Three Rivers
Hudson~Mohawk~Schoharie
History From America's Most Famous Valleys

Chapter Thirteen, Benton's History of Herkimer County

CHAPTER XIII.

(Typists note: At times the notes at the bottom of the pages were like a second story. To make it easier to distinguish, a different font was used and I tried to group the articles together a bit more. Sorry, but the book is confusing too. It is full of little biographical asides.)

This chapter has been arranged into nineteen sections, that being the number of towns in the county. I have endeavored to make the annexed table useful as a reference. The reader will remark a loss of population, in eleven of the towns, in a time of prosperity as great and healthful as any during the present century. These losses have not arisen from a depression in any branch of husbandry. The increase of population in the river towns and villages, along the canal and rail road, and in the towns having wild lands to settle, overbalances these losses, and gives a small addition in the aggregate, for the last ten years; but not equal to the percentage of births over deaths, in the same period.

For the amusement of the curious, I will remark that, four of the towns in the county, commemorate the names of revolutionary generals; the names of three, are derived from Germany; four, from New England; one, is called after a state in the union, and another, after a county in this state; one, bears the name of an empire, and another, a kingdom in Europe; three, are descriptive of the localities which are embraced within their limits, and one, seems an emanation of fancy.

The county is now divided into the following towns, which are given, with the dates of organization, and the population of each town, in 1845, and 1855:

1. COLUMBIA

Contains that part of the county bounded easterly by a line beginning at a maple tree, which stands a small distance easterly from the dwelling house heretofore or lath of Abraham Lighthall, at the southeasterly corner of Youngs patent, and running thence north twenty-eight degrees east, until it strikes the south line of the town of German Flats, at the distance of one hundred chains, easterly of the northwesterly corner of Hendersons patent, on the north line thereof; northerly, by German Flats, southerly, by the bounds of the county, and westerly, by Litchfield and Winfield.

This town contains the whole of Staleys second tract, except one tier and a half of lots on the westerly bounds, it also contains a small triangular piece, from the northwest corner of Hendersons patent, and the whole of the patent, to Conerad Frank and others, except seven lots on the eastern bounds thereof.

Columbia was settled before the revolution, by several German families from the Mohawk river. The heads of the families, who made one of the settlements, were, Conrad Orendorff, Conrad Frank, Conrad Fulmer, Frederick Christman, Timothy Frank, Nicholas Lighthall, Joseph Moyer and Henry Frink. The place where these families were seated was known as "Coonrodstown," before Columbia was organized, in 1812, and is to this day. A few Germans had also seated themselves at a place then and since called Elizabethtown, to commemorate the name of one or more German matrons among the settlers.

When the new town was about to be set off, and the inhabitants were casting about for a name, some of them desired to have it called Conrad. This was rejected, on account of the Coonish sound it had received, by a mispronunciation. Conrad is quite as euphonious as Columbia, and a more ancient name, by several hundred years, than Columbus, from which the town derived its name. There may have been some influential inhabitants in the territory, who had emigrated from Columbia county, and exerted an influence on this occasion; and, although feeling inclined to honor their native county, they would not hope the new town should be a political copyist of its then prominent namesake. Columbia is purely an agricultural town. The north line of it is about four miles from the canal; without villages, except Cedarville, a portion of which extends into it; it is somewhat elevated; well supplied with water, but the surface can not he called broken. It is slowly losing its population; a strong indication that cheese making engrosses the farmers attention, although hop and grain growing is not neglected. In former times, one hundred acre farm lots seemed to content our people; now, that extent of domain is quite too limited. Nor does a small diminution of population in our agricultural towns indicate, in the least, a lack of prosperity, or a want of wealth among those who remain. There are often those, who may wish to seek new homes for increasing families, and they soon find neighbors ready and willing to purchase their farms.

My informant, who is a most excellent judge of such matters, says he was a good marksman, and a dead shot at fair rifle distance. He would often relate many interesting incidents that happened to the scouting parties he was engaged in. This service suited him much better than the camp. He was very fond of hunting, and while living on his farm, it was not uncommon for him, after game became scarce in his neighborhood, to leave home in the fall of the year, and be absent from it weeks, on hunting excursions.

2. DANUBE

Contains that part of the county bounded northerly by the Mohawk river, easterly by the bounds of the county, southerly by a line commencing at a point in the east bounds of the county, equidistant from the Mohawk river and the south bounds of the county, thence westerly parallel with the south bounds of the county to a line drawn from the easternmost look of the old canal, on the north side of the Mohawk river, at the Little Falls, to the head waters of Lake Otsego, and westerly by the said last mentioned line.

Small portions of the Fall Hill, Vaughns and LHommedien patents, nearly the whole of Lindseys, and parts of J.Vromans, C. Coldens, Van Homes and Lansings patents are within the above boundaries.

This town, although of recent territorial organization, was no doubt one of the earliest settled by Europeans of any in the county, except those portions of it embracing Burnetsfield, or what was formerly known as the German Flats. The date of Lindseys and Van Hornes patents, one in 1730 and the other in 1731, indicate this. It has been elsewhere stated in this work, that the Canajoharie mentioned in the early colonial history of the state, extended as far west as the foot of the Little Falls, in 1772, and probably farther before the German Flats district was set off. The casual reader of disjointed documents and isolated statements might infer that the Canajoharie mentioned in connection with the Mohawk tribe of Indians, was circumscribed in its limits to the town of that name in Montgomery county. This is clearly not the fact. The site of the upper Mohawks castle is in this town, and near the present Indian castle church, now so called, and it has borne that name within the memory of the oldest inhabitants now living, and a uniform and unvarying tradition speaks to the same effect.

The French Itinerary, found in vol. I of the Documentary History of the State, fixes Fort Can-nat-ho-cary at the side of the Mohawk river, on the right bank, and four leagues from Fort Kouari (Herkimer). The writer was no doubt a French spy, sent out from Canada, in 1757, to make a topographical survey of the country, from Oswego to Schenectady and Albany, along the water communications from Lake Ontario to Hudson river. He describes the road on the south side of the river, from Fort Herkimer to the Indian castle; and he says, in his description of the road on the north side of the river, that this fort is opposite to the mouth of the Canada creek.

The fort, so called, was one hundred paces on each side, had four bastions of upright pickets, fifteen feet high, about a foot square, and joined together with lintels. It was not surrounded by a ditch, but was constructed with port holes at regular distances, with a platform or stage all around, to fire from. There were some small pieces of cannon at each of the bastions, and a house at each curtain to serve as storehouses and barracks. There were several Indian families at this time living near this fort.

Sir Wm. Johnson, in Oct., 1772, speaks of having built a church, at his own expense, at the Canajoharees, and laments, that it is in a great measure useless, in consequence of not being able to secure the services of a missionary. I have not been able to fix the period, previous to the revolution, when the first church at the Indian Castle was built. The bell however, was highly regarded by the Indians, and they made an effort, during the war, to carry it off. They took it away in the night and secreted it. This, of course, caused excitement among the German population in the neighborhood, when it became known that the church bell had disappeared. How it was carried off, and what had become of it, engrossed the attention of all, and an immediate and careful search was made for the missing bell, in every direction; but the purloiners knew too well how to cover up and secure their trophy, to prevent a discovery. The search was fruitless, and the inhabitants had nearly given up all hope of its recovery when, one dark night, the sound of the bell was heard in the distance, and the population of the neighborhood were soon in hot pursuit, armed with guns, pitchforks and axes. The bell was recovered. The Indians, after they supposed the search was over, returned, and slung the bell upon a pole, and started with it, but did not secure that unruly member, the tongue or clapper; and the bell and clapper having an unequal momentum in the swing, when carried over uneven ground on a bending pole, came in contact, and by the ding dong sounds led to the discovery.

This town attracts considerable attention, in consequence of its containing the residence of Gen. Nicholas Herkimer; and, if it was not the birth place of the too celebrated Joseph Brant, a considerable number of the early years of his life were spent at the Indian Castle, with the members of his tribe, where an intimate acquaintance was cultivated between him and Gen. Herkimer, when they were young men. This fort must have been built in 1755; early in that year, Sir William Johnson speaks about constructing forts, at the two Indian castles, and notified Governor Be Lancy of his having concluded a contract for their erection. These defenses were made to gratify the Mohawk Indians, who were exposed to the hostile incursions of the French and their Indian allies from Canada. I do not find any account of this fort twenty years afterwards, and if it had not entirely gone to decay before the revolution, it was probably used only as a temporary refuge of the inhabitants, to shield them against the hostile attacks of those for whose protection it was first erected.

In 1722, Governor Burnet, on the petition of the Rev. Petrus Van Driesen of Albany, granted a license authorizing Mr. Van Driesen to build a meeting house in the Mohawk country, for the use of the Indians, on any lands belonging to them. In 1737, a patent for 1000 acres of land was issued to the same gentleman, and it will be noticed that this grant covers lands at the mouth of the East Canada creek, and nearly opposite to the Indian Castle church. The mission at Fort Hunter had been established as early as 1712, and probably before that time, so that Mr. Van Driesens license had no reference to that station.

I do not find any well founded data to change my conclusions that the church at German Flats was the first erection for religious worship in the county. Fort Hendrick is marked on Sauthiers map of the province of New York, published in 1779, as being on the south side of the Mohawk river, opposite the mouth of East Canada creek. The Cannatjoharies are also marked as being located at this point. This establishes the fact that the site of the upper Mohawk castle was at the place above designated. And the name of the fort was a compliment to old King Hendrik, whose principal residence during the latter period of his life was at this place.

It should be observed that the grant of 4000 acres to Isaac Vrooman, and of 4000 acres to Ezra LHommedieu and Nathaniel Platt, in 1786, out of unpatented lands, by the crown, lying in this town and Stark, shows there must have previously existed very strong reasons for not granting these lands, long before the revolutionary war. These reasons are found in the fact, that they were Indian reservations, or rather, that being in the neighborhood of one of the principal seats of the tribe, the Indians would not consent to part with them upon any terms.

The Mohawk Indians having left the country at the commencement of the war, and not returning as did the Senecas, Cayugas and Onondagas and sue for peace, were treated by the state as having abandoned all their rights as original possessors of the soil, and all the vacant lands within the limits formerly claimed by this tribe, were sold by the state without regarding the Indian title.

The only locality in this town called a village, is Newville, about four miles south from the river, on the Nowadaga creek, and at the foot of Ostranders hill, from the top of which, at an elevation of 800 feet above the river, is a broad and extended view to the east and southeast, including the lower valley, of nearly thirty miles.

3. FAIRFIELD

Contains that part of the county beginning on the middle line in Glens purchase, in the west hounds of Manheim, and running thence westerly along the said middle line of Glens purchase to the southwest corner of lot number seven; thence northerly to the northeast corner of lot number five in said. Purchase; thence westerly along the line between lots number five and six, and the same continued to the West Canada creek; thence up and along the said creek, to the town of Newport; then along the bounds of Newport to the southwest corner of Norway; then along the south bounds of Norway, east to the wet bounds of Salisbury; and then south along the same, to the place of beginning.

These bounds have been changed. See subdivision 7, Little Falls, erected in 1829.

This town contains within its limits nearly the whole of Glens purchase lying north of the base or middle line of said purchase, and a portion of the first allotment of the Royal grant.

There was a German settlement in this town before the revolution, upon what has been called in modern times the Top notch, near the Manheim town line, and about four miles north of Little Falls. Among these German families were the Kellers, Windeckers, Pickerts and others, not of the Burnetsfield patentees, but who came up from the lower Mohawk valley, and seated themselves in Glen's purchase, under the patronage of some of its owners. Mr. Cornelius Chatfield arrived within the territory of the present town of Fairfield, with his family, March 24th, 1785, and settled near or at the spot where the village now is. His is supposed to have been the first New Englander who came into the county after the war, for the purpose of settling on the Royal grant. Mr. Abijah Mann, the father of the Hon. Abijah Mann, Jr., arrived in May following, and located a little west of Fairfield village. There was a small Indian orchard upon or near the lands taken up by Mr. Mann, and the Indians, many years after the revolution, would annually cluster around it, as a loved and venerated spot. A visit, perhaps, to the resting place of some distinguished brave, or some relative of the visitants. This duty was performed so long as the Great Spirit required it.

About the year 1770, three families, Maltanner, Goodbread or Goodbrodt, and Shaver or Shaffer, located about half a mile northeast of Fairfield village, in one neighborhood. This place is now called Maltanners creek or spring. These people were sent there by Sir William Johnson, to make an opening upon his Royal grant. They had never been suspected by the Americans of being friendly to their cause; nor could they be charged with disloyalty to the king. In 1779, a party of Indians came to this little settlement, but one of their number being, sick, they kept shy, as an Indian can, about ten days, to allow their comrade to recover, when, with a yell and a whoop, and brandishing their tomahawks, they fell upon Sir John Johnson's tenants, captured two of the Maltanners, father and son, killed a little girl, 16 years old, of the Shaver family, and then burned up all Sir John's houses and buildings in the settlement. The Goodbrodt and Shaver families and some of the Maltanners escaped to tell the sad story of their bereavements and losses to their rebel neighbors. The Maltanners were taken to St. Regis by the Indians, where they remained three years, and returned in 1782. His majesty's officials in Canada might well suppose the two captives, if allowed to return, would not be very hearty and zealous in the royal cause, after such treatment; and therefore concluded to detain them. The elder Maltanner, when he came back, said he met Sir John in Canada, and told him what had happened, whereat the gallant knight was exceedingly wrathful, and fulminated big words and strong language against the d--d savages, for their conduct in killing, taking captive and dispersing his tenants, and burning his houses. He had other tenants on the grant, loyal and true, who might be treated in the same way. Sir John no doubt felt hurt, not because any tender feeling towards his fellow man had been touched, or any law of humanity outraged; but because the same rule of warfare he had applied to others, had been, and might again be, visited upon himself. This was not the first nor the last instance, in that unnatural struggle, in which the Indians made no discrimination in their warfare; and friend and foe alike were made to sink under the hatchet's stunning blow, and feel the knife's keen edge. Kindness and humanity, in conducting that war, might have achieved what hate and cruelty did not. The ancient Roman apothegm, "Quum Deus vult perdere, prius dementat," was as strikingly verified in word and sentiment, as to induce one to think, almost, it was a prophetic enunciation of an actual event, already determined in the councils of heaven.

