SOME
OF THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF SCIPIO
CAYUGA
COUNTY NEW YORK by Austin B. Comstock
I will be posting
each page of this history separately. The index, posted on June 24, 2014 in 4
parts, provides the page numbers; you can also search the blog for a particular
name appearing anywhere within it. I hope you find something new!
to Alexander Robinson who
shortly vacated and Smith went into business and continued as a
merchant, fruit buyer, and poultry dealer until about 1900 when Thomas J.
Ryan took over the business.
Samuel Phelps built in 1814
the store which he leased to a native by the name of King who did not
stay long. He sold to a man named Parsons who sold to Josiah Bowen
(father of Hon. Sales J. Bowen of Washington DC).
Bowen sold to David P. Johnson,
whose daughters married some of our well known citizens of the Town of Scipio,
namely George Coy, John Mallory, Ruben Rumsey, John
Strong and William D. Bennett, Esq.
Johnson vacated this store in 1819
when it was purchased by Alsop and Howland who did business until
1824 when Alsop sold to his partner Howland who continued alone until 1833 when
he took a nephew Ledra Heaslit in the spring of 1840. Slocum continued
alone until 1847 when he took his son William as a partner, and it
continued as Slocum Howland and Son until the death of Slocum which
occurred in 1881. William carried on the business until his death in 1905.
Ledra Heazlett, above mentioned, married Rebecca Otis. Their son, William
Heaslit, moved to Auburn and was the father of Dr. Heaslit
who was one of the best surgeons this county has ever known.
Soon after, the cast iron plow was
invented by Jethro Wood. Slocum Howland entered into partnership for its
manufacture.
The iron was bought in Albany and
taken to Montville to be cast. The castings wee then brought to Sherwood and
were wooded and finished in their own shop which was located where the Frank
C. Smith house now (1938) stands (in 2001, Marjorie Whitten’s).
Moravia, or rather Montville, makes claims to being the first cast iron plow
factory which is true so far as the casting of iron goes, but they were not
finished there for many years as the account books of Slocum Howland prove,
both as to the pay for the casting and also credits to several for work done in
the plow factory at Sherwood when Slocum was a hard working man and had to make
his stake before going into business for himself. His brother Humphrey
Howland urged him to give up his idea of speculating and devote himself to
helping his father on the farm two miles west of Poplar Ridge, but Slocum felt
that he was the best judge of his future and continued in his speculations
until he went into the mercantile business as a clerk for Alsop. Even after
that, he would buy hogs and ship them through. He also bought turkeys and had
them driven to New York by a farmer by the name of John F. Smith who the
writer knew very well in his later years. From the fact that he drove live
turkeys to New York he was always known as “Turkey John Smith.” He continued
END OF PAGE 9
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