History of the town of Paris, and the valley of the Sauquoit : pioneers and early settlers ... anecdotes and reminiscences, to which is added an account of the ceremonies attending the re-internment of Col. Isaac Paris

Front matter

GENEALOGY COLLECTION

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Chapter I. Preliminary — Some Errors Made By The Historians

CORRECTED.

So-called history is often imperfect in facts and details. In writing the history of the Town of Paris, in addition to collecting the facts, it becomes necessary to correct some of the statements of previous historians.

In Judge Jones’ Annals it is recorded, page 297, that Benj. Merrills was an early settler in this vicinity. He was a soldier in the old French War, and was one of a detachment of five hundred Connecticut troops sent to Havana, on the Island of Cuba, in that contest. It is recorded in its history that such was the un healthiness of the climate, and the fatality of sickness, that but seventeen of their number lived to return, and of this number was Mr. Merrills.” As a matter of history, Benj. Merrills was not engaged in the French War, and no record can be found that the United States Government ever sent any troops to Cuba. He was a soldier of the Revolution, and one of a company of one hundred from Hartford, Conn., that was sent to Savannah, Georgia, of whom only two survived to return — Benj. Merrills and one other,

Samuel W. Durant’s History of Oneida County records on page 505, in regard to Clayville and the Empire Mills: “ Mr.

Hollister built the mill in 1843-44-. In the latter year, Hon. Henry Clay visited the place and spoke at a meeting held in the factory, the floors having been laid and the balance remaining unfinished.” Of course the above errors were the fault of the parties who furnished the information to the historians. As a matter of history, Hemy Clay never was inside the Empire Mill, and never visited Clayville but once

HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF PARIS.

during his life, the occasion of his visit being five years thereafter, on the 10th day of September, 1849. During the contest to elect Henry Clay, in 1844, a Whig meeting was assembled at Paris Furnace on Wednesday, August 7, and was addressed briefly by David J. Millard, who was followed by Spencer Kellogg, the speaker of the evening. The press records that at the conclusion of his address, “ Mr. K. performed the ceremony of naming the village Clayville in the happiest manner.” Later in the fall, the mass meeting alluded to in the Empire Mill was held, and addressed by the “ Buckeye Orator of Ohio,”’ a Mr. Kellogg, and also a Mr. Halleck. Henry Clay was not there, but at Ashland, from which place the same day he wrote his celebrated letter to the Lexington (Ky.) Observer and Reporter, so widely published. The attempt to change Paris Furnace to Clayville hung fire until the spring of 1849. After the inauguration of Gen. Zachary Taylor, Wm. H. Barnett, the last Postmaster of Paris Furnace, was removed, and Eason Allen, the first Postmaster of Clayville, was appointed in March. 1849. In September following, the great statesman, Henry Clay, on his way to attend the State Fair at Syracuse, stopped over at Utica, Saturday, September 8th, the guest of Frederick Hollister, attended church on Sunday, and on Monday, the 10th, accompanied by leading citizens of Utica, went to Clayville, and, as the guest of D. J. Millard, in a happy speech, thanked the people for naming the village in his honor. From thence, on his return, he went to New Hartford, where he was transferred to the carriage of Walcott & Campbell, visiting N,ew York Mills, and then returned to Utica — his first and only visit to Utica —being five years after the time recorded in the History of Oneida County by Durant.

Hon. Win. Tracy, in his recent address before the Oneida Historical Society, in giving the history of the Methodist Church at Rome, and its difficulties in establishing a steeple to the church, says that, after submitting the question of steeple or no steeple to the General Conference at Pittsburgh, it was decided “ that as the lowest section of the steeple would serve as a belfry and hold a bell to call people to church, that might stand, but that the upper section, not being

THE FIRST SETTLER IN THE SAUQUOIT VALLEY. 11

intended for use, but merely for ornament, like other vanities, should be abandoned by sober, Christian people. The judgment was submitted and carried out, and it was said that this was the first meeting-house in the land (1826) with a stbeple.” As a matter of fact, the Methodist' Church at Bethelville, (afterwards East Sauquoit,) built in 1801, in the plain, old-fashioned, barn like style, erected a steeple and attached it to their church in front, in the year 1816, ten years before the steeple to the Rome Church was erected.

