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 ly-Tifp) Historical Discourse, 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE 
 
 WHITESTOWN 
 
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 CHARLES TRACY 
 
 T;TIC.^ N. Y. 
 
 il.I.IS U. lioUKKTs & Co., liOOK AND Jon PlUNTl.Hs, (it) UknKsSKK St. 
 
 "WTenox. 
 
Class _ 
 Book. 
 
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 1 
 
Historical Discourse, 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE 
 
 WHITESTOWN 
 
 CEpNNIjiL CELEBpOti, 
 
 JTU^STE 5, 1884^. 
 
 BY — 
 
 CHARLES TRACY. 
 
 UTICA, N. T, 
 Ellis H. Roberts & Co., Book and Job Printers, 60 Genesee St. 
 
 1885. ^,. 
 

 In ExoH \ 
 
 N.Y. Pub. Lib, 
 
HISTORICAL ADDRESS. 
 
 BY CHARLES TRACY. 
 
 A hundred years ! How such a period marks the eartli and its 
 people with changes. It sweeps away three generations, and 
 hardly does one man who breathed at the beginning of the grand 
 oycle live five score years and watch its ending. 
 
 On a bright day in June, 1784, Hugh White, ascending the 
 Mohawk river in a boat, reached the mouth of the Sadaqueda 
 Creek and there landed, at the spot since known as the I'oint. 
 With some of his sturdy sons he stepped into the vast forest 
 stretching north, west and south to the bounds of the 
 ♦State of New York, unbroken by any civilized settlement, 
 without a natural prairie, and hardly opened to the sun 
 except by a few scattered patches of Indian clearings. But 
 they came to stay, and did stay. The fourth, filth and sixth 
 generations of his line witness to-day the centennial of tliat land- 
 ing and the due lionors rendered to those whose dust rests in peace 
 in the fair land they won and reclaimed and beautified. 
 
 This hundred of years includes three-eighths of the whole period 
 from the first landing of English emigrants on the American coast 
 down to the present day. 
 
 The bold settlement of ^^anhattan Island by the Hollanders, 
 and the establishment of their colonies along the Hudson and a 
 part of the Mohawk, attracted emigrants from their own country 
 and from Germany, before the British succeeded to the govern- 
 ment ; but after the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam had become 
 the English province of Xew York, the difference of language 
 hindered the infusion of British emigrants among the people. At 
 the breaking out of the revolution the Hollanders in the valley of 
 the ]Mohawk extended not many miles above Schenectady, from 
 whence uj) to German Flats and Frankfoi-t there were only 
 Germans speaking their native tongue. The two peoples in the 
 valley were similar in character and habits, and were in mutual 
 friendship, but their diidects diftered, and were distinguished as 
 low Dutch and high Dutch. They held a region of remarkable 
 fertility and beauty on both sides of the river, ani there they cut 
 down the woods, made roads and bridy^es, built houses and 
 
churches, and cultivated their fruitful fields ; and in the winter, 
 when sleighing came, they " rode " their wheat to the town on the 
 Hudson, now the city of Albany. They were in comfort, and 
 were contented. 
 
 But the great struggle of the Revolutionary war, and its 
 wonderful success, aroused a spirit of enterprise throughout the 
 union, and as soon as j^eace was proclaimed thousands of New 
 Englanders were ready to go beyond the existing Mohawk 
 paradise, and attack the primeval forest, which, as they had heard, 
 covered a broad area of rich soil. Hugh White was the man 
 fitted by nature and chosen by providence to take the lead in this 
 great enterprise. He was a substantial farmer of Middletown, 
 Connecticut, fifty-one years old, with good habits, perfect integrity 
 and ample vigor, promptitude, courage and mental force. 
 
