USA > New York > Clinton County > History of Clinton and Franklin Counties, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 5
USA > New York > Franklin County > History of Clinton and Franklin Counties, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 5
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21
LAND GRANTS.
general committee of the city and county of New York, chosen May 1st, 1775.
" Previous to June, 1774, there had been, according to Govornor Tryon, but two grants in the colony of New York made directly by the Crown of Great Britain, such grants or patents having been pre- viously made under the hand and seal of the Governor of the colony.
"Joseph Totten, Stephen Crossfield, and their associates having- as noticed-obtained permissiou, purchased at Johnsou llall of the before-mentioned Mohawk Indians their title to this tract, estimated to contain 800,000 acres. In 1772 the first survey of the region with compass was commenced. Of the whole purchase only forty town- ships were originally surveyed, the remaining ten-the whole number at present being fifty-were afterwards located. The survey simply consisted in running a chained line by compass on the outer lines of these townships and marking line and corner trees.
"' I cannot,' says Verplanck Colvin, 'but consider uncertain and dubious the claim made by some that the northern limit of the terri- tory of the Mohawk Indians, or a line from Rejioghne to the mouth of the Oswegatchie river, was intended to be the north boundary of Totten and Crossfield's Purchase. Such a line certainly never served as the boundary, and the absurdity of the idea will be better appreci- ated by those acquainted with the region when it is shown that -- allowing Split Rock to have been the ancient Rejioghne of the Indians -such a line would have passed north of Whiteface mountain, in Essex county, and north of Canton, in St. Lawrence county; which is preposterous. On the contrary, if we accept the testimony of Sir William Johnson this line of northern limit of the Mohawk territory extended from a point on the Mohawk river sixty miles west of Schenectady, "from thence eastward and north to Rejioghne in Lake Champlain," which is quite another course, yet one equally at variance with the north boundary of the Totten and Crossfield Purchase.'
"From the original field-book of the survey, which is in the pos- session of Mr. Colvin, is extracted the following :
"'This Book contains the Map and Field-Books of the townships and lands purchased for the Crown of the Native Indians, and Sur- veyed for the proprietors in the year of our Lord 1772. By "' EBEN JESSUP.'
"'N. B. The rivers are not traversed, but are found in the places where they cross the outlines of the townships, and have their courses in general nearly as they are laid down in this map.
"' In order to avoid dispute hereafter that may arise either by the artful ways of designing men that would alter the Banks of the lands as they are surveyed to other places, indevoriug to put the whole in confusion by some means, to serve themselves, or by surveys not being careful to do their work perfect in every respect, and by that means some advantage may be had in law against the proprietors, which is Seldom neglected where there is an opportunity in these times, and not expecting them to be any better hereafter-I thought best to fix the place of beginning of the survey at a natural boundary that could not be altered, that the land surveyed that are recorded in this book may remain indisputable whilo Rivers run.
"' I therefore began on the cast bank of the Hudson River, on a tract of land about four (4) thousand acres granted to myself and others, now called Jessup's lower patent, a poiut to the mouth of the west bank of Hudson River, called by some Sackendaga Branch, and from thenco runs north fourteen degrees west, three hundred and eighty- four cbains and & forty links. Thence north Eight Degrees thirty minutes, west one hundred and eighty-four chaius. Thence north Thirty-two degrees East, Three Iluudred and Twenty-eight chains and eighty links. Thence north Thirty Degrees west across the north branch of tho Hudson River, and on the west bank of the Said River marked a Beech-Trec with the letters -- E. E. W. E. F., and here built a log house to Receive the Provisions Brought up in Battoes, and called it tho Landing house. From this said Beech tree, which is the south west corner of a tract of land Purchased of tho native Indians For the Benefit of Edward and Ebenezer Jessup and thoir associates, is a line run north Thirty Degrees west along the west side of the said tract of land to the north west corner thercof, which is Ten miles on this line from the rivor with mile treos marked on the line, as in tho field book of Mr. Josoph Crane. This course and line of muile trees I continued through to the north side of tho lands Purchased for the bonefit of Josoph Totten and Stephen Crossfield and their associates, and is called tho line of mile trees, being marked from " I to " LV in numeral lotters, but most of them are numbered on the map
in figures-the Surveyors put the Letters E F on most of the trees, and many of them the date 1772.
"'EBEN JESSUP.'