The ancient Roman apothegm, "Quum Deus vult perdere, prius dementat," was so strikingly verified in word and sentiment, as to induce one to think, almost, it was a prophetic enunciation of an actual event, already determined in the councils of heaven.

The first New England settlers who came into this town at the close of the war, took up lands southwesterly of Fairfield village, except those before noticed, with one or two exceptions. Josiah, David and Lester Johnson came into the town from Connecticut, in 1786; John Bucklin and Benjamin Bowen, from Rhode Island; John Eaton, Nathaniel and William Brown, from Massachusetts; arid Samuel Low, in 1787: David Benseley, from Rhode Island; and Elisha, Wyman and Comfort Eaton, from Massachusetts, in 1788: Jeremiah Ballard, from Massachusetts, in 1789: Wm. Bucklin, the Arnold families, Daniel Venner, Nathan Smith, Nahum Daniels and Amos and James Haile, most of them from Massachusetts, in 1790: the Neelys came in 1792, and Peter and Bela Ward, from Connecticut, in 1791. The Batons, Browns, Hailes, Arnolds, Bucklins and Wards seated themselves at and near the present village of Eatonsville. Some of these people changed their residences after a short sojourn in this town. Jeremiah Ballard located about two miles northeast of Fairfield village. He left his family the first winter after he came into the town, and returned to Massachusetts, where he remained until spring.

My informant says this family had nothing to subsist on during a long and dreary winter but Indian corn and white rabbits, when any could be caught. There being no mills then in the country, and if there had been they could not be reached except by the use of snowshoes and carrying the grist on ones back; the Ballard family resorted to what at this day would be considered a novel method of reducing their corn into a state suitable to be converted into rabbit soup. Having no hand nor other mill to crack or break their corn in, a mortar was the only thing they could resort to, and even this they were destitute of; but when did necessity ever fail to suggest some remedy for surmountable inconveniences. The family procured a large hardwood log, and having no tools suitable to the object, they burned a hole in it, by concentrating the fire to one spot, sufficiently deep to answer their purpose. In this way, my informant says, this great achievement was accomplished. It was an easy task, after this, to make a pestle out of some hard wood, and crack corn to their stomachs content.

By these means the resolved and noble hearted mother carried her family through the winter, while the father was absent, and it should be hoped was detained by sickness at his former home in Massachusetts. There were but a few English or New England families, north of the Mohawk, and between the East and West Canada creek, in 1786; not more than four or five, if as many. Fairfield village, the ancient seat of learning of the county, is located very nearly in the center of the town, about 800 feet above the level of the Mohawk river. A notice of the Medical college and the Academy will be found in another chapter. Middleville, a small village situated partly in this town and partly in Newport, on the West Canada creek, is at the junction of the plank roads leading from Herkimer and Little Falls to Newport. The census marshal of this town did not, at the late enumeration, designate the population within these villages. This is probably the best grazing town in the county, and has for a series of years produced and sent to market, annually, more of the Herkimer county staple, cheese, than any other town within the limits of the county.

We must not draw any conclusions unfavorable to this town--that its soil is not good--or that its population is wanting in energy and enterprise, or is destitute of wealth, because we find a moderate and steady decrease in the total number of inhabitants. To the successful progress of agriculture and the accumulation of wealth, and to no other cause, is to be attributed this gradual loss of population.

4. FRANKFORT

Contains that part of the county, beginning at the south side of the Mohawk river, in the middle of the mouth of a small stream which enters the said river a few rods east of the house now or late of William Dygert, which stream is known as Dygerts mill creek, and running from thence south thirty degrees west, until it meets the southern line of a tract of land granted to Coenrad Frank and others; then westerly along the said southern line to the southwest corner of said grant; then westerly with a straight line to the west bounds of the county; then northerly along the same to the Mohawk river; and then along the river to the place of beginning.

A considerable portion of Cosbys manor, and about one and one quarter of a tier of great lots in Bayards patent, four lots in Burnetsfield, about half a lot in Franks patent, four and a half lots in Staleys, a part of Coldens patent, are in this town.

There were some German settlements along the river in this town before the revolution. It appears there was a grist mill at the creek next east of Frankfort village, which was burned by the French and Indians in 1757. A sawmill on the next creek below was also burnt by the same party. The ante-revolutionary settlements in this town were confined to Burnetsfield and Colden and Willets patents.

Frankfort village, at the east end of the long level on the Erie canal, and of easy access to the New York central rail road, contains a population, by the last census, of 1150 souls, and is an active, prosperous business place, where may be found the usual mechanical establishments of country villages.

The New Graefenbergh hydropathic establishment, erected by Dr. Holland, and opened for the reception of patients in October, 1847, is located in the extreme southwest corner of this town, four and a half miles from the city of Utica, on a stage and post route from that city, through Litchfield and Columbia to Richfield Springs. This establishment has been in operation during the last eight years, and more than one thousand patients in that time have been treated there with satisfactory success. The scenery of this locality is varied and beautiful, and will vie with the most delightful in the state.

The institution will accommodate sixty patients; the rooms are pleasant and comfortably furnished. There is a gymnasium and bowling-alley attached to the house for the amusement and exercise of the patients.

5. GERMAN FLATS

Now contains that part of the county bounded westerly by Frankfort ; northerly, by the Mohawk river; easterly, by Danube and Stark; and southerly by a line beginning at the northeast corner of Litchfleld, and running thence easterly, along the southern line of the tract of land granted to Conerad Frank, and others, until it meets the southwest corner of a tract of land granted to Guy Johnson; and then easterly, along the southern bounds thereof, to the town of Stark.

The eastern and southern bounds of this town, as above stated, have been changed. See sub. 7, Little Falls.

This town comprises a very considerable portion of Burnetsfield patent; nearly all of Staleys first tract; the whole of Franks patent, and a part of Guy Johnsons tract.

This town when erected, in 1788, comprised all that part of Montgomery county, south of the Mohawk river, bounded easterly by Canajoharie, the westerly bounds of that town being the Susquehanna river, Otsego lake and a line from the head waters of the lake to the Little Falls; south, by the north line of the town of Otsego, running from the head the patent granted to George Croghan and others, along the northerly bounds of that patent, to the northwest corner of it, and extending westerly to the river, then called Tienaderha, and along the northerly line of the Edminston patent, and westerly, by the west line of the town of Herkimer, continued south to the town of Otsego, or in other words, very nearly by the present eastern bounds of Oneida county. These limits not only embrace the present towns of Columbia, Frankfort, Litchfield, Warren and Winfield, a part of Little Falls, but extend considerably into Otsego county.

The town when erected comprehended only that part of the German Flats district of colonial organization, south of the Mohawk, east of the present west line of the county, and north of Otsego, as before noticed. That district extended much farther south and west, until the erection of the Old England district, a short time before the revolution, which seems not to have been regarded as a municipal territorial division during the war.

After the peace of 1783, however, it was recognized, and local officers appointed for the district.

The church in this town, was the first erected in the county for the accommodation of European worshipers, and their descendants. An Indian mission church, at the place long known as the Indian Castle, in Danube, may have been built at an earlier date. It is said, the former was erected under the auspices of Sir William Johnson; this is very doubtful, although there may be no question whatever, that the Mission church was built under his agency, if it was erected subsequent to the church at German Flats. In the first place, Sir William was not in the country at the date of either of the deeds, mentioned below, and he~was not appointed general superintendent of Indian affairs, by the crown, until 1757. He had, however, acted as Indian agent under a colonial appointment, from August, 1749; and in the second place, I am not aware that the colonial government were accustomed to build churches, disconnected from the Indian missions, when the people were able to bear that expense themselves.

On the 24^th of September, 1730, Nicholas Wolever made a deed of trust, of a part of lot number 30, in Burnetsfield, to several persons, to hold the same as a church and school lot; and on the 26^th of April 1733, the trustees conveyed the same lot to the church corporation, which had at that time been organized. Nicholas Wolever was one of the original grantees of the patent, and the above lot was awarded to him. I am not aware that there are now in existence, any records showing when the church was erected, on the spot dedicated to that use. Within the church years, near the south side, there is a head stone with this inscription:

CAPT. JOHN RING
Independent Company Provincials
Died September 26, 1755
Aged 30 years

The church had been erected, and formed a part of the stockaded defense, since called Fort Herkimer, put up by Sir William Johnson, or by his directions, in 1756. At this time, the population of the German Flats, embracing the settlements on both sides of the river, had more than quadruped in thirty-five years, and were quite wealthy. The inhabitants did not need, and probably did not require government aid to build a church. At any rate, the probabilities are against any such assumption.

The first regularly settled minister, called by the congregation, was a Mr. Rosecrants, a German Protestant, and probably a Lutheran. The time of his arrival and death are beyond the memory of any one now living, and there are no records or monuments now extant which show these dates.

One of those cold-blooded and not unusual murders occurred in this town during the revolution, at a farmhouse near the site of Rankin's lock on the canal. The heart sickens at the recital of such deeds of horror and the pen becomes wearied in recording them.

Mr. John Eysaman, with his wife, aged people, his son and his wife and an infant child, were living together in one house on the south side of the river, about two miles directly east of Fort Herkimer, on the Mohawk river.

An alarm gun had been fired at the fort to notify the inhabitants who were at their farms or out on business, that danger was apprehended, or a lurking enemy had been discovered; the family packed up their portable goods, and loaded them into a cart, and were about ready to start for shelter and protection at the fort, when the house was surrounded by a party of Indians and Tories. Old Mr. Eysaman and his wife were killed; the wife of the younger Mr. Eysaman, whose name was Stephen, was also killed. Some one of the assailants wrenched the infant from its mothers arms, and holding it by the feet, dashed its head against a tree, and its little limbs quivered in the agonies of death after it was rudely and barbarously thrown upon the ground and scalped. The mother was compelled to witness this horrid scene; and Stephen, who was doomed to captivity, being pinioned and driven a short distance heard the screams of his wife, struck down by a war club.

The enemy having taken four scalps, were content to spare the wearer of the fifth to grace their triumph on their return to Canada. This event took place on the 9th day of June, and as Mr. Eysaman returned from captivity at the close of the war, after an absence of three years and nine months, 1779 may be fixed as the year. He said on his return, the Indians and Tories, among other of his stock driven away, took three horses, one of them a fine stud, often rode on parade by a British officer, who noticed that Eysaman had always regarded the horse when he was mounted, asked him if he had ever seen the horse before. Eysaman said he had, and that the horse was his. The reply was, "Be off, you d--d rebel, you never owned a horse," and this was all he ever had for him.

Mr. Eysaman married again after his return from captivity, and raised a family of children, one of whom, Mr. Joseph Eysaman, now lives on the farm he inherited from his father, the spot where the murders were committed. Stephen Eysaman died at the age of ninety-four years. A remarkable case of longevity is presented by this family. Stephen had one brother and four sisters, one of whom lived to the age of 97 years; none of them died under the age of 85 years. The aggregate of the lives of these six persons, all of one family, was five hundred and forty-one years.

The destruction of the German settlements, on the south side of the river, in sight of Fort Herkimer, in July, 1782, by a party of about 600 Indians and Tories, has not been heretofore noticed by any of the writers upon our border wars, or if it has, my attention has not reached it.

The enemy were first discovered by Peter Wolever, who, with Augustinus Hess, lived about fifty rods from the fort. Both families were aroused, and finally succeeded in reaching the fort without any casualty, except the death of Hess, who was killed just as he was entering the picket gate. There were at this time only a few troops stationed at the fort. The Americans were not strong enough to act offensively. Valentine Starring was taken prisoner in a field, not far from the stockade, and was put to torture with a view of drawing the provincials to his rescue, when they heard, at the fort, his cries for help and lamentations under his tortures; not succeeding in this, poor Starring was tomahawked and scalped. There was a good deal of desultory firing between the assailants and assailed.

The provincials lost four men, two soldiers and two of the inhabitants, killed. It was supposed the enemy's loss in killed and wounded was much greater, as they could not approach the stockade within musket shot, uncovered. All the buildings in the settlement, except George Herkimer's house, were burned by the invaders, and the cattle driven away. This relation was given by Nicholas Wolever, now living, who was at Fort Herkimer at the time, who also says it was reported that Capt. Brant was not in this action. I will here notice, not an isolated case of human endurance and the tenacity of life, although not of frequent occurrence during the revolution. The wife of Mr. Henry Wetherstone, who had incautiously gone into the field for some domestic object, was set upon by a party of Indians, tomahawked, scalped and, as supposed, her dead body left to be looked after and cared for by her friends. She recovered, and lived many years after her long tress of hair had been exhibited as a trophy of Indian courage and inhuman butchery.

The flourishing villages of Mohawk and Ilion are located in this town, about two miles apart, on the canal. Mr. Remington's extensive rifle factory and armory, where thousands and tens of thousands of death-dealing weapons have been fabricated, was first established where Ilion now is. This establishment was the nucleus around which this village took its start, and being favorably located in respect to proximity to the canal and the central rail road; and having roads of easy grade to the southwestern part of this county, and the northwestern portion of Otsego, and the southeastern parts of Madison counties, the village has become the center of a very considerable business and active trade.

Mr. Rosecrants died at his residence on Fallhill, in the present town of Little Falls, at the close of the last century, and was interred by the side of his brother, the former minister, within the walls of the church, nearly under the pulpit.

6. HERKIMER

Contains all that part of the county bounded southerly by the Mohawk. River, westerly by Schuyler, northerly by Newport and Fairfield, and easterly by Manheim.

The easterly bounds have been changed, see sub. 7, Little Falls.

The whole of Winnes and portions of Burnetsfield, Hasenclevers, Coldens and Willetts patents, and some lots of the Royal grant and Glens purchase, lay in this town. The town of Herkimer, when organized in 1788, contained all that part of the county of Montgomery, bounded northerly by the north bounds of the state, easterly by Palatine, then extending to the west bounds of the present town of Manheim, southerly by the Mohawk river, and westerly by a north and south line running across the Mohawk river, at the fording place, near the house of William Cunningham, leaving the same house to the west of said line. This fixed the west line of the town on the present western limits of the county, north of the Mohawk, and covered the area now embraced in the towns of Fairfield, Little Falls, Newport, Norway, Ohio, Russia, Schuyler and Wilmont, besides a respectable portion of the northern parts of the state, outside the present county line. These limits also comprehended all that portion of the German Flats and Kingsland districts, organized under the colonial governments, north of the Mohawk, and east of the now westerly bounds of the county.

