DORMANT VILLAGES.

The old turnpikes are but little traveled at the present time, and the rattling stage-coaches have vanished, and in their stead the screeching, puffing iron-horse, before long trains of moving palaces, wind around the hills, occasionally crossing the old roads, but unblushingly pass on without "paying toll" at the rate of speed that would leave the "Jehu's" of other days far back in the shade, wondering what will come next. The grass nearly covers the old road-bed--gloom is written upon the crumbling mile-stones, and this small hamlet, as many others along the turnpike lines that were once so busy, is growing grey with the moss of inactivity.

Most of the route taken by the railroad through Sharon and Seward was surveyed for the Erie Canal before its construction along the Mohawk, to intersect the Hudson at Catskill, upon the supposition that the distance would be lessened from Buffalo to tidewater by cutting across from Utica. If this route had been established, Catskill would have been today what Albany is, as a business center.

In visiting Leesville we find a few aged ones remaining as links of the past, but none as active as Mathew Ottman, at the age of eighty-one. Accompanying him in a walk of one mile and one half over railroad ties, we found him too active to make the walk agreeable to us, whose years are but half of his. He assured us he chopped his two cords of wood each day the last winter, and "did his chores." While a young man, his strength was great, as upon a wager he carried eleven bushels of wheat across the barn floor. He stood upon his hands and knees, while others piled the bags upon his back, and carried the eleven bushels without faltering. Mr. Ottman's father was William Ottman, one of the three brothers that were taken prisoners in the fall of 1782, as stated in the Seward Chapter, and is a genuine type of the early settlers, not gigantic in size,but of medium height and muscular. He is a consistent member of the Lutheran church, and was instrumental in the building of the same at this place by his liberality and labors. This organization is called the "Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Reformation, of Leesville."

Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Reformation, of Leesville --This church was organized by Rev. Philip Weiting, in 1853. The first officers were:

    Trustees -- Mathew Ottman, John H. Snyder and Sebastian Fonda.

    Deacons -- Mathew Ottman and J. H. Snyder.

    Clerk -- Peter A. Ham.

The following were pastors:

    P. Weiting

    George Young

    M. Kling

    William H. Sheldon

    Jacob Rosenbergh

    G. W. Hemperly

    Chauncey Diefendorf

    James Weaver 

    Samuel Bruce

    A. L. Bridgman