HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF FABIUS

HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF FABIUS

Submitted by Kathy Crowell

Source:  Dwight H. Bruce, Onondaga's Centennial.  Boston History Co., 1896, Vol. I, pp. 866-889.



The original township of Fabius was designated No. 15 of the Military Tract, and embraced the present town of that name and nearly all of the towns of Truxton and Cuyler in Cortland county.  On the formation of the county the whole of this territory, together with Tully, Preble, Scott, and the southern parts of Otisco and Spafford, forming the military township of Tully, No. 14, was included in the civil town of Pompey, from which Fabius, including all of the towns and parts of towns just mentioned, was set off by act of the Legislature on March 9, 1798.  On the 4th of April, 1803, Tully, including Scott and Preble and portions of Spafford and Otisco, was erected into a separate civil town, leaving the then civil towns of Fabius with the territory comprising the original military township of the same name.  The organization of Cortland county on April 8, 1808, left the present Fabius with fifty lots, or the north half of township 15 of the Military Tract.

The town of Fabius, as now constituted, contains 32,000 acres, or fifty square miles of land, and occupies the southeastern corner of the county of Onondaga, being bounded on the south by Cortland county, on the east by Madison county, on the north by Pompey and La Fayette, and on the west by Tully.  It has a general elevation of from 1,000 to 1,200 feet above the Erie Canal at Syracuse.

The old township of Fabius, in common with other subdivisions of the great Military Tract, was surveyed into 100 lots of about 600 acres each, as described in a preceding chapter of this work, and those lying within the present civil town are numbered from one to fifty inclusive.  These lots, with four exceptions, were drawn as bounty lands by soldiers for services in the Revolutionary war, as follows:

1, Willet Carman; 2, Lieut. William Strahan; 3, reserved for Gospel, school, etc.; 4, Capt. Theodore Bliss; 5, Peter Osterhout; 6, Philip Lacey; 7, Maj. James Rosekrans; 8, Andrew Flim; 9, Garrit Cronck; 10, Andrew Bradley; 11, Philip Cotelle; 12, Patrick Wall; 13, Capt. Joseph Savage; 14, Nathan Reed; 15, Thomas Bunting; 16, John Ferdon; 17, Lieut. Josiah Bagley; 18, James Ferguson; 19, Nicholas Schuyler, surgeon; 20, William Kynion; 21, Charles Parsons, captain; 22, Francis Courtney; 23, John Linnigar; 24, Robert Bardin; 25, John Craig; 26, Martin Flick; 27, Cornelius Van Ness; 28, John Wheeler; 29, Lieut. Abraham Leggett; 30, Lieut. Thomas Williams; 31, Lieut. John Burnett; 32, John Davis; 33, Ebenezer Slason; 34, Jonathan Pinckney; 35, Hunlock Woodruff, surgeon; 36, reserved for Gospel, etc., 37, Col. Goose Van Schaick; 38, Lieut. John L. Hardenbergh; 39, Lieut. Alender Dow; 40, William Gilbert; 41, reserved for Gospel, etc.; 42, Coral Rennee; 43, Lieut. Henry Demlar; 44, reserved for Gospel, etc.; 45, Robert Ellison; 46, David Fletcher; 47, Lieut. Thomas Warner; 48, Samuel Becannon; 49, James Robinson; 50, Henry Depau.

Four lots, Nos. 3, 36, 41, and 44, were reserved by law for gospel and school purposes, which left forty-six for grantees, of whom twelve became actual settlers or residents, as will presently appear.

The territory here considered was for many years the abiding place or hunting grounds of the Indians, principally the Onondagas, whose central point of assemblage occupied the valley lying a short distance northwest.  It is adjacent, also, to the historic town of Pompey, where numerous evidences of aboriginal habitation still exist, and in view of these facts it is not surprising that antiquarians have here found a fertile field for investigation.  But the purpose of this chapter is to record briefly the local growth and development from the earliest white settlement to the present time.

The pioneers found this a most picturesque section, a locality richly endowed with all the beauty of nature, and one that proved in after years as productive as any in the State.  As the pioneers coursed up and down the rich valleys, seeking future homes, they felt an inspiration more attractive, more enchanting, than usually falls to the lot of man.  Here on either hand stood, in all their grandeur and beauty, the old hills in majestic silence where they, like sentinels, had kept watch and ward for unnumbered ages.  Broken into a series of ridges separated by narrow valleys, and entirely canopied with billowy forests of evergreen and deciduous trees, it presented to the observed an unusual scene of primitive grandeur at once attractive and impressive.  A portion of the town forms a part of the great watershed which divides the streams flowing north into the St. Lawrence from those emptying their contents in the Susquehanna and other large rivers on the south.  The most important watercourse is a branch of the Tioughnioga River, which flows southerly through the eastern center of Fabius.  On the Madison county line is the De Ruyter reservoir, while near the foot of South Hill--one of the loftiest elevations in the county--near Tully, lies a small lake known as Labrador Pond.  The timber which comprised the dense forests consisted mainly of beech, maple, hemlock, elm, ash, and basswood, with a sprinkling of birch, pine, and oak.  In the more depressed portions of the valley near the center of the town the more depressed portions of the valley near the center of the town are swampy lands originally covered with valuable cedars.  Nearly the entire territory is susceptible of cultivation, the soil being a fine quality of gravelly loam admixed with more or less clay and sand, and being well watered, is peculiarly adapted to grass and pasturage.

Settlement in Fabius was nearly or quite contemporaneous with the formation of Onondaga county.  In the spring of 1794 Timothy Jerome and Josiah Moore, from Stockbridge, Mass., moved in and erected log cabins.  During the same spring Simon Keeney, father of the late John Keeney, came, and with the assistance of one man cleared land, erected a log house, and planted corn and potatoes, preparatory to bringing his family the following year.  William Clark, father of the present Henry H. Clark, and Col. Elijah St. John were among the pioneers.  Timothy Jerome settled on lot 5, in the northern part of the town.  He was the first supervisor, and the first and for many years the only justice of the peace.  He died May 9, 1802, and was buried in the open square in the center of the village of Pompey, whence the remains were subsequently removed to the cemetery on the high ground east of that village.  Josiah Moore settled on lot 15, on the old Chenango road.  He sowed the first wheat, brought the first farm implements into this section, became the first town clerk, built the first frame house in 1800, and died there April 29, 1802; he being the first one of the pioneers to cross to the other shore.  The remains were buried in the woods west of the dwelling house, on the premises now owned by Hiram and Anson Rowley.  In the old burying ground back of the Baptist church stands a monument with the following inscription:

Erected to the memory of Josiah Moore, Jr., Esqr.  He was the earliest settler of this town.  Emigrated from New Hartford, Conn., Mar. 15, 1795, and died April 29, 1802, Aged 36 years (1).