Chapter II. The First Settler In The Sauquoit Valley — A Black

SLAVE’S EARLY. HOME — HIS FLIGHT FROM THE INDIANS.

The great Indian trail, from the Mohawk valley west to. Buffalo, left the valley at a point a few miles below where now is Utica, and entering the forest led “ over the hill” and on west, crossing the Valley of Sagh-da-que-da, (Sauquoit,) where now is the village of Sauquoit ; thence over Paris Hill, and onward across the Valley of Oriskany, and so on west. It was a favorite route of the Indians, by which they avoided the swampy ground of the trail at Yah-nun-dah sis, (“ around the hill,”; now JJtica.

Many of the early settlers of those valleys went in by this trail, and, as the}7 in time “cut it out” for the passage of their ox-teams, it came to be known as the *• Old Moyer Road,” taking its name from a Dutchman named Moyer, who. kept a tavern in the Mohawk valley at the point where the “ trail” left the valley and entered the forest for the West. At an early day, and some years previous to the settlement of Judge White, in 1781, at the mouth of the Sauquoit; or Abram Van Eps, on the Oriskany, in 1785 ; Moses Foot, at Clinton, 1787 ; Judge Sanger, at New Hartford, 1788; or Major Royce, at Paris Hill, in 1789, a negro slave, servant

HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF PARIS.

of an officer of some passing detachment, en route up the valley, ran awav from his servitude, boldly struck out into the forest wilds, taking this trail over the hill, not pausing in his flight until he halted in the forest free as the feathered songsters that caroled him a welcome in the beautiful valley of the Sauquoit. The Sauquoit Creek and the numerous spring brooks pouring into it from either hill-side, filled to repletion with speckled trout, was the favorite fishing giound of the xt Six Nations,” who from time to time ciossed it on the great western trail or followed it up from the point where it debouched into the Mohawk, from which point a noted trail led up along its banks, intersecting the great trail at what is now Sauquoit village, thence up the creek, diverging into two trails at Cassville, one leading over the bluff* to the headwaters of the Susquehanna (Unadilla there takes its rise) and the other following the creek to its source and thence over the summit to the headwaters of the Chenango at Skan-awis, (“ long swamp,”) now Sangerfield. Our negro pioneer selected his future home at a point west of the creek and south of the great trail near the great elm — destroyed by tempest a year or two since — and not far from the bank of the unfailing spring brook that takes its rise on the western hillside, at the famous spring on the old William Babbitt farm, (now Mr. Throop’s.) At the foot of the little mound — (the old burying ground where some of the Paris pioneers silently and solemnly sleep) — the runaway slave struck the first axe (of a settler) in a tree in the great town of W hi testown, afterwards Paris. With great industry and perseverance he ere long completed a substantial and comfortable log cabin, located between the little mound and the present site of the ruins of the Franklin factory, and then set to work vigorously to clear up the land, of which he had possessed himself by right of “ Squatter Sovereignty.”

It was no uncommon thing in this section, in the early days, for persons to clear off* the land before purchasing it, and in the end, if they did not buy it, custom required that the party who did purchase should pay for the “ betterments,” as it was termed. At the end of a year or two, as the fruit of Well directed labor, his eyes were gladdened by a fine field of

THE FIRST SETTLER IN THE SAUQUOIT VALLEY.

