Our county and its people. A descriptive work on Jefferson County, New York, Part 6

Author: Emerson, Edgar C., ed
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: [Boston] Boston History Co.
Number of Pages: 1368

USA > New York > Jefferson County > Our county and its people. A descriptive work on Jefferson County, New York > Part 6

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"Witness our trusted and well beloved George Clinton, Esq., Gover- nor of our said State, General and Commander-in-chief of all militia,

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

and Admiral of the Navy of the same, at our city of New York, this 10th day of January in the year of our Lord 1792, and in the 16th year of our independence. Approved by the Commissioners of the Land Office and by the Secretary's Office, the 10th day of January, 1792.

" LEWIS A. SCOTT, Secretary. GEORGE CLINTON."

According to the original survey the entire purchase was divided into five great tracts, number one being wholly in Franklin county, and containing 821,819 acres. Number two contained 553,020 acres in St. Lawrence county, and number three contained 458, 222 acres, also in St. Lawrence county.

Tract number four of Macomb's purchase, 450,950 acres, included all that part of Jefferson county which lay north of a straight line drawn from Lake Ontario across the north part of Point Peninsula and Cherry Island through the south part of Limerick village, in Brownville, and thence continued to the east boundary of the county, crossing the Black river almost directly opposite Great Bend village.1 Of course this de- scription is not perfectly accurate but will give the reader a fair idea of the location of the line between lots four and five of the historic Ma- comb tract. Dr. Hough describes the same line as "drawn from the southwest corner of St. Lawrence county, north 87º west, to Lake On- tario." Lot number five contained 26, 250 acres, and lay next south of number four, while still further sonth was number six, containing 14 .- 400 acres, but the division line between these lots was never surveyed.

Alexander Macomb was a merchant and capitalist of New York city, but previous to that time he had been a fur trader at Detroit. How- ever after he made the great purchase in this part of the State (for he was in fact the company, although Constable's and Mc Cormick's names appear in the transaction) he was unfortunate in business, lost his property, and was imprisoned for debt. He was the father of General Macomb who made the gallant defense of Plattsburgh in September, 1814.

On June 6, and October 3, 1792, Macomb transferred to William Constable, his agent in Europe, all of lots numbers four, five and six, the expressed consideration for which was 50,000 pounds. In the mean time, August 31. 1292, Constable deeded to Peter Chassanis, of Paris, a tract comprising 630,000 acres of this land, but it was found that he had conveyed less land than was intended, on which (March 25, 1693)

1 To the great majority of the inhabitants this I ne is common y known as " the Chassanis line."

THE CHASSANIS LANDS.

it was reconveyed to him. Again, April 12, 1793, in consideration of 25,000 pounds, Constable conveyed to Chassanis 210,000 acres of land in the Macomb tract, lying between the south line of lot four and Black river and extending into Lewis county. This was the tract so well known in history in this part of the State as " The Chassanis tract," " The French company's land," and also as " The Castorland " It was called Chassanis tract because Peter Chassanis made the purchase and to all intents and purposes was its owner; it was called the French company's land from the fact an " Association was formed for the pur- chase and settlement of 600,000 acres of land " in New York State, sit- nate between the 43d and 44th degrees of latitude, on Lake Ontario, and " thirty-five leagues from the city of Albany, where vessels land from Europe." The company made the settlements as contemplated by the articles of association, one of their hamlets being on the lake shore, a second at the Long Falls, where is now Carthage village, and another at the High Falls (now Lyon's Falls), but the most important settlement was farther east, in what is now Lewis county, where the hamlet of "Castorland " still preserves the name of this historic so- ciety of French subjects. They, like the American colonists of a few years previous, were suffering under the restraints and oppressive measures forced upon them by an ungrateful government, and there- fore sought refuge in this new, free land.

Rodolph Tillier, whose name frequently appears in public records and documents in this county, was appointed attorney for Chassanis, and was empowered to administer and direct the affairs of the company in the Castorland; was authorized to sell and convey lands, make im- provements, and in every way to act for the interest of the settlers. His appointment was made to this position April 11, 1297, and the many titles in this county and region, which come from Tillier, were made in his representative capacity. Ile also negotiated a new con- veyance from Constable, which carried title to the middle of Black River, the agreement bearing date February 18, 1192, and in 1299 the energetic agent caused to be made a more accurate and detailed survey of the purchase. In 1800 (March 6) he also secured for his proprietor from Constable a 30,000 acre tract of land in the eastern corner of lot number four, which was afterwards sold to James Le Ray (James Donatianus Le Ray de Chaumont), one of the most extensive and en- terprising land proprietors in this part of the State, and one who con- tributed much toward settling and building up the county during the

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

period of its early history. In the event of Tillier's death it was pro- vided that Nicholas Olive should sueceed him, but on March 27, 1800, Governor Morris was in fact appointed to the position, and, November 13, 1801, constituted Richard Coxe as his attorney.

