Town Historian
  Barbara Dix
  69 County Route 57A
  Phoenix, NY  13135.
 

  315-695-6641

SCHROEPPEL¹----was taken from Volney, April 4, 1832.  It lies in the S. part of the co., in the N.E. angle formed by the junction of Oneida and Oswego Rivers.  The surface is level or gently rolling.  It is watered by Scotts and Fish Creeks and many smaller streams.  A swamp extends northward from the mouth of Fish Creek to the N. border of the town, and is a half mile to a mile in width.  The soil is a rich sandy loam and clay.  The underlying rocks, which belong to the Clinton group, nowhere crop out in town.  There are 10 sawmills, 4 shingle mills, and other manufactories in town.  Phoenix,² (p.v.,) on Oswego River, 2 mi. below Three River Point, was incorporated in 1848.  It contains 3 churches and a newspaper office.  Pop. 1,164. Gilbertsville, (Gilbert Mills p.o.,) in the N. part, contains 2 churches. Pop. 442. Hinmansville, (p.v.,) in the extreme W. part, on Oswego River, contains 25 houses; and Pennelville, (p.v.,) near the center, 15.  Settlement was commenced by Abram Paddock, in 1800^3.  The first church (M.E.) was organized in 1826.  There are now 5 churches in town.⁴

1.  Pronounced scru?ple; named from Henry W. Schroeppel.  His father, Geo. C. Schroeppel, purchased the whole of Township 24 and a large part of 16, of George Scriba.  Henry W. settled in the town in 1819, and is still a resident.

2.  Named in honor of Alex. Phoenix.

3.  Thomas Vickery and ----- La Hommedieu settled in 1807; 

Wm. Miles settled in 1808. 

The first birth was that of Joseph Vickery, Sept. 11, 1807; 

The first marriage, that of John Lemanier and Sally Winter. 

The first sawmill was erected by H. W. Schroeppel, in 1819; 

The first gristmill, by A. H. Gilbert, the same year. 

The first store was kept by Andrus Gilbert, in 1821; 

The first inn, by Alex. Phoenix, in 1828. 

Horatio Sweet taught the first school, at Three River Point, in 1813. 

4.  M. E., Cong., Bap., and F. W. Bap. 

--of the town was effected by the State legislature, April 4, 1832.  The town was detached from Volney at that time, and organized as a separate and distinct town.  The first annual meeting for the election of town officers and the transaction of other municipal business was held at the house of James B. Richardson, in the village of Phoenix, March 5, 1833.

At the first meeting there were 117 votes cast.  In 1834, 97; in 1835, 125; in 1836, 191; in 1837, 159; in 1838, 218; in 1839, 285; and in 1840, 308.

The subjoined resolution was unanimously passes by the freeholders and inhabitants:
?That James B. Richardson be the clerk pro tem.
?That Orville W. Childs be assistant clerk.
?That the next annual meeting be held on the first Tuesday in March next.?

The officers elected at the first meeting were: Samuel Merry, supervisor; James B. Richardson, town clerk; Orville W. Childs, Artemus Ross, justices of the peace; Andrus Gilbert, James B. Richardson, overseers of the poor; Samuel C. Putnam, Abram Vanderpool, Leman Carrier, commissioners of highways; Joshua M. Rice, collector; Thomas R. Hawley, Joshua M. Rice, Leman Carrier, Alexander Ross, constables.

Overseers of Highways. - For district No. 1, Walter Peck; No.2, John Dale; No. 3, Jesse Page; No. 4, Milton Fuller; No. 5, John Porter; No. 6, Allen Gilbert; No. 7, Leman Carrier; No. 8, Andrus Gilbert; No. 9, George W. Davis; No. 10, Patten Parker; No. 11, Levi Pratt; No. 12, Asa Sutton; No. 13, John Curtis, Jr.; No. 14, Lawrence Seymour; No. 15, Henry W. Schroeppel.

It was voted to raise two hundred and fifty dollars for the improvement of highways; also that the town raise an amount equal to that received from the State, for the support of common schools.

The supervisors of the town from 1833 to 1877 inclusive have been: Samuel Merry, Andrus Gilbert, Samuel Merry, James B. Richardson (two years), Patten Parker (two years), Barzil Candee (two years), Joseph R. Brown, Garrett C. Sweet, Samuel Foot, William Conger (two years), William Hall (three years), Alvin Breed (five years), Ira Betts, Seth W. Alvord (two years), John P. Rice, Frederick D. Van Wagner, John P. Rice, Edmund Merry (three years), Moses Melvin, John C. Hutchinson (two years), Hiram Fox (four years), William Patrick, present  incumbent (two years).

