192 HISTORY OP purchasing a lot of land, erected a log hut upon it. In Feb- ruary, 1791, Mr. Wickham, wife, and three small children, moved from Dutchess county with an ox team, and after a fatiguing journey of one hundred miles, sixty of which lay through a dense forest, with only now and then a small set- tlement, they arrived at their place of destination. Nothing of interest occurred during the journey, except the falling of a tree, which was blown down by the wind across their sled. No one was hurt, and after some delay in removing the obstruc- tion and repairing the broken sled, they were enabled to pro- ceed. There were but few families in Harpersfield at the time Mr. Wickham settled there — the following are their names : Col. John, Col. William, Col. Alexander, and Joseph Harper, who had returned in 1785 ; Hon. Roswell Hotchkiss, who had removed from Guilford, New Haven county, Connecticut, about the same time ; Josiah Seley, Matthew Lindsley, Samuel and John Knapp, two by the name of Hamilton, Washburn, Isaac Price, Stephen Judd, Samuel,* Eliab and John Wilcox, Richard and John Bristol, Abijah Baird, Byron Mcllvain, David and John McCullough, Isaac Patchin, William Lamb, Caleb Gibbs and family, and W illiam McFarland. The Harpers who owned the patent, and were at that time the principal men, were kind and generous to the poor, and ready at all times to succor the distressed, and to do anything in their power to make all around them happy. In 1790, there was no settlement of any account nearer than Schoharie, a distance of thirty miles, and there being but rude improvements in Harpersfield, the people labored under all the disadvantages which can well be imagined ; indeed it was not uncommon for those in the best circumstances to be driven to extreme suffering for want of some kind of provision to sustain
- Alonzo B. Wilcox, an enterprising farmer of Harpersfield, is a son
of Samuel, and occupies the old homestead.
