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 21
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 21
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 21
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 21
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46
CORTLAND CITY AND COUNTY Y. M. C. A.
On Saint Patrick's Day in 1868, less than a quarter of a cen- tury after the original Young Men's Christian Association was organized in London, a branch was organized in Cortland. It met a great need in the community life and had grown until, in 1876 at the eighth annual meeting, the budget was $1,077.86 with a deficit of $264.53. In May, 1888, this association was incorporated under the laws of this state and began definite work under A. C. Howe, the first general secretary. During the next ten years the association had successful representative teams in baseball, football, basketball, and relay races. There were also a bicycle club, a camera club, a summer camp for boys as perma- nent features.
Between 1889 and 1913 the association suffered a serious lapse and the interest in a program for men and boys for the community was kept alive by a very devoted ladies' auxiliary. The first contribution made to the building fund for the new building, the corner stone of which was laid in 1915 was a sum of $4,000 contributed by this same ladies' auxiliary.
Since the present building was opened the work has pro- gressed and developed. In 1925 a unique feature was added
261
HISTORY OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
when E. L. Martin, now of Middletown, New York, was trans- ferred from a responsibility for city boys' work to a responsibility for work in this whole trade basin. At first in the enthusiasm of a new venture communities were served by the association to a distance of thirty-five miles from Cortland. But it was soon discovered that intensive work was much more fruitful than ex- tensive work and, at present, Groton, Homer, McGraw, and Mc- Lean are using the association program for boys and girls ex- tensively. The most flourishing portion of this work is with high school boys and girls. Cortland was the first city associa- tion in New York State to place upon its staff a full time man for activities in communities outside the boundary of the local city.
In 1925 also a camp site of eight acres on an island in De- Ruyter Reservoir to be used as a summer camp for boys was purchased by the Association. The Young Women's Christian Association share this property now for a summer camp for girls. A rather extensive program is maintained in boys' work, industrial work, educational work, and physical work having the best cooperation from the churches, the school and the com- mercial and industrial institutions of the community.
GENEVA Y. M. C. A.
The Geneva Y. M. C. A. owes its origin to a meeting of per- sons interested in the formation of an association for young men in Geneva, which was held in the chapel of the First Presbyte- rian Church, January 31, 1886. At a subsequent meeting held February 14, 1886, an organization was perfected under the name of "The Young Men's Christian Union." On September 14, 1886, this association was reorganized as "The Geneva Young Men's Christian Association." The association was incorporated under the laws of the state, August 9, 1888.
The old Scotch church, dedicated in 1832, which occupied the site of the present association building, was the home of the new association. It went into possession of the Scotch church March 1, 1887, and was used by the association until it was torn down to make way for the new building.
262
HISTORY OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
The Geneva Advertiser commenting, in 1889, upon the work of the Y, stated that "the association is doing a grand work in Geneva. The young men are earnest in their work. They say: 'Come with us.' It means entrance into better society for those who will cast off impure and immoral associations and try to do right. The 'Old Scotch Church' has been converted into a real home missionary establishment."
John L. Bennett was chosen president in 1886, resigning in 1891. Much of the success of those early days was due to the untiring and efficient management of Mr. Bennett. On March 9, 1891, a committee was appointed to consider the matter of erecting a new building.
The munificent legacies of Miss Laura Carter, James Simons, and John V. Ditmars, together with gifts of many other con- tributors, finally made the erection of the new building possible. The lot upon which it was erected, valued at $7,000, was donated to the association by J. I. Maxwell. The total cost of the build- ing, including lot and furnishings, was $52,800. The architects were Pierce & Bickford of Elmira, and the builders D. B. Morri- son and Persons & Siglan of Geneva. The cornerstone was laid April 19, 1893, by the late Dr. A. B. Smith, president of the Board of Trustees. The building was destroyed by fire in 1902 and the present structure built on the ruins.
The building is a four-story structure 70x80 feet, the first story of pressed brick, with brownstone and terra cotta wings for the second, third and attic stories. The building is located on the corner of Castle and Genesee streets, fronting on Castle.
