The pioneers of Unadilla village, 1784-1840

by Francis W. Halsey; Gaius Leonard Halsey

The Benton distillery stood in the rear of the present residence of Milo B. Gregory. This house dates from 1823, and was erected by Major Fellows and Albert Benton after an earlier house, built by Stephen Benton, had been destroyed by fire. Stephen Benton died in April 1840 at the age of sixty-six. The wife of Major Fellows was his daughter. Major Fellows was elected to the Assembly in 1845 when John A. Dix and Daniel S. Dickinson were chosen United States Senators. In 1894, almost fifty years after that event, Major Fellows went to Albany and was invited to sit in the speaker’s chair.[12]

Contemporary with the coming of Stephen Benton was the coming of Sherman Page, a native of Cheshire, Connecticut, where he was born in 1779. His father was Jared Page, who settled in what is now the town of Greene, Chenango County, at a place still known as Page Brook, on a stream that flows into the Chenango River a few miles above Port Crane. About 1799 Sherman Page went over into the adjoining town of Coventry and there taught the first school in the place. He read law about this time and went to Unadilla to open an office, being the first man in the village to practice that profession regularly.

He was here as early as 1805 and in 1807 was elected a path master. With his father he had come into the country by way of Wattles’s Ferry of which he must have retained the vivid recollections of youth. Into most enterprises, Mr. Page’s energies appear to have entered, whether these were social, religious or commercial. He was supervisor in 1826 and in three other years, a member of Assembly in 1827, and a member of Congress from 1833 to 1837. He was also county judge. He built and long occupied the house where now lives Mr. George W. Hardy, but later on his home was in the stone house across the street. His wife was a niece of Sampson Crooker, and he had five children,—Robert who was a lawyer in Flint, Michigan, Vincent who also went West and long afterwards died in Unadilla, Elizabeth who became the wife of George H. Noble, and long survived as the widow of her second husband, Arthur Yates of Waverley, Mary who was the first wife of William H. Emory, and Maria, the first wife of Frederick A. Sands. Judge Page died in September, 1853.

Mr. Emory was a native of Maryland and was born in 1811. He came to Unadilla about sixty years ago and was all his life engaged in the dry goods trade, at one time in the building that now adjoins White’s store on the west, but which then stood on the lot opposite J. Fred. Sands’s residence, later at the corner of Main and Clifton Streets, in the brick building that was destroyed in the fire of 1878, and still later in the old brick store uptown. He was an active member of the Methodist Church and his home was the westerly one of the two stone houses, its builder having been Frederick A. Sands.

As early as 1805 had come the first of four brothers who were to leave a distinct mark on the growth of the village,—Dr. Adanijah Cone. His first home was the original hotel that stood at Main and Clifton Streets which he built, and of which for several years he was the proprietor. He then built the rear portion of the house that was afterwards the home of his son, Lewis G. Cone, and in which now lives his grandson, Frederick L. Cone. In 1808, his two brothers, Daniel and Gilbert, followed him, and in 1815, the fourth brother, Gardner. Daniel and Gilbert first lived in an old house on the south side of the road about one hundred rods from the present James White house. The White house was built by them in 1815. These brothers Cone came from Hebron, Connecticut. Their varied interests comprised farm lands, a fulling mill, a store, a hotel and the practice of medicine.

Daniel and Gilbert Cone in 1808 bought 300 acres of land from Mr. Sliter and in 1811 Lot 92 of the Wallace Patent from the Lansings of Albany. They did a large business in fulling and dressing cloth, people coming from far and near with the cloth they had woven at home. Theodore Hanford and Erastus Kingsley at one time were employed by them. Gardner Cone settled on the farm afterwards the home of Salmon G. Cone, who was his nephew. Gardner Cone’s wife was Sarah Robertson, a sister of Niel Robertson. Daniel married Margaret Hull, a sister of Mrs. Calvin Gates, and for second wife married Hannah Taylor, a sister of Lydia Taylor, the wife of Dr. Cone. Lydia Taylor had a niece also named Lydia Taylor who became the wife of Erastus Kingsley. Hannah Taylor Cone, after her husband’s death, removed to Connecticut, where on January 8, 1894, she died at the age of ninety-four.

Dr. Cone died in 1862 at the age of eighty-four. His widow when she died was past ninety. Their son Lewis G. Cone was for a great number of years one of the best known citizens of the village. With his brother-in-law Frederick A. Bolles, he was long engaged in business. Captain Bolles came to the village in 1838 and remained here until his death in June, 1891. He arrived from Oxford, to which place he had gone from his native town of Vernon, Oneida County. He purchased the hotel at Main and Bridge Streets and conducted it for several years when he sold the property to Colonel Thomas Heath. He married Julia A. Cone in 1839, and afterwards went into the hardware trade with Lewis G. Cone. For almost forty years the two were partners. On the death of Mr. Cone in 1878, the partnership was continued with Mr. Cone’s only son, Frederick L. Cone.

Captain Bolles in 1845 was captain of a company which went out from this village during the anti-rent difficulties in Delaware County. It was a company of light infantry from the 151st Regiment, described by Jay Gould as “composed mostly of young men who with a little drilling made excellent soldiers”. Colonel Samuel North, who afterwards came to Unadilla where the remainder of his life was spent, commanded the regiment. His orders were to hold it “in readiness to answer any call that may be made for additional force should it be deemed necessary”. At the funeral of the murdered Deputy Sheriff Steele in Delhi on August 10, the Rev. Norman H. Adams from Unadilla assisted in the services. Captain Bolles was supervisor of Unadilla in 1851 and in 1861 was a member of Assembly. His first wife died in 1868, and in 1871 he married Mrs. W. S. Bryant of Guilford.

Following Captain Bolles came his brother, Frank G. Bolles, who spent the remainder of his life almost entirely in this village. He was long associated with his brother and Lewis G. Cone in the hardware business, at one time as employe, at another as partner. He was prominently identified with Free Masonry in this part of the State, and was Postmaster under President Cleveland, and saw service in the Civil War. He was all his life one of the most agreeable personalities in the village, his gift of humor being marked and its manifestations incessant. He knew everybody and everybody knew him. His death did more than any other event in a long period of years to eclipse the gaiety of life in public places. Fare-you-well, friend of us all.