Some Things of Early Chenango - Read at the Chenango County Dinner
John C. Wait
Chenango Union, March 7, 1907
The Chenango Valley was in places cleared and under cultivation at an early period. In the vicinity of what is now Norwich were several clearings, where Mondamin, of Longfellow's "Hiawatha," was buried and resurrected, and where the papooses sported in peaceful security. It was in these Indian haunts on the banks of the Chenango where the plant flourished from which the stream and county took their name,
That they were agricultural people and cultivated the soil is apparent from the names of places, which show they had to contend with stones, rocks, thistles and weeds. The Indians struggled with the same conditions and bore the same mental attitude towards Chenango's hills and rocks and stones as did the pioneers. The names throughout the country refer to those obstacles which had to be overcome. Oneida, the name of the tribe which lived in and owned the Chenango Valley and its adjacent hills, means an upright stone; Oneonta, a stony place; Otsego, a stone at the outlet, from Osteura, a rock. Caughnawaga signifies on the rapids or rapid river, and Susquehanna, the muddy river. Genegansilet means the sulphur spring or marshy place, and our Chenango ever means the place where the thistle thrives, it being derived form the Indian word Ochenung. Our beautiful Canasawacta is equivalent to Ganasowadi meaning the other side of the sand, and this is doubtless taken from the great sand bank upon which the Norwich cemetery is built, the stream being the other side from the "Castle," the Oxford settlement, and Otsiningo or Chenango. Unadilla (the Tianaderha), come from the name of the village at or near the forks of the stream with the Susquehanna, the word meaning "where waters meet."
The twelve original counties of the State of New York were erected in 1763, and comprised Albany, Cornwell, Dukes, Dutchess, Kings, New York, Orange, Queens, Richmond, Suffolk, Ulster and Westchester.
Montgomery County came from Albany County, March 12, 1792, and from Montgomery were made Herkimer and Tioga Counties, Feb. 16, 1791. Chenango created March 15, 1798, was the offspring of Herkimer and Tioga, and the step-mother of Oneida (at first called Sangerfield), born 1804, and of Madison, born 1806.
The oldest township of Chenango was Jericho, settled February 16, 1791. She was originally a part of Tioga County and was christened "Jericho." It was truly fruitful as the City of Palestine, but Jericho, disdaining her name, took the name of Bainbridge April 15, 1814. While known as Jericho she gave up some of her possessions to make and create Norwich and Oxford, January 19. 1793, and Greene, 1798-9, and Afton, 1857.
Norwich, the second oldest township and the county seat, twin sister of Oxford, was the offspring of Union (Broome County), and Jericho. In 1805 Columbus was born, and in 1806 there was created by the legislature Pharsalia, Plymouth and Preston. These three were closely followed by New Berlin in 1807. After many long years North Norwich made her appearance, April 7, 1849. Pharsalia was called Stonington at first, but she was renamed when two years old, April 6, 1808. From Preston came McDonough, in 1816. New Berlin changed her name to Lancaster, May 9, 1821, but afterwards she secured the restoration of her name in the usual manner, March 22, 1822. She surrendered a rib to Sherburne, father of Smyrna, the latter being called Stafford from March 25 to April 6, 1808. Columbus, brother of New Berlin was discovered in this New World, February 11, 1805, ...., it is known that his father was Brookfield, of Madison County, and his mother was Norwich of Chenango County.
Oxford, the twin sister of Norwich, was the mother of Guilford, April 3, 1813. Guilford's maiden name was Eastern, but her marriage into the Guilford family was celebrated March 21, 1817.
Greene (1798), as sister of Norwich, born of Union (Broome Co.) and Jericho was the mother of Coventry, Feb. 7, 1806, and Smithfield, April 1, 1808.
Paris, born March 17, 1795, comprised the eighth and ninth townships, and that was his baby name; but a revival overcame the people and they became so attached to a hymn called Sherburne that the very forests and hills echoed and re-echoed the tune. Their township was rechristened Sherburne, 1801. Sherburne was the father of Smyrna, born 1808, and whose infant name was Stafford.
Chenango's step-child, Madison, had an offspring, DeRuyter, who had a daughter in 1806 whom Judge Obediah German adopted, and they named it after him. German had two offsprings, one born March 28, 1817, whom the Indians named Otselic, and the other born April 12, 1823, who was adopted by a distinguished citizen and founder of Cazenovia, the agent of Holland Land Co., John Lincklaen. Miss Lincklaen was the foster mother of the thirsty Pitcher, February 13, 1827.
Chenango has been the scene of no battles. Otsego, Tioga, Oneida, Herkimer and other neighboring counties can recount their bloody battles, but Chenango's soil is unpolluted. This is not because of the peaceful disposition of her inhabitants, not, as some of our jealous neighbors have said, because there was nothing in the county worth fighting for, but by reason of the foresight, prudence and skillful diplomacy characteristic of her inhabitants. She had no feuds with the native Indians and no border altercations with her neighbors. Her territory was acquired by two purchases and treaties in 1785 and 1788. In 1798, ten years later, the county was erected and courts convened in the Academy at Oxford, July 10. Judge James Kent, who afterwards became the eminent Chancellor and author of Kent's Commentaries resided at this court at the age of Thirty-five. It will therefore be seen that Chenango County started on her youthful career with the nineteenth century. For twelve years the courts of the county, which then comprised a part of Madison County, were held alternately at the villages of Oxford and Hamilton. In June, 1810, the first Circuit Court was held at Norwich in the new court house completed in 1809. Judge Smith Thompson presided. He was a student and disciple of Kent and he afterwards became the eminent jurist and chief justice of the state (1814-18), Secretary of the Navy in President Monroe's cabinet and afterwards a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. In this court practiced the famous Attorneys General Thomas, Addis Emmet, Peter B. Guernsey, Elisha Williams, Isaac Foote, General Erastus Roote, Joel Thompson and other brilliant legal lights too numerous to mention. To such men to administer justice and present the causes of our county and its inhabitants, and to direct her destinies at home and abroad, do we owe its salvation from devastating war and the evils of internal strife.
To be Continued
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