History of Montgomery & Fulton Counties by F. W. Beers & Co. Montgomery County, Ch16

THE HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

CHAPTER XVI.

IMMIGRATION FROM NEW ENGLAND--PIONEER LIFE--NEW ROADS AND BRIDGES--STAGING ON THE MOHAWK TURNPIKE.

Prior to the Revolution, the inhabitants of the Mohawk valley, as has been seen, were for the most part the Germans, who came over from the Palatinate, and the Dutch, who tardily extended their settlements westward from Schenectady, together with some Scotch and Irish. But after that eventful period, people from New England, no less industrious and enterprising, came flocking in and took possession of the confiscated lands of the tories, obtaining their title from the State, or pushing into the unbroken wilderness, brought new farms into cultivation.

Now pioneer life was lived on a larger scale. The settlers' log cabins more thickly dotted the wilderness, and the clearings about them encroached more rapidly upon the surrounding forests. Everywhere was heard the ring of the woodman's axe and seen the smoke from whirlwinds of flame that were consuming the trees earlier felled and dry enough to burn. The first burning, which destroyed limbs and boughs, left the ground strewn with blackened trunks. To pile these together so that another firing would consume them was the rough and dirty job of " logging up." It was largely done by "bees," to which the willing-hearted and ready-handed frontiersmen rallied in numbers adequate to the heavy work to be done. Severe as that was, an afternoon at it left the young men with vim enough for a wrestling match, after they had rested long enough to' devour the generous supper with which the housewife feasted them.

The grain grown on the fields thus laboriously cleared was threshed with the flail or by driving horses over it, and winnowed by dropping it through a natural draft of air instead of the artificial blast of the fanning mill. When ready for market it was mostly drawn to Albany, some three days being required for the journey. Rude lumber wagons or ox-carts, or wood-shod sleighs, were the common vehicles for all occasions. A variety of work then went on in-doors as well as out, which long ago generally ceased to be done in private houses. Households of that age were in wide contrast with those of the present. Every good mother taught her daughters a broad range of domestic duties, from washing dishes and log-cabin floors to weaving and making-up fine linen. For the home w.is also the factory, and to none of the good wife's multifarious duties did her industrious spirit and proper ambition incline her more strongly than to the making from flax and wool of the fabrics which she and hers might need. For weeks and months the house resounded with the melody of spinning-wheel and loom and other simple machinery, with which every family answered for itself the question wherewithal it should be clothed. Mother and daughter were proud to appear, even at church, in homespun, if they had made it well, and father and son were not ashamed of the suits which loving hands had fashioned for them. This was the period when the disciples of St. Crispin " whipped the cat"-a term applied to the practice of itinerant shoemakers, who spread the implements of their craft for a day, more or less, in private dwellings, repairing old and making new equipage for the feet that had so many steps to take in rough ways. Common brogans were worn by both men and women, who were better pleased with the rude style of the logcabin age, than modern ladies and gentlemen of fashion are with the finest slipper and grandest gaiter that the art of the day can produce. Such was the life that thrived along the Mohawk after the long and wasting war, and which laid the foundation of the wealth and refinement that reign in the valley to-day.

Not only was it found necessary to organize new towns and counties for the convenience of the increasing population, but improvement m the means of transit and communication was demanded. In April, 1790, the Legislature voted " one hundred pounds for the purpose of erecting a bridge across the East Canada Creek, not exceeding three miles from the mouth thereof, upon the road from the Mohawk river to the Royal Grant." Three years later, commissioners were appointed by the Legislature with directions to build " a bridge over the East Canada Creek nearly opposite Canajoharie Castle, on the public road leading from Tribes Hill to the Little Falls."

In 1798 a very important bridge was built over the Schoharie Creek at Fort Hunter, under the supervision of Maj. Isaac Dupuy. The tide of emigration up the Mohawk necessitated the improvement of the thoroughfares in the valley, and the principal result of efforts in that direction was the Mohawk turnpike, from Schenectady to Utica. The charter for its construction was granted April 4, i8oo. In 1802 or 1803, Seth Wetmore and Levi Norton came from Litchfield county, Conn., and intending to take up land in the valley, interested themselves in the turnpike enterprise. They, with Ozias Bronson, Hewitt Hills and three others, formed the first board of directors. Wetmore being a surveyor and civil engineer, superintended the construction of the road. He afterwards sold his stock and with the avails bought of the Kane brothers, for about $5 per acre, a farm of 200 acres at Ames, in the town of Canajoharie, where he lived until his death in 1836. He served as judge of the county court, and two terms as sheriff of Montgomery county, while it contained the present Fulton county and the eastern tier of towns in Herkimer. He was the last sheriff named by the council of appointment, and the first elected by the people. Ozias Bronson bought a farm near Amsterdam, and his grandsons, James, Edward and George, now live at Amsterdam village, in successful business connections. It will be interesting here to read Thurlow Weed's account of staging over the famous turnpike in 1824, though serious errors in Mr. Weed's location of various landmarks will be detected by those conversant with the towns to which his notes apply. In describing the journey from Rochester to Albany in his autobiography, Mr. Weed speaks as follows:

" From Little Falls we come after an hours ride to a hill by the bank of the river which, several years before, Gen. Scott was descending in a stage when the driver discovered at a sharp turn near the bottom of the hill a Pennsylvania wagon winding its way up diagonally. The driver saw but one escape from a disastrous collision, and that to most persons would have appeared even more dangerous than the collision. The driver, however, having no time for reflection, instantly guided his team over the precipice and into the river, from which the horses, passengers, coach and driver, were safely extricated. The passengers, following Gen. Scott's example, made the driver a handsome present as a reward for his courage and sagacity.