 Things were prepared for his hands. One Hugh Wallace had 
 held a tract of 6,000 acres by grant from the British provincial 
 government, sometimes known as Wallace's patent. It lay in this 
 valley, extending from the mouth of the Sadaqueda, at the Pointy 
 along up the Mohawk river and back from it on each side, 
 including a remarkable combination of interval with higher level 
 plains and gently rising hills. The Indian title to this land had 
 been lawfully acquired by purchase under the sanction of the 
 provincial government, according to the just and honest course of 
 dealing with the Indians which always prevailed from the days of 
 the first Dutch emigration. Wallace was a merchant in the city 
 of New York, and a member of the British governor's council. 
 The Americans once "apprehended" him; but after holding him 
 prisoner in Connecticut for some time Governor Turnbull released 
 him, and he returned to New York and resumed his seat in the 
 council. His being a clear case of treason, the New York State 
 Legislature, in the midst of the war, on the 22d day of October, 
 1779, passed a special act in which his name was included with 
 some other like oflfenders. It opens thus : " Whereas, during the 
 present unjust and cruel war, waged by the King of Great 
 Britain, against this State, and the other United States of America, 
 divers persons holding or claiming property within this State, 
 have voluntarily been adherent to the said King, his fleets and 
 armies, enemies to this State and the said other United States, 
 wnth intent to subvert the government and liberties of this State 
 and the said other United States, and to bring the same in sub- 
 jection, to the crown of Great Britain; and whereas the public 
 justice and safety of this State absolutely require, that the most 
 
■notorious offenders should be immediately hereby convicted and 
 attained of the oft'ense aforesaid, in order to work a forfeiture of 
 their respective estates, and vest the same in the people of this 
 State." It then proceeds to enact that certain persons named, 
 among them being this Hugh AVallace, "be, and each of them are 
 hereby severally declared to be, ipso facto, convicted and attainted 
 of the offense aforesaid; and tliat all and singular tlie estate, both 
 real and personal, held or claimed by them, tl)e said persons 
 sevei-ally and respectively, whethc r in possession, reversion or 
 remainder, witliin tliis State, on the day of the passing of this act, 
 shall be, and hereby is declared to be, forfeited to and invested in 
 the people of this State." It further enacted that all said persons 
 be forever banished from this State, and tliat if any one of them 
 should ever be found in this State "he should suffer death without 
 benefit of clergy." 
 
 Thus Wallace's j)atent became the property of the State of New 
 York by the best title known to the law. 
 
 Shortly afterwards, in the same year, the State, by its Com- 
 missioners of Foifeitures, sold this tract of land to Zephaniah 
 Piatt, Ezra L'Hommedieu, Melancthon Smith and Hugh White 
 jointly, and the property became better known as Sadaqueda 
 Patent, thus taking the name of the beautiful stream already- 
 mentioned. 
 
 The Indian name of this creek signifies "the stream of smooth 
 pebbles," and the savages pronounced it Saghdaguaite. The 
 French, wlio first wrote it, in their usual way shortened the name 
 into Sauquoite, and pronounced it Sow-quait. The English after- 
 wards wrote it and pronounced it Sadaqueda, and so it appears in 
 maps and deeds through a long period. More recently the custom 
 has been to use the French spelling but to apply to it an English 
 pronunciation, and ''^ Sair-quoit''' prevails. 
 
 Piatt, L'Hommedieu, Smith and White divided the land between 
 themselves. As Mr. Wliite agreed to be the pioneer and settle on 
 the ground, he was justly favored in the division, both as to choice 
 of location and as to price, and he wisely chose the eastern part, 
 taking in the cre^k and its valleys and plains on both sides from 
 the Point up to site of New York Mills, and he also purchased 
 other grounds on the west side of his allotment; so that his 
 possessions took in the "Green" where we new stand, and a 
 valuable part of tlie site of this village and the graceful hills that 
 rise on its borders. 
 
 It is now full five score years since Hugh White thus entered 
 
6 
 
 upon his portion of the land. In the following year, 1785, he- 
 brought liither all his family and set up his home. The annual 
 spring freshet of 1785 having surrounded the place near the Point, 
 where he landed in 1784, he chose a spot on the plain near where 
 we now are, and put up a temporary dwelling, which afterwards 
 was succeeded by a substantial frame house, sided with boards 
 brought from Schenectady. The soil about the house he cleared 
 of every tree and shrub, except three mai)le saplings which had 
 grown there from wild seed, and as he afterwards used to say,, 
 they were then not bigger than his whip stock. These were left 
 to grow into shade trees. Their irregular positions and unequal 
 distances show they never were planted by the hand of man, but 
 they stand there now in nature's order, three remarkable trees, 
 with an average diameter of three feet. Although a century has 
 made its marks on their trunks and tops, and although they were 
 bored for the sap and yielded sugar in many successive years, and 
 one of them has lost so much timber that it looks now like a 
 crippled giant, trying to stand on his last leg and keep up till the 
 coming of this day's rejoicing, yet they are in full leaf to-day and 
 retain some remnant of the beauty for which tliousands have 
 admired them. The old farm house has been transformed, but 
 these three venerable sugar maples stand before us as living 
 witnesses of the olden time, (See note A. ) 
 
