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 34
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 34
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 34
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 34
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"This was the last meeting of the society in the spring term, owing to the smallpox, which broke out in the college about this time, causing a dispersion of a great portion of the students." But the school reopened again in September, 1850, but never en- tirely recovered. This epidemic, together with financial prob- lems, caused it to close in 1860. Such noted men as Wendell Phillips, Fred Douglass, Gerritt Smith and Horace Greeley ad- dressed the students, the last named giving $50 to build the massive gates which guarded the main entrance.
A private school for a time then occupied the building, but at a public meeting in the Baptist Church February 15, 1864, a stock company was formed to buy the property of Gerritt Smith, who had become owner, for $6,500. Then the New York Central Academy was started with P. H. McGraw as president. Because the free school system was soon afterward introduced in the state, the academy failed and in 1868 the school was transferred to the Union School District.
P. H. McGraw was also one of the originators and for years president of the McGrawville Cemetery Association. He was the chief promoter and first president of the U. C. & C. R. R., char- tered April 9, 1870, as the Erie & Central N. Y. R. R. He was
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also founder of the giant corset industry which for years was McGraw's chief source of wealth and pride.
In 1830 there were but ten houses in the present limits of the village. The first log school was probably built as early as 1811 and its successor, a frame building, was constructed in 1820. On August 16, 1867, it was voted to establish a Union free school and a year later the old Academy was purchased. A later modern school was voted August 26, 1884, and the academy building was sold and demolished.
The largest fire in the village history came January 27-28, 1906, when damage of $50,000 was caused by a blaze which raged almost unchecked Saturday night and into Sunday. Then in January, 1927, the village hall was leveled by fire and a hand- some new structure erected the same year. In the basement of this new building is a fine rifle and pistol range, used by the vil- lage Sportsmen's Club formed in 1929 with a membership of nearly ninety.
It was in McGraw that Col. Daniel S. Lamont, former secre- tary of war, passed his boyhood days. It was he who gave to the village G. A. R. four mounted cannon for the soldiers' plot in the local cemetery. William H. Tarble Post 476, G. A. R., was formed in the village April 25, 1884.
HOMER.
Homer, delightfully situated in the west branch of the Tioughnioga River three miles north of Cortland, is a village of 3,194 population, whose history dates back to the beginnings of Cortland County. Chiefly it is known as the setting for the famous book, "David Harum." Though Westcott in this book made the village famous, there are other local claims to distinc- tion. Here was the childhood home of Rev. Theodore T. Munger, for years pastor of the United Church of New Haven, Connecti- cut, and author of several books, among the best known being "On the Threshold."
The birthplace of Franklin Carpenter, artist, is still stand- ing, just as his picture, "The First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation before the Cabinet," painted in 1864, still remains
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as a great historical canvas. Near the village is the home of an early settler, Maj. Noah Hitchcock, who came in 1796. In this house was born Rev. Edward Hitchcock, pastor for eleven years of the American Church in Paris. The Doctors Kellogg, noted New York surgeons, were born in Homer.
Just outside the corporate village limits was an early mill for sawing lumber for the frame buildings that were erected as early as 1827. Ezra Cornell, founder of Cornell University, worked in a shop near this mill making cards for the village woolen mill. Today No. 45 Clinton Street is one of the first frame houses built in the village and the former home of Asa White, great grand- father of Andrew D. White, one-time president of Cornell.
In the early days, being located far from other communities, Homer became a manufacturing locality to provide its own needs, and though time has changed the products, the early tendency remains in the present Newton Fish Line factory, the largest in the world; the David Harum Canning Factory, the Newton Woolen Mill, Blackman shirt factory and Miller Company. The Brockway motor truck corporation, internationally known, was born in Homer.
In its earliest days Homer was a center for distilleries, where the thirsty could go and secure a gallon of purest spirits, with a jug thrown in, for twenty-five cents. Tanneries were also numer- ous. There is some little question as to just who the first settler was on the site of the present village. In 1800 there were but six houses. At the northeast corner of what is now the village green or park, the first school was built about 1798. It gave place in 1819 to the Cortland Academy, afterward the Homer Academy and now Homer Academy and Union School.
