HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF DEWITT

HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF DEWITT

Submitted by Sue Goodfellow

Source:  Onondaga; or Reminiscences of Earlier and Later Times by Joshua V. H. Clark.  Syracuse:  Stoddard and Babcock, 1849, Vol. I, pp. 230-240.


DE WITT.--MOSES DE WITT.--the subject of this sketch was a descendant from an ancient, illustrious and honorable family of Holland, who at an early period emigrated to New York, a branch of which settled in Orange County.  Moses DeWitt, was born on the 15th day of October, 1766, in the town of Deer Park, anciently called Peempack, on the banks of the Neversink, in the county of Orange.  His father was Jacob Rutzen De Witt, a brother of the mother of De Witt Clinton.  The family mansion of the De Witts, had been built as a sort of castle, for defense against the Indians, and during the old French war, and the war of the Revolution, had been strongly fortified by rows of palisades and other defenses, the walls being of stone, and of immense thickness.  It was occupied by a garrison during the Revolution.

Moses De Witt received a part of his early education with his distinguished cousin, De Witt Clinton, (being two years his senior,) under the instruction of Thomas White, an English gentleman, of liberal education, and an excellent teacher, with whom his favorite pupils made rapid advances in their studies.  This gentleman was always particularly attached to his early friend and pupil, Mr. De Witt; was with him much of his life, and closed his eyes in death.  Moses D. Burnet and Thomas Rose, of Syracuse, were relatives of Moses De Witt.

At the time General James Clinton, (who was an uncle of Moses De Witt,) and David Rittenhouse, Esq., were appointed commissioners, on the part of the States of New-York and Pennsylvania, for running the boundary line and settled the boundaries between the two States, Moses De Witt was selected as one of the Surveyors, to assist in establishing that line.  This work engaged the commissioners about three years, during which time young Mr. De Witt proved himself a skillful surveyor and engineer, and retired from that service, with the approbation and high encomiums of his employers.

When the Military Tract was ordered by law to be laid out and surveyed, he was appointed one of the principal assistants of the Surveyor General, Simeon De Witt, (his uncle who had been a distinguished engineer in the army of the Revolution,) in plotting and laying out the said tract, who, with Abraham Hardenburgh, laid out and surveyed the several townships, and afterwards surveyed and subdivided the townships into lots, with the assistance of sundry surveyors.

For his important services to the State, as a surveyor, he received several thousand acres of land, scattered throughout the Military Tract, and along the southern tier of counties, bordering on Pennsylvania.  At the time of is death, he was considered one of the greatest individual landholders in western New-York.

He was appointed Surrogate of Herkimer County, at its organization in 1791; was appointed a Justice of the Peace for Herkimer, at the same time, and was the first man who exercised the duties of that office on the Military Tract.

In 1793, he was appointed a Major of militia with Major, afterwards General Danforth; the two had charge of a battalion.  At the organization of Onondaga County, in 1794, he was appointed a Judge of the Courts, Surrogate and Justice of the Peace, and was chosen the first supervisor of the town of Pompey, in April, 1794.  He resided on lot number three of Pompey, (since La Fayette) which lot had been drawn by his uncle, General James Clinton, and he also purchased fifty acres adjoining, in the present town of De Witt, in order to secure a valuable water power, on the Butternut Creek, where he had contemplated making extensive improvements.  But before the development and accomplishment of his plans, his hand was stayed.  He was cut down like an untimely flower before its fragrance had been shed, or its beauty and excellence admired.  He was arrested in his prosperous career, in the midst of activity and usefulness.  He had scarcely attained the age of manhood, when the last dread summons called him from the flattering prospects which were before him and already within his grasp, to scenes of higher reward.  He died at his residence, south of James, of bilious fever.  The angel of death, with an aim,