These territorial divisions of Tryon county into districts were made by acts of the colonial legislature, and stood in the place of towns, or townships. It will be observed, they were very extensive, and covered territory now embraced in several counties. The Canajoharie district, as an instance, extended from the Mohawk to the south line of the state, including the settlements at Springfield, Cherry Valley and the Harper settlement. There were, however, subdivisions of them into precincts, when required.

At the election for town officers, in March, 1789, the first held after the town was organized, the following persons were chosen: For supervisor, Henry Staring; town clerk Melger Fols; assessors, Melger Fols, George Smith, Melger Thum; collector, George Fols; constables, George Fohs, Adam Bauman; commissioners of highways, Peter F. Bellinger, John Demuth, Jacob N. Weber; overseers of the poor, Henry Staring, George Weber, Jr., Michael Myers; overseers of highways, Marx Demuth, Philip Helmer, Adam Hartman, Hannes Demuth, Peter Weber, Philip Herter, Hannes Hilts, Jr., Hannes Eiseman; pound masters, George Weber, Jr., Peter Barky, Hannes Demuth, Nicholas Hilts, Hannes Schell.

Henry Staring got two offices; Melger Fols, two; George Fols, two; George Weber, Jr., two, and Hannes Demuth, two. A complete Native American High Dutch organization, and nearly every man of them a descendant of the Palatine pilgrims. The voters seem to have excluded every other nationality from their ticket. Did they mean any thing by this? In these times such an act might be thought of peculiar significance.

The town records appear to be perfect since the first organization, and judging from the known characters of the principal officers elected, there must have been some very hard political contests in the town between the federalists and republicans in olden times. Success depended very much upon the vigilance of the parties, and it was alike important to both to carry the county town. The history of the county from 1725 to the close of the revolution, comprises but few incidents which did not take place in this, or the present town of German Flats. When these two towns were erected, Herkimer had been known by no other name for sixty-three years than the German Flats, and it was not intended to make any change, but to give the name of Herkimer to the territory on the south side of the river, where the Herkimer family were first seated, where most of those who remained in the country then lived, and where the general himself was born. The committee, having the matter in charge, not knowing the localities, inquired of some person who did, whether the German Flats lay on the right or left bank of the river, expecting to be answered according to the known rule of designation, which is to start at the source of the stream and pass down, noting the objects and places on the right hand bank and on the left hand bank. Being told the German Flats was on the right bank, the answer misled the committee, and hence arose the mistake and change. The committee acted upon a settled rule of definition, which their informant did not understand.

The Ray. John Spinner emigrated to the United States, from Germany, in 1801, and landed at the city of New York, on the 12th of May, after a long passage of 63 days. He was born at Warback, a market town in the Electorate of Mentz, January 18th, 1768; was early in life dedicated by his parents to the clerical office, and when only 11 years old, entered the gymnasium at Bishopsheim, where he remained three years, and was then transferred to the university of Mentz; remained in that celebrated institution of learning until 1788. In the term of his six years collegiate probation, he passed through a thorough coarse of studies, in philosophy, mathematics, history, languages, ancient and modern, divinity, jurisprudence, medicine. He was then admitted to a Romish clerical seminary, and in 1789 was consecrated to holy orders, in the Roman Catholic church. He assisted in celebrating the funeral obsequies of two German emperors, in accordance with the grand and imposing rites of the Romish communion. The emperor, Joseph II, died February 20th, 1790, and Leopold II, March 1st, 1792. He officiated eleven years as priest, confessor, &c., and about the year 1800, he embraced the Protestant faith and form of worship. On the 18th January, 1801, he married Mary Magdale Fedelis Brumante, a native of Loire on the Maine. She accompanied her husband to this country, and is yet living, at the residence long occupied by the 'venerable and deceased subject of this notice.

Mr. Spinner, soon after he landed at New York, was called to the spiritual charge of the German congregations at Herkimer and German Flats, and commenced his pastoral functions in September, 1801, and his connection with these churches continued about 40 years. He was engaged about 18 months of this period, however, as a teacher in the High school, at Utica. He conformed to the discipline of the Dutch Reformed church, but the first settlers of the valley, and the ancestors of the people, who composed the principal part of his congregations, were German Lutherans.

His services, during the long period of his ministry, were not confined to the two churches, under his special charge; in that time, he preached to congregations in Columbia, Warren, at the Indian Castle, Esquawk, Manheim and Schuyler, in Herkimer county, Deerfield, Oneida county, Manlius, Onondaga county, and Le Ray, Jefferson county, in some of which places, German emigrants had settled, when they first came into the country, and in others, were found the descendants of those Palatines, who had made their first resting place in the Mohawk valley. He was the third minister in permanent succession called to supply these two churches, after their first organization In the German Flats.

His predecessor, Mr. Rosencrants, died a few years before 1801. The Interim was probably supplied with the temporary services of clergymen of other congregations, or by those who were engaged only for short periods. He was tall in stature, dignified in deportment, and polished in his manners, accomplishments, not rarely found among the priesthood of the Romish church. He possessed a. capacious and vigorous mind, which had been embellished by a thorough and systematic education in German schools, under the instruction of learned and experienced masters. With the ancient, and most of the modern European continental languages, and especially the French, Spanish and Italian, be was quite as familiar as with his own native German, but from the slow progress he made in acquiring an accurate and easy pronunciation of the English tongue, in the course of twenty-five years, he must have been unfamiliar with it when he came into the county. The younger members of his charge, were in a rapid state of transition. The German schoolmaster, abandoned his desk and ferule to the English teacher, whose language was spoken by a majority of the people, and in which the business of the courts was transacted.

The Rev. James Murphy was inducted, as associate minister of these two venerable congregations, by many years the oldest in the county, before the Rev. Mr. Spinners connection was dissolved. Dr. Murphy, I understand, has no longer any ministerial charms of them.

John Adam Hartman.--Well, what of him, it may be asked? What office did he hold, under the colonial or state governments, which entitles his name to be placed in this chapter of notables? Reader, I never knew, nor does local tradition tell me, he ever held any other than a voluntary, self-elected place of confidence and trust, among the people of the upper Mohawk valley. Perhaps he was not naturalized, and therefore was ineligible to office under the crown, before the revolution, for he was not born a British subject. But if seven years immersion in the toils and blood of that war, could have made any man a native American, in 1783 ho was one, although born in Edenkoben, Germany, in September, 1743. Born and educated a peasant in fatherland, he was accustomed to the severe exposures of a roaming woodman's life, and the luxury of wealth had in no degree enervated a frame of great muscular power, and almost gigantic proportions, nor touched, with its alluring fascinations, a mind and a will as firm and unyielding, as he believed the cause he was engaged in, was just and good. He required no commissariat waggon to attend him on his excursions, to supply him with rations, while in pursuit of or watching the stealthy movements of the enemy. Mothers were gladdened when they knew Hans Adam was on the lookout, in the bush near by, and the confident prattle of children might be heard in the door yard; and the husbandman too could visit his fields, and attend to his cattle and crops, being assured, if danger approached, a signal from Hartmans well tried musket would announce the fact. Such a man could not fail to find a cheerful welcome and abundant fare at every log cabin in the land, nor were his goings forth on his perilous service unattended by sincere and hopeful aspirations to heaven for his safety and success. The detail of the traditional accounts which have come to us, of his services, encounters and escapes during the perilous period of the seven years frontier conflict, familiar to the reader, would extend this notice beyond any reasonable limit. There is, however, one marked event of his life, yet familiar to the descendants of the revolutionary inhabitants of the county, which may well have place on some more permanent record, than the fading memory of man.

Hartman from some exposure and by personal conflicts with the Indians had become disabled for life so that he could not labor. He was placed on the invalid pension roll, but, shame to my country, the gratuity bestowed was not enough to sustain the shattered remnant of a frame which had been hacked, lacerated and wounded in the service of his adopted country, without additional assistance from the local overseer of the poor. He died at Herkimer and the head stone at the spot where rests his remains, erected in grateful remembrance of his services, is seen in the burial ground surrounding the Brick church at Herkimer, and in full view from the Court house steps, with the inscription cut upon it:

JOHN ADAM HARTMAN,
Born at
Edenkoben in Germany,
A great Patriot in our War for Independence,
Died April 5th, 1836,
Aged 92 years and 7 months.

Fort Dayton was a small stockaded fort, erected in the northerly part of the present village of Herkimer, by Col. Dayton, of the continental service, in the year 1776, for the protection of the inhabitants on the north side of the river; Fort Herkimer, on the south side, being too far off, and too difficult to reach to secure that object as effectively as was desired. A small force of continental troops or state levies, was retained at this post during the war, and it afforded safe protection to the surrounding inhabitants -who sought safety within its pickets, against the marauding parties of the enemy. This spot was for many years before and after the revolution the most populous of any in this part of the country; the public buildings of the county have always remained at the village, and for several years it enjoyed a commercial prosperity unrivaled by any locality in the county; but the opening of the Erie canal damaged its prosperity a good deal. The old church, a wooden structure and a venerable relic of the past, was consumed by fire in January, 1834, when the Court house was burnt. It was soon after replaced by a handsome edifice of brick, which stands on the main street of the village, near the Court house.

Herkimer village is pleasantly situated on a plain near the junction of the Mohawk and West Canada creek, the surrounding country, except in the river and creek valleys, is a little elevated, presenting rich, varied and delightful prospects, not surpassed in the whole Mohawk valley. The large and pretty extended alluvial flat or bottom lands in this town, containing hundreds of acres, have been under cultivation more than 130 years, and still yield abundant crops in requital of the husbandman's toil, and seem to be inexhaustible. The extensive water power of the West Canada creek, which had been long unimproved, was brought into use about the year 1835, by a company of enterprising citizens of the town, and although the results of this experiment may not have fully met the expectation of some of its most sanguine projectors, there can be no doubt of the very beneficial effects to the village, by the construction and operation of mills and machinery and the use of the water power brought out by the company. That the project has not been more remunerative to the proprietors may rightfully be attributed to a nonuse of the property, and not to other causes. Why do not the capitalists in the vicinity devote their means to the erection of manufacturing establishments? They have wealth enough for that purpose. Why do the manufacturing towns in the Eastern states spring up as if by magic ? By using capital. No greater facilities of transport can be required than they now have.

When Capt. Small removed the wounded refugee to Fort Dayton to have his wounds dressed, he performed the act with all the care and humanity he was capable of exerting on that occasion, The welfare of Shell's two little sons carried into captivity by the enemy may have influenced the Americans

in their treatment of the disabled foe; but no matter what the motive may have been, the humane conduct of Capt. Small and his party contrasts favorably with that of their relentless and savage enemies.

Although there was but little active warfare on this frontier during the summer and autumn of 1782, and although Capt. Small had more than five successive years taken his life in his hand and gone forth with his men to beat off and chastise the skulking and savage enemy, and escaped unharmed, he was shot in the apple orchard where he and one or two of his neighbors had gone to gather apples, in the fall of 1783, three days after the definitive articles of peace were signed at Paris between the United States and Great Britain. The formal agreement for the cessation of hostilities between the two powers was not signed until January 20th, 1783, but there had been a virtual cessation after the surrender of Cornwallis, except as to the petty warfare carried on by the Indians, who seemed to have but little respect for a power that would acknowledge itself beaten by its rebellious subjects.

7. LITTLE FALLS

Contains all that part of the county set Off from the towns of Herkimer, Fairfield and German Flats, comprehended within the following boundaries, viz: beginning on the middle or base line of Glen's purchase, at a point where the line between lots number five and six in said purchase unites with said base or middle line, and running thence south along said line to its southern termination; thence on the same course continued to the south bounds of the town of German Flats; thence along the south bounds of said town to the southeast corner thereof; and thence along the eastern bounds of the towns of German Flats and Herkimer, to the southeast corner of the town of Fairfield ; and from thence by a straight line to the place of beginning.

The town covers parts of Glen's purchase, Staley's first tract, Guy Johnson's tract, Vaughn's and Fall hill patent, six lots in Burnetsfield, and small triangular pieces of L' Hommedieu's and Lindsey's patents.

I have in the general history of the county brought Out some, facts peculiarly applicable to this town, and the village which bears the same name, and 1 now refer to them in this connection, There were German inhabitants in nearly every direction around the present village before the revolution, but only one habitable dwelling and a gristmill within the present corporation limits. The present remarks should therefore be taken as a history of the village locality rather than that of the town. The gristmill destroyed during the revolution was located on the river near the bed of the old canal, and was fed by Furnace creek and the river. The dwelling house referred to was occupied by the miller and his assistants, and probably by persons employed at the carrying place. The road or path used for taking boats and their cargoes by the river falls, was located very nearly on the site of the old canal. The red gristmill, to supply the one destroyed, was erected in 1789, and the old yellow house west of Furnace creek, and near the north bank of the old canal, was built a short time before that period. Mr. John Porteous came to this place in 1790, and established himself in mercantile business. He occupied the yellow house, then the only dwelling within the present village limits. Its venerable walls are yet standing, the spared monuments of a destructive age. And the old Octagon, too, that so often attracted the admiring gaze of the traveler by stage, canal and railroad, was erected and enclosed about the year 1796, though not finished so as to be occupied at all seasons of the year as a house of religious worship, until nearly a quarter of a century afterwards, which is shown by the following memorial deposited in the ball of the steeple:

This house was erected in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and ninety-six, under the direction of John Porteous, Abraham Newly, Nicholas Thumb and Henry J. Klock, Estrus., and completed in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighteen, under the superintendence of:
Building Committee
Doct. JAMES KENNEDY.
WILLIAM GIRVAN, and
JOHN DYGERT, Esqrs.,

Master Builders
JOSEPH DORR and
WILLIAM LOVLAND,

Workmen
DAN DALE,
JAMES DOER,
BENJAMIN CARR,
SANDFORD PEARCE,
JAMES SANDERS,
MARTIN EASTERBROOKS,

Apprentices.
ROBERT WHARRY,
WILLIAM HADDOCK

The Revd. HEZEKIAH N. WOODRUFF,
Pastor of the Church and Congregation,
Little Falls, 23d April 1818.

In hand writing of JOSIAH PARSONS."

But where is that old pile of antique device and rustic architecture? Its lofty pulpit, its pews and singing gallery, where are they? Alas! alas! Gone, swept away by the hand of modern improvement. And the venerable Concord society, not always harmonious as its name imported, the trustees of which were seized of the temporalities for the term of their lives, one of which is not yet extinct, what has become of it ? Dead by a nonuser of its corporate franchises, and no longer held in remembrance. I am strongly inclined to perpetrate rhyme, or quote a couplet of poetry, but I repress the feeling. History is much too grave a subject to be mixed up with fabulous tales and poetic fictions.

