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 42
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 42
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 42
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 42
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
As a private enterprise, the Newark Valley trout ponds were commenced in 1869 and opened to the public June 6, 1872. The ponds had a plentiful supply of water from springs on the grounds, were well stocked with trout and had hatching houses on the premises.
Newark Valley, fifteen miles northwest of Binghamton, is on the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Quantities of ladders and scaffold-
521
HISTORY OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
ing are produced in its shops. Since March 4, 1876, the village has enjoyed an enterprising weekly newspaper, the Tioga County Herald.
Newark Valley was the home of Dr. D. W. Patterson, a gene- alogist of some note, who collected much data relative to old fam- ilies throughout the county. Rev. Marc Fivas, a professor of natural sciences at the Academy of Lausanne, Switzerland, came to America in 1849 because of political troubles at home, and chose Newark Valley for his home. Noted in the scientific and literary world, he produced valuable works in this community where he died in 1876 at the age of eighty-four.
The first church erected in the Town of Newark Valley was built by the Congregational Society in 1803-04. It was organized in the village in 1803 and in 1811 it became, by change of church policy, the first Presbyterian Church in Tioga County.
NICHOLS.
Charmingly situated on the south bank of the Susquehanna near the mouth of Wappasening Creek, the Village of Nichols, in the town of the same name, is a community of 533 inhabitants. It was incorporated in 1903. Nichols was formerly known as Rushville, receiving that name from Dr. Galamiel H. Barstow, in honor of a Dr. Rush. a prominent physician of Philadelphia.
The place was originally settled about the year 1793 by Caleb Wright, but very little actual improvement came until arrival of Dr. Barstow in 1812. A tavern was kept by Jonathan Platt, about a mile east of the village, as early as 1800. The first frame house in the village was built by Dr. Barstow in 1813. The first brick house was put up by Nehemiah Plat about 1830 and the first store opened by Dr. Barstow, in part of his frame dwelling, in 1814.
The post office was established probably about 1812-13, though an office had existed some years previously at Smith- boro on the opposite side of the river two miles from Nichols. A few years after the place was named Rushville, it was discovered that a post office of the same name existed in Yates County and to avoid confusion, Nichols was adopted. In return for the com-
522
HISTORY OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
pliment conferred, Colonel Nichols gave $200 to be applied toward creation of some public building. The sum was used in erection of the Free Meeting House, completed in 1829 as the first church edifice in the town.
Dr. Barstow, the energetic civic figure who built the com- munity up, was elected a member of Assembly in 1815, filling the post three successive terms. In 1818 he was elected to the State Senate from the western district, which then comprised . nearly half the territory of the state. The same year he was appointed first judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Tioga County. In 1823 and again in 1826 he was elected to the Assem- bly. In 1825 he was chosen state treasurer and in 1830 he was sent to Congress. In 1838 he was once more elected state treasurer.
It was at Nichols that the Tioga County Sunday School Asso- ciation was organized in 1864.
SPENCER.
Spencer, a village of 628 inhabitants, is situated on Catatonk Creek west of the center of the Town of Spencer. It was incor- porated as a village in 1886. The first settlement in the town was made in 1794 by Benjamin Drake and Joseph Barker on the site of the village. Drake owned all the territory now embraced in the community, taught the first school and was justice of the peace for twenty-eight years. He put up the first grist mill in the town.
The Spencer Union School building was erected in 1859 and an academic department added in 1874.
Thirty years after the first settlers came, the howl of the wolf was still heard nightly. At an annual town meeting March 4, 1828, it was voted that the town allow $10 for each full grown wolf scalp; $5 for whelps; $5 for full grown panthers; $2.50 for young ones; $2 for full grown wildcat scalps and $1 for young ones.
Spencer is on the Lehigh Valley Railroad and milling is one of its prosperous industries. About it lie fine dairy, poultry and
523
HISTORY OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
grain farms. Spencer's weekly newspaper is the Needle, which has been published since 1888.
Among the early settlers at Spencer village were Joshua Fer- ris, Henry Miller, Edmund and Rodney Hobart from Connecticut, Andry Purdy, Thomas Mosher from Westchester County, and George Fisher. The first birth was that of Deborah, daughter of Benjamin Drake; the first marriage that of John B. Under- wood and Polly Spaulding and the first death that of Prescott Hobart. The first school was taught by Joseph Barker, in his own home in the village; the first inn was kept by Andrew Purdy; the first store by Samuel Doolittle and the first gristmill was built by Samuel Drake.
