OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
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CHAPTER I.
DESCRIPTIVE OF THE SUBJECT.
The State of New York was originally divided into ten counties, named as follows: Albany, Dutchess, Kings, New York, Orange, Queens, Richmond, Suffolk, Ulster, and Westchester. These counties were erected November 1, 1683. On the 12th of March, 1772, Montgomery county was created from Albany county under the name of "Tryon," and included nearly the whole of the central and western parts of the State. The name of Tryon county was changed to Montgomery in 1784, in honor of the American hero who fell at Quebec. From Montgomery county on February 16, 1791, was erected Herkimer county, and on the same date Tioga county was created. From these two civil divisions, which then included a vast extent of territory, was erected Chenango county on the 15th of March, 1798. From Chenango county, Madison was set off on the 21st of March, 1806. The boundaries of the county remained substantially as originally defined until 1836, when that part of Stockbridge lying east of Oneida Creek was annexed to Oneida county. Madison county was named in honor of James Madison, fourth president of the United States.
In the course of the events that led to the acquirement of New York State lands from the Indians a treaty was held at Fort Stanwix (Rome), November 5, 1768, at which the east boundary of the Indian domain was fixed on a line extending from a point on Wood Creek, near the mouth of Canada Creek, to the headwaters of the Unadilla, down that stream to its mouth, and thence south to the Pennsylvania line. This boundary was known as the Line of Property. Until after the close of the Revolutionary war, in 1783, the territory of Madison county was a part of the Indian domain lying west of this line. Another treaty was held at Fort Stanwix October 22, 1784, at which the Iroquois ceded to the Federal government a large portion of the lands lying west of the line of property; but with this we have little to do in this volume. By treaties made by the State of New York in 1785 and 1786, the Indian title to the major part of the two counties of Madison and Chenango (the latter then including the territory set off later for the former county) was extinguished; in 1795 other portions of the Oneida Reservation in Madison county were ceded to the State.
On June 28, 1785, Gov. George Clinton, in behalf of the State, made a treaty with the Oneidas and Tuscaroras by which the State was to pay those Indians $11,500 in goods and money, for the cession of territory bounded as follows:
Beginning at the mouth of the Unadilla or Tianaderha river, where the same empties into the Susquehanna; thence up the said Unadilla or Tianaderha river ten miles, measured on a straight line; thence due west to the Chenango river; thence southerly down the Chenango river to where it empties into the Susquehanna river, and to the line commonly called the line of property, established at a treaty held at Fort Stanwix in the year 1768; thence along the said line to the place of beginning.
By this treaty the State acquired the territory in Chenango county lying south of the south line of the town of Norwich and east of the Chenango River, which was soon after sold to patentees and is without further special interest here. At the great treaty held by Governor Clinton on September 22, 1788, at Fort Schuyler (Utica), all of the lands then owned by the Indian nations taking part in the treaty, excepting certain reservations, were ceded to the State. Under an act of the State Legislature, passed February 25, 1789, the surveyor-general, Simeon Dewitt, directed the survey in the lands acquired by the last named treaty and lying just north of those acquired by the treaty of 1785, of twenty townships, each of which was to be five hundred chains square as nearly as circumstances would permit and subdivided into four equal sections and into lots of 250 acres each. These townships were to be numbered consecutively from one to twenty, and the lots from one to one hundred. In each township two lots were to be reserved lying near to the center of the town, one of which was to be designated as the gospel lot and the other the school lot; these were to be used for the advancement of religion and education.
This survey was finished in 1790, and the Commissioners of the Land Office were then empowered to select five of the choicest of these twenty townships which were to be sold only, for gold or silver, or to redeem certain bonds which the State had issued in the form of bills of credit. The commissioners were to fix the price of these five townships at such figures as would effect a ready sale and secure as large a revenue as possible to the State. The minimum price which could be accepted by them was three shillings per acre. After proper public notice of the sale was made as directed in the newspapers of Albany and New York, it took place in the latter city. Not many purchasers were in attendance and the valuable lands fell mainly into the hands of speculators at low prices, who immediately advanced the price to twenty shillings an acre. This tract has ever since been most familiarly known as the Chenango Twenty Townships, and sometimes as the Governor's Purchase. It extends in general terms from the Unadilla on the east to the Gore (described a little further on) on the west, and from the north lines of Smithville, Oxford and Guilford (Chenango county), to the south lines of Fenner, Smithfield and Stockbridge (Madison county), and Augusta and Marshall (Oneida county). In the effort to make the township lines straight, several small angular pieces of land were left bordering the Unadilla.
