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HISTORY OF HERKIMER COUNTY,

INCLUDING

THE UPPER MOHAWK VALLEY,

FROM THE

EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE PRESENT TIME:.

WITH A

BRIEF NOTICE OF THE IROQUOIS INDIANS, THE EARLY GERMAN TRIBES,
THE PALATINE IMMIGRATIONS INTO THE COLONY OF NEW YORK,

AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THE PALATINE FAMILIES,

THE PATENTEES OF BURNETSFIELD IN THE YEAR 1725.

ALSO

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF THE MOST PROMINENT
PUBLIC MEN OF THE COUNTY:

WITH

IMPORTANT STATISTICAL INFORMATION.

BY NATHANIEL S. BENTON.

ALBANY:

J. MUNSELL, 78 STATE STREET.

974.761
B478

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, BY NATHANIEL S. BENTON,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Northern District of

New York.

TO THE PEOPLE OF HERKIMER COUNTY

I dedicate this humble and unpretending volume. If the manuscript sheets, which have been prepared with some labor, and a scrupulous regard to the best authenticated facts, shall assume the form of a readable book, it will be through their generous appreciation of the writer's efforts.

And, if my labors to condense and illustrate the annals of what has hitherto been and now is an interesting portion of one of the largest and most populous states of the American Union, in the destinies of which the citizens of Herkimer county have hitherto so largely participated, shall merit and receive the approval of those so well qualified to form just conceptions of their value and importance, I shall have no hope or ambition left unsatisfied. THE AUTHOR.

15941

the General, devoted themselves in the future progress of the war, with zeal and courage in defense of the country.

Another motive prompted me to the undertaking. Herkimer county was one of the first erected after the revolution, and while the surrounding counties, and some of them carved from the territory it once embraced, were esteemed worthy of elaborate historical notice which had been liberally patronized by the populations of those counties, it seemed strange indeed that she should so long have remained neglected and forgotten, like the illustrious individual whose name she bears, and no one of her sons, native or adopted, would venture to place her in a just position. All that portion of the book compiled from public works and documents, such as the origin of the titles to lands, the description and boundaries of the county and the towns, and the statistical and other information derived from the recent census, may be relied upon as strictly and critically accurate.

Heretofore, several, if I may not say many, of the political men of the county, have held not only reputable, but high positions in the councils of the state, and some of those, who are now dead, have left an enduring impress of their talents and exertions upon the political institutions of the state. The somewhat peculiar political characteristics, which have heretofore marked the action of a considerable majority of the voting population of the county, seemed to me a matter worthy of elaborate consideration. Why two peoples, distinct in their origin, dissimilar in tastes, habits and customs, should harmonize on a great political problem for a period of more than fifty years, and in numbers to carry almost every popular election, presented a question worthy of inquiry and solution. Animated with a strong desire to arrive at a just and proper conclusion in respect to this question, I have given, in the sequel of the book, a full statement of the facts which are believed to have drawn the German and English or New England populations into harmony.

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