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WITMilRLY HISTORY OF THE TOWN.

A MEMORIAL

CELEBRATION

PALMYRA, N. Y.

^ntatraal Jlflttrtlt

1876,

INCLUDING THE

Oration by Theodore Bacon,

A SKETCH OF THE EARLY HISTORY OF PALMYRA,

Rev. Horace Eaton, D. D.

ROCHESTER, N. Y.
E. R. ANDREWS, BOOK AND JOB PRINTER, AQUEDUCT STREET,
1876.

PRELIMINARY ORGANIZATION.

The Town of Palmyra at the Annual Meeting March 7th,
1876, voted to raise by tax, two hundred dollars, to aid " in the
proper observance of the coming Fourth day of July in the
Village of Palmyra."
Tuesday evening, May 9th, 1876, a citizens meeting was held
in Village Hall to consider the subject of a proper celebration
upon July 4th, this year of the Centennial Anniversary of the
Declaration of American Independence.
The officers of the meeting were Mark C. Finley, President,.
and Col. Geo. McGown and Oliver Durfee, Secretaries.
At this meeting there was appointed the following
General Committee of Arrangements.

Pliny T. Sexton, Chairman,
Henry P. Knowles, Joseph W. Corning,
Isaac G. Bronson, Frank C. Brown,
Geo. Harrison, Henry R. Durfee,
Leonard S. Pratt, Wells Tyler.
Thursday, May nth, the Committee of Arrangements met
and appointed the following
» Sub-Committees.

On Orator and Reader — Charles McLouth, S. B. McIntyre,.
John W. Corning.
On Finance — Chas. D. Johnson, Geo. Harrison, W. S.
Phelps, John F. Strain, Oliver Durfee, Chas. W. Tucker,.
Jas. Reeves, Peter C Howell.

4 THE CENTENNIAL AT PALMYRA.
On Ordnance — Capt. Henry J. Draime.
On Fire Works — John W. Corning, Alex. Rannie, Chas.
B. Bowman.
On Printing — -Isaac G. Bronson, Geo. McGown, E. S.
Averill. On Music — Leonard S. Pratt, D. B. Harmon, C. B. Brig-
ham, S. E. Harkness, Andrew Seely, Caleb Beal.
On Programme— Henry R. Durfee, Joseph W. Corning,
Henry P. Knowles, Frank C. Brown, Pliny T. Sexton,
Geo. McGown.
On Decoration — Frank C. Brown, Wells Tyler, Isaac F.
Taber, Chas. Snedaker.

ORGANIZATION FOR THE DAY.

Orator.
THEODORE BACON of Rochester.

Reader of the Declaration of Independence.
Rev. C. W. WINCHESTER.

President of the Day.
Maj. GEORGE W. CUYLER.

Col. Joseph W. Corning, - Chief Marshal.
Maj. H. P. Knowles, Ass't Marshal.
Maj. M. Hopkins,

Vice-Presidents.
Arcadia — Dr. C. G. Pomeroy, Joel H. Prescott.
Marion — Amasa Hall, Charles Tremaine.
Walworth — Theron G. Yeomans, W. D. Wiley.
Macedon — Jere. Thistlethwaite, Lyman Bickford, Wm. P.
Nottingham. Ontario — A. W. Casey, A. J. Bixuv.

the celebration. 5
Williamson — John P. Bennett, T. Scott Ledyard.
Manchester — John W. Parker, Wm. H. Short.
Palmyra — Geo. Harrison, Jas. Reeves, Ornon Archer
H. K. Jerome, Wm. H. Southwick.
THE OBSERVANCE OF THE DAY.

July the Fourth, 1-876, the One Hundredth Anniversary of the
Declaration of American Independence, was observed by the
citizens of Palmyra and its vicinity, with becoming spirit and
appropriate solemnities.
The opening day was greeted with a Federal salute of thir
teen guns by the Artillery, under command of Capt. H. J.
Draime, and by the pealing of bells.
Soon after eight o'clock, citizens from the neighboring vil
lages and the surrounding country began to arrive, and by half-
past nine, the time for the forming of the procession, the streets
of our village presented a sight that has seldom, if ever, been
equalled. Thousands of people of all ages thronged the main thorough
fare, and every residence and building displayed National
Emblems ; some being elaborately draped with the " Red,
White and Blue."
Punctually at the appointed time the grand procession was
formed, under the direction of Col. Joseph W. Corning, Mar
shal of the Day, and his Aids, Majors H. P. Knowles, and M.
Hopkins. The following, taken from the official programme, was sub
stantially the Order of the Procession.

1. — Palmyra Cornet Band.
2. — A detachment from Zenobia Commandery Knights Tem
plar, as escort.
3.— Palmyra Lodge 248 F. & A. M.
4. — Pierian Lodge 243 I. O. O. F.
5. — Palmyra Grange P. of H.

o the centennial at palmyra.
6. — -President and Vice-Presidents of the Day, Orator,
Reader and Clergy, in carriages.
7. — Village and Town Officials, Invited Guests, Committee
of Arrangements, and Soldiers of 1812.
8. — The Sunday Schools of the several Churches, under
charge of their Superintendents.
9. — Veteran Martial Band.
10. — Soldiers of the Late War.
n. — Fire Department, with Steamer, Hose Cart and Hook
and Ladder Truck.
12. — Highlander in Costume, with Bagpipes.
13. — Trades and Industries, Printing Press in operation on
¦wheels. 14. — Citizens in General, on foot or in carriages.
15. — Grand calvacade, representing Gen. Washington and
Staff escorted by Continental Cavalry, all in old time costumes,
and composing the largest and most interesting body of mounted
men ever witnessed in this vicinity.
The line of march included several of the principal streets
and ended at the Grand Stand on the grounds of the Union
School, where admirable arrangements had been made for the
carrying out of the following Order of Exercises.

1. Music by the Palmyra Cornet Band, Andrew Seely, leader.
After which, owing to the illness and absence of Major Geo.
W. Cuyler, President of the Day, Pliny T. Sexton, Chairman of
the Committee of Arrangements, called the meeting to order,
saying, in substance,
" Friends and Fellow Citizens ; — To-day it may be said, that
" as American citizens, we are all one hundred years old, — an
" age which is but as a day we ti*ust in this Nation's enjoyment
" of the fruits of that great struggle whose beginning we are
" here assembled to commemorate.
" It is not at all in the spirit of an idle frolic that we have
" gathered in attendance upon this Our Country's birthday
" party ; but rather with reverent gratitude to the Great God of
"¦Nations for the blessings, and protection bestowed on the peo-

