3 9002 YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY ¦ : -iszm ¦A..^ '• .¦¦¦ ' -¦, ;¦ -:::VM^MBl^^^J(ym^T omrB or THE,. (PEIEU^ HfST^'QRlCAfi; § -F ^&it^.'::-' '\- Second Ajinual Axtdress .^ ' 3EFDRE THE SOCffiTY Bt WILLIAM TRACY OF NEW YORK ^r^TLUcmy^: jMU J^fsp William S G ottsberger' Prin-tBrj Nfew lY^pr _j *_l_s»Xcis> ¦• iVj PZ^BLICA TTOJ No. members whose dues a.ve unpaid, - - 78 512 829 317 346 644 298 222 268 46 227 296 69 67 83 16 The report of the Librarian, Morven M. Jones, showed the following increase in the collections of the Society : 1879 1880 Increase Bound Books, Pamphlets,Newspapers and Periodicals, Manuscripts, Documents, Maps, 227 Relics and Works of Art, 1,374 2,120 746 The annual election of officers followed, and the tellers declared the result as follows ; President, HORATIO SEYMOUR. Vice Presidents, CHARLES W. HUTCHINSON, ALEXANDER SEWARD, EDWARD HUNTINGTON. Recording Secretary, S. N. DEXTER NORTH. Corresponding Seci-etary and Librarian, MORVEN M. JONES. Treasurer, ROBERT S. WILLIAMS. Executive Committee, John F. Sey.mour, John L. Earll, S. G. VisscHER, Daniel Batchelor, Richard U. Sherman. The society took a recess until evening, when it assembled in Library Hall, the President, Horatio Seymour, in the chair, and the annual address was delivered by William Tracy, of New York. At the conclusion of the address, on motion of Hon. William J. Bacon, it was unanimously Resolved, That the hearty thanks of the Oneida Histori cal Society are tendered to William Tracy, of New York, for his valuable and entertaining address upon the early history of Oneida County, and that he be requested to furnish a copy for publication. Mr. President, Gentlemen rmd Ladies : Forty-two years ago I had the honor of addressing the Young Men's Association of this city upon Men and Events connected with the early history of Oneida County. The years which have passed since then have been pregnant with striking events in the history of the world. This city, then containing a population of some ten thousand souls, has become the abode of nearly or quite four times the number. Should we go outside of it, and look at the changes in our own country, they will furnish us striking lessons in the manner that Providence works out the great problems of civilization. A war growing out of the annexation of Texas, intended by the promoters of the measure to enlarge the area of slavery, added to our boundaries territory sufficient to constitute an empire ; another instituted to perpetuate the institu tion and extend its area over the whole land, resulted in blotting it out from the nation, and rendering every foot of its dominion land of the free. Although this cost us thousands of millions of treasure, and the blood of a million of our sons, yet the terrible price has not been thrown away, and we can rejoice that we have stamped out the sore spot which for years had given the lie to the Declaration of In dependence. Our commerce, agriculture and the arts have increased, so that instead of a dependence upon the produc tions of other countries, we are now furnishing from our fields and workshops the supply of the necessaries of life, not only for ourselves, but also for other nations, for which they are paying us by hundreds of millions of the precious metals. The map of the LTnited States has been enlarged by the organization of states covering more territory than the original thirteen colonies possessed, and filling it with people full of enterprise and energy, employed in advancing the general welfare. As we turn to the other portions of the world, we see that in Europe the progress of political revolution has accom plished changes more striking than those of any century of the past. France, up to the revolution of the last century and the establishment of imperial government, succeeded by the restoration of her ancient dynasty, has given way successively to the government of the son of the most radical of the republicans of the reign of terror, to be hurled from the throne to give way to a second republic, again to be replaced by a second empire, and that followed by a third republic. The small states of Italy and of the Church have been united under a constitutional monarchy. Peoples under its influence, emancipated from intellectual slavery, are making rapid strides in civilization under the wise sway of the son of the sovereign who acquired from his people the appella tion of " II Re Galantuomo," the honest king. Revolution has also performed its work in Spain. The land of romance, of Ferdinand and Isabella, of Charles V. and his bigoted and cruel son — where reprobate monarchs had for ages withstood the march of civilization— has been seen under republican rule, and now presents the appear ance of a well regulated united monarchy, giving promise of a stable, well ordered state. Most of the States which had divided the German- speaking people have become consolidated into an empire under the leadership of Prussia. Russia has emancipated her millions of serfs from a slavery as averse to human progress as the negro slavery which was once the reproach of our own land. On the Central and South American portions of our con tinent the march of political improvement, though marked with revolutions and frequently with misrule, has, never theless, made progress. Mexico having successfully resisted an attempt from without to overthrow her republican insti tutions and impose upon her a foreign monarchy, has intro duced reforms in the administration of her affairs, and affords ground for hope that she may soon become a well established state. The other Spanish-speaking republics are beginning to move forward in the improvement of their political condition and the welfare of their people. Brazil, the only nation still under royal sway upon this side of the Atlantic, has come under the mild govern ment of a paternal sovereign, earnestly engaged in studying the marks of progress in other nations, and in developing the resources of his own