(page 758)
Scriba was formed from Volney on
the 5th of April, 1811, and contains an era of 25,031 acres. From
it was taken 1848 all that part of the city of Oswego east of the Oswego
River. It comprises all of the original survey township No. 18, or Oswego,
lying north of the base line of Scriba’s patent, and a part of No. 17,
or Fredericksburgh, situated south of that line. The name Scriba was conferred
by the Legislature in honor of George Scriba, the patentee, in spite of
the fact that a portion of the inhabitants, being dissatisfied with the
designation, circulated and forwarded a petition asking that it be called
Boston. It lies in the northwestern part of the county, immediately
east of the Oswego River, and is bounded on the north by Lake Ontario,
on the east by New Haven and Volney, on the south by Volney, and on the
west by the town and city of Oswego and Lake Ontario.
The surface is rolling, being broken
into ridges which extend north and south, and which attain an elevation
of from 100 to 180 feet above the lake. Abundant springs and numerous
streams with their small tributaries afford excellent drainage, sufficient
water for all farming purposes, and several good mill privileges, the latter
being a valuable feature
(page 759)
of Black Creek. Other water
courses are Nine Mile, Stone, and Wine Creeks, which flow northwardly into
the lake. The soil, a sandy and gravelly loam, supplied in
places with considerable stone, and only moderately fertile, is generally
well adapted to all branches of agriculture, particularly to the raising
of fruit. Apples were long the staple product of the town.
Strawberries and other small fruits are now grown in considerable quantities,
while grain, potatoes, and vegetables are given more or less attention.
Within more recent years dairying, including both butter and cheese making,
has developed into an important industry and is carried on quite extensively.
There are now four cheese factories in Scriba, all doing profitable business.
The town at the end of the last century
was covered with a forest of maple, beech, hemlock, and cedar. The saw
mills rapidly converted the forests into lumber and the plow and spade
have superseded the woodman’s axe. With two exceptions these mills have
all disappeared, leaving agriculture the leading industry of the town.
There is a steam basket factory and saw mill combined in operation, and
these together with the cheese factories and several fruit-drying
houses and cider mills constitute the present manufacturing interests.
Numerous efforts have been made
in this town from time to time to drain and reclaim to cultivation various
pieces of swampy land, and with an appreciable degree of success.
March 30, 1861, the Legislature appointed Jacob Stroup, Henry Cook,
and Ira Bundy commissioners to supervise the drainage of “Deer Ridge”
or “Wine Creek” swamp, the expense to be defrayed by assessing the landowners
benefited. Their work consisted of opening “a ditch at least three feet
wide running from the Oswego River and from the northeast corner of E.
B. Talcott’s farm to Kingdom road and from at or near the southwest corner
of Shubael W. Stoel’s land northerly to an old ditch, and thence
far enough to obtain drainage.” This and other similar enterprises
have proved very successful.
The first highway in the town was
laid out as early as 1812. It was known as the old State road and
later became the plank road. Many if not all of the surveys were
made prior to 1830, yet several thoroughfares have been extended since
that period. All have kept pace with contemporary improvement, and
at present are well graded and main-
(page 760)
tained. The Rome and Oswego
plank road, which for several years was the scene of constant activity,
passed through Scriba, and was completed in the spring of 1848. The
Oswego and Syracuse plank road was finished in 1850.
The completion of the Oswego Canal
along the western border of the town in 1828 aided the settlement and development
of the town, as it opened additional markets for local products.
In 1848 improved shipping facilities were afforded at Oswego by the opening
of the Syracuse and Oswego Railroad, and in 1865 the R. W. & O. Railroad
between Oswego and Richland was completed, with a station at North Scriba
(Lycoming post office). The New York and Oswego Midland Railroad,
traversing the west part of Scriba, was finished in 1869. To aid
in the construction of the Midland road the town was bonded May 1, 1869,
for $20,000, which indebtedness has recently been canceled. B. C.
Turner and I. A. Downs are the railroad commissioners.
The town, as previously stated, was
originally patented to George Scriba. Soon afterward a large tract,
since known as Hamilton Gore, became the property of John B. Church, Gen.
Alexander Hamilton, and John Lawrence, as detailed in a previous chapter.
