History of Oneida County, New York, 1667-1878, Part 146

Author:
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Fariss
Number of Pages: 932

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" Thoroughly competent teachers were always employed in each department. An excellent library of several hundred volumes was provided ; all the modern appliances requisite for teaching were at the disposal of teachers ; seldom less than one hundred pupils were in attendance. At this time District No. 4 covered an area of about six square miles, anl was three tuiles from north to south. A few years after the death of my father ( which occurred in the year 1854) the district was divide 1, and to-day there are two schools where before there was but one."

The following is a copy of the narrative of Judge Van der Kemp, as it appears in letters written by him to Colonel Mappa, in 1792; descriptive of his journey on horseback from Kingston to Albany, thence up the Mohawk Valley to Fort Stanwix, and by canal and bateau through Oneida Lake to Lake Ontario. The first of these letters was re- ferred to by De Witt Clinton, who wrote as follows to Judge Van der Kemp: " Your letter to Colonel Mappa, on the canal, written in 1792, is really a curiosity. It gives you the original invention of the Erie route, and I shall lay it by as a subject of momentous reference on some future occasion." The following are the judge's letters :

" KINGSTON, 15th July, 1792. " MY DEAR SIR,-You desire, then, with such ardor, to be informed of my opinion in regard to the settlements on the northwestern part

of our State, that I will not delay one moment longer to gratify you with all the information I possess on this momentous subject. although I deem it superficial. I shall join to it a concise diary of my excur- sion to that district. In this I have consulted your wishes with those of other friends here and on the other side of the Atlantic. Could I now adorn this journal with the embellishment of our new adopted language, and make it as interesting as ' Moore's Travels,' my labors should be well rewarded ; but trusting on your indulgence, and know- ing that even a faint glimmering is desirable when we are surrounded with darkness, I waive to make any further apology.

"The period, perhaps, in which you may judge that you shall pro- mote the interests of your family, by transplanting it from your de- lightful residence on the Second River to the western wilderness, is not far distant. Perhaps the vivid sense of duty, and the prospect of future advantages, may spur you to follow the footsteps of a friend, who, tossed by various cares, disgusted with the bustle of public life, and longing to enjoy retirement, and securing to his children a per- manent, tranquil abode, searched for an asylum in that part of our State to which he should have been lured by the delightful scenery of that country,-by its fertility and the exuberant treasures of its lakes and rivers, could he have in luced two or three congenial families to share in this enterprise. Every interesting point which I comuni- cated to you two years past, when I made a trip to the western branch of the Delaware, shall now appear to you in a new light, and my fanciful description, as thou wast pleased to caricature it, naked truth ; while it shall contribute, in its turn, to place beyond doubt the continually increasing grandeur and incalculable power at which this State, within a few years, must arrive with gigantic strides, if wisdom directs the steps of its children, and convince you that its western and northwestern parts are to be regarded as the mainsprings of its opu- lence and grandeur.

" Do not expect, my dear sir, that I can spread glowing colors on the scenery, although I was often fascinated by it. Do not look for a picturesque description ; do not search for artfal exertions to cover the nakedness of the land. No, this country does not want such auxiliaries. A simple diary, a dry account of the soil and trees, an incorrect list of the finned tribe in the western waters, viz., the few we could catch, comprehends the extent to which I can engage my- self. I wish to convince you ; I spurn to take you by surprise. Did I even write in behalf of the public, then yet I should only exert my- self to express that with euergy which I so lively felt, and my uncouth language would be persuadiug ; would extort the wish from an Eu- ropean bosom, Ah, could I secure a residence in that happy country ! Would compel the opulent miser to collect his musty dollars and ex- change these for some thousand acres of that wild land. Yes, my dear sir, I am convinced that half a dozen Dutch families, with a dozen substantial, industrious farmers, and expert fishing men, seconded by one hundred Yankees, might render in a few years this country the envied spot to the oldest and best cultivated parts of the thirteen States.

" The increasing prosperity of our State strikes the eye of short- sighted indolence. The foreigner admires our affluence, and our neighbor, the frugal, industrious Pennsylvanian, should ardently wish that he could transplant the advantages of New York State to his own soil. Now, he often reluctantly leaves it, and becomes here indebted for a great part to Nature which he owed before to his pru- dent State administration.

