II.

THE VILLAGE SITE AND THOSE WHO CHOSE IT.

1784-1800.

The site of Unadilla village comprises nine lots of the Wallace or, as it would be better to call it, the Banyar Patent, since its real owner was neither Alexander nor Hugh Wallace, but Gouldsborough Banyar. They are lots 92 to 100, inclusive. Each runs in a northeasterly direction on lines generally parallel. The lots are of somewhat varying widths with lengths of perhaps ten times the widths. Besides Mr. Banyar the non-resident early owners from whom the settlers obtained their titles included eminent citizens of Albany County—John Livingston, the Lansings and the Van Vechtens—who seem to have acquired their holdings from Mr. Banyar. At first leases on the redemption plan were given. Several pioneers had long been here before they acquired actual titles, although others purchased soon after coming; but it was not until 1811 that the last village lot passed from an alien owner to an actual settler.

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The records of those early transactions are not complete. Searches made for the author leave several gaps to be filled. It was not a universal custom in those times to record deeds. A buyer often accepted the old deeds from the man from whom he purchased. Even in cases where deeds were eventually recorded several years might have elapsed after the purchase. In the period from 1772 until 1791, during which Unadilla was part of Tryon, or Montgomery County, no records exist of any sales by Mr. Banyar or of any sales to or by the Livingstons, Lansings or Van Vechtens, searches for the same having been made for the author in vain at Fonda. In Cooperstown the author has fared better. Here titles to almost any lot can be traced back to the formation of the county in 1791. From these records alone has it been possible to prepare the appended account of first sales to settlers.[3]

First to purchase outright, so far as the records show, was Aaron Axtell, the pioneer blacksmith of the village, who was here before 1794. In August 1795, he secured a part of lot 93 for £110. He made the purchase from Mr. Banyar. Lot 93 lies in the western end of the village. Mr. Axtell’s house stood on the site of the future Owens or Salmon G. Cone residence just beyond the railroad crossing, which some twenty odd years ago was burned. In 1810, Uriah Hanford had become the owner of this lot.

Mr. Axtell was of Welsh origin, and another of the name who came to Unadilla was Moses Axtell. Moses Axtell had lived in Boston before the Revolution, where he was one of the famous party who disguised themselves as Indians and threw the tea into Boston harbor,—the act by which, in the trouble with the Mother Country, the gauntlet was definitely thrown down by the Colonists. Moses Axtell afterwards fought in the battle of Lexington and at Bunker Hill.

Next as a purchaser came Solomon Martin, who in June 1796 secured lot 96, embracing perhaps 150 acres. He paid for it the sum of £141 5s. The sale was made by the Van Vechtens. Like all these lots it ran back to the hills for a distance of about a mile from the river bank.

The third purchase was made by Daniel Bissell. In August 1796 he obtained from Mr. Banyar lots 99 and 100, comprising nearly 400 acres, for which he paid £345. These lots extended from the extreme eastern end of the village down to about where St. Matthew’s church stands. Mr. Bissell sold a part of lot 100 in 1801, to his kinsman Guido L. Bissell for $250. Another part of the same lot he sold to Solomon Martin in the following year for $450.

Gurdon Huntington was the next purchaser. He did not acquire title, however, until 1800, which was about ten years after he came into the country. He then purchased from John Livingston a part of lot 98 for $352. Probably Dr. Huntington had already erected on this lot, the yellow house that still stands in the rear of the building long used as the post office. He seems to have built the house while occupying the land under a lease with the privilege of purchase.

Aaron Axtell in 1803 purchased a further part of lot 93 from William Fitch and Sarah, his wife. He paid $1400 for it, which would indicate that improvements had been made by the former owner. Mr. Fitch had a house in the village before 1803. As Mr. Axtell bought his first part of lot 93 from Mr. Banyar, Mr. Fitch’s part had, of course, originally been purchased from the same owner.

Stephen Benton, in 1804, became the owner of lot 95. He purchased it for $1095 from Peter Betts who then lived in Bainbridge and whose wife was Eliza Fitch, a sister of Amasa Fitch, an early settler on village land. Peter Betts owned other lands in the Wallace patent below the village. He, with William Fitch and Jonathan Fitch, had secured titles to land within the village limits somewhat earlier than the settlers already named; but the Cooperstown records give no clue to the date of their purchases which indicates that he made the purchase before 1791. There were Fitches in Lebanon, Connecticut, and these men perhaps came into the country with the Wattles families in or soon after 1784, which would make them the first settlers who took up village lands.