the celebration. 7
" pie of our land, and in opening the formal exercises of this
¦" day we will call upon the Rev. John' G. Webster to give voice
¦" to our hearts in thanksgiving and prayer.''
2. The Rev. John G. Webster offered the following
Prayer.
Almighty and eternal God, King of kings, and Lord of lords,
by whose fiat nations exist, continue or decline, we bow before
Thee this hour in humble adoration ; acknowledging Thee as
our Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier and divine Benefactor.
We render to Thee our unfeigned thanksgiving for this goodly
Heritage that Thou hast given us, and for all the institutions of
moral, social, and intellectual development that abound in it.
We praise Thee for the light of the Gospel, for the blessing
•of Liberty, for the protection of Law.
We pray Thy blessing upon our nation ; and for all in author
ity over us ; for the President of the United States, the Governor
of our State ; for all Legislators and officers. Give them wis
dom to enact wholesome laws, and impartial fidelity in their
administration and enforcement, that peace and happiness,
truth and justice, religion and piety may be established among
us forever.
Bestow and continue thy blessing upon this whole people.
May we all and each peform our manifold duties as responsible
to Thee.
Be with us in this day's celebration ; may our rejoicings be
¦quickened by patriotism; may our festivities be tempered with
moderation ; and may we so live and act in Thy sight, in all
things all our days, that when we depart hence we may be
received into Thy Heavenly Kingdom.
We ask these mercies in Thy name, and through the merits
of our dear Redeemer and' Saviour, Jesus Christ, in whose
perfect form of words we conclude our prayer : Our Father
who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name ; Thy kingdom come ;
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in Heaven. Give us this day
our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive
those that trespass against us ; and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil ; for Thine is the kingdom, and the
power, and the glory forever. Amen.

8 the centennial at palmyra.
3. Music. The Choir and audience sang
Whittier's Centennial Hymn.
Our father's God ! from out whose hand
The centuries fall like grains of sand,
We meet to-day, united, free,
And loyal to our land and Thee,
To thank Thee for the era done,
And trust Thee for the opening one.
Here, where of old, by Thy design,
The fathers spake that word of Thine,
Whose echo is the glad refrain
Of rended bolt and falling chain,
To grace our festal time from all
The zones of earth our guests we call.
Be with us while the New World greets
The old world thronging all its streets,
Unveiling all the triumphs won
By art or toil beneath the sun ;
And unto common good ordain
This rivalship of band and brain.
Thou who hast here in concord furled
The war-flags of a gathered world,
Beneath our western skies fulfil
The Orient's mission of good will ;
And, freighted with Love's golden fleece,
Send back the Argonauts of peace.
For art and labor met in truce,
For beauty made the bride of use,
We thank Thee, while withal we crave
The austere virtues, strong to save ;
The honor, proof to place or gold ;
The manhood, never bought or sold !
Oh ! Make thou us, through centuries long,
In peace secure, and justice strong ;
Around our gift of freedom draw
The safeguards of the righteous law,
And cast in some diviner mold,
Let the new cycle shame the old !
4. Reading the Declaration of Independence, by Rev. C.
W. Winchester.

the celebration. 9
5. Centennial Song; words by John McIntosh:
The spirits of our fathers throng
The spaces of the West,
Forgetting heav'nly heart and song,
In regions of the blest.
They seek to touch with sacred fire,
The souls that mingle here,
And joining in our Nation's choir,
Salute our hundreth year.
Chorus — Our bright centennial year hurrah !
Long wave our flag of stars.
With heart and soul this glorious year
We welcome with hurrahs.
Hurrah ! hurrah ! hurrah ! hurrah !
'Mid cannon smoke and flashing swords
They hailed our nation's birth ;
With throbbing hearts and burning words,
To all the sons of earth,
The banner of the free they gave —
Our flag to freemen dear ;
And so was ushered by the brave
Our nation's natal year.
Chorus — Our bright Centennial year, hurrah, &c.
Long may that starry standard glow,
The beacon of the West ;
Its stripes a curse to ev'ry foe,
Its stars to freemen blest ;
And in the van of progress aye
Be all its folds unfurled,
The fire by night, the cloud by day,
To lead the modern world.
Chorus — Our bright Centennial year, hurrah, &c.
6. The grand event of the day followed, in the delivery by
Theodore Bacon, Esq., of Rochester,, of an eloquent oration,
which he has kindly permitted the Committee to print and pub
lish in full with this report of the exercises.
7. Music, Yankee Doodle, by the "Veteran Martial Band."
This band was composed of men whose devotion to martial
music began over half a century ago, and they gave much time
and patience to practice, in reviving their old skill, that they
might grace, as they did most highly, this centennial occasion.

IO THE CENTENNIAL AT PALMYRA.
Their names are : Morgan Doty, Abel D. Chase, Peter
Taylor, John Jordan, Morgan L. Robinson, and Lyman
Pierce. 8. Music. Scotch airs upon Bagpipes, by Prof. Proctor,
in Highland costume.
9. Music. The entire assembly joined in singing, to the
grand old tune "America," the following
Hymn.
Free by thy might, O God,
We sound thy praise abroad
In grand acclaim !
Through night and storms and tears,
Through dark and bloody years,
More than all strength that cheers
Was thy great name ! '
So, ever led by thee,
Right on to liberty
Our fathers strode !
Their children own thy hand,
And o'er our goodly land
Uncovered, rev'rent stand,
To worship God !
Free in the vows we speak —
Free in the laws we make —
Here freedom's seat !
Fair cities rise in might,
Fair fields the eye delight,
Truth free upholds the right —
O joy complete !
Rise, sons of liberty !
Rise, maids and matrons free !
Rise, children, rise !
Hail now the hundredth year !
Hail with resounding cheer !
Let all the nations hear
Freedom's emprise !
Sacred the tears we shed
Over the honored dead
Of that great time !
Shout we adown the years,
Ye who are freedom's heirs,
Guard ye the ark that bears
Our hope sublime !

THE CELEBRATION.
Faith, law, and liberty,
Triumphant trinity,
By thee we stand !
Long as the rivers run,
Long as endures the sun,
Our flag and country one —
God keep our land.
io. Benediction, by Rev. H. Eaton. D. D.

At the conclusion of the exercises, the procession reformed
and escorted the Orator and officers of the day to the Palmyra
Hotel, where the latter dined together in an informal manner,
and honored with the company of the entire clergy of the vil
lage, including the following reverend gentlemen :
Rev. Horace Eaton, D. D., Presbyterian.
Rev. John G. Webster, Episcopalian.
Rev. C. W. Winchester, Methodist.
Rev. Wm. Casey, Roman Catholic.
Rev. Chas. C. Smith, Baptist.
At mid-day, Capt. Draime put in a Centennial reminder of
one hundred guns, from his battery on Mt. Holmes ; and at sun
set a National salute of thirty-eight guns.
In the evening, a fit finale of the memorable day was found
in the following Grand Display of Fireworks.
Star of '76 and Union. 7- Brilliant Cross.
Fairy Dance. 8. Medallion of Washington.
American Flag. 9- Revolving Globe.
Chaplet. 10. Polka.
Chinese Tree. II- Yankee Doodle.
Scroll Wheel. 12. Liberty-i776-i876-and Battery.
The above was interspersed with a fine display of floral shells,
rockets, mines, batteries, roman candles, &c.

THE' CENTENNIAL AT PALMYRA.

THE ORATION :

THEODORE BACON, of Rochester.

