Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/166

 142 HISTORY OF tant from the nortli and south lines of the patent, and which are very nearly, if not quite, the north and south lines of the western part of Hamden. Franklin village is situated upon the Clark tract ; the Provost, or better known as the Livings- ton tract, occupying the south and not far from a fourth part of the area of the town. So much for the original land-marks of ownership of the soil of the town. At some future time some further observations may be made as to the manner in which most of the grants were made, and by whom. FIRST SETTLEMENT. It is about seventy years since the present town of Franklin was an unbroken wilderness, the undisturbed abode of wild beasts, except as the place of annual resort of the Aborigines in their various fishing, hunting and predatory excursions. At that period, (1785,) and as late as 1790, their wigwams, or cabins, were standing at several places along the Ouleout (Indian name Olcou£) above and below where the west village of Franklin is situated ; but the Anglo-Saxon was upon their track, and it is believed, in the summer of 1785, the first white settler, Mr. Sluman Wattles, (afterwards Justice of the Peace and a Judge of the County Court,) erected a log-cabin upon the farm now owned by Mr. William Taylor, and near where the present dwelling stands. Perhaps this chapter cannot be concluded more acceptably to the general reader, than by attempting a brief account of the pioneer settler, his family, and the circumstances attending their removal to their ^new' and romantic home, in the — as it was then called — western wilderness. And here the writer begs leave to digress so far as to state, that, in this, as in most instances of the history of the early settlers, many, very many things are involved in doubt, and