OLD LAND CONTRACTS.
The Methods of Paying for Farms in the Days of Settlement.
The Pulteney Purchase Lands in Western New York in
1792, were sold to settlers outright when first laid out into farms, and
in case they were unable to pay down the entire price, a mortgage was executed
for the balance due. It was found that this mode was not altogether satisfactory,
so instead of a deed and mortgage, a contract of purchase was resorted
to and found to work well for all concerned This contract of sale was known
in local parlance as an "article" and the improvements under its conditions
were known as "betterment's." One of these contracts was executed on the
1st day January, 1826, and made by and between David Cathcart, commonly
called Lord Alloway and Masterton, then trustees under the will of Sir
John Lowther Johnson, the heir of Henrietta Laura Pulteney, by their attorney,
Dugald Cameron of the first parts and Benjamin Wygant of the second
part, by which the first parties sell to those of the second part, a parcel
of land in the town of Urbana. It does not appear that any
money was paid down. The purchaser was to enter upon the land and to clear
and fence five acres each year. He was not permitted to assign his contract
without the consent of his agent or cut any more timber than as necessary
for fire wood and improvements, Dugald Cameron was to warrant
the title. This clause was a portion of the contract “It is
agreed that clean, merchantable winter wheat, delivered at the head
of Crooked Lake as the above respective payments become due will be accepted
in payments at one dollar per bushel." This wheat became legal tender
for the payment of the Pultney lands in the county. Consequently fixed
the price of wheat at one dollar per bushel. There no banks, nor any money
in the country . There were no banks nor money to loan. Settlers
who brought money with them, usually paid it to the land office for their
lands, and it was sent to the English proprietors. The. chief staples were
wheat and lumber. There was no means of transportation except by the Susquehanna
River to Baltimore, the only accessible market, and that was only available
during the spring reshets. The farmers generally would not raise to exceed
four or five hundred bushels besides what was necessary for family use.
The capacity of the arks in which the grain was transported, was some twelve
to fifteen hundred bushels. The ordinary produced was, therefore, not able
to market it for himself; he must needs dispose of it to one in the produce
business. The merchants would take it in exchange for goods, but
would pay no moneys The land office in the course of the winter; would
receive at their warehouse in different parts of the country, a large quantity,
which would be shipped to Baltimore in the spring.
The days of settlement were strenuous ones, even to
the men of iron frames who carved their homes in the wilderness The
pioneer was an athlete of endurance, who could swing his ax all day long;
who could roll the logs for his cabin; who would grub the ground
and sow and reap the grain, and then flail it out during the winter days.
Wheat was golden in. olden times,, in its cost and in its value,
and the winnowed bushels never fell below the price of a dollar as
a payment upon lands: To carry this wheat to the waiting ark for
water transportation to market, ox teams drew sleds over rough roadways
that a modern vehicle could hardly travel. The streams were fords or rude
log bridges, and in the roadbed were stones and snags with, here
and there a meeting place within the woodlands. A settler's oxen were among
his most valued possessions. It as a fact that one of the pioneers of Reading,
who held his land by an ‘article” was told-by the owner of the title who
lived in Owego, that if he would: turn over his young oxen to balance due
on the land he would receive therefor a free clear deed of title.
He thought too much of his oxen to part with them, and the result
following a partial failure of his next crops, was that he lost his “betterment's,”
and was forced to report unimproved lands in the back portion of the town,
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