By Phyllis, Margaret, and Julie Putnam
The Town of Lyme will be 200 years old in 2018. We thought it would be interesting to write a time line of major historical events leading up to our bicentennial. We can only include part of it this month, so we’ll print the rest in June. 600 BC - 700 AD: The Point Peninsula Complex indigenous culture flourished in Northern New York and Southern Ontario. Thereafter the area was used mainly as hunting and fishing grounds by the Oneida and Onondaga tribes, who called the entire Golden Crescent area “Naionre.” 1654: Father Simon Le Moyne, Jesuit missionary to the Onondaga, portaged at the Long Carrying Place, Point Peninsula. He was the first non-indigenous person to land on the shores of Lyme. 1772: Tryon County was created, encompassing all of the current North Country, in what was then the British province of New York. It was named after named after William Tryon, the last British colonial governor of New York. After the revolution the county was re-named Montgomery, for a patriot hero. 1776: British soldiers en route from Oswego to Carleton Island were overtaken by a storm. Their boats were swept over the isthmus and into Chaumont Bay, where they were stranded without food and many died. (A tale has been passed down through the years that the soldiers buried a chest of money by a big oak tree at the isthmus. There’s no evidence to suggest there’s any truth to it.) 1788: New York negotiates a treaty with the Onondaga After the Treaty of Fort Stanwix was signed between the U.S. and the Six Nations Confederacy in 1784, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Oneida tribes. After years of negotiation, the tribes ceded almost all of their land in New York (including Lyme) in return for 1,000 French crowns (currency), 200 New York pounds worth of clothing and 500 New York pounds annually forever. (New York had its own currency -- the pound, shilling, and pence -- until 1793.) 1791: Alexander Macomb, with partners William Constable and Daniel McCormick, bought 3.7 million acres of the North from New York State in six great “tracts” at 8 pence an acre and no money down. The town of Lyme was within lot number 4 of that purchase. Macomb could not sell lots fast enough to pay for the huge purchase, and ended up in debtors’prison. 1798: Oneida County was created from a part of Montgomery County; the current area of Jefferson County was included. 1800: Macomb’s partner Constable sold 220,000 acres of Northern New York to Jacques-Donatien (Anglicized to James) LeRay de Chaumont for $46,315.12. In the same year another part of the lot was deeded to Gouverneur Morris, and became known as the “Morris Tract.” 1801: LeRay hired Jonas Smith and Henry Delameter to manage the sale and settlement of his lands in what would later become the Town of Lyme. Delameter and Smith were accompanied by Richard Esselstyne, Peter Pratt, T. Wheeler, James Soper, David Soper, and Timothy Soper, all of whom arrived by boat from Oswego. These men built a log house and a frame building about two and a half miles up the Chaumont River at the location known as the “Old Town,” along the current Old Town Springs Road. 1802: Timothy Soper drowned in the Chaumont River; his death was the first recorded in Lyme. 1803: The Old Town settlement was abandoned after widespread malaria. The inhabitants moved to the area of the current village of Chaumont. A sawmill and Samuel Britton’s log tavern were among the structures built that year. (The tavern stood about where the marina is now on Circle Drive.) 1802: The first Independence Day in Jefferson County was celebrated at Independence Point in Chaumont on July 4th. 1803: A state road was laid out from Brownville to Putnam’s Ferry (near Millen’s Bay), creating the first road through Lyme. 1805: Nancy Smith organized and taught the first school in the town, which met in the house of her father, Jonas Smith. In the same year, Jefferson County was created out of a section of Oneida County. 1806: (Mar 6) The first postoffice in Chaumont was established with James Shields as postmaster 1806: The settlement at the village of Chaumont was nearly deserted when Delameter and Smith failed in business and the population was “greatly reduced by lake fevers,” as malaria was called. At one point in the summer, only one person in town was well enough to get out of bed – an unnamed “colored man.” 1806: Henry Horton arrived from Delaware County and became the first settler on Point Salubrious. 1806: Bears and wolves troubled the settlers. James Horton’s family barely survived the winter after “the bars et all the corn” he’d planted. 1807: A group of Point Salubrious men nearly starved to death when they were stranded on the tip of uninhabited Pillar Point for a week during a return boat trip from the nearest mill in Sackets Harbor. 1808: Nathan Persons from Vermont was the first settler on Point Peninsula. 1812: In June General Jacob Brown convinced the citizens of Chaumont to build a blockhouse for protection against the British. (It stood about where the Chaumont bridge meets Circle Drive now.) It was furnished with a cannon that someone found at the isthmus of Point Peninsula and sold to Jonas Smith for two gallons of rum. A second blockhouse was built at Fir Point on Point Salubrious. Eliza Horton Ryder in later years told that the inhabitants of the point gathered there and listened to the battle raging at Sackets Harbor. 