USA > New York > Tioga County > Historical gazetter of Tioga County, New York, 1785-1888. Pt. 1 > Part 32
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The original league of the Iroquois consisted of five nations of Indians, the Onondagas, Oneidas, Mohawks, Cayugas, and Senecas. The Six Nations were constituted, in 1712, by uniting with the Tuscaroras.
The dividing line between the Cayugas and Onondagas com-
* Prepared by LeRoy W. Kingman, of Owego.
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TOWN OF OWEGO.
menced on Lake Ontario, near the mouth of the Oswego river and on its west side, and, passing between the Cross and Otter lakes, continued south into Pennsylvania, crossing the Susquehanna river west of Owego The Cayugas were west of the line. .
The boundary line between the Senecas and Cayugas com- menced at the head of Sodus bay on Lake Ontario, and running south nearly on the longitude of Washington, crossed the Clyde river, near the village of that name, and the Seneca river, about four miles east of its outlet from the Seneca lake. Continuing south and inclining a little to the east, the line ran-nearly to the lake at its head, and having crossed the Chemung river east of Elmira, it passed into Pennsylvania. The territory of the Cayugas lay upon both sides of Cayuga lake, and extended to the eastward so as to include the Owasco.
The line between the Onondagas and Oneidas ran from the Deep Spring, near Manlius, south into Pennsylvania, crossing the Susquehanna river, near its confluence with the Chenango.
In brief, the Senecas were west of the Cayugas, the dividing line crossing into Pennsylvania, east of Elmira. The Cayugas were east of this line and were divided from the Onondagas by the line which crossed into Pennsylvania, west of Owego. The Onondagas occupied the present town of Owegoand the western part of Broome county, and were divided from the Oneidas by the line which crossed the Susquehanna near its confluence with the Chenango.
Another tribe, the Nanticokes, had undisputed possession of this portion of the valley of the Susquehanna. Their headquarters were about fourteen miles above Owego, near the mouth of the Choconut creek, and across the river at Union. The Nanticokes had been driven from the south and were identical with Indians of the eastern shore of Virginia, who were known as the Nanta- quaks. They were admitted into the confederacy of the Iroquois but were then tributaries and acted in concert with them, enjoy- ing the protection of the league.
After the white people began to settle here the Indians gradu- ally left the country. The late William Pumpelly informed the writer that when he came here, in 1805, Indians were frequently seen about the streets, but most of them had removed to Oneida county. They were accustomed to hold their councils and dan- ces at the Indian spring. in Tioga. As late as 1812, there were Indians scattered all about the county, and on the island below Leach's mills there were half a dozen slab huts occupied by
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Indians, who spent their time in fishing and hunting, while their squaw's made bead work and baskets, which they sold to the white people on general training and other public days.
Indian Nomenclature .- Owego was known in the Indian dialect as Ah-wah-gah, and it was pronounced as thus spelled by the Indian captors of Mrs. Jane Whitaker, the white girl, who escaped the massacre of Wyoming and was taken with other prisoners to Tioga Point (Athens) and thence to Owego, while on their way to Unadilla.# In Lewis H. Morgan's " Ho-de-no- siu-nee, or League of the Iroquois," it is spelled in the Orrondaga dialect " Ah-wa ga ;" the " a" in the second syllable being pro- nounced as in the word " fate."
In the " Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York " it is variously spelled, " Owegy," "Oweigy," and "Oswegy." In carly maps it is spelled "Owegy " and "Owega." The early settlers pronounced the name O-wa-go; "a" pronounced as in " fate." It was also so written in the town records of the town of Union, and in the journals of officers of Clinton's and Sullivan's armies, and also in early letters and documents.
The word " Ah-wa-ga" signifies, according to Wilkinson's " Annals of Binghamton," swift, or swift river. Judge Avery. who is undoubtedly correct, says its signification is " where the valley widens."
That part of the village of Owego nearest the mouth of the Owego creek, known as Canawana, was "Ca-ne-wa-nah." In the Seneca dialect it was " Ne-wa-na Canoeush," meaning, literally, " little living water." It was so named from the spring, known as the Indian spring, situated a little west of the Owego creek, at the northern base of the cliff, north of the Main street bridge. The present name is obtained by the arbitrary transpo- sition of syllables.
Susquehanna is written in Smith's history of Virginia, " Sas- que-han-nough," and by Morgan, in his "League of the Iro- quois," in the Indian dialect, "Ga-wa-no-wa-na-neh," meaning "Great Island River." Wilkinson's " Annals of Binghamton" ways that the word signifies " long and crooked river." In a list Indian names of rivers and settlements in Pennsylvania it is given as " Winding water."