" We dine at East Canada Creek, where the stage house, kept by Mr. Couch, was always to be relied on for excellent ham and eggs and fresh brook trout. Nothing of especial interest until we reach Spraker's, a well known tavern that neither stages nor vehicles of any description were ever known to pass. Of Mr. Spraker, senior, innumerable anecdotes were told He was a man without education, but possessed strong good sense, considerable conversational powers, and much natural humor. Most of the stories told about him are so Joe-Millerish that I will repeat but one of them. On one occasion, he had a misunderstanding with a neighbor, which provoked both to say hard things of each other. Mr. Spraker having received a verbal hot shot from his antagonist, reflected a few moments and replied, " Ferguson, dare are worse men in hell dan you ; " adding after a pause, " but dey are chained." *********

" At Canajoharie a tall handsome man with graceful manners, is added to our list of passengers. This is the Hon. Alfred Conkling, who in 1820 was elected to Congress from this district, and who has just been appointed Judge of the United States District Court, for the Northern District of New York, by Mr. Adams. Judge Conkling is now (in 1870) the oldest surviving New York member of Congress. In passing Conyne's Hotel, near the Nose, the fate of a young lady who ' loved not wisely but too well' with an exciting trial for breach of promise, etc., would be related. Still further east we stop at Failing's tavern to water. Though but an ordinary tavern in the summer season, all travelers cherish a pleasant remembrance of its winter fare ; for leaving a cold stage with chilled limbs, if not frozen ears, you were sure to find in Failing's bar and dining-rooms ' rousing fires'; and the remembrance of the light lively ' hot and hot' buckwheat cakes, and the unimpeachable sausages, would renew the appetite even if you had just risen from a hearty meal.

" Going some miles further east we come in sight of a building on the west side of the Mohawk river, and near its brink,the peculiar architecture of which attracts attention. This was formerly Charles Kane's store, or rather the store of the brothers Kane, five of whom were distinguished merchants in the early years of the present century. They were all gentlemen of education, commanding in person, accomplished and refined in manners and associations. * * * Here Commodore Charles Morris, one of the most gallant of our naval officers, who in 1812 distinguished himself on board the United States Frigate ' Constitution ' in her engagement with the British frigate ' Guerriere' passed his boyhood. In 1841, when I visited him on board of the United States seventy-four gun ship ' Franklin,' lying off Annapolis, he informed me that among his earliest recollections, was the launching and sailing of miniature ships on the Mohawk river. On the-opposite side of the river, in the town of Florida, is the residence of Dr. Alexander Sheldon, for twelve years a member of the Legislature from Montgomery county, serving six years as Speaker of the House of Assembly. The last year Dr. S. was in the Legislature, one of his sons, Milton Sheldon, was also a member from Monroe county. Another son, Smith Sheldon, who was educated for a dry goods merchant, drifted some years ago to the city of New York, and is now the head of the extensive publishing house of Sheldon & Co., Broadway.

" The next points of attraction were of much historical interest. Sir William and Guy Johnson built spacious and showy mansions a few miles west of the village of Amsterdam, long before the Revolution, in passing which, interesting anecdotes relating to the English Baronet's connection with the Indians were remembered. A few miles west of Sir William Johnson's, old stagers would look for an addition to our number of passengers in the person of Daniel Cady, a very eminent lawyer, who resided at Johnstown, and for more than fifty years was constantly passing to and from Albany. At Amsterdam, Marcus T. Reynolds, then a rising lawyer of that village,often took his seat in the stage, and was a most companionable traveler."

Mr. Simms, commenting on this sketch, indorses the author's reference to circumstances " which compelled the male passengers at times to get out into the mud, and with rails appropriated from the nearest fence, to pry the wheels up so that. the horses could start anew. Two miles an hour was not unfrequently, in the Spring and Fall, good speed at certain localties."

Correcting Mr. Weed's errors as to locality, Mr. Simms says : " Conyne's Hotel was three miles east of Fonda, (he says near the Nose ; if so there may have been two keepers of the same name,) and * * * Failing's tavern was at St. Johnsville, and some twelve miles to the westward of the Nose, and more than twenty miles to the westward of Conyne's. At Palatine Bridge was one of the most noted stage houses in the Valley. It was built and first kept by Shepherd, and afterwards by the late Joshua Reed, and was as widely and favorably known as any other public house within fifty miles of it."

The charter of the Utica and Schenectady Railroad Company, granted in 1833, required it, before beginning transportation, to purchase the rights of the Mohawk Turnpike Company, at the rate of $22.50 per share, and assume the responsibilities of the latter. One of these responsibilities was that of keeping the turnpike in repair. It was provided, however, that the railroad company might abandon the turnpike, giving notice to the commissioners of highways, and after such notice it should be kept in order in the same manner as other highways. The railroad company for a time took toll on the turnpike and kept it in repair, but subsequently removed the gates, and is now responsible for the maintenance of only a part of the old highway.

The Legislature in 1802 authorized the opening of certain roads in the State,and in pursuance of this act the highway denominated the State Road, leading from Johnstown in a northwestern direction to the Black River country, was opened it; was subsequently much used while that part of the country was being settled by emigrants from the east. The improvement of the road leading from Schenectady to Utica along the south side of the Mohawk was deemed expedient, and commissioners were appointed in 1806, to direct the work, their instructions being to straighten the existing road and open it to a width of fifty feet. The towns through which it passed were required to repair and maintain it if their population was not too small.

The original towns of Montgomery county were soon subdivided. March 12, 1793, Caughnawaga was divided into Johnstown, Mayfield, Broadalbin and Amsterdam, and Mohawk into Charleston and Florida, their dividing line being Schoharie creek. In 1797, Salisbury, now in Herkimer county, was taken from Palatine, and the next year part of Canajoharie went to form Minden.