Person:James Annis (4)

JAMES ANNIS was a "Minuteman" and marched to the alarm of April 19, 1775 at Lexington, Massachusetts with Captain Joshua Holt's Co. from Andover, Massachusetts. He also served in Captain Ford's Co., Colonel Robison's Regiment from February 5 to April 1, 1776. James removed to Stamford, Vermont after the Revolution and resided there until 1794, at which time he emigrated to Madison County, New York. His sons, Uriah and Oliver were residing at Madison County during the 1790 census, and it is probable that James followed them there. He settled at Nelson, New York, and eventually constructed a grist mill on the Erieville Creek, approximately one and a half miles north of Erieville village. Eventually this mill was handed down to his youngest son, Truman who operated it until 1818. In 1807 James and his son Uriah were elected to the positions of overseers of highways and fence rows at Nelson, New York. It was reported in Early Pioneers of Madison County New York that James died in 1829 at the home of his eldest son James Annas Jr. at Locke, Cayuga County, New York. His final resting place is unknown.

TOWN OFFICERS.--The first town meeting was held at the house of Rufus Weaver, April 7, 1807. James Green was chosen moderator, and Josiah Hayden, clerk, and John Rice and Isaac Bumpus, to assist them in canvassing the votes. The following named officers were elected:--Ebenezer Lyon, Supervisor; John Rice, Clerk; Jeremiah Clark Simeon Marshall, and Thaddeus Hazleton, Assessors; Thomas Holdridge, Moses Boardman and John Knox, Commissioners of Highways; Day Fay and Moses Boardman, Overseers of the Poor; Eri Richardson, Asahel Wood, Alvan Henry and Benjamin Bumpus, Constables; Alvan Henry, Collector; James Bacon and John Jackson, Pound-Keepers; Elijah Daniels, Daniel Butler, Silas Reeves. Joseph Sims, Rufus Weaver, JAMES ANNAS, Bejamin Turner, URIAH ANNAS, Robert Hazard, George Tibbits, Eldad Richardson, Jonathan Wellington, David Smith, Abraham Parker, Ephraim Cone, David Nichols, Damel Coolidge, Richard Green, John Rice, Stephen Kingsley, DYER MATTESON, Francis Wood, John Knox and Warham Chapman, overseers of Highways and Fence Viewers. Ten dollars were voted at this meeting to Jeremiah Clark for his services in attending the Legislature in connection with the formation of the town. In 1809 a tax of twenty-five cents was imposed on every man who kept a dog; the proceeds arising therefrom were to be applied to the purchase of a Merino ram for the use of the inhabuants of the town. We think the county may be safely challenged to produce a piece of legislation which surpasses this for novelty. At the same time a bounty of twenty dollars in addition to the State bounty was voted for every wolf killed in the town. Thus it would seem that generous, if not ample provision, was made for the propagation and protection of the flocks of the early settlers. The tax on dogs was repealed in 1810.

James Annas came about this time from Vermont and settled in the north part of the town. He was a millwright, and brought with him a set of mill stones. He immediately after built on Erieville Creek, about one and one-half miles north of Erieville, a grist-mill, which was the first mill of its kind in Nelson.(+) This property passed from his hands into those of his youngest son, Truman, who sold it about 1818 to Oliver Pool, whose father, Oliver, came from Bennington, VT., soon after 1800, and settled about one and one-half miles west of Erieville. He was a carpenter and joiner and worked at his trade, at the same time managing his farm of fifty acres which now forms a part of the farm of Joseph Ayres, where he resided till his death, about 1814. Pool removed the mill a few years after to the opposite side of the road so as to get a better fall, and in 1833, built a new and larger mill about sixty rods below the other, continuing the ditch from the old site to the new one. He continued to operate the mill till 1848, when the State bought the privilege and used the water for the Erieville Reservoir. Pool afterwards went to work at his trade of millwright in Michigan, where he died, but his family continued to reside here.

(*) French's State Gazetteer. (+) This statement regarding the millstones is made on the authority of Mrs. John Hill, of Perryville, who is a grand-daughter of James Annas; though Ira Hazard, of Erieville, says the stones used were split from the native rocks.

James Annas, having become decrepit, went to live with his son James, in Locke, and died there about 1829, at an advanced age.

Annis, James Private, Col. Benjamin Tupper's (10th) regt.; list of men in service from Jan. 1, 1782, to Jan. 1, 1783.

