Backstreet Mary will be Speaking on Memorial Day... Subject Early Settlement!

Come and join us on Memorial Day to learn the history of our early settlement...straight out of our 250 years of History!

There is so much history in this little CNY area I live in …but it seems time and time again only the glitzy, money pushed, history sites make it to our attention.

Take for instance the existence of a peace-seeking town where people could interact as brothers working together to form a new community and a better life after many struggles.

No it isn’t a commune with religious fanatics or gun totting radicals… it is a place called Brothertown. Yes Brothertown.  

This town like every other Native American site has been pushed out of our local history.  Brothertown was located around the area we call Deansboro today.

The population of it was made up of a number of New England tribes that had been marginalized (our new modern term) as the white man took over American soil.  Pequots, Mahegans, Mohegans, Narragansetts,  and more. (Yes Uncas’ Mohegans) 

The idea was the brainchild of leaders like Joseph Johnson and then organized and realized by Samson Occum.  Both Native Americans who had attended the school of Rev. Eleazer Wheelock, both Christian converts.  Samson Occom became the first Native American to have his works published and was considered a fabulous public speaker which can be attested to by the amount of money he raised in England for Rev. Wheelock’s cause… of educating Native Americans in Christian white culture. The money raised eventually helped Wheelock form Dartmouth College, which like our own Hamilton College pandered to white societies children.

Started on a tract of land given to them by the Oneida Nation prior to the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, the community never came into being until after the Revolution.  Then the group in the 1830’s was pushed out to Wisconsin.  A few remained or returned thanks to the help of Quaker missionaries… but the site itself now is just another American community called Deansboro, and roads like Bougusville Hill Road are nothing but back roads where a NYS Historic Marker denotes an abandon cemetery or two… and nothing more.

Samson Occum was a special man we should know about in our local history. 

With all the rain this week I was unable to finish a video that I have planned to do on Samson Occum's graveyard at Occum Grove. As the Madison County Historian I got to meet one of the Mahican historian's who was researching the different families that migrated to Brothertown and although many think that the Brothertown and Stockbridge tribes just signed the paper to sell the land without duress before their move to Wisconsin... this is something I sincerely doubt considering the atmosphere and hatred of the era of "Indian Relocation to reservation in the West".  We may never know.  But locally the move occurred after the death of Samson Occum their leader.

Samson Occum was an unusual man… he was said to be a direct descendant of the great Chief Uncas of the Mohegan’s.  (There were a number of Uncas leaders… a fictitious one was put in as a character in James Fennimore Cooper’s “Last of the Mohegan’s”.)

Occum studied at the Rev. Eleazer Wheelock’s “Latin Theology” school and was able to read English and Hebrew. After graduation Samson became an ordained Presbyterian minister and teacher to the Pequot’s of Montauk, New York.

In 1851 his former teacher Rev. Wheelock…asked Occum to travel abroad to raise money for a charity school he was founding for the schooling of Native American children in Christian white ways.  

On this tour of England, Occum and a co-speaker raised over 12,000 pounds for Wheelock and preached 300 plus speeches (sermons – appeals) to an audience that was most likely in awe of a Native American preacher and speaker. *King George himself donated 200 of these pounds.

While Occum was out of the country however… the money he raised was being used by Wheelock to start what would become Dartmouth College, a school that catered to children of white families with some money.  (Wheelock had also failed to take care of Occum’s wife and children… something that was part of the agreement he made with Wheelock before leaving.)

So with his son-in-law Joseph Johnson, Occum then set out to found his own tribe of Christian Indians from the New England area, they became known as Brothertowns.  The Brothertowns settled on a parcel of property given to them by the Christian Oneida’s of Kanowanhole, the land lying in today’s Town of Marshall.  

This piece was just outside of Rev. Samuel Kirkland’s parcel now called Clinton. (Kirkland)  Ironically Kirkland said that he too was going to found a college where the White and Native Americans could learn together.  That college became today’s Hamilton College and up until recent years that school had not graduated one Native American.