"Sure and steady as the eye of destiny,"

claimed him for his own.  He had acquired an extensive reputation for honesty, integrity and virtue, combined with a rare capacity and talent for business.  The few who yet remember him, speak of him as a young man of uncommon promise, and it has often been remarked, that "in him, western New-York lost her pride, and the county of Onondaga, her ablest man."  He was borne to his grave followed by an immense concourse of citizens and friends, leaving a reputation unspotted, and a character untarnished.  His remains were buried with military honors, in a small family burying ground, about a mile south of Jamesville, and are covered with a marble slab, bearing the following inscription:--

"Here lie the remains of MOSES DE WITT, Major of Militia, and Judge of the County Courts; one of the first, most active, and useful settlers in the county.  He was born on the 15th day of October, 1766, and died on the 15th day of August, 1794,"--being only twenty-eight years of age.

The same stone bears this further inscription:

"Also of his brother Egbert De Witt, born 25th of April, 1768; died 30th of May, 1793.
Jacob R. De Witt, Esq., died Dec. 18th, 1821, in the forty-sixth year of his age."

DE WITT.--This town was originally a part of the township of Manlius, and was set off from it in the spring of 1835, and named after Moses De Witt, Esq.  The first settler in this town was Benjamin Morehouse from Fredericksburg, Dutchess County, New-York.  He arrived 26th April, 1789, with a wife and three small children, following the Indian trail from Oneida to Onondaga.  Soon after his arrival he erected a log house on the flat, a few roads west of the old church, three and a half miles west of Manlius Village.  At that time it was called the Kasoongkta Flats; but soon after his arrival, it received the name of Morehouse's Flats, by which name it was for a long time known.  Mr. Morehouse here opened the first tavern kept in the county, in 1790.  From his dignified deportment, he soon received the distinguished sobriquet of Governor, from travelers and the few surrounding inhabitants.  Mrs. Morehouse is supposed to be the mother of the second white child born in this county.  Sarah Morehouse was born at her father's residence on the 16th day of February, 1790, and is now living a maiden lady at Lockport, Niagara County.  Mr. Morehouse's nearest neighbors were Asa Danforth and Comfort Tyler, at Onondaga Hollow, seven miles distant.  In 1791, he carried a plowshare on his back to Westmoreland, to be sharpened, and while the blacksmith was doing the work, he proceeded to Herkimer, purchased thirty pounds of flour, and returned on foot, with flour and plowshare on his back.  This was the first wheat flour introduced into his family after their first arrival, except a small quantity brought along at that time.  This small grist of flour which had been procured at so much labor, from necessity, lasted near a year.  The lack was eked out at the stump mill.

JAMESVILLE and vicinity was settled during the years from 1790 to 1800, by Moses De Witt, Daniel Keeler, Dr. Holbrook, Jeremiah Jackson, William Bends, Stephen Angel, Stephen Hungerford, Jeremiah and James Gould, Roger Merrill, Caleb Nortrup, Benjamin Sanford and others.  The village was at first called Sinai.

Jeremiah Jackson erected the first dwelling entitled to the name of frame, in 1797.  Joseph Purdy opened the first blacksmith's shop about the same time.  In 1798, Matthew Dumfrie built a distillery, malt house and brewery, and manufactured the first beer and whiskey made in the county.  Oliver Owen erected a saw mill in 1795.  Mr. Trowbridge kept the first tavern at Jamesville, in 1804, afterwards kept by David Olmsted, in 1806, then considered the best tavern west of Utica.  Benjamin Sanford built the mills in 1803.  Mr. Hungerford started clothing works about the same time.  "The Jamesville Iron and Woolen Factory" was chartered in 1809, and a Post Office established same year, Thomas Rose, Post Master.  Moses D. Rose succeeded him.  The name of Jamesville was adopted at the time the Iron and Woolen Factory was incorporated; the name was given by the Legislature, and was first published and proclaimed at a great fourth of July celebration, held at Jamesville, 1810.  First schoolhouse for Jamesville was erected east of the village in 1795, Polly Hibbard, Teacher, succeeded by Susan Ward.  The first school in Jamesville, was in 1806.