In the survey and subdivision made by Charles C. Broadhead, in 1794, a line running north from High Falls was assumed as the ear- dinal line, from which ranges were counted east and west. The sec- ond cardinal, east and west line, was laid about nine miles from the falls, with reference to which the lots were also laid out. After the second conveyance from Constable to Tillier, a survey was made of the tract by William Cockburn & Son, and the same was laid off in lots of unequal size. The lands were sold to purchasers in parcels suited to their requests, but among those who became owners on the Chassanis traet were many men of standing, influence and worth; men who bought in many cases for speculative purposes alone, while others came and lived in the region and took an earnest part in its development. However, in the course of time all the larger lots were subdivided and sold in parcels, and now few indeed are the regularly cultivated farms on the old Chassanis tract of greater size than from 250 to 400 acres.

Penet's Square, so called, was granted by the State to Peter Penet, in pursuance of the following reservation in the agreement of purchase between the Oneidas and the State: "And further, that the people of the State of New York shall, as a benevolence from the Oneidas to Peter Penet, and in return for services rendered by him to their na- tion, grant to the same Peter Penet, of the said ceded lands, lying to the northward of the Oneida Lake, a traet of land ten miles square, wherever he shall elect the same."

In pursuance of this reservation, August 8, 1:89, the surveyor-gen- eral was directed to lay off for and at the expense of Penet the tract to be selected by him. John Duncan aeted for him and selected a loca- tion in the north part of what is now this county, including the greater part of the towns of Clayton and Orleans, and a small portion of Pamelia, within its boundaries. The return of the survey was made and noted in the land office minutes, November 19, 1:89. The patent itself was made to Duncan, November 19, 1:89, in pursuance of a power of attorney from Penet, dated January 23 of that year. On July 13, 1290, for the nominal sum of five shillings, Dunean conveyed the square to James Watson and James Greenleaf, of New York; and on February 26, 1795, Watson released his half to Greenleaf, in con-

GREAT TRACT NUMBER FOUR.

sideration of £1,000. The latter, on September 4, 1996, sold the square, 64,000 acres, to Simon Desjardines, receiving therefor /19, 400. Desjardines sold the tract to Nicholas Olive on January 29, 1296, and Olive sold 44,000 acres to llerman Le Roy, William Bayard and James MeEvers in trust for certain heirs; and by a partition deed, May 17, 1802, the lands of the tract were divided among owners according to their interests On June 11, following, the proprietors released to each other, by which action the square was owned by Le Roy, Bayard A. MeEvers, 41,000 acres; John Wilkes, 12,000 acres, and Louis Le Guen, 8, 000 acres, However, by various later conveyances and occasional operation of the law, Joseph Russell and John La Farge became own- ers of nearly the whole square, the latter eventually succeeding to the Russell interests. But the tract was more, apparently, than La Farge could successfully handle, for much of the land was sold for taxes. In later years litigation grew out of land tax title controversies in Orleans, an element of local history to which reference will be found in the chapter relating to that town.

CHAPTER VIL.

Land Titles Continued-Great Tract Number Four, Macomb's Purchase- The Antwerp Company-Land Operations of Governeur Morris, Moss Kent and James Le Ray Tract Numbers Five and Six of Macomb's Purchase- The Boylston Tract- The Black River Tract-Lorraine, Ellisburgh and Worth- The Eleven Towns- Survey and Disposition of the Islands in Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River.

