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 44
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 44
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 44
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 44
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Though Wayne has no cities, some of its nine incorporated villages are comparable to cities in size and enterprise. The vil- lages are: Clyde, Lyons, Macedon, Newark, Palmyra, Red Creek, Savannah, Sodus and Wolcott. Lyons is the county seat.
Wayne's fifteen towns are Arcadia, 10,054; Butler, 1,384; Galen, 3,901; Huron, 1,313; Lyons, 5,165; Macedon, 2,333; Ma- rion, 2,172; Ontario, 2,714; Palmyra, 4,207; Rose, 1,921; Savan- nah, 1,484; Sodus, 4994; Walworth, 2,047; Williamson, 2,502; Wolcott, 2,875.
The western towns of the county originally belonged to the Pulteney Estate and the eastern towns, including Savannah, Galen and portions of Wolcott and Butler, constituted a portion of the Military Tract. Most of the remaining portions were com- pensation lands granted to the Pulteney Estate for the "Gore" between the old and the new Pre-emption Lines.
The earliest white inhabitants were hunters and trappers. The first permanent settlements were made in 1789 at Palmyra, under auspices of Gen. John Swift, agent for a company of set-
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tlers from Connecticut, and at Lyons, under Charles Williamson, agent for the Pulteney Estate. He built roads from Palmyra and Lyons to Sodus Point and upon these the early settlers mostly took up their abode. He also laid out plans for a city on Sodus Bay.
From 1790 to 1794 colonies came in from Rhode Island and Maryland, the latter bringing with them slaves, but it was soon found that slave labor was unprofitable. The settlements did not progress with great rapidity for several years, owing to diseases which prevailed. The fear of Indian hostilities and of British invasion during the War of 1812 greatly retarded settlement. But on the return of peace, settlers began to arrive in considerable numbers, principally from New England and Eastern New York. The completion of the Erie Canal gave new impetus to immigra- tion, and in a few years the flourishing villages of Lyons, Clyde, Palmyra and Newark were built up along the course.
The town of Arcadia was formed from Lyons February 15, 1825; Butler was formed from Wolcott February 26, 1826; Galen was erected from Junius (Seneca County) February 14, 1812, and Savannah was taken off in 1824.
Huron was formed from Wolcott as Port Bay February 25, 1826, but its name was changed March 17, 1834. Lyons was formed from Sodus March 1, 1811, and Arcadia was taken off in 1825. Macedon was erected from Palmyra January 29, 1823, and Marion was formed from Williamson as Winchester April 18, 1825, its name being changed April 15, 1826.
Ontario was formed from Williamson as Freetown March 27, 1807, but it too changed its name February 12, 1808. Walworth was taken off in 1829.
Palmyra was formed in January, 1789, and Macedon was taken from it in 1823. Rose was erected from Wolcott February 5, 1826, and Savannah was formed from Galen November 24, 1824. Sodus was organized in January, 1789, and from it Wil- liamson was taken off in 1802 and Lyons in 1811.
Walworth was formed from Ontario April 20, 1829, and Wil- liamson was created from Sodus February 20, 1802. Ontario was taken off in 1807. Wolcott was formed from Junius (Seneca
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County) March 24, 1807 and Butler, Huron and Rose taken off in 1826.
The first courthouse at Lyons, county seat, was a brick build- ing erected shortly after organization of the county, which was named in honor of Gen. Anthony Wayne. This structure, how- ever, was superseded in 1854-55 by a more commodious brick edifice. The first officers of the county were : John S. Talmadge, first judge; T. Armstrong, sheriff; William H. Adams, district attorney ; I. J. Richardson, county clerk; John S. Talmadge, sur- rogate.
Indicative of the early enterprise of the county were plans for building a ship canal from the Erie Canal at Montezuma (Cayuga County) to Great Sodus Bay. A charter for this pur- pose was obtained in 1827. Surveys were made but no work was ever done. A new charter was obtained by John Greig of Canan- daigua in 1836 and another by Gen. Wm. H. Adams in 1851. The route named in the last charter was from Sodus Bay to the Erie Canal a little west of Clyde.
Present enterprise is exemplified in Wayne's fight against tuberculosis. In 1922 Camp Oakwood was established at Sodus Point on Lake Ontario and in 1925 the name was changed to the Wayne County Health Camp, which received children from families with a history of tuberculosis. The camp is sponsored by the Wayne County Tuberculosis Committee and State Chari- ties Aid Association.
