Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/231

DELAWARE COUNTY. 207 CHAPTER IX. Increase of population in the interior of the State — Necessary alter- ation of the civil divisions from time to time — Erection of Otsego in 11 92 — Petition for the erection of a new County in 1796 — New County erected in 1797 — Called Delaware — Number of towns at the erection of the County — Enumeration of the other towns in the order of their erection — Names of the first Supervisors — First Re- presentatives to the Assembly — First Court held in the County — First Judges — First Sheriff — Court-house and Jail erected — Murder of Cameron and McGilfry — Arrest of the murderer — Escape of the prisoner from jail — Re-arrested on Cabin-hill — Tried and found guilty — Sentenced to be hung — Execution a public one — Descrip- tion by an eye-witness of the execution — Excution of Foster in 1819 — Burning of the Court-house and Jail — One man burned — Legislative Act — Erection of the Delaware Academy — Its founder — Manner of its endowment — Geological Society formed in Delhi — Its short existence — Matter in relation to the formation of the County — Extract from the Diary of Judge Foote — Obituary Notice — List of Assemblymen since the formation of the County — Surrogates and County Judges — Sheriffs — County Clerks. The steady and rapid increase of inhabitants in the fron- tierS; or the central portions of the State, rendered the form- ation of new counties and towns necessary from time to time, to enable the more ready administration of government. In 1770, as before stated, the county of Albany contained by far the larger portion of the present county of Delaware ; indeed, it comprised the whole, excepting a part of the towns of Hancock and Colchester. Latterly, I think in 1786, the boundaries of Ulster were increased so as to contain the whole of Delaware county east of the Pepacton, or East Branch of the Delaware; and in 1772, a new county by the name of