History of Cayuga County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 7

Author: Storke, Elliot G., 1811-1879. cn
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 762

USA > New York > Cayuga County > History of Cayuga County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 7

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Scipio, from the Military Tract, March 5, 1794; Sempronius, from the Military Tract, March 9, 1799 ; Sennett,* from Brutus, March 19, 1827 ; Springport,f from Scipio, January 30, 1823 ; Sterling,¿ from Cato, June 19, 1812 ; Summer Hill, from Locke, as Plato, April 26, 1831, name changed March 16, 1832 ; Throop, from parts of Aurelius, Mentz and Sennett, April 8, 1859; Venice, from Scipio, January 30, 1823 ; Victory,§ from Cato, March 16, 1821.

TOPOGRAPHY OF THE TOWNS .- In the town of Sempronius is the highest land in the county, rising to the height of 1,700 feet above tide. The hills ascend sharply from the shores of Skan- eateles Lake to a height above the valley, of from 800 to 1,000 feet. Deep valleys have been cut through the drift and shales in this town, by Mill, Swamp and Fall Brooks.

In Summer Hill, the surface lies from 1, 000 to 1, 100 feet above tide, and the valley of Fall Brook is from 300 to 400 feet below.

In Niles the highest elevation is 1470 feet above tide and 700 feet above Owasco Lake. The hills of Moravia rise between 300 and 400 feet above the flats and their sides are often steep and precipitous. The mean elevation of the hills of Locke, is about 1000 feet above tide, while they rise from 300 to 400 feet above the valleys, through which the Cayuga Inlet flows ; but they spread out into fine undulating uplands. In Genoa, the highest land is 1000 feet above tide, and 670 above Cayuga Lake, from which it grad- ually rises. The ridges, running north and south through the town, are divided by the two valleys, through which flow the Big and Little Salmon Creeks; the ridges rising from 50 to 150 feet above them.

In Owasco, the land rises gradually from the lake to an extreme height of about 500 feet.

Scipio has a high rolling or level and generally feasible surface for cultivation, lying on the sum- mit of its range of towns, the drainage from it being both to the north and south. It rises gradually about 500 feet above Owasco Lake at its

* So named from the conquest or success of the party favoring the division over their opponents.

* So named in honor of Judge Daniel Sennett, an early and enter- prising settler of the town,

+ So named from two celebrated springs, which unite and form the water power of the village of Union Springs.

# So named in honor of Lord Sterling, of Revolutionary fame.

§ So named because of the success, or victory, of the party favor- ing the division, over their opponents.

TOPOGRAPHY OF THE TOWNS.

highest points, except near its shores, along which extends a steep bluff.

In Ledyard from its eastern boundary, where it rises about 500 feet above the lake, the land gradually declines to its shores. Numerous small streams flow through it into the lake.

In Venice are deep valleys running north and south, near the center of the town, and through which the Big and Little Salmon Creeks flow. Its highest summits rise from 300 to 400 feet above Owasco Lake. Its general surface is a roll- ing upland, but on the lake and the west bank of Salmon Creek the declivities are abrupt.

Fleming has a northerly and easterly incli- nation sloping towards the lake for three-fourths of a mile with a rolling surface, easily cultivated. Its ridges run north and south, and rise from 150 to 250 feet above the lake.

Springport rises gradually from Cayuga Lake, to an elevation between 400 and 500 feet, with a generally plane or moderately rolling surface

Such is the general topography of the twelve towns lying south of the city of Auburn. We will now present the topography of the northern towns of the County, with some contrasts between them and the southern towns.

Lake Ontario, on the northern border, is 232 feet above tide water, and 155 feet lower than the surface of Cayuga Lake.

The highest ridges in the town of Sterling, rise 200 feet above the lake, and are therefore 532 feet above tide, or about 1200 feet below the highest elevation in the County in the town of Sempronius ; and 350 feet below the table lands of Scipio. Sterling has a slight northerly incli- nation, and its streams flow into the Little and Big Sodus Bays. Courtright Brook and Little Sodus Creek are the principal streams. Little Sodus Bay is two miles long and one mile wide, and furnishes one of the finest harbors on the shore of the lake. The water is of ample depth, it is thoroughly land-locked by the high lands on three sides, and its entrance has been improved by liberal appropriations by the general govern- ment. It is elsewhere fully described .*

East of the bay is a large swamp, embracing several hundred acres, and also another in the south part of the town. Some parts of the town are exceedingly stony and difficult of cultivation.

The surface of the town of Victory is but mod-

erately uneven, the hills not exceeding fifty feet in height. In the south-west part is a large swamp. As in Sterling, so in this town, some parts of it are very stony.

