Category: Places

Events, Places

The Floods of Morris

Donna Foote

On the evening of Saturday, July 17, 2021, heavy rain in the area caused flooding in the Towns of Butternuts, Morris, and Pittsfield. This area also experienced recent flooding in 2014 and 2006.

Eerily similar to the most recent flooding is a description of a flood that occurred in 1902. The following is an excerpt about that flood from Joyce Foote’s book, Morris, New York – 1773-1923:

On July 20, 1902, Silver Creek reached flood stage and overflowed its banks inundating Main, Grove, and Broad Streets. An unusually heavy summer rain caused the deluge. The waters raged downstream, flowed under the Main Street bridge, flooded the business district, and continued down South Broad Street. The Grove Street bridge could not contain the remaining waters and another flood occurred there, too. These waters also flowed toward South Broad Street where they joined the stream from the four corners and continued down South Broad to the Butternut. All three of these streets were littered with debris as the waters receded and returned to their natural channel and usual calm demeanor.

The most recent floodwaters took a similar path causing damage to roadways and buildings on Main, Grove, and South Broad Streets in the village. Additional damage occurred throughout the towns of Morris, Butternuts, and Pittsfield.

The following photos tell the story.

Saturday, July 17 – Sunday, July 18, 2021

Courtesy of Aleathea Rivera
Courtesy of Aleathea Rivera
Courtesy of Aleathea Rivera
Fire House, Main Street – courtesy of Mindy Madison
Fire House interior – courtesy of Mindy Madison
Courtesy of Mindy Westcott
Grove Street Bridge – courtesy of Jim Foote
Grove Street Bridge – courtesy of Jim Foote
Grove Street Bridge – courtesy of Ann Pasternak
Courtesy of Ann Pasternak
Courtesy of Ann Pasternak
Main Street – courtesy of Ann Pasternak
Courtesy of Ann Pasternak
Courtesy of Ann Pasternak
Spring Street between Morris Central School and The Grove – courtesy of Carolyn Pasternak
State Route 51 near All Saints Chapel – courtesy of Jim Foote
State Route 51 south – courtesy of Jim Foote

Special thanks to those whose photos and videos I used for this blog: Jim Foote, Leland Hoag. Mindy Madison, Ann Pasternak, Carolyn Pasternak, and Aleathea Rivera. Thank you for capturing this event!

Places

The Local Stone Age, 1830-40

Donna Foote

From The Morris Chronicle, January 17, 1917

Excerpt from Morris, New York 1773-1923 by Joyce Foote, 1970

Louisville (Morris village) passed through its stone age in the decade 1830-40, according to an article in the Morris Chronicle in 1917. The Washbon farmhouse, the Rotch house (now Gregory)1, the Gardner hotel (now Morris Inn)2, the building next east of the hotel, and the corner building now occupied by the First National Bank3 were all built of stone during the decade named. There is no accurate record of the exact year in which each was constructed, history is somewhat misty as to who built them, and tradition disagrees as to where the stone came from.

The material is all native stone and the corners are large dressed stone. One of the paper’s subscribers thought the stone came from the ledge up the brook at the foot of Patrick Hill; but other information from J.P. Kenyon, who saw them all built, is that the stone came mostly from a ledge on the Captain Dan Smith farm (now Peter Gregory), or up the McNitt brook, and that Capt. Dan Smith was the builder or at least a contractor who put up these buildings.

The Rotch house was put up in 1833-34, the stone hotel and store next to it in 1833, and the Bank building about the same time. The J.K. Lull shoe shop (now Naylor’s stone house on East Main Street)4 was built on the corner of Grove and Broad Streets but was long ago torn down. Zion Church, also of native stone, was built in 1818.

Of all these buildings mentioned, we doubt if any has housed as many different tenants and as many different businesses as the old store east of the hotel. As Jonathan Lull and Edwin Gilbert were in business together in that store in the 1840s, it is not unlikely that they built it and were its first occupants, for Mr. Gilbert built the white house (now Gould Benedict) on the knoll adjoining the store property and occupied it until he and his family moved to Honesdale late in the forties. Lull & Gilbert was long a prominent firm here, and besides doing a general merchandising business they ran an ashery which was located on Water Street. This ashery business was quite extensive here then. There were three such businesses – the one noted above, another on what was the D.F. Wightman farm (now Dugan), and another on part of the Ernst Thurston farm (now Friedman). This present generation knows nothing about that industry. Ashes were collected by teamsters and brought to the ashery and were leached in big vats, the lye boiled down in large iron kettles until potash or pearlash was a resultant. This potash was shipped away and probably some of it found its way back to the stores as saleratus or cooking soda.

After Mr. Gilbert left Morris, his partner, Jonathan Lull, continued in the same store for some years in partnership with his nephew, Warren Lull. This store was in 1869 a dry goods store run by Murdock & Matteson, both of whom had been clerks for Mr. Lull, and in a part of the store was the post office with Harley Sargent as postmaster. In 1870, Jonathan Lull was again in business there and was succeeded by his son, Aidan Lull, and H.C. Steele. Later on, James Falls ran a hardware store there and it deteriorated into a saloon; later a feed store and now (1917) it is used on one side for a pool room and with Smith’s barber shop on the other.

Upstairs was used at first as a hall for the Odd Fellows Lodge, and headquarters for the Know Nothing Club. At one time, Miss Dietz conducted a select school there. Later Dr. M. Matteson had his office there, after which it was cut up into living rooms and has since been used for such purposes. We have only noted a few of the businesses and a few of the tenants of this venerable old building, but to our knowledge, it has never stood empty.5

Several years ago an addition built of wood was erected on the east side of the building and has been occupied by the post office for a long time. Upstairs, Nathan Bridges had his law office, and it is now (1917) the office of the Safety Co-operative Fire Insurance Co., E.C. Miller, Secretary.

1Today owned by the Dugans, this house faces Spring Street. 2Now a private residence. 3Community Bank. 4The Village Library of Morris. 5Currently apartments.

The previous text was taken directly from the book Morris, New York 1773-1923 by Joyce Foote, 1970. I made a few minor edits, and added footnotes with updated information, but the content remains unchanged.

Early History, People, Places

Local Reminiscence

Donna Foote

by A. S. Avery

From The Morris Chronicle, 1898

Part Four*

Excerpt from Morris, New York 1773-1923 by Joyce Foote, 1970

Number 7: The Butternut Woolen and Cotton Factory Co. built the four-story stone factory building about a mile below the village in 1825 (on Bernard Barton farm). It is still standing but fast falling into ruin. It was a chartered company that previous to its charter ran a satinet factory east of the old factory schoolhouse. It was a large wooden building painted red. Judge Franchot, Col. Van Rensselaer, Gen. Jacob and John Cox Morris were the heaviest stockholders. The same company in 1831-32 built the “Hargrave Factory” in the village near the old grist mill. Eight double houses were built about the same time, or a year or two later, for about $300 a piece. Some of the first tenants were the Butterfields, Codys, Paynes, Stewards, Mrs. Alpin, Mrs. Sherman, Nelson Weeden, the Hodges, and Cards; all with families to work in the factory and to board others who worked there. The price paid by the boarders was $1.25 a week in factory pay which was orders on the factory store. The stone building now occupied by Phillips and Nichols as a residence was the factory company’s store. The hands in the factory were paid no money but had to take their pay in goods from the store on due bills. These due bills the minister had to take as the factory hands’ share towards his salary, and doctor took them as pay for his services among the hands. The bills were good for their face value in trade at the factory store only, other stores taking them at a large discount. Farmers took them in exchange for wood and produce. There were a few men in town who would advance the cash on these bills at a still larger discount, and this was about the only money the factory hands got hold of. The purchasers of these due bills at about half price, exchanged them with farmers of wood and needed produce at their face value, and thus got their fuel, etc. at half price. Peleg Weened and James P. Kenyon were among those who worked in the factory. They worked about fourteen hours a day and received as wages $1.50 per week in due bills. E.H. Holbrook was the superintendent for the factory company and Andrew G. Washbon was the general agent. The factory burned down on the morning of March 16, 1850.

