138 HISTORY OF prepare anew to seek the homes from which they had been compelled to flee before the tomahawks of the ruthless savages, or the machinations of the more inhuman tories ; but to which they now returned with feelings of security. And it shall be our task, in this and the following chapters, to narrate, as far as we have been enabled to glean, the history of the early set- tlements within th€ limits of the county. I have been permitted by the author, to make the following extract from Johnston's Historij of the Susq^uehanna Country, (a work soon to be published) in relation to the town of Sidney. Rev. Mr. Johnston, with an Indian guide, first explored the Susquehanna Valley, with the view of making a permanent settlement, in May, 1772. They crossed from the Mohawk to Otsego Lake, where they procured an Indian batteau or canoe, in which they descended the Susquehanna river as far as Oquago, now Windsor. During this voyage, he landed at Sidney Plains, at which place he determined to locate. He then returned to Schenectady, sought out the owners,* and purchased a tract of 600 acres of land, situated at the flats, one mile east of the Unadilla Forks. Early in the following year, Mr. Johnston moved with his family, consisting of his wife, three sons, and four daughters. This was the first white family that emigrated to the Susque- hanna Valley, although others speedily followed them. One can hardly conceive the inconvenience and hardship to which they must have been exposed in this remote situation, being 84 miles from a grist-mill, the nearest being on the Mohawk river, and Doctor White, of Cherry Valley, 56 miles distant, was the nearest physician. His neighbors and associates were the red men of the forest ; and at Sidney Plains there was an ancient Indian fort, which, according to the tradition of the This territory was included in the grants made by the King to sundry proprietors, in 1770.