 Hugh White's house on this plain was built on the Connecticut 
 model, which differed widely from that of the Dutch. The 
 Dutch house had a long front, with less depth, a chimney at each' 
 end rising above the high gable and a rooted piazza along the 
 front called by them a " stoop " — a word of theirs which has now 
 become American. The Connecticut house had nearly a square form 
 and a large chimney stack in the middle. To this day the former 
 lingers in the lower valley, and some of the latter remain in 
 Whitestown. The two styles distinguishable at a distance, show 
 whether a Dutchman or a Yankee Avas the builder. The Tory 
 refugees who sailed from New York harbor, in the autumn of 1783, 
 were of both the races; and in the valley of Annapolis, in Nova 
 Scotia, where King George gave them lands for their consolation 
 in adversity, the tourist of to-day may see how tlie two races fol- 
 lowed their respective old usages in the style of their dwellings. 
 
 ]Mr. White a;ul liis sons proceeded with diligence to cut away 
 the forest and convert their possessions into farms. The soil was 
 absolutely perfect, yielding *crops in quantity and quality far 
 beyond their New England experience. 
 
In later days botanists found that the native flora between the 
 Oriskuny and Sadaqueda creeks was remarkably extensive and in- 
 teresting. 
 
 News of White's settelenient in this goodly region was not slow 
 in spreading through his native land. Farmers who liad worn out 
 plows and hoes among rocks and stones, with scant reward, 
 welcomed the thought of a soil freely worked and yielding better 
 crops. One of the original brown bread eaters of the east in- 
 quired, among other things, whether those wondrous lands bore 
 good ryeV and White answered, "I don't know: wheat is good 
 enough foi- me." The war had left the country much wasted in 
 regard to its material condition, but rich in active men, and a flow 
 of emigration soon started hithervvard. The only accessible place 
 where good wild land could be found m this State, was west of 
 the (Tcrman settlements on the Mohawk, and hence this patent 
 was the natural point of pursuit. The Mohawk valley, with its 
 navigable river and its roads, formed the only practicable line of 
 approach, and thus White's settlement was the very key of the 
 position. Hither tliey came, first from Connecticut, next from 
 all New England, with some from Long Island and New Jersey, 
 followed later by peoi)le of the Old World. Soon there were 
 farms, houses, mills, and villages, at attractive points for a 
 hundred miles westward. Later came the era of turnpike roads, 
 which helped much in the teaming over a soft deep soil. The 
 river was used only the more for freighting. The movement went 
 on without check or slackening, and the new country became an 
 established and permanent reality. 
 
 The Oneida Indians were a friendly people. They came often 
 to see what was going o^i in the new settlement and to do a little 
 traflic. ^fr. White was always kind and wise in his intercourse 
 with them, and [)rompt to decide and act. One of their chiefs after 
 a few years' acquaintance craftily put his confidence to a hard 
 test. This chief after some })alaver with avowals of his great 
 esteem, asked for a loan oC Mr. White's baby granddaughter, pro- 
 mising to bring her back in a few days and in the meantime to 
 take good care of her. "Take her," said White, "I know .you 
 will do as you say." The mother's tears and bursting heart 
 resisted in vain. The little one was picked up by the scjuaws, and 
 soon was out of sight in the woods. Tliere were long hours by 
 day and longer by night while the child's place was empty. But 
 at last the chief proudly came again, with a procession of squaws, 
 bringing the child, well and happy, bound in a frame like a pap- 
 
8 
 
 poose and glittering with Indian finery and trinkets. From that 
 hour Hugh White was worshiped by the Oneidas. 
 
 Tears afterwards, when Whitesboro was an established and 
 beautiful village, and the Oneidas had withdrawn from its vicinity, 
 there still was to be seen occasionally a tall, slender Indian march- 
 ing down in the middle of the street, followed by his family in 
 single file, he bearing no load but a long, fresh, spear shaft which 
 he held perpendicularly, his form erect, his step high, his air proud; 
 the women in blankets, bearing on their backs large packs held 
 by bands across their foreheads, walking bent and parrot-toed; 
 the younger ones falling into the file behind. It was charming to 
 look upon such a party on its way to the fishing grounds. But 
 when the expedition had become wearisome and the fishing was 
 over, and the visit to the shore had ended in drunkenness and 
 begging, they slank back homeward by twilight or through 
 wood ])aths, straggling and shabby. 
 
