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Note: It was nearly sunset on a day in the latter part of March, 1805. The past winter had been severe and the snow yet lay on the ground to the depth of two feet or more. From the top of Breeds Hill (the old Dug Road, near the southwestern corner of the Military Tract of New York State) might have been seen a newly-chopped road winding up through the woods, the stumps still sticking up through the snow and the logs hardly dragged aside far enough for a team of oxen to pass along. The snow lay as deep here as elsewhere in the woods and was only beaten down into a narrow path by the boots of some footman who had gone down to Mr. Sheneck's at the Half Way House in the valley (later Morg. Whites) for a jug of "groceries". Along this rough wood-road two yoke of oxen were slowly pulling a long sleigh up the steep hill that rose westward from the upper valley of the Catatonk Creek. On the sleigh were piled a few household goods and on them sat two young women, one carrying in her arms a baby seven months old and the other holding a little girl of two years. The driver of the oxen, who tramped alongside was a young man of twenty-five, slim, straight and of medium height, his beardless face shaded by a heavy cap, beneath which looked out a pair of deep blue eyes. His whole appearance betokened a long, hard journey. Behind the sleight walked another young man of nineteen with an axe on his shoulder. It is needless to say that the two men were Seneca Howland and his younger brother, James; while those in the sleigh were Seneca's wife, Polly Hagermann Howland and her sister, Betsy Hagerman with Seneca and Polly's two children, Levinah Anne (b. 2 Jan. 1803, d. 13 Sep 1805) and Charles Henry (b. 13 Aug 1804, d. 23 Sep 1805). The family were coming from Fishkill in Duchess County, New York and were just arriving at their new home in the forest after a winter journey of some 250 miles through the Catskills and via Binghamton and Owego. Seneca had been out the summer before and had chopped a small clearing in the woods and built a log house and barn. There were at that time only three families in what was then called Haight's Settlement (later South Danby) - Old Haight on the Robinson farm (later known as the Hinds place); Old Nelson, on the Andrew Beer's place; and the Van Kleecks who lived on the flat-iron, as it was called, opposite the later Rankins place. It took no small courage to bring a family to such a wild country at that time of year, but Seneca's early life had been such as to give him considerable self-reliance. Seneca's father, Charles, a Quaker, was a wheelwright and he himself had learned that trade while young. His first start in life, however, was obtained by delivering newspapers. When about ten, he was hired as helper by a man who had a contract to deliver papers to the country about Fishkill. In this way he earned $30.00 with which he bought a pony and thereafter carried on a considerable business of his own in delivering papers through the neighboring country. Apparently, papers were not mailed to subscribers in those days but were sent to agents who undertook their delivery. Seneca continued in the employment of one Nicolas Power until he was twenty years old, by which time he had saved the sum of 71.6.3, or $178.28. Meanwhile, when time permitted, he also worked at his trade of Wheelwright and by the time he was twenty-one he owned a shop and five acres of land in Fishkill. During the next four years he bought various other plots of ground and when, at the age of twenty-five, he moved with his wife and children to the frontier, he owned about twenty-four acres for which he had paid $615.50. When he was twenty-one, Seneca had been appointed a constable of the township and, as the business of that office was considerable, he became fairly well known thereabouts. In the village itself lived an old and aristocratic Dutch family, the Van Wycks. Gen. John B. Van Wyck had recently acquired 6,000 acres of the old Watkins and Flint Purchase in south central New York, and needing someone to look after his interest there, offered the young constable the position on condition that he settle on the tract and act as Van Wyck's agent in the sale of the land to other settlers. It was thus that the late winter and early spring of 1805 found Seneca moving out to the new country with his family and household goods. With the help of his brother James, some land was cleared in time to sow crops that season. But it is evident that his family never fully recovered from the hardships of the long journey through the winter snows of 1805. In the fall of that year his little daughter Levinah Anne, two and a half years old, died and ten days later his little son Charles Henry. Nor was this all. In the following winter his wife Polly succumbed to tuberculosis and died on the 17th of March, 1806, just a year from the time she came into the wilderness with her husband and children. This left Seneca and his brother James alone, for his wife's sister, Betsy Hagerman, had gone back to Duchess Co., a month before Polly's death. But their work forced the two brothers to put all other thoughts aside. Seneca had taken up 400 acres of land and much new ground had to be cleared. In the latter