The occasion which we commemorate to-day, familiar as it is to
us by its annual recurrence — fixed as it is in our national life,—
is in its very conception distinctive and American. It is not
the birth-day of a reigning prince, however beloved ; it is not
the holiday of a patron saint, however revered ; it is simply the
festival of our national existence. Unimaginative as we are,
we have impersonated an idea — the idea of nationality ; and the
festival of that idea, instead of a man or a demi-god, we cele
brate to-day.
And we do right to celebrate it. The fact of this national
existence is a great fact. The act which first declared the
nation's right to exist was a great act — a brave act. If it was
not indeed, as we have been ready enough to assert, a pivotal
epoch in the world's history, it was beyond question a decisive
event in our own history. If it was not the birth-day of the
nation — for the nation was born long before — it was the day the
still-growing youth became conscious of its young maturity,
asserted its personality, and entered on equal terms into the
community of nations. And whatever errors there may have
been in our methods, — whatever follies of mere deafening or
nerve-distracting noise, — whatever mad recklessness with deadly
explosives, such as will make to-morrow's newspapers like the
returns of a great battle, — whatever flatulence of vain-glorious
boasting from ten thousand platforms such as this, — it is none

THE ORATION. 13
the less a goodly and an honorable thing, that the one universal
festival of this great nation should be the festival of its nation
ality alone. This, and this only, is the meaning of our being
together to-day; that we are glad, and joyful, and grateful, that
we are a nation ; and that in unison with more than two-score
millions of people, throughout the vast expanse of our imperial
domain, we may give utterance to the joyful and thankful
thought, "The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we
are glad."
It is well, then, to celebrate and rejoice. The many reasons
we have for joy and pride are familiar enough to you. If there
were any danger of your forgetting them, they are recalled
annually to your remembrance by addresses such as you have
honored me by calling on me to deliver here to-day. And in
considering how I could best respond to your request, in the
few moments which you can spare from your better occupation
of the day, I have thought it superfluous to repeat to you those
glories of which your minds are already so full, deeming it a
better service to you, and worthier of the day, if I suggest
Certain Limitations upon National Self-Laudation.
Let me recount to you, summarily, the familiar and ordinary
grounds of our boasting on such days as this. Then go over
them with me, one by one ; consider them soberly ; and see
whether we are in any danger of exalting ourselves unduly by
reason of them.
1. We conquered our independence.
2. We govern ourselves.
3. We have enormously multiplied our numbers, and ex
tended our boundaries.
4. We have enormously increased our material wealth, and
subdued the forces of nature.
5. Education and intelligence are in an unequaled degree
•diffused throughout our population.
6. To crown all, we have but just now subdued a gigantic
rebellion, and in doing so have incidentally suppressed the great
national shame of human slavery.

14 THE CENTENNIAL AT PALMYRA.
Consider them :
i. We conquered our independence.
Beyond doubt, this was a grand thing to do, even in view
of all the advantages that aided our fathers, and of all the
difficulties that burdened their enemies. It was not, indeed,
except in a certain limited and qualified sense, what it is
commonly misnamed, a revolution. It was rather a movement
of conservatism, — of resistance to an innovating despotism,
seeking to impose the bonds of distant authority on those
who were free-born, and who had always governed themselves.
This resistance to ministerial novelties was in the interest of all!
Englishmen, and, until this very day one hundred years ago,
was in the name of King George himself, whom we still recog
nized as our rightful monarch, after more than a year of flagrant
war against his troops. It was (do not forget) a war of defence,
against an invader from the paralyzing distance of 3000 miles ;
yet that invader was the most powerful nation in Europe. It
enlisted (remember) the active alliance of France, and stirred
up Spain and Holland to separate wars against our enemy ; yet
even with these great helps, the persistency of the struggle, the
hardships and discouragements through which it was maintained
to its final success, were enough to justify the honor in which
we hold the assertors of our national independence.
2. — We have inherited, it is true, by a descent through many
generations, certain principles of government which recognize
the people as the source of authority over the people. Yet
not even the founders of this federal republic — far less our
selves, their century-remote descendants, could claim the glory
either of inventing these eternal principles or of first applying
them in practice. Before Jefferson were Plato, and Milton, and
Locke, and Rousseau. Before Philadelphia were Athens, and
pre- Augustan Rome; Florence and Geneva ;. Ghent and Ley-
den ; the Swiss Republics and the Commonwealth of England.
Before the United States of America were the Achaean League,
the Hanseatic League, and — closest pattern and exemplar —
the United Provinces of the Low Countries. Beyond doubt,
however, it is something to be glad of that our ancestors began
the century which closes to-day, upon the solid foundations of

THE ORATION. 15
a faith in the right of self-government, when so many other
nations of the earth were to be compelled to labor and study
toward the acceptance of that faith, or to legislate and fight
and revolutionize toward the embodiment of it in institutions.
But whether that prodigious advantage with which we began
the century should be now the occasion of pride or of some
different emotion, might depend on other questions : Whether,
for example, that advantage has enabled us to maintain to this
day the the pre-eminence over other nations which it gave us a
hundred years ago ; whether, as they have advanced, we have
only held our own, or gone backward ; whether our ten talents,
the magnificent capital with which we were entrusted, have
been hid in a napkin and buried, while the one poor talent of
another has been multiplied a hundred fold by diligence and
skill. It is a great thing, no doubt, for a nation to govern
itself, whether well or ill ; but it is a thing to be proud of only
when its self-government is capable and just. Let us look for
a moment at the relative positions in this respect of our own
and other nations a hundred years ago, and now.
A century since, the idea of parliamentary or representative
government, primitive as that idea had been in the earliest
Teutonic communities, and embalmed as it might still be in the
reveries of philosophers, had no living form outside of these
colonies, and of that fatherland from which their institutions
were derived, and with which they were at war. In Great
Britain itself, a sodden conservatism, refusing to adapt institu
tions to changing circumstances, had suffered them to become
distorted with inequalities; so that the House of Commons,
while it still stood for the English People, and was already
beginning to feel the strength which has now made it the
supreme power in the nation, was so befouled with rotten bor
oughs and pocket boroughs, that ministers easily managed it
with places, and pensions, and money. The whole continent
of Western Europe was subjected to great or little autocrats,
claiming to rule by divine right, uttering by decrees their
sovereign wills for laws, despising even the pretense of asking
the concurrence of the governed. In France, an absolute
despot, a brilliant court, a gorgeous and vicious civilization of
the few, were superposed upon a wretched, naked, underfed

