USA > New York > Wayne County > History of Central New York : embracing Cayuga, Seneca, Wayne, Ontario, Tompkins, Cortland, Schuyler, Yates, Chemung, Steuben, and Tioga Counties, Volume I > Part 17
USA > New York > Cayuga County > History of Central New York : embracing Cayuga, Seneca, Wayne, Ontario, Tompkins, Cortland, Schuyler, Yates, Chemung, Steuben, and Tioga Counties, Volume I > Part 17
USA > New York > Seneca County > History of Central New York : embracing Cayuga, Seneca, Wayne, Ontario, Tompkins, Cortland, Schuyler, Yates, Chemung, Steuben, and Tioga Counties, Volume I > Part 17
USA > New York > Ontario County > History of Central New York : embracing Cayuga, Seneca, Wayne, Ontario, Tompkins, Cortland, Schuyler, Yates, Chemung, Steuben, and Tioga Counties, Volume I > Part 17
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Amputations: Femur, $25; os humeri, $20; reducing simple fracture, $5; reducing compound fracture, $6; dislocation femur, $8; dislocation os humerus, $10; lancing abcess, 50 cents to $3; introducing catheter, $1; trepanning, $20; lithotomy, $30; in- troducing suture, 25 cents; obstetric operations, natural, $4; obstetric operations, preternatural, $5; introducing trocar, $2; reducing hernia, $5; amputating breast, $10; phymosis paraphi- mosis, $1; introducing the variola, $2; dressing wounds in gen- eral, 50 cents to $1; consultation with any gentleman of the profession, $5.
Indicative of the strong beliefs of early doctors is the follow- ing resolution adopted by the Tioga society in 1858:
"Resolved: That there is an orthodox faith in medicine, as well as in theology, and while each allows great latitude of opin- ion, there is a point beyond which none can step without sacri- ficing the benefits which may flow from either.
"Resolved: That in our opinion Spiritualism is but the culmi- nating point of a delusion which had its beginning in mesmerism, its progress through homeopathy: therefore, those who have given their countenance to the latter are responsible for the effects of the former."
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America's first woman physician appeared on the all-male medical horizon more than eighty years ago in Central New York, when Miss Elizabeth Blackwell was admitted to the old Geneva Medical College as a result of what male students be- lieved to be a hoax. The story of that first woman doctor is in- tertwined with the history of the first medical schools in the area.
The dean of the Geneva school, on receiving Miss Blackwell's application for admission to the regular course, was much troubled and to dispose of the unprecedented request, decided to leave the matter of admission to the student body. But the stu- dents, thinking the request was a hoax, returned a hilarious chorus of "ayes." Then, in the spirit of sport, they drew up a solemn document pledging themselves to welcome the woman medic with all courtesy and consideration. To their amazement she came in the flesh. The students kept their word, greeting her cordially, but townspeople were scandalized.
Miss Blackwell's appearance into the realm of medicine re- calls the history of early medical schools. In 1824 Dr. Arastus Tuttle, Auburn prison physician, began such a school in that city, continuing educational lectures to students until his death five years later. Associates sought to carry on, but the establishment of a medical department at Hobart College, Geneva, influenced the Legislature to deny Auburn's application for a college charter and the project dropped.
But the Geneva College was instituted by Legislative Act of 1834, and at the start classes were conducted at Hobart. In 1841, following an appropriation of $15,000 from the state, the college was established in a building on the east side of Main Street. The most prosperous period for the Geneva institution was from 1840 to 1850. The school was discontinued in 1872, going to form the medical department of Syracuse University. In 1877 the old building was destroyed by fire. In its career the college grad- uated 632 physicians, including America's first woman doctor.
The Geneva College's woman graduate, Miss Blackwell, later founded the Women's Medical College of Philadelphia, the first women's medical school in America. So great was the prejudice against women physicians that a few years later when Miss
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Blackwell's sister applied for entrance to the Geneva Medical College, her request was denied.
A distinguishing event in the history of the medical profes- sion of Central New York was the establishment at Watkins Glen of one of the most famous spas in the world-the Glen Springs, known as the Bad Neuheim of America. The institu- tion was developed by William Elderkin Leffingwell, born in Au- rora, New York, July 10, 1855, and who died at the Glen Springs October 12, 1927. Since that time the great health resort has been under direction of his son, William M. Leffingwell.