Spencer was the county seat of Tioga County, then including Chemung, from 1812 to 1821.
WAVERLY.
Waverly, a thriving village of 5,664 population, is in the southwest corner of Tioga County on the east bank of the Che- mung River. Prior to 1849-50, the period of completion of the Erie Railroad, the site of the village was little more than farm land. The railroad started the rapid development of the com- munity.
The name of the village was suggested by J. E. Hallet, who settled there in 1832, as there was then no other post office by that name in the state. The first frame house was built in 1810 by Deacon Ephraim Strong; the first brick house was put up by Dr. Clute in 1843; the first store was kept by Alva Jarvis, who started business in 1841; the first manufacturing business was a foundry built in 1842 on the northwest corner of Chemung and Waverly Streets.
Isaac Shepard opened the first hotel about 1825 and the Courteney House was built in 1849-50 by William Peck. The first mill was the steam grist mill erected by Duzer, Hallet & Marsh in 1866. It was leveled by fire February 8, 1870, with a loss of $20,000 above the amount covered by insurance. The first church erected in the village was that of the Presbyterians in 1849.
524
HISTORY OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
Application to incorporate as a village was made on Decem- ber 12, 1853, and on January 18 following the citizens voted 114 to 44 in favor of the project. It was reincorporated in 1876. The old Waverly Institute was organized as the Shepard Insti- tute, so named in honor of Isaac Shepard and opened in 1857. Owen Spaulding, a pioneer in Waverly, not only took half the capital stock, but also donated land for a building. On April 15, 1871, the institute became the academic department of the Union High School and under the state regents.
There are but cursory dates in the history of a community which has demonstrated remarkable growth, chiefly because of its railroad advantages and the fertility of its tributary terri- tory. Its religious life goes back more than a century. The Baptist Church of Waverly, as first organized, was created at Ulster, Bradford County, Pennsylvania, June 24, 1824, at the home of Joseph Smith. Then it was called the Athens and Ulster Baptist Church. In 1832 the name was changed to the Athens and Chemung Baptist Church and in 1836 to the Factoriville Baptist Church. It was established in Waverly in 1865.
The Methodist Church of Waverly was first organized as a class at Factoryville in 1828 with five members. In 1864 it moved to Waverly. The First Presbyterian Church was organized with twenty-two members June 8, 1847; the Grace Episcopal Church was founded December 28, 1853; the Church of Christ, July 8, 1877, and the Roman Catholic Church several years later.
The first fire company was the old Neptune Engine Company No. 1. The Tioga Hose Band was organized March 20, 1876, partly of members of the Waverly Cornet Band. The Waverly post office was established in 1849 with Benjamin H. Davis as first postmaster.
Waverly enjoys the transportation facilities provided by three railroads-the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, the Erie and the Lehigh Valley. Paint, furniture and gloves are among its industrial products. Lying in the heart of a rich farming sec- tion, it is a large shipping point for dairy products, grain and vegetables. The weekly newspaper published here is the Sun Recorder, established in 1908.
CHAPTER XXXV
TOMPKINS COUNTY.
ORGANIZED IN 1817-INDUSTRIES-COUNTY SEAT-EARLY ROADS-TOWNS-POST- OFFICES -ITHACA -CAYUGA HEIGHTS-DRYDEN -FREEVILLE - GROTON- TRUMANSBURG-NEWFIELD.
Tompkins County, formed April 17, 1817, from Cayuga and Seneca Counties, embraces 476 square miles. Of its land area of 304,640 acres, 240,632 acres are in farms, which number 2,358. Farm lands and buildings are valued at $12,724,134. Of the county's 41,513 population, a little more than half is rural.
In the county's forty-nine industrial plants, 3,132 employes receive $4,638,593 yearly in wages, according to the latest federal statistics compiled in 1929. The plants pay $2,909,677 annually for materials, fuel and purchased power and their products are valued at $15,157,865.
There are 1,075 miles of road in the county, of which 169 miles are state highway. A total of 13,192 motor vehicles are owned within the county.
Tompkins County seat is Ithaca, only city within the county, which also has five incorporated villages: Cayuga Heights, Dry- den, Freeville, Groton and Trumansburg. In 1895 Newfield was incorporated as a village but incorporation was dissolved Decem- ber 2, 1926.
The nine towns of the county are: Caroline, 1,616; Danby, 1,407; Dryden, 3,532; Enfield, 939; Groton, 3,789; Ithaca, 2,951; Lansing, 2,721; Newfield, 1,450; Ulysses, 2,381.
