A history of Lewis County, in the state of New York, from the beginning of its settlement to the present time, Part 5

Author: Hough, Franklin Benjamin, 1822-1885. dn
Publication date: 1860
Publisher: Albany : Munsell & Rowland
Number of Pages: 422


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 5


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35


The affairs of the company were to be managed by three commissaries living in Paris, and two residing upon the tract, who were to be chosen by an absolute majority at a general assembly to be held in Paris, at which each owner might vote in person or by proxy. Each share up to five, was entitled to one vote, but no person could have more than five votes, whatever the number of shares he might possess. The articles might be modified by a general assem- bly convened for the purpose, by a majority of two-thirds.


The second section of the programme related to govern- ment, and was as follows :


Article 1. Within one month, there shall be held a meeting of the subscribers, at the rooms of Sieur Chassanis at Paris, No. 20, Rue de la Jussienne, for the election of commissaries.


Art. 2. The commissaries residing in Paris, shall have the care of proving the certificates with the depository, and of personally examining each to guard against.errors: the notary shall also compare them as received and paid, after which they shall be signed by the said Chassanis, to be delivered to the shareholders. Consequently no certificate shall be issued until after these inspections and signatures, and the subscribers shall in the mean time, only receive a provisional receipt of deposit.


Art. 3. To guard against errors in distribution, the certifi- cates shall be registered by their numbers, by Chassanis, upon their presentation by the holders, in the record kept in his office, and without this entry, of which notice shall be written upon the certificate by the said Chassanis, or by the one whom the commissaries shall appoint for the purpose, no holders of certificates shall be admitted to the meetings, nor allowed to take his chance in the selection of his location.


Art. 4. The commissaries chosen for removal to America, shall be bearers of the instructions and general powers of the


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Land Titles. €


assembly; shall survey the land, fix the location of the two cities, and there prepare for the company within three months after their arrival, a report of their examinations and labors, with a detailed plan of the common property.


Art. 5. The commissaries shall be chosen from among the holders of certificates.


Art. 6. The commissaries shall decide the location of the fifty acres to belong at first to each certificate, after which the holders shall have the right of choice.


Art. 7. The locations shall be marked upon two registers, in the hands of the commissaries in America, who shall retain one, and transmit the other annually to the General Assembly in France.


Art. 8. The titles directed to be delivered to the holders of certificates who make known their wish, shall contain a declara- tion by Chassanis, that in his general purchase there belongs a certain portion to - as his own, in accordance with a com- mon title, and a social regulation of which he is a party; this declaration shall bear the number of the certificate, which shall remain attached under pain of forfeiture of the share, even though the certificate had been previously cancelled, and this title shall not be completed, till after the registration of the commissaries to whom it shall be presented.


Art. 9. The commissaries in America, shall be clothed with similar power by Chassanis, for granting like titles to those who require it. This power shall be granted after a model of the declaration, for the purpose of securing uniformity of registration.


Art. 10. All decisions and acts of the company done in France, so far as relates to commissaries, have no need of public for- mality when they are legalized by the minister or other public functionary of the United States in France.


Art. 11. There shall be delivered, upon demand, a duplicate of title to the holders of certificates, containing a copy of the original, and in it shall be mentioned that it is a dupli- cate.


It does not appear in what manner public attention in Paris was invited to this project. The Moniteur of Nov. 29, 1792 (page 1,413), has an article on the extraordinary pro- fits of the potash manufacture at Cooperstown, and from time to time it notices with commendation, the fine oppor- tunities which the state of New York offered to emigrants, without specially naming the scheme of Chassanis and his associates. Other journals appear to indicate an interested desire to favor the formation in France, of companies of emigrants for settling upon property bought and held in common, in the northern states of the American union, and several French authors published romantic accounts of the


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Land Titles.


soil, climate, and resources of this country, with plans for associated settlement.1


On the 28th of June, 1793, the second of the French republic, at five o'clock in the afternoon, the actual holders of provisional receipts convertable into shares of the Com- pany of New York,2 met at the rooms of citizen Chassanis, in the street of Jussienne, section of Mail, in Paris, and pro- ceeded to organize the basis of their society, establish its rules, and deliberate upon all points relative to its division, survey, preparation for market and sale.


