French Settlement in Greene,NY

French Settlement in Greene, Chenango Co., NY

Chenango Semi-Weekly Telegraph, September 2, 1891

 



One hundred years ago [as per 1891], the Empire of France was in the first throes of that great political upheaval which has gone into history as the French Revolution and not only changed the map of Europe but reorganized the social and economic world.  Louis XVI, the weakly stubborn Bourbon king and Marie Antoinette, his frivolous Queen, were to all intents and purposes prisoners of the powerful Third Estate.  The baleful star of Robespierre, Danton and Marat was rising above the national horizon.  A majority of the Royal family and thousands of the nobility were fugitives across the boundaries to other lands, and were known to the world as émigrés.  Already the nations of Europe, through the demands of France, were taking measures to force them without their borders.  America offered inducements as a safe and desirable asylum, and thousands were seeking its hospitable shores, eager to place the waves of the broad Atlantic between them and the horrors that drenched their native land in blood.

 

Of the French families who emigrated to the United States, a number sought the interior of the country.  Several, who had congregated in Philadelphia, decided to form a settlement in the Empire State and sent out one of their number, Simon Barnet, to select a site.  He came up the Susquehanna to "Chenango pint," now Binghamton [Broome Co., NY], and then followed the course of the Chenango River to the present site of Greene [Chenango Co., NY].  He was so pleased with the situation he decided upon it for the proposed settlement and entered into a contract with Malachi Treat and William W. Morris, the original patentees, for a tract of land, which became known as the "French Tract," or "French Village Plot,"  It was located on the east bank of the Chenango River, and embraced the farm which is now the exhibition ground of the Riverside Agricultural Society.  From the field books of the surveyors, it is evident that this occurred about 1792.  Charles Felix de Bolyne, "a man of considerable talent, learning and wealth," was at the head of the enterprise and signed the contract of purchase. Soon eight or ten French families came to Greene and settled upon the purchased land.  In 1795, the colony entertained the celebrated French statesman, Talleyrand, who was on a horseback journey from Philadelphia to Albany.  While at Greene, Talleyrand formed the acquaintance of a son of M. Dutremont, one of the refugees, and was so pleased with him, that he took him back to France and made him his private secretary.  Soon after this in 1795, M. De Bolyne was drowned while fording a river on horseback, as he was making a journey to Philadelphia in the interest of the settlement.  With his death, the financial affairs of the colony became sadly deranged.  As he had not paid in full for the land, it reverted to the original patentees.  In a few years the emigrants became discouraged and scattered.

 

The plans of operation adopted by the French colony for carrying on their agricultural pursuits were the same which prevailed in their native country, where the agriculturist with his family resides in the village, and owns and works a farm, more or less remote from his residence.  Rude dwellings were constructed from the material on hand and each settler proceeded to put a small piece of land under complete cultivation, while their supplies of provisions were drawn from great distances with much labor and expense.  "Under the circumstances," writes the late Dr. Purple, "it is not strange that persons reared in affluence and accustomed to the pleasures of refined society should yield to the pressure of the misfortunes that soon overtook them."

 

In 1798, Captain Joseph Juliand, who was a native of Lyons, France, and had fled from the horrible scenes of the Revolution to this country, came to Greene and cast in his fortunes with the little French settlement.  But when the other families became discouraged and abandoned the enterprise, he remained, and "to him and Judge Elisha Smith the foundation of the village of Greene is ascribed."

 

\Captain Juliand in early life received a good academic education.  His subsequent studies were directed with a view of his becoming a medical practitioner.  He acquired a good general knowledge of that science, which in his after life was a great value to him.  But his tastes early in life led him to abandon medicine and to adopt a maritime life.  He rose through all the subordinate grades to that of commander of a vessel in the mercantile marine of France.  In this capacity he made several voyages across the Atlantic, principally between Nantes and Bordeaux, France, and Boston and Philadelphia in this country.  His periodical voyages afforded him opportunities to make journeys into the interior, mingle freely with the people and learn their language, manners and customs.  On one of these trips, he met at new Haven, Connecticut, Hannah Lindsey, the daughter of a respectable farmer.  In 1788 he married her and removed to a farm near Greenfield, Massachusetts.

 

In 1798, having heard of the French settlement at Greene, he sold his farm and with his wife and two children, set out for the interior of New York, "in the expectation of finding a new home and congenial society."  On arriving at the settlement he was surprised to find that many had gone and others were preparing to follow.  Nothing daunted, he purchased a portion of the land abandoned by his disheartened countrymen and made it his home for the rest of his life.  He died at Greene, October 13th, 1821.