The History of Cayuga County 1789-1879 page 303
Town of Montezuma / Village of Montezuma

that it destroyed forever his prospects as a public man. It also engendered a controversy between Burr and Tyler, which resulted in their total estrangement.

In 1811, Col. Tyler removed with his family to Montezuma, and took a deep interest in the Cayuga Manufacturing Company, who were engaged in making salt. With a view to increasing their business by rendering Montezuma more accessible, and very much by the advice and personal exertions of Col. Tyler, the company built two long bridges across the Seneca and Clyde rivers, and constructed a turnpike, more than three miles in length, over the Cayuga marshes, where the earth was so soft that with one hand a man might with ease thrust a pole into it ten or twelve feet.

Col. Tyler resided two or three years in Hoboken, and superintended the draining of the salt meadows in that vicinity. During the war of 1812 he entered the army and served in the capacity of Assistant Commissary General to the northern army, with the rank of Colonel, till the close of the war.

After the close of the war the canal policy engaged his earnest attention. From the beginning, he was among the foremost of the advocates of that work, and he was early in the field, side by side with Judge Geddes and Judge Forman in advocating the feasibility and policy of the plan. He lived to rejoice with those who rejoiced at its completion.

He died at his residence in Montezuma, in the house now occupied by Addison Pease, August 5th, 1827.*

Dr. Peter Lynsen Clarke, who was born at Milford, Connecticut, July 15th, 1773, came from New York city, on horse-back, and arranged for the erection of his residence, returning in the same way. Soon after his return he learned that the parties with whom he had contracted for the erection of the building, had decamped with the $2,000, the contract price. He immediately returned and executed a new contract with other parties, for a like amount, not forgetting the second time a precaution he had overlooked at first, to require sureties from the builders.+ It is a large, once sightly building, and though it now shows signs of decay, is extremely well preserved. When erected it was supposed there was not another such house west of Albany. It stands upon a rounded eminence, known as Prospect Hill, and from its roof one gets a magnificant view of the surrounding country, which lies spread before him like a panorama. A really beautiful landscpape is presented, such as one seldom beholds, diversified by hill and valley, and broad spreading plains, through which the river and creek, like silver threads, glisten in the sun, as they wend their tortuous course. The eye is charmed by the pleasing alternation of cultivated field, wooded (slope?) and grassy plot, with an occasional house peeping through the foliage of trees by which they are partially hidden. He realizes fully, having previously viewed the country from the neighboring lowlands, the force of the adage, "distance lends enchantment to the view," for it needs such a distance and altitude to give him a favorable impression of the marshy tracts which prevail in the immediate vicinity of the village.

Dr. Clarke moved into the town soon after with his family, and while his house was in process of erection occupied a house adjacent to it built by Mr. Swarthout, which has since burned down. He and his son, James Anthony Clarke, who was born in Brooklyn, Jul;y 23d, 1804, were largely interested in the salt works at this place, and were prominently identified with several other business interests conducted here.

About 1840 he removed with his family to New York, where he died May 31st, 1858. His remains are interred in the family cemetery in Montezuma, which is an addition, including three acres of ground, to the Montezuma Prospect Hill Cemetery, beautifully situated upon the hill-side a little south-east of the village, where a fine marble monument is erected, costing $1,000.

The property still remains in the hands of the Clarke family, and the old house is the summer resort of its surviving members, some of whom spend several months here every summer.

*Clark's Onondaga, to which we are indebted for many of the facts obtained in this sketch.

+Local authorities differ in regard to the year in which this house was built. John Francis Daley, who has been connected with the Clarke family for thirty years and has had charge of their property here for the last twenty-five years, fixes the date in 1813; while Horatio Mack, who has proved to be an excellent authority in other respects, and to whom we are largely indebted for information regarding this town, thinks it was built as early as 1808. We are inclined to think the latter date more nearly correct, for he had a child born in the town in 1810; showing that he moved in his family as early as that year.

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