 Until 1784, the greater part of the State was included in Tryon 
 and Schenectady counties and the Hudson river counties, and 
 Long Island and Staten Island were the exceptions. But there 
 was no actual government or civil organization by towns 
 anywhere west of German Flats. In that year the Legislature 
 changed the name from Tryon to Montgomery county, by a 
 statute passed April 2, 1784, but set up no township government. 
 Thus on the first landing at the Point in June, 1784, this patent 
 was in the county of Montgomery. Four years afterwards the 
 necessity of a regular government for the many and fast growing 
 settlements became apparent! The Legislature by an act passed 
 March 7, 1788, among other things, created the town of Whites- 
 town in the county of Montgomery. This town was laid out on a 
 magnificent scale. Its eastern boundary was a straight line cross- 
 ing the river a short distance below Genesee street bridge, at a 
 log house then standing there, and running thence due north to 
 the River St. Lawrence, and also due south to a small stream 
 near Pennsylvania and down that stream to the Pennsylvania line. 
 All parts of the State lying west of that line were constituted the 
 town of Whitestown. It contained more then twelve million acres 
 of land, navigable head waters of the Mohawk, the Delaware, the 
 Susquehanna and the Ohio, the salt springs of Onondaga, the 
 chain of little lakes and Oswego river, the entire valley of the 
 Genesee with its upper and lower falls, and also the grand 
 cataract of Niagara. Its frontage on great lakes and rivers was 
 not short of four hundred miles in length. 
 
9 
 
 The map now shown is the ordinary map of the State ])ublished 
 the j)resent year, 18S4. lied ink has been aihled to show the 
 bounds of the town in ] 7H8. It sijoes now into tlie collection of 
 the Oneida Historical Society. Within the original limits of 
 Wliitestown there are now a dozen cities, our own Utica being 
 the eldest and V)y Jar tlie most handsome and attractive; and 
 half as many colletics, our <;\vn Hamilton being first and leader; 
 and more than a million of inhabitants and untold wealtli. 
 
 The original town did not long retain its vast dimensions. In 
 1789 a slice was cut off at the west end to make the county of 
 Ontario. In 1792 the towns of Steuben, Westmoreland, Paris, 
 Mexico and Peru were set off; but the autonomy of" Wliitestown, 
 with its town meeting, justices, clerk and elections, never ceased. 
 Utica was set off in 1817, and New Hartford in 1827. The residue 
 remains nearly as it was in 1806, when Peleg Gilford made his 
 survey and published his map. 
 
 In 1791 Herkimer county was created. It included nearly the 
 whole of Montgomery county west of Little Falls, and Whites- 
 town was its county seat, in which the first court was held. Ten 
 years afterwards Oneida county was created, taking in the greater 
 part of Herkimer county. In this instance the name for the new 
 county was determined by a little gathering held here. It was a 
 Whitesboro man who proposed to depart from the usual custom 
 and take the name of the Indian tribe, the original people of the 
 region still dwelling around the New England settlements; and 
 thus came the smooth and graceful style of Oneida county. This 
 good example was followed in other cases. 
 
 Hugh White, the pioneer, was not a seeker of public position. 
 He once was a]ipoint'jd justice of the peace; and afterwards the 
 governor appointed him one of the judges of the county, and he 
 served several ye'ars as such judge, with approbation and honor. 
 Age at length inclined him to retirement and quiet. • 
 
 The last summons found him at his post. On the IGth day of 
 April, 1812, while those three maple trees were putting forth their 
 buds for the season. Judge White, on his own domain, peacefully 
 yielded up his breath, in the eightieth year of his age. His, 
 venerated widow seventeen years afterwards, at the same season, 
 passed away in the eighty-seventh year of her age. 
 
 This village early took the name of Whitesboro. Its broad 
 avenue was made by voluntary cessions, enlarging th(? width 
 beyond the original four rods of a country road to a full one 
 hundred feet, and was early planted with shade trees on each side. 
 