His son, Charles Moore, born in 1796, was the first white child born in town, and died in 1862.

Simon Keeney was the first one to establish a home in the valley now known as Kenney's Settlement.  In 1795 he, Benjamin Brown, Samuel Fox, and Gurden Woodruff, with their families and a part of the family of Samuel Webster, in all twenty-eight persons, established themselves in the log house erected the previous year by Simon Keeney.  In June they were followed by Samuel Webster, who had been detained by sickness.  This house was on lot 47, on the premises now owned by Henry H. Clark.  The other families soon settled in other parts of the valley, a portion of which by subsequent subdivisions became a part of Truxton and Cuyler in Cortland county.  Simon Keeney died September 17, 1831, at the age of sixty-five years, and was buried in the old cemetery at Fabius village.  He had a daughter, Lydia Keeney, who was married in 1798 to Abel Webster, which was the first marriage in town.  The first person buried in the town, after its settlement by the whites, was a colored man named Joy--a servant of Simon Keeney--who died in April, 1798, from drinking too much maple syrup.  Tradition says that the remains were followed to their last resting place by a large concourse of the settlers.  The first white person buried was a child of Elijah Keeney, two or three years old, who was accidentally killed by the fall of a woodpile in April, 1798.  The first white adult laid away in the grave was the wife of Major Joseph Strong.  Hers was the second burial in the Keeney Settlement Cemetery.

William Clark, who settled on lot 25, was one of the twelve Revolutionary soldiers who took up their residence here.  He enlisted May 1, 1777, in Weathersfield, Conn., in Captain Tallman's company and Col. Elisha Sheldon's regiment of dragoons, and served five years and two months.  He had a son, Lewis, who in 1823 was "put out to a trade."  In 1795 Col. Elijah St. John arrived from Massachusetts, and established a home in the western part of the town.  He was the first settler there.

The first settlers of this town were a class of hardy, resolute men and women, endowed with noble traits of New England parentage, and well qualified by nature to subdue a primitive wilderness.  They brought to their new abodes unfailing courage and sterling characters, which they firmly implanted in the pioneer communities.  It was these same attributes that subsequently brought so many prominent men of the town into wider prominence and usefulness.  The pioneers endured all the privations and hardships incident to a new country, but with true heroism mastered the situation and carved comfortable homes out of the dense forests.  They were harassed by wild beasts and suffered from the prevailing miasma, and subsisted at times on game and such meager supplies as  distant markets afforded.  With no roads save the paths marked by blazed trees, they lived in rude log cabins far from centers of activity and luxury, yet the day soon came when the conveniences of civilization were brought to their very doors.  Their log dwellings were then replaced by more imposing frame structures, and life in the wilderness was shorn of its uninviting features.

Between 1796 and 1798 the population was augmented by the arrival of such settlers as Captain Ebenezer Belden, Jonathan Stanley, Thomas Miles, James Harris, John Wallace, Thomas Keeney, Abel Webster, Jacob Penoyer, Abel Pixley, Ezekiel Dunham, Benjamin Brown and William Blanchard.  In 1797 Josiah Tubbs opened the first tavern in town near the Tully line, and it was at his inn that many of the early town meetings were held.

On March 9, 1798, the civil town of Fabius was formed, and embraced all of the present towns of Fabius, Tully, Preble and Scott, nearly all of Truxton and Cuyler and the south parts of Otisco and Spafford--a territory ten by twenty miles in extent.  The first town meeting was held at the public house of Josiah Tubbs, on the 3d of April of the same year, and the following officers were elected:  Timothy Jerome, supervisor; Josiah Moore, town clerk; Benjamin Brown, Timothy Walker and Elijah St. John, assessors; Josiah Tubbs, James Cravath and William Blanchard, commissioners of highways; Ezekiel Dunham, constable.  At the town meeting held April 2, 1799, at the same place, Benjamin Brown was chosen town clerk and Timothy Jerome re-elected supervisor.

Unfortunately the town records prior to 1854 were burned with Lewis Bramer's hardware store in Fabius village in December, 1882.  This loss precludes the possibility of obtaining the names of others who are worthy of mention in local history, but tradition says that the entire population was in community of sentiment and action for the public good.  As settlements increased, closer communication, new institutions and better local accommodations were established and maintained.  Major Joseph Strong built the first barn in town in 1799.  In 1800 Thomas Miles started a saw mill on Butternut Creek and manufactured lumber, to the great convenience of the inhabitants.  About 1802 or 1803 schools were taught by Benjamin Brown in the Keeney neighborhood; by Miss Jerome, later the wife of Judge James Geddes, and Eunice Fowler, near Apulia; thenceforward the subject of education received constant and careful attention.

On April 4, 1803, the original military township of Tully, No. 14, including the present towns of Tully, Preble and Scott and portions of Spafford and Otisco, was given independent privileges as a civil town bearing the same name, and on the 8th of April, 1808, Fabius was reduced to its present limits by the formation of Cortland county, which took off nearly all of the towns of Truxton and Cuyler.  In 1810 the territory under consideration contained about 1,900 inhabitants.  Its settlement during the first decade of this century was very rapid.  Joseph Simons had opened a second tavern near the center of the town and Colonel St. John started a third at Apulia.  Mail was obtained from Truxton, the post-office there being established about 1804.  In 1805 Lyman Smith constructed a tannery on Simon Keeney's farm, which was burned in 1812 and rebuilt by George Pettit, who added a shoemaking department, the first of its kind in the region.  Previous to this it had been the custom of traveling cobblers to go from house to house repairing and making boots and shoes.  In 1808 Thomas Miles erected a grist mill on Butternut Creek, west of Apulia, prior to which the settlers carried their grain through the forests to Danforth's at Onondaga.  About the same time Joel Daniels started a blacksmith shop in the town, while Morton and Cady opened the first store.  These various enterprises gave a marked impulse to local growth and prosperity, added materially to the comforts and conveniences of the inhabitants and contributed largely towards subsequent and steady development.  The settlers were no longer obliged to go long distances to trade, to mill or to market their produce, but enjoyed these privileges nearer home, notwithstanding the fact that the country was still mainly a primitive wilderness.  A few years later, however, the pioneer conditions passed into history, and on every hand were to be seen fruitful farms and thriving industries.

