Tag: Mansfield

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

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.