Lock 52 Chronicle
The newsletter of the Lock 52 Historical Society
73 Pine Street, Port Byron, NY 13140
Vol. 1 Issue 3
Fall 2007
Fact or Fiction? (Or somewhere in between)
By Michael Riley, Mentz Town Historian
As a historian, I turn to locally written histories when I am looking for facts
concerning many issues. So over time, I have read and re-read Kern’s 1922 History of
Port Byron, Storke’s 1879 History of Cayuga County, former historian Bruce Carter’s
unpublished works, along with many others. Early on, I use to accept as fact what these
people had reported, but as I grew in my knowledge and learned the task of historical
study, I realized that these books and articles often contain misleading or incorrect
facts. There is also a serious lack of citations accredited to much of this work, so it can
be impossible to recheck or reexamine what has been claimed as fact.
The internet has opened up a whole new world of fact checking and rechecking.
From the comfort of our home office, we can easily scan newspapers by simply typing in
a key word or two, or we can look at census images. Or we can ask a question of the
world by posting a message on a message board, all without the need to drive to the
local library or traveling across the state to visit a historic society. This is an advantage
Kern or Storke did not have. All they had to rely on was local fokelore, or articles
published in the local paper, which often were taken from the memories of local folks.
So with all this in mind, I have begun to recheck the names and facts quoted by these
historians of the past.
The Jefferson Davis connection
A couple of years ago, I went on the cemetery walk as part of the Canal Days
activities. During the walk, we visited the Davis plot and it was said that our Port Byron
Davis was the relation of Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy. The group
oh’ed and ah’ed, as I did. Later, I found this in former Historian Bruce Carter’s notes…
“John P. Davis (of Port Byron) had a brother who moved to Mississippi and that brother
had Jefferson Davis. Our local Davis had a John L. Davis, who was a cigar maker…” So
is this true?
John P. Davis was a partner in the first drydock in the village. Later he is shown
as a farmer. His son was a cigar maker with a shop downtown. On the 1850 census,
Davis listed Vermont as his birth place. Okay, that checks out. So onto Jefferson. As
one might expect, there is a ton of information on Jefferson Davis on the internet. Many
people claim to have a connection to Jeff Davis and of course, there are many
biographies posted on the net.
Jefferson Davis’ father was Samuel Davis and his father was Evan. Evan
emigrated from Wales and lived in Philadelphia. He only had two kids, Samuel and
Anna. According to Bruce Carter, John would also need to be a son of Evan. Also, the
1
dates don’t line up. Evan Davis died in 1758, shortly after the birth of Jefferson’s father
Samuel. Our John was not born until 1794, thirty years later. Also there is the curious
lack of “claim to fame” listed in the period histories or newspapers, such as one sees for
Brigham Young or Henry Wells. The obituaries for Jefferson also do not show any
family connection living in the northern states. As far as I have learned, there is no
direct link between our Davis line and Jefferson Davis. There could be a connection
somewhere back in Wales, but that is beyond the scope of this question.
Isaac Singer
Kern’s History reports, “ Isaac Singer was a mechanic and had a shop in a saw
mill located near the present dam. The firm which now bears his name is the largest
sewing machine company in the world.” Local folks also recall seeing one of those blue
and gold “historic signs” in the village that proclaimed this fact. Is it true?
Apparently former historian Bruce Carter had some difficulty with this one, but he
got close. He wrote, “The exact date or years that he lived in Port Byron is not known.
The State plaque that sat in front of the building has long been missing. It is thought that
around 1830 could be the possible date.”
From a biography on the net, I found that Singer was born in Rensselaer County
(near Albany, NY) on October 27, 1811. When he was twelve (1823), he moved to
Oswego, NY where he lived and worked for his brother in a machine shop. In 1830 he
marries for the first time and in 1831 was living in New York City. In 1833, he can be
traced to Otsego County (near Cooperstown). About 1836 he joins or forms an acting
troupe, and perhaps moves to Port Byron. Thanks to the local history room at the
Seymour Library, we found this, "A correspondent writes to the "Mercury," relative to
SINGER, the deceased sewing-machine millionaire that he organized a theatrical
company at Port Byron, N.Y. in 1837, of which he constituted himself leading man,
playing Richard Roderick Dhu, etc., singing sometimes a comic song or dancing a
hornpipe between pieces." (Auburn Daily Bulletin, Tues. Jan. 18, 1876) His biography
states that Singer received $2000 for a patent on a rock drilling machine and he used
the money to form his own acting troupe called the “Merritt Players”, taking his middle
name for the company. So the 1876 newspaper account lines up nicely with the rest of
the information I found.