10 
 
 The first church was reared by "The United Society of Whites- 
 town and Utica," on the site of the present brick church. 
 Although it was a wooden building, it was well designed by a 
 competent amateur architect, divided by columns into nave and 
 aisles, with Roman arches, tall windows, a pulpit with sounding 
 board above, a music loft, a gi-aceful belfry and a bright tinned 
 steeple. The carpenter may have failed in some details, but the 
 result was comely, and for a long period it was an attractive 
 structure. A sweet bell, added in due time, was rung at six 
 o'clock to arouse the sleepers, at noon it called to dinner, and at 
 nine in the evening its tongue spoke to all visiting beaux a hint 
 for parting. The organization was Presbyterian — the settlers thus 
 taking a departure from the Congregationalism of their ancestors. 
 
 Some, perhaps many, who in youth heard the gospel in the old 
 church, but afterwards felt the spell of worship in grand cathe- 
 drals, still held that handsome wooden church in pleasant memo- 
 ries, and sighed when they learned that it was gone. 
 
 The Baptists early hnd a church, and a strong following and 
 influence for good. 
 
 Tiie. minister and the schoolmaster early appeared, and exercised 
 benign influences. Yet there came a need. for court house and 
 jail. The former displayed the union flag while the court was in 
 session, and the sheriflT, wearing a cocked hat and girt with a 
 sword, followed by constables holding aloft their long black rods, 
 marshaled judges, jurors and counsel as they went in procession 
 from their quarters to the temple of justice. 
 
 Nor were the lawyers idle. This town furnished to the Court of 
 Eri-ors in 1805, the first chancery case in the State on rights in a 
 stream of water, as affected by occupation and by unvv^ritten 
 agreements betv/een the proprietors of adjacent lands. In ]S09 
 this village gave the Supreme Court its first case in the law of 
 escapes. The jail liberties here, which v/ere free to imprisoned 
 debtors, were so established that a certain sidewalk was within 
 the liberties, but a certain roadway was pot. A prisoner, strolling 
 on a winter day, found this sidewalk encumbered with a snow 
 drift, and he stepped out into the roadway and walked there a few 
 rods ; and the sheriff" being sued tor this as an escape, was con- 
 demned to pay the creditor tlie whole amount of the judgment, 
 being over $5,000, Each of these cases was argued ably by 
 Whitestown counsel, was cont-idered by the courts with care and 
 fully reported. Many authorities were cited, but all were from 
 English authors, or decisions o( English courts. Not a New York 
 
11 
 
 nor American case or authority was referred to; and jirobably 
 because there was none in existence, touching such questions. 
 
 This village early had its weekly newspaper, and was a place of 
 much traffic. But the Utica settlement having advatitages in 
 position, in that the high ground there reached to the shore of the 
 river and always gave a dry landing place, finally outgrew 
 AVhitesboro; and yet for a long time this spot was not without its 
 merchants who sold both at wholesale and retail, and made ship- 
 ments to New York of potash, otter skins, beaver skins, and other 
 products of the country. 
 
 When the time came for emigration to regions west of this 
 State, the best and almost the only line of travel was by the valley 
 of the Mohawk and through AVhitestown. Then could be seen 
 passing along this street the emigrant wagon, covered with a high 
 canopy of sail-cloth, carrying wife and little ones, and furniture and 
 food for the journey ; the father and boys following behind and 
 driving a few cows and sheep ; all slowly making their way, the 
 canvas marked in large capitals "Ohio." In later years the label 
 was " Indiana." This was a frecpient and interesting sight, and it 
 is still repeated on some of the plains of the far west, near the 
 Rocky mountains, where the white and s]>ectral canvas, seen from 
 afar, is called " the sliip of the prairie." 
 
