Sluman Wattles, First Settler - Franklin, NY
Posted by: ripraff
N 42° 19.200 W 075° 11.143
18T E 484696 N 4685323
This is where the home of Sluman Wattles the first Settler in the Town of Franklin, New York was.
Waymark Code: WMV51C
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 02/24/2017
Views: 4
text "This Boulder marks the site of the home of Sluman Wattles the first Settler in the Town of Franklin, New York who built a home here in 1785. One hundred feet south stood the "Treaty Elm" under whose branches he made a treaty with the Indians. Erected in May 1927 by the Au-ly-ou-let chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution of Franklin, New York""
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"The first town meeting was ordered to be held at the house of Sluman Wattles on the first Tuesday in April of the same year. This tract of land was, prior to April 10th, 1792, a part of the town of Harpersfield...The first settler in the Town was Sluman Wattles, who came in the early summer of 1784 to examine, survey and lay out in lots a tract of land, extending from a line near the Susquehanna river, southwardly to the Delaware river, afterward and now called Livingston's patent. It appears that Mr. Wattles had some interest in this patent then, and afterward he was known to be part owner of it. While there at that time he selected a place for himself and built a log cabin; the covering or roof, as well as the floor, was composed of elm bark....The Indians claiming some title to the lands o which Judge Wattles had settled, or to the patent he had surveyed, it became necessary to negotiate with them; and he and they held a council on the banks of the Ouleout near his house, and made a treaty, the preliminaries of which were, that the Indians should have a barrel of rum, and that they should give up their knives and weapons to Mr. Wattles while they held their pow-wow. This meeting was held under the wide-spreading branches of a large elm tree that stood on the bank or edge of the flat, directly in the real of the residence of Mr. Edwin Taylor. Here the treaty was arranged, the rum drunk, they received their pay, and left after having, as they expressed it, "a good time." They are believed to have been a part of the Delaware tribe.
Judge Wattles was also a magistrate at that time, for a large territory, including the present towns of Franklin, Sidney, Masonville and several others; and on the organization of the county of Delaware, in 1797, he held the office of county judge. "