USA > New York > Tioga County > Our county and its people : a memorial history of Tioga County, New York > Part 24
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"19th Our troops were put in motion very early this morning after marching about one mile Genl Poor receiv'd an express from Genl Clinton informing him that the latter expect'd to be here by
*August 17, 1779.
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TOWN OF OWEGO.
10 o'clock A M in consequence of which we return'd to our old in- campment where Genl Clinton Joined us at 10 o'clock with 2000 men Including Officers boatmen &c He has 208 batteaux with provisions amunition etc after mutuil congratulations & Comply- ments the whole proceeded down the river to Owagea & incamped This evining the town of Owagea was made a bone fire of to grace our meeting Our general course from Tioga to Choconut is about N East."
The little Indian town which Colonel Dearborn designates "Owagea," has been variously spelled and pronounced by au- thorities and writers of local history. In the Indian dialect it was known as Ah-wah-gah, the authority for this statement being Mrs. Jane Whitaker, a captive white girl, who was taken to Owego with other prisoners on the journey to Unadilla after the massacre at Wyoming. According to Morgan's "League of the Iroquois," the name, in the Onondaga tongue, was " Ah-wa-ga," the "a" in the second syllable having the same sound as a in "fate." It was otherwise known and spelled as "Owegy," "Oweigy," and also as "Oswegy." On a number of the early maps of the region the name was known as "Owegy " and "Owega," while to the pio- neer settlers it was commonly pronounced "O-wa-go," and was so written in the journals of several officers in Sullivan's expedition, and also in the records of the town of Union, that being the first organized civil jurisdiction which exercised authority over the ter- ritory now called Owego. The meaning of the word " Ah-wa-ga," according to Judge Avery, a recognized leading authority on Indian history in the Susquehanna valley, is "where the valley widens," but Wilkinson's "Annals of Binghamton " interprets it as "swift river."
THE PIONEERS.
While it is possible that the Moravian missionaries may have traversed the Susquehanna valley in their labors among. the In- dians in this region, and while it is equally possible that the Jesuit fathers may also have visited the valley in their like efforts to con- vert the men of the Iroquois, there is no evidence of the presence of any white visitors to this locality previous to the enforced com- ing of an occasional captive, followed soon afterward by the aveng- ing army of General Sullivan ; and with General Clinton's com-
236
OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
mand in that memorial campaign was lieutenant James McMaster, the pioneer of the town.
Five years after the invasion of the Susquehanna valley James McMaster made a visit of exploration and investigation in this region. This was in 1784. one year after peace had been agreed upon between the contending powers, yet the late Indian allies of Great Britain had returned to the sites of their former habitations and villages, and the only white man then in all this vast region was Amos Draper, an Indian trader, whose cabin was located at Choconut, fourteen miles above the point where our adventurous pioneer decided to build up a home. According to all accounts, Amos Draper had been in the valley at least two years before McMaster came, but Draper only sought to trade and barter with the natives, exchanging notions and trinkets for furs and skins, while McMaster was the advance guard of civilized white settle- ment in a country known to him to be both fertile and productive, for he had helped to destroy the abundant crops planted by the Indians five years before. A friendship was at once estab- lished between these solitary white men, and through the influence of Draper with the Indians McMaster was permitted to come and live among them on lands selected by himself-the most desirable in all the valley-on the east side of Owego creek and north of the river. More than that, the two so ingratiated themselves into the savage favor that they secured from the natives a deed or lease to a considerable tract of land, eighteen square miles in extent. This document, which was secured in 1786, was of course void under the law which forbade all persons, except those authorized by Massachusetts, negotiating either by purchase or lease for the lands owned by the Indians, but it did have the effect, when sup- ported by the personal efforts of Draper and McMaster, to keep the Indians from the treaty with the Massachusetts proprietary until the latter consented to make a generous concession of lands to McMaster. This concession, in which Draper also profited, in- cluded a portion of the present town of Owego, and the subject. more fully treated in an earlier chapter, forms an important ele- ment of local history.