"Great Tract Number Four. Macomb's Purchase," which included all that part of Jefferson county lying north of the line described in the preceding chapter as dividing tracts four and five, was surveyed in 1:95 by Evert Van Allen and his assistants, and was found to contain 450,000 acres, ineluding reservations. As a part of the vast tract trans- ferred by Macomb to William Constable, the latter offered No. 4 for sale in England. As early as 1792 Sir William Pultney negotiated for the purchase of a million acres in the Black River country, offering therefor a quarter of a dollar per acre, but through some cause the sale was not effected. However, it appears that Peter Chassanis held a pre-emptive claim to a much larger tract than originally purchased by 7

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

him, therefore when Constable negotiated the sale of the tract to Charles Michael De Wolf (April 12, 1:93), he first secured the consent of Chassanis. De Wolf paid for number four 300,000 florins, equal to $125,356 U. S. money, but within a very short time he sold the tract to the Antwerp company, an organization of capitalists of the city of Antwerp, "who subscribed to the stock in shares of 1000 florins each, and who paid for the tract 680,000 florins." But the operations of the Antwerp company, like the French company on the Chassanis tract, proved unprofitable. On January 2. 1800, Governeur Morris, the com- pany's agent in New York, took conveyances for half of the tract, and on the next day the remaining portion was transferred to James Le Ray, de Chaumont, better known and commonly mentioned in this work as James Le Ray. Under his deed, Morris became possessed of 220,000 acres, paying $48,889, while the consideration expressed in the deed to Le Ray was $46,315. 12.

The division line between Morris's and Le Ray's lands, as finally fixed, began at the southeast corner of Penet's square and run "thence to the south corner of lot 512; thence to the west corner of the present town of Antwerp, and along the southwest line of that town to the south corner of lot 337, and thence to the south line of No. 4." But agent Morris appears to have been an expensive developer, for at the time of retirement from his connection with the company his expenses and commissions had absorbed 26,840 acres of the tract. On Dec. 23, 1804, he sold 49,280 acres in the present town of Antwerp to Lewis R. Morris, for 862,000, and afterwards sold to Silvenus Hoard forty one lots in the west part of the same town; in which town the Lewis R. Morris lands were also situated. The remainder of that town (except three ranges of lots on the southeast side) was bought by David Parish, in 1808.

On his retirement from the agency of the company, Morris was suc- ceeded by Moss Kent, one of the pioneers and most influential men of the town of Champion. On June 15. 1809, the unsold lands owned by the company were transferred to Kent, but his management of affairs was brief, for, June 15, 1809, James Le Ray succeeded to the position, and on September 11, 1810, he purchased from his principals (the com- pany). for 145,000 florins, all their remaining lands in America. Ac- cording to Dr. Hough, Le Ray was the owner of 126 shares of the Antwerp company's stock, while Governeur Morris owned 26 shares. Subsequently Le Ray had trouble with the company, not being able to

JAMES LE RAY'S LAND DEALS.

pay in full for the lands he had purchased, and the result was an action against him and his final recourse to the insolvency conrt, and also the transfer of his lands to his son, in trust for his creditors. This pro- ceeding was in 1824, at which time Mr. Le Ray was the owner of 30, 258 acres of land in Franklin county; 73,947 acres in St. Lawrence county; 143,500 acres in Jefferson county, and 100,000 acres in Lewis county.

Soon after he became actively interested in the lands in this region, Le Ray removed to the tract and established an office at the pretty little village of Le Raysville, named in allusion to the proprietor himself. He established mills and stores, and was indeed one of the most industrious and worthy developers in the region during its early history. He was a relative and close friend of John Juhel, one of the most extensive and wealthy merchants of New York city at that time, and through him Le Ray had access to large amounts of money, and, what was equally valuable, an almost unlimited credit. However, after the completion of the Erie canal through the central part of the state, lands in the northern region began to decline in value, as the tide of immigration and settlement set strongly toward that great highway of trade and traffic. In consequence of this, lands on tract number four were also depreciated in valne and the ultimate result was the financial disaster which impaired but did not sweep away Le Ray's fortune. The land office was maintained at Le Raysville, a part of the time under the per - sonal direction of the proprietor himself, or his attorneys, Isaac H. Bronson and Micah Sterling, but abont 1832 Le Ray returned to France. So near as can now be determined the office was removed to Carthage abont 1835, and placed in charge of Patrick Somerville Stewart, who had been in the employ of the proprietor since about 1814. Mr. Stew- art was in turn succeeded by L. J. Goodale, the last agent, but during intervening years several changes in the proprietary had been made.