| Township | No. | 1 | is | now | known as | Nelson, | Madison | county. | |
| 2 | Eaton, | ||||||||
| 3 | Madison, | ||||||||
| Township | No. | 4 | is | now | known as | Hamilton, | Madison | county. | |
| 5 | Lebanon, | ||||||||
| 6 | Georgetown, | ||||||||
| 7 | Otselic, | Chenango | |||||||
| 8 | Smyrna, | ||||||||
| 9 | Sherburne, | ||||||||
| 10 | N. Norwich, | ||||||||
| 11 | Plymouth, | ||||||||
| 12 | Pharsalia, | ||||||||
| 13 | McDonough, | ||||||||
| 14 | Preston, | ||||||||
| 15 | Norwich, | ||||||||
| 16 | New Berlin, | ||||||||
| 17 | Columbus, | ||||||||
| 18 | Brookfield, | Madison | |||||||
| 19 | |||||||||
| 20 | Sangerfield, | Oneida |
From this list it is seen that eight of the original townships were in what became Madison county; but as Brookfield included two of the numbers of townships, only seven of the present towns of Madison county were included in the original twenty. In that part of the Gore which is included in Madison county are the towns of De Ruyter and the southern and larger part of Cazenovia. The number of acres in each of the eight townships that became a part of Madison county, as shown in the patents, was as follows:
| No. | 1 , | Nelson | 27,187 | acres. |
| No. | 2 , | Eaton | 28,245 | |
| No. | 3 , | Madison | 24,624 | |
| No. | 4 , | Hamilton | 24,400 | |
| No. | 5 , | Lebanon | 26,200 | |
| No. | 6 , | Georgetown | 24,364 | |
| No. | 18, | Brookfield | 22,565 | |
| No. | 19, | 20,750 |
That part of Madison county lying north of the Twenty Townships and the Gore was reserved to the Oneida Indians in the cession of 1788, but a large part of it was acquired by the State in 1795. Later purchases, the last of which was made in 1840, reduced the once princely domain of the Oneidas to a pitifully small tract, according to the persistent custom of the State and Federal authorities in dealing, with the natives. In 1840 the Oneidas ceded all of their lands held in common, and received individual portions.
This ceded territory was divided into large tracts, the principal one of which was the New Petersburgh Tract, which was leased of the In-dians in 1794, for a term of 999 years, by Peter Smith, from whom the tract took its name. The lease covered 50,000 acres and included nearly all of the territory of Smithfield and Fenner, that part of Cazenovia lying north of the Gore, a part of Stockbridge, and a large part of Augusta in Oneida county. This tract was included in the cession of 1795. Considerable of the eastern part of the tract had been leased to settlers by Mr. Smith previous to the extinguishment of the Indian title, the leases being for twenty-one years. In 1797 the Legislature made provision to grant patents to persons holding these leases, on their payment of $3.53½ per acre. In consideration of Mr. Smith's holding his lease from the Indians, he was allowed a reduction on the 22,290½ acres not leased by him, which made it cost him about $2 per acre. The Petersburgh Tract was divided into four allotments, the first of which contained seventy-four lots, fifty-five of which were in Augusta (Oneida county), fourteen in Stockbridge, and five in Smithfield. The patents to lessees covered parts of this allotment, which thereafter ceased to be considered as part of the New Petersburgh Tract.
The Canastota Tract included ninety-one lots in the town of Lenox and extended from Oneida Lake on the north to within half a mile of the Seneca Turnpike on the south. In 1805, while it was still a part of Chenango county, 10,000 acres, the major part of the tract, was appropriated as a substitute for the gospel and school lands in the Chenango Twenty Towns, the proceeds of which had been without authority ap-propriated to the State funds.
The Cowasselon Tract was purchased from the State in 1797 by Dr. Enoch Leonard. It comprises twenty-five lots lying in two tiers in the north part of Fenner between the Chittenango and the Cowasselon Creeks. From the fact that the tract is a mile wide it has been called, also, the Mile Strip. This was a cession from the Oneida Reservation.
