Geneva in 1821

GENEVA IN 1833

Interesting Items Taken From the Geneva Gazette of Wednesday, Oct. 23, 1833

From the Home Journal

A Relic of Forty Years Ago

W. V. I. Mercer John Wood Geo. Wight P. Hastings A. Messer D. Field jun'r John Woods G. W. Cromwell R. Hogarth J. S. Hogarth Peter M. Dox Charles S. Bronson Sexton Mount W. W. Watson Wm. Mager S. H. Bostwick William Inslee J. Gray David S. Skaats Jacob Larzelere Wm. Hudson John W. Nevius C. A. Cook J. M. Soverhill Henry Stephens J. M. Page S. Buckley Harvey Tomlinson Luther Kelly George Wood David Carey W. E. Sill R. W. Stoddard Alonzo Seymour Chas. T. Brouer Nathan Parke H. V. R. Schemerhorn Robert C. Nicholas G. P. Stephens Samuel Robinson Robert Daskam H. Brizse A. H. Barber H. Hastings L. W. Hamblin James Gillespie W. S. DeZeng Theodore Hinman jr. J. A. Coffin Charles Butler W. Gordon William Cole Hugh Black David Wilson Josiah Anderson John Hall John Greves Oliver S. Phelps

G. H. Merrill J. Thayer J. Snow M. M. Williams E. Hastings Phinehas Prouty David S. Hall D. L. Lum John W. Tillman R. M. Bayly J. B. Rumny D. G. Johnson Jerome Loomis H. H. Bogert Wm. H. Townsend H. DeGraff A. Hemiup Geo. Merrill G. H. Haskill H. A. Nagly C. Rodney Geo. A. Condit Levi A. Stevens R. Bedell S. L. Wood John N. Bogert W. W. Carter T. B. Tallmadge Jas. B. Dungan S. Hemenway R. Hemenway John Fargo Joseph I. Scidmore E. H. Gordon A. I. Wynkoop J. F. Jenkins John C. Merrill David Hudson Ducondray Holstein S. B. Grosvenor A. H. Osborn U. E. Lewis James Rees John H. Stagg C. Powell Peter Staats John D. Locke Wm. W. Greene Joseph C. Northup Abr'm B. Hall B. Stainton Wm. Tippetts A. Fleming Septs Evans J. Smith S. H. Rose J. R. Morrison

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From Geneva Gazette 30 May 1890

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From Geneva Gazette 6 June 1890

Local Reminiscences

As related in my first article, the tavern on the corner of Castle and Main street was kept by George Hemiup, who also manufactured chairs.  His sons were Morris W., Norton and Charles L., all still living.  East of this on Castle lived the Lums, the boys were Dave, Stute and Will.  Adjoining them came Peter Thomas -- the boys were named Jack, Pete and Joe; then we came to Wm. Green.  His only son was Henry. Below them came Moses Hall, his only sons were William, John and Henry. Opposite came Samuel Green.  His sons were Samuel and John.  The next lot was Handfield's, where Elm street now runs.  Next west was the two story dwelling, much as it now is, where at different times lived John, Henry and Robert Daskam, brothers of Nathan, who were all bakers and coopers.  Their thatched shop was back in the garden. The two boys, as I remember, were John and William.  Next west was Jacocks, a carpenter, and joining that for a time lived George Bennett. His sons were John, Charles, Henry and George.  On the corner opposite the tavern stood a small wood tenement house, variously occupied, a family by the name of Castle I remember -- afterwards as a cooper shop. Continuing north on Main street, we've come to the Colt's meadow; and directly opposite Joseph Fulton's dwelling (now occupied by Thomas Shanley) stood Colt's barn. Continuing north we come to the Marshall dwelling.  This house stood on the south of Castle creek, the creek passing partly through the garden. Mr. Marshall's sons were George and Daniel, who now reside in Cleveland, O.  The former once occupied the Mayor's chair of that City. These three buildings covered the entire ground from Castle street to what is now is known as Lewis street.

