Our county and its people; a descriptive work on Oneida county, New York;, Part 10

Author: Wager, Daniel Elbridge, 1823-1896
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: [Boston] : The Boston history co.
Number of Pages: 1612

USA > New York > Oneida County > Our county and its people; a descriptive work on Oneida county, New York; > Part 10

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

On the Ist of April, 1800, an act was passed incorporating "the Seneca Road Company," who were to build a road to start from the tavern of John House in the village of Utica, and run through to the court house at Canandaigua. John House kept a tavern at the foot of Genesee street. The incorporators were Col. Benjamin Walker, Jede- diah Sanger, Charles Williamson, Israel Chapin, and such others as chose to be associated with them ; the turnpike to observe as nearly the line of the State road as the nature of the ground would permit. The capital stock was to consist of 2,200 shares of $50 each ($110,000). Toll gates were required to be erected at a distance of not less than ten miles from each other. The rates of toll were as follows: At each gate for every wagon with two horses, not more than 1212 cents, and not more than three cents for every additional horse used in any wagon, cart or carriage ; for every one horse cart, six cents; for every coach, four wheeled pleasure carriage or pleasure wagon with two horses, 25 cents, and three cents for every additional horse ; for every chair or pleasure carriage with one horse, 121/2 cents, and for every additional horse, six cents; for every cart drawn by two oxen, eight cents, and for every additional yoke, three cents ; for every saddle or led horse, four cents ; for every sled traveling the above road from December 15 to March 15 in each year, one half of the tolls above demanded for car- riages ; for every score of cattle, six cents ; for every score of sheep or hogs, three cents and so in proportion ; provided those who use wagons or other carriages the wheels of which shall exceed the width of nine

1789 TO 1792.

inches shall not pay above two thirds of above rates. Those going on Sundays to and from public worship, going to their common labor on their farmns with their cattle or teams, or returning ; or to mill for family purposes, etc., or going or returning from funerals went free. The Mohawk Turnpike and Bridge Company, between Albany and Utica, was then in running order. This Seneca road was pushed ahead rap- idly and it gave new life to Utica, while it produced an opposite effect upon Rome, its then rival. Thereafter the route west was by the Mo- hawk to Fort Stanwix, then over the portage to Wood Creek and down that stream to Oneida Lake and so on to Lake Ontario, or across the country west from Oneida Lake. The Seneca Turnpike shortened the distance to the Genesee country and opened a new and more expe- ditious mode of travel and attracted settlers along that route. Thirty years ago Thomas Walker informed the author that the opening of the Seneca Turnpike, and the refusal of Dominick Lynch. of Rome, to sell his land by absolute deed and his determination to give only leases, induced Mr. Walker to remove his newspaper, the Columbian Gazette, to Utica, and also influenced other settlers in the same direction; those two points gave Utica the start and Rome a set back.

The first mail to Utica was conveyed in 1793 by Simeon Pool, under an arrangement with the post-office department authorizing the trans- portation of mail from Whitestown to Canajoharie, a distance of fifty miles, the inhabitants along the route paying the expenses. The post- rider was allowed twenty-eight hours to make the trip, and the same to return. This contract passed into the hands of Jason Parker and he for a time carried the mail on horseback, his wife sometimes taking his place. At that time there was no post-office at Utica ; the nearest was at Whitestown, where Dr. Elizur Moseley was the first postmaster. A letter to the post-office department as to when the post-office was estab- lished at Whitestown, brought back the reply that a fire had destroyed the earlier records, but that it appears from the records that Elizur Moseley was postmaster in 1795 and continued such until 1825, when he was succeeded by William G. Tracy. Mr. Moseley had been longer in that service at that time than any other postmaster in the United States. On the 3ist of March, 1801, the Oneida Turnpike Road Com- pany was incorporated by the Legislature, with the purpose of construct-

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

ing a turnpike from the " dwelling house of Jonathan Dean, in the town of Augusta," through the Oneida and Stockbridge Reservations to the " dwelling house of John Lincklaen in the village of Cazenovia." An- other early road which was laid out about 1806 from Rome to Lake On- tario. On April 18, 1815, this highway and the one from Fish Creek to Rome and thence " to the village of Rotterdam " (now Constantia), were named in an act providing for taxation for their improvement. Benjamin Wright was appointed to assess the tax.

By an act passed March 31, 1804, Jason Parker and Levi Stephens were given the exclusive right of running stage wagons from Utica to Canandaigua, under certain restrictions, for seven years from June 1, 1804. Two trips were to be made each week ; no more than five cents per mile could be charged each passenger, and no more than seven full grown persons to be taken at once in the stage, without the consent of all on board. Between June I and October 1, the trip was to be made in forty-eight hours.

