What had the numerous hardy and energetic pioneers accomplished in the first quarter of the century? First and, perhaps, most important of all, many of them who settled on farms, cleared and cultivated their lands, improved their dwellings and other buildings and laid the foundations of the many beautiful homes that now belong to their posterity. Others built mills, especially saw mills, which sprang up in great numbers on the Seneca and a few on the small streams of the town. They were of great importance until the forests were largely cleared away, when most of them fell into disuse. Others engaged in trade, bringing their goods in early years from the east on long journeys by the well known water route, or in the winter by teams, and marketing such surplus products as the farmers could spare. And all labored to promote the general welfare.
At the first town meeting of which there are existing records, held on the first Tuesday in April, 1808, Cyrus Baldwin, moderator, the following officers were chosen:
Elijah Snow, supervisor; James Adams, town clerk; Henry Emerick, William Wilson, and James Clark, assessors; Thomas Clark, collector; Adam Emerick and Reuben Clark, poormasters; Job Loumis (the spelling found in the records is followed, thought it is palpably wrong in some instances), Abner Vickery, Adam Emerie, commissioners of highways; Fry Ferington, Thomas Clark, constables; William Wilson, Silas Scofield, Benjamin De Puy, fence viewers and poundmasters; Parmenis Adams, 1st ward, Adam Emerick, 2d war, Thomas Farington, 3d ward, Reuben Clark, 4th ward, Abner Vickery, 5th ward, William Wilson, 6th ward, Job Loumis, 7th ward, Alexander Adams, 8th ward, overseers of highways; Adam Emerie, Cyrus Baldwin, commissioners of public lots.
It is worthy of notice that many of the names of the settlers heretofore mentioned are found in this list, and also that there were so few of them in the town that some had to accept more than one office, although the town was then much larger than now. In those days the office usually hunted for the man.
To give the farmers all possible opportunity to produce pork, their grain crops being then insignificant, the meeting voted that hogs should run at large; but in 1813 the order was so modified that if the hogs weighed less than 60 lbs., they should be yoked. It was also voted at this meeting that 'any person taking cattle to run on the commons shall be liable to ten dollars fine for each head.' The record shows that the amount of license money due the town for 1807 was $32.17. William Wilson paid a license of $2.50, and others about the same amount. For support of the poor in 1807 $60.00 were required, and $250 for roads and bridges.
The record book gives information showing that in 1805 Elizur Brace was supervisor and he paid $50 excise money to the town. In the proceedings of the meeting in 1809 it was voted to impose 'ten dollars fine for cattle brought into town to feed in our woods.' There was voted, also, a premium of 'ten dollars on every wolf's scalp caught in town by an inhabitant of the town,' indicating that the freeholders cared as much for keeping the revenue at home as they did for having the wolves exterminated. This wolf bounty was raised to $20 in 1815, and $5 on bears. A penalty was imposed in 1809 of $5 'on any man letting Canada Thistles or burweed go to seed on his farm.'
The meeting for 1810 was to be held at 'Widow Emerie's,' but nothing of importance is found in the proceedings. In 1811 the people met at the house of Abram and Peter Emerick. By this time the question of road construction was becoming an important one. The overseer of highways in those days had an extracting time if he did his duty. There were in 1811 thirteen road districts, with an overseer for each. This number was gradually increased to fifteen in 1812; nineteen in 1813; twenty-four in 1814; twenty-six in 1816; twenty-eight in 1822; thirty in 1823; thirty-four in 1824; thirty-nine in 1825; forty-one in 1836; forty-five in 1827; forty-eight in 1828; fifty-one in 1830; fifty-nine in 1831; sixty-three in 1834; sixty-six in 1835; sixty-eight in 1836; seventy-two in 1838; the number continued to increase to ninety-one in 1860. In 1880 there were 100 districts. The records show that eight roads were surveyed in that year; three in 1810; five in 1811; twelve in 1812; eight in 1813; two in 1814; five in 1816; five in 1817; four in 1818; four in 1819; ten in 1822; twelve in 1823; seven in 1824, and four in 1825. A few were surveyed in nearly every year until about the beginning of the Civil war, since which time there has been little change in this respect. In 1818 the inhabitants were assessed for 974 days' work on the roads. Among the early surveyors of roads in the town are found the names of R. Burlingame, Joseph White, Asahel North, Henry B. Turner, William Moor, Elijah Colson, Amos Adams, Asa Baker, Jireh Baker, and George W. Robinson. Some of these were well known residents of the town.
