The Pioneers | Page 4

the lake to make their treaties,
and otherwise to strengthen their alliances, and which refers the name
to this practice. As the Indian agent of New York had a log dwelling at
the foot of the lake, however, it is not impossible that the appellation
grew out of the meetings that were held at his council fires; the war
drove off the agent, in common with the other officers of the crown;
and his rude dwelling was soon abandoned. The author remembers it, a
few years later, reduced to the humble office of a smoke-house.
In 1779 an expedition was sent against the hostile Indians, who dwelt
about a hundred miles west of Otsego, on the banks of the Cayuga. The
whole country was then a wilderness, and it was necessary to transport
the bag gage of the troops by means of the rivers—a devious but
practicable route. One brigade ascended the Mohawk until it reached

the point nearest to the sources of the Susquehanna, whence it cut a
lane through the forest to the head of the Otsego. The boats and
baggage were carried over this “portage,” and the troops proceeded to
the other extremity of the lake, where they disembarked and encamped.
The Susquehanna, a narrow though rapid stream at its source, was
much filled with “flood wood,” or fallen trees; and the troops adopted a
novel expedient to facilitate their passage. The Otsego is about nine
miles in length, varying in breadth from half a mile to a mile and a half.
The water is of great depth, limpid, and supplied from a thousand
springs. At its foot the banks are rather less than thirty feet high the
remainder of its margin being in mountains, intervals, and points. The
outlet, or the Susquehanna, flows through a gorge in the low banks just
mentioned, which may have a width of two hundred feet. This gorge
was dammed and the waters of the lake collected: the Susquehanna was
converted into a rill.
When all was ready the troops embarked, the damn was knocked away,
the Otsego poured out its torrent, and the boats went merrily down with
the current.
General James Clinton, the brother of George Clinton, then governor of
New York, and the father of De Witt Clinton, who died governor of the
same State in 1827, commanded the brigade employed on this duty.
During the stay of the troops at the foot of the Otsego a soldier was
shot for desertion. The grave of this unfortunate man was the first place
of human interment that the author ever beheld, as the smoke- house
was the first ruin! The swivel alluded to in this work was buried and
abandoned by the troops on this occasion, and it was subsequently
found in digging the cellars of the authors paternal residence.
Soon after the close of the war, Washington, accompanied by many
distinguished men, visited the scene of this tale, it is said with a view to
examine the facilities for opening a communication by water with other
points of the country. He stayed but a few hours.
In 1785 the author’s father, who had an interest in extensive tracts of
land in this wilderness, arrived with a party of surveyors. The manner
in which the scene met his eye is described by Judge Temple. At the

commencement of the following year the settlement began; and from
that time to this the country has continued to flourish. It is a singular
feature in American life that at the beginning of this century, when the
proprietor of the estate had occasion for settlers on a new settlement
and in a remote county, he was enabled to draw them from among the
increase of the former colony.
Although the settlement of this part of Otsego a little preceded the birth
of the author, it was not sufficiently advanced to render it desirable that
an event so important to himself should take place in the wilderness.
Perhaps his mother had a reasonable distrust of the practice of Dr Todd,
who must then have been in the novitiate of his experimental
acquirements. Be that as it may, the author was brought an infant into
this valley, and all his first impressions were here obtained. He has
inhabited it ever since, at intervals; and he thinks he can answer for the
faithfulness of the picture he has drawn. Otsego has now become one of
the most populous districts of New York. It sends forth its emigrants
like any other old region, and it is pregnant with industry and enterprise.
Its manufacturers are prosperous, and it is worthy of remark that one of
the most ingenious machines known in European art is derived from
the keen ingenuity which is exercised in this remote region.
In order to prevent