From about the year 1885 to 1890 the method of treating chronic diseases of the heart, commonly known as Neuheim Treatment, was brought prominently to the attention of physi- cians through the writings of Dr. Schott, Prof. Bencke and others. The chief hydrotherapeutic measure employed is the immersion of the patient in the full bath of natural ferruginous alkaline saline water, the most important medicinal constituent, of which are the chlorides of sodium, calcium, magnesium, potas- sium and ammonium; iron bicarbonate, sodium bromide and car- bonic acid gas. The attention of Dr. Leffingwell had been at- tracted to the region about the head of Seneca Lake by the repu- tation of the Deer Lick spring and traditions of other saline springs in the vicinity. The medicinal properties of the Deer Lick spring had been recognized since the time of early settlers and over seventy-five years ago the project to utilize this spring under medical supervision was undertaken by the establishment of a water cure.
In 1889, while Mr. Leffingwell was investigating the property with a view to the establishment of a health resort along the lines of the European spas, an analysis of water from a well located near the Deer Lick spring, which had been drilled and aban- doned many years before was brought to him by the late George G. Hill.
The analysis had been made by Prof. Lattimore of the Uni- versity of Rochester at the time the well was drilled by pros- pectors boring for oil. The oil venture failed and Prof. Latti- more's analysis shattered the hopes of promoters as to the value
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of the brine for making salt, on account of the large percentage of chloride of calcium it contained. At the close of the analysis Prof. Lattimore said :
"This brine differs from all I have ever analyzed and also I think from nearly all whose analyses have been reported, in the very large percentage of calcium chloride."
The similarity of the waters from this well to the Neuheim waters, especially to Sprudel No. 15, together with the valua- able medicinal properties of Deer Lick spring for drinking pur- poses, led to the purchase of the property now known as the Glen Springs. The possession of these springs, and the fact that this was the first establishment in America to recognize the value of the Neuheim Treatment and inaugurate its use, has asso- ciated with the Glen Springs the name "The American Neuheim."
Near the Glen Springs, located above Watkins Glen, is a nine hole golf course, over 3,000 yards in length. This course is owned and operated by the Glen Springs, which resort occupies an estate of 1,100 acres, comprising the golf course, dairy farm, vegetable gardens, poultry farm and acres of pine forest with miles of trails for hiking.
"A fanatics folly." That was what the Clifton Springs Sani- tarium, with its recognized leadership in the world of medicine both here and abroad, was called when a deeply religious physi- cian came into the wilderness in 1849 and set up a "water cure house." The physician was the late Dr. Henry Foster. He had $1,000 in cash, his life savings; robust health, driving energy and a conviction that the Almighty had appointed him to carry out a great humanitarian work.
Visible evidence of how that combination of assets served him is the great sanitarium and clinic of today, with its twenty-five buildings, 1,075 acres of land, golf course, tennis courts and equipment valued at $2,225,000. The sanitarium today has a capacity of 475, the Woodbury Building or clinic and hospital . building, opened in 1927, alone having ninety-six rooms. There are in normal times twenty-five physicians, fifty resident insti- tutional nurses. seventy-five special nurses on call and 100 stu- dent nurses. It is the second largest institution of its kind in the
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world, operating without profit for the benefit of ailing man- kind. It is five institutions rolled into one-hospital, clinic, san- itarium, first class hotel and amusement resort.
It has its own bakery, carpenter, electrical and machine shops and dairies. It owns two farms of 1,000 acres. And all this big institution must operate, under terms of a deed of trust, without profit. If money is left over after all operating expenses and improvements are paid, it must be used for charity. Rec- ords show that in the past decade the cost of charity work mounted from $70,000 to $125,000. Up to the time he conveyed it to "all humanity" by the deed of trust in November, 1881, the sanitarium and all its properties belonged to Dr. Foster alone. Now its affairs are in the hands of a Board of Trustees of thir- teen members, all serving without pay.
What is now Clifton Springs was a spot long avoided by Indians and whites alike, because of the peculiarly disagreeable odor of its sulphur springs. The first settler there was John Shekels, who built a log house in 1800. By 1828 both the whites and Indians had come to recognize the medicinal value of the springs. In that year there was a log bathhouse near the main spring on the site of what is now Pierce pavilion. When Dr. Foster came he found also a tavern, blacksmith shop and a half dozen dwellings. On February 24, 1850, a joint stock company was organized to finance the construction of the first "water cure" building on ten acres of land which Dr. Foster had secured for $750. Total initial capitalization was $10,000.
