Scramling Family Cemetery - Oneonta, NY

Scramling Family Cemetery

by Bob Davis

Binghamton Press, July 4, 1976

 

Oneonta [Otsego Co., NY]:  Sitting atop a knoll on the northern side of Interstate-88, near Route 205, is the Scramling family cemetery.  The easiest way to get there is to hop the fence off I-88, walk a few hundred feet through the marshy grass, and hop another small, white fence that surrounds the plot.

 

The graveyard, and the 16.5 acres of land that lead from the highway, are now owned by the City of Oneonta.  Buried there are two revolutionary war soldiers, David and Henry Scramling, and their families.  The graveyard is unkempt - woodchucks burrow holes in the ground and scamper for cover as people approach.  Small, tattered flags whip in the breeze.  There is a modern tombstone, erected in 1925 by the Daughters of the American Revolution, marking the graves of the Scramlings and James Thompson, who fought in the French and Indian War.  Leaning against the marker are older, broken headstones which marked the original graves.  One says simply, "Susanna,"  unmarked stones probably mark the graves of infants.

 

Both Scramlings fought with the Minutemen in the Tryon County militia.  Otsego County was carved from the larger Tryon County in 1791.  According to local historian Ed Moore, the Scramlings were the first family to settle in what is now the Town of Oneonta, probably in 1772. They were driven out by Indian raids during the American Revolution and settled in the area after the war.  The name Scramling later became "Scrambling" when an Oneonta city official mistakenly added a "b" to the name while plotting Scrambling Ave. off River St.  The street was later corrected to Scramling Ave.

 

The Scramling family was of either Dutch or German descent.  Before moving to this area, they lived near Canajoharie, off the Mohawk River. 

 

David Scramling was born in 1759.  He married Susanna Young and they had a daughter, Catherine.  She was baptized on January 1, 1812 at the Second Presbyterian Church of Milford.  Susanna was born in 1765 and she died on December 3, 1820.  David Scramling died in 1824. 

 

Henry Scramling was a lieutenant in the militia during the revolution.  In one campaing, in the summer of 1777, he marched to Unadilla with General Nicholas Brant and 380 men to find Joseph Brant.  Henry Scramling married Sarah Leonardson, who died May 20, 1793.  His second wife was Eva Somers.  Henry and Eva had a son, who they named Henry. He married Nancy Hess and they moved to Micigan in 1836. 

 

The only living descendent of the Scramlings, who is known in this area, is Henry Scramlin who now lives in Pinellas Park, Florida.