse Water Works com- pany as they were vested in the village corporation in 1821. In 1834 the term (twenty years) for which the assignment was made, having expired, the conveyance was renewed ; but nothing practical was really accomplished until the year under consideration. We find that in July, 1841, a movement for laying a "string of logs from the locks near Almond street, through Almond and Fayette street, to supply the village with water in case of fire," was inaugurated, and in the same year the Legislature was asked to grant to Oliver Teall the right to increase prices of water to his customers. The first wooden pipes for water were laid in 1842 43. Previous to this year the streets running east and west had been desig- nated by numbers, those south of the canal being called " First South," etc., and three of those north of the canal, " First North," etc. These names were changed this year to the present ones. 1843 4. — The year 1843 was uneventful as far as public improvements were concerned. The sum of 8850 was appropriated in June for a bridge over Onondaga creek on Onondaga street, which was built by James Pierce. Systematic street cleaning appears to have been first introduced this year. A DiSGRACEFur, Riot. 153 A Mechanics' Association was organized in the latter part of 1842, which continued for a time with considerable success. Joseph 15arber was its president in January, 1843; Henrj^ Agnew, vice-president; C. !•". Wiiliston, recording secretary ; E. T. Hayden, corresponding secretary ; Thomas Ben - net, treasurer. Its cliief object was to meet for the discussion of business, manufacturing, and mechanical topics. Daily stages still ran between Syra- cuse and Rochester, in opposition to the railroad and canal, the time being advertised as twelve hours and the fare $2. 50. The principal event of importance in the year was a disgraceful riot that occurred on the first of January, at the old Coffee House on the present site of the V'anderbilt House. This house was then kept by a German named Sigel, who was preparing a New Year supper for a social party. While these preparations were going forivard, " Cale " Davis and a number of rough men from Salina and Liverpool entered the house and proceeded to make a highway of the table. The landlord knew the roughs too well to oppose them, and one of the party named Blake became offensive in his conduct toward Mrs. Sigel, and the landlord ordered him away from the house, threatening to shoot him if he did not leave. Blake persisted iri his insulting conduct when Sigel shot him, wounding him in the ear and neck. The riot now assumed such proportions that assistance was demanded and the sheriff ordered the Syracuse Cadets out to quell the disturbance. Lieu- tenant Olmsted, who was in command, marched his company to the scene and arrested the rioters, who were taken to the jail. The next morning Sigel was discharged, as it was proven that he was acting on the defensive. Davis was tried and fined. Blake escaped punishment on account of a pe- riod of illness, but he "unfortunately recovered," as an old settler has ex- pressed himself. This affair was promptly taken notice of by the authorities at a meeting held January 8, when a committee previously appointed made the following report : " The committee to whom was referred the resolutions as offered by C. A. VVheaton at the last meeting, report : Whereas, the late disgrace- ful and riotous outrage which occurred in this village during the last week, involving not only considerable loss of property but severe personal injuries, together with other ruffianism of a minor character which has frequently taken place within the last two years, fully demonstrate as well the exist- ence of an apathetic and corrupt public sentiment by which such offences are indirectly encouraged by the neglect to bring the guilty parties to speedy and condign punishment, as also the necessity now and at once of adopting efficient measures for the repression of these repeated acts of violence in the future, therefore — Kesohed, That the citizens of the village desirous of and claiming for ourselves the protection of the law in behalf of our own persons and property, we are determined and hereby pledge ourselves 20 154 Memorial History of Syracuse. that we will hereafter by every means in our power prosecute and bring to justice every offence of this description committed against any person or class of citizens. Reioh'ed, That in our judgment a large portion of the excesses which have occurred may be attributed to the light punishment inflicted on the offenders presented for violations of law and by a general looseness in the administration of criminal justice. Resolved, That we call upon every ministerial and judicial officer within our corporate limits, as well as every good citizen, to lend their prompt and efficient aid in ever)' case of violation of public order or the criminal infringement of private right whenever perpetrated, speedily, uniformly and without regard to person or the fear of injurious consequences to themselves, and that we will act in concert upon these cases when they arrive and suffer nothing to remain undone by which this object can be effected. Resolved, That the acts of violence are the legitimate results of the sale and use of into.\icat- ing liquors as a beverage, and this meeting earnestly solicits all persons engaged in such sale and use. for the sake of suffering humanity and for the honor of our village, (which at this moment em- braces within its corporate limits about eighty liquor selling establishments) to abandon the business and thus contribute very largely to our future preservation from the recurrence of such disgraceful proceedings. Resolved, That the above resolutions be signed by the president and clerk and be published in the papers of the village." By the year 1844 the population of Syracuse had reached about 10,000 and the question of applying for a city charter was again agitated. At a meeting held January 4, the measure was discussed and a committee to " in- vestigate the subject of a city charter " was appointed, consisting of the following persons : John Wilkinson, Hiram Putnam, Oliver Teall, Moses D. Burnet, John G. Forbes, George F. Comstock, James G. Tracy, Charles A. Baker, and Willett Raynor. The project was, however, destined to sleep a little longer. But the village was growing and seemed entering upon a period of especial prosperity. One of the local newspapers congratulated the people on the many evidences of thrift, and said that a person going away for a time and returning, could not avoid being astonished at the changes. The north and south parts of the corporation were being laid out in streets and built upon, and all that seemed to be needed was " a few more enterprising men with capital, to insure one of the largest inland cities in the State." Prophetic words. Street cleaning was ordered done annually and William Alexander was paid $200 for the work this year. The sum of $4,000 was raised for high- way purposes, and brick sidewalks were built on many streets. A bridge was built over the dry dock, James street, at a cost of $1,000 ; North War- ren street was opened or extended ; the fire limits were extended and many advances made in various directions. A meeting was called for October 2, to organize a company for building a plank road to Brewerton, a project that was warmly advocated by the local press. At about this time a sort of plank road mania broke out in all parts of the State, and within a few years charters were granted for numerous highways of this character. They were a great boon to the trav- Destruction of the Old Canal Basin. . 155 eling public and particularly on the long roadways over which so much freighting had to be done with horses before there were many railroads. Some of these roads were a source of profit to their projectors and contin- ued in use many years, a few of them even to this day. The reader will learn more of those leading from Syracuse a little farther on. The last meeting of the Trustees this year, or what should have been the last, appears to have resulted in a flat failure. This is its record on December 23d : " A prodigious snow storm has probably kept every Trustee at home this evening, as none are here. R. Raynor, Clerk." Several prominent buildings were erected in 1844. Amos P. Granger purchased the triangular lot previously occupied by the Episcopal church and erected the first block bearing his name. The building of the Empire Block was begun, the old Mansion House and other buildings being removed to clear the site. The block was begun by John H. Tomlinson, Stephen W. Cadwell, and John Thomas. It was finished in 1847 3"^ M"". Tomlin- son became the sole owner. He was killed by a railroad accident at Little Falls in the summer of 1848, and in the fall the building was sold at auc- tion to John Taylor, of Newark, N. J. It was soon afterwards purchased by James L. Voorhees and John D. Norton, and in 1850 Colonel Voorhees became sole owner. In 1S56 the building was extensively enlarged and improved. It was long known as the " Voorhees House." It passed to the hands of Horace and Hamilton While about the year 1857. 1845. — It was in this year that the final abolition of the old canal basin was accomplished and the erection of a public market building on its site carried out. It was a project which had been discussed three years. When we look back at this scheme it is difficult to conceive that any one could be found who would seriously advocate it. But the idea seemed feasible to a sufficient number of influential men to effect its consummation. The plan was to erect a building with market stalls on the lower floor, which were to be leased for the sale of provisions, etc., as had been and is the practice in New York and other cities, and a commodious hall was to be provided on the second floor. The location of the new market finally selected was be- tween Mulberry and Market .streets, where the canal basin had long existed as a nuisance, and the building was erected in a form that is familiar to all Syracusans, except that twenty feet were added to the original structure and a bell tower placed thereon. The discussions as to the best site for the market were numerous and warm, and several resolutions came into being on the subject. Early in March it was resolved to apply to the Legislature for authority to raise the necessary sum of money. At the next meeting a committee on site which had been appointed, reported that the lot north of the canal, corner of Foot and Warren streets, could be had for $4,500; the lot next east of this one, 156 Memorial History of Syracuse. " with the boat shop," for $5,500, and the lot finally selected south of the canal for $5,000. The Commtttee expressed some doubt of the policy of building at this time, thus creating a large debt ; thought it might be ad- visable to join with the county in such an enterprise, and finally, if the pro- ject went forward, advised applying to the Legislature for authority to raise an aggregate sum of $20,000 from time to time as it might be needed. The Trustees were accordingly authorized to raise $20,000 to be paid in annual installments of $1,000. On March 20, it was resolved to buy the Washington street lot (though immediate action was postponed to May) and application was made to the Legislature for authority to raise funds. A public meeting was called to vote on the question of purchase for May 31st, the result of which was 628 votes for the purchase and 304 against it. Another Trustees' meeting was held in July in relation to the erection of the building itself, which measure was favored. After the completion of the building and to overcome the seeming re- luctance on the part of some of the market-men to give up their former places of business for the market stalls, a paper was drawn up which the leading dealers signed, agreeing to try the new plan. The list was headed by Caleb Davis and James Meldram, two of the most prominent dealers in meat. This was in March, 1846. The stalls were accordingly taken and lavishly provided with meats and the square in front of the building was the daily resort of farmer's teams for the sale of various kinds of produce. It all looked well, quite metropolitan, but it did not pay. It was ahead of the time; it was a plan not adapted to a comparatively small village. Custo- mers did not like it and neither did the rival dealers, and the project was soon abandoned. But the public hall was a great convenience and in it was transacted for many years all the public business, and it was often occupied for other purposes. Clinton street was greatly improved this year by filling, for which the proposition of Amos Story to put in 14,000 cubic yards at eight cents per yard was accepted. The sum of $75 was expended for grading on the Cin- der Road. Genesee street was graded near its eastern and western extrem- ities, and Willow street was opened to Lodi. Prospect Hill summit was partially leveled and the Standard, \n commenting on this desirable piece of work, felt confident that that point would be " an excellent site for the State Capital!" 1846. — The end of the history of Syracuse as a village approaches. The subject of a city charter was conspicuous in discussions in the Board of Trustees and among the people at frequent intervals during the year. There was not much opposition in the village of Syracuse as to the main features of the proposed change, but the details of it, and particularly the Erection of Prominent Buildings. 157 extent of territory to be included, caused much argument and discussion. There was a considerable class of residents in both Syracuse and Salina, who could foresee no good results from a union under one charter ; they could not bury and forget the old rivalry. But the sagacious and progres- sive men of both villages appreciated the situation and saw the folly of two corporations so near together, with every prospect of their soon uniting in all material interests, if they were not in municipal. At length, however, as we shall see, the details were arranged and the object attained in 1847. Several important buildings were erected this year, among them being the Globe Hotel block, by John Wilkinson, the external appearance of which still remains much as it did at first. William Malcolm's wooden dwelling was removed in 1846 to the west side of Clinton street, where it was burned, and the erection of the Malcolm Block was begun and finished in 1847. -^ commodious hall was provided in the upper story, where for a number of years many of the lectures and entertainments occurred. James G. Tracy, who was the agent of the Syracuse Company, built the block of stores on the east side of South Salina street, just south of the present Dey Brothers & Co.'s stores. The plans for this block were made by John Lathrop, and provided for a height of three stories and a depth of sixty feet. This block and the Globe were then looked upon as absurdly extravagant for the needs of the village. Samuel Larned built the brick block which stood on the site of the pres- ent Larned Building, where a hotel was kept for many years. North Salina street was paved between Church street and the Erie canal, and William Barker offered to grade twenty-five chains of the south- erly part of Salina street fifty feet wide, for eleven cents per cubic yard. An idea of the imperfect condition of the streets in that vicinity may be gathered from a petition to the Trustees in July, "to fill the pond at the corner of Montgomery and Madison streets." In the month of July, W. B. Kirk and Roger Billings were made a committee " to dispose of the sur- plus earth at the southern end of Salina street, and to improve the road beyond the swamp on the same street." Sidewalk construction in this year was very extensive, and a sewer was ordered in Grape street from Jef- ferson to Fayette street. New ordinances of great length and detail were adopted for the government of the new market, one of which ordered that "a bell should be rung fifteen minutes before time to close." 1847. — Early in the year active measures were instituted for city incor- poration, in both Salina and Syracuse. A public meeting was called at Market Mall on January 5, " to consider the expediency of applying to the Legislature for a city charter." E. W. Leavenworth was chairman of that meeting, and John F. Wyman, secretary. W. B. Kirk moved that the ap- plication be made and that it embrace Salina. Animated discussion fol- 158 Memorial History of Syracuse. lowed as to the policy of inviting not only Salina, but Geddes also, and one individual with decidedly progressive ideas, added Liverpool. Mr. Kirk's motion was finally adopted. A good deal of opposition to the whole project was developed, but resolutions condemnatory of such opposition were adopted by the Trustees, and E. W. Leavenworth, Moses D. Burnet, and J. R. Lawrence were thanked for their efforts in this connection in a resolution offered by Oliver Teall. Indeed, the better sense of the commu- nity was greatly in favor of the proposed change. A meeting was held on the iith of January, at the house of James Scott, in Salina, at which the following resolutions were adopted : " Resolved, That we will unite with the inhabitants of Syracuse in an application for a city charier to embrace the territory now included in the corporate limits of the two villages, on the fol- lowing conditions, viz : that we compose a ward embracing all the territory in the village of Salina on the northwesterly side of Union Place and Elm street, to be set off and denominated the Salina ward. " That the location of the Bank of Salina is to remain in this ward. " That the post-office in Salina be not discontinued nor the canal and salt offices be removed from this ward. "Reso/veJ, That Thomas McCarthy, Noah Wood, and Ira H. Williams be appointed a com- mittee to present the proceedings of this meeting to the meeting of the inhabitants of Syracuse, to meet on Tuesday, the 12th inst." These conditions were substantially agreeable to the officers of the vil- lage of Syracuse. During the same month a committee was appointed to draft and report a charter. The members of the committee were John Wilkinson, Moses D. Burnet, Hiram Putnam, George F. Comstock, J. R. Lawrence, Amos P. Granger, Harvey Baldwin, C. B. Sedgwick, Hamilton White, Lyman Clary, Thomas McCarthy, Noah Wood, and Warren H. Porter. The Act of Incorporation was passed under date of December 14, 1847, (Chap. 475 session laws) and the limits of the new city defined as follows ; " The district of country constituting a part of the town of Salina, and including the villages of Syracuse and Salina, in the county of Onondaga, within the following bounds, that is to say: " Beginning on the northeasterly corner of Manlius L, running thence to the northeasterly corner of the village of Salina, thence along the north- erly line of said village of Salina, to the northwesterly corner of the same, thence southwesterly to the Onondaga Lake, thence along the southeasterly shore of said lake to the center of Onondaga Creek, thence southerly along the center of said creek to the line of the village of Syracuse, thence west- erly and southerly along such line to the south bounds of the town of Salina, thence east along the south bounds of the town of Salina to the east bounds thereof, thence northerly along the east bounds of said town to the place of beginning, shall hereafter be known as the ' City of Syracuse.' " Section second of the act divided the city into four wards, as follows : " All that part of the city lying east of Onondaga Creek and north of Conclusion of Sai.lna IIimorv. 159 Division and Pond streets, was made the First Ward ; all the rest of the city lying north of the center of the Erie Canal, was made the Second Ward ; the Third Ward included that portion of the city lying south of the Erie Canal and west of Montgomery street as far south as Burt street, thence west of Salina street to the southern boundary of the city ; the remainder of the city constituted the Fourth V\^ard." And thus Syracuse swallowed its old rival. The election to vote on the acceptance of this charter was held on the first Monday (3d) of January, 1848, at which 1,072 votes in Syracuse were cast in favor, and 771 against ; in Salina, 385 in favor, and 39 against. Syracuse was a city. The usual improvements in sidewalks and streets were continued. At a meeting in May a lot on James street and one between Irving and Chestnut streets were declared nuisances, on account of their being low and over- flowed with water. They were ordered properly filled. Salina street be- tween Castle and Burt streets was officially given a width of six rods. In July a public meeting was called to consider the building of a plank road between Salina and Syracuse, but it adjourned without action. In one of the local newspapers of this year we find a brief statement of the mortality in Syracuse for the ten years between 1838 and 1848, which is worthy of preservation, though possibly not absolutely correct. It is as fol- lows: 1838,93; 1839,104; 1840,124; 1841, 132; 1842, 131 ; 1843,163; 1844, 181 ; 1845, 164; 1846, 175 ; 1847, 326. This is a total of 1593 deaths in the decade. CHAPTER XV. CONCLU.SION OF SAl l\A IIISTOKV, The First Officers of the Village— Early VillaKe Expenses— Opening of Exchange Street -The Old Cemetery and the New— The First Paving— Purchase of Fire Apparatus— Lists of Village Offi- eers— Various Public Improvements— Preparations for Union with Syracuse as a City. IT now becomes necessary to return to the history of the village of Salina and bring it down as well as may be to the time when it was incorporated with Syracuse as a city. This task is rendered doubly difficult and all efTorts for its accomplishment quite unsatisfactory by the absence of all re- cords of meetings of Trustees and the inhabitants, e.xcept as they may be mferred from bills for work done, receipts, and scattering reports of some of the ofificers. i6o Memorial History ok Syracuse. Thomas McCarthy, the leading merchant, was the first president of the village in 1826, and Gordon Williams, Treasurer. J. J. Briggs filled the office of clerk. The few business papers on file in the City Clerk's office indi- cate that very little was done from year to year during that early period for the improvement of the place. Thomas B. Welden was paid $12.31 for two fire hooks, and the "canal at the junction of Wolf street " was improved by Silas Barnard at a cost of $1460. The sum of $12.60 was paid for two long ladders, and a little money was spent for cross-walks. It appears that a public meeting had been held on the 7th of April, 1826, and a resolution passed by the inhabitants a.sking the Trustees to report on the moneys expended in 1824-5 and for what purposes. Follow ing is the interesting report : ACCOU.NTS AIDITED BY THE FORMER TRISTEES. 1S24. — .\. Whitman, for repairing engine - l45 00 I.. II. Kedfield, printing ordinances, and book 8 75 Samuel llerron, surveying streets _ 2 50 James Shankland, cash paid J. P. Rossiter_ - I 5° .\shbel Kellogg, copying assessment rolls -- 3 00 I,. Bacon, making and repairing hose 5 75 \Vm. Dowd, for drag rope ' '7 A. Smith, for two ladders - --- 'o 00 A. Foot, iron work on engine and fire hooks 12 86 Ephraim S. Durfee, cash paid on firemen's warrants - 75 \V right & Nott, for new wheels to engine .- (> $<> Ephraim S. Durfee, building engine house - 45 *>• For two notices of incorporation of village 4 25 Notice of amendment, 1825 -. - - 4 25 Reuben St. John, notice of application of renewal, 1825 I 75 .Same notice in State paper 3 00 Wm. Clark, for 31 lbs. iron for engine and hooks I 44 It appears from this report that the Collector had received a warrant from former Trustees to collect $250, while this report shows the receipt of only about $158. The Trustees did not pretend to be able to account for the shortage in the collections. The project of opening Exchange street had been discussed in the vil- lage a year or two and in 1828 the matter assumed definite shape. At a meeting held in April it was resolved to lay out the street and William H. Beach, Matthew VanVleck, and John G. Forbes were appointed appraisers. Following are the details of the appraisal : " In pursuance of said act we do hereby appraise the value of the land between Canal (now Salina) and Salt (now Park) streets which has been set apart as a new street, and which is fifty feet wide and twenty-four rods long, as follows, viz : The interest of William Clark in said street at $279 : the interest of Chauncey Woodruff at $1.^5; the interest of Williams & Co., at $210; the interest of Thaddeus M. Wood at $87 : the interest of Ichabod Brackett at $477. And we do \ G e^orac^zxmai^ Abandonment ok thk Old Ckmetery. i6i further appraise the value of the ground on Free street which the respective owners are authorized to occupy and enjoy according to the second section of said act, as follows : The value of the land in front of William Clark at $418.50; of the land opposite the front of Chauncey Woodruff at $202.50; of the land opposite the front of Williams & Co., at $315 ; of the land opposite the front of Thaddeus M. Wood at S'30.50; of the land opposite the front of Ichabod Brackett at $715.50." A village Pound was built this year by Ashbel Kellogg at a cost of $59.89. The license fee for grocers was fixed at $20 and about a dozen grocers paid it. We find no record of the village officers for the year. In the year 1829 the old cemetery was given up and block No. 43, where the cemetery is now located, was appropriated for the purpose. It was ap- praised on June 11, by Ashbel Kellogg, S. R. Matthews, and Roger Bates, •It $325. Block 59 (the old cemetery) was subdivided and sold at auction at prices ranging from $210 to $380. The condition of Block 43 at that time may be inferred from the fact that Richard Molony was paid about $150 for clearing and grubbing on the lot to fit it for interments. Under date of August 10, we find the following: "Mr. Tucker: — Please let Mr. Nathaniel Woodruff have his two hogs you have in the vil- lage Pound by his paying you your fees for impounding the same." This order is signed by Noah G. W'ood, Lyman Brown, and I. West, who were undoubtedly of the Board of Trustees. The first paving of which we find any account appears to have been done this year on Canal street at the Junction of Wolf ; and Syracuse street was opened, " beginning at Canal street and running south to connect at Union Place with the road leading from Syracuse to the Court House." Considerable street improvement was effected, and large additions made to the fire apparatus, probably hastened by the occurrence of a large fire on the 5th of February. An engine house was built on land belonging to Thaddeus M. Wood, which he leased to the village. The lot was on Salt street and the building was erected by Joel Crane at a cost of $38. This was probably the second engine in the village. A hearse house was also built by Mr. Crane which cost $44. The receipts from various sources in the year 1832 were $596.25, and in 1833, $324.58. A report of the Trustees in 1834, explains that they had not sold certain of the old cemetery lots, "as real estate is lower than we hoped it would ever be again." Salina evidently was not enjoying a boom in 1834. The receipts by the Trustees in 1835 were $564.76, and in 1836 about three dollars in excess of that amount. In the latter year bridges were built over the north side-cut canal and on the Geddes road. In 1837, the village purchased a town clock of Jehiel Clark, of Cazenovia, at a cost of 21 i62 Memorial History of Syracuse. $300. Money was scarce, as it was a time of financial stringency, and the clock was paid for in installments. The receipts by the Trustees were about $440. In 1839 'he village appears to have felt an impulse of enterprise, as in- dicated by various public improvements which were begun. A subscrip- tion paper is on record bearing the names of most of the prominent citi- zens, with the amounts they gave towards the Public Square. An agree- ment was entered into between the village and Owen Mackin and Charles Harvey, to excavate and properly fill the " Public, or Center Square," at an expense of $230. Fifty thousand brick were contracted for, to be used for flagging. The land between Center and Wolf streets south of Mechanic street on the canal, had been held, or claimed, by Benjamin F. Green ; but the village authorities obtained from the Land Commissioners the revoca- tion of the original grant to Benajah Byington, thus giving its possession to the village. In 1840 the streets around and through the public park were improved at an expense of $79.58, and a railing constructed around the Square costing $69.38. The receipts for the year were about $500. This sum increased in 1 841 to $750, nearly all of which was expended on streets and sidewalks. About $100 were expended on fire apparatus in 1842. In 1843 the streets named North with the prefix of numbers from one to six, were opened one hundred feet wide, and extensive highway improvements were carried out. The rate of taxation was greatly increased this year and about $4,000 were collected, while public improvements were proportionately extended, more than $3,000 having been paid for paving and grading, culverts, side- walks, etc. In the report of the Trustees for this year appears this con- gratulatory expression : " We believe the improvements of the past two years have had a good effect." 1846. — The village was by this time beginning to share in the interest awakened on the subject of securing a city charter and uniting with Syra- cuse under it. The old rivalry with Syracuse had not died out ; but among the more prominent citizens it was greatly modified, and in the minds of many was wholly eradicated, while the advantages to be derived from a union of the two villages were becoming more and more apparent to men of good judgment in both villages. These brief annals must close the record of Salina village down to its incorporation with Syracuse as a city, as detailed in the preceding chapter. But however desirable the consummation of that object was and is to all con- cerned, it is still undeniable that there has never been that perfect union of interest and personal feeling that should exist between all sections of a great city. The causes of this are not difficult to discern. It is only forty Sauna Village Officers. 163 years since the village became a part of the city, and there was quite a strong opposition to the measure at that time ; the spirit which inspired that opposition is not yet entirely dispelled. And still more powerful in- influences operated to this end; for example, the business interests of Salina, outside of her salt industry, have always suffered at the hands of her more fortunately located rival ; moreover, the partial territorial isolation had the same effect. These and perhaps other causes served to erect something of an invisible barrier between the two sections. Real estate, for no other reason that one can detect, commands a lower price in Salina than in most other directions from the post office to the same distance. There are no finer building lots anywhere than may be found in the First Ward ; but they cannot be marketed at such prices as rule elsewhere in the city. Rents are lower, and in all directions is seen and felt the effects of the influences alluded to. Following are lists of the officers of the village as far as they could be collated from the fragmentary records in existence : 1S27. — Trustees, Sylvester F. Feck, Ezra JF. Knapp, Thomas McCarthy, Ashbel Kellogg, George Gage. Treasurer, Hamilton D. Risley. Collector, Jacob Burgess. 1829. — Trustees, William H. Beach, B. .Stocker, .Xnson Richmond, Voltaire Newton, Samuel P. Smith. Jr. Treasurer, Morris Homan. Inspector of Wood, Noah Tubbs. 1831. — Trustees, Noah G. Wood, Erasmus Stone, S. S. Peck, James Beardslee, Hunter Crane. Treasurer, James Fifield. Collector, Joel Wright. 1832.— Trustees, James Fifield, A. Richmond, Hunter Crane, Ashbel Kellogg, William Clark. Treasurer, James Lynch. Assessors, Thomas McCarthy, C. B. Williams, Norris Felt. 1833.— Trustees, Lyman Clary, James J. Rice, Norris Felt, C. B. Williams. Treasurer, James Beardslee. Collector, S. Harroun. 1S34. — Trustees, James Beardslee, Giles Williams, Lyman Bowen, Lyman Clary, James f. Rice. Treasurer, James Lynch. Collector, ;S. Blackmar. Assessors, Ebenezer Rice, Rhesa Griffin Elijah Clark. 183s.— Trustees, B. F. Williams, Elijah Clark, Lyman Bowen, James Beardslee, Rhesa Griffin. Treasurer, Johnson Gordon. Assessor, William Clark, Collector, William B. Whitmore. 1836.— Trustees, Elijah Clark, Rhesa Griffin, John Barron, D. E. Bibbins, James Beardslee. Col- lector, David G. Johnson. Treasurer, Lyman Bacon. 1837.— Trustees, Ashbel Kellogg. William G. Clark, James Lynch, C. B. Williams, E, D. Hop- ping. Treasurer, Lyman Bacon. Collector, Hiram Harroun. Assessors, James J. Rice, Thomas G, .Mvord, Elijah Clark. 1838,— Trustees, Johnson Gordon, Burr Burton, James Beardslee, C, B. Williams, E. D. Hopping. Treasurer, Lyman Bacon. Collector, Sylvester House, Clerk, Thomas G. Alvord. I S39,— Trustees, E. D, Hopping, L. Y. Avery, Burr Burton, C. B. Williams, Thomas McCarthy. Treasurer, Lyman Bacon. Collector, Nelson Phillips. Assessors, Thomas G. Alvord, Elijah Clark, William Clark. 1840,— Trustees, James Lynch, Ira H, Williams, Dennis McCarthy, M. W. Bennett. Elizur Clark. Treasurer, Lyman Bacon. Assessors, Thomas G. Alvord, Elijah Clark, William Clark. 1841.— Trustees, S. Swaney, Elizur Clark, Alonzo Crippen, Ashbel Kellogg, Patrick D. Lynch. Treasurer, Wm. Clark. Collector, Charles W. Ladd. 1842.— Trustees, Latham Y. Avery. Elizur Clark, Ira IF, Williams, Patrick Cooney, Thomas Car- raher. Treasurer, William Clark. 164 Memorial History of Syracuse. 1843. — Trustees, Elizur Clark, Ira H. Williams, L. Y. Avery, Thomas Carraher. Treasurer, John Hutchinson. Collector. Dennis Devoy. Assessors, William Clark, Benjamin F. Green. 1844. — Trustees, Ashbel Kellogg, John Harron, A. Crippen, J. H. Swaney, C. A. Nott. Treasurer. John Hutchinson. Collector, Oliver T. Couch. Assessors, Charles Scott, B. F. Green, Wil- liam Clark. 1845. — Trustees, Thomas McCarthy, A. Crippen, N. B. Clark, Patrick Cooney, Benajah A. Avery. Treasurer, Patrick D. Lynch. Collector, Roswell Holmes. Assessors, B. F. Green, Charles B. Scott, Wm. Clark. Fire Wardens. David G. Johnson, Silas Titus, A. Crippen. I 846. — Trustees, Elizur Clark, Richard Sanger, Noadiah M. Childs, Voltaire Newton, Thomas Doyle. Assessors, William Clark, B. F. Green. Collector, A. A. Wheeler. 1847. — Trustees, Elizur CUrk, Thomas Doyle, N. M. Childs. Treasurer, Thomas Earll. Assess- ors, I. R. Quereau, C. B. Scott, William Popple. Collector, Patrick Ga6Fney. During the greater portion of the period covering the history of Salina as a village, Thomas G. Alvord was the efficient Clerk. CHAPTER XVI. SYRACUSE AS A CITY. The Dawn of a New Era — Plank Roads and their Influence — A Savings Bank--E. B, Alvord's California House — The First Regular Theater— Salt Lands at Auction— Onondaga Creek Improve- ment—Organization of the Franklin Institute — New Method of Road Making — The Business Es- tablishments of the Young City — Growth of the Place — A Disastrous Fire — The Jerry Rescue — Jenny Lind's Concert — Abandonment of the Public Market — Sale of the Old Court House Property — The New Wards and their Boundaries — Increasing Public Debt — A Reign of Incendiarism— The Wieting Block Burned — Trouble in the Public Finances — A Great Political Meeting. SYRACUSE began her existence as a city under auspicious conditions and amid a general feeling that a new and still more prosperous era was dawning. Glimpses of congratulations, public and private, are caught on everj' hand. An issue of ihe /(>i/r>/(7/ in August, 1848, says: " Syracuse in 1820 consisted of one house in a swamp, and now it is a fine little city of upwards of 15,000 inhabitants. It owes its prosperity to its situation on the canal and its salt works." As a point of shipment it had already become one of importance, through her canal and railroad facilities. A statement of the freight shipped froin hereto Utica and intermediate points during the month of January, 1848, is as follows : Pork, 17,7974 lbs.; Poultry, 46,545 ; Butter, 61,492 ; Whiskey, 23,800; Lard, 21,126; Cheese, 1,356; Cattle, 78,000; Wool, 16,442; Sheep Pelts, 12,920; Live Sheep, 51,073 ; Dried Fruit, 13,713; Bean.s, 2,433 ; Ashes, 20,782; Flour, 5,564; Miscellaneous, 30,916. Salina Post-Office Discontinued. 165 riank roads were reaching out from the young city in several directions, giving outlying farmers and manufacturers better facilities for getting their products to the canal and railroads, which they were not slow to profit by. The first plank road in the United States was laid between Syracuse and Central Square and began taking tolls in July, 1846, and by the date under consideration one was opened to Oswego, one southward to Cortland, and one east. The " Salina and Oak Orchard Flank road " was also begun this year. A traveler's directory of that time shows that packet boats left Syracuse westward at 8 o'clock a. m., and 7 o'clock p. m., and eastward at 6 a. m., and 5 p. m., and to Oswego at 8 a. m., and 7 p. m., while railroad trains ran east at 4 and 8 o'clock a. m., and 8:30 p. m., and west at 2 a. m. (emigrant), and 6:15 and 4:45 p.m. The direct railroad to Rochester was already under survey, to be finished within the next few years. An editorial in \.\\& Journal of May II says: "The Free Schools of the city opened on Monday with an unusually large number of pupils. Attendance, as well as educational appliances, will be greatly improved under the new system." Another news- paper expression is to the effect that the " Oswego Railroad is helping trade in Syracuse very much." These are all indications of a buoyant and san- guine feeling in the minds of Syracusans. Among minor occurrances of the year, it may be stated that, at a meet- ing of the Council, November 13, 1848, it was resolved to confer with the Canal Commissioners, as to the practicability of flooding the city sewers with surplus water of the canal. The Council also prohibited the " ringing of dinner bells in the street." The post-office at Salina was discontinued, contrary to the expectations of the inhabitants of that ward. The Journal says : " Whether the step was anticipated by our neighbors of the First ward or not we can not say, but the decision of the Department, we understand, is not very well received there." A meeting was held and a petition pre- pared and forwarded to the Post-Office Department, and theofificewas soon afterward restored. The 4th of July was enthusiastically celebrated "on temperance princi- ples." Any event of this kind was sure to bring Oliver Teall and his tem- perance associates to the front in advocacy of their principles, and they really accomplished much good at a time when the tendency of the place was towards a multiplication of saloons and the increase of dissipation. In March, the Bank of Syracuse gave notice that it would open a sav- ings department. The First Presbyterian Church Society bought the Amer- ican Hotel property on the site of which was built its present beautiful church. It was in this year that the late Earl B. Alvord built a small brick structure on the corner of Warren street and the present Vanderbilt Square i66 Memorial History of Syracuse. and opened it as the " California House." The wide doors in the dining- room were directly opposite an archway into the old depot. When the trains arrived he would open his door and tempt the passengers to his well- spread tables. For self-protection the other hotel keepers induced the rail- road superintendent to close up the opening to the depot, cutting off Mr. Alvord's source of revenue. He promptly broke down the obstruction, claiming it was a public highway. For this he was arrested, but immedi- ately gave bail. The next day the obstruction was replaced, and when the train approached, Mr. Alvord again broke it down. He made such an ar- rangement with the ofificers that he might be arrested, give bail, and get back in time to serve his guests. He continued this proceeding for several days and gained considerable sympathy for his persistence ; but it was an unequal battle and he finally surrendered. The first regular theater was opened this year in what had been the Baptist church — a church in which had preached the lamented Rev. Mr. Gilbert, and around which clustered the sacred associations of the first re- ligious edifice in the village. This was called the National Theater for many years, and in it were produced many of the standard plays, often by casts of characters wonderfully restricted in number. Here the Denin sis- ters, one of whom is still before the public, made their first and successful efforts upon the stage; and such other actors as C. W. Couldock, the vete- ran who is yet before the public, Anna Cora Mowatt, and many others no less famous, presented many of the almost forgotten dramas to the young city. In a local publication of February, 1848, were given the following sta- tistics of population: First ward (estimated), 2,500; Second ward, 4,464 ; Third and Fourth, 6,777; total, 13,741. 1849. — E- W- Leavenworth was elected Mayor of the city in the spring of this year. Under an Act of the Legislature of January 25, the city authorities had already begun the work of grading and filling the old mill pond between the present Clinton street and the creek. That Act author- ized the Common Council to reclaim the State lands bordering on Onon- daga creek (formerly covered by salt vats) " which have been recently ex- posed by the destruction of the mill dam owned by John Townsend and Augustus James," at a cost not exceeding $4,000. The Syracuse Coarse Salt Company was authorized to take other State lands for those occupied by them at this point. When Gen. Leavenworth came into ofifice he had a map made of this tract, reserving a large part of it for a park and took it to Albany and laid it before the Commissioners of the Land Ofiice ; but he could obtain only its conditional approval ; that is, the sale of the lots should bring at least $9,000 ($4,000 for the lands, $4,000 for the amount paid by the State towards the improvement of the tract, and $1,000 for interest, ex- Pi'iu.ic Sale ok Citv Lots. 167 penses, etc.) The lands were soon sold at public auction, the park being reserved, and brought over §1 5,000, an amount greatly in excess of what the entire tract would have brought, without the reservation of the park. It will be interesting to note the prices paid for these lots around what is now Armory I'ark, and the names of the purchasers, which were as follows: Block 105. ko. lot. appbaisil. bold. purchaser. 8 I315 00 $410 00 S. L. McCulloch. q 400 00 610 00 A. A. Hudson. 10 380 00 535 00 Arthur Patterson. 11 300 00 405 00 J. R. Whitlock. 12 160 00 300 00 S. Kexford. 13 90 00 250 00 O. L. Maynard. 14 60 00 155 00 J. G. Tracy. 15 60 00 165 00 James Davis, 16 17 90 txj 225 00 John I-'. Wynian. IS If) 270 00 460 00 William li. Kirk. 10 igi 00 210 00 John J. Hopper. 11 225 00 300 00 A. Patterson. 12 315 o<) 400 00 John K. Wyman. 13 410 00 555 00 Harvey Baldwin. 14 15 400 cx) 5(X) 00 Geo. F. Comstock. 16 400 00 425 00 A. H. Hovey. 17 400 00 330 00 H. A. Dillaye. iS 7CX) 00 765 00 John V. Wyman. 19 570 00 650 00 George Barnes, 20 450 00 550 CX3 John F. Wyman. 21 22 23 125 00 250 00 Harvey Baldwin. 24 225 CO 265 00 A. H. Hovey. 25 Block 105. APPRAISAL. BOLD. I3I5 00 $410 00 400 00 610 00 380 00 535 00 300 00 405 00 160 00 300 00 90 00 250 00 60 00 155 00 60 00 165 00 60 00 180 00 90 txj 225 00 180 00 355 00 270 00 460 00 400 00 600 00 500 00 1,000 <» Block nS. igi 00 210 00 225 00 300 i» 315 0() 400 00 410 00 555 00 225 00 400 00 400 c» 5(X) 00 400 00 425 00 400 00 330 00 7CX) 00 765 00 570 00 650 00 450 00 550 00 270 00 400 00 410 00 780 00 125 00 250 CO 225 CO 265 00 225 00 290 00 225 (» 305 00 460 00 750 00 270 00 360 CO 225 00 315 00 225 00 305 00 L. M. Hollister. 26 225 CO 305 00 John J. Hopper. 27 28 270 00 360 CO John F. Wyman. 29 30 119,250 00 $'5.055 00 Upon this important subject the /ourna/said on the i6th of June : " Few of our citizens are probably fully aware of the great improvement which is now being made by the change of the channel of the Onondaga creek and filling up of the low ground adjoining that stream. Nearly thirty acres in i68 Memorial History of Syracuse. the heart of the city is about to be converted into good building ground, and the time is not far distant when, with the exception of the streets, it will be covered with buildings. This is a great change from the swampy and useless condition in which this tract has been heretofore, and the im- provement cannot fail to enhance the value of property in its vicinity." A petition was presented to the Common Council this year for a plank road to extend from " the southern terminus of the Brewerton road, on Salina street, to the Oswego canal in the Second Ward." This road was built, but it soon proved that for a heavily traveled highway, such a substi- tute for pavement was wholly inadequate. The city was divided by the Board of Health into six districts, for the better enforcement of sanitary measures. The First ward constituted two districts, divided by Salina street ; the Second ward two districts, divided by Salina street ; and the Third and Fourth wards' one district each. For each of these districts one inspector was appointed, as follows: First ward, north side of canal, Dr. William H. Hoyt ; south side of canal. John Harts- horn ; Second ward, east side of Salina street, William R. Martin ; west side of Salina street, Milton Gilbert, or, if he should decline, John A. Leonard; Third ward, James Sisson ; Fourth ward, Solomon Judd. Under this system the city was kept in excellent condition through the summer. 1850.- — Although Syracuse was now a city and affairs were generally running along on a successful tide, still many of the former customs pre- vailed. The streets were often promenaded by vagrant swine and cattle, giving the pound-master of the little municipality far more work than that officer can find in the city to-day, and early in the year it was determined by the authorities to put a stop to the whipping of carpets in Fayette Park ! Franklin Institute, an institution destined for a long and successful career, was put in operation this year, at first in the Malcolm Block, and donations of books for its library were solicited in the public press. The Institute was subsequently removed to the Wieting Block and by its courses of lectures, its annual fairs, and its increasing library, wielded a powerful influence for good. The First Presbyterian church, which had been erected during 1849 50, was dedicated on the 24th of October. Henry A. Dillaye purchased the old church property, where the McCarthy retail stores are now located, and erected a handsome five-story block, at that time by far the finest building on Salina street. It covered the entire lot and was then thought to be too far from the center of business to be profitable for leasing ; but the invest- ment proved to be a good one. The building was burned in 1855 and was rebuilt in the following year. On the 25th of April a fire broke out in the stable of the old Union House on the site of the Bastable Block, and six horses were burned. Chief Business Places in 1850. 1G9 J. C. Young, who had a flour store, and a Mr. Dean, baker, were the prin- cipal other sufferers. The site soon afterward passed tu the posesssion of Mr. Bastable, who erected the first arcade. In July the Common Council adopted a new method of roadmakinjj by ordering that Warren street, from its junction with Salina street northward to the termination of the stone pavement, be laid " with doublL- tracks of hardwood planks three inches thick and eight feet long, and laid on double stringers of hemlock, with a space in the center between the tracks, to be fi.ved by the Alderman of the Third ward." In the same month the side- cut canal in the west part of the city (see map 1 834) was declared a nuisance by the Common Council, and steps were taken which led finally to its being filled. The sum of $100 was appropriated to the improvement of Washing- ton Park, and the Common Council and City Clerk occupied a room in "the soutiieast corner of Market Hall," from which all other persons were to be excluded. The charter was amended this year, the more important features of which were the authorization of the city officials to enter on lands and lay out streets and squares ; fixing the salary of Overseer of the Poor ; provid- ing for a monthly report of the Street Commissioners; and authorizing the appropriation of $2,000 annually, besides the amount already applied to that purpose, to build new school-houses. It will be useful at this point, the middle of the century, and when the community was fairly launched as a city, to glance very briefly at the lead- ing business establishments and the names of their proprietors, some of which were necessarily mentioned on an earlier page. The hotels were the Syracuse House, kept by Gillette & Knickerbocker ; the Globe, by William Winton ; Rust's Hotel ; Robinson's, corner of Church and North Salina streets; Exchange, corner South Salina and Washington ; Clark's Hotel, C. B. Clark ; Farmers' Exchange (Brintnall) ; Salina House, corner of Sa- lina and Wolf streets. L. W. Hall, book store, 1 1 South Salina street. Stoddard & Babcock, book store. South Salina street, first door north of the railroad. D. McCarthy & Co., "Mammoth Store," 13 and 14 Empire Block. D. Y. Foote, City Drug Store. Livingston & Mitchell, grocers and druggists, Malcom Block. Hall, Rhoades & Sherman, hardware, "sign of the anvil." (This firm soon became E. H. & J. A. Sherman, and a little later Israel Hall carried on the business alone.) Norton & Bradley, stoves and hardware, Norton Block, north side of the canal. S. P. Pierce, crock- ery, 10 South Salina street. Hodge & Stevens, hats and furs. South Salina street, near the Malcom Block. Ashley & Williston, cabinetmakers. South Salina street opposite Syracuse House. G. H. & P. Waggoner, corner of North Salina and James streets, grocers. Willard & Hawley, jewelers. East Genesee street. A. Root, boots and shoes, two doors north of Winton's Ex- change Hotel. J. & M. Murphy, stoves and hardware, Water street, one 22 I70 Memorial History of Syracuse. door east of Warren. Charles Pope & Co., carriage and harness trimmings, 5 Townsend Block. B. R. Norton & Co., jewelry, (the company being D. Hotchkiss,) opposite the Syracuse House. Longstreet & Ballard advertised $50,000 worth of clothing "directly west of Syracuse House, opposite packet landing." George Tyler, dry goods, Star Building, first and second floors. R. Paine, fishing tackle and hair goods, one door east of Syracuse House. E. Town & Co., grocers, 6 Townsend Block. Alfred Cobb, grocer, Water street, east of Warren. Jackson & Phelps, No. 2 Arcade Building, Salina street, four doors below the depot. Globe Hat Store, one door south of Globe Hotel, Chauncey Tuttle, agent. Hovey & Dillaye, druggists, " Green Drug Store." G. & D. Putnam, blacksmiths, railings, grates, pumps, etc., 9 Raynor Block. George Saul, music, books, and homeopathic medicines, Noxon Block. J. M. Deveau, saddlery and trunks, 6 Arcade Building. Woodruff & Baker, flour and feed, 5 Raynor Block. A. & B. Stern, new jewelry store, south wing Syracuse House. Ira F. Clark and Jj T. Cottle were harness and trunkmakers in Warren street, just north of the Brintnall Hotel. J. L. Hall, successor to M. W. Hanchett, drugs, 17 South Salina street. (Mr. Hall established the first drug store in the vil- lage in 1825.) Timothy Hough, music store, Malcom Block. D. Becker & Co., jewelry, i Malcom Block. Murphy & McCarthy, hardware, 31 and 33 East Water street. D. O. Salmon, " City Cigar Store," lyi P'ranklin Building. Geer & Benedict, daguerreotypes, over Longstreet & Ballard's clothing store, " Granite Hall," south side of Clinton Square. William and Allen Butler, leading furniture dealers. Daniel Groff, tailor. Stanton & Mcrritt, marble cutters, North Salina street. Davis & Williams, in the famous " Regulator," 7 Franklin Building. James Wickham, paper ware- house, east wing of Brintnall's Hotel. Arnold Woodward, dry goods, i and 2 Globe Block. Horace and Charles A. Wheaton, corner of Salina and Water streets. Lampman, Talman & Co., drugs, 25 Water street. J. L. Bagg, P. Dickinson, Dudley P. Phelps, P. S. Stoddard, and R. F. Trow- bridge were in the insurance business. T. O. Wilson and Henry Agnew were fashionable tailors, and Drs. A. T. Smith, J. Chandler, and Amos Westcott were dentists. Timothy Hough had then recently organized the Syracuse Musical Institute, and in 1850 advertised the first concert in the City Hall on New Year's eve. Tiie foregoing list embraces most of the business establishments of the young city during a period of two or three years after its incorporation, and indicate a rapid growth since the date of the earlier list in this work. In future pages of this work it will, of course, be impossible to follow in detail the growth of mercantile business in the city except as its more promi- nent houses must be mentioned in connection with the names of their founders. Trade in all of its aspects in Syracuse has always kept in ad- The Great Fire of 1851. i^t vance of the needs of the community, and Syracuse merchants long ago gained the reputation of being far-seeing, sagacious men. 1851. — This was a year of considerable depression in the salt business, and consequent forebodings by many citizens of Syracuse. It was doubt- less an ominous shadow of the memorable financial storm which swept over the country a few years later. Still general improvements in the city pro- gressed with almost the customary activity. In March a local paper said ; "At no time has the growth and prosper- ity of the city been more flattering. To all appearances we are going ahead as rapidly as at any former period, and it is believed by the best judges that the population and business of Syracuse are destined to improve many years before they reach a culminating point." Whether this somewhat en- thusiastic congratulation did not partake of the character of the whistling of the lad to keep his courage up, is an open question. On the 9th of July, at 1:30 in the morning, fire broke out in the shoe store of Horace Bronson, then located in one of the old wooden buildings standing between the brick block on the Wieting Block corner (occupied by Horace and Charles A. Wheaton,) and " Granite Hall," a narrow stone front building farther west on Water street. The flames defied the efforts of the firtmen (then consisting of three inadequate companies and apparatus) and spread westward to the "Granite Hall," east to Salina street, and south on that street to Israel Hall's hardware store, which was on the site of the present Everson Building. The loss was heavy, the principal sufferers being Everson & Putnam, §io,COO ; R. McClelland, $i,oco ; H. Bronson, $5,000; E. R. Prendergast, $2,000; J. G. Holden, $500; E. B. Wicks, $10,000. Other smaller losses were those of Israel Hall, S. P. Pierce, D. Y. Foote, and Calvin Dean. The Messrs. Wheaton bought the Malcolm lot on Water street for §8,000 and rebuilt the corner with a more modern structure and provided a public hall on the top floor. This building was purchased by Dr. John M. Wieting who improved it ; but it burned down on the 5th of January. 1856, when the the mercury was several degrees below zero, causing much suffer- ing to the firemen. With his accustomed energy Dr. Wieting erected a new building, much finer than its predecessor, and finished it in less than a year. This was burned in 1881, and on the site, with additional purchases of adjoining land. Dr. Wieting built his splendid block and opera house. Charles A. and Horace Wheaton were prominent and estimable citizens in early years. Horace was elected to the Assembly in 1834, and in 185 1 was appointed Mayor of the city by the Common Council, Moses Burnet having declined to qualify. Charles A. was elected President of the Board of Education at the annual meeting of 1853, and both men were given fre- quent assurance of the esteem and confidence of the community. 172 Memorial History of Syracuse. The year was made a memorable one by the occurrence of an event that has found a place in the history of the great anti-slavery movement and acquired national fame. It was what is now popularly called the "Jerry Rescue." In Syracuse were very many anti-slavery advocates — men who were not afraid to express their opinions, or to act up to their principles. To such men the passage of the fugitive slave law was a wrong and an in- sult which they could not brook and which they determined they would never uphold. They claimed that the law made slave- catchers of them and deo-raded them to the level of the southern blood-hounds. These men held a meeting in Market Hall, and in a series of resolutions gave the strong- est possible expression to their sentiments, declaring, among other things, that no fugitive slave should ever be returned from Syracuse — and there never was. Their determination was soon put to the test. In the winter of 1849-50 a more than ordinarily intelligent slave from the State of Mississippi, reached Syracuse on his way to the promised land be- yond the St. Lawrence. He felt such a degree of safety in Syracuse that he decided to remain and accordingly sought employment. He found it in the cabinet shop of the now venerable Charles F. Williston, where he exhib- ited good natural mechanical ability. After working there some months, Jerry (the name by which he was commonly known) opened a shop of his own. But the slave hunter was on his track, and on the 1st of October Jerry was captured by an officer from the south and lodged in the building now called the Jerry Rescue Block. Sylvester House was then Police Jus- tice and his ofifice was in that building. Henry W. Allen was United States Marshall and James R. Lawrence was Attorney for Northern New York. William H. Sabine was United States Commissioner, with his office in the Townsend Block. Before him Jerry was taken by his captor. The room was crowded, many of those present being good haters of slavery. Jerry watched his opportunity and made a break for freedom, starting eastward ; but the pursuer was on his heels and he was captured near the railroad tun- nel, brought back in a cart and again lodged in the police office. This cap- ture of the fugitive caused intense excitement and a plan was speedily laid for his rescue, many prominent citizens. Democrats as well as Whigs, join- ing in it. The Onondaga County Agricultural Society was holding its fair at the time, and there was also a sort of convention of anti-slavery men in session. The evening of October 1 was a beautiful one and the time and circumstances were ripe for action. The rescuing party with its retinue of the curious gathered around the building, upon the walls and doors and windows of which fell the blows of stones and timbers, until the amazed officials inside began to think more of their own safety than of that of their captive. One of them jumped from a window on the north side of the building and broke his arm with the fall. Finally, the official who had im- Jenny Lind in Syracuse. 173 mediate charge of the fugitive fairly pushed him out and into the arms of his rescuers, exclaiming, it is said: "Get out of here, you nig- ger, if you are making all this muss I" The rescuers hurried their prize to a place of concealment so well-chosen that he remained safely in it for about ten days, although near the center of the city. At the end of that time he was placed, in the night, in a wagon supplied by Jason C. Woodruff, a Democrat soon to be elected Mayor of Syracuse, and was driven by Jason S. Hoyt over the first stage of the flying trip to Canada, where the hero of the event found a haven of safety. It was a bold act of defiance to a United States law, and the news of its success was heralded throughout the country. It was bread and meat to the then numerically insignificant body of abolitionists. The anniversary of the rescue was celebrated in Syracuse for several years. Of the rescuing party eighteen were indicted : but not one was ever convicted. Of the act- ive participants in the rescue there are very few living, of whom one is Ben- jamin L. Higgins, now of Syracuse. On the evening of July i6th, Jenny Lind sang for the only time in the city in the old First Baptist Church. The event was, of course, a remark- able one. It was in nearly all respects a repetition of the ovations she re- ceived throughout the country, with which the public is quite familiar. A local paper said: " The sale of tickets at Rust's Hotel was one of the most painfully amusing affairs we have ever witnessed. Never did poor fellows labor harder." The jam in the struggle to secure tickets was tremendous and several persons were seriously injured. Twice, and in some instances thrice, the regular price of tickets was paid to those lucky enough to have obtained them. Eleven hundred seats were sold. The songstress stopped at the Syracuse House and remained in the city the following day to in- spect the salt works, and then departed for Auburn. It was not many days later that we had " Jenny Lind salt " in the market. Madame Anna Bishop sang on the evening following the fair Swede, in pursuance of the hopeless effort to carry on a successful rivalry with Barnum's famous protege. A very large and enthusiastic mass meeting was held April 30, favoring the proposed enlargement of the canals. The call was signed by nearly 1,200 of the most prominent men of the city. John Wilkinson presided and made a strong speech, which was printed. Public improvement was unusually limited, the most important being, perhaps, the sewer, "one foot in the clear, " from the junction of Washing- ton and Genesee steeets on Genesee to Mulberry street, and thence north to Fayette. A public meeting was held in April to discuss a proposal to apply to the Legislature for amendments to the charter, having in view greater economy in the city government. 1852. — Nothing of great importance in the history of the city occurred 174 Memorial History of Syracuse. this year. On the 29th of July, a local paper contained the following: " The many and varied improvements going on in our city is a matter of surprise to strangers who visit us, and of gratulation and encouragement to our own citizens. In a few years Syracuse has grown and increased to a wonderful extent. Four years ago this (the Empire) was the building. But now, what a difference. The Bastable, the Norton, Dillaye, and Shel- don blocks have been built and mostly occupied, and recently the Wheaton block, which bids fair to outstrip and surpass all the rest." The above extract is characteristic of the public spirit which has always been evinced in Syracuse, and has given the city a reputation for activity and enterprise that extends across the continent. Measures were inaugurated at this time which soon resulted in the build- inCT of the City Poor and Work House, on the Split Rock Road. It was resolved by the Common Council January 9th, that a committee be ap- pointed to have charge of the Poor and Work House, furnish supplies, etc. In April the Council was authorized to borrow $16,000 for this purpose. In March a resolution was passed to inquire into the expediency of abandoning the Market and converting it into city offices, a measure that was adopted a little later in the year. In the same month the committee on bridges were authorized to contract for a stone bridge over the creek on Genesee street, 99 feet long and 25 feet span, and an iron bridge on Fayette street. The latter was constructed by S. Whipple and the former by Jud- son & Carrier. It had become apparent that a greater extension of water mains was necessary and a contract was made with the Water Company for one thous- and rods of pipe. A Committee selected the locations for hydrants, which were obtained of G. W. Fitch & Co., and Thomas Earl & Co., of Oneida. Street improvements were quite extensive this year. " Lysander, " (now West Fayette) Marcellus, Otisco, Tully and Fabius streets were surveyed in April, and improvements begun ; Jefferson street was extended from Clinton to West street ; $300 were appropriated for the improvement of Union Place, provided the citizens of that localitj^ would raise a like amount ; Onondaga street from Salina to Warren was graveled and the gutters paved ; sewers were ordered in August, one in Clinton street extending from four rods south of Washington street to Fayette street, and one 18 inches in di- ameter on Onondaga street from the Harrison street sewer " to such a point as may be determined by the Committee on Streets ; " Salina street was macadamized between Division street and the Oswego canal ; Croton street from Salina to Mulberry was laid out ; and in the Council in December it was resolved " That Lemon street e.xtend no farther south than Harrison ; that Munroe, Jackson, Taylor, and Burt streets extend no farther than the " Old Road, " so-called (meaning what is now Renwick Avenue,) and Visits of Louis Kossuth and Gen. Winfield Scott. 175 that Chestnut and Irving streets continue to the south line of farm lot 201." On the 31st of May the Hungarian patriot, Louis Kossuth, visited the city and was given a grand reception. Artillery was fired at Geddes when he reached that point on his eastward trip, and he was escorted to the City Hall, where he delivered an eloquent address. After this a procession of military, societies, officials, and others marched through the principal streets, and to the Globe Hotel, where the distinguished guest held a reception. General Winfield Scott, then candidate for the Presidency of the United States, visited Syracuse and held a reception in the parlors of the Syracuse House, where he was introduced to the public by Jason C. Woodruff, the Mayor. General Scott reviewed the local military in front of the City Ilall, and complimented them on their soldierly bearing. It was in this year also that the spire of the Unitarian church fell in a wind, striking on the roof of the building and forcing the walls outward, and nearly demolishing the whole structure. The east end wall fell upon and crushed a dwelling in which were two ladies asleep. They were found next morning under the ruins, but almost miraculously escaped injury. 1853. — Early in this year the project of dividing the wards of the city was agitated, and in February it was proposed in the Common Council to apply to the Legislature for an act authorizing such division. Also, for authority to appoint a "City Marshal and Chief of Police." At the charter election, held March 1st, Dennis McCarthy was elected Mayor by the Democrats, and at once exhibited evidence of executive abil- ity, practical judgment, modest statesmanship, and a confidence in himself which in after years gave him an eminent position in the State and nation. The total floating debt of the city, it was shown, was $36,756.17, but Mayor McCarthy's administration was a vigorous one and numerous public improvements were projected and carried out. The sale of the old Court- House property had been ordered and oc- curred on the lOth of March. The lots into which it was divided were purchased by the following persons, and the prices paid are also given : i, Dennis Driscoll, jr., $850. 2, Dennis Driscoll, $675. 3, H. Sheldon, $600. 4, Jacob Amos & Co., $600. 5, Jacob Amos & Co., $655. 6, A.T. Smith, $855. 7, C. Hair, $635. 8, W^illiam Roberts, $570. 9, Philip Rheinheimer, $509. 10, J. F. Wyman, $420. 1 1, David E. Dodge, $426. 12, Gabriel Bloomer, $532. 13, C. Hair, $427. Total, $7,754. In the Common Council in March trees were ordered set out on the north side of James street and in portions of several other streets. The Mayor was authorized to contract with the Water Company for the use of the water of Harbor Brook, and the Committee on Police was called on to report on the expediency of re-organizing the force. In April this com- mittee recommended the appointment of one of the eight members of the 176 Memorial History of Syracuse. police force as Chief, and the payment of $500 annually to police consta- bles. In the same month Fayette and Water streets were opened " to the east line of the late village of Syracuse." Preparations had been made for the building of a new County Clerk's Office, and the lot adjoining the old one was tleeded to the Supervisors for $15,000, and in May the old building was torn down, with the old No. 4 engine-house, and the new structure begun. It was finished towards the latter part of the year. On the 6th of June the Mayor and Clerk were requested to communi- cate with the representative in the Legislature, asking him to secure the pas- sage of a law authorizing the Council to raise $20,000 to apply on the city's floating debt. In the same month water mains were laid around Fayette Park, and a remonstrance was published against opening it to the public ex- ercises contemplated for July 4th. In September a bridge was ordered over the Oswego Canal in Willow street and was finished before the end of the year, and a special committee was appointed to revise the charter and ordinances. The four wards of the city were divided into eight, and were thus represented for the first time in the fall election of this year. The boundaries of the wards were established as follows: First ward, all that portion of the city bounded northe.ist, northwest, and west by the bounds of said city ; southeast by a line through the cen- ter of Court street and the Alvord road, so called. Second ward, all that part of the city bounded westerly by the Oswego Canal ; north by the center of Court street and the Alvord road ; south by the center of Butternut street ; and easterly by the bounds of the city. Third ward, all that part of said city bounded on the south by the cen- ter of the Erie Canal ; west by the west line of the city ; north by the line of the city and the center of Court street; east by the center of the Oswego Canal from Court street to the center of the Erie Canal. Fourth ward, all the residue of that part of said city lying on the north side of the Erie Canal not included in the First, Second, or Third wards. Fifth ward, all that part of the city lying south of the center of the Eric Canal and west of the center of the Onondaga Creek. Sixth ward, all that part of said city bounded on the north by the cen- ter of the Erie Canal ; on the west by the center of the Onondaga Creek ; east by a line drawn from the center of the Erie Canal southerly through the center of Montgomery street to the center of Burt street, thence west- erly through the center of Burt street to the center of Salina street, thence southerly through the center of Salina street to the south bounds of said . city; south by the south bounds of the city. Seventh ward, all that part of said city bounded on the north by the Close of the Year 1853. 177 center of the Erie Canal; west by the east line of the sixth ward; south by the south line of said city: east by a line drawn southerly from the cen- ter of the Erie canal, through the center of Almond street to the center of Rurt street, thence through the center of Burt street, to the center of Ren- wick avenue, thence south through the center of Renwick avenue to the south line of said city. Eighth ward, all the residue of said city lying south of the Erie canal and east of the Seventh ward. In December, James R. Lawrence and others asked for the erection of an engine house near the Court House, and the request was granted and a committee of three was appointed to select the exact site. It was located in January following, a little east of Salina street on Division street. Before the end of the year the new Clerk's Office was about finished, the Corinthian Hall block was well under way, and as a local paper put it, eleven fine stores were in process of erection on North Salina street, one of them being 165 feet deep. Hiram Judson died on the 27th day of June in this year. He was one of the pioneer business men of the place and was accorded the confidence and esteem of the community. He was Justice for many years and a prom- inent Mason. Hiram Brintnall died in August. He was the owner of the Brintnall Hotel, a brother of Josiah Brintnall, and a progressive and enterprising citizen. 1854. — The first event of especial prominence this year was a great mass meeting held on the 7th of February, in advocacy of the canal enlargement, which was to be accomplished or defeated by popular vote on the 15th of the same month. The meeting was a very enthusiastic one and indicated clearly where the city would stand in the election. The advisability of amending the city charter, giving power to raise funds for schools and the funding of the city debt was discussed early in the year and the measures were generally approved. The charter election resulted in the success of Allen Munroe, the Whig candidate for Mayor. The Treasurer, one Overseer of the Poor, si.\ out of eight Supervisors, and eleven of the Board of Aldermen were of the same political faith. In the address of the outgoing Mayor he announced the permanent debt of the city as about $40,000, and the floating debt as about $50,000, and the taxa- tion as being somewhat burdensome. The assessed valuation for the year ending February 25, 1854, was in the First ward, $907,975 ; in the Second ward, $2,366,498; in the Third ward, $3,114,966; in the Fourth ward, $1,379,425. The tax list was $96,031.72. Of this the Board of Education took $15,295.03. Street improvements cost $13,114.69. The city school property was valued at that time at $49,743-75. The Chief Engineer of 178 Memorial History of Syracuse. the Fire Department reported eight fire companies, the same number of hose companies, with about 560 active firemen. Charter amendments were made in the spring by which the Common Council was to fix the salaries of the police force and divide the city into police districts ; defining the duties of the Police Justice, and giving that department greater efficiency. A law passed the Legislature under date of April 3, empowering the corporation to borrow $70,000 on the bonds of the city, with which to fund the public debt. The passage of this act was secured by a committee appointed in March. On the loth of April the Comptroller was authorized to advertise for proposals for the loan, and $60,000 of the amount was supplied by Rufus H. King. The loan was to be paid in annual installments of $10,000. There were many bitter complaints at this time of the condition of the streets and the Council resolved in May to expend $10,750 on them during the year, (a sum that was afterwards increased) and named North and South Salina and Fayette streets as ones that needed most attention. Among the street improvements really accomplished were the paving of Fayette street between Salina and West streets ; the macadamizing of Salina street in the Second ward ; grading of Onondaga street from Salina street to the southwest line of the city; "Academy Hill" (East Fayette street) was graded down and the dirt taken to fill in at the new Chestnut street bridge over the canal ; Warren street was paved from the railroad a few blocks southward ; Franklin street between Water and Washington streets was raised with 800 yards of dirt, and 150 yards of gravel were put on Clinton street, and Burnet and Hawley streets were filled in considerably. A law was passed by the Legislature under date of ]VIarch 28, appointing Charles Tallman, Stephen D. Dillaye, and Harvey Sheldon, commissioners to straighten Onondaga Creek " from the point where the south line of the city strikes the creek to the intersection of the bend of the creek with the westerly point of block 160." (See map of 1846.) This was, when finish- ed, a great improvement for the southern part of the city. A law of April 4 authorized the Commissioners of the Land Ofiice to sell the lands set apart to the Syracuse Coarse Salt Company in the Fifth ward, bounded east by West street and west by Wyoming street, compris- ing about ten and three-fourths acres. Before the sale was made the Com- missioners were directed to buy, with money from the salt funds, fifteen acres in the Third ward, being part of Marsh lots 37 and 38, contiguous to lands then owned by the Salt Company, at not exceeding $600 an acre. The removal of the salt vats from the Fifth to the Third ward was directed to be made between the 1st of October, 1854, and the 1st of March, 1855. In alluding to other salt lands in the city General Leavenworth wrote as follows : " The State owned that part of the city lying west of Plum Removal of Coarse Salt Works. 179 street, north of the Erie canal, east of VanRennsselaer street, and south of the salt water reservoir, and a portion of the Onondaga creek, which lands were used for the manufacture of coarse salt. The removal of the coarse salt works having been ordered by the Commissioners of the Land Office, from those portions of said tract lying on each side of West Genesee street sixteen rods in depth, the Commissioners resolved at my suggession to sur- vey and map the whole tract and appointed me to supervise and direct in regard to it. I caused it to be laid out substantially as it now appears upon the maps, straightening Genesee street, laying out the lots on each side 100 feet front and 16 rods deep, making the second class streets eighty feet in width, instead of sixty-six, as they are in other parts of the city ; laying out a park near the center of the tract, as large as the Commissioners would sanction, surrounded by ample lots, and with a broad avenue one hundred and twenty feet wide, leading from this park to the vacant State lands near the Pump House." The Common Council honored General Leavenworth by giving his name to that park and the avenue. On the 22d of iMay, a commission of citizens were asked to go before the Canal Board and urge the building of an iron bridge over the canal on Salina street, a project that was soon afterward consummated. The Com- mon Council also resolved to appropriate $500, if the State would add $1000, for a bridge over the Oswego canal on James street. The cholera was again anticipated in the summer of this year, and there were a few fatalities from the dreaded disease ; but the authorities adopted prompt sanitary regulations and an epidemic was averted. The new block of stores opposite the Syracuse House on Salina street was finished in the fall and occupied by William R. Strong, hardware ; Pierce & Marsh, crockery ; D. Y. Foote, drugs; Barney & Valentine, jew- elry ; and Hodge & Stevens, hats and furs. The local press pronounced business good, one of them venturing the statement, "that no city in the Union has increased in wealth and popula- tion to a greater extent within the last fifteen years than Syracuse." Stephen Smith, one of the pioneers of the solar salt industry, died on the 23d of April, and John Townsend died in September. A meeting was held and resolutions eulogistic of Mr. Townsend were adopted. He was a member of the original Syracuse Company and exhibited enterprise and liberality for the advancement of the early village. 1855. — Lyman Stevens, the Whig candidate for Mayor, was elected this year and took his seat in March. In his inaugural address he called atten- tion to the amended charter, under which the office of Chief of Police was abolished and its duties transferred to the Police Justice, while the Mayor himself became largely responsible for the character and efficiency of the force, the nominations for which were placed in his hands, to be confirmed i8o Memorial History of Syracuse. by the Council. He reported the funded debt as $70,000, the floating debt as $4,000 and other items to swell the entire indebtedness to $81,500. The contingent expenses for the year had been $35,575, and $26,947.21 was ex- pended on the streets. The Street Superintendent's salary was fixed at $800, the Treasurer's at $500, and the Clerk's at $600. In April the Council declared its intention to build a sewer in Catharine street from where Canal street intersects it, to the canal. Other prominent street improvements of the year were the opening of Clinton street from Noxon to Genesee ; paving of South Salina street between Onondaga and Fayette streets; completion of a bridge over the creek on Water street ; the extension of the East Genesee street sewer ; a brick sewer in Townsend street to the north line of Willow street ; a sewer in Fayette street from West street to the creek ; a sewer in a part of South Salina street ; a brick sewer from the creek through Gifford street to West street, thence south to Seymour street, and thence west to the west side of Niagara street ; sewer in Walton street between the creek and Clinton street ; and a bridge built over the creek on Gifford street. The completion of some of these improve- ments was carried over into the following year. In the spring of this year another revision of the charter was made, defining more clearly the duties of various city officers. In April a commission consisting of Z. L. Beebe, Jefferson Phillips, and John F. Kidder was appointed to straighten the bed of Onondaga creek from the northwest corner of farm lot 304 to a certain point on the lake shore ; and in January, 1856, the Council concurred in " An Act for Straight- ening Onondaga Creek." This improvement is noticed a little further on. On the 25th of June the Common Council felt called upon to pass a resolution to the effect that " this Common Council fully indorse the senti- ments of the proclamation recently issued by the Mayor on the subject of the law passed by the last Legislature of the State, ' for the prevention of intemperance, pauperism and crime' ; that the Mayor be authorized to offer a reward of $100 each for the arrest of individuals who committed the outrage on a female in this city about the 30th of May, 1855." The reader should not presume from the foregoing resolution that the condition of the population of this city was worse than in other similar localities. True, there was much lawlessness, and especially incendiarism, during the period between 1855 and i860 ; but it is believed to have been more the result of very imperfect police regulations, than of any special innate depravity of any portion of the inhabitants. The police force was small and not composed of suitable material, and the system was often un- dergoing changes which greatly weakened its efficiency and left the way open to lawlessness, rowdyism and crime. As to the numerous fires of that period, many of them were credited, justly or unjustly, to the fire- Prices Receivep for Salt Lands. i8i men themselves. The volunteer system was then in vogue and fierce rivalry existed between the various companies, which found opportunity for display only at fires; and these, it is thought, were consequently started not for direct criminal objects so much as to open the way for a renewal of the unceasing contest for supremacy among the companies. In June occurred the sale of the State salt lands in the Fifth ward be- fore alluded to. On block 241 eleven lots were sold for $13,895 ; block 242, eighteen lots for $11,385 ; block 243, si.xteen lots for §9,220; block 184, eight lots for $3,890. This will indicate the value of real estate in that locality at that date. One of those lots was purchased by the Comptroller for an engine house, pound, etc., which were built thereon. A noticeable addition to the buildings of the city was made this year in the erection of the Pike block. The Council on the 30th of April granted the petition of Henry Pike and Thomas J. Keeler to erect a build- ingas described, on block 1 10 (corner of Fayette and South Salina streets,) the result being the substantial and handsome structure still standing there. In this year or the year before was also built by John R. Robertson the old Medical College building, on Lock street, (now the Fry Flats.) Among the prominent business men who located here in 1855 was Edwin F. Rice, who came with a few hard earned dollars, which he invested with Col. Charles Richardson; but two years later he began the dry goods trade in a small way in the old F"ranklin buildings, and gradually amassed the fortune on which he retired from business a few years ago. 1856. — On the morning of Sunday, January 20th the old Journal Building, (as it was then called) occupied by the "Conical Mills" of Fors- bee. Hicks & Smith, and in which occurred the famous Jerry Rescue, was totally destroyed by fire. The adjoining building was stored with the hardware stock of Marvin, May & Heermans, which was somewhat damaged. After this fire there was a universal demand for the organization and equip- ment of a hook and ladder company. Several long ladders were soon after- ward provided. At the beginning of the year the ten banks of the city reported an ag- gregate capital of §1,535,000. On the 2d of February the Dillaye Block, corner of South Salina and Fayette streets, was burned and three days later the old Court House fell in flames. Although the latter was an event that caused no real regret, as it was determined that a new Court House should be built at a point farther south, still it was known that the fire was the work of incendiaries and, coupled with other disastrous fires, it raised a storm of popular indignation. This found definite expression in a paper which was circulated, calling a public meeting at the City Hall to consider proposed changes in the char- ter, "having for their object the better and more economical management t82 Memorial History of Syracuse. of the affairs of the city." Meanwhile a committee had been appointed by the Council to prepare a bill having for its especial purpose the improve- ment of the police system This action was taken in response to the pop- ular feeling that something must be done for the suppression of incendia- rism and other acts of lawlessness. A meeting was held on the 7th of Feb- ruary to consider the proposed changes in the police system, at which Jason C. WoodrufT presided. This resulted in a determination to retain the police force substantially as it then existed and to create a Chief with broad and well-defined powers. A vote was also taken on the question of establishing a Recorder's Court, and carried. The meeting following the call first mentioned was held on the iith of February and a large committee was appointed to present proposed amendments to the charter. These amendments were, substantially, in favor of retaining the police court and against a recorder's court. Second, abolishing the office of Comptroller. Third, abolishing the office of City Attorney. These propositions were adopted, excepting that relating to the Comptroller. (The legal business of the city was for some years thereafter awarded to a designated attorney from year to year.) James L. Bagg, Horace Wheaton, Rowland H. Gard- ner, John J. Peck, Lewis T. Hawley, James R. Lawrence, and Patrick Cooney were made a committee to embody the amendments in a bill and forward it to Albany. At about the same time a committee on amend- ments to the Public Schools Act reported an amendment giving the con- trol of the school funds to the Board of Education. Another public meeting was held on the 14th of I'ebruary to consider how to protect the city from incendiaries, burglars and robbers. A com- mittee of five was appointed, consisting of L. T. Hawley, Heman W. Still- well, Daniel S. Geer, P. S. Stoddard, and Dr. Van Slyke, who circulated a petition addressed to the Common Council asking the appointment of a paid night watch. At the charter election the city government passed under Democratic control by the election of Charles F. Williston as Mayor, and six Demo cratic and five Know-Nothing Aldermen out of sixteen. In his address Mayor Williston announced the entire permanent debt as $77,987.50. Of this sum $44,063 was incurred for highways, and $20,000 for educational purposes. Local assessments amounted to $20,000. The Mayor asked and insisted that local taxes be kept for local improvements, instead of drawing on other funds as had been done, and leaving local taxes uncollected. John A. Clark was made Comptroller; Charles Pope, Chief Engineer; Andrew Y. Thompson, Police Justice, (to fill vacancy,) Joshua Cuddeback having been asked to resign. The salary of the Comptroller was raised to $i,oco; that of the Surveyor and Engineer to the same amount, he to pay his own clerk ; that of the City Clerk to $650, and that of the Treasurer to $500. Efforts for the Suppression of "Rowdyism." 183 Another public meeting to consult upon the suppression of "rowdyism and incendiarism " was held on the 17th of March and a Committee was appointed to confer with the Council and demand a night watch for the city. The sum of §3,000 was offered for "the conviction of the incendia- ries infesting the city." Still another meeting was held on the 27th of the same month at which charter amendments relative to the police system were approved, in effect re-establishing the office of Chief of Police with a salary of ^Soo ; increasing the salary of the Justice to $1,200, and police- men's pay to $600. Daniel P. Wood was designated to go to Albany to secure the prompt action of the Legislature in the matter. Under these new arrangements a night watch was appointed, which continued on duty a few years and with the other improvements in the police system, the city entered upon a period of greater peacefulness and safety. In the Common Council January 21st, the State authorities were re- quested to fill up "so much of Free and Carbon streets as they have aban- doned in making the new canal through the First Ward of the city." On the 5th of January the Wieting Block was burned to the ground, but over the ruins soon arose the second one, a loftier and handsomer edi- fice than the first. The new Dillaye Block was also begun early in the year and rapidly pushed to completion. It had developed early in the year that the city was owing (as supposed) nearly $40,000, the debt having accumulated chiefly through the non-col- lection of local assessments before alluded to. A resolution was passed by the Council in May to draw warrants for the various debts, payable in the following February. When this action became known, however, a public meeting was called, (but very thinly attended) at which a committee of five comprising Lyman Clary, Charles Pope, W. B. Kirk. J. M. Wieting, and Nathan Cobb was appointed to investigate fully and report upon the city's finances. The report of this committee showed, on paper at least, that there was a debt of only about $10,000 that the city might not confidently hope to pay off ^before the following February from the ordinary resources, and objecting to any temporary loan. The resolution was finally adopted to borrow $20,000, to be used first for payment of the floating debt, and second, for current expenses, and recommending that public expenditures be curtailed so that this $20,000 could be repaid from the regular tax levy of the year. It is apparent that a large share of the financial difficulties of those days grew out of the loose way of collecting taxes, particularly those of a local character: and it is quite probable that such collections were ren- dered difficult in many instances by the prevailing hard times. During the year there was a very general survey and establishment of sidewalk and street grades, but not so much actual street improvement as in the preceding year. In April the Comptroller was authorized to advertise 1 84 Memorial History of Syracuse. for proposals to lay a roadway in Fayette street from West to Geddes street, of hemlock plank sixteen feet long and four inches thick; also for grading the same street from the creek to West street. This improvement involved the removal of 1,900 yards of earth from Fayette street, 400 of which was put on Franklin street and 500 on West street. North Salina street was paved with cobble stone between the Oswego canal and Church street, and 100 rods of West Onondaga street was paved. Many of the streets in the " swamp " were filled and "made passable," as the resolution read. In September the Common Council appointed a committee of five to revise the charter and submit their work to the Council before the meet- ing of the next Legislature. We find no record of the results of this action. On the 8th of November a very disastrous fire involving a loss of nearly $200,000 occurred in the First ward, sweeping the block north of Salina street and between Exchange and Wolf streets, with the exception of the State building and a grocery on the corner of Wolf and Salina streets. The fire broke out in the barn of the old Eagle Tavern. Relief meetings were held in Salina and Syracuse and liberal contributions made of money and supplies. The Citizens' Corps gave a ball for the benefit of the suffer- ers, which netted about $800. In one sense this fire, like many others, was a blessing in destroying old, unsightly, and dangerous buildings and thus leading to the erection of better ones. It was by this time discovered that keeping a " Poor and Work House" by the city was a costly experience and the proposition was made and dis- cussed that the city poor be sent to the county institution and their care paid for. This feeling crystallized in December in a resolution that " after January i, 1857, the keeping of the paupers be dispensed with" — an ar- rangement that was subsequently carried out and the Poor House sold to the Catholics. Its site is now occupied by the House of Providence. The general business outlook at the close of the year seems to have been good. In a review of trade made at intervals during the year, a newspaper found that there were sold by one grocery house $800,000 annually, and by another $400,000; by the boot and shoe factories and stores about $1,000,000; by two clothing houses between $100,000 and $150,000; by one dry goods house, $?oo,00O ; by one millinery firm $100,000; in hardware $150,000 ; in saddlery hardware $150,000; in leather $230,000; in books $150,000; in hats, caps, and furs $200,000 ; in jewelry $300,000, while the tobacco trade reached nearly $4,000,000. "Ten years ago," said a local print, in a burst of enthusiasm, " Salina street south of Fayette presented a dreary, cold, and gloomy aspect, and not a lady would promenade farther south than the corner of Fayette, or if in the evening would not think of ventur- ing farther south than the Central depot. How is it now? South Salina street is crowded with promenading ladies and gentlemen and is the most healthful and business-like part of the city." 6~y~ dc ^. (7~ylAyl ,.M.M'(^^^M-/i/: A Financial Awakeninc. 185 1857. — The year 1857 was an important one to Syracuse ; not from the fact that public improvements were greatly advanced, for such was not the case, but because of the awakening of the authorities and the public gener- ally to the realization that the management of the city's finances during the few preceding years had been loose and extravagant. It was an experience through which most young municipalities pass. While little blame could be attached to individuals for such a state of things, the general financial system was imperfect and the men who were at the head of it had not be- come fully conversant with those strict business principles which must al- ways govern the expenditure as well as the income of a city, in order to avoid the shoals of bankruptcy. Moreover, a period of terrible financial distress throughout the whole land had, doubtless, prompted men to look carefully about them, at public affairs as well as their own, to see how the threatened calamity might be avoided. The financial crisis of 1857 has passed into history as one of the most disastrous ever known, and Syracuse felt it in no small degree. Still, as has before been stated, the city passed through the period of stringency with much less actual suffering than others of its class. In February the Council passed a resolution authorizing the Mayor to negotiate a loan of $30,000, as already provided for by Act of Legislature, to meet the debts which had accumulated prior to March 10, 1856. William B. Kirk, the Syracuse Savings Bank, and H. H. Martin, of Albany, took each $10,000 of these bonds. On the 13th of the same month, pursuant to a call, a public meeting was held for the main purpose of so amending the charter as to secure a more economical and simple administration of the city government. John A. Green, Jr., presided at the meeting, and Hon. Thomas G. Alvord reported the amendments as follows : To provide for one Overseer of the Poor, in- stead of two; for four Assessors, instead of three; creating the ofifice of City Treasurer and Ta.x Receiver ; abolishing the office of Ward Collector ■ providing for the election of eight Aldermen, instead of sixteen, and eiwht Commissioners of Common Schools. All of these amendments were adopted. Subsequent proposed amendments made the date of charter election the 2d Tuesday of March, instead of the ist ; provided that no local improvement should be made without it was requested by a majority of the property along the line of the improvement ; that all public work should be done by contract, excepting temporary repairs ; that no debt should be contracted except by authority of the Council ; that all resolutions of the Council authorizing the expenditure of money, should specify the amount • that each new Council should immediately examine the accounts of their predecessors and " commence and prosecute suits for recovery of any excess of expenditure above that authorized by the charter against said Aldermen ;" 24 1 86 Memorial History of Syracuse. Commissioners of Schools to be elected by a ballot separate from the general ticket ; giving the Board of Education full power to contract for lots, buildings, etc., and requiring the City Clerk to report monthly to the Coun- cil all moneys authorized to be expended. These were sweeping and very desirable changes and at once effected a radical change for the better. Their indirect influence was also towards economy in expenditures, creating an apparent feeling on the part of the Council that they were more directly responsible for the financial well-being of the city. This was reflected upon public improvements, which were re- stricted during the year to the necessary minor matters of sidewalks, a lim- ited extension of the sewer system, and street paving, which need not be traced in detail. Proposals were advertised for in February for the erection of a twenty- feet front and bell tower on the City Hall, which was built in the summer, by Joseph Clark. At the charter election Mayor Charles F. Williston was re-elected by about 350 majority, through a coalition with the Know-Nothing element. A new schedule of salaries gave to the Mayor $1,200; Treasurer, $1,200; Clerk, S800; Surveyor, $1,000; Superintendent of Streets, S900 ; Chief of Police, $800 ; Policemen, $600. The street cleaning for the year was let in March, by wards, for the gross sum of about $1,250. Early in the year Chief of Police Thomas Davis reported that there were about five hundred places where liquor was sold on Sundays, and pro- claimed that he should enforce the law against such traffic. A local paper soon afterward congratulated the community on the excellent condition of the city under the existing police force and Justice A. Y. Thompson's ad- ministration, and said the city was never more quiet and peaceful. A large pubUc meeting was held on the 14th of October to give expres- sion to the views of the leading business men upon the depressed financial situation. It was addressed by Harvey Baldwin, Dennis McCarthy, John A. Green, jr., and others, and resulted in the adoption of a series of resolu- tions pledging the support of the business community to the crippled banks and approving of the suspension of specie payment. A heavy flood occurred in November, during which the high water of the lake caused damage to salt blocks and other property in Salina and Liverpool amounting to over $1 5,000. A public meeting was called to con- sider the subject and various plans were discussed to obviate the recurrence of such an event. In December, a committee which had been previously appointed, re- ported upon measures for the relief of the poor and unemployed of the city. It was recommended that the Legislature be requested to pass a law authorizing the city to borrow $10,000 to be expended in improving the Condition of the City Debt. 187 streets, the interest on which for a term of years should be paid from the annual tax levy, and employment thus given to those who needed it most. The only other public matters calling for mention were the extension of the fire limits to include blocks ^J, 38, and 166: a proposition made to sell to the State the Poor House for an inebriate asylum ; permission to the State to finish the culvert for the water flowing from the weigh lock ; build- ing of a three-foot sewer from the west side of Tioga street, through Otisco and West streets and diagonally across Jefferson street to the creek ; paving TOO rods of West Onondaga street with cobble stone, "extending westward from West street." Carroll E. Smith resigned the City Clerkship in the summer, after sev- eral years in the office, and was highly complimented by the Council for his faithful and conscientious work. ,858. — This year was a prosperous one for Syracuse, when it is remem- bered that the community was just recovering from a severe financial strug- gle. For the preceding year the city had received from all sources, §85,530.58. In the report of the Finance Committee, from which these figures are taken, a recapitulation of the annual taxation for general pur- poses is given as follows: 1848; $8,349 ; 1849, S15.CCO: 1850, $i3,cco; 1851, $i6,cxx); 1852, $20,000: 1853, $46,133.22; 1854, $53.coo; 1855, $52,000: 1856, $53,000; 1857,840,847.41. To these sums the local taxes were added. The above statement reveals not only a rapid increase of taxation, but also gives a vivid indication of an equivalent growth of the city at large. The same committee added to their report this expression : "For the sec- ond time, and the second time only, since Syracuse became a city, the financial year closes without leaving a burden of promiscuous floating debt to transmit and annoy our successors. * * No city in the State of New York is to-day in as healthy financial condition as Syracuse." The entire debt was reported at that time as $84,500. The Committee on Finance comprised Francis A. Marsh, H. Church, and Coddington B. Williams. A public meeting was held on the 26th of February to consider further proposed amendments to the city charter. Robert M. Richardson presided. George L. Maynard, of a committee previously appointed, reported amendments enlarging the powers of the police force; constituting two Councilmen (to be appointed) as a Committee of Public Health, and a Board of Health composed of such committee, the Mayor, the next pre- ceding ex-Mayor, and the City Clerk ; giving the Council power to raise by tax $55,000 for each of the years 1858 and 1859, and thereafter only $42,000, with $5,000 additional to pay the city's share of new pavements. The question of the Mayor's salary then came up and caused much heated dis- cussion, in the midst of which the meeting adjourned. A second meeting i88 Memorial History of Syracuse. was held a few days later to settle the vexed question. The people were divided upon the issue of taking from the Mayor the duties of Auditor and reducing his salary, thus, as one speaker said, "taking the power of levying taxes away from the city officials." The advocates of this policy finally prevailed and the Mayor's salary was placed at $500. At the charter election William Winton, Democrat, was elected Mayor, over James S. Leach, Republican, by 191 majority, and the Council was equally divided politically. An era of rigid economy (as city economy is generally understood) was inaugurated by the new administration, Mayor Winton frequently during the year exercising the right of veto to keep ex- penditures within the charter limits. Local improvements were, therefore, limited to actual necessities. The Council on June 12, sent a communication to the Water Company demanding to know what they were going to do about laying certain pipes which had been requested. This was the very beginning of a contest be- tween the city and the company which did not cease excepting at intervals, until a very recent date. It was a warfare on one side to get additional compensation from the city (though claimed constantly on the part of the company to be just) and a constant effort by the authorities to get water on more economical terms. The fourth of July was appropriately celebrated, and also the successful laying of the Atlantic telegraph cable in August. The latter event was made the occasion of an illumination and general jubilee such as the city had not before witnessed. There were not many acts of the administration calling for mention here, among the more prominent being the opening of Oswego street early in the year ; the setting off from the city of a portion of the Fourth ward (as- sessed valuation $166,320,) and a portion of the Eighth ward (assessed val- uation $74,800,) to the town of DeWitt, a measure which was violently op- posed and finally rescinded ; ordering trees set in Washington and Forman parks ; paving South Salina street with cobble stone from Onondaga street to the Tully plank road ; putting 400 loads of earth on Cortland avenue ; and the extension of Burnet street eastward. The hackstand was this year located in the middle of South Salina street between Fayette and Jefferson. The hacks were to stand with the horses headed north. 1859. — At the charter election this year the city underwent a political sum- mersault. E. W. Leavenworth was elected Mayor by 600 majority and the whole Republican city ticket was elected. The local newspapers of that faith claimed it was "a revolution of principle ; that the city had been mis- governed and the masses would stand it no longer." The financial report of the old Council showed receipts of $85,631.33, with $8,966.17 uncollected taxes and other claims. Further Charter Amendments. 189 The year was almost wholly uneventful. City affairs under the new ad- ministration were efficiently and prudently managed. The difficulty be- tween the city and the Water Company, begun in the preceding year, con- tinued with increasing strength until finally in midsummer the Company threatened to cut off the public supply. In earlier pages we have alluded to the old building known about the period under consideration as the " Saleratus Factory," a brick structure which stood on the site of the present Clinton block. It was built in 1824, by Booth & Elliott. This building with others, including the new First Baptist church, were burned on the 23d of August this year. On the Tnh of July the Council appointed a committee of three to em- ploy counsel to file an injunction to restrain the Water Company from stop- ping the supply of water. The matter was adjusted after much discussion in and out of the newspapers, but not upon a basis that remained per- manent. A public meeting was held at the City Hall on the 23d of December to consider certain charter amendments, at which John Wilkinson presided. A committee of eight (one from each ward) was appointed to meet with the Mayor and Council on the following day, when they agreed on the fol- lowing amendments: Giving the Council the right to order streets ma- cadamized and repaired out of the $5,000 before authorized for paving, sew- ers, and bridges; giving Aldermen a salary of $100 a year; giving the Council the right to appropriate $75 per week for each ward for temporary repairs, instead of $25 as theretofore appropriated ; making it a duty of the Police Justice to report annually to the Auditors all fines collected and expenditures in his office. A great political meeting was held on the 29th of December, called in the interest of the Republican party, " to oppose treason." It was almost the first actual local demonstration of the oncoming political conflict of the next year, which threw the Democratic party out of power and led to the outbreak of a civil war that astounded the whole world. All of the public improvements that need recording here were the widen- ing of Franklin street from Noxon to Church street; abolishing the night watch established in 1856, excepting in the F"irst ward; grading Catharine street from Hickory to Butternut street ; grading James street from Lodi to the residence of George Barnes; an attempt to sell the City Poor and Work House, a project that was afterwards accomplished ; and the re-survey of the Prospect Hill property, at the suggestion of Mayor Leavenworth, so as to provide for the public square at that point. Towards the close of the year the community was congratulated on the excellent business outlook, the building of the First Baptist church, a new block on the site of the old Yellow Buildings, and a new building on the I90 Memorial History of Syracuse. site of the old "Conical Mills, " by ex-Mayor Stevens, all of which sites had been recently burned over; a new brewery by Jacob Pinkerton on Fay- ette street ; the engine hook and ladder house rear the City Hall. Prepar- ations were made for the erection of the Kirk block, which was soon finished, and for other structures. CHAPTER XVn. THE AVAR DF.CADE. How History was Rapidly Made— Charter Election of i86c — The Presidential Campaign — The Beginning of the War— Intense Patriotic Excitement — The First Military Organization for the War The Great Freshet of 1862 — Raising of the I22d Regiment — Bounties to Volunteers — Stagnation in all Public Improvements— Prospects of a Draft — The Delegation to Washington — Further Gen- erous Bounties— Special Election — The Last Regiment Raised — A Snow Blockade— Sttani Fire En- gines Purchased— City Improvements Following the War. DURING the decade beginning with the year i860, general history was made as it had never been made before, andofsuch momentous events as to amaze the entire civilized world. The " irrepressible conflict " which William H. Seward foresaw, long-waged and now approaching its culmina- tion, was soon to be decided for all time and the question of freedom or slavery in the United States settled irrevocably. But no more than the dark shadows of the approaching bloody conflict had yet fallen across the doorways of Syracuse, and the avocations of peace and thrift and confi- dence were still moving onward as before. The vote of the charter election of i860 placed Dr. Amos Westcott in the Mayor's chair, E. W. Leavenworth retiring, the administration thus re- maining Republican. Fairfax Wellington was the Democratic nominee for Mayor. The funded. debt of the city was reported as $42,750.38, with no floating debt. The School Commissioners asked for$2i,272.23, with $5,000 for new buildings, which sums were allowed. Only $12,750 of the funded debt was to fall due during the year, a sum not one-half so large as had been paid in some preceding years. On the 16th of April, the Surveyor and Engineer reported to the Council that it would co.st $350 to properly improve the old burying ground on the corner of West Water and Franklin streets, in accordance with the application made to the Council by citizens. A resolution was passed that the city would appropriate $200 if an equal amout was subscribed by in- Stref.t Rah. WAV Charters. 191 dividuals, which was done. In all about $450 were expended in improving this spot, in removing remains, laying flat stones on the graves and bury- ing them in the earth, grading, etc. At a later meeting the enclosure was christened Franklin Park. The Legislature had granted a charter for a street railway between the canal and the First ward, the route being designated as through Lodi, Lock, and Wolf streets; this route was subsequently changed to Salina street, and steps were taken to build the road which was opened in August with a pub- lic demonstration. This was the first street railway in the city. A Charter was also granted in April to Harvey Stewart, William A. Judson, James Xoxon, Elijah N. F"ord, John M. Jayco.x, Charles A. Baker, Thomas T. Davis and Thomas G. Alvord, to build a road from Geddes, down Genesee and Salina streets, to Onondaga street, and thence to near the Syracuse and Binghamton railroad station (then located at the junction of Onondaga and Clinton streets). Among the principal acts of the Common Council were the grading of James street from Oak street to the city line ; the determination to extend and widen North Clinton street to Noxon street, a measure that was vetoed by the Mayor, leading to a mandamus being issued against the Council to force it to act in the matter; the opening of Baker street through the lands of the Syracuse and Binghamton railroad company; the macadamizing of West Genesee street from the creek to the city line, at a cost of over $7,000 ; the lease of school house No. 8, First ward, for an engine house. Early in November a mob committed a raid on several disreputable houses, during which one young man was shot and killed. The event cre- ated great excitement. A public meeting was called over which Timothy C.Cheney presided, to consider the question of "suppressing the social evil," and twenty special policemen were appointed to act with the regular force. At the meeting, after much discussion, a committee was appointed of twenty-four representative men to devise a plan of action and report to the Council. After several sittings the committee reported that they could do nothing but recommend the enforcement of existing laws. A resolution was thereupon passed by the Council to retain a lawyer whose duty it should be to prosecute the keepers of all such houses. Two of the rioters were fined and imprisoned. The conflict between the Water Company and the city, which had pre- viously resulted in a law suit begun by the former to enforce the collection of about $3,500 alleged to have been due in July, 1859, was compromised this year by the city paying a part of the claim. The sale of the lots on the old Court House site occurred in May, the six on Salina street bringing $3,600 ; six on Townsend street, $2,500 ; and one on Division street, $263. 192 Memorial History of Syracuse. The presidential campaign was, of course, a heated one, resulting in the election of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin, which was the signal for the attempt of the pro-slavery States to overthrow the government. The details of the campaign need not be traced here, but ratification meet- ings, the organization of active clubs of " Wide Awakes," with numerous parades and illuminations, were current events of the year. 1861 At the Charter election this year Charles Andrews, (Republican) was elected Mayor of the city. The assessed taxation of the preceding year was $83,872.25. Of this amount $52,000.00 was expended for general purposes, gas, water, fire department, highways, salaries, etc., and $5,oco, for paving, sewers, and bridges. The Clerk's .statement .showed a funded debt of $32,750.38, with no floating debt. The street cleaning for the year was let in March, by wards for $1,758. Events of general interest and importance were few in number, if we except the opening of the great civil war in April, and its influence in the city. President Lincoln passed through the city on the 9th of February, on his memorable journey to Washington, and was welcomed by citizens and the military, while the city was profusely decorated with bunting. In the same month a commission previously appointed to settle the dif- ferences between the Water Company and the city reported that for three years beginning July, 1861, the city should pay the company $6,510.77 per year; for the two years ending July i, 1861, $13,021.54. The matter was argued for the city by James Noxon and Daniel Pratt, and for the company by John Wilkinson and Thomas T. Davis. An abolition and woman's rights convention was called for the 29th day of January, conspicuous figures in which were Samuel J. May and Su.san B. Anthony. But the meeting was broken up by a mob and the philanthropic pastor and his distinguished colleague were burned in efifigy. It is difificult to realize now that there could have been found in Syracuse thirty years a^o an element which was ready to offer insult and violence to that good man, Samuel J. May. On the 22d of January the Onondaga Historical Society was organized with the following officers: President, J. V. H. Clark; vice-president, N. B. Smith ; treasurer, James S. Leach ; recording secretary. Charles R. Wright; corresponding secretary, James Noxon ; directors, James S. Leach, N. B. Smith, S. N. Holmes, Wm. Biumgrass, L. W. Conkey, Prof. C. O. Roundy, Dr. H. D. Didama, James Noxon, John A. Green, Prof. T. K. Wright, J. V. H. Clark, H. D. L. Sweet, Dr. J. Kneeland, Wm. Tefft. This society promised a career of activity and usefulness, and great effort was put forth by its directors and a few others to secure for it that recog- nition and financial support which such an institution deserves in every city. But the effort failed to a great extent and the valuable materials col- TiiK Fkeshkt of 1S62. 193 lected are at present stored in unsafe places awaiting the tinne when they may be placed in a building or rooms suitable for the purpose. Very little public improvement was made during the year, and nothing worthy of particular mention, excepting, perhaps, preparations to build a new stone bridge over the creek on Onondaga street, which is noticed in the record of next year. The reason for this apathy was the intense excitement created by the breaking out of the war, and the firing upon Sumter the 14th of April, to which public attention was at once turned. This city, in common with the entire North, was deeply stirred and almost all public business was neglected for the consideration of the one great event. No sooner was a gun fired by the Southerners than measures were adopted to send troops to the aid of the threatened Capitol. The Union banner leaped into the breeze from hundreds of prominent points. Stirring peals of martial music filled the air ; enthusiastic meetings were held and burning eloquence exhorted all to be true to the Union ; more than $iO,OCX) was promptly subscribed to aid the families of volunteers, while almost the only topic of conversation was what should be done in the great crisis. John G. Butler's company of Zou- aves, catching their inspiration from the recent visit in Syracuse of the famous Ellsworth Zouaves, and E. S. Jenney's battery of artilery, left the city for the Albany barracks in April, and the gallant 1 2th regiment departed for Elmira on the 2d of May. The war spirit was abroad. Efforts were made in the fall of 185 1 to recruit the 12th regiment to one thousand strong and a meeting was held at the City Hall on the 22d of November to aid in the work, which was also aided by the action of the Board of Super- visors outside of the city who appealed to their constituents to contribute to the desired result. 1862. — Charles Andrews was re-elected Mayor by the Republicans this year by nearly three hundred majority, and six out of the eight Aldermen were also Republicans. The street cleaning contract amounted to $2,085, ^ sum which would doubtless have been considered small enough if the work had been properly performed ; but such was not the case, nor had it been'in the preceding year, when two or three of the contractors were cited before the Council and fined for non-fulfillment of their contracts. Of very few years since that time can it be said that the city streets have been properly cleaned. The principal occurrence of the year was a great freshet in March ; du- ring all day on the 14th a heavy rain fell upon a large body of snow and Onondaga creek reached a high stage. The water touched the top of the arch of the bridge on O.iondaga street. In the railroad tunnel in the Eighth ward the flood extinguished the fires in the locomotives passing through it. South Salina street was flooded across the low grounds south 25 194 Memorial History of Syracuse. of Burt street, and portions of West Fayette street and Walton street were under water. The same may be said of Tallman, Baker, and Adams streets and Cortland Avenue. Considerable damage resulted by the flooding of dwellings. The building of the stone bridge with a single arch over the creek on Onondaga street was about finished in November, i86i,but when the sup- ports of the arch were removed a large portion of the bridge fell in ruins. It was ordered rebuilt with two arches and the new bridge stood the severe test of the flood just described. Considerable paving was done, especially on Warren, North Salina street in the First Ward, East Water, Fayette, East Genesee and West Water streets. War excitement ran high during the year and the I22d regiment, raised in one month, was mustered in on the 28th of August and left for New York on Sunday the 31st. On the 23d of September the 149th left the city for Washington. For the history of these and other Military organiza- tions the reader is referred to a later Chapter. In July, 1862, the Senatorial District Committee requested the Board of Supervisors to offer a bounty of $50 to each volunteer who enlisted under the President's call for 300,000 men. The Board promptly passed a resolution empowering the treasurer of the county to borrow not exceeding $75,000, payable in annual instalments of $10,000 after March i, 1863. On the 22d of August, at a special session of the Board of Supervisors, in response to a request of the Senatorial Military Committee the Board empowered the County Treasurer to borrow $68,000, payable in seven in- stallments from March i, 1862, the first six installments to be of $10,000 each. This fund was appropriated to the payment of "$50 to each volun- teer for this county who shall enlist for three years or the war, in the fourth Onondaga regiment ; then to pay the same to each volunteer whose enlist- ment shall be credited to the county upon its quota of the 600,000 men." It was also resolved that $3,000 of the sum be used to defray expenses of raising the " Fourth Onondaga Regiment." 1863. — At the municipal election the Democrats came into power in the city, electing Daniel Bookstaver for Mayor over Charles P. Clark, by about 200 majority, and six out of eight Aldermen. Robert M. Beecher was given the city clerkship and there was a general turning out of office-hold- ers. The causes of the political change were stated by the Republican papers (and were tacitly admitted by the Democratic organ) to have been the general feeling that had grown up against the government and its vigor- ous war policy, the local prospect of a draft, etc. The retiring Mayor reported the city finances as sound. The new May- or in his address gave the amount of the funded debt as $32,750.83, and no floating debt. He counseled rigid economy. The school budget for 1863 Providing for a New Reservoir. 195 was $33,510, which was allowed in full. The Common Council on the 19th of January, reported favorably on a petition from citizens for the appro- priation of $20,coo for the relief of families of volunteer soldiers. This action was sanctioned by the Legislature in an Act passed March 31st. The sum of $5,000 (a part of the $20,000) was borrowed at once of the Onondaga County Savings Hank, and thus began the series of local liberal appropriations and contributions in aid of the armies of the Union, in the way of bounties, relief pa)ments, etc., v>\\h which the city stands credited, and which continued to the end of the war. At the town elections in Feb- ruary, twelve supervisors elected were Republicans, against seven Demo- crats, and in March a Republican Union City Club was formed at a meet- ing the call for which was signed by about one hundred and fifty prominent citizens. Public improvements continued almost at a standstill during the year, being apparently driven out of consideration by the momentous events con- nected with the war. The Council met with almost accustomed regularity, but beyond the granting of fire privileges; the erection of a watch house in the rear of the ergine house No. 2 in the First ward ; the building of sew- ers in Warren and Montgomery streets between Harrison and Adams, and macadamizing East Fayette street from Grape to Almond, very little except routine business was done. On the 9th of March, a special Committee reported to the Council in- favor of paying the Water Company $8co a year for five years, provided a new reservoir was built at a minimum cost of $20,000, giving better service to the city. This plan was carried out. On the 2ist of the same month the old I2th regiment returned from the war, their number reduced to about 275 men, and were given a royal welcome in Regimental (Armory) Park, by the Mayor, the military, firemen, and citizens. They also received a special welcome in the First ward. A great deal of excitement was caused during a part of the summer by the prospects of a draft to fill the quota of the city, under the then recent call for 300,000 volunteers, the enrollment for which was completed in July. On the 20th of that month the Council resolved to appropriate money sufficient to pay the commutation of all men who might be drafted from the city, but by great energy in recruiting and the ofTer of a special bounty of $150 for all recruits who should enlist previous to August 15, the fund for which was largely made up of private contributions, the draft was averted. But through some misunderstanding, or the disappearance of enlistment rolls which had been sent on to Washington, it was claimed that the quota was not filled and a draft of 366 men was ordered to take place on Septem- ber 29. A local paper said : "The fact is, the quota is filled, and we have confidence in the authorities at Washington that they will allow the claim." 196 Memorial History of Syracuse. Let it suffice that through the influence of a Committee who visited Wash- ington, the matter was amicably adjusted and the draft was not made. Many very enthusiastic mass meetings were held in the summer and fail, particularly by the Union element in the community, and at the fall elec- tion the county went 2,500 majority Republican and the city about 200. With the autumn months came another call for volunteers and although action toward filling the quota was somewhat delayed, the authorities finally came forward and took the necessary steps to provide a fund of $300,000 for the payment of a bounty of S300 to each recruit, and the quota was filled. This was accomplished through a conference of a Committee from the Onondaga Board of Supervisors and the Cortland County Board, at which four plans were discussed, viz. i. A bounty of $300 to each volunteer. 2. Procuring substitutes or commutation for drafted men. 3. Applicatoin to the Legislature requesting the payment of $300 to each volunteer. 4. No appropriation by the Supervisors, leaving the whole matter to the Legisla- ture. A special election was held in December, resulting in an overwhelm- ing majority in favor of paying the bounty. The enrollment was complet- ed on the i6th of December. The sum of $360,000 was the maximum authorized to be raised in the city, on bonds payable in three equal annual instalments, subject to confirmation by the Legislature. $5,000 of this sum was appropriated to the work of enlisting men. The bounty was paid and the quota filled. During all these months the city was filled with the " spirit of war." Hanover Square was filled with recruiting offices and and everywhere the sound of fife and drum was almost constantly heard. The public mind dwelt continuously on the great conflict. Soldiers were upon the streets or in the rendezvous near the stone bridge over Onondaga creek on Cortland ^ avenue, waiting for their departure to the front. Public speakers and ward committees were active, and the women were engaged in preparing and sending supplies of various kinds to the " Onondaga boys" in the field and hospitals. Excitement reigned and at times business was half suspended that matters relating to the war might have proper consideration. A law was passed on the 4th of May authorizing Alfred Hovey, Edward B. Wicks, William D. Stewart, Harvey Stewart, John W. Barker, D. P. Wood, A. C. Powell, D. Bookstaver, and G. P. Kenyon, to lay tracks for a .street railway in Furnace and Bridge streets to Hemlock, thence to Fay- ette, and thence to Salina street. In the same month, Hamilton White, L. H. Redfield, Charles A. Baker, Johnson Hall, James Noxon, Henry D. Hatch, Josiah Brintnall, and Fairfax Wellington were authorized by the Legislature to lay a street railway beginning at Church street and extend- 'w to Oakwood Cemetery and Brighton. Both of these lines were subse- quently built. Raising a Fund for Volunteers. 197 William H. Alexander died on the 20th of August. He was born in Massachusetts in 1786 and settled in Syracuse in 1828. He was one of the pioneers in the foundry business, was a Trustee of the village, and a member of the first Board of Aldermen. Dwight Salmon, brother of U. (). Salmon, and a member of the tobacco firm of D. & D. O. Salmon, died on the 5th of February. 1S64. — The charter election of this year indicated a slight change in political sentiment, or else great popularity on the part of the Republican nominee for Mayor and several of the Aldermen. Archibald C. Powell was elected over Hamilton Burdick, but his majority was so small that victory was at first claimed by the Democrats. Five of the elected Aldermen were Republican. The finance report covering the preceding year showed receipts from all sources of $189,138.02, and the total funded debt was $60,000. There were no public improvements made during the year worthy of mention, if we except the repaving and macadamizing portions of some of the streets. The several calls for troops and the necessity of providing for their enlist- ment, with the stirring events of the war, almost monopolized public atten- tion. As the war progressed with untold slaughter on a hundred battlefields, rapidly lessening the number of patriots at home, the difficulties of recruit- ing for the armies increased. Larger bounties had to be provided for and the greatest energy and activity on the part of city and town authorities was indispensable to fill the various quotas and avoid the dreaded draft. On March lOth, the Common Council, through authority of the Legislature, resolved to borrow another $20,000 with which to aid in the support of the families of volunteers ; but this action had no especial connection with that of the Board of Supervisors in raising the enormous sums necessary to pay the heavy bounties required. A special session of the Board was held early in February, at which it was resolved that the County Treasurer be empow- ered to borrow $270,000 on the bonds of the county, for the continued payment of $300 bounties, $5,000 of which sum was to be devoted to the expenses of procuring enlistments. The entire sum was to be paid in three equal annual installments. At the same date a resolution was passed to the effect that if the State Legislature should pass an Act to raise money for an additional $300 bounty, the Representatives from Onondaga county be requested to have such county exempted from the operation of the law. On the i8th of July the President called for 500,000 men, and under it recruiting in Syracuse and its vicinity was pushed with vigor. The 185th regiment, under the inducement of bounties offered by the Supervisors and from other sources amounting to about $1,000, was filled and left the city on the 23d of September. It was composed of excellent material and igS Memorial History of Syracuse. during its term of service, as detailed in another chapter, won great credit for valor on the battle field. At a special session of the Board of Supervisors held on the 26th of July the following action was taken : Mr. Hiscock, from the committee to devise means for filling the quota of the county for volunteers, submitted the following resolutions as the report of such committee : Resoheil, Tliat Sampson Jaqueth and Warren S. White, of this Board, be added to the present Militarj- Committee ; and that E. H. Judson, L. W. Hall, I). Bookstaver, .\. C. Powell, F. M. King, T. B. Fitch, George N. Kennedy, Joshua K. Rogers, James Johnson, J. Dean Hawley, Allen Mun- roe, and H. L. Duguid, be requested to act with the said committee, and that they are hereby ap- pointed advisory members of the same, to act without compensation. Resolved, That the said Committee are hereby authorized to employ agents to enlist or procure the volunteering of men, under the call of the President of the United States, of July i8, 1864, (for 500,000 men) at a compensation in the discretion of said committee ; said agents to procure said enlistments or volunteering either in this State or in any State of the United States now in rebellion, and at any of the rendezvous designated in general orders No. 227, dated July 9, 1864. and hereto annexed, issued by the War Department. Such agents as may be by said committee designated and appointed for that purpose are to act under said order and the Act of Congress to which the same refers, and His Excellency, Governor Seymour, is most respectfully requested to commission said agents so appointed by said committee, as contemplated by said order, to act in the premises. Resolved, That said committee may offer and pay a bounty to each volunteer and regularly enlist- ed man applying on the credit of this county under the said call, the amount of said bounty to be in the discretion of said committee. Resolved, That the Treasurer of the County of Onondaga and the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, William H. Shankland, esq., are hereby authorized to make a loan on the credit of the county, of such sum or sums as shall by said committee and themselves be deemed nec- essan' for the payment of said bounty and the necessary expense incurred under the foregoing resolu- tions, not exceeding in the aggregate .^400,000, to be used by the committee to carry into effect the foregoing resolutions. Such loan sliall be made in proposals to be invited by said treasurer and chairman subject to the approval of said committee, on general publication of a notice to that effect, on the best terms at which offers for the same may be made, at the rale of 6 per cent, annual inter- est, to be paid semi-annually in the city of New York. Other resolutions provided for the issue of the bonds, and their pay- ment at the rate of $50,000 a year after the 1st of April, 1868, and that all moneys now in the hands of the Treasurer, theretofore raised for bounties, should be expended by the committee. Early in September another special session of the Board of Supervisors was held, and on the 7th of that month the Treasurer of the county was authorized to borrow §500,000, payable March i, 1865, and $600,000, paya- ble one-half on March i, 1866, and one-half on March i, 1867, for the fur. ther payment of bounties under the July call referred to. Of the first of these loans only $444,000 was borrowed, and on the 22d of November at a regular meeting of the Board the sum of $100,000 was added to the $600,- 000 already authorized to be raised as above stated ; but this action as far as it applied to $56,000 of the $ico,000 was subsequently revoked. At the meeting of November 28, a committee of three was selected from the Volunteer Committee previously appointed, to "proceed immediately to Action to Provihk for Bounties. 199 procure enlistments of volunteers into the military service of the United States to the number of 1,000, to apply to the credit of Onondaga county on any call hereafter to be made by the President." It was also resolved to not pay to exceed $300 to each volunteer enlisting for two years. To meet the further expenditure for bounties, the Treasurer was authorized to borrow $300,000, as the same might be needed by said committee, to be paid one-eighth in each of the eight years beginning with i86(S. On the 2 1st of December a resolution was adopted by the Hoard that a special election should be held on the 31st of the same month to vote " For Bounty," or "Against Bounty," and it was further resolved that if the vote was in favor of a bountj', then the Board would proceed to collect by taxa- tion sufficient money to pay a bounty not exceeding $500 to each volun- teer enlisting for two years and applying on the quota of the county, under the last call for troops. This call was issued on the 19th of December for 300,000 men. The whole number of votes cast at the special election was 5,725, of which 4.905 were in favor of bount\'. This tax was subsequently collected. Meanwhile opposition to the government and its unflagging war meas- ures developed throughout the North and found its promoters in Syracuse as elsewhere. In the summer of 1864 such opposition as far as it related to Syracuse, found voice in a Peace Meeting, which was loudly heralded, at which C. L. Vallandigham and Fernando Wood were the speakers. They, of course, lifted up their voices to prove the " war a failure " and the Union cause based upon injustice. The effects of the meeting cannot now be said to have been paralyzing. The final action of the county and city upon the question of bounties and the enlistment of recruits to fill quotas was taken early in January, 1865 and may as well be mentioned here. At a meeting held on the i6th of Jan- uary, the following resolution was adopted and explains itself : Kesohrd, That the Teasurer of Onondaga county and Chairman of this Board execute the cou- pon bonds of this county, to an amount not exceeding !f!i 50,000, with interest at the rate of $7 for each |ioo for each year, payable semi-annually ; principal and interest payable in New \'ork- citv or at the treasurer's office in this county, at the discretion of said chairman and treasurer ; the principal of said bonds to be due March I, :866 ; and .at the discretion of said chairman and treasurer, a pro- vision to be inserted in said bonds, or any part thereof, that the said principal be paid at a sooner date, in their discretion. * * to enable them (the bounty committee) to pay the bounties of all men enlisting in the service of the United States, .applying to the credit and upon the credit of this county, and to pay the expenses of the enlisting of said men. The 185th regiment was the last one sent to the front from Onondaga county and the measures above described were substantially the last of the series carried out in Syracuse in aiding the government in suppressing the rebellion. On the 25th of July the Syracuse and Oakwood street railway was form- ally opened, an event that was the beginning of the period of development leading up to the present populous condition of the Eleventh ward. 200 Memorial History of Syracuse. On the 23d of July the Granger Block was entirely destroyed by fire. In it were the offices of the Journal and the Standard. The loss was esti- mated at about $175,000. 1865.— The winter of 1864 and 1865 was a memorable one on account of the unexampled snow blockade. The streets of the city were filled to a depth of about four feet, and when they had been shoveled out sufficiently for the passage of teams, they presented the appearance of deep ditches, the banks on each side nearly or quite hiding the stores and shops. When the great body of snow melted and the unprecedented rains of March fell, a freshet occurred (on the 17th of the month) which caused a great deal of damage. Many of the bridges over Onondaga creek were carried away, and also one over Harbor brook near Geddes. The Walton street bridge was carried down to the Central Railroad bridge where it broke in two pieces and several wooden buildings along the banks of the creek were moved from their foundation. The bridge at Gifford street was submerged, as were also portions of Mulberry street, and the Fayette Park district, and almost the whole of East Water street. In the railroad tunnel there was a rushing flood and no trains could pass it. The Charter election resulted in the choice of William D. Stewart, (Dem- ocrat) for Mayor, by a little over 100 majority and three of the eight Alder- men were of the same politics. The finance report of the preceding year showed total receipts of $158,003.20, with a funded debt of $90,000. The charter was amended this year, increasing the amount authorized to be raised by ta.x to $60,000. The principal acts of the Common Council towards public improvement were the change in Park street between Hickory and James streets, through the lands of C. B. Sedgwick, in May, so that the west line became the west line of the Sedgwick land between James and Hickory streets, and thence by a direct line through those lands until it intersected Park street, at the corner of land owned and occupied by George Greenway. James street was ordered paved with cobble stone from the Oswego canal bridge to Lodi street ; a one foot tile sewer was built in Mulberry street from Cedar to Jef- ferson street sewer; the Gifford street sewer was extended to Oswego street; the paving of West Water street with cobble stone from Franklin street to the creek was ordered ; the closing of Packet alley, which extended from Hanover Square to the canal between the Onondaga Savings Bank building and the block adjoining on the east was directed ; initiatory steps were taken in October which resulted in the purchase of two steam fire engines for the fire department. In September the Genesee and Water street Railway Company was or- ganized with a capital of $60,000, by George F. Comstock, VV. 11. H. Smith, C. T. Longstreet, O. T. Burt, and James P. Haskins. Proposed Chartkk Amendments. 201 Alfred H. Hovey died on the 7th of August. He was Mayor of the City in 1850 and a prominent and respected citizen. James Manning died September 4th. He was one of the pioneer busi- ness men of the village and had a store on West Genesee street on the site of one part of the Empire House. Hamilton White died September 22d. An account of his lite will be found elsewhere in this work. 1866. — The Democrats were again triumphant in the charter election, (held this year in February) William D. Stewart, the incumbent of the ofifice, being re-elected by a little over one hundred majority. In his inaugural ad- dress he expressed the opinion, that it depended largely on local legislation whether capital would seek investment in Syracuse. The public debt, he said, was about $87,500 (besides a small floating debt) much of which had been incurred by the expense connected with the war. The total tax of this year was $146,370.11. The streets, he acknowledged, were in a bad condition and thought few other similar cities were so unfortunate in that respect ; that they had been thus far constructed mainly for present convenience and not with a view to permanence. The subject of charter amendments was agitated again in this year. A Committee had previously been appointed, which was represented by L. W. Hall at a public meeting on the 3d of March. The amendments report- ed were briefly to the effect that two additional wards should be formed, one from the second and fourth wards, and one from the southern portion of the sixth and seventh ; to increase the police force to twenty-four men ; against the establishment of a Recorder's Court ; making the Aldermanic term two years and the City Clerk's term three years ; the .salary of the Police Justice $1,700 ; and providing for the expenditure of $75,000 annual- ly for three years on streets and sewers, under direction of a commission. There were only a few present at the first meeting ; but when the intent of the proposed amendments was made public through the press, indicating as they did a heavy increase in taxation, there was no lack of public interest at the two or three subsequent meetings. The discussions were very warm (to use a mild term) and the influence against the policy of incurring any further debt at that time was so strong that the whole matter was indefi- nitely shelved, with the exception of the provisions relating to the City Clerk's term, and the salary of the Police Justice. On the 1 3th of March the Council ordered the Clerk to advertise for pro- posals for the sale of the City Poor House — a subject that seemed to be perennial. Early in the year a meeting was held at the office of Dr. M. D. Benedict, to consider the subject of a possible outbreak of cholera. Dr. Didama was chairman. A committee was appointed and a report prepared giving sanitary counsel and warning. But the disease did not make its ap- 26 202 Memorial History of Syracuse. pearance. A public meeting was held October 13th at which a resolution was passed requesting the Common Council to purchase two steam fire engines at a cost not to exceed $15,000. The necessary action was taken by the Council to carry out this undertaking and an Act of the Legislature was obtained granting the requisite power. A citizens' meeting was held December 4th to take action on the need of the city for a High School Building. A petition to the Legislature was prepared, asking for an Act authorizing the issue of bonds not to exceed $75,000 for the purpose. This Act was passed and led to the erection of the fine building on West Genesee street. The Syracuse and Onondaga Railway Company was incorporated this year, by J. J. Hopper, T. B. Fitch, C. T. Longstreet, V. W. Smith, LeRoy Morgan, O. C. Potter, E. B. Alvord, A. C. Chase, J. M. Strong, Enoch Mann, and John Stolp, and also the Genesee and Water street Railway Company, and the latter road was constructed during the summer. The Kimber block, corner of James and Warren streets, was finished in March of this year, and the Yates Block at a later date. 1867. — Mayor William D. Stewart (Democrat) was re-elected for Mayor this year, over Dr. H. D. Didama by 239 majority and the Democrats also carried five of the eight wards. Edgar S. Matthews was gived the clerk- ship in place of Edwin H. Brown, who had held it during a number of years. The salaries for the year were fixed at $1,200 for the Treasurer; $1,000 for the Clerk ; $900 for the Superintendent of Streets ; $600 for the Surveyor and Engineer ; $650 for the Chief of the Fire Department ; Chief of Police $1,000; Policemen $750. There were no important suggestions in the Mayor's address except that the police force should be increased to double the then present num- ber, or twenty-four. He approved the wisdom of purchasing the two steam fire engines, and thought a third one desirable. The tax levy of the year 1867 amounted to $163,24267, the amount being greatly increased during the few preceding years by the war debt, and additions to the city's school buildings. Of this sum $60,000 was to pay installments on the public debt and for other purposes ; $10,000 for pave- ments, sewers, and bridges ; $66,049.45 for the Board of Education ; $25,- 000 for steam fire engines and the floating debt; $2,193.22 interest for High School bonds. The principal public improvement of this year was the building of a five-foot brick sewer through Fayette street from Irving street westward. This sewer was built at a co.st of $36,999 by Dennis Driscoll. $15,000 of this sum was to be paid by the Central Railroad Company; $15,000 was as- sessed on the property along the line of the sewer and about $7,000 was paid by the city. The adjustment and settlement of the cost of this im- A Street Railway Grant. 203 provement was postponed about eight years. The Central Railroad Com- pany paid not only its own share for the work, but also that of the city, and was not reimbursed until 1875. An iron bridge was built over the Creek on Gifford street at a cost of $2,250, the contract going to Simon DeGraff. Onondaga street was paved betweed Warren and Salina street. These were the principal improve- ments of the year. Other events were the dedication of Billings Park (formerly called Warren Park) on Saturday, August, 24, in which the Mayor and Common Council took part. This park at this time became the prop- erty of the city through the generosity of Roger Billings. A new gas company applied for a franchise early in this year, and the Council was memorialized by it and also by the old company ,each in its own interest. At the last meeting of the old Council in the year the franchise was refused. In the Council February iith, a resolution was adopted granting the privilege of laying a street railway in James and Burnet streets from the Empire House to the east boundsof the city, to John M. Jaycox, Henry A. Dillaye, W. W. Teall, Mather Williams, Porter Tremain, E. P. Russell, David Hibbard, and L. Snell. About the same time the project of build- ing a street railroad connecting with this line and extending to Fayette- ville was discussed, but no definite action followed. A publ'C meeting was held on the 16th of March, to consider the feasibil- ity of straightening the remaining portion of Onondaga creek between the pump house and the Lake. Thomas G. Alvord, R. H. Gardner, and E. W. Leavenworth opposed the plan on that occasion, and A. G. S. Allis, Park Wheeler, Thomas Gale, and Dr. Didama favored it. It was decided to employ a competent engineer to estimate the cost of the work and a committee was appointed to lay the matter before the Governor. Dr. Did- ama, Garret Doyle, and John Graff were the Committee. This action was taken under authority of an Act of Legislature passed March 20. William Clark, the Salina pioneer, died December 28th. He came to Onondaga county in 181 5, and in 1817 located at Onondaga Hill. The next year he went to Salina and became a prominent citizen and business man, was a director in the Bank of Salina, Superintendent of the Poor, Village Trustee and President, and one of the first Board of Education under the City Government. Fire destroyed the property of Joseph Barton on East Genesee street November 15th, causing a loss of about $80,000. In March, the first steps were taken towards securing the removal of Genesee College to Syracuse, as a foundation for a University, and the bonding of the city for $100,000 in aid of the undertaking; a project that was destined to be carried out and to develop into the grand institution now 204 Memorial History of Syracuse. adorning the eastern hills, a full history of which is given in another chapter of this work. John Durnford died on the i8th of May. He came to Syracuse in 1822 and in the next year issued the first newspaper in the village. He engaged in the book trade; was Justice of the Peace, Overseer of the Poor, Collect- or, and Treasurer, at different periods, and at his death was president of the Orphan Asylum. He was 76 years old. In this year Thomas Davis succeeded Fred Schug as Chief of Police and continued in the office with the exception of a brief interval until his death. Under the provisions of an Act of the Legislature passed this year, the Onondaga Creek Commission was created, consisting of Carroll E. Smith, Frank Hiscock, J. W. Barker, H. D. Didama, and Charles Andrews. This Commission was given power to straighten the cretk through the city and thence to the lake, and in its operations expended about $15,000. The work done included the straightening of the creek from near the State pump house to the lake, and the opening of a channel about 1,000 feet into the lake, beyond the shallow water, so that the creek would discharge into deep water. This was a great improvement, reclaiming a large area of land and improving the flow of the creek. The course of the creek was mapped also, and consents and releases obtained from property-owners on the line un- der which the improvements might be completed. The Commission's plans were thwarted after the work mentioned was done, through the influence of a public meeting which voted against the contemplated expenditure; but the Commission is still in existence and its proposed work may yet be ac- complished. 1868. — Again after several years of Democratic supremacy, the Repub- licans took the political helm in Syracuse, and Hon. Charles Andrews was elected Mayor over John A. Green by 127 majority, with five of the eight Aldermen Republicans. The report of the finances showed the funded debt to be $153,500, with a temporary loan of $25,000 authorized by the Legislature, April 22, 1867, for steam fire engines and current expenses. In his address Mayor Andrews paid particular attention to the condition of the city's finances. For the preceding year he showed that $30,000 more than was authorized by the charter had been used for city expenses and the public debt ; and, therefore, the city was then liable for temporary loans of $25,190.76 and H7,000 for the Fayette street sewer. " Take this," said he, " from the $60,000 authorized to be raised, and you have $28,060 with which to pay city expenses and the public debt, which last year required $91,000." He counseled the most rigid economy as the only course to follow under these depressing condi- tions. Removal of the Old Depot. 205 At a meeting held in February, the Mayor appointed a committee con- sisting of H. L. Higgins, R. W. Jones, and Nicholas Grumbach to request the New York Central Railroad Company to remove their old depot, which had long been looked upon as a nuisance in the heart of the city, and erect a new one. The railroad company considered the matter in a favorable light and one Sunday in February, 1870, the old structure was pulled down by the employment of a locomotive and a cable. Word had been sent to numerous shops where many men were employed that they could have all of the wood they would carry away on that day, and the result was that on Monday morning, not a vestige of the old " car house," as it was once termed, was left. The principal public work of the year was the re-pavement of James street from Lodi over the brow of the hill, with the so-called Nicholson pavement and cobblestone. This work cost nearly $30,000 and as far as the wood portion of the pavement was concerned, it was among the earliest ex- amples of that costly, short lived and almost worthless roadway, a great deal of which was imposed upon the city during the next few years. Memorial day was observed this year for the first time, and Oakwood and other cemeteries were visited by a concourse in which were many vete- ran soldiers, and relatives and friends of those who had fallen in battle. Private building operations were active. Money was still plenty as a re- sult of the inflation of the currency during the war, and a general specula- tive feeling existed. The Vanderbilt House was finished and opened by J. L. Cook & Sons on the i8th of March ; the Agan Block, corner of Wash- ington and Market streets, was begun in March ; the Barton Block and Opera House was finished in November; the High School Building was fin- ished in December, and many other minor buildings were erected. The Sherman House, as it was known at this time, (the hotel on the northwest corner of Washington and Warren streets) was burned on the 13th of No- vember, the fire extending around the Franklin Buildings on Genesee street and causing a loss of about $100,000. The corner was speedily covered by the present Larnard Building. An Act passed the Legislature May i, 1868, amending the charter by making the term of office of Assessors two years and their remuneration three dollars a day until the first of August, and two dollars a day there- after; providing, also, that the Council might raise not exceeding $100,000 annually for all city expenses and installments on the public debt and inter- est, and $10,000 for bridges and new sewers. The Council was authorized to borrow $30,000 with which to pay the indebtedness in arrears on the 1st of March, 1868, and issue bonds for the same. A few other minor changes were made. In May, J. W. Barker, Ira 11. Williams, T. B. Fitch, and Elias W. Leav- 2o6 Memorial History of Syracuse. enworth were made Commissioners to establish a system of sewerage for the city and procure a map of the same. This was a task involving great labor, but as far as the system could then be completed, the work was suc- cessfully accomplished and has amply compensated the city. 1869. — The Republicans continued in power this year by the election of Charles P. Clark, for Mayor, and six of the eight Aldermen. The finance report of the preceding year showed that the funded debt had reached $170,776.36. An extensive series of public improvements was inaugurated and carried out during the year, including the paving of North Salina street from Wolf to Bear street, at a cost of $4,716.44; a 24-inch sewer in a part of West Genesee street, and the same in Clinton street from West Water to the Fayette street sewer ; the same in Clinton street between the Jefferson street sewer and Onondaga street ; re.paving North Salina street between Bear and Kirkpatrick streets ; 24-inch tile sewer ordered in Shonnard street between Niagara and West streets; Nicholson pavement in Montgomery street between Genesee and Onondaga streets, for which James Finegan was paid $17,406.02 ; 24-inch tile sewer in West Water street from Clinton street to the creek, and a sewer in West Fayette street from Salina street to the creek. A portion of these improvements were possibly begun before the end of the preceding year. The new High School Building was dedicated in April, and Odd Fel- ows' Hall, corner of Market and Washington streets on the 28th of the same month. The new Onondaga Savings Bank Building was finished and opened on the 23d of May, while on the 16th of October the discovery of the world- famous Cardiff Giant, the history of which gigantic humbug is too well known to need relating here, was proclaimed to the public. For many months Syracuse and its vicinity were notorious throughout the whole country as the home of that great, uncouth statue, which was cut from gypsum in a western State, brought east and buried on an obscure Onon- daga county farm, to be afterwards dug up and foisted upon the public as a petrifaction centuries old. Thousands of dollars were paid by the people to see this monstrous fraud. A Protest and Warning. 207 CHAPTER XVIII. I'RO.M 1870 TO 1880. John (iretnw.iy's Harbecue — A I'rotest ,ind Warning — Charter Klection — I'liblic Improvements — A New Water Supply Demanded — The fully Lake IVoject — The Fire Alarm Telegraph — Demo, cratic Victory — .\ I'eriod of Prosperity— -A Uank Run — Small I'ox Flurry — The Chenango Valley Railroad — Funding of a Heavy Floating Debt — Mayor (Iraves Deplores the Existence of the (ireat City Debt — Development of Southern Suburbs — The Village of Danforth— Dissension between the City and the Gas Company — Public Alarm at the Municipal Debt — The Committee of Ninety-Six — The Belden .•\dministration and its Benefits. THE year was ushered in by a great barbecue which was given by the late John Greenway on Clinton Square, the public in general being invited. A whole ox was roasted in the presence of the multitude who as- sembled ; thousands of loaves of bread were provided and everybody who cared to, partook of the novel feast. We have mentioned the fact that in the latter part of the preceding year a large and costly sewer was ordered in West Fayette street. It was done in plain violation of the charter and on January 4th Mayor Clark vetoed the resolution, there being no funds available for the work ; but the majority of the Council was against him and the resolution was passed over his veto. The local assessment was made and publicly protested against on the 17th by numerous property holders along the line, ten or twelve reasons being stated why it was illegal. But the new Council on the 19th of February affirmed the assessment as made. The sewer was built during the year. On the 7th of February, there appeared at the instigation of the exist- ing administration a "protest and warning," against "unusual and corrupt practices in the administration of public affairs," and asserting in unmistak able terms, that they must be stopped. Both political parties, it was claim- ed, were amenable to the charge of electing and appointing unworthy per- sons to office, leading to dishonorable and corrupt acts in various depart- ments of the administration. It was expressed by the signers that, " there may be a limit beyond which good citizens cannot be bound by party usage." This document was repeatedly published, the roll of signers grow- ing daily and embracing several hundred of the leading men of the city. It probably had a salutary effect upon the subsequent local legislation. The charter election resulted in a Republican victory, Charles P. Clark being re-elected by a majority of 350 over D. O. Salmon. Five Democratic Aldermen were elected, thus giving that party the ascendancy in the Coun- cil. The financial report of the City Clerk gave the funded debt of the city as $208,500, with no floating debt. 2o8 Memorial History of Syracuse. Among the prominent steps taken to provide for public improvements, that were either carried out or ordered, were a resolution by the Council in January, authorizing the removal of the old Central depot, which resulted in its destruction as before noted ; a resolution authorizing the city to bond for $500,000 in aid of the Syracuse and Northern railroad, which was in- corporated and work begun in this year ; the building of a bridge over the canal on Warren street ; the levying of a tax of $14,000 under the author- ity of the legislature, for a fire alarm telegraph ; laying flag stone walk on the south and east sides of Fayette Park; the widening of Franklin street. Water and Genesee streets: orders to open and extend Wyoming street; to open Linden street through to Jackson street : to widen Elm street from Henderson to Canal street ; to open Highland street from Willow to Park; to open and extend Wyoming from its then terminus southerly through block 312 to Gifford street: to repave West Water street between Salina and Clinton " with Medina sandstone at an early day; " to build a sewer in Townsend street from James street to the canal; to pave Jefferson street from Salina to Montgomery, and Clinton from Water to Jefferson; the ex- tension of Tallman street from Cortland Avenue to Salina street, and some other minor works. Very much of the paving of this year was of the mis- erable Nicholson. The subject of abetter water supply attracted considerable attention and in August a public meeting was held to consider the question of utilizing the Tully lakes as a source. Homer D. L. Sweet had made a survey of the line and presented a report which was in the main favorable to the project from an engineering stand-point. The city then appropriated $3 000 for a more complete survey, the results of which are given in the record of 1871. On the 5th of September the new fire alarm telegraph was tested and found satisfactory, and on the 19th of the same month the new Weiting Opera House was opened with a performance of "The Lancers." On the 26th of September the Council authorized the payment to Christian Cook of $10,000 and to George Doheny $5,000 for opening the alley through the rear of the Washington Block and adjoining buildings. E. F. Wallace died on the 15th of August. He was a graduate of Dar- mouth College and studied law in Salem. He came to Syracuse in 1825 and practiced his profession for a time ; but it was never to his taste and he engaged largely in salt manufacturing ; was Consul to Cuba from 1861 for eight years and held numerous local positions which proved his high stand- ing in the community. He was the father of the Hon. William J. Wallace. Ira H. Cobb died November 5th. He came to Syracuse in 1845 and followed mercantile and manufacturing pursuits. He was very conspicuous in the anti-slavery movement and was prominent in the famous "Jerry Rescue." Another Saf.e of Salt Lands. 209 1871. — The subject of the new water supply for Syracuse was the im- portant one during this year, as it is now in the year 189O. The survey mentioned was finished about the beginning of the year, and a Citizens' Committee was appointed. Their report, made on the 30th of January, shows the estimated cost of the necessary works at $1,004,070.87, and asked that the City Clerk procure a draft of a bill to be sent to the Legislature to grant the necessary power to proceed in the matter. Several public meetings were held and for months the subject was discussed in the public prints, not only as related to the Tully source, but also as to Skaneateles lake, which is now thought to be the future water supply. But the final report of the committee, which was made in February, while favorable in most respects to the Tully source and the proposed works, concluded with the recommendation that under the existing condition of the city's finances it was not advi.sable to begin the undertaking at that time. In January, steps were taken to sell the remaining State salt lands in the Third ward, and George F. Comstock, Henry S. Randall, and George Geddes were appointed by the State authorities to appraise the tract. This resulted in an appraisal of the property of the lots occupied by the Syracuse Solar Salt Company at $49,1 15 ; those by the Onondaga Solar Salt Com- pany, and L. Stevens & Co., at $126,050 ; and the mill and other structures at $2,500. The Commissioners of the Land Of^ce said that as it appeared the lands could be sold for a sum ample to pay those occupying them for all damages and costs of removal, the report of the Commission was ap- proved. The Commissioners were directed to first purchase other lands equal in quantity to those to be sold and then proceed with the sale. The removal of the salt vats began in February, but the first sale did not take place until May, when nineteen lots in block 61 were sold for $15,540, five lots on block 67 for $8,750, eleven lots on block 70 for $17,450, nine lots on block 422 for $2,595. Another sale was made at a later date, as recorded a little further on. The Democrats were victorious in the charter election, Francis E. Car- roll being chosen for Mayor over C. T. Longstreet by 250 majority, but five of the Aldermen elected were Republicans. The financial report showed the funded debt to be $148,000, in addition to $800,000 in bonds. The floating debt was about $12,000, besides the Fayette street .sewer debt of $36,999.50 and other items which made it reach f;58,ooo. Against the $Soo,ooo rail- road bonds, the city held stock of the Northern road of the par value of $500,000, and of the Chenango Valley road $300,000. Of the Fayette street sewer debt, the Central Railroad company paid $15,000 and held orders for the remainder as before stated. An injunction had been issued enjoining the Treasurer from collecting the local tax on this sewer, but it was substan- tially dissolved, the tax collected and the whole matter closed up in 1875. 27 2IO Memorial History of Syracuse. The salaries of the principal city officers were fixed this year at $'.250 for the Treasurer; $1,1500 for the Clerk ; $1,200 for the Street Superintendent ; $1,200 for the Engineer. The Board of Education budget was $119,600, of which $20,000 was for permanent improvements. The city tax levy was $415,629.73. Strenuous efforts were made this year, beginning with a public meeting on the 1st of February, to secure for the city a larger representation in the Board of Supervisors. The proposition was made to increase the number to two from each ward. Nothing was accomplished on that occasion, except the appointment of a committee of five to secure the necessary legislative action in the matter. Another meeting was held on the 7th of the same month, at which it was resolved to petition the Legislature to increase the number of wards in the city to fourteen. At the same time the people of the towns in the county arose in their might and in meetings and the public press opposed the measure with energy. The whole subject was finally dropped for the time being. The Legislature passed an Act on the 7th of April, making it lawful for the city to receive donations of lands or parks, and providing for a Board of Commissioners composed of nine citizens who should report annually to the Common Council. The Commissioners named in the Act were William D. Stewart, Barrett R. White, H. D. Denison, Frank Hiscock, V'ivus W. Smith, T. B. Fitch, Simon DeGraff, John A. Green, John R. Whitlock. An Act was passed on the 13th of March, authorizing the construction of a street railway in North Salina, Church, Warren, Willow, Townsend, Lodi, and Alvord streets to Wolf street. The incorporators were A. B. Caldwell, J. O. S. Lynch, C. Fred Herbst, John Demong, N. Grumbach, G. Doyle, Moses Summers, D. O. Salmon, B. D. Noxon, W. T. Hamilton, S. G. Lapham, J. G. Rhoades, William Barnes, C. B. Clark, N. Peters, and Peter Miller. An Act passed the Legislature on the 31st of March, amending the char- ter as follows: Whenever a sewer over two feet in diameter is ordered, the Common Council shall cause an estimate of the expense to be assessed on property holders and the excess above such sum shall be paid by general tax. On the 15th of April, another street railway was authorized by law from South Salina street through Fayette, Mulberr}', and Madison streets to University avenue and the University. The incorporators were H. Candee, A. L. Orman, D. H. Bruce, J. G. Rhoades, Ralph Frizelle, C. G. Hinckley, C. E. Pharis,T. Hough, C. B. Clark, N. S. Gere, C. E. Hubbell, Jacob Levy, M. P. Pharis, A. C. Morey, C. C. Bradley, jr. Neither of these two lines was constructed. The Common Council (February 6th) took the necessary steps to secure Improvement in the Eighth Ward. 211 the passage of a law enabling the city to levy a tax of $20,000 for the pur- chase of a fourth steam fire engine and the erection of an engine house in the First ward, and resolved to open Croton street from Mulberry to Salina, and McClellan and Marshall streets, and extend University avenue ; to authorize (April 3d) the Committee on city property to buy a lot for the new steamer in the First ward ; to report favorably (April 10th, on wooden so-called pavements on West street from ]-"ayette to Tully, Wyoming from Fayette to Otisco, Salina from Warren to Burt, East Genesee from Orange to Almond, and Jefferson from Montgomery to Orange; to order a 24. inch tile sewer in part of Marcellus and Walton streets; to open (May i;th) Adams street from Irving street to Renwick avenue; to open (Octo- ber 9th) North Salina street to the lake; and to build a new bridge on Tall- man street. In January a movement was made towards building a street railway from Clinton Square to Wolf street, in North Salina, Church, Willow, Townsend, Lodi, Almond, Court and Park streets ; but the project was not consummated. Another similar proposed undertaking was to build a line from Salina street east on Fayette to Mulberry street, thence to Madison, and thence to University avenue ; but this was also abandoned. The open- ing of McClellan and Marshall streets and the extension of University ave- nue, before alluded to, were early movements towards the remarkably rapid upbuilding of the Eighth ward highlands which followed. As soon as it became known that the University was to be located on that hill, far-seeing men realized that the population must rapidly increase in that direction and real estate values would appreciate in similar ratio. A large portion of that beautiful hillside was formerly in possession of Stephen Bastable and was used until a comparatively recent date for farming purposes. In later years George F. Comstock came into possession of a large tract near the crest of the hill. The corner stone of the new University was laid on the 31st of August this year, and the " Hall of Languages" soon graced the sightly em- inence. At about the same time the purchase of what is now the Reming- ton Block for the same institution, awakened the public to a realization that a great University had taken root in the city and was destined to succeed. These influences conspired to attract home-seekers to those eastern high- lands which were rapidly built up with a superior class of residences. The growth in that locality has continued with uniform progress to the present time. Meanwhile the opening of the street railway to Oakwood and the natural beauty and healthfulness of the region south of the city drew many people in that direction in quest of homes. Being just outside of the city limits the locality escaped municipal taxation, which was beginning to alarm conservative people and which alarm constituted a factor in building up that locality. Its growth continued rapidly down to and after the organiza- tion of the village of Danforth. 212 Memorial History ok Syracuse. On the 17th of August, a meeting of citizens of the Eighth ward was called to decide upon plans for the improvement of Forman Park. A com- mittee was appointed and the result of their action was the grading of that park, the erection of the beautiful fountain, contributed by A. C. Yates, and other improvements which unite to render this one of the most inviting localities in the city. The great Chicago fire occurred in October and a public meeting was promptly called for the purpose of aiding the sufferers. The sum of $25,000 was contributed by the Common Council from the public funds, and during a few succeeding weeks about $10,000 more were subscribed by citizens and forwarded to the stricken city. It was in this year that the remarkable arson case occurred which came of the burning of the large double dry goods stores which had been con- ducted by the Bennett Brothers, on South Salina street. Two other men, Adam Fralick and one Vedder, acquired an interest in the business, which had been unprofitable, and through a deep-laid plot the premises were fired and almost wholly destroyed. Fralick was subsequently convicted of the crime, sentenced to State prison for life, and committed suicide just before being locked in a cell in Auburn prison. Whether this fire and the great conflagration in Chicago, filling the newspapers with sensational stories of the event, exerted any influence upon depraved minds in Syracuse, or not, cannot be known ; but it is a fact that within a few weeks in October and November, twelve or fifteen bold attempts were made to burn buildings in Syracuse, no less than nine of them being made within thirty-si.\ hours on October 15-16. They were scattered in different parts of the city and in- cluded all kinds of structures, from the humblest dwelling to the Putnam School building. The loss was not very heavy in any single instance, and two or three arrests were made ; but the criminals were not discovered. Ex-Mayor William Winton died on the 19th of March. He was a na- tive of Connecticut and came to Syracuse about 1826. He was for many years a well known and popular landlord, first of the old Exchange Hotel, corner of South Salina and Washington streets, and later of the Globe Hotel. He was also interested in salt manufacturing ; was a Trustee of the Onondaga County Savings Bank, and was elected Mayor in 1868. Though a retiring man, he made many warm personal friends and was much re- spected in the community. James Lynch died on the 7th of April. He was a native of Ireland ; was in the United States navy in 1812, and located in Syracuse in 1825. During the next thirty years he was a prominent and successful merchant in Salina. He filled many positions of trust in financial circles and com- manded the esteem of the community. He was father of John O. S., and James Lynch. The Harrison Street Trunk Sewer. 213 Timothy C. Cheney died on the 9th of April. He settled in Syracuse at an early date and became a prominent builder. 1872. — A review in the public press of the business situation in Syra- cuse at the beginning of this year, displayed a hopeful tone. An investi- gation showed, as stated, that there was " not a single business house liable to distress." A general feeling of security prevailed and there was reported "more business stirthan in any other city west of Syracuse." In the charter election, Francis E. Carroll, Democrat, was re-elected over William Baumgras. Mr. Baumgras was a successful business man of prac- tical ideas, and very popular with the German population, from which fact it was hoped that he could be elected. Mr. Carroll's majority was 191, and five of the Aldermen were Democratic. Police Justice L. L. Alexander, (Dem.) was elected over Patrick Corbett by only two majority. In the Mayor's inaugural address he called attention to the " lamentable deficiency "of water; recommended the purchase of a new hook and ladder truck, and reported an apparent reduction of the funded debt of $8,000, leaving it $239,500. The indebtedness had been increased by the issue of $100,000 in bonds in aid of the University. He also referred to the un- adjusted assessment of the East Fayette street sewer, and gave the liabili- ties of the city as $112,522.04, and the assets $85,787.01. On the i8th of March, 1872, a resolution was adopted by the Common Council recognizing the need of a proposed trunk sewer in Harrison and Onondaga streets from Chestnut street to the creek, and requesting the representatives in the Legislature to procure a law authorizing its construc- tion. The project was subsequently carried out, the contract being let to A. L. Mason. It was then the most important part of the sewerage of the city. Other improvements of the year were the paving of North Salina street on portions of which Nicholson, cobble and Medina sandstone were used ; paving Clinton street with Nicholson : paving James street between Salina and Warren streets; a 24 inch tile sewer in the alley from Jefferson to Fayette streets and in Baldwin street from the State raceway to the creek, and in Butternut street : paving of Railroad street from Salina street to Montgomery street ; paving of East Fayette street with wood pavement ; extension of Highland street and the widening of Oak street ; opening of Alvord street from Butternut to Beecher street, and the opening of DeWitt street, and the purchase of a new hook and ladder truck. The fourth steam engine, at a cost of $4,400, arrived in January, and in the same month began the first agitation of the subject of a Government Building in Syracuse. The topic was, as usual, elaborately treated in the public press, and all the possible sites commented upon. It is interesting to note that the one finally chosen was the old City Hall site, on which the 2 14 Memorial History of Syracuse. City has finally erected, not a Government Building, but a City Hall of its own. A bill was introduced in Congress in January to provide for the pro- posed building, but nothing was then really accomplished. A petition was circulated in January asking the public to take action towards securing the passage of a law authorizing the city to issue $250,- 000 in bonds in further aid of the Chenango Valley railroad. A public meetincr was held at which the proposition was considered unfavorably. The first substantial improvements on the shores of the Onondaga lake, which were intended to render it attractive as a resort, were made this year, and " Lake View Point " was fitted up by Fred Ganier, thus inaugurating a work that has gone on from season to season and made the lake shores at several points very popular as summer resorts. Beginning with about the first of October, both of the Savings Banks of the city experienced a " run " which continued about ten days. This proceeding grew out of the foolish forebodings of a few timid persons, who whispered them to others and thus spread a feeling of fear to such an ex- tent that thousands of depositors withdrew their savings, often at a loss of interest to themselves and causing the banks great inconvenience. The business community of the city did not share in the least in this distrust and not one depositor of any business prominence withdrew his deposit. The Presidential campaign was a most active one and resulted in an overwhelming victory for the Republican party through the election of U. S. Grant for his second presidential term. A large Grant and Wilson club was formed, and in the election the city gave the great General more than 900 majority. On December 15, amass meeting was held in opposition to Sunday liquor selling in the city. Other action had previously been taken in this matter and a Committee of One Hundred, (so called) appointed. The meet- inCT was well attended and a powerful influence brought to bear to reduce the free Sunday liquor selling that had prevailed. But it can not be said that the results were commensurate with the labor done. Two destructive fires occurred— the burning of Leeret & Blaisdell's box factory on East Water street, August 15th, and Olmsted & Jones' sad- dlery hardware factory on South Clinton street, March 13th. The small pox again visited the city and caused a good deal of conster- nation, particularly in the adjacent rural districts, where wild tales of the epidemic were circulated. In reality on the 27th of January there were twenty-six cases reported. A considerable number were reported afterwards and several died, but the disease was kept well under control by the vigi- lance of the Health Board and the physicans. Christopher C. Bradley died on the 3d of January. He removed to Syracuse from Groton, N. V., about 1822 and for many years was the head The Chenango Valley Railroad. 215 of the leadinr^ foundry in the place. He held the office of Village Trustee, County Treasurer and other responsible positions, and was in every way a respected and prominent citizen. Christopher C. Bradley, Jr., president of the Bradley Company is his son. John A. Green died on the 20th of June. He was a native of Utica and went to New York to engage in business early in his life. When twenty-one years old he went to California as one of the ■49ers and was very successful there in acquiring wealth. He located in Syracuse in 1851 and joined with Jno. M. Jaycox, forming the for-a-time successful wholesale grocery firm of Jaycox & Green. He took a leading position in Democratic politics and was a member of the contesting delegation at the Baltimore National Convention which nominated Jno. C. Breckinridge for the presi- dency. In 1864 he was a delegate to the National Convention in Chicago, and again in 1868. In 1864 he was appointed Brigadier-General in com- mand of the 24th brigade. He was a man of much force of character and genuine ability. On the same day (June 20th) Henry Gifford died. He was one of the early settlers in the village and one of the first to engage in the coarse salt industry. He was a large holder of real estate and built many houses in the Fifth ward. He was Vice-President of the Syracuse Savings Bank, a Trustee of the Water Company, a director of the Gas Light Company, and occupied other stations of trust. E. B. Wicks died on the 3d of February. He located in Syracuse in 1828 and engaged in the hat and fur business on Genesee street with J. R. Warner and afterwards began a banking business in connection with the other business, on South Salina street where the Mechanic's bank was located. When that bank was organized he was made its president and continued in that office until his death. He was a member of the firm of Ellis, Wicks & Company in the leather business and also engaged in other operations. He was a Trustee of the village a number of years and in 1849-50 was a member of the Common Council from the Fourth ward. He was father of Edward B. Wicks, now of Salt Lake, Utah. Thomas Spencer died on the 5th of March. He settled in Syracuse in 1830, was a prominent salt manufacturer and at one time Superintendent of the Salt Springs. 1873. — On the 12th of February the Chenango Valley railroad was formally opened with an excursion to Earlville. This line was largely aided by the city, and its business during its early years did not meet the expect- ations of its projectors, and the city authorities became uneasy as to the prospects of their investment. A public meeting was called on the 8th of March relative to the matter, and a committee was appointed to investigate the financial condition of the road. The subject was discussed at length 2i6 Memorial History of Syracuse. and it was learned that the company needed about $600,000. A resolution was adopted that the Legislature be requested to pass a law authorizing the issue of second mortgage bonds and enabling the city to dispose of its stock. About the same time, at a meeting of the directors, the holders of certificates of indebtedness agreed to hold their certificates another year, and thus relieve the existing embarrassment. The Common Council, how- ever, on the 2ist of April, passed a resolution declaring that the road was bankrupt and instructing the directors from the city to adopt such meas- ures as they deemed best for the interests of the city. In May a circular was issued announcing the formation of a company for the purchase of the road. It finally passed under control of the West Shore Company, and is now practically in the hands of the New York Central. It is a fact that at this time prudent citizens of Syracuse saw impending calamity in the greatly increased burden of debt under which the city was staggering, the apparently reckless manner in which the public funds were disbursed, and the prevailing general financial "hard times" (the reaction of the inflation due to the war.) As the date approached for the charter election, both political parties published " platforms "^a rather unusual proceeding in the city. Both pledged themselves to the necessary reforms. The declaration of the Democratic party was perhaps unprecedented in its self-accusation, for its pledge was to correct "abuses of which nearly every man it elected a year ago has been guilty!" The election resulted in the choice of William J. Wallace, the Republi- can nominee, for Mayor, over Elizur Clark. Four of the eight Aldermen were also Republicans, also six of the eight city Supervisors. The acts of some of the preceding administrations found little favor in Mayor Wallace's inaugural. He condemned in the strongest terms the creation of a floating debt, and showed that instead of $25,000 having been spent in the previous year for re-paving, as provided by the Charter, more that $38,000 had been thus expended. The funded debt was found to be $1,226,000, with a float- ing debt of more than $100,000. The liabilities of the city in the Clerk's annual report were given as $166,04691, and the assets as $51,794.46. The taxation of the preceding fiscal year had been $426,799 21. Mayor Wallace saw little possibility of materially reducing taxation but expressed his de- termination to enforce economy as far as he was able, and to keep within the provisions of the Charter. He wielded the veto weapon on many occasions during the year. A public meeting was held on March 26:h, to provide for the funding of the great floating debt. James J. Belden, Peter Burns and a few others advocated a tax levy and the payment of the debt but a resolution was finally adopted in favor of funding and $110,000 was thus disposed of a little later. In February the Council took action towards the paving of Otisco street, /^. ^ /2Y^^^^ ^X^ Extensive City Improvements. 217 and Warren street from Church to James with cobble stone, and widening Clinton street between Church and Genesee streets. The old Jamesville road was also discontinued. .\ resolution of March 17th ordered Nichol- son pavement around Fayette Park, and one of May 12th ordered the same pavement on Washington street, between Salina and Montgomery streets. At the meeting of May 19th, the Committee on Highways made an ex- tended report, counseling retrenchment and the restriction of street im- provements to such as appeared absolutely necessary, and then reported favorably on applications for wood pavement on North Salina street be- tween Division and Isabella streets; on West street between Tully and Seymour streets ; on East Genesee street between Almond and Lemon streets ; cobble-stone pavement on Church street between Salina and War- ren streets; and 24-inch tile sewers in Fabius street from Niagara street to the creek, and in Grape street from Harrison to Taylor street. At the same time Mayor Wallace took occasion to remonstrate against the liberal con- tracts with the owners of the Nicholson pavement patent in the city, as the monopoly of that ownership practically shut out competition. In September the Greeley wood pavement was ordered in Jefferson street between Clinton and Salina streets. In October a 24-inch tile sewer was ordered in Montgomery street from Cedar street to the Harrison street sewer; and in December $5,000 was ordered paid to George F. Comstock for grading Spruce street and the parks in the Eighth ward. Towards the close of the year the proposition to build a swing bridge on Salina street over the Erie canal was discussed. It was confidently asserted in some quarters that the project was impossible, but E. W. Leavenworth showed in a communication to the press that it was perfectly practicable. The building of the bridge is noticed on another page. The second sale of salt lands in the Third ward was made in midsummer, at which one lot in block 64 brought $800 ; nine in block 420 brought $5,800; six in block 426 brought $4,150 ; four in block 424 brought $10,- 350; one in block 426 brought $800; two in block 429 brought $2,050, and three in block 430 brought $5,100. On the 14th of June an Act of Legislature gave to John Greenway, Charles B. Sedgwick, P. P. Midler, John M. Jaycox, and A. H. Green the right to build a street railway from the corner of Salina and Butternut streets to Messina Springs, through Butternut, Park, Douglass and Manlius streets. James P. Haskin died on the 30th of January. He settled in Syracuse prior to 1850, and engaged heavily in salt manufacturing. In the later years of his life he was President of the Morris Run Coal Co., which he was large- ly instrumental in organizing, and also engaged in other extensive operations. He was a man of great force of character, strong will, and indomitable per- severance. 28 2i8 Memorial History of Syracuse. 1874. — The charter election this year resulted in a political change in the administration, N. F. Graves being elected Mayor over James J. Belden by 381 majority; four of the Aldermen were Democrats. In his inaugural address Mayor Graves alluded to the large debt "hanging over the city like a cloud and darkening the future." He said there was no doubt that capi- tal would flow into Syracuse, if such investments could be looked upon as safe. The Clerk's report showed a total debt of $1,353,000, all of which was funded. The principal acts of the Common Council were a report of a Com- mittee on Highways (January 26th) favorable to a large trunk sewer in On- ondaga street. This project was vehemently attacked in the press by E. W. Leavenworth, as wholly unnecessary, at least of such a large size, and when the resolution afterwards came up in the Council it failed of passage. Douglass and Hickory streets were extended from Highland to Oak street; the sewer was ordered in Harrison street from Chestnut street to the creek ; Walnut street, Oswego street, and Kellogg street were ex- tended ; a flag stone walk was laid around Forman Park; an 18-inch sewer was ordered from Oswego street to Harbor brook ; and a 24-inch sewer in Townsend street from Union avenue to Laurel street, with other minor im- provements. On the 8th of May an Act passed the Legislature authorizing the build- ing of swing bridges over the Erie and the Oswego canals on Salina street, and regulating their control and management. The bridge over the Erie canal was built in this year. On the 29th of June occurred a terrible calamity at the Central Baptist church, by which many people lost their lives and many more were injured. It was caused by the falling of a floor in the rear portion of the building when the room was filled with people. A full account of the disaster will be found in connection with the history of that church in a later chapter. We have alluded to the fact that the street railroad between the centraf part of the city and Oakwood cemetery was opened in July, 1864. One of the principal objects in the construction of this line was the further devel- opment of the beautiful section of territory lying south of Castle street. A large part of this tract was in possession of Charles A. Baker, George Raynor, the widow of Robert Furman, and others, and it was believed that if placed in market at reasonable prices, and with the railroad in operation, it would be rapidly built up. This expectation was realized and during the ten years from the date mentioned to the time under consideration, a great many lots were sold and houses built. The lots were almost without exception four rods wide or more, and the houses erected were all, or nearly all, above the medium size and cost. Several new streets were opened and the locality greatly improved. Improvement in the Southern Suburb. 219 In 1874, a larcje number of leading citizens in that vicinity conceived the plan of establishing a village government, mainly for the purpose of securing better school advantages and better streets. The agitation of the subject finally crystallized in an election called for the especial purpose of voting upon the matter on December 21 of this year. The section of territory which it was proposed to include within the lim- its of the village was bounded as follows: Beginning at a monument at the intersection of the easterly line of Salina street with the south line of the city of Syracuse ; thence westerly along said city line to the right bank of the Onondaga creek ; thence northerly across said creek to the left bank ; thence up along said left bank of said creek, following its windings and turnings, to a point opposite the center of Colvin street ; thence across said creek to the right bank in the center of Colvin street ; thence easterly along the center of said street to the center of Salina street ; thence northerly along the center of Salina street to the center of the Day road ; thence along the center of said road to the southwest corner of Oakwood ; thence northerly along the west line of Oakwood to the south line of the city of Syracuse ; and thence westerly along said city line to the place of beginning. The election was held on the date mentioned and the whole number of votes cast was 137, of which 85 were in favor of the incorporation. The amount of money it was proposed to raise for village expenses was five hun- dred dollars. The Act of incorporation was passed by the Legislature and at the first village election Edward Abeel was chosen as President. The village was appropriately named in honor of the pioneer, Judge Asa Danforth. Mr. Abeel held the office of President one year, when he was succeeded by T. K. Fuller. He continued in the office five years and was succeeded by Edward P. Glass, who filled the position until the village was annexed to the city, as related a little further on. Improve- ment in the village after the incorporation was rapid and substantial. A wooden school building was erected which was subsequently superceded by a large brick building, while the erection of handsome dwellings continued with increasing rapidity. The village of Danforth soon gained a reputation for beauty and healthfulness not excelled by that of any other suburb of Syracuse. At the very beginning of this year a demand was made public for fur- ther charter amendments. The features which it was claimed needed attention were more definite and rigid rules for street improvements; an increase in the number of wards; a new Auditing Board for city accounts; regulations for control of public charities ; amending the police regulations, and creating a responsible head for the Fire Department. None of these proposed amendments was consummated at that time. Gen. William H. Moseley died in April. He settled in Salina in 18 19, J20 Memorial History of Syracuse. and carried on mercantile business in Syracuse. His health failed and he returned to his former home in Massachusetts, and was there made a Ma- jor-General. He returned to Syracuse in 1850. In 1857 he was appointed librarian of the Court of Appeals library, and from 1850 to 1861 he pub- lished The Syraaisan, a semi-literary monthly. Gen. Moseley er joyed the fullest respect of the community. A. G. Salisbury, the much-esteemed teacher, died on the 9th of April. He was at the head of the city schools from the beginning down to 1864, when he entered the army as additional paymaster with the rank of Major and was mustered out as a Brevet-Colonel in October. 1867. The remain- der of his life, with the exception of one year and a half, during which he was Warden of the State prison at Auburn, he passed in Syracuse. Paschal Thurber died December 26th. He had been a resident of Syr- acuse nearly fifty years and was one of the pioneer merchants. J875. Syracuse was destined to suffer severely in the summer and fall of this year from the small pox and the disease attracted sufficient atten- tion in August to demand a public meeting to prevent an epidemic. Either in anticipation of the disease or for the general reason that there had been mild visitations of it in previous years, the Common Council on January 4, directed the clerk to advertise for a site for a city pest house. This action led to the purchase of eight acres of land on Beech street and the erection in August of the hospital for patients afflicted with contagious disease, with necessary outbuildings. Meanwhile in spite of all efforts the disease increased. About the 1st of September there were forty cases reported, and on the 6th there were six burials from the scourge ; up to that date a total of 128 cases had been reported, with 36 deaths. The disease progressed with- out very much fluctuation until late in the autumn. The press boldly as- serted that it was on the wane and confidence restored as early as Octo- ber 1st, and on the 8th of the same month a manifesto from leading business men was issued, concluding that the disease was about stamped out and that there was no danger to people visiting the city. The fact is there were 52 cases on the ist of November and the disease was not eradicated until the close of the year. On the loth of November the city physician report- ed that there had been 810 cases and 182 deaths, which number was some- what increased after that date. Business suffered seriously on account of the loss of country trade and the epidemic cost the city more than $60,000 loss directly, and a vastly larger sum indirectly. The hospital and grounds cost about $12,000. The charter election resulted in the choice of George P. Hier (Republi- can) for Mayor, over Henry M. Bancroft, by 479 majority, and five Repub- lican Aldermen were elected. There was a tie on this office in the First ward and a special election was held on the 27th of February, resulting in The Struggle With the Gas Light Company. 221 the choice of Jeremiah F. Barnes. The Mayor in his inaugural address al- luded to the necessity for changes in the charter, a subject which was already in the hands of a committee, and condemned wooden paving. The peo- ple were just awakening to the fact that they had spent hundreds of thous- ands of dollars on the streets which was almost thrown away. The funded debt was stated as $i,339,CXX) on the 1st of January ; the liabilities as $126,- S67.32, and assets as $1 14,470.52. Several important public improvements were made during the year. In January the Council advertised for proposals to build a large trunk sewer through Hurnet, James, Pearl, and Olive streets to the creek, and the work was done. An Act of Legislature was procured early in the year authorizing the paving of Salina street from the Oswego canal to Onondaga street and the assessment of one-half of the cost upon the property along its line, and one-half on the city. The Council approved the Act in March and the project was carried out, an 18-inch tile sewer being laid at the same time. The bridge question over the canal on Salina street was disposed of by the completion of the present swing bridge.* Other improvements were the paving of Harrison street between Mont- gomery and Salina streets: an 18-inch tile sewer in Plum street ; the same in Willow street from McBride to Townsend street ; opening of Almond street from Taylor to Burt street; re-macadamizing West Genesee street between Wallace and Leavenworth avenue. A contest with the gaslight company occurred this year, the contract with the city having expired, the beginning of which was a resolution that was adopted by the Council, expressing its determination to purchase the company's plant, as it had the power to do under the contract of 1849. After a great deal of newspaper discussion and argument by the company to prove that the city was economically lighted, and by the city to show that the company was drawing immense profits from the corporation, the matter was finally solved by the company in the spring of 1877 offering to supply gas on a ten year contract at $2.10 per thousand feet for streets (in- cluding lighting and extinguishing) and $2 00 for public buildings. Upon this the Council passed a resolution that the city would pay $2.00 and no more for its gas for any period after April i, 1877, and the proposition was accepted by the company. At a meeting of the Council in June, the Mayor presented a communica- tion upon the necessity of adopting some other material than plank for side- walks, as there were then pending suits against the city on claims for more •The first stone bridge at this point was built in 1823 of a single arch, the bridge rising very high in the center. It was superceded t^ one of wood with stringers and planks. Following this was erected the old iron bridge similar to others jiow crossing the canal in the city, which stood un- til the year under consideration. 222 Memorial History of Syracuse. than $100,000 for accidents on the walks. The matter was not acted upon. In March, a committee previously appointed reported favorably upon certain proposed amendments to the charter. Briefly they provided for the division of six of the eight wards, thus creating fourteen, in order to obtain larger representation in the Board of Supervisors; the creation of a Board of Public Works and defining its duties— consisting of one member from each ward, to serve without compensation ; creating a Board of Fire Commissioners ; revising the methods of levying and collecting taxes; reg- ulating and defining the powers and duties of the Board of Education and increasing its number to fourteen, and the same in relation to the Council, with other less important changes. Excepting that a Board of Fire Com- missioners was created upon the organization of the paid department, none of the above proposed amendments became operative, at least at that time. In November the Council settled the long outstanding matter between the New York Central Railroad Company and the city relative to the East Fayette street sewer (pending since 1867), by paying to the railroad company §21,999.50 for money advanced to pay the city's share of the sewer lax and $12,238.44 for interest. Kasson Frazer died on the 14th of May. He was a native of Onondaga county and passed the greater part of his life in Syracuse as an active busi- ness man and manufacturer. He was for many years associated with Peter Burns in the manufacture of saddlery hardware. George Crouse died on the 25111 of August. 1876. — The Republican nominee for Mayor, John J. Crouse, was elected in the Centennial year, over John R. Whitlock, by 122 majority, and three Republican Aldermen. The financial report at the time showed that the funded debt was $1,216,00, with a floating debt of about $150,000. These figures were not changed in the Clerk's report of April. In his inaugural addre.ss the Mayor protested against the manner in which street improvements had been carried out, the lavish expenditure of money and such meagre returns. He suggested that a stone breaker should be purchased, and also a chemical fire engine, for which the Council had been petitioned in the latter part of 1S75. He also advised the funding of the floating debt in thirty year bonds. This latter measure was carried out this year. The principal public improvements of the year were: macadamizing of Gifford street from West street to the Onondaga creek : a 3oinch brick sewer in University avenue from Madison to Washington street : a brick sewer in West Onondaga street from the creek to Delaware street, 3 ft. 9 inches from the creek to Russell street, and 2 ft. 6 inches thence to Dela- ware street ; a 3-foot brick sewer in Leavenworth avenue and Clark street To Fav the Outstanding Debt. 223 from West Genesee street to tlie creek ; relaying of the West Fayette street sewer from the creek to its western terminus, ordered in 1875. In March a bill was sent to the Legislature giving the Common Council authority to levy a city tax as follows: To defray the ordinary and contingent expenses of the city, for high- ways, sewers, and bridges, a sum not exceeding $150,000; for principal and interest of the bonded debt, the actual sum falling due in the ensuing year ; for the purposes of the Board of Education a sum not exceeding S 100,000; for the expenses of the Fire Department, including salaries, a sum not exceeding $35,000; for the expenses of gas and lighting the streets a sum not exceeding $35,000 ; for water dues $22,500, or such sum as might be awarded by Commissioners duly appointed for the purpose ; for interest on temporary loans not exceeding the sum of $10,000; for damages and costs not exceeding $5,000. The aggregate sum thus expended was limited to $450,000. The same Act defined the duties of the Police Commission- ers and the Justice and detailed the manner of making the tax levy. A supplemental Act of June 2 reduced the aggregate amount to be expended to $425,000 with the exception of the year 1876, when the city's share of the Salina street pavement was to be added. On the 13th of May, by an Act of the Legislature, the Common Coun- cil was authorized to issue bonds for $125,000 to pay the outstanding debt of the city, the bonds to be met by general tax. Another Act of the same date authorized the construction of a trunk sewer in West Onondaga street, and the same in Burnet, James, and across Salina street to the creek. A contract with the Water Company was made this year, fixing the payment at $25,000 annually from July, 1875; and $5,000 were appropri- ated for celebrating the 4th of July. The Congress Hall hotel and McCarthy's wholesale stores were erected this year. 1S77. — The reader of these annals covering the preceding ten or fifteen years, will not fail to have noticed that Syracuse was rapidly becoming in- volved in debt and that, aside from the value, present or prospective, of the railroad and university bonds in her possession, the city at the beginning of the year under consideration could not exhibit improvement at all com- mensurate with her expenditures; and prudent men of all shades of politi- cal faith, or of none at all, also began to view the matter in precisely this light. A feeling of actual alarm sprang up and measures for future protec- tion from evils likely to follow extravagance and corruption were freely discussed The result was a call for a public meeting on the 3d of January, at which there was considerable speaking indulged in. Dr. Wieting claimed that he had years before foretold the existing situation. Dennis McCarthy acknowledged that the subject of relief from high taxes and all 224 Memorial History of Syracuse. the attendant evils, presented a great problem. He doubted if nnuch less than the authorized sum of $425,000 could be made sufficient for the annual necessities of the city; and that all the talk about electing a Reform Council was useless, for any Council would still be made up of erring human beings. Peter Burns counseled a thorough revision of the charter, and thought the Council was subject to wire-pullers. At the first meeting (January 3) a committee of one from each ward was appointed to investi- gate how the public money had been spent in the preceding year. The members of the committee were A. L. Johnson, Thomas J. Leach, A. A. Howlett, William Kirkpatrick, Obadiah Seeley, Charles Tallman, Stiles M. Rust, and Hiram Kingsley. The theory of action seemed to be that if the existence of past errors and delinquencies could be shown, they might by some means be avoided in the future. A second meeting was held January lOth at which a Committee on Flan of Action was appointed as follows: J. Barnes, Peter Knaul, W. B. Smith, Robert McCarthy, J. J. Greenough, John R. Whitlock, Nathan Cobb, and Jacob Crouse. This committee re- ported before the meeting adjourned. In the first sentence of their report they seemed to find a response in the body of the meeting, as well as to have discovered a detail in the method of reform that had previously been almost overlooked. " It is the future that demands our attention, not past errors," they said in substance. " Men must be elected to municipal office who are above reproach, and retrenchment, retrenchment must be the future watch-word. " Their "Plan of Action " was briefly for the appointment of a committee of twelve from each ward, who should constitute a Committee of Ninety-six, equally divided as to Democratic and Republican politics, by whom the nominations for all city offices should be made, their candidates to be supported in the election and the nominations to be submitted to a citizens' meeting. The report was adopted. This great Committee of Ninety-Six met on the 17th of January and organized by making C. P. Clark president, and P. H. Agan and R. A. Bonta, secretaries. A committee of two from each ward was selected from the large committee to report a plan for making nominations. They reported that the Mayor should be nomi- nated from one party, the Overseer of the Poor from the opposite party, and so on through all the elective officers, alternating them to each political party and making the Board of Aldermen one-half Republican and one half Democratic. A convention of the Committee of Ninety Six was held February ist.at which reform resolutions were passed and the nominations made, John R. Whitlock (Democrat) being the choice for Mayor. Now, the difficulty (which should, perhaps, have been foreseen) arose. It was not in the na- ture of things political that Republican politicians and newspapers would enthusiastically support a Democratic nominee for Mayor, and the result Tin- Belden Apminmsi-kation. 