Annas, James Capt. John Ford's co., Col. Robinson's regt.; receipt for wages from Feb. 5 to April 1, 1776, dated Chelmsford.

Volume 1 page 271 Anice, James, Andover.Private, Capt. Joshua Holt's co., which marched on the alarm of April 19, 1775, to Cambridge; service, 1½ days.

This is one of the five towns in Madison county that were formed in the year following its organization. It was set off from Cazenovia on the 13th of March, 1807, and received its name in honor of Lord Nelson, the great English admiral. It is number one of the Chenango Twenty Townships, is situated southwest of the center of the county, and is bounded on the north by Fenner and Smithfield, on the east by Eaton, on the south by Georgetown, and on the west by Cazenovia. The town has a population of 1,350 according to the United States census of 1890, and 1,339 by the State census 1892. This is a considerable decrease from the number in 1880, which was 1,649. Nelson is divided into fourteen school districts that have a school house in each, in which were employed in 1897 fifteen teachers. The value of the school buildings is about $5,000. The surface of this town consists chiefly of a hilly upland, broken by ridges having a general north and south direction. It occupies part of the elevated watershed between streams flowing north into Oneida Lake and south into the Susquehanna. The principal stream is the Chittenango Creek, two branches of which join near the west line of the town. The northern and larger branch rises in the town of Fenner, enters Nelson near the center of the north boundary and flows across the northwest part in a southwesterly direction. The smaller branch rises in the south central part and flows in a northwesterly direction to its union with the main stream; this, with a more northerly tributary, flowing from the east forms the Erieville reservoir, constructed in 1850, to feed the Erie Canal; it covers 340 acres, and cost $36.837.03. The Eaton reservoir constructed for a feeder for the abandoned Chenango Canal, is partly in this town. The old canal touched the south west part of the town. Nearly the whole area of Nelson is underlaid with the Tully limestone, the Genesee slate, and the Ithaca group. The Hamilton group shows at the surface in a small part of the northeast and southwest corners of the town. Quarries have been opened, but no stone suitable for building purposes is obtainable. The soil is a gravelly loam, well adapted to grazing, and dairying is extensively carried on. The territory of the town of Nelson was patented to Alexander Webster on June 4, 1793, and was purchased in the same year by Col. John Lincklaen. In that year Jedediah Jackson and Joseph Yaw bought land in the north part of the town in the interest of a Vermont company and during the succeeding two years twenty-six families, coming mostly from Pownal, VT., settled on that purchase and in other parts of the town. The names of the heads of those families were as follows: Jedediah and Asahel Jackson, Joseph Yaw, Ebenezer Lyon, Daniel Adams, Sylvanus Sayles, Oliver Alger, Daniel and Isaac Coolidge, Levi Neil, Thomas Swift, Roger Brooks, Ethan Howard, Robert and Solomon Brown, Thomas and Jesse Tuttle, Luther Doolittle, Joseph Cary, Jesse Clark, James Green, Eliphalet Jackson, John Everton, Amos Rathbone, David Nichols, and Rufus Weaver. Other early settlers were James Annas, Levi Brown, Richard Karley, John Hamilton, Sr., Moses Smith, Enos Chapin, Erastus Grover, Richard Wilber, Ezra and Isaac Lovejoy, Asa Carey, Haven White, and the Richardson and Wells families; these came about 1796 and were mostly from Massachusetts. David Wellington, Simeon Haskell, Jesse, Abner and Seth Bumpus, Aaron Lindsley, Moses and Solomon Clark, Paul Griffiths, Isaiah and Ezra Booth, Joseph, Chauncey and David Case, William Knox, David Hamilton, Jeremiah Clark (who built the first saw mill in the town), William and Jeremiah Whipple, Thomas Ackley, Benjamin Hatch, Dyer Matteson, Jesse Carpenter, Robert Hazard, all of whom settled prior to he town organization in 1807. These and many others are mentioned more in detail in earlier chapters and in Part III of this volume. The first town meeting in Nelson was held at the house of Rufus Weaver, April 7, 1807. The first town officers elected were as follows; Ebenezer Lyon, supervisor; John Rice, clerk; Jeremiah Clark, Simeon Marshall, and Thaddeus Hazleton, assessors; Thomas Holdridge, Moses Boardman and John Knox commissioners of highways; Day Fay and Moses Boardman, overseers of the poor; Eri Richardson, Asahel Wood, Alvan Henry, and Benjamin Bumpus, constables; Alvan Henry, collector; James Bacon and John Jackson, poundkeepers; Elijah Daniels, Daniel Butler, Silas Reeves, Joseph Sims, Rufus Weaver, James Annas, Benjamin Turner, Uriah Annas, Robert Hazard, George Tibbits, Eldad Richardson, Jonathan Wellington, David Smith, Abraham Parker, Ephraim Cone, David Nichols, Daniel Coolidge, Richard Green, John Rice, Stephen Kingsley, Dyer Matteson, Francis Wood, John Knox and Warham Chapman, overseers of highways and fenceviewers. Following is a list of the supervisors of the town from its organization to the present time: Ebenezer Lyon, 1807-10; John Rice, 1811-12; Ebenezer Lyon, 1813-1l; Jabez Wright, 1818; Jeremiah Whipple, 1819; Ebenezer Lyon, 1820; Edward Hudson, 1821-22 Eri Richardson, 1823- 26; Oliver Pool, 1821-32; Daniel Lobdell, 1833-35; Benjamin Turner, 1836-38; George Rich, 1839-41; Asa Richardson, 1842; Oliver Pool, 1843; Jeremiah Blair; 1844; John Donaldson, 1845; Oliver Pool, 1846-48; Alfred Medbury, 1849; G.D. Richardson, 1850-51; Palmer Baldwin, 1852; Jonathan Wells, 1853-54; George Irish, 1855; David A. Hamilton, 1856; G.D. Richardson, 1857; Artemas L. Sims, 1858-60; Nelson Richardson, 1861; S. Perry Smith, 1862-66; Charles K. Knox, 1861; Levi P. Greenwood, 1870; Isaac A. Blair, 1871-73; Merritt L. Lyon, 1874; Isaac A. Blair, 1875; George E. Gaige, 1816-78; Peter R. Duffy, 1879-86; Jeremiah Blair, 1887; Peter R. Duffy, 1888; Horace K. Smith, 1889-97.

