THE TOWN OF SALISBURY

Circa 1910 antique glitter postcard image © Martha Magill

The Herkimer County Town of Salisbury was part of Montgomery County (as a town taken from Palatine) until as recently as 1817. The area of present-day Salisbury is of great interest to researchers having Loyalist ancestry, as many pre-Revolutionary inhabitants were grantees of Sir William Johnson, and forfeited their land and left for Canada. Several later waves of immigrants came from Salisbury and other CT towns, and other New England states.

SALISBURY DIRECTORIES
GAZETTEER AND BUSINESS DIRECTORY OF HERKIMER COUNTY FOR 1869-70: SALISBURY
1888-1889 Herkimer County Directory: Salisbury

SALISBURY CENSUS
1800 Census of Salisbury

HISTORY OF SALISBURY
The Town of Salisbury and Early Settlers and Settlements: selections from "The History of Herkimer County, N.Y." by F.W. Beers & Co., 1879
Salisbury Town Officials
Tidbits About the Cheese Industry of Herkimer County, NY
Salisbury United Methodist Church
Salisbury Covered Bridge Photos
More Salisbury Covered Bridge Photos
Ken Mowers' "Walk Through Salisbury"

SALISBURY FAMILIES AND PERSONS OF NOTE
Profile of Hon. Adelbert E. Bleekman
Obituaries of the Lynch and McLaughlin Families
Sanderson/Loomis Family of Salisbury NY

SALISBURY CEMETERIES
Curtis Corners Cemetery - a new reading! Curtis Cemetery: the old reading
Dibble Cemetery: this is the new official reading
Photos of Civil War Veteran John O. Pickert Monument in Dibble Cemetery
Fairview Cemetery, formerly called Rural Grove Cemetery
Fairview Cemetery Photo Page
Peck Road Cemetery
Salisbury Rural Cemetery - a 1999 reading. The cemetery has a more updated listing on their site (see our Links page for their url):
        Part 1    Part 2   Part 3   Part 4   Part 5   Part 6   Part 7 updated with 1999 burials at bottom of page
History of Salisbury Rural Cemetery
Yale Monument at Salisbury Rural Cemetery
Photos of Salisbury Rural Cemetery
St. Bridget's Catholic Cemetery: 1999 reading
St. Bridget's Catholic Cemetery: incomplete 1930s reading
5 Small Cemeteries: Darling, Slip, Stoddard, Abandoned Grassell, Abandoned Bradley
Stratford Cemetery

The Herkimer/Montgomery Counties GenWeb is visited by many researchers seeking information about Loyalist ancestors. Kin fought kin and members of close-knit families were torn apart permanently. We'd like to provide a meeting place for the descendants of those families who left for Canada and those who stayed behind in Salisbury, siding with the King or the cause of freedom. The Town of Salisbury Loyalist surnames registry board is for ancestors you have accurately traced to this township only. Please send in your Town of Salisbury Loyalists.

PROFILE AND HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF SALISBURY
from the Gazetteer and Business Directory of Herkimer County, N.Y. 1869-70

SALISBURY, named from Salisbury, Connecticut, the former residence of many of the first settlers, was formed from Palatine, Montgomery County, March 3, 1797, and annexed from Montgomery County, April 7, 1817. It lies on the east border of the County and extends north into the great wilderness. The surface is a broken and mountainous upland in the north, and hilly in the south. Only a small part is cultivated. The principal streams are East Canada Creek, which forms a part of the east boundary, and Spruce Creek, which flows through the south-west and south parts. The soil is a sandy and clayey loam. A bed of iron ore has been worked to some extent on lot 105, fourth allotment of the Royal Grant, about three miles north of Salisbury center.

Salisbury Center, (p.v.) situated on Spruce Creek, contains two churches, viz., Methodist and Baptist; a hotel, two stores, a grist mill, two saw mills, a peg factory, capable of doing $40,000 worth of business annually, and about 300 inhabitants.

Salisbury Corners, (Salisbury p.o.) contains two churches, viz., Baptist and Presbyterian; a hotel, a store, a blacksmith shop, a wagon shop and about 100 inhabitants.

Devereaux, upon East Canada Creek, contains two hotels, two stores and about a dozen dwellings.

