USA > New York > Lewis County > A history of Lewis County, in the state of New York, from the beginning of its settlement to the present time > Part 3
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The CLERK'S OFFICE waskept in the house of Richard Coxe, the clerk, until the act of 1811, which required it to be kept within a mile of the court house, after the first day of Oc- tober following. The office was kept in the dwelling of the clerk or his deputy for the time being, somewhere in the village of Martinsburgh, until 1822, when Martin erected a fire proof brick office and rented a part to the county. In 1824 an act was passed requiring the erection of a clerk's office, but this was not done. In 1847 an association was formed in Martinsburgh for the purpose of building a clerk's office, which was finished and leased to the county free of rent. It has since been in use as the clerk's office.
PAUPERISM .- For many of the earlier years, the several towns of this county supported their own poor by an annual tax, and paupers were generally kept by those who would bid the lowest sum for their support. Persons becoming a public charge before they had gained a residence, were sent back to the town where they had last resided, or if they could not be removed were supported at the expense of such town. In 1817, a committee was appointed in Lowville to confer with one from Martinsburgh, upon the subject of a poor house, but nothing resulted. In 1824, the secretary of state, under a resolution of the preceding session, reported such statistics of pauperism as could be obtained, and upon his recommendation an act was passed in 1824, under which the supervisors resolved to erect a poor house in Lewis county. At that period this county ranked the 46th in the scale of pauperism and the 51st in taxation, as compared C
18
County Buildings.
with the rest of the state. Paupers formed one-fifth of one per cent. of the population, and the poor tax was a fraction over one cent per $100 of valuation. Several of the towns had acquired a surplus poor fund.
In the fall of 1825, Jonathan Collins, Charles D. Morse and Stephen Hart were appointed to purchase a site and take preliminary steps for the erection of a poor house. The farm of Maj. David Cobb, a mile west of Lowville vil- lage, was bought for $1,650, and the premises were fitted up for the county use. The first county superintendents of the poor, appointed in 1826, were Nathaniel Merriam, Philo Rockwell, Stephen Leonard, Paul Abbott and Samuel Allen.
The distinction between town and county poor under the act of 1824, was abolished in 1834, restored in 1842, abolished in 1845, and finally restored in 1851. Several towns have, upon each of these occasions, passed reso- lutions at their annual meetings with reference to this measure. The premises originally fitted up continued in use until it became necessary, in 1845, to call public attention to their condition, and to take measures for secur- ing either an extension of accommodation or the erection of a new building. In 1845, several of the towns passed resolutions instructing their supervisors to give their atten- tion to the subject ; and a representation of the facts to the legislature procured an act passed March 26, 1846, directing a tax of $1,500 to be levied upon the county for the repair and extension of the poor house. Miss D. L. Dix (whose earnest efforts in behalf of the poor and insane have earned her the appellation of the " crazy angel"), visited our county poor house in the spring of 1844, and her conversation is said to have had an influence in calling attention to the necessity of reform.
A new stone building, forty by sixty feet, and two stories high, was erected in 1846, and has since been in use, afford- ing comfortable accommodation to such as are reduced to that dependence which it is designed to relieve. The farm attached contains 59 116 acres, valued, with the buildings, at $3,500, and partly cultivated by the labor of paupers. The statistics of the institution showed, in 1858, that 30 per cent. were foreigners, and that 54 per cent. were re- duced to poverty by intemperance. The expense of weekly support was 76 cents, and had, in early years, been half less.
Under an act of April 20, 1818, male felons, convicted in Lewis county, were sent to the state prison at Auburn. Since the erection of the Clinton prison, convicts have usually been sent thither from this county.
19
Statistics of Pauperism.
Statistics of Pauperism as reported annually on the first day of December, since 1829.
Number Relieved.
Annual Expense.
In Poor House at end of year.
Changes in Poor House.
YEARS.
County.
Town.
Poor
House.
Total.
Males.
Females.
Total.
Received.
Born.
Died.
Discharged.
Absconded.
