From ROMAN CITIZEN newspaper, Rome, Oneida County, New York, Wednesday, July 3, 1850

                                                                          STEUBEN

                                       Its Early Settlement -- Inhabitants and Products.

The State of New York in 1790, gave to Maj. General Baron Steuben, 16000 acres of land, and in 1791, Fuller and Sizer with the General, began the Settlement on the tract, and the town derives its name from the General.  In 1792 the Messrs. Cornish, Brooks, Sizer and Platt bought One Thousand Acres of the Baron.  In 1795 a number of Welch  gentlemen, the Messrs. Griffiths, Rowland, Owens, Williams and Jones, bought land in Steuben, and from them and emigrants since come over, all the Welch of Steuben and the towns about, derive their present Welch population.  The General gave to the Welch Baptist Church 60 acres of land near the centre of the town, and five acres of it was to enclosed by a substantial fence, no wood to be ever to be taken from it, no foot of beast under the control of man to enter it.  In 1795 the Gen. died and his grave is in the centre of the 5 acres of wood, in all the wildness of primeval silence, (all sides of this wood is cleared rich pasturage) a plain Table Monument with his name, 'Major General Frederick William Augustus Baron De Steuben', is all that makes the spot where the hero of our Revolution rests, and yet such a Moslum no other General in the United States possesses --five acres of glorious forrest for his grave, and no foot but the foot of man permitted to enter its sacred enclosure.  Peace to the ashes of the Generous Stranger, who fought by the side of our Fathers for our Liberty.  Our country was his country, our wrongs he made his own, our Liberty achieved was his, and a grateful posterity will yet more beautify his resing place.

Steuben is six miles square and every lot of land is taken up.  It is the most broken land of any town in the county, made up of the highest hills with intervening valleys.  Bowman's Hill and Starr's Hill, are the highest land in the county of Oneida.  From the top of Starr's Hill you can look into nine counties, (what a splendid prospect!) and these high lands are all cultivated to their summit, affording the richest of pasturage.  There are no farms like these for Dairying purposes --the richness of its grasses cannot be surpassed.  Steuben Butter is famed for its goodness the world over.  There are in the town four thousand milch Cows, from which is made yearly Four Hundred Thousand Pounds of Butter, and One Hundred Thousand Pounds of Cheese.  A large amount of Pork is also sold from these dairy farms.

Their farms are large generally from two to four hundred acres --a small farm is of nothing worth to a Steuben man, except he can add to it.  There are some Premium Farms to be seen here among the hills of Steuben.  The Messrs. Brooks, Clark, Eames, Frances, Smith, Frazer, Philips, Owen, Fuller, and many others, have fine farms, and in a good state of cultivation.

Major Fuller's farm and buildings, near Remsen village, on the Rome road, are not surpassed for elegance and taste by any farm buildings in the County.  His house is a splendid stone edifice, and the grounds about laid out with taste.  A majority of its inhabitants are Welsh, and are an honest, intelligent and religious people.  --There is not a licensed tavern in the town to sell liquor, and no drunkards pollute its pure atmosphere.  There is no village in the town, and but one Merchant, at Greenfield's Corners, 12 miles from Rome, 3 1/2  from George Rodgers'  on the Black River Canal and Boonville Plank Road.  The road from Remsen to Rome, 14 miles, passes near the center of the town --it is a fine one, except 1 1/4 miles in Fuller's hollow, which is to be planked this summer, giving the inhabitants of Westernville and the Romans an easy communication with Steuben and Remsen, and that communication has for the last year or two been constantly on the increase.  It numbered on taking the census in 1845, 1800 inhabitants, dotting its high hills and pleasant valleys with as independent a population as any town in the State affords.
                                                                                                                                                M.