This town includes part of the Jerseyfield Patent and parts of the first, second and fourth allotments of the Royal Grant, and was settled by tenants of Sir William Johnson before the Revolution. Tracts of land in this town were assigned by Sir William to several of his Indian children. As most of the settlers upon the Royal Grant adhered to the King during the war, their lands were forfeited to the Government. Daniel Lobdell and several sons lived in the western part of the town, and went to Canada, where one of them was the servant of a British officer. After his return to the United States he was pensioned for services in the war. It would be quite entertaining to learn how he proved his services rendered to the colonies. John Faville and Cornelius Lamberson settled near Burrill's Corners about 1788, and Asa Sheldon and Abijah Ford about 1793. Abial Pratt, Stephen Todd, Jabez Ayers, Jonathan Cole, ____ Bidwell, Ira Bartholomew, Atwater Cook, Amos Ives, Moses De Witt, Jonathan Hallett, ____ Low and others, were early settlers. Rev. Caleb Alexander, who visited the place in 1801, says the population was 1,604.

The first birth was that of John Ford; the first school was taught by Elizabeth Rice, and the first inn and store were kept by Aaron Hackler.

The population of the town in 1865 was 2,123; its area is 68,640 acres.

There are fourteen school districts, employing the same number of teachers. The number of children of school age is 797; the number attending school, 596; the average attendance, 273, and the amount expended for school purposes during the year ending September 30, 1868, was $3,196.53.

Excerpt from Nathaniel S. Benton's "History of Herkimer County" Albany, NY: J. Munsell, 1856.

SALISBURY: Contains all that part of the county, bounded south by Manheim; northerly and easterly, by the bounds of the county; and westerly, by the west bounds of Manheim, continued north to the southerly bounds of a tract called Jerseyfield, and then northerly, to the bounds of the county; along a straight line run to the southerly extremity of the division line, between the tracts called Nobleborough and Arthurborough.

A part of Jerseyfield patent, and portions of the first, second and fourth allotments of the Royal grant are in this town.

This town was peopled before the revolution, with several families of tories or persons friendly to the crown, though they may not have committed any overt act of treason against the colonies. Living on the Royal grant, they were, no doubt, the tenants of, or went there under the protection of the Johnson family. They were allowed to remain unmolested by the Indians and tories, during the whole war; but when the commissioners of forfeitures, in 1784, claimed the grant, as the property of the state, they may not have esteemed the protection of their royalist landlords as of much value, or their titles, if they held any, as securing to them "an indefeasable estate of inheritance." One of these people, named Johnson, lived on lot number 154, in the first allotment, Royal grant, on the road between the old Salisbury meeting house and the Four corners. Daniel Lobdell, another of them, lived in the westerly part of the town, about one mile southerly of the old Salisbury meeting house.

These parties were conveniently located, to suit the purposes and accomplish the objects, of those who planted them on the direct route from the Mohawk valley, to the head waters of the Black river. Here the disaffected could congregate in safety, and mature their plans of mischief; and from these points, runners could be dispatched to hover round the out-settlements, collect information, watch the movement of troops in the valley, and even spy out what was going on at the block-houses and stockades, and outside of the principal forts; and here, too, straggling parties of the enemy received aid and comfort, and were seasonably notified of whatever was important for them to know, and within the power of these people to give.

Old Mr. Lobdell had four or five sons, who at an early period of the war went to Canada with a party of Indians, and remained there until after peace was proclaimed. Joe, one of them, was waiter to a British officer, and used to boast after his return, of his sumptuous living while in Canada. He was pensioned by the United States, for revolutionary services. In what way he contrived to convert his menial labor for a British officer, into military service for the colonies, and to make satisfactory proof to the commissioner of pensions, may be best explained by a resort to the records at Washington.

A few New England families may have located in this town, before 1788. Between that time, and 1794, the immigration was pretty rapid. The Salisbury meeting house, since converted into a wagon factory, or an appurtenant to one, was erected during the latter year. Mr. Jabez Ayers put up the first frame building erected in this town. The following names are familiar as being among the early settlers: Avery, Cook, Hackley, Hallett, Todd, Hopson, Burrell, and Waterman. The Rev. Caleb Alexander, who visited this town in 1801, as a missionary, says it then contained a population of 1694.

Salisbury Center, is a small village, situate on Spruce creek. Here are several sawmills and other mills and machinery propelled by water, with a large tannery. Salisbury Corners, two or three miles west of the Center, holds a respectable place among the business localities of the town; and Deveraux, at the northeast corner of the grant, has many years been known as a point from which considerable quantities of sawed lumber have been sent to the canal and railroad at Little Falls, for the eastern market. The western section of this town is well adapted to grazing, and the dairy business has been successfully carried on there, for many years. The northern portion is well supplied with hemlock, whence the tanners in that section draw large quantities of bark. The state road passes through the southwest corner of the town.

The description of the Town of Salisbury was typed by volunteer Kathleen Teague, who is researching her area Butler ancestors. For details on her Butler line, check out our acknowledgement to Kathy at the bottom of the Town of Russia 1824 Gazetteer section.

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