And the long tin horn used by master Case, to summon the playful and unruly school children to their daily tasks; and on more grave occasions, when God's word was to be dispensed at the village school house, by some itinerant missionary of the cross, then were its notes heard through the confined valley, and echo after echo, in the still Sabbath morning, notified the hour of meeting, on the day of rest, for prayer and praise: that, too, has been nearly forgotten, and few now remain to repeat from memory, the amusing story of the tin horn, which schoolmaster Case used to blow with great dexterity and varied note. This horn or trumpet was about four feet long, and there were but few who could blow it.

The old Octagon church was always regarded as one of the curiosities of the place, and was noticed by the Rev. John Taylor, when on a missionary tour through the Mohawk and Black river countries, in 1802. He made a rough sketch of it, which is preserved in the, Documentary History of the state. He says, "this parish (Little Falls) contains six or seven hundred inhabitants," and "in this place may be found men of various religious sects. They have a new and beautiful meeting house, standing about forty rods back on the hill, built in the form of an octagon." His observations, however, convinced him it was not improved. But I will go back a few years. One of the two lots 12 and 13 Burnetsfield, embracing all the water power on the north side of the river, was owned, before the revolution, by one of the Petrie family, who erected the first grist mill on Furnace creek, and was engaged in the carrying business. The following are the names of some of the persons who settled at this place between 1790 and 1800, and who remained here permanently until death: John Porteous, William Alexander, Richard Philips, Thomas Smith, Joel Lankton, Richard Winsor, William Carr, William Moralee, Washington Britton, Alpheus Parkhurst, John Drummond, Eben Britton, Josiah Skinner.

The construction of the old canal and locks, by the Western inland lock navigation company, gave an impetus to the growth and prosperity of the place, which brought it into notice at an early period; but the paralyzing policy of the proprietor, who was an alien, in limiting his alienations to leases in fee rendering an annual rent, and refusing to make only a few grants of that description, to which he affixed the most stringent conditions and restrictions in the exercise of trade and the improvement of the water power, kept the place nearly stationary, until 1831, excepting that part of the present village on the south side of the river, not subject to the dead weight of nonalienation. Upon the opening of the Erie canal, in 1825, the only erections in that part of the village were a bridge and toll house, at the south end of the bridge; the Bellinger grist mill and a small dwelling, for the miller's residence, and the Vrooman house.

In 1816, there were only two streets, or thoroughfares, in the village. The turnpike, now known as Main street, and the Eastern and Western avenues, which then extended on the present line no farther than to cross Furnace creek, where it turned down east of the yellow house, thence over the old canal, and along between the old canal and river, to the head of the falls. The Western avenue, was not then opened. The other road was what is now called German, Bridge, Ann and Church streets, crossing the river from the south, and leading to Eatonville and Top-notch. There were not over forty dwelling houses in the place at that time. Before Main street was extended west from Ann, the traveled road was down Ann street, across the old canal, and thence along Mill street. At this time, there was one church, the octagon, not finished, the stone school house, two taverns, two blacksmith shops, five or six stores and groceries, and one grist and one saw mill on the north side of the river. This was nearly the state of things until 1828, except the few erections and improvements that had been made on Main and Ann streets, and two or three dwelling houses on Garden street. Ann street, north of Garden, was a pasture. All that part of the village east of Second and south of the lots fronting on Main street, extending to the river, as well as that portion east of the old Salisbury road, was a drear wilderness, thickly covered with white cedar undergrowth.

EDEN and WASHINGTON BRITTON were brothers, and natives of Westmoreland, New Hampshire. Eben settled in the village in 1792, carried on the tanning business many years, and died August 2Sth, 1832, aged sixty years. He survived his brother more than twenty years.

While strolling through the cemetery, north of the village, taking notes from the memorials of the dead, my attention was arrested by a broad headstone of white marble, fall and erect, and I transcribed the affectionate testimonial of the wife, who had consigned to the grave the loved and cherished companion of her long and varied life. These are the words spoken by the widowed and stricken heart.

Died, on the 29th of October, 1842, in the 83d year of his age,
EDWARD ARNOLD
His widow erected this humble
stone, to commemorate his private worth,
but his nobler monuments are the battle
fields of the American revolution, in
letters of blood. These shall perpetuate his
public virtues when this tribute of a wife's
affection shall have crumbled into dust,
and no human hand can point out the
spot where the hero sleeps."

WILLIAM FEETER.-- Feeter was a native of the territory now embraced in Fulton county. His name, before it became Anglicized, was written Veeder or Vedder; and in 1786, when he was commissioned an ensign in the militia, it was written Father. In 1791, he was appointed a justice of the peace in this county, under the name of William Veeder. Although the name he bore at an early day indicated a low Dutch origin, this was not the fact. His father was a native of Wittenberg, Germany, and at the commencement of the revolution, the family was settled in the neighborhood of Johnstown, and was so much under the influence of the Johnsons, that all of them, except William, then quite a young man, followed the fortunes of Sir John, and went with him to Canada.

The colonel, in his youthful ardor, felt more inclined to give young America a trial, than to follow the cross of St. George into the wilds of Canada; and on all occasions when the invaders came into the Mohawk valley, for the purposes of plunder and slaughter, he was ever among the first and foremost to volunteer his services to drive them away. On one occasion, in 1781, when a party of Indians and Tories made a descent upon a settlement in the Palatine district, for the purpose of plunder and murder, the subject of this notice took an active part in punishing the lawless intruders. It appeared that the object of the enemy was to plunder and murder a family related to one of the Tory invaders, which was not quite agreeable to him; he therefore gave himself up, and disclosed the nefarious intentions of the enemy, who, finding themselves betrayed, made a rapid flight to the woods. Col. Willett did not feel disposed to let them off without a severe chastisement; he therefore ordered Lieutenant Sammons, with twenty-five volunteers, among whom was William Feeter, to go in pursuit, and they moved so rapidly, that they came upon the enemy's burning camp fires early the next morning. Feeter and six other men were directed to keep the trail, and after a rapid pursuit of two miles in the woods, a party of Indians was discovered lying flat on the ground. The latter, when they saw Feeter approach, instantly arose and fired; but one of the enemy being grievously wounded by the return fire of the Americans, the whole gang of Indians and Tories fled precipitately, leaving their knapsacks, provisions and some of their arms. The result of this affair was, that three of the enemy were wounded in the running fight kept up by Feeter and his party, and died on their way to Canada; one surrendered himself a prisoner, and the wounded Indian was summarily dispatched by his former Tory comrade, who had joined in the pursuit.

Colonel Feeter seated himself upon Glen's purchase, within the present limits of Little Falls, soon after the close of the revolution, and opened a large farm, which he cultivated with success more than fifty years. He raised a family of five sons and seven daughters, some of whom still survive, and others have gone with him to their final rest. All of his children, with two exceptions, I believe, settled in this county. Colonel Feeter adhered through life to doctrine and mode of worship of the German Lutheran church, which must lead one to believe he had been early and thoroughly educated in the tenets of the great reformer. He died at Little Falls, May 5, 1844, aged 88 years.

His father, Lucus Feeter, stood high in the confidence of Sir William Johnson and the whole family, and because his rebellious boy would not consent to abandon his native country and follow the fortunes of Sir John, he was driven from the paternal roof, and compelled to seek a shelter and a home where he could. The surrounding neighbors being mostly adherents of the Johnson family, arid friendly to the royal cause, the task of finding a kind and sympathizing friend, and one who would advise and counsel him for the best, may have been a difficult matter for young Feeter to surmount. He succeeded, however, in securing a temporary home in the family of Mr. Yauney, a near neighbor of his father. At a proper time, Mr. Yauney presented a musket to his young protege, and told him he would have to rely upon that for defense and protection, until his country's freedom was acknowledged by the British king. The colonel used that musket through the whole war, and it is now preserved as an heirloom in the family of his youngest son. Col. Feeter was born at Stone Arabia, February 2d, 1756.

I now relate the following incident, which shows the cool courage and resolute determination of the man, or I should say, perhaps, of him and his companion. On one occasion, he and Mr. Gray, the father of the Hon. Charles Gray, of Herkimer, had, during the war, been on an expedition up the river, and were returning in a small canoe; when they reached the Little Falls, instead of taking their light craft over the carrying place, or sending it over the falls empty, they pushed into the stream, and safely navigated their frail vessel amid boiling, surging waters, over the rapids. He performed a like feat at another time during the war, when a comrade in another canoe was stranded on the rocks, and barely escaped drowning.

The reader, who knows the locality as it now appears, may think this rather an improbable story. The fact is not only well attested, but we must reflect, that the stream was not then hedged in and confined by dams, arches and artificial structures, and that the flow of water, at an ordinary flood, was much greater than it is at present.

Six of the large lots in Glen's purchase, a part of the fourth allotment of the Royal grant; the whole of John Van Driesen's and Snell and Timmerman's patent, and part of Rev. Peter Van Dreisen's; a part of Vrooman's patent, and some other small grants made by the state, are situated in this town.

The grant of 3,600 acres made in 1755, to Jacob Timmerman and Johan Jost Schnell, commonly known as Snell and Timmerman's patent, is near the central part of the town on an east and west line, and south of the Royal grant. Manheim was settled by German emigrants before the revolution and the date of this patent may be assumed as pretty near the period when that event took place. The Snells and Timmermans, descendants of these patentees, are still quite numerous in the town, owners of the soil through a long line of inheritance, granted to their own persecuted and always patient and toiling ancestors.

Suffrenus, Peter, Joseph and Jacob Snell, four sons of one of the patentees, made a donation of seven acres of land for a church lot and twelve acres for school purposes. But this was not all. They and their neighbors met upon the lands every Saturday afternoon, and worked at the sturdy forest until the lands were cleared and rendered fit for cultivation.

A church was erected on the lot designed for that purpose, and that ancient edifice was replaced by a new one in 1850-1. The school house in the district stands on the donated lot. Eleven and a half acres of the school lot were transferred by an act of the legislature to the church. How could this be done without the consent of the parties interested?

There were nine men of this Snell family, and among them were Peter, Joseph and Jacob, who went under Gen. Herkimer into the Oriskany battle, and only two of them returned, of whom Peter was one; the other seven were killed. An aged and respectable member of this family, now living, states that these three men were very active and zealous in urging Gen. Herkimer to a forward movement on the 6th of August, 1777. They had resolved to fight the enemy, and how fatal was, the consequence!

Henry Remensneider, or Rhemensnyder, and Johannes Boyer were the first settlers on Glen's purchase, a few miles north of the Little Falls. They came on to the tract several years before the commencement of the revolutionary war. John Boyer was born near New York; his father emigrated from Elsos in Germany. John was in the Oriskany battle and lost his team of horses and wagon in that bloody affray. He was the immediate ancestor of the Boyer families, once so numerous in this town. His youngest son, Henry, now 75 years old, is still living, and several of his descendants are found in the county, although emigration has somewhat diminished their numbers. Among other German settlers who had seated themselves in this town before the revolution, were the Keysers, Van Slykes, Newmans, Shavers, Klacks, Adles and Garters, all of whom drank deeply of the bitter cup of the revolutionary struggle.

Palatine, Oppenheim and Manheim, are names significant of the origin of the people who were the first settlers in these towns. Manheim constituted a part of the Palatine district in Tryon county, and the town of that name until 1797, when it was organized into a separate town. The town remains as it was when annexed to the county in the year 1817. The East Canada creek affords a large supply of water at most seasons of the year, and being intersected with many falls has been used to some extent for manufacturing and mechanical purposes. This water power has been brought into use at a village called Ingham's Mills, where there is a tannery, recently erected, and mills and other machinery in operation. The most important village in the town has the post office designation of Brackett's Bridge, and is sometimes known as Wintonville. Mr. D B. Winton erected a tannery at this place previous to 1840.

This establishment was afterwards purchased by an eminent house in the city of New York, engaged in the leather business, by whom it was enlarged and improved, and is now the most extensive manufactory of the kind in the county or in this part of the country. The village is unincorporated. It contains two churches, two stores, several mechanics' shops, also a saw and grist mill, and a stave and barrel manufactory. There are five houses for religious worship in the town, but I am not able to classify the denominations to which they belong.

I should not do justice to the subject in hand, if I omitted all reference to the name of Major Andrew Fink, who settled in this town soon after the close of the war. He was of German descent, and a native of the lower Mohawk valley. He was well educated, and at the commencement of the revolution, although then a young man, had acquired a very considerable knowledge of military science, unusual for a mere provincial of that day.

Mr. Fink was appointed first lieutenant of Capt. Christopher P. Yates's company, raised for special service. The warrants bear date July 15th, 1775. This was the commencement of a military career to which he was attached during the whole revolutionary contest. His constitution was firm, resolution indomitable, and courage undoubted. Major Fink died at a pretty advanced age, and the stone that mark his final resting place may be seen upon a rising ground a little north of the Mohawk turnpike in full view of the spot where rest the remains of the brave and patriotic Herkimer. I should take great pleasure in noting down the particulars of Major Fink's services in the great struggle for colonial rights and Anglo-Saxon freedom, but on inquiring of the surviving members of his family whether he had left any papers, I was told he once had many letters and papers relative to revolutionary transactions but they were now all gone. The family say, sometimes one person and then another would desire to look the over to ascertain some fact or indulge an idle curiosity, and in the end all the papers of any consequence were gone before they were fully aware of it.

All that portion of the town lying between the south end of lots number 17, I8 and 19, Glen's purchase, and the southerly bounds of the first allotment, Royal grant, and the river, except the Snell and Timmerman and a small point of the Peter Van Driesen patents, was ungranted by the crown at the revolution. The state sold small parcels of this tract, to Isaac Vrooman, John Van Driesen and others, soon after the close of the war. So late as 1777, Capt. Joseph Brant, the Mohawk chief, claimed the lands more recently known as the Christy place, long occupied by Nathan Christy, Esq., and the lands adjacent, which lay nearly opposite to the Indian castle church, on the south side of the river. The Christy place was an improved farm before the revolution, and Brant rented it to a German for one hundred dollars a year. It is not an idle speculation to assume that these lands had never been sold by the Indians, but were held appurtenant to the upper Mohawk castle.