Before proceeding to this business, Chassanis recounted the origin of the title, and described its successive changes, from the Indian purchase to its sale by Constable, as certi- fied by John D. Coxe and Jared Ingersol, on the 19th of November, 1792, and deposited in the office of the French consulate in Philadelphia.3


The prospectus issued in October, had in December (the period when Constable counted upon a part of the funds which the sale should have procured), failed to obtain pur- chasers, and Constable directed Col. Ward, his agent, to withdraw the lands from market, Nevertheless, upon the representation of citizen Chassanis, Col. Ward consented to the sale in France of 2,000 shares, and he was assured that 200,000 acres near Black river, and extending to lake Onta- rio, would be reserved to these 2,000 shares. Upon this basis the provisional receipts had been delivered to the purchasers, and to meet this new engagement, Constable, by a contract passed in London on the 12th and 13th of April, 1793, had, according to all the forms of law, trans- ferred to citizen Chassanis, not only 200,000 acres and 5 p. c. over, for roads and public objects, but also 10,000 acres to facilitate the bringing into market the 200,000 acres. In this instrument, Constable was further bound to transmit to the company the indemnities granted by the state of


1 Of these writers J. E. Bonnet, was perhaps the most zealous. In a work of two volumes entitled Etats Unis de l'Amerique a fin du XVIIIe siecle, and another several years after ; Tableau des Etats Unis, de l'Amerique au com- mencement du XIX siecle, he proposed elaborate plans for colonial association. In the latter, he gives central and northern New York the preference of all other sections of the union, every circumstance being taken into account. He was enthusiastic in his admiration of the sugar maple, which he foretold would yet supply Europe and America with sugar, extinguish African slavery by superseding the cultivation of the sugar cane, and introduce a new era of human happiness.


2 Tillier in his Memorial, p. 3, says that 41 shareholders representing 1,808 shares, attended this meeting.


3 This instrument was acknowledged before Clement Biddle, notary, on the day it was executed.


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Company of New York.


New York, in cases of lands covered by water. He also recognized the payment in full of £25,000 by Chassanis, for the lands above mentioned.1 These statements being examined and found to agree with facts, the assembly hav- ing listened to the report of the provisional commissaries, and discussed article by article, the project of an associa- tion which they offered, unanimously agreed upon the fol- lowing


CONSTITUTION.


DE


NEW-YORK


TITLE I .- Declaration of the Rights of the Company.


Article 1. Citizen Chassanis declares, that all the NIE lands and rights by him definitely acquired of Wm. Constable, by the final contract of the 13th of April last, have been, for the benefit of the purchasers of 2,000 shares of 800 livres each, amounting to the total price of the said purchase, which has been paid to Constable, as appears from the receipt in- O serted in the said instrument of sale, and repeated CASTOR · LAND . by him upon the fold of the said contract. Citizen Chassanis acknowledges, that this payment has been made from funds received from the sale of Seal. nearly all of the shares, of which it is well to notice, that one-tenth of the price has been remitted by Constable to the share- holders. Consequently, citizen Chassanis cedes and conveys, so far as need be, to the said shareholders, all the rights of property or otherwise resulting from the said contract, to them collectively, consenting that from this time forth they shall enjoy and dispose of the whole property.


Art. 2. The bearers of receipts controvertable into shares of the said property, who are here present, stipulate, as well for themselves as for those absent, that they accept, as far as need be, and collectively, the property which has been anew declared and ceded by the said citizen Chassanis, with the original conditions annexed to the cession by the state of New York, by letters patent hereinafter mentioned, it being well understood that the said shareholders are not held by these conditions, beyond the proportion of the land which they have purchased under the name of the said citizen Chassanis, by the final contract of April 13th last.


Art. 3. Citizen Chassanis has exhibited and placed upon the table, the documents which establish the original and actual property in the lands and rights which he has bought, to wit :


1st. A copy, in legal form, of the letters patent of Jan. 12, 1792.


2d. A copy, also in legal form, of the contract of sale made by Alexander Macomb to Wm. Constable, dated June 6, 1792.


3d. A copy, in legal form, of the renewal of the said contract of sale by Alexander Macomb and Jane his wife, dated Oct. 3, 1792.


4th. Certificate delivered by the Secretary of the Consulate General of France, of the act of deposit of the three above named instruments in the said office.