The mail leaves Whitestown every Monday and Thursday at 2 P. M., and proceeds to Old Fort Schuyler the same evening; next morning starts at 4 o'clock and arrives in Canajoharie in the evening, exchanges passengers with the Albany and Coopers- town stages, and the next day returns to Old Fort Schuyler. Fare for passengers four cents per mile, fourteen pounds of baggage gratis ; one hundred and fifty pounds weight rated the same as a passenger.

Mr. Parker without doubt found his business meager in profits, for he petitioned the Legislature for aid (in association with other proprietors) in January, 1797. He was joined not long afterward by Moses Beal, and in 1802 they advertised that " a stage for the conveyance of the mail, and those who wish to travel by stage, will start from Utica to Onondaga twice a week." Other stage lines were put in operation, in many of which Mr. Parker was interested. Other prominent Oneida county men who were conspicuous in early transportation business were T. S. Faxton, S. D. Childs, John Butterfield, Joshua Ostrom, Baker & Swan, J. Wetmore & Co., Powell & Parker, and others, the headquarters of most of them being in Utica. As travel increased and more capital was available for investment, stage lines were extended in length, and in 1811 we find Powell?& Parker, Baker & Co., Parker & Powell, Hos- mer & Co., and Landon & Co., announcing a line from Albany to Ni- agara Falls. Their advertisement is quaint and indicates the existing opposition of different proprietors :

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ONEIDA COUNTY,

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SHOWING ORIGINAL PATENTS, GRANTS , &c. FROM SURVEYOR GENERAL'S MAP 1829.

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631.595

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3000011

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Patent 1136- 60004,

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COLONIAL LAND PATENTS.

N. B .- The public will observe that this is the only line which reaches the Falls and that the stages of the speculative oppositionists who impose on travelers by assuring them that their stages extend to Canandaigua or Niagara Falls go no farther than Utica; but that the present line of stages will afford them a safe and direct passage either to Utica, Canandaigua, Buffalo, or the Falls, without subjecting the passengers to the trouble of applying to another stage for conveyance. Fare from Albany to Utica, $5.50; from Utica to Geneva $5; Utica to Canandaigua, $5.75; from Canandaigua to Buffalo, six cents per mile.

In the fall of 1816 Parker and his associates were running stages three times a week between Albany and Canandaigua, by way of Auburn, Skaneateles, Onondaga, Manlius, Cazenovia, Madison, and Cherry Val- ley ; the trip was made in two days.

CHAPTER X.

COLONIAL LAND PATENTS.

In this connection, a sketch of land patents in this county, may not be out of place.

It is a fundamental principle in the English law, and has been from time immemorial, that the sovereign is the original proprietor of all the land in the realm, as well as of that in all of the colonial dependencies, and the true and only source of title. All titles to land in the colonies passed to individuals from the crown, through the colonial or proprie- tary authorities. Notwithstanding this fundamental English principle, that government conceded to the Indians certain rights in the soil, at least those of occupancy. which it was at least politic to extinguish be- fore granting patents to individuals. In the early history of the colony it was the practice to issue instructions to the colonial governor to grant lands, with the consent of the council, " reserving moderate quit-rents, as he saw fit, and to have the patents recorded in the colonial office of the secretary of the colony." But it was not until after the appoint- ment of Governor Fletcher in 1692, and the rascality practiced in his five years of mal-administration, that attention was called to the loose- ness of those instructions and the power that the governor possessed in

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

the matter. During his governorship he made a fortune of forty thou - sand pounds and granted away to a few individuals three-fourths of the lands in the colony. By his corrupt recklessness he came near ruining the colony by granting lands without reserving proper quit rents, there- by depriving his government of an immense revenue and nearly driving the Indians to the side of the French by reason of taking their lands without treaty, purchase, or pay. He granted to a minister of Albany a tract seventy six miles in length and twelve in breadth (about 620,000 acres) extending through what is now Washington county into Ver- mont, reserving as quit-rent only one raccoon skin yearly. Another tract was granted to the same minister and another person of fifty miles in length and two in breadth on the northeast side of the Mohawk, con - taining about 130,000 acres, which included three of the Mohawk In- dian castles, and reserving as quit-rents one beaver skin yearly for the first seven years and eight beaver skins yearly thereafter ; some authors say this grant extended from Amsterdam to Herkimer ; others from Fonda to Frankfort. Another patent on the east side of the Hudson River was granted, four by twenty-nine miles in extent, containing from 500,000 to 600,000 acres, reserving yearly as quit rent one otter skin. Many other patents of like import were issued, and the colonial Legisla- ture of 1698 annulled them ; but as such annullment had to be approved by the home government, a long and bitter controversy was carried on for years, finally resulting in their annullment, the issuing of more stringent instructions to the governors, and the adoption by the colonial council of more rigid measures. It, therefore, became the rule and the practice that patents should issue for only 2,000 acres (later for 1,000 acres) to one person. This was evaded by including just as many persons in the patent as there were subdivisions of 2,000 (or 1,000) acres. These persons were always the friends or the tools of the real party in interest, and when the patent was issued it was transferred by them to the interested party. The rule and practice were established to require the would-be purchaser to apply in the first instance to the colonial authorities for leave to purchase the Indian title. If leave was granted a treaty was held with the Indians, an Indian deed obtained, frequently for a trifling consideration, and then the colonial authorities issued a warrant to the surveyor-general to survey the land claimed to

