&c. The maple is very abundant, and yields large quantities of sugar.

The soil of the uplands is better adapted to grass than grain, but the valleys yield abundantly the various grains, peas, beans and hops.

PURSUITS. The people of the county are mostly devoted to agriculture; attention being paid to grazing in the uplands, and to the growing of grain in the more fertile valleys. Manufactures are also increasing in importance. lumber, cloth, iron and leather, are the principal articles.

Flour,

The opening of a navigable communication between the Hudson and Susquehanna, through the Seneca Lake and Erie canal, by means of the Chemung canal, has opened a market to the inhabitants of Chemung county, and been productive of extensive inland commerce.

The Corning and Blossburg railroad, which pours a portion of the mineral wealth of Pennsylvania into New York, has also been of great advantage to the county.

STAPLE PRODUCTIONS. Oats, wheat, corn, buckwheat, butter, and cheese.

SCHOOLS. There are in the county 128 schools, maintained during the year 1846, an average period of seven months, affording instruction to 7962 children, at an expense for tuition of $10,336. The district libraries contained 12,197 volumes.

There were in the county, the same year, twenty-four unincorporated private schools, with 283 scholars, and one academy and one female seminary, with 134 pupils.

RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, Episcopalians, and Friends. There are twenty-six churches, and forty-one clergymen, of all denominations.

HISTORY. The first white settlers in this county located in Elmira, Southport and Big Flats, between 1786 and 1792, having become acquainted with the country while engaged in General Sullivan's expedition, in 1779. They were mostly from Pennsylvania, and from Orange county in this state. Catlin, Catharines, and Veteran, were settled soon after, by emigrants from Connecticut; Erin by Dutch and Scotch emigrants from New Jersey and Delaware county; and Chemung by emigrants from Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. During General Sullivan's campaign in 1779, of which we have spoken in the historical sketch of the state, he encountered the enemy's force, consisting of somewhat more than 1000 Indians and tories, under Brant and Colonels Butler and Johnson, at Elmira, in this county. The battle which ensued, called "the battle of the Chemung," was a severe and bloody one. It terminated in the defeat of the enemy, and the destruction of their towns. The land in this

county was sold to the settlers, in 1788, at eighteen cents per

acre.

VILLAGES, &C. ELMIRA, the county seat, is admirably situated for the purposes of trade, being in the midst of a fertile valley of considerable extent, and connected with Pennsylvania and Maryland, by means of the Susquehanna river, and with almost every part of New York, by the Chemung canal. It is also on the route of the New York and Erie railroad, and from its commercial facilities, must eventually become a place of considerable importance. The first settler in the town was Colonel John Hendy, a veteran who had served under General Sullivan. He united, in a remarkable degree, extraordinary courage and great physical power, and in his conflicts with the Indians, often exhibited both. Population, 3200.

In 1790, a treaty was negotiated at this place between the Indian tribes and the United States. Over 1000 Indians were present, and among them most of the principal chiefs. In 1797, Elmira was visited by Louis Phillippe, the present king of the French, accompanied by the Duke de Nemours, and the Duke de Berri. They had travelled on foot from Canandaigua to Elmira, a distance of seventy miles. Mr. Tower, whom they visited, fitted up an ark or flat boat, on board which he conveyed them to Harrisburg.

The village has an incorporated academy and female seminary, both in a prosperous condition. There is also a mechanics' association, which has a commodious hall and a public library.

It is largely engaged in the manufacture and exportation of lumber, ten million feet of marketable planks and boards being exported annually.

Chemung, the earliest organized town in the county, has a hilly and broken surface, but much of it is fertile. In the south part of the town, is a mound called "Spanish hill," which but for its extent might be considered a work of art. It is elevated 110 feet above and near the river's brink, and has upon its summit vestiges of fortifications which display much skill and judgment. The entrenchments are regular and command the bed of the river. By whom they were constructed is unknown.

Catharines, one of the early settled towns, was named after Catharine Montour, the wife of an Indian sachem. This extraordinary woman was a native of Canada, a half breed, and had been carried into the Seneca country when only ten years of age, and adopted by one of its families. She possessed a good address and had great influence with her tribe, frequently accompanying the chiefs to Philadelphia and other places where treaties were made. Her town, consisting of thirty houses and

farms in a high state of cultivation, was destroyed by General Sullivan, in 1779.

Havana, in the town of Catharines, is a thriving village on the Chemung canal. It has some manufactures. Population, 1000.

Fairport, formerly called Horseheads, from the fact that General Sullivan here killed some seventy or eighty of his pack horses, to prevent their falling into the hand of the Indians, is a thriving village in the town of Elmira. It is considerably engaged in the lumber trade. Population, 600.

Millport, in the town of Veteran, is a village of some importance. It has a fine hydraulic power. Population, 500.

