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 6
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
" Salve magna parens frugum, Saturnia tellus,
Magna virum : * *
GEOR., ii. 173.
"Hail Saturnian Land, great Parent of Fruits, great Parent of Herocs!" The apostrophe thus addressed to Italy, was intended to apply to Castorland, a country situated in nearly the same latitude, and for aught these Parisians knew to the contrary, equally adapted to the vine and the olive.
A gros was 59.02 grains, the actual weight of the piece was 206.25 grains, its fineness about nine-tenths, and its intrinsic value 50 cents. Dealers value it at about $3, and Riddel, in his Monograph of the Silver Dollar, states that he knows of but a single copy. Its history was entirely blank until noticed in Hickcox's American Coinage, where a fine steel engraving is given. The figure here inserted, was engraved from a fresh copy, received from Mr. V. Leray, through the favor of P. S. Stewart, Esq., of Carthage.
45
Company of New York.
TITLE VI .- The Commissaries in America, their Functions and Powers.
Art. 1. Two commissaries shall regulate the affairs of the company in America ; this number shall be increased if there be occasion.
Art. 2. The said commissaries shall necessarily be chosen from among the shareholders : the nomination shall be made in a general assembly of the company, by an absolute majority and viva voce.
Art. 3. The commissaries in America, shall be required within eight days after their election, in case of acceptance on their part, to execute a bond of 40,000 livres, in which shall be included at least ten entire shares of the com- pany of New York, or at most twenty at their original value. These shares shall be deposited with citizen Lambot, notary, who shall give his private receipt. The company leaves it to the commissaries at Paris to judge of the validity of the securities tendered for these bonds.
Art. 4. The mission of the commissaries in America shall be : to verify and mark the exterior boundaries of the whole tract sold to the shareholders by the said Constable ; to direct the surveys, divisions and subdivisions of the said lands ; to see to the formation of the divided lots mentioned in title IX, that their value may be nearly equal ; to put the divided lots herein mentioned, in possession of their proprietors in the manner to be specified, and to give value to that portion of the lands remaining in the society ; and for this end,
Ist. To cause the erection of all mills, shops, stores and cottages that may be needed.
2d. To cause all cutting and burning of wood, as well as grubbing out and culture.
3d. To purchase all implements, tools, provisions and animals, necessary and of indispensable utility.
4th. To sell at a moderate profit to new colonists, who may settle upon the lands of the society, portions of the tools and provisions which may belong to the society.
5th. To make all treaties, arrangements, estimates and bargains with sur- veyors, artizans, workmen and day laborers which should be employed for the labor of the lands and woods.
6th. To arrange all rents and sales, in the advantageous manner for the society, but only upon the lands which overrun the 100,000 acres remaining undivided.
7. To fix the conditions and price of leases of farms upon the whole of the undivided lands. These leases shall nevertheless in no cases exceed the time of the duration of the society, and shall be drawn according to the usages of the country, having regard to the progressive increase of the territorial revenue.
8th. To solicit of the government of New York the opening and mainten- ance, at its expense, of great routes and canals of communication.
9th. To project and cause to be made, special roads from one district or canton to another. Their mission shall also be to receive the price of sales, rents and hirings, and to give receipts, and to make, on account of the com- pany, all shipments to France of the commodities harvested on the lands of the company. In short, they shall carry and administer, with zeal, econo- my and intelligence, all the interests of the society in America
Art. 5. These commissaries shall be under the surveillance of those at Paris, and sliall be held to conform to the mandates and instructions which shall be given them by the commissaries in Paris, for the exercise of the mis- sion confided to them by the preceding article.
Art. 6. The company authorizes the commissaries in Paris, to confer upon those in America the said powers and all others generally, whatever they may deem necessary for managing, usefully, the property and affairs of the com- pany in America.
Art. 7. The said commissaries shall remove directly to New York, and from thence upon the lands of the company, to reside there and execute the operations which the company or the commissaries of Paris may indicate.
46
Company of New York.
The expense of their passage to America, and of their removal to the said lands, shall be borne by the company to the extent of 1,000 livres tournois.