Following is a statement of the population of Nelson as shown by the census of various decades and semi-decades: 1835 = 2,231; 1840 = 2,100; 1845 = 1,976, 1850 = 1,965; 1855 = 1,876; 1860 = 1,797; 1865 = 1,717; 1870 = 1,730; 1875 = 1,649; 1880 = 1,350; 1890 = 1,350; 1892 = 1,339 These figures indicate a slow but gradual decrease in population in the town. This is not due to its being in any sense an unattractive or unprofitable locality for the prudent, industrious and economical farmer mechanic or tradesman. It is, rather, in keeping with the conditions in many other towns in the State and county, in which in the passing years, there has developed among the young men a desire to leave the homesteads of their ancestry for the alluring attractions and occupations of cities and large villages. As before indicated this town is a profitable dairying region. There are four cheese factories within its limits, one on the Richards estate farm, one in Nelson village, one at Erieville, and one four miles north-east of Nelson. The factory at Nelson was established in 1868 by A.T. Gaines and was later conducted during a period of more than fifteen years by William Richards, who at that time operated four other factories in this vicinity. The factory northeast of Nelson is conducted by J.P. Davis. A large part of the farmers of the town at the present time are engaged in the production of milk, which goes to these factories or to distant market. The fattening of veal has also in recent years become quite an important feature of the agricultural interest. Among the leading farmers of the town are Ward Smith, Orson Graves, W.L. Richards, D.M. Jones, Morey Brothers, W.D. Brown, M.D. Lyon, H.K. Smith, S.L. Jones, Abelbert Howard, Charles B. Richards, John H. Richards and Evan D. Davis. There is a grist mill a half mile east of Nelson village, with which is connected a saw mill and cider mill, operated by L.H. Hutchinson; it was formerly for many years owned by H.P. Hutchinson, an old and respected citizen who died in 1897. There is also an old grist mill on the road from Erieville to Nelson, formerly operated by S.E. Bump, but now idle. Erieville.--There are only two post-offices in Nelson, one of which is in the village of Erieville, the largest settlement in the town. It is situated in the south part of the town, with a station on the railroad. It contains a hotel on the site of the one built in 1820. The present four- story frame building was erected in 1883, soon after the burning of the first structure; the house is now occupied by Mrs. H.T. Griffin, who succeeded her husband. There are three general stores in the village, kept by C.E. Maynard, E.S. Jillson and G.C. Moore; two blacksmiths, two steam saw mills, a cooper shop where James Stevenson worked for many years, a cheese factory and a milk station. The village is an important milk shipping point, being situated in the midst of an extensive and productive dairying region. The village has two churches; the Baptist, which is supplied from Hamilton College, and a <:605> Methodist Episcopal, over which Rev. A.W. Battey is pastor; he also has charge of a church in Nelson village. An extensive milk business is carried on here by C.B. Maynard, who in 1897 handled 3,946,065 pounds of milk, making 324,435 pounds of cheese, 22,592 pounds of butter, and shipping to the New York market 4,622 forty-quart cans of milk. Mr. Maynard is one of the leading business men of this section and served the district in the Assembly two terms. An undertaking business is conducted by D.P. Maynard, and E.S. Jillson has a flour and feed business in addition to his general store. G.C. Moore, successor to G.C. Moore & Co., in a general store, is postmaster. The village has a Grange Hall, a post of the G.A.R., and the lines of the Central New York Telephone and Telegraph Company pass through the village, having a local office in the store of G.C. Moore.