1. Broadalbin, 1793.

2. Mayfield, 1793.

3. Johnstown, 1798.

4. Northampton, 1801.

5. Stratford, 1805.

TOWNS.

6. Oppenheim, 1808.
7. Ephrata, 1827.

8. Bleeker, 1831.

9. Perth, 1838.

10. Garoga, 1843.

Mountains. EE. Kayaderosseras. JJ. Au Sable range. k. May.

field mountain. 1. Klip Hill.

Rivers.

a. Sacandaga. c. Cayaduta or Little Canada Creek. f. Fish. h. East Canada. i. Garoga.

Lakes. m. Fish Lake. n. Garoga Lakes.

Villages. JOHNSTOWN. Kingsborough.

BOUNDARIES. North by Hamilton county; East by Saratoga county; South by Montgomery county, and West by Herkimer county.

SURFACE. Mountainous. The Kayaderosseras and Au Sable ranges traverse the county. Mayfield mountain and Klip hill are local names given to spurs of these ranges.

RIVERS. On the east the county is drained by Sacandaga river and its branches, West Stoney and Mayfield creeks. On the south by Chuctenunda, Cayaduta, Garoga and Zimmerman's creeks, all flowing into the Mohawk, and on the west by East Canada Creek and its tributaries, Ayres, Fish and Sprite Creeks.

LAKES. Fish Lake and the Garoga Lakes are the only considerable sheets of water in the county.

CLIMATE. Healthful, but from the elevation of much of the surface, cool.

Geology and MINERALS. The rocks of the northern part of the county are primitive, consisting of gneiss, in some of its forms. As we approach nearer the Mohawk, the calciferous or earlier limestone makes its appearance, particularly in the eastern part of the county. In Mayfield, the limestone denominated by Geologists, birdseye, is found, and on the southern limits of the county, the Trenton limestone.

The county does not appear to be rich in minerals. Mica, garnet, green feldspar, and porphyritic gneiss, are the principal yet discovered. Quartz, in fine transparent crystals, occurs in the southern part of the county.

SOIL AND VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS. The soil of the southern portion of the county is rich and fertile, and well adapted to grain. Oak, hickory, ash, maple, &c. are the principal forest trees. In the northern part of the county the hemlock and oak are found, and the land is less fertile.

PURSUITS. Agriculture is the pursuit of a majority of the inhabitants. In the southern towns a considerable quantity of grain is raised; in the northern, more attention is paid to the rearing of cattle, sheep and swine, and to the products of the dairy.

Manufactures also form an important pursuit in the county, and are annually increasing in value. The principal articles of manufacture are leather, (for which the hemlock forests of the

northern portion afford great facilities,) buckskin gloves and mittens, which are made here in larger quantities than any where else in the United States; flour, lumber and paper.

There is no commerce from the want of navigable streams. There are no mines.

THE STAPLE PRODUCTIONS are butter, cheese, wool, oats, rye, flax, potatoes and corn.

SCHOOLS. There are 105 public schools in the county. The average number of months during which schools are maintained is seven. The expenses of public school instruction in 1846, were $7168, and the number of scholars 5593. The district libraries contained 11,292 volumes. Three private schools had nineteen pupils, and two academies eighty-five scholars.

RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, Dutch Reformed, Unitarians, Episcopalians and Universalists. There are in the county thirty-two churches, and twenty-nine clergy men, of all denominations.

HISTORY. The first settlements in this county, appear to have been made by German emigrants, in 1724, at Oppenheim and Ephrata. The settlements about Johnstown were made between 1760 and 1770, through the influence of Sir William Johnson and his family. In 1764 or 1765, Sir William erected the residence known as Johnson Hall, one mile west of the village of Johnstown, and resided there till his death. A sketch of his life has already been given, under Montgomery county. The possessions of the baronet in this, as well as in Montgomery county, were confiscated after the revolution, and sold.

On Sunday, the 21st of May, 1780, Sir John Johnson made an incursion into Johnstown, and burned thirty-three houses, killed eleven persons and wounded a number more. Colonel Visscher, one of those who were wounded, was scalped and left for dead, but finally recovered.

In October, 1781, the battle of Johnstown was fought, on the Hall Farm, in Johnstown.

A body of tories and Indians, about 700 in number, under the command of the inhuman Ross and Walter Butler, had made a descent upon the valley of the Mohawk, to plunder and butcher its inhabitants. They had proceeded thus far; marking their course with fire and blood, when Colonel Marinus Willet, with a body of Mohawk valley troops, attacked them, and after a severe action compelled them to retreat. They were closely pursued, and it was during their flight, that the infamous Butler met with the fate he so justly merited, at the hand of an Oneida Indian.* The loss of the Americans, in this conflict, was about

It is related that when Butler was wounded, and the Oneida Indian who had shot him, rushed upon him, tomahawk in hand, the wretch, who had never shown