1830
19
20
$388
8
11
19
39
4
4
1
15
1831
37
29
1467
8
9
17
31
1
2
1
26
1
1832
33
15
891
9
8
17
32
2
2
2
25
2
1833
20
30
1287
10
8
18
30
3
1
1
26
5
1834
15
55
1615
11
19
17
36
50
3
3
3
13
1
1836
86
82
1955
13
13
26
39
2
6
1 43
3
1838
87
$1290
1633
12
12
24
27
1
3
4
16
4
1839
76
1905
2281
16
20
36
76
4
6
36
2
1840
93
.
2030
2742
14
23
37
93
3
3
1
49
. .
1841
96
1919
2366
23
13
36
96
1
6
1
53
. .
1842
89
1861
2288
17
15
32
89
2
3
2
50
. .
1843
52
38
1594
1958
22
22
44
90
5
4
.
41
1
1844
51
26
1261
1433
18
16
34
30
2
4
3
1
14
4
1846
84
122
1762
2632
26
26
52
38
1
6
4
16
6
1847
181
..
2385
2904
35
30
65
63
64
68
2
4
1
34
9
1850
213
..
2461
3228
31
29
60
56
35
1
4
2
30
4
1852
62
51
2461
3351
4218
42
33
75
68
6
8
1
25
8 6
1855
120
46
5012
11187
49
45
94
61
2 10
34
4
1856
198
52
1478
2297
31
38
69
43
1
3
3
56
7
1857
125
53
4615
5067
24
26
50
46
2
7
2
49
9
1858
126
48
3564
4126
20
23
43
35
2
6
2
25
. .
1859
152
28
3816
4531
20
26
46
80
. .
5
1
38
9
1851
94
96
1782
2503
27
29
43
70
56
2
6
5
31
6
1853
220
62
3534
3907
5354
37
53
90
153
1
7
· ·
32
4
1845
192
1285
1758
23
19
42
35
35
1
8
12
1
1848
205
. .
2197
2865
32
31
1849
210
. .
2002
2692
40
8
19
11
. .
3
1
4
2
1835
67
1119
1421
8
15
23
37
.
1
35
.
.
· 5
29
5
40
2
5
2
2
1
42
27
1854
175 128
A classification made in 1837, represented Lewis county as having the least amount of crime in proportion to its population, of any county in the state ; and on many occa- sions the criminal courts have adjourned without having had
..
24
49
·
33
1837
Bound out.
20
Land Titles.
any business before them. Up to 1827 but nine persons were sent from this county to. the New York state prison, and from 1819 to 1834 inclusive but 17 were sent to Au- burn prison from Lewis.
CHAPTER III. LAND TITLES.
An unfavorable impression as to the value of northern lands had been acquired from the survey of Totten and Crossfield's purchase before 1776. This tract, embracing the central part of the great northern wilderness, still as wild and inhospitable as when first traversed by surveyors, was found to become worse towards the north, and the in- ference very naturally followed that the northern border of the state was not susceptible of tillage.
On old maps this great northern region was variously named, as Irocoisia, or the land of the Iroquois; Coughsagraga, or the dismal wilderness ; and the Deer hunting grounds of the Five Nations. An old map has inscribed across the northern part of New York this sentence : " Through this tract of land runs a chain of mountains, which, from lake Cham- plain on one side, and the river St. Lawrence on the other side, show their tops always white with snow; but, al- though this one unfavorable circumstance has hitherto secured it from the jaws of the harpy land jobbers, yet, no doubt, it is as fertile as the land on the east side of the lake, and will in future furnish a comfortable retreat for many industrious families." A map drawn in 1756, says this country by reason of mountains, swamps and drowned lands, is impassable and uninhabitable.
Sauthier's map, published in England in 1777, and sup- posed to represent the latest and most accurate information then possessed, remarks that " this marshy tract is full of beavers and otters," and no map of a date earlier than 1795 has any trace of the Black river. The shores of the St. Lawrence and lake Ontario had long been familiar to voy- ageurs, but Black river bay was evidently regarded as only one of several deep indentations of the coast ; and in Morse's geography of 1796, this river is represented as flowing into the St. Lawrence at Oswegatchie.
