OTSEGO COUNTY.    531

The first settlement in this co. was made at Cherry Yalley, in 1740, by John Lindesay, who, with
3 others, held a patent for a tract of 8,000 acres lying in that town.¹ Mr. Lindesay was a Scotch
gentleman of some fortune and distinction, and, by his influence, induced a settlement on his lands
of several families, comprising about 30 persons, originally from Scotland and Ireland. A few
years later, small settlements were made in the present towns of Springfield, Middlefield, Laurens,
Otego, and at other points in the valley of the Susquehanna. These settlements then formed the
extreme outposts in the advance of civilization west. They increased very slowly, in consequence
of the fear of Indian hostilities. In 1765^ 25 years after the first settlement, but 40 families had
located at Cherry Yalley. At the commencement of the Revolution it was still a frontier settle¬
ment. On the 11th of Oct. 1778, it was attacked by the tories and Indians, under the lead of
Butler and Brant, and a horrible massacre ensued. The family of Robert Wells, father of the late
John Wells of New York, consisting of 12 persons, were brutally murdered; and one of the tories
boasted that he killed Mr. Wells while at prayer. John Wells, the only member of the family who
escaped, was at school in Schenectady at the time. The wife and daughter of Mr. Dunlop, Mrs.
Dickson, and the wife and 4 children of Mr. Mitchell were murdered in cold blood. Thirty-two of
the inhabitants, mostly women and children, and 16 Continental officers and soldiers, were killed;
the residue of the inhabitants were taken prisoners and carried off, and all the buildings in the
place were burned. All the frontier settlements were ravaged, and nearly every building, except
those belonging to tories, was burned. These horrible outrages aroused the whole country, and in
1779 Gen. Sullivan, at the head of a large body of troops, was sent against the Western tribes. In
Feb. Gen. Clinton, with a force of 1,200 men, marched up the Mohawk, and thence opened a road
to Otsego Lake, a distance of 20 mi. At the foot of the lake he halted and built a dam across the
outlet, and prepared boats to descend the stream. When the lake was sufficiently high, the boats
were launched, the dam was broken down, and the army descended the river on the flood thus pro¬
duced. The Indians upon the banks, witnessing the extraordinary rise of the river at midsummer
without any apparent cause, were struck with superstitious dread, and in the very outset were
disheartened at the apparent interposition of the Great Spirit in favor of their foes. Gen. Clinton’s
forces joined Sullivan on the Chemung. At the close of the war, settlements progressed with'
great rapidity; and much of the best land in the co. was taken up before the fertile lands in the
western part of the State were opened to immigration.

BURIilSlCrTOHr—was formed from Otsego, April 10, 1792. Pittsfield was taken off in 1797,
and Edmeston in 1808. It is an interior town, lying n. w. of the center of the co. Its surface is
a hilly upland, divided into 3 general ridges extending n. and s. These ridges are about 400 ft.
above the valleys, and are arable to their summits. The streams are Butternut Creek, flowing s.
through the center, and Wharton Creek, flowing s. w. through the w. part. The soil upon the
hills is a slaty loam, in many places underlaid by hardpan, and in the valleys a gravelly loam.