empire and promoting the happi ness of his people. Turning our eyes away from these glimpses of the march of light, in our own continent and Europe, towards the ancient seats of civilization, their recent history is quite as striking, and their outlook for the future as hopeful. China and Japan, for ages sealed against human progress, have been opened to the rest of the world, and they are per sistently and rapidly introducing the arts and amenities of western civilization. Geographical discovery has opened up the Dark land to us. The Niger and the Nile and the 10 Congo have given up their secrets, and the problem or Africa's call to life has deeply interested the philosophical and scientific world. This has all been done within the memory of a large portion of this audience. It is not alone that the changes referred to have taken place among the nations, — the triumphs of invention and dis covery in the arts and sciences, in amelioration of the con dition of the human family, have been quite as signal within our age. Never before have they made such great strides. The inventor and the improvers of the steam engine never dreamed of the conquests we witness all around us, and of those of its dependencies. No one, half a century since, dreamed of seeing the oceans vexed with iron ships ten times the size of any vessels then known, and passing, thousands of miles, from country to country with the regularity of a ferry-boat. The galvanic telegraph, with its (3onquests, transmitting messages over every land and under every sea, has brought the whole race of civilized man. into instant communication, and become the ready servant of diplomacy and commerce and friendship. The cabinet minister now sits in his bureau and communicates his despatches to the antipodes and re ceives immediate answers. The merchant in New York or London converses with his correspondents at Japan or Australia, and a musician can sing a song or play a familiar tune to be heard and awaken the recollection of his friends across ocean and continents. The railroad forty years ago had just started on its won derful career. Its thousand miles have multiplied them selves a thousand fold in our country, and many a thousand 11 fold in other lands. It has crossed the mountain chains of the four quarters of the globe, and the Alps, the Andes, the Rocky Mountains, and the Himalayas are witnesses to its exploits in changing the whole means of intercourse between nations. The improvements and increase of machinery to relieve human toil have multiplied beyond all former expectations. Without attempting to enumerate the wonders to which they have given birth, I simply name a single invention, unknown forty years ago, which has become a necessity in various workshops, as well as at the fireside of the home stead in many lands, the sewing machine, of which three- quarters of a million are made and sold in this country every year. It is not my purpose to attempt an examination of these topics. The time allowed to me for a lecture would be in sufficient for even a brief notice of a tithe of them. I have alluded to them simply as showing the progress of the world within the period that the history of Oneida County has been urged on from the time the first emigrant struck his axe into the unbroken forest up to the present, when it has become the abode of a high degree of civilization. Within the last forty years, the earlier history of Oneida County has been examined and illustrated by the pens of several of your distinguished fellow citizens. When I read here "Notice of men and events connected with the early history of Oneida County," I think no one had attempted any written contributions to it. Since then quite a number of your citizens have supplemented what I then attempted. My friend Judge Pomeroy Jones has given full and valuable 12 annals of each of its towns with notices of their settlers. Judge Othniel S. Williams has collected the traditions of the settlement of Kirkland. Mr. John F. Seymour has made a very interesting addition to your history in his ad dress at Trenton. David E. Wager, Esquire has written valu able and interesting notices of Rome. Doctor M. M. Bagg, an exhaustive work upon the history of this city, and my early and valued friend Judge William J. Bacon in his ad dress on the members of the bar of this county, has left lit tle to be added to the subject. You would not thank me for a fresh recital of their historical sketches. I shall not, there fore, attempt a review of the history of Oneida County, but will confine myself to a comparative view of what she was in her early stages while the hand of improvement was at tacking her forests, to convert them into farms and the homes of civilized life, and what she has became under the plastic hand of the emigrants and their sons and daughters, with incidental anecdotes of a few of its inhabitants. In 1785 the region now covered with beautiful farms and villages and the two manufacturing and commercial cities Utica and Rome, now constituting this county, was a wilder ness. The only land which had been denuded of its forest eonsistecl of two small Indian clearings at Oriskany and Oneida castle. An Indian village occupied the left bank of the Oriskany creek just eastward of the site of the woolen factory which was built as early as 1810. An other Indian village at Oneida castle was the principal home of the tribe which gave to it its name. During the year first mentioned the late Judge Hugh White, with a family consisting of several sons and daughters emigrated 13 from Middletown, Connecticut, and established himself in the present village of Whitesboro, building a log house on the southern extremity of the village green. His settlement gave the name of Whitestown and of the Whitestown Country •to the lands lying westward of the German flats and north ward to the boundaries of the State. He was soon followed by numbers of emigrants chiefly from Connecticut and Mas sachusetts, though there were some from the other