CIVIL ENGINEER

CAMBRIDCE, N. Y

       At the time of its discovery the Mohawk tribe of the Iroquois Indians inhabited this section of country now known as Washington County. However, at the time of its settlement it was utilized only as a hunting ground by the Mohegans, probably by the consent of the Mohawks, who had withdrawn to the region along the river which bears their name on account of the border warfare carried on against them by the Canadian Indians and their French allies.

The advent of the white man in the region antedates the settlement of the Dutch in the lower Hudson Valley by 4 years; in fact, it antedates the discovery of the Hudson River itself by a few months. It seems that Champlain and his Indian allies invaded the northern limits of the county in 1609, fighting a battle with the Iroquois July 30th of that year at some point above the outlet of Lake George.

The first lands patented were in the southwestern corner of the county, in 1684, but no attempt was made at settlement for another half century. Several large grants of land within the county were made about 1740. However, none of them were settled although at this time one family, the first within the county, then resided at Fort Edward, trafficking with the Indians.

With the close of the various French wars and the conquest of Canada by the English, this old fighting ground could be settled without apprehension for the safety of the settlers. Lands were now granted, not more than a thousand acres to one person, and the grant was to be forfeited if within a reasonable time settlers were not located upon the land and portions of them cleared and put under cultivation. An annual quit rent of 2 shillings and 6 pence sterling was imposed on every hundred acres and all pine trees suitable for masts for the royal navy were reserved to the crown.

James Turner and Joshua Conkey made the first permanent settlement on the flats along White Creek, where the village of Salem is now situated. These men came from Mass. in the summer of 1761. They at once began clearing the land, working at this improvement during the summer season, returning to their former home in Mass. for the winters until 1764, when they removed their families here and made their homes in this new country. Many other settlements were made at this time and immediately following.

In the days before settlement the region was a part of Albany Co. - afterwards it was called Charlotte Co. for Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III. Immediately following the close of the Revolutionary War and the Independence of the Colonies the name was changed to Washington. This change in name was made April 2, 1784. Cambridge and Easton townships were added Feb. 7, 1791. From this day, with the exception of the cutting off of Warren Co. in 1813, Washington County assumed its present boundary lines.

When the first surveys within the county were made, numerous Indian trails were so distinct that many of them were laid down on the maps resulting from these surveys. These precursors of modern highways were followed during the intercolonial wars by the military roads. Later, turnpikes and corduroy roads were built, the latter particularly in the sections of the country occupied by clay land. The most prominent of the turnpikes was that built through Cambridge, Salem, and Hebron and thence Northward to the state line.

The agricultural development of Washington Co. did not begin for a century and a half after its first visitation by the white man. Unlike many other sections of the new world the aboriginal possessors of this region did not use it for farming. The whole region was hunting ground. This was so, probably, on account of its being located along and in the natural pathway between the Hudson and the St. Lawrence Valleys, and therefore in the fighting ground of the Iroquois and their enemies, the Canadian Indians. Many times the contending colonial armies traversed it with their Indian Allies. These facts prevented the settlements and development of the region, and gave to it the appellation “The Warpath of America.”

The development of the land was one of the conditions on which the lands were granted. The men, taking up these grants and settling upon them, cleared a small piece of land and sowed it to wheat. Corn and vegetables were then planted for family use. At this time the nearest grist mill was at Stillwater, the road to this mill was only a path though the woods and those who were not so fortunate as to own a horse often carried their corn hither in bags strapped to their backs, returning with the meal in the same fashion. This first mill in this vicinity was built at Fitches Point near East Greenwich.

The noticeable exception to the general rule of selecting valley lands in shown in the following quotation, “The interval lands along the Owl Kill are said to have been originally little else than a marsh, traversed everywhere by beaver dams and overgrown by stupendous pines and hemlocks. It is reported that settlers at an early date were accustomed to pass by this dreary tract and go up among the mountains preferring to buy the wild lands of those rugged hills at ten shillings per acre when these were offered to them for four. This accounts for the early settlement of Shaker Hollow, Pumpkin Hook (or Pompanos), Ash Grove and similar early settlements in this vicinity.

In these early days the amount of cleared land was very much less than now, except in the villages almost all of the buildings were of logs. The raising of grain was the principal industry of the farmer, though considerable attention was given to the rearing of livestock. Their main market for exports was at Montreal by way of Lake Champlain. There was a local market at Lansingburg where small sales were made especially when Lake Champlain was closed with ice. Occasionally some old-fashioned man would take a sleight load of produce or drive a drove of cattle overland to Boston.

      A majority of farmers had nothing but oxen and those who had horses used them principally for the road, as for pleasure carriages. There was hardly one in the country except some old fashioned chaise, which might have carried some old couple too ponderous for horseback riding.

While the poorer farmers went to the meeting with their families on ox carts, one of the more forehanded ones would hitch up his horses to his big lumber wagon, take his wife and six or eight children, perhaps fill up with the family of one of his poorer neighbors and drive to church with flying colors.

In those days they warned the people to observe the Sabbath and the constables of Washington Co. were notified to arrest and detain all person traveling without necessity on the Lord’s day.

It was very difficult to support a journal on account of the lack of post offices or mail routes. Up to 1797 Salem was the only post office in the eastern part of the county. For many years after a successful paper was established, post riders or post boys delivered it to subscribers as they were commonly called, who traveled on horseback sounding their horn as they approached the residents of their patrons and were usually met by some member of the family. It is related that on one occasion, the rider who was delivering the paper in Cambridge, had absorbed too much good cheer at the tavern and halted at the gate of the old graveyard south of the village, and blew his horn for some one to come and take his paper. Again and still again each time louder than before, he repeated the call, but finding it still unheeded, he threw the paper over into the graveyard, and rode off, saying “They will find it when they get up.” Which was doubtless true.

      As we pick up our daily paper giving the important events from all parts of the world, we little realize what hardships our forefathers went through and what inconveniences they put up with to pave the way for our modern life of luxury.

                                                     Frank Perry Larmon