Jonathan Fitch in 1805 sold to Jacob Hayes the land he lived on in lot 94. For a part of that lot Mr. Hayes paid $800. Here again improvements obviously were included in the purchase price. Mr. Fitch is known to have had a house in the village at that time.

Next among the purchasers came Solomon Martin a second time. He bought lot 97 from Mr. Banyar in 1807, paying £153 14s. On this lot stood General Martin’s house and store. He at this time was the largest land owner in the village. After his death in 1816, the estate was said to be “land poor.”

The records now proceed to the purchase made by Daniel and Gilbert Cone, in 1811. This was lot 92 which lay beyond the Axtell purchase. The Cones bought of the Lansings and paid $563.39 for the tract. Three years later they sold one acre of it to Niel Robertson for $400, which must have included improvements. From Mr. Banyar in 1813 the Cones bought another lot for $501.25. This was lot 108, but it was outside village limits.

Daniel Bissell who in some respects is the most interesting of these pioneers was a native of Lebanon where he was born in 1748. He married in that place Sarah Wattles and was approaching forty years of age when, about 1792, and perhaps earlier, he came to Wattles’s Ferry. In Lebanon he had already become a man of varied and useful activities. He possessed a considerable tract of land there and papers now owned by Harriet Bissell Sumner show that he had had many transactions with Sluman Wattles. A paper characteristic of the period, containing an “account of Benjamin Bissell’s estate that Daniel Bissell took”, names pistols valued at £2, a greatcoat valued at 12s., leather breeches at 5s. and one gun at £1, 12s., 6d. Another paper signed “Jonathan Trumbull, Captain-General”, who was the original “Brother Jonathan”, his home being in Lebanon, is dated in 1773 and excuses Daniel Bissell from military service owing to “a lameness of the arm caused by fracture and a pain in the chest caused by a sprain.”

Still another paper dated in March 1792 gives a list of articles delivered to Daniel Bissell from the estate of Mr. Fitch. It includes one large kettle, valued at 8s., one meal chest at 3½s., one small feather bed at 30s., one pair of saddle bags at 6s., one small bedstead 10s., and one copy of Gibbs’s “Architecture”, 24s. Some of these articles no doubt found their way to the new settlement. Mr. Bissell had a family of nine children, three or four of whom had reached their twentieth year. He brought with him the large sum of $7,000 in specie, which completely filled a good sized basket.

One of the recorded facts in Mr. Bissell’s life is that he kept the first hotel. A license issued to him, though not the earliest in the town by five or more years, still exists with the seal attached. It is signed by Solomon Martin, in whose hand the whole paper is written, and by Peter Schremling and Gurdon Huntington. By virtue of law these gentlemen, Commissioners of Excise for the town of Unadilla, say they “do hereby permit Daniel Bissell to retail strong and spirituous liquors according as it is in said law made and provided, from the date hereof until the first Tuesday in May next after this date.” The license is dated September 9, 1799.

Mr. Bissell’s relations with other settlers are shown in several letters. One from Noble and Hayes, of which he was the bearer, dated in 1806, is addressed to Bogardus and DuBois of Catskill, and informed them that the Unadilla merchants sent by Mr. Bissell three barrels of wheat, with other articles which were to be sold “if you can and credit us the avails.” Another from Dr. Huntington was addressed to Packard and Conant of Albany. Dr. Huntington sent by Mr. Bissell a few rags and said “I expect you will give four dollars for rags, or more, and if they do not come to the amount of the paper [the rags were to be exchanged for writing paper] I will be I suppose in Albany in about two weeks and will settle for the same.” The date of this is November 1808, when Dr. Huntington was a Member of the Assembly.

About the same time came a relative of Daniel Bissell, though not a near one, Guido L. Bissell, Mrs. Sumner’s ancestor. He was born in 1769 and was the father of that other Daniel Bissell whom many men and women can still remember. He was also the father of Hannah Bissell who became the wife of John Veley. In 1796, as Mr. Bissell’s account book records, “John Barsley began to work for me”, and in the following spring “Sevenworth began to work for me.” In this ancient volume, another entry under date of Franklin, March 23rd, 1798, is this: “I promise to Guido Bissell 15 shillings on demand, being for value received, John Pooler”, and still another, “Mr. Guido Bissell and I have settled and find a balance of 2 pounds due said Bissell on account, James Hughston.” Mr. Bissell for some time was engaged in trade. His book has many entries of sales of “jane”, velvet, cloth, etc., as well as charges for work done by himself and men whom he employed. He did some of the work in building Wright’s store in 1815, and when St. Matthew’s church was built made note of “work on the church five days by Mr. Beadle.”

