Our county and its people; a descriptive work on Oneida county, New York;, Part 7

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 7

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In 1785 there joined the " Whitesboro Colony " Amos Wetmore and Lemuel Leavenworth, from Middletown, and possibly Nathaniel Loomis

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

and Roswell Goodrich in that same year. Mr. Wetmore had a large family and located east of Sauquoit Creek ; he had been in the Revolu- tionary war. In the spring of 1785 Mr. Dean and Mr Phelps found the waters of Wood Creek rose so high as " to drown them out " They were obliged to seek refuge in the garret of the house, on account of the rise of the water, and by means of a ladder placed on the outside descend into a boat and row to Mr. Phelps's shop to cook their meals. That would not answer their purpose, and so Mr Dean that fall obtained the consent of the Oneidas to make another selection. This time he selected a tract in what is now the town of Westmoreland, ever since known as " Dean Patent." He returned to Connecticut, and in 1786 married and came back in that year with his wife, both on horseback. In the mean time Mr. Phelps, in the spring or summer of 1785, also changed his location by moving up stream to Fort Stanwix and building a log house and shop on the banks of Wood Creek, near the site known thirty years later as " the United States Arsenal" When he came to Fort Stanwix, Mr. Phelps said there was but one other white man here (and he a Frenchman, living with the Indians). Mr. Phelps carried on his trade and business at that location for about fifteen years thereafter. July 4, 1786, a third child was born unto him; three other children were born unto him in this new home. About 1800 he moved to what is now the town of Verona and in 1802 was elected its first supervisor, and was re-elected in each year thereafter until 1808. In 1819 he re- moved to Orleans county, and died there in 1849 at the age of ninety- six years, with a mind quite clear for one of his years He was the first settler of what is now Rome, after the Revolutionary war. A grandson of his married a sister of the mother of Mr. Harvey S. Bedell, a Roman.

In 1786 a survey of Cosby Manor and a map of it were made by John R. Bleecker, son of Rutger Bleecker, one of the owners. On that map appear two log houses located near the ford across the Mohawk on the east side of Genesee street, and one house on the west side of that street. 1 Improvements had also been made a little further westward, somewhere between the present lines of Broadway and State streets ; and there were also improvements near the present castern limits of

3 Bagg's Pioneers.

1783 TO 1758-EMIGRATION WESTWARD.

Utica. The occupant of the house nearest the river, on the east side of Genesee street, was John Cunningham, his neighbor beside him being George Damuth. I Bagg's Pioneers says : "The resident on the op- posite side of Genesee street was Jacob Chrisman. The settler towards the west was McNamee, and the clearings on the eastern borders of the city were designated as those of McNamee and Abraham Boom." Moses Foot, who settled in Clinton in 1787, while on his way there, slept in the log house belonging to John Cunningham, one of these early settlers, who informed Foot that he (Cunningham) had half an acre cleared in 1785. Hendrich Salyea was another settler there in 1787. The father of Pomroy Jones, who passed through Old Fort Schuyler (Utica) in Janu- ary, 1787, to Dean Patent, says there were then three log houses at Old Fort Schuyler. The foregoing settlers around Fort Schuyler were not permanent ; they were men mostly engaged in boating, or in the Indian trade. The house above mentioned as being occupied by Jacob Chris- man, west of Genesee street, must have been occupied in March, 1788, when Whitestown was formed, by William Cunningham, for the line be- tween that town and Herkimer "crosses Mohawk River at the ford- ing place near the house of William Cunningham, leaving the same house to the west of that line ;" so that act of 1788 says.

It is not possible at this late day, and with the scanty material at hand, to locate the exact date, nor the priority of their coming to Oneida county. of those who came along in 1785, 1786, and 1787. The United States census of 1790, elsewhere published, will tell very nearly who were here on the first Monday in August, 1790. It is pretty well established that those whose names have been already given were in this vicinity as stated. It is also pretty certain that about 1786, Gen. George Doolittle came from Middletown to Whitesboro, and there located ; he was twenty-six years old, yet he had served in the Revolutionary army ; he became a prominent personage in Oneida county.

