Note 206 — Chapter XXXIII · RETURN ON THE ERIE CANAL AND THE RIVER HUDSON TO NEW YORK—VOYAGE TO EUROPE

The site of Rome was on the Oneida portage between the Mohawk Valley and waters flowing into Lake Ontario. As early as 1756 the English had erected Fort Bull at the western extremity of the portage, but this was promptly captured and destroyed by French troops. Two years later, Fort Stanwix was erected by the British general of that name; the cost was $60,000, and the fort was heavily garrisoned until the close of the French and Indian War. In 1768 the famous treaty with the Iroquois, making a great land cession to the English colonies took place at this outpost. At the outbreak of the Revolution the name of the fort was changed to Schuyler, and the next year (1777) it was besieged by Major Barry St. Leger with a force of Indian allies; the post was finally relieved by General Benedict Arnold. The first settler near the fort was a German, Johann Reuff (or Roof). He fled at the time of the siege, and the place was without inhabitants until 1785-87, when New England colonists began to arrive. The site of Rome was purchased by a New York merchant named Lynch who laid out a town (1796) and called it Lynchburg; this was later changed for the classic cognomen, and the village of Rome incorporated in 1819.—Ed.