{ Obadiah Gifford,
Commissioners of schools { Peter Dietz,
{ Joseph Walling.

{ Samuel H. Case,
Inspectors of schools { Washington Throop,
{ Amos Cook.

Sealer of weights and measures, Eliakim R. Ford.

{ Beers Peet,
Pound-masters { Joseph Walling,
{ William Dietz,
{ Elisha Shepherd.”

In 1835, five years after the organization of the town, the whole tax-paying population of Oneonta was 261.  The grand total tax-levy of the town was $781.48.  The amount of public school money raised by the town was $100.45.  William Angel was supervisor and David Sullivan collector for that year.[A]

[Footnote A:  No historical sketch of Oneonta would be regarded complete that failed to mention another name which no one can recall without a feeling of good-will.  Dr. David T. Evans was born in Washington county, in 1789 and settled here in 1829.  He first began business as a tailor, but afterwards became a well-known and successful farrier.  He was a famous story-teller and everybody gave a respectful hearing to the Doctor’s tales regarding the strange characters he had known or heard of.  At least two generations of boys have grown up and gone out from the village who have listened to his stories.  Wherever those boys are now—­scattered far and wide—­they recall no scenes or events of their springtime without a remembrance of Dr. Evans and his tales, none of which were wanting in pith or amusement.]

In 1840, a newspaper was established here which was thereafter conducted by Wm. J. Knapp for about two years when, owing to poor health, Mr. Knapp was compelled to discontinue its publication.  It was the “Oneonta Weekly Journal.”

The growth of the village of Oneonta from 1840 to 1850 must have been very slow.  The building of a house in those days was an act of no little importance.  For ten years there were but few dwellings erected, and those few were of a cheap and inferior class.  The population hardly kept pace with the building.  The young went west, and the number of families that moved out was about equal to the number that moved in.

From 1850 to 1860 there was but little building and but a small increase in population.  There are no accessible figures showing the population of the village at the different decades, but the census returns for the town may be taken as safe guides in forming an estimate of the village population at different periods.  In 1830, when the town was organized, it contained a population of eleven hundred and forty-nine.  In 1840 it had increased to nineteen hundred and thirty-six.  In 1850 it had slightly decreased, then being nineteen hundred and two.  In 1855 it was twenty-one hundred and sixty-seven.  These are the figures for the town.  If the village population had increased in the same ratio, it could not have been far from two hundred and fifty when the town was formed in 1830.  It is hardly fair to infer that the village ratio of increase was quite equal to that of the town.  The western emigration was made up more largely from the village than from the farms.  The same cause—­lack of profitable employment—­that has transferred the young men of New England from the plow to the manufacturing centres, transferred our young men from a place where no industry was encouraged, to remote but wider fields of usefulness.