Our County and It's People

Chapter 13

1788 - 1806. Formation of Oneida County

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When the American colonies became independent of Great Britain, the State of New York held more than 7,000,000 acres of wild, uncultivated and unappropriated lands. A number of patents of lands had been granted prior 1791; as to those in Oneida county, see the chapter on State patents. Those were patents comparatively small in amount, and but few sales had been actually made, considering the amount of land in the market. The State being in want of funds and all well-wishers of the growth and prosperity of the State being desirous to induce settlements in the wilds of New York, favored more numerous and extensive grants, as it was agreed, thereby the patentees would be influential in inducing settlers to take up lands. Accordingly in 1791 over 5,000,000 acres were disposed of, for the sum of $1,030,433. Among the sales was a parcel of 3,635,200 acres to Alexander Macomb, for eight cents an acre, in the northern part of the State, it being on the northern boundary of Oneida county. Another parcel of 500,000 acres was sold to J.I. and Nicholas Roosevelt (Scriba's Patent) for three shillings and one penny per acre, mostly in Oswego county. Other parcels were also sold, some for two and some for one shilling an acre. Such large sales, especially the Macomb Purchase, created a great deal of excitement at the time and serious accusations were made against the commissioners of the land office, especially as the prices of the different parcels were so different. The upshot of it was, the sales were confirmed and there was no real belief that anything dishonest had been practiced.

The above is not strictly a part of the history of Oneida county, but it is placed in this connection as showing the influence those sales had in attracting to this region a large class of settlers and hastening the organization of Oneida county. Settlers had pushed their way into Redfield and other parts of Oswego

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county and into what are now the counties of Jefferson and Lewis, and quite numerously into this county, so that the clamor for a new county was much greater than it had been seven years before, when Herkimer county was formed. On the 15th of March, 1798, a new county was formed from Herkimer, and at the suggestion of a resident of Whitesboro, it was named after that nation of the Iroquois Confederacy whose territory was the new county to occupy. By the act creating Oneida county, it was provided that there should be held in said county a Court of Common Pleas and General Sessions of the Peace, three times in each year, to commence and end as follows: The first term to being the third Tuesday of May (then next) and may continue till the Saturday following inclusive. The second term to begin the first Tuesday in September, and may continue until the Saturday following, inclusive; and the third term to begin the last Tuesday of December and end on the Saturday following, inclusive. Nothing was contained in said act to prevent the judges and justices adjourning on any day previous to Saturday in any of said weeks, if the business of said courts permitted the same. It was further provided that said terms of the court should be held at the school house near Fort Stanwix in the town of Rome of said county. That school house was erected in 1795 and stood at the southwest corner of West Park, across Part street from the present city hall building. It was made lawful to confine Oneida county prisoners in Herkimer county jail, until a jail in Oneida county was erected. The justices of the Supreme Court were not required to hold a Circuit Court in Oneida county in the year 1798, unless in their judgment they deemed it proper and necessary. Oneida, Herkimer, and Otsego counties were constituted a district for the prosecution of offenses, under the charge of the assistant attorney general. It was provided that the court house and jail in and for Oneida county should be erected within one mile of Fort Stanwix, as the supervisors of the several towns in the county should designate. Three members of the assembly for the county were to be elected. The first meeting of assembly for the county was to be held at said school house on the last Tuesday of May, 1798. The following were the first county officers:

