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 37
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 37
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 37
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 37
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Doctor Watkins' widow became the wife of George G. Freer, who obtained a new village charter in 1861, formed the first bank, aided much in making Watkins the county seat of Schuyler County in 1868, donated land for the village school house and the county buildings and otherwise labored for the advancement of the community which was destined to become one of America's greatest resorts.
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The first log tavern was in use in 1800. The first frame tavern was a story and a half high, with two rooms below and two above and built about 1810. There had long been trading posts and humble cabin stores, but the first real dry goods store was opened about 1815.
Wells & Company, who originated the American express business in this region, opened the first express office in the vil- lage about 1848. This was before the railroad came and was the terminus of the express line, the consignments coming by boat up Seneca Lake.
The Presbyterian Church, formed September 8, 1818, was the first church organization, meeting in various homes until the first church structure, built at a cost of $1,000 and seating 400 persons, was erected in 1833. The place was first visited in 1810 by a Methodist minister who conducted services in the home of John Dow. The Methodist Church, however, was not organized until 1840. Other churches and organization dates are: St. Mary's of the Lake (Roman Catholic), 1833; Baptist, 1846; St. James Episcopal, 1863.
The Watkins Glen Library was organized January 1, 1870, under the name of the Ladies' Library.
The Masons organized a lodge December 19, 1853; the Royal Arch Masons a chapter June 20, 1864; the Odd Fellows a lodge on August 20, 1868.
The Watkins-Montour Rotary Club, organized in 1921, com- prises all of Schuyler County. The Watkins-Montour Zonta Club organized in 1927, comprises all of Schuyler County, too.
Watkins Glen has given careful attention to the training of its youth from the time of cabin schools in a forest clearing. One of the early schools of more pretentious nature was that opened in 1859 by Prof. A. C. Huff as a select school.
In 1860 a charter was procured for an academy, which opened with a dozen pupils and Professor Huff as an instructor. The court house was purchased for school purposes and classes held here until 1863, when by special act of the Legislature the acad- emy was merged with the Watkins Academic and Union School. That was the beginning of the splendid system of today.
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In early days, Watkins Glen was supplied with manufactured gas, the gas-light company building its first plant in 1869. But since that time has come the boon of natural gas. Today Watkins Glen is virtually in the center of the natural gas belt in south- western New York and because of this advantage of location, can offer the manufacturer who proposes to locate here an abundant gas supply of the best quality at a minimum cost for quantity, of fifty cents per 1,000 cubic feet. So cheap is this gas that the municipal water plant is operated by motors driven by natural gas.
In the same way the village through its municipal offices main- tains an electric plant, its generators driven by similar motors propelled by natural gas. Two motors are in operation, each of sixty horse-power, generating from 1,500 to 1,600 kilowatts. The capacity of the plant is now far above the daily requirements, assuring a plentiful supply of cheap power, more than 500 kilo- watts being available now, with only one motor constantly in operation.
Watkins Glen is the center of one of the richest salt industries in the United States, the products amounting annually to more than $1,000,000. Two large salt companies are located here, the International Salt Company of New York, with a plant two miles north of the village at the lakeshore and the Watkins Salt Company, which has a plant in the village at the head of the lake.
One of the richest salt deposits in the world underlies the vil- lage; the development of this natural resource is described in the chapter relating to natural gas and salt in the region. The vil- lage is also served by four railroads, the Pennsylvania, New York Central, the Lehigh Valley and the Erie. It is also on the Barge Canal system through Seneca Lake with a spur leading to Mon- tour Falls, three miles away.
Watkins Glen is the trading center of a rich grape, fruit, poultry raising and agricultural region which turns tens of thou- sands of dollars into the retail business life of the village each year.
The hay crop of Schuyler County according to the latest gov- ernment reports aggregated $1,136,106 annually. The wealth
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of its fruit products each year is estimated at $409,957. The values of other crops are given as: potatoes, $306,008; wheat, $248,352; corn, $179,610; beans, $175,545; oats, $146,872 ; buck- wheat, $106,965; barley, $55,927; rye, $41,763.