 Things have changed here ; but still the best line for passing 
 from the eastern coast of the United States to the western world 
 must be through the valley of the Mohawk, and the plains of old 
 Whitestown, which line divides the Allegany range as does no 
 other between Vermont and Florida. (See note B.) f 
 
 Among the neighbors of Hugh White were many who had 
 served in the Revolutionary war, and some who bore arms in 
 the earlier war between the English and the French. One, at 
 least, was a soldier in a Connecticut regiment of volunteers and 
 fought at Louisburg in 1745, — an extraordinary battle, where the 
 New England troops landed at the shore without artillery, and 
 attacked and carried a strong fort, well supplied with cauiion and 
 fully garrisoned ; and there was one who helped in the same 
 French wars to make the "Mud bow." Coming up the Mohawk 
 in boats, and finding near Sadequada point a long curve in the 
 river which swept around and made a circle, they stO])i)ed an hour 
 or two and dug with their oars across the little neck and let the 
 river tear through the soft earth and make a new channel. Their 
 intention was thus to shorten their voyage a whole mile, for their 
 convenience in case of being driven back by the enemy. This 
 
12 
 
 mile of water was soon separated from the river by the deposits 
 of the stream, and it remained a curved pool with the name of the 
 Mud Bow. 
 
 An early emigrant long afterwards narrated how he first arrived 
 here. It was in 1789, and the day of company training; and on 
 this green, where the stumps were then burning, Hugh White was 
 drilling about 27 men simply uniformed and bearing muskets, and 
 his son Daniel C. White, was drilling IV riflemen, who wore hunt- 
 ing shirts made of tow cloth with a ravelled fringe. 
 
 Long afterwards, when an emergency of the war of 1812 re- 
 quired the whole mass of the militia of this region to proceed to 
 the northern frontier, they went forth under a Whitestown general, 
 the strongest company being from this town and mustering nearly 
 150 men. »The campaign was a weary one. There were long 
 marches in the mud, leaky shelter in camp under constant rains, 
 and not much fighting to be done. The bayonets always think. 
 When the men concluded that they had served long enough, and 
 had done their duty, and it would be of no use to stay any longer, 
 there began a dispersion, some going home singly, and then some 
 in small parties, and in one case a captain deliberately marching 
 ofi" his company in a body. The battalions were depleted ; but the 
 Whitestown company held on and finally constituted a majority 
 of the regiment to which it belonged. 
 
 The war being ended, the court martial began to deal with the 
 alleged deserters, and for some fifteen months went on with trials, 
 when it was suddenly discovered that there was a fatal defect in 
 the constitution or organization of the tribunal, and the court, not 
 having yet pronounced any judgment, gracefully dissolved, and 
 no officer or man was condemned. 
 
 Years after, on a general training day of the 134th regiment 
 held here, at the noon resting time, there was a debate as to the 
 chances of a shower in the afternoon, when some one asked the 
 oracular major for his opinion on that point. Without looking at 
 the clouds he promptly responded with ringing voice : " It never , 
 -rains anything but blessings on the old hundred and thirty-fourth. 'f\ 
 ■ — Some are here now who remember a day during the war of 
 1812, when a large body of British troops in red coats were 
 marched as prisoners through this street, on the way to the sea- 
 board for exchange; and also the illumination at the peace of 
 1815, when the windows of the village glared with lighted candles. 
 
 The rule of the road, "Turn out to the right," is as firmly fixed 
 in the popular mind as if it came down with the old common law. 
 
18 
 
 But the regulation in Engrland was, and is, to turn out to the left. 
 In this State there was no old or established law or custom in that 
 regard. The roads were generally narrow and bad, and the be- 
 havior of drivers depended mainly on their characters. When the 
 i-oads along the ]N[ohawk and to the west became much used the 
 trouble of meetmg and passing became serious. There arose 
 debates and fights between teamsters. The highway became both 
 a necessity and a terror. Thereupon the legislature in 1801, recog- 
 nizing that the loads going towards tide water usually were far 
 the heaviest, passed a statute requiring that on the roads Icadino- 
 from Schenectady up the Mohawk and on to Canandaigua, all 
 teams going west should give the road to teams going east. This 
 worked some gooJ, but after a little practice, any teamster who 
 was tugging west with a full lading of imjDorted goods, found it 
 not easy to see the ])ropriety of yielding the whole road when he 
 met a wagon bearing only man, wife and baby, or an empty ox 
 cart. Hence arose collisions, law suits and lasting quarrels. At 
 length the legislature interposed again, and by a general law 
 passed in 1813, required that on all public roads in every part of 
 the State, when teams met, " each must seasonably turn to the right 
 of the center of the road." Such is the law now, and this sensible 
 rule has spread through the United States. In this instance, the 
 law was actually founded on reason. 
 