225 was that James J. B.'lden was nominated by the Republicans (much against his inclination) and he finally accepted. The time was ripe. With the agitation which had preceded the nomi- nations, to which allusion has been made, the too evident necessity for a change in municipal management, and the well known qualifications of Mr. Helden for the successful conduct of large undertakings, there swept over the public mind such a political revulsion that the Republican candidate went into the Mayoralty with the unprecedented majority of 1,745, and carried with him the entire Board of Aldermen. At this time the liabilities of the city were reported to be §;i03,252.72, and the assets $100,19908. In his inaugural address Mayor Belden set forth so clearly the sources of financial difficulty that any one could under- stand, and expressed his determination that there should be a radical change. During the preceding year, §84.923.26 were expended for cleaning the streets and temporary repairs, and he characterized this as one of the chief sources of waste. The funded debt was stated as being $1,418,000 and the floating debt $95,763.10. He showed that when the sums of money the payment of which could not be escaped, were met from the city's in- come under its then existing circumstances, there would be only about §20,000 left for pavements, sewers, salaries, and miscellaneous expenses — a sum that was a mere tithe of what had previously been annually expended for those purposes for many years. Therein lay one of the causes of in- creasing indebtedness. He proposed to "start from the bottom," with a new set of books, and make future years take care of themselves, at the same time doing the best that could be done with the accrued indebted- ness. The influence of his practical business methods was soon felt. In the Clerk's financial report, April 4, the funded debt was given as being §1,418,000, it having been increased in January by funding $125,000 of floating debt, authorized by Act of Legislature in May, 1876. On the 9th of the same month, the Mayor sent a communication to the Council, insisting upon further retrenchment, stating that there was not a dollar in the treasury, and collections of taxes were slow ; that there was a floating debt of more than §100,000, (alluded to as being added to the funded debt), with enormous litigation, and that the insignificant floating debt of §3,000 was made to appear at that figure only by crediting up the whole great amount of uncollected ta.xes to assets; that the city, represented by the Council and the Mayor, must, like an individual, be just before being gen- erous. The uncollected city taxes accumulated in the eight years beginning with 1869, amounted to $84,299.60, and the local ta.xes to $54,200, a total of about §138,500. A change was made in the charter (May lo) providing that in making out the tax levy for any year, all debts incurred in the preceding year, if 29 226 Memorial History of Syracuse. any, should be included in such levy, but the aggregate amount to be raised should not exceed $425,000, except in the year 1877, when the city's share of the Burnet street and the West Onondaga street sewers should be added. This provision was intended to prevent the accumulation of a floating debt and to abolish the pernicious practice of outgoing Councils incurring debts for their successors to pay. It will he readily inferred that under the municipal administration of 1877, public improvements were limited to those which were absolutely necessary. On the 21st of February, James Finegan was ordered paid $17,500 for Telford macadam in James street, but the amount was after- wards reduced to $15,783. The street cleaning contract was let to Finegan & Field and it was publicly stated that the streets had never been so clean. The Water Company was asked by the Council in May to lay a 24-inch main in Cortland avenue to Montgomery street. Action had already been begun early in the year by the company, who expressed their intention of so much increasing their sources of supply as to give the city 10,000,000 gallons daily in addition to the existing supply. The plan was carried out during this and the next year, by the employment of Worthington engines on the bank of the creek and drawing the water through a gravel filter. In August, a 24-inch sewer was ordered in Genesee street between Ged- des street and Leavenworth avenue, and in October, steps were taken to build a new bridge on Walton street. Permission was also given the I)., L. & W. Railroad Company to build their bridge on Jefferson street. 1878. — Mayor Belden announced his determination to decline a renomi- nation for this year, but all possible influence was brought to bear to lead him to reverse his decision. A petition signed by two or three hundred prominent citizens of both political parties appeared in the Journal in February, just before election, which, combined with other influence ex- erted, induced Mr. Belden at a late hour to consent to a renomination. The workingmen entered the political field this year and nominated A. P. Yates for Mayor ; but it was a bad time for such an experiment, and Mayor Belden was re-elected by a majority of 2,923 over Wilbur M. Brown (Demo- crat), and 1,057 over Arthur P. Yates, and seven of the Aldermen elected were Republicans. In his inaugural address the Mayor briefly reviewed the previous year. He said that the measures of retrenchment adopted had proved successful. There had, he said, come into the hands of the Common Council a state- ment of assets amounting to $136,587.69, which consisted wholly of uncollected taxes, and a floating debt of $141,373-76, besides unadjusted suits and claims. Of the first named sum there had been collected during the year $125,190.36, besides $11,39933 in liens on property. There had been paid on that floating debt $116,040.48 and there was cash on hand Reports of City Departments. 227 §9,149.88. The receipt-s for 1877 were $342,757.59. All liabilities for the year had been met at maturity and the city owed no debt, actual or con- tingent, which had been incurred during 1877. All account.s of this year and those relating to previous years had been kept entirely separate. • The annual financial report made in April, showed the total funded debt; to be III. 382, 500; the liabilities at that time $25,333.28, and assets $27.91 5.45, with no floating debt. The Board of Education budget was $109,034.91. The Board asked for $7,500 additional for a school site in the Fourth ward, which was not granted. The salaries of the principal city officers were fixed at §3,000 for the Treasurer, and $2,000 for the Clerk, they to pay their as- sistants ; $1,200 to the Superintendent of Streets and $1,500 to the Over- seer of the Poor. The first annual report of the Board of Commissioners following the organization of the paid department in April, 1877, appeared this year, showing that there were on hand four Amoskeag engines, one chemical fire engine, one hook and ladder truck and apparatus, five hose carriages, and sixteen horses, and 11,000 feet of hose. The expenses of the depart- ment for the year were about $30,000 and the fire losses about $140,000. The first annual report of the Street Superintendent (H. K. Brown) was also made, showing that there was expended for street improvements, street cleaning and the salary of the deputy $30,213.09, and for the Walton street bridge, and the abutments of the Jefferson street bridge, $94475. The first City Attorney (Martin A. Knapp), also made a clear report of all the litigation in which the city was involved, and a large amount had been cleared away. An Act of Legislature (May 7) gave the nomination of City Attorney to the Mayor, made his term two years and salary to be fixed by the Council. The Common Council in February reported the cost of the West Onon- daga street sewer as about $17,000; the West Genesee street sewer about $5,500; the Burnet street sewer about $68,000, and passed a resolution that the Finance Committee negotiate a temporary loan for the payment of the cost of those sewers and that the Assessors assess the local tax. In March it was ordered by the Council that all tires on wagons used in the city after July 1st, 1878, for heavy loads, should not be less than four inches in width for a certain weight, and three inches for a load of less weight. This action served to protect the streets from a great deal of injurv. The new rooms of the Syracuse Board of Trade were dedicated on the 22d of June, when the President, H. W. Van Buren, delivered an ad- dress. This institution was quite active for a few years, but scarcely warranted by its work the expectations of its founders. In September, a Board of Commissioners was appointed by the Court to fix the amount to be paid to the Water Company for three years from July 1st. The amount decided upon was ^26,000 annually. 228 Memorial History of Syracuse. Public improvements were not extensive under the general system of economy prevailing. The Council in April declared its intention of con- structing an J 8-inch sewer in Elbridge street, and a 24-inch sewer in Kellogg street and Slocum avenue. At the same time it was resolved to have the charter so amended as to provide for the collection of one-half the cost of re-paving and re-macadamizing streets by local assessments. In September the payment of the $37,500 of bonds due this year was extended fifteen years, and new ones issued. In the same month a 24- inch sewer was ordered in East Genesee street, and in December bonds were i.ssued for $1,500 to pay a debt of the Creek Commission before alluded to. A local paper of the latter part of the year made the announcement that, " Go where you will, business men are talking more confidently than they have for five years of improvement." A banker was also quoted as saying that he was confident the improvement in business would be steady and continuous. Orrin Welch died on the 21st of March. He located in Syracuse in 1848 and passed his business life in the office of the Canal Collector, the Gas- light Company, and the Syracuse and Binghamton Railroad Company, until 1870. After that time he was connected with the Morris Run Coal Com- pany. In 1876 he was a Police Commissioner, to fill a vacancy, and later in the same year, was placed in the Board of School Commissioners. He was one of the most prominent Masons in the State and a man who had a host of friends. Joseph J. Glass died on the 28th of March. He settled in Syracuse in i860 and organized the milling firm of Glass, Breed & Co. He was promi- nent in Republican politics; was a delegate to the Constitutional Conven- tion in 1846 and Member of Assembly in 1848-9. Alonzo Crippen died April 14. He settled in Syracuse about 1826 and carried on a grocery business in the First ward many years and was also a salt manufacturer. He was one of the Village Trustees, and in 1852-3 was a member of the Common Council. He also held the offlce of Justice of the Peace. W. C. Gage died on the 25th of April. He began work in Syracuse in 1847 as clerk in the Brintnall Hotel, and at a later day kept that house for about six years. After a short period in New York city he returned to Syracuse and conducted the Empire House about seventeen years. In 1874 he took the Syracuse House, but retired from business two years later. He was a popular host and respected citizen. Thomas B. Fitch was born in the town of Kirkland, Oneida county, De- cember 10, 1810. At eleven years of age he began work as a clerk in a drug store in Utica, and in a short time became the confidential assistant of his employer. In 1831 he came to Syracuse and rented the "Green Drug TiiK Republicans Continue in Power. 229 Store," on the north side of Hanover Square and soon afterward took in with himself Captain Ilirani I'litnam, the firm being T. B. Fitch & Co., which continued until 1846, when they sold out to Dillaye & Co. In the fall of 1851 Mr. Fitch was instrumental in organizing the Mechanics' Bank and was elected president, with E. B. Wicks as cashier. He was one of the founders and a trustee of the Syracuse Savings Bank; was a director of the Binghamton railway; was largely interested in early street railroads; a director of the Syracuse Gaslight Company ; a trustee of the First Presby- terian church; a member of the first Board of Education, and held nu- merous other positions of trust and responsibility. Charles E. Fitch, the dis- tinguished journalist, is a son of Mr. Fitch. He died in Syracuse in September, 1879. George Stevens was born in Onondaga Valley July 16, 1808, and when he reached his majority he removed to Salina. For some years he followed the occupation of builder and manufacturer of salt. In 1834 he established a grocery on James street, in which he was very successful, but his entire property was swept away by fire ; his numerous friends came to his aid and he was enabled to re-e^tabli;h himself and finally gained a competency. He was President of the village in the last year of its existence as such and was elected to the Assembly for 1850-51. He held a number of minor offices and was Police Justice three years. During this period he suffered a stroke of paralysis, compelling him to resign the office. He was one of the directors of the Merchants' Bank and for several years its presi- dent. He was in every way a representative citizen, conspicuous for his un- swerving integrity and high order of business and executive ability. He died on the 8th of April. Jason C. Woodruff died on the i6th of July of this year. He located in Syracuse in 1824 and was Mayor in 1852. His career has been elsewhere referred to in these pages. 1879. — On the 22d of January, of this year, the Common Council again received a memorial from the (iaslight Company, stating in brief that under the offer of the city made April i, 1877, of $2.00 per thousand feet of gas, the company was furnishing it at a loss, and that on and after February i, 1879, ^'ic price of gas would be $2.25. The Council promptly passed a res- olution declining to pay that price. The charter election resulted in a victory for Irving G. Vann, the Re- publican candidate, by a plurality of 870 over Henry J. Mowry, Democratic, and Frank Raymond, the Greenback-Labor candidate. Five Republican Aldermen were elected. In the remarks of retiring Mayor Belden, he reported the tax levies of 1877 ^^^ '^7^ ^" collected, excepting a trifle of $113.71 ; that the city, as far as those two years were concerned, was not one dollar in debt ; the funded debt had been reduced $37,000, less $1,500 230 Memorial History of Syracuse. issued to the Creek Commission, and there was not a dollar of unfunded debt. It may be readily understood that this condition of municipal affairs was most satisfactory to the community and regret was universal that Mayor Belden could not be induced to retain the office for an indefinite period. In his inaugural address Mayor Vann congratulated the preceding ad- ministration upon its remarkably gratifying exhibit, and stated the amount of funded debt as $1,384,060, with a floating debt covering interest, etc., which had accrued before 1877, of $25,000. In the Clerk's financial statement of April r, the funded debt was given as above. Mayor Vann followed in the lines so clearly marked out by his predecessor and restricted public improvements to those absolutely neces- sary. In May the Council expressed its intention of building an i8inch sewer in Grace street and a 24 inch sewer in Montgomery street, and in June, an iS-inch sewer in Otisco street. The iron road bridge over the creek on Jefferson street was built this year, and the other principal works were an 18-inch sewer in TuUy street from Tioga to Seneca street ; an iron road bridge in Belden avenue ; a 30-inch sewer in William and Lodi streets to Gertrude street, and a 24-inch sewer in Lodi from Gertrude to James street. In a resolution of April 1st, the Council appropriated $2,500 as a perma- nent fund for school purposes in the Fourth ward. The Board of Educa- tion had previously purchased a lot there at a cost of $6,400. This action of the Council was vetoed and a larger appropriation made, as above stated. The newly-invented telephone was exhibited for the first time in Syra. cuse on the 12th of June. Bravo C. Dunbar died on the i8th of March. He came from Boston, Mass., where he had been engaged in business, to Syracuse in 1856 and bought the Roger Billings property at the junction of Warren and South Salina streets, and engaged extensively in the manufacture of wagons. Record of the Last Decade. 231 CHAPTER XIX. RECORD OF THE LAST DECADE. The I.asl Dfc.iilt; — .\pplitation for .1 Xt-w Gas Company Charter — The "City Improvement Society " — liuiUling of the West Shore Railroad — Removal of I'oHce Commissioners — Trouble with the lioaril of Education— City .Annexation— The New City Hall Project— Failure of the Wilkinsons — Charter .Anicndments — Better Water Supply Demanded — The Committee of One Hundred and its Work— William .\. Sweets Project — .Annexation of Ceddes— C.ift of Burnet Park — The Kirk Ad- ministration — Pushing the Work for a New Water Supply — -V Real Estate Boom — Extension of the Street Railway System — Conriusinn. THE charter election of iSSo resulted in the choice of Franci.s Hen- dricks (or Mayor, over the popular candidate of the Democrats, Col. J. W. Yale, by a majority 1,782. Seven Republican Aldermen were elected, and Thomas Mulholland's majority for Police Justice reached 3,649. The old administration retired leaving a good record, as indicated in the Clerk's annual report of April ist in which the funded debt was given as $1,351,500; the liabilities $1^,028.28, and assets $30,466.26, with no floating debt. The budget of the Board of Education was $106,801.70, and it was allowed $5,000 for the Fourth ward school and $2,000 for the Seymour street school. Public improvements continued upon the former careful and restricted basis. A resolution passed the Common Council in January to purchase more ground for burial purposes, but nothing was done under it. In Feb- ruary, Riley V. Miller, William A. Butler, and others, were given permission under certain restrictions, to introduce means for steam heat and power; among the conditions being one that a company should be formed with a capital of $150,000, and that steam should be supplied to the city for pub- lic buildings etc., without charge. This enterprise was progressed consider- ably, but for various reasons its consummation was destined to postpone- ment. At a special Council meeting of March 23d, an application was made by a proposed new gas company for a franchise to lay pipes in the streets, guiranteeing to furnish gas at $1.50 and $1.75 per thousand feet. The meeting adjourned so that an expression of the people might be obtained. Following this, the old gas company issued a proposition to sell its plant. A long and annoying contest of words followed, similar to those of the past, the close of which will be noted further on. The principal improvements projected during the year were the re-pav- ing of West Fayette street with sandstone from Salina to Wyoming street ; 232 Memorial History of Syracuse. paving East Genesee street with sandstone from Mulberry to Warren street; constructing a 24-inch sewer in Gertrude and Madison streets; the division of the Fifth ward into three election districts; and the erection of the iron liberty pole now standing near the swing bridge, under contract with Cobb & Herrick. The presidential campaign of this year was unusually exciting, and mass meetings and processions were numberless. General Grant visited Syra- cuse on the 26th of October and was give a royal welcome. The city Republican majority was more than 1,500 on the electoral ticket. The corner stone of the new County Clerk's building was laid on the nth of August, Hon. William J. Wallace delivering an able address of an historical character. Thomas Davis, Chief of Police, died on the 8th of January. He was born in Salina in 1824. His father was Caleb Davis, one of the prominent early butchers. Thomas was appointed on the police force in 1852 and in 1856 was made Chief, but was soon removed by reason of a political change. He was again appointed to the position in 1863. One year later he was again displaced, when he joined with Thomas Mulholland, Garret Putnam George W. Herrick, and Michael Walsh in a private detective agency. When the police force was reorganized in 1869, he was again made Chief and held the position until his death. Dudley P. Phelps died on the 25th of September. He located in Syra. cuse in 1829, entering the service of Dr. Jonathan Day as office boy, where he remained until the good doctor died of cholera in the terrible days of 1832. He remained in the same ofifice with Dr. Day's successor until 18^4. He then entered the law office of Wilkinson & Outwaterand studied for six years. In 1S40 he was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court and later in the other Courts, but soon afterward entered the employ of the new Syracuse and Utica Railroad Company, where he continued until 1852. In 1856 he became the general ticket agent for the Michigan Southern Railroad Company, with headquarters in Syracuse. This position he resigned in i860, and from May, 1861, to March, 1868 was treasurer of the Onondaga County Savings Bank. During the next ten years he was president of the Trust and Deposit Company, which he aided in organizing. Mr. Phelps felt a deep interest in politics as a Republican and was elected to the As- sembly in 1855 ; was County Treasurer from 1864 to 1866, a member of the Hoard of Education, and held other responsible positions. Mr. Phelps was a man of whose character it is difficult to speak too highly ; his business capacity was above the average, and socially none could be more popular. 1881 — In the latter months of the year 1880 a movement came to life by which some hopeful persons endeavored to secure the future "develop- ment of the natural beauties of our city, its site and surroundings; to pro- /D^-6 C936 Memorial History of Syracuse. obliged to call for that amount and hoped that the good example might be followed by themselves. The budget for the year was made up at $376,000 and the Board of Education asked for $108,700. There was much opposition to granting this sum and the resolution which the Council finally passed appropriating that amount, was vetoed by the Mayor, but the veto was not sustained. The Board was granted a further sum late in the year making a total of $116,000. The West Shore Railroad Company were actively pushing their road in this locality during the year, and were directed by the Council in January to build an iron bridge at their Geddes street crossing and the present hoist bridge over the Oswego canal on Salina street. A wide-spread feeling pre- vailed that this railroad company had obtained a great deal from the Com- mon Council without adequate return to the city, and there was a disposi- tion manifested by the public to force the Company to make every possible improvement along their line in the city that could be demanded with any reason. But the company acted upon a very liberal policy in this regard. The contract for their splendid depot was let in March and the road was opened on the 1st of October. Public improvements were not extensive this year, the principal ones being the opening of Fountain street from Gertrude street to Finegan avenue; paving of Clinton street with sandstone; building an 18 inch tile sewer in Holland street from Slocum avenue to Ontario street ; construct ing a 30-inch brick sewer in Harrison street from Spruce to Chestnut street ; re-paving East Genesee street from Grape to Orange street; and South Franklin street; building a 24-inch tile sewer in Tallman street from the creek to South Onondaga street and the same in Butternut street from Townsend to McBride street; an 18-inch sewer in Madison street between Almond and Orange streets, and the introduction of the Thompson & Houston electric light system in the central part of the city. 1884.— At almost the first meeting of the Council this year the discovery was made that the city treasury contained about $10,000 in worthless checks, which had been made by James Finegan and A. S. Webb, whose sureties were Wilkinson & Co. (Alfred & J. Forman)then doing a banking business in the city. This firm was called on to reimburse the city for the amount. The money was eventually recovered. In February, the Board of Education addressed to the Council a request for an appropriation of $8,000, with which to pay bills that had been carried over from the preceding year. To give the request additional weight. Su- perintendent Smith made a statement of his financial dealings with the Coun- cil from and including 1876, which is worth preservation here. In 1876, he said, the Board asked and were awarded $90,000 and $6,200 for the Pres- Deficiency in Board of Education Fund. 237 cott School ; in 1877 they asked $75,000 and $7,500 for the peimanent fund, the latter being refused; 1878, their experience was the same; 1879 they asked $75,000 and were cut down $2,500, and of the $10,000 asked for the permanent fund, they got ?5,ooo ; 1880, they asked and were award- ed $75,000 and $7,000 for the two funds respectively; 1881, $86,000 and $4,000; 1882, $1 16,000 and were awarded $100,000, and in June $10,000 ad- ditional ; 1883, $102,109.53, and were awarded $93,900, and of $16,500, ad- ditional asked, they got $14,800. This request came before the Council and was met upon the square issue that no more money could be given the Board for the purpose named, with- out violating the charter. The consequence was that about the last of January, when the funds on hand were exhausted, the Board took steps to close the schools. In this exigency Mayor Ryan personally placed a sum of moneyat the disposal of the Board to carry them through the year. He was subsequently reimbursed under an Act of Legislature. The local political campaign this year was a heated one. It was loudly claimed that the affairs of the city were again literally "going to the doers," and that a revolution must take place. As one means of effecting this, a Municipal Club was organized, composed of an e.xcellent conservative ele- ment and Wilber S. Peck, a prominent merchant, placed in nomination for Mayor. Martin A. Knapp and Hamilton S. White had declined the nom- ination. The Republicans did not unite in Mr. Peck's support and nomi- nated Willis B. Burns, while the Democrats unanimously re-nominated Mayor Ryan. The result might have almost been foreseen, for although the Democrats were divided into two factions, Mayor Ryan was re-elected by a majority over Burns of 1,708, while Burns had a majority over Peck of 403. Thomas Mulholland's majority for Police Justice was 1,747. The funded debt was reported as $1,222,000, of which there was of prin- cipal and interest to be paid during the year, $111,702.50. In his inaugural address the Mayor expressed satisfaction that the funded debt was rapidly being " wiped out," and that there was no floating debt. He commended the new electric lighting system and hoped the Board of Education and Council would come to an amicable agreement. The Board of Education asked for $136,000, and $6,989.58, to settle obligations of the preceding year. $104,868.33, was appropriated, and a law was passed under which $7,250 more was afterwards appropriated. It was in this year that the annexation agitation began and the policy of taking Geddes into the city corporation was freely discussed. A good many prominent residents of that suburb favored the plan, but the " rotten system" of letting public contracts, as it was stated, caused a good deal of opposition. At the same time the project of bringing the beautiful suburb of Danforth within the corporation was strongly advocated by citizens of the city, but the residents of that village were not yet ready for the change. 238 Memorial History of Syracuse. The Water Company enjoyed its periodical scuffle with the city authori- ties this year, the three year's contract having expired on the last of July. A disposition was shown by the Council to refuse an advance in rates de- manded by the company, whereupon the latter expressed its purpose of put- ting in water meters and charging the city ten cents per gallon for its water. This plan was repudiated and when the conflict had continued for the cus- tomary period, the price for another three years was fixed at $26,000, the sum which had been paid during the previous three years. An appropriation of $200,000 had been secured in Congress through the efforts of Hon. Frank Hiscock for a Government Building in Syracuse. The lot on the corner of East Fayette and Warren streets was purchased of the St. Paul's Church Society for $70,000, and as the remainder of the ap- propriation was not deemed sufficient for a suitable building, Mr. Hiscock secured a further appropriation of $75,000, and the building was begun in March. The project of erecting a new City Hall also assumed a definite char- acter, and upon a report of a committee previously appointed, a bill was drawn and brought before the Council in April, authorizing the construction of a new public building at a maximum cost of $150,000, for which bonds were to be issued. Another committee was appointed, who reported De- cember 8th in favor of adopting the site of the old City Hall and advising the appointment of a committee of three to obtain plans and specifications for the proposed structure and report previous to February i, 1885. This subject will be again alluded to farther on. On the loth of December occurred the disastrous failure and assignment of the Wilkinsons, private bankers, with preferred creditors whose claims were more than $100,000, and an enormous indebtedness besides. This was followed by the failure of Westcott & Co., brokers, for more than $50,000. The Wilkinsons' assignment was subsequently declared fraudulent by the courts, after extended litigation, and a number of the depositors who had united and placed their claims in the hands of attorneys, received a large percentage of their money. The year was a memorable one from its having developed an intense and active condemnation of the methods that had long prevailed in letting contracts for street improvements. It was shown in the public press that there had been spent on the streets during three years prior to May, 1884, the enormous sum of $224,405.41, and when the field was surveyed there was very little real permanent improvement discernible, with a few excep- tions. Streets that were reported as macadamized, were found to be cov- ered with a thin layer of broken stone inadequately rolled and with poor foundation; gutters were paved in a miserable manner; sandstone pave- ments were constructed of unfit material in direct violation of contracts, A Municipal Awakening. 239 and a general system of disregard of moral and material obligations (to give it no stronger definition) was shown to liave been practiced for a long period. The city Engineer and Street Superintendent were called to account and the policy of removing the former official was favorably considered, but finally abandoned. South Salina street between Burt and Castle streets was paved this year with sandstone, and a part of North Salina street had already been similarly treated. The numerous delays in this work, with its doubtful character when done, coupled with innumerable smaller pieces of work that were executed in a still more disgraceful manner, finally caused such a storm of protestation from outraged tax-payers, that a reformation was promised. For a time, the contractors were held to more strict account- ability and their work was carefully watched; but it cannot be said that the improvement in methods was permanent. A resolution was adopted by the Council in September that thereafter when any contract was reported as completed, a committee should be appointed to inspect the work and see if the specifications had been fulfilled. In January, sixty additional Thompson-Houston electric lights were or- dered by the Council (making one hundred in all) on a five years contract made at sixty cents per night per light. This resolution was vetoed by the Mayor ; but in August, between fifty and sixty were ordered, seven of which were placed in the Second ward ; four in the Third ward ; fifteen in the Fourth ward ; nine in the Fifth ward ; five in the Sixth ward ; nine in the Seventh ward ; and six in the Eighth ward. To this number sixteen were added in November. The other principal public improvements of the year were the projected pavement of James street, between Lock and Townsend streets, with asphalt blocks ; an 18-inch tile sewer in Adams street between Almond and Orange streets; the same in Gertrude street froih Oak to Lodi street; a 24.inch sewer in Seymour street ; and the same in Lock street between Isabella and North Salina streets. In January, of this year, a Charter Revision Committee was appointed consisting of Martin A. Knapp, Christian FreeofT, S. W. Sherlock, J. Page Munroe, and A. II. Green, which reported progress in March, but a part of the Committee did not concur in all of the proposed changes. The results of their work are recorded under date of 1885. Many new buildings were erected during this year, more than four hun- dred and twenty, as reported by one of the local papers. Among them were the Greyhound Block, William O'Connor's residence block on South Salina street, the V. M. C. A. Building, E. McDougall's flats, and others of less importance. Reuben Wood died on the 16th of February. He was a native of Greenbush, N. Y., where he was born in 1822. In early life he was a baker 240 Memorial History of Syracuse. and in 1852 located in Syracuse to follow that business and gradually take up kindred lines of trade, such as confectionery, fancy goods, etc. He be- came especially well known as an expert angler and was a recognized au- thority on all topics connected with that art. On this account he was placed in charge of the fishing tackle at the International Fisheries Exhibi- tion in London, in 1883. He was conspicuous in the local military, a Mason of prominence, one of the old city firemen, and an excellent citizen. A. C. Powell died on the loth of September. He was born in Schenec- tady July 25, 1813, and was a graduate of Hobart College, having decided to make civil engineering his profession. He settled in Syracuse about 1850 and became a leading and respected citizen ; was a trustee of the On- ondaga County Savings Bank; Mayor of the city in 1864, and was Super- intendent of the Salt Springs. He was associated in canal and railroad surveys, and was called to Austria in connection with government engineer- ing work in that country. Allen Munroe died on the loth of November. He was a native of El- bridge and received his education in the Munro Collegiate Institute. He ent^aged as dry goods clerk in Auburn and a short time in New York, and located in Syracuse in 1847. He became a conspicuous figure in Whig and Republican politics and was elected Mayor of the city in 1854. He was a member of the firm of J. W. Barker & Co., and in various other bus- iness enterprises and speculations acquired wealth, which, however, he lost much of in the latter years of his life. He was elected State Senator in i860, and in 1876 was sent to the Assembly. He was also president of the Onondaga County Savings Bank a number of years, and was in many ways a representative citizen. 1885. — The topic of a new City Hall was earnestly discussed during the very early days of this year, and J. B. Brooks, Thomas McManus andFred- rick Schwarz were appointed a committee of three (before mentioned) in January, on site, plans, etc. They reported to the Council on February 2d that plans had been submitted from five architects : but no further practical work was done on the project in this year. The Charter Revision Committee, alluded to on a preceding page, fin- ished their work, which was approved by the Legislature and received the Governor's signature on the 21st of February. The changes were not very numerous, but some of them were quite important. Among these, one gave the Mayor the appointment of the City Engineer, the Superintendent of Streets, and the City Attorney, at the same time retaining all his former appointing powers; he was also given a clerk at $800 a year, and his term of office was made two years, with a .salary of $2,500. He was given the right to object to any item in the city budget, and such objectionable items should then be considered by the Council, and might be passed over his n>Jio^di^xHjf i ^itfr Agitation of the Water Question. 241 objections by a two-thirds vote. The Mayor, by another section, was given power to try any officer summarily and inflict a fine of $25, or suspend him until the next meeting of the Council. The term of the Police Justice was made four years and his pay $2,200 annually. The term of the City Attor- ney was made two years, with salary to be fixed annually by the Common Council. Taxes unpaid three weeks after the Treasurer's notice that the rolls were in his possession, were subjected to an addition of three per cent. For non-payment within three weeks more, five per cent. On taxes unpaid after February 15th, one per cent, per month was added to the five per cent. The Assessors' term was made four years, with an annual salary of $1,500 ; and at the then succeeding election the Alder- men were elected for one year in the odd-numbered wards, and for two years in the even-numbered wards. After that election the Aldermanic term was made two years, with an annual salary of $250 to each. The limit of the appropriation for the fire department was increased to $50,000. The amount that could be appropriated for contingent expenses was limited to $125,000. The result of the charter election was the choice of Mayor Ryan for his third term, over Austin C. Chase, although the latter was endorsed by the Municipal Club. This result was, perhaps, caused in part by the nomina- tion of Charles B. Freeman by the Prohibitionists. Mayor Ryan's plu- rality was 1 19. Four of the Aldermen (from the 2d, 4th, 5th, and 6th wards) were Republicans. The financial statement, as it then appeared, showed a funded debt of $1,194,500, of which, with interest, there matured during the year $111,912.50. There was no floating debt. Mayor Ryan's inaugural address was congratulatory in its tone. He recommended the building of the new City Hall; complimented the increase of $15,000 to the firemen ; spoke of the new Municipal Civil Service Examiners, from which he anticipated good results, and alluded to the fact that there was then no contract existing with the Water Company. The momentous and continued public topic of this year, was a better supply of water for the city. At a meeting of the Common Council March 9th, F. B. Merrill, representing the Central City Water Works Company, made a statement of the plans of that company and the numerous advan- tages to arise therefrom, if they were given the franchise asked for. At the next meeting both the new and old companies were represented and each vied with the other in assurances of what they could and would do. At the Council meeting of March 23d the Central City Company was voted a franchise for twenty years on a pretty broad and liberal basis, provided they brought water from a source that was acceptable to the people. The strife between the two companies then waxed warmer than before. The Central City Company announced its intention of beginning work in April, and in 242 Memorial History of Syracuse. the next month the old company secured an injunction, restraining the city from taking any action in this direction. In the fall another element came into the field making the contest a tri- angular one. This new element had its birth in a citizens' meeting held November 14th, where several speakers condemned both the old company and the new and advocated city ownership of its own works. The persons who took this step were among the leading citizens of the city. A com- mittee of thirty-two was appointed to investigate the subject of city owner- ship. At the second meeting, November 17th, a committee of five was appointed to draft a bill covering the proposed project and another com- mittee of three to receive subscriptions there and then, and $750 were promptly subscribed. The large committee was subsequently raised to one hundred members and visited Cardiff with Howard Soule, the experienced engineer, and were pleased with the prospects of obtaining a liberal supply of good water from that locality. The local press teemed with communi- cations from various writers, each having his own views of the case. But for some reason the Committee of One Hundred closed its career without accomplishing anything material, except the gathering of considerable val- uable information on the subject from other cities. Meanwhile the old company was not idle, and repeatedly assured the Council that if they could be guaranteed some definite contract for the future, they would take immediate steps to increase the supply and bring water from Tully lakes or some other good source; but while they were harassed and thrown into litigation to even keep their existence, they would not make costly extensions. The year closed as far as that subject was concerned, by the Council agreeing to pay $26,000 a year for water for three years from July i, 1884. The principal improvements projected or carried out during the year were a 24-inch sewer in Jackson street from Orange to Grape street, and an l8-inch sewer in Kellogg street between Merriman avenue and Ontario street ; a 12-inch sewer in Carbon street ; a 24-inch sewer in Fabius street between Oswego and Niagara streets; a 30-inch sewer in Van Rensselaer street between Park avenue and VV^est Genesee street, and a 24 inch sewer in Park avenue from Van Rensselaer street to Leavenworth Park ; a 24- inch sewer in Almond street between Harrison and Jackson streets, and a 36-inch brick sewer in Butternut street from Lodi to Beech streets. During the period since our last reference to improvements around the lake, it had grown rapidly in popularity as a resort, although pleasure facil- ities were still in a very crude state. Charles Kinne was the principal pioneer in the work of improvement and for several years ran a steamer, the John Grcenway, to the various piers and carried pleasure parties. He was captain of his own boat and was destined to meet his death while on duty. Increased Business Activity. 243 for the boiler of his boat exploded on the 23d of May, in this year, killing himself and Anthony Vincent, the engineer. At about this time Syracuse began to feel the first impulse of a period of material growth and business activity which has continued down to the present time. During the year under consideration there were 35S build- ings erected at an approximate cost of $1,313,790, but none of them were very important. There were nineteen failures in the city during the year, the losses ag- gregating $295,281.77, with assets of $115,659.08. In the previous year there were thirty-four failures, aggregating $1,451,708.59, with assets of $451,563.49. N. Stanton Gere died January 30th. He was born in Geddes in 1832, and was a son of Robert Gere. He was early in the grocery trade with A. C. Belden, in Geddes, and afterwards largely engaged in contracting. He was a trustee of the Merchants' Bank, Superintendent of the Salt Springs three years, and a Supervisor several years. Ferris Hubble died January 3 ist. He was born in Putnam county, N. Y., in 1804, and settled in Onondaga county in 1823. He followed farming a few years, and then became popular and successful as a captain on the canal. Later he engaged in mercantile business in Geddes, and the manufacture of salt. He was postmaster in Geddes a number of years and held other po- sitions. Herman Ackerman, a prominent German business man, died on the 28th of March. He came to America in 1819 and settled in Syracuse in 1840 ; was a merchant, brewer, and associated in other business enterprises, and particularly in the manufacture of salt in Virginia about the time of the breaking out of the war. He was father of Jacob Ackerman, now of Syra- cuse. Richard Savage died on the nth of April. He was born in Syracuse in 1817 and early in life was a captain on the canal. He afterwards built the " St. Charles Hotel" (now the Remington block) and conducted it for a time, and then engaged in the lumber trade. He was a respected citizen. William Baumgras died July 4th. He was born in Bavaria in 1829 and located in Syracuse in 1845. Five years later he joined his brothers, Jacob, Charles, and Frederick, as Baumgras Brothers, painters, etc. In 1867, with his brother Frederick, he engaged in mercantile busine.ss in paints, wall papers, etc. He was prominent in politics down to 1878; was Supervisor in 1863-4, and in 1872 received the Republican nomination for Mayor, was made Police Commissioner, and received many evidences of the confidence of his fellow-citizens. He was father of Julius, William H., and Clarence Baumgras, all of Syracuse. 1886.— The water problem of Syracuse absorbed a large share of public attention during the greater part of this year, and to some extent entered 244 Memorial History of Syracuse. into politics, at least so far as related to the proposition to bond the city to enable it to establish its own water works. • Willis B. Burns was nomina- ted for Mayor by the Republicans, the issue, as stated in the press of that creed, being "a better city government." Mr. Burns expressed himself previous to election as opposed to bonding the city for water while it was well known that Mayor Ryan leaned strongly towards the Central City Water Company. Mr. Burns was elected. The details of the proceedings of the year in this connection are briefly as follows : In January the old Water Company, as an offset to the persistent efforts of the Central City Company, made a proposal to the Council that they were willing to perform all that was promised by the other company, except as related to bringing water from Oneida lake, and would fix a scale of rates as low as those given by any company in any city of the same population as Syracuse. On the 15th of January, the Citizens' Committee, before mentioned, expressed themselves in favor of municipal ownership of water works. In the same month one hundred and four prominent citizens sent a communi- cation to the Council approving of the grant to the Central City Company, and a public meeting to consider the subject was called by the Mayor for January 23d, in response to a petition from numerous citizens. A bill had already been drawn providing for a special election to vote upon the ques- tion of issuing bonds by the city to the amount of $1,500,000 to build its own works ; but the sentiment of the meeting was in opposition to the scheme. This gathering was characterized as " Mayor Ryan's meeting." A committee was appointed to visit the Governor in opposition to the meas- ure, but the water bill was signed on the 17th of March. This bill gave the city power to construct its own works and named, as commissioners, H. L. Duguid, William Kirkpatrick, George Barnes, R. V. Miller, William Kear- ney, and Charles Schlosser. On the 6th of July, City Attorney E. S. Jenney submitted two reports to the Council, the first one being a decision that the Central City Company would have grounds for an action against the city if the water supply was provided in any other manner than as proposed by that company, or by any other persons. The other opinion was to the effect that the Council had a right to appropriate money to pay the State Board of Health for a general investigation of the available sources of water supply, particularly from a sanitary standpoint, as had been proposed. Meanwhile the sentiment against the city bonding itself for new water works grew in strength. A public meeting was held in Wieting Opera House on April 25th, which was largely attended and where many leading citizens spoke against the measure. The special election was held April 27th, and resulted in a majority of 4,076 against bonding. While these matters were progressing, William A. Sweet came far into the front with his plan of bringing water from Salmon River. He procured The Salmon River Water Bill. 245 a preliminar}' survey, analysis of the water, organized free excursions to the locality, had a bill drawn and read to the Common Council early in 1887, and advanced the matter so far that in May of that year the Water Com- mittee met and reported in favor of granting a franchise. But about that time opposition to this scheme arose from the other several parties in inter- est. Howard Soule, associated with City Engineer W. H. H. Gere, ad- dressed a communication to the Council March 7, 1887, in reply to a request for an examination into the merits of this project, giving the estimated cost of the works as nearly $5,000,000. A bill was drawn at Mr. Sweet's sug- gestion and laid before the Legislature enabling the city to bond itself for $3,000,000. The Council at a little later date expressed approval of the plan of holding aspecial election on thequestion and Mr. Sweet generously offered to pay the cost of such election. On the 2d of May the Council rejected Oneida Lake as a source of supply, and on the 9th of the same month Alderman Joseph W.Young, and Charles Listman, the Committee to whom was referred the proposed ordinance granting a franchise to the Sweet Sal- mon River Company, reported that river as the best available source and the adoption of the ordinance as the only practical solution of the whole problem. The ordinance was referred to the City Attorney. His report was in opposition to the ordinance, chiefly because there were then two bills before the Legislature relating to the subject and serious complications would probabl}' arise. He suggested several important changes in the pro- posed ordinance. On the 31st of May the old company sent a communica- tion to the Council, again asserting its readiness to supply the city on a fair business basis and under a contract as binding and economical in its terms as had been offered by any other company. The proposed franchise asked by the Salmon River Company was amended, as suggested. Another new element in the many-sided problem appeared early in the year 1887, growing out of extended experiments by the old company in the boring of wells in Onondaga Valley and pumping from them, as had already been done successfully in other cities. This project and the propositions of the old company found man)- influential advocates among conservative citizens. In the charter election Willis B. Burns, Republican, was elected (for two years) over Mayor Ryan by a majority of 1,912, and six of the Aldermen, (in the 2d, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, wards,) were also Republican. In his inau- gural address no special recommendations were made, but a conservative, economical administration was recommendtd. The funded debt was stated as $1,165,000. It w-as shown that during the preceding year there had been about two and three-quarters miles of street graded and macada- mized, and $6,264.46, had been paid for broken stone. Temporary repairs and street cleaning cost $28,880.59, ^^^ O"^ ^^^ one-third miles of sewer 246 Memorial History of Syracuse. had been laid at a cost of $17,265.44. The Board of Education budget was $129,858.40, and they a.sked $20,000 for a new building in the Sixth ward. The Board was given $1 18,579.31, to which was added $8,000 in July for a building in the Third ward. The principal improvements made during the year were a 24-inch brick sewer in Grape street from Madison to Harrison; 18 inch tile sewer in Delaware street from Grace street to West Onondaga streets; the same in Johnson street between Rust and Tallman streets; 24-inch sewer in Town- send street between Ash and Butternut streets; 18-inch sewer in Kellogg street from Ontario to Delaware streets; sewer in South Onondaga street between Tallman and West Onondaga streets; 24-inch sewer in Ash street between Townsend and McBride streets; an 18-inch sewer in Peters street from Ash to Butternut streets, and a sewer in Merriman avenue from On- tario to Sabine streets. It was in this year that the annexation of a large extent of territory to the city assumed definite shape. There was not very much discussion of the subject, except as related to Geddes, where opinion was divided on the policy of retaining the village government and adding to it what is well known as the " Sackett Tract " and some other smaller sections, or of com- ing into the city. In April a petition was circulated in Geddes favoring annexation to the city, which was quite extensively signed. At the same time a bill was before the Legislature (introduced in the Senate in February) amending the charter of the village so as to provide for the annexation to the village of the territory mentioned above. Another feature of the dis- cussion was the division of the village into four wards. In March the Com- mon Council passed a resolution disapproving of the annexation of Geddes and the "Sackett Tract" to the city and voted to send the resolution before the Legislature. The annexation of Geddes and territory adjacent thereto was author- ized by an Act of Legislature passed on the 17th of May, (1886), and em- braced all within the following described boundaries: "All that district of country being the territory of the village of Geddes and all that part of the town of Geddes in the county of Onondaga which lies east of the line described as follows : Beginning at the intersection of the south line of the town of Geddes and the west line of the highway known as the Geddes and Onondaga road ; running thence northerly along the west line of said road to the south line of the village of Geddes ; thence westerly along the south line of said village and the Geddes cemetery to the .southwest corner of the cemetery ; thence northerly along the west line of .said cemetery to the northwest corner thereof ; thence east along the north line of said cem- etery to the west line of said village ; thence northerly along the west line of said village and the continuation thereof so far as to intersect the west Annexation of tiik Town of Geddes. 247 line of farm lot number 143 : thence northerly along said west line to a point intersecting the continuation westerly of the north line of 6th North street to the west line of Quince street ; thence northerly along the west line of Quince street and the continuation thereof to the intersection of the northerly line of farm lot number 54, and thence easterly along the north line of farm lot number 54 and the north line of reclaimed lot number 39 to low water line on the southerly shore of Onondaga lake." The existing charter and ordinances were made to apply to the new ter- ritory. The territory h'ing easterly and northerly of the Erie canal was annexed to the Third ward. That westerly and southerly of the canal was divided into two wards by a line through the center of Genesee street ; that south of that street forming the Ninth ward and that north of that street the Tenth ward. While this matter was in progress, a petition was circu- lated in Danforth for the same purpose. Between the date of our last al- lusion to this suburb, in a preceding chapter, great changes had occurred. Going back to about 1870, the Summer visitor to that locality would have found Furman street a grass-covered lane on which was one small cottage, while a rail fence stood directly across the street. Kennedy street and West Castle street were in a similar condition, while on Salina, Mulberry, and Grape streets south of Castle there were only a very few dwellings. Green fields of many acres in extent stretched away in several directions and grazing cattle were not seldom seen. But soon after 1870 George Ray- nor, who had already erected a number of excellent dwellings, added to their number and new comers turned in that direction for the purchase of lots and built for themselves beautiful homes. No part of the residence sections of the city has ever grown more rapidly in population or with a better class than the suburb, and the growth continued down through the village existence which has been described, and to the date under consider- ation, when the annexation to the city took place. The Act of the Legislature under which the annexation of this section were made to the city was passed on the 15th of June of this year, to take effect on the 3d Tuesday of February, 1887. The Danforth territory which was annexed is bounded as follows : " All that part of the town of Onon- daga included in the corporate limits of the village of Danforth, and so much of Oakwood cemetery as is not already included in the city of Syracuse ; and also all that part of the town of Onondaga bounded and described as follows: Beginning at the west bank of Onondaga creek and the south line of Danforth, and running thence southerly up and along the west bank of said creek as it winds and turns to the westward prolongation of the south line of lot number 93 of the Onondaga Reservation ; thence easterly along the south line of said lot and its westward prolongation to the east line thereof; thence north along said east line and the east line of lot number 248 Memorial History of Syracuse. 92 of said town to the center of the Day road (so-called) and thence westerly along the center line of said road to the south line of said village to the place of beginning." In June of this year the city received a gift of a magnificent tract of 135 acres of land on the hills west of the city, from Major John B. Burnet, to be devoted to the purposes of a public park. The only important condi- tions of the gift were, that the city should expend $3,000 for surveying and mapping the tract during the year; $10,000 annually during the succeeding four years, and $3,000 annually thereafter. There was some fear on the part of the city authorities that public sentiment was against the acceptance of the gift under the conditions named, but it was formally accepted in August and appropriately named Burnet Park. It was at about this period that a street railway "boom " was started in Syracuse. The building and extension of these popular public modes of travel had remained substantially inactive for a number of years while the city was growing rapidly and the demand for cheap and rapid means of reaching the suburbs was becoming imperative. The demand was somewhat strengthened, and greatly so at a little later date, by real estate operations which led to considerable building in outlying sections, to which reference will be made a little further on. In January of this year a franchise was granted to the Burnet Street Railway Company, and in June to the Wood- lawn and Butternut Street Company. D. J. Morris died on the nth of March. He was born in Utica in 1805, and located in Syracuse in 1839, ^s a member of the firm of Morris & Sanford, merchant tailors, on the siteof the present Syracuse Savings Bank. In the later years of his life his son, Milton H. Morris, was associated with him in business in one of the stores of the Globe Hotel Block. Francis A. Marsh died on the 4th of April. He was born in Pompey, learned the printing trade, and settled in Syracuse in 1884. He was connected with the publication of the daily Star, and at a later date and down to 1875 was city editor of the Standard. He was one of the Board of Aldermen in 1856, and during the latter years of his life was Justice of the Peace. Alfred Wilkinson died on the 7th of July. He was born in Syracuse, August 17, 1831. His education was obtained in the Syracuse Academy, and he finished a course in civil engineering in the Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N. Y., in 1850. In 185 1-2 he was resident engineer of the Syracuse and Rochester Railroad, with which his father was intimately connected. He then took charge of the Griffin & Wilkinson foundry in the Fifth ward. In 1856 he was made Assistant Superintendent of the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana railroad, where he continued until 1838, at which time he settled in Syracuse and with S. H. Slosson founded the banking firm of A. Wilkinson & Co. In 1862, Mr. Slosson was succeed in the business by J. J^&= ^ «^ I .5oo City Clerk for services of self - 2.200 " " " one assistant - ■ - - Soo City Engineer, for services of self, and to keep his own horse and wagon -- 2,200 City Engineer for one assistant - ' .""" City Attorney, for services of self - 2, 500 Superintendent of Streets, for services of self and to furnish and keep his own horse and wagon, 2,500 Weigher of Hay, for services of self 720 Repairer of Lamps, for services of self, and to furnish and keep his own horse and wagon 1,100 Mayor's Clerk, for services of self Soo Janitor, for services of self 720 Various Public Improvements. 251 The principal public improvementsprojected or executed during the year were briefly, as follows ; Castle street, macadamizing from Salina street to Cortland avenue: an 18-inch tile sewer in Jackson street from Mulberry to Montgomery street ; the same in a part of Wilkinson street, and in Munroe street from Almond street to Renwick avenue; the same in Putnam street between Westcott and Maple streets ; a 24-inch sewer in Van Rensselaer street from Park avenue to Tracy street ; the same in Division street between Lodi and Townsend streets; the saine in the extension of Landon avenue; the same in James street from the line of the late Dr. Wieting's lot to Catherine street, and 36 inch from there to Lock street ; 18-inch sewer in Linden street ; a 6o-inch sewer in Croton street from Onondaga creek in Tallman street. South Salina street and Croton street ; opening of Comstock avenue from I'niversity I'lace to the Jamesville Road ; a 24-inch sewer in Pine street to East Fayette and thence to Rurt street, and a 36-inch sewer in West Genesee street from Clinton street to the creek. Mayor Burns used the veto power liberally, particularly during the latter part of the year, to keep the expenditures within the provisions of the charter. The street railway movement continued with increasing activity, and franchises were granted to the People's Railway Company, the Third Ward Railway Company, and the Burnet Street Car Company, in January, 1 888,and for the extension of the lines of the Fifth Ward Railway Company, the Syracuse and Geddes Company, and the Central City Company. A large contract for grading in Burnet Park was let and executed during the year. The land embraced in what is known as Leavenworth Circle was formally transferred to the city in June and now forms a beautiful attraction at that point. In the same month the city contracted with the Syracuse Electric Light and Power Company for 147 street lights at $12 per month per light. In November the Mayor removed from office, Police Comissioners William B. Kirk, Charles Schlosser, and Patrick Slattery, and Darwin L. Pickard re- signed. In their places were appointed D. H. Bruce, J. W. Yale, A. V. Altman, and 'E. D. Lewis. In the same month the walls of a burned building on South Salina street, (site of the Everson and the Lynch build- ing.s) fell upon and killed Myron S. Simmonds, of Collamer and Fritz Porzan, of the city. 1888.— In the charter election of this year W. B. Kirk was elected by a plurality of ^^t, over Austin C. Chase, Republican and Nathan Wardner, Prohibitionist. Eight of the eleven Aldermen elected were Republicans. The bonded debt at this time was $1,140,500, of the principal of which |i,0Oo fell due in the year. The tax levy was $537,000. The Board of Education asked for $187,255.02, which was allowed. In his inaugural Mayor Kirk alluded to the inadequacy of the city hall 252 Memorial History of Syracuse. and expressed the hope that something would be done soon for carrying out the proposition for a new building. He referred to the water question and the approaching end of the litigation to determine if the city had a legal right, as against the old company, to construct and own its own sys- tem, a plan which he strongly favored. On the 5th ,of March, the Water Compan_\- submitted a proposition to the Council binding themselves to give the city an adequate water sup- ply from their gang wells in the Valley, the principal guarantee asked being a ten year contract at a stipulated price. At the same time the Council expressed its approval of submitting to the people the question of bonding the city for water and requested the Legislature to pass the Salmon River water bill. On the 2d of April, the Council adopted a resolution requesting the Senator and Assemblymen to procure the passage of the bill authorizing the construction of a new City Hall. This bill became a law on the 8th of May and authorized the city to issue bonds for $300,000 to build the new structure, and giving the Mayor power to appoint four Commissioners to have charge of the work. He appointed as such Board, Henry J. Mowry, John Dunn, Jr., Aug. Falker and E. F. Holden, who decided upon adopt- ing the site of the old City Hall. The plans of Architect Charles E. Colton were submitted in August and accepted ; the old building was demolished and the new one began in the fall of 1889. During the winter, as a culmination of all the preceding agitation of the water question, a law was passed giving the Mayor power to appoint a Board of Water Commissioners consisting of three men from each of the two dominant political parties, to make an exhaustive investigation of the subject of furnishing the city with an ample supply of wholesome water. He appointed as such Board E. B. Judson, Alexander H. Davis, James B. Brooks, William H. Warner, P. B. McLennan, and W. K. Niver. These Commissioners met and organized in .Tune, and subsequently made an elab- orate report in favor of the city building and owning its own water works, and adopting Skaneateles lake as the best and most available source. There- upon began a long and intensely active campaign to secure this end. A special election was authorized to determine the matter, resulting in a major- ity in favor of the plan, of 10,395. Several changes were made in the charter, under Legislative Act of May 29th. The more important of these were the following : All rules, by-laws and ordinances of the Common Council, before going into force, shall re- ceive the afifirmative vote of two-thirds of all of the members elected. The Council shall have power to order the construction and repair of sewers, pavements, gutters, sidewalks, macadamizing, etc., and provide for defraying the expenses by local assessment. AcTivnv IX Rkal Estate Operations. 253 I^ocal iniprovements, except the construction of sewers or the construc- tion and repairs of sidewalks, shall be made only upon the petition of the owners of one-half the total front feet of property along the line of the improvement ; and in the case of sewers, one-third of the property owners. When the cost of any specific local improvement exceeds 511,000 the Council may, in its discretion, issue local improvement bonds for three- fourths of the payment of the same, to mature in one, two, and three years. Action was also taken, constituting the Supervisors and the Mayor a Board of City Auditors, and attaching a salary of $100 to the office, except in case of the Mayor. Other changes related to the percentages collectable after specified pe- riods on unpaid local assessments : defining more fully the powers of the Overseer of the Poor and the Police Justice, in certain cases; and regulat- ing the numbering of buildings. During this year and the succeeding one (with which this yearly record must close) there was an unexampled growth and activity in real estate oper- ations, and development of the street car system and suburban territory. Large tracts were purchased by individuals and companies, notabh' what are now known as Elmwood Park, and Walnut Park, on the west road to the \'alley ; Eastwood Heights, between the city and East Syracuse ; Anderson Park, South Salina street beyond the city line, and several others, and di- vided into lots and placed in market at fair prices and on long time. The sales were large, the purchasers being chiefly among the middle classes who desired to secure homes of their own. The agitation, begun in 1887, to secure the permanent location of the State F"air in Syracuse, was continued this year and resulted successfully. In aid of the project about $30,000 were subscribed by citizens. About 17,000 feet of sewers were built during the year, the principal of which were the large brick sewers in Croton street and in Burnet avenue, and between four and five miies of paving was done, about two-thirds of w-hich was sandstone : the more important of the latter was the paving of West Fayette street from Salina to Wyoming street, and North Salina from the canal to Butternut street. In June of this year the Fifth ward was divided into five election dis- tricts, and later in the year the Seventh ward was tlivided into three and the Fourth into four districts. On the 1 3th of September, the Grand Opera House was burned, and has since been rebuilt in its present beautiful form. Following is the schedule of salaries of city officers, as fixed for this year : City Treasurer, in full for all services of self and all assistants ^,700 City Clerk, for ser>ices of self 2,500 J54 Memorial Histoky ov Syracuse. City Clerk, for one assistant *°° City Engineer, for services of self and all assistants, and to keep his own horse and wagon... 4,500 City Attorney, for seriices of self and all assistants 2,500 Superintendent of Streets, for services of self and to keep his own horse and wagon 2,500 Weigher of Hay - '-° Mavor's Clerk - 8°° Janitor.... 720 I nspector of Vinegar 5°° Repairer of Lamps, for services of self and to keep his own horse and wagon 1,100 Dr. A. C. Baum died on the 15th of October. He was born in Mont- gomery' county, August 28, 1832. His parents located in the town of Cicero when he was a child. He was educated at Cazenovia Seminary and Madison University; studied for the medical profession and practiced a number of years, and was a surgeon during a part of the war period. After the close of the conflict he established a banking business in the Pennsylvania oil region, in which he was successful. Returning to Syracuse he became a member of the wholesale dry goods house of Neal, Baum & Co. During the few latter years of his life he founded the business of manufacturing and selling Baum's castorine a.xle oil. He was a member of the Common Council in 1877, and was a respected and popular citizen. Charles Tucker died on the 19th of October. He was born in Connect- icut April 23, 1817, and settled in Syracuse in 1840. He was identified with the Onondaga County Bank until it was discontinued, and during many years of the later years of his life he was agent of the White estates. Dr. John M. Wieting died on the 13th of February. An appropriate sketch of his life appears in later pages of this work. On the 17th of February, Theodore Dissell died. He was born in Ger- many in 1841 and came to America with his parents while a child. He was employed by A. C. Yates in his large clothing establishment, and in 1 861 became a partner in the house. On the death of Mr. Yates in 1880, Mr. Dissell succeeded to the business. Henry K. Brown died on the 7th of June. He was a native of England and removed to America in 1820; lived in Utica until 1840 and then set- tled in Syracuse. He was a builder and contractor and erected many of the prominent buildings of the city. During the first term of the Mayor- alty of James J. Belden, Mr. Brown was made Superintendent of Streets. John R. Whitlock died on the nth of October. He was born in Sara- toga county February 11, 1828, and, with his brother Joel, began dry goods trade in Syracuse on the site of the Milton S. Price .store. In 1853 he lo- cated on East Genesee street by himself and about 1870 removed to the corner of Salina and Fayette streets and there continued in successful busi- ness until his death. He was locally prominent in politics as a Democrat ; was Alderman in 1873-4; was nominated for ;\Iayor in 1877, and was ap- pointed Police Commissioner in i88i. The Ci.osiNr. Year. 255 1889. — The record of the last year which can be included in this work was one of general progress and prosperity. In the charter election'Alder- men were chosen for the odd-numbered wards only, and Mayor Kirk held his office for his second year. The First, Ninth, and Eleventh wards elected Republican Aldermen, and the Third, Fifth, and Seventh, Democratic. In the full Board there were six Republicans and five Democrats. The Mayor in his address to the new Council stated that the bonded indebtedness of the city was only $1,139,500, which was less than three per cent, on the assessed valuation of the city. Of these bonds $i,ooo,000 were in railroad bonds; $100,000 in University bonds, and $37,500 in 1878 bonds for funding floating debt, with $1,000 in the village of Danforth bond. The amount to be paid during the year was $79,137.50, and $1,000 in July. He laid great stress upon the water question and strongly rec- ommended the energetic prosecution of the plans for securing water from Skaneateles lake, a project which was consummated as far as the necessary legislation was concerned, early in the year 1890. The charter was further ainended this year, the principal changes being as follows: Giving the Mayor the appointment of a Commissioner of Pub- lic Works with a salary of $3,500 and defining his duties ; also a Corpora- tion Counsel, term two years, and defining his duties ; fixing the salary of the Overseer of the Poor at $2,000, and giving him an assistant ; fixing the maximum sum for lighting the city at $65,000, for the police $90,000, for bridges, sewers, and repairing and cleaning the streets $60,000; for ordi- nary expenses, interest on temporary loans, adjustment of claims, Board of Health, salaries, etc., $125,000. In this year very extensive operations on sewers were carried out, a de- tailed list of which is given in the published Council proceedings and need not be repeated here. Among the more important were those in Cortland avenue, in Gifford street, in Crouse avenue, and in Mulberry street. Sev- eral important paving contracts were also executed, among them being paving Townsend from James to willow street with asphalt ; paving James street with asphalt from Townsend to Oswego canal ; and from Townsend to lot 10, block 400, with asphalt and sandstone: paving Johnson street from Rust to Tallman street with cobblestone and macadam: paving Fa- bius street from West to Granger with cobblestones and macadam. During the year several franchises were granted for the building of new street railways and the extension of existing ones, as hereafter described, while operations in real estate continued active. Considerable progress was made on the new City Hall, the new Kirk block, and several other quite important structures were erected. The buildings of the city were renumbered on the Philadelphia plan of 100 numbers to the block, and signs put up on all street corners. 256 Memorial History of Syracuse. Small pox again visited the city, breaking out on East Water street, but through the prompt and active work of the health authorities it was soon stamped out. This local and chronological record closes with the city of Syracuse bearing every evidence of future rapid and steady growth ; her business and manufacturing institutions on a sound and prosperous foundation and rap- idly increasing in number and capacity; her public buildings assuming a character to render them a credit to the modern prosperous city ; hei*ed- ucational and religious institutions a source of pride to every citizen ; ami a general feeling of confidence existing in all circles that Syracuse will at no distant day double her population and advance in a proportionate degree in all other directions. The following figures show the annual growth of the city budget from the year of incorporation to the present : IS64* 1S65 1866 1S67 1 868 1869 $90,317.00 $115,477.72 $149,112.25 $163,242.67 $227,200.00 $283,933-80 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1S75 $347,985.48 $415,629-73 $416,629.47 $426,696.21 $373,063.32 $456,333.43 1876 1S77 1S7S 1879 18S0 iSSi $480,445-42 $345,000.00 $345,000.00 $325,000.00 $363,000.00 $366,000.00 I8S2 1S83 1S84 1885 1 886 1887 $390,oot\oo $376,000.00 $42 5, 000. (X) 1 888 $537,000.00 $425,000.00 1S89 $813,000.00 $425,000,00 $525,000.00 Dennis M. Kennedy d-ied in California, whither he had gone to benefit his health, on the 2d of April. He was born in Lysander in 1S39, ^^^ ^<-'^- tied in Syracuse in 1861, becoming a member of the hardware firm of Ken- nedy & Frizelle. The firm was afterwards Kennedy & Spaulding. In 1883 'iacl< of that year / ii^^^C Civil List and Political History. 257 John Crouse died on the 25tli of June. He was born in Montgomery county June 4, 1802. His early life was spent on a farm and as a clerk, and in carrying on a store in Canastota. In 1855 he began the wholesale grocery trade in Syracuse with James Crouse. His son, John J., was after- wards a member of the firm, and when James died, Jacob Crouse joined the firm. In 1864 the latter withdrew and D. Edgar Crouse took an in- terest. On the 1st of February, 1887, the business was sold out. Mr. Crouse died the wealthiest man in Syracuse. He left as a monument the Crouse College for Women, which he gave to Syracuse University. Joseph Barton died November 16. He was born in New York Sept 6, 1825, and settled in Syracuse in 1837, with his parents. He learned the cigar making trade and carried on a successful business in that line. Re- verses overtook him. but he recovered from them and accumulated wealth, lie purchased valuable property on East Genesee and East Fayette streets and was burned out in 1867, and on the site built the Barton Opera House, the first in the city. This property was transferred to Moore & Lynch, the l)resent owners, in 1879. Henry L. Duguid died December 30, 1888. He was born in I'ompey December 25, 1S32, and was educated at Pompey Academy and Hamilton College. He studied law but in 1S58 engaged in business in which he was eminently successful. His services wers sought in various corporations as trustee, director, or president, and in responsible governmental positions. He was three terms in the Legislature. In December, 1883, he was made president of the Syracuse Savings Bank. CHAPTER XX. civil, LIST AMI I'OI.ITICAl. lll>ri)RV. VilLige Oflicers— City Officers — Judicial Officers of Herkimer County — Supreme Court Judges — Surroaiates — County Clerks — Sheriffs — Treasurers — State Senators — (leneral Political Character of the Village and Ciiy — Kirst State Convention in Syracuse — Old Time (iatherings — Democratic State Convention iSjij — An K.xcitinj^' Invent — Later Politics. \ ILI.AliK OLLK'LKS. '^25- — TKisrK.K'. — Joshua I-'orniau, .\ni()s P. ( Irangcr, Moses I), Burnet, lleman Walbridge, John Ko^'ers. Asskssors— James Webb, .\lfrcd ,\orlham, Thomas Spencer. Ci.kkk— John Wilkinson. Ikkasurer — John Durnford, p3 258 Memokiai, History nv Syracuse. 1826. — Trustees — Wm. Malcolm, Jonas Mann, John Wall, Henry Young, A. N. Van I'attcn. Assessors — A. N. V.-in I'atten, Stephen \V. eadwell, Alfred Northam. fl.EKK — I'cler Yan Olinda. Treaslrek — John Durnford. 1827. — Trustees — Jonas Mann, Archie Kasson, John Wilkinson, James Wehl), Jonathan Day. Assessors — Stephen W. Cadwell, Barent Kilkins, Humphrey Mellen. C'l.KRK — John (,'. Field. Treasurer — Yolney Cook. 1828. — Trustees — Henry Newton, John Wall, Amos I'. (Iranger, John Wilkinson, John II. John- son. Assessors — Joseph Slocum, Calvin Kiley. I'liny Dickinson. Ci-KRK — John C. I'iekl Treasurer — Stephen W. Cadwell. 1829. — Trustees — Stephen W. Cadwell, Joseph Slocum, 1!. Davis No.xon, Calvin Riley, II. W. Yan Buren. Assessors — Elbert Norton, James WcIjIi, W. II. Kirk. Clerk— John C. Field. Treasurer — George Fitch. 1S30. — Trustees — W. li. Kirk, Elbert Norton, Schuyler Strong, Columbus Bradley, II. W. Brad- ley. Assessors — R. I. Brockway, David .Stafford, Joseph Savage. Clerk — John C. Fielil. Treasurer — Hiram Judson. 1831. — Trustees — Daniel Elliott, B. D. Noxon, Elijah Dunlap, Columbus Bradley, Roswell llin- man. Assessors — Theodore Ashley, W. H. .Mexander, I'aschal Thurber. Clerk — lliram A. Deming. Treasurer — Elbert Norton. 1832. — Trustees — Hiram I'utnam, Wm. Malcolm, David Stafford, jr.. Willet Raynor, Columbus Bradley. Assessors — Daniel p;iliott, George Hooker, Mather Williams. Clerk — Hiram A. Deming. Treasurer — Elbert Norton. 1833. — Trustees — Henry Davis, jr., Columbus Bradley, Stephen W. Cadwell, I,. H. Rcdficld, John H. Johnson. Assessors — .\. I'. Granger, John Wilkinson, Davis S. Colvin. Clerk — Edward B. Wicks. Treasurer — Hiram \. Deming. ig3^_ Trustees — B. D. Noxon, Lyman I'hillips, Silas .Ames, I'aschal Thurber, Wm. K. Blair. Assessors — Hiram I'utnam, George W. Burnet, H. W. VanBuren. Clkrk— J. K. Hanchctt. Treasurer — H. A. Deming. l835_ Trustees — Stephen W. Cadwell, Vivus W. Smith, Elihu Walter, Silas .Vmes, Roswell Hinman. Assessors — L. H. Redtield, Henry W. Starin, Thomas Bennett. Clerk — I'eter Outwater, jr. Treasurer — Hiram Judson. jg,5 Trustees — Pliny Dickinson, Thomas B. Fitch, Wm. Jackson, Elihu 1.. I'hillips, James Huff. Assessors— W. B. Kirk, David StalTord, jr., Hiram Putnam. Clerk— Levi L. Chap- man. Treasurer — Charles B. Hargin. jg,- Trustees — E. W. Leavenworth, Wm. J.ickson, John 11. l.athrop, Theodore Wood, Samuel Earned. Assessors— Hiram I'utnam. W. II, .Mexander, Robert Furman. Clerk— H. .Nel- son Cheney. Treasurer — E. B. Wicks. jgjg.—TRissTEES— E. W. Leavenworth, Jonathan Baldwin, Robert I'urman, '.Vnios I'. ( irangcr, Ziba W. Cogswell. Assessors— I'liny Dickinson, Charles A. Baker, John II. l.athrop. Clerk — Samuel D. D.-iy. Treasurer — E. B. Wicks. 1839.— Trustees— E. W. Leavenworth, Jonathan Baldwin, Robert I- urman, .\. I'. (Irangcr, Ziba W.Cogswell. Assessors — Pliny Dickinson, Chas. A.Baker, John II. l.athrop. Clerk — Samuel D. Day. Treasurer— E. B. Wicks. 1840.— Trustees— E. W. Leavenworth, Jonathan Baldwin, I'aschal Ihurbcr, Gardner Lawrence. Lucius A. Cheney. Assessors— Jonathan Baldwin, W'm. K. Blair, C. A. Baker. Clerk— Jasper Smith. Treasurer— H. W. Yan Buren. Civil. List and Poi.nu ai. History. 259 iS4i.— rRisiKK.s— Thomas T. Davis, Wm. Barker, Elisha George, Hiram Putnam, Johnson Hall. .XssKssoRs— Wm. H. .Me.\ander, Wm. Malcolm, Mather Williams. Clerk — Wm. M. Clarke. Trk.\sirkr — II. \\ . \ an lUirtn. 1842. — Tri'spkks — II. W. Durnfiiril, (Ud. Stevens, Joseph Savage, Chas. A. Baker, Robert Kur- man. Assessors — Horace liutts, .\nsel Ivill. Henry Cifforcl. Cl.F.RK — John K. Harlow. Trkasirkr— I'liny Dickinson. 1843. — TRrsrKF.s — Henry Rhoailes, (leo, Stevens, .Manson Thorp, R. R. I'helps, Smith Ostrom. .\ssKSSi)Rs— John Newell. Wm. Barker. Horace lUitts. Ci.KRK-Richaril .\. Yoe. Treasur- er — Hiram Putnam. 1844.— Tristkes — Philo D. Mickles, .Me-v. McKinstry, Horace Butts, Robert I'urman, I,. .\. Cheney. .Vssessors — Joseph Slocum, Chas. A. Baker, Jared H. Barker. Ci.ERK— Rodolphus II. Ducll. TRKASfRlR— Hiram I'utnam. 1S45. — Tri sTEEs — \\ m. Barker, Jared II. Barker, Alex. McKinstry, I.. .\. Cheney, Bradley Carey. .•Ksses.sors — W. B. Kirk, Chas. .\. Baker, Joseph Slocum. ClERK — Caleb B. Crnnili. Treasirer — Hiram Putnam. 1846. — Trustees — E. W. Leavenworth, S. V. R. Vanlleusen, H. White, W. B. Kirk, Joseph Billings. .Assessors- -Geo. Stevens, Chas. .V. Baker, Wm. Harker. Ci.erk — Oliver R. W. Lull. iRKASfRER — Hiram Putnam. 1847. — Tristees — E. W. Leavenworth, .\le.\. McKinstiy; Chas. Leonard, Henry ."Vgnew, Perlev B. Cleveland, .\ssessor.s— Wm. Barker, H. W. Yan Buren, J. H. Parker. Ci.erk — I). P. Wood. Trkasi Ri'.R — Hiram I'utnam. C1T\- OFFICERS. 1S48. — Mavcir — Har\ey Baldwin, Dem. Clerk — Richard A. Yoe. Treasirer — Perry Burdick. SiRVEVOR — Benamin F. Green. Aldermen — ist ward — Elizur Clark, James Lynch. 2d ward — John B. Burnet, .Mexander McKinstry. 3d ward — Gardner Lawrence, William H. Alexander. 4th ward — Robert Furman, Henry W. Durnford. 1S41) — Mayor — Elias W. Leavenworth, Whig. Clerk — S. Corning Judd. Tkeaslrer — ILarmon W. Yan Buren. Surveyor — Joseph M. Trowbridge. Police Justice — R. Woolworth. Alder- men — 1st ward — James Lynch, Thomas Feagan, (Resigned F'ebuary 26th, 1850.) John P. liabcock, (.Appointed by Common Council to fill vacancy.) 2d ward — Alexander McKinstrv, Silas Titus. 3d ward — Gardner Lawrence, .\mos Westcott. 4th ward — Henry W. Durnford, Edward B. Wicks. i8;o. — Mayor — .Alfred H. Hovey, Whig. Clerk — I.eRoy L. .Ale.xander. Treasurer — Harvey Hathway. Surveyor — Joseph M. Trowbridge. Aldermen — ist ward — John P. Babcock, Miles W. Bennett. 2d ward — Silas Titus, George W. Herrick. 3d ward— .\mos Westcott, John W. Barker. 4th ward — Edward B. Wicks, Henry D. Hatch. 1851. — .M \Y(>r — Moses D. Burnet, Loco Foco (Elected but declined to qualify,) Horace Wheaton, (.Appointed by Common Council.) Clerk — LeRoy L. Alexander. Treasurer — James A. Castle. SuRVEVOR — Benjamin F. Green. Police Justice — William A. Cook. Alder- men — 1st ward — Miles W. Bennett, Burr Burton. 2d ward — George W. Herrick, James M. Taylor. 3d ward — John W. Barker, (removed from W'ard) Benjamin L. Higgins (elected to fill vacancy) Yolney Green. 4th Ward — Henry D. Hatch, Charles Pope. 1852. — May-or — Jason C. Woodruff, Loco F'oco. Clerk — LeRoy L. Alexander. Treasurer — Jacob S. Smith. Surveyor — Benjamin V. Green. Justice — Sylvester House (to i860.) Aldermen — ist ward — Burr Burton, .Alonzo Crippen. 2d ward — Llaniel O. Salmon, Harmon .Ackerman. 3d ward — Yolney Green, Addison G. Williams. 4th ward — Charles Pope, Oli- ver T. Burt. 26o Memorial History of Syracuse. 1853. — Mayor — Dennis McCarthy, l.nco Kocd. Ci.krk— l.ckoy I.. Alexander. Trkasirer— lohn M. Jaycox. Sirvf.yor — Benjamin V. (Ireen. Poi.lCF. JrsricK — Sylvester House. Ai.- liKR.MKN — 1st ward — Alonzo Crippen. Patrick Cooney. 2d ward — Daniel O. Salmon, Alexan- der McKinstrw 3d ward — .Xddisont;. Williams, John .\. Clarke. 4th ward — Oliver T. Hurt, George J. Gardner. 1854. — .Mayor — Allen Munroe, Wlii;;. CiKRk— Carroll K. Smith. Trkasi RKK — S. Ilervey Slosson. StRYEYOR — John K. Kidder. .Vihermkn — ist ward — Patrick Cooney, Richard San- ger. 2d ward — Peter Ohneth, Jacob Pfohl. 3d ward — .Alexander McKinstry, .Solomon Wands. 4th ward — Peter F'eatherly, Francis A. Thayer. 5th ward — William P.. l>urkee, Z. Lawrence Beebee. 6th ward — John A. Clarke, Timothy Hough. 7th ward — William C. \ oung. Rob- ert M. Richardson. Sth ward — George J. Gardner, Tobias X'.inDusen. Pol K I- JrsI ICF — John Dumford. 1855. — Mayor — l.vman Stevens, Republican. Cl i kk — Carrnll K. Smith. 1 rkasi Ri.k— S. Iler- vev Slosson. Siryf.yor — John F". Kidder. .\i.1)KRMk\ — ist ward^Richard Sanger, Timo- thv R. Porter. 2d ward-^Jacob Pfohl, Peter Ohneth. 3d ward — Solomon Wands, Manly T. Hilliard. 4th ward — Francis A. Thayer, William Kirkpatrick. ;th ward — Z. Lawrence Heebe. Vernam C, lames. 6th ward — Timothy Hough, Charles H.Wells. 7th w.ard — Hubert M. Richardson, Horatio N. White. Sth W.ird— Tobias \"an Dusen, Elijah M, Ford. jS^5 — ^^^YOR — Charles F. Williston, Democrat. Cl KRK — Carroll V.. Smith. 'Trfasi rkr— Fdgar Mar%'in. Sirvfyor — Henjamin F. fireen. Ai.iif.rmkn — ist ward -Timothy R. Porter, I'od- dington B. Williams. 2d ward — Peter Ohneth, Peter Conrad. 3d ward — Manly T. Hilliard. Charles Manahan. 4th ward — William Kirkpatrick, (ieorge Sanford. jth ward — \ernam C. lames, William It. Durkee. 6th ward — HenryChurch, .Amos I!. Hough. 7tli ward — Horatio N. White. Francis A. Marsh. Sth ward — James L. Bagg, Norman Watson. 1S57. — Mayor — Charles F". Williston. Democrat. Cl k.rk — James S. Gillespie. 'Irkvmkir — Horace Wheaton. SiRVFYfiR — Daniel Richmond. Police Jistkf. — John Durnford. Ai.ijer- MEN — 1st ward — Coddington I!. Williams, Patrick ( ooney. 2d ward — Peter Conrad, Cornelius L. .Alvord. 3d ward — Charles Manahan, John Ritchie. 4th ward — < leorge .Sanford, William Kirkpatrick. fih — ward John C. Manly, (to fdl vacancy)John J. Mowry. 6th ward — .Amos H. Hough, Henry Church. 7th ward — Francis .\. Marsh. John Radigan. Sth ward — Norman Watson, Samuel J. 1 ackey. 1858. — Mayor — William Winton, Democrat. Clerk — James S. Gillespie. Trkasi rer — Horace Wheaton. Surveyor — John F. Kidder. Poi.ke JisnrF. — Sylvester House, .\liier.men — 1st ward — P.alrick Coimey. 2d w.ird — Frederick Gilbert. 3d w.ard — Charles .Manahan. 4th ward — James Johnson. 5th ward — .\biah P. Doane. 6th ward — John L. Cook. 7th ward — Robert M. Richardson. 8th ward— S.imucl J. Lackey. 1859. — Mayor — ICllias W. Leavenworth, Republican. CLERK — FMgar S. .Mathews. Trkam rer — Norman Otis. Sirveyor — John F. Kidder. I'oi.iCK Justice — John Durnlord, .Vi.dermen — 1st ward — Harvey Hathaway. 2d ward — .Adam I.istman. 3d ward — .Samuel P. Geer. 4th ward— Luke Collins, jth ward — David Field. 6th ward — Charles P. Clark. 7th ward — Jason S. Hoyt. Sth ward — .Austin Myers. i860. — Mavor — .Amos WestcotI, Republican. Cl 1 RK — Fdgar S. Mathews. 'Treascrer — John <;. K. Truair. St RVEYOK -John 1-. Kidder. .\i HERMEN — 1st ward — Harvey Hathaway. 2d ward — .Adam I.istman. 3d ward— .Samuel P. (ieer. 4th ward — Luke Collins. 5tli ward — David Field. 6th ward — Charles P. Clark. 7th ward — Horatio N. White. Sth ward^Sam- uel J. Lackey. Police JlsriCF: — L. L. .Alexrnder, four years. 1S61. — Mayor — Charles .Andrews, Republican, Clerk — lulgar S. Mathews. 'Trfasi rer — John G. K. Truair. Sirveyor — Hamilton D. Borden. .Aldkr.Men — ist ward — Garrett Doyle. 2d ward — Jacob Pfohl. 3d ward — Samuel P. Geer. 4th ward — Horatio P. Glen. Civir. List and Poi.iTir.M. History. 261 5th ward — David Kield. full ward — Moses Summers. 7lh ward — Miiratln N. White. Sih ward — Ira Seymour. 1S62. — Mayor — Charles Andrews, Kepublican. Ci.EKK — Edgar S. Mathews. Tkkashrer — [ohn G. K. Tniair. Surveyor — Kenjamin F. Green. Ai.dkrmen — ist ward — Garrett Doyle. 2d ward — lienedict Haberlee. 3d ward — Samuel V. Geer. 4th ward — William Summers. 5th ward — losiah Hcttis. 6th waril — ("harles P. Clark. 7th ward — Horatio N. White. Sih ward — Ira Seymour. tS63. — Mayor — Daniel Bookstaver, Democrat. Cl.KRK — Robert M. lieecher. Trkasi'rf.r — Daniel J. Halsted. St'RVEYOK — James Burke. Ai.dkrmfn — ist ward^Franklin Ward. 2d ward — Charles Meebold. 3d ward — Francis H. Kennedy. 4th ward — Luke Collins. 5th ward — Jacob I'inkerton. 6th ward — Francis E. Carroll. 7th ward — I'arley Bassett. Sth ward Georj;e J. Gardner. 1864. — Mayor. — .\rchibald C. I'owell, Republican. Ci.f.rk — Edward H. Brown. Trf.asurer John G. K. Truair. Si r\evor — H. Wadsworth Clarke. .\i,dermen — 1st ward — Franklin Ward. 2d ward— Charles F. Wisehoon. 3d ward — Jacobus Bniyn. 4th ward — Horatio (;. Glen. 5th ward — Josiah Bettis. 6th ward — Alfred Higgins. 7th ward — John T. Crouse. Sth ward — Philander \\ . Hudson. Police J I'STIie — George. W. Stevens, fourvears. 1S65. — Mayor — William D. Stewart, Democrat. Ci.krk — Kdward H. Brown. Treasi'rkr John G. K. Truair. Sirxkvor — Henrj- F. Greene. Ai.uermen — ist ward — Peter .\Iackin. 2d ward — Charles F. Wisehoon. 3d ward — Jacobus Bniyn. 4th ward — Charles Stroh. 5th ward — Anson A. Sweet. 6th ward — .Mfred Iliggins. 7th ward— John J. Crouse. Sth ward- James Bonner. 1S66.--MAV0R — Willi.am D. Stew.irt, Democrat. C1.1 kk — Edgar S. Mathews. Treasurer .Moses Summers. Sirvkvor — H. Wadsworth Clarke, .\i.iikr.mfn — Ist ward — Peter Mackin. 2d ward — John Graff. 3d ward — Edmund B. ('iriswold. 4th ward — Charles .Stroh, 5th ward — David Field. 6th ward— .-Xlfred Iliggins. 7th ward— Joseph E. Masters. Sth ward Robert Hewett. 1S67. — Mayor — William Stewart. Democrat. Clerk — Edgar S. Mathews. Treasurer Charles J. Foote. SiRVEYoR — Hamilton D. Borden, .\i.iiekmen— 1st ward — Samuel Kent. 2d ward — John (Iraff. 3d ward — Jacobus Bruyn. 4th ward — David W ilcox. 5th ward Horatio G. Glen. 6th ward — Kich.-ird W. Jones. 7th ward — Miles Handwright. Sth ward Robert Hewett. 186S. — MaydR — Charles Andrews, Republican. Cl.ERK — Edgar S. Mathews. Tre.vsurer Thomas S. Tniair. Si rvevor — H. Wadsworth Clarke, .\lder.me.n— ist ward— John Keever. 2d ward— John Hirsch. 3d ward- Jacobus Bruyn. 4th ward— Nicholas Grumbach. 5th ward— John Sttdman. 6th ward— Richard W. Jones. 7th ward— Benjamin I.. Higgins. Sth ward — James I'inkerton. I'omce Justice — Henry GifTord. l86g. — Mayor — Charles P. Clark, Republican. Ci.erk — Edgar S. Mathews. Treasurer Thomas S. Truair. Sirvevor— H. Wadsworth Clarke, .\i.dermen— ist ward— .Samuel Kent. 2d ward- Peter Miller. 3d ward— William H. Austin. 4th ward— .Nicholas (irum- bach. 5th ward— Horatio G. Glen. 6th ward— Alfred Higgins. 7th ward— Jacob Levi. Sth ward — James Pinkerton. Police Justice— Patrick Corbett, three years. i'^io. — Mayor— Charles P. Clark, Republican, Clerk — Samuel W. Sherlock. Trearurer Parley Bassett. Surveyor— William Burke. Ai.der.men — ist ward— John -McCIuire. 2d ward— Maximilian Blust. 3d w.ard — Martin Smith. 4th ward— William Phillipson. 5th wa-d— Christopher C. Bndley. 6th ward — -Samuel E. Kingsley. 7th ward — Jacob Levi. Sth ward — George Draper. 1S71.— Mayor— Francis E. Carroll, Democrat. Clerk— Samuel W. Sherlock. Treasurhr— 262 Memorial History of Syracuse. Parley Bassett. Surveyor— William Burke. Aldermen— ist ward— John McGuire. 2d ward— Jacob Knapp. 3d ward— Alfred A. Howlett. 4th ward— William Phillipson. 5th ward—Christopher C. Bradley. 0th ward— Thomas Nesdall. 7th ward— Jacob Levi. 8th ward — Thomas G. Bassett. 1872.— Maydr — Francis E. Carroll. Democrat. Clkrk— Samuel W. Sherlock. Trkasirkr— Parley Bassett. Surveyor— John B. Borden. Ai,i>kr.\ihn— Ist ward— John McGuire. 2d «ard— John Demong. 3d ward— Richard Clancy. Jth ward— John Kohl. 5th ward— Jacob I'inkerton. 6th ward— Thomas Nesdall. 7th ward— William Cahill. 8th ward— E. Austin Barnes. Police JisTiCE—1,. I. . Alexander, si.x years. ,873 --Mayor— William J. Wallace, Republican. ( 1 ekk— Samuel W. Sherlock. Trf..\si RER— Parley Bassett. Sirveyor— lohn B. Borden. Ai dermkn— ist ward— John Crawley. 2d ward— lohn Demong. 3d ward— Richard Clancy. 4th ward— John Kohl. 5th ward— John II. Horton. 6th ward— John K. Whitlock. 7th ward— William Cahill. 8th ward— George J. Gardner. jg^j, —Mayor— Nathan F. Graves. Democrat. Clerk— Samuel W. Sherlock. Tkeasirer— Parley Bassett. Sirveyor- John B. Borden. Aldermi.n— ist ward— John Cawley. 2d ward— lohn Demong. 3d ward— Richard Clancy. 4th ward— William Kirkpatrick. 5th ward— John D. Gray. 6th ward— John R. Whitlock. 7th ward— William Cahill. Sth ward- James L. Hill. 1875.— Mayor— George P. llier, Republican. Clkrk— Lyman C. Dorwin. Treasirer— Albert I.. Bridgeman. Sirveyor— Edson L. Luddington. Aldermen— ist ward— Jeremiah F. Barnes. 2d ward— Adam Filsinger. 3d ward— .Vustin C. Wood. 4th ward— Thomas Ryan. 5th ward— William Dickinson. 6th ward— Alfred Iliggins. 7th ward— Albert M. Morse. Sth ward— James L. Hill. 1S76.— Mayor— lohn Crouse. Republican. Cli-.rk— Lyman C. Dorwin. Treasirer— James B. Kae. St rveyor— Dennison Richmond. Aldermen— 1st ward — John Harvey. 2d ward - John Demong. 3d ward—'limothy Sullivan. 4th ward— Thomas Ryan. 5th ward— .Samuel Taylor. 6th ward— Alfred Higgins. 7th ward— Albert M. Morse. 8th ward— Kiley V. Miiler. 1877.— Mayor— James J. Belden, Republican. Clerk— Lyman ''.. Dorwin. Treasirer— Stiles M. Rust. Surveyor— Howard Soule, Jr. Aldermen— ist ward— Jeremiah F. Barnes. 2d ward— John I.istman. 3d ward-. Timothy Sullivan. 4th ward— J. Kmmett Wells. 5th ward— A. Clarke Baum. 6th ward— Alfred Iliggins. 7th ward— Albert M. Morse. Sth ward — Jacob Crouse. 1878.— Mayor— James J. Belden. Clerk— l.yman C. Dorwin. Treasirer— Stiles M. Rust. Surveyor— Howard Soule, Jr. Aldermen— 1st ward— John Harvey. 2d ward— Philip Schaefer. 3d ward— Timothy .Sullivan. 4th ward— J. Emmett Wells. 5th ward— P. B. Bray- ton. 6th ward— Alfred Higgins. 7th ward— Thomas McCarthy. Sth w.ird -Dennis M. Ken- nedy. Police Justice— Thomas Mulholland, to present time. ,879.— Mayor— Irving G. Vann. Clerk— Lyman C. Dorwin. Treasi rkr— Timothy Sullivan. Surveyor— Edson L. Luddington. Aldermen— ist ward— Andrew .Martin. 2d ward— Joseph Waller. 3d ward— .\nthony S. Webb. 4th ward— Charles Schlosser. 5th ward— Charles Hubbard. 6th ward— D.iniel Candee. 7!h ward— Dennis B. Keeler. Sth ward— l.uthcr S. Merrick. 1880.— Mayor— Francis Hendricks. Clerk- LymanC. Dorwin. Tre.\surer— Timothy Sullivan Surveyor— Edson L. Luddington. Aldermen— ist ward— Andrew Martin. 2d ward- Joseph Waller. 3d ward— Anthony S. Webb. 4th ward— Charles Schlosser. 5th ward- Greene W. Ingalls. 6th ward— Daniel Candee. 7th ward— William Cahill. Sth ward— Luther S. Merrick. Civil. List and Poi.iticai, History. 263 1881. — Mavkk — Francis Hendricks. Ci.f.rk — I.ynian C. Dorwin. Trk.asirer — Timothy Sulli- van. Si RVF.VOK — VMson I.. l.uildinj,'ton. .Vr.iiKKMF.N— 1st ward — Frederick Itek-y. 2d ward — I.icob F.ichenlaub. 3d ward— .\nthony S. Webb. 4th ward — James Finejjan. 5th ward — Richard Trcniain. 6th ward — Willis li. Burns. 7th ward — John Bedford. .Sth ward — l.uthcr S. Merrick. iSSs. — Mayor — John Demimg. ClkrK — I.ynian C. Dorwin. Trf.\si'rkr — Timothy Sullivan. SiR\ EVOK — Edson 1.. Luddinjjton. .Vi.DERMEN — 1st ward — Frederick Beley. 2d ward — lacob Fichenlaub. 3d ward — .Vnthony S. Webb. 4th ward — James Finegan. 5th ward — Richard Tremain. tJth ward — Willis B. Burns. 7th ward — John Bedford. Sth ward — I.uther S. Merrick. 1SS3. — Mayor — Thomas Ryan. Ci.krk — Lyman C. Dorwin. Treasirkr — Charlcs/J. Rae. SiRVEVOR — John B. Borden. .Vi.dermen — 1st ward — Frederick Beley. 2d ward — Jacob Eiclienlaub. 3d ward — Frank Matty. 4th ward — J. Emmet Wells. 5th ward — John C. Keefe. (ith ward — Charlee E. Candee. 7th ward — Thomas McManus. Sth ward — I.uther .S. Merrick. 1884. — Mayor — Thomas Ryan. Clerk — Henry W. Bannister. Treasi rek — Charles J. Rae. Surveyor — Thomas Goodscll. .\i.I)KRMEX — 1st ward — Iloyt H Freeman. 2d ward — Charles I.istman. 3d ward — Frank Matty. 4th ward — Frederick Schwarz. 5th ward — William I. ("lilletf. 6th ward — Charles E. (.'andee. 7th ward — Thomas McManus. Slh ward — (ames B. Brooks. 1885.— Mayor — Thomas Ryan. Ci.erk — Henry W. Bannister. Trkasirf.r — Charles J. Rae. Sirveyor — John B. Borden, .•\liiermen — ist ward — John l.eahey. 2d ward— Charles List- man. 3d ward — James Downey. 4th ward — Phillip Goettel. 5th ward — John G. (ilazier. 6th ward — Charles K. Candee. 7th ward — Thomas .McManus. Sth ward — Terrence D. Wilkin. 1886. — Mayor — Willis B. Burns. Ci.ERK — Henry W. Bannister. Treasirkr — .Michael Whelan. Si rveyor — W. H. H. Gere. .Vi.dermen — Ist ward — John Leahev. 2d ward — Charles List- man. 3d ward— James Downey. 4th ward — Phillip Goettel. 5th ward — John G. Glazier. 6th ward— Charles E. Candee. 7th ward— Thomas McManus. Sth ward — Terrence D. Wilkin. 18S7. — Mayor — Willis B. Burns. Clerk— Henry W. Bannister. Treasirek— Michael Whelan. Sirveyor — W. H. H. Gere. .\lI)Ermen — 1st ward— John Leahey. 2d ward— Charles List- man. 3d ward — Patrick ()uinlan. 4th ward — Jacob Galster. 5th ward — Charles C. Lott. 6th ward — Charles E. Candee. 7th ward— Peter E. Garlick. Sth ward— Joseph W. \oung. 9th ward — Frank M. Sweet. loth ward — John P. Shumway. nth ward — John McLennan. 18SS. — Mayor — William B. Kirk. Clerk — Henry W. Banni tcr. TREASLRER--Michael Whelan. SfRVEVOR — John B. Borden. Aldermen — ist ward — John Leahey. 2d ward — Peter .Snavely. 3d ward — Patrick (Juinlan. 4th ward — John Finigan. 5th ward — Charles C. Lott. 6th ward — Charles E. Candee. 7th ward--Peter E. (larlick. Sth ward — C. E. Seager. yth ward- Frank M. Sweet. loth ward — John Scanlan. nth ward — John McLennan. 1SS9. — Mayor — William B. Kirk, Democrat. Clerk — Henry W. Bannister. Trkasirer Ben- jaman W. Roscoe. Si kveyor — John J. Borden. Alijermen — 1st ward — Thomas .Small. 2d ward — Peter Snavely. 3d ward — Frank Matty. 4th ward — James Finegan. 5ih ward- Terrence D. Wilkin. 6th ward — Charles E. Candee. 7th ward — Michael 1). Mc.\uli(Te. Sth ward — C. Eugene Seager, yth ward — Edward M. Klock. 10th ward — John Scanlan. nth ward — John McLennan. COLNTV t)FFICEKS. The duties of the civil officers of Onondaga county are so intimately 264 Memorial History of Syracuse. associated with the government of the village and the city, that it is con- sidered important, aside from its general value as a record, to give a large portion of the list a permanent place in these pages. The following have been Judges of Onondaga county since its erection in 1794: Seth I'helps, 1794; William Stevens, 1705; Asa 1 )anfurth, I7(;7; William Stevens, 1799; I >an liradley, iSoi ; John liallard. 1S02 ; William J. Vreilenbnr^rh, 1804 ; Keubcn Humphreys, 1S05 ; Dan lirailley, iSoS ; Squire Munro, Kosvvell Tousley, and William J. X'redenburgh, iStxj ; Jacob R. I)e Witt, James tleddes, and Sylvanus Tousley, 1S12 ; Joshua Kornian, I,Si3 ; Reuben llumphrevs, 1814 ; Jacob R. DeWitt, S()uire Munro, Amos Tousley, and John Ten Kyck, 1S15 ; James (). Wat- tles and Warren llecox, iSiS ; Jonathan Stanley, Squire .Munro, Levi Mason and James Webb, iSiy ; Nehemiah IL Karll (First Judge), John Mason, (icorge reltil, and James Sisson, Jr., 1S23 ; Nehemiah 11. Earll, First Judge, 1S2S ; (leorge I'ettit, Martin M. lord, Otis Uigelow, and John Smith, 1828; Samuel L. lulwards. First Judge, 1831 ; John Watson, 1833 ; Otis Higelow, David Munro, Oeorge I'ettit, James .\llen, (irove Lawrence ( First Judge) 1838: Nathan Soule, Oliver K. Strong, Lyman H. Mason, Johnson Hall, Daniel Pratt (First Judge) 1S43 ; John I.. Stevens, Cleorge A. Stansbury, Lyman Kingsley, .\masa H. Jerome, James R. Lawrence (First Judge) 1847 ; Rich- ard Woolworth, 1850, (appointed vice J. R. Lawrence resigned;) Israel Spencer, elected i.-ijo; Richard Woolworth, 1S54 ; Henry Riegel. lSf)2 ; .\. Judd Northru]). January i, 1SS3, and still in the offii-e. JUDCKS Ol' IHK SlM'KKMK Coiur. — Daniel I'ratt, four years, electcil June 7. 1847, re-elected Novemlier 4, 1851. LeRoy Morgan, eight years, elected Xovembcr S, 1S59, re-elected November 5, 1S67, eight years. James No.xon, elected November, 1875, for fourteen years fnmi Januarv i, 1S76. Irving C, Vann. elected iSSi, and still in oMice. George N. Kennedy, 1SS3, and still in office. SlRRi)(;.\]'ES. — Moses DeWitt, I7<)4 ; Thonuis Mumford, 1797; Thaddeus M.Wood, 1799; Oeorge Hall, :8oo ; Medad Curtis, iSio; (ieorge Hall, iSii : James Porter, 1S22 ; Freeborn O. Jewett, 1S24 ; John Fleming, Jr., 1831 ; Isaac T. Minard, 1S40; David D. Hillis, 1844 ; Fsaac T. Minard, 1847: L. Harris Hiscock, 1851 ; .\masa H. Jerome, 1S55 ; Samuel D. Luce, 1859; Osc.ir L. Sprague, 1S63 ; DeWitt I'. Oreenlleld, 1865 ; Cyrus Sweet, 18O9 ; (leorge K. Cook, I,'^7.■, still in office. Coi.'NTY Ci,i:kks. — Renjamin Ledyard, appointed 1794; l^'oniforl lylcr, 1799; Jasper Hopper, 1802; George W. Ohnstead, 1810; Jasper Hopper, iSii ; Truman .\danis, 1818 ; Daniel Mosely, 1823; Reuben L. Hess, 1825; Alanson lulwards, 1834; Klijah Khoades, elected 1837; Charles T. Hicks, 1840; Vivus W. Smith, 1846: Rufus Cossitt, 1849; Bernard, 1852 ; Kdwin P. Hopkins, 1855; Victory J. Birdseye, 1S58 ; F^lijah S. Payne, 1S61 ; Carrol K. .Smith, 1864; Theodore 1.. Poole, 1867 ; ICdgar E. Kwers, 1870 ; Charles A' Ilurd, elected November, 1S73, died before enter- ing the office ; Charles V.. Hubbell, elected at special election December 27, 1873; Thomas II. Scott, 1876; William Cowie, 1S79 ; Gustavus .Sniper, 1SS2 ; J. ICnimett Wells, 18S5 ; George I!. Cotton, 18SS ; SiiKKllls. John Harris 1794; .\biather I lull, 1796; Comfort Tyler, 179,8; Khialhan lieacli, 1799: Kbenezer R. Ilawley, l8oi ; F.lijah Phillips, 1804; Robert Karll, kSo8 ; Ivlijah Rust, iSio ; Robert F^arll, iSii ; FMijah Rust, 1813; Ilezekiah L. Granger, 1S19; Giles Corni.sh, iSk); luii.is ICarll, 1819 ; Luther .Marsh, 1823; Lewis Smith, 1825; John II. Johnson, 1828; Johnson ll.ill, 1831 ; Dorastus Lawrence, 1834; TUihu I.. Phillips. 1837; Frederick Henson, 1S40 ; Heber Wealh- erby, 1844; Joshua C. Cuddeback. 184(1; William C. (lardner, 1849; Holland W. C'hadwick, 1852; James M. Munroe, 1855; George I.. Maynard, 1858; liyron D. Itenson, iSOi ; Jared C. Williams, i.S()4 ; Dewitl C. 'Toll, l8f)7 ; William Lvans, 1870; Davis Cossitt, 1S73 ; lohn |. .Mel- dram, 1S76 ; Hiram K. lulwards, 1879; Minor (i. llennell, I88j ; Thomas R, ( I'.Ncil, 18S5; Hec- tor B. Johnson, 188S. ,i>*^i..-<^v.;^ yi- J.^ Civil List and Politicai. History. 265 rKKASUKEKS. — Appointed liy the Hoard of Supervisors: Moses Carpenter, May 27, 1794; Jacob K. Dewitt, 1799; Jacobus Depew, October i, 1S05 ; Oliver K. Strong, October 5, 1809, resigned Xovember 11, 1830; Moses S. Marsh, appointed November 12, declined November 13, 1830; Hezekiah Strong, appointed November 13, 1830. died 1842; lienjamin V. Colvin, appointed November, 1842: George H. Walters, appointed Pecember, 1844; Chares Gould, November, 1S45. The office of County Treasurer was made elective by the people in 1846, since when the foil wing persons have been elected : Cornelius M. lirosnan, Xovember, 1S46, took the oltice January i, 1S47, resigned Hecember 9, 184S; Wheeler Truesdell, appointed to fill vacancy December 9, 184S, elected January i, 1849; Columl)us C. Bradley, elected November, 1S51, entered upon his office January 1, 1S52; Barton M. Hopkins, elected November, 1854; Patrick H. Agan, November, 1857; Henry W. Slocum, November, i860; Dudley 1'. Phelps, November, 1863; Park Wheeler, November, 1866; George H. Gilbert, November, 1869; Charles W. Ostrander, November, 1872; Robert Hewitt, November, 1875; Cains A. Weaver, November, 1878; Thomas Merriam, Novem- ber, 18S1 ; Edward V. Baker, November, 18S4; Edward Drake, November, 1887; George B. Harwood, November, 1890. State Senators. — Previous to the change in the State Constitution in 1822 the following per- sons held the office of State Senatur from Onondaga county : Moses Kent, 1799; Jcdcdiah Sanger, 1800; William Stewart, 1801 ; Joseph Annan (Cayuga), 1S02 ; Asa Danforth, 1803; none from Onondaga county from 1S06 10 1815 ; Henry Seymour, 1816 to 1819, inclusive ; none in 1S21 and 1822. After the change in the Constitution in 1S22 the State was divided into eight Senatorial dis- tricts. The Seventh was composed of Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and On'ario counties, after which were elected the following Senators from Onondaga : Jonas Earll, jr., 1823 ; Victory Birds- eye, 1827; Hiram F. Mather, 1829; Samuel L. Edwards, 1S33 ; Elijah Rhoades, 1841 ; James Sedgwick, 1845. The following were Senators under the Constitution of 1846 : George Geddes, 184810 1S5 1, inclusive; James Monroe, 1852, 1853, 1854, 1855 ; James Noxon, 1856 and 1857; John J. Fooie, 1S58 and 1S59; Allen Monroe, 1S60, 1861, 1S62, 1863; Andrew D. White, 1S64. 1S65, iS65, and 1867; George N. Kennedy, 186S, 1869, 1870, 1871 ; Daniel P. Wood, 1S72. 1S73, 'S74, and 1S75; Dennis McCarthy, 1S76, 1877, 1S78, 1879, iSSo, 1S81, 18S2, 1SS3, 1884, 18S5 ; Fiancis Hendricks, 1S86 to the present time. Members of Assembly. — The long list of Members of .Assembly from the whole county need not be insetted here; it is a matter of record in many places and does not properly claim preserva- tion in these pages. Of those, however, who have been elected from the village and city we should mention some of the more prominent in the names of Comfort Tyler, 17S8-90; Asa Danforth, 1801-02; James Geddes, 1804; Jasper Hopper, 1806; Joshua Forman, 1S08 ; Hezekiah L. Granger, 1815; J. R. Lawrence, 1S25, 1838, 1839, and 1S40; Johnson Hall, 1S29-30; Oliver Strong, 1S34; Horace Wheaton, 1834; John Wilkinson, 1835-36; Moses D Burnet, 1841 ; Thomas McCarthy, 1843; T. G. Alvord, 1844, 1S5S, 1S62-64, 1870, 1S72, 1874, 1875, '876, 1877, 1S78, 1879, 18S0, 1S81-S2; Dennis McCarthy, 1845; E'ias W. Leavenworth, 1850; Daniel P. Wood, 1853, 1865, 1867; Joshua V. H. Clark 1855; Austin Myers, 1860-62; L. Harris Hiscock, 1866-67; Peter Burns, 1871-72; Carroll E. Smith, 1875-77; George Raynor, 1873; William H. H. Gere, 1873; Allen Munroe, 1876; C. Fred Herbst, 1876-77; Henry L. Duguid, 1879- 81 ; E. O. Farrar, 1882-83; J°^" Lighton, 1882-83; James Geddes, 1883-84; Francis Hendricks, 1884-85; Thomas McCarthy, 1886-S7; Hector B. Johnson, 1SS7-S8; Howard G. White, 18S9-90; Willis B. Burns, 18S9 ; Ignatius Sawmillcr, 18S9-90; William Kennedy, 1890. A glance over the preceding list of city and county officials gives the reader a clear idea of the political complexion of the city in past years. It is seen that a NV'hig or Republican Mayor was elected in twenty-one years, and a Loco-Foco or Democratic Maj-or the same number of years. Tiie voting population of the city appears to be so evenlj- divided between the 34 266 Memorial History of Syracuse. two prominent political parties that any local issue of importance, or the uprising of an independent candidate or faction at any time, is liable to overthrow the calculations of politicians; all of which seems to render the city a pleasant place of residence as far as this feature is concerned. The city of Syracuse occupies a somewhat conspicuous position in poli- tics of the Empire State ; not only as the largest community in one of the more populous countits, but also on account of its central situation, which has led to its being chosen on many notable occasions as the gathering place of State conventions. On some of these occasions the issues at stake have been so momentous or the conditions among party leaders such as to attract national attention and bring to Syracuse some of the leading men of the country. Although not at all related to the political history of the city it will not be out of place to give a brief account of a few of the important political events that have occurred in the city. In former years many of the State conventions and great mass meetings were held in the city, chiefly on account of its central location, but in later years, when such gatherings are far more numerous than formerl)', and wiien a hundred miles more or less of railroad travel makes very little difference to the average delegate, Syracuse has often been deserted for Saratoga. The first State political convention held in Sj'racuse was on the 25th of August, 1830, by the workingmen, so called, but who, it was claimed, con- sisted mainly of sore- headed Democrats. Nothing of importance occurred. General Erastus Root was nominated for Governor, but he possessed too much political foresight to accept the nomination. His action greatly weak- ened the movement, and Ezekiel Williams was afterwards nominated and accepted. There was considerable interest in the campaign of 1S25, especially in regard to the office of Sheriff, for which General Granger was the candidate. He was the Clintonian candidate, and having been removed from command of the 147th Regiment of militia it was thought that, through synipathy and the strength of his party, he might be elected. But the Bucktail candidate was a popular man and the party was gaining strength in the county. In spite of everything General Granger and his friends could do he was defeated by a majority for his opponent of over 800 — four-fold more than thej' ob- tained on the remainder of the ticket. The campaign of 1834 opened by the Whigs in Syracuse and Onondaga county with a great popular demonstration, which it was hoped would prove a bomb-shell in the enemy's ranks. A call for 4 mass meeting to be held at the Mansion House on the 4th of July was issued and signed by an aston- ishing list of about 2,000 Whigs. The call insinuated, among other things, that the meeting was to consider " the alarming state of the country," and to make such arrangements as would maintain the Constitution. The in- Oi.n TiMK roi.iiic.M, Gatherings. 267 vitation to attend was extended to "all whuaie unwilling to have the cur- rency ruined, their property wasted, their prospects blighted, their farms mortgaged, etc." Of course much of this kind of talk was mere clap-trap ; but it appears to have been effective, for it drew an immense gathering of Anti-Masons and other opposition leaders under one banner and practically united the Whig party. The meeting was called to order by B. Davis Noxon, and John G. Forbes, Elijah Rhoades, Richard Lusk, and Hiram F. Mather were selected as delegates to the Whig State;.Convention. A plat- form was submitted by John G. Forbes, and J. R. Lawerence and Schuyler Strong addressed the meeting. In 1836, when VanBuren was elected President, the Whig majority in the county was 1,795, and in Salina 706. In the following year the contest in Onondaga county was a very exciting one. The Whig party had united their forces, but had not yet developed anything like their later vigor. The county had almost uniformly gone Democratic and few believed the Whigs could win, but with such names on their Assembly ticket as Victory Birdseye, Phares Gould, James R. Lawerence, and Azariah Smith, they did achieve a great triumph. In 1839 the Whig majority in Salina was 90 and in the county 228. The Abolitionists were beginning to be heard from at this time and the opposi- tion press coupled them with the Whigs in opprobrium. Henry Clay visited Syracuse in July this year and William H. Seward, in September. Both distinguished men were properly received, and the work of preparation for the great campaign of 1840 was begun. Down to that year, no presidential campaign had excited a tithe of the general interest that was manifested in the contest between the W^higs and the Democrats — Harrison and VanBuren — the latter being then President. It partook somewhat of the character of the famous rail-splitting cam- paign of the Republicans in i860. Log cabins, raccoons, and other insignia, with the cry of " Tippecanoe and Tyler too," characterized the Whigs demonstrations and " Rough Hewers' associations," etc., were organized by the Democrats. Referring to local politics the village election in Syracuse was won by the Whigs; but the rejoicing of the victors was possibly some- what modified by the statement in the opposition newspaper that, " it is a sufficient answer to the claim of a Whig victory at the recent charter elec- tion in the village, set up bj- the Federal paper here, to state the fact that no Democratic ticket was regularly nominated." The Whig majority in Salina was 106. A Democratic meeting was held in May, 1840, at the house of T.J. Keeler, of which Daniel Pratt was chairman. Its prime object was to "disseminate the Democratic principles of Jackson." Martin VanBuren was complimented as "a wise statesman," and a " Rough Hewer's Associa- tion " was organized. 268 Memorial History of Syracuse. On the 25th of September occurred the crowning event of the campaign in this section and probably in the entire State. It consisted of a great mass convention continuing two days, at which the attendance was estimated at 50,000. The proceedings of the first day were held in a grove beyond Prospect Hill, and the second day in the old depot. The local arrangements were in charge of E. W. Leavenworth. Hon. Francis Granger, of Ontario, presided, and Horace Greeley was chairman on address. An immense pro- cession was formed, in which figured log cabins on wheels, hickory trees with live coons in them, gaily dressed girls, etc., and paraded the streets to strains of music. The gathering was addressed b\- Gen. James Wilson, of New Hampshire, and Ogden Hoffman. The campaign of 1844 was vigorously carried on in Onondaga county, though with nothing like the enthusiasim that had characterized that of four years before. It was stated in one of the local papers that fifteen hick- ory poles were raised in the county, but apparently the effort was in vain, for Polk was given a majority of about 400. Again in 1842, when the battle in this State was between the Hunkers and Barnburners, an interesting incident occurred in connection with the of- fices of Salt Superintendent and Salt Inspector. Governor Bouck was elected and with a Senate friendl\' to the Democrats, gave that part}- control of all the patronage. \'ery little was expected from the Governor in Onondaga count}' and therefore a jjlan was devised by the Barnburners by which they hoped to secure a share of the patronage. The plan was to hold a county convention for the purpose of recommending to the Governor suitable per- sons for the office mentioned. This was done and the convention met at the Court House in December, and adopted the name of Rial Wright for Superintendent and Henry Beach for Inspector. In Salina the people were very active, but the Barnburners carried the day in the caucus. Their tick- et was Dennis McCarthy, Josiah Brintnall, and P. H. Agan. Wright and Beach held the office two years when a change was demanded. Beach had traitorously come out on the Hunker side, and the Barnburners wanted change. Wright had been elected Governor and thus, having the Governor's ear, they decided to hold a convention the Fame as had been done in 1842. This was done and Enoch Maiks became Superintendent and Mr. McKinley Inspector. All the subordinate officers were beheaded and the Barnburners had full swing. But towards the close of the first year the Hunkers began to clamor for a convention merely, as thej' said, to learn the people's wishes. Marks and McKinley were meanwhile nominated b\- the Governor for re- appointment. While these nominations were pending, the Democratscalled their convention to nominate delegates to the Constitutional convention. This was about two weeks before the adjournment of Legislature. The Hunkers now resolved to take advantage of the convention just named to A Ci.EVKR Pci.iTicAi. Move. 269 bring Lij) their matter. They had already met and selected Mathew Van- Vleck and Jacob McCook for the two salt offices. The plan worked and the Barnburners were outgeneralled by a small majority. Now came the climax. Mr. McCarthy promptly introduced a resolution abolishing the office of Inspector and cutting the Superintendent's salary from $3,000 to $800. The resolution was adopted and the bill passed May 1 1, leaving no time for action by the Governor. Mr. Marks remained in office until the Democrats came into power. It was very neatly done. The Democratic State Convention of 1859 was held in Wieting Hall and came very near breaking up at an early stage of the proceedings in a bloody riot. The convention was called to order at 12 o'clock by H. C. Smith, of Munroe, and Thomas G. Alvord was nominated as temporary chairman. A division of the party had occurred in New York city, and a resolution was offered soon after the Convention was ready for business, re- gretting the difficulty and stating that the convention would not decide in " regulating the difference of the two existing organizations," and offering equal rights on the floor to both. John Cochrane then arose amid great excitement and denounced the " ungenerous action that had placed the chairman in his seat." His voice was almost drowned in hisses, but he con- tinued, asserting that the convention was not properly organized. He was interrupted by the chairman ard told that he must address the chair. The speaker proceeded in the same strain and was again interrupted amid tre- mendous excitement and told that he must speak to the resolution : he con- cluded with a motion to lay the resolution on the table. The chairman then proceeded to name committees, when Peter Cagger moved that Mr. Stryker, of Rome, take the chair. Intense confusion ensued, but Mr. Stryker went upon the stage and took a seat beside Mr. Alvord and the adherents of each gathered around them. Now both chairmen with their partisans attempted to proceed with business at the same time, when sud- denly amid the bedlam Mr. Stryker was grasped behind and thrown clear off the stage to the floor below. In a twinkling the air glittered with flash- ing revolvers, and a single shot at that moment, or a hot word spoken, would undoubtedly have caused a bloody struggle. Mr. Stryker was again led to his seat and committees on organization were named by both par- ties ; but, of course, nothing could be accomplished under the circumstances. It appears that Mr. Cagger's party had resolved to withdraw, which they did, taking along quite a large part of the convention, and leaving the Fernando Wood party, who then proceeded to perfect their organization. The intention was, of course, to have thrown Mr. Alvord from the stage ; but the bruisers delegated to do the act made a mistake and attacked Mr. Stryker. For participating in this affair, John C. Heenan. John Wood, Andy Sheehan, and others from New York, were arrested b)- Thomas Mul- holland and taken to the police station ; but their bail was promptly fur- 270 Memorial Histokv of Syracuse. nished and there it ended. Wood, and Mr. Murray, of Cattaraugus, dep- recated the action of their opponent.s, while another speaker denounced the entire proceedings and stated that he would rather give up the field to the Black Republicans, if they could not heal the difficulty. Wood expressed himself as willing to welcome back the seceders if they would come. A crowd began to gather around him, while he submitted the names of a committee on permanent organization. An adjournment soon followed until evening. This was a part of the great conflict between the " Hards" and the " Softs," which had been in progress several years. The charter election of 1849, (the second in the history of the city, as such) was one of considerable e.xcitement and a good deal of interest. The period of the Hunkers and Barnburners in the Democratic ranks had not ended, and the city had given a Democratic majority in the previous year. But the day after the election the Journal announced that " after an ardu- ous struggle the sun rose on Syracuse as a Whig city. Our opponents of every grade and hue — Hunker, Barnburner, Free Soiler, and Abolitioni.st — combined in the struggle against us, but did not avail." As a result, the Whig Mayor, E. W. Leavenworth, three Aldermen, the Police Justice and the Street Commissioner, all Whigs, were elected. In 1850 the Democrats were triumphant in the charter election, placing Alfred H. Hoveyin the Mayor's chair. Before the election the Democratic organ exclaimed in black type : " $60.000 ! This is the amount the people of this city have been taxed by the Whig corporation during the past year. Rally to the polls I" That old, old cry of taxation seems to have been effective, as it has on so many later occasions ; and the same newspaper hilariously exclaimed on the day after election : " Democratic victory ! Syracuse redeemed ! After a reign of twenty years, this is is the first Dem- ocratic victory 1" etc., etc. For which no one will be disposed to blame the exultant editor. The campaign of 1851-2 was a lively one in Onondaga county and vicin- ity. General Scott was at the head of the ticket on a renomination, and against him stood Franklin Pierce. It was a very close contest as far as Onondaga county was concerned, Pierce's majority being only 318. But the old General was defeated in spite of the cry of " Lundy's Lane," which was set up in his favor. The local press said that the Third ward had re- deemed itself, and the Fourth had gone back to its old position. Beginning with 1850 the Democrats held the reins of power three years, when the Whigs elected Allen Munroe for Mayor, and in the following year the new Republican party triumphed in the election of Lyman Ste- vens. Since that time the Republicans have elected their Mayor eighteen times, and the Democrats have had the Mayor in seventeen years. This indicates that the city is quite evenly divided politically, while any local The Mii-iTiA of Early Days. 271 issue of importance is sufficient to turn the tide in either direction. Noth- ing calling for particular mention has occurred in the city campaigns of re- cent years that has not already been alluded to. A reference to the pre- ceding lists of high officials in the councils of the State and nation shows that Syracuse has furnished a proportion of them of which she may justly feel proud. CHAPTER XXI. MILITARY HISTORY. The Early Militia — Changes among Local Officers — Regimental Organizations down lo 1812— Subsequent Changes down to 1822— Missing Records of Ten Years— Other Changes down to the War of the Rebellion— Onondaga in the War— Butler's Zouaves— Jenney's First Company— Jen- ney's Hattery— Organization of the I2th Regiment — Its Various Campaigns and Return Home— The r22d Regiment and its Record — Organization of the 149th Regiment — An Account of its Cam- paigns— The iS5th Kegiment and its l!rief and Brilliant Record— History of the 51st Regiment- Independent Military Organizations. IN the early days of the country's history the military spirit was far more active than it is in later times. It was then, on the average, a very ordi- nary specimen of manhood who did not either boast some sort of military title or a close family connection with some one who did. Captains, majors, and colonels were numerous, and generals were not especially scarce. This active military spirit lingered long after the Revolutionary war and was re- vived with the War of 18 12. Moreover, the old militia ranks were looked upon by many ambitious men as stepping-stones to political power and position. In the same year that Ephraim Webster established his little trading sta- tion on the bank of Onondaga Creek (1786) the militia force of Montgom- ery county (then including the present Onondaga county) comprised five regiments, which together constituted one brigade, with Frederick Fisher as Brigadier- General. On September 30, 1790, a new regiment was formed and Colonel Volkert Veeder was promoted to the command of the brigade. In 1 79 1 this new regiment was divided, thus creating still another. A re- organization was at the same time effected, still contiiiuing the whole mili- tia in one brigade, with Jonas Piatt as Captain of a troop of horse ; John Franks, Captain of artillery. On March 3d, 1792, the militia of the west- Memorial Histokv of Syracuse. ern part of Herkimer county (wliich included the present Onondaga county) was formed into two battalions, the first of which was officered as follows, by men directly connected with this history : Moses Dewitt and Asa Dan- forth, Majors; Hezekiah Olcott, Asa Danforth, jr., and Josiah Buck, Cap- tains ; Jeremiah Gould and Orris Curtis, Lieutenants. The other battalion embraced the region in the vicinity of Cayuga Lake. In the next year five new companies were added to the last mentioned battalion, and another battalion was formed " for the ease and comfort of the town of Steuben." On the 9th of October, 1793, the militia of the county was organized into a brigade, with Patrick Campbell as Brigadier- General. At the same time changes were made in the battalions of Majors Dewitt and Danforth. Jeremiah Gould, James Clarke, and Samuel Forman were appointed Cap- tains; Comfort Tyler, Samuel Jerome, James Green, John Lamb, and Eli- jah Phillips, Lieutenants ; Ichabod Lathrop, David Williams, Jesse Butler, Robert Paterson, and Benjamin Parsons, Ensigns. Most of these men were well known in, and directly connected with, this immediate locality. On the 17th of March, 1794, after the organization of Onondaga county, companies of light infantrj' were attached to both of the battalions men- tioned. The one in Danforth's and Dewitt's battalion was officered with Jeremiah Jackson, Captain; Jonathan Russell, Lieutenant; Sier Curtis, En- sign. On the 8th of April, 1795, another change was made by which the militia of Onondaga and Ontario counties was placed in one brigade, with Othniel Taylor as Brigadier-General. The next changes of importance occurred under date of April 1 1, 1796, when Jeremiah Gould was appointed Second Major in Colonel Danforth's regiment, in place of Asa Danforth, jr., removed. Sier Curtis was appointed Lieutenant in Captain Jeremiah Jackson's company, in place of Jonathan Russell, removed. Nehemiah Earll was commissioned Captain in place of Comfort Tyler, who had been appointed Sheriff, and Ephraim Webster was made a Lieutenant. Colonel Danforth was also removed and Daniel Minor appointed Lieutenant-Colonel in command of the regiment. Many of these early officers, it will be noted, were among the prominent pioneers of this section. Ephraim Webster was commissioned Captain a little later and held his commission through the War of 1812, during which struggle he rendered very valuable service to the government. While these changes were occurring in Danforth's regiment similar ones took place in the re- mainder of the brigade, but they need not all be followed here. In August, 1798, Colonel Edward Paine was commissioned Brigadier- General in place of Othniel Taylor, and Hezekiah Olcott as Lieutenant- Colonel in place of Lieutenant-Colonel Danforth ; a number of changes were also made in the minor officers of the re"iments. Changes in Militia Officers. 273 In the next year (1799) after Cayuga county was set off from Onondaga, the militia of that county was ordered to be organized into one brigade, and Benjamin Ledyard was commissioned Brigadier-General in place of General Paine, removed. On the 22d of January, 1800, an order was issued directing the forma- tion of a brigade including all of the militia force of Onondaga county. Colonel Danforth was commissioned Brigadier-General in command. This brigade comprised four regiments, among the officers of which were many prominent pioneers of this locality — Elisha Alvord, (father of the Hon. Thomas G. Alvord), Nehemiah Earll, Gordon Needham, Levi Hiscock, Medad Curtis, Benjamin and James Wood, Orris Curtis, and others. During the succeeding two or three years no changes more important than promotions and minor appointments were made affecting this locality, until the resignation of Col. Asa Danforth, which was tendered near the close of 1803, and on March 2d, 1804, Col. Robert Earll was appointed to fill the vacancy. Promotions and appointments were very numerous during the next few years, in accordance with the general interest felt in military matters; but comparatively few of them have local importance. In 1807 Colonel Knapp's regiment, embracing chiefly what is now Cortland county, was divided and a part of it consolidated with the battalion under command of Major St. John, and the latter was commissioned Colonel of the new organization. In 1S08 three new companies were raised for Colonel Earll's regiment, one of which was a company of grenadiers. Of the latter Elisha Alvord was commissioned Captain ; Joshua Forman, Lieutenant; and Elijah Phillips, Ensign. On the 4th of February, 1809, a company of horse artillery was raised for this regiment, just previous to which, on the 21st of March, 1809, Cortland county having been set off from Onondaga in April, 1808, the brig- ade of militia was divided into two, which were separated by the county lines. Of the Onondaga brigade Lieutenant-Colonel Hall was com- missioned Brigadier-General, and on the 24th of May of the same year Robert Swarthout was appointed Brigade Inspector and Henry Seymour, Quartermaster. General Hall inaugurated a sweeping reorganization which involved innumerable changes, most of which must be passed by. From that time until 181 1, they were very few, but in that year the changes in the offices of the brigade were again numerous. The regimental organizations and their Colonels, from i8oi to the be- ginning of 1812 may be thus summarized, beginning with the formation of the 27th brigade from the four regiments then constituting the county mi- litia, which were numbered from one to four: First Regiment, (Colonel Gould's), Jeremiah Jackson, March 10,1802 ; David Williams, March 7, 1803; Thomas Olcott, March 2, 1S04; Isaac 35 274 Memorial History of Syracuse. Hall, March 22, 1806; Thaddeus M. Wood, May 31, 1809. This regiment became the 147th, under the new system of numbering adopted in 1812. Second Regiment, (Colonel Phillips's). — Nehemiah Earll, March 10, 1802; John Ellis, May 31, iSog; Jacobus DePuy, February 11, 1811; Christopher Clark, April i, 181 2. This regiment became the 98th. Third Regiment, (Colonel Earll's.) — John Ellis, May 2, 1802 ; Seba Brainard ; James Rathbone, March 22, 1806; Levi Lawrence, March 21, 1809; Warren Hecox, February 11, 18 11. This regiment became the 159th. Fourth Regiment, (Colonel Hopkins's). — James Knapp, March 9, 1803. On the 6th of April, 1807, a new regiment was formed composed of Major St. John's battalion and a part of Colonel Knapp's regiment. Major St. John being appointed Colonel. He commanded the regiment until February 11, 1811, when Jacob Johnson was appointed his successor and held the posi- tion until March 22, 1816, when he wasremoved. Major St. John's battalion was formed March 2d, 1804. As a result of this change in his regiment. Colonel Knapp was promoted to the position of Brigadier-General. This regiment became the 62d under the new system. In the beginning of the year 1812 there were these four regiments and a fifth, which was numbered the 16th. The nucleus of this last named reg- iment was the company drawn from Captain Jacob Chandler's company in Colonel Nehemiah Earll's regiment March 10, 1802. On the 21st of March, 1809, a battalion was formed out of Colonel Lawrence's regiment, comprising the militia of the towns of Camillus, Lysander, and Hannibal. Captain Chandler was appointed Major, commanding. The battalion grew rapidly and on February 11, 1811, it was formed into a regiment with Major Chandler as Lieutenant-Colonel. This regiment was numbered the i6th, and with the four already described constituted at that time the 27th brig- ade. On the 23d of May, 18 12, a battalion of riflemen was organized for service in the war then impending, of which Charles Moseley was made Major, commanding. It was disbanded at the close of the war. During the next four years there was no diminution in military appoint- ments, promotions and other changes ; they were so numerous that it is impossible to record them here. Among the local names connected with the service at that period, and which appear on the records of the changes, may be mentioned those of Oliver Teall, Richard C. Johnson, Freeborn G. Jewett, Daniel Gott, Johnson Hall, Amos P. Granger, Christopher Buckley, and many others. In July, 1816, the i6th regiment was divided and a new one formed ; and at the same time a battalion was formed out of the 147th regiment, with Capt. John G. Forbes as Major, commanding. He was an early and prominent pioneer at Salina. On the 4th of March, 18 17, this battalion Changes in Militia Officers. 275 was converted into a regiment and numbered the 176th, and Major Forbes placed in its command. Under date of April 24, 18 18, a new brigade was formed and numbered the 48th, which comprised the militia of Oswego county and a part of On- ondaga county. James Adams was appointed Brigadier General of the new organization. Under the same date changes occurred in all of the existing regiments— the i6th, 62d, 98th, 147th, 159th, I72d, and 176th. The appointments and promotions of officers who were identified with this immediate locality were Johnson Hall, appointed Lieutenant in the 98th ; Ashbel Kellogg, Paymaster of the 147th ; he served less than a year and on March 27, 18 19, was made Adjutant and was succeeded by Samuel R. Mathews. Mr. Kellogg was the first clerk of Salina village and spent the latter years of his life in Michigan. B. Davis Noxon, the eminent attor- ney, was appointed Ensign in the 159th; he did not long remain in the service. Amos P. Granger was appointed Major of the 176th, and Henry B. Bogardus, Lieutenant; he was raised to a Captaincy March 16, 1822. James Sisson was commissioned Captain ; he entered the service as Ensign in the battalion of Major John G. Forbes July 8, 18 16, was commissioned Lieutenant in the 176th on the 4th of March, 18 17, and promoted to Cap- tain April 24, 1818. He was appointed one of the First Judges of the county courts under the Constitution of 1821. John Grinnell was commis- sioned Adjutant of the 176th; he entered the service as Lieutenant in the 147th, April 6, 1815, and finally rose to the Colonelcy of the 176th ; he was one of the leading Democratic politicians of the county and in 1828 was a rival candidate of John H. Johnson for Sheriff. Johnson was elected. Parley Howlett received about five hundred votes for the same office. On the 27th of March, 1819, among many other changes, are found the names of James R. Lawrence, who was appointed Lieutenant in the i6th regiment, having previously served as Ensign. Grove Lawrence, of Camillus, was commissioned Ensign, vice James R. Lawrence, and served until March 17, 1821, when he was promoted to Adjutant and finally rose to Brigadier-General June 29, 1833, which station he held until January 12, 1839, when he resigned. In the 147th regiment we find that Rufus Stanton, B. Davis Noxon, and John Raynor were commissioned Ensigns. In the 176th, Adjutant Elijah Phillips was commissioned Major in place of A. P. Granger. Major Phillips entered the service in Captain Elisha Alvord's company of grenadiers June 15, 1808, was promoted to a Lieuten- antcy in the light infantry in March, 1817, and at the same time received an Adjutant's commission in the same regiment. On the date under consideration, Thaddeus M. Wood was commissioned Brigadier-General; Samuel P. Hawley, Quartermaster; he entered the ser- 276 Memorial History of Syracuse. vice in Captain Pulaski King's company of lightinfantry in Colonel Wood's regiment February 11, 181 1. Mr. Hawley was a resident of the town of Onondaga and was tax Collector from iS20to 1825 inclusive. In the latter year he ran as an "independent" candidate for Sheriff against the regular Clintonian candidate, Amos P. Granger. At same time Sylvanus Tousley was made Paymaster. He declined his commission and was succeeded on the 1 7th of February, 1820, by Samuel Mott. He entered the service in Colonel Earll's regiment, as Ensign, June 15th, 1808, and February 4, 1809, was com- missioned Captain of a company of horse artillery in that regiment, which office he retained until made Paymaster, as stated. In 1820 various changes occurred in the Onondaga regiments, excepting the I72d. but they affected only a few men of this immediate locality. In the 98th regiment Johnson Hall was commissioned Captain, and in the 176th, Lieutenant-Colonel Phelps was appointed Colonel, and Major Elijah Phillips, Lieutenant-Colonel. Dr. Wm. Taylor was made Surgeon in place of Hezekiah L. Granger, who was elected Sheriff, and Dr. Asahel Yale, Surgeon's Mate in place of Dr. Ansel Lull. Dr. Taylor reached a high position in his profession and in politics ; in 1S25 and '27 he was a nominee for the Assembly, and in 1832, '34 and '36 was elected to Congress by the Democrats. In 1840 and '41 he was elected to the Assembly, and was given numerous other minor offices. In the 147th, under this date (1S20) were several changes affecting well- known citizens. Major Thomas Wheeler was commissioned Lieutenant- Colonel in place of R. C. Johnson ; Captain Levi Ellis, Major; Dr. Jared W. Daniels, of Salina, Surgeon ; Dr. Samuel Healy, Surgeon's Mate. B. Davis Noxon and Orrin Hutchinson were commissioned Captains. Among the Lieutenants were John Raynor, Samuel S. Forman and others. In the following year in the same regiment there were numerous changes among minor officers, and Hezekiah Strong was appointed Paymaster. When Amos P. Granger was appointed Colonel of the 147th in June, 1820, he took the place of Salmon Thayer, cashiered and dismissed. This pro- ceeding caused much ill feeling, both in and out of the regiment, and on appeal, Thayer was restored to his command, in March, 1821. Thayer was a Bucktail and Granger a Clintonian ; the political conflict between those factions was then very warm, and both of those men were assailed by the organs of the respective parties with great bitterness. Gen. Granger was for half a century conspicuously identified with the politics of Onondaga county, first as a Clintonian Republican, then as a Jacksonian Democrat, next as a Whig and finally as a Republican. He was one of the delegates to the convention which nominated General Scott for the Presidency, and was elected to Congress in 1S54 and '56. On the 17th of February, Samuel Mott was appointed Paymaster of the Changes in Political Officers. 277 27th brigade, in place of Sylvanus Tousley, who had declined. On the loth of November, Gen. Thaddeus M. Wood was promoted to Major-Gen- eral of the i8th division of infantry. In March, 1821, the customary changes were made in the regiments, only a few of the more important of which and those bearing a local interest can be noted here. In the i6th Major John Munro was promoted to the Colonelcy, Charles H. Teal!, Ma- jor, and Grove Lawrence, Adjutant, in place of Teall. In the 176th, Cap- tain James Olcott was commissioned Major, and Elijah C. Rust, Quarter- master. Down to the year 1821 the militia embraced all able-bodied men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five. In 1822 the infantry regiments in the county were the i6th, the 147th, the 62d, the gSth, the i 59th, and the 176th. In 1827 a new regiment was formed out of the 147th, embracing a district then rapidly increasing in population. Of the regiments above named, Van Buren, Lysander, Camillus, and Elbridge were represented in the i6th. Tally, Fabius, Otisco, and a part of Pompey in the 62d. La Fayette and part of Pompey in the 98th. Syracuse, Geddes, and parts of Marcellus, Skaneateles, and Spafford in the 159th. Part of Manlius in the 176th. Clay, Cicero, and parts of Manlius and Salina in the 228th. The 27th brigade, then under command of General Granger, of Syracuse, comprised seven regiments, with an aggregate force of 4,193 men. About one-half of this force could usually be got out at the general musters. About one- half of the rank and file were without equipments of any kind, and it was not unusual for a company to appear at muster in citizen's dress of all kinds and colors, and shouldering broomsticks, hoe-handles, or pitchforks, while their general behavior often corresponded with their outfit. These unequipped organizations were known for years as "floodwood," in distinc- tion from their more fortunate fellows who were armed and uniformed. In Mr. Agan's researches he made discovery that between the years 1822 and 1 83 1 there are no existing records in the Adjutant-General's oiifice or elsewhere obtainable of the militia. What has become of these valuable papers no one seems able to tell. The first appointment of which rec- ord is found after the long interval, is that of Lewis O. Hill, November 30, 1830, as Captain of the light infantry company of the 98th regiment. Following that, the records of appointments and promotions in that regi- ment to the time of its dissolution in 1847 ^re comp4ete, and among them are found those of Henry J. Sedgwick, who reached the post of Major, and Charles B. Sedgwick, his brother, that of Adjutant. The same is true of the other regiments, but space can be spared for only the names of such as belonged in regiments embracing this particular locality.* * These lists of militia officers were published by Mr. Agan in the Sunday Herald in 1884, and it should be the work of the Historical Society to collate them into a pamphlet, where they would be both safe and accessible. 278 Memorial History of Syracuse. Among the General officers of the i6th regiment during the period in question, we find that Daniel T. Jones was commissioned Colonel in place of James R. Lawrence on the i6th of June, 1833. From July, J839, Payne Bigelow held the office of Major until the regiment was disbanded. Among the Adjutants was Joseph J. Glass, who filled that station from May 21, 1829, to September 9, 1833. In the 159th regiment Samuel C. Wheadon of Skaneateles, was com- missioned Colonel in August, 1833, in place of Hezekiah Earll, and held the office until February 18, 1839, when he was succeeded by Augustus Fow- ler, the last Colonel of the regiment. The last Adjutant of this regiment was George N. Kennedy, and Comfort Tyler was succeeded as Paymastei August 23, 1834, by Edward O. Gould. Dr. Lake L Teft was appointed Surgeon August 15, 1832. These names all awaken local interest. William A. Clarke was commissioned Colonel of the 62d regiment, Aug- ust 5, 1833, and was succeeded by Warner Abbott July 13, 1835. The lat- ter resigned February 2, 1836, and the vacancy was filled by the promotion of Lieutenant-Colonel Jones, who served to the close. Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Gilmore was appointed Colonel of the 176th, July 29, 1833, in place of Colonel D. B. Bickford, and resigned July 13, 1835, to be succeeded by Emerson Kinne. Colonel Kinne was promoted August I, 1837, to Brigade Inspector. William M. King succeeded as Colonel and in turn was succeeded by Hicks Worden who was the last Colonel of the regiment. The 228th regiment was formed in 1827, its nucleus being a battalion organized in the previous year out of the 147th and 176th regiments, and, as before stated, covering parts of Manlius and Salina. Mars Nearing was appointed Major commanding, of the battalion. When it was converted into a regiment he was commissioned as its Colonel and served four years, when he resigned and was succeeded by Peter I. Quackenbush ; the latter served until July 13, 1833, when he was succeeded by William Coon, who continued in command until the disbandment of the regiment. Among the company officers of this regiment were many well known residents of Salina. We come now to the 147th regiment, which was most intimately con- nected with the territory of which these pages treat. On the i6th of March, 1832, Martin Woodruff was appointed Colonel. He had served as Lieutenant Colonel, and was much esteemed by his associates. He contin- ued at the head of the regiment until February iS, 1839, when Enos D. Hopping was appointed and served until the regiment disbanded. Hopping had advanced from the post of Major to the Lieutenant-Colonelcy, and when he rose to the Colonelcy was succeeded by Dennis McCarthy, who filled the post to the end. When Colonel Hopping was promoted from the Changes in Militia Officers. 279 post of Major he was succeeded by Joel Cornish (January 6, 1832,) who served thus to July 13, 1835, and was succeeded by Charles J. Judd and he by James M. Ellis September 5, 1836. Major Ellis resigned February 18, 1839, and George Stevens were appointed to the vacancy. Charles J. Judd was promoted from the post of Adjutant, when he was, made Major, as stated. His Adjutant's commission was dated June 3d, 1831, and he was suceeded by Orrin S. Boggs, September 26th, 1836. The latter held the place until August 15th, 1837, when Luke Alvord was appointed, to be suceeded by Dennis McCarthy, February 2d, 1838. The latter retained the position until July 29th, 1839, and was succeeded by Elijah Clark, who served until August 19th, 1841, when Thomas Robinson was appointed. He did not accept the office and one month later Porteus D. Lawrence was given the vacancy. On the 20th of June, 1845, T. A. E. Brown succeeded Lawrence and held the post to the close. Oliver I. West was appointed Quartermaster June 3d, 1831, but declined and on the 12th of July, Seth Hutchinson was appointed. He wassucceed- ed by Wm. Case, September 8, 1834. On the 13th of July, 1835, Orrin S. Boggs was appointed and held until September 26th, 1836, when he was succeeded by Dennis McCarthy. George succeeded February 2d, 1838, and he was followed by Edward J. Foster July 29th, 1839. Foster retained the position until August 19th, 1841, and was followed by George C. Hopper. On the i6th of August, Spencer P. Rust was appointed and held the ofifice until the regiment disbanded. Edson Earll was appointed Paymaster June 13th, 1 831, but declined and Seth Hutchinson was given the post. A month later James M. Ellis suc- ceeded Hutchinson and held the position until July 29th, 1833, when he was succeeded by Orrin S. Boggs. On the 13th of July, 1835, Dennis Mc- Carthy was appointed to the office and was succeeded by Luke Alvord, Sep- tember 26th 1 836. The latter was followed by George Stevens, August i 5th, 1837, and he was succeeded t>y Christopher Buckley, February 2d, 1838. Thomas Robinson followed July 29th, 1839; Porteus D. Lawrence August 19th, 1 841 ; Charles Hutchinson September 84th, 1841 : Spencer P. Rust September 9th, 1843, and he was succeeded by the last incumbent, Elisha M. Higgins, August i6th, 1845. Dr. Nathan R. Tefft was appointed Surgeon of the regiment on the 4th of September, 1835, and was succeeded by Dr. Wm. Lovejoy August 30th, 1838. Dr. Hiram Wiggins was appointed Surgeon's Mate September 4th, 1835, and served to the end. The 147th regiment was, in point of numbers and discipline, second to none in the county. It at one time numbered a full thousand men, and its roll of ofificers, as has been shown, embraced many very distinguished names. But in spite of all this, it met the fate of all of the old similar or. 28o Memorial History of Syracuse. ganizations ; the spirit weakened and their vitality became extinct. As an example of the negligent and lawless feeling that finally prevailed, the large company commanded by Darius Orcutt, in which were many men of note in Syracuse, quite a number of whom are still living, the Captain ordered his company out for inspection and drill, and not a soul responded. Many of them afterwards were court-martialed and fined. Some were exempted on account of their being firemen. Two of these were Philo N. Rust and George F. Comstock. Among those fined were Vivus W. Smith, Richard Woolworth, Columbus C. Bradley, and Robert Noxon. " Salt Point " was the nucleus of many of the so-called " Patriot " oper- ations for the invasion of Canada in 1837-40, and several members of the 147th regiment, and others from the county, joined in the movement. The history of that foolhardy affair is well known and is further alluded to in a subsequent chapter of the work on the Germans of Syracuse. The following changes in officers occurred in this regiment during the period under consideration, which are of peculiar interest as showing who among local men have taken part in the military affairs of the county in years long past : The Captains of companies were John ]. Hopper vice Adams, June 14, 1831 ; Edson Earll, vice Lockwood, same date; Oliver I. West, cavalry, vice David Bonta, June 28, 1831 ; William D. Stewart, 7'ice Woodruff, July, 1831 ; Elijah A. Baker, vice Cormsh, February, 1832; Wil- liam Plumb, I'/tv Wheadon, June, 1832; Ransom Barber, vice E. Barber, and Elias W. Leavenworth, T'?^^ Tilden, September, 1832; Benjamin M. King, vice King. March, 1833 ; Horace Foot, vice Gordon, George Phillips, t'/c^' Foot, John \Vehh,vi^^ Earll, July, 1833; Lewis L. Peck, vice Hopper,and Jas. Bates, vice Church, August, 1834 ; Rhesa Griffin, vice Foot, and Hiram Fellows, vice Chapman, September, 1834; George O. Bevins, July, 1^35; George Plumb, September, 1835 ; Giles Cornish, Alonzo Ellis, Edward S. Rockwell, David Johnson, Darius A. Orcutt, August, 1836; Daniel Childs, September, 1836; George B. Cornish, Elisha D. Sabin, Oliver C. Wiswall, William C. Brown, August, 1837; William A. Porter, Charles Sanford, July, 1836; Frederick M. Gilbert, Alanson Woodford, Gideon Seeley, Sullivan Bowen, cavalry, John M. VanAlstine, Charles W. Mosely, August, 1839; Jacob Pfohl, grenadiers, September, 1839; Dorrance C. Rann, Mor- ris D. Ainslie, September, 1841 ; Timothy H. Teall, light infantry, August, 1843; Lsaac T. Minard, William B. Whitmore, R. Nelson Gere, John S. Phillips, September, 1843; John H. Owen, July, 1844; George Anderson, June, 1845; Horace Hitchings, rifles, Dennis M. Higgins, September, 1843. The following were lieutenants of companies: Henry J. Wehh, vice Hopper, William Plumb, vice Bonta, June, 1831 ; James Bates, vice Suther- land, July, 1831 ; Horace Hitchings, light infantry, vice Williams, Novem- ber 28, 1831 ; Elias W. Leavenworth, artillery, vice Cook, February 4, Changes in Militia Officers. 281 1832; Charles Barber, February, 1832; David Chaffee, Jr., rifles, May, 1832; George Vhimh, vice VVm. Plumb, June, 1832; Ezra Town, 1st lieu- tenant artillery, Abram Harris 2nd lieutenant artillery, vice Town, Septem- ber, 1832; Ira Barnes, March 1833 ; Alanson Woodruff, cavalry, vice West, John M. Smith, cavalry, vice Phillips, Clark W. Kenyon, ^uce Bronson, Giles N. Cornish, vice Barber, July, 1833 ; Wm. B. Whitmore and Charles Iloman, vice Woodruff, Edward S. Rockwell, vice Burroughs, Charles Sanford, T'/tv Bates, August, 1834; Havens Wilbur, vice Chaffee, Septem- ber, 1834; Frederick M. King, James Buckley, Severns Blackman, Lathrop Kenyon, first cavalry, Peter B. Whitney, second cavalry, July, 1835 ; Elisha D. Sabin, September, 1835 ; George B. Cornish, Leonard P. Field, Ira Bar- rows, John Throop, August, 1836; Charles Earll, Edwin R. Nott, Lyman King, September, 1836; Alanson Woodruff, Hiram Slade, Charles W. Mosely, John Mosher, Jr., August, 1837 ; Harrison W. McGowan, July, 1837; George J. Gardner, Elbridge Haynes, August, 1838; Horace Hitch- ings, Dorrance Rann, June, 1839; Justin W. Hale, LeRoy Bowen, first artillery, David M. Schuyler, Coydon Covill, August, 1839; John Cook, grenadiers, Orlin Gibbon, Morris Ainslie, September, 1841 ; Timothy B. Storer, first light infantry, Charles R. West, second light infantry, George Stevens, first artillery, Elijah T. Hayden, second artillery, David G. Staf- ford, August, 1843; Thomas A. E. Brown, Galen Wilson, Wm. S. Wood, September, 1843; Wm. B. Olmsted, first light infantry, George Keisinger, second light infantry, August, 1844; Wm. Clark, June, 1845 > James Har- rower, August 1845 ; J. Warren Tripp, June, 1837 ; Matthias Britton, John L, Waterman, September, 1843. Ensigns were commissioned as follows : George Plumb, vice William Plumb, June, 1831 ; George Hughes, vice Bates, Shephard Marsh, vice Burgess, July, 1831 ; Alanson Woodruff, vice Foot, November, 1831 ; Charles Barber, ]r., vice Charles Barber, February, 1832; Wm. Cummings, vice Plumb, June, 1832; Hiram Clark, vice Hoyt, July, 1832; Giles N. Cornish, vice Barber, Joseph B. Woolsey, March, 1833; Charles Homan, vice Woodruff, Sanford D. Evans, Sidney Gilbert, July, 1833; Edward K. Nott, vice Homan, Lucien Hyde, vice Day, August, 1834; Frederick Gil- bert, vice Cummings, September, 1834; VVilliam Rose, July, 1835; Rich- ard Fay, September, 1835 ; Alanson Woodruff, Jefferson Phillips, H. W. McGowan, Augnst, 1836; Christian Usenbentz, September, 1S36; Giles N. Case, Augustus Norton, Jr., August, 1837; Edward J. Foster, July, 1836 ; James Barry, August, 1838; Orrin M. Wells, Wells E. Lawrence, June, 1839; Olmsted Quick, Colonel Nichols, Mathew Sherwood, August, 1839; Marcus Keeler, grenadiers, September, 1839 ; David L. Robinson, Thomas McQueen, Jr., Thomas A. E. Brown, September, 1841 ; Demas Higgins, John S. Phillips, August, 1843 ; Napoleon B. Clark, Charles Pharis, Sep- 36 282 Memorial History of Syracuse. tember, 1843; S. L. Newman, June, 1845; Ambrose Black, June, 1837; Thomas D. Rose, Edwin Makyes, September, 1843. THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. The history of the Civil War in which this country was engaged from 1861 to 1865 has been written and rewritten, until almost every intelligent citizen, young and old, is familiar with its prominent details. But it is the duty of the local historian to preserve as far as practicable, a record of the deeds of those with whose lives he is directly concerned, and the general part taken by the inhabitants of the locality of which he is writing, in the great struggle which resulted in cementing the bonds of the Union stronger than ever before. It is manifestly impossible in a work of this character to follow in detail the various campaigns in which our local bodies of soldiery were engaged, or to trace the heroic careers of some of our great military officers and privates, a record of which would fill a volume. Such histori- cal work must of necessity be left largely to the general writer who has had at his command unlimited space and only the one topic to consider. On those pages the deeds of the various military organizations that went from Onondaga to the service of their country are already embalmed in eloquent phrases, which all may read. It remains for this work, therefore, to give such brief accounts of those organizations, of what they were constituted, sketches of their careers in the field, their losses, etc., as may be practicable within the brief limits to which we are confined in this work. When the enemies of the Union fired the first hostile gun against the flag of their country, a tide of patriotic enthusiasm and indignation swept over the entire country. The call to arms found an echo in every loyal heart, and thousands who loved their country sprang forward to offer their lives, if necessary, upon its altar. In the great brotherhood of loyal States, New York was among the foremost during the entire struggle in furnishing men and means for the Government, and Onondaga county was in no respect behind any of her sisters in patriotism. At the breaking out of the war, a Zouave company was in existence in Syracuse, comprising about forty rep- resentative young men of the city. With the fall of Sumter this organiz- ation immediately tendered its services to the Government. It became a part of the third New York regiment and participated in the first battle fought in defence of the Union. Immediately following the call of the President for 75,000 men in April, 1861, the old 12th regiment was re- cruited and sent to the front to begin its long campaign of honorable service. The lOist regiment followed, in which were many men from this county, which was mustered in in the fall of 1861. The gallant I22d regiment came next in the summer of 1862, and a month later was succeeded by the Record of Butler's Zouaves. 283 149th regiment. In 1864 the 185th regiment went out and won for itself an imperishable record in less than a year of service. The 15th and the 22d cavalry were also raised and sent from this county, with Jenney's and Pettit's batteries of artillery, while a large number of military organ- izations from other nearby localities received large accessions from this county, whose deeds in the field must be left to the historians of those regiments of which they became members. Among these were the 3d New York Cavalry, mustered into service in August, 1861; the loth Cavalry, December, 1861 ; the 12th Cavalry, November, 1862; the 20th Cavalry, September, 1863; and the 24th Cavalry, January, 1864; also a part of the yth and i6th New York Heavy Artillery. This county and Cortland also furnished eight companies of the 2d regiment Ira Harris Light Cavalry, re- cruited in the fall of 1864. In the infantry service parts of the 44th New York, the 75th, and the loist, all mustered in during 1861, were from this county. The 193d and the 194th regiments, mustered in the spring of 1865, were partly from this county. After the breaking out of the war recruiting continued with little cessation as long as men were needed b)' the Govern- ment. It is estimated that Onondaga county furnished about 10,000 men to the armies of the Union, and exceeded her quota by about 1,000 men. BUTLER'S ZOUAVES. This company was originally composed of about forty young men from the best families of Syracuse, and was officered by John G. Butler, Captain; Samuel Thompson, First Lieutenant ; E. S. Jenney, Second Lieutenant. Immediately after the fall of Sumter the company offered its services to the Government and was at once recruited to the maximum number, J"] men, and was assigned as Company D, 3d regiment, N. Y. volunteers. Before it was mustered into service Lieutenant Jenney raised another com- pany in Oneida county, of which he was commissioned Captain. This was made Company I of the same regiment. The only Onondaga county man in this company besides Captain Jenney, was Second Lieutenant Leon H. Ballard. Captain Butler's company was organized with C. H. Burdick as First Lieutenant ; Jay M. Wicks, as Second Lieutenant, and was the first company organized in Central New York after the breaking out of the war. These two companies proceeded to the barracks in Albany where the reg- imental organization was completed in April, 1861, and thence to New York. After a brief period here in camp the regiment was ordered to For- tress Monroe and incorporated with General Butler's army. They took part in the first actual battle of the war at Big Bethel, June 9, 1861. Viewed in the light of many subsequent engagements, this was an insignificant affair, but to the participants, all unused to the experiences of war and con- 284 Memorial History of Syracuse. fronting an enemy behind breastworks, it was momentous in its effects. General Magruder was well posted, with about 1800 infantry, in his breast- works, and after some hours of ineffectual firing by our force under General Pierce, an assault was ordered and Jenney's and Butler's companies were among the volunteers for the movement. The works being protected by a stream in front, were not carried, but the action of the raw troops was com- mendable. Major Theodore Winthrop, one of General Butler's aids, was shot while cheering forward his men. Captains Jenney and Butler, with their commands, were favorably mentioned in the reports, for gallant con- duct. After the battle of Bull Run the regiment was stationed at Fort Mc- Henry, Baltimore, for garrison duty. In October, 1861, Captain Jenney tired of this inactivity, and being authorized to raise a battery of light ar- tillery, left the regiment. On the 4th of February, 1863, Captain Butler was promoted to the Lieutenant-Colonelcy of the 147th regiment of New York volunteers, organized at Oswego in September, 1862. On the 24th of February, 1863, he was promoted to Colonel of the regiment, which he commanded with distinction until his discharge, November 5, 1863, on the surgeon's certificate of disability. Jay M. Wicks was promoted to First Lieutenant, February 26th, 1862, and to Captain in October of the same year. He died of wounds received in action, on the 27th of October, 1S64. Leon H. Ballard resigned in September, 1861, and Charles H. Burdick in February, 1862. The reginrent was mustered cut Aig.utt 181865. JENNEY'S BATTERY. The loth New York Independent Battery, popularly know as "Jenney's Battery," was recruited by Capt. Edwin S. Jenney in the fall of 1861. We have already alluded to Captain Jenney's previous service. As Captain of Company I, 3d regiment, N. Y. V., he had seen enough of active service in the field to give him a preference for the light artillery branch, and obtain- ing leave of absence he returned to New York and was given authority to raise the battery. He soon succeeded in securing the minimum number of recruits and his command was mustered into the United States service as the"ioth New York Independent Battery." The command was subse- ■ quently attached to the 3d New York artillery as Battery F. The Lieu- tenants of the battery were Alexander H. Davis, Gustavus F. Merriam, Paul Birchmeyer, and James D. Cutwater. The command lay in barracks at New York for several weeks, during which the men were supplied with rifles and were uniformed. On the 21st of February, 1862, the battery proceeded to Washington, and the next day Movements of Jenney's Battery. 285 with the remainder of the regiment, which it had joined, marched across the Potomac and occupied Fort Corcoran on Arlington Heights. On the 25th of March orders were received by the regiment to join the army of Burnside on its pending expedition. They arrived at Annapo- lis the next day and on the 28th took a steamer for Hatteras Inlet, where they joined the Burnside fleet on the 30th, and thence landed at Newbern, N. C, on the 2d of April, 1862. Here some time was spent in equipping and drilling, particularly the batteries of Captains Jenney and Morrison. Their armament (a mixed lot of guns) was supplied by July 1st, and by November ist, Battery F was equipped with a complete armament of VViard rifled twelve pounder guns. The summer and fall of 1 862 were chiefly spent in drilling and in perfecting the line of fortifications and camp duty, until the month of November. From the 3d to the loth of that month the Battery was on the march upon Tarboro, during which, though no en- gagement occurred, the severity of the march, the rigorous discipline, with frequent skirmishes, gave the command most valuable experience. On the nth of December, leaving a small garrison at Newbern, the army began its march on GoldsJDoro. This movement was in execution of General Halleck's order that, simultaneously with Burnside's crossing the Rappahannock, all of the available forces at Newbern should advance on Goldsboro, destroy the railroad and bridges, and as far as possible create a diversion in Burnside's favor. This comparatively small force fought three battles in three successive days, two of them very severe considering the number engaged, and in them all Jenney's battery behaved with great gal- lantry and won distinction. The battles are known as Kinston, Whitehall and Goldsboro. A very brief account of the engagement at Kinston is worthy of record here. The point of attack of the Union force was the bridge crossing the river and owing to the long range of its guns this bat- tery was at first placed upon a hill in the rear of our advancing troops, to fire over them and thus aid their advance. The enemy held their ground, however, with terrible stubborness ; an almost hand-to-hand fight raged for hours, when it was discovered that the enemy was being reinforced by troops coming to their left flank. Jenney's Battery with two infantry regi- ments was ordered to hastily proceed to our right and cut off such reinforce- ments if possible. Passing through thick woods they came into the open country too late to effect their object, but with the bridge and enemy full in view. The intermediate country had been drained by large trenches which seemed impassable to a battery, but after a moment's conference between General Hickman, who commanded the flanking brigade, and Captain Jenney, the order to advance was given, and the brigade in two parallel columns (the infantry in one and the battery in the other) moved at double quick and gallop through the trenches and across the fields. No halt was 286 Memorial History of Syracuse. made until the battery was within canister range of the enemy. The re- port of the Wiard guns was well known to our army. The position of the field was such that this movement upon the flank was not known to our troops until the Wiard guns rang out in quick succession, and a new mus- ketry fire in the same locality told them the story. There was a momentary lull ; then a cheer rang along the line, and an advancing shout, and the enemy's lines wavered and in a moment gave away and every man sought his own safety in flight, while the battery turned its fire upon the bridge, now crowded with the retreating enemy, with fearful effect. Several hun- dred of the enemy sheltered themselves below the river bank and were cap- tured. The enemy, in retreating, for the purpose of delaying our pursuit, fired the bridge with turpentine, thus torturing to death many of their un- fortunate wounded. The work of removing their charred remains occa- sioned more delay than extinguishing the flames, which was quickly done with the artillery buckets. One section of the battery under command of Lieutenant Frederick Dennis, with the 3d New York Cavalry, followed and harassed the retreat- ing enemy until night, but the battery had been too badly crippled by the loss of men and horses to ha.stily make up more than a section for pursuit. At 5 o'clock the next morning, however, having brought in reserve horses and disposed the men with reference to the vacant places. Battery F marched out in the place of honor with the advance brigade. Conrad Ring, the bugler, bore the colors, in place of poor Dunlap whose horse had been shot under him and who had lost a leg the day before, while others filled the places of the poor fellows left behind, as well as their own ; yet the battery marched out elated with the honors of yesterday's battle, well prepared for the arduous duty still before it. That night the army camped within three miles of Whitehall, which place it was necessary to pass on the route to Goldsboro. Early next morning our cavalry engaged the enemy, the artillery was sent to the front, the cavalry and infantry being employed mainly as a support, and the bat- tle of Whitehall was fought. It was an artillery duel and a very spirited one. The enemy's guns were almost wholly disabled, when our infantry advanced and quickly dislodged the foe. During this engagement one of Captain Jenncy's guns burst from rapid firing. In the battle of Goldsboro, which was fought the next day, Jenney's battery was held in reserve, being short of horses and ammunition. The army reached Newbern on the 20th of the month. In recognition of the gallant conduct of the battery. Captain Jenney was recommended for pro- motion, and on the ist of January was made Major in the regiment. The next important movement in the army which affected this organi- zation, was the transfer of the i8th corps to Hilton Head in the first week Operations in South Carolina. 287 of February, 1863. By this operation Battery F was divided, the guns and gunners, with horses enough to draw them, being taken and the remainder of the battery staying at Newbern until the following winter, when it re- joined the battery in South Carolina. Major Jenney, reluctant to surrender command of his battery, was permitted to accompany it, retaining his com- mand until in July. In South Carolina the battery was encamped at St. Helena Island, where it remained inactive until April 1st. On that day it received marching orders for Folly Island, where it was incorporated with Vogdes' brigade. Major Jenney becoming Chief of Artillery and Chief of Staff. Work was at once begun in fortifying the northern end of the island with the purpose of storming Morris Island, a movement that was necessary to the attack on Sumter and Charleston. This work was accomplished with great difficulty and under destructive fire from the enemy's artillery and in- fantry on Morris Island, only four hundred yards distant. At daybreak on July 9, 1^563, our artillery opened fire on Morris Island, while Strong's brig- ade in small boats crossed the inlet under a terrible fire and stormed and captured the works on the southern end of that island. To Battery F was assigned the duty of defending the crossing troops, and this work was so well done that twenty-four of the enemy were found dead in his rifle pits. A siege for the capture of Fort Wagner was then begun, during which Battery F, now commanded by Lieutenant Birchmej'er, was constantly in the advance until September 6th, when the fort was captured. Lieutenants Birchmeyer and Van Heusen were especially commended by the command- ing General for bravery and untiring exertion, and John Conway, Riley Fancher, and Matthias Thyson were presented with medals by the Govern- ment for bravery in the trenches. In April, 1864, the battery went to Beaufort, N. C, where it remained in camp until September 5, 1864, when it was ordered to Florida. While its headquarters were at Beaufort the battery enhanced its already proud record in the battles of John's Island and Bloody Bridge. On the 14th of September the battery arrived at Jacksonville, where it remained until November 29. Thence it again returned to South Carolina to co-operate with General Foster, whose force was with General Sherman, then on his famous march to the sea. In the campaign which followed, the battery won distinction in the battles of Honey Hill, Camden, Ashapo, and minor engagements. It followed Sherman to Raleigh and then returned to Charleston, where its equipments were turned over to the Government and in May, 1865, the battery returned to Syracuse and was mustered out. We have stated that in July, 1863, Major Jenney left his battery and assumed his duty as Major. He proceeded to regimental headquarters at Newbern, where he was soon made Judge Advocate and shortly afterwards Provost Judge of the Department. He occupied these positions until 288 Memorial History of Syracuse. September, 1864, when upon recommendation of the Citizens' Committee, he was commissioned Colonel of the iSsth regiment, then being recruited in Syracuse, and immediately went to Fortress Monroe to obtain leave from the commanding General to accept, that post. The leave was granted and he was ordered to return to Newbern and turn over his office to his succes- sor. His return was made by way of Dismal Swamp Canal and while on a little steamer she was fired upon and captured by a company of Confederate marines. At the time the boat was fired upon she was stopped by a draw- bridge suddenly shot across the canal by the enemy. There were four ofifi- cers and ten men on the deck of the boat, without apprehension of danger, and not more than twenty feet from the muzzles of the rebel guns. Of the party ten were killed or wounded, Major Jenney being one of the fortunate ones. There was no opportunity for resistance, and no arms of any kind on the boat. The prisoners were marched about forty miles to Elizabeth City, where Major Jenney induced his captors to parole him. The parole having been signed the Major pretended to return by the same route by which he had come, but instead went to the river, captured a small boat, made his way down the stream and across the sound and reached Roanoke Island. He reported the circumstances of his capture and parole to the Government and hastened home to attend to the organization of the new regiment. THE TWELFTH REGIMENT. The 1 2th Regiment of New York State Volunteer Infantry was the first organized in Onondaga county and a large portion of the men were from the city of Syracuse. On Monday after the memorable Sunday, April 14, 1 861, which heard the first gun fired on Sumter, the ranks of the regiment were filled and the enlistments made in the State service for two years. The field and staff officers were as follows: Ezra L. Walrath, Colonel ; James L. Graham, Lieutenant-Colonel; John Louis, Major; Silas Titus, Adjutant; Edmund B. Griswold, Quartermaster; R. W. I'ease, Surgeon; George B. Todd, Assistant Surgeon ; George H. Root, Sergeant-Major ; Charles Sedgwick. Quartermaster-Sergeant; Robert C. Daly, Drum-Major; Spencer Eaton, Fife-Major. (For the line officers of this, as well as of the other regiments noticed in these pages, the reader is referred to the Muster Rolls published by the State, and filed in the county clerk's office.) The 1 2th regiment left Syracuse on the 2d of May, 1861, and was there mustered into the United States service for three months on the 13th of May. After being uniformed and equipped the regiment left for Washing- ton, in company with the 13th, from Rochester, on the 2d of June, and there encamped on East Capitol Hill. On the 15th of July the troops The Battle of Bull Run. 289 were ordered across Chain Bridge and the 15th was the first under fire at Blackburn's Ford on the iSth, preliminary to the first Bull Run engage- ment. Lieutenant Randall, of the 12th, with about twenty skirmishers, was the first to attack the enemy. George N. Cheney, a private in com- pany A, was the first man killed. In this engagement the 12th regiment lost six killed and thirteen wounded. In the famous Bull Run battle, the details of which are so well known, the 1 2th regiment behaved with commendable bravery for new troops and lost in proportion with the other organizations engaged. The regiment had been brigaded with the 1st Massachusetts and the 2d and 3d Michigan, under command of Col. J. D. Richardson. On ^londay, July 22d, they returned from Bull Run as rear guard of the retreating army and on the 24th went into camp on Arlington Heights, and a few days later changed to the flats near the turnpike. On the 13th they removed to Fort Albany and relieved the 25th New York militia. On the 30th they occupied another camp south of the Arlington House and while there constructed Fort Craig, a part of the works for the defense of Washington. On the evening of August 26th, three companies of the 12th were de- tailed under Captain Barnum for picket duty towards Upton Hill and had a lively skirmish with the enemy. They were repulsed by the enemy to Ball's Cross Roads. Sergeant-Major Estes and Private Hitchcock were wounded, the latter mortally, and Fred Darby was taken prisoner. On the 27th^ of September |a 'general advance was made to Upton Hill and the 1 2th regiment established a permanent camp, where they remained until the following February. On the 3d of February, 1862, the regiment was consolidated with the 1 2th New York militia, so-called, a body of 550 recruits raised by Henry A. Weeks. After about nine months of service the 12th regiment now found its numbers reduced by losses in the field and by sickness to 450 ofificers and men. In the consolidation the ten companies of the regiment were reduced to five, the New York men supplying the other five. The compa- nies of the 12th regiment were lettered A, G, H, I, and K, and commanded respectiveh' by Captains Root, Randall, Wood, Truesdell, and Combs. The field officers were Henry A. Weeks, (Colonel Richardson having relin- quished this office in order to effect the consolidation); R. M. Richardson, Lieutenant-Colonel; Henry A. Barnum, Major; George W. Watson, Ad- jutant; Porter R. Alger, Quartermaster ; A. B. Shipman, Surgeon ; George B. Todd, Assistant Surgeon. The officers rendered supernumerary by the consolidation were mustered out of the service, but many of them re-enlisted. In March, 1862, General McClellan organized the Army of the Potomac, and the I2th regiment was attached to General Butterfield's brigade, con- sisting of the 12th, 17th, and 44th New York, the i6th Michigan, ap^ the 37 290 Memorial History of Syracuse. 83d Pennsylvania regiments. These troops accompanied the army to the Peninsula and took part in the siege of Yorktown, which was evacuated by the enemy on the 4th of May. Butterfield's brigade did not participate in the pursuit, but embarked for West Point and thence proceeded up the Pamunkey river and across to New Bridge on the Chickahominy. The brigade containing the 12th regiment was now in the ist division, 5th corps, (commanded by Gen. Fitz John Porter,) and it so remained throughout its service. Between the 24th and the 26th of June the regiment shared in the movement on Hanover Court House, in which the enemy was routed, with a reported loss of 2,000 killed and 730 prisoners, including wounded. Our loss was 53 killed and 344 wounded. The 5th corps returned to camp at Gaines's Mill and on the 26th of June was ordered up to Mechanicsville to support the Pennsylvania Re- serves, under General McCall. These troops had not yet been in action. Gen. Robert E. Lee was then in command of the Confederate army and had concentrated about 70,000 men on the Chickahominy. Through delay in the arrival of Stonewall Jackson's force, the attack was not made on our lines until 2 p. m. of the 26th, at which time the small force holding Me- chanicsville had fallen back fighting to the strong position held by the Re- serves and the 5th corps. This brought these troops, including the I2th, into action against the great body of the enemy under the two Hills and Longstreet, whose forces suffered terribly in an unsuccessful attempt to turn our left. We quote from Greeley as follows : " Night fell on a de- cided and animating success of our mainly green soldiers, though the fight- ing did not cease until after dark, and the rebels remained in force not far from our front. Our total loss in this affair was less than 400, while that of the rebels must have been many times larger; and when near the close of the battle, fresh troops came up to relieve the exhausted Reserves, they refused to give place, but, replenishing their ammunition, lay down on their arms to await the encounter of the morrow." Before daylight on the 27th, General McClellan ordered the evacuation of our strong position and a retreat to Gaines's Mill. Assuming that this retreat was necessary, it was effected in a masterly manner and the new position was safely occupied, with the brigade containing the 12th regiment forming the left of the line, resting on the Chickahominy. Promptly upon Jackson's arrival. Gen. A. P. Hill attacked this position and a terrible battle followed, involving nearly the whole of Lee's forces. General Porter's position was a strong one naturally, but owing chiefly to the fact that there were no axes at the front with which to throw out pro- tecting abattis, and to the non-arrival of re-enforcements at critical times, the battle as a whole went against the Union forces, though at fearful cost as well to the enemy. Just at sunset the rebels rallied all their forces, Battle of Malvern Hill. 291 stormed our entrenchments and drove back the brave defenders. The enemy halted on the field they had so hardly won. Losses on both sides were heavy, that of the Union forces being from 6,000 to 8,000 killed and wounded. The gallant 12th suffered severely. Among the badly wounded were Captains Truesdell and Crombie, and Lieutenants Estes, Fisher, and Oliver. Lieutenant Barton was killed. In killed and prisoners the regi- ment lost 144. On the 1st of July, the regiment formed a part of the Union forces en- gaged in the battle of Malvern Hill. This constituted a part of McClel- lan's attempted grand flank movement in retreat, in which the terribly exhaustive march was made across White Oak Swamp. As far as the 12th and its immediate fellow regiments of the brigade are concerned in this action, the attack was made on them by D. H. Hill's force about 3 p. m., under orders to break our lines by a concentric fire of artillery, and then " charge with a yell " on our entire front. The battle raged along the whole line with fearful carnage, but Hill, not being properly supported, was thrown back with great loss. At the opening of the battle and just as the 12th regiment was taking position. Major Henry A. Barnum received a bullet through his hip, causing a dangerous wound which took him from the field for a long time. After the first fruitless attempt of the enemy to break our lines, a considerable pause ensued during which both sides were preparing for the main battle of the day. Sheltering woods enabled the rebels to form their columns of assault within a few hundred yards of our batteries. At about 6 o'clock p. m., they came out of the woods on a full run and rushed upon our lines in utter recklessness of the withering fire, assaulting in such desperation that Sickles's brigade of Hooker's division, and Meagher's brigade of Richardson's division, were ordered up to the support of Porter and Couch, who now held our right front, which Jackson was charging furiously ; but not one of our guns was temporarily captured or seriously imperilled during the fight. The loss of the enemy was sup- posed to have been treble that of our own — over 10,000 killed, wounded and missing. General McClellan reported the aggregate losses of his army in the seven days of fighting, from Mechanicsville to Harrison's Landing, as 1,582 killed, 7,709 wounded, and 5,958 missing. After the battle of Malvern Hill the I2th regiment accompanied the army to Harrison's Landing, where it remained until the 14th of August. At this time they moved down the river, halted at ■ Yorktown and camped on the same ground occupied by them during the siege. Porter was under orders to halt here, but an intercepted letter informed him that the enemy were concentrating to crush the force of General Pope. Porter therefore took the responsibility of passing on to Newport News, march- intf sixty miles in three days. On the 20th he embarked on transports for 292 Memorial History of Syracuse. Acquia Creek, went thence to Falmouth by rail, moved up the Rappahan- nock and on August 30, I S62, participated in the second battle of Bull Run. The retreat from that field began that night and General Pope's army was safely placed in the entrenchments covering Washington. Pope then resigned. In this Bull Run battle the I2th regiment lost heavily. Col. Henry A. Weeks, Captain Root, and Lieutenant Behan were among the wounded. The muster of the regiment next morning showed only 106 men, one staff officer, and six line officers. The brigade went into the fight with over 1,500 men and came out with only about 600. On the night of September 2d, the brigade went into camp on Arling- ton Heights and was soon afterwards strengthened by the accession of the 20th Maine regiment. On the 17th of September they moved over into Maryland and participated in the hard-fought battle of Antietam. This memorable struggle, in which nearly the whole Confederate army took part, was inaugurated in the afternoon of the i6th, but the height of the battle occurred the next day. The engagement cannot be described here, but it may be stated that Porter's corps occupied the center ; and though it re- mained out of the fight until late in the afternoon, it was afterwards hotly engaged and the 12th regiment added to its laurels already won. The loss was about equal and reached more than 13,000 men on each side. Greeley says, at the close of his account of this battle, " thus closed indecisively the bloodiest day America ever saw." On the 19th of September, the division embracing the 12th regiment was ordered over the river at the Shepherdstown Ford, where the enemy was met and the Union force was driven back, the troops taking shelter behind a breastwork formed by the banks of an empty canal. A short en- gagement followed, when the brigade was ordered to the Antietam Iron Works to guard the ford. The 12th was then stationed at Sharpsburg, where companies E and G were detailed as Provost Guard, under Lieuten- ant Estes as Provost Marshal. From Sharpsburg the 12th regiment moved to Stoneman's Switch, on the Fredericksburg and Acquia Creek railroad, and remained there until December 13, 1862, the day on which Burnside made his fatal attempt to cross the river and storm the heights of Fredericksburg, on which were waiting an enemy 80,000 strong, advantageously posted and well intrenched. No more bloody or hopeless attack was ever made and the slaughter in the Union army was frightful. About 15,000 men in killed, wounded, and prisoners told the story of the terrible day, with about one-third as many on the other side. The 12th regiment lost heavily, and lay all night following the battle and through the next day among the dead and wounded. On the retreat they were the last to reach the pontoon bridge and were still upon it when it was cut loose from the Fredericksburg shore by the engi- The One Hundred and Twenty-Second Regiment. 293 neers. After the retreat from Fredericksburg the regiment went into its old camp at Stoneman's Switch, and on the 27th of April, iS63,as Hooker was about to advance on Chancellorsville. orders came for the regiment to return to Elmira for muster out of the service. This was done on the 17th of May, 1S63. The three years men from New York city, who had been con- solidated with the 1 2th, were organized into five companies, forming a sep- arate battalion, under Col. Henry A. Weeks, and remained in the service. The old 1 2th, battle-scarred and their numbers dwindled to a mere handful, reached Syracuse and made a short parade of the streets, where the tat- tered banner and its bullet-studded staff attracted the deepest interest. The regiment still holds annual reunions, but its number is small and rap- idly diminishing. THE ONE hundred AND TWENTY-SECOND REGIMENT. This was one of the regiments organized under the call of the President for 300,000 men in the summer of 1862. The war was then beginning to develop its great proportions and it was clearly foreseen that the struggle for Union was to be a bloody one and one that would demand all of the resources of the country. The result of the peninsular campaign was then in doubt and a feeling of anxiety pervaded the North. On the day following the President's call. Governor Morgan issued a proclamation, from which the following is an extract. " This appeal is to the State of New York ; it is to each citizen. Let it come to every fireside. Let the glorious example of the Revolutionary pe- riod be our emulation. Let each feel that the Commonwealth now counts upon his individual strength and influence to meet the demands of the Government. The period has come when all must aid. New York has not thus stood back. Ready and more than willing, she has met every summons to duty. Let not her history be falsified nor her position be lowered." The call and the proclamation were not in vain as far as Onondaga county was concerned. Three days after the issue of the Governor's proc- lamation, there came from the office of the Adjutant-General of the State, a circular directing the division of the State into regimental districts cor- responding with the Senatorial districts, with a rendezvous camp in each. A committee was also appointed by the same authority for each district, called the Senatorial War Committee, to whom was entrusted the general charge of military affairs. In Onondaga county (composing the 22d dis- trict) the following persons constituted the committee: Hon. Charles An- 294 Memorial History of Syracuse. drews, Hon. Grove Lawrence, Hon. Dennis McCarthy, Hon. Elias \V. Leavenworth, Hamilton White, Hon. Austin Myers, Hon. Thomas G. Al- vord, L. \V. Hall, Hon. Thomas T. Davis, and Col. J. Dean Hawley. On the 15th of July, 1862, this committee met and organized by elect- ing Hon. Charles Andrews, president, and L. W. Hall, secretary. A reso- lution was adopted requesting the citizens of the several towns to appoint a committee of three in each town to act in conjunction with the Senatorial Committee. Another resolution requested the Governor to call an extra session of the Legislature for the purpose of securing uniform action in relation to bounties. At this time the failure of the operations against Richmond and the peril of Pope's army as it was being pressed back to the Washington de- fenses, rendered it uncertain whether our armies in the field could hold out without great risk, until reinforcements under the last call could reach the front. This was the situation under which the call was made, the first re- sponse to which was the I22d regiment — a body of soldiery whose place on the roll of fame is high among those who fought for the Union. The regiment was raised in one month. Companies D, E, I, and K were wholly or partly composed of Syracuse men, the remainder of the regiment being from the towns of the county. The regiment was mustered into the United States service at Syracuse August 28, 1862, with the following field and staff officers: Silas Titus, Colonel; Augustus H. Dwight, Lieutenant- Colonel ; Joshua B. Davis, Major ; Andrew J. Smith, Adjutant ; Frank Lester, Quartermaster; Nathan R. Tefft, Surgeon ; John O. Slocum, As- sistant Surgeon ; Edwin A. Knapp, 2d Assistant Surgeon ; L. M. Nicker- son, Chaplain ; O. V. Tracy, Sergeant-Major; T. L. Poole, Quartermaster Sergeant; Guy J. Goetches, Commissary Sergeant; A. W. Handcock, Hospital Steward. The regiment left Syracuse on Sunday morning, reaching New York the same night, and the following day received their equipments. At 4:30 the next day they took steamer for PertH Amboy and thence on the same day proceeded by rail to Baltimore. That night was passed in the depot beside a. train loaded with wounded soldiers from the battlefields of Virginia. It was an experience more severe on the nerves of raw recruits than an actual battle would have been. On the following day the regiment proceeded to Washington and passed the night in barracks near the station. Here in- formation was received of Pope's defeat at Chantilly and Lee's crossing into Maryland. One more day and night were spent in Washington, when the regiment marched back through Georgetown to near the Chain Bridge and on the following day joined the column marching to the front. The I22d, with the 65th and 67th New York and the 23d, S2d and 61 st Pennsylvania regiments were constituted a brigade of Couch's division under command of Brigadier General John Cochrane. The Battle ok Antietam. 295 The campaign of the next three weeks and up to the battle of Antietam, while not calling for heavy sacrifices on the battle field, was peculiarly try- ing to new recruits. They participated in the severe marching of McClel- lan's troops in their active operations, and reached Crampton's Gap just in time to witness Slocum's splendid charge up the heights of South Moun- tain, but not in time to participate in the battle. This occurred on the 14th of September. On the 15th the I22d passed through the Gap and about four miles beyond, where it lay all day, and there received the news of the surrender of Harper's Ferry by General Miles. The advance of our forces from South Mountain to Antietam began on the morning of the 15th of September and on the 16th and 17th was fought the bloody battle which has gone into history as one of the most desperate engagements of the war. During this engagement the I22d was not direetly employed in the fighting, the division having been ordered far to the left to oppose a supposed flank- ing movement of the enemy. They returned to the field on the night of the 17th, where they remained during the iSth and 19th, and on the 20th the division marched to Williamsport. There, after some skirmishing, they drove off Stewart's cavalry, which had crossed the Potomac at that point. Here Private Hunn, of Company A, the first man wounded in the regiment, received a bullet in his leg. Most of the ne.xt two months were passed chiefly in drilling, interspersed with one or two marches of some prominence. On the 3d of November they acted as wagon guard, crossing the Potomac into Virginia at Berlin^ On the 8th of November, 1862, General Burnside superseded General McClellan in command of the Army of the Potomac, and at once planned his disastrous campaign for reaching Richmond by way of Fredericksburg. The regiment was now in the left Grand Division of the Army of the Potomac, (Franklin's), First Brigade, (General John Cochrane's), Third Di- vision, (^Gen. D. A. Couch's), Sixth Corps, (Sedgwick's,) then commanded by Gen. W. S. Smith, and joined the march towards Fredericksburg No- vember 10, halting until the 15th at New Baltimore, thence in two days to Stafford Court House, and in four days to Belle Plain, and thence to Fred- ericksburg. The details of the memorable struggle at this stronghold need not be repeated here. The storming of the Fredericksburg heights on the 13th of December was one of the most hopeless and bloodiest assaults of mod- ern warfare. In this engagement the I22d supported the Pennsylvania Reserves and were four hours under artillery fire, but their loss was light, only four men being wounded. The regiment participated in the famous "mud campaign," another wholly fruitless movement. General Hooker assumed command of the Army of the Potomac February 16, 1863. and during the two succeeding 296 Memorial History of Syracuse. months, while the army was being reorganized and drilled, the I22d was most of the time on picket duty. When Hooker's army was in readiness he dispatched General Stoneman with most of his cavalry up the north side of the Rappahannock, with in- structions to cross at discretion above the Orange & Alexandria railroad, strike Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry near Culpepper Court House, capture Gor- donsville and then fall on the Fredericksburg & Richmond railroad near Sax- ton Junction, cutting telegraphs and destroying railroads on his way, and thence on towards Richmond. This order was issued April 13. The rains and swollen river delayed the army and caused the recall of the cavalry, which had crossed the Rappahannock. The main army did not move until the morning of the 25th, the i22d regiment marching in the 6th corps, carrying pontoons to Franklin's crossing two miles below Fredericks- burg. The regiment was engaged all night laying the pontoons, and before daylight Brooks's division had crossed in boats and drove off the rebel pickets. General Wadsworth, commanding the advance of Reynolds's division and Sickles's corps (Third), being now ready to cross in force, the 3d corps was ordered to move silently and rapidly to the United States ford and thence to Chancellorsville, while a part of the pontoons were taken to Banks's ford. Reynolds, after making as great a display as possi- ble, followed on the 2d of May, raising Hooker's force at and near Chan- cellorsville to 70,000 men. The 6th corps, with the I22d regiment, re- mained at Franklin's crossing, covering the withdrawal of Sickles's corps and Reynolds's division, until Saturday, May 2. On that night, under orders for the 6th corps to cross the Rappahannock and join Hooker at Chancellorsville, the regiment crossed the river and after skirmishing up through Fredericksburg, found themselves at 3 o'clock Sunday morning in front of Marye's Heights, before the fatal stone wall where fell so many brave men on the memorable 12th of December, 1862. In the desperate engagement that followed, the I22d was conspicuous and in carrying the rebel front line Captain Church was wounded. The I22d was in the sup- porting column and passing over the hill, turned to the right and soon came in front of a fortified hill occupied by a force of the enemy and two guns, which the regiment was ordered to carry. The order was promptly executed, and the less in the regiment was nine killed and wounded. After carrying these height.s, Sedgwick's troops, including the I22d, moved out about four miles to Salem Church, and the fortifitd position of the enemy were attacked, but unsuccessfully. The battle continued for about two hours, and as night approached and the firing lulled, the I22d was thrown to the extreme right front of our position, which they held through the night. The next morning it was evident to Sedgwick that his position was be- coming critical. The enemy were in heavy force in his front and feeling In Front of Frederickshukc;. 297 his left back towards the heights of Fredericksburg. The situation was a grave one. At one p. m. the enemy moved in force, striking Sedgwick in flank and crowding him down towards the river, and during the night he was forced to cross the river at Banks's ford, with a loss of nearly 5,000 men. In the crossing of the river the I22d held the head of the bridge in the face of the enemy until 3 o'clock in the morning, and were the last to cross. On the 8th the regiment occupied a new camp in pine woods, far- ther east and nearer the river than the old one. On the 6th of June, Howe's division, with the i22d, was thrown across the Rappahannock, to develop the force of the enemy still remaining on that side. Hill was still there with a strong force, and in the skirmishing that followed, the I22d had three men wounded, and withdrew again to the north side of the river on the 13th. The 14th to the i8th of June were occupied in marching to P'airfax Court House. On the 25th the regiment went on picket duty at the front on the old Bull Run battle field. On the 26th they marched to near Drainsville, crossed the Potomac at Edwards's Ferry the next day, after a march of eighteen miles, and on the 28th moved forward again toward Frederick City. The march continued through the 29th and on the 30th they reached Manchester, Maryland. Late in the afternoon of July i, 1863, the movement began which took the i22d to the battle field of Gettysburg, thirt)--five miles away. "At in- tervals during the day," says Major Poole's diary, from which we shall make liberal cjuotations, " we had heard the boom of artillery and knew that Gen. John F. Reynolds, who commanded the 1st corps, had been killed, and that our Division Commander, Gen. John Newton, had been ordered to proceed to Gettysburg at all speed to take command of the 1st corps, and that Brigadier-General Frank Wheaton had been promoted to command our division. The night race of the 6th corps for Gettysburg was one of the most remarkable marches of the war. Over the fields and cross-roads until the pike leading from Baltimore to Gettysburg was reached, we marched. All night was the race kept up and, although tired and foot-sore, there was but little straggling. Gen. John Sedgwick led the way and every soldier in the column knew that ' Uncle John' would not have hurried us unless there was great necessity for the 6th corps, and there was no mur- muring. Every hour we had a short halt, when the tired boys would lie down by the roadside and generally instantly fall asleep. Soon the order, " fall in," would come down the line, and half awake and half asleep, the men would press on. About daylight the head of the column reached the dividing line between the loyal North and the disloyal South. General Sedgwick had given orders that as each regiment passed the State line, which was occupied by an old tavern, the colors of each regiment should be unfurled to the breeze and the bands play patriotic airs. The drum corps of the I22d had been somewhat scattered, but there were enough of them 3S 298 Memorial Histukv ok Syracuse. so that when our regiment reached the desired point, the strains of Yankee Doodle rent the air, soon to be drowned by the cheers of the boys as our flag-bearer. Uncle Amasa Chase, (who, although almost sixty years of age, kept his place with the younger men) waved our flag as we passed out of the hated surroundings of slavery and felt that once more we were breathing the free air of the North. Every man in the corps felt that the battle before us must be of great importance. The enemy had invaded the North and if we were defeated in the coming struggle, all might be lost and the Union destroyed. The 2d of July was intensely hot and the regiment suffered severely from heat and want of rest ; but with occasional resting-spells we kept on. The sound of artillery to the North indicated our approach to the battle field, and before noon we met wounded men who had great tales to tell of the slaughter that had already taken place. At two o'clock the column reached the south side of Rock creek, where a halt of two hours very much refreshed the regiment. About 4 o'clock the corps was again moved, crossing Rock creek at McAllister's mill and were upon the battle field of Gettysburg, and about opposite the center of the line of battle as it existed at that time. Our brigade, under General Shalcr, was rapidly marched by way of Povvers's Hill, to the rear of the famous Little Round Top, where we halted near the Taneytown pike." A severe battle was being fought in our front and to the right of Round Top, opposite the Cemetery Ridge, but the I22d was not actively engaged that day. Our line of battle faced to the North, while our right on Gulp's Hill, faced almost to the east. No attempt will be made here to describe the great battle fought at this place on those first three days of July, 1S63, but we will simply follow the flag of the i22d as far as possible. The night of July 2d was a night of rest to the regiment, who slept soundly notwithstanding the presence of an enemy likely at any moment to make an attack upon our lines that would call us to arms. Long before daylight of the 3rd, orders were passed along the line to fall in, expecting possibly some attack upon the left. All was quiet in our immediate front and the boys had a chance to make cofTee and fill canteens, that proved so useful during the eventful day. At 7 o'clock orders came for the brigade to move, this time to the extreme right at Gulp's Hill, where the battle was already in progress. General H. W. Slocum was in command on the right and to him General Shaler reported his brigade for duty, who ordered them to a position near Spangler's woods. The I22d was on the right of the brigade and was soon ordered forward. The six right companies, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel A. W. Dwight, were double-quicked over the crest of Gulp's Hill, to reinforce Green's brigade of the 12th corps. As they ran over the hill to the line of breastworks on the crest they were not only met by a storm of rebel bullets, but by cheering of the regiment on the Battle of Gkttysburc;. 299 left, which proved to be our own 149th, N. Y., who recognized their friends in the I22d, as the two regiments came together for the first time since their organization. Side by side the two regiments from Onondaga fought that day upon the bloody battle field of Gettysburg. Desperate efforts were made by the rebel army to turn the Union right at Gulp's Hill, but at 1 i o'clock it was discovered that they had already commenced massing their troops in front of our center at Cemetery Ridge, and the attack upon Gulp's Hill was practically abandoned. The I22d having rejoined the brigade which, in the meantime, had been all actively engaged upon our Hank, were moved over to the rear of the center, where they were held as a reserve ready to move to any portion of the line directly in their front where they might need their help. Then followed the terrible cannonade, closing with the cele- brated charge by Pickett, which ended disastrously for the rebels, and vir- tually closed this great battle. The regiment took no further active part in the events of the day. Early in the morning Major J. B. Davis was badly wounded in the face, from which he never fully recovered. Lieutenant Larue was also wounded in the leg, rendering him permanently lame and unfit for further service. The regiment lost ten men killed and thirty-four wounded, a number of whom so severely that they died within a few days after the battle. The following day was spent on the battle field, in caring for the wounded. When the rebels retreated our brigade followed to Middletown, and thence across the mountain to Funkstown, where they arrived on the 14th, and found the enemy strongly posted behind breastworks and shel- tered by woods, so that artillery could not reach them. About ninety men of the brigade volunteered to cut down these woods in face of the enenij- and the work began ; but during the night the rebels left their position. The Union forces followed to Williamsport, capturing the rear guard, recrossed the Potomac and arrived at Warrenton on the 24th of July. They re- mained here until September 15, when they marched to White Sulphur Springs, remaining there until October i, when they marched in a heavy rain to Gatlett's Station, reaching there on the 3rd of August. The brig- ade remained here ten days. From this time until early in November the troops, with which was the I22d, were operating about Warrenton Junction, Genterville and Gaines- ville, but no events of great importance occurred which demand attention here. From the 20th of October the regiment was in camp near Warren- ton until November 7. The enemy having retired south of the Rappahannock, after having pur- sued our army almost up to W'ashington, our command of the ford was complete and during that night Lee fell back to Culpepper and across the Rappahannock the next day. 300 Memorial History of Syracuse. Our troops moved to Brandy Station on the loth and from that date until January 3d, 1864, the I22d was engaged in several marches in that vicinity, and more or less fighting, but without important results. On the 3d of January the brigade containing the I22d broke camp and started for Sandusky, Ohio, where they arrived on the 13th and were quartered in the town. They remained here just three months as part of the guard over rebel prisoners, and on the 13th of April started again for Old Virginia, reaching their old camp at Brandy Station, with three regiments of the brigade on the 19th. On the 24th of February, General Grant took command of the Union forces and reached Washington from the west early in March to receive his commission. The remainder of that month and nearly the whole of April were devoted to improving the army and preparations for the coming cam- paign. The army was completely reorganized in which operation the old 3d division was broken up and divided between the 1st and 2d divisions, the brigade containing the I22d regiment being attached to the 1st divi- sion as the 4th brigade, and the 3d division of the 3d corps transferred to our corps as the 3d division of the 6th corps; the I22d regiment thus be- longed to the 4th brigade, 1st division, 6th corps. From the 4th of May, 1864, to' about the ist of June, during the Wil- derness campaign, the operations of the I22d and the forces with which it was immediately connected may be best detailed by extracts from the diary which was kept by Major Theodore L. Poole, and personal recollections of Col. J. M. Gere, who was then a Captain in the regiment. The notes of Major Poole's diary, made at the front and often on the field of battle, are wonderfully vivid and interesting: May 4, 1S64.— Left camp near Brandy Station at daylight. Our brig.ade is re.ar guard and is with the wagons of the corps. .Vt about 11 p.m. marclied eastward and went into camp at (lold Mine ford. At the ford we found the entire wagon trains of tlie army, and they were then crossing the Rapidan. We spread our blankets on the ground and slept till daylight. May 5.— Did not cross the river until late in the afternoon, when we marched about two miles and encamped, still being the wagon guard. A battle was in progress all day in front of us, con- tinuing until late at night. It is impossible to learn anything definite. May 6.— We were awakened at midnight and, leaving the wagons behind us, marched several miles to the right and took up line of battle. Crossed over a portion of the battle ground of yester- day, and saw many of the dead. The battle began at daylight, but at this hour ((> a. m.) we h.ave taken no part. Word has come that we shall soon make a bayonet charge. .\t 2 o'clock p. m., at- tempted the charge and failed. We advanced twenty rods and halted, took what cover we could and opened fire. Continued firing about twenty minutes, when both sides ceased ; our skirmishers, however, kept up firing during the d.ay. Our losses up to this time in the regiment are one man killed and 41 officers and men wounded. Besides these, 15 are missing, and we have reason to sup- pose some of them are killed or wounded. My company (I) lost Captain Dwight, wounded in the left leg below the knee, not supposed to be serious; privates Howard and Brooks, both wounded severely; Lieutenant Wilson, of Company A, wounded in the shoulder (proved fatal) ; Lieutenant C B. Clark, wounded in the leg ; Captain Dwight, wounded early in the morning at 8 o'clock, and I have since been in command of the company. Corporal Isaac Looniis, of my company, is missing. Extracts From Major Poolk's Diarv. 301 and 1 suppose him killed ; (he was killed.) Corporal !•'. Patterson, of Company 1), is also wounded. The I2f>th Ohio re};iment are now building breastworks a few rods in our rear ; and so matters re- main at present. 2 p. m. At 6:30 p. m., the rebels made an attack upon our works, in front, right flank, and rear, the attack being made by Cordon's division. Our regiment and the entire brigade were driven back in great confusion and with heavy loss, many of our regiment being killed and wounded and others falling and being taken prisoners. The extreme right, consisting of our di- vision, was driven back and completely broken to pieces, being left in fragments in the woods. We retreated nearly two miles, seeking to rally the men, but the panic was such that we found it impos- sible. Captain Clapp and myself finally got half a dozen of our regiment together, and as we had our regimental flag it gave us a rallying point, and with our little band we started back to the front. Other small sijuads were found, and we soon had quite a force together. I only had three men in my own company out of thirty. Our force went back a quarter of a mile or so, gathering strength as we went. Here we were joined by l.ieutenant-Colonel Dwight, Captain Walpole, Lieutenants Hoyt and Wells and five or si.\ more of our men. Colonel Upton, of the I2ist New York, took command of our division (what was left of it) and soon formed a line of battle. We and the 1st Long Island regiment (67th N. Y.) consisting of about forty men, were made the second line. .\t II p. ni. we were attacked in force, but we drove the enemy back easily. At about I o'clock p. m., we moved to the right again and lay down behind a battery and rifle pits. I have no idea what the loss of our regiment is, but it is very great. Captain Piatt, Lieutenant Ostrander, and Lieutenant Luther are wounded. Captain J. M. Cere and Lieutenant Hall are missing and are probably in the hands of the rebels, and 1 presume Luther and Ostrander are both prisoners. (This proved true.) I think our entire loss so far will be nearly or quite 2,(XX). Out of nine sergeants and corporals belonging to my color-guard, only one is with me. M.w 7. — Soon after daylight the rebels attacked us once more, but we drove them back, our battery doing us great service. Adjutant Tracy is missing and is supposeil to be wounded and a prisoner. Colonel Hwight has detailed me as Adjutant and Lieutenant Wilkins has taken my company. Lieutenant Hall and a squad of men have just come in. At S a. m., moved again to the right about two miles and occupied rifle pits, where we lay quietly all day. At 9:30 p. m., fell in, moving towards the left and marching all night. M.