Bradford County PA Chemung County NY Tioga County PA Tri-Counties Genealogy & History by Joyce M. Tice History of Tompkins, Schuyler, Chemung, Tioga 1879 Chemung County Section - Chapter 35

Tri-Counties Genealogy & History Sites How To Use This Site Warning & Disclaimer 1879 History - Table of Contents No Commercial Use Say Hello to Joyce  Purchase of Book for presentation  on this site was financed by  a very kind and anonymous site guest  who replaced the one Joyce lost to  a typist who disappeared.

SETTLEMENT AND PROGRESS.

The Pioneers and their Successors—The numbering of the People—the Gardens and Corn-Patches of 1786, and the Farms of 1875—Products of the Field, the Dairy, the Orchard, and the Garden—Live-Stock—The Wool Clip of Five Years contrasted—Chemung Second in Tobacco-raising—Yield of the Soil—Pioneer Mills, and the Manufactures of their Sons—Industry and Wealth.

SETTLEMENT AND PROGRESS.

The first permanent settlement effected by white men in the territory now included in the limits of Chemung County was that of William Wynkoop, William, Buck, and his son, Elijah, Daniel McDowell, Joseph Bennett, Thomas Burt, Enoch Warren, and his son, Enoch, Jr., who in the spring of 1786, came up the Susquehanna and Chemung Rivers in canoes and Durham boats, and located from Wynkoop’s Creek westward to the second narrows. A second settlement was made in the following spring of 1787 still further west of the Narrows. The details of these settlements will be found in the history of the town of Chemung. The earliest settlements in the other towns will be found detailed in the several town histories.

The population of the towns of the county from 1810, and of the county since its organization to 1875 inclusive, by lustrums is as follows:
 

The first houses erected for the white settlers in the territory of the county were those built in 1786, by the settlers coming into the valley in that year; but which particular settler had the priority in erecting his log cabin is a matter we have not been able definitely to ascertain. Major William Wynkoop was the first to erect a framed house in that settlement, which was quite likely the first house of this kind erected in the county, but the exact date cannot now be given.

The census of 1875 gives the following statistics concerning the dwellings of the people at the present time: they numbered 8035, of which 7702 were frames, 207 brick, 15 stone, and 111 were the primitive log cabins yet remaining. These were valued at $16,785,968, the frames being put in at $13,955,093, and the log cabins $8775; 141 were worth less than $50, 1900 between $1000 and $2000, and 227 over $10,000, the average being $2089.11; 7875 houses were inhabited by 8869 families; average, 5.30 persons to a house. The area of the county is 400 square miles, and there were 102.88 persons to the square mile resident in its limits, and 21.84 families and 19.79 dwellings in the same area. The acreage to each person was 6.22, and the value of inhabited houses to each family $1851.33.

The first farming operations by the settlers were those of Wynkoop and others, in 1786, on the deserted corn-fields of the Indians, devastated by the fire of Sullivan’s army. In 1840, the first census taken after Chemung County was erected, the agricultural exhibit was as follows: products—bushels of wheat, 102,831; barley, 26,358; oats 203,184; rye, 18,513; buckwheat, 62,599; corn, 120,732; potatoes, 269,233; pounds wool, 75,996; hops, 1044; wax, 1331; hay, 28,481 tons; hemp and flax 12 ¾ tons; sugar, 74,926 pounds; wood sold, 13,605 cords; value products of dairy, $62,648; value products of orchards, $21,720; value of domestic goods manufactured, $32,876; there were owned 4667 horses, 21,406 neat cattle; 37,975 sheep, and 18,110 hogs, and poultry was sold the year before valued as $17,403.

The agricultural exhibit for 1875 was as follows: area of land in farms—improved, 146,788 acres; unimproved woodland, 53,312 acres; other, 31,092 acres. Cash values-—farms, $12,658,403; farm buildings other than dwellings, $1,355,255; of stock, $1,381,711; of tools and implements, $468,413. Cost of fertilizers bought in 1874, $5642; amount of gross sales from farms in 1874, $1,017,965. Area plowed—1874, 42,043 acres; 1875, 43,323 acres. Grass lands—area in pasture 1874, 46,749 acres; 1875, 46,088. Area mown—acres 1874, 39663; 1875, 38,856. Hay produced 1874, 928 bushels; barley, acres 972, bushels 19,958; acres 1875, 1333; buckwheat, acres 8119, bushels 14,414; acres 1875, 5551; corn, acres 6470, bushels 271,750; acres 1875, 7259; oats, acres 17,488, bushels 480,326; acres 1875, 19712; rye, acres 316, bushels 3270; acres 1875, 461; spring wheat, acres 1097, bushels 10,569; acres 1875, 765; winter wheat, acres 6741, bushels 106,954; acres 1875, 8363; corn sown for fodder, acres 1874, 390; 1875, 462; beans and peas, acres 124, bushels 1606; acres 1875, 113; hops, acres 13, pounds 4800; acres 1875, 10; potatoes, acres 1989, bushels 230,560 acres; 1875, 2019; tobacco, acres 343, pounds 485,104; acres 1875, 450; apple orchards, number of trees 131,395, bushels fruit 140,075, cider made 5002 barrels; grapes produced 25,414 pounds, 2579 gallons wine made; 2396 pounds maple sugar made, and 426 gallons syrup; 38,245 pounds of honey collected; horses on farms of all ages, 5999; mules 130; poultry owned 1875, $25,563, sold 1874, $11,601, eggs sold 1874, $14,228. Neat cattle on farms June 1, 1875—heifers of all ages, 7168; bulls of all ages, 1737; working oxen and steers, 1028; milch-cows 1874, 13,018; 1875, 13,016; cattle slaughtered in 1874, 1349. Dairy products—cows whose milk was sent to factories in 1874, 1194; 1875, 1005; butter made in families 1874, 9180 pounds; milk sold in market 1874, 265,480 gallons. Swine on farms June 1, 1875, of all ages 9969, slaughtered on farms 1874, 5251; pork made on farms 1874, 1,175,043 pounds.