Along about 1785 there also came to Deerfield another colony of emigrants from down the valley, viz .: Peter, Nicholas, and George Weaver, George Damuth, Nicholas and Philip Harter. Nicholas Harter married a daughter of Capt. Mark Damuth. When Nicholas Harter was a lad he was perfectly familiar with all of the paths

' See note at the end of this chapter.

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

and Indian trails which led up the Mohawk, and across the country to Canada via Black River, or via Oneida Castle to Oswego. Both of the Harters and the Weavers were in the Revolutionary war, as were about all of the Mohawk Dutch. Nicholas died July 25, 1854, aged ninety- four years.

It will be borne in mind that in 1786 Cosby Manor was brought into market, and that Oriskany Patent was divided and parts sold, and many other patents had been granted ; and that Baron Steuben, Colonel Willett, George Washington, Governor Clinton, and other notable per- sonages were owners of land in Oneida county ; and hence the foregoing were inducements for settlers to locate in this part of the State. Most of those lands were about that time offered to settlers.

The next settlers in what is now Oneida county, came from Con- necticut in 1785 or 1786, and located in the shadow of Fort Stanwix. They were all related to each other by blood, or connected by mar- riage. Their names were as follows: Willett Ranney, sr., with a family of eleven children, all grown to maturity, and the most if not all mar- ried; Seth Ranney, one of the sons, with wife and children, located northeast of the present Rome court house on or near the site of the late residence of G. N. Bissell. Willett Ranney, jr., another son and his family ; also Nathaniel Gilbert and David I. Andrus, both of whom had married in the Ranney family, and had been in the war of the Revolu- tion. In January, 1787, there carne Captain Nehemiah Jones, father of Pomroy Jones, and also Ephraim Blackmer at same time from Berkshire county, Mass., and located in Oneida county. Mr. Blackmer came in advance with a horse team, bringing the families ; Mr. Jones followed with an ox team, with beds, provisions, and clothing. Mr. Blackmer had a wife and two children; Mr. Jones a wife and one child. They settled upon Dean's Patent in Westmoreland. Both had rendered service in the Revolutionary war. That same winter and in the spring of 1787, Joseph Jones and Joseph Blackmer, jr., came from Berkshire county and settled on Dean's Patent, and perhaps also William Dean, brother of James. Isaac Jones, a soldier of the Revolution, came from Berkshire county, Mass., in 1787, and for a short time located in Clin- ton in this county and then moved to Westmoreland. Joseph Jones, brother of Isaac, came to Westmoreland from Berkshire county, Mass.,

1783 TO 1788-EMIGRATION WESTWARD.

in the spring of 1787 and located near Lairdsville. In the same year there located in Kirkland, Moses Foot and family, Barnabas Pond, James Bronson, Lewis Sherman, and Solomon Hovey ; and possibly the same year Ludlim Blodgett. Timothy Tuttle, Samuel Hubbard, Randall Lewis, Cordial Storrs, John Bullens, and Captain Cassety. 1

Before Whitestown was organized as a town (March 7, 1788) there was living therein, and near Fort Stanwix, William Colbraith (or Col- breath). The year he came cannot now be stated. He was captain of a company under Peter Gansevoort, in the Sullivan expedition of 1779 against the Indians in the western part of New York. He was the first sheriff of Herkimer county in 1791, and then resided near Fort Stan- wix, as above stated. He was also first sheriff of Oneida county, in 1798. He cannot be traced further.

In the spring of 1787 Gen. Oliver Collins, with his wife and two chil- dren, came from Connecticut and settled upon the Middle Settlement road, leading from Whiteboro to Middle Settlement. While in his 'teens he enlisted in the Continental Army and rendered faithful service during the war; he was at the battle of Saratoga under General Gates. He cames from the war a sergeant.