" In 1773, 'Totten and Crossfield and their associates,' now known (perhaps still privately ) among themselves as the proprietors,-some thirty in number,-assembled at the house of Robert Hall, in New York, January 14th, and after the transaction of business, the voting, on an assessment of £4 per thousand acres for the building of a road, etc., proceeded to ballot for twenty-four of the townships. Singular to relate Stephen Crossfield still kept ahead, drawing township No. 1. Robert Hall drew No. 20 (Markham), and Ebenezer Jessup No. 17 (Ebentown). The other numbers drawn were 2, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 22, 25, 26, 30, 32, 33, 35, and 40.
"Ebenezer Jessup, in addition to this township, received, in com- pensation for the labor of making boundary-lines of a portion, pay- ment at the rate of £5 per thousand acres. If this rate of payment extended to the whole purchase he would have received, allowing an area of 800,000 acres, $20,000; or by the present area which is claimed for it (1,150,000 acres), $28,750. Large as this sum must have been at that period (A. D. 1772), it would not probably have more than sufficed to run the boundaries throughout by blazed trees; and it must always be regarded as unfortunate that permanent survey marks were not placed.
" After the Revolution much of this purchase reverted to the State, and was regranted or sold to individuals or companies ; a large por- tion of it being now owned by the Adirondack Estate and Railroad Company, which has come into the possession of the 500,000 acres granted by the State to the Saratoga and Sackett's Harbor Railroad, at 5 cents an acre. It is now divided into fifty townships (numbered from 1 to 50), known, generally, numerically. It was intended that each township should contain thirty-six square miles, but, though pos- sessing some degree of uniformity, and having their easterly and westerly lines nearly parallel, they differ in area, and at times in form, -subsidiary triangles being afterward numbered,-such as the 50th township. The old boundaries at the northeastern corner, also, was the Schroon, or ' East branch of the Hudson River,' whereas the pres- ent east line of townships 48 and 49 are lines to the west of that stream, and run parallel with the other northeasterly boundaries. The Totten and Crossfield Purchase was never divided into 'great tracts ;' the townships, as numbered, being the only divisions. The purchase extends over the counties of Herkimer, Hamilton, Warren, and Essex.
" Of the towns included in the Totten and Crossfield Purchase in Her- kimer County, about eighty square miles are in the town of Wilmurt. In Hamilton County, the whole of the towns of Long Lake and Gil- man, and nearly the wholo of Wells, with the north portion of Lake Pleasant, Arrietta, and Morehouseville ; in Warren County, the whole of the present towns of Jolinsburg and the greater portion of Thur- man and Chester, with the northwestern portion of Stony Creek. The southeastern boundary here commencing at a corner on the east bank of Schroon River, above the junction with Brant Lake stream, and runuing thence southwesterly north of Friend's Lake to the corner of Palmer's purchase.
" In Essex County it extends over tho whole of Newcomb, with por- tions of Minerva, Schroon, North Hudson, and Keene."
The State manifested an active interest in bringing into market the unpatented lands in Northern New York, and on the 5th of May, 1786, the Legislature passed " an aet for the speedy sale of the unappropriated lands of the State." The act created a board of land commissioners, with authority to dispose of such unsold land within the limits of the State as they might deem proper.
May 25, 1787, the board of commissioners by a resolu- tion directed the surveyor "to lay down on a map two ranges of townships for sale, each township to contain as nearly as may be sixty-four thousand acres." This tract embraced ten townships, lying in the northwestern part of the present county of St. Lawrence, five of which bordered on the river.
22
HISTORY OF CLINTON AND FRANKLIN COUNTIES, NEW YORK.
MACOMB'S GREAT PURCHASE.
The largest grant of lands ever made by the State of New York to citizens was that known as Macomb's Pur- chase, which was granted to Alexander Macomb, June 22, 1791. It embraced three million six hundred and ninety- three thousand seven hundred and fifty-five acres of land lying within the present counties of Franklin, St. Lawrence, Jefferson, Lewis, Herkimer, and Oswego.
In April, 1792, Macomb made an application to the Legislature for all the vacant lands between Lake Cham- plain and the St. Lawrence River, offering eight pence per acre for the same. This proposal was rejected in conse- quence of its extent, " and because it contained lands join- ing old patents and fronts too great a proportion of water communication." He again made an application in May following, the extent being reduced, which was accepted.
