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Early Otsego County History

(followed by corrections &  Annotations by Leigh C. Eckmair, Annotations by Leigh C. Eckmair, Historian, Town of Butternuts, Sept. 2008, Town of Butternuts & Village of Gilbertsville, The Local History Collection, The Gilbertsville Free Library, Gilbertsville, NY 13776)

This roundhouse was built in 1906 on a large piece of property which extended from Fonda Avenue to Richard’s Crossing, approximately 350 acres, “thereby bestowing upon Oneonta the distinction of hosting the largest roundhouse in the world, a claim that went unchallenged for over a quarter of century.” 

Read more about it! . . . Annotations by Leigh C. Eckmair, Historian, Town of Butternuts, and Sept. 2008: Otsego County is situated on the highlands at the headwaters of the Susquehanna River to the southeast of the center of the State. Its surface presents a great variety of hills, fertile valleys, hurrying streams and lovely lakes. Of the latter, Otsego is not only the largest, being eight miles long, but one known to a nation through the Leather stocking tales of James Fenimore Cooper. The whole county is full of interest, historical and fictional; its highland beauty and salubrious climate can be enjoyed in half a hundred summer resorts. Dairying has been brought to a perfection not found often; and the multiplication of railroads and, in more recent years, of hard surfaced highways has made it accessible to all.

Three years after Henry Hudson came to Albany, eight years before the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth; two Dutch explorers came up the Mohawk from Albany, crossed the hills to Lake Otsego, and went down the valley of the Susquehanna. They were the first white men to visit this region. They filed a map of their travels at Amsterdam, Holland, where it was found only a few years ago.

There may have been, must have been, travelers and traders who came into this country in the years before any attempt was made at settlement. But it was not until 1769 that surveyors came to establish lines of the grants made by the State to individuals. In 1768 such a grant had been made by George Clark, Lieutenant-Governor of the State, to John Lindsay, Jacob Roseboom, Lenelet Gansevoort, and Sybrant VanSchaick. This was at Cherry Valley, where the first of the pioneers of the county had located in 1739. As late as 1762 there were only 12 families in this settlement, but at the beginning of the Revolution, the number of settlers had risen to 300. In November, 1776, this Cherry Valley settlement was attacked by the Indians, causing the death of 48, and in 1780 a second massacre made the few remaining inhabitants flee, leaving the place deserted until after the end of the war.

These and other Indian attacks led to a punitive expedition by Sullivan in 1779. General Clinton, with 1,800 men, was to join him with the troops he had brought to Otsego Lake. Desiring to descend the Susquehanna in boats, and finding the river too low to be navigated, he dammed the lake, arranging his boats along the shores. When the lake had risen three feet, he tore out the dam and, on the escaping flood, sailed directly into the Indian country. The Indians, astonished at the sudden lowering of the river, and even more amazed by its sudden rise, upon whose crest came the white man’s fleet, regarded it as a sign that the Great Spirit had gone to the aid of the enemy, and fled precipitately before the forces of the invader. The county, with its dozen remaining families in 1776, was a deserted wilderness within the next year or two.

The disasters, and the coming of the soldiery to avenge the disasters, proved to be a blessing in the end, for by these events was the country brought to the attention of hundreds to whom it was a terra incognita. Not only did the pioneers of the area return to their former homes, but they were joined by some of the thousands of the New Englanders and others who joined the great hegira that started shortly after the close of the Revolution.

By 1791 the region felt that it should have a separate government from Montgomery County and a more convenient place to which it might go on the county’s business. In 1791 the county of Otsego was set up and Cooperstown, on Lake Otsego, was named as the shire village. Only two towns were organized at that time; Otsego, Iying to the west of the lake and the Susquehanna, and Cherry Valley as the remaining section. Before the end of the century eleven more civil divisions had been made, and during the next 54 years the number was brought up to 24.

I have annotated/footnoted it with corrections and a couple of questions. Basically, it should not be included on any reputable history website.

http://www.oneontahistorian.com/facts.htm

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