There was another settler in what is now Oneida county prior to the time Whitestown was organized into a town, named Archibald Arm- strong. He located at the junction of Wood and Canada Creeks, in what is now the town of Rome. He was great grandfather of Jonas W. Armstrong of Rome, and of William C. and David Armstrong of Anns- ville ; he was twice married ; his first wife was a sister of Heinrich Starring. a prominent personage in the Mohawk valley in the Revolu- tion, and the first judge of Herkimer county when that county was formed in 1791. That Armstrong came originally from Pennsylvania, later from down the Hudson, and still later from the Mohawk valley. On the 26th of August, 1775, the Tryon county militia was organized into four battalions, and that Archibald Armstrong was second lieuten- ant in the 8th company of the 4th battalion, of which George Herkimer (brother of the general) was captain, and Han Yost Herkimer (another brother of General Herkimer) was colonel. This was in the German Flats and Kingsland district. On the 25th of June, 1778, new appointments were

1 Jones's Annals.

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

made, and the nine companies organized in August, 1775, were reduced to seven in about eighteen months of active war. The name of Herki- mer entirely disappeared from the rolls after the battle of Oriskany The most of the loss was sustained in this battle.

It is traditionary in the family that Archibald Armstrong served in the army during that war, down the valley. The military records at Albany show that a man by the name of Archibald Armstrong was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, in Captain Telford's company, in a regiment belonging to Orange county, under command of Col. John Hallern ; also, that a person of the same name was in Capt. Abraham Westfall's company belonging to a regiment in Dutchess county, under command of Col. Albert Pawling ; also in Capt. James McBride's com pany belonging to the 2d regiment of Ulster county, under command of Lieut-Col. Jacob Newkirk: also in Capt. Richard Baily's company of the Orange county regiment under command of Lieut .- Col. Henry Wisner, or Col. John Hathern, and that those persons were employed in actual service. 1

1 The Damooth, Demoot, Demuth, and Teymouth (or Damewood, Salg ize bfamily, as the name was variously spelled, seems to be nearly extinct in the mde Tre, Ent very few of that name can now be found in this section. They were prominent & the sales of the Mohawk in the war of the Revolution and fought bravely on the side of the co nies, an I suffered severely by reason of their activity on the side of the cause they Fall este use ] Jer Jest levmouth for Damuth) was born in 1700 and in 1757 was living at Little Fallsyanow of lan 1 there He went

to Deerfield in 1723, but was driven out in 176 and returned Jot German Pal Isson, Capt. Mark Damuth, was born in 1230, and in 153 went to Deerfiel an I was Use Iriven ont, as state 1 in a former chapter. In Itt he was captain of Rangers, was's efffir fue ffe arnt, taken prisoner October 29, 1280, at German Flats, near Fort Dayton (Herkimer) How is at thebattleof Or skany and his name is recorded in the list furnished at the Or any Certo mal Ccebrat on m 17. He returned to Deerfield in 1981. A daughter married Col V Mas Harter, an old and aged resident of Deerfield and of Utica. George Damuth is supposed to Have beena brother of Caj- tain Mark, of the Palatine District, before the Revolution, But''n EsI went to Deerfield with Mark. In 1286 he lived at "Old Fort Schuyler," and in 175 leased two hundred and seventy-three acres of land of Rutger Bleecker, one of the proprietors of Costs Manot He die l before 170, leaving a widow and a number of sons. One of the sons was a batman in the employ of John Post, a merchant, tavern keeper, and trader at Old Fort Schuyler in law another son remained with his mother on the farm of Peter Smith ; another son went to Sacke t's Harbor, George Da- muth, another son, was called "Old Vare," was a boatman, and when an infant was captured by Indians, who cut his ears and put a ring in his nose. When eighteen years old he es aped and and served in the war of the Revolution. At one time an Indian threw a kn te at him, which en- tered his body and which he bore until he reached his home After the war he hved in Deer- field ; he married a daughter of Jacob Chrisman, an early settler at l'ort Schuyler. The ate Da- vid Gray, of Marey, when a boy, remembered " Old Yare. " with His pinkel cars and the ring in his nose. George was living as late as 1832; he was buried at Herkimer. In His George Damuth was adjutant in the 9th Company, Ith Battalion of the regiment of which Han Vost Herkimer (brother of the general) was colonel. The descendants of the Damuth family are scattered ; some went to Onondaga county, some to Wisconsin, and some to Missour . The male members are

