Description:

Native American


Oneida Native Americans Trade with Inventor/Farmer in Central New York

 

ABRAHAM RANDEL, Autograph Diary and Memorandum Book, January 1817-September 1818. 94 pp., 4" x 6". Leather and wood cover; most of front cover and part of back cover wood missing; 14-page folio detached from within; considerable wear; folded or missing corners to many pages; pages aged but legible.

 

This intriguing combination of diary and memorandum book chronicles nearly two years in the life of farmer, mechanic, and inventor Abraham Randel in Oneida County, New York. As a settler he traded with local members of the Oneida Nation, purchasing rails from them for fencing and obtaining a quit-claim deed to several acres of cleared land on which he had planted crops. He also traded crops and livestock with his neighbors for goods and services, recording the details in this small book, including amounts owed and received of both cash and agricultural produce, as well as services received and rendered.

 

Abraham Randel (1786-1856) was born in Albany, New York, the son of a Revolutionary War veteran and jeweler and his wife. The younger Randel eventually moved approximately one hundred miles west to Verona, in Oneida County, where he lived the rest of his life. He was a mechanic and inventor who had at least two U.S. patents for his inventions. In 1810, he invented and patented a workable field mower drawn by two horses. He sold the design for $600. In 1837, he received a federal patent (374) for a wheel hub for wagons and carriages that continually lubricated the axle. In February 1848, he received a patent (5,446) for an improvement in potato planters. In the morning of November 7, 1856, Randel was struck by the engine of a freight train while walking on the track to Oneida, about five miles from Verona. The accident broke both his legs, injured his spine, and fractured his skull, and he died from his injuries that same evening.

 

His brother John Randel Jr. (1787-1865) was a surveyor, cartographer, and inventor who completed a full survey of Manhattan Island between 1808 and 1817. He developed his own surveying instruments, which would not vary in size because of temperature changes, giving them great precision.

 

Excerpts:

 

February 7, 1817: “Look for my sheep find they are at Otiss”

 

February 11: “Queen comes to draw logs. Quackinboss finds one of my bucks under the brush fence  we get him home  – he dies”

 

March 8: “pay Indians for 102 Rails 2.4”

 

Randel apparently paid local Native Americans of the Oneida Nation to cut rails for him that he used in building fences. The Oneida Nation still owns tribal land in Verona, Oneida, and Canastota, New York.

 

March 16: “hear Mr Menard in the village.”

 

March 20: “pay an Indian for 48 rails  .98”

 

March 24: “take my Cauldron to the sugar bush the Indians bring me 50 Rails”

 

March 29: “work at my wheel Mr Menard comes here  I give him Youngs night thoughts”

 

English poet and theologian Edward Young (1683-1765) published the long poem The Complaint: or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality between 1742 and 1745.

 

April 16: “dig Stumps out the garden and level the ground till noon go to the Village hear a sermon by Mr Bushnell”

 

May 12: “Brother John comes at noon receive of him 7.”

 

May 19: “go with John to [Canastota?] return and take his horse and go to Utica”

 

May 26: “go with John to purchase improvements of the Indians we get all the clearing on the south side of the creek except what Otis has pay the Indians now"

Randel’s younger brother John Randel Jr. was working on a detailed survey of Manhattan Island but also did several projects in northern New York, including in Oswego, Oneida, and Oneida Castle.

 

June 30: “cut eyes out of potatoes and plant them. then go over the hop field”

 

September 10: “My Horse dies with the bots”

Bots are the larvae of the botfly, which horses ingest and which can cause intestinal blockage and stomach ulcers.

 

September 12: “draw in wheat My wagon breaks. I mend it”

 

October 15: “sow 3 Bushels wheat on the Indian flatts & drag”

 

November 3: “go to the Village the water is higher than ever known here before – draw corn up to the house”

 

November 7: “am taken with a warrant in favor of H Cronk put off the trial till monday”

 

November 8: “have a suit with G Baker he complained of me for selling Spirits – verdict for Def he is down and wants to compromise the other suits”

 

November 10: “we agree to have our cause tried on friday next”

 

December 11: “see Mr Ripley take his mare on trial”

 

December 16: “Fix the Sleigh go to the Village the black mare balks I dont like her – leave her at Mr Ripleys”

 

April 25, 1818: “R has a Son”

 

Randel’s wife Rebecca (1787-aft. 1870), whom he married in 1813, gave birth to a son.

 

April 28: “begin to plow on Indian Land”

 

April 29: “make a gate  the Commissioners come here – go to Election”

New York elected its members of Congress on April 28-30, 1818, the earliest of any state. In 1818, Oneida County comprised the 16th Congressional district. Incumbent Federalist Henry R. Storrs (1787-1837) won re-election with 95.1 percent of the vote.

 

April 30: “plow & sow on Indian Land”

 

May 14: “Go to Verona to see about a school it rains”

 

May 26: “go to Otis’ as a Jury man”

 

July 17: “Make a Machine for sowing turnips”

 

August 22: “go to the village get my horse shod and Scythe mended”

 

The latter part of the diary/memorandum book includes a series of quit claim deeds between individual Oneidas and John Randel Jr., dated May 26, 1817, for their right to 3 acres of land along Oneida Creek. The following is a sample: Oneida 26th May 1817 Received of John Randel Jun one dollar in full for my right & title to about 3 acres of land now in wheat in possession of A Randel, lying on the Oneida Creek north of the Sconondoah creek, which peace I hereby engage to defend from all encroachment or trespass by any person contrary to the intention of this quit claim, which is to continue till the said piece is Sold by the state / yecina her X mark.

 

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

 

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