rustling, growing corn, and the apple seeds that he planted (having obtained them by furtive visits to the German flats,) were well up in his nursery, giving promise of his future fruitful orchard, and together with other crops, prosperity seemed insured in the future — a just reward of the early Divine command, in obedience to which he had “ tilled the soil.” The Indians that in their rovings traversed these trails, although not then on the war- path in open hostility, yet viewed the rapid encroachment of the settlers upon and the sure destruction of their ancient forest hunting-grounds, with a jealousy verging on hatred. But bound by their treaties, influenced by the powerful arguments of the Christian missionaries, mixed with a wholesome fear of the “ long knives,” “ big Injun” gulped down his chagrin and did not openly revolt at the progress of the white man’s civilization. But a “nigger!” — that was too much — the drop that overflowed the bucket. Perhaps the tempting field of corn, just then at a period of its promise of future ripening — in the roasting ear — which toothsome luxury no Indian ever yet was known to pass by without helping himself, regardless of ownership — fixed their determination. At all events, the blow fell. The attack came suddenly, but the wary black, schooled from his exposed and isolated position to be ever on the alert, eluded the cunning of the wily savages and made his escape, but they confiscated his corn, destroyed his other growing crops, and by the light of his burning cabin indulged in a grand pow wow and impromptu “green-corn dance,” making night hideous with their yelling orgies, as only an Indian can. The “ negro” never returned to claim his “ betterments.” The savages made general havoc and ruin of everything, save the thickly-sprouting clump of apple sprouts, which they somehow overlooked, and thus they grew unmolested, so that by the time the pioneers (white) came in they were large enough to transplant, and some of the first orchards (Gooley’s and others in the immediate vicinity) were set from the “Jim Crow” nursery, as it was called, the name even of this actual first’ settler being lost ; but the fact of his title to pioneership outranking White’s, Van Eps’, Foot’s or Royce’s in priority, is incontrovertible. Parties still in the “ land of the living” remember well the clump of young apple trees that.

HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF PARIS.

grew near the spot where the mighty locomotive now goes thundering over the dismantled, desecrated hearthstone of the Black Pioneer. It seems almost akin to sacrilege to do the work of verifying the facts of our early history so thoroughly as to necessitate the upsetting of all these man}" years, proud laudation of those who were first to fell the tree, bow the mighty heads of the forest giants, subdue the stubborn glebe and plant the blossoming orchard; and it is a positive relief to think that as the name of the poor, black runaway-slave pioneer is lost and none of his descendants are likely to put in a claim, we can go on composedly reading our histories as they are written, only, “in the mind,” inserting the word “ white” before the words pioneer or first settler, wherever they occur.

Chapter III

THE SOUTHERN PART OF THE TOWN OF PARIS — THE GREAT WATER-SHED OF THE STATE.

Traveling south from Utica some twelve miles up the beautiful valley of the Sauquoit, and emerging from the deep cut through which the railroad passes the bluff at the junction, the tourist finds himself in an elevated plateau of surpassing loveliness,, some thousand feet above the level of the sea. A little to the west reposes the quiet little village of Cassville, and a short distance to the east the limestone ridge of Babcock Hill, troin out of whose solid bosom, in plain view, leaps a full grown rivulet, the birthplace of the Susquehanna River, being its extreme northern source — on the maps the head of the Unadilla — flowing gently to the south, and reaching the sea at Chesapeake Bay, some 300 miles away, at an average fall from our standing point to tide-water of only three or four feet to the mile.

Gushing from the gravel bank at our very feet, and tumbling tumultuously down through the “ cut” to the north, and

THE GREAT WATER-SHED OF THE STATE.

through the Sauquoit to the Mohawk, a little brook accomplishes nearly the whole of this 1,000 feet plunge to sea-level, in about fifteen miles. Traveling westward through the State, along this bluff or plateau — -nowhere more than about 1,000 feet elevation — this scene continually repeats itself ; the north- flowing streams making this plunge to the great “sixty-nine mile level” of the Erie Canal, in a distance of say fifteen miles. Reaching a point near Syracuse, this dividing ridge bears away to the southwest, the numerous little lakes to the north of it pouring their waters through the Seneca and Oswego Rivers to Lake Ontario, while on the southerly slope of this ridge we have in succession passed the sources of the Susquehanna, Unadilla, Otselic, Chemung, and finally, in Pennsylvania, the west branch of the Susquehanna Rivers, all gently flowing to the south or southeast, and, uniting in their course to the Atlantic, go to make up the noble Susquehanna. In the extreme southwest of the State, the short mountain streams plunge northwesterly into Lake Erie, and thence hundreds of miles away, through Ontario and the St. Lawrence River, wend their way to the ocean ; while the little southern-flowing rivulets wander away into the Alleghany, thence through the Ohio and Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, thousands of miles away. Than on this great water-shed of the Susquehanna, with its southern exposure— formerly the favorite hunting grounds of the most powerful tribes of the aboriginal “Six Natious” — the sun rising to-day in its course illuminates no more fertile and salubrious, and, all things considered, more perfect home for man, of like extensive area, on God’s earth. Every fruit, nut, vine, root, and cereal of the Temperate Zone is here produced in lavish abundance. Though under cultivation for nearly one hundred years, this soil refuses not her accustomed yield. No drouth or famine, plague, pestilence or malarious scourge, cyclone or devastating storms ever laid wastes this favored region ; but peace and plenty have here ever rewarded the earnest toil of the intelligent husbandman. Beautiful ‘villages, sheltered in her many valleys, with their varied manufactures, churches and schools, happy homesteads dotting each spring-watered hillside, grazing cattle, selected from the choicest herds of the world, orchards and sheltering woods

HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF PARIS.

with dancing rivulets as yet preserved, stamp this whole fair region a wonderful panorama of rural beauty, most fit wherein to develop the highest type of manhood. The former savager occupants of this fair region have passed away/ and a few relics, curiously wrought flint arrow-heads and stone implements, brought to light by the plow, to find their way into the cabinet of the antiquarian, with the quaint names they affixed to the rivers, lakes and creeks, alone tell the tale that they once existed here.

The dusky, half-naked hunter, creeping stealthily through the dark forest, with softened tread of moccasined feet, was all unconscious that he was treading over hundreds of massive marine engines, with their immense proportions, capable of propelling great ships, with their thousands of tons of freight,, and whole colonies of the human race, through the ocean from zone to zone, to every land and clime ; eighty thousand miles of railroad — three times the span of the earth — now gridironing these United States, with thousands of locomotives thereon, thundering and screeching from ocean to ocean ; clattering looms and millions of humming spindles ; ponderous columbiads ; whole cities of iron fronted buildings ; bridges spanning wide rivers at dizzy heights; millions of various implements of mechanics and husbandry — all this and more, buried beneath his feet — simply iron and coal. This painted “ hair lifting” barbarian has been “ lifted ” out of the path of civilization, and all this wealth aud wondrous mechanism “ lifted ” into existence, from out the bowels of the earth, within the memory of men yet moving among us.

To preserve, and transmit to succeeding generations, these happy homes, is the solemn, imperative duty of their present favored occupants. To insure this, the forests must be preserved, as their further depletion perils the very existence of this vast area of fertility. A country denuded of its forest growth, and the mountain streams drying up, the rivers dwindle away and a barren waste is the certain, inevitable result of such improvidence. The yearly growth of the present forest area will safely furnish the necessary building and fencing material, but in no event should more be cut for fuel. Coal is, then, the only solution for this problem, and, fortu-

THE GREAT WATER-SHED OF THE STATE.

nately, the great river that drains this whole region, as it reaches the Wyoming valley, and thence towards the sea, flows over vast deposits of this indispensable substitute for wood. A flowing river with slow current would suggest, to the skillful engineer, a system of “ slack-water” navigation, to cheaply place this much needed coal at the firesides of those consumers “ up the river.” Such was the idea of the projectors of the Chenango Canal, who foresaw this, our present necessity, and builded for us well, as far as they went, and to fully secure to this generation the benefit of their wise forethought, it only remains for us to complete what they began, and build that canal through to the coal mines.

On the northern boundary of this region — and equally distant from the coal deposits on the southern boundary — are situated two cities at either extremity of the long Erie Canal level : Utica, with its great iron beds, and Syracuse, with her immense salt deposits. To interchange economically these three heavy and important staples, coal, iron, salt, a water communication is absolutely essential. To perfect this desired result a link of a few miles below Binghamton ramains unfinished. Nature and the skill of man have already combined to render this great water-way easily attainable. Nestling among the hills of Madison, at the source of the Chenango River, are numerous capacious reservoirs and lakes, furnishing a never-failing supply of water to float this great commerce on the summit; and the abundance of water and the easy grade en route along the Chenango and Susquehanna Rivers, render this so necessary attainment of a water-way to the coal mines, not only practicable, but almost ready-made to our hands. Can we afford to throw away such opportunities of future economy, in which the prosperity and happiness — the existence even — of this whole region, is so vitally interested ? The able and patriotic statesmen who planned so well for us are no more. They were wont to point with a State pride to our “ internal improvements” — the canals — as the foundation of our pre-eminence as a commercial State, and they were right. Albany, Troy and Buffalo, Syracuse and Oswego, Utica and Binghamton, Elmira and Rochester, are the cities of importance in the State, and every one of B

HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF PARIS.

them owe their existence and prosperity to canals at whose termination thejr are located. New York city, the unrivaled metropolis of this great country, directly owes such prominence to the same cause in conjunction with the Hudson River and the great lakes. Of bituminous coal lands there are in America, 200,000 square miles, and 8,000 square miles in Great Britain. In the United States there are only 450 square miles of anthracite coal, of which the Philadelphia & Reading Company own one-third, the balance being held by private individuals and the other coal companies.