LYONS VILLAGE.
Lyons, county seat of Wayne County, is a village of 4,049, which very largely owes its early growth to its position at the junction of two streams which form the Clyde River, an artery over which settlers moved into the frontier. And its early history dates back to the Sullivan Expedition of 1779,, when the Colo- nials laid waste Central New York in a drive against the Indians and Tories. In that expedition was one William Stannell, who ten years later was destined to be one of the first settlers on the site of Lyons.
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From the Mohawk Valley in the spring of 1789, William and a brother Nicholas, with their brother-in-law John Featherly, built and launched a boat or boats on the Mohawk. With them were their wives, five children and an Indian trader named Wem- ple to pilot them. After an arduous trip the little party reached a spot on the "north bank of the Clyde River just below the junc- tion of the outlet to Canandaigua Lake and the Ganargua or Mud Creek." For many years the spot was marked by a large elm tree, later called the Council Tree, to which they tied their bateaux. The settlers built a log house here for joint use the first year.
It was several years before other settlers began to arrive, but probably in 1792 or '93 a number of bateaux came, bringing at least two more families, the Decker Robinsons and the Oaks. Indi- vidual homes were being built and the isolated little settlement, the nucleus of the present village of Lyons, began to have form.
ยท For five years they lived in undisputed ownership and then in 1794 "a new factor appeared. He was a Mr. Charles William- son," the agent of Sir William Pulteney. "He came with a legal notice which all people must respect, to the effect that all of this magnificent country belonged to a single landed gentleman," of England.
He established his family in Baltimore, and then came up through the wilderness and looking down on "The Forks" from what is now called Sturgis Hill, he renamed the new settlement "Lyons," the conjunction of the two streams reminding him of the town in France on the Rhone and Sayone rivers. He began at once through his assistant and local agent, Charles Cameron, the surveying of the village site, the erection of a mill, warehouse, roads, etc. Every public enterprise enlisted his earnest and en- thusiastic support, and Wayne County owes much to the great vision of this Scotch gentleman.
The next important event in the history of Lyons was the coming from Frederick County, Maryland, of Judge Daniel Dor- sey, no doubt influenced by Mr. Williamson's interest in the growth of the settlement in the Genesee. He had purchased of the Pulteney estate 1,000 acres and in 1801 came with his family
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and many slaves and built his large and hospitable home on the banks of the Canandaigua Outlet west of the Geneva road. A magistrate, a physician, a man of large interests and affairs, he gave impetus to the intellectual, religious and commercial activi- ties of the settlement. He was president of the first circulating library instituted in 1810. The first meeting of the Genesee Conference was held in his barn and was presided over by Rev. Francis Asbury, the first Methodist bishop in America. In 1924, bones were found south of the village in the burying ground of Judge Dorsey's slaves.
The Methodist has the distinction of being the earliest re- ligious organization in Lyons, dating back to the arrival of Rev. John Cole, one of Wesley's lay preachers, in 1799.
The first postoffice was established in 1807 and the first post- master was Major Ezekiel Price. The office was kept in his tav- ern and store on Broad and Water streets. Major Price held the office for thirty years and it was customary for him to claim seniority over all postmasters in the United States in length of service at that time.
The earliest physicians in Lyons were Dr. Prescott, who find- ing the climate unfavorable to his health soon returned to New England, and a Dr. Ambler, who occupied a log house where the Baltzel Hotel now stands.
Lyons has had a newspaper almost continuously since 1821, under various names and management.
All of the land east of Broad Street was included in the hun- dred acre farm of John Riggs, whose farm house afforded in early years the only tavern accommodations. In the year 1821, his farm was purchased by the Joppa Land Company, composed of a group of Lyons men, who surveyed and platted the farm and named three of the new streets for members of the company : Holley, Lawrence and William, the given name of Mr. Adams. For a century the quaint name Joppa has clung to the eastern portion of the village, where the office of the land company was located.
Up to 1823 Lyons was in Ontario County and in May of that year the first court in Wayne County, convened in Newark.
