In previous paper allusion was made to the immense fire places before the introduction of the cooking stove or range of to-day.  These fire places with their enormous capacity to receive wood had chimneys of corresponding size and as the wood was no infrequently green or only half seasoned immense quantities of soot would gather on the inside of the chimneys so that is was a very common occurrence to see a huge volume of black smoke followed by a fierce flame spouting several feet above a chimney top, carrying and scattering masses of burning soot over roofs and the surrounding ground, making these self-caught fires
unless carefully watched quite dangerous.  To avoid this danger professional chimney sweeps who traveled from place to place would sometimes be employed, who mount on ladders and descend the chimneys scraping and seeping them free from their black deposit.  Usually these chimney sweepers would be accompanied by a small boy whose serves would be utilized to clean the smaller connecting flues.  Their necessarily blackened appearances as they went through the streets with their cry of "chimneys to sweep" chimneys to sweep" would to-day seem peculiarly strange and unique.

When these chimney sweepers were not employed and it was desired to clean the chimneys of their vast accumulations, a quantity of shavings or straw would be put into the chimney and set on fire, thus burning out the soot, in the meantime watching carefully both on the outside and the interior where the chimney passed through the chamber floors and roof or touches partitions or the siding of the house.

In the decade of 1826-30 there were two hat manufacturers at Adams, where hats of various texture of wool and fur were made, supplying the demand for quite an extent of territory for hats needed.  One of these carried on by Titus Bassett and the other by David Moulton, the location of which will be noted in a later paper giving business places and perchance an attempt to give pen pictures of residences and occupants as the were "three score years of more ago."

There were at this time two carding and cloth dressing establishments where wool was manufactured into rools ready for the spinning wheel (which was to be found in almost every house.)  These establishments also received the home manufactured flannels from the household spinning wheels and looms and dyed, fulled and finished the fulled cloth for domestic or home use.  The excess above what was wanted for the family supply being sold to the local merchant in exchange for other needed articles that they might require.  It was, in fact, no small portion of a merchant's business to receive for his goods in payment, barter or exchanging his goods for the products of the farm or household instead of money.  The want of a circulating median to meet the needs of a rapidly growing community to facilitate exchanges led in 1816 to the incorporation of a bank, (the first organized in the county) with a capital of $50,000, the stockholders representing the different business locations throughout the entire county and was styled the Jefferson County Bank.  The contest for its location was largely between Watertown and Brownville, which at that time were rival villages and was both prolonged and exciting and resulted in locating it at Adams as a compromise measure and the first board of directors were elected June 20, 1817.  The bank after a

struggle for existence for a few years in this location was compelled to temporarily suspend and in 1824 by special act of the legislature was removed to Watertown.  The bank building and lot was paid for by the residents of Adams and immediate vicinity, and upon removal of the business operations to Watertown, William Hart, of Adams, was selected  to act as trustee for the subscribers to the purchase and building fund.  We are indebted to the kindness of James Monroe Hart, of Oswego, (who although from early manhood prominently identified with the commercial and business interests of his adopted city, has never forgotten that he was an Adams boy,) for a copy of the following document in relation to the trust given his father.
 

"We whose names are underwritten and who have heretofore subscribed and actually paid toward building the bank house in the Village of Adams, do hereby appoint William Hart of said Adams to receive a deed of said bank house and the land thereto belonging, in trust for the subscribers to the same, for their benefit in proportion to the sums by them respectively paid.  Adams, November 22, 1824.

Thos. C. Chittenden, John Spafford, Eli Eastman, Daniel Ellis, W. C. Gridley, Joseph Sterling, Titus Bassett, J. Griswold, Alanson Russell, Elihu Morton, Lyman Munson, Chauncy Smith, Daniel Beals, Ebin Brown, Jr., Elijah Fox, Wm. Barton, Cyrus Eddy, Clark Allen, Seth Gaylord, Joseph Cook, Julius Morton, Daniel Fox, David Hale, Julius Morton for Haley Brown, Harry Wright, Elijah Wesson Thomas, David Smith, M. Homans.

The older residents of Adams will recognize in this list of names most of the prominent public spirited men of Adams and vicinity "sixty years or more ago."
J. Eddy.