 The town clerks for the same period have been: James B. Richardson (three years), Otis W. Randall (four years), Solomon Judd, William Conger (two years), Seth W. Burke, Joshua M. Rice, Elmer W. Hall, Oliver Breed (two years), Edward Baxter (two years), Harvey Bigsby, Jerome Duke, John C. Hutchinson, James M. Clark, Geo. W. Thompson, O.B. Ferguson, Edmund Merry (two years),  Lewis C. Rowe (four years), Alfred Morton, Stephen A. Brooks, A.M. Sponenburgh, James L. Breed, Stephen A. Brooks, W. H. H. Allen (two years), James McCarthy, Harvey Wandell, R.A. Diefendorf, Martin Wandell, present incumbent (six years).

The justices of the peace have been: Orville W. Childs, Artemus Ross, Samuel Merry, John Fitzgerald (vacancy), Artemus Ross, Joshua M. Rice (vacancy), Dyer Putnam, Levi Stevens, Abram Vanderpool (vacancy), James B. Richardson, Abram Vanderpool, Artemus Ross, Dyer Putnam, Henry Chapin, Benjamin Hinman (vacancy), Benjamin Hinman (full term), Artemus Ross, Seth W. Burke, William Leslie, Nathaniel Coburn (vacancy), Samuel Merry, James B. Richardson, Andrus Gilbert, John H. Brooks, Augustus Diefendorf, John H. Brooks (vacancy), Josiah Chaffee, James S. Gregg, Andrew Baird, Samuel Allen, Lewis McKoon, A.C. Paine, Joseph B. Powers (full term), Andrus Gilbert, Edmund Merry, James Barnes (vacancy), James Barnes (full term), Hosea B. Russ (vacancy), Geo M. Tainer (vacancy), John C. Fuller, Nelson Corey, Isaac N. Soule, Seth W. Alvord (vacancy), James H. Loomis, John A. Fuller, Zachariah P. Sears, Ira Betts, James H. Loomis, Henry Ellis, Vincent L. Kimball, H.A. Brainard, Seth W. Alvord, J.C. Fuller, Stephen Hinkley, Hiram D. Fox, Edward Cathcart, Phineas Converse, James Barnes, William B. Corey (vacancy).

 --was first settled by Archibald Cook in 1818, who was followed by Andrus and Hiram Gilbert in
1819, and by Samuel Merry, Esq., in 1822.  Among other early settlers in the vicinity of the place were Hymen Sutton, Patten Parker, Josiah Chaffee, Deacon G. W. Turner, Stephen Griffith, Ezekiel Gardner and one Mr. Brownell.

Andrus and Hiram Gilbert built their grist-mill, in 1819, on a stream that passes through the place, commonly known as the north branch of Six-Mile creek.  Here, also, Andrus Gilbert erected the first store in the township, in 1821.  Samuel Merry, Esq., became a partner of Mr. Gilbert?s in 1822.  It was destroyed by fire in 1848. The Gilberts carted their lumber from Oliver Burdick?s mill, which stood one mile east of Oswego falls.  A few years later they erected the saw-mill, which had two upright saws, and was one of the most extensive in this part of the county at that time.

The village now contains one general store, a black-smith shop, saw and grist-mills, three churches, ---one each of the Methodist and Episcopal, and one Baptist.  One remarkable feature about the place is that no intoxicating liquors have been sold there since 1831.  It is a post-village, of which Andrus Gilbert was the first post-master.  The present incumbent is S. P. Mason.

Quite a furor was experienced in the place by the discovery of and drilling for salt, in 1864.  A well was drilled three hundred and forty feet, and pure lime was found which contained ten and one-half per cent of good salt.  Six kettles were put in an arch, in which more or less salt was made.  The business was conducted by Captain E. E. Cook.

As the founder of the village of Gilbert?s Mills, it is right and proper that Mr. Gilbert should have more than a passing notice in the pages of this history.  Andrus Gilbert was born in Oneida county, New York, August 30, 1799.  He continued his residence there until 1819, when he removed to the town of Schroeppel (then Volney), and settled on the present site of the village that bears his name.  He began life without capital, but he possessed good health, energy, industry, and ambition, the practical application of which qualities secured to him a reasonable success.  The country was new, neighbors scarce, and the land heavily timbered.  On his way to his new home he had to camp out one night in the eight-mile woods, not being able to get through before night-fall came upon him.  After making preparations for a settlement he returned to Utica, where he married Sarah S., daughter of Captain George Macomber, one of the earliest pioneers of Utica.  They have had eleven children, of whom seven survive.  Three of these - two sons and a daughter, the latter the wife of Charles B. Allen - reside in Warrensburg, Missouri; Mary, wife of Judge D. D. McKoon, lives in New York City; Ellen is the wife of Judge D. D. McKoon, lives in New York city; Ellen is the wife of G. Fred. Savage, of Sanquoit, Oneida County; Morris D. resides with his parents.
Mr. Gilbert was for a quarter of a century engaged in the mercantile business, and in the manufacture of pot and pearl ashes for twenty years, and made more of these articles than any other man in the county.  While keeping store, he was also interested in the milling business.

