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HISTORY
Town of Spafford
Onondaga Historical
Association
Spafford
Onondaga County, New York
BY
Captain George Knapp Collins
1902
PUBLISHED BY
Onondaga Historical Association
DBHLER PRESS
1917
This work is dedicated in fiilial respect to the memory of
Dr. John Collins, the father of the Author, who practiced
his profession among the people whose names are recorded
in this record, for nearly twenty-five years, and whose living
descendants still hold his memory in grateful recollection,
after a lapse of forty-nine years since he ceased his labors
and went to rest among those who were his companions and
patrons in life.
\
CAPTAIN GEORGE K. COLLINS
INTRODUCTION
The town of SpafFord, one of the most picturesque in the
County of Onondaga, is about ten miles in length from north
to south, and about four miles in width from east to west.
Its surface consists of high ridge land bounded on the west
by Skaneateles Lake, and on the east by Otisco Lake and
Valley, descending abruptly on either side to these lakes
and valley, and gradually declining northerly from the
summit at Ripley Hill, situate near the southern boundary
of the town between this and the town of Scott, Cortland
County.
Ripley Hill is 1,122 feet above Skaneateles Lake, and
1,982 feet above tide water; and from it can be seen in fair
weather, not only lands in the towns of Skaneateles and
Marcellus, which bound the town on the north, but the sur-
rounding country for twenty to thirty miles distant.
Cold Brook, which flows to the south through a beautiful
valley bearing its name, and the Inlet to Otisco Lake, are
the principal streams; but beyond the fact of their per-
ennial character, and that they mark the course of two deep
and beautiful valleys, they are not worthy of mention.
The soil is a sandy gravelly loam, and in early times was
covered by a dense growth of maple, beech and linden trees
on the uplands, interspersed with hickory, chestnut, pine
and hemlock trees in the deep valleys, and especially along
the eastern border of Skaneateles Lake.
Spafford boasts of no valuable mineral products within
its borders, yet there is a weak spring of salt water, and
indications of the presence of natural gas along the western
shore of Otisco Lake. A spring of sulphur water exists
near Borodino on the eastern shore of Skaneateles Lake,
and an outcropping of the Hamilton group of limestone
appears at different places in the southern portion of the
town. None of these natural products, however, have been
developed or turned into practical use.
4 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
No earthworks or other marked indications of aboriginal
occupation of the lands in this town have been discovered,
yet tradition says that at one time there v/as an Indian
Encampment or settlement near Borodino, and different
Indian implements found in that vicinity, and burnt and
blackened soil discovered near that village indicates Indian
occupation at some remote period at that place. The dis-
tance between the two lakes is not very great, and an early
Indian trail from lake to lake ran through this locality,
rendering more than probable the truth of this tradition,
and that in aboriginal times these early peoples not only
had knowledge of these two beautiful lakes, but made abun-
dant use of the excellent fish with which they were so
bountifully supplied.
Town and County Organizations
The first white settler within the present limits of the
town of Spafford was Gilbert Palmer, who has been credited
with taking up his abode in the southwest part of lot 76,
Marcelliis, in the Spring: of 1794, but in the absence of this
statement made by Clark, in his history of the County of
Onondag-a published in 1849, which we assume was based
upon substantial grounds, we would put his occupation at
least one year earlier, as his deed from Thomas Ostrander,
the original soldier who drew this lot for services performed
by hini in the Revolution, is dated September 21st, 1792.
To our mind it is more than probable that his occupation
was earlier than the date given by Clark.
With the settlement of Gilbert Palmer begins the true
history of this town, yet we trust that a brief statement
of the early transactions affecting the town and county
organization will be interesting.
The first division of the Province of New York into
dependencies or shires was by a law passed by the " Chief
Commander, Council and Representatives" November 1,
1683, ratified by the " Board of Trade," October 17, 1684,
by which the present State of New York was divided into
twelve Counties : New York, Westchester, Ulster, Albany,
Dutchess, Orange, Richmond, Kings, Queens, Suffolk, Dukes
and Cornwall. The boundaries of the County of Albany
are described as follows : " The County of Albany to con-
teyne the town of Albany, the Manor of Renslaerwyck,
Schonechteda, and all the villages, neighborhoods and
Christian Plantacons on the east side of Hudson's River
from Roeloffe Jansens Creek; and on the west side from
Sawyers Creek to the utmost end of Sarraghtoga."
Owing to a change made in the government of the Prov-
ince of New York following the usurpation of Jacob Leister
as Colonial Governor, commonly called the Revolution of
1690, a law was passed by the "Governor, Council and
6 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
Assembly," October 1, 1691, in effect re-enacting the former
law of 1683, and at least so far as the County of Albany
was concerned the boundaries of that shire remained the
same. The boundaries of that county were not very
definite in either act, but subsequent statutes treated them
as covering a much larger area than a casual perusal of the
wording of these enactments would seem to warrant.
By an act passed March 12, 1772, by the " Governor,
Council and General Assembly " the County of Albany was
divided into three ocunties: Albany, Tryon and Charlotte.
The County of Tryon in substance is described as including
within its bounds all that part of the Province of New York
lying west of a line drawn north and south just west of the
Schoharie Patent.
Bj^ a separate act passed March 24, 1772, at the same
session by the " Colonial Governor, Council and General
Assembly " the county of Tryon was divided into five towns
or districts : Mohawk, Stone Arabia, Canajoxharie, German
Flatts and Kingsland. The latter was bounded in substance
as follows : On the north by the Mohawk River — on the
east by a north and south line dravinn through Little Falls,
— and on the south and west by the south and west colony
lines.
By an act of the Colonial Legislature passed March 8,
1773, the names of three of the towns or districts named
in the act of March 24, 1772, were changed as follows:
Stone Arabia district was changed to Palatine district;
German Flatts district was changed to Kingsland; and
Kingsland was changed to German Flatts district ; the latter
only affecting the territory included within the present
boundaries of the County of Onondaga. These are all the
enactments under the Colonial period making division of the
Province of New York affecting lands in the present County
of Onondaga.
The first Constitution of the State of New York, adopted
at Kingston, N. Y., April 20, 1777, during the progress of
the War of the American Revolution, recognized the exist-
ing counties of the State as follows: New York, Albany,
Dutchess, Westchester, Ulster, Suffolk, Queens , Orange,
Kings, Richmond, Tryon, Charlotte, Cumberland and Glou-
cester, fourteen in all ; the two latter are now a part of the
present State of Vermont.
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 7
By an act of the New York Legislature passed April 2,
1784, the name of the County of Tryon, a name that had
become odious by acts of the Tory Colonial Governor of
that name, was changed to Montgomery; and by a sub-
sequent act passed March 7, 1788, the boundaries of that
county were described as follows: "And the County of
Montgomery to contain all that part of the State bounded
easterly by the Counties of Ulster, Albany, Washington
(formerly Charlotte) and Clinton — southerly by the State
of Pennsylvaina — and westerly and northerly by the west
and north bounds of the State."
By an act of the same date the State was re-divided into
towns, and the town of Whitestown created, which con-
tained within its limits the whole of the Military Tract and
certain lands east thereof extending below Utica, and was
named in honor of Judge White, the first white settler in
the present village bearing his name, four miles west of
the City of Utica.
On February 16, 1791, an act was passed dividing the
County of Montgomery into four counties: Tioga, Otsego,
Montgomery and Herkimer; the western part of the State
having been previously taken from Montgomery and created
into a separate county called Ontario. The County of
Herkimer in this division was briefly described as follows :
On the east by the Counties of Clinton, Washington and
Saratoga — on the south by Montgomery and Tioga — on the
west by Ontario — and on the north by the north bounds
of the State.
The next year, April 10, 1792, Whitestown was divided
and a new town created called Mexico, which included
within its limits all of the Military Tract lying east of the
west bounds of the townships of Homer, Tully, Marcellus,
Camillus and Hannibal.
On the 5th day of March, 1794, an act of the Legislature
was passed creating the County of Onondaga from the
County of Herkimer. It was made co-extensive with the
Military Tract, and was divided into eleven civil towns:
Homer, Pompey, Manlius, Lysander, Marcellus, Ulysses,
Milton, Scipio, Aurelius, Ovid and Romulus. The town of
Pompey was described as follows: "All that part of said
County comprehending the townships of Pompey, Tully and
Fabius, together with that part of the lands called the
B ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
Onondaga Reservation bounded northerly by the road called
the Genesee Road, and westerly by the Onondaga Creek " ;
and the town of Marcellus was described as : "All that part
of said county comprehending the townships of Camillus
and Marcellus, together with all the residue of the Onon-
daga Reservation, and the residue of the several lands lying
south west of the said Salt Lake."
From time to time thereafter, by several acts of the
Legislature, the County of Onondaga as then created was
subdivided, and other counties taken therefrom until it
was finally cut down to its present limits, but without
change of the county organization so far as its present
territory is concerned.
On the 7th day of April, 1801, the County of Onondaga,
as then diminished in size, was re-divided into eight civil
towns: Solon, Homer, Fabius, Onondaga, Pompey, Manlius,
Lysander, Camillus and Marcellus. The town of Fabius
contained within its limits the townships of Fabius and
Tully, and all that part of the township of Semphronius
lying east of Skaneateles Lake; and the town of Marcellus
was reduced in size to the limits of the township of that
name.
On the 4th day of April, 1803, the civil toA\Ti of Fabius,
and all that part of the township of Tully within the County
of Onondaga, and all that part of Semphronius east of
Skaneateles Lake, was created a civil town called Tully.
By an act of the Legislature passed April 8, 1811, a new
town was created as follows : " That from and after the
first Tuesday in April next all that part of the town of
Tully lying west of a line beginning at the north west
comer of Lot No. 25, and running south to the south line
of said town, be and hereby is erected into a separate town
by the name of Spafford." The name of this town was
given in honor of Hon. Horatio Gates Spafford, the author
of the first Gazetteer of the State of New York. At this
point it seems proper to state that Mr. Spafford, in return
for the compliment paid him, donated to the town its first
blank book for the preservation of its records, and also
a fair sized library for the use of its inhabitants; the record
book is still preserved in the custody of the Town Clerk,
but the library has long since been scattered and lost.
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK q
The town of Otisco was created prior to the town of
Spafford and in part was taken from Tully.
Since 1811 several changes have been made in the
northern boundary of the town of Spafford, by adding to
and taking from the town territory originally from the
township of Marcellus. These changes occurred from 1830
to 1842 inclusive, and during that period the people of this
and the adjoining towTis of Marcellus and Skaneateles,
were greatly exercised and excited over the territorial
question.
In the year 1830 the town of Skaneateles was formed
from the western part of the town of Marcellus, and in
the same act, "All that part of the town of Marcellus lying
south and east of a line beginning on the north line of
Lot No. 71 at the north west corner of the town of Otisco
and running down the center of the Outlet of Otisco Lake
to the north line of Lot No. 62 ; thence west on the north
line of Lots Nos. 61, 62 and 60; thence in a straight line
west across Lot No. 59 to the center of Skaneateles Lake ;
thence southerly along the center of said lake to the south
line of Marcellus, shall be annexed to and form a part of
the town of Spafford."
This act engendered much bitter feeling among certain
influential citizens residing within the limits of that part
of the town of Marcellus, thus summarily set off to the
to\\Ti of Spafford; and the various town meetings there-
after were flooded with resolutions to be offered for pas-
sage in the different sessions of the Legislature; and the
latter body was importuned and petitioned from time to
time by the discontents to be restored to the town of Mar-
cellus or set off to the town of Skaneateles.
The town books show a continuous and apparently
acrimonious strife which resulted in the passage of the
act of March 18th, 1840, setting off to the towns of Mar-
cellus and Skaneateles all that part of the town of Spafford
lying north of the south Hnes of Lots Nos. 69, 70 and 71,
Marcellus.
This act, if anj^thing, created more dissatisfaction than
the prior one; so on March 30th, 1842, the Legislature
passed an act compromising the matter by which Lots 70,
71, 68 and 69, Marcellus, were re-annexed to the town of
Spafford. This seemed to give full satisfaction, and the
10 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
bounds of the tovm. have remained the same ever since,
and from that time forward there has been no change in
town or county organization affecting the town of Spafford.
It will be noticed that the act of 1830, above referred
to, fixes the western boundary of that portion of the town
taken from Marcellus as the center of Skaneateles Lake,
a fact which would have been the case by law in the absence
of anything said on the subject; but the reader's attention
is also called to the notable exception to this rule of law
and custom make by the Revised Statutes of the State of
New York as to the other portion of the town.
By these statutes the western boundary of this portion
of the County of Onondaga, and by operation of the law
the western boundary of the Tully end of the town of
Spafford, is along the westerly shore of Skaneateles Lake.
The Revised Statutes on this subject reads as follows:
" from a point in the south bounds of the township of
Marcellus southward along the westerly shore of Skanea-
teles Lake until it strikes the west boundary of the county
of Cortland, and thence northerly and easterly along the
latter county lines, &c." These are facts not only of in-
terest to the general reader, but of great importance as
affecting jurisdiction in civil and criminal proceedings.
MILITARY TRACT.
During the period of the American Revolution the mili-
tary forces of the Colony of New York were divided into
four classes: The Militia, Minute Men, The Levies, and
The Line.
The Militia, included all able bodied men residing within
the Colony who were between the ages of sixteen and
sixty, not specifically exempt by law.
Minute Men, were taken from the Militia by allotment
or volunteering, and were specially drilled, equipped and
kept in readiness for any emergency. This organization,
formed under a resolution of the Provincial Congress of
this Colony August 22, 1775, was discontinued about a
year afterwards by a like resolution adopted June 5, 1776.
The Levies, were drafts from the Militia, called into
service on special occasions, and could be required to per-
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK H
form duty during the entire period of their enlistment
outside the Colony.
The Line, consisted of four regiments of Infantry, to
which were sometimes attached a company of cavalry, a
regiment of Artillery, and a corps of Sappers and Miners.
These were turned over to the General Government as a
part of the Continental Establishment, and were subject
to the orders of General George Washington.
Every member of these several forces was by law re-
quired to keep himself fully armed and equipped, and as
the people of this Colony had always been surrounded by
wild beasts, and the still more treacherous and sometimes
hostile bands of American Indians, most of the men com-
posing these forces were accustomed to handling fire arms
and were expert marksmen in the use of the same. What
was most needed to fit these men for efl^icient soldiers was
military training and such discipline as would render them
obedient to orders of their superior officers; this took
much time and instruction to accomplish.
The Line was organized by enlistment from the Militia
in 1775 and turned over to the Continental Establishment,
and as the term of service of these men was at first so
short, sometimes for only a few months and never to exceed
a year, the efficiency of this branch of service was poor
in comparison with the trained soldiers employed in the
British Army, against whom they were to contend.
The superiority of their marksmanship was not always
an offset for the superior discipline of the enemy. This
early became apparent, and on September 30th, 1776, a
letter was received by the Provincial Congress of this
Colony from John Hancock, President of the Continental
Congress, enclosing resolutions of that body. In that letter
he says : " You will perceive by the enclosed resolutions,
that Congress has come to the determination to augment
our Army and to engage troops to serve during the con-
tinuance of the war. The many ill consequences arising
from a short and limited enlistment of troops are too
obvious to be mentioned. In general, give me leave to
observe, that to make men acquainted with the duties of
a soldier requires time, and to bring them under proper
subordination and discipline not only requires time, but
has always been a work of much difficulty."
12
ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
"As the troops now in service belong to the several
States they will be considered as a part of their quota in
the American Army, You will please take such steps as
you judge necessary to ascertain what number of troops,
as well as what officers, will engage to serve during the
The following are a part of the resolutions referred to.
VIZ
" Congress, Sept. 16, 1776," Resolved, That eighty eight
battalions be enlisted as soon as possible to serve during
the present war, and that each state furnish their respec-
tive quotas in the following proportions, viz. :
Nevv^ Hampshire
Massachusetts Baj^
Rhode Island
Connecticut
New York
New Jersey
Pennsylvania
Delaware
MarjT^land
Virginia
North Carolina
South Carolina
Georgia
3 Battalions
15 Battalions
2 Battalions
8 Battalions
4 Battalions
4 Battalions
12 Battalions
1 Battalion
8 Battalions
15 Battalions
9 Battalions
6 Battalions
1 Battalion
" That twenty dollars be given as a bounty to each-non-
commissioned officer and private soldier who shall enlist
to serve during the present war, unless sooner discharged
by Congress.
" That Congress make provision for granting lands in
the following proportions, to the officers and soldiers who
shall engage in the service and continue therein to the
close of the war, or until discharged by Congress, and
representatives of such officers and soldiers as shall be
slain by the enemy. Such lands to be provided by the
United States, and whatever expense shall be necessary to
provide such lands, the said expense shall be paid and borne
by the States in the same proportion as other expenses of
the war, viz :
To a Colonel 500 acres.
To a Lieut. Colonel 450 acres.
To a Major 400 acres.
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 13
To a Captain 300 acres.
To a Lieutenant 200 acres.
To an Ensign 150 acres.
To each Non Commissioned
Officer and Soldier 100 acres."
By a subsequent act of Congress passed August 12th,
1780, there was given " To a Major General 1100 acres, and
to a Brig. General 850 Acres."
In pursuance of this generous offer of the General Gov-
ernment many officers and men then in the Line from this
Colony re-enlisted, and some of those entering this service
afterwards enlisted for the war; so when peace was de-
clared there were many who had been members of the
Continental Army for periods ranging from four to seven
years. The First and Second Infantry, under Colonels
Goose Van Schaick and Philip Van Cortland, Col. John
Lamb's Artillery regiment and the Corps of Sappers and
Miners, had a more continuous service than other Con-
tinental organizations from this Colony, and eventually had
within their ranks a large proportion of these long term
service men, and even some of those who had originally
entered the service in other Continental organizations. By
reason of this fact, and the expressed intention of these
organizations to remain on frontier duty for the further
period of three years, in pursuance of the resolutions of
the Provincial Congress adopted March 20, 1871, the
Legislature of the State of New York March 27, 1783,
enacted, after reciting the resolutions of the Continental
Congress above quoted from, as follows:
" Whereas the Legislature of the State are willing not
only to take upon themselves to discharge the said engage-
ments of Congress so far as it relates to -the Line of this
State, but likewise as a gratuity to the said Line and to
evince the just sense this Legislature entertains of the
patriotism and virtue of the troops of this State serving
in the army of the United States :
" Resolved, Therefore that besides the bounty of land
as promised as aforesaid, this legislature will by law pro-
vide that Major Generals and Brigadier Generals now
serving in the Line of the Army of the United States and
being citizens of this State, and officers and non-commis-
sioned officers and privates of the two regiments of in-
14 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
fantry commanded by Colonels Van Schaick and Van Cort-
land, such officers of the regiment of Artillery commanded
by Colonel Lamb and of the Corps of Sappers and Miners
as were when they entered the service inhabitants of this
State, such of the non-commissioned officers and privates
of said last mentioned corps as are credited to this State
as part of the troops thereof, all officers designated by
Congress subsequent to the 16th of September, 1776, shall
have severally granted to them the following quantities of
land, to wit:
To a Major General 5500 acres.
To a Brig. General 4250 acres.
To a Colonel 2500 acres.
To a Lieut. Colonel 2250 acres.
To a Major 2000 acres.
To a Captain and Regimental
Surgeon each 1500 acres.
To every Subaltern and
Surgeon's Mate 1000 acres.
To every Non-Commissioned
Officer and Soldier 500 acres."
Owing to the delay incident to the extinguishment of
the Indian title, by Treaty, to the lands desired for distri-
bution under this act, and also the time required to survey
and plot the same when acquired, the lands eventually under
the act of 1783 were not ballotted for and patents issued
until July, 1790. In the meantime the soldiers entitled to
these bounty lands became disheartened, discouraged, and
an easy prey to speculators, who obtained the warrants for
most of these claims for a trifle compared with their true
value. Only one soldier receiving bounty lands under the
act of 1783 settled on the lands patented to him in the
town of Spafford, viz: Henry Wentworth (Winford), Lot
77, Marcellus; and he remained only a few years until he
had sold his possessions in parcels to actual settlers.
The Military Tract, as first laid out, consisted of twenty
five townships of one hundred lots of a mile square each,
and its boundaries were the same as that of the County of
Onondaga when first organized under the act of 1794. The
lines of lots were drawn east and west and north and south
and contained within their limits 640 acres of land; 100
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 15
acres in lieu of that given by the United States, 500 acres
by the State of New York, and 40 acres for roads.
If the soldier released his claim against the United
States he received a patent for the whole lot, otherwise
one hundred acres in the south east corner of the lot was
reserved, hence came the name : " State's Hundred." The
charge of the Government for surveying a lot was forty
eight shillings; if this was not paid by the patentee fifty
acres was also reserved, known as " Survey Fifty," this
could be taken from either corner of the lot excepting the
south east. Two lots in each township were reserved for
the propagation of the Gospel, and for Schools, and the
amount received from_ the sale of them was devoted to these
purposes.
A statement of the services performed by the soldiers
who drew lots in the to\\Ti of SpafFord is worthy of mention,
but space precludes any recital other than the following,
in reference to the recipients of bounty lands in this town :
NAMES OF SOLDIERS DRAWING BOUNTY LANDS
IN SPAFFORD.
Township of Tully.
Lot 1 Pr. Joseph Sevey, 2nd Co. 1st Regt. Inft.
Col. Goose Van Schaick 600 acres.
Lot 2 Pr. Joseph Ball, 2nd Regt. Inft., Col.
Philip Van Cortland 500 acres.
Lot 11 Fifer John Cheery, 2nd Regt. Inft., Col.
Philip Van Cortland 600 acres.
Lot 12 Sergt. Benjamin Lawrence, 2nd Regt.
Inft., Col. Philip Van Cortland 600 acres
Lot 12 Gospel and Schools 600 acres.
Lot 21 Surgeon Caleb Sweet, 1st Regt. Inft.,
Col. Goose Van Schaick 500 acres.
Lot 22 Pr. Richard Whalling, 1st Regt. Inft.,
Col. Goose Van Schaick 600 acres.
Lot 23 Matross George Allen, 1st Regt. Art.,
Col. John Lamb 600 acres.
Lot 24 Capt. Abraham Livingston, 1st Regt.
Inft., Col. James Livingston 600 acres.
Lot 31 Gospel and Schools 600 acres.
/
16 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
Lot 32 Pr. John Pierson, Regt. Inf., Gen.
Moses Hazen's Congress Own 500 acres.
Lot 33 Capt. John C. Ten Broeck, 1st Regt. Inft.,
Col. Goose Van Schaick 600 acres.
Lot 34 Pr. Shorter Smith, 2nd Regt. Inft., Col.
Peter Van Cortland 600 acres.
Lot 41 Pr. John Frederick, 1st Regt. Inf., Col.
Goose Van Schaick 600 acres.
Lot 42 Sergt. Elias Wilcox, 1st Regt. Art., Col.
John Lamb 500 acres.
Lot 42 Corp. Joseph Smith, 2nd Regt. Inft., Col.
Philip Van Cortland 500 acres.
Lot 44 Pr. Nathaniel Brock, Regt. Inft, Col.
James Livingston 500 acres.
Township of Sempronius.
Lot 10 Major Nicholas Fish, 2nd Regt. Inft.,
Col. Philip Van Cortland 600 acres.
Lot 11 Pr. Aaron DeWitt, 1st Regt. Inft., Col.
Goose Van Schaick 450 acres.
Lot 12 Pr. Daniel Ogden, 1st Regt. Inft., Col.
Goose Van Schaick 600 acres.
Lot 13 Corp, Solomon Barnes, 1st Regt. Agt.,
Col. John Lamb 600 acres.
Lot 14 Pr. John Tucker, 4th Regt. Inft., Col.
Fred Weissenfels 500 acres.
Lot 21 Pr. John Wyatt, 1st Regt. Inft., Col.
Goose Van Schaick 600 acres.
Lot 23 Pr. Samuel Wheeler, 2nd Regt. Inft., Col.
Philip Van Cortland 600 acres.
Lot 23 Corp. Cornelius Ammerman, 2nd Regt.
Inft., Col. Philip Van Cortland 500 acres.
Township of Marcellus.
Lot 68 Surgeon Ebenezer Haveland, 2nd Regt.
Inft., Col. Philip Van Cortland 500 acres.
Lot 69 Sergt. Daniel Ludlam, 2nd Regt. Inft.,
Col. Philip Van Cortland _ 500 acres.
Lot 70 Sergt. and Matross Elijah Pierce, 1st
Reft-t. Art., Col. John Lamb 600 acres.
Lot 71 Pr. Burdice Campbell, 1st Regt. Inft,
Col. Goose Van Schaick _ 500 acres.
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 17
Lot 74 Gunner Frederick Dayton, 1st Regt. Agt.,
Col. John Lamb 600 acres.
Lot 75 Fifer John Factor, 2nd Regt. Inf., Col.
Philip Van Cortland 600 acres.
Lot 76 Second Lieutenant Thomas Ostrander,
3rd Regt. Inft., Col. Peter Gansevoort 500 acres.
Lot 77 Fifer Henry Winford, 1st Regt. Inf., Col.
Goose Van Schaick 500 acres.
Lot 88 Pr. Philip Fields, 2nd Regt. Inft., Col.
Philip Van Cortland 500 acres.
Lot 89 Pr. Frederick Wybert, 1st Regt. Inft.,
Col. Goose Van Schaick 500 acres.
Lot 90 Sergt. Philip Steves, 2nd Regt. Inft., Col.
Philip Van Cortland 600 acres.
Lot 91 Capt. Peter L, Vosburgh, Regt. Inft.,
Col. James Livingston 600 acres.
Lot 96 Fifer Henry Davis, 1st Regt. Art., Col.
John Lamb 600 acres.
FIRST SETTLERS.
Under the law granting bounty land to soldiers a settle-
ment had to be made on the land within a limited period
subsequent to the date of the patent. As a majority of the
claims had been assigned by the soldiers to speculators
residing along the Hudson River, who had no intention of
making a settlement themselves, when the patents were
issued the lands were offered for sale in large quantities
and sold to purchasers at prices much below their true
value. The consequence was that m^any persons residing
east of the Hudson River in Washington, Saratoga, Van
Rensselaer, Colum.bia and Westchester Counties, came to
this town for settlement within a few years after the date
of the Patents in July, 1790. The first settlers, however,
were not confined to the river counties in this State, many
coming direct from Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachu-
setts, New Hampshire and Vermont; they were all, how-
ever, with very few exceptions, of New England origin.
GILBERT PALMER AND HIS SON JOHN.
The first settler within the present limits of this town
18 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
was Gilbert Palmer, who came from Amawalk, Westchester
County, New York. Mr. Joshua V. H. Clark, in his excel-
lent history of the County of Onondaga, says he came in
the Fall of 1794 and settled on Lot 76, Marcellus. He also
says he served for this lot in the War of the Revolution,
but as to this we know Mr. Clark is incorrect, as his deed,
which is dated September 21, 1792, is from Lieutenant
Thomas Ostrander, the soldier who drew this lot for serv-
ices which he performed in the New York Line, during
that war. Mr. Palmer did not purchase the State's Hun-
dred Acres on that lot, as it was excepted from the deed.
It is presumed from the fact that Mr. Palmer is not joined
by a wife, in any of his seven or eight conveyances made
from his original purchase, that he was a widower during
his residence in this town.
