CHAPTER XII.

NOTES ON CAYUGA LAKE PLASTER.

Discovery in 1809.

In the fall of 1809, Philip Yawger I. while plowing uncovered a soft grey stone on the lower part of the farm near the lake. That same season, a gentleman by the name of Hill from Philadelphia passed through this part of the county, and was a guest of Philip Yawger at the "Black House," which in the absence of a tavern frequently opened its hospitable doors to the stranger and wayfarer. Mr. Hill was a land buyer and general speculator. He was also something of a scientist, and became greatly interested in the soft grey stone which Philip described as recently found. The morning following Mr. Hill's arrival, the two gentlemen searched and found more of the stone, which Mr. Hill pronounced to be either plaster of Paris or gypsum, and advised his host to try making a powder of it and using as a fertilizer on clover, wheat, etc.

Use as a

Philip Yawger and his sons broke up the stone with a common hammer and used it as a fertilizer with excellent results. The neighbors also came and got stone which they pul

fertilizer.

Afterward it was sent In the meantime, Mr. stone back to Philadel

verized, and had like success. to flour mills to be ground. Hill had taken some of the phia, and there had a chemical analysis made which proved the stone to be a very fine quality of gypsum.

Plaster was used as a fertilizer in Europe at a very Franklin's early date. When Benjamin Franklin reExperiments. turned from Europe in 1772, he bought a quantity of plaster which he used in the vicinity of Philadelphia. He also sowed a piece of clover in the city of Washington, and in the clover traced in plaster the sentence, "This has been plastered." In due time the clover came up and the sentence could be clearly read by all, because that which had been plastered grew more rank and vigorous.

At this period, 1722, much attention was given Development plaster, and afterward the gypsum was of the plaster. found in Nova Scotia, reduced to a powder and extensively used throughout the United States. Philip and his neighbors continued to use the plaster through 1810-11, and at last it became so well known that many of the farmers in the Cayuga Lake region came to Philip for the stone. During the war of 1812, it will be remembered that Congress laid an embargo restricting English commerce, and this indirectly aided greatly in the development of the Cayuga Lake Plaster, for which there immediately sprang up a

Embargo of 1812.

great demand, as this was the only quarry then known in the United States. The stone was shipped entire by water to Ithaca, thence in wagons 30 miles to Owego, where it was again put on boats and taken down the Susquehanna. The flouring mills throughout the country at this time did the pulverizing. Plaster was sold at the low price of $6.00 a ton, unground, delivered on Cayuga Lake; yet Philip's contracts brought in thousands of dollars, which frequently came as lumber, whiskey, flour, cattle and all kinds of produce.

boats.

At this time Philip owned a large number of plaster boats which ran between Union Springs Philip's and Ithaca, and this caused a misfortune trouble about which nearly ruined him at a time of great prosperity. Generals Dearborn and Van Renssalear were sent to make an attack on Canada. They came to Union Springs, seized Philip's plaster boats, carried them to the foot of the lake, thence through the Seneca and Oswego rivers to Lake Ontario to Sackett's Harbor. There they were fitted out for the transportation of troops to Canada, but the scheme was abandoned and the boats burned on the shore. There were between fifty and sixty of these boats, and the only two which remained with Philip were thirty-ton schooners which had been sunk with only the tips of the masts projecting above the surface of the water, when the news of the levy and the coming officers had reached the lake.

The seizure of these boats made it impossible for Philip to fulfill his plaster contracts. He was sued for damages and nearly ruined. It was thought at one time he would have to fail and be sold out. After many anxious family consultations among the sons, all but Henry and Daniel withdrew from the trouble, and these two sons determined to exhaust every means to save the estate. One or both went to New Jersey on horseback in midwinter to secure certain loans from the relatives there. By these and other equally energetic means the estate was saved. Philip built new boats, made new contracts, continued his plaster business, and prospered, repaying the loans. In a sense of gratitude toward Henry and Daniel he made a will by which they were to receive at his death, the entire lot 86, both land and plaster.

The other nine children, as has been previously stated, had already been provided with large farms wholly or nearly free from incumbrance, and Henry and Daniel were the only children remaining at home. This will, however, was subsequently changed.

Peter Yawger II. afterward went to Sackett's Harbor and secured a recompense for the value of the boats which were destroyed, but could not obtain any redress for the heavy damages sustained by the failure to keep the plaster contracts. Years after a second unsuccessful attempt to secure recompense was made.

Plaster was soon discovered and quarries opened on lot 92, south of 86, then owned by E. Dougherty; later on lot 85, owned by Barnett Crise, and afterwards on the Richardson farm. Thompson's quarry was also used.

Peace was declared with Great Britain Feb. 18th, 1815, and the embargo being removed the Nova Scotia plaster came in as before, and this cause operating with Philip's diminished capital injured the sale of the Cayuga Lake plaster, so that from about 1820-1830 it sold at a very low figure.

Philip Yawger I. died in 1830, and the family had a great deal of trouble settling the property. Finally the brothers, Peter II., William II., Henry II., and Daniel I. formed a partnership to carry on the business. This was afterward enlarged upon and a company formed, and then the plaster business attained the highest prosperity.