settle ments of this State, and some from New Jersey. Many of them had been soldiers in the Revolutionary army. Thirty- six years after this period it became necessary for pensioners under the Act of Congress of 1818 to appear before the county courts and make depositions as to their services. In Oneida County the court appointed a day to hear their ap plications. There then appeared a few less than two hun dred of these veterans. After having made their depositions they formed into line, and led by a Revolutionary drummer marched through the streets and around the village green. As the youngest Revolutionery soldier must then have been about fifty years old it is probable that an equal number of those who had settled in Oneida County had within the thirty-six years after the war died, and that there may have been four or five hundred soldiers who had emigrated to Oneida County, or a sufficient number to constitute a bat talion. I will here remark that among the officers of the army who became inhabitants of the county, were General Frederick William Augustus, Baron Steuben, who died at his residence in Steuben, in 1794, General William Floyd, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, Colonel Benjamin Wal ker who had been aid to Washington and subsequently to 14 Baron Steuben. He became an inhabitant of Utica and died here ; and Colonel Garret G. Lansing of Oriskany. The latter once told me the story of his becoming a soldier; His father resided in Albany. A week before Garret became sixteen years old, the age required for military service, he overheard his mother tell his father that Garry would be come of age for being enrolled during the next week, and it would be prudent to say nothing of it. The boy was deter mined to become a soldier and no sooner had he heard the news that he might be a subject of enrollment than he went to the enrolling officer and told him his age. He was en rolled and the next week started with a small detachment of new militia men to reach the northern army. This reached Fort Edward when the funeral services over the remains of Miss McCrea had just been commenced. After her burial the detachment marched onward toward the rear of the army. Before they came up to it it was ordered to make a detour away from their line which it was supposed could be accomplished during the day. Their comhaissariat consisted of a single piece of pork, sufficient to last them until they should reach their comrades. This was placed in a pot and set upon a fire, and as the boy of the party, young Lansing was installed cook and left alone to watch the fire. After regarding the pot attentively for an hour or two with nothing to amuse him, he fell asleep, and awoke to see a bear which had been attracted by the savory mess running off with the pork. He had obtained it by upsetting the kettle from the fire and capturing the contents. Young Lansing was confounded and it required a very little flight of imagination to present to his minds eye the picture of his 15 hungry companions when they should return and find their pork gone through his neglect. He therefore concluded, rather than meet them, to avail himself of a hiding place where he could remain until their anger should sub side. The party came back and found the contents of the pot missing, and seeing nothing of their cook, concluded that he had been killed by the Indians, and their pork con sumed by them. But when he turned up, their joy at his being alive overcame their disappointment. He com pleted a short term of service, and at its close was made an ensign in the regular army, and remained in the army until the close of the war. The reason of his settling at Oriskany is perhaps worthy of note. When quite a lad he had accompanied a surveying party up the Mohawk. At the mouth of Oriskany Creek it landed, and found the Indians of the village engaged in a dance. He was struck with the beauty of the clearing, with its sur- rounding forest. Often after he left the army this scene was recalled to him, and after a few years spent in Wash ington County, the memory of the spot led him to visit it and purchase a farm there and erect a house, in which he spent the residue of his life. He died in 1831, respected and beloved by all who knew him. At the time Judge White arrived in this county, with the exception of the clearings at Oriskany and Oneida, there was absolutely no land ready for cultivation, and no roads. Before the revolutionary war there were Indian foot-paths leading from Oneida to Fort Stanwix, and again from that point along the Mohawk to the German Flats, and again from Oneida through the present towns of Vernon and 16 Westmoreland to Fort Schuyler. There were no other roads, and these would not have admitted horse-back riders. The troops which, during the French war in 1758, passed up to Fort Stanwix, were forced to cut paths for their passage ; but they had overgrown, and during the revolutionary war they had again to be cut anew, but they had left no roads. Judge White came up the river in a boat from Schenectady with his -family and goods, and landed them at the mouth of the Sauquoit, which for several years after continued to be the usual landing place of the small boats which navigated the river. The territory then presented a very different scene from the one which now greets the observer — very different from that which greets the emigrant to the new lands in the western and south-western States. There the settler finds a soil ready for his plough; here no prairie met the vision of the former. Everywhere was unbroken heavily timbered forest, to be subdued only by the joint efforts of the axeman and cultivator. Severe toil was required to clear and fence and prepare the soil for the agriculturist. It was literally the abode of only wild beasts and the redmen, whose living was obtained from the chase. There was no mill nearer than Palatine, and for two or three years the emigrant had to carry his grain upon his back for forty miles to be