1812: In June General Jacob Brown convinced the citizens of Chaumont to build a blockhouse for protection against the British. (The blockhouse stood about where the Chaumont bridge meets Circle Drive now.) It was furnished with a cannon that someone found at the isthmus of Point Peninsula and sold to Jonas Smith for two gallons of rum. 1813: A company of British soldiers camped overnight on Point Peninsula en route to attack Sackets Harbor. One soldier deserted, made his way across Chaumont Bay, and exposed the plan to residents of Point Salubrious. They were able to get word to Sackets in time to alert the American troops. 1815: James LeRay de Chaumont built a turnpike from Cape Vincent to Brownville (the route of the current Route 12E). There was no bridge at the Chaumont River; it had to be crossed by rowboat, scow, or poling on a raft. At some later point a rope ferry was introduced. 1816-1855: The catch of Chaumont Bay ciscoes using seine, scoop, gill, and pound nets exceeded 10,000 barrels annually. 1816: A Baptist congregation was established on Point Salubrious and became the first organized religious gathering in the town. 1816: Simon and Jared White, lumbermen squatters, were the first settlers on Three Mile Point. 1816: Peter, Benjamin, and Richard Estes were among the first settlers in what is now Three Mile Bay. 1818: Eight Wells brothers arrived from New Hampshire and began to clear the thick woods along what is now the Ashland Road, creating the Wells Settlement. 1818: On March 6Lyme was formed out of the larger town of Brownville. The new Town of Lyme included all what is now Cape Vincent and part of the town of Clayton. Eben Kelsy, a native of Lyme, Connecticut, offered the name for the new town. 1818: Sebra Howard, William Wilcox, Oliver Wilcox, and John Wilcox, with their families, were the first permanent settlers on Point Peninsula. 1820: The population of Lyme was 1,724. 1820: Peter and Richard Estes built a sawmill at the mouth of Three Mile Creek. It stood for many years. 1822: The town offered a bounty of $15 for wolves and $10 for their whelps. Bears and wolves were troublesome to early settlers. 1823: Vincent LeRay began construction of a 16-foot wide toll drawbridge over the Chaumont River. 1823: Lyme’s standing militia, known as the “Floatwood Company,” participated in an attack on “trespassers” (the British) on Grindstone Island. The only death was that of a man whose own gun accidentally discharged. 1825: The Davis Brothers opened the first limestone quarry in Chaumont. 1825: The population of Lyme was 2,565. 1828: The Point Peninsula Post Office opened. 1828:“Malignant fevers” (malaria) swept through the populace, killing an untold number of citizens. The death toll must have been very high, as the epidemic is mentioned somberly in several different histories for the next hundred years. 1830: The population of Lyme was 2,873. 1831: The Presbyterian Church of Chaumont was formed with 18 members, of whom 11 were named McPherson. The church originally met in a stone schoolhouse at the corner of Main and Washington Streets, across from the present Masonic Temple. 1832: Asa Wilcox and S. Howard began shipbuilding on Point Peninsula. The first ship built there was the schooner New York. It was the beginning of Lyme’s shipbuilding industry, which endured into the 20thcentury. 1832: Chaumont’s first shipyard was built by William Clark. 1833: William and Timothy Dewey purchased 1,000 acres of land from Vincent LeRay. The land was swampy, but covered with valuable timber, including many ash trees. It became known as the Ashland Farm. 1833: Lyme’s first temperance organization was formed on Three Mile Point. 1833: Seven family members drowned when their skiff overturned on Chaumont Bay near Point Peninsula: Jesse Farman, Curtis Farman and his wife and child, Charlotte Farman Collins, her husband Alva, and their infant. It remains Lyme’s single most deadly accident. 1834: Alexander Copley moved to Chaumont after buying a store, sawmill, and a gristmill from William Clark. 1834: There were 90 males and 96 females born in the town. 1835: John Reed, Charles Leonard, and Benjamin Estes were the only men living in Three Mile Bay until they were joined by Asa Wilcox in this year. Wilcox founded a shipyard in Three Mile Bay from which he launched 48 vessels between 1835 and 1853. *QUESTIONABLE 1835: According to the New York State Census, Lyme was home to 2,012 males, 1,804 females, 343 non-naturalized aliens, 365 men subject to militia duty, 672 men entitled to vote, 8 “persons of colour not taxed,” 4,054 head of cattle, 881 horses, 5,455 sheep and 3,874 hogs. The census also noted the number of yards made in homes; that year Lyme produced 3,640 yards of flannel and other woolen cloths and 2,819 yards of linen, cotton, or other thin cloth. 1835: Chaumont had three taverns, but no churches. (Although Lyme was home to several religious gatherings, no church buildings had yet been built. Religious groups met in homes or public buildings.) 