In Ira, also, the surface is gently undulating, the hills rising from fifty to seventy-five feet above the valleys.

Cato has no elevation exceeding fifty feet above the valleys, and not above two hundred feet above Lake Ontario. Seneca River bounds the town on the south, along which the land is flat and subject to overflow. Cross Lake is a body of shallow water, five miles long by one broad, into, and from which, the Seneca River flows. Otter Lake is about two miles long and Parker's Pond, of circular form, is about one mile in diameter, the outlets from both, flowing into Seneca River. Along the river, in this town, the ground is low and swampy and subject to inundation. That part of the town of Conquest which borders upon Seneca River, is low and swampy and subject to overflow, and a swamp about eighty rods wide extends from the river through the town.

Duck Lake, in the north-west part of the town, is about one mile in diameter. The general sur- face of the town is rolling upland. Howland's Island, in the south-west corner of the town, formed by a branch of Seneca River which sur- rounds two thousand seven hundred acres, was owned by Humphrey Howland, and descended to his son Penn. It has now passed into other hands. Nearly one-third of its exterior surface bordering the river is low and swampy and the balance rolling and fine upland.

The north-western and northern parts of Bru- tus are level, rising but a few feet above the level of Seneca River, by which considerable portions are overflowed. It is exceedingly rich and pro- ductive. In the southern and south-eastern parts rise frequent and very fertile drift-hills, from fifty to seventy-five feet above the general surface. Cold Spring Brook, in the western part of the town, rising in the Tyler Spring in Auburn, and Bread, or Putnam Brook, flowing centrally through the town, and having its head-waters in the town of Owasco, are the principal streams ; the latter is a canal feeder, and both empty into the Seneca River.

That part of the town of Mentz, which lies upon the Seneca River is low and more or less swampy ; in the south rise fertile drift-ridges.

* See History Town of Sterling.

GEOLOGICAL FORMATION OF THE TOWNS.

The Owasco Outlet flows through the center of the town, and furnishes a very valuable water power.

The town of Montezuma 'is enclosed on its western and northern sides by the Seneca River, which at the north-western corner of the town, turns sharply to the east, sending a northerly arm around Howland's Island. The surface of this town is generally low and flat, but where it is susceptible of cultivation it is exceedingly fer- tile in the grasses and all the grains that are cul- tivated. This town is rich in its exhaustless deposits of alluvium, drained for thousands of years from the surface of Cayuga, Seneca, Yates, Ontario, and Wayne counties, and stored here for the use of man, and which, it is believed, will be utilized to restore the exhausted fertility of the bordering upland, and as in Holland and Belgium, be converted, with less labor than there, into one of the most valuable and productive regions of the globe.

The "Cayuga Marshes," extending along the Seneca River in Aurelius, Montezuma and Mentz, embrace about forty thousand acres, and in the opinion of the State Geologist, are under- laid by shell marl .*

This marl is an excellent fertilizer, being ex- ceedingly rich in animal and mineral phosphates ; and efforts are now being made to utilize it and give it a commercial value. The deposit extends in places to a great depth, and covers immense areas, being practically inexhaustible. Along the canal in the town of Mentz, a little west of Port Byron, works have recently been erected for the purpose of preparing it for the market. Similar works have been in operation for a longer period just across the Seneca River, in Seneca county, a little above Montezuma, and considerable quantities have been shipped to New York both in the crude and manufactured state.

Montezuma also abounds in salt springs, from which large quantities of salt have, at different periods, been made; but its manufacture has been abandoned owing to the superior strength of the Onondaga brines. The town of Aure- lius is flat or gently undulating, with many drift- hills, gradually inclining to the north and west, and is one of the best agricultural towns in the County. Owasco Outlet, and Cayuga and Crane Brooks, are the principal streams.

Sennett has a level or gently rolling surface, the slopes of the hills being long and gradual, rising from 50 to 100 feet above the valleys. There is very little swamp or waste land, and it is one of the most fertile and best cultivated towns in the county.

CHAPTER VII.

GEOLOGY, SOIL, CLIMATE AND PRODUCTIONS.

GEOLOGICAL FORMATION OF THE SEVERAL TOWNS-SOIL OF THE CENTRAL AND NORTH- ERN TOWNS-FORMATION OF OUR BEST WHEAT LANDS-SOILS OF THE SOUTHERN TOWNS- THE DAIRY REGION-THE GRAIN GROWING REGION-EFFECT OF LAKE ONTARIO ON THE SNOW FALL - COMPARATIVE STATISTICS IN DIFFERENT TOWNS-AGRICULTURAL RANK OF CAYUGA COUNTY IN THE STATE.

