- Thread starter David G
- Start date
Yes, lots of homesteaders passed up good land and filed claims on land that resembled what they left in Europe. They all seemed to locate in groups of same nationality as few spoke English. I remember as a kid going to town on Saturday night when the stores were open. Depending on which town we went to, we could here different languages in each town. Don't get to hear that anymore.
Brendon Warren
Well-known Member
I'm from NNY. The land here is suited fine for agriculture. Just not the big large scale business that has become so commonplace. Its more suited for small dairies with some hay and grain crops. Its not Iowa even though some think it should be farmed like it was.
Donald Lehman
Well-known Member
As Brendon said, the land here is actually pretty good for farming. The biggest thorn in the side is the rocks, but rocks can be removed. Marks Farm is probably close to 90% of their land is Black River bottom land. I'll take my rocks to his getting frequently flooded out, any day. Lol!
Part Time Pete
Well-known Member
- Location
- Leatherstocking Region NY
Some of the hill farms are a little tough to work - a lot of stone and heavy soils. You can go five miles though, and be in beautiful bottom land
When I was a kid, I was out with one of my buddies one night, and he asked me what I did that day - I said picked rock - he said, what's picking rock?
He lived on a farm that was all bottom land - never picked stone in his life..
Pete
When I was a kid, I was out with one of my buddies one night, and he asked me what I did that day - I said picked rock - he said, what's picking rock?
He lived on a farm that was all bottom land - never picked stone in his life..
Pete
Russ from MN
Well-known Member
- Location
- Bemidji MN
When you farmed with a shovel and a hoe rocks weren't such a problem!
The rocks aren't bad. It's the ledge that's the problem. A guy once asked me why we used open ditches instead of tiling the fields. Pretty hard to tile a field where you might head 40 feet in one direction and hit a ledge that creeps up to sunlight and then hit another at right angles 10 feet away, and another in another direction. My ditches don't curve because of artistic inclinations!
There is actually a lot of good land in the Northeast and of course some that should have never seen the plow. Transportation and Indians were the big reasons that the colonists did not push right into what we call the Midwest today. It was impractical to farm much west of where I am before the Erie Canal because there would be no way to get perishable goods reliably to market. Corn was distilled into Whiskey to make it profitable to ship but that created a rise in alcoholism which lead to the temperance movements of the 19th century. Wheat and hay had to wait until the Erie Canal and the soon thereafter railroads.
Catskill Pete
Member
Well we have got a lot of miles of pretty stone walls. Actually most of my ancestors came from worn out farms in Connecticut and already knew how to farm between the rocks. But I will admit that there just might be a reason why this area got settled about 75 years after the rest of the state.
coonie minnie
Well-known Member
Most weren't looking for better soil as much a better life. Often times there were NO land opportunities in the old country, or bad politics, or religious persecution.
A rocky farm probably was a lot better than no farm, serving in the king's army, and not having someone else's beliefs as the only choice.
A rocky farm probably was a lot better than no farm, serving in the king's army, and not having someone else's beliefs as the only choice.
I would like to add that the region where I live was well known for its agricultural productivity just after the American Revolution. The Finger Lakes region and Genesee River Valley were important producers of grains and vegetables. A farmer that I am familiar with had his ancestors build their operation by selling hay to NYC via the railroad during the 19th and early 20th Centuries.
I am trying to remember the stories I was told by old timers in terms of how the area opened to settlement. It seems to me that the precursor to US20 here was open before the Revolution and extended to Western Cayuga County. The locals made use of the area rivers such as the Seneca and Clyde Rivers to open the Central-West Finger Lakes settlement just after the Revolution. The first settlers crossed the Genesee River somewhere close to Scottsville around 1800 but were for the most part subsistence farmers. The Wadsworth Family was important in opening up the Genesee Valley from Mount Morris north. If anybody knows different then please speak up.
I am trying to remember the stories I was told by old timers in terms of how the area opened to settlement. It seems to me that the precursor to US20 here was open before the Revolution and extended to Western Cayuga County. The locals made use of the area rivers such as the Seneca and Clyde Rivers to open the Central-West Finger Lakes settlement just after the Revolution. The first settlers crossed the Genesee River somewhere close to Scottsville around 1800 but were for the most part subsistence farmers. The Wadsworth Family was important in opening up the Genesee Valley from Mount Morris north. If anybody knows different then please speak up.
Having checked an area map NY5 would make more sense as the early East-West dry "flat" road as it runs along side the Mohawk River for a ways and then runs roughly North of the Eastern Finger Lakes before stopping at Montezuma Swamp. After that the locals early on used the area rivers to get to where the road stopped. A short lived problem as the Erie Canal was opened during the 1820's.
db4600
Well-known Member
Dick2
You hit the nail on the head there. It's much the same in central MN. If you look at the old architecture you can see how that followed the settlers from the Old Country. The folklore here is how a certain group of immigrants got involved in building several area churches. The churches themselves represent the traditions from the Homelands. In Stearns co. when you see a double spired church it is known that the area was settled by Bavarians. The homeplace had plenty of rocks. Enough that the classmates of the kids always made some pocket cash for weeks in the spring picking rocks. The neighborhood I grew up in eventually had 4 neighbors with rock mechanical rock pickers on the hillside of the lake. Everybody there knows what a "stone boat" is.