The general secretaries who have served the Geneva Y. M. C. A. are C. B. Wagner and F. B. Stanley, 1887; A. P. Gillett, 1889-1895; E. L. Mogge, 1895-1900; George E. Burgess, 1900- 1902; Dennis (acting) 1902-1903; C. B. Pomeroy, 1903-1906; A. B. Smith, 1906-1911; Frank Olmstead (acting), 1911; B. H. Geise, 1911 -?; A. C. Price, 1916-1918; C. W. Baldwin, 1918- 1919; W. G. Warr, 1922 -.
For years the association carried on an active program with practically no financial problem until the panic of '97, when it encountered its first difficulty. From then until twenty years
263
HISTORY OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
ago the indebtedness grew until a mortgage was necessary. How- ever, in 1924 a $25,000 campaign was carried on and this mort- gage was cleared up.
It might be well to note that from time to time small amounts have been left the association until now there is an endowment of a little more than $9,000.
PENNSYLVANIA R. R. Y. M. C. A., ELMIRA.
The Y. M. C. A. Pennsylvania Railroad branch in Elmira is one of the oldest railroad Y's in the country, its first meeting having been held in 1880. On a Sunday afternoon a few of the Erie, Lehigh Valley and Pennsylvania system men gathered in the Erie station to take first steps toward organization. Later a building and equipment were secured and in 1881 by-laws were adopted.
In 1895 a Ladies' Auxiliary was organized with fifty-two members and this organization is still functioning and active. As the work grew, the association was cramped for room and in 1902 moved to its present quarters nearer the shops and rail terminal.
Dreams of a new building caused D. G. Stevens, secretary for sixteen years until he was retired in November, 1931, to plan and hope for such improvement. The first step toward the ambition came in 1923 when the association purchased a large house and double lot, expecting to build some day. No construction has been done, but the house has been converted into a kitchen and dining room downstairs and lodge and social rooms are upstairs.
LACKAWANNA R. R. BRANCH Y. M. C. A., ELMIRA.
On the corner of West Church Street and Railroad Avenue, Elmira, stands a little brick building, now occupied as a drug store, which is the first building used exclusively for Y work among railroad men in the United States. There had been work among the men, previous to the opening of this building, but it was carried on in such places as were available, and not in a building given over entirely to railroad work.
264
HISTORY OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
The work on the Lackawanna was started in the old yard office and later transferred to a division office building about 1888. The present building was erected in 1928 by the railroad company at a cost of $125,000. This company has appreciated the work of the association among its employees and contributes generously to the work at eight points on the system.
Originally a Bible class, the work has expanded, and now embraces service features in its program, dormitory and res- taurant for the convenience of members, bowling alleys for league games, baseball and basketball teams, System tournaments being held from time to time at various points. The association has a staff of twelve employees and is self supporting; that is the work is carried on without help from community chests or local con- tributions.
ELMIRA CENTRAL Y. M. C. A.
The Elmira Central Y. M. C. A. was organized in 1858. The first meeting was held in the drygoods store of D. Thompson Dunn, then at the northeast corner of Lake and Water streets. At its organization rooms were decided upon in Ely Hall, where the Y remained for ten years, when a fire drove them out. When the Opera House block was erected, rooms were obtained there. Rufus Stanley was secretary for several years when the asso- ciation was located in Carroll Street.
In 1898, a new building was erected in connection with the Steele Memorial Library. The Y. M. C. A. part of the building was approximately 160 feet long, forty-two feet wide and five or six stories high. The idea of dormitories was not incorporated in the plan, the upper floors being used for offices. Among other units, the building included bowling alleys, gymnasium, running track, a theater, and social rooms.
Nine months after the building was opened, it was lost by foreclosure, due to failure of at least two and possibly more of the large gifts, the donors having fallen upon bad times. A local man recently graduated from Yale University was the gen- eral secretary during this period. He was an unusually dynamic type and particularly effective in his work for boys. He re-
265
HISTORY OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
signed from the Association and started a piece of work which has since developed into the 4-H Clubs. This man's name was Rufus Stanley.
The Association moved into rented quarters, and through rummage sales, suppers, etc., raised enough money to pay up old bills and pay for new furniture. In about 1910, Elmer Dean, who was president of the Board of Directors, had an oppor- tunity to buy a building occupied by a printing company. He bought it in the name of the Y. M. C. A. and paid for it before he was sure that the Board of Directors would back him. He has often laughingly said that he was the only man in town who had ever owned a Y. M. C. A. This building was remodeled and used until 1921.