5th. The originals of two certificates of a Master in Chancery of New York, proving that the lands sold are not encumbered by any debt of Alexander Macomb.


6th. The original contract of sale of Wm. Constable to Pierre Chassanis, of April 12, 1793, in parchment, with the original pledge of possession.


7th. The original bond of the said Wm. Constable in behalf of P. Chassanis, of £50,000 sterling, dated April 12, 1793, to be paid in default of ratification by his wife.


1 Constitution de le Compagnie de New York, pp. 1, 3.


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Company of New York.


Moreover, a printed copy of the prospectus issued by citizen Chassanis, upon the faith of which the shareholders were led to the purchase of their shares.


Lastly, a printed copy of the provisional receipts delivered to the pur- chasers of shares, to which is annexed a reduction of title of the sale proposed by the prospectus.


Art. 4. The Assembly deposits all of these papers in the hands of citizen Chassanis, and charges him with providing a place of deposit for the archives of the Company of New York.


TITLE II .- Title of the Shareholders as a Society, and Name of their Property in America.


Article 1. In adopting as for this, the arrangement implied in the prospectus above mentioned, the Assembly declares that all the said shareholders, as well present as absent, are, by the act of their purchase, co-proprietors in common and of, the lands and rights declared in the first title, and by these presents are constituted dormant partners under the title of Company of New York, for the occupation of the said lands and rights, excepting, however, the exceptions and modifications hereinafter specified.


Art. 2. The lands of the Company of New York shall henceforth be known under the name of Castor Land.1


TITLE III .- Specification of the Rights which the Company Enjoys and those which it Does Not.


Art. 1. The ends proposed by the association founded under the preceding title, are : Ist. To extend more rapidly life and improvement over all the extent of the lands acquired by the company. 2d. To relieve the greater part of the shareholders who can not consent to a passage beyond seas, from the embarrassment and expense attending the first settlement of a large por- tion of the lands. 3d. To aid them with regard to the surplus. And 4th, and lastly. To accelerate in that country the population, which will one day become its wealth.


It appears indispensable, that in order to more speedily work these happy results, there should be established over a great part of the purchase that is to remain undivided and in common, a general and capable administration, by the union of the common interests, to give value to that portion, and cause it to realize advantages above what could be derived from the separate exertions of the shareholders through their several agents.


Art. 2. The portion of the said purchase which shall remain with the company, and be held undivided by the associated shareholders, to be enhanced by a general administration, shall be,


1st. 100,000 acres of land, to be taken from the 200,000 acres forming the principal object of the said purchase.


2d. 20,500 acres, granted as above, to the shareholders by Constable, to wit : 10,000 for roads, canals and public establishments on account of the 5 acres per 100, and 10,000 to be derived from the indemnity. It is observed that in the 220,500 acres mentioned, lands covered by water should not be included, according to the terms of the patent, and the sale of Constable.


3d. The tenth part remitted by Constable as an encouragement to the shareholders, upon the whole of the 2,000 shares, in the 1st Article of Title I, amounts to 160,000 livres. This sum is now in the hands of Mr. Lambot, Notary, subject to the order of the shareholders, and is represented by 80,000 livres in credit paper, and a like sum in 100 shares of 800 livres each, which alone remain of the 2,000 shares above mentioned, and were left by Constable to the shareholders, to complete the tenth which he remitted to them, and of which values the Assembly declares its acceptance on account of the said remission.


Art. 3. That portion of the said purchase to be owned separately by the


1 Castor, signifies Beaver.


F


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Company of New York.


shareholders immediately, shall be divided as soon as may be, in the manner specified in the Title IX, and is composed-1st, Of 100,000 acres of land ; and 2d, Of the land which 2,000 divided lots shall occupy in the plan of the first city which shall be projected by the Company of Associates.


TITLE IV .- Form and Duration of the Society.


Art. 1. The society which has been formed for the possession and enjoy- ment in common of the objects specified in Art. 1 of the preceding title, shall consist of 2,000 proprietary shares.