It was in this factory that Reuben Nelson, who afterward became on of the most prominent of Methodist preachers, lost one of his arms, his had being caught and drawn into the “spreader” where the bolts were made for the cards.

The little one-room one-story house now situated on a corner of Lysander Winton’s lot (N. Foote) on Hargrave Street, was built by Eliakim Howe and stood on a lot where Mr. Dunn’s (Gage house) now stands. It was used for a tailor’s shop. After Howe moved away, it was occupied by H. Glover and later by O.M. Welch for the same purpose and still later by Mr. French who kept a select school and then by Mr. Lynch. Of the eighteen boys who attended that school, I guess that George Hitchcock and myself are the only ones living today.

Howe’s dwelling house on the same lot afterward was occupied by Dr. Brownell, Dr. Garrison, Horace M. Perry, Mrs. Gillett, mother of Mrs. David Beekman. It was then moved away, and now stands about halfway up Liberty Street on the east side and is occupied by Horace Hendrix (Hall).

The old grist mill, the ruins of which stand near the Fairground entrance, was built by Franchot and Van Rensselaer about 1805. The mill house was on the north side of the mill, where is now the deepest part of the pond. Mr. Hewlett, grandfather of Mrs. Ross, was about the first miller and later a Mr. Barnes. When the dyke was built to increase the water supply for the cotton factory, the grist mill building was raised and a stone story put under it. At one time this basement was occupied by G.E. Holcomb for woodturning. Tom Shaw was then the miller.

Job Aldrich built a large part of the dyke on a contract of $100. He is supposed to have made fifty cents a day for self and team. Where now is the fairground was a large swampy wood-lot.

The stone used in the Hargrave factory which was a large building four stories high and built of stone was quarried from the Smith (now Elliott’s) ledge and delivered for 50c a load. The sand was obtained in what is now Lysander Winton’s garden. The graves of two French persons were found in this same hill.

*Editor’s note: This chapter of the book is lengthy, so I have divided it into four parts.

The previous text was taken directly from the book Morris, New York 1773-1923 by Joyce Foote, 1970. I made a few minor edits, but the content remains unchanged.

Early History, People, Places

Local Reminiscence

Donna Foote

by A. S. Avery

From The Morris Chronicle, 1898

Part Three*

Excerpt from Morris, New York 1773-1923 by Joyce Foote, 1970

Number 5: The Skidmore store, which stood in 1827 where Hoke’s store (Rendo) now stands, was occupied in 1833 by Jenks and Weeden as a grocery store and in 1834 was moved to Grove Street and is now occupied by Mrs. Ross. The first building erected east of the store was built by Geo. Holcomb for a jewelry store about 1829. He kept the first steel pins for sale, which he sold for three and four cents a piece, and the first lucifer matches that could be ignited by friction without the use of sandpaper. This building was moved and a larger one built by R. Garratt. This house now stands next beyond Mrs. O.B. Matteson’s. The present building was built by C.R. Brown and occupied by him till he went to Saratoga Springs. The second story was used by A.W. Whiston as Daguerreian rooms, here the first ambrotypes were made in town. A young man by the name of Noland used it for the same purpose in 1857.

N.B. Gregory was employed by Brown as a dentist in Brown’s store. Mr. Gregory afterward went to France and became a wealthy man by his trade. He died a few years ago in Unadilla to which place he had retired. While Brown occupied the store, James Oliver, Joe Broadbent, and John Hewel worked for him.

When Mr. Brown moved away, E.L. Payne bought the building and it was used as a dry goods store and milliner shop by Mrs. Payne (Sheldon Gallery). The fall after the big fire in September 1883, Potter Bros. occupied it. Later it was used for several different firms as a flour and feed store. It is now the property of N. Bridges and is occupied by L.L. Wallace, the Racket Store. The second story has been occupied by many different tenants for living rooms.

The next house built on this street was the rectory. Lull and Gilbert took the job. Among those who have lived there we recall Priest Beach, rector for seventeen years, Revs. Alger, Hill, Foote, Bishop Tuttle, Bishop Rulison, Cullen, Coan, Cook, and Gesner. While the latter was rector, the parsonage was sold to Mr. Payne, who moved it down on his lot where it is used as a store and residence by Miss Pascoe (Johnson), and the new rectory was built, which is now occupied by Rev. George Sterling.

In 1837 a building was erected between the church and the rectory for a parochial school and a Mr. Burt was the teacher. This building was later moved to the present site of Mrs. Steele’s place. Here it was used one year as a schoolhouse and was then fixed over for a tenant. Later it was bought by N.B. Pearsall and moved up nearer the road in the east side of the lot, rebuilt, and occupied by him as a residence till he died. It has this year become the home of Loren Babcock (Miller).

Ezra Holbrook built the house on the corner for a three family or factory boarding house about 1847. E. Grafton’s family have occupied it since about 1866. Richard Garratt built the house now occupied by Dr. Hall (Richard Campfield). This house is not a a frame house but the timbers are all boards about five inches wide laid on top of each other jutting out and in half an inch plastered on both sides. Later it was enlarged and clapboarded. Here is where Squire Harrison lived many years and later his son-in-law, John A. Ward and family.

The stone house was built by Jacob K. Lull (Naylor) in 1845 for a shoe shop. Later it was the home of the OTSEGO CHRONICLE, published by William A. Smith. In 1869 Lyman Bugby had a grocery there. It afterward became a tenant house. A few years ago it was bought and repaired by P.D. Foote, who occupied it at a residence. The building was for a number of years a center of great activity in the shoe-making business. Out from the back side was wooden addition and on both floors were workmen while in front was the leather room and a stack of boots and shoes for sale. The shop was run in connection with Mr. Lull’s tannery which was located two miles up the valley on the farm now owned by Mrs. A.O. Corrick. As many as ten journeymen shoemakers worked in this shop at one time. This continued for 18 years during all of which time Harvey Cook, now of this village, worked there. Among others who were employed there, we recall David Bunnell, Delos Payne, Cyrus Lull, William Nash, George Coon, Peter Edgett, Stephen Olds, Ira Quinby Sr., and his son (Capt.) Ira Quinby, John Scudder, John Hollenbeck, Elijah P. Sweet, Creal Shaw, and William Turner.

The house west of Dr. Hall’s was built by David Bresee for a dwelling and tailor shop (Costello). It was afterward occupied by Joseph S. Jarvis, and later became the property of Dr. Bassett, the tailor shop being his dental office.

Number 6: I have been told that the Episcopal Church was built in 1818-19. In style it was a duplicate of a church in Connecticut. The builder was a Mr. McGeorge who took the contract for $5,000. When it was completed he had lost money, but the society was so well pleased with his work that he was given $500 more. There was no case to the first organ put in, and my father cased it for $60. The money was raised by contribution. Miss Lucy Todd (Mrs. Norris Gilbert) was the organist for many years. Later a larger organ was put it, having a row of pedals. In 1869-70 the church building was enlarged on the rear, and Mrs. Grimshaw gave the present organ, which cost about $2,500. Mrs. Mary Pearsall was the organist of the church for a great many years after Mrs. Gilbert.

