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 20
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 20
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 20
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 20
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As this is written early in 1932, a twenty-inch pipe line is under construction by the Lycoming Gas Company, which will extend from the Tioga field in northern Pennsylvania to Syra- cuse, crossing the line of the Home Gas Company in the vicinity
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of Horseheads, thus making possible an easy diversion of gas from one pipe line to another.
In Steuben County several wells have been drilled in the town of Rathbone, northwest of Addison, but these do not reach the Oriskany. They are bottomed at levels of from 800 to 1,250 feet and single wells have yields estimated at over 1,000,000 cubic feet a day. Other shallow wells in Steuben have also reported production.
One well has been drilled in Cayuga County, three in Tioga, one in Tompkins and four in Chemung, none of which has shown production on a commercial scale. So far wells in these counties have been dry for the most part.
An instrument of war has been put to use in locating the natural gas resources of Central New York. Portable field seismographs, developed to a high standard of efficiency during the World war by both the German and allied armies to locate gun emplacements, are being used in the Wayne-Tyrone field.
Farmers have received their first lessons in seismography from field parties of college trained men sent by oil companies. The particular job of these experts is to determine the sub-surface geology and the possibilities of future gas fields. For equipment they use a seismograph, dynamite, wires, photostat and other ap- paratus-all mounted upon a truck.
A charge of dynamite of approximately three pounds is lowered in a hole twelve feet deep. Water is used as a "tamp" and when the charge is exploded, the resultant sound waves "re- flect" when they hit a hard stratum, such as the Canandaigua limestone. With their apparatus and a photostat a record is made of the physical properties of the geological structures and strata hidden below the earth. Time, sound and distance enter into these problems of practical physics and geometry. Depths of the "re- flecting point" determine the depth of the strata.
SALT MINES.
From the salt mines of Central New York, hundreds of thou- sands of dollars in white crystals are taken annually to ship in train and barge to all parts of the world. Watkins Glen at the
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head of Seneca Lake, in Schuyler County, was one of the earliest sites of extensive salt operations. It lies in the center of one of the richest salt industries in the United States, the products there alone amounting to more than $1,000,000 annually. Two large salt companies are located there, the International Salt Company of New York with a plant two miles north of the vil- lage at the lake shore and the Watkins Glen Salt Company, whose plant is in the village at the end of the lake.
One of the finest salt deposits in the world underlies Watkins Glen at a depth ranging from 1,700 to 1,800 feet below the lake level. There is an inexhaustible bed of salt averaging 400 feet in thickness. The annual salt production of the two plants is 175,000 tons or from twelve to fifteen car loads a day. The salt is withdrawn from the beds far beneath the lake, where it was deposited millions of years ago, long before coal deposits were formed. By modern methods of drilling, water from the lake is introduced through pipes and then lifted, saturated with brine to the surface by use of compressed air. The brine flows in a steady stream from pipes reaching down into the beds, to settling tanks where all foreign matter is removed. The resulting pure brine goes to evaporators.
Under a different process of production, 150,000 tons of salt a year comes out of the mine of the Cayuga Rock Salt Company at Myers on the west side of Cayuga Lake near Ithaca. Two thousand feet below the waves is a marvelous crystaline city, where cars scurry along railroad tracks, machinery accomplished its wonders and men labor and drink water. The salt bed is known as the "Saline Shale Area," which crops out near Syra- cuse and is known to extend over an area of seventy-five miles east and west and seventy miles north and south across Central New York. Tunneling continually into the salt, the workmen have opened in a comparatively short time some two miles of passages. A half ton of dynamite is used daily in blasting.
After being hammered through grating into the required size, the salt chunks are hoisted to the surface, four tons at a time, to be dumped at the top of the head-frame and to pursue their course through a crushing and screening mill of 600 tons
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daily capacity. No fine table salt like that produced at Watkins is made on Cayuga.
The mine at Myers had its inception from John W. Clute, salt magnate of Watkins Glen. At Cayuga's head he discovered a salt stratum of eight to ten feet in thickness, underlying the surface by 1,450 feet. Here a shaft was sunk in 1916 and opera- tions continued at this level for two years, with limited success. Finally the workings were abandoned and soon filled with water. Then in 1921 a new plant arose from the desolute diggings. The Cayuga Rock Salt Company was organized in July of that year to take over the property under lease of the Clute interests. Production started from the same bed in June, 1922, and con- tinued until February, 1924.