A numerous and influential family in Connecticut had been the Bissells. John Bissell, a pioneer of Windsor, and believed to be the ancestor of them all, was the first white man who ventured across the Connecticut River from Windsor, where he built a house and began the East Windsor settlement. For forty-four years his descendants, Aaron Bissell and Aaron Bissell, Jr., filled the office of town clerk. In Windsor in the last century was a Daniel Bissell and a Daniel Bissell, Jr. The latter performed secret service for Washington, that won for him a badge of merit. Members of this family have been prominent in various walks of life. One of them was a Protestant Episcopal bishop.

Solomon Martin came to Unadilla some years before 1790. In 1792 he already had a store here. He was a native of Woodbury, Connecticut, one of the oldest towns in that state outside the Connecticut River valley, and was a son of another Solomon Martin, descended from one of the first settlers. The family was English and one of them, Captain John Martin, went around the world with Drake. They were entitled to bear arms and had for their motto “Sure and Steadfast.” Solomon was born June 15, 1762. His name is given by Cothran among natives of Woodbury who served in the Revolution, although he was only a boy of thirteen when the war began. His title of general—a militia title, I believe—belongs to a late period in his life. In 1792 he was a captain and in 1806 a colonel. He served in the war of 1812.

His store in Unadilla was the first set up. Its site was on Main just west of Martin Brook Street. Here also he lived, the house and store having been built together. At a late date he appears to have been in partnership with Gurdon Huntington. Many years afterwards there stood near the present White store block a building called the Dr. Huntington store. It was afterwards moved to the site of the present L. L. Woodruff residence and then conveyed to the street that fronts on the river where it still stands adjoining the churchyard grounds. Solomon Martin had a distillery as early as 1803, when Guido L. Bissell charged him “to work at trough at stillhouse 18 shillings,” “to work in the still house 6 shillings”, and again “to work on the still.”

Solomon Martin and Sluman Wattles had close business relations. Mr. Wattles sold him boards “delivered to your store” in 1792, and in the same year charged George Johnson 3 pounds, 17 shillings for “goods taken at Captain Martin’s store.” In 1794 he charged Martin 6 shillings as “fees for license”, and the same year Roger Wattles with “an order on Solomon Martin for three quarts of rum for 7 shillings.” When Martin was in the Legislature in 1806, Sluman Wattles sold him a yoke of oxen “which he agrees to allow me as much for as he can sell them to the McAlpins for and answer the same to Lansing at Albany towards the Mill place which I bought of him (Lansing) between now and the last of August next.” Martin appears to have made his journey to the State Capital in a conveyance drawn by these oxen.

Solomon Martin’s wife was Susan Scott of Catskill, whom he married in 1796. In 1816 he died, and Mrs. Martin with her four sons and her unmarried sister continued to occupy the home in Unadilla for many years. He was elected Supervisor in 1798, 1799, 1800, 1801 and 1802. He was Sheriff of Otsego County from 1802 to 1806, and was twice a Member of Assembly. His business relations were large. Among plaintiffs in suits before Sluman Wattles in and about the year 1794, Martin often appears, some twenty suits and confessions of judgment in his behalf being entered.

During his term as Sheriff, Martin became associated with a murder case in a way that gave his name considerable notoriety. Stephen Arnold of Burlington had so severely whipped a girl six years old that she died of her injuries. Arnold was tried, convicted and sentenced to be hanged. On the day appointed for the execution, thousands of people assembled to witness it in an open field on the banks of the river in Cooperstown. An address was made by a clergyman, the prisoner spoke a few words, Sheriff Martin adjusted the rope, and then, while the assemblage was breathlessly waiting for the final scene, Martin produced a letter from Governor Lewis granting a respite. It appeared that this letter had reached Martin early in the morning and it was now past noon. His excuse for his conduct was that he and a few others whom he had consulted thought it would be improper to make the letter public except on the scaffold.

Solomon Martin’s permanent memorial in this village is the stream that bears his name. It was formerly divided into two streams running through village lands, and then coming together, thus forming an island. When the owners of land on and near this island desired to erect buildings they thought it proper that the brook should be confined to one channel, and accordingly attempted so to make it.

More than half a century has passed since that step was taken, but the stream in high water time is still true to its old time habit: the brook pushes out to the westward and asserts dominion over its old time territory. All the efforts of two generations to prevent this again and again have failed. Across this stream on Main street originally stood a wooden bridge. At the sides horses could be driven down for water. A stone arched bridge erected a great many years ago, admirably took the place of this primitive structure and so remained until 1893, a striking monument of the care with which it was built.

