It has nine private schools, with 294 pupils, and one academy, with 125 students.

RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. Methodists, Baptists, Congre gationalists, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians. The entire number of churches is thirty-two, of clergyman, forty-two.

HISTORY. Tioga county was taken from Montgomery county in 1694. Its name signifies a point or promontory in the river, a junction of waters. It was the Seneca name for the Chemung river.

The towns of Richford, Berkshire and Newark were part of the tract known as the "Massachusetts ten townships," which were ceded to that state by New York.

Barton, Tioga, Owego, and Nichols, were granted by the state to military claimants. Considerable portions of these townships were sold at eighteen cents per acre.

The county was settled by emigrants from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The first settlement was made in 1785, at Owego, by James McMaster and William Taylor, who cleared, the first season, ten or fifteen acres, and raised a crop of corn from the same land.

A few years after its first settlement, there was a great famine in this section of country. It occurred just before harvesting, and for six weeks the inhabitants were without bread of any kind. Meanwhile they subsisted principally upon roots, and though they became very much emaciated and feeble, none died of hunger. It was occasioned by the arrival of a greater number of settlers than usual, and a scarcity in Wyoming that season. Famine is at present little dreaded in this region.

VILLAGES. OWEGO VILLAGE, in the town of Owego, is pleasantly situated on the north side of the Susquehanna, and is the county town. It was commenced in 1785, and laid out into lots in 1794 or 1795. It is advantageously situated for trade, has a large water power, and by means of the Ithaca and Owego railroad, and the Susquehanna river, a ready access to market.

Besides the court house, jail, and county clerk's office, it has four churches, an incorporated academy, and a number of stores and manufactories. A bridge a fourth of a mile in length crosses the Susquehanna at this place.

This village takes its name from the Owego creek, which empties into the Susquehanna near it. Population 2500.

Rushville or Nichols Village, in the town of Nichols, Candor, Newark, Richfield, and Spencer, in the towns of the same names are all thriving villages.

Lakes, &c. e. The Vly.

Battle Fields. Cobleskill. Middleburgh.

Villages. SCHOHARIE. Esperance.

BOUNDARIES. North by Montgomery and Schenectady; East by Schenectady and Albany; South by Delaware and Greene, and West by Delaware and Otsego counties.

SURFACE. Mountainous. The county is divided into two unequal sections by the Schoharie kill or creek. The main branch of the Kaatsbergs or Catskill mountains cross the south part of the county, through Broome, Blenheim, Jefferson, and Summit, to the line of Otsego county, broken through, however, by the Schoharie creek.

A spur from the same range passes northward, through Broome, Middleburgh, and Schoharie, into Schenectady and Montgomery counties. This spur is called the Middleberg, from its position between the Helderbergs and the main range of the Kaatsbergs.

The mountains west of Schoharie creek maintain an elevation of from 2000 to 2600 feet. The Middleberg is 1700 feet high, at its most elevated portion, in the south part of the county, but declines gradually towards the east, till it mingles with the Helderbergs.

RIVERS AND CREEKS. The Schoharie creek with its tributaries, the Cobleskill, Foxes and Breakabeen creeks, are the principal streams in the county.

Bowman's creek, and the Catskill and Charlotte rivers, also take their rise in this county.

In the town of Middleburgh is a large marsh, called the Vlaie or Vly, which is the source of the Catskill.

CLIMATE. From the elevation of its surface, the climate of Schoharie county is cold, but healthful.

GEOLOGY AND MINERALS. The rocks of this county are transition, consisting of slate, graywacke, and limestone. The latter, however, predominates, and is generally the surface rock of the county. Portions of the Helderberg series, and the Erie and Catskill groups occupy the county. The last two are confined to the southern part.

Water limestone is found in great abundance in the northern and central portions of the county.

On the west side of Schoharie creek, in the town of Schoharie, are found beds of massive strontianite, of extraordinary beauty. It was regarded by the inhabitants as marble for many years. Arragonite, heavy spar, and calcareous spar, are also found in the water lime formation. Portions of the water limestone have been excavated for lithographic stones, and are said to be equal in quality to the German. Fine specimens of fibrous sulphate of barytes and carbonate of lime are found in Carlisle, and fibrous celestine, and crystallized iron pyrites, in Schoharie. Bog

tastes. They selected the valley of the Schoharie, and the Queen's agent accordingly purchased for them, about 20,000 acres of fertile land, along that creek.

Industrious and frugal, these hardy settlers soon acquired a competence, and perhaps in no part of the stat, at the commencement of the troubles which preceded the Revolution, could there have been found a more peaceful and happy settlement. Highly cultivated farms, and substantial dwellings greeted the eye of the traveller in every direction.

But in those exciting times, differences of opinion prevailed, and when the conflict came on, the citizens of Schohaire county were found arrayed in hostility against each other, and, oft times, members of the same family met in deadly strife.

The patriots of Schoharie county seemed, in an especial manner, to have excited the hostility of the enemy. Again and again did the marauding hordes of tories and Indians, under the command of Sir John Johnson, Brant, and the infamous Walter Butler, descend upon the farms of the hapless citizens, murdering and scalping all whom they met, without regard to age or sex, plundering and burning their dwellings, and making that fertile and beautiful valley a desolate and gloomy waste.

On the 1st of June, 1778, a bloody conflict took place at Cobleskill, in which about fifty whites, regular troops and militia, contended with a force of 350 Indians, under the command of Brant, until twenty-two of their number were killed, and eight or ten more severely wounded.

A short distance from Middleburgh village are still visible the remains of the old Middle Fort, which was quite noted in the annals of the border wars in this county. On the 17th of October, 1780, it was attacked by Sir John Johnson with a force of 800 tories and Indians.

The garrison of the fort consisted of about two hundred continental troops, and between one and two hundred militia. Their supply of ammunition was scanty, and the commander of the fort, Major Woolsey, entirely unfitted for his station.

The garrison, however, determined to defend the fort to the last, and when Major Woolsey proposed to surrender, they opposed it, and as he was so much overcome with fear as to be a subject of derision to the garrison, Colonel Vrooman, a militia officer in the fort, took the command.

After continuing the attack through the greater part of the day, without effect, Sir John withdrew down the valley of the Schoharie, burning all the houses and other buildings in his route. In this action the loss of the British was heavy, while