The following is a copy of the application of Macomb :
" At a meeting of the commissioners of the land office, of the State of New York, held at the City Hall, in the city of New York, on Wed- nesday, the 22d day of June, 1791,
" Present, Ilis Excellency Geo. Clinton, Esquire, Governor; Lewis A. Scott, Esquire, Secretary ; Gerard Banker, Esquire, Treasurer ; Peter T. Curtenius, Esquire, Auditor,
The application of Alexander Macomb for the purchase of the fol- lowing tract of land was read, and is in the following words, to wit :
To THE COMMISSIONERS OF THE LAND OFFICE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK :
" GENTLEMEN,-I take the liberty of requesting to withdraw my ap- plication to your honorable board of April last, and to substitute the following proposal for the purchase of the waste and unappropriated lands comprised within the bounds hereinafter mentioned, and all the islands belonging to this State in front of said lands, viz .: Beginning at the northwest corner of the township called Hayne, ou the river St. Lawrence, and thence extending southerly along the western bounds of the said township and the township called Cambray to the most southerly corner of the latter; thenec extending easterly, northerly, and southerly along the lines of the said township of Cambray, and of the townships of De Kalb, Canton, and Potsdam aud Stockholm, to the casternmost corner of the latter ; thence northwesterly along the line of the said township of Stockholm, and the township of Louis Ville, to the river St. Lawrence; thence along the shore thereof to the line run for the north line of this State, in the 45th degree of north latitude; thence east along the same to the west bounds of the tract formerly set apart as bounty lands to the troops of this State serving in the army of the United States; thence southerly along the line to the uorth bounds of the tract known by the name of Totten & Crossfield's Purchase ; thence westerly along the north bounds of the tract last mentioned to the westernmost corner thereof; thence south- erly along the westerly bounds thereof to the most westerly corner of township number five, in the said tract; thence westerly in a direct liue to the northernmost corner of the tracts granted to Oathoudt; thence westerly on a direct line to the mouth of Salmon River, where it empties itself into Lake Ontario; thence uortheasterly along the shore of the said lake and the river St Lawrence to the place of be- ginning, including all the islands belonging to this State fronting the said tract on Lake Ontario and the river St. Lawrence, five per cent. to be deducted for highways, and all lakes whose area exceeds one thousand acres to be also deducted, for which, after the above deduc- tion, I will give eight pence per acre, to be paid in the following manner, to wit: One-sixth part of the purchase-money at the end of one year from the day in which this proposal shall be accepted, and the residue in five equal annual instalments, on the same day, in the five next succeeding years. The first payment to be secured by bond to the satisfaction of your honorable board, and if paid in the time limited, and new bonds to the satisfaction of the board executed for another sixth of the purchase-money, then I shall be entitled to a patent for one-sixth part of said tract, to be set off in a square, in one of the corners thereof, and the same rule to be observed as to the pay- ments and securities and grants, or patents, until the contract shall be
fully completed. But if at any time I shall think fit to anticipate the payment, in whole or in part, in that case I am to have a deduction on the sum so paid of an interest at the rate of six per cent. per an- num for the time I shall have paid any such sum before the time hereinbefore stipulated.
" I have the honor to be, gentlemen, " With great respect, your most obedient servant, "ALEXANDER MACOMB."
"NEW YORK, May 2, 1791.
" I do hereby consent and agree that the islands called Caleton's, or Buck's Islands, in the entrance of Lake Ontario, and the isle Au Long Saut, in the river St. Lawrence, and a tract equal to six miles square in the vicinity of the village of St. Regis, be excepted out of the above contract, and to remain the property of the State : provided always, that if the said tract shall not be hereafter applied for the use of the Indians of the said village, that then the same shall be consid- ered as included in this contract, and that I shall be entitled to a grant for the sainc, on my performance of the stipulations aforesaid.
" ALEXANDER MACOMB."
As stated above, the board accepted this proposition, and directed the surveyor-general to survey the tract.
Jan. 10, 1792, the survey having been completed, and the security for the payment of the southern half of the tract having been deposited, letters patent were issued to Macomb on that day, Jan. 10, 1792. . The purchase was surveyed and laid out into six tracts, and this portion com- prised tracts 4, 5, and 6, one million nine hundred and twenty thousand acres, in Jefferson, Lewis, and Oswego Counties.
In 1792, Macomb became involved with others in an attempt to establish a bank in opposition to the Bank of New York, and was compelled to assign his interest in the above lands to his creditors.
June 6th he released his interest in tracts Nos. 2 and 3 to William Constable, and in the following June it was sold to William S. Smith, Abijah Hammond, and Richard Har- rison, but the patents were not issued until several years later.
March 3, 1795, letters patent were issued for No. 3 to Daniel McCormick, who was an original proprictor with Macomb, and in the following July he satisfied the claim of Messrs. Smith, Hammond, and Harrison. Aug. 17, 1798, McCormick received patents for the first and second tracts of Macomb's purchase, the former embracing eight hundred and twenty-one thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine acres, and the latter five hundred and fifty-three thousand and twenty acres.