First judge, Jedediah Sanger, of New Hartford; side judges, Hugh White, of Whitesboro, David Ostrom, Utica, George Huntington, Rome, James Dean of Westmoreland; sheriff, William Colbraith, Rome; county clerk, Jonas Platt, assistant justices, Amos Wetmore, Needham Maynard, and Elizur Moseley, Whitesboro; Thomas Cassety, Augusta; Garret Boon, Boonville; Adrian Vanderkemp, Trenton; Peter Colt, Rome and Henry McNeil. For justices of the peace, James S. Kip, James Steele, Mathias Hurlbut, James Sheldon, Jared Chittenden, Joseph Blount, James Kinney, Ephraim Waldo, Thomas Converse, Joseph Jones, Daniel Chapman, Ebenezer Haley, Abram Camp, Joshua Hathaway, Jesse Pierce, Mathew Brown, jr., Daniel W. Knight, Samuel Sizer, Ebenezer Weeks, William Olney, Henry Wager, John Hall, Isaac Alden, Joseph Strickland, Samuel Royce, John W. Bloomfield, Benjamin Wright, Luke Fisher, Jonathan Collins, John Storrs, D.C.I. De Anglis, Stephen Moulton, Abel French, Daniel J. Curtiss, Samuel Howe, Rozel Fellows, Rudolph Gillier, Medad Curtiss, John Townsend, Abial Lindsey, G. Camp, Alexander Coventry, and John Bristol.

The first Court of Oyer and Terminer for Oneida county was held on June 5, 1798, by James Kent, justice of the Supreme Court, at the aforesaid school house, assisted by George Huntington, side judge of the Common Please, and by Thomas Cassety and Elizur Moseley, assistant justices. The next Oyer and Terminer was held on the second Tuesday of September, 1798 at the school house. The first term of the Common Pleas was held at the said school house on the third Tuesday in May, 1798, present Jedediah Sanger, first judge, and George Huntington and David Ostrum side judges. Thomas R. Gold, Joseph Kirkland, Arthur Breese, Joshua Hathaway, Erastus Clark, Jaob Griswold, Nathan Williams, Francis A. Bloodgood, Rufus Easton, Jonas Platt, and Medad Curtis having been theretofore admitted as attorneys to the Herkimer Common Pleas, were at that term of the court admitted to the Oneida Common Pleas.

The first Circuit Court held in Oneida county was also at the same school house on the second Tuesday of September, 1798, by Hon. John Lansing, chief justice of the Supreme Court. Previous to May, 1802, the county courts were held at the Rome school house.

For over 200 years the office of justices of the peace has existed in New York. Before the Revolution justices were appointed by the colonial Governor and Council; after the Revolution by the Council of Appointment. As many were appointed in each county (not by towns) as were deemed necessary to "keep the peace". In

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colonial times they were called "king's justices". Under the first Constitution of New York in 1777, justices held their office at the pleasure of the appointing power, but the commissions must issue at least every three years. January 30, 1787, an act was passed providing "that every county in this State, good and lawful men of the best reputation and who were known to be no maintainers of evil or barraters, shall be assigned under the great seal, from time to time, justices to keep the peace in the same counties". By an act passed April 11, 1808, suitors (except in the case of sickness) were not allowed to have attorneys appear and advocate for them; this act as repealed in 1810. In 1813 it was enacted that in every county in this State, "fit and discreet men should be appointed to keep the peace". By the State Constitution of 1821, boards of supervisors and the Court of Common Please were authorized to act together and appoint justices of the peace, who were to hold office four years, and to appoint as many in each town as should be provided by law. April 17, 1826, an act was passed submitting to the people an amendment to that Constitution, authorizing the electors of the several towns, at the annual election (not town meeting) to elect justices of the peace. That amendment was adopted. An act was passed May 4, 1829, authorizing justices to be elected at town meetings, four in each town.

On the organization of the county the same act creating Oneida county provided, that part of the town of Frankfort included within Oneida county was added to and made part of the town of Whitestown; and all that part of the town of Schuyler included in Oneida county was erected into the town of Deerfield; and all that part of the town of Norway within Oneida county was erected form all that part of Remsen, and the town of Augusta was erected from all that part of Whitestown, bounded westerly and southerly by the county of Chenango, easterly by the Brothertown Reservation and Paris, and northerly by the southernmost "Great Genesee Road"; and the remainder of Whitestown lying within the Oneida Reservation was annexed to Westmoreland.

