1795
Mar 3
Great Tract No. 3 - 640,000 acres
of the 1787 Macomb Great Purchase of New York lands in St. Lawrence County, is
subdivided to patentee Donald McCormick. It will become 15 towns.
Mar 17
The Albany County town of Bern is
formed out of Rensselaerville, and named for first settler and mill owner Jacob
Weidman’s birthplace in Switzerland. ** The Columbia County town of Chatham is
formed from Canaan and Kinderhook.
Apr 3
Connecticut native Elihu Phinney
begins publishing Otsego County’s first newspaper, the Herald and Western
Advertiser, at Cooperstown. It is the state’s second newspaper west of the
Hudson River.
Apr 6
Schoharie County is carved out of
Albany and Otsego counties.
Apr 9
The New York State Legislature
passes “An act for the encouragement of schools". $50,000 annually is
appropriated for the next five years, to establish and support common schools.
Jul 15
The Black River Tract, 290,376
acres of the 1787 Macomb Great Purchase of New York lands in Lewis and
Jefferson counties, is sold to Richard Harrison, Josiah Ogden Hoffman, Nicholas
Low and William Henderson.
August
Lansingburgh Recorder publishers
George Gardner and James Hill move to Troy.
Oct 16
Albany clergyman William Buel
Sprague is born to farmer Benjamin Sprague and his wife in Andover,
Connecticut.
Nov 17
The first boats use New York’s
Western Inland Navigation bypass canal at Little Falls.
Nov 18
Over the past 24 hours 8 large
and 120 small boats pass through the canal at Little Falls, paying a total of
£80 10s in tolls.
Dec 14
Engineer John Bloomfield Jervis
is born in Huntington.
Dec 16
Schoharie County officials first
meet at the village of Schoharie, decide to build the county courthouse two
miles to the west.
State
Schenectady's Union College is
founded, the first non-denominational college in America. In its honor
Niskayuna Street is renamed College Street. ** A portion of Schoharie County is created from
part of Albany County.
** Lansingburgh Recorder publishers Gardner and Hill leave the state and
the paper closes by the end of the year. ** The state assembly moves to New York City
temporarily, to be near to ailing governor George Clinton. It remains there,
after Clinton retires, replaced by John Jay. ** Naturalist Amos Eaton enters Williams College,
in Massachusetts.
** Lawyer and
historian Silas Wood is elected to the state legislature. ** Judge William Cooper is
elected to the Fourth Congress for the 10th district. ** During the winter large numbers of
oxen-drawn sleds make their way west from the Hudson to the Genesee lands. ** $600 is added to the
building fund for the courthouse and jail near Ballston Spa. ** Williamson pays $43.75
to Alexander MacDonald for “Eben: Allan & Saw Mills Note of hand Given to
You.” ** Daniel Cady is admitted to
the bar, opens a practice in Florida, New York. ** Herkimer County's German Flats contains 40 homes
and a Dutch Reformed Church.
** The Iroquois
population has dropped to approximately 3500. ** Samuel Lewis's state map is published. ** The Cooperstown Academy is
founded. ** The state donates an
additional $10,000 to the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company. ** Duanesburgh doctor
Asa Fitch moves to Salem and buys a mill site and farm (Fitch's Point) from his
wife's father and brother.
** The
approximate date Bagg’s Tavern is built in Utica. ** The state has 64,017 eligible voters. ** Judge William Cooper
is elected to the Sixth Congress for the 10th district, his second,
non-consecutive term.
** Jeremiah Van
Rensselaer, Jr. settles in Canajoharie, soon establishes a mercantile business
with Archibald Kane under the name Kane and Van Rennselaer.
1796
January
A Masonic festival, including
dinner and a ball, is held in Cooperstown.
Feb 5
The Otsego County town of
Butternuts is formed from Unadilla. ** The Herkimer County town of Frankfort is formed
from German Flats.
Mar 4
The Oneida County town of Rome is
formed from Steuben.
April
The Inman’s Tract, 25,000 acres
of the 1787 Macomb Great Purchase of lands in Lewis County’s Leyden and Lewis
townships, is sold to William Inman. The Watson’s Tract, 61,433 acres in Warren
County, is sold to James Watson.
Apr 1
Moses Culver and Nathan Reeves
and their families leave Long Island by flatboat, heading for upstate New York.
They eventually reach the site of the future Newark.
June
The English leave Ogdensburg, as
well as forts Niagara and Oswego.
Jul 23
The approximate date educator and
author Abraham Mills is born in Poughkeepsie to baker James Mills and Mary
Waddle Mills.
Jul 29
Safety pin inventor Walter Hunt
is born in Martinsburg
State
The approximate date Nathaniel
Mallory settles the Essex County town of Jay. ** Whites begin settling the
Chateaugay area of Franklin County. ** Another $600 is added to the building fund for
the courthouse and jail near Ballston Spa. **
The first church in Chester (Warren County) is formed by Baptist
minister Jehiel Fox..
** German
Flats's population reaches 4194, including 684 electors. ** Whitestown's population
reaches 7,359; 1,190 qualified electors. It has five parishes, three militia
companies, and one corps off "light-horse, all in uniform". ** A Van Rennselaer Manor farm
surveyed for Stewart and Cahoon is leased out to William Larkin. ** The state donates an
additional $37,500 to the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company. Boats pass
through the locks for the first time. **
When the national land speculation bubble bursts Robert Morris is thrown
into debt. ** The state legislature
tables a report by Thomas Eddy and English engineer William Weston that advised
building a canal from the headwaters of the Mohawk River directly to the Finger
Lakes, bypassing Wood Creek and Oneida Lake. ** The approximate date New Hampshire trapper
Jonathan “Jock” Wright arrives in the Adirondack town of Norway. ** The approximate date New
York State merchant and politician Thomas Kempshall is born in England. ** Three-year-old future canal
planner William Hamilton Merritt comes to St. Catharines, Canada, from Bedford,
New York, with his parents.
Cooperstown
Payment comes due on all 1786
purchases of Judge William Cooper's Otsego region properties. Defaults on 48%
of the original purchases have been offset when the lands were meanwhile
snapped up by new purchasers.
** Cooper
begins building a brick home - Otsego Hall.
Long Island
A lighthouse is built on Montauk
Point where England’s Royal Navy had kept signal bonfires during the American
Revolution.
London
Robert Fulton's detailed A
Treatise on the Improvement of Canals . . . is published by I. and J. Taylor.
Travel
Constantin François de
Chassebœuf, comte de Voleny, travels from the mouth of the Delaware through
Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky, then north to Fort Detroit. He
proceeds to Niagara by way of Lake Erie, then on to Albany, New York.
© David Minor / Eagles Byte
