Some Interesting History - Congregational church

 

The James Pratt house, which for almost 70 years had sported a historic marker, is no longer there..  The house located on today's Route 26 once sat on the hill next to the Great Skaneateles Turnpike... on lands once owned by Joseph Morse. 

Morse was considered by many to be the father of Eaton because of his expansive business empire.  Its builder, Dr. James Pratt, came from Massachusetts in the early1800’s and became the first physician in the Town of Eaton and the town’s first teacher, moving to teach in the early days in rotation to three different sites within the town.

 

The house which had fallen into disrepair over the years was called a two story home, but in the early 1800’s when built, it was described by noted artist Carlton Rice as a white one-story building.  Rice would come to Eaton with Pratt’s cousins to visit his Rice relatives who also lived in Eaton.

 

 The Dr. once owned interest in the Eaton Woolen Mill with Joseph Morse and others marrying Laurency Eaton, the daughter of James Eaton one of Eaton’s first settlers.  (*Please note Eaton was not named for James but for Gen. William Eaton of Tripoli fame.)

 After his first wife’s death Dr. Pratt took Joseph Morse’s daughter Eunice as his wife, in one of the most notable wedding ceremonies ever held in the village.  The wedding took place on the first of June, of 1814, at the Morse’s new Stone house in the Village of Eaton. (Also marked by and historic marker) and among its guests were some of the notables of Madison County’s history including Col. Lincklean, Col. Angel DeFerrier and his wife Polly, Peter Smith and his sons Gerrit (the abolionist) and Peter Skenandoah Smith, Joshua Leland’s widow Waitstill and an entourage of Native Americans, the Stowes, the Cramphins and many others, basically anyone who was anybody.  The couple were married by the Rev. Jonas Thompson.

 

     Eunice Morse had come to the then wilderness of which became Madison County, with her father, the son of Capt. Joseph Morse and mother Eunice, who was of the famous Bigelow family of Natick, immortalized in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Old Town Folks.  Young Eunice attended school under Dr. James Pratt, and was exceedingly friendly with the Indian children of the area, often inviting them in to warm by the fire. (The Morse family always left the “latch spring” open for their native friends.)  

After her father’s death, Ellis, a brother who also came with them, would take the businesses of Eaton over from his father and his brother Joseph Morse Jr.   Joseph Sr. upon his death had bequeathed Eunice $600 to be paid by Joseph Jr. in 3 years from his death, and a lot.  Eunice continued her education going on to graduate from Clinton Academy in 1810 – the last graduating class before it became Hamilton College.

 

The family was on a move to Palmyra, MO. Where a son James by his first wife found prosperity and died, his grave has never been found.  Eunice moved west, some believe perhaps in hopes of finding him.  She never did.  Dr. Pratt and Eunice’s children and Dr. Pratt’s grown children from his first wife settled near Knox, where Eunice lived until her death.  She was considered by all a remarkable woman for her time, she had served the earliest period of our county’s history.

 

An interesting side note is that Dr. Pratt’s will created quite a storm when he left money to fight an ongoing lawsuit with the Congregational Church he was such a part of.  During this period Charles Grandison Finney, the Evangelist of Oberlin fame, had favored the congregation standing to sing and sitting to pray.  Dr. Pratt believed this wrong and spent much of his fortune fighting this practice.  He sued the church. 

The church that, ironically, that was in the community where  Charles G. Finney lived as a boy.  Finney  lived in early Eaton Village, then Log City, with his aunt and uncle the Cyrus Finneys.  This house today has a historic marker on the corner of route 26  and English Avenue. Cyrus Finney's wife's father was a preacher who lived with them....Rev.Heminway!

Charles Grandson Finney as a preacher introduced anxious seats he used in his conversions.

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The Removal of the Courthouse from Eaton

By the late 1880’s a cry had raised up, from the northern, more populous part of the county, asking that the location of the courthouse be changed to the north.  The main complaint was that travelers to the clerk’s office or the courts could not easily get to Morrisville by train.  The train that passed through the town of Eaton, by-passed Morrisville, and travelers had to go over steep hills to get to the county buildings at Morrisville from Morrisville Station.  Other complaints included a lack of adequate accommodations for visitors.  This fight was the most divisive struggle in the history of Madison County lasting for almost 30 years.  This struggle had a polarizing effect that is even evident in many ways today.

It is interesting to note that in 1893 a petition was passed by the people of Eaton Village to have the courthouse relocated there.  Eaton had the rail stop and had many more amenities than Morrisville at the time.  This was blocked by H. B. Conan who protested this move, using the fact that if the courthouse was moved the land would revert to the former owners, a fact that later effected the property when it was to become part of the state agricultural school.

The towns of Lenox and Oneida kept the fight going for more years through self-interest, each one wanting the county seat to be located in their towns.  Petitions for removal stated that Morrisville was 2 ½ miles from the nearest rail terminal, that it was too expensive to pay mileage for jurors, that the jail was condemned by State authorities and that it took a whole day to reach Morrisville from any other point in the county.

