USA > New York > The natural, statistical, and civil history of the state of New-York, v. 3 > Part 37
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From 1783 to 1790 the controversy remained almost dormant. The state -of New- York neither pressed nor relinquished her claims to the territory. Much of the asperities between the parties abated. Public opinion in New-York, as well as the adjoining states, inclined towards the Vermontese. Almost the only com- plaints heard, came from the owners of lands granted by New- York. The Vermontese had never recognised the New-York grants, and in most instances had re-granted the lands.
The claimants under New-York laboured to obtain an equi- valent, but without effect. The government of New-York was unable or unwilling to lend its aid. It wished to back out of imprudent and impolitic measures, which were every day be- coming more and more unpopular. All. it could and did do, was to recommend. During this period, Vermont constituted a separate government. It was neither represented in Congress, bor was it acknowledged by Congress.
On the fifteenth of July, 1789, the legislature of the state of New-York came to a determination to renounce the rights, both of jurisdiction and sovereignty, to the tract of country called Vermont, and to acknowledge its independence. A law was, accordingly, passed to that effect. Commissioners were ap- pointed with full powers to run and settle the boundaries, and all other matters in dispute. The assembly of Vermont, on the twenty-third of October, in the same year, also appointed com- missioners to meet those of New-York. The commissioners met, and, after some conferences, came to an adjustment in re- spect to boundaries and all matters in difference. Thirty thou.
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sand dollars were fixed upon as an equivalent for the lands claimed by people in New-York.
Thus ended a controversy which had lasted upwards of twenty years, and which might have been settled by a single law in its very onset. New-York, had she limited her views to jurisdiction and liberal and enlightened policy, might still have possessed this fertile. section of America. But, after all, per- haps at this day there may be no cause of regret-we think there ought to be none. New-York, as a state, has still ample territory, a growing population, and great resources, which are annually unfolding themselves. In a republic like that of the United States, composed of sovereign states, it is better that none of these be too extensive, otherwise a time may come when the liberties of the smaller may be endangered.
We shall now return to the more intimate affairs of the state, - and show the causes that gave rise to its present greatness.
The revolution which separated the United States from Great Britain, excited in the people a spirit of enterprise and emulation which had hitherto laid dormant. It enlarged their views, and opened to them new and extensive fields for action, Among the fields thus opened, no one presented so wide a range for enterprise and exertion as the state of New-York. Her most fertile and valuable lands were then overspread with for- ests and unoccupied. The inducements which these held out to enterprising emigrants were too alluring to be resisted. Be- fore the war the richness and importance of these lands were unknown, unless to some Indian traders, whose interests led them to conceal. The people of the different states composing the American confederation, were but little acquainted with one another anterior to the revolution. . The states, while they were colonies, if we except those of New-England, never confederated for their mutual defence. The intercourse between the several states was casual. Distinct interests existed. These opposed powerful obstacles to enterprise. The New-England states were settled by one people. These, as early as the year 1643, entered into a union for their mutual defence and security. The union consisted of Plymouth, Massachusetts, Hartford and
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· New-Haven. Public affairs were transacted by commissioners appointed by the members of this union. These convened from time to time. They regulated all their internal concerns, and provided for their defence against the Indians. All their wars with the natives were carried on under the direction of the commissioners, and by the united forces of the colonies. This gave energy, weight and decision to every thing which they undertook. "In New-York it was otherwise. The origin- al settlers were Dutch. These, though equally enterprising with their neighbours of New England, were depressed by a change of government which ensued in 1664. After the sur- render the English laws and language were introduced. The English language became the language of business. The in- habitants were unacquainted with it. Public matters had to be transacted in that tongue. The people, before they could participate in the management of their public concerns, were under the necessity of learning that tongue. This was a diffi- cult task. None but the youth or rising generation could ac- complish it. To obtain a competent knowledge of a foreign language for the transaction of business, after a person has ar- rived at mature age, is a difficulty that few can surmount. Again, emigrations from the Netherlands ceased, in a great mea. sure. The early settlers and their descendants were isolated, and in certain respects cut off from a communication with the parent state. The emigrations from Great Britain and Ireland, were inconsiderable. The tyranny and bigotry of certain of the colonial governors, were such as to discourage many from settling in the country. The irruptions of the French and In- dians, and the frequent wars between Great Britain and France, deterred many from making settlements. The New-England people, on account of some prejudices which they entertained against the Dutch, and which were not done away before the revolution, had a reluctance to settling in the province. Hence, the state of New-York, although the most important at this day, of any in the Union, was neglected, and suffered to re- main almost in a state of nature. In the year 1775, its popu- lation did not much exceed two hundred thousand souls, a num-
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ber little, if any, over what the city of New-York now con- tains.
