Dan Weiskotten's Answer (1/25/1994):
If ever there was a paper that cried out to have figures, maps, and
illustrations, it is this one. I don't have the space to post a modern
topographic sheet of the Cazenovia area, but I have several early historic
maps that variously show the highway networks. These maps are dated
1801,
1802,
1812,
1818,
1820,
and 1827. I
also have posted a modern
road map which you will help you follow what i am discussing.
Getting Around Town
A History of Roads in Cazenovia
Daniel H. Weiskotten
January 25, 1994
slightly revised 3/14/2002
(Thanks to Bob Skellan and Carol Blackmore for comments and information)
If we were to take a step
back in history and look at the first years of the Cazenovia area we would
probably have a great deal of difficulty recognizing this place that we
think we know so well. If the pioneers of that time were to see what
Cazenovia has become they would be equally astonished and perplexed.
The Oneida or Onondaga Iroquois of the eighteenth century would find the
Cazenovia of 1794 and 1994 beyond belief.
The face of Cazenovia was
little changed for thousands of years before 1793 except for the transient
impact of the Native Americans that had also called this place home.
Their village sites had no lasting impact on the geography and environment.
Their trails to fishing spots at the foot of the lake, between villages,
and between tribes followed the most naturally convenient course, which
was not often easy in the hilly country of the uplands. Narrow foot
paths upon ridges, along the sides of valleys and out of the way of swamps,
and through swales and ravines led to wherever one needed to go.
As the semipermanent habitation sites of the Oneidas and Onondagas moved,
so did their paths.
In 1789, when Horace P.
Schuyler and his crew of surveyors measured the land that was to be purchased
a few years later by John Lincklaen, there were few "Indian trails" that
were of use to them. The white-man's destinations and reasons for
being in the hills above Oneida Lake were different. These first
surveyors left only a few blaze marks on trees, and these marks lasted
only until the woodsman cleared the land and replaced the survey points
with tree stumps or a "stake and stones."
White folks need roads (and
now the Indian does too). We take up more space than a footpath could
give and that required clearing trees out of our way and leveling bumps
and filling holes. As our vehicles improved our need for better routes
and roads grew, and it was often many years before the improvements came
to reality. The lack of roads at the commencement of settlement was
a definite impediment to the rate at which the wilderness was conquered
and road building was of major importance if an area was to be settled.
For the first fifty years the building and maintaining of roads and bridges
was the prime concern of the town fathers and the Town Minute Books, the
first of which is entitled "Town Road Book," is almost entirely comprised
of descriptions of the road districts and appointments of the highway overseers,
also called path masters or fence viewers. Another of the Town's
earliest books is a volume of road surveys, with descriptions of existing
roads, altered roads, and abandoned roads - with surveys dating as early
as 1797.
In 1793 the political barriers
were finally out of the way and it was time to overcome the physical barriers
and get settlers to the fresh and wild lands of Cazenovia. Our roads,
which were to bring the settlers in, did not exist before 1793, and did
not come about immediately thereafter (although the first
100 pages of surveys in the Town Road Books date before 1807).
The roads of Cazenovia were gradually built, and because and that evolution,
which is continuing to the present day, is a slow and unpredictable process.
The pioneer of 200 years ago could not dream of us trying to find the fastest
way to the airport or to the thruway and they could only be concerned with
meeting their immediate and near-future transportation needs. Today
we think we are planning for the future, but we don't know for sure what
the future holds and besides, it is usually a struggle just to meet today's
needs.
Our roads are a part of our daily life and
we don't seem to take them for granted, especially when they are in poor
repair, inadequate for our needs, or blocked by snow drifts. The
history and evolution of our transportation networks, be they footpaths,
highways, rail roads, or canals, is something that is taken for granted
and is something that few, if anyone, ever think about.
In the Beginning
When the Cazenovia tracts
were surveyed there were no roads and the location foot paths that existed
were of no concern to the survey crews that made straight, cross-country
traverses. When Lincklaen investigated Cazenovia for the first time
in 1792 he was led by one of those that had made the earlier survey and
the small party of explorers made nearly direct cross-country routes to
the places that were of interest for the future of the community.
The 1789 survey had made note of soil, water, and vegetation, and first-hand
observation of these elements was what Lincklaen desired if he was to judge
them worthy of his purchase and management.
When Lincklaen came again,
in the spring of 1793, he came by way of the Mohawk Valley, on the river
to Utica, and then overland on the Genesee Road as far as present day Chittenango.