1838: The Methodist Episcopal congregation was founded in Three Mile Bay, but had no permanent home yet. 1838: Four Lyme men were hanged at Fort Henry, Kingston. The British had captured them during the disastrous Battle of the Windmill at Prescott, Ontario. The battle was a part of the Patriot “War,” a series of skirmishes between civilians and the British colonial government in Canada. At least five other captured Lyme men were deported on a prison ship to a penal colony in Tasmania, Australia. 1840: The Baptist church, the first house of worship in Three Mile Bay, was constructed at a cost of $2,500. 1845: The population of Lyme (which then included all of what is now Cape Vincent and a part of Clayton) was 6,018. -The Point Salubrious “End of the Point” School (also known as the Little Red School) was built. 1849: The northern half of Lyme split off to become the new Town of Cape Vincent. 1850: The population of Lyme was 2,925. 1850: Gaige and Hamblin’s saw mill in Chaumont was one of the first in the county to use the revolutionary new circular saw blade. Mid-19th Century: Before the Civil War, Lyme housed at least two stops on the Underground Railroad, ushering slaves to freedom in Canada. One was a house on the east side of Three Mile Point and the other was near the isthmus on Point Peninsula. (There may have been others, but no documentation of them survives.) 1850: Chaumont Masonic Lodge No. 172, F. & A. M was chartered. The original lodge stood on Main Street across from the Depauville (Evans) Road. 1851: The railroad was extended from Watertown to Chaumont and Three Mile Bay. 1853: Chaumont contained 50 houses, five stores, several warehouses, four saw mills, one gristmill, two schools, a Presbyterian church and a railroad station. (No count of taverns was given.) 1861-1865: At least 252 men from Lyme participated in the Civil War. Fatalities included William Breadsell, Sylvester Brougham, Frederick Vernum, Frank Armstrong, Walter Ryder, Miller Klock, and brothers Eugene and George Herrick (aged 16 and 21). (There were certainly other casualties, but these are the only ones we have found records of.) 1867: Lawrence Gaige, J. W. Moak, and Addison Day, erected a $3,000 lime kiln in Chaumont. It was considered the best of its kind in Northern New York. 1868: Chaumont's first Catholic mass was celebrated in a private home. 1873: The Cedar Grove Cemetery Association was formed. 1873: The Point Peninsula Oil and Mining Company was incorporated with $5,000 for the "search for oil, ore, salt, coal and other minerals on Point Peninsula." The company failed, but did find enough natural gas to light L.D. Collins’ house for a long time thereafter. 1874: Incorporation of the Village of Chaumont. 1874: A Methodist Episcopal Church was erected on the site of the present Masonic Temple. 1875: A Diphtheria and Typhoid Pneumonia epidemic killed at least 50 in the village of Chaumont alone, mostly children. 1875: The population of Lyme was 2,241. 1876: Rogers Brothers Seed Company was established in Chaumont; it stood near the railroad tracks behind where Mostly British is now. 1878: The Three Mile Bay Union School was erected. It remained open for the next 90 years. 1880: The first Chaumont High School was built. It was a wood frame building on the site of the current brick school. 1880: A Methodist Episcopal Church was built on Point Peninsula. 1881: On July 15th most of the buildings on Mill Street in Chaumont burned in a huge fire. All of the church bells were rung to alarm the village of the quickly-spreading blaze. The fire was so huge that a telegraph was sent to Watertown requesting help; a train rushed down 25 Watertown firemen and one of their water wagons. The fire left 16 men unemployed and destroyed property valued at $25,000. 1885: There were three telephones in town. They were called “telephone toll stations.” Point Peninsula’s phone was in L.H. Collins’ store, Three Mile Bay’s phone was in A D. Curtis’ store, and Chaumont’s phone was in E. Jacquay’s store. 1886: Between 60 and 75 men were employed in the town’s stone quarries. 1888: Lyme had 16 school districts, each with its own schoolhouse. 1891: “The” Chaumont telephone was moved into the post office. 1894: The first cottage was built in Chaumont’s Schermerhorn Park. 1896: All Saints Catholic Church was built. The original building stood until 1930, when it was destroyed in the second huge Mill Street fire. 1900: A new Chaumont train depot building was built. 1902: The Central House hotel in Three Mile Bay burned. 1904: The Crescent Yacht Club moved from Sackets Harbor to Chaumont after the Department of the Navy refused them the use of Ship-house Point in Sackets. 1905: Ward Mount opened a dry goods store in Three Mile Bay in a building that had been constructed by Green Wilcox in 1887. 1905: Lyme population was 2098; of those, 1981 were American citizens and 117 were aliens. 1907: Electric light poles were installed along Main Street in Chaumont. Also, the Township Telephone Company was founded. 