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 38
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 38
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 38
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 38
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glory among the Iroquois is commemorated by a native lime- stone monument taken from the south side of the river and erected in Lafayette Park. The monument was dedicated in 1879 at the centennial of the Sullivan campaign, by the Water- loo Library and Historical Society. The park, which itself bears the name of the French patriot, likewise has a monument to La- fayette. The story of Waterloo's entertainment of the French general is recounted in another chapter. The historical society boasts a building of its own, which houses a valuable collection of historical documents.
In 1795 Jabez Gorham erected a log cabin within the limits of what is now a thriving community of 4,032 inhabitants. He was the first pioneer on the north side of Seneca River, and opened the first tavern. Previous to 1813 Elisha Williams had constructed a race through the village along the route of the Cayuga and Seneca Canal. On April 6, 1813, the Seneca Lock Navigation Company was incorporated, with Williams a mem- ber and owner of all the land adjoining the canal in the village. The company's aim was to make the falls and rapids navigable for boats. The canal was opened some forty feet wide, four feet deep and provided with locks. This development spurred com- munity growth.
Few of the present generation know how Waterloo received the name which it has borne for a century and a quarter, or why it was named after the famous battle-ground in Belgium which banished Napoleon.
There were only nine dwellings on the north side of the Sen- eca River in 1815 and this primitive settlement was called New Hudson. These were mongrel one-story affairs, built of rude logs and boards. During the year 1815 there was built a flour- ing mill and grist mill, a brick kiln and saw mill. The settlement grew and flourished until the inhabitants became dissatisfied with the name of New Hudson for reasons unknown. In 1816 a public meeting took place and the proposition of a change was agitated.
Many names were suggested but none met with favor. Finally an old soldier with a generous gift of oratory, urged the adoption
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of the name of Waterloo, to commemorate the famous battle- ground where Napoleon had met his defeat the year before. The old soldier's oratory carried the day and a new name was given to the hamlet.
During the years 1816, 1817 and 1818, under the new name the village entered upon a career of progress and growth.
Erie Canal was surveyed along near where Wright Avenue now extends but after contractors had examined the work it was found more advantageous to change the route farther north.
Construction of the "Big Canal" brought many persons to Waterloo in 1815. Mechanics were in greater demand in Water- loo than in either Rochester or Geneva, and water power rights were worth considerable. During this year Colonel Samuel Birdsall arrived and opened a law office on the south side of the river at Waterloo, and Dr. Charles Stuart arrived the same year.
Philander Bane in 1816 built a residence east of the woolen mills, which later was George Hutton's place. The family lived in the first story and the floor above was a shoe shop. This building, afterwards a grocery, became famous for a peculiar sign which was suspended from it.
Three men clothed in ancient garb were painted on it. One held a short clay pipe in his mouth, the second a small snuff box in his hand, and in the act of taking a pinch, and the third a jack- knife and a plug of tobacco. Under the first was lettered, "I smoke"; under the second, "I snuff"; and under the third, "I' chew."
The present able Waterloo fire department dates its origin from February 2, 1826, when $75 was raised to purchase ladders for a hook and ladder company and the following December the equipment was ordered. November 22, 1830, a committee was named to purchase an engine. Pending its arrival a fire com- pany of twenty-five members was enrolled as Engine Co. No. 1. In 1832 a second company formed.
The first school teacher in Waterloo, Isaac Gorham, occupied a shanty near what is William Street. Afterward he taught in a former log blacksmith shop. Systematic education began with
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the start of building of the Center School in 1816. This school was opened in 1818 with two teachers. Several other schools were erected in the succeeding years.
About 1840 subscriptions were circulated to secure funds for an academy and about $6,000 was raised. A total of $9,000 was spent for the building, grounds and furniture. The struc- ture was a parallelogram, ninety feet long and forty-six feet wide.
The history of the Waterloo Union School begins with Au- gust 24, 1847, when the two school districts were united. The school trustees then purchased the Waterloo Academy property for $4,000 and repairs and improvements were made.
Numerous private schools have been conducted in Waterloo. In 1832 Mrs. Nerval opened a school for young ladies. In 1825 Dr. and Mrs. Elder established a seminary for women. Miss Mary Force, Miss Philena Gustin, Miss Elizabeth Balch and Miss Grace Staples all taught private schools. About 1830 Festus Fowler opened an English and classical school and in 1837 Rev. Festus Thayer opened a school on the corner of Lawrence and Main streets.