The war of the revolution, which proved ruinous to many, and which so greatly impoverished the nation, paved the way for improvements, not only in this state, but in the others. The continental army was composed of soldiers from the different states. The main army was cantoned in this state for no in- considerable portion of the time, which elapsed during the war. The officers and soldiers assimilated in their manners and cus- toms. They ningled with our citizens, and- communicated to them some of their manners and customs. National and local prejudices and distinctions were in a measure done away. Men of elevated minds and extended views, set examples. Connex- ions were formed, marriages contracted, and social intercourse was established. Channels for commerce were opened. The inhabitants of different states trafficked together. Before the war, the people of the United States travelled very little from home. In Connecticut, a journey to Albany and Schenectady, which is so easily performed at the present day, was considered arduous, and so much so that it was seldom undertaken. The . revolution seems to have shortened distances and removed im- pediments. The marches of the troops during the war, enlarg- ed the views of both officers and soldiers, and led to many re- searches and discoveries. A fondness for travelling was intro- duced. The extreme richness and beauty of our western lands were first made known by the troops, who, under the Colonels Van Schaick and Willet, and the Generals Sullivan and Clin- ton, invaded and wasted the countries of the Onondagas, Cay- ugas and Senecas. Those under Van Schalck and Willet, traversed the space between Utica and Onondaga; and those under Sullivan and Clinton, the space between Tioga Point and Genesee river, and between that river and the Mohawk. The greater part of the men employed in these expeditions were na- tives of New-England. These, on their return, after the dis- banding of the American army, in the year 1783, gave very glowing accounts of the goodness of the lands, and the facili- ties offered for making settlements and accumulating property. VOL. III. 53
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These accounts induced some of the people of New-England to take up resolutions to emigrate. Not a small number of the soldiers took up the same resolutions. Other causes also con- spired to induce emigrations, not only in the western coun- try, but into the counties within the basin of the Hudson. The first was the insurrection in Massachusetts in 1785. This lasted but a short time, being suppressed by the Generals Lincoln and Shepherd. Many persons concerned in it removed into the states of New-York and Vermont, and more especially into the former. The numbers have been estimated at some thousands. Not a few were in the prime of life. The second was the ces- .sion by the government of the state of New-York in 1786 to that of Massachusetts of large tracts of vacant lands in the western country. These lands consisted of two tracts. The one comprehends all that part of the state lying west of a line beginning on the north at the mouth of Great Sodus Bay, on the south side of Lake Ontario, and running thence southerly to the northerly boundary of Pennsylvania, except one mile on the east side of the river Niagara and the islands in that stream. Its length on the south side is about one hundred and forty miles, and on the north about one hundred. Its breadth on the . cast, from Lake Ontario to Pennsylvania, is about eighty-seven miles. The breadth is pretty uniform, westwardly, as far as Niagara river and the north easterly extremity of Lake Erie. The superfices of this tract contains about nine thousand and six hundred square miles, or six millions one hundred and forty- - four thousand acres. The whole tract was formerly called Ge- nesee.
The other tract comprehends ten or eleven townships of six · miles square each, and is situated between Chenango river and Owego Creek, being in the counties of Broome and Tioga.
These cessions, embracing about ten thousand square miles, and nearly one fourth of the state, were made by the then gov- ernment, however strange the transaction may appear at this day, to the government of Massachusetts, to quiet or put at rest certain antiquated claims, set up by the government of that state, to certain lands within the state of New-York.' These
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antiquated claims were based and supported by an antiquated charter, which never had any validity. New-York ceded every "thing save sovereignty, and without any equivalent. There was no quid pro quo.