Religion, meanwhile, had taken deep root among the several communities, which seem to have been composed largely of adherents of the Baptist faith.  One authority says that a society of this denomination was organized at "Fabius Center, or Franklinville, as it was then called," in 1803, with Richard Wheat, Simon Keeney, jr., Samuel Moray, Lewis Howell and Jasper Partridge, as trustees.  "This association," he states, "drooped and declined."  Another writer, quoting "from official documents," gives the "First Society in Fabius, May 28, 1805," the "First Baptist Society in the town of Fabius, November 21, 1806," the "First Congregational Society in Fabius, August 9, 1808," the "United Presbyterian Society (Tully and Fabius), December 9, 1814," and the "First Baptist Church and Society of Fabius, January 25, 1817."  The earliest Baptist society, of which we have authentic information, was organized in 1803, and was known as the Baptist church of Fabius.  On the 24th of August of the same year the society was recognized by a council consisting of six ministers and nine lay members from the Baptist churches at Hamilton, Cazenovia, Pompey and De Ruyter, who convened in a barn owned by Samuel Webster, three miles south of the village.  Elder Ashbel Hosmer was chosen moderator, and Dr. James Pettit, clerk; the constituent membership numbered twenty, among whom were Thomas and Elijah Keeney, Gurden Woodruff, Samuel Webster and Samuel Stone.  The first pastor was Rev. Rufus Freeman.  In 1807 Rev. Peter P. Roots, a missionary from Hamilton, located at Keeney's Settlement and ministered to this society for several years.

The First Baptist Church and Society of Fabius, the present organization, was incorporated August 24, 1819.  The first trustees were Elijah St. John, Jonathan Stanley, Aaron Benedict, John Phelps, Stephen Tripp, Simon Keeney, Nathaniel Bacon, Benjamin Lewis, jr., and George Pettit.  Marcus, Chauncy, and Oliver Andrews leased to the society a site, the consideration being an annual rental of twenty-five cents, "for one hundred years, or for so long a term of time as the said piece or parcel of ground, or any part thereof, shall be used or occupied for the purpose of a meeting house."  In 1818 Rev. Mr. Blakesley was engaged as pastor for three years, for $1,000, and members of the society went to Connecticut with their teams to bring his family and goods.  During the same year a house of worship was erected at a cost of $5,000, and 123 converts were baptized. In 1870, during the pastorate of Rev. J. M. Tollman, the original edifice was rebuilt and enlarged at a cost of several thousand dollars.  The following are a few of the pastors who have labored with the society:  Revs. John Upford, Eliada Blakesley, Horace Griswold, H. V. Jones, Peter P. Brown, Walter G. Dye, L. L. Livermore, Elijah G. Blount, J. D. Webster, J. M. Tollman, Ira Clark, M. F. Negus, Matthews, Perkins, and Decker.

The first settlers in the west part of the present town were a cultured and religious people, and in 1804 a Presbyterian church was organized and regular services maintained.  In 1830 the government of the church was changed to Congregational, a large house of worship erected at Apulia, and the First Congregational Society of Fabius incorporated.  The Methodist Episcopal church also had a meeting house at that place, which, in 1870, they removed to Summit Station.  This left the Congregational church in a too feeble condition, with respect to membership, to maintain regular preaching, and in 1876, the church having become extinct, a Baptist society was organized and chose Rev. S. A. Beeman for their first pastor.  In 1889 the latter body was reorganized as the Apulia Baptist church, which has been duly incorporated, and by courtesy of the First Congregational Society occupies its real estate and edifice.  Rev. A. R. Palmer, of Collingwood, has been pastor since September, 1891.  The M. E. church at Summit Station still maintains a flourishing existence.

About the year 1812 Fabius Center, as it was then known, began to assume some business activity, an ashery being erected in the east end of the present village.  In 1814 a tavern was opened to the public, and about the same time a store was started by Aaron Benedict.  The war of 1812-15 was raging at this period along the Canadian frontier, and in a measure affected the settlements under consideration.  Here and there a settler joined in the defense of Sackett's Harbor, Oswego, or Niagara, leaving his home largely unprotected, yet the territory was so distant from the scenes of conflict that little of interest save the general excitement occurred within its borders.  Two respected, lifelong residents of the town, Edmund Harris and Orange Cadwell, who recently died at Fabius, were soldiers of this war.  Following this came the celebrated "cold season" of 1816, which caused considerable suffering from a dearth of provisions to both man and beast.  From these drawbacks, however, the pioneers quickly recovered, and during the succeeding years universal prosperity prevailed.

The Skaneateles and Hamilton turnpike was completed about this period by a company bearing that name, among the promoters being such public-spirited and enterprising men as Col. Elijah St. John, Josiah Tubbs, Benjamin Brown, John Wallace, and William Clark.  This thoroughfare traversed the town from east to west, and permanently influenced all local industries as well as the various settled communities.  It was long a busy route for stages, teaming, and travel, and gave the first important impulse to the hamlets of Fabius and Apulia, the former of which for nearly half a century enjoyed uninterrupted growth and influence.

The completion of the turnpike was the signal for systematically laying out and building up the village of Fabius, and a few years later that thrifty center contained one parallel street, four cross streets, about 600 inhabitants, and a number of flourishing industries.  The main street, broad and straight, was adorned on either side with sugar maples, which stand to this day as living monuments to the foresight and taste of the generous founders, among whom were Jare Benedict, John Wilson, Abijah Otis, Aaron Benedict, and Mark and Lucas Andrews.  To Jare Benedict and John Wilson may be ascribed the original conception of the village and plan of its streets.  In fact, the former gentleman was the founder of the Center.  He built the house which, for more than sixty years, was in possession of the Sprague family; the grist mill now owned and run by Clark & Powers; the tavern which used to stand on the corner occupied by Du Portal S. Sprague's residence; the saw mill formerly owned by the late William Johnson; and many other structures.  Soon after the opening of the turnpike a post-office was established here, and among the postmasters are remembered the names of Thaddeus Archer, William Frink, George Pettit, Sherman H. Corbin, James O. Hulburt, and others.  The tavern which was erected  in 1814 was subsequently known for many years as the Cadwell House, and is still standing, being occupied as a dwelling and owned by the Cadwell estate.  The present Vincent House, built a little later, was kept by Enoch Ely, Delos H. Johnson, Charles Hobart, and others.

The hamlet of Apulia likewise dates its inception as a business center from the completion of the turnpike, or a little later, and for several years it was the scene of some activity.  Here Miles B. Hackett, Mr. Hapgood, William H. Hotaling, and others were general merchants, the latter being now in business, the first two mentioned being also postmasters.
 

By the year 1821 the Methodists had gathered sufficient numerical strength to form a society from a previously organized class, and to build a house of worship near the village of Fabius.  The edifice was removed to its present location in 1835 and rebuilt in 1860.  Among the early members of this church were Anson and Sally Cadwell, David and Daniel Porter, Carlson Hodgson, and Catherine Hubbard.  In October, 1826, the Freewill Baptists began to hold meetings in a school house near Stephen Tripp's, and the next year a society of that faith was formed by David and Polly Coats, Charles and Hannah Moore, Roland and Experience Sears, Joshua and Sally Sanders, John and Polly Smith, Celestia Connable, and others.  In 1830 a church was erected, which in 1855 was removed to the present site in Fabius village, where it was rebuilt in 1869.  Within the last twenty-five years the society has materially decreased in membership until now it contains scarcely that many persons.