Art. 2. The said shares shall be numbered from 1 to 2,000. These shares instead of being in the form announced in the prespectus, shall be divided into two coupons. The one shall be called coupon divis, and shall confer the right to 50 acres in the 100,000 acres divided, and to a divided lot in the plan of the first city which shall be projected upon the lands. The other shall be a stamped coupon indivis, and shall give an interest in a two-thou- sandth part of the objects remaining undivided and in company among the shareholders ; and the coupons shall bear the same number as the shares. These coupons shall be drawn in the following form :


Company of New York.


Purchase in the name of Peter Chassanis, of 200,000 acres of land and dependencies known by the name of Castorland, and situated in the state of New York, Montgomery co., upon the banks of lake Ontario and of Black river. By deed of April 12, 1793. No .- Divided coupon. The bearer by full payment of the price of a whole share, of which the present coupon forms a part, is owner by virtue of the said coupon, of divided lot which shall correspond in division with No .- as well in the plan of the first city which shall be laid out upon the company's land, as in the 2,000 lots of 50 acres each which shall be formed in the division of the divisible property of 100,000 acres making a part of the purchase above named, after the manner determined by the organization of the said company dated. June 28, 1793, of which a quad- ruple remains in the archives of the company and another shall be registered and deposited in the city of New York. Note. This coupon shall be ex- changed for a deed upon delivery of the lot.


GUYOT, CHASSANIS, Director.


Commissary.


GUINOT, Commissary.


Inspected according to the act of June 28, 1793. LAMBOT.


(The second part or undivided coupon is similar, excepting that it gives the holder a final right to one two-thousandth part of the undivided property of the company upon its dissolution.)


Art. 3. Agreeable with the prospectus, the coupons forming each share shall be signed by citizen Chassanis and two commissaries of the company, and inspected by citizen Lambot, notary at Paris.


Art. 4. The provisional receipts delivered by the said Lambot, notary, who has been instructed to receive the payment of the said shares, will need to be exchanged for shares in the above form, which shall bear the same numbers as the receipts to which they correspond.


Art. 5. This exchange shall be made at the company's office, and when done, the exchanged receipts shall be canceled and left with the director of the company, to be sent to the said Lambot as they become worthless by ex- change, and by the discharge of the 'said Lambot to Constable, shall operate by the release inserted in the contract of sale aforesaid.


Art. 6. The society, beginning to-day, shall continue twenty-one years from the 1st of July next, with the privilege of dissolving before the expira- tion of this term, as will be hereafter explained in Title XII.


Art. 7. None shall be regarded as true members, except the bearers of coupons indivis of the two thousand shares aforesaid.


Art. 8. The coupon divis of each of the said shares, shall never give the


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Company of New York.


privilege of the society, except as an action against it, to compel the delivery to the bearer of the divided lot mentioned in the coupon, in the manner here- inafter explained in title IX.


TITLE V .- Government of the Society, a Director and four Commissaries living in Paris, their Functions and Powers.


Art. 1. The interests of the company shall be managed by a director and four commissaries living in Paris, where the government of the society shall remain fixed.


Art. 2. The director and commissaries, shall always be chosen at a general meeting of the shareholders, by an absolute majority of votes and viva voce.


Art. 3. They can only be chosen from the company, and a person to be director or commissary, must be the owner or holder of at least ten entire shares or of twenty coupons indivis, of which deposit shall be made into the hands of citizen Lambot, notary, within eight days after their nomination to the said places, and their powers shall cease if they become the owners of a less amount than above named.


Art. 4. The director once chosen, shall hold his office during the existence of the society, without the power of change, unless in a general assembly called for the purpose, and by a majority of two-thirds.


Art. 5. The commissaries in Paris, shall be renewed seven times in the course of the society, namely, the first time in three years from the 1st of July next, and at intervals of three years after, until the complete revolution of 21 years which the society is to last.


Art. 6. The director shall be charged with the correspondence, and the preservation of the titles, registers, papers, and in general with whatever may enter the archives of the company. He shall convene general assemblies of the shareholders and those of the commissaries, shall provide a convenient place for meeting, and preserve the record of general and special meetings. He shall deliver shares to the bearers of receipts of citizen Lambot. He shall have a consultive voice in the meetings of commissaries, and a casting vote when they are equally divided. He shall hold the funds of the society, and pay and receive money, but he shall make no payment but upon an order . signed by two commissaries. He shall keep or cause to be kept for the com- pany, the necessary registers, namely :


Ist. A stock-register, for the verification of shares and their coupons.