^v 8. — Passed through Chancellorsville and took the road to Spottsylvania Court House. About noon our ailvance met the enemy and engaged them During the afternoon we supported a battery, and at 5 o'clock moved into some breastworks, together with the 6th Maine and iiyth Penn- sylvania. Here lost one man. At Q p. m., were attacked, but there had been no general engage- ment during the day. Our entire loss up to this time has been 130 — less than 30 of them prisoners. Cen. A. Shaler and Cen. Seymour are among the latter. The Chasseurs (fijth N. Y.) and 1st Long Island (67th N. Y.) have lost very heavily. Captain Tracy, and Captain Cooper, of the Long Island, are both killed, and a number of officers are wounded in both regiments. May 9. — Moved at daylight to the line and lay upon an open plain supporting a battery. Cen. lohn Sedgwick, commanding the 6th corps, was killed this morning by sharpshooters. During the afternoon we were exposed to the enemy's shells and sharpshooters, but met with no loss. I'p to this time ofticers and men have behaved splendidly : but all are worn down with fatigue, hard marches, continued fighting, and loss of sleep. During Monday night we were attacked three dif- ferent times by the enemy. We have about 200 men left for duty and eight officers besides the Col- onel and myself. Some of the best men of our regiment are gone, but 1 hardly have time to think about them. May 10. — f Jrders came at 2 o'clock this morning that we, in conjunction with our entire force in front, would advance upon the enemy at daylight. Daylight came, however and we did not move. 1 )uring the afternoon Colonel Dwight was sent back to the hospital sick and worn out. and Captain Walpole took command of the regiment. The battle began early in the morning and up to this time (4 p. m.) has raged with terrible fury. Fortunately for us we have not suffered much along our por- tion of the line and our brigade has not been harmed. Orders have come. The Chasseurs have taken knapsacks and h.avcrsacks anil started forward. The Long Islands and our regiment have moved into some rifle pits to the left. The charge occurred at about 6 o'clock and lasted some forty 302 Memorial History of Syracuse. minutes. We could hear, but could not see, what was Kohig on. Directly in our front the charge was successful, but we were t'lnally driven back with heavy loss. The charging column consisted of the 5th and f)th Maine, the 6th Wisconsin and the 14th and 56th New York regiments. They took 1,500 prisoners and a battery of four guns ; the guns, however, they were compelled to leave. May II. — Our regiment went out on picket to the left. Sharp picket firing all day. Lost five men wounded ; also Captain W'alpole, supposed to have been taken prisoner. He had given me orders in the morning to advance the left wing, which I had charge of, and at the same time directed the right wing to advance. We drew upon us a heavy lire and W'alpole has not been seen since. He was either shot or went through the lines and was captured. (Was taken prisoner, and made his es- cape from Columbia prison. South Carolina.) The right wing of our regiment was relieved at night, Captain Clapp now assumed command and sent for me to report to him, sending Lieut. Wells to take command of the left wing. We returned to the place we had started from in the morning and remained till daylight. May 12. — Our brigade fell in at daylight and marched off to the left. Karly this morning, Oen. Hancock, with his (2d) corps, made a grand charge on the enemy's lines and was successful, captur- ing 5,000 prisoners, including three Major Generals and about twenty cannon. In going through a piece of woods, our regiment, which was in the rear, was cut off by another column. We were ex- posed to a heavy musketry fire, and also to rain which lasted all day. We coidd find nothing of our brigade, and as we were near the front, our little band of 100 decided to go in, and accordingly, at- tached ourselves to the 2d corps, and went forward into some breastworks which had been taken by Hancock this morning. Here we remained till late in the afternoon, fighting hard all day. The rebels made desperate attempts to drive us out of our works and partially succeeded. We lost but few men ourselves, but the carnage around us was fearful. About four o'clock we were relieved, and as night set in found the rest of our brigade. May 13. Our brigade moved and occupied the same rifle-pits we had occupied the day before. The rebels during the night had fallen back, leaving their dead and wounded in our hands. Our skirmishers were sent out immediately, .and soon reached the skirmish line of the enemy. Col. Dwight rejoined us this morning from the hospital and Captain Cossitt from the sick- leave. (Jen. Meade published an order this morning which I read to the regiment, announcing that so far we had been successful, capturing 18 cannon, 22 colors, and 8,000 prisoners. We remained in these pits all day and until two o'clock at night, when we fell in again and marched to the left to the support of (.!en. Burnside. May 14. — Crossing the Po River and skirmishing. No battle, .\fter crossing the stream, threw up breastworks, and our regiment, detailed for picket duty, immediately went out. Heavy rains for three days, impeding the progress of the armj'. May 16. — Our regiment relieved from picket duty. May 17. — A false alarm brought us all to the rillc-iiits, but nothing came of it. .Soon after dark we fell in quietly and took uji t.nir line of march io the extreme right of the army, where we arrived about daylight. May 18. — Kound that our corps formed a line of battle, column-by-divisions, appearances indi- cating that a charge in that form was contemplated. Our brigade was sent to the extreme right and flank, as a guard against a flank movement by the rebels. The Chasseur's and Long Island regiments are on picket and we on reserve. .So matters stand at 9 o'clock a. m. The charge was attempted and failed, and in the afternoon we were marched back to our former position. Here we remained till daylight. May 19. — Early in the morning moved to a new position still further on the left, where we were busy all day building breastworks. An attack was made near night upon our right flank and rear, the object being the capture of our wagon trains. Moved about 1 1 o'clock, p. m., to the support of the 2d corps, which was engaged with the enemy. The battle was over before we reached the ground, and we encamped for the remainder of the night. May 20. — Engaged in building breastworks. Portions of the army engaged with the enemy. May 21. — About 9 a. m,, marched oft' to the extreme left. Kound the entire army moving in the same direction. Halted near the position occupied on the 20th, and half of our regiment sent Extracts From Major Poole's Diakv. 303 back on picket to the rear. About dark the rebels made an attack a little to the right of us, which was easily repulsed. Our position is strongly posted with sL^cteen pieces of artillery. .\t II p. m., ordered to fall in and marched again to the left, marching all night. Halted at Ilolladay's for breakfast ; thence to (Juinea's, a station of the Fredericksburg & Richmond railroad, distant from the latter place about forty-live miles. We can hear cannonading in the direction of Howling (Ircen, towards which our advance is making. Remained here in camp at the farm on which is the negro hut in which Stonewall Jackson is said to have died after his wound at C'hancellorsvillc. At p. m., moved again, marching about five miles, when we encamped and remained till y o'clock a. m.. .Mon- day, May 23. M.w 23 and 24. — Marching all day. Our division occupied on the 25th in tearing up the (ior- donsville railroad, which was effectually liestroyed for about a mile ; and on the 2()th marched all night and until 2 o'clock p. m. of the 27th, when we crossed the I'anuinkey river at Ilanoverton, less than twenty miles from Richmond. May 29. — Our division marched several miles bearing to the north, and finally halteil about a mile south of Hanover Court House. At this point the rear of the column was attacked by rebel cavalry. The 67th New York and four companies of the I22d were deployed as skirmishers and re- mained here all night undisturbed. The column counter-marched, and taking the direct road to- wards Richmond, marched about two miles and then halted. Marched again in the afternoon, tak- ing another road towards Richmond, formed a line of battle in a dense woods and rested for the night. May 31. — A brisk skirmish fire was kept up all day and in the afternoon we were shelled. About midnight we left our station and moved to the left, marching till noon, June i.st, and arrived at Cold Harbor. Here we met our cavalry which had been engaged in a severe battle the clay before, and skirmishing was still going on. Our corps immediately formed in line of battle and relieved the cavalry, which moved to our left. We are less than ten miles from Richmond and about two miles from Savage's Station. About two o'clock p. m., the enemy opened on us with artillery, to which we replied with three batteries. The enemy had a good range and killed and wounded a large num- ber. Captain Clapp and 20 men of our regiment were on picket duty. During the artillery duel the 6th and iSth corps were formed in line of battle four lines deep, the I22d being placed in the fourth line. The three front lines were composed of the 2d Connecticut heavy artillery, a regiment which never till now had been under fire. At 6:30 p. m. orders came to attack the enemy. We passed over an open field a few rods, then through a pine grove about 20 rods, and the balance of the way over open fields, the entire distance being less than half a mile. As we emerged from the woods the rebels opened fire and our men commenced dropping. The enemy's fire being too severe for the 2d Connecticut, they broke up in great confusion, retreating through our lines, so that we became the front line. The loss of the 2d Connecticut was over 400, including the Colonel, who was a brave ofVicer and fell at the head of his regiment riddled with rebel bullets. Our line con- tinued to advance in good order until we had reached within thirty rods of the rebel works, when an order came to fall back to a small ravine in the rear, but before the order could be obeyed the rebels had discharged their heaviest fire fearfully thinning our ranks. Out of 140 men, 75 were killed and wounded. Lieutenant Wooster, of Company (j killed ; Lieutenant T. L. Poole, wounded in the side and left arm and shoulder, resulting in the loss of his arm. The regiment returned to the ra- vine and threw up breastworks on the crest of a small ridge. During the night the rest of the army arrived at Cold Harbor. The slaughter in the Cold Harbor engagement in the army at large was frightful, footing up in killed, wounded and missing, 13,153 of whom a little over 1,700 were killed. General Grant now established his headquarters at City Point, where he invested the city of Petersburg, destroyed the Weldon railroad and gradu- ally drew his cordon around the perplexed rebels. The I22d regiment re- mained in front of Petersburg until sent with the 6th corps in August, 1864, 304 Memorial History of Syracuse. to Fort Stevens, at Washington, and thence with Sheridan on the famous Shenandoali Valley campaign. There the battle of Winchester was fought on the 19th of August, in wiiich the rout of the enemy was complete, the capture of prisoners and munitions being very large. Early fell back to Fisher's Hill, eight miles south of Winchester, and Sheridan followed him closely, two days only intervening between the first and the second victories. The 6th corps led the advance on the front, and the i22d regiment was the first in the enemy's works, where the vigorous attack broke the rebel center and rendered the victory even more decisive than that at Winchester, or Opequan.as it is more commonly called. Here our army took 1,100 prison- ers and 16 guns. At Cedar Creek (October iS) the I22d was at the turning-point of the battle, first pushing the enemy back as Sheridan, on his famous ride, came up behind their line. In this engagement we lost about 3,000, the rebel loss being much heavier. Our forces were afterwards returned to Peters- burg. In the closing campaign of the war; the I22d regiment bore the same honorable share that had characterized it since it took the field. In the en- gagement at Squirrel Level road on the 25th of March. 1S65, the regiment was involved and there the brave Colonel Dwight was killed by a shell. On the morning of April 2d they were in the brigade which shared in storming Lee's lines, forcing him back upon Petersburg, and also took part in the active operations which resulted in cutting off the Southside railroad and forcing the evacuation of Richmond. They followed in pursuit of Lee's army to its surrender at Appomattox Court House, and after two days' rest had a lively march to Burksville, where they remained a week, and then marched in four and one-half days to Danville to stop the last gap on Johnston's army, now in the clutches of Sherman. After a month in Dan- ville they returned to Richmond, were reviewed through its streets by Gen- eral Halleck and sent thence to Washington, where the 6th corps was sepa- rately reviewed by the I'resident. Receiving orders for muster out, the regiment started on the 23d of June for home, and were finally discharged on the 27th of June, 1865. THE ONK IIUNDKKI) .\M) 1-OKlV-MNTII KKM.M FXT. This regiment was organized in Syracuse and mustered into the I'nited States service on the 18th of September, 1862. It was almost wholly made up of Onondaga county men. Following is a list of the field officers of the regiment at the time of its muster: Henry A. Barnum, (formerly Organization of the Regimknt. 305 Major of the I2th regiment,) Colonel : John M. Strong, Lieutenant-Col- onel; Abel G. Cook, Major; Walter M. Dallman, Adjutant; Moses Sum- mers, Quartermaster; James V. Kendall, Surgeon; Horace Nims, and Albert W. Phillips, Assistant Surgeons; Rev. ArvineC. Bowdish, Chaplain. At the time of the organization of the regiment, Col. Barnum was pros- trated at homo with the wound he had received, which has already been alluded to in the history of the 12th regiment. He joined the 149th at Fairfax Station, in January, 1863, but was afterwards compelled, during the major part of 1863 and the fore part of 1864, to relinquish the com- mand toother officers, on account of severe illness from his unhealed wound. The following account of the principal marches and battles in which this noble regiment shared, was largely prepared by the late Colonel Moses Summers, who was Quartermaster of the regiment, and it is given in nearly the form in which he left it. On the 23d of September, 1862, the 149th left " Camp White " at Syra cuse en route for the rendezvous at the National Capital, whence it was or dered to Harper's Ferry, via Frederick City and occupied a camp in Pleas- ant Valley until about the 28th of October. No incident of importance occurred while here, except an expedition a few miles down the river to Knoxville. On the 28th of October it was ordered to Loudon Valley, where it remained long enough to commence the construction of comfort- able quarters, but was not permitted to enjoy them, being soon ordered to Bolivar Heights at Harper's Ferry, where it remained until December 10th, relieving the monotony of camp life by two raids, one to Charlestown and the other to Winchester, and taking its first lessons in those foraging ex- peditions for which the regiment subsequently became famous. In the absence of Colonel Barnum, Lieutenant-Colonel Strong had com- mand of the regiment to Pleasant Valley ; but here he was taken sick and went home and was compelled to resign in consequence of his dangerous illness, and the command devolved upon Major A. G. Cook. The regiment was attached to General Geary's division, and when army corps adopted badges, by order of General Hooker, this division assumed the white star as its emblem. On the lOth of December, in the depth of a Virginia winter, this regiment, as apart of the 12th corps, broke camp at Bolivar Heights and marched to Fairfax Station. The Quartermaster alludes to two or three expeditions from this point towards Dumfries, and speaks of Dum- fries as a locality which calls up vivid recollections of "an ocean of mud and the hardest kind of fare." After spending a dismal Christmas and New Year's at Fairfax Station, the regiment broke camp on the 14th of Jan- uary and marched through the memorable Dumfries mud to Acquia Creek, where it was comfortably (]uartered in an old camp just vacated by a Ger- mxn regiment of engineers. The camp was beautifully located and a little labor sufficed to make it a model of neatness and taste. But the place was 39 3o6 Memokiai. Histcjkv of Syracuse. unhealthy ; fever soon broke out in camp and the ranks were rapidly thinned by its ravages. On the 14th of February the regiment moved to a more healthy location at Brooks's Station, where it remained until the stirring events of Chancellorsville called it from camp life and idleness to meet the enemy on a field which, though hotly contested, was disastrous to the regiment and the Union cause. The regiment broke camp and marched towards Chancellorsville on the 27th of April, 1863. The battles in and about Chancellorsville were fought on May 2d, 3d, 4th, and 5th, the heav- iest engagement being on Sunday, May 3d. The Union forces met with a severe defeat, and the 149th suffered its share of the disaster. On Sunday, May 3d, in the great battle in which Slocum's corps (12th) was engaged, nearly 4,000 of Hooker's men were disabled, including three of his division commanders; Berry and Whipple killed; and General Mott, of the New Jersey brigade, wounded. Says Greeley, " the ground was lost by misfortune or bad generalship, not by lack of valor or endurance in our soldiers." The day was probably lost to the Union army because General Hooker could not send aid to Slocum, he having been stunned by a rebel shot .strik- ing the " Chancellorsville House," against which he had been leaning, so that when the message came to him from General Slocum he was uncon- scious and could not attend to it. So testified Slocum before the Com- mittee on the Conduct of the War. On Monday, the 4th of May, in the forced retreat of Sedgwick's divis- ion, about 5,000 men were lost. Hooker gives the total loss in the series of battles while across the Rappahannock at no less than 17,197 men, as follows: Sedgwick's Corps, 4,601; Slocum's, 2,883 ; Couch's, 2,025; Rey- nolds', 292 ; Sickles', 4,039; Howard's, 2,508; Meade's, 699; Cavalry, etc., 150. The rebel loss was 18,000; General Paxton killed, General Heath wounded, and General Jackson mortally wounded. In these battles the 149th participated, receiving its first baptism of blood, and meeting with very severe losses, which consecrated it to the national cause thenceforth to the close of the war. Major Cook was severe- ly wounded in the foot and the command devolved upon Captain May, who had recently been transferred to the 149th from the old 12th regiment. He was a gallant officer, and assuming command in an emergency, proved him- self fully competent. The regiment returned to near its old camp at Acquia Creek. It soon received orders to remove to a position near Falmouth, but the order was immediately changed to a lively pursuit of Lee, who, meantime, had in- vaded Maryland and Pennsylvania. Marching over the old track through Dumfries, Fairfax, Leesburg, Frederick City, and other well known locali- ties, the regiment at length encountered the enemy at Gettysburg, on the borders of Pennsylvania, where one of the most sanguinary battles of the war was fought. Batti.k of Gettysburg. 307 The engagements began on tlic ist of July and lasted until the close of the 3d. General Buford, with a division, arrived first at Gettysburg June 30, and encountered the van of the rebel army, under General Hcth, of Hill's corps on the morning of the 1st ; the rebels were driven back on the division, and in turn drove our forces. At this moment the advance divis- ion of Reynolds' (ist) corps, under Gen. J. S. Wadsworth, coming in from Emmittsburg, at the familiar sound of the volleys, quickened its pace and rushed through the village, drove back the rebel van, seizing and occupying the ridge that overlooks the place on the northwest. Gen. John F. Rey- nolds came on the field with 10,089 men of the ist corps, and while he was forming his advance, went forward to reconnoitre and was shot by a rebel sharp-shooter. General Uoubleday, commanding the 3d division, then as- sumed command, falling back and occupying Seminary Ridge, west of the village, where the first corps was soon drawn up in line of battle. Howard afterwards came on the field with the iith corps and ranking Doubleday, assumed command and assigned the i ith corps to Schurz, who immediately commenced deploying it north of the village of Gettysburg on a line nearly at right angles to that occupied by the 1st corps. Before Schurz had fairly- got his men in line Ewell's corps came rapidly into the struggle, striking hard on the right flank of the i ith corps, while Rhodes' division attacked it in front. The corps was outnumbered and put to rout, falling back in disorder to Gettysburg, under a heavy fire. The routed troops of the i ith corps which a short time before marched proudly through the streets, now fell back with scarcely half their number to Cemetery Hill, leaving their dead and wounded on the field, and leaving the remnant of the ist corps to stay the onslaught of the victorious enemy, and cover the withdrawal of the artil- lery, and then its own retirement to Cemetery Ridge, which it did in com- parative good order. Thus ended the first day's fight, the rebels not seek- ing to renew the contest. During this part of the engagement Meade was at Tancytown ten miles away and did not hear of the battle or the death of General Reynolds until I p. m. He immediately sent General Hancock to command, order- ing him to turn over his (2d) corps to General Gibbon. Hancock arrived on the field just as the broken i ith corps and the remnant of the 1st corps were retiring through the village, the former somewhat in disorder. The i49th, in Geary's division of Slocum's (12th) corps, reached Gettys- burg in the afternoon of the 1st, soon after General Hancock. Slocum, ranking Hancock, assumed chief command. During the night our arm)- was all concentrated before Gettysburg, ex- cepting Sedgwick's (6th) corps which was at Manchester, thirty miles dis- tant. Meade, in view of this fact, and because the rebels were in full force, resolved on fighting onl)- on the defensive. The line was drawn up in the 3o8 Memorial History of Syracuse. following order: The I2th corps (General Slocum's) held our extreme right, facing Johnson's division of Ewell's corps, which had been strength- ened by Lockwood's Marylanders, 2,500 strong, raising it to a little over 10,000 men ; Sickles' (3d) corps held the left opposite Longstreet, sup- ported by the 5th (Sykes's) with Hancock's (2d) in our centre, touching Doubleday's division of the 1st on its right; what was left of Howard's (nth) corps held the face of Cemetery Hill, looking towards Gettysburg and Early's division, but was menaced also by Johnson's division on the right and by Hill's corps on the left. Howard's right was protected by Wadsworth's division of the ist corps, occupying the north face of Gulp's Hill, and to the right of Wadsworth was Slocum's (12th) corps on a line at right angles to it in rear, running along the east face of Gulp's Hill. The whole line was somewhat in shape of a fish hook, Slocum's corps occupying a position from the point of the hook towards the shank. General Lee's plan of battle was to attack the two flanks of the Union lines simultaneously, while a feint was made on its right centre, occupied by Howard. The battle of the 2d day was brought on in the afternoon by the tem- erity of General Sickles, who, in his eagerness, had thrown forward his corps from half to three quarters of a mile in the immediate presence of half the rebel army. Meade remonstrated, but before the mistake could be remedied, Lee seeing his advantage, ordered Longstreet to attack Sickles with determination, while Ewell assailed Slocum, and Hill, facing the apex of our position, should only menace, unless our troops should be with- drawn to reinforce either the left or the right, in which case he should charge through our lines. The position which Sickles had taken was com- manded by the rebel batteries posted on Seminary Ridge in front and scarcely half a mile distant. At the order to attack, a line of battle a mile and a half long swept to his front and left flank, crushing him back with heavy loss, and struggling desperately to sieze Round Top, a hill to his left, which Meade regarded as vital to the situation. A fierce and bloody strug- gle followed. Sickles' right under Humphrey was attacked in front and flank and beaten back with great loss. Other troops were thrown in on the enemy's front, but in the end were repulsed with heavy loss, falling back to the original position occupied by Sickles before making his advance and leaving our line at night on the left as Meade had originally intended to place it. For some reason the contemplated attack on the right did not take place until Sickles had been severely handled by Longstreet and he was calling for help. An order was received by General Slocum to send the 12th corps to succor Sickles, but he subsequently received a modification of the order, so far as to permit the 3d brigade of the 2d division to remain. Batti.e of Gettysburg. 309 This brigade, composed of the 60th, -Sth, I02d, 137th and 149th New York, was commanded by Brig. Gen. Goo. S. Green, and occupied a hne of rifle pits joining General Wadsworth and running at right angles to him in rear. About dark this brigade was attacked by Joiinson's division in a most fu- rious manner, but by the aid of the works which it had built during the day, it resisted all attempts to break through the position held by it. About II o'clock at night the enemy succeeded in reaching the works vacated by the balance of the corps on the right of the brigade, which were unoccupied, but were unable in the darkness to appreciate the advantage they had obtained. This ended the battle for that day, both sides resting on their arms during the night. At an early hour in the morning on the 3d of July, the 1 2th corps returned to its old position and made preparation to drive the enemy from his works, which it did early in the day. The attack of the enemy, however, was not stayed until about noon, and was kept up during the afternoon by skirmishers. The character of the service performed by the 149th regiment during this engagement of the 2d and 3d of July is well attested by the statement that during its continuance its men each on an average expended 300 rounds of cartridge ; that its flag received over four score bullets in its silken folds, and its staff was twice shot in twain and mended on the battle field by its gallant color-bearer, William C. Lilly, as can be seen by any one who chooses to visit the clerk's ofifice of Onondaga county, where it is now deposited. The losses of the regiment (63) are not so severe as those of some other regiments, owing to the greater care exercised by the officers in protecting the men yet the record of this regi- ment at Gettysburg is as honorable as that of any which fought upon that field, as will be attested by any one who shall visit it and study the work of Green's brigade at Gulp's Hill. Lieutenant-Colonel Randall, who commanded the regiment in this engagement, was severely wounded, and was succeeded by Captain Grumbach. On the 2d of July, night closed with the rebels encouraged and confi- dent. Of the seven corps composing our army, three had been severely handled. At least half of their effective strength had been demolished. Reynolds, commanding the ist, and Brigadier-General Zook, of Sickles' corps had been killed. Our total losses up to this hour were scarcely less than 20,000 men, and none were arriving to replace them. The battle opened on the 3d on our right. The divisions sent to relieve Sickles' corps having returned, Slocum pushed forward to retake his lost rifle pits and accomplished it after a sharp conflict, as above described. The fight known as Pickett's charge was commenced by one of the most brilliant artillery duels known to modern warfare. The rebels had massed a battery of 1 1 5 guns on the hill in front of the center of their line, and on Cem- etery Hill in front of Meade's headquarters, the Union artillery comprising 310 Memorial History of Syracuse. about lOO guns, was stationed. There was a pause of anxious expectation fitfully broken by spurts of firing here and there, while the rebels were fin- ishing their preparations for the supreme effort which was to decide this momentous contest. At i p. m. the signal was given and the rebel bat- teries opened their fire. For nearly two hours the hill, just over the crest in front of Meade's headquarters, was gashed and seamed by bursting shells, while a hundred guns on our side replied with equal vigor. General Doubleday said in his testimony before the Committee on the Conduct of the War : " They had our exact range and the destruction was fearful. Horses were killed in every direction, ■• * and quite a number of cai.s- sons were blown up." Many of the shot and shell fell among the ranks of the 149th men, tearing the limbs off the trees over their heads. This can- nonading was the prelude for a grand infantry charge. Our side was ready for it. Our infantry crouched behind every projection and lay in every hollow awaiting the onset, to spring up at the right moment to meet the advancing columns of the enemy. The signal was given and from behind the rebel batteries emerged columns of infantry in line of battle three or four miles in length, preceded by skirmishers and supported by lines of reserves. On they came to the charge, directing their main force against Hancock's center and in the direction of our batteries, and upon the entire front from Cemetery Hill on the north towards Round Top on the South. The charge was made in three lines with additional lines called wings, the object of which was to prevent the main force from being flanked. They came with such resistless sweep that in some places they seemed to lift up and push back our lines. Hancock was wounded. Gibbon succeeding to the command. As the tempest of fire approached its height, Hancock walked along the line and renewed his orders to his men to reserve their fire. The rebels, three lines deep, came steadily up. They were in point blank range. At last the order came. From thrice six thousand guns there came a sheet of smoky flame, a crash, a rush of leaden death. The line literally melted away, but there came the second, resistless still. The instant was too brief to allow our men to gather themselves for a second effort, and on came the sweeping torrent. Up to the rifle pits, across them, over the barricades, the momentum of the charge, the mere machine-like strength of their combined action swept them on. They were upon the guns, were bayoneting the gunners, were waving their flags above our pieces. But they had pene- trated to the fatal point. A stcim of grape and canister tore its way from man to man, and maikcd its track with corses straight down their line. They had exposed themselves to the enfilading fire of the guns on the western slope of Cemetery Ridge and that exposure sealed their fate. The line reeled back, disjointed, and in an instant was in fragments. Our men were just behind the guns. They leaped forward upon the disordered To THE AUAfV OF THE CUMBERLAND. 3II mass ; but there was little need for fightinrj now. A regiment threw down its arms, and, with colors at its head, rushed over and surrendered. All along the field smaller detachments did the same. Webb's brigade brought in Soo, taken in as little time as it requires to write this sentence. Gibbon's old division took 15 stand of colors. The battle was over. On the field of Gettysburg was crushed the first and last great attempt of the rebels to gain a decisive victory on the soil of the North. The 149th had the proud consciousness, under their brave officers, and a gallant son of Onondaga, General Slocum, as chief commander of the first day's engagement and commander of the right wing during the battle, of contributing their share towards the grand victory. !\Ieade states our losses in this series of battles at 2,834 killed, 13,709 wounded, and 6,643 niissing, mainly prisoners; total, 23,186. The Confed- erate loss was about 18,000 killed and wounded. About 1,200 of the Con- federate dead were buried in front of the position occupied by the 3d brig- ade of the 2d division of the i Jth corps, very largely killed by members of that corps. Returning in pursuit of the rebel army, the chase led the 149th for the fourth time through Frederick City. It reached the Rappahannock at Ellis Ford on the 1st of August and remained in camp several weeks. On the i6th of September it was at Raccoon Ford, and on the iSth the division was ordered out to witness the e.vecution of two deserters — the last of its experience in the Army of the Potomac. From Raccoon Ford, on the Rapidan, the iith and 12th corps, under command of General Hooker, were transferred to the Army of the Cumberland. On the 2Sth of September, 1863, the 149th started from Bealton Station by rail for the southwest, and via Nashville reached Murfreesboro on the 7th of October, just in time to be ordered into the intrenchments to repel an attack of rebel cavalry. On the 23d of October it started for the front, reaching the Wauhatchie Valley on the evening of the 28th of October. Here the regi- ment and divison e.xperienced one of the very few night attacks of the war, and a short but bloody and decisive battle was fought about midnight of the first night of their occupation of the valley. The Union forces were victorious, but the 149th suffered severely. Among the killed was the brave and gallant Color-liearer, W'illiani C. I.ill>', who was fatally wounded in the battle and died at liridgeport, .Alabama, a few days afterwards. This victory was one of the most important events of the war, as it effected an entrance for our army into the valley and finally enabled us, by the capture of Lookout Mountain, to open communication with the Union forces at Chattanooga, who were suffering for want of supplies and would soon have been forced to retreat. A lodgment being effected in the valley, the regi- ment and division remained encamped in the vicinity of Kelley's I'ord near the Tennesee river and under the frowning shadow of Lookout Mountain. 312 MENfORiAL History of Syracuse. On the 24th of November occurred the celebrated " Battle above the Clouds." The advance was led by the 2d and 3d brigades of the 2d di- vision, in the latter being the 149th, which added to its already well-estab- lished fame by the capture of four stand of rebel colors, and a number of prisoners, arms and ammunition, but suffering severe losses. The following letter, written on the spot, is a truthful and graphic description of the battle and of the position of the 149th: " The advance was led by the troops of General Geary's division of the 12th corps. The men commenced ascending the mountain over three miles from the front, and, regardless of the rebel picket fire, a line was formed leading from the base of an almost perpendicular ledge of rocks, on the right to about three-fourths of the distance down the mountain. Three lines were formed, the 2d division leading the advance and the 149th occupying the left of the first line. When the order to advance was given, our men started forward with a cheer over the rugged sides of the mountain, totally regardless of any obstacle in their way and almost ignoring the sharp (ire of the rebel infantry who attempted to stop their progress. With an enthusiasm which knew no bounds, they rushed over hills and through gorges, climbing towering rocks, dashing through brushwood and fallen timber, and scarcely stopping even to take prisioners. They swept over the side of the mountain and around its frowning front with the rapidity and force of the whirlwind, completely overcoming and coni|uer- ing every obstacle, both n>ilural and artificial, which attempted to impede their progress. " No military achievement of this or any other war. e.\ceeded for dash and daring, personal brav- ery, contempt of extraordinary obstacles and complete and perfect success, this charge of the 2d division around the point of Lookout Mountain. The rebel forces were literally swept from the mountain side, driven from fastnesses and intrenchments they had considered impregnable, captured in their strongholds, and every vestige of their power swept before us like leaves before the autumn gale." The battle of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge -the following day, and in which the 149th also took an honorable part, was followed by an iinmediate advance of the whole army. On the 27th of November, another severe fight took place at Ringgold, in which the 149th partici- pated and met with severe losses. This engagement resulted in the capture of the village of Ringgold and its occupancy by the Union forces, with an ofiicer of the 149th as Provost Marshal of the captured town. The campaign ending with the battle of Ringgold, our men fell back to their old camping ground at the base of Lookout Mountain, where they remaitied till after New Year's, 1864, enduring severe hardships and almost starvation, in consequence of the impossibility of fordwarding supplies. During this period the 149th was complimented by a public delivery of their captured rebel flags to General Hooker; and after being almost reduced to starvation were removed to Stevenson and remained till spring in preparation for the ne.xt cainpaign. The stay here was a season of comparative ease and festiv- ity ; rations plenty, supplies abundant and labor light. The few inhabi- tants treated them kitidly. Capt. Park Wheeler was detailed to " keep ho- tel," and proved himself no unworthy landlord of the "Soldiers' Home." Among the attractions which rendered the stay in Stevenson pleasant to many of the 149th was the presence of ladies, the wives of several of the officers, who, during this quiet, visited their husbands and friends at camp Operations Around Atlanta. 313 —Mrs. Colonel Ireland, Mrs. Surgeon Kendall, Mrs. Captain Wheeler, and others — whose presence lent a charm to camp life. During the month of April, 1864, the ilth and 12th corps were consoli- dated, forming the 20th, commanded by General Hooker, General Howard, of the I ith, being transferred to the 4th corps, and General Slocum, of the 1 2th, assigned to duty as department commander on the Mississippi River. Whatever feeling the men of the nth corps had on the subject of the con- solidation, we cannot say, but the men of the 12th, to a man, regretted the change, for they had an honest pride in the name and history of that corps. The adoption of the 12th corps badge, a five pointed star, as the insignia of the new corps, however, reconciled them in part to the change. The new corps had three divisions, the first of which was commanded by General Williams, the second by General Geary, and the third by General Butter- lield. The istand 2d divisions were substantially the 1st and 2d divisions of the 1 2th corps, and retained their old badge and color, for which they were grateful. May 2, 1864, began the movement of the troops in the famous Atlanta campaign with General Sherman. Their progress was first interrupted at Resaca where the rebel force under Johnston was concentrated. Howard had entered Dalton on the heels of Johnston's force and pressed him down to Resaca. Sherman at once set on foot a flanking movement to drive him out. Johnston made a counter movement by attacking Hooker and Scho- field on his front and right. He was defeated in the bloody contest which followed. Hooker driving the enemy from several hills, taking four guns and many prisoners. The rebels retreated across the Oostenaula during the night, and our army entered Resaca in triumph next morning. From this time to the final triumphal entrance into Atlanta was a constant series of skirmishes, battles, and active military operations. For nearly one hun- dred days and nights our men were constantly under fire, passing through the battles of Villanow Mill Church, Nickajack Creek, Burnt Hickory, Cal- houn, Dallas, New Hope Church, Cassville, Kingston, Pumpkin Vine Creek, Paices' Ferry, Chattahoochee River, Ackworth, Marietta, Big Shanty Pine, and Kenesaw Mountains. The most severe and disastrous of the campaign, in which the 149th were engaged, was at Peach Tree Creek on the 20th of July, 1864, where a partial surprise was effected, and almost in an instant of time the regiment lost 19 brave and generous soldiers, among whom were Lieutenant-Colonel C. B. Randall and Captain D. J. Lindsay, both gallant officers. Colonel Randall had commanded the regiment in each engagement after Chancellorsville to this time, and the men had great con- fidence in him and felt his loss keenly. No more gallant officers ever com- manded a regiment. During this campaign. General Hooker resigned his position at the head of the corps, and General Slocum, who had commanded the 12th, was ap- 40 314 Memorial History of Syracuse. pointed in his place, arriving just in time to accompany it in the triumphal entry into Atlanta, on the 2d of September. The losses of the 149th dur- ing the campaign amounted to 34 men killed, 138 wounded and 10 missing. But the objective point was gained and the regiment was one of the first to enter Atlanta and hoist the stars and stripes upon the public hall. Colonel Ireland, who commanded the 3d brigade, died shortly after entering Atlanta, and the command devolved upon Colonel Barnum, afterwards promoted to the brevet rank of Brigadier-General, at Savannah, leaving the 149th under the command of Major Grumbach, afterwards promoted to the col- onelcy, June 7, 1865. After refitting the troops and sending the sick and lame to the rear, the commissary wagons were loaded with hard-tack, coffee and sugar, and trust- ing to its own energy and perseverance to subsist upon the country, on the 15th of November the army left Atlanta, to plunge out of sight and hear- ing into the heart of the rebel Confederacy. The famous "march to the sea" had been determined upon. Experience proved that Sherman had not overestimated the abundance of supplies in the country through which the army was to pass, nor miscalculated the capacity of his men to obtain a full share of the necessaries of life. The marching of an army composed of 60,000 infantry and 5,500 cavalry through an interior country of such ex- tent was a scene probably never witnessed before, and must have been an astonishing spectacle to the people of the country through which it passed. Thousands of negroes, sometimes in torchlight processions, followed the army "on the road to freedom." The 149th was with Slocum's wing, which advanced by Covington, Mad- ison and Eatonton, concentrating on Milledgeville, which was entered with- out opposition. Sherman thus far accompanied the 14th corps. Slocum moved out of Milledgeville simultaneously with Howard's advance from Gordon, and concentrated at Sandersville, driving out a small party of Wheeler's cavalry ; thence he followed the Central railroad, breaking it up to the Ogeechee, which he crossed at Louisville, and thence kept southeast, striking for the Savannah river. The 20th army corps, (General William's), including the 149th, was the first to reach Savannah. It passed Morgan's and Carlin's divisions en- camped about ten miles out, and hastened on to the city. On the loth of December, 1864, Savannah was completely beleaguered, and Fort McAllister was on the 13th carried by storm. Hardee, with 15,000 men, evacuated the city on the night of the 20th, escaping across the Savannah river on a pontoon bridge. He was unobserved by our pickets, as the night was dark and windy. Under cover of fire which he had kept up the day previous, he had destroyed the navy yard and two iron clads. Our troops now took possession, the 149th being in advance and raising its flag on the dome of With Sherman's Army. the city hall. The 149th was stationed as provost guard in the southern por- tion of the conquered city, and in this capacity had a season of relaxation and rest from the fatigues of the campaign, mingling in the social life of the city and enjoying balls and other pastimes. A loyal newspaper was printed and edited by Moses Summers, formerly Quartermaster of the 149th, during the stay in Savannah. After being supplied with provisions and clothing, and lea\ing the city in charge of a portion of the 19th corps, Slocum's com- mand was again on the march towards Sister's Ferry. After some deten- tion the 149th regiment crossed the Savannah river on pontoons and en- tered the state of South Carolina. Along the route the enemy had buried torpedoes which exploded and several of Slocum's men were severely wounded. The march through South Carolina involved unusual hardships, the weather having become exceedingly wet, the swamps flooded and the rivers high and swift. Fayetteville, North Carolina, was reached on the I2th of March, 1865. Here the army halted three days, completely destroying the United States arsenal and the costly machinery which had been brought from Harper's Ferry at the time of its capture by the rebels in 1S61. Sherman's movements from this point were very cautiously made. An immense army was concentrating in his front ; Hardee from Savannah and Charleston, Beauregard from Columbia, Cheatham from the Tennessee, with considerable force drawn from North Carolina and her seaward de- fences under Bragg and Hoke, with Wheeler's and Hampton's cavalry, making up a force of not less than 40,000 men, mostly veterans, under the command of the able and wary Joe Johnston. It would no longer answer to move as hitherto; our columns must be kept close up, the corps within easy supporting distance, on peril of surprise and disaster. True to his favorite policy, Sherman, on the 15th of March, pushed four divisions of his left wing, covered by Kilpatrick's cavalry, directly northward to Averys- boro, as a feint on Raleigh ; while Slocum's trains under escort of two di- visions, and the right wing, moved by various roads nearly east, towards Goldsboro, his destination. Sherman was on the left with Slocum, but after the battle of Averj'sboro, had ridden across to the right wing, intent on reaching Goldsboro and meeting General Schofield, when the sound of guns on the left again challenged his attention. Slocum, approaching Bentonville, had been assailed by Johnston with his entire rebel army. The divisions of the right wing were ordered at once to move on rapidly to the assistance of the outnumbered left. Slocum had first encountered Dibbrell's cavalry, which he was driving, when he ran headlong upon the whole Confederate force; the two leading brigades of Carlin's division be- ing hurled back upon the main body, with a loss of three guns and their caissons. Slocum thereupon very properly stood on the defensive, show- ;i6 Memorial History of Syracuse. ing a front of four divisions, and throwing up slight barricades, while Kil- patrick came into action upon the left. Here our left withstood six assaults from Johnston's army, inflicting heavy loss with our artillery, the enemy having brought up little or none. Johnston had hurried to this point by night from Smithfield, expecting to crush Slocum before he could be sup- ported, but was mistaken. Night fell without giving him any ground, and before morning Slocum got up three or four brigades from his wagon trains, among which was the 149th, while Hazen's division of the 15th (Logan's) corps, came up on the right, rendering his position secure. The enemy not risking further attacks, Slocum awaited the arrival of Howard with the entire right wing. In the night Johnston retreated on Smithfield and Raleigh, so precipitately as to leave his pickets and his severely wounded behind. Our total loss here was 191 killed, i,io8 wounded, and 344 missing, and capturing in all 1,625 prisoners, many of them wounded. No further resistance being made, our army moved on to Goldsboro, where it rested and was reclothed, much to the satisfaction of our 149th, after having passed through the tar regions of North Carolina and burned a number of rosin manufactories. From Goldsboro the troops, including the 149th, were marched to Raleigh, where they arrived on the 13th of April. At Smithfield on the morning of the 12th, came the news of the surrender of Lee, which caused tumultuous rejoicing. At Raleigh, on the 29th of April, after the surren- der of Johnston, the order, "On to Richmond," — now more easily executed than earlier in the war— was heard and the army moved forward, reaching the rebel capital on the lOth of May, the 20th corps passing through the principal streets on the nth. Thence the march was continued through the Chickahominy swamps, the 20th corps crossing the Rappahannock at United States Ford, and thence by way of VVarrenton, through Fairfax Station to Alexandria. Soon afterward the 149th, as a part of Sherman's army, participated in the Grand Review at Washington, and was mustered out of the service at Bladensburg, a few miles north of the Capitol, on the I2th of June, 1865. The remnant of the 149th returned home and received a warm welcome from a grateful community who had watched the career of the regiment with pride and satisfaction. It is not too much to say, that it had as varied an experience, and made for itself a record in the war for the Union, as honorable as any regiment in the service. Its losses during the war were about 535 killed, wounded, and missing in action, and about 65 deaths from other causes, making a total of 600. Nearly all the prisoners taken were captured at Chancellorsville, and a large share of those were taken in the dense woods on the picket and skirmish line, where they were left when the main body retired. Organization of the Last Regiment. 317 THE ONE IIUNDREU AND EIGIITV-FI FTII REGIMENT. This regiment was organized in Onondaga and Cortland counties, and was mustered into service on the 22d and 23d of September, 1864. Com- panies A, B, C, D, H, I, and K were from Onondaga county, and the other three, E, F, and G, from Cortland county. The field and staff offlccrs were, Edwin S. Jenney, Colonel ; Gustavus Sniper, Lieutenant-Colonel ; John Leo, Major; Byron Mudge, Adjutant; William Gilbert, Quartermas- ter; Charles VV. Crary, Surgeon ; Gilbert L. Newcomb and William Brad- ford, Assistant Surgeons; Chester W. Hawley, Chaplain. Although this regiment was in the field less than a year, it performed effective and honorable service, its ranks being decimated in several bloody engagements. Previous to its departure for the front it was encamped for a few days in Syracuse, and left for City Point via Fortress Monroe on the 23d of September, arriving there on the 30th. The regiment was immedi- ately ordered into the front line of breastworks before Petersburg, near Warren Station on the City Point railroad. On the 4th of October the 185th was assigned to the 1st brigade, ist division, 5th corps, then under command of General Warren. The division was commanded by Gen. Charles Grififin and the brigade, which included the 198th Pennsylvania, by Gen. John L. Chamberlain. The regiment was encamped near Poplar Grove Church until the i6th of October. While in camp a rebel spy was captured on the picket line of the 185th. He proved to be a prisoner of importance, an engineer, and bearing on his per- son a map of the Union lines and defenses from City Point to the extreme left. Offers of money for his release were of course refused, and he was afterwards tried, found guilty and shot. On the i6th the division was moved up to the Squirrel Level road, where a winter camp was established. On the 27th, a movement was made against the Southside railroad, in which an engagement occurred, the 185th taking an honorable part; three of its men were wounded. The same camp was again occupied after the return and nothing occurred to disturb the routine of camp life in the regiment until the "th day of December, when a demonstration was made against the Weldon railroad, which was an important line of communication over which supplies were transported to Lee's army. The expedition consisted of Warren's (5th) corps, Mott's di- vision of the 2d corps, and Gregg's mounted division. The railroad was destroyed for about twenty miles and a large quantity of rebel supplies cap- tured. In this expedition the 185th bore a conspicuous part. The regiment returned and went into camp near Park Station, where 3i8 Memorial History of Syracuse. comfortable winter quarters were soon built from the pine forest wherein the camp was situated. A commodious log church was built and covered with tent cloth supplied by the benevolent Christian Commission. Here the regiment remained until the 5th of February, 1865. On the 4th of Februar\', orders were received to be in readiness to march at a moment's notice and the next morning, (a Sabbath) before day- light, the division was ordered to take up the march towards Hatcher's Run. In the afternoon of that day occurred what is known as the second battle of Hatcher's Run, in which the iS^th did noble service and suffered severely. During the early part of the engagement, the 185th was held in reserve ; but about the middle of the afternoon the brigade was ordered for- ward to relieve the 2d division of the 5th corps. This division occupied a position in front of a piece of woods. Beyond it was an open field upon the opposite side of which were some buildings and a sudden declivity, which was occupied by the enemy, serving as an intrenchment. General Ayres' division had here suffered terribly. As the 1st brigade marched for nearly half a mile along the road through the woods, it was met by the wounded fresh from the bloody carnage, some with wounds hastily bandaged and others )et untouched b}' the surgeon or in the jaws of death. This experience was a trying one to the men of the regiment — more so, perhaps, than the shock of battle itself; but the brave men, many of them with blanched cheek and tightly-closed lips, pressed forward. The regiment had scarcely formed a line when a teriffic fire was opened by the enemy. Colonel Sickel was one of the first wounded and turned the command over to Colonel Jenney. He, realizing the hazard of attempting to hold his exposed position against the enemy in his covered attitude, ordered the brigade forward. The order was obeyed in excellent form, through a galling fire. The field was won, though at considerable sacrifice. Among the wounded was Capt. John Listman, whose leg was afterwards amputated at the hip. Adjutant Mudge was also wounded here and never returned to the field. The advanced position was held until darkness, when the brigade retired to the main line. After the engagement Colonel Jenney sent Major Bush to establish a line of pickets on the right flank. While performing this duty, and when scarcely out of speaking distance of his regiment, the Major and a squad of men were captured. Major Bush was sent to Libby Prison and the regiment lo.st his valuable services. The brigade was warmly com- mended by General Griffin for its gallant service; and the praise was fairly earned. The regiment again went into camp and the second day after the battle Colonel Jenney left the organization on account of the following circum- stances : When he was commissioned as Colonel of the 185th he was Major Batti.k at Hatcher's Run. 319 of the 3d New York artillery and acting as Provost-Judge of North Carolina, stationed at New Berne. After receiving his promotion, he had been taken prisoner by the enemy and paroled ; with this status he was mustered as Colonel and took the iSsth to the front, expecting to obtain an immediate exchange. But while he regarded himself as bound by his parole, the War Department held the opinion that the officer who had captured him had no authority to parole him, and that Colonel Jenney was therefore to be re- garded as an "escaped "and not a "paroled" prisoner. In this situation he remained during his period of service with the regiment. After endeav- oring in vain to induce the Secretary of War to relieve him from the re- sponsibility of his unfortunate position by an order declaring that he was not properly paroled and sending him on duty, he was forced to seek re- lief by resignation. This resignation, sent in about the middle of January, had been accepted and an order honorably discharging him had been re- ceived by General Griffin just previous to the Hatcher's Run engagement; but at Colonel Jenney's request it was retained by the General until after the advance was made, when it was turned over to him. Lieut.-Col. Gus- tavus Sniper was at once promoted and bravely commanded the regiment during the remainder of its term of service. On the 25th of March the division was ordered out before daylight to oppose an attack of the rebels on Fort Steadman, then occupied by the 14th New York artillery, and forming a portion of the lines encircling Pe- tersburg. The enemy made a determined assault with the purpose of sev- ering the lines at that point ; but the attempt failed and the rebels were driven back with heavy losses in killed and wounded, and about 2,000 pris- oners. About 3 o'clock in the afternoon an attack was made on the extreme left, involving the 185th, in which the Union arms were victorious. The regiment returned to camp at Hatcher's Run and remained there until the 29th, at which date Grant had determined upon an advance of the left wing of his army. Marching orders were received on the 28th, the movement to begin at 3 o'clock the next morning. The 5th and 2d corps moved out southward until they crossed the Run, and then turned north- ward towards the enemy's right. The 2d corps crossed the Run at the Vaughn road, while Warren with the 5th corps crossed four miles below, where the stream unites with Gravelly Run and becomes Rowanty Creek, and then moved u]) along Quaker Road towards the Boydtown plank road, the 185th in the advance. At 2 o'clock Warren's corps reached Lewis's Farm, where the enemy was met and an engagement followed. This was the first assault in the four days battle which resulted in the destruction of Lee's army. The battle was a memorable one in the history of the regi- ment. Coming suddenly upon the rifle pits of the enemy, the contest was at close quarters. The Color-Bjarer, Sergeant B. II. Wilson, was twice 320 Memorial History of Syracuse. wounded. The Sergeant of the color-company, William H. Tyler, in whose hands the colors were then placed, was killed. Herman Reiss, one of the color-guard, then seized the colors, but was immediately shot in the hand. Captain D. N. Lathrop, of Company D, next grasped the flag, but was severely wounded in the foot. At this juncture Colonel Sniper seized the colors, shouted to his men to follow him, and the final charge was made. For his personal bravery Colonel Sniper was brevetted Brigadier-General and the ist brigade was praised on all sides. In the short period of this engagement the regiment lost at least twenty-five per cent, of its available material. The killed numbered 30 and the wounded 180, about 10 of the latter mortally. The dead were buried on the spot. The survivors look back upon this sudden, sharp " fight of the saw-dust pile," as it was pop- ularly denominated, as to a horrible dream. The regiment stood its ground valiantly, and only fell back when ordered to re-form its line. The men were thenceforth veterans in earnest. During the 30th and 31st important events transpired, resulting in se- vere fighting for the possession of the White Oak road, during which the enemy was repulsed, losing heavily in prisoners, and Sheridan's forward movement to Five Forks, after much hard fighting. The battle of Five Forks, one of the most prominent engagements that were instrumental in ter- minating the rebellion, was fought on Saturday, April 1st, beginning in the afternoon and continuing until nearly daylight the next morning. In this engagement the 5th corps was on the right and in the hottest of the con- flict. Several officers and many privates of the 185th were killed or wounded, and the regiment added to its already e.xalted reputation for bravery and heroism. The victory won in this battle was a most decisive one, and told clearly that the rebellion, as far as it was represented by Lee's army, was substantially crushed. As darkness approached on the 1st, the batteries along the entire line in front of Petersburg, opened a bombardment which filled the heavens with thunder and lighted up the night with its glare. The rebel works were vigorously assaulted on Sunday morning, the 2d, and the outer lines carried while the 6th corps, with two divisions of Ord's, drove everything before them up the Boydtown road at dawn ; then wheeled to the left and swept down in rear of the rebel works, capturing guns and thousands of prisoners. Other equally important successes were achieved at other points along the lines, that were rapidly drawing in toward Petersburg and Richmond, and admonishing General Lee that his doom was at hand. So evident had this fact become to him that he telegraphed Jefferson Davis, in Richmond at 10 o'clock a. m. on Sunday : " My lines are broken in three places. Rich- mond must be evacuated this evening." Richmond was evacuated that night. Before noon of the next day the fall of the capital of the Confederacy, that had cost so many lives, was flashed to all parts of the world. The Surrender of Lek. 321 The concluding operations of the campaign, ending at Appomattox on the 9th of April, need not be detailed here. Griffin and Ord, with the 5th, 24th, and one division of the 25th corps, by extraordinary marching, reached Appomattox on the morning of the 8th. Since the evacuation of Richmond and Petersburg, the 185th had performed some of the severest marching of the war, interspersed with skirmishing and fighting, often with- out food and with very little rest. A correspondence had begun between Generals Grant and Lee on the 7th, and the capitulation was completed at Appomatto.x on the 9th. The position of the two confronting armies on the morning of surrender is thus graphically described in Greeley's history of the rebellion : "Sheridan was with his cavalry near the Court house, when the army of Virginia made its last charge. By his order his troopers, who were in line of battle, dismounted, giving ground gradually while showing a steady front, so as to allow our weary infantry time to form and take position. This effected, the horsemen moved swiftly to the right and mounted, re- vealing lines of solid infantry in battle array, before whose wall of gleam- ing bayonets the astonished enemy recoiled in blank despair, as Sheridan and his troopers, passing briskly around the rebel left, prepared to charge the confused reeling mass. A white flag was now raised by the enemy and advanced in front of the 185th regiment. Information was then received from the enemy offering to surrender. Riding over to Appomattox Court House, General Sheridan was met by General Gordon, who requested a sus- pension of hostilities, with the assurance that negotiations were then pend- ing between Generals Grant and Lee for a capitulation." Lieutenant Hiram Clark, of company G, in the 185th, was the last man killed in the army of Virginia.* He was in command of the skirmish line at Appomatto.x and while the flag of truce was being shown, was struck by a rebel shell, which nearly cut him in twain. He was buried under a cherry tree near the Court House. After the surrender, the 185th was detailed with some other regiments to take charge of the rebel prisoners and look after the captured arms and munitions ; this duty occupied several days. The arms and ammunition were sent to Burkesville. The 185th remained three days in camp, and were then ordered to Wil- son Station, on the Southside railroad, where they remained until May 1st, marching thence to Manchester, across the James river from Richmond. On the 5th of May orders were received to march to Alexandria ; starting on the 6th they crossed the Pamunkey river on pontoons, marched through Bowling Green, crossing the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg, and arrived * It has been often stated and printed that Lieutenant Clark was the last man killed in the war of the rebellion. This cannot, of course, be true, as fighting in the southwest was continued some time after Lee's surrender. The killing of the last man in the war occurred in Texas. 41 322 Memorial History of Syracuse. at Arlington Heights on the 13th, after marching nearly all night. After participating in the grand review of the army by the President in Washing- ton on the 23d of May, the regiment returned to camp and was mustered out of service on the 30th. On the following day at 3 o'clock p. m., they left Arlington for home, arriving in Syracuse on the 3d day of June, where they received a generous welcome. The regiment was paid off at Camp White on the loth of June by Major Littlefield and was finally disbanded the next day. THE FIFTEENTH CAVALRY. This cavalry regiment was raised in the counties of Onondaga, Ontario, Orange, Oneida, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Genesee, Erie, and Tompkins. It was mustered into the service for three years from August 8, 1863. It was consohdated with the 6th New York cavalry June 17, 1865, and the new organization was designated the 2d New York Provisional Cavalry. The regiment was an important one to Onondaga county and the city of Syracuse, it having removed the necessity of a draft in 1863. Its organiza- tion proceeded slowly, but late in the year Colonel Robert M. Richardson succeeded in securing an order from the War Department granting a bounty of $300 to each enlisted man, which gave an impetus to enlistments. The following officers in the regiment were from Onondaga county : Robert M. Richardson, Colonel ; Augustus J. Root, Lieutenant-Colonel; Michael Auer, Captain Co. A, promoted to Major; J. H. Wood, Major; F. Mann, Adjutant; Edward R. Trull, Quartermaster; Isaac O. Fillmore, Chaplain. Captains Thomas G. Putnam, JefTerson C. Bigelow, George M. EUicott, John F. Moshell. First Lieutenants George N. Truesdell, Wil- liam P. Shearer, Joseph Herron, Joseph LaBeff. Second Lieutenants Or- son R. Colgrove, Charles G. Hampton, Burritt N. Hurd, William Stanton, Edgar L. Miller, Edward Pointer, Lorenzo Hatch, James Holahan, John W. Frazer, John Gallagher, Levi Kraft, Peter Boehm, Anthony Dever, and Emory Ormsby; the latter two were not commissioned. Cortland Clark, Commissary, was also from Onondaga county. The history of an honorable and active cavalry regiment cannot be written in a limited space. For this reason, and because a large part of its strength was from other localities, this organization must be accorded only brief mention here. The regiment participated in the following battles and engagements : Lynchburg, (Hunter's raid) 1864 ; New Market, (under Sigel) 1864; Winchester, July 10, 1864; Piedmont, (near Stanton); cap- ture of Martinsburg, and the series of battles about Petersburg, resulting in the capture of Lee's army. The Fiftv-First Re(;imknt. 323 MILITIA.— TIIK FIFTY-FIRST RFfUMENT. In 1S43 the village of Syracuse was without a military organization and there was great consternation in October of that year, as ex-President John Quincy Adams was expected to pass through the place on his way east. Ex-President Adams was escorted from Auburn by the Auburn Guard and Syracuse was jealous of its sister village's possession of so fine a body of men, as well as ashamed of its own lack of the .soldier element. As a conse- quence, a few of the public spirited villagers interested them.selves on Sep- tember 4, 1843. The "Citizens" Corps" was organized and attached to the 147th regiment of infantry, with Isaac T. Minard as Captain and Elijah T. Hayden as Lieutenant. The company was attached as a flank company of artillery, but by permission of the Commander-in-Chief was permitted to act as infantry. The order read as follows : State of New York, Headquarters, Albany, September 4, 1843. General Orders: — ^The Commander-in-Chief hereby directs that a new company of artillery be organized and attached to the 147th regiment of infantry. Py order of the Commander-in-Chief. A. C. NlVEN, Adjutant-General. As the State supplied only muskets at that time, it was necessary that funds should be procured for the armament by subscription and so far as could be correctly ascertained the following men each gave $25 toward the fund: Gen. Amos P. Granger, Philo N. Rust, John Wilkinson, Lewis H. Redfield, Horace White, Hamilton White, Thomas T. Davis, Samuel Larned, Harvey Loomis, Horace Parmlee, Philo D. Mickles, Thomas B. Fitch, Charles B. Sedgwick, Sylvester F. Pierce and Edward B. Wicks. The names of the men on the original roll were signed to the following agreement : " We, the undersigned, do hereby agree to organize ourselves as a mili- tary company in the village of Syracuse, as soon as forty men sign the agreement :" Syracuse, July 31, 1843. Isaac T. Minard, John W. Phillips, \V. L. Davis. W. Johnson, J. S. Smith, J. Starin, Jr., D. S. Raymond, J. W. Vale, Charles Leonard, J. C. Eaton, S. Groff, T. O'Reilly, W. S. Wood, John R. Robertson, Henry Agnew, H. Cole, J. G. Willard, Joseph Galvin, W. H. Perry, John A. Hillis, J. Baldwin, M. M. Hoye, J. Tripp, A. H. Squires, Simon DeGraiT, S. E. Kingsley, F. T. Hayden, Jas. R. Lawrence, Jr., J. S. Hoyt, R. B. Williams, John Ames, F. H. Williams, David S. Geer, P. M. Bromley, Samuel P. Geer, R. S. Blossom, Garret Putnam, Hiram Tyler, J. I. Bradley, Wm. D. I 324 Memorial History of Syracuse. Lewis, Edward J. Foster, Robert D. Phillips, James Noxon, D. D. Denton. On October 14, 1843, the Germans met and organized a company under the name of the Syracuse LaFayette Grenadier Guard, of which Sergt. John Graff was the originator. Jacob Pfohl was elected Captain, Adam Listman, First Lieutenant, and Daniel Gilcher, Second Lieutenant. On March i, 1849, commissions were issued to Lewis Springer, Captain ; Adam Oot, First Lieutenant ; Lawrence Roesell, Second Lieutenant, of the Washington Artillerj'. In August, 1849, 3. company was organized in Liverpool, comprising about forty men ; but they were never uniformed and soon disbanded. The National Guard, an Irish company, was next organized on July 25, 1850, with Edwin R. Prendergast, Captain ; William S. Thompson, First Lieutenant ; Nicholas Downs, Second Lieutenant. These companies, aside from the Liverpool company and one in Pom- pey, were well equipped and uniformed and were the pride of Syracuse for a number of years. The companies in Liverpool and Pompey, with these other four, constituted the regimental organization. Up to this time there had been no regimental formation and the first record of such to be found is a communication from Robert H. Morris, A. A. G., enclosing circulars containing directions for commandants of company districts, and remarking that the 51st regiment did not appear to be fully organized. May 14, 1851, Major Wm. C. Brown, commanding this district by appointment, re- ceived another communication referring to the " unorganized state of the regiment" and stating that no record of the boundaries of the 51st regi- ment was to be found, and that on the arrival of the Inspector-General and Commander-in-Chief the matter would be adjusted. On July 29, 1851, the 51st regiment was formed and commissions were issued to Origen Vandenburg, Colonel; Charles C. Richardson, Lieutenant- Colonel; Henry P. Adams, Major. The regiment consisted of Co, A, Citi- zen's Corps, Captain Isaac T. Minard; Co. B, Lafayette Grenadier Guard, Captain Jacob Pfohl ; Co. C, National Guard, Captain Edwin R. Prender- gast ; and Co. L, Washington Artillery, Captain Lewis Springer. The law then required the organization of ten uniformed companies in each regimental district and an enrollment of all persons liable to military duty. Those who performed the duty received an allowance per day ; those who did not were required to pay an annual tax of 75c. up to January I, 1853, and after that date 50c., to constitute a fund for paj'ment of those doing duty. This regimental district was divided into company districts August 21, 185 I. Each ward of the city formed a company district; the towns of DeWitt and Manlius, district No. 5 ; Pompey and LaFayette, dis- trict No. 6; Onondaga and Marcellus, district No. 7; Geddes and Van- Buren, district No. 8. The division was made by Origen V^andenburg, as The Fifty-First Regiment. 325 Colonel of the 51st. Kellogg's Sax Horn Band furnished the military music in those days. On November 14, 1851, the 24th brigade boundary was changed so that the town of Lysander was included in this regimental district. On the 18th of October a Captain's commission was issued to James Washburn, of Man- lius, and on December 6, William Henderson received a commission as Captain of a company in Otisco, but no record exists that either Captain ever commanded a company, and no such companies ever participated in the parades of the 51st regiment. During the year 1852 military affairs were active. On January 5, Mat- thias Britton, of Onondaga, was commissioned Captain of a company that was never uniformed and whose paper existence simply served as a count in the regimental district. On the 9th of January, the Onondaga Light Guard was organized, with Charles L. Chandler as Captain ; Francis P. Minier, First Lieutenant ; George W. Reisinger, Second Lieutenant. In July, Captain Chandler resigned in favor of Lieutenant Minier, who held command four years, when he resigned and removed west. April 3d, a meeting was called to consider the question of organizing a cavalry company, and on the 7th of the month the company was formed, with Alfred Hovey, Captain ; Henry D. Hatch, First Lieutenant; James L. Graham, Second Lieutenant. The company was known as the Syracuse Light Dragoons. At this time, military organizations were compelled to furnish their own armories, and the Syracuse Common Council refused to make any appropriation for that purpose; but the military companies soon found an opportunity to retaliate. Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot, visited Syracuse, and the city authorities requested the military to participate in a reception to the distinguished guest. The request was promptly refused ; but the various companies finally turned out on their own account. The arms for the Cavalry were received in July and a vacant lot between East Water and Washington streets, east of Grape street, was selected for a drill and parade ground. On July 16, the 51st was provided with field ofificers as follows: Col- onel, Origen Vandenburg; Lieutenant-Colonel, Charles C. Richardson; Major, Henry P. Adams ; Adjutant, J. Dean Hawley ; Engineer, J. I-"orman Wilkinson ; Surgeon, Dr. Joshua G. Bigelow. The law at that time re- quired the militia to drill regularly and they met for this purpose in the Shelden block, Maj. John J. Peck, U. S. A., acting as drill master. On August 2, commissions were issued to Harry W. Adams, as Cap- tain ; Truman Peck, First Lieutenant : Wm. WinchiU, Second Lieutenant of a company in Lysander. The commissions form the only matter on record pertaining to the company. The first regular encampment of the 51st was held in the first week of October on the grounds of Captain Welch, near the Messina Springs road, 326 Memorial History of Syracuse. back of the present dwelling of C. H. Sedgwick, and was named Camp Peck in honor of Major Peck. October i6, General Scott was a guest of the city and the regiment turned out in his honor. In 1853 Colonel Vandenburg resigned and Lieut.-Col. Charles C. Rich- ardson was elected to the vacancy. Capt. Isaac T. Minard, of the Citizens' Corps, was elected Lieutenant-Colonel and Capt. Jacob Pfohl, of the Gren- adier Guard, was elected Major. July II, the Citizens' Corps, Co. A, elected E. L. Walrath as Cap- tain, vice Minard. In accordance with a brigade order an encampment was held from September 22 until September 26, at which time the 51st was officered as follows: Colonel, Charles C. Richardson; Lieutenant- Colonel, Isaac T. Minard; Major, Henry P. Adams; Adjutant, J. Dean Hawley ; Engineer, J. Forman Wilkinson; Surgeon, Joshua G. Bigelow; Chaplain, W. Bliss Ashley; Paymaster, Thomas B. Heermans; Sergt.- Major, James McMath. The companies were commanded as follows : Co. A, Citizens' Corps, Captain Walrath; Lieutenants Harrington and Brower ; Co. B, Gren- adier Guard, Captain Listman ; Lieutenants Ohneth and Gilcher; Co. C, National Guard, Captain Prendergast ; Lieutenants Downs and Booth ; Co. D, Onondaga Light Guard, Captain Minier; Lieutenants Tuttle and Lawrence ; Co. L, Washington Artillery, Captain Roesell ; Lieutenants Zimmerman and Schmeer; Co. R, Light Dragoons, Captain Hovey ; Lieu- tenants Hatch and Graham. Camp Onondaga was located on what was then known as the Colonel Johnson farm, embracing some forty acres of ground, which has since been divided into that handsome portion of the city north of West Onondaga street and now known as the Kellogg tract. The troops present were, aside from the 51st regiment, the Oswego Guard, Bruce Guard, Cleveland (Ohio) Light Artillery, Rochester City Dragoons, Rochester Union Grays, Rochester Union Guard, Rochester Grenadiers, Rochester Citizens' Corps, Canaseraga Light Infantry, Truxton Light Guard, Virgil Guard and the Utica Citizens' Corps. Governor Horatio Seymour was present and re- viewed the troops. During the fall a company from Canastota belonging to the 42d regi- ment was transferred to the 51st, entering as Co. G, Bruce Guard, Cap- tain, Joseph C. Irish. Early in the spring of 1854 Col. Charles C. Richardson resigned and Lieut.-Col. Isaac T. Minard was elected to the vacancy and Robert M. Richardson was elected Lieutenant-Colonel, vice Minard. In the fall a small encampment was held at Baldwinsville at which dis- cipline was strictly maintained, as this was the first thorough working en- campment held. The Fifty-First Regiment. 327 Tlie year 1855 was unimportant save in regimental changes. In Au- gust Adjutant J. Dean Hawley was promoted to Major, and Roger W. Pease was appointed Adjutant. Capt Nicholas Downs, of Co. C, Na- tional Guard, resigned and John Radigan was elected to the vacancy. On the i6th of the month Lieut-Col Robert M. Richardson was appointed Brigadier-General and in September Morris H. Church was appointed Quartermaster. On September I I a new company was formed at Pompey Hill, with Matthias Berry as Captain. This company was fully armed and equipped and attached to the Fifty-first as Co. F. In January, 1856, Major J. Dean Hawley was commissioned Lieutenant- Colonel, vice R. M. Richardson, promoted, and F. B Curtis, Major, vice J. Dean Hawley. In August the Light Guard changed its name to the Syracuse Grays. In February, 1857, Roger \V. Pease was elected First Lieutenant of the Grays Adam Listman resigned as Captain of the Grenadier Guard and Jacob Brand was elected to the vacancy. Adam Gilcher, First Lieutenant, and Jacob Grassman, Second Lieutenant. In June a new company was formed with Peter Ohneth as Captain and John Listman, F"irst Lieutenant. This company was composed entirely of Germans and attached to the Fifty- first as Co. H, Hawley Guard. This same month Lieut. R. W. Pease, of the Grays, resigned and George F. Chapman was elected in his place. July 9 Co. R, Light Dragoons, elected James L Graham, Captain; Silas Titus, First Lieutenant; and John E. Moschell, Second Lieutenant. In Oc- tober Captain Walrath of Co. A, Citizens' Corps, resigned, and J. Mosher Brower was elected Captain. In November Colonel Minard resigned com mand of the Fifty-first, and in December Reuben Wood was elected First Lieutenant of Co A, Citizens' Corps. A public meeting was held on the 15th of February, 1858, to consider the erection of an armory, for which a certain sum had been granted from the surplus of the funds belonging to the State Arsenal in New York city. The first appropriation to Syracuse was $4,000, which was afterwards in- creased $1,000; to this the city added $400 toward the erection of a build- '"g. $25 for grading the park, and presented the ground to the State. Many citizens also contributed to the fund, raising the aggregate sum to $8,275. The archithct of the building was H. N. White; the master ma- son was David Wilcox; and Abraham Austin did the carpenter work. Gen. B. F. Bruce, Chairman of the Armory Commission, supervised the letting and construction. On the 19th of April Joseph E. Masters was elected First Lieutenant, and Milo W. Locke, Second Lieutenant of Co. D, Syracuse Grays. Cap- tain Radigan resigned from Co. C, and a regular promotion resulted in making Dennis Driscoll, Captain ; Martin Hogan, First Lieutenant; Mi- 328 Memorial History of Syracuse. chael Giblin, Second Lieutenant. Captain Sclinauber, of the Washington Artillery, resigned in April, and at an election on May 7 John Louis was chosen. On the 2Sth of the same month Adjutant R. W. Pease resigned and Morris H. Church was appointed. In July I'v. W. Talbot was elected Captain of Co. F, Pompey Guard, vice Berry, and in August E. R. Gris- wold was appointed Adjutant, vice Church, and David l-^. Barr, Chaplain, vice W. Bliss Ashley. September 9th the regiment went into camp at On- ondaga Valley. November 20 Colonel Hawley resigned and Lieutenant- Colonel Walrath was made Colonel. Morris H. Church became Lieuten- ant-Colonel, and George A. Ostrander was appointed Adjutant. On the 5th of January, 1859, Micliael Giblin was elected First Lieuten- ant of Co. C, vice Hogan resigned, and on the 15th Martin McCarthy was elected Second Lieutenant, vice Giblin. On the same day the Washington Artillery elected Francis Mahler, Captain, vice Louis proniotid to Major of the regiment. R. W. Pease, Surgeon, resigned, and Alonzo R. Morgan was appointed to the vacancy in March. Captain Chandler, Co. D, resigned, and John Schnauber was elected in April. First Lieutenant Zimmerman, of Co. L, resigned, and Jacob Schnieer was elected. Harney Becker, Pay- master of the regiment, resigned, and on May I Alonzo B. Caldwell was appointed ; and Thomas S. Truair received the appnintment of Surgeon's Mate. May 20th Second Lieutenant Bradley, Co. G, Bruce Guard, re- sio^ned and Charles Grunow was elected. On the ist of June H. A. Bar- num was appointed Engineer of the regiment, vice E. B. Griswold. June 3d Silas H. Chesebrough was elected Second Lieutenant of Co. R, Light Dra- goons. In the same month H. A. Barnum was ekcted Second Lieutenant Co. D. On the i6tli uf September the new Armor)- was dedicated, Col. I. T. Minard delivering an address. A review and inspection of the regiment was held by Gen. R. M. Richardson, the evening closing with a grand ball in the Armory. In i860 the regimental changes were as follows: In January, First Lieut. Joseph E. Masters, Co. D, Syracuse Grays, resigned, and Second Lieut. H. A. Barnum was promoted, while John G. Butler was elected to the Second Lieutenancy. E. B. Griswold resigned as Quartermaster of th° 51st, and Daniel J. Halstead was appointed. May 2d First Lieut. Charles E Grunow was elected Captain of Co. G, Bruce Guard, 7'tce Cap- tain Irish resigned, and Ephraim Richardson was elected Second Lieuten- ant. In September the company at Central Square (E), Central Square Guard, Captain Diefendorf, transferred from the S2d Regiment to the 51st, was disbanded, and the lOth of the month a new company was formed, with Gustavus Sniper as Captain, Hiram H. Henderson as F^irst Lieutentant, and J. M. Christian, Second Lieutenant. This was attached to the 51st as Co. E, and in honor of Allen Munroe called themselves the Munore Cadets. Officers of the Fittv-First Rkcimf.nt. 329 Captain Brower, of the Citizens' Corps, was succeeded by Morris H. Church: First Lieut. Reuben Wood by Augustus W. Field, who was suc- ceeded by Abel G. Cook, and Third Lieut. R. M. Beecher. by James E. Doran ; Ira Wood was made Orderly Sergeant, vice C. B. Randall. On the 24th the Zouaves, the third name borne by Co. D, appeared in Zouave uniform. In December, long range muskets were substituted for the form- er arms. Captain Mahler, Co. L, Washington Artillery, was succeeded by John Kirsch, and Xavier Zett elected Second Lieutenant. Chaplain D. E. Barr removed from the district and was succeeded by John B. King. No sooner had the rebellion broken out in 1861 than the 51st offered its services (April 15) to aid in the war for the Union, but the act of April 16 prevented its acceptance. This circumstance was influential in the organi- zation of the Old Twelfth, the first regiment sent from this county to aid in putting down the rebellion. A very large number of the 51st joined that organization, an account of which is given on a former page of this work. This depleted the 51st to such a degree that efforts were immediately made to fill the ranks of the regiment, and the changes in the personelle of the officers during the year resulted as follows : Co. A, Citizens' Corps, Orrin Welch, Captain ; A. W. Field, First Lieu- tenant ; Abel G. Cook, Second Lieutenant. Co. D, Zouaves, (Davis Light Guard,) Horatio N. White, Captain ; Charles H. George, First Lieutenant; D. N. Lathrop, Second Lieutenant. Co. G, Bruce Guard. Charles E. Grunow, First Lieutenant; J. H. Mor- rison, Second Lieutenant. Co. B, Grenadier Guard, Abraham Gilcher, Captain ; Jacob Grassman, First Lieutenant ; Charles Simon, Second Lieutenant. Co. C, National Guard, Michael Giblin, Captain. In July the regiment's field officers were: J. Dean Hawley, Colonel, elected for the second time ; John Schnauber, Lieutenant-Colonel ; Peter Ohneth, Major; Alfred Wilkinson, Engineer; Daniel O'Hara, Quarter- master; Edward C. Fellows, Paymaster. The officers of Co. H, Hawley Guard, were John Listman, Captain; Frederick Schug, First Lieutenant; Henry Brown, Second Lieutenant. On the 1 2th of August, a new company— Co. F, Light Infantry — was organized in Pompey, with Earl Chapin as Captain ; Thomas E. Vischer, First Lieutenant ; Austin B. F^rench, Second Lieutenant. In September, Co. C, James E. Doran was made Captain. A little later he joined the army and Timothy Sullivan was elected Captain. Co. D changed its name to the Davis Light Guard. Subsequent changes in the officers of the regiment are summarized as follows ; 1862. — Charles E. Crouse, of Canastota, was elected Captain of Co. G ; James Randall, First Lieutenant Co. C ; Nicholas Grumbach, Captain Co. 42 330 Memorial History of Syracuse. E, vice Gustavus Sniper ; E. L. Walrath, Major, vice Ohneth, resigned ; Benedict Haberle, Captain Co. B ; Peter Knaul, First Lieutenant; Charles Simon, Second Lieutenant. Seymour H. Stone, Second Lieutenant Co. A, vice Abel G. Cook, resigned. John Zankel, Captain Co. E ; F. H. Bremen, First Lieutenant ; Peter Pfohl, Second Lieutenant. 1863. — Co. E, Gustavus Sniper, Captain, vice John Zankel. May 27 Gustavus Sniper was elected Lieutenant-Colonel of the regiment, and Edward C. Fellows, Major. In June a change was made in the regimental district. The 24th brigade was reorganized and John A. Green, jr., was made Brigadier-General. The organization confined the territory of the 24th brigade to Oswego and On- ondaga counties, thus throwing out of the regiment Co. G, of Canastota. The other changes for this year were as follows : Co. D, Henry C. Thompson, Captain ; D. N. Lathrop, First Lieutenant ; Theodore RL Barber, Second Lieutenant. Co. E, Michael Auer, Captain ; George Pfohl, Second Lieutenant. In July four new companies were attached to the 5 1st : The Union Guard, Capt. J. C. Bennett; Woodrufif Zouaves, Capt. C. W. Jordan ; Alvord Corps, (First Ward) Captain Patterson ; Seymour Guard, Capt. John F. Pease. July 14, 1863, during the New York draft riot. Colonel Hawley was ordered to hold the regiment in readiness to march at an hour's notice. On the 17th the regiment proceeded to Binghamton, but were ordered back to Syracuse on the 18th. Co. B elected officers in September and Peter Knaul was made Captain ; Charles Simon, First Lieutenant. Co. E elected Henry C. AUewelt Captain in December. 1864. — At an election in February, Co. C chose James Randall, Captain ; John Connelly, First Lieutenant ; Jeremiah Leamy, Second Lieutenant. Co. D, D. N. Lathrop, Captain ; T. M. Barber, First Lieutenant ; Chauncey Hamilton, Second Lieutenant. Co. G elected Byron Gilbert, Captain ; Fred Gaynor, First Lieutenant ; Adelbert D. Hills, Second Lieutenant. Co. I, Andrew H. Green, Captain; Michael Foley, Second Lieutenant. Co. A, John W. Sherman, First Lieutenant, vice A. W. F"ield ; D'Estaine Remington, Second Lieutenant, vice S. H. Stone. Co. B, Charles Simon, Captain ; Peter Pfohl, First Lieutenant. Co. G, Garrett Doyle, Captain, vice Gilbert. Co. D, Chauncey Hamilton, Captain ; Frank Rosenbush, First Lieutenant; John T. Bon, Second Lieutenant. Co. F, Peter Smith, Captain; Fred Rose, Second Lieutenant. Co. E, Joseph Sniper, Captain. Co. F, Woodruff Zouaves, changed their name to Westcott Zouaves, in honor of Mayor Westcott. The Alvord Corps, (Patterson Guard) became the Salina Guard, and the Grenadiers became the Comstock Guard. Co. E, Henry Wane, Second Lieutenant. Co. H, Fred Schug, Captain; William Volmer, First Lieutenant. On the 15th of October E. C. Fellows Oi-KiciAL Changes in the Fifty-First Regiment. 331 was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel, and Orrin Welch was elected Major of the re<^iment. The appointments were vStiles M. Rust, Engineer; H. D. Didama, Surgeon ; C. W. Snow, Assistant Surgeon ; G. W. Carpenter, Quartermaster. 1865.— In January, Co. A elected J. W. Sherman, Captain, and C. C. Lott, First Lieutenant. Co. G, William S. Patterson, Captain, for the second time, as he was the first Captain of the company. Co. D, Elisha B. George, First Lieutenant : Norman W. Smith, Second Lieutenant. Co. K, Asa C. Jones, Captain. Co. I, Lester Caldwell, Captain. 1866.— Co. L W. H. Hamilton, First Lieutenant; John McDonald, Second Lieutenant. On the 3d of May Charles W. Jordan was elected Major of the regiment. Co. G, John Harvey, Captain; Charles Pierce, Second Lieutenant. Co. F, Peter Smith, Captain ; Frederick Woese, First Lieutenant. Co. H, William Volmer, Captain. Co. D, Norman W. Smith, Second Lieutenant. Co. E, Frederick Miller, First Lieutenant; John Mower, Second Lieutenant. Co. R, Peter Reilley, Second Lieuten- ant. On the 1st day of July, John W. Yale was appointed Quartermaster ; Valentine G. Edwards, Commissary of Subsistence. Co. H elected Frank Becker, Second Lieutenant, and later elected Phillip Schug to the same office, vice Becker, resigned. 1868. — On the 15th of June, Gustavus Sniper was elected Colonel of the 51st, vice ]. D. Hawley resigned, and Capt. James Randall was made Lieutenant-Colonel. Co. A elected John P. Phillips First Lieutenant, vice C. C. Lott, resigned, and Judson B. Crow, Second Lieutenant, vice D'Es- taine Remington, resigned. Co. C, John Connolly, Captain ; Jeremiah Leamy, First Lieutenant; John Muldoon, Second Lieutenant. On July 22d, William Stone was appointed Adjutant, vice G. A. Ostrander; and J. Otis Burt was appointed Surgeon. Co. A elected Lieut. Theodore M. Barber, Captain. In October this company reorganized with the following civil officers : President, Orrin Welch ; Vice-President, D'Estaine Rem- ington ; Recording Secretary, John H. Horton; Financial Secretary, Edward L. Gifford ; Treasurer, Sidney B. Gifford ; Executive Committee, F. E. Carroll, E. B. Griswold, James Griffin. Co. B elected Henry Lentz, Captain. The Citizens' Corps was now made to include two companies, Co. A and Co. D, by consolidation in December. 1869.— In August, Co. R elected Meredith Moore First Lieutenant, 77^,? Herron, resigned. Co. I elected Gutncy Williams Second Lieutenant, vice John McDonald, resigned. Co. D, First Lieutenant Elisha B. George re- signed and was succeeded by Norman W. Smith ; Joseph Van Slyke was elected Second Lieutenant. 18-0. — Co. R, Union Guard, changed its name to Bennett Guard. In February, Quartermaster J. W. Yale resigned and was succeeded by John 332 Memorial History of Syracuse. Dunn. L. L. Thurwachter was made Commissary of Subsistence, and Mi- chael Foley was elected Captain of Co. K, Fred Miller of Co. E, and Jere- miah Leamy of Co. C. On September 12, Henry C. AUewelt was elected Major of the sist, vice C. W. Jordan, resigned, and James Randall was made Lieutenant-Colonel. In December, John F. Moschell was elected Major, and William A. Stone was appointed Adjutant. The strength of the regiment at the close of the year was 599. 1 87 1. — Co. B, the old LaFayette Grenadier Guard, which had changed its name to the Comstock Guard, resumed its former title this year. No- vember 24th, Colonel Sniper resigned and on the i6th of December, James Randall was elected to the vacancy, with Henry C. Allewelt as Lieutenant- Colonel; Herman Michaels, Major, and Ami Marquisee, Adjutant. John A. Haberer was elected Captain of Co. B. 1872. — Dr. Gregory Doyle was appointed Surgeon of the regiment. Co. I elected A. C. Jones Captain, and Co. K elected Daniel Gere First Lieu- tenant. On the 1st of December, Lieutenant-Colonel Allewelt was elected Colonel. Co. H elected Jacob Goettel First Lieutenant, vice Lindenmeyer resigned, and Philip Yaeckel was promoted to the Second Lieutenantcy. 1873. — A Company which had been formed in Liverpool in 1871, received arms and equipments in February and became Co. G of the 51st, under the name of Cornue Guard. On the 26th of May, John C. Bennett was elected Lieutenant-Colonel of the regiment; Rhesa Griffin, Adjutant; William Cooper, jr.. Quartermaster; Joseph Sniper, Commissary of Subsistence; Bernhard Pick, Chaplain. John Muldoon was elected Captain of Co. C ; Frank A. Becker, Captain of Co. H; Jacob Goettel, Captain of Co. E; Jo- seph Hecker, Captain of Co. A ; Daniel Gere, Captain of Co. L On the 24th of May, the armory was burned, with a loss of from $15,000 to $20,000. The military records were destroyed. The rink, standing near the armory, was used temporarily by the regiment. Steps were soon taken to rebuild the armory and the fine structure as it now stands, was dedicated on the 20th of February, 1876. ,874.— Co. I elected Rhesa Griffin Captain ; Welcome B. Randall was appointed Adjutant of the regiment, and James S. Goodrich was elected Lieutenant-Colonel. July 26th, Captain Griffin was elected Major of the regiment. Co E elected First Lieutenant Yaeckel as Captain. Co. I, H. W. Clarke, Captain. At the close of this year there was no Co. D in the regiment, and companies G, E and K were without Captains, while the en- tire strength of the regiment was only 410. 1875. — On March 4th, Nicholas Grumbach was elected Colonel; G. W. Edwards was appointed Quartermaster. Co. B elected Jacob Winter, Cap- tain, ?'?Vf Captain Haberle; John A. Nichols was made Inspector of Rifle Practice. Co. E elected G. Schattle, Second Lieutenant. Co. A, Frederick OiiiciAL Chances in the Fifty-First Regiment. 333 Miller, First Lieutenant, vice J. L. Miles. Co. K, John B. Moran, Second Lieutenant. Co. I elected W. A. Butler, First Lieutenant, vice Adolph Schwartz, resigned, and George W. Chatterton, Second Lieutenant. 1876.— Co. H elected Fred Schug, Captain, vice Frank Becker, resigned. On April 19th, Major Griffin was elected Lieutenant-Colonel, JvVr Goodrich^ resigned. Co. E elected VVilliain Michaels, Captain. 1877. — On February 8, J. W. Yale was elected Colonel of the regiment, vice Grumbach, resigned, and the Rev. H. R. Lockwood was made Chap- lain. At this time a movement was inaugurated towards a thorough reor- ganization of the 51st. Co. D was organized and named the Nichols Sharpshooters, with John A. Nichols as Captain. The following appoint- ments and elections were also made: Riley V. Miller, Quartermaster; Robert iM. Beecher, Captain, Co. H. G. W. Chase, First Lieutenant; E. O. Farrar, Second Lieutenant, Co. D. In Co. B, Thomas Kuhn was made First Lieutenant and Anthony Chryst, Second Lieutenant. D. H. Bruce was made Inspector of Rifle Practice. Co. G, Theodore M. Barber, Cap- tain, with Frank Raymond, First Lieutenant, and L. J. Elder, Second Lieutenant. Co. H, Robert M. Beecher, Captain ; George A. Cool, Second Lieutenant. At the close of this year there were 22 commissioned officers ; 86 non-commissioned officers; 270 privates and 25 musicians in the regi- ment. 1878. — On January 8, John A. Nichols was elected Major, and W. B- Randall, Captain of Co. D. J. F. Draime was appointed Adjutant. Co. B elected Anthony Chryst as Captain, vjcc Orson R. Patterson, resigned. Co. G. elected George B. Wood, Second Lieutenant, vice L. J. Elder, resigned. Co. I elected Nathan Schwartz Second Lieutenant. Co. G, Mark J. Blakeley, Second Lieutenant. In April a company was formed in Fayette- ville, with Henry J. Knapp as Captain; Thomas J. Timmons, First Lieu- tenant ; Robert VV. Eaton, Second Lieutenant. Co. G promoted Second Lieutenant Blakeley to First Lieutenant, vice G. W. Chase, resigned. Co. I, Washington Guard, changed its name to Price Cadets. Co. G promoted Second Lieutenant Wood to First Lieutenant and Simon Dolphin was elec- ted, t7Vf Wood. In September Louis Windholz was commissioned Com- missary of Subsistence. Charles Gould was elected Second Lieutenant of Co. H. In October Rhesa Grififin was appointed Adjutant, vice Draime, resigned. Co. B elected Albert R. Webb First Lieutenant, and L. A. Wilkinson Second Lieutenant. Co. I promoted George W. Chatterton to First Lieutenant, vice W. A. Butler, promoted to the brigade staff. In 1S65 a battalion of cavalry had been organized and attached to the 24th brigade. The troops of this organization were consolidated in 1876, under command of Michael Auer. In 1882 Separate Troop C, cavalry, under Major Auer, was reorganized into a battery of artillery as Battery A. It is 334 Memorial History of Syracuse. still in existence under the same command. In 1867 an artillery company was organized and also attached to the brigade, with Jacob Brand in com- mand. This was made up of two batteries, A and B, with Captains John Demong and Xavier Zett. Frederick Auer was made Adjutant. Battery H (known as Birchmeyer's Battery) was organized in June, 1870, and mus- tered out January, 1881. In 1879, John D. Gray was elected Lieutenant-Colonel, and H. W. Clarke, Major of the 51st. Co. I elected George F. Chatterton as Captain. John D. Gray resigned and soon afterward William Allen Butler was elected Lieutenant-Colonel; a little later Colonel J. W. Yale resigned and W. A. Butler took command. General J. Dean Hawley resigned the command of the 7th brigade, and Colonel D. H. Bruce was elected Brigadier-General to succeed him, and continued in command until 1884, when he resigned. The command em- braced ten counties. Interest in military matters was on the wane and on December 17, 1881, orders were issued for the disbandment of the 51st regiment, and on Janu- ary 23, 1882, the organization was formally mustered out. From the wreck of the 51st were formed as Separate Companies, the Fortieth, formerly Co. B, with Edson J. Stearns as Captain ; the Forty-first, Co. D, W. B. Ran- dall as Captain ; and the Forty-second, Co. G, with T. M. Barber as Captain. Captain Barber resigned from the National Guard May 28, 1888, after con- tinuous service in the Guard and at the front in the late war since 1851. On February 15, 1883, the Forty-second Separate Company was dis- banded, at expiration of term of service. At the present time the force at the armory comprises the other two Separate Companies, mentioned above, and a Battery of Artillery, Major Michael Auer in command. INDEPENDENT MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS. The city has had, besides the National Guard, several military organiza- tions of an independent character— the Syracuse Cadets. Greenway Guard, the Central City Veterans, and the Sumner Corps. The f^rst two have always remained independent. The Sumner Coprs at the reorganization of the 5 1st regiment, entered the regiment with the understanding that they be privileged to retain their independent existence in the National Guard. The Syk.\clse Cadets.— In 1843, at the time of the organization of the well known Citizen's Corps, there existed a division in local military Independent Militakv Organizations. 335 sentiment and another company was organized and named the Syracuse Cadets. They made their first parade in November, 1S43, when they escorted the speal.oo Surplus I'und- 40,000.00 Undivided profits - 61 ,326.63 National bank notes outstanding 45,000.00 I )eposits subject to check 451,133.47 Demand certificates of deposit 60,124.70 Due to other banks 4,223.05 )|;S6i,.So7.S5 Following are the present officers of this bank : Alfred A. Howlett, President; Thomas J. Leach, Cashier; David A. Munroe, Charles Hubbard, Alfred A. Howlett, Robert Dey, William Brown Smith, Lsaac H. Mun- roe, A. Ames Howlett, T. J. Leach, and Giles Everson, Directors. New York Statk Banking Company. 369 Nc2v York State Banking Company.— TK\s institution originated with the old Burnet Bank, which was incorporated under the State banking law in 1S52. It continued business under that plan until the adoption of the National banking system, when it was made the " Fourth National Hank of Syracuse." It continued thus until 1S72, when its Nationel char- ter was resigned. At this time the present name was adopted and the banking business has continued without material change. Nathan F. Graves, has been President of this bank from the date of its incorporation in 1852, and is one of the older and most respected citizens of Syracuse, not only in a business sense, but in all the relations of life. He was educated for the law and has been called to fill several public sta- tions of importance; was for a number of years a member of the Board of Education, and its President, and in 1874 was elected mayor of the city. He has been for many years a large owner of real estate, and has always been among the leaders in measures for the general prosperity of the city. In the year of 1856, R. A. Bonta entered the bank as Clerk. From this position he was promoted to Book-keeper and next to Teller, and in 1864 was made Cashier, which position he has since retained. Most of the active business manangement of the institution devolves upon him. The New York State Banking Company has kept its old location on the second floor of the Wieting Block, and its character as a thoroughly reliable and prosperous institution is fully established. The present ofificers of this bank are as follows: Nathan F.Graves, President; M. \V. Hanchett, Vice-President ; R. A. Bonta, Cashier. An- nexed is the statement of this bank dated January, 1890: RESOURCES. Loans and Discounts less due from directors % 463,761.98 Due from Directors - - 20,809.40 Overdrafts .-. 698.19 Due from other Banks and Bankers — 31,980.96 lionds and Mortgages, Stock and Bonds, Specie, Legal Tender Notes, Cash Items, Loss and E.xpense - -- - 30,664.99 I 551,023.13 MABILITIKS. Capital Stock paid in - $ 100,000.00 Undivided Profits.. 33.157-58 Due Depositors . 408,895.11 Due Trust Companies, State and National Banks 8,970.44 % 551,023.13 First National Bank. — The National banking system of the country was inaugurated in 1863, at which time the Secretary of the Treasury re- quested a number of gentlemen of high financial standing to meet him in Washington for consultation. Among these men were Governor English, 47 370 Memorial History of Syracuse. of Connecticut, and E. B. Judson, of Syracuse. The meeting was product- ive of the object sought and Mr. Judson returned home, where he imme- diately inaugurated measures for the organization of a National Bank in this city. This First National Bank was the outcome of those measures and was the sixth National Bank organized in the United States. The original capital of this institution was $iOO,OCX3, which has since been increased to $250,000. When the organization was effected, Mr. Jud- son was chosen President and George B. Leonard, Cashier. These men have held the positions ever since, a period of more than twenty-five years. Mr. Judson had previously been connected with banking in Syracuse since 1851, in connection with the Merchants' National Bank, the Trust and De- posit Co., the Bank of Syracuse, and the Salt Springs Bank, and is largely interested in various manufacturing industries, as appears in another chap- ter. He came to Syracuse from Constantia, where he had been engaged in the manufacture of lumber and iron. This Bank is located in the Onondaga Savings Bank Building, where apartments were fitted up for it when the building was erected. The following constitute the present Board of Directors i^ E. B. Judson, E. B. Judson Jr., Jacob Crouse, G. B. Leonard, E. F. Rice, C. W. Snow, Dennis McCarthy, John McCarthy, and E. F. Holden. Following is the report of the bank issued on September 30, 1890: RESOURCES. Loans and Discounts - $1,427,151.73 Overdrafts - Legal Tender Notes 22,500.00 Redemption Fund 2,250.00 1:1,809,259.27 l.i.\nn.iTlES. Capital Stock paid in $ 250,000.00 Surplus Fund 150,000 00 Undivided Profits •- 63,624. 59 Circulating Notes received from Comptroller 45,000.00 Individual Deposits Subject to Check 1,273,204.68 Due to other National Banks 23, 306. 5 1 Due to State and Private Banks and Bankers 4,123.49 $i,8o9,2|;9.27 ^«- c-/^ ^<»^ Till', RoiiF.RT Geri: Bank. 371 Robert Gere Bank. — This thriving monetary institution was established May 8, 1880, with James J. Belden, President; A. Cadwell Belden, Vice- President : Frederick \V. Barker, Cashier. The first Board of Directors were: James J. Belden. A. C. Belden, Alvin J. Belden, Martin A. Knapp, Samuel B. Lamed, William II. H. Gere, and N. Stanton Gere. The bank was located in the Lamed Building until June, 1888, when it was removed to the present handsome and convenient quarters in the new Snow Building. The number of Directors has since been reduced to five and the present Board is as follows : James J. Belden, A. Cadwell Belden, Alvin J. Belden, Martin A. Knapp, Frederick W. Barker. The officers are the same as when the bank was organized. The following statement shows the financial condition of the bank on Januarj' 1 1, 1890 : RESOURCES. Loans and Discounts less due from Directors .$1,642,813.97 Due from Hanks, etc 148,229.07 Banking House and Lot - --- 45,000.00 Stocks and Bonds - - - 67. 539-67 Specie - - 17,468.11 Legal Tender Notes and Circulating Notes, Cash and Other Items 38, 776. 35 Taxes I'aid and Current Expenses - 15,823.83 $1,975,651.00 LIABILITIES. Capital Stock paid in, in cash _ - - $ KXi.ooo.oo Surplus Fund 200,000.00 Exchange, Interest, and Other I'rotits — 44,520.85 Deposits subject to Check, Demand Certificates of Deposit, and Certified Checks 537,247.59 Due Hanks, etc .-. 93,882.56 Due Individuals and Corporations other than Banks and Depositors.. 1,000,000.00 *l. 975. 651.00 Third National Bank. — This bank .was organized in 1S63, but did not begin active business until January i, 1864. Its capital was placed at $150,000, which soon proved inadequate for its large business and it was increased in May, 1864, to $200,000. This was again necessaril)- increased to §300,000. The first Board of Directors were : John \V. Barker, James M. Munroe, Charles Pope, Allen Munroe, Timothy R. Porter, 11. \V. Van- Buren, Lucius Gleason, Frank Hiscock, and James Munroe, the latter being chosen the first President. He was succeeded by Allen Munroe, and in January, 1871, Lucius Gleason, the present incumbent of the oiifice, was elected. The first cashier was Francis H. Williams, who retained the posi- tion until Februar)', 1873, when George S. Leonard was appointed. He was succeeded by Henry Lacy, the present Cashier. The bank was located in the White Memorial Building, until 1887, when its own splendid block 372 Memorial History of Syracuse. was erected, corner of Salina and James streets. Its present quarters are not excelled by any in the city. The present officers ofthe bank are : Lu- cius Gleason, President ; William K. Niver, Vice-President ; Henry Lacy, Thomas MoUoy, Louis Marshall, George H. McChesney, William Gleason, Orson C. Gleason, Jacob Amos, Directors. Lucius Gleason is one of the oldest bankeis in the city. His whole life has been passed in business pur- suits and since 1842 he has been largely identified with the salt industry. During late years the greater share of his attention has been given to this prosperous bank. Following is a statement of the Bank under date of December, 1890: RESOURCES. Loans and Discounts # 807,982.10 Overdrafts, secured and unsecured 505-70 U.S. Bonds - - 375,000.00 Due from approved Reserve Agents 110,748.69 Due from other Banks... - 68,457.70 Banking House and Fi.xtures, Real Estate and Mortgages (kj.ooo.oo Current Expenses and Taxes Paid - 674.61 Checks, Clearing House Exchanges, Bills of other Banks, Specie, Legal Tender Notes, Redemption Fund, etc --- 81,988.87 1^1,508,357.67 LIABILITIES. Capital Stock, paid in - ....| 400,000.00 Surplus Fund 60,000,00 Undivided Profits 13.922-59 National Bank Notes outstanding - 292,500.00 Individual Deposits, Demand Certificates of Deposit, and Certified Checks 520,042,26 United States Deposits 54>765.95 Deposits of U. S. disbursing officers 308.44 Due to other National Banks 62,276.63 Due to State Banks and Bankers - 104.54182 |l. 508,357.67 The State Bank of Syracuse.— TWk institution was organized under the general banking law and began busine.ss on the 1st of February, 1873. The paid-up capital was $100,000. The officers of this bank are : Francis Hen- dricks,' President ; George Barnes, Vice-President; Jonathan C. Chase, Cashier; Francis Hendricks, George Barnes, Frank Hiscock, James Barnes, Frank H. Hiscock, George E. Dana, and Albert K. Hiscock directors. The bank is in the Syracuse Savings Bank Building. Its surplus on the ist of January, 189O, was over $800,000. The active management of the bank is with Mr. Chase, the Cashier, under the counsel of an Executive Committee consisting of Francis Hendricks, Frank Hiscock, and James Barnes. Mr. Chase has been connected with the banking interests of Syracuse for about thirty years, having been Teller of the Mechanics' Bank until it went into liquidation. He was elected Cashier of the State Bank of Syracuse in 1881. This bank transacts a general business and, by its good business The Bank of Syracuse. 373 methods and careful attention to the interests of its customers, has gained an excellent reputation. The Bank of Syracuse. — This prosperous financial institution was or- ganized under the banking law of the State of New York in the spring of 1884, and began business on the ist day of May of that year. Its capital was placed at $125,000, with an authorized capital of $500,000, and there has been no change in this respect. The bank began business in rooms in the Larned Building, where it remained until October, 18SS, when its rap- idly increasing business warranted its seeking more commodious and con- venient quarters. These were found on the second floor of the White Me- morial Building, where it has since remained. The officers elected at the organization of the bank were as follows: Directors, Manning C. Palmer, Alva W. Palmer, John Dunn, jr., Lyman C. Smith, J. William Wilson, Wilber S. Peck, Charles P. Clark, Theodore L. Poole, Charles M. Crousej Salem Hyde, and Henry H. Clark. This Board elected Manning C. Palmer, President; John Dunn, jr., Vice-President; J. William W^ilson, Secretary. F. C. Eddy was made Cashier. All of these officials still hold their respect- ive positions. Mr. Palmer is a business man of forty years of experience and has shown himself a financier of exceptional ability. In these respects, as well as in his other relations with the community, he occupies an enviable station. This is indicated by the remarkable prosperity of the institution of which he is the head. In connection with his associates he has directed its large business to the entire satisfaction of its stockholders and custom- ers. The following statement shows the present condition of this bank: RESOLRL-KS. Cash, Checks, etc I 62,873.10 Hills Discounted _ -04, 238.47 Stocks and Bonds 4.383.34 Expense 240.40 Furniture and Fixtures i^ 500.00 Real Estate 8,588.44 Due from Hanks. 95,881.09 $ 877,704.84 I.IABIl.lTIKS. Capital f 125.000.00 Individual Deposits 664,272.01 Surplus and profits 53,047.40 Duel5anks 35.384-53 I 877,704.84 Trust and Deposit Company of Onondaga. — This Banking Institution has a sphere of business somewhat peculiar. The company is authorized by its charter to act as agent, receiver, executor, administrator, guardian, treasurer, assignee or trustee, either by power of attorney or appointment of court. The duties of administrator and executor have extensively fallen to it, and it is well fitted to act in this capacity from its capital and surplus, 374 Memorial History of Syracuse. which is pledged for its trust funds, its absence of personal interest and its command of time to devote to such business. Having all the rights and privileges of a Savings Bank, it designs to go farther and provide safe receptacles for money, bonds, and other valuables, for safe keeping. The Trust and Deposit Company of Onondaga was organized in 1869, with Dudley P.Phelps, President; Daniel P. Wood and E. B. Judson, Vice-Presidents; Matthew J. Myers, Secretary. The offices of this com- pany are in the Syracuse Savings Bank Building, but were originally in the Onondaga County Bank Building. For a small consideration the company guarantees absolute safety to money and valuables left in their care, for which purpose vaults of the most perfect character are provided and fitted with all modern appliances in the way of time locks, etc. The vaults con- tain separate safes, and these are subdivided into many apartments, each being provided with lock and check lock. These safe boxes are rented at a trifling cost and are placed under the absolute control of persons leasing them. In addition to this peculiar function, the company, as a savings bank, receives deposits in sums of five cents and upwards, monthly interest on all sums being compounded every six months. The company has a paid- up capital and surplus of $186,000, one-half of which is deposited with the Superintendent of the Banking Department of the State. The present officers of the company are as follows: George Barnes, President ; James Barnes, Secretary ; Trustees, John N. Babcock, Martin A. Knapp, Frank Hiscock, Thomas MoUoy, J. G. Wynkoop, George Barnes, Alfred Mercer, D. P. Wood. The following is a recent statement of this institution : RESOURCES. United States Bonds ---* 126,000.00 Bonds and Mortgages - 141,12500 Loans on Calls.-.. ( Secured by t_ 3f>5.33l-07 Loans on Time.... '( Collater.-.! * -- 40,000.00 Stock and Bond Investment --- - 176.618.36 Accrued I nterest on above 10, 868. 59 Safes in Vault 1,000.00 Cash with New York Correspondents 86,198.38 Cash with State liank of .Syracuse 779.871-89 Cash in Vault - 59.178.83 11,786.192.12 i.iAiiii.i riKs. Due Depositors with interest to date $1,599.578. 66 Capital and Surplus - ---- * 186,613.46 Otwndaga County Savings Bank.— A special charter for this bank was granted by the Legislature in 1855. The amount of good accomplished by savings banks, in Syracuse as well as elsewhere, in fostering economy and TiiK Onondacia County Savings Bank. 375 frugality, can hardly be estimated ; and the statement is especially] true of this old and honorable institution. During the thirty-five years of its existence it has been a conservator of the public welfare in many directions The original incorporators of this bank were Allen Munroe, James L. Bagg, Robert G. Wynkoop. George Barnes, Perry Burdick, James Foran, John \V. Barker, Daniel 1*. Wood, William E. Abbott, Harlow W. Chitten- den, Isaac H. Bronner, Charles F. Williston, Edward S. Dawson, John Yorkey, Levi W. Hall, Cornelius L. Alvord, and John Fitzgerald. The first President was Allen Munroe, and the first Treasurer, S. H. Slosson. Mr. Munroe remained President until 1876, when he was succeeded by Daniel P. Wood. Mr. Slosson was succeeded as Treasurer, by Dudley P. Phelps, and he by Edward S. Dawson, who now holds the office. Mr. Dawson is one of the veteran business men of the city and for twenty-one years has been prominently connected with this institution. The first business place was over the old No. 16 South Salina street, whence it removed to the Syracuse House Block and remained there until it took possession of its building. The structure is one of the finest in the city and was built of Onondaga lime- stone, at a cost, including the lot, of about $300,000. The condition of the bank on the ist of January, 1890, is show by the following statement : RESOURCES. Bonds and Mortgages l5,303.73l-35 U. S. Bonds ---- --- 1,572.750.00 Other Bonds - - 1,293,782.20 Banking House and Other Real Estate 1 237,000.00 Cash in Banks and Trust Companies - 526,658.01 Cashon Hand 84,329.17 Loans on Call, Accrued Interests, etc - -- -- 1 57.' 82. 22 *9.i75.432-y5 l.LMill.niES. Due Depositors - $7.903.Si3<'7 Another Liabilities -- 2,800.00 #7,906,613.07 Net Surplus .$1,268,819.88 The present officers of the bank are as follows : D. P. Wood, Presi- dent ; Robert G. Wynkoop and J. W. Barker, Vice-Presidents; Charles Franchot, Secretary; Edward S. Dawson, Treasurer; Clinton T. Rose, As- sistant Treasurer; Lester J. Greenwood, Paying Teller; Nathan R. Colton, Receiving Teller. Trustees, Robert G. VV'ynkoop, Charles L. Stone, John W. Barker. Charles F. Williston, Daniel P. Wood, Thomas Molloy, Charles Franchot, William E. Abbott, George F. Comstock, Edward S. Dawson, George B. Kent, Rasselas A. Bonta, J. Dean Hawley, P'rancis E. Carroll, William H. Warner, Alva W. Palmer, Anson N. Palmer. The Syracuse Savings Bank. — This is one of the soundest and most successful financial institutions in the State, and was incorporated March 376 Memorial History of Syracuse. 30, 1849, by ^^^ following persons: Harvey Baldwin, Moses D. Burnet, James Lynch, George Saul, John H. Burnet, Johnson Hall, Harvey Rhoades, Philander W. Fobes, John B. Wicks. William W. Teall, Thomas B. Fitch, Thomas T. Davis, James G. Tracy, Elias W. Leavenworth, Geo. F. Comstock, Henry Gifford, Thomas Bennet, and William Clarke. At the first meeting of the Board of Trustees, Harvey Baldwin was elected President of the bank, and James Lynch and E. W. Leavenworth, \"\ce- Presidents. On the 5th of June, 1.S49, the bank was temporarily located in the ofifice of W. W. Teall, corner of Fayette and Grape streets, and on the 20th of November, 1850, the corner room of the old Bastable Block was leased until the following May, and in the spring of 1851, the bank was removed to the southwest corner of the old Bastable Block. Mr. Bas- table demanded possession of these rooms in the spring of 1854, and the bank was removed to the apartments that had been occupied by the Syra- cuse City Bank, in the Noxon Block, on North Salina street. In April, 1862, the Trustees purchased the Star Building, a four-story brick .structure which stood on the site of the present bank building, at a cost of $15,500 and the north half of the first floor was fitted up for the bank, the remain- der of the building being leased to various tenants. In the fall of that year the bank occupied its new quarters. By the year 1871 the deposits of the bank had reached the sum of near- ly one and a half million dollars, and it became apparent to the Board that not only larger accommodations for its growing business, but safer vaults were absolute necessities. After efforts to find a more suitable site, it was finally decided that no better one was obtainable and steps were taken to- wards the erection of a new building. In that year (1871) the two lots ad- joining the bank property on the east were purchased for $20,000 and still another lot was bought a little later in the year for $10,000. A Building Committee of five (L. W. Leavenworth, then President, T. B. Fitch, N. F. Graves, E. P. Glass, and Lyman Clary; was promptly appointed. In the spring of 1874 the lot and store still farther east on James street were pur- chased at a cost of $14,000 and in the fall of that year the Building Com- mittee visited several eastern cities to inspect notable buildings and were thus enabled to decide upon the general structure they would erect. The plans of Architect J. L. Silsbee were accepted in February, 1875, and the corner store of the Empire House was taken temporarily by the bank. Here the institution remained until June, 1876, when it was removed to its present spacious and handsome quarters. The contract for the building was let to John Moore, of Syracuse, and cost as it now stands, $350,000. Harvey Baldwin resigned the presidency of the bank in January, 1859, ^"<^ James Lynch was elected. In January, 1862, Mr. Lynch declined a re-elec- tion and E. W. Leavenworth was elected. He held the position until Feb- TiiK ONONnAc;A Cuuntv Savincs Hank. 377 ruary, 18S3, when he resigned after a long and eminently successful admin- istration of the affairs of the bank. The present President, Charles P. Clark, a business man of long experience and high standing, was elected to the vacancy. The statement of this bank under date of January i, 189O, is as follows: RESOURCES. Bonilsand Mortgages.... - - 13,479,83516 Other Bonds -- - 1.427,31224 Banking House and \x,t ■ - 225,000.00 Cash on Deposit in Banks and Trust Companies 597,425-13 Cashonlland - - -- 30,179-20 .\11 other Assets, including Call Loans and Accrued Interest --- 199,484.51 $5,959,236-24 I.lAIilLiriES. Amount due Depositors - -15, 255,820.46 Another Liabilities -.-- -- - - 3.665-90 Surplus - ---- - 699,749-88 $5,959,236-24 Following are the present officers of the bank: Charles P. Clark, Presi- dent ; William Brown Smith, \'ice-President ; Nathan F. Graves, 2d Vice- President ; A. F. Lewis, Secretary and Treasurer; Frank II. Hiscock, At- torney ; Trustees, William Brown Smith, Oliver C. Potter, Alfred A. How- lett, Nathan F. Graves, Nicholas Peters, Charles P. Clark, Frank Hiscock, A. J. Northrup, James J. Belden, W. H. H. Gere, John Lighton, Francis Hendricks, Amos L. Mason, II. J. Mowry, F. D. Dickinson, Austin C. Chase, John Dunn, Jr. Besides the above described financial institutions, there have been two others that met with disaster. These were the Wilkinson Bank, an account of which has been given on an earlier page of this work, and the People's Savings Bank, which failed in the year 1872 and paid only about sixty-five cents on the dollar to its depositors. 48 378 Memukial Histukv ok Syracuse. CHAPTER XXIV. TllK SALT INPrsTRV. Salt in Olden Days— The Discovery of the Onondaga Salt Springs— The First Known Source of Salt Away from the Sea Coast— Comfort Tyler's Primitive Salt Works— Isaac Van Vleck's Oper- ations—The Geddcs Works— The Federal Company— Elisha and Dioclesian Alvord— The Kstablish- ment of Larger Blocks— The Early Methods of Boiling— The First Wells— Relations of the Stale to the Salt Lands— Improvements in Processes— Early Markets for Salt— Statistics of Manufacture — Organization of Companies— Present and Future of the Industry. I N the early days of our National history, the population being confined , to the sea-coast, or sparsely scattered over the narrow strip of land be- tween it and the Alleghanies, was supplied with its salt (almost as necessary as air and water) either by that made from ocean water, or imported from Europe and the West Indies; the great cost of transportation, the infre- quency of ocean traffic, and the necessity of employing all labor to the clearincr of forests and the production of food, made salt a costly article to the dweller by the sea, while the difficulties, trials and dangers of interior traffic enhanced its value to almost its weight in gold, to the distant and remote settler in the wilderness. And right here, there is a full and start- ling parallel from the experience of modern times. During the war of the Rebellion, cut off by the close blockade of their coast from importation, and from their few and limited supplies from domestic sources, by the suc- cessful raids of the Union forces, the people of the South suffered untold miseries in their deprivation of this article ; or, when enabled to gather a scanty and temporary supply from the distilled brine of their pork and fij-h barrels, or from other equally precarious sources, the price could not be paid in Confederate currency, but only in gold of almost equal weight with this article of precious necessity. Up to the time of the Revolutionary war, the population of the State of New York had spread over but little territory beyond points where short land carriage or water routes permitted comparatively easy commu- nication with the Hudson river and the ocean ; northward to Lake Cham- plain, westward to Fort Stanwix and east to the boundary line between this State and New England. In this space was concentrated almost our entire population, then not exceeding 300,000 in number. Slowly the tide of emigration spread westward, to join the men of the Mohawk Valley to the few stragglers on the borders of Lakes Erie and Ontario. In 1794 the County of Onondaga was erected from the western end of Herkimer County, and then contained within its borders a territory out of which afterwards were erected the counties of Cayuga, Seneca, Cortland. DiSCOVKKV OK TIIK SaI.T Sl'UlNf.S. 379 and Tompkins, and part of Oswego; but prior to that time, while it was part of the county of Herkimer, the white people had become aware of the fact that a tribe of Indians called Onondagas were making salt for their own use at Salt Springs near their place of residence around Onondaga Lake. Some of this salt had in small quantities been carried by the Mo- hawk Indians and Indian traders to the city of Albany. Tradition among the Indians dates back the knowledge by white men of the existence of these springs as early as the middle of the sixteenth century, when it is said that a party of Spaniards traveled from Florida to the sup- posed .silver beds on Onondaga lake, the Indians having told them that at that point a shining white sub.stance covered the ground. The Spaniards found the substance to be not silver, but salt, made by the action of the sun on the receding waters of the salt springs, which flowed freely in the wet season, but became dry during the summer heat. Father LeMoyne, one of the French Jesuits from Quebec, came to On- ondaga early in the seventeenth century and, it is .said, taught the Indians the uses of salt, who up to that time had regarded the springs as inhabited by bad .spirits, and consequently avoided them. The latter part of this statement is probably untrue, for it is well known that ages before, the nomads, or wandering tribes of Asia, and the negroes of Africa (the latter intellectually far below the North American Indian.s) knew of and used the article; and why should not the Indian have profited by the knowledge that wild animals and birds compas.sed great distances to enjoy the .salubrity and life-sustaining properties of .so-called salt licks, .scattered bountifully by a wise Hencfactor over all countries, and that around such places of their resort he could most surely capture them in the chase. But nine years be- fore LeMoyne, in 1645, Father Jerome L'Allemant, another Jesuit, visited the Onondagas and described the salt springs as bordered with a crust of fine salt. In 1656-7 the Jesuits undertook to establish a mission station among the Onondagas, details of which and its failure will be found in an earlier chapter of this work, and when they returned to Montreal they car- ried back with them specimens of salt and a full account of the .salt springs, and of its manufacture and use by the Indians. The salt springs of Onondaga were the first known sources of salt in the United States, away from the sea coast, and the general knowledge of their discovery, while it did not precede the first permanent white settlement in this county, hastened immigration rapidly. The settlements were for a time confined in the main to the bluffs overlooking the springs, and long before the classical nomendature of that good man, Simeon DeWitt, Surveyor-General, was sown broadcast over the central part of the State, the hardy pioneers of the salt works had styled their hamlet overlooking lake Onondaga, " Salt Point," an appropriate though not a classical name, and one which the more euphonious name, Salina, could not eradicate; 3So Memorial History of Syracuse. and even now that it is swallowed up by, and is a beautiful part of, the Central City, " Syracuse," yet still in the recollection and speech of many of the old inhabitants and their salt-trading visitors, " Salt Point with the echo still resounds." The region to which the springs were mostly confined lay around the head of Onondaga lake in somewhat the shape of a half moon, the con- cave side abutting on the lake, though the salt waters reached on the side on the northeast down the lake for about three miles, to where is now the village of Liverpool. All of this ground was a low-lying swamp covered with a growth of pine, .sedge, and cedars. The soil was a treacherous quag- mire, raised but little above the normal level of the lake, and overflown by the least rise of its waters back to the surrounding uplands, a distance vary- ing from one-half of one to two or three miles. The first salt from the waters for the use of resident white people was made by Comfort Tyler and Asa Danforth in the year 17S8, the first year of their settlement in Onondaga Hollow, or Valley. Comfort Tyler, under the guidance of an Indian, went down Onondaga creek in a canoe to the lake, and thence east along its shore a short distance, up a stream called Mud creek to the spring. Mud creek was then a considerable stream, draining from the east a large portion of the low lands of the present towns of Cicero and Salina. This stream, now almost wholly extinct, discharged into the lake near where the line of Mechanic street (now Lodi) would, if extended, strike it ; and the spring where Tyler and Danforth made their first salt was on the bank of the creek about in the line of Salina street. Shortly after the Indian had pointed out the spot, Tyler and Danforth, carrying on their shoulders their largest cooking kettle and bags for the salt when made, and also an axe and a chain, cut their wood and put up old- fashioned crotches \\ith a pole across, hung their kettle with the chain and filling it with salt water from the spring, made by boiling about a dozen bushels of salt, and hiding their kettle and chain in the bush they carried on their backs to their homes the salt thus procured. In the next year a man named Nathaniel Loomis brought a few four-pail kettles from the east by the way of Oneida lake and boiled salt water enough to produce a con- siderable quantity of salt for sale, which he disposed of for a large price. In 1792, Mr. Isaac Van Vleck, coming here from Kinderhook, brought with him and used the first potash or salt kettle set in an arch in which salt was made at these springs. It seems proper here to revert to the ownership of the lands by the whites in this vicinity, mainly confined to the immediate surroundings of Onondaga lake. The tribe of Indians, (one of the Si.x Nations,) the On- ondagas, were in possession. During the revolutionary struggle they fought on the side of Great Britain, but notwithstanding this, the State of New York negotiated with them as an independant nation, for the ownership of Treaties with the Indians. 381 their lands, and by a series of treaties became possessors of their country, reserving, however, for the Indians as a home what is now called the On- ondaga Indian Reservation, being about 7,000 acres of land lying in the present towns of Onondaga and Lafayette. The treaties of 1788 and 1795, more particularly related to the Onondaga salt springs and culminated in the final purchase by the State of that area of land known as the Onondaga Salt Springs Reservation, a plot containing about 10,000 acres and being about three and one-half miles wide on the southerly line, afterwards the town line between Salina and Onondaga, and bounded on the east and west by two converging lines running each side of Onondaga lake to the Seneca river, making its northerly boundary about three-quarters of a mile long. The first treaty made at Fort Stanwix { now Rome ) September 12, 17S8, ceded to the State all the lands of the Indians forever, excepting certain reserved tracts. Among other lands the Indians reserved the Salt (Onon- daga) lake and the land for one mile around the same, which " shall for- ever remain for the common benefit of the people of the State of New York and the Onondagasand their posterit\-, for the purpose of making salt, and shall not be granted or in any wise disposed of for other purposes." By the treaty at Cayuga Bridge, July 28, 1795, the Indians ceded to the State the exclusive control of the Salt Springs Reservation, including the lake, " in order to render the common right formerly reserved more produc- tive," but still dedicating it to the production of salt forever under the man- agement of the State. They also ceded that plot of land in the town of Onondaga now known as the Onondaga Reservation, and received from the State $500 for the common right and $200 for the Onondaga Reservation, with this stipulation : the State to pay annually forever thereafter to the tribe $700 and 150 bushels of salt on the first day of June in each year ; and the Indians receive to this day annually from the State this $700, di- vided among them per capita by their State Agent, and the Superintendent of the Onondaga Salt Springs delivers annually upon the rcfiuisition of the Chief of the tribe, their 150 bushels of salt. James Geddes came here in 1794 from Pennsylvania and established himself as a salt manufacturer on the southwest corner of the head of the lake under the bluff, (the village built in the vicinity being afterwards called Geddes,) but the Indians took umbrage and claimed that, by a tacit ar- rangement under the treaty of 1788, the " common right" had given to the white man the southeastern and to the Indians the southwestern end of the head of the lake, the division line being Onondaga creek. The difficulty was settled by adopting Mr. Geddes into the tribe, but the occurrence was undoubtedly the cause of the release by the Indians and the assumption by the State of full control under the treaty of 1795. The late Hon. Geo. Geddes, son of James Geddes, gives the following version of his father's trouble and settlement with the Indians: 382 Memorial History of Syracuse. " In 1794, Judge James Cedcies constructed a salt work a mile or more to the southeast of that point, (Salt Point,) or what is properly the head of the lake. The Indians took exception to this, saying they owned one-half of the water and the white men the other half, and as the whites h.id taken possession on their sitle of the lake, they should keep away from the Indian's side. This grew into a difhculty threatening an attack on the part of the Indians. Judge deddes had proceeded too far with his work to be willing to give it up as a peace-offering to conciliate the wrath of his red neighbors. Presents were offered and conciliatory speeches made to induce them to surrender peace- fully ; but all seemed unavailing to compromise what they considered their right to the side of the lake which the Judge had occupied. I'inally, a happy method of solving the problem struck one of the Chiefs : 'Let us,' said he, 'adopt this pale-face into our tribe and then, being one of us, he will have a right to make salt on our side of the lake.' The proposition was unanimously adopted and Judge (leddes had the name, I)on-da-dah-gwah, conferred upon him, by which the Indians ever after addressed him. Thenceforth he made his salt in peace." It may be well to mention here that the Indians gave names in their language to many of the whites, both male and female, particularly those to whom they were friendly, which names were indicative of their apprecia- tion of some particular trait in each person which they liked ; by such names they would always afterward address them. Mr. Geddes continued the manufacture of salt until 179S, when he removed to Camillus. A large portion of the county of Onondaga as it existed when it was taken from Herkimer county, was soon after the revolutionary war, dedi- cated by the State as a reward for the services of its military contingent in that struggle. At the time when these lands were ordered to be surveyed and laid out into 600-acre lots for that purpose [1791-92] the Surveyor-Gen- eral was ordered to reserve from such dedication and lay out a sufficient area to secure all the salt springs around Onondaga lake in accordance with the stipulation in the Indian treaty of 17S8. During the remainder of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nine- teenth century, Thomas Orman, Simon I'haris, William Gilchrist, Elisha and Dioclesian Alvord, Fisher Curtis, Davenport Morey, Ichabod Brackett, Benajah Byington, Thomas Wheeler, Thomas McCarthy, and others, began the manufacture and sale of salt, and many of them also became local mer- chants. The State did not take formal possession and assert legal owner- ship of the salt springs until 1797. Prior to that time the salt was made under crude shanties covered with bark or hewn slabs, until Elisha Alvord, as one of the " Federal Company," and its Superintendent, erected a large frame building in which were placed eight blocks, each containing four 60-gallon kettles, set in double arches, two kettles on a side From that time all fine or salt-boiling erections have been known as, and called, "Salt Blocks." The Federal Company was composed of the following men : Asa Danforth, Jedediah Sanger, Daniel Keeler, Thomas Mart, Ebenezer Butler, Hezekiah Olcott, and Elisha Alvord. Within a short time they sold out to Elisha and Dioclesian Alvord, who remained in copartnership until 1S13, and both were salt manufacturers for j-cars thereafter. At the beginning of the salt manufacture, and for many years subse- quent, the low, wet, marshy lands where the salt water was found, were the I'.AKi V CuNDirioxs oi- THE Sai/i Strings. 383 hot beds of the most deadly miasmatic diseases, the death rate annually often exceeding thirty-three and one-third per cent, of the inhabitants, and not until there was thorough drainage and cultivation of the land and wid- ening and deepening of the outlet of the lake, insuring at all times a rapid and easy discharge of its waters into the Seneca river, did the inhabitants escape from an annual visitation of typhus, billious, and other fevers ; but for the last half century, with the exception of the Asiatic cholera of 1832, 1833 and '34, the salt springs and surroundings will compare favorably as a healthy location with any other portion of the State. Prior to 1797, each person was a squatter, planting his kettles at the place most convenient to the shallow hole from which he first dipped, and afterwards pumped by hand, his salt water. The kettles were of capacity varying from twenty to forty gallons, picked up wherever found, and brought up the Mohawk and through Wood Creek, down Oneida lake and river, up the Seneca river and Onondaga lake by boat, as there were no roads over which such heavy articles could be transported. Before the end of the century an iron furnace at Taberg, Oneida county, near Rome, manufactured for the salt works, kettles of a capacity of sixty or seventy gallons, very heavy and costing at that time more than thrice as much as the present kettle of one hundred and fifty gallons capacity and weighing no more. Later a large portion of the kettles came from a furnace which had been erected at Constantia, on Oneida lake. For many years in the past, kettles of the present fashion have been cast at the foundries in the city of Syracuse. It has heretofore been said that the salt springs, when first known to the whites, bubbled up and ran over the surface of the ground, but, as it was found by observation, never as the fresh water springs, continuously or in such volume as to make rivulets or water-ways ; but the salt water was so near the surface that the weight of long continued rain or damp weather would cause it to burst forth and cover the ground, while returning warm and dry weather seemed to depress it below the surface. Accordingly, when first used by the settlers, the water was dipped from shallow pits, and as the demand for its use increased, the pits were made larger and deeper and the pump took the place of the dipper and the pail. Soon the estab- lishment of permanent blocks and their increase calling for united action, the persons engaged in the business in " Salt Point" combined to dig a well and curbed it with wood. This well was nearly opposite the present State pumjj house in the First ward, just across the side-cut canal, north of it, and was fourteen feet long, ten feet wide, and twenty-five feet deep. In it was placed a pump the pipe of which reached up into the air about twenty feet and around this was a platform elevated high enough to stand upon and work the handle of the pump. From the platform to each of the different salt blocks ran V-shaped troughs, so fixed as to be attached, when necessary, to the spout and when not wanted, laid on the platform. In each of the 3S4 Memorial History of Syracuse. salt blocks and lying along-side of the kettles, was a reservoir or cistern made from a huge white wood, dug out like an Indian canoe. The salt boiler would climb a ladder to the platform, adjust his trough and pump his re- quired supply of salt water, and returning, dip it as wanted from his reser- voir into his kettles. This method was in use as late as 1817. Shortly afterward horie-power was introduced and tradition says that Ashbel Kel- logg, afterwards a distinguished and prominent citizen, commenced his pub- lic career as the driver of the horse. The next step in the direction of progress was to force as far as possible into the ground, a wooden tube, afterwards followed by the use of cast iron tubes made in sections of about two feet in length, joined and held together by a slot and bolt. In 1841, on account of the great cost of the tubing and its liability by reason of its weight to sink and pull apart, the iron was abandoned and wooden tubing was introduced. It was made of bored maple or beech, eight inches diam- eter in the bore, and the outside turned down smoothly to a uniform width of fourteen inches, and connected by doweling together the sections eight feet in length, and held in place by iron bands set in recesses made at the ends of the sections, so that the entire line of the shaft would be smooth and offer no extra obstruction to the sinking of the tubing. Sand pumps were used to lift from the interior of the shaft, as it was forced into the ground by pressure, the loose sand, or the clay and stone broken up by the drill chisel. The same method has since been applied with great success to the sinking of wrought iron tubing in sections of from twelve to sixteen feet in length, screwed into a band lapping the joints, and making a much ;heaper, lighter, and firmer tube or well-shaft. These various steps of pro- gress have grown out of the need of more salt water and the necessity of finding it as deep as possible, because of its consequent increased strength and greater value. The history of the progress of the manufacture may be read in the depth and number of the wells which have been and are now on the Reservation, beginning with the single hole in the ground in 1792 and ending in 1889 with at least twenty wells averaging a little less than four hundred feet in depth. The salometer is an instrument for measuring the density of the water, indicating the value or amount of .salt held in solution. There was no salometer in existence until comparatively lately; but calculating the strength of the brine from the yield of salt from a cord of wood in the early days of the century, it would lead to the conclusion that the brine of to-day is more than two hundred and fifty per cent, stronger than then. Prior to the purchase by the State in 1825 of all the means for procur- ing and distributing the brine, it permitted the diversion of a stream called Yellow Brook from its natural course, for the purpose of propelling the pumps at Salina, and a little later had authorized and required the Canal Commissioners to divert a portion of the waters of the canal to the same c '^^ The Question of Prior Rights. 385 purpose ; authority at the same time being given to bring compensating water from Butternut creek into the canal. Under the supervision of Simon Ford, duly appointed by the Governor and Senate for that work, the State undertook the business of supplying brine and from time to time thereafter large reservoirs were built and pump-houses in addition to the one at Salina wore established at Syracuse, Geddes, and Liverpool. The machinery in the first three was driven by water from the canal, and in Liverpool by steam. Pumps of large power were erected, new wells bored and every- thing done to assure, if possible, a suflRcicnt quantity and improved quality of water. From the very beginning of the use of salt water there had been local strife and contention about " prior rights." The State had endeavored to settle the controversy, both by statute and by arbitration of authorized commissioners; but the failure, in whole or in part, of wells put down in Geddes and Liverpool, after costly investments had been made at these points, and the creation by the State of additional fine salt blocks at Salina and Syracuse, coupled with the growing demands of the rapidly-increasing coarse salt fields, had far outstripped the efforts, by means of new wells, to supply all. In 1 S25, under a provision of law, the parties aggrieved appealed from the decision of the Superintendent and Inspector to the Judge of the Seventh Judicial District. Enos T. Throop, then such Judge, made a decis- ion upon that appeal, by dividing all the then salt erections into twenty- three classes, each entitled, as numbered in the order, to its needed quota of salt water, to the exclusion of all classes behind it, and future erections to take the surplus, if any, in the order of the time of their erection. Under this decision, while there was often giumbling and contention, the efforts of the State officers and their success, in the main, in adding to the supply of salt water, gradually settled strife, and when the codified law of 1859 was passed, putting all the erections then in existence on an equal footing, with the power to the Superintendent to discriminate in the months of July and August in each year in favor of the coarse salt fields, it was with some reluctance accjuiesced in; the parties interested, no doubt, being inclined thereto by the fact that their leases from the State expired that year, and they were then asking for a renewal for another thirty years. Since that time, while all may not have been at all times supplied with saltwater, there has been sufficient out of which the manufacturers could and did make each year all of the salt and more than was wanted for the legitimate markets of the springs. Keeping pace with the rapid improvements of an inventive age, by the use of steam, by the direct application of power to the pump over the well, in the exchange of indestructible iron aqueduct tubing for conveyance of salt water, in place of decaying and weak wood, and in many other appli- ances of a useful nature, the system of furnishing the salt water to the manufacturers now leaves nothing to be desired. 49 386 Memorial History ok Syracuse. There has ever been among the citizens of this locality a belief that the saline strength of the waters of the springs indicated a close proximity of underlying beds of salt, and naturally taking the depression of the land on which the springs are found as an indication, it was thought by many that these beds of salt lay deep below the bottom of the lake, or in its im- mediate vicinity. Benajah Byington, an uncle of the wife of the late Superintendent Kirkpatrick, influenced by the frequent bowl-shaped de- pressions on the hills in the eastern part of what is now the Second ward of the city, thought that the washing out of the rock salt had caused these sink holes, from whence the water impregnated by it had flowed into the valley around the lake. On that theory he obtained in 1820, the enactment of a law securing to himself valuable rights in the premises, provided he reached the salt. He began drilling in that locality and persisted in his efforts to strike the supposed salt beds intermittingly for over a dozen years, until driven from his work by lack of means and the decrepitude of age. He succeeded, however, in pushing his drill to a depth of about three hun- dred feet before the final abandonment of the undertaking. During the superintendency of Dr. Rial Wright, 1836-7, under a law of the State, a shaft was sunk on the north side of Free street in the First ward, near the present pump house and under the Jerry Barnes block; but it was stopped without result at a depth of six hundred feet, as required by the law. In the year 1867 the Salt Company of Onondaga caused a well to be bored near Liverpool to a depth of seven hundred and fifteen feet, for the purpose of either reaching stronger brine or salt in place ; but the effort failed. In 1883, Thomas Gale, a large and wealthy coarse salt manu- facturer, sank a well on the highlands near the Liverpool road and his works, to a depth of sixteen hundred feet, and succeeded only in obtaining a water slightly brackish, but highly charged with the chlorides of calcium and magnesium. In 1884, Peter J. Brumelkamp, the present Superintend- ent, sank a shaft in an abandoned salt well on the west bank of Onondaga creek, near the road leading across the marsh from the First ward to Geddes, to a depth of nineteen hundred and sixty feet, with no satisfactory results. These various trials have demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt that the basin of Onondaga lake, with its low surroundings, is merely a reser- voir filled up with the accumulated drift of past ages, and holding in its grip above the underlying rock, the flow of water weighted with the .salt from some deep deposit of that material south or east of this locality. Henry Stevens was appointed Superintendent of the Onondaga Salt Springs June 20, 1797, and remained as such until his death in 1801. The State sent with their Superintendent a surveyor, who laid out the land con- tiguous to the springs into 15-acre marsh lots, Sand 7-acre pasture lots, and lots running from the marsh adjacent to the springs up the hill suffi- ciently large for salt works on the marsh and a store and dwelling house on Regulations Governing the Manuiactukf. 387 the blutf, and to each salt manufacturer was given a lease of one of each of these lots. The first lease ran for three years, expiring in 1801, after which the leases were for seven years, and were renewed in 1808 for twenty-one years, up to and until 1829, when the term was extended to thirty years. In 1859 the leases were made for another thirty years, expiring June 20, 18S9, since which date there has been no renewal. The State preparing to sell and selling, in 1822 all the lands except those reserved for the manu- facture of salt, the leases since that time were confined to the salt lots alone. These leases have reference to fine salt lots only, the coarse salt lands, as will be shown later on, being held under an entirely different tenure. Up to 1822, the State gave to these lessees full permission to dig for and use salt water, to procure from the salt reservation timber for building and for fuel for making salt, or for any other purpose desired, providing such consumption and use was limited to the reservation and not elsewhere ; the State, as its remuneration, charging a duty of four cents a bushel of fiftv-six pounds, (which was the statute bushel,) for all salt made. Each manufac- turer was to make at least ten bushels of salt annually for each kettle of his block or blocks, and in order to guard the interests of the State, any person not returning an account of his production at stated periods, or making less than the legally required amount, was to pay to the Superintendent two cents per month per gallon of the kettle capacity of his salt block, in lieu of the duty of four cents per bushel. Each person having in his spring, or water pit, more than sufficient water for his own use, was compelled to allow his neighbor to use the surplus. Shanties not being adapted to the storing of the salt, the State furnished storehouses in which the salt could be placed, the keys of which were in the custody of the Superintendent. Such stor- age was paid for by an addition of one cent per bushel to the duty, and the Superintendent could sell such .salt for the price of sixty cents per bushel, which was made the legal price for salt sold to inhabitants of the State, the State reserving the five cents and paying the fifty-five cents to the manu- facturer. If a person stored his own salt he was exempt from this storage charge of one cent per bushel, but the keys of his personal storehouse must be in the hands of the Superintendent. Shortly after this the power of sale was withdrawn from the Superintendent and he issued certificates of the quantity stored to each party storing the same, and these certificates passed from hand to hand the same as if they were money. Any party holding any such certificate could have and demand the amount certified from any salt in the State storehouse, no matter by whom it was made. The two storehouses of the State were an old block house erected in 1794 as a protection against any hostilities of the Indians, and located near the northeast corner of the site of the present pump house in the First ward of the city, and the other storehouse was built on the bluff near the angle made by the tow-path of the canal and the Liverpool road. 388 Memorial History of Syracuse. To aid in the transportation of salt, the State also built a wharf on Mud creek between the lines of Park and Salina streets, if extended, near where the old aqueduct of the tail-race of the Clark & Alvord saw mill afterward crossed the creek, and no salt was allowed to go by water from the reserva- tion, except from the State wharf. All barrels in which salt was packed were under the approval of the Superintendent, to be made of good sound white oak staves and heading, with round hoops, and water tight ; to be branded with the name of the manufacturer and the weight of salt marked by the Superintendent with a cutting or marking iron. The barrels used for years were mostly made along the West Genesee Turnpike, between Geddes and Camillus, which road for that reason was called for a long time by the inhabitants, " Cooper street." As the oak within easy reach disap- peared, pine and afterward hemlock was substituted for barrel timber, and the barrel-making was transferred to the low-lying lands of Salina and Cicero, and later across the Oneida river into the county of Oswego. For many years the settlers of these localities gave their attention almost wholly to the making of barrels. Felling the trees, they would draw them to the road fronting their log houses and rude cooper shops, with the inevitable tansy beds by their side. There they would saw, bolt, and rive out the staves and heading, and with draw-shaves fashion them into shape for the barrel ; and not more than sixty years since a journey on the " Salt Road," leading from Salina to Brewerton, would rarely disclose a frame building or a well cultivated farm ; but in front of the log cabin would rise a pile of refuse from the cooperage, making the only break in the gloom of the for- est and the mire of the highway. The only teams to be met as you went out on the road, would be the patient oxen drawing their load of from twenty-five to forty barrels, and on your return the same teams plodding slowly homeward, carrying their exchange in a little flour, pork, or beef, and a huge jug or barrel of whiskey. The story is told of a family of Schillings, coopers, near " Taft's Settlement," so-called, who would leave their full barrel of whiskey on the wagon with a tin cup near the spigot, free for all, and when the whiskey gave out, the wagon, again loaded with salt barrels, would be dispatched to town for another barrel. The whiskey of that day was the pure juice of the rye, not " doctored," and could be bought for ten or fifteen cents a gallon. Pine gave way slowly to hemlock and in a suit before a " Salt Point " Justice in 1833, for the non-fulfillment of a contract to deliver merchantable salt barrels, it was once for all settled that a well-made rived hemlock stave barrel was as good as a pine one and complied with the contract. The hemlock disappearing and inventions stepping forward to the aid of the cooper, barrels are now, and for some time have been, fashioned from machine-made staves and hoops, of any hard or soft wood suitable. The lands where coopers and whiskey once held sway are now valuable and fertile farms, and the homes of the inhabitants The Earlv Salt Markets. 389 are substantial and often artistically built dwellings, while the cooper, eschewing whiskey, reaches by canal and rail his stock of materials, and within the bounds of the city makes and delivers his wares to the salt man- ufacturer. The only way for some years for the distribution of the manufacture, with the exception of a very limited home trade, was by water, and the manufacturers were authorized to dig canals from their blocks to Mud creek, so as to carry their salt by boat to the public wharf ; but no such canals were built and the stone-boat drawn by oxen, the only animal and vehicle which could be used on the treacherous marsh, carried the loads from the works to the landing, where it was placed in batteaux, or river boats, carryijig from twenty-five to forty barrels as a load, and then started for market. One route was through the lake and outlet, into and up Seneca river to and through the Cayuga and Seneca lakes and other inland waters, and the salt was often portaged over the divide between the waters running south and north, to Cortland, Elmira, and Olean. Loaded on rafts it was run to Chesapeake bay through the Susquehanna river, or down the Alle- ghany into the Ohio. To supply the region of the great lakes, the bat- teaux descended the Seneca river to the head of the rifts on the Oswego river, known then, as now, as Oswego falls ; there the salt was carried by a portage of about one and one-half miles to the still waters below the pres- ent village of Fulton, where, again loaded into boats, it descended the river to Oswego. From thence, placed aboard small schooners carrying from one hundred and fifty to two hundred barrels, it was distributed to the few and sparsely settled hamlets along the shores of Lake Ontario ; or, destined for Lake Erie, the lower lake vessels would unload at Queenston, and the salt, drawn by oxen, would be carted around Niagara falls to Chippewa and placed on other small schooners; it would then be towed up Niagara river to Black Rock, and thence by sail up the lake to points on lake Erie. Landed at Erie, it was often carried up a small creek to Meadville by boat and thence by pack mules to Pittsburg. Salt was also carried through lake Erie and up Detroit river to Detroit. Salt was sold in Detroit in 1799, by Elisha Alvord, while the stockaded town was still in possession of the British. He received cider in payment, made by the French liabitans from the fruit of their apple orchards on the shores and islands of Lake St. Clair, and carrying the cider back by vessel, portage, and vessel to Lake Ontario, he found for it a satisfactory market at Little York, now Toronto. Up to the war of 1812, most of the trade in sal( for Lake Erie was conducted by the firm of Porter & Barton, warehousemen and commission merchants at Black Rock. General Porter was one of the distinguished family of Porters, of Niagara Falls, noted in the history of the Niagara frontier. A large portion of the salt sold in Pennsylvania and Ohio was exchanged for cattle, which were either marketed in Philadelphia, or driven over the long 390 Memorial History of Syracuse. distance, to grow and fatten on the rich grass of the county of Onondaga. The late Judge David Munroe, of Camillus, in conjunction with the Al- vords, made more than one trip of this kind. The traffic in salt by way of Oswego constantly increasing, a tavern was built at each terminus of the Oswego Falls portage and a regular business of haulage across the same was maintained by Messrs Lyon, McNair and others, of Oswego, continuing up to the final building and completion of the Oswego Canal in 1826-7. The men who sold their salt in Ohio and Penn- sylvania were often general merchants at " Salt Point." They took their money for cattle sold in Philadelphia, to New York and there purchased the goods needed for their stores at home and shipped them by sloop to Albany, and carted them thence to the Mohawk at Schenectady, where, transferred to river boats of five tons carrying capacity, the goods would be poled and trecked up the Mohawk river, around Little Falls, through the locks of the Western Inland Navigation Company, then again, near Rome, through a lock into Wood creek and Oneida lake ; then through said lake and Oneida river, to the confluence of that river and Seneca river, a place then and now called " Three River Point," where the confluence of the Oneida and Sen- eca rivers make the Oswego ; thence up the Seneca through the outlet of and through Onondaga lake to " Salt Point." The merchants would gener- ally follow their venture of salt until the goods thus obtained were landed at home, using up in the round trip over four months of the year. Making and packing the salt in the State store-houses in the winter, it would be em- barked on its voyage in June and the goods as a result would be ready for sale at " Salt Point " late in September or early in October. The settlers of the surrounding district of country, notably from Che- nango Valley, south, and from Oswego and Jefferson counties, north, owing to the absence or almost impassable condition of summer roads, came for their salt in the winter, and up to the time that rapid and easy communi- cation was had by canal and railroad, the first flake of snow, and until bare ground came again, would witness great caravans of sleighs from all quarters of the compass driving to their salt '"Mecca" for their annual supplies of this necessary article. They brought hardly money enough to pay the dues to the State, which would not allow its Superintendent to dicker, but with the manufacturer they were ready to exchange for salt, all articles of their make, whether vegetable, animal, or liquid — potatoes, turnips, wheat, rye, corn, flour and Indian meal, chickens, turkeys, pigs or beef, beeswax, butter, cheese, apples, cider and apple-brandy, woolen yarn, mittens, socks etc. Taverns and private houses were alike filled to repletion, but fortunately the horde brought their own dinner boxes, filled with provisions for them- selves, and oats in bags for their teams. The gradual improvement in roads, as the country grew older and more settled, distributed this trade more equally throughout the year. SUrERIXTENDENTS OF THE SaI.T SPRINGS. 3gl In 1 797, the first year of the administration of William Stevens and of the State, the manufacture of salt reached 25,474 bushels, and for the next three years an annual quantity of a trifle over 50,000 bushels. Stevens had been appointed by the Governor and the Council of Appointment. Asa Danforth succeeded him, by appointment of the Governor and Council, and was in office for four years, during which the annual average yield of salt had risen to 100,000 bushels. In 1806-7, William Kirkpatrick looked after the salt interests, with an annual average production of about 144,000 bush- els. Then for one year each, 1808-10. T. II. Rawson, Nathan Stewart, and John Richardson held the reins, with an annual average production of a trifle less than 300,000 bushels. Then, for an unbroken term of twenty years, William Kirkpatrick was again Superintendent of the Salt Springs and during that period from 200,000 bushels in 181 1, the quantity of salt made had swelled to 1,435.446 bushels in 1830, or an annual average pro- duction of a little short of 625,000 bushels for the twenty years. Nehe- miah II. Earll ne.\t succeeded and held the office for five years. The yield of salt his first year was 1,514,037 bushels, and for the last (1835) 2,209,867. The average for the five years was a trifle over 1,830,500 bushels. He was followed by Rial Wright, under whose first term of four years there was inspected an aggregate of 9,519.896 bushels. Then came Thomas Spencer, with a term of three years and a production of 8,254.977 bushels. Rial Wright again took the helm for two years and brought into port 7,131,054 bushels. Enoch Marks's administration of three years showed an aggregate of 1 1,552,564 bushels. He gave way to Robert Gere for a four year term, yielding 18,703,531 bushels. Harvey Rhoades next filled the place for three years and compassed the amount of 16, 130,404 bushels. Then came a term longer than any other, except the incumbency of William Kirkpat- rick. Vivus W. Smith was made Superintendent in 1855 and continued as such to and including the year 1864, and during his term of office the anor- mous quantity of salt inspected was 67,458,212 bushels. It was during this period, in 1862, that the greatest yield was had from the salt springs in any one year of their history, it being 9,053,874 bushels. George Geddes had next an official life of six years, reporting in that time 47,216,966 bushels. Next came John M. Strong with his three years and 23,766,238 bushels. After him Archibald C. Powell (with a temporary four months occupancy by Calvin G. Hinckley) reported for six years, an inspection of 40,527.755 bushels. Then follows N. Stanton Gere, with a three years term of office, and 24,256,156 bushels to his credit. The present incumbent, Peter J. Brumelkamp, took possession in 1883 and for the seven years including 1889, he reports having inspected 44,599.522 bushels. It would appear from the foregoing that under the management of the State, the Onondaga salt springs have produced since and including the year 1797, up to January i, 1890, 341,461,778 bushels of salt, and including 392 Memorial His.tory of Syracuse. the proceeds of the sales of land on the reservation, have paid into the treasury of the State over $7,000,000, leaving there, after deduction of every expense attending the collection, over $5,000,000; while his "common right" has given out of this to the Indian the enormous annual income of $700 and the great aggregate of 13,800 bushels of salt. In 1859, the term of Superintendent was extended to three years. The salary varied from $800 at first, by sloW increase to the present salary of $1,500, and $300 for the use of a horse annually. In 1798, the Legis- lature appropriated $260 to build a house for the Superintendent, and $50 to fit him up an office in the old block house. At first he was required by law to attend personally to his multifarious duties. In 1 799, he was allowed a deputy at $100 annual salary, and shortly afterward, on the increase and spread of the salt manufacture, he was empowered to appoint a deputy each for Salina, Geddes, and Liverpool, and he was authorized thereafter from time to time, to employ additional aid. In 1800, inspection by weight was abolished and salt was to be sold by a half-bushel measure, as approved by the Superintendent and the price of salt was fixed by law at sixty-two and one-half cents per bushel. In 181 1, measure by weight was again restored, and the duty was reduced to three cents per bushel of fifty-six pounds. That year a law was passed authoriz- ing and requiring the setting apart of two acres of land for experimenting in the production of coarse salt by solar evaporation. In 181 7, duty on salt was raised to twelve and one-half cents per bushel, and the Superintendent's compensation, in lieu of salary, he paying for all help reipiired, was two per cent, on the amount received for duties, which was afterwards altered, to two per cent, for the first $100,000 and one per cent, on all collected over that sum. In 1825 an additional office was created and called " The In- spector of salt for the County of Onondaga." His pay was based on the receipt from the State of three mills per bushel for all salt inspected by him, out of which he was to pay his required help. In that year, the State for the first time by law becoming the sole and only owners of all pumps, power, salt wells and acqueducts, for the raising and supply of salt water for the manufacturer, an office of " Engineer of Pumps," was created, but this was soon abolished and its powers and duties imposed upon the Inspector, and a charge of two mills per bushel for such last service for all salt manufactured by him, was exacted of each manufac- turer, in addition to the regular salt duties. In 1835, the duties were re- duced to six cents per bushel and the pump tax abandoned, and the State officers thereafter each received an annual salary of $1,500.00 in lieu of fees. The State prescribed by law the number and duties of their assistants, and fixed their pay, to be taken from the treasury of the State. The appoint- ments of their assistants, however, were still in the hands of the Superinten- dent and Inspector of salt, each for his own department. Bkhinning of the Use or Coal. 393 The oflRce of Inspector of Salt, as a State appointment, was abolished in 1846, since when all powers have devolved on the Superintendent. At the same time the duties were reduced to one cent per bushel. Among the prominent men holding the office of Inspector of Salt, prior to its abolition by law, we find the names of John Grinnel, Matthew VanVleck, Thomas Rose, James M. Allen, Henry G. Beach, Henry W. Allen, and Jesse McKinley. From the first the State was very stringent in the laws regulating the manufacture of salt and the distribution of salt water, enacting special rules by statute, and devolving upon the Superintendent great and arbi- trary powers in relation thereto. All the laws on the subject, by legislative enactment, were revised and codified into a general act, under the adminis- tration of \'. W. Smith, and such revision and codification received legisla- tive sanction in 1859, and with but slight changes have governed up to this time. For many years all salt produced at the salt springs was made by boil- ing the water in kettles ; the salt blocks, so-called, consisting at first of four kettles in a double arch, were gradually enlarged by additional kettles to eight, ten, fourteen, twenty and twenty-eight kettles, until finally to-day, while there are a few salt blocks having one hundred or more kettles, the greater part are of sixty or seventy, each from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty gallons capacity. The fuel first used was wood, obtained from immediately around the works, and in this way the site of the city was denuded of its trees and, when finally settled with inhabitants, was found covered by a second growth of timber, mostly of oak bushes on the uplands. Next, the immediately surrounding territory was invaded for a supply and often during the winter bands of Indians from the Castle, accompanied by their squaws, papooses, and dogs, would be found in the forest lying in improvised wigwams and industriously plying the woodman's a.x. Soon, most of the wood within profitable hauling distance by teams being exhausted, boats were brought into use to bring it from the shores of the navigable streams near by, and when the canal was completed a wider country to draw from was opened up. Wood rarely reached the value of two dollars per cord at the salt works, until increased house consumption and a demand for the locomotive began, after 1830, to raise it in value and price. The cost became so great in 1S49 that Thomas Spencer, once Superintendent and then salt manufacturer, tried the experiment of using hard or anthracite coal and continued its use, intermixed with wood, for some years. No general use of coal, however, was then had. In 1857 the consumption of wood had risen to 160,000 cords per annum and the price to $4.50 per cord. In this year some half a dozen manufacturers, raising their chimneys so as to create a sufficient draught 50 394 Memorial Histokv ok Syracuse. for that purpose, began the use of coal to the exclusion of wood, and grad- ually thereafter coal as fuel completely displaced wood and for many years has been the only fuel used. In that year the Superintendent reported to the Legislature as in existence in the Syracuse district, blocks 50; number of kettles, 2,418. The Salina district, blocks 147: number kettles, 7,648. The Liverpool district, blocks 61 ; number kettles. 3,212. The Geddes dis- trict, blocks 46 ; number kettles 2,608. This makes a total of 304 blocks and 15.886, kettles This number of salt blocks has never been exceeded except by the small addition of twelve new ones, or in all 316 blocks. Anthracite coal, the first used, gave way early to the bituminous, as a cheaper article, and the close competition of other salt-making localities finally led to the adoption of the fine, or refuse, of the anthracite, called by us, "coal dust," in England, "slack." This fuel, burned with the aid of an engine and blower, is claimed to yield more salt from the consumption of a ton, than a cord of wood or a ton of either the anthracite or bituminous mine run coal, and has been purchased at a cost of ^^j^ per cent, less than the price of any other coal within the last twenty years. It may be said right here that the improvement of the quality of the brine and the adop- tion of the present fuel have enabled an average salt block to make 75,000 bushels of salt annually, against 30,000, the limit of annual production thirty years ago. Though hundreds of thousands of dollars, amounting in all probability to a round million or more during the period of salt production by arti- ficial heat, had been expended in innumerable experiments to cheapen the cost and increase the quantity, the old original salt block was the base and still rules the form of the modern one. A salt block of the present usual size of sixty or more kettles is covered by a rude wooden building long enough for the kettles, and wide enough for two bins, one on each side, into which the salt as made is thrown from baskets resting over and filled from the kettles. The kettles are set in a double row with a space under each row high enough to admit grates for the reception of fuel at the mouths of the arches. Such spaces are gradually compressed, leaving a clear space under the kettles to the chimney for the purpose both of a draught and distribution of heat the whole length of the block. A boiler and engine with a blower attached is operated in front to aid in the eco- nomical consumption of the fuel. On the outside, at or near the rear of the blocks, are two or more cisterns, each 20 x 30 feet and six feet deep, to receive and hold the necessary supply of brine from the State reservoirs. These cisterns are so elevated as to permit the water to flow into a con- ductor of bored logs lying on the arch between the two rows of kettles, in which is inserted, over and in front of each kettle, a faucet and stop through which, as required, the salt water is drawn into the kettle. The mania for experiment and hoped-for improvement still lingers and there is The Coarse Salt Industry. 395 at present a factory in operation called " the experimental works." Its in- terior is a scaled book to the outside enquirer, but every apparent sign is given that, like its predecessors, it will only add to the volume of money al- ready lost in the vain attempt for improvement. Coarse salt in small quantities and at great cost, had been made here, by artificial heat, but the anxiety of the State to produce the article cheaply and in abundance, for the growing demands of the beef, pork, and fish pack- er, particularly at the west, induced the Legislature, as early as 18 10, to in- vite, by offers of extra facilities, rewards and exemptions from the general statutes, embarkation in its manufacture by solar evaporation ; but the at- tempt was not successful until 1822, when, by the personal efforts of citizens and the members of the Syracuse Company, a start in that direction was finally made. Along the seacoast of Massachusetts, particularly around Cape Cod, in Barnstable county, salt had been made by solar evaporation from sea water for many \-ears, in wooden vats erected along the shores and filled with water pumped into them by the action of windmills. A visit to this locality resulted in enlisting the co-operation of Stephen Smith, a Quaker, who was persuaded by the inducements held out by the State, to come to Syracuse and initiate the enterprise. He brought with him Henry Gifford, by trade a carpenter and experienced in the building of coarse salt vats. Two companies were organized and incorporated, one called " The Syracuse," and the other, " The Onondaga Solar Coarse Salt Co." The first was controlled by John Townsend, James McBride, William James and their associates, of the Syracuse Company, a corporation which had then purchased largely of lands in this vicinity, out of the sales of which they became the founders of the village of Syracuse. The other, or "Onondaga Coarse Salt Company," was made up of citizens, with Joshua Forman at their head, and in this organization Stephen Smith became per- sonally interested. Henry Gifford, after superintending the building of the first works for each company, built for himself the Gifford Salt Yard, since absorbed in the Cape Cod Coarse Salt Company. By statute many benefits were conferred on these pioneers. They were given lands for their erections, special privileges as to the supply of brine, and bounties on the production and disposition of their salt. Their mana- gers and operatives were by law exempted from jury and military duty also, except in case of invasion or insurrection ; this last privilege, ostensibly granted as a concession to the necessites of their business, requiring con- stant supervision of their works to avoid loss by rain and to secure the benefit of the sunshine, is said to have been the shrewd demand of the Quaker, Stephen Smith, as a concession to his religious scruples. Next in order came the works erected by Dr. Samuel C. Brewster in 1837. The amount of coarse salt made in 1S40 was 184,613 bushels; but not until the official report of the Superintendent in 1841 was the quantity 396 Memorial History of Syracuse. of coarse salt made, reported separate from the general statement made of the manufacture, since which time it has always been so reported. In the year 1S40 the demand for State land on which to erect coarse salt works caused an investigation and survey of the lands unsold and reserved for the manufacture of salt, when it was found that the extensive plot originally set apart for that purpose, The Onondaga Salt Springs I'leservation, had dwindled down, by force of statutes authorizing sales for village sites and other purposes, from over ten thousand acres, to about five hundred and fifty, including as well all land then covered by salt erections as lands still unoccupied for that purpose. Upon legislative request, the Superintendent reported that about seventy acres of this land was occupied by fine saltworks, one hundred and fifty by coarse salt fields, and that about one hundred acres had then in addition been set apart to private individuals for coarse salt manufacture, leaving about one hundred acres eligible for the same purpose ; the remainder of the five hundred and fifty acres being broken and swampy lands unfit for salt manufacturing purposes. In 1843, Parmalee & Allen, at Geddes, Cobb & Hooker in Salina. and " The New York Salt Company " at Greenpoint, were added to the list of coarse salt makers. The Constitution of the State, adopted in 1846, pro- vided that, "The Legislature shall never sell or dispose of the salt springs belonging to this State ; the lands which may be necessary or convenient for the use of the salt springs, may be sold by authority of law and under the direction of the Commissioners of the Land Ofifice, for the purpose of investing the monies arising therefrom in other lands, alike convenient, but by such sale and purchase, the aggregate quantity of these lands shall not be diminished." Under this provision of the Constitution, the " Commissioners of the Land Office," as authorized by law, have from time to time caused the re- moval of vats and the sale of lands occupied by various coarse salt com- panies in the Third and Sixth wards of the city and in the (then) village of Geddes, and invested the proceeds in other lands alike convenient. This policy has added to the area of the land now occupied for the manufacture of coarse salt, more than six hundred per cent., and placed money in the treasury in excess of the cost of the removal of the vats and the purchase of new lands, and permitted the rapid development of the city, in opening streets through, and in building upon, the land so exchanged, substantial and costly structures. Now the product of the coarse salt fields has reached and passed the annual output of the fine or boiling works, making in the year 1888, 3,116,897 bushels, a trifle less than 600,000 bushels in excess of the fine salt manufactured in that year. There are now twenty-seven distinct coarse salt fields, operated by individuals or corporations, with an aggregate of 42,157 salt vats, 16 x 18 feet each, averaging an annual yield of seventy-five bushels to the cover, or 4,500 bushels to the acre, as compared DEscRirnoN of tuk Salt Vats. 397 with the same sized vats in 1823, then yielding about 40 bushels to the vat, or 2,400 busliels to the acre. The erections are techinally called " covers," because of the necessity of dividing the roofs used to protect the brine and salt from wet weather into suitable sections, for the easy handling by the operators. They are constructed by placing light timbers on long rows of posts fixed in the ground, at such elevation as the surface of the land requires to make them level and at the same time easy to operate. The floors of boards 18 feet long are placed across the floor of timbers, or stringers, as they are called, and jointed and dressed tight enough together to resist leakage. The sides are made of plank or gunwales, grooved so as to receive the ends of the boards, calked to prevent leakage and covered over with a light roof, made into sections so as to run on and off easily upon movable wooden rollers. The gunwales are three inches thick and, (or deep or receiving room, fif- teen inches, and for settling and .salt rooms, nine inches wide. The vats in the deep rooms are twelve inches and in the others six inches deep, and are so arranged as to place the deep room highest, the settling room next, and the salt room lowest, so that the salt water flowing from the reservoir by gravity into the receiving or deep room, may be carried into the settling room, and thence, when purified and brought to saturation, into the salt room, where it remains until evaporation makes and perfects the salt. The rows of covers are made to face each other so that the covers, when re- moved, run in opposite directions. These fronts are eight feet apart, leav- ing a continuous roadway through which the men, horses, and carts, can attend to the making of the .salt and its removal to the store-hou.se, for drainage, sale, and shipment. This salt sold in the market as it comes from the vats, or divided by screens and mills into the various grades to suit the wants and uses of its buyers, has won, and deservedly holds, a pos- ition second to no other known salt, wherever produced. The tenure by which coarse salt lands are held, is a grant from the Com- missioners of the Land Office, revocable only upon a failure to use the same for the manufacture of coarse salt. In the beginning of the salt industry, when the country was new and the pioneer was struggling with the forest, but little thought was given to the nicety of the manufacture and various methods of its production to suit the table, the dairy, the preservation of food, and other purposes; but whenever salt was wanted, it was taken from the common stock produced by the simple boiling of the brine, and for all purposes it was the general resort. Hut as the cleared field enlarged and the products of the farm out- grew the wants of the home family and sought, through constanth- improv- ing methods of transportation to meet the growing wants of thriving towns and expanding cities, a taste for a purer, more delicate salt was cultivated and the manufacturer made efforts to meet the demand. As early as 1830, 398 Memorial History of Syracuse. Chauncey Nathaniel, and John Woodruff, and their sons and nephews, undertook the manufacture of table and dairy salt. Among their members was Martin Woodruff, in his younger days an enlisted soldier in the Na- tional army, afterwards for many years Colonel of the local militia regiment, and finally a victim of the " Patriot " war, paying with his life on the gibbet at Kingston for his complicity in the Canadian rebellion of 1837-8. These men, selecting from one to four kettles in a salt block, boiled the water with great care, removing the impurities as far as possible to be done, by mere labor and skill. They used powdered rosin to cut the grain of the salt and make it fine, and to further clarify the salt they put into the kettles either butter, soap, or fresh animal blood. The salt thus made, first stove-dried, was packed for market into baskets, boxes, and bags of various shapes and weights. Others, notably Warren H. Porter, soon embarked in the busi- ness, all making the salt very carefully. They soon abandoned the use of rosin, butter, soap, and blood. In order to make the salt fine they ground it, first by hand, then by horse-power, and finally by machinery driven either by water or steam. The salt was stove-dried to expel moisture. The de- mand increasing rapidly, in 1844 large establishments were erected— the Haskin Mill by James P. Haskin, on the basin of the Oswego canal, near the head of the first lock in Salina; the Hope Factory, built by John B. Ives, Thomas Spencer, and Robert W. Nolton, on the new side-cut canal (now abandoned) running out of the Erie canal south near the present round house and work shops of the New York Central railroad. Henry H. Hooker, Stevens & Brackett, Burr Burton, Timothy R. Porter, James Van Valkenburg, Albert Freeman, and many others engaged also in the busi- ness, and later on Robert Gere with the Ashton Mills at Geddes. Most of these works were experimental, both in the methods of manufacture and in the machinery and other appliances for drying and grinding. The demand for this kind of salt increased until it was used over the whole country. Finally, an opposition was started and grew in strength until it seriously affected the market so as to very perceptibly lessen the quantity made. This opposition grew partly out of an honest prejudice, but in the main was owing to the strenuous efforts of the European manu- facturer, backed up by the interested dealer here, who, seizing on the prej- udice, fostered its growth both at home and abroad, some of them going so far as to offer in open market premiums for butter and cheese cured with English salt. It is now an open secret that many, aye, very many, shrewd farmers having an abiding faith in the equality, at least, of the home-made salt, contented themselves with leaving the never-dwindling bag of Ashton or English salt to lie on the floor of their dairies, while their butter and cheese, cured with Onondaga salt (the very taste of which by the expert would betray it) was sold both at home and abroad as " gilt edged " and redolent with the Ashton flavor. CiiAKACTiirusTics OF Earlv Sai.t Workkrs. 399 But it was true that it required very great care to eliminate mechanically the bitter, deliquescent salts of calcium and magnesium, of which there were slight traces in the brine of the Onondaga salt springs, and in the multitude of manufacturers and their various methods it might well hap- pen, as it infrequently did, that these impurities were not fully removed. Accordingly, when in i860 a combination of all salt interests afforded the opportunity, as well as the means, for the effort, the highest chemical tal- ent was employed at great expense to solve the difficulty. Scientific knowl- edge and extended experiment finally succeeded in overcoming all obsta- cles. Practical manufacture upon the chemical basis thus discovered pro- duced a pure chloride of sodium for the dairy and table, and now the On- ondaga salt springs furnish this grade from either coarse or fine salt second to none other in the world. The first settlers at the salt springs were largely New Englanders and most of them from Connecticut. They were either themselves soldiers of the Revolution, or the sons of Revolutionary sires, and they brought with them here the stalwart strength and power of endurance born of their ex- perience in their battles for liberty and life. Their native shrewdness and intelligence were brought into play ; undeterred by disease, fearless of physical impediments, they brought to their new home an indomitable and untiring industry that overcame all opposition. Death soon weeded out the few indolent, lazy, and dissipated, and the stalwart survivors built rap- idly and well the foundations of their future homes. They brought but little means save their hands to do their work ; they were their own em- ployers in the varied work of their calling — salt boilers, river boatmen, coop- ers, and laborers. They became in time the merchants, bankers, lawyers, mechanics, and political officers of the community. The long list of the names of these men, if recited, would remind us of many whose memories are still honored and cherished as worthy founders of our city. The history of one, not as an exception, but as a sample, may be not inappropriately related here. Dean Richmond, then an infant, was brought here by his parents from Vermont early in the present century. Poverty deprived him of the meager education then afforded and drove him early in life to the river boat, first as cook, next with his shoulders to the setting pole on the running board, then as salt boiler and packer. Next, he became a salt man- ufacturer, bank director, and local political boss. Removing to Buffalo he became the acknowledged State leader of the Democratic party, the Presi- dent of the New York Central Railroad Company, and died a millionaire. He always attributed his success in life to his practical education on the marshes of the salt springs. To narrate the financial or business history of the salt industry in this locality in detail, would require a more extended space than can well be de- voted to it within the bounds allotted to the general subject, but a rapid glance over the field may be of interest. 400 Memorial History of Syracuse. For a few years the pioneers were unable to supply the demands of con- sumers and consequently their infant efforts were rewarded with an abundant return for their labor. As the means of transportation improved and the population of the surrounding country increased, the production of salt, sometimes equal to, then ahead of, and again behind, the demand, was never a stable, conservative business. The operators, early and enthusiastic ad- vocates of the canal projects of the State, were largely benefitted by their completion in increased and remunerative return for their salt, but they soon met the foreign article coming up the artificial waterway largely built with their money, right into the very heart of their territory. Differential canal tolls imposed by the State, temporarily a relief, were often neutralized by the action of the General Government in adjusting custom dues. Early after the completion of the canals attempts at combination were made to restrict production and regulate prices, but the ease and facility with which salt blocks could be built multiplied the manufactories whenever invited by any probable increase in the value of the product. The general financial and business depression of 1S41-2 proved alike disastrous to the organized company of buyers and the salt manufacturers. Spasmodic efforts were made at intervals thereafter to operate some scheme to remedy the difficulties, but none was successful. In 1S57 a buy- ing company was again organized and a limited output of salt agreed upon, but the financial storm of that year again overwhelmed the enterprise. The salt manufacturers were, as a rule, men of small means, unable to seek a market far from home. They were thus compelled to sell their salt in large quantities, on long time, in the main to commercial houses in Buffalo and Oswego, who as vessel owners, sought the salt asballa.st for their vessels in their trips up the lakes, for return cargoes of western productions. If the round voyage proved successful, the salt makers received their pay, but if not they were the first, if not the only ones, to lose their money, for a shipping bill generally accompanied the western produce and remained the property of the western seller until the sale was completed in New York and his money paid over either to him or to his eastern correspondent. But the salt of the poor manufacturer was distributed along the shores of the great lakes and sold at any price necessary for its quick discharge from ship impatient for its return cargo, and, as was too often the case, the failure of the shipper's venture was the only pay of the salt manufacturer. The manufacturers determined, if possible, to remedy this state of affairs and another agreement was entered into in i860, ba.sed upon these funda- mental propositions: All interests, fine, coarse and dairy were embraced ; the property of each and every individual and corporation, and salt erection was appraised by disinterested parties ; each establishment was entitled to and bound to take its pro rata share, based upon the appraisal, in a paid up money capital ; all property was entitled to and should receive an annual Competition in Salt Manutacture. 401 rental on its shares of the joint appraisal ; no restriction was to be made on the quantity of salt to be produced, except from the want of salt water, or the absence of a market ; salt was to be sold to consumers in the State at a low fixed margin of profit, and salt was not to be sold to speculators, or to buyers who should, for that purpose, withhold it from sale at fair rates. It goes without saying that the war of the rebellion made the agreement at first a great success, and for a few years the monetary return was far in excess of any before in the history of the salt springs ; but soon the opening up of the Mississippi, the redemption of the salt fields of the Kanawha and the Ohio, coupled with the discovery and development of the salt of Sag- inaw Bay, warned us that our day of great prosperity must give way to the rising sun of a rescued and reunited country. Prior to 1868, and for some time, Onondaga had furnished Upper Can- ada with her salt to the extent of about 600,000 bushels annually. The discovery in 1867 of saturated brine in exhaustless quantities on the Can- adian shore of Lake Huron, from Kincardine on the north through Goderich to Seaforth on the south-east, ended that traffic, so that for many years On- ondaga has not sold a single barrel of salt in Canada. The salt fields of Michigan, starting from Saginaw, have been extended over half of the state and have improved so that to-day in many of her flour- ishing towns on the lake side of her peninsula, salt works abound, fed by ex- haustless springs of pure salt water, or from water artificially saturated on beds of mineral salt lying deep in the earth. The necessities of the rebel- lion brought to the surface the great underlying salt beds of Louisiana. The Kansas farmer, peering down into the rich soil of his prairies, has discovered the brine and the rock salt in great abundance and of greater value than the fruits of his husbandry'. To use the language of one of the great men of our nation, (Thomas H. Benton), "it is probable that salt is the most abundant substance of our globe. Like other neccessaries of life, like air and water, it is universally diffused and inexhaustibly supplied. It is found in all climates and in all varieties of forms. The waters hold it in solution, the earth contains it in solid masses, every sea contains it, many inland seas, lakes, ponds, and pools are impregnated with it. Streams of saline waters in innumerable places, emerging from the bowels of the earth, approach its surface and either issue from it in perennial springs or are easily reached by wells." "The probabil- ity " of Benton is to-day an accomplished prophecy. Verj' recently our brethren of Wyoming, Genesee, Livingston, Tompkins, and Cayuga, boring in the earth for oil and gas wherewith to illuminate their dark and devious ways, have found their preservation and safety in the development of a broad and thick carpet of salt underlying their earthly possessions. Onondaga's outposts have been attacked on every side and competitors have arisen in multitudes near the very heart of her citadel. Driven, but not 51 402 Memorial History oi- Syracuse. afraid, she still continues the contest; as competition has pressed down upon her industry, she has met it with her already completed plants, her in- vulnerable coign of vantage in her admirable location for wide distribution and minimum transportation charges for her salt, in the constantly increas- ing value of her brine, and in the careful and intelligent adoption of all necessary improvements tending towards both the purity and the economical production of her manufacture. Even now, in the last apparent struggle for existence, there dawns upon her a bright prospect of a final victorious fight for her old supremacy. The explorations of William B. Cogswell, esq., to procure, if possible, a rich supply of brine for a kindred industry, (the manufacture of soda ash by the Solvay process) have been crowned with success in the discovery and devel- opment within the limits of the county, of a mass of mineral salt, inex- haustible in quantity and of absolute purity. Ten wells have been bored into it, in and through which the clear waters of one of Tully's beautiful lakes will lead, to saturation. Already an iron conduit from the upper val- ley of the Onondaga creek has reached our borders and soon an abundant and rich flow of saturated brine will be exposed to the sun on our salt fields and give up its treasures to the loving heat of our salt blocks. The changes in methods of transportation demand a passing notice. The wagon and sleigh for short land carriage, the natural water-way, with batteaux and river boats, carrying restricted cargoes, were of the earlier stage. The artificial canal with its enlarged and greater reach followed. Then came, first in conflict with the canal and now victor in the contest, the railroad, and to-day three-fourths of all salt sent to market goes by rail ; and deducting that shipped to New York and Philadelphia, (where cost and not time of transit determines the mode) full 90 per cent, of all the salt shipped from here in any direction takes the rail. The reason for this great change is this: In the days when the canals were the only channels of transportation, the merchants and the packers, particularly of the west, were compelled to lay in in the fall of the year, large quantities of salt to carry them through the winter. This involved large outlays of purchase money, increased storage capacity, and payment of considerable sums for insurance. When the railroads were authorized to carry freight, this was all changed. The salt works are now the storehouses from which the mer- chant and the packer can draw their supply by the car-load any day in the year, just as, and as often as, they need. This saves them the investment of large capital, costly storage room, and payment of insurance, and largely more than pays the difference between the cost of railroad and waterway charges of transportation ; the same reason holds measurably true in sum- mer as well as in winter. Finally, let us pause and reflect upon the outcome of the discovery of the salt springs and their development by the untiring and sturdy determi- Relations of Salt to the Erie Canal. 403 nation of our hardy pioneers and their successors. There is to-day in tlie very heart of this celebrated agricultural county of Onondaga, within ten miles of its Central City, an uncultivated and uninhabited swamp, wearing the same desolate, forbidding face that it showed to the white man one hundred years ago. Do you believe that the dismal swamp lying around the head of Onondaga lake would ever have been the site of a city of an hundred thousand souls and rapidly reaching towards greater stature and strength, unless the salt springs and their demands had lowered the waters and let in the sunshine and healing winds to dry up and blow away its death-dealing miasma? The Erie canal has long been the just pride and boast of our people. Would it ever have been projected through our locality, if the eloquent words of a Forman and the scientific works of a Geddes, both salt makers, backed by the enthusiastic aid of their fellows, had not, as early as 1807, urged this then gigantic project? The needs of expansion for their grow- ing industry demanded outlet, the knowledge of the rise and flow of streams both east and west had been gained by their use in the salt trafific, and the true eye of the surveyor had determined the feasibility of the route; but the war of 1812 with its burthens was upon the country ; the State, poor in men, poorer in money, just emerging from Colonial dependence into inde- pendent Statehood, was illy prepared for the undertaking. Accordingly, in 1817, beginning the work, the Legislature imposed a tax or duty on our salt of 12 1-2 cents per bushel, and solemnly dedicated the proceeds to the building of the canals ; and, following it up, the Constitution of the State in 1821 declared the duty unalterable until the last dollar of the cost of the Erie and Champlain canals was paid and the debt discharged. Steadily thereafter the golden stream from this source flowed through the State treasury into the pockets of the canal debt-owners, until in 1S46 $3,500,000, more than half the cost of the whole undertaking, paid into the coffers of the State, cancelled the obligation of the Salt Pointers. The advantages of a completed canal came to us in 1825 and rapidly accelerated the growth of our town, both in wealth and population. The line of traftic and travel being permanently established by the canal, it was soon followed by the railroad, so that to-day we are not only the meeting place of the water-highways leading from the great lakes of the west to the noble Hud.son flowing to the sea ; but we are the hub of a network of rail- roads which carry us and our products everywhere, and bring to us from all parts of this great continent and from beyond the sea, their people and the results of their labors. Would the Erie canal so early (if ever) have been built, if left to the scattered strength and feeble energies of a mere rural population. Would the great prairies of the boundless west so soon have ceased to glow with the bright flowers of nature's carpet and been changed into a granary for 404 Memorial History of Syracuse. the food of a world. Would that Metropolitan city sitting at the foot of the Hudson, gathering and distributing annually an internal trade more than seven-fold greater than her foreign traffic, have now ranked in popula- tion but little below, and none in enterprise and wealth, with the greatest cities of the earth, if the canals had not changed the face of the world and made the first steps to bring people and nations from the uttermost parts of the earth, eye to eye, to struggle in peaceful strife for man's progress and enduring prosperity? When you boast of j'our proud and beautiful city with its broad ave- nues and palatial buildings ; upon its many-hued industries ; upon its swel- ling population of noble workers in every calling— when you fondly pro- phecy and serenely hope for its future greater aggrandizement, let your eyes picture and your thoughts for a moment rest upon the untutored Indian, paddling in his canoe the first white man along the shores of your beautiful lake to the tiny flow of salt water bubbling out of God's earth — there, however great, Central City, you may be or may become, then and there you had your beginning. CHAPTER XXV. TRANSPORT.MION. The Western Inland Lock and Navigation Company— First Inception of the Erie Canal Pro- ject—The Routes Discussed- Judge Forman's Early Work in Favor of the Canal— The Slate Loan —Completion of the Canal— The First Packet Boat— Railroads— The First One to Reach Syracuse —Its Rude Character— Other Railroads of Syracuse. IN the early chapters of this work the reader has learned something of the methods of transportation of freight before the days of the canals and rail- roads. Very much of the early freighting was done by water over the well known route from Albany, up the Mohawk, through Wood creek, Oneida lake and the adjacent rivers. This route was established by the Western Inland Lock and Navigation Company in the year 1800. It consisted of the construction of a canal and locks around Little Falls and on the Mo- hawk River, the opening of a canal from the Mohawk at Rome (then Fort Stanwix) to Wood creek, connecting thence with Oneida lake, and the im- provement of navigation in the Oswego and Seneca rivers. The Company, in order to complete this work, borrowed of the State in 1796, fifteen Inception of the Canal Project. 405 thousand pounds, and in 1797 two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. It was in its day a very useful improvement and aided greatly in the settle- ment and development of the resources of Central and Western New York. Many a pioneer and his family were conveyed over that old thoroughfare to their new homes in the western wilderness ; many a cargo of merchandise was shipped over it and freight of produce sent to market, till the growing population and commerce demanded ampler and more extended facilities for transportation. But when the condition of the great turnpike roads became sufficiently improved, along their well-worn surfaces passed a constant procession of teams and laden wagons, many of which had their destination at Salt Point. But in a section of country possessing the natural resources of New York State and showing the rapid growth in population that prevailed in this locality, these primitive methods could not long endure. For several years before the war of 18 12, the subject of connecting the Hudson river with Lake Erie by an artificial water-way received a good deal of attention throughout the State. The inhabitants of Onondaga county felt a special interest in this project. No limited section of the State, per- haps, felt so great a necessity for better and more rapid means for shipment of freight, as did the salt district of Salina. Judge Joshua Forman was elected to the Legislature of 1S07, with special reference to the introduc- tion of this subject by him in that body. He was eminently qualified for the work and was full of enthusiasm and determination to push the matter to a successful issue. In February, 1808, he procured the passage of a joint resolution ordering a survey and the appointment of a Joint Committee of both Houses. Three routes were in discussion, and as the Committee were predisposed in favor of the one by way of Oswego, all three were finally surveyed. On the nth of April, 1808, the Surveyor-General was authorized by law to draw on the State treasury for as great a sum of money as might be re- quired to make the survey contemplated by the Joint Committee, which sum should not exceed $600, a sum ludicrously insignificant for the purpose. Judge James Geddes was appointed to make the survey and received from his superiors these instructions : As the provision made for the expenses of this business is not adequate to the effectual exploring of the country for this purpose, you will, in the first place, examine what may appear to be the best route for a canal from Oneida lake to Lake Ontario, in the town of Mexico, and take a level and survey of it; also, whether a canal cannot be made between the Oneida lake and Oswego, by a route in part to the west of the Oswego river, so as to avoid those parts along it where it will be impracticable to make a good navigation. The next object will be the ground between Lakes Erie and Ontario, which must be examined with a view to determine what will be the most eligible track for a canal from below 4o6 Memorial History of Syracuse. Niagara Falls to Lake Erie. If your means will admit of it, it would be desirable to have a level taken throughout the whole distance between the lakes. Mr. Geddes completed his survey and at a cost exceeding the appropri- ation by only $75.00, which was afterwards appropriated. He reported in 1809 on the three routes — the first between Oneida lake and Lake Ontario ; the second, the Niagara river route, as it was called ; and the third, the in- terior route (the one finally adopted.) The feasibility of the project being assured, Judge Forman visited Washington and laid the subject before President Jefferson and solicited aid from the general government. This was refused, the President charac- terizing the undertaking as "being little short of madness at this day." He thought it might be carried out, possibly, a century hence. In 1810, a Board of Commissioners was appointed, composed of some of the leading men of the State, who were instructed to explore the pro- posed inland route, which they did, and reported favorably upon it in the following year. After considerable discussion as to whom they should apply to survey and lay out the canal, James Geddes and Benjamin Wright were employed for the work at a salary of $1,500 a year. Before a decision was reached, the Commission almost concluded to employ William Weston, a noted European engineer, at a salary of $7,000. One more ineffectual attempt was made to secure aid from the general government for the undertaking, and then (March, 181 2) the Commissioners reported, that "Now, sound policy demands that the canal be made by the State of New York on her own account." The war of 181 2 caused a suspension of the whole project until the leg- islative session of 18 16, when a memorial was presented to the Legislature, signed by more than 100,000 persons in New York and interior counties, calling on members to prosecute the important work without delay. In this county a meeting was called at which Judge Forman was appointed a Committee to prepare a memorial to be presented to the Legislature. At a large meeting held at the Court House, at Onondaga Hill, on the 23d of February, 1816, Judge Forman read his memorial, which was approved, and a large Committee was appointed from the several towns of the county to give it circulation and procure signatures. Over 3,000 persons in this county signed the document. The State authorized a loan of $1,000,000, and the section between Rome and the Seneca river was decided upon as the first to be begun. In 1816, Judge Geddes made another report on the country between Black Rock and the Cayuga marshes, and Benjamin Wright reported on the remainder of the distance to Albany. Still another and last attempt was made to enlist the aid of Congress in 1817, but it failed and this State was left to its own resources. Careful and revised estimates placed the entire cost of the canal at $5,000,000. The Tiiii l''iKST I'ACKiiT Boat. 407 proposed route was divided into three sections and on June 27, 1817, the first contract was let. The excavation was begun at Rome, with appropri- ate ceremonies, on the 4th of July, 1817, and the first contract was given to Judge John Richardson, of Cayuga. Mr. Clark says, ("Onondaga," vol. 2, p. 61): It is, perhaps, a singular coincidence, that the first movement in the halls of legislation, relative to the Erie canal, was made by a member from Onondaga, — that the first exploration was made by an engineer of Onondaga, — that the first contract was given to, and the first ground bro- ken by, a contractor who had been several years a resident of Onondaga, and all of whom had been Judges of our County Courts and members of the Legislature from Onondaga county. The work progressed with unu- sual rapidity. The zeal and perseverance of the Commissioners and the activity and industry of the contractors, was everywhere exerted. It may now be added to this, as Mr. Alvord has stated in the preceding chapter, that the salt makers of Onondaga paid more than one-half of the entire cost of the canal, by a tax upon their staple article of manufacture. The work of constructing the canal went forward with commendable rapidity, when the obstacles and the circumstances of those early years are considered, and in Governor Clinton's message of 1820 he reported ninety- four miles finished on the middle section, with a lateral branch to Salina. The first packet boat, named the Montczuvia, came through Syracuse on the 21st of April, 1820, and the event was properly celebrated, as related on an earlier page. Those who had counted upon great advantages to be derived from the canal, directly and indirectly, by the people of Syracuse and Onondaga county were not disappointed ; but there were still many who, at all stages of the work, talked and worked against the success of the enterprise, predicting an enormous and extravagant expenditure to complete it, a lack of traffic, heavy operating expenses, and so on. But the work went on in spite of evil prophecies, and in November, 1825, eight years and four months from the time of beginning, the waters of Lake Erie were united with those of the Hudson River, through one of the longest canals in the world. Coming to the direct connection of Syracuse with the building of this great artery, and aside from the inestimable services of Judge James Ged- des and Judge Joshua Forman, it should be recorded that the first ground broken in Onondaga count)-, was by Mr. Elias Gumear, in the town of Man- lius. Oliver Teal), Esq., took several contracts in the eastern part of the county. Messrs. Northrup, De.xter and Jeremiah Keeler built a section or two through Syracuse. Hazard Lewis, of Binghamton, built the locks. The first locks were built of Eibridge sandstone, the masons having no idea that the Onondaga limestone could be cut for facing stones for locks, so little was this valuable material then understood. Oliver Teall was appointed the first Superintendent of the canal, and Joshua Forman was the first Collector, with office in Syracuse. 