In 1921 the Y raised a little over $300,000 for a new building. Cooperative spirit developed in this enterprise starting a series of such major financial projects which in total within a period of four or five years raised over $2,000,000 in the city for worth- while projects.
In raising this fund, a word should be said about the initial gift made by Frank Baldwin, president of the Thatcher Milk Bottle Company. His gift of $25,000, an unprecedented amount to be given for such a purchase up to that time, electrified the town. A little group including Fred I. Eldridge, state secretary, secured this initial gift.
M. Doyle Marks, president of the association, whose courage and enthusiasm had much to do with the success of the enter- prise, invited the board to meet at his house. Members of the board that night made personal gifts bringing the total to over $60,000.
Prices were increasing to such an extent that it was neces- sary to raise $93,000.00 more two years later, which was done.
While the new building was under construction, the Y was without equipment, but carried on extension work with some thirty churches and twenty-seven industries having in the neigh- borhood of a thousand men and boys actively engaged in such recreational programs as bowling, basketball and baseball leagues.
266
HISTORY OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
The Ladies' Auxiliary bought and funded a forty-acre camp site on Keuka Lake, and with the cooperation of luncheon clubs and some individuals erected tent houses, a lodge, etc.
Y. M. C. A.'S IN CANANDAIGUA, CLIFTON SPRINGS, HORNELL.
The Canandaigua Y. M. C. A., organized in 1904, was pre- ceded by the Young Men's League, and purchased from that or- ganization its fine building which was remodeled in 1905. The last Y year book gave the Canandaigua association membership as 508, of which 193 were boys. The Y has a three bed dormi- tory, its property being valued at $15,000. Alfred W. Armstrong is president and Ralph C. Stratton secretary.
For a time Clifton Springs was recognized as the smallest village in the nation with a full time paid Y secretary and ath- letic director. The Y there, organized in 1877, at last reports had 164 members, of whom sixty-four were boys. H. H. Gris- wold is president and Harold R. Weaver secretary. Its building is valued at $27,000.
Hornell Y, founded in 1877, has a forty-four bed dormitory in connection with its association building. Its roster numbers 653, of whom 242 are boys. It also operates a summer camp. L. G. Robbins is president and William T. Cook secretary of the association. The association's property is valued at $53,500.
CHAPTER XXII
THE FINGER LAKES.
ROMANCE OF THEIR HISTORY AS AVENUES OF PROGRESS-FIRST BOATS- STEAMER LINES-FISHING RESOURCES-TRADITIONS AND STATISTICS ON CANANDAIGUA, KEUKA, SENECA, CAYUGA, OWASCO AND SKANEATELES LAKES-OTHER SMALLER LAKES.
Across the blue of the Finger Lakes, strange craft of varied races have for two centuries written a romance of history. No sisterhood of lakes in America has equal significance in the story of empire building in America. From the time the war canoes of the Iroquois moved stealthily across uncrowded waters, the lakes have formed a sapphire pathway for commerce, for war, for adventure.
The French were the first white men to gaze upon these in- land waters. Early Jesuit priests a century before the Revolu- tion, penetrated the wilderness to set up the Cross. Their canoes crossed the waters to minister last rites to the dying and to bring comfort to the afflicted among the red men.
Then came Sullivan's hosts in 1779, marshaling a third of the Continental army to crush America's most dangerous In- dians who had their citadel of power among the lakes. These heroes in homespun destroyed thirteen Indian villages on a single lake, effecting the greatest destruction ever wrought in America before. But here on the greatest watershed in the East they opened wide the gate for development of the great West.
When the stages of pioneers rumbled over corduroy roads, white winged sloops for passengers and freight formed the one sure means of transportation in the 5,000 square miles of terri- tory across which are splashed the Finger Lakes like a great outstretched hand of welcome.
267
268
HISTORY OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
Then came the steamers, their whistles starting the echoes between the everlasting hills. And now the staccato bark of the motorboat is here. Intercollegiate crews have battled for su- premacy across the waters and power boat racers have roared to victory in competition, where pioneer ferries once laboriously carried the covered wagons of pioneers ever westward.
Royalty in exile has sailed the lakes when forests cloaked their 600 miles of ambling shore line. Presidents, distinguished statesmen from other lands, the high and the low of many genera- tions have frolicked on the beaches. The world's first seaplane rose from the waters of one of the lakes. Great wheels of fac- tories half way across the state turn to the music of the rum- bling power stored in the reservoir of the lakes. Cities drink of the sparkling waters, which today, through the Barge Canal spur, are linked in a blue waterway to the seven seas.