Diamond drilling disclosed a high grade salt bed ten to forty feet in thickness at a level 2,000 feet below the surface. A shaft was extended below the first level and the new salt bed struck at 1,925 feet in August, 1924. This salt was found to average 99.19 per cent pure sodium chloride and the old mine nearer the surface was ignored. The yield from the new bed is 30,492 tons per acre, with a proven tonnage of 1,950,000 of salt waiting to be extracted. In addition to its Myers holdings, the company owns 600 acres on the opposite side of the lake, which have poten- tial deposits of equal richness.
CHAPTER XXI
Y. M. C. A. MOVEMENT IN REGION.
HISTORY OF DOZEN ASSOCIATIONS WHOSE PROPERTY IS VALUED AT $1,100,000, WHOSE ROSTERS CARRY THOUSANDS OF NAMES AND WHOSE OPERATIONS COST OVER A QUARTER OF A MILLION A YEAR-INDIVIDUAL ORGANIZATIONS' HISTORY REVIEWED.
Young Men's Christian Associations in the Central New York area today represent one of the best organized boy move- ments for the upbuilding of character and physical vigor in the entire district. They are Auburn, Canandaigua, Clifton Springs, Cortland, Cortland County branch, Elmira Central, Elmira D. L. & W. Railroad branch, Elmira Pennsylvania Railroad branch, Geneva, Hornell, Ithaca City, Cornell University Christian As- sociation, and the inactive associations of Canisteo, organized in 1877; Corning, 1879; Horseheads, 1896; Steuben County, 1920.
These associations have a paid membership of 7,000 of which 2,000 are boys. However, this number represents only a small percentage of those served by the organizations. Hundreds of men and boys participate annually in baseball, basketball and bowling leagues conducted by the Y. M. C. A.s on a non-mem- bership basis. The Hi-Y work, educational courses, industrial and religious programs are also promoted on a non-membership basis, as well as the annual Learn-to-Swim campaigns, with over fifteen hundred being given specific instruction in swimming and life saving in this area last year. Eight hundred different- boys attended the summer camps last year, many of whom were not Y. M. C. A. members. The Older Boys Conferences also at- tract large numbers each year.
The property value of the twelve associations in the district is $1,110,000, entailing an annual operating budget of $230,000.
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There is a total of 650 rooms available in the dormitories and scores of men avail themselves of a "Home away from Home." A staff of thirty-two employed officers are engaged in promoting, together with the assistance of earnest lay leaders, a program which seeks to help in the development of all round personality among boys and men of the region.
Interesting data relative to the innovations in athletics and other activities introduced by the Y. M. C. A. organization, has been compiled by Kenneth R. Kester, secretary of the Auburn Y. M. C. A., who traces a summary of outstanding points in the history of the movement.
The Young Men's Christian Association movement had its inception in London, England, in 1844, largely through the vital interest and zealous efforts of a single young man named George Williams, who, in 1894, upon the observance of the fiftieth anni- versary of the founding of the Association Movement was knighted by Queen Victoria in acknowledgment of his "distin- guished service to the cause of humanity."
Sir George died in 1905 in his eighty-fourth year, and was laid in his final resting place in St. Paul's Cathedral, while a grateful world paid tribute to the founder of a movement which was destined to become world-wide.
It was on Blackfriar's Bridge that George Williams one eve- ning suggested to a companion his idea of an association of young men. A meeting was called and was attended by twelve of his companions. Before adjournment, an association was formed whose object was the "improvement of the spiritual con- dition of young men engaged in the drapery and other trades" in London. This new organization spread very rapidly through- out Europe.
EARLY AMERICAN ASSOCIATIONS.
The first association to be organized on the American con- tinent was in Montreal in 1851, with the Boston association being formed within a month. It was about 1865 that the larger American associations, under the far-sighted and inspiring leadership of that veteran Y secretary, Robert McBurney, gave a
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new interpretation to the object of the association movement- that it should be not only for the improvement of the spiritual condition of young men, but also the mental, social and physical.