In the southeast corner about ten feet from the ground is a rough cross marked on a stone. Inside of that stone are some documents relating to the church, put there by Rev. M. Rulison. I also put in some local history, including a memorandum of village, town, and state officers and name of the President of the United States; also a glass negative, some photographs and newspapers. I mention this as not a half dozen persons had knowledge of the fact.

While Samuel Sommers lived just across the road, the bell was rung at sunrise, 12 n. and 9 p.m. The tongue was weighted and the bell was cracked. The present bell reads on one side, J. Hanks, 1828. The town clock was put in in 1849 by a man from Smyrna, N.Y. The price asked for it was to be $300, but he succeeded in raising only $225. It has run ever since and is a pretty good clock now.

The main part of the house now owned by Mrs. Flagg (Harrington) was Avery’s printing office and was moved to its present site about 1863.

In 1833 a firm in Hudson sold to the village its first fire engine. It was called a rotary pump engine, requiring about ten men to turn the cranks. It cost $300 of which the Hargrave Factory Co., gave $100. The engine house was on the Flagg or Pearsall lots. Later A.S. Avery and John Scudder made a bee and drew it down to the brook. It is now Luee’s barber shop.

The old red tavern mentioned in No. 3, was owned by L. Daniels, who sold it to Dan Smith. The bar-room was taken off in 1833 and moved to where Henry Wallace’s house (Barton) now stands (later it was the barn). The tavern was torn down and the present stone one built in 1833 by Smith, and first opened as a “hotel” by J.S. Bergan. The word “hotel” was the French for Inn or Tavern. Later it was occupied by John Whitcomb, Corwin and Gates, E.E. Yates, Jackson and Gross, John Gaskin, N. Ballard, and others, and for the past twenty five years by W.H. Gardner.

The Yates hotel was built by Erastus W. Yates in 1840. Joseph Waite was the contractor. It was here that the great Ox Yoke Company was formed, in which a number of our citizens invested money which they never saw afterward. Later it was occupied by E.L. Payne and others. As a hotel, it was not a success and Mr. Payne and his wife turned it into a store and residence and occupied it as such until they died a short time ago. It is still used as such.

The building now occupied by the meat market next to Hoke’s store was built in 184?; but it stood on a Broad Street site directly opposite the CHRONICLE office and was occupied by Nathaniel Stevenson as a shoe shop. Among those who worked for him, I recall Joseph Coggshall, who was a fine boat maker. He had many others working for him. Later the building was moved to its present location and occupied by David Bresee as a tailor shop and then by James Little, merchant tailor. It was been used for a market for a long time with living rooms upstairs.

The large white building on the corner occupying the site of the Skidmore store was built by Chauncey Moore and Jonathan Lull in 184?. Later it was occupied by R.H. Van Rensselaer, then Jarvis and Perry. A little room in the southwest corner was occupied one season as a tailor shop by G.S. Elwell. In the east side of the building was the post office for a time when Mr. Jarvis was postmaster and also Harley Sargent. W.R.B. Wing afterward purchased the building and carried on the drug and grocery business until he died about 1870. D.I. Laurence and Legrand Sanderson clerked for him. J.P. Kenyon succeeded Mr. Wing, then J.A. Ward and Co., and now it is owned and occupied by V.J. and A.R. Hoke.

The highway between the Skidmore store and the red tavern was about eight rods wide, and the first two circuses that came here had their tents pitched between the tavern and the traveled road. Near where the present barn stands was at one time a nine-pin alley.

*Editor’s note: This chapter of the book is lengthy, so I have divided it into four parts.

The previous text was taken directly from the book Morris, New York 1773-1923 by Joyce Foote, 1970. I made a few minor edits, but the content remains unchanged.

Early History, People, Places

Local Reminiscence

Donna Foote

by A. S. Avery

From The Morris Chronicle, 1898

Part Two*

Excerpt from Morris, New York 1773-1923 by Joyce Foote, 1970

Number 3: How Main Street looked east from the “corners” 70 years ago. Just imagine the red corner store, standing on the south corner of Main and Broad Streets, facing west, with a sign reading “L. Skidmore,” over the door. From this store, a board fence extended east about four rods; then a rail fence to where now stands the Payne tenement house (Sheldon Gallery). Here stood the Davis barn. From the barn to the church property was a rail fence. Now imagine a circular board fence in front of the church, with a double picket gate in the middle directly in front of the church door.

From the northeast corner of the church property to the corner of what is now Mrs. Steele’s lot (Gorsira) was a board fence in front of the “brick office”; from there to the oak tree (still standing) corner of Main and Hargrave Streets was a rail fence which was continued up the road for half a mile; opposite the Van Rensselaer garden were two black cherry trees. The brick office mentioned above was built by Gen. Jacob Morris for his son John C. but never occupied by him. It was a one-story house with two front rooms, divided by a hallway. An addition was built on the back side for a kitchen and bedroom and it was used as a tenant house. The lot east of the office had but recently been cleaned up, the stumps and logs yet being visible. The “mill road” went down east of the gully, and the stone building on the present corner of Hargrave and Lake Streets now occupied by Messrs. Phillips and Nichols, (Clawson) is exactly in the old road.

On the north side of the street, opposite Skidmore store, was an inn; better known as the “old red tavern.” It was a two-story building with a double piazza, and on the east end was a one-story room in which was the bar. The building stood about where the kitchen of the present hotel is; was not always used as an inn, but frequently as a tenant house. About twenty feet from the barroom was a horse shed connecting with the barn; back of the barn was a steep bank, and where Mr. Hoke’s house (Gould Benedict) and garden was an old orchard. East of this lot stood Jenny’s shoe shop (Harris), a little one-story house about 14 x 16 feet; east of this, on the site of Mrs. Thurston’s residence (Sheldon), was the Jenny house, one-story and a half high, with a basement used as a tenant house and cellar. The barn on the premises stood over the little brook just east of the Potter house (Pasternak), and the barnyard extended to the Beekman house (Gage). On this lot was a small one-story house on a high bank forming a steep descent to the road. Here Eliakim Howe lived and built his tailor shop about where the dining room of the present house is.

Colonel Van Rensselaer owned the next house (Field house site) and Samuel Somers lived in it. To this house in 1827 came James P. Kenyon to live, then a lad of five years old. The house that stands there has the same upright today. Take off the piazza and the extension to the rear; put back the old chimney with its two fireplaces and brick oven; take off the cornice and paint the building with yellow ochre, and there you have it.

The next house was an old wood-colored house (Harrington) owned by Dan Smith and sold to Asahel Avery in 1820 for $700.00, to be paid for in cattle. It had in 1825, two front doors – one half of the building was the cabinet shop. The lot was so recently cleared that there were stumps on it and a brush fence on a part of the west and north sides. The next house was occupied by Allen Holcomb (Faber). It was a small two-story house with a hall on the west side and one front room. In the rear, he had a shop for making splint bottom and Windsor chairs.

The next house was a little one-story house (Jacobsen) occupied at that time by the widow Mills – mother of Daniel Lafayette, and their brothers and sisters. The next was the two-story house built by Joshua Weaver and now occupied by P. Weeden (Keehan); there was no piazza on it. About twenty feet east of it stood his harness shop, and beyond this was his barn, about where Mr. Martindale’s house now stands (Quinton). The next, and last, house was Col. Van Rensselaer’s (Godley), built of stone and plastered on the outside. In front of this house was a white picket fence, with one large double gate and two small ones. The fence posts were locust, brought here by farmers of Windsor, Broome County, who sold them probably two posts for a yard of cotton cloth. Seven-eights of those posts are in that fence today.