....By the year 1830 the population of the town had reached 3,228, its increase having been steady and healthful during the preceding decade. In 1835 it had grown to 3,838, and from that time to 1850 the increase in population was more marked than at any other period in the history of the town. In 1840 it was 4,306, and at the half century had reached 5,833, a figure that has never been exceeded. While general prosperity prevailed during most of this period, the several village communities of the town experienced their seasons of 'hard times,' particularly those of 1837-8 and 1857, in common with larger commercial centers; but the situation of the town at a distance from the main thoroughfares of travel, which in its earliest years operated against its rapid settlement, now saved it from the consequence of expanded values and over-speculation; moreover the town possessed within itself natural resources which, with its manufacturing industries, rendered it largely independent of the business fluctuations that were disastrous to many places.
In the summer of 1839 the inhabitants of the town were pleasantly agitated by the formation of a company and the survey for a railroad to pass through Baldwinsville and the heart of the town. Syracuse already had a railroad running through it east and west, which was successful beyond the most sanguine expectations of its projectors, and which was of great benefit to the towns along its line--benefit from which Lysander was to a great extent excluded. But the railroad was not to come for several years, and it was not until 1847 that the company was finally formed and ready to begin work on the road bed. So energetically was the work prosecuted that the road--the Syracuse and Oswego--was opened for traffic in October, 1848. The tendency of railroads to sacrifice small villages to the building up of large ones and cities is well understood; but this is offset in large measure by the advantages of nearer and more active markets and the consequent general expansion of production. Baldwinsville and its vicinity has undoubtedly been benefited by the railroad passing through it. Besides the station at Baldwinsville, another was made called Lamson's (from a prominent family of that name) in the north part of the town. The large hotel at that place was built by Harvey Slauson.
At about the time when the railroad was approaching the town, another factor of prosperity was developing, the local influence of which was to prove inestimable. In 1845 the culture of tobacco was begun in a small way at Marcellus by Chester Moses and Nathan Grimes. In 1846 Mars Nearing had ten acres in Salina, and others followed in the work to such an extent that in 1855 there were 554,987 pounds grown in this county. The culture of tobacco in Lysander began in 1850, and during the succeeding quarter of a century it grew to a great industry, and continues so to the present time. Lysander and Van Buren are now the leading towns of the county in this industry. Among the many who have been large and successful growers in this town are James Selleck, E. W. Tucker, Daniel Cramer and his brothers, J. B. Munn, John Palmer, William Wilson and his son (producers of the celebrated Wilson hybrid), James Decker, Millard Smith, John H. Monroe, Charles Selleck, and many others who are perhaps equally worthy of mention.
