Building date: 1840-42
Original use:
Corner structures:
Mortar application and content: Vertical, no embellishment. Stones set in in horizontal rows with straight horizontal mortar joints.
Types and uses of stones: Similar in size, but varied in shape and color.
Types and choice of windows:
Structures with similar masonry details: Mad-1 Ford Mad-1, Eat-1 Cobblestone Store Mad-4
Masons who worked on building: Joe Stevens
Unique features:
Map views courtesy Google Maps. Address is Google Earth confirmed; 42°54'11.33"N 75°32'26.34"W. Current owner of record, Schmidt as of date (YMD) 190420.
Town of Madison and Madison County Maps
This five-bay Greek Revival style house at 3822 Canal Road, Bouckville, was built by James and Silas Howard.
"The Cobblestone Houses of Upstate New York", compiled by Dorothy Wells Pease. Research done in collaboration with Hazed B. Jeffery, supplemented with material furnished by Carl F. Schmidt, 1941. Reference the second paragraph on page 42.
Excerpt from thesis "Nineteenth Century Cobblestone Structures in Madison County, New York", by Ruthanne Mills, 1972. Titled Howard-Edgarton House.
The story of this cobblestone house is found in the writings of the late Helen Howard Peckham.
Synopsis specific to the cobblestone structure:
It was built by my great-great-grandfather, James Howard and his brother, Silas. It took two years to build it in 1840-42. They used field stones that were very abundant on the farm. The stones were left after a glacier passed through this section. There were enough field stones collected in piles to build another house. If more were needed all one had to do was plow the garden. It was surprising how many stones turn up.
They were assisted in building the house by a stone mason, Joe Stevens, who might have been one of the men in building the Chenango Canal in 1834-37. Many men who worked on the canal settled in this vicinity after it was completed.
The cobblestones used in building the house were similar in size, but varied in shape and color. They were set in in horizontal rows with straight horizontal mortar joints. My grandmother, while working in her flower garden, once heard two slightly inebriated gentlemen while walking down the road exclaim one to the other if they had that house they would paint each stone a different color.
James had a canal boat named 'The Madison' and undoubtedly brought the corner (quoins) stones and the large long one (lintel) above the front door came from the quarry about a mile away at Oriskany Falls.
The house was later owned by the Edgarton family, and Smith Edgarton is said to have help build it. An article in the Cazenovia Republican of July 8, 1926, noted in part:
Eighty-five years ago washed sand and gravel were produced at Solsville from the deposit which is now being worked by the Madison Sand & Gravel Corporation. In those days, when houses were built on honor, it was an unwritten law that cobblestone houses should be built with washed material.
The cobblestone house now owned by Smith Edgarton, near the new plant, was built with this material. The sand and gravel was shoveled from the bank into a two-wheel cart of about a half-yard capacity and drawn by an ox team to the bank of the canal, where it was dumped into a water-tight box.
A few pails of water were thrown upon the material and it was thoroughly shoveled. The water with the silt in solution was then drained off and the clean material shoveled back into the ox car and drawn to the job. Three men and the ox team were able to produce five yards per day.
The driver of the yoke of oxen has long since passed on, but the house that he helped to build is as sound as ever and presents a forceful argument for the used of washed sand and gravel in building construction.
Full article:
The Cobble Stone House, By Helen Howard Peckham, June 1991
Image provided by Gary FuessMembers of the Edgarton family intermingle with a group of hop pickers about 1900-01. Eleventh person, first row from left, are Pearl Edgerton Reynolds, Albert Marton Edgarton, with straw hat, Smith Berry Edgarton his daughter, Marjorie (Dahn); Standing in back of him is Clara Edgarton Howard; standing in doorway with dark dress is Helen Martin Edgarton, wife of Smith Edgarton.
"Mid-York Memoranda", by Scott Phoenix, Mid York Weekly, Hamilton, NY, 1/28/1965.
"History Chips", by Marshall Hope, Oneida Daily Dispatch, 5/12/1965. See paragraph 4 under heading "Octagon House".
Albert Martin Edgarton Scholar, Sportsman, and Dairy Farmer, by Jim Ford, 2020 (jnford47@gmail.com)
"Firefighters race to fight blaze in Madison County", Rome Daily Sentinel, 2/9/22. "Canal Rd, Bouckville house fire", News Channel 2, WKTV, Utica, NY.
- "Cobblestone Masonry", 1966, Carl Schmidt: Name reference, Howard - Edgarton House
- Pages 38 - 39, Page 238
- "The Era of Cobblestone Architecture", unpublished manuscript 1972. To access the manuscript content about this structure, see 18. Madison County, Howard-Edgarton House, and 176. Doorway: Howard-Edgarton House. This structure is not included in the subsequent book "Cobblestone Landmarks of New York State", 1978.
 Edgarton Farm Owners and Hop Pickers by Gary Fuess 010.jpg ¹ |  Mad-4 Howard 1.jpg ² Pease Collection 1940-41 |  GP Madison Madison Mad-4_1 N.jpg ³ October 1971 |  GP Madison Madison Mad-4_2 N.jpg ³ October 1971 |
 Mad-4 Howard 2.jpg ² |  Mad_4_1.jpg |  Mad_4_2.jpg |  Mad_4_3.jpg |
 Mad_4_4.jpg |  Mad_4_5.jpg |  Mad-4 3822 Canal Rd 1.jpg 4 |  Mad-4 3822 Canal Rd 2.jpg 4 |
 Mad-4 3822 Canal Rd 3.jpg 4 |  Mad-4 3822 Canal Rd 4.jpg 4 |  3822_Canal_Road_Bouckville.jpg 5 |  Outbuilding at 3822 Canal Road, Bouckville.jpg 5 Out building attached to rear of the house. |
¹ Photography courtesy Diana Van Slyke, Town of Madison Historian.
² Image courtesy Cobblestone Museum.
³ Photography courtesy Gerda Peterich.
4 Photography courtesy Martin and Sheila Wolfish.
5 Photography courtesy Richard Palmer.
