The War of 1812 is one of our forgotten wars, skimmed over in school lessons and rarely the subject of movies. To the British, it was not a real war, but an annoying distraction from their involvement in the Napoleonic Wars. But in the young United States, Americans saw the War of 1812 as a Second American Revolution, a way to deal a final blow to tyrants.
Americans were angered by Britain’s continued colonization of Canada, and their friendly relationships with Native Americans on the frontier, which was blocking American expansion into these regions. In addition, the British had a habit of boarding American ships, supposedly looking for British deserters, whom the United States declared were American citizens impressed into British naval service. In one instance, the British vessel H.M.S. Leopard attacked and then boarded the USS Chesapeake, looking for deserters. The American captain ended up surrendering, an incident the American public found humiliating.
The American military and local militias were not adequate to fight another war with Britain, but Congress declared war anyway on June 18, 1812. A substantial percentage of the conflict occurred along the shores of the Great Lakes. The British garrisoned across Lake Ontario in Canada, sailed over and attacked several communities — such as Charlotte, Oswego and Sodus. Fortunately, it was a war with a small number of fatalities, but it went on for more than 2½ years before it ended in February of 1815.
Men from Yates County (which was still part of Ontario County) volunteered for the war effort. Dr. Joshua Lee functioned as the surgeon for the 3rd New York Infantry and Light Artillery, accompanied by Walter Wolcott, who later went on to write several local histories. One Middlesex resident, James Blair, was the rower who carried Oliver Hazard Perry to his ship at the Battle of Lake Erie. Others joined the Ontario County militia or volunteered whenever there was an alarm that the British were approaching, which was often. Usually, these alarms turned out to be false.
Fortunately, no one from present-day Yates County was killed or gravely injured in the war. Sadly, however, there was one war-related fatality — that of Capt. Thomas Barden III, which happened in a way not expected.
Before the raid on Sodus, neighboring localities were alerted to the expected attack to better fortify themselves or send aid to the Sodus militia. The British had just attacked Charlotte and were expected to sail east and attack Sodus next. Unfortunately, the frequent false alarms caused most of the militias to leave on June 19, 1813, when the British did not show up as expected. That very night, 100 British troops landed and exchanged gunfire with the 40 local men who were still trying to protect Sodus. Badly overwhelmed, they retreated. The next day, the British completely razed the village.
Meanwhile, the militia men from what is now Yates County arrived too late to help. The damage was done, so the men turned around to head back home. Despite the loss, they were in good spirits. According to one contemporary, Oliver Prentiss, all the local “men and big boys had turned out” for the Sodus raid, and on their way back were “jolly.” They were probably glad their homes were far enough away from Lake Ontario to not worry about raids on their own soil, and the ride up and back had provided some excitement and a break in the monotony of farm labor.
A fatal decision
One seasoned soldier, Thomas Barden III, had fought in the Revolution as a young teen alongside his grandfather, brother, and father in Capt. Moses Wilmarth’s Company in Massachusetts. He moved to what is now Yates County around 1790 and worked at the sawmill owned by Dr. Caleb Benton in Bellona. He and his brother, James, were responsible for milling the wood that built the Geneva Hotel and Mile Point House.
On Feb. 2, 1792, he married Olive Benton, daughter of Levi Benton, for whom the township was named. They had nine children, including Thomas Barden IV (who also enlisted in the War of 1812), living in a house in Bellona that had been built by Caleb Benton. He later bought what was called the Number Nine Farm from Levi Benton, which was located on Lot 9, on the west side of Pre-Emption Road between Loree and Havens Corners roads. In 1799, Thomas’ brother Otis helped found the Ontario County Militia, and organized a muster in Geneva at the home of James Crow. At this meeting, Thomas Barden III was made militia captain, a title he still held over a decade later.
When the War of 1812 broke out, Barden decided to join the local men and boys who were called out to defend their neighbors to the north. It was a fatal decision.
After the Sodus raid, on June 21, the men left and returned home. Barden and the others were remarkably close to home when a tragedy occurred. Just north of what is known as the “Old Fort,” an ancient Native American ruin in the hamlet of Friend in Jerusalem, Barden rode his horse by a column of men on foot. Prentiss recalled that not only were the men in high spirits, but that “the captain’s horse was jolly.” Barden realized his horse had bumped John Decker, one of the men marching, and was told by another militiaman that Decker was injured.
Decker was a blacksmith from Potter Center, younger than Barden. According to an account by S.C. Cleveland in The History and Directory of Yates County, Barden dismounted, walked back to Decker, and extended his hand to apologize. Upon Barden putting out his hand, Decker “dealt him a violent blow under the left ear and felled him dead at his feet.” According to Prentiss’ account, the encounter was even more dramatic.
When Barden apologized, Decker snarled, “Yes, damn ye, I’ll pardon ye,” and “with a stone in his clenched fist, gave the fatal blow.”
Whether the punch involved a stone or not, Barden dropped dead at Decker’s feet. From its description, it may have been a “rabbit punch,” which is banned in professional boxing today. Punches around the ear can be particularly dangerous, but it is unknown whether the punch killed him, or if he hit his head when he fell. As a blacksmith, he may have had a great deal of upper body strength and misjudged how hard he hit Barden.
Decker was arrested and taken to Canandaigua (then the county seat), charged with murder. Since Decker acted foolishly and in a fit of rage — and probably did not mean to kill Barden — he was instead convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to four years in state prison.
In 1813, Auburn State Penitentiary was not yet built. The only state prison in New York was Newgate in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan, so that is likely where Decker was sent. He was pardoned by Gov. Daniel D. Tompkins, later vice president, after three years.
Decker did return to live in the area after his incarceration. Prentiss wrote, “I knew Decker, after that — he had a morose look.” Not much is known about him besides his occupation and origin in Potter. He may be the John Decker who showed up in later census returns in southern Ontario County towns, although certainly not the John Decker who applied for a War of 1812 pension in Richmond, Ontario County, in 1859. That John Decker had been honorably discharged, and no one convicted of manslaughter would have been.
The post-Revolution period was fraught with social problems in both urban and rural spaces, including Yates County. The fact that the only wartime death in the area was not caused by the opposition, but by violence from a fellow soldier, proves that senseless violence was one of the biggest problems facing Americans during this era.
