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| Court Street facing west at Church Street. Courthouse on right (current library site). |
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| Church Street facing north. Courthouse on left. (Left click on image to enlarge.) |
SIXTY YEARS AGO.
Cortland in a Turmoil over the Location of the
Courthouse.
A letter has been handed to us
that was written from Cortland sixty years ago to-day upon Dec. 17, 1836, from
Mr. James Leach of Cortland to his law partner, Mr. Daniel Hawks, who was
spending the winter at Cassville, Ga. We quote a few paragraphs from the letter
because it reports the weather to be so like to that this year and because it
will have a general interest over the matter of the location of the courthouse.
Mr. Leach says:
“We have had a great deal of weather
and but little snow since you left. No sleighing yet. Yesterday was a raw cold
day. To-day the weather is quite warm. Variableness is the peculiar characteristic,
just such weather as would kill a decent man.
"As for matters and things
about town for a few weeks the courthouse has been the all engrossing topic.
The village has been in a perfect turmoil on the subject of its location. One
party for the seminary lot, another for the schoolhouse lot, another for the
Greenbush or the Owen farm, and another for the old site, the hill. The supervisors
have finally set the stake conditionally, first on the seminary lot if the
citizens, the friends of that site, will furnish the lot free of expense to the
county. If not, the schoolhouse lot on the same unreasonable condition. If one
or the other is not procured then the probability is the act will have the
go-by and become a dead letter. But the villagers will never raise the sum of $3,000
for the seminary lot.''
The letter also mentions that
upon the previous day occurred the funeral of Mr. Joshua Bassett, who was the grandfather of Mr. Wm. R. and Miss
Wilhelmina Randall of Cortland.
A STANDARD man called upon Mr.
Randall to inquire in regard to the several sites referred to for the location
of the courthouse. The seminary site included that section west of Main-st.
between West Court and Orchard-sts. with the exception of the plot occupied by
the old county clerk's building, and extending west up the hill as far as to
the west line of the M. M. Waters place. The schoolhouse site was where the soldier’s
monument now stands and extending back into the Normal grounds.
The Owen farm occupied all that
section of land east of Greenbush-st. from Port Watson-st. to Clinton-ave., there being no streets cut into it then. The
farmhouse was the present house in the corner of Port Watson and Greenbush-sts.
The site probably intended was what was then the foot of what is now Railroad-st.
This street then extended from Church-st. to Greenbush-st. and there was a gate
into the pasture just north of where now Henry Kennedy's house stands. The
other site was on land owned by Mr. Randall’s father at the head of W. Court-st.
Mr. Randall says he does not
remember this turmoil over the site, as he was then away from home, a student
of Yale college, from which he was graduated in 1837.
Evidently the site chosen was none of those mentioned, for the same
year, 1836. The cornerstone was laid upon the present location. At that time this
corner was occupied by a little shoe shop owned by Mr. Bement who had eleven children
all of whom were great musicians. There were three daughters and eight sons. The
boys were known as John, Jerry, Joe, Juke, Harry, Hi, Fred and Dan.
It was related of Mr. Bement
that when Rev. Mr. Clark, a Cortland
minister, approached that gentleman and asked for the privilege of marrying his
second daughter that Mr. Bement replied that he wouldn’t have any picking in
his family, he must take them as they came. And so Mr. Clark changed his plans
and married the oldest one.
References:
Grip’s Historical Souvenir of Cortland:
http://tcpl.org/local-history/documents/county-history-CNY/Grips_of_Cortland/grips108-123.pdf
Scroll to page 122.
http://tcpl.org/local-history/documents/county-history-CNY/Grips_of_Cortland/grips001-011.pdf Scroll to page three.
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