Congregational Church erected in 1828--Ministers, Rev. Daniel Marsh, Rev. Seth J. Porter, Rev. Messrs. Beach, Smith, Myrick, Day, Morse, Buck, Folts, Lewis, Terry, Hamlin and Vail.  Methodist Society erected their church 1831, Rev. George W. Densmore and William W. Rundell, Preachers at that time.

Protestant Episcopal Church edifice, erected 1829, Rev. Burton H. Hickox, Missionary.  Sundry clergymen from Manlius, Fayetteville and Syracuse, have officiated there.  The parish has never had the exclusive services of a clergyman for any stated time.

John Post, from Utica, was a merchant one mile east of Jamesville, in 1802; Robbins & Callighan, 1804; Keeler, 1805.

Esquire Eager opened a law office at Morehouse's Flats, at an early day; Moses D. Rose and Luther Badger were students in his office.

Dr. Holbrook was the first physician at Jamesville, and was the first physician who located on the township, 1791.  It is said, the Doctor presided at the first public meeting held in that section of the country, convened at Morehouse's tavern, for the purpose of taking preliminary measures for the division of Herkimer County.

Mr. John Youngs settled at Orville, 1791, and was there alone for some time; but soon inhabitants settled near him.  He kept the first tavern in that part of the town.  The settlement first went by the name of Youngsville.  Mr. Youngs erected the first frame house there--was for a long time a Justice of the Peace, and the first in the township of Manlius.

The falls below Jamesville are somewhat interesting as a curiosity.  The water falls about thirty feet perpendicular; the breadth of the creek at the fall is about forty feet.  Its rocky chasm and sublime scenery, connected with the immense and inexhaustible beds of gypsum and water lime, and the extensive works for their manufacture, render this a very desirable place for the researches of the geologist, or the rambles of the tourist.  There is a tradition alive, that at the time the French colony, located a little south of Jamesville, were massacred; one escaped, and was pursued, overtaken, and killed, near these falls.  The first gypsum discovered in the township of Manlius, (now in De Witt,) was on lot eighty-one, in 1811.  The first discovered in the United States was in the town of Camillus, 1792 (See Camillus.)  It had previously been brought from Nova Scotia, and was called Nova Scotia plaster; and before this, it had been brought here from France and Germany, in limited quantities, under the name of Plaster of Paris.  Dr. Franklin first introduced it into the United States, as a vegetable stimulant.  Robert Livingston first introduced it into the eastern part of the State of New-York in 1805. The use of gypsum as a dressing for vegetable productions, was first made known in Germany, about the year 1767.  Plaster is now an article of trade which brings to this county, yearly, a large amount of money.  It is sold at the mills, ground, for one dollar and fifty cents per ton; and delivered in the rock, on the canal, at from seventy-five cents to a dollar per ton.  It is estimated that there are annually sold, from the several beds in Onondaga County, from eighteen thousand to twenty thousand tons.  Water-lime was discovered in this town, first in the county, 1819, or '20, and is now prepared for market, in large quantities, principally in the towns of Manlius and De Witt.

Nathan Beckwith, in sinking a well about a mile east of Jamesville, in 1807, discovered a large cavern.  It has been explored to some extent in a south-easterly direction from the entrance at the well.  The depth at the entrance of the cavern, may be about twenty feet; height of the cavern at the entrance, about seven feet; width near five feet.  These dimensions continue six or eight rods, when the space becomes contracted to a width just sufficient for a single person to pass through.  It soon becomes broader. The size is very far from being uniform, the top in some places being not more than three or four feet from the bottom.  Dog-tooth spar, stalactites and stalagmites, are numerous.  A small stream of water runs along the bottom.  The man who dug the well, while in the act of drilling a hole of some ten or twelve inches, his drill suddenly sunk into the cavity up to the bulge.  Upon withdrawing the drill a strong current of air came up and continued until the hole was sufficiently enlarged for the purposes of a well.  The stream of air would instantly extinguish a lighted candle, and after it was enlarged, would keep coals alive and in a glow.  A melancholy circumstance is connected with the discovery of this cave.  A young gentleman and lady, residing in Cazenovia, and newly married, came out on a pleasure ride to see the cave.  It was on a very warm day, in the month of August.  They descended into the cave and remained there near three hours.  They became completely chilled; both were taken suddenly ill and both died within one week from the day they entered the cave.  The entrance is now closed, so that there is no admittance to it.

