Craft Masonry in Oneida County, New York - Onondaga and ...

however, was at Albany, to which, with their wares, their teams were regularly sent, it being before the days of canals or railroads. In
the winter of 1824, he sent his son Eli, a mere lad, with a span of horses attached to a sleigh loaded with potash kettles, to
Montrose, Penn., where they were disposed of, and he brought back a load of anthracite coal, the first ever brought into the town of
Paris. It was used in a small cupola, called the “pot furnace,” to remelt the “sprues,” &c., to be cast into plow points, thus making
them harder than could be produced from the great charcoal stack.
“Judge” Eliphalet Sweeting, the pioneer of Clayville and the foreman of the furnace, was a man of fine qualities of heart, and
held in high esteem by all. He married the widow Luce, with seven children, whom he brought up and ever made as welcome to his
home as were his own four children which the widow bore him. Horace Luce, one of the boys, afterward and for many years kept the
tavern, built by Mr. Scollard, opposite the furnace, which was the popular resort not only of the little village, but many a party from
Utica used to drive up there with their sweethearts and music to enjoy the genial hospitality of “Hod.” Luce. In the last days of the old
furnace, he in company with a Mr. Webb, put her in blast for a few years. The old hotel was afterward the residence of David J.
Millard, his widow now residing there. “Judge” Sweeting and many of the furnace hands boarded at the Luce tavern, and one
evening when all were as usual assembled in the bar-room, a farmer present was bragging about the wonderful drawing qualities of
his span of horses, when the old “Judge” wagered him that he had four men that could wheel on a barrow from the furnace up the
little hill—where George Holman now resides—to the head of the “ stack,” more pig iron than his team could haul there. The wager
being accepted, he selected the four Green brothers: Napoleon B., Joseph, Nathan, and Hiram, all large, powerful men, in the prime
of life. They each loaded a barrow, wheeled it up the hill and back, and then placed the contents on the farmer’s wagon, (the lightest
barrow load of the four, weighed 1,480 pounds.) The team could scarcely move the load on level ground, and it was impossible for
them to draw it up the hill. Two of the brothers survive, Nathan C., who lives west of Clayville, and Hiram Green, of New Hartford.
The four brothers came from Otego, Otsego county, at an early day, and were employed in the furnace for many years. The
Company owned a large tract of land where Wakeman Rider now resides, and also near Tassel Hill. After burning the timber into
charcoal, and clearing up the land they sowed it to wheat, and one year they had 1,000 acres to harvest, and all of it was reaped by
sickles, requiring the aid of all the furnace employees and many others. It required the constant labor of Hiram Green to supply them
with drinking water. At the Lenox Furnace they had several thousand acres extending from the river up Coal Hill; all of this land was
finally sold off to settlers after the timber was converted into charcoal.
Judge Sweeting was a prominent Freemason, initiated in old Amicable Lodge, No. 25, of New Hartford, in 1804. The Luce
branch of the family are all dead. Horace died in Kentucky, February 19, 1874, aged 72, surviving his brothers Zabine, of East
Sauquoit, and Willard of West Sauquoit, who both died two or three years previously ; their sister, widow Sylvester Butler, being the
last to go, dying at the residence of her son-in-law, Alderman Price, of Utica, in 1878. Of his own children there survive one son and
two daughters; Henry, of Monroe county, widow George M. Brownell, of Sauquoit, and Mrs. Lovina Burnett, who makes her home
with Mr. Tucker, of the Troy Times. The deceased son, Rufus, met with a tragic end a few years since, capsizing in a yacht on a
pleasure trip on Lake Ontario. Father Sweeting went to rest March 18, 1828, at the ripe age of 72 years, his widow, Lovina, surviving
him many years, passing away May 31, 1851, aged 78 years.
Colonel Gardner Avery was the first postmaster of Paris Furnace; and Member of Assembly in 1827; also a distinguished
Freemason, initiated in old Amicable Lodge in 1803, and after a long, eventful, useful life, o\ strictest integrity, and the most
energetic business man ever developed in the Valley, while on a visit to Saratoga Springs, entered into rest August 18 th , 1849. A
sister in Ohio, and one brother in this State survive him—the venerable and distinguished Prof. Charles Avery, of Hamilton College,
Clinton, NY. His children were, Jared, Eliza. Mary, Eli, Louisa, Harris, James and Lyman. James resides in Utica, and Lyman in
Wampsville, NY. Eli resides on the old homestead, and for many years has been prominently identified with the growth and
prosperity of the Valley.. In early life he was for some years engaged in the forwarding business at Utica, but withdrew and was an
active partner in the firm of S. A. Millard & Co. for many years, in the extensive manufacture of agricultural implements at Clayville,
retiring, however, from active business a few years since. He was Supervisor in 1854.-55 and 1866, and Member of Assembly in
1862 and 1869. His children are, Walter, Eliza A., Edward B., Gardner and Cornelia E., all of whom survive except Gardner, who
died suddenly of typhoid fever, a few years since, in High Blue, Missouri, his remains being brought home and interred in the Valley
Cemetery.
“Transactions of the Oneida Historical Society at Utica,” by Oneida Historical Society at Utica, 1881. Pages 40-45.
http://books.google.com/books?id=N-HTEorQoD0C&pg=RA3-PA41&lpg=RA3-
PA41&dq=%22horeb+chapter%22+%22whitestown%22&source=web&ots=0v0T6malHP&sig=PHKsVcZ8u8gbYYimSHJuYJCaSm4
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General Oliver Collin was born at Wallingford, Ct., August 25, 1762. While a mere boy he enlisted in the Continental Army, in
the company of Captain John Couch, in the regiment of Colonel Thaddeus Cook. This regiment did service on Long Island, and later
was in the battle of Saratoga, under Gen. Gates. Oliver served during the war, and came home a sergeant. He married Lois Cowles,
the daughter of an adjoining neighbor, in Meriden, November 5, 1783.
In the spring of 1787 he settled with his wife and two children on a farm he had taken up, on the Middle Settlement road leading
from Whitesboro to Middle Settlement. All Whitestown did not then contain two hundred souls. There was no mill then nearer than
Palatine. The neighbors took turns in carrying their grists down the Mohawk, and he among the rest. The first mill in Whitestown was
built in 1788, on the Sauquoit, near White’s house. It was known as the Wetmore mill. There was a lawsuit about this mill, which was
terminated in the Court of Errors in 1805. The case is reported in 2 Caine’s Cases in Error, 87. The history of this mill and the
lawsuit is given in Jones’ Annals of Oneida County, page 785. Gen. Collins cleared up his farm and lived upon it till his death,
August 14, 1838, having reached seventy-six years.
Lewis Collins, Oliver’s ancestor, came from England to Charlestown, Mass., in 1630. He was then a man in middle life,
possessing property, and had with him grown up and educated sons.
Robert Collins, the fourth in descent from Lewis, was, in 1689, a settler in Wallingford, Ct. In that year he signed the petition to
set off Meriden as a parish in Wallingford. He was then twenty-two years of age, and continued a resident of the parish of Meriden
till his death, at the good age of seventy-eight years. From him sprang the Collins family in Wallingford. Oliver was his grandson; as
was Jonathan Collins, of West Turin, who settled in the Black River country in 1797.
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