Various other tracts have been ceded from time to time in the towns of Lenox, Stockbridge and Sullivan. Among them are the East Hill Tract and the West Hill Tract in Stockbridge, the former including fifty and the latter forty-two lots. Also the Mile Strip, the Oneida Creek Tract, and the New Guinea Tract in the same town, all ceded on different dates between 1822 and 1830. The Two-Mile Strip of twenty-four lots, in four tiers, two of which are in the west part of Lenox and two in the east part of Sullivan, the south line being the same as the south line of those towns. To the west of this tract are six lots com-monly known as West-of-Two-Mile Strip; also a tract of eight lots north of Two-Mile Strip; the Bell Tract of fourteen lots, purchased by an Englishman named Bell, extending along both sides of the Central Railroad from Canaseraga Creek to Chittenango Creek; the Forty Rod Strip, lying north of the Bell Tract, bought of the State by Jonas Fay; and the Varrick Location, purchased of the State by Richard Varrick of New York. The last three tracts are in the town of Sullivan. As settlement in the various parts of the county progressed these tracts were subdivided and sold to purchasers for homestead improvement.
An act was passed by the Legislature relative to the sale of State lands, which was amended by another passed March 22, 1791, under which the following applications were recorded and endorsed as ac-cepted, which bear relation to these townships:
Leonard M. Cutting applied for No. 15, containing 25,000 acres, at the rate of three shillings and one farthing per acre, the first payment of 600 pounds to be made before October 1, 1791, and the remainder in two equal payments, the last one by the 1st of February, 1794. He further applied for Nos. 11 and 14, containing 50,000 acres, at three shillings and three pence per acre, one-sixth to be paid October 1, 1791, and the remainder in two equal payments, made April 1, 1792, and January 1, 1793.
James Tallmadge and Ezra Thompson applied for No. 10, containing 25,000 acres, at the rate of three shillings per acre, payments to be made the same as on Nos. 11 and 14, above noticed.
Michael Myers, Jedediah Sanger and John J. Morgan applied for Nos. 18 and 20, and the unsold portions of 19, containing 67,130 acres, the first two at three shillings and three pence per acre, and the last at three shillings and one penny, payable as above.
John Taylor applied for the unsold portions of Nos. 16 and 17, con-taining 43,377 acres, at the rate of three shillings and three pence per acre, one-sixth payable in six months, one-half of the remainder in one year, and the other half in eighteen months.
Col. William S. Smith applied for Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, and 9, contain-ing 150,000 acres, at the rate of three shillings and three pence per acre, one-sixth to be paid October 1, 1791, one-half of the remainder on January 1, 1792, and the other half January 1, 1793.
Alexander Webster, Edward Savage and John Williams applied for No. 1, containing 25,000 acres, at three shillings and three pence per acre, payments the same as in the last foregoing application.
White Matlack and Jacob Hallet applied for Nos. 12 and 13, at three shillings and five pence per acre, payments same as the last foregoing application.
Robert C. Livingston applied for No. 7, containing 25,000 acres, at three shillings and six pence per acre, payments same as in last forego-ing application.
An application was made by Thomas Ludlow and Joseph Shippey for two townships (numbers not given) at three shillings and five pence per acre, payments same as those last above given. No. 6 was then the only township not covered by previous applications.
It will be seen that the applications of Smith for six townships; of Myers, Sanger and Morgan for two and part of another; of Webster, Savage and Williams for one, were all for territory that became part of Madison county; the other applications are here given for usefulness in reference. Some of those who applied did not, however, consum-mate their purchases. Those who did so, as far as relates to Madison county territory, were William S. Smith, six townships; patent dated April 16, 1794; Alexander Webster, Edward Savage and John Williams, one township; Michael Myers, Jedediah Sanger and John J. Morgan, two and part of another townships, the patent for No. 1 dated June 4, 1793, and Nos. 18, 19 and 20, to Morgan, May 3, 1793; Thomas Lud-low and Josiah Shippey, one township, patent dated March 2, 1793, for No. 6, to Thomas Ludlow, jr. Upon the erection of Chenango county, the whole of the Twenty Townships was included in its territory. When Oneida county was erected, April 4, 1804, No. 20 was set off with it; and when Madison county was erected in 1806, Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 18, and 19 were included in its territory.
Madison county, according to the census reports, contains an area of 392,290 acres. Its surface, like most of New York State, is widely di-versified. The northern part is low and level, with large swampy tracts bordering upon Oneida Lake. The central part of the county forms the water-shed between the streams flowing north to the lake and south to the Susquehanna River, and is broken and hilly. The south-ern portion, though less elevated, is also hilly and constitutes a part of the rolling highlands of Central New York. The highest summits of the hills range from 500 to 800 feet above the valleys, and from 900 to 1,200 above tide.
