USA > New York > Cortland County > Pioneer history; or, Cortland County and the border wars of New York, from the earliest period to the present time > Part 6
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INTERESTING INCIDENTS.
door, and seating himself on the bed, quietly awaited the approach of day.
Just as the sunbeams began to illuminate the orient sky, he ordered his horse, though the house was sur- rounded with savages, and was soon on his way for Albany. A swarthy old Indian pursued him to the very outskirts of the place. As often as the red skin pressed too closely upon Col. Harper, his speed was immediately checked by the appearance of an ill-looking pistol, which was aimed at his breast.
Arriving at Albany, he held a conference with Col. Gansevoort, which resulted in accordance with his wishes. A squadron of horse was placed under his direction. They immediately set out for Schoharie, reaching there quite early in the morning. The citizens were not aware of Col. Harper's movements, and were greatly surprised, on hearing the yells and shrieks of the enemy, to behold him with his troops making terri- ble havoc in their ranks. A very patriotic and success- ful sally was made from the fort, and the consequences were so alarmingly disastrous to the enemy, that they made a hasty retreat from the country.
CHAPTER VII.
THE REVOLUTION-ITS EFFECTS UPON EMIGRATION- SETTLEMENTS-INCIDENTS-THE THREE POINTS FROM WHICH EMIGRANTS PENETRATED CENTRAL NEW YORK.
" I'll note 'em in my book of memory."
THE Revolutionary curtain first rose upon the memo- rable soil of Lexington, and fell, in the closing scene of that eventful struggle for freedom in which the infant colonies were engaged, on the blood-drenched plains of Yorktown. Great Britain, in her endeavors to maintain and extend her supremacy over the primitive soil of the New World, was waging a war of oppression against the freemen of America, who were kindling fires that were to light them as they hewed their way through the embattled forces of his royal highness King George III. The Revolutionary war was emphatically a strug- gle between liberty and oppression. On the east side of the broad waters that separated the two continents, sat the crowned monarch, arrayed in royal splendor, devising plans for the subjugation or annihilation of the chivalrous spirits who were endeavoring to shake off the chains and manacles of the oppressor. The col-
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SETTLEMENTS.
onists warred for their liberties, their rights, and free institutions ; and while the hostile banners of victorious generals were approaching the surf-beaten shore of "this land of the oppressed," and foreign armies were seen marching upon Columbia's soil, they were rallying to the field of slaughter with gleaming swords and glis- tening bayonets, ready to strike for liberty in freedom's holy cause. During this struggle, a period extending from 1775 to 1783, the spirit of emigration was greatly impeded. But after the stormy cloud of war had passed away, and the tempest of revolution had ceased to give alarm or threaten with danger, and when the contending elements were no longer agitated, and the incendiary's torch, which not unfrequently was applied by marauding parties to the cottagers' homes, had been extinguished, the sturdy and industrious pioneers again began to penetrate beyond the confines civilization.
John Doolittle, originally from Connecticut, was the first explorer of the Oquago valley, having made a per- manent settlement near the present valley of Windsor, early in 1785. At this time the Indians were living near the spot where he erected his cabin.
During the same year James M'Master, made a loca- tion on the rich flats which border the classic Susque- hanna, and the little hamlet which soon after sprung up as if by magic influence, has finally become the beautiful and enterprising village of Owego.
Capt. Joseph Leonard was the pioneer of Broome valley, having located in the vicinity of Binghamton in 1787.
In 1789, Peter Hinepaw, Jacob Yaple, and Isaac Du- mond located on the Ithaca Flats. They were employed
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SETTLEMENTS.
nineteen days in transporting their goods from Owego, a distance of twenty-nine miles.
Col. John Hendy was the pioneer at Elmira. He erected the first log cabin in 1788, having previously made a location at Tioga Point. His daughter, Rebecca, who subsequently became the wife of Mr. Culp, was the first white child that ever sat on the banks of the Che- mung river. A few years since we shook the withered and fleshless hand of the old lady, then trembling on the verge of four score years. She was a woman of remarkable mind and memory. But she has passed the portals of death, and her sainted spirit is at rest. Col. Hendy was a veteran soldier of the Revolution, and became acquainted with the soil upon which he located while serving under Gen. Sullivan in his successful He possessed great campaign against the Indians.
moral courage as well as physical strength. In his conflicts with the Indians, he proved a more than equal opponent, not only in originating schemes of artifice, but in carrying his plans into successful operation. And here permit us to relate a single incident.