This road was a well traveled path that had long connected the major Iroquois
communities but was at the time a poor road as it had only recently been
improved for the heavy traffic of white man. Turning south from the
Genesee Road and heading through a settlement of squatters, Lincklaen and
his crew entered the wilderness where no wheeled vehicle had ever been.
He brought with him a wagon load of the supplies needed for a new settlement
and a crew of axemen to open a road. The road would also serve to
get settlers to the foot of the lake where they could purchase land.
The path was an Indian trail that led up a steep slope to the top of the
ridge. From here they followed the ridge south, perhaps along another
foot path. to the lake where Lincklaen had decided, the year before, to
commence the settlement of the tract.
One of Lincklaen's first
priorities, beyond providing shelter, was opening roads in every direction.
As the community and surrounding lands became settled roads were opened
to meet the needs of the 1790s. Roads not only led to Cazenovia from
all points, but a network of roads developed connecting cabins, farms,
mill sites, and "huddles" (clusters of settlers).
Lincklaen's radiating pattern of roads was completed by perhaps 1798 and
the privately constructed roads, typically nothing more than a wide path,
filled in between. The most immediately convenient course was usually
taken, but because the early pattern of settlement was determined primarily
by the layout of the lots, these roads often wandering among the hills
and valleys and reached out to the most remote spots. Few places
were road-less.
The lake and several of
the hills presented obstacles to travelers. There doesn't seem to
have been any travel on the creek, but the lake was used. The so-called
"Indian canoe" that was found in the lake in the 1860s was probably no
such thing - in fact there have been three different canoes found in the
lake, at least one of which had an iron fastening at the prow. In
all probability these canoes were made by the early settlers to get around
on the lake. The stories of Indian princesses and weddings are pure
fantasy that were created in the 1860s, two or three generations after
they would have been used by the pioneers.
Those first roads that Lincklaen
opened paid little heed to the artificial lot lines and ran as straight
as the geography would allow. The DeRuyter Road, Chenango Road, Fenner
Road, Nelson Road, Peterboro Road, and what was to become Lincklaen Street
all left Cazenovia in a straight line (see
the modern map). Some of these continued straight for many miles
while others eventually followed the geography. Most of these early
courses remain intact but some later modifications and alterations would
obscure their original course and today we have only traces or segments
to hint at their original complexity.
These early roads were constructed
over a ten or fifteen year period and their relationships indicate an on-going
planning of roads. An interesting pattern is found in the formality
of these radiating roads that show that they were not merely sent in the
desired direction. Not only do all of these roads have a bearing
of approximately 25 degrees from a cardinal direction, but the DeRuyter
and Chenango Roads, both heading south, have an origin point in the center
of the Public Square in the village. The Canaseraga Road, now Ridge
Road, also originates at the center of the Public Square but it runs directly
north. The Pompey Road runs directly west after taking a 25 degree
turn across the foot of the lake.
Lincklaen also opened two
roads southerly through his vast tract of land. The tract being only
a few miles wide, but many miles long, these roads were of particular concern
to Lincklaen. To provide access to his land office at the northern
part of the tract and to bring trade up and down the tract he opened a
road on either side of the Purchase. The West Road, also known as
the "Gore Road," the "Road to John Lincklaen's" or "The Lincklaen Road,"
ran from just west of the hamlet of Union in Cazenovia, to the Cayuga Road
in the very southern part of the Purchase. Much of this route is
still open, although some changes and abandonments have occurred in the
original course. The East Road, which ran along the eastern edge
of the Purchase, was less defined, and much of it is may not have ever
been opened. Although much of its course is visible on mid-19th century
maps, there are no full surveys of the course and there are few good historical
references to it, indicating that it was not as important or perhaps even
constructed under different circumstances from the West Road.
Historians have passed down
a variety of stories indicating that one of these roads was known as the
"Old Joe Road" because it was built by Joseph Messenger (Hammond
1872, page 248). There has been considerable confusion a to
where this "Old Joe Road" is actually located. Hammond notes that
"Mr. Messenger was employed by Mr. Lincklaen to cut through the east road
which runs on the ridge east of DeRuyter to the town of Lincklaen."
Jabez W. Abell, writing in a 1925 Early
Local History of Roads, made some slight changes to Hammond's text
and said that it was the West Road instead of the East Road. To confuse
things further, local historian Arthur I. Tyler wrote a few years later
that the Old Joe Road was the East Road running the full length of the
Lincklaen Purchase.
