At the time of Swart’s settlement the land on the lower end of River street was covered by a dense forest of hemlock and maple.  Over those attractive and well-tilled fields now composing Mr. Wilcox’s farm, roamed at that time the bear and the panther, and glided with little molestation numberless rattlesnakes of the largest and most poisonous species.  The settlement along the river, below the residence of George Scramling, seemed to proceed slowly, as the land below this point was considered of but little value, while the heavy growth of hemlock precluded the rapid clearing away of the forest.  To the north and east of the village the hillsides yielded a vast quantity of the more valuable timber.

For news outside of the little settlement the inhabitants had recourse to the Freeman’s Journal, at that time published by one of the pioneers of journalism in Otsego county, John H. Prentiss.  The mails were conveyed from one settlement to another by the postman, who traveled over the hills and through the valleys on horseback, and made known his approach to each post-village by the winding of a huge horn, which was always carried by his saddle-bows ready for use.

During the war of 1812-14, the winding of the postman’s horn caused the settlers both in the village and without to assemble rapidly and in full force, men, women and children, to learn the news from the “Canada border.”  Early in that war a number of men entered the army from Oneonta.  Some of them were stationed at Sackett’s Harbor and Oswego, while others did good service at Lundy’s Lane and the Heights of Queenstown.  But few of those veterans yet remain to tell

    “Of their strange ventures happed by land or sea.”

At the time of its first settlement, Oneonta was in the old county of Tryon, which was formed from Albany county in 1772.  Tryon county then embraced the whole western portion of the state, from a line extending north and south through the centre of the present county of Schoharie, to Lake Erie.  In 1784 the name was changed from Tryon to Montgomery.  Oneonta was then in the old town of Suffrage.

During the period of which we have written, Oneonta as a distinct town had no existence.  The village of Oneonta was then in the town of Milford, and was known as Milfordville.  Through the brawl of two old bruisers, it was sometimes vulgarly called “Klipknocky."[A] This nickname lasted a long while, and was known at a long distance from home.

[Footnote A:  On the banks of the Susquehanna, in Pennsylvania, there is a thriving little hamlet known as “Klipknocky Jr.”  It was first settled by an emigrant from Oneonta.  While the river was the highway the most easily traveled, fugitives from the older settlement found a landing-place for their canoes and a safe retreat for themselves at “Klipknocky Jr.”]

In 1830 the town of Oneonta was formed from the adjoining towns of Milford and Otego.  It is said that it received the name Oneonta at the suggestion of Gen. Erastus Root.