An Indian who had offered an unpardonable insult to Mrs. Hendy, had been turned from the Colonel's house, with orders never to cross his path under the most severe penalties. A few weeks after, however, the old offender, thirsting for revenge upon his more worthy rival in all the general characteristics that constitute the man of moral and intellectual worth, had taken a secret position by the side of an Indian trail which ran nearly parallel with one of the little tributaries of the Chemung, and along which he expected Mr. Hendy would pass at a certain hour of the day. Reaching the 5*
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SETTLEMENTS.
secluded spot where his foe was crouched by the side of a huge old oak, he was suddenly surprised by the swarthy savage, who was making rapid strides towards. him, brandishing his tomahawk and scalping knife, and uttering the most hideous yells. Col. Hendy was un- armed, having nothing with which to defend himself save a walking cane, which was immediately hurled with great force at the Indian, and which, quite unex- pectedly to his copper-colored highness, made a most lasting impression on a very prominent organ of his face, from which the blood spirted as he measured his length upon the ground. In an instant Col. Hendy was by the side of his, for the moment, powerless assailant, and having seized his weapons, bade him in the most au- thoritative tone to lie still. But the savage determined on one more effort to disarm and subdue his rival con- queror. Quick as thought he sprang to his feet and grappled the Colonel, but was again brought in contact with the ground, and securely bound, certainly to his great displeasure. With his hands pinioned behind him, he was marched off to an Indian settlement and deliv- ered to the Sachem of the tribe to which he belonged, and from which, after being appropriately dealt with, he was banished from the country. But to return.
Hon. Hugh White made the first location at Whites- town, within four miles of Utica, in 1784. Mr. White was one of the joint proprietors of the Sadquada Patent. The surrounding country was then a perfect wilderness, he having been the first pioneer who had ventured to trespass in that quarter beyond the footprints of civil- ization.
Ephraim Webster, a native of New Hampshire, was
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SETTLEMENTS.
the first white settler in Onondaga county. He located in 1786, and soon after was married to an Indian lady.
In 1793, Col. John L. Hardenburgh erected a log cabin on the present site of the city of Auburn, and up to 1800 the place was known by the name of Harden- burgh's Corners.
In 1789, a ferry across Cayuga lake was established by James Bennet and John Harris.
The Phelps and Gorham purchase of 2,600,000 acres of land for the sum of $100,000 was made in 1787. The next year, Mr. Phelps left his home in Massachusetts for the purpose of exploring this hitherto unexplored region .* On taking leave of his family and friends, they were found unable to suppress their sobs and tears, for they had but little expectation of meeting him again. The vast wilderness comprised in this Patent was infested with various Indian tribes, whose war tri- umphs had signalized them for deeds of cruelty and blood. At or near the present village of Canandaigua, he convened the Sachems of the Six Nations, and for a nominal sum extinguished their title to his land. The territory embraced in this purchase comprised the coun- ties of Ontario, Yates, Steuben, Genesee, Alleghany, Ni- agara, Chatauque, Monroe, Livingston, Erie, the western half of Wayne, and a portion of Orleans.
In 1789 Canandaigua received its first white inhabi- tant, Mr. Phelps having erected a small log building, in which he opened a land office,-the first of the kind in America.
" Mr. Phelps may be considered the Cecrops of the
" General Sullivan and his army had passed through a portion of this tract in 1779, and gave glowing accounts of its fertility.
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SETTLEMENTS.
Genesee country. Its inhabitants owe a mausoleum to his memory, in gratitude for his having pioneered for them the wilderness of this CANAAN of the WEST."
Kanadesaga (now Geneva) was first settled in 1787. In 1798 the State Road, leading from Utica by way of Cayuga Ferry and Canandaigua to the Genesee River at Avon, was completed. The first stage coach passed over this road in 1779, reaching Avon on the afternoon of the third day. After the completion of this road, Geneva improved more rapidly. Still another great im- pulse favoring western emigration, is attributable to the construction of the Ithaca and Owego, and Ithaca and Geneva turnpikes, the former of which was completed in 1808, and the latter in 1811.
In 1799 and 1800, the Cayuga Bridge was built by the Manhattan company, at an expense of $150,000. Five years previous to the undertaking of this laudable enterprise, the surrounding country was a gloomy for- est, inhabited only by Indians. The present bridge was constructed at an outlay of about $15,000.
