Past & Present of Norwich - 1875

Past & Present of Norwich

by S.S. Randall

Chenango Telegraph, February 18, 1875

The Old Garnsey Homestead

We have already seen that in the partition of the territory now included in the village of Norwich [Chenango Co., NY], among the six purchasers from the assignees of the original patentee, Col. William Monroe took all that part extending from the north line of the Graves purchase, on the west side of Main Street to the old Dickinson farm on the hill, and westerly to a point beyond the Canasawacta Creek.  that extensive property seems soon afterwards to have bene purchased of the Colonel, by Elisha Smith, who erected on the west bank of the Creek, the first flouring mill in the county, very nearly on the site of the present stone structure. from Judge Smith the property passed, at an early period in the century, into the possession and ownership of Peter B. Garnsey, and by whose descendants and heirs, a very large portion of it--including the old homestead is still held\ [in 1875].

 

We have no means at hand, of ascertaining the antecedents of the Garnsey family, or in what year, he, himself, became a resident of the county. Certain it is, from the official records, that his was the first name entered on the roll of Attorneys of the court of Common Pleas, held at Oxford in 1798, that in 1800 he was one of the earliest representatives of the county in the Legislature, and that he was admitted to practice as a counsellor, in the Supreme Court, at a Circuit Court presided over at Oxford by Judge Kent in June 1802.  In 1807 he executed a deed of gift to the county of about one and a half acres of land, for the erection of a Court House, upon the site now occupied for that purpose, and for the use of the citizens of Norwich, as a part of the public commons.  Judge Steere, then the occupant of the premises known subsequently as the "Eagle Tavern" having donated to the village the East Commons.

 

There appears to have been erected at about this period, "on the West Commons" as stated by Mr. Clark log house, by Major Thomas Brooks, an emigrant from Massachusetts, but as no records exist of any conveyance to him of the premises so occupied, the probabilities are that he took possession as a "squatter" as did many others, prior to the State survey and sale in 1797.

 

The "Old homestead" still [in 1875] remains on its original position in the rear and to the left of the Court House, occupying the corner of Court and West Main St.  In what early year of the century it was built I am unable to say. Fifty years ago it was occupied by the entire original family, with the exception of Peter B. Gurnsey Jr. who was absent on a voyage to Europe for the benefit of his health--and on whose genealogical researches in England, the family name was, upon his return changed to Guernsey, which it has since retained. The elder Mr. Guernsey, though not a brilliant, was a highly intelligent, enterprising and sagacious man, and during his entire life possessed the regard, esteem and confidence of the community in which he resided.  He was averse to innovation of all kinds, and especially to innovations in his extensive estate, whether by improvement of its value, or otherwise, and this spirit was carried out to almost a  ruinous extent by his eldest surviving son, William G.  His eldest daughter, Polly, became the wife of Dr. James Thompson.  Lavinia, the youngest, remained unmarried until her death, which occurred only a few years since [in 1875].  Their mother, Mrs. Garnsey, was one of the best and most amiable of women--universally respected and beloved, and in these respects, both her daughters inherited her virtues, and their general appreciation, Peter B. Guernsey Jr., on his return from Europe, married a Miss Bellamy of Catskill--a most amiable and accomplished lady--now the widow of the late Dr. Henry Mitchell.  Mr. Guernsey resided during the brief remainder of his short life in a dwelling adjoining the Clerk's office on the west, and then I had the happiness of frequently dropping in upon him, and listening to his attractive and instructive details of his European tour, and his discussions of the literary topics of the day.  He was, in all respects a brilliant and  noble young man, and when the promising fires of his genius and sterling worth, were permanently quenched in death, the entire community was steeped in mourning.  He left one son, W.B. Guernsey, who with the representative of Mrs. Thomspon are the sole inheritors of what remained unsold at the recent executors' sale of the splendid patrimony of his grandfather.  Here again we have the outline sketches of three generations reaching down to a period nearly fifty years, remote form the present.  Another generation has long since passed the meridian of human life--with what varied fortunes and results, must be left to some other pen to depict.

The old family mansion, as I remember it, was a spacious two story building, painted white, and having a high sloping roof, with an ample flower garden in front, a large hall running through the centre of the first floor, opening on each side to the parlors and sitting rooms and leading to a large family room and kitchen in the rear.  The second floor was similarly subdivided into sleeping apartments, and above all a roomy attic where with William G., I often frolicked and feasted in my boyhood on hickory nuts, butternuts and apples.  In the rear of the house, and separated from it by a verdant lane was the large garden, terminated by a bathing house.  This garden was always kept in a high state of cultivation and abounded in fruit trees of every variety.  On the south west corner of the lawn, in the rear of the house, stood the office consisting only of two small rooms, and which had originally many years previous been occupied, with some necessary addition, by the family of the late William Johnson, and stood on the south side of West St. near the site of the old Presbyterian church, and between that and the corner of South Main St.--then and for many years after a vacant lot.

 

To Be Continued