"I acknowledge, my dear sir, that our State constitution is upon the whole well organized, and the eagle-eyed friend of liberty dis- covers only here and there a flaw, which might be altered-might he amended-but which, nevertheless, cannot obstruct, canuot disem- bogue our prosperity through another channel.

" Pennsylvania's industry, Pennsylvania's progress in agriculture, in arts and sciences, Pennsylvania's encouragements to cultivate their wild lands, have roused the New Yorkers from their profound sleep, and, perhaps, were a spur to our public councils to press their steps. Already a beginning is made of opening roads to the West; the streams are covered with bridges, and rewards are offered to encour- age agriculture and elevate the natural productions of the soil to the highest possible perfection. The bee-hive of New England is opened, and although flowery fields may allure many drones in the beginning, who even are beneficial in many respects, myriads of that enlightened, active race shall ere long be amalgam with the old settlers. It may retard awhile the forming of our national character; it must enhance it in other respects. It shall blend the virtues, soften the harsh and

* A fine two-story frame school-house was built in 1877. The upper room is used as a public hall.

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HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

too much protuberant features of the one and the other, and bring for- ward, under God's blessing, a virtuous, independent, lofty nation.

" Unincumbered with debts, what is more, a ereditor of the United States, that of New York can advance to its industrious citizens thou- sands of pounds, and acquit itself actually of this parental charge in a generous manner. It possesses, nevertheless, an immense surplus to bestow on its daily expenditures, in the digging of canals, elearing the ereeks, and erecting sluices, without burthening its inhabitants with taxes, trifling ones exceptel, for the benefit of the individual coun- ties.

"Our commerce is increasing daily ; our merchantmen eross every sea ; our flag is treated with respect in the Indics, while those of the Pacific Ocean havo become acquainted with its thirteen stripes; so that you may assert with full truth what Cæsar did of Pompey's ar- mics, and the navy by which his succors were cut off, that no wind can blow or it favors some of our vessels. The balance of trade inclines more and more ; the exchange shall ere long be generally in our advantage; the eredit of our paper money, which in 1788 could not be exchanged for eash under 7 per cent., is restored and placed on a par with hard dollars ere long, if prudence continues to direct tho helin ; if the nation becomes not too soon intoxicated by its pros- perity ; if certain advantages are not sacrificed to visionary possi- hilities, we shall be the envy of the world,-at least come in for a full share with the British and the Dutch. The manufactures are en- couraged more and more, and increase in number and perfection, and must do so, at least for home consumption. The only thing yet wanting is a more copious population than that which is already an objeet of surprise, while in this peculiar branch of a nation's wealth the wise politician will not grasp at a shadow to lose a reality in pos- session. .

"You know me too well to suppose that I should underrate the value of manufactures. No, sir! I am too deeply penetrated of the immense prize which this boon is worth as soon it is obtainable; but I do not look out for that period as long as we possess thousands of millions of acres good for tillage, as long as our population is not pro- portioued to this immense territory, as long as the wages are high, as long as every industrious man can become the lord of the soil, ean become independent, as long the foreign market ean afford to send us supplies, even in our own vessels, at a lower rate, and of a superior quality, than that we ean manufacture.