Among the many hundreds of sales made by Mr. Le Ray, or his rep- resentatives, several are worthy of mention, especially those conveying title to considerable tracts of land. On October 8, 1805, Louis Augustin de Caulincourt (duc de Vincence) purchased a tract near Millen's bay containing 4,840 acres, the deed for which was made to Count Peter Francis Real, who is said to have been chief of police under Napoleon. William and Gerardus Post purchased 11,880 acres in the present towns of Wilna and Diana, for $17,000. In 1818 Count de Survillers, other- wise known as Joseph Bonaparte, made an agreement with Le Ray for the purchase of 150,000 acres of land, "to be taken in the most remote

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

and unsettled portions" of the tract, for which he agreed to pay the equivalent of $120,000. A part of this purchase was in the extreme eastern part of Wilna, near Natural Bridge, where the count began the erection of a mansion and where he lived for a time, as will be seen by reference to the history of that town. Among the other purchasers of the period may be recalled the names of Francis Depau, in Alexandria, and William H. Harrison, in trust for the Antwerp company, two ranges of lots in the town of Antwerp. Harrison was agent for the company and sold a large body of land to John La Farge (24, 230 acres), situate in Theresa, Antwerp, Alexandria and Orleans. The lands, how- ever. were subsequently acquired by Samuel Stocking and Norris M. Woodruff. In June, 1835, La Farge succeeded to the ownership of all the "Count Survillers" lands in this and Lewis county, and was also one of the most enterprising proprietors in the region. La Fargeville. in the town of Orleans, was named in his honor.

In this chapter no attempt has been made to follow the descent of land titles to the present occupants or even to all the purchasers from the original proprietors, for such action would involve the writer in a mass of records which would be almost wholly unintelligible, and resolve the work into an " abstract reference;" valuable, of course, if fully car- ried out, but hardly within the proper scope of this volume. It is well known that great tract number four inchides within its boundaries more than half of the county, in area, but not in population, and, as far as its land titles are concerned, it is almost historic territory; yet the brief allusion made to the original and the more important later changes in ownership will give the reader something of an idea of the source of titles in that part of the county.

As has been mentioned. the division line between tracts numbers five and six of the Macomb purchase was never established by survey, and so far as the disposition of that part of the lands of the county is con- cerned the lots may be treated as one. On December 18, 1292, in con- sideration of £100,000, William Constable sold the entire tract (except 25,000 acres) to Samuel Ward. On December 20, following, Ward sold to Thomas Boylston, of Boston, in consideration of £20,000, that portion of the tract beginning at the extreme southern angle of Lewis county (as now established) and " running thence to the mouth of Sal- mon river and along the lake to Black river; and thence up that stream to the north bounds of the present town of Leyden, and thence to the place of beginning " (Hough). According to the same authority, the

THE BOYLSTON TRACT

course of Black river was then supposed to be nearly direct from the lligh Falls to the lake, and the tract was also supposed to contain about 400,000 acres. It was surveyed by Cockburn & Son in 1291, and con- tained in fact 817, 155 acres.

Samuel Ward, Boylston's grantor, by his purchase from Constable became possessed of about 1, 280,000 acres of land, and while the Boyls- ton tract included more than half of it a large amount still remained and was sold in parcels to other proprietors; but as all of the lesser purchases were outside the limits of this county it is not necessary to follow their disposition in this chapter.

On May 21, 1494, Boylston conveyed by deed of trust his title to the Boylston tract to George Lee, George Irving and Thomas Latham, as assignees of Lane, Son & Fraser of London, and by the assignces the tract was conveyed to John Johnson Phyn, also of London. William Constable was appointed Phyn's attorney, and in that capacity on July 15, 1495, sold 300,000 acres of the tract to Nicholas Low, William Hen- derson, Richard Harrison and Josiah Ogden Hoffman, which purchase in later years became known as "the Black river tract, " and comprised the towns now called Hounsfield, Watertown, Rutland, Champion, Ilen- derson, Adams and Rodman, in this county, and Pinckney, Lowville, Denmark and Harrisburgh in Lewis county. The tract was at first supposed to contain 300,000 acres, but on measurement and survey fell short nearly 10,000 acres, therefore in compensation Constable con- veyed to the proprietors township number two (now Worth), excepting 918 acres in the southeast corner which he reserved for his own use. The remainder of the Boylston tract was conveyed by Phyn to Con- stable in 1796, and in the latter was contained the present town of Lor- rainc.