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Date of the opening of the first school is not recorded, though the site of the first log school house was just south of the present jail on Butternut Street. But in March, 1828, the following ad- vertisement appeared in a local newspaper: "Miss Chapin will open a school for the instruction of young ladies April 14 next in the upper room of Mr. Yale's tin factory. Terms-Reading, writing and plain needlework, $2 per quarter. Grammar, arith- metic, geography, history, rhetoric, chemistry, natural philoso- phy, map drawing, painting, ornamental needlework and lace work, $3 per quarter."
Growth of the village was slow until the Erie Canal came through in 1825, when a great celebration, with firing of cannon, was held in the settlement. The business section of Lyons, Wil- liam and Water streets was built along the first canal and for years the events of the week were the arrival of the packets from Albany and the stage coach from Geneva.
A few of the outstanding personalities of this early period were Ambrose Spencer, chief justice of the Court of Appeals of New York and member of the Albany Regency controlling the politics of the state; William H. Adams, prominent lawyer and advocate of a canal connecting the Erie with Sodus Bay, and Myron Holley, dispenser of state canal funds, philosopher and gentleman.
The village was incorporated in 1854 and DeWitt W. Parshall elected first president. In the stirring days before the Civil war, Lyons was not noted for its Abolition spirit. Anti-slavery ora- tors were sometimes stoned. But in the war Lyons sent out Com- pany B, Twenty-Seventh Infantry, one of the first and the young- est in average age of any regiment going to the front.
The Lyons Union School was one of the first of its kind estab- lished in the state. The Smith Historical Gazetter published in 1860 states that Lyons was the center of Wayne County produc- tion of peppermint oil, about 15,000 pounds or a third of the whole amount in the United States, being turned out there.
In 1917 the Edward J. Barber Hospital was established, and in 1923 the Lyons Hospital of Towerton-Simpson, Inc., was opened.
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The two weeklies published in the village are the Lyons Re- publican and Clyde Times, and the Wayne Democratic Press, both established in 1821.
CLYDE.
The village of Clyde, of 2,374 inhabitants, is located on the Clyde River in the town of Galen, so named because the town lay in the Military Tract and had been appropriated to the army medical department. The location of the village was originally called Block House, because a block house was originally built here by Indian traders. This house was used by Tories during the Revolution as a "station" in smuggling goods from Canada via Sodus Bay. It was burned previous to 1800. The village was first called Lauraville, from Henrietta Laura, Countess of Bath, daughter and heiress of Sir William Pulteney. Its name was changed to Clyde in 1818 but the village was not incor- porated under that name until 1835.
Clyde commenced its existence on the south side of the river when Jonathan Melvin, Jr., built a house of hewn logs near the river in 1811. In the few years following, a number of families settled nearby. The first town meeting of Galen was held at the home of Jonathan Melvin in the blockhouse; and he was elected the first supervisor. For several years all the business and all the population was south of the river.
A bridge was built across the river in 1810 on the site of the upper bridge and a few years later a second was built known as the lower bridge. These have now been replaced by a fine ce- ment one which makes an overhead crossing for both of the rail- roads and the Barge Canal.
Major Frederick DeZeng. In 1815 Major Frederick DeZeng, who had bought land on both sides of the river, determined to stimulate settlement by having this land surveyed into streets and lots. A surveyor, Mr. McLouth, then laid out Mill, Water- loo, Water and Geneva streets on the south side and Glasgow, Sodus and Genesee on the north. No lots were laid out except on the south side of the river. It was at this time that the hamlet received the name of Lauraville.
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In 1818 Major DeZeng built a dam across the river about fifty feet west of the lower bridge. The dam was authorized by an act of legislature and gave him absolute right to the structure and water power. He built a grist mill on the south side of the river and a sawmill on the north side. Major DeZeng never lived in Clyde, but his business interests were long an important fea- ture of the village.
In 1814 Dennis Vanderbilt erected a tavern on the corner of Waterloo and Water streets. This was the first public house within the present limits of Clyde, and in its ball room the first Sunday school was organized. James B. West opened the first store in Clyde in a part of the tavern that same year. Sylvester Clark also built a store, the upper room of which was used for religious services, school and lodge purposes for many years. The Presbyterians and Free Masons held their earlier meetings here. William McLouth also had a store on the river bank west of Sodus Street. He was the educated man of the place and people looked to him for the discharge of duties beyond their reach. He taught the first school in a log house on the south side of the river.