The government of Massachusetts sold the first tract to Oliver ~ Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham, for one million of dollars, and the other to John Brown and others, for three thousand three hundred dollars, and some cents. Thus much, at present, con- cerning lands trifled away without any equivalent, or so much as a beaver skin.
We shall next notice the military lands, as they are called .-- The lands under this denomination were set apart by the legis- lature, in the year 1782, for the officers and soldiers of the state of New-York, who should serve in the army of the United States to the end of the war according to law. These lands were bounded on the east by the country of the Oneidas, on the north by Lake Ontario, on the west by a line drawn from the mouth of Great Sodus Bay, through the most westerly in- clination of Seneca Lake, and on the south by a line drawn through the most southerly inclination of Seneca Lake, easterly to the country of the Oneidas. The number of acres embraced in the military tract, is about one million eight hundred thou- sand. The military tract comprises, pretty generally speaking," the counties of Onondaga, Cortlandt, Cayuga, Tompkins and Seneca, and the easterly half, or nearly so, of the county of Wayne, and the southwesterly part of the county of Oswego, or that part of that county situated on the left bank of Oswego river. Prior to the cession made to Massachusetts, and the grant made to the officers and soldiers, the Agoneasean, or Indian title, was not extinguished. Messrs. Phelps and Gor- ham, and the government of New-York, had to extinguish tl.ese before settlements could be commenced. But before we speak , in relation to the extinguishment of the Indian title to the Massachusetts and military lands, and the commencement of set- tlements on those lands, it will be necessary to advert to some other settlements of prior date.
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In January, 1784, Mr. Hugh White, in company with four. or five other families, removed with his family from the state of Connecticut into the state of New York, and settled at a place four miles west of the now populous and flourishing town of Utica, then known by the name of Saughdaghquadu, but at present by that of Whitesborough. This was the first settle- ment ever made in the western country by civilized man. The Mohawk settlements terminated seven or eight miles below Utica. These were feeble, the greater part of the Mohawk country being still overshadowed by forest trees. The roads running along and near the Mohawk, were bad. Westwardly of Germanflats, which was the most remote settlement in the Mohawk country, there was a continuous forest that extended far beyond the state. This forest was not intersected or traver- sed by any roads, save Indian paths, on which only single persons could travel on foot, if we except a rude road running from the utmost verge of Germanflats by Fort Schuyler, and through Saughdaghquadu to Fort Stanwix, now Rome. Fort Schuyler, as we have heretofore remarked, stood close by where the bridge crossing the Mohawk at Utica now is.
Before we proceed farther concerning the settlement of . Whitestown, &c., we shall introduce an extract from the Ga- zetteer of Dr. Horatio G. Spafford, published in 1813. We think it will be read with interest by the western people. Dr. Spafford copied it from a journal printed at Utica, styled the Patriot.
" Died at Whitestown, on the sixteenth, - 1812, Hugh White, Esq., aged eighty years. 'The death of this venerable man excites many interesting reflections. He may justly be consi- dered as the Patriarch who first led the children of New-Eng- land into the wilderness ; and it may be truly said, that he has lived to see and enjoy the promised land.
" In the year 1784, he removed with his family from Middle- town, in Connecticut, to Sedaghquate, (now Whitesborough), which till then had been the gloomy abode of wild beasts and savage men.
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" Judge White was the first who dared to overleap the Ger- · man Settlements on the Mohawk, and to encounter the hard- ships, privations, and dangers of the western wilds.
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" During the first four years after his establishment at Se- daghquate, the progress of settlements around was slow and discouraging. In 1788, the town of Germanflats was divided, and a new town established, which, in honour of this enterpris- ing man, was named Whitestown.
" Whitestown then contained less than two hundred inlabi- tants; and included all that part of the state of New-York which now consists of the counties of Oneida, Lewis, Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Madison, Chenango, Broome, Tioga, Cortlandt, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, Ontario, Steuben, Alleghany,' Genesee, Niagara, Cataraugus, and Chatauque, which counties, according to the census of 1810, now contain two hundred and eighty thousand three hundred and nineteen inhabitants.
