Oswego Mariner Orson H. Brown

Portrait of Orson H. Brown  from Landmarks of Oswego County by John C. Churchill, published in Syracuse, N.Y. by D. Mason & Co., 1895

Orson H. Brown Recalled Early Days of Sailing on Great Lakes

By Richard Palmer

  In the 1880s Clark Morrison, editor and publisher of the Oswego Daily Palladium, with pen in hand, occasionally conducted interviews with a variety of local  people who had lived in the community since pioneer times. Old lake sailors were among his favorite subjects.  These were published under the standing headline, “An Old Tar’s Twister.” The interviews were very insightful and gave details not found elsewhere.

   One day in 1884 Morrison sat  down with Orson H. Brown who had started his career as a boy working on a small two masted schooner plying between Oswego and Kingston, Ont.  The result of this interview follows. But first some background. He was born in Jefferson County, N.Y. on Sept. 23, 1816, son of Roswell and Electa (Herrick) Brown. When he was 11 his family moved to northern New York. He attended a one-room school until he was 14 and then decided to become a sailor. He rose from the lowest ranks, eventually commanding several vessels.

  He followed the lakes for 17 years then became a marine insurance adjuster. Some of  his cases involved hundreds of thousands of dollars. He also owned and was part owner of several sailing and steam vessels and was thoroughly familiar with maritime law; was a vessel broker and even occasionally conducted vessel auctions. He was a director of several local banks and was once president of the Oswego Board of Trade. He died Nov. 9, 1902. He was buried with his family in Pulaski Cemetery.

   In 1838 Brown married Jane Weed, a cousin of famed New York politician Thurlow Weed. They had a daughter, Ada B. Mrs. Weed was born in 1818 and died in 1896. 

   Here is the interview as published by the Oswego Palladium July 12, 1884:

   Who is there that does not like to listen to the story of an old mariner?

    Nobody, did you say?

    Surely, then, the thousands of Palladium readers will be interested in the following interview which a reporter had today with Capt. O.H. Brown, especially as it relates to a few features of the early commerce of Oswego.

    But who is “Captain” O.H. Brown, did you ask?

    So many years have passed and gone since we knew him as “Captain,” and since he paced the quarter-deck of a schooner, we thought some of you would fail to recognize him with that title prefixed to his name, but you will readily do so when it is written simply “O.H. Brown, Esq.” You will remember him as one of our oldest and most respected citizens.

    “Yes, it is a long time since I sailed a vessel,” he said in reply to the reporter’s inquiry, “and I tell you times have changed wonderfully.”

    “When did you first commence sailing?” 

    “I think it was in the year 1831 - fifty-three years ago - that I came into the port of Oswego on board of the schooner, Rob Roy. She was a low, straight craft and will doubtless be remembered by a few of the oldest inhabitants on both sides of the lake, as she had served in the capacity of a gun boat when ‘Uncle Sam’ and ‘John Bull’ were amusing themselves at a little game of “collar and elbow.” (1)

    “No, she was not quite as comely as Commodore Mott’s  sail boat Cricket, as she was sharp at both ends. She would, however, carry more ‘bricks’ - I mean the kind we build with of course. One evidence of this is the fact that she brought into this port that year, the bricks used in the building of the Phoenix block - that familiar landmark, the laying of the keep of which but few of our citizens remember.

    “Could I recognize the old harbor in that of today? No, indeed. It then wore a primitive aspect. There were no docks, and the crude condition of the river banks was adorned in native foliage.”

    “Yes, we had regular communication with Canada at that time. The little schooner Llewellyn  was the regular packet running between Oswego and Kingston, and it was about an even thing between the arrival of the ‘packet’ and the Fourth of July, as to which would attract the greater crowd of people. Captain John Richardson is remembered as one of the crew of the packet, holding a proud position before the mast. He was then a lively young man and still lives a few miles from this city.”(2)

    “Were you before the man when you first shipped?”

   “Oh, no. From the spring of 1831 to 1835, in different vessels and in different trades, it was my province to get the dinner for the other fellows. But I was expected to handle just as much of the cargo as any of the crew.”

   “Wages, as compared with today? Why bless you. The first year I received $5 per month. When I went before the mast I shipped with the captain of a small trader a $7 per month. I had been aboard but a short time when the owner came along an asked me what pay I was getting. ‘Seven dollars sir’ says I. ’Tut-tut-tut-too much-get ashore - can’t pay that’ was his reply.”