Every encouragement within the power of the proprietors was given to promote
immigration and the rapid development of this section. Land was sold
for $2 per acre, on indefinite time, and lots for church buildings and
sites for mills were donated for the purposes named. The early settlers
were mainly from Herkimer county in this State with a sprinkling of the
plain Puritan element of New England.
Nearly a year passed before a town
organization was effected. The first town meeting was held at the
house of Hiel Stone March 3, 1812, when the following officers were elected:
Capt. Henry Potter, supervisor; John King, town clerk; Hiel Stone, Samuel
Tiffany, and Ioshua Miner, assessors; Samuel B. Morrow, collector; Hiel
Stone and Walter Read, poormasters; Hiel Stone, Walter Read, and Joshua
Miner, highway commissioners; William Coe and Samuel B. Morrow, constables;
Orrin Stone, postmaster. Resolutions were adopted specifying “that
a lawful fence shall be four and one-half feet high, and well wrought from
bottom to top;” that any landholder permitting Canada thistles to stand
“after three days’ notice is given by any person” shall
(page 761)
be liable to a fine of $5 and costs,
and that every wolf caught and killed “by and inhabitant of the town” shall
be subject to a bounty of $10.
The following have served the
town as supervisors:
Henry Potter, 1812-1814; Samuel
Tiffany, 1815-1816;
Theophilus S. Morgan, 1817-1823;
Peter D. Hugunin ,1824;
T. S. Morgan,1825-1827; Joseph Turner,1828-1829;
T. S. Morgan ,1830; Charles King,
1831; Peter S. Smith ,1832-33;
Henry Fitzhugh ,1834; John C. Hugunin,
1835 ;
Edwin C. Hart, 1836-37; John
B. Edwards, 1838;
Lucius VanSchanck, 1839; James Lyon,
1840;
Daniel Hall ,1841; Samuel
B. Morrow 1842;
Simeon Bates, 1843; George
Wales, 1844;
Jacob Richardson, 1845; Orville
J. Harmon, 1846;
Edwin C. Hart, 1847; Daniel Hall,
1848-49;
Thomas Askew ,1850-52; Daniel Jones,
1853-54;
William H. Wales, 1855; Robert Simpson,
1856-57;
Joel A. Baker, 1868; Robert
Simpson, 1869-70;
Joel A. Baker, 1871; John B. Sewell,
1872-73;
Hiram L. Hart, 1874; John B. Sewell
,1875;
H. L. Hart, 1876-78; William D.
Colby, 1879;
James Sears, 1880; John E. Coe,
1881-83;
Amos Allport, 1884-88; William H.
Enos, 1889-90;
H. L. Hart, 1891-92; Marshall B.
Turner, 1893-1895.
The town officers for 1894-95
were:
Marshall B. Turner, supervisor; George
W. Rumrill, town clerk;
Thomas W. Smith, Charles E. Cornwell,
and Charles Coe, justices of the peace; A. King Hill, Enoch Miner,
and J. F. Brown, assessors;
C. Adelbert Stone, commissioner
of highways; Tilton E. Coe, overseer of the poor; Harvey D. Jones, collector.
There are sixty-six road districts and three election districts.
The first permanent white settler
in Scriba outside the military post of Oswego was Henry Everts, who located
with his family in the southwest part of the town, near the river, in 1798.
“Here he felled the first tree cut by a white man, and while it was falling,
although he was entirely alone, with no white person within several
miles, he took off his hat, swung it around his head, and made the forest
ring with his cheers. It is said of him that, having no seed with which
to start a meadow, he went farther down the stream, cut up sods from some
grassy spots there, and transplanted them to his own land. A few years
later he removed to the town of Oswego. His son Henry, jr., was the first
white child born in Scriba.
The first settlers who lived upon
their locations were Asahel Bush and, Samuel Tiffany, both of whom came
in 1801 and took up
(page 762)
farms near that of Mr. Everts. Both
had families, and moved hither from the east with two ox-sleds. Mr. Bush
was a preacher and the first to advocate biblical teaching in the town.