4o8 Memorial History of Syracuse. RAILROADS. It was not many years after the completion of the Erie canal, before it became a well settled fact that it would at an early day have a railroad along its course, as a competitor for passenger and freight traffic. Shrewd and far-seeing men realized that this line across the Empire State was the nat- ural course for through trade, as it is now termed, and busy brains were speculating upon ways and means and possible results of building railways that would at least divide the traffic of the canal and prove a profitable investment. Prominent among those early agitators of this topic was John Wilkinson, of Syracuse, and there were others who shared his views, but who were not so situated as to also share his active interest. But the senti- ment of this community at large was then, as it has been ever since, in favor of the extension of its transportation interests. The Auburn and Syracuse Railroad. — The first actual movement to- wards the construction of a railroad with Syracuse as a terminus or a sta- tion was made in May, 1834, when an Act of Legislature was passed incor- porating " The Auburn and Syracuse Railroad Company." The incorpora- tors of this company were : Daniel Sennett, Ulysses F. Doubleday, Brad- ley Tuttle, David Munroe, Grove Lawrence, and William Porter, Jr., and they were given power to construct a single or double track railroad between the villages of Auburn and Syracuse, on such a route as a majority of the directors might select. The capital stock was placed at $400,000. The law required that $20,000 should be expended on the road within two years after the passage of the Act, and that the road should be finished and in operation within five years thereafter. Following are the names of the Commissioners appointed in the Act : Daniel Sennett, Ulysses F. Double- day, Bradley Tuttle, John Seymour, Halsey Phelps, Stephen Van Anden, David Munroe, John Wilkinson, Grove Lawrence, Hezekiah Earll, and William Porter, Jr. Five of these Commissioners were Onondaga county men, viz: David Munroe, John Wilkinson, Grove Lawrence, Hezekiah Earll, and William Porter, Jr. The Company was organized in January, 1835, with the following officers: Hon. Elijah Miller, President; A. D. Leonard, G. B. Throop, N. Girrow, J. )s\. Sherwood, S. Van Anden, Richard Steel, John Seymour, Abijah Fitch, E. E. Marvine, and Allen Warden, (of Auburn) and Henry Raynor and V. W. Smith of Syracuse, directors; E. F. Johnson, Engineer; Levi Williams, Assistant Engineer. Work was begun in December, 1835, and the first payment to contractors was made in January, 1836. On the 4th of April, 1837, an Act was passed authorizing the Commissioners of the Land Office to sell to the Auburn and Syracuse Railroad Company such portion of farm lot No. 253 of the Onondaga Salt Springs Reservation in the town of Salina lying between the canal and the streets across said lot as might be necessary for the track j5?V ^^ The Syracuse and Utica Railroad. 409 of the road and for a depot, and for the construction of a basin for the use of the company. The land thus mentioned is that on which tlie road was built in the city and embraced the site of the old depot on what is now Vanderbilt Square. Between Auburn and Geddes the road was laid with wooden rails, and was opened January 8, 1838. Sherwood's stage horses were put on the line and continued to draw the cars until June 4, 1839, when the first locomotive took their place. The bridge across the old mill pond was finished in the spring of 1839, and on the day last mentioned, an excursion train, the first steam railroad train to enter Syracuse, was run over the line. The engine which drew the train was appropriately named Syracuse. This railroad, as will have been seen, was a rude and primitive affair in comparison with the great lines that now center in this city. The changes that have taken place in this direction are elotjuent of the advancement of fifty years. The first improvement on the wooden rails was to cover them with flat strips of iron which were held down by spikes driven directly through them. These spikes would often become loosened and work up- ward, and the ends of the rails would also bend upward and work havoc by being caught by the locomotive or parts of the cars, up through the floors of which and among the passengers they would shoot, giving them the name of " snake heads." But the speed made by the trains was not great and it is said by good authority that " Phile" Rust would start from Au- burn with a good team of horses at the time of the departure of the train and fulfill his boast that he would be first in .Syracuse. Syracuse and Utica Railroad. — The Syracuse and Utica Railroad was chartered May 1 i, 1836. The capital stock of the corporation was placed at SSoo,000. The original commissioners appointed by the Act entitled, '• An Act for the construction of a railroad from Syracuse to Utica," were Henry A. Foster, Israel S. Parker, Timothy Jenkins, David Moulton, Pomeroy Jones, Riley Shepard, Julius A. Spencer, John Knowles, John Williams, Ichabod S. Spencer, James Hooker, Henry Seymour, James Beardslee, James M. Allen, Vivus VV. Smith, Miles W. Bennett, Horace Wheaton, Thomas J. Gilbert, Elihu L. Phillips, Frederick Whittlesey, Holmes Hutchinson, Charles Oakley, Rufus H. King, Aaron Burt, and Benjamin Enos. Six of these commissioners, viz: Vivus W. Smith, Miles W. Bennett, Horace Wheaton, Thomas J. Gilbert, Elihu L. Phillips, and Aaron Burt, were citizens of Syracuse ; the remainder were Utica and Albany men. The Syracuse and Utica Railroad Company were required by law to pay to the President and Directors of the Seneca Road Company the amount of damages which the Seneca Road Company might sustain by the construc- tion of the railroad, and also to pay toll to the Canal Commissioners on all freight, other than the regular baggage of passengers, carried by the rail- 52 4IO Memorial History or Syracuse. road during the season of canal navigation. The Schenectady and Utica Railroad was absolutel)- prohibited in its original charter from carrying any freight. This prohibition was removed by act of March 7, 1844, and the Schenectady and Utica road was allowed to carry freight during the sus- pension of canal navigation by paying the Canal Commissioners such tolls as would have been paid on the goods had they been transported by the Erie canal. This opened all the roads to freight through to Buffalo, sub- ject to the same conditions as those imposed upon the Schenectady and Utica Railroads. Prior to the removal of the prohibition on the Schenectady and Utica railroad, freights had been to some extent carried through from Schenec- tady to Utica on sleighs in winter, and transferred to other points west of Utica by rail ; but very little freight reached Syracuse by the Utica railroad till after March 7, 1844. Oliver H. Lee, of Syracuse, was the engineer in the construction of the Syracuse and Utica Railroad, and was appointed the first Superintendent. The original board of directors consisted of the following named gentle- men : John Wilkinson, President; Charles Stebbins, Vice-President; Vivus W. Smith, Secretary ; David Wager, Treasurer; Oliver Teall, Aaron Burt, Holmes Hutchinson, John Townsend, Horatio Seymour, James Hooker, Ira Hawley, John Stryker, Samuel French. The first engines were single-drivers, with small trail wheels under the cab, which consisted of a roof hung around with oil cloth during the winter. The weight of the locomotive was from four to si.x tons. The first cars had four wheels. The conductor passed along on the outside of the compart- ments, which had four seats each, and collected the fare. In 1843, ^he cars had no projection over the platforms, and were low and ill-ventilated. It was quite a step in advance when locomotives with four-drivers were placed upon the road, but even then there were no pilots ; some had two splint brooms set in front just in position to clear the track, and others flat iron bars bent forward and sharpened at the ends. This was the " cow-catcher." In winter a large wooden plow was placed in front of the engine. The first track was soon superseded by an eight-by-eight wooden rail, along the cen- ter of which was placed strap-iron the same width and thickness as that at first used. The Syracuse and Utica Railroad was opened in 1839. In locating the depots and routes through Syracuse, certain conditions were re(|uired of the company by a resolution prepared by Hon. E. W. Leavenworth, President of the village, and offered to the board by Captain Putnam, viz: that the railroad company should construct a sewer along the track on Washington street from the stream known as Yellow Brook to Onondaga Creek and should plant trees along both sides of Washing- ton street as far east as Beech street. These conditions were per- formed by the company. The rows of trees now standing on East Wash- The Oswego and Syracuse Railroad. 41 1 ington street are those planted by the railroad company. The sewer con- structed by the railroad company was the first of any importance in the village, and contributed largely to the draining of the swamp between Sa- lina and Lodi streets. The company was also required to purchase certain portions of the blocks on each side of the depot, so as make sufficient space for the build- ing and an alleyway along aside of it. This was done, and the space thus left forms a part of the present Vanderbilt Square. TIte Direct Road. — The line of railroad from Syracuse to Rochester, composed of the Auburn and Syracuse, and the Auburn and Rochester railroads, was one hundred and four miles long, over a crooked route with heavy grades. In 1S49, the attention of John Wilkinson, of Syracuse, and others, was called to the necessity for a more direct and level route between those two termini. With the object in view of constructing such a line of road, they organized the Rochester and Syracuse Direct Railroad Compan)-. The surveys were made by O. C. Childs and showed that a railroad could be built twenty-two miles shorter than the old line and with much more fa- vorable grades. In 1850, the three companies consolidated under the name of the Rochester and Syracuse Railroad Company and the Direct Road was begun under the direction of James Hall, engineer, and opened in 1853, at the time of the general consolidation forming the New York Central Railroad. Oswego and Syracuse Railroad. — The company which built this railroad was organized in April, 1839, and the line was surveyed during the summer of the same year. But nothing of a practical character was done until nearly ten years later, when in March, 1847, a company was organized with the following Board of Directors: John Wilkinson, Thomas T. Davis, Allen Munroe, Horace White, all of Syracuse ; F. T. Carrington, Luther Wright, Sylvester Doolittle, Alvin Bronson, of Oswego; Holmes Hutchin- son, Alfred Munson, Thomas F. Faxton, of Utica ; Samuel Willets, of New York, and Rufus H. King, of Albany. The first officers of the company were: Holmes Hutchinson, President ; F. T. Carrington, Secretary ; Lu- ther Wright, Treasurer. Work on the road was at once begun and the line opened for traffic in October, 1848. The local press of that period ex- pressed the opinion that this railroad had proved to be of considerable ben- efit to Syracuse within a short time of its opening. In the year 1872, the road passed under control of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Com- pany and now forms a part of their through line to New York and Philadel- phia. The present Assistant Superintendent, located in Syracuse, is Adolph II. Schwarz. Syracuse, Biiighaniton and Nezc York Railroad. — The Syracuse and Binghamton Railroad Company was organized August 13, 1851, under the general law of 1850. The original Directors were: Hamilton Murray, 412 Memorial History of Syracuse. D. C. Littlejohn, of Oswego : Horace White, James R. Lawrence, Thomas B. Fitch, Syracuse; Daniel S. Dickinson, Hazard Lewis, Binghamton ; Jed- ediah Barber, Israel Boies, Homer; Alanson Carley, Marathon; Henry Stevens, Cortland ; John B. Rogers, Chenango Forks ; Robert Dunlop, Jamesville. Henry Stevens was made President ; Clinton F. Paige, Secre- tary ; Horace White, Treasurer ; W. B. Gilbert, Superintendent and En- gineer for the construction of the road. The line was opened through on the 23d of October, 1854. It was sold on the 13th of October, 1856, on foreclosure of mortgage, and reorganized April 30, 1857, under the title of the Syracuse, Binghamton and New York Railroad. In 1858, the company was authorized to purchase the short line connecting with the canal at Geddes. The length of the road from Geddes to Binghamton is eighty-one miles. Under the second organization, Jacob M. Schermerhorn was Presi- dent, and Orrin Welch, Secretary. T. B. Fitch succeeded as President, and continued in the ofifice until 1871. In 1870, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company secured a controlling interest in the stock and the road came under its management. The new passenger station was built in 1877, supplanting the old one at the junction of Clinton and Onondaga streets. P. Elmendorf Sloan was Superintendent of this road from 1871 to December, 1872 ; Theodore Voorhees from the last named date to August, 1874; W. F. Hallstead, Superintendent, and R. F. Mix, Assistant, from August, 1874, to November, 1876; W. K. Niver, Superin- tendent, from that time to May, 1886. Since the latter date A. H. Schwarz has been Assistant Superintendent of the road, with headquarters in Syra- cuse. Syracuse, Clicnaugo and Nc7v York Railroad. — Articles of incorporation of this company were filed on the i6th of April, 1868, the incorporators being James P. Haskin, Elisha C. Litchfield, Henry Ten Eyck, John W. Barker, Dennis McCarthy, George F. Comstock, Hiram Eaton, John Green- way, James J. Belden, S. D. Luce, J. I. Bradley, John M. Wieting, and Alfred A. Howlett. J. M. Wieting was elected president, and the capital stock was placed at $100,000. Work was begun on the line in 1870, and in 1872 a portion of the road was opened for traffic, the remainder being fin- ished and opened in 1874. Harlow W. Chittenden succeeded J. M. Wiet- ing as president in 1871, and in 1872 A. A. Howlett was elected to the office. In the year 1883 the road having passed into the hands of the North River Construction Company, which failed in the building of the West Shore railroad, it was turned over as one of the assets of the Construc- tion Company to the control of the West Shore, and with that line in Decem- ber, 1885, to the control of the New York Central and Hudson I^iver com- pany. A separate organization is, however kept up, and J. P. Bradley, Superintendent of the Western Division of the West Shore road, is also superintendent of this line. The West Shore and Bumalo Raii,k(pai). 413 The city of Syracuse was bonded in aid of the road and a history of the trouble and difficulties, and litigation incurred during Mr. Ilowlett's ad- ministration would fill a volume. The original stockholders received only about twenty-one cents on the dollar of their investment. The failure of the Midland road, with which the Chenango \'alley line connected and on which itdepended for through freight, was an important element in the failure of the latter. Syriuiisc Northern Jurr/rotJi/.— The project of building a railroad to open communication between Syracuse and the lumber districts to the north and north east and connecting with Watertown, was di.scussed in Syracuse and elsewhere as early as 1851, and the matter was not allowed to rest entirely for a number of years. The final unsuccessful effort was made in 1862, the failure being then attributable chiefly to the breaking out of the war. But after the close of the great conflict and when money was plenty, the project was again revived and a company was chartered in 1870, with a capital of $1,250,000. The directors were Allen Munroe, E. VV. Leaven- worth, E. B. Judson, Patrick Lynch, Frank Hiscock, John A. Green, Jacob S. Smith, Horace K. White, Elizur Clark, and Garret Doyle, of Syracuse ; William \i. Carter, of Ikewerton ; James A. Clark, of Pulaski; Orin R. Earl, of Sandy Creek. The officers were as follows: Allen Munroe, Presi- dent: Patrick H. Agan, Secretary; E. B. Judson, Treasurer; A. C. Powell, Engineer. The survey was made and on the iSth of May, 1870, work was begun. The road was openeil on the 9th of November, 1871. It was operated until 1S75 when it was purchased b)- the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg Company by whom it is now managed and owned. The reader has already learned that Syracuse loaned $500,000 in aid of this road, for which it took bonds for the amount at par. T/ie AVtt' I'crX', IVtsf S/iorc mid Buffalo Railroad. — This company was chartered on the 14th of June, 1881, and the New York, Buffalo and West Shore Railway Company was afterwards formed under the laws of New York and New Jersey, by consolidation of the original compan\- with the North River Construction Company. The original capital stock was $40,000,000, and the first officers were Horace Porter, President ; Charles Hurd, P'irst Vice-President; Theodore Houston, Second Vice-President; Alex. Taylor, Secretary and Treasurer ; Charles Paine, General Manager. The road was opened from Weehawken to Syracuse on the 1st of October, 1883, and to Buffalo January i, 1S84. On the 2d of October, 1885, judg- ment of foreclosure and sale of the road was entered in the Supreme Court of the State of New York. The property was sold at auction and on the 5th of December was transferred to the purchasers, J. Pierpont Morgan, Chauncey AL Depew, and Ashbel Green, as joint tenants. The road was then at once leased to the New York Central Company. In July, 1S84, D. B. McCoy was appointed Superintendent of the Buf- falo division of the West Shore road, relieving Superintendent Merrill ; this 414 Memorial History of Syracuse. division then extended from Buffalo to Syracuse, with headquarters at the former city. H. W. Gardner was Superintendent of the Mohawk division, from Syracuse to Coeyman"s Junction on the Hudson river, from 1884, to April, 1885, when the Mohawk division was absorbed in the Hudson river and Buffalo division which terminated at Frankfort, with Superintendent McCoy's ofifice at Newark. In April, 1888, his office was removed to Syra- cuse and his authority extended to Coeyman's. J. P. Bradfield was made Superintendent from there to Weehawken. STREET R.MI.WAYS. The city of Syracuse had grown to a large community before men came forward who had sufficient faith in street railways to invest their money in one in this city. The project had, however, been often discussed, of build- ing a line between the First ward and the Erie canal at Salina street, and it finally assumed definite shape in i860, when the Central City Railway was incorporated. The route was designated in the charter as through Lodi, Lock, and Wolf streets, but it was subsequently changed to Salina street. The road was built during the first half of the year and was opened in Au- gust, with a public demonstration. This was the first street railway in the city. The line was extended to the lake in or about 1872, and a branch line was built from North Salina street along Court street to 3d North street in 1887. The road passed under control of the People's Line April 4th, 1889, and is continued through Wolf street to the outskirts of the city. Total length of the line is 5 4-5 miles. On the 4th of May, 1863, a law passed authorizing Alfred Hovey, Ed- ward B. Wicks, William D. Stewart, John \V. Barker, D. P. Wood, A. C. Powell, D. Bookstaver, and G. P. Kenyon, to lay tracks for a street railway in Furnace and Bridge streets to Hemlock, thence to p-ayette and thence to Salina street. This road was incorporated as the Syracuse and Geddes Railway Company in 1863, and the construction began at once. The capi- tal stock was $50,000. Charles Tallman was the first President of the Com- pany, and R. N. Gere, Vice-President Upon the death of Mr. Tallman, Mr. Gere was made President and has held the ofifice ever since. The first Secretary and Treasurer was D. Bookstaver. but in 1865 he was succeeded by R. A. Bonta, who has since held the ofifice. In the same month last mentioned (May, 1863) an Act of Legislature granted authority to Hamilton White, L. H. Redfield, Charles A. Baker, Jonathan Hall, James Noxon, Henry D. Hatch, Josiah Brintnall, and P""air- fax Wellington, to build a street railway from Church street, on North Salina street to Oakwood Cemetery and Brighton, through South Salina .street. This organization became the Syracuse and Onondaga Railway Company, and its line was formally opened on the 25th of July, 1S64. This road now belongs to the People's Railroad Company. The Street Railways ok Syracuse. 415 The Genesee and Water Street Railway Company was incorporated April 2d, 1850, the capital stock being $60,000. The first Board of Di- rectors were James W Haskin, George F. Comstock, Ira H. Cobb, George Crouse. George J. Gardner, William H. H. Smith, James Noxon, Austen Myers, H. O. ^'ilkins, O. T. Burt, R. G. Wynkoop, John G. Bridges, and Caleb VV. Allis. The Chestnut (Crouse Avenue) branch to near the Uni- versity was built in 1873, and about the same time the main line was ex- tended from Beech street eastward to Wescott street. The road was origi- nally a belt line extending through Genesee, Beach, and returning through Water street ; but in the fall of 1868 the Water street track was taken up and laid in Genesee, Warren, James, Hawley, Green, and Lodi streets, as the Fourth Ward Railway. This road now forms a part of the system of the Consolidated Street Railway Company. The Fifth Ward Railroad Company was organized in 1867, with a capi- tal stock of $50,000. The line was first opened in 1868 with the following officers: Dudley P. Phelps, President; Lester J. Greenwood, Secretary and Treasurer; David Field, Superintendent, and extends from Railroad street through Clinton, Walton, West, Gifford, Geddes, and returning in a belt line through Delaware, Holland and Niagara to Gifford. Its total length is three miles. The officers in 1886 were P. B. Brayton, President ; O. C. Potter, Secretary and Treasurer: Hugh Purnell, Superintendent. The last officers were: H.S.White, President; S. B. Merrill, Secretary and Treasurer; Hugh Purnell, Superintendent. These officers, with W. C. Brayton, H. K. White, Clarence Tucker, E. W. Marsh, constituted the Board of Directors. This road now forms a part of the system of the Con- solidated Street Railway Company. The Seventh Ward Railway line was established in 1886, with a capital stock of $50,000, and with the following officers : E. F. Rice, President ; E. I. Rice, Secretary and Treasurer; Frank Purnell, Superintendent. The route is through Fayette from Sdlina to Montgomery, to Jefferson, to Grape, to Kennedy, to Renwick avenue, to Oakwood cemetery. In 1889, the Eleventh Ward Road was organized by substantially the same officers and company, and its tracks were laid on the line of the Seventh Ward road to Montgomery street, on which they continue to Burt, to Cortland avenue, to Midland avenue, to Colvin street, to Mulberry, to Elizabeth, to Baker avenue, and thence to Kennedy street, forming a belt line with the Seventh Ward Road. The capital stock is $150,000. The Directors were E. F. Rice, E. B. Judson, jr., Louis Marshall, H. S. White, J. N. Knapp, D. K. McCar- thy, Daniel Candee. These two lines were the first in the city to adopt regular ten minute time. They have now passed, with several other roads, under control of the Consolidated Street Railway Company. The Third Ward Railway Company was organized in 1886, and the road was put in operation in 1888. Its line extends from Salina street on West 4i6 Memorial History of Syracuse. Genesee to West street ; thence to Park avenue, and to Willis avenue and Sixth North street, and terminates at the Solvay Process Company's works. The latter extension was made in 1889, and a branch was opened on the 4th of July of that year from West Genesee street to the lake shore. The total length of the line is 3 4-5 miles. It is operated by electricity under the Thompson-Houston system, and has also passed into the control of the Consolidated Company. The last officers were: Walter S. Wales, Presi- dent and Treasurer; H. McGonegal, Secretary; S. D. Lake, Superin- tendent. The Woodlawn and Butternut Street Railway Company was organized in 1866 with a cajjital stock of $30,000. Its route is from North Salina street at the junction of James, to Butternut street, and through Butternut to Manlius street and thence to Woodlawn cemetery. The ofificers who held their positions from the first were: J. F. Kaufman, I'resident ; L. House, Vice-President ; Frederick Erhard, Treasurer ; William Dopffel, Secretary; Peter Kappesser, Superintendentj^ These with John Gebhardt, John Moore, Theodore Hipkins, John Dunn, Henry Weinheimer and G. Schieder, were the directors. This road forms a part of the system of the Consolidated Street Railway Company. The People's Railroad Company was organized in 1887, with a capital stock of $300,000, and the road was opened in 1889. The total length of its tracks is 10 2-5ths miles. With its various connections it extends from Onondaga Valley to Salina, and is in all respects thoroughly equipped. A handsome pier and pavilion has been built for its patrons at Salina, and in the beginning of 1890 it absorbed tlie Valley road extending from Brighton to that point. Its officers are: Joseph R. Swan, President; Samuel A. Beardsley, Secretary; Charles H. Childs, Treasurer; H. H. Durr, Superin- tendent ; Charles H. Childs, Samuel A. Beardsley, Joseph R. Swan, Henry H. Durr, Thomas Hunter, Frank J. Callanen, Daniel E. Jones, Daniel Candee, Frank B. Klock, directors. The Fourth Ward Railroad Company was organized on the 21st of Ma)', 1888, with J. Emmet Wells, President : John Greenway, Vice-President; George Wells, Treasurer; Charles W. Andrews, Secretary. The car tracks in East Water street, laid by the Genesee and Water Street Company, were acquired by the Fourth Ward Company and form a portion of its road, being taken up and relaid for that purpose. The original line extended from Hanover Square up Warren and James streets to Burnet street, down Burnet to Catherine, up Catherine to Green, and in Green to Lodi, and up Lodi to Willow; but soon after the organization of this company the route was changed, the line going up James to Hawley, down Hawley to Green and thence to Lodi to Willow ; while a branch starts from the intersection of Catherine and Hawley and extends down Hawley to Lodi, down Lodi to Burnet Avenue and thence to the city line. The franchise of the Bur- -i*-«-r=iar.-. The Bench and Bar of Svracuse. 417 net Street Car Company (granted in June i8S6 ) in Burnet avenue was ac- quired for this branch. The line as a whole has now passed, with others mentioned, under control of the Consolidated Company. The Syracuse Consolidated Street Railway Company was organized with a capital stock of $1,250,000, and it embraces all the roads in Syracuse excepting the Central City, the Syracuse and Onondaga and the People's Line proper. Nine of the first Board of thirteen Directors are Syracusans, as follows: John Dunn, jr.. Manning C. Talmer, Louis Marshall, Theo- dore L. Poole, Fred C. Eddy, Hamilton S. White, William S. Andrews, Bruce S. Aldrich, and John H. Kaufmann. CHAPTER XXVL THE r.KN'CII AND BAR OF SVKACUSF. Early History of the Bench and Bar of America— The Courts of the State of New York— Ap- pointment of .\ssoci.ite Judges of the Supreme Court— The Supreme Court— The Old Supreme and Circuit Courts— The Eight Judicial Districts— The Court of Common Pleas— District Attorney— The First Court House — Rivalry for a New Court House in Salina and Syracuse — The Compromise — The Last Court House— Its Enlargement— The Court of Appeals Library— Biographic Sketches — The Present Bar. ALTHOUGH as a distinct county our records are comparatively recent, the early history of our Bench and Bar takes us back to judicial sys- tems very different from those with which we are now familiar, and very similar to those of England. For the ]5ritish governors, after the peace of Westminster, introduced such of the courts of the mother country from time to time as seemed adapted to the new colonies; and although our Constitution of 1777 abolished such as were hostile to the democratic sent- iments of the new era, it preserved with considerable entirety the legal fictions and the judicial systems of its inheritance. It was thus that our new county found in existence such courts as the Common Pleas, Chancery, Court of Probate, Court for the Trial of Impeachments and the Correction of Errors, and others long since abolished or merged in those of the present day. The old Court of Assizes and Court of Oyer and Terminer had already passed away, and the Federal Constitution had taken from the State the Court of Admiralty ; but most of those mentioned above still attested our early relations with the complex system of England. 53 4i8 Mknujkial IIistokv of Syracuse. During the exciting times succeeding the administration of the tyranni- cal Governor Andros, and just after the execution of Leisler and the arrival of Governor Sloughter, and while the charter of liberties was agitating our colony, the Court for the Correction of Errors and Appeals was established. It consisted of the Governor and Council, its powers resembling those of our present court of final resort. The Revolution necessitated a change which gave rise to the Court for the Trial of Impeachments and the Correc- tion of Errors. The Constitution of 1846, which made so many changes in our judicial system, entirely remodeled this Court. It divided it in fact, creating the Court of Appeals in place of the Court for Correction of Errors, and leaving the Court for the Trial of Impeachments still composed of the Senate and its President, together with the Judges of the new Court. The convention of 1867-68 reorganized the Court of Appeals, and in 1869 the people ratified the change, which resulted in the present court of final resort. On account of the great mass of accumulated business, a Commission of Appeals was created in 1870, continuing until 1875, possessing substantially the powers of its sister court, and designed to relieve the latter. In 1888, the Legislature passed a concurrent resolution that section 6 of Article 6 of the Constitution be amended so that upon the certificate of the Court of Appeals to the Governor of such an accumulation of causes on the calendar of the Court of Appeals that the public interests required a more speedy disposition thereof, the Governor may designate seven Jus- tices of the Supreme Court to act as Associate Judges for the time being, of the Court of Appeals, and to form a second division of that Court, and to be dissolved by the Governor when the said causes are substantially dis- posed of. This amendment was submitted to the people of the State at the general election of that year and was ratified, and in accordance there- with the Governor selected seven Supreme Court Justices, who were con- stituted the Second Division of the Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court as it now exists is a combination of very diverse elements. The Court of Chancery, the Court of Exchequer, the Court of Oyer and Terminer, the Probate Court, the Circuit Court, and the Supreme Court proper, have all been combined to make up this important branch of our system. But during our early county history several of these courts existed independently of each other, some of our early lawyers being among their leading members. The Court of Chancery, which had been organized when the Court of Assizes was abolished in 1683, was the beginning of the equity branch of the present Supreme Court. It was reorganized shortly after the Revolution and, with some slight modifications by the Constitu- tion of 1821, and by subsequent enactments, it continued until 1846, when it was merged in the new Supreme Court. Its descendant is our Special Term, the presiding Judge representing the Vice-Chancellor, the duties of The Old Supreme and Ciuctrr Courts 419 Chancellor being filled by the General Term Bench. The Court of Ex- chequer, having been erected in 1685, was made a branch of the old Su- preme Court just after the Revolution, and so continued until finally abol- ished in 1830. In our earliest colonial history there had been a Court of Oyer and Terminer, but it was discontinued during the time of King Wil- liam, its name, ho\ve\er, surviving to designate the criminal part of the Cir- cuit. This brings us to the old Supreme and Circuit Courts, with which the Court of Chancery united under the Constitution of 1S46, to complete the principal branch of our present system. In the early part of the century the Supreme Court of this State consisted of five Justices. It had been the practice to hold four terms a j-ear, two in Albany and two in New York. But previous to that time, and in the closing years of the last century, the Circuit system was established somewhat on the plan of that of England. It was enacted that the Judges should, during their vacations, hold courts in the various counties of the State, and return the proceedings to the Su- preme Court when it convened again, when they should be recorded and judgment rendered. A few years later the system was simplified by the division of the State into four Judicial Districts. To each of these districts was assigned a Judge whose duty it was to hold Circuits in each of the counties therein at least once in each year. It had already been enacted that the Courts of Oyer and Terminer (the criminal part of the present Supreme Court) should be held at the same time and place as the Circuit, and should consist of the Circuit Judge, assisted by two or more of the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas of the county. This Circuit system was very similar to the present, except that our Special Terms are substi- tuted for the Court of Chancery. After the constitution of 1S21, the State was divided, as at present, into eight Judicial Districts, each being provided with a Circuit Judge, in whom were vested certain equity powers, subject to appeal to the Chancery Court ; while the Supreme Court proper held much the same position as the present General Term. In 1846 the new Constitution abolished the Court of Chancery, giving the powers theretofore held by it to the Supreme Court, which it reorganized substantially as it exists to-da)'. Such is the historj' in brief of the higher Courts of this county and State. The system of local judicature was also changed to correspond with that of the State at large. The Court of Common Pleas, organized con- temporaneously with the Colonial Court, for the Correction of Errors and Appeals, has given way to the County Court ; while the offices of County Judge and Surrogate have been combined where the county population does not exceed forty thousand ; this last provision does not, of course, apply to Onondaga county. During the eighteenth century, the Court of Common Pleas consisted of a First Judge as.sisted by two or more associates, all of whom were ap- 420 Memorial History of Syracuse. pointed by the Governor. Its powers were very similar to those of the present County Court, the Associate Judges corresponding to the Justices of Sessions on our present criminal bench. The Constitution of 1846 abolished the Court of Common Pleas, and created the County Court and Court of Sessions as they exist to-day. The Surrogate's Court has undergone less changes during the history of the Syracuse bench than any of the others. In the early times, even be- fore the Dutch supremacy gave way to the English, there had been a short- lived Orphan's Court. Then the English government introduced the Pre- rogative Court, which in turn was superseded by the Court of Probates after the Revolution. Surrogates were then appointed in each county, having much the same powers as at present, from whose judgment appeals to the Court of Probates lay. This was the system down to 1S23, when the Court of Chancery took the place of the Court of Probates, as to appeals, but the ofifice of Surrogate remained as before. Our Justice's Courts and Courts of Special Sessions have remained sub- stantially unchanged since the Colonial period, and therefore need no e.x- tended description. It will be of interest in this connection to know that the ofifice of Dis- trict Attorney has also undergone considerable change. Early in the cen- tury the State was divided into seven districts, for each of which there was an Assistant Attorney-General. The present ofifice, as distinct from the Attorney-Generalship, was created in iSoi. Since 181 8, each county has had its own District Attorney, the name being preserved in its original form, Tlie Court House. — We have said in an earlier chapter that the first court in Onondaga county was held in the corn house of Comfort Tyler in 1794. There was then no Court House and no place of confinement for criminals in the county. A jail was finished in Whitesboro in 1804 and the Legislature had passed an Act giving this county the right to use the near- est jail. The few criminals of the county were accordingly transferred to Whitesboro down to the date of the completion of the first Jail and Court House at Onondaga Hill. The earliest movement towards securing a local Court House and Jail was made in 1801, through the passage of an Act by the Legislature, under date of April 7, giving the Board of Supervisors power to raise $3 000 for the purpose in view. A fierce spirit of rivalry between the village in the Valley and that on the Hill had already been awakened, which would now appear almost amusing if we did not know that it was such a very serious matter at the time. The county records were kept at the Valley and the people there brought every possible influence to bear in favor of placing the county buildings at that point ; it was more accessible, they claimed, and // ^ii^>i^.<,c^{yCy\^ yXt-^'^^'^^^'^^ Building of the First Court House. 421 more desirable in every way for the county seat. At the same time the residents on the Hill claimed the healthfulness of their site, the bright prospects of their village, and so on, as the best of reasons why the Court House should be located there, and they succeeded ; hence the passage of the Act mentioned. Steps toward the erection of the building were at once taken. Elisha Lewis, Medad Curtis, and Thaddeus M. Wood were appointed Commission- ers to have charge of the whole matter. The location selected was a square piece of ground near the center of the village, now partially vacant; it was then covered by a heavy growth of timber. This was partially cleared off through the efforts of a "bee," and a contract was let to William Bostwick, of Auburn, to put up the frame and enclose the structure. It was a wood building fifty feet square, two stories high, with square roof sloping to the four sides of the building. Mr. Bostwick finished his contract in 1802. A temporary floor was laid so that the courts could be held there in 1803. This condition of things remained until the beginning ot 1804, when the citizens of the county felt that they could prudently finish the building. The Commissioners accordingly contracted with Abel House to do the in- side carpenter work, excepting the jail cells, and with a Mr. Sexton, of New Hartford, to do the mason work. The court room occupied the second floor, and this, with apartments for the jailor's family, were finished at that time. A year or two later, a contract was made with Roswell and Sylves- ter Tousley, of Manlius, to do the iron work on the cells at the price of two shillings per pound. The cells were not entirely finished until 1810. They were made of oak planks fastened together with wrought iron spikes. The doors were made of like material, with a "diamond" in the center to admit light and for passing in food. In rear of the cells were painted windows. A stairway led from the hall to the court room above, directly in front of the entrance to which was the Judge's bench, semi-circular in form. The whole cost of this building was $10,000. It could probably be built now for one-half that sum. James Beebe, a revolutionary soldier, was the first jailor, and was succeeded by Mason Butts. The building was used for its original purposes until 1 829, and after being gradually denuded of boards, windows, etc., throughout a number of years, it was finall)' torn down. The village of Salina was organized in 1824. The villages at the Hill and in the Valley had grown considerably by that time, especially that on the Hill, through its prestige as the county seat. Active rivalry existed be- tween these three points. Salina had her salt works and her prospects ap- peared e.xcellent for outstripping her rivals, and in her rivalry with the Hill, received at least the silent acquiescence of the people of the Valley. These conditions continued and, perhaps, in an aggravated form, in the contest we are about to describe. 422 Memorial History of Syracuse. By the date last mentioned the lusty young settlement of Syracuse had stepped into the arena and lifted up her voice as a candidate for the recep- tion of the county buildings. The place was not then quite so numerously populated as Salina, but it was organized as a village in 1S25, and the new canal and the untiring push of the men of the "Syracuse Company "' (who are really most to be credited for there being any Syracuse) gave the village a prestige and influence not to be despised. The effect on the people of Salina was like a red blanket before an enraged bull. With them it became, "anything to win the Court House from Syracuse." As we have said, the Valley rather sympathized with Salina, while the Hill insisted on retaining what its people saw was its only element of growth and importance. So it was now almost a quadrangular contest. The citizensof the Hill succeeded in 1S25 in getting a bill through the Legislature providing for the retention of the Court House in their village ; but Governor Clinton, through the in- fluence of the Syracuse Compan)-, vetoed the bill. Meetings were held in- the several villages, at one of which B. Davis Noxon, then a leading lawyer at the Hill, advocated the raising of a sum of money sufificient to put the Court House in perfect repair, thus abolishing, as he claimed, all reasons for removal. Efforts had been made to elect for the Board of Supervisors of 1826, men who were in favor of retaining the county seat at the Hill. "Accordingly, in 1826," says M. C. Hand in " From a Forest to a City," pp. 190-91, "at a meeting of the Supervisors, a resolution was passed to present a bill to the next Legislature, asking its passage of a bill empowering the Supervisors of Onondaga county to levy a tax for the pur- pose of building a new Court House at the Hill. This resolution was brought before the Legislature as early as January, 1827. The people at the Hill had instructed Daniel Moseley, their representative, who was a lawyer then residing at the Hill, to look after their interests in the matter, as he was personally interested. When it became known that the initiatory steps had been taken to rebuild, Moses D. Burnet, John D. James, and a few others, met at the office of the Syracuse Company, taking care that the outside parties should not be advised of their movements. Mr. Burnet was made chairman, and on taking the chair stated that the object of the meeting was consultation on the best course to be pursued in order to defeat all competitors for the location of the Court House, and to estab- lish the county seat at Syracuse. After the most careful deliberation of this body of able schemers, it was resolved that a sufficient number of ca- pable canvassers should be placed in every town in the county, to obtain the signatures of as many tax-payers as possible, petitioning the Legislature to establish the Court House at Syracuse. So effectually was this plan car- ried out that a canvass of the whole county was made before the opposition could take measures to counteract it. The petitions of a large majority of Till-; County Seat RKMcjviin ra Syracuse. 423 the tax-payers of tlie county, praying that the Court House might be lo- cated at Syracuse, came pouring in at Albany until the legislative halls were deluged with tiiem. The consideration of the bill was postponed from time to time, and earnest speeches were made by several different members for and against its passage. Prominent among the latter were Mr. Livingstone and Mr. Moseiey, but their speeches seemed more an ap- peal for sympathy, than sound argument. They claimed that many had located at the Hill because it was the county seat, and to remove it to another locality would be an injustice to that class. That the removal would be a greater damage to the people of the Hill, than it would benefit Syracuse, as that place had other advantages, such as water power and the canal, while the location of the Court House on the Hill was their only attraction, and to remove it would create ' an eternal Sunday.' Final action was reached on March 19, 1827, when the bill was passed to locate the buildings in Syracuse." It will be correctly inferred that there was the bitterest feeling among the residents at the Hill over the result of this contest, and the language that was used by them and in the newspaper then published there, while eminently forcible and expressive, was not always courteous and polite. The end of the difficulty was not yet. A site had to be selected and agreed upon, and over this problem Salina and Syracuse continued the spirit of rivalry and opposition to each other, which had so long been active. Syracuse, backed by the enterprising Syracuse Company, made most gener- ous ofTers of land and money, and the agent of the Company offered the entire block surrounded by Salina, East Fayette, Warren and Washington streets, excepting the lot already given to the First Presbyterian Society (site of the McCarthy stores.) The Company also offered to furnish a lot for a jail on the corner of Warren and Fayette streets. In addition to this General Amos P. Granger offered to build a fire proof structure for a clerk's office and to give $1,000 in cash to be used on the Court House. On the part of Salina, Supervisor Knapp tendered to the county the block of land bounded by Salina, Division, Towsend, and Ash streets, then owned by Dr. Kirkpatrick, a very insignificant offer beside that of Syracuse. But in making the donation before the Board of Supervisors, Mr. Knapp made a speech, insinuating that money had been wrongfully used to secure influence in favor of Syracuse in getting the county seat removed from the Hill, and finally proposing that the only safe, practicable, and reasonable way out of the difficulty was to place the county buildings midway between Syracuse and Salina, thus conciliating both places. He concluded his argu- ment by urging that as Syracuse would probably grow rapidly on account of the canal, while the salt interest would surely render Salina a permanently prosperous village, the jealousy of the two places would soon be outgrown 424 Memorial History of Syracuse. and the villages incorporated together, when the location of the public buildings midway between them would be found to be just the proper ar- rangement. A vote on the question was promptly taken and resulted in S to 6 in fa- vor of Mr. Knapp's scheme, and the Court House was located on lot 276, in consideration that Salina give a clear title to the land and $1,000 in cash to the undertaking. Salina considered this a great victory and rejoiced ac- cordingly. If she could not have the Court House wholly to herself, she was glad to be instrumental in keeping it out of the center of Syracuse. Conservative and far-seeing people regretted the result of the agitation and accurately prejudged the consequences. The vicinity of the site chosen (corner of Division and North Salina streets) was only thinly settled, main- ly by coopers, not a sidewalk was laid in that section, and the offices of all the attorneys were, and would continue to be, at a long distance from the Court House. But the die was cast and the building was erected. John Smith, Thomas Starr, and Samuel Forman, were appointed Commissioners, with power to procure plans and specifications, and the County Treasurer was empowered to borrow $20,000 in two annual installments of $10,000 each. The Commissioners decided to build the Jail of stone fifty feet square and two stories high, with a hall and stairs in the center. The south half was designed for the jailor's dwelling, and the north half for strong stone cells, and the second story, over the cells, was appropriated to cells for debtors, witnesses, etc. The Court House was to be built of brick, sixty feet square, with large columns on the west side, and two stories high. The first story was divided by a hall into four apartments, one in each corner, for the use of the grand and petit juries, and other purposes. The court room occupied all of the second story except the landing of the stairs and two petit jury rooms in each corner. The judge's seat was on the south side, opposite the landing of the stairway. These were the county build- ings the Commissioners decided upon, and they invited bids for their erec- tion. In the spring of iS2g, the bids were received according to the speci- fications and plans. John Wall was given the contract for building the Jail, which was completed early in the year 1829. L. A. Cheney and Sam- uel Booth received the contract for the mason work, and David Stafford the contract for the carpenter work on the Court House, and it was finished in the year last mentioned. The first court was held there on May 13, 1830, Judge Karll presiding. The total cost of the building was over $27,000. The bitterness felt at the Hill led to charges by some of the citizens that the Building Commissioners had proved recreant to their trust through ex- travagance and dishonesty, and a Commission of Investigation was ordered, but the Building Committee was exonerated. The building was quite an •c^.-*y^CJI»na»vN ^ Efforts to Removk the Couut House. 425 imposing one for that period and could be clearly seen up Salina street, from as far south as Onondaga street, it having the appearance from the south of standing in the middle of the street. The numerous and almost intolerable inconveniences of having the county buildings in a location remote from both of the most important villages in the county, soon became apparent. Distant from law offices, from hotels, and only to be reached by a long walk over poor sidewalks and muddy streets, the wonder now is that the situation was endured, as it was, for nearly twenty years. The general dissatisfaction became so great by about the year 1845 that various measures were soon projected for removal of the buildings nearer to the center of Syracuse. General Amos P. Granger made an offer to the Board of Supervisors to erect a good Court House on any suitable lot in the heart of the city, in consideration that he should have the old site and $20,000 in cash. In 1847, ^ delegation comprising James R. Lawrence, John Williams, and Peter Outwater, met the Board of Supervisors and pre- sented strong arguments for the removal of the Court House. In 1853, Hon. Sanford C. Parker, then Supervisor from VanBuren, offered a resolu- tion, which he supported by a speech, that the city and county should unite in putting up a building suitable for a Court House, Clerk's Office, City Hall, etc. None of these propositions crystallized and the subject was sub- stantially dropped until 1855. O" the 3d day of December of that year, Mr. Midler, Supervisor from DeWitt, offered a resolution of inquiry on the subject, proposing to instruct the Committee on " Court House and Clerk's Office," consisting of T. C. Cheney, E. A. Williams, and Joel Fuller, "to e.xamine and report the expense of building a new Court House, and what the premises where the one stands will sell for." The resolution was adopted and the committee submitted their report, strongly advising the erection of new buildings in a more suitable locality and concluding with a resolu- tion proposing "that a committee of three should be appointed whose duties shall be at some subsequent meeting of this Board to report a plan for the sale of the present Court House premises — to examine and report upon a suitable site or sites for a new Court House and the terms on which a title thereto can be secured to the county. And also plans and estimates for a new Court House." Such a committee was named and consisted of Luke Wells, T. C. Cheney and D. T. Moseley. A majority report of this committee recommended a new site and new Court House. Mr. Moseley dissented on the ground that the tax payers were unfavorable to the measure. In the Board the report was tabled on the same ground, and the next day the Board adjourned j/««? die. The "Court House question" seemed to be settled; but it was not. Early in the naorning of the 5th of February sqrne person with the public 54 426 Memorial History of Syracuse. welfare at heart (whether he reahzed it or not), set fire to the old Court House and it was burned to the ground. What was before a question of policy, was now one of necessity. A special meeting of the Board of Super- visors was held on the 13th of February and a committee consisting of T. C. Cheney, George Stevens, and William F. Gere was appointed to report at another meeting relative to location and price of lots offered as sites for the new Court House. The result of this action was the e.xchange of the old site with Colonel Voorhees for the site of the present Court House on Clinton square. Plans for the new Court House were drawn by H. N. White, the esti- mated cost of the building being $38,000 The Board of Supervisors appointed Timothy C. Cheney, Luke Wells, and D. C. Greenfield as a Building Committee, and a contract was awarded to Cheney & Wilcox at $37,750, the contractors to have the materials left from the old Court House and Jail. The building is of Onondaga gray limestone and was finished in 1857. For many years it answered its purpose well, but various important changes have since been made in the interior, particularly for the improve- ment of the acoustic properties of the court room. As the county grew in population and the business of the courts in- creased, additional accommodations became necessary and in 1883, steps were taken towards furnishing them. A committee of the Board of Super- visors of that year was appointed, consisting of N. S. Gere, John M. Strong, D. M. Lanigan, and A. C. Palmer, to report on the subject, the full Board having been already requested by Justices Vann, George N. Kennedy, and Judge A. J. Northrup to take action in the matter. The report of the special committee named resulted in the following resolution : That the Committee on County Buildings be and are hereby directed to have con- structed on the land between the Court House and Clerk's Office, a build- ing for the Supreme Court Library upon the plans this day submitted by the special committee, and that the County Treasurer be directed to bor- row on the credit of the county $15,000 to pay for the same. This action resulted in the erection of the addition in rear of the Court House, in which were placed the Court of Appeals Library, the Chambers of Justices Kennedy and Vann, and in the basement the offices of the County Superintendent of the Poor, and the Coroner. This gave the libra- ry convenient and commodious quarters. In the year 1889, about $5,000 were expended in putting a new roof on this building, raising it higher, and thus providing better light and ventilation. The Court of Appeals Library. — About the year 1S30 the "Chancellor's Library," as it was known came into existence by act of the Legislature, the unclaimed funds of the old Court of Chancery being devoted to its purchase. The Constitution of 1S46 abolished the Court of Chancery, and BioGkAriiiCAi. Ski/k iiKS. 427 a law passed on the 9th of April, 1849, gave the custody of the accumulated library to the Court of Appeals in these terms: "The Library called the Chancellor's Library shall continue to be a public library under the name of The Library of the Court of Appeals." This act authorized the Judges of the Court of Appeals to divide the library and locate it in two suitable places west of the State capital. The Court appointed George F. Comstock and Samuel L. Selden a committee for that purpose, both of whom were afterwards Judges of that Court. The general basis of the division was that all " duplicate books, and such others as the Judges may think proper" should be taken for the new libraries. The act also proviiled that three- fourths of the fund of interest that had accumulated in the Court of Chan- cery, and known as the Chancellor's Library Fund, should be devoted first to the expenses of carrying out the provisions of the law, and then to the enlargement and improvement of the Library. The division was properly carried out and the books thus devoted to the Syracuse library were brought here and disposed in a large room on the first floor of the Court House, and the remainder were taken to Rochesterand the other library established in that city. With the completion of the addition to the Court House before de- scribed, in 1884, the library was removed to its present commodious and handsome room. Since the library was established here, many valuable additions have been made to it and it is constantly growing in importance and value. The librarians ha\e been William H. Moseley, Richard Wool- worth, C. H. Sedgwick, and the present incumbent, T. L. R. Morgan, who assumed the position in 1885. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES. LeRov Morgan, born March 27, 18 10, in the town of Pompey, Onon- daga county, N. Y. His parents were Lyman and Melissa Morgan. He died May 15, 1880, in Syracuse, N. Y. In 1830 he graduated from the Pompey Academy, an institution justly celebrated for its high standard of scholarship. He began the study of law in 1830 in the office of Hon. Dan- iel Gott, and taught school and continued his law studies in the office of Hon. Samuel L. Edwards, of Manlius, until his admission to practice in the Court of Common Pleas in 1S33. The next year he became an Attorney and Counselor of the Supreme Court of the State. He continued the practice of law in the villages of Manlius and l^aldwinsville until 185 i when he removed to Syracuse. From 1843 to 1848 he held the office of District Attorney of this county, receiving the appointment from Governor Silas Wright, and discharged the duties with marked ability and fidelity. In 1849, he entered into partnership with David D. Hillis, one of the most elo- quent advocates of his day, and remained with him until the death of Mr. 428 Memorial History of Syracuse. Hillis in 1859. I" November of that year he was elected a Justice of the Supreme Court after one of the most severe and bitter contests at a nomi- nating convention in the history of the State. So satisfactory to the bar and people was his administration of this high office, that on the expiration of his term he was re-elected for another eight years without opposition. He was Judge of the Court of Appeals, ^-.r officio, from January i, 1866, to 1867. Upon the expiration of his second term in 1875 he resumed the practice of his profession and was largely employed in references and as counsel up to the time of his death in 18S0. The peculiar traits of Judge Morgan's character were his great industry as a lawyer and judge, and the independence and perfect fidelity which characterized the discharge of his professional and judicial duties. He was the leading counsel for the defence in the famous Jerry Rescue trials, and also in the celebrated murder trials of Carson, McGuire, and Fyler, held in this county in the '50's. In private life he was as much beloved as he was honored in public. He was always genial, approachable, and amiable, and the junior members of the bar remember with gratitude his unfailing pa- tience with them in their first efforts to practice in court. Resolutions commemorating his learning and ability as a judge and his worth as a citi- zen were passed at the meetings of the bar in the several counties of this Judicial District. The bar meeting in this county, presided over by the late Judge Pratt, was very largely attended and the eulogies delivered by the judges and lawyers evinced the respect and love of all who knew him. Judge Morgan left surviving, Elizabeth Slocum, his widow, T. L. R. Mor- gan, and F. J. Morgan, his sons, and Mrs. N. M. White, and Mrs. Ellen M. Leary, his daughters. Hon. Samuel L. Edwards, one of the early and conspicuous mem- bers of the Onondaga County bar, was born in the town of Old Fairfield, Conn., February 14th, 1789. He lived there until 1812, in which year he graduated at Yale College, receiving the degree of A. B. On the 30th of August, 1834, he received the degree of A. M. from the same institution. Soon after his graduation he removed to Manlius and began the study of law with Randall & Wattles. After he was admitted to the bar he pur- chased Mr. Wattles's interest in the firm and continued as the partner of Mr. Randall a number of years. He was admitted to practice as attorney in the Supreme Court in 181 5 and as counselor in the same in 1821 ; also to practice as solicitor in chancery in 1821 and as counselor in 1823. In all of these courts he acquired a high reputation and an excellent measure of suc- cess. He held several town offices and in 1 823 was elected to the Assembly, where he continued two or three sessions. He was appointed First Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Onondaga county in 1831, and in 1833 was elected to the Senate, where he served eight years. He then retired BiocKAiiiicAi, Sketches. 429 from public office and practiced his profession until a short time before his death. It was said of Judge Edwards that " as a lawyer he was studious, careful and painstaking, and being a man of good abilities, was always ready for the trial of the cases entrusted to his charge, and was rewarded with a full share of the success which never fails to attend careful preparation and studious and persevering industry." Judge Edwards died at his home in Manlius on the 7th of April, 1877. David Duncan Hii.i.is — Died in Syracuse, N. Y., February 20, 1859. He studied law with James R. Lawrence, at Camillus, was admitted in 1832 and practiced there until he removed to Syracuse in 1837. Judge Pratt studied in Mr. Hillis's ofifice, entering as a student in the spring of 1834, and after the removal to Syracuse, HiUis & Pratt formed a partner- ship which continued until 1843. I" February,- 1844, Hillis was made Sur- rogate of this county, and he afterwards formed a partnership with Mr. Sessions which continued until 1850, when the firm of Hillis & Morgan was formed and it continued until the death of the former. During his twenty years of active practice, Mr. H. took a leading position as a lawyer, with such men as Noxon, Lawrence, Ruger, and others, and he equalled any member of the bar of those days as an advocate. He was associated with Judge Morgan in the defence of the celebrated Jerry Rescue trials, which were prosecuted by James R. Lawrence, then District Attorney of the Northern District of New York, and also in the defence of the murderers, Fyler, Carson, and McGuire, tried at the Onondaga Oyer and Terminer. Mr. Hillis was the most social and kindly of men. He was a communi- cant of the Episcopal church and upon his decease the entire county bar attended a meeting to commemorate his virtues. Judge Pratt presided and Judge Ruger was secretary. Resolutions prepared by Hon. T. T. Davis were adopted. Of Mr. Hillis's associates, Lawrence, Pratt, Davis, Mor- gan, Sabine, Shelden, and Gen. Nye are dead. James Robbins Lawrence was born in Norfolk, Litchfield county, Conn., 'on the i ith of Sept., 1790. When he was five years old his father removed to Oneida county and there died suddenly, leaving a large family of small children. James R. attended the common schools and with the aid of a small patrimony of about $500 was able to attend the Hamilton Academy, from which he graduated in 1810. He then began the study of law with Medad Curtis, the pioneer attorney at C)nondaga Hill. In the old Court House there some of the best talent in the State often met, and in the close study which he devoted to his profession and the practice in those early courts, Mr. Lawrence laid the basis of his subsequent success at the bar. Soon after his admission to the bar he removed to Camillus and with his brother. Grove Lawrence, built up a very large and lucrative practice for that period. In the year 1840 he came to Syracuse and remained in active 430 Memorial History of Syracuse. practice about forty years. It has been written of him that " no man at the bar had uniformly better success than he in the conduct of his cases. Able as a legist, he shone as an advocate ; with a commanding presence, a persuasive eloquence, and withal quick at repartee and abounding in humor, he was almost resistless before juries." He was made the first County Judge under the new' constitution, and served from 1S47 to 1S50 with great ac- ceptability. In September, 1850 he was appointed by President Fillmore United States Attorney for the District of Northern New York. Judge Lawrence was repeatedly elected to the Assembly in the exciting period between 1830 and 1S40, in which body he distinguished himself as a de- bater and in the great fund of general information of which he showed himself the'master. He continued to take an active part in politics through- out his life, connecting himself with the Republican party when it came into existence, and giving his best efforts to the government in its trying war period and afterwards. It has been written of Judge Lawrence by one who knew him well that " as a lawyer he was erudite, accomplished and persuasive; as a politician, patriotic and influential; as a citizen, enlight- ened and judicious ; as a husband and father, affectionate and indulgent. About seven years before his death Judge Lawrence became totally blind, but he bore the great affliction with patience and equanimity. He died on the 2 1 St of March, 1874. B. Davis Noxon was born in Poughkeepsie in the year 1788, and was the son of a' physician. He received an academic education and studied law with Philo'.Ruggles. In the latter part of the year 1809, he went to Marcellus and began practice, and a few years later removed to Onondaga Hill, and there his professional life really began. The litigation connected with the military lands engaged his early attention and among the then powerful lawyers of the State, Mr. Noxon soon won a foremost position. It has been written of him that " In knowledge of this branch of the law, in careful preparation, in the acumen necessary to mark every nice dis- tinction, in the skill rtquisite to detect and expose fraud and perjury ; in boldness, tact, pertinacity ; in his hard logic for the court and his skillful appeals to juries, he was in the front rank of his profession. Experience in the trial of such causes made him a complete and thorough lawyer, and he stood almost without a peer or rival in real estate law throughout his professional life. * * Mr. Noxon studied the cases which shaped and settled the law of the State as they arose. In all his career he was distin- guished for his accurate knowledge of the adjudged cases, their reasons, their distinctions and their limitations; and no man had a better memory to retain or nicer skill to use this knowledge." Mr. Noxon was not only a distinguished real estate lawyer; his mind was versatile and he was equally ready, or nearly so, in other branches of the profession. He was quick- BiOGRAriircAL Sketches. 431 witted and ready, as well as strong in the trial of causes. He was a master of invective, always honest, if perhaps sometimes carried to excess. Mr. No.xon removed to Syracuse with the transfer of the courts in 1829, and with the late E. W. Leavenworth formed the firm of Noxon & Leaven- worth. For several years this was the leading law firm of the village. He was seldom a candidate for office, yet he held political views of a clear and decided character, upon which he never hesitated to express himself upon all proper occasions. Upon the death of Mr. Noxon on the 13th of May, 1S69, the bar of Onondaga county met and paid the highest eulogies to the deceased, in addresses and resolutions. John Wilkinson was born in Troy, N. Y., September 30, 1798. In the next year his father removed to the town of Skaneatelcs, making the journey on foot and leading a cow. The family rode on a sled drawn by oxen. When twelve years old John Wilkinson was sent to Onondaga Academy, which was then the nearest classical school to his home. His studious habits attracted the attention of Joshua Forman and after gradu- ation he was taken into the law office of Forman & Sabine as clerk and stu- dent. He was admitted to the bar in September, 1819, and settled in Syra- cuse as the first lawyer. In the same year he, in company with Owen Forman, surveyed and laid out into village and farm lots the Walton Tract, under instructions from Judge Forman. When the survey was finished, Mr. Wilkinson built a small office on the Globe Hotel site, and was ridiculed for locating so far out in the fields. In 1820, Mr. Wilkinson was appointed postmaster and held the office until 1840. In 1825, he was elected the first clerk of the village. In the same year he was chosen one of the directors of the Onondaga County Bank at its organization and held the office until the institution closed its affairs. He was president of the Bank of Syracuse, organized by himself and the late Horace White, and continued in that office until his death. During a later period he became prominently connected with early railroads. He was president of the Syracuse and Utica railroad, was elected Member of Assembly in 1834 and 1835, and occupied a fore- most position in that body. After the organization of the New York Cen- tral Railroad Company he was appointed its counsel. He was director of the Hudson River railroad, the Buffalo and State Line railroad, the Oswego and Syracuse railroad and the Rochester and Syracuse railroad, the last two having been projected by him and built by Construction Committees of which he was chairman. Later he was president of the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana railroad, and was connected with other lines. After the death of Oliver Teall, Mr. Wilkinson was made president of the Water Company. While the magnitude of the railroad and other interests in which Mr. Wilkinson was engaged drew his attention in a large degree away from his 432 Memorial History of Syracuse. profession, he still held an eminent position in the county bar, and en- joyed the fullest respect and confidence not only of his associates in the legal profession, but of all his acquaintances — a fact that is amply substan- tiated by the large number of estates entrusted to his care. No trust placed in him was betrayed or neglected in any respect. He died in 1862. Neiiemiah H. Eari.I. was born October 5, 1787, in Whitehall, N. Y., and came to Onondaga county about 1793, with his father. Gen. Robert Earll. The family, lived at Onondaga Valley about nine months and then removed to Skaneateles, where they lived until 1804. In that year the son entered Fairfield Academy and left it two years later equipped with a good education. He began the study of law in the office of Daniel Kellogg, at Skaneateles, and afterwards studied in theofificeof Thaddeus M. Wood and George Hall. He was admitted to practice in the Court of Common Pleas in 1809, shortly after which he removed to Salina and entered into partner- ship with Judge Daniel Moseley and John ?. Sherwood. In 1812, he was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court. He then joined the army and was stationed at Oswego, holding the office of Adjutant. In 18 14, he re- sumed practice at Onondaga Hill where he rapidly gained reputation and business. In 1816, he was appointed post master and in the same year was elected Justice of the Peace, filling that position until 1S20. In 1823, he was appointed First Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, which office he held until 1 831, when he resigned and was appointed Superintendent of the Salt Springs. This position he filled until 1S36, when he resigned and en- gaged in milling business with his brother Hezekiah, at Jordan. Two years later he removed to Syracuse. In 183S, he was elected by the Democrats to the 26th Congress and was renominated and defeated in 1840. He lived as a private citizen from that time until i860, when he removed to Mott- ville and died there in 1872. He was greatly respected for his well known integrity, his excellent business judgment, and his wise and judicious ad- ministration as judge. Thomas T. Da\ is was born in Middlebury, Vt., August 22d, 1810. About seven years later his father was called to the presidency of Hamilton College and removed thither. The son graduated from that institution in 1831, with high honors. He then began the study of law in Syracuse in the office of his brother, Henry Davis, and after his admission to the bar formed a partnership with him, which continued until 1844 and was termi- nated by the brother's death. He soon afterward formed the partnership with James S. Leach, which continued to the end of his professional life. In 1862 he was nominated for Congress by the Republicans, was elected and re-elected ; in that body he gained a high position on important com- mittees. It has been written of Mr. Davis that " He was distinguished at BlOGRAnilCAI, SKETniES. 433 the bar for his deep, extensive and critical knowledge of the law, and the court listened with great respect to his clear exposition of legal principles. He possessed great business sagacity, and was gifted with a facile and grace- ful pen and was often called upon in times of great popular feeling to clothe in his vigorous and well chosen words and eloquent sentences, the emotions which filled the popular heart." Mr. Davis died on the 2d of May, 1.S72. Daniel Pratt was born in Greenwich, Washington Co., N. Y., in 1806. He graduated from Union College in 1833 and in the same year came to Onondaga county and studied law in the office of David D. Hillis, of Ca- millus. In February, 1843, he was appointed First Judge of Onondaga county and four years later was elected Judge of the Supreme Court; in 1851 he was re-elected to the same ofTice. At the close of this term he re- tired from the bench, in the enjoyment of the fullest confidence of his com- peers in his judicial ability and his unswerving integrity. During his services as Judge he was honored with the degree of LL. D., by both Hamilton and Union Colleges. On January i, i860. Judge Pratt resumed law practice in partnership with the late D. J. Mitchell, and two years later Wilber M. Brown was admitted to the firm. During the succeeding fifteen years this firm was in the front rank of the profession in Syracuse. Judge Pratt was appointed one of the Commissioners for revising the State Constitution and in 1873 was elected Attorney-General. While Judge Pratt was not brilliant and powerful as a speaker, his mind was most admirably disciplined and stored with great wealth of legal knowledge, which was always at command, and gave him strength in the trial of important causes demanding ability of that character. He died July 23, 1864. Israel Selden Spencer died in Syracuse on the 12th of March, 1885, while seated in his oflfice chair. Judge Spencer was born in Camden] Oneida county in 1S15. He .studied his profession in Canastota and was admitted to the bar before he attained his majority. In 1845, he settled in Syracuse, and soon afterward formed a partnership with a Mr. North under the style of Spencer & North. In 1850, the firm was dissolved and Mr. Spencer was elected County Judge and served as such until 1854. To the duties of this position Judge Spencer gave that degree of careful attention that characterized all of his professional work. After his retirement from the bench. Judge Spencer gave his undivided attention to his practice, de- voting most of his time and energy to matters pertaining to land convey- ances, the settlement of estates and kindred work. In this department of legal practice Judge Spencer was an acknowledged authority and his services were sought in many important cases. About the year 1870, Judge Spencer traveled extensively in Egypt and Palestine, and on his return prepared a very interesting lecture on his travels on the Nile, which he delivered in Syracuse and elsewhere. He was a great lover of books and possessed 55 434 Memorial History ok Svkacuse. nearly complete and very valuable files of local newspapers, which have been donated to the Central Library. Johnson Hall, came to Syracuse from Lafayette in 1838, where he had been postmaster many years. His connection with the Judiciary of the county came through his appointment as Associate Judge, with the late Hon. Grove Lawrence and Oliver R. Strong. In this capacity Judge Hall's sterling integrity, accurate judgment, and innate sense of justice gave him an honorable position. Judge Hall represented Onondaga county in the State Legislature in 1830; was elected Sheriff in November, 1831. During the first ten years of his life in Syracuse he was connected with the hardware firm of Rhoades & Sherman. Judge Hall was a staunch Democrat in politics. His death occurred October 27th, 1S70.. Oliver R. Strong, the Onondaga pioneer, was born August 5th, 1781, in Lebanon, Windham county, Conn. In 1802, when he was twenty-one years old, he followed the growing tide of emigration westward, and made his stopping place at Onondaga Hill, where he found the family of Ellis's, who were his relatives. He was soon employed to teach the first school at that place, his salary being five dollars a month and board. The school throve, however, and his pay was soon doubled. In 1803, he was appointed under sheriff of the county, by the then sheriff, Elijah Phillips, and contin- ued in the position under the next sheriff Robert Earll. In 1808, he was appointed County Treasurer and held that office nearly twenty-five years. In 1812, he began mercantile business at the Hill and was a little later asso- ciated with his brother Hezekiah. In 1830, he was associated with John Wilkinson in the establishment of the " Onondaga County Bank," of which he was president fourteen years. In 1834, he was elected to the Assembly, serving one term, refusing a re-election, and in 1S38 was appointed Associ- ate Judge of Common Fleas and held the office many years. In 1810, Judge Strong was married to Margaret McLaren, of Manlius. She died in 1827, leaving three sons and three daughters. About the year 1850 he retired almost entirely from the active business of life, bearing the esteem and con- fidence of the entire community. He died at the residence of his son. Col. John M. Strong, in this city on the 3d of October, 1872. Joseph Mullen was born near Dromon, County Down, Ireland, Au- gust 6th, 181 I. He came to America with his parents when he was nine years old, and settled at Brownsville, Jefferson county, N. Y., but soon afterward removed to Watertown, which was his place of residence until his death. He learned the printer's trade and for a time studied at the Union Academy at Belleville. In 1831 he entered Union College and graduated in 1833. From that time until 1836 he acted as principal of Belleville Academy and in 1837 was admitted to the bar. He practiced in Water- Bi(x;kai'IIicai. Skkti hks. 435 town until 1841 when he was appointed Examiner in Chancery and held that position two years. He also held the office of District Attorney and Commissioner in Bankruptcy. In 1847, ^^ was elected to Congress. In 1857, he was elected a Justice of the Supreme Court in the Fifth Judicial District and was twice re-elected without opposition, holding the office until the close of 1881. When the General Term departments were organ- ized in 1870, Judge Mullen was appointed Presiding Justice of the Fourth Department, embracing the Fifth, Seventh, and Eighth Judicial Districts. He continued in this position until disqualified by age. He was retired January i, 1881, and was succeeded by Judge Irving G. Vann. The degree of LL.D.. was conferred upon Judge Mullen by both Hamilton and Union Colleges. Judge Mullen was held in the highest esteem as a jurist and his opinions always carried great weight. His legal knowledge was broad and comprehensive and his judgment singularly clear and correct. Joseph F. S.ABINE, son of William H. Sabine, the pioneer lawyer of Onondaga Valley, was born in March, 1814. He graduated from Yale Col- lege in 1836. He soon afterward began the study of law with the late James R. Lawrence at Camillus, was admitted to the bar in 1838 and entered into partnership with Mr. Lawrence. The firm removed to this city in 1839, and enjoyed a successful practice for a number of years. The Jerry Rescue trials came on before him as United States Commissioner. Mr. Sabine's health was not robust and for many years in the latter part of his life he spent his winters in the south and did not actively follow his profession. He engaged quite largely in real eseate operations, in which he was very successful, it has been said of him that " he was an excellent companion, a warm friend, a devoted churchman, and an exemplary man and citizen." He died at his residence on Warren street, June 4th, 1874. Nath.vmel B. Smith was born in Farmer Village, N. V., October 12, 1819. He early prepared himself for college and at the age of twenty-one years graduated from Hobart with high honors. He began the study of law in the office of Benjamin Johnson, in Ithaca, and finished with Judcre Barto, at Trumansburg. He was admitted to the bar in May, 1844, and practiced with Judge Barto until 1S55, when he removed to Syracuse. Two years later he formed a partnership with DeWitt C. Markham, which firm continued until 1869, when his son, Cornelius W., was admitted, the style becoming Smith, Markham & Smith. It has been written of Mr. Smith that he "was a gentleman of very superior legal attainments and thoroughly conscientious. His counsels were never based on uncertainties, and he would sooner lose a client than deal in deception. He was exceptionally well versed in the laws of the United States and in the practice of the United States courts. His literary tastes were very refined and his great strength of mind enabled him to store it with the choicest of gleanings." 436 Memorial History of Syracuse. Mr. Smith was for several years a member of the Board of Education and during his last term its President. He died in April, 1875. James Noxon, Judge of theSupreme Court of the Fifth Judicial Dis- trict, was born at Onondaga Hill, N. Y., in 1817. His father was B. Davis Noxon, who was a prominent member of the Bar of Central New York. The son prepared for college at Pomeroy Academy, and entered Hamilton in 1834. He remained two years, when he went to Union, where he graduated in 1838. He returned to Syracuse and studied law with his father. After his admission to the bar, he entered the firm of Noxon, Comstock & Leav- enworth, and subsequently became connected with that of Noxon & Put- nam. In 1843, he and his brother, B. Davis Noxon, Jr., formed a copartner- ship. Later he was a partner of Sidney T. Fairchild, of Cazenovia. He was a partner of George D. Cowleswhen elected judge. As a lawyer. Judge Noxon was prominent as a referee. He was elected State Senator from Onondaga in 1856 and re-elected in 1858. He was nominated for Supreme Court Judge, in September, 1875, to succeed Judge Morgan, and was elected in the November following for the full term of fourteen years by a large majority. Judge Noxon was estimated throughout this District, not as a great lawyer or jurist, but as a faithful, hardworking and conscientious judge. He was highly esteemed for his affability with members of the bar and all who were connected with his court ; and his memory will stand as an ex- ponent of the mild rather than the severe method of administering justice. There are many things connected with his brief career on the bench which excite the liveliest sympathy of the bar, and it is safe to say that Judge Nox- on will be always remembered with kindness and respect. William James Wallace, was born April 14th, 1838, at Syracuse. His parents were E. Fuller Wallace and Lydia Wheelwright Wallace, who were among the earlier settlers of Syracuse. He was prepared for college with the view of entering Dartmouth, where his father was graduated, but having concluded to adopt the law as his profession, it was thought prefer- able that he should pursue a course of general preparatory studies under the instruction of the Hon. Thomas Barlow, of Canastota. Accordingly, he became a member of the family of that gentleman, and studied with him for three years before beginning the study of the law. After reading law for a year he entered the law school of Hamilton College, of which Prof. Theodore W. Dwight was then the preceptor. He was graduated and took his degree in 1858 and was then examined for admission to the bar, and was recommended for admission. The examining committee consisted of Hon. Roscoe Conkling, Hon. Ward Hunt and Hon. J. Wyman Jones. On this occasion he made the acquaintance of Senator Conkling, which in after years ripened into an intimate friendship that lasted until the death of Mr. Conkling. He commenced practice of the law at Syracuse on the day he BiOGRArHiCAi. Sketches. 437 became twenty-one years of age, in partnership with Hon. William Porter. Subsequently he had as law partners Levi W. Hall, William C. Rugerand Edwin S. Jenney. In 1S73, he was elected Mayor of the City of Syracuse, running as the Republican candidate against Hon. Elizur Clark, the Demo- cratic nominee. In March, 1S74, he was appointed by President Grant, United States District Judge for the Northern District of New York, suc- ceeding Hon. Nathaniel K. Hall, of Buffalo, who was appointed to the place while Postmaster-General in the cabinet of President Fillmore. In April, 18S2, he was appointed by President Arthur, United States Circuit Judge for the second Judicial District, comprising the States of New York, Ver- mont, and Connecticut, succeeding in that office Hon. Samuel Blatchford, who was appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Since that time he has exercised the duties of that ofifice. The de- gree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by Hamilton College in 1876, and by Syracuse University in 1S83. Judge Wallace married for his first wife Josephine Robbins, of Brooklyn, who died in 1874. In 1878, he married for his second wife Alice Heyward Wheelwright, of New York City. Ansel Judd Northrut, the present County Judge of Onondaga county, was born June 30, 1833, near Ptterboro, Madison county, N. Y. His father, Rensselaer Northrup, of Tyringham, Mass., was brought in 1805, while a child, by his parents to Madison county, into what was then a wilderness. Six generations of Mr. Northrup's ancestors, on both sides, were New Englanders. His maternal grandfather, Ansel Judd, after whom he was named, was one of the early residents of Watervale, Onondaga county. Mr. Northrup was brought up on his father's farm, taught school four winters, prepared for college mainly at Peterboro, and Oberlin, Ohio, and was graduated from Hamilton College in July, 1858. While in college, under Professor Dwight, he pursued law studies to some extent. In 1858-9 he studied law in Columbia Law School, in the first class instructed by the celebrated Prof. Theodore W. Dwight, and took the two years' course in one year. In May, 1859, he ^^^ admitted to the bar. He came to Syra- cuse a month later, and except for a few months (at the opening of the war of the Rebellion) spent in Chicago, where he had some thought of establishing himself in his profession, he has ever since resided in this city. During his professional practice he has had for partners, at one time Charles E. Fitch, who afterward abandoned the law for journalism and is now United States Collector of Internal Revenue, residing in Rochester, N. Y. ; then James Noxon, who became a Justice of the Supreme Court ; after- wards J. Page Munro, deceased, and lastly l-'rcderick S. Wicks, still practic- ing in Syracuse. In 1870, Mr. Northrup was appointed United States Circuit Court Com- missioner for the Northern District of New York by Judge Woodruff, and 438 Memorial History of Syracuse. not long afterward he was made United States Examiner in Equity, both of which offices he still holds. He was elected County Judge in 1882, for a term of six years and re-elected (with no Democratic nomination against him) in 1888, for a second term. Since 1877, he has been one of the Trus- tees of the Syracuse Savings Bank. During the early period of his law practice, Mr. Northrup did some miscellaneous literary work and newspaper editorial writing, and he has at various times delivered lectures and addresses on literary and other subjects. In 1 S80, he wrote and published a bookentitled, " Camps and Tramps in the Adirondacks, and Grayling Fishing in Northern Michigan ; a Record of Summer Vacations in the Wilderness." This was followed, in 1 881, by a second book, " 'Sconset Cottage Life: a Summer on Nantucket Island." Mr. Northrup has always been a Republican in politics, and as such he made many speeches during the two Lincoln campaigns He was the first Vice-President and afterward became the President of the Loyal League, a large patriotic association organized during the war of the rebellion. In religion he is a Presbyterian ,and was lay Commissioner from Syracuse Pres- bytery to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church held at Sara- toga in May, 1890, celebrated for its great debate on "Revision." An ad- dress by him on "The Powers and Duties of Elders in the Presbyterian Church," delivered before the Elders' Association of Syracuse Presbytery, and subsequently issued in pamphlet form, attracted much attention and has had quite a circulation. In November, 1863, Mr. Northrup married Eliza S. Fitch, eldest daugh- ter of the late Thomas B. Fitch. He is a brother of Mrs. Dwight H. Bruce and Milton H. Northrup, of the Syracuse Courier. George Franklin Comstock was born of Revolutionary ancestry at Williamstown, Oswego county, August 24, 1811. His father died while George was still young and left no means to provide his son with a liberal education. He was distinguished at an early age for his love of books and after teaching for a period, graduated from Union College in 1834. lie taught for a year the Latin and Greek language in classical schools in Utica and moved to Syracuse in 1835. He studied law with the late B. Davis Noxon, a lawyer of great distinction in Central New York, and was admitted in 1837. He enjoyed a very successful practice for many years, and in 1874 was appointed by the Governor as Reporter of decisions of the Court of Appeals. He succeeded Judges Denio and Nicholas Hill in that appointment. He held this place three years during which he published four volumns of decisions of that court. In 1852, he was appointed by President Fillmore as Solicitor of the Treasury of the United States, but re- tiredfrom the office at the end of the (Fillmore's) administration, and re- sumedthe practice of law in the higher courts. BioGRAriiKAi. Sketches. 439 In 1855, he was elected Judge of Court of Appeals and remained on the bench six years, during two of vvhicli he was the Chief Justice. He was nominated for re-election by the Democrats in 1S61 for same office, but was defeated. In 1867, he was elected delegate-at-large to a convention called for the revision of the State constitution. An especial effort was put forth to reorganize the Judicial system of the State, and especially the Court of Appeals. The Judge gave that work his especial attention ; a new judiciary article was framed, and was acceptcdby popular vote, while all other work of the convention was rejected. In politics Judge Comstock was a Whig, and later a Democrat. He mingled somewhat actively in political discussions before and after the war of the Rebellion, and his views were decided and pronounced against the Republican party's measures and policy. He is still actively engaged in his profession, but only in its higher walks. Upon his private life no stain has ever rested, and as a citizen he is distinguished for the prominent part he has taken in the foundation and care of public buildings. Ro\vi,.\ND Hill G.VRDNER died in Syracuse, November 12, 1888. He was born in Flainfield, Otsego county, in January, iSio. Not long after his admission to the bar he came to Syracuse (May, 1843,) with Hamilton Rurdick and they entered into partnership which continued twenty-seven years. In 1S50, he was elected District Attorney, and during the later years of his life he was Indian Agent. Mr. Gardner was all his life an un- swerving Democrat in politics, and spoke in public for every Democratic presidential candidate from Andrew Jackson to Grover Cleveland. He was a ready speaker, with a keen and active sense of humor ; he was a hater of all sham, pretense and wrong and could employ invective in the most forcible manner, when occasion arose. While Mr. Gardner did not attain to great- ness as a lawyer, he carried with him to the last the respect and confidence of every member of the county bar.* Members of Congress. — Many members of the bar of Onondaga county have held the office of Member of Congress, as is indicated below. In the year 1794, (Act of December 18, 1792,) Herkimer, Montgomery, Onondaga, Ontario, Otsego, and Tioga counties comprised one Congressional District. By the Act of March 23, 1797, Cayuga, Onondaga, Ontario, Steuben, and Tioga comprised the loth District, and by the Act of March 30, 1802, Che- nango, Onondaga, and Tioga were made the i6th District. In the 9th Congress, Eri Tracy, of Chenango, was elected to represent the District. In the loth Congress, Reuben Humphreys, of Onondaga, represented the 1 3th District. John Harris, formerly Sheriff of Onondaga county, was a * for extended sketches of other members of the legal profession in Onondaga county, the reader is referred to the liiographical nepartmcnt of this work. 440 Memorial History of Syracuse. member from the 14th District, and William Kirkpatrick, then Superintend- ent of the Salt Springs, represented the i ith District. Eri Tracy represent- ed the 16th District in the nth and I2th Congresses (iSogto 1813.) In the 13th Congress, Hon. James Geddes represented the new District compris- ing Onondaga and Cortland counties. In the 14th Congress, (1815-16) Victory Rirdseye was Representative; i 5th, James Porter ; i6th, George Hall; 17th and iSth, Elisha Litchfield; 19th, Luther Badger ; 20th and 2ist, Jonas Earll, jr. ; 22d, Freeborn G. Jewett ; 23d, 24th and 25th, Wil- liam Taylor; 26th, Nehemiah H. Earll; 27th, Victory Birdseye ; 28th and 29th, Horace VVheaton ; 30th and 31st, Daniel Gott ; * 32d and 33d, Daniel T.Jones; 34th and 35th, Amos P. Granger; 36th and 37th, Charles B. Sedgwick; 38th and 39th, Thomas T. Davis; 40th and 41st, Dennis Mc- Carthy ; 42d and 43d, R. Holland Duell ; 44th, E. VV. Leavenworth ; 45th to 50th inclusive, Frank Hiscock, who was elected United States Senator in the winter of 1887-8 for six years; 51st to the present time, James J. Belden. United States District Court, Northern District of Nciv York. -The following have been officers of this Court, resident in this county: Joseph F. Sabine, United States Commissioner, 1850; James R. Lawrence, United States District Attorney, 1850; Harry Allen, United States Marshal. The first Deputy-Marshal was Peter Way, deceased ; William Cahill, appointed in his stead, followed by James H. Hinman, Fred Shug, Thomas H. Curry, William R. Adams, and William H. Shannon. B. Davis Noxon, United States Commissioner, appointed October 22d, 1867; William C. Ruger, United States Commissioner, appointed July 8th, 1858; Daniel F. Gott, Register in Bankruptcy, appointed May loth, 1S67; A. Judd Northrup, LInited States Commissioner, appointed March 22d. 1S70; Daniel F. Gott, United States Commissioner, appointed April 2d, 1872; William J. Wallace, appointed Judge of the District Court of the United States for the Northern District of New York, April 7th, 1874, and appointed United States Circuit Court Judge of the Second Circuit comprising New York, Vermont, and Connecticut, April 6th, 1882, and is still in office. Judges of the Court of Appeals. — The Judges of the Court of Appeals who have been residents of this county are as follows: Hon. Freeborn G. Jewett, Skaneateles, two years, elected June 7, 1847 ; Hon. George F. Com- stock, Syracuse, elected November 7, 1853; Hon. Charles Andrews, Syra- cuse, elected May, 17, 1870, fourteen years, was appointed by the Governor Chief Judge in place of Judge Folger, resigned November 19, 1881, and re- elected Associate Judge November, 1883, fourteen years ; Hon. William C. * In 1822, Onondaga alone formed a District, continuing thus until 1832, when Madison county was made a part of the District — the 23d. In 1842, it Onondaga was again made a District by itself and so continued until the 30th Congress, when Cortland was united with it, as at present. BioGRAiMiiCAL Sketches. 441 Ruger, Cliief Jud. Solomon. — Born March 22, 1863, at Mohawk, Herkimer county; educated in High .School and Syracuse University ; studied law in Syracuse and at Columbia Law School ; ad- mitted in Utica, .April, 1S88 ; has since practiced in Syracuse. Samiel R. Stern. — Born in Syracuse, July 7, 1S55 : educated in public school and High -School : studied law with Ruger, Wallace & Jenney ; admitted April 4, 1879. and practiced since in Syracuse ; was Assistant District Attorney, first incumbent ; of Hogan & Stern. Benjamin Stoi.z. — Was bom October 13, 1867, Syracuse, N. Y.; educated in Syracuse High School ; studied law in Columbia College Law School and with Jenney, Brooks, Marshall i\: Ruger ; admitted in Syracuse, May 2, 1S89 ; practicing in Syracuse. Charles F. Snavlin. — Born at West Monroe, N. Y., March 25, i860 ; educated at Cazenovia Seminary and Syracuse High School ; studied law in Parish, Oswego county, and Syracuse; admitted at Rochester in April, 18S3 ; practiced only in Syracuse, 448 Memorial History of Syracuse. John L. Stan'dart. — Born in Attica, Ind., January 21, 1859 ; educated in common schools and a seminary ; studied law with Sedgwick, Kennedy & Tracy, and admitted to the Bar of Onon- daga county in April, 1880, and as Attorney and Counsellor in 18S2 ; has practiced but little and is employed in a private capacity by Judge Kennedy. Chari.es II. Sedcwick. — Born in Syracuse May 22, 1S46 ; educated at the U. S. Naval .Acad- emy and Hamilton College ; studied law in Syracuse and admitted in iS6g : practiced in Syracuse and Omaha, Neb. County Judge Douglas county. Neb., 1S75-77. William Walter Teall.— Born in town of Manlius, April 23, 181S ; educated chiefly at Cazenovia Seminary, Hamilton Academy, Union College, and Yale ; studied law with Ncton & Leavenworth and at Yale, and was admitted in L839 ; practiced in Syracuse. Appointed Judge Ad- vocate State militia 1835 : appointed Agent of the Onondaga Indians, 1844 ; appointed post-master of Syracuse, 1845 ; appointed 1S62 Commissary Subsistence, U. S. army, and Chief Commissary of Subsistence Right Grand Division Anny of the Potomac. Mr. Teall has been officially connected with several Syracuse banks and other corporations ; in 18S3 was elected a Trustee and Treasurer of the Sanderson Brothers Steel Company. Van'CE Turtelot. — Born in Herkimer county October 3, 1854 ; educated at Cazeuovia Semi- nary and Syracuse University ; studied law in Sjracuse ; admitted here in 1886, and practiced in Syracuse since. James S. Thorn. — Born in Syracuse January 7. 1854 ; educated in the public shoolsand High school ; studied law with lliscock, Cifford cV Dohcny ; admitted in Syracuse, January 7, 1S76 ; practiced in Syracuse. Frederick W. Thomso.n.— Born January 4, 1867, at Alexandria Bay, N. Y.; educated at Cornell University class '87 ; studied law in Syracuse with Hiscock, Doheny i: lliscock; admitted in Binghamton September 13, 1SS9 ; practicing in Syracuse, firm of Benedict & Thomson. Wn.LlAM G. Tracv.— Born April 7, 1S43 ; educated in Preble, N. Y., and Syracuse ; studied law in Syracuse, and at the .\lbany Law school ; admitted June, 1867 ; practiced in Syracuse, N. Y., in firms of Sedgwick, Kennedy & Tracy, Kennedy & Tracy, and Tracy, McLennan & .\yling. Frederick S. Wicks.— Born in Syracuse, N. Y., April 25. 1S51 ; educated in Syracuse and at Yale College ; studied law with A. Judd Northrup. in Syracuse, from July, 1S73, to September, 1874, and at the Columbia College Law School until June, 1876; admitted at the General 1 erm, Buffalo, July, 1876 ; practiced in Syracuse ever since ; at one time of Northrup & Wicks ; Director in Mechanics' Bank ; President of Central City Railway Company ; President of the Genesee and Water street Railroad Company ; Yice-I'resident John Marcellus Manulacturing Co. Samuel H. Wandei.i..— Was born in West Munroe, Oswego county, N. Y., April 19, i860; educated at the Central Square Academy ; studied law with I'ardee & Piper, Fulton, N. Y., and Hon. I. J. Lamoree, Oswego, N. Y.,; admitted at Rochester, October, 1882 ; practiced in Pulaski, N. Y., one year; since then in Syracuse; was assistant of District Attorney of Oswego county, 1882-83 ; author of several law books. Frederick D. Whiie.— Bornin Ann .Vrbor, Mich. ; educated at Cornell University ; also in University of lierlin, Prussia; studied law at Columbia Law -School, N. Y., 1882-S4 ; admitted in Binghamton, 1884 ; practiced in Syracuse, N. Y. Cahs a. Weaver.— Born December 18, 1844, in Verona, N. Y.; educated in common schools and DeRuyter Academy, and studied law with Hall & Chamberlain, and Hunt & Green ; admitted at Rochester in January, 1871, and practiced only in Syracuse ; is Justice of the Peace ; was in the late war. Gaukiel W. WisNEK.— Wasborn in Elmira, N. Y., October 8, 1849; graduated at Union College, class '71 ; studied law with Sedgwick, Kennedy & Tracy, in Syracuse, 1871-74 ; admitted at Rochester, General Term, 1874 ; practiced ever since at Syracuse, N. Y. Frank R. Walker.— Born in Mooer's Forks, N. Y., November 2, 1855; educated at .Syra- cuse University ; studied law in Syracuse in 1S85-6; admitted in Syracuse, January 14, 1S87 ; prac- ticed in Syracuse, TlIK MkHICAL I'ROKESSION. 449 Louis L. Waters. — Bom in Cortland, December 29, 1864 ; educated at the Cortland Normal School; studied law at Cortland, 1S84, in Washington, D. C, Columbian University Law School, 1885-S7 ; admitted in District of Columbia, June, 18S7, and in New York Slate, April, 1888 ; prac- ticed in Syracuse ; of W.iters, McLennan & Waters. lIoMi-R Weston. — liorn in Ascutneyville, Vt., October 4, 1S41 ; educated in Sprini^'field Wes- le)an Seminary, two years at Weslcyan University, and graduated from Vale in 1867 ; studied law in the Albany Law School and graduated, 1867-6S ; admitted at Albany in 1868, and at LaCrosse in June. 186S ; practiced in Wisconsin, and came to Syracuse in 1875, where he has since practiced. CiEOKiiK B. Warner. — Born in Lima, Livingston county, N. V., December 23, 1844 ; educated at Genesee College, in Lima, X. Y.; studied law with Ciardner & Burdick, in Syracuse, 1866-67 ; admitted in Syracuse in the fall of 1S67 ; practiced in Syracuse from the spring of 1865 to the pres- ent time. Edward C. Wright. — Born at I'ompey Hill, September 27, 1S90 ; educated at the Munro Collegiate Institute, and Hamilton College ; studied law in Syracuse ; admitted in Rochester, 1870; practiced in Syracuse. He has held the offices of Supervisor and School Commissioner. CHAPTER XXVII. Tin; MKDICAL rKOFESSIOX. The Onondaga Medical .Societj — Its Organization — Records of Early Meetings — The First Cholera Epidemic — A Complimentary Dinner — List of Presidents — List of Members — The Syracuse Medical Association — Proceedings at Various Meetings — Officers of the Association — Biographical Notes — The Homceopathic Medical Society. THE Onondaga County Medical Society was organized at the Court House at Onondaga Hill on the 1st day of July, 1806. William Adams was chairman of the meeting, and Walter Colton, clerk. John H. Frisbie was elected the first President of the society ; Gordon Needham, Vice-Pres- ident ; Daniel Tibbits, Treasurer ; Walter Colton, Secretary. There were present at that first meeting, Drs. William Adains, Deodatus Clark, John H. Frisbie, Gordon Needham, Smith Weed, Jesse Searle, James Jackson, Daniel Tibbits, Isaac Benedick, Salmon Thayer, and Walter Colton. Resolutions were adopted providing for a society seal, books, etc., and the meeting adjourned to the first Tuesday in October of the same year at the same place. At this meeting a Board of Censors was chosen and it was resolved that thereafter no per.son should be admitted to membership in the society unless he had passed an examination by the Board, which consisted of the following Physicians: John Miller, Bildad Biren, Samuel Porter, Daniel Tibbits, and James Jackson. 57 450 Memorial History ok Syracuse. Dr. John H. Frisbie was chosen to represent the society at the meeting of the State Medical Society. A committee was chosen to prepare By-Laws, and Dr. Daniel Tibbits was appointed to deliver an oration at the next meeting. Among the members admitted at this meeting were Drs. Daniel Hubbard and David Holbrook, who had previously located at Jamesville as the first settled physician in Onondaga county. The meeting adjourned to the first Tuesday in January, 1807. In compiling this necessarily brief record of the proceedings of this society we can only select such items as seem of enough importance to ren- der them worthy of preservation in such a work as this. Dr. Tibbitts' oration, to which we have alluded was upon the subject, "The Inflammatory State of Fever," and was, of course, the first disserta- tion before the society. He was voted thanks for his able effort. It would seem that members did not attend punctually the yearly meet- ings and in October, 180S, it was resolved that any member remaining away from a meeting should pay into the treasury fifty cents. At a meeting held August 3d, 18 12, the preparations were made for a new code of by-laws. Several committees were appointed during the early years of the society to investigate and prosecute persons who were practicing medicine without proper authority. The records do not indicate that meetings were held from 181 8 to 1822, except one in 1820. At the meeting of June, 1822, new activity seems to have been exhibited. The by-laws were overhauled, a new seal authorized, the purchase of fifty diplomas for the society ordered, and the Censors were called upon to prosecute all who were practicing without proper authority. In June, 1823, Drs. Kendrick and Coburn were appointed to "draft a system of Medical Ethics for this society." In 1825 it was resolved that a part of the society's funds should thereafter be given as premiums for prizes, the amount to be decided by a majority of the members present. These prize questions were to be selected by a committee, and another committee was appointed to decide on the merits of the dissertations on such questions. The sum of $5.(Xi was voted for the best dissertation on " Some Chronic Disease." Dr. Jonathan Day, was awarded the premium. Dr. Day died in 1 83 1, at which time he was Secretary of the society. Resolutions were passed in 1830 strongly condemning the use of ardent spirits, except for medical purposes, and that "we will so far as is consistent with the duties of our profession, avoid prescribing alcohol in any form which may endanger the temperate habits of our patients." July 6th, 1832, a special meeting was called to devise the best means of preventing the Asiatic cholera. The State Medical Society had issued a circular on the subject, wiiich was the occasion of the action. Drs. Clarj' Action to Pkkvknt Ciioi.kka. 451 and Day were appointed a committee to "draught such remarks expressive of the opinion of the society as they deemed proper to publish to the inhabitants of the county." This action resulted in the adoption of the following resolutions which were made public: KesoheJ, That a committee of three lie chosen to draught such remarks expressive of the opinion of the society, as they deemed proper to publish to the inhabitants of the county. This committee was composed of Drs. Taylor and Day. The following was also unanimously adopted : WiiKREAS, The Asiatic cholera has made its appearance in New York, .ind is also reported to have occurred in Albany ; in consequence of its near approach, its habit of following the main channel of communication, such as rivers and canals, roads and the like, it is rendered extremely probable that our county, in some of the villages will be visited with this dreadful scourge. We, the mem- bers of the Onondaga Medical Society, deem it our duty, and we take pleasure in submitting a few such remarks as are deemed important to prepare our citizens in body and minds for the reception of this fell disease. .\nd lirst we remark that we know of no means of preventing its approach and attack. Like other epidemics its cause is latent neither perceivable by our senses or capable of be- ing operated upon so far as we know by any remedial agent. No means that human ingenuity, skill or philanthropy could suggest have yet stayed its progress. We then can recommend such measures only as will tend to remove the exciting causes and mitigate the severity of the scourge, such means as will have a beneficial effect upon individuals and the atmosphere and such a course as is practicable and easy of application in case of an attack : ist. — Cleanliness in our person, about our houses, cellars, out houses, and streets, is a matter of indispensable importance. All nuisances and filthy accumulations should be removed, all offen- sive smells arising from sinks, out houses, stagnant pools, and all other sources not capable of being removed, should be corrected by the free use of chloride of lime and soda or of quick lime. The more pure and wholesome we keep the air we constantly breathe in the above ways the less malig- nant and extensive may we expect the disease will be. .As the intemperate have ever been found the more ready and easy victims of the disease it is earnestly recommended to all to abstain from ardent spirits, (except as medicine) to be temperate in diet, and especially in the use of sub-acid and unripe fruits and uncooked vegetables, which by many are indulged in at this season of the year. .Mso to be cautious of exposure to the colder air of the evening and night without being sufficiently guarded with clothing. This exposure and consequent check of the secretions of the skin, is the e.\- citing cause of most of the disordered bowels that ordinarily occur at this season of the year. Hence, we infer that carelessness and inattention to this point would be among the most e.xciting causes of cholera. The mind, too, has a vast influence in exciting disease at all times, and especially so dur- ing the prevalence of the epidemic. Too much care cannot be taken to keep the mind calm and un- nirtled from any cause that is depressing in its effects, whether it be fear of cholera, or its effects on community and business. There are strong reasons for believing that fear hail more agency in the production, extension, and malignancy of cholera in ijuebec and Montreal than any other of the ex- citing causes. It will be noticed by those who have read the letters of those medical men (sent from the State to make observation and collect facts in regard to cholera) that very much depends upon a judicious management of the premonitory symptoms. \Vc advise persons laboring under any dis- ease (supposed to be premonitory of cholera) to have immediate recourse to the advice of a physician, rather than depend upon the nostrums and specifics now going the rounds of the public newspapers. In fine, it behooves us all and severally to meet the scourge (should it come among us) like rational beings and bear it, and treat it, and render the assistance to the needy, in the full possession of our powers, mental and corporeal, knowing that there are means which, if used early and judiciously, the fell scourge may be shorn of much of its power to attack and destroy. We can assure any fel- low citizen that attention to these particulars is well calculated to have a beneficial influence, not only as regards cholera, but in the prevention and mitigation of fevers and all malignant disease, and that as a Society, as well as individually, we will avail ourselves of all means in our power to obtain 452 Memorial History of Syracuse. correct information as to the most successful treatment of cholera, and endeavor to act in unison and harmony upon this important subject. In this connection a central committee was appointed to procure such approved publications on this subject as were deemed valuable, and it was made the duty of every member of the society to report to that committee ever}' case of cholera which might occur in his practice, and his opinion of the disease and history of the treatment. Other committees were also ap- pointed with assigned duties, all intended to lessen the ravages of the dis- ease. Through the efforts of the Board of Health, composed of the physicians of the city, who were constituted such by the trustees, the inhabitants of the village were impelled to exercise vigilance in .sanitary matters and to clear their premises of whatever foul substances could be found. The trustees were authorized to borrow a sum of money not exceeding $i,000 to be u.sed in combating the disease. Dr. Jonathan Day was sent to Montreal to in- vestigate the disease in that city, but without any especial benefit. The disease made its appearance, the first victim being a laborer who lived on Clinton street. The Rev. Nelson I. Gilbert preached his funeral sermon, and the following evening was stricken down with the scourge and died in a few hours. He and his wife were both treated with the utmost attention by Dr. Jonathan Day, then one of the most popular and successful physi- cians in the county, and he too, fell a victim. The course of the epidemic need not be traced in detail here, as it has already been fully described in an earlier chapter. The number of deaths probably reached one hundred and the victims numbered .several of the best and most prominent men in the community. But Syracuse suffered far less than many other localities of similar size, and it is certainly just to credit this immunity to a large ex- tent to the unselfish and heroic labors of the members of the Onondaga County Medical Society. At this meeting (1832) resolutions were adopted upon the death of Dr. Jonathan Day. They spoke in the most complimentary terms. At the meeting of January 27, 1835, Dr. Hiram Hoyt offered a series of resolutions on the subject of an eye and ear infirmary in Syracuse, but they ' were withdrawn without action. In the .same year the Code of Ethics gov- erning the State Society was adopted. About this time a " Topographical Committee" was appointed with instructions to report, at an early meeting presumably, upon the topography of the county and its relation to disease. This committee, or its successors, crops out in the records for a number of years, with excuses for not reporting and requests for extension of time ; but nothing seems to have been done by it. In 1840, the State Society issued a circular to County Societies asking an expression as to the advisability of licensing practitioners. It is suffi- cient to record that this society strongly favored the plan. As indicat- Proceedings of Various Meetings. 453 ing the fact that medical practitioners of that day were compelled to devote considerable attention to dentistry, a committee was appointed in 184310 inquire into the propriety of using " mineral paste" in dental surgery. About the year 1S45, the feeling of opposition to honift-opathy became quite marked in expression and the records show that it suffered no dimi- nution for many years, several members having been expelled for embracing the alleged medical heresy. At the annual meeting of the year a committee of seven prominent members of the society was appointed to collect infor- mation of "the two celebrated systems of practice taught by Priessnitz and Hahnemann." Upon the information supplied by the committee and knowledge of the hom. 1857. lanuary 28. 1S40.— \V. H. Maxwell, Syracuse; removed to New York. H. H. Schenck ; gave up practice for the ministry. lune I), 1S40.— A. B. Edwards; removed. Ely Cooke, Truxton ; died there. Hays McKin- ley, north part of county ; died in Wisconsin in 1S80. James S. Johnson, Euclid ; died at Moravia, .\ugust iq, 1S79. Havid M. Benson, Geddes ; died in 1834. January 26, 1841. — Isaac .Morrell, Borodino; removed from county. George F. Hurd, Fay- etteville ; died in Rochester. lune 8, 1841.— 1.. D. Gage. E. D. Williams, Syracuse. T. C. Durant ; removed to Canada. 1.. B. Hall; removed to Ohio. E. T. Richardson, Tully. John Hart. Milton \V. Gray, Ly- sander. June 14, 1842. — \Vm. Enworth, Camillus ; removed to Wisconsin. Wm. S.Young. J. Kneel- and, Borodino ; removed to South Onondaga. lune 13. 1843. — Ira B. Geer. James Ch.nndler. .Syracuse ; died in 1883. M. M. Marsh, Man- lius ; died in -New York, 1866. Silas Bliss, Syracuse, deceased. Joel C. Brown. Abrah.im Hann, SjTacuse ; removed to Little Falls, J. K. Cheeseman, Marcellus: removed from county. January 28, 1844. — Lyman L. Rose, LaFayette ; died in 1867. Amos Westcott, Syracuse ; committed suicide while insane, July 6, 1873. Tune II, 1S44. — Heton F. Noyes ; removed to Minnesota. Wm. A. Grover, Syracuse; re- moved to California. June 10, 1845. — Daniel G. Frisbie, Syracuse; removed to Iowa. C. W. Boyce ; removed to Auburn. Thomas B. Washburn. Wm. G. Redman, Camillus ; removed to Louis\-ille. June 7, 1847. — John F. Trowbridge, died February 14, 1S72. Joseph P. Dunlap, Syracuse. Tobias J. Green, Syracuse : removed to Oswego county. January 2;, 184S. — James V. Kendall, Baldwinsville. June 13, 184S. — Har\ey T. Tolman, Jamesville. Alexander J. Dallas, Camillus; removed to Syracuse in 1867. June 12, 1S49. — M. D. Benedict, Skaneateles ; came to Syracuse in 1S66 and died here in 1884. Wm. Manlius Smith, Syracuse. January 29, 1850. — James Wells, Baldwinsville. June 12, 1850. — Henry P. Coon, Syracuse; removed to California and died there. John E. Todd, Baldwinsville ; died April 22, 1868. Joel B. Linsley, Salina ; died in Central America, Feb- ruary- 16,1852. January 28, 1851. — Harry GifTord, Salina; dismissed, 1S70. Israel Parsons, Marcellus. June 10, 1851. — H. Emmett Roberts, .Marcellus; suspended 1S63. Jacob O. Loomis, Yan Buren, deceased. Roger W. Pease, .Syracuse ; died at his home May 28, 1886. Homer Adams, Tully ; died suddenly in Wisconsin, August 3, 1867. Januar)- 27, 1852. — Horace C. .Avery, Kirkville ; died at Fayetteville, 1S57. Samuel Avcr\-, .Syracuse ; gave up practice. January 14, 1853. — Theodore C. Pomeroy ; now in S>Tacuse. June 13, 1854. — Nelson C. Powers, Syracuse ; died -VugTist 13, 1S75. Judson Candee, Pom- pey ; killed by running horse in 1870. January 30, 1S55. — H. P. Wallace, Baldwinsville; died there March 10, 1886. June 12, 1855. — W. W. Porter, Geddes ; died June 3, 1885. June 10, 1856.— .Mien Y. R. Snyder, Euclid ; became blind in 1S61. I. N. YanSlyke, Syra- cuse ; died .April 15, 1869, at BurHngton, N. J. June 9, 1857. — .Alfred Mercer, Syracuse. L. D. Clarke, Otisco. June 8, 1858. — George W. Cooke, Cicero; came to Syracuse, August, 1861. D. \'. YanSlyke, S)Tacuse ; removed from county. S. M. Higgins, Memphis ; died 1889. 460 Memorial History of Syracuse. Januar)' 31, i860. — 11. B. Wilbur, SjTacuse ; died May i, 1883. Horace Xims, Manlius. June 12, i860. — Robert Treat Paine, Jordan ; removed to Lockport and died January 26, 1868. Wm. H. I'almer, .Syracuse ; went to the war and did not return. June II, 1861. — Henry Darwin Uidania, Salina ; removed to Syracuse in 1864. Ililand A. Weed, Jordan. June 10, 1862. — George W. Draper, Clay ; moved to Geddes, 1869 and to Pueblo, 1888. June 9, 1863. — J. Phelps Shumway, Baldwinsville. June 14, 1864. — F. M. liyington, Fayetteville ; removed to Kentucky in 1874 and died there in 1877. January 31, 1865. — W. O. Luce, Elbridge ; removed to Auburn 1876. George W. Earll, Skaneateles ; died in 18S9. Wm. A. Bennett, Syracuse , removed to Massachusetts. L. C. Skin- ner, Belle Isle ; died December 11, 1887. Jan. 30, 1866. — Geo. B. Barrus, Navarino. Tlieron Bradford, Syracuse. J. O. Slocum, Syra- cuse ; removed to Camillus in 1867 and died March 5, 1S85. I. H. Searl, Syracuse. W. Kemp- ster, Syracuse ; removed to Utica and was Assistant Superintendent in insane asylum. J. N. Arnold, Elbridge ; removed to Clyde. E. C. Spaulding, Fabius ; remo\ed to Chicago. James P. Kimball, Pompey ; w^ent into the U. S. service. June 12, 1866. — Gregory Doyle, Syracuse. James A. Mowris, LaFayette. January 29, 1S67. — J. Otis Burt, Syracuse. William T. Plant, Syracuse. Henry Crouse, Syr- acuse ; deceased. June II, 1867. — J. W. Lawton, Syracuse; died June 3, 1S74. M. 11. Blynn, Cicero; died December 10, 18S3. .S. M. Potter, Manlius; removed to Cazenovia. O. E. Wainwright, Syracuse ; killed in Central Baptist Church disaster, June 23, 1874. January 28, 1868. — Charles liliss, Syracuse; removed to Massachusetts. Wm. Taylor, Pom- pey ; left the county in 1869. James E. Carr, Jordan. Edwin A. Knapp, Jamesville. June 9, 186S. — J. D. Potter, Delphi. Leslie Martin, Lysander ; withdrew 1877. F. A. Strong, Brewerton. Wm. M. Bradford ; moved to Cortland county, 1869, settled in Marathon, 1871. J. H. Graves, Manlius ; came to Syracuse in 1881. January 26, 1S69. — James Durward, Otisco ; removed to Indiana. Howard M. Haskell, On- ondaga Hill ; came to Syracuse in 1S70, and left here the ne.st year. M. M. McDonald, LaFayette ; withdrew in 1874. Henry B. Allen, Baldwinsville. June 8, 1S69. — John Van Duyn, Syracuse. George T. Campbell, Skaneateles ; died February 13, 1S82. VanDyke Tripp, Borodino. James II. Gleason, .Salina ; left the county in 1870 and died from poison accidentally. Merritt B. Fairchild, Syracuse. January 25, 1870. — E. V. Cuykendall, LaFayette. E. Van de Warker, Syracuse. A. L. Turner, Onondaga ; removed to Pennsylvania in 1870. James Whitford, Onondaga Valley. June 14, 1870. — E. E. Carrier, Livervool ; died August, 1870. Isaac Butler, Syracuse. June 13, 1871. — A. D. Felton, Syracuse ; removed to Saratoga in May, 1873, and thence to Cedarville, N. J. George Whedon, Syracuse ; expelled. January 30, 1872. — W. W. Morrison, Otisco. Charles H. Richmond, Syracuse; removed March 1872. David Terry, .Syracuse ; died August 23, 1878. T. E. Quimby, Fayetteville. Henry Laning, Syracuse ; gone to Japan. June II, 1872. — Robert li. Wagner, Syracuse ; in U. S. service. H. B. Pritchard, Euclid ; re- moved to Cicero. E. S. Mumford, .Syracuse. Joseph Heme, Jr., Syracuse ; removed to New York. September 10, 1872. — Frank H. Butler, Syracuse. September 9, 1873. — W. R. Johnson, Syracuse. January 27, 1874. — J. Wiltsie Knapp, Geddes. April 7, 1874. — C. W. Morse, Syracuse ; removed to Michigan. Edward B. Stearns, Syra- cuse ; removed to Ohio. Arthur S. Hall, Syracuse ; died May, 1876. Orson G. Dibble, Pompey. June 9, 1874. — L. F. Weaver, .Syracuse. Lucius Stevens, Syracuse ; died in Colorado, July, 1884. Frank C. Clarke, Apulia ; removed to Cuyler. F.J. Holcombe, Syracuse. G. W. Earle, TuUy. List of Memhers. 461 September 8, 1874.— Wm. A. Chapin, Liverpool ; died in 1881. James Willoiighby Phillips, Syracuse ; removed to Philadelphia in 1876. lanuary 26, 1S75.— John F. I'lace, Syracuse; removed to Madison county in 1879. Amos S. Kdwards. Syracuse. Horace F. Hatch. Syracuse ; died September 2, 1876. lune 8, 1875.— II. 1>. Hunt, Spafford ; removed to Cortland county. Abel C. licnedict, Syra- cuse. September, 1S75.— Krastus I!. Phillips, Syracuse; died in 18S8. January 25, 1876.— C. M. Trenchard, Syracuse ; removed to Philadelphia. Edgar C. Skinner, Helle Island. April II, 1S76.— Edwin G. Push, Syracuse. H C. Crowell, East Syracuse ; left the State in 1S81. June 13, 1876.— Sumner Rhoades, Syracuse ; died June 20, 1S77. Anthony B. Magee, Syra- cuse ; removed to Massachusetts, 1879. January 30, 1S77.— C. O. Baker, Elbridge ; removed to Auburn, 1883. April 10, 1877. — George R. Metcalf, Syracuse ; removed to New York in 1882. June 12. 1S77.— John S. Marshall. Syracuse; removed to Chicago. David M. Totman, Syra- cuse. September 25, 1877. — Edwin R. Maxson, Syracuse. January 29, 187S. — John \V. Brown, Mottville. U. Higgins Brown, Syracuse. Joel ('.. Jus- tin, Syracuse. April 9. 1878. — Margaret Stanton, Syracuse. June iS, 1878. — .\lfred Clifford Mercer, Syracuse. September 10, 1878. — Robert Aberdein, Syracuse. Horace D. Babcock, Syracuse. lanuary 28, 1879. — Nathan Jacobson, Syracuse. Garrison Lee Brown, Baldwinsville ; removed to Euclid. Carrie A. Hatch, Syracuse. April 8, 1S79.— George .\. Edwards, Syracuse. Henry L. Eisner, Syracuse. Henry \V. Post, Marcellus; removed to Springfield, Mass. C. E. Billington, Manilas. September 16, 1S79.— J. A. M'Loughlin, Syracuse ; removed to New York in 1881. January 27, 1880. — G. \V. Sargent, .Skaneateles ; removed to Cayuga county. June S, 1880. — J. H. Coe, Syracuse. Charles E. Slocum, Syracuse ; left the city in 1882. June 14, 1881.— M. G. Rood, Onondaga Hill. September 13, 1881. — Susan J. Taber, Skaneateles ; removed to Pennsylvania. April iS, 1882. — N. Wilbur, Fayetteville. June 12, 1882.— John W. Fry, Syracuse. January 30, 1883. — F. H. Stevenson, Syracuse. John Lorenzo Heffron, Syracuse. April 24, 1SS3. — L. P. Deming, Syracuse. II. I'.lair IVazee, Elbridge. Leonard A. Saxer, Syracuse. September 11, 1SS3. — B. F. Chase, East Syracuse. Charies F. Wright, Syracuse. January 29, 1884. — F. O'Donohue, Syracuse. H. B. Wright, Skaneateles. Gaylord P. Clark, Syracuse. Wm. H. Maynard, South Onondaga; moved to Syracuse. April 22, 1884. — Albert A. Aldrich, Onondaga ; removed to Addison. F. W Smith, Syracuse. January 27, 1885. — Cieorge Bloomer, Syracuse, Samuel G. Ellis, Syracuse. June 16, 1885. — A. B. Miller, Geddes. Leon Owen, Syracuse. September 8, 1885. — A. B. Randall, Liverpool. June 8, 1886. — R. C. Hanchett, Syracuse. September 14, 18S6. — E. S. Sampson, Plank Road. C. S. Roberts, Syracuse. January 25, 1887. — E. S. Maxson, Syracuse. April 12, 1887. — Emory A. Didama, Syracuse ; removed to Cortland. September 13, 1887. — E. I.. Mooney, Syracuse. B. P. Wright, Syracuse. Wm. J. Ayling, Syracuse. January 31, 1888. — Fred W. Slocum, Camillus. Dwight H. Murray, Syracuse. June 12, 1888. — Roderick C. McLennan, Syracuse. Frederick W. Sears, Syracuse. II. II. Pease, Syracuse. Earll W. Smith, Syracuse. 462 Memorial History of Syracuse. January 2g, 1889. — Clara Smith, Syracuse. April 16, i88(). — David Gilliland, Marcellus. George M. Price, Syracuse. William B. ]'>re(.d, Syracuse. January 29, 1SS9. — F. \V. Marlow, Syracuse. June 12, 1S89. — R. A. Whitney, Liverpool. September 8, 1S85. — James O. Longstreet, LaFayctte. THE SYRACUSE MEDICAL ASSOCIATION'. This As.sociation was organized on the evening of January 24th, 1866, at the house of R. W. Pease. Dr. Pease was chosen president, and Dr. I. H. Searl, Secretary. A Constitution and By-Laws were adopted, providing among other things, that any person qualified to practice medicine in the State of New York might become a member of the Association ; that the regular meetings should be held on the first and third Tuesday evenings of every month from the first of October to the first of April, and once each of the other months of the year; that medical students would be welcome at all meetings and might take part in its discussions ; that charges against members should be presented in writing, and other ordinary regulations governing similar organizations. Following is a list of physicians who have joined the Association from the date of its organization to the present (1S90), with the dates when the most of them became members : 1866. — A. B. Shipman, L. I. Tefft. James Eoran, Henry Darwin Diilama, R. \V. Pease, M.D. Benedict, \V. Kempster, J. A. Mowris, \V. A. Bennett, Henry Crouse, 1. II. Searl, Alfred Mercer, George W. Cook, J. R. Dunlap, I. O. Burt, \V. \Y. Porter. 1868 —J. \V. Lawton, A. J. Dallas, J. F. Trowbridge. i86g. — William T. Plant, S. B. Gay, .^L B. Fairchild, Ely Yan de Warker, Gregory Doyle. 1870. — N. C. Powers. 1871. — M. M. McDonald, E. S. Mumford, D. Terry, Cliarles IL Riclimimd, A. D. Feltcr, Henry Laning. 1872.— Frank H. Butler. 1873. — Elisha George, Lucius Stevens. 1874. — Arthur L. Hall, J. Wiltsey Knapp, John Yan Duyn, Edward B. Stevens, W. R. Johnson. 1875. — Horace F. Hatch, Amos S. Edwards, C. W. Morse. 1876. — Sumner Rhoades, L. F. Weaver, E. R. Maxson, George R. Metcalf, John S. Marshall. 1879. — Brace W. Loomis, Margaret Stanton, D. M. Tallman, Nathan Jacobson, Henry L. Eisner, A. C. Benedict. A. F. Yadcboncoeur, George C. F'dwards. 1880. — Morris H. Conner, Henry GifTord, Jr., U. H. Brown, Jerome H. Coe, Carrie .'\. Hatch. 1881. — Charles E. Slocum, A. Clifford Mercer. 1882. — Leonard A. Saxer, Samuel (J. I*)llis, William Davis. F. W. Smith, C. L. Roberts 1883. — F. A. Stephenson, Miller E. Dann, Lewis P. Deming, John Lorenzo Heffron, Judson J. Taylor, Mar)- W. Case, W. H. Mills. 1884.— William J. Ayling. A. I). Head. 1885.— F. W. Marlow, O. A. Thomas, R. C. Hanchett. 1886. — Arthur B. Breese, George R. Kinney, J. J. Moore, Emory A. Didama, Edwin S. Max- son, John W. Whitney, William B. Breed, Fred W. Sears. W, IL Maynard, lames I.. Jarvis, II. D. Murray. 1887.— Scott Owen, Earll W. Smith, A. B. Miller, Julia E. Ilanchelt, ]!. P. Wright, F. O'Donohue, Daniel .McNamara, <-'liarles Wright, E. L. Mooney. List m- :\Ikmi!i;ks. 463 1888. — Emma A. Rimnion, Franklin John Kaufman. l8Sq.— C;. M. Trice, T. II. llalstead, Joseph C. Roth, Ceorge \V. Draper. i8qo. — Katharine .-V. Hathaway. The records of the transactions of this Association, from the date of its organization to 1875, are not in existence as far as we have been able to learn, but during that period meetings were held with commendable regu- larity and were, in the main, fairly attended. An election of officers occurred at a meeting held at the residence of Dr. M. D. Benedict on the 29th of December, 1874, resulting as follows ; Dr. Gregory Doyle, Presi- dent : Dr. E. B. Stevens, Vice-President : Dr. George W. Cook, Treasurer ; Dr. Frank H. Butler, Secretary. Dr. M. B. Fairchild had hekl the office of president during the period just preceding this meeting, and read on this occasion an interesting paper on " Ventilation." During the year 1875 t^''^ small pox raged in Syracuse, causing a great many deaths. The disease was finally crushed out bj' prompt measures on the part of the Board of Health and the physicians of the city. A little conflict between the board and the physicians occurred in 1877, over the fact that four of the members of the association were sued for false impris- onment, the suit being based upon the shutting up of a patient in the pest house, and a verdict of $500 was obtained against one of the defendants. The physicians protested strongly in a series of resolutions against this proceeding, and being " thus liable to be dragged into court by the caprice and venality of every aggrieved person upon real or imaginary wrongs." One of the resolutions in its entirety follows: ResoheJ, That inasmuch as the city t>y its charter, and by the rules and regulations of its Board of Health, make it incumbent upon all physicians to report at once, any and every case of infectious or pestilential disease occurring in their practice ; and, inasmuch as the pubhc demand of and rely upon the medical profession in times of such dire distress, for aid, comfort and protection, we hereby, as members of the medical profession, protest against being liable to be dragged into court by the caprice and venality of every aggrieved person, upon real or imaginary grounds, and we respectfully petition the city authorities to either defend us in these causeless prosecutions with the odium, dan- ger and expense of time and money attending them, or repeal that portion of the charter alluded to, that we may be forearmed by being forewarnetl. In this connection it was also Resolvtil, That in the small pox epidemic and its attendant evils of danger, panic, suffering and prostration of business, of the year 1875, the medical profession, seconded and upheld by the strong arm of the law, was the only competent and effectual instrument in staying the scourge and restoring the health and business of our city to its accustomed channels. At the election for 1876, Dr. E. B. Stevens was chosen president; Dr. K. H. Butler, Vice-President; Dr. E. S. Mumford, Secretary; Dr. A. S. Hall, Treasurer. Arrangements were made at this meeting for holding fu- ture meetings in the building of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the University. 464 Memorial History of Syracuse. Officers elected for 1877 were Dr. F. H. Butler, President; Dr. E. S. Mumford, Vice-President ; Dr. J. S. Marshall, Secretary and Treasurer. At the meeting held April 17, of this year, Drs. Metcalf, E. S. Mumford, and J. S. Marshall were elected delegates to the meeting of the Central New York Medical Society. Dr. G. W. Cook read an able and exhaustive paper on the sanitary condition of the city schools at the meeting of May 29, 1877. This paper was the outcome of the thorough investigation of the condition of the school buildings by a committee of physicians. The paper was published and resulted in considerable improvement in the sanitary ar- rangements of several of the schools. At the meeting of December 15, 1877, the following officers were elected for 1878: Dr. E. S. Mumford, President; Dr. John Van Duyn, Vice-Pres- ident ; Dr. J. S. Marshall, Secretary and Treasurer. There are no records of meetings held from April 2, 1878, to February II, 1879, on which date the following officers were elected : Dr. John Van Duyn, President ; Dr. George E. Metcalf, Vice-President ; Dr. Nathan Jacobson, Secretary and Treasurer. After this date the meetings of the as- sociation were generally held at residences of the members. The ne.xt meeting, according to the records, was held January 21, 1880. Dr. Van Duyn continued as President, and Dr. Jacobson as Secretary and Treasurer. At a meeting held in the following spring, the President con- gratulated the association on the general success and attendance during the preceding winter. At the meeting of December 21, 1880, the following officers were elected for 1881 : Dr. George R. Metcalf, President ; Dr. Ely Van de Warker, Vice-President ; Dr. Nathan Jacobson, Secretary and Treasurer. At the meeting of January 4, Dr. Alfred Mercer read an address which had prev- iously been presented to the Common Council, embodying the mortuary statistics of the three preceding years, with tables showing the location of deaths, the favorite months for certain diseases, ages selected, etc. It was shown that twenty per cent, of deaths occur from phthisis. The entire per- centage of deaths was about thirteen per thousand of population. Dr. Lucius Stevens was elected President of the association in 1882 and Dr. Jacobson continued as Secretary and Treasurer. At the meeting of January 3, the retiring President, Dr. Metcalf, read a paper treating upon the subject of the proper requirements of the society, the demands it should make upon its members, the methods to secure its reformation and elevate it to a high standard. At the meeting of December 1 9th, 1 882, the following officers were elected for the succeeding year : Dr. A. C. Mercer. President : Dr. Jerome H. Coe, Vice-president: Dr. N. Jacobson, Secretary and Treasurer. Officers for 1884 were: Dr. Jerome H. Coe, President ; Dr. H. L. Eisner, Vice-President ; Dr. W. H. Mills, Secretary and Treasurer. 6^^^^?^^^^^ L^^^^^dTZ^^^tTz^^.-c..^^^ Action on the Water Question. 465 At the meeting held on February 26th, 1884, at the residence of Dr. H. D. Didama, Dr. A. C. Mercer read an able paper on "The Theory of Microscopic Vision." Officers elected for 1885 at the meeting of January 20th, were as follows: Dr. H. L. ELsner, President ; and Dr. Heffron, Vice- president. Dr. F. W. Marlow, Secretary and Treasurer. A special meeting was held January Sth, at which action was taken on the death of Dr. M. D. Benedict. At a meeting held in January, Dr. VanDuyn presented a map of a large portion of the city, with marks showing the location of deaths from 1879 to 18S4, inclusive, different kinds of marks indicating the character of the dis- ease causing the death, and accompanied by an explanatory paper. This map, with the text of the paper, was engraved and printed in the Syracuse Herald, and was most favorably received, not only by the physicians of the city, but by the city authorities and the community. At the meeting of January 5th, 1886, the following officers were elected : Dr. J. L. Heffron, President; Dr. D. Totman, Vice-president; Dr. \V. J. Ayling, Secretary and Treasurer. Early in this year the Association opened up a discussion of the question of city water supply, which was participated in by several members and undoubtedly contributed its share towards subse- quent agitation that seems now to have nearly accomplished the object of giving to Syracuse an ample supply of pure water. A special meeting was held on April 24th at the College of Medicine, where this important topic again received a free discussion, and the following resolution was adopted : Resolved, That the health of our citizens is jcdpardi/.ed by offensive and noxious and unflushed sewers and by the use of drinking water drawn from contaminated wells and all wells in crowded cities are likely to be contaminated, by sewage and liltrations from stables and out houses, and believ- ing also that an abundant supply of good water is essential to prevent sickness, to protect property and to promote the prosperity of the city, and believing, furthermore, that Skaneateles lake is the best available source whence such supply can be obtained, the Syracuse Medical Association earnestly adWses our citizens to vote on the 4th of June that this Skaneateles lake water, the best for the peo- ple, should be procured by the people and owned by the people of the city. Officers elected for 1887 at a meeting held December 21st, 1886, were as follows : Dr. D. Totman, President ; Dr. F. H. Stevenson, Vice-president • Dr. W. J. Ayling, Secretary and Treasurer. The retiring president read an address on " Choleslithiases." The officers elected for 1888 were : Dr. D. Totman, re-elected President; Dr. F. W. Stevenson, Vice-president; Dr. L. P. Deming, Secretary a nd Treasurer. Early in the year the care of the insane occupied the attention of the society and the subject was fully discussed in all of its features, particularly the proposed legislation by the State. In connection with the subject the following resolution was adopted : Resolved, That our Representatives in the Legislature be requested to secure, if possible, to Onondaga county the option for three years, to proWde for its own indigent and pauper insane and 59 466 Memorial History oi' Syracuse. be exempt from the provision of the proposed legislation in regard to district insane asylums in the State. During the period covered by the foregoing records there occurred the deaths of Drs. N. C. Powers, Arthur S. Hall, Sumner Rhoades, Lucius Stevens, M. D. Benedict, W. \V. Porter, A. B. Shipman, James F"oran, R. W. Pease, Henry Crouse, J. W. Lawton, Horace F. Hatch, (of small pox in 1875) D. Terry, Elisha T. George, J. F. Trowbridge. Brief sketches of the professional careers of some of these will be found a little further on. Among the important papers read before this Society, by its members, were the following: " New Remedies," by Dr. Mumford, January 25, 1876. "Code of Medical Ethics," by Dr. Plant, April 4, 1876. "Cases of Puer- peral Convulsions," Dr. Alfred Mercer, May 18, 1876. " Typhoid Fever," Dr. Didama, May 21, 1876. " Diphtheria," Dr. VanDuyn, December 12, 1876. "Thrombosis," Dr. Alfred Mercer, December 26, 1876. "Pathology of Uterine Flexions," Dr. Van de Warker, January 23, 1877. "Shoulder and other mal transverse Presentations," Dr. A. Mercer, February 6, 1877. "Digitalis in Heart and Kidney Diseases," Dr. Didama, March 20, 1877. " Hygienic and Sanitary condition of our schools," Dr. G. W. Cook. May 29, 1877. " Quinine as an Antiseptic," D. Metcalf, November 27, 1877. " Diphtheria," Dr. Maxson, December 15, 1877, and " Paralysis," January 21, 1880. "The Sulphate of Copper in Croup," Dr. Cook, January 15, 1878. " The Teeth of the present Generation," Dr. J. S. Marshall, March 19, 1878. "Pure and impure waters," Dr. Englehardt, March 11, 1879. " Enlarged Tonsils," Dr. Coe, January 18, 1881. " My.xodema," Dr. A. C. Mercer, February 15, 1881. " Ergot in Labor," Dr. Alfred Mercer, Decem- ber 19, 1882. "Prevention of the Spread of Disease," Dr. Didama, Febru- ary 13, 1883. "A Fatal Case of Mastoid Abscess," Dr. U. H. Brown, March 6, 1883. " Mental Therapeutics in General Practice," Dr. Coe, Nov- ember 25, 18S4. " Tonsilitis," Dr. N. Jacobson. " Hysteric Paralysis," Dr. Eisner, January 19, 1886. "Infantile Diarrhoea," Dr. Mills, October 19, 1886. "Pathology of Diabetes," Dr. Stephenson, November 2, 1886. "Prophylaxis of Typhoid Fever," Dr. Roberts, November 23, 1886. "An- tiseptic Surgery," Dr. Totman, December 7, 1886. "The Artificial Drum- nead," Dr. U. H. Brown, February i, 1887. "Care of the Insane," Dr. A. C. Benedict, February2i, 1888. "Intestinal Obstruction," Dr. Mills, March 20, 1888. "Spasmodic Asthma," Dr. Babcock, November 20, 1888. "Cat- aract Operation without Iridectomy," Dr. Brown, October 22, 1889. BIOGRAPHICAL. Ur. Jehiel Stearns was born in Rockingham, Vt., February 6th, 1790. He graduated from the Medical College at Dartmouth in 1811 with BliiCRAnilCAL Skeiciiks. 4'37 high honors and was a surgeon in the army in the war of i8i2. He re- moved to Tompey in 1815, and in the following year became a member of the Onondaga County Medical Society, in which he was often called to official positions. He became particularly distinguished as a surgeon and performed many of the most difficult operations. " He was thoroughly up- right in his profession, scorning all tricks and sham and pretence, which never secure distinction, though it might obtain notoriety." He died Octo- ber Sth, 1879. Dr. L.xke I. Tekft was born in Greenwich, Washington county, N. v., on the i6th day of March, 1797. He gained his education and his medi- cal diploma in his native town and in 1823 located in Marcellus, where he continued in the active practice of his profession until about 1850. At this time he gave up his profession to a large degree, and devoted his attention to agricultural pursuits, for which he possessed an ardent taste and broad knowledge. In 1876 he was a delegate to the International Medical Con- vention during the centennial and actively participated in its work. Re- turning to Syracuse, which had been his home since 1863, his health began to fail and gradually declined until his decease. Dr. Tefft was often honored with positions of trust and responsibility unsought by himself ; he was elected to the Assembly in 1845, and enjoyed the confidence of his colleagues. He died at the home of his son-in-law, Hon. George N. Kennedy, in May, 1880. Dr. Darwin E. Hurd was born in Sharon, Conn., in 1813 and was the son of an eminent physician, with whom he studied his profession. He graduated at Pittsfield, Mass., in 1834 and settled in Canastota, where he practiced several years. About the year 1S50 he removed to Fayetteville and there spent the remainder of his life. He was a successful physician and became quite prominent in local politics ; but always refu.sed to accept office. As a citizen and a friend Dr. Hurd is spoken of as one of the best. He died on the 24th of October, 1873. Dr. James Foran was born in the County Kilkenny, Ireland, in 1807, where he received a good education and began business life in the calling of a merchant. But his natural taste for the healing art soon attracted him to the medical profession. He came to America in 1825, full of his purpo.se to become a physician, and reached Albany where he had a distant relative and other friends. He there found a position as teacher in a female semi- nary, giving up all his leisure to his now favorite study, under the guidance of Dr. Hinckley. At the end of three years he removed to Canastota, where he continued teaching and studied under Dr. Spencer. In 1833 he came to Salina and gave up two more full years to patient study before as- suming the responsibilities of active practice. In 1834 he received a license 468 Memorial History of Syracuse. from the State Medical Society and opened an office in Salina. In 1837 he became a member of the County Medical Society and was its president in 1859. In 1844 he removed to Syracuse, where he remained to the time of his death. He was terribly injured in the gunpowder explosion of 1841, but finally recovered. About six years before his death, he was poisoned while treating a patient, by a discharge reaching the blood through an abra- sion on his hand, which soon affected his brain and wrecked his mental powers. During one of his frequent periods of insanity, on the loth of December, 1873, he was drowned in Onondaga creek. It has been written of Dr. Foran that "in the practice of obstetrics he was recognized as sec- ond to none in Central New York. Many of our city's best physicians gratefully acknowledge his many valuable and practical suggestions." Dr. W. W. Porter was born in Fayston, Washington county, July 24, 1826. At the age of 22 he entered the office of Dr. G. M. Brigham, of Waitsfield, Vt., and studied medicine summers and taught school winters about two years, when he entered the Medical College at Woodstock, Vt. He continued there one term and followed it with two terms in the College at Castlcton, Vt., graduating in the fall of 1851. In that year he came to Syracuse and entered the office of Dr. Hiram Hoyt. In May, 1852, he accepted the position of principal teacher of the Ged- des school, remaining one year. He then opened an office there and began practice, which he continued with increasing success during his life. In 1875 he opened an office in Syracuse and occupied it in connection with his Geddes office. On the opening of the Medical College in connection with the University, in 1872, Dr. Porter was calledClinical Professor of Obstet- rics and Gynecology, and one year later was given the chair of that pro- fessorship. Dr. Porter was a man of remarkable perseverance and untiring industry which, with his capacity for labor and his laudable ambition, en- abled him to succeed in his profession and secure the confidence of the comtnunity. Dr. John F. Trowbridce was born in Columbia county July 21, 1791. His education was obtained in common schools and at Hudson and Kinder- hook, N. Y., and when about fifteen years old he worked for three years in a store in Johnstown. At eighteen he entered the office of Dr. Prigsley, of Ghent, N. Y., and graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1812. In the spring of 1813 he went to New Hartford, N. Y., where Gen. Jacob Brown offered him a position as surgeon in the army, but which he was forced to decline on account of the political prejudices of relatives. In 181 3 he began practice in Bridgewater, Oneida county, where he contin- ued thirty years. In 1830 and 1839 he was elected to the Assembly, and in 1836 was nominated for Congress, but declined and soon afterward re- RiOGRAriiicAi, Sketches. 469 nounced politics. In 1843 ^^ came to Syracuse where he enjoyed a consid- erable practice and the confidence and respect of the community until his death. He was stricken with paralysis in October, 1 8; i , and died on the 18th of February, 1872. Dr. Jos. W. Brewster was born at Lebanon, Conn., F"ebruary 23, 1764. and died at Onondaga Valley September 4, 1849, in the 86th year of his age. He gained his early education in the common schools and under private instruction from a clergymen of his parish. At the age of about sixteen he joined the revolutionary army and was present at the surrender of Cornwallis. October 19, 1781. After this event he returned home and soon began the study of medicine with his brother, Oliver Brewster, then practicing in Becket, Mass. Concluding his studies he removed to Blan- ford and began practicing at the age of 21 years. In 1805 he removed to Chatham, Columbia county, N. Y., where he met with excellent success. In the spring of 1818 he came to Onondaga Valley, where he gained not only a large measure of professional success, but the confidence and esteem of the community. It is the verdict of those who should know, that Dr. Brewster's studious habits, his natural ability and fitness for his calling, and his industry, entitled him to high rank among his brethren. Dr. Mather Williams was born in Canaan, Columbia county, N. Y., February 3, 1799. He attended the district and select schools for his early education, and later gave a year or two to the Collegiate Institute at Great Barrington, Mass. When about nineteen years of age he entered the office of Dr. Robert G. Frary, of Canaan. Dr. Frary soon removed to Hudson and was accompanied by his student who remained with him until his stud- ies were completed, excepting the time devoted to lectures in New York. He practiced less than a year in the eastern part of Massachusetts, but found that the place was "too old for a young man without much means and no friends. " He started westward on the canal in the summer of 1825, and went as far as Buffalo, but returned to Syracuse as a more promising place and remained here until his death. He at first opened his office over General Granger's store and boarded with him. Later he was on East Gen- esee street, near the Syracuse House. Dr. Williams found work to do, for the little village was notoriouslj- unhealthful, and he soon acquired a large practice. He also dealt some in real estate and in drugs and by the exer- cise of his unusual financial judgment, became quite wealthy. For many years he enjoyed a large practice, much of which was among the more aris- tocratic people of the place. It was stated by his biographer that "he was not, strictly speaking, a book doctor." He said that he could gain more real practical knowledge by treating one case of disease to a successful is- sue, than by reading half a dozen treatises on the subject. "He was a 470 Memorial History of Syracuse. close observer of the ethics of his profession, and while very stately, if not even pompous, in his demeanor, was still courteous and gentlemanly at all times." His first wife was the second daughter of Judge Forman, Dr. Williams died in 1869. Dr. Isaac Newton VanSlyke was born in Genesee county, N. V., in 1819, and died in Burlington, N. J., April 15, 1869. He acquired the foundation of a good education in the common schools by hard studj', and followed teaching a portion of several j-ears. When 22 years old he began the study of medicine and graduated at Pittsfield, Mass., three years later. He began practice in Mottville, this county, and afterwards removed to Cicero. His health showing signs of failing he removed in 1858 to the pine forests of Wisconsin and in that State remained several years, attaining an honorable standing. But his lungs were weak and finally after he had re- moved to Burlington, N. J., in quest of a milder climate, gave way to the ravages of consumption. Dr. VanSlyke was only for a short period a resi- dent of Syracuse, but was closely identified with the County Medical Soci- ety. "He possessed a mind peculiarly adapted to his profession * * his rare judgment rendered hini a successful practitioner and counselor." Dr. Azariah B. Shipmax, son of Daniel Shipman, an intelligent farmer of Saybrook, Conn., was born in Roxbury, Conn., on the 22d of March, 1803. He was one of five brothers, all of whom were physicians. Soon after his birth, the family moved to Pitcher, Chenango county, N. Y. The boy enjoyed only meager district school advantages during winter months, until after his father's death in November, 1820. The young man was de- termined to fit himself for a profession and to that end labored at whatever he could in summers, taught school winters and studied all the time when- ever he found a spare hour. In 1822, when nineteen years old he went to Delphi and began studying medicine in his elder brother's office. He made rapid progress and in the winter of 1825 attended a course of lectures at Castleton, Vt. In the fall of 1826 he married Emily Clark, step-daughter of Richard Taylor. In September, 1829, he removed to Fayetteville, Onondaga county, and soon enjoyed a large practice, and was more than ordinarily successful in treating disease. During the cholera epi- demic of 1832 he attended many cases and made a special study of the scourge. In the winter of 1832-3 he attended lectures at the University of Pennsylvania and also the anatomical demonstrations at the Jefferson Med- ical College, thus laying the foundation for his later reputation as a surgeon. In the spring of 1S33 he located in Cortland, N. Y., and here in a few years attained more than local celebrity, especially in difficult surgical operations. His biographer says of him : " Popular as a surgeon, he was scarcely less so as a physician." Indeed, he came to be generally regarded as a fortu- HioGRAriiKAi, Skktciii:s. 471 nate practitioner, and so great was the confidence reposed in him that an ap- peal was rarely made from his judgment. Nor was he without many warm friends in the profession. In 1844, his reputation as a surgeon and his frequent contributions to medical literature having made him generally known to the public, Dr. Shipman was, without solicitation on his own part, appointed Professor of Anatomy in the medical department of the University of Laporte, Ind. In the following year he was appointed to the chair of surgery and re- mained there five years. In 1S49 he came to Syracuse, in quest of a wider field of work, and "at once took a high rank among his professional breth- ren." His biographer says of his labors here : "I believe I am justified in saying, that during the last fifteen years, he performed as great a number and variety of operations as any surgeon in Western New York." Dr. Shipman entered the army early in the last war as surgeon of the 17th regiment New York volunteers. In March, 1862, he was promoted to brigade surgeon and placed in charge of a hospital at Newport News. In the winter of 1863 he resigned and returned to Syracuse. He, however, accepted the appointment on the list of reserve surgeons, and was soon or- dered back to the service where he remained until failing health prompted his return. " Ruined in health and depressed in spirits, he came home to terminate his career just at that period of life which usually marks the full vigor of ripened manhood." He gradually declined practice until the spring of 1868, when, on the 23d of March, he sailed for Europe with his wife. After considerable travel on the continent, he returned to Paris, and was soon confined to his room, and on the 15th of September, 1868, he passed from earth. Dr. Shipman is further quite enthusiastically eulogized by his biogra- pher. He was for many years a member of the New York State Medical Society, having several times represented the Onondaga County Society in that body, and was four times a delegate to the American Medical Associ- ation. He was also an honorary member of several scientific and historical societies. Though almost exclusively devoted to his practice, he was a fre- quent contributor to the principal medical journals. Dr. John O. Siiipman was born in Roxbury. Conn., in iSo5,and died in Syracuse September 24th, 1866, of cholera. He belonged to a family in which were seven sons, all of whom became physicians, and some of them very eminent. When the subject of this notice was three years old, his father removed to Chenango county, N. Y., where the boy received a com- mon school education and afterwards studied medicine with his elder brother, P. G. Shipman. He also studied in the offices and under the teachings of several other practitioners, and in 1828 was licensed by the Onondaga County Medical Society. He began practice in Manlius, where he was very 472 Memorial History of Syracuse. successful, his eminent brother, Dr. A. B. Shipman, being at the same time in Fayetteville. When the latter removed. Dr. John O. Shipman went to that village, where his reputation was already established. From there he soon afterward went to Georgia as physician of a large company who were to build a railroad in that State. He remained there six or seven years and then returned to Fayetteville, where he continued to practice until 1855, when he came to Syracuse and entered the office of his brother, Dr. A. B. Shipman. A brother physician has written of Dr. Shipman as follows : "From what I know of him, I should say he was not what would be called a very learned physician, but drew largely for his success on his good strong com- mon sense, and his close powers of observation, connected with his peculiar tact of gleaning from every source, practical knowledge, and appropriating it to his use." Dr. Samuel Healy was a native of Washington county, N. Y., and was born about the year 1786. As usual with the young at that time he was limited to the district school as a source of education. He, however, so improved his opportunities that he was employed as a school teacher, which honored calling he followed several years. While thus engaged in Balston, N. Y., he made the acquaintance of Dr. John H. Steel, of Saratoga Springs, and upon his advice and that of a brother-in-law, who was a phy- sician in Rochester, Dr. Ilealy began the study of medicine, dividing his time for a few years between those two physicians. Almo.st destitute of means at the close of his legal term of study, he started for New York, de- termined in some way to attend a course of lectures in the New York Col- lege of Physicians and Surgeons. This would have proved an impossible ambition, but for aid extended to him by his friend, Dr. Steel, who then held a position in Fort Gansevoort on the medical staff. Dr. Steel for- tunately secured a position for his young friend, which yielded him support while he attended lectures. In the following spring, Dr. Steel being called elsewhere, Dr. Healy returned to Saratoga and was licensed to practice by the County Medical Society. In 1815, he, in company with Dr. Mann, came to Onondaga Hill, where they began practice in partnership. Dr. Mann soon withdrew and Dr. Healy continued alone. It has been written by one of his professional brethren, that from a date soon after this, for twenty years, probably no man in the profession ever enjoyed a more de- cidedly popular position in the county. His opinion in difficult cases was sought far and near. In 1834-5 he began to decline general practice. He subsequently made a tour in Europe and suffered from a dangerous attack of typhoid fever while in London. He died on the 16th of April, 1854. This tribute has been paid to him by one of his brethren : " It was in the sick room and at the bedside that Dr. Healy shone most Biographical Sketches. 473 conspicuously. Here his characteristic awkwardness and timidity seemed to leave him, and he stood forth the keen discriminator and eloquent ex- pounder of his well-digested opinions. * * Few men have been so suc- cessful in securing the entire confidence of the sick, and such unlimited con- trol over their acts and feelings." Dr. Horace F. Hatch was bom in Syracuse, June 30, 1849, ^"d died here September 2, 1S75. After his studies in the schools of the city he en- tered the local Business College at the age of seventeen and remained two years. He then went to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and took a three years' course, giving a part of his time to medical study, and especially to chemical and pharmaceutical work. At the end of his course he graduated in chemistry and pharmacy. Returning home he entered the oflfice of Dr. Teller, of Chittenango, and later began study in the Medical College of the University of Syracu.se, graduating in the class of 1874. He began practice in Syracuse in the of^ce of Dr. Benedict, but a little later opened an ofifice in the Second ward, where he remained until his death. In the small-pox epidemic of 1875, he fell a victim to his unselfish labors. "Dr. Hatch was a correct student and physician, an exemplary son and man, in all respects worthy of respect and admiration." David Albert Moore, M. D., came to Syracu.se in the year 1848, before the city was incorporated. He had studied medicine and surgery with Josiah Nolton, M. D., of Cazenovia, and attended the Medical College at Albany, under Drs. March, Armsby, McNaughton and Beck. He became a Doctor of Medicine and opened an ofifice in Cazenovia in company with his former preceptor, with whom he had a large and successful practice for several years. Here Dr. H. D. Didama, who has since become eminent in the pro- fession, was for a long time his student and assistant. Tempted by the great and prospective growth of Syracuse, he removed to this place, started a medical office, and afterward entered also into an extensive drug busi- ness, running several stores at the same time. He was a cotemporary of Drs. Foote, Davis, Stewart, Samson and Hoyt. At length, by the pressure of other work, he was gradually led outside of the practice of medicine. As evidence of his honored standing in his profession, in the year 1877, the officers and Faculty of Syracuse University conferred on him the honorary degree of M. D., by which he was made an alumnus of that institution. Dr. Moore was also one of the pioneers of life insurance in this city, and took the lead^ at an early day, to render this business extensive and honorable. When the New York State Life Insurance Company was incorporated, he was unanimously chosen, for three years, as general agent and manager of the institution. After that period, he was elected president of the same, at four successive annual meetings, by such men as Hon. E. B. Judson, E. T. Longstreet, D. P. Phelps, R. N. Gere, George Barnes, G. P. Kenyon and 60 474 Me.murial History of Syracuse. General Peck. The company uniformly prospered under his management. Dr. Moore is a fluent and graceful writer and has contributed two or three volumes and much good literary matter of various kinds to the press. He is now " in the sere and yellow leaf," but his life has been an active and honorable one. He was married to Miss Cornelia A. Carpenter, of Caze- novia, in 1844, but has been a widower since 1876. Although not the first dentist to locate in Syracuse, Dr. Amos West- cott was one of the most successful followers of that profession, not only of this city, but of the country. He was born in Newport, Herkimer county, April 28, 181 5, and his boyhood and early manhood was passed in obtaining an education and in teaching. At the Rensselaer Institute, of Troy, he graduated as civil engineer and took the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1835. In 1836 and 1837 he taught in the Fompey Academy, at the same time studying medicine with Dr. Stearns. Immediately after- wards he attended medical lectures at the Geneva College and the Albany Medical College, graduating in the spring of 1840. In the following year he came to Syracuse and here passed the remainder of his life. Heat once took up the study of dentistry and thenceforth devoted the most untiring industry, perseverance and intense study to that profession. The result was that he soon stood in the very front rank of operative dentists and gained almost a national reputation. He was connected with a dental college of Baltimore, aided in founding the New York State Dental Society and was made associate editor of the Dental Science. His arduous labors under- mined his health and in 1871 he spent several months in Europe, but with no permanent benefit. His broken health affected his mind, and in a pe- riod of despondency he committed suicide in 1873. Dr. VVestcott was, out- side of his profession, a man of broad knowledge and progressive spirit, and always evinced a lively interest in current affairs. He was Mayor of Syracuse in i860 and accomplished much for the general good of the city.* THE HOM(£OrATlIIC PROFESSION'. Homceopathy has for many years held an important place in the history of this community, in its medical aspect. Although Syracuse was not, in its earliest days, the home of regular practitioners of this faith, its represen- tatives, who ultimately cast their lot here, laid a strong foundation on which is based a powerful and enduring clientele. In the list of Onondaga county's homocopathists may be found the names of strong men ; men of recognized ability and of high standing; men who were honored and beloved. Here, as elsewhere, the younger school of medicine has, thus far, been in the-mi- nority, but it has proved itself an active one. ♦Further sketches of prominent physicians will be found in the department devoted to biography in later pages. c^^^-^-,^ The Homu-.oi'ATIiic Pkokessiox. 475 The pioneer of homccopathy, in this county, was Dr. H. H. Cator, who came to this city in 1846, locating his office opposite the old packet-landing. Ur. Cator, together with a partner, had formerly practiced old school med- icine at Moravia, N. Y. The cure of an intractable malady of Dr. Cator's wife, by Dr. Robinson, a honnuopathist of Auburn, occasioned the adop- tion, by Dr. Cator, of the practice of the new school. This led to the rup- ture of the partnership and Dr. Cator's withdrawal. The ne.xt to adopt hom(L-opathy were Drs. Lyman Clary and ■ Richardson, both of whom had been old .school physicians. In or near the year 1850, three prominent old-school practitioners, Drs. Clary, Richardson and Hoyt, constituted a committee to investigate homcLopathy. l^ooks and medicines were pur- chased for use in the tests, the clinical, or practical portion of which was placed in charge of Drs. Clary and Richardson, while Dr. Hoyt conducted the theoretical work. The result was that Drs. Clary and Richardson form- ulated so favorable a report of the new practice that they were refused a hearing by their colleagues. These two physicians became and continued homceopathists during the remainder of their lives. Shortly afterwards, Dr. Stephen Seward, then at Liverpool, cautiously investigated and finally adopted this practice. Next came Dr. Loomis. Other pioneers in homce- opthy were Drs. Charles Baker, of Fayetteville, and B. B. Schenck, of Plainville. Following them came to Syracuse Drs. A. R. Morgan, William Henry Hoyt, Theodore Y. Kinne, William A. Hawley, Jay W. Sheldon, H. V. Miller, j. G. Bigelow, Franklin Bigelow, and more recently, John Nottingham, A. B. Kinne, J. Willis Candee, and E. Olin Kinne. The Onondaga County Homceopathic Medical Society was organized in this city. December 3, 1863. Charter members were Drs. Lj-man Clary, William Henry Hoyt, J. G. Bigelow, William A. Hawley, Theo. Y. Kinne, R. D. Rhode-s, Charles Baker, H. V. Miller, and H. H. Cator. Its first meeting was held at the office of Dr. Clary. The first officers were : Pres- ident, Lyman Clary ; Vice-President, William Henry Hoyt ; Secretary and Treasurer, J. G. Bigelow; Censors, Clary, Hoyt and Hawley. Meetings were held at first annually, later semi-annually, then quarterly. The soci- ety now numbers thirty members. Its officers for the cnrrent year are : President, James Willis Candee ; Vice-President, Richard S. True ; Secre- tary and Treasurer, E. Elmer Keeler ; Censors, Seward, Brewster and A. B. Kinne. Meetings are held on the first Tuesday of each month, at the rooms of the Syracuse Homoeopathic Medical Association, 213 East Genesee street. The society, by activity in its own particular work, as well as in matters concerning the profession in general, has received recognition as a progres- sive body. The Central New York Homtcopathic Medical Society (not incorporated) composed of physicians of several counties, from Utica to Buffalo, has for 476 Memorial History of Syracuse. its object the stud}' of Hahnemannian Homceopathy ; especially of the Organan and the fundamental principles. IVleeetings are held quarterly, three of the four generally occurring in this city. The Syracuse Homoeopathic Medical Association, organized November 29, 1889, a body of resident physicians associated to further the interests of Homoeopathy, has officers as follows: President, Jay W. Sheldon, M. D.; Vice-President, S. L. Guild-Leggett, M. D.; Secretary and Treasurer, J. H. Hallock, M. D. Through this association the Syracuse Homoeopathic Free Dispensary was founded and is maintained. Plans for further public institutions are in progress by this organization. The Dispensary, at 213 East Genesee street, is open every week-day for gratuitous treatment of the worthy poor. It has, from the first, been conspicuously successful. The staff are: Drs. Leggett, Putnam, Flint, True, Schumacher, and DuBois, General Practice; Dr. Lukens, Diseases of the Skin; Dr. Keeler, Diseases of Eye, Ear, Throat and A^ose; Dr. Hallock, Diseases of PVowen; also Diseases of Bladder and Kidney; Dr. Sherwood, Surgery. CHAPTER XXIX. RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF SYRACUSE. First Religious Meetings in the Nicinity— Early Meetings at .Salina and Cieddes — Meetings in the Old School House — Organization of the First Baptist Church — Burning of the Church — Other Baptist Churches — Presbyterian Churches of Syracuse — Congregational Churches of Syracuse — Methodist Episcopal Churches of Syracuse — Protestant Episcopal Churches — Catholic Churches. The First Religious Organization in Syracuse. — Previous to the year 1821 there was no regularly organized religious society in any part of what is now Syracuse. Religious services were held, of course, long before that time, particularly in Salina, and probably in Geddes. They were certainly held in Liverpool at a very early day, for a church was organized there in 1820, which may have drawn to its doors some of the residents of Salina. A church organization has existed in the Valley since 1809 and one on the Hill since a few years earlier than that. Previous to the erection of churches, meetings were held in private houses and school-houses. We may accept it as evidence of the religious tendency of the little community ultimately named Syracuse that they effected a religious organization as early as 1821, while preaching was maintained in Geddes after 1822. The first school- house in Syracuse, as now constituted, was built in Salina in 1805; and another was erected at "the Corners" about the year 1821. In both of these buildings early religious services were held. The Syracuse school- First B.\rTisT Church. 477 house, of which a further account is given in another chapter, stood on Church street. Here all the religious meetings in the place were held for several years. In February, 1821, a little society of thirteen persons organized the First Baptist Church of Syracuse. Services liad been held with commend- able regularity for about two years previous, James R. Moore, Thomas Spencer and Samuel F.dwards being prominent in sustaining the gather- ings. Students from the Theological Seminary at Hamilton often con- ducted the services.* The meeting of the thirteen persons, held on the 1 2th of January, 1821, convened at the house of liraddick Dart and agreed to call a council of brethren of different denominations to advise with them in reference to forming the society. The names of the thirteen persons were as follows : David Johnson, James Wilson, Thomas Spencer, Alvin Walker. Rufus Cram, Benjamin G. Avery, Wyllys Brown, Braddick Dart, Polly Walker, Rhoda Wilson, Eliza Spencer, Hannah Fish and Sally Dart. The council was held in the school house on the i6th of February, and on the 17th the organization was perfected. There was no regular pastor of the society during the first year. Rev. J. G. Stearns preached regularly for about six months after his graduation at Hamilton, and in June, 1823, the society secured the services of the Rev. N. J. Gilbert, who had been appointed a missionary of the Hamilton Missionary Society. In June of the following year he became the regular pastor. The foundations of a new church were laid in the same year, on the site of the present Uni- versalist church edifice, on West Genesee street. It was a wooden struc- ture and was built by David Safford and a Mr. ]5icknell. When the sills were laid and a floor temporarily placed on them, the Rev. Mr. Gilbert stood forth before the people who had assembled to aid in the "raising" and made an earnest prayer that God would bless the effort in every good work. The Rev. Mr. Gilbert continued to labor faithfully with this church until 1832, in which year the Asiatic cholera swept over the country. The first person who died here of that scourge was a laborer living on Clinton *The Baptist Seminary at Hamilton offered to provide for preaching every Sunday in the school-house, on condition that those interested should furnish a horse and saddle which should become the property of the Seminary. Mr. James li. Moore had just bought a fine horse in exchange for sixty bushels of salt at one dollar per bushel. He was notified one day that this little religious society had voted that his horse had a providential call for this purpose ; he at once added his vote and the horse was sent to Hamilton. It was thought that Mr. Moore was a good, gener- ous Christi.in, for he was a strong Methodist and never a member of the Baptist society. This unsectarian and Christian act was characteristic of Mr. Moore. He spent what money he had in building up ihe pl.ice ; he w'as a good citizen, devoted to his wife and family, and for his good deeds was granted to him the prayer recorded in Tobit. viii., 7: "Therefore mercifully ordain that we may become aged together." Mr. Moore and his good wife lived to see more than eighty years and both died from old age on the same day and were buried side by side in the same grave. — M. C. Hand, in "From a Forest to a City." 478 Memorial History of Syracuse. street. Mr. Gilbert preached the funeral sermon and the next day was stricken down with the disease and died within a few hours. The successive pastors of the church since Mr. Gilbert's term have been as follows: Rev. Orsamus Allen, August 20, 1833, to October 20, 1834; Rev. Stephen W'llkins, November, 1834, to December, 1837; Rev. John Blain, 1837 to 1841 ; Rev. Joseph \V. Taggart, December, 1841, to August, 1847; Rev. Robert R. Raymond, 1847 to 1852; Rev. A. G. Palmer, 1852 to 1855 ; Rev. J. S. Backus, D. D., 1857 to 1862 ; Rev. E. W. Mundy, to March, 1864; Rev. John James Lewis, 186710 1869; Rev. E. A. Lecompte, 1869 to 1874; Rev. S. Hartwell Pratt, 1874 to 1875; Rev. Charles E. Smith, 1877 to 1882: Rev. H. W. Sherwood, March, 1882, to October, 1889. Rev. Cortland Myers, the present pastor, began his work with the church May i, 1890. The old church building was enlarged in 1839 and the society continued to occupy it until 1848, when an exchange was made for a lot a little east of the first, whereon was erected a handsome brick edifice at a cost of about $15,000. On the 23d of August, 1859, the brick church was burned to the ground ; but the energy and liberality of the members enabled them to rebuild at once and on the ist of November, i860, the present handsome edifice was dedicated, free of debt. Since May 1st, 1890, when Rev. C. Myers, the present pastor, was ordained and installed, the First l^aptist church has prospered beyond pre- cedent. The first three months of his pa.storate was marked with a thorough renovation and painting of the edifice and during this time the work of the church went on as usual. A city missionary was secured to assist the pastor and from the first day the effect was felt in the church. The Sunday school increased in membership until the roll is over 600 mem- bers. During the first nine months of Rev. C. Myers' pastorate, over 130 persons joined this church either by letter, experience or baptism and now with larger plans the outlook for this, the oldest church in the city, is grand. A mission Sunday school in the Tenth ward under the management of members of this church is doing a fine work and having good results. The Society of Christian Endeavor of this church was the first one ever formed in Syracuse and to-day is doing a large part of the work of the church. Twenty-eight societies are now formed in Syracuse, many of them being made by members of this pioneer society. The officers of the church and society are as follows: Pastor, Rev. Cortland Myers; Deacons, A. K. Schreuder, W. D. Burrill.C. F. Walworth, Beverly Chase, C. A. Baird, Nelson Gilbert ; Deaconesses, Mrs. A. B. Schreuder, Mrs. F. T. Davie, Mrs. E. A. Gage; Clerk, M. A. Hudson; be- nevolent fund, A. 11 Schreuder, Treasurer; relief fund of the church. Nel- son Gilbert, Treasurer; Trustees, W. D. Burrill, A. B. Schreuder, \V. S. Peck, O. C. West, G. B. Wood, G. R. Crocker, Grove L. Hickox. Centkai. Hai'TIst CiiUKiii. 479 Central Paftist C/iiirc/t.— This society is an offshoot from the First Baptist Church, and was organized by a few persons in 1848. In the next year, under the ministry of Rev. Mr. A. I'inney, a small chapel was erected on East Genesee street, which was soon afterwards dedicated by the Rev. Dr. John Dowling Services continued there during several pastorates, until Rev. Dr. H. J. Eddy was called, who remained until September i, 1873. During his ministrations the lot on which the present church stands was purchased and a chapel erected, which was finished and occupied in 1869. In 1S72 the main edifice was completed at a cost of $75,000. It is a handsome structure of brick, with Onondaga limestone projections, and seats about 750. On the 1st day of September, 1873, Rev. George Thomas Dowling assumed the pastorate, and under his ministrations both the church and the Sunday school were exceptionally prosperous. But during that period a calamity fell upon the society which has never been equalled in its terrible results by any similar occurence in this vicinity. On the evening of June 23, 1874, a large assemblage had gathered in the church parlors to participate in a festival and listen to a " Little Olde Folks' Concert," to be given by children. While in the midst of the festivities and without a sound of warning, the floor of the parlors gave way and fell down into utter darkness. Amid shivering beams and stifling plaster, broken furniture and twisted gas pipes, old men, maidens, young men and children, were hurled in inextricable confusion. For a moment a silence awful in its in- tensity reigned, and then groans of agony, shrieks of terror, wails of mortal fear, anguished cries for help, arose in one great chorus from the struggling, bleeding, dying mass of humanity. Among the first to extricate themselves was the young and devoted pastor. Rev. George Thomas Dowling. H ran through Montgomery street to East Genesee, and thence to No. i en- gine house. An alarm of fire was struck and the engines appeared, but happily the horrors of fire were not added to the awful catastrophe. The police were promptly on the ground. Within an incredibly short period of time after the calamity (which occurred 20 minutes past 9 o'clock,) the space about the church and the streets leading thereto were thronged with a mass of people swayed by one common impulse, and that the noble one of giving aid to the victims. "The work of extricating the unfortunate was carried on quietly, calmly and systematically, and as the living, one after another, were released, grate- ful prayers of thankfulness arose from loving hearts whose fears were so happily dispelled; but as the dead were by reverent hands brought out into the quiet night, sharp cries of despair and agonizing appeals for assist- ance under this heavy weight of woe, pierced the still air of the summer night. As the church bell tolled the hour of midnight, the remains of the last victim were removed from the wreck." e 48o Memorial History of Syracuse. The number killed in this fearful disaster was fourteen, while one hun- dred and forty-five were more or less injured. The sad event cast a gloom over the entire city; churches were draped, and in many places flags appeared at half-mast. Suitable commemorative services were conducted on the Sunday following (June 28) in many of the churches, in which offerings of appropriate flowers combined with words of sympathy and fitting music in shedding a hallowed influence over the as- semblages which a common sorrow had brought together. Mo.st of the pastors spoke feelingly and eloquently on topics suggested by the late dis- aster. A memorial service was held in VVieting Opera House, morning and evening, on which occasion the theatre was draped with emblems of mourn- ing and the ceremonies were most impressive. Rev. Dr. Dowling preached in the morning and his son, the pastor, in the evening. Letters and telegrams of sympathy and condolence were received from numerous sources and all united in expressions of grief at the disaster. Plymouth church tendered the afflicted society their house and the congregation met there for a time on Tuesday evenings. The ruined portion of the church was repaired and every possible precaution taken to render it safe beyond the possibility of accident. Rev. Mr. Dowling resigned the pastorate in August, 1877, and was suc- ceeded by Rev. E. J. Goodspeed, D. D., on October 1st, 1877. He re- mained until September, 1879, ^"'^ was succeeded by Rev. T. E. Clapp, in September, 1880, who continued in the pastorate until March, 1886. In September of that year, the present pastor. Rev. S. T. Ford, assumed the charge. Mr. Ford is the son of Rev. William Ford, one of the pioneer Baptist preachers of Oneida county. He was born in Camden, Oneida county, in i85i,and graduated at Madison University in 1878. His first pastorate was at Waverly and his next at Albany. He is an earnest, efTective speaker, carefully preparing his sermons, but delivering them without notes. As an organizer he is one of the best. Over 250 members have been added to the church during his present pastorate, and its condition is most prosperous, having a membership of 660, and a Sunday school enrollment of 450, Fred S. Hall, superintendent. The present church ofificers are as follows: Treasurer, Riley V. Miller ; Trustees, Riley V. Miller, William Sears, William Knapp, M. C. Palmer, Ceylon H. Lewis, C. T. Brockway, John S. Carter; Deacons, John Larra- bee, Eli C. Brayton, Fred S. Hall, H. H. Sanford, Dr. C. L. Chandler, C. A. Horton ; Clerk, William ]. Sanford; Organist, G. E. Pabst. Imuianuel Baptist Church. -This society is a development from the Hawley Street Mission, and was organized on the 15th of January, 1886, with Rev. R. A. Vose as pastor, and 23 members. The present member- Dei.awakk Stkkkt IVm'tist Cm Kcii. 481 ship is 233. He was succeeded by Rev. C. R. Storey, the present pastor. The church is a wooden building erected at a cost of about $3,000. The present officers are as follows : Treasurer, DeVere C. Wheeler; Trustees, Clinton L. Scoville, John M. Carpenter, DeVere C. Wheeler, Herbert L. Stevens, E. A. Hill, T. H. Teall ; Clerk, J. Wildman ; Deacons, F. L. Hines, J. Wildman, J. K. Hulbert. The Sunday school membership is 450. DcUnvarc Street Baptist (7/«/rr//.— Organized March 6, 1889, with the following officers: .Pastor, Rev. R. E. Burton; Clerk, Fred L.Barney; Treasurer, Geo. L. Ford ; Deacons, D. F. Harris, C. H. Smith, Wm. War- ing. Sr., S. B. Pratt and John A. Mackay; Trustees, G. W. Wisner, Geo. L. Ford, W.B. Graves, Charles I'oreman, R. A. Risley, F. L. Harris, E. A. Legg, A. W. Smith and W. F. Masten. This church is in part and remotely the outgrowth of Hope Chapel Mission, organized April, i860, by the Y. M. C. A., but under control of the First Baptist church. The location of this mission proving undesirable, the property was sold by the Trustees of the First Church and the proceeds held and used by them, and the mission abandoned. In the winter and spring of 1889, some of the old Trustees in the abandoned mission deter- mined, after most careful and prayerful consideration, to establish a church in the Fifth ward. The church was organized March 6, 1889 with a constit- uent membership of 70—48 from the First and 22 from the Central Baptist churches of this city. White's hall, corner of Delaware and Geddes streets was rented and services held, with preaching by Rev. C. R. Storey, student in Colgate University and supply for Immanuel church. A lot, corner of Delaware and Dudley streets, was purchased for $3,000, and Deacon D. A. Munro, of Camillus, advanced the money for payment. Rev. R. E. Burton, of Owego, was called to the pastoral care of the new church and at once it entered upon a period of almost phenomenal growth and enlargement. By the will of Mrs. Sally Clark the church received $I,000, to which they now added, by subscription. $2,ooo and paid for the lot. The congrega- tion soon overflowed the hall and made the erection of a place of worship a necessity. The church represented little wealth except in faith and ener- gy. The plan to secure a building fund upon the principle of volunteer offerings moved admirably. About 2,500 persons made such offerings, and a beautiful brick church and lecture rooms were erected and dedicated November 13, 1890. During the brief j'car and a half of its existence the young church has added 70 new members ; enrolled in all about 300 in its Sunday school; has obtained a property costing a little over $12,- 000 upon which is a debt of $4,000. The church is in the midst of a large field and is seeking with an energy and perseverance that have in them the prophesy of success, to realize some of the grand possibilities of christian enterprise. The present membership is 185. The present pastor 61 482 Memorial History of Syracuse. is Rev. R. E. Burton, and the officers of the church are as follows: Dea- cons, D. F. Harris, Charles H. Smith, William Waring. Sr., Silas Pratt, J. Mackay; Trustees, G. W. Wisner, President, Geo. L. Ford, Alfred W. Smith, Edwin A. Legg, Reuben A. Risley, Frank L. Harris, William E. Mastin, Charles Foreman. Clerk, F. L. Barney. Organist, Mrs. F. L. Barney. Fourth Baptist Cliurch. — This society was organized in 1883, and steps were soon taken for the erection of a building. A lot was purchased on the corner of Orange and Sizer streets and a plain wooden structure erect- ed and finished in 1S85. It cost about $1,000. Rev. B. R. Smith is the Pastor. The Trustees are, E. A. Benson, C. F. Coles, S. G. Hotaling. Deacons, Henry Soule, J. S. Blanchard. Clerk, Henry Soule. Treasurer, E. A. Benson. Sunday-School Superintendent, C. H. Benson. Assistant Superintendent, May Coolidge. Secretary, Ada Harbottle. Treasurer, Anna Harbottle. Librarians, S. G. Hotaling and Mrs. Hotaling. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES. First Ward Presbyterian Church. — The history of this church begins almost with the beginning of the century. The first sermon of the Presby- terian faith was preached in Salina in September, 1803, by Rev. Mr. Sickles of Kinderhook. He had been sent out as a missionary by the Dutch church and passed through Salina on his way to Fort Brewerton, putting up at Trask's tavern. He did not like the association of his fellow boarders there and ne.xt morning inquired if there was a religious family in the place with whom he might lodge. He was directed to Isaac Van Vleck's. Call- ing there he was heartily welcomed, and he asked if he could not hold a religious meeting in the evening. Aaron Bellows then had a cooper shop of considerable dimensions and an appointment was made for a meeting there. The shop was crowded and a very interesting service was held. For two or three years after that no meetings were held, excepting perhaps prayer meetings at private houses, and for several years later only occasion- al public services were conducted. In 1810 the Presbyterian Church at Onondaga Valley was organized, in connection with nine members from Salina, under the name of the "United Church of Onondaga Hollow and Salina." Rev. Dirck C. Lansing was the Pastor. Meetings were held in the school house, (erected here in 1805.) Mr. Lansing preached here as well as at the Hollow, until February 2d, 1814. In the autumn of 1812 Rev. Caleb Alexander settled at the Hollow* to take the Principalship of the new Academy. He held religious services there with more or less regularity, and after Mr. Lansing ceased preaching * See historical sketch of Onondaga Valley, chapter vi, of this work. First Ward Pri-sfa-tkrian Ciiurcii. 4S3 at Salina, Mr. Alexander held services here also. Under his ministrations a Sunday School was opened in 1816. This was not, however, the first Sunday School in the place, one having been conducted by Mrs. Mary A. Porter at an earlier day. in connection with her secular school ; she was assisted in the work by Mrs. I'hebe Spafford and Mrs. S. Alvord. This was one of the earliest Sunday Schools, not only in this locality, but in the country. The inhabitants of Salina were favored with rcli5,nous meetings with considerable regularity, generally held in the school house, until i) A sewing school where fifty-eight girls, between the ages of seven and fourteen, are taught plain sewing. 3. Ladies' Auxiliary Society, whose aim is to help the Congregation. 4. Ladies' Aid Society. This organization has for its object the allevia- tion of suffering caused by poverty or sickness. 5. Sewing Circle. Ladies meet weekly at the residences of the mem- bers for the purpose of making garments for general distribution. 6. Young Men's Hebrew Association, whose aims are to elevate the youth morally, impart religious enthusiasm, and refine them socially and intellectually. Nfii' Beth Israel. — This congregation was organized August 7, 1854. The first services were held at the house of Moses Hart, on Adams street, 526 Memorial History of Syracuse. between Mulberry and Montgomery. The following were the first officers of the society ; Joshua Jacobs, President ; Henry Lazarus, Vice-President; M. Bendetsen, treasurer ; P. Lee, Secretary ; Moses Hart, J. Samson, E. Labischinsky, N. Marks. After holding services a short time on Adams street, the congregation met at Myers' Hall, corner of Montgomery and Gen- esee streets. The present synagogue was built in 1856 and remodelled in 1887. The basement has also been remodelled, making the structure com- plete and convenient. The cemetery owned by the congregation lies in the southern part of the city. There are now about forty members and one hundred seat holders, who with their families comprise a membership of about four hundred. The present officers of this society are as follows : M. Rashkower, President; Levi Solomon, vice-President ; L. Manson, Treasurer; Abe Levi, Secretary ; Trustees, M. Bloom, E. Goldstein, H. Ferguson, M. Myer. Minister, S. Cantor. The Synagogue contains seven rolls of Holy Scripture. Congregational Poiley Zedeck. — In the fore part of the year i888 Joseph Wallen, Marks Baliban, Moses Kline, David L. Cohen, Abraham Moses, and others, became interested in the organization of a new Jewish Church in Syracuse. Their efforts resulted in the establishment of Congregation Poiley Zedeck. Its charter is dated September 23, 1 888, and bears the names of the following Trustees: Herman Wolfson, Ruben Rubenstein, Samuel Berman, Isaac Heitner, and Philip Kaufman. First President, Alexander Cohn ; Secretary, Joseph Honig. The first meeting was held in Sugar- man's Hall, corner of Grape and Harrison streets, at which twenty-six mem- bers joined and paid five dollars each. The church now numbers thirty-six members who pay six dollars per year each. Services are held every morn- ing and evening in the year for prayer. The minister preaches Friday eve- ning and Saturday morning and afternoon, and also on other days of special religious observances. Rev. M. Finberg has been the only minister. In 1889 the congregation rented of Marcus Joel a building on Mulberry street, where they now worship. Three rolls of Holy Scripture belong to the society and they intend to increase that number. In February, 1891, this church bought apiece of ground at Oakwood for a cemetery, costing $350. The present officers are Moses Kline, President; G. B. Gordon, Vice-President; Joseph Honig, Secretary; Trustees. B. Kaufman, Solomon Port, M. Baliban, B. Daunsfsky, Levi Oppenheimer, M. Schuman, Treas- urer. Adathjcshurun (which signifies gathering of religious people) was organ- ized June 6, 1864, and received its charter March 3, 1866, Joseph Swartz was the first President ; Joseph Wiseman, vice-President, and Moses Bron- ner, Treasurer. The first place of worship was a one-story building on Har- rison street, between Mulberry and Montgomery. In 1874 a hall which was Adatii Israel. 527 built for this society in the Reidy building, corner of Mulberry and Madison streets, was rented by them and occupied until the present church was erected. In 1887 Solomon Rosenbloom purchased a lot on Orange street, between Madison and Harrison streets, and insisted on the society having a home of its own. Largely by his efforts and contributions and the effi- cient management of the building committee, composed of Solomon Rosen- bloom, Morris Thalheimer, Daniel Rosenbloom, and K. A. Wolf, the present beautiful Gothic wooden edifice was erected at a cost of about $9,000. At that time there were but nineteen members, which in Jewish churches means about nineteen families, as none but male adults are eligible to membership. The new edifice was dedicated in August, 1887. About 1 87 1 Solomon Rosenbloom was elected President and Joseph Wiseman vice-President. From that time to the present Mr. Rosenbloom has held that office, with the exception of two years, when Morris Thalheimer and Abraham Light served one year each. The first leader of religious services was Rev. W. B. Newcity, who officiated until 1875 ; he was succeeded by Rev. Jacob Levi, who still officiates. The present officers are Solomon Rosenbloom, President ; Morris Thalheimer was vice-President at the time of his death in October, 1890, which office he filled about fifteen years. His successor has not been elected. David Oberdorfer has been the Treas- urer for fourteen years. The Trustees are K. A. Wolf, Moses Labschinsky. Philip Zenner, and David Stolz, Secretary, M. J. Altman. The member- ship of this active, growing society has increased to 41 , and connected there- with is a large Sabbath school doing good work for the children. Each Jewish society owns a separate cemetery, in which each member is entitled to requisite space without any individual purchase. Rural Cemetery, south of Oakwood Cemetery, belongs to this society. Adath Israel. — This congregation was organized at the house of Jacob Groginsky, June i, 1882. The first President was James B. Harrison; Nathan Levi, vice-President ; Philip Kaufman, Secretary ; Moses Jacobs, Treasurer. The society met in the Wolf block, corner of Mulberry and Adams streets. Desiring a more suitable place of worship, Jacob Groginsky, Nathan Levi, and Morris Jacobson were appointed a building committee. These gentlemen contracted at once with Marks Rashkower, to rent of him for a term of years a building which he agreed to construct according to plans submitted and accepted. The work was vigorously pushed by Mr. Rashkower, and in a few months the society was pleasantly located in their present Synagogue, a brick structure which seats two-hundred and fifty. So well pleased were the people with the services of their building com- mittee that it was voted to present Jacob Groginsky with a gold medal, which bears date of September 16, 18S2. A silver medal was also presented to Samuel Eisner. 528 Memorial History of Syracuse. The present officers are: Jacob Groginsky, President; James B. Har- rison, vice-Fresident ; David Groginsky, Secretary ; Nathan Levin, Treas- urer. Benjamin Yaffa was the first minister, and was succeeded by David Argin, the present pastor. Daily meetings for prayer are held morning and evening, with special services Friday night and Saturday. Adatli Yeslinnin. — In 1870, thirty-five young men seat-holders of New Beth of Israel, left that society and began holding meetings in Tabor's hall. Their first minister was Marcus Radin, and Elias Labeschinsky was Presi- dent. In 1872, they organized under co-State charter with the corporate name, Adath Yeshurun. Solomon Harrison was President ; Jacob Tumim, vice- President ; Samuel Solomon, Secretary. The next year the society bought a house and lot. No. 75 Mulberry street, for $3,000, on which they built the present church in 1877, at a cost of $6,000. Two years later $2,000 more were raised and expended in completing and furnishing the structure. The building committee was J. L. Shevelson, chairman ; Jacob Tumim, C. Fre- lander, Sol. Harrison, S. A. Harrison, Isaac Solomon. In 1887, a cemetery was purchased on the plank road for $1,300. Elias Labischinsky was the first President, since which the following men have served in that office : Solomon Harrison, I. L. Shevelson, Jacob Tumim, Abraham Rosenson, Levi Pakelinschky, Levi L. Silverman. Rev. Marcus Radin was succeeded by Rev. J. Leavison, and Revs. C. Caplin, Fisher, M. L. Grossman, J. Switzer, and E. Rosenzweig have since officiated. M. L. Grossman is the present pastor. The trustees of the church are as follows : Levi Pakelinscky, President ; Levi Harris, vice-President ; Harris Rossman, M. Abelson, A. J. Strasburg, M. C. Roths- child, Samuel A. Harrison. Membership, forty-four. A flourishing Sun- day school is connected with the church. Rescue Mission. — In the early part of 1887 a number of christian people became impressed with a desire to accomplish something for the cause of Christianity in certain districts in Syracuse. An article which appeared about this time in a New York religious journal attracted attention. The author was Mr. H. B. Gibbud, of the Florence Night Mi.ssion of New York city. An invitation was extended to Mr. Gibbud to come to Syracuse for consultation in the matter, and in June, 1887, he arrived, accompanied by his wife. After a careful study of the situation the experienced missionary declared that the thing to do was to establish in the very midst of the dis- trict where information was most needed, a place to which the people would be constrained to come and in which they would be met by sympathetic hearts. This suggestion was acted upon. A place was selected on East Washington street, near Mulberry. Here, with drinking saloons, gambling dens, and houses of ill repute within a stone's throw in every direction, the Rescue Mission. 529 Rescue Mission was established ; and on the night of Sunday, September 4, 1887, began its work among tlie non-church-going masses. Mr. and Mrs. Gibbud were placed in charge as superintendents, and Mr. John E. Ilend- sey was their assistant. Many people became friendly to the Mission at once. They flocked to the meetings and seemed to feel at home in the half-way house to the church and to be grateful for the interest manifested in them. Every night since that first night, a meeting has been held. Thus far more than 1,300 consecutive meetings have been held, at which the total attendance has been about 125,000. From the very first the rooms of the Mission were inadequate. This was especially so during the last year in the old quarters (May 1889 to May 1890). It became more and more evident that a larger hall was a necessity. At this juncture H. B. Andrews, a prominent business man of the city, purchased the building and site at 115 Mulberry street, near Railroad. He altered, enlarged and repaired the building and grounds and leased them to the Mission for a merely nominal rental, and on May i, 1890, the Mission took possession of its new quarters. The present rooms are spacious and attractive, well lighted and adorned. They seat 500 people. The work of the Mission is not restricted to its evening meetings. Bible instruction is provided during the Winter and Spring on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Monthly gatherings have been instituted to bring the converts together in a social way. Then there are the song services conducted by the Mission- workers at the hospitals and like places. Missionary visits are made to sa- loons and from house to house, along the canal tow-path and on canal boats. Missionary work, including distribution of tracts and other gospel literature is done at fairs, circus shows, street processions, conventions, etc. An unique way of preaching the gospel to the masses, instituted by Mr. Gibbud, is the "Gospel Wagon " service. A carryall fitted with signboards, bearing gospel inscriptions, is employed by some twenty members of the Mission, on Sunday afternoons in summer, who take with them a small cab- inet organ. They drive about the streets, stopping at different points where people congregate. At every stopping place the music of the organ and the singing of the hymns soon attract an assemblage. Then Mr. Gibbud and his assistant preach the gospel to the people thus gathered, and ex- hort them to accept it. The government of the Mission is in the hands of a board of managers consisting of representatives from the various evangelical churches. The following named ladies and gentlemen constitute the board for 1891 : E. W. Parmelee, Edward S. Gaylord, Harlow B. Andrews, Henry Babcock, Ras- selas A. Bonta, Frank T. Kent, Charles A. Horton, David Milne, Prof. H. H. Sandford, James M. Rose, Prof. W. A. Brownell, Mrs. Justus Eddy, Mrs. H. H. Gurley, Mrs. F. T. Davis, Mrs. W. O. Hewitt, Miss Olive Wood. 67 530 Memorial History ok Syracuse. President, Prof. W. A. Brownell ; Secretary, F. T. Kent ; Treasurer, Har- low B. Andrews ; Executive Committee, R. A. Bonta, E. Burt Beckwith, F. T. Kent, Henry Babcock, Mrs. Justus Eddy. In March, 1891, The Rescue Mission Alliance of Syracuse was duly in- corporated. CHAPTER XXX. EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. The early History of the Schools of Syracuse — The Foundation laid for the Present Superior System— L.inguage, Art and Science Taught — Syracuse .Academy Chartered— Public Schools Before the City Organization — Public Schools Under the City Government. THE early history of the schools of Syracuse is somewhat involved in obscurity. Those engaged in educational pursuits in the earlier times, failed to preserve records that would now be intensely interesting. The pioneers did not neglect education ; but the best work was done in the early days by private schools, and the lessons inculcated in them by faithful teachers had no doubt much to do with founding the splendid pub- lic school system of which the city of Syracuse is now so justly proud. The first school within the present city limits was kept by Mr. Conner in a salt block at Salina. He divided his time between teaching and boiling salt. We have no means of knowing which occupation proved the most remunerative ; but it was probably the latter. VVelthia Ann Lathrop, widow of the late Edward Allen, Esq., of Auburn, taught a select school in a building furnished by Captain Joel Cody, in the rear of the present First Baptist Church for many years, beginning in 1826. In 1830 Miss Guthrie taught a private school in a building called "The Wheeler House," on the corner of Salina and Center streets, in what is now the First ward. During si.x months of the year 1835, Hon. Geo. F. Comstock taught a select school in the upper story of a yellow building which stood on the present site of the Bastable block. He was elected Inspector of Schools for the town of Salina in 1S37. At different times D. C. Leroy and Dr. James Foran were connected as teachers with a school known as the "Salina Institute." The building occupied by this school stood on Turtle street between Park and Salina streets. Syracuse Academy. 531 A select school for girls was organized by the Misses Chamberlain. Dr. Mather Williams erected a temporary frame building for this school on Water street near the corner of Clinton. It was neither ceiled nor plastered and on the approach of cold weather the school was removed to a room fitted up by Captain Putnam, over his wood house on Montgomery street. The school became known as " Montgomery Institute." The schools of those days seem to have made up in names what they lacked in other respects. Among the teachers in "Montgomery Institute" were Miss Richardson, Miss Alexander, the Misses Newton, from Massachusetts; Miss Fitch, from Trumansburg; Miss Collins, Miss Laurie, from Whitesboro, and Miss Gould, from South Carolina. At this period the standard of education was well advanced, the higher mathematics, French, Latin, drawing, painting and music being taught in Miss Collins' school. The study of sciences to any extent was at a later day introduced by Miss Amelia Bradbury, who numbered among her pupils many heads of prominent families now living in the city, who cherish gratefully and affectionate!}- the memory of her conscientious, tender coun- sels, and who owe to her advanced views of education the stimulus towards that higher culture which has fitted them to adorn responsible positions in life, and to become useful, reliable, and intelligent women. The school of Miss Bradbury was located on Montgomery street. Miss Emily Chubbuck, afterwards Mrs. Adoniram Judson, wife of the famous missionary to Burmah, taught a select school at one time in a small building which stood where McCarthy, Sons & Co.'s wholesale store now stands, on the corner of Washington and Clinton streets. From September, 1847, to June, 1861, the late Madame A. J. Raoul, one of the old inhabitants, taught a select school in this city. She was an ac- complished teacher of music and French, the last of which she continued to give to a few pupils till 1872 (she died in 1875), when growing infirmities brought to a close a longer term of years consecutively devoted to teaching than, probably, has been given by many teachers in Syracuse. Syracuse Academy. — Through the exertions of Aaron Burt, Harvey Bald- win, and Oliver Teall, who owned a large tract of land in the locality, a charter was obtained for the Syracuse Academy in 1835. A lot was donated by Mr. Baldwin and, under many discouragements, a building was erected and completed for the Academy, situated on " Lodi Hill," East Fayette street, which was supplied with competent teachers and supported by the benefactions of its founders. The first Principal was a Mr. Kellogg, of New York, who was succeeded by Orrin Root, for many years later a pro- fessor in Hamilton College. At one period the late A. G. Salisbury, who became the first Clerk of the Board of Education of the city of Syracuse, was its Principal. At a later day in the existence of the Academy it was 532 Memorial History of Syracuse. conducted by Joseph A. Allen and Oliver T. Burt, part of which period was after its removal to a more central location. But the Academy did not prosper. After it went into operation, jeal- ousies in reference to it were awakened, interest in regard to public schools was aroused and district school houses sprang up and soon attracted the sympathy and patronage of the public. The cause of education profited by the efforts of the founders of the Academy, but they were, and continued to be, the losers, so that the Academy was finally abandoned and the house designed by its originators to subserve the cause of education, providentially became the home of the helpless orphan and the abode of charity — the Onondaga County Orphan Asylum. Mention cannot be made of all the numerous select or private schools which have done efificient work in the educational cause. They wonld con- stitute a chapter. PUBLIC SCHOOLS BEFORE THE CITY ORGANIZATION. The public schools existing prior to the city organization were all formed and maintained as district schools of the town of Salina under the general school law. Neither the charter of the village of Salina, adopted in 1824, nor that of the village of Syracuse, in 1825, made any change in the status of the schools within their limits: they were from the first and continued to be until 1848, common schoois of the town of Salina. The first public school within the present limits of Syracuse was District No. I, Salina, situated in the First ward, near the present site of Jefferson school. The school house was built in 1805 and was commonly known as the " Old Red School House." It stood on what was afterward the south- east corner of Washington Park. It was at this school house that elections, many times very spirited, were held for many years. Isaac Van Tassel was among the first teachers; he was at the time fitting himself for the Presby- terian ministry. He afterwards became a successful missionary, and died among the Maumee Indians about the year 1847. As the town became more widely and thickly settled, other districts were formed in numerical order. At the time of the city organization the schools existing within its limits were as follows: In the First ward, Nos. I, 8, 15 and 16. In what is now the Second ward there was none. In the Third ward was No. 4, occupying the building now used by Mr. Young as a stable, on Church street. There was one in the Fourth ward, the old Prescott School on Lock street, near St. John's church. The Fifth ward contained one, which occupied a little, old wooden building, since removed. No. 6 was in the Sixth ward, on the north side of Fayette street near Franklin street. In the Seventh ward was the old Putnam school, on the corner of Public Schools. 