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 23
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 23
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 23
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 23
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
Electricity, late in the Nineteenth Century, opened the way to more widespread use of Niagara Power. Discouragement and difficulty beset the pioneers of electrical development, but per- severance at last won its reward. Niagara power was success- fully transmitted to Buffalo November 16, 1896, over a distance of twenty-three miles.
Only a few years later came the startling announcement that it was proposed to transmit the power of Niagara across Central New York to Syracuse, over 150 miles away. Many thought the project rank folly, but the power pioneers set grimly to their task. Day by day the line was pushed nearer its goal. It passed Rochester and swung across the rolling hills of Wayne County. In 1906 it reached Syracuse and people excitedly told one an- other that again the impossible had been done.
Two years later a line of steel towers was built eighty-one miles from Rochester to supply Geneva, Auburn and Syracuse. Motorists see this line as they drive between Auburn and Seneca Falls. The Montezuma Marshes presented the greatest single obstacle to the line builders. The bottomless swamp afforded no sure footing for the towers, and it was freely forecast that the first windstorm would carry out the entire line. But the en- gineers were not discouraged. They sank piles in the mud and on them built reinforced concrete foundations. On these mats of concrete the towers were anchored-and there they stand today.
-
286
HISTORY OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
In 1928 a second steel tower line over the same route was completed, and the original line of 1906 has been replaced by a newer and shorter line. Niagara power now flows into the north- ern section of the area over five circuits through Rochester. It serves sections further south with Geneva and Geneseo as the gateways.
Since those days new projects for harnessing nature's wild horses have been carried forward in Central New York. The Lake Lamoka Power Company development is one of the newest. Here within the last three years the waters of Lake Lamoka and Lake Waneta have been impounded in a reservoir extending from Savona on the Cohocton River northward to Wayne, a distance of about sixteen miles. A spillway at Wayne drops the water from the reservoir a distance of 395 feet to Keuka Landing on Lake Keuka, directly below the Wayne hills. A power house is built at that point. During those hours of the day when the load on the power system is lightest, the water from Lake Keuka is pumped back up the hill into the Wayne reservoir, to pour down the spillway again, thus passing again and again through the Keuka turbines.
The great power system now supplying more than ninety per cent of Central New York is the Associated Gas and Electric Sys- tem and its subsidiaries. The Associated company was incorpo- rated in this state March 17, 1906, as the principal holding com- pany for the Associated Gas and Electric System. The system uses both natural power from Niagara and artificial power from steam plants south of the area. In addition it buys small quan- tities of power from minor hydro-electric developments in the region. Typical of these is a small development completed by Fred L. Emerson on the Owasco River at Auburn in 1932.
Villages and townships of the area served by the Empire Gas & Electric Company, an associated subsidiary, include :
Cayuga County: City of Auburn, villages of Aurora, Cay- uga, Union Springs and Weedsport and the towns of Ledyard, Aurelius, Springport, Brutus, Fleming, Genoa, Montezuma, Owasco, Sennett, Scipio, Springport, Throop and Venice. All
287
HISTORY OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
these communities receive electricity, but only Auburn and Cay- uga village are supplied with gas.
Ontario County; City of Geneva, villages of Clifton Springs and Phelps and towns of Manchester, Phelps, Gorham, Hopewell and Seneca. All have electricity and gas is supplied Geneva, Clifton Springs and Phelps.
Seneca County: Villages of Seneca Falls and Waterloo with both gas and electricity and the following towns with electricity : Fayette, Waterloo, Junius, Romulus, Tyre and Varick.
Wayne County: Villages of Clyde, Lyons, Newark and Pal- myra and the towns of Galen, Lyons, Arcadia, Palmyra, and Macedon. These get electricity, there being no gas supplied in Wayne.
Villages and townships served by the New York Central Elec- tric Corporation, another associated subsidiary, are:
Yates: Villages of Penn Yan, Dresden and Dundee and the towns of Benton, Milo, Jerusalem, Barrington, Pulteney, Star- key and Torrey, with electricity only.
Ontario: Villages of Rushville and Gorham and the towns of Gorham, Potter, Middlesex and Italy, with electricity only.
Steuben: Villages of Hammondsport and Prattsburg and the towns of Prattsburg, Urbana, Bath, Wayne, Tyrone, Orange and Bradford, with electricity only.