The present magnificent Waterloo High School was erected in 1928 at a cost of $385,000, an amount few communities of the size in the state have expended for such purpose.
The family names, given to the streets-Elisha, Williams, Virginia, Elizabeth, and the grand old family residence-now the Waterloo Memorial Hospital, a memorial to the soldiers and marines from the towns of Waterloo, Junius, Fayette and Varick, who served in the great World war-built for Elisha Williams in 1816 by his agent, Reuben Swift-the house still known to the old residents as "the Mansion," alone remained me- mentos of him who once owned the land where the greater part of Waterloo is built, and for Samuel Bear, who first settled at the Skoiyase fishery, now a lesser part of Waterloo in extent but not in importance, there remains the grist mill as a memento of his activities.
From 1815 to 1824, the date of incorporation, the growth of the town was rapid. It was then a half-shire and with splendid
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prospects for the future. The date 1824 is an appropriate clos- ing of a first period which forms an historic epoch.
On the site of an humble Indian town, of eighteen crude houses, Skoiyase, "Place of Whortleberries," He-o-weh-kno-gek, "Once a Home, now a Memory," the destruction of which formed a link in the chain of events, that accomplished the expiration of a savage race, thus was founded the beautiful village of Waterloo.
SENECA FALLS.
Drawn by the water power available, early settlers of Seneca Falls proved their vision of future progress when they laid out the village whose name today pays tribute to the latent power of the Seneca River. Here where the water has a fall of fifty- one feet is a progressive village of 6,440 inhabitants on the New York Central Railroad, main state highways and the Cayuga- Seneca spur of the Barge Canal. The community in its principal park has perpetuated the name of its first permanent settler, Lawrence VanCleef, and in the name of its high school, the Myn- derse Academy, has honored the memory of another pioneer, Col. Wilhemus Mynderse, a founder of Seneca Falls.
Among the men who early had connection with the place were veterans of Sullivan's forces who several years previously had viewed the superior resources of the spot. No less an officer than Gen. Philip VanCortlandt, one of Sullivan's ranking officers, was numbered among the men of vision who sensed the possi- bilities Seneca Falls possessed when it was but a dot in the forest on the old Genesee trail.
Van Cortlandt, with Elkanah Watson, Jeremiah Van Rensse- laer and Stephen N. Bayard stemmed the rapid current of the narrow Seneca River and on September 20, 1791, reached what is now Seneca Falls. They prepared to exploit the waterpower they found and formation of the Bayard Company was the re- sult. They began the purchase of land about the river and placed Colonel Mynderse as their agent in Seneca Falls. By 1816 the company had acquired all the water power rights and 1,450 acres of land. But instead of being a boon for the place, it retarded
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it. From 1795 until 1825 a monopoly on power was held by the Bayard group and Seneca Falls was bound fast. In 1816 the company refused $10,000 for ten acres of land and power to run a woolen and cotton mill.
The monopoly failed financially. When the partners, after liquidation, divided their proceeds they found that each had ad- vanced $43,281 and the dividend was but $8,000, each thus sus- taining a loss of $35,281 and a company loss of $176,405. When the company dissolved the prosperity of Seneca Falls began.
The first land pioneer, a temporary resident, was Job Smith, who kept the carrying place at the falls, built a log house and began improvements. Lawrence VanCleef, a name familiar today in the village, built a double log house in 1790 near Smith's and that fall brought his family into the frontier. The first white child born in Seneca Falls was a daughter of Lawrence and Sally VanCleef.
In 1794 he learned that the "State's Hundred," a tract he had bought of fraudulent parties for $500, was to be sold by the state at Albany. With $1,800 in his pocket and an axe over his shoulder, he traveled the hard road to Albany, only to find the land bid from him by the Bayard interests for $2,800. But with courage to carry on, VanCleef returned and opened a tavern. In the meantime Job Smith had departed, so that VanCleef is credited with having been Seneca Falls' first permanent settler. That year he put up the first frame house in the place. By 1795 four or five families had moved into the settlement. The first death occurred in 1793 in a family boarding with VanCleef.
Neither store nor grist mill existed prior to 1795. The first sawmill was built in 1794 and operated to cut lumber for the first grist mill, begun in 1795 by Colonel Mynderse, agent for the Bayard Company, which in 1807 erected another mill at the lower rapids.
