This essay was originally published in the 1944 OCHS Yearbook. Please note that this essay was published over 80 years ago. While still useful for general education, language may be outdated and at times offensive. The Oswego County Historical Society does not stand by the language used in this essay. All photos were added in 2024 when this article was uploaded to the web. To view the original document, please visit NYHeritage.org
Paper Read Before Oswego County Historical Society at Oswego in 1944 by Asa C. Pease of Oswego Town, A Descendant
On the sixth day of October, 1897, on the shore of Lake Ontario, near the mouth of Rice or “Three Mile” creek, the descendants of Asa Rice celebrated the 100th anniversary of his settlement in the Town of Oswego. After all had partaken of a bountiful dinner at which about thirty five were present, Mr. Arvin Rice of Fulton read a very interesting paper giving a sketch of the life of the pioneer, Mr. Asa Rice, which was as follows:
One hundred years ago today Asa Rice and his family landed upon this shore and founded the first permanent settlement in this part of the country. The following facts with regard to his ancestry, his family and circumstances of the journey to this place and the making of a settlement in the then wilderness are from statements made by my father, Arvin Rice, who was then a boy of eleven years of age. I will give the history in his own words:
Served in French War
“My ancestors on my father’s side were Welsh. In the early settlement of New England three brothers by the name of Rice emigrated to the “New World.” One of them settled in New Hampshire, one in Rhode Island and the other (whose name was Isaac and from whom our family descended) in Connecticut. Robert Rice, the son or grandson of said Isaac, was a farmer. His son, Asa, was my grandfather. He was a lieutenant in the British army in the “Old French War” and after the war was a farmer and a shoemaker. He married Anna Rice, daughter of Ezekiel Rice, who was probably his cousin. “My father’s name was also Asa and he had the honor of taking a part in the struggles of the Revolution; was taken prisoner by the Indians at the North; was at the taking of Burgoyne and was an assistant in placing ‘the great chain’ across the Hudson river at West Point. After the close of the war he settled in Connecticut and became possessor of four acres of land worth $40. This land he traded with an old soldier for a lot in ‘the military tract,’ and when ‘the military tract’ was surveyed, Lot No. 2. Hannibal (which lot lies upon the lake shore three miles west of Oswego) fell to him. He married Elizabeth Merriam, daughter of Nathaniel Merriam, and about the year 1789, moved with his family from Cheshire, Conn., to Acra, Greene County, N. Y., and in 1795 to Rensselaerville in Albany county. In 1795 while the British were yet in possession of Oswego and when there was no settlement upon the west side of the river, he came on to view his lot of land. In February, 1797, he moved to Whitestown, Oneida county, having then a family of eight or nine children. By selling a part of the land he obtained enough help to move on to his lot, and on September 26th, 1797, left his abode in Whitestown for a wilderness home upon the shores of Lake Ontario.
“The first day we reached the boat on the Mohawk and the next day moved up the river and found a large number of Irishmen digging the canal across from the Mohawk to Wood Creek, a distance of two miles. We passed ‘the carrying place’ and entered Wood Creek, two other boats being in our company, and were three days in reaching Oneida Lake, the water being low in some place, all hands dragging the boats, one after another over the shoals. My brother, Heman, then two years old, fell overboard. He had on a red dress and we could see him in the water and soon got him out. Where Wood Creek empties into Oneida Lake the boat struck a log and I fell into the water and was helped out by my father.
Boat Hits Rock, Effects Lost
“We reached the lake at evening and at two o’clock A. M. reached Rotterdam (now Constantia). The next day we reached Three River Point where lived Esquire Bingham, who professed to be a pilot and the next morning he took charge of our boat to conduct it down Three River Rift (opposite the present village of Phoenix). In going down the boat struck a rock in the middle of the river and whirled around across the stream, the bottom upon the rock. The upper side sank and the boat filled with water washing off many light articles which were never recovered.
“All the goods were thoroughly drenched except the upper drawer of the bureau in which were the writings. The family fortunately were placed upon the shore previous to reaching the rift and stayed in a fisherman’s camp opposite the boat, where we remained three or four days through a tremendous northwest storm. After the storm a light boat came along and helped get our things out and our boat right end. We then came down the river and at Oswego Falls found a carrying place of about a mile, thence down the river to the lake (Ontario) and along the shores to father’s lot. It was on October 6th, 1797, at about two o’clock P. M. we arrived at Three Mile Creek and father said, ‘This is our land,’ and turned the boat toward the shore. I got to the bow and when the boat touched the shore I jumped and said, ‘I’ll be the first to take possession.’