Mr. Clark relates the following pathetic incident in re-
ference to Mr. Palmer and his son John :
" In the Fall of the year 1794, soon after his arrival,
Mr. Palmer and his son, a youth of some sixteen years of
age, went into the woods chopping for the purpose of
making a clearing. Some time in the afternoon they felled
a tree, and as it struck the ground it bounded, swung
around and caught the young man under it. The father
at once mounted the log, cut it off, rolled it over and liber-
ated the son. Upon examination one of his lower limbs
was found to be badly crushed and mangled. He there-
upon carried the youth to his log hut close at hand, and
with all possible diligence made haste to his nearest neigh-
bors, some three or four miles distant, desiring them to
go and minister to his son's necessities, while he should
go to Whitestown for Dr. White. The neighbors sallied
forth with such comfortable things as they thought might
be acceptable in such a case ; but amidst the confusion, the
dense forest and the darkness of the night which had just
set in, they missed the way; and after wandering about
for a long time gave over pursuit and returned home, leav-
ing the poor sufferer alone to his fate. Early the next
morning all hands again rallied, and in due time found
the young man suffering the most extreme anguish from
his mangled limb, and greatly benumbed with cold. They
built a fire, made him comfortable with such palliatives
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 19
as could be procured in the wilderness, and waited in
patience for the return of the parent.
** In the meantime he had proceeded rapidly on his
journey on foot and found Dr. White at Clinton, N. Y.
Here he engaged an Oneida Indian to pilot them through
the woods, by a nearer route than to follow the windings
of the old road. Dr. White and Mr. Palmer were at sundry
times fearful the Indian would lose the way, but upon
every expression of doubt on their part the Indian would
exclaim ' Me know,' and told them he would bring them
out at a certain log, which lay across the Outlet at the foot
of Otisco Lake. The Indian took the lead and within
forty-eight hours after the accident had happened the
Indian brought them exactly to the log, exclaiming tri-
umphantly, 'Me know.' Here Mr. Palmer arrived upon
familiar ground, and at once proceeded to the cabin where
he had left his son, whom they found greatly prostrated,
and writhing under the most intense suffering. No time
was lost. The case was thought desperate, the limb was
amputated at once half way from the knee to the thigh."
The youth recovered and lived many years afterwards.
He became a tailor, and Hon Sidney Smith said, " I re-
member him very well, going about his duties with his
wooden leg." In a deed dated August 21, 1797, given by
Gilbert Palmer to John Palmer, the latter is described by
the grantor as, " My son," and the latter is described as
then a resident of Westchester County, indicating that after
his terrible accident with the falling tree, related by Clark,
he must have returned to his old home in Amawalk, to
grow up, recover his strength, and possibly learn the trade
of a tailor, afterwards pursued by him while a resident
of this town,
Gilbei-t Palmer's last sale of land on Lot 76 was January
9, 1815, and the last sale of land on the same lot by John
Palmer was September 28, 1814. About the latter date
the two Palmers moved into the village of Borodino, where
the son carried on a tailor shop. In the year 1819 father
and son moved to Hannibal, Oswego County, New York,
where the former is supposed to have died. In John
Palmer's last deed dated July 2, 1819, he is joined by his
wife Rachel, whom he probably married after 1814.
Mr. Gilbert Palmer has always been credited with being
20 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
a soldier of the American Revolution, and probably was
such, as a Gilbert Palmer served for a short tour of duty
in a Militia organization both in this State and in the
State of Connecticut, the latter being- the home of a prolific
and influential branch of the Palmer family.
NAMES OF OTHER FIRST SETTLERS.
The next settler in to^vn was undoubtedly Samuel Conk-
lin, who came in 1796 and purchased a farm of one hundred
nine acres of Gilbert Palmer, situate in the north west
corner of Lot 76, Marcellus. Mr. Conldin is credited with
having erected the first frame dwelling house in town,
which was built in 1807, near the north west corner of
Lot 76, Marcellus.
Mr. Conklin was followed, a few months afterwards, by
Henry Winford (or Wentwoii;h), the only soldier who
settled on a lot in this town for which he served; he came
in the Spring of 1797, and settled on lot 77, Marcellus. We
have no knowledge of him after May, 1809, the date of his
last deed, which was to John Campbell, who was probably
then a resident on said lot 77, Marcellus.
James Kirkum, from Fredericksburg, Dutchess County,
New York, settled on lot 77, Marcellus, in the Fall of 1797
or Spring of 1798, but of him we know nothing more after
September 8, 1801, at which time he sold out to Justus
Blakely, then an owner of land and probably a resident on
said lot since June 11, 1799. These are all of whom we have
any knowledge who became settlers in to"wn before 1800.
It is very difficult to tell just when the different persons
classed as first settlers took up their abode here, by reason
of the prevalent custom among them of going into occupa-
tion of the land under a contract, and a deed following
later, with a date several years posterior to the time of
their reputed claim of settlement. Nevertheless the dates
given in the following statement are believed to be reason-
ably accurate and trustworthy, notwithstanding some of the
dates may differ from those that have been published on
the subject.
According to recorded deeds the northern end of the
town led in the matter of settlement, both before and after
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 21
the year 1800. Principally from the same source of in-
formation it appears Elias Harmon and Zadock Randall
settled on lot 77 or 76, Marcellus, Medad Harvey, William
Collins and Gershom Hall on lot 75, Marcellus, and Eben-
ezer Taylor and Nicholas Otis on lot 90, Marcellus, in
the year 1801 ; John C. Hillebert on lot 89, Marcellus, Jesse
Peck on lot 90, Marcellus, David Smith on lot 77, Marcellus,
Valentine and James Rathbone, Jeremiah Van Benschoten
and Jason Gleason on lot 74, Marcellus, and Benjamin
Chaffee on lot 69, Marcellus, in the year 1802 ; Edward Bur-
gess and Lemuel Smith on lot 77, Marcellus, and Warren
and John Kneeland on lot 74, Marcellus, in the year 1803.
All these, with perhaps the addition of Daniel Tinkham on
lot 89, Marcellus, who is reputed to have settled there in
1802, although his deed is dated in 1804, were made before
any one had broken silence in the Tully end of the town,
unless it be with the single exception made in favor of
Jonathan Berry, who is claimed to have settled on lot 12,
Sempronius, in the year 1803. Although Mr. Berry's first
residence was just over the southern line of Marcellus, in
the Tully end of the town, yet all his business and social
relations were with the people residing in the vicinity of
Borodino.
In the year 1804, Nathan Howard, from Stephentown,
N. Y., settled on Lot 74, Marcellus, Samuel Tyler, Asa Chap-
man, Alvah Smith and Joseph Enos on Lot 69, Marcellus,
Avery and Asa Mason and Nathan Parce on Lot 68, Mar-
cellus, Benjamin Sweet from Brutus, N. Y., on Lot 76,
Marcellus, and Jabish and Luther Hall and Samuel Maclure
on Lot 75, Marcellus.
In the year 1805 Isaac Hall made his first appearance
at Spafford Corners, and settled on the States 'Hundred
Acres on Lot 21, Tully; he probably should be called the
first settler in the southern or Tully end of the town. Mr.
Berry, as suggested above, should be classed with the
Northern or Marcellus settlers, with whom he soon after
and in 1810, became in fact as well as by association a part.
During this same year James Cravath also settled on Lot
21, Tully, (near where Joseph Cole resides in 1900), and
the name of Amos Miner, the well known inventor and
wheelwright, who settled on Lot 68, Marcellus, was added
to the northern settlers in to^vn.
22 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
The year 1806 witnessed the following additions to the
list of settlers, distributed as below : John Hunt and James
Fitzgerald, Lot 70, Marcellus, Levi Appleby Lot 89, Mar-
cellus, Gideon Colton from Whitestown, N. Y., Lot 10,
Sempronius, Job Smith from Greenfield, N. Y., Lot 74,
Marcellus, Peter Knapp, from Brutus, N. Y. on Lot 42,
Tully, John Babcock, the first Supervisor of the town, on
Lot 21, Tully, and Dr. Archibald Farr on Lot 11, Tully.
(Tradition says Dr. Farr came in 1803, see subsequent
statement of him.)
From this time forward settlers came in quick succes-
sion, and distributed themselves over the town in both its
northern and southern extremities; among whom were the
following: Asahel Roundy, Samuel Seeley, Charles Whaley,
Joshua B. Bearse, Warren Baldwin, Alexander M. Beebe,
Joseph Humphrey, Cyrel Johnson, James Cornell, James
Hiscock, Oliver Hyde, Ebenezer Lewis, Benjamin Eggle-
stone, Joseph Baldwin, Benjamin Stanton, Joseph Bulfinch,
Moses and Joseph Prindle, Psalter Pullman, James Wood-
worth, Elias Davis, Joseph and Job L. Lewis, Silas Cox,
Aaron Bearse, Daniel and Edward Baxter, Messer Barker,
Daniel Scranton, Asa Ferry, Thomas Whiting, James
Wightman, Pardon Cornell, James McCausey, John Gould,
Benjamin Homer, James Avery, Jonathan Ripley, Elisha
Sabin, John Rainey, Shadrack, Daniel and Uriah Roundy,
Joel Palmer, Amos Palmer, John and Elihu Babcock, Bena-
jah Cleveland, Horace Pease, Ruluf Barber, Rathbone
Barber, Rathbone Barber, Jr., Thompson Burdick, David
Carver, James Williamson, William Bacon, Amos Bacon,
Isaac Town, Luke Miner, William O'Farrell, William D.
Cornell, Robert K. Kidney, Alpheus Winchester, Eleazer
Hillebert, William Strong, Samuel H. Yates, Loami W.
Johnson, Timothy Mills, Silas and Stephen Randall, Robert
Almey, Alexander Streeter, Truman Hinman, Jesse Manley,
Dr. Benjamin Trumbull, Stephen Crane, William Dedrick,
Amasa Kneeland, Dr. Jeremiah B. Whiting, Col. Phineas
and John Hutchens, Edwin S. Edwards, Augustin McKay,
Calvin Patterson, Daniel Wallace, Sr. and Jr., Samuel
Holmes, Peter Churchell, Abiathar Melvin, Amos Fisher,
Christopher Green, Osmer Orton, John and Samuel Gale,
Timothy Owen, Dr. John Collins and many others, which,
CAPTAIN ASAHEL ROUNDY
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 23
for greater particularity, the reader is referred to the
second part of this work.
These men, as has been said before, were nearly all of
New England origin, mostly from Rhode Island, Connecti-
cut, Massachusetts, and Vermont, although a large pro-
portion of them came to this town from the counties in this
State east of the Hudson River, where they had made a
temporary sojourn prior to coming here. Perhaps the
County of Washington, north of Albany, contributed in
numbers as generously as any to these early settlers. They
were an energetic, God fearing, well informed and indus-
trious people; among whom were many remarkable men,
who have left an indelible impression upon the character of
the people of this town; and some of their descendants
have gone forth and made an honorable record for them-
selves in the several communities in which they have
resided. Of some of these we have given a more or less
extended account in the second part of this work, and will
not repeat here. We deeply regret, however, our inability
to do justice to all owing to want of further information
on the subject. Social life among the early settlers in this
town was much the same as in all other communities
settled by New England people, much that was good in it
and very little that vv^as evil ; and yet there was a humorous
side to it as well as a serious one. We trust the following
anecdotes will not detract from the general high social
character of these settlers, nor be unacceptable to the
reader.
CAPTAIN ASAHEL ROUNDY.
Captain Asahel Roundy, whose family genealogy appears
in the second part of this work, came to Spafford on horse-
back from Rockingham, Vt., in 1807. His father, Uriah
Roundy, died in 1813 at the latter place, and soon after his
mother and brothers and sisters followed him from the old
home in Vermont and took up residences about him in this
town, from whence in after years they were scattered to
different parts of the Great West. Mr. Roundy obtained
his rank of Captain from the State of New York, he having
commanded a Company from this town in the 96th Militia
from this State in the War of 1812; that regiment having
done a short tour of duty in the Fall of 1814 in the vicinity
24 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
of Sackett's Harbor, New York. In this service Phineas
Hutchens was his Lieutenant. At the time of receiving
orders for this service Captain Roundy was at Onondaga
Hill, attending- a meeting- of the Board of Supervisors of
Onondaga Countj'', of which he was a member, and at once
communicated the order to his subordinate, Lieutenant
Hutchens, who Avarned out the Company, came on to Onon-
daga Valley, and was there joined by Captain Roundy.
The Company was absent from home under his command
for about a month and was then discharged at Smith's Mills,
New York, November 22nd, 1814. Captain Roundy in-
herited his military instincts from a patriotic ancestry ; his
father, his grandfather, and three of his uncles did military
service in the American Revolution.
The general character of the early settlers of this town
is well illustrated by the following anecdotes told of Captain
Roundy, in a recent publication from which we copy:
" During the early history of the County of Onondaga
a large share of the litigation was in Justice Courts in the
different towns, and not in the higher Courts at the County
seat, as at the present day. On such occasions the best
talent in the county was employed, and every one suspended
work to be present at the law suit. At such times Captain
Roundy was frequeently called upon to try one side or the
other of these cases, and Hon. Daniel Gott, who in olden
times was considered one of the strongest trial lav/yers in
the county, paid Captain Roundy the compliment of being
one of the strongest advocates before a jury of any man
he ever met. There were several remarkable men among
the early pioneers of this town, but it is no disparagement
of any of them to say that he was the most remarkable of
them all. He was six feet tall, well proportioned, a perfect
athlete, and an adept in all the sports participated in by the
men of those times. His education was acquired only in
the common school, but he had a remarkably retentive
memory, and his mind was well stored with valuable infor-
mation including much poetry and song, all of which he was
able to command and use to advantage, both in public speech
and in private conversation. He was a man physically and
mentally well equipped.
" The first settler at what is now known as Randall's
Point or SpafFord Landing, on Skaneateles Lake, came to
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW Yi).::: 29
Spafford early, while the country was then a wilderness,
and undertook to build a log house at that place. In doing
so he broke his leg, by a log rolling upon him. Captain
Roundy, finding him in this condition, and no help being at
hand, took him upon his back and bore him through the
woods up an almost vertical pathway for a mile and a half
to his house, where he was cared for until his recovery.
" Captain Roundy at an early date purchased lands in
the eastern part of the town, and laid out and built the road
known as the Bucktail. Any one who has ever passed over
this road will be likely to remember that its ruggedness is
equal to its picturesqueness, which is saying a good deal.
In early times this road has been and is now a subject of
jest. At that time the two principal political parties in
this State were known as Bucktails and Clintonians. Of
the former he was at that time a prominent member, so
much so that the people dabbed the road the " Bucktail,"
in recognition of that fact, and it has borne the name until
the present time.
" At an early time one or two burials had been made in
what is knov,qi as the Spafford Cemetery, east of the Cor-
ners, which was then open pasture land. One day a
funeral party came there with a corpse for burial, and the
man who owned the land refused to let the interment take
place, whereupon as usual in such cases, an appeal was
made to Captain Roundy, who went to the owner and bought
and paid for the original land, (one acre) which forms a
part of this Cemetery, and the title to the same rests in his
name, or that of his descendants to this day.
" Before 1831 it was common to imprison people for debt.
On one occasion a man living on the main road in the
southern part of the town was in debt. He was abusive
and resisted arrest. For a long time he kept himself con-
cealed and locked indoors. He kept out of the way of the
officers, as they were not permitted to break down doors
to make such arrests. The officer went to Captain Roundy,
and he undertook to assist him in making service. It
was Winter tim.e. He got a two horse rig, put on all the
bells he could find, and in the middle of the night drove
down to within half a mile of the man's house, got out, and
taking two bundles of straw under his arm, walked down
to the north end of the house, which had no windows in it^
26 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
the only door of admittance being on the east side, near the
northeast comer of the house. Arriving at the place he
set fire to the straw, whereupon the man with the bells and
horses drove at a furious rate, yelling " Fire," which
brought the man to the door in his night dress, where he
was met by Captain Roundy, who took him gently in his
arms and turned him over to the officer.
" At an early date Captain Roundy built a sawmill, on
the upper falls of the stream near the Bucktail road, with
a flume running over the precipice, and subsequently built
a carding mill a little higher up stream. About this time
a supposed distant relative of his came to town and claimed
to have knowledge of carding, fulling and making cloth.
He put him in charge of the mill. After he had been in
possession for a time, Captain Roundy thought it time to
go over and investigate, and count up the profits of his
venture. To his mute astonishment he found the building
entirely empty and his carding machinery carried away.
This he subsequently found hid under a straw stack near
the Village of Cardiff.
" At one time a log house stood on the village green, now
existing at the Corners, between the two churches. A
woman living in this house, after a time, was discovered to
have won the affections and regard of a neighboring
woman's husband, with whom she agreed to elope. On the
night fixed for this episode to take place, there was a gath-
ering of men on horseback in a distant part of the town,
and after the elopers had gotten a mile or so on their
journey, they were overtaken by this cavalcade and escorted
to Borodino. After a short stop they were persuaded to
return ; the man after making over his property to his wife,
was permitted to go away with his new found charmer
undisturbed.
" At an early date a dilapidated old house stood a short
distance east of the Corners, It was rumored that an
undesirable family had hired it, was going to move into
town and likely to become a town charge. The people called
upon the ov.ner and tried to dissuade him from letting the
property to these people; but he persisted, and was more
or less abusive, much to the annoyance of his neighbors.
One fine morning, just before the new settlers were to
arrive, people were surprised to find this house razed to
URIAH ROUNDY, ESQ.
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 27
the ground. The o\^Tier was furious and charged one of
his neighbors with perpetrating the mischief, went to
Captain Roundy, who was then Justice of the Peace, and
swore out a warrant for the man. At that time the party
to a criminal or civil proceeding could not be sworn on the
trial in his own behalf, and the defendant was often at
the mercy of unscrupulous witnesses. At the time of the
trial every one turned out and very much regretted the turn
of affairs, which seemed to be against the defendant. The
complainant produced a witness who swore that he was
passing along the road in the night, saw the defendant
tearing down the house, and he tried to get away from him,
but he knew him and was certain of his identity. The
defendant was so unfortunate as not to be able to prove
even an alibi. When the case was rested, much to the sur-
prise of every one present, Captain Roundy discharged the
defendant, claiming that there was no cause of action
against him. Of course it was a high handed proceeding,
but every one submitted because it was Captain Roundy's
decision, and they all believed that he must have some inter
light not discernible to the rest of them. Sometime after-
wards one of his daughters said to him: 'Father, how
could you make such a decision, when you knew that wit-
ness swore point blank to the guilt of the defendant, and
there were no mitigating circumstances?' ' Well,' he said,
' If you will never say anything about it, I will tell you!
I knew that witness lied, for Colonel Hutchens and myself
pulled down that building.' "
URIAH ROUNDY, ESQ.
Uriah Roundy, one of the sons of Capt. Asahel and
Hannah (Weston) Roundy, was born in the town of Spaf-
ford, July 24, 1819. Like his father before him he was
prominent in his native town, and was frequently called
upon to perform matters of public trust and confidence.
Among the public offices held by him were : Supervisor of
the Town of Spafford, three terms. Justice of the Sessions
of the County of Onondaga two terms. Excise Commissioner
one term, (from which he resigned), and Loan Commis-
sioner of the County of Onondaga two years. He was also
Justice of the Peace in Spafford between twenty-five and
thirty years, and Postmaster at Spafford Corners for many
8 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
years; he was an incumbent of both of the latter offices at
the time of his decease which occurred May 29th, 1902.
For many years prior to his decease nearly all the Wills,
Mortgages, Deeds and other legal documents executed in
his portion of the town were drav\Ti by him, and he was
frequently called upon to perform other duties of an
attorney at lav/. He married Mary Ann Tinkham and by
her had two sons, Adelbert and Jay C. Roundy, the former
only surviving him.
PULLMAN FAMILY.
Captain Asahel Roundy, during his active career, was the
owner of considerable real estate in this town, and at one time
ovvmed nearly all of Lot 32, Sempronius. This he conveyed
in parcels to different settlers, who moved on the lands,
cleared avv'ay the forests, built houses and reared families
there. Among these early settlers, to whom he conveyed
land on this lot, was Psalter Pullman. He cleared away
the timber and settled on the farm afterwards knowTi as
the Rathbone Barber, Jr., farm^, and now (1900) owTied by
the estate of Edwin S. Van Benschoten, deceased. On this
farm most, if not all, of Mr. Pullman's children were born.
Among them was Lev/is Pullman, the father of George M.
Pullman, the late multi-millionaire and sleeping and palace
car magnate, of Pullman, Illinois, whose decease is a matter
of recent occurrence. Psalter Pullman moved to the
western part of this State about 1829. There are very few
now living who have any remembrance of him or of any
of his family, except his son, John Pullman, who m.arried
Mabel Pettis, sister of Ebenezer Haven's wife. He con-
tinued to reside here for about twenty years after the
departure of his father.
John Pullman at one time resided on the Skaneateles and
Homer road, about one mile south of Spafford Corners, and
kept a house of entertainment there called " The Nimble
Sixpence." The house and barn were close to the road on
either side, and passers by at night were much annoyed
by John's cattle, who were wont to sleep in the highway
for want of a better barnyard. " The Nimble Sixpence,"
according to the memory of " Old Inhabitants," had only
one room in it, and that was occupied by Mr. Pullman's
numerous family as a bed room, living room, dining room..
COLONEL PHINEAS HUTCHENS
SPAFFOED, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 29
pantry, etc., besides being used as a bar-room and loung:ing
place for guests, after Mr. Pullman set himself up in busi-
ness as a tavern keeper. It is probable that Mr. Pullman's
patrons were mostly confined to neighbors' boys, who
thought it great sport to give landlord Pullman an occasional
house warming. Mr. Pullman vv^as an honest, upright and
well meaning man, but possessed of certain vagaries and
crank notions, which leads those v/ho knew him to believe
that George M. Pullman, the great Palace Car magnate,
absorbed all the brains and nervous energy of the entire
Pullman family.
After the removal of the major part of the Pullman
family to the western part of the State, as above stated, an
occasional correspondence was kept up between John Pull-
man, who was left behind, and other members of the family.
One day John Jullman came to the village Postmistress with
an unsealed letter in his hand, and with unfeigned pride,
asked her to examine it, saying : " Don't you think that
pretty good writin' for a man like me?" She took the
letter in her hand, examined it, and found among other
things that Mr. Pullman had made an indiscriminate use
of capital letters, without any reference to any known rules
on the subject, sometimes even placing them in the middle
of a word. She turned to Mr. Pullman and said : *' Mr.
Pullman, your writing is very good indeed, but why don't
you put your capital letters at the beginning of words and
sentences, as other people do?" " Well," says he, " I think
that makes my writin' look a leetle better to scatter them
more evenly through the letter, than to bunch them up as
some people do."
COLONEL PHINEAS HUTCHENS.
Colonel Phineas Hutchens was born in Herkimer County,
New York, in 1785, and came to this town and settled on
Lot 22, Tully, in 1811. He remained on the farm where
he first settled, until his decease in 1870. He was a man
of great physical strength, strong personality, a natural
leader of men, a prominent member of the Baptist Church,
and led a blameless life. His personal influence was
always wielded for the good of the community in which he
resided, yet, having a strong sense of humor in his make
up, he fully enjoyed all the sports and military functions
30 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
which were popular in those times and engaged the atten-
tion of the people. In those matters, and in the conduct
of the public affairs of the town, he was always a cordial
and able assistant of his life long friend, Captain Asahel
Roundy. Prior to 1830, when a portion of the township
of Marcellus was added, all public business of the town
centered about Spafford " Corners," where these two men
resided, and their influence was most potent.
Both were strong men, yet their influence and control
over their fellows was much strengthened by their sympa-
thetic and fun loving natures.
ROSWELL HUTCHENS.
Mr. Hutchens had a son, Roswell Hutchens, who in-
herited his humor, purity and fun, but not his commanding
physical strength and personality. " Roz," as he was
familiarly called, died January 16, 1854, at the age of thirty-
three years, unmarried, yet where is there a man or woman,
who was a boy or girl residing within a radius of ten miles
of Spafford " Corners," in his time ,who does not cherish
a pleasant recollection of him and his fun loving disposition.
His sleigh or wagon was never so small or overloaded as to
prevent him giving a boy or girl a lift on the way to and
from school, and generally his sleigh or wagon had as
many boys and girls upon it as could safely hang on. In
the Fall of the year " Roz " ran the Hutchens' Cider Mill,
which at noon hour of school days was a favorite resort for
boys to congregate, eat dinner and drink cider. No boy
was ever refused a drink of cider and as much of the
beverage as he could carry away in his dinner pail. Like
his father before him he was a lover of fine horses and
was seldom without a pair of his own, yet like most
admirers of horsekind he was a successful and mveterate
horse trader: — in fact he would trade anything he owned
if he got his price. His desire for traffic frequently led
him from home, and it was not unusual for these absences
to be extended for weeks at a time; then followed the tri-
umphal home coming, when all the people left their work
and gathered along the highway to witness the entertain-
ment which " Roz " was sure to have in store for them.
On one of these occasions, it will be remembered, that the
procession consisted of two or more spans of horses attached
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 31
to an ordinary farm wagon, bearing a hay-rack filled with
all kinds of household goods and farming implements.
Following this came a yoke of oxen, a dairy of cows, and
a drove of sheep. The entire outfit comprised everything
necessary to stock and run a farm except a wife, and no
doubt there was some disappointment in not finding among
his belongings this essntial commodity.
At another time he brought home a camel-back pacer
mare, as ugly looking a nag as man ever derw a line over,
but as speedy as she was ugly, and that was saying a good
deal. For a month or more after that every farmer boy,
who thought he had a horse particularly fast, had a chance
to test his claim on the road. It is not probable that
" Roz's " sisters or girl friends were ever seen going to
church or a quilting bee behind this animal, yet all were
willing before a month went by to concede the right of way
to him and his pacer mare. " Roz " was a great favorite
with old and young, and on festive occasions among his
acquaintance, v/as not only present but generally the center
of interest, where innocent fun held sway. No one pre-
sumed to make him the subject of a practical joke but once,
and that nearly- broke his heart.
" Roz " brought home a raw-boned animal, called a Pie-
balled horse, of very light color and in bad condition; this
was put to pasture in a back lot, to recuperate and gain
flesh, as a basis for a future trade. With his long ears and
measly condition he looked more like a mule than a horse,
so much so, that a wag thinking to define his identification
in the animal kingdom more perfectly, trimmed his tail
doA^Ti to a " nubbin " at the end, and cut his mane down
to a rovt^ of short bristles along the top of his neck; then,
still more to improve the identification, he put a few stripes
around his body with a brush and a pot of black paint ; the
animal, thus disfigured, was then turned loose to meet the
doting gaze of his master. When " Roz ' discovered this
transformed quadruped he was furious, and for the first
time in his life was unable to see the funny side of a joke.
The wag soon discovered this unusual element in " Roz "
nature, and wisely kept his identification so securely that
" Roz " died without knowledge of the creator of this, his
first and only specimen of the Zebra kind.
Among the efforts made to discover the person who per-
S2 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
petrated this practical joke, was one made by " Ranse "
Coon, the village harness-maker. At " Roz " solicitation
he ffot a small boy, who was supposed to know something
of the matter, into his shop and inquired of him who dis-
figured " Roz " horse. The boy being reluctant to answer,
Coon pressed the question, by saying he might as well tell
then as at any time, for if he did not answer he would be
brought in Court and made to swear. The boy replied that
his m^other told him " never to swear." Coon, perceiving
the boy did not understand the nature of an oath, pressed
his question still more. Finally the boy, in despair,
exclaimed, " Well, if I have got to swear, I say B — G —
I don't know anything about it." This settled the examina-
tion, and " Roz," being told the result, was so well pleased
that he gave up farther investigation.