" It is quite another thing, my dear sir, that the wealthy patriot generously devotes a small share of his patrimony to their encourage- ment and improvement, so that in time of need we may supply our wants, even it all the ports of the world were shut before us, and an- other thing to risk imprudently his all to press a chimerical theory. It is quite another thing to use and encourage these means to support the widow, the orphan, the indigent in the neighborhood and suburbs of the large cities, than to lure the rugged child of the field to the loom, to the forge and glass-house, and persuade the robust youth that he is no more free behind his plow or harrow, or when he shoul- ders his axe for the woods, than under the eye and control of the tax - masters of the voluntary work-housc. Agriculture is, under God's blessing, our tutelar genius ; and as long as she goes hand in hand with commerce, as long as both are cneouraged and flourish and prosper, as long as the gifts of a bountiful God are showered upon us with such a rich profusion, I cannot-no, let me say more truly, I do not-cnvy that other nations share in His blessings which are not yet adapted to our present situation. As soon as our treaty of commerce with Great Britain shall be concluded, then the bond of union between the brethren shall be consolidated, and the prayers and praises of both countries shall ascend to heaven. The western forts so long with- held shall then he surrendered, and the commerce of our State re- ceive nourishment from hitherto forbidden springs. The State of New York, indeed, though not aiming at dominion over the sister States, possesses so many high prerogatives that she may elaim to be at par with the proudest, and if she does not imperiously pretend to her precedenee, would hinnble herself too low could she stoop to carry the train of her fair sister. Our situation alone, if the products of tho country were less valuable, would secure to this State an eminent share in our national commerce. With the Atlantic Ocean to the south, the Lakes Champlain, St. George, Ontario, Erie, with the river St. Lawrence, to the north, with Canada in our rear, New England and the Jerseys to cover our sides, the State seems rather to have been fashioned according to the modern system of arrondissement than well by nature; and yet the conqueror's sword did not give us one

ineh. It is our paternal inheritance. The produce of a part of the Jerseys, of a vast part of New Hampshire, Conncetieut, the back parts of Massachusetts, with the State of Vermont, do find our em- porium of New York the most desirable, advantageous market.

"Our inland navigation, superior to that of many, equal already to the best watered States in the Union, contributes greatly to the in- crcase of our commerce. The North, or the beautiful Hudson River, which the British, during our last unnatural war, considered as the line of health, in proportion that they approached to or retreated from its borders, navigable to large vessels to Iludson, 120 miles above New York, with sloops from eighty ton and more to Albany, 165 and many miles more high with bateaux and small rafts. This majestic river receives, besides numerous rivulets, more or less navigable, above Albany, at the Cohoes,-a cascade of sixty-seven fect,-the Mohawk River, meandering through fertile fields from where he originates, to the north of Fort Stanwix. It was here that in former days, hefore our late happy Revolution, the Mohawk Indians resided, from whom it mutuated his name.

" Although the Mohawk becomes navigable for bateaux at no great distance from the Cohoes, all merchandise, nevertheless, is thus far carried by wagons from Albany to Schenectadi, from whence these are conveyed in hatcaux about 100 miles, including one mile portage at the Little Falls, ria Fort Stanwix. Here is a carrying-place of half a mile to the Wood Creek, which empties its waters, after it is joined by the Fish Creck, in the Oneida Lake,-as handsome, as rich in fish, as any lake in the western world. Ahove Fort Brewerton its waters disemhogue through the Onondaga and Oswego Rivers in Lake Ontario, paying all their homage through the St. Lawrence to the Atlantie Oecan.

"Our government, I am informed, has passed a law to clear the navigation from the Mohawk to the Iludson. If this is not cor- rect, then it is a prognostication what it shall, what it ought to do at a future time. So much is certain that it is resolved to open the carrying-place between the Hudson and Wood Creek, and to clear the latter from many obstructions. Several thousand £ have . already been consecrated by the Legislature to this salutary un- dertaking, while subscriptions for the deficit have been opened in Albany and New York with such a success that they were filled in a few days.

"See here, then, my dear sir, an casy communication by water- carriage opened between the most distant parts of this extensive commonwealth ; see the markets of New York, Albany, and Schenec- tadi glutted with the produce of the West, and the comforts of the South distributed with a liberal hand among the agricultures of this new country. The fur trade begins already to revive, shall ere long recover her former vigor, when the Western forts are surrendered ; and if remains, shared, as it naturally must, by the Northwestern Company, this seeming loss shall be fully compensated from other branches, grafted in the wants and interests of the Canadians. But this not all, sir. It is rather the breaking out of the sunshine thro' a morning fog in a charming summer day. Fort Stanwix must be- come a staple place of the commodities of the West, stored there from the fertile lands bordering the lakes and rivers, and Old Fort Schuyler nearly the central part of intercourse between the North and West, transformed in an opulent mereantile city, where future Lorenzos will foster and protect arts and sciences, where the toma- hawk and scalping-knife shall be replaced by the chisel and pencil of the artist, and the wigwam by marble palaces. Do not think that I dream, sir! Falto si pero, quando si vuole.

