Was Fort Hill in Oxford merely a fort? Or was it a sacred site?
Fort Hill is the hill east of the Chenango River where the bridge crosses in the Village. This is where the library, fire station, Behe Funeral Home, and the United Church stand today on the aptly named Fort Hill Park.
The first Euro-Americans in this area called things using their European vocabulary. A stockade was called a "fort" or a "castle". Fort Hill had no stockade (a perimeter of closely spaced vertical logs). Nevertheless, it looked as if it should have, so it was called a fort.
The earliest description is by DeWitt Clinton (1769-1828) in an 1817 letter to Doctor Samuel L. Mitchell. Part of this letter is quoted in Clark's 1850 History of Chenango County (1) on page 6. It is too long to reproduce here, its essence follows.
Clinton called it a "fort" and said it was on the east side of the Chenango River in the Village of Oxford. About 2 or 3 acres of land was about 30 feet higher than the flat land around it. This land stretched for about 50 rods (825 feet) along the riverbank. The fort was situated at the southwesterly end, covering about 3 rods (49.5 feet) of a straight, almost perpendicular riverbank. Clinton included a drawing, which resembles a capital D. The straight vertical line is the riverbank and the curve is a ditch, 4 feet deep; at both corners are entrances which he called "gateways". This area is now where the library is located.
A large, dead pine tree trunk stood 50 or 60 feet tall. When cut, it had 195 annual rings. Because the tree was dead, Clinton estimated that the tree much was much older, perhaps 300 or 400 years old. Its roots were shaped to the ditch, indicating that the ditch was older. Decorated potsherds were found.
Clinton did not say when this tree was first found, but the first settler was General Benjamin Hovey who built a cabin on Fort Hill in 1790(2). That would place the fort in 1400-1500 AD. He mentions that no wood structures were found and he does not mention stone structures.
Smith's History of Chenango County 1880 also describes Fort Hill (3, page 254) but he merely repeats some of Clark.
I write about Fort Hill because it has some similarities with the Sacred Site I described on this blog in my post of 27 June 2012. Fort Hill is about 4.2 direct miles from that site. It is about 6.6 direct miles from the Castle, also described by Clark on pages 6, 8, 17 (1). Perhaps these sites are somehow related. Remarkably, they are on an almost straight line!
1. Clark, Hiram C. History of Chenango County. 1850. 122 pages.
2. Stafford, Charlotte. A Chronology of Oxford Happenings 1788-1950.
3. Smith, James H. History of Chenango County. 1880. 488 pages.
=================================================
