One could ask, “Which came first,
the Town of Covert or Tompkins County?” Actually, they arrived at the same
time.
As the New York State Legislature
was working to create Tompkins County, they removed 50 military lots from the
Town of Ovid in Seneca County and added it to the lands from other counties
being used to create that new county.
April 7, 1817, Chapter CLXXXIX,
an act to divide the counties of Seneca and Cayuga and erect the Town of Covert
was passed. Click here to read the whole act.
The original Town of Covert
occupied the military lots between Cayuga and Seneca Lake, with the boundary
being approximately equal to the current Route 96A from Interlaken to Lodi, and
extending along the lot lines to the lakes.
Similar to the legislation that
took the western half of Covert and made it the Town of Lodi (see January 27,
1826), there were directives for new town meetings.
And be it further enacted, … shall be a separate town by the
name of Covert, and the first town meeting shall be held on the 15th day of
April, in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventeen, at the house of
Chauncey Pratt, in said town…”
They also made provision for the
supervisors and overseers of the poor to meet in May to divide the funds to
support those in need.
The proposal was not without
opposition. At the Annual Meeting of the Town of Ovid held the week previous,
it was "voted there be no division of the Town of Ovid.” [Town of
Ovid Minutes April,1817].
Fast forward to April 13, 1819,
when the Town of Covert was returned to Seneca County. Chapter CXC of the Laws
of 1819, passed by the State Legislature on April 13, 1819, viz: "Be it
enacted by the people of the State of New-York, represented in Senate and
Assembly, That the town of Covert, now in the county of Tompkins, shall be
and the same is hereby annexed to and made a part of the county of Seneca.”
And as lawyers and legislatures
are want to do, they did allow judicial proceedings to continue where they
started, i.e. in Tompkins County. If you live in or have relatives who lived in
Covert between 1817 and 1819 be sure your searches include a stop at the
courthouse in Ithaca.
Of course, if your relatives
lived between Route 96A and the current northern border of the Town of Covert,
it wasn’t until 1843 that they changed residency.
To better help you visualize the
situation, if you attended church or a meeting at the First Baptist Church on
the corner of West Ave and Main Street you were in Covert; if you were
discussing something with a merchant at the American Hotel (now the Farmers’
Museum, Railroad Ave at Main Street) you were in the Town of Ovid.
At the Annual Meeting of the Town
of Ovid held in Farmer Village on April 5, 1842, the matter of division was
presented and read at the meeting, a copy of which follows, viz: “Notice is
hereby given that application will be made to the Legislature of the State of
New-York at its present or next session for the purpose of annexing Lot No's.
34, 40, 41 and 42 in the Town of Ovid to the Town of Covert. Dated: Ovid, March
18, 1842. SIGNED: Lockwood Hinman, Ira Almy, Abram Rappleye, John Kennedy and
Selah Squires.” The Town Meeting voted “unanimously against the alteration as
proposed in the above notice.” An appeal was presented to the State Legislature
the following year, by which the request of the petitioners was granted and the
lots annexed, viz: PASSED MARCH 30, 1843. The People of the State of New
York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows - 1. The
Military Lots…shall be annexed to and form a part of the Town of Covert in said
county, and 2. This act shall take effect immediately."
Ovid did care for the loss of
those lots, just as they had objected to giving up land to the town of Lodi in
1837. In 1849 Truman Boardman, Joseph T. Bradley, George Woodworth, A. L.
Durand and Joseph Treadwell gave notice that they were asking for the lots to
be returned to Ovid. That petition failed, and the current boundary of the Town
of Covert was set.
Returning to the genealogy
question, for the census years 1820, 1830 and 1840 if you don’t find your Town
of Covert family members in the Covert census, check the town of Ovid. By the
1850 census those families were listed Covert, and there they have stayed. By
the way, other changes occurred with the 1850 census, but that too is a Snippet
for another day, June 1st to be exact.
Dewitt’s
Diary Thursday, April 7, 1921
Warm and clear today. Thermometer
about 75 all day. Trees coming out in leaf. Danger of freeze yet which would
kill fruit buds.
Emory and I have been plowing
today. Sheep shearers coming tomorrow.
Lem likes his job at the lake
very much.
Emory Allen is a good faithful
worker.
Strong south wind tonight.
Father came up tonight and
brought me up some groceries.
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