Art. 8. The company, besides the advantages hereafter mentioned in title IX, will allow to the commissaries in America, al: annual allowance of $600, to indemnify for their expense of travelling to the place, and of building a house and an office.
Art. 9. Independently of this allowance, the company reserves the privilege of granting to the commissaries, if satisfied with their labors, a commission upon the benefits which they may confer upon it.
Art. 10. The commissaries in America, shall keep a journal of all their operations, and shall transmit annually to the director of the company a duplicate copy of this journal. They shall send at least once in three months to the director, the state of the labors done during the three months preced- ing, and they shall maintain a frequent correspondence with him.
Art. 11. The said commissaries shall employ upon the spot, a clerk to keep their writings, and aid in their operations, who shall be allowed a salary half as great as that of a commissary.
Art. 12. The functions of the commissaries in America, shall continue until their recall and the revocation of their powers by the commissaries in Paris, authorized to that effect in a general assembly by a majority of the associates present.
Art. 13. In case the commissaries in America can not agree in opinion, relative to the objects of their administration, they shall then take upon the spot an arbitrator to decide between them. He shall be chosen by preference among the shareholders who may be found in the country.
Art. 14. The assembly confirms anew the nomination which was made in the session of June 19 the present month - of citizens [Simon] Desjardins and [Peter] Pharoux, as commissaries in America, the first as honorary only, and the second with the emolument heretofore fixed.
TITLE VII .- Of General and Special Assemblies.
Art. 1. Annually on the 11th day of January, May and September, or in case of a holiday on the morrow, there shall be held a general assembly of the associated shareholders, at which the commissaries in Paris shall render an account of all that has been done since the last assembly, and the news which shall have been received from the commissaries in America concerning the affairs of the company. General assemblies shall also be convened whenever the commissaries in Paris may deem necessary.
Art. 2. General Assemblies shall be held in Paris at the house of the di- rector of the company, at the day and hour appointed, and shall be presided over by one of the commissaries.
Art. 3. There shall be no business done in a general Assembly, unless the shareholders present are collectively holders of at least 1000 coupons indivis, of entire shares, or of 500 only if they are to the number of ten persons, besides the commissaries, and the shares shall be deposited before the assembly in the hands of the director, who is to hold the deposit.
Art. 4. To have admission and a voice in the deliberation of the general assembly, one must be the owner or bearer of five coupons indivis of whole shares.
Art. 5. The number of votes in the deliberation shall be in the following proportion to the number of shares : Five shares give one vote, and after that each ten shares shall give one vote up to 45 only, but all shares found in the hands of the same person above 45 shall not be counted, to the end that no shareholder shall ever have more than five votes.
TITLE VIII .- Of the Survey and Division of the Lands.
Art. 1. The survey of the exterior of the domain belonging to the share- holders, shall be made at the expense and under the care of Constable, who has stipulated this. This survey shall be verified if there be occasion by the commissaries in America or their agent.
47
Company of New York.
Art. 2. They shall cause an interior survey of the lands after the plan of instructions which may be given them by the commissaries in Paris.
Art. 3. A duplicate of the results of the survey, shall be sent to Paris, to the director of the company.
Art. 4. The general survey of the land being finished, the subdivisions which may be useful and necessary shall be made.
The first shall be the laying out of the public roads ; the second, that of the 100,000 acres to be divided among the bearers of coupons divis of whole shares, and their subdivision into 2,000 lots ; the third that of a city in the most convenient part of the land remaining in common, and the arrangement of the divided lots in this city ; the fourth and last, shall be the marking out of lands to be conceded to American families at a moderate price. The sub- divisions shall be made in the above order, unless some great interest of the company requires otherwise. The other subdivisions shall be made after- wards, after the order shiall have been given by the company or its commis- saries in Paris.
TITLE IX .- Subdivision of the 100,000 acres belonging to the bearers of coupons divis, into 2000 lots, and the arrangements which are designed in the first city projected by the society.
MANNER OF CHOOSING THE LOTS.
Art. 1. The 100,000 acres designed to be owned separately by the bearers of coupons divis of whole shares, shall only be chosen from [the good and medium lands, without including any land of no value, that is to say, which is not susceptible of any cultivation.