Heckwelder, in his " Indian Names of Rivers, Creeks, and
#hee. " The Susquehanna Valley," by Julige Avery in St. Nicholas, 1853, page 123.
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Noted Places in Pennsylvania," says the word Susquehanna (properly " Sisquehanne," from " Sisku," for, mud, and " hanne," a stream) was, probably, at an early time of the settling of this country. overheard by some white person, while the Indians were at the time of a flood or freshet remarking, "Juh ! Achsi quehanne," or "Sisquehanne," which is: "How muddy the stream is," and, therefore, taken as the proper name of the river. Any stream that has become muddy will at the time it is so be called " Sisquehanna."
At the meeting of the Presbytery at Newport, in -October, 1885, a young Indian whom the Presbytery had taken under its care, said that the river received its name in this way : An Indian standing on one side of the banks called across to the other, " Susque," which interpreted means, " Are you there?" His friend replied, " Hanna,' which means, "I am here." A white man standing near heard it and named the river accordingly. This derivation appears to be rather far-fetched.
The word " Anna " appears to be a general Indian term mean- ing "river." The word " Susque " is said to have meant in the aboriginal dialect, "long and crooked." Thus we have the Susquehanna, the Lackaw-anna, and in Virginia, the North Anna, South Anna, Rix.anna, and Flav-anna.
Early Settlers .- The first white men to visit this town of whom we have any account, were a portion of General Sullivan's army, in 1779. On the 17th of August, in that year, Captain Daniel Livermore, of the 3d New Hampshire regiment of General Poor's brigade, with a detachment of nine hundred men from General Sullivan's army, marched up the Susquehanna river from Tioga Point (Athens, Pa.,) to meet General Clinton's expe- dition of 1.500 men, which was coming down from Otsego lake.
At Owego, Captain Livermore destroyed the Indian village, which was on the river's bank at and below William street, and which consisted of about twenty wigwams, the natives having fled on the approach of the troops. Two days afterward they effected a union with Clinton's army of 1, 500 men at Charamuk (Choconut, about one and one-half miles above Union) and the entire body then marched to Owego, arriving August 19th, and remaining encamped here two days, on account of rainy weather.
One of the soldiers in General Clinton's army in this expedi- tion was James McMaster, of Florida. Montgomery county. Pleased with the appearance of the valley and the apparent advantages of the land for farming purposes, he returned four
عدمه لسيا سة
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TOWN OF OWEGO.
fears later, in 1784, on a prospecting visit. The only white man In these parts then was Amos Draper, an Indian trader, who re- Gled at Choconut, and who was engaged in trafficking with the Catives at various points. Through Draper's influence, McMas- fer conciliated the Indians, so that when he returned here the. next year he was unmolested.
In April, 1785, McMaster, accompanied by his brother, Robert Ic Master, William Taylor, a bound boy, John Nealy and Wil- fiam Woods, left Florida for Owego. They came down Otsego ake to the Susquehanna river, and on down to .Owego. Their farming implements and cooking utensils were conveyed in a Boat, while some of the party went with four horses by land. Having arrived here, they constructed a cabin of pitch-pine logs upon the flat, about fifty rods above where the flouring mill in Canawana now stands. They planted ten acres with corn on the homestead farm of George Talcott, after which they built a more substantial log house on the ground now occupied by George L. Rich's residence, near the lower end of Front street. The latter house stood facing the river, near its bank. After the corn had been hoed, the party returned to Montgomery county. After finishing their harvesting upon the Mohawk, they came back to Owego in the fall and gathered their crop, which had not been molested by the Indians.
Amos Draper came to Owego to reside in the spring of 1787, And his was the first white family to settle here. Draper had Yesided at Kingston, Pa., from which point his family removed, in the fall of 1786, to Nanticoke, where he had been engaged in Trafficking with the Indians for several years. They commenced living in the house that McMaster and his party had built two Nears previous.
Amos Draper and his brother, Joseph Draper, who was a sur- Nevor, and who was also afterward a resident of Owego, were sons of Major Simeon Draper, who was one of the forty settlers or proprietors of the township of Kingston, under the old Con- hecticut claim, in 1768. "Amos Draper," says an old document in possession of the writer, "deceased on the 24th of May, ISOS, at About 2 o'clock p. M., in the town of Owego, in the county of Tinga, N. Y., with a cancer on the left cheek-after passing Through the most excruciating pain for nearly one year -- and was mified in the burial ground in the village of Owego, in the town A Tioga, and county of Broome, and State of New York. The
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stone at the head is marked A. D. The grave to the north is his daughter, which deceased with small pox."