Number 4: In 1827, all of the village of Morris west of the road leading to New Berlin and north of West Main Street was owned by Benajah Davis and Luther Skidmore. The Davis house, on the corner where the Kenyon house (Gage block) stands, was a two-story house, painted white on three sides and red on the north side; with a piazza in front and a seat on each side. The front fence was of pickets painted white. There was a green in the highway, and the road was about eight rods wide.

There was a dam on the brook, and the water from it was used to grind the bark and full the hides of the Davis tannery, which stood about what is now the rear of the brick buildings on Main Street. Dr. Wing had an office close to the road where now is D.I. Laurence’s lawn. On the corner of Church and Main Streets was a little old house where Luther Skidmore lived (Hobart Lull). On the east side of the brook beyond where Mrs. O. B. Matteson now lives (H. Crumb) was an old building, unoccupied at the time, called the file factory, and I have heard that once gun barrels were bored there. The chamber was sometimes occupied by a tenant.

I will give herewith a list of the families living then on what is now the present corporation. On the Main Street: V. P. Van Rensselaer, Joshua Weaver, Jas. Mills, Allen Holcomb, Asahel Avery, Samuel Somers, E. Dewey in the brick office, Eliakim Howe, Cornelius Jenny, F. Harris, Z. Roberts, Benajah Davis, Luther Skidmore, Joseph Pearsall on the present Washbon farm, Dr. Bard, Dr. Wing, John Roberts, and Jeremiah Cruttenden.

On Grove Street: Eli Waters, E. Walker, L. Moody and L. Curtis.

On Broad Street: Paschal Franchot, Mrs. Louis Franchot, J. S. Bergan, John Bard, L. Cruttenden, W. Jackson, Newel Marsh.

William Barnes lived at the grist mill. Boss Titus at Van Rensselaer’s, Milton Patrick at Avery’s, Perrin Well at Howe’s, Eunice Gregory (Mrs. Lent) at Jenny’s, Wolcott Walker at Davis’, Rufus Sanderson with Moody.

There may be one or two names left out and a year’s variation in the actual dates but it is near enough to say that there were twenty-nine houses and about 156 inhabitants.

Mr. Jackson was killed by the bursting of a 56 at a 4th of July celebration. He was living on the site of Dr. Matteson’s house. J. W. Weeden lived there later (1833) and had his leg broken while helping move the old corner store of E.C. Williams. Other casualties have happened which may be mentioned later.

These notes on olden times will probably interest some of the readers of the CHRONICLE, and perhaps a few persons may reserve them in their scrapbook. Two generations have passed away since these things happened, and I alone am left to record them.

*Editor’s note: This chapter of the book is lengthy, so I have divided it into four parts.

The previous text was taken directly from the book Morris, New York 1773-1923 by Joyce Foote, 1970. I made a few minor edits, but the content remains unchanged.

Early History, People, Places

Local Reminiscence

Donna Foote

by A. S. Avery

From The Morris Chronicle, 1898

Part One*

Excerpt from Morris, New York 1773-1923 by Joyce Foote, 1970

Number 1: You ask me for an item about the stone building (First National Bank) on the corner of Main and Broad Streets in this village which is undergoing extensive repairs by Mr. Kenyon. Well, in 1827 (71 years ago) a story and a half building, painted red and fronting on Main Street, stood on this corner. Over the door was the sign with the yellow letters reading E. C. Williams; Mr. Williams kept a dry goods and grocery store. In those days you could buy at the same store nails, screws, gimlets, etc., as well as broadcloth at $4.50 a yard, and white sugar 25c a pound. Aside from a hogshead of molasses and another of brown sugar, all the goods imported for six months could be drawn at one load on a two horse wagon ninety-one miles from Catskill in about six days, in good going.

I think that in 1829 Williams moved to New Berlin and Dan Smith and L.H. Donaldson occupied the store, and I am of the impression that during a part of this time Ansel C. Moore was the clerk. A man by the name of Sam Robinson (a relative of the Smith’s by marriage) also clerked here for a time.

The corner building was vacant until 1839. Then it was used for various businesses – Bergan and Angeli, a hat store by J.S. Bergan, a shoe store by Nathaniel Stevenson, and a harness shop by Holland Yates. Since 1844 it has been occupied as a dry goods, grocery, or hardware store by many different firms, of whom we mention Jarvis and Perry, A.C. Moroe and Co., Moore and Cooke, Moore and Thurston, Lull and Steele, S.S. Matteson and Co., E.A. Strong and Co., A.E. Yates. In the same building was also the private bank of A.C. Moore, then Moore and Cooke, and J.E. Cooke and Co. The latter firm failed in 1884.

When Mr. Bergan went out of business and began keeping a hotel, now the Gardner House (Morris Inn), S.G. and P. Weeden opened a harness shop in the room occupied as a hat store. This was in 1840. The post-office was in this building in 1857-60 and Charles A. Bowne was the postmaster.

The building is now owned by Mr. Kenyon, who is fitting it up for the use of the First National Bank, of which he is the president, and for another hardware store.

Number 2: The first building west of E.C. Williams’ store, mentioned in my notes last week as standing where the corner store now is, was a large two-story dwelling and inn built by Jeremiah Cruttenden about 1803. It stood where the Kenyon block (Telephone building site) now is. It was a fashionable white house twenty years ago, with a hall through the center and a front room on each side, the kitchen in the rear. A lean-to on the west end was the bar room. The front chamber was the ballroom of the town and three sets could comfortably dance there. There was no porch or piazza, but each side of the hall door was a seat, and a picket fence about five feet from the house enclosed the dooryard. About fifteen feet from the fence in front of the house stood two tall poplar trees. Teams driving up to the door went between the trees and the fence. Later the barroom part was raised to the height of the main building and a broad two-story piazza was built across the entire front. This was rebuilt into the present three-story block by Jas. E. Cooke and Co. A dozen or more different men and firms “kept tavern” in the old building. Just now I recall the names of Thorp, Douglass, Jonah, Davis, Bergan, Resedorff, Rufus Sanderson, Church and Yates, Johnson and Kimball, and Hasea Bundy.

West of the above building were the tavern sheds where the Weeden buildings stand now (Kinney). Here about 1826 was the first caravan that I attended on my Uncle Eliakim How’s paying four cents for my admission. I recollect there was the monkey riding the Shetland pony, the elephant old “Bet”, a cage of monkeys, a camel, and some other animals. There was no tent cover and the orchestra sat in chairs on a platform in the manger for feeding horses. Edward Littlewood (long years afterward a resident of our town) was the leader of this band, which consisted of four musicians. One of the instruments played upon was a Chinese hurdy-gurdy, shaped somewhat like a banjo, with a wheel, shaft and crank and four strings like a violin. By turning the crank the edge of the rosined wheel vibrated the strings.

The sheds were removed and the present building erected about 1844. In it Isaac Angell had a grocery. Later it was occupied by W.R.B. Wing, Geo. Hitchcock, Pearsall and Hitchcock (dry goods), and by many others down to the present, R. Cooley has occupied the part of the building where his store now is for thirty-three years. It is not my intention to mention all the occupants of these buildings but to preserve a history of the existence of some things and the beginnings of others.