Jedediah Barber was the first permanent merchant in the village, coming in 1811 and opening a store two years later. He did more to improve and beautify Homer than any other man. Benjamin Roberts hauled the first stock of goods sold by Barber from Albany in a four horse wagon.
In 1875 W. N. Brockway began the manufacture of platform spring wagons in Homer. The first year fifty wagons were turned out and an equal number of buggies. For thirty-seven
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years carriages were turned out and in 1912 the Brockway plant turned to manufacture of motor trucks, and moved to Cortland. Today the corporation ranks third among manufacturers produc- ing motor trucks exclusively, its trucks being sold in sixty-two countries.
On May 11, 1835, the Legislature passed an act incorporating the village. The first enactment of the village board was a ruling providing for a five dollar fine for anyone firing "crackers, squibs, cannons, guns and pistols" during certain hours, to disturb the quiet of the community.
The first tavern in Homer village was kept by John Ballard, who opened it soon after his arrival in 1803.
The original inhabitants of Homer, irrespective of creed, met in common on Sundays for worship, until 1801, when circum- stances occurred which led the Baptist members of the community to separate. On October 3, 1801, sixteen persons publicly or- ganized as a Baptist Church, the first in the limits of Cortland County. Nine days later a Congregational Church formed. At first services were held in the houses or barns of settlers.
The Methodists first organized as a church in 1833 and Cal- vary Episcopal Church was organized June 6, 1832.
Far View Camp, Inc., with a capacity of sixty, was estab- lished in 1924 at Homer as a summer preventorium and camp for sickly and undernourished children.
The old and once famous Cortland Academy, mentioned above, was incorporated February 2, 1819. Samuel B. Woolworth, LL. D., later secretary of the State Regents, was at the head of the institution for nearly twenty-two years. At a jubilee cele- bration held July 7 and 8, 1846, it was stated that 4,000 students had been connected with the academy. The whole number up to 1859, according to Smith's Gazetteer of 1860, was over 8,000.
Spencer Beebe and his brother-in-law, Amos Todd, were Cort- land's county first settlers, coming in 1791 in the fall to erect a temporary dwelling a little north of Homer village, near the bridge, and returned in the winter for their goods, leaving Mrs. Todd the sole occupant of the house and the only white person within a circuit of thirty miles. They were prevented from re-
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turning for six weeks by deep snows and during the whole of that period the lone woman remained in anxious doubt as to the fate of her husband and brother.
MARATHON.
The village of Marathon, of 860 inhabitants, was incorporated December 28, 1861, but its history traces back nearly a hundred years. Only a few years before the building of the Chenango Canal in 1837, the village site was dotted by a few small houses, without a doctor, attorney or clergyman in the community. Few if any houses were even painted until 1820 and there was no store, only an occasional tailor or shoemaker coming into the place for a brief stay to ply his trade.
The east side of the river opposite Marathon offered more attractions, because the Cortland-Binghamton stage line ran there. Across the river too were the only tavern and postoffice. But when a railroad was put through Marathon in 1854, giving the community connections with the New York, Lake Erie and Western on the south and the New York Central on the north, prosperity dawned. Business interests previously confined to a grist mill, saw mill, fulling mill, a cabinet shop and a blacksmith shop, rapidly expanded.
Abram Brink, a son of Capt. Wm. Brink, a patriot of the Revolution, moved into the town and settled on the site of Mara- thon Village in 1800 and kept the first tavern ever licensed in the town. He also erected the first building suitable for a store.
The first school in the village was a primitive affair, the win- dows being covered with oiled paper instead of glass. The first school of respectable pretentions was built in 1818, at a cost of $100, which was paid in rye and corn. The Marathon Academy was chartered by the Regents in 1866. Marathon's first fire com- pany was formed October 15, 1867.
About one mile south of the village on the east side the Tiough- nioga River is the site of an old Indian village and burial ground.
The oldest church of the community was formed by the Pres- byterians February 11, 1814. John Hunt is believed to have been the first settler in 1796. He built the first saw mill and the first
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child born in the village was S. M. Hunt, his grandson. Hunt's death in 1808, when he was ninety-seven years old, was the first demise in the community.
Marathon, served by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad, is in the heart of a poultry and dairying section, with potatoes and cabbage grown in abundance. Its live weekly news- paper is the Independent, founded in 1870.