The completion of the Erie Canal through Syracuse in 1825 had a perceptible influence upon the prosperity of this town, notwithstanding its distance (about twenty miles) from the center of activity.  Bringing, as it did, the eastern markets into closer proximity, it afforded enlarged means of communication and inaugurated a new era of local development, which continued without interruption for many years.

In the foregoing pages mention has been made of numerous pioneers to whose thrift and enterprise is due, in large measure, the conversion of a primitive wilderness into a productive section, but those names were not alone in performing the arduous labors necessary for the complete accomplishment of that Herculean task.  They had any noble associates whose names will forever escape permanent record, but whose deeds live on as silent memorials to their worth and character, gracing the picturesque valleys and hillsides if not the pages of history.  At this point in the narrative of Fabius it is appropriate to give such settlers as have not been lost to recollection, but are remembered by one or two contemporaries still living.  First, the remaining eleven of the twelve original grantees, soldiers of the Revolutionary war, who became residents of this town, may be here recorded.  They were Jonathan Brooks, Hartwell Barnes, John Cadwell, Daniel Conner, Nathan Goodale, John Ives, Rufus Carter, Daniel Hills, Ebenezer Foot, Ambrose Gron, and Manuel Truair.  Barnes served in Captain Judd's company of Col. Samuel Wylly's regiment of General Parsons's brigade of the Connecticut line, and was a laborer.  Cadwell died here March 3, 1834.  Conner enlisted four times from Massachusetts, serving from the night of Paul Revere's ride to Lexington and Concord to the close of the war in 1783.  Goodale enlisted in the same State in January, 1777, and was also discharged in June, 1783.  He settled on lot 11 in Fabius.  Ives served three years from Connecticut, a part of the time in Washington's lifeguard.

Among the settlers of this town prior to 1850 were the following, east and south of Fabius village:

Mr. Curtis (farmer and hotel keeper, died in 1833), Ephraim Wallace, Martin Lewis, Edward Merrills, Orel Pope, the Bacon family, George Pettit, Elizur Andrews, John Keeney, Eli Webster, Champion Keeney, Abner Brown, James Andrews, Thomas Keeney, Isaac Case, the Osborn and Hicks families, Humphrey Fosmer, Amos Tenny, Gideon Beebe, Orrin Fox, and the families of Vincent, Dean, Bump and Stockham.  East and north of the village:  John Beach, Benjamin Wallace, Martin Wallace, Mr. Howe, George Wallace, Allen F. Locke, John Conklin, Mr. Pendell, John Tobin, Stutson Benson, Oliver Williams, Horace Tuller, Jonathan Hoar, Benjamin Webster, Abel Webster, John Crandall, John Daniels, and Benson whose house stood on the Fabius and Pompey line.  South and west:  John Doubleday, Abel Negus, Abel Clough, Jonathan Swift, Harry Lewis, Joseph Waters, Nathaniel Waters, Worthy Waters, Squire Joslyn (long a justice of the peace), Daniel Hill, Bennett Adams, Samuel Rowley, Benjamin Haswell, Newell Rowley, Orsemus Hills, Thomas Dunn, Isaac Horton, and the Newcomb, Winegar and St. John families.  North and west of the Center:  Elisha Sprague, Buton and Russell (who had a saw mill, now run by Charles Johnson), Edmund Harris, Stephen Hill (who also owned a saw mill), Norman Hall, Jackson Ellis, John Jerome, David Connable, Mr. Coats, Stephen Coville, John Cadwell, and Joseph Hill, a wagonmaker, who came from De Ruyter and settled in Fabius village about 1830, and died in Dansville, N.Y., in 1835.

Fabius has had many prominent citizens, men who have done noble work for their day and generation.  Their lives are not to be measured by the time they lived; these reach forward to the moulding of future events and generations.  Justice demands that they should have more than a passing notice on the historical page.  The following are a few of the early settlers, or later residents, who are conspicuous in this class:

Hon. George Pettit, of New England stock, was born January 13, 1780.  He came to Fabius and located in Keeney's Settlement in 1800.  A few years later he moved to a large farm just south of Fabius village.  He was a member of assembly from his assembly district for 1821, 1835, and 1836, associate judge of the old Court of Common Pleas of the county during 1823, 1828, and 1838, for a long time postmaster at Fabius, justice of the peace for many years, and a soldier of the war of 1812.  For many years he was the most noted and eminent citizen in the town of Fabius.  He was a man of more than ordinary ability.  In his intercourse and controversy with his fellow townsmen he invariably carried his point and maintained his position.  He demolished all adversaries and opposition.  He had a will of iron, and a firmness seldom equaled.  He deliberately reached a conclusion, and then he could not be shaken from it.  It was said that his extended information gave him the mastery on all occasions.  He was a popular man, took an interest in all town and public matters, and his judgment and advice were usually relied upon and followed.  On a legal question his opinion had much weight, and few lawyers could render a better one.  In religious matters he took a broad interest.  For a quarter of a century he was the bone and sinew of the Baptist church in Fabius village.  Heart, hand and purse were freely given to the cause; and the church, during this time, was virtually under his control.  No dishonorable or unmanly act was ever charged to George Pettit.  Through his long life, midst all his varied occupations, he escaped damaging errors as well as the vile breath of the calumniator.  His long life ended, he sank to rest on the 9th day of August, 1866, and his remains were placed in the family burial lot in Fabius Evergreen Cemetery, beside one who brightened his home existence for many years.  George Pettit married three wives, one of whom survived at the time of his death.  He had a large family of children.  Jonathan E. Pettit was one of the oldest, and possessed many of his father's characteristics.

Jonathan worked his father's farm many years; but his devotion to country and unbounded generosity could not withstand the adverse pressure which fell upon the country at the breaking out of the Rebellion.  This in a measure ruined his finances, and he sank beneath the mighty wave that overwhelmed many solid fortunes and able financiers in the Northern States.  He sold what little was left of a large estate and established a home at Breckenridge, Minn., where he still resides.

John U. Pettit, the next son in order of age, possessed the quick perception, ready wit, and easy flow of language so characteristic of this family.  He was graduated at Clinton College about 1840, then took a course of law in the office of Hon. Daniel Gott at Pompey Hill, and soon thereafter discovered that he was a victim of consumption, which haunted him the remainder of is life.  As an antidote he made his home in a malarious district in Indiana and there established a law practice which proved both successful and remunerative.  He soon became a member of congress from that State, was afterward a minister representing the United States at the capital of Brazil, and later a judge of the Circuit Court of Indiana.  He became a prominent man, and was counsel in the famous case of the Knights of the Golden Circle following the Rebellion.  He died in early manhood.