1909: Lewis Crouse of Chaumont went on a trip in an automobile. It was unusual enough to be noted in the newspaper, suggesting that he was one of the first in town to own a car. 1911: The Electric Light Company of Chaumont was incorporated to provide power to homes and businesses. 1914: TheChaumont Volunteer Fire Department was founded. Its original home was on Mill Street. 1914: A Watertown newspaper article noted that Chaumont must be a very healthy place to live, because so many of its citizens lived to be “exceptionally old.” The article noted that Chaumont had 48 inhabitants over the age of 70 (which was apparently “exceptionally old”). 1916: Electric lights were installed in the Crescent Yacht Club and the old kerosene lanterns were removed. 1917: At least 79 Lyme men entered US forces to fight in World War I. 1919: The Three Mile Bay Athletic Association was formed. 1925: The population of Lyme was 1,690, of which 1,628 were American citizens and 62 were aliens. The population of Chaumont was 624 – 613 citizens and 11 aliens. (Figures were not collected for Three Mile Bay, since it was not an incorporated village.) 1926: Toad Hole School on Point Peninsula closed. Its students were sent to the “End of the Point” School. 1930: In August a fire started in the hay in A.L. Rogers’ barn on Mill Street in Chaumont. The massive blaze swept down Mill Street, destroying houses, barns, boathouses, warehouses, and the Catholic Church on adjacent Madison Street. The only fatality was that of Lewis Crouse (the automobile owner mentioned previously), who died of a heart attack while pumping water. Mr. Crouse had been working frantically to fight the fire, and had even run into his burning garage to save his car. 1931: Austin Rogers donated his Chaumont house for the creation of the Lyme Free Library. 1933:This year marked the last large operation of the Adams and Duford quarrying company. 1935: After a huge rainstorm, Horse Creek in Chaumont overflowed its banks. The flood was so powerful that it pushed the Chaumont Grange building off its foundation and washed Garry Putnam’s car into Sawmill Bay. Horses and cattle at farms along the Morris Tract Road were swept away and drowned. 1937: The wooden Chaumont High School was torn down to make way for the construction of a modern brick building. For the school year 1937-1938 classes were held at the Masonic Temple. 1937: Point Peninsula received electricity. 1938: In September the new $100,000 Chaumont High School building opened, with a 326-foot well for water. The same year the Bell School, the last one-room schoolhouse in Chaumont, closed. 1940: The Three Mile Bay school began to offer only grades 1-8; high school students were required to travel to Chaumont High School. 1941: The Point Peninsula Village school closed. In its last year there were only two students. 1942: The Chaumont High School was renamed “Lyme Central School.” The Three Mile Bay school began to offer only grades 1-6; students in grades 7-12 were bussed to Chaumont. 1945: As World War II ended, Lyme mourned the loss of eight men killed in battle: Raymond Walrath, Donald Dailey, Francis Monick, Gaylord Fraser, Clarence Wetterhahn, Donnell Walker, Kenneth Barth, and John Thornhill. 1946: The Old Town Springs School and the Point Peninsula Four Corners School closed; they were the last operating one-room schools in Lyme. 1947: The Three Mile Bay Volunteer Fire Department was organized. It was first housed in a garage across the street from its current location. 1951: The New York Central railroad discontinued service between Limerick and Cape Vincent and so the Chaumont railroad station closed. (The Three Mile Bay station had already been closed for a number of years.) 1951: Lyme Central began to offer Kindergarten classes. 1952: The railroad bridge in Chaumont was torn out and sold for scrap iron. 1959: A new bridge was constructed on route 12E crossing the Chaumont River. 1961: The new Chaumont Post Office was completed. 1963: A water system was introduced in Chaumont; individual wells were no longer necessary in the village. 1968: The Three Mile Bay school closed. All Lyme students began to attend classes in Chaumont. 1969: The new Three Mile Bay Fire Company building was built. 1971: The new Chaumont Volunteer Fire Department/Chaumont Municipal building was finished. 1984: The Crescent Hotel in Chaumont was torn down. It was 138 years old. 1990: The Nature Conservancy bought 87 acres of land along the Van Alstyne Road to preserve and protect the Chaumont Barrens, “one of the last and finest examples of alvar grasslands in the world” (according to their web site). 1990: The Chaumont train depot burned. It was 90 years old. 1991: Cellular phone capability reached Lyme. 1998: A massive ice storm in January left Lyme residents without power for over two weeks. 1998: The Lyme Community Foundation was founded in the historic Alexander Copley house. 2001: Lights were installed at the Morris Tract ball field, allowing night ball games. 2004: The Chaumont sewer line was constructed. 2007: The Citizens Bank of Cape Vincent and the Watertown Savings Bank each opened new buildings in Chaumont. 2010: The population of Lyme was 2,185. 2018: The town of Lyme will turn 200 years old on March 6th. Sources:
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