533 Montgomery and Jefferson streets, now used as a temporary city hall. No. lo was in the Eighth ward on East Fayette street.* On the lOth of February, 1848, a public meeting was held in Market Hall, presided over by Alex. McKinstry, to devise a system of common schools for the city of Syracuse. A series of resolutions prepared by the Rev. Samuel J. May, referring to the formation of the city and the great need of taking early and eflficient steps to provide for educating the young of the place was passed. The fourth resolution read as follows : 4. That it is fitting and proper that a complete system of schools, free lo all the children of the city, should be amply sustained at the public expense, as that our city government, or tire depart- ment, or highways should be so supported. Kcsolved, That the noble example set by many cities in our State and country in respect to com- mon schools, should be generously emulated by the city of Syracuse. Resolved, That a committee of live from each ward be appointed to consider the plan of public instruction originally proposed by those who drafted the Charter of our city and compare it with the plan in operation in Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Providence, Rochester and liuffalo, and report to an adjourned meeting, in detail, such a plan of public schools as they shall deem best adapted to the circumstances and wants of Syracuse. Mr. Salisbury then read the following statistics: " The following number of pupils can be accommodated in each of the four central schools in the city: No. 4, with its three rooms, seats 170; No. 5, with its four rooms, seats 275 ; No. 6, with its two rooms, seats 100 ; No. 7, with its five rooms, seats 340; making an aggregate of 885. "In the last annual report of the Trustees of District No. 7, 947 children were reported as between the ages of 5 and 16 — making an excess in that single district alone of 62 over and above the entire accommodations of these four public school buildings. "The whole number reported from the fourth district (and between the ages above named) is 2,124, or nearly three times the number provided for, showing that of the whole number of children in the central portion of the city, and of a suitable age to be placed in school, less than one-third are in attendance upon the public schools, and by a somewhat careful investiga- tion it has been ascertained that less than one-half of the remainder are in attendance upon the private schools of this same portion of the city. So that if the above statements may be relied upon, more than one-third of the whole number are in no school. "The whole amount paid for teachers' wages during the year ending De- cember 31, 1847, was $3,311.83. Of this sum only §677 was raised from the rate bills. Adding to this the contingent fund of these four districts, amounting to $675, gives $3,986.83 aggregate expense for the year. Of this sum the rate bills pay but about one-sixth, leaving five-sixths to be paid * During the first six years of the city's organization. Its territory comprised only four wards, but the reader will better understand the location of these schools by giving their situation after the city was divided into eight wards. 534 Memorial History of Syracuse. by moneys received from the Literature Fund of the State and by a prop- erty tax. " By the last assessment roll the taxable property of these four dis- tricts amounted to the sum of $3,100,000. Now, on the supposition that the above named $677 were paid by the property of these districts, how much would it add to the tax already paid for educational purposes? If 1 have figured correctly it would be $00.001,5." The chair then appointed the following as the committee contemplated in the fourth resolution : First Ward.— Wm. Clarke, Michael Lynch, I. R. Quereau, Miles W. Bennett, Noah Wood. Second Ward.— John Wilkinson. Dennis McCarthy, L. W. Hall, Henry J. Sedgwick, Alex. McKinstry. Third Ward.— Hiram Putnam, Theodore Ashley, Rev. Mr. Raymond, Phares Gould, P. S. Stoddard. Fourth Ward.— Hamilton White, David Bonta, W. W. Newell, A. G. Salisbury, E. T. Hayden. It was resolved, "that the committee be requested to meet at the trus- tees' room on Saturday evening next." Also, "that this meeting adjourn to meet again at the call of the com- mittee." This meeting led to the establishment of the present system of public schools in the city. PUBLIC SCHOOLS UNDER THE CITY GOVERNMENT. " An Act in Relation to the Public Schools of Syracuse" was passed April II, 1848. This act with some slight amendments, is the basis of the present public school system of the city. It provided for the appointment by the Mayor and Common Council, of two classes of School Commission- ers, one of which should hold ofifice one year and the other two years from the date of the first appointment, and that thereafter one commissioner should be elected from each ward annually. The commissioners so elected have control of everything relating to the public schools. The act was amended March 11, 1865, March 26, 1866, and March 27, 1868. One com- missioner is now elected by the people, from each ward for two years, and it is so arranged that the even wards elect one year and the odd wards the next year. In pursuance of the Act, eight commissioners were appointed by the Mayor and Common Council, who met at Market Hall (later the old City Hall) April 21, 1848, and after choosing Hiram Putman and R. A. Yoe, President and Secretary, pro tern., proceeded to draw for their respective terms as follows: Punuc Schools. 535 First ward, William Clark, two years, J. P. Babcock, one year; Second ward, JJamcs Noxon, two years, C. M. Brosnan, one year ; Third ward, Hiram Putnam, two years, Daniel Bradley, one year; Fourth ward, Oliver Teall, two years, C. A. Wheaton, one year. (-)liver Teall resigned and his place was filled by T. B. Fitch. Wm. Clark was elected President of the Board, but declined to serve, whereupon Hiram Putman was elected in his place. At the next meeting of the Board, April 26, 1 8^8, A. G. Salisbury, who had been principal of Putman school previous to the city organization, was chosen clerk, upon whom also de- volved the duties of Superintendent of Schools, at a salary of $500 a year. The Board, upon its organization, adopted the following resolutions: " Resolved, That the Board of Education will not employ any teacher in any of the public schools of the city who uses intoxicating liquors as a beverage or who is addicted to the use of tobacco. "Resohed, That the President of the Board give public notice that the common schools of the city will be opened free to all children of the city." The first teachers appointed by the Board were: First ward. — No. i, Lewis Cornell, principal, monthly salary $35 ; No. 8, Edward Smith, princi- pal, $35 ; No. 15, J. B. Brigham, principal, $30 ; No. 16, James Johonnot, principal, $35, Miss Delia Earll, assistant, $15. Second ward. — No. 4, N. P. Stanton, principal, $48, Mrs. N. P. Stanton, assistant, $18, Miss Palmer, assistant, $15 ; No. 5, R. R. Stetson, principal, $45, Mrs. R. R. Stetson, assistant, $16, Miss M. A. Clapp, assistant, $18, Miss J. A. VanDenburg, assistant, $18. Third ward. — No. 6, J. B. Beal, principal, $35, Miss Mannah Burnet, as- sistant, §15 ; No. 20, Miss A. Bennett, principal, $18. Fourth ward. — No. 7, W. W. Newman, principal, $50, Miss E. E. Will- iams, assistant, $|S, Miss E. Williams, assistant, §15. Miss J. Brooks, assist- ant, $18, Miss S. M. Cox, assistant, §18, Mrs. R. C. Newman, assistant, $18; No. 12, J. M. Winchell, principal, $35, Miss A. Barker, assistant, $15 ; Miss H. Kingsley, assistant, $18. W. VV. Newman, now of South Onondaga, was married in the old Put- nam school, the only " wedding in school " on record. James Johonnot, the first Principal of No. 16, became a successful con- ductor of Teachers' Institutes throughout this and other States, and an author of several educational works. Edward Smith, who was appointed Principal of No. 8, in 1848, had been for several years a teacher in the village schools of Syracuse. After the city organization he continued in the service of the Board of Education as Prin- cipal till 1865, when he was elected Clerkand Superintendent. He held the office of Superintendent of Schools until 1889, a period of twenty-three years, when he was made Principal of Prescott School in the P'ourth ward. He is a man of untiring zeal, having advanced views concerning all matters pertaining to common schools ; and during his long term of service, now 536 Memorial History of Syracuse. nearly forty-five years, has, perhaps, done more for the cause of education in Sj'racuse than any other person. A. E. Kinnie, Principal of Madison School, in the Eighth ward, who has been in the employ of the Board since 1S55, excepting about two years, is another veteran to whom large credit is due. A. G. Salisbury was for many years connected with the schools as Prin- cipal, and also for some years as Clerk of the Board of Education. He is held in grateful remembrance by many who came under his efficient in- struction. Syracuse was one of the first cities in this country to abolish corporal punishment in its schools. This important action was taken in 1867, on motion of Commissioner Orrin Welch, of the Sixth ward. Many thought at the time that it was too radical a step ; but subsequent experience has proved that it was a wise one. The moral tone of the schools is infinitely better than when whipping was in vogue. In 1854, a high school department was organized in the old Prescott School on Lock street, with Charles O. Roundy as principal. This depart- ment was removed to No. 4, now Young's stable, on Church street, in 1855. It was continued in the Pike block, corner of Salina and Fayette streets, and in rooms over what was then Sherman's grocery, at the corner of War- ren and East Fayette streets, till 1S69, when it was removed to the present commodious building on West Genesee street, which was erected at a cost, including lot, of $100,000. Prof. Roundy has been succeeded by W. A. Browneli, A. M., Ph. D.; Samuel Thurber, A. M.; George A. Bacon, A. M. Ph. D.; and William K. Wicks, A. M., in the order in which they are named. The High School has been a success from the first. It is now first in the State in the number of Academic scholars. It contains an average of about six hundred students, five hundred and fifty of whom hold Regents' certificates. First Graduating Class. — The names of the first graduates from the High School in 1856, are as follows: Rossiter Raymond, H. Wadsworth Clarke, Samuel M. Comstock, Osgood V. Tracy, Arinda L. Adams, Catherine B. Poole, Ellen A. Evans, EUyette W. Casey, Ellen V. Bowen. There were eighty-three graduates in 1889. There is nothing which shows so well the growth and prosperity of Syr- acuse as the wonderful progress of her schools. The people of the Central City have always shown an increasing interest in education, and have taken care of their schools, even when other public interests had to be neglected. Twenty-four, the number of teachers employed by the first Board of Edu- cation, in 184S, has increased to two-hundred aud seventy-eight in 1889. In 1889 there were registered in all the schools, 12,977 pupils; average number belonging, 10,644; average daily attendance, 10,198. ^n^ fiyi:S.K»r-n.on^y Plmimc Schools. 537 There are (iSgi) twenty-eight school buildings, one of which is a High school and eight are Grammer Schools. Eight new school buildings have been erected since 1S80. Several of these are commodious and costly, con- taining all of the modern improvements, including power ventilation. As example, Prestcott School, finished in iSSi, cost (not including lot) §29,000 ; Seymour School, 1S83, (not including lot) $40,000; Putnam School, 1888, (including lot) $65,000. Following is a list of schools, principals and location: High School, West Genesee, corner Wallace, Third ward, Wm. K. Wicks, A. M., Princi- pal. Adams School, Adams street, between Grapa and Orange, Seventh ward, Bessie M. Lowe, Principal. Bassett Street School (annex to the Madison School), Eighth ward, Marvin E. Bushnell, Principal. Brighton School, South Salina street, near Colvin, Eleventh ward, Mrs. L. E. Thomas, Principal. Clinton School, Lodi street, near Hawley, Fourth ward, Mrs. L. L. Goodrich, Principal. Danforth School, Furman street, near South Salina, Eleventh ward, John Q. Adams, Principal. Delaware School, Del- aware street, near Merriman avenue, Mary W. Flanagan, Principal. Frank- lin School, Butternut street, corner Peters, Second ward, Charles E. White, Principal. Frazer School, Frazer sft-eet, corner of Smith, Ninth ward, Eliza A. Kennedy, Principal. Genesee School, Genesee street, corner Wal- lace, Third ward, Mary Lounsbury, Principal. Gere School, Willis avenue, near Essex, Tenth ward, Laura M. Geary, Principal. Grace School, Grace street, corner Ontario, Fifth ward, Sara C. Terwilliger, Principal. Irving School, East Fayette street. Eighth ward, Eliza G. Chapman, Principal. Jefferson School, corner Park and Court streets. First ward, Mary L. Ford, Principal. Prescott School, Willow .street, above Lock, Fourth ward, Ed- ward Smith, Principal. Madison School, Madison street, corner Walnut avenue. Eighth ward, R. Bruce White, Principal. May School, Seneca street, between Otisco and Tully, Plfth ward, Mary A. Van Antwerp, Prin- cipal. Merrick School, South avenue, near Sheldon, Fifth ward, L. May Cameron, Principal. Montgomery School, Montgomery street, between Adams and Jackson, Sixth ward, Samantha C. Lincoln, Principal. Onon- daga County Orphan Asylum, East Genesee street, Eight ward, Maria B. Parish, Principal. Porter School, St. Mark's Square, between Bridge and Emerson avenues, Tenth ward, W. H. Scott, Principal. Putnam School, corner Montgomery and Jefferson streets. Seventh ward, John D. ^\'ilson, Principal. Rose School, Eighth ward, Bessie L. Hurd, Teacher. Salina School, Salina street, between Center and Bear, First ward, H. E. Barrett, Principal. -Seymour School, Seymour street, near West, Fifth ward, Bruce M. Watson, Principal. St. Vincent de Paul Orphan Asylum, Si.xth ward, Mary Mallynn, Principal. Townsend School, corner Townsend and Ash, 68 53S Memukial History of Syracuse. Second ward, Kate INI. Cullen, Principal. Vine Street School, Burnet ave- nue, near Vine, Fourth ward, Anna Holkings, Principal. The following comparative school statistics are worthy of preservation : 1859. 1889. Registered, .-.-.. 5,279 12,977 Average attendance, . . . . 2,776 10,198 School census, ..... 9,823 23,460 Cases of tardiness, - - - - 27,183 8,160 Days, ...... 76,776 100,128 The following have served as Clerks of the Board of Education : A. G. Salisbury, 1848-1849; W. L. Crandall, 1849- 1850 ; A.G.Salisbury, 1850- 1851 ; E.A.Sheldon, 1851-1853; Wm. Hall, 1853; M.L.Brown, 1854; Geo. L. Farnham, 1855-1862; Chas. E.Stevens, 1862-1864; Edward Smith, 1865-1889; A. Burr Blodgett, 1889. The present .School Board is as follows : President, William Spaulding; Clerk and Superintendent, A. B. Blodgett ; Commissioners, First ward, John J. Keefe ; Second ward, Daniel Scheer ; Third ward, James H. Meagher; Fourth ward, A. von Landberg ; P'ifth ward, Warren D. Tallman ; Sixth ward, E. C. Wright; Seventh ward, P. R. Kiely ; Eighth ward, Alexander Grant ; Ninth ward, Patrick Cody ; Tenth ward, G. H. Stilwell ; Eleventh ward, James R. McAllister; Twelfth ward, Charles F. Wyckoff; Thirteenth ward, John A. Mackay ; Fourteenth ward, John A. Tholens. The number of wards in the city was increased to eight in 1854, and the number of School Commissioners to sixteen. In 1857, the number of Com- missioners was reduced to eight. In 1887, the number of wards was in- creased to eleven and the number of Commissioners to eleven. Syracuse University. — The Syracuse University had its inception in the celebration of the Centennial of Methodism in 1866. The Methodist Epis- copal Church had resolved to raise that year two millions of dollars, and to make its educational institutions the chief objects of its benefactions. There were at that time, under the care of the Methodist denomination, several seminaries in the State of New York, but only one college. This — Genesee College — was located in Lima, in western New York, a small village several miles distant from a railroad station. It had been in operation since 1851, doing excellent work, but because of the disadvantage of its location had not prospered as much as had been anticipated. When efforts were to be made for centennial educational collections in New York, the question of a new University site at once became prominent. After much discussion it was resolved to seek a central location to which the Genesee College might be removed. All the trustees of the latter institution, save one, favored re- moval. Of course the citizens of Lima violently opposed such action, and secured an injunction against the trustees, prohibiting it. The work, how- SvRACUSF Unix KKsiTV. 539 ever, of founding the new University did not halt. In 1867 the city of Syracuse voted an appropriation of one hundred thousand dollars to the new University, conditioned upon the raising of four hundred thousand dol- lars additional, for endowment. On the 22d of February, 1S70, a Methodist Episcopal convention for the State of New York was held in Syracuse, at which it was determined to establish the University here. The following resolution, passed by the convention, declared its purpose : " Resolved, that this State Convention of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in New York, approves of the plan to establish, without delay, in the city of Syracuse, or its immediate vicinity, a first-class university, and recommends that imme- diate measures be taken to raise at least five hundred thousand dollars for its endowment. Subscriptions were thereupon asked for and one hundred and eighty-one thousand dollars were pledged. This, with previous valid subscriptions and the pledge of the city, made the amount of funds for the new enterprise three hundred and eighty-five thousand dollars. A provis- ional Board of Trustees was elected and steps taken to secure a charter. In January, 1871, the valid pledges to the enterprise reached four hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, and on the 24th of April, following, the city issued bonds to the University amounting to one hundred thousand dollars. In May, Eliphalet Remington gave to the University an interest in a block in Syracuse worth eighty thousand dollars. During the same month a site of fifty acres, in the southeast part of the city, was selected and plans for building the Hall of Languages were adopted. On September i, 1871, the College of Liberal Arts opened its first ses- sion in the Myers block with forty-one students and five professors. It con- tinued to occupy this building until the Hall of Languages was completed and dedicated in May, 1873. In December, 1871, the Medical College was ordained, and began its work in the autumn of 1872. The College of Fine Arts was established in June, 1873, and opened on September 18, following. Its declared purpose was to give in.struction in Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, Engraving, Music, Oratory, Poetry, Belles-lettres, Literature, etc. In the autumn of 1886, Mr. E. F. Holden determined to erect a work- ing observatory as a memorial to his son, Charles Demarest Holden, who graduated in the class of 1877, and died in Syracuse, February, 1S83. This Observatory is built of rock-faced, gray limestone, and is about 40x40 feet in extreme dimensions. It is equipped with an eight-inch Alvin Clark tele- scope, a four-inch reversible transit, micometer, chronograph, chronometer, astronomical clock, and all other needed appliances for practical astronomy. It is also fully equipped with apparatus for meteorological observations. In April, 1887, Mrs. John M. Reid, of New York city, purchased the great library of Leopold Von Rancke, of Berlin, Germany, and offered it to S40 Memorial History of Syracuse. Syracuse University on condition that a suitable building be erected to con- tain it. Accordingly in the following September a Library Building 80x90 feet, with a capacity for one hundred and thirty thousand volumes, was begun, and was completed in June, 1889. It is provided with abundant rooms and facilities for all departments of library work. One of the most magnificent gifts ever received by the University is the Memorial College for Women, erected by the late John Crouse, of Syracuse, and completed bj' his son, D. Edgar Crouse. This structure is of long- meadow, red sandstone, 162x190 feet extreme measurements, and is one of the most imposing college edifices in the world. It contains a magnificent music hall, a large organ and has been amply and elegantly furnished by its donors. The Medical College occupies three brick buildings on Orange street, well adapted to its purposes. The University has at present three well-equipped colleges. The College of Liberal Arts, with Classical Latin-Scientific and Scientific courses, is ad- mirably furnished with apparatus, laboratories and museums, and has an enrollment of four hundred and fifty students. The College of Fine Arts has courses in Painting, Architecture, and Music, and an attendance of two hundred and fifty students. The College of Medicine has a graduated three-years course, with an attendance of sixty students. Among the notable gifts to the University have been the following: Philo Remington, §100,000 ; John D. Slayback, $20,000 ; "A Friend," for library, $100,000 ; Milton S. Price, $10,000 ; Mrs. Lydia Morehouse, §30,000; Eliphalet Remington, $80,000 ; Bishop Jesse T. Peck, $50,000; J. Uorman Steele, §50,000 ; Ge9. F. Comstock, $50,000 ; Rev. R. H. Robinson, $15,000; Rev. William Grififin, D. D., §40,000; Hon. David Decker, $10,000; Mrs. W. r. Abbott, $10,000 ; Mrs. Harriet T. Leavenworth, Wolff Collection of Engravings ; E. F. Holden, the Observatory; John Crouse and D. Edgar Crouse, John Crouse Memorial College ; Mrs. J. M. Reid, \'on Rancke Li- brary ; Mrs. J. Dorman Steele, support of Professorship of Theistic Science ($2,500 per year), and the equipment of the department of Physics, $10,000. Besides these have been many other gifts of various amounts. The Presidents of the Board of Trustees have been as follows : Rev. Jesse T. Peck, D.D., 1870-73 ; Alexander Winchell, LL. D., 1873-74; Hon. David Decker, 1874-79; Hon. l-"rancis H. Root, 1S79, to the present date. The Chancellors have been Rev. Daniel Steele, D. D. (President of Col- lege of Liberal Arts), 1871-72 ; Alexander Winchell. LL. D., 1872-74; E. O. Haven, D. D., LL. D., 1874-80; Chas. N. Sims, D. D., LL. D., i88i,to the present date. At this writing the University has property amounting to one million, seven hundred thousand dollars, of which five hundred thousand dollars is Meads' Business College. 541 productive endowment. Its students number nearly eight hundred, with a teaching force of forty-nine. The University is co-educational and opens all its courses of study on ceiual terms to students of both sexes. JLitds' Biisi/trss Col/cgc. — In or about the year 1857 a Mr. Kelsey es- tablished and maintained a Commercial School in the old Wieting block until the year 1862, when Prof. D. T. Ames, who had been in partnership with Prof. C. P. Meads in conducting the Commercial College at Oswego, purchased the Kellsey School. There was at that time in the block now occupied by D. McCarthy & Co., corner South Salina and Fayette streets, the Bassett Commercial Col- lege, which was afterwards conducted by the Mead Bros, (no relation to Prof. C. P. Meads). By reason of the disturbed condition of the country from 1861 to 1865, many commercial schools suspended operations, among them the one in the McCarthy block. This gave to Prof. Ames the field in this city without competition until 1S65, when Bryant & Stratton, of unlim- ited fame and resources, established a branch college in the Malcolm block, corner Railroad and South Salina streets. The competition between Prof. Ames and the latter college became ani- mated and at times decidedly fierce. This condition of affairs continued until the Spring of 1S68. Prof. Meads, who became connected with the Oswego Commercial College in 1S59, <*"'^> excepting the copartnership with Prof. Ames for a period of some two years, was the sole owner and conductor of the college in that city until the burning of the Grant block, where his school had been located, with all desirable appointments, for several years. The fire destroyed everything connected with the material effects of the college, but with pluck and energy Prof. Meads secured quarters in the Mansard block, and with somewhat crude appliances at first, had his college in running order, with the loss of but a few days. This occurred on the 9th of January, 1868, and the school continued in that location until April following, when a co-partnership was formed with J. H. Warren, of Syra- cuse, who had succeeded to the management of the Bryant & Stratton Col- lege in this city. A consolidation was effected, and the Oswego interest was brought here and combined with the Bryant & Stratton school. This arrangement continued for a short time when Messrs. Warren & Meads pur- chased the Ames College and moved into the rooms of the latter, covering the entire upper floor of the Pike block, corner South Salina and Fayette streets. In the fall of the .same year (1868) Prof. Meads purchased the interest held by Mr. Warren and the school was then, and continued to be for sev- eral years, the only commercial or business college in this city. In 1882, rooms were taken in Grand Opera House block, covering three stores on second floor and fitted up expressly for the growing needs of the college. 542 Memorial History of Syracuse. Prosperity attended the entire period from 1882 to the fall of 1888, when the "Grand" was destroyed by fire on the 13th of September. This event, occurring twenty years after the fire at Oswego, would have had a depress- ing effect on the average man in like circumstances, but Prof. Meads lost no time in securing another location for his school, which was found in the Washington block, corner South Salina and Jefferson streets, formerly oc- cupied as the Washington House. Here, with spacious rooms and all mod- ern appliances for conducting a business college, the school is enjoying the prosperity it deserves. LIliRARIE.S. The first circulating library in Syracuse was known as the " Parish Li- brary " and was established chiefly through the efforts of the Rev. Palmer Dyer, then rector of St. Paul's Church. Mr. Dyer took a deep interest in the welfare and growth of the village and this feeling prompted him to seek a means of giving the people healthful reading. This small library was ac- commodated, at least during a part of its existence, in a room provided by the late L. H. Redfield, who also appreciated the value in the community of good reading matter. It was subsequently removed to the old Academy and consolidated with the library of that institution. Madame A. J. Raoul, a lady who took a deep interest in educational and intellectual affairs, had a circulating library at one time, before the organiza- tion of the city, which accomplished much good. A building which formerly stood on the northeast corner of Salina and Washington streets, acquired the title of " Library Hall " from the fact that in it was a public hall, and also a library which was the offspring of the " Syracuse Library and Reading Room Association." This hall and library acquired considerable distinction. Public lectures were given in the hall before the Association and its friends b)^ several prominent persons, and on one occasion Mrs. P'annie Kemble-liutler gave readings there. Ole Bull, then at the height of his fame as a violinist, gave an entertainment there. The library which was accumulated by the Association never reached more than 1,200 volumes, and was for a period under the care of Thomas A. Smith, who had his law office in the rooms of the Association and acted as librarian. This Association was not very long-lived and under a burden of debt finally closed up its affairs and the books were purchased by E. \\\ Leavenworth, Capt. Hiram Putnam, Dr. Lyman Clary, and others, and placed as a library in Dr. Clary's office. At a later date the books were presented to the " F'ranklin Library and Institute." CiRCUl.ATINC; LlliKAKIICS. 543 This was an institution that exercised a wide-spread influence for good in the community and for many years was very successful. A number of leading citizens became interested in the establishment of a library and in- stitute of such a character and after considerable agitation, made an appeal to the public for contributions of books, pamphlets, periodicals, etc. This appeal was made at the close of a lecture given in Market Hall (the old City Hall) by Dr. Mark Hopkins, then President of Williams College, and the cit- izens were notified that they would be called upon for contributions the next day. The next morning two boys (one of them Daniel W. Fiske, afterwards professor in Cornell University, and the other Edwin Smith, who became a successful attorney of Kennebunkport, Me.) started out on the work with a large basket. Their success was most encouraging. One of the first librar- ians of the Institute was Dr. Henry Gregory, then rector of St. Paul's church, and his zealous and untiring efforts contributed in a large measure to the success of the institution. The Franklin Institute, as it was com- monly known, gained a reputation that extended throughout Central New York and drew to its fairs, held annually in Wieting Hall, crowds of de- lighted people from surrounding counties, as well as from the city. The Library was for manj' years located in commodious apartments in the Wieting Block, and it became one of the established and useful institutions of Syracuse. Before its members and friends such men as Thomas T. Davis, Zaccheus Newcomb, Wing Russell, Judge James Noxon, Judge North, C. B. Sedgwick, S. D. Dillaye, and many others, delivered lectures which were listened to with appreciation. But this institution, brilliant as were its prospects at one time, at last fell into decline, and was finally closed out and its effects sold. Many of its books found their way into the other libraries of the city. About the year 1844 the Society for Mutual Instruction was founded, which, although not a library strictly speaking, bore a close relationship thereto, through the character of the benefits conferred by it. The officers and members of the society were each assigned a branch of natural science, and in rotation each furnished an original essay at each weekly evening meeting, with natural specimens for illustrations, which were supplemented by information contributed by all the members upon the topic under dis- cussion for the evening. The first year the members met in the school house on Church street, and the last year in A. G. Salisbury's school room, near the old Congregational church (site of the present Convention block) on East Genesee street. This society was of great benefit. A member afterwards reported the first course of lectures delivered in this country by Professor Agassiz, and wrote to a friend that he could not have filled that position had it not been for information acquired as a member of the Soci- ety for Mutual Instruction. The record of its organization is as follows : 544 Memorial History of Syracuse. OFFICERS. President, Rev. Samuel J. May. Elyniology. Secretary A. G. Salisbury, Conchology. Teacher till July i, iSfq, Paymaster at New Orleans in the war of the rebellion, superintendent of .Auburn prison. Treasurer, \V. II. Scram, Geology. A teacher in No. 7 public school, removed in 1S47 to New- York city. M KM HERS. Miss A. Hradbury, .Vnamakul.i.'. Principal of Young Ladies' Seminary in .Syracuse died Sep- tember 12, 1S51). Mrs. A. M. Kedlifld, Radiates. Miss Mary Allen, Conchology. Principal of female seminaries in Rochester and Syracuse. Dr. 1 )unlap, Physiology. Kev. Stebbins, Anthropology. Removed in 1S4S to Florence, Ga. Mr. Stetson, Icthyology. Teacher at No. 5 public school, died in 1S4S or 1S49 in Syracuse. Joseph A. .Allen, .Meterology. Teacher in the Academy. .M. Burr, Herpetology. Printing in New York in 1S4S. Dr. T. D. Washburn, Knto/^oa. Removed west. Mr. Stanton. Afterward a teacher in Buffalo, and later Secretary of the State of New York. School Libraries. — Small circulating libraries were connected with the district schools from almost the date of their formation, and were continued a few years under the city organization. These school libraries did a vast amount of good. They were almost the only free source of reading for the masses of the people. The report of tlie Superintendent of iS5"said: "No equal amount of public money is doing more good to the community than that expended in the purchase of books for the district libraries. There are nine of these libraries, so distributed over the city as to be conveniently ac- cessible to every one. The aggregate number of the volumes is 4,620. During the year (1857) twenty thousand volumes have been drawn. This extensive reading, principally by the pupils attending the schools, but largely by others, cannot fail to have an important influence in forming the taste and habits of those who thus devote their leisure hours." These libraries were continued until the adoption of the plan of a Cen- tral Library, at which time many of the less valuable and important books were sold, and the standard and valuable works turned over to that library. The Central Library. — This library was opened to the public on the first of May, 1855, in which year it was enlarged by the addition of two hundred volumes of standard works. When the High School building was com- pleted in I S69 it was transferred to its present well-arranged and spacious apartments on the first floor of that building. The Central Library is in- tended not so much for circulation as for collecting standard books of ref- erence, and keeping them where they may be conveniently consulted. Nev- ertheless, it has a circulating department, free to all citizens above ten years of age. The reference department is open to all persons above the age of fourteen. The Library is under the direction of the Board of Education, and is conducted by the Rev. E. W. Mundy and an assistant, under a strict yet liberal system of rules and regulations. J^^yi^'C'i'T^^ -^T/in^'iy^ ^')i-/lJ^ The I'kess ok Syracuse. 545 We <;ive the following comparative statistics of the Central Library, fruiu 1867 to 1889, inclusive: Years. In Library. Circulation. Average daily circulaliim. 1867 5.227 1,S6S ' 5,870 31 000 1809 7,371 1870 lo.cxx) 24,310 130 1871 10,592 39.694 '29 1872 ir423 3^'')S(> '28 1873 12,423 36.o>o «3S 1874 13,300 36.672 137 1875 13,791 41.623 138 1576 14.070 4«.057 "33 1577 47,2iS 153 1878 14,289 35.616 17s 1579 13,344 47.760 165 1580 13-423 40,525 138 iSSi 13,692 36,878 137 1882 14,603 39-7S5 130 1883 15,494 37,906 123 1SS4 15,889 34.296 1 14 1885 17,107 4'.433 '35 1SS6 17. 1S2 44,686 146 1887 18,062 39.S23 129 1888 18,687 40.542 131 18S9 20,518 43.416 143 1S90 21,541 44.303 «4S CHAPTER XXXI. THE PRESS OF SYRACUSE. The Public I'ress — Its Character in Syracuse — The Syracuse Staitilani and its i'redecessiirs — The Syracuse Joiirmil and its Origin — The Syracuse Courier — The Evening Ihiald — Weekly Pa- pers — The Religious Press — Defunct Newspapers. THE newspapers of a citj' are a mirror in which is, or shouiid be, reflected the daily, weekly, and monthly events that constitute the progress of the place in all its aspects ; and the character of the press of a city gener- ally indicates to a degree the enterprise and intelligence of the community. It is believed that the public journals of Syracuse are worthy of favorable comparison with those of any other city of similar size in the country. In searching the files during the past years we find not alone the evidences of active political partisanship evinced by keen and incisive editorials, especi- ally during the various campaigns and able discussions of various subjects, but also a general tone of elevated journalism pervading their columns. A degree of enterprise and ability characterizes their mechanical features that is most commendable. 546 Memorial Histoky ok Syracuse. In compiling a brief historical record of the various publications that have come into being in Syracuse, only a few of which remain as perma- nent factors in the life of the city, while very many ran their brief careers and then joined the majority in oblivion, we will first treat of those that are now in existence, with their direct ancestors, leaving the suspentled and presumably less important publications for later consideration. The Syracuse Standard, now publishing daily, weekly, and Sunday editions, may properly claim the longest life of any newspaper in the city. In the year 1816 Evander Morse, who was quite a prominent citizen of Onondaga Hill, published the first number of the Onondaga Gazette, which he continued about five years. The village on the Hill was then contend- ing lor supremacy with the Valley, and this early newspaper was one of the evidences that the former was gaining the asctndenc}' through its import- ance as the county seat. The i)aper passed into possession of Cephas S. McConnell in 1S21, who changed its name to the Onondaga Journal. In 1827 Vivus W. Smith became its proprietor, and two years later, following the tide of migration towards Syracuse, already inaugurated, he removed the establishment to this village. There was then in existence in Syracuse a newspaper called the Syracuse Advertiser, which was started as the sec- ond journal in the village (preceded in 1823 by the Onondaga Gazette) by John V . Wyman and Thomas P. Harnum. Norman Rawson was also connected with it for a time, but Mr. Wyman soon assumed the entire con- trol, which he continued until 1S29, at which time the Onondaga Journal was brought here, as stated, and the two papers were consolidated under the name of the Onondaga Standard, the firm style being Wyman & Smith, with the latter as editor. John F. Wyman was a man of ability and con- siderable prominence in the early historj' of Sj'racuse, his name often ap- pearing as secretary of public meetings and in other capacities demanding good qualifications. The partnership of Mr. Smith and Mr. W)-man was dissolved in Janu- ary, 1832, Mr. Wyman retiring. Thomas A. and Silas F. Smith had been learning the practical part of the business in the office, and soon after- ward they assumed proprietorship of the paper, Vivus W. Smith continuing as editor. He soon withdrew, however, and the Journal was transferred to Asahel L. Smith, a brother of \'. W'., and William L. Crandall. The for- mer was then connected with the Jeffersonian, in Watertown, N. Y., and was a capable business man. Mr. Crandall was a vigorous and able writer, and his columns wielded a potent political influence. He remained on the paper until the close of the exciting political campaign of 1840, and was succeeded January i, 184 1, by Marcellus Farmer as editor and part owner of the establishment. Mr. I'armer was a printer and worked in the South, but came to New York and worked on the Tribune when he purchased his The Press of Svuacuse. 547 interest in the Standard. The firm was Smith & Farmer, and under their management tlic paper flourished as an independent Democratic organ. Mr. Farmer retired at the end of four year.-, went to California, and while on the return voyage in 1852 was lost at sea. Mr. Crandall came back as editor of the paper for Mr. Smith, and con- tinued until January l, 1846, when Patrick H. Agan purchased a half inter- est and assumed the editorial control. This he continued for twenty years, until May i, 1866, when, owing to political changes, he withdrew. Mr. Agan, who is still living, is a fearless and independent writer, and under his editorial guidance the Standard gained the respect of his constituency. In 1847 the Sj'racusc Democrat, started in 1S46 by Clark & West, and sold the ne.\t year to John Abbott, was absorbed by the Standard. Various political changes culminated in 1848 in the rejection of the reg- ular delegation to the Baltimore Democratic Convention, and left the "Barn- burners," as they were termed, no part in the choice of a Presidential can- didate and at liberty to bolt, which they did, and the Standard advocated the action and joined in support of Van Buren. The paper suffered some loss of patronage on accoimt of this policy, and soon afterward Mr. Smith sold his interest to Moses Summers, who had been foreman of the estab- lishment, and the firm became Agan & Summers. Eight years later Mr. Agan sold his interest to William Summers, brother of Moses, the firm style being Summers & Brother. The Democratic party had meanwhile become reunited, and the Standard continued as its local organ until 1856, when it refused to support Buchanan, accepted more liberal ideas, and hoisted the Fremont colors. In 1850 the Standard absorbed the Syracuse Reveille, started in 1848 by William L. Palmer and William Summers. Going back to May, 1846, a daily issue was published, but suspended three months later. It was resumed in January, 1850, and continued as a five-column sheet for two years, when it was enlarged to a seven-column, in which form it was publisheil until its change to a quarto, as hereafter noted. With the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion Moses Summers joined the army. He had become an active Abolitionist, and was one of the prime movers in the famous " Jerry Rescue," which occurred on the 3d of October, 185 i, as elsewhere described in these pages, and the Standard su^- ported the government through the Rebellion in the most unqualified man- ner. Mr. Summers returned in 1865, and continued at the head of the paper until May 9, 1866, when Charles E. F"itch, who had been connected with the Snnday Herald in this city, and was known as an educated and gifted writer, acquired an interest in the establishment. On July 23, of the same year, the firm of Summers & Company was formed, consisting of the Summers brothers, Charles E. Fitch, and Henry A. Barnum. Mr. I-'itch, Moses Sum- 548 Memorial History of Syracuse. mers, and F. A. Marsh (the latter city editor) acted as editors of the paper, while William Summers acted as business manager. A more vigorous pol- icy was adopted, tlie paper was made a nine-column sheet, and it soon ad- vanced to a leading position among the newspapers of the State. After the death of President Lincoln the Standard opposed the John- son administration and supported Horace Greeley in his campaign for the highest office in the country. With his defeat and the election of Genera! Grant the Standard adopted an independent policy, but within a year fell again into the straight Republican ranks, where it has since continued, though in later years it has maintained a high standard of independence of utterance. In September, 1873, Mr. Fitch sold his interest to his partners, and not long afterward resumed his gifted pen as editor of the Rochester Chronicle, where he has won honorable ilistinction. Mr. Summers again put on the full editorial harness, and in the same year T. D. Curtis, C. H. Lyman, and George W. Edwards acq.uired a portion of the property, Mr. Curtis and Mr. Edwards joining the editorial staff. A little later a controlling interest fell into the hands of Charles E. Hubbell, who engaged Chester A. Lord, of tlie New York Sun, to act as editor-in-chief. This connection lasted only six weeks, when Hugh McDowell (then in Europe), a graduate of Syracuse Uni- versity, became the principal owner, Mr. Summers remaining at the political helm. A few years later he permanently retired from the profession and was given the government post of Warden of the Port of New York, where he was killed by a fall on June 15, 1882. In August, 1880, Mr. McDowell sold out to J. I-'. Durston and E. B. Al- vord, the stock company which had been the nominal owners of the estab- lishment turning over their entire rights to the new firm. Mr. Alvord soon afterward withdrew. Under the tlirect editorial management of Mr. Durs- ton the Standard maintained or excelled its former reputation, and its opin- ions were received with respect throughout the State. On the 25th of December, 1883, the paper was changed to a quarto, in which form it has since appeared. In the winter of 1883 J. F. Durston took in as partners Howard G. White, George I'^. Dana, W. W. Cox, and I'"orbes Heermans, as Directors of the business afTairs of the establishment. Soon afterward Mr. White bought out the entire interests of his partners, but Mr. Durston continued as editor until April, 1887, when the present man- aging editor, Charles R. Sherlock, was installed. On the I I til of October, 1887. the office was removed to its new building in East Genesee street, where is now located a modern, first-class establish- ment, in commodious, convenient, and handsome quarters. A web press was introduced and all other appliances necessary to the production of the representative daily newspaper. TiiF, Pkkss ok Syracuse. 549 Mr. Sherlock began his editorial career on the Syracuse Courier in Oc- tober, 1875. whore he remained as a reporter five years. In September, 18S0, ho accepted the city editorshi|) of the Standard, and in 1882 assumed the same duties on the All)any Evcitiitg Journal. In May, 1884, ho re- turned to Syracuse to edit the Simday edition of the Standard, and was pro- moted to the position of nianaghig editor under Howard G. White, in April, 1887. Though still a young man he (ills his resiionsiblc station with abilitj' and dignity. The editorial statV of the Standard is as follows; Kditor-in- chief, 1 loward G. White; Managing lulitor, Charles R. Sherlock; Associate Editor, Rich- ard \\. Day ; Exchange Editor, W. W. Aldon ; Telegraph Editor, James E. Dever ; City Editor, Irvin K. Webb; Reporters, Eenner H. Webb, Dana C. Carroll, M. C. Kingsley, and John R. Cooper. The Syracuse Daily Courier was st.irted October I, 1856, during the Prcsidt^ntial campaign which resulted in the election of James Buchanan. Its founder was F. L. Ilagadorn. Subsequently it passed into the hands of II. S. McCullom. In the campaign of i860 the Cw/m-r supported Krcck- enridge for President. The friends of Douglass, therefore, started another paper which they christened the Syracuse Union, with Daniel J. Halstcad as proprietor. At the close of the campaign the two papers were united under the name of the Syracuse Daily Courier and Union, with Daniel J. Halstead as sole proprietor. The last name was dropped about 1872, and the Syra- cuse Daily Courier has been the name since. On liie ist of January, 1S70, Mr. Halstcad admitted into partnership with himself in the proprietorship of the Courier Messrs. Milton H. Northrii[) and S. Gmney I.apham, under the firm name of D.J. Halstead & Company, each of the partners owning a third. William W. Green, who had been editor of the paper for ten or twelve years, retired from that position and was succeeded by Milton II. Northrup, who has since held the editorship; S. Gurney Lapham became at the same time associate editor, and holds the same position to day. In May, 1873. D. J. Halstcad & Company were succeeded in the ownership by the Courier Printing Company, the bulk of the stock therein being held by the late proprietors. Judge Daniel Prait was made President of the new company, and S. G. Lapham, Secretary, with D. J. Halstead as business manager, and the editorial management remaining with M. II. Northrup. In 1879 Hon. William C. Rugcr was m.ide President of the companj', and Mr. Northrup, Secretary, Treasurer, and Manager. This organization has since remained unchanged. The same company publishes the Syracuse Semi- Weekly Courier, the out- growth of the Onondaga Weekly Courier. In 1874 they started the Sunday Courier, which was almost the pioneer in Sunday journalism, in conjunc- tion with daily journals, in this State. The Sunday edition was discontinued in 1884. 550 Memorial History or Syracuse. The Syracuse Evening Herald was founded by Aitluir Jenkins in Janu- ary, 1877, tlic fir.st number making its appearance on the I5tli of tlie month. It was a six-column sheet, set in large type, and the place of publication was in a job printing office over the store ot J. & F. B. Garrett, The paper was started under ihe humblest auspices, the propiiett.r being i)raclically without capital to invest in the enterprise. The original list of employees consisted of five journeymen printers, one apprentice, and one editor, beside Mr. Jenkins himself, who filled the positions of business manager, reporter, and foreman of the composing room. Work on the first issue began as early as 5:30 o'clock in the morning, and it was nearly 7 in the evening be- fore the forms could be sent to the press, poor material and the lack of ex- perience in "making up" being the largest factors in the delay. On the thirtieth day of its publication the paper reached a circulation of 3,000 copies An amusing incident in the Herald's early history was in connec- tion with the hanging of Kdward Thomas, the colored murderer, in the State I'rison at Auburn. On the da)' of the execution a pictme of the unfortu- nate man was published with the stor)- of iiis crime and death at the hands of the law. Tiie "cut" was a stroke of enterprise to wiiich the people here were altogether unaccustomed. It struck the p. Garrett, and soon afterward a single-cylinder Hoe press, with engine and boiler, was bought of Wells Hrothers. The task of paying for these improvements brought new trials, and at times the future looked dark indeed. At the right moment, however, a few citizens, of whom the Herald \\a.d made friends by its conduct up to that tiine, came forward with temporary loans, and one gentleman, whose business foresight was equal to the discernment of a career for the struggling sheet, lent liberally of his means to transfer the in stitution from individual to corporate control. A stock company was formed. TiiK I'Kiiss oi- Syracuse. 551 a double-cylinder press was bouglit, and in August, 1878, the Herald's sued from that time until 1882, when the paper was enlarged into an eight-page sheet. The Herald again outgrew its facilities of publication, ami a change of location to more commodious quarters also became imperatively necessary. On the first of May, 1883, the office was accordingly moved to the Crouse liuilding, in Warren street, where it still remains, anil the first stereotyped edition of the Herald was printed on that day from a Scott web perfecting press that had been bought in June of the preceding year. Upon the organization of the /A7V//(/Compan)' in June, 1878, Mr. Jenkins was elected President, and he has lillcd the position ever since. Francis E. Leupp secured an interest in the company soon after its formation, and he was its first Vice-President, his election being simultaneous with the creation of the ofifice on June 24, 1885. Mr. Leupp from his first connec- tion with the Herald was its managing editor until the opening of the Presi- dential campaign of 1884, when, in order to devote himself exclusively to editorial work, he yielded that desk to Henjamin E. Wells, who has contin- ued in the position up to the present time. Mr. Leupp's connection with the Herald ceased in the spring of 1885, James \i. Baily securing his in- terest in the company and succeeding him in the Vice- Presidency. In the summer of 1882 the Herald became a charter member of the United Press Association. The Syraeuse Journal IS the-oldest daily newspaper in Onondaga county. Its Weekly edition is al.so one of the oldest in Central New York This paper has gained a large circulation, and exercises a wide influence in pub- lic affairs. Three times in its history has its printing establishment been destroyed by fire, and at the writing of this account the Journal is replac- ing its plant after a visitation of fire that destroyed its entire material property. The pioneer was the Western State Journal, started March 20, 1837, by V. W. and S. F. Smith. In 1844 it became the Weekly Jonrnal, and July 4th of that year S. F. Smith began publishing the Daily Journal. These papers have had various owners: In 1847, Barnes, Smith & Cooper ; in 55- Memouiai. HisTouv of Svkacuse. [849, VivtisVV. Smith ; in 1S53, S. Haiglit & D. Merricle ; in 1854, Thomas S. Tiuair; in 1855, J. G. K. Truair ; in i860, Truair, Smith & Miles; in 1872, Truair, Smith & Co.; in 1874, Truair, Smith & Bruce; in 1884, Smith & liruce; in 1885, the Syracuse yt^/zrwf?/ Compan)-, the present owners. Tile Journal lias had various editors in its long career. Its most distin- guished conductor was Vivus W. Smith, who was justly esteemed one of the very ablest political writers this State has ever produced. His son. Carroll K. Smith, has been its editor since 1862, and continues in ciiarge of the paper. Anson G. Chester, Andrew Sherman, Silas F. Smitli, D wight n. Hruce, Edward Cooper, George Tcrwilliger, Thomas S. Truair, and George G. Truair have at various times iield editorial relations u ith the paper. It has grown into a great establishment, sianding among the prominent and influential ncwspajjers in the State of New York. Tlic Weekly Express was established in 1887 by Stephen Stedman. It is largely devoted to the rural pojiiilation of Central New York, among whom it has a large circulation. The Sunday Morning Times was established in November, 1S76, by Fralick. Hitchcock & Weed. Mr. Fralick withdrew at the end of about a year, and the paper was continued by Hitchcock & Weed until the death of the former, soon afterward, when A. M. Knickerbocker acquired an in- terest. The establishment was bought, in 1888, by Messrs. A. M. Knick- erbocker and M. H. Robbins. The Times was edited during the first seven years of its existence by H. P. Smith This paper is now enjoying a pros- perous career, and is ably edited and managed. M. H Robbins, a publisher of experience and ability, is the manager, and Mr. Knickerbocker is the edi- tor. They are enterprising journalists and present a popular paper of large circulation. The Comnureial 'Traveler (monthly) was established in September, 1875, as the organ of the Commercial Tr.iveKrs' Association It is still in existence. KUUCATIONAI. JOUK.N AI.S. The School Ihillelin is an odvicatioiial journal published monthly. It was started September:, 1874, ami in April, 1875, was consolidated \\ith the Neiv York State T.dneational Journal, and was published by Davis, 15ardeen & Co. until I8^'o, wiien it passed under the sole ownership of C. VV. Baidcen, who has since owne.l and edited it. .Mr. Hardeen is a publisher of school books, and has made his journal an acknowledged authority on all matters pertaining to education. The Vo/tni^ Ladies' Miseellany was issued November 7, 1845, by a com- mittee of young ladies belonging to the Syracuse Female Seminary. It lived only twelve weeks. /iITVfz^Xv^^^ The Press of Syracuse. 553 The Teachers Advocate was commenced in 1846, by L. W. Hall, pub- lisher, and Edward Cooper, editor. In 1847 it passed into the hands of Barnes, Smith & Cooper, and was continued about a year, when it was sold to Joseph McKean, and removed to New York. The District School Journal, ovgs.n of the State School Department, was removed from Albany to Syracuse in 1847 and published two years by L.W. Hall and one year by Barnes, Smith & Cooper, when it was taken back to Albany. The Free School Clarion was publi.shed a few months in the fall of 1849, by Wm L. Crandall. The Seraph's Advocate (monthly) was started in the fall of 1852 by Miss Keziah E. Prescott, and continued about a year. THE RELIGIOUS PRESS. The Northern Christian Advocate (organ of the ]\I. E. church) is a weekly journal which was established in Auburn by the Rev. Mr. Robic, in 1840. In 1844 he sold the paper to the General Conference and from that time until 1862 it was published under the supervision of a Pub- lishing Committee, the Conference appointing the editors. In the last named year the Conference placed the paper in the hands of the Meth- odist Book Concern, of New York city. In 1872 they transferred it to Syracuse and its publication has since been continued here by Nelson & Phillips, as agents of the book concern. The Rev. O. H. Warren, D. D., is the present editor, succeeding the Rev. Dr. D. D. Lore. The American Wesleyan (organ of the Wesleyan Methodist church) was removed from New York to Syracuse January i, 1S48, by L. C. Mat- lock. In October, 1868, Cyrus Prindle became the editor, and he was suc- ceeded by Adam Crooks. He was succeeded by Rev. D. S. Kinney, who continued in the position until his death in 1889. The present editor is Nathan VVardner. In 1887, a handsome block was erected on Onondaga street, where is located a large printing establishment, book store, etc. The Juvenile Instructor (semi-monthly) was first issued from the \Ve.s- leyan office, and is under the same management. The Religious Recorder (Presbyterian) was started in May, 1844, by Terry & Piatt. In 1847, 't passed into the hands of Avery & Hulin, who continued it until 1853. The Christian Work is a monthly journal begun in April, 1876, by the Young Men's Christian Association. 70 554 Memorial History of Syracuse. " The Evangelical Pulpit was started in January, 1854, by the Rev. Luther Lee, and continued about two years. NEWSPAPERS OF THE PAST. The mortuary list of newspapers in Syracuse is a long one, as it is in all similar cities. No profession, no field of human labor, attracts to itself such enthusiastic workers, many of whom are, alas, either without experience or lacking in the necessary qualifications for newspaper success and hence their struggles are fruitless and their literary offsprings are doomed to early death. The third newspaper published within the limits of Onondaga county (two having been previously issued in Manlius) was The Lynx, which made its appearance at Onondaga Valley (or Hollow) in 1811, with Thomas C. Fay as proprietor. How long this journal survived we are unable to learn, but probably not very long. The beginning of the apprenticeship of Thur- low Weed is credited to this early printing office. In 1814, Lewis H. Redfield issued the first number of the Onondaga i?^^w/^r, at the Valley village. Mr. Redfield, had learned his trade as a printer with James D. Bemis, at Canandaigua, whose unlimited confidence in his employee was demonstrated by his aiding him in purchasing his out- fit for the newspaper. Mr. Redfield displayed excellent qualities as an editor, printer, and business man. He continued his paper at the Valley until 1829, when he removed it to Syracuse and consolidated it with the Gazette, the first paper published in the village. The consolidated papers took the name of the Syracuse Gazette and Onondaga Register. In 1832 the establishment was transferred to Sherman & Clark, who changed its name to the Syracuse Argus, and suspended the publication of it about two years later. In October, 1826, the village of Salina was favored with its first news- paper, which was called the Salina Sentinel and was published by Reuben St. John. In the next year it was changed to the Salina Herald and was published a short time under the management of Fred Prince,when the name w^as changed to the Salina Courier and Enquirer. It was suspended after the issue of a few numbers. We have been unable to find files or single num- bers of these early publications. The Onondaga i?f/«(5//Vrt« was started in Syracuse in 1830, by W. S. Cambell. In 1834 it passed into the hands of J. B. Clark & Co., and its name was changed to the C7(;;«/'//////(^'/rt/w/'. In 1835, L. A. Miller became its proprietor and changed the name to the Onondaga Chief. He sold it in 1837, to J. M. Patterson, who issued it as the Syracuse Whig. In 1838 it passed into the hands of J. K. Barlow, who continued it about one year. The Syracuse American was started in 1835, by John Adams and lived about a year. Newpapers of the Past. 555 Under the pretentious title of the Empire State Dcuiocrat ami United States Rei'ieiVy a paper was issued in 1840 by Hiram Cummings and contin- ued about three years. The Oncudaga Messenger WAS s\^x\.&A in 1841 by Joseph Barber. In 1842 the name was changed to the Statestnan. and the paper continued one year. The first daily newspaper in Syracuse was the Evening Mail, whicii was published during three months in 1833, by Vivus W. Smith. The Morning Sentinel (daily) was started in January, 1843, by X. M. D. Lathrop, and continued about a year, when the name was changed to the Onondaga Sentinel, and the paper was issued weekly, excepting at brief intervals, until 1850. In 1844, J- ^- T. Tucker, as editor, and James Kinney, as publisher, started the Democratic Freeman. It continued thus a short time, when the name was changed to the Syracuse Star. In 1846 Kinney, Marsh & Barnes were the publishers; in 1847-8, Kinney & Marsh; in 1849-51, Kinney & Masters. It soon afterward passed into the hands of George F. Com- stock, as publisher, and Winslow N. Watson, as editor. In 1852, S. Corn- ing Judd became editor and proprietor. In October 1853, '^ passed into the hands of Edward Hoagland, who changed its name to the Syracuse Repnblican and continued it about one year. From the same office was issued, in 1846, the Syracuse Daily Star, which continued thus until the Weekly Star was changed to the Republican, when it took the name of the Syracuse Daily Republican and was discontinued simultaneously with the weekly. The Bugle Blast and Young Hickory were campaign papers, published about three months in 1844, the former by S. F. Smith, and the latter by Smith & Farmer. The Liberty Intelligencer was started in 1845 by Silas Hawley, and continued one year. The Free Soil Campaigner and the Clay Banner, campaign papers, were published about three months in 1848, the former by Agan & Summers ; he latter was issued from the Journal office. In 1848, Samuel R. Ward, a colored man of exceptional ability, started the Impartial Citizen, a semi-monthly, and continued it about one year. A temperance paper called the Crj'.f/rt/ /"artnient — Present I'catiircs — Commissioners. PRE\'IOUS to the year 1825, the village of Syracuse was substantially without protection from fire, excepting such as might be afforded by the citizens with a few buckets or pails. No sooner was the village incor- porated, however, than steps were taken to provide an engine and other apparatus. At a meeting held on the 9th of Ma)', 1825, the following resolution was adopted: " Ki-.utlvfii , That the safely of the villiajje requires that iminediate measures be taken to procure a got)d fire engine, and that M. I>. liurnet, on behalf of this board, take measures to ascertain and re- port as soon as ma\ be, on what terms such engine with necessary hose, may be procured." The result of Mr. Burnet's investigation was the adoption, on the 7th of June, 1825, of the following preamble and resolutions: ■■ WiiKKKAs, The Albany Insurance Company has proposed to this village, that the said Company will loan the sum of sfi.iKXJ, to be used in the purchase of a good and sufficient fire engine, with proper implements, to extinguish lires, on the following conditions ; — The village to secure the pay- ment of that sum in four years, by a bond under the corporate seal, two years without interest, and after that at three per cent, a year for the remainder of the time, therefore, " A'fselTtti, That the trustees or the village be authorized to efTect the loan of the sum of one thousand dollars on the terms aforesaid, and that the same be applied to the purchase of a good iirst- raie lire engine, and that they procure the same under the corporate seal. " AV.fc/: •<•t Assistant Chief Reilly, and Steamer Engineer Nicholas Eckel, of Co. Xo. 2. was promoted to the position of F'irst Assistant Chief. John P. Quigley, of Co. No. i, was made Second Assistant, the new office being created to meet the requirements of the extended district. A Hayes truck was added to the equipment .11 cl stationed at the house of No. 1, and the old truck was removed to the house of No. 2. In 1888, the department was strengthened by the addition of Hook and Ladder Company. No 2, with a Gleasoi & Haily truck, which was located on Division street,and a second-class Silsby engine located at Engine House No. 2, Wyoming street. A new lot was also purchased in tlie new Ninth ward, and an engine hou.se erected at a cost of $7,785 for steamer No. 5. In 1889 President White was succeeded in the board by Oramel G. Jones, but again became a member of the board in March, 1891. A new Silsby engine was stationed at the hou.se of Engine No. 1, Engine Com- pany No. 5 was organized and a supply wagon was added to the t(]uipment of the department. Syracusk iMKi; Dki'aktment. 569 At the present time (1891) the Fire Department comprises the following officers and companies: Henry Reiley, Chief Engineer; Nicholas Eckel, John V. Quigley and Hamilton S. White, First, Second and Third Assist- ants, respectively. Engine Company No. i, located on Montgomery street, between Wash- ington and Water streets, with a .second-class Silsby engine. Entered the service April 12, 1S88. George T. Shean, foreman. Engine Company No. 2, located on Division street, between North Salina streets, with a second class Amoskeag engine, entered the service October, 1867. Christopher Gebhardt, foreman. Engine Company No. 3. located on Wyoming, near Fayette street, a second class Silsby engine, which entered service December, 1SS7. This is also the location of the Hose depot. In reserve a second class, single pump Amoskeag engine, which entered service in March, 1866. Thomas F. Ryan, foreman. Engine Company No. 4, located on Wolf street, between North Salina and Park streets, second class, double pump Amoskeag engine; entered service November, 1871. William Roushe, foreman. Engine Company No. 5, located at the corner of Hamilton and Furnace streets, third class Silsby engine, entered service June, 1885. Company or- ganized March 31, 1888. L. Dean Avery, foreman. Chemical Company No. i, located on East Genesee street, between Orange and Grape streets. Two Champion Chemical extinguishers equipped with ladders and hand extinguishers. Company organized April 24, 1883. John Murphy, foreman. Hook and Ladder Co. No. i, located on Montgomery street, between Washington and Water streets. Hayes hook and ladder truck and fire es- cape fully equipped ; entered service November 30, 1886. Charles Eckel, foreman. Hook and Ladder Company No. 2, located on Division street, between North Salina and Townsend streets ; second class Gleason and Bailey truck, organized May 30, 1887. Andrew VVolfrom, foreman. Supply wagon, located at hose depot, Wyoming street, entered service May 8, 188S. Edward O'Brien, driver. Boards 0/ Fire Commissioners: — 1877-8 to end of fiscal year — Hon. James J. Belden, Mayor; Henry L. Duguid, President; Henry J. Mowry, Francis Hendricks, Chauncy H. Clark; Charles J. Miller, Clerk. 18789 — Henry L. Duguid, President ; resigned July 20th, and Hamilton S. White, then appointed. Chauncy B. Clark, President, after July 20th. Henry J. IMowry, Francis Hendricks; Charles J. Miller, Clerk. 187980 — Hamilton S. White, President; Henry J. Mowry, Charles Listman, Thomas McManus; Charles J. Miller, Clerk, 72 570 Memokiai. IIistokv ov Syracuse. 1880-81 — Hamilton S. White, President; Henry J. Mowry, Charles Listman, Thomas McManus ; Charles J. Miller, Clerk. 1881-82 — Thomas McManus, President ; Charles Listman, Archimedes Russell, Charles Demong ; Matthew Leahey, Clerk. 1882-3 — Thomas McManus, President; Archimedes Russell, Charles Demong, Charles Listman ; Matthew Leahey, Clerk. 1883-4 — Archimedes Russel, President: Charles Demong, John Dunfee, Charles Listman ; Matthew Leahey, Clerk. 1834-S — Archimedes Russell, President ; Charles D.;mong, John Dunfee, Peter Kappesser ; Matthew Leahey, Clerk. 1885-6— Hamilton S. White, President ; M. L. Yann, Peter Kappesser, John Dunfee ; Matthew Leahey, Clerk. 1886-7 — Hamilton S. White, President; John Dunfee, Peter Kappesser, Martin L. Yann; Matthew Leahey, Clerk. 1887-8 — Hamilton S. White, President; John Dunfee, Martin L. Yann, Edward A. Powell ; Matthew Leahey, Clerk. 1888-9 — Oramel G. Jones, President ; John Dunfee, Martin L. Yann, Clarence G. Brown ; ^latthew Leahey, Clerk. 1889-90 — Oramel G. Jones, President ; John Dunfee, Martin L. Yann, Clarence G. Brown ; Matthew Leahey, Clerk. 1890 91 — Oramel G. Jones, President; Hamilton S. White, Edward Kanaley, Martin L. Yann ; Patrick Sullivan, Clerk. CHAPTER XXXV. CEMETERIES. The First lUirial in the County — Eirsl lUiri.-il (iround in Salin.i — The Second .ind I'rcscnt Hiiry- ing (Iroiind in the First Ward — The Old liurial I'lace of Syracuse Village — Rose Hill Cemetery — Movement for Establishment of Oakwood Cemetery — Dedication. ON the shores of Onondaga Lake, in the rear of the residence of the late Wm. A. Judson, on West Genesee street, now occupied by his widow, is the grave of a man who is supposed to have been the first white person buried within the limits of Onondaga county. This assumption leaves out of consideration the possibility, the probability, perhaps, that some one or more of the Jesuits who visited this locality about the middle of the 17th Cemeteries. 57 • century died and were buried somewhere in Onondaga soil. But whether that is true or not, is unimportant. The lone grave is that of the pioneer, Benjamin Nukerk. Tlie rude stone bears this inscription : Benjamin Nukerk, Died December 7, 17S7, Aged thirty-seven years. Nukerk came to this locality as an Indian trader about the time that Ephraim Webster came, in 1788, and died soon after his arrival. In making excavations near this grave about the year 1845, the late Joseph Savage, who then owned the land in that vicinity, discovered a series of graves ex- tending in a direct line some thirty feet and containing the remains of sev- eral human beings. The bones were mostly decomposed excepting the skulls. Among them was also found a number of bullets. Other remains were found on the same little eminence, the skull in one instance appearing to have been cleft by a tomahawk. A gun, a brass kettle, pipes, flints, and other implements have also been found at various times in that locality. Whether this may be considered as having been a spot set apart in the days of earliest settlement, as a burial place, or was known by Ephraim Webster to have been used by the Indians for that purpose and he, there- fore, deposited the body of Nukerk there; or whether it was an Indian burial place and Nukerk's interment was a coincidence, cannot be answered now. The story of those decaying bones must forever remain untold. The first burial in the village of Salina (and the first, therefore, in what now constitutes the city of Syracuse) was made near the intersection of Free and Spring street.s. There were not many burials made there and they ceased in 1794 and a new ground was used on a part of what is now Washington Park, near the former site of the Presbyterian church. Mrs. Mary T. Gilchrist was buried there in 1794 and a number of members of other families. This site was soon judged too near the business and resi- dence part of the little hamlet, and it was abandoned and burials were next made, and continued down to iSoi, on the ridge in rear of the residence of the late James Lynch. When this spot was given up, in 1801, Sheldon Logan, then Superin- tendent of the Salt Springs, laid out a new burying ground on State land. This ground was on block No. 59, (see map herein,) and most of the remains interred in the Washington Park ground were removed thither. This was used as a public burying ground until 1829, when by an act of Legislature the land on block 43 (see map) was substituted for the other. The trustees of the village, as directed by law, removed the bodies from the old ground to the new, and it has ever since been used as a public cemetery. The old ground was sold at public auction. The first burial ground within the original corporate limits of the vil- lage of Syracuse, was at the intersection of Clinton and West Fayette 572 Memorial History of SvRACUsfi. streets, now partly covered bj' the Hotel Burns and contiguous buildings. Burials ceased here before 1.S19, not more than thirty interments having been made. (See map of the village^ 1834, on another page.) When the village was laid out and mapped by Owen Forman and John Wilkinson, provision was made for a burying ground. It was on the west end of block -j"/ and extended north from Church street to the Walton line. We cannot learn that it was ever used for burial purposes, and from 1819 to 1824 burials were all, or nearly all, made at Salina, Onondaga Hill, and Onondaga Valley. What was afterwards known as the "Old Cemetery," located on West Water and Franklin streets, was laid out by John Wilkinson and Ovven Forman when they surveyed the Walton Tract. The first person interred there was Eliza Spencer, the first wife of the Hon. Thomas Spencer, who died April 2, 1824. The second burial was the body of a Mr. West, a circus rider, who was killed by being thrown from his horse while riding in the old Circus House, on Church, now West Willow street. This ground was used for burials until 1S51. On the com- pletion of the Northern railroad this cemetery was chosen as the place for a station. What remained of those who had been buried there was carefully gathered and removed to other cemeteries, and the ground appropriated for purposes little thought of when the first interment was made there. The village of Lodi was incorporated with Syracuse in 1835 (Act of Legislature, chapter 160). In 1834, previous to this change, the inhabitants of Lodi established a small burial ground on the hill bordered by Beech street. The late Oliver Teall offered for the purpose an acre of ground there, or more, if desired, with the provision that the people of the village should clear and fence it. About half an acre was thus prepared and it was largely filled with graves. This site was long ago abandoned for burial purposes, and most of the remains were removed. On the first of July, 1841, the grounds for Rose Hill Cemetery, contain- ing a little over twenty-two acres, were purchased of George F. Leitch by the Trustees of the village in compliance with a vote of the citizens. The purchase of this tract and its use as a cemetery met with considerable opposition on account of its proximity to the center of the village. A second vote was taken, but it resulted, like the first one, in favor of the purchase and it was made. At a succeeding meeting Gen. Granger made a motion, which was adopted, appropriating $200 for the improvement of these grounds, and the Trustees proceeded to lay out the tract. The first person buried in this cemetery was Ambrose S. Townsend, who died on the 24th of August, 1 84 1. ]5etween 7,000 and 8,000 burials have been made in this cemetery, but interments have substantially ceased. In 1863- 4-5 a great many bodies were removed to Oakwood and since the opening of Woodlawn cemetery the removals have exceeded the interments. About 1S45 one-half acre in the north-west corner of the ground was set off for a Ckmktkriks. 573 Jewish burial place. It is now used by the Reformed Jews exclusive- ly, who bury all their dead there. Between 2,ooo and 3.000 bodies have been buried in the Totters' Field which occupies about three acres on the north side of the tract, but no burials have been made therein since 1855. Dissatisfaction with Rose Hill Cemetery increased as time went on, rather than decreased. It was said to be not easily accessible, nearly des- titute of natural beauty, and did not seem adapted to artistic improvement. Moreover, it soon became apparent that in a few years it would be much too near the business center of the village (soon to be made a city), and its vicinity would be covered with dwellings. Accordingly, many prominent men interested themselves in projects looking to the establishment of a new cemetery which should be exempt from all the objections of this one, and remain forever a beautiful and appropriate spot for the burial of the dead. Prominent among those who first agitated the matter were the late E. W. Leavenworth and John Wilkinson. In 1852 and the few succeeding years several meeting were held for consideration of the important subject. Committees were appointed to carefully e.vamine proposed sites and all the questions entering into the matter, resulting in the final recommendation of the one hundred acres which constituted Oakwood Cemetery as first laid out, as the most available and appropriate tract to be had for the purpose. By this time such leading citizens as Henry A. Dillaye, Charles B. Sedg- wick, John B. Burnet, Hamilton White, E. W. Leavenworth, C. T. Long- street, Robert B. Raymond, Charles I'ope, A. C. Powell, Israel Hall, Allen Munroe, and others had became deeply interested in the project. For vorious reasons, however, the enterprise was delayed until the sum- mer of 1857, when the subject was again revived and with more enthusiasm than at first. Hamilton White, E. W. Leavenworth, J. L. Bagg, Lewis H. Redfield, C. T. Longstreet, John Wilkinson, A. C. Powell, and H. A. Dil- laye particularly interested themselves in the movement. Papers were drawn up as a basis for organizing an association, and terms of purchase of the grounds were verbally agreed upon. Now came the severe financial stringency of that period, which for a short time delayed the consumma- tion of the plans. But in 1858 the final and successful effort was made for carrying out the project, Messrs. White and Leavenworth being foremost in the work, which continued with energy until the summer of 1859. Ar- rangements were made for the purchase of the first twenty acres of Charles A. Baker, and with Henry Raynor for the remainder of the tract. The Jamesville Plank Road ran through the grounds and it became necessary to secure the consent of a majority of the stockholders of the road to the necessary change in its course ; also of a majority of the inhabitants along the east and west road, crossing the Plank Road near the toll gate, to which the Plank Road was to be changed ; and also of the Commissioners of Highways of the town of Onondaga, in which the road is embraced, and 574 Memorial History of Syracuse. finally the right of way across the lands of Charles A. Baker and Dr. David F. Colvin had to be obtained. These obstacles and their removal seemed interminable and required a great deal of time during the year before the object was finally and entirely accomplished. The necessary fund was raised by subscriptions, payable in one, two and three years, with interest. On the 15th of August, 1S59, the subscribers to the fund met at the Mayor's ofifice and organized the Association of Oakwood, and elected the following trustees : Hamilton White, J. P. Haskins, John Grouse, John Wilkinson, E. \V. Leavenworth, Archibald C. Powell, Austin Myers, Allen Munroe, Timothy R. Porter, Robert G. Wynkoop, Thomas G. Alvord, J. Dean Hawley. On the following day a meeting of the trustees was held at the ofifice of E. W. Leavenworth and the following officers were chosen: E. W. Leavenworth, President; A. C. Powell, vice-President ; Allen Mun- roe, Secretary, and Hamilton White, Treasurer. At the same meeting a resolution was adopted, on motion of Mr. Alvord, instructing the officers of the association to purchase of Messrs. Baker and Raynor the lands first embraced in Oakwood on the terms theretofore agreed upon, viz : $9,500 for the twenty acres in front, bought of Mr. Baker, and $1 5,000 for the seventy-two and seventy-nine one hun- dredth acres, bought of Mr. Raynor. Agreeably to such resolutions, the purchase was made and the papers exchanged on the 5th of September thereafter. The trustees made immediate preparations for the improvement of the grounds, and early in October, Howard Daniels, an accomplished land- scape gardener from the city of New York, with the aid of fifty or si.xty men, commenced work and continued it till the month of December. The first person buried at Oakwood was Mrs. Nellie G. Wilkinson, who died on the 6th, and was buried on Tuesday, the 8th day of November, 1859. The first monument of any kind erected within the bounds of the cemetery, was that of James Crouse, esq., on Section No. 13, during the winter of 1859-60. Oakwood Cemetery was dedicated with public ceremonies in the 3d day of November, 1859. Since that time there have been purchased thirty acres additional lying on the south side of the orignal tract, and twenty-five acres extending across the rear of the previous tract. There purchases cost about $22,600 00. A beautiful mortuary chapel with vault was erected at a cost of about $20,000 and dedicated on the 24th of November, i,S86. It occupies an at- tractive site on Midland avenue, near the entrance and affords convenience for .services in inclement weather and for temporary reception of the dead. The number of burials made in Oakwood down to May, 1891, is 7,600, and there are 2,100 lot owners. Cemeteries. 57: Oakwood, as its name indicates, was originally almost an unbroken oak forest, interspersed with a few pine, ash. maple, and many hickory trees, and filled with underbrush, logs and stumps. But the many diversities of gracefully rounded hillocks, sweeping slopes and spreading valleys, all gashed with deep ravines and long winding gullies, were there, and they caught the sagacious eyes of those to whom we are so deeply indebted for its present condition, years before any steps were taken towards its purchase and improvement. Generally speaking, the whole cemetery grounds face the west, rising with a gradual ascent to the eastern boundary on the hill-top, which com- pletely overlooks the valley, city and lake. There is, however, a sharp, for- est-covered ascent, to the southward from Midland avenue, from the top of which the land stretches away to the south. It is this southern portion which comprises the purchase of thirty acres, made in iS6g. Many beauti- ful lots crowning the knolls, or reaching far down the fair lawns, have been cleared of the natural forest, except here and there a specimen of more than ordinary beauty, and their places supplied with trees, shrubs and flowers of rare varieties and foreign nature. Sprinkled thus among the deciduous trees, are seen many symmetrical, upright cones of evergreen, their dark colors making a delightful contrast with the lighter foliage and verdure sur- rounding them, while they also help to relieve the dreariness of the winter landscape. In his dedicatory address, Gen. E. W. Leavenworth thus spoke of this beautiful town of the dead : "Within its one hundred acres is embraced a combination of attractions which, if anywhere equaled, are nowhere sur- passed. Placed most fortunately, not too near the city, nor too remote from it, mostly covered with young, thrifty woods of the second growth, so abundant as to allow great opportunity for selection, its surface diversified by the most beautiful and varied elevations and depressions presenting views unrivaled in their extent and their magnificence — rendered already attractive by lawns, and the most picturesque scenery, it is all that the high- est judgment and taste can demand, or the liveliest fancy paint. And the careful hand of improvement will, each successive year, develop and height- en the charms with which nature has so liberally adorned it." In this lovely enclosure have been erected many beautiful examples of memorial tombs and monuments, and the number is being added to each year. Nearly every family of prominence in the city has purchased as their taste directed from among the innumerable beautiful lots and expended lav- ishly from their means in the erection of memorials to their "loved and lost." The burial grounds at Salina and at Geddes are sufficiently described in the earlier chapters devoted to those villages. St. Marys Conctery. — The purchase of the old Episcopal church by Rev. Michael Haes, in 1S43, which long served as St. Mary's church, at 5/6 Memorial History of Syracuse. the corner of Montgomery and Madison streets, was very soon followed by the purchase of the burial lot facing on what is now Renwick avenue, for a Catholic cemetery. The cemetery remained under control of the Bishop, together with other church property, until the passage of the law requiring all Catholic cemeteries to be incorporated, when this one became an incor- porated institution. The present Board of Trustees are : Bishop Ludden, Vicar-General Lynch, Father John Grimes, ( pastor of St Mary's church,) John A. O'Reilly, and Eugene Mack. This old burial ground is nearly filled, and its use has been a great deal curtailed since the establishment of St. Agnes Cemetery. SL Cecelia (Round Top) Cemetery. — This cemetery is now in disuse, and its history is very brief. The tract of land comprising about fifty-five acres was purchased by the late Father O'Hara in September, 1S64, the purchase price being $ 1 1,000. A subscription was circulated and about $2,000 col- lected, which was applied on the payment for the land. Giving to a differ- ence of opinion as to with whom the future title to the land should lie, the Bishop interdicted the use of the cemetery for Catholic burials in 1S77 and it has not since been used for that purpose. The tract of land has greatly increased in value. St. Agnes Cemetery. — This beautiful burial ground is on the road lead- ing to Onondaga Hill, where it lies on the hilLside facing the east and pre- senting a variety of landscape which renders it a most attractive and ap- propriate spot for a "citj' of the dead." It comprises a tract of about forty acres, which was purchased in 1872, largely through the efforts of the late Rev. Dr. O'Hara. It is incorporated under the State law, the following persons being the incorporators: Robert McCarthy, Matthew Murphy, Dennis B. Keeler, Patrick Phclan. Thomas Nesdall, Thomas I5ra7.elle, Rich- ard Clancy, Patrick Hall, J.ihn Mcdriliy, John McGuire, John O. S. Lynch, Patrick Corbett. Robert McCarth}' was elected the first president and still holds the office, and J- hn McCarthy, secretary. The present ofificers, aside from president, arc Matthew Murpiiy, Secretary and Treasurer. Directors, Robert McCarthy, ,\Iatthew Murphy, John McCarthy. Patrick Lynch, John McGuire, Rev. J.imes S. M. L)nch, Rev. John F. Mullany, Wm. Kearney, Edward Lewis, Edward Joy, Patrick Slattery, James Lighten, Rev. J. J. Kennedy, John Moore. The grounds of this cemetery have been greatly iiii[)rovt.d and embel- lished by graded roadways, ornamental trees and shrubbery, and niany beautiful and costly memorials grace its knolls and dells. Down to the present time there have been a little more than 3,000 burials made here. Woodlaivn Cemetery. — This cemetery association was incorporated April 7, iiSSi, with the following trustees: Irving G. Vann, Frederick Miller, Thomas Ryan, Amos L. Mason, George P. Hier, John F. Voshall, Lyman Secret Societies. 577 Stevens, James Barnes, Charles Simon, Charles Schlosser, and Nathan F. Graves. These were elected as officers: Irving G. Vann, President ; Charles Simon. Vice-President; James l^arnes, Secretary and Treasurer. These officers have all been continueti to the present time. At the date mentioned the cemetery grounds were in tlie town of Salina, but the extension of the city boundaries brings them within the city limits. They cover 105 acres and front on Manlius street. The first interment was made in May, 1881, and the number now exceeds 2,600, with 1,025 'ot owners. A large receiving vault has been erected, and many beautiful monuments ornament tlie enclosure. The present trustees are as ft)ilows : Irving G. Vann, President ; Thomas Ryan, Amos L. Mason, Charles Listman, George Schieder, George P. Hier; James Barnes, Secretary and Treasurer ; Lyman Stevens, Charles Simon, Vice-Presidents ; Charles Schlosser, Newell E. Loomis, William Rhode. \\'illiam Rhode is Superintendent and resides at the cemetery. CHAPTER XXXVI. secret societies. Free and .\ccepted Masons — The Kirst Masonic Lodge in .Syracuse — Its Location in Salina — .Syracuse Lodge, No. 501 — Other .Masonic Lodges— The First Odd Fellows Lodge — Present Lodges aiid their Ofticers. THE first duly authenticated body of Free and Accepted Masons organ- ized within what are now the limits of the city of Syracuse was Salina Lodge, No. 327, located in the village of Salina, now embraced in the First and Second wards of the city, which was warranted, or chartered, on the 2d daj' of September, iS 19. and for a time held its communications in what was tlien known as Beach's, afterwards Sanger's, tavern, located on the corner of Salina and Wolf streets. Its existence must have been brief, as no papers can be found, either at the former seat of the lodge or on file in the Grand Secretary's office, in the city of New York, touching its member- ship or duration. On the 2d day of January, A. L. 5826, A. D. 1826, a dispensation was granted for the organization of Syracuse Lodge, No. 484, ami on the lOth of June, following, a warrant was issued, by the Grand Lodge, cm- powering Henry Newton to act as its first Master; Joseph Slocum as its first Senior Warden; and William Malcolm as its first Junior Warden. Its meet- ings were held in the then new Syracuse House, in rooms fitted up for it 73 578 Memorial History of Syracuse. (according to a custom which then generally prevailed among the lodges of holding their meetings in public houses), until about the year 1831, when it ceased work, owing to the influence of the great tidal wave of anti-Masonry which was sweeping over the country at that time. The original warrant, together with the tin case containing the same, made over fifty years since by one of its earliest members, Mr. Isaac D. Lavvson, are in possession of Mr. George J. Gardner, of this city, to whom they were given by the late Russell Hibbard, who was one of the last officers of the lodge. On the 23d day of July, 1844, a warrant was granted constituting and re-establishing Syracuse Lodge, under No. 102, naming Luther M, Tracy for Master; Henry Newton for Senior Warden ; and Hiram Judson for Junior Warden. This lodge held its meetings in Masonic Hall, Empire Block, being the north wing of the present Empire House, until August, 1849, when it removed to Frazer Hall, in what is now known as the Courier Building, corner of East Genesee and Montgomery streets, where it remained until January, 1850; it then removed to New Masonic Hall, in the Alvord Block, on South Warren street, now a part of the Remington Block. Here it remained until November, 1852, when it removed to the Stanley Block, No. 38 South Warren street, on the site of the Snow Building. Thence it was again removed, in 1S56, to No. 63 South Salina street, New Masonic Hall, leasing the rooms there in connection with Central City Lodge, No. 305, which had expended several thousand dollars in fitting up, preparing, and beautifying the same. This lodge continued to work until February, i860, when, " on the request and complaint of the members of that lodge," its warrant was demanded and surrendercti, together with all its properties, and on the 8th day of June, following, it was declared forfeited b)' the Grand Lodge. On the day last menliuned, June 8, i860, a warrant was granted by the Grand Lodge, then in session, and issued under date of July 5, i860, to Syracuse Lodge, No. 501, authorizing the following named brethren to act as its first officers: Lewis E. Joy, Master; John F"rary, Senior Warden; and Edward S. Dawson, Junior Warden. This lodge held its communications at Masonic Hall, on South Salina street, for a number of years, and then fitted up and removed to rooms in the Bastable Arcade. It subsequently removed, in 1876, to Nos. n and 39 South Clinton street, where it remained until May, 1886, and then re- moved to its present quarters in the V. M. C. A. Building. Its present officers are as follows: H. W. Greenland, W. M.; A. Richard Phillips, S. W.; A. 1). Soule, J. W.; Jose[)h Waller. Treasurer; B. F. Stevens, Secretary; W. F. Relyea, S D.; F. D. Helmer, J. D.; S. L. White, jr., S. M. of C; E. M. Raynor, Chaplain; J. P. Gardner, Tyler; Geoorge E. Pabst, Organist; Charles H. St. John, Marshal. Secret Societies. 579 Central City Lodge, No. 305, never worked under dispensation, like most lodges, but commenced Masonic labor iiiuler its warrant direct, re- ceived from the Grand Lodge on the 7th day of June, 1853. Its first war- ranted officers were George N. Williams, Master; Joshua G. Bigelow, Senior Warden ; and Robert M. Richardson, Junior Warden. Its communica- tions were held in Masonic Hall, Stanley Block, South W'arren street, occu- pying it jointly with Sj'racuse Lodge, No. 102, and Syracuse Royal Arch Chapter, No. 70, until 1856, when, having fitted up new and more appropriate rooms at an expense of several thousand dollars, at No. 63 South Salina street, it removed thereto and occupied the same for about ten years. A favorable opportunity offering, by the erection of a new building, now known as 85 and 87 South Saliiia street, to secure more eligible and commodious rooms, it again spent a large sum in appropriately decorating and furnish- ing them, and christening its new quarters " Central City Masonic Hall "; it removed thereto in 1871, where it is still located. Its present elective oflficers are as follows, viz : E. B. Covert, W. M.; O. L. Brownell, S. W.; H. E. Plaisted. J. W.; D. W. Peck, S. D.; C. E. Billington, J. D.; L. F. Weaver, S. M. of C; A. Weidman, J. M. of C; George J. Gardner, Chap- lain ; Chas. A. Weismore, Tyler ; Geo. E. Pabst, Organist ; J. D. Beswick-, Marshal; R. H. Parker, Treasurer ; L. D. Burton, Secretary. Salt Springs Lodge, No. 520, received its dispensation and held its first regular communication, by virtue thereof, on the I7tli day of September 1 86 1, at the office of Harry Gifford, in the First ward of the city. On tiie lOth day of June, following (1862), it received a warrant from the Grand Lodge authorizing it to hold its communications "in the First ward of the said City of Syracuse," and appointed John F. Sherwood the first Master, Henry ]•". Greene the first Senior Warden, and Peter Smith the first Junior Warden thereof At the annual communication of the Gratid Lodge, in 1867, the restriction in regard to location in the P'irst ward of the city was withdrawn, and on the iith day of November, succeeding, the lodge re- moved to No. 27 North Salina street, where it remained until its removal to the White Memorial Building, on the 22d day of May, 1877. The present officers of this lodge are : George M. Babbitt, W. M.- J. W.Carrick, S. W.; R. A. Landon, J. W.; H. O. Pratt, Treasurer; Henry Youell, Secretary ; George Derby, S. D.; S. Blanthin, J. D.; James A. Wheelock, S. M. of C; M. Knauber. J. M. ofC; A. Abrahams, Chaplain ; L. Witneben, Tyler; George E. Pabst, Organist. Cryptic Masonry. — Central City Council, No. 13, Royal and Select Masters, was granted a warrant by the Grand Council, R. and S. M., of the State of New York, on the 5th day of June, i860, constituting the follow- ing named companions the first officers thereof, viz.: T. I., Sejniour Jl 580 Memorial History of Syracuse. Stone, Master; R. I., Stiles M. Rust, Deputy Master; and I., Charles W. Snow, Princ. Cond. of the Works. This body has met as occasion has re- quired in the rooms leased by the other Central City bodies, and dispatched all necessary work. Its last elected officers are as follows, viz.: T. M. Bar- ber. T. I. M.; Wm. Gilbert, D. M.; J. H. Duncan, P. C. W.; H. VV. Plumb, Treasurer; E. C. Tallcott, Recorder; H. G. Stone, Capt. G.; E. C. Hall, Cond. ofC; G. L. McAllister, Marshal; H. T. Morgan, Steward; C. A. Wies- more, Sentinel. Capitular Masonry. — In the early part of the year 1820 a dispensation was granted to organize Salina Chapter of Royal Arch Masons, No. 70, and on the 9th of February, 1821, a warrant was granted naming; Wilhain Bald- win as first High Priest; Henry Case, King; and Matthew Van Vleck, Scribe, thereof. This chapter met in the village of Salina, now incorporated within the limits of the city of Syracuse, and worked under its dispensation and war- rant regularly, with the exception of an interregnum during the " troublous times" occurring between 1828 and 1831, until the year of 1837, "hen. in the general suspension of Masonic bodies, which took place at that period, it became dormant, and remained so until the year 1849. On the loth day of February, 1826, a warrant was issued to said Chap- ter No. 70, in place of the original warrant issued in 1821, which was said to have been lost, appointing Noah Tubbs, High Priest ; Joel Wright, King ; and Amos F"oot, Scribe, thereof, their convocations to be held in the vil- lage of Salina, This is the warrant held by Central City Chapter, No. 70, under which it now works. On the 25th day of January, 1849, the fol- lowing companions assembled for the purpose of re- organizing the Chapter, viz.: Lyman R. Averill, Samuel R. Matthews, Morris Kain, George VV. Robinson, and Joseph Jaqueth, who were members of the said Chapter, and the following Royal Arch Masons, not members of the Chapter, but desirous of becoming such, viz.: John M. Clark, A. G. Brovver, Jerry Penficld, Archibald Perkins, Philip Sharp, Amos Story, Benjamin French, Dearborn B. Richford, and Sanford C. Parker.. An election for officers was then held, resulting as follows: Lyman R. Averill was elected High Priest; Morris Kain, King; Joseph Jaqueth, Scribe ; Benjamin F. Green, C. of H.; Sam- uel R. Matthews, P. S.; Levi Adams, R. A. C; Josiah Watkins, M. of 3d v.; Zcbulon Kinne, M. of 2d V.; Jonathan P Hicks, M. of 1st V.; Matthew Van Vleck, Treasurer; George W. Robinson, .Secretary ; Elisha Clark, Tyler; and Morris Kain and Samuel R. Matthews, Stewards. The above proceedings were had preliminary to action by the Grand Chapter, on the 7th day of February, 1849, whereby Salina Royal Arch Chapter, No. 70, was revived, and its title Changed to Syracuse Chapter, Secret Societies. 581 retaining the same number (70), and by said action it was " authorized to hold its meetings in the city of Syracuse." The following named petitioners were the only members embraced in the revival of the said Ciiapter, viz.: Lyman R. Averill, Joseph Jaqucth, 15enjamin F. Green, Levi Adams, Joshua VVatkins (?), Zebulon Kinnc, Jonathan P. Hicks, Matthew Van Vleck, GeorgeVV. Robinson, Elisha Clark, Sanford C. Parker, Benjamin F"rench, Abraham (?) G. Brower, John Newell, Jerry Penfield, Archibald Jenkins, Dearborn B. Richford, Henry Lake, Anson (Amos) Story, and John M. Clark. Under this action of revivification the above members held their first meeting " February i6th, 1S49, at 2 1-2 o'clock p. m., at Masonic Hail, Empire Block, Syracuse," and at once proceeded to an election for officers- such step having become necessary by several of the officers elected under date of January 25th, 1849, being ruled out for reasons unknown and not embraced in the list of petitioners. The result of this election was as fol- lows, viz.: Lyman R Averill was elected High Priest; Benjamin F. Green, King; John M. Clark, Scribe; Sanford C. Parker, C. of H.; Benjamin French, P. S.; Abram G. Brower, R. A. C; Levi Adatns, Dearborn B. Bick- ford, and Jerry Penfield, M. of the Vails; George W. Robinson, Secretary ; Matthew Van Vleck, Treasurer; Archibald Perkins, Tyler ; and Amos Story and John Newell, Stewards. Its meetings were held in the Emi)ire Block until August 29, 1849, when it removed to the " Frazee Block," holding its first meeting there at that date ; thence it moved to " New Masonic Hall," Alvord Block, South Warren street, holding its first meeting there January 9, 1850; thence on the 17th day of November, 1752, it moved and held its first meeting in the Stanley Block, No. 38 South Warren street (site of the Snow ]?uiiiling), and in 1856 to the Washington Block, No. 63 South Sahna street. On the 3d day of February, 1864, the following resolution was adopted by the tirand Chapter of the State of New York : ■• Resoh'td, That Syracuse Chapter. No. 70. be authorized to change the name of said Chapter from ' Syracuse ' to ' Central City," and that the said Chapter shall hereafter be known and distinguished by the name of ' Central City Chapter, No. 70.' " In the year 1871 the Chapter moved, with the other Masonic bodies, from No. 6], to Nos. 85 and 87 South Salina street, where it is now located. Its present officers are as follows, viz.: George J. Gardner, H. P.; H. W. Greenland, King; O. L. Brownell, Scribe; Chas. P. Clark, Treasurer; L. D. Burton, Secretary ; T. M. Barber, C. of 1 1.; M. B. P"airchild, P. S.; George C. Hanford, R. A. C; A. E. Aldridge, M. of 3d Vail ; James E. Baker, M. of 2d Vail; A. Weidman, M. of ist Vail ; Charles A. Weismqre, Tyler. Ckivalric Orders of Mason ly. — On the 17th day of March, 1856, a 582 Memorial History of Syracuse. dispensation was issued creating Central City Encampment, and appointing the following named Sir Knigiits as its first three officers, viz.: Clinton F. Paige, Grand Commander ; Harlow W. Chittenden, Generalissimo ; and William L. Palmer, Captain-General. On the 6th day of February, 1857, a warrant was issued to said officers by the Grand Commandery of the State of New York, under the name, number, and style of " Central City Com- mandery, No. 25, of Knights Templar and Knights of Malta,"in accordance with action previously had by the General Grand Encampment of the U. S. A., changing the title of " Encampment " to " Commandery," and the title of the first named officer from " Grand Commander " to " l-lminent Com- mander." Under this warrant it has worked to the present time, first, at No. 63 South Salina street, and then at Nos. 85 and 87 South Salina street, in connection with the other Central City bodies. Its present officers are as follows, viz.: A. S. Edwards, Commander ; John H. Duncan, General- issimo ; Herbert W. Greenlapd, Captain General ; Rev. Jeremiah Zimmer- man, Prelate ; Hiram W. Plumb, Treasurer ; Edward C. Tallcott, Recorder; Wm. Crabtree, S. W.; Emerson J. Eddy, J. W.; Hugh T. Morgan, St. Br.; Alvin J. Garrett, Sw. Br; C. V.. Billington, Warder ; Horace G. Stone, E. C. Hall, Charles A. Byington, Guards ; C. H. Norton, Armorer ; Charles A. Weismore, Sentinel. Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite. — The first step taken for the introduc- tion of this Rite in that portion of the State lying west of Albany was on the 1 6th day of February, 1862, when 111. Bro. Nicholas Mickles, of New York city, convened the following named brethren in a room in the Syracuse House, viz.: Orrin Welch, George J. Gardner, Seymour 11. Stone, Stiles M. Rust, and Chas. W. Snow, and by special dispensation from the Supreme Head of the Rite, authorizing him to do so, communicated to them the ritual of the various degrees embraced in the Lodge of Prefection and Coun- cil of the Princes of Jerusalem, being from the fourth to the sixteenth, in- clusive, of this Rite. On the 27th day of November, 1862, warrants were granted to the five above mentioned members, also to Simon De Graff, George W. Harwood, and Martin V. B. Hart, they all having in the meantime duly qualified themselves by receiving the remaining degrees of the Chapter of Rose Croix and Consistory of S. P. R. S., thirty-.second degree, to organize and work the several bodies of Central City Lodge of Perfection, Central City Council of Princes of Jerusalem, Central City Chapter of Rose Croix, H. R. I). M., and Central City Consistory of S. P. R. S., thirty- second degree, to which warrant of the last mentioned body were also added the names of Clinton F. Paige, of Binghamton ; John L. Lewis, of Penn Yan ; and Zenas C. Priest, of Utica. Secret Societies. 583 With the exception of bodies of this Rite, at that time dormant or work- ing, in Albany and New York, these were the first and only duly consti- tuted bodies of this Rite in the State. For a number of years their meet- ings were held at No. 63 South Salina street, and on the removal of Central City Lodge, No. 305, and other bodies to Nos. 85 and 87 South Salina street, room.s were fitted up and prepared especially for these bodies at a great expense, to which they removed and where they are now all working. The present elective officers are as follows, viz.: William Gilbert, T. P. G. M.; O. L. Brownell, H. T. D. G. M.; C. L. Woodward, V. S. G. W.; H G. Stone, V. J, G. W.; R. H. Parker, thirty-third degree, G. O.; H. W". Plumb, thirty-third degree, G. Treasurer ; li. C. Tallcott, G. Secretary ; K. C. Hall, G. M. ofC; H. T. Morgan, G. Captain; F. Krhard, G. H. B.; C. A. Weis- more, G. Tyler. Central City Council, Princes of Jerusalem. — The officers of this Council are as follows: Amos A. Edwards, M. E S. P. G. M.; Oscar L. Brownell, G. H. P. D. G. M.; C. E 15i]lington, M. E. S. G. W.; E. C. Hall, M. E. J. G. W.; Hiram W. Plumb, thirty third degree, V. G Treasurer; E C. Tall- cott, V. G. Secretary; Henry B. Pomeroy, V. G. M. of C; Clarence L. Woodward, V. G. M. of E.; F. Erhard, V. G. Almoner; C. A. Weismore, V. G. Tyler. Central City Chapter of Rose Croix. — Officers as follows : Charles E. Ide, thirty-third degree, M. W. and P. M.; E. C Hall, M. E. and P. K. S. W.; H. G. Stone, M. E. and P. K. J. W.; Henry B. Pomeroy, M. E. and P. K. G. O.; H. W. Plumb, thirty-third degree, R and P. K. Treasurer ; E. C. Tallcott, R. and P. K. Secretary; F. Erhard, R. and P. K. H.; John H. Duncan, R. and P. K. M. of C; C. E. Billington, R. and P. K. Captain G.; C. A. Weismore, R. and P. K. Tyler. Central City Consistory, S. P. R. S., Thirty-second Degree. — Officers as follows, viz.: J. H. Duncan, Commander in-Chief; C. E. Ide, First Lieuten- ant-Commander; William Allen Butler, Second Lieutenant-Commander ; R. H. Parker, thirty-second degree, M. of S. and G. C; C. H. Norton. G. C; F^. W. Plumb, thirty third degree, G. Treasurer; E. C. Tallcott, G. Secretary ; H. C. Bronson, G. E. and A.; F. Erhard, G. H.; C. E. Billing- ton, G. M. of C; E. C. Hall, G. Captain G ; M. C. Pierce, G. S. B.; C. A. Weismore, G. S. Meets fourth Mondays at Masonic Hall. The government of this Rite is vested in the '• Supreme Council of Sov- ereign Grand Inspectors- General of the Thirty-third and last degree, An- cient Accepted Scottish Rite, for the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the U. S. A.," whose Grand East, or seat of power, is at Boston, Mass. Its active membership is limited. Its honorary membership is based upon a pro rata proportion of members of the fourteenth degree, made in several 584 Memorial Histokv of Syracuse. States or jurisdictions. The resident members of this supreme body are as follows, viz.: George J. Gardner (thirty third degree), Seymour II. Stone (thirty-third degree), Abel G. Cook (thirty-third degree), Charles P. Clark (thirty third degree), Austin C. Wood (thirty-third degree), Albert Becker, jr. (thirt)'- third degree), Richard II. Tarker (thirty- tliird degree), Hiram W. Plumb (thirty-third degree). INDEPENDENT ORDER OF ODD FELLOWS. In the year of 1842 the subject of Odd Fellowship was for the first time discussed in the social circles of this community. What first awakened an interest in the subject was the frequent publication in the eastern papers of this State of notices of meetings, funerals, etc., headed with those cabalistic characters, I. O. O. F., of which people in this locality were then in blissful ignorance. The spirit of womanly curiosity was aroused. A meet- ing of those interested was held, and it was resolved that measures be taken to organize a lodge, to be called " Onondaga Lodge." The laws of the Grand Lodge requiring five or more brethren to unite in petitioning for a charter, it was requisite that a number should be initiated in order to equal the constitutional requirement ; and not deeming it expedient to commence operations till a sufficient number could be obtained to fill all the principal chairs, the following persons volunteered and agreed to qualify themselves, viz.: William W. Willard, George H. Sloat, Daniel D. Denton, George J. Gardner, William S. Wood, J. Gates Willard, and Jonathan Haldwin. The nearest lodge then in existence was Oneida Lodge, No. 70, at Utica, of which Joseph Seymour, much respected and who died in this city, was then Noble Grand, and in which lodge these candidates were all proposed and in due time initiated. The election and installation of officers then took place, and the following officers took their seats for the first term ending March 31st, or until their successors were installed, which took place April 7, 1843, viz.: WilHam W. Willard, Noble Grand; George B. Sloat, Vice-Grand; Daniel D. Denton, Secretary ; George J. Gardner, Treasurer; William S. Wood, S. S.; Myer Extien, O. G.; Moses Hellman, I. G.; Jonathan Bald- win, C; J. Gates Willard, Warden. A room was fitted up at an expense of several hundred dollars in the attic of the block used by the Onondaga County Bank and Bank of Syra- cuse, corner of Washington and South Salina streets, of which a lease was taken for the term of ten years, and which room continued to be occu- pied by Onondaga Lodge, and later at times by the various lodges of the city, until near the expiration of the lease, when a more commodious and richly decorated hall was procured on the corner of Salina and Fayette Secret Societies. 585 streets, in which the order continued to hold its meetings until the destruc- tion of the hall by fire on the morning of Sunday, February 3, 1856. At that ])(.Tiod there were but seven lodges in operation throughout the whole portion of this State west of Schenectady, viz.: Three at Kuftalo, two at Rochester, one at Ithaca, and one at Utica, a territory now represented by more than four hundred lodges of this order. During the existence of the lodge there had been up to January i, 1856, initiations, 455 ; additions by card, 53 ; making a total of 508 members. In the year 1S45, in connection with Syracuse Lodge, a purchase was made of a large lot in the Rose Hill Cemetery, which was surroundtd with a substantial iron railing, decorated with the various emblems of the order. The first interment therein, and the first funeral the lodge was called on to attend, was that of Philo C. Weaver, of Oneida Lodge, No. 70. From Onondaga Lodge went out several colonies and established Odd Fellows' Lodges in Syracuse and in several towns of the county — Syracuse Lodge, No. 109; Salina, No. 97; and Alphadclphia, No. 44, in this city. Since then there have been added to the number Lessing, No. 163, and Lincoln, No. 180. These work in the German language. In addition to six lodges in the city is Cynosure Encampment, No. 14, a flourishing institution which was formed by a union of Mt. Nebo and the other encampments and cantons mentioned below, of Syracuse, and Uncas Encampment, of Baldwinsville. This encampment and four lodges occupy Odd Fellows' Hall, near the City Hall; the other three lodges have each beautiful halls. The officers of the various lodges are as follows : Alphadclphia Lodge, No. 44.— H. B. Stone, N. G.; B. F. Matthews, V. G.; J. VV. Bronson, Secretary; Edward Davis, Financial Secretary; William White, Treasurer. Onondaga Lodge, No. 79. — O. H. Harris, N. G.; E. J. Finley, V. G.; W. S. Karker, Secretary ; C. R. Williams, Financial Secretary ; James Noakes, Treasurer. Salina Lodge, No. 97. — Scott Ransom, N. G.; J. W. Patten, V. G.; Addison Gifford, Secretary ; John Eastwood, Financial Secretary ; Daniel Bruce, Treasurer. Syracuse Lodge, No. 109. — William H. Hotaling, N. G.; E. VV. Plunder, V. G; J. D. McChesney, Secretary; William L, Mowry, F'inancial Secre- tary; T. V. Gage, Treasurer. Lessing Lodge, No. 163.— Jacob Miller, N. G. ; Simon Rosenbloom, V. G.; Jacob Levi, Secretary; Nathan Wien, Financial Secretary; Solomon Lederer, Treasurer. Lincoln Lodge, No. 180. — Robert Grub, N. G.; Peter Drumm, V. G.; Frederick Neu, Secretary ; Daniel Wurth, F"inancial Secretary ; Frank Geiger, Treasurer. 74 586 Memorial History of Syracuse. Cynosure Encampment, No. 14 — W. H. Hotaling, Chief Patriarch; John Jaeckcl, S. W.; George H. Tim m ins, J. W. ; Henry Clutterbuck, H. P.; John D. Cornue, Inside Guard ; Jacob Stoby, Outside Guard ; James Noakes, Scribe ; John Morgan, Guide. Salina E7icampmcnt. No. 114. — Scott Ransom, Chief Patriarch; A. Uttman, S. W.; S. P. Walkup, J. W.; Charles Heagle, H. P.; Fred Alvord. F. Scribe ; John Murray, Scribe. Lincoln Encampment. — Karl Bieliler. C. P.; Karl Emig, H. P.; Frederick Neu, S. W.; L. Stuber, J. W.; Robert Grub, Scribe; Jacob Fickeis, Treas- urer ; Daniel Wurth, P. Secretary. Canton Danforth, No. 31. — A. Cornwall, Captain ; William L. Mowry, Lieutenant; W. A. Hotaling, Ensign; F. R. Main, Clerk; F. H. Cook, Treasurer ; I. L. A. Cobet, Standard Bearer ; E. W. P^lunder, Sentinel. Canton Union, No. 6. — Scott Ransom, Commander; D. H. Bruce, Cap- tain ; John Gilcher, Lieutenant ; W. H. Wilderer, Ensign ; A. Uttman, Financial Secretary ; VV. F. Jones, Clerk ; J. W. Patten, Standard Bearer. Lincoln Canton, No. 38. (Instituted Jan. 27, 1891.) — Fred Sembach, Captain ; Philip Oswald, Lieutenant; Charles Grub, Ensign ; Peter Drumm, Clerk; Louis Stuber, Treasurer; Jacob Bock, Standard Bearer. CHAPTER XXXVH. PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS ol- .SYRACUSE. The Police Departmenl— The Syracuse Water Works Company— The Syracuse Gas Light Com- pany—The Telegr.iph and Telephone in Syracuse— Onondaga County Orphan .\sylum— The State Idiot Asylum— St. Joseph's Ilospiial— House of ihe (Jood Shepherd— The Old Ladies' Home- Business Men's Association — Bureau of l.al.or end Ch.irities. Tup: police force of Syracuse as at present organized is young, dating back only to 1869; but the difficulties of preserving peace and quietude in the village and city prior lu chat date appear to have been at times greater than at present, although the population and the territory now to be gov- erned has increased many fold. The fact is that the police control of the village and the young city was, like all other municipal affairs, in an incip- ient state, and lacking in all of the qualities to be acquired only by experience. The present splendid condition of the force is the result of gradual growth, commendable management, and careful study of the needs of the city. The first mention found of an incipient police force in Syracuse is the re- PuiiMc Institutions. 587 corded payment of $25 to H. W. Durnford, in March, 1827, for "services as Police Constable." In 1828 tiie same sum was paid to Charles Cook for similar services. It is to be inferred, in the absence of records to the contrar)-, that police service in the village, at least outside of what was performed by the regu- larly elected constables, was for some years of a transient and very inter- mittent character, shown to have been the case at several different periods, when some mild epidemic of crime, or the lawlessness of gangs of the rough element in the population, stirred the authorities to activity. Several of these occasions have been sufficiently described in earlier pages of this work. The celebrations of the P'ourth of July, after the village had reached a population of a few thousand, seem to have commonly demanded extra efforts to preserve the peace. Thus in 1S38 si.x men were employed on Jul)' 2d for one week as a night watch at $1 per night. It was afterwards decided that three men would be sufficient, but just how man)' were actually employed on that occasion, or for just how long a period, can be judged only by the fact that on July 1 6th the bill for night watch was ordered paid at $81. The period between 1S40 and 1850, or a considerable portion of it, was one of unusual lawlessness and crime. In the summer of the year 1841 a meeting was held at which a Committee on Night Watch, consisting of seven citizens, was appointed. After a thorough investigation tliis committee re- ported seventy-five places open for the sale of liquor in the village, and that the situation demanded " extraordinary measures to protect citizens and their property." The approaching horse races, the prevalence of gaming houses, and the numerous fires were alluded to in the report. The result was that the sum of $600 was raised to be expended for a night watch, and Nathan W. Rose, Joseph Flick, Joseph Mesmcr, James IJurrell, Charles A. Huntoon, and Thomas Griffith were appointed, with the first named man as Captain. Their pay was $1.00 per night. This force continued in service until about the first of December of that year. In addition to these Zopher H. Adams, I'hilo N. Rust, and Joseph Flick were appointed to act as Special Police Constables for a short period, including the Fourth of July. Upon such transient organizations, and such protection as was afforded by the con- stables, the village depended during its existence. With the establishment of the city government came the introduction of new police arrangements, though nothing like a "system" can be said to have been adopted until a few years later. On the 2ist of December, 1848 (the first year of the city government), a public meeting was called, " in view of many midnight burglaries and other crimes," to consider the best means of abating crime in the future. This call was signed by about fifty 588 Memokiai. Histokv of Syracuse. respectable citizens, and the meeting was held on the 22d. Sylvester House was recommended as a suitable person for Police Justice. In 1 85 I Mayor Wheaton suggested an inquiry into the police system to render it more efficient, and proposed to furnish the force a room and pro- vide a court-room. At about the same time the Council adopted a resolu- tion that "Police Constables for the ensuing year be required to lodge at the Watch House, two each night, without e.xtra compensation." The names of the police for the year 1852 were Varnum C. James, Emery Ormsby, Harry Henderson, Thomas Davis, Joseph Kinyon, L. M. Holister, and Henry Shattuck. Ten " Special Police Constables " were ap- pointed for March and April,, because of the numerous fires. In March, 1853, a Committee of the Common Council was called on to report on the expediency of better organizing the force. There were then eight officers, and the committee recommended the appointment of one of the number as Chief and the payment of $500 annually to the members. In 1854—55 the office of Chief of Police was abolished by a charter amend- ment, and the duties of such position substantially placed in the hands of the Police Justice, while the Mayor was made largely responsible for the gen- eral efficiency of the force. The nominations to be made by him were to be confirmed by the Common Council. On an earlier page of this work allusion has been made to the nimierous fires which alarmed tlie populace, and to the prevailing lawlessness, rowd)'- ism, and crime of the latter part of 1855 ^""^ '^^^ early part of 1856, which at length created so much indignation that a public meeting was called to consider changes in the charter, "having for their object the better and more economical management of the affairs of the city." Meanwhile a commit- tee had been appointed by the Conmion Council to prepare a bill for tlie improvement of the police system. This action was taken in deference to the popular feeling at that time. A meeting was held Februar)' 7th to con- sider the changes in the police system, as proposed by the committee, at which Jason C. Woodruff presided. The result was a decision to retain the police force substantially as it then existed, and to re-create the office of Chief of Police with broad and well-defined powers. The question of establish- ing a Recorder's Court was also raised, but no action was taken. In this s.ime month of February another public meeting was held to de- vise a plan for protecting the city against incendiaries, burglars, and robbers, and the result was the appointment of a temporarj' paid night watch. At the charter election Andrew Y. Thompson was made Police Justice (to fill vacancy), J. C. Cuddeback having been asked to resign. Two other meetings were held in March in relation to the better gov- ernment of the city, and approving of the charter amendments in this regard. Puiu.ic Institutions. 589 The salary of the Chief was fixed at $800; that of the Justice at $1,200; and of policemen at $600. With tliese changes, and the appointment of good men, the city entered upon a period of greater peace and (luictudc. Thomas Davis was then Chief. Karly in the year 1857 the Chief reported that ihtre were about 500 places in the city where liquor was sold on Sundays, and proclaimed that he should enforce the laws against this traffic. One of the local papers soon afterward congratulated the community on the excellent condition of the city under the existing police force and Justice Thompson's administration. During the war period there was not much change in the police force calling for particular mention. There were occasional appointments of spe- cials for the better control of the rougher elements at some particular times, but as a rule the force as it then existed, and under its very creditable man- agement, was sufficient to preserve the peace of the city, even though it was an important recruiting station and rendezvous of the Union army. In Mayor William D. Stewart's inaugural address of 1867 he recom- mended doubling the numerical strength of the police force. Fred Schug then occupied the position of Chief, and he was succeeded by Thomas Davis. The organization of the police force upon its present basis was effected in pursuance of an Act of Legislature passed February 15, 1869. The act provided for the election in that year of four Police Commissioners, two of whom should be elected by ballot, and the two receiving severally the next highest number of votes to those declared elected should be appointed by the Common Council. Two of these officials were to hold their offices until March, 1871, and two until March, 1873. After that the term of the office was made four years, two to be elected in each year. This Board was empowered to appoint not to exceed thirty policemen to enter on their duties April 1, 1867; also to appoint such further number as they might deem best, on request of the Common Council, not exceed- ing thirty-four, and also such special policemen as necessary, not exceeding in number the regular force, nor to serve for more than ten days. Compen- sation for the regular force was fixed at $65 per month, and the api)oint- . ment of a Chief, a Captain of the Night Watch, and four detectives by the Hoard, provided for with all necessary general regulations for the govern- ment of the force. On the 7th of May, 1869. tiie City Charter was amended so that the Mayor should have power to appoint special policemen to act as night watchmen. On April 15, 1870, the police law was amended, the pay of the force being increased to $75 per month, and that of the Captain of the Night Watch lo $100 per month. 590 Memorial History ok Syracuse. On tlie 2d of June, 1876, the Police Commissioners were given power, by an amendment to the charter, to issue subptenas for witnesses in exam- ining members of the police force on charges against them. May 17, 1879. the police law was again amended, increasing the numer- ical limit of the force to forty-two men, and the pay to the members to $75 per month, and the number of detectives to seven. On the 2 1 St of June, 1881, other amendments to the law of 1869 were made, tiie principal changes being the transfer to the Mayor of appointment of Police Commissioners, and giving him the power of removal for any cause deemed sufficient to himself In case of the removal of any member of the force by the Commissioners, they were required to make and trans- mit to the Common Council a statement in writing of their reasons for such removal. Ill the Act of 1885, for the revision and consolidation of the several acts it) relation to the city of Syracuse and amending the charter, several minor changes were made in the regulations governing the police force. The maximuiH limit of the pay of the Chief was fixed at $150 per month, and the Chief was made Clerk of the Board of Commissioners. The members of the force were given all of the common law and statutory powers of con- stables, except for the service of civil processes. Under the law first men- tioned (1869) the Police Department of Syracuse was organized. Thomas Davis, then a patrolman, was made Chief in June and held the office until his death, January 8, 1880. He was succeeded by James Har- vey, promoted from detective, January 23, 18S0, and removed September 27, 1881. Onthe2istof October, 1881, Alexander McCall. then a detect- ive, was appointed Chief, and held the office until May 3, 1882. when he was removed, and Charles R. Wright, the present Chief, was appointed to the office. The patrolmen on the force March 29, 1869, were as follows: John ICnnis, Patrick Kiernan, Orson B. Sunderlin, William Hewitt, John J. Her- ron, Jacob Eckle, Thomas Johnson, Alonzo B. Wylum, George Schattle, Jacob Oswald, Victor Matty, Henry Reill)-. Lcristan Adkins, John W.Coles, William B. Patterson. Dennis Cawle\-, Henry Sheerer, Edward Deady, John F. Case, R. H. Sevenoaks, Jacob Houck, Luke D. Seele>-, Abraham Prettie, Thomas J. Behan, George S. Wilsey, James Byrnes. John R\an, Richard J. Wright, James Harvey, Alexander McCall. Of these the following are still on the force: Orson Sunderlin, John Ennis, Patrick Kiernan, William Hew- itt, and James Harvey. In May, 1 890, a Police Electric Alarm system was introduced, at a cost of $12,450, which, with the patrol wagon, introduced in the summer of 1S85, places the department upon a plane of efficiency that is not excelled in any similar city in the country. Public Institutions. 591 It is only simple justice to credit a large share of the great improve- ments made in this department of the city government during the past ten )'ears, to Chief Charles R. Wright. He was a member of the Board of Police Commissioners from February, 1879, to August, 1881, before iiis appoint- ment as Chief, during which period, and ever since, he has made the proper control of his department a constant study. The term of office of the Police Commissioners is four years. Two are appointed every two years. The strength of the police force at the present time is seventy-four policemen, two patrol drivers, one barnman, and the operator of the signal plant. The salary list for the present fiscal year is $71,460. The succession of Police Justices of Syracuse is as follows: Richard Woolworth was the first Justice, and served for one term, when he was suc- ceeded by Hickok. In ICS53 Sylvester House was placed in the office, and continued to 1 860, when L. L. Alexander was elected. He served one term of four years, and was succeeded by George Stevens. His single term closed in 1868, when he was succeeded by Henry Gift'ord. Patrick Corbett was then elected, and served until 1872, when a turn of the political wheel again placed L. L. Ale-xander in the office, which he held until Jan- uary, 1877, when Thomas Mulholland, the present Justice, was elected, and lias held the office ever since — a period of about twenty years. The first Chief of Police was Sylvester House, and the second Robert Richardson Davis. Thomas Mulholland was then made Chief during the two years of Charles Andrews's administration as Mayor, and was succeeded under Mayor Bookstaver, in 1863, by Thomas Davis. Norman C. Otis was given the place under Mayor A. C. Powell, in 1864, and was succeeded by Fred Schug, under William D. Stewart, in 1865, but he was displaced after a short term by Thomas Davis, who served the remainder of Mayor Stew- art's three terms, down to 1868. Thomas Mulholland was then again made Chief, and held the position until the re-organization of the force in 1869, when he was succeeded by Thomas Davis, who continued until his death, January 8, 1880. On the 23d of that month James Harvey was appointed, but was removed September 27, 1881, and was succeeded by Alexander McCall. He was removed May 3, 1882, and was immediately succeeded by Charles R. Wright, who has since administered the office. BOARDS OF POLICE COMMLSSIONKUS. First Board. — Elected February, 1869: Peter Hums, George P. Hier, (larrcU Doyle, Ceorge A. Ostrander. Second Boaril. — February, 1S71 : Charles P. Clark, George P. 1 1 ier, Garrett Doyle, George A. Ostrander. Third Board. — YehTM&iy, 1S73: Charle.s P. Clark, F. W. Deesz, Garrett Hoyle, William Baumgras. 592 , Memorial History of Syracuse. Fourth /?c,7r,/. — February, 1875: William Haumgras, F. W. Oeesz, Daniel Gere, Robert McCarthy. Fifth Hoard.— l^o\f:m\-,,- Orrin Welch (deceased), Daniel Gere, Jacob Knapp. Eighth /^ofln/. — February, 1879: Daniel Gere, Charles R. Wright, Jacob Knapp, John Moore. Ninth /jortn/.— February, 1881 : Daniel Gere, Charles R. Wright, Jacob Knapp, Thomas Murphy. Ttiith /.Wn/. — Appointed August, 18S1: John R. Whitlock, John D. Gray, Charles Schlos- ser, Edward D. Lewis. Eleventh /ioar,/. — U3.y, 1882: J. D. Ackerman, William B. Kirk, jr., Rhody Mara, Thurston W. Brewster. Twelfth /y'oart/.— March, 1883: William H. Kirk, jr., Thurston W. lirewster, J. I). Ackerman, Rhody Mara. Thirteenth />'o,m/.— October, 1884: J. D. Ackerman, 13ruce S. AUlrich, T. D. Brewster, Rhody Mara. Fourteenth /.Wn/. — March, 18S5: T. W. Brewster, Bruce S. AUlrich, Daniel O'Brien, Nicho- las Latterner. Fifteenth Honnl. — \x,n\, 1S85: Nicholas Lallerner, David K. McCarthy. Bruce S. Aldrich, Daniel O'Brien. Sixteenth /><;an/. — January, 1886 : Nicholas Latterner, James II. Doolitlle, Bruce S. Aldrich, Daniel O'Brien. Seventeenth Board.— February, 1887: Darwin L. Pickard, William B. Kirk, Charles Schlosser, Patrick Slattery. Mr. I'ickaid resigned in February, and the other members were removed. The new Board appointed was as follows: Dwight H. Bruce, John W. Vale, Edward D. Lewis, Anton V. .\ltinann. Eighteenth Board. —November, 1SS7: Dwight H. Bruce, John W. Vale, Edward D. Lewis, Anton V. Allmann. Nineteenth Board. — iSii: -Same as above. April 3d D. 11. Bruce resigned, and May 9th George F. Dana was appointed to fill vacancy. Twentieth Board.— ]v,ne 11, 18S8: John W. V.ile resigned, and Philip S. Ryder was appointed to fill vacancy, leaving the Board as follows: Edward D. Lewis, Anton V. Altmann, Philip S. Kyder, and George E. Dana. Twenty-first Board.— 'M&rch, 1889: Same as above. Twenty-seeond /.'ft;;-,/. — March, 1891: Henry Lyon, George E. Dana, Edward D. Lewis, Charles Lislinan. SEMI-PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. Syracuse City Water Works. — Atiiong the first to advocate a system of water works for supplying the village of Syracuse was Capt. Oliver Teall, who was the first Superintendent of the middle division of the Erie Canal upon its opening in 1820. Captain Teall had taken a contract on the canal during its construction, and had removed from Manlius to the Lodi locks as early as 18 19. He became largely interested in land in that vicinity, and erected mills at Lodi, having the right of the surplus water of the canal at that point, which right he retained till it was finally resumed by the State. In connection with Messrs. Aaron Burt and Harvey Baldwin, Mr. Teall became an enterprising and wealthy land owner in that part of the city now included in the Eighth ward, formerly Lodi, but incorporated in the village of Syracuse in 1835. (Laws 1835, Chap. 160.) 'tf:l^^7V^r^^^B/^ Public Institutions. 593 As early as 1821 the subject of water works in the villa<;c had been brought before tlie Legislature. The first act, entitled " An Act to supply the village of Syracuse with wholesome water," was j)assed March 27, I 82 I. It granted the people of Syracuse the rip;ht to use sufficient water for sup- plying the village from any of the springs on adjacent lands belonging to the State, and provided for the election of three trustees, at an election to be held at the house of Sterling Cossitt, innkeeper in said village, on the first Monday in May, 1821, who should have power to transact all business relat- ing to the water works, and to cany into eftect the provisions of said act. It does not appear that the provisions of said act were ever carried into effect, or that anjthing was done under it towards supplying the few inhab- itants then in the village with water. Probably the enterprise would not have paid at that stage of population. The villagers, however, wished to obtain the right and to keep it against a time of need, for the middle divis- ion of the canal was then open, and all were anticipating a marvelous growth into the proportions of a city. The act incorporating the village, passed April 13, 1825, vested all the rights, proi^erty, and powers of the trustees of the water works in the village corporation, and the hj'pothetical water works were placed untier the con- trol of the trustees of said village till 1829. During this i)ei iod it does not appear that the trustees did anything practical towards supplying the village with water. On the 23d of April, 1829, an act was passed authorizing the trustees of the village to convey to Oliver Teall, his heirs and assigns, all the rights, property, and powers of the trustees of the village, as vested in said village by the act of incorporation, for a term of twenty years, and said Oliver Teall was invested with all the riqhts and powers granted by the original act of the year 1821. I'his act also prescribed the amount that Mr. Teall should charge the citizens for water, viz.: a private family a sum not exceeding five dollars a year, a boarding-house ten dollars, and a tavern ten dollars. In case Mr. Teall failed to exercise the rights and powers granted him by this act within one _\ ear from the date there- of, they were to revert again to the trustees of the village; which the)- did, and were again conveyed to the said Oliver Teall, his heirs and assigns, for a period of thirty-five years, by an act passed April 22, 1834. Noth- ing was further done till March 29, 1842, at which time an amendment to the former acts was passed, allowing Mr. Teall to charge ten dollars a year for supplying water to a private family, twenty dollars to a boarding-house, and forty dollars to a tavern or hotel. Under this amendment Mr. Teall began the construction of his water works. The first wooden pipes or pump logs were laid in 1842, or early in 1843, anti brought water to the village from the springs situated at the foot of the hill above Lodi street, 594 Memorial History of Syracuse. on Blocks No. 404 and No. 504. Subsequently Messrs. Ira Seymour and Aaron Burt were associated with Mr. Tcall in the water works, the firm being Teall, Sexniour & Burt till 1849. On the 15th of April, 1849, the present waterworks company was incorporated by special act of the Legislature, under the name and style of the Syracuse City Water Works Company. The original incorporators were Oliver Teall, Ira Seymour, John Wilkinson, Hamilton White, and Robert Furman. The act of incorporation was amended April 8, 1851, requiring the company to supply water on certain terms to the Common Council of the city for extinguishing fires and other purposes. Again, it was amended March 22, 1853, so as to allow the company to increase their capital stock from $60,000 to such an amount as the Directors might deem advisable, not exceeding $150,000, such increased stock to be divided into shares of $50 each. The third amendment, passed February 6, 1855, con- ferred upon the Board of Directors the power to establish rules and regula- tions for the use of water from their works, so as to preserve the same from waste, and to impose such penalties as they should see proper for the viola- tion of said rules and reijulations, not exceeding in any case the sum of fifty dollars. Other amendments were passed in 1864, 1865, and 1877. In 1849 the company constructed a system of water works described as follows: The springs in the valley of Furnace Brook, in the town of Onondaga, were selected for the supply of water. The water was conducted from tliese springs by aqueducts to a large stone well, about eighty rods distant from each, which was seventeen feet deep and constructed of sub- stantial masonry. The well was on Lot 89, in the town of Onondaga. From this well there was a main culvert arison with that of any similar city. Her citizens may not be more generous, liberal, or synipathetic than those of other places; but they have at least realized that, outside of the dictates of humanity, the proper protection anil support of the pour is one of the elements of prosperity in any conimuiiity. At the same time the numerous and ever increasing calls upon the charity of tiie well-to-do have been always promptly and gener- ously met, and the most cordial support given to the establishment of the various institutions having for their chief object the amelioration of the condition of the poor. Previous to the incorporation of Syracuse as a city the care of the poor had been provided for through the common channels of the Board of Supervisors and the Overseer of the Poor, and no institu- tion had then been founded, outside of the Orphan Asylum, for this object. But in 1852, after some agitation, a City Poor and Work House was estab- I'uiiLic Institutions. 603 lished, and $i6,000 were appropriated by the Council for the erection of a proper buildin'^. This action resulted in building the structure now occu- pied by the House of Providence, on the Split Rock road. It was used for its avowed purpose only a little more than ten years, when it was ordered sold to the Catholic denomination, in 1867. The principal reason for its abandonment appears to have been the comparative expense of conducting it as a separate institution. The building has since that time been used by the Catholics as a home for orphan boys and old and infirm people, as described in the chapter on the churches of the city. The direct care of the poor of the city is now under the charge of the city Overseer of the Poor. Hut in addition to his work the various institutions described are indefatigable in seeking out and protecting those who need and deserve private aid. Onondaga County Orphan Asylum. — The Onondaga County Orphan Asylum had its origin in an effort made by an association of ladies in this city — then a village — to furnish a common school education to the poor children of the town. This association supported a school, which was kept by Miss Ann Mead from July, 1S35, to the fall of 1839, when the association was practically dissolved, with funds on hand from sale of school property, etc., amounting to $427.38. In the discussion as to what disposition should be made of this money the condition and wants of orphan and destitute children were considered, and the attention of the ladies, who had been members of the association, and others was arrested. An association was formed for the re- lief of such children, on the 21st of October, 1841. and the above men- tioned fund was placed in its hands. Mr. Harvey Loomis was made Presi- dent, and Miss Bliss, Secretary. On Wednesday, the 2d day of February, 1842, a union fair was held for the purpose of aiding this new object, and the sum of $550.75, over and above all expenses, was realized. Other fairs were held by the ladies from time to time, which were liberally patronized by the citizens, at one of which, held on the 23d of December, 1846, the further sum of $664, above all expenses, was realized. On the loth day of May, 1845, the asylum was incorporated by act of Legislature, and on the following day was organized with John Dunford as President of the Board of Trustees ; William Mitchell, Secretary; and Oliver Teall, Treasurer. Miss Eliza Clark, of Albany, was the first Matron. In 1845 the association rented a dwelling on South Salina street, a little west of Onondaga street, and the asylum was there opened in May of that year. In 1846 the Syracuse Academy Building was purchased of the Syracuse Company for $3,000. 6o4 Memorial History of Syracuse. The grounds were spacious and beautiful, and by the addition, in 1848, of three lots, each four by eight rods, in the northeast corner of the block, they were made sufficiently ample for all the purposes of the asylum. These lots cost $1,000. In the year 1852 the comfort of the orphans was greatly increased by the erection of piazzas on the west side of the building. In the year i860 ample cisterns were built and gas introduced into the building. Blinds also were put upon the asylum in the year 1861, greatly improving its appearance and adding to the comfort of its inmates. In the year 1861 also, through the liberality of the late Horace White, esq., a tasty, ample, and convenient building for a school-house was erected on the grounds, at an expense of $3,000. September II, 18S3, the corner-stone of the large new building front- ing on East Genesee street was laid, and completed in 1885, at a cost of $65,000, which greatly enlarges the accommodations and renders the in- stitution in every way admirably adapted to its purpose. The county compensates the asylum for such childrenas are cared forfrom that source, and the institution has always received the cordial support of the people of Syracuse and Onondaga county through the various channels that have been adopted for its solicitation. The present officers of the asy- lum are as follows : Peter Burns, President ; William E. Abbott, Secretary. The office of Vice President has recently been made vacant by the death of D. P. Wood. Tlie Bureau of Labor and Charities. — This institution has been of almost incalculable usefulness in the city, particularly in the work of discriminating between worthy and unworthy subjects for charity, and in the pro])er dis- tribution of alms. The bureau was organized December 20, 1878, and in- corporated March 7, 1881, with the following charter members: I*ldward A. Powell, Timothy Sullivan, Elias T. Talbot, Austin C. Chase, James L. Bagg, Lawrence T. Jones, and John M. Strong. The objects of the bureau are: (i) To investigate the condition of indigent persons in Syracuse, and so far as practicable to cause them to be [jroperly provided for, so as to prevent them from becoming or remaining paupers or criminals ; (2) to look after the welfare of children in Syracuse found to be wayward, neglected, or improp- erly treated, and so far as practicable to procure suitable employment in homes for them in the country or elsewhere. It will be seen that this field is a broad one, and one capable of yielding a vast amount of good. The number of directors in the bureau is thirty- two, and the first officers were : E. A. Powell, President ; Charles R. Sherlock, Secretary. In 1 88 1 the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children, which is a branch of and united with the bureau just described, was organized and in- Public Institutions. 605 corporatedby the following persons: Timothy Sullivan, James O. S. llunt- ins^ton. Miss Mabel T. White, Mrs. Harriet T. Dunlap, Lawrence T. Jones, and Richmond Kisk. The object of the society is sufficiently expressed in its title. These two organizations work together and under one head, but have separate articles of incorporation. The funds and other means of charity are sujiplied by solicited subscriptions and voluntary contributions. The sum expended for out door relief during the year ending December 31. 1890, was about $2,000 less than for the preceding year, and more than $12,500 less than for the year 1878. which was the year of the organization of the society, showing a reduction of 69 per cent, in the amount of tax- ation under this head. This reduction is directly due to the work of this bureau. The number of children cared for or treated during the year was 286. The present officers are as follows : Charles P. Clark, President ; Rev. Dr. George B. Spaulding, Rev. John Grimes, Wilber S. Peck, p-rederick R. Hazard, Daniel Gere, John Lyman, Miss A. S. Huntington, Mrs. Charlotte M. Wilkinson. Vice- Presidents ; Osgood V. Tracy. Treasurer ; Charles De B. Mills, Secretary ; Lena P. Bennett, Assistant Secretary; Ceylon H. Lewis, Attorney. Tlie NfU> York Stale Asylum for Idiots. — This institution was founded in 1S51, and opened for the admission of inmates in October of that year, in buildings leased for the purpose in Albany. Through the efforts of sev- eral citizens of Syracuse, prominent among whom was the late PI W. Leavenworth, who was then in the State Legislature, the site of the insti- tution was changed to Syracuse in 1855. A building was erected on the hillside to the westward of the city, at a cost of about $70,000. the land having been donated by citizens of Syracuse. The original structure was intended to accommodate I 50 pupils ; but additions have since been made at different times until at the present time its capacity is 530. The asylum premises include about fifty-five acres of land, which is highly improved. The object of the institution is to furnish education and care to idiots of the State who are of a teachable age and condition. The by-laws exclude ap- plicants who are epileptic, insane, or greatly deformed. The education and training of pupils have reference chiefly to developing their capacity for some usefid occupation and the formation of good habits. A large part of the work in the asylum and about the grounds is performed by the inmates. The asylum is under the general control of a Board of Trustees, eight of whom are appointed by the Governor, and the remaining five are ex officio members, consisting of the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary of State. Comptroller, and Superintendent of Public Instruction. The late Dr. H. B. Wilbur was appointed the first Superintendent of the asylum, and to its welfare and success he gave the energies of his life until his decease. May 6o6 Memorial History of Syracuse. I, 1883. He was a man peculiarly adapted to his unselfish work, and the people of the State of New York owe his memory the higiiest respect and gratitude for his labors in connection with the improvement of the condition of the unfortunates who came under his care. For the succeeding ten months Dr. G. A. Doren filled the office of Super- intendent, and in October, i 8S4, the present Superintendent, Dr. James C. Carson, took charge of the institution, and has managed it with excellent success. The present Board of Trustees is as follows : Rt. Rev. F. D. Huntington, Permanent Chairman ; George F. Comstock, Nathan F. Graves, J. W. Yale, A. \V. Palmer, Robert Aberdcin, and George R. Sloan, of Oswego. T/ic Syracuse llovic Association. — The need of an institution in a city like Syracuse which would supply a home for women, especially the aged, and women without employment, without homes, and destitute of means, led to the establishment of the Syracuse Home. The work was in- augurated by about thirty of the prominent women of the city, many of whom had been conspicuous in other charitable works, and whose efforts were aided by those of several men who foresaw the good that might be accom])lished by such an institution. The act of incorporation was passed in 1853, and the institution was opened in a dwelling on South Salina street ; but more commodious quarters were soon needed, and it was re- moved to a residence on East Fayette street, where it remained for thirteen years, its field (A usefulness constantly extending. In November, 1867, fire broke out in the building at midnight, and it was destroyed, and the inmates turned out upon the charity of citizens. They were temporarily sheltered in a building on the corner of Salina and Onondaga streets, and when it soon became apparent that their straightened quarters would have to be abandoned, the late Major Moses D. Burnet presented the lot on the corner of Townsend and Hawley streets to the association, on con- dition that citizens would subscribe a sufficient amount to build a suitable house. By thepersistent workof the managers, among whom were Hamilton White, Horace White, Charles Pope, Ira Cobb, K. B. Wicks, David French, Captain Putnam, Lyman Clary, and Ira Williams, and the ready response of generous citizens, the necessary amount was ])ledged, and tiie corner- stone of the new structure was laid in June, 1869 On the 22d of February, 1870, the building was dedicated, and on the loth of March following the inmates were transferred to their new and beautiful home. At the present time there are thirty-six inmates of the Home, and the average since it foundation has been about forty. The following women have acted as Matrons of the institution : Mrs. Mary A. Reynolds, Rlioda Ann Kincaid, Elizabeth Morris, Agnes Williams, Mrs. Holdridge, Julia M. ruiii.ic Institutions. 607 Willitts. Mary Sherman, Mary W. Curtis (who held the position nine years), Ada Felton, CaroUnc Stevens, Charlotte A. Clark, and Mary E. Cook. The present Board of Managers is as follows : Mrs. C. L. Chandler, Presi- dent; Mrs. W. A. Judson, Vice-President ; Mrs. I. H. Cobb, Vice-Presi- dent; Mrs. W. B. Fairchild, Secretary; Mrs. J. W. Eager, Financial Sec- retary ; A. F. Lewis, Treasurer. St. Joseph's Hospital. — This institution was founded in 1869 by the Sisters of the Third Franciscan Order, St. Anthony's Convent, of this city. Property was bought on Prospect Hill of Phillipine Samsel, wife of Jacob Sanisel, on the i 2th day of April, 1 869, consisting of an old saloon and danc- ing hall, for which was paid $12,000. A structure three stories high, of brick, was built to connect the two older buildings, rooms were partitioned off, and the hospital formally opened on the 6th day of May, 1869. Sister Dominic was placed in charge of the hospital, with Sister Mechtildes, Sister Veronica. Sister Johanna, and Sister Hyacinthe as assistants. In order to raise the necessary funds to pay for the property the Sisters, besides caring for the sick, solicited alms from the people of Syracuse, and received sub- stantial aid in the undertaking. Citizens of the city also took a deep in- terest in the founding of the institution, and aided in rai.sing the funds. C. T. Longstreet himself collected $6,000 among his friends. During the first year 123 patients were treated. In 1870 Mother Marianne was placed in charge of the hospital and held the position for seven years. On the 23d of February of that year the hospital was incorporated. In 1878 Mother Bernardine was placed in charge, and rcinaineii three and one-half years. Sister Dominic was then appointed Superior, and held the position one year, when Mother Bernardine was re-appointed and remained until 1889. In 1882 the hospital was enlarged by a new addition on the south and west sides, and in 1888 another addition was built on the north and east sides, thus making a building 122 feet in length am! 85 ■/> feet deep. The institution was then (jf sufficient capacity to accommodate about 120 patients, and up to the present time has received and cared for over 6,100. Rooms for the Sisters were fitted up with a kitchen, dining- room, two parlors on the first and second floors, several private rooms and three wards on the third floor. In the rear of the hospital is a large laun- dry, and to the left of this is the dead house, which is entirely separated from the main building. A large elevator runs from the first floor of the main building to the operating room on the southwest side, on which the sick and accident cases are conveyed to the different floors. In September, 1889, Sister Genevieve was placed in charge and holds the position at the present time. The Board of Trustees of the hospital comprises five citi- zens of the city, the Rev. Mother Provincial acting as President. 6o8 Memorial History of Syracuse. From the date of the organization of this hospital Drs. R. W. Pease and H. D. Didama became actively interested in its work : the former as attending surgeon, and the latter as visiting physician. Dr. Henry Crouse was selected as house physician, and acted in that capacity for seven years. Dr. J. O. Burt and Dr. J. W. Lawton were also associated with the hospital in its early days. Upon the retirement of Dr. Crouse Dr. D. M. Totman became the house physician, and served as such five years. In 1882 the staff was re-organized with Dr. R. VV. Pease as surgeon-in-chief; Dr. H. D. Didama, physician-in-chief; and the following visiting staff : Medical, Drs. Henry L. Eisner, John L. Heffron, Gaylord P. Clark, and Margaret Stanton ; surgical, Drs. Nathan Jacobson, D. M. Totman, and Scott Owen ; oculist. Dr. U. H. Hrown. Dr. R. W. Pease remained at the head of the svirgical staff, doing active duty and rendering the hospital inestimable service, until the date of his death in May, 1886. To his untiring zeal, his self-sacrifice, and his unequalled skill, much of the good that it has been in the power of the institution to accomplish is due. Upon his death Dr. H. D. Didama was selected chief of the staff, and has so continued to the present time. The following physicians were appointed as house physicians for one year : Drs. W. H. Mills, Frank O. Bright, Calvin G. Stevens, George J. Post, William B. Coats, William A. Curtin, Robert Scott. N. Adelbert Monroe, W. A. Siromenger, S. Boyce Cracton. The present start" of physicians is as fol- lows: Dr. H. D. Didama, chief; medical, Drs. H. L. l^lsner, W. A. Curtin, H. II. Pease; surgical, Drs. I). M. Totman, Nathan Jacobson, Scott Owen ; oculist and aurist. Dr. U. H. Brown; dermatologist, Dr. W. H. Dunlap; gynecologist, Dr. A. B. Miller ; pathologist. Dr. F.W. Sears ; house physician, S. Boyce Cracton. House of the Good S hep kcni — About seventeen years ago two Cana- dian women, members of the Fpiscopal Church, came to Syracuse sick with fever, and were taken to St. Joseph's Hospital. The following Sun- day, at St. Paul's Church, Bishop Huntington alluded to the incident, dwelling upon and regretting the fact that the church people had no hospital in the city. At the close of the service a gentleman offered a house in East Fayette street for this purpose, rent free, if others would furnish it. The offer was promptly accepted, and the hospital was opened almost immedi- ately. Later it was removed to Hawley street. Outgrowing that location, Hon. George F. Comstock, in July, 1874, offered to the Board the present site in Marshall street. The offer was accepted, and steps were taken im- mediately for the erection of a suitable building. This building, as it stands at present, is a wooden structure three stories high, and was completed in December, 1875, and opened for the reception of patients. The name " House of the Good Shepherd " was given to the hospital previous to its ,i3^/u-^^<— ^ Public Institutions. 609 removal from Hawley street. The first officers were: President, Rt. Rev. F. D. lIuiUin<^ton, S. T. D. ; Secretary, Rev. Thomas E. Pattison ; Treas- urer, D. O. Sahnon ; Executive Committee, A. C. Powell, D O. Salmon, D W. Marvin. The first medical staff consisted of Drs. Dunlap, Benedict, Didama, Plant, and Rhodes, and the first surj,'ical staff of Drs. Van Duyn, Mercer, and Pease. The Board of Trustees at present are Hon. George F. Comstock, W. H. H. Smith. W. T. Hamilton. T. W. Durston, Rev. H. R. Lock-wood, D. D., D. W. Marvin, Jacob Grouse, William D. Dunning, with Rt. Rev. F.D.Huntington, President; G. J. Gardner, Secretary; D. O. Salmon, Treasurer. The first Matron was Sister Sophia, who was succeeded by Mrs. Burnham ; then Mrs. Foster; Miss L. B. Mills then took charge, and Miss Dora Traylen, who is the present Matron, succeeded her in the work. The hospital stands upon a sound financial basis, and is well known, not only in Syracuse, but throughout the State. Its doors are open to all who need its care, regardless of belief, race, or color. The number of beds is fifty five, which are filled all of the time. There are in the hospital two memorial rooms, one furnished by Mrs. D. P. Wood, in memory of her daughter, Mrs. Hewlett, and the other furnished by Mrs. W. G. Hibbard, of Chicago, in memory of her mother, Mrs. Peter Van Schaack. There are also three free beds, one supported by the British American Association ; one by Mrs. Thayer- Webb, of Skaneateles ; and the Van Schaack memorial bed by Mrs. Hibbard. The amount necessary to support a bed for one year is $250, and any one may liave this privilege. In 1S85 it was found advisable to estabhsh a department for the train- ing of nurses in connection with the hospital. Miss L. B. Mills, a graduate from Bellevue Hospital, at New York, came to the work, and became Su- perintendent of the Training School and hospital. The school gives scien- tific as well as practical training, there being text books and lectures from the medical staff, and especially by Dr. William G Hinsdale. In 1887 a building was erected on the site adjoining the hospital, for the accommoda- tion of the Training School. It is a two-story wooden structure, containing reception-rooms, dining-rooms, nurses' quarters, and gymnasium. The training covers a course of two years, and discipline is strict. The nurses at present number twelve. 6io Memorial History of Syracuse. CHAPTER XXXVni. INDUSTRIAL GROWTH AND MANUFACTURING INTERESTS. An Estimate of the City's Material Wealth — Its Growth, and the Reasons for it — .A Reflection of its Industries — Capital Kmployed and the Results Wrought Out — Its Schools and Churches — A Sketch of Its More Prominent Manufacturing Lstalilishments. TO REVIEW and estimate the business advantages and opportunities of any city involves much patient thought and persistent labor ; but to justly set forth the enterprise and capacity of the citj' of Syracuse, in a compact yet comprehensive form, requires the aid of masses of statistics and an intimate acquaintance with its affairs, now so diversified, and em- bracing nearly if not quite all the avocations which are found in most large cities. For many years it has been a city renowned for its ambition to thrive and its determination to make for itself the reputation of a control- ing business center. The energy and sagacity of its business men are best shown in what they have accomplished, and it is the design of this chapter to give a pen-sketch of what has been wrought, that which to-day gives the city its commanding influence. There has not been a year of its ex- istence in which there have not been additions to the population and busi- ness growth and prosperity. This can be said of but comparatively few cities, and of itself tells of the steady perseverance and industry of the peo- ple. Originalh", Syracuse had impulse imparted to it by the construc- tion of the Erie Canal, by which the hopes of many places along its line were shattered, while hamlets here and there, more fortunately situated, were given new hopes and encouragement. In this locality Onondaga Val- ley and Onondaga Hill, which had attained considerable grow tli, tinwillingly yielded to the natural causes of their downfall, and joined much of their in- tellectual and business force to the little hamlet in the swamp, which never faltered from that day to the present in its enterprise and determination to secure a place of prominence. Each succeeding year brought new advant- ages of some kind, and the latest invention and aid to development always found an early place in Syracuse. Railroads and telegraphs found their way here very soon after experiment determined their availability, and the latest busine.'^s devices were earliest in practice here. Advantages have increased as the years have passed, until Syracuse is particularlj' well favored, so that her industries have patrons throughout the length and breadth of the land and in other countries. The population of the city for a series of years as reported by the pub- lishers of directories — and is accepted as being the most accurate count Industrial Growth. 6ii made— is as follows: 1845, 15.804; 1850, 22.271; 1855. 25,107; i860, 28.119; 1865,31,784; 1870,44,796; 1875, 54.099; 1880,55,563; 1885, 66,935 ; '891, 91,436. The large increase since 1855 is partially to be ac- counted for by the annexation of Geddes and Danforth, now constituting the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh wards, to the city. A directory count for 1891 places the number of families at 20,561, with an average of four and one half persons to each family. The population is distributed by wards, sexes, and ages according to this count (by Lyman, Horton&Co.) as follows : NUMBER OF MALES. FEMALES. WARDS. FAMILIES. Over 21. 1 Under 21. Over 18. Under 18. TOTAL. I 1093 1468 927 I57I 879 4845 II 2533 3058 2692 3270 2475 III95 III 1667 2487 1524 2376 1476 7863 IV 1535 1990 1 1 13 2392 1054 6549 V 2434 3323 '857 3565 1675 10420 VI ■463 2162 534 2474 577 5747 VII 2408 3214 1795 3468 1664 10141 VIII "33 1521 890 1941 803 5'55 IX 1063 1381 1410 1534 1237 5562 X 805 1273 866 107 1 761 3971 XI 802 995 608 1 168 620 3391 XII 1724 2390 1909 2I2I 1866 S286 XIII 1 167 1335 939 1722 892 4888 XIV 734 958 553 1067 545 3'23 20561 2755s 1 '7617 29740 16524 91436 It must be assumed tliat the count is imperfect, for it would be impos- sible to make it complete. It compares unfavorably with the count made by other directory publishers last year by about 1,500, but which maj' pos- sibly have been erroneous ; it exceeded the census enumeration of the same year by about 5,000. It may be assumed with safety that the popu- lation at this time (May, 1891) is not less than 93,000. The superior shipping facilities with which the city is favored have had much to do with its rapid development, and each year improves and in- creases these advantages. Nine railroads and two canals reach every part of the country, and contribute many products to the seaboard for ship- ment to foreign markets. One hundred aad twenty-eight passenger trains arrive in and depart from the city every twenty-four hours. By means of these all parts of the surrounding country are opened up to the retail as well as wholesale trade, and realizing these advantages tradesmen have created a market for their goods and wares such as attracts patrons from many miles away, because of the excellence and fair prices of their commodities. This is really a railroad center which must grow in importance as the years go by. It is a geographical center as well, and possesses such natural advant- 6i2 Memorial History of Syracuse. ages as must insure its steady growth for many years to come. It has no rival between Albany and Rochester, and intermediate places must continue to contribute to its growth and prosperity. In more recent j'ears, since its population reached three-quarters of a hundred thousand, more of public spirit has been shown in the way of expanding municipal advantages, and latterly enterprises which characterize a thrifty city are talked about with good promise for the future. In addition to well paved streets, good sewerage, and a proper water supi)ly, something needs to be done to show the iusthetic culture of its inhabitants in the way of adornment and in beautifying its numerous parks. Burnet Paik, the gift of John B. Burnet, promises to soon become creditable to the city, when a few more thousand dollars shall have been expended upon it, and by the offer recently made by the Hon. James J. Belden there is now every probability that a fine library, art, and historical building will soon become the reality of something long hoped for by thousands of people. He offers to expend "not less" than $150,000 for the erection of a fire-proof building if the city will furnish the site, and it cannot be long before the structure will be in course of erection, and will doubtless cost all the money which ma)- be required to make it complete in every particular. It was Judge George F. Comstock's gift to the University which insured its establishment here ; it was Mr. Burnet's gen- erosity that gave the city Burnet Park ; it was a grand thing for John Grouse to do to build the Grouse Memorial Gollege for Women ; and the last gift which comes from Mr. Belden towers above, for it is large in money and for all the people. The banks of a city may be e.xceedingly influential in the affairs of a city. They may aid or retard its ad\anccment, according to the business capacity of their own management. While there never has been an excess of banking capital in Syracuse, such as has been employed has ever been liberally applied in aiding business men, though there may occasionally have been times when customers have felt something of the closeness which Wall street sometimes brings to banking capital throughout the countr)-, espe- cially when banks have gone too far in providing for their patrons. Syracuse now has a banking capital of $1,605,000, with eight of the nine banks hold- ing a surplus of nearly $900,000, the ninth bank having but just opened its doors. Besides these there is the Trust and Deposit Gompany of Onon- daga with a capital of $100,000, and the Onondaga County and Syracuse Savings Banks whose deposits run well up into the millions. Considerable amounts of money are brought here from abroad for investment, from sav- ings banks and insurance and investment companies, especially whenever our own savings banks reach their respective limits for loans upon real es- tate. Industrial Growth. 613 Four daily newspapers, of a combined circulation of probably thirty thousand copies for one hundred and fifty thousand readers, and three Sun- day papers, also of large circulation, contribute their best and most power- ful efforts for the advancement of the city's general welfare. P'ew cities are so highly favored in the excellence and enterprise of its press, according to population, as Syracuse. These newspapers have a combined cajntal of $300,000 or more, than which no money in the city is so beneficial to its advancement. The Standard and Courier herald the morning news, while \.\\e Journal and Herald spread the evening news. The Times, Herald, and Standard appear on Sunday. The German papers, religious weeklies, and several other publications are well prepared and influential in their respect- ive spheres. They represent capital to the amount of at least $:oo,ooo. It is quite safe to estimate the capital employed in the publishing and printing business in Syracuse at fully $500,000. The growth of the city is made manifest in many ways, particularly by building operations and the activity in real estate. During the last year nearly or quite 600 buildings were erected, at a cost of not less than $2,000,000. These figures are based on data obtained from architects and builders. Large areas of building sites have of recent years been brought into market, through " syndicates " and otiierwise, thus giving real estate a " boom " like that of many Western cities The tendency of the growth is toward the south, southwest, and southeast, though there is more or less of activity in all directions. The activity which has of late influenced the various street railway companies to extend their roads, so that they now have trackage of more than fifty miles, has done much towaid the de- velopment of the suburbs. The canals were helpful to the commerce of the city last year. The value of the shipments made by them was $5,851,729, while the receipts were of the value of $9,409,5 1 8, as shown by the records of the canal office, where statistics of shipments and receipts are kept by weight and measure. The losses by fire during the year which ended January i, 1891, were much below what the record for the present year will show, in which a dis- astrous fire occurred in March, and by which the total losses are consider- ably in excess of all of those of last year, which amounted to $404,415.71 ; insurance, $2,447,631 ; insurance paid, $323,612.36. The gross weight of the shipments now made annually by the American, United States, and National Express Companies exceeds 15,000,000 pounds. The weight of their receipts does not vary materially from these figures. The American Express Company, particularly, has shown a desire to in every way meet the public needs, and does by far the most of the bus- iness. It is well equipped, and its agent, Alfred lliggins, is ever alert. It 6i4 Memorial History of Syracuse. is believed that he has been in the employ of the company longer than any other one of its thousands of agents. His commission dates from the or- ganization of the company, and he was previous to that time an express agent of other companies. Many companies, of large and small capital, have been incorporated during the year, aside from land syndicates, with capital high in the millions. The capital thus named in articles of incorporation amounts to $2,390,000. There is a constant increase of the manufacturing interests, and it is generally prosperous. The time was when the dependence of the city was largely upon the salt industry ; but that has almost ceased to be even a factor in its progress. Considerable salt is still produced, but the profits of the output are small, not sufficient to encourage the investment of more capital. Railroad statistics cannot be obtained for a period later than for the year which ended January i, 1891. These make the following showing : ROADS. POUNDS OF FREIGHT FORWARDED. OUIBOUND PASSENGERS. New York Central 793-474.000 220,828.000 139.5>4.596 322.666,472 438.575 82.266 167,530 112.777 West Shore D., L. & W Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg Totals 1,476,483.068 801.148 Perhaps no recent invention has become so great a labor-saver as the telephone. It is to the business office what the sewing machine is to the household. Its introduction here is sketched elsewhere, but some statistics are interesting and worth preserving for those who in the future shall wit- ness greater development of its usefulness. The Syracuse Exchange of the Central New York Telephone and Telegraph Company was put in opera- tion in the middle of the summer of 18S7. During the first year 743 in- struments were put in use. This number has been steadily increased until now, when 1,200 are used. There are about 900 miles of wire in the city, in cables and separate, strung on 1,000 poles. Nearly 1,000 miles of wire running through different parts of the surrounding country connect 650 toll stations in various places with the central office. The central ofl^ce is also connected with the Long Distance Telephone system, and communication with places three hundred miles distant is as distinct as with places near by. The last report of the company, covering its last fiscal year, gave this state- ment of operations: Local calls, 3,640,000; daily average of local calls, 10,000; toll messages sent, 52,000 ; toll messages received, 90,000. The business is constantly increasing, and at this writing changes are being Industrial Growth. 615 made in tlie central office which will greatly enlarge its efficiency. The company pays six per cent, annual dividends, and lays away a surplus. VV. H. Girvin is the local manager. Facts connected with the introduction of the telegraph, and statistics connected with it, have a place elsewhere, and need not be recapitulated here. There are 123 incorporated companies doing business in this city. There are 446 names of streets in the City Directory, but as some streets bear two names, — East, West, North, or South, — in addition to name, the actual number of streets may be stated at about 370. There arc thirty- one parks and squares. The intelligence and morality of a city can be estimated in fair degree by the standing of its schools and churches. It is a fact of record that the public schools of Syracuse are of the best, and that their excellent reputation is wide spread. There are twenty- eight school buildings, iuchuiiiig the High School, in which there are 271 teachers — sixteen males and 255 females. There are 13,401 pupils registered, while the number of children in the city of "school age" (five to twenty- one) is 24,600. The average daily attendance of pupils during the last school year was 10,415. The average salary paid to teachers was $541.08 per annum, and the total expense of the schools during the last school year was $235,867.88. Number of volumes in the library, 21,541. Of church edifices and organizations there are about seventy, with de- nominational classification as follows: Presb\terian, eight; Congregational, four; Baptist, eight; Protestant Episcopal, seven; Methodist, fourteen; Church of Christ, one ; Evangelical, two; Independent, one ; Jewish, six ; Lutheran, six; Reformed, one; Roman Catholic, eight; Unitarian, one; Uni- versalist, one; Seventh Day Adventists, one; Christian Scientist, one. Con- nected with them are about lOO Sunday-schools and Missions. The " Min- isterial Association "is composed of the pastors of various Protestant churches. It meets regularly to consider and discuss religious questions, in their gen- eral relation to the church and public. Each denomination also has a " Union," for the advisory government of the churches under its organiza- tion. The seating capacity of all the churches is not quite 40,000 — less than one-half of the population of the city. The records of the postoffice in any place reveal much of the business standing of the place. They tell of the business done by the volume of cor- respondence, the number of stamps sold, the transactions of the various de- partments. The records of the Syracuse postoffice for the year ended Jan- uary I, 1891 (the latest that can be obtained), make this showing: Receipts from the sales of stamps, stamped envelops, postal cards, and newspaper wrappers, $174,010.77 ; number of carriers employed, 43; number of delivery trips daily. 6i6 Memorial History of Syracuse. 102; number of collections daily, 118; registered letters delivered, 16,474; ordinary letters delivered, 5,301,122 ; postal cards delivered, 999. 490 ; second, third, and fourth-class mat- ter delivered, pieces, 2,359,041 ; local letters collected, 470,410; outgoing letters collected 2,182,083 ; local postal cards collected, 223,1 13 ; outgoing postal cards collected, 424.161 ; second, third, and fourth class matter collected, pieces, 231,488; outgoing letters distrib- uted and dispatched, 15.294.680; outgoing papers distributed and dispatched, 5,205,059; number of postal notes and money orders issued, payable in fourteen diflerent countries, 28,- 349; their value. $208616.01 ; number of postal notes and money orders paid, 52,781 ; their value, 1407,579.65 ; number of registered letters and parrels sent, 13,451 ; number of reg- istered letters and parcels received, 28.093 ; number of registered letters and parcels in transit, handled. 61 ,265 ; special delivery letters received, 9.574 ; special delivery letters sent, 6.167. It is estimated that most of the figures of these statistics will be in- creased by at least five per cent, during the current year. They are in strange contrast with those of the days when Postmaster Wilkinson made quarterly payments to the Postoflfice Department of about ten dollars. They show the activity of business men, and challenge those of an)' other city in the United State of the same population. The business of the office has already outgrown the space allotted to it in the Government Building quite recently constructed. The building is of Onondaga limestone, and in some respects of imposing appearance. Postmaster Carroll E. Smith is its present custodian. The coal trade of the city amounts to at- least 450,000 tons annually. Syraciise was formerly a point for transhipping vast quantities t)f coal, but by the construction of railroads through all parts of the country it is no longer necessary to make this city a depot. The street railway system very fairly meets the public necessity, and yet its development is constantly going forward. It is well operated and pop- ular. Electricity will soon be substituted for horse- power on most of the lines. The Consolidated Street Railway Company owns thirty- four of the fifty-two miles of track in the city, and already uses electricitj' on its Third Ward line. The capital stock of this company is $1,250,000. It has a bonded indebtedness of the same amount. During the year ended July i, 1891, it carried 2,200,000 passengers. Its rolling stock embraces about one himdred and forty cars, including many of the newest design. The People's Company, which operates about eighteen miles of track, has not furnished statistics. ■The assessed valuation of the city as made by the assessors for the year 1890 was $43,187,269, which was an increase over the preceding year, 1889, of $2,306,5 14. At that time the city embraced eleven wards, the in- crease to fourteen wards having been made during the last winter. The assessment of real and personal property in Syracuse by wards is shown by the following statement : €^ Manufacturing Industries. 617 WARD. REAL. PERSONAL. AGGREGATE. I *'. 439.374 2.017.775 4.536,140 5.582,875 6,025,335 9.700,130 3.674.560 3.69 '.705 1. 148.825 695.S75 1.575.325 $ 85.000 8,500 867.133 226,000 I I 1 .000 1,548.817 100,500 83.700 14.000 7,500 47.500 $1,524,374 11 2.026,275 Ill 5.403.273 IV 5,808.875 V VI \ll .• \I1I 6,136,335 11,248,947 3.775.060 3.775405 I.\ X XI 1,162.825 703.375 1,622,825 140,087.619 $3,099,650 $43. 187.269 MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES. The following references to many of the more important business estab- hshments of the city conclude this chapter. The pubhshers derive no ben- efit from their insertion other than the satisfaction of adding much valuable matter to the business record of this city. The sketches are valuable for refer- ence to the business man, and with the other matter contained in this chapter will give the future historian an easy starting point. An effort has been made to gather such statistics as would represent the value of ihe whole volume of business ; but it was not possible to reach a conclusion which was satisfactory to the editor. The figures obtained, imperfect and incomplete as they were, indicated figures exceeding $100,000,000, but what the excess really is, is largely a matter of speculation. To secure accurate figures would involve the making of inquiries which few business men would be willing to answer. Bradley &" Company. — This manufacturing company is a direct de- scendant of one of the oldest establishments of Syracuse, it having been founded by Christopher C. Bradley, sr, in 1832. He had a comparatively small machine shop and foundry at 329 West Water street, where the Alexander Iron Works are now located. Mr. Bradley died in 1872, and in that year the Bradley Manufacturing Company was incorporated, which was changed to Bradley & Company in 1878. In 1872 about 100 men were employed. The buildings now occupied cover most of the block bounded b}- Wyoming, Marcellus, Niagara, and West Fayette streets, with the office at 106 Wyoming street. Part of the buildings are five and part four stories high. About three hundred men are now employed, and harvesters, mowers, reapers, the Bradley cushioned-helve hammer, and road carts and carriages are manufactured, all of which find an extended market. The officers of the company are C. C. Bradley, President ; O. F. Soule, Vice- President; W. C. Bradley, Secretary and Treasurer. They turn out an annual product valued at half a million dollars. 78 6i8 Memuriai, History of Syracuse. Sivcct's MatinfacturiugCouipaiiy. — The beginning of this industry should date from October i, I05S, wlicn Anson A. Sweet, William A. Sweet, John E. Sweet, and Charles C. Hates (a brother-in-law of the Sweet brothers) established a business adjoining the Greenuay brewery for manufacturing agricultural implements. In the fall of 1859 Anson A. and William A. Sweet purchased the interests of the other two and began manufacturing cutter knives for mowers and reapers. In i860 they sold the prcperty to the Greenways and established the partnersliip of Sweet Brothers & Co., by taking as partner William B. Cogswell, now of the Solvay Company. They purchased four lots on the corner of Marcellus and Wyoming streets, and continued their industry in a small way. In 1861 Mr. Cogswell sold his interest to George Barnes, but the firm name was continued as before, and the works were named the " Ceresian Cutter Works." In 1863 they began the manufacture of cast steel, under the name of " Onondaga Steel Works," purchased more land in the same block, and erected a small steel works upon the corner of Wyoming and Otisco streets. A stock company was formed of Sweet, Barnes & Company in 1864, and the business was continued and enlarged, not only in cutting apparatus, but in the manufact- ure of fine steel direct from the best American and Swedish iron, by the converting process and melting in pots. The various processes and ma- chinery were invented and carried to success by William A. Sweet. The capital stock of this company was $300,000. In April, 1868, William A. Sweet bought the steel works part of the business of the firm, and began business in his own name. In October, 1868, he took as partner George W^ Haruood, forming the firm of W. A. Sweet & Co., which continued until 1 87 1, when Sweet's Manufacturing Company was organized with a capital stock of $200,000. The works were almost completely destroyed by fire in 1870, but were rebuilt and started within sixty days, and em- ployed at that time about 150 men. The companj' has passed through various vicissitudes, but when death, disaster, dissatisfaction, delays, or dis- appointments have placed any of the stock on the market Mr. Sweet has purchased it, frequently at a heavy premium, until at the present time he owns a great majority of it, and Anson A. the remainder. In 1872 the company purchased the old distillery at Geddcs, which was at that time a ruin, and began the erection of extensive steel works. The business con tinned until 1876, when the property was sold to a stock company (Sander- son Brothers Steel Company) with a paid up capital of $450,000. The lat- ter company was organized in 1876, and was a branch of a company of the same name in Sheffield, England, but in name only, as their works were managed b\' William A. Sweet for seven years. In July, 1883, the stock passed into the hands of the ICnglish stockliolders, and Mr. Sweet withdrew Manufacturing Industries. Cig from the concern, and its subsequent hi.stoiy will be found on this page. In 1874 the Sweet's Manufacturing Company bought largely of property on the east side of West slreet and south of Jefferson street, and erected a new mill. In consequence of the reiiuction of the tariff on wire rods tlie com- pany was obliged to hold that property without any remuneration, but at present they employ on the west side of the street 350 men and 150 on the east side, and the value of the yearly product is now $850,000. The present officers of the company are William A. Sweet, President ; V. H. Nye, jr., Secretary; Anson A. Sweet, Treasurer. Syaciise Iron JVoris. — In the year 1858 these works were started by Howard Delano, on Magnolia street and the canal in Gcddes, and covered about three acres of ground. In 1861 a company was incorporated with a capital of $30,000, which was gradually increased to $200,000. The prod- uct was merchant bar iron, horseshoe and rivet iron, rods, bands, and hoop iron, which was made from pig and scrap iron. Twelve men were employed at first, and the number increased to fifty, with a pay roll of $8,000 per month. R. Nelson Gere was President; Alfred and J. Forman Wilkinson, Vice-Presidents; C. D. Avery, Secretary and Treasurer. The works con- tinued in operation until in 1884, when they had a capacity of forty tons of merchant iron per day. In that year the company failed, and the works remained idle until 1890, when they were purchased by Giles liverson and I'Vederick W. Barker. Since then the rolling-mill machinery has been dis- posed of, and the land and buildings sold to the Paragon Plaster Company, who will locate their works at that place. About the year 1880 the com- pany built a horseshoe factory on the opposite side of the canal from the iron works, at a cost of about $50,000. SaiiJosoii Brothers Steel Co. — This company was organized in I 876 as a branch of Sanderson Brothers & Co.(Limited) of Sheffield, England, with a capital stock of $450,000. The officers were at that time Robert B. Campbell, President; Samuel W. Johnson, Secretary ; William A. Sweet, General Manager. In the year 1883 there was an entire change in the Directors and management of the company, and C. H. Halcomb, of Sheffield, England, was elected General Manager. The works cover four acres of ground in West Fayette street, near Magnolia, adjoining the Erie Canal, and have branch tracks from the N. Y. C. & H. R. K. R. and the I)., I.. & W. R. R. The company employs about 250 men, and manufactures crucible steel, a specialty being made of fine tool steel. The annual product has a value of from $600,000 to $800,000. They have established branch houses at Boston, Cliicago, and St. Louis. The quality of steel manufactured lias a high reputation, and the business extends to every State in the Union. The present officers of the company are: C. H. Halcomb, President and Treas- urer; W. F. Belknap, Secretary. 620 Memorial History of Syracuse. Tlic Whittnan & Barnes Manufacturing Company. — This company was formed by the consoHdation of two companies, namely, the Whitman & Miles Manufacturing Company, of Fitchburg, Mass , and George Barnes & Company, of Syracuse. The original company of Syracuse was the firm of Sweet Brothers & Company, which, in 1864, was made into a stock com- pany under the name of Sweet, Barnes & Company. In 1870 the name was changed to George Barnes & Company, and in 1877 it was made a part of the present company, under the name at the head of this sketch. This company was organized under the State laws of Ohio, having, as it was termed, two parent houses, one at Akron, Ohio, the other at Syracuse, N. Y., with the main office at Akron. Their specialties consist of knives and sections for all reapers, binders, and mowers, made with such extras as are closely allied thereto; also the manufacture of spring keys, spring cot- ters, flat spring keys, etc. The plant of the company in this city covers an area of 256 x 150 feet, fronting on Marcellus and Wyoming streets, and the company at Syracuse employs about 275 men. The employees of the company number about 1,000 men, with works at Canton, 0.,and St. Catha- rines, Ont., Can., besides the so-called parent houses at Akron and Syra- cuse, and with branch houses at Boston, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Chicago, Kansas City, and San Francisco. The present officers are A. L. Conger, of Akron, Ohio, President ; George Barnes, Chairman ; George F. Dana, Vice-President ; Charles E. Sheldon, of Akron, Treasurer; William W. Co.v, Assistant Treasurer ; James Barnes, Secretary. The Phecnix Foundry and Machine Company was organized in the month of April, i 881, and the following officers were chosen: President, A. C. lielden ; Vice-President, Calvin Gould; Secretary and Treasurer, Alvin J. Belden. The present officers of the company are: President, A. C. Belden; Vice-President, M. A. Knapp; Secretary and Treasurer, Alvin J. Belden. The old Phceni.\ I'oundry, situated on the east side of Grape street, be- tween Water street and the luic Canal, was built by Thomas T. Davis and David G. Stafford in 1843. It comprised a foundry, machine shop, and wood shop, and was used originally for manufacturing threshing machines. After running some time for this purpose it was closed up and the property, which appears to have been owned then by Davis, was leased in 1841; to Sanuiel Stapely, Alfred Dunk, William Jackson, and George W. Herrick, who carried on the business under the firm name of Stapely, Dunk & Com- pany. Early in 1846 Mr. Jackson retired from the firm and was succeeded by Alfred Cobb, the firm name, however, remaining unchanged. In 1847 or 1848 Stapely retired, leaving Dunk, Herrick, and Cobb, who, under the name of Dunk, Herrick & Company, carried on the business, which con- -^^^ (O. BtXcX n' /(•;;/., and held that office until June, 1882, when the following officers were elected: President, Austin C. Chase; Vice-President, Erancis Hall; Secretary, Joseph C. Willetts ; Treasurer, James Manning; Super- intendent, Harry Wiard. This organisation has continued until the present 622 Memorial History of Syracuse. time. It has been the policy of this company to produce a full hne of hiyh grade plows and cultivating implements, practically everj'thing that a farmer uses in preparing his land for the seed. This factory is now turning out a greater variety of plowing and cultivating implements than any other sim- ilar concern, implements adapted to any soil in the United States or any agricultural country on the globe. The growth of the factory, which now has about five acres of floors, has been in proportion to its increased busi- ness, and has, among other novelties, a foundry on the upper floor of one of its large buildings. The firm employs 225 hands, and its sales reach nearly $500,000 annually. The improvements in plows and kindred imple- ments have led to many important inventions, and the possession, by the company, of a large number of valuable patents. The Onondaga Iron Company was organized in 1869, with a capital stock of $150,000, which was afterward increased to $300,000, and later to $400,- 000. The first officers were J. J. Belden, President ; R. N. Gere, Vice- Presi- dent ; and VV. H. II. Gere, Secretary and Treasurer. The plant is located in Geddes, in Orchard street, between the New York Central Railroad and the Erie Canal, and covers about ten acres. The ore used formerly came mostly from Ontario, Wayne, and Jefferson Counties, and the chief product was anthracite and coke pig iron, suitable for foundry and mill purposes. Owing to dullness in markets these works were closed for more than a year previous to April, 1890, when they were leased to the American-Scotch Iron Company, which began operations at the date just mentioned. The officers of the latter company are H. M. Warren, New York, President ; Lester E. Wood, New York, Vice-President; F. B. Hawkins, New York, Treasurer; F. S. Gordon, Columbus, Ohio, Secretary; F. B. Baird, Baird l-'urnace, Ohio, General Manager. The company rebuilt furnace No. i as a coke furnace, and the works went into blast in August, 1890. The ores now used are from Lake Superior, Lake Champlain, and Jefferson County. The capacity of No. i furnace has been increased to 2,500 tons per month, and from 75 to 100 men are employed. The annual value of the output is $350,000. The Alexander Iron Works, \\'illiam D. Dunning, proprietor, located at No. 329 West Water street, is an old established concern, dating back to 1833, when a part of the present plant was a mill pond. Its business is general jobbing, machine, and foundry work with several specialties, one of which is the Boomer & Boschert press, elsewhere described. About lOO hands are employed. Special Machinery. — In 1880 Charles E. Lipe began the manufacture of the first broom-sewing machine ever made, his shop being in the -Straight Line Engine Works. This machine is one of Mr. Lipe's own inventions, and Manufacturinc. Industries. 623 is a marvelous piece of work. He is the inventor also of several other val- uable devices, one of uhich is the Universal milling machine and gear cut- ter, which he sold to the Brown & Sharp Company, of Providence, R. 1. lie has had a large business in tiie manufacture of special machiner)', and is now building the Mngelberg rice and coffee huller, the first machine in this country suitable for plantation use. Mr. Lipe emploj's thirty men. and his sales annually are about $30,000. Me is a graduate of Cornell Uni- versity. Economy Foundry Company. — Ihis company was organized in Septem- ber, 1888, by F. A. Austin, John Aldinger, William H. Brown, and M. C. Reddin. The works are located in Bclden avenue. The plant of the Pease {■"urnace Company was leaseti, and general contract work is made a speci- alt\'. Their manufactures include builders' wrought and cast-iron work of all kinds, light and heavy machinery castings, ornamental iron work, ma- chine and pattern draughting and designing, and in fact every variety of work belonging to the general foundry business. Over 100 men are em- ployed, and nearl\- twenty tons of iron are melted daily. The members of the company are all practical workmen. Tin and Slicct Ironivarc. — The business of manufacturing tin and sheet ironware was begun by C. H. Fisk, in 1874, in the First ward. He began in a small way with five men and ten peddling carts. He now has thirty carts, which travel fifty miles in each direction, and employs thirty- five men. His original building was enlarged in 1883 to a structure 65 x 180 feet and four stories high. He handles more than a thousand tons of mi.xed rags annually, employing in that work twenty- five women and four men. Central City Bolt Comf>aiiy. — This company was orgmized July i, 1889, with a capital of $30,000. The first officers of the company were D. V. Hayden, President and General Manager; J. W. Walter, Secretary and Treasurer. The works are in the Penitentiary and employ si.xty hands, ten of whom are outsiders and the remainder convicts. Carriage bolts and parlor-door hangers are manufactured, and the annual product reaches a value of from $75,000 to $100,000. The present officers are : E. 1^. Judson, jr., President; J. W. Walter, Secretary and Treasurer; W. S. Purrington, Su- perintendent. Porter Manufacturing Company (Limited). — This company was incor- porated in 1877, and bought out the older firm of Porter & Co. The first officers were Barrett R. White, President ; Robert Townsend, Vice- Presi- dent ; D. H. Gowing, Secretary ; George A. Porter, Treasurer and General Manager. The capital stock was $60,000, and the works were in North Salina street between Turtle and Bear streets. About forty men were then employed. The business increased, and the capital was increased in 1878 to 624 Memokiai. History of Syracuse. $80,000; in 1879 to $100,000; in 1880 to $150,000; and in 1888 to $195,- 000. In 1878 the buildings were enlarged by tlie addition of a machine siiop and boiler shop, in the rear of the old building. In 1 886 a new foundry was erected J 2 x 120 feet, which occupies a portion of the block south of the machine shop, and between it and Turtle street. With the increase of business and the enlargement of the jjlant the number of men employed also increased, until now there are about 250, and the annual sales reach $300,- 000. The latest addition to the buildings was made early in 1890, and consists of a building on Salina street. 72 feet front and 128 feet deep, three stories high. This is to be used for offices, carpenter shop, and pat- tern-room. The principal articles of manufacture are engines and boilers, ranging from 4 to 450 horse- power, which are shipped to all parts of the country and have a deservedly high reputation. The shops are all equip- ped with modern improvements, tools, etc. The present officers are: \V. K. Niver, President; Henry Lacy, Treasurer; Stewart Worden, Secre- tary ; Howard G. White, Lucius Gleason, August F'alker, Stewart Worden, \\ . K Niver, F. B. Klock, and Henry Lacy, Directors. Slraight Line Engine Company — This company was established and in- corporated February i, 1880, with a capital stock of $10,000, by the fol- lowing men : John E. Sweet, George Barnes, Anson A. Sweet, Henrj' F. Stevens, and David W. Hotchkiss. At that time the officers of the com- pany were : John E. Swt et, President ; Henry F. Stevens, Secretary ; Anson A. Sweet, Treasurer. The building formerlj' used b}' the Hubbard Har- vester Company, No. 208 South Geddes street, was rented for two or three months, and there si.N men were employed. About one engine per month was made and put on the market. In 1884 Smith & Warner's foundry was added to the engine business. At the Paris Exposition in 1889 the Straight Line engine was awarded the grand prize. The present building, which is 130 feet square, was first occupied on June 1, 1890. At the present time ninety men are employed and an average of fifty engines a year are turned out. Originally the engines averaged about twenty- five horse- power, while now the average is eighty horse-power. The capital stock has been increased to $100,000, and the engines made are sold in all parts of the civilized world. The present officers of the company are: John !{. Sweet, President; H. M. Williams, Secretary ; Anson A. Sweet, Treasurer. These, with William T. Hamilton, W. B. Cogswell, Frank H. Hiscock, and Ira A. Place, are the Directors. The Diignid Saddlery Company — Among the first manufactures to at- tain much importance in Sjracuse was that of saddlery hardware, which was begun as early as 1847, by Charles Pope, John A. Robinson, and Ed- ward S. Dawson, under the firm name of Charles Pope & Co. The first Manukacturim; Industries. 625 factory was located on the site now occupied by John Moore & Co., in James street, and the business was carried on until 1856, when the firm was dissolved. In 1858 the firm of E. S. Dawson & Co. was formed, consisting of lidward S. Dawson, Harmon W. Van Huren, and Jacob S. Smith. The interests of Van Buren and Smith were afterwards purchased by Henry L. Duguid, who then became a member of the firm. Their factory was in West Water street, later in East Water street, and a store in the Pike Hlock. and the business continued until 1868. In January of that year J. E. Wells was admitted as a partner, and the business passed into the hands of Duguid, Wells & Co., which firm carried on a successful business until 1883. From January, 1883, to January, 1890, the firm was Duguid & Wells, and January 15, 1890, the Duguid Saddlery Company was incor- porated with the following officers: M. E. Duguid, President ; W. M. White, Secretary and Treasurer ; and E. E. Withey, Superintendent. The capital stock is $25,000, and fifty men and boys are employed. Frazcr & Jones Company. — In the year 1856 the firm of Olmsted & Jones was formed by H. R. Olmsted and Richard W. Jones. They began manufacturing saddlery hardware on an upper floor at the corner of West Fayette and Clinton streets, with a salesroom on the second floor of the present McCarthy retail stores. The factory was next located in Mulberry street, and not long afterward was removed to the " Old Line House," near the corner of South Salina and Onondaga streets, on the site of the present Brunswick House. The business was carried on here for a number of years and continually increased, and the number of hands employed rose from two or three to one hundred and fifty. When those quarters were outgrown the firm erected the brick structure in South Clinton street re- cently occupied by the L. C. Smith Gun Works, where they continued until 1867, when it was sold out to a woodworking concern. The store occu- pied after the McCarthy Building was left was in the Washington Block, where the business was carried on almost thirteen years. In 1877 ^'^■ Jones sold out to Mr. Olmsted. The latter removed his jobbing trade in this line of goods to his present location in South Clinton street, and Mr. Jones joined the present Frazer & Jones Company, and for seventeen years carried on a large manufacturing business in the Penitentiary, which was closed in 1889 on account of the smallpox. This firm now sells only to jobbers and has an immense trade, reaching $500,000 annually. The Frazer & Jones Company as at present organized is an outgrowth of a small business begun in 1852 by Kasson Frazer and Peter Burns, which continued until 1877. The firm then became Frazer, Jones & Burns, and later F"razer, Jones & Hurst (188 1 ). In October, 1882, the present com- pany was organized and incorporated with a capital of $ioo,ooo. The 79 626 Memorial History of Syracuse. first officers were: President, R. W. Jones; Vice-President, George P. Hier; Secretary, W. F. Pardee ; Treasurer, Frederick Frazcr; these with O. P. Schuyler were the Directors. The buildings now occupied cover 250 feet front in West Fayette street, and 350 feet in Walton street, the main build- ing being five stories high. The product is saddlery hardware, wood and iron hames, leather goods, and malleable iron castings, and 500 men are em- ployed. The present officers are: President, R. W'. Jones; Vice-President, PVederick P'razer; Secretary, Charles R. Jones; Treasurer, George S. Hier. Shcrtvood Harness Covipany. — This is a stock company with a capital of $20,000, for the manufacture of steel harness, the invention of Mr. Allen Sherwood, in 1881. He came to Syracuse in 1884 and organized this com- pany. About 20,000 sets of the harness have been made and sold. Dis- tributing houses are established in Chicago and Kansas City. Mr. Sher- wood is an inventor of considerable note, especially in connection with earlj' mowing machines and self-binders. He made the latter in 1858, and gave the first exhibition of a grain binder in this countr)' in 1859, exhibiting his machines throughout the States of New York and Illinois. Syracuse Steel Foundry Company. — This company was incorporated in 1887, with a capital of $50,000, and the following officers: Frederick P'ra- zer, President; George P. Hier, Vice-President; R. W. Jones, Secretary; George S. Hier, Treasurer. The first three named were the Directors, the number having since been increased by adding George S. Hier and O. P. Schuyler. The company began business in 1889, in Geddes, just west of the Solvay Process Works, previous to which time the manufacture had been carried on in Frazer & Jones Company's buildings in West Fayette street. The capacity of the works in 1887 was thirty tons per month of steel cast- ings for machinery, etc., which has since been increased to 300 tons per month, and seventy- five hands are employed. The office is at 351 West Fayette street. Tobacco and Cigars. — The manufacture of tobacco and cigars in Syra- cuse is an old industry, and one that has reached large proportions. About the year 1837 Noah Fvans began manufacturing tobacco by hand in a building which stood about on the site of the Butler Block in South .Salina street. He made cut tobacco with a hand machine, and his output was, of course, very small. In 1839 ICvans sold out to Henry Church and Oran Candee, father of James Candee, who continued manufacturing by hand, and also made cigars. They employed three cigarmakers, two cutters, and two peddlers, besides seven or eight boys as strippers. At a later date they employed horse-power and water-power on the old dike north of the canal, near the i)resent gas works, and in 1844 moved to the Raynor Block in West Water street. P'roni there they moved into the old " saleratus factory," Manukactuuinc; Industries. 627 corner of Clinton antl West Genesee streets. Previous to this time the firm was changed, Mr. Church going out. and with Perry Burdick f..rnud the firm of Ciuircl) & Hurdick, the works going to the site of the late Leland Hotel. C. 1) Ji)hnson was also a partner at one time with Candee. The original business was then soon closed up or sold out, chiefly on account of Mr. Candee's ill health Church & Burdick kept what was called "Tammany I [all," at No. II South S.ilina street, which was a retail cigar store, and con- tinued the business of manufacturing. Mr. Burdick finally withdiew from the manufactory and carried on the retail business. Church closed up his business about 1861. Dwight and Daniel O. Salmon began the tobacco business about 1850 in James street, and removed to the Blair Block three years later. They employed about ten operatives and made some cigars, but the greater part of their business was in cut tobacco. In 1866 they removed to the building on the site where the Pease Furnace Company is now located. They were burned out in 1869, and never resumed business. Dwight Salmon had died before the removal to the latter place. The making of cigars has always been the more important part of the tobacco business in Syracuse. It was begun here by Ezra Long in South Salina street, on a part of the site of the Syracuse House, about the year 1837. He employed si.K or eight cigarmakers and several strippers, and coniiucted what was then considered a large factory. lie continued in the business about fifteen years, and until his death, when the factory was closed. Levi Comstock began manufacturing cigars about the time that Long closed his place, in the rear of the old Court House. He removed to next door to the present Amos Hotel in North Salina street in 1852, where he employed fifteen to twenty hands, and contined the business about twelve years. The firm of I.ockey & McDermott purchased Oran Candee's small busi- ness in 1844, when George P. Hier and John McComes bought it and con- tinued it in the old Clinton Block a year and one-half, when the partnership was dissolved. Mr. Hier then became associated with Andrew Greer, a practical tobacco cutter, and James Van Etta, under the firm name of Greer, Van 1-ltta & Co., at No. 24 James street, the firm continuing about two vears, when they sold out to James Van Etta. He failed in a short time. Lewis Sperry and George P. Hier then (1850) formed a partnership and were located one year in the Clinton Block, and thence removing to the Furman Block in East Water street. They later removed to the Frank- lin Block, adjoining the present G. A. Morris grocery, in Hanover Square, and six years later removed permanently to No. 25 North Salina street. 628 Memorial Histouy of Syracuse. Mr. Sperry sold out to Mr. Hier in 1854, while they were located in the Furman Block, and Mr. Hier continued alone until 1862, when Nathan H. Plumb became a partner. About two years later I\Ir. Hier again as- sumed the sole ownership of the business, and in 1876 George S. Hier, son of George P., entered the firm and has continued in it since. Mr. Hier began the business of making cigars as soon as he sold out in James street, having then twelve cigarmakers and four strippers. Under energetic management the business grew rapidly, and at one time while in the Furman Block more than 120 operatives were employed. The manufacturing was continued until 1866, since which time the firm has operated as wholesale and retail dealers in leaf tobacco. John P. Hier began manufacturing cigars in i860 at No. 35 North Salina street, employing one man and a bo)-. The business flourished, and in 1864 larger quarters were taken at No 1 1 North Salina street. Two years later Bruce S. Aldrich was taken into the firm, and the business prospered. In 1872-73 they built the brick block at Nos. 140 and 142 North Salina street, in which the business is now carried on. Mr. Aldrich sold out to the senior partner in 1884, at which time 400 hands were employed. This firm has originated several brands of cigars which have almost a national reputation. The cigar manufacturing enterprise of Justin Seubert is among the old- est established representatives of the leading houses engaged in this line of trade in Syracuse. The concern was established by him about twenty-five years ago. It was subsequently known as Seubert & Warner, but in 1888 it again reverted to the sole control of Mr. Seubert, and now employment is given to about 250 hands. Mr. Seubert is an old-time resident of this city, and a gentleman well known to the public and the tobacco trade as an energetic, enterprising, and honorable business man. Michael and Baltisar Auer, of the firm of Auer & Co., came to Syra- cuse in 1850. Michael Auer learned the trade of cigarmaking with George P. Hier. After an honorable war record he began manufacturing cigars in Jamesville in 1865, and two years later transferred his business to Syracuse, locating in the Jervis Block. In 1873 the firm was formed by his associa- tion with his brother, Baltisar Auer, and the factory was removed to Mul- berry street. From 1873 to 1876 M. Auer filled a State position in the Auburn State Prison, and when he returned in the latter year the cigar fac- tory was removed to East Water street. Two years later it was again re- moved to a store in Clinton street, where it remained until 1887, at which time the firm took their present location in West Water street. The busi- ness has grown to such an extent that the force of employees has increased from twelve or fourteen to fifty hands. The)- manufacture about twenty Manufacturing Industries. 629 brands of cigars, and are jobbers in many more. They handle large quan- tities of manufactured and leaf tobacco, and employ three commercial trav- elers who visit the principal towns in Central New York. Michael Auer was Supervisor for two )ears from the Seventh ward. John Demong began the manufacture of cigars about the year 1864, in Burnet street, but soon afterward removed to old number 167 North Salina street, where he remained until 1875. He then purchased a building on the corner of Lodi and John streets, and there continued his business until his death, on the 23d of March, 1884. He was Mayor of Syracuse in 1882-83, and the first Democratic Mayor that had been elected in more than ten years. Mr. L^emong had pre\'iously served as Alderman of the Second ward four terms. His son, William J. Demong, succeeded his fatiier at tile death of the latter, and continued the business till June 6, 1891, when Charles Hofher was taken as partner, under the firm name of Demong & Co. They employ from ten to fifteen hands. Previous to the late war Jacob Sa.x was a cigarmaker in the employ of George P. Hier. He returned from the war in 1865, and opened a cigar factory in North Salina street in 1878. In 1883 he purchased his present location. No. 528 North Salina street, which he is occupying as a cigar fac- tory and a wholesale and retail tobacco store. Mr. Sax has been a resident of Syracuse for forty years, and has an honorable war record He enlisted in 1 861 in Captain John G. Butler's company, Co. D, Third N. Y. Infantry Volunteers, Colonel Fred Townsend commanding. He was in front of Richmond, and participated in the bombardment of Charleston and in numerous other engagements. In the engagement at Drury's Bluff he was wounded, necessitating an amputation of the leg above the knee. He re- ceived his discharge in 1865 and returned to Syracuse. During the ad- ministration of Governor Fenton he had charge of the State Arsenal, and in 1870 he occupied the position of weigher of hay. He represented his ward on the Board of Supervisors in 1886 and 1887. Owing to the peculiar nature of the cigarmaking industry it is very difficult to procure reliable statistics relative to it. While we have men- tioned its early history, and a few of the leading manufacturers, there are about 125 others who are engagetl in the business in Syracuse, employing all the way from one to fifty hands. The product reaches far into the mil- lions of cigars, but its value and the gross number of men employed cannot be stated with any degree of accuracy. The forthcoming census will un- doubtedly throw light upon the manufactures of every city which will en- lighten the investigator in such statistical problems. Tlie Gviiiiway Brciving Coinf'aiiy. — The Greenway Brewery was founded by the late John Greenway and his brother in 1850, and was the 630 Memorial History of Syracuse. first important establishment of the kind in Syracuse. The brother died soon after the brewery was started, and John Grcenwa)' continued in the business until his death, on the 28th of May, 1887. At tlic beginning the brewery was a small concern as compared with its present capacit)', and employed only about fifty men and four teams, while now 150 men and ten teams are emplojcd. The brewery is located in West Water street, and at present comprises one immense structure, in whicli are located tlie malt house and tlie brewery proper, the whole being 650 by 75 feet. The capacity of this brewery is about 100,000 barrels a year, and the product has for many years enjoyed a high reputation throughout the world. In October, 1878, the Greenway Brewing Company was fortued with a capi- tal stock of ^200,000, and John Greenwa\- was made President of the com- pany. On the death of the founder of the business ills son, John, was elected Piesident and Treasurer, and lias since continued in the office. A. G. Cook is Secretary. Haberlc Brezving Company. — In the year 1855 Benedict Ilaberle, one of the prominent German citizens of the city, began brewing in what is now the Thomas Ryan Brewery, corner of Butternut and Mcliride streets. He continued the business there with a fair degree of success until 1865, when the new brewer}' was built, directly opposite the old one, in Butternut street. The business increased until 1 88 1, when Mr. Ilaberle died and the Haberle Brewing Company was organized with a capital of $125,000. The officers were and still continue to be as follows: F. B. Haberle, President and Manager; Charles L. Hoffman, Vice-President; W. H. Haberle, Treasurer ; and Charles Ilaberle, Secretary. These with John H. Costello constitute the Board of Directors. When tlie company was organized extensive im- provements were inaugurated and the qualit)' of the lager greatly inipro\cd. The plant now comprises a five-story brick structure, with a frontage of 250 feet in Butternut street, and a depth of 80 feet, besides the great under- ground cellars with a storage capacity of 30,000 barrels. About seventy- five men and thirty horses are employed, and the annual production reaches 60,000 barrels. Two Arctic ice machines are used, one of 1 10 tons and one of 50 tons daily capacity. Zett's Brewery. — In 1858 Francis Xavier Zett, father of George Zett, began brewing lager beer in a small building on the corner of Court and Lodi streets. His capital was very small, only a few iiundred dollars, and he had two employees, but he gradually increased the product until, at his death in 1881, he was making 3,000 barrels annually. George Zett then became the owner, and in 1888 erected several additional buildings, which greatly increased the capacity of the brewery. In 1890 the output reached 15,000 barrels. A part of the malt used is made on the premises. Thirty men are now employed and the plant is valued at $150,000. Manukactuking In'dustries. 