By an act passed April 3, 1798, "Old Fort Schuyler" was incorporated into the village of Utica. An Act passed March 13, 1799, directing the then clerk of Oneida county to deliver to the Herkimer county clerk all records, books, and papers

145 appertaining to the clerk's office of the latter, excepting deed and mortgage books, and as to those they were to be retained by Oneida county clerk and he to give a certified copy of them to be recorded in Herkimer county, so far as they related to Herkimer county lands. Those record books are yet in Oneida county clerk's office. A fire in 1804 in the Herkimer county clerk's office destroyed all the books, papers, and records then in that county clerk's office.

By an act passed March 15, 1799, the town of Mexico was divided and the town of Camden was erected out of the portion taken off. Camden then contained what are now the towns of Annsville, Camden, Vienna and Verona. In 1799 the third newspaper was started in Oneida county, at Rome, called the Columbian Patriotic Gazette. Its first issue was dated August 15, 1799, and Thomas Walker and Ebenezer Easton were its proprietors. The Gazette in 1803 was removed to Utica.

On March 14, 1800, Redfield was erected into a town from Mexico. It will be remembered that when Oneida county was formed it included the present counties of Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence, and that part of Oswego county lying east of the Oswego river, and also Oneida Lake.

An act was passed April 7, 1800, authorizing the Board of Supervisors of Oneida county at their annual meeting in the next May, to raise $3,000 to build a jail in Oneida county, pursuant to a petition of the supervisors; and the prisoners were removed to said jail when the sheriff of the county reported that it was finished. Nothing indicates where the jail was to be built nor who was to authorize its construction.

The law of 1798 organizing Oneida county provided for the erection of a court house and jail within one mile of the schoolhouse at Fort Stanwix, as the supervisors should designate; and that county courts then named should be held at that school house; yet the act did not provide where the Circuit Courts of Oyer and Terminer should be held, nor where the county clerk's office should be located and its reports kept, nor where other county buildings should be located. At that time there were three persons residing in different localities within the county, men of influence, who had large landed interests to be benefited by the erection

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of the county buildings and the designation of the county seat, viz.: Dominick Lynch, of Rome, Jedediah Sanger of New Hartford, and Hugh White, of Whitesboro. The first named was a resident of New York city, but he owned a large acreage of lands at the "Oneida Carrying Place"; Judge Sanger was a large land owner at New Hartford, and Judge White at Whitesboro. Judge Sanger had large political influence, but it is not recorded that he donated, or offered to donate, a site for any of the county buildings. Mr. Lynch in 1796 mapped out for a village plot the territory then owned by him, which included what is now the business portion of Rome city, and he divided it into village or city lots, gave it the name of Lynchville, and engrafted upon his tenure system "durable leases" for a term of years (except in a few instances), instead of conveyances for a fee. By a deed of conveyance Mr. Lynch on the 21st of May, 1800, conveyed to the Board of Supervisors of Oneida county the East and West Parks and the sites now occupied by the court house and jail, for the use of these buildings, and also provided that all on the east side of James street should be laid out and appropriated for the purpose of building and erecting, and to the use of the court house and jail, and that all the part west of James street, for the purpose of building and erecting a church and school house thereon, which church and school house shall be established and built according to the direction of a majority of freeholders of the town of Rome, for the benefit of all the inhabitants of said town. About the time that the deed was given, individuals erected on the site now occupied by the jail a wooden structure for a jail one story high, made of hewn timber, flattened and dove tailed together so that it was a firm and substantial structure for those times. The timber was blocks of wood one foot to eighteen inches in thickness and two and one half feet long. That was before the site for a court house and jail was fixed, and it was doubtless erected in view of Mr. Lynch's deed and to influence the official location of those buildings.