Milton H. Pettit, another son of George Pettit, was born and reared in Fabius and possessed in a marked degree the distinguishing traits of the Pettit family.  Quick, active and courageous, he pushed his way ahead in the world with rapid strides.  In early life he became a conspicuous figure in the State of Wisconsin, where he had established his home upon a farm.  He abandoned farm life for a residence in Kenosha, and there engaged in the malting business.  He was mayor of Kenosha, State senator, and creditably filled many other prominent positions, being lieutenant-governor of the State at the time of his death.

Emeline, the second daughter of George Pettit, was married to Rev. William Corbin, and died within two or three years thereafter, leaving an only son, Henry Pettit Corbin.  J. E. Pettit took this boy, treated him as his own son, and reared him to manhood.  Henry enlisted in the war of the Rebellion and was killed in terrible battle.  Another daughter, Mary Ann, became the wife of Dr. Lorenzo Heffron, who was a physician of more than ordinary note in this section of the country and father of Dr. John L. Heffron, who has attained to a high standing among the medical fraternity in Syracuse.

Benjamin Lewis came to the valley near Delphi, town of Pompey, from Shaftsbury, Vt., in 1796, and had a large family of sons and daughters.  Soon after his settlement in Pompey Hollow the sons moved on to farms of their own in the town of Fabius, Martin, the eldest son, locating his family on a farm three miles east of Fabius village.  Martin, like his father, had a numerous family, the various members of which, as they ripened into manhood and womanhood, sought new spheres of occupation in different sections of the country, Osymandus, the elder, settling as a practicing physician in a Western State.  Before leaving his native town, he had married Caroline, daughter of Edmund Harris.  She had died and her husband had been married to Catherine Harris, widow of Seymour C. Harris, esq., before mowing west.  His medical career had just begun, with the most flattering and encouraging prospects, when it was cut short by death.

Osymandus Lewis had two sons by his first marriage, Wayland and Ceylon H.  Wayland, the elder, enlisted in the war of the Rebellion and perished fighting for his country.  Both of these sons were born in Fabius.  Ceylon H. was graduated with honors from Madison University, studied law in the offices of ex-Senator Hiscock and William P. Goodelle in Syracuse, and in his early career served several seasons as clerk of the Board of Supervisors of Onondaga county.  Later he was district attorney of this county and discharged the duties of the office in a manner highly satisfactory to his constituents.  He was a delegate to the convention that met at Albany in 1894 to revise the Constitution of the State of New York.  He has filled other public positions, and always in a manner creditable to himself and to the people.  He is a young man, yet he has won a reputation, and attained a standing  as a lawyer that a man of more mature years might envy.

James J. Belden, born and reared to manhood in Fabius, is the son of Royal Denison Belden, and during his early years worked with his father and brother as an employee of Oliver Andrews in keeping in repair the old Hamilton and Skaneateles turnpike.  (See his biography elsewhere in this work.)

Elisha Sprague, who has been an important factor in the development of the town of Fabius, was born at Stephentown, Rensselaer county, N.Y., August 23, 1794, where rest the remains of his father and grandfather.  He was descendant from one of three brothers of English origin and landed in Boston in the days of the Revolution, and whose progeny are now found in every State of the Union.  Elisha Sprague's parents died in his infancy and he was adopted by his uncle, Simeon Sprague, with whom he came and settled in the east part of the town of Fabius when four years of age, and with whom he remained during the years of his minority.  When twenty-one years old he took possession of 200 acres of wild land (now known as the Wallace farm), purchased with a small patrimony left by his father.  In the spring of 1832 he sold this and purchased a small farm at the west end of Fabius village of Jared Benedict, on which he moved the first day of April of that year, and where he died August 15, 1862.  Elisha Sprague was a surveyor of more than ordinary skill and ability, and was noted for close and accurate work.  About 1818 he entered upon this line of business and followed it for more than thirty years.  He made the original surveys of nearly all the town highways, and located most of the farm and lot lines as they now are.  His fidelity to the interests of all parties was never impugned.  In all religious and educational matters he took a deep interest.  He was one of the main stays in the Fabius Baptist church for almost a lifetime.  His purse was always ready to open for church and charitable needs.  He was really the progenitor and founder of Fabius Academy.  This institution was established and incorporated by the Regents of the University of the State of New York in 1840.  Elisha Sprague was largely instrumental, through perseverance and influence, in procuring subscriptions with which to erect and furnish the building for school purposes.  In 1841 a school building was erected and completed, and a good attendance and general prosperity attended the school until 1849, when, amid a general consolidation of school districts through the town, the academy structure was sold to district No. 9 for $450; it then became the seat of learning of four other school districts besides No. 9, and has now become the seat of the Fabius Union School and Academy.  The credit of awakening an interest in a general planting of shade and ornamental trees along the highways and walks of Fabius village is also due to Elisha Sprague.  The majestic rows of maples, that flank the highways on either side, form one of the most pleasing aspects of the general scenery. Mr. Sprague was supervisor of the town in 1846.  He married Milla Lewis, March 6, 1817; her sister, Mabel, August 27, 1832; and another sister, Myra, September 29, 1834.  An early grave was the destiny of the first two wives.  He was the father of fifteen children, thirteen of whom grew to maturity.  One of these, Oscar L. Sprague, was graduated from Madison University, studied law with Gen. James W. Nye, of Hamilton, and commenced practice in Fabius, where he opened an office in 1848.  While in this office he was chosen school commissioner, justice of the peace, and supervisor of the town of Fabius, and filled other positions in the town and county.  In 1864 he was elected surrogate of Onondaga county, and died August 25, 1865, while an incumbent of that office.  Oscar L. Sprague in his intercourse with mankind as a lawyer, and in every capacity of life, was noted for urbanity, uprightness, and stern integrity; his influence was irreproachable, ever for morality, justice, and the best interest of society.