l6 THE CENTENNIAL AT PALMYRA.
peasantry ; tithe-oppressed, tax-ridden ; crushed with feudal
burdens upon the soil, or dragged from it to be slaughtered in
foreign wars for matters they never heard of. Germany was
either parcelled out, like Italy, among countless princelings,
maintaining every one his disproportionate army, and court,
and harem, and squeezing out taxes and blood from his people
utterly without responsibility ; or was crushed beneath the iron
despotism of the Great Frederick in the North, or of the less
capable Empire in the South. To the East, the great plains of
Russia were an unknown darkness, where a shameless fury
maintained an Asiatic reign of force and terror. Here and
there a philosophical recluse was evolving from his books and
his invention, systems of government which denied and an
tagonized the claims of divine right on which every dynasty in
Europe was founded ; yet so remote from any practical appli
cation did these speculations seem that the most absolute
monarchs took pride in sharing them and fostering them.
There were, indeed, things called "republics; " there were the
despotic aristocracies of Venice and Genoa ; there were their
High Mightinesses, the Estates of the United Provinces ; there
were the confederated cantons of Switzerland, fenced in their
mountain strongholds, but without influence upon European
thoughts or institutions.
Over against that Europe of 1776, set the Europe of .to-day.
Nation after nation — call off their names : observe their systems
of government, and say, when you have completed the tale,
how many sovereigns there are who rest their title to supremacy
upon divine right by inheritance ; how many governments there
are whose daily continuance — how many whose very birth and
origin, are derived avowedly from no other source than " the
consent of the governed." There are indeed crowned heads
to-day ; heads wearing crowns which have descended by but
two or three degrees from the most confident assertors'of -"the right
divine of kings to govern wrong;" — right royal men and women —
nay more, right manly men and right womanly women ; yet of all
these there is hardly one who pretends to be more than the
mere executive of the national will, expressed through a repre
sentative legislature. The England which our fathers denounced
as tyrant, and foe of freedom — let us not commit the anachron-

THE ORATION. 17
ism of confounding her with the England of to-day. Ruled
by a National Assembly chosen by a suffrage little short of
universal, exercising final and absolute legislative authority,
with the merest advisory concurrence of an hereditary Senate ;
its executive body little more than a standing committee of the
House of Commons, removable in an instant by a mere expres
sion of the will of the House; and all under the nominal
presidency of a quiet matron, to whom even the external cere
monies of her position are irksome ; with a system of local
and municipal administration, which, whatever its defects, may
well invite our admiration and study ; the sturdiest proclaimer
of the doctrines of our " Declaration " could hardly have figured
to himself a future America which should more fully embody
those doctrines than the realm of George the Third has come
to embody them under his granddaughter. If we look across the
channel, we find all Western Europe, from the Polar Sea to the
Mediterranean, the undisputed domain of constitutional, repre
sentative, elective government. If the name and state of King
or Emperor are maintained, it is in effect but as a convenient
instrument for the performance of necessary functions in the
great public organism, and with a tacit, or even an express
acknowledgment on the part of the crown that " the consent of
the governed " is the true source of its own authority. Over
the feudal France which I have but just now pictured to you,
has swept a flood which not only destroyed institutions, but
extirpated their immemorial foundations ; which not only
leveled the hideous inequalities of medievalism, but leveled
upward the Gallic mind itself; so that hardly less than the
American citizen — far more than the British subject — is the
Frenchman of to-day penetrated by the consciousness of the
equal rights of all men before the law. His form of supreme
administration may vary from time to time, in name, or even
in substance ; but for fifty years it has stood upon the basis of
the public consent, or, when it has failed so to stand, has fallen.
The France of Richelieu — the France of that Louis XIV who
dared to say of the State, " It is /," is the France whose latest
king called himself no longer King of France, but King of the
French j whose latest Emperor claimed no right to rule but
from a popular election by universal suffrage — boasted of being

l8 THE CENTENNIAL AT PALMYRA.
" The Elect of seven millions " — and styled himself in the most
solemn instruments, " By the Grace of God and the Will of the
People, Emperor of the French;" and which now, dispensing
with even the fiction of a Sovereign, administers its affairs with
a prudence, wisdom and economy which have drawn the ad
miration of neighboring nations. In United Italy — in the two
great empires which share between them Germany and Hun
gary — in the Scandinavian Kingdoms — and at last even in
Spain, so long the distracted prey of hierarchy and absolutism,
the autocracy of an hereditary monarch has given way to par
liamentary government and ministerial responsibility. The
successor of Catherine the Second, by conferring spontaneously
upon the half-civilized subjects of his vast empire not only
personal freedom, but such local autonomy as they are capable
of, is educating them toward a higher participation in affairs.
And now, most marvelous testimony to the prevalence of those
opinions upon which our own institutions are based, the world
has seen within a month, a new Sultan, a new chief of Islam,
announced to Europe as succeeding to the chair and the sword
of Mahomet, "by the unanimous will of the Turkish people!"
Let us be quite sure, my fellow-citizens, before we boast
ourselves immeasurably above other nations by reason of the
excellence of our political institutions, not only that they are
better than all others in the world, but that we have done
something in these hundred years towards making them better ;
or at, least that we have not suffered ours to become debased
and corrupt, while those of other nations have been growing
better and purer. Is our law-making and our conduct of affairs
— national, state, and local — abler and honester now than then ?
Is the ballot-box cleaner, and a surer reflection of the public
mind upon public men and measures ? Or are we still in some
small degree hampered by the tricks of politicians, so that we
find ourselves voting into offices men whom we despise, — giving
support to measures which we abominate ? Has public opinion
grown so in that sensitive honor " which feels a stain like a
wound," that it compels public men to be not only above
reproach, but above suspicion ? Or has it rather come to con
tent itself with weighing evidence, and balancing probabilities,
and continuing its favor to any against whom the proofs may

THE ORATION.

19

fall short of absolute conviction of felony ? Is the vast organ
ization of our public business contrived and controlled, as it is
in every other civilized country, and as in every successful
private business it must be, for the sole end of doing that
business efficiently and cheaply? Or has it become a vast
system for the reward of party services by public moneys, — a
vast mechanism for the perpetuation of party power by sup
pressing the popular will, — with the secondary purpose of doing
the public work as well as may be consistent with the main
design ? Have we, through dullness or feebleness, suffered
methods to become customary in our public service, which, if
attempted in the British post-office or custom-house, would
overthrow a ministry in a fortnight — if in the French, might
bring on a revolution? My fellow-citizens, I offer you no
answers to these questions. I only ask them ; and leave
unasked many others which these might suggest. But when
we have found answers to our satisfaction, we shall know better
how far to exalt ourselves above the other nations of the earth.
3. A more indisputable support for national pride may be
found, perhaps, in our unquestioned and enormous multiplica
tion of numbers and expansion of territory.
These have certainly been marvelous : perhaps unparalleled.
It is a great thing that four millions of human beings, occupy
ing in 1776 a certain expanse of territory, should be succeeded
in 1876 by forty millions occupying ten times that expanse.
But let us be quite sure how much the increase of numbers is a
necessary result of natural laws of propagation, working unre
strained in a land of amazing productiveness, unscourged by
famine or pestilence, and burdened by but one great war
during three generations of men; how much to the prodigious
importation of involuntary immigrants from Africa during the
last century, and of voluntary colonists, induced by high rewards
for labor and enterprise, during this ; and how much to any
special virtue in our ancestors or ourselves. Let us be sure
what degree and quality of glory it may be which a nation lays
claim to for the extension of boundaries by mere mercantile
bargain and purchase, or by strong-armed conquest from its
weaker neighbors. Let us remember, withal, that great as has
been our growth in population and extent over this vacant con-