Colt's meadow mentioned above extended from Main to now Genesee street.  This field was sometimes cultivated, but used mostly as a meadow or pasture, and parade or training ground.  Here I first saw the sun glass.  It was harvest time. There were probably a dozen German men, women and children, dressed out in their gorgeous colors of red, yellow and blue.  At their noon just east of the barn, squatted on the ground, they partook of their rustic meal, then lit their huge pipes of tobacco with the sun glass.  This was previous to the day of lucifer matches.  It was just about upon this same spot where the great fight came off between Tom Harris (colored) and an Englishman -- I think a connection of the Ask family.  Seeing a great crowd going towards the meadow, I followed.  The crowd went over the fence; there was to be a big fight; the two men stripped to the waist -- a large ring was formed.  The darkey (sic) turned his back to the fence, thus facing the sun.  Some one said "go at it!"  The two men advanced toward each other.  The Englishman elevated his pair of fives.  After a few moments of this manoevering, Harris backed a few steps, eyed the Englishman with meteoric eyes, made a furious rush for his opponent with head down, and arms flying much after the manner of a windmill.  The Englishman stood as erect as a statue -- his arms at "due gard" and as cool as a cucumber. When Harris got within say five feet of him, The Englishman dropped his arms, closed his thumbs together, slipped them under Harris's chin and held him out at arm's length.  Not a blow was struck.  The Englishman gently closed his thumbs and fingers around Harris's breathing apparatus until the crowd said "lay him down," which he did, and there on the grass lay Mr. Harris, the bucking colored gentleman, about as mum as we now frequently see the canines after some friend (?) of theirs has visited the Apothecary's.  But the appearance of that face in action!  Reader, you have undoubtedly seen the moon in an eclipse.  Well, multiply that by two, and you can imagine the rest. This was my first and last appearance at a prize ring.  Hi. Suydam and Pete Thomas were there.

Continuing our journey north we pass Lewis street.  Just on the side hill is the Robinson house, and near by it is Genl. Dobbin's dwelling.  Moses R. Hand lived next, his sons were Mose and Silas.  Between this and the north or Waterloo road there was a small rough barn sometimes used as a slaughter-house.  Near this, and not far from S. H. Parker's present dwelling was Hemiup's brick yard.  At that date there were five dwellings and two barns on the east side of Main north of Castle street. Between the Carter or Middle road and the Lyons road or Water street, on the north side, were but the two dwellings of Dr. Rose and Thos. D. Burrall.  A little east of the Burrall mansion and near where the R. R. crosses was situated the Burrall foundry.

Returning to Main street; opposite the brick yard and on the west side stood the residence of John T. Clemmons.  His sons were named Anson, William and Charles.  Over Castle creek stood Joseph Fulton's slaughter-house, and opposite of Lewis street near the present residence of John McKay was the Lewis property.  North of this to the North road were the Doremous, Elliot, Clemons and a butcher by the name of Spendlove (no relation to our departed friend Harry.)  At the foot of Main where Mrs. W. W. Wright now lives the General Trainings were sometimes held.  In the field between the creek and the Lewis residence where the German Evangelical Church now stands were frequently held the muster, or June drills.  Next south of the slaughter-house stood a double dwelling.  An English shoemaker by the name of Castle occupied one end of this house.  The John Prue lot next.  Then came Miss Diamon's school; next Fulton's; his sons were James, William and Joe.

John Brazee lived on the corner where now stands the Universalist House of Worship -- he had one son, John.  There were two dwellings between Fulton's and Brazee's.  From this corner going west we first meet the Snyder property; the second from that was the Dr. Merryweather residence.  The Doctor was a noted personage.  Having been brought up a slave, he was master of sufficient suavity to slush the ways of a steamboat when the sixpence was in sight.  He was porter at the Franklin.  We next come to Aaron Young.  His sons were John, Frank and Will -- all still living.  

The house has changed very little, and the same may be said of the Edwin Barnard house that stood next west.  Next came Reuben Bedell -- one son, Ambrose.  The Allen Pump factory came next; there were two Allen boys -- two sons, Henry and William.  Then the Hayes house.  Next east of the Castle creek stood the brick cottage of Giles Parker.  He had seven sons: Ira and John the two oldest, and Henry, the fifth, have passed to the other side.  On the Hill beyond lived Philip C. Ruckle, a retired New York merchant.  His sons were James, Philip and John.

