History of Oneida County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 148

Author: Durant, Samuel W
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Fariss
Number of Pages: 920

USA > New York > Oneida County > History of Oneida County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 148

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* Uties.

547

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

one of the chief menns of his political success. His Excelleney had a high opinion of young Platt, and spoke of him in the most flatter- ing terms. This prompted me to observe him, and I was not disap- painted. The little intercourse I could enjoy with Mrs. Platt-hath being then in a state of anxiety about their only infant, which, in my opinion, shall never recover-prompts me to say little about her, except that I wns highly pleased with her courteous nnd kind recep- tion. I nm persuaded I could not do her full justice. It is quite otherwise with her husband. I presuinc to say I know him, how short aur intercourse was, and dare nssure that if ever thou art fav- ored with a similar opportunity thou wilt love and respect him. So much ingenaausness nud modesty without bashfulness, vanterie : sach obliging manners without importunely ohtruding his civilities; such a comprehensive mind ; such an intuitive solid judgment; all this combined chewed him the man who, sooner or Inter, must become the pride of the bar, the glory of the bench, and a chief ornament of our State; so that I really consider the pitiful pittance of his present clergyship not ne a reward, but a temporary station, io which he is to hoord up more intellectual treasures, to develop these unexpectedly before his fellow-citizens, and prepare a most delicious repost by bis achievements for his aged und revered patron.

" The society here is nlready pleasing ; so is the situation of this little village, more adapted for the enjoyment of rural retirement than luring in a commercial point of view. The houses are mere built for convenience than for show ; the roads are daily improving, of which you may form n partial opinion from the fact that while I was here Mr. and Mrs. Livingston came in their own carringe, in four days, from Poughkeep La Whitesherough.

" That I do not exaggerate to render you enamored with this charming country, ane proof shall be sufficient. By the Inst census the number of souls in Whitestown was 5788,-a stupendous number, indeed, within the small circle of five years. In Whitesborough itself there is scarce an nere for sale. Dr. Moseley paid for three neres, far n building-spot, £50 per nere.

" The sail is n rich, fertile laam ; from 30 to 45 bushels Indinn corn per acre is an ordinary crop; often it gives 50, 60, and more. In sume parte, by lang droughts, the soil is npt to hake und rent, nud requires thus more Inhor. Shall it be cultivated with propriety and success ? One of your fee-Innd farmers would not consider that ns a formidable objection, well knewiog that his exertions should be doubly compenented. There are here, nevertheless, some, too, who are willing to renp, but not in the sweat of their hrow.

"The article of fish is eenree; firewood has already become an ah- ject of so much importance that it is saved and euld to ndvantage; and salt cannot be obtained below a dollar the bushel.

"I crossed, nhout two miles fram Whitesbaraagh, the Oriskany Creek, where many of the Oneida Indians resided in former dnys. The actual proprietors of the soil did long decline the sale; the price was yet too low. At length it hath risen to their pitch. Several farms have already been taken up, and the woods resounded when I passed there from the strokes of the hardy axe-men. One year more, and the one farm shall be joined to the other, ns here on the Esopus-Kill. I had only advanced a few steps when my attention was fixed on a number of skulls, placed in & row ou a log near the road. I was io- formed by the workmen that this place was the fatal spot on which the murderous encounter happened between General Herkimer und bis sturdy associntes and the Indinns, when this brave and gallant soldier did fall with n number of his men. He showed me a large tree, an which wns conrsely carved something resembling a man's head, which should represent this intrepid warrior.

" On Monday, nbout noon, I arrived at Fort Stanwix. The Barou De Zeng, industriously employed in Inying out a kitchen-garden, had already seen me, and gave me n cordinl welcome. He then introduced me to Colonel Calbreath, n Revolutionary saldier, whe, finding him- self in the patronage of his old general, who resided ou & part of the cetnte which the governor possessed in this neighborhood, he had offered the baron n part of his house till that af De Zeng should be clenred of its present inhabitants. We partack of some refreshments; my horse was brought ou n luxuriant pasture-ground.

"See there me, my dear sir, at the famous Fort Stonwix, where Janzevoort# baffled the impetuous ardor of the British, and Calanel Willett eluded their vigilance. Sce here me, in the centre of New

York State, the elevated spot from where the waters are flowing to the Enst and the West, chalked out, as it were, by nature, to become the seat of government of this mighty State, while Fort Schuyler must gradually rise to the rank of the emperiam of the West. Here is the [retreat] from the hustle of business, while the opalence and wealth is through varique channels conducted to this great reservoir, to repay the inhabitants of its neighborhood with those of the remet- est North and West with ease and comfort ; there magnificent build- ings rniged and n sent prepared for arts and sciences.