" Our canals at the Falls, at Fort Stanwix, open an carly commu- nication between the Lakes Ontario and Oneida, which is possible, and can thus he executed, and a large part of the work is peraeted. Go on, then, and dig canals through the western district, and be not afraid ' that a single hair shall be hurt on the head of its inhabitants by the waves of Lake Erie.' Dare only to undertake the enterprise, and I warrant the success; or do you deem it a more arduous under- taking as the canal of Languedoc ?- and this was performed. Do not answer, I beg you, this was the work of the Grond Monarque. Have you forgotten the river, the Yssel, the forsa Drasiano ? This was the work of a Roman general and his army ; and are we not, do we not pretend, at lenst. to be, the most enlightened nation on the globe ? Should, then, a republican government, rich in men and in wealth, shrink to accomplish what Louis XIV. excented? You were more sanguine when you did lead your patriotic citizens against the Prussian myrmilons at the Nieuwrersluys, and you are too eandid not

544

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

to acknowledge now that your hope of success was irretrievably past. Give me the disposal of fifty New York purses ; give me only the credit of that city, and I shall do what others promised in florid speeches; or, art thou apprehensive that the spell of your enchantment shall be broken, give me the republican wand of Caius Popilius, and I will go to the water-nymph Erie, and trace a beautiful curve, thro' which her ladyship shall be compelled to pay a part of her tribute to the ocean through the Genesee country, engaging her a courteous attendance from lakes and ereeks to wait on her grace during this extorted ex- cursion, and leaving her the consolation of the Doge of Genoa at the French Court, 'to admire no object but herself' during her course through our country to the Hudson River.

"Our agriculture is considerably improved, although much is yet wanted before it can be compared with what is performed in Europe. Nine-tenths of our farmers possess ofteu double and treble the land than which they can or pretend to cultivate. It is a too generally prevalent system to be rather contented with the erop which the field spontaneously yields, than to aim at a richer harvest obtainable by a more industrious tillage.

" The example of the Pennsylvanians, the thousands of New Eng- land men who, flocking annually in this State, ameliorate our hns- bandry, improve our stock, and transform our woodlands into productive fields, the creation-and if anything does, it deserves this name-the creation of an agricultural society at New York, a similar association at Albany, the offered premiums to the largest produce of maple-sugar,-that blessing of heaven to the back countries, little in- ferior to the sugar of the West Indies,- the encouraging acts of our Legislature in opening new roads, and other beneficial plans, yet in embryo,-all this united had altered our agriculture.

" How could it be any other way, my dear sir? There the richness of the soil pays tenfold our industry ; there the climate is temperate, muild nearly as that in the Netherlands. The population is generally in our States, principally in New England,-in this State, peculiarly in its western parts, baffling all imagination. A marriage without issue is a rare phenomenon ; from five to uiue is no uuusual uumber of children,-often a dozen or more.

" The fertility of our soil, principally in the western district, where one acre often produces as much as three in any other part of the State; our inland navigation; abundance of fish, of fuel; our well- regulated State government, maintaining every one by his religious as well as civil rights ; admitting no privileged church, nor loading an unbelieving herd with tapes for its support, have yearly whole shoals of New England men or Europeans to settle in this State or Pennsyl- vania. Here the crops but seldom fail ; the long winters, so fatal in the Southern States, are here seldom injurious, as the snow remains till the earth begins to be adorned again with a fresh tapestry. Wheat, corn, oats, barley, rye, potatoes, with every kind of garden vegetables and garden fruits, the watermelon, the cantaloupe, the grape not ex- cluded, arrive in the western and often in the northern parts of this State to perfection.

" The increasing population, the rage of speculation in land by Americans, Dutch, and Englishmen, double actually the value of the lands. An aere sold four years siuce from one to six shillings is now valued at ten. I speak of woodlaud ; cultivated farms have risen from £4 to £6, and this price is doubled in the neighborhood of villages.