The fertility of lands in the western part of the state had
21
Land Titles.
become known in the course of military expeditions through them, but no such occasion led to a knowledge of the Black river valley,1 and it is highly probable that when a proposi- tion for purchase was submitted to the land commissioners, the offer was regarded as favorable upon any terms condi- tioned to settlement.
The Oneida Indians, sole native owners of our county, by formal treaty at Fort Stanwix, on the 22d of September, 1788,2 ceded to the state all their lands, excepting certain reservations, among which was a tract one half mile wide on each side of Fish creek, from its source to its mouth, which, according to Cockburn the surveyor, was retained on account of the " salmon fisheries."
On the 22d of June, 1791, Alexander Macomb submitted an application3 for the purchase of all the lands within cer- tain specified boundaries, including the tract since known as Macomb's purchase, excepting certain islands in the St. Lawrence. One-sixth part of the purchase money was to be paid at the end of one year, and the residue in five equal annual installments, without interest. The first payment was to be secured by bond, to the satisfaction of the com- missioners, and if paid within time a patent was to be issued for a sixth part, and new bonds for the next sixth were to be issued. If at any time the purchaser chose to anticipate the payments, a deduction of six per cent. per annum was allowed. The price offered was eight cents per acre, de- ducting five per cent. for roads, and all lakes of more than one thousand acres in area. The proposition was accepted, and the lands were ordered to be surveyed out at the ex- pense of Macomb,4 under the direction of the surveyor general.
1 Belletres' expedition against the settlement at the German Flatts, in 1755 and that of Lery, which captured fort Bull, near Rome, in 1757, are supposed to have passed through this valley. In 1779, Lieutenants Mcclellan and Hardenburgh were sent through the interior to Oswegatchie, more with the view of drawing off the friendly Oneidas and preventing them from being dis- turbed by the expedition against the Indians of the Genesee country, than in the hopes of effecting much against the enemy. Several musket barrels and other military relics have been found in Greig on the line of this route, which may have been lost in these expeditions. Their occurrence has, as usual, occasioned idle rumors of buried treasure.
2 Given in full in the History of Jefferson Co., p. 39.
3 Given in full in the History of St Lawrence and Franklin Counties, p. 253.
4 Alexander Macomb was a son of John Macomb, and emigrated from Ire- land in 1742. He resided many years in New York and held a colonial office, and in 1787-8 '91, he was in Assembly. During several years he resided in Detroit as a fur trader, and in passing to and from Montreal had become ac- quainted with the value of the lands of northern New York. He furnished five sons to the army in 1812, one of whom was the illustrious General Ma- comb of Plattsburgh memory.
22
Land Titles.
The sale of such enormous tracts of land at a merely nomi- nal price, attracted public notice throughout the state, and the occasion was not lost by the opponents of the state ad- ministration to charge the land commissioners with the basest motives of personal gain, and even with treason it- self. On the 20th of April, 1792, Dr. Josiah Pomeroy of Kinderhook, made oath to his belief from hearsay, that a company, planned by William Smith, Sir John Johnson and others, chiefly tories living in Canada, had been formed un- der the auspices of Lord Dorchester as early as 1789, to pur- chase an extensive tract of land upon the St. Lawrence, with the ultimate design of annexing it to Canada, and that Gov. George Clinton was privy to their scheme, and interested in the result.1 To this absurd charge the governor's friends op- posed a letter of Gen. Schuyler, and the affidavits of Macomb and McCormick, fully denying any direct or indirect interest of the governor in the purchase. In the Assembly a series of violent resolutions was offered by Col. Talbot of Montgomery evidently designed as the basis of an impeachment, but, after a most searching investigation, that body cleared the commis- sioners of blame and commended their course.2 Aaron Burr, then attorney general, was absent at the time of the sale, and escaped censure at the time, but in his after career he was directly charged with basely selling his influence to obtain the grant. The clamor against the governor was raised for political effect, and had its influence on the next election.
