Ko. 112.| 709 



town officers were apportioned to the various prominent settle- 

 ments. Each locality, designated, in a primary meeting, the in- 

 dividuals who shwUld receive the several appointments aj>piopria- 

 ted to them. A delegate bore the respective nominations to the 

 general town meeting, in which they were almost uniformly con- 

 firmed. At the general elections, the polls were held on the two 



first days, one half a day in a place, and on the third at some 

 central or populous point. These expedients facilitated aiid se~ 

 cured as far ^s practicable, the exercise of their civil rights to 

 the settlers. 



A claim instituted by the Caughnawaga and St. Regis Indians 

 in '92, to a vast tract of land, embracing nearly the entire terri- 

 tory between the St. Lawrence and Mohawk rivers, was urged 

 for many years with great pertinacity and earnestness. It was 

 resisted on various grounds, wit?iout violating any principle of 

 public justice and private rights ; investigation amply established 

 tlie facts, that these tribes had no original title to the district, but 

 tliat it was held exclusively by the Iroquois, who had alienated 

 it to the whites by sales to individuals and by cessions through 

 public treaties. 



Charles Piatt was appointed the first judge of the newly orga- 

 nized county, and William MoAuley, of Willsboroj one of the sidt 

 judges. Plattsburgh was made the shire-town of the county. 



At this period no road had been constructed from Willsboro, 

 north of the Boquet river. The traveller was guided solely by 

 blazed trees over the Willsboro mountain. The route thus indi- 

 cated, extended through the forest to the Au Sable river, which 

 was crossed at the " Higlibrid^e," ab >ut three miles below the site 

 of Keeseville. A wood road had been opened from that point to 

 Plattsburgh. A similar track, it is probable, was the only avenue 

 of intercourse between Crown Point and Splitrock. 



The settlement at Ticondrroga was about sevmty miles distant 

 from Platt.sburgh ; at which place the inhabitants were compelled 

 o appear, to assert their rights as litigants, or to discharge iheir 

 duties as jurors and witnesses. 