After his preliminary visit in 1784, James McMaster returned to
237
TOWN OF OWEGO.
his home in the old town of Mohawk, Montgomery county, and in April of the following year came again to Owego, accompanied by his brother, Robert MeMaster, also John Nealy, William Woods and a boy named William Taylor, but who afterward became well known in the county. This company of pioneers came down Otsego lake and the Susquebanna river, following much the same route as did Clinton's men, but unlike the soldier's theirs was a peaceful errand, and their arms were chiefly farming implements, cooking utensils, household articles and other necessaries of border pioneer life. On reaching the old Indian town of Ahwaga, Mc- Master and his companions built a pine log cabin about fifty rods above where the electric light works in Canawana now stand. This was occupied temporarily, until they planted ten acres with corn, when a larger and more substantial log house was built at the lower end of Front street, on the site now occupied by Gurdon H. Pumpelly's residence. The house stood facing the river, near its bank.
This was the first permanent white settlement in Owego, town or village, an event which antedated the creation of the county, and also of the old town of Union, by four years. After hoeing time had passed the pioneers returned to their former home on the Mohawk, but in the fall came back to Owego and gathered their crop of corn, which the Indians had permitted to grow undis- turbed.
In the spring of 1788, McMaster's family removed from the Mohawk valley to Owego, and from that time he was a permanent resident of Tioga county. As is fully narrated in a preceding chap- ter, he became the owner of the McMaster " half-township, " lying wholly within the present town of Owego, and although it cost him nothing he died poor. He sold the land in parcels, and en- cumbered it with mortgages as his necessities required, but before his death the entire tract of eighteen square miles had slipped from his grasp. However, he was an honest and generous man, public- spirited for his time, and gave of his means as occasion suggested. He was the first sheriff of the county, appointed February 17. 1791. In his later life he went to live in Candor with his daughter, Mrs. Sackett, and there he came to his death by being thrown from
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
a horse, in the year 1818. His sons were James, Jeremiah and David, and his daughters were Jane, Ellida, Catharine and Ann.
Amos Draper, the Indian trader of the Susquehanna valley, abandoned his cabin at Choconut in the spring of 1787, and came with his family to Owego ; and his was the first family to settle here. Draper, it is understood, had formerly lived at Kingston, Penna., and thence came into the valley and established a trading post at Choconut. His family removed to that place in 1786.
The Drapers, Amos and Joseph, were sons of Major Simeon Draper, one of the forty settlers of the township of Kingston under the old Connecticut claim in 1768. Joseph settled in Owego after Amos had located here. Amos died in the town May 24, 1808, of cancer, and was buried in the village grave yard. Selecta Draper, daughter of Amos, born at Owego June 19, 1788, was the first white child born in the town. In 1809 she married with Step! en Williams, Jr., of Newark Valley, and at the home of her son, L. E. Williams, in that town, she died. April 2, 1865.
William Taylor, who accompanied James McMaster to the set- tlement, was a native of this state. His father died when William was quite young, and his widow removed with her children from Albany county into the Mohawk valley and settled about ten miles above Schenectady. At the age of eight years William was bound by indenture to James McMaster. In after years Mr. Tay- lor owned a farm in Tioga, which he sold to Nathaniel Catlin in 1800, and still later removed to Candor, where he died in August, 1849.
John McQuigg was also one of the pioneers, having come to the settlement in the year 1788. According to Judge Avery, Mr. Mc- Quigg came from the Merrimac valley, in New Hampshire, and entered the valley of the Susquehanna by way of Otsego lake, following the old Indian trail to Owego. The house which he first occupied stood on the site of Camp's furnace of later days, in Front street, a short distance below the park. Pioneer McQuigg was an old revolutionary soldier, and his arrival was an important acqui- sition to the little settlement. He died in Owego in'1813. In his family were eleven children, the sons being John, Daniel, Jesse, and David.