631 Moon; Quinn & Co. — ^Tliis establisliinent is located on the corner of Grouse avenue and East Water street, and was organized in 1881 by Frank Moore, William Quinn, Edward Callahan, and Martin McGarvey, who have constituted the firm ever since. The buildings are 126 x 75 feet in size, and six stories high. Eighteen men are employed, and the yearly capacity of the brewery is 31,000 barrels. This firm makes India pale, present-use, and stock ales and porter, using nothing but the finest Canadian malt and State hops. Frank O'Rourke, an expert brewer, has charge of the manufactur- ing department, and his product is conceded to be number one. The firm was in the brewing business two years in Utica previous to coming to Syra- cuse. Crystal Spring Brewing Company. — This company was incorporated in 1887, with a capital stock of $175,000. The main building is 220 feet front, 84 feet deep, and three stories high ; the boiler-house is 30 x 50 feet; the bottling-house 22 x 90 feet ; all are located in Burnet avenue. Seventy-six men are employed, and the capacity of the brewery is lOO.OOO barrels an- nually. The officers are as follows: President, Anton Zahm ; Vice Presi- dent, Thomas Ryan; Secretary and Treasurer, Edwin C. Hall ; Directors, John Uunfee, T. E. O'Keefe, Edward Joy, George Schieder, Edward Seiter, Edwin C. Hall, Anton Zahm, Charles Simon, and Thomas Ryan. Tlie National Brewing Company. — This company was Incorporated in 1888 with a capital of $50,000. The Directors are John H. Costello, Cor- nelius J. Ryan, Charles Umbrecht, Frank B. Haberle, Edmond A. Dollard, Charles Habeile, Charles L. llotTman, Charles Schwarz, and William II. Haberle. Following were the other officers of the company : Cornelius J. Ryan, President; Edmond A. Dollard, Vice-President; Charles L. Hoff- man, Treasurer and Manager; Charles Schwarz, Secretary. The brewery is located on Lock street, with a front of 170 feet and 90 feet depth, five stories high. The office is at Nos. 923 and 925 Lock street. Twenty men are employed, and the capacity is 75,000 barrels annually. The product con- sists of ales, porter, India pale ale, etc. The officers now are C. L. Hoft- man. President ; P. F. Murray, Vice-President ; Charles S Schwarz, Secre- tary and Treasurer; and J. H. Costello, Attorney. The Germania Brewing Company. — This company was organized in 1886, with a capital of $125,000, which has been increased to $150,000. The first officers were as follows: President, Charles Simon; Vice-Presi- dent, Francis Baumer; Secretary and Treasurer, John Greenway, jr.; Di- rectors, Charles Simon, I'rancis Baumer, John Greenway, jr., Peter Pfohl, Daniel Ackerman, Jacob Knapp, Leopold Joh, Thomas Abele, Frank Lang, J. J. Klein, William Kearnc)-. The brewery occupies the premises from 100 to 206 North West street, and comprises several four-story brick struct- 632 Memokiai, History of Syracuse. ures Forty- five men and nine teams are employed. Tlie present officers are Frank Lang, President ; Arthur Giintiicr. Vice-President ; John Green- way, Secretary; F. K. Knowlton, Treasurer. The product is the celebrated Gerniania lager beer, and the sales annually now reach about 40,000 bar- rels. Kearney's Brewery. — William Kearney began brewing in 1869, in a building 40 x 90 feet, on the corner of North Salina and Wolf streets, em- ploying at first nine men. The dimensions of his plant have been increased from time to time until the building now used as the brewery and office has a frontage of 140 x 127 feet, and is four stories high. In the rear is a two- story building, 30 x 90 feet in dimensions, and a malt-house 121 x 36 feet, four stories high, with a capacity of 50,000 bushels. He now employs in his brewing business thirty men, and the establishment has a capacity of 150 barrels per day. The product is present- use and stock ale and porter and India pale ale. These beverages have a large sale throughout the State. The Rock Spring Breivcry. — This brewery, which is located outside of the city limits on the Split Rock road, had its inception about the year 1856, when I"" rank Martin began the manufacture of small beer. He went out of business in 1859, and the property passed to the possession of Henry Wents and others, and finally in 1874 to Jacob Mantel. He died in 1879, and Mrs. Mantel conducted the business until 1S82. Joseph Haas then secured an interest, and the firm became Mantel & Haas, which continued to 18S9, when the property passed into possession of Fred Fry and Frank Mantel, and the firm of Haas, Fry & Mantel conducted the brewery to October, 1890. At this time Mr. Haas sold his interest to his partners. Five men are employed and about 20,000 barrels of beer are made annually. It is located in Grand avenue, corner of Avery. The Syracuse Brewing Company. — This company was incorporated in March, 1 890, with a capital of $20,000, which was subsequently increased to $35,000. The Directors are George G. Campbell, Conrad Pinches, Fdwin Loder, James A. Gregg, and John McLennan. Following are the officers of tlie company: John McLennan, President; Edwin Loder, Vice-President; Conrad Pinches, Secretary; George Murray, jr.. Treasurer and General Manager. The propert\-, winch is situated in Prosjiect avenue, near Laurel street, has a frontage of 79 feet and a depth of 165 feet. All grades of pres- ent-use ales, and India pale, cream, nectar, and Burton ales, stout, and porter are made. The capacity of the plant is 30,000 barrels annually. Thomas Ryan. — In April, 1884, Mr. Ryan purchased an interest in the Onondaga Brewery. The product of that brewery at that time did not ex- ceed 150 barrels per week. In 1885 a brick building was erected beside the old one, and at a later tlate another was added, which fronted on But- Manukacturinc In'dustkies. 633 teriuit street, giving the establishment as thus enlarged a front of more than 200 feet on Huttennit street, with a depth of 1 00 feet and three stories in height. In October, 1887, Mr. Ryan purchased the interest of his partner, and has since that time conducted the business alone. The product now reaches about 800 barrels i)er week, which represents a business of more tiian $225,000 per annum. The specialty of this brewery is export and India pale ale. Mr. Ryan was elected Mayor of Syracuse, and served dur- ing the years 1883, 1884, and 1885. Intimately associated with the brewing interest is the bottling industry, which has within the past few years assumed considerable importance. The Greenway Brewery began bottling in 1885, under the administration of the late lohn Greenway, and the works are now operated by John Greenway, jr. The establishment is located on the canal, just east of West street, and em- ploys si.xteen hands and has $50,000 invested. From 35,000 to 50,000 dozen bottles are put up annually, with their India pale ale far in the lead. It is the only establishment in Syracuse that bottles ale, and the only one in the United States that ships to foreign countries, their product going to Java, China, France, the Sandwich Islands, and Australia The lager beer breweries carry on this branch of the business to a con- siderable extent, the Haberle Brewery bottling its own lager and Seiter Brothers in Burnet avenue putting up the Crystal Spring lager. Friedel & Gebhart find a good market here for the Genesee Brewing Company's lager, of Rochester, and Becker & Myer bottle George Zett's product. Besides the above Louis House and McLoud & Janes have for a num- ber of years done a large business in the manufacture and bottling of mild beverages of various kinds, an industry which gives employment to sixty persons. Besides the $50,000 invested by the Greenways, there is probably $75,000 additional employed by the various bottlers of the city. The Moycr Wagon Works. — This is one of the largest and most success- ful establishments in Syracuse in this line. It was established in a small way at Cicero in 1875, but needing better facilities it removed to Syracuse in January, 1880, and located on the corner of Wolf and Park streets, giving employment to fifty men. Harvey A. Moyer, the sole owner, has, by the prudent exercise of rare business ability, brought his industry up to a fore- most position, and now employs 250 men. He has also exhibited good in- ventive genius in the promotion of his business. In what is known as the '•Moyer"^agon," which has attained wide popularity, are combined several of Mr. Mover's inventions which are covered by patents. He also manu- factured the first "run-about" two-seat wagon which now has been so gen- erally adopted. His box- setting (or hub-boring) machine, which accom- plishes twice as much work in a given time as any other device, is used by 80 634 Memcjkiai, History of Svracuse. seventy-five or more of the largest carriage builders in the country. Dur- ing the year 1889 the factory turned out the first of what is called the "Ban- ner Spring Road Wagon," which has met with a flattering reception. The old shops were doubled in extent in 1S82, and were again increased in 1888 by a new building in rear of the old, which extends through to Salina street. Mr. Moyer was born in 1854 in Clay, and began wagonmaking in Cicero just before reaching his majority. IVhitiicy U^agott Works. — This manufacturing establishment is located in Leavenworth avenue. The original plant was built and the business started in the year 1878 by J. D. Whitney. He conducted the business alone until 1884, when the company was organized with J. D. Whitney, President; George B Green way, Vice-President; and C. A. Adams, Sec- retary and Treasurer. The works now comprise the manufactory, finishing- room, machine shop, blacksmith shop, engine-room, repository, etc., and cover about 180 x 180 feet in Leavenworth avenue. From a compara- tively small beginning the establishment has had a constant growth and now employs ninety men. The carriages and wagons have an e.\ccllent reputation. The present officers are the same as those in the beginning, excepting the ViceT'resident, who is now W. J. Mills. Thomas D. Littes. — Many of the finest carriages that have been used in this city were made by Thomas D. Lines. Mr. Lines came to Syracuse in i860, having learned the carriage trimming business of one of the best con- cerns in New Haven, Conn. He began work for Jay, son of S. Iloyt, whose shops were on the site of the Medical College. Mr. Lines remained there nearly three years, and then engaged with Charles P. Phillips, then and for several years after the most successful builder of fine carriages in the city. His shops were in West Fayette street. Mr. Lines remained there nearl)' five years, and then became a member of the firm of Hurst, Leamy & Lines, who were located on the site of the new Mowry Flats. He remained with that establishment only for a short time, when he sold out to his partners. T. H. Lyons afterward bought Hurst's and Leamy's interests and formed a partnership with Mr. Lines, which continued for five years. In December, 1875, Mr. Lines sold his interest to his partner and went into a new building erected by Earl B. Alvord and Daniel Candee, in Warren street. He carried on his business at that location, turning out the finest carriages made west of New York city. Many of his vehicles were sold to large dealers in New York, Cleveland, and other large cities. Ow- ing to reverses Mr. Lines gave up business for a time, and in 1889 he opened his present establishment in South Clinton street. J. S. Lcggett. — In the year 1888 Mr. Leggett succeeded Thomas D. Lines, at 346 and 348 Warren street, in the manufacture of fine carriages Manukacturing Industries. 635 of all kinds, but with specialties of victorias, broughams, and rockaways. I le is the only manufacturer of importance of these heavy carriages in Syra- cuse. Mr. Leggett learned his trade in New York city, and is thoroughly conversant with it. 0. H. Short &■ Co. — This firm is located at the corner of West Fayette, Seneca, and Marcellus streets, and is successor to Short & Smith, estab- lished in 1879. The members are O. H. Short, F. C. Sherman, and G. S. Leonard. They manufacture a large variety of vehicles, making a specialty of natural and their own buck- boards, the patent of which is owned and controlled by them. Their factory is equipped with fine machinery and the character of their work is excellent. Their wagons are shipped through- out the Union. About 125 hands are employed, and the sales amount to from $150,000 to $200,000. Central City Wheel Works. — This company is intimately associated with the wagon industry, and was organized for the manufacture of wagon wheels in 1880, with a capital of $10,000. The first factory was in West street, but they removed to the corner of Plum and Wilkinson streets in 1883. The business has grown from the making of three sets of wheels per day to 15,000 sets per year, and thirty men are employed. C. N. Hatch is Mana- ger and Cashier. Charles Sehlosser &" Sons. — Charles Schlosscr began wagonmaking in 185 I on the opposite side of the street from his present location, which he purchased in 1865, and built his present shops in 1870. In 1888 he took his sons George and John P. as partners. Before the introduction of the mam- moth factories of the present time Mr. Sehlosser built large numbers of light wagons, but in late years they have made a specialtj' of business vehi- cles. Tiie firm employs ten men. The Syracuse Dash Works. — This business was established in 1885 by C. L. Haker and J. W. Williams, under the firm name of Baker Dash Works, and is the only one of its kind east of Buffalo. There are only five in the United States. They build dashes, fenders, and carriage trimmings, and turn out about 40,000 dashes yearly, besides their other product, which are sold from Maine to California, with a good export trade The firm consists of Charles T. lilanchard and F. E. Hale, and the factory is in a three story building in Wallace street. This firm bought the business in 1890, and now employs about thirtj' men. The manufacture of boots and shoes in Syracuse, which has in some cities been carried on in mammoth establishments, has never reached great proportions, although a few factories have won extended reputations for the fine quality of the work made by them. One of the first establishments of much note in this industry in Syracuse was that of Gray Brothers Mfg. Co., 636 Memorial History of Syracuse. which is now one of the oldest and best known manufactories of ladies' fine shoes in the country. It began business here in 1865, when the firm con- sisted of John D. and H. H. Gray. It was conducted under the firm name of Gray Brothers until 1 880, at which time it was incorporated as a stock- company. This company has kept pace with the demands of the trade and maintained the high reputation of the goods. In 1873 the work of this factory was exhibited at the World's Fair in Vienna, and received the high- est award for machine-made goods, and a gold medal. They again exhib- ited at the Centennial Exposition, where they were awarded the first place over all competitors of Europe and the United States. The present officers of the company are: George S. Sanford, President; William H. Warner, Vice-President and Treasurer ; V. E. Maurer, Secretary. H. H. Grays Sou. — This manufactory of ladies' fine shoes was estab- lished in 1 88 1 by H. II. Gray, who was one of the founders of the firm of Gray Brothers, noticed above. He continued the industry until his death, when his son, John S. Gray, succeeded, and has successfully carried it on since. Fred L. Brigham now has an interest in the business, and 125 people arc employed. The product consists wholly of ladies' and children's hand- sewed goods of the finest grades. Baker & Bowman, manufacturers of latlies', misses', and children's fine shoes, arc now located in the Industrial l^uilding. The business was estab- Hshed in 1883 by Hale & Baker. In July, 1886, S. E. Bowman became a member of the firm under the style of Hale, Baker & Bowman. Mr. Hale withdrew from the firm in September, 1888. The firm manufactures the finest grades of ladies' shoes, and employs 125 hands. Four .'■alcsmen cover the territory from the Pacific to the Atlantic coasts, and from Minneapolis south to St. Louis, and to Washington, I). C. The sales arc about $150,- 000 annually. James R. Barrett was one of the early manufacturers of men's fine shoes in Syracuse, and was succeeded in 1879 by A. E. Nettleton. The latter was located in West Washington street, and in 1885 the factory at Nos. 302- 310 Pearl street was erected. In 1888 it was burned and was almost a total loss, and the business was temporarily removed to 125 South Clinton street while the factory was being rebuilt. It was re-occupied in November, 18S9. One hundred and fifty hands arc employed, and 250 pairs of shoes are maile daily. W. A. Hill entered the firm as a partner in 1883. J. M. Mertens & Co. — This firm of clothing manufacturers is an out- growth of the oldest establishment in this industry in Syracuse. A. C. Yates began manufacturing clothing at the old numbers 13 and 15 North Salina street in 1855, and soon laid the foundations of a large business. The late Theodore Dissel was one of his trusted employees, antl in 1862 Manukactuking Industries. 6^7 Mr. Yates took him in as a partner, under the firm name of A. C. Yates & Co. Mr. Yates died October 1 1, 1880, and Mr. Dissel pincliased his inter- est in the business and took J. M. Mertens as a partner, the firm style be- ing then Theodore Dissel & Co. Mr. Dissel's death occurred February 17, 1888, and Mr. Mertens purchased the interest of the deceased and formed the present firm of J. M. Mertens & Co. Si.\ty-five persons are employed in the building, six traveling men, and a force outside of about 475 persons. Tile weekly pay roll is about $5,000, and the sales are about $750,000 an- nually. The large retail stores of Mertens, Yann & Garnett were opened in \Siji in the Everson Building, and they have also a retail store in Troy, conducted by Mertens & Phalen. ir. S. J\-ck & Co. — This house was organized in 1867 under the firm name of Gates & Peck, and was succeeded by W. S. Peck in 1869, continu- ing thus until 1874. when the late Frank A. Peck was admitted to partner- ship under the name of \V. S. Peck & Brother. The business was removed from North Salina street to Nos. 8, lO, and 12 Clinton street, where C. A. Shafer was admitted to the partnership, and the firm name was changed to W. S. Peck, Brother & Co. The industry grew rapidly, and after five years more the building proved too small. W. S. Peck then erected the splendid business block in West Water street, 90 x no feet, and six stories high, with stone front, the whole of which is now occupied by the firm. In Jan- uary. 1890, V. A. Peck died. The present firm of W. S. Peck & Co., con- sisting of Wilber S. Peck and Charles A. Shafer, was then formed. They employ traveling salesmen, cover most of the territory from Maine to Cali- fornia, and have in their employ directly and working in shops about 2,000 persons, manufacturing $8oo,ooo worth of clothing annually. This is one of the most successful and prominent industries in Syracuse. Kent &■ Miller. — The firm of Kent & Miller was formed in February, 1872, and has never changed, being composed of George B. Kent and Ri- ley V. Miller. They began business in the Bastable Block, but three months later removed to 18 South Salina street. During the first year five clerks and four cutters were employed, and three floors of the building were occu- pied. In 1876 the capacity of the establishment was increa.sed by adding the adjoining store, the new numbers being 130 and 134 South Salina street. Twelve clerks, ten cutters, and a machine are employed, and the annual product is about $400,000. Weeks, Woodhiill &■ Co. — This firm was organized November i, 1887, and composed of Charles K. S. Weeks and William H. Woodhull, of Syra- cuse, and George W. Wiggins and PLdmund S. Goodale, of Watertown, N. Y. On December i, 1890, Mr. Wiggins withdrew, and Leopold Beyer, of New York, was admitted as a special partner. The annual business 6^& Memorial History of Syracuse. amounts to $300,000, and comprises the manufacture and jobbing of cloth- ing. Six stories are occupied at No. 213 South CHnton street. Messrs. Weeks, Woodhull & Co. have a large trade on the road, and five traveling salesmen are emplo\'ed. About 400 persons find employment with the firm in the manufactory and outside. T/ie Spencer Clothing Company. — This industry originated with Alva C. Spencer in 1S78, when he began the manufacture of overalls and cheap trousers in a small way. The trade extended rapidly, and in 1881 H. C. Hooker became connected with the busfness as a silent partner. Mr. Spen- cer died in 1883, and Mr. Hooker organized the present company on a stock basis. The product is now exclusively trousers of every grade, and the sales extend from the Eastern to the far Western States. The manufactory has just been removed from West Washington street, where four stores were occupied, to a new store and factory at 320 to 324 West Fayette street, which has just been erected for the business. The character of the goods made, under direction of L. R. Spencer, has been constantl)' improved, and the establishment is now one of the healthful and growing industries of the city. Two hundred persons are employed, and the sales reach more than $100,000 annually. George Freeman came here from Rochester in 1871, and began manu- facturing clothing in the Townsend Block, corner of Water and Clinton streets. From there he removed to the Malcolm Block and later to the Kline Block. In 1888 he occupied his present large quarters over the rink in 1 )ickinson street. Mr. Freeman makes a specialty of the manufacture of coats, and employs from 125 to 200 persons. N. .Peters & Co. — Nicholas Peters came to Syracuse in 1848. In 1854 he bought land on the corner of Pond and Lodi streets, and built autl opened a grocery. Two years later he enlarged his building, and added dry goods and wall paper to his stock, and in i860 he put in clothing, which he has now manufactured for thirty years. In 1865 he took his half-brother. Cap- tain Jacob Knapp, as a partner, under the style of N. Peters & Brother. In 1871 he altered and enlarged his building to its present size, and in 1873 his son, Henry C. Peters, was admitted to the firm and the name changed to N. Peters, lirother & Son. In 1882-S3 both of these partners withdrew from the business, Nicholas Peters, jr., taking their place, and the name of N. Peters & Co. was adopted. In 1889 Mr. Peters's son, Jacob, and his nephew, Nicholas G. Peters, were admitted to the firm. The man- ufacture of clothing is a prominent feature of their business, and from 70 to 120 people are employed and $30,000 in wages paid out annually. A. IV. Palmer. — The firm of M. C. Palmer & Co. began the retail sale of clothing and merchant tailoring at 15 and 17 North Salina street in 1856, MANUfACrURlNU InI lUS TKI KS. 639 and continued the business until 1879, when tiic firm became A. W. Palmer & Co. Three years later A. VV. Palmer assumed the business and has re- mained alone since. During the ten years between 1869 and 1879 the fiini added to their then large clothing trade an extensive wholesale business, and in 1877 removed to the present location, Nos. 121 and 123 South Salina street. The house has always manufactured all the clothing sold by it, and has the reputation of producing first-class goods. The annual businessnow amounts to about $175,000 and 150 hands are employed on the average. Anton V. Altmaiin. — Mr. Altmann came to Syracuse in 1S71 and became a merchant tailor in 1876, at No. 224 North Salina street. In 18S7 he re- moved to his present location, 710 North Salina street, where he built the block which he occupies. ITc employs ten persons. Mr. Altmann was Po- lice Connnissioner from 1887 to iSyi. There arc few cities more fortunate th;in Syracuse in having at their doors, or in their midst, ample materials of the best quality for building pur- poses. The Onondaga limestone, which is so plentiful within a few miles of the city, is extensively used, while the necessary material for excellent brick is found in unlimited quantities within the boundaries of the city itself This fact has, undoubtedly, had an appreciable influence on the growth of the city. Tiie readers of earlier chapters of this work have learned how brick were made in Salina before Syracuse could boast hardly a settlement; and how, a few years later, they were made on the banks of Onondaga Creek and the Yellow Brook, in the now thickly .settled parts of the city, and at other adjacent points. It is impossible to form any estimate or learn any facts as to the magnitude of the industry for a number of years after its commencement, and down to about the time of the incorporation of the city little is definitely known of it. In the year 185 i Francis H. Kennedy, his brother, James V., and Cal- vin Pierson bought land on the Krie Canal at North Geddes street, dug ditches, pulled stumps, and cleared it for a brick- yard. Here they carried on the manufacture until the cl.iy at that point was about exhausted, when they bought of Merrick & Hunt a yard on the Split Rock road. The name of the first firm was Pierson & Kennedys. In 1866 Mr. Pierson sold his in- terest to his partners, who took their younger brother, George G., into the firm and changed the name to F. H. Kennedy & Brothers. It so remained until 1877, when F. H. Kennedy became and still is the sole proprietor. In 1884 Mr. Kennedy left the Split Rock road and took his present location in Seventh North street, where he has eight acres of land. Pierson & Ken- nedy made as high as 4,500,000 brick per year. The present production of the yard is 2,500,000 annually, and twenty-five men are employed. During Mr. Kennedy's forty years in this industry he has made more than 100,- 640 Memorial History of Syracuse. 000,000 brick, which have been chiefly used in Syracuse. His father was a farmer and came from Steuben county in 1843. In 185 I Montgomery and Charles Merrick, brothers, and Edward Hunt started a brick-yard on tiie Split Rock road, which they operated until 1865, when they sold it to Pierson & Kennedy, as above noted. They then opened another yard in South. Onondaga street (now South avenue). Mr. Hunt subsequently sold out his interest, and the firm became and still re- mains M. & C. Merrick, but they have not manufactured brick since 1889. During all this period they made 1,000,000 brick per year, and were also large contractors and builders, giving employment in both industries to from twenty-five to one hundred men. In 1867 Charles H. and Luther S. Merrick, both of whom are practical masons, formed a partnership as contractors and builders and brick manu- facturers, and they still carry on both branches of their business. Their brick works are in Court street, in De Witt, where they employ from thirty to forty men, and use 400 cords of wood and from 300 to 400 tuns of coal, producing from 3,000.000 to 4,000,000 brick annually. They have adopted the " Rock and Pallet" system, a Western invention, which consists in taking the raw clay and pulverizing it before wetting; it is then mixed and forced into the molds, from which the brick arc taken in perfect form and condi- tion, and placed on pallets and afterward piled away in racks. This work is done by steam-power, and is the first application of the system in Syra- cuse. As builders and contractors this firm is constantly engaged in heavy contracts, employing horn twenty to one hundred men, and the)- have erected many prominent buildings in the city. The Syracuse Pressed Brick Company was organized in 1S72 by 11. N. White, John Greenway, Stephen Bastable, James Tolman, and Amos L. Mason. The works are in Midland avenue, where the company owns thirty acres of land, about half of which has a substratum of clay. The upper layer of clay, two to three feet in thickness, is red ; next is found a mottled layer of four or five feet in thickness, and under this the color is cream or buff as far down as it has been practicable to drain it. This buff clay makes brick- of the same color and in quality equal to the celebrated Milwaukee brick. The inside hall of Cornell Universit)- Library and other prominent structures are made of these brick. The growing popularitj- of pressed brick is indicated by the output of this company, which is now 5,000,000 annually, and fifty men are employed in the manufacture. Amos L. Mason is President of the company and John Greenway is Secretary and Treasurer. Patrick and John Pre^ton began brick manufacture in 1883, at their pres- ent location on the Wadsworth road, under the firm naineof Preston Broth- ers. They own thirty- two acres of land, employ about thirty men, and produce 2,500,000 brick per year, using 700 cords of wood, Manufacturing Industries. 641 Timothy Nolan also has a brick- yard on land adjoining the Preston Hrothcrs on the north, where he has made brick since 1885. He turns out from 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 annually, and employs twenty men. Timothy Brophy has a yard in Wolf street, where he employs fifteen men, and makes about 1,000,000 brick per year. W. B. Kirk purchased twenty- five acres of land in i (S87 at the Rock Cut between Syracuse and Jamesville, where he began making brick, and produced nearly all that were used in the erection of his block. The yard is still in operation and produces over 1,000,000 brick per year. The New York Brick and Paving Company was organized in 1890 by James L. Hreed and George D. Grannis. They purchased five acres of land in Geddcs for the plant and forty acres of clay ground in the town of Clay, from which the material is brought to the works. Their output is 8,000,- 000 vitrified paving brick and 1,000,000 common brick annually, and they give emplo\-ment to seventy-five men. The paving brick made by this company are rapidly assuming prominence in cities for their durability and comparative cheapness. Capital, $100,000. The officers are A. A. How- lett, President; Jacob Amos, Vice-President; D. H. Bruce, Secretary; J. L. Breed, Treasurer; J. L. King, Attorney. Silvcrivarc. — The beginning of this industry in Syracuse is traced back to the manufacture of a few articles by W. W. Willard in 1841, in a store which he occupied in Water street east of Salina. About the same time Fred W. Moffat, a jeweler doing business in Clinton street, devoted his spare time to the manufacture of a few small articles of silverware for his own trade. The first to take up this line of manufacture in a systematic manner was the firm of Willard, Mawley & Co., the company being Joseph Sey- mour. Their factory was in Mulberry street, facing I'ayette Park. They employed at first four hands, which number gradually increased to ten. Charles Shafer, now a leading manufacturer in Utica, learned his trade with this firm, as did also John Lighten of this city. Mr. Seymour withdrew from the firm in 1848 to establish a business for himself, as described below. The remaining partners conducted the business where it had been located until 1S49, when it was removed to Montgomery street. Seven years later the factory was given up, for the reason that the capital employed could be more profitably used in other directions. Of the firm of Willard, Hawley & Co , Gen. J. D. Hawley is the only survivor. Joseph Seymour began in 1846, in Mulberry street, the manufacture of silverware; he remained there two years and then removed to No. 3-6 Mont- gomery street, where this business was continued for about forty-two years. In the year 1848 Benjamin R. Norton became a partner, under the firm name of Norton & Seymour, and later David Hotchkiss entered the firm 81 642 Memorial History of Syracuse. and the style became Norton, Seymour & Co. Mr. Seymour afterward bought his partners' interests and did business in his own name till his sons, Joseph, jr., and I-ldwin G., and George F. Comstock, jr., were admitted to partnership under the present firm name. In 1882 the firm bought the jew- elry business of D. Valentine, in the White Memorial Building, and have ever since conducted that branch with tlieir manufacturing department, which has been exclusively devoted to making solid silverware, which has attained a national reputation. Very few industries in Syracuse have so long been continued with such a good record. In addition to eminent business abili- ties, Joseph Seymour was a great reader and had a very retentive memory. He was also a veteran traveler, first becoming familiar with his own country. In each of the years 1873, 1878, and 1884 he traveled extensively in Europe, England and Scotland being his favorites. He was an active Re- publican from the formation of that party, often refusing office, but consented at one time to serve as Supervisor. In religious matters he was one of the organizers, and remained a supporter, of the Park Presbyterian Church. He was of genial disposition, quiet manners, manh' in all things, widely known, and universally respected. The firm of Hotchkiss & Schreuder began manufacturing silverware in 1857, at 95 East Genesee street. In 1S71 Mr. A. B. Schreuder became sole proprietor of the business. It was removed to No. 43 I'.ast Washington street in 1862. Mr. Schreuder manufactures sterling silverware, and his goods bear a high reputation. He is a native of Norway, and came to America in 1849 and to Syracuse in 1857. George H. HkChesiiey. — About the year 1840 a lumber \'ard was estab- lished on the site now occupied by George H. McChesney, corner of Pearl and James streets, by Cogswell & Barnes. It was one of the verv early yards of importance in the place. The firm was succeeded by George Sanford, and he by Brayton & Hill. In 1867 Mr. McChesney bought them out and built a planing-mill on the corner of Plum and Wilkinson streets, where moldings, etc., are also made. He has since that time given steady em- ployment to twenty-five men, and handles from 10,000,000 to 15,000,000 feet of lumber annually. Edzvard E. Chapman. — In the year 1870 Mr. Chapman established the lumber yard and planing-mill whicli he still carries on. It is located on the corner of Carbon and P'ree streets, where he handles about 4,000,000 feet of pine and hemlock and considerable hardwood lumber annually, giving employment to fifteen hands. Mr. Chapman's father was Edwi^rd Chapman, who came from East Granby, Conn., to Syracuse in 1824. He was a boat builder and worked in Spencer's yard, where the Durston Flats now stand. In 1827 he went to Salina and purchased the dry dock and boat-yard, and built canal boats until 1855, when he engaged in saltmaking. Manufacturing Industries. 643 Jokit H. McDowell — Mr. McDowell came to Syracuse from Oswcyo in 1873 aiul worked five years for H. A. Cnme & Co., lumber dealers on the corner of Townsend and Canal streets. That firm sold out to Kenyon & Shaw and Mr. McDowell remained with them two years, and then bought the lumber j'ard of Hraiilej- Cary, on the corner of Lock and Canal streets. This he carried on alone for one year, when he formed a partnership with 11. A. Crane and J. M. Belden, under the style of Crane, Belden & Co., with an office in Water street, and branch yards in Oswego and Tonawanda. Three years later Mr. Crane sold his interest to his partners, and the new firm of Belden & McDowell removed their yard to Wilkinson street, its present location. In the fall of r888 Mr. McDowell bought Mr. Belden's interest and became the sole proprietor. He put a large planing- mill on the premises and has given his energies chiefly to the wholesale trade. He keeps a stock of from 5,000,000 to 10,000,000 feet on hand, and does the largest lumber business between Albany and Buffalo, handling as high as 30,000,000 feet in a year, and giving employment to from thirty to fifty men. George G. Keuyon. — The firm of Kenyon & Shaw succeeded II. A. Crane, who had conducted the lumber business several years on the north side of the canal between Lock and Townsend streets. In 1880 Mr. Shaw died and the firm became Kenyon & Stevens. Requiring more room they secured the present location on the corner of Orange and Water streets. Mr. Stevens died in 1887 and Mr. Kenyon has continued alone. He occu- pies by ownership and rental 1,100 feet on the south side and 400 feet on the north side of the canal, and employs thirt\- men. He came to Syracuse from Fulton in 187 1. The Bliss Box Company. — In the year 1869 Jonathan B. Bliss started a planing mill on the corner of Catherine and Canal streets. Two years later he began the manufacture of boxes, an industry that has attained large proportions in Syracuse, and in which this establishment has occupied a conspicuous position. Mr. Bliss was burned out and rebuilt three times, each fire causing him heavy loss. In 1889 the Bliss Box Company was organized and incorporated, with a capital of $100,000 and the following officers: John K. Post, of Oswego, President; Henry H. Post, of Oswego, Vice-President and Treasurer ; J. B. Bliss, Superintendent. The present officers are George N. Burt, President ; George C. Hollister, of Rochester, Vice President ; Clarence Dillenbeck, Secretary and Treasurer; John Ray- mond, Superintendent. The number of workmen employed has increased from five to seventy- five. The magnitude of this industry in the country is almost startling. It is estimated that it has absorbed more than one-half of the softwood lumber cut in the United States for a number of years past. The Bliss factory alone cut io,000,000 feet in 1890. 644 Memorial History of Syracuse. E. M. Klock. — In the year 1865 Mr. Klock opened a lumber yard on the spot he now occupies, 191 2 West Fayette street. The next year he put up a planing-mill ami in the fall of 1890 he began the manufacture of the Merriman patent door. He handles annually 3,500,000 to 4,000,000 feet of lumber, besides shingle.-,, lath, pickets, etc. Mr. Klock is prominent in local politics, and has held the office of Alderman and other positions. Thomas Merriam. — This establishment, like most others in the city, commenced in a small way, and has grown to magnificent proportions. Joseph Leeret commenced the manufacture of boxes, of various kinds, on the corner of Washington and Orange streets, about 1854, and in a short time his business increased so much that he was obliged to seek for larger quarters. He then formed a partnership with Harvey Blaisdell, purchased the corner of East Water and Almond streets, and erected a large factory, which was increased in size occasionally as their business demanded. They suffered twice by fire, one of which completely destroyed the whole struct- ure, and in another they were severely crippled. They did an immense business, in making cigar boxes and almost every variety of packing boxes; at any rate every kind needed in the city. In 1876 Merriam & Gregory rented a portion of their buildings and power, and commenced the manu- facture of sash, doors, and blinds, which was continued till the spring of 1S89, when the partnership was dissolved, Mr. Gregory taking the hard- ware store in North Salina street, and Mr. Merriam the factory. They had done a large and successful business and Mr. Merriam felt warranted in taking the whole establishment of Leeret & Blaisdell, and is continuing the two factories under one head. He manufactures into sash, doors, blinds, and boxes of every description 5,000,000 feet of lumber annually. The soft lumber comes from Michigan and Canada, the hard wood from Ken- tucky, and the cedar from Cuba. His engine is 175 horse-power, driving 100 different machines, and he produces about $175,000 of finished goods annually. He employes about 125 men and boys. Wilson & Robot ham. — In 1876 Messrs. Wilson & Wilbur bought of P. B. Brayton the business located at 75 South West street, which had been founded in 1864 by M. E. Carter, for the manufacture of extension tables and table slides. In 1878 Robert Robotham purchased Mr. Wilbur's inter- est and the present firm was formed. Their present factory at 715 to 723 West Fayette street was erected in 1882. lughteen men are employed by • them and their goods are ordered from widely separated points — Australia, South America, Cuba, Mexico, and the Pacific coast. The full capacity of their works is tested to meet these demands. They keep no traveling sales- men, the quality of their product being sufficient recommendation. John Moore & Co. — The picture frame business of this firm was originated ManufacturiiNg Industries. 645 by the firm of Sanford & l?on, in 1865. who were succeeded by John Moore & Co. in 1879. Immediately on tiic transfer of the business to John Moore & Co. the branch of contract woodwork and other hnes were added. Tlie mold- ing branch of the business employs constantly i 50 hands, and goods are ship- ped to all parts of the country in addition to a -general export trade. The con- tract department employs in and out of the factory, at times, as high as 300 men and five traveling salesmen. This firm contracts principally for large government buildings located throughout the United States. The factory is located in James and Pearl streets. " The firm consists of John Moore and Frank M. Moore. Tlie Butler Maiuifactitriug Co. was incorporated in 1883 with a capital of $12,000, which was increased tiiree years ago to $24,000. The first officers were IJruce S. Aldrich, President; F. M. Bonta, Secretary and Treasurer ; E. K. Butler, General Manager. The object of the company was the manufacture of artistic furniture. Thirty men were employed at first, but the growth of the industry has been such that now 100 men arc on the pa}' roll. The premises, at No. 18 10 West Fayette street, have 66 feet front and extend back to the canal, on which is a frontage of 150 feet. The main building is 150x40 feet, five stories hit;h, and another is 800x40 feet, four stories high. The present officers are E. K. Butler, President and Treasurer; H. E. Wanamaker, Vice-President; William Nicholson, Secre- tary. This establishment employs lOO hands, and turns out a product val- ued at $450,000 annually. February 9, 1S71, the firm of Carpenter, De Puy & Co. was organized, they having bought the business formerly established by Carpenter & Mosely, and for nearly eigiiteen years they carried on a general v.oodwork- ing business. October i, 1889, they were succeeded by the present firm of De Puy, Robinson & Co , composed of Schuyler P. De Puy, C. F". Robin- son, and M. L. Abbott. The factory has employed on the average thirty men for the last fifteen years, and turns out all kinds of carving, turning, sawing, molding, etc., for the complete finish of interiors and exteriors of dwellings, hotels, churches, stores, etc. They are located at 118 and 120 Mulberry street, where the business was first established. The furniture manufacturing and woodworking business now conducted by D. E. Hayden at 401-405 South Clinton street was established in March, 1870, by li. J- Crandall, and came into Mr. Hayden's possession and con- trol August I, 1879. The works are in a large three-story brick building, the machinery being operated by a 50-horse-power engine. Mr. Hayden employs from fifteen to twenty-five men and has an investment of $15,000. with a business amounting to $25,000 annual!}'. His capacity covers al- most every kind of woodwork — sawing, turning, carving — and every variety 646 Memorial History of Syracuse. of interior work. He makes a specialty of extension tables, couches, and parlor and office furniture, most of which is manufactured to order. He also enters largely into inside house finishing in soft and bard woods. J. D. Coleman. — In the year i860 Mr. Coleman began the manufacture of mclodeons in Salina street in the Washington Block. Soon afterward he introduced the manufacture of cabinet organs and moved to James street, the firm becoming Carpenter & Coleman, by the admission of Lyman and Colvin Carpenter. In 1872 Christian Cook took an interest in the business and the firm name was made Cook, Carpenter & Coleman, the factory be- ino- removed to Gifford street. The manufacture of furniture was added to the business, which was carried on to about ten years ago. Since that time Mr. Coleman has been located in East Water street. No. 316, and is largely engaged in the manufacture of desks and office and library furniture. He employs ten men. The Syracuse Molding Company. — This business was established in the spring of 1885 by William H. Van Buskirk, John Burns, and John Folley. They now employ twenty- five workmen, use 200,000 feet of lumber yearly, and are doing a flourishing business. The members of the firm are all na- tives of Syracuse. Mr. Van Buskirk spends a part of his time on the road and sells their goods throughout the State. Leslie Caldzvell. — Mr. Caldwell began business as a builder and con- tractor in 1863, and he was soon obliged by its increase to establish a shop with power, a planer, and other machinery for manufacturing woodwork used in his building operations. He employs ten to fifteen men, and is located at 143 Kennedy street. H'eniy Schmeer. — In the year 1867 Schmeer & Listman began the man- ufacture of paper boxes in the old Wieting Block, where they remained two years, when they removed to Clinton street. In 1883 Mr. Schmeer .sold his interest in the business to Mr. Listman and established a factory in West Water street, making the same line of goods till 1889, when he moved to the commodious quarters he now occupies at 106 to no Noxon street, where he has $20,000 invested, and employs 105 hands. Mr. Schmeer is the largest manufacturer of paper boxes in Syracuse. William Crabtree is one of the leading contractors and builders of the city, particularly in the line of stone work. He is a native of England, and came to New York in 1870. He located in Syracuse two years later, and worked at his trade until 1877, when the firm of Hughes & Crabtree was formed ; it continued in existence two years, since which time Mr. Crab- tree has carried on business alone. He purchased his present yard, corner of Montgomery and Taylor streets, and has carried on a large business, fur- nishing the stone for the Government Building, the County Clerk's office in ManuI'ACtl'king Industries. 647 this city, the Court- 1 louse in Otsego county, several of the largest buildings in Auburn, and is now enyaged on a contract for a private residence in Cortland, costing $125,000, and is furnishing the stone for the Masonic Home in Utica. He employs from fifty to seventy-five men. Thomas Jackson, contractor and builder, located at the corner of Brown and Decker streets, came to Syracuse from England in 1859, and learned his trade in this city. He began business for himself in 1873. Among his important contracts are the wood work on St. Paul's Church and on the Leland Hotel, which burned down, and the new City Hall, whicii is in pro- cess of construction, the latter contract involving $37,000. He employs from twenty five to fiftj' men. Richard Dawson is located at 108 Baker avenue, as a contractor and builder. He came to Syracuse from Canada in 1865, and has been in active business here for twenty-three years. Among the more important build- ings constructed by Mr. Dawson may he mentioned the Kline Block, the Crichton I'lats, and the Marsellus casket factory. He employs from twenty- five to fifty men. I'hilip Goettel is a Iniilder of considerable prominence, located at 308 Highland street. After service in the army he began his present business in 1870, and now employs from five to fifty men. He was a member of the 149th Regiment, Company B. He was wounded at Chancellorsville by a piece of shell, and at Gettysburg was struck by a bullet in his arm while ano'her passed through his knapsack. At Ringgold's Depot, in the Lookout Mountain operations, he captured two rebel flags, and holds a government medal for distinguished braverw At Savannah Mr. Goet- tel, Jacob Klein, and Nicholas Seaver were the first men who entered the navy yards. A rebel who asked Goettel who he was was told that he was a policeman. The joke was swallowed, and the rebel look the three men to breakfast. Goettel was also one of the 1 10 men who first took pos- session of Savannah. Charles Umbrecht, contractor anil builder at 214 Prospect avenue, was also a soldier of three years' servicTe in the P'irst Engineers, which went out from New York city to the siege of Charleston when Fort Sumter was re- captured. His regiment was in active service, and closed its service before Petersburg in the last year of the war. Mr. Umbrecht employs from fifteen to fifty men. In earlier pages of this work reference is made to the marble cutting shop of Isaac Stanton, who was one of the early settlers of the place. Mr. Stan- ton was one of the cholera victims of 1832, but was succeeded in his busi- ness by his son, Isaac StaiUon, jr.. in 1826, the business being then located in North Salina street. Isaac Stanton, jr., was one of the victims of the pow- 648 Memorial Histouv of Syracuse. der explosion of 1841, and was succeeded in the business by his brother, Sidney Stanton, who continued in North Salina street, and hiter in James street, until the building of the West Shore Railroad. That company pur- chased his yard and he removed to 1 19 Lock street, where his son, Sidney, jr., still conducts the business founded by his uncle. At the time of his death, in 1890, Sidney Stanton was one of the oldest native residents of Syracuse ; he was born in Salina street in 1809. John C. Esser came to Syracuse from New York city, and he is .said to have been the first sculptor to carve our native stone. Among the many pieces of sculpture which owe their beauty and symuietr)- to Mr. Esser's skill may be mentioned the medallion of Judge James R. Laurence and a portrait bust of the journalist Lewis H. Redfield, both from life, and both of which grace their respective monuments at Oakwood Cemetery. The W'hitlock monument in Oakwood and tlie Malloy monument in St.- Agnes Cemetery are a couple of the numerous pieces of work of this kind which Mr. Esser has so beautifully executed. His son has now an interest in the business under the firm name of John C. Esser & Son, with their yard and office at 920 South Salina street. They own a stone quarry at Jamesville, from which they bring the supply for their own use and also for other build- ers. They are now extensively engaged in carrying out building contracts in marble, stone, and granite. The firm executes monumental work of a high character, and employs fifteen men. For more than twenty-five years Daniel J Francis has been prominently identified with the marble and granite working business in Syracuse, and at the present time the firm of Francis & Co. carries on the largest industry of that kind in Central New York. The firm is now composed of Mr. Francis, Thomas F. DeLany (who has been identified with the business since its commencement, and was admitted to the firm in 1873), and Newell E. Loomis, the latter of whom was admitted in 1885 ; their location is at 1 18 to 124 West Onondaga street. Their work has attained a high reputation over a wide extent of territory, and they have exceptional advantages for obtaining the various kinds of marble and granite which their trade de- mands. They also conduct a large mantel, grate, and tile business, and are agents for the Perth Amboy Terra- Cotta Company and other specialties. C. Linehan came to Syracuse in 1854 and began marble working in Wolf street in the following year, lie subsequently took a partner, N. C. Hinsdale, and the firm removed to the Empire Block in Genesee street. Mr. Linehan sold his interest to Hinsdale, who went out of business, and Linehan opened an establishment in the Washington Block, in South Salina street. He shortly afterward removed to the site of the Dixon House, and in 1869 took his present location, 617 South Salina street. He employs five men and works in marble and granite. Manufacturing Industries. 649 E. C. Stearns &" Co. — The inception of this business had its origin in about tlie year i860, when it was commenced by George N. Stearns, father of Edward C. Stearns and Mrs. Avis S. Van W'agenen, two of the present proprietors. Six j-ears later a small factory was erected in Cedar street. Mr. Stearns had during this time devoted his energies chiefly to the manu- facture of hollow augers. His business was a decided success from the beginning, and continued to expand and improve from time to time to keep pace with the ever increasing demands for his articles, which were accord- ingly increased in number as necessity required. He carried on the con- cern alone at this location till 1877, when owing to ill- health his son and daughter, Edward C. Stearns and Mrs. A\'is S. Van Wagenen (then Mrs. Avis Mead), purchased the business under the firm name of E. C. Stearns & Co., by which it has ever since been known. Three years later they re- moved the offices and plant to the old John A. Nichols gun works, on the north side of James street near the corner of Lock, and about the same time establislied a branch office in Chicago. The rapid growth of the businessi caused by the addition of saw vises, parlor sliding door hangers, band set- ters, spoke shaves, pointers, etc., to their list of maiuifacturcs, soon necessi- tated anotlier removal to larger and more commodious quarters, and ac- cordingly in 1882 the present extensive plant was erected at the foot of West Adams street, corner of Oneida, in the Sixth ward. Since then new build- uigs have been added each year, until it is now one of the most extensive manufactories of hardware in the country, and is justly entitled to a leading rank in the manufacturing industries of Syracuse. The firm now gives employment to 350 men, and turns out among other specialties ten distinct styles of patent sliding door hangers, a number of different kinds of pat- ented locks, window and door screens, screen frames, hinges, vises, spoke shaves and pointers, jack screws, lawn mowers, iron sinks, and stable fixt- ures, etc. Of many of these goods and of others they are said to be the largest manufacturers in the world, and prominent among these articles are their parlor sliding door hangers, barn door hangers, barn door locks, door and window screen frames, adjustable stove-pipe thimbles, adjustable screw and door frame clamps, hollow augers, spoke shaves and pointers, cast-iron stable hay racks and feed boxes, saw vises, bench drills, lawn mowers, mal- lets, chisel handles, jack screws, etc. The plant now utilized in the manu- facture of their various hardware specialties consists of the main building 252 X 60 feet and four stories high, the foundry and woodworking depart- ment 250 X 220, two-story japanning building 43 x 25, pattern building 40 x 20, screen frame factory 104x60, and storehouse 31 X72 and others aggregating 166x35. The buildings are all of brick, well lighted, and conveniently arranged for manufacturing purposes. They are fitted 648 Memorial Histouy of Syracuse. up with costly machinery, much of which has been designed and built by the firm for their special use, and all tools and appliances used in the man- ufacture of their various articles are the very best. The firm consists of Edward C. Stearns, Mrs. Avis S. Van Wagenen, and Herbert E. Maslin. Express Companies. — The express business owes its origin to William F. Harnden, who began it in 1839. In 1841 his agent at Albany, Henry Wells, organized with George Pomeroy and Crawford Livingston the firm of Pomeroy & Co., which operated between Albany and Buffalo once a week. Wells first carried his parcels in a carpet bag and paid his fare as a passenger. Two years later Livingston, Wells & Pomeroy assumed con- trol, and soon after Livingston, Wells & Co., who continued till 1S46, oper- ating over the N. Y. C. R. R. Wells & Co. was then organized, and in 1849 Butterfield, Wasson & Co. began in opposition over the same road. The ne.xt year these two firms and Livingston & Fargo (who had operated west of Buffalo) consolidated as Wells, Butterfield & Co. and Livingston, Fargo & Co.. but comprised a joint stock concern under the style of the American Express Co., with Henry Wells as President and William G. Fargo (a native of this county) as Secretary. In 1854 the United States Express Co. was formed, but was immediately merged in the American, which was re-organized in i860. The office in this city was first located where the White Memorial Building now stands, and subsequently removed to its present location in the Kline Block. Alfred Higgins, the company's genial agent, assumed charge in 1857, and has since continued in that capacity. When he was appointed the business was conducted b}- four men and one horse; now thirty-four men and twenty-four horses are em- ployed. The present United States Express Co. dates from 1854. The next year it was operating over the D., L. and W. R. R., with Frederick Hall agent at Syracuse. In 1872 the D., L. and W. Express Co. suc- ceeded to the business over this line, and continued till 1886, when the United States Express Co. regained control. Smith P. Snider has been the efficient local manager for the two companies since 1872. Two or three men and a horse were first employed, against twelve men and nine horses at the present time. The National ICxpress Co. was organized in 1855, and since the completion of the West Shore Railroad has operated over that line. The present Syracuse agent is Edwin L. Gifford. The three express companies in Syracuse transact yearly a money and money order business aggregating hundreds of thousands of dollars, carry- ing vast sums almost any distance with absolute safety and at reasonable rates. Letters at one time formed the principal part of the express mes- senger's parcels, and the carrying of these resulted in cheaper postage and better postal facilities. Manukactuking Industkiks. 649 Adam Nies came to Syracuse in 1 850 and opened a stonecutting yard in 1866 in the firm of Graff & Nies, wiiich was dissolved in 1874, and Mr. Nies has since remained alone. He works almost wholly in gray limestone. At different times he has employed from ten to seventy-five hands. lie supplied the stone work of some of the Cornell University buildings, one of the Hinghamtoxi banks, and other large structures. J. F. Pease Furnace Company. — This company was incorporated in April, 18S3, with a capital stock of $30,000 and the following officers: President, Dennis M. Kennedy; Vice-President, John V . Pease; Secretary and Treas- urer, \\ K. West. The company commenced doing business at 63 West Water street. In 18S5 they moved to their present location in Willow street, next to the Oswego Canal bridge, where their factory is still located. In 1887 they built a foundry at the corner of Belden avenue and Sand street, where their castings are now made by the Economy Foundry Com- pany, to whom the foundry plant was rented by the J. F. Pease Furnace Company. There are employed at the factory in Willow street from sixty to eighty hands, with seven salesmen on the road ; ;;t the foundry are over 100 hands. In April, 1889, the late President, Dennis M. Kennedy, died, and the present organization is as follows : President and Treasurer, P3. K. West; Vice-President, John F. Pease; Secretary, Samuel Stephens ; Assist- ant Treasurer, W. K. West; Assistant Secretary, E. C. Moses. This com- pany manufactures, in addition to the ordinary warm air heaters, specialties consisting of a steam and warm air combination heater and a hot water and warm air combination heater, their business having increased more than seven hundred per cent, within the last seven years, and their sales extend from Portland, Oregon, to Portland, We., and as far south as Texas. Pierce, Butler & Pierce Manufacturing Company. — This company was incorporated in 1876 with a capital stock of $200,000 and increased in 1890 to $600,000, and is an outgrowth of the mercantile business established by Sylvester P. Pierce in the year 1839. The business of the company embraces the manufacture of steam heating apparatus, lead and block tin pipe, solder, and the very popular and celebrated Florida steam and hot water heaters. The four-story brick building 66 x 130 feet in Clinton street is occupied for the offices and wholesale department of the company. In the basement are located two large lead presses. Their large foundry and machine shops, used for the manufacturing of their Florida steam and hot water heaters, are located at Geneva, N. Y., on the line of the N. Y. C. R. R. The officers of the company are as follows : President, S. P. Pierce ; Vice-President and Treasurer, W. K. Pierce; Secretary, C. C. Jen- kins ; these with C. V. Kellogg and M. C. Pierce constitute the Board of Directors. The concern employs 225 hands and produces an output of $1,000,000 and over per annum. 82 650 Memorial History of Syracuse. Howard Furnace Company, doing business at 529 and 531 South Clinton street, manufactures the warm air furnaces and combination hot water and warm air heaters patented in 1887 by Charles D. Howard. The company was organized January i, 1888, with a capital of $30,000, which was increased to $50,000 in 1S89, and all paid in. The company is in a flourishing con- dition and its business is constantly increasing. It has thirty employees and five salesmen. Its business has increased over 200 per cent, since its organi- zation. The officers are E. M. Moore, President; J. H. Norton, Vice-Presi- dent; Fred H. Moore, Treasurer; G. H. Kennedy, Secretary; and Charles D. Howard, Superintendent of manufacture. The business of the Wells Manufacturing Company was started in a small way in 1884. It is confined strictly to the manufacture of articles covered by patents, and their sales are made chiefly to the drug, stationery, and book trades. By persistent efforts they have been able to make a mar- ket for their goods, not only throughout the United States, but in consid- erable quantities in foreign countries. The business has been one of steady growth, and they have at different times enlarged their facilities for manu- facturing. In 1890 they built and are now occupying a large and commo- dious factory in Tallman street. The establishment embraces a printing office, book bindery, woodworking department, machine shop, and sewing- machine room. Arthur J. Wells is the manager and the inventor of the specialties which they manufacture. They use steam-power and employ from thirty to forty hands. Tlic Globe Laundry, located at 232 North Salina street, was started in 1884 by Henry Funda. In 1885 William Schillinger purchased the busi- ness, and two years later substituted steam-power for hand labor. He keeps two delivery wagons and employs twenty people. The New Process Raw Hide Company, with offices at No. 248 West Washington street, and works at Baldwinsville, N. Y., was organized June 25, 1888, with a capital of $30,000, which has since been increased to $40,- 000. This company manufactures raw hide by its patented process of curing, which removes all superfluous matter and retains only the actual fibre to the full extent of its strength, the product bearing the same relation to or- dinary raw hide that steel does to iron. From the hide so treated various articles are manufactured, the principal ones which the company itself pro- duces being raw hide bound mallets and chisel handles, warranted not to split, and noiseless solid raw hide gears. The gears are used on all high-speed machinery, are strictly noiseless, and outwear both steel and bronze. For electric railway cars they are particularly desirable, and many of the most prominent lines have adopted them to the exclusion of all other kinds. That they will in a short time entirely supercede the use of metal gears for Manufacturing Industries. 651 this purpose, against the noise of which tiic public generally vigorously protests, seems to be a foregone conclusion. The officers of the New Pro- cess Raw Hide Company arc T. \V. Meatheni, President; Hon. W. B. Kirk, Vice-President ; A. C. Vosburgh, Secretary ; and J. C. Kenyon, Treasurer. The firm of Dickison & Allen was fornied in 1887, the individual mem- bers being William Dickison and PIrwin M. Allen. Both were experienced contractors and builders: Mr. Dickison in Oswego, whence he came to Syracuse, where he has been for the past twenty three years, and Mr. Allen in this city, where his father had long followed the business. They are large operators, having the present year contracts for the Masonic Home and .School in Utica and the Young Men's Christian Association Building in Montreal, Canada. Their office and extensive factory for woodwork of every description are located at 41 1 to 417 Canal street. The firm emjiloys from forty to fifty hands at home and from lOO to 150 abroad. Mr. Dicki- son was a captain in the late civil war, enlisting in a regiment from Oswego. The firm of Martin, Sprague & Co., general contractors, was formed in 1888, and consists of Andrew Martin, W. G. Sprague, and Daniel Candee. In the years 1888 and 1889 they built the James street sewer from the West Shore Railroad to Dr. Wieting's east line, and the two-foot brick sewers in Laurel, Seward, Highland, and Graves streets, 5000 feet long. Among their subsequent contracts have been the grading and macadamizing of Wil- bur avenue, three-fourths of a mile ; grading Lincoln avenue, now South Onondaga street, from Delaware to Geddes streets; and constructing a five- foot sewer in Talman and Croton streets, three-fourths of a mile. In 1890 the same parties, under the firm name of W. G. Sprague & Co., were awarded the contract to build a sewer in South Salina street, from Kennedy street to Brighton, a distance of 4,000 feet, which work is now in progress. They employ from twenty- five to fifty men. All the members of this firm have been old railroad contractors. Martin, Sullivan & Donovan, street and sewer contractors, have been in business since 1886. Mr. Donovan was admitted to partnership in 1801. They are agents for the Empire Portland Cement Company, formerly the firm of Millen & Sons, the factory being at Warners, N. Y. They employ from fifteen to twenty-five men, and have an office at 112 West Genesee street and a yard on the corner of Lodi and Ash streets. The individual partners are Andrew Martin, C. J. Sullivan, and D. Donovan, the first men- tioned being also a member of the firm of Martin, Sprague & Co. Ed. Byram, contractor and builder, has a large shop on the corner of Orange and Water streets, with a planing- mill and machinery for wood- work, including stair-building, furniture, water cisterns, and moldings. He is engaged largely in building blocks and dwellings, and employs an 652 Memorial History of Syracuse. average of sixty men. Mr. Byram has lived in Syracuse and followed this business twenty-one years. He was born and raised near Culpepper Court House, Va., and witnessed the hanging of John Brown, at Charles- town, twenty-two miles from Harper's Ferry. In i860 he was a member of the 13th Regiment, Virginia militia, which was ordered there to guard the execution. There were 105 men in his company, and every one was a carpenter by trade, officers included. The next year he enlisted in General Lee's army, Company C, 7th Virginia, Picket's Division, and fought in all the noted battles in front of Richmond, including Antictam, Gettysburg, and Fredericksburg. Making up his mind the South would never win he deserted in February, 1865, at Bermuda Hundred, Va., and made his way to Washington, got work at his trade, and helped erect the grand stand from which the officers reviewed the great parade at the close of the war. He then returned to his native town, married, and came North, living two years in Chicago before coming to this city. When he came here he could not write his name. He lives in Danforth street, has ten children, and is prosperous. Amie Harnois came to Syracuse in 1862, and began his present business in 1865. His first contract was on the corner of Union avenue and Town- send street. That year he built sixteen houses. After that he erected the first house on Prospect Hill, the first on Liberty Hill, and the first in Ger- trude street. Mr. Harnois has instructed many people of his nationality in the carpenters' and builders' trade, and helped them to start for themselves. Perhaps no Frenchman has done more to assist his countrymen to their very creditable and prosperous condition in Syracuse than has Mr. Harnois. He is a Director in the Fourth Ward Railroad Co., a Trustee in the Builders' Exchange, and a Trustee in the Central City Land Company. Besides his contracts with others he builds a good many houses to sell and to rent ; he employs thirty people, and is an extensive owner and dealer in real estate. The Syracuse Malleable Iron Works. — The origin of this concern dates from 1S82, when it was started by Hon. Willis B. Burns, the present propri- etor. A. W. Dowsland is Superintendent. The premises are on the north side of the Erie Canal at North Geddes street. This is one of the great metal works of the United States. In it upwards of 225 workmen are em- ployed in conducting the various operations incident to the production of every variety of malleable casting. The foundry, 100 x 200 feet in dimen- sions, is supplied with open hearth furnaces in which the iron is melted, and by the use of which direct radiation from the flame is derived. In this way a pure quality of casting is produced, as the metal is not contaminated with sulphur. The main building, which is 60 x 235 feet in size, is de\oted to the operations of annealing, tempering, pattern-making, trimming, etc. Manufacturing Industries. 653 The motive power is supplied by a 6o-horse-po\ver Straight Line I'^n- gine and an Abcndrotli & Root lOO-horse- power boiler. Connected with the works are three large coal sheds and a spacious horse stable. The mate- rials received include anthracite and bituminous coal, fire sand, molding smd, luting clay, fire brick, etc. The castings made here vary from one- half pound to 300 pounds in weight. The works consume about 3,000 tons of coal and 15,000 fire brick annually. Fricdcl &" S>v//f in 1 8S4 succeeded Jacob Listman in the manufacture of paper bo.xes at their present location, 408 Clinton street, and 1 i i and 1 13 Walton street. At first they employed about thirty hands. Their business has increased until now they employ fifty hands. They have made a sjje- cialty of sample cases for candy, ami their goods are sold in all parts of the surrounding country. T/tc Palace Steam Laundry, at 329 Warren street, was started by Ar- thur B. Russell and Edward A. Hunt in 188S, who have .some forty branch offices in Syracuse and adjacent cities and villages. They run three deliv- ery wagons, and give employment to fifty people. The Syracuse Tube Works. — In the year 1881 a number of Sjracuse men organized the Syracuse Iron and Tube Compan\^ and a comparatively small plant was established on the block bounded by Pine, Beech, Wash- ington, and Water streets. N. R. Ryder was President. After an existence of less than two years the entire establishment was disposed of and a new company, called the Syracuse Tube Company, which included most of the old shareholders, was organized, with James Morrison as President, and with a capital of $100,000, which has since been increased to $180,000. Manufacturing was begun on an extensive scale, the product being wrought- iron pipe and boiler tubes. Specialties are high grade boiler tubes for loco- motives and stationary boilers. About fifty men were at first emploj'ed, which number has increased to nearly four hundred, and extensive addi- tions have been made to the plant, until it is at the present time one of the leading industries of Syracuse. The officers are: James Morrison, Presi- dent; W. 11. Niven, Vice-President; George Timmins, General Manager; George B. Leonard, Treasurer ; J. M. Colwell, Secretary ; A. Telfcr, Super- intendent. This Board has held the offices from the beginning. The office is located at 13 17 East Washington street. The Syracuse Stove Works was incorporated July 13, 1888 ; capital, $150,000 The plant is located on the north bank of the Erie Canal, east of North Geddes street. The officers of the company are J. M. I^aton, President; Frederick J. Fincke, Vice President ; Nicholas Devereiix, Sec- retary ; Francis Kernan, jr., Treasurer. The word " Welcome" lias been adopted and is widely known as the trade mark for their goods. They 654 Memorial History of Syracuse. manufacture a complete line of stoves and ranges, employ about one hun- dred men, and melt from ten to twelve tons of iron per day. Alfred Tily. — Mr. Tily has the longest business record of any one in his line in Syracuse who is still in the trade. He learned liis trade by a thorough British apprenticeship in Hampshire, England, and came to Syra- cuse in 1854. In 1857 he opened a store at No. 75 East Genesee street. At that time the only man in the plumbing business in Syracuse was George Gratton. Two years later F. E. Carroll, afterwards Mayor of the city, became a partner with Mr. Gratton. In 1861 Mr. Tily removed to his present location (then No. 89) 333 East Genesee street, which he leased of Richard Paine. In 1865 he purchased the property for $5,500, embracing a lot running through to Washington street 20 x 127 feet. There was then no building on the railroad street side. During the past thirty years ]\Ir. Tily has employed from five to forty men, and has made an honorable busi- ness record. Edward Joy has had an extensive experience of twenty-si.x years in the steam heatuig and plumbing business in Syracuse. His establishment has been located since 1865 at the corner of East Washington and Market streets, and his business has so increased that he now occupies four stores on the ground floor. Among the prominent buildings and residences which Mr. Joy has furnished with steam heating and ijlumbing are the new Kirk Block, I'^lorence Flats, Church of Assumption School, the new House of Providence, new City Hall, the residences of Congressman J. J. Belden, Senator Frank Hiscock, Senator Francis Hendricks, Judge Wallace, Judge Ruger, George Barnes, and the Solvay Process Company's new oftlce, be- sides a number of fine residences in Cazenovia and Oneida. R. C. McClure began his plumbing business in South Clinton street in 1879. In 1 891 he put up the five-story brick building now occupied by him, which is 133 x 40 feet, at a cost of $25,000. He gives employment to fifteen men. Charles G. Hanchett began plumbing and heating at No. 13 West Wash- ington street in 1S81, and occupied his present location. No. 351 South Sa- lina street, in 1887. He employs twenty men, and put the plumbing and heating in the Snow Building, the Syracuse Savings Bank, the Crouse Sta- bles, the Orphan Asylum, and many of the finest residences. Fraiuis Bauvier. — Many residents of Syracuse will learn here for the first time that the largest manufactory of wa.x candles in the United States is located in their midst. Francis Baumer's candles have acquired a repu- tation which has enabled the manufacturer to assume the leading position in that trade. Mr. Baumer and Hugo Moosbrugger began making wax candles in 1871. In 1880 Mr. Moosbrugger withdrew from the firm and Manufactukinh; Industries. 655 Mr. Bamuer has since remained alone. The business was small at the first, employing tiirce workmen, but persistence in manufacturing only the best of goods and gro.it improvements in processes made by him soon greatly increased the business. The sales extend throughout the United States and Canada, and a business has been built up which has grown from year to year and now employs nearly sixty workmen. The wax candles from this manufactory are made of the best refined beeswax, and vary in weight from one-quarter of an ounce to thirty pounds and even larger. Many of the candles; especially those for the first communion and Easter services, are elegantly decorated, fine artists being constantly employed in this work. The manufacture of parlor candles is also carried on extensively. About 400,000 pounds of beeswax candles and 300,000 pounds of stearic acid and paraffinc candles are turned out annually. The refining and bleaching of the great quantity of wax is done in Pond street, where the plant covers an entire block. The factory proper is a large brick building in Alvord street. Mr. Haumcr was born in Bavaria and came to Syracuse in 1848. He has won a reputation as an honorable and useful citizen, and his manu- factory is one of the representative succossfiil establishments of this city. Eckerman & Will. — From an insignificant beginning this industry has developed with the growth of the city, and with the increased demands made upon it through the general growth and prosperity of the country. It has become not only one of the important industries of Syracuse, employ- ing as it docs about sixty hands, but has helped to give the city of Syracuse a national rei)utalion in this peculiar branch of industr\-. The pioneer in this business, not only locally, but in the United States, was Anthony Will, who emigrated from Wurtemberg in 1855. lie had .served his apprentice- ship in Bavaria in the days when the " Wanderbursche" was wont to carry his bundle upon a slick over his shoulder, and trudge from town to town to serve an apprenticeship with each "Meister." Arriving in America, and being unable to find employment at his trade, he began by working a few months at the carpenter trade, ilevoting spare hours to producing the first wax products by preparing and melting his small stock of material upon a cook stove. From this small beginning the facilities were steadily increasetl, enabling him to produce better goods and at a lower price than the im- imported article; for at this time all of this class of goods were imported from Italy and Germany, making them so expensive that the demand was limited. When it is understood that in those da)s there was a lack of proper tools to work with, the few samples of his work, which are still pre- served, bear evidence of skill and taste Framed pieces entirely of beeswax, representing the Singers' Wreath and Book, are still upon the walls at the Liederkranz rooms, and though made over thirty years ago are well pre- 656 Memorial History of Syracuse. served specimens of the art. Mr. Will may justly be styled "the father of the wa.K business" in this country. After his death, which occurred in 1865, the business was continued for a time bj- his widow, under the style of Eck- erman & Will, and more recently bj' his sons, the present members of the firm being Louis and Albert Will. lilnergy and enterprise have character- ized their management, and the business has had a steady and healthy growth. They have branch offices at New York and San Francisco. The increase and prosperity of the business soon induced competition, and now there are five firms engaged in this industry in Syracuse, employing an ag- gregate capital of about $300,000 Characteristic of all American enter- prises, the scope of the product has been materially enlarged, embracing almost everything produced in the line ol wax and its by-products. These include beeswax and stearine candles, plain and decorated for Catholic and Episcopal Church use, bleached white an'^. refined yellow beeswax for chemical and pharmaceutical purposes, wa.x tapers and fancy candles in colors, and elegant decorations for drawing-rooms and evening parties. The little toy candle that illuminates the Christmas tree to the delight of the little folks is also an impiirtant product, while the " house for the little busy bee" is now prodticed in the shape of artificial hone\comb, thus saving the labor of house building, and increasing the honey product correspondingly. Steam-power is employed in melting and refining the various grades of wax, and special machinery, gotten up in the course of many years of labor and experiment, has supplanted hand labor to a large extent. Moosbnigger Caudle Co. — When the partnership between Francis Ikui- mer and Hugo Moosbrugger was dissolved, in 1880, the latter continued the business until his death in 18S9, under his own name. Since March, 1890, the firm of Moosbrugger Candle Co., comprising E. Moosbrugger, Frank A. Ranch, and J Hisley, jr., has carried on the c.iiulle business at the corner of Pond and Carbon streets. They turn out a full line of decorated wax candles and church and parlor candles. From eight to twelve persons are emi)l(iyed. r/w Canning Industrv. — This industry in Syracuse is an important one, j)articularlv from the unique character of some of its products, and there are several establishments that rank high among the prominent ones of tiie country, and whose goods find a market in many of the States. One of the earliest firms to engage in the business here was that of Loomis, Allen & Co., which was composed of C. C. Loomis, George R. Allen, and W. B. Ostrander. They began canning tomatoes and corn in 1867, in Willow street, where the Pease Furnace Company is now located. In 1875 the business was removed to Cicero, where its facilities and product were en- larged. In 1878 H. H. Loomis and A. J. Loomis purcliased the interests Manufactukin(; Industries. 657 of C. C. Loomis and W. B. Ostrander, and in 1883 a branch was established in the First ward, in which Russell Z. Sadler became, and still is, a partner. Mr. Sadler was Supervisor of the First ward in 1887, '88, and '89. This in- dustry has grown to large proportions. In a single year they have used the product of a thousand acres of sweet corn, filling 750,000 cans, which they also manufiicturcd. During the active season 300 operatives are em- ployed, and the annual production has a value of $75,000. In the spring of 1869 Oscar F. Soule and G. Lewis Merrell formed a partnership for canning purposes, locating opposite where they now are, in West Fayette street. The product of the first season amounted to only about $12,000 in value. In the following year they purchased a site on the corner of Marcellus and West streets, where they remained with a gradu- ally increasing business until 1881. Needing more room at that time they purchased their present quarters, comprising 114 feet frontage on the north side of West Fayette street, and bounded on the west by the creek and on the north by the Central Railroad depot. Two years later Frank C. Soule became a partner in the firm, and in order to accommodate their greatly in- creased corn canning business the firm established a factory at Chittenango, on the Erie Canal. There the product of from 1,200 to 1,500 acres of land is packed every season, equalling an average of as many hundred thousand cans. Their well known trade mark of Captain George, of the Onondagas, is seen in all parts of the country, and is recognized as a guarantee of ex- cellence. They also export largely. In 1873 the firm developed new pro- cesses in the canning of corn and secured valuable patents on the machinery invented for the purpose. The manufacture and sale of this machinery has grown into a prominent part of their business, particularly in the Western States, where most of the canneries work under their processes. In 1885 they began in a small way the manufacture of condensed mince meat, which has now developed into the largest part of their business, averaging a large number of tons daily in the two- pie package form for family use. The South Syracuse Canniiie Company, located at 230 Brigliton avenue, was organized March i, 1883. During the season from 100 to 125 people are employed, and the annual sales amount to from $5,000 to $25,000. The President of the company is John A. Webster, the Superintendent is William Cannon, and the Secretary and Treasurer is S. Beeman. Louis Windholz, for the past twenty years a citizen of Syracuse, in 1888 bought land and built a factory 132x48 at 610 Cortland avenue, and began canning corn and tomatoes. His yearly production averages 350,- 000 cans. In the spring of 1 891 he added the manufacture of malt, wine, and cider vinegar, making twenty-five barrels per day. During the busy season 200 people are employed and the yearly sales amount to $30,000. 83 658 Memorial History of Syracuse. Mr. Windholz is caterer at the State Camp of Military Instruction at Peek-skill. Shirtmakers. — Shirt manufacture in Syracuse has had a checkered ex- perience. Ten or twelve years ago it was on a flood-tide of prosperity, with two large factories running at full capacity and employing perhaps 400 hands. Good prices for the manufactured goods prevailed, and the oper- atives made good wages. Sharp competition came from other cities, especially from Troy, where makers sold shirts at nearly cost for the sake of introducing collars and cuffs at a good margin of profit. Later still the Jewish manufacturers of New York city came into the field, and now con- trol the larger share of the trade in the cheap grades of cotton shirts and in flannel shirts. All this applies to what are known as stock shirts — the com- paratively low priced goods sold by dry goods dealers, lii the better grades of custom-made shirts the dozen or more makers in Syracuse have built up a good trade, which they are steadily increasing. They are, however, two or three makers of stock goods here who, in spite of the fierce competition, are securing large sales. One of these, C. A. Tiffany, has a factory in the Industrial Building, which he opened two years ago with a small capital and four hands. He now employs fifty hands and his sales last year reached $35,000. He manufactures all grades and colors of stock goods as well as custom shirts and overalls and jackets. The number of persons employed in the industry in Syracuse will approximate 300 and the value of the product $200,000 annually. Cooperage. — Early in the history of Syracuse the cooper's trade assumed a prominent place on account of the heavy demands of the salt industry. The manufacture of the barrels necessary for the enormous product of the salt springs has been vividlj' de.scribed in the chapter of this work on that industry, written by the Hon. Thomas G. Alvord. The decline of the salt business in recent years has dwarfed the business of the coopers hereabouts to a minor industry, which has been counteracted only in a small degree by the demands of the brewers. Twenty years ago there were about fifty shops in the city, which gave employment to 400 men. Now there are eleven shops, employing approximately fifty men. Five of these are in the I'^irst ward, four in the Second, and one each in the Fifth and Tenth wards. Four of these shops make tight- work for the brewers, a branch of the in- dustry that employs about thirty men, and five shops are suflicient to sup- ply the demand for salt barrels, as far as the city is concerned. Charles G. Haendle & Co. began in the business in Basin street about twenty five years ago. They now make 50,000 slack- work barrels and kegs, 2,000 beer kegs, and 1,000 pork barrels per year. It is the only shop in the city where all kinds of work are done, and employs from ten to fifteen men In 1890 Mr. Haendle took his son, Henry, into partnership. Manufacturing Industries. 659 Charles Schug & Son. — Charles Schug came from Germany to Syracuse in 1853 and learned the cooper's trade at slack-work in 1862 of Henry Goettel, and in 1866 the tight- work portion of the business of Jacob Schwcizer. In 187 1 he opened a shop in Lotli street for tight- work, and in 1883 removed to Basin street. Mr. Schug has three sons, Charles, William, and Louis, all of whom work in his shop, and William is a member of the firm. They now make flour barrels for Jacob Amos, plaster barrels for the Adamant Company, besides 27,000 salt barrels, 5,000 lime barrels for A. E. Alvord, and 1,200 pork barrels, making a product in 1890 of over 60,000 barrels, and giving employment to from ten to fifteen men. James Westfall arrived in Syracuse from Schenectady on the memorable day of the Jerry Rescue, and rented a cooper shop in Deacon Spencer's building, in Fulton street, where he made salt barrels for seven years, when he removed to Geddes. There he made flour barrels for J. W. Barker, be- sides supplying the Ashton and the New York State Salt Companies with barrels. Seven years ago Mr. Westfall contracted with the Solvay Com- pany to supply all of their barrels and kegs, which he has since continued to do, turning out about 600 per day, all hand-made. In one year the num- ber reached the enormous figure of 250,000 barrels and kegs. During the seven years a little over 700,000 have been made by him. He keeps twenty-five men employed, and gets his stock chiefly from Canada and Michigan. Edward D. Atherton, manufacturer of salt, flour, and fruit barrels, and dealer in wood, came to Syracuse in 1869 and worked at his trade as a cooper two years for Jacob Fellows in Carbon street. He then began the business alone in Wolf street, and was afterward, until 1880, in Center street, when he removed to Geddes, foot of Emerson avenue, his present location. Since that time he has been the largest producer of salt barrels in Syracuse. The first year in Salina he made 25,000 salt barrels, and one year 50,000. During the past ten years his least annual production has been 100,000 bar- rels, and his greatest 175,000. His wood yard is supplied from timberland which he owns on Oneida Lake, and brings here by boat. He employs constantly twenty- five men. Mr. Atherton represented his ward on the Board of Supervisors three successive years, 1887-89. L. Burkhard is a tight-work cooper at No. 205 Basin street, where he has made from io,coo to I2,000 barrels, hogsheads, tubs, and kegs for beer and liquors per year since 1884, employing fifteen men. David A. Powers began making salt barrels at the corner of Lodi and Wolf streets in 1862, and has turned out from 25,000 to 50,000 per year since that time. He emplo\s from five to ten men. Willoiu Baskets. — Two-thirds of the willow baskets used in the United 66o Memorial History of Syracuse. States are made in Onondaga county, and the industry is so closely identi- fied with Syracuse that it deserves mention here. The baskets are made v/holly by hand labor and their manufacture gives employment to about 300 families, of wliich number forty families live in the city and the remainder in the vicinity of Liverpool. The industry was started in the early days of the war period, when a few German salt boilers took it up for winter occu- pation, and others rapidly followed. The baskets were then peddled around the country by the wives of the makers. In 1864 Henry Lacy, now Cashier of the Third National Bank, but then in business at Liverpool, began ship- ping baskets to other localities. In 1868 he sold out to Francis Alvord, who merged the business with what was known as the American Peat Com- pany. This companj' engaged in willow cultivation on an extensive scale; but for some reason the company failed, and was succeeded by William Gleason, who is now the principal shipper at Liverpool. Two years ago the baskctmakers of that section formed a syndicate and employed Mr. Gleason to manage the sale of the product, and he still acts in that capacity. In 1882 Hoyt H. Freeman and Henry L. Loomis formed a partnership as dealers and shippers in willow baskets, and in one season this firm alone shipped as high as 18,000 dozen throughout the country from Maine to California. To supply the workman in this industry with material requires 3,000 tons of willows annually, for the production of which 7,000 acres must be kept under cultivation. The annual production has now reached 40,000 dozen, which brings an income of about $150,000. The only other manufacturer of baskets in Syracuse of much impor- tance is L. L. Thurwachter, whose salesroom is in West Fayette street. He shares the monopoly of the industry with those before mentioned, hav- ing begun it in 1868. Hides and Leather. — In the very early history of Syracuse there was a small tannery located on Onondaga Creek, near where Water street now crosses it; but the first one of much importance and permanency was estab- lished in Water street near Grape, by the late H. W. Van Ruren, in the year 1825. He carried on his business there with success until about 1858, when he removed it to a building which stood on the site of the present new R., W. & O. freight depot. Many j-cars ago he opened his leather store in Hanover Square, where the trade was successfullj' conducted for many years. Mr. Van Huren died in 1887, and a j'ear later the tannery was closed. In 1856 Joseph l^'alker began a trade in both hides and leather in Water street near Warren. In 1864 his son, August, acquired an interest in the business, and upon his father's death in February, 1889, became sole Manukactuking Industriks. 66i owner. The establishment has always done a lar^'c business, but it has been exclusive of tanning. Mr. h'alker is now the only person in the city who handles both hides and leather. Jacob Marshall began purchasing and selling hides and pelts in 1853, at ills residence, No. 222 Cedar street, using his barn for a storehouse. In 1880 he took in his son under the firm name of Jacob Marshall & Son, and in 1883, the business demanding larger accommodations, it was removed to Nos. 126-128 James street. To provide still larger facilities the firm has recently purchased the building in North Salina street formerly used by McKinstry & Son, as a soap and candle factory, and a four-story structure will soon be erected there. The firm handles wool in addition to their hide traffic, and their stock comes from New York and adjacent States. In the year 1866 August Finck began tanning on a small scale in ICast Division street, where he continued for twenty years, but was compelled to give it up on account of the difliculty in obtaining bark. In 1886 he bought the stores at No. 650 and 652 North Salina street, and is carrying on a successful business, dealing in leather and finding.s, shoe store supplies, cut soles, etc. Although the leather trade is not one of the more prominent industries of Syracuse, there is still a large capital invested in it, in its various lines, and it adds materially to the wealth of the place. The Shnmous Hamc Coinpauy. — This firm comprises J. F. Cockings and W. II. Simmons, and the works are located at 2005 Park street. The ompany was established in 1890. The sales of tlieir specially manufact- ured wares have met with a very large demand, and have exceeded the pres- ent capacity of their factory. They employ fifteen men and their goods are sold mostly in the West. The Solvay Process Company. — This is probably the leading manufactur- ing industry of Syracuse in point of magnitude and importance. The com- pany was incorporated in 1881, with a capital of $300,000, which from time to time has been increased until it now is $1,500,000. The first ofiicers were: President, Rowland Hazard; Secretary, O. V. Tracy ; Treasurer and Gen- eral Manager, William B. Cogswell; Directors, Rowland Hazard, William R Cogswell, William A. Sweet, G. E. Dana. E. B. Alvord. The products of the works are soda-ash, caustic soda, and bicarbonate of soda. The manufactory is located in Geddes on the line of the Erie Canal and the N. Y. C. & H. R. Railroad, and covers fifty-five acres of ground. In the year 1882 sixty men were employed, and the number has now reached 1,500. The greater share of this success is due to W. B. C"gswell. The present officers of the company areas follows: President, R. flazard; General Manager, W. B. Cogswell; Treasurer, F. R. Hazard ; Secretary, O. V. Tracy; Directors, R. 662 Memorial History of Syracuse. Hazard, W. B. Cogswell, George E. Dana, R. G. Hazard, W. A. Sweet, and F. R. Hazard. The Split Rock Cable Road Company was organized in June, 1 888. The first officers were John L. King, President ; O. V. Tracy, Secretary; Will- iam B. Cogswell, General Manager ; and F. R. Hazard, Treasurer. The Directors were John L King, Edward N. Truni]:), and R. G. Hazard. The object of this com|)any was to build an elevated cable tramway of the sys- tem patented by Adolph Bleichert, of LeipsTg, Germany, for the transpor- tation of limestone from Split Rock quarries to the Solvay Process Works, for their use and for other purposes. The distance is about three and one- fourth miles, and the capacity of the line is 750 tons of limestone per twenty- four hours. This line has been in active operation since May, 1889, and the quantity of limestone already transported amounts to more than 200,000 tons. The present officers of the company are those originally chosen. The Tully Pipe Line Company was organized in April, 1889, with the following officers : President and General Manager, William B. Cogswell ; Secretary, John L. King ; Treasurer, F. R. Hazard ; Directors, William B. Cogswell, George E. Dana, O. V. Tracy, Edward N. Trump, John L. King, R. G. Hazard, and F. R. Hazard. The object of this company was to bring doun saturated brine from the newly-discovered salt fields at Tully to Syracuse foi the use of the salt manufacturers and other industries in this city. The plant of the company consists of a twelve-inch main extend- ing from the brine wells at Tully to the large reservoir near the works of the Solvay Process Company, and includes this reservoir, which has a capacity of 5,000,000 gallons, and a smaller one in the town of Cardiff, which will hold 1,000,000 gallons. The distance is about twentj'-two miles. Work- was begun in May, 1889, and the pipe line was complete and in operation in November of the same year. Since that time this pipe has delivered daily a very large quantity of brine. The full capacity would furnish brine sufficient to produce 15,000,000 bushels of salt per year. The present offi- cers and Directors of the company are those originally chosen. Onondaga Pottery Company. — This company was incorporated on the 20th of July, 1871, with a capital of $50,000, and the following officers: President, N. S. Gere; Vice-President, C. D. Avery; Secretary and Treas- urer, Mills P. Pharis, who with C. E. Hubbell, A. C. Morey, !•:. B. Van Du- sen, R. N. Gere, G. W. Draper, and Charles Mitchell were the first Direc- tors. The works were begun in what was then Furnace street, near the present site in the Tenth ward, and employed about fifty hands. The buildings were burned in 1884; but new buildings had been erected in 1 88 1, on the corner of Fayette and School streets, which comprise three Manufacturing Industries. 663 structures four stories high, and two whicli are two stories. About 200 op- eratives are now empIoyeJ, and tiie protiuct consists of china and ironstone china dinner and toilet ware, plain and decorated. riic present officers of the company are : President, Mills P. I'haris ; Vice-President, E. B. Jud- son, jr.; Secretary, C. D. Avery; Treasurer, M. P. Pilaris; General Mana- ger, F. F. Alexander. The Directors include the above and Charles E. Hubbell, Charles R. Hubbell, Giles liverson, and Jacob Crouse. Central City Pipe Works. — The manufacture of cement tile and sewer pipe was commenced in this city by George and Thomas G. Bassett in 1864. Their works were in East Water street, in what was long known as tlie "Old Barrel Factory." Here tiiey remained but a short time. As their business increased they were obliged to remove for want of room to the corner of Harrison street and Renwick avenue, where they did an immense business for one so young. They used only Rosendale cement and Onondaga gravel, but did excellent work, much of which still attests their honesty in the selec- tion of materials and skill in manipulation. About 1872 the plant and good will were purchased by M. G. P'ield & Company, who removed it to South avenue, where it continued with varying success till 1879, when it was purchased by Mansfield J. French, who has continued the works till date. On the accession of Mr. French he commenced the use of Portland cement, believing it to be in most cases far superior to any other, either natu- ral or compounded. He employs more than a dozen men, and uses over 2,500 barrels of cement annually and produces $35,000 worth of manufac- tured goods. There are many miles of sewer in the streets of the city, vary- ing in size from three feet in diameter to less than one foot, and thousands of feet of side drains of smaller dimensions, of his manufacture. These sewers, of tliis material, when well laid, have given general satisfaction. Lcfevcr Arms Covipauy. — Among the inventors who have become cele- brated in connection with impiovements in firearms is D. M. Lefever, of Syracuse. This companj- was organized in 1884 for the manufacture of fine guns under the patents of Mr. Lefever, who had carried on the busi- ness since 1867. The works are located in Maltbie and North Clark streets. The buildings have 140 feet front in Maltbie street, and are forty- five feet deep and three stories high. Beginning with twenty-five men the business has been so successful that 100 are now employed, and the capacity of the works has been doubled. The guns made by this concern have a deservedly high reputation throu5,hout the country. The officers of the company are as follows: President, A. A. Mowlett ; Treasurer and Mana- ger, J. F. Durston; Superintendent, U. M. Lefever. Adamant Manufactiiriui:; Covipauy. — This is a manufacturing enterprise peculiar to and originating in Syracuse. The company was organized in 664 Memorial Historv ok Syracuse. January, 1887, with a capital stock of $1 50,000. The company began bus- iness in a small way in the old match factory building in East Water street. Much of the work was done by hand, and the little machinery was crude and insufficient to meet the rapidly increasing demand. Machinery had to be invented and adapted to this special work, and much time and money were spent in working out the problem how to produce adamant rapidly and cheaply. Early in 1888 buildings were erected in the eastern part of the city, on the canal at the foot of Teall avenue. These consisted of a mixing station 1 20 X 80 feet, two stories high ; a chemical building 40 x 80 feet; and a boiler-house. The office is at 309 East Genesee street. A fire in Octo- ber, 1888, destroyed the chemical building and damaged the others. New and better buildings were at once erected, and the plant now covers over an acre of ground. Tiiis is the parent company. It owns numerous pat- ents and issues rights to other parties to mix and sell, while it retains the right to manufacture the chemical which forms the basis of the plaster, and which is furnished to its licensees at a guaranteed price. There are now over thirty companies operating under the several patents in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia. The Adamant wall plaster has been thoroughly tested in hundreds of prominent buildings, and fully proven its great superiority. The officers of the company are as follows: E. W. Parmelee, President; W. E. Abbott, Vice-President ; C. T. Brockway, Treasurer and New York State Manager; W. E. Hopkins, Manager chemi- cal department ; S S. Ruston, Secretary. The Trustees are E. \V. Parnie- lee, W. E. Abbott, VV. E. Hopkins, C T. Brockwaj', S. S. Ruston, George F. Hine, and George West. The Paragon Plaster Company. — This company was organized June 22, 1888, with a capital of $30,000, which was increased to $75,000 in 1889. The first officers were Jacob Amos, President; W. K. Niver, Vice-Presi- dent ; A. E. Nettleton, Treasurer; George C. Cook, Secretary. The mills are situated at West Fayette and Magnolia streets and the Erie Canal in the Ninth ward. About twenty men are emplojed. The product is a pat- ented wall plaster which is a valuable substitute for the old-fashioned lime and hair mortar. The company owns the patent for the United States, and is the parent organization. The office is at 209 Warren street, and the present officers are Jacob Amos, President; W. K. Niver, Vice-President; Ira O. Goodrich, Secretary ; Lucius Moses, Treasurer. Syracuse Glass Company. — This company was organized in 1863 with a capital of $60,000 The jjlant is located in East Water and East Wash- ington streets, and the office is at 1016 East Water street. The entire plant covers an area 300 x 160 feet. There are three furnaces and twenty- four pots in operation, producing about 9,000 boxes of glass monthly, and Maxufactuking Industries. 665 giving employment to about 120 operatives. All kinds of crystal, window, picture, and car glass arc manufactured. In addition to the establishment in the streets named above the company occupies a three-story building on the corner of East Water street and Crouse avenue, which is used for stor- age. The present officers of the company are E. B. Judson, President ; Jacob Crouse, Vice-President; J. G. Wynkoop, Treasurer; F. VV. Bennett, General Manager. The first three, with Charles J. Glass, E. R. Plumb, W. E. Abbott, and E. B. Judson, jr., constitute the Board of Directors. H. Finn cV Sons. — The manufacturing of soap and candles has been carried on in Syracuse for more than fifty years, but has never attained great magnitude as it has in many cities. The late Alexander McKinstry carried on the business here for many years and made it successful. His factory was near the Oswego Canal bridge in Salina street. H. Finn came to Syracuse, May i, 1838, and was employed in the soap factories of A. McKinstry, McKinstry & Dunham, Oliver Orcutt, and Orcutt & Bcardsly. He began making soap in 1859 on the north side of the canal, in what is now the West Shore Railroad freight house. When the railroad was built in 1883 the business was removed to its present quarters in East Water street, where ten men are employed. G. M. and A. G. Finn, sons of the founder of the business, were taken in as partners in 1872. The present factory is 50 X 80 feet and three stories high. The special article made now is the Salt City soap. American Bleach and Chemical Company (successors to the Eureka Chemical Company). — The Eureka Chemical Company was organized in 1884, with a capital stock of $25,000; this was increased in 1885 to $200,000. The officers were A. E. Dewey, President; G. S. Farmer, M.D., Vice-Pres- ident ; H. C. Townley, Secretary ; and L. F. Phillips, Treasurer. These officers were all of Watertown, N Y., and with F. A. Fletcher, Iliram Cop- ley, Charles H. Remington, E. II. Thompson, and A. E. Nettleton con- stituted the Board of Directors. The buildings were located on the R., W. & O. Railroad, near Marsh street, and consisted of a sulphate of soda building 40 .\ 93 feet, a condensing building 20x98 feet, and the "still" house 40 X 90 feet. In 1885 was added a sulphuric acid and bleach i)lant 82 X 334 feet, also a building for packing and drying 40 x 76 feet, and an engine-house and machine shop 28x52 feet. The bleach chambers and lime- dressing plant are in another building 36x275 feet, while the olilice and laboratory are in still another structure. There were employed at first about thirty men. In the spring of 1887, on account of the sulphate ma- chinery giving out and the plant needing repairs and improvements, the works were shut down. On the first of April, 1890, they were leased to the American Bleach and Chemical Company. 84 666 Memorial History of Syracuse. The Eureka Company had in view the manufacture of bleaching powder (chloride of lime) for general bleaching purposes. There were imported last year 6o,000 tons, while none was made in this country; but the development of such an enterprise, where perfection of detail is not fully understood, is al- ways a work of time and sometimes of disappointment. While the works of this company were shut down they perfected a new process for manu- facturing bleaching powder, upon which patents were secured in America, England, and Canada. Where the old process required three tons of salt to produce one ton of the powder the new process produced a ton of thirty- eight per cent, powder from a ton of salt, while all of the raw material used is reclaimed and again used, except hydrochloric acid, which is converted into chlorine, and this into bleaching powder proper. The making of these experiments demonstrated the need of greater capital, which led to the leas- ing of the works to the American Bleach and Chemical Company on the 1st of April, 1890. The capital stock of this company is $25,000, and the works have been placed in order and are in operation. It is intended to produce sulphuric acid, chloride of lime, bleaching liquor, muriatic acid, sulphate of iron, sulphate of soda, etc. The officers of the company are H. H. Loomis, President ; James Van Vleck, Vice-President ; T. J. Brower, Treasurer ; A. Achilles, Secretary ; and A. E. Dewey and A. H. Sawyer, of Watertown, T. J. Brower and W. S. Firman, of Rochester, and John N. Babcock, James Van Vleck, and H. H. Loomis, of Syracuse, Trustees. Lime and Plaster. — Matthias Britton was born in Dutchess county in 1820. In 1825 his father, Israel Britton, brought his family to Onondaga and bought a tract of land upon which father and son spent the remainder of their lives. Matthias followed farming till 1867, when in company with his son, Israel E. Britton, he bougiit a stone quarry and began burning lime and cement the next year. In 1870 M. Britton & Son leased of E. B. Alvord the premises at No. i Lock street, which they occupied for seven years. In 1877 they bought at No. 92 (now 325) North Salina street a frontage of 1 12 feet and extending back to the canal, on which they erected a sub- stantial three- story building, with the best machinery, and there con- tinued the manufacture of water-lime. In 1880 they put in machinery for a custom feed-mill and the two kinds of business were conducted on a large scale till the fall of 1889. Matthias Britton died in 1887. He was a man of strong qualities of body and mind, active, persevering, far-sighled, with a character above reproach. The surviving member of the firm, Israel E. Britton, has discontinued manufacturing at No. 325 North Salina street, and has remodeled the buildings into stores and flats. The machinery for grinding water-lime has been transferred to the quarry, where it is made in still larger quantities. The production of quick-lime has been developed ManuI'ACTURinc; Industries. C^^^l till it is now the largest in Onondaga county. To the one kiln at the start nine more have been added, and the output is now 3,300 bushels per day. A large part of this is loaded on cars near by and sold to the great Solvay Process Company at Geddes. In 1889 Mr. Britton purchased an interest in a gypsum quarry in Alpine, California, sixty-five miles north of Los Angeles, whither he went and spent the following winter. He took heavy machinery from Syracuse, Buffalo, and Chicago, and established works that produce 300 barrels of plaster of Paris every nine hours. The industry is very promising, as the quarries are developing new and unexpected quali- ties of excellence. Becker Manufacturing Company. — ^The commencement of the knit goods manufacturing business in Syracuse must be credited to A. Park Sager, who started the industry alone in 1876. In 1879 Mrs. Albert Becker and her brother, A. Park Sager, established the first exclusive hand-made worsted goods manufactory in Syracuse, and opened a store in South Salina street, under the name of A. Park Sager & Co. In 1884 Mrs. Becker bought her partner's interest and Mr. Albert Becker organized the Becker Manufactur- ing Company, which has continued in a prosperous business to this time. The industry has been a great help through employment furnished to hun- dreds of poor people, and now supplies work to from 400 to 700 persons in the bus}' season. Sager Brothers. — A. Park Sager associated himself with his brother, George J., after leaving the firm above described, and the firm of Sager Bro- thers is now located at 316 South Clinton street, where they occupy a five- story building. They employ about 800 knitters the entire year, and some 2,000 are employed in the industry in and about the city, mostly at their homes. Jacob Sager, father of the Sager brothers, come to Syracuse in 1847, and George J. has been connected with the business interests of the city since 1853, and served honorably in the 149th Regiment during the war of the Rebellion. The Syracuse Twist Drill Company. — This is a partnership company, the active member and manager being Thomas Hooker. The business was begun in a small way in 1877, room and power being rented for the pur- pose of Cobb, Ilerrick & Co., on the corner of Water and Grape streets. In 1 88 1 the present site (now 936 Grape street) was purchased and a wooden building erected, which w^is destroyed by fire on the 1st of May, 1884. The firm immediately rebuilt with brick. In 1887 the works were enlarged and the building is now 32 x lOO feet, besides the boiler extension and a wooden carpenter shop. The original design was to adapt the well known twist drill of the machine shop to the use of woodworkers, more particularly tlxise working in hardwood. The demands of trade have led 668 Memorial History of Syracuse. to additions in the lines of carriagemakers' and electricians' drills, with a few other special tools. Their drills have become so favorably known that they are largely imitated, and a trade mark has just been registered to pro- tect their customers as well as themselves. They employ about forty hands, and their market covers the whole country and something of an export trade. The Boomer &■ Boscltert Press Company was organized in 1874 under the manufacturing laws of the State of New York, with the following offi- cers : President, A. A. Ilowlett ; Vice-President, George B. Boomer; Sec- retary and Treasurer, W. D. Dunning; Superintendent, R. E. Boschert. It is devoted to the manufacture of power and hand presses and machinery connected therewith. It covers a great variety of presses, such as for lard, tallow, tankage, oils, cider, wine, leather and rubber belting, cloth, paper, etc. Their factory is located at 329 West Water street, with branch offices at New York city, Detroit, and Chicago. The present officers arc : President, George B. Boomer ; Vice-President, Rufus E. Boschert ; Secretary and Treasurer, William D. Dunning. Their knuckle-joint presses are known all over the world as the "Standard." They also produce screw and hy- draulic presses for almost every purpose requiring great pressure. The Farmers' Fertilizer Company was organized in February, 1 880, and incorporated under the laws of the State of New York. Its principal office is in Syracuse, and its factory and storehouses in the town of Dc Witt, on the Erie Canal, and on the N. Y. Central and West Shore Railroads. Its prin- cipal business has been in the State of New York, and its officers and stock- holders are nearly all citizens of Syracuse. Situated in the center of the State, on the great arteries of commerce, and being the only company man- ufacturing fertilizers in this part of the State, its business has increased from year to year, and its products are as well and favorably known as those of any concern doing business in this State. Beginning with an output of 600,000 pounds the first year, it has gradually increased this to 12,000,000 pounds, and of this Onondaga county takes of its products as much as any other three counties. The manufacture of fertilizers involves the produc- tion of sulphuric acid, by which the ground animal and fossil bone is dis- solved. Sulphate of ammonia and sulphate and muriate of potash are re- quired, and imported from Germany, and nitrate of soda, bone, and bone ash come from South America. The Goodstock Mauufactiiring Company. — This company was estab- lished in 1 88 1 in Port Byron, N. Y. In the spring of 1887 the business was bought by C. A. Peters, who is now the sole owner. The factory was first in the Motel Burns Block in West Fayette street, but in 1889 the new brick manufactory at 106, 108, and i 10 Noxon street was erected, 40 x 80 feet, and Manufacturing Inuustkies. 669 four stories high. Ten men and fifty girls are employed in tiie factory and sixty girls outside. The product is flannel and negligee shirts, of which about $75,000 worth were sold in the past year. The Noi'clty Manufacturing Company. — This manufacturing establish- ment had its inception in 1872, and began with the manufacture of novelty picture frames by Clarence G. Brown, on the upper floor of the brick build- ing in Gifford street, just west of the creek. This frame was then a novelty and found ready sale. At first one or two men only were employed, and Mr. Brown traveled and sold the product. The demand increased at a marvelous rate, and the old knittini^-mil! building on the same street was occupied, and the facilities for manufacturing largely extendcii. Mr. Brown's father, the late II. K. Brown, took an active interest in the business for a time. Other articles in woodwork, such as light chairs, fancy cabinet ware, cabinets, brackets, and all the numerous home conveniences and dec- orations, have been added to the product. The elder Mr. Brown retired from the business in 1884, and Edward C. Abeel acquired an interest at the same time. Meanwhile the works were removed to their present commo- dious building erected for the purpose in Dickerson street. The property represents an investment of between $60,000 and $70,000. Over 100 men are employed, and the annual product reaches more than $125,000 in value. The goods are shipped to all parts of the United States and many foreign countries. In the j^ast year a five-story building 50 x 60 feet has been added to the plant, with all the latest appliances. They have in course of construc- tion large and improved dry kilns, and when their new 100 horsepower Corliss engine is placed they will have one of the most complete wood- working establishments in this part of the country. The Wales. Manufacturing Co. was organized in 1883, and succeeded to the business of George Beadle in the manufacture of fare boxes, such as are used on street cars for the collection of fares. Under the supervision of VV. S. Wales, the President of the company, the construction of the box was immediately remodeled, and in connection with new patents a new and more satisfactory box was developed. The business has been continually increas- ing until the box is now found on the principal roads of this country, as well as on roads in South America, Australia, England, and other foreign countries. This company within the past year, in order to keep up with the increasing business, has bought lands and erected its own buildings, corner Park avenue and Liberty street, and has extended its business to the manufacture of supplies for electric railroads and novelties in general. The Syracuse Bamboo Furniture Company. — This company owes its ori- gin to Henry Loftie, who, in 1888, under the style of the Syracuse Split Bamboo Fish Rod Company, began the manufacture of split bamboo fish 670 Memorial History of Syracuse. rods. That business increased rapidly. In cutting up a bamboo pole for these rods there are only about four or five feet of the butt that can be used; the remainder of the pole was supposed of course to be useless. The vast accumulation of waste suggested the manufacture of bamboo easels, which were at that time quite a rarity. Two or three patterns were made and put on the market as an experiment. They sold with surprising rapidity, and several more styles were added; also a table and two styles of umbrella stands. The waste material was soon exhausted and they were compelled to use the entire poles. Heretofore only Calcutta bamboo or tiie dark col- ored material had been used, it being impossible to use the Japan or white bamboo, owing to a method of fire mottling which, after much time and a great deal of experimenting, was at last discovered, and they were then ready to defy competitors. Each week showed a steady increase in the sales of furniture, and many new and original articles were added to the line, including easels, screens, tables, chairs, divans, couches, cabinet man- tels, and chamber suits. In fact almost every conceivable article in fancy furniture is made. A few of the remarkable features of this furniture are its extreme lightness, at the same time it combines the greatest strength and durability ; its beautiful natural finish exists in the enamel, which is very hard and smooth. The tools used in working this have to be of the best steel, and even then require frequent resharpening. The firm ships its furniture to nearly every State and territory in the Union, selling the larg- est dealers in nearly all tlie large cities; they also sell many goods for ex- port. The business has grown with wonderful rajiidity. Where they first bought the poles in bundles of fifty, they now purchase entire cargoes of from 50,000 to 100,000, almost entirely for the manufacture of furniture. In spite of the great importance this furniture business has assumed they have not neglected the fishing rod business, and are now making one of the finest grades of rods on the market. They also manufacture a full line of trolling baits, including the glittering gang bait invented and patented b)' Mr. Loftie. Many other specialties are also made, nearly all of which are con- trolled by patents. Owing to the steady increase of business the firm has been compelled to change its quarters several times during the past three years, and now occupies the stores Nos. 237 to 245 West Onondaga street, and a large storehouse on Temple street. They employ seventy- five hands. Tlic Warren- Scharf Asphalt Paving Company is a corporation organ- ized under the laws of the State of New York in 1884, for the purpose of laying sheet pavements of Trinidad asphalt in tlie United States and Can- ada, or in any other field. It was organized with Cyrus M. Warren as its President, and with Samuel R. Scharf as its General Superintendent. Mr. Warren is one of the foremost chemists in this country, and has made a Manufacturing Industries. 671 careful study of the nature and properties of asphalt and its allied products for many years Mr. Scliarf is known as one of the highest authorities on the construction of all classes of pavements, and has had long experience with the Trinidad asphalt pavement, being among the first to lay it. In the short period of the existence of this company it has laid considerably over a million square yards of pavement, and has extended throughout a large part of this country and Canada until it covers in its operations twenty- two cities, and has the reputation of doing its work in a thoroughly first- class manner. In Syracuse, N. Y., this company has laid asphalt pavements for the last two years, the amount during 1889 being approximately 17,000 square yards in James, Townsend, and West Onondaga streets, and in 1890 30,000 square yards in James street. West Onondaga street, and West Gen- esee street. The present officers of the company are William R. Warren, President; Samuel R. Scharf, General Superintendent; William Hurnliam, first Vice-President; and S. Whinery, second Vice-President. During the season of 1890 there were constantly employed in the construction of the three streets paved in Syracuse from 300 to 350 men, besides many more by contractors furnishing supplies for the work. In addition to this labor employment was the shipment of 800 car-loads of freight in and out of Syra- cuse, divided among all the dififerent railroads passing through the city, aggregating some 32,000,000 pounds or 16,000 tons of freight. The capi- tal of the company is $750,000, and its principal office is at 81 Fulton street. New \'ork city. The Steam Gauge and Lantern Company. — This company was incorpo- rated in Rochester, N. Y., February 7. 1 88 1 . with a capital of $250,000. The factory was destroyed by fire November 9, i888, and the business trans- ferred to this city during the month of May, 1 889. The present officers and Trustees of the company are as follows: John Dunn, jr.. President; O. F. Howe, Vice President; P. L. Salmon, Secretary and Treasurer; D. B. Sal- mon, E. S. Jenney, O. N. Howland, and F. L. Felton. The factory is located at 221 Wilkinson street. There are now about 250 employees. The prin- cipal product consists of tubular lanterns, tubular street lamps, tubular sta- tion lamps, locomotive head-lights, switch lamps, railroad lanterns, etc., in many forms and designs. The patents for lamps in the Patent Office num- ber many thousands, many of which are owned by this company. Elevators. — In October, 1883, E. W. Houser bought the stock, fixtures, and machinery of H. M. Graves, who first manufactured hand elevators in Syracuse. To this busine.ss Hr. Houser added steam-power and hydraulic passenger elevators. In 1891 C. C. Decker was admitted to partnership, the style of the firm being the Houser Elevator Company. They have two large shops. Their sales are extensive and extend from New Xoxk to 672 Memorial History of Syracuse. Minneapolis. The company will soon increase its plant to meet the de- mands of its growing business. When first begun the industry was located at 74 East Water street. It is now at Nos. 314, 316, and 318 in the same street. B. D. Bramcr. — In 1856 Chauncey Stevens was the principal harness manufacturer in the city, and among his employees was B. D. Bramer, who is now engaged in the same business in Hast Fayette street. In 1858 Mr. Bramer was located in the Dillaye Block, and sold out to Palmer Shaw and removed to Fabius, where he remained until 1864. In February of that year he returned and bought out Shaw in company with D. M. Bailey. The firm of Bailey & Bramer continued until November, 1869, when Mr. Bailey died and Mr. Bramer purchased the interest of his partner, and has since carried on the business alone. Mr. Shaw was the oldest harnessmaker in the city, having carried on the business since 1827 ; but he has recently retired. J. S. Carter. — This business was established in 1867 by Gardner 15. Weeks in West Water street. He was succeeded by J. S. Carter, at 83 South Clinton street, who removed to 28 and 30 James street, where he re- mained four years. He then located at 69 Warren street, and remained one year, when he removed to 47 and 49 West Jefferson street, where he oc- cupied a four-story building erected especially for his business. He re- mained there five years, and then removed to his present location, 303 to 309 Lock street, where he purchased land and built his five-story brick block in 1SS9. He employs forty hands, and manufactures a complete line of dairy apparatus. His trade extends over the United States and exports to South America and Australia. Perfection Oil Tank Cotnpany. — This business was established about 1875 by Wilson & Blye, in West Fayette street. They were burned out, and then located at No. 59 North Salina street. Mr. Blye bought his part- ner's interest and afterwards sold out to Hopkins & Abbott, who removed the business to 61 West Water street. On the 1st of November, 18S6, the present company took the business. The tank which they make has a wide reputation for excellence. Balti'a'insville Centrifugal Pump Works. — The plant of this establish- ment is located at 230-236 West street. The business was first inaugurated at Baldwinsville in 1861 by White, Clark & Co., who continued it until 1880, when it was purchased by Clark & Van Wie, and in the following year they removed the business to Syracuse. In March, 1884, Irvin Van Wie became sole proprietor. All styles of vertical, horizontal, and suction pumps are made, with capacitj' ranging from 100 to 40,000 gallons per minute. Boggs & Clarke. — This firm was organized in 1883 and is composed of H. H. Boggs and W. V. Clarke. The important article of manufacture is Manufacti'kinc. Industries. 673 centrifugal pumps of all kinds and a wide range of capacity. General ma- chinery is also a part of their business. The works arc located at Nos. 535- 539 South Clinton street, where from ten to twenty men are employed. Their product is sold largely to paper and i)ulp- mills, tanneries, dry docks, quarries, and contractors. Howard i-r Jfii/inii^s. — Biddlecom & Howard in 1876 began the manu- facture of pumps, and seven years later Dwight P. Jennings bought out Mr. Hiddlecom's interest and the firm became Howard & Jennings, as at present. Wooden pumps have always been their leading article of manufacture, and they have also made chain pumps for the past ten years. Ten hands are employed and 3,500 pumps are made annually. The firm built the block which they now occupy in Church street. Halcts and Confictioncrs. — Joseph VValier, a native of Switzerland, be- gan his trade in Austria in 1845, while yet a boy. After four years he went to Poland, where he remained about two years, and then traveled through Germany and France to Madrid, Spain, where he remained a year and a half; thence he went to the West India Islands, stopping for a time at Ha- vana, Jamaica, Kingston, Turk's Island, and St. Domingo, spending two years in all at these various places. From the last named point he came to New York city, where he worked at his trade as he had done in the places previously mentioned. After two years in New York he came to Syracuse in 1855, and worked ten years for Reuben Wood, who was the first fancy candy manufacturer in this city. In January, 1866, Mr. Waller took a part- ner, and the firm of Waller & Erhard opened a candy factory in North Sa- lina street. In t868 they removed to the corner of Clinton and Walton streets, where they remained together for twenty years. Since that time, when Mr. lirhard withdrew from the firm, Mr. Waller has carried on a very prosperous business at the same location. Daniel Scliviecr manufactures confectionery at No. 515 North Salina street, where three hands are employed. Mr. Schmeer has been a resident of Syracuse thirty years, and has held the ofiice of School Commissioner four terms, or eight years. Syracuse Biscuit Works. — This business was inaugurated by Francis Hall, who was succeeded by George S. Larrabee on the ist of March, 1883. About the same time George Young began the same business in Noxon street. The two concerns were consolidated on the 1st of March, 1886, under the firm name of Young & Larrabee. C. W. Young, the senior part- ner, is the son of George Young, who has for years been engaged in the same line of business in Utica. The firm bakes bread, crackers, fancy bis- cuits, and cake, and manufactures confectionery on a large scale. They em- ploy six traveling men outside of the city, and seven men for city and S5 674 Memorial History of Syracuse. suburban trade. They also employ 125 people and sixteen horses, and their product has an annual value of over $300,000. There are about thirty-five small baking establishments in the city, who employ seventy-five persons, and use about seventy-five barrels of flour daily. Tlic Smith Premier Typewriter. — This manufactory is owned and oper- ated by L. C. Smith, and is now working 278 people in manufacturing the justly celebrated typewriter of the above name. There are also employed outside of the factory, in \arious cities, sixty-five assistants. Their ma- chines are shipped to nearly all English speaking countries, and have been on the market about two years. The typewriter is manufactured under the patents of Alexander T. Brown, of Syracuse. Byington, Kendall & Co. — January i, 1 890, Byington, Kendall & Co. succeeded to the business of the old Becker Manufacturing Company. In June, 1891, they moved to their present quarters, comprising a store 134 feet deep with two floors and basement. The firm's specialties are under- wear, hosiery, fancy knit goods, and yarns. They employ in the busy sea- son some 300 people. Jacob Amos. — Jacob Amos came to Liverpool, N. Y., from Germany in 1840. About 1850 he built the Amos Hotel in North Salina street, and eight years later opened a flour and feed store, which latter industry was the outgrowth of the manufacture of farina, started bj' Mr. Amos a few years previous in the Dunlap mills at Jamcsville. In 1862 he moved his business to Syracuse, and rented four stores in Water street, where the Amos Block now stands. Three years afterward two more stores adjoining were rented, and a steam mill was established in these quarters, which had a capacity of grinding 125 barrels of flour, 30 barrels of farina, and a large quantity of feed daily. In 1867 he erected a mill at Baldwinsville capable of turning out daily 150 barrels of flour, 75 kegs of pearl barley, and 50 kegs of farina. This he continued alone till 1876, when his sons, Charles L. and Jacob, jr., were admitted to partnership, under the firm name of Jacob Amos & Sons. In 1878 they bought the Barker mills in West Water street, which constitute the present Amos mills, and increased their capacity to 400 barrels per day, and in 1881 substituted the old four runs of stone with the best Hungarian roller machinery, necessitating an outlay in both mills of $7S,ooo. They were the first to adopt this system in this section. Mr. Amos died in 1883, and his sons continued the milling business as Amos Brothers till 1887, when Charles L. died, and the firm became and still is Jacob Amos. The motive power is furnished by two Corliss engines and four boilers. The total output of the two mills in 1890 was 130,460 bar- rels of flour, besides a large quantity of farina and mill feed. The value of Manukacturing Industries. 675 the business that year amounted to over $1,500,000, and sixty people were given employment. Hughes Brothers. — This firm (all born in Syracuse) was formed in 1877 b)' the two older brothers, Charles and James Hughes, to which the younger brother, Kugcne Hughes, was admitted in 18S0. Their father, James Hughes, founded the business in 1850, where the Phcenix I-'oundry now stands. He removed to the present location in Gifford street in 1861, and died in 1869. The yard was rented to other parties till his sons became old enough to assume its management. Their business has grown steadily till tliey have become the heaviest operators in Central New York. They built the Court-House in Scranton, Pa.; the Paulus Church, Sixtieth street. New York city; numerous locks on the canal ; and the present City Hall. But a contract they are now engaged in ech'pses all others. They are building in Chippewa county, Michigan, a lock in the famous Sault Ste. Marie ship canal, around the rapids in St. Mary's River, that connects Lake Superior with Lake Huron. The growing importance of this canal, which already does a third more business in eight months than the great Suez Canal does in a whole year, demands a larger channel, and the Hughes Brothers, and E. T. & A. M. Bangs, of Fayettcville, are under contract with the United States government to have completed within three years a lock 1,200 feet long, 100 feet wide, with side walls 45 feet high, and a water lift of 23 feet, which reaches the enormous quantity of over 80,000 yards of solid stone, and costing $1,300,000. When completed it is believed it will be the finest lock in the world. For several years past their stone quarries at Split Rock, the Indian Reservation, and Fulton, with their contract work, have furnished labor for 200 men, and their annual business has exceeded $300,000. The Syracuse Nurseries and Stock Farvi. — The Syracuse Nurseries, Smiths & Powell, proprietors, were established in 1830, by Alanson Thorpe, and are doubtless the oldest nurseries west of the Hudson River. W. Brown Smith purchased a half interest in 1845, the firm name becoming Thorpe & Smith. The nurseries then consisted of about four acres, nearly all apple trees, and so extensive was this establishment considered at that time that Mr. Smith's friends endeavored to dissuade him from making the purchase, for the reason that, in their judgment, such a large quantity of trees could not be sold in this country. Mr. Smith became sole proprietor by pur- chase about i860. The business was gradually enlarged and e.xtended, and at various times new and younger members were added to the firm, the firm now consisting of W. Brown Smith, Edward A. Powell, Wing R. Smith, and W. Judson Smith. The greenhouse department and the fine live stock department were added, until the business assumed its present 6j6 Memorial History ok Syracuse. large proportions. The area of land now owned by this firm and the vari- ous members thereof, and kept under a high state of cultivation, is about 1,200 acres, the most of which is located on the west shore of Onondaga Lake. There are probably 3,000,000 trees and shrubs now growing in these nurseries. Nearly i ,000,000 stocks are planted each spring. The business is nearly all wholesale, and the trees are shipped by car-loads to all parts of the United States. The department of blooded live stock, which was added about twenty years ago, has gradually increased and developed until the " Lakeside Stock Farm " is known to breeders of fine stock the world over. At almost any time within the past few years from 300 to 500 head of pure bred Holsteiii-Friesian cattle, all recorded, and all black-and-white, could be seen on tliis farm. It is undoubtedly safe to say that no herd of dairy cows, either in Europe or America, has ever equalled this in actual pro- duction of milk and butter, as shown by well authenticated records, and no other, probably, has so wide a reputation. The horse department consists of from I 50 to 200 blooded animals, of the various improved breeds of America and Europe. Shipments of cattle and horses are frequently made to various foreign countries, including Europe, Canada, Mexico, South America, Central America, Australia, Japan, etc. The greenhouse de- partment is carried on under the name of P. R. Quinlan & Co., Mr. Quinlan having purchased in 1884 a one-half interest and assumed general super- vision. From a small beginning this branch of business has grown year by year until its various houses now contain about 40,000 square feet of glass. The growing of choice roses has been made a prominent feature, and sev- eral large greenhouses are now entirely devoted to this popular flower. The Warners Portland Cement Manufacturing Company. — This enter- prise was organized in December, 1888, and the work of construction was soon afterward begun. Later the capital stock was increased and the capacity of the works much enlarged. The works are situated at Warners, ten miles west of Syracuse, the business office being located in the city. The output is about 350 barrels per day, and has no superior. It is univer- sally used by those who understand its qualities, and the demand for it is constantly increasing. Employment is constantly given to seventy men. The company is represented in its Board of Directors as follows: W. B. Cogswell, Hon. George N. Kennedy, John L. King, Frederick D. White, Edward N. Trump, Henry O'Neil, Edward Joy. Mr. Cogswell is the Presi- dent; Burnet Forbes, Secretary ; and Frederick D. White, Treasurer. The process of manufacture with the aid of extensive yet simple machinery, made expressly for these works, is interesting. There is an abundance of marl and clay, from which the cement is made, on the land purchased by the company. This is the most extensive plant of its kind in this country. Manufacturing Industries. 6^^ It is a somewhat curious fact tiiat Onondaga county once furnished nearly all the water-lime used in this country, and that now it should be su[iplyin{^ the best cement. The industry is likely to grow into much larger propor- tions with the constant increase in the demand for the product. Syracuse llcat and Poivcr Company. — This company is one of those de- velopments which may be credited to the push and business enterprise of the community — an enterprise demanding a large investment and sagacious confidence in the final outcome. The company was organized in 1888, with a capital of $2O0,OOO and the following incorporators: Wilber S. Peck, William K. Pierce, E. P. Bates, Edward Joy, Clarence Kellogg, William W. Cox, and Frank J. Webb. Land was purchased in Pearl street, a large building erected for boilers, and the plant for 2,500 horse-power jnit in- Two miles of street mains were laid, and the patronage by power users and those desiring heat has rapidly increased until now about thirty-five tons of coal are used daily. The plant is fitted up with everj' modern improve- ment of value, and is one of the best in the country. The officers of the company are Wilber S. Peck, President; William K. Pierce, Vice-Presi- dent ; M. J. Myers, Secretary ; Ira A. Holly, Superintendent. Petin & Lee. — Carriage springs is one of the important articles of man- ufacture in Syracuse. In the year 1881 George Penn and Henry M. Lee entered into partnership for the manufacture of carriage, car, and locomotive springs, under the firm name of Penn & Lee. They purchased a lot on the corner of Canal and William streets, and erected a building 316 x 66 feet, which they still occupy. Only one other establishment of the kind in the State of New York exceeds this in capacity, while .in the quality of their product they have no superior; all of their work is tempered in oil and guaranteed in quality. They give constant employment to 100 nun, and their annual output is 1,500 tons of manufactured goods. Before he came to Syracuse Mr. Penn had works of the same character in Bridgeport, Conn., and Gananoque, Can. An interesting feature of their establishment is its splendid brass band, which is composed wholly of their employees. It was organized in 1885, now has twenty-five members, and is under tlie leadership of Prof Charles I"". Walcott, of Boston. In October, 1889. this band accompanied the Knights Templar to Washington, and was the escort of the combined order of this State on that occasion. Syracuse Specialty Manufacturing Company. — This company was or- ganized in May, 1889, for the manufacture of hardware specialties in gen- eral, and especially patent buckles for overshoes, rubber coats, and horse blankets. The factory is on the corner of West Fayette and Geddes streets, and about fifty hands are employed. The officers of the company are : A. R. Dickinson, President and Treasurer; F. C. Howlett, Vice-President; 678 Memorial History of Syracuse. A. R. Dickinson, E. D. Dickinson, John Dunn, jr., F. C. Hewlett, and John Nase, Directors. T. D. Green. — The manufacture of pickles was begun in Syracuse about 1854 by the late C. C. Loomis, and was conducted by him until about 1878, when it passed to the control of Thomas D. Green, and he has ever since carried it on. He now manufactures more than three-fourths of all the local product. His product has secured such a hold on the markets that about 400 acres of land are required to grow the raw material, and employment is given to a large number of people. The prejudice against commercial pickles has almost disappeared, and the industry is still in its infancy. The brand adopted by Mr. Green is the " Royal," and it is con- sidered a guarantee of excellence. Kemp & Burpee Manufactiiritig Company. — This company was estab- lished by the present proprietors in 1881, for the manufacture of the Kemp's patent manure spreader, a device of great utility to farmers, and then the only one of the kind. In 1891 the company erected a new building on the corner of West Fayette and South Geddes streets, I20x 56 feet, and three stories high with basement. Steam-power is used, and a force of thirty men employed. Jolin Marsellus Manufacturing Company (Limited). — John Marsellus came to Syracuse from New York city in 1877, and began the manufacture of coffins, caskets, and undertakers' supplies at 79 and 81 South Clinton street. In 1878 Oscar D. Byers, who came from New York with Mr. Mar- sellus, became a partner, under the firm name of John Marsellus & Co. A factory was established in 1883 on the corner of Geddes and West Fay- ette streets, and two years later Charles B. Kiggins purchased an interest in the business. In 1888 a new brick factory was built, with office and salesroom, on the corner of Van Rensselaer, Richmond, and Tracy streets, the building being 60 x 220 feet, four stories high, and the present company was then organized and incorporated, with John Marsellus, President; F. S. Wicks, Vice-President; Oscar D. Byers, Secretary; and Charles B. Kiggins, Treasurer. These executive officers have ever since remained in charge of their constantly increasing business, and are qualified by a long experience to fully meet the various demands of the trade. The goods are sold throughout the States of New York, Pennsylvania, and New England, and also in Canada. The manufactures of the company include cloth- covered caskets, robes, wrappers, habits, linings, pillows, embalming tables, and undertakers' supplies generally, their factory being equipped with all the modern appliances for the successful and rapid production of these arti- cles. They also handle a large variety of cabinet hardware and upholstery goods. It is the only establishment of its kind that has succeeded in Syra- Manufacturing Industries. 679 cuse. Similar concerns have been started, but owing to lack of necessary experience, and the fact that the trade cannot be forced, they have proved disastrous ventures for those who invested their money. E. J. Eddy. — Mr. Eddy came to Syracuse in 1867 from Pharsaha, Chenango county, where he was born in 1848. His first employment was as a clerk, in which capacity he continued four years. In i 87 i lie opeiud a Iiardware estabhslrment in the First ward. He soon built up a prosper- ous trade, and won for liimself a prominent place among the substantial merchants of that part of the city. In 1878 he bought his present site in North Salina street, and for ten years carried on his business in buildings then standing. In 1888 he built his brick block, which is 60x80 feet and five stories high. In 1890 lie bought 1,000 tons of rags, and iiis manu- facture and sale of tinware has become so extensive that he employs tliirt)- wagons on the road, ten of which are his own, and the remainder furnished by tlie drivers. He employs five tinners, twenty-five women, besides his oflice help and men on the wagons. His business amounted in 1890 to $100,000. Mr. Eddy was Supervisor of his ward in 1885-86. A. E. Alvord. — The water-lime and plaster-mills on the corner of Lock and Catawba streets were built by their present owner, A. Iv Alvord, in 1 884, who succeeded his father in this business in 1875. Water-Iinic is ground from stone quarried and burned in Manlius and brought by rail to the mills. Quick-lime is also burned at Manlius in nine large kilns, which have a ca- pacity of 600 barrels daily. Stone for land plaster is quarried on Mr. Alvord's farm in Onondaga Valley, from which about 2,000 tons of plaster are ground and sold yearly. Two years ago Mr. Alvord expended several thousand dollars in a plant at his mills for the manufacture of calcine plaster, or plaster of Paris. This was the introduction of a new industry in Syra- cuse, and has proven very successful. It is made from the same stone as the land plaster, and the works have a daily capacity of from 200 to 300 barrels. The quality of this new product is most satisfactory, and orders already exceed the production. One hundred people are required to oper- ate the quarries and mills. Mr. Alvord's father, E. B. Alvord, was the pio- neer in this business in Syracuse. In 1848 he built a lime and plaster-mill on the corner of Lock and Canal streets, which he operated till 1872 or 1873, when he converted the building into a packing-house and moved the ma- chinery for grinding water-lime and i)laster to a new mill in Pearl street, which was removed to make room for the West Shore Railroad. The Oitoudagn County Milk Association is a stock company, incorpo- rated March 21, 187 1, with twenty- four charter members, eighteen of whom were milk producers and stockholders. The scheme was the invention of B. Austin Avery, a dairy farmer a few miles north of the city. No sys- 68o Memorial History of Syracuse. tem had ever been devised which embodied his idea of bringing milk pro- ducers and milk consumers into mutual relations. The financial results of twenty years have proved the wisdom of his plans. At the organization Mr. Avery was chosen President ; James L. Hill, Vice-President and Man- ager; and Cyrus D. Avery, Secretary and Treasurer. The original capital stock was $50,000. The old Park Hotel standing on their present site was rented, horses and wagons were bought, drivers hired, and milk routes established in the city. Stockholders brought their milk, which was weighed and credited, put into a common stock, and sold to the best advantage. At the end of one year 1,505,000 quarts of milk had been sold at a saving of over one cent per quart to consumers, and at the same time the receipts had paid the producers more money than they had been able to realize when each man made his own sales. The Park Hotel property was bought the second year, and at the end of tlie third year the growing prosperity of the enterprise demanded more room and better facilities. Experience had taught just what was wanted, and the present handsome and commodious building was designed and completed in 1875, at a cost of $17,000. Since then two lots with dwelling houses in Onondaga street have been purchased to make room for stables and shops, in which the association keeps its horses, makes and keeps in repair ail its wagons, and does all necessary blacksmithing. In the milk trade ice is in constant use, and 1,500 tons are consumed yearly, all of which is stored on the premises. During 1890 28,- 000 pounds of milk were handled daily. All milk not disposed of before 2 P. M. is made into butter and cottage and factory cheese the same day. This large quantity of milk is obtained of stockholders, and of those who rent stock, and so are entitled to the co-operative benefits. Two years ago the association began making ice cream, selling since that time from 75 to 100 gallons per day. In June, 1890, lunch parlors were fitted up, and this branch of the business has become very popular. A large boiler and a twenty- horse- power engine furnish the motive power, and hot water and steam for general uses. In 1891 4,550,368 quarts of milk were han- dled, netting the milk producers two and three-fourths cents per quart. The year's business amounted $136,812.92, to do which required forty horses, twenty- five wagons, and forty-three people. The stock has been increa.scd to $100,000, of which $63,450 has been paid in, and the property is valued at $100,000. The Presidents succeeding B. Austin Avery have been John Wells, Hiram Kingsley, and George C. Gere. Cyrus D. Avery, the first Secretary and Treasurer, was succeeded in a few months by Irani C. Reed, who was also made General Manager, which positions he has held for the past twenty years. The officers of the association, with six others, con- stitute a Board of Trustees as follows : George C. Gere, President ; J. C. ^. ',J^^iU)^y 7/ '/ - Hotels. 68 1 Miinro, Vice-President; Iiam C. Reed, Secretary, Treasurer, and General Manager; J. S. Jerome, John Wells, George Geddes, V. S. Knapp. P. P. Mid- ler, and H. F. Scott. HOTELS. T/ie Globe Hotel was erected in 1846 and 1847 ^Y Henry Stevens, and inimediately opened as a temperance house. Two years later it was given up, and the next landlord was William Winton, who was followed by Win- ton & Butler. This firm conducted the house till 1854, when they were succeeded by Ira Garrison, who ran it about ten years, and sold to Austin & Dickinson, under whose manas^cment the corner facing Washington and Salina streets was remodeled and the west portion of the hotel built. Messrs. Austin & Dickinson were succeeded by E. D. Dickinson, and he by Dickinson & Austin, and later the firm of Dickinson, Austin & Bacon be- came proprietors. A. R. Dickinson was their successor. The firm of Dick- inson, Bacon & Ellis was then formed and assumed control, and continued in that capacity till Mr. Dickinson withdrew, and the proprietorship passed into the hands of Bacon & Ellis, the present landlords The Globe is one of the best appointed hostelries in Central New York. It is conveniently located, substantially built, and a general favorite with the traveling [)ublic. The Vande7-hilt House was built in 1867 by John L. Cook & Son, who opened it in 1868, and kept it for ten or twelve years, when Oliver \\. Allen became the proprietor. He was succeeded two or three years later by P. B. Brayton, who sold to G. W. Day, and he to George W. Taylor. In the spring of 1891 Mr. Taylor disposed of his interest to J. H Fife, of New \'ork city, the present proprietor. In compliment to its name Commodore Van- derbilt presented this house with an excellent oil painting of himself, which has been admired by thousands of guests. During their bridal trip the Commodore and his second wife spent a night here. The hotel justly en- joys the reputation of being first-class in all respects. In 1879 Daniel Can- dee, Horace Candee, and the estate of Earll B. Alvord bought and still own this valuable property. The Empire House was constructed in 1844-45 by John L. Tomlinson, a son-in-law of James L. Voorhees, of Lysander. Mr. Tomlinson lived in a house where the County Clerk's office now stands, and he owned the whole block except the Onondaga Hotel and one dwelling house. He was killed by the cars at Little Falls in 1848, and the property soon after was bought by James L. Voorhees, who traded that part on which the Court- House now stands for the old court-house lot between Syracuse and Salina. The new owner called it the Voorhees House. A few years later it came into the possession of Horace and Hamilton White, and is now owned by Horace m 682 Memorial History of Syracuse. K. and F. D. White. The Empire House was opened in the fall of 1845 t>y Mr. Miller as a temperance house. He remained one year. The succes- sion of landlords since then has been Captain Joel Cody, Philo N Rust, Mr. and Mrs. Barent Filkins, Barney Becker, Lucius Wright, Sprague & Gage, Mrs. Gage, Hose Rockwell & Carpenter, Mr. Carpenter, Mr. Patten, Mr. Satterlee, and C. E. Talbot & Co., the present occupants. The name of the hotel was ciianijed from the Voorhecs House to the I'-mpire while Sprague & Gage were in it. The Empire is one of the largest hotels in Syracuse, and contains a spacious hall in which almost every society and organization in this State, and some national organizations, have repeatedly held annual meetings. Hotel Burns. — About 1870 I'eter Burns bought the block now known as the Hotel Burns, on the corner of West Fayette and South Clinton streets. A hotel had been kept in it for many years by Hutchinson, I'Last- man, and others. Mr. Burns remodeled the building, and leased it to Elias T. Talbot, who opened and kept a first-class temperance house for eleven years, when he leased his interest in it to Oscar L. Brownell. Mr. Talbot again assumed the management, and was succeeded in 1888 by the present proprietors, Messrs. Townsend Brothers. The hotel still belongs to Mr. Burns, and has always been kept as a temperance house. Congress Hall, located on the corner of West Washington and South Franklin streets, was erected about 1876 by Jacob Crouse, and opened the following year by Copley A. Nott, who has ever since conducted the house with great credit to both himself and Syracuse. In 188S his son, Claude R., was given an interest under the firm name of C. A. Nott & Son. The build- ing is five stories high, is located near the principal railroad depots of the city, and is altogether a most admirably appointed house. Hotel Caudee. — In 1864 Charles E. Candee opened the eastern half of the present Hotel Candee, formerly known as the Brintnall Hotel. Two years later he sold to Wagner & Sweatland. Mr. Sweatland soon after sold his interest to Horace B. Castle, and Mr. Wagner sold to Jerome Vromati, who in turn sold to Mr. ]5e!den, and he to Mr, Hiscock. The latter dis- posed of his interest to James H. Burke, and 1869 Mr. Candee repurchased the house and has been its proprietor ever since. In 1887 he leased the upper part of the old Talbot House, extending to the corner of I-'ayette and Warren streets, thus giving him 150 rooms Mr. Candee is the oldest con- tinuous hotel-keeper in Syracuse. In 1882 he was elected Alderman of the Sixth ward, and has by successive re-elections held that office ever since. The Jervis House, corner of East h'ayette and Mulberry streets, was built in 1854 by Harvey Sheldon and Charles A. Wheaton. The block was sold to the old -Syracuse City Bank, antl afterward [)urchased by General William Reminiscences. 683 J. Hough. It was first known as the Sheldon RIock, and for many years the upper part was rented by Mr. Coblcigh, of R<. Chester, for his dancing schools. General Hough afterward refitted it for a family boarding-house and hotel, and gave it its present name after l^ishop Jervis, of luigland, from whom he was descended. General Hough died in 1869, and in the divis- ion of his estate the Jervis I louse became the property of his daughter, wife of Charles E. Stevens, an attorney. Mr. Stevens was Superintendent of Public Schools from 1863 to 1866. The successive landlords of the Jervis House have been Harvey Bennett, Mrs. Harvey Iknnctt, Jeremiah Ilinch- man, John A. Goodell, Captain C. G Nye, A. F. Hamilton, and Mrs. Eu nice C. Gardner. CHAPTER XXXIX. RKMINISCENCES. Notes and Reminiscences with Wit and Humor Interspersed — Interesting Anecdotes of His- torical Importance. HOWEVER much the procrastination may be regretted, it is nevertheless now too late to gather from a generation almost gone much incidental history of the city. Indeed, who is there to tell of those early years of village history, when the population was sparse, the streets mere Indian trails, and the forests the home of beasts ? Seventy years have passed since 1820, when the village first began to bestir itself, and who is there of four- score years who lived among the scenes of that day ? A decade ago a vol- ume of interesting reminiscences might have been gathered ; but now there are few indeed to relate incidents and events of even half a century ago. A chapter of such matter has been gathered for this book which may serve to, in a degree, relieve the monotony incident to the narration of cold his- torical facts. Considerable more matter of this character might be gath- ered, and yet recollections are so conflicting that the work would be more or less unsatisfactory to the compiler. It has been said that no two per- sons ever see the same scene alike ; certainly, when the events of a lifetime ago are recalled by two persons there is almost invariably a decided conflict of opinion. The writer has had recourse to letters and scrap-books for the facts contained in many of the paragraphs which follow, and here and there one has been condensed from local publications. Some have been related by friendly citizens, and others are from the writer's memory of anecdotes told to him dtiring the thirty years of liis residence in the city. Scattered through this entire voltime are many narrations of events and incidents 684 Memorial History of Syracuse. which, taken in connection with this chapter, would constitute a good be- ginning for some writer who has the tact and patience for preparing a vol- ume of such sketches as he might now be able to procure. For example: An amusing incident occurred about the year 1840, in which a laugh was turned upon Gen. A. P. Granger. A familiar group was gathered at the Syracuse House, comprising such well known citizens as Mr. Granger, A. N. Van Patten, Amos Gillett, Daniel Kellogg, D. D. Hillis, Moses D. Burnet, Daniel Grofif, Henry Young, Philo N. Rust, Samuel Larned, and others. The General was fretting and scolding about a note that he had endorsed for Young, and said some quite hard words over his being com- pelled to pay it. Mr. Young explained that he had been disappointed in getting money that he expected, and could not meet the note. But this did not pacify the General, and he continued to complain. I'inally Young ended the matter and created a hearty laugh by exclaiming, "Well, General, what is an endorser good for if he don't pay?" Many years since, when the late J^aniel Pratt was holding court, a tall, uncomely specimen of humanity was called up for trial for some misde- meanor. He stood up, apparently without counsel, whereupon he was asked by the Judge if he had counsel, and replied in tliL- affirmative. As no member of the bar appeared to act as such the Judge further questioned him, " Who is your counsel ? " The man replied, " God Almighty ! " The Judge promptly advised the ])risoner thus : " You better get somebody who practices in these courts." Several years ago the late Damon Coats, who was noted for his lively wit, defended a prisoner who was on trial for felony. As the trial proceeded some of the bar left the court- room for a lime. Returning, they met Mr. Coats just going out, and said to him : " Well, how did you make out with your prisoner ? " " Oh," was the reply, " I succeeded in convicting him, with the aid of the district attorney ! " In the year 1829 there was a drug store on the southwest corner of Warren and East Genesee streets. On one occasion, when several villagers had gathered there to discuss the current to[)ics, a deer bounded directly through one of the front windows and into their midst. The animal came from the east through Genesee street. It is not too much to saj- that the gossipers were surprised. At about the same lime a bear was killed in South Salina street. The " Salina Gang," as they were termed, met one of their severest battles and repulses in a fight with the " village boys " while the erection of the first Bastable Block was in progress many years ago. Dean Richmond led the Salina party, and when it reached the scene of the struggle they found the street barricaded with timbers and the Syracuse boys well sup- Reminiscences. 685 plicil with paviiiq; stones. The fiyht was brief but intense, and the Salt Pointers were forced to retreat, several of tiieni being severely injured. It was one of the most riotous of the numerous proceedings of that character of those days. When the Hon. Andrew D. W'hite was a boy he displayed much invent- ive genius. He had a workshop in the basement of his father's home, on the site of the present residence of Dr. Uidama, antl much of liis time was spent in scientific and mechanical pursuits. He made, among other things, a printing press entirely of wood, which did its work in quite a perfect man- ner, some of the principles of which are emplo\ed in the perfecting presses of to-day. He also came very near being the inventor of telegrapliy be- fore Morse made his discoveries. Me constructed a batterj' and strung wires, and by breaking the current produced a spark. He then devised a code by which sentences could be transmitted by manipulating the sparks. A " sounder " is used in these days to indicate dots and dashes, made by breaking the current, the sounds of the instrument taking the place of Mr. White's sparks. In the olden practice at our courts B. Davis Noxon was retained in a trial with his usual tact and persistence, and was engaged against an oppo- nent who continually interposed objections. The Judge, who was many years Mr. No.xon's junior, uniformly decided in favor of the objections. Becoming irritated at Mr. Noxon's persistency the Judge exclaimed : "What am I here for except to decide these questions as they arise ? " Mr. Noxon, with his usual gravity, laid down his glasses and pen, and looking up at the Judge, replied : " Your honor has got me now ! " Mr. Noxon was long recognized as the nestor of the bar prior to his death. Many years since his son-in-law, now the venerable Judge Corn- stock, was elected Judge of the Court of Appeals on the Know-Nothing ticket. Soon after his election the late Judge Mason, of the Supreme Court, of Hamilton, N. Y., met Mr. Noxon and congratulated him upon Mr. Comstock's election to the Court of Appeals, adding that as he had long been a judge in theory, he Iiad now become one in fact, and that no doubt he would make an excellent judge. "Yes," Mr. Noxon replied, "Judge Comstock will if he is n't most woefully deceived in himself." In times past the rules of practice required attorneys, in causes tried at the Circuit desiring an appeal, to make a motion on defendants with notice before the end of the term. A trial having been had in court before the late Judge Daniel Pratt, and a decision made adverse to the clients of Messrs. Gardner & Burdick. a motion, with notice on afFida\its hastily drawn was made by Hamilton Burdick (now a senior and honored member of the On- ondaga Bar). He began to read the affidavits with his usual custom, slowly 686 Memorial History ok Syracuse. and deliberately, when Judge Pratt, after a short time, said to him, " Hand up your papers." Mr. Burdick did so, and after the Judge had tried in vain to read them he impatiently threw them on the desk with the remark that any lawyer who would write like that ought to have his motion denied on the spot. Mr. Burdick coolly replied : "I don't know as lawyers are to blame if the people elect Judges that can't read writing." No one enjoyed the reply more than the Judge himself. About five years ago Ezra Town was in Syracuse on a visit to James M. Ellis. Mr. Town was in business in this city from 1825 to 1855, and gave the following particulars of trade matters at an early day: "East of Montgomery street, between the Genesee turnpike and the Erie Canal, was a dense alder swamp. On the corner of Mulberry and Fayette streets was a house, but it was considered away out in the country. The man who built it was ridiculed for going so far for a home. The old red mill was still standing on the east bank of the creek near the turnpike. The amount of business done in Syracuse in 1825 was much less than that at Onondaga. Nearly all of the .stores were on the north side of the canal, in a block be- tween the two bridges. When it became known that I was going to open a grocery on the other side of the canal people said that I could not live, but I did, and without selling whisky, which was the general custom with merchants of that day. Syracuse then contained only about thirty houses. Reuben West and the Eastmans, at Onondaga Hill, and W. H. Raynor, at the Valley, sold more goods and bought more produce than the whole of us in Syracuse." The venerable Mr. Elisha Ford says that the first brick building in Syracuse was the Syracuse House, and the first brick dwelling is the build- ing which is still standing just east of the Bastable Block. It is more than remarkable that both of these structures should have so long escaped the numerous changes that have taken place. In 1824-25 James Webb came down from Onondaga Hill and built the first and only stone dwelling house in the village. It was erected in West Water street, and he kept it for a time as a boarding-house. Since then it has been used for various purposes, and is now standing and used as a dye- house. The manner in which railroad trains were run fifty years ago is in part illustrated by the following statement of a locomotive engineer who be- came connected with the Syracuse and Utica division of what is now the Central in June, 1845, si.\ years after its comi)letion : "When I became an engineer on this division," he says, " the company had five engines. The heaviest one did not weigh over fifteen tons. The smallest weighed about thirteen tons. The time of the regular run between Syracuse and Reminiscences. 687 Utica, fifty-one miles, was three and one-lialf hours. The usual train con- sisted of four passenger coaches and a freight car. Tlity were all small eight- wheeled cars. One day I ran my train from Syracuse into the station at Utica fifteen minutes ahead of time. Every one about the station was astonished, and a great many questions were asked regarding the trip. Some persons thought I must have left Syracuse ahead of time. They had been accustomed to seeing the trains come in late. In some way the news of my fast trip reached the ears of the officials of the road in Syracuse. When I arrived in that city on my next run Superintendent John Wilkin- son called me into his office and reprimanded me for running my train so fast. I argued that there was no time-card stating what time the train should arrive at stations on the line, and I had no specific orders as to run- ning fast or slow. The Superintendent told me that a repetition of the offense would result in my discharge from the company's services. I was more careful after that. Our fastest train was the one that carried the Governor's message. It made the time from Utica to Syracuse in about two and one-quarter hours. It took seven and one half hours to carry the message from Albany to Auburn. The train was watched by groups of astonished people along the line. They said it went like lightning, but such lightning could easily be dodged. There were no switches along the road in those days. The road was double- tracked between Verona and Canastota, and trains were e.xpected to pass each other between those sta tions. When they failed to do this and met on the single track one of the trains had to back up and run in on the extra track or turnout. There was no telegraph and consequently no orders along the line for the running of trains. In case of an accident to the train we would get a farmer to drive to the nearest station and notify some of the employees of the road, and then a hand-car would be sent to Syracuse or Utica for aid. Railroading in those days was pretty slow business, but we did n't think so at the time. I did not expect to live to see it advanced to its present state." The venerable Judge Comstock had but recently been beaten in several cases before the General Term, when he re- appeared in reference to several other cases in which appeals had been taken from the trial court, and re- membering his recent experiences he made no argument, but brought smiles to the faces of the Justices when he said : " May it please your hon- ors, I pause here on my way to the Court of Appeals only long enough to hand up my briefs." It was characteristic wit and sarcasm. David J. Mitchell was once assigned by the court to the defense of an im[)ecutiious negro at Morrisville. Mr. Mitchell exerted his best efforts during the taking of testimony and spoke at much length in summing up; but the guilt of the man was so clearly proven that the jury found a verdict 688 Memorial History of Syracuse. without leaving their seats, and five minutes later the Judge had sentenced him to State Prison for life. Mr. Mitchell then turned to the negro and re- marked : " Well, sir, you may thank me for that speech, for without it you would have got twenty years more." Perhaps the best exhibition of legal lore ever made in the city was on the occasion of the trial of one Lindsay, indicted for the murder of a man near Baldvvinsville. The late Hon. Charles B. Sedgwick appcarctl as one of the counsel for the prisoner, and during the trial an expert from Phila- delphia was called by the people to show that blood that had been put in evidence was human blood, and blood of the murdered man. He had sworn very positive!}' and at considerable length when Mr. Sedgwick be- gan his cross-examination, which continued during the most of two days. Mr. Sedgwick had especially prepared himself for this branch of the exam- ination, and step by step he wove a web about the expert which at last began to disturb his equanimity and indicate the main purpose of the in- quiry. Mr. Sedgwick had applied his severest sarcasm and irony in at- tacking the standing of the witness as an expert, and had confronted him with the opinions of eminent authorities with whom the witness had disa- greed, and in the earlier part of the examination firmly asserted that it was easy to distinguish between the blood of a person and that of a pig. Mr. Sedgwick led up to the important question: "Do you now say, in view of all the authorities that have been presented, and following the vehement af- firmations which you have made, that you can distinguish the blood of a pig from the blood of a man ? " in such a skillful manner that the witness began to tremble at the conclusion of the question. He was pressed for an an- swer, and finally replied : " No," thus destroying his testimony for the people. During the War of 1812 th.e old military arsenal in the Valley, which has been described on an earlier page of this work, was a place of consider- able importance. Bodies of soldiers often made it a stopping-place for a night, or while awaiting orders. The antiquarian is interested in this con- nection in the fate of an artillery officer and a comrade, who was probably a private, who were passing from the Niagara frontier eastward, towards the close of the war. It is said that the officer belonged to the first artillery conqiany in the country. These two soldiers were taken sick on the march, and when tlie old arsenal was reached they were left to receive such care as could be given them there. Both died and were buried on the Hopper farm on the hill at the west side of the Valley, and the graves are marked with simple stones. Those two graves have attracted the attention of hun- dreds of passers by, and caused almost endless conjecture as to whose re- mains were buried there. I, % JL Cl^<^^^<^^ Reminiscences. 689 Wieting Hall, though it some time ago was superceded by the Wieting Opera House, is of historic interest. It was the offspring of a happy thought of the owner of the Wieting Block, Dr. John M. Wieting, and twice it was destroyed by fire, h'or many years the State conventions of tlie political parties were held in it, and not a few lively scenes were witnessed at such times, some of which have been referred to in an earlier chapter of this book. Among the very last of such conventions held in it was that of the year 1872, when the Liberal party, which supported Horace Greeley for the Presidency, was organized in this State. The events at- tending that division of the Republican party were even more interesting to the public than those on the occasion of the withdrawal of John Kelly and Tammany Hall, when they, like the Liberals, found themselves in the minority and unable to control the organization of the convention. Wiet- ing Hall and Syracuse only yielded up their popularity when the great car- avansaries of Saratoga bid successfully for political patronage, and even after that time State conventions were occasionally held here, one, in par- ticular, at which Grover Cleveland was nominated for Governor, on his way to the Presidency. Here for many years congregated the politicians of the State, great and small, and of all parties, the " Barnburners," " Loco-Focos," "Hunkers," "Silver Grays," "Woolly Heads," Whigs, Democrats, Repub- licans, Know- Nothings, and Abolitionists. Here great men and women have been seen or heard, or both, for while some have electrified great audi- ences by their oratory, acting, or song, others have controlled assemblages by their quiet, yet powerful, influence, such for instance as Thurlow Weed, Dean Richmond, Peter Cagger, John Kelly, and many others of no less fame. Among the political sayings that have come down from these con- ventions is one from Dean Richmond, which, because it illustrates so much of political management, will live for some time to come. His will was the will of his party, and, on one occasion, after making up the " slate " for the convention, one of his lieutenants observed that he had neglected to name the last and most insignificant candidate. Mr. Richmond's attention being called to the fact, and weary of the task he had already performed, re- marked: "Yes, I have made that omission " ; and then after a moment's re- flection said, " perhaps that nomination might as well be left to the conven- tion," and it was. The first convention in the city that can be recalled is that of the Whigs in 1850. It met in September in Market Hall, which, before the erection of Wieting Hall, was generally used for public meetings. It was also the City Hall, and was renovated from time to time according to the needs of a growing city, but was demolished in 1890 to make room for the new municipal building now in course of erection, at a cost of some- thing more than two hundred thousand dollars. Within its walls, too, has 87 690 Memorial History of Syracuse. resounded the eloquence of voices of national reputation. Of the orators and statesmen who have been heard in VVieting Hall were Charles Sumner, Wendell Phillips, Samuel J. Tilden, John B. Gough, Henry Ward Beecher, Horace Greeley, Henry J. Raymond, Frederick Douglass, Stephen A. Douglass, Governor Andrew, Governor Brough, and Governor Morgan, (" the war Governors" of Massachusetts, Ohio, and New York respectively,) Roscoe Conkling, Senator John Sherman, Gerrit Smith, William Lloyd Garrison, Vice-President Hamlin, Rev. Samuel J. May, President Chester A. Arthur, John Van Buren, Horatio Seymour, Anna Dickinson. The dramatic stage attracted Charles Dickens, Janauschek, Charlotte Cushman, Edwin Booth, John McCuUough, Lawrence Barrett, Edwin Forrest, Joseph Jefterson, and many others scarcely less brilliant in both America and Europe. Parepa Rosa, AdelinaPatti, and Christine Nillson were of those who succeeded Jenny Lind in this country, with many other magnificent vocalists of reputation. In the days when the lyceum was popular scores of lecturers afforded excel- lent instruction and entertainment ; concerts were frequent, and scientific exhibitions were well patronized. The I'ranklin Institute was for a time a flourishing institution, and its midwinter "fairs" were popular in the ex- treme. Not the least attractive were the courses of lectures on physiology which Dr. Wieting gave, several winters after he built the block and hall from the proceeds of such lectures given by him throughout the country during several years previously. These lectures were illustrated with the aid of manikins and charts — something quite new for those days. As Syra- cuse was looked upon as a " hot bed of abolitionism " in the more heated anti-slavery days, it was but natural that Market Hall and Wieting Hall should have been the arena of some of the most renowned debates, and in some instances these gatherings of Abolitionists were disgracefully assailed by mob violence. Especially in "wartimes" was Wieting Hall filled with eloquence, patriotism, and enthusiasm, when there were great assemblages of people to devise ways and means for recruiting the army or giving it moral and political support through the aid of the " Union party," a union of Republicans and Democrats in support of the Union army. On such occasions the hall was frequently magnificently decorated with the Old Flag and tricolors, especially in celebration of some important victory. At such times bands of music would occupy the gallery, while cannon would boom from the packet dock with an eloquence of oratory which would stir the multitude to the highest pitch of excitement. But when the Wieting Block was last burned a few j-ears ago the hall of course lost its personal interest, but memories of it will live while those li\e who were witnesses to its many stirring scenes. The entrance to it was from Salina street, one flight up, with the stage in the west end. A wide gallery extended from Reminiscences. 691 the stage around the hall. Originally its seats were connected wooden chairs, and moveable, but in later years, after the first fire, it was supplied with opera chairs. The present Wieting Opera House is much more pre- tentious in its appearance than the old hall, but it is no more pleasing to those who remember Wieting Hall. Convention Hall was less pretentious, but for many years it was a pop- ular place of meeting for small conventions and newly organized churches. Concerts and lectures were frequently given in it. It was located in the Convention Block in East Genesee street, ne.xt west of the building now occupied b)' the Courier Printing Company. Corinthian Hall was also well known thirty years ago, and was the place of some noted entertainments. It was situated on the second floor of the building in North Salina street, a little south of the present Columbia Market. Malcom Hall, in the present Malconi Block, South Salina street corner of Washington street, was also once a popular place of amusement. The Christy Minstrels of long ago made their first appearance in this part of the State there. And there was Myers Hall, in the present Myers Block, which became somewhat conspicuous from being the lodge room of the " Sons of Malta," an organization of much dignity on the e.\tcrior, but highly deceptive and amusing in its interior. There are still many of its victims living who will remember the midnight parade it once made, with its thousand mem- bers in cowls and gowns, and the distribution of bread it made to the poor. Its membership embraced many of the most prominent citizens, inveigled into its mysteries by deception, but when once within its doors waited with good humor to have revenge upon some innocent friend. The "order" had no object other than to gratify fun-loving dispositions. These facts may be noted here for preservation : Onondaga county was first settled in 1786. Syracuse was first known by the Indians as Webster's Camp and Webster's Landing. It was known as Bogardus Corners from 1796 to 1809, when the name was changed to Milan, and to South Salina (to distinguish it from Salina) in 1812. Two years later, in 1814, the name was again changed to Cossitt's Corners, and in 181 7 to Corinth. There was a postofTice in the State of that name in 1820, when it was desired to establish a postoffice here, hence it was neces.sary to again change the name, this time to Syracuse. The village was incorporated April 13, 1825, and the village became a city December 13, 1847, with a population of about 1 6,000. John Wilkinson was the pioneer lawyer. He came to " Corinth " in 1819, and located his office " out of town" on the corner now occupied by 692 Memorial History of Syracuse. the Globe Hotel. He was followed in 1824 by Alfred Nortliam. Then came Harvey Baldwin and Schuyler Strong (in 1826), and Horace Wheaton, Davis, E. W. Leavenworth, B. Davis Noxon, James R. Lawrence, Joshua Forman, George F. Comstock, Grove Lawrence, John H. Hulbcrt, Daniel Gott, D. D. Hillis, Daniel Pratt, Charles B. Sedgwick, William J. Hough, Henry J. Sedgwick, John Ruger, John G. Forbes, James W. Nye, Thomas T. Davis, N. B. Smith, Peter Cutwater, R. H. Gardner, James S. Leach, Le Roy Morgan, Hamilton Burdick, Thomas G. Alvord, William C. Ruger, Charles Andrews, George N. Kennedy, Frank Hiscock, while many have followed them. It is believed that of all these but seven are now living. It is said that the discovery of salt under the Tully hills but verifies the oft-repeated behef of a famous and respected chief of the Onondaga Indians, Captain George. Upon what he based his opinion is not definitely known ; but a member of the tribe recently told the writer that the chief often said that " if white men would go deep down in the earth over towards the morn- ing sun they would find salt in big piles." About twenty wells supply a 1 2-inch pipe which now brings a million gallons of very strong brine to the city every day. W. B. Cogswell spent much time and money in " pros- pecting " for a salt mine, and was at last (in 1889) abundantly rewarded. The Solvay Process Works (of which Mr. Cogswell is President) are now supplied with brine of the exact strength required (within one degree of saturation), and there is brine to spare for some of the manufacturers of salt. Bradley Carey, eighty-seven years old, recalls these facts and incidents: "When I came here in 1825 I was nearly twenty-one years of age. The vil- lage of Syracuse contained 800 or 900 inhabitants, for the most part north of and near the Erie Canal. The old Mansion Tavern stood where the Empire House does now. The salt men were then just commencing to make salt by the solar process, and were building works south of West Genesee street. Two years before I came here to live, or in 1823, I recollect attending a show in the hall of the Mansion Tavern. Samuel Earned used to carry his show about on a canal boat, exhibiting at the towns along the canal. I re- member it consisted of wax figures, two of which were Lady Jane Grey and Mary, Queen of Scots. We thought it was a great show in those days. The greatest excitement we had then was town meeting. The nearest polling place was at Salt Point, or, as it later was called, Salina. As town meeting came in the spring of the year we often had to go in sleighs over a very rough and much drifted road. I remember one election, the first time Jackson ran for the Presidency. Excitement ran high. There were two or three feet of snow in the road. Both parties had sleighs carrying Reminiscences. 693 people to the polls, and as the road had only a single track then a trip to Salt Point was pretty rough. When I came to Syracuse the only church in the village which was finished and occupied was the Baptist church, which stood where the First Universalist church now stands. I was a car- penter by trade and worked on the first Presbyterian church and the first I'Lpiscopal church ever built in the city. In 1825 these churches were be- ing built, also tlie first Methodist church ever erected in the city. They were all, I think, small wooden structures. The Presbyterian church stood where McCarthy's retail store now stands ; the Episcopal church (old St. Paul's) on the lot bounded by Genesee, Washington, and Warren streets, where the Granger Block stands, and the Methodist church where the First Methodist is now. I think the present First M. E. church is an enlargement of that same building, at least it is on the same site. The Catholics bought the Episcopal church some years later and moved it down in Montgomery street, where it now stands. It is the old St. Mary's." The ground now covered by the Durston Memorial Building and con- tiguous stores, at the corner of James and Warren streets, possesses some historic interest. In 1820 Daniel Kellogg, William H.Sabine, and Joshua Forman, then owners of these premises, entered into a contract with Thomas Spencer and David Johnson to build a boat-house and construct a dry dock. The title to the property became vested in the Syracuse Company in 1824, and by the company a sale was made to Thomas Spencer in 1828. Mr. Spencer was a boat builder. An interesting document still preserved is an agreement dated February 27, 1834, under the terms of which Maria Durston, of the town of Salina, indentured her son, John Durston, to Thomas Spencer as an apprentice, John Durston then being seventeen years old. The agreement was that Spencer should furnish " the said John good and sufficient meat, drink, washing, and lodging, and also pay for his services at the rate of $75 for the first year." The wages were so graded that on reaching his majority the young man was to receive $200 a year. The young boat builder was industrious and economical, and in 1843 he pur- chased the property of Mr. Spencer and owned it until his death. The first execution for murder in the county was that of Zachariah Freeman, a negro living in the town of Lysander. He murdered a white woman named Sarah Boyd, on the i8th of May, 1840, and was hung in Syracuse on the 19th of November by Sheriff Phillips. Governor Seward was petitioned to commute the sentence, but he refused to interfere. Colo- nel Johnson, Under Sheriff, acted as executioner. All the witnesses are now dead. There were present, besides the Sheriff and Under Sheriff, Deputies Erastus Baker, jr., and Henry Seymour, Jailer Butts, Constables Henry L. Fellows, William D. Lewis, Amos Gillett, T. Holmes, and Sylves- 694 Memorial History or Syracuse. ter House, Judges Lawrence, Strong, Hall, and Mason, District Attorney Dodge, County Clerk Elijah Rhoades, and Surrogate Minard. The official witnesses were Jonas Earll, Amos P. Granger, Oliver Teall, Moses S. Marsh, Z. W. Cogg^.well, William A. Cook, Josiah Wright, William Malconi, Rufus Stanton, Samuel Hickox, Philo N. Rust, and Frederick Benson. Many older citizens still remember the stone bridge built in the form of an arch over the Erie Canal, in Salina street. This bridge was so low that people upon the decks of canal boats passing under it were frequently in- jured. The attention of Canal Commissioner Earll being called to the fact, he said : " Yes, I will have the cause of these complaints removed by deep- ening the bottom of the canal at that point ! " At a meeting held at Onondaga Hill, in the Court- 1 louse, on February 23, 18 16, to furtiier consider the project of constructing the Erie Canal, a plan for raising the required amount of money, $10,000,000, was proposed which would be quite novel for these days. A memorial to the Legislature was presented, having previously been prepared by a committee, of which Judge Forman, General Thaddeus M. Wood, and Judge Geddes were mem- bers, which suggested aid from these sources: Congress, $2,500,000; State of New York, $2,500,000; State of Ohio, $1,000,000; New York city and adjacent counties, $2,000,000 ; and individuals, $2,000,000 ; the last to be secured by the issue of stock, to bear interest at five per cent., protected by a lien on canal tolls. The money was to be raised in amounts of one mil- lion for ten years, the estimated time required for constructing the canal. The memorial was adopted and presented to the Legislature by a committee, but it was never acted upon. In '• war times" considerable jest was made of a clumsy order issued by the colonel of one of the regiments which went from this city, in which he somewhat irreveranlly mentioned the Almighty, though not intending to do so. But he afterwards redeemed himself with his friends by showing how easy it was for army officers to make or overlook mistakes by sending home an order, issued by the Adjutant-General of the army, which, for want of punctuation, read as follows in its closing paragraph : " May God preserve the Union of the States by order of the Secretary of War. L. Thomas, Adjutant- General." It is interesting to know that in its early daj-s the western part of Syra- cuse was wooded with hemlock, birch, and soft maple, while the timber in the eastern part was cedar, pine, and hickory. Vast quantities of this wood were consumed by the salt works. It is well to preserve the fact that nowhere was the death of General U. S. Grant more sincerely mourned than in Syracuse, as was shown by the street drapings and the monster assemblage at the Alhambra at the Reminiscences. 695 memorial service, August 8, 1885. Mayor Thomas Ryan presided, and the address was delivered by Hon. Carroll K. Smith Prayer was offered by the Rev. K. W. Mundy, and remarks were made by the Rev. Dr. J. J. Mo- riarty and the Rev. T. K. Clark-. Hymns were sung by the great congre- gation, led by the Apollo Club. There was once an e.xtrensive Indian burying-place near where the High School now stands, formerly occupied by the red mill. In excavating a dike leading to it, in 18 19, the skull of an Indian of unusual size was ex- humed. More than one hundred skulls have been found in that locality. Albion Jackson is supposed to have been the first white child born within the old village of Syracuse. The event occurred in December, 1800. On the evening of January 8, 1829, a " grand military ball " was given at the Syracuse House in celebration of the election of General Jackson to the Presidency in the fall of 1828. A. N. Van Patten was the leader in tile event. In the middle of the ball room was a hickory tree, with manu- factured leaves upon it painted green, and live squirrels upon the branches. It is probable that Elisha Ford, of Syracuse, is the only person now living who attended the ball. Six Shakesperean engravings which were used in the elaborate decoration of the hall are now in the possession of the Hon. William Kirkpatrick, of Syracuse. Tlie First Presbyterian Ciiurch Society was organized in 1824. A year later Judge Foiman circulated a subscription paper to raise a fund with which to erect an edifice. There were eighty-two subscribers, of whom not one is now living. In 1827 the Trustees of the village, having due regard for the safety of property, appointed a " Protection Company " of twelve reliable citizens, whose duty it should be " to protect such goods as must of necessity be removed at a fire, and to direct the packing of the same." Each mem- ber of the company was ordered to carry " a good and sufficient bag to all fires for the more safety of packing and removing goods." It was also or- dered that " the Trustees shall each carry a staff at fires, such as shall be designated an insignia of office of fire wardens, for the purpose of compell- ing such [persons] as are unwilling to render due assistance in all cases at fires." Personal sensibility and personal sorrow shown in a public manner were never more conspicuous than on the occasion of the death of President Abraham Lincoln. The main thoroughfares of the city were heavily draped, and there was scarcely a home which did not bear some insignia of mourning. So great was the demand for common black cambric and so scarce became the supply that a dollar a yard was freely paid for it. Thou- sands of draped flags were to be seen, and the signs of mourning were uni- 696 Memorial Histukv of Syracuse. versa!, and none who stood among the thousands of people on tlie line of Washington street on the night when the remains of the good President passed through the city on the way to Springfield, Illinois, can ever forget the scene. It was nearly midnight when the headlight of the pilot engine which escorted the funeral train was seen coming from the tunnel. At that moment all the church ami public bells of the city began tolling, and the firing of minute guns broke upon the perfect stillness of the air. The great crowd of people w;is hushed, and slowly and almost silently the draped en- gine passed by, when .ill eyes were turned to watch for the approach of the following train. Soon it appeared, and, literally covered with black, it rolled quietly along to the station, then standing in what is now Vanderbilt Square. As it entered the station it was at once surrounded by a local reg- iment of military, acting as a guard of honor. The impressiveness of the entire scene, where people stood with heads uncovered and spoke almost in whispers as the body of the great oak among men was borne along towards his last resting place, cannot be described. Everything conspired to lend awe and solemnity to the occasion. Memorial sei vices took place in Sj'ra- cuse, as in hundreds of other large places throughout the country. The funeral oration was pronounced by the Hon. Charles B. Sedgwick. It was a masterly production, unquestionably the ablest of his many brilliant efforts. In 1822 Liverpool was a place of much more importance than either Salina or Syracuse. Farmers found a good market there and received cash for their products, while in the places last mentioned an equivalent was too freely offered in salt. John Randel, jr., made the first maps of this locality, and they are now prized for their accuracy. He was a resident of Albany, but was employed to survey Central New York. Before beginning his work it was his custom to require his assistants to take an oath, which read as follows: "We, the subscribers, do severally swear that we will faithfully execute the trust re- posed in us by John Randel, jr., as assistants. So help us God." In 1821 he established the monuments in the Salina salt district. The Rev. Daniel Waldo, who died July 30, 1864, aged lOi years, ten months, and twenty days, was remarkable for a long life most actively spent. He was born in Connecticut in 1762, and was a living witness to the events and progress of this country for more than a century. At the time of his death he was the oldest graduate of Yale College — a member of the class of 1788. He participated in many thrilling events of the war of the Rev- olution, though young in years. In 1789 he entered the ministry of the Congregational church, and continued in it to the time of his death. He preached his last sermon after he had entered uj)on his I02d year. Atone place where he was stationed as a minister in his earlier years (Columbia, Rkminiscences. 697 Connecticut) a military review took place, and Mr. Waldo was invited to participate in the dinner which followed, and there gave an example of the readiness with which he could meet almost any unexpected situation. At the table there was a free use of profanity, and the commanding officer having said to Mr. Waldo, by way of intended compliment, jjcrhaps, that he was glad he had come to dine with the officers, and that in doing so he seemed to differ in his judgment with some of his brothers who had de- clined smiilar invitations, Mr. Waldo replied : " My Master was not afraid to dine with publicans and sinners, and I am not." In December, 1856, being then ninety-four years of age, he was, on the motion of Representa- tive Amos P. Granger, appointed Chaplain of the House of Representatives, and when his term e.xpired was re-elected. His long life was literally filled with well-doing, and he died honored of all who knew him personally or by reputation. The Syracuse subscribers, in 1834, to the fund of $400,000 for con- structing the Syracuse and Auburn Railroad, were Stephen Smith, $2,000 ; L. H. Redfield, $1,000; M. S. Marsh, $1,000; W. and H. Raynor, $10,- 000; Joseph Savage, $500; John B. Ives, $5,000; James Manning, $500 ; Thomas Spencer, Agnew & Wood, and Daniel Elliott, $1,000 each ; I'hilo N. Rust, by G. Lawrence, attorney, $200; Richard S. Corning, $1,000; Joel Cody, by J. Manning, attorney, $100; Amos Benedict, $500; John L. V. Vates, $300 ; John Wilkinson, $2,000; V. W. Smith, $2,000; Henry Davis, jr., $2,000. The subscriptions in Auburn amounted to about $350,000. The first court-house was erected at Onondaga Hill in 1805-06. In 1829 the county seat was removed to Syracuse, and a court-house was built midway between Syracuse and Salina. This building was burned in 1856, after which the present structure in Clinton Square was built. It is said that the oldest house in the city, built of wood, is No. 310 James street, occupied by Martin Still. The first house constructed of stone is still standing in West Water street.Jand is occupied bj' Smith, the dyer. It was built about 1824, by John Webb. The first steps made of stone may still be seen at the entrance to an unsightly building at the east end of the Bastable Block, in East Genesee street. A cut of the oldest brick building, on the corner of Salina and Ivxchange streets, appears on page "jj. The State took possession of the Salt Springs Reservation in 1797. William Stevens was the first Superintendent, from June 20, 1797, until his death in 1801. It is believed that the first colored man to come to this locality was Isaac Wales, who, with his family, settled here in 1824. " Uncle Ike " came from Maryland to Manlius with the Fleming family as a slave in 18 10. He 88 698 Memorial History of Syracuse. bought his freedom for $80. John Savage's was the first Irish family to locate here. The late Richard Savage was a son of John Savage. The first German resident was Andrew Fessenmyer. A contemporary of the Hon. T. G. Alvord relates that when they were boys they were members of a lyceum in Salina. Mr. Alvord had not reg- ularly joined in the discussions, so that one evening the President souglit to bring him into the debate, and asked him, " Which side of the question will you discuss ? " " Either side," Mr. Alvord replied ; and added, " I can talk on one side as well as the other, and can carry my point, too." The line of stage coaches which was run between Albany and Buffalo, and through Syracuse, half a century and more ago, was quite as important to the traveling public and business interests of the country as is the New York Central Railroad now. The first use made of broken stone fora road- way was on the old Genesee turnpike. Coaches were run in such number daily as the needs of the public required, some one of them carrj'ing the mails, with letter postage between Syracuse and New York at eighteen and three-fourths cents, and a way-bill accompanying every letter. A good stage driver was a man of prominence as well as of deeds ; and the more renowned was he if he could excel in blowing his horn to warn relay sta- tions along the road of his approach. Among the more prominent drivers were " Sam " VVildrick, Thomas Wheeler, Mr. Williams, " Dan " Bennett, Colonel Wood, " Ed " Chappel, " Bob " Blanchard, T. H. Faxton, and Henry Bristol. The Syracuse House was headquarters for all of the stage lines. The stage coaches supplied the model from which cars for the first railroads were built, with a wide board along the exterior, upon which the conductor walked to collect fares. A line of packet boats on the canal made competition lively. These offered comfortable accommo- dations and made good speed, the horses, in tandem, being driven at a trot- ting pace. And the captain of a packet boat was a more important per- sonage than the captain of an ocean racer is in these days. In other years Syracuse was sometimes, and with much truth, called an " abolition center," a grand station of the " underground railroads," this latter designation meaning that it was easy to secretly run an escaping slave through the place on his way to Canada. In May, 1851, the Ameri- can Anti-Slavery Society met in Syracuse, and among those present were such renowned Abolitionists as William Lloyd Garrison, Gerrit Smith, Fred- erick Douglass, Parker Pillsbury, Abbey Kelley Foster, and our own Rev. Samuel J. May. In his opening address Mr. Garrison showed the preju- dice which existed throughout the country at that time. Said he: "This society has heretofore met in New York ; but we arc not permitted by a power that is greater than liberty in our land to hold an anniversary in that Reminiscences. 699 city tliis year, as neither a mcctiiig-lioiise nor a hall could be obtained. If driving the society from New York has covered that city with historical in- famy, the receiving of it in Syracuse will cover this city with historical re- nown." Tliereafter Syracuse was the place of many Abolition conventions. At this meeting there was a noted controversy between the Hon. Charles B. Sedgwick and George Thompson, a member of the English I'arliament. Mr. Sedgwick made an address in which he strongly favored the abolish- ment of slavery, but he would accomplish it by ])eaceful means rather than by force. To this Mr. Thompson took exceptions and made a severe per- sonal attack upon Mr. Sedgwick. Mr. Sedgwick made a brief, courteous, and scorching reply, which threw the assemblage into a tumult that continued for some time, and amid the confusion friends of both parties to the contro- versy attempted to make speeches, but the assemblage would not hear either Mr. Sedgwick or Mr. Thompson again. At length quiet was re- stored, when Mr. Thompson offered an apology, when the excited audience arose and gave three cheers each to Mr. Thompson, Mr. Sedgwick, and the city of Syracuse. Mr. Sedgwick did not speak, but subsequently sent a letter to Mr. Thompson in which he fairly reviewed the occurrence and treated the matter in a way which won the admiration of all and the friend- ship of Mr. Thompson. Lewis H. Redfield was undoubtedly the oldest printer in the State at the time of his death, July 14, 1882. His history covers a long period of unusual activity and business success. In his boyhood he learned the art of printing and for many years published a newspaper at Onondaga Vallej', and later at Syracuse. He was at one time the associate of Horace Greeley as a compositor. He was an early settler, and a representative man. His tombstone in Oakwood Cemetery bears this inscription, at his own request: Lewis II. Redmei.d, Printer. A worn and battered form Gone to be recast. More beautiful and perfect. Born November 26, 1793. Died July 14, 1882. Before coming to Syracuse, with which they were so long identified, James R. and Grove Lawrence practiced law in the village of Camillus. Among those who graduated from James R. Lawrence's office in Camillus, as lawyers, were Daniel Pratt, D. D. Hillis, Joseph Sabine, William Porter, and Calvin Bingham, afterwards Governor of Michigan. 700 Memorial History of Syracuse. Onondaga Lodge of Odd Fellows was founded forty- nine years ago. The nearest lodges at that time were at Utica, Rochester, and Ithaca. A lodge room was established in Salina street, corner of Washington street. A removal was made later to the chamber of a building situated where the Mc- Carthy store now stands. About thirty-two years ago the building was burned and the lodge lost all it possessed. It is now situated in the Agan Building, and is still flourishing. One of the most famous law suits ever instituted in the county was begun by County Clerk Hicks. His tenacity of opinion was well known, and was well illustrated in his suit. While W. W. Teall was postmaster a transient newspaper came to his office addressed to Mr. Hicks, on the wrapper of which the initials of the sender were afli.xed. Under the postal regulations the postmaster made a demand for letter postage for the paper. This Mr. Hicks refused to pay and began a suit in trover for damages. The case was tried before Justice of the Peace Hurst and a jury, Stephen D. Dillaye appearing for the defence. The verdict was in favor of Mr. Hicks, where- upon Postmaster Teall, on a relation of the facts to the Postmaster- General, was instructed to take an appeal, which was done, and the case taken to the County Court, where judgment was affirmed. The case was ne.xt taken to the Supreme Court before Judge Gridley, and the judgment of the lower court affirmed. An appeal was taken to the Court of Appeals, where it was argued by Mr. Dillaye for the postmaster, and B. Davis No.xon for Mr. Hicks. Here again judgment was affirmed, and the case went to the Supreme Court of the United States, William H. Seward appearing for Mr. Hicks. Again the decision was in favor of Mr. Hicks. The Postmaster-General took special interest in the case from the beginning, and employed every proper means to secure a decision in favor of his department. The late Judge Allen was then United States District Attorney, and by request of the Postmaster- General gave his personal attention to the case. The postal regulations of those days declared that when marks were made upon newspapers " to convey in- formation" they were subject to letter postage. There was no evidence to show that the marks on this paper were placed there for the purpose of " conveying information," that they were in capital letters, or placed upon the wrapper by the person sending the paper. The first postmaster was John Wilkinson, appointed in 1820. He re- moved the office from time to time, always being able to transport its con- tents in a bag. It is said of him that he never allowed letters to remain in the office over night, but deposited them in his hat on closing the office, taking them to his home. The population of the village at the time of Mr. Wilkinson's appointment did not exceed 200. There were no church or school-houses. Reminiscences. 