Otsego County, New York

“ The most remarkable and extended revival known in the congregation, or in this town, was enjoyed in the winter and spring of 1875, under the labors of their present pastor, Rev. L. MUZZY. Meetings were continued daily for three months, and were characterized by unusual solemnity, and striking exhibitions of divine power and grace. Over one hundred were hopefully converted. Some fifty were added to the church during that year. Their Sunday-school is at present as well organized and as prosperous as any school in the county.
The SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST church at West Edmeston, N.Y.* * By Rev. ”

“ Dr. Dwight remarks that ‘a new turnpike road is begun from the ferry and intended to join the Great Western road either at Cayuga bridge or Canandaigua. This route will furnish a nearer journey to Niagara than that which is used at present.’ We see from this what were the plans of that day, as to the future central highway of New York State. Of Unadilla Dr. Dwight says:
“‘That township in which we now were is named Unadilla and lies in the county of Otsego. It is composed of rough hills and valleys with a handsome collection of inter [Pg 156] vales along the Susquehanna. ”

“ Be that as it may, the author was brought an infant into this valley, and all his first impressions were here obtained. He has inhabited it ever since, at intervals; and he thinks he can answer for the faithfulness of the picture he has drawn. Otsego has now become one of the most populous districts of New York. It sends forth its emigrants like any other old region, and it is pregnant with industry and enterprise. ”

“ He favoured canvassing Tioga's vote, therefore, although it was doubtful if a deputy sheriff could deputise a deputy, while the vote of Clinton should be canvassed because a sheriff may deputise by parol. As to Otsego, on which the election really turned, King held that Smith was sheriff until a successor qualified, if not in law, then in fact; and though such acts of a de facto officer as are voluntarily and exclusively beneficial to himself are void, those are valid that tend to the public utility. ”

“ To keep the work, so far as possible, out of politics required much ingenuity and persistence on the part of those who were actuated by the most public-spirited motives. It was not possible to wholly eliminate politics and self-seeking. An act of the Legislature in 1859 provided that New York city should be represented by its Mayor, comptroller, and [154] president of the Board of Aldermen, and Brooklyn by the commissioners of the sinking fund. The company was authorized to occupy land under water on each shore to the distance of 250 feet. ”

“ The position of Kings County, while actually close to the rapidly growing city on Manhattan Island, was relatively so much aloof in many of its interests from that storm centre of colonial activity in the middle colonies, that it was natural, perhaps, that there should be less enthusiasm over the independent cause than in New York itself, or than in certain other regions less sequestered geographically and by local condition. ”

“ This evil is happily avoided when a natural boundary circumscribes administration within narrow limits. While, therefore, we rejoice together at the new bond between New York and Brooklyn, we ought to rejoice the more that it destroys none of the conditions which permit each city to govern itself, but rather urges them to a generous rivalry in perfecting each its own government, recognizing the truth that there is no true liberty without law, and that eternal vigilance, which is the only safeguard of liberty, can best be exercised within limited areas. ”

“ It lies among those low spurs of the Alleghanies which cover the midland counties of New York, and it is a little east of a meridional line drawn through the centre of the State. As the waters of New York flow either southerly into the Atlantic or northerly into Ontario and its outlet, Otsego Lake, being the source of the Susquehanna, is of necessity among its highest lands. The face of the country, the climate as it was found by the whites, and the manners of the settlers, are described with a minuteness for which the author has no other apology than the force of his own recollections. ”

“ Experiments without number have been tried, and suggestions in infinite variety have been offered, but to-day no man can say that we have approached any nearer to the idea of good government which is demanded by the intelligence and the wants of the community.
"If, therefore, New York has not yet learned to govern itself, how can it be expected to be better governed by adding half a million to its population, and a great territory to its area, unless it be with the idea that a 'little leaven leaveneth the whole lump'? Is Brooklyn that leaven? ”

“ By the act of the Legislature passed in April, 1854, all that part of the county of Kings known as the cities of Brooklyn and Williamsburgh and the town of Bushwick, and bounded easterly by the town of Newtown, Queens County, south by the towns of New Lots, Flatbush, and New Utrecht, west by the town of New Utrecht and the Bay of New York, and north by the East River, was consolidated into one municipal corporation called the city of Brooklyn, and divided into eighteen wards, therein described, and into the eastern and western districts. ”

“ The New York State Branch now has twelve sub-divisions. Since the April number of the Bulletin, four new sub-divisions have been organized, namely: Chautauqua County, Columbia County, Duchess County and New York County. It is probable that organization will be effected soon in Chemung, Oswego and St. Lawrence Counties. Work is now progressing and organization is under consideration in seven other Counties, namely: Broome, Greene, Orange, Nassau, Suffolk, Tompkins and Jefferson. ”

“ When Brooklyn sought to erect itself into a city, New York met the proposition with the same spirit of unwillingness to recognize in the sister town any right to individual existence. Every step that Brooklyn took toward securing municipal rights was hampered by the opposition of New York politicians. Brooklyn became a city in 1834, in spite of New York's opposition. New York retired from the fight with its fraudulent ownership of the river and the "ferry rights," by which it was and still is able to levy a continuous tax upon Brooklyn. ”

“ Odell, and was born August 21, 1856. After finishing his studies he engaged with his father in the conduct of a large ice business. In 1886 he was elected a director and superintendent of the Muchattoes Lake Ice Co. In 1891 he was appointed superintendent of the Newburgh Electric Light, Heat and Power Co. From 1880 to 1882 he was under sheriff of the county, in charge of the Goshen court-house, his father then being sheriff. He received his present appointment March 1, 1900, and was reappointed by President Roosevelt in 1904 and again in 1908. Mr. Odell married Miss Edith Booth, of Kingston. ”