There is another cave, about two miles west of Jamesville, on the farm of the late Mr. Brown, which is several hundred feet deep, and which has never been thoroughly explored.  The opening from the top is through a fissure about three feet broad by eight feet long.  After descending some twenty feet there is an extensive opening to the great valley below.  It is supposed this cave extends all along the great ledge of limestone rock, from the western part of De Witt, nearly to Jamesville.  The ledge is usually about two hundred feet high.  The cave itself is a great singularity if not curiosity, and its exploration might lead to interesting discoveries.  There is a tradition that at the time Col. Van Schaick invaded the Onondaga country, in 1779, the native women took refuge in this cave till the former had retired and left their nation free from danger.

When the first settlements were made at Onondaga, this cave and the vicinity became an early object of attraction.  It was reported and generally believed that a silver mine existed in the neighborhood, which belief was based upon the following facts:  At the time this cave was first made known to the settlers, tools which had been used for mining purposes were found at its mouth, and also a bar of solid silver, two inches square and eighteen inches long, having a point of steel.  It is also reported that a kettle of money was found about twenty rods from the cave, which was supposed to have been coined there.  While workmen were engaged in excavating a trench near the house of Dr. Baldwin, for the purpose of conducting water, they were saluted by a stranger passing long the road, who told them that not many feet from the spot where they were then at work, lay the skeleton of a man, and remarked that whoever owned that land should never part with it, for it contained treasures they knew not of.  In the progress of their work, they discovered the remains of a man, but the treasure has never been found.  For several years the neighborhood was explored by money-seekers, with torch-lights by night, but nothing of consequence beyond what has been mentioned, has come to light.

GREEN POND.--About one mile and a half west from the village of Jamesville, in this town, is perhaps one of the most singularly located bodies of water in Western New-York.  It is situated, as it were, in a vast natural well or cavern.  The banks are composed of different strata of limestone; the southern and western portions, are nearly perpendicular, and in many places, project over the ground below.  The northern portion is not as steep, but it is too much so to be easily accessible.  These banks are over one hundred feet high, from the surface of the water, and are richly decked on all sides with evergreen shrubs; the forms of which are beautifully reflected, from the soft, green, mirror-like surface of the waters which they surround. The shape of this lake is circular, and about sixty rods in diameter.  It has no outlet, but upon the eastern side, is a low marshy ground, through which the water might flow, but does not.  From the brink of the lake, the shore in many places is perpendicular, apparently shelving beneath, and every where extremely abrupt, except on the east.  The interior of this vast basin is lined with a greenish white marl; and trees which have fallen into it, are whitened thereby.  In several places near the centre, a lead has been lowered, by one hundred yards of line, without reaching bottom, and within fifty feet of the shore, the water is over a hundred feet deep.  The water towards the bottom, is highly charged with sulphureted hydrogen, and is usually at an even temperature, of about forty-eight degrees Fahrenheit.  Although the water at the surface has no very disagreeable taste, yet, when drawn from any considerable depth, it is scarcely endurable.  With this singular locality is connected an Indian tradition, which gave rise to its aboriginal name, which is still preserved among the Onondagas.  The Indian path, leading from Oneida to Onondaga, passed in former times along the bank of this pond.  Here an Indian woman lost her child in a marvelous manner, and in order to have it restored to her again, made application to the "Prophet," for advice. He told her the wicked spirit had taken her child from her, but if she would obey his injunctions, the Great Spirit would take charge of her child and it would be safe, although it could not be restored.