The so-called inexhaustible coal measures of Pennsylvania are being steadily and fast depleted in this present generation.

Many in this vicinity will remember Mr. Archibald, the distinguished engineer, who, after assisting in the construction of the Erie Canal, turned his attention to the development of coal, and projected the system of “ gravity railroads,” with stationary engines, to transport the coal from the Lackawanna valley over the mountain to the terminus of the Delaware & Hudson Canal, thence by which to reach tide-water.

His combined system of gravity roads and canal attests his wisdom and skill, and has proved the most economical of any plan yet devised to move coal, and he lived long enough to see the mines, at the northern part of the valley, where operations were first commenced, exhausted of coal, and the great mining companies pushing their operations further down the valley to new fields.

When those fields are exhausted, we must look to the West for cheap coal, for underlying the great States of Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio, is embedded the largest area of coal yet discovered, and although soft-bituminous of inferior quality, it may yet serve our successors in a great need.

This great belt of coal extends east and nearly to the seaboard, gradually improving in quality in its progress east, and changing successively at each stage from dirty, imperfect bituminous, to good gas coal ; semi-bituminous ; Sullivan county; Lackawanna valley — tolerable anthracite; and cul-

THE GREAT WATER-SHED OF THE STATE.

urinating lastly in Lehigh valley coal, the best and purest anthracite yet discovered. Further east near the sea-board it ■“ crops out” as graphite or plumbago.

The coals underneath Ohio and portions of Kentucky are rich in bitumen and petroleum, and furnish us our best gas coals. At Breckenridge, Ky., some years since, and previous to the great Rebellion, the coal in that region was distilled, producing a coal oil for lubricating purposes, and similar to our afterwards discovered petroleum. When we reach the western part of Pennsylvania, the coal proves still richer in petroleum, and just at this point happened one of the most impoitant discoveries of which the human family has any record. At a period when the whale fisheries had proved inadequate to furnish us with light and lubrication, and resort was had to the fatty pine of the South, substituting for us camphene, burning-fluid, etc., and when the gory hand of war laid an embargo on this supply, then indeed was the North a place of darkness; but garnered up in the bowels of the earth, accumulating since the time when “ the stars sang together,” was a reservoir awating this our dire necessity.

That somebody at this critical period chanced to ‘‘strike oil,” even to the casual observer seemed remarkable, but do not we rather in this recognize the superintending hand of Him who doeth all things. well; an echo of that Divine command reverberating along down through time from the remotest period of which we have a history, the grandest seven words in any tongue spoken of men — “ Let there be Light, and Light was,” and that His will guided the fortunate drill that pierced this pent-up reservoir of light, bursting forth to illuminate our homes and work-shops, and furnish at hand an article of export ranking next in importance to cotton and the cereals, and which we send to every civilized clime ?

The latent power which forces the oil to the surface is sulphureted hydrogen gas, confined in the rock strata and coal through which the oil percolates.

This gas is always found with this grade of coal, but it by no means follows that the presence of this gas is a sure indication that coal or oil can there be found, as it exists with the numerous sulphur spas throughout the country, and in many

HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF PARIS.

marshy localities, is very offensive to smell, will blacken silver and some other metals, and is in large volumes fatal to life.

In many parts of the country the presence of this gas has led adventurous capitalists to “bore for oil” in regions far remote from the great coal belt and oil basin, and where it is geographically impossible to find either coal or oil.

With anthracite coal is found carbureted hydrogen gas, fatally known as “fire damp;” when mixed with eight or ten volumes of air it explodes with terrific violence, forming highly expanded steam and carbonic acid gas, or “ chokedamp,” and the miner that escapes the explosion of the former is frequently smothered with the latter.

