Madison Co. Looking Back  On 125 Years  Named in Admiration for  Man Who Became Fourth
President of US.

 Developed  Rapidly No White Settler in Tract at End of Revolution;Quakers Came First
Exclusive Dispatch to The Herald Oneida, March 14.
—A century and a quarter  ago, on March 21, 1806. Madison County took its place among the 86 counties of the State of New York, being named for the mar who three years later, was to be the fourth President.
Of the original 10 countIes Albany, Duchess, Kings, New York, Orange, Queen, Richmond. Suffolk,  and Westchester, on March 12. 1772, Albany County parted with enough territory to make ‘Tryon.” It included nearly the whole of the central and western portion of New York State. On Feb. 16, 1791, Herkimer was erected from Tryon—or Montgomery as it was renamed In 1784—and on the same date, Tioga came into being from these two subdivisions, which included a vast extent of territory. Chenango County was erected on March 15. 1798, and from Chenango County came Madison. March 21. 1806. The boundaries of the county remained substantially as originally defined until 1836. when that part of the Stockbrige Valley lying east of Oneida Creek was annexed as a part of Oneida County.
Madison County was named in honor of James Madison, Secretary of State under Jefferson and one of the leading spirits in the drafting of the Federal Constitution.
The admiration for Madison that was to lead him to the Presidency was expressed in New York State then far from Madison’s Virginia home, by giving his name to one of the three counties erected in 1806. Some interesting early data of this section is revealed in ‘Our County and Its People, a Descriptive and (Concluded on Page 3. column 3.)
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Madison Co. Looking Back
On 125 Years Named in Admiration for and Man Who Became Fourth
 President of U.S.
(Continued from Page 1, Section 3.)Biographical Record of Madison  County, written by John E. Smith of and published In 1899. and At the close of the Revolutionary fact War the territory comprised in Madison County was without a permanent white settler. Capt. Daniel Brown, a Quaker of  Stonington, Conn., led the first group  of settlers into the county in 1791,  locating in Brookfield. The first  town meeting in Brookfield was at  Brown’s home, April 7, 1795. Oliver  Babcock built the first mill. The first merchant was Ruben Leonard  at what is now Leonardsville. named after him. He was the first post master. The first doctor was Dr.  S. Bailey of West Greenwich, R. I. The first settlement in Hamilton  was made in the spring of 1792 on  the east branch of the Chenango  River near the site of Earlville by  John Wells, Abner Nash, Patrick W. Shields and John Muir who drove a yoke of oxen, two cows and two  hogs. Cazenovia was settled by  Thoophills Cazenove and John Linckma,  of the Holland Land Company.In the course of the events that for, led to the acquisition of  State lands from the Indians, a treaty  was made at Fort Stanwix, now Rome, Nov. 5, 1766, of the Indian domain was fixed  on a line extending from a point on Wood Creek, near the mouth of Canada creek, to the headwaters of on the Unadilla; down that stream to its mouth, and thence south to the Pennsylvania line. Until after the close  of the Revolutionary war, In 1783,  the territory of Madison County was  a part of the Indian domain lying west of this line. By another treaty, signed at Fort Stanwix on Oct. 22,  the Iroquois ceded to the Federal government lands further to the south of Madison County, and it was  not until 1795 that the Indians finally ceded that territory which now forms  Madison and Chenango counties. The Legislature, on Feb. 25, 1789,  passed an act for the survey of lands  acquired by treaty In 1785, and directed the survey of 20 townships,  each of which was to be 500 chains  square, as near as circumstances  would permit, and subdivided  of four equal sections and into lots of 250 acres each. This survey was completed In 1790. For some reason,  a strip of land was left along what  is now the Onodaga County east line, Then known as the Military Tract. This was dubbed The Gore and now forms a part of Madison County.  Eight of the original 20 townships became parts of Madison County.  