floor yielded all the sleeping luxuries he required or would indulge in, and it was not often he could be induced to prolong his visit longer than one night. He spoke the English, German and Indian very well, and was often very useful in promoting a friendly intercourse between the whites and Indians.

THE WELLEVEN FAMILY, OR WOLLEAVERS.

This name is found written Wolleben and Wohleben in the statement of the heads of Palatine families on the west side of the Hudson river in 1710.

Nicholas W., the patentee in Burnetsfield, who was also one of the patentees in Staley's 1st and 2d tracts, died in 1773, leaving six sons, Henry, Peter, Richard, John, Abraham and Jacob; and six daughters, Catharine the wife of Frederick Shoemaker, Mary Sophia the wife of Peter Flagg, Elizabeth who married with Frederick Schute, Lany who married with Frederick Bellinger, and Hannah the wife of John Emgie or Empie. Empie was a tory and went to Canada with his family. Richard, John, Peter and Abraham were in the Oriskany battle; the two former were killed and the two latter returned, Peter slightly wounded. Nicholas Wollever, from whom I had this account of the family, stated he was the son of Peter, and was born August 1st, 1769, and is now nearly 85 years old; says his father was born March 9th, 1732, and died November 17th, 1829, having attained the age of 97 years and 8 months; that his father Peter was taken prisoner during the French war in 1757, and was sent to England for exchange. He was also in the mill at Little Falls when it was attacked and burned by a party of the enemy, which my informant assured me was in June, 1782, and made his escape.

Peter Wollever lived on the farm in Manheim, since known as the Christy place, which he hired of Joseph Brant, the Mohawk chief; and Brant sent word to him, in 1777, that he would come and tomahawk him, if he did not leave the

farm immediately. Peter then moved to Fort Herkimer with his family, in the fall of 1777, after the Oriskany battle; where he remained until the close of the war. My informant stated, his father once borrowed money of Gen. Herkimer, to pay the rent to Brant. He had three sons, who attained the age of manhood, Nicholas, John and Henry. His daughters were, Elizabeth, wife of Frederick Shoemaker; Catharine, the wife of Garret Van Slyke, whose father John Van Slyke, was killed on Fink's Flats, during the war; Susan, the wife of Jacob Edick; Hannah, who married a Mr. Furman; Mary, now living, who married a Mr. White and Eva, the wife of Stanton Fox.

Abraham Wollever, one of the patentee's sons, was taken prisoner, in October, 1781, with Henry Staring near Fort Herkimer; soon after he was taken, he was knocked down, tomahawked, scalped by his captors and left; the enemy with their other prisoner, Staring, pursuing their course towards Oneida. Abraham survived this horrid treatment, was out two nights, his feet having been very much. frozen, and near sunset of the third day after his capture, he was brought to the fort. He lived a number of years after this event, to recount the story of his sufferings. He was discovered by a party from the fort, who had gone out after horses, which had strayed away. When first seen, he was trying to mount one of the horses, and being covered with blood was taken for an Indian, and would have been killed by his friends, if he had not clung so close to the horse, that they could not shoot him without killing the animal. Jacob Wollever, the youngest son of the patentee, shot the tory or Indian who killed old Mr. Hess. This family have a tradition that their ancestor came into this county directly from Schoharie. This tradition is supported by the fact, that the name is found among those Palatines who were seated on the west side of the Hudson, from whence the first German settlers of Schoharie came. This name is now nearly extinct in the county.

THE WEVER (OR WEAVER) FAMILY.

This name is written on the Livingston manor lists, Weber and Webber. Jacob and Nicholas were volunteers in the Montreal expedition, repeatedly mentioned in other parts of this chapter. Peter Ja. Weaver, was an ensign in 1775, in the 4th battalion of the Tryon county militia. Some of the family settled in Deerfield, Oneida county, in 1773, and after the war, other members of the family, from Herkimer, fixed themselves at that place. George I. Weaver was taken pri soner during the war, and was detained in captivity about two years, and some part of the time he suffered very much by the inhuman treatment of his captors. Four hundred acres of land were assigned to this family, two hundred on the north, and two hundred on the south side of the river. A portion of these lands is still possessed by the descendants of the patentees.