The doctor was born January 18, 1821, one of five children of a Norwich, Vermont, linseed oil manufacturer. He died Jan- uary 15, 1901. From 1850 to 1901 he was superintendent of the institution. His widow filled that position from 1901 to 1908. Since then the following have been in charge: Dr. Charles P. Emerson, 1908-12; Dr. James B. Munford, 1912-14; Dr. Mal- colm S. Woodbury, 1914-21; Dr. David Bovaird, 1921-23; Dr. John A. Lichty, 1923 to date.
CHAPTER XVIII
AGRICULTURE.
DIVERSITY OF CROPS-SOIL-VEGETABLES-GRAIN-HAY-POTATOES-DAIRY- ING-LIVE STOCK-POULTRY-FRUIT-WINE INDUSTRY-THE GRANGE-4H CLUBS.
Diversity of crops, nearness to markets, good roads, capable marketing organizations, 200 granges, a Farm Bureau for vir- tually every county, presence of the State College of Agriculture at Ithaca and the State Experiment Station in Geneva all com- bine to make agriculture the great industry of Central New York. The fertility of the soil was first revealed to the whites when soldiers in Sullivan's army invaded the region and mar- veled at the crops of the Indians. These soldiers were the first advertisers of the farming resources of the district.
The agriculture of a region is largely determined by its to- pography, climate, soils and markets. The surface in the north- ern portion of Central New York is undulating or gently rolling. The elevation is from 400 to 800 feet above sea level and the growing season averages about 160 days. The annual rainfall averages about forty-seven inches. During the five months from April to August it averages about sixteen inches. The soils have from a medium to a high lime content and are usually very well drained. They can be plowed deeply, early in the spring.
The local cities of Canandaigua, Geneva, Waterloo and Au- burn are good local markets and business centers. Roads sur- faced with macadam or cement connect the cities and larger towns. The dirt roads are usually good. These farms are only a few hours distance by rail from such large cities as New York, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The efficient railway systems of the New York Central, Lehigh Valley, and Pennsylvania serve this region. There are few farming regions in the world with so many favorable conditions.
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New York State grows about twice as many acres of cabbage as its nearest competitor, Wisconsin. Central New York fur- nishes nearly one-half of the New York State crop. Ontario County produces more cabbage than any other county in the United States. In recent years Seneca Castle has shipped more cabbage than any other station. Much of the cabbage grown in this region is used for making kraut, both for local and foreign consumption.
Alfalfa, like cabbage, does best where the lime content is high. Central New York produces nearly one-half of the state's alfalfa. Onondaga County has been growing alfalfa since 1812 and grew over 33,000 acres in 1919. There are many low rounded hills in this region known as drumlins. Alfalfa thrives on these hills and usually pays better than other crops. When grown on the more level land alfalfa competes with beans and wheat. There is competition, too, with the more intensive crops like potatoes and cabbage.
One of the important crops in the vicinity of Skaneateles Lake is the teasel. It has been grown there for almost 100 years. This is the only place that the teasel is grown in the United States, except in a small way in the State of Oregon. The heads are used in raising a nap on cloth. The teasel is a bi-annual plant and the yield in this region is about 100,000 heads per acre.
The nursery business about Geneva ranks next in importance to the Rochester area. The growing of orchard fruits in a com- mercial way requires an unusually well drained deep soil and protection from frost injury. The climate in this region is tem- pered by both the Finger Lakes and the Great Lakes. On many farms in this region conditions are favorable for growing fruits. They are usually grown on general farms in combination with beans, cabbage, wheat, hay, and other crops. Near Geneva there are a number of large farms set out entirely to fruit. The soil and climatic conditions at the State Experiment Station Farm at Geneva has been favorable for orchards and many very val- uable horticultural investigations have been carried on here. Ontario County has about the same number of fruit trees as has any one of the leading fruit counties in the Hudson Valley.