The Chenango, the Tioughnioga and the Unadilla Rivers affect this county to a considerable extent, the two former finding their sources here, and the latter constituting the eastern boundary of the town of Brookfield in the southeastern part. There are many smaller streams which are of greater importance in watering and draining the territory. Chittenango Creek rises in the highlands of Fenner, Nelson and Smith-field, and flows in a circuitous course through Cazenovia and Sullivan, forming for a few miles the west boundary of the latter town and emp-tying into Oneida Lake. Much of the scenery along this stream is beautifully picturesque, and it is far the most important water course in the county in respect of hydraulic power. Between Cazenovia and Chittenango, a distance of about eight miles, the descent is 740 feet, with one fall of 134 feet, affording valuable manufacturing sites at many points.
Oneida Creek forms a portion of the eastern boundary of the county, has its rise in Eaton and Smithfield and in its upper courses furnishes some excellent mill sites. Its valley is rich, fertile, and beautiful, and was a favorite resort of the Oneida Indians. The southern half of the county is drained by the many small tributaries of the Unadilla, Tioughnioga and Chenango Rivers; the principal ones of these are Beaver Creek in Brookfield, and the headwaters of Otselic Creek in Georgetown. Canaseraga,2 Canastota,3 and Cowasselon Creeks are mostly confined to the two northern towns of the county, have little fall and all empty into Oneida Lake.
Cazenovia Lake4 is the principal inland body of water in Madison county. It occupies an elevated basin, 900 feet above tide water and is one of the most beautiful minor sheets of water in the State. It is sit-uated near Cazenovia village, is four and a half miles long from north to south, and its pure waters and picturesque surroundings have at-tracted to its shores many families who have built summer homes. In the southern part of the county are several ponds, which were formerly utilized as reservoirs for the Chenango Canal. The shore of Oneida Lake forms the entire northern boundary of the county. This lake is about twenty miles long and discharges its waters at the west end through Oneida River to Oswego River and thence into Lake Ontario.
Hatch's Lake is a beautiful minor body of water in the southwest corner of the town of Eaton. Once the headwaters of the Otselic, the construction of the Chenango Canal closed the outlet and took the water through Bradley Brook reservoir to the canal. The lake covers about 136 acres and has no surface inlet, being fed with pure springs, and the scenery thereabouts is charming.
Leland's Lake is picturesquely situated in the town of Eaton at the point of divergence of the Oriskany and the Chenango valleys. The water of this lake was also formerly taken for the canal.
Madison Lake (or Pond) is situated in the southern part of the town of that name and is a charming small body of water, the picturesque scenery around which has made it attractive as a summer resort in recent years.
The geology of Madison county, though possessing few of the important characteristics that give some localities an almost startling in-terest, is still worthy of the reader's attention. The rocks of the Clinton group are the lowest in the county and border Oneida Lake. The Niagara and Onondaga groups are next above this and the three occupy the low lands of the northern part of the county. The surface rock south of the swamp is composed of the red shales of the Onondaga group, while along the base of the hills are beds of gypsum. On the northern slope of the hills successively appear the water limestone, Pentamerous limestone, Oriskany limestone, and Onondaga limestone. Next above these appear the Marcellus and Hamilton shales, covering more than half the surface of the county. The Tully limestone, Genesee slate, and the Ithaca group are found in a limited extent on the tops of the southern hills.
The Clinton group, as found in the northern part of the county, fre-quently comes within plowing distance of the surface, or lies loose on the ground. The soil is occasionally colored red with the iron ore that characterizes this group and is found to a limited extent in this locality, but not, as far as known, in sufficient quantity and purity to make its working profitable. The Clinton group in this region is covered with alluvion.
The Niagara limestone increases in thickness from east to west and in the eastern part of this county is not sufficiently pure for water lime, but in the western part of Sullivan has been successfully burned. It is also quarried in the western part for building purposes.