" The Baron De Zeng, n German nobleman, descende fram a nable family in Saxony, und arrived in Amerien during the Revolutionary war. He was married to u respectable lady in New York, and did now intend to begin a settlement in this vicinity. He had engaged to necompany me on this teur, and I expected, as I renlly experi- enced, that he not only should be nn agreeable companion, hat very useful to me in mnoy respects.

" The baron wns so kind to charge himself to purchase a grand conce, engage twe servants, and procure the required provisions for our voyage. As he hnd hefare rowed through this wilderness, he knew best what was wanting to lessen the hardships of & similar enterprize; and I must de him the justice that be left nothing untried to procure every article which might render our journey mare ngree- nble. A well-made tent, with n goed carpet, stood faremast on the list, and his spouse took care that a sufficient quantity of bread and biscuit wns prepared. While all this was brought in readiness, I had the satisfaction to explore the country, examine the woods with the contemplated sinte for the canal, tu join the Mohawk with the Wood Creek, and convince myself af ite practicability. But this is only the dwarf fixing his eyes upward to the gigantic cannl, yet in embryo. The soils differ little from that of Whitestown ; except the summit of the highland, en which the fort is erected, generally not less fertile; often tua rich for wheat as the first crop ; not free from baking ; sev- eral feet deep of the same unadulterated mould as the uppermost layer. By digging too and twelve feet, often deeper, leaves perfectly pre- served, branches of trees, large pieces of timber, nre discovered. I did see several samples of all thesc when n well was dug for Colonel Colbrenth. Elm, neh, beech, heavy onk, and walnut nre in the upper part ; on the lower ground chiefly heech, maple, and birch. As no apparent obstruction is visible, the cnnal may be executed nearly in a straight line.

"Scarce a day passed in which not two, sometimes three, bateaux arrived, whose destination was towards the Genesee lands, Onondaga, Cntaraqui, or other parts of the western district. We met daily with groupe of five ar six men on horseback in search for Innd, with inten- tion, if succeeding, to move on with their families the next winter or following spring ; while every day one ar ather accosted us lo purchase Innde of which we did not own one single inch.

" During the time I tarried here, a large hateau with furs arrived fram the West; twa yoke of axen carried it over the portage. This was the second cargo within one week. It may he conjectured from this single example what riches the waters of Oneida Lake may curry on to Fart Stanwix, if every obstruction shall be removed. Now, it makes a fortune to individuals; then, it shall become as productive to the nation as n gold mine.

" We waited another day in the hope of a few refreshments, which I had procured at Scheneetadi; but at length our patience being ex- hnusted, although De Zeng was possessed af a deep fund of it, nearly equal to that of your friend, we walked on Saturday towards Wood Creek, saw our haggnge stowed, stepped in the canoe, and pushed off.

" Da you recollect, Mappa, how Remus vexed his hrather Romu- lus hy springing over the ditches with which he had encircled the future mistress of the world ? Here certainly might be have indulged his whim with less peril. No Oneida Indian, no valiant American, could have considered his country insulted by this process. The Wood Creek, indecd, resembles, at the landing-place, rather an insig- nificant ditch than well & navigable stream. Ere long it is, neverthe- less, enlarged, and resembles very much the numberless inland waters by which our ci-devant Fatherland was intersected. We arrived, at the distance of three miles, at Fort Bull, or rather at the place on which, during the war, s fert of that name was erected. The same fuct I found after verified, viz., places designated by names originating frem fortifications constructed during the late French ar the Revolu- tionary war.

"As we indulged ourselves from time to time in angling, we bucked & few trout and several large ehuhe, without reflecting that the sun

* Gansevoort.

548

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

was setting ; onr Insty buys waded continually to drag eur deeply- loaded canes ever rifts and shonls. At once the air was darkened, which was rendered of a deeper hue by the streams of lightning with which it was on a sudden as embroidered ; several peals of thunder re-echoed through the woods, and the increasing darkness became now visible. The boys were discouraged; De Zeng sprang at once eut the canos and inspired them with fresh courage; and your friend ? I trusted in their experience, and hoped their trial would be a short one; and then they might rest from their Inbors, while the baren enght to pay seme price of not possessing his soul in equal patience.

