Pioneer Days and the Creation of the Town of Newfield
By Alan Chaffee and Charley Githler
Newfield’s bicentennial is an occasion to reflect on Newfield’s past. What was it like here 200 years ago? Let’s look at what led up to the creation of the township in February, 1811 and the twenty years that followed. Naturally, the history of Newfield predates European settlement. The Cayuga, who were the main inhabitants of what is now Tompkins County from around 1400 AD, did not use the land in the area of present-day Newfield heavily. They had semi-permanent dwellings placed near freshwater sources but this area was, at most, lightly-used, primarily as a hunting ground. By the 1770s, the Cayuga had allowed a small, adopted (and former enemy) tribe, the Sapo nis, to settle in the area known as “Poney Hollow” (after the Saponi name), which is the valley Route 13 passes through in the southwestern-most part of town. The Cayuga lived in the region until the Revolutionary War, when General John Sullivan was sent by George Washington to clear the Seneca and Cayuga Indians and their Tory allies from the Finger Lakes area. In the autumn of 1779, Sullivan and a 3500-man army carried out a scorched-earth campaign, methodically destroying at least forty Iroquois villages throughout the Finger Lakes, and effectively driving the natives out forever. The Cayuga formally ceded their claim to the land in the Treaty of Canandaigua in 1794.
What followed, after the war, was a period of lively land speculation in west ern New York. In 1794, John Watkins and Royal Flint, representing them selves and seven other fellow-speculators from Connecticut and the New York City area, received from New York State a patent for land south of the Military Tract which had been set aside for use as payment to Revolutionary War sol diers. This became known as the Watkins & Flint Purchase. The patent con sisted of 336,000 acres in twelve townships, at $.40 an acre, and included the area that is now Newfield in parts of Townships 6 and 7. What would later become Newfield village was part of the Thomas Livingston purchase from Watkins-Flint. Of those early partners, only two became residents in the ar ea: John Watkins (Watkins Glen) and Jonathan Lawrence (Catharine).
Land in the area typically sold for $3.00 to $4.00 an acre, paid in equal install ments over a number (usually four) of years. The deed would not be record ed until the price was paid in full. In those early years, cash was hard to come by and the economy was based on barter. Very often, the purchaser would fail to make his payments and would forfeit the money already paid and title to the land and the improvements would revert to the seller. In fact, only four such sales were officially recorded before 1814.
The first European settlers, including many Revolutionary War veterans, who began to arrive around 1800, referred to the area as "Dark Forest" because the forest was so dense that only small traces of light penetrated through the forest canopy. Though the new settlers had considerable hunting experience and knew what the forest could provide, they were almost all farmers, and therefore the area was, in time, almost entirely cleared for use as farmland. The timber that was not used for carpentry was burned, becoming a valuable by-product known as potash. This process continued until almost the entire land was converted from dense forest to open fields. All that had yet to hap pen in 1811, though, and at that time Newfield was still densely covered with virgin, old-growth forest, mostly hemlock and white pine.
The first settler was James Thomas in Poney Hollow in about 1800. About the same time, though he remained a resident of Ithaca, Eliakim Dean purchased what is now the village site on the West Branch of Cayuga Inlet. He was the founder of the present Newfield village on the site of an Indian village named “Three Springs” (near the corner of Main Street and Shaffer Road). The Deans were investors from Ithaca, and their settlement was called “Florence”.
The upper grist mill - ene of several mills in Newfield. (Photo courtesy of the Archives Alive)
A mill was constructed behind where the town hall is presently located, and another mill at the intersection of Mill Street and Depot Road. In the first decade, a saw mill (1809) and then a grist mill (1811) were erect ed along the stream. The walls that can be seen today behind the town hall were from mills that were constructed somewhat later – probably around 1830. There was also a tavern established and operated by Jeremiah Hall in 1810. There was no bridge until 1812 and the roads were little better than improved Indian trails. As a result, agricultural activity in the township was mostly subsistence farming. Generally, settlers at the lower altitudes had better land and a longer growing season than those in the hills. There was no easy way at that time to transport products (or people) to other places. Life was quite different in those early years. Mail was carried between Ithaca and Elmira once a week on horseback, weather permitting. Most of the structures were made of logs. Perhaps the biggest threats to livestock were the numerous wolves. Bears were common, too. One of the first settlers told of having killed a panther “nine feet long from tip to tip”, whose skin was tanned and made into shoes.