G EOLOGY .*- The lowest rocks of the X County are the Medina sandstone, out- cropping on the shore of Lake Ontario in the town of Sterling ; and the highest are the Por- tage and Ithaca groups, crowning the tops of the hills in the south part of the county. Between them successively appear, in an ascending order, the Oneida conglomerate, and Clinton groups in the south part of Sterling ; in Victory is the Lockport group ; in Cato, Brutus, Conquest and Mentz, the red shales of the Onondaga salt . group ; in Auburn, Aurelius and Springport, and along the Cayuga Lake and its outlet, are gypsum beds of the same group ; in Owasco, Auburn, Fleming and Springport, the water-lime and Oriskany sandstone ; and above them suc- cessively appear the Onondaga and corniferous limestone, the Marcellus and Hamilton shales, Tully limestone, Genesee slate, and the Portage and Ithaca groups.

In Sterling, the Medina sandstone and the Oneida conglomerate are quarried for building purposes. In Victory, the blue limestone and red shale are covered by deep drift. Ira is under- laid by the Medina sandstone, and Conquest and

*See History of town of Montezuma, where this subject is more fully considered.

* The geological peculiarities of the several towns, will be found in connection with their local history.

SOILS OF THE COUNTY.

Cato are underlaid with disintegrated red shales. Montezuma is underlaid with the rocks of the Onondaga salt group, in which appear the red, green and yellow shales. In this group are found all the gypsum masses of Central New York.

In Mentz, the underlying rocks are red shale, gypsum and limestone of the Onondaga salt group. In Brutus, plaster beds exist and have been worked to some extent. In Sennett, lime- stone has been quarried for building purposes, and burned into lime. In Auburn, the Onon- daga limestone has been extensively quarried for the construction of its public and private build- ings. It underlies the whole region, and its out- crop appears in various places covered with thin layers of earth and easily accessible. The same is true of Aurelius and Springport. Water-lime also abounds in Auburn, and has been consider- ably used as cement. In Springport are found and worked the most extensive plaster beds in the county, and there too are extensively quarried the best varieties of limestone both for building purposes and for quick-lime. This is the south- ern boundary of the limestone region of the county.

SOIL .- The soil of the different parts of the County is exceedingly various. From the allu- vial lands, and extensive flats that border the Seneca River, to the lofty hill ranges in the south and south-eastern parts of the county, there is found nearly every variety of productive soil, yielding a varied and rich return to the cultiva- tors. The central and northern towns abound in drift-hills, the soil of which is mainly formed from the decomposition of the shales that under- lie them, and are composed of very similar mate- rials. They are, generally, of gradual and mod- erate elevation and all are highly productive. The soil of these hills, generally, is a fine quality of sandy and gravelly loam,* with a due admix- ture of clay. Their texture is such as to permit the free admission of air and percolation of water.

Our best wheat lands are those over which the materials worn off in the geologic ages from our limestone formation have been most largely deposited Aurelius and Springport furnish,

perhaps, the most complete illustration of this statement of any of the towns of the County ; although the composition of most of the drift hills in the northern and central towns, is such as to produce large crops and a fine quality of wheat, the same being true of Ledyard, Venice and Genoa.

In Springport and Ledyard there are but little waste lands and their natural drainage is good. Ledyard has a general north-westerly aspect, in- clining to and bordering upon Cayuga Lake. The lake is here about three miles wide, the water deep, seldom freezing in winter, thus modifying the climate and affecting the productions of the lands that border upon it. The soil of Ledyard is a sandy and clayey loam and very fertile. The soil of Genoa along the lake is clayey, but else- where consists of a rich sandy and gravelly loam which is very productive. The soil of Venice is of a fine quality of clayey and gravelly loam ; in that of Summer Hill the clay predominates. In Sempronius we find a good quality of clayey, sandy and gravelly loam, with a mixture of dis- integrated slate and limestone. In Niles, the soil is a gravelly and clayey loam, producing fine crops of grain and grass. In Locke and Mora- via, the soil among the hills consists of a gravelly loam, mixed with clay; in the valleys, it is a deep rich loam formed of gravel and disintegrated slate and limestone.