ground, or crush it in a primitive mortar made by burning a cavity in a log of wood. No house of worship nearer than the German Flats invited the emigrant from the land of the Pilgrims and their churches to worship the God of their fathers. His task was to convert this territory into a fit abode for more than two hundred thousand people who now occupy it, covered with farms and homesteads and villages 17 and cities, adorned with churches, schools and institutions of benevolence and taste. Within the limits of less than a single century this has been done, and the wilderness has blossomed as the rose. Within five years from the time Judge White planted his footsteps on the bank of the Sauquoit, the work had been well begun. Light had been made to penetrate the forest ; farms had been partly cleared, and emigrants had estab lished themselves in comfortable homesteads along the valleys of the Mohawk, the Sanquoit, and the Oriskany ; highways had been opened from settlement to settlement. Whitesboro, Rome and Clinton had become small villages, Utica, under the name of Old Fort Schuyler, was still and for several years after but a small hamlet, with only a black smith shop, a small tavern, and a single trader. The late Mr. George Huntington informed me that in 1793 he arrived there on horse-back, and the tavern was unable to furnish him food for his horse. He inquired if there was no one in the neighborhood who could provide him with something to keep his animal from starving. The answer was there was no one but a farmer who lived about half a mile westward who had hay and grain for his own use, but none to spare, and he would not sell it. He inquired from where the farmer came, and was told from New England. Mr. Hunt ington found a man to go to him with the horse, and tell the farmer that its owner was a young Yankee, just arrived, and he wished, on account of his Yankee brotherhood that he would entertain his starving horse. The farmer who was the late Stephen Potter, known both as Captain and Dea con Potter, was pleased with the manner of the request, and 18 replied that he would take care of the horse. The next day when Mr. Huntington called upon him, he refused to accept any pay for the service from his Yankee brother. A lasting friendship was then commenced between the two. I will here relate an anecdote of the captain and his friend Mr. Huntington which illustrates the integrity of the Yankee farmer. Mr. Huntington had contracted for a large tract of laud on Frankfort Hill. The seller of the land had failed to convey it and a suit was brought by Mr. ' Huntington for damages they depending upon the value of the land. It be came important to prove this and knowing that Captain Potter was acquainted with the land, he directed his attorney to subpoena him as a witness, but charged him not to offend the old gentleman by undertaking to get an opinion of him in advance, as it might lead him to suspect that it would be an attempt to induce him on the strength of his friendshijj for Mr. Huntington to influence his testimony. The trial came on, and the attorney refrained from inquiring from Captain Potter in advance his opinion of the value of the land. He called him to the witness stand. He asked him if he knew the land; he replied, yes, every foot of it. Well, Captain Potter, do you know its value? Yes, sir. Very well, tell us what it is worth ? The old gentle man paused a moment, until the court, the jurors, and the spectators had fixed their eyes upon him when he slowly said. "Well, if I had all the gold that I could draw with my four yoke of oxen on a sled upon glare ice, and I had to invest every cent of it in land, I vow to God, I would not give a dollar an acre for it." An involuntary shout of laughter filled the court liouse. 19 Mr. Huntington at once discontinued the action, but his friendship with Captain Potter continued. Until after the year 1800, no one foi-esaw the dimensions Utica was destined to attain in less than a century, nor dreamed that it would become the important commercial and manufacturing city it now is, the ornament of central New York with its abodes of wealth and cultivated taste, and adorned with its beautiful churches, educational estab lishments and asylums for the relief of suffering infancy, and for the solace of tliose, who in the evening rtf their days, might suffer the evils of want and honieless poverty. The prophets of the day regarded the crossing place from the Mohawk to Wood Creek at Fort Stanwix which connected the canoe navigation from Schenectady to Lake Ontario as likely to become the site of the leading town in central New York. The length of this portage was' but two miles. En terprising inen in the eastern part of the State, at a very early day directed their attention to the connecting of the waters of the two streams so as to open a navigable channel for batteaux from Schenectady through Oneida Lake and the Oswego River to Lake Ontario. In March, 1792, an act was passed by the Legislature incorporating a company "for the purpose of opening a lock navigation from the navigable waters of the Hudson to Lakes Ontario and Seneca," under the style of "The Western Inland Lock Navigation Com pany." The company was organized with a board of direc tors consisting of some of the leading men in the State, with General Phillip Schuyler as president. An examination of the Mohawk from Schenectady to its confluence with the Hudson showed so many difficulties in its passage around 20 the Cahoes, that it was deemed inexpedient to construct that part of the line. The company thereupon concluded to commence the navigation at Schenectady and by clearing out the shallow places on the Mohawk and Wood Creek and and constructing a canal around the Little Falls and an other from the Mohawk to Wood Creek complete a navi gation through Oneida Lake to Lake Ontario. It is hardly credible at this day that there was not engi neering skill in this country sufficient to direct the con struction of this work ; yet