The number of sheep shorn, total weight of clip, and average weight of fleece for the years 1855, 1864, 1865, 1874, and 1875 is as follows:
 

Lambs raised in 1874, 5773; 1875, 6279; slaughtered 1874, 758; killed by dogs 290.

There were three butter- and cheese-factories in operation in 1874, with an invested capital of $5900; wages paid, $2834; average number of cows, 790; number of days in season, 660; average number of patrons, 49; total pounds of milk used, 4,883,734; pounds of milk used in making cheese, 1,986,535; pounds of cheese made, 194,445; pounds of milk used in making butter and skim cheese, 2,897,199; pounds of butter made, 34,346; skim-cheese, 57,955 pounds.

Average yield per acre of the principal crops in 1874, in bushels: barley, 20.53; buckwheat, 17.79; corn, 42; oats, 27.53; rye, 10.35; spring wheat, 9.63; winter wheat, 15.87; potatoes, 115.92; hay, 1.01 ton; hops, 369.23 pounds.

Chemung ranks the second county in the State in tobacco-raising, Onondaga being the first. The latter raised, in 1874, 1,500,000 pounds. No other county in the State approaches Chemung within 100,000 pounds, and only one other is over 300,000 pounds, which is Cayuga. Chemung is also among the fifteen highest counties on the average yield per acre of corn, Yates and Kings only exceeding. In buckwheat, also, Chemung ranks ninth among the higher counties per acre. There were, in 1875, in the county, 2576 farms of all sizes, from a garden-patch of 3 acres to a domain of 1000 and over. There were but 2 of the latter,--one in the town of Chemung, and the other in Van Etten. There were 147 of the former. There were 865 containing from 100 to 500 acres, and 6 of 500 to 1000 acres.

MANUFACTURES.

The first manufacturing operation carried on in the county was that of lumber and gristing. Major Wynkoop had probably the first of these in operation on the creek named in his honor, but the exact date of the erection of the saw-or grist-mill we have been unable to fix definitely; it was, however, but a short time after his settlement in 1786, probably between 1788 and 1799. In 1810 there were 7 grain- and saw-mills in operation, and a fulling-mill and carding-machine, in the town of Chemung, and in the town of Elmira there were 7 grain- and 10 saw-mills, and also a fulling-mill and carding machine.

The census of 1875 having given no manufacturing statistics, we have recourse only to those of 1870 to give an idea of the progress of the county in this particular. The census returns for that year were as follows: there were 346 establishments of all kinds,--74 being operated by steam, and 59 by water,--employing 2118 operatives, 1912 being males above sixteen years, 115 females above fifteen years, and 91 youths. The total capital invested was $2,503,170; wages paid, $894,798; materials used, $3,500,928; manufactured products, $5,925,471. Of those establishments there were 32 saw-mills, 17 flouring mills, 13 cooper-shops, and 26 wagon- and carriage-manufacturers. The heaviest establishment was a rolling-mill in Elmira, which employed 300 operatives and a capital of $500,000, paid wages, $222,470; used materials, $1,199,030; and manufactured products valued at $1,768,400. Nine tanneries employed 110 operatives; capital, $366,240; wages, $59,261; materials used, $484,376; value of products, $691,560. Four boot and shoe establishments employed 485 operatives; capital, $176,000; wages, $185,000; materials, $300,591; products, $575,144. The saw-mills employed 242 operatives; capital, $196,300; wages, $63,718; materials, $149,796; products, $370,130. Four woolen factories employed 124 operatives and $44,000 capital, paid for wages, $42,404; materials, $160.02; and value of products was $222,220.
 

Joyce Tip Box -- December 2007 - If you are not navigating this Tri-Counties Site via the left and right sidebars of the Current What's New page you are doing yourself a disservice. You can get to any place on the site easily by making yourself familiar with these subject and place topics. Try them all to be as familiar with the site's 16,000 plus pages as you can. Stop groping in the dark and take the lighted path. That's also the only way you'll find the search engines for the site or have access to the necessary messages I may leave for you. Make it easy on yourself.

Tri-Counties Genealogy & History by Joyce M. Tice