COLONIAL LAND PATENTS.

have been purchased. Here again the Indians were often cheated as to the quantity of land they alleged they had sold. A map of the land was made, accompanied by field notes, and both filed. The attorney - general was then directed to prepare a patent, which was submitted to the governor and council and if approved, was engrossed upon parch- ment, sealed and recorded, and sent to England to be approved and ex- ecuted by the sovereign authorities.

Under this system grossly fraudulent practices prevailed, and some who were high in colonial authority were deeply engaged in defrauding the Indians of their lands and the government of quit-rents. It was custom . ary to reserve in the patents all gold and silver mines, a certain sum for quit-rents payable annually, and in some cases large trees for masts for the navy. In some cases the patent was granted direct by the sover- eign, as in the cases of the " Royal Grant" to Sir William Johnson in 1769, of 66,000 acres, he having first extinguished the Indian title. From and including 1705 to 1773 the government granted within what is now Oneida county, seven land patents, and two others partly in this county and partly in Herkimer, of over 170,000 acres. The patents which were wholly or partly in what is now Oneida county, issued be- fore the Revolution, were as follows :

Oriskany Patent .- The first patent of lands in what is now Oneida county, and the second one in the State west of Albany, was issued April 18, 1705; it included over 32,000 acres in two parcels. The boundaries of one parcel commenced at the junction or Oriskany Creek with the Mohawk and ran up that creek a distance of four English miles, and back into the woods a distance of two miles on each side of the stream. The other parcel was on both sides of the Mo- hawk River, commencing at Oriskany Creek and running up the river a distance of two miles on each side to the Oneida Carry- ing Place (now Rome and formerly Fort Stanwix); thence of the same width on each side of the " Indian path " which leads over that carrying place between Mohawk River and Wood Creek to a swamp then located at what is now known as West Rome. The patentees were five in number, viz .: Peter Schuyler, George Clarke, Thomas Wenham, Peter Fauconnier, and Robert Mompeson, to each one- fifth. The patent required the annual payment of ten shillings as quit- rents,

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

to be paid on each Lady Day to the receiver of customs in the city of New York. All gold and silver mines were reserved to the govern- ment. Why such easy terms were obtained for so great a tract of land will be more apparent later on when the names and official positions of the patentees appear The patent is in what are now the towns of Floyd, Marcy, Rome, Westmoreland, and Whitestown. The respective patentees parted with their undivided interests by deed, will or inheri- tance, but the patent was never sold as a whole, nor divided, from the time it was granted in 1705 until after the Revolution, a period of eighty years.

Peter Schuyler, one of the patentees, was the first mayor of Albany in 1686, a member of the colonial council from 1692 to 1720, and in 1709, while president of the council, was acting governor of New York. In 1691 he was made commissioner of Indian affairs and held the office many years. In 1710 he went to England, taking with him several Iroquois chiefs to show Queen Anne what strong allies she had on this continent. The queen presented Mr. Schuyler with a silver vase as a token of her regard. He was great uncle of Philip Schuyler, of Revo- lutionary fame. The Schuyler and Livingston families were connected by marriage, and at the time of the Revolution William Livingston, the war governor of New Jersey, and his sister, Alida Hoffman, were the owner of Peter Schuyler's one-fifth share of the patent.

