troubled them more.

The place where Daniel Hodge now lives was first occupied by Samuel
Stephen. His father John Stephen, made a settlement at Laurens before
the Revolutionary war.

The Sleepers were from near Burlington, New Jersey. During the war
they became alarmed at the inroads of the tories and Indians, and
returned to New Jersey. On their way back, they passed through Cherry
Valley the day before the massacre. They returned to the settlement
after the war. John Sleeper had several sons. One, Nehemiah Sleeper,
built a mill below Laurens on the Otego creek, which was afterwards
known as Boyd's mill. Samuel Sleeper took up several hundred acres of
land, of which the farms of Daniel Hodge and Horace White formed a
part. He built a grist-mill and saw-mill on the Otego creek, just
below the covered bridge, this side (east) of West Oneonta. He was
said to have been an active business man, and was quite a noted
surveyor. He sold his property after some years to one David Smith,
and went to Stroudsburgh, Pa., and thence to Ohio. His oldest son,
Ephraim Sleeper, married Jane Niles, daughter of Nathaniel Niles, and
remained in the neighborhood. The latter died about twelve years ago
at West Oneonta, at an advanced age.

Other persons are mentioned by the old residents as being among the
early settlers. Samuel Green occupied a part of the farm now owned by
Joseph Bull. A man named Ticknor, another part of the same farm. One
Ogden lived where Joseph Taber now lives, about whom a few stories are
current in the neighborhood. At one time a company of Indians was
encamped at the mouth of the Otego creek, engaged in making baskets
and trinkets of various kinds. Ogden visited them for the purpose of