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Although the region contains less than 10 per cent of the farm land of New York State, it grows about 30 per cent of the bean acreage. After harvesting the beans only a little harrow- ing is usually necessary in order to fit the ground in excellent condition for wheat. Plowing for the wheat is thus saved and the yield of wheat after beans is better than after oats. The region grows about 30 per cent of the state's wheat. Wheat re- quires productive land, well supplied with lime and a fairly long growing season. Oats can be grown where the soil and climate will not grow wheat profitably.
Sheep are commonly kept in regions growing beans. They make good use of bean pods and the cull beans which are com- monly not saleable. Sheep fit into the labor schedule on farms growing intensive cash crops better than do dairy cows. Central New York keeps twenty-one per cent of the state's sheep and only seven per cent of the dairy cows.
Seneca and Cayuga Lakes extend south into the southern New York hill region where the elevation at the highest point is over 2,000 feet above sea level. Such hilly topography has made the picturesque gorges and water falls near Watkins and Ithaca. In this picturesque region the topography is less favorable for agri- culture and the soils have less lime and are not nearly as well drained as are the soils toward the north. One of the poorest soils which is quite widely distributed over the hill counties is called the Volusia silt loam. Its subsoil is so compact and im- pervious that water moves through this soil very slowly. It is usually sour or acid. The buildings and fences on this soil type are generally in poor condition and many fields are unused. It seems that each year more of this land is abandoned.
The most important crop produced on this soil is timothy and red-top. Buckwheat and oats are commonly grown. Much of this land is used for pasture. This region was originally timbered with an excellent growth of white pine, birch, maple, beech, etc.
Closely associated with the Volusia soil is a much better drained soil known as the Lordstown. It occupies the better
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drained slopes and crests of the hills. On this soil potatoes are an important cash crop.
All of the counties in the region ship potatoes. The cost of transporting potatoes in proportion to their value, is high, and most of the cities and towns in New York State are supplied locally. Thus Onondaga County grows a large acreage of pota- toes to supply Syracuse. Ontario County ships about 1,000 cars of potatoes a season which is approximately half of its crop. There are only two counties in the state, Suffolk and Steuben, whose potato shipments greatly exceed Ontario's. More pota- toes are shipped from Naples than any other station in Ontario County, about 200 cars per year. Naples is located in the hilly region in the southern part of Ontario County near the Steuben County line.
Potatoes are also grown in the northern part of the county. About 150 cars per season are shipped from Victor. Potato yields are especially good on the lighter types of Dunkirk and Ontario soils. Although the soils are more productive in the northern part, blight is usually more severe than it is in the cooler hill region. Beans, cabbage, and corn are the common cultivated crops in the northern section which compete with po- tatoes. On farms having large orchards these crops are prefer- able to potatoes. The harvesting of potatoes and apples, which is the heaviest part of the work on both crops, comes at the same time.
Dairy cows are generally kept in those regions where large areas of land are either too wet, stoney, or rough to cultivate. Sufficient crop land is needed to raise the roughage for winter use. In many of the valleys in this state intensive dairying is practiced. The valley soils grow the roughage and the hillsides furnish the pasture.
In general, little of the land in the region need be used for pasture. There are about as few cows in the western part of the region as anywhere in the state. Some large dairies are kept near the cities and towns where the milk is sold locally for a good price.
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Syracuse is the railroad center for several intensive dairy regions. The earliest importations of Holsteins were made by farmers near Syracuse. For years this has been the most im- portant Holstein market. There are more cows in Onondaga, Cayuga and Tompkins counties than in the adjoining counties to the west. Dairying or hay and grain farming go well with poultry.
There are a number of large specialized poultry farms in the region. Over 10,000 cases of eggs were shipped from Odessa two years ago. Some of the oldest established strains of White Leghorns were developed near Cayuga Lake.
The rise and fall of a four million dollar wine trade and the development of vineyards in Central New York forms one of the most interesting chapters in the agricultural development of the area. For Concord grapes, as well as other varieties, are no- where in the world grown with more satisfactory results than in this district, particularly about Canandaigua, Keuka and Seneca Lakes. Today approximately 12,000 acres of grapes are under cultivation by 1,160 growers whose crop averages a yield of $800,000 a year. The grape counties are Schuyler, Yates, Seneca, Steuben and Ontario.