From eleven to forty miles in length, the Finger Lakes are bordered by 400 great glens and gorges, through which tumble a thousand waterfalls, a few of which are higher than Niagara. One of the lakes is the deepest within the United States with the exception of Lake Michigan and Lake Tahoe, California. Another is the only one in which the water flows in two direc- tions. Two of the lakes are unique because of the "Death Drums of the Iroquois," or "Lake Guns," a strange subterranean sound heard along the shores in summer. All of them have unique fea- tures, making them distinctive on this continent.
And over them all there is a mangle of weird legends of spectre boatmen, of sea serpents and Indian myths accounting for the eccentricities of the waters themselves. Even in their names the red men left imperishable reminders that he discerned glory in their beauty before the white man began writing his- tory in the new world. Canandaigua, Keuka, Seneca, Cayuga, Owasco, Skaneateles-their very names breathe of the back- ground of history and romance which is theirs in full measure.
CANANDAIGUA LAKE.
Where Iroquois legend recounts that the red face originated, there is Canandaigua, most western of the Finger Lakes. Its Indian name means "The Chosen Spot," where trout, bass, pick-
269
HISTORY OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
erel and white fish bite as voraciously as in the day of the red man.
Sixteen miles long and a mile and a half wide, the lake is 686 feet above tidewater and reaches a depth of 262 feet. Nature destined Canandaigua Lake and its environs to be a summer resort. But the redoubtable Senecas, most powerful of the Six Nations, fathomed this destiny long before the pale face pene- trated Western New York.
Within a few miles was the principal village of this haughty people and on the great hill near the head of the lake they lighted their council fires. Indeed, from the mighty Ge-nun-dawah, the Bare Hill of modern days, they had their origin. There is an Indian tradition woven about this majestic promontory, stripped of its trees and rising like a sentinel of the shore.
Ages ago, according to the legend, the Senecas were trapped upon the hill by a great serpent, which daily devoured the ma- rooned red men. Finally only one brave and his squaw remained. Then the Great Spirit commanded the warrior to dip his arrow into an herb and shoot the poisoned shaft beneath the scales of the monster. A sure shot-and the serpent rolled down the hill- side, tearing out the trees and disgorging in his death struggles the heads of his prey. To this day peculiar skull shaped stones, "the heads of the Senecas" fringe the east lake shore, and are used for fireplaces, winding walks and pillars of summer homes.
Navigation in the lakes dates back to early in the nineteenth century, and regular steamship travel was abandoned only in 1928. The first steamer was the Lady of the Lake, built and owned by Canandaigua capital and launched in 1823. The sec- ond steamer, the Ontario, was begun at Naples and floated down to Canandaigua where it was finished in 1845. The third boat was the Joseph Wood; the fourth, the new Ontario, and the fifth, the Canandaigua, built in 1865.
Still later came the Peoples' Line, which operated the Genun- dawah. The Canandaigua Lake Steamboat Company organized in March, 1890, with $35,000 capital stock. The boats of this company included the Onnalinda, built in 1887; the Ogarita, built in 1889 and the Seneca Chief, a small and old boat put on
270
HISTORY OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
the lake about 1886. Much rivalry arose between the competing lines. For years thousands of passengers were carried each sum- mer. Rates were cut until one could travel the round trip, a distance of forty miles, at a fare of ten cents on the Genundawah and twenty cents on the Onnalinda.
Finally the Genundawah was taken over by George Miller, proprietor of a big vineyard and wine cellar at Miller's Point, south of Seneca Point. One night, as the boat was tied up at Woodville, at the south end of the lake, she caught fire and was destroyed, December 8, 1894.
To the west of Canandaigua Lake the hills rise to an alti- tude of 2,300 feet, highest in the region. The remarkable purity of the air in the district is indicated by the fact that the Dela- ware grape, grown successfully in only a few localities, has here reached its greatest perfection. Vine Valley, directly opposite Seneca Point, sends its favorite Delawares to eastern markets earlier than does any other region north of Fayetteville, North Carolina, and its products have shown the highest saccharometer test ever shown by American grapes.