 In 1802 a clergyman from New England, traveling in this 
 region, sent home his journal. He speaks of passing through this 
 place, and adds : " It would appear to you, my friend, on hearing 
 the relation of events in the western country, that the whole was 
 a fable, and if you were placed in Whitestown," * * * "^,^(1 
 saw the progress of improvement, you would believe it enchanted 
 ground." He also wrote : " The original Whitestown appears to 
 be the garden of the world." He also sent home a map of this 
 village, made by himself, on which some buildings now standing 
 may be recognized. 
 
 A distinguished emigrant from Long Island, who settled some 
 distance hence, used to say that if ever there was a garden of Eden 
 it must have been here. 
 
 This name of Whitestown clung to the whole region from here 
 to Lake Erie and Ontario for a long time. As late as 1827 a cele- 
 brated lecturer on geography used to say that the eastern and 
 southern parts of New York, like his own New England, had a 
 poor soil, except in a few valleys, but that when you came to " the 
 Whitestown country," there was a vast area of greatest fertility. 
 
14 
 
 In sight of the beautiful farms now around us, it is best not to 
 forget the time when the great stumps of the forest held out and 
 were a tiresome disfigurement of the landscape, and it was a rare 
 and pleasing thing to look on a ten acre lot which was perfectly 
 free of them. 
 
 They who first broke the forest liere were not paupers, but for 
 the most part were men of small means, large courage, industry 
 and hope. The story of many was briefly hinted by one of their 
 natural orators, in the westerly parts of Oneida county, on his 
 addressing a jury of his nieighbors, and appealing for their confi- 
 dence. His defense was opened thus: "Gentlemen of the jury, 
 Twenty-fiv-e years ago I came across Fish creek with my axe on my 
 shoulder and forty dollars in my pocket, and went to work in the 
 woods. I have grown with your growth and strengthened with 
 your strength. Now how is it? You know my house and my 
 farm and my stock, and you don't know a man to whom 1 owe a 
 dollar. I am one of yourselves, and can have no object in de- 
 ceiving you ; and I swear to you, gentlemen, that my client here, 
 Jeemes Smith, is an honest man ; and an honest man is the noblest 
 work of God." 
 
 Pioneer life did have its liardships, and many a toiling man and 
 woman came to the bent figure and trembling hand of old age 
 before passing threescore years. But their children, born and 
 bred on the spot, were erect and robust. 
 
 There were times when meat was lacking. Once, after such a 
 period of want, there came immense numbers of wild pigeons, 
 furnishing both abundance and luxury for several weeks. It was 
 then deemed prudent to preserve pigeons' breasts by packing them 
 in salt, in view to another scarcity. This was done, and when the 
 famine of meat came again, the stock of cured provisions was 
 broached ; but it was found that the salt had struck in quite too 
 well ; and one who messed with Judge White in those days, after- 
 wards said that in spite of soaking and extra boiling, the article 
 was much more salt than pigeon. 
 
 This village on the other hand gave to the country the most 
 beautiful, fragrant and delicious of fall pippins ; the widely known 
 Lowell a])ple. The original seedling tree stood for some seventy 
 years in a garden at this village, and bore fruit in its old age. Its 
 stump remains in situ under a beautiful green house, its fitting 
 shelter and monument. The river also contributed an occasional 
 luxury, yielding to fisherman the Mohawk pike, celebrated for its 
 delicious quality. 
 
15 
 
 Among the people here from the first there never was a time 
 when Yale and Harvard were not represented, and every genera- 
 tion has furnished its full quota of professional men as well as 
 farmers, merchants, mechanics, engineers, manufacturers and 
 bankers. DeWitt Clinton, in his " Letters of Ilibernicus," said 
 of one of the early settlers from the old world, that he was "■ the 
 most learned man in America." 
 
 In this connection lot it not be forgotten that a part of Whites- 
 town, now in New Hartford, was owned jointly by George Wash- 
 ington and George Clinton. One of the deeds, on the sale of 
 part of that ])roperty, signed by them both, and acknowledged 
 before James Kent in 1796, is preserved in the collections of the 
 New York Historical Society. 
 