The portage at Seneca Falls grew to be a business of im- portance. The charge for carrying over the mile course from one landing to another was six shillings for a load and the same for a boat. When the boats grew larger and were hauled on trucks by teams the cost increased. An account of boats passed
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at the portage from March 13, 1801, to June 24, 1806, shows that 331 boats were thus transported at a cost of $1,492.68.
Taverns were always among the first institutions opened in the settlements among the lakes. By 1798 two taverns had opened at Seneca Falls. The first, a frame structure, stood until demolished in 1862 to make room for the old Globe Hotel. Then came Widow Matthews who opened another inn in 1801; Hugh McAlister who conducted a tavern in 1814-15. Other early inn- keepers were Lambert VanAlstyne, 1817; Joseph and Noah Mor- ris, 1820; Amasa Wright, 1827; Theodore Chopin, 1826; H. Good- win, 1830; Daniel Watkins, 1831, and his son, David, 1838.
Pioneers early set about the problem of educating the chil- dren growing up in the forest wilderness. A log schoolhouse was started June 15, 1801, on the bank of the mill race, Alexander Wilson was the first teacher. Anson Jones in 1812 or '13 came on from Vermont and opened a school, but soon left and in 1840 became governor of Texas.
The Seneca Falls Academy originated in 1832, when a sub- scription was started to raise funds for the institution. A site for the academy was donated by Colonel Mynderse. Forty-eight persons took a total of 100 shares of $25 each. The first building was constructed with the exception of cupola for $1,666. First classes were conducted in 1833 and the academy incorporated in 1837. Colonel Mynderse on his death that year left a $2,000 bequest to the institution. In 1867, after free schools had been introduced, the academy was rented to the school trustees on con- dition that a classical department be maintained. Prof. Oren Root, father of the great statesman, Elihu Root, former senator and former secretary of war, was principal of the academy at one time. The present Mynderse Academy or high school was built in 1924 at a cost of $320,000, including $35,000 for equipment.
The first turnpike bridge was begun October 2, 1802, and swung across the river where later the bridge crossed the foot of Fall Street. A second span, called the Ovid Street bridge, was erected in 1810 and a third, known as the Upper Bridge, in 1827.
In 1803 Mynderse opened a store, which served until 1812 in the lower part of one of the old red mills erected by his com-
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pany. Abijah Mann located a store in 1814 and the next year another retail establishment was introduced by Henry Kellogg. Dean Munford opened the fourth store and in 1823 Abram and Samuel Payne began merchandising.
The first fulling mill, cloth dressing and wool carding works in the vicinity was opened in 1806 by Jacob and Lewis Sherrill. An oil mill was erected in 1817 on the present site of the Rumsey works, two years after Jenks Jenkins had started a tan yard on ground now covered by the Gould pump works.
One of the striking early events was the incorporation in 1813 of the Seneca Lock Navigation Company, which completed river improvements in 1816 and continued operations until the state took over control of the waterway. The early portage and subse- quent locks stimulated boat building. In 1814 the Adeline was constructed, followed in 1816 by the Miller of Seneca Falls, both boats being in use on the Erie.
Seneca Falls was incorporated as a village April 22, 1831, and Ansel Bascom was chosen first president. An amended village charter was obtained in 1837. A volunteer fire department of forty men was organized in 1837. First steps toward macad- amizing the streets were taken in 1844 and in 1860 still another charter was procured, dividing the village into four wards. Five years later there was another charter revision.
Organization of churches dates back to the earliest history of the community. The Presbyterian Church was organized in a barn of Col. Daniel Sayre, August 10, 1807; the Baptist Church dates from 1828 and Trinity Episcopal Church from 1831. Though the Methodist Church was not incorporated until 1829, meetings had been held by the denomination in log homes as early as 1812. The old Wesleyan Methodist Church was an offshoot of the parent Methodist Church and organized in 1843. The Con- gregational Church organized the following year.
It was in October, 1831, that the first Roman Catholic congre- gation, composed of eight members, was formed in the village. The pioneer priest was Rev. Francis O'Donohue of Syracuse, who occasionally visited the place. In 1835 a small frame church was erected and from that start is the present edifice.
