RAFTING. 17 



RAFTING. 



The local market of each mill was limited to the distance which the 

 sawed lumber could be transported on wagons, over soft, newly built 

 roads; no canals or railroads extended these limits. The greater out- 

 side market could be reached only by rafting the product and floating 

 it down to the towns and cities, which were always located on some 

 waterway. Hence, the mills were erected on the upper waters of 

 creeks or rivers, which furnished at the same time water-power and an 

 outlet to market. Every lumberman was a raftsman as well as a log 

 jobber and mill owner. 



Passing by the lumber operations during the first century of colonial 

 life, of which there is now very little record, we come to that period 

 in the history of the industry in the several counties which was marked 

 by the running of the first rafts. 



PIONEER RAFTSMEN. 



Arthur Noble, proprietor of the Arthurboro and Nobleboro Patents, 

 Herkimer County, built the first mill in that county in 1790. The 

 first lot of lumber sawed in this mill was rafted down West Canada 

 Creek, thence down the Mohawk to the Cohoes Falls, and then carted 

 to the Hudson River at Albany, where it was loaded in sloops and 

 shipped to Ireland. 



In Broome County, in 1796, Edward Edwards built a sawmill on 

 the Onondaga stream, at a place which is now in the town of Lisle. 

 He was the first man to run a raft down the Chenano-o River. For 

 sixty years after the first settlements the staple product of this county 

 was white-pine lumber, which was rafted down the Susquehanna, some- 

 times to Norfolk, Va. The young men had not seen the world until 

 they had made this trip. It was a life of adventure. The river jour- 

 ney brought to their view whatever there was of civilization at that 

 period, and running the dams was perilous work that furnished mate- 

 rial for thrilling naratives on their return. Other business as well as 

 the lumber industry was dependent on the success of the raftsmen, 

 and notes were made payable "when the rafts get back.'" 1 



In Delaware County, Jesse Dickinson, who, about L788, built a mill 

 on Trout Creek, in the town of Tompkins, ran the first raft that went 

 down the West Branch of the I >elaware River, the lumber being floated 

 all the way to Philadelphia. 



In Chautauqua County the first lumber floated down the Allegheny 

 River was sawed at the mill owned by Dr. Thomas R. Kennedy, on 



' In the town <>f Franklin, Delaware County, a large willow tree formerly stood in 

 the highway near the house of Judge Wattles. It grew from a cane used by Judge 

 Wattles in walking home from Philadelphia after "going down the river" upon a 

 raft in the Bpring. 



L^olitH— No. 84—02 2 



