GREENE – After months with a conservator, a historic map believed to have been copied from Joseph Juliand’s original land grant map is back at the Greene Historical Society Museum. During the extensive conservation process, a surprise discovery was made which has the organization’s history buffs excited.
“It’s an original,” reported GHS President Nancy Bromley.
According to Bromley, the signature of Joseph Juliand himself was discovered beneath a label affixed to the back of the linen on which the map was stitched. The label bore the name of F. Crandall of Brisben.
“Obviously, he acquired the map and placed his name over it,” she explained.
The discovery confirms the map was copied by Juliand himself from his original.
The historical society received the artifact last year, from Greene native Ruth Maxine Filer Thompson, who had inherited it from her mother.
The map, hand-drawn in ink and water color on very fine parchment paper, was stitched to a linen cloth. It depicts the subdivision of the Northeast portion of the township of Greene south and east of the Chenango River, and was identified by an inscription as copied by Juliand on July 1, 1823.
Juliand, a land grant agent, is believed to have worked from the map as he sold parcels of the Livingston Tract. The 16,138 acre tract – which included parts of what is now Brisben, Greene and Coventry – was granted to Walter Livingston in 1788, after the area which is now Chenango County was purchased from the Oneida and Tuscaroras as a result of a treaty negotiated by General George Clinton.
The map’s historical significance enabled the GHS to secure a $2,397 from the Greater Hudson Heritage Network’s Conservation Treatment Grant Program. The grant application was a first for the organization, which received its charter in 2009. Bromley gives full credit for their success in securing the grant on their first attempt to GHS member Abbie Rogers.
With the grant money, the society hired West Lake Conservation of Skineatles to clean, repair and conserve the map.
While the Skaneatles firm was cleaning, repairing and conserving the item, the GHS made another find, this time thanks to Jeremy Albee. The Binghamton gifted the museum with 19 original land contracts, dating from 1805 to 1820.
“They were purchased at an auction in August 2007, in Geneva,” Bromley explained. The lot was advertised as being part of an estate of a local lawyer believed to be a descendant of Juliand.
The documents can be cross-referenced with the map, on which 152 parcels averaging 106 acres are delineated. Each is numbered, with the precise acreage, name of the buyer and the amount paid for the land noted in script. Lot 40, for example, was purchased by Samuel Wheeler on Aug. 1, 1805. He paid $270 for the 135-acre parcel. The contract he signed with Juliand laid out the terms of the purchase, and the interest he would be charged.
Along with the 19 land contracts, Albee also gave the museum a number of other documents, many of which also belonged to Juliand. The papers include receipts, invoices and other correspondence. One of the items which Bromley is most enthused about is a receipt signed by Elijah Smith of Norwich.
“He actually laid out the Village of Greene in 1806,” she explained, which at that time was known as Hornby. This particular document, dated 1807, acknowledges the receipt of $25 for the construction of the village’s first school house.
The map and accompanying documents will be on display from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. this Saturday at the Greene Historical Society Museum. The museum occupies the second floor of Moore Memorial Library, 59 Genesee St., Greene.