Another son of Elisha Sprague, Du Portal S. Sprague, has filled the position of justice of the peace in the town four terms and held many minor offices.  He is favorably known as a surveyor over a large tract of country.  For more than fifty years he has traveled those hills and valleys with chain and compass.  He is familiar with the boundaries of almost every farm in that town, and seldom have contentions and litigations arisen over boundary lines in Onondaga, Madison, or Cortland counties that he has not been called with his instruments to aid in the settlement or to sustain the rights of one party.  His advice has always been for settlement, never for litigation, and by his timely services he has saved many a judicial contest in the courts and many thousands in money to contestants over boundary lines.  Du Portal S. Sprague laid out and staked off both the original grounds and the recent extension of Fabius Evergreen Cemetery.  He has continuously held the position of trustee and clerk of the Board of Trustees of this cemetery association since its organization, March 22, 1864, more than thirty years.  But the fleeting years admonish him that he has reached the period of declining life.  Another son of Elisha Sprague is Jesse D. Sprague, who was graduated from Madison University, and particularly noted for ease in acquiring knowledge and for great scholarship.  He has a quiet, affable nature, and has never sought to assume the care and anxiety incident to the management of large business concerns.  He finds many spare hours to devote to literary pursuits and to the interests of the church with which he is connected.  For over twenty years he has been head and confidential clerk to Thompson Kingsford, the millionaire starch manufacturer of Oswego.  Still another son of Elisha Sprague is D. Webster Sprague, a graduate of the Normal School at Albany.   After teaching in some of the high schools of Minnesota, and holding the office of school commissioner in that State for many years, he finally accepted a position in the State University of Minnesota at Minneapolis, which he still holds.  Mary, a daughter of Elisha Sprague, married the Hon. Willis B. Benedict, grandson of Jare Benedict, the founder of the village of Fabius.  They settled at once, after marriage, in the oil regions of Western Pennsylvania, where she died.

This town claims the honor of having been the home of Sarah Jane Clark, now known to the literary world as "Grace Greenwood."  She was the daughter of Dr. Clark, and lived with her father's family for some years, during her teens, a half mile north of the village in the dwelling house now owned and occupied by Edward H. Knapp.  She attended the district school in Fabius village, and is still remembered by many of the oldest inhabitants.  Here the wild and romantic scenery, so in harmony with her nature, awakened to activity those latent impulses that in later years have made her famous wherever the English language is spoken.

Truman G. Younglove was a native of Fabius, and was reared to the business of tanner and currier, and shoemaker on the premises of his father, David Younglove, at the west end of Fabius village.  His school and educational advantages were very limited, but he was an inveterate reader, and obtained from books and papers a good stock of general intelligence.  When about twenty-five years of age he went to live with his uncle, Earl Stimpson, a wealthy and extensive manufacturer, at Cohoes, N.Y.  There he soon developed superior business qualifications, and soon had the management of much of his uncle's business.  About 1850-51 he was member of assembly from the Cohoes district, and during the latter year was made speaker of the house.

Fabius has had such other prominent citizens as Elijah W. Miles, who was State senator in 1820, 1821, and 1822; Jonathan Stanley, jr., member of assembly, and presidential elector in 1812; Elmore Wheaton, justice of the peace for twenty years; Orrin Aylsworth, justice of the peace and member of assembly in 1859; and Squire Doubleday, Nathaniel Andrews, Henry H. Clark, Orel Pope, Miles B. Hackett, William H. Hotaling and others.
 

In 1836 the town contained four grist mills, fifteen saw mills, two fulling mills, five carding machines, three asheries, five tanneries, about 2,800 inhabitants, twenty-one school districts, and 1,187 school children, while Fabius Center, then the principal village, had three or four stores, three taverns, a tannery, and about forty dwellings.  Besides these there were in the town 4,156 cattle, 886 horses, 8,431 sheep, and 2,261 swine, while the manufactures consisted of 5,134 yards of fulled goods, 6,809 yards of unfulled woolens, and 8,261 yards of cottons, linens, etc.

In 1845 there were 2,539 inhabitants, 567 voters, 135 militia, 742 school children, 18,238 acres of improved land, three grist mills, twelve saw mills, two fulling mills, two carding machines, two asheries, four tanneries, five churches, twenty common schools, four taverns, five stores, ten merchants, two lawyers, three physicians, 361 farmers, and 91 mechanics.

Fifteen years later (in 1860) the town contained 19,784 acres of improved land, real estate assessed at $531,310 and personal property at $52,900, 442 dwellings, 438 families, 375 freeholders, eighteen school districts, 872 school children, 735 horses, 1,273 oxen and calves, 2,637 cows, 2,972 sheep and 924 swine; and there were produced 1,239 bushels of winter wheat, 72,941 bushels of spring wheat, 5,205 tons of hay, 11,162 bushels of potatoes, 40,056 bushels of apples, 143,500 pounds of butter, 527,770 pounds of cheese, and 695 yards of domestic cloth.

From the foregoing statistics it will be seen that the occupation of the inhabitants from the early settlement of the town to the present day has been largely of an agricultural nature.  As the forests receded farming interests became of paramount importance, and in time the unusual fertility of the soil, combined with climatic influences, placed this section in the front rank among the leading rural portions of the State.  The grains, fruit, hay, potatoes, etc., were long grown in abundance, but it was soon found that grazing and the keeping of cattle and sheep were especial branches for future attention.  Dairying rapidly developed until within recent years it has largely superseded other interests.  In 1860 there were thirty-five dairies of from 50 to 125 cows each.  The soil, water, and climate combined to produce the finest grade of butter and cheese made in America, if not in the world.  At an early day large dairies were established throughout the town.  The milk produce was usually converted into butter and cheese by the dairymen on their respective farms.  Away back in the sixties, about the time of the opening of the Rebellion, a large foreign demand arose for American cheese, which called for a firmer quality than our dairymen were then making, and to supply this want factories were erected in every principal dairy district, where cheese was made by experienced hands and of a quality to please the shippers. The dairymen within two or three miles of each factory organized and delivered their milk to the several factories, where the proprietor was employed to make the cheese of the association at a stipulated price per pound.  This condition of things had the effect, largely, to stop the home manufacture of cheese.  A habit was established of carting the milk to the factory--a habit not easily broken.  Within the last five years another change has encountered the dairy farmer.  He makes no more butter, no more cheese, but if situated distant from railroads sells his milk to makers of butter, pot cheese, and full cream cheese according to the demands of the market, and consigns them for sale to New York commission houses, while the milk from dairies along railway lines is sold to parties who erect depots along these lines and ship the delivery daily to New York.  To these creameries and depots the dairyman hauls his milk at a stipulated price, receives his pay, and there all care, labor, and anxiety regarding his milk ceases.  It is highly proper to name in this connection some of the men who have taken the lead in establishing large dairies in this town.  Orsemus Hills, Newell Rowley, Henry H. Clark, Elisha Peck, and Marcus Winegar should be given among the number.  These men have in years gone by kept from 75 to 200 cows each, and they have all been large land owners, having from 300 to 1,500 acres each.  Orsemus Hills and Elisha Peck have some years since left their acres and their cows for other generations to manage; while H. H. Clark, Newell Rowley, and Marcus Winegar, in the midst of declining years, follow the farm and the dairy with an assiduity worthy of a younger manhood.  Another element in conducting dairy matters has within a few years become an active part and parcel of Fabius.  Reference is had to the Gallingers, who have crossed the Canadian borders for homes here.  Eight or ten families of this name are now in Fabius, and mostly follow dairying.  About five years ago a large creamery was erected in Fabius village by John S. Carter, of Syracuse.  It is now owned by a stock company, the principal shareholders of which are H. H. Clark, Gallinger Brothers, E. H. Knapp, and Edmund Shea.

