Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps Inc.
7407 La Jolla Boulevard www.raremaps.com (858) 551-8500 La Jolla, CA 92037 [email protected]
(Atlas of Military Tract Towns in New York State)
Stock#: 54771 Map Maker: Watson
Date: 1793 circa Place: n.p. Color: Uncolored Condition: VG Size: 5.5 x 3.54 inches
Price: SOLD
Description:
Unrecorded 18th Century Atlas of the New York State Military Tract
Unrecorded set of maps of the townships which comprised the Military Tract in west-central New York State, extensively annotated by Elkanah Watson, the father of the Erie Canal.
The atlas is without a title page, nor is there a printing or engraving credit on any of the maps.
Drawer Ref: Stock#: 54771 Page 1 of 4 Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps Inc.
7407 La Jolla Boulevard www.raremaps.com (858) 551-8500 La Jolla, CA 92037 [email protected]
(Atlas of Military Tract Towns in New York State)
The atlas consists of printed maps of the 27 townships proposed for the Military Tract. All of the maps are printed and show the 100 lots which made up each town. For the eight townships which were square 10x10 grids of lot with no rivers or lakes as boundaries there was a template on which the name of the town was hand-written. The other 19 plans have the town name and major water features fully printed along with the lot lines and numbers.
This copy contain very extensive manuscript notations by Elkanah Watson, a prominent proponent of western expansion and canals in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. These notations include markings indicating the desirability of various lots in each of the towns. There is also a sketch map by Watson of the entire Military Tract.
This piece is extremely important for two very different reasons. The first is that it provides a township-by- township delineation, with commentary on individual lots, of this famous area in New York State, most notable for its use of classical town names. The area had been shown on at least two maps ( Map of the Military Lands and 20 Townships, Wheat & Brun 365, and 1st Sheet of DeWitt's State Map , Wheat & Brun 357) encompassing the whole tract, as well as survey maps were prepared in 1789 by teams overseen by state Surveyor General Simeon DeWitt, but no contemporary printed maps of the individual townships are known.
The other significance of this item is its place in American 18th century printing history. It is arguably the first American printed atlas. This designation depends entirely on the definition of the term "atlas". However, even if one ascribes this honor to a different book, that does not in any way take away from the uniqueness and importance of this piece.
Wheat & Brun (reference 77) designate Mathew Carey's General Atlas for the Present War of 1794 as the first known American printed atlas. They recognize the John Norman American Pilots of 1791 and 1792, the Mathew Clark charts of 1790, and the Christopher Colles road book of 1789 but clearly consider them to be collections of maps or charts rather than true atlases. This book can, through the maps and some of Watson's notations, be fairly reliably dated from 1793 or very early 1794. This would almost certainly predate the production of the 1794 General Atlas for the War. If it is designated as an atlas in spite of the fact that it was issued without a title page of any sort, then this could be considered the first American printed atlas. Regardless of these semantics, however, this book contains twenty (nineteen township maps with printed town names and one template map for the square townships) previously unrecorded 18th century American printed maps, a remarkable find for a subject area which has been extensively studied and catalogued over the years.
The Military Tract
Drawer Ref: Stock#: 54771 Page 2 of 4 Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps Inc.
7407 La Jolla Boulevard www.raremaps.com (858) 551-8500 La Jolla, CA 92037 [email protected]
(Atlas of Military Tract Towns in New York State)
The Military Tract of central New York State, also called the New Military Tract, consisted of roughly two million acres of land set aside to compensate New York's soldiers after their participation in the American Revolutionary War. The United States Congress had guaranteed each soldier at least 100 acres at the end of the war (depending on rank), but by 1781, New York had enlisted only about half of its quota set by the U.S. Congress. In 1781, the state legislature authorized an additional 500 acres per soldier, using land from 25 Military Tract townships to be established in central New York State. The townships were to comprise 100 lots of 600 acres each. Three more townships were later added to accommodate additional claims at the end of the war, with Junius added in 1791, Galen in 1792 and Sterling in 1795.
The Military Tract covered the present counties of Cayuga, Cortland, Onondaga and Seneca, and parts of Oswego, Tompkins, Schuyler and Wayne. Most of the original classical township names are reflected in current town names, but these military townships do not correspond exactly with any modern towns, which only cover a fraction of the original huge townships.
Elkanah Watson
Elkanah Watson (1758-1842) was a promoter of American westward expansion and in particular the canals which he believed would make that expansion possible. At one time he feuded with DeWitt Clinton, over which of them properly deserved credit for devising the concept which would eventually become the Erie Canal. Though Clinton came to be known as "The Father of the Erie Canal" for introducing a proposal in 1808, Watson had worked closely with Philip Schuyler who incorporated The Western Inland Lock & Navigation Company and Northern Inland Lock & Navigation Company in 1792. He was also a land speculator and investor. It was clearly in this latter role that he acquired this book to which he added his own evaluations of lots in the Military Tract. He has signed the book on the second leaf in a note to his prospective investment partners, George Sutton and Joseph Hardy.
Joseph Hardy
Hardy was a Revolutionary War sailor who in the late 1780's held several positions in Alexander Hamilton's Department of the Treasury or as an agent for Treasury Department officials Joseph Nourse and William Duer. Earlier, in 1782, Watson had acted as Hardy's agent in Nantes in an effort to procure a loan from Benjamin Franklin. At some point he formed a business partnership in New York City with Sutton which was dissolved in 1794. Hardy was also a founding member of the New York State chapter of the Society of the Cincinnati which he later served as treasurer. Little is known about Sutton.
The note in the book to Sutton and Hardy reads:
I commit this book exclusively into your hands the information which I have collected with
Drawer Ref: Stock#: 54771 Page 3 of 4 Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps Inc.
7407 La Jolla Boulevard www.raremaps.com (858) 551-8500 La Jolla, CA 92037 [email protected]
(Atlas of Military Tract Towns in New York State)
Infinite pains & considerable expence [sic]. As it will be unjust that I should strip myself of all my information without participating in the advantages which may result, I rely with confidence on your [honor?] not to give this out of your hands to any Individual."
Reading this note, it is clear that Watson was acting as an agent, and prospective partner of Sutton & Hardy, in investing in land. He went out to the tract and examined many lots personally while relying on local descriptions or recommendations for others. Upon returning from his scouting mission, he would have delivered this book to his partners.
There is no indication as to where Watson might have procured this book of maps prior to his traveling to the tract. He had previously traveled in western New York in 1791 with Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, Stephen Bayard, and Philip Van Cordtlandt, making him a logical person to return there in 1793-4 to evaluate investment possibilities.
Watson's papers now reside at the New York State Library, but as it appears that this book, with its notes, was sent to Sutton or Hardy it would not have been among those papers.
Detailed Condition: 27 map sheets. Contemporary full tree calf with gilt edging line. Excellent condition, though worn and bumped at edges. 28 leaves.
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