On the face of the tombstone placed at the grave of
Roswell Hutchens, in Spafford Cemetery, is firmly set a
small daguerrotype of himself, in a plug hat; this, when
last seen by the writer, after a lapse of nearly fifty years
since it was first put there, was as perfect as when first
taken.
AMOS MINER.
Amos Miner was born in Norfolk, Litchfield County,
Conn., November 10th, 1776. He came to Marcellus, (now
Skaneateles), about the year 1800, and settled on a cross-
road leading east from the lake road, and about two miles
south of the village of Skaneateles. Here he built himself
a shop and commenced the manufacture of his famous
accelerating wheel-heads, to be attached to spinning wheels
then in use by farmers' wives for making woolen yarn. In
the Fall of the year 1805 he sold his possessions in Skan-
eateles and located on Lot 68, Marcellus, (now Spafford),
but soon after established himself in Factory Gulf, where,
as a member of the firm of Miner, Deming and Sessions, he
built a factory for the manufacture of his celebrated accel-
erating wheel-heads and other wooden articles. Among
the articles invented and manufactured by him about this
time were Miner's Patent Pail, Miner's Half Bushel
Measure, Miner's Wooden Bowls, Miner's Grooved Window
Sash, and Miner's Wooden Pumps. He also manufactured
many other articles from wood, then in common use.
THOMAS MAXSON FOSTER
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 33
After a few years Miner sold his interest in the busi-
ness at Factory Gulf, and located himself at the head of
another Gulf on Lot 76, Marcellus, leading: into Otisco
Lake, where he built another factory, and a grist mill,
commonly called " The Pudding Mill," from the fact that
Miner here ground large quantities of Indian meal, com-
monly used by the esirly settlers as an article of food, under
the name of pudding and milk. Miner's superior inventive
genius was more often brought into requisition in the
manufacture of tools and machines used in the process of
manufacture of his inventions, than in the conception and
completion of the finished product itself.
The genius of Miner Vv^as particularly illustrated by the
manner in which he accumulated and applied the power to
run his machinery at the mill, situate at the head of the
Pudding Mill Gulf. The mill was so located on the edge
of a precipitous rock, that the water coming to his mill
passed over a series of three overshot wheels, one above
another, giving him the accumulated power of three wheels
instead of one.
Miner, like most men of his class, was a better inventor
than financier, so when his invention was completed and on
the road to success, he generally tired of it, sold out, and
others were premitted to reap the fruits of his genius
Instead of himself. The Pudding Mill venture was no
exception to the rule, so another was soon in possession of
the mill, and miner was engaged in starting another factory
or mill at Mottville, on the outlet of Skaneateles Lake.
From there he soon moved further down stream, to a place
midway between Elbridge and Jordan, and was finally lost
sight of in the Far Distant West. When he left the State
it is said he carried with him the sum of $10,000, the
accumulation of a lifetime, while others accumulated great
wealth, as a product of his brain power and inventive
genius.
BARN MOVING.
In the early fifties Asahel Madison Roundy was a mer-
chant at Spafford " Corners,' and owned and occupied the
Joseph R. Berry store (now occupied by John Van Ben-
schoten), and Thomas Maxson Foster was and had been
for many years his clerk. This store was a favorite place
34 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
for men and boys to gather evenings, tell stories and dis-
cuss matters of general interest. Before Mr. Roundy's
death, which occurred in 1857, an incident occurred which
Mr. Foster, familiarly called " Mac," related to the writer,
and we here transcribe in his own language :
" A short time before Asahel M. Roundy died he pur-
chased a part of the Samuel French farm, west of the road
and just south of the " Corners." Being dissatisfied with
the location of the barn on the premises, he undertook to
move it nearer the road and the house on the place. He
made a bee and invited his nieghbors to assist in the moving,
which was in the old waj^ with rollers under each corner
of the building, revolved by hand spikes inserted in holes
made for the purpose. After two half days' effort the
building still stood within a rod of the place where it was
at the beginning, and Ase came in to the store where I was
at work, discouraged, and said to me : ' I don't believe I
can ever get that barn moved in the world.' I replied:
' If you will leave that job to me I will get it moved, and
won't go near it either, but if you do you must not inter-
fere.' ' Well,' says he, * you go ahead, and I will stand
aside and you can do as you please.'
" Roundy, at that time, was a prominent member of the
Baptist Church and a pronounced advocate of temperance.
After the matter was turned over to me I waited until one
evening, when a number of men had gathered in the store
to tell stories and discuss the news of the day, and I said
to them quietly, that on such a day I intended to move
' Ase's ' barn, and I wanted them to turn out and help me
and invite their friends. That there would be plenty of
lemonade for all, and I would see there was plenty of stick
in it to suit their taste ; and if they came I would see they
had a good time.
" When the day arrived the clans began to gather ; there
was not only enough to move the building, but a goodly
number to spare. There was Silas Randall and two or
three of his boys, Avery Burdick, Russel Rounds, Jencks
Harrington, Uriah Morris, and many others vrhose names
I cannot recall ; most of whom have long since gone to their
final reward. They were honest and faithful men, good and
generous neighbors, and every one of them fond of good
cheer and of the sports of that age.
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 35
" As I began to mix my first pail of lemonade, Silas Ran-
dall sang out : " Well, boys, if we are going to move that
building let us be about it," and all hands following his
lead and moved off for the barn. By the time the last man
had moved out of the store I had my lemons, sugar and water
in the pail, and I went down cellar and drew a generous
measure of alcohol, and added that to the other ingredients
in the pail ; I then started for the barn. When I got there
I saw that Silas Randall was in charge and every man in
his place, so I carefully put my lemonade where all could
see it and returned to the store. On my return I took down
another large milk pail and commenced my second decoction
of lemons, sugar, water and alcohol. As I pursued my work
I looked out of the store window and saw that the barn
was not only moving, but seemed to be walking to its place
of destination. When I had prepared my second pail of
lemonade I again started for the moving. On the way I
met M M- , who accosted me, saying: " Mac! there
seems to be plenty of help without me, so I guess I will go
home and hoe my potatoes. I did not get any of the other
lemonade, and if you are willing, I would like a bit of this.'
I put down the pail, and he took the tin dipper and took up
a generous draught of the beverage. As he put it to his
lips, I said : ' M , be careful, there is a stick in that and
I don't know the size of it.' He either did not hear the
remark, or did not heed the caution, and quaffed off the
contents of the dipper without a halt, and started for home.
M M and his wife were at that time well known
church members and professed strict teetotalers, hence my
caution; which I would not have deemed necessary for
others. When I arrived at the building it was nearly in
place, so I put down the pail, stood around and looked on.
Before the building, with his back to the front, stood the
tall form of Silas Randall, with his bare brawny arms
gesticulating like a bandmaster. ' Here, take hold of this
plank, Avery, and put it dow^i here. Take hold of that
handspike, Nathan. Russel Rounds, come round here and
help William,' sang out his clear voice, and then: 'Ail
together. He! Hoe! Hee! He! Hoe! Hee and the
building moved like a creature of life. It did not take long
to put the barn in place, and then came the jacking up of
the building and the leveling of the sills. There was no
30 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
use for me, so I started back for the store. As I walked
along- 1 looked do\\Ti the road and saw Mrs. M , with her
sunbonnet in her hand, coming towards me as fast as she
could walk. When she overtook me she said : ' Mac, what
has M been doing up here to-day?' I said: * Nothing;
there was sufficient without him, so he went home. Why?'
She replied : * I never saw him act so before. He came
home, took his hoe and went into the patato patch, and there
he stood leaning on it. The moment he tried to do any-
thing, he pitched forward and could hardly keep his feet;
I did not know Y\^hat was the matter.' I said : ' He is not
to blame, if any one is it is me ; but no one is to blame. I
told him there was a stick in the lemonade, but I guess he
did not understand it. You go home, put him to bed, and
he will sleep it off by morning. Don't say anything to any-
one about it. He is all right.' She turned around and went
home. As M lived afterwards to a good old age I guess
the lemonade did him no haiTti.
" Aftei- the moving was completed the young folks gath-
ered on the village green and played ball, and the old folks
looked on and applauded the winners. At tea time all went
home, feeling that they had a good time. No one seemed
to be worse for having drank of the lemonade with a stick
in it."
DANIEL WALLACE, JR.
This brief sketch of first settlers would be incomplete
without some reference to the large, influential and respect-
able Wallace family, who were inhabitants of the northern
portion of the town. Daniel Wallace, Sr., the head of the
family, came from Pittstown, Rensselaer County, New
York, and settled on Lot 88, Marcellus, about 1808. He had
a large family, some of whom were born before coming here
and some afterwards. They were all persons of marked
character, but possibly none of his sons were better known
than his son Daniel Wallace, Jr., who at one time was one
of the largest real estate holders in town. " Uncle
Daniel," as the latter was familiarly called, died at a
great age and was buried in Borodino Cemetery. He
always claimed his family was of Scotch origin, but the
old stock spelled the name Wallis in a very un-Scottish way.
Uncle Daniel took great interest in town affairs, and his
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 37
neighbors early discovered the neecssity of consulting his
wishes in such matters. Political questions were of vital
importance to him, and all measures submitted to public
vote usually received his cordial support or unyielding
opposition. He was a lifelong Democrat, and like most
members of that party, was generally opposed to new inno-
vations, or so called reform movements. He firmly believed
in the right of every man to think and act for himself in
relation to religious and political questions, and therefore
rebelled against all restaints in such matters. When the
temperance movement was first advocated it met his deter-
mined opposition; and v^^hen local option as to the sale of
intoxicating liquors become a question of town politics he
was furious, and threw his strength with the License Party.
There are some still living v/ho well remember the bitter
fight which Uncle Daniel and his followers put up in the
Special Election, held April 27, 1847, when the question of
License or No License was first determined by vote of the
town. The Liquor, or License men, turned out early and
strong, and during the fore part of the day it looked as if
the question was going their way, and Uncle Daniel was
happy, but in the afternoon the other side had their inn-
ings, and the question was finally determined in favor of
the No License men, by a vote of 181 to 171. This was too
much for Uncle Daniel and for years afterwards he did not
forget the leaders of the men who were opposed to him in
this movement.
Uncle Daniel was a thrifty and prosperous farmer and
at one time raised many turkeys for the Syracuse market.
In the Fall of the year it was not uncommon, at evening
time, to see turkeys roosting on the fences and trees for
a quarter of a mile on either side of his house; and at
Thanksgiving Syracuse was made happy by the luscious
character of his birds, and Uncle Daniel was enriched by
Syracuse silver received in return. The frequent reoccur-
rence of these annual visits to Syracuse obtained for him
the sobriquet of " Turkey Wallace," a name which he bore
to the time of his decease.
Uncle Daniel had a large, intelligent and respectable
family of children whom, for reasons best known to him-
self, he named after distinguished notables and royal per-
sonages which attracted his attention, as follows : " Simon
38 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
Bolivar, Napoleon Bonaparte, Santa Anna, Maria An-
toinette, Demetrius Ypsilanti, and Andrew Jackson."
Andrew Jackson was a name particularly to his liking, for
the first of that name having died young, he named a second
after that distinguished character in American history.
SCHOOLS.
Like other communities settled by New England people,
the first settlers in town had hardly put their things to
rights in their log cabins before they organized schools and
churches. The first school teacher at Spafford " Corners "
was Hannah Weston, who came from her home in Skan-
eateles Village and returned to it vv^eekly. on horseback ; the
road through the wilderness between the two places not
permitting of any other mode of travel. This school, the
beginning of District School No. 2, was taught in a log
cabin, standing near the present residence of Nathan Ran-
dall, two doors south of Roundy's store in 1900. Miss
Weston was born in Fitz William, N. H., September 22,
1786, and came to Skaneateles with her parents before 1800,
among the first settlers in that village. It was while teach-
ing that school she made the acquaintance of Captain Asahel
Roundj% v.ith whom she was afterwards united in marriage,
January 19, 1809.
The school thus organized was continued for a short time
at the place where it was first instituted, but soon after,
as a compromise between the patrons residing on the tv/o
main thoroughfares running north and south through this
portion of the to^vn, a building specially designed for school
purposes was erected on " The Hill," a quarter of a mile or
more east of the " Corners," on a cross road leading from
one to the other of these two leading highways.
The first two or three generations of village boj^s and
girls who attended school on " The Hill,' have many reminis-
cences to relate in reference to these times, pleasant and
otherwise. We imagine, however, that none of them were
ever exactly satisfied with that location for a school house.
In the Summer it was dreary, nearly half a mile from any
residence, and in Winter it was the bleakest and windiest
place on earth. The cold northwest wind, coming over
Skaneateles Lake, had a free and unobstructed sweep of
twenty miles or more, and struck the school building fair
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 39
and square in its full strength and vigor. In looking back
to those days we only wonder why the building was not
blown av/ay. It took many cords of three foot wood to
feed that old box stove, in use at that time, to keep the
boys and girls in comfort on the back seats and their ink
stands from freezing. Every scholar had to carry a dinner
pail in those days, the noon hour being too short to permit
going to the nearest house for the mid-day meal. In Winter
the east and west road between the school house and village
was always drifted full, so it was imperative for teams and
pedestrians to pass through the open fields, in going from
one to the other of these places. Then there were many
other objections to this location for a school house that a
pupil could allege, besides those already noted, and not least
of these was the fact, that it was altogether too near a fine
old grove of beech woods, which was just opposite of the
school house grounds. Teaching school in those times was
very much like driving oxen; it was attended with much
talking and a dextrouse use of a beech gad. We doubt if
there is any boy living or dead, who attended school on
" The Hill," who has not a score of vows registered in High
Heavens to " lick " some teacher who taught in that old
Tiouse, " as soon as he got big enough to do the job." There
was something in the very air of that old school house to
make a schoolmaster " whale ' a boy ; and so far as heard
from there were no exceptions to the rule in teachers.
About 1824 or 1825 the first school building accidentally
(?) burned and the boys and girls were happy. But the
time was not then ripe for a change, so a new building was
promptly erected on the old site to replace the old one.
During the interim school was continued in Webster's barn,
then standing a few rods east of the village cemetery. The
second building was used for school purposes until about
1860, when a new generation of fathers having come in
povfer, a new building was erected just south of the Corners,
where school has been taught ever since.
Among the pleasing incidents which occurred at school
on the hill was the raising of a flag and pole. At a Summer
term the small boys had under discussion the subject of
pole and flag, when the school mistress good naturedly
observed, that if they would erect the pole she would furnish
the flag. This put the youngsters to work, and very soon,
40 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
with the aid of their friends, the pole was in place, obligat-
ing the teacher to perform on her part. In her dilemma
she engaged the services of the village wagon maker, who
professed knowledge on the subject of flags, to furnish the
article required. At the time appointed the flag was pro-
duced; it consisted of a strip of white cotton cloth striped
with paint in all colors of the rainbow, and on the field,
where stars usually are placed, instead appeared this motto :
" What man has done, man can do again. No. 2 will try
it."
The flag was a grievous failure, for v/hen hoisted to
the top of the pole, like any piece of oil cloth, v;hich in fact
it was, it would not float in any zephyrs known to Spafford
Hills. Yet, the motto was there and made an indelible
impression, which we trust will endure as long as a scholar
of that old school shall survive to repeat the sentiment.
In April and May, 1813, the original tov*Ti of Spafford
was divided into five school districts, very much as now,
with the exception of the Spafford Hollow district, which
was then included in, and afterwards taken from, the Cold
Brook district. The Nunnery district was then designated
as No. 1, Spafford Corners as No, 2, East Side Hill as No.
3, Cold Brook as No. 4, and the Noi*th district, sometimes
called the Woodworth District, as No. 5.
From time to time subsequent to this first school order,
slight changes were made in district lines to accommodate
patrons of these schools ; and from time to time, to meet the
wants of school children, new districts were created out of
old ones, or discontinued, as the exigencies of the times
seemed to require. Among the changes made which seem
worthy to be noted are the following:
In 1817 School District No. 2 was divided by a line drawn
east and west though the center of Lot 31, Tully. and the
southern portion created into a new district, known as No.
6. The next year (1818) Ripley Hill was taken from
School District No. 4, and, after a separate existence as
School District No. 7 for a short time, was finally dissolved
in 1821, and its territory added to School District No. 6.
In this district school was first taught in a log house which
stood west of the highway on Lot 41, Tully, just south ot
Prindle's Woods. In 1831 a new frame building was
erected east of the same highway and at its junction with
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 4|
a cross road south of Barker's house, leading to Ripley
Hill. In the latter building school was continued until
the Spring of 1850, when this district was dissolved and
its territory re-annexed to School District No. 2. At this
time the school building was sold, moved to Spafford
Corners and re-modeled into a dwelling house, lately occu-
pied by Alexander Green. This house is now the first
house south of Roundy's store, on the west of the highway.
In January, 1824, after a protracted controversy among
the patrons of School District No. 3, over the location ol
a new school building, that district by order of the School
Com.missioners was divided into two districts numbered
3 and 1, but in 1835 the latter was dissolved and its terri-
tory re-annexed to School District No. 3.
In 1831, after the annexation of a portion of the town-
ship of Marcellus to the original town of Spafford in the
prior year, the schools then existing in the new territory
were recognized and re-numbered, so as to make their
numbers consecutive in order with those then existing in
this town. There have been some changes in these school
districts since that time, owing principally to changes in
town lines by acts of the Legislature of the State of New
York, so there are now in the Marcellus end of the town,
three full districts instead of seven, as at the beginning
of 1831.
In addition to the schools above enumerated there have
always been joint districts, supported by this and adjoining
to^\^ls, notably the Scott and Ripley Hill District, and the
school in Spafford Hollow, supported by the towns of
Spafford, Otisco and Tully.
It seems unnecessary to add that these schools have been
for years free schools, supported by public tax, are under
the general supervision of State authorities, and, like all
schools of the State, are justly commended for their
excellence and efficiency.
CHURCHES AND LIBRARIES.
One of the oldest churches in the County of Onondaga is
that of the Baptist Church at Thorn Hill, which was organ-
ized largely through the instrumentality of Elder Elias
Hamion, its first pastor, who came to this town and settled
on Lot 77 or 76, Marcellus, on or before February 25, 1801.
42 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
The first records of this church are dated April 19, 1806,
but the general belief is that the organization of the church
preceded that date. The incorporation of the society under
the name of " First Baptist Religious Society of Marcellus,"
took place May 7, 1815, when the church building was
begun, and at which time Alexander Enos, Elijah Cody,
John Wiltsey, Medad Harvey, Joshua Chandler and John
Hunt, were made trustees. It is probable that the church
building was completed in 1816; prior to which time church
services were held in school houses and private residences.
The names of Nathan Thompson, Amasa Sessions, John Ten
Ej'-cke and Charles Nichols were additional names mentioned
in said letters of incorporation, which were recorded in
Onondaga County Clerk's Office in Miscellaneous Records,
Book " D," page 2, etc., April 4, 1816.
The following account of said society is taken, corrected,
and adapted from Israel Parsons, M. D.'s, Centennial
Address delivered at the Village of Marcellus, New York,
July 4, 1876.
" The materials concerning the Baptist Church at Thorn
Hill were taken from a manuscript history of that church
prepared by Elder Hatch in 1867, during his pastorate of
that church. At the date of the first records of the church
on April 19, 1806, Elder Elias Harmon was pastor, and
the following were among the most active male members;
Amasa Sessions, Amasa Kneeland, John Kneeland, Warren
Kneeland, Jesse Manley, Chauncey Deming, Nathan Thomp-
son, and Joshua Chandler.
The following is a list of the early pastors of this churcn :
Elias Harmon 1805 (or earlier) to Feb., 1816
Salmon Morton Aug., 1816 to Aug., 1818
Jesse B. Worden Nov., 1816 to Mar., 1835
W. Benjamin Capron Mar., 1835 to Mar., 1840
Thomas Brown Apr., 1840 to Feb., 1848
A. R. Palmer Feb., 1848 to Dec, 1849
Sylvester Gardner Spring, 1850 to May, 1851
William Wilkins May, 1851 to Mar. 1852
Jno. Baldwin June, 1853 to Sept., 1854
Alexander Milne Mar., 1855 to Mar., 1857
Hiram Powers _ Mar., 1857 to Mar., 1858
Thomas Bowen Apr., 1858 to June, 1858
the date of his decease.
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 43
J. N. Seeley _ Dec, 1858 to Nov., 1860
William Roney May, 1861 to May, 1864
E. B. Hatch Apr., 1865
(The latter was pastor when this record was made.)
" From the org-anization of the church to September, 1867,
(when the record was made) a period of sixty-two years,
there had been united to it by baptism five hundred ana
twenty-tvv'O, and by letter three hundred and eight.
Elder Worden's pastorate was the longest, eighteen years,
and Elder Hatch says was the period of the Church's
greatest prosperity. He preached two thousand sermons,
attended two hundred funerals, and solemnized one hundred
and twenty marriages. Over four hundred were taken into
the church during that time.
Dr. Jonathan Kneeland is quoted as saying : " The Baptist
Church at Thorn Hill was built fifty-nine years ago, and
previous meetings were held in school houses. Elder Jesse
B. Worden preached to the people from the high pulpit of
this church, standing on one leg, (not Worden but the
pulpit), for about 18 years, when he went to Montrose,
Pennsylvania, where he died. He was Captain of Volun-
teers in the War of 1812. His church salary was $250.00
per year, one-fifth in cash, and the balance in produce, prin-
cipally corn and wheat, the former at three shillings and
the latter at six shillings per bushel."
Dr. Kneeland is further quoted as saying : '' Elder Morton
will be long remembered for his strong Calvinistic sermons."
" Elder Harmon moved to Chautauqua County, N. Y,, and
many of his sons became men of mark." Hon. Sidney
Smith says " Elder Morton died and was buried at Thorn
Hill." He " died January 22, 1822, in his 55th year and
the 23rd of his ministry," according to the inscription on
his tombstone at Thorn Hill.
A public library was instituted and incorporated at Thorn
Hill, February 12th, 1811, at a gathering of twenty or more
people at the residence of John Hunt. The name of the
society v/as entitled as " The Harmonical Library," and the
following were chosen as its first trustees : Elias Harmon,
Thomas King, Amasa Sessions, Jeduthan Lamb, Jesse Copp,
Lewis Smith and Amasa Kneeland.
The good results flowing from the establishment of this
church and library at Thorn Hill at such an early date are
44 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
noteworthy and can be seen and felt in that rural community
even to this day. Dr. Parsons, in speaking of the Thorn
Hill community says : " More of her sons and daughters
have entered the literary field than is usual in that amount
of population. Besides others that I have mentioned as
having become statesmen in the Great West, the following
have been mem.bers of the New York Legislature one or
more times : Daniel Baxter, S. S. Kneeland, Sidney Smith,
Charles R. Vary and Lewis Smith (three times) ; the last
also once held the office of Sheriff of the County of Onon-
daga." It is to be regretted that Dr. Parsons did not
mention the names of others who grew up in this Thorn
Hill community subject to the influence of this Church and
Public Library, and who have gone forth to make an honor-
able record for themselves in the learned professions and
in the business pursuits of the world. Among others be-
sides those already named, who should be mentioned in this
connection are the names of William Smith, who became
a lawyer, college graduate, and successful business man,
but who died early of asiatic cholera; Stephen and Job L.
Smith, two college graduates and distinguished physicians;
Stella Kneeland, missionary to India ; Amasa Spencer Knee-
land, Baptist minister; Hon. A. Judson Kneeland, lawyer;
Dr. Jonathan Kneeland, a distinguished physician of Onon--
daga County from whose comments on Thorn Hill people
we have already quoted; Horace Kneeland, sculptor; John
Sessions, a lawyer of Brooklyn, New York ; Alonzo Sessions,
Lieutenant Governor of the State of Michigan, Member of
the State Legislature, and also of the State Constitutional
Convention of the latter State, and a Bank President and
successful business man ; two or more of Elder Harmon's
boys whose names are not known, also attained eminence in
professional and business life ; and undoubtedly many others
whose names are unknown to the writer. It is much to be
regi-etted that the moral influence of this church, the incen-
tive to study and to higher literarj'- attainments emanating
from this public libraiy established at such an early date
cannot be better told and described at this writing.
On the 25th day of August, 1829, a religious society was
incorporated in the Village of Borodino under the name
of the " P'irst Religious Society of the Village of Borodino,*
of which Merrit Leonard, John Baxter, Dyer Coe, Charles
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 41
Vary, Benjamin Trumbull and Ira Coe were the first
trustees. George Dickson, Jr., John H. Fargo and Ransom
Howard were additional names mentioned in said letters of
incorporation. This society, according to statements made
by Simon B. Wallace, built a church building in which
services were held for a number of years, and owing to
want of membership was finally abandoned as a place of
worship ; the building has since been occupied and used as
a towTi hall and a place for public gatherings in the Village
of Borodino.
October 18, 1853, the Methodist people in Borodino and
that vicinity who prior to that date had been meeting in
the school house and other places met and were duly incor-
porated under the name of the " Borodino Methodist Epis-
copal Church," with Isaac Harris, William Hayford, Isaac
Morrell, Charles Ferry and William Cowan as its first board
of trustees. Mr. S. B. Wallace says, this society at the time
of its incorporation purchased a church building in the
Village of Skaneateles, took it down, and rebuilt it in this
village where it stands to-day and is still used as a church
building by this society. This society and the M. E. Society
at Spafford " Corners " have for many years been presided
over by a minister assigned to them by the M. E. Conference
of this district as one charge ; the minister residing formerly
at Spafford Corners, but latterly in the Village of Borodino.
Like most country religious societies neither of these two
Methodist societies have the power and influence that they
once had.
The members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in
Spafford Hollow were incorporated on the 5th day of March,
1834, under the name of " The Spafford Hollow Methodist
Episcopal Society," and Wliliam O'Farrell, Esq., David B.
Boutell, Elias Jacobs, Jonas Terbush and Isaac Smith were
chosen the first Board of Trustees. The same year a church
edifice was built on the following described real estate,
which was conveyed to said Board of Trustees by Isaac
Smith and wife Lucy, on the 9th of January, 1835, as
follows: Being part of Lot 23, Tully, and bounded on the
east by the highway running northerly and southerly
through said lot and Hollow — on the south by a cross road
running easterly and westerly across said Hollow, and unit-
ing with said first highway — and on the west and north by
46 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
parallel lines to said two highways so as to contain said
church edifice and one-half acre of land. The Spafford
Hollow Cemetery is located only a short distance from this
church. Among the early active members of this church
society were the O'Farrells, Boutells, Jacobs and Smith
families, and the family of Benejah Cleveland. Since these
families have died out or moved away the active spirit of
the church has been much impaired.
About fifty years ago the Methodist Episcopal Society of
Cold Brook built a church building, opposite the Cold Brook
Cemeterj'-, but no articles of incorporation have ever been
filed or recorded in the Clerk's Office of Onondaga County,
and no deed of conveyance has ever been recorded granting
the church lands to any Board of Trustees, although these
lands have been excepted on one or two occasions from
deeds granting surrounding lands. Among the active
church members of this society in former years were the
families of Justus N. Knapp, the Churchills, Tafts, Maxons,
and Crosleys. The present state of this society is not
known.