In 1797 Albany was made the Capital of the State, and in 1809-10 the public buildings were erected ; the State House was first used by the legislature in 1811.
In 1792 Capt. Williamson, the great land Mogul of his day, settled at Bath. In 1794 he accepted the agency of the Pultney estate, and soon after erected the Geneva Hotel.
Rochester received its first white inhabitant in 1808. The Wadsworths located at Big Tree in 1790. This fa- mous council tree is still standing near Geneseo.
The Holland Land Company purchased their immense tract of Land west of the Genesee in 1792.
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SETTLEMENTS.
Thomas Gallop was the first permanent settler at Chenango Forks. He located in 1786 ..
Lisle was settled in 1790. Soon after, Mr. Lampeer located seven miles up the Tioughnioga River.
The previous year (1791) Amos Todd and Joseph Beebe planted the standard of civilization within the rugged confines of Cortland county.
Thus having hastily glanced at the various early set- tlements, we are fully prepared to reassert the fact previously referred to, that after the bloody tide of rev- olution had rolled away, and the national elements of the opposing forces had subsided, giving peace to the hitherto oppressed colonies, emigration increased more rapidly, and settlements became more permanent. It will also be most readily perceived, that the pioneers penetrated central and western New York from three quarters. " Pennsylvanians, and particularly inhabi- tants of the region of Wyoming, pushed up the Susque- hanna to Tioga point, whence diverging, some made set- tlements along the Chemung and Canisteo, while others established themselves on the east branch of the Sus- quehanna and its tributaries. Adventurers from the east, crossing from New England or the Hudson River counties to Unadilla, dropped down the river in canoes and settled along the Susquehanna or Chemung, or trav- eled into the upper Genesee. Yet another band took the ancient road through the Mohawk valley to Oneida lake, then on to Canadesaga," and gradually dispersed over the Genesee country. No settlement was, however, made at Buffalo until 1800.
CHAPTER VIII.
ORGANIZATION OF CORTLAND COUNTY.
" The eye explores the feats of other days."
Ir is a duty which we of the present generation owe to the memory of the pioneers of civilization in the region of country where we dwell, to gather up with care whatever records of the times there are left, and, studying them well, transmit them in the most enduring form to succeeding ages.
In taking a retrospective view of the past history of our country, we observe the mighty changes which have taken place since the territory of the United States was an unbroken forest, inhabited only by the rude aboriginals, who have slowly but surely yielded to the progressive march of the Europeans, whose advent into this western world " was their misfortune."
The native lords of the wilderness have disappeared. Their generations sleep in our cultivated fields ; our harvests wave upon their hills, and nod like ancient plumes in their luxuriant valleys ; we have robbed them of their homes and their hunting grounds, and despoiled them of their ancient greatness -- their former glory.
Nor have we stopped here ; in numerous instances, the venerated names of antiquity have been chosen to
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ORGANIZATION OF CORTLAND COUNTY.
take the place of the more expressive titles by which they knew hill and valley, lake and stream ; and which, in most respects, are certainly less euphonious, and wanting in agreeable taste. How illy do the appella- tions of Spring Mills, Harloe's Corners, Middletown, Port Royal, Geneva, Rochester, Detroit, and Sleepy Hollow, compare with the sweet, musical, and ever- classic names of Unadilla, Wyalusing, Susquehanna, Cayuga, Tuscarora, or Canisteo ? We are far from favoring the custom which has so eagerly sought out and applied to our cities and smaller towns the names of heroes, novelists, and poets. What knew Homer, Virgil, Scott, or Solon, about the trials, sufferings, and toilsome pursuits of the progressive spirits of go-ahead pioneers ? It may be questionable as to their ever having seen a stump, raft, or side-hill plow ! They dreamed mostly of castles of ivory and columns of glass. Hector, Hannibal, and the Grecian conqueror, thought but of crowns, sceptres, helmets, and glittering plumes. The idea of borrowing names from the ancient republics, merely on account of their bearing a classical charac- ter, is a most perfect absurdity. If republican freemen cherish the habits and customs of former ages, why not reverence with peculiar devotion the ancient Indian custom of arraying themselves in fantastic costumes, and dancing a grand war-dance around a stump, in a manner at once ludicrous, and which would naturally lead the uninitiated spectator to doubt the sanity of the grandiloquent centre of attraction ? True, we would not desire to see the American people achieving laurels by the tomahawk, scalping knife, or deadly arrow. We certainly may with perfect safety banish from among us
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their ancient relics ; yet, regarding them as the origi- nal proprietors of this western continent, we think it highly proper to preserve the more elegant appellations of the Indians, and would certainly " approve the taste that would restore the aboriginal names of places," in all cases consistent with association, and which would favorably characterize the ancestry of the red men of America.