In 1817 a postoffice was established at Lauraville called Galen. James Humeston was the first postmaster and the office was in a part of his tavern near the river and between the two bridges. The postoffice was on the south side of the river until 1836 when, through the influence of Congressman William S. Stow, the post- office located on the north side of the river.
In 1823 Mr. William DeZeng, the son of Major DeZeng, came from Geneva and had the land north of the river, which he had bought from his father, surveyed into lots. He also built a frame house on the south side of west Genesee Street near Sodus Street. This building is still standing, the first frame house on the north side of the river.
The village of Clyde was incorporated May 2, 1835; the limits embracing both sides of the river.
Probably the first school in the town was a log one built near Black Creek, near Lock Berlin, in 1814, the first teacher here was John Abbott. The first school building in Marengo was erected in 1816 and the first teacher was Samuel Stone. In 1818
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this school is said to have had ninety pupils with Joseph Watson as teacher. In Clyde the first school was taught by William Mc- Louth in a log building on the south side of the river. The Clyde High School was legally incorporated in 1834, with a consolida- tion of two districts. A two-story building with a high base- ment was erected on the lot where the present high school build- ing is. The district was later divided and a grammar school was built on the south side of the river. The present high school building was started in 1874, but has been remodeled and greatly enlarged since then. For several years a parochial school has been conducted in connection with St. John's Catholic Church.
As was the case in nearly all towns at that time, Clyde had a number of small "Select" schools in its early history. Mr. De- Lancy's Stow's early education was obtained at a private school maintained by the various branches of the DeZeng family resid- ing in Clyde. Mr. Westcott, one of the best educated men in the county at that time, kept a school. Miss Allen and Miss Harriett Groom, who was very particular what pupils she had, each had schools here.
The oldest religious organization in the town of Galen was the Quaker Church at Marengo, which was started soon after this sect came here in 1809. In 1814 the Presbyterian Church was instituted. This was the first church within the present lim- its of Clyde. Then came the Baptist in 1817 and the Methodist in 1824, all three held their earlier meetings in the school house or in other rooms on the south side of the river until they built churches on the north side, St. John's Episcopal Church and St. John's Catholic Church were both started in 1840 but neither erected church buildings for several years. The Free Methodists, the German Lutherans, and the Universalists all have held serv- ices in Clyde but the societies were not strong enough to last.
In a diversified farming area, Clyde's industries turn out products which include silk, asbestos and vinegar. Its weekly newspaper, The Herald, was established in 1885.
MACEDON.
Macedon Village, of 566 population, is an attractive village in the town of Macedon, to which in 1789 Webb Harwood from
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Adams, Massachusetts, came with his family and two bachelor friends to found a frontier home. He felled the trees, cleared the ground and built a log cabin on a knoll near the first canal locks, one-half mile east and overlooking the village. His home was the center of activity for some time, the meetings of the Baptist Church being held there until 1806, when a church was built, and in the records of town roads for 1792 and 1793 three roads terminated at Webb Harwood's.
Jonathan Warner settled south of the village and at one time owned 1,200 acres of land. He was.especially interested in the political history of the village, was a collector in 1794 and made many sales of land.
Noah Porter settled a little east of Mr. Harwood and south of the main road, on a farm later owned by William P. Notting- ham. In 1800, while a deacon in the Baptist Church, he gave a plot of land for the first burial ground. It was an orchard north of the lower locks on a farm later owned by Edwin Robinson. This was used for ten years when another spot farther east was selected, but many of the oldest settlers were buried here, among them Nathaniel Braley, a Revolutionary soldier, buried in 1802.
Israel Delano, an old man at the time of his coming in 1790, died soon afterward and his death is believe to be the first one in the town.
Darius Comstock's daughter, Hannah, born in 1793, was the first female child, and Jacob Gannett's son, born in 1791, the first male child to be born in the town.
Mr. Gannett settled one-half mile west of the village and built the first grist mill on the bank of Ganargwa Creek in 1801. It was used until 1832, when it was removed to the village and used as part of the mill later in operation. In 1815 Mr. Gannett and Daniel Lapham built a carding machine and cloth dressing fac- tory near the mill of today, which was the first business interest in the town. A big business was carried on until 1836, when it was torn down.