A Baptist Church Society at Spafford Corners was incor-
porated under the name of " Spafford Baptist Society,"
March 21st, 1817, in which John Babcock, John Hutchens,
Asahel Roundy, Amos Palmer, and John Knapp were named
as trustees, but the society never had any church building,
or left any records, except these articles of incorporation.
What is supposed to be the same society was afterwards
re-incorporated on the 7th day of May, 1838, with Phineas
Hutchens, Cornelius Williamson and Samuel French as
trustees, and Asahel Roundy and John C. Harrington also
named in said Articles of Incorporation. This society
under its re-incorporation built a church building in the
year 1839, which was dedicated January 8, 1840. Among
the stated ministers who presided over this church were
Elders Benjamin Andrews and Alanson Boughton. After
a season of prosperity and usefulness this society went into
decline and finally failed for want of membership. The
church building was sold in 1860 to Uriah Roundy, Esq.,
who converted it into a store for the sale of general mer-
chandise, and it is now in use for that purpose on the old
church site at the " Corners."
This church edifice was, during the early forties, the
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 4?
scene of a remarkable disputation between the two resident
ministers of the Methodist and Baptist denominations, on
the subject of baptism by immersion as an essential saving
ordinance. People came from far and near to attend these
meetings, which continued for several days, and at the end,
as usual in such controversial debates, both sides retired
feeling that each had won a great victory over the other
side. One thing is certain, baptism by immersion may
have been efficacious in saving the members of this church
from eternal damnation, for all or nearly all have gone to
their final reward, yet it did not save the church buildings
from subsequent desecration as a place of religious worship.
On the 22nd day of August, 1829, a religious society was
incorporated at Spafford " Corners " under the name of
the " First Presbyterian Society in Spafford," and Erastus
Barber, Ellis Taft, and Silas Cox were made trustees.
Uriah Roundy, in speaking of this church society, says : " I
have no knowledge of this society, and yet I knew all the
men named in the Articles of Incorporation. Erastus
Barber resided at the head of the Buck Tail road where Sey-
mour Norton subsequently resided; he was once a Member
of Assembly in the New York Legislature in this State.
This society never had any meeting house, and must have
* died a borning.' "
MORMON EXODUS.
At an early period in the history of this town there were
a number of persons residing here who were known as Free
Will Baptist, and were presided over by Elder John Gould,
who resided in a log house standing east of the Homer road,
on Lot 31, Tully, near the present residence of Mrs. Norton,
widow of Erastus Norton. This society was duly incor-
porated December 13, 1825, with James Avery, Shadrack
Roundy, Thomas Smith, John Lawrence, Rogers Ide and
Alexander R. Jackson as its first board of trustees. At the
meeting held for the purpose of incorporation, Daniel
Owen, a soldier of the Revolution, presided as Chairman,
and James Smith acted as Secretary. In the year 1828,
this society built a church building on the hill east of Spaf-
ford Corners, adjoining district school house No. 2, on
premises conveyed to it by Asahel Roundy and Hannah, his
wife, February 12, 1828. The Board of Trustees at that
48 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
time were Roswell Prindle, Shadrack Roundy, James Avery
and Zerah Pulsifer. At this time this was the only church
building in this portion of the town, the society had a large
and respectable membership, and the church gave promise
of a long and useful career, but about 1832 or 1833 it was
struck bj^ a proselyting wave from the newly discovered
Mormon religion, and a large share of its membership,
under the lead of its pastor. Elder Gould, were carried from
the fold of the church into the embraces of the nev/ faith.
Among those who are said to have severed their connection
with the church at this time, sold their possessions in town,
were rebaptized into the new faith, and who departed from
this State with the Mormons' movement, were the follow-
ing: Elder John Gould, Zerah Pulsifer, and his brother
Daniel Pulsifer, Shadrack Roundy and Uriah Roundy, his
brother, Elias Humphrey, Mayhew Hillman, James Oliver,
Mr. Ensign, and Mr. Cheeney and their several families;
also Mrs. Maxson, Miss Maria Ripley and Miss Maria
Brown. Som.e of these people separated themselves from
the Mormon movement, on or before the Nauvoo incident,
which resulted in the death of Joseph Smith, the Prophet,
and settled in the Great West; among whom were Elder
Gould, Uriah Roundy and Maria Ripley; but the greater
number of them finally settled in Salt Lake City, where
their descendants remain to this day. It was not possible
for this church to recover from this exodus of membership
into a movement like this, so the church went quickly into
decline. After the church building had stood open for a
long time to the weather and been a place where cattle in
the fields had found shelter, it was finally sold in the early
forties to Captain Asahel Roundy, who moved it near the
Homer road, south of the " Corners," and converted it into
the dwelling house lately occupied by Seymour Norton.
When this building was first erected, the frame being a
large and heavy one, nearly every person in town turned
out and assisted in the " raising." After the plates and
rafters were in place, as was common in those times, one of
the men assisting climbed up, and standing on the upper
plate in his stocking feet, broke a bottle of whiskey upon it,
dubbing the building " God's Barn." This at the time
raised a great laugh, but many in after years recalled the
prophetic character of the incident.
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 49
Maria Brown, named above among the Mormon prose-
lytes, was a daughter of Judge Brown, of Scott, N. Y., and
a sister of Porter Brown, a present resident of that place.
After leaving Spafford she married Elder Ward, a Mormon
leader, and finally settled in Salt Lake City, Utah, where
she remained for several years, but ultimately renounced
MoiTnonism and returned to the States, where she wrote and
published, in 1857, the work entitled " Female Life Among
the Mormons."
The following are condensed extracts from that work
relating to Spaif ord people, and incidents which occurred in
this town. " My early life was passed in that beautiful and
picturesque region which borders Skaneateles Lake, in the
State of New York. Circumstances over which I had no
control determined me to abandon my home and pivately
visit relatives of my mother, who were living near Albany.
For that purpose I left the house of A J (Alex-
ander R. Jackson, a member of the Free Will Baptist
Church?) residing in Spafford ,Onondaga County, New
York, and took the stage for Utica in the same State. Hold-
ing a conversation with a middle age gentleman in the stage,
(Elder Ward her future husband), I said: Many people of
my acquaintance in Scott and Spafford have embraced
Mormonism. There was a family in Cold Brook by the
name of Cheeney, suggested the man. " Yes," I answered,
" Mr, Cheeney's family were considered very fine people,
were members of the Free Will Baptist Church, and the
Pulsifers too ; Pulsifer, the " Swamp Angel," (Uriah Roundy
says the "Swamp Angel" was a Mr. Ensign instead of Pul-
sifer) , and I burst into a laugh. There were two families
by the name of Pulsifer, both believers in Mromon. A
child died in one of these families, and the Mormons gave
out that on a certain night an Angel would come and carry
the body to Heaven. The time appointed arrived, the rela-
tives of the child were assembled, when a figure in white
and with small bells attached to its garments, appeared.
A party of unbelievers lying in ambush immediately gave
chase. The figure ran for the neighboring swamp, but was
pursued, taken and stripped of its angelic robes, and proved
to be Pulsifer, the uncle of the deceased child."
" False," said my companion.
" I assure you it was the truth, I continued, and poor
50 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
old Mr. Humphrey was deceived by them too. The old
man was determined to be right if possible. He was first
a member of the Free Will Baptist; then he joined the
Seventh Day Baptist, left them, and was baptized to the
faith and order of Momion; subsequently, he deserted the
Mormons and united with the Baptist again, and then finally
returned to the Mormons, by whom he was dipped seven
times in succession, on account of his apostacy. He re-
mained faithful to them after that, but always observed
the Seventh Day.
"Were you ever acquainted with Elder Gould?" he
inquired.
" I have seen him, he used to preach in Spafford."
" He did and with great acceptability, yet he joined the
Mormons.
" And poor Mrs. Maxson was induced to leave her husband
and children and go with them ; and Maria Ripley, a young
woman, left her aged and infirm parents and went off, too.
" My companion informed me that his name was Ward,
and that he was a man of property and a widower with two
children, that he was well acqufiinted with many people in
Scott, my native place, and had frequently heard the name
of my father mentioned as a citizen of exalted reputation."
About the time of the Mormon exodus a Mrs. Gale, the
wife of a respected citizen of Spafford, was a subject of
" second sight," frequently saw visions, and claimed to hold
daily intercourse with the spirits of her departed friends;
on one of these occasions she saw and conversed with the
departed spirit of a Mrs. Mapes, who exacted a promise on
her part to intercede in behalf of her two young lady daugh-
ters, whom she exclaimed, were in danger of ruin by the
improper influence over them of Elder John Gould, Pastor
of the Free Will Baptist Church. This delicate duty Mrs.
Gale discharged by entering the church, during divine
service, and in the persence of the worshippers denounced
the conduct of their pastor in reference to the Mapes girls.
Mrs. Gale, afterwards describing her experience on this
occasion, said : " For several days after being charged by
the spirit mother with this delicate task, I was greatly
oppressed and wished to escape the duty, but when I entered
the church door my burden rolled away, and as I opened my
mouth, language came freely, and a calmness came over my
SPAPFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 51
feeling, such as I had been a stranger to since I first saw
and was charged by the spirit of Mrs. Mapes.
Uriah Roundy, Esq., in speaking of Elder John Gould
when pastor of this church, said he was once tried by a
church tribunal in this old church building, for alleged
improper conduct on his part in kissing Mrs. Alexander R.
Jackson, one of the parishioners of the church, and humor-
ously explains that after a long and protracted trial, he
was finally acquitted, because the church tribunal was
unable to determine from the evidence whether the alleged
kiss was a " carnal or spiritual one."
SHADRACK ROUNDY.
The following abbreviated sketch of Shadrack Roundy,
and his two sons Lorenzo and Jared, was taken from a more
extended account written by Elizabeth D. Roundy, wife of
Jared,
" Shadrack Roundy resided in the town of Spafford, New
York, where he heard of the Revelations of God to Joseph
Smith, and embraced the Gospel as taught by Our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ. Soon after he moved to Pennsyl-
vania, and from thence to Kirtland, Ohio, where he assisted
in building a temple to the Most High.
" After receiving blessings and ordinations, he went from
there to Caldwell County, Missouri, where he received a
Commission as Captain of a Company of fifty. He was
afterwards made Captain of Police, and also chosen aide
de camp to Lieutenant General Joseph Smith, in the Nauvoo
Legion. About this time he became a member of General
Smith's life and body guard. After the Nauvoo persecu-
tions he was chosen one of the pioneers to search for a new
home, and subsequently was appointed Major and Presi-
dent of the Second Division of Mormon Colonists that
crossed the Plains. Arriving at Salt Lake City he was made
Bishop of a Ward, elected a member of the first Legislature,
and subsequently of the High Council. He was a man of
influence among the people and stood high in the Council
of Leaders of Latter Day Saints. He died in Salt Lake
Citj^"
LORENZO WESLEY ROUNDY.
" Lorenzo Wesley Roundy, second son of Shadrack, was
52 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
bom in Spafford, June 18, 1819, and shared all the hardships
and vicissitudes of his parents, before arriving at Salt Lake
City. At the latter place he was a member of the Nauvoo
Legion, and took part in all the Indian Wars of the Mormon
Colony. He was made Superintendent of the Co-operative
Mercantile Institution at Kanarra, Iron County, Utah, was
two or three times elected to the Legislature, was ordained
Bishop in 1860, and finally made President of the Southern
Colony of Mormons. He was drowned, crossing the Colo-
rado River with a party of Mormon emigrants. May 24,
1876."
JARED CURTIS ROUNDY.
" Jared Curtis Roundy, third son of Shadrack, was born
in Spafford and moved with his parents to Salt Lake City.
Like his brother Lorenzo, he also took part in all the Indian
Wars, was at one time Sheriff of Summit County, was
ordained Bishop of Wanship, and at one time was Justice
of the Peace. He was a man of influence among the
Mormons, and was generally respected by every one. He
died in Arizona, May 21, 1895."
HON. WASHINGTON ROUNDY.
Hon. Washington Roundy, son of Uriah Roundy, was
bom in the town of Spafford, September 26th, 1824, and
left that place with his father during the Mormon exodus.
After the Nauvoo incident his father separated from the
main branch of the Mormon Church, renounced the doctrine
of polygamy, and settled with his family at or near Man-
teno, Iowa, where his son Washington grew to Manhood
and became a man of wealth and prominence. By occupa-
tion Washington Roundy became a farmer, and owned and
managed a farm of over a thousand acres of land. He was
a man of marked character and wielded a strong political
influence in his adopted State; among other political offices
held by him was Member of the Legislature of the State of
Iowa.
SPAFFORD UNION MEETING HOUSE.
On the 14th day of April, 1838, a number of religious
people of different denominational beliefs, met at the school
house on the hill east of Spafford " Comers," for the pur-
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 53
pose of organizing a society, preliminary to building a
church building at that place. At that meeting a consti-
tution was adopted, which will explain the wants of the
people and the purposes of the meeting better than any
statement we can give on the subject.
" CONSTITUTION OF THE SPAFFORD UNION MEETING HOUSE
Society."
" Whereas, we the subscribers, inhabitants of the town
of Spafford, feeling desirous of having some suitable place
for public worship, have resolved, at a public meeting held
for that purpose on the 14th day of April, A. D., 1838, to
form ourselves into a society called the ' Spafford Union
Society,' of which society every person subscribing a sum
shall be a member thereof, and own rights and privileges
therein according to the amount so subscribed by such
persons. The object of the society is to build and keep in
repair a meeting house. Said meeting house shall be called
the " Spafford Union Meeting House " and shall be situated
at Spafford Comers, on a site where the blacksmith and
wagon shop of G. Lewis now stands. Said shops are to
be renoved and the site purchased by said Union Society.
Said meeting house shall be finished off in a good work-
manlike manner, on a plan to be adopted by a Committee
to be appointed by the subscribers for that purpose.
" There shall be Trustees appointed by the subscribers
according to law, whose duty it shall be to see that said
meeting house is kept in repair, and to transact all business
appertaining to said Society. Said Trustees shall_ appor-
tion the time of preaching among the several denommations
in manner as follows, viz. : ^ , i
" Every Gospel Denomination, a majority of whose male
members who meet at Spafford Corners for public worship,
and who may join in this Society, shall have the privilege
of having stated preaching in said house. All other denom-
inations shall be considered as transient preachers. Every
Gospel Denomination shall have the privilege of preaching
in said house ; but no transient preacher shall interfere with
the stated preaching of any denomination, without the
consent of such denomination. ivyr^^+;„^
" It is understood that whenever any Quarterly Meetmg
Association or funeral is proposed to be held in said house,
54 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
every denomination whose time the above mentioned meet-
ing's shall encroach upon, shall give up that part of the time
for use of such meeting. All rights owned by members of
this Society shall be transferable. It is hereby understood
that no denomination shall occupy more than an equal part
of the time, provided the other societies, who are members
of this Union, v/ish to occupy an equal part of the time.
" This Constitution shall not be altered or amended with-
out the consent of at least three-fourth of the subscribers."
At a meeting held the 30th of April, 1838, for the pur-
pose said Society was duly incorporated under the name of
the " Spafford Union Society " and Joseph Bulfinch, John
R. Lewis, Martin E. Knapp, Samuel Gale, Joseph Cole,
Jacob W. Darling and John Collins were chosen its first
Board of Trustees. At a subsequent meeting of the Board
of Trustees, by ballot it determined that John R. Lewis
and Samuel Gale should hold office for one year, Joseph
Bulfinch and Jacob W. Darling for two years, and Joseph
Cole, Martin E. Knapp and John Collins for three years.
In the book of minutes of this Society, under date of
April 30, 1838, when said Society was incorporated, is the
following :
'' Now for the purpose of carrying the foregoing plan,
(meaning the constitution above quoted) into operation,
We, the subscribers do hereby agree and bind ourselves
to pay the sum set opposite our respective names, to the
Trustees of said Union Society; one-half of the sum sub-
scribed to be paid by the first day of January next, and the
remainder to be paid one year from the first day of January
next.
Spafford, April 30, 1838.
John Collins $ 100.00
Thos. B. Anderson 50.00
Joseph Cole 50.00
Sylvanus N. Grout 50.00
Gershom Lewis 50.00
Joseph Bulfinch 75.00
Alexander Hill 6.00
John R. Lewis 100.00
Easten Cole 100.00
Silas Randall 25.00
Russel M. Burdick 20.00
Levi Hurlbnt $
25.00
Russel Tinkham
10.00
John Baxter
10.00
Titus Haight
5.00
John Grout
50.00
Willard Doty
15.00
Edwin S. Edwards...
10.00
Timothy Owen
5.00
Moses Pressy
5.00
Samuel Gale
20.00
James Mellen
5.00
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK
55
Odin Brown
10.00
Alonzo Sanford
10.00
Levi Applebee _
20.00
Horace Pease _
10.00
Isaac Day
10.00
John Fisher
5.00
John Harrington
5.00
James H. Norton
10.00
Hiram Mason
5.00
Orrin Town
5.00
Jonathan Ripley
5.00
Randall Palmer
2.00
John L. Ripley
5.00
Jonas TerBush
3.00
William Billings
5.00
Stephen Randall
10.00
Edward Scribens
5.00
John Ford
5.00
Lydius D. Whaley
15.00
Oliver S. Smith
1.00
Zebulon Davis
2.00
Nathan Palmer
10.00
Jonathan Johnson
20.00
Hiram W. Hays
15.00
Total
Bezaleel W. Taft
Peres Miner
Nelson Isdell
Martin E. Knapp
Nelson Berry
Whipple C. Har-
rington
Erastus Hays
A. M. Roundy
Benjamin Stanton ...
Homan Barber
Emily Barber
Annis Barber
Titus French
Stephen Crane
David T. Lyon
Rufus Breed
Phillip Fisher
Elias Davis
Leonard Melvin
Franklin Smith
Richard Gale
Kortright Knapp ...
Zara Berry
John R. Connine
2.00
5.00
1.50
10.00
18.00
5.00
10.00
3.00
25.00
5.00
2.00
3.00
3.00
15.00
20.00
5.00
15.00
10.00
2.00
2.00
5.00
5.00
10.00
10.00
$1,170.00
In accordance with the suggestion made in the fore-
going Constitution, Joseph Bulfinch, John R. Lewis, Mar-
tin E. Knapp, Joseph Cole, Jacob W. Darling and John
Collins, Trustees of Spafford Union Meeting House, re-
ceived a deed from Gersham Lewis and Mehitable, his wife,
oi one-quarter of an acre of land, known as the wagon
and blacksmith shop of G. Lewis, bounded on the
east and south, by the north and south highways, and
on the north and west by lands of Joseph Cole. Said
deed of conveyance was dated July 7, 1838, consideration
$75.00, and acknowledged the same day before Daniel R.
Robinson, Commissioner of Deeds, but not recorded. In
the years 1838 and 1839 said Board of Trustees erected
the present meeting house, on said lot, and had the same
ready for occupation in the Spring of 1840.
56 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
April 30, 1839, Russel M. Burdick and Lewis C. Davis
were elected trustees of said Society, in the place of John R.
Lewis and Samuel Gale, whose term of office had then
expired.
Under the date of April 30, 1840, the following entry, in
the handwriting of Dr. John Collins, appears in the book
of minutes of said Society:
" At an annual meeting of the members of the Union
Meeting House Society, held at the school house in District
No. 2, pursuant to a legal notice, and adjourned to the
Union Meeting House this 30th day of April, A. D., 1840,
Joseph Cole was appointed Chairman and John Collins
Secretary of said meeting. Then elected by ballot, Silas
Randall and Benjamin Stanton to fill the vacancies of
Joseph Bulfinch and Jacob W. Darling. The resignation of
Lewis C. Davis was accepted and Solomon S. Rowe was
elected to fill the vacancy. Thomas B. Anderson was
unanimously elected salesman to sell slips in the Union
Meeting House, pro tern. The following is a list of the
purchasers, and number and price of slips purchased :
Hiram Hayes No. 1, price $ 32.00
Solomon S. Rowe " 2, " 32.00
Gershom Lewis " 6, " 60.00
Joseph Bulfinch " 32, " 110.00
Easten Cole " 12, " 74.50
Joseph Bulfinich " 16, " 60.00
Moses Pressey " 44, " 31.75
John R. Lewis " 11, " 70.00
John R. Lewis " 8, " 70.00
John R. Lewis " 30, " 95.00
John Collins " 7, " 72.50
John Collins " 33, " 95.00
Russel M. Burdick " 18, " 51.00
Zenos Tinkham " 3, " 50.00
Silas Randall " 22, " 40.00
Erastus Hays " 4 " 50.00
Silas Randall " 20 " 45.00
John Grout " 29, " 95.00
Levi Hurlbut •' 34, " 95.00
Samuel Gale " 17, " 50.00
S. N. Grout " 35, " 90.00
S. N. Grout " 15, " 60.00
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 57
Edwin S. Edwards " 13, " 70.00
David T. Lyon " 5, " 60.00
Lemuel Bessey " 36, " 90.00
J. Johnson and A. Burdick " 19, " 46.75
H. Anthony and J. H. Norton " 21, " 40.00
Stephen Randall and R. Palmer " 43, " 31.00
Homen Barber ; " 23, " 30.00
A. Hill and Wm. L Skelley " 10, " 70.00
Lewis C. Davis " 37, " 85.00
Aaron Bro\m (half slips) " 39, " 70.00
Jeremith Cotterell (one-half slip) " 38, " 85.00
Hiram Mason (one-third slip) " 41, " 60.00
W. Doty and M. E. Knapp " 14, " 70.00
Henry S. Grinnell (one-third slip) " 28, " 85.00
Stephen Crane (one-third slip) " 28, " 85.00
John R. Lewis " 9, " 70.00
Coomer Anthony (one-half slip) " 38, "
Assignments.
" John R. Lewis to Gersham Lewis, slip No. 9.
John R. Lewis to Anson Churchell, one-half slip No. 12.
Gershom Lewis to Abigail Stringham, slip No. 9.
" Joseph Cole, Chairman. John Collins, Secretary."
From a pencil memoranda made on the margin of the
book of minutes of said Union Meeting House Society in
the handwriting of John Collins, it appears there were
twenty slips in the body of the meeting house and tewnty-
four slips under the galleries on the sides of the house,
making fortj^-four slips in all.
In the book of minutes of this church society, in addition
to the foregoing report, appears from year to year a brief
statement of the results of the election of trustees. This
brief record continues down to the year 1889, and there-
after there is no record whatever.
This church building has now stood for upwards of sixty
years, and by reason of its substantial character bids fair
to stand for sixty years more. It is now the only church
building at the " Corners," or in that portion of the town
in use for religious purposes. All denominations which
formerly held religious services here have died out except
the Methodist, and they are in the last period of dissolu-
tion ; and still the people cherish with respect the old church
S8 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
building-, and protect it from desecration and the insidious
attack of the elements. All funeral services are held in
this building, and occasionally divine services are .con-
ducted here by a minister from the Borodino charge of the
M. E. Church at that place. On these occasions the people
attend irrespective of denominational belief. The word
" Union " appears on the weather vane perched on top of
the belfry of the church building, and well typifies the
religious character of the people who have always wor-
shipped in this old Meeting House.
OTHER CORPORATIONS.
A Society commonly known as the Farmers' Alliance,
was organized in the Village of Borodino on the first day
of January, 1871, and incorporated under the name of
" Spafford Agricultural Society," with Dr. Van Dyke Tripp
as President, Edwin A. Clark as Vice President, Simon B.
Wallace as Recording Secretary, Aretus M. Legg as Corres-
ponding Secretary, Otis Cross as Treasurer, and Jeremiah
Olmsted, Orson B. Morton, Francis Ide, Albert E. Fulton,
Moses P. Moule, and Samuel H. Stanton as Trustees. The
following additional names are also mentioned in said
articles of incorporation: Horace Prindle, H. L. Darling,
Benjamin Monk, Ansel Grinnell, C. B. Morton, William N.
Stone and Moses Crane. Mr. Uriah Roundy says there was
some sort of insurance connected with this organization,
but beyond this fact, and the general purpose indicated by
its name, we have been unable to obtain any further infor-
mation of this Society.
" The Skaneateles Lake Park Company" was duly incor-
porated December 4, 1888, with a capital stock of $30,000,
and time limit of fifty years, to build a hotel building on
Skaneateles Lake. In the Articles of Incorporation John
E. Waller, John McNamara, Martin Fennell, William F.
Gregory and Lewis B. Fitch, were named as first trustees.
This corporation purchased " Ten Mile Point,' planted it
with shade trees, built a steamboat dock, and put up a
dancing pavilion ; but up to the present time have not erected
a hotel building. Since this incorporation, the Skaneateles
Railroad and Steamboat Company, of which this company
is supposed to be an adjunct, has changed hands and is now
owned or controlled by William K. Niver of Syracuse, New
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK f 9
York ; the property of this corporation is supposed to have
gone into the same control. Whether the hotel building
proposed will ever be built or not is an uncertainty, depend-
ing largely on the future of Skaneateles Lake as a place of
summer resort.
The " Borodino Creamery Company," with a capital of
^3,000.00, was formed and incorporated February 16,
1898, with Orrin I. Hayford, Marcus Patterson, Hiram A.
Colton, Francis Ide, Frank Harvey and Edgar L. Bockes,
as its first Board of Trustees. This creamery is located at
Borodino Village, and is still in active operation and doing
a prosperous business.
Since the foregoing was written the capital stock for a
new Creamery has been fully subscribed, the building of
which is to be erected at Spafford Corners.
MILLS, DISTILLERIES AND FURNACES.
The first necessity of the early settler was a grist mill
to grind his wheat and corn, a saw-mill to saw his lumber,
and a carding and fulling mill to card his wool and prepare
his cloth for domestic use. When he first penetrated the
wilderness which enshrrouded these Spafford Hills, the
brooks and streams, which to-day seem too insignificant
to be of any practical use, were full and powerful and cap-
able of turning the machinery necessary for the use of the
v/heehvright, the sawyer and the clothier. Nearly as soon
as the woodman's axe had made a clearing in the dense
forests, then covering the land, and the early settler had
erected his rude log cabin for the reception of his family,
these useful conservators to his comfort and happiness
sprang up along the principal brooks and streams; but as
time progressed and the requirements of the people changed,
these mills, once so useful, became no longer a necessity and
went rapidly into decay. To-day the existence of most of
them is unknown to the present occupants of the land.
About the year 1805, Amos Miner built a factory on the
west side of the Skaneateles and Homer Road, in what has
since been known as " Factory Gulf,' for the manufacture
of wheel-heads, used by farmers' wives in spinning woolen
yarn. The water for this mill was conducted from a pond,
well up stream, in a raceway along the northern bank of
the gulf, to an overshot wheel at the factory building,
60 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
standing just west of the hig-hway. Here Miner, in addi-
tion to wheel-heads, made wooden pails, wooden bowls, half
bushel and peck measures, and various other wooden articles
useful for farmers and their wives. Four or five years after
the factory was in successful operation. Miner sold out his
interest in the wheelhead business, which was moved else-
where, and the factoiy building was ultimately converted
into a carding mill and clothing works.
Among the persons who subsequently carried on business
here as clothiers were Edmund C. Weston and William
Patten, two of the son-in-laws of James Rathbun, who
cleared and improved the land v/here the factory stood.
There are many persons still living, who in their boyhood
days carried wool to this mill to be carded into rolls, for
their mothers to spin into woolen yarn; and probably still
more who have worn garments made from fulled cloth, pre-
pared or manufactured in these works. After a period of
usefulness this mill, like all others of its kind, went'into
decline, finally suspended operation, and the building years
ago was converted into a cider mill.