In 1800 the second United States census was ordered to be taken. It was ordered to be commenced on the First Monday in August and to be completed within nine months thereafter. Indians not taxed were omitted from the lists. The enumeration was to be made as of the fist Monday in August, 1800. That census shows the population in the respective towns then comprising Oneida county as follows:

TOWN FORMED IN POPULATION Augusta 1798 1598 Bridgewater 1797 1061 Deerfield 1798 1048 Floyd 1796 767 Leyden 1797 622 Mexico 1796 246 Paris 1792 4721 Remsen 1798 224 Rome 1796 1497 Steuben 1792 552 Trenton 1797 624 Westmoreland 1797 1493 Whitestown 1798 4212 TOTAL 18,665

An act was passed March 30, 1801, making it lawful for all officers of Oneida county to confide their prisoners in the jail in Herkimer county, until a jail is erected in Oneida county; and that as soon as the sheriff of Oneida county shall deem the jail directed to be built in that county sufficiently finished for the safe keeping of prisoners, the same shall from thence be the jail of Oneida county, and the sheriff shall so remove his prisoners. At the December term of the Common Pleas of 1801, Sheriff Broadhead reported the jail at Whitesboro was completed, and that authorized prisoners to be removed there under the act before mentioned.

On the 3rd of April, 1801, the State Legislature divided the State into counties, making the boundary of Oneida county more definite as follows:

All that part of the State bounded easterly by the county of Herkimer, northerly by the County of Clinton, and by the northern bounds of this State, from the most westerly corner of the County of Clinton to a place in Lake Ontario where the said northern bounds shall be intersected by the new preemption line aforesaid, continued due north; westerly by the line last mentioned to the south bank of Lake Ontario; and southerly by the counties of Cayuga, Onondaga, and Chenango, and the southern bounds of the patent granted to William Bayard and others, called the "Freemasons Patent" .

Under an act passed April 7, 1801, describing the divisions of the various counties into towns, the following were named as the then existing subdivisions of Oneida County:

TOWN ERECTED FROM DATE ERECTED Bridgewater Sangerfield March 24, 1797 Deerfield Schuyler (Herkimer Co) March 15, 1798 Trenton Schuyler (Herkimer Co) March 24, 1797 Paris Whitestown April 2, 1792 Whitestown Remsen March 7, 1799 Remsen Norway (Herkimer Co) March 15, 1798 Floyd Steuben March 4, 1796 Steuben Whitestown April 10, 1792 Western Steuben March 10, 1797 Leyden Steuben (to Lewis Co 1805) March 10, 1797 Rome Steuben March 4, 1796 Camden Mexico March 15, 1799 Redfield Mexico (to Oswego Co 1816 March 14, 1800 Watertown Mexico (to Jefferson Co 1805) March 14, 1800 Champion Mexico (to Jefferson Co 1805) March 14, 1800 Lowville Mexico (to Lewis Co 1805) March 14, 1800 Turin Mexico (to Lewis Co 1805) March 14, 1800 Mexico Whitestown (Herkimer Co) then (to Oswego Co 1816) April 10, 1792 Westmoreland Whitestown April 10, 1792 Augusta Whitestown March 15, 1798

Of this list of twenty towns seven are now in other counties, as noted. To the remaining thirteen have since been added thirteen others, besides the city of Utica, the erection of which was as follows:

TOWN FORMED FROM DATE FORMED Annsville Lee,Florence,Camden,Vienna April 12, 1823 Ava Boonville May 12, 1846 Boonville Leyden (Lewis Co) March 28, 1805 Florence Camden February 16, 1805 Kirkland Paris April 13, 1827 Lee Western April 3, 1811 Marcy Deerfield March 30, 1832 Marshall Kirkland February 21, 1829 New Hartford Whitestown April 12, 1827 Sangerfield Paris March 5, 1795 Utica (formed as a town)Whitestown April 7, 1817 Vernon Westmoreland, Augusta February 17, 1802 Verona Westmoreland February 17, 1802 Vienna (as Orange) Camden April 3, 1807

The first attempt to divide Oneida county after its erection was discussed in the early years of the century and in 1804 assumed tangible form. Three delegates were chosen from each of the towns most interested in the project and they met on the 20th of November, of the year named, at the house of Freedom Wright, in what is now the town of Denmark (Lewis county). The usual contention for the location of the county seat of the proposed new county ensued among the delegates and it was found impossible to come to an agreement. The problem was finally solved by a proposition to erect two new counties instead of one, and application was made to the Legislature to this effect. The result was the passage of the act of March 28, 1805, erecting Lewis and Jefferson counties. This left Oneida county with substantially its present territory and all of the present count of Oswego lying east of Oswego River, which was taken off on the 1st March, 1816.