" Every family does increase the value of the adjacent uncultivated lands, and five and twenty of the one hundred farms sold at one dollar per acre augment the price of the remaining 75 to sixteen shillings, while the sale of 25 muore, the soil being equal, doubles it yet four or five times.

" The western parts of this State, sir, are now generally considered as its richest and most valuable part, which spurs every forehanded quan to appropriate a part of it to himself or his children. It is, never- theless, to be regretted, although this hindrance is compensated again by some great advantages, that few individuals become owuers of such immense tracts, by which, as soon as they have made some flourishing establishments, they are enabled to increase the price of the remainder arbitrarily ; but here, too, avarice betrays often the possessor. The prudent landholder blends the public interests with his own, reaches in both his aim; becomes his benefactor of a country, which repays him with usury; is their father, who are delighted in their welfare and opulence; and obliges his country by multiplying its useful citizens, augmenting the products of the land, and increasing the wealth of the State.

" Justice requires, as I hinted the disadvantages of a few great land- holders owning more acres of land than many princes and dukes in Germany, that I mention the favorable side of this question. They open, generally with enormous expense, the roads, erect mills, make liberal advances to the honest, industrious settler, and make his pay- ments easy. Besides, a few of these have resolved to settle in the wilderness, and allure by their example many respectable families to press their steps.

" All this shall, I hope, dear sir, convince you that the western parts of this State shall be settled within a few years, that the actual owners of the land must become independent, and that every industrious family which invests her small property in a good farm, if it continues to exert itself, wuust, under God's blessing, ere long be at ease and affluence.

" I am yours,

"FR. AD. VAN DER KEMP.# " KINGSTON, 19 July, 1792."

"KINGSTON, July 27, 1792.

"MY DEAR SIR,-I asserted, when I had lately the pleasure of seeing you, that I did not boast wheu I assured you in ury last letter that the western counties were the best part, and would be, ere long, the most potent part of our State in every sense of the word; that it cannot fail, or every judicious landholder in the Western District, who is ac- quainted with the value of his lands, who knows when he may sell, and when his interest requires to put a stop to his sale, must acquire a considerable fortune within twenty-five years; or, that every inde- pendent family which makes a purchase there, and retains in reserve a surplus to supply it in the beginning with articles of the first neces- sity, and smooth the ruggedness of their new career by what the cou- venience and comfort of a family requires, may, within six years, be as much at ease as in any other part of the State, and shall be plenti- fully rewarded by the fruits of their labors, and secure to their children, even during the life of their parents, an independent station. I might have said-which I know could not be an inducement to you -- that seats in both houses of the Legislature, offices of honor and trust, are, of course, allotted to men of any respectability, if this glitter has any charms in their eye.

"You may recollect, sir, that when I communicated to you my ex- cursion to the western branch of the Delaware, I informed you of some particulars relating to the settlements of that part of our western world, which drew forth a few others with regard to Dutchess and Ulster County. These may be subservient to illustrate my assertions in favor of the west. The situation of Dutchess, now one of the most populous counties, was, fifty years past, not more favorable than that of many parts of the Western District at present. Mr. Livingston, then clerk of that county, could scarce afford to keep a horse from the emoluments of his office, while now his annual perquisites exceed £700.

" The families of Livingston, Beekman, Van Rensalaer, Van Courtland, Schuyler,-in one word, all the powerful families of this State, merchants excepted,-acquired their actual wealth and respecta- bility by the purchase of new lands and their judicious settlements on these. I should uot have been surprised, my dear sir, had a cer- tain respectable family succeeded in the purchase of Rosevelt's tract, or we should have seen ere long an elegant country-seat on the banks of Lake Oneida, encircled at some distance by well-cultivated farms. You would have fostered a similar opinion,-with this differenee only, that it would have been generally more favorable, as you were, during the last years of your residence in Europe, better inured by fatigues than your friend,-could you, as I did hope, have accompanied him on this journey. His excellency, George Clinton, thought so, and joined our names together in all the letters of recommendation with which his kindness honored me again, as he was wonted to do in former ex- cursions.

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History of Oneida County, New York, 1667-1878, Part 146

Author: Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Fariss Number of Pages: 932

Author:
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Fariss
Number of Pages: 932