ble of retaining a post office. But Mr. McAuley's church at one time, more than sixty years ago, had five hundred members, and was said to be the largest church society west of the Hudson valley.
"A change occurred with the digging of the Erie Canal and the building of the Erie Railway. Morever, in 1834 was built a turnpike from North Kortright through the Charlotte Valley to Oneonta. The white man having tried a route of his own over the hills, reverted to the route which the red man had marked out for him ages before. Much easier was the grade by this river road, and this fact exercised a marked influence on the fortunes of the settlements along the olden line. Freight wagons were drawn off and sent by the easier way. Stages followed the new turnpike and the country between Wattles's Ferry and Kortright retrograded as rapidly as it had formerly improved.[1]
"The building of the Catskill Turnpike really led to the founding of Unadilla vil-
- ↑ A stage line, however, for long years afterward supplied these settlements with a means of communication with Unadilla, and it is within the memory of many