CHAPTER XXX
ONTARIO COUNTY.
OLDEST COUNTY IN CENTRAL NEW YORK-RESOURCES-PHELPS AND GORHAM PURCHASE - LATER TRANSFERS - FIRST COURTHOUSE -OTHER COUNTY BUILDINGS-OTHER COUNTIES FORMED FROM ORIGINAL TERRITORY-TOWNS -EARLY INDIAN TROUBLE-CANANDAIGUA-GENEVA-CLIFTON SPRINGS- HOLCOMB - MANCHESTER - NAPLES - PHELPS - SHORTSVILLE - VICTOR- EAST BLOOMFIELD-HONEOYE.
Ontario County, oldest in Central New York, was the fifteenth created in the state. It was erected January 27, 1789, from Montgomery County. Ontario embraces 649 square miles, with a land area of 415,360 acres, of which 82.8 per cent or 343,863 are in farms. The county's 3,322 farms, with their buildings, are valued at $27,878,718, a greater value than any other in the dis- trict with the exception of Wayne. Total county population is 54,239, the rural exceeding the urban.
Ontario has 104 industrial plants employing 3,536 people who receive yearly wages amounting to $4,668,535, according to the last federal figures for 1929. The plants pay yearly $11,350,731 for materials, fuel and purchased power and the value of their products is $23,277,541.
The county's highway mileage is 1,362, of which 231 are of fine state construction. There are 17,004 motor cars owned within the county.
Canandaigua, the county seat, and Geneva, the metropolis, are the county's two cities, but there are also nine incorporated villages : Clifton Springs, Holcomb, Manchester, Naples, Phelps, Rushville, Shortsville, Victor and East Bloomfield.
As Ontario County lies entirely within the great Phelps and Gorham Purchase and as this purchase had a direct relation to
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the county's early history, the background of this early realty deal is especially interesting. By the terms of the charter of the colony of Massachusetts, the region between its north and south boundaries from the Atlantic to the Pacific was embraced. And the title to this territory was claimed by Massachusetts after the Revolution. The subsequent charter of the State of New York intervened and conflicted with this claim. Therefore, difficulties arose, which were finally settled by commissioners at Hartford, Connecticut, December 16, 1786.
It was there agreed that Massachusetts should cede to New York the sovereignty of all the territory claimed by the former lying within the limits of New York, and that New York should cede to Massachusetts the property of the soil, or the right of the pre-emption of the soil from the Indians. This agreement covered all that part of the state lying west of a line running north from the "82nd milestone" on the line between New York and Pennsyl- vania, through Seneca Lake to Sodus Bay. This line is known as the old "Pre-emption Line."
The 1787 Massachusetts sold the whole of this tract containing 6,000,000 acres to Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham for about one million dollars. In the following spring, Mr. Phelps left his home in Granville, Massachusetts, with men and means to explore his new territory. He collected the sachems, chiefs and warriors of the six Nations at Kanadesaga (now Geneva) and in July, 1788, concluded with them a treaty of purchase of a tract of 2,250,000 acres, bounded east by the Pre-emption Line, west by a line twelve miles west of and running parallel with the Genes- see River, south by the Pennsylvania line and north by Lake Ontario.
The portion of the tract to which the Indian title had not been extinguished, consisting of about two thirds of the original pur- chase, was abandoned by Phelps and Gorham and resold to Robert Morris, an American financier and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Subsequently it formed what is known as the Holland Land Purchase.
In 1789 Mr. Phelps, at Canandaigua, opened the first regular land office for sale of land to settlers ever established in America.
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The system he adopted for survey of his lands by townships and ranges, with slight modifications, was adopted by the Government for the survey of all the new lands in the United States.
But the new purchaser, Morris, ordered a re-survey which revealed an error in the first. A mistake, possibly intentional, had placed the "pre-emption line" just west of where the State Experiment Station in Geneva now stands. Morris' new "pre- emption line" ran through the middle of Seneca Lake to Sodus Bay on Lake Ontario, in what is now Wayne County.
The land between the two was known as "the Gore" and be- cause so many people had settled upon it before the original sur- vey had been corrected, they were allowed to stay. In the mean- time Morris had sold the lands to Sir William Pulteney and his associates of Bath, England, and Pulteney was given in exchange for "the Gore" 56,000 acres near Sodus Bay.