Occum’s home is marked by and NYS Historic marker near Deansboro and Samson Occum is buried in the Occum Grove Cemetery on Bougusville Hill Road. His obituary was carried in many Newspapers and the Rev. Samuel Kirkland delivered his funeral sermon.  Some of Occum’s papers rest today at Dartmouth College.  

The chief of the Christian Oneida’s that supported the colonies in the Revolutionary War and great friend of Kirkland’s who gave land  and promoted the college for co-education of Native Americans and whites...(Skenandoah) is buried with Kirkland at the Hamilton College Cemetery.

History of a Cemetery that is Historic Itself!

                                       Grave of Rev. War Vet. Miles Standish ..Yes grandson of Miles Standish!

Sometimes a cemetery is historic for a number of different reasons as well as for the famous people buried in it. One such cemetery is the  Eaton Village Cemetery which occupies a hill outside of the Hamlet of Eaton and contains the remains of many famous and near famous people.

M E Messere

The cemetery itself dates to before 1800, on a piece of property donated by Squire Eldred. It rests on the side of the Old Indian Trail, a recently discovered map shows that the early road was exactly where the current road is. 

M E Messe 

Little care or attention was given the site for a number of years with cattle roaming it and overgrowth covering it, but in 1852, George Morse, grandson of the famous Joseph Morse, bought a piece of property next to the cemetery which started him on a labor of love keeping the grounds for his lifetime.

Morse took care of the grounds planting trees & planting the myrtle that still covers the hill today.  Morse also installed fences to keep the cows that roamed nearby out. Other early pieces of property that added to the cemetery's size belonged to J. T. Whitney.  In 1884 the present Eaton Village Cemetery Association was formed, an association that still cares for the cemetery today.

Buried within its borders are the founding Morse family, the Landon Family members including the famous Eli Perkins (Melville Landon) who is buried at the top of the cemetery steps. There are Chubbucks, including the father of Samuel W. Chubbuck inventor of the camelback key and sounder for Morse’s telegraph and siblings of Emily Chubbuck Judson,  the author and missionary.

Many Civil War veteran's including Col. Henry Bagg Morse of the famous 114th Regiment of NYS Volunteers and relatives of Charles Grandison Finney who once attended school in the one room school house that was located in the cemetery. 

 In a special section lies the first female physician of Madison County Diedamia Button Chase and beside her is her famous daughter, historian Luna Chase Hammond. Near the front of the cemetery lies Allen N. Wood  founder of the world famous Wood, Taber & Morse Steam Engine Works, and many more.

So take a short hop on NYS Scenic Highway Route 20, and visit historic Eaton, for a Special Memorial Day Celebration. The Parade starts at 10 AM and it will take you to the Cemetery where there will be a Prayerservice presided over by Rev. Smalley and music by the MECS Band and Chorus.  Back in town there will be a classic truck display, Revolutionary War Display, Gift Shop and White Elephant sale...come join the Celebration!

Col. Leland and the Ponds...a Revolutionary Soldier!

The week has been cold and wet again and spring is in full swing down here in Eaton... but soon after Memorial Day with summer people arriving with boating, kayaking, fishing and the reopening of  summer camps....I had a request to do a piece on Eaton's Leland Ponds also someone is restoring the old Dunbar house, which in actuality was the original site of Col. Leland's first home...so as lazy as I am lately about writing, I pulled this from my past writing and put it up for your enjoyment.  If you can please share and help our small rural Southern Madison County area attract new people and in the process help restore awareness to those who have forgotten what a wonderful place they live in.

The heat of this summer has drawn people to small bodies of water to cool off, swim and fish. Since history lurks everywhere some of those that have enjoyed fishing at the beautiful Leland Ponds in the Town of Eaton, may actually not realize what a special part of history the “ponds” have.

Located equidistant from both Eaton Village and Hamilton, the ponds today are a vibrant part of NYS Fishing areas and are also a very early and important part of the Town of Eaton’s history. A NYS Historic Marker denoting its famous founding family, the family of Joshua Leland, today marks the site but of course, a marker cannot tell the full story.