The compromise was choosing the current courthouse’s location in Wampsville and the village was basically created (incorporated as a village on September 25, 1907) to hold the county seat.  Wampsville was located on the main line of the New York Central and the West Shore Railroads where twenty-four trains stopped daily.

     

Finally on November 5, 1907 this issued was turned over to the voters and the county seat was changed from Morrisville to Wampsville by a margin of 756 votes.  Of interest is that 10 of the 16 towns actually voted against this, the north winning because of its larger population.

The New Courthouse

The next step was acquiring the land in Wampsville to build on.  It is here John Wesley Coe enters the picture.  Coe had been the foreman of the Madison County Jury for 14 years and was one of the supporters of the relocation of the county seat to Wampsville.  It is said that he was tired of his lengthy commute to Morrisville, especially in the winter season.  Coe originally from Madison County, had become wealthy in the oil fields of Ohio and Pennsylvania.  Coe returned to Madison County with that wealth, buying a 78 acre farm to retire on as a gentleman farmer.  Coe had been partners in the oil fields with President James A. Garfield and remained a close friend until his death.  Coe put up orchards on his property and later sold two strips of his property to two different railroad companies, which effected the decision to move to his lands.

     Coe originally wanted to be paid for his prime parcel of land near the railroad, but later on February 12, 1908, he decided to deed the land to the county for just $1.  When the county asked him for more land he sold the county land for the jail and let the county rent land for vegetable gardens.  John Wesley Coe refused to sell his house however, stating that he “brought the house to live and to die in”, and that he did.  This house later was purchased by the county and had to be removed to build new county facilities.

     So on July 16, 1908 ground was broken for the start of a new Courthouse in the newly formed Village of Wampsville.

James Riley Gordon designer of the new Courthouse

The Madison County Courthouse in Wampsville was designed by the famous architect James Riely Gordon, who is also the architect of the Cortland County Courthouse.  Gordon worked for a time for the Irving Corner Company of New York before moving to Texas.  Texas, which has more courthouses than any other state (225) was a ripe field for Gordon, who is credited with building over 60 courthouses across the United States, 16 in Texas alone.  If you go on line to http://www.waxahachiechamber.com you can learn about the construction of the Waxahachic courthouse that was described by James A. Michener in his book Texas.

Gordon’s style of architecture was considered Richardsonian Romanesque and among his most memorable building accomplishments was the Texas Building for the Columbian Exposition of 1897.

O & W & Midland Railway & Historic Bonney Farm

Still standing in Eaton on Route 26 is the old O & W Depot Building. 

This unique structure has remained in place and in use, with a short exception, since its original occupancy.

The building was erected on a piece of property considered one of the hamlet’s first farms, settled in 1794 by Levi Bonney. Bonney needs to be celebrated in a new NYS Historic Marker to replace the old stating that he was the first to come to this valley and stay. Some say he was Eaton’s first founding father and he claimed that he was Eaton's first abolitionist.

The depot is situated near the first road, “the Indian trail,” and by what became in the first decade of the 1800’s the plank road known as the Georgetown Turnpike and a stones throw from the Skaneateles Turnpike.  These roads were built by the Morses and the businessmen of the area and used to transport the early products of the area. 

The Georgetown turnpike was used to link Eaton with the Chenango Canal. The hamlet itself boasted Madison County’s first creamery, cheese factory, and the county’s first distillery, which became the very successful Empire Bottling Works.  It was also home to the nation’s 3^rd steam engine company, then A. N. Wood, later renamed the Wood, Taber & Morse Steam Engine Works.

As these businesses, with others, grew in importance, the necessity for better transportation brought about the need for the community to have its own stop on the railroad circuit.

The Midland Railroad (New York, Ontario and Western) was an important part of the Hamlet of Eaton’s business for freight as well as for passenger transport.  Nobody pushed harder for its building than Wood, Taber & Morse.  The company was swelling as a business and became what is considered the largest traction engine company in America by the 1880’s with it’s introduction of the first 4-wheel drive steam traction engine.

On January 11^th, 1866, the New York, Ontario and Western was chartered, after much political pressure in the legislature to secure funding, on August 29^th—the first passenger train was run on the main line for the purpose of transporting hop pickers.  It was drawn by Engine #4, with Edwin Williams the Engineer.

By October 20^th, the last rail was placed in Eaton, and on that Wednesday evening the last spike was driven.  Mr. Ezra Leland, one of the first settlers of Eaton still alive, was allowed to fire 

the first cannon blast to celebrate its completion.

Eventually, this site became the home of one of the largest milling companies in this part of the state, Moses and Cronk.

In 1957, the last piece of freight on the railway arrived; a ladder from Sears and Roebuck for Huber Cramphin.  When the train left so did the O & W service to Eaton.  It is said that the rail rise in Eaton was the steepest railroad grade this side of the Rockies.  The small rail station building is standing today.