Three Rivers
Hudson~Mohawk~Schoharie
History From America's Most Famous Valleys
This souvenir album is published as part of the
St. Johnsville Bicentennial Celebration
1976
Published by St. Johnsville Village/Town Bicentennial Committee, Inc.
A Look Into The Past by Wayne Lenig
Continued from Part
One.
If
this picture of pioneer life seems idyllic, perhaps we should examine the toils
and tribulations which the people experienced in order to obtain this lifestyle.
Their homes were built without the benefit of a sawmill. Each beam was fashioned
from a tree which was felled and squared-up by a hand ax. Each plank was laboriously
sawed out of a log by two men with a pitsaw. Each shingle was individually split
from a log by a man sitting at a shingle bench with hammer and froe. Yet these
people were not totally self-sufficient. They needed manufactured goods to maintain
their style of living. Cooking utensils, dishes, tools, liquor, tobacco, some
foods, and to a large extent household furniture were purchased from merchants
in Albany and Schenectady. To obtain these things a man needed something which
he could barter or sell, and our pioneer settlers chose farming commodities.
But to grow crops they had to clear fields of huge trees, often as large as
six feet in diameter. Stumps were pulled with the help of horses, and plowing
was also done with the help of these beasts. Sowing grain by broadcasting was
a long and tedious task, and when the crop finally ripened these were no harvesting
machines together the fruits of labor--the crop was harvested by hand. Peas
were picked and wheat was cut with the help of a short one-handed scythe, common
in western Europe. Threshing was accomplished by beating the stalks with a flail
and winnowing was done by hand as well, using a wooden basket to toss the mixture
in the air. The chaff was blown away, and, with a little luck, the grain was
caught in the basket. Before Jacob Timmerman built he mill, about 1750, the
grain was sold or bartered in its unaltered from, and any flour for home use
had to be ground by hand with a mortar and pestle, or carried to the closest
mill, then located near present day Cranesville. Milled flour was, of course,
worth more than raw grain, and with the entire economy of the area dependent
upon wheat it is no wonder that Saint Johnsville first industry was Jacob Timmerman's
grist mill.
A beautiful sight to behold, the
stage of the Wyland Opera House was a terrible loss to St. Johnsville when the
entire building burned down in 1914.>
New England Immigration and Population
Growth
European immigrants continued to pour into
the area around Saint Johnsville throughout the 18th century, and by 1770 there
were enough inhabitants to support a little church near Jacob Klock's house
just east of our village. The Revolutionary War interrupted the growth of our
community for about fifteen years, but by 1790 things were really beginning
to boom. Not only were Europeans settling near our village, but large numbers
of New Englanders were beginning to move west into the Mohawk Valley. The Beardslee
family typifies this "new breed" of immigrants. The pioneer, John
Beardslee, moved to east Canada Creek from Sharon, Connecticut, in 1787. He
built a grist mill and saw mill and the first bridge across that stream, and
from that time forward his family played an important part in the development
of industry in Saint Johnsville.
About
1800 a new east-west highway was laid out along the north shore of the Mohawk
River. It was known as the "Mohawk Turnpike", and it became one of
the main arteries for traffic moving west to the new frontier. The new road
ran right through Timmerman's settlement along the path of present day Route
5. In due time, it would become "Main Street" in almost all of the
north-shore communities in the Mohawk Valley.
By 1801, the industrial capacity of "Timmerman's"
doubled, for in that year George G. Klock opened another grist mill on Zimmerman's
Creek. Soon after the settlement added its first general store, operated by
Andrew Zabrisk, a newcomer who became quite important as a Lieutenant Colonel
in the militia during the War of 1812. In 1804, David Quackenbush built a third
mill. The community was becoming prosperous; so prosperous that Jacob Timmerman,
Jr. decided to donate land for a new Dutch Reformed Church. The edifice was
erected on the same site that the Dutch Reformed Church stands on today. The
old church, east of the village, became a "country school" where pupils
were taught in their German language by Henry Hase (today spelled Hayes). In
1812 the United States Post Office for the entire town of Oppenheim, of which
our village was then a port, was established within present bounds of Saint
Johnsville. About this time also, Jacob N. Failing opened his famous turnpike
tavern where the late A. J. Bellinger's garage stands today. Other mills began
to appear along Zimmerman Creek. James Averill's grist mill was built in 1825
and converted to an iron foundry by Adam Thumb in 1832.
Continued
to Part Three.
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