Chenango & Unadilla Valleys in 1820s - Part 3

Chenango and Unadilla Valleys Fifty Years Ago

by S.S. Randall

Chenango Telegraph, February 21, 1872

 

Continued from posting of July 30, 2017

 

Adjoining on the north, was the large two story house, then recently erected by my grandfather Edmunds, and now, or recently owned and occupied by the George L. Rider family.  Only the large dining room and kitchen, with three small bedrooms in the rear, and the front room on the south of the hall, were then completed.  My father, with his family, occupied a portion of the house, and my grandfather cultivated the large garden and adjacent grounds.  Here we resided until the year 1825.  North of this was the old "yellow house," built by my grandfather in the early years of the century, and where I was born. At this time it was occupied as a public house or tavern, by John Cooke, and subsequently by Capt. James Perkins, after which it was occupied as a residence by Judge York, and finally passed into the possession of Judge Smith M. Purdy, by whom it is still owned.  Opposite stood the old Seth Garlick house, subsequently rebuilt and converted into a tavern by Mr. Rider.  North of the "old yellow house" and grounds was the store and office of my father, heretofore referred to; and north of those, the original structure, now replaced by the "Noyes House" (American).  Occupied in 1817-18 by our family, afterwards by Thurlow Weed, and subsequently purchased in 1820, or thereabouts, by Josiah S. Miller and converted into a Hotel, which, after his death passed into the hands of John Noyes, Jr., by marriage with his widow.  Opposite or nearly opposite, on the west side of the street, was the then residence of Col. John Randall, with a store adjoining on the north, occupied by Richard L. DeZenz and R.L. Lawrence, and afterward as a Drug Store by the latter, and the upper part of which was, as before stated, Mr. Weed's printing office. These premises were subsequently occupied at different periods, by Nathan Chamberlain, Esq., John Lamb, Lot Clark, John Clapp, and the widow of Elisha Smith, Esq.

 

On the north of the present "Noyes House" was the old Dr. Brooks mansion, a large, rambling, spacious house, occupied fifty years since as a Hotel, by Seth Garlick, Zebina C. Andruss, William Palmer and James M.D. Carr, successively.  Opposite this was a three story building, owned by Eli M. Gibbs and occupied as a silver-smith's shop on the first floor, the printing office of the Norwich journal on the second, and a Masonic Lodge on the third.  South of this was a small dwelling house, occupied by Peter Fryer, and north the law office of Birdsall & Buttolph, or afterwards Buttolph & Thorp.  No erections north of this at that time existed on the west side up to the public square.  On the east side, north of the large hotel referred to, was the store of Charles York, afterwards York & Chapman, the law office of Clark & Clapp, the silversmith and jewelry store of Peter Fryer, a small barber's shop, occupied by Sam Carr, and the corner store of Johnson & Noyes, (Dr. Jonathan Johnson and John Noyes, senior and junior).

 

This was the termination of what is now known as South Main Street, and brings us to the public square or common, from whence diverged North Main, East and West Streets, the two latter extending from the Chenango River to the Canasawacta Creek.  I propose, if your readers have the patience to follow me, to continue in a subsequent number my panoramic view of the village as it was fifty years since--lovingly going over the gound, every step of which was so familiar to my early youth, and recalling the "old familiar faces" and the well-remembered events of a period, the contemporaries of which are each succeeding year becoming "fewer and farther between."  Ah Well! soon will it be said of us "Abiunt ad plures"--"They too, have gone over to the majority!"  Let us hope that when "the last of earth" has faded on our view, some friendly and affectionate hand shall "be to our virtues very kind, and to our faults a little blind"--and in some coming year of the twentieth century, recall our memory to the busy and bustling generation, who may then occupy our places, and be not unwilling, reverently and lovingly to retrace our accustomed haunts.

 

"These to their softened hearts should bear

The thought of what has been,

And speak of one who cannot share

The gladness of the scene;

Whose part in all the pomp that fills

The circuit of the summer hills,

Is that his grave is green;

And deeply would their hearts rejoice

To hear again his living voice!"

 

The end