So, just where is the "Old
Joe Road"? At this time (2002) I am not entirely
sure. The route of the West Road is known in is entirety, and a 1797
survey exists for us to follow (Cazenovia Town Road Book
2:5-6). The importance of the West Road is also clear in that
it served for many years as a primary connection between the north and
south parts of the Purchase. Much of the course of the West Road
is still open today and can be easily followed. The East Road, on
the other hand, is not at all well known although a continuous course is
evident on the landscape (see
the modern map). There are very early surveys of short
segments of its probable course (Town Road Book 2:43 is identified
as Stone Quarry Road from NY 20 to Ballina Road) but once it leaves
the present Town of Cazenovia it is unclear which of several north-south
running roads would have been considered to be the East Road which Lincklaen
had built. In any event, the East Road never became very important
except for local travel, and the many hills and diagonal northeast- to
southwest-running valleys made north-south travel quite difficult in several
sections. In the southern portion of the Purchase, in the Chenango
County Towns of Lincklaen, Pitcher and German, there are several north-south
running roads that could have been the course of the East Road. Perhaps
road surveys from the early books of those towns may shed light on this
question (if those books still exist).
In looking carefully at
the text given by Hammond, it may be inferred that Messenger built only
a small section of road, and not the entire road that ran the length of
the Purchase (it is said that the northern 4 miles had already been constructed
by Lincklaen's workers). Perhaps Messenger built the section of road
(part
of which is still open as Williams Road, but the rest abandoned),
that ran from the hamlet of Sheds, over the high hill in the State Forest
lands, and down to the Carpenter Road just east of Quaker Basin?
This road would fit Hammond's description that it "runs on the ridge east
of DeRuyter." This would have been a difficult section to construct,
which may explain why Lincklaen contracted it out rather than have his
hired Company workers do it. But, then again, Messenger lived on
Tromp Township Lot 20, on the western side of the Purchase, about 2 miles
north of the Village of DeRuyter, with his house standing on the northeast
corner of the intersection of East Lake and Carey Roads - on the line of
the West Road (Chenango County Deed F:16, 1799)!
There is obviously much more to be learned about the "Old Joe Road."
The routes of Lincklaen's
roads have changed somewhat over the years, with segments being altered,
abandoned, or replaced. The Nelson Road passed about on the line
of present Rt. 20, but for the first two miles it ran a few degrees northerly
of where it does now. From the East Bridge in the village it originally
went up the hill through where the Town and Country Plaza is, passed north
of Tom and Cindy Voght's house and behind the High Neighbor office and
came to its present route at about the town line near Moseley Road.
From here it followed the present road easterly through Nelson flats, and
then passed through the gravel bed behind Moyer's east of Nelson and followed
what is now Stone Bridge Road. From here it followed various roads,
some still open and other sections abandoned, and continued on to Solsville
and Madison, passing a mile north of Morrisville and Bouckville.
This road was open as such at least as late as 1800, and perhaps continued
along this route until the Cherry Valley Turnpike was completed in 1811.
Sometime after the western
end of the Nelson Road from the village was altered a branch was run southeasterly
towards Erieville and beyond. Examination of a modern
road map will clearly show the remnant segments of this once almost
straight-as-an-arrow road from Cazenovia, through Erieville, and on to
Georgetown.
The swamp at the south end
of the lake posed particular problems for roads. Two 1793 maps show
several odd roads criss-crossing the lands south of the lake. Rippleton
Road is shown in about its present course, but the road across the swamp
is farther south than present Rt. 20 and it connects to a road that runs
from the mill at Rippleton Cross Road to the ridge on the west side of
the lake. The road to Pompey Hollow also began near Rippleton and
passed directly west over the hill and down into Pompey Hollow connecting
on to the Pompey Hollow Road near Moore's orchard. Other maps indicate
that the road northerly ran from Rippleton, along the ledges near Meadow
Hill Road, over the ridge near the Cazenovia Golf Club and ran diagonally
down the side of Pompey Hollow and joined the Pompey Hollow Road just south
of Bethel Road. By 1805 these roads were abandoned or replaced by
other roads but their courses are still traceable to a degree by the geographical
features in the area, several fence lines, and a farm lane.
By 1796 the road at the
foot of the lake was built where it is now as Rt. 20 except that instead
of turning and following present Ledyard Avenue in front of Lorenzo it
continued due east straight through the lawns and woods of Lorenzo and
on to Chittenango Creek where John Lincklaen had built a grist mill.
This course was changed about 1806 when Lincklaen laid out the grounds
for Lorenzo but the evidence of its direction can still be seen in the
section of Rt. 20 immediately at the foot of the lake and the position
of the back drive to The Meadows on Rippleton Road. An excavated
spot on the bank of the creek beside the gardens of The Meadows is believed
to be the location of the mill and these segments all lead to it as shown
on the 1796 map.