Art. 2. The said 100,000 acres shall be divided into several strips, inter- mixed as much as possible with the lands which are to remain in common.
Art. 3. As soon as the several portions of land which are to form the said 100,000 divided acres be determined, there shall be laid out 2,000 lots of 50 acres each, and of very equal value, and these lots shall be numbered from 1 up to 2,000.
Art. 4. The lots on Black river, lake Ontario or other navigable waters, shall not have more nor a tenth nor less than a twentieth of water front, and there shall be reserved for the undivided portion one-half of the lands upon Black river and lake Ontario.
Art. 5. The bearers of coupons divis shall have a right to one-half of the lands which shall be appropriated by the society to a city, deduction being made for the parts occupied by streets and public establishments.
Art. 6. This right shall only be exercised in the location of the first city which shall be marked out by the society, at whatever period this city may be determined upon.
Art. 7. The divided shareholders shall not have the choice of the portion of land which shall be reserved in the location of the said city, but shall be bound to accept whatever portion may be assigned them by the society.
Art. 8. This portion of land shall be divided into 2,000 separate lots, which shall be scattered through the whole extent of the location of the city, and adjoining the property that is to remain with the society.
Art. 9. To facilitate the division of the lots above mentioned in Articles 3 and 8, among those having rights, tliese lots shall be designated in a state- ment by boundaries, according to the nature of the ground, and there shall be prepared two maps at the expense of the company. One of the two originals, duly signed and legalized, shall be sent in the month they are finislied, to the director of the company, at Paris, to be deposited in its archives, and the duplicate shall remain in the hands of the commissaries of the society in America.
Art. 10. The division of the lots mentioned in Articles 3 and 8, shall be made as follows, according to the prospectus : The choice shall be made in the order of the numbers of the coupons divis of the shares, that is to say, that preference of choice shall pertain to priority of numbers.
48
Company of New York.
Art. 11. The choice of divided lots will need to be made within three months after the deposit of the description and plan of division in the arch- ives of the society, and the shareholders shall be advertised to this effect, as well in the public papers as by letters. Each divided shareholder shall be held, within these three months to notify the director of the company of the choice he has made, and note upon the description his signature, the number of his coupon divis, and the precise lot which he has chosen, in default of which the choice shall be void.
Art. 12. To facilitate this operation, at the end of the second month, the commissaries shall cause to be prepared a table of the numbers of the coupons divis, of which the bearers have not made choice of lots, and in the course of the third and last month they shall indicate the week in which a determinate series of shareholders must make choice, or in default lose the opportunity of selection and be left eventually to the division by lot hereafter mentioned
Art. 13. Those who have not made choice before the end of three months, or who have not given notice in the manner indicated, shall have no further privilege of choice, and the remaining lots shall then be distributed by lot to the numbers of the coupons which have not selected lots.
Art. 14. The drawing of the remaining lots shall be done in a general assembly of the holders of coupons divis, convened for this purpose, and in the manner that shall be arranged by the commissaries in Paris.
Art. 15. The bearers of coupons divis who share in this drawing shall be bound to accept the lots drawn, without the power of refusal, and shall note their signatures and the number of their coupons into several strips, inter- mixed as much as possible with the lands which are to remain in common.
Art. 16. In derogation of Article 6, and those following as above given, since it is the interest of the society to hasten the population of the tract, to this end it is deemed proper to offer advantages to the shareholders who may remove upon the lands to reside and begin improvement. It is agreed that every bearer or proprietor of coupons divis, upon removal to the tract, may choose from time to time as the survey progresses, without waiting its com- pletion and the turn of his number, provided that he shall not have more than ten coupons. The privilege of choosing before his turn shall be restricted to ten lots, and he shall not have more than 2,000 feet of land along the Black river, lake Ontario or other navigable waters.
Art. 17. The choice by virtue of the privilege implied in article 16 above stated, shall be made in the presence of the commissaries in America or their agent, for this purpose, and on condition that the shareholder, before making choice, shall engage in writing to inhabit or cause to be inhabited a house upon the whole of the lots which he may select, and this in the course of the year following his choice, under pain of an indemnity to the company equal to the value of one tenth part of the lot chosen.