The Onondaga Salt group makes its first appearance in this county near the Erie Canal in the eastern part. From that point westward the canal was cut through the red shale of the group. It increases in breadth on both sides of the canal proceeding westward and on the north side becomes as wide after a few miles as it is on the south side. The second deposit of this group consists of shales and calcareous slate, green or drab in color, and is seen at favorable points in Lenox. The third, or gypsum, deposit is the most interesting and valuable of the group, both because of its being the source of the brine of the Onondaga and other salt springs in this section, and for its value as plaster. In Madison county it commences in association with a few other rocks not observed to the east and is found in masses, rather than in layers or beds. Next in importance to the gypsum, from the geological point of view, is the Vermicular limestone, which is essentially calcareous. It is porous, or cellular, perforated with curvilinear holes, and very compact between the holes; these cells vary widely in size and generally communicate with each other. In the plaster quarries of Lenox the structure of the cells confirms the theory of their mineral origin. There are two masses of this rock, an upper and a lower one. The former commences at the ridge west of Oneida Creek and extends on westward; its thickness is about four feet and the cavities are commonly large. The lower mass is limited, its greatest thickness being about twenty feet. Fossils are rare in the entire group. The whole of the gypsum in Madison county is confined to the towns of Lenox and Sullivan, excepting a small section of the northeast part of Smithfield, and of the northwest part of Stockbridge. Of the quarries that have been opened (which are noticed in later town history) some are covered with masses of such thickness as to considerably diminish their profits. The first discovered was known as the old Sullivan bed, near the turnpike gate. The plaster hills range from east to west through the county and extend south from the turnpike from two to four miles.
The water lime group is named from the drab-colored limestone from which nearly all the water lime south of the canal in this section is made. To the west of Oneida Creek the stone burned consists of two layers, the upper one shelly, breaking into thin pieces; this burns with less heat than the lower layer. This rock forms the great mass of the gulf at the falls on Chittenango Creek, showing a thickness of over one hundred feet; there, and at other points in the county, it is quarried and burned. One of the most important localities and one of the very earliest, if not the first, discovered in the State, is about one and a half miles southwest of Chittenango village.
The Pentamerous limestone, which takes its name from a fossil found in it, diminishes in thickness as it extends westward and terminates in Madison county. It is rarely pure and is not valuable.
The Oriskany sandstone is clearly traceable from east to west by its characteristic fossils. The edge of this rock is exposed at a point a little northeast of Perryville, lying immediately below the Onondaga limestone and forming a terrace extending to the village. At the falls at Perryville it is only a few inches in thickness. Boulders of it are common on the hillsides and tops in the towns of Madison, Eaton, Hamilton and Lebanon.
The well known and valuable Onondaga limestone extends across the State, is extensively quarried for building purposes and to burn in many localities, and contains many interesting fossils. It is usually nearly pure and is one of the most valuable of building stones. It is the rock over which, as a rule, the waters flow north, forming the falls, great and small, at the western end of its range, the most noted of which in a local sense, are the one at Perryville and the one at Chittenango Falls. At Van Epps, near Perryville, the top of this stone forms a broad and extensive terrace, the mass being about ten feet thick. At Perryville the waters of Canaseraga Creek fall from the rock into a gulf excavated to a depth of more than one hundred feet in the water lime group; similar conditions exist at Chittenango Falls. The Corniferous limestone rests invariably upon the Onondaga limestone and is covered by the Marcellus shales. It is seldom pure, contains many characteristic fossils, but has little practical importance.
The Marcellus shales are geographically divided into two masses, one of which contains limestone and characteristic fossils, while they are absent in the other. The limestone is very impure and dark in color. It diminishes in thickness east and west from Marcellus, and the presence of coal in small quantities along its out-crop has led to many excavations for that very useful mineral in Madison county and elsewhere. These shales are well exposed at the falls on Oneida Creek, and are seen at other points along its line.
The Hamilton group takes its name from the town of Hamilton in this county, which contains no other rock. The group includes all the masses between the upper shales or Marcellus and the Tully limestone. It is of great thickness, ranging from 300 to 700 feet and extends from Hudson River to Lake Erie. It consists of shale, slate, and sandstone, and their mixtures, and abounds in fossils, but is generally deficient in building material. It covers the whole of Brookfield, excepting a triangular projection towards the southwest end where the Ithaca group appears; the whole of Hamilton and Madison, the eastern half of Lebanon, three-fourths of Eaton, the extreme south part of Stockbridge, the southern half of Smithfield, all of Fenner excepting the north and northwestern parts, the greater part of Cazenovia, and extends into De Ruyter. The most important exposition of this rock in this county is near Hamilton village, where various openings have been made. Quarries have also been opened and worked in many other places in the county, as elsewhere described. The hills around Cazenovia village are largely composed of the coarse shales of the group which, in mineral character, constitute the greater part of the whole group; they turn brownish in color with exposure, decompose slowly, and are the common building material of their range. The hillside southeast of New Woodstock shows the same sandstone as at Hamilton, and the stone is quarried to some extent. The valley through which the Chenango Canal passed drains a large part of this group, and the valley of New Woodstock is excavated in the same part of the group.