such was the fact. Mr. William Western, a gentleman of education and a skillful engineer was brought from England to assume charge of the work at what was then deemed the enormous salary of £1,000 sterling per annum. The navigation was completed in 1797 and continued to be used until the Erie Canal was finished. The dimensions were too small to be very important as a channel of commerce. The locks were seventy feet in length and seven feet in width and calculated for the passage of batteaux drawing 21 inches of water. The boats navigating it could not at the ordinary stage of water carry more than five or six tons of cargo. Another anecdote indicating the progress of engineering in this country may not be uninteresting. The late Benja min Wright, of Rome, while a youth, spent some time with Baron Steuben, assisting him in the survey of his lands. While Mr. Western was engaged in superintending the con struction of the canal and locks at Rome, Mr. Wright was employed by him as an assistant. After Mr. Western re turned to England, General Schuyler expressed a regret to 21 Mr. Huntington who had charge of the canal that he had not employed Mr. Western to make a topographical map of the Mohawk, as he kne.w no one who could be procured to do it. Mr. Huntington told him that he had a young man who could do it, and named Mr. Wright. General Schuyler employed him to make a survey and map showing the levels of the river, and was delighted with the skill with which it was made. When the law was passed for the construction of the Erie Canal, Mr. (then Judge) Wright was selected as one of the chief engineers, and continued to discharge the duties of his office until it was finished. He was afterwards engaged in various important public works, and was universally regarded in the very front rank of American engineers. For several years Whitesboro continued to be the leading settlement and the commercial centre of the county. The road westward from Albany to Schenectady, then following up the north bank of the Mohawk, was still a country road, and a very poor one at that. In 1787 the first turnpike-road in the State was incorporated. It was to construct a turnpike between Albany and Schejiectady, so as to facilitate the direct crossing of the ridge between the Hudson, at Albany and the Mohawk, at Schenectady. The company was not organized, and just a year after another act was passed incorporating a new company under the title of the Great Western Turnpike Company. This made the road from Albany westward. It is to the construction of this turnpike-road that Utica is indebted for her subsequent growth. Commissioners were appointed to determine its route. It was a question 22 with them where it should cross the Mohawk. The tradi tion is that Judge White was opposed to having roads with toll-gates. He wished all the roads to be free in his neighbor hood so as to invite emigration ; and he insisted to the com missioners that they should not cross at the old Sanquoit landing on tliis account. The late Jedediah Sangor had just established himself at New Hartford, and built a flour- mill there. He was a man of forethought, and foresaw the crossing at Fort Schuyler would necessitate a straight road to his settlement, and tend to build it up, and he had no fear of toll-gates. By his influence the road was made to cross there. When the road was completed, Utica, instead of Rome or Whitesboro, became practically the head of the river navi gation, and the point of departure of wagon transportation for the western country. The navigation from Rome west ward to Lake Ontario never became very important. West ward from Rome there was no good road to the line of the turnpike to furnish Rome a convenient point of departure from the river. The land lying westerly was a deep swamp. The turnpike engrossed the largest share of transporta tion from Utica westward, and a very considerable part of that from Albany. But up to 1804 Utica had not become so large a village as either Rome or Whitesboro. The eai-ly settlers of Oneida County were in a large pro portion men of intelligence, culture and enterprise. Within a very few years they erected churches and established schools in all the settlements. As early as 1793, Hamilton Oneida Academy, the germ of Hamilton College, was estab lished. The Rev. Samuel Kirkland, the Apostle of Chris- 23 tianity to the Heathen Oneidas was the principal mover in the enterprise. This was the first incorporated academy west of Schenectady. Among its first trustees were General Alexander Hamilton, Chancellor Lansing, andEgbert Benson, then one of the justices of the Supreme Court. An academi cal building was erected, the corner-stone having been laid by Baron Steuben. The academy was originally intended to be enlarged into a college, and in 1812 a college charter was granted to it by the Board of Regents of the University. The charter was eminently a liberal one. It was intended that the college should be free from sectarianism. Its first board of trustees included leading farmers, clergymen, law yers, and merchants, men of various denominations of religion. In 1823, when a committee of the trustees visited the college to an make examination in relation to a college difficulty, its members consisted of a Presbyterian, an Epis copalian, and a Roman Catholic. As early as 1791 Congregational churches had been gath ered in New Hartford, Kirkland and Marshall, through the missionary labors of Doctor Jonathan Edwards, familiarly known as the younger Edwards, who was subsequently president of Union College. In 1793 Presbyterian churches were founded in Whitesboro, Utica, Westmoreland and Tren ton, and the next year in Camden and Augusta. In most of the other towns churches of various denominations had been organized. An Episcopal church was gathered in Utica in 1798 by the Rev. Philander Chase afterwards Bishop of Ohio and Illinois, and within a short time another in Paris. The origin of the Baptist church in Oneida County is in teresting as