Dan Weiskotten's Answer (10/21/1998):
That's a new one!
Sounds like a good opportunity for you to learn where the churches are
(many more are gone), but too bad your teacher has to use something like
witchcraft to prompt you into doing it. I don't want to discourage
you from doing the research and finding out for yourself, but this is one
of those questions that needs to be nipped in the bud (like the story of
the "Indian" canoes in Cazenovia Lake). Back when I was in High School
they offered several smaller special-interest courses, which included Witchcraft
and Local History. The Local History class was taught by a new teacher
who knew nothing about local history and the witchcraft class spread cute
little stories similar to the subject of church patterns. I learned
nothing from any of that.
The first question
I have is what do you mean by "Cazenovia Churches" Do you mean all
of the churches that ever were in Cazenovia Village, Cazenovia Town, the
original Cazenovia of 1800 (which included most of Madison County and a
big chunk of Chenango County), the village churches of 1850, the
churches of 1900, the churches of 1998, ...?
Just for fun I drew lines
between the churches that are still in the village. I first connected
the Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Episcopal churches and got a
broad Z which looked sort of like part of a swastika or half an SS symbol
but when I added in the Baptist church it looked like the fahrfegnugen
(sp) guy without a head.
I suppose it all depends
on the churches you include, the lines you draw, and which (witch!) witchcraft
symbol you are after. (or perhaps a spooky old spider web!)
There are many reasons that
the churches are located where they are (and why the Presbyterian Church
was moved from in front of the Middle School to the Public Square in 1828)
but none of them have anything to do with witchcraft. It is a natural
selection sort of process, dependent upon the properties available at the
time the church was looking for property, the situation of the neighborhood,
where most of the congregation were living, etc.
Thanks for writing - have your class mates send on more questions about Cazenovia and Central New York!
Dan W.