Secessions just aren't making headlines like they used to. Occasionally we may hear minor grumblings around state budget negotiation times that upstate should secede from New York City and Long Island. Back in the 1970s and '80s some may remember when the province of Quebec wanted to secede from Canada. Neither situation has ever come to fruition.
Back in the 1850s, however, the growing village of South Bainbridge was becoming tired of being in the town of Bainbridge, so it seceded. The result was the formation of today's town of Afton.
South Bainbridge was certainly no stranger to making changes around its village. Back around 1830, there was the expulsion of Joseph Smith and his Mormons. Smith was married at a house that once stood near the grounds of today's Afton Fair.
By the 1850s, the town of Bainbridge was the largest in Chenango County, reaching from Sidney to Nineveh and from Church Hollow to Bennettsville, with a population of about 3,000. The half or more of this number living in the southern part of the town found it hard to do business or exercise influence at the village of Bainbridge, the town's chief governmental seat in the north.
Nowadays, we think nothing of driving along state Route 7 or Interstate 88 and it takes only minutes to get from Bainbridge to Afton. Back then it took hours to ride back and forth by horseback.
South Bainbridge was growing and had begun developing a trade rivalry with its northern neighbor. Citizens didn't care much for the name "South Bainbridge," as though it implied a secondary or inferior place.
Residents of South Bainbridge felt they were being deprived of that fair share of public offices because the town meetings and elections were held in the village of Bainbridge. To allay the complaints it was agreed in the early 1850s to hold town elections alternately in the two villages, giving all the offices to citizens of South Bainbridge when the elections were held there.
This temporarily eased the situation, but resentment grew as people in Bainbridge took on an air of superiority and making fun of South Bainbridge for its horse traders and horse races. They nicknamed it "Jockeyport." By now secession was openly advocated.
Leading the movement in South Bainbridge was Joseph Pollard Chamberlain, son of an early settler and justice of the peace at the second trial of Joseph Smith in 1830. Chamberlain had several energetic associates in the movement including Daniel A. Carpenter, Jonathan Farnsworth, Devillo Corbin Church, Albert C. Hyde, Dr. James B. Cook and Joseph Bennett. Many others worked less conspicuously for independence from the town of Bainbridge.
What drove South Bainbridge residents to finally demand secession wasn't any conflict or violent event. It actually came about because of an enormous snowstorm that buried our region to a depth of four feet on April 20, 1857. This isolated farmers, making it difficult to obtain food or salvage cattle or sheep that were out to pasture.
The southerners in the town then vehemently complained after they found out that town efforts to relieve people from the storm's aftermath had been entirely devoted to farmers around the village of Bainbridge. South Bainbridge had been neglected.
The result was a climax of ill feelings and it served to speed up the secession process. The town of Bainbridge finally consented and the separation was official on Nov. 18, 1857. South Bainbridge was thereafter called Afton.
Some attempted to get the town named Chamberlaintown, but Joseph P. Chamberlain refused the honor. The second choice was Afton. Through the new town the Susquehanna, like the Scottish stream made famous by Robert Burns, did "flow gently, Sweet Afton, disturb not her dream."
Afton residents also liked the name because it had the advantage of always preceding Bainbridge in any alphabetical list of the towns of Chenango County.
Any future conflicts between the old trade rivals would take place on the athletic fields and in school gymnasiums.
On Monday: Oneonta had plenty of visual artists, but before 1950 there was little public space to display their work. That situation changed.
City Historian Mark Simonson's column appears twice weekly. On Saturdays, his column focuses on the area during the Depression and before. His Monday columns address local history after the Depression. If you have feedback or ideas about the column, write to him at The Daily Star, or e-mail him at simmark@stny.rr.com. His website is www.oneontahistorian.com.