The first school house was built prior to 1800, north of the canal near the west locks, on land excavated for the West Shore Railroad. This proved an unfavorable location, so it was sold
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and a new one built in 1803 on the ground now occupied by the Universalist Church. After thirty years of use, it was de- molished and in 1852 a third one was built on the present site. In 1871 this was made into a graded school, and in 1887-88 a union school was built of brick, which was later remodeled.
With the completion of the Erie Canal and the locks in 1825, settlement moved to the east, and thus the prosperity of the pres- ent village began.
In 1828, the land comprising Macedon was sold to William Willits, Alexander Purdy and John Lapham by Enoch Gannett and Abiatha Powers, the original owners, for eighteen and three- quarters cents per acre. At this time there were but two frame houses in the village, one of these being the home of Mr. Gannett.
Messrs. Willits and Purdy opened a store in 1829. John Lap- ham built the first dry-goods store in 1834, and in 1831 the foun- dry at the "Huddle" was removed to the village, thus beginning Macedon's greatest industry, the manufacture of farm imple- ments and machinery. Later, grain drills became a specialty and the firm of Bickford and Huffman, formed October, 1842, were the pioneer builders of fertilizer grain drills in America.
The removal of the post office from the "Huddle" to the vil- lage followed soon after, with Alexander Purdy as postmaster.
In 1831 John Robson opened a blacksmith shop, and the next year Michael Ellsworth built the first village tavern. This burned in 1882 and the frame hotel erected on its site also burned.
The Baptist Church, which was built on the present site of No. 6 school and north of the Yellow Mills, was taken down in 1835, moved to its present site in the village, rebuilt and rededi- cated.
Macedon was incorporated as a village in 1856, its limits being one square mile. In the same year, the Roman Catholic Church was established, and in 1873 the Universalist Church was built on the land donated by Lyman Bickford, an influential member, who at his death left a legacy to the church, while the little park adjoining was given to the village.
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Macedon today is on the Barge Canal, seventeen miles east of Rochester, and has the transportation facilities provided by both the New York Central and the West Shore Railroads.
NEWARK.
Newark, a village of 7,652 inhabitants in the southern part of the town of Arcadia, was incorporated July 21, 1853, com- bining the village of Lockville, now East Newark, under one government. Gaius Howell was first to suggest the name Newark at a meeting called to decide on a name. First village officers were chosen on January 24, 1854.
Among the earliest settlers south of the Ganargwa or Mud Creek were William Stansell, Lewis Jessup, Enoch DeKay, a miller, Wesley Benton, a Methodist minister, and Jeremiah Lusk, whose sons Jacob, Isaac and Philip, were original owners of the site of Newark. John Spoor and Nicholas Stansell were among the first settlers in East Newark. The first road near Newark was from Whitestown, near Utica, west to Geneva and Canandai- gua. Later a road (Newark's main street) was laid south from Arcadia to Vienna (now Phelps) to intersect it, thus making it easier to reach Geneva, the nearest market town.
In 1820, Joseph Miller, a Vermonter, came to build a section of the original Erie Canal and built a house, still standing, on Main Street, across from what is now West Miller Street. Miller laid out the village and gave land for a park which for many years remained but a public square. He sold lots for $30 and up. Because of his enterprise, the community was known as Miller's basin when the Erie canal went through. Then the little settlement soon became a great wheat market.
One of the early Newark schools was built by Joseph A. Miller on Miller Street and named Marvin Hall. It was two stories high and the second floor used as a Masonic hall. In 1844 there were four school districts in the village and six years later it was voted to consolidate and a new school building opened in 1851. Six years later the Newark Union School was constituted and in 1863 the system was reorganized under the name of the Newark Union Free School and Academy. Pupils increased rapidly in
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number and on June 11, 1891, the cornerstone of the new school building was laid and the edifice dedicated the following Decem- ber 17. But this soon became inadequate and in June, 1911, the Lincoln School was dedicated. In June, 1912, the Roosevelt School was opened and April 29, 1925, the cornerstone of the Charles H. Perkins School in the southwestern part of the village was laid.
The Free Public Library was erected in 1900, the gift of the late Henry C. Rew, a former townsman. In 1921 the Newark Hospital was established by Dr. Edwin York, on his return from war.
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