The first white child born within the present limits of Tioga county was Selecta Draper, daughter of Amos Draper. She was born in Owego, June 19, 1788, and married Stephen Williams, Jr., of Newark Valley, in 1809. She died at the residence of her son. L. E. Williams, in Newark Valley, April 2, 1865.
The family of James McMaster removed to Owego in the spring of 1788, and settled in a house near the river, opposite the foot of the street now known as Academy street. In the same year the family of John McQuigg came from. New Hampshire and settled in a house situated where Camp's furnace now stands, a short distance below Park street. McQuigg was a revolution- ary soldier. He died in Owego, in 1813.
These houses were all on the line of the old Indian trail and fronted upon the river. This was washed away long ago by the freshets of successive years. There were trails on both banks up and down the Susquehanna. The one on the north side followed the bank closely from the eastern part of the town all the way to the Owego creek at its mouth. On the west side of the creek it continued along close to the river bank to the nar- rows, near Tioga Center. This trail was wide enough for the passage of horses with packs, cattle, etc., and in some places it was wide enough for wagons. It was widened after the coming of the white people and became the main highway through southern New York from the east to the west. Another Indian trail was the " Cayuga Lake trail," running north and south. It entered the north part of the village of Owego, and ran direct to the river. It was nearly identical in its course with the streets now known as McMaster and Academy streets.
When the early settlers came into this country, these trails were the only roads opened through the forest, and were for many years the only route of travel. Along their line the early settlers built their houses. All of the Indian trails along the banks of the Chemung and Susquehanna rivers and their tribu- taries converged upon Tioga Point (Athens, Pa.), at the junction of these two rivers. They became gathered into one, which, descending the Susquehanna, formed the great southern trail into Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Although James Mc Master was the owner of such a vast amount of land, he died poor. He sold it piece by piece, much of it for a mere song, and in his later days went to live in Candor, where
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las daughter, Mrs. Caleb Sackett, resided. His death was caused by being thrown from a horse, in 1818. McMaster was the first sheriff of Tioga county, elected in 1791.
The old town of Union, in the county of Tioga, as formed by an act of the legislature, February 16, 1791, extended from the Chenango river to the West Owego creek, and from the Penn. sylvania state line to the south side of the military tract. This, of course, included the whole of the present town of Owego. The town was organized April 5, in the same year, by the election of town officers, and three months later (July 12, 1791), it was divided into road districts by the commissioners of high- ways. From the lists of persons assigned to work on the high- ways, we obtain the names of the settlers at that early day, re- siding between the Owego creek and the head of the Big Island. The list is as follows:
James McMaster, John Carmon,
Amos Mead,
Phineas Thompson,
Elias Williams,
James Barnes,
Emmanuel Deuel,
Timothy Sibley,
Benjamin Selden,
John Caster,
Daniel Ferguson, Thomas Jordan,
Jehu Barney,
Daniel Ferguson, Jr., Elisha Bates,
Robert McMaster, Reuben Harrington, Stephen Dean,
Amos Draper,
Jacob Harrington, Benjamin Marsh,
John McQuigg.
Jeremiah Harrington, StephenAylsworth William Bates, Benjamin Bates.
The names of those residing between the head of the Big Island and the present line between Tioga and Broome counties, were as follows :
Silas Gaskill, Matthew Hammond, Amariah Yates,
L'riah Gaskill.
Daniel Thurston, Isaac Harris,
Wilder Gaskill,
Benjamin Lewis,
Thomas Tracy,
Samuel Smith,
Daniel Hilton,
Cohoon Runnals,
Charles Dodge,
Nathan Hammond,
Roswell Smith,
Jonathan Hammond,
David Hammond, Moses Reed, > Levi Wheeler,
John Kelly, William Roc,
Seth Jakeway, John Taylor,
James Sarner,
Samuel Atkins,
John Rowley, Zimri Barney,
Moses Ingersoll,
David Barney, Richard - -, Reuben Holbook,
Frances Norwood, Jeremiah Taylor,
Gideon Thayer,
William Read,
Daniel Read.
Some of the persons named above may have resided east of
John Nealy,
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TOWN OF OWEGO.
the present Tioga county line. Many of them were squatters, too poor to buy land, and subsisting by fishing and hunting, and they remained here only until driven from the land by the owners. Others were owners of land by purchase, and remained permanent residents. Many of their descendants are still resi- dents of the town.