In 1847 he moved on to the farm he now occupies, which contains one hundred and sixty acres.  For twelve years he held the office of justice of the peace, and that of supervisor one year, and was postmaster for sixteen years.  In politics he is Republican, and long before the war was a strong abolitionist.  Has also been a firm and uncompromising advocate of temperance, at the risk of pecuniary and other considerations.  At one time he was read out of church for refusing to support a pro-slavery minister, but the resolution favoring his expulsion was subsequently rescinded.  For fifty-eight years he has been a member of the Presbyterian church.  His life has been a busy and useful one, and his business career has been characterized by the strictest probity.  His generosity and liberality have been the most salient traits of his life, and no man has taken a livelier interest in the general public good than he.  His earnest zeal in the promotion of the best interests of his township has gained for him a host of friends, and no man enjoys to a greater extent the respect and esteem of the community at large.  Undue laudation would meet with his disapproval we know, and as a residence of nearly sixty years has made his name and virtues as ?familiar as a household word?, a lengthy tribute to his praise is unnecessary.  Portraits of himself and wife are inserted in this work, at the solicitation of his numerous friends.

formerly Six-Mile Creek, was first settled by John F. Withey, in 1821.  He emigrated from Vermont, and built a log house near the east end of the bridge.  The Oswego canal (completed in 1828) runs through the place.  Benjamin F. Sweet erected the first frame house, which stood between the canal and the river, in 1827.  About this time John E. Hinman, whose wife was one of the heirs of the Schroeppel estate, caused buildings to be erected ostensibly for the purpose of establishing a village there.  A spring or run of water came out of the high bank at the head of Horse-Shoe Rifts, called by the Indians Te-tung-sut-a-yugh, signifying a deep spring, supposed to be a subterranean water-course caused by a short bend in the river, a half-mile above, known as Fiddler?s Elbow.  It has disappeared since the construction of the canal.  Hinmansville received its name from John E. Hinman, of Utica, New York, whose wife was the proprietress of the place, who caused a church to be erected there, and also contributed to the erection and support of a school-house, both of which, since he has retired, have disappeared.  At present the school-house is on the west side of the river.  There are now one general store, one grocery, a blacksmith-shop, a shoe-shop, and one tavern.  It is quite a harbor for boats.  It's population is estimated at two hundred and fifty.

 was named in honor of Richard Pennell, M.D., of New York, whose wife fell heir to a large tract of land left her by her father, George C. Schroeppel.  Dr. Pennell erected a saw-mill there in 1833.  The building was done by Lauren Seymour, on a stream that passed through the place, called by the Indians Ah-in-ah-ta-na-ga-nus, signifying big fish water.  The place is located on the New York and Oswego Midland railroad, and contains one general store, a cheese-factory, a saw-mill, a brick-yard, a blacksmithy, a railroad depot, telegraph and express offices, and a hotel, a church (Universalist), and a brick school-house, and about one hundred and fifty inhabitants.  There is a burying-ground here, in which repose the remains of Dr. and Mrs. Pennell, and also those of Henry W. Schroeppel.  Near the place Mr. Nelson Corey has recently erected a fine brick residence (the largest farm dwelling in the county), and also the largest barn in the county, illustration of which can be seen elsewhere in this work.

formerly used as a ford by the Indians, being the most convenient place for that purpose west of Brewerton.  On the south side are evidences of an extensive burying-ground, near which have been found many interesting Indian antiquities.

The first settler was David Winters, who built a log house on the bank of the river, on lot 35, in 1807.  George Foster settled on the same lot in 1811.  This is the same party of whom we have written more fully in the history of Phoenix.

In 1815, George C. Schroeppel settled on his estate, then consisting of twenty-thousand acres.  He settled on lots 34 and 35, and caused a saw-mill to be built on the Rifts, in 1819; also a grist-mill was begun but never finished.

There is a lock of the Oneida Slack-Water company?s canal at the place, and it contains about one hundred inhabitants.