Mr. Beaxdslee left his father's residence in Connecticut, in 1781, not like Coalebs in search of a wife, but a young New Englander in search of a fortune, which he aimed to accomplish. He was a practical mechanic, architect and civil engineer. He stopped at Sheffield, Mass., worked one year on a farm, and then went to Vermont, commenced working at his trade, and bought and paid for a small farm, but soon lost it by a defect in the title. Soon after he went to Vermont, he spent a fall and winter on Lakes George and Champlain, fishing and hunting, in company with Jonathan Wright, who afterwards came into the north part of this county, and was known as old Jack Wright, the trapper. Mr. Beardslee then turned his face westward, built a bridge at Schaticoke, and a meeting house in Schoharie. In 1787, he went to Whitestown, then being settled by eastern emigrants, and engaged with White & Whitmore to build mills on shares. He afterwards sold his half at a good advance. He remained at Whitestown till 1792, having been employed by the state to build a set of mills for the Oneida Indians. He completed his contract without returning to the white settlements, after he had commenced it. By humoring the Indians, joining in their sports of hunting and fishing, and exciting their curiosity to see the results of his labors, they cheerfully assisted him in his enterprise, which contributed to make the job quite profitable.

At this time there resided in the neighborhood of the Indians, two well educated, gentlemanly Frenchmen, but perfect recluses, the relic of French colonists, and of that splendid colonial French empire, already struck from the French crown, and which had cost so much of blood and treasure to establish and uphold. Between 1790 and 1796, he built the first bridge across the Mohawk river, at Little Falls, the old red grist mill at that place, the first bridge over the gulf, east of the academy, mills for Richard Van Horne, at Van Hornesville. and for Col. Freye, at Canajoharie, a bridge over the West Canada creek, and the court house and jail, which were burned up in 1833 or 1834, a bridge across the Mohawk river, at Fort Plain, and a bridge over the East Canada creek, a grist and saw mill and fulling works, about half a mile north of the present Mohawk turnpike bridge.

The building of this bridge led to his seating himself at Manheim permanently in this wise. The bridge was erected at the expense of Montgomery county, or paid for by it. In order to obtain the necessary timber, he purchased a one hundred acre lot west of the creek, and adjoining the site of the bridge, for which he paid 300 pounds, New York currency, in March, 1794. After the bridge was completed, he erected the mills, which were finished and in operation in 1795. This was at the flood tide of emigration to the Royal grant and Western New York; the mills attracted attention, and population gathered to his place: by the year 1800, quite a little village, dignified by the name of the City, had sprang up, counting two stores, two taverns, a blacksmith shop, nail factory, a cooperage and a brewery, afterwards came tile lawyers, doctors, school masters, and the distillery.

It could also boast having one man drink himself to death on a bet, and the presence of a state prison graduate, frequent performances of Punch and the Babes in the Woods, by Sickles, and daily amusements in the way of turkey shooting, pitched battles with fists, clubs and teeth, and launching batteaux, for the Mohawk river service. At this time there was more business done at Beardsley's Mills, than at Little Falls. In 1801 and 1802, the Mohawk turnpike was completed, and being located south half a mile of the little village, by diverting the travel on this then great thoroughfare, completely used up the City, to the serious loss of the founder. With the view of making good his losses, and fixing himself on the line of travel, where business could be done, he purchased, in 1810, 350 acres of land, laying on both sides of the creek, and between his first purchase and the river, for which lie paid $11,500, a high price, it would seem, at that day. The prospects of business on the turnpike justified this purchase. But our increasing commercial difficulties with great Britain and France, followed by the war of 1812, caused him to postpone carrying out his intentions, when this new purchase was made.

When the peace was proclaimed, in 1815, the project of the Erie canal on the south side of the river was brought forward, and finally consummated, The immediate local effect of opening the canal, was a great depreciation of agricultural lands in the Mohawk valley, the almost certain destruction of such small business places as the East Creek, Palatine and Caughnawaga, on the north side of the river, and the building up of villages on the line of the canal. A greater change than that effected by the canal in the Mohawk valley, has seldom been witnessed in any country. Nearly the whole business was transferred from the north to the south side of the river. The turnpike became almost a solitude, and the villages through which it run, as a desert waste of waters.

It has been claimed, and with much apparent reason, that Mr. Beardslee was seriously injured in consequence of the construction, by the state, of the Minden dam across the Mohawk, at St. Johnsville. The ordinary flow of the river is from three to five miles an hour. This dam was made and used as an auxiliary to the canal, and the top line was so high as to overcome all the natural descent between it and the mouth of the East creek, about three and a half miles, and hence the river surface was nearly a level the whole distance, presenting, as was claimed, an effectual obstruction to the free flow and discharge of the ice from the creek and river above, during the winter and spring floods,

Mr. Beardslee, by strict attention to business, hard hand work and the application of a sound, inventive mind, twenty-seven years, had accumulated a handsome estate, and which, but for the adversities and losses he met with, in no respect attributable to misconduct or want of sound, discriminating judgment, would have been almost princely in this country and in his day.

He was a tall man, free from obesity, with large black eyes, which he inherited from his father, and a fine figure, bestowed on him by his low Dutch mother. Natural and easy in his address, pleasant and companionable in his intercourse with others, generous and hospitable. He used to say, with much satisfaction, that in all the heavy and difficult structures he had raised, or superintended the construction of, not a man in his employment, or of the motley crowds of people collected on such occasions, as was the custom of that early day, was killed or injured in the least. In the decline of life, he indulged himself a good deal in reading, a gratification he did not enjoy in his youthful days. He died of a scirrhous stomach, from which he had suffered many years. This sketch has been considerably elaborated, because it shows, not only how much a young man of indomitable perseverance and firm resolution can achieve, single handed and alone, but what young Americans have heretofore been in the habit of performing.

10. NEWPORT

Contains that part of the county lying within the following bounds viz: beginning at the southeast corner of great lot number eighteen, in Hasenclever's patent, and running thence on the line of said lot, a northerly course to the Steuben road; then on a direct course to the centre of lot number thirteen, in Walton's patent; then through the centre of lot number sixteen, in Walton's patent, to the west bounds of the county; then on a direct line to the southwest corner of lot number twenty-eight, in the third allotment of the Royal grant; then easterly, along the line of lots to the northeast corner of lot number twenty-three, in said allotment; then south, along the line of lots to the southeast corner of lot number forty-two, in the second allotment of said grant; then on a southerly course to the Canada creek, at the bridge, near the house heretofore or lite of Obadiah Kniffin; then west, to the middle of the creek; then down the middle of the same, until a west course will meet the place of beginning; and then west to the place of beginning.

As will be noticed in the above boundaries, a part of Hasenclever's and Walton's patents, and portions of the second and third allotments of the Royal grant, are in this town.

No part of the territory of this town was settled before the revolution, and probably not before 1790. 1 will pause a moment to record again the Indian name of this creek, as laid down on an outline map of the Mohawk river and Wood creek, showing the relative positions of Fort Bull, Fort Williams and German Flats. This is the name, Teughtaghrarow. It is marked on Southier's map of the province of New York, published in 1779, Canada river; and it is so called on a map made by Guy Johnson, in 1771. This stream, at Newport, is quite as much entitled to the respectable appellation of river as the Mohawk is, at any point above the junction of the two streams.

William, Ephraim and Benjamin Bowen, of Newport, Rhode Island, purchased the lands where Newport village is now located, of Daniel Campbell of the city of New York, in 1788-9. Mr. Campbell obtained his title from the commissioners of forfeitures, in July, 1786. Christopher Hawkins, Benjamin Bowen and Joseph Benseley, came from Rhode Island to Fairfield, about the year 1788. In 1790, a Mr. Lauton made a small clearing in the town, and put up a log cabin which he abandoned. In the fall of 1791, Mr. Hawkins removed into the town, from Fairfield, with a view to a permanent settlement; and in the spring of the following year, he erected a small house for the Bowens on their property, and Benjamin Bowen seated himself there the same year. In 1793, Mr. Bowen built a sawmill, and the next year, a gristmill, at this place. Joseph Benseley removed from Fairfield to Newport, in 1795; between this time and 1798, William Wakely, Mr. Burton, Stephen Hawkins, George Cook, Nahum Daniels, Edward Coffin, John Nelson, John C. Green, John Churchill, George Fenner and William Whipple, made permanent locations in the town. These families were from Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Mr. Wakely kept the first tavern, and George Cook opened the first store in the town. Mr. Hawkins derived his title from the commissioners of forfeitures, through John T. Visscher. Coffin, Green, Nelson, Churchill and others, purchased lands on the west side of the creek, in Walton's patent. It will be noticed that this tract of 12,000 acres, was granted by the crown, in 1768, to five brothers by the Dame of Walton, and seven other persons, who it maybe assumed conveyed their interests to the Waltons as soon as the patent was issued, for no one out of that family ever claimed any interest in these lands, except through the Waltons. At the date of the grant, and even at the outbreak of the revolution, some of the Walton patentees were known to be officers in the army and navy of Great Britain; and all of them living at the commencement of the war, retired to England, except Gerard Walton, who remained in the city of New York during the whole period of its occupation by the British. Now, there is not any question out the Walton title. It is, so far as I know, perfectly good; but how it was preserved and protected from forfeiture and escheat might interest the curious, and elucidate an event connected-with our early history.

The first town meeting after this town was erected, took place in 1807; Doct. Westel Willoughby was the moderator; Christopher Hawkins was chosen supervisor and Phineas Sherman, town clerk. Newport village, containing about 700 inhabitants, is a pleasant and healthy location. A gentleman, distinguished by his position; of enlarged and liberal views and accurate observation, and who had several times passed through Newport to Trenton Falls, before the era of rail roads had diverted the travel, told me, he had never seen in this country or in Europe, anything that exceeded in beauty and variety of scenery the valley of the Canada creek, and the route then traveled from the Mohawk to Trenton. He had visited the highlands and lowlands of Scotland, traversed the Alps and the Appenines, navigated the Rhine, and passed through Germany; but had seen nothing that pleased him so much, as the route above mentioned. This village is connected by plank roads, with the canal and Central rail road, at Mohawk and Herkimer, and at Little Falls.

Referring to the manuscript, young Hawkins, then in the thirteenth year of his age, and an indented apprentice to Aaron Mason of Providence, R. I., in May, 1777, went to New Bedford, Mass., and shipped on board the privateer schooner Eagle, mounting twelve small carriage guns, commanded by Capt. Moury Potter. This small craft was bound on a cruise for such British vessels as could be captured. The Eagle made her offing and as the officers alleged or supposed, ernised in the track of vessels sailing between New York and England. She crossed the broad Atlantic, however, without seeing or speaking with a single vessel. In due time the privateer made the English coast, where she remained a short time when the captain and crew concluded to " bout ship" and return home in no pleasant mood, as they had promised themselves on the start, as many prizes as they could man, on the outward cruise. On the return passage, the Eagle spoke an unarmed schooner which proved to be a French vessel from the West Indies bound to Halifax, when some dispute arose between the officers and crew of the Eagle in regard to the national character of the schooner, the latter insisting that she was English, and could be made a lawful prize. To settle this point the first lieutenant of the privateer, John Paine, boarded the French vessel and examined her papers, who returned and reported her a French vessel loaded with flour. John Ward, the boatswain, and a large majority of the crew were dissatisfied with this report, but their grumblings did not avail any thing; the officers of the Eagle did not deem it prudent to super add piracy to the crime of rebellion.

The next vessel overhauled by the Eagle was an English merchant brig, deeply laden, bound to New York, and here, according to Hawkins's relation, John Bull completely outwitted and out-maneuvered brother Jonathan, and this was owing to the inefficiency of Capt. Potter, of the privateer. It was quite dark when the Eagle came up with the brig, which kept on her course without apparently paying any attention to the little craft hovering around her. A broadside from the schooner soon produced an inquiry from the brig, "What in God's name do you want of us?" The reply was" Shorten sail, come under my lee and send your boat on board me." The Englishman now began to excuse himself, said his boat was lashed under his booms and he could not get her out; that if he could have permission to lie by until morning he would then send his boat on board. This was agreed to, but in the morning there was no brig in sight; she being a pretty good sailor had spread her canvas and departed on her course. It was then determined to stand on the course for Sandy Hook, in the hope of overtaking the brig, but a severe gale from the northeast sprung up, which lasted two or three days, the sea making a clear breach over the schooner's deck, her crew had to exert their utmost skill and energies to keep her from foundering. They had then no time to think of making lawful prize of British vessels.

Before the storm had entirely abated, the privateer was captured by the British sloop of war Sphynx, of twenty guns; the schooner was sunk, and the crew taken as prisoners of war to New York, when a new era in the life of Hawkins was opened to him, and new scenes presented to his juvenile contemplation. After reaching New York, Hawkins and most of his companions were placed on board the prison ship Asia, an old transport, then anchored in the East river. At the expiration of three weeks, Hawkins was taken on board the British frigate Maidstone, of twenty-eight guns, to serve as a waiter to one of the under officers of that ship. He was held in the British service about eighteen months, and being a mere boy, and all officer's waiter, found but little difficulty in getting on quite comfortably in all respects, save the yearning wish to see his mother. Having quieted the apprehensions of his officer in respect to his desire to leave him, by saying he had become satisfied with the service, and did not wish to go home; he often had permission, when his ship was in port, to go ashore in the city of New York. Hawkins was not long in improving an opportunity to make his escape, and return to North Providence, which he reached late in November, 1778, pretty well satisfied, as he then thought, with a seafaring life. He remained in the service of Obadiah Olney, of Smithfield, between two and three years, when a fit of roaming again came over him, and he went to Providence and shipped on board a privateer brig, of sixteen carriage guns, commanded by Christoplier Whipple, Esq. The vessel soon put to sea, and was captured by two British cruisers, on the fifth day after leaving Newport. Hawkins's prospects were again blasted, and his anticipations of enjoying large receipts of prize moneys were changed to a prospect of a long and gloomy imprisonment. The crew of the privateer brig were taken to New York by the captors, and placed on board the Jersey prison-ship. I can not give in detail the contents of the journal before me. The horrors of "that floating bell," as it has often been called, and the cruelties inflicted by the British officers upon the American prisoners, are too familiar to our countrymen, to require repetition now. There can be no doubt that the American prisoners offended against the police regulations of the ship. Starvation, sickness and extreme privations drove them to maddness and desperation. These offenses were punished with savage severity.