It is impossible at this late day
to ascertain the names of more than comparatively few settlers during the
first decade of this century. Those already mentioned seem to have been
the sole inhabitants prior to 1804, in the spring of which year the families
of William Burt and Hiel Stone, each consisting of the parents, six sons
and four daughters, arrived from Ovid, Seneca County, coming in Durham
boats by way of Cayuga Lake and the Seneca and Oswego Rivers.
Both located at what is now Scriba
Corners, near the center of the town-Mr. Burt occupying the two western
lots, and Major Stone the two eastern lots.
Major Stone obtained his title as
an officer in the war of 1812, in which his sons Orrin and Erastus also
participated. He brought with him a yoke of oxen, three cows and some sheep,
and until the spring of 1805 the two families remained at the fort at Oswego.
Meanwhile log houses were built at the Corners, the cabin of Mr. Burt being
situated near the site now occupied by the widow of William Burt 2d, while
that of Major Stone stood near the lot purchased some years ago by the
grange society. Mr. Stone set out the orchard now owned by B. C.
Turner; it was the only one for miles
around and attained considerable celebrity. In 1806 he built an addition
to his house and opened it as a tavern, which was the first in the town.
A few years later it was superseded by a brick hotel, which stood on the
lot owned by the First Baptist church society. The brick were made by Mr.
Stone himself, and for many years he was the only landlord in the vicinity.
His inn was long destroyed by fire. Erastus Stone was born in Greenville,
Greene county, in 1791 and came to Scriba with his father in 1804. He was
a surveyor and assisted in laying out roads in this town and in Volney.
In 1818 he married Alma, daughter of Solomon Everts, one of the pioneers
of Mexico. Later he built a saw mill and for several years carried
on an extensive lumber business. He was a large fruit grower, a respected
farmer, owned a large tract of land on lots 23, 24 and 44, and died May
22, 1870. His sons, Henry E. (born in 1829) and Dwight, are living in the
south part of the town near the family homestead. Hiel Stone, a brother
of Francis S. and a grandson of
(page 763)
Major Stone, is a respected
resident of Scriba Corners; he was born in 1816.
William Burt was the first justice
of the peace in Scriba. He was the father of John, Harvey, Daniel
and Calvin Burt, and the grandfather of Mrs. James Church and Mrs. Sally
Parkhurst (daughters of John). Harvey Burt was born 1808.
Samuel Jacks purchased a farm on
lot 89 in 1805. It soon afterward passed to Solomon Mattison (the grandfather
of Col. L. V.S. Mattison), some of whose descendants still retain the ownership.
In 1806 several new settlers arrived.
Daniel Hall located on lot 78, but in 1807 sold to Joseph Turner, who occupied
the place until his death. Since then it has been in the possession
of his son Russell. Joseph Worden settled on lot 81, and upon his death
the property passed to his son Perry H., who was born in 1813, and who
was succeeded by his son, J. H. Worden, the present occupant. The
adjoining farms across the road were purchased about the same time by Oliver
Sweet and John Coon, while Ludwick Madison in the same year bought a farm
on lot 104, which he sold in 1807 to Whitman Church.
Mr. Madison then removed to Volney.
George Cyrenius settled on the place on lot 90 that was long in the possession
of his descendants; it is now owned by B. C. Turner. Paul Sheldon
and his son, Paul, jr., who was then sixteen years of age, came on foot
in three days from Herkimer county in the spring of 1806 and located on
100 acres of land on the State road, within the present limits of Oswego
city. This, Mr. Sheldon had purchased for $3.75 per acre in 1805,
and after their arrival they cleared 240 square rods of ground and planted
it with corn and potatoes. After harvest they returned to Herkimer
county, and during the winter of 1806-07 the family, including eleven children,
came hither with one cow, a hog, and a yoke of oxen. Mr. Sheldon
lived and died there; Paul Sheldon, jr., subsequently located on lot 41,
where his death occurred, he being the last survivor of this large family.
The first marriage in town was that of John Masters and Elsie Baldwin in
1806, the ceremony being performed, it is believed, by the bride’s father,
Rev. Samuel Baldwin.