Opposite this place we find the Sam'l Codington family.  His sons were Charles, John, George, Henry, William and Edward, and two daughters -- Catharine and Caroline.  Here was the celebrated dam and saw mill.  West of this were situated the Gregory dwelling and tannery.  Opposite the tannery was Smith's woods and Fisher family, and where Sterling built, and where T. C. Maxwell now lives.  West of these woods and where Wm. Smith's Observatory is situated were cultivated fields. General trainings were sometimes held here.  No dwellings until we come to King Swayles, now the State Farm, east of the Indian burying ground.  To this mound the Indians would often resort, but I never have seen over ten or twelve there at any one time, and never saw them hold any ceremony whatever.

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From Geneva Gazette 29 April 1892

REMINISCENCES

There are a few left of Geneva boys born in 1821-22.  Memory is quite vivid with most of them as to men and things in 1832 and onward.

Said John D. Young in talking over old times recently, "you recollect that queer old codger Ayres, who came in from the country on the Castle road.  Usually had his wife with him.  What a rig he drove; a 2-wheeled vehicle with a little hay in it. Instead of a whip he wielded a large whipstock or cane with which he incessantly punched the old "hoss" to keep him on a lazy trot.  In one of my mischievous pranks I found opportunity to unhitch the traces and fasten the driving lines to the hame rings. You ought to have seen the old man's surprise when he punched up the horse and the brute pulled out of the thills, almost hauling him over the dashboard.  I put in an appearance about that time and fairly convinced the old man that he made the mistake in hitching up.  'Mebbe I have -- I'm getting pretty old.'

"And then there was another quaint old fellow -- a regular Johnny Bull in his swallow-tail coat, knee breeches and buckle shoes. That was Billy Swales.  He owned and lived on the farm now constituting the the State Agricultural Station.  He afterwards sold it to Charles Godfrey.

"And then there was Israel Crittenden, who used to ride to and fro between his farm and the village on horseback and at a pretty lively gait for one who carried so much 'ardent' in his skin.  But I never knew him to meet with an accident.

"Jerome Loomis, the Revolutionary patriot, 'driving his old horse "Lark,"' was another familiar figure in his long white queue often seen on the Castle road.  The boys always looked upon the old soldier with admiration.  Three only of his very large family remain.

"Then there were two positive characters in our immediate neighborhood -- Adam Wilson, the English cavalryman who fought under Wellington at Waterloo.  He still retained his huge broadsword, and when he got pretty full, as was too often the case, he was prone to imagine that his wife and children were dastard followers of the hated Napoleon, and he would flourish his weapon too dangerously near their inoffensive heads.  Often they would have to flee to neighbors for protection during his warlike moods.  A boon companion of his was the little sawed-off, round-shouldered Daniel James.  How often I have seen them 'holding up the fence' along by Pete Earle's house.  And when they parted it was invariably with the assurance of the stalwart soldier, 'we're frens for life, Daniel -- we're frens fer life!'

And Pliny Jennings.  Will you ever forget Pliny Jennings?  What an old sardine he was; how he loved to gossip; knew everybody and everybody's pedigree.  And how he loved to tease poor old Mary Carey, another character as quaint as any going to make up our community.  Homely !  It's no name for it.  Wall-eyed, and face so wrinkled you couldn't put a pin point on a smooth place.  She resided till her death on Catharine street -- now dignified by the name West Avenue.

"Charley Campbell -- he was another never-to-be-forgotten character.  What fun we had with old Charley.  And he enjoyed the fun too, and would take any amount of boys' nonsense until they began to pull at his coat-tails -- then look out for stones -- he always carried a few for such emergency in his pockets.  I wish you could put in type so as to be understood the queer sound that came from his throat in emphasizing a retort to our badgerings.  He made a special 'circus' for us at general trainings.

"Poor old 'Granny Mills'.  Do you remember the occasion when her house burned down over her head?  It stood on the spot where Brundage's carriage shop now stands.  It was with difficulty she was restrained from rushing in and perishing with the destruction of her humble dwelling.  What a search was made by us boys for the gold and silver treasure supposed to be buried in the ruins.  The 'finds' however did not make any of us rich.

