Tag: Van Rensselaer

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 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.

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.

Early History, People, Places

Early Settlement

Donna Foote

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

Part 2: In this section, I will use the second part of the first chapter from my mother’s book spanning the 1800s.

The decade from 1810 to 1820 brought many new settlers to the area – some just stopping by for a short time on their way to the western part of New York State or Ohio, others to remain permanently. Among the latter were the families of Noble, Washbon, Starr, Skidmore, Somers, Foote, Beers, Tillson, Cruttenden, Hawley, Winton, Braley, Blackman, Botsford, and many other names familiar to present-day residents.

Early in the nineteenth century, small industries flourished in and around Louisville. There were asheries, grist mills, cotton and woolen mills, distilleries, stores, and later, tanneries, a hat factory, a sled factory, a wooden-ware factory, furniture, and boot and shoe factories. These operations were, of course, small by today’s standards, but they provided the necessities and a few comforts of life to the citizens of the area.

The early 1800s also saw the construction of many permanent buildings, both residential and business, in the community. It was during this period that the Manor House was constructed on the Morris family holdings a few miles below the village.

In 1808-1809, the Bowne House was built overlooking the Butternut Creek just above Elm Grove. It was a large, unusual house, consisting of forty rooms, with the central section and wings octagonal in shape. The house burned but the land is now occupied by the Dugan family.

Construction was begun in 1810 on the Franchot House, one of the first frame houses in the village. Judge Paschal Franchot resided in this house until his death in 1855 and during his tenure cleared his own farm which encompassed all the lower section of what is now the village. There have been some changes made to the house over the ensuing years but the original lines of the house are still evident. This house is now owned and occupied by the Medardo Gutierrez family.

The Van Rensselaer House (Godley’s) is typical of Colonial country house architecture. It was constructed in 1814, a large, square, stone section containing living, dining, and bed rooms and a kitchen wing at the back of the house.

Across the road from the Lull Family monument and burial ground, about three miles above the present village of Morris, is the site of the Lull house which was built by Caleb Lull about 1817. He resided there until his death in 1839. According to the Lull Family history, it was on this homestead farm that the first Baptist Church of Butternuts was built in 1818; regular church meetings were held there until a meeting house was constructed in the village of Morris some 23 years later.

This era of the early 1800s brought the establishment of the early churches of Louisville. Between 1808 and 1811, the Friends Meetinghouse was built a short distance east of the corporation line of the village of Morris. It stood for over one hundred years and its congregation was comprised of Friends from a wide area including Delaware and Schoharie Counties as well as Otsego.

The present Zion Episcopal Church was constructed during this period on a plot of ground given by Gen. Jacob Morris. The building, substantially as it is today, was finished in 1818 at a cost of $5,000. It replaced the old Harmony Church, which was situated where the Episcopal burying ground now is on the East River Road. At the time of its construction, Zion Church was an ambitious building, for the village six years later had only twenty-nine houses and a population of between one hundred sixty and one hundred seventy persons.

The above is a picture of part of Main Street of Louisville looking east. The white building in the picture was built early in the 1800s by Jeremiah Cruttenden. The actual construction date seems to be a matter of conjecture with some sources giving the date as 1803 and others as 1822. In any event, the building was for many years kept as a tavern. The trees seen in the picture were about fifteen feet from the fence, enabling teams to drive to the gate. Beyond the building and out of the right-hand side of the picture were the hotel sheds which extended along the road toward the brook, and another road followed the brook to a distillery a short distance downstream.

The second building had been a grocery store occupied by Edward Williams and shortly after the time of this picture was moved down South Broad Street to later become part of E. M. Slone‘s hardware store.

The third building was a store owned by Luther Skidmore. About 1830 to 1833, this building was moved to Grove Street and made into a house.

Davis‘ horse barn is the next building. There was a good-sized goose pond in front of the barn and extending across the road.

On the hill is Zion Episcopal Church. A Virginia rail fence led up the hill from Mr. Skidmore’s store, along the street, and around the church grounds.

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.

Editor’s note: The Franchot House (pictured above) was badly damaged by fire in the early hours of Friday, February 5, 2010. It was restored shortly thereafter.