George Clarke came to this country in 1762, and landed in Virginia. His wife was Anne Hyde, a relative of the royal family of England and a cousin of Lord Cornbury, who was appointed that same year by his cousin, Queen Anne, governor of New York. In 1703 Mr. Clarke was appointed secretary of the province of New York, and held the position until 1736. Two years after his appointment as secretary his Oriskany patent was obained. In 1736 Clarke became acting governor and con- tinued as such until 1843. His son George was made secretary of the colony in 1738 and acted as such until 1778, excepting two years. In 1745 Governor Clarke went to England, having accumulated a fortune of over 100,000 pounds. On his way home he was captured by French cruisers, but was afterwards released and received indemnity for his capture from the English government. His wife died in New York city and was buried in Trinity churchyard. He died in England in 1759,

COLONIAL LAND PATENTS.

at the age of eighty-four years, and is buried at Cheshire. He left two sons, Maj. Edward Clarke and George Clarke, jr. By his will Governor Clarke devised his interest in the Oriskany Patent to his son George, who, at the breaking out of the American Revolution, went to England. By the will of the latter, made in 1776, he devised his interest in the patent to his two grandnephews, George and Edward Clarke, grandsons of Gov. George Clarke's son, Maj. Edward Clarke. Soon after 1776 George Clarke, jr. (the secretary in 1738), died unmarried. Maj. Edward Clarke (Governor Clarke's son) died before the death of George, jr .; Edward Clarke, one of the devisees of George Clarke, jr., left one son, George Hyde Clarke, grandfather of that George Clarke who was latterly so well known in Otsego county and Oneida county, and who died at Richfield Springs a few years ago ; he was the last George Clarke who owned an interest in the Oriskany Patent. Those two grandnephews of George Clarke, jr., devisees of part of the Oriskany Patent, resided in England and were minors during the Revolutionary war, and their property in this country was saved to them through the treaty between the two govern- ments covering cases where the owners had remained abroad and taken no part in the war. George Hyde Clarke left one son, named George, who was father of the George Clarke who died at Richfield Springs, as above stated. In December, 1791, Edward Clarke, the grandnephew of George Clarke, jr., and the father of George Hyde Clarke, released his interest in the Oriskany Patent, or placed it in trust for his benefit, to the said George Hyde Clarke, grandfather of the George Clarke who died at Richfield Springs. George Clarke, father of the last above named, came to New York in 1789, but returned to England ; came over again in 1797, went back to England, and again came over in 1807 and remained. In 1835 he erected the imposing Clarke mansion, "Hyde Hall," at the head of Otsego Lake. He had a large estate in England as well as in this country. He willed his in- terest in New York lands to his son George before mentioned. The father was twice married ; by his first wife he had five children, and by his second wife (relict of Richard Fennimore Cooper, eldest brother of the novelist) he also had five children, George, above named, and a daughter, widow of Duncan C. Pell; the others died minors. That an idea of Governor Clarke's wealth may be gained it may be stated that

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

at his death in 1759 he owned in this country, in addition to his riches in England, the following lands: One-ninth of Nine Partners Patent of 40,000 acres in Dutchess county ; one-half of the Corry Patent of 25,000 acres in Schoharie and Montgomery counties; one-half of the Oot- houdt Patent of 13,000 acres in Otsego county ; one-third of four other tracts in Otsego and Delaware counties ; one-half of Cherry Valley Patent of 7,000 acres ; one-quarter owner of a patent in Greene county, near Catskill ; and owner of lands in Vermont and in what are now Fulton and Washington counties, making in all over 60,000 acres. The share and interest of the Clarkes in the Oriskany Patent remained in that family until 1887, a period of over 180 years, when it passed from George Clarke into other hands.

Thomas Wenham, another patentee of the Oriskany Patent, was in 1705 a merchant in New York city, colonel of the king's troops at Fort George, receiver of customs in 1702, and associate judge of the Supreme Court. He died in 1709, childless, and his property descended to his two sisters ; one of the sisters married a Mr. Smith and their only child was Rev. George Wenham Smith, who inherited not only his mother's property, but that of his mother's sister, both of whom died intestate. After the Revolution, Rev. George Wenham Smith sold his interest in the patent (the one-fifth of Thomas Wenham, the patentee) to Gov. George Clinton, who in 1786 owned that interest.

Peter Fauconnier, another patentee, was receiver of customs from 1702 to 1707, and held other positions His interest in the patent passed to James De Lancy, lieutenant governor of the colony in 1753- 4 and 1757-60. His was among the proudest and most influential fam- ilies of New York. On his death his son James succeeded to the es- tate and held one-fifth interest in the Oriskany Patent at the time of the Revolution ; as he adhered to the crown his property was confiscated by the State of New York He went to England in May. 1775, and died there in 1800, aged about sixty- eight years.

Roger Mompeson, before his coming to this country in 1703, was twice member of parliament and once recorder of Southampton. In 1703 he was in this country and appointed judge of admiralty, and in 1704 was chief justice of New York and New Jersey ; in 1705 (when he became one of the patentees) he was member of the council, and in

COLONIAL LAND PATENTS.