Schuyler: Towns of Reading and Dix, with electricity only.
Villages and towns served by the New York State Gas and Electric Corporation with electricity are:
Tompkins: City of Ithaca, villages of Trumansburg, Dry- den and Groton and the towns of Ithaca, Ulysses, Caroline, Dan- by, Newfield, Dryden and Groton, with electricity, Ithaca city getting gas as well.
Seneca: Villages of Interlaken and Ovid and towns of Co- vert, Ovid and Romulus, electricity only.
Cayuga : Villages of Locke and Moravia and towns of Locke and Moravia, electricity only.
Tioga: Village of Spencer and towns of Spencer and Can- dor, electricity only.
Chemung: Town of Van Etten, electricity only.
288
HISTORY OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
Cortland : City of Cortland, village of Homer and towns of Cortland and Homer, with gas only, electricity coming from the Niagara-Hudson Power Corporation.
The City of Elmira is served by the Elmira Water, Light and Railroad Company of the Associated system and here natural gas is being supplied already from the recently discovered gas fields about thirty miles to the northwest. Elmira Heights, and Horseheads are also supplied by this associated subsidiary.
Prior to 1902 and 1903, Elmira was supplied with manu- factured coal gas. About that time natural gas was discovered in Pennsylvania about eighty miles from Elmira and pipe lines were laid connecting with the fields. Gradually, however, the natural gas supply diminished until service was poor and it be- came necessary to build a modern water gas plant during the winter of 1922-23. But when the new Wayne-Dundee fields were discovered, production of manufactured gas was discontinued.
Canandaigua is supplied with electricity from the Rochester Gas and Electric Company and receives its gas from the Empire Gas and Electric Company.
Corning and Canton, Steuben County, and Southport, Che- mung County, are supplied with gas by the Allegheny Gas Company.
1
SOLDIERS' MONUMENT AND WASHINGTON PARK, BATH, N. Y.
NATIONAL MILITARY HOME, BATH, N. Y.
CHAPTER XXIV IN THE WARS OF THE NATION.
WAR OF 1812-MEXICAN WAR-CIVIL WAR-GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC- SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR-UNITED SPANISH WAR VETERANS-WORLD WAR -AMERICAN LEGION.
Into every war in which the United States has been engaged, since the Revolution, Central New York has poured her manhood and her resources. The district was only a wilderness at the time of the Revolution, so that there were no farms or country- side from which to draw Continental soldiers. But after that great conflict, veterans of George Washington's army penetrated Central New York as its first settlers. And from them have descended many of the heroes of later wars who have written a bright page in military history.
In many a hallowed, moss-grown cemetery of Central New York sleep men who fought the British in 1776 and the long years of wilderness war that followed. There are the graves of men who fought in the War of 1812, when the region sent its first soldiers ever mobilized in the area to fight for the stars and stripes.
Then came the Mexican War, to which Central New York sent only a few. But in the Civil War, thousands from the region went to battle, to disease, to southern prisons and to death. The mighty climax to the entire military history came with the World War, when the area gave of men and money and heartache as it had never given before.
Each community has its heroes, sung and unsung; its gold star mothers and its memories. In succeeding pages are sketched merely the broad outlines of each of the nation's wars as they have applied to Central New York. To chronicle the bravery of
289
290
HISTORY OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
private and officer alike who brought honor to his region would require many volumes. Some of the military records are out- lined in the biographical section of this history.
In the brilliant military history of Central New York no one individual stands out more prominently than Admiral William Thomas Sampson, naval hero of both the Civil War and the Span- ish-American conflict, who was born in Palmyra, February 9, 1840. He there gained his early education before entering the United States Naval Academy in 1857, from which he was grad- uated in 1861, shortly before the Civil War.
