This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: DeMott Classification: Biography Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/SRB.2ACE/12173.2 Message Board Post: Joseph Strong and John DeMotte settled in the town in 1809. The former located in the north-west part, on the farm now occupied by George Belden, where he raised a family of nine children and died at the age of 71; the latter came from Chenango county in the fall, with an ox team and sled, bearing his wife and five children, and located on the north half of lot 5, on Cassadaga Creek. Mr. DeMotte brought with him a quantity of apple seeds, with which he started a nursery, and in a few years set out an orchard, from which he began to harvest apples about 1822. Some of these trees, though old and scared, continue to bear fruit. Daniel, the oldest son of De Motte, was somewhat eccentric, though he was quite intelligent and displayed much ingenuity. In his younger days he spent much time in trying to solve the problem of the feasibility of a perpetual motion and his efforts were not relaxed until he demonstrated the fallacy of his theories. He subsequently turned his ingenuity to practical account by constructing a gristmill in the lower story of his house, the motire power for which was supplied by a small spring brook. The stones, which were about eighteen inches in diameter, were made from rock obtained on the farm, and, unlike ordinary mill stones, which run in a horizontal position, they were hung perpendicularly and discharged the flour in the same manner as the domestic coffee mill. The mill was fed with such precision that only three grains of corn mere admitted at one time. It would run night and day with a very small quantity of water, and roundabout three bushels of corn in twenty-four hours into excellent meal. As it was designed for his own use and convenience he did not seek the patronage of his neighbors, though when his own grinding was done he was always willing to accommodate them, without exacting fee or toll.

Loraine I have to again commend you for this fantastic data on the Red Bird Cemetery; I have a bit of my own family there and grew up in that area so I am more interested than in most others; I keep finding these "lost" families like the DEMOTT and have to go find the REST of them, but your online work is just great; What is next for us? Dee ----- Original Message ----- From: <loraine92532@hotmail.com> To: <NYCHAUTA-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, December 11, 2005 7:55 AM Subject: [NYCHAUTA] Re: the DEMOTT family of Ellery and in Red Bird; > Surnames: DeMott > Classification: Biography > > Message Board URL: > > http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/SRB.2ACE/12173.2 > >