Charles Williamson was selected as agent for the Pulteney company and at once entered upon his huge task. It was not his first visit to America. During the Revolution he had been sent over with his regiment as a captain to fight the Colonists, a job for which he had no desire. The ship was captured by the French and officers and men became prisoners. Upon his release Wil- liamson married a Boston girl and returned to his native Scot- land. When he returned to America as agent he made his head- quarters at Bath, but spent much time in Geneva. He became a naturalized citizen and very popular. For three years from 1796 he was elected to the Legislature from Ontario County. He was a man of great executive ability, of sound judgment and he had an enthusiastic vision of the future of the country. He continued as agent until 1801, when he was succeeded by Capt. Robert Troup. Captain Williamson took title for the estate of 1,200,000 acres.
But for the error in the pre-emption line survey, the county seat of Ontario County would probably have been in Geneva in- stead of Canandaigua and also the famous old Phelps and Gorham land sale office would have been located there. Geneva, however, was early the county seat to the extent of having conducted within
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its limits at Patterson's tavern the first Court of Oyer and Ter- miner convened in the county. This session took place in 1793.
The first courthouse was built in 1794, a plain two story frame structure on the northeast corner of the Canandaigua pub- lic square, near the site of the present courthouse. The second courthouse was erected in 1824, the original pioneer building being removed to the corner of Main and Cross streets and there- after occupied as a town hall and post office, until moved again to Coach Street and used for a store house, until torn down in 1899. On July 4, 1824, the cornerstone of the second courthouse was laid and this two story frame structure used for the next thirty-four years. The present courthouse was begun in 1857 and finished at a cost of $46,000, much of which cost was borne by the Federal Government.
It was the second courthouse which was the scene of many famous trials, among them being that of "Stiff Armed George," tried for murder and defended by the famous Indian orator, Red Jacket. Later it was the scene of the trial of Jemima Wilkinson for blasphemy. In 1795 the trial of a man accused of having stolen a cowbell was held at the Canandaigua courthouse and was the first jury trial west of Utica. Improvements to the courthouse in the past generation have totaled more than $100,000.
The first Ontario County jail was originally built as a block- house to protect the community against the Indians. Later it was used as a place of confinement. In 1813 the supervisors or- dered a jail built. At one time a hotel, sheriff's residence and jail were built in a single structure, the lower part being used as a residence and the upper to hold prisoners. The building, which stood on the present site of the Webster Hotel, is said to have first been used about 1816.
The original Ontario County continued for twenty years to lose part of her territory. In 1802 she lost all of her lands west of the Genesee River. On March 18, 1796, Steuben County was taken off. Livingston and Monroe counties were erected from Ontario February 23, 1821, with some chunks from Genesee. Cre- ation of Yates County February 5, 1823, took more from Ontario
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and April 11, 1823, Wayne County was created from Ontario and Seneca Counties, giving the Ontario County towns of Lyons, Wil- liamson, Ontario, Palmyra, Wolcott, Galen and Macedon to the new state subdivision. Originally Ontario County contained about 6,600,000 acres or more than 10,300 square miles, its area being reduced to 415,360 acres approximately or 649 square miles.
Today the sixteen towns of the county remain the same as constituted many years ago. Bristol was formed January 27, 1789, and was named for Bristol County, Massachusetts. On March 8, 1839, South Bristol was taken off as a separate town and part was also annexed to Richmond in 1848, but restored in 1852.
Canadice, the name of which is a corruption of the Indian name of the lake in the center of the town, was formed from Richmond April 15, 1829, and a part of it was annexed to Rich- mond in 1836.
Canandaigua was one of the original towns, formed January 27, 1789, and a part of it was annexed to Gorham in 1824.
East Bloomfield was formed as Bloomfield January 27, 1789, and Mendon and Victor were taken off in 1812.
Farmington, named from Farmington, Connecticut, was also an original town organized January 27, 1789.
Gorham likewise was an original division, formed January 27, 1789, under the name of Easton, but changed to Lincoln in April, 1806, and to Gorham a year later. The last name was in honor of Nathaniel Gorham. Hopewell was set off from this town March 29, 1822, and a part of Canandaigua was annexed in 1824.