1788-TOWN OF WHITESTOWN-GREAT INDIAN TREATY.

CHAPTER VIII.

1788-TOWN OF WHITESTOWN-GREAT INDIAN TREATY.

By an act of colonial Legislature, passed March 24, 1772, Tryon county was subdivided into six " Districts"; Kingsland District was on the south side of the Mohawk River and was west of Little Falls; the German Flats District, north of the Mohawk River and west of Little Falls March 28, 1773, the names of the Kingsland and the German Flats Districts were exchanged, one for the other. April 3, 1775, the "old England District " was formed and embraced part of Herkimer county, and nearly what is now Otsego county. As before stated, April 2, 1784, the name of Tryon county was changed to that of Montgomery. By an act passed March 7, 1788, the State of New York was divided into sixteen counties, and those counties subdivided into towns, instead of " districts." as formerly. Montgomery county was subdivided into nine towns; all that part of the county and of the State lying westerly of a north and south line running across the Mo- hawk River at the fording place near the house of William Cunning - ham, at Old Fort Schuyler, leaving that house to the west of the same line, and bounded north and west by the north and west bounds of the State, and south by the State of Pennsylvania, was erected into the town of " Whitestown " The house of William Cunningham then stood near the foot of, and on the west side of, Genesee street, Utica, midway between Water and Whitesboro streets, as before noted. The town thus formed was named after Hugh White, the early pioneer, and covered an area nearly equal to half of the State, including 12,000,000 acres of land with the navigable headwaters of the Mohawk, the Delaware, the Susquehanna and Ohio Rivers, the chain of small lakes in Central and Western New York, the Genesee River and the cataract of Niagara on

nearly extinet ; quite a number are yet alive of the female line. In 1789 there was a Mr. Demuth living in a lor house, on the site of St. Peter's church, where St. Leger planted his batteries at the siege of Fort Stanwix in Iitt.

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

the American side, and the territories of five of the Six Nations, and with a frontage on the great lakes and rivers of at least four hundred miles in length. From this year may be fairly recorded the beginning of the great emigration westward.

In 1788 there was also living at "Old Fort Schuyler " Philip Morey and his three sons, Solomon, Richard and Sylvanus, all of whom were from Rhode Island, also Francis Foster. In March, 1788, there came to the same place Maj. John Bellinger, from down the valley. He was at the battle of Oriskany, and was at the side of General Herkimer when the latter was shot. In that same month and year Jedediah Sanger, who subsequently became a power in Oneida county, came from Jeffries, in New Hampshire, and located in what is now the village of New Hartford. He was then thirty three years old, with a wife and several children, but without pecuniary means, as he had recently lost his property by fire. He was born on the 29th day of February, and consequently he had a birthday only once in four years. He purchased one thousand acres of land in one body, for fifty cents an acre, which purchase included the whole of the present village of New Hartford ; subsequently he became an extensive land owner. In the year 1788 Samuel Laird came from Berkshire, Mass., and located in Lairdsville, in Westmoreland, and soon after began housekeeping in a log house. In that same year there came to that town Peletiah Rawson and John Blair; Joseph Farwell located in what is now Bridgewater, and also came to the same town Ezra Parker. It is believed that the persons whose names have been given as settlers in each year from and includ- 1784 to 1788, included all, or nearly so, who located in what is now Oneida county prior to the time Whitestown was organized in March, 1788. Not unlikely other persons squatted in the county during the above period, but were not here as permanent settlers.