In this connection it seems proper to observe, that the
v/omen folks in olden times spun yarn from the wool shorn
from their own sheep, wove it into cloth, and in many
instances cut and made it into garments for the use of the
major portion of the hosueohld. In these matters they
were very proficient and often displayed much delicacy and
skill. The bedding in use in those times was a matter
which received the especial consideration of the female
portion of the household. The linen sheets, woolen blankets
and coverlids made by these old dames of a hundred years
ago, have challenged the admiration of all women folks
that have succeeded them, and will continue to do so for
years yet to come. Such rich blues, and such vivid and
lasting colors. Probably very few of those who look upon
and admire these remaining specimens of feminine art of
olden times, have any personal knowledge of the manner
of obtaining these beautiful colors, or of the old time dye
tub, once so familiar an object, standing in a corner of the
living room. In those times a spinning wheel, a reel, a
pair of swifts, a loom, and a dye tub were deemed a very
necessary part of the outfit of any household; and as the
women manufactured cloth and made the garments of the
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 61
household, Miner's Patent Wheelhead and the carding
machine were two very useful inventions in lightening her
labors.
In about the year 1814, Oliver Hyde, a soldier of the
Revolution, built a sawmill in Factory Gulf, on Lot 69,
Marcellus, above Miner's Pond, which supplied water for
his wheelhead factory.
When Amos Miner sold out his interests in Factory Gulf,
he moved to Lot 76, Marcellus, where he erecter a grist mill
at the head of the Gulf, leading from near the center of
said lot easterly to Otisco Lake, as has been before fully
described in a paragraph relating to Miner under the head
of " Early Settlers." This mill has been continued in one
form or another until the present day.Near this mill was
erected, at a very early date, a sav-mill which was in opera-
tion at a comparatively recent date.
About the year 1813, William Marsh erected a carding
mill and clothing works, west of the highway and north of
the stream at the head of the Pudding Mill Gulf, on Lot 76,
Marcellus, near Miner's Grist Mill. Among the names of
those who have been interested in this mill and works
besides Mr. Marsh, are Eleazer Hillebert, Charles Richards,
Jr., Richard S. Eggleston, William D. Potter, Roger Tolls,
Jonathan S. Niles, Ichabod Sheldon and Ebenezer Failing.
These works went to pieces many years ago and very few
persons, if any now living, have any personal knowledge
in reference to them.
On the east side of the same highway, and north of the
Pudding Mill Gulf, was erected before 1819, by Alexander
Webster, a distillery. Dr. Jonathan Kneeland, in speaking
of this distillery said, " it did not last very long, as its owner
soon boiled himself to death in his own mash tub." The
widow, Barbara Webster, conveyed away the lands on which
the distillery stood in 1825.
At a very early date the little huddle about Miner's mill
gave promise of something more than it is at the present
date. Eleazer Hillebert had a blacksmith shop there, David
T. Lyon had a shoe shop, and there undoubtedly were other
industries at that place. Borodino Village ultimately
absorbed all that at one time seemed to give it promise of a
better future.
Amasa Kneeland, at a very early date, carried on business
62 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
as a tanner and currier, on the northwest comer of this
same Lot 76, Marcelhis, near the Borodino and Thorn Hill
road. David T. Lyon, also, in after years, carried on this
same business at Spafford Corners; whether he carried on
this business while residing at the Pudding Mill huddle is
not known.
Seventy-five or a hundred years ago public sentiment, in
reference to the use of intoxicating liquors, was different
from what it is at the present, and distilleries were deemed
more of a necessity at that time, when the custom was to
drink whiskey instead of beer. There were no restrictions
in those tim_es on the manufacture of whiskey ; consequently
it was very cheap, three cents a glass, and pure, as there
was no object in its adulteration; and distilleries for its
manufacture were everywhere. Before the year 1819,
Jonathan Berry erected a distillery, in what was then known
as the Stone Gulf, below the Little Falls, and a short dis-
tance east of School House No. 1, in the Nunnery neighbor-
hood. This was apparently run by a man named Ephraim
Colby. Mr. Berry subsequently conveyed away the lands
where the distillery stood to John K. Stone, in the year 1832,
and nothing more is known of these works. In one of the
deeds of the surrounding lands appears the following
reservation, being a description of the distillery lands.
" Reserving distillery land as follows : Beginning at the
head of Little Falls and running thence westerly along the
brink to the south bank of said Gulf to the Narrows —
thence across the narrows to the brink of the north bank —
thence easterly along said brink of north bank to the round
rock — thence to the head of the Falls — and thence to the
place of beginning. Also a log house standing on the brink
of the Gulf (lately occupied by Ephraim Colby) ; also a
road to pass and repass from said distillery in a north-
easterly direction without interruption."
April 19, 1806, Dr. Archibald Farr purchased fifty acres
of land on Lot 12, Tully, at the foot of the Bucktail Gulf,
on the west side of Spafford Hollow, of Judge William
Cooper, the father of James Fenimore Cooper, the great
American novelist, and author of the Leather Stocking
Tales, for the expressed consideration of one hundred silver
dollars. At the foot of the lower Falls Dr. Farr, on this
purchase, erected the same year a grist mill ; being the first
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 63
of its kind in the orig-inal town of Spafford. This mill
went out of existence soon after its erection, probaby
destroyed by a Spring freshet. Uriah Roundy, born in
Spafford July 24, 1819, in speaking of this mill says : " The
Archibald Farr mill was built and out of existence before
I can remember. A man by the name of Earl Barrows built
a second mill at the lower end of the Buclctail Gulf about
1848, or 1850. This was a feed mill only, and was destroyed
by a Spring freshet."
In a deed dated May 11, 1844, by Mathew Morse (Moss)
of Spafford, to Ebenezer Morse of Homer, mention is made
of a furnace once existing on the Dr. Farr land, at the foot
of the lower Falls, at the mouth of the Bucktail Gulf. Uriah
Roundy says this furnace was out of existence before he
had any memory on the subject; and no one seems to be
able to tell v/ho ran it, if not Dr. Farr, on whose land it
was built.
On the top of the upper Falls, in the Bucktail Gulf, Capt.
Asahel Roundy built a sawmill about 1840 ; a few feet south
of this mill, Dr. Zachariah Derbyshire, at an earlier date
erected and carried on a furnace; and a hundred rods or
more further up stream, near the upper end of the Bucktail
Gulf and road, Capt. Asahel Roundy, before 1828, erected
a carding mill and clothing works. The latter is the same
mill from which the machinery was stolen and carried away,
as related in a prior paragraph of this work, under the title,
"Early Settlers." Uriah Roundy, in a letter dated January
9, 1899, in speaking of this carding mill, furnace and saw-
mill says : " The carding mill at the top of the Bucktail
must have been built about 1820. I helped tear it down
and move the building to Spafford Corners before I was
married, and that was fifty-six years ago. I remember
when it was doing business, I have carried wool and cloth
there to be finished. Somewhere between 1828 and 1830 a
man by the name of Worthington ran it. " The Furnace
above the upper Falls of the Bucktail was built soon after
the carding mill ; I have nothing to shov/ when it was built.
I think Dr. Derbyshire built it. I remember that John
Beeler, a one-legged soldier, had a cannon cast there to
celebrate the Fourth of July ; I was probably eight or nine
years old at the time. It was loaded on the morning of
the Fourth of July, and William Bell, a boy living with
64 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
Sumner Allen, touched it off; it burst and broke his arm,
and killed a cow for James Knapp. This must have been
in 1828 or 1830. I have no recollection of having been to
the furnace when in operation. About the furnace at the
foot of the Bucktail Gulf, I know nothing, except I have
been told there was one there. There was a grist mill built
there since I can remember ; a man by the name of Barrows
built it, but it did not run long ; it was only a feed mill.
" The sawmill at the upper Falls on the Bucktail was
built by my father, Asahel Roundy, about 1840. My
brother Charles and myself did most of the blasting of
rocks, necessary to fix a place for the mill and flume. This
was in 1840 just before Charles left home. Father o^vned
the land where the sawmill, furnace and carding mill stood,
ever since I can remember."
This saw mill, like all the other early mills in town, had
an upright saw, standing in a wooden frame, which was
raised up or down when sawing a log or board, the power
came from an undershot wheel, which in this instance was
suspended at the mouth of the flume, several feet down and
over the edge of the Falls, which were seventy-five or more
feet in height. The process of sawing was not a very rapid
one and there was much waste of power; it required a
freshet to make the mill an available one. This mill went
out of use when the writer was a small boy; he can re-
member it when in operation, a man by the name of Darius
Plummer acted as sawyer at that time.
In 1810 Josiah Walker built a sawmill in Cold Brook, on
the cross road running east from the main road, north of
the school house. It was in the mill pond to this mill that
Franklin Weston, Orange Norton and Lucius Pease, three
small boys aged respectively 14, 13 and 9 years, were
drowned June 24th, 1816. Franklin Weston was the
youngest brother of Mrs. Asahel Roundy; and after the
accident, was brought home to the residence of Mrs. Roundy,
on horseback by her husband ; Orange Norton was an older
brother of Seymour Norton, who recently died at Spafford
Corners at great age ; and Lucius Pease was the oldest son
of Horace Pease, one of the early settlers in Cold Brook.
This accident at the time caused a profound sensation,
which has been more enduring than the mill itself, which
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 66
would have been long ago forgotten but for this terrible
calamity.
The next sawmill erected on the Cold Brook stream was
built in 1826 by Peter Picket, about a mile south of Walker's
Mill, on a cross road leading east from the main road, just
south of the Cold Brook M. E. Church and Cemtery. This
mill, very soon after its erection, was transferred to Beza-
lel Taft, and ever since has been known as Taft's Mill. The
upright saw, formerly in use years ago, has been replaced
by a circular one, and the mill is now, or was at a very
recent date, in use, whenever it could find anything to do.
Soon after the sale of the Taft mill, as above stated,
Peter Picket built another sawmill higher up stream,
between the Walker and Taft locations, on a cross road
leading east from the school house. This mill was after-
wards owned and known as the Orren Cary's Mill; this,
like the Walker mill, went out of existence years ago.
About 1830 Dr. David Mellen built a grist mill, a few
rods south and down stream from Taft's saw mill; this
was burned in 1852 and a feed mill was erected in its place
by John P. Taft in 1863. The latter mill is still in opera-
tion and owned by the builder.
At an early date David Carver built a saw mill in SpafTord
Hollow on lot 34, Tully; this was afterwards operated by
Lorenzo Boutell; on the same stream, leading into Otisco
Lake, near the northern line of said lot 34, as early as 1822,
was a carding mill and clothing works, supposed to have
been built by Samuel Draper ; and still further down stream
at the first cross roads leading easterly across the Hollow,
v/as a saw mill, at one time operated by Frank Smith, son
of Ira Smith. These mills and works have long passed out
of existence, and even the memory of them is confined to
a very few of the older inhabitants of the town. At Brom-
ley, in the town of Tully, a little huddle formerly known as
Shawville, near the Spafford line, there was a grist mill
and saw mill at a very early date; these were in operation
in recent years, as well as a sawmill on Lot 13, Tully, in
the town of Otisco, just over the SpaflTord line, on a cross
road leading easterly from the Bucktail road. Of late years
there has been very little use for these mills, once so flour-
ishing and so necessary to the early settler.
66 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
TAVERNS, STORES, SHOPS, POTASHIRES,
TANNERIES.
The first merchant at Spafford Corners was Jared Bab-
cock, who came first to Scott, Cortland County, N. Y., in
1804, probably from Leyden, Mass., where most of the
Babcocks in that place came from, and from there to Spaf-
ford, where he opend a general store, in 1809. The building
occupied by him is supposed to have been located on a half
acre of ground owned by John Babcock, also from Scott,
situate on the west side of the Skaneateles and Homer road,
between the present blacksmith shop of John Pendergast
and the residence lately occupied by Parmenus Norton. Mr.
Babcock conducted this store for a short time, sold out to
Anthony Mason, and moved to Homer, N. Y.
Mr. Mason conveyed his interest in this store property,
December 12, 1822, to Isaac Knapp, who in connection with
his brother, James D. Knapp, carried on a general mer-
chandise business at the same place until about 1827 or
1828, when they failed and were sold out by Sheriff. The
store property was conveyed by that oflficer January 16,
1829, at which time Joseph R. Berry was in occupation as
a general merchant at that place. From that time forward
Mr. Berry carried on business there, until his new store
was in readiness for occupation, which was erected by him
on the northeast corner of the cross roads at the "Corners"
in 1831. The old building then went into decline and was
not occupied for mercantile purposes afterwards. At the
raising of the frame of the new store building it was christ-
ened, according to the custom of the times, " The Proud
Farmers' Ruin." The new building has been occupied sub-
sequent to Mr. Joseph R. Berry by the following merchants :
Nelson Berry, Zach. Berry, Thomas B. Anderson, Levi Hurl-
but, Asahel M. Roundy, James Churchell, T. Maxson Foster,
and John G. Van Benschoten, the present occupant.
Lauren Hotchkiss, a brother-in-law of Captam Asahel
Roundy, opened a store for the sale of general merchandise
on the southwest corner of the same cross roads at the
Corners, in 1810. The land on which this store stood was
subsequently occupied after 1840 by the Baptist Church;
but before it went into occupation of that society, and sub-
sequently to Mr. Hotchkiss, these lands were owned by Dr.
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 67
Ashbel Searl (subsequently of Otisco), Thomas Stevens,
John Evans and Nelson Beriy; but whether any of them
had a store there is not known.
About 1867, after the Baptist Society became extinct,
Uriah Roundy purchased the church site and converted the
church building into a store for the sale of general mer-
chandise, for which purpose it has been in use ever since.
The mrchants who have occupied this reconstructed church
building for store purposes since 1867 are: Uriah Roundy,
Benjamin McDaniels, George King, Caleb E. King and
Andrew Lieber and son, the present occupants.
Early in the forties, Jonathan F. Woodworth opened a
store at the " Center," in a building on the west side of the
road subsequently occupied by Samuel Purchase as a dwell-
ing house. Soon afterwards he erected a new store build-
ing on the east side of the road and just south of the hotel
at Spafford Corners, where he carried on a general mer-
cantile business for many years. Subsequent to Mr. Wood-
worth's occupation this latter building was owned and used
by Charles B. Lyon as a shoe shop.
According to tradition, Dr. Archibald Farr in 1803 set-
tled on the southwest corner of Lot 11, Tully, and the
following year Isaac Hall located at Spafford Corners ; and
each of these gentlemn threw open their log cabins as public
inns for the entertainment of guests. In the absence of
direct knowledge on the subject, we infer from circum-
stances, that this means no more than being the first settlers
in the southern portion of the town, they were obliged to
and did open their houses for the entertainment of the
numerous prospecting parties, seeking unoccupied lands for
purchase and settlement, and for which they very probably
received a compensation. Very little is known of these two
public houses, but it is probable they ceased to be such
as soon as the temporary demand for them passed away.
In the case of Dr. Farr we are unable to verify the date of
his reputed settlement, as his deed was never recorded, but
as to Mr. Hall, v>^e find his deed is dated in 1805; he may,
however, have gone into occupation a year earlier under
contract.
Mr. Hall's log house stood in the garden connected with
the present hotel, just east of the horse bams. Mr. Hall
sold out his possessions at the " Corners ' in 1811, and was
68 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
followed in occupation by John Williamson from Minden,
Montgomery County, N. Y., in 1814. The latter gentleman
sold to Captain Asahel Roundy in 1821, who erected that
year the presnt hotel building, then known as '* Roundy's
Tavern." This has been the only public house at the
Corners since its erection. Mr. Roundy kept the place until
1843; then sold it to Col. William W. Legg, who has been
succeeded by Thomas Babcock, Amon J. Ripley, Dr. G.
Eugene Barker, John C. Van Benschoten, Andrew Lieber
and Thomas McAuliffe, present occupant.
About 1828, Elias Woodworth opened a house of enter-
tainment on the southwest comer of Lot 13, Sempronius,
east of the main highway near the Center; this was suc-
ceeded by a new tavern, supposed to have been built by
Thomas Babcock, just south of Woodworth's, and on Lot
14, Sempronius, known as " The Center House." This
house was subsequently owned by Isaiah Buffington, Hop-
kins Perkins, Daniel Vail, Jr., Edward M. Allen, Amos
Austin, Willis S. Nelson, John C. Tinkham and William
Cowan. The building was destroyed by fire in the fifties
and has never been replaced.
It would be unprofitable to attempt to recall the names
of all who have worked at blacksmithing and wagon making,
in the original tov/n of Spaff ord, since its settlement ; suffice
it to say, that in olden times there were those who worked
at one or both these trades at the Center, the Corners, Cold
Brook, East Side Hill, and in Spafford Hollow. Early in
the thirties Edward Baxter, Thomas Mitchell and Gershom
Lewis opened a wagon and blacksmith shop on the site of
the present Union Church at the " Corners " ; their interest
in this site was afterwards purchased by the Trustees of
that Church, July 7, 1838, and Gersham Lewis immediately
thereafter erected a new shop for the prosecution of the same
business, just south of the Baptist Church, where the late
Alexander Green subsequently resided; here he remained
until his decease about 1850. In wagon making Mr. Lewis
never had a successor at the " Corners " ; but in repairing of
wagons and farm implements and in smithing he had many;
among whom are the following : Asa Wellington, Franklin
Roundy, Alexander Green, Perry Norton and John Pcnder-
gast. At an early date Anson Churchell did a very profit-
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 69
able business for many years as blacksmith in the northern
end of the village ; he died in 1849.
Just south of Mr. Churchell's blacksmith shop Mr. Loami
W. Johnson had a cooper shop; he came from Cambridge,
in this State, and first settled north of Borodino. From
there he came to this village at an early date and carried
on a profitable business as cooper until his decease, which
occurred in 1861 ; he had no successor in business.
There never was but one resident tailor at the Corners,
William Quick, who was born in London, England. He
first came to Canada, and from there to this village, where
he married a Miss French. He remained here a few years
and then moved to Borodino. Before his coming a tailor
residing in some other place came to the tavern on stated
days, cut the clothes of the people, and they were then made
up in the family or by a practiced seamstress who went
from houses to house for that purpose. The business of a
tailor and seamstress in those days was a respectable and
profitable one.
Another lucrative business in olden times was that of
currier and tanner and shoemaker. There are those still
living who can remember when a shoemaker, carrying his
kit of tools with him, v/ent from house to house, shoeing
the family from skins taken from the domestic herds, and
prepared by a neighboring tanner and currier. Among the
itinerant shoemakers who came to the "Corners" was David
Havens, father of Clark and Ebenezer Havens. He came
from Rhode Island, was a Seventh Day Baptist, and was
buried in their cemetery at Scott, New York. Among the
early tanners and curriers were Sumner Allen, father of
William Bulfinch Allen, now a resident at the Corners, and
David T. Lyon ; each carrying on business west of the main
road, in the northern part of the village at Spaff ord Corners.
Mr. Lyon was also a shoemaker, and with his coming here
the itinerant business came to an end; he and his sons
Charles B. and Cyrus Lyon were expert craftsmen, and for
many years made the foot wear of the southern residents
of the town.
Another industry of considerable importance in early
times, now in disuse by reason of changed conditions, was
that of Potashery. At a very early date a building for the
manufacture of potash from wood ashes stood where the
70 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
present residence of Mrs. Benjamin McDaniels now stands,
on the south side of the east and west road, just west of the
" Corners." Here " Uncle " Eli Fisher, under the manage-
ment of Levi Hurlbut and Asahel M. Roundy, year after
year gathered wood ashes from all the neighboring farmers,
and in the Fall of the year boiled the lye from them into
potash, for the eastern market; and here many a good house-
v/ife came with her pot grease to have " Uncle " Eli assist
her in making her annual barrel of soft soap for domestic
use. Uncle Eli was a familiar character of those early
years, and his coming and going, as the years went round,
was watched by the villagers with pleasurable satisfaction.
His glowing open arch fire always gave out a generous heat
and light, and many a man will recall with pleasure the
memory of, when a boy, he spent the cold Fall evenings
in that light and heat with Uncle Eli, as the latter pursued
his evening toil.
Jeremiah Van Rensselae Coon and his father David Coon,
at an early date carried on the business of harness making,
the former at the Corners, and the latter at the cross roads
east of SpafFord Cemetery; David Coon died in 1857, and
his son moved away soon afterwards ; they had no successors
in business.
The following business references to the Village of Boro-
dino are taken in part from Bruce's History of the County
of Onondaga. The first merchant there was Daniel G.
Burroughs, who kept a store in a log cabin on the site of
the present dwelling house and store of Alphonso Deerman,
east of the Skaneateles and Homer road, as well as the one
leading to Thorn Hill. It is said he was an expert swimmer,
and at one time swam from Borodino Landing to Mandana,
a distance of thee miles.
Borodino at one time had three stores for the sale of
general merchandise, thee taverns, three tailor shops, three
blacksmith shops, and other things in proportion ; but, like
Spaflord Comers, was materially affected by the building
of the Binghamton and Syracuse Railroad, and the conse-
quent diversion of travel to that road.
Mr. Burroughs was succeeded in business by Stephen and
Hoi'ace Chi Ids, said to have been natives of Connecticut, but
before or after coming to Borodino resided in Owasco, N. Y.
Other merchants in Borodino were Daniel Baxter, Messer
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 7I
Barker, Washin^on Wallace, William Legg, David Becker
(his son-in-laAv) , Thomas E. Anderson, Charles M. Rich,
Churchell & Eddie, Grinnell & Howe, William Quick & Son,
Captain Zach Berry, Caleb E. King, and Alphonso Deerman.
The first tavern was built by Ira Rider in 1823, on the
present site of the Churchell House ; the second was erected
by Col. Lewis C. Davis, where John Uncless now resides;
and the third was kept in the house lately occupied by Mark
Harvey as a residence, on the northwest corner of the cross
road in this village. The two latter taverns were discon-
tinued many years ago, and the former is still in use and
occupied as a hotel by Mr. Churchell.
The first blacksmith shop was kept by Eleazer Hillebert,
on the site where the Legg Block recently stood. Other
blacksmiths in the village were William Legg, Mr. Stowell,
Isaac Wallace, Orrin F. Eddy, A. Griffin and John Weston.
The first wagon maker was William Legg; who had as
workmen John Babcock, Solomon Sprague, Seymour
Warner, and Simeon Morchell.
Among the early shoemakers were Milton Streeter,
Renona A. Cady, and Harman Cady. Thomas Howard at
one time had a tannery here; Daniel Baxter a Potashery;
and William Hayford a tinshop and foundry.
In May, 1856, a fire destroyed the tinshop and foundry,
a tailor shop, and other things, entailing a loss of about
$8,000.00; and on September 12, 1871, the business places
of William W. Legg & Son, William Quick, Charles M. Rich,
H. Linus Darling, and Charles Benton were burned;
destroying nearly the whole business center of the village.
The site of the major portion of the burned district was
subsequently built upon by Col. William W. Legg, for a
business block adapted for the use of stores, shops and
offices ; this was also destroyed by fire in 1901, and has not
since been restored. Since the destruction of the Legg
Block three stores have catered to the wants of the Borodino
people, two on the site of the original Burroughs store, and
one in the building known as the Town Hall.
In early years the country merchants purchased their
goods direct from the wholesale dealer and importer in
New York City, and for that purpose made at least one
trip annually to that metropolis, and the particularly smart
ones made two, one in the Spring and one in the Fall of
72 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
the year. These sojourns from home generally lasted from
two to three weeks at a time. By reason of their much
travel and their extensive business experiences, the society
of these gentlemen was much sought after in the communi-
ties where they resided; and their patrons never wearied
of the relation of their travels and their business experi-
ences in the great City of New York. Their comments on
facts coming within their personal observation seemed to
have force and certainty, which comes from special knowl-
edge and privileged information, and were received by their
auditors accordingly. If they were good fellows, and their
business instincts generally led them to be, their stores
naturall.y became club-houses, where men and boys con-
gregated, not only to look over the latest importations from
New York, but to hear the latest news from the outside
world. Newspapers were not as common then as now, and
consequently the country merchant was a power politically
and socially in the community. Men naturally congregate
together during the relaxation of business, and in early
years, what better place was there for a country man or
boy to spend a long winter evening, than around the big-
box stove in the rear part of a country store? Here the
elders smoked their pipes, told stories, and all listened to
the merchant as he related his adventures, and expounded
matters political and otherwise to his patrons congregated
about him. A popular merchant has always been a great
power in the community, and it is a pleasure to note that
in this town the store, as a club-house, has always taken
precedence in popularity over that of the tavern.
HIGHWAYS.
Joshua V. H. Clark, in his History of Onondaga, in
speaking of the original town of Spafford as organized in
1811, says: "The first settler in that part of the town taken
from Tully v.'as Jonathan Berry. He first settled a shoi-t
distance south of the village of Borodino, in March, 1803.
In April, the same year, Archibald Farr located himself on
the southwest corner of Lot. 11.
" To facilitate the progress of Mr. Farr's imigration,
Berry sent his teams and men to clear out a road, that Farr
might proceed to his place of destination. This was the
first road attempted to be made within the limits of the
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 73
town, and is the same that now leads from Spafford Corners
to Borodino." The next year " the road was cleared from
Farr's, on Lot 11, to the Corners; and the next year, 1805,
Elisha Sabins and John Babcock cleared and cut a road
from Scott (then known as Babcock's Corners) to Spafford
Corners."
The same time they moved their goods on sleds over
this newly made road from Scott to their new abode in this
town at Spafford Comers. Mr. Goodwin, in his history of
Cortland County, say that the next year, 1806, Isaac Hall,
who had ecently settled at Spafford Corners, drove a wagon
over this road from his home to Babcock's Corners, loadea
it with hemlock boards, and then drove it back to his
residence in Spafford.
Goodwin, in this same history, says that Peleg Babcock,
accompanied by his brother Solomon Babcock, coming from
Leyden, Mass., settled on Lot 82, Tully, now Village of Scott,
in the year 1799 ; and was soon afterwards follov/ed to that
place by John Babcock, Jared Babcock and others. How
these latter gentlemen were rlated to Peleg, if at all, is not
known. Soon after taking up his residence in Scott, Peleg
Babcock puchased Lot 21, Tully, on which Spafford Corners
is situate, and immediately afterwards commenced the
sale of it in parcels to purchasers. Among his early con-
veyances is one to John Babcock, dated October 8, 1806,
one to James Cravath, dated September 7, 1805, and another
to Elisha Sabin, dated September 8, 1811 ; probably preceded
by contract of anterior date. Mr. Babcock never owned
the State's Hundred Acres on this lot, which was puchased
by Isaac Hall, August 1, 1805; perhaps by contract of an
earlier date; it is claimed he was in occupation as early as
1804.
In view of these traditionary statements, it is interesting
to note the survey bill of this first highway in town, which
has been transcribed in the first book of records ot the town
of Spafford, from an earlier record in the town books of
Tully. This is the first road record in this book of records :
" Survey of a road, beginning at the north vv^est corner
of Lot 12, in Sempronius; and running from thence S. 47°
E. 185 chains — thence S. 35° E. 60 chains — thence S. 14°
E. 183 chains — thence S. 7° E. 245 chains — thence S. 30
chains — thence S. 7° E. 40 chains — thence S. 15° E. 10
74 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
chains to the north line of lot No. 82, Tully, Nicholas
Howd, Surveyor. ?