It has been this development of an all round personality which has motivated the Y. M. C. A. ever since that time.
Because of this broader concept, the Y. M. C. A. has found it possible to be a pioneer in the development of many worth- while enterprises. We mention but a few: It was the first, under the name of the Christian Commission, to carry on a wel- fare program for soldiers during the Civil war and has continued to serve in a similar way in the wars which the United States has been engaged in since that time. It was the first to institution- alize the boys' summer camp, which was begun by Sumner F. Dudley in 1885, and has continued to make large contribution in bringing the summer camps to their present high standard. The Y. M. C. A. was the first to foster public school athletic leagues and in conducting night schools; and, notwithstanding se- vere criticism at the time, took the game of bowling, which was found largely in saloons, and pocket billiards, which flourished chiefly in pool rooms, and placed them in a wholesome environ- ment. The Association has made an outstanding contribution in the development of the indoor gymnasium and swimming pools; of particular value is the instruction in swimming and life saving. Both the game of basketball and volley ball are inventions of the Y. M. C. A.
The Y. M. C. A.s were pioneers in popularizing Bible study for men. The Week of Prayer, Older Boys' Conferences, Father and Son Movement, National Thrift Week and the Hi-Y Move- ment for High School boys, are likewise developments of the Y. The campaign method of raising funds was first used by the Y. M. C. A.
The Y. M. C. A. still stands as the most successful organiza- tion in making the Foreign Missionary work indigenous, and also helped very materially in the development of the men and Religion Forward Movement.
A program especially applicable to college and university students, industrial and railroad groups, the Army and Navy
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men has been carried on for many years by the Association movement.
Today the Y. M. C. A. is organized in practically every nation in the world, while in the United States and Canada alone there are 1,500 associations with an enrolled membership of 1,059,- 666, and an employed staff of 4,777.
The property and equipment value of these associations is $249,998,900, necessitating an annual operating budget of $61,- 464,400. There are also 811 boys' camps owned and operated by the American associations.
The development of the association movement in this state has largely been possible through efforts of the State Committee, the first state convention of which was held in Oswego in 1869. Most of the Y. M. C. A.s of the state were organized by the state committee. Many of them would have ceased to exist had it not been for the committee's services, but during the past twenty years the associations have grown so strong that they no longer need the committee's aid. The State Committee, through its staff, is now initiating developments and improving various pro- gram features; an instance of this is in the Hi-Y, where the number of groups has doubled in the past three years.
AUBURN Y. M. C. A.
The Auburn Association is the second oldest in the region and ranks among the twenty-five oldest Y. M. C. A.s in the United States.
"A handful of young men met on September 13, 1859, to consult and determine whether an organization might be formed to be known and designated as the 'Young Men's Christian Union.' "
Through the energy and promptitude of the young men pres- ent the Auburn Association was officially organized October 7, 1859, with By-Laws completed and officers elected.
The Association was chartered in 1867 with John H. Os- borne, Edward C. Selover, Henry G. Starin, Charles C. Button, Jesse D. Smith, Alanson L. Palmer, Edwin L. Ford, John F.
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Driggs, George R. Hopping, Stephen G. Hopkins and Edward C. Marvin serving as the Board of Managers for the first year.
For many years the Association rented quarters at 10 North Street (Academy of Music Building). In 1884, after months of serious considerations and careful planning, the Board of Directors determined to raise money for the erection of a perma- nent home. Problems which taxed the courage of the most en- thusiastic were encountered. When the bids were opened they far exceeded the amount subscribed; serious difficulty in secur- ing an adequate foundation because of sand encountered; threat- ened law suit by city officials because the pilasters had been ex- tended beyond the building line, are but a few. Sufficient, how- ever, to indicate the scope of the problems.
However, all of these difficulties were overcome and the building, which was formally opened December 18, 1885, was the most imposing structure of Genesee Street. It was probably the largest and most beautiful Y. M. C. A. building in any of the smaller cities of the country.