Beyond the sheds was an alleyway, now occupied by Weeden’s harness shop building (Kinney), which was put up just fifty years ago. Beyond the alley was the store of A.C. Moore and Co., on the west corner of the lot. The building occupied by Sanderson’s hardware store is the same building rebuilt and enlarged. The carpenter work in this building was done by George Tew and the joiner work by my father in 1828. I have a distinct recollection of going in there before the floors were all laid, on my way home from school.

A street then ran sown by the side of the brook, and in the rear of the store was an old distillery. The road was closed up because twenty years elapsed without any highway work being done in it. The only dwelling house on the street was built by “Tailor” Wright (Knickerbocker) who had a shop in the west end of what is now the Club Rooms. There was a little one story house where John B. Elliott’s stands, now occupied by Lesander Curtis, who had a gun shop just out on Broad Street. On the corner of Grove and Broad Streets there was a stone blacksmith shop, occupied by S.E. Barrett, later it was enlarged by wooden additions and used by N. Bates as a wagon shop, still later by H. Bump as a furnace and machine shop, and finally all torn down and moved away.

*Editor’s note: This chapter of the book is lengthy, so I have divided it into four parts.

The previous text was taken directly from the book Morris, New York 1773-1923 by Joyce Foote, 1970. I made a few minor edits, but the content remains unchanged.

People, Places

Reminiscences of Morris – Number Seven

Donna Foote

by A. S. Avery, Morris Chronicle, October 21, 1874

In copying my manuscript for the printer, I omitted from the list of schoolmates, Selinda, Elizabeth, Acksa, and Walter Wing; Jesse Butts; Andrew G. Shaw; and no doubt there are others whom I do not call to mind.

Elm Grove was the name given to a little settlement about a mile and a half east of Louisville. A store was situated on what is now the corner where Mr. Ellis (Johnson) lives. A lane ran down to near the creek, and at the foot of the lane was Elm Grove Factory. This factory was built in 1815, by Robert L. Bowne and Co. (mill). The company consisted of the rest of the family. Here was manufactured woolen goods and satinetts. Broadcloth was made which sold for $10 the yard. All the weaving was done by hand. This company failed in 1819. The factory was afterwards owned by Samuel Starkweather and operated by ———— Greenwood. It was burned down in 1819. It was rebuilt but never did much business. Robert Bowne & Co. owned the store, and S. S. Bowne was the first clerk. This building now stands — the first house off the creek road, towards Pittsfield, beyond Van Rensselaer’s farm. William Grant, the boss clothier, lived where George Haynes now lives. Here is where Dr. Rice lived, and his son Thomas, who built a furnace and manufactured cast-iron plows. A tannery was also erected here by J.K. Lull & Sons. Today there is a large chair and cabinet manufactory owned by Geo. Benjamin (mill). Joseph Bowne lived on the Wheeler place. Silas Neff had a grocery store near where Thompson Bemiss is building a house. We give a few names of the persons who worked in the factory: Wm. Stewart, Supt., Christopher Gifford, Jesse Ayers, James Gledhill, Heman Lloyd, Richard, and Geo. Gibson, Peter Backus, — Raymond, and others.

The whole territory of Elm Grove proper was laid out into quarter and half-acre lots, and many of them sold about home and in New York City. The 3 acres of Tracy’s are 6 building lots bought of Robert L. Bowne by John Alexander. Wanton Weedon was the surveyor.

Chauncey Todd lived in a log house where Bemiss now lives; Enoch Lawrence where David Dye lives; James Tuttle where Lyman Bugby lives; Millard Aldrich where Job. Aldrich (D. Wing) lived; Greenwood lived in a small one-story house on the site of where Baldwin lives, (here is where old Sayles lived); Daniel Aldrich lived in an old house on the north side of the road nearly opposite Wheeler (Sally ) house; Ira Brooks in an old house nearly opposite Bowne’s gate.

About 70 years ago one wing of the Bowne Mansion was built. The main building was erected by Robert L. Bowne (Peter Platt, builder), in 1817. This house is today one of the largest in the country, embracing 40 rooms, some of which are very large. It is pleasantly situated on a gentle rise of ground in the Butternut Valley near the Tienuderrah River, commanding a view of the valley twenty miles in extent, from New Lisbon on the north-east to the hills of Sidney on the south-west. Fifty years ago it was owned by Geo. Shepherd, by whom it was sold about 1830 to the Loomis Brothers, who sold it to Oliver and Joseph Somers, and they sold it to Hon S, S, Bowne, and it is now owned by his two sons, Charles and John.

A framed school-house stood on the lower side of the road (Jensen) on the corner near the site of the present one. In one end was a large fire-place and the seats were made of rough slabs from the sawmill. Here many of the Lulls, Palmers, Yates, Aldrichs, Gilberts, Alexanders, Lawrences, Todds, Moores, etc. of the district graduated.

William Gilbert first settled at the outlet of a little lake in the town of Laurens. He afterwards, in 1820, moved to the farm now occupied by his son, Butler Gilbert. It was on this farm that the three towns of Pittsfield, New Berlin, and Butternuts joined, and a large butternut tree was made the corner; hence the name Butternuts. The tree was cut down, and three large trees grew from the stump; one of which is standing today. The device of the seal of the B. W. & C. Factory Co. is a stump with three sprouts.

Mr. Lull lived where Mr. Whitcomb now resides (Quite a history of the Lull family has been published). Nathaniel Moore lived where his son Nathaniel now lives. Squire Moore lived where Kirkland lives. Amos Palmer lived where Mr. Hall resides, and Dr. Yates (Latour) owned 1,000 acres adjoining on the north. The Quaker meeting-house was a double log building situated on the Bentley Farm (Cruttenden) between the old burying ground and the turnpike. The old church (Harmony, as it was called after the new stone one was built) stood on the south side of the highway, near the corner. It was used for some years by the Methodists and finally torn down. It was built by John Aiken, by what is known as the “Scribe’s rule.”

Bentley sold his farm to Judge Cathcart, and he sold it to Jeremiah Cruttenden.

The present Friends meeting-house was built by Robert L. Bowne about 1817. A road used to run on the side hill from A. G. Moore’s residence to the old church in front of the meeting-house, and the road up the hill ran on the east side of Moore’s residence. Where the factory school-house stands there used to be a large red woolen and cotton factory. Ellis Cook and John Moore commenced it and sold out to the Factory Co. This company included the name of Judge Franchot, V. P. Van Rensselaer, Benejah Davis, Uri Jackson, Dan Smith, J. C. Morris, Joseph Gilbert, A. G. Washbon, and others. The stone factory was built in 1825 and commenced business in 1826. The cotton was shipped to Catskill, and from there to the factory by horses and wagons. Asa Ames was for many years a teamster. It was not an uncommon thing to be two weeks making the round trip. Large quantities of the cloth were peddled out through the country. A factory was once built between the bridge and Mr. Rotch’s farm (V. Gregory) but the machinery never was put into it, and the floor was broken down one 4th of July, at a celebration there.

Sixty years ago, the school-house in Louisville stood near the corner beyond the bridge, in Franchot’s (Leonard’s) (Paurice) lot. The district then extended to Jared Patrick’s and Lemuel Brooks’ in the east, and to Lyman Collar’s on the west. Samuel Drew, teacher. Dan Smith lived about one mile below Louisville on the road to Gilbertsville, and for some years kept a tavern. This used to be quite a resort for persons to go and shoot at a mark. To snuff a candle 15 rods distant with a rifle ball was considered something of a shot. Deacon Jackson lived in the next house, below, and from there to Gen. Morris’ it was nearly all woods. Here we close the Reminiscences. They might be continued indefinitely, but perhaps we have already wearied the reader. Some people may think it worthwhile to cut them out and put them in a scrapbook. Fifty years from now, they may be of more value. If I have succeeded in refreshing your memory of by-gone days, — of awakening a desire to come and see the old place once more, — to renew old acquaintanceship — exchange friendly greetings, and for the time feel that we are boys again, — I am satisfied. Give us your hand — good-bye. We shall meet again.

