Historical Sketch, New Berlin, Chenango County, NY (1877)

Historical Sketch of the Settlement of the Town of New Berlin 

by John Hyde

New Berlin Gazette, New Berlin, May 26, 1877

Lawsen Judson came up from old Connecticut and settled in New Berlin village about the year 1814.  He purchased a building lot on South Street and erected a one-story dwelling house and shop thereon, and in after years he raised the building to the dignity of a two-story dwelling house.  The premises now [in 1877] belong to Mrs. Cheney, her husband in his lifetime having purchased the same and transferred the title to her.

Mr. Judson was by trade a tailor and was esteemed as a good and respectable citizen and an honest and industrious worker at the business of making garments for his customers, giving satisfaction to his employers.  Writing his name brings back to recollection the pleasant times of trout fishing excursions we had together amid the woodland scenery in the spring season when the forest trees were resuming their green summer dress.  Early life associations are not easily erased.  Mr. Judson with his family went into the State of Michigan and settled at Port Hudson some 40 years ago.  He lived to an advanced age, leaving his wife and one daughter to inherit the fruits of his labor.

Russel Cheney who became the owner of Mr. Judson's place, as before stated was an apprentice to the tanner's trade in Mr. Charles Knap's employment.  On the expiration of his apprenticeship, he continued to work as a journeyman for Mr. Knap some years.  He married Phila Harris, the daughter of Charles Harris and built a dwelling house on a lot belonging to his wife where he lived during the lifetime of his wife and worked at the shoemaker's trade.  Sometime after his wife's death, he sold the house and lot, having by the will of his wife become the owner thereof, and purchased the Judson premises, married Miss Pratt and lived with her in her dwelling house next adjoining his premises during the remainder of his life. Before his death he conveyed by deed to his wife the Judson house and lot which his widow still owns [in 1877].  Mr. Cheney was a good neighbor and industrious.

The gambled log house on the north side of the street next east of H.H. Harrington's dwelling house is one of the oldest dwelling house buildings in the village.  It was built and occupied by a Dr. Coleman as a druggist and apothecary shop in the early days of the first settlement of New Berlin.  Mr. Coleman was educated to the science of compounding and dealing in medicine.  Formerly no person, unless educated to the business, sold medicine or kept a drug store. An apothecary was supposed to understand the art of compounding medicine by previous study and exclusive practice in that particular business and physicians were carefully instructed into the mysteries of their profession and their competence tested by examination before being admitted to prescribe the apothecary's medicine to their patients.  Mrs. Howard the mother of General DeForest's wife, purchased the Dr. Coleman shop and converted it into a dwelling house and with her son, Henry Howard and his wife, lived there some years and then sold the place to Mrs. Rhodes who is the present owner and occupant [in 1877].

Asahel Hatch, after Dr. Coleman went away, came to the village and entered into the business of an apothecary.  He was well instructed in the business of compounding medicine.  He occupied the store built by Isaac Van Dyke in South Street now known [in 1877] as the Medbury store.  Mr. Hatch was a young man, intelligent and possessed of an amiable disposition and well qualified in the science of compounding medicine.  He left New Berlin about the year 1818 and went with General DeForest on a raft of lumber from Olean to New Orleans.  On the way he stopped at Natchez and when ready to go on, Mr. Hatch could not be found.  It was generally supposed by his friends that he had been murdered.  His fate was never known.

Ebenezer Bivens succeeded Mr. Hatch in the druggist business in the Van Dyke store.  Charles Medbury, Esq. having purchased the Van Dyke property, he rented the store to Mr. Bivens.  He served his clerkship with George Pomeroy, an eminent druggist at Cooperstown, and he obtained a competent knowledge of his profession.  He married the eldest daughter of Levi Blakeslee and purchased a building lot and erected a dwelling house on the west side of South Street.  Tracy Knap afterwards purchased the premises and built the house which the late John Harris owned and occupied at the time of his decease.  Mr. Bivens after a while, formed a co-partnership with Mr. Medbury and united the selling of merchandise with drugs and medicines.  On the dissolution of the firm of Medbury & Bivens, Mr. Bivens formed a co-partnership with his father-in-law, Mr. Blakeslee and traded in the old Blakeslee's store for several years.  He finally went into the western country and became a farmer during the remainder of his life.  Mr. Bivens was an active man of business.  While in New Berlin, he had occasionally held some town office.  In the military, he arose from a private soldier up to the rank of a colonel of a regiment.

A Mr. David Atherton owned the premises on which Amenzo Cady's shop and the Medbury store now stand [in 1877].  He came from Connecticut and built a small one-story dwelling house thereon about where the blacksmith shop now stands [in 1877].  He was a saddler by occupation.  He sold out to Isaac Vandyke and went into the adjoining town, Columbus [Chenango Co. NY].

Isaac Van Dyke came from New Jersey and was a tailor by trade and worked for customers contemporaneous with Tailor Judson.  His family was connected with the Ten Brook family of Pittsfield [Otsego Co. NY].  He built the Medbury store now so called and rented while he lived.  He had but one child, Betsy Van Dyke, who married a Mr. Birdny DeForest and went into one of the Western States.  The store is now [in 1877] owned by Delos Medbury, a son of Charles Medbury and rented. The dwelling house has given place to a blacksmith shop.

Calvin Thompson was one of the early settlers in New Berlin village, was a carpenter by trade and one of our good old-fashioned citizens and much esteemed for his industrious and quiet habits.  He left a homestead dwelling and premises to his son, Alfred Thompson, who now [in 1877] resides on the place.  It is situated a little below the Baptist Church on the west side of the road.