admin Steuben County, named in honor of Major-general Frederick William Baron
de Steuben, the celebrated tactician of the revolutionaryarmy, was taken
from Ontario in 1796; boundaries since much altered; from Albany
centrally distant SW. 216 miles, from New YorkW. 220; length and breadth
40 miles. The surface is broken and hilly, if not mountainous. Along
the rivers, the general aspect of the county is uninviting, except that
in some parts the alluvial flats are extensive and rich. The river hills
are rocky, precipitous, and covered with evergreens; but the upland
plains have a rich variety of trees,and fertile tracts principally of
clayey loam. The staples of the courtyard lumber, grain, cattle, and
wool. The lumbering is the chief business of the southern towns; but as
the country cleared of its forests agriculture rises in importance.
Chemung river is the great stream of the county; it was called by the
Senecas Cononque, “horn in the water.” Its flats are said to be superior
in fertility to the Mohawk. This county, excepting the town of Reading
on the western shore of the Seneca lake, was included in the extensive
cession of New York to Massachusetts, and passed from that state,
through Messrs. Phelps and Gorham and Robert Morris, to Sir William
Pulteney. It was mostly settled by Pennsylvanians, excepting Prattsburg,
which was settled by New Englanders. The county is divided into 27
towns.
Source: Historical Collections of the State of
New York, Past and Present, John Barber, Clark Albien & Co., 1851