Watkins Glen is the center of one of the richest grape and peach sections in the East. Dairy products also reach a high aggregate each year. The investment in dairy cattle is $800,- 160 and the government reports show that the return in milk products is $639,240 a year. The investment in poultry is $132,- 365 and the return annually aggregates $374,522. The section is also rich in sheep, the investment being $179,828 and the re- turn annually $155,004. Large numbers of swine are raised each year and honey and wax products also reach a high value.
BURDETT.
Like ancient Rome, Burdett, a village of 310 population in the town of Hector, Schuyler County, has seven hills and seven gateways. It lies only a mile distant from the Seneca Boulevard, the state highway traversing the Seneca fruit belt. Within the corporate limits of the village is more than a mile of macadam, including a part of the Watkins Glen-Ithaca highway.
The first settler in the town was William Wickham, who arrived with his family May 3, 1791, coming down Seneca Lake in a canoe. On the old trail followed by Sullivan, he opened a clearing and built a log cabin, keeping the first tavern in the town. While crossing the head of the lake he was drowned No- vember 2, 1800. William Wickham, Jr., was said to have been the first white man to raise peaches on the lake road. Descend- ants of the pioneer Wickhams still reside in the town, Don Wick- ham of Hector being a director of the Finger Lakes Association today.
Burdett itself began to be settled shortly after the Sullivan expedition, the first pioneers being William Martin, Joseph Car- son and Mowbry Owen. Joseph Gillespie held title to land for services in the Revolution and moved to what is Burdett in 1799. It was originally called Hamburg. A tavern was kept there by John White as early as 1815.
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The place was named for the English family of which Sir Francis Burdett was a member. It lies on what was then a part of the ancient post road from Ithaca to Bath, with excellent water power and several manufactories. It was made a post office as early as March 6, 1819, and was incorporated as a village in 1898. Today the village claims one of the finest Grange halls in the state.
Situated on a plateau 600 feet above Seneca Lake, Burdett has an elevation of more than 1,000 feet above seaboard. It is near the southern end of the famous Seneca Fruit Belt, which draws added thousands of motorists in autumn to purchase grapes, peaches, pears, apples and plums. Many thousand tons of fruit are shipped away. Through the center of the village flows the stream which enters Seneca Lake at Hector Falls, a mile distant. Within walking distance are two other gorges, with Glen Eldridge on the north and Glen Excelsior on the south. All three ravines are marked by inspiring waterfalls and imposing rock walls.
Over the site of Burdett Sullivan's soldiers once passed. Across it led an Indian trail to Seneca's famous Painted Rocks.
MONTOUR FALLS.
Long before the advent of white men, the ancient village of the Seneca Nation of Indians, Catherines Town, was situated a short distance south of the present village of Montour Falls, at the entrance of Montour Glen, and so named after the half-breed Indian, Queen Catherine Montour.
Nature presents many scenic masterpieces in Montour Glen, a rocky gorge or canyon, having a length of one and one-quarter miles, a descent of about 400 feet, through which flows a stream in alternating rapids, cascades, water falls, and pools.
Numerous streams in their descent have cut deep ravines and finally plunge to the floor of the valley in a wonderful galaxy of waterfalls. From these surroundings, the village receives its name.
Chequaga Falls, located in the populous portion of the village, and the highest of the group, has a height in its lower falls of
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156 feet, only eight feet less than Niagara. The seven glens or gorges, including the famous Montour Glen, radiating from the valley, contain in their upper reaches additional waterfalls, bringing the total to more than twenty; all grouped within a radius of scarcely more than one mile; probably the greatest number to be found within an equal area anywhere in the United States.
Located three miles from the head of Seneca Lake, Montour Falls was settled in 1788 on the site of Catherine's Town, de- stroyed by Gen. John Sullivan in 1779.
To this place the Indians with their British allies retreated after their defeat at the battle of Newtown, and here during the evening of September 1, 1779, was held a momentous council of war. Terrorized by their introduction to artillery fire three days before, although joined by reinforcements of warriors eager for battle, they decided to abandon their villages, orchards, and fields of corn and vegetables without further resistance. Hence, at Catherine's Town, on September 1, 1779, was enacted an event of major importance in winning our War for Independence.
Silas Walcott and a Mr. Wilson began the settlement of Mon- tour Falls about 1788. George Mills was the first merchant, opening a store in 1805. He also ran a tavern and was also one of the first navigators of Seneca Lake. Mills' Landing, one name by which the settlement was known, having been the head of navigation, Mills from this point in his bateaux transported prod- ucts of the soil and received in turn goods brought by water from Albany and New York.