part of the summer of 1806 brother James, growing tired of the hardships of the frontier, also returned to Duchess County and Seneca was left entirely alone. During that summer of 1806 he made one or more trips to the little village of Ithaca, and either coming or going (or both) had stopped at the tavern kept on South Hill, some three miles from Ithaca, by Francis King, a veteran of the Revolution who had taken up land here on the Military Tract. At this tavern he had seen and been seen by the tavern keeper's daughter. A story handed down in the family relates that when this 18 year old girl, Agnes, first saw the young widower she announced to her family that he was the man she was going to marry. At any rate, she and Seneca Howland were married 14 Dec. 1806, nine months after his first wife's death. Thus he obtained a companion in his loneliness and we acquired a grandmother. Agnes King was a young woman of great energy and, I suspect from the reminiscences of my uncles and aunts, of a harsh and rather dictatorial character. From the time of this marriage a new energy and thrift were give to Seneca's fortunes. His new wife made him give up 200 acres of his land and devote himself to the improvement of the remaining 200. His property in Duchess County had been sold the winter before by his father-in-law, Hendrick Hagermann, for 550 pounds, equivalent to $1,375.00; but a large part of the money went for the payment of old debts in that place, leaving but $500.00 to pay on his land in South Danby. During the following winter (1806-7) Seneca visited his friends in Fishkill, the first of several visits made to his old home. From the time of his second marriage until his death there were few events that varied the steady routine of work. His son, Francis King Howland was born in September 1807 and from then until 1820 his family increased with great regularity and precision - eight children being born during the first twelve years of his second marriage and three other children thereafter. In 1810 Seneca was elected Justice of the Peace, and ever afterwards was looked upon by his neighbors as a man who had profound knowledge of the law. In fact, he was regularly re-elected to the office until his death. In 1812 he was appointed Ensign of the 95th Regiment of the New York militia. Five years later he was promoted to Captain. Later, on the death of the Colonel, he was offered the Colonelcy of the regiment, but Agness would not allow him to accept the command, evidently thinking he had enough to do at home. In 1827 he was confronted by a serious lawsuit. Gen. Van Wyck gradually formed a dislike of his agent in Danby. The two had maintained close business relations for twenty years, but their characters were wholly unlike. Seneca was kind-hearted, rather easy-going man, not very prompt in doing business. He had a habit of putting off disagreeable things, a habit not infrequently found in kind-hearted men. On the other hand, Van Wyck was keen and grasping and insisted on the new settlers living up to the letter of their agreements. If their payments fell the least in arrears, he kept writing to his agent to have them ejected at once from their holdings, but the latter was unwilling to proceed to such hard measures against his neighbors. Old Mr. Bingham used to say, "Old Van Wyck would keep writing out 'Fire! Fire!' and Squire Howland would keep writing back 'Water! Water!'" Thus, partly because of this, as well as because Seneca had not made any further payments on his own land since coming out to Danby, Gen. Van Wyck in 1824 revoked Seneca's power-of-attorney and appointed another man as agent. He also charged Seneca with poor management and dishonesty; but it was not until 1827 that he brought suit against him the the State Supreme Court for $800.00, a sum he claimed owing him for lands sold by Howland during the latter's agency. Grandfather brought forward a counterclaim against Van Wyck for $1,000.00 for improvements made on the latter's land, for taxes paid and surveys made thereon and for his own commissions of 4% on the lands sold. The counter claims were finally left to three referees, who decided that "John B. Van Wyck was indebted to Seneca Howland the sum of $158.36", thus vindicating the latter from any charge of dishonesty. But the pressure of the law suit together with Van Wyck's demand for final payment for his farm, forced Seneca in July, 1827 to borrow $600.00 for which he gave a mortgage on his land. Four years later, at the time of his death, one-half of this mortgage had been paid off; but it was not until several years later that the remainder of the debt was discharged. In 1829 Seneca was seized with a lameness in the knee which soon developed into what was then called the "white swelling" (later known as tuberculosis of the bone). This was treated by Dr. Beers and Dr. Curtis, but their treatments were unavailing, and a "capping" of the swelling, is was said, scattered the disease into all parts of the body. He died 26 July 1831, and such an impression had his life and abilities made on his neighbors that many years later a very old man told Arthur Charles Howland, Seneca's grandson, that "Old Squire Howland was smarter than any of his descendants."
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