Manchester was formed March 31, 1821, under the name of Burt, which was changed April 6, 1822.
Naples was one of the original towns, formed January 27, 1789, under the name of Middletown. However, the region em- braced by the town was originally known as Watkinstown, from William Watkins of Berkshire, Massachusetts, one of the pur- chasers under Phelps and Gorham. This region was called by the Indians Nundawao, in reference to the Great Hill. The name
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Middletown was changed to Naples April 6, 1808. Italy was set off from it in 1815 and a part of Springwater in 1816.
Phelps was formed in 1796, under the act of January 27, 1789, and was named in honor of Oliver Phelps, one of the proprietors. A part of this town was annexed to Lyons, Wayne County, April 11, 1823.
Richmond was also formed under the Act of 1789 and called Pittstown. On April 6, 1808, it was changed to Honeoye and then to Richmond on April 11, 1815. A part of Canadice was annexed April 30, 1836, and parts of Bristol and South Bristol in 1848, but the latter were restored in 1852.
Seneca was formed in 1793 and its territory remained sub- stantially undisturbed until November 15, 1872, when the town of Geneva was erected by the Board of Supervisors.
Victor was formed from Bloomfield May 26, 1812, and West Bloomfield was taken from Bloomfield February 11, 1833.
Ontario County was named from Lake Ontario, its original northern boundary. It has been called the mother of counties in Western New York. The first engagement between whites and Indians in all Central New York came in Ontario County in 1687, when DeNoville, governor of "New France," at the head of 1,600 French soldiers and 400 Indian allies, invaded the Seneca Indian country by way of the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario. At a defile near the site of the present village of Victor, a battle took place, resulting in the defeat of the Indians, though with great loss to the French. DeNoville marched forward, burned the vil- lage of Gannagaro and several others and returned.
CANANDAIGUA.
On the site of the Seneca Indian village of "Kanandarqua," meaning "The Chosen Spot," Canandaigua City of today was once the council ground of the Six Nations. The Sullivan campaign of 1779 opened the way for progress, the little settlement formed shortly thereafter growing until now it is a thriving city of about 7,500 population, having been made a city in 1913.
Here the soldiers of Sullivan found an Indian village, "a beautifully situated town, containing between twenty and thirty
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CANANDAIGUA ACADEMY, CANANDAIGUA, N. Y.
DISTRICT NO. 9 SCHOOL, WEST LAKE ROAD, CANANDAIGUA, N. Y. A survey of 1,663 rural schools of the State of New York gave this school first place, scoring 960 points out of 1,000.
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houses, well finished, chiefly of hewn plank." One soldier's jour- nal says that "in this town a dog was hung up, with a string of wampum round his neck, on a tree, curiously decorated and trimmed." Another soldier reported that it was "the best built Indian town" he had yet seen, with "the houses mostly new and mostly log houses." One soldier suggested that some whites must have lived in the village, because the houses had chimneys, in con- trast to the smoke holes of the Indian abodes. Sullivan's forces encamped overnight nearby.
Canandaigua was the location of the first land sale office after America became free; it was the terminus of the first great stage line westward from Albany and it was a community made famous by great figures which it sent out more than a century ago to share in the upbuilding of America.
The place did not become known as a white settlement until 1787, when history shows there was a futile effort made to name. the frontier hamlet Walkersburgh, in honor of William Walker, a land business agent of Lenox, Massachusetts. The place started its rise toward early fame in 1789 when Judge Oliver Phelps opened the first office for the sale of land to settlers. There were then eighteen families at Canandaigua, which was made the head- quarters for the great Phelps and Gorham Purchase lying west of the pre-emption line. Their homes were rude cabins.
The first frame houses were constructed in 1792-93 and the first was that of Oliver Phelps. Canandaigua was made the county seat of Ontario County and its progress was thus assured. In 1794 the first courthouse was completed and a year later the famous Canandaigua Academy was founded. The site of the school was given by Phelps and Gorham, and upon it a building fifty feet square and three stories high was erected. A century later, when the public schools attracted pupils, the old institution which had served Western New York for generations, closed its doors. The school was discontinued in 1897 and three years later the property was given the Board of Education. Five years later the old structure was razed and the present modern brick building erected. Today it is the high school. A succession of fine public buildings have been grouped about the square beginning with the
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