I want to research some of the oldest houses in Delhi. Delhi was settled after the end of the Revolutionary War, around 1784. One of the first settlers was George Fisher, a Hessian mercenary who decided to stay in America after the war. All the houses built in that period were log cabins with the first frame houses built after 1790. I believe Fisher, also spelled Fischer, lived in the block between Franklin St and Division St, Second Street and Main Street. This was one of the first areas in Delhi to be developed and was part of the Franklin Patent. The log cabins are gone now but remnants remain in some houses, especially in the basements. If anyone has info to share on Delhi houses, please email me at historian@villageofdelhiny.gov.
Recently I was surprised to read something I hadn’t noticed when I read the deed to our house. We bought our house in 1993 and I saw the deed then but didn’t really read it. I thought the house was built in 1857, a date that seemed reasonable, given the large beams in the basement and the quirky corners, a variety of materials and obvious add-ons. What the deed showed me is something more exciting. Our house was built before 1847, by GH Edgerton, who sold it in 1847 to Gideon Frisbee II, son of Judge Gideon Frisbee. Gideon Frisbee II, 1785-1857, lived here with his wife, Sarah (Sally), sons, Marshall, 1847-1864, the first child born in this house, who died in service in the Civil War, and Arthur, 1852-1910. After Gideon’s death in 1857, the house was sold to Leander Maxwell. The house next door to ours was owned at that time by Edwin Byron Frisbee, (1842-1933), son of Beardsley Frisbee, (1816-1901), grandson of Judge Frisbee, and Byron’s wife, Adaliza (Addie) Frisbee (1848-1930). I believe there have been only 5 families who have lived in our house since 1847.
Leander Maxwell bought our house in 1857. He may have been related to Ebenezer Maxwell, pastor of the 1st Presbyterian church. Leander Maxwell sold the house, when he moved out west, to the Carpenter family but there may have been one family in between. I believe there was one family whose name I don’t know. The next family to live here was Frank and Beulah Davis, and their son, Jim, aka Stubby, from 1958-1993, when my husband and I bought our house. The house is on the 1859 Beers Atlas with a much different footprint than it has now. I think it was a modest, 2 story symmetrical house, in the style of the late Federal period, facing Main Street. Franklin Street was the western edge of the Franklin Patent. Then it becomes Franklin Road leading through Treadwell, formerly known as Croton, to the Town of Franklin. They’re all named for the patent owner, William Franklin, a natural son of Benjamin Franklin, who served as the United States Ambassador to France during the Revolutionary War.