Elkanah Watson, an extensive traveler in this country and abroad, and a close observer of the course of events, was in this Whitestown country in 1788 and again in 1791, and left a published journal of his observations. His views of the prospect of a canal in the near future, connecting the waters of the Mohawk River with those of Wood Creek, the fertility of the soil and the great possibilities in the near future of this part of the country are of great interest. He writes under date of September, 1788, as follows :

Jedediah Junger

1783-TOWN OF WHITESTOWN-GREAT INDIAN TREATY.

I forded the Mohawk at old Fort Schuyler [Utica] alone and both shores were alive with savages. As there was no tavern here, and but a few scattering houses, I proceeded to an old German log house on the margin of the river and interceded for something to eat. After much difficulty I pervailed upon an ill-natured German woman to spare me two ears of green corn and some salt. The road was as bad as possible, obstructed by broken bridges, logs and stumps, and my horse at every step sinking knee deep into the mud. I remained one day at Judge White's log house, the founder of the settlement, and slept in his log barn, with horses and other ani- mals. Whitesboro is a promising settlement in the heart of a fine tract of land and just in the transition from a state of nature into civilization. The settlement con- menced four years ago; log houses are already scattered in the midst of stumps, half burned logs, and girdled trees. I observed the log barns were well filled. A few years ago land might have been bought for a trifle; now lands bordering on the river have advanced to three dollars an acre. Settlers are continually pouring in from the Connecticut hive, which throws off its annual swarms of intelligent, indus- trious and enteprrising emigrants-the best qualified of any men in the world to overcome and civilize the wilderness. They already estimate three hundred brother Yankees on their muster list, and in a few years hence they will undoubtedly be able to raise a formidable barrier to oppose the intrusions of the savages. At Orisk- any I passed two hundred Indians, the remnant of that once powerful confederacy. On ascending a hill west of Oriskany, I approached the place where the intrepid General Herkimer was driven into a fatal combat in August, 1777. Just before I reached the sanguinary battlefield, I met two Germans, familiar with its incidents. They conducted me over the whole ground; they informed me, a number of the slain were never interred; in corroboration of the fact, I noticed numerous human bones strewn upon the surface of the earth. 1

Soon after leaving this consecrated spot, and alone in the woods, I was in the midst of a band of Indians, as drunk as lords; they looked like so many evil spirits broken loose from pandemonium, wild, frantic, almost naked, and frightfully painted, they yelled, whooped and danced around me in such hideous attitudes that I was seriously apprehensive they would end the farce by taking off my scalp. On my arrival at Fort Stanwix, I found the whole plain around the fort covered with Indians of various tribes, male and female. Many of the latter were fantastically dressed in their best attire, in the richest silks, fine scarlet clothes, bordered with gold fringe, a profusion of brooches, rings in their noses, their ears slit and their heads decorated with feathers. The object of this treaty is to procure a cession from the Indians of territory lying west of Fort Stanwix, extending to the Great Lakes. Contemplating the position of Fort Stanwix at the head of bateau navigation on the Mohawk, and within one mile of Wood Creek, and thence west to Oneida Lake and connecting

" On the first settlement of this section of the country, many skeletons were found yet bleach- ing and uncovered, and a number of the first settlers met and gathered all that could be found and undistinguished between friend and foe, they were interred in a common grave. The party consisted of persons from Rome, Westmoreland and Whitestown. Judge Joshua Hathaway, of Rome, was the first to move in the matter, and a number of eart loads of bones were thus col- lected and buried. Judge Hathaway and his father and six brothers were under General Stark at Bennington .- [Jones's Annals of Oneida County.

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

with Lake Ontario, I am led to think it will in time become the emporium of com- merce between Albany and the vast Western world.