The establishment of the various institutions and enterprises noticed in preceding pages, the development of agricultural interests throughout the town, the business needs of the several hamlets described, all of which depended for many years upon Baldwinsville for their supplies as well as for a market for surplus products, and the great value of its water power, combined and contributed to give that village a commanding position in the northwestern part of the county--a position which it still retains. Its progress has been gradual and steady from the time when it recovered from the adverse effects of the Erie Canal (about 1825), and the village has never given stronger evidence of thrift, enterprise among its citizens, and future growth than at present. The early stores and mills of the village established by Dr. Baldwin and his pioneer contemporaries have been mentioned. They were rapidly followed by other mills that were demanded for the reduction of the valuable forests. In 1824 Start & Mott built a mill with two saws and carriages. Two years later James Johnson erected one with four saws, and Stephen W. and Harvey Baldwin built one with a gang of fifteen saws. Start & Mott's mill burned in 1834 and was rebuilt in 1847 by Richard M. Beach. In 1839 Thomas P. Campbell built a mill with two saws and in 1848 Howard & Cook erected one of the same capacity. In 1836-7 Sandford C. Parker built a grist mill 100 by 60 feet and four stories high with basement, for ten runs of stone, six of which were at first put in operation. The mill was burned in 1861 and rebuilt in the next year by Johnson, Cook & Co. In 1870 it passed to G. H. & A. T. Hotaling, who changed the mill to the roller process and otherwise improved it. The present firm is Hotaling & Co. on the site of the present Amos mills were erected what was known as the red mill in about 1835 by James Johnson. The present mill was built by Jacob Amos in 1868 and is now owned by his son, Jacob. The red mill was burned with the first woolen factory in 1842. W. L. Wilkins built a flour and feed mill in 1854, which he operated more than twenty years; it is now run by John Bellen. The mill now operated by the James Frazee Milling Company (incorporated 1892) was built in 1859-60 by James Frazee,* and has a capacity of 500 barrels per day. What was long known as 'the Farmers' Mill of Van Buren' is on the south side and was formerly operated by D. & G. Morris, from whom it passed to E. P. Clark and in 1880 to Clark, Mercer & Co.; it has a capacity of 100 barrels. (*Footnote: James Frazee is a son of Jacob, who came to Lysander in 1822 and died at the age of 90. James Frazee settled in Baldwinsville in 1845, and built his mills in 1859, which he remodeled in 1893 and increased their capacity. Mr. Frazee is a prominent citizen of the town and was a member of the Legislature in 1857.)
In writing of the village in 1849, Clark says:
There are at present over two thousand inhabitants in the village of Baldwinsville, seven stores, four taverns, seven lawyers, seven physicians, three clergymen, three meeting houses. There is an extensive woolen factory, called Kellogg's Woolen Factory, two tanneries, a set of planing machines and sash factory, two furnaces, two plaster mills, four carriage making shops, seven blacksmith shops, etc.
In 1866 Fuller & Bliss established a planing mill and sash, door and blind factory, the partners being William L. Fuller and C. N. Bliss. This is a large industry and still in operation by Bliss & Suydam. In 1862 Johnson, Cook & Co. built a structure for use as a distillery in connection with their grist mill. In this in 1874 Schoonmaker & Co. (Andrew S. Schoonmaker, now deceased, Theodore Haines, and Jacob C. Kenyon), began the manufacture of straw wrapping paper. This mill is now in operation by the Kenyon Paper Company and manufactures tissue paper only.
In 1850 Ezekiel Morris, an edge tool maker, removed from Little Falls to Baldwinsville and established a factory for his business. He died in 1869 at the age of sixty-five years, and was succeeded in the business by his sons, H. D. and William F. Morris, in 1860, and in 1869 William F. withdrew from the business and was chosen cashier of the First National Bank. In 1870 he bought out the centrifugal pump manufactory of Heald, Sisco & Co., which had established a successful business, and later bought up the entire establishment. A large business was done, and the manufacture of steam engines and general machine work added. In 1892 the works were taken by the Morris Machine Works, which was incorporated with a capital of $300,000. It is a very large and prosperous industry.
In June, 1876, White, Clark & Co. established the centrifugal pump works in the building in which was formerly the axe factory. The pump works were subsequently removed to Syracuse.
The only saw mill in Baldwinsville at the present time, of all those that have been erected, is operated by Fairbanks & Taggart.
The New Process Rawhide Company was organized by Syracuse men and occupies a factory built for their purpose. It is a successful industry and manufactures various articles, among which are superior pinions for electric motors.
The knitting mill now conducted by J. C. & J. C. Miller, was established in 1876 by J. C. Miller. About 200 hands are employed chiefly in the production of white underwear.
