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New Hartford is a town in Oneida County, New York, United States. As of the 2010 census, the town population was 22,166. The name of New Hartford was provided by a settler family from Hartford, Connecticut. The Town of New Hartford contains a village named New Hartford. New Hartford is the largest suburb of Utica, which is located directly north of the town and village.
[edit] History
New Hartford was settled in March 1788 when Jedediah Sanger, who was bankrupted in 1784 by a fire at his farm in Jaffrey, New Hampshire moved to the area. [edit] Sanger Land Purchase[edit] Common historyAccording to the earliest recorded history (Annals and Recollections of Oneida County, Jones, 1851), Sanger bought of land at a price of fifty cents an acre. This land, thought to be separated into two equal parts by the Sauquoit Creek, was part of the Town of Whitestown at the time. Within a year, Sanger sold the area east of the creek to Joseph Higbee, the areas' second resident, for one dollar per acre. A subsequent survey found this area was . [edit] Possible inaccuracyThis narrative of a 1000-acre purchase by Sanger for $500 and the ensuing resale to Higbee of half the land for $500 (a 100% profit) is repeated in The History of Oneida County, New York by Samuel W. Durant, 1878 which used the Jones' Annals of 1851 as a primary reference. The story was expressed in an address at the 1888 New Hartford Centennial by Henry Hurlburt, again citing Jones' Annals as his source. It is again repeated in Our County and Its People: A Descriptive Work on Oneida County, New York, Wager, 1896. However, a footnote in Transactions of the Oneida Historical Society at Utica, New Hartford Centennial, 1889, which documented the 1888 centennial, questions the validity of the story through research of property deed records. The footnote cites one deed for the sale of four 492 acre lots from John G. Leake to Sanger in November 1790 for approximately $1.16 per acre (US dollars were not the currency in use at the time), and another deed shows the sale of one of the four lots to Higbee in December 1791 for approximately $1.06 per acre. Also listed is a deed conveying to Sanger from George Washington and George Clinton for $1.27 per acre in 1790.[1] From the recorded deeds, the land Sanger sold to Hibgee was sold for slightly less than the price originally paid by Sanger. In spite of the research done in 1889, the original story is popularly told. This version can be found at the Town of New Hartford website and is attributed to the New Hartford Historical Society: "Sanger traveled to Philadelphia and purchased of land at $.50 per acre on credit from George Washington and George Clinton. The following year he shrewdly sold a little over half the land on the east side of the Sauquoit Creek to Joseph Higbee (Higby) at $1.00 per acre." [edit] Other landPresent-day New Hartford covers over in area, considerably more than that contained in Sanger's original purchases. Sanger's purchase had been part of the Coxe Patent, land purchased directly from the colonial government of New York. Other portions of New Hartford is made up of land from the following Patents:[2]
Kempe was Attorney General of New York at the time and remained loyal to England during the Revolution. As a loyalist, his property was confiscated after the war and the Coxe patent was divided with General George Washington, General DeWitt Clinton, and Colonel Marinus Willett owning large parts of the patent. [edit] Early settlersIn 1789, Sanger relocated his family to the settlement and erected a sawmill. A gristmill was added in 1790. Both mills utilized the water of the Sauquoit for power.[2] Another early settler was General Oliver Collins (1762-1838), Connecticut native, Revolutionary War veteran and father of future Congressman Ela Collins. Collins settled a farm in the area then known as Middle Settlement in 1789 and resided there until his death. Shortly after arriving, he was commissioned Captain in the local militia and rose to the rank of Brigadier-general at the time of the War of 1812. Eli Butler arrived from Middletown, Connecticut, also in 1789.[2] John French (1766-1839) arrived from New Hampshire in 1792 and settled another farm, as did Colonel Nathan Seward (1758-1815) of Connecticut,[2] also a Revolutionary War veteran. Other settlers included Nathan Seward, Ashbel Beach, Amos Ives, Solomon Blodget, Salmon Butler, Joel Blair, Agift Hill, Stephen Bushnell, Joseph Jennings.[2] Captain David Risley, Revolutionary War veteran and brother Allen Risley, and Truman and Webster Kellogg settled in the area that is now the hamlet of Washington Mills.[2] There were two families named Olmstead, and a Seymour, Hurlburt, Kilborn, and Montague. More settlers from Connecticut were Henry Blackstone, Zenas Gibbs, Ashbel Tylor, and Nehemiah Ensworth (from Canterbury), all arriving in 1791. The first child born to the settlers was Uriel H. Kellogg.[2] [edit] Civic formationThirty-nine years after Sanger arrived, the Town of New Hartford was created on April 12, 1827, formed from the Town of Whitestown. Whitestown originally contained all of New York state west of Herkimer, and was subsequently split into many counties and towns with New Hartford being the last. The legislative act was entitled "An Act to Divide the Town of Whitestown, in the County of Oneida." The early settlers had adopted the name New Hartford for the settlement, and the name was retained for the town.[2] The first town meeting was held on April 24, 1827, and the following positions were filled: Town supervisor, Town Clerk, Assessors (3), Commissioner of Highways (3), Overseers of the Poor (2), Collector, Commissioners of Common Schools (3), Inspectors of Schools (3).[2] Seven years later, the town was enlarged, with a piece of the Town of Kirkland by legislative act on April 26, 1834.[2] The legislature passed an act on November 22, 1855, transferring a small part of New Hartford, Westmoreland, and Whitestown to Kirkland, enabling the hamlet of Clark Mills to be contained entirely within Kirkland instead of being partly within four different towns.[2] [edit] Village of New HartfordThe Village of New Hartford was incorporated in 1870, from approximately of the town by a vote of 32 to 9. On December 21, 1871, the area of the village east of the Sauquoit Creek was reverted to the town.[2] [edit] Early manufacturing and commerceMany manufacturing ventures started in New Hartford after its settlement and throughout the 19th century.
The earliest manufacturing operations were concentrated along the Sauquoit Creek and utilized water as the primary power source. The power of the creek was the reason that New Hartford had such extensive manufacturing operations for a town of its size. Business in New Hartford exceeded that of Utica due to the water power of the creek.[3] Most factories later transitioned to steam power. Another boon to the economy of New Hartford was the Seneca Turnpike, a toll road connecting Utica to the western part of the state. The Seneca Road Company was formed in 1800 to improve the main road running west from Utica, NY and operate it as a toll road or turnpike. The original road ran north of New Hartford, but Jedediah Sanger purchased stock in the company and through his influence, the turnpike was routed through New Hartford.[3] The turnpike traffic made New Hartford prosper, outstripping other towns in the area and rivaling neighboring Utica until the Erie Canal was constructed through Utica, removing most cross-state traffic from New Hartford. Utica then grew into a large city and New Hartford continues to this day to be a suburb.[4] [edit] Research Tips[edit] External Links
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