Born in Massachusetts in 1741, “the Colonel” as he was always referred to, moved to the town of Eaton, then a part of Chenango County and a large tract of land called Hamilton. Leland settled first on English Avenue near today’s Eaton Village, but then moved to the current site of today’s Leland’s Ponds, then called Leland’s Lakes.

The Col. was a Revolutionary War Militia soldier and ventured out with family to find a new home and a fortune. Their removal to Eaton was not without troubles as when the Colonel after clearing land, went back home to get his wife and five children and their wagon got stuck in the mud at the very location they would eventually move to. The Leland’s also arrived so late in the year that they are recorded as spending their first winter in a three side hut with their animals.

An avid astronomer, hotel owner and miller, Leland was a favorite of the many Native Americans who fished the ponds and who regarded the Col. and his wife Waitstil with great esteem. The Leland Family also ran an ashery that made potash and in fact it is how the Col. died. When on a trip to Albany with this much needed commodity, Leland was killed when the barrel of potash they were carry on a wagon rolled off and fell on him as he was ascending a steep hill on the Cherry Valley Turnpike.

Leland is mentioned as Hamilton’s first Supervisor but at that time Eaton was part of Hamilton breaking off in 1795. At that time Leland became and important part of Eaton’s history and he actually owned one seventh of the landmass of Town of Eaton at one time. His heirs continued in their father’s footsteps’ becoming businessmen and the Leland family name is well remembered.

Leland’s Ponds was also the early fisheries of the Oneida Nation, and later was the site of the largest port on the Chenango Canal, Peck’s Port. Today its waters are a vacationers paradise and allow fisherman to revisit the quiet haunts of native fishermen.

For those who like cemeteries, the family cemetery lays 

on Route 12B a short distance from the site of his home. Crow’s Hill, his property that he once gazed at the stars from, is today dotted with wind turbines, proving that Eaton is still a place where “history meets progress!”.

Remember the Memorial Day Parade...come to Eaton, enjoy the history and Beauty!

Our Area History Goes Back to the Revolution!

Joseph More House ...Eaton. - Then and Returning to its beauty again!

I was asked by some of you blog followers..why I put the Thanksgiving story of the Native Americans up for Thanksgiving and what it had to do with Eaton History…well a lot! The original families that settled the area were from Natick including the LeLands, Morse, Morris, Bigelows and many more..

Flag that flew over the town and commemorative 
citation from the Town Sherburne and Natick Massachusetts

 for our Bicentennial, a direct descendant Joseph Morse raised the flag ! 

History is a fickle friend that changes its mind as new and different information surfaces from the long ago past. Many times this occurs when a new tidbit of information comes from and old newspaper article somebody clipped and stuck in the back of a book. Such an occurrence is common.

While going through a number of early clippings I found an article put out for the Centennial of Madison County in 1906. The information would have come from a reliable source as the Morse family still resided in Eaton and always loaned history out for research. The article lists itself as the first in a newspaper … but what paper I do not know. I include a part here.

“The silver cup referred to in the first installment of this paper and presented to Joseph Morse in 1819 by the Madison County Agricultural society, was one of the most attractive relics in the exhibits at the centennial exercises by Prof. Briggs at Eaton Union School March 21st, 1906.”

I would love to find out where this silver cup is … the museum would love to have it since Joseph Morse is considered the founding father of Eaton. The article goes on to give us a picture into Joseph.

“At his death, at this time of need in the new country, while he was yet in the prime of life and in the midst of usefulness, became a personal loss to the inhabitants, who individually mourned him as a father, brother and friend. Together they had striven through many a crisis and conquered supreme difficulties. He was of a generous nature, yet he helped men to help themselves and so strengthened the spirit of independence.

Joseph was born in (Natick)  Sherburne, Massachusetts, married Eunice Bigelow April 24, 1768. Four children were born to them before their removal from Massachusetts and four were born in Eaton among them Ellis and Eunice that I have written about earlier.