Organisation .- The first town meeting in the old town of Tioga (Owego), was held at Capt. Luke Bates's tavern, in Owego vil- lage, on the 3d day of April, ISoo. Col. David Pixley was chosen moderator, and the following town officers were elected : Supervisor, John Brown; town clerk, Lemuel Brown; assessors, Asa Bement, Asa Camp, Henry Steward ; collector, Jesse Glea- zen ; overseers of the poor, Vine Kingsley, Lemuel Brown ; com- missioner of highways, Stephen Mack; constables, Henry Stew- ard, Stephen Ball, Stephen Mack ; fence viewers, Vine Kingsley, Stephen Bates ; pound-master, Vine Kingsley ; pathmasters, Silas Gaskill, John McQuigg, Edward Pain, John Freeman, Asa Leon- ard, Laban Jenks, John Barney, Wilder Gaskill, David Buriel.
Town meetings were held in April each year until IS13, when the day was changed to the first Tuesday in March. In 1831, the day was again changed to the first Tuesday in February. The last change was made to accommodate the river raftsmen, who were usually absent down the river during the spring fresh- ets, and who comprised a large proportion of the voting popu- lation.
The first record of votes cast in the town was that of April 29, 1802, for congressman, senators and assemblymen. The highest total vote cast was eighty-four. At the last election, in November, 1886, the total vote cast in the town for member of assembly was 2,342.
BIOGRAPHICAL.
Capt. Lemuel Brown was born in Berkshire county, Mass., in 1775, and came to Owego in 1790. In 1795, he built the first tan- nery erected in Tioga county. It stood on the west side of the Southern Central railroad track, north of Talcott street, in the village of Owego. He was an overseer of the poor eighteen years, andheld other town offices. He died in Owego, December 5, 1815.
Capt. Mason Wattles was the first man to engage in the mercantile business in Owego. He came here, in 1792, from
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Franklin, Otsego Co., N. Y. He was very wealthy and became owner of much of the land now occupied by the business portion of the village. He failed in business. in 1799. He afterward, for several years, held the office of justice of the peace. He was associate judge of Broome county# from 1807 to 1812, and also clerk of Broome county from February 18, 1811, to November 9, 1812. He subsequently removed from Owego to New York, where he died.
Dr. Samuel Tinkham was born in one of the New England States about the year 1767, and came to the-town of Tioga about the year 1792. Besides practicing his profession he kept a store in Owego. He died in the town of Newark Valley, while on a professional visit to a patient, September 30, 1804. His sons were Samuel S., and David P. Tinkham.
Dr. James H. Tinkham, the only son of Samuel S. Tinkham, was born in Owego, March 162 1836. In July, 1861, he entered the United States navy as a surgeon. During a visit to Owego in 1879, he was attacked with quick consumption and died June 2d in that year. He was a physician of great promise, and dur- ing his illness he was ordered as fleet-surgeon to the West Indies squadron.
Dr. Elisha Ely came to Owego from Saybrook, Conn., in the fall of 1798. He died here three years afterward of consumption, contracted by exposure while he was surgeon in the federal army during the revolutionary war. His sons were William A., Daniel, Gilbert, Elisha, Edward and James Ely.
William A. Ely was born at Saybrook, October 16, 1788. Hc was for fifty years a prominent merchant and business man in Owego. He was a member of the first board of trustees of Owego village, and supervisor of the town of Owego from 1825 to 1830, inclusive, and also in 1832 and 1833. He died in Owego, Novem- ber 27, 1863. His sons are Alfred G., Charles E., and Frederick Ely, of New York city, and Edward O. Ely, of Boston, Mass.
Daniel Ely was born at Saybrook, in 1796. He was for many years an active business man, and a merchant. He was postmas- ter of Owego from February 4, 1842, to November 25. 1844. He died in Owego, November 25, 1844.
James Ely was born in Owego, in 1809, and was engaged in the mercantile business with his brothers, William and Daniel. He
* From March 28, 1806, to March 22, 1822, the present towns of Berkshire, Newark Valley, Owego and Richford were a part of Broome county.
3
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TOWN OF OWEGO.
was supervisor of the town of Owego in 1834, and 1852, and rep- resented Tioga county in the assembly of 1851. He removed to Grand Rapids, Mich., where he died on the 20th of December. IS62.
