Between 1783 and 1797 agricultural produce from your area most likely was shipped northward on the Genesee River or to the south shore of Lake Ontario by land, then by batteau eastward to Oswego, up the Oswego River to Three Rivers, eastward up the Oneida River to Oneida Lake, then up tiny Wood Creek to Rome (Fort Stanwix), and there portaged into the Upper Mohawk, with the boat, and then down the Mohawk River to Schenectady, then by wagon 16 miles to Albany, then by river sloop to NYC, then to Europe (potash). Parts of the cargo could be sold at any point along the way.

Between 1797 and 1800 the same route, except that with the opening of the Rome Canal in 1797, larger Durham boats could make the passage into the Mohawk without portaging, and could also by-pass the Little Falls rapids through the 1795 Little Falls Canal. They still had to go from Schenectady to Albany by wagon.

After 1800, with the opening of the Genesee Turnpike, it is likely that in good weather they might have shipped by road, at least to Utica, and then by Durham boat to Schenectady.

However, you may be at the margins of profitability for potash and other products if taken all the way to Schenectady. Cost was based on days spent paying boatmen, so the further away the market, the less profit. Kingston, Ontario, was an viable alternate, when there wasn't warfare or embargo to deal with.

Philip Lord, Jr.
New York State Museum
Albany, NY 12230
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Website: http://www.nysm.nysed.gov

>>> [log in to unmask] 03/13 9:56 PM >>>
I have a question regarding the markets that would have been available to
a cluster of New Englanders who in about 1789 settled the area that is now
present-day East Bloomfield in Ontario County (NY).

Does any one know where they would have sold/traded their first crops?
And What were those first crops Wheat? Potash? Livestock?

I ask this question because I am tracking the members of a single family
who settled in several parts of the New York backcountry all at the same
moment (1789). The other members of the family stayed much closer to
Albany, and so they would have had relatively easy access to markets
for their goods (which appear to have been wheat and potash). The
brother who went to East Bloomfield got hold of very good land--but it
would appear (to me at any rate) that he had far overstepped the limits of
the Albany market. Where else might they have traded? were their any
particular crops/products that were particular to that locale?

thanks for suggestions

Ian McGiver