In the latter part of September, or the beginning of October, 1781, Hawkins and a shipmate, William Waterman, conceived the hazardous project of making their escape from the prison ship, by swimming to Long Island, a distance, as they calculated, of two and a half to three miles, outside of the sentinels posted along the shore. To get clear of the ship was the main difficulty to overcome. It was impossible to leave the upper deck without being discovered. The prisoners were confined, during the night, to the lower deck, where there were no guards, the gun ports of which were secured by iron bars, strongly fastened to the timbers of the ship. Having secured an old ax and crowbar, they went to work during a heavy thunder storm, and removed the bars from one of the port holes of the lower deck, and after replacing them temporarily, to prevent detection, they stowed their wearing apparel, what little money they had, with some other articles, into their knapsacks, which they fastened to their backs, by passing the lashings under their arms, and across the breast. From the description given of the contents of the knapsacks, they must have been very heavy when saturated with water, and greatly impeded the progress of swimming. Waterman and Hawkins, thus equipped, left the ship, being let down into the water with the aid of their fellow prisoners, by means of an old service rope, which they had obtained.

After reaching the water, Hawkins passed along the side of the ship to the stern, and then struck out for land, being guided by the lights of the vessel and beacon light on shore, one of the extreme points of the line of the enemy's sentinels. Hawkins did not again see Waterman after he left the Jersey, but has no doubt Waterman succeeded in reaching land. After gaining a point out of gun shot distance from the shore, Hawkins was guided by the half hour call of "all's well," by the sentinels on shore, and directed his course to the one on his right, who gave the last call. This he judged would carry him, when he reached the land, to a point of safety. About half an hour before he gained the shore, his knapsack broke loose. He was unwilling to part with it, and endeavored to retain it, by taking it under one arm and then the other; but he lost his course by adopting this expedient, and made slow progress in reaching land. He was finally compelled to abandon his knapsack and the contents, and was left destitute of all covering when he landed, except an old hat. After being nearly three hours in the water, and swimming about three miles, according to his own statement, he reached land cold, stiffened and nearly exhausted, With considerable difficulty he was able to walk, and concluded he would go to the barn that he and Waterman had agreed on as a place of meeting, before they left their prison.

In reaching the barn, he met with several mishaps, tumbled over a pile of stones, and in his nude state he was exposed to and received several severe bruises and scratches, which excited his anger. This he found restored some degree of animal heat, and by the time he had reached the hay in the barn loft, he felt a strong inclination to sleep, although his blankets were not of the finest texture.

Hawkins left his hiding place, as soon as it was dark, and wandered all night, he knew not whither, naked and hungry, in a hard storm of rain, and made another barn his refuge and hiding place the next morning. Here be remained until the next day at noon, when he thought it best to issue from his hiding place, and take an observation, with a view of finding out where he was. This part of Long Island was then infested with Tories, and straggling bands of Hessians were prowling about the country. He supposed, by pursuing an easterly course, that he increased the distance between himself and New York. Nothing very material occurred, hunger pressed him very, hard, and he went into a potato field to obtain a few potatoes, which he designed to roast when he could find an opportunity, and here he was discovered by a young woman, who had come with a basket to procure some of the vegetable for family use, at a house near by, and seeing a human being with no covering but an old hat, she dropped her basket, and ran screaming towards the house, while Hawkins was quite as nimble footed in reaching a piece of woods in an opposite direction, Here he armed himself with a large club, and directed his course towards a bay or cove in sight, to avoid the Tory hounds, which he feared might be put upon his track. He was not, however, molested, and took up his lodging that night in a barn, upon unrotted flax. The next morning, Hawkins arose with the sun, and pursued his journey through the fields, having the road on his right and the bay on his left, observing the farmers at work in the fields, and avoiding them.

Two and a half days of exposure, without food, began to tell pretty severely upon young Hawkins. He saw two young men at work in a garden near a farmhouse, and made up his mind that he would speak to them. He approached in a direction so as not to be seen by the people who were at work in the adjoining fields and told them he wanted some old clothes and something to eat. After some explanations one of the young men directed him to sit down where he was and he would go and speak to his mother and see what she had to say about the matter. Hawkins then felt assured that if his case was to be disposed of by a mother, he was safe; and so it proved. The young man soon returned to him with a decent pair of trowsers and some food. Hawkins made no unnecessary delay in covering his nakedness and satisfying his hunger. He was then taken to the old lady in an outhouse, who asked him various questions, and among others, if he had a father and mother. Hawkins told her he had a mother at Providence, and that his father was then in the American army. She replied, with tears streaming from her eyes, " I wish you were at home." It was arranged between this kind matron and Hawkins that he should take a shirt and pair of trowsers, then hanging on the fence, and if he was taken up and any question should be asked about them, he was to say be stole them. This kind and patriotic dame then directed young Hawkins where he could find a canoe and oar to take himself across a small bay which lay in his route to Sag Harbor, gave him more food, and sent him on his way home to his mother.

The husband of this lady, and the father of the two young men to whom Hawkins had first addressed himself, had three years anterior to the time now mentioned, been arrested by the British and confined in the Jersey prison-ship, and had died on board that pestilent old hulk, only two or three weeks before Hawkins came to the house. This explains why this kind hearted woman was so cautious and timid. I can not follow the details of the journal any further for want of room.

The only incident worthy of notice in this connection, which occurred to Hawkins on his way to Sag Harbor, happened at Oyster Bay. He was there arrested by a gang of refugees, detained some time, and finally sent on his way back to New York to be again incarcerated in the prison ship. He met with friendly treatment front one of the citizens at Oyster Bay, after his arrest, who furnished him with clothes and money, and who told him that a boy of his resources and energy could not long be detained in the prison-ship, if his captors succeeded in getting him there. Young Hawkins did not allow himself to be taken back. He escaped from the guard which had him in custody, and finally reached home in safety, pretty well tired of his seafaring propensities, Mr. Hawkins was quite a young man when he came into the county.

11. NORWAY

Contains that part of the county beginning at the northeast comer of lot number thirty-seven, in the second allotment of the Royal grant, and running thence east along the tier of lots to the west bounds of Salisbury; then along the same, north, to the south bounds of West Brunswick (now Ohio); then along the same, westerly, to the town of Russia; and then south, along the towns of Russia and Newport, to the place of beginning.

This town contains portions of the second and third allotments of the Royal grant, and not any other original patents or grants from the crown or state.

Fisher Potter, and his father, Jeremiah Potter, with their families, came into the county from Rhode Island, in 1788, and settled about eight miles north of Fairfield village. They opened a small clearing, and built a log hut to shelter them from the snows and frosts of winter. Their whole store of provisions, to carry them through their first long northern winter, was a crop of potatoes, with some salt, and forest game had to supply the residue of a meager subsistence. A gun and suitable ammunition, were indispensable to a frontier forest life, and they were of course provided. A severe tempest had prostrated several acres of the forest, near the place where this family had made their clearing, and this spot in those days was called a hurricane, and here were found the white forest rabbit in abundance The winter set in and the snow fell in heaps, to the depth of four or five feet, banking up the outside walls of the log hut and rendering it quite comfortable inside, during the whole winter. The men were employed in procuring fuel and bunting game; one cold frosty morning Fisher and his father strapped on their snowshoes took their guns and went into the hurricane after rabbits. They had a small dog with them, only useful to start up the small game. While earnestly intent on obtaining something which would render their potatoes and salt a little more savory and palatable, and somewhat more nourishing, they discovered a hole in the snow " nearly as large as a quart cup," extending down to the ground some four or five feet deep. The sides of this hole in the snow were hard, and covered with white frost flakes showing that there was some heat below the exhalations from which escaped through this aperture, and kept it open.

Whatever it might be, our pioneers were not backward in finding it out, and Fisher Potter converting his snowshoes into a shovel, with right good will dug away the snow down to the ground until he reached a mass of hemlock boughs; and after removing a portion of them, a considerable cavity was observed in the earth below, but nothing more. A question of some importance now presented itself, and that was, whether they should proceed further to uncover the cavity, in order to ascertain its contents, or to resort to other means to find out whether any living animal was still there; finally, the services of the little dog were put in requisition; he was brought to the hole and after taking two or three scents, barked valorously, but keeping himself ready to make a safe retreat, if needful. This unusual disturbance roused the habitant below from his torpidity, and he gave evident tokens of disquiet. In the meantime, Fisher, believing he had uncovered an animal that would require something heavier than rabbit shot to quiet him, had stepped back a few paces from the hole, charged his gun with a ball, and both were ready for the encounter.

Bruin, not intimidated by the noise, and resolved to punish the intruders upon his dominions with a few heavy squeezes, if he could catch them, presented his comely visage at the hole of his den, when Fisher placing the muzzle of his gun within a few feet of his bearship's head, gave him the whole charge. The bear was killed, and being large and fat, and the meat tender, he was worth more than his weight in white rabbits, to the famishing family. My informant, Mr. A, B. of F., now seventy-four years old, and who possesses a remarkably clear and accurate recollection of the incidents attending the first immigration of the New Englanders into the county, says, he saw old Mr. Potter and his son Fisher, when they first came out of the woods, the spring after the incidents above related. He says Fisher was, a tall man, but lean and gaunt when he came out first; his complexion was sallow, and be appeared very much as though he had been nearly starved. Old Mr. Potter said, that killing the bear was a very lucky thing for the family, and probably saved them from starvation, as their other provisions, potatoes and rabbits, when they could kill any, were getting quite short. Mr. Potter lived to a good old age, and died in 1813. Between 1788 and 1790, John, Andrew, and Amos Coe and Capt. Hinman, came into the town from Connecticut; John and David Corp, N. Faning, Thomas Manly and David Underhill, from Vermont; five families by the name of Brayton, from Rensselaer county. The first effort at clearing up farms in this town, was made in 1786, by a Mr. Whipple and Christopher Hawkins, from Rhode Island. They did not prosecute their enterprise. The first grist mill in this town was built by Carpenter Cole, on Du Bois brook; the first saw mill by Capt. David Hinman, northwest of Norway village.

Drs. Willoughby and L. Dewey, and the father of Colonel D. C. Henderson, the latter from Vermont, settled in the town in 1792. Some discrepancy as to dates may exist, growing out of this state of facts. It was often the case, that settlers would come into the town, make a small clearing, put up a log house, and make all the preparations they could in one season, return home in the fall of the year, and bring on their families the next spring. There is no probability that any portion of the Royal grant received any accession of population, after the revolution, until the sale of it was perfected by the commission of forfeitures, and they only sold five of the small lots in the first allotment late in the year 1784.

Norway village lays on the old state road, is located in the centre of the town, and contains about thirty-three dwelling houses and 150 inhabitants. This town must divide the honors with Ohio, in respect to the paternity of Graysville, a small but thriving village on the north bounds of it, and which has grown into importance by the lumber and tanning business. Like all the lands on the Royal grant, those in this town are well adapted to grazing, and butter and cheese constitute its principal agricultural products.

In the year 1842, some members of Mr. Fisk's family, in Norway, in chopping down a maple tree, discovered, near the heart of it, indications of cuts made in the wood with a sharp instrument. The tree being a large one, curiosity was excited, they then chipped off the exterior wood, when they found the plain marks of a blaze, three hacks and a small piece of the edge of an iron or steel hatchet. These wounds appearing to have been made in the tree when it was a small sapling, the parties were induced to make a careful count of the grains of wood that had grown outside of the blaze and hacks, and found three hundred full circular grains of wood formed around the tree. The small piece of the hatchet and a block of wood from the tree were preserved.

A healthy tree makes one new grain or layer of wood a year; these cuts and hacks must, therefore, have been made in 1542, if there was no mistake in counting, and it is said there was none whatever. The inquiry is made, whence came and who bore this instrument, denoting European civilization, more than fifty years before Henry Hudson made his appearance in the bay of New York. Was it obtained from the Spaniards, under Cortes, who first landed in Mexico, in 1509? No permanent settlements were made on the Atlantic coasts of the United States till after the beginning of the seventeenth century, and it is quite certain the hatchet did not come from that quarter. Was it obtained from the French in Canada? No colony was founded there until 1608, by that nation. Whence, then, did it come? It may have been obtained on the sea coast, from the people attached to an European vessel, who had made a temporary landing at some point. But were native Indians accustomed to blaze and notch or hack the forest trees, under any circumstances? Certainly not when on the war path. They never left any such permanent evidences of their whereabouts. The existence of the blaze and hacks enclosed inside of three hundred grains or layers of sound wood, either cast a doubt on what has hitherto been viewed as certain, so far as regards our American forests, or presents an interesting question for antiquarian inquiry.

The extracts given in another chapter, from the journals of two missionaries, sent from Massachusetts, in the early part of the present century, to spy out the nakedness of the land, supply destitute places, and look after the scattered members of their own denomination, descendants of the Pilgrims, will attract some attention to this town. Norway, in 1855, is not what it was in 1801-2. Since then it has been shorn of territory equal to some German principalities, although not quite as productive and populous.

The statistical returns of the late census show there are two Baptist churches in this town, one Episcopal, one Methodist Episcopal, and one Presbyterian. I have been kindly furnished of these Baptist churches, to which I cheerfully give a place, premising it with an expression of the deep regret and disappointment I have felt, while penning these sheets, in not being able to do the like with every church organization in the county.

On the 25th of December, 1828, the members of the regular Baptist church, of the town of Newport, then residents of the town of Norway, met at the house of Mr. Dudley Smith,and organized by appointing Mr. Osee Bronson, moderator, and Jefferson Tillinghast, clerk, after the usual religious exercises.

This meeting resolved to petition the "mother church" to be constituted into a church in the town of Norway. The petition was granted May 24th, 1830, and on the 14th of June following the Norway members, 8 males and 15 females, 23 in all, were convened as a conference, a preliminary step to church organization. On the 28th of September, 1830, a council of delegates from the neighboring churches was convened at the Presbyterian meeting house, to consider the subject of organizing a Baptist church in this town. Of this council Samuel Dexter, of Frankfort, was chosen moderator, and the Rev. Willard Judd, of Salisbury, appointed clerk.

The council resolved to fellowship the members of the conference as a church of Jesus Christ. The Rev. Elon Galusha, of Whitesboro, preached on this occasion, and the Rev. William Hogeson, of Stratford, gave the hand of fellowship.