20 THE CENTENNIAL AT PALMYRA.
tinent which offered such unlimited scope for enlargement, other
nations have not stood still. A century ago there was a little
sub-alpine monarchy of two or three million subjects, which
within these twenty years has so expanded itself by honorable
warfare and the voluntary accession of neighboring provinces
that it now comprehends all the twenty-five millions of the
Italian people. A century ago there was a little Prussian mon
archy of three or four million subjects, which, sparing to us
meanwhile millions of its increasing numbers, has grown until
it has become the vast and powerful German Empire of forty
millions. And, while we take a just pride in the marvelous
growth of New York and Philadelphia, and the meteoric rise of
Chicago and St. Louis, it is well not to forget that within the
same century London has added three millions to its numbers ;
Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield, Glasgow, have sprung from
insignificance into the second rank of cities; and that dull
Prussian town, which, as the Great Frederick's capital, boasted
but 100,000 inhabitants, has become a vast metropolis of
nearly a million people, doubling its numbers in the last
quarter of that period. If our own increase of population has
indeed surpassed these marvelous examples — if our territorial
expansion has in fact been larger and swifter than that of the
Russian Empire in Europe and Asia, or of the British Empire
in India, America and Australia, then the more are we justified
in that manner of pride which is natural to the youth grown to
a healthy maturity of strength, and stature.
4. — Thus also, if we have not greatly surpassed the rest of
the world in our growth in material wealth, and in our
subjugation of natural forces to human use, we may fairly
claim at least to have kept in the van of progress. Yet
here, too, while we have great and just cause for pride, let us
not err by confounding the positive merits of our nation with
the adventitious advantages which have stimulated or created
its successes. It has been a different task, though perhaps not
an easier one, to take from the fresh fields and virgin soil of
this vast continent, fruitful in all that is most useful for human
food and raiment, the wealth that has been the sure reward of
steadfast industry, — from the task of stimulating the produc
tive powers of lands exhausted by thousands of years of crop-

THE ORATION. 21
bearing, up to that exquisite fertility that makes an English
wheat-field an astonishment even to a Western New York
farmer. It is indeed a singular fortune which ours has been,
that every decade of years has revealed beneath our feet some
new surprise of mineral wealth ; the iron everywhere ; the an
thracite of Pennsylvania ; the copper of Lake Superior ; the
gold of California ; the bituminous coal of the western coal
fields ; the petroleum which now illuminates the world ; and
finally, the, silver which has deluged and deranged the trade of
the Orient. Let us not be slow to remember that such natural
advantages impose obligations, rather than justify pride, in
comparison with these old countries where nature has spoken
long ago her last word of discovery, and where labor and
science can but glean in fields already harvested. And when
we look with wonder upon the vast public works, not dispro
portionate to the vastness of our territory, which the last half-
century especially has seen constructed, let us not forget that
the industry and frugality which gathered the capital that built
our railroad system — not all of which, certainly, was American
capital, — the trained intellect of the engineers who designed and
constructed its countless parts, — are a greater honor to any
people than 70,000 miles of track : that the patient ingenuity
of Fitch and Fulton are more to be boasted of than the owner
ship of the steam navies of the world : the scientific, culture
and genius of Morse, than 200,000 miles of telegraphic wire.
5. — If I have thought it needless to enlarge upon other sub
jects, familiar upon such occasions, for public congratulation,
especially will it be superfluous to remind such an audience as
this how broad and general is the diffusion of intelligence and
education through large portions of our country. But let us
not be so dazzled by the sunlight which irradiates us here in
New York, as to forget the darkness of illiteracy which over
whelms vast regions of our common country ; that if New
York, and Massachusetts, and Ohio, offer to all their children
opportunities of learning, there exists in many states a numerous
peasantry, both white and black, of besotted ignorance, and
struggling but feebly, almost without aid or opportunity, toward
some small enlightenment. Let us not overlook the fact, in our
complacency, that while we, in these favored communities,

\
22 THE CENTENNIAL AT PALMYRA.
content ourselves with offering education to those whom we
leave free to become sovereign citizens in abject ignorance, other
nations have gone beyond us in enforcing universal education ;
in not only throwing open the feast of reason, but in going into
the highways and hedges, and compelling them to come in.
6. — Coming to the last of the familiar sources of national
pride which I have suggested, we may fairly say that the emo-,
tions with which a patriot looks back upon the conclusions of
the period beginning in i860 must be of a most varied and con
flicting sort. The glory of successful war must be tempered
by shame that red-handed rebellion should ever have raised its
head in a constitutional nation. If it was not permitted to a
Roman general, so it is not becoming to us, to triumph over
conquered fellow-citizens. If we rejoice, as the whole world
does rejoice, that the conflict which for four years distracted us
ended in the restoration of four million slaves to the rights of
free manhood, the remembrance that neither our national con
science nor our statesmanship had found a better way out of
the bondage of Egypt than through a Red Sea of blood, may
well qualify our reasonable pride ; the question, how these mil
lions and their masters are yet to be lifted up into fitness for
their new sovereignty over themselves and over us, may well
sober our exultation.
If I have departed from the common usage of this occasion, in
assuming that you know, quite as well as I do, the infinite causes
that exist for pride, and joy, and common congratulation in
being American citizens, I beg leave before I close to suggest
one further reason for the emotions which are natural to all our
hearts to-day. It has been common to us and to other nations, —
to our friends alike and our detractors, — to speak of the institu
tions under which we live, as new, experimental, and of ques
tionable permanency. Fellow citizens, if we can learn nothing
else from the comparative view of other nations to which I
have been hastily recommending you, this fact at least presses
itself home upon us : that of all the nations of the earth which
are under the light of Christian and European civilization, the
institutions of America are those which the vicissitudes of a
century have left most unchanged; that, tested by the history
of those hundred years, and by the experience of every such

THE ORATION. 23
nation, republican democracy means permanency, not revolu
tion ; wise conservatism, not destruction ; and that all other
institutions are as unstable as water in comparison. I believe
that to-day this American " experiment " is the most ancient
system in Christendom. Not a constitution in Europe but
exists by grace of a revolution of far later date than the fram
ing of our constitution, which stands now, immortal monument
to the wisdom of its founders, almost unchanged from its
pristine shape and substance. If the stable British monarchy
seems to you an exception, reflect upon the silent revolution
which in that time has annulled the power of the crown, and
almost subverted its influence ; remember the suppression of
the Irish Parliament, the removal of the Catholic disabilities
which for a century and a half had been a foundation stone of
the constitution ; remember the Reform Bill which prostrated
the power of the aristocracy ; the repeal of the Corn Laws,
which reversed the economic policy of a thousand years ; look
at the audacious legislation which within two years has destroyed
•even the names of that judicial system which is identified with
English monarchy — at that which within a few weeks has dared
to add a flimsy glitter to the immemorial title of the Sovereign
herself — and you may well be proud of the solidity and per
manence of our institutions compared with the swift-dissolving
forms of European systems.
We know, however, that institutions, even the best of them,
cannot long exist without change. As in physical life, there
must be either growth or decay ; when growth has ceased, decay
cannot long be postponed. How shall it be with those institu
tions which a noble ancestry has bequeathed to us, and in
¦which we rejoice to-day. ? Let us not forget that the day is the
beginning of a new century, as well as the close of an old one.
Not one of us is to see the close of the coming age, as none of
us saw the opening of the last. And while it is given to none
to discern the future, we know well that institutions, whether
civil or social, cannot long continue better than the people who
enjoy them. Be it ours, therefore, so far as lies in us, to per
petuate for our remote offspring the benefits which have come,
down from our ancestors. Let us cultivate in ourselves— let us
teach to our children— those virtues which alone make our free

