Joshua Leland and the Dunbar House Marker

Joshua Leland came to Eaton in 1792 - 1793 with friends Benjamin Morse and John Morris from Sherburne, Massachusetts.  The land that was opening up for sale in those days would have been the “frontier”, or “Indian Country.”  Leland made a shelter or rudimentary house and later returned with his wife and family. 

They became stuck in the mud at what would become his later home near today’s Leland Pond.  Mrs. Hammond writes that he had to fetch Benjamin and John to help him cross the Chenango, and come to today’s English Avenue in Eaton.  He and his family are recorded as living in a three-sided abode with their children and animals the first winter.

Mrs. Hammond’s History of Madison County claims that it was near what is today’s Caleb Dunbar’s House marked by a NYS Historic Marker.  Leland kept his house open to the public as a tavern and accommodation for travelers.  I believe he built the house that he sold to Samuel Sinclair and that it is Sinclair who sold the property to Caleb Dunbar. This would explain why it was hard to trace the original deed totally.

Humorously, the deed to most of the parcel of land known as Eaton today was found 131 years later (a sheepskin deed) and finally filed in Madison County.  The original deed would have been registered prior to 1806 in Chenango County, as this land was in Chenango County until when it was parceled off as a separate county.

The house was passed back and forth in the Dunbar Family to Thaxter, George and Henry until the 1900’s when it was sold on a tax deed. Many original papers that belonged to Col. Leland were found in the house including a parcel of information on the Kent family another of one of the earliest settlers who lived above this land on today’s Sanford Road.

Leland sold his interest in this area to Joseph Morse and moved to the location of the Leland Marker at the Ponds.  Leland had teased while living on English Avenue that his wife was the “fairest woman” east of the Chenango and of course… she was the first white woman.

*The dead is restored and is located at the Madison Country Courthouse and is signed by Col. William Smith and his wife Abigail Adams Smith,  President Adams daughter. See previous articles.

Summer, Col. Leland, the Dunbar House and the Leland Pond History!

The week has been hot again and summer is in full swing down here in Eaton... with summer people and boating, kayaking, fishing and reopening summer camps....I had a request to do a piece on Eaton's Leland Ponds and someone is restoring the old Dunbar house which in actuality was the original site of Col. Leland's first home...so as lazy as I am lately about writing, I pulled this from my past writing and put it up for your enjoyment.  If you can please share and help our small rural Southern Madison County area attract new people and in the process help restore awareness to those who have forgotten what a wonderful place they live in.

The heat of this summer has drawn people to small bodies of water to cool off, swim and fish. Since history lurks everywhere some those that have enjoyed fishing at the beautiful Leland Ponds in the Town of Eaton may actually not realize what a special part of history the “ponds” have.

Located equidistant from both Eaton Village and Hamilton, the ponds today are a vibrant part of NYS Fishing areas and are also a very early and important part of the Town of Eaton’s history. A NYS Historic Marker denoting its famous founding family, the family of Joshua Leland, today marks the site but of course, a marker cannot tell the full story.

Born in Massachusetts in 1741, “the Colonel” as he was always referred to, moved to the town of Eaton, then a part of Chenango County and a large tract of land called Hamilton. Leland settled first on English Avenue near today’s Eaton Village, but then moved to the current site of today’s Leland’s Ponds, then called Leland’s Lakes.

The Col. was a Revolutionary War Militia soldier and ventured out with family to find a new home and a fortune. Their removal to Eaton was not without troubles as when the Colonel after clearing land, went back home to get his wife and five children and their wagon got stuck in the mud at the very location they would eventually move to. The Leland’s also arrived so late in the year that they are recorded as spending their first winter in a three side hut with their animals.

An avid astronomer, hotel owner and miller, Leland was a favorite of the many Native Americans who fished the ponds and who regarded the Col. and his wife Waitstil with great esteem. The Leland Family also ran an ashery that made potash and in fact it is how the Col. died. When on a trip to Albany with this much needed commodity, Leland was killed when the barrel of potash they were carry on a wagon rolled off and fell on him as he was ascending a steep hill on the Cherry Valley Turnpike.

Leland is mentioned as Hamilton’s first Supervisor but at that time Eaton was part of Hamilton breaking off in 1795. At that time Leland became and important part of Eaton’s history and he actually owned one seventh of the landmass of Town of Eaton at one time. His heirs continued in their father’s footsteps’ becoming businessmen and the Leland family name is well remembered.

Leland’s Ponds was also the early fisheries of the Oneida Nation, and later was the site of the largest port on the Chenango Canal, Peck’s Port. Today its waters are a vacationers paradise and allow fisherman to revisit the quiet haunts of native fishermen.

For those who like cemeteries, the family cemetery lays 

on Route 12B a short distance from the site of his home. Crow’s Hill, his property that he once gazed at the stars from, is today dotted with wind turbines, proving that Eaton is still a place where “history meets progress!”.