A Sketch of Caroline’s Early History

The following full history of the Town of Caroline, from the pen of a valued correspondent, we gladly transfer to our columns.¹.

The town of Caroline occupies the southeast corner of the county of Tompkins, and alphabetically heads the list of its nine towns. It is bounded on the north by Dryden, (originally township No. 23 of the Military Tract), east and south by Richford, Berkshire, and Candor in Tioga county, and west by Danby. The general surface is hilly and upland, broken into long, gentle ridges of arable land admitting of cultivation from the valleys to the hill-tops, which frequently attain an altitude four or five hundred feet.

The present town was organized in 1811, out of the north east portion of the old township of Spencer, pursuant to an act passed February 22, of that year, entitled " An act for dividing the township of Spencer, Tioga county, into five towns," whereby Caroline, Danby, Candor and Newfield (then called Cayuta), were set up as separate towns, Spencer remaining as formerly, an original town, but not more than a quarter of its size. For eleven years therefore these towns remained a part and parcel of Tioga, till 1822, when the Legislature passed an act, (March 22) altering the bounds of the county and annexing Caroline, Danby and Newfield to Tompkins county, then but recently organized, (April 17, 1817) from out of Cayuga and Seneca counties. Caroline, then, has been a separately organized town just fifty-nine years, and a part of Tompkins fifty-eight. The name of " Caroline" is said to have been bestowed upon the town by the late Dr. Joseph Speed, one of its early pioneers, also its first physician, and for long years a leading public-spirited citizen of the town, of whom we shall make other mention further along. He was the father-in law of the late Judge Amasa Dana, of Ithaca, and for several years filled the chair of the County Medical Society.

" Old Tioga County," as it was called, formed in 1791, embraced an immense territory extending eastward so far as to include nearly the whole of the present county of Madison, and stretching as far west as the Chemung river; its northern limit was the " Military Line," its southern the Pennsylvania State line. It was originally divided into five great " Townships,"—Chenango, Chemung, Jericho, Union and Owego, from the latter of which Spencer was set off in 1808. Five years subsequent Spencer was divided up into five separate towns, as mentioned, since which time no material alterations have taken place. The west branch of Owego Creek was formerly the boundary between Union and Owego townships, as it is now between Caroline on the west, and Richford and Berkshire on the east side of that stream.

The first settler in the town was Captain David Rich, a native of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, who emigrated from thence and settled in the east part of the present town, near " Willow bridge" on Owego Creek, in 1795, where he erected his solitary log cabin and commenced the first pioneer clearing preparatory for a new house. He was at that time a man of about thirty-three years of age. He continued a permanent life-long citizen of the town and died March 19, 1853, on the farm originally settled by him and reclaimed from a wilderness, aged ninety years and three months, having been a resident of the town fifty-seven years and having had the honor of being its first pioneer, and the satisfaction of seeing the deep, wild, savage forest which once reached out in almost boundless expanse everywhere for miles and miles around him, reclaimed from a howling desolation of woods and improved to cultivation and civilization; no small satisfaction for a lifetime most certainly. Capt. R. in his lifetime filled many responsible offices in the town, the gift of his fellow-townsmen as a mark of their confidence and esteem.

Shortly after the advent of the first pioneer—tradition says but a few days only—another family made their appearance in the locality and erecting a log cabin in close proximity to Capt. R., made settlement and commenced a clearing. Their name was Earsley, and the family consisted of a widow, four sons and four daughters, in all nine persons, and are said to have emigrated from New Jersey. The two, Rich and Earsley's, were the first families in the town and consequently are now the oldest living in it, for after the lapse of three-fourths of a century the lineal descendants of both still own and cultivate the farms originally settled by their ancestors in '95.

For a few years thereafter they remained the solitary inhabitants of the region around them. Dumond, Yaple and Hinepan, the pioneers of Ithaca, twelve miles off, had settled at the " Flats," as Ithaca was then called, six years before them, in 1789. Dryden, with its great pine forest almost inexhaustible it would have seemed, had not a single solitary settler till two years thereafter, when in 97 Amos Sweet, its first pioneer, built his abode on the pleasant site of Dryden village; a few New England families were struggling for a foothold at the " Brown Settlements," as Berkshire and Newark Valley were then called, and also at Yorkshire in Broome county, localities a dozen or fifteen miles distant, were their nearest neighbors.

