Hector History

Local Hector Historian - Sandra Bradford

History - Early History, Pre-American and Revolutionary, Hector Founding, 2002 BiCentennial Celebration

Historical Society Contacts -

Hector Families - Wyckam (Wickham),

Genealogical Information - Schuyler County Information:  Churches, Cemetaries, Vital Records

Projects - Scenic Byway Project, Historic Barns of NYS, Forest History

Early History - Native people, plants and animals, link to Sullivan and Clinton information

Pre-American and Revolutionary -

EARLY SETTLEMENTS - In 1779, by authority of Congress, an army of 5000 men was raised and placed under command of General Sullivan, with orders to seek out the hiding-places of the Indians, and by superior numbers and well-trained men overpower them, if possible, and put an end to the barbarous cruelties they had been inflicting on the brave pioneers. At Newtown, now Elmira, they met, and after a desparate engagement of several hours, both sides fighting bravely, the Indians were overpowered, and being confused, fled precipitately across the river, following the Chemung Valley and down the east side of Seneca Lake, Sullivan still pursuing.  In this raid the principal villages of the Indians were burned and their cornfields destroyed.

Even in the hasty and impetuous rush through the wilderness, unsuited to observation, pictures were stamped upon their minds in the pauses of the march, or as they hurriedly passed through the open country, of the sloping uplands, the dense forests, and the blue lake lying as if asleep in the blaze of the sun or mirroring the white clouds dreamily, the fertile fields even then improved  by the hands of the Indian; and when, years after cession of these lands was made by the Iroquois to the State of New York, the country through which they had hastened was surveyed and opened to civilization, upsprang the seed then planted, and bore fruit, for Sullivan's soldiers found their way to the fertile fields again, and there effected settlements.

During the summer of 1790, a man whose name is unknown came into what is now this town, with his wife and child, and built a hut near the present village of Burdett, but being discouraged, or for some other reason, he left his wife in the wilderness during the winter and until the next summer, when he returned and they moved to the eastern part of the State. The first permanent settler was Wm. Wickham, who left Orange County with his wife and four children in the fall of 1790, and came as far as Tioga Point, now Athens , where they passed the winter.  In the spring they again took up the line of march, loading their effects into a canoe, together with a barret of flour he had purchased.

He paddled up the Chemung to Newtown, then working their way through the pine swamp slowly and laboriously, as best they could, to Catharinestown, then paddled on down the creek and the lake until they reached the point on lot No. 40, which Mr. Wickham had purchased of his brother at $1.25 per acre, and which is below the present residence of his grandson, M. L. Wickham, (continued on page 617).

Hector Founding

2002 Bi-Centennial Celebration and the Town Today