Throughout the township
there were dozens of other similar "first generation" roads, and many of
them are now abandoned. Cazenovia had kept track of its roads since
1797
but it wasn't until 1804 that the State required the townships to report
on their roads. A map of the roads in the town of Hamilton (now Eaton,
Hamilton, Lebanon, and Madison) made for that town's 1804 report to the
state shows a strange network of roads. Comparison to later road
maps shows that only about two thirds of these "first generation" roads
even survived until the 1870s. No like map for Cazenovia has been
found, but from the road surveys and descriptions of the Town Road Book
it is possible to reconstruct the courses of most of these roads.
I have made transcripts of the first 30 years of Road District descriptions
and over 150 road surveys dating from before 1806 and it is clear, as I
said at the beginning, that we would have difficulty recognizing our own
home town.
"Second Generation" Roads
As the land was opened and
lot lines more clearly defined the lines of roads were often moved so as
to follow the property lines and not divide farms. Also, as the township
was more fully explored, "huddles" of homes began to form, and mills were
built, the road system had to be modified to meet the needs of the day.
The earliest recorded alterations of roads are made in the town books in
1798, and the first recorded abandonment is dated 1804.
The pattern of these Second
Generation roads may be recognizable to us today. Ridge Road, Rt.
92, Rt. 20, Rippleton Road, and many more of the primary roads as we now
know them were formed by 1810.
In this period Cazenovia's
roads were also subject the influences of outside interests. Cazenovia
was not the only destination on the map, and thousands of pioneers passed
through our town without paying any attention to the place. Many
experienced Cazenovia only as a step between the home they left behind
and the destination of new hopes in the frontier that was rapidly being
pushed west. In this period many roads were being built by contract
under state sponsorship or for private turnpike companies. The state
had always shown some interest in improving transportation (although sometimes
reluctantly) and it was during the first decade of the 19th century that
roads were hot topics.
Lotteries were held and
Legislative acts were made in order to open routes to the west. One
"State Road" was opened across the town, this being the present Ballina
and Cobb Hill Roads in Cazenovia, and which is still called Old State Road
in the town of Nelson. It was surveyed in 1801 and completed by 1804
and ran from Sangerfield to Skaneateles. The eastern portion followed
present Rt. 20 almost as far as Morrisville, then went straight west along
Old State, Ballina, and Cobb Hill Roads to Delphi Falls from where it passed
along a now abandoned path to somewhere near Pompey, and it then again
followed the course of Rt. 20 to Skaneateles. The segment from Ballina
Road through Cobb Hill, and then to Delphi Falls is now only fragmentary.
Originally the path crossed directly over Chittenango Creek to Cobb Hill
Road, and then followed that road to the intersection of the south end
of Burlingame Road where it then went directly toward Delphi Falls on a
diagonal line down the hill. The old house which sits far off of
Cobb Hill Road on the Bronson Farm was at one time on the road, and a series
of fence lines, tree lines, and an old farm lane are found as traces of
the line of the old State Road. Maps, surveys, and aerial photographs
show the line fairly clearly.
Cazenovia hosted three turnpikes,
built by private stock companies, which were usually controlled by individuals
along the path and typically at either end of the route, and who were hoping
for the benefit of traffic in and out of the interior. These toll
roads were innovative in that they were built to contracted specifications,
with graded and graveled surfaces that were wide, well drained, and well
fenced. Special rates were given to the teamsters that had wide tired
wagons as they packed the loose gravel. Stages rolled daily upon
the smoothest roads around.
The first was the Peterboro,
or Oneida, Turnpike which had initially been proposed to begin on the Genesee
Road at Vernon and pass only as far as Peterboro, but John Lincklaen managed
to find support enough to bring it to his doorstep in Cazenovia.
The Oneida Turnpike Company was chartered in 1801 and construction was
completed by the end of 1803. The route of this road is virtually
unchanged from its original course and one can today follow Fenner Street
to Peterboro and then take the Peterboro Road through sparsely populated
farm lands to Vernon. This road had three toll gates along the way
but little is known of the road's history after it was first opened, but
the toll gates may have been in operation as late as 1816.
The Third Great Western,
or Cherry Valley Turnpike was the second and most celebrated of the toll
roads built in Cazenovia and many details of the history of this road are
known. The road was chartered in 1803 and was controlled by Cazenovia
men, with John Lincklaen as President. The road extended from Cherry
Valley, and followed present Rt. 20 from near there to Cazenovia, and then
continued along present Rt. 92 to Manlius where it intersected the Genesee
Road.