Ellis assumed the role that his father played to the community and inherited the Stone House … once considered the showplace of the area. Ellis also sold and owned the controlling stock in the Hamilton Skaneateles Turnpike that passed by his house. As a boy he worked in the Morse Distillery that produced a vast amount of revenue and booze that supported the community both in jobs and in cash. He was self-educated with some schooling at the log school located then, near the cemetery and friends with Charles Grandison Finney who also attended that school. Ellis made sure that each of his children including his daughters was educated.

The second son of Joseph Morse was Joseph Morse, Jr., who removed to Pennsylvania and was there several times returned to the legislature of that state and also became judge of his county’s courts. Calvin, the third son, was an extensive farmer and held responsible offices frequently. He was elected to the state legislature in 1842. The museum has some of his count books

Having no sons, Calvin’s daughters became conspicuous as educators. The eldest, Belinda, was the wife of Andrew Cone, manufacturer; the second daughter, Miss A. Eliza, was assistant lady principal at Vassar College during the life of Dr. John H. Raymond, the first president of Vassar … I have written about her life and her famous ”Locust Hill” cottage.

Alpheus, the fourth son Joseph Morse, lived in Eaton until his later years. He was a merchant, scientific farmer and a large manufacturer, being many years proprietor of the Alderbrook Woolen Mill, known first as the Morse & Brown factory and later wholly in Morse’s name. His interesting early businesses included make cast iron plow blades, growing asparagus that until recently grew in the wild around the cemetery and investing in silk production.

Bigelow, the fifth and youngest son of Joseph Morse, became a prominent citizen of Onondaga County. He became a wealthy farmer in the Fabius area … this because of The Skaneateles Turnpike that passed in front of it allowing him to take his cops to market.

Bigelow had terrible headaches and died young most likely from a brain tumor. His daughter Allie moved to Eaton and lived with his brother Calvin. His two sons, Frank B. and Darwin, under the name of Morse Bros, became Eaton’s long time reliable merchants.

Frank B. was the postmaster at Eaton most of his life for more than forty years. The museum is lucky enough to have info and beautiful pictures of his children.

Many of Joseph’s sons were town supervisors and Joseph was in charge of the building of the courthouse in Eaton after its move from Cazenovia. Ellis was in charge of building of the second and his son George was in charge of building the third today know as Madison Hall.

Let's start Thinking about our Community

The best remembered and photographed times in Eaton were the “field days” held yearly to celebrate the Fourth of July and now Memorial Day!  This community, born out of Revolutionary blood felt it was a duty to put on big yearly celebration. These founders came from mostly Massachusetts and served in the Revolutionary War before their move here to New York

In keeping with those days the Old Town of Eaton Museum will be hosting Memorial Day and the 250th Anniversary of America...and we are trying to make it a special day that will bring people together as a community!  It is indeed needed in these times of trouble for the poor, the elderly, workers and the many. Let us celebrated the past and look forward to better times, honoring the War Veterans of all our wars.

In those days "The big day" usually started with cannon volley, which in later years is remembered as Patty Miles “firing” his anvil.  This was done by filling the hole in the bottom of the anvil with black powder and setting it off.  Any late sleepers would be awakened if their children had not already forced them out of bed in their excitement to get downtown.

Horse racing was part of the day and baseball games were played in different fields around town, big rivals for Eaton’s team was the Bouckville Bucks.  Food was available everywhere from the churches where the ladies aid put on a dinner, to the food stands on Main Street (front street) and the hotels, some brought their own lunches, but everybody ate.

The "Town" filled with music with people listening, especially when the Eaton Military Band played. In the evening there was always a dance that was well attended at the opera house in town, and the Rebekah Lodge usually served coffee to the attendees, with the dance continuing until midnight.

By the 1920’s, the world was at war; the steam engine plant was closing, water power had given away to electricity, woolen mills were closed, the Chenango Canal had ceased to be a transportation route and was only used to fill the Erie Canal, the “Great Depression” was on and the march to the city for work began.
 