In 1807 Hiram Warner, a wheelwright,
settled on the Randall farm, and the same year his son died here, being
not only the first death in
(page 764)
town but the first interment in the
old Burt burying ground, the first cemetery opened in Scriba. Ephraim Parkhurst
located on lot 70 also in 1807, while his brother Daniel settled on lot
66. The former was the father of Nelson, Rufus and Charles, and the
latter of Isaac and Sylvester. The same year Dr. Deodatus Clark,
the first physician in Scriba, came in from Onondaga county and settled
in what is now Oswego city. Whitman Church, previously mentioned,
who purchased the farm of Ludwick Madison in 1807, was originally from
Otsego county, whither he returned sometime during the war of 1812.
James Church, his son, was born there in 1796, came here with his father
and located permanently near Scriba Center in 1809. He was a boatman
on the Oswego River, a potash manufacturer, merchant, tavern-keeper and
a farmer; and a son-in-law of Major Hiel Stone, whose daughter he married
in 1823. He was a postmaster and justice of the peace many years,
a Democrat and later a Republican in politics, a Methodist in religion,
and a man highly esteemed. He served in the State militia and at
the battle of Oswego in the war of 1812, held several minor positions of
trust, and had three children, two of whom were James Church, jr., and
Mrs. Edgar Sharp. Willet G. Hall, a native of Herkimer county, came
to this town in 1807 and followed farming. The second marriage in Scriba
occurred this year, being that of Walter Reed and Susan Morrow, by William
Burt, justice. “At the conclusion of the ceremony the wife
returned home and the husband, having urgent business in Utica, continued
the journey.”
Among others who doubtless became
settlers prior to 1810 or 1812 were Joseph Myers, who located on lot 94,
but soon afterward returned to the East; and Merritt and Justin Hall, brothers,
on lot 103, who came from Connecticut with one horse and a yoke of oxen,
selling pewter buttons on the way to defray traveling expenses. Their
farm passed successively to Simon Phillips, Edmund Robinson, Isaac Parkhurst
and the latter’s heirs. George Potter came as early as 1810 and lived in
a log cabin on lot 88. He was accidentally shot at a general training
soon afterward. John Hall, who was born in Connecticut, became a resident
of the town in 1810. Jason Hall was born here in 1844.
Alanson Himes, born in Rhode Island
in 1798, came to Scriba with
(page 765)
his parents in 1814, and settled
four miles east of Oswego. He planted elm and maple trees around the west
park in that city under a contract in 1833. He died in 1892; his
widow resides with a son in Oswego.
Daniel Hall 2d, son of John, was
born in Petersburg, N. Y., May 22, 1789, and died here January 4, 1874.
He came with his father to Scriba in 1815 and located on the farm subsequently
occupied by Galen Hall. He was a carpenter by trade, was elected
assessor in 1823, and supervisor in 1841, 1848 and 1849, and was actively
identified with the Baptist church and with the Whig and later the Republican
party.
Edmund M. Sweet was born near North
Scriba in September, 1818, and died at the old homestead September 18,
1894. He was the father of Frank Sweet and the brother of Mrs. Ruth Coon.
Among the settlers of the decade
of 1810-1820 may be named Daniel DuBois, a cooper and farmer; and I. R.
Parkhurst, a farmer and side judge of Oswego county. Russell Turner was
born here in 1811. Benjamin C. in 1814, and Joel S. in 1817; all are still
living, respected residents of the town. M. B. Turner, the present
supervisor, is a son of Benjamin C. The population in 1820 numbered 741.
Charles Paddock came to Scriba in
1825 and moved thence to Mexico. He was born in Connecticut in 1797 and
died January 26, 1889.
Philo Burnham was one of the sturdy
pioneers. He was born in Greene county, N. Y., September 16, 1793, volunteered
in the war of 1812, married twice and had six children, came to Scriba
in 1827, and died February 7, 1878. He was sixty years a member of the
Presbyterian and Congregational churches and a generous supporter of the
American Bible and Home Missionary Societies. His son, Charles H., born
in 1840, served in the 110th Regiment in the Civil War and resides in Scriba.
In 1820 the town contained 741 inhabitants.
Between that year and 1830 the following became settlers or were born in
the town: George M. Bacon, born in Oswego in 1821, a carpenter and farmer;
Peter D. Barker, a general merchant; Henry Bundy, born here in 1821; C.