Recorded this 3rd day of July, 1804,
Amos Skeel, Clerk.
James Cravath,
Solomon Babcock,
Commissioners of Highways."
This is a survey of the main highvv^ay, running north and
south through the original town of Spafford, (now known
as the Skaneateles and Homer road), commencing at Jona-
than Berry's house, on the north line of the then town of
Spafford, and the south line of Marcellus, and extending to
the Village of Scott, in the County of Cortland. That would
indicate that, at least, the portion of this highway from Dr.
Archibald Farr's location, on the southwest corner of Lot
11, to the Village of Scott, was surveyed before the tradi-
tionary opening of the road. The lands purchased by James
Cravath of Peleg Babcock, on Lot 21, Tully, were the same
now owned and occupied by Joseph Cole in 1900 ; and this
survey bill also indicates that he must have occupied his
purchase early in 1804 or he must have formerly resided in
Scott, before settling in Spafford.
The town books show the record of another survey bill,
of a cross road leading from the Skaneateles and Homer
road, easterly on Lot 11 to Lot 12, in the direction of Farr's
Mill at the foot of the Bucktail; this road ran along the
northern line of the Breed Farm of to-day, and was aban-
doned years ago and taken up. This bill is also dated in
1804, showing the early date of Dr. Farr's efforts to locate
a grist mill, and perhaps a foundry in Spafford Hollow.
Other survey bills of roads are recorded, commencing
January 7th, 1807, and rapidly thereafter until the original
town was well supplied with these means of intercommuni-
cation, before it was organized as a separate corporate body
in 1811; in fact in early days there were more roads than
there are to-day; many of those first laid out have either
been regularly condemned and taken up, or abandoned to
the use of the adjacent owners of the land. Among those
abandoned or gone into disuse, was one extending along the
county line between Onondaga and Cortland, commencing
in the Skaneateles and Homer road, and extending easterly
to the main road, running northerly and southerly in Cold
SPAFFORD; ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 7*
Brook; another cross road, extending from the Skaneateles
and Homer road to the Cold Brook road, ran along the
southern line of the Barker farm of 1900, and was aban-
doned years ago, and fenced in by the owners of the land.
The cross road along the north line of the Breed farm, above
spoken of, was also abandoned over fifty years ago. There
are others which have suffered a similar fate, but a recital
of them would be wearisome and unprofitable.
There are other roads which have been laid out or re-
surveyed, since the organization of the town in 1811, and
particularly since the addition of the Marcellus acquisition.
The early records of the original town of Marcellus were
burned before 1830, so a re-survey of that portion of the
town was ordered by vote, early in the thirties. The last
survey bill appearing of record in the town books, is one
of the road leading from Edwin Morris' house, (1900) on
Lot 31, to the head of Skaneateles Lake, by way of Spafford
Landing and the cottage of the writer on that beautiful
sheet of water.
In this connection it seems appropriate to remark, that
the main road running northerly and southerly through
this town, from the village of Homer on the south to the
village of Skaneateles on the north, is one of the most
attractive and picturesque in Central New York, so cele-
brated for beautiful drives, and in early times, before the
cross-country railroads had diverted the natural course of
travel, was much used by travelers, passing from the north-
ern to the southern portions of the State. A regular line of
stages passed daily both ways over this route, to accom-
modate the demands of travel, and taverns at stated places
along the road did a prosperous business. In the Fall of
the year, large droves of cattle and sheep were frequently
seen going along this highway, and the farmers along the
route found a ready sale for their surplus fodder to the
drovers accompanying these domestic herds, destined for
the New York Market. The Stage Driver and Tavern
Keeper were important personages in those early times, and
held a position in the community entirely different from
their successors of the pesent day.
The highway from the village of Homer to Skaneateles,
a distance of twenty-five miles, is nearly in a direct course,
and so gentle in its rise and descent that a traveller can trot
76 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
a smart team, attached to a lig-ht conveyance, nearly the
whole distance between the two places. Leaving the Village
of Homer, the route to Scott, eight miles, is up a wide and
fertile valley, and from thence to the county line, two and
a half mj'les, is up a gentle ascent along a small water couse.
As the traveller approaches the countj'' line, there is sud-
denly opened to his view an expanse of fifteen or twenty
miles of landscape, covering part of the county of Cayuga,
nearly all of the to^vn of Spafford, parts of the towns of
Skaneateles and J^^arcellus, and the whole of Skaneateles
Lake, with its surrounding hills and wooded points mirrored
in its placid waters. The highway at this point, is over a
thousand feet above the waters of the Lake, less than a mile
away on the left, and thence, in its northerly and parallel
course to that body of water, gradually descends to the sur-
face level of the Lake at Skaneateles A^'illage, fifteen miles
away, the traveller never losing sight of that beautiful sheet
of water, from the time it first came in view in the hills of
Scott. This old stage route m.ay have lost some of its points
of interest, by the removal of the old time stage coaches,
and the discontinuance of travel by piva,te equipages, once
so frequently seen on this favorite route of travel, yet there
is a satisfaction in knov/ing that the graceful Spafford Hills,
the fair waters of Skaneateles Lake, and God's pure air and
the sunlight of Heaven spread over all, are still there, and
cannot be diverted by the commercialism of man.
Another road in town, knov/n as the " Bucktail," leading
from Spafford Corners to Otisco Hollow, will always attract
the attention of the traveller, by reason of its wild and
rugged character; without question it has no counterpart
in Central New York, and possibly not in the whole State
of New York. It was laid out about 1818 by Captain Asahel
Roundy, and surveyed in May, 1819, by Lauren Hotchkiss,
Surveyor. The naming of this road was mentioned under
the head of First Settlers, in connection with the name of
Captain Roundy.
PROFESSIONAL MEN.
PHYSICIANS.
The first resident physician, in the southern end of the
town of Spafford, was Dr. Archibald Farr, who, according
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 77
to tradition, settled on the southwest corner of Lot 11, Tully,
in the Spring of 1803. Very little is known of him, beyond
the fact that he was the first settler in the southern portion
of the town, that he opened his log cabin for the entertain-
ment of guests, and that he built a grist-mill in 1806, and
perhaps a foundry, at the foot of the Buck Tail Gulf, in
Spafford Hollow. He must have moved away before 1811,
for according to deed records in the County Clerk's Office,
the Leggs were in possession, that year, of the land where
he is reputed to have resided.
Dr. Farr was followed by Dr. Ashbel Searls, who first
settled east of the main road, on Lot 42, Tully, on land
purchased of Elijah Knapp. He erected there a log house,
but did not remain long before he re-deeded the land to
Mr. Knapp, and moved to Spafford Corners, where he pur-
chased a house and lot on the southwest corner of the cross
roads, of Lauren Hotchkiss. From there he moved to Otisco
about 1815, and finally to Onondaga Valley, where he died
in 1875 at a great age. He became a member of the Onon-
daga County Medical Society in 1816, while a resident of
Otisco.
The next physician in the southern part of the town, of
whom we have any recrod, was Dr. Zachariah Derbyshire,
who resided on the west side of the highway, half way
between the residence of Lyman C. Bennett and that of Mrs.
Isaac Fisher, on Lot 22, Tully. His first wife, Pruella
Derbyshire, died August 12, 1823, and was buried in Spaf-
ford Cemetery; he then married Hannah Williamson,
daughter of Cornelius Williamson, for a second wife. We
have no record of his coming or going, but it is probable his
stay in town filled the interregrum, between the going of
Dr. Searls as above stated, and the coming of Dr. Collins,
who came about 1830. He at one time had a foundry, just
above the upper falls in the Buck Tail Gulf.
Dr. John Collins came to Spafford Corners from Brook-
field, Madison County, New York, where he was born, about
1830, and remained here in active practice of his profession
until his decease, August 15, 1853.
Among the early students who read medicine In his office
was Daniel G. Frisbie, who after being admitted to prac-
tice, entered into partnership with him. Dr. Frisbie was
admitted to the Onondaga County Medical Society in June,
78 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
1845. Dr. Frisbie, while associated in business with Dr.
Collins, married Mary Bulfinich, daughter of Joseph Bul-
finch, and a short time afterwards went West, where he
became a successful practitioner and business man.
A short time before the decease of Dr. Collins he sold his
last residence (the late T. Maxson Foster residence) and
business interests to a Dr .Davidson, who continued practice
here for a few years and then moved away.
Since the departure of Dr. Davidson, the southern portion
of the town has been sevred by resident physicians, in the
persons of Dr. H. D. Hunt and Dr. G. Eugene Barker. Dr.
Hunt was admitted to the Onondaga County Medical Society
in June, 1875. He moved to Cortland County.
Dr. Barker, son of William Barker, was born in this town,
and after a successful practice in other places finally
returned here, where he has had a prosperous career in his
chosen profession, for a number of years last past. He is
a Homeopath, and was admitted to the Onondaga County
Medical Society of that persuasion in 1891, while he was a
resident of the village of Tully. He now has a residence
and office at Spafford Corners.
In the northern, or Marcellus end of the town, the first
resident physician was Jeremiah Bumbus Whiting, who is
reputed to have located at or near the present village of
Borodino in 1802, and continued practice there until 1819,
when he moved to Sempronius, N. Y. He afterwards went
to Michigan, where he died. Dr. Jonathan Kneeland, who
commenced the study of medicine in his office, said of him ;
he was a good classical and medical scholar, well skilled in
the use of indigenous remedies, but too much addicted to the
use of spirituous liquors to make a successful practitioner
in the field of medicine.
Dr. Whiting was succeeded at Borodino by Dr. Benjamin
Trumbull, who came in 1816. He was admitted to the
Onondaga County Medical Society in 1822, and was Presi-
dent of that body in 1832-3. He continued practice in this
village until his decease, which occurred May 28, 1835, at
the age of 46 years. He was invariably represented by
physicians, who knew him, as a gentleman, scholar and a
skillful physician. He was a nephew of " Brother Jona-
than " Trumbull of Connecticut, the intimate friend and
associate of Washington, and one of the most noted War
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 79
Governors of the Revolution. It is claimed that this village
is indebted to him for its name, Borodino, and that during
his residence here he did much to foster the churches, public
schools, and the Chistian morality of the community. He
died of heart disease.
Dr. Jonathan Kneeland, born near Borodino in 1812, early
had a predilection for medicine, and when a small boy,
entered the office of Dr. Whiting as a student; but this
engagement was soon terminated. He then entered a
medical school in Ohio, but his entry into the practice of
his chosen profession was interrupted by severe illness,
which delayed the fruition of his desires until he was over
thirty years of age. He first opened an ofRce in Tully, but
soon afterwards settled at or near Thorn Hill, where he had
a successful career as physician and surgeon, among his old
towns people near Borodino, for several years. He then
moved to Onondaga Valley, where he remained until his
decease. He joined the Onondaga County Medical Society
in 1842, and in 1892 was honored by that body by a public
banquet, on account of his long and honorable career of
fifty years, as member of that society. He was President
of that body in 1852.
Dr. Trumbull was succeeded at Borodino by Dr. Isaac
Morrell, who continued a successful practice there until
1866, when he moved to Fulton, N. Y. After a short
absence he returned to Boodino, but soon after went to
Elmira, N. Y., where he died. He was admitted to the
Onondaga Medical Society in January, 1841.
Since the departure of Dr. Morrell this end of the town
has been served by Dr. Van Dyke Tripp and Dr. William
G. Bliss. Dr. Tripp was admitted to the Onondaga County
Medical Society in 1869, and represented his town in the
Board of Supervisors of the County of Onondaga in 1881-3.
He is now deceased. Dr. Bliss was a native of Georgia, in
the State of Vermont, and after a successful business career
at Borodino for a number of years, moved to Tully, N. Y.,
where he is now engaged in the pactice of medicine.
Several of Spafford's sons have gone forth from this,
their native place, to other localities, and risen to eminence
in the profession of medicine, among whom are Jonathan
Kneeland (spoken of above), Stephen Smith, who went to
Brooklyn, N. Y., and there became a leading physician and
80 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
surgeon; who was at one time Commissioner of Charities
there, was Commissioner of Lunacy in 1882, was selected
as a Delegate to the International Sanitary Congress at
Paris in 1894, and is especially remembered for his valuable
gift of a medical library to the medical department of the
Syracuse University.
J. Lewis Smith, who was a graduate of Yale College,
became a prominent physician, and medical instructor in
the schools of the Citj^ of New York. He is also well known
to the profession as a medical writer and the author of
several medical works, particularly for a Treatise on the
Diseases of Children.
Dr. Edward Cox, son of Silas Cox, studied medicine with
Dr. Trumbull at Borodino, and then went to Michigan,
where he established a lucrative practice at Battle Creek.
Dr. Polaski Prindle, son of Moses Prindle, born near
Spafford Corners, studied with Dr. Morrell at Borodino,
and located first at Cashtown, and afterwards in Michigan,
where he died.
Dr. James R. Weston, son of Edmund C. Weston, studied
medicine with Dr. Collins at Spafford Corners, and finally
moved to Montana, where he became a successful physician,
a Bank President, a Judge of the Probate Court, and a
successful business man.
Dr. S. Elis Crane is a successful physician in Syracuse,
N. Y.
Dr. John E. Lyon, son of David Lyon, died soon after
coming into a lucrative practice; he was buried at Spafford
Cemetery.
LAWYERS.
There has never been a resident practicing lawyer in this
town; although there has always been some one skilled in
the practice of Justice Courts, and able to serve the people
in that tribunal ; amon;r>- these were Captain Asahel Roundy,
Jonathan Johnson, James H. Isdell, Uriah Roundy, H. Linus
Darling, and Simon B. Wallace. The latter is the only
one now living; he resides in the Village of Borodino, and
is ready to serve the people when his services are required.
While there are no resident lawyers, there are several
persons boni here who have settled in other localities, and
risen to eminence in their chosen profession ; among whom
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 81
are Hon. Martin A. Knapp, Judg-e Elliott Anthony, Captain
George K. Collins, Hon. A. Judson Kneeland, late practicing
attorney in the Village of Homer, N. Y., William Smith, a
graduate of Yale College, an attorney and counselor at law,
but who died early in California; Lee Olmsted and Harley
J. Crane, each of whom is actively engaged in the practice
of law in the City of Syracuse ; Judge Charles Vandenburg,
a graduate of Yale College, an attorney at law, and a
Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of Minnesota;
and Mr, Haraion, son of Elder Harmon, an eminent lawyer,
late of Washington, D. C.
MINISTERS.
Among the ministers who have gone from this town and
risen to prominence elsewhere, are Amasa Spencer Knee-
land, Stella Kneeland, Josiah N. Knapp (died a young man),
and David M. D. O'Farrell.
TEACHERS.
The following, born in Spafford, have graced the
profession in other communities : Prof. Charles 0. Roundy,
first principal of the Syracuse High School, Prof. Silas M.
Betts, born in Borodino in 1828, was at one time principal
of the High School in Niles, Michigan, for several years
principal of grammar schools in the City of Sryacuse, and
a teacher in the Normal School in the State of New Jersey ;
Prof. Alfred G. Harrington, at one time a successful teacher
in the high grade of schools in this State, now retired to
his farm in the town of Spalford; Prof. Joseph Addison
Prindle, at one time a successful teacher in one of the
Normal Schools of this State, now retired and residing in
the Village of Skaneateles, N. Y. ; and Prof. James Foster,
an old time teacher, moved to South Dakota, but now
deceased.
ARTIST AND SCULPTOR.
Sanford Thayer, son of Sanford and Sally (Miner)
Thayer, Portrait and Landscape Painter, was born July 19,
1820, and resided in boyhood in Cold Brook.
Of the works of Horace Kneeland as a sculptor, very little
is known by the writer.
32 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
SURVEYORS.
This brief sketch of the professional men who were bom
or resided in Spafford, would be incomplete without some
reference to the old time surveyor, who with compass and
chain divided farms, settled disputes, and fixed boundaries
between contending factions. One of the most skillful,
accurate, and tactful of the old surveyors in this town was
Joseph Bulfinch. He was born in Boston, and when a young
man, as principal taught school in a young ladies' seminary
in the State of Vermont, and at an early date, Avhen the
country was new and the land boundaries undefined, settled
in this town, just west of Spafford Corners. He v/as a man
who took pride in his calling, spared no pains for accuracy,
and for that reason his decisions were respected as in the
nature of a judicial conclusion. In Summer or Winter he
served his patrons as occasion required. He died at the
advanced age of 88 years in 1873, and was buried in
Spafford Cemetery.
After his decease he was succeeded for a time by his son,
Joseph H. Bulfinch; he moved years ago to South Dakota,
where he died; and later came Cyrenus Woodworth, whose
decease is a matter of recent occurrence.
POSTMASTERS.
It would be unprofitable at this time, to make the neces-
sary search to obtain the names of all persons who have
held the impotant office of Post Master, at the different
postal stations in this town, but the following are given as
the major portion of those holding this important office
under the General Government, at Spafford Corners. Cap-
tain Asahel Roundy was the first to receive this appointment
in 1814, and he has been succeeded by the following: Isaac
Knapp, Joseph R. Berry, Thomas B. Anderson, Dr. John
Collins, William W. Legg, Uriah Roundy, Benjamin Mc-
Daniels, and Mr. Lieber, the present incumbent.
SKANEATELES LAKE AND COTTAGES.
Ekaneateles Lake is about seventeen miles long, averaging
about one mile in width, and contains an area of not far
from seventeen square miles of water, two-thirds of which are
within the bounds of the town of Spafford. The water in
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 83
depth is from twenty-five feet, at the foot and head, to two
hundred sixty-five feet throughout the major portion of its
course. There are no marshes or swamps along its shores,
which are for the most part rocky and precipitous.
The Village of Skaneateles, of two or three thousand
inhabitants, comes down to the water's edge at the foot of
the lake, and extends for a short distance up the gentle slope
of the hills encircling its northern extremity. Passing
from the Village of Skaneateles and going southward up
the lake five or six miles, the hills on either side come down
to the water's edge, in a gentle decline, graced with culti-
vated fields, and picturesque farm buildings environed with
fruit and other shade trees. At Five Mile Point the lake
makes a change in course to a more easterly direction and,
passing this Point, there is suddenly presented to the eye
of the traveller an extended view of pure limpid water sur-
rounded by bold, wild, and rugged highland scenery, such
as is seldom seen elsewhere or excelled in beauty and
picturesqueness. On the west side of the lake, at the
beginning of this highland district, is the hamlet of Man-
dana, and, on the east side, the pretty little village of Boro-
dino. Proceeding southv.^ard Point after Point successively
come into view, extending outward from either shore, with
their green verdue and graceful sweeping elm trees mirrored
in the placid waters of the lake. The view from eveiy
steamer landing is most entrancing, and impresses the mind
of the beholder. From Five Mile Point upward the shores
of the lake become more and more precipitous, and the sur-
rounding lands increase in elevation, until reaching the
head of the lake at Glen Haven there is an amphitheater of
precipitous hills, rising to a height a twelve or thirteen
hundred feet above the surface of the water. The follow-
ing is an abbreviated and adapted extract, taken from a
recent publication concerning this lake, by the well known
artist, John Barrow of Skaneateles, who for half a century
has studied and delightfully painted the woods, hills and
waters of Skaneateles Lake.
" The water of Skaneateles Lake is of the clearest and
purest. I believe it has a color and beauty hot reached by
any other lake in our land. All the other lakes of our
region have a clear and beautifully tinted water, each a
little different from any other. Ours has a delicate emerald
84 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
tint, less pronounced than that of the great lakes, a tint of
its ov.Ti, I think it the fairest of all.
" We know how g-racefully the shores rise from the lake
as far as Mandana, and then rise more precipitously, until
they pass around the head of the lake in a grand amphi-
theater of hills, still partially clothed with forests.
" Trees are standing and increasing around the Village
of Skaneateles and its adjacent shores, filling up gaps that
once were there. Nature still plants trees along the shore,
and already we see a great change in that respect in the
last twenty-five or thirty years. In some places the second
growth has reached the height of the old trees, and in other
places the saplings are covering the ground. There is still
a grand wood on the west shore, half way up the lake, that
keeps green the memory of the primeval forests.
" The Points that were barren a few years ago, are now
owned by men who o■v^^l summer cottages there, and have
taken care to add to such trees as have been spared to them.
Ten Mile Point has a new and beautiful grove, freshly
planted a few years ago, and also a fine old group, marking
the end of the Point as it was since the lake was known.
Three Mile Point, owned by Mr. Hooker, has since his
occupancy become a charming spot. Fall Brook Point has
changed some since I knew it, but not to its detriment, with
its fine cottage, pleasant lawn of flowers, and summer houses
planted there. I notice with satisfaction the same improve-
ment at Nine Mile Point, Sycamore Point, Randall's Point
and others.
" There is a ravine and brook at every Point, for the
brook makes the Point, and some are very interesting and
beautiful. The gorge at Appletree Point is one of the finest
on the lake. It has a stream of water more copious than
the Inlet at the head of the lake. There are two fine falls
in its course, one seventy-five or eighty feet in height, the
waters falling over a cavern in the slaty rock beneath, from
a ledge of Tully limestone above. Another one lower do^vn
the gorge, of forty feet in height, is most picturesque in
time of freshet. There are other ravines at Ten Mile Point,
Hall's Point, Jenny's Point, Collins' Point, Hooker's Point,
and Gregory's Point. All these and many other smaller
brooks, with their varied rocky architecture and plant life,
are of interest to the lover of Nature.
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 85
" Of the scenery of the lake much can be told. The
region in which this beautiful sheet of water lies is very
rich in varied landscape; its hills, valleys and woods are
very beautiful; and the views from the hills bounding- the
lakes are very charming. It would take too long to enum_-
erate the different places where good views can be obtained,
but some of the best are from the head of the lake. There
are some excellent ones from the hills back of Three Mile
Point, and from, there dov/n to Mandana. From the hills
south of Spafford Corners to the village of Skaneateles are
many charming views. Anywhere along the shores of the
lake it is very beautiful, but I think the finest views of all
are from Captain George K. Collins' cottage on Randall's
Point. This cottage commands splendid views up and down
the lake, the former being supplemented with the finest
view of the valley beyond Glen Haven. On the eastern
shore of the lake the summer sunsets can be seen in all their
variety and glory.
"There is a view from Ripley Hill, in the town of Spafford,
near the head of the lake, that ought to be famous. From
there the beholder has spread out before his vision a stretch
of county extending from the spurs of the Adirondack
Mountains on the east, to the hills of Seneca County on the
west, and from the mountains of Pennsylvania on the south,
to the waters of Lake Ontario on the north. One may well
be impressed with the beauty that is spread before him
here of our counter and the setting of our lake We only
need great artists a,nd poets to make the people understand
and appreciate how generous Nature has been, in giving us
this beautiful lake and surrounding hills."
STEAMBOATS.
The first steamboat on Skaneateles Lake was the " High-
land Chief," brought here from the Hudson River by Cap-
tain William Fowler, its owner. It came by canal, and
from thence was trucked to the lake by oxen. It was forty
feet in length, a side wheeler, and had a very uncomfort-
able habit of careening on slight provocation. According
to John Barrow it was introduced here about 1824 ; but we
have no record of it on the lake prior to 1831. As a steam-
boat it was not a success, and it was eventually remodelled
into a sail boat for carrying freight and wood.
86 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
The next boat was built here, was about one hundred feet
in length, a side wheeler, and was named " Independence,"
because launched on Independence Day, July 4, 1831. It
was built in part by public subscription, had a cabin partly
below decks, and, like its predecessor, was a losing venture.
After a brief struggle for business and meeting with indif-
ferent success. Captain Wells, its pincipal owner, converted
it into a sail boat for carrying v/ood to the village of Skan-
eateles. It is said that D. B. Hillis, afterwards District
Attorney of the County of Onondaga, and then a student
in the law office of F. G. Jewett, delivered the Fourth of
July oration at Skaneateles, the day this boat was first put
in the water.
These two disastrous failures in the steamboat business
seemed to deter any further ventures in that line for many
years ; but the opening of the Water Cure Establishment at
Glen Haven, at the head of the lake, and a hotel and bowl-
ing alley at Fair Haven on the opposite side, each connected
by daily stages with the village of Homer, gave fresh encour-
agement to men who v/ere anxious to open lake transporta-
tion ; so in 1848, about the time of the opening of the Water
Cure, the side wheel steamer " Skaneateles " was placed on
the lake. This boat was owned or managed by Thomas
Hecox, a son of Warren Hecox, one of the promoters of the
Water Cure Establishment at Glen Haven.
On July 4, 1848, a rival steamer named " Homer," made
its maiden trip up the lake in company with the Skan-
eateles, each soliciting and carrying passengers on that
occasion. The " Skaneateles " appeared to be a steady and
safe boat, but the " Homer " was top heavy and had an
uncomfortable way of careening from side to side, alter-
nately lifting one after the other of its side paddle wheels
out of the water; in windy weather this was particularly
noticeable, and people for that reason were afraid to ride
on the boat.
Whatever increased trade the Water Cure Establishment
may have contributed to lake transportation, it certainly
was not sufficient to sustain two boats; so one evening,
after returning to Skaneateles from an unsatisfactory
voyage to Glen Haven, Captain Hecox, with a full head of
steam, ran the Skaneateles on to the western shore of the
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 87
lake, where he subsequently removed her machinery and
boiler, and then converted her hull to other uses.
The Homer was never popular, and after making a valiant
fig-ht for three or four years, gave up the struggle and sub-
mitted to the inevitable transformation into a sailing craft
for hauling wood.
The Ben. H. Porter, built soon after the close of the Civil
War, was a propeller modelled after an ocean steamer, and
altogether too slow and clumsy to meet the requirements
of lake travel. This, after a few years, went the way of
the others, and about twenty-five or thirty years ago was
supplanted by the small but very serviceable steam propeller
" Glen Haven," still in use. The latter boat is now- owned
by the Skaneateles Railroad Company, which in 1901 put
upon the lake the " City of Syracuse," modelled after its
sister boat but much larger in size.
No steamboat has ever paid running expenses here until
after the erection of summer cottages on the lake, since
which time traffic has steadily increased, so that now, during
the summer months, one or both of these boats are con-
stantly required to meet the demands of travel.
A number of years ago a small steam yacht was placed
on the lake by private parties, and named "Ossahinta," but
by reason of commutation tickets and cut rates on rail-
roads connecting with the regular boat, this opposition line
v/as put out of business ; what the effect of trolley lines of
railroad running into Skaneateles may be on lake transpor-
tation, is yet to be seen.
Sailing yachts for pleasure have for years been a special
feature of the lake, and during recent times numerous
steam and gasoline launches have been introduced to its
waters.
GLEN HAVEN SANITARIUM.
In the winter of 1847-8, a Water Cure Establishment
was opened by Dr. Jackson at Glen Haven, on the west
side, near the head of the lake. The first building used
was a large white house, with a chimney at each end, built
in 1846. by Deacon Hall of Skaneateles. The soft water
for the Water Cure was taken in pipes, from a large spring
issuing from the steep and almost inaccessible mountain
side, in rear and several hundred feet above the house. At
88 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
the beginning of its career the rules and regulations of the
Water Cure were stringent and exacting, and many who
were ill, or thought they were, flocked to the new Sanitar-
ium. Among other regulations the patients were required
to wear skull-caps, kept constantly moist by dipping in
water, to partake of a rigid coarse diet, drink copiously of
the cool soft water of the establishment, take baths once or
twice a day, exercise frequently in the open mountain air,
and all women patients were to wear bloomers.
