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    German Flatts
    German Flatts
    German Flatts
    Ebook192 pages1 hour

    German Flatts

    By Susan R. Perkins and Caryl A. Hopson

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    About this ebook

    German Flatts was established on March 7, 1788, and is comprised of two unique villages. The village of Mohawk was incorporated in 1844, and Ilion soon followed in 1852. With their proximity to the Erie Canal, these villages saw their share of business and industry and flourished as communities. Mohawk was home to a number of famous people, including a treasurer of the United States, a General Motors industrialist, one of the fated space shuttle Challenger crew members, and the two Keno brothers who made antiques a popular obsession on the television program Antiques Roadshow. Ilion is the birthplace of the Remington Arms Company, one of Herkimer County's oldest industries that still exists today and is known around the world. German Flatts provides an interesting snapshot of the daily life and important events in this community's fascinating history.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 18, 2012
    ISBN9781439623756
    German Flatts
    Author

    Susan R. Perkins

    Susan R. Perkins is the executive director and Caryl A. Hopson is the administrative assistant at the Herkimer County Historical Society. The society has selected some of the best images from their photographic collection, as well as from the collections of community members, to create Herkimer Village.

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      Book preview

      German Flatts - Susan R. Perkins

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      INTRODUCTION

      The town of German Flatts came into being even before Herkimer County was laid out in 1791. The towns of German Flatts and Herkimer were established on March 7, 1788. The area north of the river was known as German Flatts and was the site of the Palatine Village settlement. The area south of the river was known for the landholdings of the Herkimer family and Fort Herkimer. Why then is the area north of the river known today as Herkimer and south of the river as German Flatts? When the land was surveyed and a map was laid out noting the location for each town, a misunderstanding between Hon. Simeon DeWitt, then surveyor-general of the State of New York, and Dr. William Petry, a member of the state legislature for Tryon County, led to the famous switch. F. W. Beers’ History of Herkimer County relates: "The names of German Flats and Herkimer had been agreed upon, but the location of the two was not understood by the surveyor general. He asked the doctor as to the situation of each. Viewing the ground from his standpoint, below the mouth of the Mohawk, looking up that river, he answered that Herkimer was on the left, and German Flats on the right. The surveyor-general supposed that the doctor meant the right and left banks of the Mohawk, as the stream flowed; so wrote the names on his maps, and so the error enacted into a law, and the reversal of the names was not known until too late, and so they have remained ever since." The two villages that comprise the town of German Flatts are Ilion and Mohawk.

      Can you picture lush green hills on either side of a clear, clean Mohawk River twisting and flowing eastward toward the Hudson? This would be the sight of the northern section of Mohawk, New York, before the building of the Erie Canal.

      History saw the French and Native Americans being eventually driven from the territory after heavy losses to the settlers’ families, churches, homes, barns, and cattle. The Palatine settlers were able to start all over again. The first settlement in the valley would have been around 1723.

      By 1825, the Erie Canal was built, with two locks as well as an aqueduct within the village of Mohawk. The little village began to flourish. Because of the relationship to the Erie Canal, Mohawk became a hub of all types of trading. Farmers carried in grains such as barley and wheat, hops, cheeses, and any other wares to be shipped on the Erie as well as sold or traded in the area of the canal.

      There was the need for warehouses along the canal, and many were built. A rolling mill was invented and built right on the canal bank, and this machine mashed grains that had been brought in by local and distant farmers to make malt. The malt was shipped east to make beer (legend says that most of the beer was shipped back to this area).

      The village grew by leaps and bounds, and the need for hotels for the overnight canal travelers and traders was in great demand. Mohawk grew to eight hotels and as many grocery stores that carried all kinds of goods. Grocery stores carried yard goods, patent medicines, books, stationery, and whiskey and ale sold by the barrel. There were also grocery stores with a great assortment of supplies located right on the canal as well as in the village.

      Packet boats also began to be used to transport people to other villages as well as family outings in other parts of the state.

      Naturally, with farmers and other people now being funneled into the area, there arose the need for a cemetery. This in turn created the need for a marble works to make and engrave all kinds of marble. A foundry also became necessary to make the many iron goods that enhanced the new homes and businesses being built.

      The population explosion also led to bigger schools and more churches and, of extreme importance, a fire company, which was readily organized and put into action.

      Mohawk became an incorporated village in 1844. The first president was Frederick Bellinger.

      F. E. Spinner, a local boy, became treasurer of the United States under President Lincoln and built his beautiful home in our village with the first concrete-pipe sewer in North America.

      Shortly after the beginning of the 20th century, a beautiful home was given to the village to be used as a library. That library is still used today and will be 100 years old in 2013.

      —Lil Gaherty

      Village of Mohawk historian

      The area now known as Ilion was covered by twelve 100-acre lots beginning at the Mohawk River and extending south as part of the Burnetsfield Patent signed by Gov. William Burnet in April 1725. The lots belonged to women and children and were sold in 1730 to newly arriving families, the Steeles and Clapsaddles. Mills were erected on the creek now known as Steele’s Creek to help the few families who settled there.

      The Erie Canal went through the area in 1817, and by the time it was finished in 1825, there were a few buildings in what is now Ilion. Eliphalet Remington Jr., whose family settled up the hill in Litchfield, decided in 1828 to bring his forge there to make farm equipment and his famous gun barrels. The original forge used the waters of Steele’s Creek; by moving downstream, he could take advantage of the canal for shipping. In addition to manufacturing the barrels (by 1839, Remington was making the whole firearm, lock, stock, and barrel), Remington’s agricultural works, started in 1853, eventually manufactured 133 items, from trolley cars to cotton gins. Remington encouraged people to use his forge to make various products; for example, Linus Yale from Newport was making bank vaults and took advantage of the large Remington forge to make vaults, and his son Linus Jr. would invent the key lock. After the hectic days of the Civil War, new product lines began, including the Remington sewing machine (1872), typewriter (1874), and safety bicycle (1892). The growth was gradual enough to use area workers, and there was never a large influx of immigrants in Ilion.

      Several other national industries began in Ilion: Library Bureau, making library supplies, would merge with Remington Rand, as did the Remington Typewriter and later Remington Rand’s Univac, the first

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