24 THE CENTENNIAL AT PALMYRA.
institutions possible or desirable. Thus, and only thus, shall
we make this day not merely the commemoration of departed
glories, but the portal to that Golden Age which has been the
dream of poets and the promise of prophets, and toward which,
as we dare to hope, the event which we now celebrate has so
mightily impelled mankind. Our eyes shall not behold it ; but
woe to us if we cease to hope for it and to labor towards it.
It may be hard — it is hard — for us, surrounded by the green
graves and the desolated homes which within a dozen years a
ghastly civil war has made in this religious and enlightened
nation, — for us here, in the very presence of the tattered yet
venerated symbols of that . strife,* to believe that the day can
ever shine upon the earth
When the war-drum throbs no longer, and the battle-flags are furled
In the parliament of man, the federation of the world :
When the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe,
And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapt in universal law.
The reign of " Peace on Earth — Good Will towards Men" —
the dominion of Reason and Justice over Force and Fraud —
it may be far off, but it shall surely come.
Down the dark future, through long generations,
The sounds of strife grow fainter, and then cease ;
And like a bell, in solemn, sweet vibrations,
I hear once more the voice of Christ say, " Peace ! "
Peace ! and no longer, from its brazen portals,
The blast of war's great organ shakes the skies ;
But, beautiful as songs of the immortals,
The holy melodies of Love arise.

* The worn-out regimental colors of the 33d New York Volunteers, a regiment which
went to the war from Wayne County, were carried in the procession and set up in front of
the speaker's stand.

HISTORY OF PALMYRA. 25

EARLY HISTORY OF PALMYRA.

REV. HORACE EATON, D. D.

The blossoming of the Century plant, the striking of one
hundred by the great clock of time, should open the dullest
eye to peer into the future and quicken the most leaden ear
to listen to the whispers of the past.
In crossing the first Centennial of the Nation, the words of
Elihu, the Buzite, express the common sentiment, " Days should
speak and the multitude of years should teach wisdom."
Back of the settlement of the white man, a nebulous haze
rests upon the history of Western New York. Then it was the
paradise of the Six Nations. Arrow-heads and other memorials
of the red man, found in our meadows and along our hillsides,
tell of their camping grounds and of openings where maize
and tobacco grew under their hand. Once the gleam of their
watchfires shimmered across these waters and the smoke of
their wigwams curled above the trees. At the close of the
Revolution, measures were taken to restrain their hostile attacks
and to secure amicable relations with them, and it is grateful
to reflect that none of this fertile territory was wrested from
the Indian by violence, but was purchased by what was con
sidered a fair and equitable price. For this favored domain
God had a higher destiny than the sleepy romance of savage
life. The tomahawk was to give way to the ax, — the thick trees
to the standing corn, — the rude wigwam to the neat and comely
mansion, — the frail canoe to the well built steamer, — the Indian

26 THE CENTENNIAL AT PALMYRA.
trail to the four-track railroad, — the snarl of the wolf to the
neighing of the iron horse, — in short, the wild life of the forest
was to be exchanged for a refined and Christian civilization.
Different currents of emigration mingled in the early settle
ment of Palmyra. The first pioneers were from Wyoming
Valley, Pennsylvania. There is a humble stone in the old
graveyard in this village, bearing the inscription, John Swift.
This name is deeply imbedded in the foundations of this com
munity. Many of the " first things " cluster around it.
John Swift was a native of Kent, Connecticut. At fifteen he
enlisted a soldier of the Revolution. At the close of that war
he joined the colony of Connecticut people who settled the
valley of the Wyoming. Swift was active in defending the
colony against the Pennamites and the Indians. In firing a
fort of the enemy he received a ball through the neck. After
the massacre, a remnant of these harassed settlers resolved
to seek another home. John Swift and John Jenkins were
appointed agents to select and purchase lands for their occu
pation. John Jenkins, had been employed by Phelps and
Gorham as a surveyor and was acquainted with the Genesee
country. In 1789 they secured of the aforesaid proprietors a
deed of this township, "No. 12, Second range." The next
year Swift moved his family into this then unbroken wilderness.
Here he struck the first ax — built the first house. It was of
logs covered with bark and stood on the corner of Main and
Canal Streets, where Harry Tiller now has his wheelwright shop.
John Swift's wife was the first woman who ventured a residence
amid the perils of this new settlement. One evening, while
preparing her accustomed meal, three Indians came in and sat
around the fire. When they made signs of violence, the heroine
of the log cabin seized a red-hot poker and so laid it over their
heads that they beat a swift retreat.
John Swift was the first pioneer, the first moderator of the
first town meeting, the first supervisor, the first pound master,
the first captain. At his house was held the first training.,
Asa, his son, was the first male child born in Palmyra. John
Swift gave lands for the first saw mill, the first grave yard, the

HISTORY OF PALMYRA. 27
first school house and the first church edifice in this village.
From 1790 to 1812 the name of John Swift was connected
with every enterprise, pecuniary, political or religious. When
the war of 181 2 broke out, he was commissioned General of the
New York Volunteers. In 18 14 he led a detachment from
Queenstown Heights down the river to Fort George. There
he surrounded and captured a picket guard of the enemy of
sixty men. Instead of commanding the prisoners to ground
their arms and march away from them, he suffered them
to retain their muskets. One of the captives inquired, " Who
is Gen '1 Swift?" Most unadvisedly he stood forth and said,
"I am Gen'l Swift." In an instant the inquisitive prisoner
put a ball through his breast. Dr. Alexander Mclntyre was
by his side when he fell. He was borne to the nearest house
where he died July 12th, 1814, aged fifty-two years and twenty-
five days.
After the war, the citizens of Palmyra disinterred his remains
and deposited them in the old cemetery in this village. Said
a historian of the time, " never was the country called to lament
the loss of a firmer patriot or braver man." The New York
Legislature voted a sword to his eldest son and directed that
a full length portrait of Gen'l Swift should be hung up in the
City Hall New York.
Another honored name should here be recorded as the first
sacrifice of the war of '12 from Palmyra. Major William Howe
Cuyler from Greenbush, N. Y., opened the first Law Office in this
Village, in 1800. He was esteemed for his energy, public enter
prise and generous sympathies. He was the Aid of General Hall.
On the night of the 8th of October ,1812, he was killed at Black
Rock by a four pound ball from the British battery at Fort
Erie. Major Cuyler left two sons, George W. and William H.
Cuyler, — the former a banker, the latter a merchant. The elder,
Maj. George W. Cuyler, was announced as President of the
Day for the Centennial Celebration on the 4th inst, but was
stricken with a fatal disease and died lamented by all, July 20th.
William Jackway, John Hurlburt, Jonathan Willett, Nathan
Parshall, Barney Horton, James Galloway and Mrs. Lydia
Tiffany were some of the followers of Swift from the Valley
of the Wyoming,