" Now we proceeded quickly, and discovered after a few minutes & light in a small cottnge. It was that of the Widow Armstrong, on the corner of the Wood and Canada Creeks, seven miles from Fort Stan- wix,-the part of land where Rosevelt's purchase begins, with which you and some of my best friends desire to become acquainted, and which, if I am not mistaken and disappointed in my wishes, may be once a geedly heritage, under God's almighty blessing, for ns and onr children.

" As we are now cngnged in drying eur clothes by n goed fire, and Mrs. Arinstrong is preparing enr supper and couches, I must allow you a little rest before I offer you my rough sketch of the skirts of that noble tract, once the heritage of the Oneidos, now the object of ardent lengings of Amerienns and foreigners, who, by every licit and illicit means, by extravagant prnises and unfounded slanders, en- deavor to secure this possession to themselves, while somnc squatters have fixed themselves here and there on its borders,-a tract which, in population and wenlth, most vie in time with any part of the Western District.

"I am yours sincerely."

" KINGSTON, Ist August, 1792.

"MY DEAR SIN,-You followed onr steps, sir, through the meander- ing Wood Creek to the spot where the Canada Creek empties in it, the residence of Mrs. Armstrong, thus for the hospitable patroness of that insulated spot. I really hope, my dear sir, that you may have been able to keep your attention nwake, otherwise it must become a more than herculean labor to drive the sleep from your eyes by a dry topo- graphical description. I really am apprehensive that the wish of getting rich by the purchase of a few hundred thensand acres of this land cannot make a sufficiently deep impression on your disinterested- ness, even if your purse wns in unison with such a wish. I hope, at all events, it shall not exceed a sinmbering, not heavier than mine on horseback, awakening the instant when I was lenning half-wny from the saddle; and in that case I am not without hope, or the fall of a heavy oak, the report of our guns, onr cries of joy on a canght prey of fish or deer, the lamentations and curses of our crew, and avery real and imaginary danger shall break off the spell of the enchant- ment of some fair or malignant sorceress, and permit you to eontem- plate the residence of the beautiful Oneida Lake with admirntion.

" It is a general observation with regard to this world-and I am yet wavering to decide if the name of Now or Old is the mest appropri- ate-that the mest barren tracts are everywhere near the sca-coast ; that the most populous part of the fifteen States, which have been settled in the beginning, cannot be compared with the extensive fertile fields of the West, and that their natural productiveness and riches are increasing in proportion that you penetrate deeper in the interier. Every traveler confirms this fruth, and every new settle- ment affords so many incontestible proofs from the unusnal produce of the fields, as by the sudden increase of the lands, to confirm these reports.

" No man dared yet to contest this truth except n few German in- habitants on the rich borders of the Mohawk before the Revolutionary war, believing-in which they were confirmed by the cunning artifices ef their great landholders and crofty politicians-that their paradise was surrounded by unsurmountable barriers, being no habitable spot above Canajohari, impenetrable except by a savage's foot, except by British Caondians, who dreaded the neighborship of Americans, ex- cept land-jobbers aiming at a cheap purchase by artfully underrating the land.

"The tract with which I would make you better acquainted was purchased two years past from the Six Nations, and begins at the Wood Creek, where that of the Canada Creek joins it. It has to the northeast Funda's" purchase ; to the south and west the Oneidu reser-

vation, the military lands now beginning to be settled; to the north- west Lake Ontario; to the north the Great Salmon Creek, frem which it touches again Funda's purchase, in a northeastern course. See here, then, the rough circumference of 700,000 acres. Consider, my dear sir, if I might err somewhat in a due course, and take the east for the west, that I am yet in the infancy of my geological expedition, and am ready to say Peccavi, Poter ; not, however, in that bewitching tone I henrd yon sing ' Mon père, je viens devant vous.' To prevent gross mistakes and seenre you of forming an erroneous opinion of my senti- ments, I send yon with this a pretty correct map, which, with the assistance of that of Governor Pownall, may learn you in how far I was successful.