Because it partially overlapped
the rights of the Oneida Turnpike in the village, namely the entire length
of Albany Street, an agreement had to be made which determined that the
Oneida Turnpike would be responsible only for the north half of the shared
road from the east bridge to the split of Nelson and Fenner Streets.
The Cherry Valley Turnpike Company then became responsible for the remainder
of Albany Street. How the tolls were managed on this section, if
at all, is not known.
The first part of the road, ten miles from Cherry
Valley, was started in 1806, and it was not until 1811 that entire route
was completed and the first dividends paid. Of this road, one writer,
Charles Stebbins I believe, wrote:
The Plank Road Era
During the 1840s the first
major improvement was being made to the Erie canal which passed through
the lowlands to the north of Cazenovia. The canal had long been pulling
some traffic away from the upland routes of old, but not only the canal
was available, so were the markets created in places like Syracuse, Rome,
and Utica. A more efficient route to these places, other than the
Ridge Road, was desirable, and a plank road was proposed to run through
along the banks of Chittenango Creek to the village of Chittenango.
This route also opened up a number of valuable water power sites which
had previously been difficult to get to or had been entirely inaccessible.
Until the Cazenovia and Chittenango Plank Road was constructed in 1848
there were only short trunk roads cutting down the steep valley sides and
through deep ravines along the valley from Lincklaen Road or Michigan Road.
The plank road, constructed of thick wooden planks set on a wide, well
packed, and relatively level bed of gravel, was not intended to last forever,
and the planks soon rotted out. The Cazenovia and Chittenango Road
which ended at the Lincklaen House in the village, was extended south in
1850 as the Cazenovia and DeRuyter Plank Road. This line began at
the terminus of the C & C at the Lincklaen House and went west along
Albany Street, turning south down Rippleton Road. it followed present
Rt. 13 to the Delphi Road where it turned west and passed through the hamlet
of Union. From there it turned south, bypassing New Woodstock, and
intersected another plank road at Delphi Falls. Near the town line
it connected with the DeRuyter Plank Road and thus continued to DeRuyter.
No notice of planking along Albany Street has been found and it is likely
that these segments were improved enough to not need work or were graveled
to make them harder.
The Twentieth Century
The plank roads did not
last long but they ushered in a new era of road building techniques.
Graveled paths, broad and smooth grading, and expensive bridges and causeways
had been used on the old Cherry Valley Turnpike and thus were not something
new to the engineers of latter nineteenth century roads. By the 1890s
there were many graded and widened roads, with gravel, ditches, and easy
grades. Over the next thirty years there came into being a form of
road that would, excepting our heaving and piercing frosts, last forever.
The route of the Cherry Valley Turnpike continued to be used for considerable
local traffic, but with the advent of the automobile the need to improve
it became more and more apparent as these vehicles sank into the mud miles
from anywhere. The lifestyle of the American driver had also changed
and there were more people traveling for more reasons, chiefly among them
was recreation, and the old turnpike route provided much of that.
In 1914 the old turnpike
route was macadamized, and this was made into a concrete road which, by
1927, was designated United States Highway 20. In honor of its famed
past it was also being called the Cherry Valley Turnpike. This road
was again improved with widened or doubled lanes, shoulders, and even medians
in the mid-1950s and at that time took on the general situation that it
now affords us.
The gorge route of the old
plank road was also a major road that underwent much improvement in the
1920s or 1930s. Power construction equipment was used to straighten
curves, cut bluffs, fill creek channels, and change the flow of the creek.
It was Arthur I. Tyler, then School Superintendent, that suggested that
the new road to Chittenango be named after the great Iroquois Hiawatha.
He tried to claim that it was the trail used by the Great Peace Maker,
but he was never able to convince the state officials that the title was
worthy. That never stopped the local people from adopting the name,
and although it is slowly slipping from our memory, it is often still used
to refer to the Gorge Road, or Rt. 13. In my opinion Hiawatha probably
never sailed in a canoe on Cazenovia Lake (standing up as our school crest
shows him!) and he probably didn't travel the Chittenango Gorge on his
famous journeys.
As always with my subjects,
there is much more that can be written about the history of roads in Cazenovia.
This has been only a summary and outline of what is to be found.
There are many details to be filled in, and many questions to be answered.
More research can only bring on more questions that will need to be answered
and the research into the history of our roads is only beginning.
There is a wealth of legend and romance, coming close to fabrication, that
has been put down on paper already. It can never be too soon to work
on the documentable histories of the roads of Cazenovia. The tract
of land that became Cazenovia was called the "Road Township" because proceeds
from its sale would go to building roads across the state and it rightfully
deserves to have its own roads understood.
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