The soil of the County, from its great variety, is, consequently, adapted to the various products which are successfully cultivated in Central New York. The four south-eastern towns, Moravia, Locke, Summer Hill and Sempronius, and a part of Niles, are better adapted to pasturage and dairy products than to the production of grain. All the towns of the County north of, and in- cluding Owasco, Fleming and Aurelius, except- ing the Seneca River basin, are largely composed of drift hills, having a generally northerly and southerly range ; nearly all have a deep soil and were originally covered with a heavy growth of forest trees. Some of them have now been under cultivation for three-fourths of a century, and with undiminished productiveness. They give rise to springs of pure water and produce rich and sweet grasses, and grains of the finest quali- ty Those who dwell upon them are above the " fogs of the valleys," breathe a pure and whole- some atmosphere, and are thus physically invigor-

* Loams are composed of sand, clay and lime, and of animal and vegetable matters in a state of intimate mixture, the clay varying from twenty to fifty per cent., and the lime rarely exceeding five per cent. They are our richest and best soils.

CLIMATE AND PRODUCTIONS.

ated, while their minds are elevated and enlivened by varied and beautiful landscapes.

This is the great grain producing section of the County. The dairy region is mainly in the towns of Moravia, Locke, Summer Hill and Sempronius. The fruit producing section, in its greatest excel- lence, is found on the borders of the lakes, al- though fine fruits are grown in nearly all the towns. All the grains, grasses and fruits of the region, excepting the peach and winter wheat, are successfully grown, the latter failing in a few localities only.

CLIMATE .- The great difference in elevation of the different parts of the County, and their proximity to, or distance from the lakes, make quite a variation in climate. The difference is especially manifest in the greater depth and longer continuance of snow in winter, and the later maturity of crops in the more elevated towns. In the entire south-eastern section of the County, including the towns of Scipio, Niles, and a part of Owasco and Moravia, Locke, Summer Hill, and Sempronius, the snows of winter fall earlier, are deeper and longer continued, than in the central towns, while in the towns of Sterling, Ira, and Victory, and to a less extent in Conquest and Cato, a greater fall of snow also occurs, than in the central towns ; but, in this case, from a different cause than increased elevation. Lake Ontario is always open in winter, and its waters, warmer than the air, are constantly discharging vapors that, when driven by the prevailing north- westerly winds over the land, are congealed and descend upon it in snow. These snow storms gather over the lake, on gusty days, like sum- mer thunder showers and pour their fleecy con- tents over the land in the range of the winds, intermitting with them.

The difference in altitude between the Cayuga Lake basin and the Sempronius summit, is thir- teen hundred and thirteen feet, and of the Lake Ontario basin, fourteen hundred and sixty-three feet. Experiments have shown that every three hundred feet of elevation, produces a variation of about one degree in temperature ; the difference in temperature, therefore, between these locali- ties arising solely from the comparative elevation should be over four degrees ; but the deep, broad, unfrozen and comparatively warm waters of On- tario and Cayuga Lakes exert a modifying in- fluence upon the air passing over them, thus

keeping its temperature at a higher range, which is shown in the earlier maturity of grains and fruits, and in the less quantity, and earlier disap- pearance of snows. In the high table lands rising from 500 to 600 feet above the lake in Scipio, Venice, Genoa, etc., the average temperature is several degrees lower, and in consequence, more injury to vegetation results from frosts while there is a greater depth and longer continuance of snow and a later maturity of crops.

PRODUCTIONS .- These differences in Geologi- cal formations, elevation, soil and climate, result necessarily, in marked differences in the kinds, qualities and quantities of the crops grown in the several towns. In the following towns, the lead- ing interest is dairying, as shown by the census of 1875. In the five towns of Niles, Moravia, Locke, Summer Hill and Sempronius, there were in 1875. 6,987 cows, and but 4,416 sheep, nearly twice as many cows as sheep ; while in the five larger towns of Ledyard, Scipio, Springport, Aurelius and Fleming, there were but 3,514 cows, and 13,309 sheep, or a proportion of sheep to the cows, eight times greater than in the five former towns.

The five south-eastern towns raised but 54,491 bushels of winter wheat in 1874, while the five other towns named raised 233,782 bushels, or a quantity more than four times greater. Sempronius and Summer Hill together raised but 250 acres of win- ter wheat in 1874. The five south-eastern towns raised a larger proportion of Indian corn, 141,310 bushels, while Scipio and the four other towns raised 257,231 bushels. Sempronius, though one of the smaller towns, mowed 4,736 acres, and plowed but 2061 acres. Springport mowed but 1,782, and plowed 3,366, mowing less than half as much ground as Sempronius. Niles had the greatest number of milch cows, 1,686, Moravia next, 1,519, while, of the country towns, Spring- port had the smallest number, 483. Of wheat Aurelius produced the largest quantity, 71,359 bushels, over one-tenth of the entire product of the County ; Cato ranked second, with 53,331 bushels ; Springport third, with 50,273. Con- quest leads in the production of Indian corn, pro- ducing 107,412 bushels ; Genoa next, with 82,945 bushels ; Cato third, with 72,981 bushels. Ster- ling produced the greatest quantity of oats, 83,160 bushels ; Genoa, 78,377 ; and Venice, 74,606. Of potatoes, Sterling produced a much

COMPARATIVE STATISTICS.

larger quantity than any other town, 88,846 bushels, and Sennett, 62,207 bushels.