Tent Borrowed From Garrison
“The goods were taken out upon the beach and the boatmen went back. It was a beautiful day and the first business was to open the goods and spread them out to dry. Not a bush had been cut towards a clearing but father had borrowed at the garrison* in Oswego a tent 7×10 feet which he raised for a temporary shelter a few rods back from the beach.
“Towards night the wind blew hard off the lake and it began to lighten and thunder and a little after sundown it rained and stormed very hard while we, a family of ten, crept into the little tent and stayed all night. The next day father went back about thirty rods from the shore and cut some logs and made a pen 7×10 feet and placed the tent upon it and put some boards or pieces of boats he found on the lake shore across, making a chamber for the boys. Soon afterward we built of poles 12 feet long a pen about six feet high and made a roof by putting hemlock boughs on the rafters and the family moved into it. About that time mother and one of the children were taken sick with fever and ague.
The boatmen who left us the day we landed were to have returned in three weeks with provisions for the Winter but did not return for six weeks.
*At the date given, Fort Ontario at Oswego was in the control of the Americans having been yielded by the British July 15, 1796, through arrangements for the transfer completed by General Anthony Wayne under the provisions of the Jay treaty. The garrison was a very small one.
Wrested Food From An Eagle
“We had a little bag of flour, about twenty pounds, and father caught a salmon and took another one from an eagle. That was all the provisions we had. Father went to Oswego and bought for $6 a barrel of flour which had been under water and was wet and mouldy; no light bread could be made of it and it made the children sick when they ate it.
“When the boatmen returned, probably about November 20th, they helped father build a log house 16×18 feet, covered with basswood bark, about 100 rods back from the lake and then the family moved in, drawing our sick mother upon a sled as Winter had already set in.
How Village Was Named
“After we had moved in, the boatmen said we must name the village, and they drank wine and named it, ‘Union Village.’ In February, 1798, my brother, Horace, died, aged about one and one half years. During the Winter my brother Joseph, aged 14, and myself, cleared about four acres and in the spring some corn and potatoes were planted and a pair of oxen and a heifer were brought from Whitestown. Once during the Summer the cattle strayed away and were gone some three weeks.
“During the Winter but one family remained at Oswego, and a man by the name of Hudson lived up the river about a mile and hunted during the Winter. From Oswego west to Big Sodus Bay, thence south to the Seneca river and down the river to Three River Point and thence to Oswego, there were only two or three families and they were at the Point and the Falls.
Pioneer Life Hardships
“In the fall of 1798 the children were all taken sick with lake fever and father who was of feeble constitution was sick for three months. In 1799 the family were well and some progress was made in clearing. For two years we pounded corn in a maple log for our bread and puddings. In 1800 the family were all sick again. About this time the bears began to trouble us by catching calves and pigs. We also suffered for lack of clothing, and the ticking of our beds and pillows was cut up, the feathers being emptied into barrels and boxes.
Long Distance To Mill
“Wild game and fish were then plentiful, and we began taking grain to the mill to be ground, sometimes to Sodus Point or to Ellisburg in Jefferson county, and once to Oswegatchie, now Ogdensburg. Once father and mother and one child started to go to Oswego in a log canoe, and there being a south wind, they hoisted a sail. When they were about half a mile out the wind shifted and the canoe was turned bottom upwards; they got upon the canoe and a boat went after them so they arrived safely at home.
“In 1798 the townships of Hannibal, Lysander and Scipio were organized into one town and Asa Rice, my father, was supervisor. He reported fifteen inhabitants and the valuation of taxable property at $1500. He continued as supervisor until 1806.
The first marriage in the town was of Augustus Ford and my sister, Damaris Rice, in the year 1800.”
“Here closes the history as I find it in papers written or dictated by my father.
Indians Few and Friendly
“From the year 1800 the family history was similar to that of other early settlers in a new country but their perils and privations and the struggles and hardships they endured for the first two or three years of their residence here were equalled by very few, if any, in our state. In one respect only did they suffer less than those in some other localities, and that was from the Indians who at that time were few in numbers and friendly.
“How different were their experiences from those of the emigrant or new settler of the present day. Then ten days were necessary to make the journey of less than 100 miles; now a few hours are sufficient to carry them several hundred miles. Then in their want and distress relief was six weeks in coming; now in cases of destitution or great calamities, distant towns and cities respond in a few hours with assistance and supplies.
“Notwithstanding their exposure and the hardships they endured our family survived most of them, living to be a good old age. Asa Rice lived twenty six years from the time of his settlement here, and though not rich he was in comfortable circumstances. He saw some two score of grandchildren and died at the age of 69 years, and was buried, together with his wife, Elizabeth, and four children, in a small plot of ground directly north of Fruit Valley in Oswego Town.”