The skull-caps, bloomers, and coarse diet of the old regime
eventually passed away, and this old time Water Cure under
the liberal management of Dr. Thomas and John Mourin,
who have been in charge for the last twenty-five or thirty
years, has at last become well known throughout the
United States as a popular Sanitarium and Summer Resort,
for the latter purpose its reputation has long been
established.
The first house was destroyed by fire about 1850, and a
new and more commodious building erected in it s place.
The new building was soon outgrown, and numerous cot-
tages from time to time were added to supplement the main
establishment. After the lake became popular, by reason
of private parties erecting summer cottages at different
places along its shores, a large and commodious hotel build-
ing was added to the other structures of the Water Cure
property, to meet the demands of summer trade.
No spirituous liquors have ever been sold on the Sani-
tarium grounds, a fact which no doubt has contributed to
its popularity as a place of resort for women and children.
This institution, during its long career, has at times been
subject to adversity, and probably justly open to criticism
for unsatisfactory management, yet on the whole there is
much to be said in its favor. Its future seems established,
and its many pleasant surroundings ought to make it bright
and prosperous.
COTTAGES.
In the Spring of 1881 the writer erected on Randall's
Point, now known as Spafford Landing, the first summer
cottage on Skaneateles Lake; this at the time produced a
mild sensation among the people residing in the vicinity,
and scores of people visited the place to look upon the new
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 89
innovation. No one before had even suggested Skaneateles
Lake as a place for private summer homes, and certainly
no one had ever ventured an outlay of money in that direc-
tion. The general comment of those Vv^ho visited this un-
pretentious first effort, in the direction of a summer cottage,
was that it was a foolhardy thing to do, and summer
cottages on the lake would never amount to anything. This
first building is now in use, as it was designed at the begin-
ning, as a dining room and kitchen ; the family of the writer
were then sleeping in tents.
The v/riter had one guest that first summer, however,
who came, stayed over night, said he never enjoyed himself
better in his life, in the morning bought a piece of land on
the lake shore, and soon after commenced the erection of
a cottage of his own; that was E. M. Ford of Syracuse.
That property and cottage is now owned by his daughter,
Mrs. Weed, of Brooklyn, N. Y.
Soon after Mr. Ford's purchase, in 1881, he sold a part
to Mr. James H. Blair of Syracuse, who erected the third
cottage on the lake; this property is now ovmed and
occupied by Mr. Cronell, of Skaneateles.
In a year or two after his first venture, the writer supple-
mented his belonging on the lake by erecting his main
cottage, on the bluff or elevation just north of his first
building.
From this time forward, the following cottages were
erected in quick succession upon the lake : Mr. Allen built
" Rockland " Cottage, on the high rocks just south of Mr.
Blair ; a Mr. Ford built on Barber's Point the cottage now
owned and much improved by Col. James Manning of
Syracuse; Dr. Pease erected the cottage now kno\TO as
Jenny's, on Havens' Point, and Mr. Hall and Mr. Bench,
both of Skaneateles, built cottages farther down the lake.
All that have been now mentioned were in the town of
Spafford.
On the opposite side of the lake, in the County of Cayuga,
about this time were erected four cottages on Pray's Point
(Glen Cove), by three Gregory Brothers of Skaneateles, and
by Prof. R. Bruce White (a brother-in-law) of Syracuse.
Mr. Carpenter and Mrs. Casper erected two elegant summer
and winter homes on Appletree or Sa^\Tnill Point. The last
two were soon supplemented by ten or twelve other tasty
90 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
summer cottages on the gentle declivity of the shore south
of Carpenter ; these are known as the New Hope Colony.
From this time forward the popularity of the lake as a
summer resort was established, and year after year elegant
summer cottages were added, until there are now about a
hundred in all, distributed along the shores and points of
the highland portion of the lake. Among the most note-
worthy of these, in addition to those already mentioned,
are the following: Two owned by Mr! Pennock and Mr.
Cooper in Pine Grove, one by Mr. E. C. Stearns on Wheat
Point, four owned by Mr. Salem Hyde, Mr. Maslin, Mr.
James Eager, and Dr. Marlow on the shore between Wheat
and Ten Mile Point, three owned by Dr. Wright, Mr. Stone
and Mr. Willett on the shore between Ten Mile and Hall's
Point, one owned by A. C. Chase on Barber's Point, one
owned by Rev. Samuel Calthrop on Stag Horn Point, one
owned by Dr. A. C. Mercer on the shore further south. In
addition to these there are five or six others belonging to a
Homer Colony perched on the high rocks south of Rockland
Cottage. All of these are in the town of Spafford.
On the western side of the lake the following have been
added to those already mentioned : One by Mr. Allen, near
the grounds of the Glen Haven Water Cure, and one by
each of the following named persons on the shore and points
on the west side of the lake: Mr. Olmstead, Dr. Guilford,
Dr. Darby, Mrs. Fields, Mr. Paul, Mrs. Bennett, Mr. Van
Esseltyne, Hooker Brothers, Mr. Stevens, Mr. Posthill, Mr.
Weeks Mr. Holden, and several others whose names are not
known to the writer.
Skaneateles Lake has been recently appropriated as a
water supply for the City of Syracuse ; what the effect may
be upon this beautiful sheet of water as a place of resort
and for summer homes is yet to be determined. The
matter of cottage building has been one of great importance
to the town of Spafford and has added very much to its
material wealth and prosperity. Its revenue from that
source has been a constant and increasing one, from the
time the first building was erected within its limits, and
barring the effect of this appropriation of the lake as a
water supply, its future revenue from that source looks
better than ever before. The facilities for reaching and
enjoying Skaneateles Lake were never in the past what they
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SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 91
are to-day, and certainly, in salubrity and attractiveness,
this beautiful sheet of water has no equal in Central New
York.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Within the last fifty or sixty years there have been great
material changes in the welfare of the world, and especially
in the United States. The most noticeable of these have
occurred in our great cities and along our routes of com-
merce; and yet even an isolated country section, like the
town of Spaff ord, has been affected by this current of passing
events, which has marked the progress of nations. The
discovery and application of steam and electricity as motive
pov\^ers, and the invention of the telegraph and telephone,
have had the effect, to a greater or less extent, of annihilat-
ing time and space; while the invention of a multitude of
modern labor saving devices has revolutionized the ordinary
methods of man, and the manner of obtaining his daily
bread; even his tastes and habits have changed. It would
seem as if the country farmer would be the last to be affected
by these modern innovations, and yet a careful study of the
situation shows, that even he has succumbed to the force
of modern ideas. These changes are unregretable, because
they are the logical sequence of current events, so it is not
our purpose to speak of them farther than to note the fact,
without expressions of regret; but of other changes we
desire to speak:
MAPLE SUGAR MAKING.
Fifty years ago the ordinary sweet used in a farmer's
family, for domestic purposes, was made from the sap of a
maple tree, and a farm without a " sugar-bush " was in-
complete. Maple groves were preserved and protected, with
all the care and attention of an apple or fruit orchard.
Early in Spring the sap buckets were taken from their
storing place, repaired, hoops tightened, and the buckets
carefully washed, soaked and put in readiness to catch the
first sap run of the season. The boiling was generally done
in long copper pans, set in brick arches covered by rough
wooden sheds, to protect them from the inclement weather
of Spring. The sugar season, always a short one, some-
times required a day and night service of the attendant.
91 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
Sugar making- \vas alwaj's a happy service for young people,
who generally attended the " sugar off," and delighted to
make the hot sugar into wax, by dropping it on a panful of
clean snow or a cake of ice. In olden times it was not an
unusual thing, to behold in an early Spring evening, the
fire light from half a dozen sugar bushes from the village
of Spafford Corners. The early farmers, in this town, not
only made sugar for them.selves, but had a surplus to sell
to people in their localities. Muscovado, or a crude sugar
made from Southern sugar cane, never was a very desir-
able sweet, and the clarified and granulated article is a
matter of com.paratively recent origin. The making of
maple sugar, in this locality, is grov/ing less and less every
year, and Y>ill soon be a lost art; there are even now very
few maple groves worth the tapping. A cake of maple
sugar v/ill soon be a curiosity, and maple syrup on pan-
cakes a luxury that the wealthy only can indulge in.
MAPLE GROVES.
Another noticeable and very regretable matter, which
has occurred within the last fifty years, and which naturally
affects the physical aspect of this to\Mi, is the destruction
of nearly all the fine groves of trees, which once existed in
close proximity to the villages and residences of the people.
From appearances, the people who have possessed the land
had an antipathy against both trees and shrubs, and have
wielded the axe with an unsparing hand. With the trees
have gone the Spring fiowers and native birds, and all that
feasted the eye and stirred the soul of man to higher aims
and brighter thoughts. There is some satisfaction, however,
in knowing there are some places in town so steep and
rugged as to stay the course of the woodm.an's axe, and
where there is still a retreat for trees, birds and flowers.
There are a few shade trees along the waysides, particularly
in the two villages, but even these are a memory of fifty
years ago. Very few, if any, fruit trees have been planted
in a half century. We are very glad, however, to note that
along the lake shore, where the summer residents have a
foothold, there is a reaction from this general tendency to
destruction and decay; here Nature, aided by sympathetic
hands, is fast restoring the land to its primitive charms.
We trust that the coming generation will catch some in-
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK QZ
spiratioii from the Lakers, that will result in restoring the
lands in this picturesque town from the vandalism of the
last fifty years.
HUNTING, PIGEONS, BIRDS, ETC.
In the forepart of the nineteenth century every man and
boy was a marksman, and possessed a rifle or a firing iron
of some description. Fox hunting, hunting for black and
gray squirrels, partridges, pigeons, rabbits, and other small
animals and birds, afforded abundant sport for those who
were so minded. Others found pleasure and profit in trap-
ping fur bearing animals and in hunting for bee trees.
All these pastim.es are now practically a memory of the past ;
and perhaps it is well it is so, for certainly it has always
been a question whether the companionship of these birds
and small anm.als has not always been of more value to the
people, than the temporary pleasure of the few who prac-
ticed the art of killing them.
There are a few who will remember when flocks of wild
pigeons darkened the air with their Spring and Fall migra-
tions; now, not a bird is left to tell the story; a few bobo-
links still frequent our meadows in Summer time, and
enliven our labors with their sweet warbling song ; but, like
the pigeons, their days will soon be numbered and their song
cease in the land.
With the rapid flow of current events have also passed the
old time quilting bees, paring bees, husking bees, and the
old fashioned singing school; possibly there has something
succeeded to take their place, but in innocent fun and
generous sociability, we doubt if there will ever be a sub-
stitute for these old time gatherings.
JUDGE ELLIOTT ANTHONY.
(From The Syracuse Herald of February 26, 1898.)
" Elliott Anthony, one of the most illustrious sons of Onon-
daga County, died on Thursday night, February 20, 1898,
at Evanston, Illinois. For twelve years he was Judge of
the Superior Court of Illinois, and one of the leading author-
ities on law in the Middle West. He was born in Spafford
on June 10th, 1827, of Quaker ancestors. His father, Isaac
Anthony, married Pamelia Phelps of Vermont, and to them
were born sons and daughters. The sons were educated in
94 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
the academy at Homer. In the autumn of 1847, Elliott
entered Hamilton College at Clinton, as sophomore. He
was graduated in 1850 with high honors.
" In the following year, he and his classmate, Joseph I.
Hubbard, had charge of the Clinton Academy, in which
Grover Cleveland was then a pupil. Anthony's first experi-
ence at the school showed his character and determination.
The school had the reputation of being hard to control,
and had, previous to Mr, Anthony's advent, sent away in
quick succession five or six teachers. When he entered the
school-room on the first morning and called for order, there
was a violent slamming of books and slates on the desks.
He repeated the order, and a like demonstration followed.
Without a word he walked through the center aisle to the
back of the room, took two of the largest boys by their
collars and dragged them to the front, where he knocked
their heads together, and sent the lads to separate corners
of the room. He again issued his command for order and
it was obeyed. From that da^'' on he had no further trouble
with his school. A gray-haired man came into his Court
room, where he was a Judge on the Chicago bench, and
thanked the jurist for that trouncing, saying that he had
learned more in that one day than he had in all his previous
schooling.
" Young Anthony pursued a course in law under Prof.
Theodore W. Dwight, and was admitted to the bar at
Oswego at 24 years. A year later, and after pleading his
first case into a Court of Record in Sterling, 111., he returned
to the East, married Mary, the sister of Professor Dwight,
and a grand-daughter of President Dwight of Yale College,
on July 14th, 1852. Returning West he went to Chicago,
celebrating his first year of married life by compiling "A
digest of the Illinois Reports," which was received with
great favor by the legal profession. In 1858 he was elected
City Attorney of Chicago, during which administration he
became the means of establishing many new points in law,
such as, that special assessments cannot be enjoined by a
Court of Chancery, and that the City of Chicago cannot be
garnisheed to collect salaries or wages of those employed
by it.
" Five years after his election he was chosen general
solicitor of the greatest railway corporation then in the
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 95
Northwest, the Galena and Chicago Union Raih'oad Com-
pany. He was with it when the great fight over its con-
solidation with the Chicago and North Western was on,
and led the minority stockholders, in one of the most stub-
bornly contested cases in railway law, and enlisted some of
the most eminent capitalists of the country, among them
Sam.uel J. Tilden. All the contentions of Mr. Anthony's
brief were sustained, and the parties patched up their diffi-
culties. Out of this brief grew '* The Law Pertaining to
the Consolidation of Railroads," which still remains a
standard work on that important subject.
" He was one of the leaders of the two great constitutional
conventions held in Illinois in 1862 and 1870. In the second
he was chairman of the Executive committee, and also served
upon the committee on judiciary and railroads.
" Mr. Anthony was one of the founders of the Republican
party in Illinois, and was a delegate to the first Republican
Convention in Cook County. In 1880, when the conflict
over the third term idea came up, he was elected chairman
of the Cook County Convention, and delegate to the State
Convention, where he became contesting delegate to the
National Convention, where, in a stormy debate, he
answered Green B. Baum, General Logan and Emory Storrs,
and was finally admitted to the Convention which nomi-
nated General Garfield for President.
In the follov\ring Autumn he was elected to the bench of
the Superior Court, where he sat for twelve years. While
on the bench Mr. Anthony devoted much time to the com-
pliation of legal treatises, which included a work entitled
" Law of Self Defense," " The Trial by Jury in Criminal
Cases," and " New Trials in Criminal Cases," His sketches
of the Courts of England, published in "The Legal Adviser"
attracted much attention about this time, as also did his
treatise on " The Law of Arrest in Civil Cases."
" In 1889 Mr. Anthony was honored by the degree of
LL.L., conferred upon him by his Alma Mater, Hamilton
College.
" Among other works that have come from his pen are :
"The Constitutional History of Illinois," "The Story of
the Empire State," " Sanitation and Navigation," a series
of articles published in the Western Magazine of History
on "Old Virginia."
96 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
Mr. Anthony's first wife died in 1862, and eight years
later he married her younger sister. For forty-five years
he lived in Chicago, but for the last four years he made his
home with his son, Charles E. Anthony, at Evanston. He
is survived by two other sons. State Senator George D.
Anthony, and Dr. Henry G. Anthony, making three in all."
PROFESSOR SILAS M. BETTS.
The following is an abridged extract, taken from Prof.
Edward Smith's History of Syracuse Schools:
" Silas M. Betts was born in Borodino in 1828. When
a child he moved with his parents to Memphis, in this
county, where he attended the public school. He also
attended school at Warners, Onondaga Academy, and Homer
Academy when Samuel Woolworth was principal. His first
teaching was at Belle Isle in the winter of 1844-5. After
this he attended the Normal School at Albany and graduated
in 1849.
Soon after, he became principal of School Number Nine
in this city. In 1851 he was principal of Number Eleven,
where he remained until his transfer to School Number
Seven, in 1855. He taught in the latter school until his
appointment as principal of a High School at Niles, Michi-
gan, in 1859; and was instrumental in making the schools
free in that State. While teaching in Michigan he held
teachers' institutes in that State during vacation time. His
health being impaired by overwork, he resigned the prin-
cipalship of the Niles High School about 1860. After a
rest for about a year, he accepted the Vice Principalship of
the Normal School in the State of New Jersey. He con-
tinued in this work for about three years, and then resigned
to accept the Presidency of the American Guernsey Cattle
Club at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Writing Mr. Smith
from that Club, he said : " I have lived to see the schools
made free in the State of New York, Michigan and New
Jersey, and I trust they have all been made better by my
labors. My most pleasant memories are connected with
the schools of Syracuse."
DR. JOHN COLLINS.
Dr. John Collins came to SpafFord Corners from Brook-
field, Madison County, New York, where he was bom, about
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 97
1830. His father and mother were of New England origin
and came from Stonington, Connecticut, on or before 1796.
He was educated in Hamilton Academy (now Colgate Uni-
versity) , and in the Medical College in Castleton, Vermont,
where he graduated in 1829. He came to Spafford Corners
the next year, joined the Onondaga Medical Society, June
14, 1831, and remained here in active practice of his pro-
fession until about the time of his decease, August 15, 1853;
he was buried in Spafford Cemetery. He first opened an
office in Roundy's Tavern, where he boarded, but soon pur-
chased a lot adjoining the hotel property on the south,
where he erected an office. In 1831 he married Miss Mary
Ann Roundy, daughter of Captain Asahel Roundy, and
soon after remodeled his office into a dwelling house, where
three of his first children, including the author of this
sketch, were born. He then purchased a farm of fifty
acres on the opposite side of the highway, which, prior to
that, had successively been owned by Peleg Babcock, John
Babcock, Silas Cox and Joseph Cole. He continued to
reside on this farm until a short time before his decease,
when he moved into a new house built by him just south,
and adjoining the Union Meeting House lot; this he sold
to a Dr. Davidson, preliminary to moving to Syracuse, but
died prior to the transfer of his family to the latter place.
In Bruce's History of Onondaga County appears the
following : " Dr. John Collins came to Spafford about 1830,
and practiced medicine until his decease, August 15, 1853.
He was a descendant of Henry Collins, starchmaker, who
came to America from Stepney Parish, London, England,
in 1635, and settled in Lynn, Mass. Dr. Collins was of the
seventh generation, in an unbroken line of Johns from
Henry his emigrant ancestor. He was graduated from
Castleton, Vermont Mediacl College in 1829, settled first in
Madison County, but soon rem.oved to this town, where he
acquired a wide professional business. He was one of the
leading physicians in the County during his career, and a
prominent member of the County Medical Society. He was
a fine botanist, knew the medical properties of almost all
varieties of plants, held several important town offices, and
was one of the first to espouse the cause of temperance.
" Owing to the intermarriage of his ancestors with well
known families of Washington County, Rhode Island, a full
98 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
account of his lineage would involve the recital ot nearly
every tradition, and nearly every early transaction of the
State of Rhode Island, which is not v/ithin the province of
this article ; but of him it can be truthfully said, every drop
of blood in his veins was English, pure and simple, in the
strictest sense of the word. His boyhood was spent on the
farm of his father in Brookfield, and v/as subject to all
the hardships and deprivations of pioneer life; yet, with
indomitable pluck and perseverance, he was able to acquire
an excellent education for his time, and far above the
average of the community in which he lived. Like many
other young men he taught school several winters, to obtain
the means to meet the expenses for a higher education.
Soon after settling in Spafford he acquired an extensive
practice in his chosen profession of medicine, and ever led
an active life; commanding respect from all, and by merit
alone was able to retain possession of his chosen field of
labor, against the encroachm^ent of all new comers. He was
never an aspirant for office, yet for several years acted as
School Commissioner and Postmaster, because the first was
congenial to his tastes, and the latter involved no part of
his personal attention, its duties being performed by his
wife. He v/as one of the founders of the Methodist Epis-
copal Church at Spafford, and generally supported any good
and worthy cause, which he believed would advance the
moral interests and material welfare of his townspeople.
" On the 4th day of April, 1831, he was united in mar-
riage with Mary Ann Roundy, daughter of Captain Asahel
Roundy, and sister of Prof. Charles O. Roundy, first prin-
cipal of the Syracuse High School, and by her had eight
children ; two only of whom are still surviving. One of his
sons, Captain George Knapp Collins, is a prominent attorney
and counselor at law, in practice in the City of Syracuse,
and during the War of the Rebellion served as Captain in
the 149th New York Volunteers Infantry, with distinction.
Dr. Collins was generally respected by his brethren of the
medical profession, for his social and professional attain-
ments. After a lapse of near half a century since his
decease, his memory is treasured in nearly every household
embraced with the scope of his labors, with affectionate
regard."
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 99
CAPTAIN GEORGE KNAPP COLLINS.
Captain George K. Collins, author of this work, and son
of Dr. John Collins and Mary Ann Roundy, his wife, was
born at Spafford Corners, April 15, 1837. As President of
the Collins Family Re-Union, which holds its annual meet-
ings in Madison County, New York, Captain Collins in 1901
prepared and published a short genealogy of his branch of
that family, by which it appears that his ancestors were
originally Rhode Island Quakers, descended from Henry
Collins, vv^ho came to this country in 1635, from Stepney
Parish, London, England, and settled in Lynn, Mass. On
both sides his family are of New England origin and
patriotic stock; all four of his great grand-fathers havmg
served in the patriot cause in the War of the Revolution,
and his grandfather, on his mother's side, having com-
manded a Company as Captain, during a tour of duty in the
War of 1812 ; it was only following natural impulses of the
blood that flowed in his veins, that he gave his services to
the cause of his country, in the great War of the Rebellion.
The following extract is taken from a recent publication
concerning the subject of this sketch: "Captain Collins
was mustered into the service of the United States, Septem-
ber 18, 1862, as First Lieutenant in Company I, 149th Regt.,
N. Y. Vol. Inft., in the War of 1861, served for a period of
near two years, and was brevetted Captain at the close of
the war for meritorious services. He participated in all
the battles, skirmishes and marches of the regiment, both
in the Army of the Potomac and the Army of the Cumber-
land, up to the time of his discharge, excepting the battle of
Ringgold, from which he was prevented by injuries received
in battle a few days previous. Among the engagements
and campaigns in which he saw service were Chancellors-
ville, Gettysburg, Wauhatchie, and Lookout Mountain. He
was twice v/ounded, first at Chancellorsville and again at
Lookout Mountain; the latter was the occasion of his dis-
charge, which occurred April 24, 1864. He was admitted
to the bar of the State of New York soon after his discharge
from the Army of the United States, and soon after to the
District Court of the United States and Department of the
Interior. He is now engaged in active practice of his pro-
fession at Syracuse, N. Y. He is Past Commander of Root
100 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
Post, G. A. R.; Past President of Central N. Y. Micro-
scopical Club; Member of the National Microscopical
Society; for fifteen or sixteen years he was Grand Treas-
urer of the Royal Arcanum for the State of New York;
he is a Companion of the Loyal Legion, New York Com-
mandery; he is the author of the history of his regiment,
entitled " Memoirs of the 149th Regt. N. Y. Vol. Inft., 3d
Brig., 2 Div., 12th and 20th A. C.;" is a member of the
Central New York Genealogical Society, and a member of
the Sons of the American Revolution.
" Captain Collins' father, who was a physician and sur-
geon, died while residing in Spafford, a small country
village, when the subject of this sketch was sixteen years
of age, and a country boy living on a farm. A few months
afterward Captain Collins, accompanied by his mother and
two infant brothers, moved to the City of Syarcuse, and
commenced the struggle of life under very discouraging
circumstances, working alternately at whatever he could
find to do, and going to school until the Spring of 1858,
when he was graduated from the Syracuse High School,
then considered an excellent educational institutinn. He
then entered the law office of the well known firm of D.
and D. F. Gott, at Syracuse, as a student, but his labors
were soon interrupted by the event of the Civil War, and
his admission to the bar was delayed until about 1866.
Whatever success the Captain may have achieved at the
bar, or otherwise, he owes to himself and the indomitable
pluck and perseverance inherited from an excellent father
and mother. He has never professed religion in the
general accepted interpretation of that term, still he has
generally attended the M. E. Church, of which his parents
were members, and among other church offices was at one
time Superintendent of the Sabbath School connected with
that society. In habits of mind in relation to religious
subjects. Captain Collins has a strong penchant to many of
the characteristic tenets believed in and adhered to by his
Quaker ancestors, for whom he cherishes a devout attach-
ment."
Captain Collins married early in life Catherine Sager,
daughter of Jacob Sager and Rebecca Groot his wife, a
member of a typical New York Knickerbocker family, by
whom he had seven children, five of whom survive: Kath-
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK IQI
arine Marj^ Grace Virginia; Helen; Flora Belle, wife of
William W. Wiard, and Clara Bessie, wife of William S.
Teall, all of Syracuse, New York.
PROFESSOR EZRA BABCOCK KNAPP.
Ezra Babcock Knapp, son of Peter, Jr., Avas born in the
town of Scott, Cortland County, N. Y., February 26, 1830,
where he resided until three years of age. He then moved
with his parents to Spafford, where he was brought up a
farmer boy, on a farm near Spafford Corners, and received
a common school education. He then attended the Cortland
Academy at Homer and prepared himself for a teacher,
an occupation which he followed from 1848 for twenty-
three terms, and then entered the service of the well known
school book publishing house of A. S. Barnes and Burr, and
later with Taintor Bros, and Company. His field was
mainly the New England and Middle States. Mr. Knapp
has been closely identified with the Public Library in Skan-
eateles, his place of residence since 1870, and donated to
that institution a geological collection. In 1884 he was
elected School Commissioner, and was re-elected in 1887,
but declined the nomination for a third term, three years
later. The honorary degree of Master of Arts was con-
ferred upon him by Colgate University in 1887. He was
elected President of the Village of Skaneateles in 1892, but,
after having served in that capacity about six months,
resigned on account of ill health. He married in 1857 Miss
Loretta E. Wilson of Skaneateles, where they now reside.
Mr. Knapp has been an ardent Republican since the organ-
ization of that party, and takes a lively interest in State
and National questions, and in all local matters which affect
the community in which he resides. He has a well stored
mind on scientific subjects, and particularly in matters
relating to local geology. He has spent much time and
research in the prosecution of the latter study, and in refer-
ence to it his knowledge and opinions are deemed of g]."eat
value.
HON. MARTIN AUGUSTUS KNAPP.
Hon. Martin Augustus Knapp, son of Justus N. and
Polly P. (McKay) Knapp, was born in Cold Brook in this
town, and educated in Homer and Cazenovia Academies,
102 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
and the Wesleyan University at Middletown, Connecticut.
After his graduation and the completion of his college
course, he entered the law oflEice of Oliver Porter, Esq., at
Homer, N. Y., as a student, and afterwards accepted a
clerkship in the law office of Hall and Chamberlin in Syra-
cuse, N. Y., where he remained until he was admitted to
the Bar of the State of Nev/ York in the year 18 — . Soon
after Mr. Knapp was admitted to the Bar the latter firm
was dissolved, and by the retirement of the senior member,
and a new one organized, of which he was the junior and
Mr. Chamberlin the senior member; the latter firm con-
tinued for several years, doing a prosperous business, when
Mr. Knapp withdrew, and for seven or eight years continued
in business alone. The new firm of Knapp, Nottingham
and Andrews was then formed and has continued without
interrupation and with signal prosperity to the present day.
During Mr. Knapp's business career in Syracuse, he
has been City Attorney for one or two terms, has been
School Commissioner of the Ward in v/hich he resided, has
once been a candidate for Mayor on the Republican ticket,
but defeated, and is now Interstate Commissioner, by
appointment under the General Government, an office which
he has held for upwards of eight or ten years.