You hit the nail on the head there. It's much the same in central MN. If you look at the old architecture you can see how that followed the settlers from the Old Country. The folklore here is how a certain group of immigrants got involved in building several area churches. The churches themselves represent the traditions from the Homelands. In Stearns co. when you see a double spired church it is known that the area was settled by Bavarians. The homeplace had plenty of rocks. Enough that the classmates of the kids always made some pocket cash for weeks in the spring picking rocks. The neighborhood I grew up in eventually had 4 neighbors with rock mechanical rock pickers on the hillside of the lake. Everybody there knows what a "stone boat" is.
Bob Bancroft
Well-known Member
- Location
- Aurora NY
My recollections---- The early main path nearby was the "Genesee Road"- hence "Genesee St. being the main street in Auburn, and Skaneateles, at least. This was the path west heading for the "Genesee" country/river. Half Acre is a tiny settlement at a four corners just west of Auburn. It used to be a tanking up/partying/setting off point for the big trip west- so it was "He!!'s Half Acre". The path continued west to Cayuga, where a series of wooden toll bridges crossed the shallow north end of Cayuga Lake, lining up with what is now Bayard St. in Seneca Falls.
Indeed, in this Finger lakes area the natives held on until Gen. Washington got tired of them assisting the British, and he sent the Clinton and Sullivan campaign to wipe them out. Loren/ACG is well versed on his part of that campaign.
Indeed, in this Finger lakes area the natives held on until Gen. Washington got tired of them assisting the British, and he sent the Clinton and Sullivan campaign to wipe them out. Loren/ACG is well versed on his part of that campaign.
OK , so the US20 story at least checks out for the western leg of the old road. US20 goes right through Skaneateles and runs within a mile or so of Half Acre. I know Montezuma Swamp was a stumbling block in terms of going west with steep drumlins to the north. The current railroad bed probably is close to where the toll bridges that you describe were. Seneca and Eastern Ontario Counties were fairly flat for a road with the shallow Canandaigua Outlet (for Canandaigua Lake) to cross. It gets steep and hilly going west from Canandaigua with Honeoye Creek to cross. As I understood it the Genesee River was very problematic to cross in the valley due to periodic flooding. A problem finally solved by the Mount Morris Dam in the 1950's.
Don't forget the other canal that opened up a lot of upper NY. The Black River canal. There are several listings of how long it was. Seventy seven miles is pretty close because part was canal and part was river. Had 109 locks and opened up the entire NE region of NY state to logging and agriculture. What is neat is how much of it is still there today. Most is dry but near Boonville and some others are boatable. Almost a 1200 foot climb up and down from Rome to Carthage, NY. Museum at Boonville. It closed down in 1923 or so after almost 100 years of operation. Again there are disputes in the web sights and books. Today we think nothing of going out with a bulldozer and building a road here to there with the snap of our fingers. A CANAL is a kind of little river. It has to be flat and if you need to go up and down hill you need locks. ALL of this stuff was built with mussel power. Google it up.
Catskill Pete
Member
True but the section where I am located in Roxbury was sold very early, great lot 60 something,[can't remember without looking it up], to a group of investors from Connecticut. And they still had a hard time getting settlers here. Also explains why so many of the post Rev. war settlers came from Connecticut.
Hendrik
Member
Large groups of immigrants from The Netherlands in the 1840s and 1850s came from the southwestern part of The Netherlands where the clay dirt is absolutely rock free; any piece of stone or rock that you may find there is NOT of "natural" origin.
I know that many settled in Pella, Iowa (led by Rev. Vanraalte) and also in Holland, Zeeland, Grand Rapids and Lansing in Michigan.
Hendrik, from The Netherlands
I know that many settled in Pella, Iowa (led by Rev. Vanraalte) and also in Holland, Zeeland, Grand Rapids and Lansing in Michigan.
Hendrik, from The Netherlands
(quoted from post at 14:43:41 03/02/16) Don't forget the other canal that opened up a lot of upper NY. The Black River canal. There are several listings of how long it was. Seventy seven miles is pretty close because part was canal and part was river. Had 109 locks and opened up the entire NE region of NY state to logging and agriculture. What is neat is how much of it is still there today. Most is dry but near Boonville and some others are boatable. Almost a 1200 foot climb up and down from Rome to Carthage, NY. Museum at Boonville. It closed down in 1923 or so after almost 100 years of operation. Again there are disputes in the web sights and books. Today we think nothing of going out with a bulldozer and building a road here to there with the snap of our fingers. A CANAL is a kind of little river. It has to be flat and if you need to go up and down hill you need locks. ALL of this stuff was built with mussel power. Google it up.
Theres a documentary out there on the Black River Canal Good stuff. There were other canals, like the Hudson River-Lake Champlain canal, that are still in use today.
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