Scope and arrangement
Arrangement
Three series: I. Personal Papers; II. Public and Private Institutional Records; III. Turnpike Road Company Records
Fairchild collection, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library
Collection contains papers documenting public and private institutions and the lives of individuals in Cazenovia, N.Y. from the late 18th through the early 20th centuries. Personal papers, 1791-1927, include correspondence, accounts, legal documents, family records, and printed matter concerning John Lincklaen, Samuel S. Forman, Jonathan D. Ledyard, Ledyard Lincklaen, Sidney Fairchild, Charles S. and Helen Fairchild, and other members of local families. Public and private institutional records, 1794-1868, consist of materials which chiefly document political and judicial affairs in Cazenovia and Madison County. A significant portion of the collection is the records, 1803-1877, of the Cazenovia and Chittenango Turnpike Road Company and the Third Great Western Turnpike Road Company.
Early settlers and prominent Cazenovians John Lincklaen and Samuel S. Forman, and two turnpike road companies: the Cazenovia and Chittenango Turnpike Road Company (also known as the Cazenovia and Chittenango Plank Road company), and the Third Great Western Turnpike Road Company (the road was also called the Cherry Valley Turnpike) are particularly well documented. The papers were collected by Charles Stebbins Fairchild (1842-1924), financier and United States Treasury Secretary from 1887-1889, and his wife Helen Lincklaen Fairchild (ca. 1846-1931). Both were natives of Cazenovia.
The area in central New York that includes the present-day town of Cazenovia was part of a tract explored and purchased by the Holland Land Company in 1792. It was formed as a town in 1795, and named for the Company's first general agent in the United States, resident in Philadelphia, Theophilus Cazenove (1740-1811). The exploring party was led by John Lincklaen.
John Lincklaen was born in Amsterdam in 1768, and died in Cazenovia in 1822. Lincklaen was orphaned and joined the Dutch Navy as a boy. In 1790 he obtained leave from the Navy and went first to England, and then to the United States with his friend Gerrit Boon under the patronage of a member of the Stadnitski banking family, the principal director of the Holland Land Company. Lincklaen and Boon joined Theophilus Cazenove in Philadelphia. During 1791-1793 Lincklaen, with Boon, Samuel S. Forman, and others, travelled in New York State, Pennsylvania, and Vermont, inspecting lands on behalf of the Holland Land Company.
Lincklaen settled in Cazenovia, where he served as the Holland Land Company's local agent, handling the sale and rental of lands in the area. He was naturalized in 1793, and married Helen Ledyard, daughter of Benjamin Ledyard of Aurora, New York in 1797. In 1801 he travelled again for the company, this time in New England, and in 1802 he travelled through New York and Canada (see his October 25, 1802 letter to Paul Busti). John and Helen Lincklaen had no children of their own, but they adopted Helen's brother, Jonathan Denise Ledyard (1793-1874). Jonathan D. Ledyard, a lawyer, succeeded John Lincklaen in the Holland Land Company office. His son, Lincklaen Ledyard, a naturalist, and active in Cazenovia affairs, reversed his name to Ledyard Lincklaen to maintain the Lincklaen family name. Ledyard Lincklaen was the father of Helen Lincklaen Fairchild.
Samuel S. Forman, 1765-1862, originally of New Jersey, was, with John Lincklaen, one of Cazenovia's first settlers. He was the town's postmaster during 1800-1802, a supervisor in 1812, an officer in the militia, and a holder of a variety of other public posts. Forman was a merchant and, along with his older brother Jonathan Forman, he operated J. & S. S. Forman, which seems to have served as the Holland Land Company store in Cazenovia. Prior to his settlement in Cazenovia, Forman accompanied a relative from Philadelphia and "sixty colored people from Monmouth, New Jersey" ("Cazenovia", address, May 8, 1841, box 3) to Natchez, then governed by Spain. While in the south Forman traded in tobacco, furs, and cotton at Natchez, New Orleans, and Louisville.
The Cazenovia and Chittenango Turnpike Road Company were formed in 1848; Ledyard Lincklaen was elected secretary. The road built by the company followed the Chittenango Creek Valley eight miles from Cazenovia to Chittenango.
The Third Great Western Turnpike Road Company was formed in 1803. This company's road ran approximately seventy miles in central New York from Cherry Valley to Manlius. The road had seven toll gates (in 1832 the keeper of gate number seven was a woman, Sarah L. Wood - see the gatekeepers' returns for 1832 in box 4). John Lincklaen was the first president of the company, serving from 1803 until his death in 1822. Jonathan D. Ledyard succeeded him, serving for the next thirty-six years. Cazenovia residents Perry G. Childs, Sidney T. Fairchild, Samuel S. Forman, and Charles Stebbins also held positions in the company. The coming of the railroad and the completion of the Erie Canal diverted commercial traffic from the turnpike, reducing its profitability greatly. The company was dissolved in 1859.
Three series: I. Personal Papers; II. Public and Private Institutional Records; III. Turnpike Road Company Records
1915-1929, Received from Helen L. and Charles S. Fairchild
Accessioned by Julie Miller, June 9, 1989
Additional papers about Cazenovia, both originals and microfilm copies, can be found at libraries and historical societies in the area, and at:
Lorenzo State Historic Site, Ledyard Avenue, Cazenovia, New York 13035
Syracuse University, Special Collections, George Arents Research Library, E. S. Bird Library, 6th floor, Syracuse, New York 13210
Cornell University, Department of Manuscripts and Archives, Olin Library, Ithaca, New York 14853
New York State Archives, Cultural Education Center, Albany, New York.
Selected records available on microfilm; New York Public Library