Mr, Knapp possesses all the elements of busienss success,
being a fine scholar, a good lawyer, a fluent speaker, affable
in manner, and possessed of great industry and unexcep-
tionable habits. He was united in marriage, many years
ago, with Marion H. Hotchkiss, of Middletov/n, Conn.,
whose acquaintance he made when attending the University
at that place, but by her has had no issue.
DR. JONATHAN KNEELAND.
On the occsion of Dr. Jonathan Kneeland (son of Warren)
attaining his 50th year in the Onondaga Medical Society,
at a banquet held in the City of Syracuse, Dr. H. D. Didama
of Syracuse, N. Y., in speaking of the guest of honor, said :
" Dr. Jonathan Kneeland was born February 20, 1812, in
a log cabin in Marcellus Township, between Skaneateles
and Otisco Lakes. His father, Warren Kneeland, was an
accomplished Yankee Schoolmaster, who taught in district
schools for 30 years in Saratoga and Onondaga Counties —
training, in 1798-9, the twigs which grew into sturdy trees
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 103
on Pompey Hill. When but eleven years of age he (Jona-
than) was apprenticed to learn the art of healing to Jere-
miah Bumbus Whiting of Sempronius. Bumbus was a
college graduate, and agreed to reward Kneeland for faithful
services in ten years, with a horse and saddle-bags. This
delightful experience and prospect was rudely ended, by
the relapse of the learned Whiting to his old but relinquished
habit of quaffing the flowing bowl. Jonathan returned to
his father's log house, left home without leave when but
fifteen years old, attended district, select, and academic
schools, and taught for two winters at the encouraging
remuneration of $10 and $18 per month. After this he
went to Lane Seminary, where he taught for a while, and
then entered the Collegiate Department a year in advance,
under the old Presidency of Dr. Lyman Beecher. Prepar-
ing about this time to go as a medical missionary to Persia,
China, or Burmah, he attended medical lectures at the Ohio
Medical College. This was in 1832, the year when the great
epidemic of Asiatic Cholera devastated the country. Jona-
than was sent to Cincinnati to study the disease, and came
back to care for his fellow students at Lane Seminary,
working day and night without undressing, and witnessing
the death of ten of his associates. Then he was attacked
himself by the dire disease, and under the eminent treatment
of the learned Doctors Eberle and Drake, he became an
altered man, his shrinking nature manifesting itself to
such an extent, that his weight came down from 140 to 71
pounds. The doctor was brought home to Marcellus, a
distance of nine hundred miles, to die. For nine long years
he was an invalid. His intellect during all this time, and
ever after, remained clear and unclouded. He regamed
health, and with four relapses, has exercised delightfully
ever since his faculty of fluent speech. In 1841 he gave up
his life plans to the practice of medicine in his native land.
He open an office in \^esper, then removed to Thorn Hill,
where he remained twelve years.
" Dr. Kneeland has received the honorary degree of
M. D. from the Regents of the University of New York,,
and also from the Ohio Medical College. These were con-
ferred for well known merit, and were unsought by the
deserving doctor. Dr. Kneeland faithfully attended at the
various county, State and National Medical Societies to
104 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
which he belonged. He was a delegate to the State Medical
Society for four years, and an active member for twenty
years, serving many times as censor. He has been for
thirty-five years a member of the American Medical Asso-
ciation. Bright, Vv'itty, humorous, learned and instructive,
he has often awakened a dull and prosy meeting into one
of vigorous activity. He has written many papers on
various diseases and medical subjects. He held the office
of Coroner eighteen years, Superintendent of Onondaga
Indians twenty-five years, and for ten years was their
physician. He has many friends. He has observed strictly
the golden rule, and is generally loved for his affectionate
disposition.
" Dr. Kneeland married Mariam Dwelle, February 7,
1845, and to whom were born three children: Frank Joel,
born December 10, 1845, married Etta Edwards at White-
hall, Wisconsin, December 5, 1883, died October 15, 1898;
Martin Dwelle, born September 24, 1848, married Sarah
A. Lord, and resides at Roxbury, Mass.; and Stella, born
February 20, 1854, graduated at Holyoke Seminary,
teacher in Syracuse High School five years, married Fred-
erick Colburn Eddy, Cashier of the Bank of Syracuse, and
resides at Syracuse, N. Y."
Dr. Kneeland died and was buried at South Onondaga,
N. Y., where he had been physician and surgeon for many
years.
COLONEL WILLIAM W. LEGG.
The following is an abstract from a published obituary
notice, appearing in the public press at the time of his
decease :
" Col. William W. Legg died at the residence of his son-
in-law, William H. Bass, near Borodino, on Sunday last,
in the 79th yeai* of his age. He was born in Spafford,
February 18, 1814, and continued to reside in his native
tovv'n until his decease. He married Minerva A. Prindle,
daughter of Hon. Joseph Prindle, formerly of this town,
with whom he lived in happy marital relations for over
fifty years, her death preceding his own by about four years.
In politics he was originally a Whig, and subsequently
accepted the nomination of Sheriff on the Know-Nothing
Ticket, but on tlie bi-caking out of the Civil War joined the
PROF. CHARLES O. ROUNDY
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK IO5
Republican Party, with which he afterwards continued,
vigorously sustaining its principles and giving to it his full
support, in suppressing the rebellion and preserving the
Union. When a young man he joined the State Militia,
and continued his connection with it until he had risen from
rank to rank, to that of Brigadier General in that organ-
ization. At the time of the breaking out of the Civil War,
he was offered the Colonelcy of a regiment in the volunteer
service, but on account of age and sickness in his family,
was obliged to decline the flattering offer. Colonel Legg
was not an aspirant for political honors, yet occasionally
was induced to serve his town, by the acceptance of minor
offices within its gift; among these was Supervisor. He
also received the appointment of Postmaster from the
General Government, both at Spafford Corners and Boro-
dino. Col. Legg v>^as a public spirited and useful citizen,
and he had many friends; his death was generally
regretted."
PROFESSOR CHARLES 0. ROUNDY.
Mr. Edward Smith, formerlj^ Superintendent of Syracuse
Schools, in speaking of Prof. Roundy, said :
" Prof. Charles 0. Roundy, son of Captain Asahel Roundy,
was born in Spafford, Onondaga County, New York, May
23, 1823. He received his education in the public schools
of his native town and in Homer Academy. The degree of
A. M. was conferred upon him^ by Hamilton College in 1853.
Almost his entire active life has been spent in teaching,
beginning in his native town at eighteen years, soon after
leaving Homer Academy. He afterwards taught as Prin-
cipal in the Skaneateles and Baldwinsville Academies,
coming from the latter place to Syracuse in 1852, and taking
the Principalship of old No. 5, where he remained in charge
until the establishment of the Syracuse High School in 1855.
He wa^ then installed as Principal of the latter school, and
remained as such until failing health compelled him to
resign, in the Spring of 1871. After a year or two of
travelling, combined with some light work, he again began
teaching as Principal of the Union Free School at Moravia,
N. Y., and remained there ten years. Leaving there he
spent a year or more in Dakota, and then returned to his
farm in the town of Skaneateles, N. Y. Mr. Roundy was
108 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
always noted for his zeal and enthusiasm as a teacher, and
when engag'ed as such spared no labor, however exacting,
that he might have something nev\^ to present to his classes
the coming day, illustrative of the principles to be eluci-
dated, or to awaken interest in his pupils. Until late at
night, with his books about him, he would continue to study
and investigate until he had mastered his subject, and then
would appear before his classes the next day, to inspire
them v/ith something of his own spirit. His pupils in this
city, graduates of the High School, for sixteen years, will
never forget the love for study, and the ambition awakened
in them for learning by his eneregtic spirit."
One of his former pupils, and now a successful teacher
herself, in a recent publication, said of him:
" Professor Roundy's personality was wonderful. The
pupil must have been obtuse indeed who could successfully
resist his forceful logic. Other principals may have been
more polished, but none were better loved than he. The
snov;s of many winters have fallen upon his grave, over
which has been erected a monument by his former pupils,
attesting a love that endures beyond the grave. Pupils who
through his teaching have attained eminence in the sciences,
on the rostrum, at the bar and in every walk of life.
" Professor Roundy was a student to the day of his death,
digging and delving as a day laborer in the rich mines of
abstruse sciences, and making himself a master of all he
sought. He died at his home in Skaneateles, September 30,
1892, and a fev/ days afterwards was buried in Indian
Mound Cemetery at Moravia, followed to the grave by many
of his former pupils, sincere mourners of a dear teacher
and friend."
HON. SIDNEY SMITH.
The following are extracts taken from obituary notices
appearing in the public press, at the time of the decease of
Mr. Smith, September 10th, 1900.
" In the death of Sidney Smith, which occurred at his
residence on West Lake Street, in the village of Skaneateles,
Monday morning, September 10, 1900, this village lost one
of its oldest and most respected residents. He was born in
the town of Spafford, in the vicinity of Borodino, January
29, 1815, on the farm of which he was the owner at the
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 107
time of his decease ; he moved from this farm in 1870 and
come to this village, where he resided ever afterwards. His
ancestors were of New England patriotic stock, his grand-
father Job Smith, being an officer in the Connecticut Line
in the War of the Revolution, and his father Lewis Smith
being a Lieutenant in the War of 1812. His father was also
a Member of Assembly in the New York Legislature, and
at one time Sheriff of the County of Onondaga. Mr. Lewis
Smith came to the town of Spafford, (then Marcellus) , with
his father. Job Simth, about 1795, married Chloe Benson
of Owasco, and brought up a remarkable family of children
near Borodino, in the old New England way, among whom
was the subject of this sketch, Mary Smith of Skaneateles,
Dr. J. Levfis Smith of New York City, William Smith, Esq.,
an attorney at law, late of Sacramento, California, and Dr.
Stephen Smith, also of New York City.
" Mr. Sidney Smith first married Adelia E. Blodgett, who
died in 1843. He then married Miss Jennie A. Calkins,
by whom were born his only children : Adelia, wife of Prof.
H. F. Miner, Principal of the Skaneateles Academy, and
Anna W. Smith, both residents of Skaneateles. Mr. Smith's
last wife died in Skaneateles in 1887.
" Mr. Smith, while on the farm (in 1856), was elected a
Member of Assembly in the New York Legislature, and
after coming to this village was elected Justice of the Peace,
an office which he held for about ten years. He was fre-
quently called upon to act as executor and administrator, a
function which he performed to the satisfaction of every
one. He was made administrator, with the will annexed,
of the estate of the late Charles Pardee of this village, and,
after seventeen years of litigation, finally settled his
accounts to the satisfaction of every one concerned.
" During the later years of his life he lived quietly,
managing his Spafford farm, in which he took great
interest, and attended to his insurance business in this
village. He had a clear recollection of the early events of
his native town and vcinity, (and the writer of this work
is pleased to acknowledge his indebtedness to him for much
valuable information in the preparation of this work.)
" Mr. Smith was a Republican in politics, and attended
the Baptist Church in Skaneateles village. The writer of
one of his obituary notices says of him : " His life was one
108 ©NONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
of faithful service to daily duties, a life of unusual good
health and genial disposition, a life of many friendships
and no enemies; all men at all times found him reliable."
SANFORD THAYER.
Sanford Thayer, Artist, son of Sanford and Sally Miner
Thayer, was born in Cato, New York, July 19, 1820, and in
earlj' boyhood moved with his parents to Cold Brook. His
father, who vv^as a wheelwright by occpuation, died at the
latter place, August 26, 1836, leaving him surviving a large
family of small children in indigent circumstances. Soon
after his father's decease young Thayer who was then about
seventeen years of age and the oldest of Sally Miner's chil-
dren, left homo and sought employment in John Legg's
wagon shop, in the village of Skaneateles; here he met
CharlesEIliott, v/ho was then engaged in painting pictures
on the back of the old fashioned high back sleighs and
cutters, then in use, and which were then being manu-
factured by Mr. Legg. The life of Thayer up to this period
had been spent in the woods and fields; he was an ardent
fisherman, and had become a lover of nature in all its forms
and features; it was therefore natural, when these two
artistic loving natures met, that an abiding friendship grew
up between them. In these early years, when Thayer was
in his prime and beauty, Elliott painted his celebrated
portrait of him, which was exhibited in this and foreign
countries, and first called attention to the latter, and estab-
lished his reputation as one of the great artists of the world.
Young Thayer, under the tutelage of Elliott, made rapid
progress in the use of pencil and brush, and his reputation
as an artist was also soon established in Central New York ;
from the time of the meeting of these two men the course
of Thayer in the realm of art Avas ever onward and upward.
At an early date he established himself in Syracuse as a
portrait painter, and retained a studio there until the time
of his decease. As a painter of poi-traits he had in early
years many flattering commissions, and after the decease
of Elliott, it can be truthfully said of him that in this field
of art he stood for many years without a rival in Central
New York. His inherent love of nature led him frequently
to visit the Adirondack Wilderness, and his numerous
sketches of that wild and rugged country have always been
SANFORD THAYER, ARTIST
JEFFERSON J. BROWN
SPAFFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK 109
sought after, and demanded a good price. He was a true
lover of Nature, and always interpreted her in his pictures
in her happiest mood. The woods, the lakes, the fields, the
fruits and the flowers, seemed to inspire him with their
beauty and charms, and in his portrayal of them he appeared
at his best.
He married Nancy H. Smith in 1850, and by her had two
children: Mary Brownell, born in 1852 and died in 1853,
and Albert F. Thayer, born in 1858. The latter lived to
manhood, married a Miss Carrie Cook, but died without
issue. Mr. and Mrs. Sanford Thayer died in Syracuse, the
former in the Fall of 1881.
TOWN OFFICERS.
On the first Tuesday of April, 1812, one year after the
formation of the town, there was held a town meeting at
the house of Elisha Sabins, at which were elected the follow-
ing officers, constituting the first public officials of this
town:
John Babcock, Supervisor; Sylvester Wheaton, Town
Clerk; Benjamin Stanton, Asahel Roundy and Elijah Knapp,
Assessors; Asahel Roundy, Jonathan Berry and Adolphus
French, Commissioners of the Poor ; Levi Foster, Constable
and Collector; Sylvanus Learned and James Williamson,
Commissioners of Public Land; Elisha Sabins, Pound
Master; Nehemiah Billings, Ebenezer Grout, Samuel
Holmes, Daniel Scranton, James Whitman, Joel Palmer,
Cornelius Williamson, Asahel Roundy, and Amos Reed,
Pathmasters.
From the foregoing the reader v/ill discover the names of
some of the first residents of the town, and their status
among their fellows. It would be a very unprofitable
matter to give the names of all who have held office since
this first meeting, and besides any list would be more or
less imperfect, for the reason that some of the first officers
were appointed, and not elected, and no town record made
of them ; also some of the leaves in the first book of records
have been lost and destroyed, leaving the record incomplete.
The following is believed to be a perfect list of the Super-
visors elected in town, from the beginning to the present
time:
John Babcock, 1812; Asahel Roundy, 1813-19; Peleg
110 ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
Shearman, 1820-22; Erastus Barber, 1823-4; Peleg Shear,
man, 1826 ; Asahel Roundy, 1826 ; Phineas Hutchens, 1827 ;
Asahel Roundy, 1828-9; Daniel Baxter, 1830-2; John R.
Lewis, 1833-36; Charles R. Vary, 1837-8; John R. Lewis,
1839-41; Joseph Bulfinch, 1844; William OTarrell, 1845;
Joseph Bulfinch, 1846; William W. Legg, 1847; Russel M.
Burdick, 1848; William W. Legg, 1849; Oscar E. Moseley,
1850; Thomas B. Anderson, 1851; James H. Isdell, 1852;
John L. Mason, 1853-55 ; Reuben T. Breed, 1856 ; Samuel S.
Kneeland, 1857-59 ; David Becker, 1860 ; Edwin S. Edwards,
1861-3; Orrin Eddy, 1864-6; Uriah Roundy, 1867-69;
Samuel H. Stanton, 1870-1; Justus N. Knapp, 1872; John
McDowell, 1873-74; Henry Weston, 1875-7; Benjamin Mc-
Daniels, 1878-80; Van Dyke Tripp, 1881-3; Perry F. Wood-
woi-th, 1884-6; Harry J. Haight, 1887; William H. Bass,
1888 ; Willard Norton, 1889 ; William H. Bass, 1890 ; Marcus
Patterson, 1891-3; Willard Norton, 1894-5; John Unckless,
1896-7; Caleb E. King, 1898-9-1900; Marcus Patterson,
1900-1903.
COMPANY AND GENERAL TRAINING.
From a very early period the American people have been
accustomed to the use of firearms. Nearly every household
in the to^'ATti of Spafford, in early times, had a gun of some
sort for the purpose of defense ; and in fact a man, entering
the primeval forests which at first covered these hills, would
have been foolhardy without a trusty rifle at his side.
Our emigrant ancestors had hardly landed on American
soil, before they discovered they had not only to deal with
the wild beasts of the forests, but the American Indian was
disposed to contest every advance made by them in the
occupation of the land ; so, almost at the beginning of their
settlements about Massachusetts Bay, they were called to-
gether for military drill and Company organization. This
fiirst organization is now kno\^Ti as the " Ancient and Honor-
able Artillery Copmany of Boston." When new colonies
were established other military organizations were formed,
so that, eventually, every community throughout the inhabit-
able portion of these United States had its separate military
company or organization, which was fully armed, equipped,
drilled, and ready for any emergency that might arise,
This universal military organization, known as the
EDWIN S. EDWARDS
SPAPFORD, ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK HI
Militia, was continued in the town of Spafford down to a
period subsequent to the War of the United States with our
Sister Republic of Mexico. Every man in town capable of
bearing arms, not exempt by law, was enrolled in some
Company or military organization and obliged, under
penalty of Court Martial to keep him_self armed and
equipped, and to attend Company and battalion drill when
ordered.
There was generally at least one battalion drill, known as
" General Training," in each year ; these were holiday occa-
sions, looked forvi'-ard to by old and young as periods of
general festivity and enjoyment.
A man holding a commission as an officer, in one of these
early military organizations, v/as generally looked up to
and respected in the community where he resided, for the
distinction conferred upon him, and was generally addressed
by his military title.
Soon after the Jlexican War compulsory service in the
State Militia was discontinued, and that organization ever
since has been maintained by volunteering.
SOLDIERS.
Am.ong the Soldiers of the American Revolution who
settled in the town of Spafiord were the following:
Paymaster Job Smith Oliver Hyde
Captain Samuel Holmes Elias Jackson
Stephen Albro Peter Knapp
Allen Breed Joseph Lev/is
Thompson Burdick Jesse Manly
James Churchell David Owen
John Churchell Gilbert Palmer
Elias Davis Samuel Prindle
Robert Fulton Job Smith
John Green Isaac Town
James Hiscock Benjamin Wallace
Samuel Holmes Henry Wentworth
Among those v.'^ho served in the War of 1812 were:
Captain Asahel Roundy Jabez Melvin
Lieut. Phineas Hutchens Isaac Mills
Lieut. Lewis Smith Moses Norton
Stephen Applebe Samuel Parker
Samuel Barber Silas Randall
112
ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
John Beelar
Thompson Burdick, Jr.
Kelley Case
William Dedrick
Samuel G. Seeley
Russell Tinkham
Cornelius Williamson
Samuel Gale
The town of Spafford contributed the following soldiers
to the Union Army, during the War of the Rebellion of
1861:
Lieut. George J. Foster
William B. Allen
George C. Anderson
William H. Brown
John M. Churchill
Porter Davis
William Derbin
Ensign D. Filkins
William E. Fisher
Horatio Harrington
George L, Hines
William Henry Lyon
Phineas B. Marshall
William H. Moon
George Anthony
John Anderson
Ira W. Burdick
Daniel Bradley
George W. Case
Sidney Case
Asa Clark
Van Buren Davis
Lewis Davis
Edgar Alonzo Eddy
Charles H. Enos
William Nesbitt
Parmenus Norton
Perry Norton
Willard Norton
Jacob Pollock
Francis H. Patterson
Charles Weston Roundy
John Unckless
John A. Uncless
George A. Patten
Edwin S. Van Benschoten
Napoleon B. Wallace
James B. Wilber
Perry F. Woodworth
Martin Goff
James Nesbit
James McCausey
George Phippins
George W. Ripley
Calvin P. Stanton
James Stringham
Henry Sage
Santa Anna Wallace
John Worth
Samuel Williams
ILLUSTRATIONS
Captain George K. Collins _„Frontispiece
Captain Asahel Roundy... _ 23
Uriah Roundy, Esq.... _ 27
Colonel Phineas Hutchens __ 29
Thomas Maxson Foster _ _ 33
Borodino School Housa __ 38
Borodino Town Hall _ __ __ _. „.. 44
Borodino M. E. Church. _ 45
Union Meeting House, Spafford Comers 53
Berry's Store, Spafford Comers. _ .„_ _ 66
Roundy's Tavern, Si)afford Comers _._ „ 68
Borodino Store and Tavern „ „ 71
Spafford Hills From Skaneateles Lake „ 75
Skaneateles Lake From Spafford Hills _ „ _ 76
Head of Skaneateles Lake From Window of Sweet
Briar Cottage. „_ 83
Skaneateles Lake From Sweet Briar Cottage 85
City of Syracuse, Approaching Spafford Landing. _ 87
Cottage William S. Teall, Skaneateles Lake. 90
Prof. Charles 0. Roundy „_ „ 105
Sanford Thayer, Artist _.._ _ _ - 108
Jefferson J. Brown _ „ __ _ 109
Edwin S. Edwards „ _ 110
ILLUSTRATIONS
Captain George K. Collins _ ...Frontispiece
Captain Asahel Roundy _ _ _ - 23
Uriah Roundy, Esq...- _ — — - 27
Colonel Phineas Hutchens _ 29
Thomas Maxson Foster. _ 33
Borodino School House. __ _ 38
Borodino Town Hall _ _ 44
Borodino M. E. Church _..._ 45
Union Meeting House, Spafford Comers „ __ 53
Berry's Store, Spafford Comers _ _ „ 66
Roundy's Tavern, Spafford Comers _ _ _ 68
Borodino Store and Tavern — _ 71
Spafford Hills From Skaneateles Lake 75
Skaneateles Lake From Spafford Hills _ _ 76
Head of Skaneateles Lake From Window of Sweet
Briar Cottage. ._ 83
Skaneateles Lake From Sweet Briar Cottage.„ 85
City of Syracuse, Approaching Spafford Landing _..._ 87
Cottage William S. Teall, Skaneateles Lake.__ _ __ _ 90
Prof. Charles 0. Roundy - 105
Sanford Thayer, Artist. ___ _ - — - ~ 108
Jefferson J. Brown. _ _„ - — 109
Edwin S. Edwards — 110
INDEX
Introduction and General Description of Spafford 3
Town and County Organization 5
Military Tract.„ _ „ 10
Names of Soldiers Drawing Bounty Lands in Spafford... 15
First Settlers— _ - - 17
Gilbert Palmer and Son John _ _ _ — 17
Names of Other Settlers — _ _„ __ 20
Biography —
Captain Asahel Roundy. — _ — 23
Uriah Roundy, Esq - - 27
Pullman Family „ _ ~ _ — - 28
Colonel Phineas Hutchens — - 29
Roswell Hutchens _ _ - 30
Amos Miner._ — ~ - - - 32
Daniel Wallace, Jr — - 36
Shadrack Roundy 51
Lorenzo Wesley Roundy _ 51
Jared Curtis Roundy _ - 52
Hall Washington Roundy..- _ 52
Judge Elliott Anthony _ - 93
Prof. Silas M. Betts 96
Dr. John Collins 96
Captain George K. Collins 99
Prof. Ezara Knapp — 101
Hon. Martin Augustus Knapp _ 101
Dr. Jonathan Kneeland.- 102
Colonel William W. Legg __ 104
Prof. Charles O. RouTidy„ _. - 105
Hon. Sidney Smith 106
Sanford Thayer _ - 108
Bam Moving- - _ ~ 33
Schools - _ -_ 38
uhurches and Libraries __ __ 41
MoiTnon Exodus ™ _ 47
Union Meeting House.. _ 53
Other Corporations _ 58
ivxills, Distilleries and Furnaces. _.._ 59
Taverns Stores, Shops, Potasheries and Tanneries 66
Hig-hways _. „ „ „._ „ _ 72
Professional Men —
Physicians _ _ 76
Lawyers „ _ „ _ 80
Ministers „ _„.._ _ 81
Teachers „ _ _ _ 81
Artists and Sculptors _ _ 81
Surveyors „ „ _ 82
Postmasters _ _ „ 82
Skaneateles Lake and Cottages....! _ 82
Steamboats _ _.. 85
Glen Haven Sanatarium _ 87
Cottages _ _ „„ _ 88
Miscellaneous „ _.. 91
Maple Sugar Making 91
Maple Groves „ _ _ _.. 92
Town Officers _ _ „ _ 109
Company and General Training- __ „..._ _ _„ IIQ
Soldiers of All Wars _ _ „ _ _ Ill
Hunting, Pigeons Birds, etc __ _ _. 93
INDEX
Introduction and General Description of Spafford- -... 3
Town and County Organization _ 5
Military Tract _. - 10
Names of Soldiers Drawing Bounty Lands in Spafford... 15
First Settlers- _ -- - 17
Gilbert Palmer and Son John _ __ 17
Names of Other Settlers _ - - - 20
Biography —
Captain Asahel Roundy.._ 23
Uriah Roundy, Esq ~ - 27
Pullman Family _ _ — - 28
Colonel Phineas Hutchens - -. — 29
30
32
Roswell Hutchens „ __ - ~
Amos Miner._ —
Daniel Wallace, Jr _..- ^^
Shadrack Roundy ^1
Lorenzo Wesley Roundy -_ - 51
Jared Curtis Roundy - ^2
Hall Washington Roundy — _ - 52
Judge Elliott Anthony «.- - 93
Prof. Silas M. Betts _ 96
Dr. John Collins 96
Captain George K. Collins 99
Prof. Ezara Knapp 101
Hon. Martin Augustus Knapp 101
Dr. Jonathan Kneeland _ 102
Colonel William W. Legg 104
Prof. Charles O. Roundy 105
Hon. Sidney Smith 106
Sanford Thayer_ 108
Bam Moving- - — ._ _ 33
Schools — ~ 38
uhurches and Libraries : ._ — 41
Mormon Exodus„ _ 47
Union Meeting- House.„ _ 53
Other Corporations _ 58
ivxills, Distilleries and Furnaces „ 59
Taverns Stores, Shops, Potasheries and Tanneries 66
Highways _ „ 72
Professional Men —
Physicians _ _ „ _ 76
Lawyers _ __ „ „ 80
Ministers _ 81
Teachers _ _ _ „ _ 81
Artists and Sculptors 81
Surveyors „ _ 82
Postmasters _ 82
Skaneateles Lake and Cottages __ 82
Steamboats _ ^ „ 85
Glen Haven Sanatariunx _ _ _ 87
Cottages _ _„ „. 88
Miscellaneous _ _ _ _„ _.. 91
Maple Sugar Making..- „ „_ 91
Maple Groves _ „.... 92
Town Officers „ 109
Company and General Training.- _ _ 110
Soldiers of All Wars __ Ill
Hunting, Pigeons Birds, etc _ _. 93
120 90
TreatmemOate ^^^"^^'""^ Oxide
I MAY 1998
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