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TOWN OF OWEGO.
The McQuigg log house was one of the best in the settlement. As described by Jesse McQuigg to Judge Avery, it contained two square rooms, and the chinks between the logs were filled with bits of wood and "mudded." A square hole was cut in the outer wall, intended to admit the light, but, lacking sash and glass, it also let in the cold. The floor was of split pine logs, smoothly hewed, and a wide hearth-stone, with a sufficiently high chimney- back, also of stone, and an opening in the roof with stick and mud chimney above, furnished a place for fire and egress for smoke. Other primitive log houses of the period were similar to that owned by John McQuigg, but were perhaps smaller in size and less sub- stantial in construction. All, however, were sufficient for the re- quirements of the occupants ; "the latch-string was always out ; welcome presided at the threshold ; peace and hope at the hearth- stone, and genuine hospitality at the board."
In the eastern part of the town, in the vicinity of Apalachin, Isaac Harris was the earliest settler. Indeed the statement has been made that pioneer Harris came to that locality as early as 1786; that he was a Quaker, and came from Providence, Rhode Island. He purchased a part of the Coxe tract, cleared and de- veloped it, and afterward lived in the town. He died about 1835. His daughter, Phebe, was the first white child born in that part of the town.
Silas and Jonathan Gaskill were also pioneers and came to the town in 1789. This family name has ever since been known in the region, the little settlement and post station about five miles northeast from Owego village having been named in allusion to Joseph Gaskill, son of Silas, who was only nine years old when the first settlement was made. Joseph located at the corners in 1822.
The pioneers of the Ferguson family in Owego were Daniel and Daniel, Jr., the elder an old patriot of the revolution, and both settlers near where Flemingville is built up, as early as 1789. Judge Avery says Daniel Ferguson first saw the Indian village of Owego during the early years of the revolution, he having been captured by the savage allies of Great Britain and detained there through the winter. The cabin in which he was held captive stood at the
240
OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
intersection of Paige with Front street, as known in later years. Its exact location the old pioneer was able to point out on his arrival at the place in 1789.
Asahel Pritchard is said to have settled on the site of Fleming- ville as early as 1790, and while this statement is disputed in cer- tain quarters, the present writer adheres to the opinion that he was among the pioneers of the locality, though at a date later than the year mentioned. It is also said, and generally believed, that pioneer Pritchard dwelt in Nichols previous to his settlement in Owego, and that still earlier he lived in the Wyoming valley. He was a native of Connecticut, born May 28, 1763, and died in Flem- ingville, September 24, 1840.
Anzi Stedman was seven years old when the Pritchard settle- ment was made as noted in the last paragraph, and came with Asahel Pritchard and his wife (who was Polly Stedman) to this county. He afterward became a pioneer of the town and a man well respected in the region. He died at Flemingville, February 21, 1854, and several of his descendants are still living in the vicinity.
In 1790, Emanuel Deuel, an old survivor of the revolution, made a settlement in the north part of the village tract. He was a use- ful man and frequently went down the river to Wilkesbarre to obtain flour and meal for the pioneers. On one occasion he was delayed beyond a reasonable time, in consequence of which his own family were in want for the necessaries of life, but at this juncture the Indian, Ka-nau-kwis, or, as known among the set- tlers, Captain Cornelius, discovered their distressed condition, and at once procured for them a good supply of venison.
Another Indian of note was Nicholas, whose cabin stood on the south bank of the river, nearly opposite the mouth of Owego creek. He was thought to be a Mohawk by some of the settlers, but probably was a Tuscarora. He had a little farm on which he raised good corn and vegetables, and also owned several head of cattle, but after the whites became more numerous in the region he left and went to Canada.
In 1791 Caleb and Simeon Nichols, father and son, both former soldiers in the American army during the revolution, came and
241
TOWN OF OWEGO.
were squatters on the Coxe traet. Caleb died in the town in 1804, and the son May 16, 1856, at the ripe old age of ninety-three years. Their settlement was in the vicinity of Apalachin. Amariah Hieks came during the same year and settled in the same neigh- borhood. Moses Ingersoll also settled in Owego in this year, and purchased a farm of five hundred acres of land. He had served in the revolution under his father, captain Peter Ingersoll.