showing the character of one of its principal 24 founders and his influence in building up his denomination there. In 1796 Rev. Stephen Parsons organized a Baptist church in Whitesboro, and received to its communion Caleb Doug lass, then a blacksmith. Mr. Parsons remained its pastor but a few years, when Mr. Douglass, who had been the most active of its members was called to the ministry as its pastor. This was in 1802. He was a man of great energy and of pro found religious convictions. As a part of his belief the chris tian minister should not pass a definite stage of preparation for his work, but should by careful reading of the holy scrip tures and prayer qualify himself, so that led by the immediate influences of the Holy Spirit he could faithfully and effec tively preach the gospel. As a necessary consequence the christian pastor should not be paid for his services. He should not in the language of the day be a hh'eling. These two positions he earnestly inculcated in his preachings and pastoral visitations. And he illustrated them by his prac tise. He continued to be a blacksmith, on week days work ing at his anvil, and on Sundays administering to the spiritual wants of his flock ; and instead of being in debted to his congregation for any part of his support his house was the abode of hospitality for his brethren and the sojourn of his parishioners during the interval of worship on Sunday. He continued to preach to his people and to perform missionary labor in gathering and organizing Bap tist churches and administering the sacraments throughout the county and in the neighboring towns for some twelve or fifteen years. He frequently urged upon his hearers the evils of a learned and a hireling clergy. At length a young 25 man who had been graduated at Dartmouth College and had been ordained in the Baptisfchurch, visited Elder Douglass. He was -^nduced by him to remain his guest until the next Sunday when he preached for him in both morning and afternoon services. It was Elijah W. Willey, subsequently an approved and successful Baptist minister for many years. When Mr.Willey closed his afternoon service. Elder Douglass arose, and addressing his congregation told them that he had administered to them in sacred things some fifteen years and had endeavored to lay before them the bread of life to the best of his ability; that they knew his views concerning the sacred ministry ; that he had often warned them against a learned and a hireling ministry ; that his views had yielded to his deep convictions of his error ; that he had experienced the want of more learning to render his preaching properly instructive ; that he was now convinced that a pastor should be well educated in christian learning and that he should be constantly acquiring knowledge to be the pastor as well as the teacher of his flock ; to do this he must have leisure and must be supported by his church, and become what he had fre quently designated a hireling. He then told that he had be come an old man and soon must give up his labors, when his church would have to receive another, to become their chris-, tian pastor. They had now present a young brother who had the advantages of education, who had just preached to them. He would be happy if they would chose him to be their minister, and pay him for his services, a salary sufficient to support him. To show them that he was in earnest, he proposed they should start a subscription for the purpose, and he would lead it with what was a large sum. 26 The good old man resumed his seat. The congregation was astounded, but they had unlimited confidence in the judgement of the elder, and his argument had commanded universal assent. The subscription was filled, and Elder Willey was installed as a learned and hireling pastor. The good old blacksmith after a few years removed from Whitesboro to a western town, where he subsequently died in a good old age, universally respected and be loved. It is many years since, but those of his acquaint ances who survive, remember him with affection and cher ish his memory as of a saintly man, more worthy of honor and respect, as an ajjostle of his faith, than thousands who are decorated with the degrees of half a dozen uni versities. It is now rare to find Baptists who do not regard education and pastoral support with favor, and its members are generally inclined to award a generous support to their ministers. A notice of the erection of the first Methodist church in Rome, wiU awaken the memories of some of the older of my auditors. A Methodist society was formed in that village, early in the present century, but until 1826 it had no place of worship. Its members had become prosperous in their cir cumstances and concluded to erect a church. They very natu rally wished to erect one to compare in architectural beauty favorably with those of the other religious communities in the town. After due consideration, the trustees adopted a plan for one with a modest steeple in two sections. A Metho dist meeting house with a steeple, was then unusual, and the consciences of a portion of the brethren and sisters who adhered rigidly to the early traditions of Methodism were not 27 a little disturbed as such a manifest departure from Chris tian simplicity. Church meetings were called and sharp lines drawn between the steeple and no-steeple men and women, and abundance of theological logic was brought into play. The question was brought before the lowest church court and then carried by successive appeals to the highest — the general conference then held at Pittsburgh. After profound and learned arguments this body disposed of the question to the satisfaction of most of the two parties, b}' ad judging that as the lowest section of the steeple would serve a good purpose for a bellfrey and hold a bell to call people to churcli— that might stand, but that the upper section not being intended for use but merely for ornament, like other vanities should be abandoned by sober christian people. The judgment