On the 6th of April, 1801, the Legislature appointed Thomas Jenkins and Hezekiah L. Hosmer, of Saratoga, and Dirck Lane, of Rensselaer county, commissioners for designing the place for a court house and jail in Oneida county; and said commissioners by said act, to repair to the county, as soon as may be after May 1st, and after exploring the county, to ascertain and designate a fit and proper place therein, for erecting said building, having respect or reference to a future

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division of the county; and it was provided, that in the opinion of any two of said commissioners, the building erected for a jail in the town of Rome by individuals of the same county, shall be at a proper place and duly constructed for the purpose aforesaid, then in that case, the supervisors of said county were directed to audit the accounts of such individuals for erecting said jail and allow such just sum therefore as might with reasonable economy have been necessarily expended upon the same building, and thereupon draw an order or orders in favor of such individuals upon the county treasurer of Oneida county for same; and it was further provided, that if said commissioners or any two of them shall agree and designate any other place than that at which the said building for a jail is so erected, as a fit and proper place for such court house and jail, and file a certificate with the county clerk, then and in that case it shall and may be lawful for said supervisors, and they are required to appoint one or more commissioners to erect a jail for said county at the place designated, to be constricted upon such plan and in such manner as said supervisors shall prescribe. And the supervisors were required by said act to audit and pay the accounts of such commissioners in erecting said jail; provided, that in case the commissioners above named, or any three of them, shall not be able to agree upon a place for said court house and jail, it shall then be their duty to nominate an additional commissioner to associate with them in discharging said trust, and the determin-ation of anythree of them to be final. It was further provided by said act, that the building erected, or to be erected, for said jail and so designated, shall be the jail of said county, and as soon as said building shall, in the opinion of the sheriff of Oneida county, be finished in such manner as to confine his prisoners, it was made lawful for such sheriff to remove his prisoners in his county to such jail. It was further provided, that in the case the jail was not selected which the individuals had erected, then the supervisors were directed to audit and pay the accounts of said individuals for erecting said jail.

Mr. Hosmer, one of the commissioners named, was member of congress from Columbia county in 1797-98. Mr. Thompson was county judge of Saratoga county in 1791, member of congress in 1797-98, and a member of the State constitutional convention in 1801. Mr. Lane was a member of assembly from Rensselaer county in 1809.

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Following dates in chronological order as far as practical and convenient, it need be stated that on April 7, 1801, the counties of the State were subdivided into towns, and that the towns in Oneida county in that year were as follows: Augusta, Bridgewater, Camden, Champion, Deerfield, Floyd, Leyden, Lowville, Mexico, Paris, Redfield, Remsen, Rome, Steuben, Turin, Trenton, Watertown, Western, Westmoreland, and Whitestown.

Matters in reference to locating the court house and jail were approaching a crisis and Hugh White bestirred himself. On the 20th of June, 1801, he conveyed to the Board of Supervisors of Oneida county one acre and fifty three rods of land in Whitesboro, on the corner of the road leading to Utica and the one leading to Middle Settlement, for the sole and exclusive use of a court house and a "gaol" (as that word was then spelled), for said county buildings to be erected thereon, and for no other use, cultivation or improvement whatever, except for a public parade or common forever; subject to the express condition that the said supervisors shall erect and set up a good and sufficient fence around said grounds and keep the same in repair; and in default, said grant to become void. Said deed was acknowledged before Arthur Breese, master in chancery, September 28, 1801, and recorded the same day. As before stated, Sheriff Broadhead reported to the court in December, 1801, that the jail was completed sufficient for prisoners. It was constructed similar to, if not exactly like, the Rome jail; the corners fastened like pins (like the jail in Rome). The structure is now used as a residence; the court house is now used as a town hall. When those buildings ceased to be used for the original purposes, the property reverted to the heirs of Hugh White, the grantor. In a chancery partition and sale of property, Hon. Philo White, a descendant of the donor, became the owner, and he in 1860 donated the old court house for a town hall to the village and town for public purposes; and he also donated or dedicated the public green in front for similar uses and purposes to the same municipal bodies. An act was passed February 20, 1802, authorizing and directing the supervisors of Oneida county to levy $539 for the purpose of completing the jail in said