E. Downes, born in the county, Samuel M. DuBois, born here in 1821; William
Eaton, a farmer; M. A. Fish, born in Oswego in 1820, for many years a teacher;
Alexander Guile, a farmer; Collins G. Jones,
(page 766)
born in Oswego in 1824; Alanson Moe,
a farmer and cooper; William T. Otis, a farmer; William W. Potter, a farmer;
J. J. Peck, a native of Massachusetts; and William A. Wright, a farmer;
and many others.
Robert Simpson, son of Robert and
Mary (Spencer) Simpson, was born in Dutchess county July 31, 1805, came
to Scriba in 1831, and is still living in the town, about two and one-half
miles from Oswego. His early life was spent in a woolen factory and in
teaching school. He learned and followed surveying, and has held several
public offices. He was supervisor fifteen years, justice of the peace thirty-eight
years, justice of sessions three years, and occupied other positions of
trust. He was first a Whig and later a Republican, and has been three
times married. Mr. Simpson is emphatically one of the prominent men
of Scriba. His long residence in this part of Oswego county, his
faithfulness manifested in the discharge of every public and private
trust, and his many pleasing personal characteristics have endeared him
to a wide circle of friends and fellow citizens.
Another settler of 1831 was Thomas
Askew, a brewer, who was born in England in 1802. He purchased the then
newly-erected brewery on the Burt farm, but soon afterward engaged in farming.
He was supervisor several years and in 1852 was the Democratic candidate
for member of the assembly. He died January 12, 1875. Robert G. Askew
settled in Scriba in 1833.
Rev. George Blosson, born in Lenox,
Mass., in 1800, came to Onondaga county with his parents in 1806. His earlier
life was spent in farming and merchandising. In 1837 he settled in Palermo,
whence he subsequently removed to Scriba, where he died. In 1840 he entered
the ministry of the Congregational church, preaching his first sermon in
Cummings’s mill in New Haven. He became a lieutenant-colonel in the old
State militia, which he joined in 1825, and held several public offices,
notably those of supervisor, justice of the peace, assessor, inspector
of common schools, etc. Prominent among his seven children were Mrs. John
Place, William E. Blossom, Mrs. Galen Hall, and George D. Blossom.
Among the more prominent settlers
of this decade-1830-1840-were:
Hiram Briggs, A. H. Burch, William
L. Cornwell, C. D. Churchill, John W. Dean,
(page 767)
Henry H. Jones, Erastus G. and Stephen
Jones, R. Knight, Sylvester Lockwood, E. J. Lawton, L. B. and Jeremiah
Legg, Asabel Newcomb, Z. Peterson, Thomas Robinson, Schuyler Rhodes (at
one time assistant U. S. assessor of internal revenue), James Sears, S.
W. and E. P. Spencer, I. P. Young, and Jerome, William, and J. P. Waugh,
natives of Oswego.
Hiram L. Hart settled in Scriba about
1840, with his parents, when he was ten yeas old. He has been supervisor
six years. Among the arrivals between 1840 and 1850 were:
Harvey D. Dubois, Edward Foster,
John Fletcher, J. Monroe Hubbard, Francis and J. V. Hirt (natives of Germany),
John Mullen, Rev. W. F. Purrington (an M. E. clergy-man), B. Rice, John
A. Sheldon, O. Stowell, Dr. A. C. Taylor, A. E. Wilson (a Free Baptist
minister), and others.
Prominent among other settlers of
the town may be mentioned the names of Henry Potter on lot 90. Eliphalet
Parkhurst on lot 108, Samuel Frazier on lot 105, Daniel and Holden Corp.
on lot 17, Chapman Morgan on lot 43, William Woolson on lot 94, Aaron Parkhurst
near Scriba Corners, Harvey and Abel Butler on lot 31, James Farley on
lot 44, Daniel Burt (son of William, the pioneer) on lot 96, Reuben Seeley
on lot 95, John Davis ( a native of Bordeaux, France, a pensioner of the
war of 1812, and a captain on the lakes fifty-one years), William Gleason
(a Vermonter by birth), J. N. Peck (a farmer, lumber dealer, and magistrate),
W. M. Sweetland (a retired sea captain), Charles Sweet (also a retired
sea captain), Jason Stroup, W. M. Whitlock, H. A. Woodworth, Alfred Sabins,
Joshua Miner, John Shapley, Joseph F. Sweet, Amasa Newton, Philo Fowler,
J. Meacham, Amos Allport (sheriff, five years supervisor, and now living
in town), William Congdon (long a justice of the peace), Amos Kingsbury,
Jacob Whitmarsh, Charles Lamb, and others more fully noticed hereafter.