4. Stephen Mack was born in Massachusetts, May 20, 1765. In 1799 he kept a country store at Cooperstown, N. Y., and had a contract with the government to furnish about 100,000 spars, to be delivered at Baltimore. In March -of that year, a freshet in the Susquehanna river carried away all the timber, which he had purchased and paid for in goods at his store, and made him a bankrupt. He came down the river to Owego in search of his timber, but found it would cost as much to hunt it up and get it together again as it was worth, so he made no further effort to secure it. He was so highly pleased with Owego, that he re- moved here the same spring. In 1805, he purchased The Ameri- can Farmer printing office, and published the newspaper until his death. He lived in Owego only fifteen years, but during that time he was one of the most prominent and influential citizens. He held the offices of commissioner of highways, excise commis- sioner, and constable. He was for several years a justice of the peace, and served as supervisor of the town of Tioga (now Owe- go) in 1807. ISOS, 1811, and 1812. He was appointed first judge of Broome (now Tioga) county, November 9, 1812, and served three years. He died in Owego, April 14, 1814. After his death his widow and his son Horace, who was then fifteen years of age, set the type and worked the edition of The American Farmer un- til Stephen B. Leonard took possession, in the following June.
Gen. John Laning was born at Lambertsville, N. J., in Octo- ber, 1779. He came to Owego in August, 1801. He engaged in lumbering and the mercantile business, and brought plaster from Cayuga lake for shipment down the river in arks to a market. He was killed by falling through a hatchway in his storehouse on Front street, on the 12th of February, 1820. One of his sons. John C. Laning, is still a resident of Owego.
Eleazer Dana, the first practicing lawyer in Owego, was born at Ashford, Conn., August 12, 1772. His father, Anderson Dana. was killed in the massacre of Wyoming. He studied law at Newtown ( Elmira), and was admitted to the bar, in ISoo. Im- mediately thereafter he removed to Owego. He was the second postmaster of Owero, from 1802 to 1316. He was appointed surrogate of Broome county, in 1806, and also represented the county in the assembly of 1808-9. He was district attorney
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TOWN OF OWEGO.
of Tioga county from 1823 to 1826. He was a member of the first board of trustees of Owego village, in 1827, and one of the original trustees of the Owego academy, which office he held until his death, which occurred May 1, 1845. He was also one of the original trustees of the Presbyterian church, organized in ISIO, which office he also held during his life.
John H. Avery, the second resident lawyer in Owego, was born in 1783. He came to Owego. in ISO1. He was a member of assembly, in 1814. He died in Owego, September 1, 1837. His sons were Charles P. and Guy H. Avery. The latter resides in New York.
Charles P. Avery, a son of John H. Avery, was born in Owego, in ISIS. He studied law in the office of his brother-in-law, Thomas Farrington, and was admitted to the bar, in 1840. He was chosen judge of Tioga county, in 1847, being the first judge elected by the people in the county under the change of the judi- cial system by the constitution of 1846. At the expiration of his term of office he was re-elected. Judge Avery was greatly in- terested in the Indian and pioneer history of this part of the state, at a time when many of the early settlers of Tioga county were still alive, and from them he obtained much information regarding the carly history of the valley of the Susquehanna, which otherwise would have been lost. Much of this has been preserved in a series of papers, entitled " The Susquehanna Val- ley," which were printed in a magazine, called St. Nicholas, which was published in Owego, in 1853-4. This is the on y work of any particular historical value that has been heretofore published in Tioga county. He also took a deep interest in the aborigines
of the country. When the Indian missionary, Sa-sa-na Loft, was killed at Deposit, in 1852, he caused a monument to be erected to her memory, on the hill in the eastern part of Evergreen cem- etery, in Owego. Judge Avery possessed a rare collection of Indian relics, a list of which was published in the "Susquehanna Valley" papers, and which, after his death, were sold to a gentle- man in Rochester. In 1856, Judge Avery removed to Flint, Mich., where he practiced law until the spring of 1872, when, on account of his health having become impaired by the climate of that state, he returned to Owego. He died here on the 31st of August, in that vear.
John Hollenback was born near Wilkesbarre, Pa., November 2, 1780. He came to Owego iut 1801 or 1802, and commenced a general mercantile business. He died, childless, June 13, 1847, 22*
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TOWN OF OWEGO.
and bequeathed the greater portion of his large property to to his nephew, George W. Hollenback.
George W. Hollenback was born at Wyalusing, Pa., August 25, 1806. He entered the store of his uncle, John Hollenback, as a clerk, in 1831. He was engaged for many years in the mer- cantile and lumbering business. He died in Owego, December 30, 1878. Mr. Hollenback was supervisor of the town of Owego in 1850, 1851 and 1855 ; trustee of the village in 1852, 1854 and 1862, and president of the village in 1854 His sons were Will- iam H., Frederick, John G., and Charles E Hollenback.
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