Around 1822, Peter and Mary Perry Bliss moved their large family to Truxton. Peter and Mary had seventeen children, eight of whom were girls and nine of whom were boys. Two of their daughters did not survive infancy, and another daughter was stillborn. When they relocated from Massachusetts, their son Horace was about eighteen years old. Horace was the tenth child in the family and a skilled mechanic, a term used to distinguish between a skilled craftsman and a common laborer. Horace’s area of expertise was carpentry, and he would leave his mark on some important county structures.
Horace had business relationships with at least two of his older brothers—Leonard and Hiram. Leonard was an entrepreneur and is said to have invented the first machine for making window sash. Horace and Leonard teamed up to produce and sell window sashes and blinds, which were then shipped down the river on rafts.
On October 10, 1832, Horace married Deborah Cushing Samson, and together, they would have four children, though unfortunately, their first child was stillborn in 1833. Horace and Deborah were living in Truxton at the time, and this is where their son DeLoyd was born in 1836. Horace was working as a carpenter in Cortland County, and the first building known to be his work was Mechanics Hall in the village of Homer. Mechanics Hall was built in 1833, and Bliss worked with Daniel Glover, Hammon Short, and Horace Babcock to engineer this mammoth building which was located on the corner of Cayuga and Main Street. The building was an iconic structure which made a big impression on people who visited Homer.
The 1830s decade was an industrious one for Bliss. He was the carpenter for the second courthouse in Cortland County, built in 1836 (located where the Cortland Free Library is today), and for the Universalist Church, built in 1837 (now the Unitarian Universalist Church), another iconic county building and one of about twenty remaining cobblestone religious structures left in New York. In 1837, deeds show that Horace and his brother Hiram purchased land in the town of Berkshire in neighboring Tioga County. This makes sense because sources indicate that wood for the sash factory in Truxton came from a source in Harford, so it is likely Hiram and Horace had made contacts in the wider area. Over the course of the next five years, the two brothers purchased several parcels of land and worked together in the manufacturing of doors, blinds, and window sashes in Berkshire.
Horace and Deborah welcomed two more sons while they were living in Berkshire. DeLay was born in 1840, and Alonzo followed in 1845. In 1845, DeLoyd and DeLay Bliss were immortalized in a hauntingly beautiful portrait which is attributed to Susan C. Waters, an itinerant painter. Time stands still in the portrait and captures the boys before tragedy struck the family later that year. DeLay Bliss would not live to see his fifth birthday in October. Horace and Deborah lost their first child and now their third was gone as well. This remarkable portrait is the only likeness of DeLay, and sometime after his death, a sprig of holly was added to his hand, a symbol of everlasting life.
The 1850 census tells us that Horace and Deborah moved back to Truxton, and another source tells us that in 1852, Horace purchased a farm in Cortlandville. According to the 1855 county map, this was located right about where Route 41 and Route 11 diverge in Polkville. His dairy was the best in the county, according to his obituary. Newspaper ads show that he was also making doors and selling them from his home, but around 1858, he purchased a “home lot” in Cortland village on Mill Street (now Clinton Avenue) and moved once again. There is a three-year gap which may be the period that Horace moved briefly to Virginia.
By 1860, the census shows that son DeLoyd was married to Martha Thirds and living in a separate household from that of his parents and teenaged brother, but the 1870 census paints a different tale and tells us that he and his two children had moved in with Horace and Deborah. Martha died on November 5, 1869, at the age of 31 years. She contracted typhoid fever and was unable to recover. Her death left a hole in the lives of her husband and young children. DeLoyd was able to rely on his parents to help him raise his children, but it would be decades before he would find love again.
After a life of hard work, joy, sorrow, and achievement, Horace Bliss passed away at home at the age of 78. Deborah followed him in 1889, and that same year, the Universalist Church in Cortland underwent a major remodel. Gorgeous stained-glass windows were added at a cost of $50-150 each. It is likely that DeLoyd and his brother Alonzo elected to memorialize their parents with a window since the very building was brought to life through the hands of their father, and he was the leading layman from 1844 to 1857. The cobblestone church is approaching 200 years and stands as a testament to the carpentry skills of its lead carpenter, Horace Bliss. It is unknown how many other buildings bear the hand of Horace Bliss, or if like Mechanics Hall and the second courthouse, none remain.
Horace Bliss did not stay long in any one location, choosing to live where work or whim led him. His carpentry skills created the legendary Mechanics Hall, though he never did seem to find a place to settle in Homer. It is fitting, perhaps, that he and his family lie at rest in the Cortland Rural Cemetery since the latter part of his life and his faith kept him in Cortland Village for the longest period of time. ~ By Tabitha Scoville, Cortland County Historical Society Director