"Well, this will do for one chapter.  Let us get together again and talk over 'old times.' "  (Agreed.)

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From Geneva Gazette 3 June 1892

As Seen Through Swiss Eyes

Some two or three months ago Mr. D. F. Attwood, President of our village, received a request for documents and information relating to it.  The applicant was a newspaper editor or correspondent in Geneva, Switzerland, who thought that his fellow citizens would be interested in some brief account of all the American GENEVAS. His request being complied with, he now courteously sends to President Attwood and others the net results of his study of our character and our history.  We give below a somewhat free translation of this article, (it appeared originally in French), believing that our readers will be glad to avail themselves of the "giftie" so earnestly coveted by the poet Burns -- "to see oursel's as others see us."

The women tax-payers will be sorry to learn that our Swiss friend is in error in his statement that les femmes recalcitrantes cannot be forced like the men to pay their taxes.  To be sure, the charter provides that no body execution shall issue against women, but this is their only exemption from the processes of the collector.  As the provision for a "body execution" is never put in force against the men, women and men are practically on the same footing in this respect.

Geneva, N. Y. -- THE ELDEST OF THE AMERICAN GENEVAS.

Mr. Editor, I have presented to your readers eighteen American Genevas.  I would like today to talk with them about the GENEVA of New York, eldest of the Genevas of the United States.  Let a map of the state of New York be consulted; upon the same degree of longitude as Washington and nearly upon the 43rd degree of north latitude is found a village called Geneva, situated at the north of a lake.  In order to point out its position precisely we will add that Geneva, N. Y. is 105 miles east of Lake Erie, 25 miles south of lake Ontario, 220 miles north-east of New York, and almost upon the same degree of latitude as Toulon.  Five little lakes about half as large as lake Leman flow from south to north, parallel to one another, and upon an average about 12 miles apart. Their northern extremity is about  twenty-five miles south of Lake Erie which is almost as large as Switzerland. Going from east to west these lakes are Skaneateles, Owasco, Cayuga, Seneca and Canandaigua.

Geneva, N. Y., situated at the north of lake Seneca, is ten days by post from the Swiss Geneva.

Mr. D. F. Attwood, president of the Board of Trustees of this Geneva, sends me some documents of recent date relating to its settlement.  Ex-president George S. Conover is its historiographer. It is through his kindness that I am able to offer you the following statement:

The first official document concerning Geneva, N. Y., is a letter from Dr. Cabb Benton to William Walker, surveyor and land agent dated Oct. 15, 1788.  Nine other official documents bearing the name of Geneva and a date following one another up to Sept. 20th, 1791, which is the date of a description by Elkanah Watson in his newspaper.  It was nine months, then, before the presidency of Washington, and eight years after Major Andre, the Swiss Genevan, had been shot by Washington as a spy and buried as a hero by England in Westminister Abbey, that the Geneva of New York was settled.  While surveyors were laying out the boundaries of Geneva, N. Y., this is what was happening in the Swiss Geneva:  (It is the historian Jullien who writes:)  "The wealthy people of Geneva were generous; in September, 1788, the city of Sion, capital of Valais, was laid waste by a fire which consumed a hundred and twenty-six houses and caused a loss of more than a million; the contributions of Geneva amounted to more than forty-three thousand florins."

And now a few words about the pre-historic American Geneva which called itself Kanadesaga.  The army of Gen. Sullivan made the tour of the lake now called Seneca September 17th, 1779.  At the north of it they found a prosperous Indian village, chief place of the Kanadesaga tribe.  There they saw a beautiful apple-orchard surrounding a fortress known later as Indian Castle.  Mr. Conover gives us a detailed account of the most renowned chiefs of the Kanadesagas in 1788.  On the 4th of June of this year, Oliver Phelps arrived at this Indian village; was struck by its beauty and by its favorable situation from a commercial point of view.  He there wrote a letter in which one reads these memorable words:  "We mean to found a city here."  The chronicler reports to us the dramatic history of the debates between the Indian chiefs and the Americans Phelps and Gorham over the cession of the territory of the new Geneva.  He gives us the speech of Red Jacket against the American offers, and the reply of Farmer's Brother in favor of acceptance.  All this took place in the presence of the tribes assembled in a clearing of the virgin forest.  It was then in the autumn of 1788 that Kanadesaga took the name of Geneva, and became the isolated outpost of what was called the Geneva country.  Soon it became the rendezvous of traders going to the great lakes.  Taverns, cottages, surveyors, speculators, explorers, the Leasee company and its agents, (some educated men and gentlemen), a crowd of vagrants -- the foam on the crest of the westward-moving wave, -- all seized by the fever of hope and ambition.