J. M. Elliott was the architect. Much credit for the financial success of this undertaking is due to Dr. George Black Stewart, Frank E. Swift and John J. Trowbridge, members of the Finance Committee, and Charles P. Mosher, treasurer.
William B. Dunning, president of the Association, in his an- nual report of 1885 advised that "the lot cost $14,000; the con- tract price of the building about $39,000, to which must be added a number of "extras" not contemplated by the committee, but which became necessary as the work progressed."
He stated further his belief that "When the work was fully completed Auburn would have a building worthy of the work which is to occupy it, which will not only be an ornament to the city, but at the same time a monument to the people whose liberality has made its erection possible and whose support, moral and financial, we hope to continue to merit."
September 10, 1897, the Misses Caroline and Georgiana Wil- lard announced the munificent gift of an athletic field to the Y. M. C. A. The site was then wooded land known as Burts Woods and owned by the Auburn Theological Seminary. The
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gift not only included the cost of the site of seven and one-half acres of land, five of which were to be used as an athletic field and two and one-half acres for a public park, but also the cost of grad- ing and construction of a quarter mile bicycle and racing track, and tennis courts; the erection of a grandstand seating 1,000 people, with ample dressing facilities; also a beautiful club- house and a ten foot fence enclosing the entire field. For many years it was rated as one of the finest athletic fields in the state, and even today continues to be one of the most popular outdoor recreation centers in the city. The Y field faces on Steel, Swift and Mary streets. Courtney C. Avery, president of the Board of Directors, Rev. W. H. Hubbard, a member of the board, and Irving W. Street, general secretary of the Y. M. C. A., made a large contribution in adjusting the many details incident to this timely and worthwhile gift.
The Auburn Y Boys Summer Camp was established in 1913 and has been operated each summer since that time. On May 22, 1922, upon the recommendation of George Underwood, Jr., at that time a member of the Board of Directors, the Charles Thorne property, located on the east side of Owasco Lake ten miles south of the city, was purchased for a permanent camp home. The purchase included four acres of land with over six hundred feet of lake shore front, and a large ten room lodge. Many improvements have been made since that time, largely through the efforts of the Y. M. C. A. Business Men's Club.
ITHACA Y. M. C. A.
The story of an organization is usually the story of the in- terest of individual men in its objects and success. This is espe- cially true of the Ithaca Y. M. C. A. The first record available is dated November 23, 1868, when a meeting was called to form a Y. M. C. A. George R. Williams was chairman of this first meeting and it was he whose interest, leadership and generosity followed the association through all its experiences until the time of his death. Among the others who were active in that organization were Henry B. Lord, who later was president of the First Na-
AUBURN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, AUBURN, N. Y.
HIGH SCHOOL, MORAVIA, N. Y.
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tional Bank. Mr. Lord was the first president of the association, and P. L. Foote its first secretary.
Meetings were held at regular intervals in the reading room of the Cornell Library. Committees were appointed on mem- bership, devotional meetings, missionary work, employment, sick and boarding. It was evidently an organization for young men as the constitution provided that only men under forty years of age could become a member. There were five classes of member- ship, active, associate, counseling, life and honorary.
This organization lasted only a little over a year so far as any records are available, but it left its imprint on the lives of several men who later became leaders in the religious and civic life of Ithaca.
The next period of the movement in Ithaca was from 1889 to 1907. Several names are outstanding in the work of the or- ganization then-George R. Williams, Henry A. St. John, Thomas G. Miller, Judge Jared T. Newman and many others. During this period the Association had a varied experience. Its work broadened from a distinctive religious program to the three point program for the spirit, mind and body, establishing evening educational classes, gymnasium, lectures as well as re- ligious meetings. The financial problems seemed to be the most difficult. For several years rooms were rented in the library building. Quarters were later secured in a building at the corner of Seneca and Tioga streets where a gymnasium and shower baths could be established. Some five years later this had to be given up. The Journal Block on West State Street was the next scene of activities where rooms were rented and social, read- ing rooms, gymnasium, shower baths, and bowling alleys were conducted.