He was promoted until appointed executive officer of the iron- clad "Patapsco" of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron in 1864 and began a career of war bravery recognized around the world. His ship was blown up in Charleston Harbor January 15, 1865, while he was aboard. After serving on the frigate "Colo- rado" of the European squadron, he was promoted lieutenant commander July 25, 1866; commander August 9, 1874, and cap- tain March 26, 1889. Subsequently he was superintendent of the United States Naval Academy, a member of the International Prime Meridian and Time Conference, superintendent of the Torpedo Station, member of a board on fortifications and other defenses, chief of the bureau of naval ordnance, superintendent of the naval observatory, a United States delegate to the Inter- national Maritime Conference in Washington, and president of the board of inquiry into the "Maine" disaster at the beginning of the Spanish War
On March 24, 1898, he was appointed commander of the North Atlantic Squadron with the rank of real admiral. On June 1 he joined Commodore Winfield S. Schley, commander of the "Flying Squadron" off Santiago, and took command of the combined squadrons, which included sixteen warships. When it was known that the Spanish fleet under Admiral Cervera was blockaded in the Santiago Harbor, Admiral Sampson prepared a plan of operations for his fleet to check any attempt at escape. He took part in the engagement when the Spanish fleet made its futile dash to the open sea.
291
HISTORY OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
Admiral Sampson was promoted rear admiral August 12, 1898; appointed commander of the Boston Navy Yard October 14, 1899, and was relieved of this command, owing to ill health, October 1, 1901. On February 9, 1902, he was retired and died the same year.
WAR OF 1812.
The War of 1812 was the first event of the settlement period in Central New York, when the pioneers were halted in their empire building program by the shock of a momentous outside event. They were forced to engage in other thoughts besides the development of roads, grist mills, frontier schools and infant com- mercial enterprises. In the war New York State put in the field 40,000 militia and when the nation's resources had been ex- hausted, Governor Tompkins endorsed a half million in govern- ment notes to replenish the empty treasury. Of this force of men and money, Central New York contributed its full share.
Central New York was a thoroughfare for soldiers, who halted in its villages. Generals Scott and Wood passed over the old Cayuga bridge with 3,000 troops along the old Genesee trail. The early roads, so laboriously fashioned, were damaged greatly by the passage of artillery. But the spirit of the lake country blazed again as America came to grips with a former enemy.
The War of 1812 was the second serious conflict between the United States and Great Britain. It lasted for more than two and a half years, beginning June 19, 1812, and ending with the Treaty of Ghent, signed December 24, 1814, and ratified Feb- ruary 18, 1815. The main cause of the war was Britain's inter- ference with American vessels which she stopped on the high seas and searched for British subjects, who were forced into her navy or imprisoned for refusal to serve. Several times American men-of-war were fired on and compelled to give up seamen in their crews. England also interfered with American commerce by blockades and her Embargo Act, thus arousing bitter feeling. Congress overruled President James Madison's pacific views and appropriated large sums for the conflict.
==
292
HISTORY OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
One of the most striking effects of the War of 1812. upon Central New York was the abrupt halting of immigration. Peo- ple who lived in the better protected Eastern states were not disposed to endanger their lives and property on the frontier. But the high prices for which farm products sold was some com- pensation to settlers for their hardships and anxieties. In 1816 the prevailing price of wheat in the region was three dollars a bushel and corn brought two dollars.
There was wide variety in the extent to which the com- munities sent troops to the front. Those places more accessible to the seat of conflict sent the larger proportion. Indicative of the whole hearted response of some communities is the history of some of the individual towns. Micajah Harding of Marion, Wayne County, who raised a company of sharpshooters, said that there were more soldiers from Marion than there were families in the town.
The only actual fighting of the war which took place within the territory of Central New York was at Sodus Point, Wayne County, where British boats raided the American settlement, burning and destroying property to the value of $25,000. Cas- ualties there totaled two British killed and one American slain and another mortally wounded.
Heavy ordnance, intended for the Niagara frontier, was brought by boat from Albany by the Seneca Lock Navigation Company, and landed at West Cayuga, now Bridgeport, Seneca County. From there they were transported on stout heavy sleds.
The regular army was augmented by militia raised by the draft, the draft period being three months. Some militia was called out for a second and third draft period. Substitutes were obtained at a maximum of thirty dollars for the three months. A private soldier's pay was five dollars a month but this was increased to eight.
Although far removed from the scene of battle on the Niagara frontier, villages of Central New York along the Genesee Turn- pike were kept in touch with activities, not only through their citizen soldiers at the front but also because troops farther east constantly passed through the communities.