Phelps and Gorham, the first owners, sold what remained of their tract to Robert Morris in 1790.  He, in turn, sold his title through his London agent to Sir William Pulteney, John Harnbey and Patrick Colqumann, but these gentlemen not being Americans and being by this fact disqualified to acquire real estate in America, sent over their agent, Mr. Charles Williamson, who became naturalized and thus bought land in the new Geneva in his name for the English financiers.  This deed was signed April 11th, 1792.

The appearance of the new Geneva was less attractive than that of Kanadesaga, its predecessor; in fact, Elkanah Watson who visited it in 1791 wrote the following lines on the 21st of September:  "Geneva is an unhealthy little village consisting of about fifteen houses, all of wood except three, and perhaps twenty families. We were well enough received at the Patterson tavern, situated upon the shore of the lake, but our sleep was disturbed nearly all night by gamblers and fleas, those two social plagues." In 1793, Captain Williamson had a new survey of the village made.  The charts and the original plans have not been preserved.  Historian Conover despairs of finding them again.

Lakes Cayuga and Seneca have been explored with the greatest care by Professors E. Fuertes and Crandall and Mr. J. P. Church.  Students of engineering worked in 1878 and 1883 to take soundings and to make surveys. Exact charts of the bottoms of these lakes have been prepared.  Seneca Lake is thirty-four miles in length; its greatest width is 3.12 miles, and its greatest depth is 618 English feet.  In other words, Seneca Lake measured upon Lake Leman would stretch from Geneva to Ouehy in length, and from Nyon to Nernier in its greatest width.

The town government of Geneva is excellent.  Public and private gambling houses are prohibited, also, horse-racing. Unreasonably fast driving is forbidden, and the public is warned not to play at hoop or ball, or to engage in any game through which persons passing by might be injured.

On the third Tuesday in May, at ten in the morning, all tax-payers are gathered in a general assembly to approve or reject the annual budget which is submitted to them by the Trustees of the Village Board.  And, a thing unknown in Europe !  Women who are tax-payers "refuse to pay their taxes cannot, like the men, be forced to pay."

Any person who does not observe the proprieties of language, or is not decently clothed, is liable to a fine. Bathing in the lake, or in the water-courses traversing the village limits, except at night, is forbidden.

It appears that the supervision of public morals is as severe as it was in our Geneva in the days of Calvin.

Locomotives and steamboats are not allowed to whistle within the village limits except in case of impending danger. The code from which I borrow these laws consists of a hundred and fifty pages, and appears to me to be a model of clearness and judicious foresight.

The authorities of the Geneva New York have been touched by the sympathetic comparison which I have endeavored to establish between the Geneva of Julius Caesar and the first Geneva of the New World.  May these reciprocal sentiments bear fruit in the future !  It is my dearest wish.

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From Geneva Gazette 9 April 1897

AN OLD RELIC

Geneva Glass Factory

Mr. H. L. DeZeng recently came into possession, through the kindness of Mr. J. B. Church, of a relic of one of Geneva's earliest industries -- the Geneva Glass Factory.  It is a transcript of the law passed in May, 1810, incorporating the company, supplied by the then Secretary of State, and bearing the faded but still distinct seal of the State.  The incorporators included Abraham Dox, Joseph Fellows, John Greig, Samuel Colt, Nathaniel Gorham, James Bogert and others. The total number of shares authorized was 2500 at $50 each -- total $125,000.  Mr. Wm. S. DeZeng came into the project seven years later, or in 1817, from which time it seems that he wielded the laboring oar in this important enterprise. The act of incorporation was approved and signed by Gov. Daniel D. Tompkins, certified by Daniel Hale, Secretary of State.  The memoranda accompanying shows a dividend in "boxes of window glass of 3/4 box per share."  What its value in dollars and cents we are unable at this day to figure out.  Mr. DeZeng proposes to place these relics of a by-gone age in local history in the College Library.  The documents are 80 and 87 years old respectively, and among the most ancient to be found in our local archives.