William Constable and others subsequently became inter- ested in these lands, and below are given the names* of those to whom the different townships of Great Tract No. 1, which includes all the towns of Franklin County except Burke, Constable, Bellmont, and Franklin :
"GREAT TRACT NO. 1, 27 TOWNSHIPS.
Number of Townships.
Proprietors.
1.
Alexander Macomb.
2.
William Constable.
3.
66
4.
Gilchrist Fowler.
5.
Daniel McCormick.
6.
Richard Harrison.
7.
William Constable.
8.
Abijah Hammond.
9. North }
William Constable.
9. Middle 3.
Abijah Hammond.
9. South }
Daniel McCormick.
* Copied from an original map.
23
LAND GRANTS.
Names of Townships.
Proprietors.
10
.William Constable.
11.
Richard Harrison.
12.
Wm. Constable.
13. N. W. }
Richard Harrison.
13. E. 3
(Not marked.)
14.
(Not marked.)
15. N. W. }
Gilchrist Fowler.
15. N. E. }
Dan'I McCormick.
15. South
(Part not marked.)
16.
Wm. Constable.
17. North 3
Richard Harrison.
Middle }
Dan'l McCormick.
South } Wm. Constable.
18.
Abijah Ilammond.
19.
Theodorhus Fowler.
20.
Gilchrist Fowler.
21.
Le Ray de Chaumont.
22.
Daniel McCormick.
23.
24. N. W. 4 Hammond.
N. E. }
G. Fowler.
S. E. {
Harrison.
S. W. 1.
McCormick.
25. South }
G. Fowler. (The rest of the lot not marked.)
26.
McCormick.
27. N. W. }
66
The remainder. Le Ray de Chaumont."
Great Tract No. 2 (in St. Lawrence County ) was first subdivided into eighteen townships, which are now repre- sented by five towns, viz. : Brasher, Lawrence, Hopkinton, Parishville, and Colton. [The eighteen original townships of Great Tract No. 2 were called : 1, Sherwood; 2, Oakham ; 3, Atherton ; 4, Harewood ; 5, Janestown ; 6, Piercefield ; 7, Graushue ; 8, Hollywood ; 9, Kildare; 10, Matildaville ; 11, Wick ; 12, Riversdale; 13, Cookham ; 14, Catharinesville ; 15, Islington ; 16, Chesterfield ; 17, Grange; 18, Crumaek.]
Great Tract No. 3 (in St. Lawrence County ) was first subdivided into fifteen townships, which have been sup- planted in the county divisions of St. Lawrence County by eight towns, viz. : Hammond, Rossie, Fowler, Hermon, Edwards, Pitcairn, Russell, Fine, and Pierrepont. [The original fifteen townships were as follows: 1, Hammond ; 2, Sommerville; 3, De Witt ; 4, Fitz-William ; 5, Bally- been ; 6, Clare ; 7, Kilkenny ; 8, Edwards ; 9, Sarahs- burgh ; 10, Clifton; 11, Pontaferry; 12, Scriba ; 13, Chaumont ; 14, Bloomfield ; 15, Emelville.]
Great Tract No. 4 (partly in Herkimer, Lewis, and Jef- ferson Counties) was purchased by the " Antwerp Company" of Holland, for whom it was first managed by Governor Morris, and subsequently by one of the principal owners, James D. Le Ray de Chaumont, by whom the western portion, on or near Lake Ontario, in Jefferson County principally (laid out in small sections), was successfully dis- posed of. At the east end of this tract a triangular piece existed, in what is now the most northerly portion of Herkimer County. In Lewis County it is represented by the whole of the present town of Diana, which contains Lake Buonaparte ; once the hunting-camp of Joseph, the brother of Napolcon. In Jefferson County the tract re- served by the treaty of 1788, by the Oneida Indians for Peter Penet, and known as " Penet's Square," was excepted of course from Maeomb's subsequent purchase, and conse- quently from this great tract (No. 4).