293
HISTORY OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
Auburn, farthest east of Central New York towns along the Genesee Turnpike, was typical of the others. Often it was given a scare. In the winter of 1813 the British crossed the Niagara at Black Rock, destroyed the place and burned Buffalo. Fugitives from the area aided in spreading consternation in Cen- tral New York by reports that the enemy was marching into the interior. Inhabitants were warned by couriers. A cavalry com- pany was hurriedly mustered in Auburn and marched west dur- ing the night, while Enos T. Throop, later governor, and John H. Beach collected arms and ammunition and called for volunteers to defend the village. In the morning militia and citizen volun- teers numbering 200 marched off for Cayuga. When four miles from Canandaigua, they were met by a reconnoitre party and learned the "British advance" was a myth.
Auburn got another scare in 1814, when a bugler, a deserter from the British came noisily from the west, creating the fear a British detachment was on its way. Cayuga County sent to the front an artillery company, captained by John H. Compston; two infantry companies captained by Henry Brinkerhoff of Owasco and Daniel Elbridge of Aurelius; a company of regulars; a company of rifles, captained by Jack Richardson. When Gen- eral Porter was captured at Fort Erie, he was rescued by Auburn soldiers led by Lieutenant Chatfield, in the command of Captain Richardson, who was soon promoted to colonel. The British works were taken, along with a thousand prisoners and many stores.
Ontario County, being nearest the scene of fighting on the Niagara frontier, was most affected of the counties in the Central New York area. Within six days after hostilities started, a pub- lic meeting was held in Canandaigua to adopt measures for the public good. A "Citizens Corps" was formed of men exempt from military service, who should defend the county against pos- sible Indian attack while the militia was on the frontier. Similar patriotic meetings were held in Bloomfield, Farmington and Se- neca. The "East Bloomfield Alarm Company" was organized and armed so as to hasten to the relief of any section of the county
-
294
HISTORY OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
which might be endangered. Councils were held with the In- dians in an effort to enlist them on the sides of the settlers.
Destruction of Buffalo and a threatened British invasion of the Genesee country sent a thrill of terror through western New York. Defenseless families in the Genesee region left their homes, became separated and in desperate plight streamed eastward into Ontario County. Citizens of Canandaigua named a relief com- mittee and raised a considerable sum there and in adjacent local- ities. Money, food and clothing were thus given the fleeing frontiersmen and many were induced to return to their homes and live through the unfortunate winter of 1813-14.
Central New York gave no more courageous soldier to the War of 1812 than Gen. John Swift, founder of the town of Pal- myra, who with his family moved into Wayne County in 1790 and built the first house. Swift was a native of Kent County and at the age of fifteen enlisted as a soldier in the Revolution. In that war he received a ball in the neck, the missle passing be- tween the spinal column and the esophagus. He made a recovery hardly known to medical science at that time. He was the first pioneer, the first moderator of the first town meeting, the first supervisor, the first pound master and the first captain in Pal- myra. He gave lands for the first saw mill, the first graveyard, the first school and the first church in the town.
When the War of 1812 broke out, Swift was commissioner general of the New York Volunteers. In 1814 he led a detach- ment from Queenstown Heights down the river to Fort George. There he surrounded and captured a picket guard of sixty men. He did not order the captives disarmed. One of them fired a bul- let through his breast and he died in a hospital July 12, 1814, at the age of fifty-two. After the war his remains were brought to Palmyra and buried in the old village cemetery. His memory in the present generation was honored by the Gen. John Swift Chapter, Daughters of 1812, by erection of a tablet near his rest- ing place, and the American Legion has landscaped about his grave. The State Legislature voted a sword to his oldest son and directed that a full length portrait of the pioneer and soldier be hung in City Hall, New York City.
295
HISTORY OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
Palmyra sent another hero to the war in Maj. William Howe Cuyler, an aide of General Hall. He was the first lawyer to open an office in the town. On the night of October 8, 1812, Major Cuyler was killed at Black Rock by a four-pounder from the British Battery at Fort Erie. His remains are in the Palmyra village cemetery and over his grave rests a slab bearing this in- scription : "As a soldier, patriot, friend, husband and father, he shone conspicuously."