Within the next ten years, 1795 to 1805 settlers and clearings became frequent, and among the most prominent who made the town their future lifelong homes, and were particularly identified with the transition and growth of the town, we can only mention a few: Lemuel Yates, John Robison, Richard Bush, Levi Slater, Jonathan, Norwood, Lebar Jenks, Dr. Speed, Robt. H. Hyde, George Blair, (father of Gov. Blair of Mich., at present, M. C.) Lyman Rawson, the Blackman's, Henry Speed and son, John J. Benoni, Charles and John Mulks, John Cantine, Ephraim Chambers, John, Wm. and Sylvester Rounseville, Nathaniel Toby, Col. Simon Ashley, and many others too numerous to mention, nearly all of whom lived out their remaining years at a ripe old. age, and most of whom have descendants still living here.

The right of soil for most of the land situated within the town was originally purchased of the State by Watkins & Flint, who at a very early day purchased an immense area of land comprising about 230,000² acres lying immediately south of the Military Tract and extending from the west branch of Owego creek westward to Chemung river; and from them the original settlers acquired their titles. Some of the best farms in the town were originally bought at three or four dollars per acre at that early day. The tract lying east of this was known as the Massachusetts Ten Towns and extended eastward to Chenango river, the right of soil having been vested in the State of Massachusetts at the treaty of Fort Stanwix in settlement of the disputed boundary between that State and our own. North was the Military Tract extending from the Oneida Reservation on the east to Seneca Lake, thence northward to Lake Ontario and embracing some 28 laid out Military Townships intended to contain one hundred square miles each.

The first tavern kept in town was the " Old Bush Stand" kept by Richard Bush as early as 1801. It stood a short distance west of " Boiceville" and was a large, square building made of squared logs piled one above another and was in its day a landmark, but it was long ago. Here the weary traveler who with difficulty and labor journeyed through the new country over roads and bridges, (we little think of now in these times of swift locomotion) could stop and refresh and imbibe an inspiring draught for the jaunt before him; here our fathers held their annual town meetings and mustered " armed and equipped as the law provides” at " general training day," which in those early days when the labors of the clearing and of the farm were severe, and social pastimes few, meant something. Here, too, took place the militia drafts to recruit the army of 1812, and thither assembled the conscripts to begin their long march through the forest and settlements which intervened between their homes and the frontiers of Canada. The old building has been torn down but a few years. It was the pioneer " hotel".

The first store in town is said to have been kept by one named Miller, at least it is so stated in French's State Gazeteer, but the writer can ascertain nothing further about him. John J Speed opened a log store at a very early day a short distance west of Slaterville and traded there some years. He became a prominent man of the town, and I shall have something interesting to say of him hereafter.

Gen. John Cantine built the first grist-mill in 1800 at Mott's Corners, then called " Cantine's Little Location," comprising a tract of two square miles lying mostly on the north side of the Six Mile Creek, and this was the first grist mill for a good many miles around, if perhaps we except the " old mill at Ludlowville." Cantine emigrated from Ulster county. Designing to build his mill at the location he transported by the circuitous overland route the necessary machinery, and also brought with him Benoni Mulks, a millwright of Marbletown, to build it for him. The mill was completed during the summer and fall of 1800 and was carried on for a great many years thereafter. The writer has heard instances of settlers coming hither from distances of thirty miles and more, and waiting their turn to have their " grist." The site of the old Cantine mill has since been occupied by three others and is now occupied by White's new grist mill at Mott's Corners.

During the fall of the year 1800 John Mulks, a young man of 27, came to the location where his father was engaged at the mill, and during his stay the two, father and son, made selection of a tract of 300 acres of land which they purchased at $3 per acre. Erecting the sides of a log cabin on the premises they returned east, leaving the embryo cabin unroofed, to make preparations to emigrate the following year. Early the following spring Lemuel Yates moving in with his family, found the unroofed cabin, covered it and occupied it till he could erect one on his own premises further up the creek. Having done so, and vacated the cabin, it was similarly occupied by Capt. Levi Slater and John Robinson³, each for a short time till they could erect one for themselves in the immediate neighborhood. When during the ensuing summer the owners returned they found it roofed in readiness for them. Four families all coming in the same season all occupied in turn the cabin. They came in strangers but ever after lived and died old neighbors and friends with one exception, who after 30 years nearly, again emigrated to the great West.