was submitted to and carried out, and it was said that this was the first Meeting House in the land with a steeple. Some, however of the older members of the church used to their day of the death to call it a "steeple house." The Methodists since then have made decided progress in Church architecture. At this day some of the handsom est ecclesiastical structures in the country have been built by Churches of their denomination. The march of Oneida County during the whole period of its history, has been largely owing to the high standing of her early inhabitants in intelligence and culture. A large proportion of its men and women ^vere persons of superior intelligence and worth in their several positions. The po litical questions, that agitated the whole American people, were held with singular tenacity. Under the first four 28 Presidents of the United States, there was a decided pre dominance of Federalists in the country. Until the days of Jacksonism the method of nominations to public office by both parties, was not made as now by delegated conventions and primary meetings. An invitation would be published inviting the members of the party to a county meeting to make nomination of candidates. These meetings were gen erally attended by but few gentlemen. Those present selected candidates whom they recommended. I remember in my boyish days going to see what turned out to be the . last Federalist meeting held jn the County. It was called to nominate candidates for election to the Assembly, the old court-house in Whitesboro being the place of meeting, and not being half filled. After the meeting was organised a com mittee was formed to recommend persons for candidates. They reported a ticket with the late General Joseph Kirkland at its head. He arose and thanking his friends for the com pliment respectfully declined the honor. A vote was about being taken on a motion to excuse him. He again arose and declared that his engagements would not permit him to accept the nomination and asked that some one might be selected to fill the place. The meeting laughed at his remonstrance voted unanimously not to excuse him. and insisted that he must be the candidate. I was present some j^ears after this at a meeting of those who favored the second election of John Quincy Adams, to the presidency. ItAvas held at the Presbyterian Church in Whitesboro, which was crowded, as it was understood that the late Henry R. Storrs who was then a member of Con gress would address his constituents. This was simply a 29 county meeting. After an eloquent address by Mr. Storrs, an elector was nominated with entire unanimity. The first nomination of Mr. Storrs to Congress illustrates the habits of the politicians of the day. Since 1820 Oneida County has with singular unanimity adhered to what in the days of Henry Clay was called the American system — favoring a protective tariff. But it was not always so. Prior to the war of 1812, cotton and woolen factories had been erected in several towns, and the wants of the country during the war had given to them prosperity. After the war Congress revised its tariff in the interest of protection. This did not meet the views of some of the farmers who were staunch federalists. In 1820, there was a congressman to be elected, and the leading men of the Federal party were in favor of selecting the late James Lynch afterwards of New York then a resident of Rome. He was a gentleman of high social position, good standing at the bar, and of pleasing manners. He had lived at Rome several years where he had built a large mill and satinet factory. No one else was spoken of as the person to be nominated. The county meeting assembled. It was composed of a few leading men from Whitsboro and Utica and a few of the most influential farmers of the vicinity. A committee was constituted of five or six members to select and report to the meeting a candidate. The Chairman of the meeting named the committee, placing upon it three of the farmers, who were leading men in their towns. The committtee retired to consult, and the farmers happened to be opposed in princi ple to a protective tariff, and afraid to send any one to Con gress, who owned a satinet factory, and who would, of course. 30 as they supposed be in favor of legislative protection to manufacturers. The other members of the committee tried to quiet their opposition, but in those days nom inations were regarded as simple recommendations and were not made by bargain and sale to be carried by the force of political machinery, which first buys up a convention and then registers its decrees to be carried out by dragooning, the simple members of theparty under whip and spur to sustain them. After earnest discussion, it was found impossible to overcome the free trade scruples of the farmers on the committee, when a gentleman proposed the name of the late Henry R. Storrs. This was satisfactory to all and he was reported to the meeting as the candidate and adopted by the meeting by a unanimous vote. He was sub sequently elected. This was the commencement of his po litical career. Judge Bacon, in his lecture on the bar of Oneida County, has given you a happy sketch of him. He possessed talents as an orator, at the bar, and in Congress,. that have never been excelled. He had a commanding per son, with a wonderfully rich and flexible voice. In the open air he could speak in a whisper so as to be heard by an au dience of ten thousand men ; and he could elevate it to thunder tones without stretching it. His gesticulations were exceedingly graceful. He possessed a rare command of language and his mind was filled with elegant learning al ways at his command. His power over his audience was elec tric, whether exercised, to excite merriment or tears, or to carry conviction to the reason. Henry Clay said of him that he was the most eloquent man who had ever spoken in Congress. 