Excerpt from Morris, New York 1773-1923 by Joyce Foote, 1970

The previous text was taken directly from the book Morris, New York 1773-1923 by Joyce Foote, 1970. I made a few minor edits, but the content remains unchanged.

Early History, Places

Reminiscences of Morris – Number Three

Donna Foote

by A. S. Avery, Morris Chronicle, September 23, 1874

Every house has one or more fire-places (a cooking stove was unknown), and by the side of the fireplace was a large brick oven, (sometimes the ovens would be built near the house out of doors). The large loaves of “rye-an’ indian” bread were staple articles and hard to beat. It was the ambition of stove makers to try and make their stove ovens equal the Dutch oven as a baker. When folks got out of pearlash, they used the ashes of corn cobs as a good substitute.

In the “square room” of the well-to-do people were brass ornamented andirons in the fireplace—children, ask your parents, “what are andirons?” In the summer time this fireplace would be filled with asparagus or maple boughs, but after wall-paper became cheap, fire-boards, with a landscape on them, filled up the space.

It was a great invention when the tin-baker was made; quite an improvement on the old bake-kettle, or the board on which the Johnny-cake was baked before the fire. (Children, ask Grandma how they used to bake potatoes when she was a little girl.) At night it was necessary to bury up the fire, that it, cover the coals and brands with ashes, so the fire would keep (not go out) till morning. There were no matches in those days, and frequently people would lose the fire and have to go half a mile to the neighbors and borrow a brand or coal, to start a fire with at home. Some people had a tinder box and flint and steel and would strike a fire in that way. If a man had a gun (flint-lock) he could put powder and tow in the pan and start a fire in that way.

One stage coach ran through the town from Cooperstown to Oxford three times a week. It was a four horse yellow coach and looked to the children’s eyes as large as a circus does not. The postmaster could have carried any one mail for Louisville (Butternuts) in his hat. The postage on a letter was as follows: to Garrattsville 6 cents; to Cooperstown 10 cents; to Albany 12 ½ cents; to New York 18 ¾ cents, and to Philadelphia 25 cents. There were no envelopes—the paper was folded up so as to tuck one edge into the other and seal with a wafer or sealing wax.

Hugh Edwards and Jim Willoughby had the honor of being drivers. It was the law then to blow a horn when they came to within 80 rods of a postoffice. It was a grand sight to see the stage coming at a ten-mile-an-hour gait, (no brake on the coach). Sometimes the driver would cut a figure 8, then swing his long whip and tick the leader’s ear, and when he left the village, sometimes, the horses on a run till out of sight.

In those days barter was the rule and cash the exception. Farmers bought all their store goods and paid in grain, lumber, etc. A good farm hand received from $8 to $11 a month, and mechanics from $12 to $16 a month. During haying and harvesting, 50 cents was the price per day. There are two men in town who when boys picked up stone all day for 25 cents and boarded themselves.

Hemlock lumber was worth $3.50 per thousand feet, and good pine shingles from 75 cents to $1.00 a bunch. Birch brooms 12 ½ cents. Good fire wood $1.00 a cord in trade. Good three years old steers from $11 to $14. I have seen Lewis Collins trying to sell hind quarters of nice lambs for six-pence a piece. Butter 8 to 12 cents a pound. The price for keeping sheep was a pound of wool per head. Good straw 1 cent a bundle. Whiskey was 25 cents a gallon, and Mr. Coleman could throw back his head, open his mouth and turn down a pint without stopping to take a breath.

The first Fair and Cattle Show in the county was held at “Butternuts” in 1835.

The paper used in school was coarse, hand-made, and each scholar had a piece of lead flatted out called a plummet, to rule it with. The pens were made by the master, from goose-quills, and excellent pens they were. The first steel pens in town were sold by George Holcomb for 3 cents a piece; the same quality of pen now could be bought for 30 cents a gross. The school books were Columbian Reader, Morse’s Geography, Webster’s Spelling Book, Walker’s Dictionary, Murray’s Grammar, and Dabel’s Arithmetic. A few years later were added, or substituted, Woodbridge’s Geography, English Reader, and Columbian Spelling Book. Blackboards, maps, mental arithmetic, etc., were unthought of. The principal dialogue at “speaking schools” was “Deacon Homespun and the Philosopher.”

The sheet anchors of the system of medical practice were calomel and the lancet. When the doctor called, he would examine the patient, then take a lancet out of his vestpocket, ask the woman for one of her garters, and proceed to cord the arm and tap a vein, then give a dose of calomel and—call again.

It was customary, when one had company, particularly if in any wise distinguished, to set on the brandy decanter. We frequently hear it said now days that there is no pure liquor; that years ago men could drink whiskey and it did not hurt them; that there is more drunkenness now days than there used to be, etc. Now that is all bosh; there was a larger proportion of drunkards then than there is today. There could be seen every week, as many drunken men in the village with 200 inhabitants, as you can today with 700.

When women made an afternoon visit, they went at 1 o’clock and took their knitting-work, and stayed till chore time.

In regard to the valuation of property, I am fortunate in having before me the town assessment roll of August 1824, Daniel Smith, Ichobod Davis and David Shaw, jr., assessors. The total taxable property of the town of Butternuts (now Morris and Butternuts) was $387,505. The ratio was 27 cents on $1,000, and the amount raised that year was $1,073.70. We give a list of a few lots and farms; V. P. Van Rensselaer, 195 acres, $3,600; Stephen Walker (W. E. Bunn) four acres, $450; Joshua Weaver (Weedon) 39 acres, $650; Allen Holcomb, ½ acre, $250; A. Avery, ½ acre, $275; John Alexander (Tracy) 3 acres, $150; Lyman Cruttenden (Mansfield) ½ acre, $300; B. W. & C. Factory, 59 acres, $6,000, personal, $14,000; Davis, 179 acres, $3,200; P. Franchot, 458 acres, $5,000, personal, $4,000; Gen. Jacob Morris, 962 acres, $8,976, personal, $1,000; John C. Morris, 55 5/8 acres, $1,000, personal, $3,000; George Shepherd (Bowne) 145 acres, $3,400, personal, $3,000; Dr. Wm. Yates, 1,000 acres, $6,000, personal, $1,065; Richard Cole, 95 acres, $450; Dan Smith, 290 acres, $3,300, personal $1,200; Nathan Lull (F. Rotch) 150 acres, $1,800; Luther Skidmore, 182 acres, 41,700, personal, $750, etc. But comparing this old list with the “abstract of taxes” for 1873, we find in the latter that the total valuation of the taxable property of Morris to be $419,385. In 1823 the population of this large town was 1,608, today the population of this same territory is almost 4,500.

Go into any state or territory of the United States, or in any kingdom on the face of the earth, and you will find somebody who used to live in Otsego County.

Excerpt from Morris, New York 1773-1923 by Joyce Foote, 1970

The previous text was taken directly from the book Morris, New York 1773-1923 by Joyce Foote, 1970. I made a few minor edits, but the content remains unchanged.