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But even before the organization of these churches, profession of religion was apparent. Wherever the smoke of the settler's cabin rose, there went the circuit rider, bound on his mission of good. Methodists were the first to reach the locality. Upon mules and horses they came, preaching both days and in the eve- nings. The early circuit embraced a journey of 400 miles. Pri- vate homes or log school houses were used as a gathering place for the preachers to address gatherings before churches came into existence.
Notables down through the years have lived in Seneca Falls. Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, pioneer suffrage worker, was a resident from 1848 to 1861. A coworker was Mrs. Amelia Bloomer, a resident from 1839 to 1854 and editor of a paper, The Lily, an advocate of temperance and women's dress reform. It was she who introduced the well-known "bloomer." Henry Wells of express fame, was also a resident, and the famous Frances Willard, a foreign missionary who died at her post, was a Seneca Falls girl. Mary Dix, another Seneca Falls girl, married a mis- sionary who was a member of the Whitman-Spaulding expedition, the first to cross the Rockies.
Seneca Falls today is the metropolis of Seneca County. The old Seneca River, now the Seneca Division of the Barge Canal, passes through the center of the town at a point where the fall of the river is fifty-one feet. By the construction of a large dam, located within the twin locks on the eastern boundaries of the village, a power house has been erected developing 11,600 horse power.
The village is noted for its industries. Pumps are the prin- cipal product. It is conservatively estimated that at least twenty- five per cent of the pumps used throughout the world are made in Seneca Falls. Other products are lathes and cost-cutting produc- tion machinery, fibre shipping cases, metal letters and figures, rulers and yard sticks, yarns and knit goods, rugs and house dresses. There are many places of interest in Seneca Falls. The twin locks, power house and dam are of striking character. Van Cleef Park and Lake are located at the foot of the main street. Here is a band stand erected by Mynderse Van Cleef of Ithaca,
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in memory of his grand uncle, who was the first white settler in Seneca Falls. Band concerts are given weekly.
INTERLAKEN.
Between Cayuga and Seneca Lake, on one of the richest agri- cultural sections of the state, the village of Interlaken is a thriv- ing community of 660 population. The community is served by the Lehigh Valley Railroad and splendid state roads.
It dates its history from 1797 when two brothers, Peter and William Rappleye came from New Jersey and settled on Military Lot. No. 50, town of Ovid, patented to Alexander Forbush. No roads had been built and the country was thickly wooded. Wild game abounded. The nucleus for a village was soon formed, and as the inhabitants were mainly farmers the place was called Farmerville.
On the first road built through the village, called the "Turn- pike" passing from Ithaca to Geneva, James McCall built in 1800 a frame house which was soon converted into a road tavern. Here was shown the first circus including an elephant. The house still remains in good repair under the ownership of F. R. Usher.
In finance and commerce the village has been favored with a sound banking institution. Founded in 1860 by James C. Knight it was continued by his son-in-law, Oscar G. Wheeler in 1865. D. C. Wheeler joined with his brother in 1873 and formed the Banking House of O. G. & D. C. Wheeler. Under this name for fifty-seven years the firm continued in business with its credit unimpaired. In 1909, James K. Wheeler assumed the presidency, and when in 1927 it was made a National Bank, Mr. Wheeler was elected president, Myron W. Bassett, cashier, and J. Floyd Wyckoff, assistant cashier.
Two outstanding events mark the history of the village: first, the founding of the Saturday Morning Review ; second, the act of its incorporation as a village-the one being contributory to the other.
In 1887 Thomas P. Hause came from Ovid, New York, where he had been an apprentice in the Ovid Independent. He estab- lished a printing office and a weekly paper called, The Saturday
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Morning Review. The first paper came out July 23, 1887. After- ward the name was changed to the Farmer Village Review, and finally to the Interlaken Review. The paper immediately be- came a distinct asset to the village and so continued for forty- one years when Mr. Hause was obliged to retire owing to severe illness. He died January 24, 1929. The paper is continued.
The name, Interlaken, which so aptly applies to the village was not adopted until the names, Farmerville, Farmer Village and Farmer had successively been tried for a period of 100 years. In 1904 when the Lehigh Valley railroad company was about to build a new depot, they announced that a new name would be given to the station befitting its location and proximity to the lake, and asked for appropriate names. Miss Georgia M. Wheeler proposed "Interlaken," after Interlaken, Switzerland, and the name was adopted. The village was incorporated March 2, 1904, but the post office name was not changed until July 1, 1904.