The towns in the northern portion of Jefferson County, covering the territory included in this tract, were the whole of Antwerp, Philadelphia, Teresa, Alexandria, Orleans, Clayton, Cape Vincent, and Lyme ; with those portions of
Brownsville, Pamelia, Le Ray, and Wilna lying north of a line starting in Herkimer County at the northwestern corner of Totten and Crossfield's Purchase, running thenee directly west, forming the southern boundary of Diana, in Lewis County, and entering Wilna, Jefferson County, passing south of the village ; cutting aeross the present town of Champion south of Great Bend; and thence through Le Ray, Pamelia (near Military Corners), through Brownsville to the shore of Griffin Bay (of Lake Ontario, near the bend of the road on the south shore of the bay), being the dividing line be- tween this tract and
Great Tract No. 5 .- This was partly in Herkimer, Lewis, Jefferson, and Oswego Counties. It consisted of the northern portion of the tract afterwards purchased by John Julius Angerstein, which was subsequently sold (eight towns) to John Brown,* of Rhode Island, who endeavored unsuccessfully to clear a piece of his wilderness and make settlements. (His agent, Charles F. Herreshoff, committed suicide-here in the wilderness, 1819-in despair at the failure of the enterprise, and at the absence of iron ore, which had been elaimed to exist here.) It thus came to be known as " John Brown's tract," -a title often improp . erly extended by some hunters to the whole wilderness. Westward and north of Angerstein's tract (which lies en- tirely in Herkimer County) was the subdivision sold to James Watson (partly in Lewis and partly in Herkimer County), about three-quarters of which were within this great tract (No. 5); the remainder being south of the line and in Great Tract No. 6. Next, westward, was the sub- division sold to Pierre Chassanis & Co., of France, in 1792, almost the whole of which lay within Great Tract No. 5 and the present county of Lewis. The remainder (of Great Tract No. 5) afterwards formed the northern half of Boyls- ton Tract, obtaining its name from Thomas Boylston, of Massachusetts, who owned it for a short time, though the patent was issued to Samuel Ward. Of the whole of the eleven townships of the northwestern section or first di- vision of Bolston tract, 1, Hounsfield; 2, Watertown ; 3, Rutland; 4, Champion (excepting the Great Bend) ; 6, Henderson ; 7, Adams ; 8, Rodman, represent the portion in Jefferson County ; while the rest of the eleven, 5, Denmark ; 9, Pinkney ; 10, Harrisburg; 11, Lowville, are in Lewis County. The townships in the second division of Boylston's tract are cut obliquely by the south line of the Great Traet No. 5. In Jefferson County the whole of Ellisburgh, Lorrain, and Worth ; in Oswego County the north portions of the towns of Richland, Sandy Creek, Boylston, and Redfield ; and in Lewis County, the north portions of Montague and Martinsburgh (the old 3, Shakespeare ; 4, Cornelia ; 5, Porcia) complete the list of towns in Great Tract No. 5. The boundary between this and the next and last great tract of Macomb's great pur- chase is a line extending from a point on Totten and Cross- field's west line, about two miles south of " No. 4" (at Beaver Lake), Lewis County, to Lake Ontario near Selkirk, Richland, Oswego Co.
Great Tract No. 6 extended over Oswego, Lewis, and Herkimer Counties. In Oswego County the whole town
# Not the slave liberator, whose grave is near the eastern margin of this wilderness.
24
HISTORY OF CLINTON AND FRANKLIN COUNTIES, NEW YORK.
of Orwell, the southerly portion of Sandy Creek, Boylston, and Redfield, the north portions of Richland, and part of * Albion were within the Boylston Tract. In Lewis County, Osceola, Highmarket, Turin, and West Turin, with the south portions of Montague and Martinsburgh, completed the Boylston Tract. The Inman Tract, which is wholly in Lewis County, was divided into the present " Inman's Tri- angle" (town of Leyden and east corner of Lewis, in said county ), and into the " Brantingham Tract," wherein is the well-known lake of that name,-the present town of Greig representing it. The portion of the town of Watson south of the division line of Great Tracts Nos. 5 and 6 and the similar portion of the Angerstein or John Brown Tract (town of Wilmurt, Herkimer Co., with part of Long Lake, Hamilton Co.) seem to have been part of the Brown Tract, and complete the great Macomb Purchase.
OLD MILITARY TRACT.
In 1779, the frontiers of New York being greatly exposed to the hostile incursions of the Indians, who were incited by the British, it became necessary to provide some effective mode of defense, and the necessity of the State of New York's relying upon her internal resources became greater from the failure of the several States to furnish their respective quota of troops for the general defense. The State Legis- lature, therefore, proceeded to adopt the measures requisite to bring into the field a force sufficient for their purpose, and passed a law, March 20, 1781, providing for the enlist- ment of two regiments for the defense of the frontiers. The troops thus raised were to be armned, subsisted, and paid by the United States, and to continue in service three years unless sooner discharged.
The faith of the State was pledged to the officers and privates of these regiments that at the end of their enlist- ment they or their heirs should receive land in proportion to their rank : major-general, 5500 acres ; brigadier-general, 4250; colonel, 2500; lieutenant-colonel, 2250; major, 2000; captain, 1500; surgeon, 1500; chaplain, 2000; subaltern, 1000 ; surgeon's mate, 1000; non-commissioned officers, 500 ; privates, 500.
The lands were required to be settled within three years after the close of the war, or they would become forfeited and revert to the State.
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