“ At a meeting held on the 5th of May, a committee of one hundred of the first and foremost citizens of New York and Kings County was chosen to administer affairs during the political crisis. This committee was composed of such men as John Jay, the brave Welshman Francis Lewis, whose bold signature was appended to the Declaration of Independence, and who for many years resided and owned property in Brooklyn; Philip Livingston, [208] the fearless; James Duane and John Alsop, who were members of the Colonial Congress of September, 1774, which met in Philadelphia ”

“ The latter served as an officer of the militia, was justice of the peace in his native town, judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Orange County, was elected member of the New York State Assembly in 1835, and again in 1839 and 1840, and was State senator from 1841-1847 and State comptroller in 1860 and 1861. He was very active and energetic in his endeavors to maintain the Union during the War of the Rebellion, and was chairman of the military commission in the Orange and Sullivan Counties district. He had five sons, William Scott, James Otis, Robert, Henry Martyn, Augustus, and six daughters. ”

“ In 1697, a mob of Kings County people, who resented the spirit of the English Government, assembled, "armed, at the Court House [154] of Kings County, where they destroyed and defaced the King's arms which were hanging up there." Among those who so convened were the familiar names of John Rapalje, Jacob Ryerse, Garrett Cowenhoven, Jacob Bennett, and John Meserole, Jr.
In November, 1697, negroes were not allowed to be brought from New York on the Sabbath unless they were provided with passes. ”

“ Early in January, 1776, the Continental Congress had passed a resolution, "that it be recommended to the Committee of Safety of the Province of New York to appoint proper persons to inquire into the propriety and practicability of obstructing or lessening the depth of the water in the Narrows, or at any other place at the entrance of New York, or of any way of fortifying that pass so as to prevent the entrance of the enemy." ”

“ A returning board, it was claimed, had overturned the will of the people; and to the superheated excitement of the campaign, was added the fierce anger of an outraged party. Wild menaces were uttered, and the citizens of Otsego threatened an appeal to arms. "People are running in continually," wrote Mrs. Jay to her husband, "to vent their vexation. Senator King says he thinks Clinton as lawfully governor of Connecticut as of New York, but he knows of no redress." [65] Hamilton agreed with King, and counselled peaceful submission. ”

“ What the state government actually does when it regulates or supervises is to hold up the county official to standards of performance. This is the proper work of officers or boards in the administrative branch. It relates not to what the county shall do as a matter of broad policy, but how the county shall redeem its obligation in matters of routine, detail and technique. The state agency may have only the power to “visit and inspect,” like the New York State Board of Charities, or it may, like the Comptroller of the same state, actually impose forms of procedure. ”

“ Under his editorial management the Freeman's Journal became a strong political organ, and exercised an influence that made Otsego one of the stanchest Democratic counties in the State of New York. Col. Prentiss represented his district in Congress during the four years of Van Buren's administration, having been reelected at the expiration of his first term. It was at this time that his next door neighbor, William Holt Averell, was a candidate for Congress on the Whig ticket. ”

“ When it is considered that once in every generation the entire wealth of the county, including vast fortunes amassed elsewhere by those who die residing in it, is administered upon in this court and that nearly all the intricate and perplexing questions involved in its distribution are passed upon by the surrogate, it will readily be seen that the duties and responsibilities of this office are among the most important, extensive and onerous that can devolve upon judicial officers. ”

“ A member of the city commission in Jersey City has recently caused to be passed in the legislature a bill providing for a vote on consolidation of municipalities in Hudson County on a sort of borough plan. In Cincinnati the question of consolidation of the city with Hamilton County was recently opened, apparently for the first time, in newspaper discussions. In the 1916 New York legislature there was under discussion a bill extending control of the board of estimate and apportionment in New York City over the employees of the five counties within the city. ”

“ His place has been preëmpted by the hanger-on and the wire-puller to whom charity means the dispensing of favors to “deserving” workers of all political faiths. In this sense the county is a very humane institution, and a very open-handed one. It serves well such local officials as the overseer of the poor in an up-state New York county who presented this remarkable annual report to his superior ”

“ The superior powers of the state commission over the localities in these respects are emphatically not a destructive check upon the county’s officers. They do not detract from local responsibility. They simply enable [Pg 127] them to apply to their work the most effective means available.
In New York the state civil service commission regulates the service in eighteen counties. In New Jersey the adoption of the civil service law involving state control rests with the people of each county. ”

“ Mr. O'Connor employs forty men at his factory.
HON. BENJAMIN B. ODELL—In reviewing the life of this venerable and distinguished citizen of Newburgh, a few words regarding his ancestry will not be amiss. The family is of French and English descent, but has been represented in America for many generations. His grandfather, William Odell, was born in New York City, and there for some years he was proprietor of the Bull's Head Tavern. In 1835 he moved to Orleans County, N. Y., where he bought a tract of land and with the assistance of his two sons improved a valuable farm. ”

“ The Assembly and the citizens were destined to be severely punished for the bravery they displayed in the defense of their rights. The action of the Assembly resulted in the total suspension of legislative prerogatives, and deprived the people of their representation in the government of the colony. The neighboring colonies also sent petitions on the subject to Parliament. These were received because they were couched in feebler language, and after consideration were rejected. To the credit of New York it must be said that she presented her objections in a bold and fearless manner. ”