The growth of the town is best told
by the following statistics representing the population at the periods
named:
In 1830, 2,037; 1835, 4,180; 1840,
4,051; 1845, 5,495; 1850, 2738; 1855, 2,958; 1860, 3,982; 1865, 3,215;
1870, 3,065; 1875, 3,117; 1880, 2,971; 1890, 2,480.
The first cemetery opened in town;
as previously stated, was the old Burt burying ground, in 1807, the first
burial in it being that of a son of Hiram Warner. Among the other early
interments here were those
(page 768)
of Phoebe Pickett, Mrs. Joseph Sweet,
George Potter, Fannie Sheldon, and members of the Whitney and Lathrop families.
As early as 1820 this plat was superseded for mortuary purposes by the
Worden Cemetery.
The first school house was built
near Scriba Corners in 1807, the first teacher being a Mr. Edgecomb, who
lived in the building with his wife and two children. It was a story and
a half log structure and answered the purpose until the spring of 1809,
when a new and larger house was erected on the four corners north of Scriba
Corners. For several years this was the only school building in town. Among
the earlier teachers were James Taggart, Levi Reed, Francis and John Dean,
Hezekiah Lathrop, William Rasmussen, and a Mr. Loomis.
Among the surviving pupils are Benjamin
C. Turner, William Stone, Rufus Parkhurst, Russell and Joel S. Turner,
and Polly Burt. In 1860 the town had sixteen school districts in which
1,293 children were taught. There are now eighteen school districts with
a school house in each, schools in which were attended during the years
1892-93 by 487 children and taught by eighteen teachers.
Value of school buildings and site,
$9,850; assessed valuation of the districts, $850,087; public money received
from the State, $2, 161.33; raised by local tax, $2,065.68. The school
districts are locally designated as follows: No.l, Card, 2; Stone school
house; 3, Lansing; 4, Mattison; 5, Stone; 6, South Scriba; 7, Jones; 8,
Rhodes; 9, Kingdom; 10, Scriba Center; 11, Greenman; 12, Copeland; 13,
Halleck; 14, North Scriba; 15, Carr; 16, Whitford; 17, Mullen; 18, Lycoming.
During the war of the Rebellion the
town of Scriba contributed more that 250 of her citizens to the Union army
and navy. No part of the county responded more promptly, and no body of
volunteers served with greater fidelity. Among those who received deserved
and honorable promotion were:
George W. Burt, H. W. Miner, William
Horton, Charles and Amos Taylor, James A. Darrow, Simon Cyrl, John Duel,
F. Coon, George Hall, Benjamin Coe, A. Sparks, George M. Stowell,
Edward Babcock, M. A. Flowers, James D. Hamilton, William Churchill, John
H. Simpson, L. O. S. Madison, James W. Parkhurst, Byron B. Parkhurst, Frank
Waugh, Henry Hubbard, Joel A. Baker, John H. Downs, Thomas W. Smith, and
L. Merick.
(page 769)
Supervisors’ statistics of 1894:
Assessed valuation of real estate, $806,410; equalized, $958,275; personal
property, $39,900; railroads, 7.96 miles, $91,160; town tax, $6,245.47;
county tax, $5,589.78; ratio of tax on $100, $1.64; dog tax, $122. The
town has three election districts in which 584 votes were cast in November,
1894.