2d. A record of correspondence.


3d. A record of deliberations.


4th. A register of accounts.


5th. A register which shall show the numbers of coupons indivis, and the names of the proprietors who might wish to make this known.


Lastly. He shall, conjointly with the commissaries at Paris, pass to the credit of the shareholders, all titles of property that may fall due, for all of which acts the company confers upon him the necessary powers.


Art. 8. The commissaries at Paris are charged with deliberating and decid- ing among themselves upon all the affairs and interests of the company, with following and regulating all the operations in which it may be interested ; with carrying into effect the decisions of the general assemblies of the com- pany, and with giving, in the name of the company, to the director and the commissaries in America, the instructions and orders that may be necessary ; with directing the employment of the funds of the society, and watching the recovery of sums due to it; with ordering payments ; with making purchases to send to America ; with passing conjointly with the director all declarations of property to the name of the proprietor of shares or coupons when they fall due ; with signing the coupons of shares, to deli- ver to the shareholders, and with watching the operations of the director and commissaries in America. They shall audit annually the accounts of the director, and lastly, submit to the general assemblies all projects they may deem useful, and for these services the company confers upon them all needed powers.


44


Company of New York.


Art. 9. The commissaries in Paris shall receive no salary, but in recogni- tion of the care which they may bestow upon the common concerns, there shall be given them an attendance fee (droit de presence) for each special or general assembly where they may meet on the affairs of the company. This fee is fixed at two Jettons of silver, of the weight of 4 to 5 gros. They shall be made at the expense of the company, under the direction of the commis- saries, who shall decide upon their form and design.1


Art. 10. The commissaries in Paris, shall meet at least once a month ; their deliberations shall be held before the director, and shall be determined by a plurality of individual votes.


Art. 11. All decisions thus made, and signed by three commissaries, or by two of them and the director in case he shall have had a deliberative voice, shall have as full and entire force as if they had emanated directly from the majority of the society, and hence the engagements and decisions which re- sult, shall be binding upon the company.


Art. 12. Nevertheless, the commissaries shall neither make nor authorize any loan in the name of the company, without having received a special order at a general assembly of the associates.


Art. 13. The assembly confirms anew the nomination which the share- holders made in their deliberations of the 19th and 20th of the present June, of citizens Guyot, Maillot, Guinot and la Chaume, as commissaries of the company at Paris.


ICAN


ERA


COLONIA


1. These pieces occur in coin cabinets, and have been erroneously called "Castorland half dollars." A Jetton is a piece of metal struck with a device, and distributed to be kept in commemoration of some event, or to be used as a counter in games of chance. The one here noticed was termed a Jetton de presence, or piece " given in certain societies or companies to each of the members present at a session or meeting." (Dic de l'Acad. Francaise.)


This custom has its analogy in the existing practice of certain stock companies in New York, in which a half eagle or a quarter eagle is given to each director present at each meeting held on the business of the company. CASTORLANI The picce above figured was doubtless designed to be PA 1796 given to emigrants and others as a keepsake, and was not a coin, as it wanted the sanction of law, nor a token, as it Obverse. was not to be redeemed. It was cngraved by one of the Duvivier brothers, eminent coin and medal artists of Paris, who became a shareholder in this company, and drew 500 acres of land. This family was celebrated in this particular art. Joannes Duvivier, the father, died in 1761. The design represents on the obverse the head of Cybele, as indicated by the turreted mural crown. In Classic KRUGUAT Mythology, this goddess personified the earth as inhabited and cultivated, while Titæa or Tellus, represented the earth AGNA taken in a general sense, Ceres, the fertility of the soil, INS and Vesta, the earth as warmed by internal heat. The laurel wrcath is an emblem of victory, and represents Cybele as conquering the wildness of nature and bring- ing the earth under the dominion of man. The design is arranged with classic elegance, but shows a palpable ignorance of the country. Cores has just tapped a maple tree, and inscrted a faucet for drawing off the eap at will, and the grain, flowers and foliage appear strangely brought into the sugar season The Latin legend reads on the obverse-" French American Colony," and on the Reverse. reverse it presents a quotation from Virgil, which, with its context, reads as follows :




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