Canandaigua Lake is one of two along the Finger Lakes hav- ing a sizable island. Squaw Island, at the northern end of the lake and containing about a half acre of land, is said to have been the sanctuary for the Indian women of the Seneca village of Kanadaragua, a mile to the northeast, when Sullivan's soldiers destroyed the place in 1779.
The island belongs to the state and was placed under the jurisdiction of the Finger Lakes State Parks Commission July 1, 1928. Geologists agree that the island was produced by the in- terference of the inflowing drainage through Sucker brook with the waters of the lake.
John M. Clark, late director of the State Museum, held that the beaches of the island are largely composed of "water bis- cuit," a peculiar stone formation. Squaw Island is the remnant of a sand bar and the water biscuits on its northern shore are an interesting record of the efficiency of the fresh water algae in requiring the lime waters of Sucker brook to deposit their burden of lime right on the pebbles of the beach.
271
HISTORY OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
The modern touch to the lake are its shore inns and the new Roseland Park at the northern end, along Routes 5 and 20, where bathing beaches, pavilions and other recreational facilities abound. One of the lake's largest resort centers is at Cottage City on the eastern shore. Camp Tarion, the property of the Finger Lakes Boy Scout Council, covers 286 acres and has a mile of shore frontage on the eastern slope of Whale Back Mountain, near Middlesex.
LAKE KEUKA.
Lake Keuka, the most unique in shape of all the Finger Lakes, resembles the letter Y and is the only lake known, the waters of which flow into one of its branches, around a dividing bluff, and then flow for twelve miles in the opposite direction. Keuka has often been called the American counterpart of Lake Lucerne, Switzerland. Lucerne is twenty-three miles long and shaped like a rough cross. Keuka has a length of twenty-one miles, is 720 feet above seaboard and 183 feet deep. Though the mountains about Lucerne are snow capped, the mountains about the head of Lake Keuka rear their plumed heads to the clouds, with forests turned to purple in the summer haze of distance.
The peculiar shape of the lake gives it more than sixty miles of shoreline, which is one continuous panorama of picturesque coves, points, bays and promontories. Its banks are terraced with 12,000 acres of vineyards, checkered with grain fields and green woods and ribboned with scores of forest ravines. Along its shores stand remnants of numerous wineries, which made American champagne famous years ago.
Up from the waters of Lake Keuka rose the first trans-At- lantic flying boat and over the lake corps of American naval aviators who started across the ocean in the famous NC's learned to fly.
The most distinctive feature of Lake Keuka is Bluff Point, a promontory rising 812 feet between the branches of the lake. Upon its summit the Mound Builders left "an earthwork whose counterpart is unknown within the limits of the state" and the ash pits of signal fires of the later Iroquois have also been found
272
HISTORY OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
there. Today there stands the historic Wagener Manor House, built in 1830, upon the tip of the point, which is connected by road with Penn Yan. Seven counties and a dozen lakes are visible from the manor.
On the east side of the point, near its tip, is the already famous "Little Chapel on the Mount," built in 1931 with mate- rials brought from two hemispheres and from points on the seven seas. It was erected by Mr. and Mrs. Paul Garrett, who have a summer home on the point, in memory of their son, Charles, and has been given to the Episcopal Diocese of Western New York. Its stone, copper and marble are designed for permanency in a "shrine for the ages." Thousands visit the place weekly for meditation and a moment in the solemnity of great European cathedrals.
Directly across from the bluff an interesting hydro-electric power project was developed in 1930. Lakes Waneta and Lamoka are two miles from Keuka and have about 400 feet more eleva- tion. These lakes are on the dividing line between the Chesa- peake and the St. Lawrence watersheds. Waters from the two smaller lakes are conducted down the steep hillsides and through whirling turbines and thus into Lake Keuka and the St. Lawrence drainage system. When the load of electricity is "light," the superfluous power is used to pump the water back to the two storage lakes on the hill. This hydropower conservation scheme has heretofore been used only in Switzerland.
In the days of the steamers, Lake Keuka boasted craft of such size as to have their own dining halls and other pretentious ap- pointments. The first steamer to ply the lake was built in 1835, shortly after the now abandoned canal was completed between Penn Yan and Dresden on Seneca Lake. This boat, the Keuka, was eighty feet long, thirty feet wide, had upper and lower decks and her boilers burned wood. She ran until 1848.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.