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HISTORY OF TRUMANSBURG.—Introduction.Everything terrestrial must have a beginning. How shall we begin our history? Before Trumansburg was, when'the site of this beautiful village was a dense forest, where now are cultivated farms and pretty hamlets, manufactures and depots of trade and commerce, less than one hundred years ago was a wilderness, a veritable terra incognita to the white man. Yet it h.id its people, and they had a history, and long before there was still another people who left monuments showing a far higher state of civilization than those commonly known as the aborigines; of them no record exists except such as have been from time to time exhumed from the mounds which are scattered all through the country. These relics of a forgotton race afford the antiquarian abundant food for speculation, and that is all. Who they were, where they came from or v here they are gone are and will remain hidden mysteries. What we have to deal with however has nothing to do with this people or their successors. We propose to go back less than a century. There are plenty of men now living who first saw the light before the subject of our history had a beginning; and there are still more now living, lineal descendants of the founders of our village who by tradition and family records preserved the material from which we propose to compile the History of Trumansburg. We shall aim at absolute accuracy wherever proper data is obtainable, when treating upon or recording events from tradition shall select the best and most reliable sources of information. We do not think it advisable or desirable to trace the history of individuals back of their settlement here, although much of an individual or personal character must necessarily enter into this compilation, we shall as far as possible confine such to the village and immediate vicinity. How came'Trumansburg to be settled and whence its name ? Up to the close of the Revolutionary War, Albany County comprised ail the territory west of the Hudson to the west shore of Seneca Lake and the eastern boundary of the Connecticut purchase, and bounded on the north and south by the counties already surveyed. That this territory had been surveyed and plotted is evident from the fact that it was divided into townships. The honor of naming these towns has been ascribed to DcWitt Clinton, who, probably fresh fiom academic honors, with a mind well stored with classic literature sought to perpetuate the names of Greek j and Roman hcros, and to found anew the cities made famous by Cicero ! and Homer, hence from pent-up Utica to Niagara we are severely clas-I sic. This entire territory was held or owned by individuals or com-! panics who had acquired title by purchase or grant to the number of thirty nine, and in size ranging from four hundred and twenty eight acres, the smallest, to two hundred and ten thousand acres the largest. Many of these lands reverted to the state after the Revolution on account of the disloyalty of the owners to the new republic; many others were subsequently sold for taxes, and when the state resolved to set apart a portion of its territory to recompense, in part at least, its soldiers, all that portion now covered by the counties of Cayuga, Seneca, Schuyler, Tompkins and Wayne, twenty-eight townships in all, wasselected for this purpose and designated as the Military Tract. Whil we do not question the motives which prompted this action on the part of the State, yet it had no idea of the value of these lands ; a few thousand acres of wilderness, more or less, in those days was^as nothing. The only inhabited portion of the State at that time was a narrow strip of country on either side of the Hudson, with a few detatched settlements on the Mohawk and the Military Posts on the lakes Ontario and Erie. When the lands were thrown open for selection Cayuga Lake was practically farther from Albany than is Puget Sound to-day, and the beneficiaries were slow to take advantage of their rights by actual settlement. They dreaded the journey of weeks through the trackless forests, and the reports brought back by some intrepid but homesick and discouraged explorer was not encouraging. To be sure, they said, the land is fair to look upon, but to get there with wives and little^nes was a long and perilous journey beset with dangers, the stealthy Indian whose heart was still sore from the struggle which had deprived him of his inheritance, wild beasts and venomous reptiles, almost impassable swamps with their fever-laden miasmas were terrors which required the stoutest heart to brave ; the soldier who had periled life and limb in many a hard fought battle of the Revolution, “slept upon his rights,” and allowed this goodly heritage to pass away from him and his generation forever. And so it was that land warrants were bought by speculators for a mere song, the grantors prefering to take their chances of making a living among the rocks and mountains of river counties than to take as a gift a square mile of land in what became within their memory the “Garden of the State.” There were many noble exceptions however and it is but justice to them to say that they were better than their fellows. Their sturdy manhood, independence of character, a disposition to break away from the narrow limits of civilization and seek for themselves new homes in the “far west” prompted them to brave the dangers, and many if not most of them lived to see the fulfillment of their belief in the future of their country,,.they lived to see their homes hewn from the wilderness blossom like the rose, the rich virgin soil responded to every call upon it, and the State’s bounty made for .them a com-* petency, and laid the founda^tipn of the .wealth of, their descendants wVioca enffotona j .—. __’ ’i ofi their
Newspaper Details
The Free Press
Trumansburg, New York, US
Sat, Jan 07, 1888
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
IA, USA 14 Dec 2024
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