Mercantile operations in the village kept pace with these manufactures. In the same year that John Hamill opened his store (1816), Parker & Wallace began trade, and were followed by Jonas C. Brewster in 1821, Luther Badger in 1823, Robins & Wells in 1832, Sandford C. Parker in 1835 (president of the village in 1853-54), John H. Tomlinson & Co. in 1838, D. C. Lusk & Co. in 1846, and John Tomlinson, 1838, on the north side. All this time and for nearly twenty years later Otis Bigelow was a leading merchant. Others who have been prominent in business in later years are S. M. Dunbar, Isaac Dixon, M. Donovan, Alanson Fancher, John Hax, Irvin S. Williams, Alex. Hamill, G. N. Luckey, S. C. Suydam, Wallace Tappan.
The professions received accessions to their representatives in the persons of Samuel H. Hammond in 1826, Cornelius Pugsley soon afterward, Col. Isaac T. Minard, 1833, and De Witt C. Greenfield in 1848; the latter still in practice. These were attorneys, and in later years lawyers Le Roy Morgan, George Hall, N. M. White (late police justice of Syracuse), F. A. Marvin, J. R. Shea, C. M. West and others settled here. In 1814 Dr. Cyrus Baldwin began practice, and Dr. Silas Wallace in 1816. Dr. Philip Sharp settled a little west of the village as early as 1823, and later physicians have been Drs. H. J. Shumway, ___ Farnsworth, ___ Lee, Elijah Lawrence, John Briggs, Henry B. Allen, J. V. Kendall (still in practice), J. C. B. Wallace, J. F. Wells, A. H. Marks, L. V. Flint and others.
To provide financial facilities for these various business interests, the First National Bank of Baldwinsville was organized February 2, 1864, with James Frazee, president; D. C. Greenfield, vice-president; Irvin Williams, cashier. In 1866 the bank erected its own building at a cost of $8,000, which it has since occupied. The capital of the bank was made $140,000. It has been successfully conducted and on a plan of liberality which has received the commendation of the public. In 1879 Mr. Frazee having resigned, Richard L. Smith was chosen president; W. F. Morris, vice-president, and Walter McMullin, cashier, who are in office at the present time; the capital stock was reduced to $100,000 in 1880.
The Baldwinsville State Bank was organized in May, 1875, with a capital of $50,000, with George Hawley, president; G. A. Bigelow, vice-president; S. S. Quivey, cashier. On the death of George Hawley, Payne Bigelow was chosen president, and at his death Otis M. Bigelow was chosen and holds the position at the present time; G. A. Bigelow being vice-president and S. S. Quivey cashier. The capital stock has been increased to $60,000.
The proximity of Baldwinsville to Syracuse undoubtedly delayed the publication of a newspaper in the village until a comparatively recent date. The first paper was started in the spring of 1844 by Samuel B. West, and was called the Baldwinsville Republican. In October, 1846, it passed to C. Mark Hosmer, who changed the name to the Onondaga Gazette. In January, 1848, the publishers were Shepard & Hosmer, who sold to J. M. Clark. He was a successful editor and during many years his paper was popular. He sold out to J. F. Davis, but ere long repurchased the establishment and in 1869 sold to X. Haywood, who enlarged the paper. In 1871 George S. Clark purchased the business, and on the lst of January, 1878, it was again sold to John F. Greene, who changed the name of the paper to the Baldwinsville Gazette. Under Mr. Green's management the paper rapidly improved in both make-up and news matter. In 1888 Mr. Greene admitted as partners Charles B. Baldwin and James A. Ward, and the title of the firm was changed to the Gazette Publishing Company, Mr. Greene largely devoting his attention to other affairs. In January, 1894, Greene sold his interest to W. F. Morris, and in May Ward retired from the firm. In May, 1895, the Gazette business was incorporated with a capital of $30,000, under the title of the W. F. Morris Publishing Company, with the following officers: William F. Morris, president; Charles G. Baldwin, vice-president; Willard W. Lewis, secretary and treasurer.