These with their names and acreage a were: No. 1, Nelson, 27,187 acres; No.  2, Eaton, 2,245 acres; No. 3, Madison, 24,624 acres; No. 4, Hamilton,  24,400 acres: No. 5, Lebanon, 26,200  acres; No. 6, Georgetown, 24,28 acres; No. 18, Brookfield, 22,565 acres,  and. No. 19, Brookfield, 20,750 acres.‘The Gore’ now forms a part of  Ruyter and Cazerovia. That part of the county lying north of the 20 townships and the Gore was reserved for the Oneida Indians in  the cession of 1788 but a large part  was acquired by the State in 1795. Later purchases, the last which Was  made in 1840, reduced the once  princely domain of the Oneidas to a pitiful small tract and finally they ceded it all. This ceded territory as divided into large tracts of which New Petersburg tract was leased to the Indians in 1794 for a term of 69? years by Peter Smith from whom the track took its name. The lease covered 50,000 acres and included nearly all of the territory of Smithfield and Fenner, that part of Cazenovia, lying north of the Gore, a part of Stockbridge, and a large part of Augusta. Oneida County. In 1797 the State made provision to grant patents and Mr. Smith received his property for something like $2 an acre. The Petersburgh tract was divided into four allotments, the first 74 lots, 55 of which were in Augusta, Oneida County; 14 in Stockbridge, and five In Smithfield. The Canastota tract Included 91 lots in the town of Lenox and extended from Oneida Lake to within a half mile of the Seneca turnpike. The Cowasselon tract was purchased from the State In 1797 by Dr. Enoch Leonard. It comprised 25 lots lying in two tiers in the north part of Fenner between the Chittenango and Gowasselon creeks. From the fact that it was a mile wide it had been called also, the Mile Strip. This was a cession from the Oneida reservation. Migration to this section was rapid. When Madison County was formed there were five original townships: Hamilton, Brookfield, DeRuyter, Sullivan and Cazenovia. Cazenovia was formed from Paris and Whitestown on March 5, 1795; Brookfield was born the same year from Paris, Oneida County; DeRuyter was formed from Cazenovia on March 15, 1798 Sullivan was born from Cazenovla, Feb. 22, 1803; Nelson from Cazenovia, March 13, 1807; Smithfield from Cazenovia, March 13, 1807: part of Fenner from Cazenovia, April  22, 1823, the balance being Smithfield; Hamilton was formed from Paris, March 5, 1795, and from Hamilton was formed Eaton, Feb. 6, 1807; Lebanon, Feb. 6, 1807, and  Madison, Feb. 6. 1807. Sullivan was formed from Casenovia, Feb. 22. 1808, and Lonox was formed from Sullivan, March 8, 1809. DeRuyter was formed from Cazonovia, March 15, 1798, and from DeRuyter  formed Georgetown, April 7, 1815; from Smithfield, Lenox, and the towns of Vernon and Augusta, Oneida County, was formed  Stoekbridge, May 20, 1836, while Oneida and Lincoln were formed from Lenox, March 3, 1809. Early courts were held alternately In the schoolhouse at Hamilton village and the schoolhouse near the home of David Barnard in Sullivan.  As a result of the first general election for Madison County, Erastus  Cleveland of Madison and Sylvanus Smalley of Sullivan were elected  Members of Assembly; their opponents were Jonathan Morgan of  Brookfleld and John W. Buckley of  Hamilton. The first county officers and justices of the peace were  appointed by the then existing Council of appointment and were: First judge, Peter Smith of Peterboro; associate judges, Sylvanus Smalley and David Cook of Sullivan, Edward  Green of Brookfield and Elisha Payne of Hamilton; county clerk, Dr. Asa B. Sizer of Hamilton; sheriff Jeremiah Whipple of Cazenovia; surrogate, Thomas H. Hubbard, Hamilton;  coroner. Jabish N. M. Hurd, Cazenovia. Justices of the peace were: Brookfield. Oliver Brown, Daniel Maine,  Henry Clark, Jr., Jonathan Morgan, Samuel Marsh and Edward Green: Cazenovia, David Tuthill, Samuel S.  Breese, Phineas Southwell, Perry G. Childs, Elisha Williams, Daniel Fettle William Powers and Joshua Hamlin; DeRuyter, Eli Gage, Hubbard Smith and Eleazer Hunt; Hamilton, Joseph Moore, Simeon Gillett Benjamin Pierce, Gen. Erastus  Cleveland, Elisha Payne, Amos Maynard, Russell Barker, George Crane and Winsor Coman, and Sullivan, Gilbert Caswell, Samuel Foster, Walter Beecher, Joseph Frost, Sylvanus Smalley, Peter Smith, David Cook, in William Hallock, James Campton  and Joseph Yaw.  The first board of supervisors of  the county was composed of: Stephen Hoxie, Brookfiold; Lemuel  Kingsbury, Cazenovia; Jeremiah Gage or Case,  Erastus Cleveland.