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From Geneva Gazette 13 August 1897

The Old Glass Factory - Mr. H. L. DeZeng, whose father, W. S. DeZeng, was principal manager of the industry, has sketched from memory of the plant all the buildings and residences constituting the Glass Factory plant located at the bay on Seneca Lake which still bears the name "Glass Factory Bay."  The date at which Mr. DeZeng fixes in memory the old plant is
1841.  The operating buildings were near the lake shore and consisted of a "blowing" factory, cutting and flattening buildings, office, store, barns, and along the west side of the highway a row of five houses, then a school house, and further up on the hill under the shade of a large willow tree, the more commodious home of John Fowler, the foreman of the works.  It was about the only factory of importance in this whole region at that time.  Its products were sent to out-of-town markets by lake and canal -- we had no railroad entering Geneva at that time.  We well remember visiting the factory in '41 or '42 and witnessing with boyish wonder the interesting process of "blowing glass".  The workmen before the ovens had about as warm a time of it as do operatives in a rolling mill or iron casting foundry.  The glass-blowers were paid good wages and earned them.  Not a vestige of the old factory remains; the Fall Brook railroad tracks traverse its site.  Maxwell's extensive fruit orchard occupies the land west of and adjacent to the factory hamlet, and on lands then cultivated to grain and grass.

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From Geneva Daily Times 19 March 1928

Mrs. A. B. Johnson, formerly of this city and now town historian of Caledonia, New York, in a communication to The Times, states that the two-story barn at 188 Castle street, recently destroyed by fire, is the site of a barn built by her father and later added to by his son-in-law, the late Alfred B. Levet.

In some further historical reminiscences she makes references to her family home on Castle street, one of the first houses built here, called a mud-built house because of its construction. It was later clapboarded over.

Mrs. Johnson has also unearthed some material concerning Horatio Jones, a soldier on Sullivan's expedition, who was captured by the Indians. He was adopted into an Indian family, learned the language, and after his release settled in Geneva. His first wife was Sarah Whittemore, and their son, William, was born in the village of Geneva in December 1786. This boy is supposed to have been the first white child born west of Utica in this state.

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From Geneva Courier 3 September 1879

THE REED & RYCKMAN LINE

From measurements made by W. G. Powers, surveyor, according to the distances laid out on the old authentic maps, it is ascertained that this line commencing at the lake and running due west, magnetically 1789, passed, on the east side of Exchange street, a point about 3 1/2 feet south of the McCurdy alley, and crossing the street at about the center of Kent's clothing store and so on to Linden street where it passes through the Courier printing house, at a point about 4 inches south of the third window sill from the north  end of the building. The line continues then due west, passing the north end of the Pulteney St. burial ground, and through the centre of High street to the old pre-emption line.

This line is the basis of all the early surveys and from which the village was originally surveyed and plotted, and is today the foundation of all the present allotments. The measurements of Mr. Powers were not made with any pretension of positive accuracy, using only a tape line for this purpose, but is approximately correct, and sufficient for present purposes.

Peter Ryckman's house stood just one chain south of the line and doubtless occupied the position of the north part of the house in which Fisher's meat market is on the east side of Exchange street. In 1788 the Lessee Company had a framed tavern and trading establishment covered with bark, on the lake shore, which was occupied by Dr. Benton. This was about at the foot of Washington street on what is now south Exchange street.

In 1791 Elkanah Watson visited Geneva and wrote that it was a small unhealthy village of about 15 houses, all log except three, and about 20 families. He had decent accommodations at Patterson's tavern on the margins of the lake, but his repose was troubled most of the night by gamblers and fleas. Ezra Patterson owned the lot on which the Dove block, corner of Castle and Exchange streets now is, in 1793, and (illegible) doubtless the location of his (illegible)

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