Governor Hornsby writing of Montour Falls, in 1792, said the place then contained thirty inhabitants. Thomas Nichols, Jr., who came in 1798, was an early school teacher and was the first music teacher in the settlement.
It was David Ayres who bought the George Mills farm and laid it out into village lots. He came in 1827. On May 13, 1836, the village was incorporated, then going under the name of Havanna.
One of the milestones in the history of Montour Falls was the year 1829, when Charles Cook arrived as a new resident to
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lend his energy, enterprise and philanthropy to develop the em- bryo community. He bought farms and improved them, acquired village lots and built upon them, opened mills, hotels, built St. Paul's Episcopal Church, made a new county from parts of other counties and located its buildings at Montour Falls, retaining them there as long as he lived. He opened a bank and erected a fine building for the People's College and gave it and a hundred- acre farm to a corporation for educational purposes.
This People's College is now Cook Academy, a boarding school for boys. Charles Cook built the school in 1856 and endowed it with $40,000 in cash. Horace Greeley delivered the address at the laying of the cornerstone. After many years of change and vicissitude the Academy property came into the hands of his brother, Elbert Cook. In August, 1873, he turned the property together with this endowment over to the Baptist State Conven- tion of New York. It was to be handled by a board of trustees whose successors were to be elected by the members of the board, with the understanding that two-thirds of them were always to be Baptists.
The first class was graduated in 1874 under the principalship of Doctor Fairman. From that time until the present the school has had a splendid history. It was coeducational in nature until about 1915. At this time by action of the trustees the boarding department was made strictly for boys. The school serves as a high school for the village of Montour Falls. This relationship for many years has been mutually pleasant and agreeable. The work of the Academy is college preparatory. Graduates of the school are found in over thirty colleges. None but college grad- uates with teaching experience are employed on the Faculty.
The first post office serving what is now Montour Falls was established October 13, 1802, with George Mills, Jr., as first postmaster.
Even as nature has produced wonders in Montour so has man, but in a practical manner. Montour Falls is the home of a line of machines that have effected striking economies and increased production for the industry of America and the World-the
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NORTH WARD SCHOOL, NEWARK, N. Y.
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PALMYRA HIGH SCHOOL, PALMYRA, N. Y.
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Shepard "Balanced Drive" Electric Traveling Cranes and Hoists.
Some thirty years ago, the inventive genius of James A. Shepard produced the mechanism upon which the Shepard Elec- tric Crane and Hoist Company was founded. Of electric hoists alone, Shepard has developed more than 5,000 standard types and capacities.
A few years ago the Shepard Electric Crane and Hoist Cor- poration purchased the Sprague Hoist from the General Electric Company. The scope of the Shepard Electric Crane and Hoist Corporation in the fall of 1928 was limited to the handling of loads of maximum of thirty tons.
Realizing the benefits which industry would derive from one source of supply for Traveling Cranes and Electric Hoists of every type and capacity, the Shepard Electric Crane and Hoist Company decided to provide this service.
In Philadelphia, Niles Cranes had been built for more than thirty years. They had been serving a need that could not be satisfied by Shepard Cranes, for, whereas the Niles design is un- limited in its application for heavy capacity cranes, it has been Shepard's policy to build cranes to a maximum capacity of thirty tons.
By combining these two old and successful organizations their usefulness to industry would be greatly increased, and so this combination has been effected. There is no longer a Shepard Electric Crane and Hoist Company, nor does the Niles Crane Corporation name remain. In their place the Shepard Niles Crane and Hoist Corporation will continue to carry on the design and construction that has featured each design. The Shepard Division, the Niles Division and the Sprague Division, each have a separate engineering staff which will be responsible for the con- tinued excellence of its respective division's products.
ODESSA.
Odessa, a pretty village of 379 population, is situated in the town of Catharine, Schuyler County, at an elevation of 1,053 feet. It is about six miles southwest of Watkins Glen on the
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state highway leading to the Lackawana Trail and one-half mile from the head of Havanna Glen. Four miles east lies picturesque Cayuta Lake, joined to the above highway by a new concrete road. Near the end of this road on the lake slope is Lawrence Memorial Chapel and not far distant to the east lies Connecticut Hill, a state game sanctuary and one of the highest points in Central New York.