I can not state for certain that Singer lived in Port Byron and that he had a shop
in a saw mill. It appears that he was acting and inventing at the same time. He came
from a family of mechanics and worked at number of mechanic shops. It is likely that he
always was puttering about with tools and gadgets. So it appears that this is true, but
we must keep in mind that Singer did not invent the sewing machine here nor was his
sewing machine company located here. That all took place after he had moved to New
York City in 1850.
John Gillespy Myers
2
Kern writes; “John G. Myers of Albany, formerly of Port Byron…died worth
millions, made by his own efforts in a large department store which still exists in that
city.” Is this true?
This was an easy one due to the efforts of a Myers family genealogist who kindly
posted John’s life history on the web at http://darcisplace.com/darci/myers. John G.
Myers was born in Saugerties, NY in 1831. He was the son of John Benjamin Myers
and Arriet Gillespy Myers. The family moved to a farm near Montezuma about 1840.
When he was fourteen, he moved back to Saugerties to work at the store of his Uncle.
About 1853 he returned to Cayuga County, starting a retail business in Port Byron. He
married Mary Augusta Young of Cayuga or Auburn on August 10, 1857. The store failed
and his partners left him with the goods and all the bills and he had to go on the road as
a traveling salesman in the west to dispose of his goods and pay his bills. Whether this
happened before or after his marriage is not mentioned. After that, he moved to New
York City and then later onto Albany where he opened his department store mentioned
in Kern’s history. His father is buried in Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn.
Thomas Ballard
Kern writes; “Thomas Ballard, once of Port Byron, was one of this country’s most
noted counterfeiters, the paper he made proved to be superior to that used by the
government and was afterward adopted and is in use at the present time [1922].”
In the period from 1862 to 1880, Thomas Ballard was one of the most skilled
counterfeiters of his time. He was a fine engraver and had developed a fiber paper to
make his fake money that reviled the federal government’s paper for real money. A
biography written in 1887 states that Ballard was from New York, but does not say
where. He was born in 1840 and was one of five brothers. Trained as a carriage painter
by his father, Thomas moved to New York City to begin his trade, but fell in with a group
of counterfeiters. One of the group leaders had Thomas work in a honest engraving
business to learn all he could about making money. By 1862, Thomas was making fake
money. Soon, all five brothers and an Aunt were in the “trade”.
Thomas kept up the appearances of having a normal job and can be found on
the 1870 census of New York City listed as a carriage painter. Apparently, he even
fooled his wife, who believed that he left for work each day.
In 1871, Thomas and some of his partners were captured and taken to jail in
NYC, but they managed to escape within the month and were on the loose fro three
years. Thomas, his brothers and Aunt were captured in Buffalo in 1874. All were taken
to separate jails. Thomas went to the Cayuga County jail in Auburn where he promptly
broke out with others and headed south to Moravia. He was captured shortly after
sending to his old partners in the city for money. He then went to prison in Albany,
where he spent the next thirteen years. He was released by President Cleveland in
1887.
So did Ballard live in Port Byron? Not as far as I can tell, but I am not ready to
completely rule it out. Like Isaac Singer, he may have lived here for a month, a fact that
Kern may have taken a little artistic license with. Thomas was born in 1840, so he
wouldn’t be listed on a census until 1850 where we find Peter Ballard living in
Poughkeepsie, with a son Thomas. By 1859 he was living in New York City, and from
3
there his travels are fairly well documented. In his escape from Auburn, he did have with
him two men from Port Byron, so maybe a connection was somehow made there. As for
his paper being used by the government, it is stated that his paper was superior to that
of the governments, and that he offered to trade his secrets for a pardon, but nothing
was done in that regard. Maybe the government just didn’t want people to know that
they got paper making instructions from a convicted criminal.
Society News
The Society is open during the warmer months on Thursday morning from 10am
till 1pm and on Friday evenings from 6 till 8. After October, the Society will be open at
request. During the summer, Society President Chick Walker and her handy group of
volunteers have been working hard putting together collections of newspaper clippings
on people and events of the past, and the results are truly outstanding. They have
cleaned and removed some of the collection that had been on display for too long a
time.
Society members are busy planning and working toward the future of the Society.
In September, 2007, the Society became a 501(c)3 Not For Profit Organization, which
means that contributions are tax deductible.
If you have questions about your past, or how to get started on your family tree,
or if you just want to stop by and reminisce about the past, stop by and visit. And
volunteers are always welcome
4