Scriba. locally known as Scriba
Corners of Scriba Center, is situated on the old plank road about four
miles east of Oswego, near the center of the town. Much of its earlier
history has already been given. The place began with Major Hiel Stone’s
log tavern. The first store was opened in 1819 by Orrin Stone and Aaron
Parkhurst and for twenty-five years or more this was the only mercantile
establishment in town outside of Oswego village. It was a small frame building,
the first in the vicinity, and stood near the Stone tavern. Later Mr. Parkhurst
erected a brick building on the site of the present evaporator, and was
succeeded by James Adams. It was subsequently converted into a grange store
and finally taken down. In 1841 Hiel and Francis S. Stone, grandsons of
Major Stone, started a store in a building on what is now the James Church
estate. They continued business there until about 1846, when the present
store of Hiel Stone & Co. was established. William Woolson was
an early shoemaker and Amos Grafton a pioneer blacksmith here. The place
also had two evaporators, owned by B. C. Turner, and conducted respectively
by A. B. Simpson and J. H. Worden. Mr. Turner also had a steam cider
mill. The post office was established January 27, 1813, with Major Hiel
Stone as postmaster. This was the first post-office in town and has
always been known as Scriba. It was on the old Oswego and Utica mail route,
and the first and for many years the only mail carrier was Joseph Worden.
The earlier postmasters were:
Orrin Stone, appointed March 19,
1819; T. S. Morgan, August 25, 1819; James Church, March 18, 1825; Aaron
Parkhurst, October 10, 1828; James Church, April 6, 1832; Benjamin
C. Turner, July 20, 1849; Hiel Stone 2d, April 6, 1853; Francis S. Stone,
March 12, 1861; Willaim E. Blossom, September 20, 1866; B. C. Turner, March
2, 1871. Since then C. A. Stone and Hiel Stone 2d, present incumbent, have
held the office. The place has about 200 inhabitants.
North Scriba is a rural hamlet,
or four corners, three-fourths of a mile south of the R., W. & O. Railroad
and Lycoming post office. A little west is a Free Baptist church. The merchant
and postmaster is I. P. Young, who was born in Oswego and settled here
in 1834.
(page 770)
Lycoming post-office (Scriba
Station), is a little hamlet on the R., W. & O. Railroad about six
miles east of Oswego. It owes its existence wholly to the railroad
and is the only station in town. The first postmaster was John E.
Coe, who was succeeded in 1885 by Edwin J. Lawton. Mr. Coe was reappointed
April 20, 1889, and served until October 23, of that year, when he was
accidentally killed. November 12, 1889, his widow, Frances J. Coe, was
appointed and still holds the office. Mr. Coe was born in Oswego in 1837
and was a merchant at North Scriba from 1865 to 1872. In the latter year
he started a store in Lycoming and continued business until his death,
when he was succeeded by his widow. W. B. Legg is the other general
merchant here and carries on a large trade.
South Scriba, located in
the southeast part of the town, has a post-office, store, etc. The
postmaster is D. A. Hammond. The place formerly contained a saw mill,
and a number of hears ago Julian Benoit established a general supply store.
Lansing is a postal hamlet situated
about two and one-half miles southwest of Scriba Corners. The postmaster
is H. E. Middleton, who succeeded Elisha L. Manwaring.
Churches.-Religious services in
Scriba began during the first decade of the present century with occasional
meetings at private houses. Asabel Bush, as already stated, was the pioneer
preacher in the town and conducted services for many years. Rev.
Samuel Baldwin was also an early minister of the gospel. The first
religious organization was effected January 7, 1828, when the “Free Communion
Baptist church of North Scriba” was formed, the constituent members, seven
in number, being Daniel Knapp, Samuel Frazier, John Sweet, Stephen Krumb,
William Coon, and Daniel and Lucy Gorsline. This society was dissolved
December 13, 1831, and the present First Free Baptist church of North Scriba
was legally organized. In 1848 their first house of worship, a plain wooden
structure 32 by 44 feet, was erected on the site of the present building,
a short distance west of North Scriba post-office. The last named edifice
was built in 1875 and was dedicated on December 1 of that year by Rev.
G. H. Ball, D. D.. It is a handsome structure of gothic architecture capable
of seating 250 persons. Near it is a frame parsonage. The entire property
is valued
(page 771)
at about $5,000. The society
has nearly 100 members and the Sunday school consists of about forty scholars.