To date the grape acreage in the district has decreased five per cent since prohibition. To improve the prospects of vine- yardists the Finger Lakes Grape Marketing Committee was organized May 3, 1929, at Penn Yan and since has stimulated the popularity of the luscious product of vineyards of the district. At present the revenue to grape growers is a little less than be- fore prohibition but it is much less than it was directly after passage of the Eighteenth Amendment. There were a few years from 1919 to 1927 when grapes sold for as high as $125 a ton and from $80 to $100 was very common. In 1931 the average price was thirty dollars a ton, under cost of production.
This marketing committee drafted a definite program. It provided that all vineyards producing one ton of grapes per acre or less be removed in favor of some other crop. It also set up a price reporting system in the district and assessed growers twen- ty cents per acre for advertising grapes. The program did not
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actually get underway until 1931. It found its climax in a great grape festival at Hammondsport in October, 1932, when in pageantry, band concerts, sports, the crowing of a Queen of Grapes and other spectacular events, the growers focused the attention of the East on Finger Lakes grapes.
The grape men, since organization, had their first large ex- hibit of grapes at the State Fair in Syracuse in 1931, the display containing two tons of grapes, as well as grape juices, jellies, jams and sauces. Much of the success of the efforts were due to the efforts of L. O. Bond of Watkins Glen, secretary of the committee and agent of the Schuyler County Farm Bureau.
A period of about sixty years witnessed the rise and fall of the American wine and champagne industry, which at its height more than three decades ago, gave rich promise of eclipsing Euro- pean production. Domestic wines were then produced, which in the opinion of connoisseurs were close rivals, if not excelling the vintage of France, Spain and Italy, which for centuries have enjoyed enviable reputation as wine makers.
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This domestic production included not only the still wines but premier champagne, brandies and cordials. The grape belt of Lakes Keuka, Canandaigua and Seneca was particularly prom- inent in the domestic wine industry, vieing with the grape belts along the southern shores of Lake Erie, with the vineyards of southern Ohio and the extensive California grape country. While the wine output from California, Lake Erie and other points was large in quantity, it was generally conceded that the wine failed to qualify with the production of the Lake Keuka wineries.
This was due to the fact that grapes of this region are pos- sessed of an unusual flavor, imparting to the vintages a delicate flavor. No other place in America witnessed such successful transplanting of European wine production as did the Lake Keuka belt. This section has proven itself the natural home of the grape, where it has developed to perfection.
The vineyards form a series of terraces rising 400 feet above the surface of the lake, almost precipitously in places and they receive from sunrise until sunset the warmth of the sun. It is an unaccountable peculiarity of the location that the grape does
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not ripen to perfection at an altitude of over 400 feet above the lake. Ordinarily early frosts do not appear below this line, due largely to the tempering influence of the water.
When champagne making in America was at its height it was estimated that of the 4,600,000 bottles produced annually in this country, seventy-five per cent was made in the Lake Keuka wineries, and remaining twenty-five per cent produced in other parts of the country was made from grapes grown in the Lake Keuka area. Touching upon the history of the development of the wine industry in the region, it was Rev. William Bostwick who advanced grape culture in Central New York. Mr. Bost- wick was for a term of years rector of St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Bath and also organized St. James Church in Ham- mondsport. He obtained a few cuttings from Isabella and Cataw- ba vines in the Hudson River country. These he brought to Ham- mondsport and caused them to be planted in the grounds of the rectory. From that early beginning, in the year 1829, the cul- ture of grapes spread locally, until in the heyday of the industry, some twenty-five years ago, the Lake Keuka vineyardists num- bered several thousand persons; the annual output of grapes from the Lake Keuka vineyards alone totaled over 35,000 tons, besides the crop as grown along Seneca, Canandaigua and other lakes of this part of the state. Grapes were not regarded as possessed of commercial value in the Keuka fruit belt, until about the year 1850. At that time, the late William Hastings, a pioneer busi- ness man of Hammondsport, having developed grape cuttings as obtained from the vines of Mr. Bostwick, shipped a small con- signment of the fruit to New York City, where it commanded ready sale. Six years later the enterprise had enlisted some hun- dred property owners and some 250 acres in Hammondsport and vicinity were devoted to vineyards.
The first large shipment of grapes was made in 1856 by the late J. W. Prentiss of the Town of Pulteney. He shipped over two tons of the fruit to New York, where it sold at a price netting him sixteen cents per pound. Immediately a new interest was awakened, resulting in an intensive effort towards development of the fruit, with a corresponding annual increase in the acreage
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