1784 was chief justice of Pennsylvania. He remained chief justice of New Jersey until 1710, and of New York until his death in 1715. He is described by Governor Hunter as a lawyer of ability and a good judge. By Judge Mompeson's will, made in 1712, but not filed in the surrogate's office until 1741, he devised to his wife Martha, his one- fifth interest in the Oriskany Patent. She conveyed her interest there- in in 1734 to John Chambers, after whom Chambers street in New York city was named. She died childless in 1763, after having been twice married succeeding the death of Judge Mompeson. In 1735 John Chambers conveyed to Gov. George Clarke one- half of Chambers's in- terest in the Oriskany Patent, and willed the other one-half to his three relatives, James, Frederick and Augustus Van Cortland. James willed his interest to Augustus and died, and Frederick made the same dis - position of his property, so that Augustus Van Cortland owned one- half of one fifth (or one-tenth) of the patent. George Clarke and Augustus made a division between themselves, in which the ground whereon now stands the Oriskany monument fell to Van Cortland. The boundary line is only a few rods from the monument. It was before Judge Mompeson and a jury that the celebrated trial took place, in 1707, of Rev. Francis Mackenzie, a Presbyterian clergyman, for preach- ing without having a license from the Bishop of London. He was acquitted.

The foregoing facts as to the genealogy of the Clarke family, and the connecting links in the chain of title of the Oriskany Patent, the writer obtained from the lips of George Clarke in 1890, not long before the death of the latter at Richfield Springs.

In 1779 the Legislature of New York passed a law confiscating the property of fifty nine persons, three of whom were married women. Among the number was James De Lancy, the owner of one fifth of the Oriskany Patent. Commissioners were appointed to partition confis- cated property, and in 1786 the Oriskany Patent was divided into allot- ments and lots and divided among the five owners. The part which fell to De Lancy was set off to the State. To pay the expenses of the par- tition, a parcel of 697 acres was surveyed, which included Fort Stanwix and the " carrying place." now covered by the business portion of the city of Rome ; that parcel was sold at auction in March, 1786, and was

100

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

bid off by Dominick Lynch for 2,250 pounds. It formed the nucleus of Mr. Lynch's later purchases, which he designed for a city site to be called " Lynchville".

Cosby's Manor .- After the issuing of Oriskany Patent nearly thirty years elapsed before another patent was granted for land in what is now Oneida county. The next patent granted was Cosby's Manor, the is- suing of which was thus brought about : In 1725 Nicholas Ecker and other German associates of his obtained a license from Governor Burnet, of New York, to treat with, and buy lands from, the Indians on both sides of the Mohawk west of Little Falls. Ecker and his associates ob- tained a deed of the Indians of two parcels covering what later became Cosby's Manor. Nothing was done under these deeds for nine years thereafter, and not until William Cosby became governor of New York colony in 1732. He landed in New York city April 1 of that year, and in August thereafter assumed the duties of governor. He had married a daughter of Lord Halifax against her father's will, as she was much superior to Cosby in social rank. This marriage gave Cosby an ad- vantage at court and procured for him positions which he otherwise could not have obtained. He came to New York with a bad reputation for ability and honesty. Soon after he became governor he was in- volved in violent controversies with other branches of the government and incurred the bitter hatred of many of those whom he came to gov- ern. His administration was among the most stormy and turbulent of his times. It was at his instigation that Zenger, the publisher of the second newspaper issued in New York, was prosecuted for libels on the governor and tried in 1735. Chief Justice De Lancy, who presided at the trials, was a devoted friend of Cosby and he overruled all of the objections that William Smith, sen., counsel for Zenger, raised on the trial, and finally debarred Smith from practicing at the bar. Zenger was thus left without counsel, as no New York lawyer dared to under- take his defence. In this emergency he and his few friends secured the services of Andrew Hamilton, an eminent member of the bar of Phila - delphia. Hamilton was then eighty years old ; he came on to the de- fence and after a bitter contest Zenger was acquitted by the jury, in spite of the hostility of the chief justice. Hamilton's eloquent and suc- cessful defence of Zenger has passed into history as one of the great

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Our county and its people; a descriptive work on Oneida county, New York;, Part 10

Author: Wager, Daniel Elbridge, 1823-1896 Publication date: 1896 Publisher: [Boston] : The Boston history co. Number of Pages: 1612

Author: Wager, Daniel Elbridge, 1823-1896
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: [Boston] : The Boston history co.
Number of Pages: 1612