" This astonishing and unparalleled progress of settlements has not been effected by colonies sent out and supported by the power and wealth of government. The whole has been ac- complished by the voluntary efforts of individual enterprise and industry.
" This wonderful transition by which, in the space of twenty- eight years, this immense wilderness has been converted into ' fruitful fields, seems like the illusions of a dream even to those who have witnessed its progress.
" The native forests have given place to villages, seminaries of learning, and temples for christian worship ; and the arts and refinements of civilized society have rapidly succeeded the foot- steps of the wandering savage."-See article, Whitestown Gaz. p. 327.
In the years 1785-6-7 and 8, a number of families removed from New-England to Saughdaghquada. In the latter year, the town of Whitestown was erected, being set off from Ger- manflats. At the time of its erection, the number of inhabitants fell short of two hundred. The progress of settlements made in the woods is always tardy in their infancy. This was the case with Whitestown. The population above spoken of was
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not confined to the present town, but was thinly scattered over several of the adjacent towns. Some dwelt on and near the banks of the Sauquait, and others on those of the Oriskinny, and intermediate. In 1788, Mr. Moses Foot, with nine or ten families, settled at and near where the present village of Clinton, in the town of Paris, stands.
During the years 1788-9 and 1790, several hundred families emigrated into the then town of Whitestown, and greatly en- larged the settlements already made. In 1789, there was a great scarcity of provisions in the state, occasioned in part by - the crops not coming in plentiful in the preceding year, and, in part, by the large bodies of emigrants. The infant settle- ment of Whitestown was much straitened, but was relieved by Mr. Isaac Paris, then a merchant, at Fort Plain, in the 'county of Montgomery. This gentleman made considerable purchases at Albany of Virginia corn, which he sold to the new settlers, who in general were poor, on a liberal credit. The inhabitants, soon afterwards, on the erection of the town of Paris, named it in honour of their benefactor. Hence the origin of the name of Paris in Oneida county.
The first white family that settled in the county of Onondaga, was that of Mr. Webster, lately interpreter for the Onondagas. This was in the year 1786. In 1788, Mr. Webster, after using much argument, prevailed on the Onondagas to permit Messrs. Asa Danforth, and Comfort Tyler, with their families, to settle at Onondaga Hollow. Such was the feeble beginning of the settlement of the county of Onondaga, a county which now (1829) contains a population of fifty thousand souls.
In the year 1784 or 1785, Messrs. Horatio Jones and Law- rence Smith seated themselves at Seneca Falls, on Seneca out- let, in what is now called the county of Seneca ; and in the year 1787, Mr. James Bennet took up his abode at West Cayuga, in the same county. In the latter year, a Mr. James Lawrence settled at East Cayuga, in the county of Cayuga. The former hamlet is on the west side of Cayuga lake, and the latter on the east side, where Cayuga bridge crosses the lake. This bridge is one mile and eight rods long.
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Cooperstown, in the county of Otsego, was founded in 1789, by the late Judge Cooper. Oxford, in the county of Chenango, was founded about the same time. In the year 1790, a few fa- - milies seated themselves at Owego, in the county of Tioga.
In the spring of the year 1788, Mr. Oliver Phelps, of the town of Gorham, in the commonwealth of Massachusetts, started with a number of men on an expedition to the country of Ge- nesee, which he and Mr. Gorham had recently purchased of the government of Massachusetts. On his way, he passed through the Mohawk country as far as where the village of Rome, in the county of Oneida, stands ; and thence he proceeded by water, following the courses of Wood Creek, Oneida Lake and River, Seneca River, and Canandaigua outlet, almost to the place where the village of Canandaigua has since been built. The boats which he employed set out from Schenectady. There were, at that time, two principal portages, or carrying-places, the one at Little Falls, on the Mohawk, and the other at Rome, between the Mohawk and Wood Creek.