Tompkins County has one assembly district, it is in the thirty- seventh congressional district, the sixth judicial district and the forty-first senatorial district.
525
526
HISTORY OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
Three towns were annexed from Tioga County March 22, 1822, and a part of Schuyler County was taken off Tompkins in 1854. The three southern towns of the county were included in the Watkins and Flint Purchase and the remainder were in the Military Tract.
A public road was built from Oxford, on Chenango River, directly through to Ithaca by Joseph Chaplin in 1791-93 and this became the great highway for immigration to the southern part of the state for many years. Consequently Tompkins County, immediately bordering upon the road, was rapidly settled. The first immigrants were chiefly from New England. At the spot where Ithaca stands were found cleared fields, which had previ- ously been cultivated by Indians, and these lands were among the first occupied in the county. The next settlements were made in Ulysses, on the west bank of the lake and along Chaplin's road in Dryden.
Caroline was formed from Spencer (Tioga County) February 22, 1811, and was transferred to Tompkins County March 22, 1822. A part was annexed to Danby in 1839.
Danby was formed from Spencer (Tioga County) February 22, 1811, and was transferred to Tompkins March 22, 1822. Part of Caroline was annexed April 29, 1839, and a part was annexed to Caroline in 1856.
Dryden was first erected as a separate town February 22, 1803, and Enfield was formed from Ulysses March 16, 1821. Groton was formed from Locke (Cayuga County) as Division April 7, 1817, and its name changed March 13, 1818.
Ithaca was formed from Ulysses March 16, 1821; Lansing was formed from Genoa (Cayuga County) April 7, 1817; New- field was erected from Spencer (Tioga County) as Cayuga Feb- ruary 22, 1811, and its name changed March 29, 1822, and a part was annexed to Catharine (Schuyler County) in 1853.
Ulysses was formed March 5, 1799, Dryden was taken off in 1803 and Ithaca and Enfield in 1821.
Tompkins County's first judge was Oliver C. Comstock, named April 10, 1817; the first surrogate was Andrew D. W. Bruyn, appointed March 11, 1817; the first clerk was Archer
527
HISTORY OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
Green, named April 11, 1817; the first sheriff was Herman Camp, designated the same day, and the first district attorney was David Woodcock, appointed April 15, 1817.
The act organizing the county designated Ithaca as the county seat and contained a provision, providing that in case of failure to convey a site for the county buildings to the supervisors, and to secure $7,000 to be paid, the new county was to be reannexed to Cayuga and Seneca. The conditions were met and in 1818 a building for a court house and jail was put up. A second brick structure to replace the old frame one was erected in 1854-55.
The official. postal guide for July, 1930, lists the following post offices in Tompkins County : Brooktondale, Caroline Depot, Dryden, Etna, Freeville, Groton, Ithaca, Jacksonville, Ludlow- ville, McLean, Myers, Newfield, Peruville, Portland Point, Slater- ville Springs, South Lansing, Trumansburg, West Danby.
ITHACA.
Proudly resting upon its foliaged hills, "far above Cayuga's waters," Ithaca, the city beautiful, is known throughout the world as the home of Cornell University. In all Central New York it is doubtful if any community has a more picturesque natural setting.
Within the city are four creeks, flowing through gorges cut deep into the native rock, tributaries of the Cayuga Inlet. Six Mile, Cascadilla, and Fall Creeks, all within a few minutes' walk of the center of town, provide exceptional opportunities for the visitor to discover the natural beauties that characterize this en- tire region.
In recent years, these deep ravines, through improvements at the hand of man that harmonize with Nature's wild beauty, have been made more accessible to the visitor. Six Mile Creek, in its upper reaches, is still in the wild state, for it serves as the city's watershed, and many tree plantings have been made to preserve the forests through which the stream flows.
The gorges through which Cascadilla and Fall Creeks flow are rich in rugged beauty. From the highlands to the eastward, the waters flow down the hillside toward the lake in a series of
528
HISTORY OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
cascades and high waterfalls, dropping more than 400 feet in their descent.
On the high plateau bordered by these two ravines stand the stately buildings and extensive campus of Cornell University. Thousands of visitors and returning alumni make their annual pilgrimage to this most beautiful college setting in America.
In a valley at the end of Cayuga Lake is the city and, reach- ing northward out of vision, the waters of the lake. Across the valley, to the south and west, rise the rolling hills which give the region its matchless setting.