701 The depression in agricultural regions to clay ought not to be discour- aging when contrasted with the prices in the winter of 1819-20, when there was not an inch of snow until February. Wheat sold for thirty-one cents a bushel, corn eighteen cents, and potatoes ten cents. Other produce bore relative prices. Four bushels of wheat was required to buy a pound of tea. The " Village Green," seventy years ago, and up to a considerable later period, was comprised within the boundaries of S.ilina, Fayette, Warren, and Washington streets. Here it was that caravans pitched their tents and the village boys indulged in frolics. Along the north side of the green were located the large barns belonging to the various stage lines. The only building on the square was the Presbyterian church edifice, constructed of wood, with hugh pillars in front and a spire which was considered tall for those days. Here it was that the nnich-beloved Rev. John Watson Adams ministered for many years, and until his death, which occurred while the present edifice was being erected. Some time after the wooden church was built a small, single story building was constructed in the rear of it, which was used by the sessions for occasional meetings. Many of the public village meetings were also held here, and the Young Men's Lyceum Society occu- pied it once a week and flooded it with eloquence. This lyceum was popular with the elite of the village. The museum of early days, long before the present Historical Society was organized, was in the second and third stories of a building on ground now occupied by the Onondaga County Savings Hank. It was a great creation, quite equal in boyish ideas, with its wonders and curiosities, to Barnum's later conglomerations in New York. Here were wax figures of Washington, Arnold, and Kidd, Mrs. Temple the murderess, the Witch of Fndor, and other celebrities and notorious characters. There were also many relics and Indian curiosities, and war weapons in abundance of South Sea Islanders. A stuft'ed crocodile of hugh proportions was a great at- traction. This entire collection was destroyed by fire, during which the crocodile was thrown from a window into the street and much broken, when it was found that its make- up had mysteriously changed to wood and leather. So the Cardiff Giant was not the first case in this locality of the imposition upon the public of a fraudulent figure. Two peculiar characters of the village were Scribbins, the constable, and John Contree. Scribbins was a man of very large proportions, of iron will, and true to duty. He was looked upon b\- children as being danger- ous to iheir existence. Carrying with him the very odor of jail bars, hand- cuffs, and thumb-screws, when Scribbins approached a party of children at play they would invariably lay their sports aside and hasten away. Yet •J02 Memorial History of Syracuse. he was a good officer. Contree was yellowish in color, and his hair was curly and crisp. He was good natured and happy in disposition, well known, and well liked. He ran of errands, rang auction bells, and did odd jobs of various kinds. At auctions he prided himself on his ability to name the list of goods offered for sale, usually closing it with "black silk stock- ings of all kinds, and other goods too numerous to mention." And there was a White Hat Association in those days, as there is now, and Contree appeared one day in the dress of the association, much to his disadvantage, for when night came he was very emphatically told that he had committed a serious breach of etiquette, and lost his head and good feeling at the same time. John died a victim to strong drink. Although the boundaries of the locality in which "American hydraulic cement," or water- lime, was first discovered are outside of the limits of Syracuse, nevertheless the city became a great center for the distribution of the article, and a sketch of such discovery may have an appropriate place here. It was during the early days of the construction of the Erie Canal that a large contract for quick-lime for the structures was made with Harris & Livingston, of Chittenango, Madison county. They burned a large kiln of limestone, but it was soon found, on practical trial of it, that the lime would not slack. Canvass White, one of the canal engineers, be- came much interested in the product and began a study of its composition. He called to his aid a Dr. Barto, of Herkimer county, a gentleman of scientific attainments, and together they pursued their investigations. Pul- verizing a quantity of the burnt rock in a common hand mortar. Dr. Barto mixed the product with a quantity of sand, rolled it into the form of a ball, and submerged it in water over night. In the morning it was found to have " set " so strongly that it could be rolled about the floor. Dr. ]5arto pronounced it equal in quality to the best Roman cement. Mr. White, who had recently returned from a professional trip to England, was of the same opinion, and obtained a patent-right to his discovery. Four hundred thousand bushels of this water- lime was used in the construction of the canal, in defiance of the patent, worth in royalties to Mr. W'hite $i6,000. The cement was everywhere used, and Mr. White, to defend his patent, finally brought suit against Timothy Brown, living near Chittenango, and recovered $1,700. Other contractors were equally liable ; the article had been extensively manufactured in Madison, Onondaga, and Cayuga coun- ties, and Mr. White had but to establish the validity of his patent to re- cover $20,000. Tiiese contractors petitioned the Legislature for relief ; and after a protracted controversy the State paid Mr. White $10,000 in full of all claim against them, on condition of his assigning his patent to the people of the State of New York, which was done. The cement was first burned Reminiscences. 703 for market in tlie town of Sullivan, Madison county, a mile and one- half west of Chittenango, in the fall and winter of 1818-19. It was burnt on log-heaps and ground in a mill fitted up by John H. \'ates. Onondaga county afterward became the more important place for its production, and from which vast quantities have been shipped throughout the United States, to Canada, and Europe. Of late years it has not been in so great demand, having come into competition with a cement niaiic by machinery from substances other than lime rock. Joshua Forman, of Onondaga county, was the first to propose the con- struction of the Erie Canal in the Legislature, by offering a resolution in the Assembly, l-Vbruary 4, 180S, (which was concurred in by the Senate on the following day,) appointing a joint committee to take into consideration the propriety of exploring and causing an accurate survey to be made for a route between tide water and Lake Erie, to the end that Congress might be enabled to appropriate such sums of money as might be required for the accomplishment of that great national object. The resolution met with fav- orable action a few weeks later. James Geddcs, also of Onondaga county, was the first engineer ajipointed under the resolution, his commission com- ing from Surveyor-General Simeon De Witt, under date of June 11, 1S08. Thus it was that this locality began at a very early day to lead in all great enterprises. The section of canal through Syracuse was completed Octo- ber 22, 1819, also the " Salina side-cut," two miles in length, to afford ac- cess to the salt manufactories. Joshua Forman was the first canal collector at Syracuse, at a salary of $250 a year. D. S. Bates made a report of his survey for the Oswego Canal January 7, 1820. He stated the fall from On- ondaga Lake to Oswego at 1 19 feet, and the distance thirty- one and a half miles. His plan contemplated the locking of boats at Salina into the lake. He estimated the cost of the route through the lake and along the Seneca and Oswego Rivers at $212,599. I" making his survey he sought to avoid the extensive fisheries on the Oswego River. He stated that one thousand barrels of eels and five hundred barrels of other fish were caught annual!}' at Oswego Falls, and that the income from the fisheries amounted to $30,- 000 a year. A later plan was, however, adopted, the southern starting point being at Salina. The original canal, before its enlargement, was opened for navigation December 10, 1828. The cost of construction was $525,115. The present Weigh Lock inSyracu.se took the place of a hydro- static lock. The tonnage of boats was obtained by the latter by measuring in a pond the displaced water which had previously been gauged in the lock. Although the credit of producing a war ship of novel construction and called the Monitor, which created so much sensation and performed such 704 Memorial History of Syracuse. excellent service at a critical period in the Rebellion, is generally ascribed to Ericsson and others associated with him, it was really the invention of a Syracusan, Theodore R. Timby. He constructed a turret in the winter of 1842-43, for which he obtained a patent, the model of which was almost identical with that empjojed by Ericsson. It was built in the sliop of Elain Lynds & Son, situated near the present Central Railroad station. An effort is now being made to have Congress recognize the fact by passing a joint resolution of credit to Mr. Timby. There were no "flyers" in 1835, but there was some competition be- tween water and stage transportation lines. Passenger rates between Syra- cuse and New York, " for those u ho travel in the steerage of canal boats and on barges towed by steamboats, and find themselves, $3.56 "; for first- class passengers, " found by the owners of boats, $6.25." Packet fares were four cents per mile, " including board." iMcight rates from New York to Syracuse were 49 cents per 100 pounds for " heavy goods," and 59 cents for '• light goods." In this year the total length of all the railroads within the State was one hundred miles, divided among seven companies. Sixty years ago the ground now occupied by the Century Club house bore a cottage house in which lived Major M. D. Burnet. It stood upon a knoll, and was thickly surrounded by a hickory grove. In a pine grove where now is situated Hon. George P. Hier's house lived a man by the name of Fields. A small yellow house occupied the place where now stands Horace K. White's house, in which lived Keeler Hoyt. On either side of the street was a dense forest. What is now the Fifth ward contained at that time three houses and a brick yard, the latter near the intersection of Seymour and Onondaga streets, and owned by Zopher Adams. A man named Hall occupied the lot upon which O. C. Potter's house now stands, in Onondaga street. There was a race track even at this early day some- where in that locality, at the head of the patrons ot which was Eb. Hop- kins, who possessed several horses which were "fast" for those days. It is believed that the first race course in this vicinity was on the lake shore, between Gcddes and Salina, early in the '20s. In 1828 there was a mile track in what is now the I'ifth and Thirteenth wards. A celebrated race look place in that year for a "stake" of $1,000, between "Salt Point John," owned by a Mr. Moore, of Salina, and "Paul Pry," owner unknown. Peo])lc were attracted from all parts of the State to see it. Henry and Ste- phen \'an 1 loosen were the owners of a blacksmith's shop which stood on the present site of the Earned Block, and they were present under a retainer of five dollars to insure the proper footing of the horses. " Paul Pry " won two of the three " heats," and carried off the prize. It would be interesting to learn what kind of fish were alluded to in the //i^O' ^^-,-1 C, /V^ 7i c^o cy^^ Reminiscences. 705 journal of Father Le Moyne, the Jesuit, who came to Onondaga in August, 1653. He says : " In spring, as soon as the snow is melted, it [the Oswego River] is full of gold fishes ; carp succeed them, afterwards the achigeu, which is a flat fish, six inches long, of excellent flavor." The latter were probably our present bass ; but what were the " gold fishes ? " It is related that when Albert Congdon was returning from "the ham- let" to Pompey with a hogshead of molasses, soon after the Erie Canal was opened, he went by way of the " Cinder road," now Onondaga avenue, and that when he reached the Furnace Brook, where it crossed the road- way, there was a great splashing of water. Looking for the cause, he ascertained it to be a twenty-pound salmon, which he killed with the butt of his whip. In 1840 hundreds of sheep were sold in Syracuse for twenty-five cents a head. The hides and tallow only were saved. The other parts were used for manure. The tallow was mainly used by Oliver Orcutt in making candles. It is said of William B. Kirk that while he was Assessor he made an assessment of the property in the village of Syracuse without leaving his house. His bill for services was two dollars. Chauncey Parsons, then living at Onondaga Hill, uncle of V.. E. Chap- man of the First ward, is said to have removed the first shovelful of earth when the construction of the Erie Canal was begun in this vicinity. In the First Ward Cemetery there is a grave about which there is a some- what elaborate and costly structure of mason work. The grave is covered by a large slab, from which the lettering is almost eft'aced. It once bore the name of Ichabod Brackett, who was an active, prominent business man in early days, and to whose energy Syracuse owes not a little. He died in 1832. When Luke Aldridge was digging a cellar in ground now covered by the School of the Sacred Heart, in 1845, the top of a coffin was thrown up, this having once been a burial-place. Upon it, made with brass nails, were the letters " T. O." No one could guess for what name the initials stood until Ira Gilchrist, 84 years old, saw them and remembered Thomas Or- mand, the man who brought the first kettle for boiling salt to this locality. Daniel Candee is authority for the statement that when William B. Kirk came to Syracuse his desire was to buy a hotel, situated on the site now occupied by Kearney's Brewery, in the First ward. But the price of the property was $4,000, which was more money by $i,00O than he possessed, so he contented himself with the purchase of a tavern, built of wood, two stories high, situated on ground now occupied by the Kirk Block. He paid $2,700 for the property. He did not claim any superiority of judgment for 89 7o6 Memorial History of Syracuse. choosing the advantageous location, but was driven to it because of his financial condition ; he really desired the tavern at Salina. He called his purchase the Kirk House, and in the course of six or seven years it disap- peared to give place to a brick block, which included stores in response to the popular demand. It rented so readily and so profitably that, it is said the income from it paid its cost every three years. The present magnificent Kirk Block, built by the son of the original owner of the property, well marks the progress which Syracuse has made. Amos Stanton, father of the late Rufus Stanton, came from Massachu- setts to Pompey in 1791, and bought three hundred acres of land for$i50. In 1805 he removed to this locality, and gave a cow for an acre of land and a log house, situated on the east side of Salina street, where the street crosses the Oswego Canal. Here he died one year later, leaving the care of the family to Rufus, who was born in Montgomery county eighteen years previously. An old resident states that at this age (probably in 1806) Rufus assisted in the construction of a tavern on land now occupied by the Empire House. It is also related that, at a somewhat later period, Mr. Stanton and his brother-in-law, Joseph Landon, became proprietors of the largest tavern west of Albany, and entertained General Scott and other officers on their way to Sackets Harbor, in 181 2. Many years later Gen- eral Scott met Mr. Stanton on the Mayjllower on Lake Erie, and rec- ognized him. Mr. Stanton's friends claim that he built the first frame house in Syracuse, on the site of the log house his father built, and that it was destroyed when the Oswego Canal was constructed. The house remained until it was destroyed by the construction of the West Shore Railroad. In 18 1 6 Mr. Stanton had a field of rye where the old Syracuse House stands. In his earlier years he was a favorite of the Indians, and spent much time in their company in roving through the forests. Nelson Gilbert, residing at 308 East Willow street, says that until within a few years there stood near the north end of the Alhambra Rink a white oak tree that had a history. When the canal was completed, in 1824, the salt industry was greatly stimulated, which made Syracuse a great barrel market. The towns of Cicero and Clay furnished so many that their bar- rels were humorously called "Cicero wheat." The local coopers were naturally annoyed by the country competition. One night they collected around this oak tree, near which stood a wagon-load of Cicero barrels, cut off most of its top and branches, leaving stubs three or four feet long, on which they hung so many Cicero barrels that the denuded tree was almost covered. Mr. Gilbert well remembers how oddly the old tree looked the next morning and the merriment of the crowd that gathered to see it. He also says that away back in 1825-26 he used to play with the boys in a grove Reminiscences. 707 where St. John's Catholic Church — the Cathedral — now stands. The grove belonged to a Mr. Sackctt, who lived in a long white house in North Salina street, near the present location of Burhans, Black & Co.'s hardware store. For some reason Mr. Sackett, who was peculiar in his make-up, incurred the ill-will of many who knew him. One morning this grove was no more, livery tree had been sawed oft' close to the ground and the stumps marked with white chalk. The afflicted owner made almost frantic efforts to dis- cover the aggressors, but never succeeded. A few years ago a farmer from Lafayette, in a talk with Mr. Gilbert about old times, smilingly said that he was one of those who slew Mr. Sackett's grove. CHAPTER XL. REMINISCENCES OF HON. ANDREW D. WHITE. Personal Recollections of Syracuse — Scenes and Incidents of Half a Century .\go — A Pen- Picture Closes the Volume. (The following reminiscences were dictated lo a stenographer by the Hon. Andrew D. While, at the request of the Editor, during one of hie recent visits to his old home. — Editor. ] YOU ask me to give you my reminiscences of Syracuse. In the short time at my command, and in the absence of any documents to correct my impressions, chronological or other, they must be discursive and inade- quate, and I trust that you will rectify any inaccuracies you may find in them. My recollections of our city begin in the year 1838, when, as a child in my seventh year, I was brought through it by my father and mother on the way to Niagara Falls for a summer excursion. The village at that time numbered about 4,000 inhabitants ; a few scattered residences in Fayette Park being at its outskirts on the east, and the Oswego Canal, where it crosses Salina street, being the boundary of its main inhabited center on the north, while on the south there was very little below Jefferson street, and on the west hardly anything of the better inhabited portion beyond Clinton street. Of course there were houses, some of them fairly good, beyond these limits, but the main inhabited portion of the village was within them. I remember being taken to see the tunnel of the Utica and Syracuse Rail- road, which was then building far to the east of the village ; but no railroad passed through it at that period, and we embarked upon a canal packet for Rochester. A year later the family removed from Cortland county to Syra- 7o8 Memorial History of Syracuse. cuse and took up its quarters at a house in South Salina street, standing di- rectly opposite (south) the present Fourth Presbyterian church, and oppo- site (east) the large apartment now standing at the intersection of Onon- daga and Salina streets. That position was at a point far south of the more thickly settled part of the village; indeed, "going down to the village" was considered in those days quite a long walk. To the northeast of our house were great commons, intersected by deep ditches ; to the south and southeast broad pastures, and to the southeast a somewhat sunken tract, which, during a considerable portion of the year, was largely a swamp. A few scattered shanties were all the marks of human habitation in that re- gion, extending from the present Fourth Presbyterian church to the foot of University Hill. In South Salina street there were a few houses south of the First Presbyterian church, which then stood opposite its present site, on the land now occupied by the dr)' goods establishment of Messrs. McCarthy ; to the northward, on Salina street, was a great gap between the village proper and what is now known as the First ward, but then as Salina. The better houses of the town were much scattered ; two of them in North Sa- lina street being especially noteworthy as the residences of Hon. E. F. Wallace, father of the present Judge Wallace, and Judge James R. Law- rence. Several houses, with pleasant grounds about them, were scattered along Clinton street, where all is now thickly built up with warehouses. In Salina street, where now stands the Globe Hotel, was a grove in which stood a row of pleasant residences, and opposite, where now stands the White Memorial Building and stores immediately south of it, was a ram- bling sort of a house in a large garden. Some building had begun in James street, where was pointed out especially the house of John G. Forbes, esq., which is still standing; but above all the house of Major Moses B. Burnet, now occupied by the Century Club. This house was the wonder of the whole region, and people mentioned with bated breath that it was sup- posed to have cost $20,000. There were few houses in the neighbor- hood of Fayette Park, though that had already begun to take shape as a pleasant part of the town. The only place of public resort in the open air was a sort of tea garden fitted up with summer houses and arbors, far out of town, south of the intersection of Warren and South Salina streets. But in 1839 or 1840 fire swept off the constructions there, and they were never renewed. The cemetery of the town was on the spot where now stands the station of the Syracuse and Northern Railroad, very nearly op- posite the present station of the New York Central, the entrance being upon West Water street. The principal churches of the place were the Presbyterian church, situ- ated on the site now occupied by the McCarthys ; St. Paul's Episcopal Reminiscences. 709 churcli, tlien standing in the midst of a grove on the triangular plat of ground formed by Genesee. Warren, and Railroad streets ; the Haptist church, standing in East Genesee street about where the present building of that congregation now stands ; the Unitarian church, an unpretentious wooden building on the north side of East Genesee street, and a little way west from Fayette Park ; the Congregational church, a wooden structure just west of the present site of the Courier Building in Genesee street ; and the Methodist Episcopal, on its present site near Fayette Park. There was no Roman Catholic church edifice in the village at that time, the only one in the neighborhood, so far as I can remember, being the small wooden church in Salina. The Court-House, which was of brick, and which was considered a very imposing structure, stood on the north side of Salina street, about midway between Syracuse and Salina, and back of it stood the jail. The main land- mark among the public buildings was the Syracuse Academy on the knoll east of the village, it being the building which was afterwards occupied by the Onondaga Orphan Asylum, and which was removed a few years since. It was separated from the village by long stretches of unoccupied commons, and was really a great credit to the place. It was supported with much public spirit by a Board of Trustees, among whom were such men as Aaron Burt and Harvey Baldwin, afterward the first Mayor of the city; and the institution called to its service men of real value, both as scholars and teachers. Its Principal at that time was Mr. Oren Root, afterward during many years Professor of Mathematics at Hamilton College. Joseph A. Allen was his principal assistant, and afterward followed him in the princi- palship. Both of them were exceedingly successful in their wc.rk. Mr. Root was an ardent devotee of the natural sciences, and infused into his students something of his own spirit. Mr. Allen was the best teacher of English branches that I ever knew : without wearying his scholars, he allured them on so that study was a pleasure rather than a burden. I recall among the scholars at that period such men as Charles C. F"clton, present United States Senator from California ; Fldgar Marvin, who recently died as United States Consul-General at Victoria ; Donald and William Kirk- patrick. Judge W. J. Wallace, O. W. Clary, William B. Cogswell, the late J. Fcrman Wilkinson of this city, and, if I remember rightly, Hon. Carroll E. Smith. Very noteworthy were the exploits of two of the youngest students at that time; these now bear the honored names of Charles E. Fitch, of Rochester, and Prof. Oren Root, jr., of Hamilton College. I re- member that they used to be brought at the age of six or eight years into the academy chapel to give set speeches on declamation days, and that their eloquence was greatly and justly admired. 7IO Memorial History of Syracuse. One feature of the town which gave it an aspect very different from that which it now presents was tiie mill pond formed by Onondaga Creek. This pond, which in those days seemed to me like a large lake, occupied a space west of Clinton street, in the center of which, as nearly as I can now recall it, stands to-day the Armory Building. It was greatly enjoyed for boating in summer and skating in winter. The flow of water through the creek was then much larger than at present, so that adventurous boys on Saturday could paddle their skiffs nearly as far south as Onondaga Hollow, and more than once I have seen, in the high water of spring, the Onondaga Indians in their canoes going to and coming from the reservation. In summer the great mill pond was not so satisfactory. The citizens living in all that part of the \'illage had to suffer j'ear after year from fever and ague in consequence of it. In order to feed the mill a dam had been erected, which threw the water back over the flats during the night and drew it off during the day. The result was that hardly a house escaped the scourge. In our own family my father, my grandmother, my brother, and myself were all down at one time with it, and in our neighbors' houses mat- ters were not much better. After a long and tedious litigation the dam was suppressed ; then the sunken space left by the pond was filled up and fever and ague disappeared ; but the reputation it gave the town lasted long. As late as 1866, when the late Ezra Cornell was urging me to come to Ith- aca to take the Presidency of the University about to be founded, he pro- tested jocosely against my living in a place like Syracuse, or, as he called it, " Salt Point," so notorious for chills and fever. The life of the village at that period was simple and pleasant. Nearly ail the citizens knew each other ; there was little if any separation into cliques, and the main important events were those connected with politics, the most famous of these within my memory being the great State Con- vention of 1840, an episode in the widespread movement which carried William Henry Harrison into the Presidential chair. The Whigs had gath- ered from far and near, long processions coming in upon all the roads, bear- ing banners and devices showing a world of patriotic ingenuity. At a point north of the Empire House, on the present site of the Onondaga Temperance House, was the great log cabin, the main center of the [polit- ical speaking of that year. There were gathered in all their glory the whole apparatus of coon skins, great balls which were made to " keep rolling," and barrels of hard cider, and thence swelled the chorus for "Tip- pecanoe and Tyler too." In this reaction against Mr. Van Burcn's admin- istration Harrison was elected ; but in a month after his administration he died, and most bitter was the disappointment of the Whigs when they fell into the hands of President John Tyler, Harrison's Vice-President and sue- Reminiscences. 711 cesser. I remember that such Whig boys as Carroll E. Smith and myself regarded him as a sort of Satan incarnate. The attacks upon him by his old associates took shai)cs which showed the depth of this feeling. Appa- rently in order to build up a party for liimsclf he proceeded to turn out the Whig incumbents of many of the minor offices, and to fill their places with men supposed to be devoted to him. In those days it was really supposed by leading men that such a course would secure for a President his re-elec- tion. The Whig newspapers were wild with rage. The same editors who only a few months before had lauded and magnified John Tyler as one of the greatest statesmen in American history now announced his changes in the offices under tlie head of "Appointments by Benedict Ariioiti," or " New Appointments by Judas Iscariot." Four years later came the Clay campaign. That, too, was carried on with great vigor ; but the procedure was changed. People seemed to have sickened of the whole apparatus of log cabins, hard cider barrels, latch strings hung out, rolling balls, and all the rest of it : the only emblems of importance now were the hickory poles erected by the Democrats and the ash poles erected by the Whigs ; the former having reference to "Old Hickory," General Jackson; and the latter to " Ashland," the residence of Henry Clay. I remember feeling as a boy of twelve that the republic was nearly lost when one sad night the Demo- cratic boys cut down the ash tree of the Whig boys in South Salina street. The rallying place of the Whig party during the campaign of 1844 was a larsre barrack of rough hemlock boards on the site of the St. Charles Hotel Building, now the University Block, at the corner of Washington and Warren streets. Eminent among the speakers of botli campaigns were William H. Seward, Millard Fillmore, Francis Granger, Attorney General of the United States in Harrison's administration, and John A. Collier, who held various high offices. On the Democratic side appeared such men as Silas Wright, Daniel Dickinson, John A. Dix, and many statesmen who have mainly passed from men's memories. The manager of the Whig side at Syracuse in those days was the late Vivus W. Smith. He was in close relations with Governor Seward and Thurlow Weed ; but they were relations which implied no servile devotion to one or the other. Mr. Smith was a man of vigor and wisdom as a writer and adviser in political matters, so that throughout Syracuse and the region round about his voice, so far as the Whig party was concerned, was all- controlling. An interesting episode in the memories of the boys of that period was the return of soldiers from the Mexican war. A break in the canal upon the long level east of the city caused the stoppage of a great number of canal boats conveying soldiers who were on their way back to their homes. 712 Memorial History of Syracuse. Their talk made a great impression upon us all ; but what dwells on my memory especially is their denunciation of their Colonel, Caleb Cushing, who served the country afterward with such distinction during the civil war, as a lawyer, and who was nominated to the position of Chief Justice of the United States, but failed to secure a confirmation from the Senate. Very remarkable, too, was the coming back of some of the officers, and above all the interment with military honors of Captain Kirby Smith, who fell in the battle of Molino del Rey just as he was leading his troops tri- umphantly into the Mexican capital. It was the noble ending of a noble life, and deep feeling was shown throughout the village at this loss. How could we foresee that the prattling child he had left in Syracuse would rise to be a colonel in the United States army, would also fall in battle for his countr)', and receive a soldier's funeral from the sons of those who had formerly done honor to the remains of his father ! Entertainments in those days were few and simple. There was a " mu- seum," with a considerable number of doubtful curiosities, in the upper story of the building which now forms the south wing of the Syracuse House block in Salina street. But shortly afterward the building was changed into a hall, known as Library Hall or Lyceum Hall, and there lectures were given which were quite largely attended. A few men, distinguished in sci- ence or literature, from distant places, were from time to time secured ; but home talent was mainly relied upon, and some of those lectures by our fel- low citizens made so deep an impression upon us all that I have often won- dered since why it has not occurred to some of our more thoughtful citi- zens of late jears to try the same experiment again. Certainly in no country in the world are there more strange experiences and masses of quaint information " lying around loose " among men whom one meets daily in life than in this country, and nowhere in this country more than in ener- getic towns like Syracuse. Anything like a theater was as a rule discour- aged by very nearly the whole community. The only theatrical represen- tations which were welcomed by any considerable of the citizens took the shape of " moral exhibitions," depicting the downward career of the drunkard. Communications of the little village with the rest of the world were in those days few and far between as compared with those which we enjoy at present. With Cortland and other counties of the south, and with the Oswego and Lake Ontario regions of the north, the only communications were by routes which in all seasons of the year except summer were very bad, indeed at times almost impassable. As a small boy I had occasion to learn this to my cost, having been upset in a Cortland stage coach near Onondaga Hollow, narrowly escaping with my life. A large scar on the u^^^- -^h- ^.fy£^. Reminiscences. 713 side of my head still reminds me of the condition of the roads of those days. Still I cannot say that improvement in our ordinary country roads has been such that our citizens have any cause to congratulate themselves upon it to-day. The great change has been wrought by the building of railways north and south, as well as by the perfecting of them east and west. As to the chain of railways which now forms the New York Cen- tral, a single track, made of strap rails, connected Syracuse with Auburn i.m the west and Utica on the cast. In winter but one passenger train was sent out daily ; in summer there were two. The train for Utica left in summer at half-past five in the morning, and for several years Syracusane who went to Saratoga Springs for a short stay in summer congratulated themselves that by thus leaving at half-past five in the morning they arrived at Saratoga as early as half-past six in the evening. It was thought a very great exploit thus to cover one hundred and sixty miles in thirteen hours. The most rapid trains ran at the rate of about fifteen miles an hour, and the largest trains were made up of three or four small box cars in which the seats ran from side to side. These seats were covered with brown leather, passengers sitting face to face, very much as they had done in the stage coaches ; and a great epoch was created when a " long car," as it was called, with diamond-shaped windows and with seats all facing the same way, was put upon the Auburn road. This, which could not have been more than half the length of the Pullman car of the present day, carried all the passengers from Syracuse westward for some years. A journey from one extremity of the State to the other was in those days a serious matter in- deed. The passenger, starting from Buffalo, first took the train over the Attica and Buffalo road ; at Attica he was changed to the Batavia and At- tica ; at Batavia, to the Rochester and Batavia ; at Rochester, to the Auburn and Rochester; at Auburn, to the Auburn and Syracuse; at Syracuse, to the Utica and Syracuse; at Utica, to the Utica and Schenectady; at Sche- nectady, to the Mohawk and Hudson, when, having been drawn part of the way by locomotives and then pulled up and let down two inclined planes by stationary engines, he was landed in Albany where he might take the boat. In making such a trip people generally stopped over, not only at Albany, but at Syracuse, where Rust's Hotel was famous. Westward from Buffalo in those days men journeyed by lake steamers, and they regarded the journey to Cleveland or Detroit as a far more serious matter than they now consider a trip to London or Paris. Railway travel- ing being so much interrupted, and the cost being so much higher that at present, the canal packet was for a few years preferred by a large part of the traveling public, and the leading event of those days with the Syracuse youth of various ages, and indeed with a considerable number of the grown 90 714 Memorial History of Syracuse. lip part of the community, was the arrival and departure of the packet boats at the canal basin, close to the Salina street bridge. The boats tiieinselves were long and trim, and seemed, to the simple views of people then, luxu- riously furnished. The captain, whether on board his vessel or in the streets of Syracuse, was a personage : far and near men spoke with pride, even with awe, of such great men as Captain Myers, Captain Daniel Brom- ley, Captain Stewart, Captain Wellington, and others. As I remember them, they were a fine body of men ; courteous, affable, very thoughtful as regarded the care of the passengers entrusted to them, and not without the sterner qualities which go to make up strong men. Fighting their way among the rough boatmen all along the canals, and especially through the locks from Buffalo to Albany, had undoubtedly developed in them much fertility of resources and courage in danger. I have since seen many fine ships upon various seas, but none that dwell in my memory as more beau- tiful than one of the better canal packets, its deck covered with passen- gers, dashing along the canal at the rate of six miles an hour, drawn by three trotting horses, handsome in build, matched in color, and gaily har- nessed. Postal facilities at that period were also vastly inferior to those enjoyed at present. Postage was rated according to distance, and I remember well that when from time to time I took to the postoffice a letter from a mem- ber of the family to a relative near Sandusky, in Ohio, I always paid twenty- five cents for postage. Postage stamps were a thing unknown. The money in ordinary circulation was also very inferior to that of the present day. The silver was almost entirely Spanish; "sixpences" and "shillings," from which the inscriptions were generally completely worn off by use, were the conmion small coin; dimes were very rarely seen. Much of the larger circulating medium was made up of the notes of distant banks, especially of banks situated at little known places in the swamps of Michigan. The re- sult was that every man in business on receiving paper money had to study with great care his bank note journal and counterfeit detector. Between the varieties of doubtful notes and the poor engraving of that period brokers throve and counterfeiters tlourished at the expense of the public at large. There was little, if any, effective system guarding the interest of the bank note holder ; everybody was subject to much loss, not only on coun- terfeits, but on bills of broken banks. Few of the present generation rea- lize what an immense service was rendered to every man and woman in this country, and especially to the artisans and laborers, by Secretary Chase and his compeers when they established the national bank system with the paper currency now in use. Reminiscen'ces. 7' 5 Among the great events of the year were tlie [Kiracles of the volunteer fire companies and mihtary organizations — especially the former. In these large numbers of the most ijrominent citizens paraded in their various uni- forms, aiul it was on this account that the explosion of gunpowder in 1842 marked such an epoch in the village. The circumstances having doubtless been referred to in this history, I will simply say that this event of nearly fifty years ago dwells in my mind as vividl>- as if it were yesterday. The terrible roar of the explosion, the sudden disappearance of the glare which up to that moment had filled the sky, and then, next morning, the sight of the dead carried along the streets or lying among the ruins, will remain for- ever fixed in my memory. There were also in that period two other events, or rather expected events, which made much commotion in the village. First of these was the prophecy widely circulated that on a certain day and at a given hour Syra- cuse and all the country for ten miles around would sink. I remember the feeling of dread in our little school when the hour approached, and the feel- ing of relief when it was well past. The otht- r prophecy was that of Will- iam Miller, who, after years of study in the Old Testament, announced the exact time when the world would end. As the time approached the "Mil- lerite " meetings became very fervent, and on the appointed day the believ- ers assembled in their " ascension robes " in various places, and especially upon the roof of the Granger Block ; but that day and night went by — as did other days and nights to which Miller adjourned the vast catastrophe, and at last the meetings ceased. Noteworthy, too, was the great temperance movement of those times. Speakers of great power came from throughout the State, and their ad- dresses had a remarkable effect upon multitudes. Among these apostles Messrs. Pollard and Wright were especially prominent. A favorite place for these earlier assemblages was the railroad depot, which occupied the larger part of what is now Vanderbilt Square ; as so few trains entered and left it, this great wooden enclosure was during many hours of the day free for public meetings. The political campaign of 1848 was also a noteworthy point in the de- velopment of Syracuse. The village had then become virtually a city, and on account of its central position in the State was generally chosen for the nominating conventions of both the greater parties, as well as by vari- ous bodies of political men struggling to shape public opinion. Among my more vivid remembrances of that period is that of General Lewis Cass, the nominee of the Democrats for the Presidency. He arrived in Syracuse on a hot, dusty afternoon, just as he had received the news of the nomination 7i6 Memorial History of Syracuse. of his old Democratic enemy, Martin Van Buren, by the Free Soil party. He knew, and those who received him with every show of triumph knew, and all the thinking people who lined the streets at his reception knew, that this nomination by the Free Soilers was the death knell to all his hopes. Certainly, of all the pitiable spectacles I have ever seen, that of this weary old public servant, dragged along the streets of Syracuse in apparent tri- umph, but really in utter dejection, was the most striking. In the follow- ing year his rival. General Taylor, who had been elected to the Presidency, came through the town upon the railroad, and I remember gazing at him, with the other boys of my age, as he sat at the window of his car very near the site now occupied by the Vanderbilt House. The State conventions of various parties, at that time, were held at the City Hall, and were a source of unfailing interest to the youth of the community. Of all the speakers of that period John Van Buren and General James W. Nye were I think the most admired. Yet a much deeper feeling was stirred in the hearts of many of the young men by the conventions of the Liberal party and other kindred organizations. In these such men as Gerrit Smith, Wendell Phil- lips, Frederick Douglass, John P. Hale, and Samuel J. May frequently spoke, and unquestionably to their speeches was mainly due the fact that, imperceptibly, Syracuse became a great center of anti-slavery thought. Not even the wild rhetorical antics of Abby Kelly Foster could so disgust the thoughtful youth of the time as to drive him away from these conven- tions, and not even such a winning speech as that which I once heard made by Henry Clay from the balcony of the Syracuse House, or such powerful arguments as those addressed by Daniel Webster to the citizens of Syracuse from a window in the present Courier Building, could resist this current of thought from these "fanatics," who assembled from time to time in the City Hall. The prosecutions which followed the Jerry Rescue case, so far from crushing the anti-slavery spirit, really increased it, and before long it was evident that the larger part of the old Whig party and a very considerable part of the old Democratic party were ready to join in the new movement against the extension of slavery. This of course greatly enlivened for us the meetings of the party conventions. The struggles between the Old Hunkers and Barnburners in one organization, and between the Silver Grays and Woolly Heads in the other, afforded opportunities for remarkable displays of skillful tactics and impassioned oratory. Although Syracuse has grown very largely since those days, and holds a most honorable place in the business of the country, I doubt whether at any period in its history the town has been relatively of so much import- ance in public afifairs as in those early days of the anti-slavery struggle. Reminiscences. 7'; Tlie public ilebates tlieii held, the Jerry Rescue case, and the strug^'les in the great conventions attracted the attention of tlie whole conntry, and a Syracusan in any part of the land was immediately drawn into a discussion of the great political issues of the period. This volume may fittingly be concluded with the following extract from an address delivered July 4, 1876, on the occasion of the centennial cele- bration, by the Hon. Thomas G. Alvord. The celebration was a mammoth affair, and the exercises took place in Hanover Square, under the direction of the Hon. Daniel Pratt. In concluding his address Mr. Alvord spoke propiietic as well as strongly contrasting and descriptive words : " Compared with the huts of our fathers our habitations are palaces; they dot every hilltop, they nestle in every valley ; they stand in the seried ranks in our beautiful and growing city, and cluster around the school and the church in all our smiling and thriving villages ; our thrifty husbandmen look upon countless herds of lowing cattle, on seas of waving grain, on graneries bursting with the rich and bounteous yield of their fertile acres ; our merchants in their stately marts of commerce gather from the ends of the earth the produce of every soil, the handiwork of savage and civilized, all creations of nature and art to satisfy the wants and gratify the tastes of our people ; the unceasing hum of the manufacturer's wheel, the contin- uous blows of the sturdy artisan and stalwart laborer chase solitude from all our borders ; our water highways link us with the lakes of our own West, and give us peaceful entrance to the great ocean which rolls between us and the land of our fathers; highways of iron rib our conntry north, south, east, and west, broad avenues run by the doors of the humblest, and commerce, with its white wings of peace, has blotted out forever the war- path of the savage and the tree-marked way of the hardy pioneer. Re- ligion dwells in more than an hundred temples of beauty dedicated to the service of the living God. Education, from the lordly towers of the princely university to the more humble school-house of the cross-roads, boasts its many habitations. We are the central county of the Empire State, which ranks first in wealth, first in population, first in representation among her sister States of our Union. Of sixty, our county is seventh in population and wealth, and in the fifth rank in State representation. * » • Chil- dren of the soil, adopted sons and daughters of old Onondaga, is this noble heritage of our fathers, this free and equal government given to us to enjoy by the brave, good, and wise men of an hundred years ago, worth preserv- ing another hundred years? No human being I now address will witness 7i8 Memorial History of Syracuse. the scenes at that celebration ; the voice of him who now addresses joii will be silent in the grave ; the beating hearts and active limbs of this vast multitude will have gone to their last quiet mortal sleep forever. The men of the Revolution gave lis and our children this day at the cost of suffering and tears, wounds and death. Where are they ? The last surviving war- rior and statesman who stood on the battlements of freedom's citadel, and conquered for us the banded hordes of tyranny and oppression, has gone to join the hosts of heaven's freemen in another and a better world. Can we not take their finished work and keep and preserve it untarnished, un- broken, beautiful, enlarged, and more glorious and endearing, for our chil- dren's children ? • * • Let us to this end, from this day, practice economy and industry, cultivate intelligence, make virtue the rule and guide of our private and public life. Triumphant armies inscribe their banners with the names of their victorious fields of battle. May we give as our legacy to the next great anniversarj' of our country's birth the stars of our nation's banner undimmed, its stripes untarnished, rightfully inscribing thereon as our faith, kept pure and unsullied, our motto — won by our acts — Religion, Education, Free Labor, the onlj' sure foundation on which to build for perpetuity Republican institutions." PART II, BIOGRAPHICAL BIOGRAPHICAL. HON. ClIAKl.ES ANDREWS, Associate Judge of the Court of Appeals of the State of New York, was born in New York Mills. Whitestown, Oneida county, N. Y., on the 27th of May, 1827. After attending the common schools his education was finished at the Seminary of the Oneida Confer- ence at Cazenovia. Adopting the law for a profession he acquired its principles and familiarized himself with their application in the oftice of Sedgwick & Outwater, in Syracuse. He was admitted to the bar in January, 1S49, and began practice at Syracuse, where legal business was then rapidly extending. As the chief central position on the Erie canal and the terminus of the Oswego branch, and the center of rapidly growing manufactures, including the salt industry, the young city had re- ceived large accessions in population and wealth. The Onondaga County Bar had long been con- spicuous for its talent and at the time under consideration contained many distinguished lawyers. In 1851, Mr. Andrews entered into partnership with Charles li. Sedgwick, under the firm name of Sedgwick iV Andrews. In 1S53, he was elected District Attorney of the county for a period of three years. In 1S55, George M. Kennedy was admitted to partnership with Messrs. Sedgwick & Andrews, and the firm thus existed until the elevation of Mr. Andrews to the Bench of the Court of Appeals in 1870. In 1861, he was elected Mayor of Syracuse and re-elected in the following year ; and again in 1868 he was elected to that responsible office. Mr. Andrews, with other prominent citizens, lent their influence and aid to secure the location of Syracuse University in the city, and Mr. Andrews was appointed one of the five Trustees representing Syracuse ; his official connection with this insti- tution still continues. In 1S67, he was elected as delegate at large to the Constitutional Convention of this State. He was elected Associate Judge of the Court of Appeals May 17, 1870, and began his term on the 1st of July of that year. \Yhen Chief Judge Kolger retired in 1881, to accept the Secretaryship of the Treasury, Judge .\ndrews was appointed his successor by Governor Cornell. At the polls of the next year his name was ofTered on the Republican ticket for election to this high- est judicial office of the State ; but he was defeated by his opponent, William C. Ruger, esq. In 1884, Judge Andrews was re-elected Associate Judge of the Court for a second term of fourteen years, having been nominated with the late Judge Rapallo by both political parties. The honorary degree of LL.D. has been conferred upon Judge Andrews by Hamilton and Columbia Colleges. In 1855, Judge Andrews was married to the daughter of the late Judge Shankland, of Cortland. They have two children. GEORGE BARNES has been President of the State Bank of Syracuse, President Trust and De- posit Company of Onondaga, President the Whitman & Barnes Manufacturing Company until compelled in 18S7, by failing health, to resign them. He was born in the municipal borough of Tcnterdcn. county of Kent, England, October i, 1827. He came to America in April, 1S44, and in July of that year began studying law with Wilkinson & Bagg, then the leading lawyers of Syra- cuse. Mr. Wilkinson, at that time, was the President of the Syracuse and Utica railroad, and Mr. Barnes early became identified with the management of the same. He began his services as junior A ME^rnklAr. History of Syracuse. book-keeper, from which he rose through the several stages to the position of Superintendent. This advancement was fairly earned by the e.xercise of those qualities which have since enabled him to reach a degree of success in life to which few attain. It early became evident that the interests of the roads east of Syracuse required a shorter route between Syracuse and Rochester than existed in 1848 via. Auburn. Mr. Barnes joined in the preliminary surveys along what was known as the "canal route to Rochester" and found a more level road twenty-two miles shorter, .•\fter some op- position the three companies were united .is the Rochester and Syracuse Company in 1850. This was the lirst step in the grand consolidation of the seven roads between Albany and Buffalo into the New York Central Railroad Company which was effected in 1S53. Mr. Barnes had been drawn into a closer relation with Mr. Wilkinson's family than that result- ing from their official connection. Mr. Wilkinson was the uncle of Miss Rebecca S. Heerm aans, daughter of Thomas B. Heermans, of the noted hardware firm of Corning, Rathbone &: Heermans, of Albany. Losing her parents in her infancy, she was brought up in the family of Mr. Wilkinson, where Mr. Barnes made her acquaintance, and they were married in 1849. The first money accumulated by Mr. Barnes was wisely invested in a lot on James Street Hill. This locality had attracted his eye, and gratified his love of the beautiful in nature on many a stroll over the sightly eminence, and prompted him to make the purchase of the land, whereupon he after- wards erected the first house on James street, into which he moved in 1853. It long stood alone on what is now the magnificent James .Street Hill, and was illustrated in the first directory of Syracuse in 1853. On the consolidation of the railroads Mr. Barnes embraced the opportunity for a respite from labor, and visited his childhood home in England. After his return he became proprietor of the Syracuse Evening Chronicle, which had originally been published as The Free Democrat, in 1852. Mr. Barnes adopted the principles of the new Republican party and made the Chronicle the first Republican daily published in the State, outside of New York city. In 1855 he sold the paper to .Samuel H. Clark, and in the ne.\t year removed to Cincinnati and accepted the general superinten- dency of the newly opened Marietta and Cincinnati railroad. This road shared the fate of many other western enterprises of that time in the financial collapse of 1S57, and the following year Mr. Barnes returned to Syracuse and began his career as a banker, which he has ever since pursued and in which he has attained the highest positions. In iS6(), he formed the acquaintance of William A. Sweet, who had in 1S5S commenced the manufacture of knives for mowers and reapers on a small scale, and at which time there was but one other establishment of the kind in the United States. In 1864, the corporation of Sweet, Barnes it Co. was formed for carrying on this business in connection with the manufacture of steel. The business grew so rapidly as lo demand the whole attention of Mr. Barnes, and in 1868 the steel works were sold to Mr. Sweet, and that manuf.icture has since been conducted by the Sweet Manu- facturing Company. The corporate name of Sweet, Barnes & Co. continued until 1S73 when an order was procured from the Supreme Court changing it to that of (leorge Barnes iV Co. Mean- while large factories had been erected in the Fifth ward, to which additions have been made from time to time until they now present an unbroken frontage of 253 feet of brick structure on .Marcellus street, and 175 feet on Wyoming street and three stories high, including in addition to the vast man- ufacturing plant, the finest and most commodious offices in the city. Under the management of Mr. Barnes the business quadrupled between the years of 1868 and 1S77 and an arrangement was effected in that year by which the works at Syracuse were consolidated with similar factories at other points and the Whitman & Barnes Manufacturing Company became the successors of (ieorge Barnes & Co. , of Syracuse. The capital of the new company, of which Mr. Barnes was elected president, was $400,000, but by subsequent increments it now stands at lf;2, 000,000. This union of the skill, e.vpericnce and capital of the manufacturers has enabled them to increase the production and improve the quality of their product without advancing the price The entire control of the business, which soon grew to an industry of great importance, is now in the hands of this corporation, which employs in all its branches more than 1,000 men. C)f this great corporation Mr. Barnes still remains president. BlOC.RAl'HirAI, In appreciation of Mr. Barnes's financial capacity, and the lofty principles of integrity which have always governed his business acts, his fellow citizens have called upon him to accept many trusts, private and public, to all of which he has given the same faithful fidelity accorded to his own personal matters. He was one of the original incorporators of the Onondaga County Savings Hank, chartered in 1S55. Kailing health and the pressure of other business caused him to resign his trusteeship in the year 1876. In 1869. he joined with other prominent citizens in the formation of the Trust and Deposit Company of Onondaga with a paid up capital of ^100.000 which received a special charter authorizing it to make investments for persons at home or abroad, and to act as agent, assignee or trustee either by power of attornev or appointment of Court. Mr. Barnes was for many years \icc- I'resiilent of this institution and has been President since the year 1876. Under his wise and prudent management this institution has gained the entire confidence and liberal patronage of the community. In 1S73, Mr. Barnes and his associates organized the State Bank of Syracuse with a paid up capital of |loo,ooo of which he has been President since 1876. This bank shares the same degree of success that has been attained by other institutions which have come under his direct control. Mr. Barnes was one of the originators of the Syracuse Chilled Plow Company, but failing health compelled him to abandon that enterprise. For nianv vears Mr. Barnes was the Treasurer and Financial Manager of the Onondaga County Orphan .Asylum and other similar positions have been filled by him to the entire satisfaction of those most interested. Year after year Mr. Barnes took great delight in having all the orphans from the Onondaga Count\- Orphan Asylum on his lawn to spend a gay afternoon and evening. On these oc- casions ever)- orphan received a suitable gift and a bountiful supper, — not exactly in accordance with those usually bestowed upon orphans. Maurer's Band was always in attendance and the march around the grounds to the supper table, headed by the band, was a very pleasing sight. Following up Mr. Barnes's love of fun and entertainment, he and Mr. James Barnes organized a Punch and )udy show with which they alwa\s entertained the orphans anil many children of larger growth who were not orphans. During Mr. Barnes's life in Syracuse he has watched its growth from a small village to a proud and beautiful citv. In all of its affairs he has shown the interests of the representative citizen of broad and intellectual views. In the business community he has long been a conspicuous and hon- ored figure. Socially he is one whom it is always a pleasure to meet and his home is the often visited Mecca of a large circle of friends. The failure of his health in a somewhat alarming degree took him to Europe for several months of the year 1886 to seek council of the world's most eminent phy- sicians. Though now an invalid, he still maintains his interest in all the various affairs that have for so long occupied his attention. HON. NAI HAN FITCH CR.WES, President of the New \ork State Banking Company, of Syracuse, was born in Oneida county, N. V., F'ebruary 17, 1813. The Graves family of this country and England are descended from a physician who was brought over from Normandy by Wil- liam the Conquerer as his attendant at the time of the conquest. Many of the descendants, following the ancient practice of transmitting a father's occupation or profession to his son, became physicians and during the early reigns were often court physicians. The principal seat of the family was Mick- leton, county Cdoucester. (^ne of the members was elevated to the peerage under the title of Baron (Jraves, and if he hati lived in our own day and land he could apparently have had no higher regard for the bird that figures on our national escutcheon, for his coat of arms dispLayed an eagle ducally crowned, with a cross consisting of an eagle and circled round the body and below the wings by a ducal coronet, and for supporters, two eagles with wings expanded and inverted. Among the more recent of those bearing the name who have risen to eminence in England are John Craves, a divine and antiquary, who died in 1729; Richard Graves, a poet and novelist, born in 1715, who died in 1804; Admiral Graves, who commanded the British fleet in Boston harbor at the commencement of Memorial History of Syracuse. the revolutionary war; Kichard (jraves, Dean of Ardagh, Ireland, who died in 1S29; Charles Graves, Bishop of Limerick, who died in 1866; Robert Graves, a line engraver, born 1798, who died in 1873, and whose father of the same name, was a noted connoisseur of rare prints; and Samuel Robert Graves, a politician, was born in iSiS. The emigrants to this countrv' were Rosweli Graves. Sterling Graves, and Benjamin Graves. Benjamin settled in the town of Lyme, New London county. Conn. The family took an active part in the revolutionary struggle. At the battle of Bunker Hill, Admiral Graves, the British naval commander, trained his guns on the American works, while a brother of his, an American officer, was assisting in repelling an assault of the troops. Benjamin Graves, the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was one of the defenders of Fort Griswold, in New London harbor, and was slain at the atrocious massacre by the British on taking the fort. The next day Elijah Graves, son of Benjamin and grandfather of our subject, enlisted for the remainder of the war. He was in several battles and often acted as the aid of General Washington. His son Benja- min, born at Lyme, married Molly Stark, also of Lyme, named after the wife of General Stark by the General himself, the hero of Bennington, — a name rendered imperishable by Stark's battle cry: "Now, my boys, we must beat them, or Molly Stark is a widow to-night." These were the parents of Nathan F. Graves, whose father became a prosperous farmer of Oneida county, and gave to his children, after their common school education, as thorough a training as the academies of the county afforded. Nathan was an apt and forward scholar and at the age of si.vteen years was com- petent to teach others. Desirous of further knowledge, he passed several years alternating between teaching and study. Choosing the law for a profession, he studied for a year in the office of J. Whipple Jenkins, at Vernon, in Oneida county, and for two years with Hon. Joshua A. Spencer, at Utica. Admitted to the bar in 1840, he formed a co-partnership with Timothy Jenkins, an estab- lished and prosperous lawyer of Oneida Castle, a village in the township of Vernon, near the old council grounds of the Oneida Indians. Here he made a favorable commencement of his legal career, and soon considered himself sufficiently established to contract marriage. His first wife was Helen P. Breese, daughter of S. Sidney Breese, Esq., a native of Shrewsbury, N. J., who studied law with the celebrated Elias Boudinet, and settled and practiced law in Cazenovia, Madison county, and was the first Clerk of the county, removing afterwards to Sconondoa, Oneida county. He was a member of the New York Assembly, and filled other important and influential positions. His father, Samuel Breese, who settled at Shrewsbury, was the son of Sidney Breese, an officer of the English navy. Mr. Graves and Miss Breese were married June 1st, 1842. She died in 1S44, and the same year he removed to New York and opened an office in Nassau street, which then had a distinctive character as the principal lawyer's street of the city. On the 23d of November, 1S45, he married Miss Catherine 11. Breese, a sister of his first wife. Although he succeeded in building up an extensive practive in New York, he concluded on account of ill health to abandon it and in 1849 he returned to Central New York and formed a legal partner- ship in SjTacuse with Daniel 1'. Wood, then a rising young lawyer admitted to the bar three years before, and since well known as a member of the Assembly and Senate of this State, and still residing in Syracuse. The association of the two continued for about fifteen years, though in the meantime Mr. Graves had entered upon the financial career which drew upon the most valuable portion of his time. The Burnet Bank was organized in Syracuse in 1852 and he became its President. The Teller was John J. Knox, afterwards Comptroller of the Currency at Washington, who was at that time highly esteemed for his financial ability and knowledge of the banking business. As a State Bank it ceased to exist after the passage of the National Act, but was reorganized as the Fourth Na- tional Bank. The State system being preferred by the directors and stockholders, the National char- ter was relinquished in 1872, and the institution has since been known as the New York State Bank- ing Company. During all these changes Mr. Graves has continued to guide its fortunes, and it has maintained its character as a safe, prosperous and well-managed institution. After so long and ard- uous business course he needed rcla.\ation for his health and in 1872 visited, with his wife, the Pa- cific coast and made a tour around the world, contributing valuable letters to the Knu York Obsenier, the Syracttse Courier and the Northern Chrtstiaji Advocate, From his correspondence it appears that he journeyed more than twenty-thousand miles with very little discomfort, without missing a Biographical. connection or encountering a serious stonn. He visited the beautiful temples of Japan, and China, and saw the principle idols ; the inland seas of Japan, with their many islands and teeminjj population ; the stalciv mansions on the Hiind at Shanghai ; the white walls and arched windows of Hong Kong ; the busy mart of Singapore ; Ceylon and its groves of palms ; the mighty Ganges and thousands vainlv trying to wash away the sins of their souls in its sacred waters ; the holy city of Renares ; the government train of one-hundred elephants, and the I-'ortressof l.ucknow ; the peerless Taj of Agra ; the mosques, palaces, and ruins of Delhi ; the great caves of India ; the Red Sea and the Nile canals and groves of palms. He visited also the most important missionary stations in the countries through which he passed and bore testimony to their laborious and useful services and the respect in which they were held for their character and learning. Government officials often spoke of the good they were accomplishing and in many places he noted that they were selected for important trusts by different governments. On returning from his travels, Mr. Graves was. in 1S74, elected Mayor of Syracuse. He has always been a public-spirited citizen and taken an especial interest in educational improvement, having acted for several years as School Commissioner and President of the Board of Kducation. He is an intelligent writer and has one of the best private hbraries in the State, com- prising more than ten-thousand volumes collected by himself, and embracing Audubon's Birds and many other rare and costly works. He has every diplomatic publication issued since the government was founded. His library is visited by scholars from distant points, who avail themselves of its treasures. He sustained a lectureship on Missions at the Seminary at New Brunswick, the last course having been delivered by Rev. John Hall, D.D. Mr. Graves is also a liberal patron of the tine arts. Although now far past the years said to be allotted to man, Mr. Graves continues to act as Pres- ident of the New York State Banking Company, having been continuously President of a bank longer than any other person in the city, and down to ()uite recent years has to some extent pursued the practice of his profession. In the bank he has a most efficient coadjutor in the person of Mr. R. A. Bonta, who has been cashier since 1864, having first entered the Burnet Hank as a clerk in 1856. Mr. Graves has also been a Trustee for many years of the Syracuse Savings Bank, the foremost insti- tution of that character in the city. He is and has been for many years one of the Trustees of the State Idiot Asylum, located in SyTacuse. His sympathy with all measures looking to public improvement is illustrated by his uniting in 1S82 with several others from among the most distinguished citizens of the city to form the Civil Service Reform Association, of which he was made President. Mr. Graves invested largely in real estate in Syracuse and has erected a great number of dwell- ings which now form a portion of his estate and demand from him considerable attention. Although now far advanced in years, these various interests still retain him in the ranks of busy men. A neighbor and life-long friend has described his genial social disposition as making his home one of attraction and enjoyment, while his culture and liberal hospitality have drawn around him the most refined and cultivated. The same authority has borne testimony to the simple and pure Christianity which is the soul of his integrity and fidelity to business trusts, and v^hich early linked him closely to the spiritual interests of the church, while his liberality, though without ostentation, has made him the friend of charitable and benevolent societies. In his declining years, Mr. Clraves may look back upon a long life that has been crowned with much more than common success in a material sense, and made him the center of a large circle of those who hold him in high esteem as a friend and as a man. WILLIAM BROWN SMITH, son of Job C. Smith and Esther Brown, was born March 2d, 1815, in Brighton, Monroe county, N. Y., although his progenitors were English, coming to this country in 1630, and locating in New London, Conn., the original farm being now owned and occupied by lineal descendants of the foundtr of the family in this country, Rev. Nehemiah Smith. Memorial History of Syracuse. His mother died at the time of his birth, and he was placed in the care of Mrs. Jeremiah Maples, of West \Valworth, Wayne county, N. Y., where he lived until he was thirteen years old — for the most of this period under the impression that these kind people were his parents, — his father having married again when he was still a young child, and moved to the then distant State of Ohio. When thirteen years of age, his foster father, Mr. Maples, died suddenly, his foster mother hav- ing died some si.\ years previous, and then being left without friends in the east, he m.'ide arrange- ments with Joshua Hicks, of Walworth, whereby he was to learn the cabinet trade, and here he worked until he was eighteen years old. the larger portion of his time being spent on Mr. Hicks' farm and in liis cabinet shop. About this time, Mr. Hicks having died, he hired out to his son, Levi J. Hicks, also a cabinet maker, agreeing to work for two years, the first year for $4 per month and the second for ^7 per month, with the understanding that he was privileged to work outside when he pleased, but was to make up the time, so that he was to work for .Mr. Hicks a full two years, under the contract. Inas- much as he spent considerable time during the hay and harvest season in working for the farmers, and in going to school in the winter, it took him three years to fill this contract, at which time he had reached his majority, had learned his trade, was the possessor of a good set of tools, good cloth- ing, and ^100 in money. Hoping to better himself, he made a trip by canal as far as liuffalo, visiting the various cabinet shops on the way; but finding no place to his liking, he at once returned and hired to James Jenner, cabinet maker, of I'almyra, \. V. After a few weeks he was made foreman of one of Mr. Jenner's shops, where he remained for four years, at the end of which time he had laid up $1,000. At this time he married Lucy, the daughter of (lilbert Yeomans, of Walworth, and about the same time he entered into a co-partnership with his brother-in-law, 'P. ('.. Yeomans, in the mercantile business at Walworth. His wife lived but a few months. He afterwards married Augusta M. Boardman, daughter of Silas Boardman, of Westerlo, Albany county, N. V. .After four years of mercantile life, findmg it did not agree with his health, he came to Syracuse, and bought a half interest in a small nursery, with Mr. Alanson Thorp, under the tirm name of Thorp & Smith, the nursery comprising four or five acres, situated on West Genesee street, near the present residence of W. Brown Smith, for which he paid f;2,ooo. This nursery was increased from time to time, until it occupied several hundred acres. The firm name was changed at various times by the addition or retirement of other partners, until Mr. Smith became the sole proprietor of the business. In 1868, Mr. Edward A. Towell married his only daughter, Lucy C, and became a partner in the business, which was soon after extended by the ad- dition of the live stock interests, from wdiich was developed the celebrated "Lakeside Stock Farm," which is noticed elsewhere in this work. In 1879, the firm was again changed by the admission into partnership of his sons. Wing R. and W. ludson Smith, under the firm name of Smiths & Powell, and in 1885, Mr. Anthony Lamb was admitted as a partner, the firm name becoming Smiths, Powell & Lamb, which is still retained. Karly in life Mr. Smith adopted the motto, "Never put off until to-morrow what you can do to- day," and the rule of his life has been never to deviate from this, and to his remembrance he has never forfeited a contract, or failed to meet an obligation. In business, energetic, honorable and trustworthv. In religion, through early associations, he became a member of the Baptist Church, but later in life he became interested in the Unitarian Society and since his residence in Syracuse has been identified with that church, and has been one of its sustaining members and for many \ears one of its Trustees. In politics a Republican, having voted with the Whig party for William 11. Harrison, and although always interested in the political welfare of his city and country, he has never sought any office, but was elected for several terms School Commissioner in his district, and served for one term as President of that Board. He h.is been largely identified with the development of the city, having been connected with many of the leading public and business enterprises, and at present holds several positions of trust and honor, among which may be mentioned the following ; President of OakwcM)d Cemetery, \'ice- President of the Syracuse Savings Bank, Director of the Salt Springs National Bank, Director of the Syracuse Water Company, and Counselor of the Old Ladies' Home. % ,;~:^^^!-.--l>C.je--c::C'C^ RlOGRArillCAL. Outside of his regular business interests, Mr. Smith has for many years been a large investor in real estate in S\Tacuse or its vicinity. He made it a governing principle that money invested in real estate near at hand which would nearly or quite pay the interest on its cost was well invested. Re- sults have justilicil his judjjnient and now Mr. Smith and the tirm of which he is a member own about 1,200 acres of land, a large part of which is his personal property and much of which is very valuable. Mr. .Smith has ahvavs been an earnest advocate of temperance and morality, and has both by precept and example entleavored to impress these principles on the minds of those with whom he came in contact, and he makes with pride the statement that he never touched, tasted or handled in- toxicants of anv kind, or tobacco, nor offered them to others. LUCIVS GI.EASON, the subject of this brief sketch, was born in the village of Liverpool, Onon- daga county, N. Y., December 8, iSig. His father was Am (de.ison, who came fr'ville, Madison county, N. Y., June 17, 1823. Ilis father, John Didama, and grandf.ather, Simon Uidama, were both physicians. They came with the Holland Company from Delft in the latter part of the last century, when John was but thirteen years of age. and located at Trenton, N. Y. His mother, Lucinda, was of the New- England Gaylord stock, so that the subject of this sketch is fortunate enough to have the best ances- tral combination possible: Holland Dutch and Connecticut Yankee. He does not remember, as he himself has stated, any exhibitions of remarkable precocity, although he has been assured that he was an excellent silent listener in early life, speaking only two words till he reached the mature age of four years. He declares that, as at that time there were no State hospitals for feeble-minded children, he was tenderly but despairingly cared for under the parental roof. He was sent to the village district school, where the kind mental ministrations and physical administrations of patient teachers enabled him to master the English alphabet at seven, and to make "straight marks" (most woeful and wabbling) in his writing book at nine. In the common and select schools, and at the ex- cellent Cazenovia Seminary (which he attended for three years), he became somewhat acquainted with the rudiments of an ordinary education. That these rudiments were fixed in a fairly retentive memory was due, he thinks, to his two winters" experience as a school teacher in the years of 1840 and 1841. Young Didama entered the office of his accomplished friend. Dr. David A. Moore, now residing in Syracuse, as a medical student in 1842, finishing his studies with Dr. Nelson C. Powers (of whom a biographical sketch is printed elsewhere in this volume), attending in the meantime one course of lectures at the Geneva Medical College and two courses at Albany, at which latter place he was graduated in 1S46. Locating at Romulus, Seneca county, he had abundant leisure during his five years' residence there to continue his medical studies, as the large majority of the good people in that quiet and healthful locality enjoyeil almost uninterrupted immunity from illness, while the sick mi- nority chose the attentions of a venerable and experienced professional neighbor, whose friends actu- ally boasted that he had not looked into a medical book in thirty years. Before leaving Romulus and coming to Syracuse, Dr. Didama married Sarah, daughter of Hon. Sherman .Miller, of Tompkins county, N. Y. To her good judgment and faithful devotion he attrib- utes in no small measure whatever of success in practice he may have achieved. She has been the mother of three children, one of whom, Mrs. Amelia D. Niven, M. D., with her husband, William II. Niren, still remains the joy and consolation of the united home. During his forty years' residence in Syracuse Dr. Didama has had a fairly extensive medical practice. He has been or is at present a member of several medical societies and a-ssociations. Among these are the Syracuse Medical Association, Onondaga Medical Society, New York Central Medical Associa- Biographical. ii tion. New York State Medical Society, New York State Medical Association (in each one of which he has served as rrc^ijent), American Medical Association, American Academy of Medicine, Amer- ican Cliinitological Association, and British Medical Association. lie has been one of the physicians of St. Joseph's Hospital in Syracuse since its institution, and is at present chief of its staff. lie has been Professor of the .Science and Art of Medicine in the College of Medicine of Syracuse Uni- versity since its organization in 1S72, and he is now its Dean. Two years ngo he received the degree of Doctor of Laws from .Syr.icuse University, lie is an officer in the First Presbyterian chnrch of Syracuse. In politics he has been a Republican ever since the organization of that party. Pr. Didama has been earnestly in favor of a high standard of medical education. In his address at Albany, while President of the State Medical Society, in iSSo, he urged that without delay an en- trance examination should be required by each medical college in the State; that this examination should be equal to that e.\.acted by the best universities; and that after four years from the new de- parture each candid.ite for admission must possess the degree of A.l!. In the same address he ad- vocated the substitution of a sensible, prolonged three years' gr.aded course of instruction for the prevailing, unnatural, short two winters' course, the second winter being but a repetition of the first. In his aililress in New Vork, as President of the New York .State Medical Association, in 1884, he reaMirmed his convictions and amplified his arguments regarding entrance examinations and a graded course. Two years ago the Legislatureof the State en.actcd that all candidates for .admission to a medical college should be subjected to a .specified mild and elementary examination, and also to a final examin- ation for license to practice by an independent board to be appointed by the Regents of the State University. It is remembered with some pleasure that the College of Medicine of the Syracuse Uni- versity had in full force sixteen years prior to the compulsory legislative enactment, and still has, all and more than all the requirements of the new law. Dr. Didama is the author of medical essays which, in .iddition to public addresses, have been published in medical journals at home and reviewed abroad. Over the signature of "Amos Cottle" he has also for many years written for the daily press articles of current interest and letters of travel in foreign lands. His skill and research are dedicated to his fellow men; and he still finds his highest pleasure in the profession to which his long and active life has assiduously been devoted. H.\MlLrO\ WIIITK was born in the town of Homer, Cortland county, N. Y., on thefith day of May, 1S07, and died at Syracuse on the 22d day of September, 1S65. His parents, Asa and Clarissa Keep White, had settled in Homer in 1798. His education was confined to the common schools of the pl.ace, but he improved these advantages so well and was so diligent in reading that he was able, at the age of sixteen, to take charge of a school on the terms then usual of nine dollars a month and board. Deciding on mercantile pursuits .as the occupation of his life he entered into the employment of the Messrs. Randall, merchants of Cortlandville, .and by his industry and fidelity made his services of great value to his principals. He continued in clerkship for about ten years, in which, by his frugal habits and close study of the details of business, he laid the foundation of his success in life. At the age of twenty-nine years, having accumulated sufficient means from his earn- ings to conduct business on his o\vn account, he took up his residence at Lockport, in Niagara county. Here, during the next three years, he largely increased his capital by various investments, small at first, but fostered by wise and careful attention. In 1839 he removed to Syracuse, where his elder brother, Horace White, had preceded him the year before, and was appointed cashier of the Onondaga County Hank, of which Captain Oliver Teall was the President. The two were associ- ated in the same office, and .as stockholders and directors in this as well as other institutions until the expiration of the charter in 1864. It was a period in which banking capital could be employed both profitably and to the great .advantage of the public. liolh of the executive officers were men of high morals and conscientiously endeavored to aid the deserving. It was a period free from com- mercial revulsions, and almost every year of it marked by new and substantial enterprises. At its Memorial History of Syracuse. commencement the effects of the panic of 1837 had nearly passed away. The Auburn and Syracuse and the Syr.icuse and Utica R.iilroads h.id just been completed. New firms and individu.ils were bringing capit.il into the production of the great staple, salt. The duties levied by the State which had been reduced from twelve and one-half cents to si.\ cents a bushel in the year 1834, were still further reduced in the year 1846 to one cent a bushel, imparting a strong stimubnt to the production. Other manufactures were added or grew up from previous beginnings, including m.-ichinery, steam engines, farm implements, stoves, woolen goods, leather, etc. The residences and business structures were vastly improved and increased, and many capacious and well known mercantile edifices for immediate and prospective use were erected. The population of the pl.nce increased from 6,500 in 1840 to 25,000 in 1S55, counting the village of Salina, which came into the city with its incorporation in 1848. Hamilton White promoted this general prosperity, and shared in its benefits. The field of his action and of his investments was gradually extended. In l84() he was one of the incorporators, with Oliver Teall and three others, of the Syracuse City Water Works Company. ~ Captain Teall had been the originator of the first water works many years before, but more extensive and complete arrangements were now necessary. Plans were made for the new water supply and cirried out in a manner to give satisfaction to the community, as detailed elsewhere in these pages. With his brother Horace, and Robert Cere, Hamilton White engaged in the formation of the Geddes Coarse Salt Company and in other industries. He took a large share in the develop- ment of the railway interests centering in Syracuse. While unobtrusive in his demeanor, and sel- dom volunteering advice, his counsel was sought by his associates as that of a man who deliberately formed his own opinions, though carefully weighing the opinions of others. In his conscientious- ness he was careful not to mislead by any advice dictated by mere self-interest or given crudely on the spur of the moment. His judgment was, therefore, always respected and generally confirmed by experience. His railroad connections extended until he w.-is a director in all the companies on the line between .\lbany and Chic.igo, except the Cleveland and Toledo. On the closing of the Onon- da"a County Bank, in 1S54, .Mr. While wa> its natural successor, continuing business as a private banker, ever ready to encourage public enterprise and .aid deserving merit. The local institutions of the citv and county received the benefit of his means and counsel. Through the exertions and pecuniary aid of himself and his associates in donating the grounds to the New York State ,\sylum for Idiots that institution, founded at Albany in 1S51, was removed to Syracuse in 1S55. Mr. Wliiic continued to take a deep interest in the success of the asylum, the design of which is to furnish means of education or training to the idiots of the State of a teach.ible age and condition. Kor many years his services as treasurer were given to the Onondaga County Orphan Asylum, and the Home for Old I.adies received his sympathy and aid, and both of these institutions were remembered in his will. His own church and the churches of other denominations in Syracuse and elsewhere shared his liber- ality. Unostentatious, he never proclaimed his charitable acts and often gave with an unseen hand. In 1856 he assisted in the foundation of the Onondaga County Agricultural Society, and 1859 in that of the As.sociation of Oakwood Cemetery, of wliich he was made treasurer. After the breaking out of the Rebellion .Mr. White was active in measures for raising troops for the llnion armies, and freely contributed both time and money. In 1S62 he was called to the presidency of the Syr.icuse National Hank, made vacant by the ility in the history of Salina and Syracuse, in many instances, and was one of the first Aldermen elected after the organization of the city, representing the First ward. In 1 856 he was Supervisor for the same ward, and in the year 1863 represented his district in the State Legislature. All these public positions have been filled with that integrity of purpose and honest action which have char.ac- tcrized his whole life. Mr. Clark is a plain, unassuming man. having the full confidence of his fellows, and now at the great age of eighty-four years retains his faculties almost wholly unimpaired, and acts with the same calm judgment and prudence that governed his transactions many years ago. In the year 1S25, November 13, Mr. Clark married Miss Jerusha N. Spencer, of Onondaga county. To them were born ten children, of whom Harriet E., wife of Augustus Avery, John Sey- mour, and Mary D., widow of Edward Manning, are still living, and all reside in Syracuse. Ills wife died in 1S65, and he married, in November, iS6g, Miss Augusta M. I'eck, daughter of Charles L. I'eck, a n.ative of Lyme, Conn., and a descendant of Deacon William I'eck, born in England in 1601, anil came to .\merica in i(>38, settling in New Haven, Conn. In iS-S Mr. Clark took up his residence in Lyme, Conn., though much of his time is passed in Syiacuse. WILLIAM PREYOST fiOODELLE was born in the town of Tully, Onondaga county, N. Y.. on the 25th day of May, 1S3S. His father w.as .\aron I!. Goodelle, a successful farmer ; and his mother was Eleanor A. Prevost. After preliminary studies at the common school the subject of this sketch spent one year in Homer Academy, and then entered Cazenovia Seminary .as one of the only two to take a five years' course, the period being from 1854 to i8f)0. In the spring of iSf.i he entered Dartmouth College as a .Sophomore, and graduated in the class of 1863 wilh high honors. He w.as one of those selected to deliver an oration at Commencement. Returning from college Mr. Goodelle was requested to accept the principalship of Moravia Academy, which he did for one year, and then, as he believed, began his continuous life work by the study of the law in the oftice of L. H. & F. Hiscock, in Syr.acuse. I!ut after a few months of study he was earnestly solicited to go out to Onondaga Valley and assume charge of the academy, which was then in sore need of re-organization an;an the study of law with WiUiani ( ullcn liryant, thin practicinj; at fireat Harrinjcton, anil on the i6th of May, KS25, entered the law school at I.itchlicid, Conn. In laniiary, 1S27, he was admitted to practice in all the courts of Connecticut. On Monclav, the I2tli of November, 1S27, he left Crcat Harrington for Syracuse, arriving at sunset on the following .Saturday. He was .idmitted in the Common I'le.ns as an Attorney and Counselor at the February term, 1828, on the motion of Clen. James R. Lawrence; and in the Supreme Court nearly two years later at Albany, at the October term, 1821), as an Attorney, and as Counselor in 1833. On reaching Syracuse he studied and practiced with .Alfred Northam until I'ebruary, 1S29, when he formed a partnership with the late H. Davis Noxon, which continued with various members of the familv until 1S50, when he abandoned his profession entirely on account of ill health. In the great political campaign of 1S40 lie had contracted bronchitis by constant public speaking to large audiences. In 1S50 his conilition became .somewhat critical, and althnugh then enjoying the largest and most lucrative practice in the central part of the .Stale, he felt coiistrained to retire from his pro- fession and turn his attention to other pursuits. Rest and care for two or three years and abstaining from public -.peaking fully restored his health, and other pursuits having in the meantime engaged his attcntirin, he never returned to the practice of law. In lanuarv. 1S32, he was appointed a Lieutenant of ,\rtilleiy in the 147th regiment of infantry, and in the same year w.is appointed Captain of .\rtillery in the same regiment. In 1834 he was ap- pointed Lieut. -Colonel of the 2()th regiment of .\rlillery, and the following year was appointed Colonel of the same regiment. In the fall of 1835 he was nominated at the Whig county convention as one of four Members of .Assembly from Onondaga county. Hut the county was hopelessly Democratic, or he would have declined the candidacy. In 1836 he was appointed Hrigadier-C.eneral of the 7th Hrigade of .Artillery. In 1837 he was elected a Trustee of the village of Syracuse and during the years 1S38, 1839, and 1840 was President of the village. In 1839 he was electeil Supervisor of the old town of Salina. This was the first election at which the Democrats had been beaten in more than ten years, and General Leavenworth was re-elected in 1S40. In 1846 and 1847 he was again chosen President of the village. During the period in which he was at the head of the village government, Gen. Leavenworth carried out many improvements the benefits of which are still, and always will be, felt by every resident ol the place. Among these were the measures which gave to the city \ander- bilt S<|uare, Fayette Park, the rows of trees along both sides of Washington street, and he pushed the opening of streets and other general improvements with his accustomed vigor and foresight. In the spring of JS49 Mr. Leavenworth was elected Mayor of the city, and his .administration was characterized by the same advanced and beneficent methods and plans that always occupied his attention in connection with city affairs. In that year .Armory Park was laid out and became city property. In the fall of the same year (1849) he was elected a Member of the Legislature, where he was on several important committees, notably on the Manufacture of Salt and on Railroads. In 1S49-50, General Leavenworth was one of a building committee of the First Presbyterian society, and it was largely due to his action that the site of the church was covered with the beautiful brown stone gothic edifice, instead of a plainer brick church. In the fall of 1851 he lacked only six or eight votes of the nomination for Secretary of State, at the Whig State convention. In the fall of 1853 he was nominateil for Secretary of State, almost without opposition, and was elected. During his term in this office he was awake to public interests throughout the Slate, and by his efforts the State Asylum for Idiots was removed from near .Albany to Syracuse. In 1S55 he was elected a Corresponding Member of the American Historical and Geographical Society of the city of New- York, .-md also, in the same vear, of the New England Illslorical and Genealogical Society of Boston. 20 Memorial History of Syracuse. In the fall of 1856 General Leavenworth was again elected to the Legislature ; he was Chairman of the Committee on Canals, of the Committee on Banks, and of the Select Committee of one from each Judicial District on the Equalization of the State Tax. As chairman of the latter committee he drew the bill which established the Board of State Assessors, and other acts of importance in State legislation. One of the wisest and most beneficent services ever rendered to the city of Syracuse was Gen- eral Leavenworth's labors in connection with the organization of the Oakwood Cemetery Associa- tion in 185S-9, in which work he was intimately associated with Hamilton White. As long as the city stands that beautiful burial ground will e.\ist as a monument to the memory of those men. In the spring of 1859 General Leavenworth was again elected Mayor of the city, the govern- ment of which was then beginning to demand business capacity, prudence and judgment of a high order. In the fall of the same year he was again nominated for Secretary of State, but was defeat- ed by between 1,000 and 1.500 votes in a total of 600,000, mainly through the efforts of the Know Nothing party. In the winter of 1S60 he was appointed by the Legislature as one of the I!oard of Quarantine Commissioners, and was chosen president at its organization ; and in the summer of the same year he was president of the Republican State Convention which assembled in .Syracuse to select delegates to the National Convention at Chicago. On the 5th of February, 1S61, General Leavenworth was chosen one of the Regents of the University, and in 1872 was appointed by the Governor and the Senate, one of the Commissioners to amend the State Constitution. In the fall of 1874 he was elected a member of the 44th Congress, in which body he attained a high position ; he declined a re-election. Besides these numerous public stations which General Leavenworth was called to fill, in every one of which he distinguished himself for his broad and intelligent grasp of important subjects, his wisdom in dealing with them, and his ability to impress his views upon others, he held a long list of positions of a more private character, but involving responsibility and the entire confidence of his fellow citizens. Among these was president of the .Syracuse Savings Bank, which he resigned in 1883 ; president of the Syracuse Water Works Company, which he held from 1864 until his death ; president of the Syracuse (■aslight Company, which he held from 1872 ; president of Oakwood Ceme- tery .\ssociation ; president of the Historical Society of Central New York ; and trustee or director in half a score of other institutions, companies or societies. From the foregoing brief sketch it will be seen that General Leavenworth's life was a busy one, and that his eminent qualities of mind and heart brought to him numerous rewards and honors from his fellow citizens. As a citizen of Syracuse he was always foremost in the advocacy and labor attending all improvements, and his judgment of how and when to carry such improvements to con- summation was seldom at fault. In the fall of 1S87 his powers felt the natural failure attendant upon old age and on the 25lh of November he passed from earth. General Leavenworth married first -Mary Elizabeth Forman, daughter of Judge Joshua Forman, the founder of Syracuse ; she died on the iSth of April, 1880. He married for his second wife .Mrs. Harriet Townlev I'all, of F.lizabelh, .\. |., who still survives him. DR. JOHN M. \\ 1 Ell .\<; was idcnlified with the growth of Syracuse from the year 183710 the time of his death. In that early year he came as a youth to make his home in what was then the village of Syracuse. He was born in the town of Springfield, Otsego county, N. Y., on the 8th of February, 1817. His grandfather, John C. Wieting, was a native of Stendal, Prussia, and came to America in his youth and was actively engaged in the Revolutionary war. He was an accomplished linguist and was a teacher during the early part of his career. Afterwards he became the pastor of the First Lutheran church established in this country, continuing in the pastorate twenty- two years. He died in 1817. The father of John M. was IVler Wieting, who was born October 30th, 1790, in Montgomery county, N. Y. During the latter part of his life he resided in Syracuse, where he died in 1S56. The mother of John M. was Mary Elizabeth Manchester and was a descend- ^ Biographical. 21 ant of a family of that name who came from Manchester, England, and settled in Rhode Island. She was born in April, 1792, in Washington county, N. Y., and died in May, 1S72. At the early agfe of fourteen years John M. Wieting started to make his own way in life, eng.-ig- ing as te.-icher in the public school at Deerlield, Oneida county. He continued in this capacity very successfully for four years, teaching in winters and attending school at the Clinton Liberal Institute in summers, where he had a free scholarship, but boarded himself. At the age of eighteen he assisted in the survey of the New York and Erie railroad, and at the age of twenty he engaged as civil engineer in the construction of the Syracuse and Utica railroad, which position he held for about si.x years. He also surveyed Rose Hill Cemetery and graded many of the streets of the village of Syracuse, lluring all of this time he was the chief support of his father's family, his father, (who was at one time a successful merchant and possessed of a handsome competency) having become through financial disaster and ill health, dependent on him. Nobly did he fulfill these duties ; and during the latter years of his parents' lives when success had crowned his efforts, they were surrounded by all the comforts and luxuries that wealth could give. He was a de- voted and tireless student and his thirst for knowledge seemed boundless. Mathematics and the natural sciences seemed to possess a wonderful charm for him. All his leisure hours were devoted to study ; and many hours of the night, when his fellow workmen were buried in sleep, by the dim light of a candle, this young man pored over his books ; alone and unaided solved many knotty problems and made himself familiar with the natural laws governing the world and man. Gradually the idea of himself becoming an expounder of these laws dawned upon him and he began the study of medicine with Dr. Hiram Hoyt. of Syracuse. While still a student. Dr. Austin Klint, late of New York city, delivered a course of lectures in Syracuse on I'hysiology. illustrated with a manikin. John M. Wieting became deeply interested in the subject and made him an offer for the lecturing apparatus, which was accepted, borrowing the money with which to purchase the outfit. He resolved to enter the lecture field himself, commencing work in the spring of 1843, by giving lectures in the smaller towns and villages in his own State. His lectures were confined to physiologv- and the laws of life and health. About this time he received a diploma as a physician, and for over twenty years his career as a public lecturer was one continued scene of unparalleled success. From the smaller towns he pushed his way into larger ones, adding occasionally, as his means allowed, to his apparatus by purchases until he possessed the largest and most complete outfit for lecturing on these subjects ever owned in this country. He may properly be called the pioneer lec- turer in this country on physiology and the laws of life and health, as he was the first to present the subject in a way to render it attractive and agreeable to the masses. In the interesting book entitled, " From a Forest to a City," by M. C. Hand, we find the follow- ing relating to Dr. Wieting : " It is to such men as Dr. Wieting that Syracuse is indebted for much of its thrift. He made his money to build his first block by lecturing in other cities. I think I heard the last lecture he ever delivered in his own hall, in which he gave a short history of the strug- gles and trials of his early life ; how he overcame them all and continued to lecture until he had tamed one hundred thousand dollars, and as he was speaking he stepped forward upon the platform of Wieting Hall, and raising his voice, with much feeling said, 'and I have .spent the hundred thousand right here.'" The hall alluded to above was the old historic Wieting Hall, famous as the scene of many im- portant political gatherings of State and nation. This h^ill constituted the upper portion of the Wieting Block, on the corner of Salina and Water streets, which was purchased by Dr. Wieting in 1850. This block was twice destroyed by fire and twice rebuilt. The first fire occcurred Janu- uary 7, 1856, at which time the Doctor was lecturing in Boston. The dispatch containing the news of the destruction of his block was handed him ju.st before the time for opening his lecture. He walked calmly upon the platform and delivered his lecture, showing thus his admirable self-control, and it was his boast that in twenty years of his public life he never disappointed an audience or kept one waiting. His block was rebuilt in one hundred days, on an enlarged and improved scale, con- taining another public hall which was known by the more pretentious name of Wieting Opera 22 Memorial History of Syracuse. House. This building was destioyed hy fire on the night of July 19, 1S81, and though now with impaired health and staggering under the weight of this second blow, his indomitable courage and energy enabled him once more to rear a splendid structure in his beloved city. The block and opera house, as rebuilt, are now separate structures, the opera house ranking among the finest in this country. In the year 1S75, accompanied by his wife, he left home for a tour around the world. They sailed from San Francisco across the Pacific to Japan ; thence visiting China, the islands of Singa- pore and Ceylon, India, Egypt, the principal countries of Europe, and returned to this country by way of the Atlantic ocean, thus completing the circle around the globe. During his lengthy absence he acquired a vast fund of practical knowledge, as he was a close and intelligent observer. Subse- quently, in the summer of 1887, with the hope of benefitting his now failing health, I>r. Wieting and his wife made another P^uropean tour, from which they returned in the following November. Krom that time up to the date of his death (about three months), Hr. Wieting was a great sufferer from asthmatic and bronchial difficulties. An apparently slight cold which he had contracted devel- oped almost immediately into pneumonia, and in the short space of one week the struggle for life, which had been so bravely borne, was ended. He was buried in the massive mausoleum which he had caused to be erected in Oakwood cemetery. His death occurred February 13, 1888. Dr. Wieting was a man of great force of character. His industry, energy and perseverance were unbounded, and his brain power was exceptional. While not tolerant of the opinions and theories of others, his good common sense generally placed him right on important issues, and to his settled beliefs he adhered unflinchingly. He was a clear reader of human nature, and himself related an incident which shows in vivid colors this characteristic. Kriefly, it is as follows : One evening at the Tremont Temple, Boston, the Doctor noticed in one of the front seats a tall, lank, awkward looking young man with a pair of earnest eyes, intently listening to the lecture. The Doctor went thence to I'hiladelphia, and on the first night of his lecture in that city, in a front seat, sat the same awkward, earnest-looking youth ; and so, night after night, the Doctor noticeil him, and his interest was awakened. At last, one night after the lecture was over, the young man presented himself, say- ing, " I am a stranger to you, but I have listened to you many nights with much interest. Now I have mustered up courage to ask a great favor of you. I want to go to California. I ha\e no money. I have not a relative in the world who can help me, and I wish you would let me have one thousand dollars, and I solemnly promise not only to return it to you, but also to give you an equal share in whatever I may have the fortune to make. I feel that I can accomplish something, if I can only reach the country and make a beginning." The gold fever then was at its height, which to some extent accounted for his unwonted enthusiasm and assurance. The Doctor looked at him as he made this strange request, and finally said to him, " I am very tired to-night and cannot talk on the subject ; but you come around to my rooms to-morrow and we will talk it over." When the young man appeared ne.\t day somethirg seemed to tell the Doctor to grant his re- quest. T he Doctor was a practical man, and that he himself should be impressed to do so uncom- mon and apparently risky a thing, seemed all the more strange ; but he did. He drew his check for the amount and handing it to the young man, said ; "1 his monty represents so much mental toil on my part. I began poor, but I have achieved success. I can spare this money now. Vou are a stran- ger to me, and I leave the matter between you and your Maker. I can lose it, but I should legrcl to lose mv faith in you." The young man, with tears in his eyes, took the check and said, " \ ou shall never regret this act, if God spares my life." The two parted. Not many months afterwards Dr. Wieting received a letter from the young man, stating that he was making progress, and that he would shortly hear from him again. A few months later the Doctor received a check for one thousand dollars. At various times after that he received other amounts until the sum grew to ten thousand dollars. He then wrote to the young man that he was unwilling to accept more, as the obligation had been trebly discharged. But he received in reply a letter stat- ing that the writer considered it his duty to discharge this obligation according to the terms of the contract between them, and felt that the blessing of God would be withdrawn if he violated his word. He then wrote the Doctor asking the further loan of twenty thousand dollars, as he wished BlOGRArillCAI.. to engage in a larger field of operation. Dr. Wieting's mother said to him, " th.it is a scheme to get back all he has given you," and his brothers also tried to dissuade him from granting the request ; but there seemed a bond between tlie two men that could not be appreciated by others, and the doctor determined to advance the large sum, and did so. No tidings came for some months and he began to get an.xious ; but at last news came and money began to pour in on the Doctor until he was the recipient of at least fifty thousand dollars. Later on another letter came stating that the Doctor would hear from the writer again, but no tidings were ever after received of that faithful soul. It is doubtful if a parallel case, or one even approaching it, in dramatic and human interest ever occurred.- L"pon Dr. Wieting's decease the press of the State and far beyond its boundaries, paid high tribute to his character and career. The following brief extracts are from local papers : " It may be safely said that Dr. J. M. Wieting, whose death occurred in this city yesterday, has been one of the most conspicuous figures in the life of Syracuse for the past twxnty-five years. He was known of all men. at least by sight, anil when he walked abroad was everywhere pointed out as one of the residents of the city, the mention of whose name would suggest to a stranger an interest in his personality." • * * * " Dr. Wieting certainly took a wholesome pride in the city of .Syracuse. The buildings which have borne his name have always been monuments to this sentin)ent, and the activity of his interest in all questions of public import, left no doubt that he was watching the growth of the city with vigilant care. It was at his hands that Syracuse had its first theater and later its first opera house. * * * * " Dr. Wieting's keen intellect, his unique individuality, his sturdy physique made him a force in this community, a noted character wherever he traveled and seemed to insure length of days and continued active participation in public aflfairs. • * All that he achieved he owed to his own tire- less energy, wisely e.\erted to useful and successful ends." LEWIS H.VMII.TON RKDKIKI.D. the pioneer printer and publisher of Onondaga Valley, and later of Syracuse, was born at I-'armington, Conn., November 26, 1792. He died at his resi- dence in Syracuse July 14, 18S2. His father was Peleg Redfield. a soldier in Washington's revolu- tionary army. From Karmington he removed to Suffield, in the infancy of his son Lewis, and lived there about si.\ years, when, in 171)9 he joined the tide of emigration westward and settled near Clif- ton Springs, Ontario county, N. V. At that time there was only a solitary log cabin at that point. During the period necessary for clearing up the farm the Redfields suffered all the vicissitudes incident to pioneer life. Their first tenement was without a floor and the door was a blanket. In his youth Lewis shared in the labors on the farm, and attended such transient schools as were opened in the neighborhood, but he was his own chief instructor and read every book within his reach. The arduous farm labor proved too much for the slender frame of the lad and in gratification of his own inclination his parents apprenticed him as a printer to James D. Hemis, publisher of the Onlario Re- posilor\\ at Canandaigua. At the end of si.\ years young Redfield had thoroughly mastered the trade and gained a large fund of gener.il information. His quest of a place for a business opening ended in his selection of Onondaga Valley, (or Hollow, as it was then called.) .Vmong the residents ol the little villages in the Valley and on the Hill were at that time many eminent men who gave the young printer the utmost encouragement and, with the aid of his former employer, Mr. Bemis. he be- gan the publication of the Onoiiilaga Hegisler avi the 17th of September, 1S14. The printing office was purchased of, or through, Mr. Bemis, at a cost of I1400, and such was the industry, persever- ance under difiiculties, and rigid economy practiced by Mr. Redfield and his faithful apprentice, that at the end of the lirst year the otVice was free from debt. The Ke,!;iste> was an e.vponent of Jef- fersonian Democracy and being ably edited and successful in supplying news of the war, it reached what was then a large circulation. 24 Memorial History of Syracuse. On the return of peace Mr. Redfield found a still more interesting topic for discussion in his columns in the projected canal from Lake Erie to the Hudson River. In favor of this great under- taking Judge Forman, then living at the Valley and one of the earliest and most powerful advocates of the canal, wrote a series of articles for Mr. Kedfield's paper in its favor, and at the same time the editor's pen was eloquent in its behalf. It is, perhaps, not too much to say that the Register was for a number of years nearly at the head of the country newspapers of the State in character and influence. In submission to the wonderful changes produced in Onondaga county by the opening of the canal and the springing into existence of the Village of Syracuse, (incorporated in 1825,) and subsequent removal from the Hill of the county seat, Mr. Redfield transferred his newspaper to Syracuse and consolidated it with the Syracuse Gazette, begun in 1823 by John Durnford. The journal now bore the name of the Onondaga Register and Syracuse Gazette and for its accommodation Mr. Redtield erected a four-story building on the site of the present Onondaga County Savings Bank, where he also carried on a book store. The condition of his health obliged him to dispose of his newspaper property in 1832, but he continued the book business twelve years longer, when he retired with a competency. At intervals thereafter his attention was occupied with various enteipiises and prolit- able real estate operations. In 1834, he was honored with the Presidency of the Village and in many ways his inllucnce was devoted to its adornment and improvement. The possession of Forman I'ark by the city must be largely credited to him. For thirty jears he was a director of the old liank of Salina and later in life was a director of the Salt Springs National Hank. In 1S72, at the age of eighty years, he was com- plimented by the Democratic vote of the State for Presidential elector, but he seldom permitted the use of his name for public office. Mr. Redfield never ceased to take pride in the fact that he was a practical printer, aside from the intimaie connection of that art with journalism. In the busy printing offices of the village and city he always felt at home and was always welcome. He was an ardent lover of nature and to his latest years held to the faith that there were few fairer spots than the beautiful valley wherein he passed most of his life. The last eight years of his life were passed at the residence of his daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. James L. Bagg. and his remains rest in Oakwood cemetery beneath a shaft bearing the following inscription prepared by himself: " Lewis H. Kedtield. printer — a worn and battered form gone to be recast more beautiful and perfect." Mr. Redfield left two sons and four daughters. The sons, G. Davis Redfield, whoilied in Min- neapolis, leaving one daughter, Mary E., and two sons, Lewis R. and Charles Treadwell. Lewis H., who resides in .Syracuse; and the youngest, Charles, resides at (Jlen Haven and .Syracuse al- ternately and has one son, Robert Longstreet. The daughters of Mr. Redfield are Mrs. C. T. I.ongstreet, Mrs. J. L. Bagg, and Mrs. William H. H. Smith, who live in Syracuse, and Miss Jane L., who lives at Clifton Springs. Mrs. Longstreet has one daughter, Mrs. Cornelia Tyler Poor, re- siding in Skaneateles, X. V. Mrs. Bagg one daughter, Mrs. Ina Merrill, residing in Syracuse. WILLIAM CRAWFORD RUGER, Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals of the State of New York, was born at Bridgewater, Oneida county, N. Y., on the 30th of January, 1824. His father, John Ruger, was a prominent lawyer of Bridgewater, where he successfully practiced his profession until 1S47, when he removed to Syracuse, and continued practice until his death in 1S55. The son enjoyed the advantages of a classical education obtained in the Bridgewater Academy, a very excellent institution. At the close of his studies he entered the law office of his father and gave himself wholly to study, until 1845, when he was admitted to the Bar under the old Supreme Court at Utica, in July of that year. He opened an office in Bridgewater and practiced there until 1853, when he followed his father to Syracuse and joined in partnership with him under the firm Biographical. 25 name of J. and William C. Kuger. From the time of his father's death until his elevation to his present high office. Judge Ruger was in constant active practice in .Syracuse, having been a mem- ber at various periods of the firms of Kuger & Lester, Kuger & Jenney, Kuger. Wallace & Jenney, Ruger. Jenney, Urooks A: French, and Kuger. Jenney, ISrooks A: Marshall. l>uring this long period of practice Judge Kuger was called to the conduct of many cases of great importance, and as each one passed through his hands he constantly acquired a higher reputation and gained the confidence of the community, by the masterly and generally successful efforts in his profession. Judge Ruger is and alwas has been a Democrat in politics and has been frequently called upon to represent his party in its high councils. He was a delegate in the famous Hunker Convention of 1849: also at the first State Judicial Convention in 1870; the National Convention of 1872, and the State Convention of 1877. He has also twice been the candidate of his party for member of Con- gress, in 1S63 and 1865. but of course, in his strong Rupublican district with no expectation of an election. His bearing under these honors was such as to still further raise his character and extend the knowledge of his ability in the general mind of his constituency. In his own profession he has also received evidences of appreciation and confidence. Upon the organization of the Onondaga Bar Association, in 1S75, he was made its first president and continued in the office three years, when he was succeeded by Judge Daniel Pratt. He was also elected President of the first State Bar Asso- ciation, held at .\lbany in 1S76, and was afterwards its president in 18S2. In 1882 Judge Ruger received the nomination of his party for the exalted ofKce of Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals of the State of New Vork, his opponent being Judge Charles Andrews, who was, perhaps, as strong a candidate as could have been found in the Republican ranks. It is more than probable that no other candidate who might have been named by the Democrats could have been elected ; but the high qualifications of Judge Ruger for the office, qualifications that were as freely acknowledged by his political opponents as by his friends, gave him the requisite majority, and he has since that time filled the high judicial office with dignity, ability and uprightness. Judge Kuger is endowed with natural abilities of a high order, and is possessed of an acute and logical mind, supplemented by extensive learning in the law. His forensic efforts when in practice were always able and effective, as much, perhaps, through their remarkable clearness of expression and directness of reasoning, as from their eloquence. His arguments were always based upon the real merits of his causes and were never infused to the slightest degree by any appearance of trickery of words or show of mere bald assertion, unsupported by facts. His professional life was always con- spicuous for its uniform fairness and courtesy. In his present high station he has still further gained the esteem and respect of the profession, while his judicial labors have been of such a character as to sustain his reputation as an able and a just Judge. Judge Kuger was married on the 2d of May, i860, to Harriet, eldest daughter of Hon. Erastus S. Prosser, of Buffalo, N. Y., and they have one son, Crawford Prosser Ruger, now^ practicing law in Syracuse. WII.LI.AM Kl RRI'.VTKICK was born in the town of Ainwell, Huntingdon county, New Jersey, November 7, 1769, of Scottish ancestry, who came to this country early in the last ccntur)-. He was the son of the Rev. William Kirkpatrick, a Presbyterian minister, who was gradu- ated from Princeton College in the first class after the college was removed from Elizabeth to Princeton, 1758, and was pastor of the First Presbyterian church of Trenton, N. J., a chaplain of the Colonial forces of New Jersey during the French war, a trustee of Princeton College and Mod- erator of the Syncd of \ew \'ork and Philadelphia. The son was a graduate of Princeton College, 17S3, and studied medicine with Dr. Benjamin Bush, of Philadelphia, and at the University of Pennsylvania. He commenced the practice of medicine at Whitestown in 1795 and continued there ten years. In 1805 he was appointed Superintendent of the .*^alt Springs and located at Salina, which office he held for twenty-two years. D 26 MKMdklAI, IIlSTOKY OK SYRACUSE. Although it was jjenerally understood when Dr. Kirkpatrick began the practice of medicine in the county of Oneida, that his professional education was of the highest order, and that nothing stood in the way of his attaining a commanding position as one of the most scientific and skillful physicians of the age in whicli he lived, if he had devoted himself to the practice with that assiduity and enthusiasm which are so essential to success in any of the learned professions, yet it was unfor- tunately true that his nervous temperament was of such a peculiar and sensitive character as to unfit him in a great degree for the practical duties of a physician. Although he had pursued the study of medicine with great diligence and effect and had attained in the closet all the knowledge that could be acquired by reading and thought; yet, when he was called upon, standing by the sick bed, to apply his skill and learning to cases of actual suffering and disease, he soon discovered that his feel- ings of sympathy for the afflicted patient were so acute as in many cases to materially affect that self-possession and calm observation of the symptoms so vitally essential in determining as well the true nature of the disease itself as the mode to be adopted for its cure or alleviation. The effect of this peculiarity of temperament was (as might have been expected), to cause in the mind of Dr. Kirkpatrick at an early period of his medical practice, a dislike of the profession, which not only continued through the remainder of his life, but after a few years led to its total abandonment. The society at Utica and Whitesboro during the period in which Dr. Kirkpatrick resided there, although small, was in many instances of a refined, intellectual, and literary character; and he was never more happy than in those days when, in the company of his intelligent friends and neighbors, he had an opportunity to converse on the literary topics of the day and to impart and receive that intellectual instruction in w-hich he so greatly delighted. Although he still continued to practice as a physician, yet he rather declined than sought an increase of business and gradually withdrew from the active business of his profession, except in cases of a few private friends and families who would not consent to surrender their claims upon his skill as occasion required, and for whom he continued to prescribe so long as he remained in that county. Dr. Kirkpatrick commenced life and continued until his death a Republican (afterwards termed a Democrat) in politics. As he possessed a very active mind and ardent temperament, he soon em- barked in the political controversies of the day and ever afterward took a deep interest in such matters. While Hving in Oneida county he was elected a member of the loth Congress (i8oS-q) tor the Eleventh District, the last two years of President Jefferson's administration. Although he made no pretensions to parliamentary speaking, and did not, therefore, assume a prominent position before the public, yet he was generally respected at Washington as an intelligent, educated and high- minded man and during that period formed an intimate acquaintance and friendship with many of the most distinguished men of the day who then occupied places in the national councils, and with .some of whom he continued to correspond for many years afterwards. As an illustration of this, a little reminiscence may be given. When in Congress, Dr. Kirkpatrick became the intimate personal and political friend of \Vm. H. Crawford, of Georgia, then a Senator from that State, and afterwards Secretary or the Treasury under President Munroe, and a prominent candidate for the presidency in 1824. While Mr. Crawford was Secretary an application was made by many of the prominent citi- zens of this State for the establishment of a branch of the United States Bank at Albany and among other names appearing on the application was that of Dr. Kirkpatrick. This paper was transmitted in the first instance to the Secretar\' of the Treasury at Washington with the request that he should send it forward to the directors of the parent bank at Philadelphia. Mr. Crawford, in doing so, wrote upon the application: "Among the many names to this application I find that of Dr. William Kirkpatrick. I can say with great pleasure that I know him well, and a more honorable, high- minded and intelligent gentleman I am not ac<|uainted with." It w.is at this tiime that he, with others, elected the " Canal Ticket " in Onondaga county, which was the first political action taken in regard to the construction of the Erie canal. Joshua l-'orman, a Federal, and John McWhorter, a Democrat, were elected on the Canal ticket. In January, iSoy, he, in company with Judge Forman, called on President Jefferson at the executive mansion. The President had in his last message recommended that the surplus monies of the treasury be appropri- ated to the great national objects of opening canals and making turnpike roads. They informed Biographical. 27 him that in view of his message the State of New York had explored the route of a canal from the Hudson river to lake Krie. That the canal would enhance the value of land and settle the frontier, open a channel of commerce for the western country to our own seaports, a military way in time of war, and form a bond of union to the States. Mr. Jefferson replied that it was a very fine project and might be executed a century hence. "Why, sirs," said he, "here is a proposed canal of 350 miles through the wilderness. It is little short of madness to think of it at this day." They in- formed him that the State of New York, having conceived the idea, ascertained its practic.-ibility, and in some measure appreciating its importance, would never rest until its accomplishment. Mr. Jef- ferson lived to see the canal completed and to realize its importance. He afterwards acknowledged his mistake and regretted that he had not associated his name and his administration with this great public work. He closed his Congressional term in 1809 and was reappointed Superintendent of the Salt Springs in iSii and held the office until 1831. Upon his reappointment he removed to Salina, where he continued to reside until his death in 1S32. The few adventurers who up to this period had dared the inhalation of the pestilential miasma of the marsh, and were willing to wade through its mud and water, in attempting to earn a scanty pittance for themselves and families, had usually but little pretension to that intelligence or refine- ment of intellect and manners which so peculiarly distinguished the individual who had been chosen to protect the public interest and collect the revenue to be derived from this invaluable fountain. .-Xs it respects Dr. Kirkpatrick, it might well be supposed that the singular and strongly marked transition which had occurred in his life, from the polished and intellectual society in which he had previously moved, to the cheerless and almost semi-barbarous condition of things then existing at .Salina, would have had the effect of producing disgust and despondency on his part. But this was not so; he entered upon the discharge of his new duties with alacrity of spitits and kind feelings. He lost no time in making himself actiuainted, not only with the then present state of the manufacturing opera- tions, but also with the persons employed in the business and he took early measures to increase the State revenue by judicious improvements, while he was disposed in every way in his power to aid the worthy and industrious manufacturers. During the whole life of Dr. Kirkpatrick, after his removal to Salina, he continued to cultivate his literary taste by an intimate reading of all the standard works of the day, and particularly of the English and Scotch reviews; indeed to works of this character he devoted a large portion of his leisure time. He was of a joyous and pleasant temperament and delighted to sit down with friends of his own habits of thought and reading and converse upon the current topics of the day. He continued also through his life to bean ardent politician of unswerving fidelity to party obligations and denounced the least violation of party faith as a crime of almost unpardonable magnitude. He was in mind, thought and feelings a gentleman. In his manner he had an easy, dignified and graceful address, by which the most casual observer would have distinguished him in a crowd as a man who. from habits and association, had always moved in refined society ; and still he was free from haughtiness and pride and as accessible at all times to the most humble laborer, as to the highest dignitary of the land. .-Vs one of the remarkable traits in the character of Dr. Kirkpatrick. it may be added that, with the renowned Dr. Johnson, he had a morbid and awful horror of death. He frequently remarked that the thought of dying and of death — of passing from this sublunary state to the mysterious world be- yond the grave— of the body instinct with warmth and life, and all its beautiful and complicated machinery becoming cold and inanimate — filled his soul with dismay and terror. In the summer of 1.S32, and with only a few hours of premonition, the dread king of terrors, by his most terrible vicegerent, the cholera, approached his bedside anil beckuned him .aw.iy. He looked upon the face of the pale specter with composure and apparent fearlessness and seemed to have summoned in the last ho4r a fortitude of mind which he did not before know he possessed. When he became assured of the presence of the pestilence in his own person and that he could not live but a few hours, he summoned his beloved wife to his bedside, and with the composure of one about to enjoy a peaceful sleep for a time, or take a short journey, gave her a brief history of a few matters of 28 Memorial History of Syracuse. business and a few words of affectionate condolence, and then resigned himself to his fate with ap- parent submission. He died on the 2d day of September, 1832, in the 63d year of his age. Such is a very brief notice of a good and worthy man. He had no enemies ; it was impossible he should have had any ; for he never entertained an unkind wish in respect to any human being. He married Miss Nancy Dunscomb, of Salina, and left two sons — William Kirkpatrick, who is a resident of this city, and Donald Kirkpatrick, who died here September ig, 1889.* NATHAN COBB. The subject of this sketch, one of the best known and most respected of the earlier citizens of Syracuse, died December 15, l88g. He had been a resident since 1S45, when Syracuse was but a village, and had been in various ways identified with its interests and its progress. Mr. Cobb was born in Stonington, Conn., September 17, 1805, and had thus passed his eighty-fourth year at the time of his death. He was the son of Henry S. and Mary B. Cobb, and was but a mere boy when the English fleet attacked his native town, in the successful defense of which his father distinguished himself. The early education of Mr. Cobb was considered complete and suflicient after a course at the Stonington academy, before he was fourteen years of age. He then went to Philadelphia by sloop, with a small allowance in his pocket, to make his way in the world. He began his career as clerk for an elder brother, who was in business in that city. After a time, the brother, Alfred Cobb, was appointed United States Consul to Peru and remained in South America si.xteen years , engaging largely in mining operations and acquiring a substantial competency. Meantime Nathan Cobb had removed to Chittenango, N. Y., and afterwards to Syracuse, in 1845, w here he became variously engaged, first in the wholesale grocery business, and afterwards in the coal trade, in which he was a leading operator for a number of years. He brought the first boat load of anthracite coal by canal into Syracuse, having two yards, one on Water street, for conven- ience to the canal, and the other in connection with what is now the D. L. cS: W. railroad to Bing- hamton. Later, when the death of two brothers, Henry and Alfred, made it necessary, he assumed the care of the Phcenx Foundry, operated by them, and in 1S64 organized the firm of Cobb, ller- rick & Co., for general machine work, foundry work and boiler making. This establishment re- ceived Mr. Cobb's best business efforts, and they were of a high order of efficiency, and it prospered from the first. The head of the firm possessed the entire confidence of all from whom he drew his custom, and the knowledge was general that every contract entered into by the firm and piece of work undertaken, would be executed upon a basis of the strictest integrity. The business was several times enlarged and the manufacture of steam engines was added, which gained an extended reputa- tion for excellence. Mr. Cobb continued with this firm until 1881, when he retired from active busi- ness, and from that date until his death he lived in the quiet of his home in the enjoyment of the good will and friendship of all with whom he had been associated. It was written of him at his death, in relation to his business habits, that "he was careful and conservative and strict integrity marked every transaction. His kind and considerate treatment of his employees secured their hearty esteem and good will, and all his business acquaintances bear testimony to his uniform urbanity, as well as to the uprightness of his transactions." The position he held in the estimation of his fellow members of the board of trustees of the Syracuse Savings Bank is indicated in a testimonial which was prepared after his death and published. From it may be made the following extracts: "His business career was characterized by probity, excellent judgment and honest work, and was crowned with substantial success. Mr. Cobb was elected a trustee of this bank in 1865 and continued in the office to the time of his death. During all that period his personal character has substantially con- tributed to the credit and good name of this institution. He was judiciously conservative, yet he readily adapted his views to the changes wrought by the marvellous growth of our city and the cor- responding growth of and demands upon this bank. He was a safe and wise counselor, and his care- ♦Prepared from a sketch by the late Hon. John G. Forbes, an intimate friend of Dr. Kirkpatrick. ^:iL^ i Biographical. 29 fully considered judgment will be seriously missed by those so long associated with him. It was his h.ippy fortune to live out the full measure of years alloted to man ; to pass the period of old age in calm and serenity ; to be cheered and comforted to the last by domestic relations of the sweetest character ; to walk among his fellow citizens, who well knew his life among them, honoied and be- loved, and to possess down to his dying day. the unclouded mental vision, the clear judgment, and the unimpaired manhood of his mind." Mr. Cobb united early with the Reformed Dutch Church at Chittenango, and on coming to Syra- cuse joined the Kirst Presbyterian Church, of which he continued an active and esteemed member for more than forty years. lie served in the office of Elder and of Clerk of the Session for nearly the same period, and was perhaps best known for his active interest in all religious work, in which he was most useful and most beloved. In early life Mr. Cobb was a Democrat in politics, but in the first days of the history of the Re- publican party he joined its ranks as a Republican of pronounced anti-slavery principles, and remained with it to the end. He was several times a successful candidate for political office. Mr. Cobb was married in 1854 to Miss Frances E. ."Vvery, who survives him. They had two children, of whom one only is living, the wife of Dr. F. H. Stevenson. IRVING GOODWIN VANN was born Januar)- 3, 1S42, in the tow^n of Ulysses, Tompkins county, New York, on the west shore of Cayuga lake. His earliest known ancestor on the pa- ternal side was Samuel Vann. his great-grandfather, who was a native of New Jersey, and a lieutenant in the Revolutionary war. His grandfather, also named Samuel Vann. died in iS-8, aged 106 years. His father, Samuel R. Vann, was a well-to-do farmer who, although born in New Jersey, spent the most of his life on his farm in Ulysses, where he died in 1872. On his mother's side he derived his descent from Richard Goodwin, his great-grandfather, who was born in New England and whose son, Richard Goodwin, a native of Pennsylvania, located early in the present century at Goodwin's Point, near Taughannock Falls, on (?a)-uga lake. His son, Joseph Goodwin, a soldier in the war of 1812, was the father of Catherine H. Goodwin, who married Samuel R. Vann; and their son Irving, the subject of this sketch, an only child, spent his earliest years upon his father's farm, engaged alternately at work and study. He received careful instruction from his mother, but did not attend school until he began to prepare for college at Tru- mansburg Academy, about four miles from the residence of his father. Hoarding at home in the spring and fall, he used to walk back and forth morning and evening, but had the privilege of riding when the horses were not needed on the farm. In the winter he boarded at Trumansburg. He at- tended for one year the academy at Ithaca, where he completed his preparation for college. In Sep- tember, 1859, he entered the freshman class of Vale College, and was graduated from that institu- tion in 1S63. During the next year he was principal of the Pleasant Valley High School, near Owensboro, Kentucky; and although successful as a teacher and urged to continue, he resigned I he position and began the study of law in the office of Boardman & Finch, at Ithaca, and in the fall of 1864 entered the Albany I.aw School, where he graduated in the spring of 1865. A few months were next spent in Washington, as a clerk in the Treasury Department, but resigning in October, 1865, he came to Syracuse and became a clerk in the law office of Raynor & Butler. In March, 1866, he began to practice law, and subsequently became a member of the law firms of Vann .S: Fiske, Raynor ..V Vann, Fuller & Vann, and Vann, McLennan & Dillaye. His success at first was moderate, but his practice finally became large and profitable. Having associated himself with partners who were expert in the trial of causes before a jury, he preferred to conduct them after the facts had been setlled, by arguing the questions of law in the appellate courts. He heard and de- cided many cases as referee, until his practice became so large that he was obliged to confine him- self to the business of his own office. 30 Memorial History of Syracuse. Ue was one of tlic founders of the Onondaga Bar Associalion, and became successively second and first vice-president, and finally ils president. He was also one of the founders of the State Bar Association. In politics he has always been a Republican, but was identified with its liberal wing and sup- ported Horace Greeley for president in 1872. He engaged actively in several political campaigns, and made speeches throughout the county, and to some e.xtent elsewhere, but was not a candidate for office until the winter of 1S79, when, without effort on his part, he was unanimously nominated as the Republican candidate for Mayor of Syracuse. After a spirited and exciting contest, with three candidates in the field, he was elected by a plurality of nearly one thousand. His administra- tion as Mayor was characterized by the lowest taxes that the city had known for many years, and lower than it has ever known since. He retired from office with every debt contracted by his administration fully paid, and left a handsome balance in the treasury. He declined a renominationp because the duties of the office, as performed by him, were so exacting as to req 're nearlv all his time and prevent him from practicing his profession. In iSSi he was nominated with substantial unanimity by the judicial convmtion of his party as Its candidate for Justice of the Supreme Court, and at the ensuing election this selection was ratified by a majority of over eleven thousand. He assumed the duties of that office January i, 1882, and continued to discharge them until in January, 1888, when he became by the designation of the Governor, a Judge of the Court of Appeals, Second Division, and he is still a member of that court. Although devoted to his profession and to the discharge of his judicial duties, he has been some- what active in benevolent, charitable, and social afTairs. He organized Woodlawn Cemetery and has been its only president, and has also been the president of the Onondaga Red Cross Society fropi its inception. He was one of the founders and has for several years been the president of the Cen- tury Club of Syracuse. In 18S2 Hamilton College conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws. In 1870 he was married to Florence, only daughter of the late Henry A. Dillaye, an old resident of this city. They have two children, Florence Dillaye. born July 31, 1S71, and Irving Dillaye, born September 17, 1S75. Domestic in tastes, he finds the highest enjovment in his family circle. He is fond of books and has a choice library of several thousand volumes, many of which are rare and valuable. He is also fond of fishing, and spends his vacations in the most inaccessable parts of the Adirondack wilderness, casting the fly for trout with such success as to have become somewhat noted for his skill. His life has been uneventful, but not without benefit to the communitv in which he lives. CORNELIUS TYLER I.ONGSTREFT. The subject of this sketch was born in Onondaga Valley April 19. 1814, and died at his residence in Syracuse July 4, 1881. His ancestors were from Holland, the founders of the family in this country being three brothers who settled in New Jersey. They emigrated in the seventeenth century and one of them subsequently removed to Penn- sylvania and one to Georgia. Among members of these families who were contemporaneous with the subject of this notice may be mentioned Judge Longstreet, of the Georgia branch, who was president of Columbia College in South Carolina at the breaking out of the civil war ; and that brave and distinguished southern soldier. General James Longstreet, who is still living. Cornelius Longstreet, father of the subject of this sketch, was of the New Jersey branch of the family, and a native of that State. In 1801 or 1802 he removed to Onondaga Hill, a little hamlet, which was soon to become a thriving village and business point and the county seat of Onondaga county. There Mr. Longstreet opened a store for the sale of general goods and was one of the earlier merchants of the county. In 1805 he married Deborah Tyler, daughter of Comfort Tyler, the pioneer of Onondaga county and companion of Asa Danforlh in making the first settlement in Biographical. 31 the beaiiliful Valley. Comfort Tyler's first wife was a Wemplc and half-sister of General I terkimcr. The rcidcr of this volume has already learned something of Comfort Tyler's distinguished services, in and near this locality, in earlier pages. Cornelius T. was the youngest son in a family of live children, and his father died when he was less than one year old. The widow and children were left with what in those times was considered a substantial property, but through mismanagement of those who had it in charge, and other causes, the family received but little benelit from the estate. Mrs. Longstreet lived about twelve years after her husband's death, and died in tSafi. She was an estimable woman in all respects and gave her best unselfish ellorts to the proper education and train ing of her children. Young Cornelius attended school until 1S27, when he began as apprentice to a tailor in the then small village of Syracuse, and rem.iined faithful at his post for three years. During the next year he worked at his trade in Geddes, and at the age of seventeen the enterprising young man opened a shop of his own at that place and secured a profitable business, purchasing his cloths and some ready- made clothing in New York city. But Syracuse at that time was outstripping her rival villages, in the Valley, on the Hill, and at Salina and Geddes, and Mr. Longstreet saw the necessity of joining with the tide flowing towards the more promising business center at Syracuse, which he did after three years of trade in Geddes. For a short period after beginning business in Syr?cusc Mr. Long- street was associated in trade with Henry .Agnew, then the leading tailor of the village. Mr. Long- street's business career was successful from the first. He was personally well litted to secure the re- ward of successful mercantile operations ; a skillful, practical workman, possessed of excellent taste and judgment, invariably polite and gentlemanly to all with whom he came in contact, his establish- ment soon became widely and popularly known. Kor a period of ten years it was probably the largest and most piosperous of its kind in the State west of New York city. But although meeting with so large a measure of success, yir. Longstreet's ambition carried his business ideas beyond what he could hope to .attain in the then small village of Syracuse. In the course of his business he had secured a thorough knowledge of the clothing trade in New York city, and became convinced that there was more than ordinary encouragement for an enterprising person to open an establishment in that city devoted chiefly to supplying dealers in the northern and western parts of the State. Acting upon this belief he removed to New York in 1846 and founded a wholesale clothing house. This venture attested his excellent business judgment, for it proved immediately successful, and for six years he conducted it with his characteristic energy .and with large profits. He was the first person to ship ready-made clothing to Califjrnia and other western points. In 1S52, having amassed a fortune, he returned to Syracuse and spent the greater portion of three years in the erection of the splendid residence known .as "Renwick Castle." In the autumn of 1855 he returned to New York to assist in establishing his eldest son, Charles \. Longstreet, in the wholesale clothing business, and was associated with him for several years as a silent partner. During this period he spent a large portion of his time in the metropolis, but still maintained his home in Syracuse. In the latter part of 1862 the condition of his health compelled him to abandon active pursuits, and he returned to his native county. In 1S63 Mr. Longstreet was made one of the Directors of the First National Bank of Syracuse, the second of its kind organiwd in the United States, its first President being the distinguished fin.in- cier, E. B ludson, who still occupies the same position in the same institution. Mr. Longstreet con- tinued in the Board of Directors of this bank until his death. He was also one of the original incor- porators ot the .Mechanics Bank of Syracuse, organized in August, 1851, and a Director of it for nearly thirty years. In politics Mr. Longstreet was a steadfast Republican from the foundation of that party, though he never sought or desired public office. Mr. Longstreet was naturally of a charitable disposition and gave liberally of his means to the founding and support of St. Joseph's Hospital, the Old Ladies' Home, and other beneficent charities of Syracuse. In private life he won friends from all circles in which he moved. His life was ex- emplary in its every phase, and he gained and retained until the last the esteem of his fellow citizens. Mr. Longstreet died after a lingering illness at his home in Syracuse on the 4th of July, 1881. Resolutions of respect were passed by the various corporate bodies with which he had been connected, and his death was a source of deep sorrow to the many of his fellow citizens who had admired his sterling integrity and profited by his wise counsel. 32 Memorial History of Syracuse. Mr. Longstreet left surviving him Mrs. C. T. Longstreet, eldest daughter of Lewis II Redtield ; she is now residing in Syracuse. One daughter, .Mrs. Cornelia T. Poor, of Skaneateles, who is the mother of three children, Charles Longstreet. Mattie Lindsay, and .Vnita Tyler. Two sons, the eldest Charles A., who died in (California and left three sons, C. lyler, Jarvis Dennis, and Ciuy. Eilward \V. died some years since in Syracuse. LUCIEN BARNES is descended from good old New England stock. Iwing a lineal descendant of his father's branch (Orson Barnes, esq.) of Major Simon Willard, who emigrated from Eorsmonden, England, and arrived at Boston, Mass., in May, 1634. and who. by his three marri- ages, became the father of eight daughters and nine sons, and from whom most of the Willards in this country may trace their ancestry. By his third marriage, to Mary Ilunster, supposed to have taken place at Concord, Mass., his twelfth child, John Willard, was born. February 12, 1656 or 1657. He married Marj' Hayward, October 31, ifigS, and their son, Jonathan, born April 2S, 1701 , and his wife, Abigail Wilco.x, settled in Great Barrington, Mass. , and were the parents of David Willard, born July 17, 1741. The latter married Martha Sherlock, at Great Barrington, where their eldest daugh- ter, Sarah, was born September 17, 1769. She married, October 12, 1794, at Otsego, N. Y., William Barnes, who settled in Pompey, Onondaga county, N. Y., near the village of Oran. They had two daughters at the time, viz.: Phebe, born January 26, 1796, who married Luther Buell, December 6, 1815; and Myra, born July 20. 1797, who married, May 22, 1S15, Hon. Nehemiah P. Stanton. Both families settled in Pompey, Onondaga county, and Mr. Buell founded the place known as lUiellville. Orson Barnes, the only son and third child of William Barnes, was born at Pompey, March 26, 1802, and married, February 20, 1S23, Eli/a Phelps, who was born August 27, 1S03. They had four sons and one daughter, of whom three survive, namely: Hon. William, of .\lbany, N. Y., who organized the State Insurance Department, and held the position of Superintendent of Insurance for ten years; Sarah Eliza; and Lucien. born in Baldwinsville, Onondaga county, N. Y., December 2(>, 1835. Orson Barnes was a talented man, became prominent in educational affairs in Onondaga county, and was Superintendent of Schools in 1843. He died August 6, 1S52, when Lucien was about si.xteen years of age. The mother, possessing great energy and perseverance inherited Irom her New England ancestry, devoted her life to the welfare of her surviving children, and now (July, 1891) has attained the age of nearly eighty-eight years. She was the daughter of Capt. Horace Phelps, of Springfield, Mass., where he died. William Barnes, the father of Orson, born December 26, 1771, was the si.xth son and child of Phineas Barnes and Phebe Bement, of West Stockbridge, Mass., who had twelve children, the first seven being sons and the others daughters. There is much of interest relating to the family of Major Simon Willard, and the trying scenes during King Phillip's War, to be found in the " Willard Memoirs," by Joseph W'illard, pp. 333-3f'5. Phillips, Sampson & Co., Boston, 1858. In Vol. IV., of " American Ancestry," 1889, published by Joel .Vlunsell's Sons, Albany, p. 3, there is a notice of the ancestry of our subject, as follows ; "Orson Barnes, the father of Lucien Barnes, born at Pompey, Onond.'iga county, N. V., March 26, 1802; Superintendent of Schools of Onondaga county, 1S43 ; married, February 20, 1823, F.liza Phelps, of Sullield, Conn. Son of William Barnes, born December 26, 1771, at West Stockbridge. .Mass.; married, October 12, 1794, Sarah Willanl. of Great Barrington, .Mass.. descendant of Major Simon Willard ; distinguished in campaign against King Phillip, 1675; commander of lirst company or train band in Southington parish in Farmington, Conn., 1762 ; lieutenant, 1760; captain, 1767 ; removed to Stockbridge before 1771 ; four of his sons were pioneer settlers of Pompey, N. Y., 1793 ; married Phebe Bement, born January 22, 1734, at Weathersfield, Conn. .Son of Thomas Barnes, born June 21, 1703 ; estate inventoried April 12, 1744 ; married. May 19. 172O, Hannah, daughter of Thom.is and Hannah Nelson Day. Son of Deacon Ebenezer, of Waterbury, Conn. ; married first, Deborah Orvis, born .April 17, ■ 6S1, daughter of .Samuel and Deborah < )rvis ; married, second, Mehitable .Miller. Son of Thomas Barnes, a soldier in the Pequoit battle of 1637, in which 6ix) .sav- ages were killed by ninety colonists. He was of Sentinel Hill, Hartford, 1639 ; joined church Jan- uary 30, 1652 ; admitted freeman 1G69 ; was probably the first of the family in America. Name de- rived from the Norse 'Bijourne' — a warrior." BlOGKAl'llICAL. 33 I.ucien Barnes, the yoiinj^est child and son of Orson and Mrs. Eliza (Phelps) IJarnes, was born in Baldwinsville. N. Y , December 26, 1S35. He was educated in the public schools of those times, and when fifteen years of age accepteil a clerkship in the general store of Glass & Williams, at Bald- winsville, under a contract he himself made for three years, at a yearly salary of $30, IjO and ^80, respectively. After completing that period the country village was not of enough interest to him, and he then made an engagement in the larger store of Arnold, Woodward & Son of Syracuse, where he remained till 185S, when he accepted an offer to become manager of the dry goods house of Sherwood i\; Oakley, of Cleveland, Ohio, where he lived till July, 1S61. His brother. Hon. William Barnes, of .\lbany. N. V., having been appointed Superintendent of the Insurance Department of the State, offered him the position of chief clerk and cashier of the Depariment, a position which I.ucien accepted, and at once removed to .Mbany and entered upon the duties of the office. This high position of trust he filled to the satisf.iction of all, being in charge of the large deposits made by the insurance companies, — both .Vmerican and foreign, — and having the "keys" to "several millions " in his pockets for some ten years ; at the end of each fiscal year, on the 30lh of September, the cash account always balanced and was found correct. He was also notary public for the Depart- ment. He was very active in the militia at .Vlbany, being a Lieutenant in Company A, Tenth Reg- iment. .Mbany Zouave Cadets, N. G. S. N. Y., and resigning his commission in 1S70. He was on duty with his regiment at the funeral obsequies in Albany of the lamented President Abraham Lin- coln, in .Vpril, 1S65. In November, i86g, Mr. Barnes resigned his position in the Insurance Department, and began the erection of an opera house in South Pearl street, .Mbany, which he completed and opened in fifty days, and which created quite a sensation at the time. The feat has never been equalled since. It is a large brick structure, perfect in all its appointments, and is still used as an opera house. The building was named " Trimble Opera House" in honor of his father-in-law. He continued as a theatrical manager until 18S3, and in 1SS4 began to use his natural gifts as an inventor, producing, in company with his nephew, Charles O. Barnes, their first car coupler. They kept on making inven- tions, producing two other patents on car couplers, the last one, patented in 1SS6, being adopted by the Yanderbilt and manv of the largest railroads in the United States, and has yielded a profit in five years of a quarter of a million dollars. Mr. Barnes is constantly working on something new. having patents in several mechanical branches other than railway inventions, and each year in several issues of the Patent Office Gazette are found patents granted to him, as well as having several foreign pat- ents. He was a delegate from New York State to the Inventors' Convention held in Washington, D. C, April 10, i8gi, in honor of the centennial of the Patent Office, and was in the group of inven- tors photographed standing on the steps of that building, and also at Mount Vernon. Pa. He is now a valued and respected citizen of the Central City. May 26. iS6g, Mr. Barnes was married at the Delevan House, .\lbany, to .Augusta Georgia Trimble, who was born in New York city, December 30, 1840, the eldest daughter of the late John Montague Trimble, the well-known architect and builder of that city. Her grandfather, the father of John Montague Trimble, was an officer in the United States navy, sailing from Norfolk. Va. The family name " Montague ' h^s descended from Lord .Montague of England. .\ very large book containing the biography of Lord Montague, the family coat of arms, etc., is in the po.S-session of Mrs. Lucien Barnes, having been handed down to her by her father. This book is carefully pre- served and will in time be handed down to her son, Lucien Barnes, jr. Mr. and Mrs. Barnes have five children, as follows ; Lulu Augusta, born April 4, 1S70 ; Edith Minnie, born January 6, 1872 ; Mary Trimble, born July 7, 1874 : Lucien. jr., bom July 30, 1877 : and Florence, born June 21, 18S1. All except Florence were born in .Mbany. She was born in New York city. Mr. Barnes is a man of refined tastes, and known in business as very energetic, sober, reliable, and strictly honest. His word is never broken. He is a staunch friend, a good neighbor, and the kindest of fathers. 34 Memorial History of Syracuse. BAUSTIX AVERY was born at Ledyard, Conn., on the 15th of July, 1S14. His father was 1 Anson Avery, a respectable farmer, and his mother was Eunice Avery. His early life, like that of almost all farmers' boys of that early period, was chiefly devoted to arduous labor at home, interspersed with attendance at the district school, chiefly in winters. In Mr. Avery's cise, how- ever, he was fortunate enough to secure an attendance of a few terms at the Colchester Academy. His faculties were naturally bright and his brain power exceptional, as was amply attested in after life, and he therefore gained a better education from his restricted opportunities than others might with more liberal privileges. He was thus fitted to teach school, which honorable occupation he followed winters for a number of years, working on the home farm in the summers. These occupa- tions occupied his attention until he was twenty-four years old, when he came to Syracuse, in the year 1S38. He promptly came to the conclusion that the then active \'illage was destined to become an important commercial and manufacturing center, and that he would make it, or its immediate vicinity, his future home. He spent two years in Syracuse engaged chiefly in laying the founda- tions of a fine salt manufacturing business, in which he invested the eight hundred dollars which constituted his entire fortune when he arrived here. At the end of the two ye.irs he returned to his native place, where he married Miss Mary A. Avery, and returned at once to Syracuse. From that time on till the day of his death he engaged energetically and actively in the v.-irious industries which at different times claimed his attention, all the time e.stending his operations and adding to his material means; and what was still more important, steadily gaining in the respect of the community and in their esteem as a man of capacity and usefulness. Soon after his second arrival in Syracuse Mr. Avery purchased fifty acres of land on the plank road near the toll-gate, and began the long period of at least partial devotion to agricultural matters which ended only with his death. From that small beginning his homestead grew by other purchases to a splendid farm of two hundred and fifteen acres, and under his intelligent and watchful care became, perhaps, one of the very best farms in the county of Onondaga It is now owned by the Skiff brothers. Mr. .Avery's chief attention, as far as his farm was concerned, was devoted to the production of milk, a business which he reduced almost to a science. He purchased and bred the best of cows, investigated thoroughly into the best methods of feeding, provided extensive and comfortable b.irns, and was in every way a representa- tive farmer of the front rank. Outside of his farm interests Mr. .\very turned his hand to many undertakings, and it can be said that no one of them failed to feel the influence of his vigorous and wise action, and reach a fair measure of success. He manufactured brick largely on his own farm, and many of the prominent buildings of Syracuse are from the brick of his make. In the war perioil he filled many contracts for the general government in purchasing horses, etc., a business which was conducted with the same integrity which governed all his operations. He. with James Noxon, was responsible for the organization of the company which built the first street railway in the city. — ihat running to the First ward, — and he w.is for a number of years its General Manager. l!ut the crown- ing work, perhaps, of Mr. .Vvery's life was the founding of the Onondaga County Milk Association, an institution that has not only been a benefit to its members and the farmers generally, but has proved of inestimable advantage to the city of Syracuse. The company, or association, was organ- ized in January, 1872, with Mr. .Vvery as President, an office which he held to the time of his death ; I>. F Scott, Vice-President; and Cyrus D. Avery, Secretary and Treasurer. The capital stock was $50,000, which was increased in 1875 to |iioo,ooo, when the building of the association was erected. Mr. Avery's belief was. and it was supported by after experience, that the cost of selling milk couhl be greatly reduced by such an organization ; that the community could at the same time obtain milk at a price as low or lower than it had done, with an almost absolute guarantee that it would be pure. All this has proven to be the result of his wisdom and foresight, and the .association is to-day a com- plete success in every sense. Mr. Avery was a liberal contributor to the stock of the association, but never accepted any compensation for his services as its head officer. In politics Mr. .\very was a Republican after the election of President Lincoln, but he never sought oflRce and often declined it when tendered him. Mr. Avery met with a sudden and accidental death. On the fifth of January, 1SS2. while driving his horse and cutter in .Syracuse, he collided with Ihcslcilsof a party of coasiers and was BlOGRArillCAL. 35 thrown violently to the ground. He suffered a severe concussion of the brain and other injuries which caused his death on the I2th of that month. The calamity was a shock to the whole com- munity and the feeling of great loss was general. At a memorial meeting after his death the Milk .Association adopted a testimonial to the memory of the deceased from which it is fitting to make the following extract: " In the decease of our brother this Association loses the influence and zeal of one of the first to originate, sustain and defend it through long years of trial. Honest in principle, generous in purpose, with good business tact, he ever commanded esteem and such assistance as will usually render long enterprise successful." Personally Mr. Avery was one of the most genial of men. His heart was warm and filled with good impulses. No person ever entered his employ in whatever capacity who was not placed under deep obligation to him. His friendships were loyal and kindness untiring. Mr. Avery left no childrcii. EARL B. .\I,VORD was born in the town of Steuben, Oneida county, N. Y., October 7, 1822. His father's name was .\nson .\lvord, and his mother was .Abigail Clark, and both were origi- nally from New England. There were three sons and two daughters in the family. Earl B. being the youngest. In March, iS2g, the family moved to Onondaga \alley. The subject of this sketch was only six years of age when the family came to Onondaga county, and from that time until 1S41 he remained at home, working for neighbors or attending the district school, where he acquired his entire education. In 1841 he engaged in the lime business with his brothers, Clark Alvord and Henry G. Alvord, at Onondaga Valley. He soon afterward purchased his brothers' interest in the business and continued it as one of his several interests until his death. In 1849 >Ir. Alvord moved to Syracuse and soon afterward built a lime mill on the comer of Lock and Canal streets, it being now- occupied by the Mowry & Barnes packing house. His business prospered under his prudent and energetic management and in 1S69 he invested largely in limestone quarries at Jamesville, N. Y., and established branches at that place and at Binghamton, N. Y., the same business being now conducted under the style of E. B. Alvord & Co. In 1S7S he engaged largely in the coal business at Syracuse, and in iSSo opened a branch at Cleveland, Ohio. He continued in the coal business until his death in 1SS3. Mr. Alvord was the pioneer in making the McAdam pavement in Syracuse, Warren street being the first covered with that kind of roadway in the city. These were the more important of the many business enterprises which engaged Mr. Alvord's energies. He was a bitter opponent of monopolies and sacrificed many thousands of dollars in making the price of coal and other commodities cheaper for the people of Syracuse. With that end in view he enlarged his mill property on Lock street and converted it into an abbattoir which was the means of reducing the price of pork product in Syracuse. He was a man of unusually broad business views and possessed the capacity for grasp- ing large undertakings and pushing them to a profitable consummation. Mr. Alvord was always liberal in his politicial views, never identifying himsell closely with any party. He was frequently tendered the nomination for Mayoralty and other prominent municipal offices, but always declined. He was a firm believer in the future prosperity and growth of Syracuse and at favorable opportunities invested largely in real estate, of which he was large owner at the time of his death. He possessed a generous nature and often aided others in times of need. In all busi- ness connections he was a wise counselor and by his strict integrity and liberal business principles, gained a high position in the esteem of the community. Mr. Alvord was married in 1S49 to Miss Helen Hickok, of Onondaga \'alley, who still survives him. Thev had two sons, Anson E. and Edgar Alvord, both of whom are residents of Syracuse. 36 Memorial History of Syracuse. JAMES BYRON BROOKS was bom at Rockingham, Windham county, \'t., on the 27th of |unc, 1839. "'* father was Nathaniel Brooks and his mother was Emily Cutler, both of whom were from Massachusetts. The mother died in 1S47. and the father went to California in 1853 and died in that State. He was a farmer and the subject of this sketch passed his boyhood on the Vermont farm and at the district school. In the spring of 1858 he attended one term at the academy in Spring- field, Vt., and in the fall of that year entered Newbury Seminary, at Newbury, Vt., where he con- tinued his studies, with some interruptions, until the breaking out of the war in the spring of 1861. He enlisted at once in the three months' service under the first call for 75,000 volunteers, in the Brad- ford Guards, formed at Bradford, \'t., which became a part of the First \'olunteer Infantry of the State. The company was mustered into the U. S. ser\ice on the gth day of May, 1861. The regi- ment was stationed at Fortress Monroe most of its term, but saw a little active service at the battle of Big Bethel. Returning home Mr. Brooks re-enlisted in Co. H, of the Fourth \'ermont regiment, and on September 12, 1S61, was commissioned Second Lieutenant of his company. This regiment formed a part of the \'ermont brigade, which was connected with the Si.xth corps of the Army of the Potomac until the close of the war. Lieutenant Brooks was detailed for duty in the U. S. Signal Corps, by order of General Hancock, on the 2Sth of December, iSOi. He was promoted to First Lieutenant of Co. I, of his regiment, on the 19th of January, 1862. He remained at the Signal Camp of Instruction in Georgetown, I). C, until the 7th of March following, when he was assigned to field duty as a Signal officer. From this time Lieutenant Brooks served in the field with the Army of the Potomac and took part in all of the principal battles in which that army was engaged, except the battles of the Peninsula, at which time he was serving with General McDowell's command, and sub- sequently was under that of General Pope. He served continually in the field in ihe Signal Corps until August 31st, 1863, when at his own urgent recjuest. Lieutenant Brooks was permitted to return to service in his own regiment. In the campaign which led up to the battle of the Wilderness, the regiment served with distinction, and in that memor.ible engagement on the 0th of May, 1864, Cap- tain Brooks received agunshot wound. His Captain's commission is dated May 5th, 1864. He was taken to Seminary hospital at lleorgetown, and later to the hospital at Annapolis, Md., and on the 5th of August, 1864, was honorably discharged from the service on account of disability from wounds received in action. After reaching home Captain Brooks immediately entered Newbury Seminary to complete his studies. In the fall of the same year he entered Dartmouth College and graduated in June, 1869. Having decided upon adopting the law as a profession, Mr. Brooks began his studies with Col. Ros- well Farnham, lately Governor of the State of Vermont, who was then in practice at Bradford. This period of study was supplemented by a course in the Albany Law School, from which he graduated in 1871. He was at once admitted to the Bar in this State and commenced practice in Syracuse Februsry ist, 1872. The second year of his practice he was a member of the firm of Fuller, Vann & Brooks, and in July, 1874, became a member of the firm of Ruger, Jenney, Brooks & French. He continued in this law firm and its successors until May Ist, tSSy, when the firm dissolved, Mr. Brooks retiring. Since that time Mr. Brooks has practiced alone. In Syracuse Mr. Brooks has received several evidences of the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens. He was Alderman of the Eighth ward in 1884-5, School Commissioner in 1S86-7, and on June 21, 1888, wasappointed one of the Board of Commissioners toe.\amine into the sources of water supply for the city. After subsequent legislation, based upon the report of that Board, Mr. Brooks was made one of the Board of Water Commissioners of the city, which is now in existence and en- gaged in the preliminary work of building water works which will give Syracuse an ample supply of water from Skaneateles lake. He is a trustee of the Syracuse University, since 1885, and President of the Voung Men's Christian Association since 1886. He is a member of the Methodist church. Mr. Brooks was married on the 7lh day of September, 1873, at East Orange, Vt., to Miss Caro- line L. Jewell. Biographical. 37 THADDEUS M. WOOD was born the gth of March, 1772, at Lenox, Massachusetts. He was a graduate of Dartmouth College, with the class of 1790. He entered upon the pursuit of his legal studies, with Thomas R. Gold, Esq., and closed them in the office of Joseph Kirkland, Esq., of Utica, immediately after which, in 1794, he came to Onondaga Hollow, and opened a law ofi'ce, being the first lawyer who established himself in the county. He soon became distinguished for his legal capacity, and during his life exercised a prominent influence throughout the county. He became widely known as a military man ; was Lieutenant Colonel Commandant, in 1809, in which capacity he was extremely active and useful during the war of 1812. He w.-is elevated to the rank of Brigadier-General in 1818, and to the rank of a Major-General in 1820. General Wood was a gentlemen of marked and well defined characteristics, both of mind and manners, and no one could be much in his society without understanding many traits of his character, while others were not so readily disclosed to the public gaze. In his manners he was often abrupt. The aboTe plate is u fac Biutilc of an old print. 38 Memorial History of Syracuse. sometimes even blunt and perhaps rough, but his thoughts flowed with great rapidity and power, while he often gave to them a sudden and impulsive expression. As a lawyer, it is perhaps suflicient to say. that in the early part of the present century, when Kellogg, and Korman, and Sabin, were in the height of their practice and the zenilh of their powers, the Onondaga Bar had no man superior to Gen. Wood, and perhaps not his equal, in all things. If the laws of real property and ihe action of ejectment, (which then embraced the most im- portant suits tried in the county,) were better understood by Fornian and Kellogg, Gen. Wood fully equaled them in his general .icquaintance with the common law, in the investigation and preparation of his causes, and especially in the sagacity and astuteness which he brought into exercise on the trial of his suits. He omitted to present no favorable view of his client's case, no point which fortified his action or his defense. And on the other hand, he watched his opponent with an eagle eye. never failing to discover the weak points in his case, or to make every needful objection in the progress of the cause. His client's rights were safe, not in his learning and abilities only, but also in his remark- able care and unwearied devotion. He looked upon his clients as his wards, and extended his guar- dianship to the protection of all their rights. At about the age of fifty. Gen. Wood's large real estate, and the necessary cares of increasing property and other pursuits, began rapidly to withdraw him from his profession, and he gave but little attention to its duties, except so far as was necessary to his own business. For twenty years and more, during most of which time he was in company with the late Hon. George Hall, Gen. Wood had a very extensive practice. The firms of Wood 6>: Hall, who were Democrats, and Forman & Sabin, who were Federalists, doing the most business by far, of any then in the county, unless their practice may have been equaled by that of Daniel Kellogg, at Skane- atcles. The Hon. Samson Mason, the Hon. I'hilo Gridley, and the Hon. Asher Tyler, are some of the many students who laid the foundation of their legal learning under his instructions. During the war of 1S12, he was a Colonel, and within twenty-four hours after notice of the threatened descent of the British at Oswego, he was on his way to the scene of danger, with most of the regiment under his command. .-Vnd again, when the alarm of an invasion at Sackett's Harbor was given soon after, Gen. Wood, at a moment's warning, dispatched messengers throughout the county, aroused the slumbering warriors of the Onondaga nation, and with his regiment and Indian allies, at once repaired to the north. .\s an officer, he was in appearance remarkably fine looking, active and energetic, and had an opportunity presented, those who knew him will not doubt but his conduct would have commanded the approbation of the public, and theadmiralionof his friends. As a politician. Gen. Wood was ardent, active, untiring and honest. He embraced the principlesof the Democratic party in early life, and supported them with ability and vigor. When the Democratic party was divided, he became a Clintonian, and continued such until the death of Mr. Clinton, and with most of the leaders of that party, supported Gen. Jackson in 1828 ; and left him in 1S32, or be- fore. He took an active interest in public affairs until the close of his life, and at all times judged and spoke of public men and public affairs with all the acuteness and discrimination for which he was remarkable. Gen. Wood was celebrated throughout the State for the pungency of his wit, and quickness and severity of his retort. He was never at a loss for a reply, either at the bar or in pri- vate ctmversation, and the opponent who escaped from his wit and his satire uninjured, was fortunate indeed. Onondaga was almost as well known in the State by the wit of Gen. Wood, as by the sar- casms of Gen. Root, or the enterprise and foresight of Forman and tleddes. As a neighbor. Gen. Wood was kind and obliging, ready at all times to grant those little daily kindnesses which good neighborhood so constantly require. As a father, no man was more indulgent or more affectionate. With something of a rough exterior and an austere manner, fountains of the warmest affection for his children ever flowed from his heart. In speaking of them at the age of half a century, he would often melt down to tears. Though some of ihem sometimes annoyed him by their indiscretions, and perhaps even irritated his rather impulsive nature, still, peihaps the most marked characteristic of Gen. Wood was his fondness for his children and his acute susceptibility to all that affected their happiness or their fame. Gen. Wood's fondness for real estate was quite a p,ission. He was ready to buy, but never to sell. He, at an early day, became a very large landholder in the county, at Manlius, Liverpool, Salina, Onondaga IJollow, and between the Hollow and Syracuse, and at various BiOGRArincAL. 39 other places. This passion also may have led to, or sprung out of another, a ileciiied fondness for agriciillure, at least its theory and study, den. Wood was not a good practical farmer. His lands were far too e.ttensive, and his other pursuits were far too numerous and pressing. Hut he took a great interest in agricultural pursuits, the introduction of improved breeds of cattle, and in the meet- ings and discussions of Agricultural Societies. Gen. Wood w.as never idle. If not engaged in the active duties of life, with which he was generally overwhelmed, he was storing his mind with those funds of knowledge which, combined with his wit, and a happy and joyous disposition, made him a most agreeable, entertaining and instructive companion. He knew the history of Onondaga from its early settlements until his death, in all the minuteness of its details, had been himself a prominent actor in all its stages, and by the aid of a careful obser\ation, and in a most retentive memory, was furnished with an amount of knowletlge on this subject, not now possessed by any of his survivors. Thus, he was at all times ready and happy to impart, and whoever drew from that fountain would be pleased to repair to it again. (Jen. Wood was truthful in all his intercourse, moral in his habits, and possessed with a nice sense of honor. When severely pressed for money, and was anxious to raise it, and willing to give his own note, well endorsed, to obtain it, he has been known ro refuse to promise on his honor to meet the note when due, as that would compel him to pay it. Gen. Wood had his faults, as well as his virtues, and the truth of history requires that they shall not be passed over in silence. He was never popular. Lawyers are, from the nature of their profession, almost obliged to make enemies ; but General Wood had more than the usual number. There were many of them made no doubt in the ordinary course of legal proceedings, some perhaps by the pungency of his wit or the bitterness of his sarcasm, but more, probably, from other causes. His resolute de- termination not to sell his real estate added to a most deeply seated habit of procrastination, eventually very much embarrassed him in his affairs. He was at an early day sued more or less, and finally he paid a large amount of his debts in execution. These suits he often delayed by plea or de- murers. using the means which the courts then furnished to obtain time; sometimes perhaps by tech- nical objections to obtain a bill of costs, or defeat a just cause of action. This was one ground of complaint. Being pressed by his own debts, it is also said that he sometimes pressed his own debtors more severely than he should have done, and that his conduct was unkind and oppressive. This may have been so, but the state of his own private affairs must be his apology, not his justilication. He also had more or less litigation with his father, and perhaps with some other of his relatives, and with his former partners, particularly with George Hall and Benajah Byington. The suit with Hall was commenced about the year 1825, and was a bill filed by Hall for the settlement of their partner- ship accounts. This suit was more than twenty years in Court of Chancery, and was finally brought to a close by the executors of Hall on the one side and the surviving administrator of Wood on the other. The history of the Byington suit is very much the tame. lie was considered litigious in the community, but he did not bring needless suits, nor was he greatly in the habit of resorting to the law ; but being often sued himself by others, and defending many of the suits for delay or otherwise, he acquired a reputation in the popular mind which did not justly belong to him. Whatever may have been the respective merits of these various oontroversies, the effect no doubt was to make Gen. , Wood unpopular in the community, and to injure his reputation to a certain extent. But Ihey did not destroy the confidence of his friends in the native kindness of his heart, the goorn at Kinderhook in 1788. He died in 1848 at the age of sixty years. His ancestors were from Holland. The mother was Margaret Gosman, of New York city, who died at Ghent, Columbia county, X. V., about the year 1S32. They had a family of thirteen children, one of whom died in infancy, leaving four sons and eight daughters. Of the sons four became prosperous booksellers, of whom the subject of this record is one. The boyhood of Robert G. Wynkoop was passed at home in an atmosphere of sturdy piety and surrounded by wholesome influences that fostered and directed his natural energy and industry into proper channels and planted in his young mind the germs that developed into a character fully endowed with those principles of integrity and honor that are the foundation of all useful lives. He was educated at the Kinderhook academy and graduated with an excellent education in 1835. His first occupation away from his home was teaching school in Coxsackie and West Troy, which he followed one year. He then went to New York city and was employed as clerk in a wholesale dry goods house about a year, when the financial panic of 1837 swept over the country and for a time demoralized all kinds of business. It was in the next year, 183S, that Mr. W'ynkoop performed his first political act by casting his first vote for Seward as governor of the State. In the same year also he was honored with the first and only office of a political character which he has ever held, being appointed hy Governor Seward as a Commissioner of Deeds. The effects of the panic in New York city were felt, perhaps, more severely than in any other part of the countrj', and Mr. Wynkoop remembers being compelled to walk through files of soldiers in Wall street who were guarding the banks. After one year as a clerk in New York Mr. Wynkoop joined with his brother, Peter S., and opened a book store in Hudson. N. Y. This partnership continued until 1848. In 1841 Robert G., still a member of the firm, went to .\uburn, N. Y., and opened a book store which he conducted during the life of the partnership. With ten years of active experience Mr. Wynkoop now felt an ambition for a wider field of business. He had already learned of the bright prospects of Syracuse as a business center. It was not then a large place, but had just been incorporated as a city and was already becoming somewhat noted for the spirit and enterprise which has always characterized its business circles. In pursuance of well considered plans he, therefore, dissolved the partnership alluded to, joined with his other brother, Jonathan G. Wynkoop, and after closing out his business 46 Memorial History of Syracuse. at Auburn and Hudson, opened a book store in Syracuse in the fame block where it has since been successfully carried on through a long period of forty-two years. The only change in the firm during this period was the retirement of Jonathan G. in 1S70, and the accession of James S. Wynkoop, son of Robert G. Mr. Wy nkoop now enjoys the distinction of being one of the three oldest continuous merchants in Syracuse, the other two being S. 1'. fierce and J. Dean Hawley ; and the latter has just now retired from the field. It need scarcely be said that during his long business experience in Syracuse Mr. Wynkoop has gained a reputation for uncommon mercantile capacity, unimpeachable integrity, as well as the respect and esteem of the entire community. Successful business careers of more than fiftv years duration, forty-two of which are passed in one location, are never founded upon sand ; they must inevitably be, and always are, built upon principles of uprightness, business honor, prudence and fairness by men of sagacity, foresight and indomitable perseverence and industry. .Ml of these conditions have surrounded and governed the conduct of the old and reputable Wynkoop business house. The character of Robert G. Wynkoop as a citizen and a man has been honored in the com- munity where he has lived so Icng in many ways. He was one of the incorporators of the Onondaga County Savings Bank and one of the most active in the laborious work of placing it upon a solid foundation and in conducting its manifold affairs ever since. He was its nce-President for many years, and is at present. He was made a Director of the New York State Hanking Company, and is still in that office. He is a Iiirector in the Trust and Deposit Company of Onondaga, and has been from its organization. He is a Trustee of the Oakwood Cemetery Association, was actively in- strumental in giving to the city that beautiful burial place, and has always taken a deep interest in its improvement. Mr. Wynkoop's naturally benevolent impulses have found expression in Syracuse in various directions. He was one of the few men who gave liberally of their time and means to es- tablish that beneficent institution, the Old Ladies' Home, and has been one of its Trustees from the first. He is a Trustee of the Onondaga Orphan Asylum, and has been for many years. He is a regular attendant at the Reformed Dutch Church, on James street, and it has received from him not only material support, but the benefit of his counsel in all of its affairs. Mr. Wynkoop is not lacking in public spirit, and the affairs of the city at large, its growth and prosperity, have always received his earnest attention. He was one of the incorporators of the Genesee and Water street Railway Company, and its President for many years. Though he has never held public office it is not because such honors have not often been tendered him ; but his tastes are not inclined in that direction. He has been an active politician in the Whig and Republican ranks, and has always devoted himself to the upholding of the better principles of party action. In the late Presidential campaign, when General Harrison was making his successful run for the Presidency, Mr. Wynkoop was one of the prime leaders in the organization of the Harrison Old Men's Club, all of the members of which had voted for the first President Harrison. One hundred and ninety who enjoyed that distinction were found in the city of Syracuse. Such is a britf and imperfect record of the active life of one of the staunch and honorable business men of Syracuse. Mr. Wynkoop was married in 1S46 to Miss Caroline C. Wood, of .\uburn. She died in March, 1870. Their oldest child is now Mrs. Charles T. Redfield. Their two sons are James S., now in business with his father, and Robert G., Jr. DR. WILLIAM AGUR IL\WLEY, the homa-opathic physician longest resident in .Syracuse, was born on the 28th of August, 1820, in Hinsdale, Berkshire county. Mass. His father was the Rev. W. A. Hawley, a Congregational minister, who preached for twenty-five years in that place. He died on the 20th of May, 1854, in Sunderland, Mass., about six weeks after his removal there. The mother of the subject of this sketch was Miss Debby Aurelia Warner, daughter of Ben- jamin Ruggles Warner, of Brookfield, Fairfield county. Conn. This Hawley family is descended from Joseph Hawley, who settled in Stratford, Conn., about 1630. The Rev. Wm. A. Hawley had seven children, of whom six lived to maturity. Of the seven, three were sons, one of whom died in WyCyL^ir^.*^^ ^. ^<^--cA^ Biographical. 47 infancy ; the youngest went west when a young man, settled first in St. Louis, and died in Chicago in iSSC ; he was an inventor. Dr. Hawley was the third child and second son. He was carefully fitted for college by his father, who performed the same service for other young men. At eighteen years of age, in the year 183S, he entered Williams College and graduated with credit in 1S42. Like so many college graduates who have not abundant means, he turned his first attention to teaching, going for that purpose to Kentucky, where he found employment in Lexington and Louisville, lie was called home after five years by the sickness of a sister, and intended to re- turn, but changed his plans and began the study of medicine according to the tenets of the old school, in the winter of 1S48, with Dr. Shaw, of Plainlield, Mass. lie remained there only three months, when he went to .Albany, N. Y., and continued study with Drs. .\rmsby and Kreeman. Dr. Hawlev was devoted to his chosen profession, studied it in all of its phases with the closest and most persistent industry, and graduated from the .Albany Medical College in 1851, a confident be- liever in the doctrines of allopathy. In September, 1851, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Sophia \Villard. of Lancaster, Mass., who died on the 23d of June, i8Sg. Her father was the Rev. Benja- min Willard, a Haptist minister, and her mother was Sarah Conant, of Worcester county, .Mass. Dr. Hawley settled in Albany and began practice, in which he was reasonably successful, and thought himself located for life. But after about tw-o years of professional labor, during which period his belief in the power of drugs to cure diseases underwent a gradual change, which finally culminated in his renunciation of the entire school of practice to which he had given so much time and study. Various incidents, combined with his own study and thought, led up to this change. A brother, (be- fore mentioned,) came on from the west and was taken sick with every indication of an attack of ty- phoid fever. He and his wife were converts to the water cure treatment, and Dr. Hawley saw his sick brother, after being packed in wet sheets a few times, without a particle of medicine, brought out of the threatened illness in a few days. This experience made so deep an impression on him that he went to a bookstore and obtained all the authoritative works on the subject that he could find, and mastered their contents. The information thus obtained titted him for the unprejudicial study of Homtcopathy. He was soon called to Saratoga Springs to assoctate himself with Dr. Be- dortha in the water cure at that place. While there he made, with his associate's consent, several remarkable cures by Ilomnopathic treatment of cases of long standing, and which the regular treat- ment of the establishment had utterly failed to relieve. After nine months at this cure. Dr. Hawley took charge of the well-established water cure at Lebanon Springs, Columbia county, N. Y., which was the first water cure founded in this country and was very successful. Here he expected to re- main, but the sale of the establishment forced him to make a change at the end of a year. He had by this time become a firm believer in the tenets of the Homeopathic school, and had given the sub- ject the most thorough study. He now removed to Watertown. X. \ ., and began a period of suc- cessful practice which continued si.x years, and was so satisfactory that he, one night, expressed to a friend his opinion that he should never leave Watertown; but the same night he received a letter which so changed his purpose that he went ne.\t day to Syracuse in response to the call of Dr. A. R. Morgan, then of this city. The result was a partnership with Dr. Morgan and the removal of his family to Syracuse just two weeks later. This was in tS6l, and the partnership then entered upon continued for si.\ years, being closed by the ill health of his partner, who was compelled to abandon practice. Since that time Dr. Hawley has practiced alone. The law governing the practice of Homieopathy is becoming more and more widely understood, and while it cannot be e.\plained here, it is proper to state that Dr. Hawley's practice has been char- acterized by a strict obedience to that law, and that his success has been such as constantly to strengthen his belief in its truth. He is a thinker, not alone upon the practice of medicine, but on the many subjects which have claimed his attention. At the same time he has always given candid attention to the spoken or written thoughts of others. His position in his profession has been and now is in the front rank, and he has been honored by his brethren in many ways. He is at present a member of the County Ilomieopathic Medical Society, and held the office of President eight of the twenty-seven yearsof its existence. He was, until his volunt.ary withdrawal, a member of the New York State Homncopathic Medical Society, also a member of the American Institute of Homieopathy, the first national institution of medicine in the world, but withdrew therefrom on account of their de- 48 Memorial History of Syracuse. parture from the principles of the school. He is a member of the International Hahnemannian Asso- ciation, and was its president in iSSS. He is also a member of the Central New York Homaopathic Society, and is among its ex-presidents. He has had four children, the yoimgest of whom liied at two months of age. Mary E. was born at Albany, June 8, 1852. William Augustus, born in Water- town January 29, 1856, is now in Pittsburg. Pa., engaged as an architect. Flora C, born in Water- town February 26, i860, married Micajah J. Hoives, and lives in Holyoke, Mass. A born Puritan, still retaining many of their characteristics, he has found that neither theirslate- ments, nor those of any of the sects, adequately express the thing which is to him religion. Having been, many years ago, suspended from the communion of the church, of which he had for years been a most active and enthusiastic member, because of his rejection of some of their statements, he has since remained outside of all religious organizations, while yet religion is to him a verity of verities ; the chief concern of this mortal state. ARCHIMEDES RUSSELL was born in Andover, Essex county, Mass., on the 13th of June, 1840, and was next to the youngest of a family of nine children, a twin brother dying in in- fancy. His father was Moody Russell, a native of the town of Alfred, York county. Me., and a de- scendant of the early settlers of that State from the Plymouth Colony of Massachusetts Bay, and who married Fanny Wardwell, a native of the town of Andover, and also a descendant of the Plymouth Colony. This aged couple are still residents of Andover. The son was apprenticed when only thirteen years of age to Charles S. Parker, a carriage and sign p.iinter, who is still pursuing the same business at the same place, and continued with him two years. Moody Russell was an extensive contractor and builder, and when his son was tifteen years old it was determined that he should be trained to his father's vocation. He accordingly gave his time and energies to that business, attending school a portion of the time, during a period of five years, when he had nearly reached his majority. Andover was, and still is, distinguished for its edu- cational facilities, and at the time under consideration boys of even ordinary circumstances received excellent instruction during the winter months. Just before reaching his majority Mr. Russell entered as a student the otlice of John Stevens, then a prominent architect of Hoston, and one who enjoyed a large practice in that city and through- out New England. There Mr. Russell received such instruction and training as could be obtained at that time in that city — a city which has always occupied an advanced position in this as well as all other branches of the arts and sciences. On the 4th of December, 1862. Mr. Russell first located in Syracuse under an engagement made with the well known architect, Horatio N. W'hite, whose assistant he remained for a term of years, and down to January 1st, 1868. Since that date Mr. Russell has continued in the active prac- tice of his profession in Syracuse. As an architect it is not too much to say that Mr. Russell occupies a position in the front rank. Many of the notable structures in Syracuse and in other cities and villages of the State were erected from his designs and plans, several of the more conspicuous being — Onondaga County Clerk's office building. Snow building, Greyhound building, McCarthy's wholesale warehouse. Congress Mall, Dissell's Clothing warehouse, W. S. Peck's Clothing warehouse. Church of the Assumption school building. House of Providence, Third National liank, Crouse Memorial College, Jacob Amos' resi- dence, George D. Whedon's residence, J. S. Grouse's residence, Crouse stables, U.S. While's resi- dence, L. .S. Denison's residence— all of Syracuse. Mctlraw building, Cornell University ; Sibley building, Cornell ; Otsego County Court House ; Presbyterian Church, Little Falls N. \.: D. H. Burrell's mansion. Little Falls, N. Y.; Warner Miller's mansion, Herkimer, N. W; W. S. Dicken- son's mansion, Malone, N. Y.; J. Stevens' mansion, Rome, N. Y.: Devereaux building, Oneida. N. Y.; Cortland House, Cortland, N. Y.; Second National Bank, Oswego, N. Y. In the course of his professional experience Mr. Russell has gained the entire conlidence of all wiih whom he has had business relations. Biographical. 49 In Syracuse, where Mr. Russell is best known, his character and qualifications are such that he has been called to public service in positions of trust and responsibility. He was one of the Board of Fire Commissioners from iSSi to 18S5, and served as President of the Hoard during the last two years of the term. In politics he is an earnest Republican, but has never been in any sense an office seeker. He was elected Supervisor from the Seventh w.-ird in 18S4 and again in 18S6 and 1887. In the deliberations of that body, his course was such as to fully justify the confidence of his con- stituents. Mr. Russell was married in Boston on the 30th of June, 1S64, to Susie M. Bartlett, of that city. HON. JOHN LIGHTON. The subject of this sketch was born in Syracuse January 20, 1840. His father's name was also John Lighton, and he was for many years a well known butcher. He died in this city in 1841, when the younger John was only one year old. He left twoothersons, one of whom is lames Lighton, of whom further mention will be made. The other was Patrick Lighton, who died in Syracuse in that year. John Lighton belongs to that large class of .\merican citizens commonly spoken of as self-made men. His opportunities for education, as it is obtained in schools, were very limited and confined to the district schools of the city ; and even these he felt compelled to leave when he was hardly ten years old, to earn his own livelihood. He began clerking in a grocery then kept by Mrs. Stanton on the corner of Canal and McHride streets, the site that he, in company with his brother, has for many years past made familiar to all Syracusans. He could hardly see over the top of Mrs, Stan- ton's little counter at that time, but he worked for her interest, as well as his own, and learned all that could be learned about the grocery trade in such a place during four years. He then changed to the grocery kept in the same block by O. C. Shuart, where he remained two years. He was then about si.Kteen years old and became convinced that a good trade was a necessity to every young man who has his own way to make, and accordingly began as an apprentice with Willard & Hawley, to become a silversmith. .\t this trade he worked faithfully four years and became a first class artisan. At the end of that period he joined with Adelbert Willard, son of his employer, in carrying on a silver ware manufactury, in which business Willard & Ha-.vley furnished the capital and the profits were divided between them and the young men. This business was successful until the breaking out of the war, (one and a half years,) when the great fluctuations in the price of silver rendered .it so un- certain that it was given up. John Lighton now went back to the grocery business, in which he has been a more than ordinarily successful dealer for thirty years. He first joined with his brother lames, and together they, with L. Cowan, began trade at the Lodi locks, on the canal, under the firm name of Lighton, Cowan & Lighton, succeeding the firm of Cowan & Lighton, compo.sed of James Lighton and Mr. Cowan. Soon afterward the firm opened another grocery at the corner of Canal and .McHride streets, and also began operations in boating on the canal. In 1862 the brothers pur- chased Mr. Cowan's interest in the business, and continued the trade at both points, and all the time extending their operations, especially in the way of purchasing ail the near-by groceries, thus remov- ing competition and enlarging their own trade. They also adopted a plan which made their estab- lishment very popular for many miles along the canal, keeping their place open and lighted day and night the boating season through. In 1866 Arthur McKeever was taken into the firm under the style of Lighton Brothers & McKeever, and it so remained down to February 11, iSgl, an unbroken period of business of twenty-five years. By conducting their trade on principles of strict integrity, and by exercising their best energies and constant watchfulness, their business was uncommonly successful. They extended their boating operations and added to it a large interest in salt manufacturing at both Salina and Geddes. John Lighton was the first president and a stockholder in the New York Salt Company, and still holds the same ofiice. In the year 188S the John Lighton M.-ichine Company was organized, with Mr. Lighton as president, for the manufacture of automatic machines and cash registers. In all of these industries .Mr. Lighton's sound common sense, prudence, good judgment, and personal popularity, have been large factors of success. His business qualifications are well G 50 Memorial History of Syracuse. recognized in the community, and he was elected a trustee of the Syracuse Savings Bank in 1870. lie is also a director in the \orth American Salt Company. In politics Mr. I.ighton is a Democrat of the liberal school, believing strongly in principles and men, rather than in party manipulation. In the fall of 1881 he received the nominatinn for the As- sembly, and was elected by a majority of 157. and was re-elected for a second term by an increased majority reaching 655. This was a high tribute to his usefulness as a legislator. When nominated for the second term, the Albany Argus paid him the following compliment: "The third district of Onondaga honors itself in honoring Mr. I.ighton with a re-nomination. No 'black list' of the present legislature contains his name. His rugged honesty and good sense made him a valuable legislator last winter. His views are broad, his action open-handed, and his devotion to the people is well understood. Whether in committee or in the house, Mr. Lighton's opinions always carry weight. His majority in 18S1 was 155." The Syracuse Con rifr on this occasion spoke of Mr. Lighton as follows: "Mr. I.ighton made a most creditable record in the last Assembly. Few men in that body brought auay a brighter name. Mr. Lighton was sent to represent the business interests of his dis- trict, and to a certain extent of the State, and to his persistent efforts and his wise management some of the best measures of the session are largely due. 'Free canals,' especially, found in .Mr. I.ighton an earnest and devoted champion. Fidelity such as was his ought not to go without recognition from an appreciative constituency." Mr. Lighton's most important work in the Assembly was in connection with the canals. He also performed e.vcellent work with reference to the salt industry and the elevator monopoly in liuffalo. The details of the legislation introduced and carried through by Mr. Lighton cannot be followed here, but it is eminently proper to state that it was of the utmost importance to his constituency and drew from them the most gratifying congratulations. In an Albany letter reviewing the session of 1883 we find the following relative to Mr. Lighton's legislative service: "Mr. Lighton's bill requiring the Superintendents of Public Works to report the trade and tonnage on the canals has become a law ; this is a very important measure to the boatmen as well as to the ta.\ payers. The bill incorporating the Canal Boat Owners' and Commercial .Asso- ciation, for obtaining reports from persons navigating the canals, as to the condition of the canals, conduct of lock tenders, and kindred subjects, was rendered superfluous by the procuring of a char- ter by Mr. Lighton from the Secretary of State. "On account of the objections in the senate as to the responsibility of the State for damages, Mr. Lighton's bill repealing the charter of the European Cable Towing Comjiany was laid aside in the Assembly. "As a member of the Canal Committee, Mr. Lighton was a heroic worker tor the interests of the canals and the boatmen. If his own elevator bill had been allowed to be reported it would have passed both houses. The Covernor now has the following of Mr. Lighton's bills: Providing for the lighting of locks on the Erie canal. Providing for the enlargement of lock 46 (Utica) so that two boats can pass. Providing that there shall hereafter be paid and collected upon all salt manufactured on the reservation a duty of one-half of one cent per bushel of tifty-six pounds' weight, and all laws prescribing a higher rate of duty are hereby repealed. This allows the Syracuse salt manufacturers to compete with the newly discovered salt fields. Providing for the removal of coarse salt vats and other erections situated on lots 259 and 270 of the salt springs reservation. "On the whole, Mr. Lighton's record is that of an energetic and faithful member who has the canal interests at heart, and who did all he could to protect and advance them." "Mr. Lighton was the originator and promoter of the bill providing for double locks on the Erie canal, for which the Slate has already appropriated ifi 0,000,000. This is one of the most important improvements ever adopted in the great water-way. As a public-spirited citizen of Syracuse, Mr. Lighton enjoys an enviable reputation. Mr. Lighton was married December 2, 1862, to Miss Mary Theresa Fichter. They have si.v sons and three daughters. The eldest son is John B., who is vice-president and manager of the John Lighton Machine Company. C. Frank is of the firm of Hier & Lighton, wholesale cigar and tobacco dealers, in Syracuse. J. Edward, of Lighton Brothers *: Sons, grocers, in Syracuse. George II., is in the retail tobacco business, also in Syracuse. BlOGRAPHICAI.. 51 GEORGE E.DANA, Vice-President of tlie Whitman & liarnes Manufacturing Company, and I'res. ident of the Koard of I'olicc Commissioners of Syracuse, was born in Lowell, Mass., on the 5th of Kebruary, 1S34. His father was David Pana, one of the early citizens of Lowell, 10 which place he removed from Oedham, Mass. He was a successful business man and held several city offices. Ills mother was Klizabelh Karnes. After some years of study in private schools, he entered Harvard College at the age of sisteen years and graduated with credit in 1854. He then spent about fifteen months in the study of the law, but was obliged to give it up. and he at once assumed the business of his father. In 1S62 he became connected, as a civilian, with the (Quartermaster's Department of the U. S. army, and was stationed at different times at Newbern, N. C, then at the headquarters of the loth Army Corps in front of Petersburg, and afterwards at the headquarters of General Grant at City Point, Va. While engaged in this work Mr. Dana developed executive and business ability of a high order and gained experience that has been of great value to him since. In i86f) he went with Col. George Bradley to Port Riley, Kansas, and remained there during the organization of the famous Seventh Cavalry (Custer's) and resigned his position in 1S67. The building of storehouses, ([uarters, etc., was carried out during his term of service at Fort Riley. In 1S6S Mr. Dana took up his resi- dence in Syracuse, and in 1S70 became connected with the manufacturing company of George Parnes iV Co., an account of which is given in another part of this work. Upon the formation of the Whit- man & liarnes Manufacturing Company, in 1877, Mr. Dana had attained such a position in the busi- ness that he w'as made Secretary of the company. This position he occupied until 1889, when he was made vice-President and Manager of the eastern department, a station demanding business qual- ifications of an exceptionally high character. Mr. Dana's standing in the business circles of Syracuse is indicated by his selection for the offices of Director of the State I>ank, of the Trust and Deposit Company, of the Solvay Process Company, of the Tully Pipe Line Company, etc. In whatever sta- tion he is placed and to whatever duties he i^ called, he is a worker in the broadest sense. Active, energetic, prompt in decision, and of fearless integrity and sound confidence in what he believes to be the right thing to do, his efficiency in whatever he undertakes is far above the average. Mr. Dana is a Republican in politics and has given that support to his party which he believes should be given by every good citizen. But he is not at all a politician in the common acceptation of the term. He was honored with the office of member of the City Council of Lowell, Mass., in 1860- fii, and was appointed on the Board of Police Commissioners of Syracuse in l88g. A year ago he was made President of the Board. In this office he has displayed a degree of good judgment as to the necessities of the community and the good of its police force, as well as the utmost fearlessness in advocating various reforms, which have earned him the respect and confidence of the great body of citizens of whatever politics. In business, in political circles, and in social life Mr. Dana occupies, in every sense, an enviable position. Mr. Dana was married in 1S63 to Cordelia Cogswell, daughter of David Cogswell, an okl and respected citizen of Syracuse. His wife died in 1S70, leaving with him two daughters. PL IKR 1!. Ml LLNN.W, an attorney of this city, was born in the town of Lyndon, Catteraugus county, N. Y., December 3, 1850. His parents, Collin McLennan and Ann Prazer McLennan, came from Strathpefler, Rosshire, Scotland, in 1846, and located on the homestead farm in Lyndon, where they have since resided. The subject of this sketch is the second of six children, four of whom are sons residing in Syra- cuse. He attended district school and worked upon the farm until he was si.xteen, and was noted among his acquaintances for good companionship and tireless energy of mind and body. At sixteen he entered the academic department of Alfred L'niversity, in Allegany county, from which he passed to the regular college course, graduating in 1S73. His course was not an easy one. He was obliged to earn, by teaching school in winter and working on the farm in summer, money with which to meet the expenses of the autumn and spring terms which he attended. 