Mr. Phelps, on reaching Canandaigua, set himself about constructing huts, to protect himself and his companions from the inclemency of the weather. In the mean time, he despatched messengers to the chiefs and head warriors of the Senecas, or Chitowoneaughgas, to invite them to a conference at his new residence in their country. The Rev. Samuel Kirkland ac- companied Mr. Phelps, and acted as an interpreter. Early in July, the chiefs and warriors of the Senecas met him, pursuant to the invitation. The objects which Mr. Phelps had in view, by calling this meeting, were to conclude an alliance, and pro- cure cessions of their lands by purchase. The Senecas, by their chiefs and head warriors, very readily closed with his proffers. They formed an alliance, and sold him two millions two hun- dred and fifty thousand acres of land, In the succeeding year, they disposed of sundry large tracts of land to Mr. Phelps. The amount paid to the Senecas was very inconsiderable, being little beyond nominal.
In the years 1788-9 and 1790, Mr. Phelps caused these lands
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to be surveyed into ranges, townships and lots. Very soon · after he made his purchases, he established a land-office at Canandaigua.
Geneva, which is in the Massachusetts grant, was founded in 1789. During the same year, several other small settlements were established in the counties of Ontario and Wayne.
In the year 1790, a number of families took up their re- sidence at Pittsford, Perrinton, and Scotsville, in the county of Monroe. The Messrs. William and James Wadsworth, two brothers, in the same year founded Geneseo, in the county of Livingston. Brighton, in Monroe county, was settled in 1791.
In January, 1789, the county of Ontario was erected. It com- prised the whole purchase of Messrs. Phelps and Gorham, and is now subdivided into twelve counties, exclusive of the westerly part of the county of Wayne. The population of the new county of Ontario, in the year 1790, amounted to one thousand and seventy-five souls, without including the Senecas and others belonging to the aborigines.
A party of emigrants, in the year 1790 or 1791, made a road through the woods from the settlements of Whitestown to Canandaigua. This road passed through the counties of Madison, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca, and thence to the latter village. Its course lay through the Oneida Castle, Can- asaraga, Onondaga Hollow, Alarcellus, Skaneatelis, Auburn, East and West Cayuga, Seneca Falls and Geneva. Such was the commencement and course of the first road ever opened between the Mohawk river and the issue of Canandaigua Lake, Great were the hardships which this little band of pioneers suffered. Apart from the woods, the country was intersected by many swamps, ravines and streams. In some instances the swamps could not be passed with loaded carriages, before wooden causeways were constructed, and the streams before bridges were built. Great difficulties occurred in carrying the road across some of the ravines, especially at Chitteningo, Butternut, Onondaga and Otisco creeks. The hills accompa- nying these streams are long and steep, and in some places
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rocky. But the emigrants persevered, obviated all obstacles, and at length reached the new town of Canandaigua. The ensuing winter after the construction of the road, considerable numbers of emigrants repaired from New-England to Ontario. Small settlements were formed at several places on this road, and some houses of public entertainment opened.
Onondaga, in the year 1794, was erected into a county. Its ex- tent was much greater then than that of the present county. The emigrants by this time had become firmly established. They raised wheat, corn, and other things in sufficient abundance, not only to supply all their own immediate. wants, but to subsist the numerous emigrants, who were annually coming in. The numbers of emigrants, who repaired to the western country, between 1785 and 1800, surpassed any thing of the kind hither- to' known in the United States. To give the reader an idea, we will state the returns of the census of the western country taken in 1800 .. The population of the then county of Oneida, was twenty two thousand and forty-seven; that of Chenango, fifteen thousand six hundred and sixty-six; that of Tioga, six thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine; that of Onon- daga, seven thousand four hundred and six; that of Cayuga, fifteen thousand eight hundred and seventy-one ; that of Ontario, fifteen thousand two hundred and eighty-one ; and that of Steuben, seventeen hundred and eighty-eight. We have not included Otsego, because it was settled before the revolution, but its population was very inconsiderable, and probably did not z un , over one hundred families. The grand aggregate of mne po- pulation of the western country was then eighty-four thousand eight hundred and seventy-five souls. The sunual emigration, averaging the whole period from the time that Judge White settled at Whitestown, which is considered ~e commencement of the settling the western country, ~- ne year one thousand eight hundred, is about one thousand families. The emigra- tions which were made betweer 1785 and 1791, were inconsider- able when compared with mose made between the latter period and the year 1800. The popration of the county of Ontario in 1790, was only one thousand and seventy-five souls ; but in 1800 VOL. III. 54
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