28 THE CENTENNIAL AT PALMYRA.
Next in order of time is the Rhode Island colony. In No
vember, 1791, Gideon Durfee Jr., Edward Durfee and Isaac
Springer arrived from Tiverton Rhode Island. They came in
wagons on the military road to the " Old Castle " at Geneva.
From thence without a path they found their way to Palmyra.
Early the next spring, Pardon Durfee came driving the cattle
belonging to the family. Nearly exhausted with fatigue and
hunger, he met his brothers with the cry for food. With tears
they were obliged to reply, "we have none." But there was
relief in the case. Webb Harwood had gone to Penn Yan,
forty miles to the nearest mill and was expected back every
hour. The next August a boat landed near the farm house of Mr.
Ira Lakey, bringing Gideon Durfee the elder and Job, Stephen
and Ruth Durfee. Lemuel Durfee arrived four years later.
Ruth Durfee married Capt. William Wilcox. This was the
first marriage in the town. To the patriarch, Gideon Durfee,
there were born eleven children and ninety-six grand children.
Stephen Durfee was the first in town to adopt total abstinence
principles. In 181 1 he raised his house on good food and
coffee without any intoxicating drink. It is said that Swift
had failed to fulfil his engagements to Phelps and Gorham.
But when the Durfee family arrived he took heart for they
brought the hard coin in a leathern satchel, sufficient to pay
down for sixteen hundred acres of land. This money enabled
Swift to secure a warranty deed of the town.
These pioneers were soon followed by William, James and
Thomas Rogers, Festus and Isaac Goldsmith, Humphrey Sher
man, Zebulon Williams and Weaver Osburn, all from Rhode
Island. Osburn married Hannah Durfee. David Wilcox, with
his wife and two children, came from the same state April,
1 79 1. Mary, his daughter, afterward the wife of Alvah Hen-
dee, was born the 29th of the next June and was the first
white child born in the town.
Next, Long Island sent her contribution to the early settle
ment of Palmyra. With conflicting hopes and fears, a band of
emigrants launched away from their sea-girt shore April 4th
1792. Ocean waves bore their humble but trusty bark from

HISTORY OF PALMYRA. 29
Southampton around into New York harbor. The noble Hud
son welcomes them to Albany. Here, like the ships of Cleopatra,
lifted over the desert, their boat becomes their burden to Schen
ectady. There it is launched anew and pushed up the Mohawk
to Rome. From the Mohawk it goes overland to Wood Creek.
Through that, it hoists sails on Oneida Lake, feels its way along
up to Oswego, Seneca and Clyde Rivers into Mud Creek. After
a voyage so peculiar, of five hundred miles in twenty-eight days,
this well freighted Argosy comes to anchorage at the mouth
of Mill Brook on Mud Creek, near the present residence of
Deacon Hiram Foster.
Could we return upon that fine spring morning, it would de
light us to witness the play of surprise, the zest and the curiosity,
as they appear in the colony just set down in the wilderness.
The practical, strong minded men walk forth to observe the
strength and depth of the soil and to take in the lay of the
land. Their inward thought is ' here is to be our home, — here
we are to work out our destiny for time and eternity, — here are
to be our graves, — here the inheritance we leave to our children.'
Elias Reeves, William Hopkins, Joel Foster and Abraham Fos
ter acted as trustees for the colony. The first purchase of
land in East Palmyra was five thousand five hundred acres.
The rich inheritance has come down well preserved.
But " the strength of the hills " as well as the strength of the
sea mingled in the early society of Palmyra. Cummington is
a high, sterile town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts. A
Scotchman by the name of Mclntyre was the first settler. Wil
liam Cullen Bryant, the first of American poets, has honored
this town by the bequest of a public library and by replacing
the old house in which he was born by a splendid mansion.
This Cummington was one of the head-springs which irrigated
the early life of this Palmyra. Lemuel Spear was a soldier of
the Revolution and came here in 1790. Abraham, Ebenezer
and Dea. Stephen Spear were his sons. Col. John Bradish,
the father of Calvin, Charles and Luther the Governor, Doc
tor Gain Robinson, David White, father of Orrin, James and
William White, David Warner, the father of Nahum Warner,
Noah and William Porter and Noah Turner were all from
Cummington. The death of David White was the first in the

30 THE CENTENNIAL AT PALMYRA.
colony. Isaac Kelly, Stephen Phelps, Webb Harwood, Abraham
Lapham and Salmon Hathaway were from Adams, Mass.,
Asa Lilly from Athol, Mass., Enoch Sanders from Warren,
Conn., Silas Stoddard from Groton, Conn.
So far as I have been able to gather from faded memories,
such are ' the names, nativity and time of coming of settlers
before or about 1800. As a whole they were choice men and
women, sifted, flint wheat. If the men from Wyoming led in
the discovery, purchase and settlement of this town, the men
from Rhode Island were the first to pay for it. If the emigrants
from the hills of Hampshire were more ready in pressing edu
cation, the Long Island colony bore the palm in staid adherence
to the Bible and the Sabbath and were first in erecting the
Sanctuary. To their honor it should be recorded that from
their arrival, they have not failed in keeping up the public wor
ship of God every Sabbath.
Severe were the sacrifices of the early settlers, — their labors
Herculean, their principles patriotic and pure. They laid deep
and broad the foundations upon which" their posterity may
build high and strong.
Growth, changes, incidents crowd every year since the first
white settlement. Beside the above notice of the early emi
grants, it would be interesting to tell of the subsequent in
coming of citizens from different States of the Union, — from
Dutchess, Columbia and other counties of our own State, — from
England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, and to define what each
class has contributed to the common good, — how we are assimi
lating to each others tastes and increasing in harmony and
right living. But time and the limits of this sketch permit
but a further glance at some of the more striking contrasts
between the early past and the present.
If we turn our eyes back eighty-six years, the felling and
firing of trees in the new settlement, present a sharp con
trast with the fenced and cultivated fields, the shaven lawns as
they now appear. To bring to a single acre has taxed the toil of
many a strong arm. The first plough was hewn out of a log.
Now we have the polished share. Once the farmer and his
boys with the sickle in hand went bending to the standing
grain. Now the lord of the manor rides in a triumphal chariot, —