From letters of these negotiators it appears that the im- mense purchase was the fruit of years of preliminary man- agement, and allusions to some great operation as early as 1786 have reference, no doubt, to these events, which ap- pear to have originated with Constable. With a keen eye to the public interests, the very parties who had secured this tract, influenced the passage of a law in 1794, fixing the minimum price of the remaining 2,000,000 acres of the pub- lic lands at six shillings per acre, thereby giving this value to their own. The unsettled state of the frontiers, and the refusal of the British to surrender the posts, had a serious influence upon the first attempt at settlement. The survey- ors were turned back at Oswego from proceeding further, and the Indians at St. Regis drove off the first intruders. In a speech to the Indians in 1794, Lord Dorchester said, that there was prospect of war impending, and that the warrior's sword must mark the boundaries of the country. In the
1 Handbills, 1775 to 1802, p. 41, 43. Library of Albany Institute.
2 Assembly Journals. Hammond's Political History of New York, i, 58. Parton's Life of Burr, 176.
23
Land Titles.
war of 1812-15 it was proposed to render the highlands south of the St. Lawrence the national boundary, and some such hope may have led to these embarrassing interruptions in the surveys.
Alexander Macomb, Daniel McCormick and William Constable were equally interested in the original contract, but Macomb became soon involved in an immense specula- tion styled the " Million Bank," in which Isaac Whippo, Wm. Duer, Walter Livingston and others were concerned, and a great number of men were pecuniary losers ; Macomb was lodged in jail April 17, 1792, and even there owed his life to the strength of his prison walls. This failure inter- rupted a negotiation with the Holland land company, who afterwards bought in western New York.
The Fish creek reservation was not regarded in this sale, probably because it was supposed not to extend up into the tract. In the course of the survey this became a subject of anxiety, and while some considered that the reservation would extend up only so far as the salmon went, others would limit it to the union of the principal branches, and others only by the sources of its main tributaries. The proposition was made in 1794, to meet the Oneidas, and re- quest a person to be sent to fix the uppermost limit of the creek, and see the half mile run out on each side of it. Upon examining the patent it was found that the state had undertaken to sell the reservation, and must settle whatever damages might result to the Indians. In a treaty held September 15, 1795, the latter engaged to sell all north of a certain creek falling into Fish creek, on Scriba's purchase, for an annuity of $3 per hundred acres, to be ascertained by survey. On the 5th of March, 1802, a provisional agree- ment of sale of this and other parts of reservations was made, and on the 4th of June of that year it was confirmed in the presence of John Tayler, U. S. Com'r, thus forever canceling the native title to the lands of Lewis county.
Macomb's purchase embraced 3,816,960 acres, from which deducting five per cent. there remained 3,670,715 acres. On the 10th of January, 1792, the first payments having been made, a patent for 1,920,000 acres was issued to Ma- comb, embracing the whole purchase excepting what lies in St. Lawrence and Franklin counties. The conveyance was that of a full and unqualified freehold, with no reservation but those of gold and silver mines, and no condition but the settlement of one family to every square mile within seven years. The purchase was subdivided into six great tracts, of which I, lies in Franklin, II and III in St. Lawrence, and
24
Land Titles.
IV, includes 450,950 acres, or all of Jefferson and Lewis counties north of a line near the 44th degree of north lati- tude. The division line between V and VI was never run, and they have never been recognized in land sales, being indefinitely regarded as including the remainder of the tract. In an early map, a line drawn from near the S. W. corner of the purchase, about N. 16° E. and crossing the Black river at the northern bend, east of the Watson bridge, is theoretically given as the line between Nos. V and VI. Macomb conveyed to William Constable of New York, June 6, 1792, great tracts IV, V and VI, for £30,000,1 and this conveyance was renewed by Macomb and wife, Oct. 3d of that year. Constable conveyed, Dec. 17-18, 1792, to Col. Samuel Ward, 1,281,880 acres, embracing tracts V, VI (ex- cepting 25,000 which had been contracted to P. Colquhoun and conveyed to Wm. Inman), for £100,000.2 On the 27th of February following, Ward and wife re-conveyed these lands to Constable, excepting 685,000 acres which he had sold.3 This sale to Ward is understood to have been a trust conveyance, and the sales made by Ward, to be hereafter specified, were virtually sales by Constable. We now ar- rive at a point in the chain of title from whence several lines diverge, and to convey a clear idea of each, they will be traced separately down to the sales of single towns. Such changes as occurred within the limits of towns, will be noticed in connection with their history.