Jacob G. Weaver, whether of the same family or not, I am unable to state, was cotemporary with John Jacob Astor, and at an early period of our history, was engaged in the fur trade, by which he accumulated a large estate, which he left to be inherited by three daughters. He was shrewd and active in the prime of life. He died at Herkimer, Nov. 28th, 1820, aged 79 years.

14

CHAPTER IX.

County when Erected - Statute Boundaries in 1791- Counties Erected from Herkimer - Winfield - Salisbury - Manheim - Danube - First Counties in the State-Montgomery - List of Patents to Lands in the CountyColonial and Crown Grants Confirmed - Attainder Act of 1779-Forfeited Estates to be Sold-Bills of Credit Commissioners of Forfeitures-Lots in Royal Grant Sold-Indian Children-Lots in Jerseyfield Sold - in Glen's Purchase-Bayard's Patent-Guy Johnson Tract-Johan Joost Herkimer - Area of the County-Actual Boundaries—Rivers, Streams, and Lakes-Face of the Country-its Soil, Produce, Minerals, Manufactures, Roads, Canals, and Turnpikes - Newspaper Press of the CountyColleges and Academies - Religious Aspects - Medical Society - PoorHouse Establishment - Agricultural Society.

The county was erected on the 16th of February, 1791, from the county of Montgomery, formerly Tryon, and embraced all that portion of the state lying west of its eastern boundaries, except the counties of Otsego and Tioga, which were erected at the same time, and extending to the eastern boundaries of Ontario county, erected January 27th, 1789, and covered, according to the statute designation, all the territory bounded north by Lake Ontario, the River St. Lawrence, and the north bounds of the state; easterly by the counties of Clinton, Washington, and Saratoga, as they then were; southerly by the counties of Montgomery, Otsego, and Tioga. These boundaries were not accurate, even at that time; the true boundaries of the county, as it now is, will be stated hereafter. Onondaga county was set off from Herkimer in 1794; Oneida in 1798; Chenango, from Herkimer and Tioga, in 1798; Cayuga, from Onondaga, in 1799; Cortland, from the same, in 1808; St. Lawrence, from Oneida, in 1802; Jefferson and Lewis, from the same, in 1805; Madison, from Chenango, in 1806; Seneca, from Cay

uga, in 1804; Oswego, from parts of Oneida and Onondaga, in 1816; Tompkins, from Seneca and Cayuga, in 1817; and Wayne, from Seneca and Ontario, in 1823. There were only fourteen counties in the state when Herkimer was set-off; and the three then created, Otsego, Tioga and Herkimer, made the number seventeen. There are now eleven whole counties, and parts of two others, embraced in the territory first set off, as Herkimer.

In 1816, parts of the towns of Richfield and Plainfield, in the county of Otsego, were with a portion of Litchfield, in Herkimer county, erected into a new town, by the name of Winfield, and attached to Herkimer county.

In 1817, the towns of Salisbury and Manheim, and all that part of Minden, Montgomery county, now comprised in Danube and Stark, were annexed to the county of Herkimer.

The first counties created, by law, in this state, then a colony, were Albany, New York, Dutchess, Kings, Orange Queens, Richmond, Suffolk, Ulster and Westchester, November 1st, 1683. Albany' took its present name in 1664. Montgomery was created, by law, as a county, March 12, 1772, by the name of Tryon, which was altered April 2d, 1784 for reasons well understood by readers of our revolutionary history.

The present county comprises within its limits the following tracts, and parts of tracts of lands granted by the crown, before the revolution, and by the state, since the treaty of 1783.