William Constable authorized, by power of attorney, his brother James to act in the capacity of agent and sell the lands in Europe, but investors were apparently in doubt as to the validity of the title, hence the proprietor secured written assurances from some of the most prom- iment men in the state to the effect that the titles were good, in their opinion. On March 22, 1997, Constable sold to Marvel Ellis, of Troy, the town now called Ellisburgh (except 3,000 acres in the southwest corner, which was sold March 17, 1796, to Robert Brown and Thomas Eddy) containing, according to Benjamin Wright's survey, 52, 834 acres. Ellis mortgaged the land to secure a part of the purchase money, and becoming insolvent, his interest was sold, March 1, 1801, to Daniel

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

McCormick. The latter, however, soon afterward conveyed the lands to James Constable, John McVickar and Hezekiah B. Pierrepont, as ex- ecutors of William Constable, who had died May 22, 1803. On April 26, 1819, the Constable heirs conveyed the same tracts to Hezekiah B. Pierrepont, who sold much of the land, the remainder, together with the title to Lorraine, eventually passing to William C. Pierrepont, son of Hezekiah.

In a preceding paragraph mention is made of the fact that in 1997 William Constable conveyed to Robert Brown and Thomas Eddy a 3,000-acre tract of land in the southwest corner of Ellisburgh. This parcel had no resident or active agent, therefore, in accordance with a custom of the period, squatters came in and occupied the land and made some improvements of a temporary character. From this oceu- paney the region became known as "No God." However, in June, 1804, Brown and Eddy sold half the tract to George Scriba, proprietor of a large body of land in what became Oswego county, and exchanged the other half for a farm in New Jersey. Seriba afterward sold to Will- iam Bell.

In April and May, 1796, by direction of the proprietors, Benjamin Wright made a survey of the Black river tract, divided the lands into townships and numbered them from one to eleven. From this fact the region became known as " the eleven towns." All were named, but whether by the surveyor or at the direction of the proprietary is tineer- tain. Those of the towns now in Jefferson county were called as fol- lows: No. 1, Hesoid, now Hounsfield; No. 2, Leghorn, now Watertown ; No. 3, Milan, now Rutland; No. 4, Howard, now Champion; No. 6, Henderson, now as then; No. 7, Aleppo, now Adams; No. 8, Orpheus, now Rodman. The original name for Ellisburgh was Minos, while township No. 1 of the Boylston tract was originally called Malta, later Attiens, but now Lorraine, and No. 2, Fenelon, is now called Worth.

The proprietors of the eleven towns decided the question of owner- ship by drawing, or ballot, on August 5, 1796. As the result the abso- lute title to Hounsfield, Champion, Denmark, Rodman, Harrisburgh and 1,283 acres of Worth, was given to Richard Harrison and Josiah (). lloffman. Watertown, Adams, Lowville and 1,5,6 acres of Worth were set off to Nicholas Low of New York. William Henderson's share in the division comprised Rutland, Henderson and Pinekney, with 649 acres of Worth, the latter town having been used only for compensation pusposes to "even up" any difference in value of the

THE ISLANDS.

principal tracts. In the several chapters relating to town history will be found further allusion to these tracts, and their disposition by the original proprietors. In view of this fact more extended mention at this time is deemed unnecessary.

The ownership of and jurisdiction over the islands in Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence river was for a time a question of considerable doubt, although they were intended to be included in the patent from the state to Macomb. This uncertainty in part grew out of the fact that after the close of the revolution the British still retained possession and maintained garrisons of soldiers on the United States side of the line, and the advance contingent of French pioneers were quite sur- prised to find an armed force in possession of the lands which they be- fieved were unquestionably their own. The original Macomb contract was dated June 22, 1791, but when the patent was issued the islands were excluded from the instrument; and when the matter was finally settled they were patented to other parties. The Macomb rights passed to Daniel MeCormick, who, on January 28, 1814, was recognized by the commissioners of the land office. The surveyor-general surveyed such of the islands as were clearly within the United States jurisdiction, and in case of error it was understood that the patentees of any found to be within British territory should be compensated for any loss suffered. However, McCormick sold his interests to D. A. and T. L. Ogden, which sale the land office sanctioned May 14, 1817.

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Our county and its people. A descriptive work on Jefferson County, New York, Part 6

Author: Emerson, Edgar C., ed Publication date: 1898 Publisher: [Boston] Boston History Co. Number of Pages: 1368

Author: Emerson, Edgar C., ed
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: [Boston] Boston History Co.
Number of Pages: 1368