Lewis county comprises two whole and parts of seven other great tracts, which have been known in land sales by distinct names. To the townships west of Black river, separate names were applied by Simeon De Witt, surveyor general, in his state maps published in 1802 and 1804. These tracts, with the numbers and original names were as follows : BLACK RIVER TRACT (in part), including, Township 5, Mantua, now Denmark. do 9, Handel, do Pinckney. do 10, Platina, do Harrisburgh. do 11, Lowville, do Lowville.
The remainder in Jefferson county, south of Black river.
1 Deeds, Sec. office, xxiv, 300. 2 Deeds, Sec. office, xxxix, 6.
3 Deeds, Sec. office, xxv, 208. In this conveyance it is understood that Wm. Constable, Col. William Stephens Smith, and Samuel Ward were equally interested. A balance sheet of the accounts of these three proprietors, brought down to July 1, 1796, shows an amount of £69,092 2.0, cost and expenses, and £50,475.10.9 profits, leaving to each one a share of $74,778.57. The current of this affair did not always run smooth, and in a letter to Macomb, dated Oct. 29, 1794, Constable complained that Smith had never disbursed a sixpence, and was profiting by the labors of others, while Ward was bound for the bills. Smith died at Lebanon, Madison county, N. Y., June 10, 1816. He was a member of the 13th and 14th Congresses.
25
Land Titles.
BOYLSTON TRACT (in part), including,
Township 3, Shakespere, now Montague. do 4, Cornelia, do Martinsburgh.
do £ 5, Porcia, do do 8, Hybla, do Osceola.
do
do 9, Penelope, do High Market.
do 13, Rurabella, do Osceola.
The remainder in Jefferson and Oswego counties.
CONSTABLE'S FOUR TOWNS, including,
Township 1, Xenophon, now Lewis.
do 2, Flora, do Lewis, High Market and West Turin.
do 3, Lucretia, do High Market, Turin and Mar- tinsburgh.
do 4, Pomona, do West Turin and Turin.
INMAN'S TRIANGLE, including Leyden and a part of Lewis.
BRANTINGHAM TRACT, in Greig.
BROWN'S TRACT (in part). The western border of four town- ships extend into the eastern part of the county, viz :
Part of Township 1, Industry, now Greig and Herkimer co. do do 2, Enterprise, do do do
do do 3, Perseverance, do Watson, do do do 4, Unanimity, do do do
The remainder in Herkimer and Hamilton counties.
WATSON'S TRACT, including part of Watson. The remainder in Herkimer county.
CASTORLAND, including parts of Greig and Watson, the whole of New Bremen and Croghan, and in Jefferson county the parts adjoining Black river on the north side.
GREAT TRACT NUMBER FOUR, or the Antwerp company's pur- chase, including Diana and a large tract in Jefferson and a corner in Herkimer counties.
The Black River Tract .- Samuel Ward and wife, on the 12th of December, 1792, conveyed to Thomas Boylston of Boston,1 for £20,000, all of Macomb's purchase south and west of Black river, excepting Inman's triangle. The only knowledge then had of the course of the river was derived from Sauthier's map, a copy of which, corrected at the of- fice of the surveyor general, from the latest data in his pos- session, was used in these early sales. Black river was en- tirely omitted on the printed map, and when thus laid out upon vague information, was represented as flowing in a
1 Boylston proved to be a partner of Lane, Son and Fraser of London, who soon failed for a large amount, and the title was subsequently conveyed by their assignees. Boylston was related to the wife of Col. Wm. S. Smith, who is mentioned in connection with Samuel Ward's operations.
