January 6, Military Lots of Central New York

How do you recruit men to join the military in time of war? This question is asked over and over, with many different answers. Today we will look at the answer from the time of the American Revolution. During the 1980s I took a few classes at Cornell University, an employee perk. One of my research papers dealt with this very question of military lots. At that time my research involved many hours of library time searching the various available sources. Today, we can quickly find the answers at such sites as Wikipedia.org and the Cayuga County (NY) website at rootsweb.com.

During the American Revolution the government used the lure of land as a reward. The Federal Government provided for the enlistment of 88 battalions of men to carry on the war for independence. New York’s quota based on population was 4 regiments.

The U.S. Congress offered to officers and soldiers, or their estate, a bounty of 100 acres in the public domain, with officers receiving more in proportion to their rank. Following this lead, and due to financial constraints, New York determined to use lands in the central part of the state to reward soldiers. They offered an additional 500 acres to be added to the 100 offered by the Federal Government, thus creating the Military Tract of Central New York.

The Military Tract of Central New York was about 1.75 million acres of bounty land and extended roughly from Lake Ontario southward to the south end of Seneca Lake and from the east line of present Onondaga County westward to Seneca Lake. The present NY counties of Onondaga, Cortland, Cayuga, and Seneca were included, as were portions of Oswego, Schuyler, Tompkins, Yates and Wayne.

The original towns in the Military Lots were Lysander, Hannibal, Cato, Brutus, Camillus, Cicero, Manlius, Aurelius, Marcellus, Pompey, Romulus, Scipio, Sempronius, Tully, Fabius, Ovid, Milton, Locke, Homer, Solon, Hector, Ulysses, Dryden, Virgil, Cincinnatus, Junius, Galen, Sterling.

The names themselves have been attributed to Robert Harpur, a clerk in the office of Simeon De Witt, New York's Surveyor General. Harpur apparently had an interest in classical literature.

Townships were, as far as geographically feasible, a square, with one-hundred 640-acre lots; 40 acres in each lot were used for boundary roads, leaving 600 acres to be deeded in each lot. Ninety-four lots in each twnship were to be deeded, with the other six reserved for public purposes such as churches and schools. Most of these were noted as “the gospel lots.” Many deeds and legislative items in Central NY have references to the military lot numbers.

 

The square nature of the military lots changed along the lakes. Many of these lake lots were rectangular. Some follow the glens and gores. These lake lots didn’t always follow the lines established by the inland lots in the area.

Reading from the top Lots 73, 74,

 86 (a square lot), 87, 98 (another square lot) and 99 and 100 at Frontenac Point.

For those who enjoy timelines, Wikipedia.org has an abbreviated timeline showing the progress of the dates and events that shaped Central New York’s towns.

March 20, 1781: New York legislature authorizes a military tract as part of law to raise its quota of regiments

 October 19, 1781: Cornwallis surrenders, end of the American Revolution War

July 25, 1782: approximate boundaries (to be surveyed) of original 25 townships established by NY legislature
September 3, 1783: Treaty of Paris: Peace settlement with Great Britain
September 12, 1788: Treaty of Fort Stanwix: Onondaga Indian title to the military tract was extinguished – Onondaga Indian Reservation created
February 25, 1789: Treaty at Albany: Cayuga Indian title to the military tract extinguished – Cayuga Indian Reservation created
1789: Military tract surveyed
July 3, 1790: Names given to the first 25 townships at a meeting of the Commissioners of the Land Office of New York, chairman Governor George Clinton
1791: Lots drawn and assigned to settlers. For more on the actual drawing of lots and who received title to them see The Ballotting Book.

As the year progresses we will be looking especially at the Town of Ovid, as this will be divided into our own Town of Covert, and later as part of the Town of Lodi.

Sources  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_New_York_Military_Tract

 http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nycayuga/land/mtracths.html

Dewitt's Diary: Thursday January 6, 1921 Cold and cloudy today. Went out hunting this morning. Did not get anything. Lem and I drawed the rest of the corn in from the field. Edna sewing today. Took hams out of brine today. Edna and I called on Allens tonight. Basketball game tomorrow night with Orioles of Ithaca. Lem, Charles Doolittle, Wyckoff boys and Fred Blauvelt play on the team. Gathered 8 eggs.