Interlaken is today abreast with the times, and in civic im- provements compares favorably with other places of its size. With a live Chamber of Commerce alert to its interests, with all its streets paved and electrically lighted, and with the fine spirit of hospitality shown by its citizens, it makes an inviting dwelling place for the home-seeker or the transient who comes from afar.
LODI.
Inextricably linked with episodes connected with the Sullivan Expedition, the Village of Lodi, gateway to the Seneca fruit belt, is one of the most enterprising communities for its size in the state. Though it has but 322 inhabitants, it boasts a business men's association, which in 1930 started a movement for creation of a state park between the village and Seneca Lake. Since its incorporation in 1926, the village has bent its energies toward all projects for civic advancement.
Among the elements catering to the social and civic life of the place are two churches, a public library, a high school with a four year course, an Odd Fellows Lodge owning its own building, a large grange organization and a Masonic Lodge, which in the
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last few years erected a temple with dance hall, banquet hall and moving picture theater. The village has electric light and power.
The first dwelling in the village was a log house occupying the site of the present village hotel. Gen. John DeMott built the first pretentious village home in 1810 and was the first merchant of the community. He became a major-general in the militia, represented Seneca County in the Legislature and was a member of Congress in 1845.
One of the wonders of the lake country, missed by many tour- ists because it is off the main highway, is Silver Thread Falls, 160 feet high, above which the Lehigh Valley Railroad bridge towers forty feet in air. The falls may be reached by a mile and a half spin over improved highway to the railroad station, less than five minutes walk from the bridge.
The gorge below the falls widens to 300 feet and the perpen- dicular walls rise 210 feet. The gorge may be followed three- quarters of a mile to Seneca Lake where are located fine cottages, the Geneva Y. M. C. A. camp and an ancient Indian burial ground. Boats are available on the lake shore.
An ancient Indian trail crosses the ravine a half mile above the falls. Down this path Sullivan's army marched, camping the night of September 4, 1779, on the farm now owned by Brown and Boyer. Here may be seen one of the largest trees in the region, an elm measuring twenty-eight feet in circumference. It was standing when Sullivan passed that way.
OVID.
The village of Ovid, with 537 inhabitants, was incorporated April 17, 1816, but the act was repealed April 11, 1849, and the village reincorporated in July, 1852. The first settler was John Seeley, who came in 1792 and purchased 900 acres of land, on a part of which the village stands today. It was he who donated the site for the county buildings. Seeley opened the first tavern, on what is Main Street.
It was in the old Ovid courthouse that the Seneca County Agricultural Society was organized June 19, 1841, and in the
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village the first fair of the society took place October 21-22 of that year.
West of the village, along the shore of Seneca Lake, an agri- cultural college once occupied the site of Willard State Hospital, whose history is sketched in the section devoted to state insti- tutions. The state purchased a farm of 686 acres there and on September 8, 1857, work of building was begun. The foundation of the outside walls was constructed of stones, weighing from four to five tons each and nine to twelve feet wide and three and a half deep. The completed building was 320 feet long, fifty-two feet wide and four stories above the basement. The wings were 206 feet long and of the same width and height as the main building. The cost was $175,000 and the cornerstone was laid March 2, 1858. Later the college was transferred to Ithaca and the building used as an insane asylum.
One of Ovid's first celebrations of the Fourth came in 1817. A procession, oratory and patriotic exercises were features, with dinner served to all in the courthouse. Salutes were fired by a fine brass six-pounder, a cannon acquired as a trophy at Corn- wallis' surrender at Yorktown.
Perched proudly upon a hill, Ovid today has paved streets, electric lights, a fire department, a free library of 3,000 volumes and three churches. Four state roads radiate from the com- munity.
Ovid's splendid high school is a descendant of the famous old Ovid Academy, where at one time as many as 300 youths studied. The academy had its inception in 1824 when William Irving, a teacher from Kidd's Ferry, arrived in the village to open a class in study of the classics in a room of the old courthouse. So suc- cessful was his work that an academy was incorporated two years later and a four story structure 102 feet long and forty feet wide was erected. In 1855 the name of the academy was changed to the Seneca Collegiate Institute and a second building was erected for a chapel and dormitory for boarding students. Finally the institution became financially embarrassed and citi- zens subscribed funds, paid off the debts and donated the school to the Methodists. They in turn named the school the East Ge-
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