D
26
Land Titles.
nearly direct line from the High falls to the lake. The lands south of the river were sold for 400,000 acres, but upon sur- vey they measured 817,155 acres. To rectify this enormous error is said to have cost Constable £60,000 sterling. On the 21st of May, 1794, Boylston gave a deed of trust of the land since known as the Black river tract, to George Lee, George Irving, and Thomas Latham, assignees of the firm of Lane, Son and Frazer of London, and they in turn con- veyed to John Johnson Phyn of that place,1 June 2, 1794, with whom by sundry assurances in law the title became vested in fee simple, with all the rights and appurtenances pertaining thereto.2 Phyn appointed Constable his attorney to sell any or all of these lands, April 10, 1795,3 and the latter sold, on the 15th of July following, to Nicholas Low, William Henderson, Richard Harrison and Josiah Ogden Hoffman, all of New York city, the land between the Black River and a line running in a course S. 81º E. 3100 chains, from the mouth of Sandy creek to the river.
In a letter from Wm. Henderson to Constable, dated Feb. 6, 1795, the writer stated a difficulty in the lodging of American stocks as security instead of personal responsi- bility. All the advantage he expected was to be derived from the credit allowed, and to buy stock and pledge it would cost more than to advance the money and make full payment at once. Constable was offered an interest in the tract if he preferred to become an associate. Mr. Hender- son added : "The room for speedy profit on waste lands in general above a dollar an acre, I do not, for my part, think very great ; indeed the sudden rise which they have taken may be considered in a great degree artificial. You will say, perhaps, 'Why then do you purchase ?' I reply, be- cause they have been an article in which there is great speculation, and therefore may answer to sell again."
The proposition of Hamilton for bringing the western territory into market at a cheap rate, was looked upon as an alarming indication of ruin by those making this invest- ment.
To give a better idea of these speculations in northern lands, we will quote from a letter written late in 1798, by one of the parties concerned, to his agent in London. Af- ter stating that the capital invested might lie unproductive a few years, but would certainly return several hundred per-
1 James Phyn married a sister of Constable, and traded at Schenectady with John Duncan before the revolution. John Johnson Phyn, his son, was an unmarried man.
2 Deeds, Sec. office, xxiv, 35. 3 Deeds, Sec, office, xxxix, 64.
27
Land Titles.
cent. in the end, he says that in 1786, he received 3000 acres in Bayard's patent, on the Mohawk, valued at four shillings the acre, which, in 1796, he brought into market and sold at twenty shillings. He then mentions the purchase of the Boylston tract in 1794, estimated at 400,000 acres, at two shillings, and adds :
" On my arrival here in 1795, I had it surveyed and explored, when it appearing that from the course of the river by which it was bounded, it comprehended double the quantity, or up- wards of 800,000 acres, the purchase being so much larger than I had contemplated, I was under the necessity of proceeding immediately to sell a part of the tract. This I found no diffi- culty in doing, as the land was found to be uncommonly good. Messrs. Nicholas Low and his associates purchased 300,000 acres at 8s., or 4s. 6d. sterling, one-fourth of the money payable down, the balance in five annual installments, with in- terest, the whole of the land remaining security on mortgage. In 1796, I had the whole of the remaining 500,000 acres laid out in townships of 25 to 30,000 acres, and sold in that and the succeeding year about 100,000 acres from 6s. 9d. to 9s. sterling, receiving & the the money down, and taking mortgage to secure the balance in five annual payments with interest at 7 per cent. as is customary. I interested a Mr. Shaler in one-half of two townships, on condition of his settling on the tract, and selling the lands out in small farms of about 200 acres, he to be charged 9s. per acre for his part, and to have half the profit on the sales. He accordingly went out and had the lands survey- ed, made a road from fort Stanwix into the midst of it, and built a saw mill and a grist mill. His accounts last rendered show the disposal of about 10,000 acres for nearly $40,000, of which he has paid me all the money received, being $10,000, and has made an account of expenses for roads buildings, &c., of about $4,000. He sells alternate lots at $4 the acre, the settle- ment of which will immediately give an additional value to the intermediate ones, which we mean to reserve."
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