One Genevan was a brigadier-general as a result of his serv- ices in the War of 1812. In historic Washington Street Ceme- tery, Geneva, lie the remains of Brig. Gen. Joseph Gardner Swift, whose career in both army and civil life was distinguished. He was appointed a cadet to West Point when eighteen years old by President John Adams in 1800 and was its first graduate the year the Academy opened in 1802. He became commandant of the academy when twenty-three. In 1812 he had the rank of colonel and was chief engineer of the United States Army. He was brevetted with the higher rank for what he did in the war. Swift resigned as chief engineer in 1818 and in years that fol- lowed was engaged in great engineering tasks for the govern- ment. He built some of the early railroads, securing the reputa- tion of being the greatest engineer of his day. From 1829 until his death in 1865 he and his family resided in Geneva. Near his grave is that of Hon. Gideon Lee, mayor of New York City in 1834-35.
MEXICAN WAR.
Central New York responded with men in the Mexican War, although her contribution was not nearly so large as in the great conflicts which followed. The war on the southern border of the nation grew out of the annexation of Texas in 1845. Texas claimed the Rio Grande as her southwestern frontier, while Mex- ico insisted on the Nusces River. The United States supported the position taken by Texas and war between the countries was declared in 1846. During that year Gen. Zachary Taylor won the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma and forced Mon- terey to surrender.
-
296
HISTORY OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
On May 23, 1847, he gained the victory of Buena Vista and in the following June General Scott took Vera Cruz and marched on to the City of Mexico. On the way he fought the battles of Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Churubusco, Molino del Rey and Chapul- tepec. His capture of Mexico City September 14, 1847, virtually ended the war and resulted in the treaty of Guadaloupe-Hidalgo signed February 2, 1848.
CIVIL WAR.
On the morning of April 12, 1861, Central New York was electrified by the news of the firing on Fort Sumter, the actual start of a four-year war which halted the development of com- merce and industry for the business of battle. In the region which nurtured William H. Seward, the great abolitionist, the fires of patriotism were kindled with a suddenness visible in few sections of the nation. And during the period of conflict the towns and the countrysides gave of their manhood and woman- hood, their money and their resources to an extent surpassed by few if any regions of the land. Of the 50,000 men and the $150,- 000,000 which the war cost the state, Central New York bore a staggering share.
Volumes might be written of the history of the dozens of regi- ments which went out of the district and returned decimated. But in a book of this nature, even an attempt to chronicle the region's part in the Civil War would be impossible. Only a few incidents may properly here be cited. At the outset of the con- flict, one of three military depots in the state was established at Elmira, which formed a hub for sending men to the front.
The ardor of the public was so great that requests to raise companies flooded the military department and it became neces- sary to establish branch depots, in addition to the original three major ones. Such centers were therefore set up at Auburn, Cort- land and Lyons. The entire area was a hive of war preparation but in no place was the activity more intensive than in Elmira.
When the first call for troops was issued by President Lincoln, the news reached Elmira in the afternoon, and that evening in Concert Hall, speeches were made by many prominent Elmirans,
297
HISTORY OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
before a packed hall. Volunteers were called for and William Halliday, R. R. R. Dumars, and S. B. Denton were made a com- mittee to receive the names of the volunteers. Most of the "South- ern Tier Rifles" volunteered and became Company K of the Twenty-third Regiment.
Elmira was made one of three military depots of the state, on July 30, 1861, R. B. Van Valkenburg, of Bath, being its com- manding officer. Barracks, rude but comfortable, were erected; one being just east of where the Lackawanna station stands; an- other was on the south side of the river, in the vicinity of the south end of Walnut Street bridge, on the old Wilcox Driving Park; still another was on Upper West Water Street, between Hoffman and Foster Avenue.
During the latter years of the war, the latter site was estab- lished as a prison camp, about thirty acres in extent, and occu- pied all that part of Elmira between Hoffman Street and Foster Avenue, and from Water Street to the river. A twelve-foot fence was erected with a wooden pathway protected by a guard rail, high enough for the sentry to have a clear view of the interior of the prison. Sentry boxes were built at intervals along the path- way, with a flight of steps here and there to the ground.
The officers' quarters were located on the outside of the en- closure, some on Water Street and other locations near by. Many of these buildings after the abandonment of the prison camp were removed and remodeled, and are even now being occupied as dwellings. Some of these are on West Gray Street in the vicinity of Hoffman Street. Others from old No. 1 barracks on Upper Lake Street were adapted for dwellings and may be found on Harper Street between Lake and Oak Streets.
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.