31 During Mr. Storrs' first congressional term the country was agitated with the question of admitting Missouri without the power to hold slaves. Mr. Storrs was of opinion that Congress had no power under the terms of the compact by which her territory had been acquired and the laws passed in viting its original inhabitants to bring their slaves into the territory, to impose the condition upon her. He therefore voted for her admission without restriction. It was an un fortunate vote, and he was so censured for it by his friends, that he declined a re-election, and General Kirkland was called to his place. At the end of the term of the latter Mr. Storrs was nominated for the position by the "Bucktail Party," as it was called, formed from democrats opposed to DeWitt Clinton, and oldtime federalists, whose early war fare, against Mr. Clinton, led them instinctively to oppose him. Mr. Storrs was elected, and at the next election became a candidate in opposition to the Democratic party and was re-elected. He was twice after this elected, and it had become understood that it mattered little who nomi nated or opposed him, he would command the vote of Oneida County. At the close of his fifth term he re moved to the City of New York where he practised his profession during the residue of his life. I may here to advert to a controversy which once excited Utica and the towns of Whitestown and Rome, but which has long since been forgotten by most of your citizens. Whites boro and Rome had at an early day been the seats of court houses and divided the courts of record. By the year 1817, Utica had grown beyond the limits of both these villages, and its inhabitants conceived the idea of making it the sin- 32 gle shire town of the county. It was perfectly clear to the Uticans that it was the central town and the proper place for the courts. The early supremacy of Rome and Whites- town was held for naught, very much to the disgust of their inhabitants who had borne the front in the battle of pioneer- ism and who boasted the possession of the most learned lawyers in the county. They were aroused and sent agents throughout the northern bowns obtaining remonstrances against the proposed wrong and by placards posted in every tavern and horse-shed depicted the disasters that would flow over the County and indeed the State from the removal of the courts. Among other things to protect themselves and the county, a newspaper was established in Rome under the name of the Oneida Observer, which continued there until the court house controversy w'as terminated by the triumph of the joint power of Rome and Whitesboro, when the news paper was transferred to the democratic party and removed to Utica. I believe the journal is perpetuated under the same name and that it has during its whole existence done battle valiantly for the democratic party in all its windings and turnings of doctrine. Whitesboro for many years continued to hold half the county courts, and divided with Rome one half the circuit courts; until at length Utica quietly absorbed them all. W^ith this exception, 1 believe that Oneida County has never had a general quarrel among its citizens. A little generous rivalry was awakened at the time the Black River Railroad was projected, but the strife soon ceased when the rival parties had come to the bottom of their purses. The ancient friendship was then speedily restored and Rome en- 33 tered upon a new course of progress which has made it one of the most beautiful cities of the State. The l.'ibors of the early inhabitants of Oneida County achieved for it a high standing among the counties of the State. No one of them has enjoyed the labors of a more learned and self devoted clergy ; U(me has had a more tal ented and accomplished bar ; none a more distinguished body of medical practitioners ; no county has distinguished itself more in institutions for the relief of suffering and in firmity ; few counties but Oneida have liad their large hearted Faxtons with the spirit of Peter Cooper, to become the exec utors of their own wills in bestowing the fruits of long life labors for the cause of education and humauitj'. Your or phan asylums and homes for the aged and infirm, your public schools and academies ; and your Hamilton College and your Wliitesboro Seminary have been producing the legiti mate results of their creation; and among other associa tions your society formed to perpetuate the story of its progress. Nowhere are more beautiful farms, more tasteful homesteads with their ornamental grounds and gardens to be found, and he who can ride throughout your territory without admiration of its landscapes must be singu larly unappreciative of real beauty. Thf first white settler of Oneida was Samuel Kirkland, her apostle — a missionary of the cross. Many of the sons of Oneida have followed his example by giving their lives as christian missionaries to heathen lands all over the globe. I should love to rehearse to you all their names, but most of them are griiven on your memories and will be known 34 and remembered wherever the records of christian missions shall be preserved. Of the sons of her early settlers, two have been Senators in Congress and three or four members of the House of Representatives, and among them an Admi ral and two Commodores in the Navy, and several Generals in the Army. Gentlemen of the Historical Societi/: I thank you for the compliment you have conferred upon me, a son of Oneida, to address you at this anniversary. I see among you many of the friends of my youth and early manhood, and your presence warms the blood that still sympathizes with these surviving companions of many years. 1 regret that I have been unable to tell you more of the histor}' Avhich has brought the settlements of our fathers down to near the close of its first century. May her future be as bright as the past has been successful and may her future sons and daughters follow in the footsteps of those who have gone before, leaving examples of which we are all justly proud. ,;rr.;i, ¦;,.;.?.. .jv,i-i':. ¦;¦;•.'¦•>¦; r *m»i y^,.^: Xi I • hL iiiii iTmiiAihiit I al I j|il-lr H