" A simple statement of courses is sufficient to lay open the water communication with all the circumjacent lands : by the Wood Creck to the Mohawk eastward, and so on to the North River; through the Seneca River, senthwest of the Oneida Lake, to the Genesee lands, whose settlements are daily increasing ; through the Onondagn and Oswege Rivers, in Lake Ontario; through the St. Lawrence and the North River, in the ocean. Consider now further, sir, that the dis- tance of Fort Brewerton at the west end of Oneida Lake, acar the month of the Onondaga River, is, in a straight line, only eight miles from the Little Salmon Creek, and twelve miles from the great two principal landing-places on Lake Ontario; and the distance from the centre of the lake, near Bruce's Creek, is, in a straight course, no more than twelve miles to the same spot.

" The land is there not much broeken, with few stones or rocks, so that few bands, as soon as the trees are chopped, might make a toler- able good road from the one lake to the other. This lund curriage is of a vast additional value; but no man can have seen the shape of the land and examined the Salmen Creek from Lake Ontario, and Bruce's Creek frem Oneida Lake, in their courses, and doubt yet the high probability of a water communication of a short distance be- tween these two lakes. Join to all this- and this, my dear sir, is sn encouraging observation-thnt the circumjacent tracts, as the Genesee lands to the south, Funda's, Steuben, Oothout's patent, are already partially settled, and continue to increase in inhabitants, while the Jets in the military lands are increasing daily in value.

" Is this not alrendy a great deal, my friend ? I knew you coosider it from this point of view, and are already anticipating the time that steres and magazines, villages and country-seats, are adorning the borders of Oneida Lake ; nnd yet how great this is, it is not all. Throw, I beg you, for a moment a cursory glance on the situation of this tract,-I ought to have snid come ond see and believe. Towards the south yon have Oneida Lake, that of Ontario to the north, both joined by the Onendaga and Oswego Rivers; und in these disembogue, be- sides a number of smaller creeks, the Weed Creek, the Oneida Creek, the Canada Creck, the Fish Creek, the Little Fish Creek, the Black Creek, Bruce's Creek, the large and smaller Salmon River, and what is called the Fresh Lobster Creek, from the numbers we caught here of this delicions crustaceons fish, even superior to the sea lobster, and as exquisite n dainty as those in GuelderInnd and the Duchy of Cleves, which afford there such a sumptuons and palatable dish to the modern descendants of Apicins.

" Both Salmen Rivers emptying in Lake Ontario, te the north of this tract of land, and the Fish Creek in Oncida Lake, are ie the spring and fall full of salmon. You may form of this assertion a pretty ac- curate opinion after I have informed yon that one Oneida Iodian took with his spear 45 salmon io one hour; another, in the presence of Captain Simonds, 65 during one night; and another, 80. They are equal to the best which are caught in the rivers of the Rhine and Meuse, and might, if the time of fishing was limited by the Legisla- ture, and, what is more, its laws punctually obeyed nnd executed with rigor, become as beneficient to our country. at large as the saleion fishery of the Meuse, in Holland, from which the East and West In- dies are supplied with this Inxurious fish. Were the method of catch- ing the saltoo in fuyks and smoking these introduced, ns I advised several, with the offer of initiating them in this mystery, Oneida Lake, with its tributary streams, might supply ae nbundant provision for all the States, the West Indian market, that of South America in- cluded.

"Persuaded of this truth, I wrote to my Dutch friends, and ob- tained through my old Hoo. friend, D. Herbach, from n mercantile house at Schoenheren,-the staple-place, as you know, of this comme- dity,-an accurate description of the mede of catching, curing, smek- ing, through the whole process, and offered its communication to Mr.

# Fonda.

549

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

Stevens, at Fort Brewerton, nad others, but it was not accepted,-too much trouble ! too distant! too uncertain the prospect of gain ! no control over the Indian brethren ! no encouragement by the Legisla- ture ! I do, nevertheless, not yet despair or a happier period shall arrive.

" The eel of the Oneida Lake is equal to the best of the Holland market, and far surpasses every kind which I have ever tasted bere in size, in fatness, in tenderness of the fish. The Salmon River possesses, besides this plentifulness of the finny tribe, another im- portant advantage,-our full-laden bateaux may have access and re- cess to both. What a potent lure, merchant, to Canadians, who now must purchase many articles at three and four times the capital higher from Quebec than they may obtain these from the State of New York ! They who pay at Cataraqui $3, and $3.50 at Ningara for one bushel salt, are often supplied with it at the Salmon Creek for five sbillings, although even at Whitestown, Fort Stanwix, and its vicinity, often is paid from eight to ten shillings. Flere, too, in time the price sbull be lower; eut only canals, inciense the salt work, and manufacture it to a higher degree of perfection.