Early History, People, Places

Reminiscences of Morris – Number Two

Donna Foote

by A. S. Avery, Morris Chronicle, September 16, 1874

The description given in the Chronicle last week embraces every house on the corporation in 1824 (twenty-nine in all). It may not be inappropriate to say that thirty years before there was not a framed house in town, and there is one person now living in town, Mrs. Benj. Draper, aged 94 years, well remembers that time. A census then (1824) would show about 160 inhabitants. There are but two houses on the corporation to-day that have not been built or altered over, viz.: R. H. Van Rensselaer‘s (Godley) and Dr. Wing‘s (Buhr). It may be a satisfaction, also, to know when certain houses were built, we will, therefore, add the following as a chronology.

Avery‘s cabinet shop (gone now) was built in 1828; S. W. Murdock‘s (G. McWilliams) store, 1827; the old red schoolhouse in 1825; Bergan‘s hat shop (Naylor Co., garage section) in 1830; Matteson‘s tannery, 1831, and burned in 1847; Avery‘s house (Harrington) in 1832; F. Rotch‘s (Gregory) house , 1833-4; Stone hotel and store (Morris Inn and adjacent building), 1833; Hargrave factory, 1833, and burned down in 1850; J. P. Kenyon‘s store (Library), 1832; H. R. Washbon‘s house (Washbon & Olds), 1839; Otsego House, Yates Hotel (Sheldon Auction Gallery), 1840; Perry Block (Kinney), 1844; Masonic Hall (old Baptist Church), Methodist Church, 1845; Universalist Church, 1842; Engine house (behind Brookside) opposite Weeden‘s, 1835, and moved to its present location (Town House) in 1853; J. P. Kenyon‘s shop (Library) 1842; H. R. Washbon‘s office, N. Stevenson‘s shop (H. Lull), 1852; Episcopal rectory, 1841; Wheedon‘s shop (Sinclair), 1847; Davis‘ house (Gage Block) enlarged for a hotel, 1857; J. K. Lull‘s house (Naylor‘s stone house), 1842, and shop 1845; David Beekman‘s house (Naylor Co.) and store, 1865; Lawrence‘s store (Naylor Co., shipping room), 1858 and house 1858; Wing‘s office (Buhr) removed in 1868; School-house built in 1860, (in the north-east corner of the foundation was placed a tin box of documents); C. L. Tucker‘s house, 1868; J. P. Kenyon‘s house (Sanderson), and Dr. Still‘s house, in 1833; Garratt‘s house, 1841; J. Little‘s (P. Decker) house, 1852; Sam. Barrett‘s house in 1849; (this was the first balloon frame in town); Jaycox‘s house, Mordecai Wing (Catholic rectory) in 1838; E. J. Cooke‘s house, Bates (Sloan), 1838.

The first newspaper was printed here in 1845, W. R. Winans, editor, and publisher.

On the corner opposite Bard‘s (Lee‘s) wagon shop, S. E. Barrett built a stone blacksmith shop in 1838 which was afterwards enlarged for an iron foundry and machine shop by J. H. Bump, and finally, it was all torn down or moved away, and is now a vacant corner just as it was fifty years ago.

The sled factory (gone now) up Davis Brook was originally a dwelling house nearly opposite Bowne‘s gate, Elm Grove, and was moved there and used by Allen Holcomb as a manufactory of tobacco boxes and inkstands, It was afterwards enlarged by taking the frame of the old woolen factory and adding to it, and used as a cabinet shop, etc., etc.

When the Hargrave factory was built, the mortar was made from sand taken from the bank back of R. Starr‘s (N. Foote) house, and on the bluff was found the bones of two unknown persons, buried there many years before.

The town of Morris was created by dividing the town of Butternuts in 1849. The village of Morris was incorporated in 1870. J. E. Cooke was the first president, John A. Ward the second, A. S. Avery the third and Peleg Weedon is the present incumbent. The Episcopal Church bell was recast in 1828 and weighs about 800 pounds. The town clock was purchased by subscription in 1847. Before we had a clock, a man used to be paid by subscription (about $25 a year) to ring the bell at sunrise, 12 n. and 9 p.m. The number of houses on the corporation is 175, and the population is about 750. About 185 persons between the ages of five and twenty-one years. The Cemetery was laid out in 1862. The first person buried there was Mrs. Leonard.

We will digress a moment and give a hint by which you can tell or approximate the age of houses. For the style of architecture changes as much as does dress. When you go about the country and see an old house with ten feet posts and fifteen feet rafters, no cornice, a big chimney in the middle or at one end, and a lean-to on the back, (or side, if it stands end to the road), forming a long continuous roof, you may set it down as over sixty years old, say built between 1800 and 1825. If it is a large two-story house with nine windows in front, hall through the center, cornice light, with or without portico, it was built between 1820 and 1840. If of the same shape as just described, with heavy cornice, since 1840. If one-and-a-half or two-story, end to the road, with kitchen on the side, since 1840. If a square looking house, hip-roof or with chambers smaller than the ground floor, piazza and balcony, between 1840 and 1855. If built with steep roof, angular caps over the windows, with drops or brackets under the cornice (what is called Elizabethian architecture), it was built since 1850. If flat or hip roof and brackets all around the cornice, bow window, etc., since 1860. If Mansard roof since 1865. There may be exceptions to these rules, but four times in five they will be right.

We will now speak of the manners and customs of the people. There were no railroads or canals, no telegraph or steam engines, no photographs, no matches, no horse-rakes, mowing or thrashing machines, no horsepowers, no sewing machines or melodians, no buggy wagons, no elliptic springs, no cooking stoves, no coal used, no wall paper, no rubber goods, no cut nails, no corn brooms, no kerosene lamps, no steel pens, no envelopes, no solid head pins, no dentists, very few clocks or watches. It was a common thing for a shoemaker (cobbler) to “whip the cat,” go into a farmer’s house, put his “kit” in one corner of the room, and with one last, made perhaps, from a stick off the wood pile, make the shoes for the whole family; making the largest first, then cutting down the last to the next smaller size, etc.; the farmer furnishing the leather. Rights and left shoes were unknown. The shoe pegs were all made by hand, and I will add, that pegged shoes were once looked upon with distrust. Every-day hats were made of wool, and a fur hat, if one was able to own it, was worn Sunday and to trainings. It was a great discovery when “waterproof” hats were made. Silk or cotton plush was unknown. All cloth, wool or linen, was “spun and wove” by hand, and spinning wheels and looms were as common then as sewing machines and pianos are now.

Excerpt from Morris, New York 1773-1923 by Joyce Foote, 1970

The previous text was taken directly from the book Morris, New York 1773-1923 by Joyce Foote, 1970. I made a few minor edits, but the content remains unchanged.

Early History, People, Places

Reminiscences of Morris

Donna Foote

Excerpt from Morris, New York 1773-1923 by Joyce Foote, 1970

by A. S. Avery, the Morris Chronicle, September 9, 1874

Number 1

“When I was a boy.” How often do we hear this remark, and how it calls up in our minds the scenes and incidents of by-gone days. Each individual sees in his mind’s eye a different picture but alike real. Oh! Who can stay the ravages of time? For it is Death ticking off the moments of our lives, and change – continual change, and I might add, eternal creation and destruction is the immutable law of nature. How it strikes on the ear of the young. Past history lived over again.

We will start from the old cherry tree at the East end of Main Street, and walk over the village of Morris, and tell how it used to look, fifty years ago.

There were two cherry trees here then, which “we boys” have often climbed and more often stoned. To-day this old tree is a land-mark. From the top of this high bluff on the North, “old Sayles” and Eli Cole used to take a large sled, pile on 15 to 20 cords of wood and slide down the hill into and across the road.