The Baldwinsville Era was established in November, 1885, by its present publisher and editor, Charles P. Cornell. After six months in the Fitzgerald block, the office was removed to M. H. Smith's block, where it remained five years and six months, when it was removed to the new Nettleton block. Mr. Cornell has made the Era successful in a business way and influential in the community.
Baldwinsville was incorporated on June 3, 1848, and the first election thereafter was held on the 24th of that month. Le Roy Morgan was chosen president of the village; E. A. Baldwin, Elisha Hickok, Irvin Williams, and Almon Farr, trustees; E. B. Wigent, clerk. The usual by-laws and ordinances for the government of similar villages were adopted. On the 18th of June, 1850, a police constable was elected in the person of D. C. Toll, and Hiram Hull, Irvin Williams, and Henry Y. Allen were elected street commissioners. At the same meeting the trustees were authorized to build a watch house, or to lease one, and $75 were appropriated for the repair of the fire engine and the purchase of hose. A board of health was created in June, 1850, and in the next year $100 were voted for making a village map; the map was made by John A. Crawford. In 1853 a watch house was leased for $40 for the year.
Down to the time under consideration the facilities for extinguishing fires in the village had been rather meager. On the 18th of March, 1853, Isaac T. Minard, Seth Dunbar, and S. C. Fancher were appointed a committee to procure a fire engine, and on the 22d of September Colonel Minard was made a committee to buy 200 feet of hose. On the 1st of April, 1854, John E. Todd, James G. Smith and James F. Wells were appointed a committee on hose cart, with Colonel Minard, James B. Wells, and James G. Smith, committee on engine house. In April, of that year Colonel Minard was sent to New York, where he paid for the new engine and 248 feet of hose. A special meeting was held on May 17, 1854, to act upon the matter of appropriating $200 for a lot for an engine house, watch house, etc., $600 for erecting such a building, $50 for a hose cart, and $130 for additional hose. Definite action was not concluded at this meeting, but on June 10, $300 were appropriated for buying a lot, $700 for a building, $25 for hooks and ladders, and the other sums as above mentioned. On the 27th of May a fire company was formed consisting of forty-four members. On the 29th of June a lot was purchased of Stephen W. Baldwin on Canal street, on which was a building, at a cost of $600. This building was converted to the purposes intended and with some modifications is still in use. The second story was not finished until 1857. In February, 1875, a steam fire engine was purchased for the village, and in 1889 the department was equipped with 1,000 feet of hose and an extension ladder. John M. Scoville was chosen chief engineer of the steamer. Since the establishment of the water works the fire apparatus with the exception of the hose carts, is almost useless. The water system is one of the best in the State, and hydrants are so located that danger from fire is very small.
Baldwinsville and the town of Lysander responded promptly to the calls of the government during the civil war...The local newspapers of that period are filled with accounts of patriotic meetings held in Baldwinsville and the various smaller villages, the prevailing enthusiasm, and the generous acts of hundreds of citizens in aid of the Union cause. Measures were adopted in special town meetings for raising the large sums of money paid in bounties to volunteers, of whom the town sent out her full complement, many of whom gave up their lives for their country, or came home maimed and disfigured.
Since the war no town in the county, probably, has met with a great degree of general prosperity than Lysander, while the village of Baldwinsville has, particularly in quite recent years, advanced with rapid strides. Among the important improvements made during this period are the rebuilding of the iron bridge across the Seneca River in 1866-67 substantially as it now appears, at a cost of about $18,000; the rebuilding of the dam in stone in the most substantial manner, by the State, in 1895, at a cost of more than $60,000; the building of the Howard Opera House in 1881 by H. Howard, and the erection of a large number of handsome modern brick blocks during the past ten years.
