Chenango & Unadilla Valley 50 Years Ago

Chenango and Unadilla Valley Fifty Years Ago

S.S. Randall

Chenango Telegraph, April 3, 1872

Early Courts

Continued from posting of October 25, 2017

The first Sheriff of Chenango, was Uri Tracy, of Oxford, appointed in 1798, on the first organization of the County.  He was succeeded in 1801, by Nathaniel Locke, Esq., who gave place in 1805 to Anson Cary.  Judge Cary was succeeded in 1808 by William Munroe, and in 1810 was superseded by Isaac Foote.  Col. Munroe was re-appointed in 1811, and Judge Foote again succeeded him in 1813.  Samuel Campbell, Esq., of Columbus, succeeded Judge Foote in 1815, and in 1819, Col. Munroe was again re-appointed.  He was succeeded in 1821 by Thompson Mead, of Norwich. These conflicting appointments were the result of political reverses and triumphs, under the regime of the old Council of Appointment, prior to 1821.  Gen. Mead was elected for the official term of three years, immediately after the adoption of the new Constitution, and was succeeded in 1825 by Samuel A. Smith, of Guilford.  In 1829, Gen. Augustus C. Welch, of New Berlin, was elected, and in 1831, Amos A. Franklin, of Oxford, who was succeeded in 1834 by Jabez Robinson, also of Oxford, and in 1839, by William Hatch, of Greene.

 

The earliest records of the County, were kept by S. Sidney Breese, at Cazenovia.  Uri Tracy was his successor as County Clerk in 1806, and transferred the records to his residence in Oxford.  In 1815 he gave place to David G. Bright of Norwich, to which the records were again removed, and where they have since remained.  In 1819, Perez Randall succeeded Mr. Bright, and with the exception of a brief term of occupancy by Nathan Chamberlin, and afterwards Dr. William Mason, held the office of County Clerk, by election and appointment until 1831, when he was defeated by Col. James K. Pike, and in 1834, re-elected, and held the office until his death in 1840--a period in all of upwards of sixteen years.  Cyrus Wheeler became the temporary occupant of the place, and was succeeded by Alfred Purdy in 1839, John Latham in 1842, Burr B. Andrews in 1845, and Nelson Pelett in 1848.  Among the Deputy Clerks were Austin Hyde, Smith M. Purdy, M. Graham Bright, Paul W. Latham, Samuel S. Randall, Philander B. Prindle and James M.D. Carr.

 

The End