Froni what has been stated it will be seen that settlement in Owego during the first five years of its history was indeed rapid ; and while the foregoing sketches have brought to notice the names of many of the pioneers of the town, it may be said that not more than half of the actual settlers of that brief period have been men- tioned.' In proof this statement recourse is had to the records of the town of Union, (which of course included what is now Owego), for the year 1791.
The act that erected the county also created the town of Union, and ineluded within its boundaries all the territory between Owego creek on the west and the Chenango river on the east ; the Penn- sylvania line on the south, and the south line of the military tract on the north. In July of that year the town was divided into road districts, by the commissioners of highways, and from the lists of taxable inhabitants enrolled and assigned to work on the roads, is obtained a reasonably complete roll of heads of families then in that part of the original town which is now known as Owego. The settlers residing between Owego creek and the head of the Big Island were as follows :
James McMaster. John Carmon.
Amos Mead.
Phineas Thompson. Emmanuel Dcuel.
Elias Williams.
James Barnes.
Timothy Sibley.
Benjamin Selden.
John Caster.
Daniel Ferguson.
Thomas Jordan.
Jehu Barney.
Daniel Ferguson, Jr.
Elisha Bates.
Robert MeMaster.
Reuben Harrington.
Stephen Dean.
Amos Draper.
Jacob Harrington.
Benjamin Marsh.
John McQuigg.
Jeremiah Harrington.
Stephen Aylsworth.
John Nealy.
William Bates.
Benjamin Bates.
Between the head of Big Island and the line dividing the coun- ties of Tioga and Broome, there lived these taxable inhabitants. Silas Gaskill, Matthew Hammond.
Uriah Gaskill.
Daniel Thurston.
Amariah Yates. Isaac Harris.
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
Wilder Gaskill.
Benjamin Lewis.
Thomas Tracy.
Samuel Smith.
Daniel Hilton.
Cohoon Runnals.
Charles Dodge.
Nathan Hammond.
Roswell Smith.
Jonathan Hammond.
David Hammond.
John Kelly.
Seth Jakeway.
Moses Reed.
William Roe.
John Taylor.
Levi Wheeler.
John Rowley,
James Sarner.
Samuel Atkins.
Zimri Barney.
Moses Ingersoll.
David Barney.
Richard
Reuben Holbrook.
Frances Norwood.
Jeremiah Taylor.
Gideon Thayer.
William Read.
Daniel Read.
During the period of ten years between 1790 and 1800, the pop- ulation of the town was materially increased by the arrival of new settlers, many of whom were as fully and closely identified with the development of the region as were their predecessors. Indeed, immediately after the erection of the county there seemed to be a constant incoming of settlers from New England, from Penn- sylvania, and from New Jersey, the yankees leading in point of numbers, and to them was largely due the credit of establishing and building up the first industries of the region. True, many canie whose destination was in localities further west, in the old original town of Owego, or the still more distant Chemung in the western extremity of the county ; but all were imbued with the same patriotic spirit of determination to make for themselves and their families comfortable homes and farms in the new but not wholly unknown country. However, let us turn from these sen- timents and briefly note the coming of later settlers.
Between the years 1790 and 1792 John and Abel Bills came from Columbia county and settled on the south side of the Susquehanna, and were among the first in that locality.
In 1787 Colonel Asa Camp came from New England and settled in the western part of what is now Broome county, but in 1792 removed to the Catlin farm in Owego. Eight years later (1800) he crossed to the north side of the river and made a permanent set- tlement on the site of the little village now known as Campville. Colonel Camp was a native of Rhode Island, born in 1760, and at the age of about seventeen entered the American atiny for service during the revolution. One of the important events with which he was connected during the war was the burial of Major Andre.