One of the most important industries of the town, and in which it ranks first in the county, if not in the State, is that of poultry raising.  A few years ago very little attention was given to this special branch of agriculture; now many thousands of dollars are invested in the business. Among the first in the United States to engage in the raising of fowls, both for eggs and fancy stock, may be mentioned the Knapp Brothers.  They have been instrumental in introducing the White Leghorns and White Wyandotts throughout this country and across the waters.  Their birds have been successfully shown at all of the large shows in the United States, including the World's Fair and Madison Square Garden exhibitions, where they have come in competition with specimens from all parts of the world.  They also do a commission business in eggs, amounting to upwards of $25,000 annually.  Edward Knapp, the proprietor, while yet a young man, has accumulated a large fortune in a few years.  Among others who are extensively engaged in this industry, and who are well and widely known as poultry breeders, are Charles Jerome & Co., White Minorcas; Harvey D. Mason & Son, Golden Wyandotts; Noah Gallinger, Sherwoods and White Plymouth Rocks; and George Gallinger, Brown Leghorns.  All of these do a business amounting to thousands of dollars every year.

Another industry, which is still in its infancy, is the cultivation of ginseng.  This is a plant, of the genus Panax, the root of which is in great demand among the Chinese as a stimulant.  It is found in the northern parts of America.  Several years ago George Stanton of Summit Station, believing that the root could be cultivated with profit, began experiments, and to-day he is widely known as one of the largest shippers in this country.

The village of Fabius, as will be seen, was for many years the center of great activity.  It flourished as the principal business point of the town until the completion of the Syracuse and Binghamton Railroad in 1854, when it and Apulia lost much of their former prestige and gradually declined in commercial importance.  Trade and travel thenceforward sought Syracuse and other places more advantageously situated, yet as local hamlets deriving their support from contiguous territory they still maintain a considerable degree of active life.  In 1836 the first and only newspaper in the town, the American Patriot, was started in Fabius by Joseph Tenny, but after about three years of varying fortunes discontinued publication.  It was issued weekly.  The village of Fabius, known in early times as Fabius Center and Franklinville, has had such merchants as:

Elizur Smith, Philo B. Castle, Nathaniel Andrews, Moses Stimson, William Frink, Thaddeus Archer, Sherman Corbin, Samuel Saulsbury, Seneca Smith, Du Portal S. and Harlow Sprague (brothers), William Hotaling, George H. Gallinger, Birdsell & Ayers, Elijah Andrews, Daniel Joslyn, Thomas Beach, Brown & Hollister, Henry Ten Eyck, Enos Bacon, Hollister & Hulbert, Elmore Wheaton, Edgar Thomas, William R. Bush, Charles H. Wheaton, Lewis Bramer, F. T. Schoonmaker, and J. Miles Cummings; wagonmakers and blacksmiths, Benjamin and Archibald Colby, Henry Fosmer, Ansel Ellis, Owen Vincent, and Charles Downs; hatters, Mr. Stewart and Samuel Coon; cabinetmakers, Henry Stevens, Philander Mead, Hiram A. Bumpus, E. A. Fosmer, William Estes, and N. F. Benedict; harnessmakers, Marvin Button, Edwin Hine, John G. Stewart, and Wolcott Justice; shoemaker, Lewis H. Webster.

Lewis Webster gave employment to fifteen or twenty hands and continued in business many years, and Spafford Allen, who was born in Sackett's Harbor April 21, 1811, came here in January, 1833, from Lincklaen, Chenango county, and since 1840 has followed his trade of shoemaker, which he learned in Cazenovia.  He is a son of Jacob Allen, who served seven years in the Revolutionary war, and was also in the war of 1812, and who drew, as bounty, lands now occupied by a part of the city of Troy, N.Y.  In the west end of the village Jare Benedict built the old Franklin House, which was kept by Sherman Morehouse, John Madison, Charles Hobart, and others.  Among the physicians who have been practitioners in the town Drs. Searles, Hiram Adams, Upson, Babcock, Thayer, Ferry, and Lorenzo Heffron (who settled here in 1852, married a daughter of George Pettit, and died January 1, 1879, aged sixty-nine years).

Manufacturing also formed an important factor in the life of Fabius village for many years.  The old grist mill, built in 1817, is still standing, one of the most interesting landmarks of the town, and among its proprietors have been Oregin & Griswold, Osgood & Pierce, Peter Slingerland, Paddock Colegrove, Edwin Belden, Irving Smith, John Conant, Benjamin Bodfish, Henry Clark and John Powers.  When Spafford Allen came here in 1833 he went to work at his trade for Charles and Richard Daniels, who had a tannery and shoe manufactory in the west part of the village, which employed from fifteen to twenty hands.  About 1840 the tannery passed to George Pettit as receiver, and was subsequently owned by George Slingerland, Daniel Momfort, and Addison White.  It ceased operation about 1860.  On the opposite side of the road David Younglove also had a small tannery for several years.  Later Samuel Saulsbury and Seneca Smith started another tannery about where the creamery now stands; it was afterward converted into a shoe factory by Lewis H. Webster and burned.  David Bramer, uncle of Lewis Bramer, manufactured horse-power threshing machines here for some fifteen years.  His son Franklin invented and made the celebrated Young Warrior mower, and also had a foundry; he moved the manufactory to Little Falls, and was succeeded in the foundry by Lewis Bramer and Carlos Bennett, who finally discontinued the enterprise.  Riley Bramer, another son of David, had a tin shop on the site of Lewis Bramer's hardware store, and was succeeded by Egbert Vincent, George Stanton, Lewis Bramer and others.  Another foundry was started by Morse and Lazelle, finally passed to Daniel Joslyn and Anson Ellis, and eventually went down.  Other industries were the carriage factory of Ellis & Barnes, the saw and shingle mill and cheese-box factory of C. T. Chaffee & Brothers, and the saw and feed mill of C. T. Chaffee.

In 1845 the Universalists, having organized a society, erected a house of worship in Fabius village, but after about thirty-five years of struggling existence abandoned the field, and their edifice was occupied and subsequently purchased by the Roman Catholics as an out mission from Pompey Hill.

