Historical Wyoming County October 1958 - Old Fulton History

Page 34 January 1959
HISTORICAL WYOMING
Published quarterly at Arcade, New York, under sponsorship of the
Wyoming County Board of Supervisors, by Harry S. Douglass, County
Historian; Robert W. McGowan, Associate Editor, and Students of
the Arcade Central School Commercial Department.
ORSAMUS BURNER, PIONEER HISTORIAN (c«nt0)
the literary productions of this one-time resident of Sheldon became
renowned, and a century later are among the most coveted and highly
sought volumes in western New Yorke
According to the preface of his Holland Purchase history, a
portion of the volume he urged his readers to peruse, Turner had no
"literary leisure" so essential to the faultless execution of the
task, but he likened the volume to a door which he held open to his
guests, his readerso Nearly half of the 666-page volume is given
over to a general history of the country, to the close of the Revolution,
but the remainder extends through the extinguishing of the
Indian title to our region, the War of 1812, and the construction of
the Erie Canal. He relied, insofar as possible, upon original records
of the political subdivisions of the area and the archives of
the Holland Land Company0 Most valuable, perhaps, are the reminiscenses
of the remaining pioneers,, Turner realized the errors and
discrepancies inherent in the memories of the aged and infirm, omitting
interesting accounts which he could not reconcile with conflicting
statements. While compiling the material, and a portion
was already in press, Turner continued his labors as a newspaperman,.
His health was impaired and his family was afflicted with illness,
but he persevered in his self-appointed task to leave for posterity
the most inclusive primary source relating to our formative years.
In spite of its faults of organization and imperfections, certainly
not intentionally made, the Holland Purchase history remains a literary
milestone, a comprehensive history of the region prepared long
in advance of other similar works.
Orsamus Turner, a son of Roswell and Catherine Allen Turner,
was native to Ontario County, N. Y., his date of birth having been
July 23, 1801. Two years later, Oliver Phelps and Dr. Lemuel Chipman
of Ontario County purchased the present township of Sheldon from
the Holland Land Company, and that summer, Elijah Warner, a surveyor,
was employed to survey the land into farm lots. His assistants
were Roswell Turner, father of the author, Joseph Sears and
Tabor Earl. "While out/' wrote Or stilus, " a supply of provisioas
failed to reach them, and the party was five days without food, except
the fish that they caught, wild berries and roots. Attempting
to make their way out of the woods, when nearly exhausted --some of
them in fact unable to proceed any further--they were met by Judge
Chipman with a plentiful supply of provisions."
"Roswell Turner, having been appointed the agent of Phelps and
Chipman, moved upon their land in the month of March, l80l+; thus becoming
the pioneer settler in all the region now constituting the
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