Old Houses of the North Country
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No. 129
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SMALL LIMESTONE HOUSE AT BURRVILLE
Tradition has it that Rev. Ebenezer Lazelle bought Harvey paid Arnold Burr and his wife, Ann, $700 for 2 8 %
land in the town of Watertown in 1&00, set up a distillery acres of land in that vicinity beginning at the southwest
at Burrville June 8, 1803, approximately the same time corner of "the dwelling John Burr built." It is possible
that he organized a Congregational society in Caleb Burn- that the stone house stands upon a part of this plot. This
ham's barn at that place (first church society in the town) house is undoubtedly well over a century old and it is not
and dispensed both liquor and the Gospel to the small unlikely that its age may run beyond the 125-year mark. It
populace. Today it is told in Burrville that Parson Lazelle, seems probable that it originally belonged to the Burr
who later organized the nucleus of the first Presbyterian family, Capt. John Burr having purchased in 1802 the
church society in Watertown, resided in the little lime- saw and grist mills, which Hart Massey had built beginstone house shown above and that there can still be seen ning in June, 1801, upon three acres of land furnished by
the blocked-up doorway that led from his home into his Silas Stow, land £gent for Nicholas Low, owner of Town
No. 2 now called Watertown.
distillery.
Whether Bev. Ebenezer Lazelle ever lived in a cabin
Since September this house has been the property of or house upon the same site is unknown, but it is extremeMr. and Mrs. Herbert L. Smith, Mr. Smith, a former New ly unlikely that this little stone house existed when he was
York Air Brake employe, now being in the U. S. Navy. in Burrville, at least not as early as 1802. The earliest
They purchased it from Mrs. Laura Strobeck and Mrs. habitations of the earliest settlers were log cabins. Then
Strobeck bought it about four years ago from Mrs. Lewis came frame structures. The first stone house of the region
Spies who, with her late husband, had owned it about 20 was probably Gen. Walter Martin's, built 1803-5 at Maryears, having acquired it from Charles Scales. The trail tinsburg. The Constable mansion at Constableville was
of ownership from there runs back through many hands erected 1809-1819 but in general the stone house era was
including A. Harlow Nye, Orville M. Rexford, Oliver P. not under way before the War, of 1812 in the North
Blair, Mrs. Charlotte St. John, mother of Edwin St. John Country. The Jefferson county clerk's office has no
of this city, she having purchased it June 11, 1875, from record of Rev. Ebenezer Lazelle buying any land from
Benoni Danks who came up from Cohocton, Steuben Silas Stow, Nicholas Low or the Burrs before March 21,
county in February, 1846, to operate the saw and grist 1808, when he acquired 109.75 acres from Low some
mills he had bought at Burrville. Danks apparently did distance southwest of Burrville on the road from Sawyer's
not buy the little stone house at that time, for a deed of Corners to Rodman. On Sept. 20, 1819, he sold that to
Feb. 28, 1854, indicates he took title from Foster Lewis, Thomas Baker and in recent years it has been known as
who had purchased it June 25, 1847, from Polly, widow of the W . C- Baker farm. At the time of that sale Mr. Lazelle
Abel Harvey.
resided at Henrietta, Ontario county.
Another deed dated Dec. 9, 1829, tells that Abel
—Photo and Caption by David F. Lane