Near by on the right hand is the new residence of Col. V. P. Van Rensselaer (Godley). The trees in the door-yard have just been set out and are growing finely. The residence is one of the finest west of Albany. The window glass is the largest, for but few persons had seen in that day anything but 7×9 glass in a dwelling house.

Going down the road we first come to the mill-road. The road ran down the hill through the woods on the East side of that old oak tree, and the factory store (stone house) and shed stand right in the old highway (Hargrave St.). The next building on Main Street is Joshua Weaver’s Harness Shop. The next near by, is his dwelling house owned by Peleg Weeden (Keehan). The next house was a little one-story building, end to the road, occupied by Mills, and afterwards by Edward Wing, who built the two-story part of the present house in 1830, now occupied by S. G. Weeden (Jacobsen). The next was a small two-story house built by Bentley, and owned by Allen Holcomb (Faber), in the rear of which he manufactured Windsor chairs. Across the road in front of these aforementioned houses, was a clearing full of stumps, and log heaps. The next was a long one-story-and-a-half house, with two front doors, owned by Asahel Avery (Harrington), one end of it being used for a Cabinet Shop. Across the road opposite was a one-story brick house built by Gen. Jacob Morris for his son, John C., for an office, but John, not taking a fancy to living there, it was used as a dwelling house, and at this time was occupied by Ebenezer Dewey.

The next house was owned by Col. Van Rensselaer, and rented to Elijah Hitchcock, afterwards occupied by Rev. Russell Wheeler, John Roberts, Samuel Somers, and others, finally sold to Richard Garratt, and now owned by Mrs. Matthews (Field house site). Across the road, six years before (1818) was built by Mr. McGeorge, the Episcopal Church, with a half circle fence in front. The church cost $5,500. The next house was a small one-story house owned by Eliakim Howe (Gage), a tailor by trade. The site of J. K. Lull’s house (Sheldon) was a hog-yard. The next house was owned by Cornelius Jenne (Harris), a shoemaker; this house was so recently altered over that its appearance is in remembrance of most town’s people. Across the road, on the site of the Otsego House (Sheldon), was Davis’ barn. At the foot of the steep hill in front of Squire Harrison’s (Benedict) house was a goose pond.

The present site of J. M. Lull’s house was an orchard, and near where the stone store is, stood the tavern barn. The old Red Tavern, built by Sturgis Bradley before 1800, situated about where the kitchen of the Louiville Hotel (Morris Inn) is, was a long two-story building with a double piazza on front, and a one-story bar-room on the East end. In front of it on a green, large enough to put up a circus tent, stood the sign between two posts, reading, “Z. Roberts’ Inn”. Across the road, on the East of the four corners, stood a story-and-a-half red store facing the West, built by Mr. Pratt and owned by Luther Skidmore. This store was moved and is now R. Cooley’s house (A. Pickens), and the present building (Rendo) was built by Chauncy Moore in 1832.

Crossing the shunpike running from New Berlin to Huntsville, on the West corner was the two-story residence of Squire Davis, and just beyond the house was the one-story red shop and post-office, and in the rear is the Tannery, the bark-mill and fulling mill run by water from the brook. The next building across the brook was Dr. Wing’s office, moved from the opposite side of the road. We come next to the shunpike that led into the settlement known as “Hayti”, on the corner stood a one-story house owned by Luther Skidmore (H. Lull). Further on stood the new red school house, built by Uri Jackson. And near the tenant house of H. R. Washbon was an old house occupied by Joseph Pearsall, who always dressed in the Continental costume of sledrunner coat, knee breeches, long stockings, and buckles on his shoes. On the road to South New Berlin, near the present site of Matteson’s Tannery (near H. Crumb), was an old building called the File Factory, used afterwards for boring gun barrels, and lastly as a dwelling house.

Let us retrace our steps, and start again at the four corners.

On the South-east corner was a small red store built by Dr. Hadley and Mr. Goble, occupied by Edward Williams; it is now Turney’s saloon (First National Bank). Next West of it was a two-story tavern (there were no hotels in those days) built and occupied by Jeremiah Cruttenden (Telephone Office). There was a picket fence in front of it, and farther out in the road were three poplar trees. The bar-room was one-story high on the west end. Where now is the Perry Block (Kinney) was the tavern shed. It was here that the first elephant in the country (old Bet) was exhibited. A road ran down by the side of the brook to the other street, and on this was Franchot & Van Rensselaer’s distillery. The brick house of Dr. Wing (Buhr) was commenced in 1824; the bricks were burned about three miles down the creek by Winton & Dayton. An old one-story house stood in what is now the garden, occupied by Cy Jackson. The next and last house on the main street was a two-story house on the present site of Lyman Brooks’ house (Catholic Center), owned by Dr. Bard. And where now is Murdock’s barn (H. Pickens trailer) was Eli Walter’s wagon shop, and across the road opposite, was the “old schoolhouse” (D. Foote) in Lull’s woods. It is said, these woods were underbrushed to furnish whips for the school-master. To say he wore up one breech “gad” a day would be a modest estimate. In those days it was master and servant or slave; instead of Teacher and pupil. Walter’s house stood where Murdock’s (H. Pickens house) now stands. The house where W. E. Bunn (Lennox) lives was built by Dr. Hadley and at that time was owned by Stephen Walker, and his carpenter shop was situated about in the door-yard of L. J. Davis (Shields), it was sided up with shingles. Lynn Cruttenden had a blacksmith shop where L. J. Davis’ is, and R. Cooley’s (A. Pickens) garden, near the brook was an ashery. Opposite the ashery was a one-story house occupied by Frank Harris (Burdick), a basket maker. The wagon shop on the corner was owned by John Bard (Moore). Where C. H. Turney’s house is was Lysander Curtis’ (Lamb) gun shop. On the opposite side of the road was a small one-story house occupied by Allen Jackson (Stafford); he was killed by the bursting of a 56 on the 4th of July in 1814. In those days there were no platform scales and many articles were sold at gross weight, 2,240 lbs. for a ton, and 56 was a weight with a hole drilled into it. In this was put a charge of powder, then a crease was cut in a plug which was driven in, and then primed and fired.

The next house, I. Mansfield’s (G. Mansfield), was owned by Lyman Cruttenden. The next, H. M. Perry’s (B. Jacobsen), by E. C. Williams, the second-story was a Masonic Hall. The next, Dr. Fox’s (Collier), was the residence of John Bard, and the next was Franchot’s old store, moved to the corner below, and occupied by Benj. Lull, hatter; afterwards by J. S. Bergen, and later by Obediah Seely (Merrick). Near the site of A. C. Moore’s (F. Elliott) house was a small one-story white house owned by Mrs. Lewis Franchot. The rear of the Franchot (Gutierrez) house, by the creek bridge, was built by Judge Franchot in 1810. In what is now the factory pond near the old cotton house, was the Miller’s house. The mill has been raised, but stands on the old site.

Coming back to the corners again, on the road to New Berlin, at the foot of the hill opposite James Little’s (P. Decker) residence, was a blacksmith shop (R. Stafford), and on the left hand at the top of the hill was the residence of Newell Marsh. A little further on, about opposite the road that goes down to the sled factory, was a red house which was moved about 1830 nearly opposite Stephen Walker’s (L. Foote) residence, and occupied by Norman Newell, afterwards by Rufus Sanderson, and now by Moses Luther (gone now – R. Lull’s vacant lot).

The previous text was taken directly from the book Morris, New York 1773-1923 by Joyce Foote, 1970. I made a few minor edits, but the content remains unchanged.