It was calculated that at the time the town of Whitestown was formed it contained less than 200 inhabitants ; that included all within the State west of Genesee street, Utica. East of that street and south of the river was in the town of German Flats; north of the river in the town of Herkimer.

In the mean time serious trouble was brewing with " land grabbers," those who were trying to obtain from the Indians the lands in Central and Western New York. The State Constitution of 1777 forbade the purchase of the fee in the lands of the Indians by individuals, reserving the right to the State alone. To evade this and to come into possession of the lands, an association of individuals called the " New York Gen- esee Land Company " was organized in the winter of 1787-8, composed of some eighty or ninety persons, who were wealthy and influential. At the same time a branch company was organized in Canada. This company obtained of the Six Nations a lease for nine hundred and ninety- nine years of all their lands; this lease was to evade the consti- tutional provision as to the conveyance of the fee of the lands In March, 1788, John Taylor, of Albany, was appointed agent or superin tendent of the New York Board of Indian Commissioners, and in that month he was sent to the Indian country to counteract the unlawful proceedings of the "Lessees" He learned that the latter had sent fourteen sleigh loads of goods to the Indian country ; that one hundred and sixty families had arrived at Tioga, on their way west to settle on the Indian lands. But those families learned the State was going to oppose the " Lessees," and hence hesitated in going further. Governor Clinton issued a proclamation warning purchasers against the actions of the " Lessees," and sent messengers to all of the Six Nations, warning them also of the fraud being practiced upon them. It was a formidable organization, embracing men of wealth and political influence. Gov. George Clinton met the whole matter with energy and promptness and urged upon the Legislature the adoption of decisive measures to coun- teract the plans of the "Lessees." In March, 1788. an act was passed authorizing the governor to disregard all contracts made with the In- dians not sanctioned by the State, and to cause all persons to be arrested

1788-TOWN OF WHITESTOWN-GREAT INDIAN TREATY.

who had entered upon the Indian lands under such contracts and to be driven off by force and the buildings destroyed. Governor Clinton or- dered Samuel Clyde, the sheriff of Montgomery county, and the first one appointed after the war (which county then extended to the west bounds of the State), to disperse intruders and burn their dwellings. A military force was called out and the orders were strictly executed. One of the prominent settlers and co operators of the "Lessees " was taken to New York city in irons upon a charge of high treason. Thus baffled, the " Lessees " determined to meet the State officials at Fort Stanwix, where the treaty was to be held in September, 1788, and by lobbying prevent the treaty being made. The governor took the field in person, backed by all the official influence at his command ; yet it was difficult for him for a time to effect anything The Ist of Septem - ber, 1788, was fixed as the period of the treaty. Active preparations for it were going on through the preceding summer. In all of the In- dian villages the "Lessees " had their agents and runners or Indian traders at work. The preparations at Albany and New York, on the part of the State officials, were formidable. A sloop came up from New York with Indian goods, stores for the expedition, marquees, tents, and specie for the purchase money (which was obtained after much trouble). On board of the sloop were those who resided in New York city and many others; among them Count Monsbiers, the then French minister, and the Marchioness de Biron, his sister, who were going to attend the treaty out of curiosity. The commissioners and the retinue, goods and baggage, going up the Mohawk, started August 23, in bateaux built expressly for the occasion, and arrived at Fort Stanwix August 28. A wild and romantic scene presented itself.1 The veteran soldier, Governor Clinton, pitched his marquee and was as much the gen- eral as if he had headed a military expedition. Among his associates in the commission and his companions were Egbert Benson, afterward attorney-general of the State; General Gansevoort, defender of Fort Stanwix; William Floyd, one of the signers of the Declaration of In- dependence ; Ezra L'Hommedieu, and Rev. Samuel Kirkland, the missionary.

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Our county and its people; a descriptive work on Oneida county, New York;, Part 7

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