Leaves from Local History, Sherburne, Chenango Co. NY

 Leaves from Local History (Sherburne, Chenango Co. NY)

The First Merchant, a Pioneer Representative

Chenango Telegraph, Norwich, NY, December 25, 1873

In a recent article we stated that Judge Tilly Lynde was the first merchant on Sherburne Hill [Chenango Co. NY], but we were corrected by Dr. Elial T. Foote, long a resident of the Hill, and now of New Haven, whose recollection was that Gerritt Y. Lansing was the first merchant of that place and Judge Lynde his successor.  Another pioneer with whom we conversed a few days since, corrects Dr. Foote by saying that Mr. Lansing's store was at "The Forks," on the road form Sherburne Hill to Earlville.  His store was a log building opposite the old tavern, and when a young man, Tilly Lynde was his clerk. The latter, after "getting a start," opened a store on Sherburne Hill.  Mr. Lansing was from Albany [Albany Co. NY], and returned there and represented the district in Congress from 1831 to 1837.  In connection with his other business Judge Lynde ran an extensive ashery a mile west of his store, where the turnpike crosses Pleasant Brook, buying ashes and salts from the settlers who were clearing the country.  This branch of his business was very profitable. The ashery was managed by Joseph Plumb, an old and well-known resident of the Hill.

The delegates from Chenango County to the Convention which formed the constitution of 1801 were John W. Bulkley and Stephen Hoxie.  Over this convention Aaron Burr presided and the session lasted from October 13th to October 27th, 1801, only fourteen days.  Modern conventions require as many months.  Speech making was not then so common as in these days.  Mr. Bulkley came from Colchester, Connecticut, to the town of Lebanon, then in Chenango County [NY], in 1797.  He was an expert engineer and practical man.  He filled the office of Justice of the Peace, was elected to the Assembly from Madison County four consecutive terms, commencing in 1808.  He wielded great influence in the Legislature and a contemporary said that no bill he opposed could pass.  Mrs. Hammond's History of Madison County states that he first raised the apple so celebrated in this region as the Strawberry apple, first known as the Bulkley apple, now as the Chenango Strawberry.  the tree was grown from seed on his Earlville farm [Madison Co. NY] and transplanted to the "Frank Farm," (so called after his colored man, Frank, whom he brought from the South), and afterwards grafted.  Many who raise this favorite apple will perhaps now learn for the first time to whom they are indebted for it.  On his last visit to Albany as a Member of Assembly, he distributed among friends scions from this tree and by this means it became widely known and extensively cultivated in the then fruit growing counties.

An old resident of this county, now nearly eighty years of age, recounts his experience, while very young, as a member of Mr. Bulkley's family.  It was truly a "home", but no one could visit it without going through an experience as trying as the modern "hazing" to freshmen at colleges.  Kind as were Mr. Bulkley and his wife, their daughter, Fanny [Bulkley] delighted to appear to visitors in a ghostlike garb, or in a "dough face" mask with horns and other frightful paraphernalia.  In one of these forms, she appeared to the lad who had become a member of the family and so terrified him that he made an excuse for leaving and would never return.  When the true cause of his refusal to return was made known, the reproof was such as probably put a stop to Fanny's pranks.

Mr. Bulkley was personally attractive, of scholarly attainments and commanded very high respect among his constituents and in the legislature.