Champion, Jefferson, NY

Firsts

Firsts

The difficulties attending the early settlement of this town and the country generally are set forth in the following petition to the legislature, dated the third Tuesday of February, 1801:

"The memorial of the subscribers, proprietors and inhabitants of Champion, on Black river, in the county of Oneida, in said State, humbly showeth: that your memorialist, induced by the extraordinary fertility of the soil, have made an establishment in said Champion, and extended the frontier settlements of the State in a northerly direction from Rome to Lake Ontario. That in prosecuting this enterprise, those of your memorialists who have emigrated from Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and the eastern parts of this State, have not only been subjected to the inconvenience of excessively bad roads but have been and are still obliged to go around by the way of Rome to Utica, and through Boone’s settlements and Steuben, a distance of at least forty miles father than it would be in a direct line. That from the High Falls, on Black river, on a line tolerably direct to Johnstown, and from thence to Albany, on the old road, is but 105 miles; but from the High Falls to Albany, by way of Rome, is 145 miles. Your memoralists are informed, and verily believe, that a good road may be made in the direction they have pointed out, by which all the aforesaid saving in distance would be realized. But the country through which it must run is either not settled at all, or so thinly inhabited, that neither the towns through which the proposed road must be laid out, nor individuals, are competent to the opening of said road. Your memoralists would further observe, that the road would not only be a great accommodation to them, but would be of so much public utility as to claim the patronage of the legislature. It would save at least forty miles of travel from Albany to Upper Canada; between which places the commercial intercourse, particularly in articles of skins and furs, is at present very considerable, and is daily increasing.

"The fur traders from this State, who have been bound to Kingston and the bay of Quinte (from whence a great proportion of the furs have been brought), have heretofore been obliged to go through Vermont and Lake Champlain, or through Rome, the Oneida lake, into Lake Ontario, and thence to Kingston, either of which routes (as is evident from the map) is very circuitous; whereas the road which your memorialists propose would make the traveling for these traders direct as possible. Besides, it is believed that those traders who are bound to Niagara would find the account in traveling the new proposed route, and passing from Black river to Kingston, and taking passage from thence by water. It must also be the post-road between this State and Upper Canada.

"This improvement in the road will rapidly increase the emigration to this part of the country, and consequently the prosperity of this part of the State. Your memorialists, therefore, pray your honors to take this case into your consideration, and to appoint commissioners to lay out a road from Johnstown, in the nearest direction to the High Falls on Black river, and to grant out of a future lottery a sum of money which shall be necessary to open a road and make it passable, or in some other way grant relief; and they, as fearfully bound, will ever pray, etc."

This petition was signed by S. Hubbard, Benjamin Pike, Jr., Eli Church, Harrison Mosely, Timothy Townsend, Joel Mix, Samuel Foster, Abner White, Mathew Kemp, Bela Hubbard, Jr., Elisha Jones, William Davis, and William Crowell.

The virgin soil of this town was found to yield bountifully, and return an abundant increase to the hand of the cultivator; but the difficulty of realizing any means from the sales of produce, from the difficulty of getting it to market, led to efforts like the foregoing to obtain aid for opening lines of communication, and it was related by one who had shared in these privations that once on an evening, when a few neighbors had assembled to exchange the news, the subject was being discussed, and one, more sanguine than the rest, hazarded the prediction that "there were those then living, who would see a weekly line of mail-stages pass through the town." This prophecy, like the dream of Oriental fable, has come and gone, for within thirty not only weekly, but a daily mail was established, and the town has been placed in direct communication with the outside world by the completion of the Carthage, Watertown, and Sacket’s Harbors railroad. The

FIRST SAW-MILL

in town was built by William Hadsall and John A. Eggleson, from Grennwich, New York, in 1802, on Mill creek, near the line of Rutland, where several years afterwards, a grist-mill was built.

In 1804, David Coffeen, removed from Rutland to the west side of the river, opposite Carthage, and in 1806 built a mill on this side of the river, which was the first hydraulic improvement in that place. Finding the supply of water in the channel insufficient, he constructed a wing-dam partly across the river, which was completed by Le Ray upon his commencing his iron works at Carthage.

One and a half miles from this present village of Champion, towards Great Bend, is a hamlet known as the "Huddle," where mills and a distillery were erected several years before the war.

It had been intimated that Champion had been contemplated as the probably centre of a new county. A special meeting was held November 13, 1804, to choose delegates to discuss this measure and Egbert Ten Eyck, Olney Pearce and John Durkee were chosen by ballot for the purpose. At the same meeting the two latter were recommended for appointment as justice of the peace. In 1806 one hundred dollars were raised for killing the Canada thistle, to be expended by a committee consisting of Abel Crandell, Olney Pearce, and one other. Wolf bounties of five dollars were offered in the years 1807-13; in 1812, a panther bounty of five dollars and fox bounty for fifty cents; in 1815, a fox bounty of one dollar, and a wolf and panther bounty of ten dollars; in 1820, fifty cents for foxes, twenty-five cents for young foxes, the wolf and panther bounty remaining at ten dollars. Every man was required to cut the Canada thistle growing in the road in front of his lands, under a penalty of one dollar for each thistle. In 1822 a bounty of fifty cents was offered for both old and young foxes. While referring to the subject of bounties, the following may not be inapplicable:

The anecdote is related that a magistrate in this town, having had an altercation with a leading citizen in Lowville, heard that his opponent had offered a bounty of five dollars for his head. Feeling somewhat uneasy under this, he resolved to ascertain its truth, and made a journey on foot on purpose to demand satisfaction or a withdrawal of the offensive reward. Upon reaching the place, he found the person of whom he was in search in company with several others, and not wishing to make their quarrels a subject of publicity, he requested a private interview. This was promptly refused, on the ground that there was nothing between them that required secrecy, and he was told that if he had anything to say he might say it where he was. He then commenced by repeating the story ha had heard and demanded to know whether it was true. His enemy denied at once the charge, calling his neighbors to witness whether they had ever known him guilty of the folly of offering such a sum but admitted that he might have bid twenty shillings, and was very sure he had never gone higher. Finding that it was impossible to get this bounty taken off, he returned home. We are not informed of the result, or whether the reward was sufficient to tempt the cupidity of his neighbors.

During the year 1812 the town was visited by fever which baffled the skill of physicians, and proved fatal in nearly every case. We have stated that the town was owned at the time of settlement by Henry Champion, of Colchester, and Lemuel Storrs, of Middletown, Connecticut. On May 12, 1813, an instrument was executed between them, by which the latter conveyed, for $18,300, his half of the sums due for lands in this town and Hounsfield, but this conveyance not being delivered during the life-time of Storrs, was subsequently confirmed by his heirs. (Jefferson County History, L. H. Everts, 1878)

Transcribed by Holice B.Young

Html by Debbie

December 26, 1999

[Jefferson County ALHN][NY ALHN]