Several of the early families came from the South, Virginia and Maryland, and as the laws of the State of New York protected and tolerated the peculiar institution, they brought their slaves with them. Among those who thus came we note the names of Speed, Roger and Hyde, and others not so well remembered. The slaves were in most instances held as such till the abolition of slavery took effect about the year 1828 when they became free. A few are said to have been manumitted previously and tradition says that one old " massa" anticipated the action of law by running off to the south two or three of his chattels, where he is supposed to have sold them, for which kidnapping he was indicted and would have been brought to trial but for the absence of an important and material witness, whom tradition further says was purposely absent that the matter might not proceed to trial, and thus ended it.

The following is a correct copy of the " manumission" of Peter Webb, a former slave in this town, and the only one on record and is also a curiosity of itself:

The aforesaid " Peter," after his freedom, by industry and economy acquired the means and purchased a farm not far from the home of his old " master," where he continued to live till his death, which occurred about four years since. Soon after his own freedom was secured, which it is reliably said he bought and himself earned the funds to pay for, that of his wife, who was also a slave, was likewise secured, and the two who had been born and reared slaves but were now free, began a new life of freedom. Their children still live in the town and are in well-to-do circumstances.

The first post-master was Dr. Joseph Speed. The office was named by him " Caroline," which a few years later became the name of the town. The office is still continued by the same name but the vicinity is locally known as " Tobeytown." In old times the locality was " Yankee Settlement."

Many of the early settlers in the immediate vicinity of Slaterville, were originally from the North River counties and were of Dutch descent, from which circumstance the community took the name and was for many years thereafter called the "Dutch Settlement" which upon becoming a post-office village was changed to " Slaterville," in honor of Captain Levi Slater, who first settled on the site of the village in 1801. He died in 1852 at a ripe old age, universally respected and esteemed by his fellow-townsmen. His descendants are quite numerous. He held the office of Supervisor five years consecutively, 1821–25 and also nearly every other office in the town, at various times. The village of Speedsville is situated in the very south-east corner of the town and county, and perhaps some of your readers not acquainted with the circumstances, would like to know how at last it finally got there. The site was originally settled by Labar Jenks, who donated to its inhabitants the pretty little park of one acre in " extent which occupies the center of the village, and for a long time it was called " Jenksville." John J. Speed formerly kept a small store in a log house half a mile east of Slaterville, then yclept " Dutch Settlement," and at the same time procured an authorization as Post Master, naming the office " Speedsville." Sometime later he removed to the south east part of the town where he owned a large farm, taking the Speedsville post office and its appurtenances with him, from which out of the way place he occasionally found opportunity to go himself or send for the mail, he living some ways off the route then. His son, John J. Speed, Jr., upon the retirement or removal of the father to another State superseded him in the charge of the farm, and also seems to have held on to the " Speedsville post office" by inheritance, and like his father, at intervals found a chance to " send off the bag for a mail." A few years after he left the hill farm and removed down on the "76th road," a couple of miles or so from " Jenksville," the inhabitants of which feeling the want of a post office in their midst, were moving to supersede John J. Jr. in his functions as Postmaster of the Speedsville post office, and have the same removed to and called Jenksville, but in this the redoubtable J. J. Jr. was too much for them and their efforts to lift the office off his shoulders without his consent being first obtained were unsuccessful.

Finally, Mr. Speed Jr., who was anticipating removal to Ithaca, held a conference with a few of the wise men of " Jenksville," and verbally agreed to surrender the post office to them on condition that it should be called Speedsville, which they readily assented to, and all sides being satisfied, the war ended, and " Jenksville" that was, became Speedsville that is. LeRoy Kingman, Esq., was duly installed Postmaster, and no blood was spilled, happily enough. Mr. Speed Jr., having exchanged his real estate in this town with S. B. Munn for his mercantile interest at Ithaca, he removed there and engaged in a mercantile co-partnership under the firm name of Speed & Tourtellot. He in part represented Tompkins county in the Assembly of 1852, his associates being John Ellis and Horace Mack. (Tompkins was from 1827 to 1836 entitled to a representation in the Assembly of three instead of one as now.) Mr. Speed subsequently removed to the west and a few years ago the writer read his obituary in a western (I think Detroit) paper. He was a second cousin of the late Dr. Joseph Speed. None of the descendants of his branch of the family are known to be living in town, and he believes there are none, those of the name now living here being descendants of Dr. Speed.