The first pastor of this church was the Rev. R. T. Smith, who commenced his services in January, 1831. He was succeeded by the Rev. W. B. Curtis, C. E. Brown, L. 0. Lovel, N. Furgoson, E. D. Towner, Francis Prescott, Mr. S. A. Douglass, a licentiate, and again by the Rev. C. E. Brown, in March, 1853, who is the present pastor of this church. Since its organization, the church has had 294 members connected with it, 170 of whom were added by baptism. The number reported to the association in 1854, was 90. Four members of this church have become ministers of the gospel; and one, a lady, went on a foreign mission to Assam, where she died soon after her arrival. This church has a lay organization, under the statute, which holds the temporalities, the church building and parsonage. The Rev. Mr. Brown promptly furnished the foregoing information. I thank him for it, and have followed his suggestion in another matter.

12. OHIO

Has been recently incorporated or erected. The territory of which this town now comprises a part, was set off from Norway in 1823, and erected into a new town by the name of West Brunswick, since changed to Ohio, in 1836. In 1823, Norway extended to the north bounds of the county, and so did the town of Russia.

Ohio is now bounded on the south by the north bounds of the Royal grant, east by the west bounds of Salisbury, north by the north bounds of Jerseyfield patent, and the same course continued to the east line of Russia, and west by the east bounds of Russia. This town covers a part of Jerseyfield patent, and contains a small triangular part of Remsenburgh patent, lying northwesterly of the West Canada creek, the north bounds of Ohio, and the west bounds of Russia.

Although this town is too recent in its origin to afford any historical events under its present name, worthy of special notice, yet when its present territory formed a part of the Kingsland district during the revolution, it was the theater of one of those cold-blooded and inhuman murders and burnings so often reiterated between 1776 and 1783, as to sicken humanity by the recital of them. Complainings now avail nothing; these astounding crimes were long since perpetrated, and would before this time have been nearly forgotten, but for historical repetition, and the uncertain agency of oral tradition in the localities where the events happened. Does it console us that retributive justice has long since adjudged the case, passed its sentence, and for many years has been and now is executing its dread decree? If it does, let us fold our arms complacently, and await the final execution of the exterminating judgment; but never forget, no, never, the probable cause nor the occasion of these providential visitations, that we may shape our course so as to avoid a similar punishment.

The sufferer's name, Mount, is not found among the ninety-four persons to whom Jerseyfield patent was granted. He planted himself on a handsome plain a few miles north of the south line of the patent, and a little northerly of the usual route taken by the enemy in traversing the wilderness between the Black river and lower Mohawk valley. He probably went there under the patronage of some of the proprietors, and might reasonably expect to end his days in the seclusion that miles of forest afforded him, with nothing " to molest or make him afraid," save the wild beasts of the wilderness. After leaving Black creek on the confines of Norway, passing over a deep clayish soil, some rather stony ground, gently undulating, and proceeding north a few miles, the traveler will reach the plain where Mr. Mount had seated himself, and if it be in the spring season or at midsummer, he will stop and gaze with admiration at the beautiful prospect before and around him. This is the spot chosen by Mount for his home. Ohio must then be placed in the list of towns in the county settled by whites before the revolution. The West Canada creek crosses the northwest corner of the town.

Ohio City, so called, contains a small collection of houses near the central part of the town, on the road from Utica to Wilmurt and Hamilton county. Graysville, on the south branch of the Black creek, is a small but thriving village, and is situated in the towns of Norway and Ohio. The creek is here the dividing line between the two towns. A triweekly stage now runs from Graysville to Little Falls, and returns the same day. Ohio has increased in population the last five years nearly one-third. The lumbering business is carried on to a considerable extent in this town. Its demonstrations, as the young men had taken their loaded rifles with them when they left the house, but on the day they were killed and scalped in the barn, they had neglected this precaution. When the report of firearms was heard in the house, the rest of the family fled to the woods and made their way to Little Falls as fast as they could. Mr. Mount did not see his wife and daughter, after leaving his house, until they met at Little Falls. The Indians, my informant says, burned Mount's buildings when they found the family had left the place.

According to this statement the family must have been prodigiously frightened. It is not improbable, nay, it is quite certain, that there were other white families settled in the town near the place called Ohio City, before the revolution.

Mr. David Thorp moved on to the Mount farm soon after the war and lived there many years. His son, David Thorp, was a member of the assembly from the county in 1832.

Contains that part of the county beginning at the southwest corner of lot number twenty-eight, in the third allotment of the Royal grant, and running thence east along the line of lots to the southeast corner of lot number thirty; then north along the line of lots, and the same line continued to the south bounds of the town of Wilmurt; then westerly along the same to the west bounds of the county; and then along the said west bounds to the place of beginning.

This town contains a part of the third allotment of the Royal grant, portions of Jerseyfield, Remsenburgh and Matchin's patents, and the whole of Lush's, Marvin's and Jacobs's patents.

Russia cannot boast of anti-revolutionary habitans, except the wild beasts of the forest, and the roaming Indian in pursuit of game, or on the war path to reach some point of attack, or circumvent a foe. Indeed, no white settlements were made in the town, until after the year 1790. The state road enters the town near the southeast corner of it, runs diagonally across the third allotment, and reaches Boon's Bridge, on the West creek, a short distance from the northwest corner of the Royal grant. The town is irrigated by several small streams, and among them is Black creek, all of them tributaries of the West Canada, and affording water power for mills and machinery of different descriptions and capacities, and a needful supply for grazing stock. Trenton Falls, the center of the creek, being the boundary line between the two counties at this point, lay partly in this town, and the crossing place where W. N. Butler was killed is pointed out about two miles above the junction of the Black creek with the Canada, so that this town and Ohio must dispute the palm for this locality.

The industrial pursuits of the population are chiefly directed to grazing and cheese and butter making. Utica is the nearest market town of note, and the Utica and Black river rail road now opens the most feasible route to the eastern market, whether by canal or railway, for the products of this town, diverting nearly the whole of its commercial trade to Utica.

Stodard Squires, from Connecticut, was the first settler lie came into the town in the year 1792. The Millington family, from Vermont, and the Smith family, came into the town, and took up lands, within a few years after Squires. Farley Fuller, George Taylor and Roscum Slocum moved into the town about the year 1795, and between that time and 1800 this town settled very fast. John G. Squires, a son of Stodard, was seven years old when his father moved on to the grant. He is now living, and occupies the same farm on which the family located when they came into the town. Mr. Squires is very particular and quite certain as to the locality of the Butler crossing, and his designation of the spot is supported by the declarations of an aged revolutionary veteran, Mr. Williams, who was with the American troops under Willett, and which I have derived from Jeremiah Cory, Esq., late sheriff of the county. Mr. Williams must have visited the spot, giving credence to his own declarations some fifteen or twenty years ago; and Mr. Squires asserts, that a bayonet and other warlike instruments were found near the place he points out. I have felt very anxious to fix the place of Walter N. Butler's death with reasonable certainty.

lt may be assumed then, I think, that the two parties, the pursued and the pursuers, crossed the Canada creek about two miles above the junction of the Black creek with the West Canada, and in the neighborhood of the twin rocks. This place is about twenty-seven miles north of Herkimer village. There is no doubt but the hostile parties crossed the Black creek, and that the American advance and the British rear guards had a pretty smart encounter at that point. I have noticed but one fact in the course of my researches which seems to contradict the position now assumed. The Mount place, at which Willett's party encamped on their return from pursuing the enemy, is several miles nearly due east from this crossing place, and it may not seem probable that Willett, whose object was to reach the German Flats as soon as possible, with his hungry troops, would have taken that route to reach a point nearly south from this crossing place. But he no doubt had good reasons for retracing his steps upon his recent trail, and this slight deviation from a direct course to Fort Dayton, should not be allowed to overbalance the traditional relations we now have. Ross and Butler, whose object was to reach the Black river, knew the most direct course to reach that point, and they were on it. The destruction of Fort Schuyler "by fire and flood," in May, 1781, and the withdrawal of the troops stationed there to Forts Herkimer and Dayton, render it quite improbable that any of Willett's troops went to the former post in October, 1782. The spot where Butler fell deserves a monument, to point out to unborn Americans where a severe chastisement was inflicted, and where the scourger fell. The mound on the west bank of the creek, formerly pointed out as Butler's grave, has been entirely washed away, and his remains have been scattered over the valleys once desolated by his revengeful arm.

14. SALISBURY

Contains all that part of the county, bounded south by Manheim; northerly and easterly, by the bounds of the county; and westerly, by the west bounds of Manheim, continued north to the southerly bounds of a tract called Jerseyfield, and then northerly, to the bounds of the county; along a straight line run to the southerly extremity of the division line, between the tracts called Nobleborough and Arthurborough.

Apart of Jerseyfield patent, and portions of the first, second aid fourth allotments of the Royal grant are in this town.

This town was peopled before the revolution, with several families of Tories or persons friendly to the crown, though they may not have committed any overt act of treason against the colonies. Living on the Royal grant, they were, no doubt, the tenants of, or went there under the protection of tle Johnson family. They were allowed to remain unmolested by the Indians and Tories, during the whole war; but when the commissioners of forfeitures, in 1784, claimed the grant, as the property of the state, they may not have esteemed the protection of their royalist landlords as of much value, or their titles, if they held any, as securing to them, "an indefeasable estate of inheritance." One of these people, named Johnson, lived on lot number 154, in the first allotment, Royal grant, on the road between the old Salisbury meeting house and the Four corners. Daniel Lobdell, mother of them, lived in the westerly part of the town, about one mile southerly of the old Salisbury meeting house.

These parties were conveniently located, to suit the purposes and accomplish the objects, of those who planted them on the direct route from the Mohawk valley, to the head waters of the Black river. Here the disaffected could congregate in safety, and mature their plans of mischief; and from these points, runners could be dispatched to hover round the out-settlements, collect information, watch the movement of troops in the valley, and even spy out what was going on at the blockhouses and stockades, and outside of the principal forts; and here, too, straggling parties of the enemy received aid and comfort, and were seasonably notified of whatever was important for them to know, and within the power of these people to give.

Old Mr. Lobdell had four or five sons, who at an early period of the war went to Canada with a party of Indians, and remained there until after peace was proclaimed. Joe, one of them, was waiter to a British officer, and used to boast after his return, of his sumptuous living while in Canada. He was pensioned by the United States, for revolutionary services. In what way he contrived to convert his menial labor for a British officer, into military service for the colonies, and to make satisfactory proof to the commissioner of pensions, may be best explained by a resort to the records at Washington.

A few New England families may have located in this town, before 1788. Between that time, and 1794, the immigration was pretty rapid. The Salisbury meeting house, since converted into a wagon factory, or an appurtenant to one, was erected during the latter year. Mr. Jabez Ayers put up the first frame building erected in this town The following names are familiar as being among the early settlers: Avery, Cook, Hackley, Hallett, Todd, Hopson, Burrell and Waterman. The Rev. Caleb Alexander, who visited this town in 1801, as a missionary, says it then contained a population of 1694.

Salisbury Center, is a small village, situate on Spruce creek. Here are several sawmills and other mills and machinery propelled by water, with a large tannery. Salisbury Corners, two or three miles west of the Center, holds a respectable place among the business localities of the town; and Devereaux, at the northeast corner of the grant, has many years been known as a point from which considerable quantities of sawed lumber have been sent to the canal and rail road at Little Falls, for the eastern mark et. The western section of this town is well adapted to grazing, and the dairy business has been successfully carried on there, for many years. The northern portion is well supplied with hemlock, whence the tanners in that section draw large quantities of bark. The state road passes through the southwest corner of the town.

15. SCHUYLER

Contains all that part of the county beginning at the Mohawk river, on the line which divides the lands heretofore or late of Eli Spencer and Benjamin Taber in Colden's patent, and running thence in a straight line to the Southeast corner of the land now or late of Joel Harvey, on the Steuben road; then to the southwest corner of the town of Newport; then southwesterly along the west bounds of the county to the Mohawk river; and then down the same to the place of beginning,

The whole of Kass's patent and parts of Cosby's manor, and Hasenclever's and Walton's patents are in this town.

This being one of the most ancient towns in the county, as respects the period of settlement, and the most ancient in regard to the crown alienations of title to some of the lands within its territory, "in free and common soccage as of the manor of East Greenwich in the county of Kent," would be looked to for a rich supply of historical incident, and numerous recitals of amusing anecdotes, and thrilling stories of burnings, murders, scalpings, captures and escapes. In this we are disappointed. Several German families had settled within the present limits of the town, before the French war, and among them were the Kasts and Starings; but these were looked upon, as outlaying appendages and suburban to the principal Palatine village below. There was a good carriage road in 1757 on the left bank of the river from the crossing where Utica now stands, through Schuyler to the Palatine village, German Flats, which was traversed by M. de Belletre with his French and Indians in 1757. They burned two houses on the Kast patent and every thing in the shape of houses and buildings on the way to the village. The inhabitants soon returned and resumed their occupations, and between this time and 1775 the town had received some additions to its population along the river. There was a store on Cosby's manor in 1766, and John Wolff, Doct. Petry's wife's father, then lived on the manor. The land in Schuyler is generally of good quality, and the river alluvial flats are as strong lands and yield as luxuriantly as any other in the valley. Along the river and about three miles north the surface presents quite a level aspect.

This town, although not the birth place, was many years the residence of Judge Henri Starring, with whose name the reader has become somewhat familiar; and here was concocted the celebrated Yankee pass. There was some additions of German population in this town immediately after the revolution, but the accessions of immigrants from the east and from New England did not take place at an early period after that event. There were formerly several low swampy pieces of ground along the river in this town, in which, if oral tradition speak the truth, more than one unfortunate Indian after the peace of 1783 found an untimely grave. There are no villages in the town. Several efforts have heretofore been made to use the waters of the Mohawk for hydraulic purposes, and considerable sums of money have been expended for that object, but these efforts were unavailing and the money sunk.

This may be properly called a farming town, quite as much so as any in the county; and although the people, for a time, were rather reluctant to change their mode of husbandry, they have now come into the way of getting rich. The loss of population the last five years indicates this result.

16. STARK

Contains all that part of the county bounded northerly by Danube; easterly and southerly by the bounds of the county; and westerly by a line drawn from the easternmost lock of the old canal, on the north side of the Mohawk river at Little Falls, to the head waters of Lake Otsego.

Burr's map of the county shows that parts of Henderson's, L'Hommedieu's, Vaughn's, McNiel's, J. Vroman's, C. Colden's, Livingston's and Lansing's patents are in this town.