Scarce seventy years have passed away since the territory embraced within the boundary of Cortland county was only traversed by the rude Indian hunters- warriors of proud and lofty bearing-chieftains who were quietly borne upon the bosom of the limpid waters of the Tioughnioga, and with far more pleasurable emotions than were the Goths or Vandals, in their mem- orable passage down the Hellespont. Nearly seventy years have passed away since the aboriginal lords of the wilderness-the Romans of the West-here pursued with stealthy step and faithful quiver, the panther, the wolf, and the bear, as they ranged o'er
" Rocky dens and wooded glens."
Then they cautiously trapped the moose, the otter, the fox, the catamount, and the lynx ; and the rapacious French and English traders received their pelts and furs in exchange for powder, lead, tomahawks, scalp- ing knives and blankets, with an occasional supply of very poor rum. Nearly seventy years have rolled away since the first echo of the axe of civilization was heard in Cortland valley, or the Yankee rifle laid open the skull of old Grizzler, as he sat crouched behind his rocky rampart in the gloomy mountain gorge, grinning a
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ORGANIZATION OF CORTLAND COUNTY.
look of defiance at his unwelcome intruder. Nearly seventy years have passed away since the footprints of civilization first appeared in the Tioughnioga valley. Nearly seventy years have winged their rapid flight since, in this wild of forest trees,
"Art built her dome in Nature's silent bowers,
And peace and gladness crowned the pilgrim's hours."
The long, deep silence which had for ages pervaded these luxuriant valleys and rugged hills was at length broken, for the " woodman's axe" was making war with the stern old monarchs o'er whom for centuries the thunders had rolled and the lightnings wheeled in awful grandeur. For ages back, the wild men had wandered o'er them in the pursuit of forest game, or as they de- filed along upon the war path. Battles waged for power and conquest within the borders of our county, are neither recorded upon the historic page, nor treasured up in our county archives. There are, however, some interesting traditionary relics preserved among the aged chieftains of the Leni-Lenape tribe, which, though not conclusive evidence of fact, yet they measurably establish the probability of there having been, during the Sixteenth century, wars of the most cruel and unre- lenting character waged in our valley. We have seen many curiously-wrought implements of Indian warfare, now in preservation, which have from time to time been turned up by the plough of the progressive agricultur- ist. We have seen spear heads, chisels, pestles, ar- row points, and pipes of great antiquity-leaden crosses of Maltese shape, referring to the missions of the Jes- uits-beads, necklaces, and rings, of very ancient origin
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-the section of a circle, perforated near the rim, with very small holes,-and last, though not least, of ingen- ious construction, is a bone charger, in perfect preserv- ation, and the same as was used by the Senecas at the tragical conflict in 1687, with Marquis De Nonville, in the Genesee valley.
As we can neither give record to the bloody acts of crowned heads begirt with royal gems, or describe in glowing colors enormous battlements from which emerged warriors clad in iron mail, with bristling bay- onets'and brazen armor, as they met some formidable foe ready to contest the right of soil on which they walked, we shall have to content ourselves with record- ing events of an entirely dissimilar character. True, the swarthy savages were occasionally seen ascending the Tioughnioga, or trailing along the war-path, with a frightful-looking lot of scalps, fresh from the brows of the " pale faces," dangling at their belts.
The history of Cortland county is therefore of a pacific character. It was the remark of a celebrated author, that " that country is the happiest which fur- . nishes the fewest materials for history." Assuming the truth of this position, we shall be led to believe that a cultivation of the arts of peace are certainly more con- ducive to happiness, than a recurrence to the arbitrary acts and influences of war.
Tryon county, as we have already remarked, was or- ganized in 1772.
In 1784, Tryon was changed to Montgomery, in order to gratify the many patriotic citizens who were thor- oughly opposed to longer retaining the name of a tory governor.
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ORGANIZATION OF CORTLAND COUNTY.
The territory at this time embraced within its boun- daries the five districts known by the names of Mohawk, Canajoharie, Palatine, German Flats, and Kingsland.
Herkimer county was organised from territory taken from Montgomery, in 1791.