No more does the anvil fire, and only once every three years is there a parade in Eaton  on Memorial Day,  (instead of Field Day on the Fourth of July). In Eaton, however the memories live on in this rural community, remembered most of all for its once glorious past replete with famous Eatonites, famous inventions and stories of the wars. Eaton like so many of its rural counterparts has gone to Sleep!

History and Memorial Day Cross in Eaton!

This year the annal Memorial Day Monday {Parade will be in the Hamlet of Eaton!  This a special one since it will mark 250 years of America!

The very spot where we usually host our event on Memorial Day Monday - Eaton Day…and our lectures…is one of the town’s historic places…a place  of national importance actually…for it is the site of the birth of the Camelback Key and Sounder for Morse’s telegraph!  Yup.. in old Eaton, New York.

Early Sounder

If you go behind the old auction barn building you will find the spot where Samuel W. Chubbuck did all his experiments … a place that was his father’s Mechanic Shop.  Samuel Chubbuck and his family moved to Eaton, then called Log City, very early and his son Samuel it was said could fix anything. Mechanics ib those days fixed wagons, hitches even pots and pans.

Samuel eventually became noted for his many ideas, which include not only telegraph equipment but also the modern battery post used in our cars, lift bridges, and so much more.  If an idea came to him in a dream he took no patent on it as he believed in came from God.

His camelback key is actually patented to his cousin Charles Chubbuck?  I have always wondered if he gave it to Emily Chubbuck’s father to give him some income… (His family was very poor.) Oh yes did I mention Emily Chubbuck Judson…the missionary known also as the famous writer “Fanny Forrester”… was his cousin. And yes, the brook that wanders behind Samuel’s work spot, and or museum..... is the brook that she made famous in her “Alderbrook Tales!”

Anyway Samuel went on to become a very famous and a rich man who gave lectures all over the USA as Professor Chubbuck.  It is interesting to note that one of the men he influenced with his theories on “electricity” who gave him credit was Thomas Alvah Edison.  Chubbuck’s company made all of the early equipment for Morse’s Telegraph…something that modernized news and communication.

A humorous piece on his family is noted in Luna Hammond’s history of Madison County:

“After the Skaneateles turnpike went through, there was need of better tavern accommodations; Mr. Samuel Stow, therefore, built and kept a tavern on the corner opposite the lower hotel. Samuel Chubbuck, living opposite to him, carried on a blacksmith shop. These two men had by some disagreement become violently opposed to each other. In a spirit of competition, Mr. Chubbuck was a staunch Democrat, and this was a time soon after the war of 1812; so upon one side of his attractive sign board was displayed the dying words of Commodore Lawrence, as a motto, --- "Don't give up the Ship!" --- and on the other side, "Free Trade and Sailor's Rights!" Mr. Stow immediately erected another blacksmith shop to match Chubbuck's, which stood very near where Coman's store is, and swung out his sign directly opposite to Chubbuck bearing these words: "Don't give up the Shop!" and on the reverse side, "Free Trade and Mechanic's Rights!" --- alluding to his neighbor's giving up blacksmithing for tavern keeping. Those unique signs hung out for many a year. “

PS   If you didn’t ever hear of this piece…it was because S F B Morse was and ego-maniac and took credit for everything he could!

So come out and visit " on Memorial Day...get a bit of history and envision what was a once bustling town!

More Famous Women of Eaton

Eaton Museum will be open on Memorial Day

Certainly among the most famous woman buried in the Eaton Cemetery is Eunice Bigelow Morse of the famous Stowe-Bigelow -Morse families of Natick, Massachusetts.  Eunice came with her husband Joseph, and young children to a place that would become not only home to her but to generations of her family.

A relative Harriet Beecher Stowe in a book titled “Old Town Folks”, forever immortalized Eunice’s family.  Many believed the story was written by Harriet's husband Calvin Ellis Stowe for his family… the Stowe’s… However, when Harriet married Callvin she married into the same family as her grandmother. * It is interesting to note that the Eaton Museum has the first edition of Hearth & Home with the first installment of that book inside…a newspaper kept untouched by Eunice Morse.  