Back into the dim past, the city's history extends to the time when Sullivan's army set the forests aglow with the light of a burning Indian village at the head of Cayuga Lake. Lieut .- Col. Henry Dearborn's detachment of 200 men in the Sullivan cam- paign passed across the site of Ithaca in 1779 and camped at the foot of West Hill the night of September 23. Then in April, 1788, eleven men left Kingston on the Hudson, with two Delaware In- dians for guides, and visited the Cayuga Valley on an exploring trip. The following year three of their number-Jacob Yaple, Isaac Dumond and Peter Hinepaw-returned and planted corn in the clearings before made by the Indians. Leaving one in charge, the others returned for their families, who came back to the Cayuga Valley in August. Nineteen persons comprised this first group of settlers. Others soon arrived but by the end of the century many of the first comers had left for other locations.
Much of the Cayuga Valley was purchased by Simeon DeWitt, state surveyor general, and by Abraham Bloodgood, his brother- in-law. DeWitt named the settlement Ithaca, probably because it was in the Town of Ulysses, just as the Greek Ithaca was the capital of Ulysses' realm. Later DeWitt acquired Bloodgood's holdings, so that he owned virtually all of what is now Ithaca.
John Yaple built the first mill in Ithaca, locating it on Cas- cadilla Creek. The first frame house was erected for Abram Markle about 1800 on the same creek near the present Linn Street. It is said that a store was kept here for a time and that later the building became Ithaca's first tavern. The first public house constructed solely for that purpose, however, was on the
TOMPKINS COUNTY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
529
HISTORY OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
southeast corner of Aurora and Seneca Streets. It was built in 1805 by Luther Gere. At about the same time the Ithaca Hotel was built by Jacob Vrooman diagonally across from Gere's place, and the next year an inn opened where the Cornell Library now stands. The Ithaca Hotel changed its name in 1809 and Gere built another hostelry at the corner of what is now State and Aurora Street, and put up a new Ithaca Hotel. That was the predecessor of the present hotel of that name.
David Quigg, who had been a trader in a cabin on Cascadilla Creek, established a frame store in 1804 at the northwest corner of Aurora and Seneca Streets, and stimulated a business drawn from a thirty mile radius.
In these early days, religion was practiced by the pioneers. As early as 1793, some of the settlers had gathered at Robert McDowell's cabin for Methodist services. The first permanent church was organized by the Presbyterians in 1804, under the name of the Second Presbyterian Church of Ulysses, the First Presbyterian having been formed in Trumansburg. From 1808 to 1816 the Presbyterians worshipped in a district school on the site of the present high school, and in 1817-18 built the first church edifice in Ithaca.
The literary and educational character of the community, which has been predominant down to the present, was evidenced as early as 1806, when $300 was raised for a library.
One of the unique organizations of early days was the Moral Society, a group of self-constituted guardians of the morals of fellow citizens. Offenders against temperance were often doused with water and locked up with hogs or their clothes removed and thus exhibited to the society members. On one occasion a group of outraged inebraites after their incarceration captured four of the moralists and confined them in the hog pound. The society demanded tribute of visiting shows and had a semi-official publi- cation, "The Castigator." "Tecumseh," the Grand President of the society, was Benjamin Drake, a village merchant.
The War of 1812 gave impetus to the little settlement which then numbered less than fifty houses. With gypsum cut off from Canada, this material for use in making fertilizer plaster, was
530
HISTORY OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
supplied from the limeladen shores of Cayuga Lake and Ithaca became a shipping center for it. Building of the Erie Canal added to the possibilities for water transportation. By 1828 the Cayuga and Seneca Canal had been completed.
On April 2, 1821, Ithaca was incorporated as a village, with Daniel Bates as first president and two years later the Ithaca Academy was incorporated. Within the next few years Ithaca was made the northern terminus of the second railroad incorpo- rated in this state. Its story is told in the section of this book devoted to railway development. By this time boat service had become a regular, accepted thing on Cayuga Lake, dividing the business which the rumbling stage at first had claimed as its monopoly.
In the early thirties the hand of Ezra Cornell, one of the builders of Ithaca, began its task of community improvement. With Fall Creek claiming numerous mills by that time, Cornell was engaged to overhaul and repair several of them. Water power was then supplied through a wooden flume extending down the south bank of the gorge. Often freezing water broke the con- veyor. Cornell set out to remedy the situation. He excavated a tunnel through the rock 200 feet long and twelve wide and thir- teen high. Thus the water was diverted from the main stream to the mill wheels, the tunnel remaining in use even now.