Onondaga county was organized in 1794. It was taken from the western part of Herkimer, and embraced within its limits that portion of the Military Tract, which at present comprises the counties of Seneca, Cayuga, Cort- land, and Onondaga, with portions of Tompkins and Oswego.
Cayuga was organized from Onondaga in 1799.
Seneca
Cayuga in 1804.
Cortland
Onondaga in 1808.
Oswego 66 Oneida and Onondaga in 1816.
Tompkins
Cayuga and Seneca in 1817.
Wayne
Ontario and Seneca in 1823.
The principal causes which led to the organization of Cortland county, will be found in the following inter- esting document,-the original petition for its erection, -and which we procured through the politeness of Hon. G. W. Bradford, from the archives of our State.
The petition was originally written in an easy and graceful hand, and in almost every instance the signa- tures were the autographs of the signers.
To the Honorable the Legislature of the State of New York in Senate and Assembly convened : The Petition of the subscribers, inhabi- tants of the towns of Fabius, Tully, Solon, Homer, Virgil, and Cincinnatus, humbly sheweth :-
That the county of Onondaga is ninety-six miles in length, and at an average breadth about twenty-five
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miles ; that from the extreme of the southern boundary of the said county to the court-house is sixty miles,- which operates greatly to the inconvenience of many of your petitioners in giving their attendance at court. That the population of said county is now very great, and is daily increasing, which renders it impossible for our Court of Common Pleas and General Sessions of the Peace to transact with due expediency the legal busi- ness of said county; whereby the suitors of the said courts experience great delay of justice, which, in the opinion of your petitioners, is equivalent to a denial of justice. That your petitioners humbly conceive that a division of the said county will be of signal advantage to the inhabitants of the said towns of Solon, Fabius, Tully, Homer, Virgil, and Cincinnatus, and also to the inhab- itants of the northern part of the said county.
Your Petitioners, therefore, humbly pray that the be- fore-mentioned towns be erected into a new county by the name of Courtlandt, and that there be three Courts of Common Pleas and General Sessions of the Peace held in the said county as follows, viz : on the second Tuesday of April, and the first Tuesday of September and December, in every year, after the due organization of the said county.
And your Petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray.
Appended to the petition were the names of seven hundred and forty-seven of the most prominent citizens of the [then] southern portion of Onondaga county, who were desirous of securing a division of the same.
The petition was, on the 4th day of February follow- ing, introduced into the Senate by Hon. John Ballard, a
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ORGANIZATION OF CORTLAND COUNTY.
member from the western district, then a resident of the town of Homer, and was referred to a committee con- sisting of Mr. Ballard, Mr. Buel, and Mr. Yates.
The next day, (Feb. 5th,) Mr. Ballard reported in fa- vor of the petitioners, and presented a bill to that effect, which was read the first and second time, and referred to a Committee of the Whole.
It was again called up in Committee of the Whole on the 8th, and ordered to be engrossed.
On the 10th it was read the third time, and passed ; and on the same day was sent to the Assembly and read the first time, and referred to the Committee of the Whole.
Several of the northern towns of Onondaga remon- strated against the measure. The spirit of opposition was cherished and cultivated with the most assiduous care. Disunion was a monster of hideous form. He was a creator of discord, and aimed at dividing mem- bers of the social compact. He was a political tyrant,- an admirer of crowns, sceptres and chains.
But remonstrances, in all their multifarious forms, could not save the county from being divided. Even the eloquence and profound logic of the gifted member, the Hon. Joshua Forman, failed to prevent its dismem- berment. The bill finally passed the Assembly, and be- came a law on the 8th day of April, 1808.
We select such portions of the act as will be of in- terest to the general reader :-
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ORGANIZATION OF CORTLAND COUNTY.
AN ACT TO DIVIDE THE COUNTY OF ONONDAGA, PASSED APRIL 8, 1808.
1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, That all that part of the county of Onondaga, to wit : Beginning at the south corner of the town of Cincinnatus, and thence running north along the east line of the towns of Cin- cinnatus, Solon and Fabius, to the north-east corner of lot No. 60, in said town of Fabius, thence running west along the north line of that tier of lots through the towns of Fabius and Tully, to the north-west corner of lot No. 51 in said town of Tully ; thence south along the east line of the county of Cayuga, to the south-east corner of the towns of Virgil and Cincinnatus to the place of beginning, shall be one separate and distinct county, and shall be called and known by the name of Cortland.
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