"A bountiful God has in this respect, too, provided for the wants of the western country with profusion. Everywhere are salt-springs, and but few miles from Oneida Luke, in Onondaga, is a copious salt- lake, encircled with salt-springs, the domain of the people of the State of New York. A considerable quantity is already transported to Con- ada, nad thousand American families make never use of any other. How the copiousness must be increneed when rock-salt too is manu- factared and carried to the south and west of our immense continent! How exuberant it must become when that limestone crust, through whose crevices it is now ascending, shall be broken, and that vast body of solid salt discovered from which now a thousand springs through nges have been saturated ! You perceive that I believe in the real existence of this subterrancous treasure, which I presume may be discovered without Jacques Aymar's Baguette Divinatoire, and I have Do less anme than that of Leibnitz to procure credit to my supposi- tion. lle said, in his ' Protegea,' 'Sub terra esse conditoria sulis, satis fontes aquarum calsarum doceat,' which, as you have often beard when in Holland, faithfully translated in our English las- guage, is, 'that there are repositories of salt under the earth is evi- dent from the salt-water springs;' but Rome, says the proverb, was not built in one day. What a time elapsed before the Chestershire salt-springs were of any advantage! What a time elapsed before the basket-salt was brought to market, and how late was it that the rock- salt was there discovered, from which considerable quantit'es, dug in large masses, are now transferred to the west coast of England, melted ia sea-water, and again reduced in salt and used in the cure of her- rings. And how much must the value of this treasure be enhanced when the discovered coal mines are placed in the west at its side?

" This country, so abundant in water and fish, is, if possible, yet more profusely endowed by our bountiful Maker with wood. Every kind of timber of the Northern and Eastern States is here in the greatest plenty und perfection,-butternut, walnut, white oak, sogar- maple, chestnut, beech, black ash, pine, hemlock, the lime-tree, white- wood or canoe's-wood, and several other species. When I asserted that the most part of these were to be found in the highest perfection, I always limit it to our States, as our timber ie anquestionably infe- rior to thet which is carried to the Dutch markets from the interior parts of Germany and the Baltic. Oak, pine, and chestnut are chiefly found at short distances from the lakes; the remainder in & more fertile soil at some greater distance; the hemlock, fir, and pine on more barren spots.

" The canals cannot be opened or the value of the timber must be raised. You know the scarcity of white oak and pine on several points of the North River nad Mohawk, so that they are scarce suffi- cient to supply the first wants of the inhabitants, who are often com- pelled to employ timber of an inferior kind. I might enlarge on the blessings of the hard maple, without which the new settlers would be bereft of the comforts of life,-sogar, molasses, vinegar,-were you not thoroughly acquainted with the inestimable value of this precious tree.

" It is true, my dear sir, a good soil, good water, and plenty of wood for fuel and timber are strong inducements to settle in a new country, -more so when the price of all this is enhanced by the prospect of a good market in the neighborhood ; but if thou art there Deurly alone without neighbors; if from the vicinity you obtain nothing evea for ready cash ; if, as is the situation of the largest number who trans-

port their families to the woods, their all consists in an axe, & plow, & wheel, a frying-pan, kettle, hed, and pillow, with a scnoty provision of flour, potatoes, and salt-pork, then what? Then, my dear sir, something else besides is required not to suffer during the first season. It is true a little wheat is often saved in the fall, a small spot cleared to plant in the spring corn and potatoes, while they live in the hope, if their health is spared, to prepare the soil for sowing flax-seed; but something more yet is required to the maintenance of & numerous, bungry family, and in this respect, too, Providence has in this dis- trict graciously provided even to satiety. Never did I yet see & country where all kind of fish was so abundant and good. It may be equallod; it cannot be excelled. I tasted, withia a short time, of more than a dozen different species, the one contending with the other for the pre-eminence, the least of these affording & palatable food,- salmon, pike, pickerel, catfish (if well prepared, boiled or stewed, resembling the taste of the delicious turbot), Otziergo bass (an epi- curcan morsel), yellow perch, sunfish, triob (chub), three species of trout, river lobsters, turtle, swordfish, and a green-colored fish of sa exquisite taste, whitefish, etc.

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History of Oneida County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 148

Author: Durant, Samuel W Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Fariss Number of Pages: 920

Author: Durant, Samuel W
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Fariss
Number of Pages: 920