By Donald A. Windsor
Deputy Historian, Chenango County
What is now Chenango County was once crisscrossed with Indian trails; some of which later became roads. A trail is usually a pedestrian path whereas a road is wide and dry enough to also accommodate vehicles. Oxcarts and wagons are vehicles and many of them undoubtedly traveled on trails, so the distinction is fuzzy. In general, vehicles damage trails. They damage roads too, but not as rapidly nor as badly.
According to James H. Smith in his “History of Chenango County”, page 85, the old Chenango Road stretched between Bainbridge and the mouth of Page Brook, which is three and a half miles downstream of Chenango Forks, the confluence of the Tioughnioga and Chenango rivers. Page Brook originates in the highlands of Greene and Coventry and flows southwest into Broome County, Town of Fenton. It forms the eastern border of Chenango Valley State Park. The Chenango Road passed through what are now the towns of Greene, Coventry, and Bainbridge.
Smith says that many pioneers located along Chenango Road. In 1792, the “growth of timber” (counting annual rings of trees growing in the road) indicated that the road was opened about 15 or more years earlier. That would mean it was cleared in 1777 or earlier. The Revolutionary War raged from 1775 to 1783, so this road was built in the first quarter of the war.
Smith confesses that no one really knows who built the Chenango Road but after consulting DeWitt Clinton and William L. Marcy, he attributes it to a detachment of Major General John Sullivan’s army commanded by Brigadier General James Clinton. Marcy said that the road was paid for by the state. DeWitt Clinton (1769-1828) was the son of General James Clinton (1733-1812) and was twice Governor of New York. William Learned Marcy (1786-1857) was State Comptroller from 1823 to 1829 and trice Governor from 1833 to 1838. He is the namesake of Mount Marcy.
General Sullivan did not receive his command until March 6, 1779, and General Clinton was ordered to join him on May 24 that same year. So this means that Clinton could not have built the road in 1777 as a detachment of Sullivan. Perhaps either the tree ring count was faulty or Clinton built the road prior to joining Sullivan or Clinton did not build the road. Perhaps someone else did.
Confounding the issue is the account by Oliver P. Judd in his 1912 book, “History of the Town of Coventry”. On page 4, Judd claims that General Sullivan, along with several thousand men and cannon, went from Wyoming (now in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania) northeast to Cherry Valley (now in Otsego County, New York). Passing through Elmira and Binghamton, he went to Chenango Forks and cut a road to Bainbridge, by way of North Fenton and Lower Page Brook. According to Thomas E. Byrne and Lawrence E. Eyres in their 1999 book, “Sullivan-Clinton Campaign of 1779,” map on pages 16-17, Sullivan went northwest from Wyoming along the Susquehanna River to Tioga and returned the same way. He never went northeast. It was Clinton that came from the northeast to meet Sullivan at Tioga. Judd was not present when the Chenango Road was built, so he must have obtained his information from local sources, which he does not disclose, probably hearsay. Mildred English Cochrane in her 1967 book, “From Raft to Railroad. A history of the Town of Greene...”, on page 32, essentially repeats Smith.
Nevertheless, if the old Chenango Road was indeed built by some detachment of the Revolutionary army, then it would be the third incursion of Revolutionary War soldiers in what is now Chenango County. See my Souvenirs article of June 14 for the two others.
The photo shows a bucolic stretch of the old Chenango Road as it appears now, under the name of Wylie-Horton Road. The view is looking west from an edge of the fragmented Bobell Hill State Forest, about a half-mile west of Cueball Road. The field is privately owned and the trees beyond are on more state land. Bobell Hill itself is on the left horizon.
Shafer Road is the western extension of Wylie-Horton Road. The eastern extensions are not apparent on the current highway map (2001) but are visible on the 1902 topographic map (Oxford 15 minute quad). They have since been abandoned but are probably still walkable.
The Sullivan-Clinton campaign in 1779 is well chronicled in four books I have scanned, but there is no mention of this road. However, several military expeditions were being conducted in prior years. The one by Captain William Gray traveling up the Susquehanna River in August 1778 is most notable. A glance at a map shows that a land route between Bainbridge and Binghamton (24 miles) would be three times shorter than traveling along the Susquehanna River (72 miles). Binghamton was called Chenningo at that time, so it could well have been the namesake for the road. Well, no matter who built it, The old Chenango Road is very probably the oldest road in Chenango County.