In 1832 the old Clinton House opened in the building it occu- pies today. It was one of the finest hotels west of New York. The same year the Ithaca & Geneva Railroad was chartered, and in 1836 a railroad to Auburn was chartered, along with another, the Ithaca & Chemung Road. The depression of 1837 virtually bankrupted Ithaca, but courageously her citizens rose above cir- cumstance. Two banks opened as the first new enterprises after the panic. Fires visited the village and more business houses closed and a return to normalcy was not experienced until the forties. The present City Hall was opened in 1843 and four years later Owego Street was planked from Aurora Street to the inlet.
Ithaca was lighted for the first time by gas in 1853, by the newly formed Ithaca Gas Light Company. That same year the
531
HISTORY OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
Ithaca Water Works Company was incorporated, bringing water from springs near Buffalo Street. Though Ithaca's population increased three-fold between 1825 and 1835, following the open- ing of the canal, it grew from 3,925 to 4,908, or less than twenty- five per cent in the next twenty years.
One of Ithaca's greatest misfortunes came June 17, 1857, when a flood tore down Six Mile Creek Valley, washing out dams, all the bridges and some mills, killing three men and leaving damage estimated at $100,000. Parts of the village were under water for more than four months.
Ithaca weathered the Civil War, the village trustees issuing shin plasters, later redeemed and destroyed. A new building for the county clerk's office was built in 1863. At this period Ezra Cornell was becoming a leading figure in the community, having returned from extensive work in the development of the tele- graph. Cornell was the principal prompter of the Ithaca & Cort- land Railroad to connect at Freeville.
His first gift to Ithaca was the public library, begun in 1863. Of even greater importance was his vision of a network with the Southern Central from Auburn to Owego. Likewise, he was the leading spirit in procuring a charter in 1870 for the Ithaca & Athens Railroad that would tap the coal fields of Pennsylvania. He was the driving force behind the chartering of the Ithaca & Geneva Road and the extension of the Ithaca & Cortland to El- mira on the Erie and Canastota on the New York Central. Only the building of the Cayuga Lake Railroad, now the Lehigh Val- ley along the shore from Auburn to Ithaca, was opposed by Cornell.
The prosperity which Ithaca had gained through increasing industries and added rail facilities was given a severe blow on August 22, 1871, when a $200,000 fire leveled eleven dwellings in the area bounded by South Aurora Street, Six Mile Creek, State Street and the Tompkins County Bank. Then came the depression of '73 and the failure of some of the railroads which had been Ezra Cornell's dream. The control of the roads went into the hands of the Lehigh Valley and Cornell was virtually bankrupt. The founder of Cornell University died December 9,
532
HISTORY OF CENTRAL NEW YORK
1874, after a period of illness and worry. Andrew D. White, first president of the university, was a leading figure in the organization of the institution.
The presence of the university had a stimulating influence on educational progress. The Ithaca Academy had been incorpo- rated in 1823, and in 1840 it occupied a new structure built on the site of the old wooden school building erected in 1818. Here were planted the germs of vision and love of education which formed the groundwork for the pioneer endeavors to found a university.
When the Union School District for the village was created in 1874 by the Legislature, the academy building was leased for five years to the new Board of Education. At the end of that time the village purchased the property and also erected a brick school on Aurora Street near Fall Creek. In 1880 the old Central School, Mill and Geneva Streets, was remodeled and the following year the East Hill School was built. A permanent primary school was built on South Hill in 1907. The old academy building was razed in 1884 and the cornerstone of a new high school laid the next year. Several additions were built on before fire leveled the school in 1912.
The present fine high school was then constructed. In 1912 the Central School burned and was replaced in 1923 by a modern Cen- tral School at Mill and Albany Streets. The same year a small school for lower grades was built on Cornell Heights. The latest schools are the Henry Street John School at Clinton and Albany Streets and the Belle Sherman School in Bryant Park, both of which were opened in 1926. In 1883 a parochial school was built on West Buffalo Street.
The Ithaca Conservatory was organized in 1892 and received its charter under the laws of the State of New York in 1897. Beginning over thirty years ago in a small home on one of Ithaca's choice residence streets, the school later moved into one of the principal business blocks of the city where it remained for twelve years. Outgrowing these quarters the Conservatory then pur- chased its present valuable property. Facing on the largest and most beautiful park of the city, the school enjoys an element of
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.