   “At what age did you have charge of a vessel?”

    “I was one year before the mast, two years as mate, and in 1838, at the age of 21, I was given the command of the  Lewis Goler, owned by Bronson & Crocker. I sailed her two years and then took the Ellen Bronson. We had no tugs then and had get into port as best we could. In 1841 I was transferred to the schooner Liverpool, at that time the largest vessel sailing out of this port. I afterward sailed the Acorn and the brig Fashion. I retired in 1847.”

    “How about freights in those days?”

    “Well, we used to have a dull year now and then but they were generally good. At one time in 1841 in the Liverpool, which carried 6,000 bushels, I got a load of wheat from Chicago to Buffalo at 25 cents a bushel. On arriving at Buffalo I was given 11 cents more to carry it through to Ogdensburg. That made a 36 cent freight, while now vessels receive 4 or 5 cents.”

    “In those old days, small lake craft, the canal ‘line’ boats, and the heavy stagecoach constituted the prevailing modes of transportation of freight, passengers and mails in and out of Oswego. Our fellow citizen, L.L. Kenyon, knows how it was. You just watch him when a Cleveland firecracker explodes near him and note his quick movement. He is probably under the momentary impulse that it is the crack of his driver’s whip, behind four stage horses, headed towards Rome as of yore. 

    “Soon after this period the ‘Lake boat,” possessing far greater capacity and strength, first introduced by our late fellow citizen, Sylvester Doolittle, supplanted the ‘light-weight’ typical ‘line boats’ with their white sides and green blinds.”

    Just at that moment Mr. Brown’s office door bell rang, and remarking to the reporter that he might come around again some fry day, he went to attend to his customer.

    Mr. Brown, though well advanced in years, is still an active business man, and takes a lively interest in all that pertains to the welfare of our city. He has amassed a comfortable property and for more than thirty years has been the agent of the old Aetna Insurance Company. (Note: . In the 1854-55 Oswego City Directory, Brown is listed as an insurance agent at 131 Water St., residence, 124 W. Second St.)

(1)  There was a two-masted schooner named Rob Roy built at Sackets Harbor, 1817, 43 tons, 75.7’ x 16.6’ x 3.1’ Enrolled at Oswego and Sackets Harbor and Oswego, 1826 - 1833. Obviously this vessel did not exist during the War of 1812 during what Brown described as the “little game of ‘collar and elbow.’”

(2) The British Whig of Kingston noted on March 21, 1834 the arrival of the “Oswego Packet, Llewellyn, bringing supplies of many market articles.” It also said this vessel had been “fitted up for a packet between Oswego and Kingston. The Chronicle & Gazette of Kingston noted on June 29, 1833 that this vessel “has commenced running her regular trips, and will, wind and weather permitting, make two trips each week. For freight or passing, apply to C.B. Aspinwall & Co., Oswego; John G. Parker, Kingston, or the Captain on board.”   

                             Other vessels recalled by Captain Brown

Acorn  2-masted schooner built by H. Hacker at Port Hope, Ont. 1844.  48 tons.  Ashore  below Fort Ontario, Oswego Oct. 26, 1869 with lumber cargo from Port Hope. Became a total wreck.

Ellen Bronson  2 masted schooner built by Asa Wilcox at Point Peninsula 1835 112 tons. Heavily damaged by fire in 1853, broken up at Oswego in 1855. 

Fashion 2 masted schooner built at Bath, Ontario 1846, 48 tons capsized, went ashore and wrecked at Lusk’s Point, three miles west of the Port of Genesee, Lake Ontario, April 1, 1857 with cargo of 300 barrels of flour bound for Newcastle, Ont.

Lewis Goler  2 masted schooner built by Lewis Goler at Cape Vincent 1830 76’ x 19’6” x 7’8” 95 tons. Last record, 1860.

Llewellyn 2 masted schooner built at Oswego 1832. 50’ x 15’5” x 5’6” 38 tons. Beached at St. Joseph, Michigan, Nov. 15, 1835

Liverpool 2 masted schooner built in Oswego 1839 120 tons. Foundered Grand Haven, Lake Michigan, Oct. 31, 1855.