There was a log schoolhouse, but no churches, and residents had to rely on infrequent visits by circuit preachers, who held services in schools, barns and homes. As time went on and more schools were built, they were more fre quently favored for church services. Very often, as a result, cemeteries would be established adjacent to schoolhouses. The schools have disap peared, but the cemeteries remain. These pioneers lived a rough, dangerous and demanding life. They had to be farmers, hunters, trappers, skilled carpenters, and skillful with weapons, es pecially the musket. Often, women did much heavy farm work, raised the children, cooked, spun yarn, and wove cloth. There were no local doctors, so medical care had to be improvised. A serious illness or injury often meant death. They built their own homes (often helping one another in the hard work), grew and hunted their own food, made their own yarn and cloth, bul lets, candles, medicines, shoes, and other necessities.
An undated photo of the Newfield Covered Bridge. A skating rink is on the left and a blacksmith shop to the right. (Photo courtesy of Archives Alive)
Harvey Linderman, one of the early settlers (and an ancestor of the author) relates the following tale: “ I was fortunate enough to make a bargain with a land agent, Mr. Beebe, for eighty acres of land. The next Monday I started for the woods taking my axe, one bedquilt, my knapsack containing two loaves of bread and a piece of pork. About 11 o’clock I arrived at the scene of my future labors, and without waiting a moment commenced work. By night I had nearly completed an eight by ten log cabin. I spent my first night under its roof upon a bed of hemlock boughs. In five weeks more I had cut all the timber and bushes on five acres of land ready for logging. I worked for a friend long enough to pay for necessary team work and for seed wheat. My wheat was sowed and in due time harvested, yielding me more than twenty-five bushels per acre.”
A childhood reminiscence by Linderman illustrates the difficulties involved in making flour for bread: “Our hardest trial was to get bread…as we had no barn we threshed the grain on a little threshing floor prepared for that purpose. Then the chaff was fanned out with a small board fan that my father had made. Then it was carried to the house, placed in a kettle, slung on a pole, a fire built under it and carefully watched and stirred until dry enough to grind. Then a boy, a bag of wheat and a horse would be dispatched to Ithaca to mill. When the grist came home mother would spread a cloth over the crossed legged table and with a hair sieve sift the kernels out of the bran, mix them with flour, while the bran would be made into mush for supper. Although our flour was not ground by the ‘new process’ it made good, healthy bread. Children would thrive upon it and it would give to the men and women strength to perform the heavy labors required of them.”
Work was from dawn to dusk, and even at night when the moon was full. This was a culture with no social strata. Everyone, including children, was involved in the same struggle to survive. These were also people that were close to the land. Nearly everything that was needed to survive came from the land and the farm, and they were very aware of ‘place’ – the place where they were born, married, died. They were intensely aware of which parts of the land were wet in spring, or were good for certain crops.
Circa 1870, looking toward the covered bridge with Bank St. in the background. (Photo courtesy of the Archives Alive)
Still, the community was starting to grow. In 1810, there were approximately 70 homes housing 400 residents. By 1814, the assessor’s list enumerated 976 inhabitants in the township, and by 1820 that number exceeded 2200! In recognition of its growing population and identity the township was created - the new boundaries carved out of Spencer as a new township called Cayuta in Tioga County by an act passed on February 22nd, 1811. (It was later annexed to Tompkins County , and its name changed to Newfield in 1822.) The first town meeting was held at the home of John Stubbs on March 5th and 6th, 1811 and citizens were elected to fill the offices of constable, assessors, overseers of the poor, commissioners of highways and overseers of highways.
So, as The Town of Newfield has seen may changes since its creation 200 years ago, probably the biggest transformation came in those first couple of decades, as the first settlers moved in and cleared the forest for farming.
World War I parade on Main St. on September 3, 1917. Photo courtesy of Archives Alive
The Newfield Hotel was built after the 1875 fire. Teddy Roosevelt gave a speech from the balcony on October 24, 1910. (Photo courtesy of Archives Alive)