Early Norwich History

Early History of  Norwich

Chenango County, New York

Chenango Union, January 31, 1907

The following sketch of the early history of Norwich and vicinity was read at the January meeting of the Captain John Harris Chapter, Daughter of the American Revolution by Mrs. J.B. Turner.  It was compiled and arranged from "Chenango and Madison counties," by James H Smith; 'History of Chenango County" by Hiram C. Clark and "History and Manual of First Congregational Church," by C.B. Johnson.

 

....In Feb. 1789 the Legislature passed an act directing the surveyor general, Simson Dewitt, to lay out and survey in these lands twenty townships, as near 500 chains square as circumstances would admit, and subdivide into four equal sections and lots of 250 acres each.  these townships were to be numbered from one to twenty, and the lots from one to 100.  Two lots in each township, as near the center as might be, were to be designated, one gospel, and the other school lot, and reserved for religious and educational purposes.  This tract was variously known as "Governor's Purchase" and "Chenango 20 Townships."  At present these towns are known as Nelson, Eaton, Madison, Hamilton, Georgetown, Otselic, Smyrna, Sherburne, N. Norwich, Plymouth, Pharsalia, McDonough, Preston, No. 15 Norwich, New Berlin, Columbus, 16, and 19 Brookfield and 20 Sangerfield.  The whole 20 townships were embraced in Chenango county at its organization to be....

 

Those lands were offered for sale, advertised 3 months, by public notice in Albany and New York papers at a minimum price of 3s an acre.  "The sale took place" says Clark, "but owing to imperfect means of travel and communication they were lightly attended, and the towns fell naturally easily and invariably into hands of jobbers and wealthy capitalists on the alert for lucrative investments and who immediately advanced price to 30s per acre.

 

Leonard M. Cutting applied for No. 15 and to him was granted the first patent Dec. 29, 1799, at 3s 7 pence per acre.

 

In the meantime settlements had been made in the southern part of the county in the Susquehanna valley. The first settler in the county being Elnathan Bush who came in 1784 from Sheffield, Mass., and located in town of Afton.

 

Smith in his history gives us the following picture of pioneer life.

 

The pioneers of Chenango county encountered a forest of giant growth from whose dominion a portion of the soil had to be redeemed by hard and persistent labor, with many accompanying privations.  At least one generation was worn out in this sturdy battle with the giant forest and the poverty which environed most of those who were pioneers of this locality.  It required a hardihood and perseverance which we of this generation can scarcely appreciate.  Having made a sufficient clearing, the pioneer next erected his rude cabin of logs, covered it with peeled elm bark, and floored it with halves of split logs.  Greased paper answered purposes of a window and the door consisted of several plants fastened together with wooden pins and hung upon hinges of same material.  A spacious hole on the roof constituted provision for chimney and a bare spot on the earth floor, the fireplace.

 

Some were fortunate in the possession of a scanty supply of furniture brought from eastern homes, while others were contented with furniture as primitive in its construction as their cabins.

 

The deer in the forests supplied the pioneers with venison and in a measure with clothing, both men and women wearing garments fashioned from skin of the animals.

 

But while abounding in game, the forests were also infested with numerous ravenous beasts which threatened the lives of the settlers and preyed upon their scanty flocks. They became the common enemy and a deadly war of extermination was waged against them.

 

The first settlers were compelled to depend upon wood and flax for clothing, and with them the spinning wheel was as common and indispensable as the sewing machine today.  There were no grist mills, and this inconvenience compelled them to resort to Indian methods of grinding corn, which consisted of pounding it in mortars, constructed from hard wood stumps, which were hollowed out by burning and scraping.  The pestle consisted of a stone attached to a sapling.

 

There was no question of caste in those days.  Their interests and sympathies were mutual and their hardship, privations and poverty developed a true spirit of dependence, fraternity and sociability.

 

To be continued