The Tully limestone is not seen in this county, but it doubtless exists, as it appears a little to the northwest of De Ruyter village, with the shales of the Hamilton group below it, and the Genesee slate above. This Genesee slate is seen along the road from Smyrna to De Ruyter, and in its range through Lebanon. The Ithaca group, while a more useful rock than the group below it, bears little interest in this county. The most northerly point where it is seen is near Nelson Flats, where a mass of about eight feet is exposed.
Of the Quarternary Deposits there are but few points in this section where any striking superposition of layers is seen, owing chiefly to the comparatively few excavations. The best locality for observation is at Chittenango, where three distinct deposits are seen. The lowest mass is a yellow sand in layers; the second consists of round stones and blackish sand, and the third of red earth, apparently derived from the destruction of red shale. The height of the three deposits is about thirty-five feet. The same alluvial exists between Peterboro and Hamilton and in other places.
Lake marl, as a product of calcareous rocks, exists in great quantities in the towns of Lenox and Sullivan, and there is a large deposit south of Canastota. The largest quantity is in Cowasselon swamp, which covers more than 10,000 acres. A second source of marl is the calcareous alluvion, the product of which, in this county, is found on the high ground northwest of Peterboro.
The well known Chittenango sulphur springs are the most important in Madison county; they are situated in the valley of Chittenango Creek, issuing from a hill of calciferous slate. The analysis of the water is as follows:
| Carbonate of lime................................. | 0.88 | grains. |
| Sulphate of soda................................... | 1.66 | |
| Sulphate of lime and magnesia............ | 12.75 | |
| Chloride of sodium............................... | 0.14 | |
| Organic matter..................................... | trace. | |
Besides sulphuretted hydrogen the water contains a small portion of carbonic acid gas. It has been beneficially used in the treatment of sickness.
There is an interesting spring about two miles south of the village in the same valley, from which the water comes with a milky cast which is retained for many hours, becoming clear when boiled; it has a sulphurous odor. As the other sulphur springs of the vicinity give limpid water, this one has been given the name of Chittenango white sulphur spring.
There is a salt spring a short distance west of Canastota in a marsh thirty rods north of the canal. A boring was made here nearly forty years ago developing water with a strength of nine degrees salometer; but there was little encouragement in the undertaking and it was abandoned.
The four northern towns of this county, Sullivan, old Lenox, Fenner, and Smithfield, have loamy soils in predominance, compounded with clay and sand, in which in the swampy regions are great quantities of muck and marl and calcareous gravel on the northern hill slopes. These soils are well adapted to the growing of wheat, which has in the past been one of the principal products. The soil of the southern towns in which clay predominates, intermixed with gravel and shale upon the hills and gravel and alluvion in the valleys, is better adapted for the production of grass. Hops were for many years the large staple agricultural pro-duct of this county; but in more recent years, since prices have been low and uncertain, the dairying interest has increased in magnitude and is now a very important industry. The county long stood second only to Oneida in the quantity of hops produced. The fruit growing industry of the county is somewhat limited in variety, but the apple crop has always been large and the quality excellent. Pears, grapes, and other common fruits are grown, but not in large quantities.
1 - The Military Tract included the territory of Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca. Cortland, and parts of Wayne, Steuben and Oswego counties. It was set apart for the payment of land boun-ties to Revolutionary soldiers, under State and United States laws.
2 - This name is given by Seaver as Ka-na-so-wa-ga, signifying "several strings of beads with a string lying across." Hough's Gazetteer of New York gives its meaning as "Big Elkshorn."
3 - In French's Gazetteer the name Canastota is given as Ka-ne-to-ta, signifying Big Pine. Hough's Gazetteer gives it meaning as "Pine tree standing alone." The name Cowasselon signifies "Weeping Squaw."
4 - This beautiful lake bears the Indian name, Owahgena, written by some authorities, Hawgena. According to the Spafford Gazetteer of 1824, it was formerly called Lincklaen Lake.
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