HISTORY OF PALMYRA. 31
the harvest bows to him and at his mandate the wheat piles
itself for binding. Look at the steam thresher. It will do
the work' a hundred men used to do with the flail and the fan.
Thanks for the change wrought by modern inventions in culti
vating these fields.
Trade suggests similar contrasts. Zebulon Williams was
the first merchant and had his store where the depot now
stands. Joseph Colt was "the second. His store was on the
corner of Main and Market Streets where Royce and Brigham
now trade. Swift & Sawyer had their store on the site of the
Vinegar factory. George Beckwith began business at the mill
now owned by M. B. Riggs. These stores paid twenty-five
cents a bushel for wheat, six cents a pound for butter, — asked
twenty-five cents a pound for nails. The first carrying trade
to and from Albany was by boats through intervening rivers
and lakes. Then came the heavy wagons. In 1825 the canal
began to bear the burdens of trade, in 1851 the railroad. Col.
Stoddard, who was in the employ of Joseph Colt in 1804 and
after, assured me that it took him sixty days to go by boat to
New York with produce and return with goods. The traveler
can now go round the world in the same time.
In Mechanism there has been a like advance. Where are
the old cards, spindles, distaffs, looms, clock-reels that struck
off the knots — all of the days of blessed homespun ? Swift
built the first carding machine, Edward Durfee the first saw
mill, on our little brook, just above the steam mill of James
Galloway, — Jonah Howell the first grist mill, where now stands
Ezra Chapman's saw mill. Swift took a bushel of his first wheat
on his shoulder and carried it all the way to Seneca Falls, had
it ground and brought back the flour.
Zechariah Blackman was the first blacksmith and had his
shop under the great elm in front of Mrs. George Beckwith's,
James Smith was the first hatter, David Jackway succeeded him,
Joel Foster the first carpenter, Gilbert Rogers the first tanner.
Henry Jessup commenced his extensive leather trade in 1800.
F. C. Strong was the first printer. He began to publish the
Palmyra Register in 1818. Pomeroy Tucker commenced the
Wayne Sentinel in 1824. Pliny Sexton was the first silversmith

32 THE CENTENNIAL AT PALMYRA.
and watchmaker. He left tictics for the tactics of hardware in
the firm of Sexton & Butterfield. For thirty years he was
associated with Geo. W. Cuyler in the banking business. Now,
at the age of eighty, he survives both his former partners.
Education presents contrasts. In the year 1793, the date
of the first town meeting and the first church, it was ordered
to build two log school houses. The first was on land given
by Swift, nearly opposite St. Ann's Church, — the other was the
Hopkins school house in East Palmyra. Schools sprung up in
other neighborhoods. An Academy was incorporated some
where about 1816. The building was of brick and stood on
the site north of the Catholic Church. The present arrange
ment of the Classical Union School was adopted and the
building completed in 1848. Daboll, Murray, Webster, the
English Reader and the ferule have had a racy history in our
town. We trace the name of the town to the early literature of
the place. " No. 12, Second Range" was first called Swifttown,
then Tolland. These names not pleasing the citizens, some
where between March and June 1797, a meeting was held to
determine the name. Daniel Sawyer, the brother of Mrs.
Swift, was then for two reasons in the literary mood. First, he
was in love with Miss Dosha Boughton, the first school-mistress ;
secondly, he was interested in ancient history. Now as ancient
Palmyra had a Zenobia, he doubtless thought that his modern
Dosha should have a Palmyra. It is not strange that he should
urge the name of the ancient City with felicity and success.
" Palmyra " was adopted by acclamation.
In regard to the churches, we can detain you but with a
word. Their formation, edifices, growth, pastorates would fill
a volume. The Baptist Church was organized in the house of Lemuel
Spear in 1800. Their first edifice was on the site of the school
house opposite the dwelling of James Kent, the elder. Rev.
William Jones was the first pastor..
The Methodist Church was formed in 181 1. Their first house
was on the corner of Johnson and Vienna Streets.

HISTORY OF PALMYRA. 33
The Episcopal Church was organized in June 1823. Rev.
Rufus Murray was the first Rector. The first edifice was con
secrated February 1st, 1829. It was built on the spot where
the present Church now stands.
The Roman Catholic Church was organized in 1848. Its
present edifice was erected in 1862 by the present pastor Rev.
William Casey.
The Presbyterian Church was organized 1793. In regard to
the place of its organization, there are conflicting statements ;
one, that it was in the house of John Swift, — another, with per
haps more accuracy, in the first school-house in East Palmyra.
Their first edifice was built in East Palmyra in 1807. Their
first edifice in the village was built in 181 1 on the hill in
connection with the old cemetery. It is a pleasant fancy that
the gathering in of these churches from their dispersions and
planting themselves down so near each other, is. emblematical
of increase of kindly feeling and co-operation.
In connection with the growth of the churches, I cannot
forbear to mention one phase of moral progress. Stephen
Durfee used to say, " the first curse that entered Palmyra,
was whiskey ; it used to ruin many of the early settlers and
their sons." The early drinking usages were evil and only
evil. Everybody drank. The good people treated their minis
ter as others, only with a little finer sugar and a little smoother
liquor. Farmers carried whiskey into their fields, mechanics
into the shops. Cider flowed like water. Stephen Durfee
started the temperance ball in 181 1. Rev. Mr. Stockton en
tered the war against rum in 1825. Though there is still a
clandestine, back-door traffic and many a victim is bitten by
the serpent, yet the glistening decanters have come down from
the sideboard and the sparkling cup is banished from the
funeral, the wedding, New Year's calls and social entertain
ments. Joseph Smith, the apostle of the Latter Day Saints, came to
Palmyra from Sharon, Vermont, when ten years of age. When
fifteen years old he began to see visions. On the night of Sep
tember 21st, 1823, an Angel (?) ordained him to his great
work. September 22nd 1827, the Angel placed in his hands

34 THE CENTENNIAL AT PALMYRA.
the golden plates and the Urim and Thummim by which to
translate them. The house where the translation was com
pleted, the old press which struck off the pages are still with
us. But if the Mormon Prophet and the Hydesville ghosts
did hail from Palmyra, they did not stay here. If we must own
the deceivers, the deluded belong elsewhere.
The day we celebrate revives the remembrance of the fact
that the nation had its birth and baptism in blood. Search
the silent halls of our dead and you will find not a few me
morials of the Revolutionary heroes. Still more numerous are
the graves of those who fought in the war of 1812. Of the
boys in blue, not less than ninety names are engraved on the
two tablets of stone in our public hall and still deeper in all
our hearts. They offered themselves a free and living sacrifice
for the dear old flag. And while we live we will strew their
graves with flowers and with loyal affection pledge ourselves to
sustain the liberties they died to save.
In the series of eighty-six years since the first settlement of the
town, there has been a succession of valuable men in the legal,
medical and clerical professions. On these farms, in these stores,
shops, homes, a succession of men and women have con-
contributed to make Palmyra what it is. Yet the name and
work of each cannot be eliminated. But unpublished history
is not lost. Silent, unseen agencies live in their results. If
good be done, what matter if it be now unknown? The secret,
unseen rivulet is content to nourish the verdure that conceals
it from view. In the light of a clearer day, unwritten history
will be published, corrected, stereotyped. Present reputation
is ephemeral, character is eternal.