About the year 1886 the question of a better water supply for Baldwinsville became a subject of discussion among leading citizens, and various plans were proposed. Action was finally taken by the purchase of two acres of ground of Reuben Ham, the employment of a civil engineer, and the sinking of a large well, from which water of excellent quality and unlimited in quantity is pumped into a stand pipe situated on Cramer Hill east of the village. The first board of water commissioners was appointed June 18, 1889, composed of C. N. Bliss, C. B. Baldwin, J. E. Connell, R. Kratzer, J. C. Kenyon, G. G. Mercer, and E. Fairbanks. Mr. Bliss was chosen president of the board. The village was bonded for $50,000 and work on the plant was commenced August 19, 1889, by Brown Brothers of Mohawk. The works were tested on January 27, 1890, and accepted by the village authorities. The issue of bonds was not quite sufficient for the undertaking and an additional loan of $8,000 was procured. A pumping house and requisite machinery were erected and William Rodgers chosen chief engineer and superintendent at a salary of $50 a month. All of the principal streets were piped and sufficient hydrants put in to provide adequate fire protection.
The village is now lighted by electricity. A special election was held on October 13, 1887, to act upon two propositions which had been received from lighting companies, and to appropriate $500 for street lighting. The Edison company's proposition to supply eighty-five incandescent lights to run all of every night for $1,000 was accepted and the plant installed.
The centennial of the county was appropriately celebrated on May 30, 1894, Lysander and Van Buren joining for the purpose. E. P. Clark was chosen chief marshal of the exercises, and full committees were appointed. Dr. J. V. Kendall was president of the day. Interesting historical papers were read by Rev. W. M. Beauchamp, Richard L. Smith, Wallace Tappan, Justus Stevens, Edwin F. Nichols, Bradley Abbott and others. A poem was read by C. B. Baldwin.
Following is a list of the village presidents from the date of incorporation to the present time:
1849-51, Henry Case, jr.; 1852, Samuel Bisdee; 1853-54, Sandford C. Parker; 1855, E. B. Wigent; 1856, John Boley; 1857, D. D. Norton; 1858, Samuel Avery; 1859, D. C. Greenfield; 1860, Stephen W. Baldwin; 1861, James Hamill; 1862, J. O. Slocum; 1863, Eli Perry; 1864-65, W. W. Perkins; 1866, L. H. Cheney; 1867, J. P. Shumway; 1868-70, J. J. Kaulback; 1871-72, Wallace Tappan; 1873, I. M. Baldwin; 1874, Erwin Fairbanks; 1876-78, William F. Morris; 1879, Wells A. Allen; 1880-81, J. R. Blanchard; 1882, E. Fairbanks; 1883-84, W. W. Downer; 1885, Michael Donovan; 1886, Marcellus Johnson; 1887, W. W. Downer; 1888, F. P. Suydam; 1889, J. R. Blanchard; 1890, Willard H. Tappan; 1891, E. P. Clark; 1892-94, L. F. Buck.
Following is a list of village officers in 1895:
Hiram Howard, president; Marcellus Johnson, clerk; Newton E. Bartlett, treasurer; John H. Russell, chief police; William J. Bellen, village attorney; trustees: Homer Failing, Martin Handle, Joseph H. Sawyer, Stephen F. Wilcox, William B. Trowbridge, William J. Sullivan; assessors: Andrew R. Failing, Eliphalet Z. Frazee, Charles J. Kruesse; water commissioners: Charles N. Bliss, president; James E. Connell, treasurer; Gardner G. Mercer, secretary; Erwin Fairbanks, Jacob C. Kenyon, Rumont Kratzer, Kirby C. Munro; William Rogers, superintendent of system; street commissioners: Edward T. Smith, John C. King; fire department: Alexander Hosler, chief engineer; fire wardens, Andrew Larkin, John T. Wilkins, Herbert Rogers; board of health: Hiram Howard, president; M. Johnson, clerk and registrar; Dr. G. M. Wasse, physician; commissioners, Edward Huntoon, Richard Platt, Charles Casper.
Figures showing the population of Lysander from 1830 to 1892: 1830, 3,228; 1835, 3,838; 1840, 4,306; 1845, 4,506; 1850, 5,833; 1855, 5,060; 1860, 4,741; 1865, 4,813; 1870, 4,944; 1875, 4,990; 1880, 4,903; 1890, 5,163; 1892, 5,012.
Submitted 4 July 1998