 It is not the purpose of this discourse to display the names of 
 those who have held public position and won renown by genius or 
 attainments. This has been done well by others, and can be done 
 again, tor the theme is not half exhausted. The transformation of 
 the Whitestown country of 1784 into that of 1884 has been 
 wrought mainly by toil and labor. The forest trees fell before the 
 blows of axes wielded by hard hands. The roads were made, the 
 houses, barns and fences w^ere built, and the Iruit trees Avere 
 ])lanted mostly by a host of plain men, abounding in strength and 
 will. It was a long work and more than one generation shared it. 
 Tlie result is a vast cultivated region full of life's comforts, possess- 
 ing all the material requirements for education, religion, society, 
 refinement and happiness. Without now listing the fortunate few 
 who received the decorations of distinction, it is fair to think 
 deeply of the rank and file who did the work of these hundred 
 years, and standing near the dust of these true toilers, to feel that 
 the world was not made for Cicsar. 
 
 It seems not long ago when the Union demanded soldiers, and 
 young men of this region with rifle in hand followed the flag 
 tlirough march and battle, not loving their lives, even unto death, for 
 tlie good cause. It waS' a proud day for the sons of Oneida 
 county, when in 18G1 its first quota of volunteers passed through 
 the city of New York, and bearing a flag there presented 
 to tliera by emigrants from this county, marched to the 
 front ; and it was a sad but yet proud day when the fourteenth 
 regiment passed the same ])lace again on its return from many- 
 battles, bearing the same flag, the ranks thinned by losses, but 
 covered with honor. 
 
 The dead of tliat mortal struggle for national existence, popular 
 government amJ liberty, piously brought home and laid in the 
 
earth by the side of their Ma^iers, gajife/to every burying ground 
 in the land a new and holy cbBSgci-i 
 
 There is no prophet now who can lift up his voice and tell what 
 will be here when another century has passed and we all have 
 turned to dust : no seer whose eyes can pierce through the long 
 vista and descry the scenes beyond. 
 
 May the Mighty and Loving Father who made this land of 
 fertility and abundance, and in the fullness of time called our pro- 
 o-enitors into its possession, abide with their descendants and 
 successors to all generations. 
 
 Note A. — The appropriate inscription placed on Judge White's monument 
 about sixty years ago was drawn up by a young man. In liis draft there was a 
 glowing passage about " making the desert to blossom as the rose," but his 
 senior, who had been here from the early days, struck out that passage as 
 smacking of fiction, and remarked, "the Judge would not allow so much as 
 a rosebush about his house." The three sugar maple trees were the only 
 exception to the destruction he waged upon all wild growth of tree or bush. 
 Nor was this strange. The necessary fight against forest and thicket inspired 
 a hostile sentiment which made it a joy to wield the axe against the common 
 enemy. Those who tried to save here and there a grand old tree, for its 
 beauty or its useful shadow, usually were disappointed. The shallow roots 
 of a tree full grown in the dense woods proved insufficient to sustain it when 
 standing alone, deprived of the clinging net work of forest roots, and ex- 
 posed to the winds which swept across the open clearing. Young trees, left 
 or planted in open fields, and there passing their youth, adapted themselves 
 to circumstances, and with grapplings deeper sunk in the earth and forms 
 less lofty and more robust, braved the storm and flourished. Much of the 
 ornamentation of the country was due to rude and unsightly fences, in the 
 corners of which a young tree might escape the plow and the scythe, and on 
 many an old farm we now can trace by a few surviving trees the line of a 
 former log or worm fence, which rotted away long ago, leaving no trace, and 
 better farming gave it no successor, but abandoned the line and united the 
 fields. The landscape is thus beautified by chance, and its beauty not only 
 excites the pride of owners, but improves the taste of the people. 
 
 Note B. — The Alleganies form a continuous mountain chain, bounding on 
 the west the whole Atlantic slope, except the one opening through by the Hud- 
 son and the Mohawk. The valleys of these two streams form a notch or clove 
 reaching from the ocean level to the western slope, always affording a con- 
 tinuous water passage, the usefulness of which led to the great enterprise of 
 building the Erie Canal. Everywhere else the valleys of rivers, when fol- 
 lowed up, were found to end beneath high mountain laud. All plans and 
 efforts for canalling through to the west, by the river lines of Pennsylvania 
 and of Virginia, and further south, totally failed. Nature had given to 
 New York alone the power to open the west. In later days the railroads 
 have climbed over or pierced through the high divide ; but the line of the 
 Hudson and the Mohav/k must forever be easier of grade andjuore available 
 than any other for railroad operations. 
 
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