The museum also has Eunice’s rocker and the cradle she used for what became the famous Morse brood.  The Natick crowd (Old Town Folks) also included other Morses…crab (Hezekiah Morse”, Grandpa Stowe of Eaton’s Stow Tavern…. and many more.

From Luna Hammond’s History in part:    

 Joseph (Eunice)  removed to Eaton in 1796 from Natick… Joseph Morse was the founder of Eaton village, and his sons have been identified with nearly all of its business interests. These sons were named as follows: Ellis,  whose biographical sketch appears in the chapter relating to Eaton, Joseph, who moved to Pennsylvania served in the Legislature of that State, and also became judge of the County Courts; Calvin, who was an elected member of the Legislature from Madison County in 1842, and has held municipal offices in town and county; Alpheus, who has been a merchant and scientific farmer, and for many years past, manufacturer, being proprietor of the Alderbrook Woolen Mill; and Bigelow, who was a respected citizen of Fabius, Onondaga County. Eunice, the eldest daughter of Joseph More, married Dr. James Pratt the pioneer physician of Eaton.   After her husband's death, she with her family removed and began pioneer life again in Palmyra, Mo.  She was a woman of indomitable will and great energy of character.

     The descendants of Joseph (and Eunice) Morse have, many of them, distinguished themselves in various positions. Gen. Henry B. Morse entered the late war as Captain of the 114th Reg. N. Y. V., was promoted to the office of Colonel, and subsequently, for meritorious services, was breveted Brigadier-General in the army of the southwest. He is grandson of Joseph Morse; as also is the Rev. Andrew Morse, who as a young man was a missionary to Siam and then become the Chaplain of the U S Treasury and friends with Abraham Lincoln,. Gardner Morse, who was member of the Legislature in 1866, Walter, a member of the manufacturing firm of Wood, Tabor & Morse, George E., a prominent citizen interested in the schools and who founded the Eaton Village Cemetery Association, and Alfred, who bravely gave his life for the Union cause at the battle of Winchester,Va. ; all these being sons of Ellis Morse. Darwin and Frank B. Morse, merchants at Eaton village, Allie Morse Burchard whose husband formed the Chenango Breeder’s Association, Children of Bigelow, are grandsons of Joseph Morse. Two grand-daughters, Belinda and Eliza, daughters of Calvin, have been conspicuous as teachers, the latter being now assistant Principal of Vassar Female College.

     Hezekiah Morse, the third of the pioneer brothers, came to Eaton in 1806. His children are scattered and many of them dead.   One of his sons. Alpha was for many years a prominent manufacturer of Eaton.  Another son, Elijah, who is now dead, was a wealthy farmer of Eaton. A grand-daughter is wife of  Rev. John Raymond, President of Vassar Female College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. Albert H. Morse, a prominent citizen of Eaton is also a grandson, being son of Elijah. H. B. Morse, youngest son of Hezekiah, is a scientific and successful farmer of Norwich, N. Y. (and this is just and excerpt) 

What a family… and that isn’t all of them and their accomplishments.  The very road today’s Eaton Village Cemetery is located on (Landon Road) was once the Great Skaneateles Turnpike a road that it is claimed would not have been built except for Joseph and Ellis who controlled 51 percent of the stock investment… an investment they made of $30,000 in 1810… think about it.

*Interestingly Luna Hammond the historian and her famous mother Deidamia Button Chase (the first female physician of Madison County) and her famous brood are also buried in the cemetery. Almost all of the Morse family is buried in the Eaton Cemetery including the Morse – Motts. Did you know that Luna's brother Julius was the historian for the US Treasury in Washington DC

.Come out to Eaton Day on Memorial, Day Monday… tour the cemetery…buy a book, make a donation to support Eaton's Old Town Museum.... Friends of the Old Town of Eaton Museum, c/o 5823 Brooklyn Street. Eaton NY 13334