Ira produced the most apples, 80,471 bushels; Victory next, 67,940 ; Sterling next, 64,116; while the otherwise agriculturally rich town of Springport is credited with but 8,971. Moravia is credited with the largest production of hay, 6,094 tons; Niles, with 6,086; and Sterling, with 5,806 tons. Scipio leads in the production of barley, with 37,569 bushels ; Aurelius, with 33,- 628 ; and Cato, with 33,197. Ira sent to the cheese factories the milk of 535 cows ; Moravia, 458; and Sempronius, 291. Conquest made in her fam- ilies 17,381 pounds of cheese; Owasco, 9,250; and Sennett, 8,299 ; while Moravia made but 525 pounds. Niles leads in the production of butter, 234,973 pounds; Moravia next, 195,195 ; Sem- pronius, 194,435, and the small town of Summer Hill, 186,613, more than the two large towns of Brutus and Cato combined.

In comparison with the other grain growing counties of the State, Cayuga holds a very high rank as to the quantity produced per acre of land, which is the true test of agricultural excel- lence. Of the four great staples, winter wheat, Indian corn, oats and hay, she stands at or near the head of all the grain-growing counties, and the few counties that excel her do so but in small degree. In winter wheat Cayuga is fifth, in In- dian corn, fourth, in oats, fourth, and in hay, fifth. Of winter wheat the State at large averages 16. 16 bushels per acre, Cayuga, 18.55. Of Indian corn the average of the State is 32.33; Cayuga pro- duces 40.77. Of hay the State average is I. 1 3 tons per acre, Cayuga, 1.27. Of oats the State averages 28.59 bushels, Cayuga, 34.13. Wheat, Indian corn, hay and oats, constitute the source of nine-tenths of the wealth annually drawn from the soil. The corn, aside from the quantity annually marketed, is largely fed to animals, and forms the basis of the pork, beef, fowls, etc .; while the hay, an index also of pasturage, is the great source of the dairy interest of the County.

The study of the census of 1875, one of the most careful ever made in the State, will we be- lieve, deeply interest the agriculturists of the County, and convince them that their lines have indeed fallen in pleasant places ; that they occupy a section of the State as fertile and productive as any within its borders. That the farmers of the County are disposed to keep up the fertility of

their lands is shown by another short but com- prehensive paragraph in the census, viz .: that Cayuga County used more fertilizers in 1875 than any other two of the rural counties of the State.

In a succeeding chapter we shall give a his- tory of the efforts made to improve the agricul- ture of the County, and a full detail of its pro- ductions from the census of 1875.

CHAPTER VIII.

TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION.

EARLY MODES OF TRAVEL-DIFFICULTIES EN- COUNTERED-WESTERN INLAND LOCK NAVI- GATION CO .- CANAL PROJECTED-SURVEYS- EARLY ROADS-STAGES-FREIGHT WAGONS ERIE CANAL-ITS IMPORTANCE-RAILROADS -COMPARED WITH CANALS.

T 'HE routes over which the early settlers came to Cayuga County, and by which their families and their household and other goods were transported, were circuitous, rude and toilsome in the extreme.

The first summer route was by water from Schenectady to Cayuga and Seneca Lakes. The Hudson River furnished a feasible means of reach- ing Albany ; but between that point and the mouth of the Mohawk so many difficulties were to be met, that the river was abandoned and the land route taken, a distance of sixteen miles over the sand-barrens, very difficult to traverse. At Schenectady the Mohawk was taken to near the Little Falls, fifty-six miles distant ; and on this part of the route the navigation was compara- tively easy, the current was gentle and the water sufficiently deep for the flat-bottomed boats used upon it.

At Little Falls a portage of three-fourths of a mile was encountered, through a rocky gorge, over the jagged surface of which a rude and crooked way was made, and over it were carried by men the canoes and light boats, while the heavier boats were drawn by oxen. These larger boats were from twenty to thirty feet long, and from four to six feet wide, flat-bottomed and of

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History of Cayuga County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 7

Author: Storke, Elliot G., 1811-1879. cn Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason Number of Pages: 762

Author: Storke, Elliot G., 1811-1879. cn
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 762