The oldest surviving member of this church is Dea. Simeon Coe. Among the
pastors have been:
Revs. William Nutting, J. Wilson,
A. Griffeth, M. Stanley, L. Hanson, J. Noye, J. J. Allen, C. Prescott,
J. Wilson again, A. E. Wilson, William C. Beyer, J. F. Smith, and Edward
L. Graves since April 1803.
The Methodist Episcopal church of
Scriba Corners owes its formation to William Kilburn. Rev. Burris
Holmes commenced a series of revivals in 1841 which resulted in the organization
by him of the present society, of which he became the first pastor. It
consisted originally of seven members: William and Margaret Kilburn, Mr.
and Mrs. Isaac Sewell, Mr. and Mrs. Knight, and Mrs. James Adams.
The early meetings were held in the school house. The church society was
legally organized January 31, 1853, with Stephen Fitch, P. H. Worden, Marcus
C. Fish, Francis S. Stone, and Z. W. Hopson as trustees, and during that
year their present edifice was erected. It is a wood structure with
basement and gallery, and in connection the society owns a frame parsonage,
the entire property being valued at about $3,000, May 31, 1854, the society
became a separate charge; prior to that it belonged to circuit. The
church was built under the pastorate of Rev. M. M. Rice. His successors
have been:
Revs. Isaac Turner, L. L. Adkins,
M. D. L. B. Wells, William Jones, C. Phillips, Addison Wheeler, J. H. Buck,
H. M. Danforth, S. B. Crozier, O. H. Holton, H. W. Howland, J. G. George,
W. F. Purrington, Daniel Marvin, Charles E. Beebee, J. E. Ensign, I. J.
Nourse, C. H. Walton, T. O. Beebe, and G. M. Ward since February, 1891.
The Methodist Episcopal church
of Lansing forms a part of the Scriba charge, and was organized as a class
many years ago. No society was formed and no pastor was installed
until 1873., when Samuel DuBois, Oliver Hall, Daniel Bronson, Galen Hall,
David Whitaker, Zachariah Allport, Hugh Downs, Mrs. Ann King, and others
effected a legal organization. The church edifice was built during
that year and dedicated December 10 by Bishop Jesse Peck, under the pastorate
of Rev. E. A. Tuttle. The property is valued at about $2,000.
The two societies, under one pastor, have a combined membership of 125.
The present Sunday school of Scriba was organized in 1871 with Dr. A. C.
Taylor as superintendent. It now has an average attendance of
(page 772)
seventy pupils, a library of about
100 volumes, and is under the charge Mrs. Dwight Stone. The Sunday
school at Lansing has fifty scholars with Nathaniel Beadle as superintendent.
The Methodist Protestant Church
of North Scriba (Lycoming) was organized by Rev. Mr. Fowler in 1843.
It was a part of the Richland circuit and meetings were held in the school
house on the town line. After a prosperous existence it was allowed
to run down and finally became most extinct. September 9, 1875, the
society, which had been legally formed a short time previously, was made
a separate charge under the pastoral charge of Rev. C. M. Boughton .
The church edifice, a neat frame structure, was built in 1874 and dedicated
January 20, 1875, by Rev. J. J. Smith. The present pastor is Rev.
J. R. Hatch, who was installed in October 1894, succeeding Rev. E. Galloway.
Frank Sweet is superintendent of the Sunday school.
The First Baptist Church of Scriba
Corners, constituted in 1883, held its earlier services in the village,
hall. It was organized by Rev. Mr. Grafty, at the time a pastor in
Oswego, who became the first pastor of the society. His successors were
Revs. Wetherbee, Fries, and W. P. Omans who remained seven years.
During the pastorate of the latter the present church and parsonage buildings
were erected. The edifice, a brick structure, cost $3,600 and was
dedicated December 6, 1887. Rev. Mr. Ormans left in March, 1894,
and in October following the present pastor, Rev. Herbert A. Dunbar, assumed
charge. The society has about seventy-five members, and a Sunday
school of sixty scholars with A. Whittemore as superintendent. Their
entire property is valued at $5,000, The deacons are Harvey Burt, Daniel
Powers and Fred Waugh; trustees, George Stone, Delbert Stone and Daniel
Powers; clerk, Charles Yule; treasurer, A. Whittemore.