Trumansburg History

Abner Treman (John, Joseph, Joseph) son of John and Elizabeth Sexton was born December 25, 1761 at Hillsdale, Columbia Co. N.Y., the youngest of eleven children. He married on July 30, 1785 at Alford, Mass. Mary McLallen (daughter of John McLallen born November 5, 1767. Mary was born November 5, 1767.

At the age of 16 Abaer enlisted Sept. 5,1777, as a private soldier in Capt. Aaron Rowley's Co. of Col. John Brown's Mass. Regt. serving 24 days at Northward of Pawlet. He was honorably discharged Sept 22, 1777, and after his removal to New York State he joined the 2nd Regt. of the Line; commanded by Col. Philip VanCortlandt of N Y he was assigned to the 5th Co. where he served until the end of the war.

He was one of the picked company selected by Washington himself to accompany Gen. Anthony Wayne in his hazardous and successful attack on Stony point. He also was with that brilliant young Irishman Gen. John Sullivan; with overone third of the Continental Army in his expedition in 1779 to punish the Six Nations. He was successfully corporal, sergeant, and sergeant­major; also awarded the Badge of Merit for faithful service.

Abner Treman received for his services in the Revolution six hundred acres of land located in what was then Herkimer Co. This land is now in part occupied by Trumansburg, N.Y. It was named after his family, and was once called "Tremaine's Village." In making out his commission as PostMaster, the name of the place was mispelled "Trumansburg," and so it has remained.

He came in 1792 with his wife Mary, three children, his brother Phillip and Phillip's son Benjamin; also his brother­in­law John McLallen. With his bounty warrant he took possession of his land and immediately started clearing the land. In 1794 he built a grist mill, procuring the needed machinery from Chenango Point, now Binghamton. It was on his homeward journey that he froze his feet so badly that one of them had to be amputated. The operation was performed by Dr. Lewis Halsey, then a young physician of Seneca Co., N.Y., and son of the Ho. Silas Halsey, the first physician and one of the first settlers in the county between the lakes.

He built his first log cabin on a site opposite the present M.E. Church where he subsequently built a frame house in 1806 which is still standing. The following is from the pen of a local historian from Ithaca Daily Journal Nov. 28, 1877. "Recollections of Abner Treman, the Tompkins Co. Revolutionary Hero."

"We have all read of Sullivan's expedition through this country in 1779. Abner Treman was one of the soldiers of that army when the two armies of Gen. Sullivan and Gen. James Clinton met at Tioga Point (now Athens) and formed an army of 5000 men. The battle of Chemoung was fought on August 1779 near Elmira, N.Y. Abner's son said later that his father's Col. was Col. Cortland and that he visited them at Trumansburg after they settled there.

"There are two names that will always remain green in connection with that expedition, 'Horseheads' from the number of horses' heads found there which were left by the army. 'Pony Hollow' from the number of ponies found there, that had been left by them."

Also from the Ithaca Journal is the following: "Gov. Clinton arrived at Tremaine's Village on August 10, 1810, and passed two days in Ithaca and vicinity." Concerning this locality at that date the Journal reads, "We dined at Tremaine's Village, so called from the soldier who owns the lot for military services. He resides here and is proprietor of the mills and in good circumstances. The Village has several houses, three taverns, and two or three stores, formed by a creek which runs through it. It is in the Town of Ulysses and was. formerly called Shin Hollow by some drunken fellows, who had frequented a log­tavern here and on their way home broke their shins on the bad roads."

An interesting item in this Treman Genealogy is the listing of all the deeds of his lands given by Abner Treman and recorded in Tompkins Co. Clerk's office, Ithaca, N.Y., giving the names, dates, Record Book page and consideration costs. Several of particular interest were to Trustees of Presbyterian Church Feb. 18, 1819-$150. To Herman Camp Apr. 9, 1814-$300, and to Masonic Hall in Trumansburg Abner Treman to Samuel Lewis Aug. 12, 1822 for $600.

Abner Treman was PostMaster and Justice of Peace for many years and in 1811 one of the Charter Members of the Philomathic Library. He died Aug. 18, 1823 at Mecklenburg, N.Y. Mary McLallen Treman died June 5, 1852 in Trumansburg. They were survived by eleven children.

The Rev. Lewis Halsey D.D. at the Trumansburg Reunion Aug. 18­19, 1897, printed in the Free Press of that date, "The very family whose name gave to old Trumansburg its name has almost disappeared from view in the Trumansburg we call the new."

-Harriet Jackson Swick

Registrar of Chief Taughannock Chapter

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