In the autumn of every year, the woman and her husband, and after them their children, were required to cast a quantity of tobacco into the pond, as an oblation for the spirit's guardian care.  This office was religiously performed, and was continued till after the first settlement of the white people in Onondaga; since which it has been discontinued.  The name give, on account of this circumstance, was KAI-YAH-KOOH, signifying, satisfied with tobacco.

MESSINA SPRINGS.--These springs, three in number, and twenty feet apart, are situated about three and a half miles east of Syracuse.  The name was given spontaneously by the inhabitants, in the vicinity, in 1835, on account of its contiguity to Syracuse, carrying out the coincidence of locality, of the places bearing the same name in Sicily.  They are located on the farm of Dr. David Merrill.  It is believed they are inexhaustible, and the waters, so far as observation has been extended, are unchanging.  They emerge from a limestone rock, on the surface of which, are found specimens of calcareous substances.  The temperature is uniformly fifty degrees Fahrenheit.  The water is strongly impregnated with sulphurous particles, yet not very highly charged with gas.  Exposure to the atmosphere for a short time, gives it a milky appearance, no doubt in consequence of the decomposition of the sulphureted hydrogen, and the subsidence of some of the less soluble salts.  The whitish crust, usually found near springs of this class, is observable here, and the tufa so abundantly met with, undoubtedly owes its formation to waters similarly constituted.  The waters from these springs are used with beneficial results, in many cases of disease, especially in those of the skin.  The springs were discovered by Mr. Lewis Sweeting, some fifty years since; are easily accessible from all parts of the country.  There is a convenient house near, which was erected 1833, where are cold and warm baths, and other advantages for health.  Invalids are furnished with comfortable board and lodging, and medical advice, by Dr. Merrill.

The first religious society organized in this town, or the township of Manlius, was under the following style and title:  "First Presbyterian or Church of Bloomingvale,"* (one mile south of Jamesville) "under the care of the General Assembly of American Presbyterian Divines, composed of professors of the Christian religion of the townships of Manlius and Pompey, organized at the house of Daniel Keeler, 29th December, 1795.  Daniel Keeler, Comfort Tyler, Jeremiah Gould, William Hasken, Captain Joseph Smith, and John Young, Trustees thereof, &c., Jeremiah Jackson, presiding."  The next was the "Union Congregational Society," at Morehouse's Flats.  It was organized and incorporated under the style and title, in September, 1805.  The society erected their church edifice in 1806, and finished it in 1809.  The following ministers have officiated there either statedly or occasionally:  Rev. Messrs. Atwater, Davenport, Phelps, Johnson, Chadwick, Harrison, Marsh, Cutler and Leavenworth.  The society were very much embarrassed by the building of their edifice, and finally suffered it to be sold under a decree of the Chancellor, for considerable less than enough to satisfy the demand against it, and it is now fast going to decay.  It is at present used as a barn.

The house of worship at Orville, was erected in 1819, by "The Orville Presbyterian Society," (Congregational.)

Post office established at Orville, 1814. Name of the village then changed from Youngsville to Orville; and when the town of De Witt was erected, the name of the post office was changed to De Witt.  Zebulon Ostrom, the first supervisor; William Eager, Town Clerk; William Eager, David G. Wilkins, Adam Harrowen, Justices of the Peace.  Esquire Eager was the first lawyer who located in this town, then Manlius, and Dr. Holbrook the first physician.

According to the last census, we have the following statistics:--

Number of inhabitants, 2,876; number subject to military duty, 267; number of voters, 645; number of aliens, 98; number of paupers, 27; children attending common schools, 705; acres of improved land, 13,076; grist mills, 3; saw mills, 2; fulling mills, 1; carding machines, 3; tanneries, 1; Churches--Episcopal, 1; Presbyterian, 1; Congregational, 2; Methodist, 3; Dutch Reformed, 1; common schools, 15; taverns, 6; stores, 3; groceries, 6; farmers, 282; merchants, 6; manufacturers, 3; mechanics, 110; clergymen, 6; physicians, 7; lawyers, 2.

*Bloomingdale


Submitted 10 November 1998