Solomon Martin for many years had a sawmill on this brook. It stood a short distance above the tannery site and here for many years the road came to an end. The building of this sawmill goes back of the year 1796. Solomon Martin, his store and his sawmill were long since gone. They are all forgotten to this generation. A dark stone slab marks his burial place in St. Matthew’s churchyard. Meanwhile the unruly brook remains forever to strengthen recollections of his name.

Further up this stream other sawmills were afterwards built. What was the dwelling house adjoining these mills still does duty there as a home on a different site, and here in their old age long lived Lewis, or “Luke”, and Edward Carmichael. Beyond that site Martin Brook now possesses a newer and more lasting memorial of individual enterprise. Athwart the stream have been erected imposing dams of stone serving reservoirs and standing as firm and permanent as the hills that form their abutments. Solomon Martin had been nearly forty years in his grave when was born the citizen of Unadilla who in that secluded ravine was to erect these enduring and beneficent structures,—Samuel S. North.

Gurdon Huntington, whose home for many years was in the historic building that still stands at the corner of Main and Martin Brook Streets, came to Unadilla before 1794, and here he lived until 1830. He was a native of Franklin, Connecticut, which lies within a few hours’ walk of Lebanon, Daniel Bissell’s home. His father was Deacon Barnabus Huntington, and he belonged to the sixth generation in descent from Simon Huntington, a noted early emigrant from England who sailed for the new world in 1633 with his wife and children, and on the voyage over died and was buried at sea. From his surviving sons a very distinguished family of descendants were to be raised up in many parts of this country—Samuel who was governor of Connecticut and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Samuel who was governor of Ohio, Daniel the artist, and Collis P., the railroad magnate, whose home in early life was in the Susquehanna Valley at Oneonta.

Gurdon Huntington was born on July 3rd, 1768. He was educated by his father’s pastor, the Rev. Dr. Nott. One of his schoolmates was that Eliphalet Nott who rose to much eminence as president of Union College. The boy read medicine in Connecticut and then came to Unadilla. In 1798 he married Esther, the only daughter of Benjamin Martin of Woodbury, Connecticut. Benjamin Martin was Solomon Martin’s eldest brother.

Dr. Huntington “became a successful and deservedly popular physician” in Unadilla. His practice is known to have extended to places distant forty or fifty miles from home, and one may well believe the statement that “a more welcome visitor never entered those scattered homes.” In this laborious field he made journeys by day and night and often wended “his solitary way along almost untrodden paths”, forded unbridged streams and yet was a “cheerful and happy man”, as well as a “skillful and prosperous physician.” He is said to have accumulated in his time “a handsome property.” He was a man of genial manners and by nature companionable.

Dr. Huntington was elected supervisor of Unadilla in 1803 and again in 1809 and 1811. For seven years he was town clerk. He served four terms in the Legislature—in 1805, 1806, 1807 and 1808. In 1813 he removed to Cairo, Greene County, where he died in 1847 at the age of seventy-nine.

In this early pioneer history, other names besides these are found—Adam Rifenbark, Seth Abel, Capt. Uriah Hanford, Jacob Boult, Abel Case and Jonas Sliter. Each was here before the eighteenth century closed. Capt. Hanford came before 1796 and was a freeholder in 1809. He died here more than thirty years afterwards. He was the father of Theodore Hanford. Jonas Sliter dates as far back as 1795 and probably several years further. He seems to have belonged to the family which settled in the old paper mill region before the Revolution. Perhaps he came back as soon as the war closed. Seth Abel was living in the town before 1798 and long served as tax collector and pathmaster. Abel Case was probably here before the century closed. In 1809 he was a freeholder and in 1810 a commissioner of highways. He owned land that joined Solomon Martin’s and was one of the first vestrymen of St. Matthew’s Church. Guido L. Bissell worked on his wagon house and roofed over his barn in 1806. Jacob Boult was living in the village in 1800 “near the bridge” and was still a resident in 1837. Giles Sisson was living on the river road above the village before 1808. Still another name is William Wheeler, to whom in 1797 Guido L. Bissell sold “15 lights of sash for 7 and 6 pence”, “290 feet of timber for 10 shillings and 1300 shingles for 1 pound.”

The life story of these pioneers is really a history of this settlement in its formative period. Their activities widely differed, and so did their importance. But all were among the first pioneers and they all had a share in laying the foundations.