Nelson (Nelson Flats).--This is a small hamlet in the north part of the town, containing a small collection of houses, a Methodist church of which Rev. A.W. Battey is pastor, a school house, two general stores, one conducted by W.R. Richards, succeeding Gage & Whitney, and the other by W.H. James, a blacksmith shop, and a post-office, which is located in the store of Mr. James, with George W. Holmes postmaster. This store formerly contained a stock of hardware and tin, and before that was a hotel in which Myron Hutchinson was the last landlord. Several years ago a large evaporator was established by C.E. Gaines, and the building is still standing in the main street of the village. In the fall of 1885 a large building was erected for a saw mill, grist mill and cider mill, a wagon shop and blacksmith shop, by the Nelson Manufacturing Company, in which L.C. Barnes, Arthur Bailey, Frank Taylor, S.N. Judd and Charles Judd were interested. Unfortunately for the place this building was burned in 1887 and not rebuilt.

Cazenovia 1805 Tax Assessment ~Annas, James, (Annis, James), , Personal Estate valued at $33, Total Valuation = $33, Tax Due = $0.07.

1. ↑ John E. Smith. Our Country and It's People, A Descriptive Biographical Record of Madison Co., NY. (Name: 1899;)
   108.

   James Annas came about this time from Vermont and settled in the north part of the town. He was a millwright, and brought with him a set of mill stones. He immediately after built on Erieville Creek, about one and one-half miles north of Erieville, a grist-mill, which was the first mill of its kind in Nelson.(+) This statement regarding the millstones is made on the authority of Mrs. John Hill, of Perryville, who is a grand-daughter of James Annas; though Ira Hazard, of Erieville, says the stones used were split from the native rocks. The property passed from his hands into those of his youngest son, Truman, who sold it about 1818 to Oliver Pool, whose father, Oliver, came from Bennington, VT., soon after 1800, and settled about one and one-half miles west of Erieville. He was a carpenter and joiner and worked at his trade, at the same time managing his farm of fifty acres which now forms a part of the farm of Joseph Ayres, where he resided till his death, about 1814. Pool removed the mill a few years after to the opposite side of the road so as to get a better fall, and in 1833, built a new and larger mill about sixty rods below the other, continuing the ditch from the old site to the new one. He continued to operate the mill till 1848, when the State bought the privilege and used the water for the Erieville Reservoir. Pool afterwards went to work at his trade of millwright in Michigan, where he died, but his family continued to reside here.

2. ↑ Vital Records of Bradford, MA.
3. ↑ Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the American Revolution. (Name: Volume 1;)
   pp. 271, 273, 275.
4. ↑ Soldiers and Sailors in the American Revolution
   p. 167.
5. ↑ Massachusetts Muster and Pay Rolls. (Name: Volume 35, File H, p. 52 and Volume 60, p. 12;).
6. ↑ 1790 Federal Census Records - Stamford, Bennington, VT.
7. ↑ James H. Smith. History of Chenango Madison Counties, NY. (Name: Published 1880;).

   1794 Samuel Kinney, Vt. James ANNAS, Vt.