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county. It is not said which jail, but the one at Whitesboro is presumably the one.

On March 3, 1802, the county of St. Lawrence was taken from Oneida county. On February 17, 1802, the towns of Verona and Vernon were formed of parts of the towns of Augusta and Westmoreland. On April 1 of the same year the towns of Leyden, Mexico and Watertown (then in Oneida county) were divided and the towns of Adams, Brownville and Rutland, now in Jefferson county, were formed from their territory.

An act passed February 22, 1803, divided the towns of Champlain, Lowville, Mexico and Turin, and the new towns of Ellisburgh, Harrisburgh, and Martinsburgh were formed there from; and by an act passed on the same day, all such parts of the Steuben Patent as were previously included in the towns of Remsen and Trenton were annexed to the town of Steuben.

Prior to 1802 all the courts in Oneida county were held at the school house near Fort Stanwix; in that year they were held at the school house near Hugh White's in Whitesboro. By an act passed April 6, 1803, the courts of Oyer and Terminer and the Circuit Courts in Oneida county were authorized to be held either in Rome or Whitesboro, at the discretion of the justices of the Supreme Court; and the courts of General Sessions of the Peace and the Common Pleas in and for said county were required to be alternately held between Rome and Whitestown. And the same act provided, that the commissioners appointed by the supervisors of the county for building the jail in said county were directed to cause the doors of the jail lately built at Rome to be made complete, and the supervisors were directed to audit and pay the accounts. On February 26, 1803, an act was passed authorizing the supervisor of Oneida county to raise $500 for finishing and completing the jail at Whitestown.

The following shows the towns of Oneida county in 1803, the number of residents and non-residents, the names of the supervisors, and the aggregate valuation in each town:

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SUPERVISORS TOWNS NUMBER NUMBER NON AGGREGATE RESIDENTS RESIDENTS VALUATION Jedediah Phelps Verona 107 28 $ 48,129.00 Daniel Kelley Lowville 161 -- 41,300.00 Sheldon Parmelee Augusta 224 7 82,271.00 Gersom Hinckley, Jr. Remsen 53 24 57,544.00 Joseph Jones Westmoreland 171 17 211,223.00 Jessee Curtis Paris 758 28 403,139.00 Henry Huntington Rome 248 25 189,748.00 George Doolittle Whitestown 600 6 705,113.00 Samuel Wetmore Vernon 160 9 65,966.00 Nathan Sage Redfield 55 17 52,537.50 Henry Wager Western 252 30 127,043.00 Isaac Brayton Deerfield 181 16 240,532.00 Henry Coffeen Watertown 163 24 46,412.10 Asa Brayton Martinsburg 53 13 45,418.80 Silas Southwell Leyden 183 42 287,855.77 David Coffeen Rutland 129 18 29,734.00 Samuel Sizer Steuben 143 25 75,209.11 Eleazer House Turin 145 7 279,824.00 Noadiah Hubbard Champion 93 16 27,263.00 Jacob Brown Brownville 124 6 484,856.75 Jarvis Pike Floyd 142 25 149,332.00 Lewis Graves Harrisburg 110 9 54,006.00 Nicholas Salisbury Adams 120 12 83,455.37 Reuben Hamilton Mexico 121 45 628,071.00 John Humaston Camden 194 29 129,499.00 John Storrs Trenton 158 17 116,250.70 Asher Flint Bridgewater 187 12 145,441.00

By an acted passed March 24, 1804, the towns of Adams and Mexico, then in Oneida county, were divided, and the towns of Harrison, Malta, and Williamstown formed out of such division. February 16, 1805, the town of Camden was divided and the town of Florence formed there from.