Art. 18. The commissaries sent to America, shall have the privilege of choice expressed in the 12th (16th ?) article above named, to the same limit of ten lots, but shall cause to be inhabited at least two houses upon the lands they may have chosen, under pain of the indemnity named in the preceding article.
Art. 19. The choice mentioned in the three preceding articles shall not be made, except in accordance with the plan of division of the 2,000 divided lots, and a distinction shall be made of the lots chosen upon the map.
Art. 20. The commissaries in America, shall keep statements of the selec- tions made by virtue of articles 16 and 18 above named, and shall pass a duplicate to France to the director of the company.
Art. 21. Each shareholder who may make choice either in France or Ame- rica, and comply with the formalities heretofore prescribed, shall remit or cause to be remitted to the commissaries in America or in France, the coupons representative of the lots of which he may make choice, and the said com- missaries shall pass a declaration of property of the said lots by virtue of which declaration he shall enjoy, hold and dispose of all the property in the said divided lots.
Company of New York. 49
Art. 22. The same shall be observed by those who have submitted to the drawing by lot, and to thiem shall be passed by the commissaries the same declaration of property to the lots which may fall to them.
Art. 23. The coupons surrendered shall be canceled and deposited in the archives of the company, and notice of this shall be made in the title above mentioned.
Art. 24. The declarations of property shall be passed in the form required in the state of New York.
TITLE X .- Of the Application of the 160,000 Livres, Derived from the Remission made by Constable to the Shareholders.
Art. 1. The company entrusts to the commissaries in Paris, the care and disposal of the funds composing the 160,000 livres in shares and credit-paper resulting from the remission granted to the society by Constable, and allows them to sell as many as the wants of the society might require, of the 100 shares forming a part of these funds, at the best price they can obtain, pro- vided it be not less than 1,200 livres per share.
Art. 2. The product of the said shares, with the surplus of the said funds existing in credit-paper, shall be employed by the said commissaries to the best advantage they may be able, as well in the purchase of utensils, provi- sions and other expenses necessary for the success of the first labors to be done upon the estate of the company in the purchase of convertible values in goods and credit in the funds of the bank of New York, and the wants of the commissaries in America shall measure these expenses necessary to the put- ting in value and the survey of the lands of the company.
Art. 3. The employment and destination above indicated shall be governed by circumstances, under the care and orders of the commissaries in Paris.
TITLE XI .- Of the End of the Society, and the Division or Disposition of the Property and Rights which shall then belong to it.
Art. 1. The duration of the society has been fixed as above stated, at 21 years from July 1, 1793, although it may be dissolved before, in the manner now to be indicated.
Art. 2. Nine months before the end of the seven or fourteen first years of the term fixed for the life of the society, the commissaries in America shall send to the administration in Paris, a report of the property and rights then remaining to the society and the nature of the improvements of which it is yet susceptible, and in short, their estimate from the best of their knowledge, calling to their aid, if necessary, the opinion of experts near them.
Art. 3. In the month following the receipt of the report mentioned in the preceding article, there shall be convoked a general assembly of the associated shareholders, and they shall deliberate upon the dissolution of the society, both at the end of the first seven and of the fourteen years. If the dissolution is not decided by a majority of the holders of two shares, the society shall continue seven years longer, yielding to effect this, the mode of voting esta- blished by article 2 of title VII.
Art. 4. Six months before the period when the society shall cease, it shall deliberate in a general assembly, in the manner indicated in Title VII, what measures shall be taken to liquidate and divide the property and rights which shall then be found to compose the substance of the society.
TITLE XII .- On the Form of the Shares and on the Execution of the Clauses of the Present Treaty.
Art. 1. It is observed that the present act of the society, as well as the shares and all other instruments of the society in France, need no further care for their execution but the public formality of their legalization, which will be done by the minister or other public functionary of the United States in France, in the terms of article 10 of the second part of the prospectus heretofore published, and the assembly repeats, as far as need be, this arrange-
G
50
Company of New York.
ment, upon the faith of the execution of which the shareholders acquired their shares and established their society.