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TOWN OF OWEGO.
Although Colonel Camp was a person of influence and standing in the new settlement, he apparently took little part in public affairs, and the office of justice of the peace was the extent of his hold- ings. After moving across the river lie built and kept a tavern, a famous resort in the stage coaching period of the town's history. In his family were five sons and one daughter. Four of the sons settled on good farms in the vicinity of Canipville. Colonel Camp died in 1848.
Jolin Hicks Horton was a settler in 1792, and located about two miles from Apalachin, opposite Campville. The same year also witnessed the arrival of Captain Mason Wattles and Dr. Samuel Tinkhanı, both on the village site. Capt. Wattles was the first merchant of Owego, and Dr. Tinkham was one of the pioneer phy- sicians of the county.
. So far as positive record discloses, the settlers in the town in 1795 were Hugh Eldridge Fiddis and Richard Searles, both New Englanders by previous residence, although pioneer Fiddis was of Irish parentage. Hugh Fiddis, father of Hugh E. Fiddis, came to America about 1762, and at Stonington, Conn., married with Hannah Eldridge. They had two children, Hugh Eldridge and Catharine. The father died when Hugh E. was an infant, and in 1768 his widow married with Captain Thomas Parks, 4th, a pioneer of Candor. Hugh E. Fiddis married with Anna Brown, and all of their four children were born in Owego. Richard Searles came from Bedford, Mass., and settled in Nichols in 1791, and thence removed to the vicinity of Flemingville in 1795, where he built a saw mill. He died September 9, 1849.
Jeremiah and Benjamin Brown, father and son, settled in Broome county in 1790, thence came in 1796 to Owego, where the family lived a short time.
Elisha Forsyth was another of the early settlers of this town, and a pioneer on the Broome side of the line. He came from Con- necticut to Pennsylvania, and thence up the Susquehanna from Marietta to Union in a canoe. When he came to Owego he lo- cated in the Park settlement, on Owego creek. His wife was Freelove Park, daughter of Thomas Park, a pioneer in Candor, but later a resident east of the creek. The children of Elisha For-
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
syth were George, Catharine, Azor, Elisha, Experience, Gilbert and Eldridge. Mr. Forsyth was a lumberman and farmer.
In 1802 Major David Barney, an old revolutionary soldier, came from Cooperstown and settled first in Vestal, thence removed to Owego, where he built the first house on Apalachin creek.
The late Judge Avery, in his sketches of early life and settle- ment in the Susquehanna valley, has preserved to later genera- tions many interesting recollections of pioneer times. From old and now lost documents and records he prepared a list of taxable inhabitants of the town of Tioga as constituted in 1802, including within its limits the present towns of Owego, Newark Valley, Berkshire and Richford. This list we reproduce, adding only the explanation (as did Judge Avery in his original article, published in St. Nicholas in 1854) that some names which have already been mentioned are omitted from the roll ; and also that the first list comprises names of taxables residing north of the river, while those in the second list were residents on Coxe's manor, south of the Susquehanna. It is hoped and believed that every descendant of a pioneer family in Owego may find here, or otherwise men- tioned in this chapter, the name of his or her ancestor in the town. Andrews, Silas F. Armstrong, Thomas Ball, William
Brown, Joseph
Brown, Lemuel
Brown, Jeremiah
Brown, Bulah
Blackman, Lemuel
Bates, Luke
Burrill, Francis
Crane, Daniel
Cook, Ephraim
Curry, William
Carman, John,
Curtis, Robert
Casterline, Ebenezer
Dudley, William
Dean, Miel
Deeker, Simeon
Ely, Susannah
Ferrand, David S.
Freeman, John
Foster, Luther
Foster, Abijah
Ferguson, William
Ferguson, Daniel
Ferguson, Daniel, Jr.