It was in 1907 that the concept of a new building took defi- nite shape under the leadership of Sidney L. Howell, who was then president of the association. A strong committee was or- ganized to promote the enterprise. On July 1, 1907, the lot on which the present building stands was purchased from Mary E. Humphrey. Success was not assured until a large initial gift was made by George R. Williams on condition that $50,000 be
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secured in pledges. A campaign was organized and with the impetus which Mr. Williams' gift gave the movement the full amount was secured and the directors proceeded with the erec- tion of a new building. Gibb & Waltz were chosen as architects and they got out plans which were regarded as the best for a small city of any in the country.
The new building was completed, opened and dedicated on the evening of October 12, 1908. Dr. Lyman Abbott being the principal speaker. The building contained reading rooms, social rooms, boys game and social rooms, dining room, kitchen, ladies' room, four class rooms, thirty-eight dormitory rooms, gymna- sium, locker rooms, bowling alleys and swimming pool. The membership jumped almost immediately to over 400.
A new building, however, brings its problems. The cost of operating the new plant was such as to give the trustees and directors grave concern. The first five years the annual deficit was alarmingly large. Then one day it was learned that the association had been made the residuary legatee of the estate of Charles T. Chittenden, a late resident of Tompkins County. There was considerable difficulty in the settlement of the estate. It was only through the services of such men as Judge Jared T. Newman, Oliver L. Dean, Henry A. St. John, Charles D. Bost- wick and others that a final settlement was made and the asso- ciation received approximately $79,000. An indebtedness of $33,000 which had accumulated was paid off, leaving an endow- ment of $46,000. Obviously this relieved the grave financial problem, and also released much time and energy for the real work of the organization. For over forty years this organiza- tion has stood for the best in the life of young men and boys of Ithaca.
CORNELL UNIVERSITY C. A .- C. U. R. W.
A few faded words in an old leather-bound book record the founding of the "Christian Association of Cornell University" in 1869, with the stated object "to promote the Christian religion among the students of Cornell University and to improve our spiritual, mental and social condition." During the sixty three
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years which have intervened the Association has had an un- broken existence, and achieved national prominence for at least two different accomplishments.
Cornell University was founded with a religious purpose, but along liberal, non-sectarian lines. Naturally this spirit needed to be incorporated into the religious association. Yet it was a distinct surprise when the outside world saw upon the Cornell campus in the undergraduate days of John R. Mott, Cor- nell '88, the largest college religious association in the country. Mr. Mott showed then, in his college years, the same vision and energy for which he has been renowned throughout the world for the past two generations. The membership of the association was less than fifty when he entered, and over 400 when he left.
Two other names are especially prominent in the first decade or two of the association's existence: George R. Williams, who started to raise the fund for the religious building, which was later augmented by a generous gift of one of the trustees of the University; Alfred Smith Barnes, for whom Barnes Hall was named; Professor Emeritus George L. Burr of the class of 1882, a leading member of the faculty and a leading spirit in the Christian Association, has made his major contribution in writ- ing a history of tolerance, and that major interest he has also reflected in his academic work and religious interests for the past fifty years.
In a changing world only those organisms survive which are able to adapt themselves to their changed environment. During the life of the association Cornell has grown from a college of a few hundred students to a university of 6,000 students. During its history the association has tried to meet the needs of each generation of students and discontinue any work which was no longer called for. For a while the Christian Association worked independently of the churches; for a while there was a tremen- dous interest in the mission movement; for a while the men and women worked together, then separated, and now cooperate; an organization which is thriving one year may be dead as a door- nail five years afterwards-but, there is always some other group to take its place.
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There was a time when denominations competed with each other, but for the last thirteen years there has been an almost unique spirit of cooperation in the Cornell United Religious Work, often referred to as the "Cornell" plan, for now seven different university pastors, from as many different denomina- tions have their offices in Barnes Hall, an interdenominational headquarters, as well as each having a church home in connec- tion with an Ithaca church. This plan originated in Cornell with the coming of R. H. Edwards in 1919 and has been directed by him ever since. A Catholic priest and a Jewish rabbi have taken their places on the staff and Religious Work on the Cornell cam- pus is thus united in the Staff and Board of Control and Student Cabinet. Never since the founding of the University have so many different students been reached by the organized religious forces.
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