Odessa, which was incorporated in 1903, was laid out by Phineas Catlin, who settled there in 1824 and suggested the name of the hamlet. The village was surveyed about 1827 by John Foster but settlers had begun to arrive before that time. The first saw mill was erected in 1799 and the first grist mill two years later. It was John Foster who opened the first store in 1838. Odessa's first school opened its doors in 1825 and the first church was built by the Free Will Baptists in 1856.
Odessa is the center of a prosperous, general farming area where also may be found the special enterprise of poultry. In addition to five special plants averaging 2,500 birds the farms in the surrounding community have flocks averaging 220.
The village boasts of a volunteer fire department, motor equipped, and unexcelled by any village of its size. This little village has high ideals in education and is setting a standard for many places much larger in size. Odessa High School has a name of which it well may be proud. It offers college entrance, aca- demic, and vocational courses in its endeavor to serve all demands which a versatile and enterprising community makes upon its educational center. Not only may young people fit themselves for higher education, but those who do not, are enabled to prepare themselves for the immediate problems of making a living and adapting themselves to community activities. Special courses are offered every winter for the older group, that are out of school.
CHAPTER XXXII
SENECA COUNTY.
AREA - SUBDIVISIONS - LOCATION - FIRST SETTLERS -ERECTION OF COUNTY --- TOWNS-POSTOFFICES-WATERLOO-SENECA FALLS-INTERLAKEN - LODI - OVID-ROMULUS.
Seneca County, thirty-third county in the state, was created from Cayuga County March 24, 1804. It has an area of 336 square miles. Of its land area of 215,040 acres, there are 172,- 700 acres or eighty and three-tenths per cent in farms. Value of the land and buildings of the county's 1,666 farms is $12,070,226. The population of the county is 24,964, more than half of which is rural.
The last available government statistics for the year 1929 show Seneca has forty industrial plants, employing 2,096 work- ers, at an annual wage of $2,684,326. Her plants pay out for materials, fuel and purchased power $4,403,803 yearly and the value of her products industrially is $11,361,886.
The county has 715 miles of road, including 152 of the finest state construction. There are 6,937 motor cars owned within Seneca's limits.
The county has five incorporated villages: Interlaken, Lodi, Ovid, Seneca Falls and Waterloo, the county seat. The ten towns are: Covert, 1,578; Fayette, 2,395; Junius, 775; Lodi, 1,044; Ovid, 2,843; Romulus, 2,856; Seneca Falls, 7,163; Tyre, 743; Varick, 1,013; Waterloo, 4,554.
Seneca County has one assembly district; it is in the thirty- sixth congressional district, the seventh judicial district and the forty-second senatorial district.
Seneca County formed the extreme western portion of the Military Tract and many of its early settlers were Revolutionary
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War veterans who had been in the locality with Sullivan in 1779. The first settler, Job Smith, was located at Seneca Falls in 1787 and the second, Andrew Dunlap, who located at Ovid in 1789, came in by way of the Chemung River. The third settler, Law- rence Van Cleef, who arrived at Seneca Falls in 1789, came in by way of Oneida Lake and the Seneca River. Van Cleef was one of the detachment of soldiers sent by Sullivan under Colonel Gansevort, on an expedition directly east from the end of Seneca Lake.
About 1790 settlement progressed rapidly, the old Geneva road going through the next year and giving impetus to immi- gration. A part of Tompkins County was taken off Seneca in 1817 and a part of Wayne in 1823. Today the county occupies most of the land between Cayuga and Seneca Lakes, which in early days as arteries of travel facilitated settlement.
Upon the erection of the county in 1804, the county seat was located at Ovid, where a courthouse was built in 1806 and a park laid out in front of it. The structure was on the site of the present courthouse built in 1847. While a part of Onondaga County in 1790 courts were held at the barn of Andrew Dunlap. Formation of Tompkins County in 1817 placed Waterloo about in the center of Seneca and a courthouse was erected there and courts transferred to Waterloo. Land was donated by Squire Elisha Williams, who bought a 600 acre tract on which the north- ern section of Waterloo now stands. The first Waterloo court was held in 1818. Here a county clerk's office was also built, but on formation of Wayne County, Seneca was made a half- shire in 1822 and courts were alternately conducted at Water- loo and Ovid, as they are today.