52 Memorial History of Syracuse. Having long before determined to make the legal profession his Hfe work, in September, after he had finished at college, he came to Syracuse to study law. After two months reading in the office of Bookstaver & Kingsley he taught school in Geddes for a term of four months and then entered the office of Fuller A: Vann where he remained until his admission to the bar at Rochester, October 6, 1876. He then opened an office in Syracuse alone, but three months later formed a partnership with Major E. O. Farrar, which continued one yar. He then became a member of the firm of Yann. McLennan & Dillaye, which partnership continued until its senior member, Mr. Irving G. Vann, was elevated to the Supreme Court Bench in 18S1. He then organized the firm of Waters, McLen- nan & Dillaye, which continued until 1S82. Mr. McLennan had by this time attained a prominent position in his profession and his abilities were generally recognized. He is an impassioned speaker and a skillful examiner of witnesses, and this led him to that branch of practice most closely connected with the trial of causes. In that field no man, perhaps, has acquired a more conspicuous position at so young an age. In all parts of the State he has been engaged in Ihe trial of important cases and earned a measure of success of which he may well feel proud. In 18S2 he was appointed general counsel for the New ^■ork, West Shore and Buffalo Railroad Company, with headquarters in New York city. In this position of unusual re- sponsibility Mr. McLennan acquitted himself with honor and to the entire satisfaction of the author- ities of that company. He did not change his residence from Syracuse, and when the West Shore road was consolidated with the New York Central, Mr. McLennan took up his practice in Syracuse alone until the elevation of Judge Forbes to the Bench, when he became a member of the firm of Tracy, McLennan & Ayling, which continues to the present time. In politics Mr. McLennan is an uncompromising Republican, and his force and brilliancy as a public speaker have brought him into prominence in many important political campaigns. He has never held office, e.xcept that he was selected by Mayor Kirk, in iSSS, as one of the Special Commis- sioners to report upon the best source of water supply for the city of Syracuse, and in iSSq was con- tinued as one of the regular Board of Commissioners now charged with erecting works to bring water from Skaneateles lake. Mr. McLennan was married in December, l88l, to Miss Belle Barron, of Addison, Steuben county, N. Y. They have four children, one boy and three girls. SELY C. HAYDEN was born in I'ompey, Onondaga county, N. Y., October 25, 1830, and is a direct descendant of the Baronet William Hayden, who came to New England in the ship " Mary and John " about 1630 and settled in Dorchester, Mass. The name Hayden is derived from High- down, the name of the manor house in Norfolk where the early ancestors of this family are first heard of. They were prominent in England from the lime of William the Conqueror to the landing of the first Hayden in this country. William Hayden moved to Windsor township about 1640. During the famous Pequot war he served as a lieutenant. Three children survived him : Daniel, Nathaniel, and Mary. David, a grandson of Daniel, married Dorothy Allen in 1737, and it was their son Allen who, with his wife and children, moved from Harrington, Conn., to Pompey. Allen Hayden had eight children : Clara, Polly, Allen Willard, Zora Austen, Harvey, Olive, Allen, jr., and Annis. Allen Willard Hayden married Abigail Castle, April 17, 1805, and all of their eleven children have been prominent in the communities in which they lived. The father died in June, 1858, and the mother in January, 1864. Sely C. Hayden, son of Allen Willard, like all farmers' boys of that period, began attendance at the district school as soon as he reached a suitable age and later enjoyed a period of study in the noted Pompey academy, from which so many successful men have gone forth into the world. At the age of nineteen years he went to Rochester, where his elder brother, Charles J., was already estab- lished in the furniture manufacturing business, with which was connected a retail store. Sely C. en- tered the store and devoted his best energies to the business for a period of five years, familiarizing himself with all its details. Like many other well-informed men of that time, Mr. Hayden regarded Biographical. 53 SjTacuse as one of the most promising towns for embarking; in business, and he located here in November, 1S55, beginning business at the site now occupied by Ginty's store on South Salina street. Mr. Hayden purchased the stock of .\shley, Williston & White and carried on business there for live years, when he bought the store No. 6g .South Salina street and removed to that location. Five years later he purchased the adjoining store of Kennedy, Spaulding & Co., and has ever since occupied both stores. Asa business man Mr. Hayden h.is enjoyed a life of prosperity, the result of persistent industry and honesty. l'"or over thirty-five years he has carried on a flourishing business and it is not too much to say that no man in Syracuse has done more to adorn and make beautiful the many charming homes in this city. As a citizen he has been a man of public spirit, and though never actively en- g.iged in politics he has always shown a desire to forward the best interests of the community. A prominent member of the First Presbyterian Church, Mr. Hayden has been for twenty-five years an oflicer of the society, and is also an .ictive member of the Board of Counsellors of the Old Ladies' Home. GEN. GUST.WUS SNIPER was born in Padcn, Germany, on the nth of June. 183O. His parents emigrated to America when he was but a lad, and soon after landing in this country came on to Syracuse from New York and here passed the remainder of their lives. The father's name was Joseph Sniper and he died in 1S62, having earned the respect of his fellow citizens. The mother died in 1S78. The subject of this sketch obtained his education in the common schools of Syracuse, improving it as much as he could by attendance at night schools. In the year 1S50 the boy began work at cigar making for (George P. Hier, a trade in which he became proficient and at which he worked continuallv until the breaking out of the war of the rebellion, nearly all of the time in Syra- cuse. In early life he developed an ardent love for military study and practice and joined the Syra- cuse Light Guard about 1854 and afterwards was a member or officer of the Syracuse (Irays and of the Davis Light Guard. In 1859-60 he raised a company known as the Munroe Cadets and was made Captain of the company, which position he held at the breaking out of the war. Thus in the militia, as a member or ofiicer of the Fifty-first regiment, he passed through all the grades from Cor- poral to Colonel and Brevet Brigadier-CIeneral. With the breaking out of the war the young militia oflicer was imbued with the fires of patriot- ism and through his intense love for military life he saw an opportunity to distingush himself in that profession. No sooner was a hostile gun fired against the I'nion than General Sniper took steps to raise a company of volunteers, expecting to join the 12th regiment. In this he was disappointed, for although his company was filled within a very short time, so rapidly were enlistments made in those early days of the great struggle that he found it impossible to connect himself with the first regiment to leave this county. Nothing daunted, however, by this result he immediately formed a new company with the purpose of joining the 24th regiment, of Oswego. In this also he was dis- appointed for a similar reason. Disbanding his company he enlisted in the loist, determined to at least attach himself in person to a volunteer organization. He then raised about one-half of a com- pany and was made Jst Lieutenant and soon afterward Captain. Now his perfect military schooling began to show itself and before the regiment left the State he was promoted to Major. After an honorable career in the service the loist regiment was mustered out in 1863, General Sniper having meanwhile been promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel. He came home with a reputation formilitary skill, bravery and executive ability that was most flattering to himself and friends. When the organiza- tion of the iSjth regiment was resolved upon. Colonel Sniper took a deepand active interest and was, perhaps, more efficient in the final success of the undertaking than any other one person. When the ranks of the regiment were finally filled, in 1864. he was commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel. He was promoted to Colonel before the regiment had seen much active service in the field ; and when that splendid organization entered upon the closing campaign of the war, in the spring of 1865, partici- pating in several brilliant engagements, Colonel Sniper won for himself a name and fame which were 54 Memorial History of Syracuse. heralded across the country in the news columns and illustrations of all prominent periodicals and newspapers. On the field at <^)uaker Road. March 29, 1865, after the colors had been three limes shot down in the immediate face of the enemy, Colonel Sniper pressed to the front, raised the flag and swinging it above his head, led his regiment on to victory. For his daring heroism he was brevetted Brigadier-Cleneral. At the head of his regiment he saw the final scenes of the war and re- turned home to receive ihe plaudits and the rewards of his deeds at the hands of his fellow citizens. General Sniper has never given up his ardor in military matters and has kept it green by mem- bership and official station in many organizations. He is and long has been Commander of the Central City Veterans, and has been prominent in the Veteran's League, the Grand Army of the Re- public, and also in the Masonic Order, the Odd Fellows, the A. O. U. \V., etc. General Sniper's native ability, sound judgment, and good common sense have conspired to bring him into prominence in political councils, especially as a representative of the leading German element of the city's population. In 1S70 he was elected to the Legislature, where he made a good record for three years. In 1876 he accepted the position of Deputy in the County Clerk's office and in 18S2 was elected County Clerk, holding the ofllce three vears, making a period of nine years in the office. The responsible duties of this position were disch.-trged by him with fidelity and ability. Since his return from the war, and in addition to the public services just alluded to, General Sniper has been connected in a business capacity with the Rock Spring Brewery, and from 1873 to 1876 was Deputy Collector of Internal Revenue. In whatever station he has occupied he has been accorded Ihe good will and friendship of all with whom he has come in personal contact. With his own country- men he is extremely popular and in a broad sense enjoys their confidence and respect. General Sniper was married, in 1863, to Miss Catharine Miller. They have two children — a son and a daughter living. AMOS LOUIS MASON, the prominent contractor and builder of Syracuse, was born in the town of Salina, .'\ugust 28, 1824. His father was Cyrenus Mason, a native of \'ermont, where he was born on the 2d of July. 1798 ; he died suddenly in Syracuse September 5, 1857. The mother's name was Martha Cushman, born .March 5, 1S06, and died in Syracuse January 2, 1886. The sub- ject of this record was the oldest of nine children, seven of whom were boys. Three of the brothers are now living. Amos L. attended the district school when he reached a suitable age and his educa- tion, as obtained from books, was confined to attendance at Ihe common school. In 1832 the fam- ily removed to Huron, Ohio, where they remained three or four years, and then went to Warren county, I'a. In 1838 they removed to Wayne county, N. V., and in April, 1840, came back to .Syracuse. Amos L. was then sixteen years old and his first occupation here was lock-tending on the canal, which he followed two years. He then began working at the carpenter's trade for his uncle, but much of his time was spent in other kinds of labor, until 1845, when he left hisuncleand finished his trade with Alden Crane. In the ne.\t year he began jobbing for himself as a beginning of a long period of building which has not yet ceased and during which he erected, probably, more structures than any other man in Syracuse. It would be almost impossible to mention even a large part of the buildings which Mr. Mason h.as put up, but among the more prominent were the Wieting block, which he has twice built ; a store building, formerly known as the Canandaigua House, near the old County Clerk's office ; the brick structure on North .Salina street, now occupied by the Columbia market ; the east portion of the Onondaga County Savings Bank building ; the Granger block ; the stores now occupied by I)ey Bros & Co.; the Builer block on South Salina street ; St. lohn the Baptist church on Court street, and the .Syracuse I'niversily (Hall of Languages); the first and present Seymour school edifice, and many other prominent buildings. In the erection of salt blocks Mr. .Mason's record is unapproached by that of any other person, he having built no less than one hun- dred and sixteen of those structures, and, moreover, there is not a salt mill now slanding that he did not erect. When it comes to a reference to the dwellings that he has built, the list reaches the enormous number of one thousand, or a little more. That anyone man should have been able to BioGRArmcAi,. 55 accomplish such a vast amount of building in an ordinary lifetime is simply marvellous ; but what is of still more importance is the fact that in all that long list of contracts there has not been one that has not added to his reputation as an honest, conscientious and capable builder. Indeed, it is, doubt- less, to that fact that he owes his success in always finding his hands full of his favorite business. Mr. Mason is a man of business versiuility, capable of grasping large enterprises, and with executive ability to carry on a variety of undertakings simultaneously. Me became interested in s.ilt manufac- turing as early as 1S55, at first alone and in 1S56-7 was associated with William !•". Gere, lie issiill owner of the first Siilt block he built and it is still in operation. In 1S72 he purchased, with the late Tames 1'. Haskins and others, the right of a machine for the manufacture of pressed brick, and they organized the National I'res-sed Brick Company. In 1S75 he purchased the entire interest and plant and formed the Syracuse Tressed Brick Company, composed of H. M. White, John Greenway, Stephen Bastable, and fames Tolman. Mr. White was the manager until three yeaas ago, since which lime .Mr. Mason has acted in that capacity. He was also practicaily interested in the enlargement of the Erie canal locks for about three years. The above shows that Mr. Mason has been all of his life one of the busiest of men ; and his long career in the community, during which he has had business relations with very many of the leading men of Syracuse and its vicinity, and has so faithfully conducted his affairs and fullilled his obliga- tions as to win the good will and confidence of all. His confidence in the future of Syracuse has never wavered and he has always had the best interests of the community at heart and given freely of his time for their promotion. He was elected Supervisor from his ward in 1877 ; was one of the founders of the Woodlawn Cemetery, and is a trustee of the Syracuse Savings Bank. Mr. Mason was married on the 31st of December, 1849, to Miss Sarah A. Ilarroun, and they have had seven children, live of whom are living. JONATH.VN G. WVNKOOP was born in Ghent, Columbia county, N. \'., on the 13th of May, 1S24. His father was Peter S. Wynkoop, a pastor of the Reformed Church ; he died in 184S. The Wynkoops originally came from Holland. Peter S. Wynkoop's wife was Margaret (Josman, of New York city. She died at Ghent about 1832. The subject of this sketch is one of a family of twelve children, seven of whom were daughters ; one of the sons died in infancy. The other four all became prominent booksellers, one located in Hudson, N. Y.,and one in Kingston, N. Y., the remaining two being Robert G. (noticed on another page of this work) and Jonathan G. The latter attended school in his boyhood and later obtained an e.xcellent English education in the Kmderhook academy ; while in his home life he was surrounded by such associations and influences as always serve to establish the foundation of a man's character in principles of honor, integrity and industry. Mr. Wynkoop's first business after leaving school was to follow in the footsteps of his elder brothers, with whom he was afterwards to be long associated by serving from 1841 to 1845 in the Hudson bookstore kept by .his brothers. The characteristic fidelity and perseverance of the family were dis- played by him and when the term of his service expired he was practically a master of the business as far as it could be learned in that time. Thus equipped he had sufficient self-confidence to locate in Syracuse and open a bookstore in company with Rev. Joseph Myers, father of Matthew J. and 1-awrence Myers, now of Syracuse. That store was located in the Syracuse House block and the business continued three years. .Vt the end of that period and when Robert G. Wynkoop had termi- nated his business connection with the brother in Hudson and was ready to locate in Syracuse, the two (Robert G. and lonathan (J ) joined as partners and established their store just below the former one, where Brown iV Dawson are now located. That store was opened in 184S and the history of the house during the ne.st forty years is quite well known in Central New York and is conspicuous for its record of steady perseverance, the unquestioned high character of its business principles and its steady growth. Four vears after the partnership was formed the store was removed to the present location of Robert G. Wynkoop, and has ever since continued there. Jonathan G. retired from the firm in 1870, and after a few years of partial respite from active work he joined, in 1873, the firm of $6 Memorial History of Syracuse. Judson, Williams & Co., in a large lumber business, manufacturing and selling and having mills in Oswego and elsewhere. Mr. Wynkoop is still indirectly interested in the lumber trade. In 1878 he was made a Director and Secretary and Treasurer of the Syracuse dl.iss Co., succeeding Joseph J. Glass upon the death of the latter. Kroni that time to the present Mr. Wynkoop has h.id much to do with the active management and direction of this important industry, and it is now enjoyii.g a high degree of prosperity. In 1S78 Mr. Wynkoop was made Trustee and Secretary and Treasurer of the Salt .Springs Solar Coarse Salt Co., succeeding Orlin Mead, deceased. This responsible station he still occupies. He was formerly connected as an officer with the Geddes Street Railway Company, which was re- cently absorbed into the Consolidated Company. In these several positions Mr. Wynkoop has ex- tended and confirmed his reputation as a prudent, sagacious and successful business man. Mr. Wynkoop has never been an active politician, though he entertains political views in favor of Repub- licanism of a sufficiently decided character and he has not been backward in supporting his prin- ciples. Though not a church member, he was one of the seven original founders of the Dutch Reformed Church on James street and has always been active and liberal in its support. Mr. Wynkoop was married in 1856 to .Miss Mary Judson Hawley. They have three children. The eldest is Mrs. Emma Judson W. I'ritts, wife of a physician of Hudson, N. V., born January 14, 1S58 ; William A., born March 5, 1863, and fc^dward Judson, born April 25, 1869, now studying medicine. ALFRED HIGGINS. Consjncuous among the most thorough and untiring business men of Syracuse is Alfred Higgins. He is of New England ancestry, having been born at lirewster, liarnstable county, Mass., March 31, 1S30. His father, Samuel Higgins, was for forty years a sea-faring man, in capacities from cabin-boy to commander of merchant vessels. In May, 1837, he removed his family to Syracuse, where he engaged in various pursuits and lis'ed an honorable life, an example to his children which they wisely followed. Mrs. Higgins also possessed high adornments of character. She died suddenly while attending communion service in the Park ]*resl>\'lerian church June II, 1886, and the death of her husband occurred in August ten weeks later. Alfred Higgins embraced such opportunities for acquiring an education as the times and his circumstances permitted, until he was fifteen years old ; after which he engaged in such pursuits as were adapted to his years, until the winter of 184S-0 when he became sales agent of a tobacco house. In 1854, on the completion of ihe .Syracuse and Hinghamton railroad, he was appointed baggage and express agent, continuing in the position until 1S57, when he was assigned in the agency of Ihe express office in .Syracuse, At that time Wells, Hutterfield & Co. were the proprietors of the bus- iness between New York and liufTalo, and Livingston i"v Fargo were the owners of Ihe business west of Buffalo. In 1S60 their companies were consolidated and Henry Wells elected president. He was an excellent business man and an admirer of Mr. Higgins' manner of conducting the ofiice, and the people of Syracuse know how wisely .Mr, Wells acted when he continued Mr. Higgins agent under the new company. The office was located in a building on ground now occupied by the While Memorial Building. It was subsequently removed to the place now occupied by Loos, Kaufman & Co., on Vanderbilt Square, and later to its present location, corner of Clinton and Washington streets. When Mr. Higgins was first appointed the population of the city did not exceed 30,000 and the working force of the office consisted of four men and one horse, in contrast with thirty-four men and twenty horses at this time. Mr. Higgins has been offered promotions, which he declined, among them that of Division .Superintendent between New York and Buffalo. He has been in con- tinuous service for thirty-four years, and has constantly had the fullest confidence of his superiors, who have shown their appreciation of his superior services by extending to him exceptional favors. His fidelity to his duties during all these years is a most worthy e.xample for emulation, and it is not probable that an agent more pojjular with the public can he found on any express line. Mr. Higgins has never sought or desired political favor, but in obedience to the expressed wishes of his constituency he represented the Sixth ward, in which he lived for fifty-one years, eight times fi"**? ^FSXtmarJ': Biographical. 57 in the Common Council, 1864, '66, and '69, and from 1875 to 1879, inclusive. He fully sustained his reputation as an honest and fearless citizen and one possessed of public spirit and devotion to the best interests of the comnjunity. \Vhen Irving G. Vann was elected Mayor of the city he honored Mr. Higgins by appointing him member of the Board of Excise, which office he held for three years. Mr. Iliggins has always been public-spirited and has contributed not a little to the growth and prosperity of the city by the e.xcellent management of his agency and his personal efforts in various undertakings having for their purpose the full development of the city. It may be truly said of him that no man in Syracuse has had a more busy life and it may safely be said that none ranlcs him in the line of good citizenship. The children of Samuel Higgins were eight in number, of whom si.x were sons, Alfred being the youngest. Of these, Col. Benjamin L., an honored citizen, Mrs S. M. Gifford, and .Mfred alone survive. CII.\RLES WESLEY SNOW was born at Peterboro, Madison county, N. Y., on the nth day of .March, 1S35. His father was Hiram Snow, who was originally from Vermont, and was a farmer during most of his life. His mother was Alid.-ir .Ann Squier, whose home was near Albany on the Hudson river. Their children numbered twelve, of whom the subject of this sketch was the second. The family removed to a farm near Messina Springs while Charles w.'is still an infant, and when he was live years old (in the year 1840) settled in .Syracuse, where the father engaged in various kinds of business until his death, which occurred in the year 1S54. His wife died in 1SS9. Charles W. Snow gained his education in the public schools of Syracuse, which he attended until he was fifteen years old, and by his naturally industrious habits and determination to make the most of his opportunities, he laid the foundation of a good practical education which was afterward improved and extended by further study and judicious re.ading. On the first of April, 1S50, he entered the drug store of W. B. Tobey, then located in the (iranger block, .is a clerk, having determined to make that business his life work. He labored faith- fully for his employer four years and gave such satisfaction to him that the young man was taken into partnership in the business. Mr. Snow was then nineteen years old. He was endowed with the true business instinct and other qualifications that commonly command success, and had an en- thusiastic love for his chosen profession. It naturally followed that the business of the firm felt a new impetus from the time of Mr. Snow's entering the partnership. Business methods valuable in themselves, incessant attention to details, a constant study of what his market demanded, and where to get it to the best advantage, were features promptly introduced by ^Ir. Snow into the operations of their trade, and with the best and most successful results. The partnership continued twelve years and down to the year 1S66, when the firm dissolved and Mr. Snow at once opened a store at what was then No. 2S East Genesee street,.where Grant & Dunn are now located. That store he stocked heavily and judiciously and began the wholesale and retail drug trade, which he continued there with constantly increasing volume and unvarying success for twenty-two years. At the end of that long period, during which he had purchased the block in which he was doing business and sub- stantially rebuilt it, he purchased the lot on Warren street, adjoining the new Government building, and erected thereon the loftiest and one of the best fire-proof business blocks in Syracuse. This was finished and occupied by his store on the entire lower floor in 1888. With this business experience of nearly forty years in .Syracuse, Mr. Snow has consistently fol- lowed ihc upright and honorable principles that always should, and commonly do, govern the bus- iness conduct of all successful men, depending upon sagacity, good judgment, and industry for his proper reward. In this he has not been disappointed, and at the same time has gained the unqual- ified respect .ind esteem of the entire community. Mr. Snow has devoted almost his whole attention to his business. Public office has never pos- sessed attraction for him, though he has received ample evidence of the confidence of his fellow cit- H 58 Memorial History of Syracuse. izens. He has been one of the Board of Directors of the First National bank since 1887, and has for many years been conspicuous in the direction and conduct of various benevolent and charitable institutions. He is a member of the Unitarian Church and one of its Board of Trustees. Mr. Snow was married on the 20th of October, 1S63, to Miss Harriet L., only daughter of Dr. Nelson C. Powers, who was a leading physician of -Syracuse for more than thirty years. They have two children : Nelson P., born December 9, 1868, and now in a wholesale drug store in New York city, and Carrie L., born October 15, 1874. FREDERICK ROWLAND HAZARD was born on the 14th of June, 1S58, at Peace Dale, Rhode Island. His father is Rowland Hazard, a prominent woolen manufacturer and respected citizen of that place. His mother was Miss Margaret Rood, of Philadelphia. The elder Mr. Haz- ard is President of the Solvay Process Company, of Syracuse. The subject of this sketch studied at Brown University, from which institution he graduated with honor in iSSi. It had been his purpose, as well as that of his father, that he should follow the business of woolen manufacturing, and with that end in view Mr. Hazard spent two years in the mills at Peace Dale immediately after he left the University. He studied and worked practically in the various departments of the business and made himself conversant with its details, in the endeavor to fit himself for any duty that might fall to a manager. But he was destined to another and very different field of labor. At about the time that Mr. Hazard graduated from the University, laborers were breaking ground for the establishment in Syracuse of the largest manufacturing plant in Cen- tral New York — the Solvay Process Company's works. As stated in the sketch of Mr. Cogswell, preceding this, Mr. Hazard's father was very prominently interested in these works, and therefore it was a natural consequence of his son's ability and the demands of the new business, that the latter should be offered the position of Assistant Treasurer. This occurred in the fall of 1S83; but the young man decided that it would be far better for his future, as well as for the business, if he could make himself thoroughly familiar with the details of the manufacture, (as he had already done in studying the woolen manufacture when he expected to engage in it) before assuming the duties of the place. He promptly started, sailing for England in the month of September, and spent nine months of industrious labor and study in the works of Solvay & Cie, at Dombasle, P'rance. He returned in May, 1884, and has since that time rendered most efficient service as Assistant Treasurer and Treas- urer of the Company. He was promoted to the latter office in June, 1S87. Mr. Hazard was made Treasurer of the Tully Pipe Line Company and of the Split Rock Cable Road Company upon their formation. Both of these companies are intimately associated with the Solvay Process Com- pany, and are described elsewhere in this work. Mr. Hazard's natural and accjuired ability enables him to fill these stations in a manner satisfactory to the companies and conducive to their best inter- ests. Being still a young man, of fine address and polished manner, liberally educated and with well disciplined business habits, it is not out of place to predict for Mr. Hazard a more than ordinar- ily prosperous and honorable future. Mr. Hay.ard was married on the 29th of May, 1886, to Miss Dora G. Sedgwick, youngest daughter of Charles B. Sedgwick, of Syracuse. They have three young daughters. SYLV'ESTER P. PIERCE was born in the town of Paris, village of Sauquoit, Oneida county, N. Y., on the 19th of September, 1814. He was the fifth child of a family of eight children of Dr. Spaulding Pierce and Abigail Bacon ; the former a native of Plainfield, Windham county. Conn., and the latter a native of Athol, Mass. His grandfather and his great-grandfather on his father's side were natives of Plainfield, Conn., and his great-grandmother was the first white child born in the town of Plainfield. His father, Dr. Spaulding Pierce, settled in Paris, Oneida county, in the year Biographical. 59 1796, and was a practicing physician of the Old School through tin 1 1 m li iif early settlement of the town. He died when the boy, Sylvester, was twelve years old. He had met with financial losses and when the family was left without its head, Sylvester found it necessary to leave home and seek his own livelihood. At an early age, therefore, he went into a store in the village of Sauquoit, where he worked faithfully several years. He ne.xt engaged in the store of Jay Hathaway, of Rome, N. Y., for about two years, and went from there to Utica, N. Y., into the dry goods store of Theodore S. Gould. The young man remained there several years, and then found employment in the crockery store of Ransom Curtis, in the same city, and during his term of service there he was sent to Oswego to close out a general stock of goods purchased by the firm, and remained there one year. During this considerable period of varied business experience, Mr. Tierce had acquired a fund of practical knowledge of the laws governing honorable trade which was to be of immense future value to him, and he began to think of a broader field and individual effort in the ranks of businessmen. Accord- ingly in the spring of 1839 he located in Syracuse (then a comparatively small village) and opened a crockery store in partnership with Ransom Curtis. His first store was on the site now occupied by Coville & Morris, on East Water street, where they remained one year, when they were forced to re- move through the sale of the building, and they located temporarily on the corner of Water and War- ren streets, and then removed, in December, 1840, to what was No. 10 South Salina street. The firm were importers from England from the beginning ; their business was skillfully handled and en- ergetically conducted, and was successful from the outset. After four years Mr. Curtis went out of the firm and from that time down to the present, Mr. Pierce has continued in that line of trade alone, with the exception of short periods w-hen several of his clerks have been allowed an interest in the business. Hoth wholesaling and retailing were carried on with rapidly increasing volume and reach- ing over a constantly broadening field, until he finally conducted one of the largest establishments of the kind in the State, with importations direct from Germany, Holland, France, and England. The retail branch of the business was discontinued about ten years ago. Mr. Pierce purchased the Salina street store in 1845 and rebuilt the old marble front in 1854. He purchased the Clinton street prop- erty in 1863, and built his present stores thereon in 1S69 for the accommodation of the wholesale branch of the business. Besides this large establishment, which might satisfy the business ambition of most men, Mr. Pierce has long been connected with prominent manufacturing enterprises. In 1849, .soon after the building of the gas works, he began the gas fitting business in a small way, and has since added steam heating and kindred branches. From this has grown the enormous business now done by the Pierce, Butler & Pierce Manufacturing Company, who also control the manufacture of the celebrated Florida boiler, for heating purposes. The sales of this company extend to nearly every State in the Union, and into foreign countries, and they have branches in New York, Chicago, and Boston. Mr. Pierce is president of this company, and also of the Catchpole Manufacturing Com- pany, of Geneva, N. Y., at which place the manufactory of the Florida boilers is located. The close attention always given by Mr. Pierce to his business, the high and honor.able aims that he has always kept in view, and his unswerving integrity, have won for him the high esteem of his fellow-men. In politics Mr. Pierce was at first identified with the Whigs, but upon the organization of the Re- publican party he became, and has continued, a firm supporter of its principles. He has never been a seeker after office, but. at the request of his fellow citizens, served as Supervisor of his ward (the Sixth) two terms. He is a liberal supporter of religious interests and has been for many years a ves- tryman of St. Paul's Church. Both himself and his wife were consistent and earnest members of that church. Mr. Pierce was married in 184I to Miss Cornelia Marsh, daughter of Elisha Marsh and Lovina Wiard, of Geddes. Mrs. Pierce's father was from Coleraine, Mass., and settled at Onondaga Hill about the year 1800. where he was one of the pioneers of the county. Mr. and Mrs. Pierce have four children : Marsh C, Charles H., William K., and Emma C. Mr. Pierce's sons are all asso- ciated w ith him in business. 6o Memorial History of Syracuse. WILLIAM E. A13BOTT was born in Lowville. N. Y., on the igth of January, 1822. His an- cestors on both sides were Connecticut people. His father was Paul Abbott, born May 7. 1783, son of William Abbott, who lived in Pomfret, in that State, and subsequently removed to Union in that State, where Paul was born, and thence to Clinton, Oneida county, in 1799. His mother was Patty Eels, born in what was then known as Middletown Upper Houses, now Cromwell, Conn. Paul Abbott was a tailor and began his first business in that line at Lowville as a merch.int tailor. He learned his trade in Whitestown, N. Y., and went to Lowville to live in 7804. He died in that place in 1S31. William E. attended the district school and the academy in Lowville, and enjoyed the good fortune of a period at Oouverneur Academy, and also at the preparatory school at Oberlin, Ohio. Possessed of a good common education he went to the city of Utica in 183S. when he was sixteen years old, to begin his business career. He served faithfully as a clerk in the dry goods stores of A. L. & R. H. W"ells, and Spencer Kellogg & Son, between three and four years and made him- self a master of that business as far as it could be acquired in that time. At the end of his clerkship on the 2d of January, 1842, he located in Syracuse with his brother, Henry G. Abbott, as dealers in dry goods. Theirs was the first store in which dry goods were sold exclusively in this city. Their first store was on the site now occupied by C;rant& Dunn, and either in that or one of the two adjoin- ing stores the business was successfully conducted for thirty-five years. In the year 1S46 a younger brother, James H., was admitted to the partnership and the firm name became .Vbbott lirothers, with a branch store in Utica. William E. finally, in the year 1S49, bought out his brothers and car- ried on the business alone for about thirty years, during the last three in the store on South Salina street now occupied by Ginty & Son. At the close of this long period of business activity, in which was built up a successful trade and a reputation for integrity and business capacity, he retired from that line of trade. After one year ot freedom from business cares Mr. Abbott joined with Edwin P. Hopkins, formerly County Clerk, in the coal business, locating their yard on West Water street, in Alexander, Bradley & Dunning's foundry yard. This was in September, 1S71. After Mr. Hopkins' death his son, W. E. Hopkins, took his father's interest in the business, the firm name remaining the same. This firm was continued down to 1S8S, when Mr. Abbott bought his partner's interest and has since conducted the business alone. This is a brief record of a long and honorable career, free from speculative operations and un- wholesome struggles to obtain a fortune at a grasp, that often end in ruin, and in which Mr. Abbott reached that fair measure of success to which he was entitled, and at the same time won the esteem and friendship of all the business community. Mr. Abbott has received many evidences of the confidence of his fellow citizens. He was chosen Inspector of the Penitentiary in i86g and held the office three years. During a period of the same length he was Supervisor of the Eighth ward, in the years 1871-3. In 1856 he was chosen a trustee of the Orphan Asylum, which ofllce he still holds, and has been Secretary of the Board for thirty years. He is one of the chatter members of the Onondaga County Savings Bank and also of the Plymouth Congregational Church, of which latter he has been a consistent and practical member. About twenty years ago Mr. Abbott purchased three acres of land on the corner of Beech and East Genesee streets, built a pleasant residence there .and has ever since made it his home. In the declin- ing years of his life Mr. Abbott enjoys the fullest esteem of the community and the warm friendship of the many who have been admitted to his confidence. It is a source of pride to Mr. Abbott that he was one of the earliest and most earnest advocates of anti-slavery, when such a course brought opprobrium from many, and often personal abuse or in- jury. He was actively instrumental in aiding between three and four hundred slaves over the under- ground railroad and on to freedom. In the famous Jerry Rescue he was one of the actors and also one of the bondsmen of the late Moses Summers, who was indicted as one of the rescuers. He has ever since that incident carried, on a key ring in his pocket, one of the chain links of Jerry's shackles. In connection with Dr. Lyman Clary, Moses Summers, and Dr. James EuUer, they met in Dr. Clary's office on Warren street and put in nomination the " Jerry Rescue Ticket," as it was called, for .State and county officers, and Dudley P. Phelps for Member of Assembly. The ticket was successful at the fall election and owing to the small majority given the State ticket, was instrumental in electing Biographical. 6i Mr. Clark as Governor of the State. This was the beginning of the great Republican party in the State of New \'ork. On the 12th of August, 1S45, Mr. Abbott was married to Jane A. Foster, daughter of Arnold Foster, of Litchfield, Herkimer county, N. V. She died in March, 1889. He has no children of his own, but an adopted son. PATRICK LYNCH was bom in County Kerry, Ireland, on the ist day of November, 1824, and came with his parents to America in June, 1833. His father was John Lynch, who became a farmer in the town of Dewitt, this county, and died there. All the education ever received by Pat- rick Lynch from schools, was obtained in Ireland, and, consequently, before he was ten years old ; but he never lost an opportunity during after years to increase his store of knowledge, both in En- glish branches and in that broad general information which contributes so largely to enable a man to attain success in life. The immigration of the family to .America was influenced by James Lynch, the well known early merchant of Salina village, and an uncle of the subject of this sketch. In James Lynch's store the boy, fresh from Ireland, began work as a clerk as soon as the family were settled here. When, a little later, his brothers, Cornelius and John, opened a store in Salina, Patrick began work for them in a similar capacity. In those two stores he spent his time until he reached his twentieth year. With his constant study and unremitting attention to the business he gained a practical experience which was to be of the greatest value to him in after life. When twenty years old, in company with his brothers, above named, he opened a dry goods store in Syracuse, in what is now the Empire block, under the firm name of Lynch & Co. The partnership lasted about three vears, when John Lynch died and Cornelius retired. Patrick continued to do a successful business from that time down to 1S51. laying the foundation of a fortune, and gaining the confidence and re- spect of the community. His spirit of enterprise and his confidence in his own ability to grasp and handle larger interests led him to enter into the manufacture of iron, an industry- with which he has ever since been connected, through the former Delano Iron Works, and now the Onondaga Iron Com- pany. Like a large majority of the successful men of Syracuse, Mr. Lynch also engaged in salt manufacturing, both in the erection and management of fine salt blocks and as a stockholder in sev- eral coarse salt companies. His interest in this latter branch of the industry still continues. Mr. Lynch has been also closely identified with early banking interests in Syracuse, and was the president, and practically, the owner of the Syracuse City Hank, which was located in the building that stood on the site of the present magnificent Lynch building on South Salina street. The bank was in success- ful operation from 1851 to about 1867, when its alTairs were settled up and its business closed. In the Morris Run Coal Company, which was organized by the late James P. llaskin, Mr. Lynch was also a prominent stockholder and a trustee, and he was appointed Receiver of the llaskin estate. In railroad interests Mr. Lynch has always felt a deep concern and an abiding faith, which led him long ago to invest in their construction. He was a stockholder in the New York Central, the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, and is now a stockholder in the Syracuse, Geneva, and Corning road, which is one of the most profitable lines in the country. In all of these affairs and positions Mr. Lynch has shown, in a marked degree, those qualifications that usually characterize the business men of sound principles, cool and far-seeing judgment, boldness, combined with prudence, and the intuition to grasp the right matter at the right time. Always feeling a deep interest in the welfare of his adopted city, he has invested extensh-ely in real estate. He purchased his beautiiul home on James street in 1859, and long ago became the owner of an interest in the Malcolm and (Irand Opera House blocks, besides his beautiful block recently erected on Salina street, with other minor holdings. He is a progressive citizen and keeps the best interests of the community always in view. Mr. Lynch be- longs to the Catholic faith and is in every way a liberal supporter of her churches and benevolent in- stitutions. Mr. Lynch has been twice married. His first wife was Sarah Stratton, of Syracuse. She died in 184S. In 1859 he married Mrs. Cynthia Yan Loon, of Albany. Mrs. P. H. Pendergast. of Syra- cuse, is his daughter by bis first wife. 62 Memorial History of Syracuse. THEODORE E. HANCOCK was born in the town of Granby, Oswego county, May 30, 1847. His father was Freeman Hancock, who was of Enghsh descent and bom at Martha's Vineyard. He belonged to a hardy family of sailors. His mother, Mary Williams, was of French descent and was born in Providence, R. I. Mr. Hancock's education, after his attendance at the district schools when young, was obtained at the Falley Seminary, in Fulton, N. V., where he graduated first in his class in 1867. He then entered the Wesleyan University at Middletown, Conn., and graduated in 1871, at the head of his class and the recipient of prizes for proficiency in Latin and Greek. Having determined upon the law as a profession, he attended the Columbia Law School and graduated in 1S73. Since that date he has practiced continuously in Syracuse, and has entered the front rank of his profession. During the period since 1873 he has been a member of the firm of Gilbert & Hancock, Hancock S: Munroe, Hoyt, Beach & Hancock, and Hancock, Beach inted jwstraaster. In 1825, when the first election for village officers was held, Mr. Wilkinson was elected I lerk. He was for several years president of the Syracuse and Utica Railroad, and by his influence succeeded in having the work-shops of that road built at Syracuse, thus adding the hardy population of the Fifth ward to our city. He was afterward president 01 the Michigan Southern Railro.ad. As a lawyer, Mr. Wilkinson occupied a prominent place at the Onondaga Itar. The late Peter Outwater. esq., was associated with him for many years, and later, James L. Bagg, esq. Mr. Wil- kinson was a director in the Onondaga County Hank from its organi/jition in 1S25. until its close. He was also president of the P.ank of Syracuse, which he, together with the late Horace White, esq., organized in 183S, on the passage of the general Banking Law, and so continued till his death. Both of these banks were managed with prudence and were exceedingly profitable to their stock, holders. ;6 Memorial Historv of Syracuse. At Albany, February 24, 1S25, John Wilkinson married Henrietta Wilhelmina Swart. They had eight children born to them. in 1S34 and 1S35, he was elected Member of .Assembly for Onondasja Counly. and occupied, while in that body, the position of Chairman of an important committee, viz: On ihc Incorporation and .Mieration of Banking and Insurance Companies. In the last years of his life, he operated the lerre llavile. .Minn .\: St. I.oiiis Kailroail. in his own name for two years as Trustee and Receiver. After the death of Capt. Oliver Teall, he became president of the Syracuse Water Wurks. He adopted the plan for collecting the water from springs and small streams into a reservoir. Mr, Wil- kinson was engaged upon this work at the time of his sudden death in September, 1862. TllOM.VS r>ROCK\\ .\\ in\ 11. The subject of this sketch was born in tlietownof Kirkland. near the village of Clinton, Oneida county N. V., December 3, iSio. He was a descendant of the Rev. James Kitch, who emigrated from Kngland and settled in Connecticut as early as 163(1, and who lived and preached in Norwich. His father was Dr John I'itch, a very successful medical practitioner for forty years in Oneida county. His wife was the daughter of the Rev. Thomas Urockway, of Columbia, Conn. When eleven years of age Mr. I'itch CMlercd the drug store of j. IC. Warner, of I'lica, where he remained as a clerk for nine years. In 1830 he removed to Syracuse and established himself as a druggist in the "Green Drug Store" on the north side of Hanover Squ.ire. Soon after he asso- ciated with himself Captain Hiram I'utnam. The firm ranicviasT. It. Fitch *: Co. Tiicy sold out to Dillaye & Co. in 1846. Mr. Fitch was largely inslrinnenlal in forming the Mechanics' r.^nk (aftcrw.ards the Mechanics' National Hank), of which he was alternately president and cashier down to the day of his death. He was one of the founders and a trustee of the Syracuse Savings liank ; one of the original pro- moters, and a director, and for some time president, of the Syr.acuse i: IJinghamton Railroad Company: counselor of the Home .\ssociation; one of the founders and a trustee of Oakwood; trustee of the First Presbyterian church for more than thirty years ; for several years a trustee of Syracuse University; director of the Syracuse Cas Light Company; largely interested in and director of several street railway companies ; a member of the firm of Ellis, Wicks & Co., large dealers in leather, and at one period heavy dealers in wool ; a member of the firm of Dunn, Salmon i; Co., manufacturers of and wholesale dealers in boots and shoes ; and for a long time one of the owners of the Fitch and Putnam Tract. -Mr. Fitch was not a politician, but he took great interest in public affairs ami contributed gieally to the early development of the village, and, later, of the city of his adoption. He was originally a Whig, but became an earnest Republican, and especially active in promoting the Union cause during the war of the Rebellion. He was a delcg.ate to the Hallimore convention which re-noiuinaled Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency. He was public spirited and earest and active in every enter- prise which promised advancement to the city or benefit to the public welfare. On the 20th of October, 1834, Mr. Fitch married the oldest daughter of Daniel Flllolt, .Miss Ursula A. Elliott, sister of Charles Loring Elliott, the artist. He died of acute bronchitis after a short illness, .August 27, iSyc), leaving surviving him his widow and five children, Charles Elliott Fitch, Eliza .S., wife of A. Judd Northrup, Mary Ella (since decciscd), wife of Charles S. Symonds, of Ulica, William E. Fitch, and Jennie 1!. iitch. ROHF.RT GERE. In the development of the various business interests which have conlribuled to the growth and progress of Syracuse and its vicinity, nor.e Inok .1 more active and efficient part than the subject of this brief memoir, the late Robert Gere, Biographical. Mr. Ore was born in the town of Groton. Connecticut, on the 26lh of November, I79f). His early opportunities for eilucalion were sucli only as the common schools afforded, but he possesscil a mind of rare vijjor and imusual acuteness of observation — faculties which, in the school of liis varied experience, in afier life, enabled him to become a sag.acious judge of human nature and of the iliversilied business interests which he inaugurated and successfullv carried out. His boyliood days were spent on his father's farm in his native town. In the 24lh ye.ir of his age, on the 25th of October, 1S20, he was united in marriage to Miss Sophia Stanton, and removed to Florida, .Montgomery county, where he was a contractor on the original Erie t,"anal; and as the work approached its completion, by means of a river boat on the Mohawk anI, removed with his wife (who.se maiden name was I'hube Hull) and several children, from Killingworth into the town of .Manlius, Onondaga County. .Shortly after their removal into .Man- lius, Mrs. Teall died, leaving her husband with six children, four daughters and two sons. Oliver, the subject of this biography, was then but about four years of .ige. Oliver, so soon as he was able, was put to work upon the farm, much of it then being yet unre- claimed from the woods. And there he continued to toil until he was 17 or 18 years old, when he was allowed to deal for himself, with the understanding that he was to work on the farm when not otherwise employed. His facilities for acquiring literary information all this while were, of course, very slender. He has been heard to say that all his schooling did not amount to more than one year at a common district school. Yet, so soon as he had been taught to read, he began to occupy his little leisure time in the perusal of such books as were within his reach. He soon after engaged in various branches of business. For a while he conductecopal) Church. He may also Le considered as the founder of the "St. lohn's School for Hoys," at .Manlius, as it is now organized. The institution was incor- poraied in 1869, but necessary changes have been recently made, and $60,000 presenteil 10 it by Judge Comstock. Judge Comstock is one .f the trustees of the State Idiot .\syliini, at Syracuse, appointed by the Governor, l-'or many )ears he has been connected with various financial and busi- ness enterprises. In 1S6S he was one of the incorporators of the Syracuse. Chenango and New Vork Railroad, and became a director of the company; the road was completed in 1873. Like many other residents of Syracuse having surj^lus capital, he has invested in the great salt interest. He originated and is President of the American Dairy Salt Company, and Treasurer of the "Union" and "Western" Coarse Salt Companies. He is a director of the Syracuse Cias Company, and of the Water Companv, and a director of various other manufacturing and commercial corporations. His co-operation in public movements and associated effort has been invaluable to his co-workers. In his legal and business temperament he preserves the mean between the theorist who does not regard the application of principles, and the routinist who does not look beyond precedents and immediate surroundings, lilcnding a dignifid presence with simple and engaging manners, and profound at- tainments with practical usefulness, he enjoys in his ripened age the universal repute of a learned jurist, a true gentleman, and a friend of humanity. HlOGRArillCAl.. 8l HON. EDWARIl H. JUDSON, President of the First National Bank of Syracuse, and a well known financier, was born at Coxsackie. (jreene county. New \'ork. January il, 1S14. His parents came of old New Knjjland families, his father having moved to Greene county, N. V., from Woodbury. Litchfield county. Conn., and his mother being a native of Branford, on the south- ern shore of that State, near New Haven, Inheriting the intelligence and sterling character of New Kngland life, they imp-irted the best thought and training of the time to their son, who was a ready and proficient pupil. The mother's brother, Ralph Barker, who had been .tssociated svith Erastus Corning in the .\lbany City Bank, opened a banking office at Coxs.ickie. and the nephew, as clerk, there received the rudiments of a profession which was to be the special sphere of his mature life. In the meantime he developed a remarkable .-iptitude for business, and with characteristic New Eng- land enterprise sought other fields of effort. At the age of twenty-two he commenced the manufac- ture of lumber with his brother. \V. A.. Judson. at Constantia. Oswego county, and at a later period became associated with the same brother in the lumber commission business at Alb.iny, which latter association extended over a period of twenty years or more. In connection with his lumber interest at Constantia Mr. judson also engaged in the manufacture of iron at the same place. When twenty- four years of age he was elected a member of the State .•\ssembly, serving during the years 1839 and 1841, and being Chairman of the Committee on Cities and Villages, and also Chairman of the Select Committee on the State Lunatic Asylum. As his business progressed his varied experience and ex- tended connections thoroughly familiarized him with the details and operations of banking. He foresaw the prospective wants of Central New \'ork, and especially of the growing city of Syracuse, of which he became a resident in 1849. In 1S50 the Merchants' Bank of this city was organized under the presidency of John 1). Norton, and Mr. Judson became the Vice-I'residenl. The Board of Direction consisted ol the leading business men of the city and vicinity. Of its dozen or more Di- rectors Mr. Judson is now the only survivor. Two years afterward the Salt Springs Bank was organized in this great center of salt production, and Thomas G. .•Vlvord became President, with Mr. Judson, who was one of the original Directors, as Cashier. This position he filled most accepta- bly for six years, durng which time the institution became firmly established with a stable and pros- perous business, when he resigned to aid in the organization of the Lake Ontario Bank of Oswego. During all these years Mr. Judson. notwithstanding his banking enterprises, continued his man- ufacturing operations with unabated vigor, and added, to the great staples of lumber and iron, the production of salt. The Lake Ontario Bank, of which Mr. Judson was Cashier and chief executive officer, was remarkable for the character and position of its stockholders, and rightly denominated a ■' bankers' bank." from the large and controlling ownership of the stock by officers of other banks, including such names as John A. Stevens and C H. Russell. President and Vice-I'resident, and Henry F. Vail, Cashier of the Bank of Commerce, New York city ; Erastus Corning and H. H. Martin, President and Vice-President of the Albany City Bank; Rufus H King and J. H. Van Ant- werpt. President and Cashier of the State Bank of Albany ; J B. Plumb, President of the Bank of the Interior, Albany ; Hamilton White, Horace White, John D. Norton, and Thomas B. Fitch, Presidents respectively of the Onondaga County Bank, the Bank of Syracuse, the .Merchants' Bank, and the Mechanics' Bank, all of the city of Syracuse; G. B. Rich. President of the Bank of Attica. Buffalo ; and Luther Wright. President of Luther Wright's Bank. Oswego. Among other promi- nent stockholders were Thurlow Weed. John L. Schoolcraft. David Hamilton, John Knower, F. T. Carrino-ton. George (Jeddes. and William A. Judson. In time Edward B. Judson's reputation as a banker extended until it rested upon the broad foundation of public confidence, and his ability, sound judgment, and fidelity to the interests confided to his keeping were widely known and appreciated. It was not strange, therefore, that his counsel and co-operation should be sought when the general government, in 1S63. organized a plan designed to bring the banking institutions of the country under one system. It svas a bold and difficult step. It might be hazardous. It was likely to meet the opposition of the timid and short sighted, and sure to be denounced by the reckless and unscru- pulous. The customs and the legislation of the States varied. The interests of different sections were supposed to be conflicting. Many looked with distrust and alarm at all attempts to increase the relative power ami influence of the central government, and many others were ready to profess such a belief. The avenues of the banking business were open to men wiihout experience and wilh- K 82 Memorial History of Syracuse. out capital. There were banks of circulation with deposits, and banks of deposit without discounts. The change could not be made by any institution, weak or strong, without immediate trouble and e.\pense. Success depended upon securing the united support of sound bankers generally through- out the country. The author of the N'ational Banking .\ct was the Secretary of the Treasury, and had the advantage or the opportunity of personal effort to make his scheme practically effective. Mr. Chase summoned the best and most influential financiers to Washington, Mr. Judson was of the number. The consultation was not long nor the result doubtful. Mr. Judson gave his opinion, and, immediately after returning, proceeded, at the request of Secretary Chase, to make his opinion and patriotism of practical value, by organizing the I'irst National Hank of Syracuse, which stands as No. 6 in the archives of the government. Mr. Judson became the I'resident, John Crouse the Vice-Presi- dent, and George B. Leonard the Cashier. The capital, which at first was $100,000, has been since increased to $250,000. There has been a marked contrast between the e.tperience of the First National and that of the Merchants' Bank, established thirteen years before, in the continuance of its Directors. While all of Mr. Judson's former associates in the .Merchants' National Bank have, as before stated, been removed by death, there have been but few changes from that cause in the Board of the First National Bank. E. B. Judson, jr., is now the Vice-1'resident. The two executive officers have occupied the same posts without interruption from that time to the present. The following year (the year 1S64) Mr. Judson became Chairman of the E.\ecutive Committee of the National Hanking Association, and continued to fill that position for eleven years, having as his asso- ciates on the committee the well known bankers George F. Baker, P. C. Calhoun, Thomas Coleman, Charles B. Hall, J. L. Norris, W. F. Coolbaugh, John W. Ellis, Frederic \V. Cronen, F. B. I.oomis, Clarence II Clark. Hisoccupation as a banker did not prevent the extension of his manufacuring in- terests, and he added 10 his other industries the production of glass which he has continued for some eighteen years, and is now the President of the Syracuse Glass Company. At the National Bank Convention held in New York, October 19, 1864, '.Mr. Judson made an address, wherein he ut- tered the folloA'ing words, which time anJ experience have verified in a remarkable manner : " The system of banking that we are now adopting is destined, in my judgment, to become the only one that has any vitality in this nation, and I have no doubt that the State banks generallv will find it for their interests to m.ike the change. Many of them, and very justly, too, have a pride in keeping up the name under which they have been so successful and gained such a wide-spread reputation ; but under the late act that Is obviated, and they can retain tne old name if desired, .\gain, allow me to say to you, in adopting this new system, let us try and live up stricily to the act under which we are organized. If we do, I have no fear of its success ; and 1 hope If the Comptroller of the Currency finds that in our reports, which the law requires us to make, we do not keep up our reserve fund, but allow our accounts to be overdrawn at the points where our funds should be to take care of our circulation and deposits, he will at once give us notice to wind up our institutions. I consider that clause in the law, which requires us to keep up a large reserve fund, one of the most important in the act, and 1 hope the Comptroller will have it strictly enforced." Mr. Judson has had little time or inclination for political life since his early membership in the Legislature, but in 1S68 he allowed his name to be presented .is candidate for Presidential elector, and was defeated, that being the year tlovernor Hoffman was elected. In 1S69 the Trust and De- posit Company of Onondaga was organized with Dudley P. Phelps as I'resident, and Daniel P. Wood and Edward B. Judson as Vice-Presidents. This institution .actsas a savings bank and as the custodian of papers and other valuables, and does a general trust business, and likewise the adminis- tration of estates to a considerable extent. Its vaults for the safe keeping of special deposits are very secure, and supplied with the most recent appliances for convenieace and prolection. .Mr. Jud- son is also a Trustee of the Metropolitan Trust Company of New York city. In 1S70 he was one of the incorporators of the Syracuse Northern Railroad, and became freisurerof the company. He was at one time a Director in the New York Central Railroad Company, and is now a Director in the .\merican Express Company, being a member of the Finance Committee of that company. In 1S73 he became interested in the State Bank of Syracuse, which was formeil principally by the incorporators of the Trust and Deposit Company, and .Mr. Judson was chosen a Director. He was also for some time a I )lrector of the Syracuse National Bank, which was then the oldest bank in the city, having been first organized under the State laws in 1839. This institution went into liquidation in 1S77. .Mr. Judson continues, at the age of nearly seventy-eight years, in the active duties of the presidency BlOCRAnilCAL. 83 of the First National Bank of Syracuse, which has added to its capital of $230, 000 a large surplus, and is iloinij a steady and profitable business, with deposits amounting to some $1,275,000. When the new building of the Onondaga County Savings liank was erected, at a cost of ifsoo.ooo, premises were prepared in it expressly for the Kirst National Bank, with furniture and equipments surpassed by none, and with special provision for security against burglars, including a steel-lined vault of solid masonry with triple doors and safe of most approved construction. The present Directors are v.. B. Judson, E. B. Judson, jr., Jacob Crouse. G. B. Leonard, E. K. Rice. C. W. Sno w, Dennis McCarthy, John McCarthy, and E. F. Holden. Though devoting most of his time to the management of this institution. Mr. Judson continues the manuf,-icture of lumber at Constantia. and is interested in the proiluction of iron, salt, and glass at Syracuse. With all these demands, and the manifold duties incident to the life of a prominent and public spirited citizen, he yet finds time to look after educational interests elsewhere, and serves as one of the Trustees of Wells College at Aurora. Such is the brief record of one whose life work has been alike.active and beneficent. The key to his success is the mastery of one field of enterprise before assuming much risk in another. Possessing that moral courage which arises from the con- sciousness of one who commands his circumstances and knows his latent strength, with an aptitude for achieving difficult results, great energy in pursuing the details of business, and with an open rec- titude, winning public confidence, he has, in diverse occupation through a long and busy life, dem- onstrated the sure triumph of industry and economy intelligently applied. Mr. Judson was married in 1S45, to Sarah Williams, daughter of Coddington B. Williams, of Syracuse, He has one son I". B. Judson, jr., a gentleman of thorough business qualifications and a promising future. .\lr. Judson is also prominent in church and charity affairs. He is a regular attendant of the May Memorial Church (Unitarian), and for a number of years has been President of its Board of Trustees. He is the Treasurer of St. Joseph's Hospital, in which he is deeply interested, a Trustee for the Home for Old Ladies, and heartily in sympathy with all benevolent works. HON. J AMFS J. BKLDEN was born in the town of Kabius. Onondaga county, in the year 182:;. With only a common school education he commenced his business career at an early age in a village store in his native town. From there he went to Adams, Jefferson county, N. \'., where he remained five years as clerk and partner in the business of a country merchant. In 1S50 he joined the host of migrators to California, where he followed various pursuits for three years, and returned to .Syracuse. Here he first became a partner in a crockery business, but disposed of his interest in 1855, and from that lime gave his attention largely to the construction of public works by contract an occupation in which he was a large operator for a number of years. Having married the daugh- ter of the late Robert Gere, one of the foremost of the early residents of Syracuse, and a large manu- facturer and contractor, Mr. Belden naturally took up that line of business in which his qualifications seemed to adapt him. His first contract, in whichhe was associated with his father-in-law, was in connec- tion with the enlargement of the Oswego Canal. Subsequently, in company with his brother, A. C. Belden, and the late Henry P. Denison, he engaged extensively in the construction of railroads, res- ervoirs, canals, and other public works, the firm becoming widely and favorably known throughout the State and elsewhere. Among the important contracts which they performed were the buildlno^ of the street railroads in Detroit, the enlargement of the Iocks on the Welland Canal in Canada, the construction of the Syracuse Northern Railroad, the new reservoir of the Croton Water Works in Putnam county, and the removal of the rock blasted out of Hell Clate besides numerous large con- tracts for dredging in New York and other harbors, and for repairs and improvements on the canals of this State. Their last important work was the building ol the West Shore Railroad between Syra- cuse and Little Falls. Aside from these operations Mr. Belden was for a number of years con- nected with various manufacturing and commercial enterprises at Syracuse and elsewhere, and with several of the incorporated companies of the city of Syracuse. He was prominently connected with the Kirst and Third National Banks of Syracuse, and in 18S1 established the Robert (iere Bank 84 Memorial History of Syracuse. (thus named in honor of his father-in-law), which now ranks among the largest and most successful of the financial institutions of Central New York. In politics Mr. Belden has always been an earnest and active Republican, of a practical and con- servative character. In this -mportant field he has brought to bear the same qualifications that have given him such flattering success in his own private affairs ; not as a seeker after office, which he has never been, but as one who saw some desirable end to gain (or the welfare of community and St.ite. His accurate judgment of men and affairs, his sturdy common sense and practical effort, brought him into prominence and gave him marked influence in the councils of his parly long before he was called to any official station. In 1877. when his own business interests were large and e.\7 the packing concern was discontinued l!y this time Syracuse had assumed considerable proportions, and Mr. Hewlett's business was rapidly becoming identified with its growth and prosperity. In S59 he had been elected President of the Salt Springs Bank, which in 1S52 was organized under the presidency of Hon Thomas G Alvord and the cashiership of Hon. Edward B. Judson, and of which Mr. Howlett was one of the early Directors. .Mr. .\lvord was succeeded Ijy William Clark as President and .Mr. Judson by ('01- nelius .Mvord as Cashier in 1858. Mr. Howlett was elected Vice-President in January, 1859, and acted temporarily as Cashier. The following June Thomas J. Leich was elected Cashier and Mr Howlett. President. In 1S65 the institution followed the general current and re-organized as the -Salt .Springs National Hank, and to-day this is one of the strongest banking concerns in Central New York. Since 1S59 ^'i"- Howlett has guided its business career with a firm hand and e.vcellent judg- ment. His able management is universally acknowledged. He is widely known, and his financial views are highly respected. In 1S76 the .Syracuse .Savings Hank erected its present fine structure at a cost of ^300,000, and since that date Mr. Howlett s institution has occupied commodious quarters in that building. The bank has a capital of |:20o,ooo, with deposits amounting to about $515,500. The present officers are- Alfred A. Howlett, President; Thomas J. Leach, Cashier; David A. Munro, Charles Hubbard Alfred A. Howlett, Robert Dey, William Brown Smith, Isaac H. .Munro, A. Ames Howlett, T. I I.c.ich. and Giles Evcrson, Directors. Mr. Howlett in 1S6S lent his valuable assistance to the construction of the Syracuse and Che- nango Valley Railroad : this road was opened in part in 1872, and its whole length in 1S74. He was oneof the incorporators and first Directors, and afterward became the President. Among Mr. How- lett's associ.ites named in the articles of incorporation are Hon. George !•". Comstock. Dennis McCar- thy, James J. Belden, Dr. John .\I. Wieiing, John Greenway, and John VV. Barker, of whom Dr Wieting was the first President. He takes a deep interest in educational and benevolent matters, and although he has been obliged to fight the battle of life and triumph over its obstacles without the advantages of an early education, he is keenly alive to those advantages and desirous that others should enjoy them. In 18S0 he was elected one of the Trustees "at large" of Syracu.se University, under that part of the 86 Memorial History of Syracuse. charter which requires that at least six of these Trustees shall not be members of the Methodist Epis- copal Church. He is himself an attendant and a liberal supporter of the Kirst I'resbvterian Church. Me is also Tresident of the Syracuse Gas Light Company, President of the New York lirick and Paving Company, a Director of the Syracuse Water Company, a Director of the Salt Springs Solar Coarse Salt Company (thirty-seven years), a Trustee of the Onondaga County Orphan Asylum, a Di- rector of the Syracuse-Hrewerton IMank Road Company, and Vice-President of the Charleston, Sum- ter, and Northern Railroad Company. Mr. Howlett is a striking f.xample of the force of industry and probity. Without pecuniary means at the outset of life, and possessing a delicate constitution, he has pursued a uniformly successful careerand maintained the highest commercial credit. A warm friend, a safe counselor, an indulgent husband and father, he merits that implicit confidence and high esteem ever accorded an honest man. June 19, 1844, .Mr. Howlett married Miss Minerva .Ames, of Me.tico. Oswego county. N Y.. daughter of Leonard Ames, a prominent pioneer of that section. He has two children. .Mfred Ames Howlett, one of the Directors of the .Salt Springs National Bank, and .Vugusta .Vdell, wife of J. V. Durston, of Syracuse. A. Ames Howlett is also President of the (^'arolina Land and Improvement Company, of Sumter, S. C, and his was the leading spirit in the recent construction of the Charles- ton, Sumter, and Northern Railroad in that Stale. HON. PETER BURNS was bom in the city of Dublin, Ireland, July 30, 1S14. He was the only child of David and Mary ( Dempsey) Burns, both of whom were natives of Dublin. When four years of age his mother died, aged twenty-si.t years. In the spring of iSiq the father and son emigrated to .-Vmerica, on board a merchant vessel bound to New York city. After a stormy voyage the vessel was wrecked off Sandy Hook, but nearly all the passengers were saved, .\rriving at New York, where he remained but a short time, they located in Delaware county on the east branch of the Delaware River, the father returning to New York to follow his previous business of brewing and distilling. Five years later David Burns removed to Ulster county, where he remained until his death, which occurred in 1S50. During the period when the subject of this sketch lived in Delaware county the country in that section was new and comparatively unsettled, and afforded very limited advantages for schooling. I le lived most of the time with a French family, and learned to speak their language quite fluently. .Vt the age of twelve years he went to Ul.ster county, where his father had located, and there passed the succeeding live years in a family of Hollanders, working on a farm, but obtaining very restricted op- portunities for bettering his education from books ; he was, however, well schooled in habits of indus- try, economy, frugality, and morality, and carefully diciplined in the doctrines of the Reformed Dutch Church. It was in this model family that the turning point in his life was reached, and from that five years of experience he dates the real beginning of his later career. .\t the age of seventeen he began work .is an apprentice to the saddlery trade in Ulster county. N. v., and remained there and at Woodstock until he was twenty one years of age. when he went to .New York city to still further perfect his mechanical skill. /Xfter two years spent in that city he came to Syracuse in the year 1836, w hile it was yet a village. After following his trade as a jour- neyman until the spring of 1840 he made a tour of the Western States to recuperate his impaired health, returning to Syracuse in the following autumn. Mr. Burns felt the need of better education, and being unable physically to continue at his trade he spent the following two years in study at the Onondaga Academy, with a view of fitting himself for a teacher ; but after obtaining his diploma he was induced to enter upon a clerkship in a saddlery hardware store in Syracuse, where he remained five years. By following his principle of living within his means he had by this lime accumulaied sufficient to embark in trade for himself, and he accordingly opened a store for the sale of saddlery hardware, which he successfully conducted until the year 1853, when he began the manufaciure of saddlery hardware in partnership with the l.iie Ka>son Krazer. This business was continui d with Hnir.RAPiiiCAi,. 87 steadily increasing success, until the dealh of Mr. Frazer, in 1876, by which time it had become one of the leading industries of the kind in the country, and its product found a market in most of the States of the Union. /Vfter the death of .Mr. I'Vazer Mr. Burns continued the business one year and then retired, leaving his son, Willis 15. Hums, in full possession of his interest. In politics Mr. Hums was early identified with the Whig party, and afterwards with the Anti- slavery party ; but on the formation of the Republican party he became and has always continued an ardent and consistant supporter of its principles. His quiet and elTeclive work in the political field, gave Mr. Hums a position of strength with his party, and his ability was recognized in various ways. After tilling several stations of trust in the city he was elected to the Legislature, and served in that body two terms- 1S71-72. His legislative record is one of entire credit, and thoroughly effective in its results. He was on the Committee on Election and Privileges and the still more important Committee on Railroads. In the later capacity Mr. Burns was instrumental in effecting much impor- tant legislation, notably the preparation and passage of the Open-Cut and Viaduct Bill, which gave the New Vork Central Railroad Company its present means of reaching the Grand Union depot in New York city from Harlem, a work which cost about ^20,000,000. The first charter of the Gil- bert Klevated Railroad Company was also passed during that period, which action has led directly to the establishment of the great elevated railroad system of the metropolis. He served as Supervisor of the Si\th ward of Syracuse in iS;g-6o, and was several years Chair- man of the Board of Inspectors of the Onondaga County Penitentiary. He was one of the first Police Commissioners of the city, and as Chairman of that Board assisted in the present organization of the police force. He has been a Director in the Merchants' National Bank for thirty years, and for many years a Director in the Trust and Deposit Company, and its Vice-President at one period. In all of these positions Mr. Burns has exhibited that sound judgment and prudent business capacity which have given him the confidence of his associates. For several years as Trustee and a member of the Executive Committee of the Syracuse University, he has rendered to that institution valuable services. .•\t the age of twenty years Mr. Burns became a member of the Reformed Dutch Church, but upon his coming to Syracuse he united with the First Presbyterian Church, and was for a time Su- perintendent of its Sunday-school. He was one of nine persons to organize the Reformed Dutch Church, in lames street, and contributed to the erection of the present Plymouth Church, of whose Board of Trustees he was President for about thirty years. In his support of the various char- ities of the city Mr. Burns has been conspicuously liberal, especially in connection with the Onon- daga Orphan .Vsvlum. over which he has for many years exercised a watchful care. He is at present President of its Board of Trustees. The present excellent arrangement of the structure is largely due to him. The career of Mr. Burns in this city is one of unusual material success, and at the same time commands the respect of all who are acquainted with it for its unostentatious interest in the general vvell- being of the community and its consistent Christian character. On the gth of May, 1850, Mr. Burns married Elizabeth, daughter of Joshua Bates and Jane Phillips, both natives of Chesterfield. Mass. They have two cliildren, Hon. Willis B. Burns, of Syra- cuse, and Flora E., wife of Lyman C. Smith, of Syracuse. HENRV H. LOOM IS, a native of Onondaga county, and for the past sixteen years a resident of Syracuse, was born in Cicero, April 20, 1833. More fortunate than most families, this one has produced one member, Elias Loomis, LL.D., professor of Natural Philosophy and Astron- omy in Vale College, who had the rare good sense to compile a book of ancestral descent, entitled •• Genealogy of the Loomis Family." published at New Haven in 1870, and giving the names and residences of 4.305 of the descendants of Joseph Loomis, one of the first settlers of Windsor, Conn. From this we learn that Joseph Loomis, of Braintree, Essex county, England, born about ijgo, a woolen draper by trade, sailed, with his wife, five sons, and three daughters, from London, April 11, i(>3S, in the ship Siismi and ElUn, which arrived in Boston, July 17, 1638 ; that the family settled 88 Memorial History of Syracuse. in the town of AYintlsor, Conn., where they bought land in 1640 ; that Joseph Loomis had a son Joseph, also born in England; that Joseph Loonils, jr., had a son James, born in Windsor, Conn., in l66g ; that James Loomis had a son Nathaniel, born in Windsor in 1712 ; that Nathaniel Loomi-; had a son Jabez, born in Coventry, Conn.; thai Jabez Loomis ha J a son Ebenezer, born in West- moreland, N. Y., in 1765 ; that Ebenezer Loomis had a son Chester, born in VYestmoreland, N. Y., in 17S5, who was the father of Henry H. I^oomis, the subject of this sketch. Such a genealogical record, with no missing links, would enable many families in -America to become possessed of large estates left in the old countries, whose rightful heirs here are helpless because of the negligence of their ancestors to keep and preserve correct family records. Chester Loomis married Abby Adams, and became a farmer at Central Square, Oswego county, K. Y., where seven children were born to them. In 1S23 they came to Cicero and bought a farm of 150 acres, on which the house was built by Lynch in iSog. Here five more children were added to the previous group of seven, and here these worthy parents spent the afternoon and even- ing of their earthly existence, rearing these twelve children to maturity, and equipping them for the momentous journey of life. The care and toil, the prudence, the wisdom necessary to the cred ' iiablc issue of such a life-long task take rank with the competent management of comple.K public affairs, and command the admiration and respect of every reflecting person. To such faithful, self- sacrificing parents the foundations of good society and the perpetuity of national life are indcbied. 'Iheir acts should be remembered with gratitude, recounted with pride, and recorded with care by their descendants. Of this old-fashioned family Henry was the youngest. Happily for him the years of his minority — that period when so unconsciously, but never so surely, habits are formed and character receives a stamp that no succeeding period can entirely obliterate — were passed amid the blessed surroundings of a good home. There his impulsive, buoyant boyhood expanded into youth and rounded into manhood. The old-fashioned district school, succeeded by a few terms at the Ho- mer Academy, were his educational helps. It is a serious inquiry whether the multiform surface- garnish of the modern graded schools or the feverish, reacting overstrain of our State Norma! schools are furnishing more adequate equipments for the sturdy struggles of life. Chester Loomis died at the old homestead in Cicero, September 7. 1S51. The year 1S54 was an eventful one for the subject of our sketch. He married Clara Marriam, of Cicero, and in company with his brother, Addison J. Loomis, bought the interests of the heirs to his father's farm. Ten children were living. Two daughters had died before their father, one of whom had left children. The two brothers ran in debt for nine-elevenths of the estate, and in five years they paid every dollar. This proved the stud they were made of. They won the first battle, and so made all the rest easier. In 1S59 hesold his interest in the farm to his brother, A. J. Loomis, and left the parental roof, under which his first twenty-si.x years had been so happily spent. With a desire to see the wild West he bid his young wife good bye for a season and started for Pike's Peak. The railroad terminated at Jefferson City, from whence he took a .Missouri River steamboat for Kansas City, then only a sort of trading post of 2,500 people. There were seven in his party, and the journey with ox-teams from there to Denver took them seven weeks. It seems queer to think that the site of the present opulent city of Denver consisted then of five sod houses, all told ; but Mr. Loomis says that was the sum total of the buildings. There were swarms of adventurers there, camping on the bare ground or under blankets and tents. Krom there the party packed on horses and mules one hundred miles to the mines, where they eagerly joined the ranks and dug for gold. When cold weather came in the fall Mr. Loomis returned home with a little more money in his pocket than when he started, pluss an experience of great value. For the next fifteen years he was again a farmer in his native town. In 1875 he went into politics and was elected Superintendent of the Poor for Onondaga County on the Republican ticket. This caused his removal to Syracuse, which has been his home ever since. Three years later he was re-elected to a second term, which expired in iSSi. Mr. Loomis now found more lime to devote to business interests. He had, in 1S77, become interested in the canning industry, and in company with others had built an extensive canning fac- tory in Cicero, and later one in this city, in both of which he still retains a large interest and part nership. The firm of IL H, Freeman and IL H. Loomis is also the largest willow basket manufact- BlOGKAl'HlCAL. iircr ill the State of New York. A fuller statement of these canning and basket industries may be seen in the manufacturing chapter in this book. In i8Sq Mr l.oomis made a second trip to Colorado, when he became so deeply interested in the wonderful mineral resources of that State that he made investments in mining lands and organ- ized " rhe Oro Mining and Milling Company" at Breckenridge, of which he is President, with five directors in Syracuse and four in Colorado. He is also President of the Onondaga Coal and Oil Company, the American Ulcach and Chemical Company, the Eastern Building and Loan Association of Syracuse, and the Onondaga County Loan and Trust Company. He has always retained a liking for farming, and in 1SS2, "83, '84, and '85 he was President of the Onondaga County Agricultural Society. Mr. Loomis had the great misfortune to lose his wife in 1888, leaving three children — Ed- win L., who is his p.irtner in business; Dora, wife of Dr. D. H. Murry ; and Anna Grace, the central joy of her father's home. With an excellent constitution, good health, and the good sense not to overtax his energies, Mr. Loomis undoubtedly has many years of useful activity and quiet enjoyment before him. His life has been marked by that simplicity and rectitude of character that well become a successful man. WILLIAM .v. DUNCAN, Ph. 1). — William A. Duncan came to Syracuse sametime previous to 1S40, when it was but a hamlet. Me had been tiaii.ed from youth as a workman on the granite buildings of Aberdeen, Scotland, and was a finely educated builder and master mechanic. Me was the son of Alexander Duncan, a man well known in his day as an educator, and one of the best educated men on Dee side. With him came his young wife Mary, the daughter of James Wood, of Airlie, Scotland. He located here because he saw the great possibilities of the city, be- cause of its nearness to the limestone quarries. Many of the mansions around I'ayetie Park, in James, Genesee, and Onondaga streets, and the older public buildings of the city, show in part the fruits of his early elTorts towards beautifying the style of the dwellings and public buildings of the young city. As Superintendent of construction for the contractor he su|)ervised the erection of the First Presbyterian church in salina street, laying the corner and the top stones. The St. James's church (recently burned) and other stone edifices were built under his supervision. Hisintegiity and ability as a builder caused his services to be in demand in many of the large cities of the State and in Canada. Syracuse owes much of its admiration for the substantial and the beautiful in archi- tecture to his early presence. Their children were William .\.: James D.; Ji'Seph .M., President of the Duncan .Salt Company, Silver Springs; John IL, Superintendent of the American Dairy Salt-Mills, Syracuse; Mrs. F. Morgan; and Mrs. E. Tankie. Memorial w-indows in memory of Willi.-mi and Mary Duncan have bt en placed in the First Ward Presbyterian church and in the Good Will Congregational church of this city. Many of .Mr. Duncans contemporaries have with him completed the record of their lives, but his memory lives, and liis most upright character is his best monument. Neither are his example, teachings, and mental attainments lost, but by their inheritance the world has felt new impulses for truth and better civilization. Dr. William .\. Duncan, eldest son of William and Mary Duncan, was born at Oswego, N. Y., in li'iT, and while in infancy came to Syracuse, where he has since resided, and during his mature years has ben one of its most active, useful, and respected citizens. Before reaching the ]x-ric>d of manhood, and while acquiring his education, he became strongly imbued with a desire to aid in the promotion of the c.nuse of secular and religious education in the broadest sense, and it may be said of him that his highest hopes could hardly have conceived such a brilliant and successful career as he has enjoyed, and which has not yet. pri.l..ilil\ . .cached its zenith. With his originality of thought and superior educational abilities he ci'n.l ^s qualifications of a high order, so that he is pos- sessed of such versatility as enables him ; .. ^. ..illygrapple with agreat v.ariety of situations and opportunities, in both religious and secular pursuil.s. He is of strong physique, has Scotch delermin- L 90 Memorial History of Syracuse. ation and perseverance, — which generally means success, — possesses a wonderful memory and capability for the speedy disposal of business according to correct methods, and has a wide acquaint- ance from much travel and physical endurance such as but few men possess. His trained mind acts quickly, almost impulsively, but ever safely. Dr. Duncan became an educator when he was a young man as the Principal of an academy, but later in life was atTorded one of the very best of opportunities for making a study of the best educational methods. For fourteen years, and until he declined further service, he was a member ot the Board of Education of this city, representing the Fifth ward, and was for two terms President of the Board. Grace School was established during his term of service, and the Seymour School edifice, which is widely recognized as a model school building, was planned, designed, and erected by him. It has a capacity for one thousand pupils, and upon its wall hangs the life-size portrait of its builder placed there at the pupils' request. The plan of this building has been adopted in many cities. Among the many improvements whieh he introduced to the Syracuse school system was the "Quincy method " of teaching, and which aided materially in bringing the public schools of the city up to a standard which, to say the least, was, and is, second to none in the United States. It is to the pa- tient and intelligent study and experiences of these years, during which he also accomplished a great deal of religious and business work, that he owes much of his present success. His greatest achievements have been in the religious field. For several years he was a member of the Executive Committee of the \'oung Men's Christian Association, and later became President of the association at a time when it was in a transition state. It is fair to presume that he was elected President because the association was greatly in need of just such service as he could render, and results justified the sagacity of the action. While President he projected and planned the present beautiful and commodious Y. M. C. A. Building ; at the end of his first ofiicial year, and with the assistance of Dwight L. Moody, he laid the cornerstone, and at the close of his second term the build- ing was formally dedicated to the uses for which it was so happily designed. The plans of the building have been adopted by many associations elsewhere. The records of the association also speak to the credit of his administration, by showing an increase of membership from a comparat- tively small number to about six hundred. From that time until the present the association has enjoyed a season of uninterrupted prosperity. Dr. Duncan served as Superintendent of the Plymouth, Good Will, and Pilgrim Congregational Sundav-Schools of this city during a period aggregating twenty-five years. The Good Will ("on- gregational church was one of the outgrowths of these labors. The present Pilgrim Sunday-School, with its branch church, was organized by him, and he is at present the Superintendent of the school. For nearly twenty years he was the teacher of the Syracuse Sunday-School Union Teachers' Class at the \. M. C. A. rooms. He organized the Syracuse Sunday-School .\ssociation, and served as its first President, and w'as for three years ihe President of the Onondaga County .Sunday-School .Association . He was elected President of the New York State Sunday-School Convention held in Saratoga, N. Y.. in June, iSgi, and has been for eleven years Chairman of its E.\ecutive Committee, which has charge of the missionary and institute work of this association, representing the interdenominational Sunday-school work of the State of .New York. During the past fiscal year this association has organized nearly four hundred Sunday-schools, and held more than twelve hundred Sunday-schoo) Normal institutes and conventions. For nearly fifteen years he has represented the State of New York as a member of the Executive Committee of the International .Sunday-School Association for the United States and Canada. This committee is associated with the International Sunday-School Lesson Committee in the organized interdenominational Sunday-school work of the world. He is the originator of the organization known as the New York Stale Woman's Missionary ."Md .Associa- tion, organized for the purpose of canvassing the school districts of the State and gathering the chiMren into Sunday-schools. He is the author of " home classes," or what is now known as the home department of the Sunday school, which recognizes those who study in the home, whether individual, neighborhood, or family classes, as having the same rights and privileges as though they were members of either the i>rimary or main department of the church school, receiving their lesson Biographical. 91 supplies from the Sunday-school with which they ^ire connected, and being recognized in full member- ship as though they were in attendance upon the leguiar services of the school. This work was originated in i8Sl, and has grown with marvelous rapidity, so that at the present time there arc thousands of schools in the land that have organized classes of this kind, and there are at least tiftv-thousand students connected with them. The plan has been adopted by the liaplist, Melhodisi, Congregational, I'resbyterian, ami other denominations, and has become a permanent feature of nearly all our Sunday-school work, since it completes the organization of the Sunday-school. The blessing which it at present is bringing to mankind cannot be estimated, nor can the multitude of its benefits for the future be foretold or surmised. \V. H. Hall, Secretary of the Connecticut State Sunday-School .Vssociation, said this to the large Sunday-school convention held in Saratoga last June in reference to the home classes; " If Dr. Duncan had never done anything but give birth to this one idea, he has done enough to place him among the greatest benefactors of the race." Dr Duncan has for many years been the Kield Secretary of the Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing Society, located at Boston, Mass. This -ociety represents the Sunday-school work of that denomination, and this, in connection with the international work, calls him to every part of the United States. Within the past few years he has traveled over tw^o hundred and fifty ihi.usand miles, and addressed more than fifteen hundred audiences, including State. International, and the World's Sunday-School Convention in London, in iSSg. Hundreds of Sunday-schools have been Organized through his efforts, and thousands of youths gathered into them. He is the Secretary and Superintendent of the ('hautauqua University, located at Chautauqua. Chautauqua Lake, New York. This is the original Chautauqua .Vssembly. and the center of all its activities, including the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, the Chautauqua Assembly, the Chautauqua University, and the Chautauqua School of Theology Next to Lewis Miller .nnd liishop Vincent, Dr. Duncan is one of the most widely known officials connected with the Chautauqua move- ment. Through him all ofticial documents are promulgated and details of management are arranged. He has full charge of the grounds, directs all improvements, decides the style after which all public structures and private cottages shall be built, atttnds to all grievances, and is to Chautauqua what the engine is to the manufactory, and, like it. never tires. When he was elected Secietary of the association, in 1883. the institution was ligo.ooo in debt. At the close of last season the Assembly debt had been reduced to ^20,000, although there had been an expenditure of nearly ^loo.oco in improve- ments during these seven years. Dr. Duncan's first connection wiih the .Assembly was in the season of 1878, when he was selected by Chancellor Vincent as his assistant. He continued in this position until 1S83, when he was made Secretary and General Superintendent. How well he has filled that office everyone who is acquainted with Chautauqua is aware. Dr. Duncan is the creator of a branch Chautauqua at Albany. Ga., which bids fair to rival its parent in the North. At a recent meeting, at which Governor Gordon and Senator Colquitt were present, 3,000 day tickets were told in addition to the season tickets. Dr. Duncan has been hailed as a missionary of Northern good-will, and his Georgia visits are occasions of public rejoicing. He owns a cotton and fruit plantation of 3,500 acres twelve miles from Albany, which is in Dougherty county, 200 miles south of Atlanta. The people of Albany have overwhelmed the Secretary of Chautauqua with attentions, among which was the presentation to him of a gold watch through a committee consisting of Mayor H. Mcintosh, Col. Nelson Tift (the builder of the Confederate ram Albemarle), and Captain Kichard S. Ilobbs. The presence of Dr. Duncan upon the platform is magnetic, and combined with excellent oratory, a graceful use of English, and a great abundance of material for thought to draw upon, it is no wonder that he stands in the first rank of popular speakers. Firmness of purpose mingles in the e.\pression of his countenance with gentleness when he speaks, and his clearness, earntstness. sincerity, and cheerfulness help in giving his finely toned words peculiar posver. His characteristics are inherited from the very best of Scottish traits and education, without any of the narrowness that sometimes is aitributeo 10 the more conservative representatives of the best thought of the land of the thistle. His works will go on and on long after he shall have finished his part of it. He has already made for himself a well-deserved place in the religious and secular history of this country, for no man has striven harder or more successfully to confer benefits of inestimable value upon the )onth 92 Memorial History of Syracuse. in particular and mankind generally. In this connection it is not inapt to quote, with slight changes, the following from an Albany. Ga., newspaper, where the new Chautauqua is located: "He is undoubtedly a wonderful man, gifted in repartee, never at a loss in any emergency, and possessing a heart full of the most generous and unselfish patriotism and philanthropy. .\o man less generously endowed could have accomplished what he has done, and his work is not only a monument to his energy and sagacity, but to his unselfish nature to do good wherever good can be accomplished. Every moment of his life spent in Southwestern Georgia testifies to the purity of his motives and philanthropy." Mount Union College, of Ohio, never more worthily conferred a degree than when it recognized William A. Duncan as a Doctor of Philosophy. Dr. Duncan married Miss Julia B. Coleman, daughter of J. M. Coleman, esq., of Seneca Kails, N. Y. Two daughters, liberally educated and now traveling with Mrs. Duncan in Europe for educational benefits, bless the union. GEORGE C. SAWYER, for twenty-five years the New York .State agent of the Travelers Insur- surance Company, of Hartford, Conn., was bom in Malone, Franklin county, N. Y., March i. 1839, the second son of Rev. George and Mary A. Sawyer His only brother, A. H. Sawyer, esq., who resides in Watertown, N. Y., is an eminent lawyer of extensive practice, and for a number of years was County Judge of Jefferson county. The father was a Methodist clergyman, and the sub- ject of this sketch " itinerated" with him until twelve years of age. Upon the removal of the family to Kulton, Oswego county. George C. entered Falley Seminary, pursuing for four years studies preparatory for college under such eminent instructors as the Rev. E. E. Bragdon, D. D., then principal and professor of lireek literature ; John K. French, I,L. D.. professor of mathematics (and now of .Syracuse University) ; Charles R. Egglestoh, A. M.. profes- sor of Latin and modern languages ; and many others. Falley Seminary, then at the zenith of its fame, presented such favorable conditions for advanced study that Mr. Sawyer decided to remain and enter Union College in the Senior year. But when about to leave for the latter institution he was stricken with typhoid fever, from which he did not recover for a year, and the delay caused him to abandon the idea of a college degree. Of a resolute nature, and determined not to be thwarted in his purpose by ill health, he pursued his studies under efficient private tutors for two years longer, and then entered the law office of S. N. Dada, esq., of Fulton. Here he studied faithfully and dili- gently, and was admitted to the bar .\pril 4th, 1S61. He immediately formed a partnership with Mr. Dada, for the practice of his profession, under the firm name of Dada & .Sawyer, which contin- ued till November 29, 1S65, when failing health compelled Mr. Sawyer to retire. He then entered upon an engagement with the Travelers Insurance Company, of Hartford, Conn , as its State agent for the State of New York, a position which he has ever since occupied with great credit to himself and profit to the organization. In 1S66 he came to Syracuse to reside, and immediately opened a State office for his company. This corporation began its celebrated career on .\pril i, 1864, as the only and original accident company of the United States introducing that business in this country There was afterwards organized and connected wiih it a life department, which to-day makes the company one of the strongest and best in the United States. Starting with a cash capital of only $250,000, it has by judicious management steadily increased its assets to about $13,000,000, and the name " Travelers" has become viriually a household word During ihese twenty-seven years of the company's remarkable dcvolopment .Mr. Sawyer has honorably and efficiently retained the same rela- tion to it, and it is safe to say that under his personal supervision New York State has contributed her full share to the corporation's growth and prosperity. No litt'e credit is due our subject for the careful and sagacious direction of his portion of the company's affairs. During the twenty-five years of Mr. Sawyer's residence in Syracuse he has, although absent much, found time to interest himself in the city's religious, social, and business activities, but he has had no political aspirations. .\ .Methodist by faith, as might be expected from his parentage, he is Biographical. 93 prominently connected with the First Methodist Episcopal church, in which he has held and still holds responsible oftices. He is President of the Syracuse Methodist Kpiscopal Union, a federation of all the Methodist churches of the city for local mission work. While sufficiently denominational in his views he is nevertheless liberal in spirit and broad-minded toward other church organizations, as is evidenced by his connection with the NewV'ork State Sunday-School Association (in which he has twice been honored with its presidency), and particularly by his long and valuable service with the Young Men's Christian Association of the city and State. He has held nearly every office in the local association, and was three successive terms elected its President, serving in all with honor and distinction. For many years be has been a member of ihe New York State Committee of the Y. M. C. A., and was twice elected President of the New York State Association Outside of his insurance connections Mr. Sawyer is President of the Syracuse Land and Improve- ment Company, one of the largest and most rapidly developing organizations of its character in the State. He is Vice-President of the Thousand Island Park Association, and is prominently identi- fied with several other institutions and associations in Syracuse. November 12. 1862, Mr. Sawyer married .Miss Julia A. Sabin, of Fulton, N. Y. Three daugh- ters have been born to them, all of whom are living, as follows : Carrie E., Bertha S., and Grace J. The first two named are graduates of .Syracuse L^niversity, which fact of itself indicates the literary tastes of the familv. D WIGHT HALL BRUCE, born at Leno.\. Madison county. N. Y., June 21. 1834. is the elder son of the late Benjamin Franklin Bruce, born at the same place. May 5, 1812. He was the eldest son of Joseph Bruce, bom at Ro.xbury, Mass.. January 6, 1789, who was the second son of Thaddeus Bruce, born at Edinburgh, Scotland, November 14, 1765. He was of Norman ancestry and a direct descendant of Robert Bruce. The motto of the coat of arms of his house is " Do well and doubt not." Reared upon a farm, the subject of this sketch was not in his earlier years surrounded by unus- ual advantages for securing an education ; nevertheless, it was his good fortune to obtain the best of continuous common school instruction, and later a full academic course, w hich was both broad and comprehensive in its curriculum. He was fitted for an advanced college entrance by spcial prepar- ation, but circumstances arose which made it necessary to indefinitely defer making application for admission. He had been engaged in various pursuits, when in 185S he became connected with the Oswego Commetcial Times in the capacityof associate editor, which he resigned in January 1861, that he might come to Syracuse, where he has since resided, to become assistant to his father who had been appointed Canal Commissioner in charge of the middle division of the canals of the State. His connection with the canals was continued during several years. In 1866. and again in 1867, he was elected Supervisor of the Seventh ward. It was on his motion that the Board of Supervisors ap- pointed a committee, of which he was a member, to draft a bill to be passed by the Legislature for the better collection of county taxes. The work of the committee was so well done that the act whicji it prepared has been in effect from that time until the present, and has been adopted by many other counties in the State. The act was also adapted at a later period for the collection of city taxes. He also prepared an apportionment of Assembly Districts under the census of 1S65. which has not since been changed. In October, 1869, he resigned his connection with the canals to accept an ap- pointment, by the Secretary of the Treasury, of Assistant Assessor of Internal Revenue, to make as- sessments throughout the Twenty-third Congressional District, composed of the counties of Onon- daga and Cortland, for all taxes imposed on the manufacture and sale of tobacco, snufi, and cigars. He resigned this position in January, 1S70. to become one of the editors and owners of the Syracuse Daily Jouriin I under the firm name of Truair. Smith i: Co. At a later date, and by a change of in- terests, the firm name became Truair, Smith & Bruce, and January i, 1884, Mr. Truair retired, when the name of the firm was changed to Smith i: Bruce, with equal interests. This partnership was continued until .\ugust 15. 1885. when Mr. Bruce withdrew. 94 Memorial History of Syracuse. March 25, 1S71, he was appointed by President Grant and confirmed by the United States Sen- ate Postmaster at Syracuse, continuing in the position until January i, 1375, nine months beyond the term of his appointment. He inaugurated the " night senice," more than doubled the number of incoming and outgoing mails, and made various other important changes to increase the efficiency of the office. It is a matter of record that though the office handled several millions of dollars of money during his term — it was a sub-treasury for deposit by several hundred other officers, and a pay- ing agency for railroad clerks — there was not the slightest variation of his accounts with those of the Postoffice Department when he made his final settlement with the Department. In May, 1885, he was elected President and later General Managerof the Syracuse Water Company, and has retained those positions until the present time. For many years he has been connected with various business enterprises and undertakings, and has held numerous offices of trust and responsi- bility. He has from time to time been President of charitable and benevolent organizations, and effected the first organization in this city for the protection of animals. In 1888 he was appointed Police Commissioner by Mayor Burns, and was elected President of the Board of Commissioners. He accepted the office only after much persuasion, and resigned it a few months after his appoint- ment. For manv years, particularly during those of the war, he was active in politics and in support of the war. His first vote was given for John C. Fremont for President, and since that time he has been a strong adherent of Republican principles. There was a field for work in " war times" at home as well as at the front, and unquestionably a vast number of those who gave their earnest ef- forts to the cause at the rear were of more aid to the government than they possibly could have been at the front, in whatever favorable circumstances they might have been placed. The political cam- paigns of those years were of unquestionable importance. The Presidential campaign of 1864. when Lincoln was re elected, was the most interesting and e.xciting as well as important election ever held in the United States. Upon the success of Lincoln depended the success of the Union army. The election of Grant in 1868 was only second in importance and awakened scarcely less interest. Both of these campaigns were locally mainly managed by Mr. Bruce as Secretary of the Republican Cen- tral Committee, a position he filled tor ten successive years and until he would no longer accept it. His efforts were not for his party above country, but, on the contrary, for his country above party, and for which his party stood. He was no less active as a member of War Committees in aid of the Union armv. declining a commission to the front to work as a private at home. He was continuously connected with the military organization of the State during a period of thirty-five years. He enlisted when he was sixteen years old, and rose to division staff grades of Major and Paymaster, and Colonel and Engineer. In 1878, at the request of Colonel J. W. Vale, he became Inspector of Rifle Practice of the late 51st Regiment, holding the position until he was elected Brigadier-General in command of the loth Brigade, the number of which was, by a reduc- tion of brigades, later changed to the 7th. He resigned and retired from the National Guard in 1SS4. He was married, October 13, 1859, to Lmilie Northrup, sister of Judge A. J. Northrup and Milton II. Northrup. of Syracuse. MRS. L. H. KEDFIELU. — The seigniory of L'Orignal, Upper Canada, fifty-four square miles of territorv, stretching nine miles along the Ottawa River, was opened to emigrants by its owner, Nathaniel Hazard Tredwell, in 1794. His daughter, Ann Maria, the subject of this sketch, was born at the village of L'Orignal, situated on the banks of the beautiful Ottawa, on January 17. 1800. When the War of 1S12 broke out Mr. Tredwell. owing to his American proclivities, became a suspected person ; his property was confiscated, and it was under many difficulties that he succeeded in returning, with his family, to Plattsburgh, N. V., where Mrs. Redfield's girlhood was passed. C>(^rr^ 7-^/ iy. j2g,U^ai.^c/^ HlOGKAPHICAI.. 95 She was educated at the school of Mrs. Kmma Willard, at Middlebury, Vl., and took a post-graduate course of study at Clinton, N. Y., " reciting rhetoric to Dr. Davis, President of Ilatnilton College, botany to Professor Noyes. and mathematics to Mr. Bassett." She was Preceptress at the academy at Onondoga Hollow in this county, which place became her home upon her marriage, February 7, 1820, to Lewis H. Redfield. In 1829 Mr. Kedfield and family removed to Syracuse, in which city Mrs. Redfield died June 15, i8S8, aged eighty-eight years. Twenty-live years before Mrs, Redfield's death Mrs. Ellet wrote in " I'ho (,)ueens of American Society " as follows : " Mrs. Redfield is not only noted for position, but is known as the author of a popular work. 'Zoological Science, or Nature in Living Forms,' a book commended by Professor Agassiz as one that ' would do credit to a majority of college professors.' Her intellectual culture was softened by natural refinement, and a sympathy that went forth spontaneously towards all who needed it, or claimed her tenderness. The mother of a numerous family, she took pains with the education of her family." June 16, 18SS, the A'Wc i'ori IVorlJ contained the following obituary notice : " Mrs. Ann M. Tredvvell Redfield died yesterday.. * * * In 1820 she married Lewis H. Redfield, who was identified with every stage of the growth of Syracuse. He died in 1882. Mrs. Redfield was the author of a te.\t-book on zoology. She was one of the best known women in Central New York." Letters received by Mr, and Mrs, William H, 11. Smith on the occasion of Mrs. Redfield's death were tributes to her worth and character. Dr. Alexander Winchell, of \nn Arbor, Mich., on June 20, 1S88, wrote as follows ; " Mrs. Redfield was a capable and useful woman — learned in a department of science represented by far too few women." Dr. Anson J. Upson : "I feel grateful to a kind Providence who has permitted me to enjoy the friendship and be inspired by the noble enthusiasm of such a woman as Mrs. Redfield." Henry C. Piatt, esq.. New York city : " It is a source of great gratification to have been con- nected by a common ancestry with such a noble and useful woman, whose work on earth was so well done. I feel that her good deeds and her good fame are part of our family heritage Rev. Dr. Norman Seaver, of St. Paul, Minn., in memory of Mrs. Kedfield. wrote as follows : " We cannot but regard the friendship of your mother as a gre.it honor and pure pleasure in our lives. We are touched to the very heart that she remembered us. and sent to us such appropriate memorials of her own self, imbued and inspired, as that self was, with the love of God's truth shin- ing forth from His word and works. Would that with her gifts might come to us her spirit of sub- lime loyalty to the right and beautiful charity to all. * » * We are with you in your sorrow for the departure of this blessed teacher of good things, and with you in the hope which niaketb not ashamed of seeing her once more in that better world for which she has been ripening with a spiritual bloom that made old age a prophecy of the radiant youth of immorlality, " .tncistry. — Mrs. Redfield's forefathers were of English descent, and their sterling qualities were proven in colonial limes, during the Revolutionary period, and in the councils of the nation, during what has been termed the " formative epoch," from 1776 to 1820, when the Un'ted Slates were "slowly and in the face of physical and moral obstacles establishing their independence among nations." Mrs. Redfield's paternal grandfather, Thomas Tredwell, lived in an age of extraordinary activities and forces, and the record of a life devoted to the public service associates his name en- duringly with grand, arduous, and historic events, Thomas TredwelPs Public Record. — He ivas a Representative in the Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1772-76; in 1775 he was elected to the Provincial Congress, sitting in the city of New York. In 1776 he was. with others, elected to represent Suffolk county, L. I. This Provincial Congress met at the Court-IIouse in Westchester county, but satin Fishkill, November 8th. In 1778 he was delegated to the convention at Poughkeepsie to deliberate on the adoption of the Con- stitution of the United States. He w.tsalso appointed during the same year Judge of I'robate in the city of New York, which oflice he held until surrogates were appointed for e.ach county. In 1791 he was elected to represent Suffolk, Kings, and Queens counties in the Continental Congress then sitting in Philadelphia (to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Dr, Townsend), In 1793 he was again elected to represent these counties, which he continued to do until he removed to Plattsburgh. o6 Memorial History of Syracuse. N, Y. In I S04 he was elected Senator for the Northern District, and in 1S07 he was appointed Surrogate for Clinton county, which office he filled until his death, which took place at I'lattsburgh, December 25, 1831. Thompson, in his " History of Long Isiand," says : " Thomas Tredwell was one of the most useful men of his day, and was almost constantly en- gaged in public business ; was distinguished for firmness and prudence, was a member of the Pro- vincial Convention in 1775, and was elected afterward to the Provincial Congress from Long Island (with power to establish a new form of government). He was a member of the first Senate of this State under the Constitution, and seems in all respects to have been fitted for the perilous times in which he lived." Governor Seward, in his " Introduction to the Natural History of the State of New York," says : " Thomas Tredwell was one of three constituting the Committee of Safety while the Constiiu- tion of this State was being formed, in 1777, and was for many years the only surviving member of that body." (See " Spraguc's .\nnals," Palmer's " Hist, of Lake Champlain," and the histories of Long Island by Prime, Thompson, Onderdonk, etc.) Mrs. Redfield's maternal ancestor. Sir Hugh Piatt, lived in the days of Shakespeare and Bacon. Her grandfather. Judge Charles Piatt, was one of the original proprietors of I'laltsburgh, N. Y., its first actual and permanent settler, and w'ith two brothers founded the place and gave its name. He was the first Judge of Clinton county, and held the first court in 17S0. He had studied medi- cine in Paris, France; he visited London, F.ngland, in I7f)i, and there copied from the records of the Herald's College the family Coat of .Vrms. It was granted to the " Ancient and Honourable Family of PL.ATT, who were in great Repute in Norfolk, Anno Domini, 1327," etc. Mrs. Redfield was a close observer of national history throughout her life, which began with the opening of this century. .She was intellectually alert to receive new ideas upon all subjects, and kept abreast of the advanced views of the times in which she lived. Before her death the phonograph and the telephone were assured scientific facts, and Dr. Winchell's writings were illuminating the fields of scientific inquiry Through all the years of a busy life her love of study was enthusiastic ; she loved knowledge for its own sake, and, prizing intellectual distinction, she was herself attractive, possessing the magnetism of a noble and inspiring presence and a sympathetic nature. She was on terms of friendly intimacy and was pre-eminently the friend of teachers and clergymen. Her friendships were enduring ; with Dr. Malcolm McClaren it dated from iSiS, at Onondaga .\cadeniv ; for more than half a century she held delightful correspondence with Mrs. Emma Willaid, till her death; the same maybe said of Dr. and Mrs Samuel B. Woolworth, the Hon. .\. H. Redfield, and others, beside relations. Fond of the study of the natural sciences .Mrs. Redfield made collec- tions of shells, minerals, and botanical specimens and prepared and published a work on zoology, illustrated by a chart of the "Animal Kingdom " Beautifully illustrated with pencihngs were a botanical chart and an atlas prepared by her lor publication. Interested in family tradition and history she collected genealogical data and arranged a " Tree ' of the family of '" Piatt," which was photographed for distribution. .Among her last literary works was a valuable genealogical history of the families of " Tredwell ' and " Piatt," pulilLshed as a " Rescript." She contributed papers of historical value to Hamilton College and to ihe historical societies of Long Island and Chicago. In domestic life .Mrs. Redfield w.is eminently praciical, and there was scarcely anything useful or ornamental that she could not or did not do. from spinning and dipping candles to painting on satin ; from whipping hnen caml)ric shin-ruHles to writing an essay on zoology; which goes to prove that a woman with an i.itelligent purpose can do almost anything that she sets herself to do. In the pmorama of local history, of which .Mrs. Red.ield was an eye-witness, were the scenes of rejoicing .ittending the completio:i of the Erie Canal, in 1825, when Lafayette, "the guest of the nation," passed through Onondaga Hollow, and in whose honor evergreen arches were erected in the main street of the village. The completion of the canal and the expansion of the salt industry gave promise of growth and prosperity to the then lesser village, which Mrs. Redfield lived to sec the city of Syracuse with more than eighty thousand inhabitants ^>he remembered when "Jacksonism" was " dominant and rampant " throughout the land; when anti-.Masonry and .Masonry m.ide and unmade political parties and friendships so absorbing were those issues in their day. When iheCourl- House was removed from Onondaga Hill to a location midway between the rival villages of Syracuse and Salina (11 '.v ilii- Flr^i u.ir.l of thl^city), Mrs. R.'iifi.-I.l in sn, ikms; nf u s.tiiI ■ " The location Biographical. 97 suited no one— the lawyers least of all ; the distance was long, and in the spring and fall of the year the road was almost impassable." At the time of the "great fire" there were no engines or tire apparatus of any sort, and leather fire-buckets were in use ; double rows of men were formed, who passed and repassed them along the lines to the canal or private cisterns. Events of great importance and interest to Syracuse were the first visitation of the cholera, in 1832, when a panic prevailed here as elsewhere ; " the explosion " and loss of life ; the building of the first railroad ; the first telegraph; the development of the public school system ; the formation of libraries and literary societies ; the agricultural fairs ; the organization of benevolent institutions ; the advent of public lectures ; the abolition movements ; the rise and fall of animal magnetism, and of the Millerite delusion ; the singing of Jenny l-ind ; Daniel Webster's speech on the fugitive slave law ; the speech of the first .Mayor of Syracuse, Harvey lialdwin ; the " Tippecanoe and Tyler too" campaign with its log-cabin and hard-cider arguments. The "Central City " became the "City of Conventions." When the war of the Rebellion broke out the women of the North were united in effort in the work for the relief of soldiers in hospital and on the field. To this work Mrs. Redfield came with characteristic energy and efficiency. Mrs. Redfield's recollections of Syracuseand Onondaga county embraced seventy years(i8iS-SS). She survived most of her generation of women who were socially prominent in this city. Their names are as follows: Mrs. .-^mos P. Granger, .Mrs. B. Davis No.\on. Mrs. Major Burnet, Mrs. Harvey Baldwin, Mrs. K. W. Leavenworth. Mrs. E. F. Wallace, Mrs. Hezekiah Strong (Onondaga Hill), Mrs. Harriet B. (Ellis) Cook, Mrs. John Wilkinson, Mrs. Harriet Touseley Lee, Mrs. Henry Gregory, Madame A. J. Raoul, Mrs. Captain Putnam. Mrs. General Hopping, Mrs. James Lynch, Mrs. Dr. Colvin, Mrs. Johnson Hall, Mrs. .Vlexander, Mrs. Harry Raynor, Mrs. Samuel .Mead, Mrs. Daniel Gott, Mrs. Dr. .Adams. Mrs. Major Korman, Mrs. William Dodge, Mrs. Philo D. Mickles Mrs. Joseph Savage, and the belove3 teacher. Miss .Amelia Bradbury, and Mrs. Mary D. Maltbie. WII.LI.AM H. H. SMITH'S paternalancestorswereof English descent. Theearliest Long Island ancestor was Richard Smith, of Smithtown, of whom histories of Long Island make honorable mention. His maternal ancestors were named Brush, and were Huguenots and lived at Huntington, Suffolk county, L. L Both families warmly espoused the cause of the colonies, and suffered hard- ships during the British occupation of the island. The father of William H. II. .Smith was Rev. William Smith. He removed in ' "Q3 from West Farms, Long Island, to Litchfield, Herkimer county, N. Y., where the subject of this sketeh was born June 5, 1814. Mr. Smith remained at his father's until he became of age, engaged at home in farm pursuits. Soon after arriving at his ma- jority he took charge of, and conducted for two years, a wholesale grocery business at Utica, N'. Y. In the spring of 1S39 the first locomotive was placed on the Auburn and Syracuse Railroad. In September of that year .Mr. Smith accepted the position of " collector " on that road, which was •extended to Rochester, and this is now a part of the New York Central. This was the first railroad from the -Atlantic seaboard to the great lakes, and became the thoroughfare of travel for business or pleasure to Niagara Falls and the great West. .At that time express companies had not been estab- lished, and Mr. Smith was frequently called upon to take charge of bank exchanges and other monied transactions between bankers and business men at Syracuse, Auburn, and Rochester. There were many pleasant and also amusing features associated with the position of "collector"; opportunity to form agreeable acquaintances, and to see the distinguished men of those times, the names and deeds of whom are part of our national history. Reminiscences of travel are recalled by Mr. Smith of John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, William II. Seward, Martin Van Buren, Heman J. Kedfield, Gen. Winfield Scott, Gen. Zachary Taylor, Lewis Cass, Silas Wright, Frank Granger, Judge .Alfred Conkling, Thurlow Weed, Horace Greeley, George Dawson, Stephen .A. Douglass. " Long" John Wentworth. and other celebrities of public interest, as Andubon, Kossuth. M. de Bodisco. Jenny Lind, Fanny Kemble Butler, etc. .September 23, 1S46, .Mr. Smith was united in marriage with Miss Margaret Tredwell Redfield, at Syracuse. N. Y. M gS Memorial History of Syracuse. He purchased a tract of land on the Highlands in- the southeastern part of this city and re- signing his position, in 1852, after thirteen years of railroad life, he built a residence in Irving street, and has since resided there. He has contributed to the development and permanent pros- perity of that part of the city by helping to inaugurate and carry forward progressive measures and enterprises. At an early day, in the introduction in Syracuse of the street railway system. Mr. Smith took the necessary steps for organizing a company, securing stock and the franchise for the construction of the Genesee and Water Street Railroad, the building of which was under his charge, and of which, and the Fourth Ward Railroad, he was Vice-President and Director until they passed into other hands. Mr. Smith has been a member, at various times, of Boards of School Commis- sioners. Assessors, Trustees, Commissioners, etc. ; a life member of the Onondaga County Historical Society since ils organization in 1S62 ; a life member of the Onondaga County Orphan Asylum ; and for many years a Trustee of the Hnuse and Hospital of the Good Shepherd. Without making de- nominational discrimination he has responded in aid of many of our religious, educational, and benevolent institutions, and has especially been an efficient promoter of the enterprises undertaken by the I'rotestant Episcopal Church in the Eighth ward of this city. When Syracuse University was located in the Eighth ward Mr. Smith made a substantial welcoming gift to them of $2,100. Mr. Smith's political affiliations were originally with the Whigs, and have been with the Republicans since the organization of that party. During the war of the Rebellion he gave influence and sup- port in such directions as strengthened the Union cause. Mr. .Smith's tastes are decided for good general literature, American history, "Christopher North, " and other choice humor ; he enjoys good sermons, theatrical representations, whist, and "going a (ishing " for trout. His fondness for picturesque scenery and wild-wood sports have led him often to the wilderness, and for forty of the last fifty years he has visited each spring-time the streams of Northern New York and the lakes " which sit like sparkling gems" among the everlast- ing hills of the far-famed .Adirondacks. A resident of .Syracuse for more than half a century, he has witnessed and been a close observer of the changes which have taken place in this flourishing city, which is now covered with a net-work of railroads, and has become a center of energetic manufacturing enterprise, with corresponding expansion of religious, educational, and other ennobling interests. The population has increased from f),oo<) in 1S39 to go.ooo in iSf)i. DK. HENRY DELAMATER DEXISON was of the eighth generation from William Denison. who was born in England about 1586 and came to America in 1631, settling at Ro.>cbury, Mass. He was accompanied by his wife, Margaret, and three sons, Daniel, Edward, and George,* and by John Eliot, a tutor in the family. Mr. Eliot, as a minister at Ro.tbury and missionary among the Indians, made for himself a place in history. Mr. Denison was a cultured gentleman, of high char- acter, and prominent in the church at Roxbury, of which he was a deacon. He was liberally edu- cated, and gave most careful attention to the education of his children. He died in 1653. t George Denison, third son of William, was born in England in 161S, and, as above stated, came with his father to this country in 1631. He was twice married. After the death of his first wife, in 1643, he returned to England, served under Cromwell in the .\rmy of Parliament, won distinction, was wounded, and nursed at the house of a gentleman whose daughter he mairied. He returned to Rox- bury, finally settling at Stonington, Conn. He died in 1694. His biographer declares that' he and •Of these three sons, GeorKc is the genealogical ancestor of the subject of this sketch. Daniel was a man of much prominence. He was born in 1612, and married a daughter of Gov. Thomas Dudley. He settled at Ipswich, Mass., and had two children: John, who ni.irried a daughter of Deputy Governor John Symonds, and Elizabeth, who married John Rogers, President of Harvard College. He was M.ijor-Cieneral of militia. Speaker of the Hotise of Rep- resentatives, and for twenty-nine years one of the "assistants." His only male descendant died unmarried. Kdw.trd was born in 1614, and was the father of twelve children. He was a man of mark in Roxbury, and died there in 1668. t It was probably in 1653 that a house was built by the Denisonsat Mystic, Conn., and surrounded by a stockade to protect it from the as.saults of Indians. The stockade has been removed, but the house is still standing. It has never been occupied by other thin members of the Dentsfm family, two of whom now live in it. i i IJlOCkAI'llHAL. 99 his wife "were both remarkable for their niagniliceiit personal appearance, and for force of mind and I haraclcr. They held a foremost place in Stoninglon." " He has been described," says the biog- rapher, "as the ' Miles Standish of the settlement,' but he w.is a greater and more brilliant soldier than Standish. He had no equal in any of the colonies for conducting a war against the Indians, 1 xccpiing, perhaps. Captain John Mason." Another authority says of him: " Our early history pre- ^L-nts no char.icter of bolder and more active spirit than Captain George Dcnison ; he reminds us of the border men of Scotland." Nine children were born to him, of whom John Denison, born July 14, 1646, was the third child, lie settled in Stonington on a farm, near the mouth of Mystic River, which came to him by deed from his and his wife's parents. The title of captain was preli.xed to his name. He was a man of mark and prominence in .Stonington. He was the father of nine .hildren and died in 1699. Daniel was his fifth child, born March 28,1680. He was a Deacon cif the Kirst Congregational church at .Stonington. He was three times married, and died October '3. '747- Eleven children were born to him, of whom Daniel, jr., was born .March 22, 1721, and died at Stonington, May 9. 1776. He was the father of thirteen children, of whom Henry, the sixth, was born November 26, 1753, married in 1778, and died at Stonington in 1836. He had eight rhildren, of whom Daniel was the fourth, born March 31, 1787. He was liberally educated and .hose the profession of a physician. He came on horseback to I'ompey, almost a century ago, where he settled and spent the remainder of his life, always enjoying the high esteem of all who knew him. His death occurred in 1S54. Dr. Denison, the subject of this biography, was the eldest son of Dr. Daniel Denison, and was born at Pompey, March 22, 1822. Upon the completion of his education he complied with the wishes of his father and his own desires by preparing himself for the medical profession, to ac- complish which he spent two years in the then famous medical school at Castleton, Vl., from which he retired with honors to enter upon a course of two years at Columbia College, and from which he was graduated with distinction. I'pon his return to I'ompey he entered into practice with his father, and met with excellent success; indeed, a future of rare promise seemed to open before him ; liut his nature proved to be too sympathetic to allow him to look upon illness and sulTering with that degree of indifference which the physician must possess if he would keep his mind clear and settled. After two years of experience he abandoned his profession to enter upon other pursuits. I Ic came to Syracuse in 1850. thereafter making it his home. He had previously married Miss Melissa M- Southerland, of Pompey. He spent the remainder of his life actively in large business affairs, mainly in the construction of railroads and various important public works. He also engaged largely m •ther business pursuits, in which his exceptional sagacity uniformly led htm to successful results, lie was not a man who acted from impulse, but his well-balanced mind always weighed undertakings according to the law of cause and elTect, so that he reached conclusions logically. His advice was much sought by business men, who knew that his judgment was almost infallible, and he was ever ready to apply his best faculties to the solving of difficult business problems for his friends and ac- (|uaintances as well as for himself. Being accomplished in the study of human nature he could eas- ily and almost unerringly read the character of a man, hence he but very seldom was the victim of misplaced confidence. His tried friends he trusted implicitly ; his confidence in them could not be shaken, and no man was truer to his friends than he. His code of business rules had much to do with his success, and with his clearness and excellence of judgment he made his word as good as his bond in his business affairs. Dr. Denison was for many years active in politics, acting with the 1 )emocratic partv. He was not only a local leader, but exercised a commanding position among the leading Democratic pnlitici.ans of the State. He was far-sighted and sag.acious, and was rarely mis- taken in his judgment of men and measures. So clear were his opinions upon political tiucstions ihat his advice ahvavs h.ad great weight in party councils. He would not accept office of any kind, and though he was often chosen a delegate to .State and National conventions of his party, it w.is alwavs done against his wishes. He much preferred being a private in the ranks to the hoUhng of anv conspicuous position whatever. He was for many years intimate with prominent politicians, and his acquaintance both in and out of his partv was wide and advantageous. In the days of the war he was a " Union Democrat," and gave liberally of both money and efforts in support of the cause of the Union. His patriotism was unfaltering, and his confidence in the final triumph of the Union army unyielding. lOO Mli.MORIAl. HlSTOKV ()!■ SYRACUSE. Dr. Denison was singularly kind hearted and generous. Many men in ihis city and elsewhere can testify to this fact— men who, in their earlier days of struggling, were assisted on the way to fu- ture success by his advice and material aid. He gave abundantly to charitable objects, always in an unostentatious manner, in keeping with the natural reserve which characterized all his acts of gen- erosity and benevolence. No worthy charity ever came to him in vain; he could not deny the request of an impecunious stranger, preferring to bestow assistance unworthily rather than take the risk of withholding aid when really needed. Frank, courteous, and generous in his intercourse, he well sustained the motto of the Denison coat of arms, Domus Grata (hospitable house). He was a thor- oughly practical man, detesting sham wherever found. Solidity in all things was one of his char- acteristics. He was public spirited and progressive in his ideas ol government, and a firm advocate of education as a means of relief from many evils. It was only to those who knew him best that his many superior characteristics shone brightest, and his great strength of mind was felt most power- fully. His life-work was completed on the 24th of December, 1883. and his death was widely mourned by many strongly att?ehed friends. His wife and three sons, Lucius S.. Franklin I'., and Charles A , survive him. GF.0R(;F- H. MrCHESNF.V. the eleventh of fourteen children born to William and Huldah (Lord) McChesney, was born November I, 1S41, in the town of Richland, Oswego county, .N. Y. William McChesney, born in Hennington, Vt.. in 179S. emigrated from that place to Oswego county about 1812, and there married Huldah Lord, who was born in .New Hartford, Oneida county. V. Y., July 21, 1805. Mrs. McChesney is still living at the ripe age of eighty-si.x years, making her home at present with our subject in this city. Mr. McChesney was a prominent farmer and lumber manufacturer in Pulaski. N. V.. and died there in August, 1S63, aged si.\ty.five years. C.eorge H. McChesney early acquired habits of thrift and industry, and for one who started young in life, with no capit.il other than high ambitions and a strong will-power, he has secured a lead ing position among the substantial business men of the community. I lis early education was obtained in the public schools of Pulaski, which was supplemented by two years in the academy at that place. In the meantime he assisted his father on the farm and in the mill, which labor was necessarily con- ducive to a strong constitution and an intimate knowledge of the details of the business that he has since followed. At the age of seventeen Mr McChesney left home and went to Oswego, N. Y.. where he became superintendent in the lumber yard of Clark & Page, with whom he remained for two yearf, or until that firm dissolved. He then occupied a like position with their successor, L. A. Card, till the fall of 1867. During the few years he remained in Oswego he became owner of sev- eral vessels on the lake, which were used in carrying lumber to that port, and which was the first business he transacted on his own account. His earnings from these boats, and the savings from his salary, enabled him to accumuUite sufficient capital to start in business for himself, and he accord- ingly moved to Syracuse and purecn rapidly increasing during the preceding ten years, was the most important industrial interest of his constituents. Dur- ing the session of 1853 he was Chairman of the Committee on Salt, and .ibly and imp.artially pro- tected their rights and those of the State. He was also a member of the Committee on the Code, a subject then of engrossing importance to the lawyers of the Slate from the radical changes which had been introduced into the procedure of the courts. An opportunity was thus afforded of tesimg I02 Memorial History of Syracuse. his legal attainments and their ready application, which resulted in the increase of his reputation as a lawyer. As a legislative debater he made his mark in the discussion of the improvement of the ca- nals, in which his constituents were largely concerned and in the impeachment proceedings against and the trial of John C. Mather, the Canal Commissioner, of which celebrated trial Mr. Wood was one of the Committee of Managers on the pan of the House. His re-election followed, and at the ne.\t session, as Chairman of the Committee on Educational Institutions, he was the author of the act creating the Department of Public Instruction, and performed a very effective work as a member of the important Committee on Ways and Means. Mr. Wood's health was usually equal to the demands made upon it. but close attention to his public duties and legal practice for a succession of years rendered a respite necessary, and in 1857 he visited the Southern States and made the return journey from South Carolina on horseback. On the dissolution of the Whig party Mr. Wood cooperated in the Republican organization. The first acts of secession roused his patriotism. He accompanied the President-elect on his journey to the National Capital, which, it had been predicted, Lincoln would never reach alive. Mr. Wood a.s.sisted with earnestness in the raising of troops. The Twelfth Regiment of New York Volunteers was among the first formed in the State, and during the war was followed by three other complete regi- ments from this county, besides separate batteries and companies. In iSf)5 Mr. Wood again repre- sented his district in the Assembly, and was Chairman of the Special Committee which conducted the remains of President Lincoln from the city of New York through the State. At the same session and in the next .Assembly, in which he was likewise a Representative, he was Chairman of the Com- mittee on Canals and a member of the Committee on Ways and Means. In 1S67 he w-as elected for the fifth time to the Assembly, and became Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, on which he had had so much experience. The years which followed were the era of inflation and of ju- dicial and legislative corruption. The Tweed ring of the city of New York was in the plentitude of its power, and sought to dominate the political organizations of the State. A reform was needed in both parties. It was important to break down the Tammany influence in the Legislature. Mr. Wood was brought forward in 1S71 for the State Senate as a man who could not be led by friend or foe to swerve from the strict line of rectitude, impartiality, and political purity. Elected by a m.ijor. ity of nearly 4.000, he represented the Twenty-second District during the next term of two years, and was assigned to the Chairmanship of the Finance Committee, and thus placed in a position where he had to meet and vanquish the hosts of corruption, whether in the House or in the lobby. The first session was crowded with events. The Tammany judges and other oflicers were impeached. In these proceedings, without neglecting any of his other duties, Senator Wood participated actively, and took the most decided ground for a pure judiciary. No one did more to break the rule of Tweed in the politics of the State. The fightagainst irregularity and extravagance was continued through the next session. The Supply Bill, in which unjust appropriations had been often artfully introduced, was watched by the Chairman of the P'inance Committee with unceasing vigilance. Having had a copy made of the bill as reported by the Conference Committee he would not allow it to leave his hands for a moment until he had compared it word by word with the engrossed bill in the last stage of its progress. Mr. Wood was unanimously re-nominated by acclamation by the Republican Senatorial Convention, and returned to the Senate without opposition. The Democratic Senatorial Conven- tion in the Twenty-second District, consisting of Cortland and Onond.aga counties, in the fall of 1873, was, though small in numbers, one of the most remarkable political gatherings ever held in the State. After a motion had been made to ballot for a candidate for Senator one of the delegates de- clared that "while he had no regard for the Republican party, he had respect for Senator Wood "; he was ready to recognize the good wherever it might exist, and therefore in favor of making nomi- nation against that Senator. Another delegate knew "that the ring Republicans did not like Sena- tor Wood, and that they would be willing to contribute thousands of dollars to defeat him." The convention decided unanimously not to make a nomination. In 1874 and 1S75 Senator Wood acted again .as the Chairman of the Finance Committee, and continued to practice economy and wise re- trenchment. He was a bulwark against unworthy, hungry applicants, and insisleii on a strict com- pliance, even in useful measures, with the forms of the law, as the only safe method of guarding the Treasury. When it was proposed lo indirectly anticipate an appropriation for the new Capitol he BlOGRAl'IIICAl,. 103 pronounced it an evasion of the Constitution of the State, and was unmoved by the arguments in its favor urged by Senators of both parties. He was the author of the banking act passed in 1875. While in the Senate he was surprised by a movement of the military oflicers of Central New York to secure his appointment to the command of the Sixth Division of the National Guard on the resignation in 1S74 of Major-General Uarnum, in consequence of his removal from the State. Sen- ator Wood, tliough often applied to. would not consent to be his successor, and Governor Oi-t sent in his name for the .Major-Generalship of that division without his concurrence. The Senate at once conhrmed the nomination with much enthusiasm. Editorial congratulations poured in from every quarter. In a le.iding article on the subject the .'///'««/ F.vi-tiiiig Journal used the following lan- guage, which illustrates the spirit of the press generally : " It is not singular that the military clement of Onondaga and Central New York should seek, as they have been .seeking for months, the consent of Senator Wood to lake their command. The plumes and the epaulettes are no work of his. lUit the soldiers knew that whatever he undertakes he pushes with irrepressible energy; and if he had not tr.ained on the tented field, or flashed his sword m the pageant of parade, they had seen his successful generalship in other spheres. If skill in tac- lics were an essential qualification then no man could surpass him. If understanding of strategy were needful then he was a master. If capacity for lighting were required then he was just the man. * * * In the Legislature he has stood .is a sort of a corps of ohservaiion, watching against im- proper measures. He has deployed his forces against all forms of jobs, lie has beat the long roll and mustered the columns whenever there was danger. He basposied his pickets, kept up his line of sentinels, slept on his arms, and has been constantly on the alert for every exigency." The territory of the Si.Nth Division comprised the counties of Broome, Cayuga, Che'hango, Cortland, Madison, Oneida, Onondaga, Oswego, Otsego, Seneca, Tioga, Tompkins, Chemung, Schuyler, Yates, Ontario, Wayne, Jefferson, St. Lawrence, and Lewis. The able elViciency of Sena- tor Wood and his spotless public record had made a deep impression upon the minds of all who were desirous of a higher code of political ethics, especially those in the city of Ne«- York, who were seeking to purify the ermine and to alleviate the bur;perience. The following extracts from this address clearly show his ijuiet humor and aptness for narrating local events of great historical interest : * * * " Shortly after the organization of the county there came to Onondaga Hollow the lirst, and then only, lawver and member of its Bar, Thaddeus .M. Wood, who continued to reside in the countv and practice his profession until his death in I S36. • * • The lirst case of local inter- est after the organization of the county was before a justice at Salina. The justice, administering the rigorous law of the time, sentenced the prisoner, who was convicted, to be whipped, and for the want of a constable did the whipping himself. The lirst Circuit Court was held in tne corn-house of Gen- eral Danforth, at the " Hollow," on the 21st of July, 1794. Hon. Ii.,'berl l!ens.)n of th.; Supreme Court presiding. One case was tried, by lawyers from Herkimer and Wriitestown, Thomas R. Gould and .Arthur Breeze, who were the onlv attorneys present. One bill of indictment was found agamst James Fitzgerald for assault and battery with intent to rob one Andrew McCarthy. The prisoner was convicted and sentenced to tsvo months' imprisonment in the county jail at Heikimer. The Court rtned nineteen petit jurors twentv shillings each, and four grand jurors twenty shillings each, and three justices thirtv shillings each, 'for absence. Krom that time on the Circuit Courts held one term a year, at private houses, until the court-house was built at Onondaga Hill, in 1S05 : and there courts were held until the building of a new court-house, on the line between the two villages of Sahna and Syracuse. * * * . , , •• It might, perhaps, be interesting to know whether, in the almost half century since I became a member of the Bar, the lawyers have increased faster than the clients : and whether the standard of property qualifications to make a client desirable and profitable is the same now as in the old days, not on my own account as much as on the account of the two or three hundred practitioners whose shingles now adorn the conspicuous places upon the most stately and impressive buildings of the city or towns where they carry on their business through the media of telephones, typewriters, shorthand re- porters, and all the modern devices for annihilating limi an I space. In 1843 the lirst (^ircuit Court was held bv the Hon. Daniel Moselev, who resided at Onondaga Hill, and the whole number of cases on the calendar was 60. A comparison of that calendar with that of the Last January Circuit, containing 400 cases may throw some light upon the question of the relative increase ol attorneys and clients * « « ..,,,.,.. " The organization of the courts and the practice as it e.xisted when I was admitted as attorney and solicitor in Chancery, in 1840, and as they had existed for many years, were so entirely different from the practice of the present dav that it may be interesting to the younger members, who have never had occasion to know what and how dilTerent the lawyer's work was, to consider some of the proceedings of those davs. I'erhaps I cannot better illustrate this difference than by briefly reciting the incidents of a case of my own shortly after I came to Syr.icuse. I'arties holding promisory notes against my clients commenced an action at law for their collection. 1 he subsiamial defense was iisurv, but, as the practice then was, the defendants could not offer themselves as witnesses to prove the tlsury nor could they call the plaintiffs ; and in this case there was no other way in which proof io6 Memorial History ok Syracuse. could be made to sustain the defense, there being no other witnesses to the transaction. A bill in Chancery was therefore tiled by my clients to compel the plaintiffs in the action at law to cancel and surrender up the usurious paper. A temporary injunction was obtained from Judge Moseley at On- ondaga Hill, and the bill of complaint served. To this bill the defendants in equity were required to answer to the charges of usury, and to the interrogating clauses in relation to the same matter, \Yhen the answer was put in it was regular and sufficient in form and substance, except as to the specific charges and interrogations as to the usury. K.\ceptions were served to the sutticiency of the answer, and the matter was taken to a Master in Chancery, before whom the argument was had. The .Master sustained the exceptions, and directed the defendants to answer over within twenty days, or have the bill of complaint taken as confessed against them. .An appeal was taken to the \'ice- Chancellor, then at Geneva. The Vice-Chancellor reversed the ruling of the .Master, and held the answer to be sufficient. The complainant appealed from this decision to Chancellor Walworth, at .•Mbany. who stood the Vice-Chancellor on his head and allirmed the ruling of the Master. When the case was called by the Chancellor .Mr. Julius Rhodes, then a famous Chancery lawyer, at .Vlbany, answered for the defendants, stating that he appeared on their behalf, but did not see or know of any counselor from Onondaga county who might represent the complainants. I had not then been form- ally admitted as counselor in Chancery, and in answering for the complainants I stated the fact to the Chancellor. He kindly suggested that if I was qualified and entitled to be admitted he wouH make an order for my examination, and hold the case until afternoon, when I could bring in my cer- tificate from the examiner. Writing out an order, he sent me to the late Judge .\masa J. Parker, who proceeded at once to give me a most thorough examination, and signed the proper certilicates. Presenting the certificate to the Court in the afternoon, I took the oath of office, and proceeded with the argument of the case before a critical audience of learned counselors, among whom I remember was a no less distinguished personage th,in Daniel Webster. The case is reported in the nth of Paige, .\fterwards, when the amended answer came to be served, it was defective in the same par- ticular as before, and I filed e.xceptions accordingly. The Master held it insufiicient, as in the first instance, and on the appeal to the Vice-Chancellor he was about to reverse the decision, as on the formal appeal, but after hearing the opinion of Chancellor Walworth read he, with ill-concealed cha- grin, announced that he must, under the circumstances, reverse himself, and affirm the Master's rul- ing. The solicitor for the defendants was the late Horace P. Winsor, then practicing at James- viUe, and when a copy of the decision was served upon him he took occasion to heap upon my head the thunders of his wrath, saying that if any man was ever justified in shooting another he was in shooting me, and he guessed he would do it, too. Shortly afterwards he came to my office and sug- gested a "settlement " of the whole matter, and the litigation was brought to an end as to both ac- tions by the cancellation and surrender of the usurious notes and the payment, by his clients, of all the costs. .Vnd so the case was won without the swearing of a witness. * * * " Born in the year of the cold summer, 1816, I was admitted to the liar at twenty-four, in Jan- uary, 1S40, and I have a very vivid recollection of the occasion of my examination. The class, num- bering thirty, was composed of young men from all parts of the State, who had passed the long ap- prenticeship of from four to seven years. .Vfter the examination we invited the examiners to partake of a cold collation, and in a spirit of wild extravagance invested in sever.al bottles of champagne. The first case of any moment in which I appeared was commenced over fifty years ago. and is still pending, never having been discontinued or tried. It was a suit against a cousin of Judge tiridley, of Oneida county, and when it came up for trial the Juilge announced his relationship to the party defendant and declined to hear the case, suggesting a change of venue to Herkimer county. The change was made, but when the case came up there it appeared that the action was against an officer of Oneida county, and the Court refused to hear it, as it was subject to local jurisdiction, and there the matter now stands. " The firm of Gardner & liurdick was formed in May, 1S43, and we came immediately to .'Syra- cuse. Our joint income the first yc.ir was about $150. Philo X. Rust, the renowneil hotel-keeper, pronounced the fiat against us the first year, and was reported to have said at a bird supper at the -Syracuse House — D. D. Hillis, Judge Pratt, and others being present as guests — that Gardner & Hurdick could not succeed or live in Syracuse unless they joined the " bar" suppers at his hotel, where champagne was as free as water. I!ut we managed to get our share of the business and hold out without the champagne, and so proved the prophecy false. .-\s an incident in politics 1 might mention that the first election after I came here was held at the old Court House, and I could not get to the polls to vote on account of the Salt Point mob that surrounded the place. A man named Hoynton, living here about that time, who was a litigant in an important law suit with Thaddeus .M. Wood, used so sav that the three words in the language indicative of the greatest wickedness were •.Salt Point, Thad. Wood, and— the devil :• * » * "The late Rowland H. Gardner, my partner for twenty-seven years, was a good trial lawyer, always ready for a speech, and his addresses to juries were productive of marked effect upon their verdicts. Original and witty he was a great lover of fun, in or out of court, and saw the ridiculous and amusing side of things with a promptness that enabled him to turn the tide in his own favor in many adverse situations. He was, too, a good stump politician, and had many a tilt with strong adversaries in defense of his political faith. As Indian agent he was much esteemed by the tribe under his charge. In the face of strong political opposition he was elected District Attorney, BlOGRAl'HICAL. lO/ and filled the office with credit to himself and to the people. Both before and afterwards he had occasion to defend many prisoners charged with crime, and never failed in doing his whole duty by each. I remember that in our earlier experience here a man was indicted for burg- lary, and the Court .issi-jned Mr Ciardner to defend him. -Mr. (lardner said it was his first case of the kind, and desired to know of the Court what course to pursue. Judge Moseley very promptly replied: "It is your duty to clear the defendant, if you can do so." 'I'he case proceeded to trial, and after the prosecution rested the prisoner wished to consult with his counsel as to his defense, and was allowed to go out into the hall of the old Court-IIouse to do so. He wanted to know if the Court would send him to the .State prison if convicted, and for how long. He had no witnesses, and Mr. C.ardner informed him of the certainty of his being sent to prison for a term of years. I he prisoner said he could never go to prison, and without ceremony proceeded to leave the Court-IIouse on a run. soon distancing all pursuers. Upon returning to the court room .Mr. Cardner reported to the Court that the prisoner had given leg-bail, whereupon the jury was discharged and the court adjourned." At the ripe age of seventy-five Mr. IJurdick still continues in practice with the same zealous inter- est in his profession and the cause of his clients he has evinced during the many years of his eventful professional life. His belief in Christianity and high sandard of moral worth is sound and broad in comprehension, while his ideas on all subjects of personal interest are liberal and clear. Hiswifeand family are worshippers in the Episcopal faith and he has long attended and aided in the support of that societv, being for many years vestryman of St. James's church in this city under the teachings and influence of the late Dr. Gregory and the Rev. J. M. Clark, now occupying a prominent position in the diocese of Central New York. HON. CARROLL E. SMITH, only child of Vivus \V. and Caroline (Earll) Smith, was born in Syracuse, December 25, 1S32, and has been a life-long resident of this city. His ancestors . i. were early settlers of .Massachusetts, and prominently identified with the primitive development and , | history of New England. His mother, who. was married in February, 1S30, was the only daughter of Hon. Jonas Earll, jr., of Onondaga Hill. She died in April, 1S35. His father, who was born in .' Lanesboro, Berkshire county, Mass., January 27, 1S04, a son of Silas Smith, was a distinguished journalist and an -.nfluential politician of this city and county. As editor of the Syracits,' Journal for twenty-five years Vivus \V. Smith wielded a controlling influence in Whig and Republican political circles, not onlv in Onondaga county, but throughout the State of New York, and with his pen ar- dently advocated the cause of purity, reform, and economy in public affairs. After a year spent in the lawoflSce of Governor (Jeorge N. Briggs, at Lanesboro, he engaged in newspaper work in West- held, Mass.. and a little later removed to Onondaga Hill and bought out the OitonJii^',! Joiirmtl which he published for two years. Upon the removal of the county seat to Syracuse he came thithec and established, with John F. \Vyman, the Onoiuiag,, Stamianl. In 1S38 he founded, in partner- ship with his brother, Silas F., the H^isltm SlaU- Journal, a paper of Whig proclivities, which is now continued under the name of the Syracuse Daily and Wetily Journal. After the death of his first wife he married (lune, 1839) Miss Theodora, daughter of Davenport Morey, of this city, by whom he had "hree children, viz.: Fillmore M., Seward V., and Florence A. He was at various times Countv Clerk, Superintendent of the Onondaga Salt Springs, and Canal Appraiser. Mr. Smith died in l83i, at the age of seventy-seven years. Carroll E. Smith's youth was spent in the local schools. He completed an academic course in I' I the Svracuse Academy, and then entered the Seward Institute at Florida, Orange county, N. Y., from which he was graduated in 1S52 with honors. At an early age he entered the printing oftice of the Syracuse Journal, and there learned the various branches of the printers' trade. When nineteen vears of age he began his life-long newspajier career in a subordinate capacity, and subsequently, be- fore attaining his majority, became local reporter for the Daily Journal and then associate editor of the Z^«/Vv Chronicle. In i860 he assumed editorial charge of the yoi/r//.;/, since which time his work in this capacity has been marked with an unusual degree of success and devotion to the material in- terests of the community. io8 Memorial History of Syracuse. So intimately has Mr. Smith been identitied with the remarkable career of the Journal (the oldest daily newspaper in the county) that a brief history of that publication is necessarily a part of the history of the life of its editor. The paper was started March 20, 1839. by V. \Y. & S. Y . Smith (father and uncle respectively of its present conductor), as the ]Visletn Stale Journal. In 1S44 the name was changed to the Syracusi- Weekly and Daily Journal, and three years later the firm of liarnes, Smith & Cooper became proprietors and publishers. Vivus \V. .Smith, in 1849, assumed sole control, and so continued till 1850, when Seth Haight became proprietor and George Terwilliger edi- tor. In 1853 the proprietorship passed to Danforth Merrick, and the following year Thomas S. Truair purchased the plant and franchise and made Andrew Shuman editor-in-chief. This arrange- ment continued one year, when John G. K. Truair bought the establishment, and September i, 1S56, Anson G. Chester became the editor. In 1859 Rodney I., .\dams was admitted to the tirm, which became J. G. K. Truair & Co., and in 1S62 the style of the partnership was changed to Truair, Smith iS; Miles by Carroll E .Smith and Marcus M. Miles both taking an interest. From 1 868 Truair, Smith i: Co. conducted the paper till April 21, 1S76, when Dwight 11. Bruce purchased an interest, and the firm became Truair, Smith & Bruce, which continued till 1885, when the latter retired and a stock company was formed with Carroll E. Smith, I'resident ; J. G. K. Truair, Vice-President and Treasurer; and Eugene M.Grover, Secretary and Superintendent. October 23, 1SS9, Mr. Truair died, and soon after the company was re-organized with Carroll E. Smith, President and Treasurer ; Charles C. Smith, .Secretary; and Charles Blasdel, Superintendent. March 14, 1891, a disastrous fire destroyed the entire Journal plant in East Washington street, including a new Hoe web-perfecting press and an extensive job and bindery plant, but owing to the indomitable energy of Mr. Smith not a single issue was missed. Its home was then moved to 130 and 132 James street, where it now occupies an eligible and commodious building. Mr. Smith guides the policy of the Journal with the assistance of the following staff : Charles C. Smith, managing editor ; Myles T. Frisbie. associate editor; John A. Mackay, city editor ; and Harvey I). Burrill, Henry \V. Chapin, and Frank H. Chase, reporters. .Mr. Smith has been recognized by his party and the people in being elected to positions of trust and responsibility, in all of which he has labored assiduously for the interests of his constituents. From 1854 to 1S57 he was City Clerk, and took much interest in framing the charter of the city which has since been the basis of its municipal law. In 1865 he was elected County Clerk and served three years, and in 1876 and 1S77 he was member of .Assembly, in which body he held a prominent posi- tion. He was Chairman of the Committee on Public Education, and the author of legislation in the interest of popular education. He was also a member of the Committees on the .Vffairs of Cities and .Apportionment, in whose action he took a deep imprest. He declined to be a candidate for re-elec- tion, preferring to devote his entire attention to journalism. In iSSS Mr. Smith was elected by the Legislature a member of the Hoard of Regents of the State University, which position he still holds. For si.\ years he was President of the New York State Associated Press, and for twenty-two years has been one of the managers of that association. October 17, 1889, he was appointed by President Harrison Postmaster at Syracuse and custodian of the Government Building, and in this department he has inaugurated material changes in the local postal ser\-ice, notable among them being the im- provement of the free delivery service. Besides these he has been and is prominently connected with the management of several public associations and identified with various other business enterprises. Mr. Smith commenced his political life a Republican by casting his first vote in 1S56 for John C. Fremont for I'resident. He has ever since maintained an active interest and inlluential position in politics, and has always given his best efforts to elevate and purify political affairs. His vigorous pen wields a potent influence in the councils and actionsof the party with which he is identified. As a journalist he seeks to promote the highest good of the cornmunity by upholding the cause of relig- ion, morality, and temperance, and by the advocacy of the best phases of political and public policy. Always holding himself independent and free to criticise, he has ever been ready to dissent from the action of party leadership which tended contrawise to his views of public welfare. He is careful in his statements, but outspoken in all matters of general interest, and always goes to the pith of the subject under comment in a way peculiarly his own. His writings, always original, simple, and con- cise, have been filled with thought of the keenest character, and invariably impress their power upon Biographical. 109 both friend and foe. Although tenacious of his rights, he carefully respects those of others, and is thoroughly interested in all matters tending to elevate and improve society. In the sanctum or on the platform alike he attracts attention by the vigor of his presentation and logical reasoning. He possesses a strong individuality. His standard of honor and truthfulness is high. II is nature, although some- times apparently brusque, is kindly and sympathetic, lie makes friends readily and does not relinquish them easily. -V man of the people, he possesses great persistency, untiring energy, and a rare insight into character and motives. Straightforward and frank he tells the truth as he sees it, let it hit where it may. He is ranked among the ablest editors in the State, and as such enjoys the esteem and respect of the fraternity and the public. He has made the Journal a synonym for truthfulness and morality, and has thoroughly imbued it with his own high ideal of the newspaper as a public educator — the perfect abnegation of self in its conductors, with the highest development of news enterprise and the most perfect devotion to the interests of State and people. Mr. Smith married Miss Harriet E. Hor- ton in 1S54, and his family consists of Charles C. Smith, who is associated with him in the manage- ment of the Journal, Vivus G. Smith, Mrs. A. V. Meeker, and Miss Hattie E. Smith. Mr. Smith resides in his handsome West Onondaga street home, which is the center of a generous hospitality. HON. CHARLES BALDWIN SEDGWICK was bom in Pompey, Onondaga county, in March, 1S15, and died in Syracuse, February 7, 1SS3. He was the son of a prominent lawyer of that day, Stephen Sedgwick, and inherited much of the character of his father, who died when Charles B. was an infant. When our subject was four years of age his mother was married to Daniel Gott, a lawyer and politician of distinction. He took a course of study at Pompey -Vcademy, and at the age of seventeen years entered Hamilton College, from which institution he was graduated with high honors in 1S34. Returning to Pompey he entered the law office of his step-father, pursued the re- quired course, and was admitted to the Bar in 1S37. It is said of him that in these years he gave great promise of becoming eminent. He was methodical and logical in his reading, and carried these characteristics into practice. In 1S42 he came to Syracuse and formed a partnership with Peter Outwater. He was for some years Master in Chancery, an office which was abolished by the Con- stitution of 1S46. Subsequently Charles Andrews became associated with him, the partnership con- tinuing until Mr. Sedgwick went to New York, where he spent a year, when he returned to Syracuse and became a member of the law firm of Sedgwick, Andrews & Kennedy, which earned for itself a wide and honorable reputation. This co-partnership e.\isted till 1870, when Mr. Andrews was elected to the Court of Appeals. William G. Tracy and Charles H. Sedgwick were then admitted under the firm name of Sedgwicks, Kennedy & Tracy. Mr. Sedgwick continued in practice until 1S75, when he formally retired, and with his family made an extended tour of Europe. Before his departure he was tendered a banquet at the Vanderbilt House, which was attended by many of the most prominent judges and lawyers in the State, and over which Judge George E. Comstock pre- sided. It was an event of general interest, in which regret was mingled with compliment. Upon his return from abroad Mr. Sedgwick found it distasteful to remain in retirement from the profession in which he had been so successful, and so he resumed practice, forming a partnersnip with I. N. Ames and his son-in-law, John L. King, which firm continued until his decease. Mr. Sedgwick was a close observer of politics and political events. He was originally a Demo- crat with anti-slaverv proclivities, but became a Republican when that party was organized. He was very active in the Free Soil movement of 1S4S, and a prominent member of the Buffalo conven- tion which nominated Van Buren for the Presidency. During that canvass he was one of the most effective of popular orators. In 185S he was elected to Congress, and during his first term was a member of the Committee on Naval .\flairs. He saw in those two years what seemed to him to be certain evidence of a conflict between the Nortn and the .South, and constantly advised the putting of the navy in the most efficient condition. He was re-elected, and during his second term was chair- man of this committee and rendered most important service to his country. He gave his best ener- 110 Memorial History of Syracuse. gies to his work, and became entirely familiar with the navy and its needs. He was made a candi- date for renomination, but was defeated after a protracted struggle by Thomas T. Davis. In 1S63 President Lincoln charged Mr. Sedgwick with important trusts in relation to the navy, he being se- lected because of his familiarity with the navy and eminent fitness for discharging the service required. He held close relations with President Lincoln, and never spoke of him without making reference to his exalted char,icter and eminent statesmanship. His esteem for the President was so great and his intimacy so close that he was fitly chosen to pronounce the funeral oration when obsequies appropriate to Mr. Lincoln's death took place in this city. That oration has ever remained in the memories of those who heard it. It was a masterly review of a noble life, and a most scathing criticism of those, both North and South, who had assailed the honor of our flag. In professional, public, and social life Mr. Sedgwick was alike honored. He possessed a strength of character and clearness of opinion which made him both magnetic and powerful in every position. His intercourse with people was always marked by the courtesy of a true and cultured gentleman. His hospitable home was the resort of representatives of art, of science, and of literature, and he numbered among his friends and companions the choicest spirits of political and literary activities of the country, and he himself held rightful rank with them. Mr. Sedgwick married in 1S37, soon after his admission to the liar. Miss Ellen C. Smith, daughter of Rev. Ethan .Smith, a Presbyterian clergyman of Pompey Hill. She died in 1846, leaving two children ; Ellen, wife of Osgood V. Tracy, and Charles H., a prominent lawyer in active practice in Syracuse. In 1847 he married Deborah \V. Gannett, daughter of Rev. Thomas B. Gannett, a Unitarian clergyman of .South Natick, Mass., who still survives. Their children were .^nna B., wife of J. L. Silsbee; Sally, wife of John L. King, who died in 18S2; Katharine, wife of Walter A. Burlingame; Dora, wife of Frederick R. Hazard; and Frank Lyndon, who was drowned at the age of twelve years. ARTHUR J EN KIN'S, manager and principal owner of the £ti->i i/ij; Ho aid and the A/hi/ih Her- ald, was born of English parents in Buffalo on July 23, 1851. The family removed to Milwau- kee in 1S55, and young Jenkins received his education in the common schools of that city. His first oc- cupation was as office boy in the commission house of Van Kirk \- McCIeoch. He was only fourteen years old when he thus started out upon his active career in life, but he had the fire of ambition in his breast, and even then gave promise of a bright and successful future, .\fter some further expe- rience in a bank, and later in a drug store, he finally decided to become a printer, and, with that ob- ject in view, secured employment in one of the Milwaukee offices. In 1S71, having previously worked at his trade in a number of cities, he came to Syracuse. He was then in his twentieth year, ener- getic, ambitious, and self-reliant. For six years he continued the industrious pursuit of his calling in one or the other of the local offices, his last place of employment being with the Journal^ where he obtained his first experience as a newspaper writer. It was in 1S76 that the idea of branching out into business for himself first occurred to Mr. Jenkins. He saw here a field for a cheap, live, enterprising newspaper, and easily convinced himself that its success would be only a question of proper management and conduct. In January, 1S77, his ideas took definite shape, and on the i;th of tliat month, having severed his connection with the Jouriia/, he established the Evening Herald. The new p.aper was a six-column sheet, and it w.as first issued from the job printing office of Arthur White in Fayette street. Mr. Jenkins began the publication with but little capital, and it was only by hard struggling that the enterprise was kept on foot. (Jradually, however, the little newspaper secured a hold upon the public, its prospects began to brighten, and on June 3d, 1878, the Herald Company was organized with Mr. Jenkins as President. The first issue of the Sunday Herald was run from the press on May 20, 1S80. Mr. Jenkins was one of the organizers of the United Press Association, and for a time acted as its manager. He has been a member of the Board of Directors ever since the association was formed. In June, 1S74, Mr. Jenkins married Miss Emma Ilogan, of Geddes. They have one child, a daughter, now in her twelfth year. Biographical. i i i Hl>\VARD GANSON WHITE, son of Hamilton White (whose biography will be found on page II), was born in Syracuse, N. Y., May 5. 1S56. Hisearly education was confined to the local schools. When about fourteen years of age he attended St. John's School at Manlius, and later en- tered Cornell University under the presidency of his cousin, Hon. .\ndrew I). White. His health, however, was delicate, and it was found that long-continued study was likely to break it down alto- gether. After a year or two of college life he was obliged to relinquish it, and to turn his attention to other and more robust pursuits. The two years following he spent in travel abroad in company with Prof. Horatio S. White, now of Cornell University. Fully restored to vigor and health he was an.xious to get back to the growing city which always engrossed his thoughts. Accordingly he re- turned to Syracuse, which place was to become the future field for the exercise of his varied talents. Burr Burton and T. R. Porter had already founded a growing business in making castings for the salt works, and their operations were e.vpanded from time to time to embrace mill machinery of vari- ous kinds, steam pumps, cotton presses, and steam engines and boilers adapted to a great varietv of manufacturing purposes. Messrs. liurton and Porter sold out, and Mr. White, with others, organ- ized in IS77 the Porter Manufacturing Company with his brother, Barrett R. White, President ; Robert Townsend, Vice-President ; George A. Porter, Treasurer; and D. H. Gowing, Secretary. In iSSo Howard G. White succeeded to the presidency, and it was owing to his efticient management that the company laid the foundation for the world-wide celebrity of its portable engines and boilers which it has achieved. During this period Mr. White conducted a stock farm (now the Palmer tract) of si.\ty-five acres near the city, upon which were found some of the finest strains of Norman Perch- eron horses in the country. Many of these were imported, and were celebrated for their size and strength for heavy work. He had also a fine stock of Holstein cattle, in which he took much inter- est and pleasure. In 18S5 he sold this farm to the Onond.iga County Agricultural Society, as its lease of Tallman Park was about to e.xpire, and new and larger quarters had to be secured. At the same time he sold his stock to New York and Rochester parties. In 1SS3 his attention was called to the Syracuse Slatuiaid slS a newspaper property in which an investment might be made with fair promise of a satisfactory return. At this time Mr. White had begun to take an active part in the politics of the city and county. He thought a better newspaper than the Republican party then had would serve a good purpose. He therefore joined John II. Durston and others in the ownership of the paper, and soon after he acquired the interests of all the other owners except Mr. Durston's. This partnership continued until --\pril 7, 18S7, when Mr. White became sole owner of the establishment. Under his control the Stan Jard was improved in every department, and its circulation extended throughout Central, Northern, and Southern New York. He transferred his plant to a new building, splendidly equipped as a newspaper office, and thenceforth gave it his undi- vided attention. In iSSq he was selected by the Republicans of Onondaga county to represent them in the Assem- bly for the First District, and before entering upon the duties of this office he resigned the presidency of the Porter Manufacturing Company. Gen. James W. Husted. Speaker of that body in the session of 1S90, placed Mr. White on the Committee on Cities, in which relation to the legislation of that year he held an important position. In 1S90 he was re-elected to the Assembly, and though the Speaker- ship was a Democratic prize he was again placed on the Committee on Cities. As it was to that com- mittee in 1S90 that the Syracuse water bill was referred he was largely instrumental in its passage against the strenuous opposition of the canal counties. As this volume goes to press Mr. White is a candidate for the Senatorial nomination on theRepublican ticket in the Onondaga-Cortland district. Mr. White is a gentleman of high culture, refined tastes, and progressive ideas, and takes a lively interest in everything affecting the welfare of .Syracuse. He inherited the strong characteris- tics of his father, who in the early progress of the town helped materially to lay the foundations of its present prosperity and importance. Mr. White is a man of convictions in which, being once confirmed, he is well-nich immovable. His judgment is deliberative, and by experience has been shown to be uncommonly sure. Thus in his active participation in public affairs he has usually been found on the side which, in the end, has been demonstrated to be right. This faculty of mind eminently fits him for journalistic as well as political spheres. Mr. White married, September 25, 1879, Miss Emma Sawver, d.iughter of United -States Senaor Philetus Sawyer, of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and their weddin^ tour consisted of a trip around the world and a visit to almost every country. i 112 Memorial History of Syracuse. MILTON HARLOW NOKTHRUP, since 1S70 the chief editor and principal owner of the Syracuse Courier, was born in the town of Smithfield. Madison county, N. Y., April 3, 1S41. He is on both sides of the house of New England ancestry. His father, Rensselaer Northrup, was a native of Massachusetts, but was brought when an infant into the then wilderness of Central New York. His mother, Clarissa Judd, was a "daughter of Pompey," her father having been Ansel Judd. one of the pioneers of that town who emigrated from Connecticut. The subject of this sketch was reared on his father's farm, the fifth of nine children, of whom Judge A; Judd Northrup was the eldest. When eleven years of age he was sent to the Peterboro Academy, an institution built under the auspices of Uerrit Smith. There he prepared for college, and entered the Freshman class of Hamilton College at Clinton, N. Y.. at the age of fourteen, the youngest of his class. Graduating from that institution in 1S60, with one of the highest honorsof his class, Mr. Northrup started at once for the South to seek a situation as teacher. It was the heat of the first Lincoln campaign, and the South was in a state of great agitation. The outbreak of the great Rebellion found the youthful teacher principal of the Preparatory I )epartment of Oglethorpe University, at Milledgeville, then the capital of Georgia. .\ fellow boarder was Sidney Lanier, then eighteen years of age, a tutor in the university from which he had graduated, destined in later years to achieve worl*• portrait of, 712. Becker Manufacturing Company, 007. Becker & Myer, 303. Belden, Hon. J. J., biography of. Part II., .'^3. nominated and elected Mayor, 224-225. re-elected, 220. Bench and Bar, 412. Bennett Brothers' store burned, 212. Bentz, Henry Philip, 337-33S. Bingham, Ryal, 80. Biography of. Part II. : Abbott, William E., 00. Aldrich, Bruce S., 09. i ii8 Memorial History of Syracuse. Biogiapliy of, Part FT. : Alvord, Earl li., ;!o. Andrews, Hon. diaries, I. Avery, li. Au.stin, :M. Bagg, James L., 11. IJaUer, Charles A.. 10. Uariies, George, 1. Barnes, Lucien, ',]2. Beach, William A , 63. Beldeii, Hon. .lames J., 83. Brooks, .James B.. 3G. Bruce. Dwiglit 11., 93. BnrdicU. Hamilton, IW: Buiiis, lion. Peter. Sli. Clark, Cliarlcs P., 9. Clark, Hon. Kliznr, 15. Cobb, Nathan, 'JS. Cogswell, William B.. i2. Comstock, Hon. George F., 79. Cowie, Hon. William, 68. Cowlcs, George De Witt, G7. Grouse, George N., 41. Dana, George E., 51. Deni.son, Dr. Henry D., 98. Dey, Robert, G5. Didama, Dr. Henry D., 10. Donoluie, Dr. Florince O., 71. Downer. Ezra P., 110. Duguiil, Henry L., 44. Duncan, William A., Ph. I)., S9. Dunn, John, ji-., (id. Fitch, Thomas B., 7G. Gere, Robert, 7G. Gleason. Lucius, 7. Goodelle. William P., Ki. Graves, Hon. Nathan F,, 3. Hancock, Theodore E., G'i. Hawley, Dr. William A., 40. Ihiydeu, Sely C, 52. Hazard, Frederick W., 58. Higgins, Alfred, 50. Hiscock, Hon. Frank. 113. Ilowlett, Alfred A., 84. Jenkins, Arthur, 1 10. Judsoii, Hon. Edward B., 81. Kiune, Arthur B., M. I)., (i2. Kirkpatrick, William, 2r>. Leaven woilh, (ieu. E. W., 18. Lighlon, Hon. John, 49. Loiig-treet, Coriielius T., .'50. lioomis, Henry IL, 87. Lynch, Patrick, 01. Mason, Amos L., 54. McChesney, George II.. 100. McLennan, Peter B., ."il. Mowry. Henry J., 72. Northriip, Milton H., 112. Pierce. Sylvester P., 58. Powers, Dr. Nelson 0., 08. Retlfield, Lewis II. , 2.3. Redlield, Mr.s. L. H., 94. Ruger, William C, 24. Biography of. Part 11.: Russell, Arcliimeiles, 48. Sawver, George C, 92. Sedf,^vick, Hon. Cliarles B., 109. Sheldon. Dr. James W,, 04. Smith, Hon. Carroll E., 107. Smith, William Brown, 5. Smith, William H. II., 97. Sniper, Gen. Gustavus, 53. Snow, Charles W., 57. Stearns, Edward C, 74. Teall, Oliver, 7S. Vaun, Judge Irving G., 29. White, Hamilton, 11. White, Horace, 13. White, Hon. Howard tL. 111. Wietiiig, Dr. .lulm .\I., 20. Wilkin.son, John, 75. Wood, Thaddeu.s M., 37. Wood, Hon. Daniel P.. 101. Wynkoop, Jonathan G., 55. Wynkoop, Robert G., 45. Bli.-s Box Company, the, 043. Block-hoiLse, the, 79. Blocks, boundaries and uses of, 122-12.S. Board of Education, the present, 538. financial statement of, 230. clerks of, 5.3S. Board of Trade. 227. Board of Water Commissioners, 252. Boards of Fire Commissioners, 509. Boards of Police Coinmissioner.s, 591-592. Bogardns's Tavern, 90. Boggs & Clarke, 072. Bonds i.ssued to pay outstanding ilebt, 223. Bookstaver, Daniel, 441. Boomer Sc Boschert Press Company, the, Gfi8 Boots and .shoes, 6;i5. Bottling industry, the. 033. Boundaries of Danforth village, 'J 19. at time of annexation, 217. of Geddes at time of annexation, 24G. Hounds of the new city, 1,58. Bounties for volunteers, 190. Bounty lands to olTicers and soldiers, 33. Box manufacturing, 04.'i. Brace. David, St). ' liiackett, Ichabod, 81. liradley, Clirislopher ("., 211. liradley iV Companv, 017. I'.iamer, li. D., 072.' Breda, peace of, 27. Brewerton and Syracuse Railroad Co., 140. Brewing interests, G29. Brewster, Dr. Jo.seph W., 61, 469. Brewster, Thurston D., 4 11. lirick manuracturing. 039. Bridge over Onondai;a Creek, 194. over Oswego Canal in Willow street, 170. Britnall, Hiram, 177. liritton, M. &, Son, (iO(i. Bronson, Josiah, sr., fi5. i Inde>^. 119 liiooks, .lames B., Iiiograpliy of, Pnil II., 3G. portrait of, 42 t. Hiopliy, Timotliy, C41. Ilrown, Eil^iii- v., -142. liiowii, lleiiiv K., '2r)4. liiown AU'iiioriiil M. E. Clmrcti, 504. linice, Dwifjlit II., liiogiaphy of. Part II., n3. portiait of, 552. liiiokloy, Kii.s.laces in 1S5IJ, lli'J-170. Butler .Manufacturing Company, the, lil5. Butler's Zouaves, 28.'!. ButterlieUl, KiUvin S., 442. Kuttennit Street Railway authorized, 217. Byiiigton, Beiiajah, 79. liyington, Kendall & Co., G74. Byrani, Kd., (151. C.VLDWELL, I-e.-^lie, GK). California House, the, IGG. Calvary Church, 50!l. Canal biisiu, the old, destroyed, 155. enlargement meeting, 177. project agitated, 40.5. Candle manufactories, G54. Canning industry, the, lioG. Canton D.uiforth, No. 31, 58G Canton Union, No. (i, 5.%. Capitular .Masonry, 580. Cardiir Giant, the, 20G. Carpenter, Benjamin, SO. Carpenter, Charles, 90. Carriages, wagons, etc., G33. Carson League, the, 55G. Carter, J. S!, G72. Casino, the, .'ioO. Castle, Seth, S5. Celebration of the laying of the Atlantic cable, 188. Cemeteries, 570. Centenary .Methodist Episcopal Church, 501. Central and Western New York in l.SOl) map of, 45. Central Baptist Church disaster, 218. history of, 479. Central City, the, 550. Central City Boll Company, G23. Central City Chapter of ifose Croix, 5S:}. Central City Consistory, S. P. U. 8., 32d deirree 583. Central City Council, No. 13, 579. Central City Council Princes of Jerusalem, 583. Central City Encainpmeiit, .582. Central City Lodge, No. .'io5, 579. Central City Pipe Works, GO;!. Central (Jity Hallway, 114. Central City Veterans, .'i35. Centra! City WaterWorks Company's plan.s, 24 1. Central City Wheel Woiks, G:!5. Ctntrnl Demokrat, .■!5(i-.'jl57. Central Library, the, 544. Central New York llonueopatiiic Medii-al Soci- ety, 475. Central New Yorker, the, 55G. Chamberliu, William U., 442. Champlain, 22. ("liancellors of the University, list of, 540. Chapman, Eio<;rapliy of, Pai't II., 15. portrait of, :i!l(i. Clark, William, 203. Cldij liiinner. the, hho. Clerk.s of the Board of Ktliication. .O.'iS. Clillord. John G., 442, Clothing industry, the, 037. Coal used in salt mannfactiire, 393. Coarse salt industry, the, '.V.\h. Cobli, Ira II., 208. Col)b, Nathan, biography of. Part II., 28. Cogswell, William 1!., hiograpliy of, Part 11., 42. portrait of, 000. Coleman, J. 1)., 040. College of Kine Arts established, 539. of Liberal Arts opened, 539. Collins, George K., 442. C'limmerrial Traveler, the, 552. Commissioners to straighten Onondaga Creek, 178. Committee of One IIun<, early, 383. Confed< racy, the Indian, 19 20. CoidlicI Willi the Gaslight Company, 221. Congiloii, George K., 442. Congregational Poiley Zedeck, 520. Congress Hall, (;.S2, Cotislitutioniilisl. the, 554, ConMiluliunalist and State Free Trailer, the, 557, Contractors, 051, Contree, John, 701. Convention Hall, 091. Cook, Hon, George K,, 442. Cooperage, 058. Corinthian Hall, 0!ll. Corner-stone of the I'niversity lai. Forman. Joshua, 50-58. Forman, Judge, 99-100. Forman Park, improvement of, 212. Forman, Samuel, 58. F^orman, W^ard, 58. Forman, Wilson & Co., 100. Fort, erection of the, 30. Fort Stanwix, council at, 31. F'ourth Baptist Church, 4.^2. Fourth of July celebrations, 587. celebration in l.'S28, 1.33. F'ourth Presbyterian Church, 487. Fourth Regiment, 274. 122 Memorial History of Syracuse. Fourth Ward Railroad Company, 41G. Fowler, John C, 443. Francis &. Company, 64S. Franklin Institute, I(>8. Franklin Library and Institute, 543. Fnizer, Kasson, '222. Frazer & Jones Company, (i2.'j. Free School Clarion, the, "),">:!. Free Soil Campaigner, the, 555. Freeman, G-eorKe, 038. Fi-eie Brueder Lodge, No. 458, 345. Freie Presse, Die, 36S. French and Indians, treaty hetween. 27. French, arrival of the, 28. French, Mansfield J., 6G3. Freshet of 1SG2. 193. Friedel & Gebhart, (;:!3. F'riedel & Soiile, 653. Fry & Mantel, 632. Fuller, Louis E., 443. Fuller, Truman K., 443. Fuller, \Villiam D., 443. Funded debt of 1.SS4, the, 237. Furman Street M. K. Church, 504. Furnaces and heaters, 619. Kurnilurc, picture frames, etc., 044. GAGE, W. C, 228. Ixardner, Ivowlatid II., 439. Ueddes village, clerks of, 93. Geddes, incorporation of, 92. growth of, 93. map of, in l.'<07, 87. trustees of, 92. amiexation to Syracuse, 24G. division into wards, 247. early settlers in, .'<7-9(). lirst election in. 92. formation of, 30. settlement of, S.'i. Geddes Congregational Church, 197. Geddes. James, 85. :!81-382. Geddes, Judge, named '' Don-da-dah-gwah." .'^7. Geddes Metiiodisl Epi.scopal Church, ."lOO. Gene.see and Water .Street Uadway Co., 415. Genesee College, first steps taken toward removing, 203. Genesee Turnpike, 44. Geology, 37-40. Gere, N. Stanton, 243. Gere, Roliert, 90. biography of. Part IL, 70. German element in Syracuse, llie, 330. settlers, the lirst, 3.)7. immigration. 3.39. press, the, .■!54. theatric.ils, 350. I. O. 0. F. societies, 346. German Mechanics' Association, 340. German .Musical Institute, 343. Germania Brewing Company, 631. Grermans in politics, 353. Germans disappoinied in Ko.ssuth, 343. in the Kebelhon. .352. Gibbs. Freilerick II., 443. Giflbr.i, Henry, 21.'). (lifts to the L'niversily, list of, 540. Gilbert, Waldo E.. 44.3. Gilbert, William, 443. Glass, Jo.seph J., 228. Gleason, Lucius, biography of, Part II., 7. portrait of, Part II., 0. Globe Hotel. 6SI. Globe Laundry, the, 050. Goettel, Philip, 047. Good Will Congregational Church, 494. Goodelle, William P., biography of. Part IT., 10. portrait of, I'art II., 10. Goodrich, Charles 15., 443. Goodstock Manufacturing Co., the, 668. Gould, Col. Jeremiah, 72. Gould, Phares. 74. Government liuilding begun, 238. Grace Church, 507. Graduating, cla.s.«, first in the High School .'■).'>6. Grand Opera House biirned, 253. Granger JSlock, the, 155. burned, 2O0. Graves, Hon. N. F., biography of. Part II., 3. portrait of. .308. Gray Brothers Manufacturing Co., 035. Gray, George W., 443. Gray's, II. II. Son, 030. Green, .\ndrew IL, 4 14. Green, John A., 215. Green. T. I)., 678. Greenpoint, early .settlers at, 76. Greenway Hrewing Company, 029. Greenway Guard, 3.35, 342. Griswold, Edmund B., 234. Grocers' licenses, 109. Growlli of the village, 81. of the city, 012-616. tiunpowr. Samuel, 472. IJenihl, the, 550. Hinwalha, lS-19. llioliok, Morehouse, 01. Hides an J leather, G60. Ilier, George P., 1)27. llier, John P., C28. Higgiiis, Alfred, biograjihy ol, Part 11 , 5G. portrait of. Part II.. 5(1. High School Building erected, "^02. organized, ")3li. Iligliwavs, early, 41-44. Hill, Everard A., 444. Hilli.s. David Duncan, 429. Hine, Norman, 444. Hifscock, Prank 11., 444. Iliscock. lion.Frank, biography of, Part 11., 1 13. portrait of, 124. Ilogan, Thomas, 444. llolbrook, Charles 0., 85. HoUisler, David W., SI. Holme-s Samuel N., 444. lloine Circle, the, .o')!!. HomiLopathic profe.ssiou, the, 474. Hopkms, Frank, 444. Hopper, Jasper, GO. lIopi>iiig, Enos D., 85. Hotchkiss & Sohreuder, (142. Hotel Burns. G82. Hotel Candee, G82. Hotels, G81. House of the Good Shepherd, 008. House of Providence, 603. House, Louis, 633. Houser Elevator Co., 671. Ilovey, Alfred H.. 201. How.'ird Furnace Company, 650. Howard & Jennings, 07:!. Howlett, Alfred A., biography of. Part II., 84 portrait of, 592. Hoyt. Harrison, 444. llubbell. Ferris, 01, 243. Hughes Brothers, 675. Humboldt Lodge, No. 537, 310. •• Hunkers " and " Barnburners'," 268. Hunt. John C, 444. Huntington, Dr. Daniel, 61. Huntington, Bishop, 5(»9. Ilurd, Dr. Darwin E., 467. IDE, Charle-s E., 444. Immanuel Baptist Church, 480. Impartial Citizen, the, 555. Improvements on Onondaga Lake, 214. Incendiaries of 1871, 212. Indebtedness in 1855, 180. Indebtedne8.s in 1889, 255. Indian Confederacy, early condition of the, 20. history, outline of, 17. traditions of, 18-19. treaties with. :!81. tribes, diviMiou of, l!l-20. Industrial growth and manufacturing interests, 610. Iroipiois Indians, 17-18. League, the formation of, 18. JACKSON, Calvin, 98. Jackson, Albion, the lirsl while child born in Syracuse, 695. Jackson, 'I'homas, 617. Jail erected, the, 424. James street in early times, 113. Jenkins, Arthur, biography of. Part II.. 110. Jenney, Edwin S., 4^4. Jenney's Battery, 284-288. in South Carolina, 287. Jerome, Samuel, 7.'!. "Jerry Rescue," the, 172. Jervis House, 682. Jesuit missionaries, the, 23. journals of, 24-25. John Crouse Memorial College for Women, 540. John Oreenway, explosion of the, 242. Johnson, Edward 0.. 1 15. Johonot, Jame.s, the first school i>iincipal, 535. Journal, the, 551. building burned, 180. Journal of Father Le Moyne, the, 2.i-2l. Journal of Health, the, 550. Joy, Edward, 054. Judges, the first, 58. of the County Court, 264. of the Court of Appeals, 140. of the Sui)reme Court, 204. Judson, Hon. E. B., biography of, Part IL, 81. portrait of, ."70. Judson, Hiram, 177. Juvenile Instructor, the, 553. KEARNEY'S Brewery, 632. Keeler, Dennis B., 4 15. Kellogg, Clarence V., 445. Kellogg, William, 80. Kemp & Burpee Mannfacturmg Co., <>(». Kennedy. Dennis M., 250. Kennedy, Francis II., 639. Kennedy, William, 445. Kent. Charles S., 445. Kent & Miller, 037. Kenyon, George G., 643. Kibbe, George, 60. Kin" John L., 445. . Kinne, A. B., M. D, biography of. Part II., 02. Kinne, Charles, 2-12. Kinnie, A. E., 530.! I Kirk, WilliamB., 249, 641. 124 Memokiai. History ok Syracuse. Kirkpatrick, Dr. W., biognijiliy of, Part II., 'Jo. portrait of, '."2. Kline, Jay B., 445. Klock, E. M., G44. Kossuth, Louis, visit of, 175. LAFAYETTE'S visit in IS'Jo, 111. Lake Genentaha, '.'5. Lally, Michael R, 445. Lamb, Jame.s, 88. Laiiil)'s daughter, killing of, 7(i. Lands, reservations of, 34. La Ruche, 550. Lawlessness and crime, 587. Lawrence, James Rohhiiis, 4'jy. Lawyers, list of, 441. Laying out the lirst viHage, 71-72. act of Legislaliiie, the, 72. Leavenworth Ciicle transferred to the city, 'iSl. Leavenworth, Gen. Elias \V., 143. biography of, Part II., 18. portrait of, 4s. Lefever Arras Company, (iC;!. Leggett, J. S., 034. Legislative act concerning park.'j, etc., lilo. Le Jeune, Father Paul, notes of, '2'>. Le Moyne's journal, 'J3~'JI, Leasing Lodge, No. 1G3, 585. Lewis, Ceylon IL, 445. Liberty Jntelligencer, the, 555. Lilierty Parly Pdper, the, 550. Liliraries in Syracuse, 542. Library Hall, 542. Lighton, Hon. John, biography of, Pait II., li). portrait of, 09G. Lincoln Canton, No. 38, 58(i. Lincoln Encampment, 580. Lincoln Lodge, No. 180, 585. Lind, Jenny, in Syracuse, 173. Linehan. C, 048. Lines, Thomas D., 031. Lipe, Charles E., 022. Literary Union, the, 550. Long, Ezra, 027. Longstreet, Cornelius T., (iO, 92. liiography of, Part II. , 30. portrait of, 04. Loomis, Allen & Co., 050. Loomis, Henry 11. , biography of. Pait 11., .'<7. portrait of. Part 11,, 80. Lumber industry, the, G42. Lyman, Frederick A., 445. Lynch, James. 212. Lynch, Patrick, biograpliy of. Part II.. 01. portrait of, 224. Lynx, tlie, 62, 554. M'l -ENNEUCHOK, the, Mails, the first, 40. Malcom Hall, 091. Mang, Jolm Jacob, 337-338 Mann, Jumes, 07. 344. Manning, James, 201. Manufacturing industries, 017. Map of Onondaga county, 34-30. Mara, Michael M., 440. Marble and granite liusine.ss, the, 047. Marselhis, John, Manufacturing Company, Lim- ited, 078. Marsh, Francis A., 248. Marshall, Jacob & Son, 001. Marshall, Louis, 440. Martm, Sprague Sc Co., O.")!. Martin, Sullivan & Donovan, 051. Mason, Amos L., biography of. Part II., 54. portrait of, 088. ifasonic lodge, the lirst org;ini/.ed, 577. May Memorial (Unitarian) Church, 512. May, Uev. Sanmel J., 512. Maynard, Henry .\., 445. Mayor's term extended to two years, 249. McCarthy, Dennis, 249. McCarthy, Thomas, 81. McChesney, < ieorge IL, G42. biography of. Part IL, 100. portrait of, 042. McClurc, H. C, 054. McDowell, John II., 043, McLennan, Donald F., 4 4(i. McLennan, Peter I!., biograpliy of. Part II., 51. portrait of, 530. McLoud & Jane.s, 03.'!. McMahon, Jolin O., 445. Meads' liusiness College, 54 1 . Mechanics' Association, 15.'!. Medical College opened, .539. Medical profession, the, 449. Meldram, J. Charles, 44G. Members of Assembly, 205. of Congre.ss, 439. of the Medical S.iciety, list of, 4.56. of the Medical Association, list of, 402. Memoiial day, lirst observed, 205. Memorial Presbyterian Church, 491. Mercantile establishments in 1840, 110-117. Merchants and mamifactiireis, early, 88-92. .Merchants' National Bank, 300. Merrell A: .Soule, (i57. Merriam, Thomas, OH. .Merrick, C. U fi L. S., 040. Merrick, M. c'tf C, Oil). Merten.s, J. M. & Co., 03G. Mes.senger, Hiram U,, 440. Mi<4t Co., (i.il. Moosbrnpger Candle Co., GuG. Jforavian missionaries, 2(). More, Ezekiel P., 445. .Morgan, Le Roy, 427. Morgan. Theodore L. K., 445. Mominy Sentinel, the, 555. .Morris, D. J., 248. .Mo.-ieley, Gen. WilHam II., 21 'J. Mosely, Daniel, 6G. Mowry, Henry J., biography of, Part II., 72. portrait of, 2G4. -Moyer Wagon Works, 6.'!3. .Mullen, Joseph, 434. -Municipal ownership of water works agitated, 242. Mnnroe, Allen, 240. Murphy, Thomas R, 416. Museum, the, 701. Music in Syracuse, 557. Musical societies, German, 343. Myers, Austin, 138. Myers Hall, 691. N.\MING the city "Syracuse," 100. National lirewing Company, G31. National Express Co., 648. National Theater, the, 1G6. Needhain, Dr. William, 59. Netlleton, A. E. & Co., 630. New Amsterdam named New York, 27. New Beth Israel, .525. New City Hall proposed, 238. New Process Uaw Hide Company, 050. New water supi)ly wanted, 208-209. New York Brick and Paving Company, Oil. New York State A.^ylum for Idiots, 605. New York State Banking Company, 369. A'ei/; York State Eilncalional Jnniual, 552. New York, West Shore, and Bufi'alo Railroad, 413. Newell, J. E., 14G. Newspaper, the first, 62. (ierman, foimdation of the first, 355. Newspapers of the past, 554. Nie.s, Auestion of prior rights springs, 385. i.iuinlan, P. U. & Co., 670. to thi salt RAt^C course, the first. 704. Raid on disreputable houses. Railroads, 40.'^. Railroads, opening of, 1 10 142. statistics, G14. Randall, Joshua B., 447. Randel, John, jr., maps by, 69(>, Real estate development, 253. Rebellion, war of, 282 :i34. Redfield, Lewis II., 099. biography of. Part II., 23. portrait of, 644. Index. 127 Redfield, Mrs. L. II., biography of, Part II., 94. Salina village, in 1823, 83. portrait of, Part II., 94. in the War of 1812, s:!. Reformed Tresbyteriaii (Covenanter) Cliiircb, village ollicers, 10.'!. .-)1(!. rocks, the, 39. Reformed (Dutch) Cburcli, 510. Salina Gang, the, 084. Reformed Presbyterian Churcli, 49 > Salina and Oswego Turnpike Company. 47. Rej,'ulations governing salt inanufa jtiirc , 387. Salina Chapter R. A. M., \o. 70, 5S0. Religion of the Indians, 21. Salinn Courier and L'm/uirer, 551. lieligious history of Syracuse, 47(!. Salina lOncampiiient, No. 114, 580, press, the, 553. Salina Lodge, No. 97, 5S5. Relit/ions Recorder, the, 55.'J. Saliiin Sentinel, 554. Reniiniscencos, US"!. Salisbury, A. G., 220, .530. of (u-n. K. W. lieavtMiworth 111 Salmon, Dwight and Daniel 0., 027. of Hon. Andrew D. White, ' "07. Salmon River Company. 215. Removal of the old depot, 20.'i. water bill, the, 21.5. Rescne Mission, ri2S. Salt deposit, 39. Resolutions of 1825, 5(;3. first made, 54. • regarding small pox in 1875 403 industry, the, 83, 378. Revolution, the, .'!1. vats, description of, 397. Richmond, Dean, John, and Anson 82. blocks, description of, 394. Riegel, Henry, 447. first used, 380. Riot of 1844. 153. wells sunk, 380. Roads and trails, 41. lands sold, 181, 209-217. in Geddes, the early, 80-87. springs in Geddes, ownership of, K7. Roadmaking, new method of, 109. reservation ceded to the State, .381. Roliber's Row. occupants of, 115. Salt Point, 383-384. Robert Gere Bank, 371. Salt Siirings Lodge, No. 520, 579. Rochester and Syracuse Direct Rai road 411. Salt Springs National Bank, 308. Rock Spring Brewery, 032. Sammons, Jacob, 88. Roehner, John L., 357. Sanderson Brothers Steel Company, G19. Rogers, William S.. 447. Saul, George, 356. Root family, the, 88. Savage, Richard, 243. Rose Hill Cemetery, 572. Savings banks, run on, 214. Rose, Sherman J., 447. Sawyer, George C, biography of. Part II., 92. Ro.'^s, William M., 417. portrait of, 000. Rowland, James, 01. Sax, Jacob, 029. Royal Patent of Charles II., 27. Scblosser, Charles & Sons, 635. Ruger. C. Prosser, 447. Schmeer, Daniel, 073. Ruger, Hon. W. C., biography of. Part ir.. 21. Schmeer, Henry, 040. portrait of, 17C. School, the first, 107. Russell, Archimedes, biography of. Pari 11., 48. -house, the first, 02. portrait of, 248. libraries, 544. Piussell, Jonathan, sent to Albany, 79. statistics, 538. Rust. Zeliulon, 05. School Rulktin, the, 552. Ryan, P. J., 447. Schools in Syracuse, the early, 530. Ryan, Thomas, 032. select, 531. principals, and location, list of, 537. r^ABINE, Joseph F., 435. Schug. Charles & Son. 059. ^ Sabine, William H., 59. Schwabenland, or Schwobeland, 350. *^ Sackett. James, 115. Scott, Gen. Winfield, reception of, 175. Siimgerbund, the, 343-344. Scribbins, Mr., 701. Safford, Shubael, 102. Sears, George H., 447. Sager Brothers, 007. Second Branch of the Evangelical Association Salaries of public olTicers, 182-183. of Syracuse, 361. new schedule of, 186. Second Regiment, 274. of city officers, 250-253. Secret societies, 577. Salem's Church of the Evangelical Society of Se7. Syracuse Standard, the. 546. Syracuse Steel Foundry Company, 626. Syracuse Stone Railroad Co., 140. Syracuse .Stove Works, the, 0.')3. Syracuse Tube Company, 653. Syracuse Turn Verein, the, 347. Syracuse Twist Drill Company, 667. Syracuse Union, 351). Syracuse University, 533. erected, 211. TABOR Orphan Asylum, 349. Teachers, tlie first appointed, 535. Teachers Advocate, the, 553. Teall, Oliver, 100. biography of. Part II., 78. Teall, William W., 448. Tefft, Dr. Lake I., 467. Telephone, the, 599. first e-xhibited, 230. and telegraph, the, 014. Temperance Protector, the. 556. Temperance Union, the, 557. Tenbroeck, Roger, 59. Terry, Capt. John G., 90. Theater, the first. 166. Third National Bank, 371. Third Reijiment, 274. Third War, ,59. Water supply, the first, 152. discussed, 241. T T MBRECHT, Charles. 047. Skaneateles Lake project, 252. 1 Unhealthy condition of the location, 7G. Waters, Louis L., 449 ^— ' Union Gem, the, 557. ^Vatson, Elkanah, description by, 47. ['niu7i Herald, the, 5.')f!. Weaver, Caius A . 448. Unumist, the, 556. Webster. Ephraiin, 48-52. Unitarian (May Memorial) Church, 512. " Webster's Lauding,'' 48. Unitarian Church spire fell. 175. Weekly Express, the, 552. United States District Court, Northern District Weeks, WoodhuU & Co., 637. of New York, 440. Welch, Orrin, 228. United Stales Express Co., 648. Wells Manufacturing Company, 650. University Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, Wesleyan Methodist Church, 506. 50:5. West, Reuben and Simeon, 05. Usenbentz, Christian, 337. West Shore Railroad, 413. secures right of way, 233. •I /ALUATIOX of property in 1890, table of, depot, etc., 230. V 617. Westcott, Dr. Amos, 474. * Van Buren, H. \V., 600. Western Slate Journal, 551. Vanderbilt House, OSI. Western Union Telegraph, 597. Vann, Judge Irving G., biography of. Part Westfall, James, 059. II., 29. Westminster Presbyterian Church, 490. portrait of. Part II.. 28. Weston, Homer, 449. Van Slyke, Dr. Isaac N., 470. Wheaton, Horace and Charles A., 171. Van VIeck, Isaac, 73. Wheeler, Thomas, 80. Van AVie, Irvin, 072. White family, the, 142. Village otVicers, 257-258. White, Hon". Andrew D., 085. elections, 109, 103, 257. White, Canvass, 702. green, the, 701. White, Frederick D., 448. the first, 109. White, Ilaiiiilton, 2(il. Visit of Marquis de Lafayette, 111. biography of. Part II., 20. Von Rancke Library presented to the Univer- portrait of, 136. sity. 530. White, Horace, biography of Part II., 13. Vrooman, David, 89. portrait of, 144. White. Hon. Howard G., biography of. Part -» I 7-.\DS\V0RTH. Joseph, 04. II., HI. Y Y Waggoner, George and Peter, 143. Whitlock, John R.. 254. ' ' Wagon tires, law governing width of. Whitman & Barnes Manufacturing Co., 620. 227. Whitney Wagon Works, 634. Waldo, Rev. Daniel, 096. Wicks, E. B., 215. Wales, Isaac, the first colored man, 697. Wicks. Frederick S., 448. Wales Manufacturing Company, the, 669. Wieting Block, the first and second. 171. Waller, Jo.seph, 673. burned, 183, L'34. Wallace, E. F.. 208. Wieting. Dr. John M., 142, 2.54. Wallace, Willi.im James, 436. biography of. Part II.. 20. Walton tract, the, 94-95. portrait of. Part II., 20. in 1819, map of, 97. Wieting Hall, 089. sale of, 105. Wild animals, 75. Wandell, Samuel H., 448. Wilkinson, Alfred, 248. Index. 131 Wilkinson assignment, the, 2:i8. Wilkinson Bank, :'.7T. Wilkinson, John, the first postmastpr, 559. Wilkinson, John, J.il. biography of, Part II.. 75. Wilkinson, J. Fornian, 250. Willev, Josenh M., 90. Williams, Dv. Mather, 4i;9. Williams & Co.. tlie firm of, 84. Willow baskets. G59. Wilson & Kobotliam, G4-1. Windholz, Louis, <>57. Winter of lS64-(;5, 200. Winton. William, 212. Wisner. Gabriel W., 448. Woman's Hight-s Convention. 102. Wood. Daniel P., biography of, Pan II.. 101. portrait of, SO. Wood, Reuben. 2:'.9. Wood, Thaddeus M., biography of, Part II., 37. portrait of. Part II., -w. Woodlawn and Butternut Street Railway Com- pany, 416. Woodlawn Cemetery, 570. Woodrutr. Jason C, 229. Woolson, Charles, 91. Wright, Edward C, 449. Wynkoop, Jonathan G., biography of. Pari II., 55. Wynkoop, Robert G., bioeraphy of, Part II., 45. YELLOW Brook, 121. Young Hickory, 555. Young Ludies Miscellany, the. 552. Young Men's Christian Association, the, 000. Young & Larrabee, 67.'i. ZETT'S Brewery, 0:!0. Zinochsaa River, 20. Zion il. E. Church, 506. Zion's Aue, :!57. Zion's German Evangelical Lutheran Church, 361. m * i \