Art. 2. All the conditions embraced in the present treaty are essential to the constitution of the society, and no part of them shall be derogated during its existence unless by virtue of a deliberation of the general assembly, and by a majority of two-thirds of the coupons indivis, yielding in this to the mode of voting mentioned in title VII.
Art. 3. In consequence of the present act, the prospectus under which the shareholders purchased their shares, shall henceforth be regarded as a simple record, and as such a copy shall be placed in the archives of the company.
Art. 4. The record of general and special deliberations of the company, and its commissaries, shall be signed by at least two of the commissaries in Paris, and by the director of the company in his character as common man- ager ; provided, with these three signatures, the said documents shall have as much force as if all the deliberators had signed them.
Art. 5. Collated copies or transcripts of the said records, and of the titles relative to the said property of the shareholders in America, shall be made out by at least two commissaries in Paris, and by the director as a further guaranty. The seal of the society shall also be affixed.
Art. 6. There shall consequently be engraved a special seal for the Com- pany of New York, and the design of the seal shall be determined by the commissaries in Paris.
Art. 7. All the titles of the property of the company which are not already registered in New York, shall be registered there under the direction of the commissaries in America, and if need be, in the name of Peter Chassanis.
Art. 8. The present treaty shall be signed in quadruple ; one shall remain in the archives of the society, another shall be placed in charge of Citizen Lambot, Notary, another shall be given to the commissaries who are to go to America, to be registered and deposited in New York with a public officer, and the last shall remain in the hands of the commissaries in America.
Done and, executed at Paris, at the dwelling of Peter Chassanis above said, the year 1793, the said 28th day of June. 1
Desjardines and Pharoux, appointed by article 14, title VI, of the preceding instrument, lost no time in executing their mission, and leaving France July 7, 1793, arrived in just two months at New York, with the design of proceed- ing upon the tract to explore its boundaries, and take pos- session in the name of the company. At Albany, they met one of their countrymen, a political exile, who, although but twenty-four years of age, had already become known by his ingenious mechanical constructions, and who has since justly claimed to rank with Franklin, Brindley, Hers- chell, and Watt, by the brilliancy of his inventive genius, and his magnificent monuments of constructive art. This person was Marc Isambart Brunel, since celebrated as the founder of the machine shops of the Royal Navy yard at Portsmouth, the builder of magnificent rail road structures in England, and the engineer of the Thames tunnel. His son, the late I. K. Brunel, was one of the principal origina- tors of the "Great Eastern" steamship recently built in England.
1 Printed by FROULLE, Quai des Augustins No, 39. Cap. quarto, 32 pages.
51
Company of New York.
Brunel was prepared for any adventure, and accepted with eagerness the offer made him by the commissaries, not only of receiving him into their company, but of appointing him their captain on this remote and difficult service. Pha- roux was an eminent architect of Paris, and an accom- plished engineer, and Desjardines, from what little we learn of his history, was an enterprising but visionary adventurer. We may infer that a cordial fellow-feeling arose between these strangers in a foreign land. They were entirely igno- rant of the tract, except that it lay somewhere between the Black river and 44ยบ N. lat., but Brunel, who was a proficient in the use of instruments, was just the man to follow a line of latitude in the woods.
The three Frenchmen hired four natives of the country, making a party of seven men. They supplied themselves- with every anticipated want for the journey, including two tents, arms, ammunition, and surveying instruments, with such provisions as might be easily carried, depending upon the forests and the streams for the more delicate and sub- stantial viands. They spent two months in the autumn of 1793 upon this service, and Brunel in after life, often recur- red to the incidents of this journey as affording the happi- est reminiscenses of his life. Many years after, he was relating the adventure to Louis Phillippe while king of the French, and described minutely the precautions which they had observed in fortifying their camp at night, and employ- ing an Indian escort to attend them. The king pleasantly remarked that they had traveled in the style of princes. He had himself been a pilgrim in the American forests with his two brothers, like him, exiles from France, but unlike these French explorers, destitute of those little aids to comfort which had made the journey so agreeable.1 This began Brunel's life as an engineer. He appears to have been favorably impressed with the country, as he became a share- holder, and drew 500 acres of land in lower Castorland.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.