In 1854 the Syracuse and Binghamton Railroad was completed and opened across the western edge of the town with a station, on the old turnpike, known as Summit Station.  This event, while inaugurating a new impetus to agriculture and shipping interests, proved disastrous to the villages of Fabius and Apulia, which quickly lost their oldtime business activity and local prestige, their trade being largely drawn to neighboring centers of population.  The railroad, however, gave existence to the hamlet and post-office of Summit Station, which became the shipping point for this town as well as for a part of Tully.  The place has had such merchants as C. F. Gay & Co., J. J. Blaney, C. R. Briggs, Frank June, and A. Bores & Son.  Here also is a large chair factory owned by William H. S. Green and William H. Hotaling, who manufacture about 35,000 chairs annually.  The plant was established by Miles & Green in 1871 as a saw mill, the chair manufactory being added in 1874.

During the war of the Rebellion, from 1861 to 1865, the town of Fabius made a most honorable and patriotic record, contributing a large percentage of the population as soldiers in the Union cause, and forwarding even the necessaries of life to those who had enlisted in their country's service.  Several war meetings were held and excitement at times ran high, and the inhabitants promptly responded to the various calls with both money and men.

Fabius Evergreen Cemetery Association was organized and incorporated under the statute law of the State of New York, of 1847, and the grounds were dedicated October 25, 1865.  The plat contained six acres, lying south of the east end of Fabius village.  The first trustees were Albert Bramer, Horace F. Williams, Jonathan E. Pettit, Shubel Cadwell, Eleazer Andrews, Lorenzo S. Thomas, Hiram Adams and D. S. Sprague.  The ground was a field of wheat when the association was organized in 1864.  To-day, granite and marble columns and slabs glisten in the bright sunshine on all sections of the ground, and the shade and ornamental trees planted at an early day have converted many portions into a forest, many of the evergreens sending their foliage fifty feet into the air.  The cemetery was enlarged by the purchase of five and one-half acres on the 15th of April, 1885.  This addition, costing $750, was held in reserve for the day of need, and was finally mapped and staked into burial lots in the summer of 1895.  Most of the early trustees of the cemetery have long since found homes within its somber recesses.

The present board consists of president, C. H. Wheaton; vice-president, W. H. S. Green; secretary, D. S. Sprague; treasurer, Lewis Bramer; superintendent, D. H. Johnson; and Benjamin Bramer, W. H. Hotaling, George H. Gallinger, and John E. Andrews. Delos H. Johnson has been superintendent of the cemetery grounds since 1868.

The village of Fabius is situated in one of the most beautiful and picturesque regions of the State, amidst the hills forming the most northerly spur of the Allegany range of mountains, and is literally embowered in foliage with varying tints of green.  It is about four and one-half miles from the Syracuse and Binghamton Railroad at Apulia and about six miles from the Elmira, Cortland and Northern Railroad at Cuyler, and stages make daily runs between here and the stations.  The village was incorporated in 1880, with an area of 296 acres, and with the following officers:  Elmore Wheaton, president; Noah Gallinger, Lewis Bramer, and Ansel Ellis, trustees; John Sharp, treasurer; O. W. Bugbee, clerk; Marcus Fosmer, collector.  During the spring of 1895, after several previous unsuccessful attempts, the citizens organized a union free school, which was subsequently incorporated as the Fabius Union Free School and Academy, which is under the management of Principal C. R. Drum.  There are four regular departments, primary, intermediate, junior, and pre-intermediate and academic.  In the building is an ample library of several hundred volumes.

The Methodist, Baptist, Free Baptist, and Catholic denominations are all represented.  Among other organizations may be mentioned the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, with Mrs. A. S. D. Bates, president, and Mrs. E. C. Knapp, corresponding secretary; the Young Woman's Christian Temperance Union, with Miss Kate Granier, president, and Mrs. C. R. Drum, corresponding secretary; and the Royal Templars of Temperance.  Among the representative business men of the place are W. R. Bush, postmaster for several years and the present incumbent, and also dealer in general merchandise; Charles H. Wheaton, formerly postmaster, general conveyancer and notary public, and general merchant; Newton F. Benedict, now serving his first term as school commissioner, and also a member of the firm of Estes & Benedict, furniture and undertakers; Lewis Bramer, justice of the peace, and a member of the hardware firm of L. Bramer & Son; Edgar Thomas, town clerk and general merchandise; William L. Hamilton, justice of the peace, and manager of the Fabius Creamery Company; Warren S. Bush, deputy sheriff of the town of Fabius for a long term of years; Clark & Powers, custom millers and dealers in ground feed; and A. J. Brown, groceryman.  The blacksmiths are Solomon Williams, Charles H. Meigs, and Rodgers & Way.  Drs. Joseph E. Ferry and James E. Andrews are physicians and surgeons.

The population of the town, at the periods given, has been as follows:

In 1810, 1,900; 1820, 2,494; 1825, 2,596; 1830, 3,071; 1835, 2,892; 1840, 2,561; 1845, 2,529; 1860, 2,410; 1855, 2,256; 1860, 2,305; 1865, 2,201; 1870, 2,047; 1875, 1,962; 1880, 2,069; 1890, 1,717; 1892, 1,776.

As previously stated the town records down to 1854 were burned in 1882.  The supervisors of Fabius, so far as can be ascertained, are as follows:

Reynolds Wilson, 1825; George Pettit, 1826; Nathaniel Bacon, 1827-28; Joseph Russell, 1830-31; Nathaniel Bacon, 1832; Adin Howe, 1833-34; Philo B. Castle, 1835-36; Joseph Russell, 1837; Samuel S. Stockham, 1839; Adin Howe, 1840; Daniel Joslyn, 1842; Isaac Fairchild, 1845; Bennet Adams, 1847-50; Daniel Holway, 1851; Daniel Joslyn, 1852; Sherman H. Corbin, 1853; John Keeney, 1854; Charles Bailey, 1855; Edmund Harris, 1856; Jonathan E. Pettit, 1857; H. F. Williams, 1858-59; Edwin Miles, 1860-61; Oscar L. Sprague, 1862-63; Miles B. Hackett, 1864-66; Orel Pope, 1867-73; James H. Wheelock, 1874; Orel Pope, 1875-76; Newell G. Rowley, 1877-79; John J. Blaney, 1880-83; Henry H. Clark, 1884-85; Ephraim J. Bell, 1886-88; John J. Blaney, 1889-93; Edward J. Ten Eyck, 1894-96.

FOOTNOTES

1.  The date of his immigration, and the place from which he emigrated inscribed on the monument, does not agree with the date and place given in Clark's History of Onondaga County, and obtained also from many other sources.  It is believed he came from Stockbridge, Mass., and that the date, 1794, is the correct one.


11 August 1998

30 August 1998