Gardner, William
Gleazen, Daniel
Gleazen, Joseph
Gaylord, Joel
Graves, Stephen
Gaskill, Silas
Gaskill, Jonathan
Horseford, Joseph
Hedges, Jonathan
Harris, Elisha
Howe, Josialı
Herrington, Reuben
Hunt, Harry
Hale, Joseph
Ingersoll, Moses
Ide, Nathan B.
Johnson, Abram
Kingsley, Vine
Kenyon, Griffin
Laning, John
Lawrence, Abel
Lineoln, Thomas
Lindsley, James
Moore, Henry
Muzzy, Jonas
Manning, Ripley
Mack, Stephen
MeQuigg, John
Mead, Amos
Newman, Arthur
Newman, Alanson
Nealy, John
Olney, Zelotes
Pixley, David
Pritchard, Asahel
Pritchard, Calvin
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TOWN OF OWEGO.
Prine, Thomas
Roe, William
Rawson, Lyman
Rawson, Isaac
Rounseville, John
Sackett, Nathaniel
Sackett, Caleb H.
Swingle, Jacob
Smith, Eleazer
Steward, Samuel
Steward, Henry
Searles, Richard
Sparrow, Benjamin
Stoddard, Stephen
Simonds, Uriah
Stowe, William
Smith, Gilbert
Thompson, Phineas
Winship, Joseph
Wolfe, Doraster
Wolfe, Putnam
Waldo, Joseph, 2d
Williams, Solomon
Williams, Stephen
Williams, David
Wilson, Mary
Ward, Artemas
Wells, Ashbel
Whalen, Richard
Wood, Ephraim
Webster, Mason
Yates, Amariah
The taxable inhabitants living on Coxe's manor in the year 1802 were as follows :
Aldridge, Solomon
Beebe, Reuben
Barney, John
Barney, David
Bates, Stephen
Bates, Elisha
Bills, John
Bills, Joel
Barney, Benajah
Burden, Philip
Chambers, Wilhelmus
Camp, Asa
Camp, Chester
Camp, Sarah( widow)
Green, Levi
Green, John
Gaskill, Uriah
Gaskill, Wilder
Guile, John
Harvey, John
IHammond, Jonathan
Hammond, Matthew
Hemstraught, David
Hall, David Harris, Isaac
Horton, J. Hicks
Holbrook, Reuben
Lewis, Benjamin
Lewis, Venus (widow)
Miller, Tillotson
Read, Daniel
Roe, Gamaliel
Sheffield, Jonathan
Tilbury, James
Thompson, Moses
Thompson, Elijah
Thompson, Hezron
Vandemark, James
Van Gorder, Joseph
Westfall, Emanuel
Westfall, Abram
Whittemore, James
Wilcox, Daniel
Wood, Elisha
ORGANIZATION AND CIVIL HISTORY.
By virtue of an act of the legislature, passed February 16, 1791, Tioga county was erected from Montgomery. At the same time the town of Union was created, and included the entire territory between Owego creek and the Chenango river. On March 14, 1800, the town of Tioga was formed from Union, and included substantially all that now comprises Owego, Newark Valley, Berk- shire and Richford. However, on February 12, 1808, Berkshire was formed from Tioga, and comprised the present towns of Berk- shire, Newark Valley and Richford, and all were civil divisions of Broome county until March 22, 1822, when an act of the legislature re-annexed them to Tioga county.
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
Again, on March 26, 1813, the legislature passed "An Act to divide the State into Counties," and on April 12, following, passed another act, entitled "An Act for dividing the Counties of this State into Towns," both of which were for the express purpose of correcting the irregularities of previous acts and to plainly define and establish both county and town lines. At that time Owego was the most important village in the region, and was located wholly within the town of Tioga, in Broome county. Adjoining on the west was the town of Owego, in Tioga county, and by rea- son of the confusion of names that frequently arose it was thought desirable to simply transpose them, which was done by the act, and Tioga of former years took the name of Owego, while the old original town of Owego thenceforth became Tioga, subject of course to subsequent reduction of the territory through the form- ation of new towns.
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