Caroline was organized Feb. 22, 1811, as we have said, and on the first Tuesday of the ensuing April the first Town Meeting was held at the " Old Bush Stand" whereat the following officers were duly elected, which will doubtless interest many of the good people as well as the numerous town office aspirants and politicians, as being the first set of town officers:

• Supervisor—William Rounesville.
• Town Clerk—Levi Slater.
• Assessors—Epbraim Chambers, Nathaniel Tobey, Labar Jenks.
• Commissioners of Highways—John Robison, Nathaniel Tobey, Moses Read.
• Collector—Charles Mulks.
• Overseers of the Poor—John Robison, Joseph Chambers.
• Constables—Richard | Chambers, Robert Hyde.
• Fence Viewers—Joseph Speed, Charles Mulks, Robert Freeland.

Of the above, Nathaniel Tobey was the last survivor. He died in 1863. He was originally from Massachusetts, and settled here about 1805–6. He was an active, energetic, life-long hard working man.

The Collector's warrant for 1811 (Charles Mulks Collector), amounted to precisely $153.83; in 1812, it was $68.43; in 1813, $126.43; 1814, $147.62; in 1830 it had swelled to $628.96. In 1813 there were nine school districts in town, and in 1889 the amount expended for common schools was $107.11.

The first State election book place May 2, 1811, and was for Lieutenant Governor, State Senator and Member of the Assembly (Tioga county) with the following result: For Lieut. Governor, De Witt Clinton 36 ; Nicholas Fish 11 for a total of 47 votes. For Senator, Casper M. House received 31. Member of Assembly, Henry Wells received 59; Vincent Mathews, 20; total 79 votes. At the gubernatorial election of 1813, Daniel D. Tompkins, for Governor, received 39 against 16 for General Stephen Van Rensselaer; majority for Tompkins 23 out of a vote of 55. Again at the gubernatorial contest in 1816, Tompkins lead Rufus King eleven votes out of a total of 67.

The Six Mile Creek enters the town from the north but soon sweeps around to the west and pursues a westerly course through the town. It is a rapid stream and in by gone days was noted for the number of saw mills along its course. The name Six Mile Creek was originally given the stream from the fact that the Indian trail between Cayuga and the Susquehanna rivers, crossed this creek just six miles from the head of the lake, the point of the crossing being somewhere on the flats below Mott's Corners. This is the true origin of the name Six Mile Creek, and not as many suppose because it is six miles long, for in fact it is more than twice the distance. The west branch of Owego Creek forms the east boundary of the town and county. At one point these streams are separated not more than two and a half miles. How widely separated are their outlets! The one leading and tumbling northward is lost in the " blue Cayuga," thence through Seneca and St. Lawrence rivers it empties at last into the stormy northern ocean. The other glides down the winding Susquehanna and is buried at last in the broad, glassy Chesapeake Bay.

The Caroline Library Association was formed January 13, 1818, one hundred dollars having been previously pledged for the purpose of establishing a circulating library—District libraries were originated many years afterwards. The Association at the outset numbered 30 to 40 members, and others joined and participated in its privileges and advantages by purchasing one or more shares at three dollars each. Its books were mostly purchased at a discount and numbered in the aggregate about 150 volumes, the total cost of which did not exceed $220, divided as follows: 1-10th on Theology, 2-10ths Voyages, 2-10ths Classical, Poetical and Miscellaneous, 5-10ths History and Biography. The library was opened for circulation January 5, 1819. It continued in existence about 10 years and was under the direction of a board of 12 trustees chosen annually. Dr. Joseph Speed was chairman of the board most of the time and held the post of librarian throughout. He was undoubtedly the originator of the enterprise, and to his public spirit the early settlers may have owed the first privilege of a well-selected circulating library.

The first public highway through the town was the old Owego road. The 76th road, passing through Caroline Centre and thence down Boyce Creek to Speedsville, is claimed by some to be an older road than the Owego road. Tradition says that a portion of Sullivan's army returning from the invasion of the Six Nations passed along the route of this road in '76, which gave it the name of 76th road. It is very likely that VanCortlandt’s detachment may and did return by this way to the Susquehanna, but as Sullivan's memorable expedition did not occur till 1779, instead of 1776, the name of the road founded on the circumstance of the year '76, and thence called the "76th Road" is entirely a mistake. The Susquehanna and Bath turnpike, incorporated in 1804 was cut thro this town about the year 1807.