And now the time was near at hand when it was self evident that the county of Oneida was to be divided and one or more counties formed from the territory detached. The settlement in what are now Jefferson and Lewis counties, and in the town of Redfield and contiguous territory, place the inhabitants of those localities at a great inconvenience in going to Rome for a county seat, as the settlers in Oneida and Herkimer counties had suffered in going to Johnstown and later to Herkimer for county seats, before Herkimer and Oneida counties were

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organized. In 1804 the excitement ran high. The towns of Redfield, Champion, Watertown, Brownville, Lowville, and Martinsburgh aspired to be county seats. The first two named did not expect the honor of if two counties were formed. At Redfield Square was quite a settlement made prior to 1800. The leader there was Capt. Nathan Sage; he had been in the Revolution, commander of the war vessel Middletown, sixteen guns and one hundred men, and came from Connecticut about 1795. At Champion was Judge Noadiah Hubbard, father of the late Judge F.W. Hubbard, of Watertown. He went in 1797 from Steuben in Oneida county, with a number of others, to settle on the new township now known as Champion, and to act as agent for the two owners (Champion and Storrs). He started in the fall, went down Black River to Carthage, then known as Long Falls; thence across the country eight to ten miles through an unbroken wilderness to Champion. There were also in 1804 settled at Champion three young lawyers, in expectation that it would be selected as the county seat, viz.: Moses Kent, Egbert Ten Eyck, and Henry R. Storrs. Mr. Kent was brother of Chancellor Kent and land agent for land owners; later assemblyman and congressman from Jefferson. Mr. Ten Eyck was later county judge and member of congress and of the Assembly; he was later the father in law of the late Judge Mullin. Henry R. Storrs was son of one of the proprietors of the township and went from Whitesboro to Champion; when that town did not become a county seat he returned to Whitesboro, became one of the most eloquent jury lawyers in the State, judge of Oneida county and member of congress four terms. At Watertown was Henry Coffeen, the first county clerk, and a host of other strong men. At Brownville was Gen. Jacob Brown, who settled there in 1799 and was agent for Le Ray. He, like Colonel Willett, was of Quaker origin, yet both became military heroes, Colonel Willett in the Revolution, and General Brown in the war of 1812. At Lowville was Judge Stow and at Martinsburg General Martin, both with large landed interests to be benefited by the location of the county seat. All of these men, as well as most of those who settled in the "rural districts" early in the present century, and seventy five or even fifty years ago, were generally remarkable men. "They were giants in those days". Those in this county whose names readily come to memory, without consulting records, are such men as Judge Amos

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Woodworth of Florence; Caleb Goodrich and Richard Hurlburt, of Boonville; Judge Israel Stoddard, of Camden the "king of the Fish Creek nation", who carried the towns of Camden, Annsville, Vienna and Verona in his pocket; Delos De Wolf, of Bridgewater; "King" David Moulton, of Floyd; Hiram Shays and the Prescotts, of New Hartford; John D. Leland of Deerfield; Aaron Stafford, of Sangerfield; Judge Truman Enos, and Pomroy Jones, of Westmoreland; David and Squire Utley, and the Wagers and the Braytons, of Western; Israel S. Parker of Vienna.

Well, the outcome of the division of Oneida county was that two counties were taken off, Jefferson and Lewis; the one named after the then president of the United States, and the other after Morgan Lewis, then governor of the State. The county seat for Jefferson was located at Watertown; the one for Lewis at Martins-burgh. The act incorporating those counties passed March 28, 1805; and by the same act the town of Boonville was formed from Leyden which remained in Oneida county.

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