This town, before 1817, constituted a part of Minden, Montgomery county. Before the revolution and at the close of that war, before the organization of towns in this state, this territory lay within the limits of Canajoharie district of Tryon county. All the lands in this town, except a portion of L'Hommedieu's and J. Vroman's patents, which lay within its boundaries, were granted by the colonial government before the revolution. As will be seen by a reference to the table of titles, several of these grants were made about one hundred years ago, and a considerable time before the colonial difficulties commenced with the mother country.

There were two small European settlements near the southerly line of the town, before 1775; one on the Otsquago creek, called the Otsquago settlement, comprising, among others, the Shalls (Schalls), the Bronners and Fetherlys, whose descendants are yet found enjoying the fruits won by the martyrdom of their ancestors. The other settlement was at the Kyle, so called. This may have been within the limits of Springfield, and a short distance from the east line of the town of Warren. A family by the name of Eckler or Ecklar, had seated themselves at this place on Henderson's patent, or rather, perhaps, Petrie's purchase. Both of these settlements were broken up during the revolution, and the inhabitants compelled to fly for refuge and protection to Fort Plank, where they remained till the close of the war. I visited the Eckler settlement in August, 1854, and found John, one of the sons of Henry Eckler, who was driven off by the Indians and Tories, and a younger brother, still on the old homestead which had passed from father to sons, through three generations, and the title yet held by will. No alienations out of the family having taken place, since

the first grant, by the patentee. This is an occurrence so unusual, that, I have deemed it worthy of particular notice. John Ecklar, at the time I saw him, was 71 years old; he had a brother, Henry, living in Sharon, aged 88 years, the other brother was 68 years of age, a hale and robust man, who evinced a little inquisitiveness about the object of my visit, surmising, perhaps, I might be inquiring into titles to land. The worthy yeoman should have considered his beyond all dispute or impeachment. Emanating from the crown, and sealed with ancestral blood in asserting the just rights of the colonists, followed by a marked possession of an hundred years, who would hazard an inquiry into such a man's right to the soil he cultivated?

Starkville P. 0. and Van Horneville P. 0., in this town, situated on the Otsquago creek, are points of some note. A plank road has recently been constructed from Fort Plain through these villages into the northerly part of Otsego county.

Van Horneville affords a very considerable water power, well adapted to manufacturing, milling and mechanical purposes; and it has been appropriated to these objects to a considerable extent, by the enterprising proprietors. Abraham Van Horne, the father of Richard and Daniel Van H., settled here with his family in 1791, opened the wilderness at the head waters of the Otsquago creek, erected houses and built mills. I have been informed that two run of Esopus mill stones for a grist mill, were drawn through the Woods by four horses, from the Mohawk river, on a woodsled. Whether the four stones were taken through the woods as a load, or only one of them, my informant did not state. It was no doubt pretty hard sledding, whatever might be the number taken for a load. Mr. Abraham Van Horne emigrated from New Jersey into this state in 1771, and first settled on a farm in the present town of Florida, Montgomery county, and removed from thence in 1783 to Fort Plain. He was a member of the Tryon county committee. of safety in June, 1775, from the Mohawk district, and continued a member several consecutive years, firmly attached to the cause of American freedom. He was appointed sheriff of Tryon county, May 22d, 1781, and no man could bold a commission signed by George Clinton, whose devotion and patriotism was doubted in the least. Mr. Van Horne March, 1810, at his home place, now called Van Horn aged 72 years. The subject of these brief remarks was not of course, the Abraham Van Horne, one of the patent the grant made in 1731, designated by that name; nor that patentee a member of the Tryon county committee. I have therefore ventured to give Mr. Van Horne the position in the revolutionary contest which family tradition seems have marked out for him.

The soil of this town appears well adapted to the raising of hops and grain of various descriptions, and agricultural industry seems to have taken that direction to a considerable extent, but grazing and cheese making are not neglected.

According to the census returns, this town contains four churches. One regular Baptist, one Baptist and Lutheran, one Methodist Episcopal, one Union. Starkville, in the easterly part of the town, has a population of 110 inhabitants and Van Hornesville, near the south bounds, has 228. This town appears to have lost 297 in population out of 1775, since 1845, and this within a decade of almost unexampled success and prosperity with the agricultural classes.

17. WARREN

Contains all that part of the county bounded westerly by Columbia, southerly by the bounds of the county, easterly by the bounds of the county and the west bounds of Stark, and northerly by German Flats and Little Falls.

It embraces the principal part of Henderson's and Theobald Young's patents.

The reader of these pages has no doubt observed that there were settlements of whites some distance south of the Mohawk river before the revolution. These were principally, if not entirely, composed of Germans from the Upper valley. Andrustown, so called, and the settlement at the Little lakes, were within the present limits of the town of Warren.

In March, 1792, Samuel Cleland, from Colchester, Massachusetts, came into this town and settled, with his family. This was the first New England family that immigrated hither. Mr. Cleland had five sons, Norman, Salmon, Jonas, Martin and Moses. Jonas and Moses now survive, the former being 75 years old. Norman died in 1831, aged 62 years, and Salmon went to his final rest at the advanced age of 84 years. Martin died when about 20 years old. The father, Samuel Cleland, died at Warren, October 10th, 1834, aged 90 years, 4 months and 14 days. Danforth Abbot, Hugh Panel and Amos Allen, from Massachusetts, settled in this town about the same time. Elder Phineas Holcome, the first settled minister in that part of the county, came in soon after Mr. Samuel Cleland. This town was organized in 1796, four years after the immigration from the east set in, and must have filled up pretty fast. Jonas Cleland, Esq., informed me that when his father first came into the county, he located himself not far from the German settlement of Andrustown. That he found the bones of a man unburied near the charred ruins of a dwelling, and collected and interred them. The tradition of that day designated these human bones as the remains of a Mr. Bellinger, who escaped to his house when that hamlet was sacked and burned by the Tories and Indians, during the revolution, and would not quit it when set on fire. He preferred thus to die, rather than endure the lingering torments of captivity and death, perhaps according to the savage mode of infliction. A man must be bold, resolute and determined, who would so resolve and act. Let it not be said he exhibited a stolid indifference to life. He had seen, perhaps, his wife and children slaughtered, and might expect the same fate when within reach of the tomahawk. His cattle had been collected and driven away, the Indian firebrand had been applied to his barn, stacks and other property, and looking at death as certain, he placed himself on the funeral pyre, and awaited its approach.

Warren is the southernmost town in the county, is nearly eight hundred feet above the level of the Mohawk river high ground from which the waters descend northerly, easterly and southerly. The surface of the land is considerably undulating, and the soil generally appears quite as well adapted to hop and grain growing as grazing. There are, however, a number of large dairy farms in the town. Owing to the large quantities of manure required to keep the hop fields in good yield, the dairy business has been found a profitable adjunct in the farming line. There is to me a something so homelike and lifelike in the appearance, at midsummer, of large fields of Indian corn, grain of various descriptions and potatoes, I can not resist giving utterance to the reflection, that such a people must abound in wealth, because they are not dependent.

The principal local points in this town are Crain's corners P. 0., Jordanville P. 0., Page's corners, and the Little lakes, Warren P. 0. Andrustown still retains its local name, and here are found descendants of the German Palatines, who first opened the forest on Henderson's patent; the Shoemakers, Bells, Crains, Hoyers, and others. The tittle lakes, whose waters discharge into the Otsego, are in the extreme southeast part of the town, three miles east of Richfield springs. The great western turnpike passes through the village located between these two small bodies of water. The white cedar swamp lands in this town are nearly as valuable as any other in it. The timber is used for hop poles.

18. WILMURT

Is the largest town in the county, and probably in the state, and contains that part of the county commencing at the southwest corner of the town of Morehouse (in Hamilton county), and running westerly on the north line of the Jerseyfield patent, until it strikes the West Canada creek; thence continuing the same course of said Jerseyfield line, until it strikes the west line of Herkimer county; thence northerly, on said line, until it strikes the north boundary line; thence easterly, along the north bounds of said county, until it strikes the northwest corner of the town of Morehouse; thence southerly, on said line, to the place of beginning.

Within these boundaries are all those parts of Remsemburgh and Vroman's patents, Adgatels, Brown's, Nobleborough, Moose river and Watson's tracts, and Totten and Crossfield's purchase, which lie in the county.

This town has trebled its population in five years, to be attributed to the increase of the lumber business, under the direction of the Messrs. Hinckley and others, who are largely engaged in that trade in the north part of the county. The legislature have heretofore appropriated $5000, to remove obstructions from the West Canada creek; obstructions which hindered the floating of logs and unsawed lumber from the sources of the creek, during the spring floods, to an extensive set of mills in operation near Prospect, Oneida county, where many millions of feet of boards, plank and other sawed lumber are cut out annually, and sent to market.

The machinery of these mills and all the arrangements for booming and securing the logs, bringing them to the ways, where they are to be taken on to the saw carriages, and for removing the plank and boards when sawed, and disposing of the refuse stuff, are spoken of as being equal to all similar establish ments in the country. The mineral regions of this town will be approached, if not immediately intersected, by the Saratoga and Sackets Harbor rail road.

In 1792, Alexander Macomb, of New York, purchased of the state 1,920,000 acres of land, at nine pence per acre, lying in the northern part of the state, and the same year John Brown, of Rhode Island bought of Macomb or obtained the title to, about two hundred thousand acres of that purchase, which was, afterwards divided into eight townships, numbered from one to eight inclusive, and townships number one, two, six and seven were also subdivided into small lots. This tract does not lay on Moose river proper, and only a small triangular point of township number eight extends into Hamilton county. The westerly parts of towns one, two, three and four are in Lewis county. This has been many years called Brown's tract. According to Burr's map of the county, a northerly branch of the Moose river runs through the southern portion of the tract. Mr. Brown visited his lands near the close of the last century, made some improvements in the way of opening roads, building houses and erecting mills, intending and expecting to make sale of them. Mr. Brown died, however, before he realized any of his anticipations, and no doubt a great many more men will die before that wilderness will be seen "to blossom as the rose." In 1846, the commissioners of the land office were offered five cents an acre for a considerable portion of townships one and two, but they refused to take less than eight cents an acre.

A son-in-law of Brown, Mr. Charles F. Herreshoff, went on to the tract a few years after the death of Brown, for the purpose of making permanent improvements upon it and bringing the lands into market. This project was quite as visionary, far more expensive, and in the end, more fatal to the projector, than the antecedent one had been to Brown. Herreshoff expended a large sum of money in clearing up the lands, repairing the former mills built by Brown, and erecting new ones, in building houses and opening roads, and at one time had gathered around him some thirty or forty families. He also erected some iron works in township number seven, and actually succeeded, it is reported, in making about one ton of iron. But Herreshoff's outlays were large, and it required something more "to speed the plough " than could be raised on the tract, or from the proceeds of the iron; he therefore resorted to the expedient, which he doubtless had often indulged in before, of drawing on his friends in Providence for the needful means to consummate a dearly cherished object. The draft was returned to him protested; he felt dishonor keenly, and deliberately shot himself through the head with a pistol. He was ardent, ambitious, probably visionary, and could not have had much practical experience of the business he was engaged in; and if he died "as a fool dieth," it was a choice of evils with him. He preferred death, a suicidal exit from the world, to the crushing endurance of mortified feelings, groping his way through life in poverty, and as he thought, covered with dishonor.

After Herreshofrs death the people he had brought there left the settlement, and iron works, mills, barns and houses, with one exception, went rapidly to decay. It is understood that sometimes one and then another family has been found bold and hardy enough to keep watch and ward on the tract since Herreshoff died. A great portion of the tract, if not all of it, has been sold for arrears of taxes and bid in by the state.

In 1815, a Mr. Noble, a venerable patriarch, and nephew of the patentee of Nobleborough patent, had found his way there through the woods, and was enjoying a wilderness life as he best could in a green old age. It will be observed that this large tract was purchased of the state by Arthur Noble in 1787; he made some improvement on these lands as early as 1790, and then erected a sawmill and bad some boards sawed out which he took to Ireland. The settlement broke up and another effort to colonize the tract, in 1793, was made with the like success. The remains of a grist and sawmill were seen at this settlement about the year 1811 by Mr. William Bensley of Newport. Mr. Noble must have been influenced by a monomania like that of John Brown's, when he caused a carriage road to be cut and cleared to his lands, over which he passed in his coach. Mr. Noble sojourned for a time at Little Falls while his experiments in the woods were going on, but finally returned to Scotland, where he died many years since. There are large quantities of excellent timber on the lands in this town, of almost every description, except pine, found in our northern latitude. Portions of the surface are broken and stony, and other portions can be brought under cultivation and will make fair grazing lands. The iron mines of this region are spoken of as rich and inexhaustible.

19. WINFIELD

Contains all that part of the county beginning in west bounds of the county, where same are intersected by a line run due east from northeast corner of township number twenty township of the Twenty townships, so called, and running thence easterly to a bound on the south side of the Utica and Minden turnpike at southeast corner of the town of Litchfield; and then along the bounds of the county easterly, southerly and westerly to the place of beginning: comprising within its parts of Bayard's, Lispenard's and Schuyler's patents.

This town was settled by whites before 1800, but at what period I am not able to state; probably between that time and 1790. A small part of it lay within the limits of the Old England district until the municipal organization of the counties in this part of the state into townships took place. Its area is not large, containing only about fifteen thousand acres, as returned by the assessors. The soil is good and highly productive. More attention has been here given to wool growing than any other town in the county. The products of butter and cheese, as given by the census returns, show that this branch of industry has not been forgotten.

Several streams which flow southerly into the Unadilla river, have their rise in this town and Litchfield, and afford very considerable facilities for milling and mechanical pursuits, which have not been left unimproved. The Great Western turnpike passes through the southerly part of the town, which, before the days of canals and rail roads, was a large thoroughfare thronged with stages, carriages, teams and droves of cattle, but now almost a solitude.

The village of West Winfield, whose population is nearly four hundred, is located very near the west bounds of the county. It contains an academy incorporated by the regents of the university. I refer the reader to another chapter for a more particular description of this institution. The locality is pleasant and healthy. A bank organized under the laws of the state has recently been established in this village. The plank road from Ilion on the Mohawk to the Great Western turnpike, a short distance east of this place, has caused a very considerable portion of the trade and travel of the Unadilla country to center at and pass through the village northerly to the canal and Central rail road.

*The Village is Van Hornesville, but in various places the author refers to it as Van Honesville or Van Hornesville.

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