Traveling further east along the coal belt in Pennsylvania, we find the Morris Run and Fall Brook coals, which are semi-bituminous — i. e., not quite anthracite, nor yet bituminous, but having charactistics of both. It is a valuable coal for the purpose of generating steam for locomotives, for which it is being generally used, to the exclusion of wood, as it igniter readily, blazes fiercely, and makes steam rapidly.

Its adoption by our railroads proves timely in another respect, as their enormous consumption of wood for fuel and ties threatened the extinction of our forests, which scientists assure us would cnange the atmospheric conditions of our continent, dry up our streams, and render this fertile land of ours a howling desert.

This may be true ; if so, it is fortunate that the evil issomewhat mitigated in the use of this coal.

It is noticeable that streams in our immediate vicinity are much reduced in volume of late years, and since the cutting off of the forests along the banks and at their source.

The Sauquoit Creek, once noted throughout the State as one of the best water-powers therein, has diminished in volume fully one-half within the memory of residents there who are yet young enough to read this without spectacles, and their teeming mills and factories have been forced to curtail their production to that extent, or add the steam engine.

There are miles enough of railroads in the United States, including double tracks, turnouts, &e., to extend more than

TOWN OF PARIS AS FIRST FORMED.

three times around the globe, and at every sixteen inches of this vast mileage a railroad tie is imbedded.

A person starting from New York, or any of our seaboard cities, could walk on ties from ocean to ocean and from Maine to farthest Texas, without once putting foot to ground, and to traverse all our vast network of roads in this manner would consume, using ordinary working hours, many years, and all these ties must be renewed every seven years. They are cut from small trees, the size in diameter of the tie, that should be growing to suppl}T the place of the old and failing trees of our forests, and the aggregate acres denuded of trees for this purpose is truly appalling and sufficient to devastate some of the kingdoms of Europe, and lay waste every living tree within their borders, and, at no distant period, iron suitably constructed with regard to elasticity must take the place of wood for ties.

Chapter IV. Town Of Paris As First Formed From Whitestown

The town was named in honor of Colonel Isaac Paris, of Eort Plain, Montgomery County, N. Y. The first settlers at Clinton, (then in the town of Whitestown,) in 1788, did not raise sufficient crops during the year to sustain themselves and the new-comers in 1789, and famine, in all its horrors, stared them in the face, the stock of wheat flour and the old crop of potatoes being entirely exhausted, and in this emergency a committee went to Fort Plain to obtain supplies, if possible. Isaac Paris, a merchant and miller of that place, consented to supply them on the only terms that they were able to offer. They, not having either gold or silver, proposed to pay him at some future time in ginseng, which abounded in the forest, the roots of which were then an article of export to China, wheie ginseng was supposed to be an antidote to the plague. Mr. Paris accordingly loaded a flat-

HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF PARIS.

boat with flour and meal, and sent it up the Mohawk to the mouth of the Oriskany Creek, where the precious cargo was transferred to log canoes made by the settlers, who, by means of paddles, ropes and setting-poles, worked it up the creek as far as the present Clinton factory, where it was unloaded* and thence transported in carts to the little settlement. Its arrival was the occasion of great joy. A recent notice of the funeral of Irving Paris, which was held in St. Mark’s Church, New York, on Sunday, November 2, 1879, reads: “ The de-

ceased was one of the few remaining nephews of Washington Irving, and was a highly respected member of the bar. His father, Daniel Paris, was a lawyer of some distinction in his day, having represented Montgomery County in the State Senate, and filled other offices of importance. Isaac Paris* whose name is perpetuated by a township, was grandfather of the deceased. Daniel Paris married Catherine Irving, (sister of the author,) and both are now among the dead. At the funeral of Daniel Paris, at St. Mark’s, twenty-five years ago, there were Washington Irving and others of the old-fashioned gentry — all of whom are now passed away. Among those present on the recent funeral occasion was the venerable Judge Ulshoffer, father-in-law of the deceased, who is now eighty-three. Thirty years ago he was a prominent member of the judiciary, but now he lingers in the community as a memorial of the past. What an old man to bear a part as a mourner at a funeral !”