Both places have been the scene of executions. In 1810-12 a man named Andrews was hung at Ovid for killing an assistant in a distillery and in 1828 George Chapman was hung at Water- loo for slaying a negro.
First county officers were : Cornelius Humphrey, judge; Silas Halsey, clerk; William Smith, sheriff ; Jared Sanford, surrogate.
The Town of Covert, on the west shore of Cayuga Lake in the southeastern corner of the county was created from Ovid, April 7,
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1817. Lodi was taken off in 1826. The first settler was Philip Tremaine, who located at Goodwin's Point before 1793. The Baptists organized in the town in 1805 as the first church in Seneca County.
Fayette was formed from Romulus as Washington March 14, 1800, and its name changed April 6, 1808. Junius was taken off in 1803. At the hamlet of Canoga is a nitrogen spring, with a basin fourteen feet in diameter. The hamlet was named after it, the cognomen in the Indian tongue meaning "Sweet Water." The first settlement was by James Bennett from Pennsylvania, who located on Cayuga Lake in 1789. Red Jacket, the Indian orator, was said to have been born near Canoga Spring.
Junius was formed from Washington (now Fayette) Feb- ruary 12, 1803. Wolcott (Wayne County) was taken off in 1807, Galen (Wayne County) in 1812 and Seneca Falls, Tyre and Waterloo in 1829. First settlement was made by Thomas Bedell and Jesse, Samuel anl David Southwick about 1795.
Lodi, in the heart of the Seneca Lake fruit belt, was formed from Covert, January 27, 1826. George Faussett, from Penn- sylvania, was the first settler, locating in the northwestern part of the town in 1789.
Ovid was formed March 5, 1794, Hector (Schuyler County) was taken off in 1802 and Covert in 1817. On Lot 29, within a half mile of the southern line of the town and exactly on the dividing ridge between Seneca and Cayuga Lakes, once existed a mound, or fortification of an irregular, elliptical form, enclos- ing about three acres and surrounded by an earth embankment. This bank in 1801 was about three feet in height, with a base of five to eight feet in width. The wood was apparently of great age the timber on the inside being of the same size and apparent age of that in the surrounding forest. Upon the bank and in the ditch large oak trees, the growth of centuries, were standing. In the embankment were several openings a few feet in width, which were once apparently used for gates or entrances.
During excavations for a house cellar on the east side, six skeletons were found in 1857 at a depth of about two feet. Sev- eral had been unearthed previously. Pieces of a coarse kind of
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pottery, enameled pipes, etc., were found in profusion. DeWitt Clinton visited the place in 1810 and his theory was that the spot was one of a number of similar works of defense found occupying the most commanding positions in Central New York and in the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi, erected by a race more civ- ilized than the Indians, and that they preceded the latter in occupation of the area. But the history of these people is a mystery and the Indians were never able to give any account of this fortification, as it was older than their traditions.
Romulus was formed March 5, 1794; Fayette was taken off in 1800 and Varick in 1830. The first settlement was made by David Wisner in 1789.
The town of Seneca Falls was formed from Junius March 26, 1829, receiving its name from the falls in the river, the Indian name Sha-se-ounse signifying rolling water.
Tyre was formed from Junius March 26, 1829, and its first settlement was made by Ezekiel Crane who came in 1794 from New Jersey. Mancy Osman taught the first school in 1804, Stephen Crane kept the first inn in 1809, Nicholas Traver built the first sawmill in 1807 and Noah David the first grist mill in 1817.
Varick, extending across the center of the county from lake to lake, was formed December 6, 1830, from Romulus. James McKnight made the first settlement in 1789.
The town of Waterloo was formed from Junius March 26, 1829. Settlement was commenced in 1789 by John Greene from Rhode Island.
In Seneca County are the following post offices, according to the July, 1930, official postal guide: Border City, Caywood, Fayette, Hayt Corners, Interlaken, Kendaia, Lodi, MacDougal, Ovid, Romulus, Seneca Falls, Sheldrake Springs, Waterloo, Willard.
WATERLOO.
Growing about the water power in the Seneca River, which divides the village, Waterloo, county seat of Seneca County, oc- cupies the site of the Indian town of Skoiyase, whose one time
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