The first Justices of the Peace were Ephraim Chambers and John Robison, in 1811, who were appointed by the Council of Appointment. The office having been made elective by the people in 1829, James Ashley, Milo Heath, Aaron Curtis and Silas Hutchinson were elected in November of that year. James Ashley is still living (June 1870) the oldest resident in town, being over 90. He held the office of Justice by appointment and election eleven years, 1817-28.

The first minister is the late Rev. Garret Mandeville who was the founder of the present Dutch Reformed Church, located one mile west of Slaterville. The present edifice was erected about the year 1829. Domini Mandeville died at his homestead in Caroline in 1852, and his remains repose in the churchyard almost beneath the shadow of the church founded by his labors. The Methodist Society at Slaterville was started at an early day. The Society, however, did not possess a church till about the year 1835. Several new and commodious church edifices have gone up within a comparatively few years including one at Caroline Centre and two at Mott's Corners erected quite recently.

The Christian Doctrinal Advocate and Spiritual Monitor, a sectarian paper in the interest of the Seventh Day Baptist denomination and published under their auspices, was started at Mott's Corners in 1837, and its publication continued a few years when it collapsed.

I append a full list of the Supervisors of the town from its organization to the present time :

• 1811–12—William Rounseville
• 1813—John James Speed, Senior.
• 1814–15—John Robison.
• 1816–17—Robert Freeland.
• 1818—Augustine Bower.⁴
• 1819—Robert Freeland.
• 1820–25—Levi Slater,
• 1826–28—Robert Freeland.
• 1828—Augustine Boyer, (to fill vacancy.)
• 1829–31—William Jackson
• 1832–34—Samuel B. Dean, (the oldest Supervisor living.)
• 1835—Henry Teers.
• 1836–37—Spencer Hungerford.
• 1838–42—Lyman Kingman.
• 1849—James Richard Speed.
• 1894—Lyman Kingman.
• 1845—John Chambers.
• 1846—Daniel L. Mead.
• 1847—Lyman Kingman.
• 1848–9—Samuel E. Green.
• 1850—William Cooper.
• 1851—Henry Krum.
• 1852—Michael O. Krum.
• 1853—Edward Hungerford.
• 1854—Robert H. S. Hyde.
• 1855—Hermon C. Reed.
• 1856–7—John Bull.
• 1858—Charles J. Rounseville.
• 1859—John J. Bush.
• 1860—Peter Lounsberry.
• 1861—William H. Blair.
• 1862—William Curtis.
• 1863—James H. Snow.
• 1864–5—Samuel E. Green.
• 1866—Sharrard Slater.
• 1867—Samuel P. Ashley.
• 1868—Lyman Kingman.
• 1869—Sharrard Slater.
• 1870 —John Wolcott.

Since the formation of Tompkins county four members of the Assembly have been chosen from Caroline, namely: Samuel H. Dean, 1828–9 ; Peter Lounsberry, 1844; Chas. J. Rounseville, 1849; Robert H. S. Hyde, 1856.

M*****⁵

June, 1870.

Acknowledgements

Becky DeWitt found this article cut from a newspaper and pasted into a scrapbook in the Charles Freer Mulks collection in the Koch Library. It is the earliest published history of Caroline we know of. Tim Larkin converted the image to text. Tim and Becky corrected the OCR errors. David Jorgensen helped with understanding the size of the Watkins-Purchase.

Part of this article appeared in What They Wrote: 19^th Century Documents from Tompkins County, New York, edited by Carol Kammen, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives, Cornell University Libraries, Ithaca, New York, 1978.

1. The original spelling and punctuation have been preserved.
2. This is one of many numbers reported. According to the History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York the Watkins-Flint purchase enclosed 336,380 acres, which included 32 reserved tracts (including three for John Cantine). These reserved tracts totaled 37,365 acres, leaving Watkins and Flint 336,380 acres to sell.
3. Probably in error for John Robison.
4. Probably in error for Augustine Boyer.
5. The identity of M is unknown.