Skaneateles Lake

Books & Reading

"In 1842, at a meeting of the board of canal commissioners, held in February of that year, there was presented to the board a report of Mr. Childs, chief engineer in the employment of the state, dated January 6, 1842, which contained a plan for the improvement of Skaneateles Lake and outlet as a reservoir and feeder to the Erie Canal. This plan provided for a cutting down of the bed of the outlet below the dam, and for the making of an excavation in the lake and outlet above the dam." (p. 681)

"The proceedings were read in evidence, and were as follows: "At a meeting of the canal board, 9 o'clock a.m., September 6, 1842. Present: Messrs. Earll, Flagg, Farrington, Jones, Bissell, Enos and Little. "The canal commissioners having represented to the canal board that the supply of water from the present feeders upon that portion of the Erie canal extending from the lock at Geddes to the Seneca River locak at Montezuma, and upon so much of the Cayuga and Seneca canal as is included between the Erie canal at Montezuma and the Seneca river and Cayuga lake is found to be insufficient for the purposes of navigation. And the canal commissioners having also further represented to the canal board that the deficiency of said supply may be obtained from the Skaneateles lake at a less expense to the State than the same can be obtained elsewhere. And the said canal commissioners having appropriated the waters of the aforesaid lake and outlet to the use of the public as a reservoir and feeder to the Erie canal, ahd having caused the necessary surveys and levels to be taken and..."

Our first account of the lake is in the Moravian journal of Bishop Cammerhoff, who came to the "long lake" with David Zeisberger, June 18, 1750, o the old trail to Onondaga from Owasco Lake. It ran easterly thence along the line of the Nine Mile creek, and thence over the hills, wheich they called the Prince's Peak, to Dorwin Springs. It reached Skaneateles lake by way of the brook south of Lake View cemetery. Returning, June 24, they called the shelter which they built on the shore near St. James' church, "The Pilgrims' Hut at St. John's Beach," in honor of the day. In later visits St. John's Beach sufficed. Colonel Gansevoort, with his hundred men, made a brief halt, Sept. 22, 1779, on his return from Sullivan's army, and Joseph Brant led captives through the place westward early in 1781. (p. 5)

In April, 1832, she [the steamboat Independence] was carred in the ice four miles up the lake and anchored off my father's orchard. She was not a financial success and eventually became the schooner Constitution, which, with the sloop Union, Captain Randall, long carried on the wood trade on the lake. In her later days old Captain Fowler used to have to get up nights and pump to keep her from sinking. Even as a schooner, however, she sometimes carried parties of pleasure, and I remember well a fair company that thus visited Glen Haven before it had that name Two of the ladies climbed the old log way. Why would undertake it now? (p. 10)

The sloop Union, Captain Randall, arrived with lumber from Hallsburg, April 28, 1837, the first arrival of the season, so said the papers. This name was applied to the head of the lake for ten years longer, Deacon Hall owning much land there. Earlier it was Rossville. (p. 19)

My father then left the town, and removed into what was them Sempronius (now Niles), in the same county. Here he took a perpetual lease on a small farm of about one hundred and thirty acres, wholly uncultivated, and covered with heavy timber. He built a small log house and commenced clearing the land; and it was at this place and in these pursuits that I first knew anything of life. That farm is about one mile west of Skaneateles, ten miles from its outlet, and about one mile east of a little hamlet called Newhope... Nevertheless, when I had any spare time I used to go down to the lake, and fish and bathe in its limpid waters. It was indeed one of the clearest and most beautiful lakes which I have ever seen. The canoe seemed suspended in mid-air, and the fish could be seen at great depths...The town of Niles, and especially that part of it, was then very sparsely settled. There were no schools, except such as were improvised for the summer and taught by a woman of very limited education. The first that I recollect was at Newhope, in an old deserted log house, which had been furnished with a few benches without backs, and a board for writing upon. In this school I learned my alphabet, at the age of six or seven. Of course nothing was taught but the most simple lessons in spelling and reading. (p.4)

Syracuse, N.Y. - Aug. 7 - The Rev. A. W. Clark of the May Memorial Unitarian Church of this city, rowed nine miles last night in order to conduct services here this morning. He had been the guest at the cottage [see Fall Brook Point located in the town of Niles one mile south of Mandana] of Hendrick S. Holden of this city on Skaneateles Lake, twenty-nine miles from the city and nine miles from the car line at Skaneateles. He had made arrangements with the Captain of a boat running on the lake to call for him at the Holden dock on the last trip to the village. He displayed the regular signal on the dock when the boat hove in sight, and in addition got a large megaphone and called to the Captain. The boat passed on.It was then 8 o'clock. In a few minutes the clergyman had obtained a rowboat and was heading toward the village. For three hours and a half he tugged at the oars through the pitch-black night, and reached Skaneateles too late to catch a car for Syracuse. He came the rest of the way this morning.

In 1797 Zercas and Owen Wright built the first house within the present boundaries of the village of Jordan. By 1800 a mill had been erected on the bank of the Skaneateles Creek which runs north through the village. In 1805 the Seneca Turnpike (Route 5) and the Cherry Valley Turnpike (Route 20), two major east-west highways, were constructed south of the village. Despite this, Jordan became a major transportation center after one of the earliest sections of the new Erie Canal was constructed through the village in 1819. The Jordan Feeder, which fed the canal via Skaneateles Creek, had its source in Skaneateles Lake, located about twelve miles south-southwest of the village. Several dams were erected along the creek to regulate flow into the canal and to provide water power for Jordan's expanding mill industry. The Jordan Feeder provided a tremendous impetus to the village's early nineteenth century growth. By 1825 there were three mills; a post office opened in 1831 and the first local newspaper, the Jordan Courier, was published. Commerce and industry expanded and flourished during the next decade, and by 1836, the year after the village was incorporated, Jordan had 3 grist mills, 3 saw mills, a sash factory, a distillery and a clothing shop as well as 5 taverns, 7 general stores, 2 drug stores and 5 grocery stores.

Libraries

John A. Collins, the founder of the Skaneateles Community, was a Boston man, and had been a working Abolitionist up to the summer of 1843. He was in fact the General Agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, and in that capacity had superintended the one hundred National Conventions ordered by the Society for that year. (p. 162)

In October [1843] Mr. Collins bought at Skaneateles a farm of three hundred and fifty acres for $15,000, paying $5,000 down, and giving back a mortgage for the remainder. There was a good stone farm-house with barns and other building on the place. (p. 163)

…the Community soon swarmed with an indolent, unprincipled and selfish class of 'reformers,' as they termed themselves; one of whom, a lawyer [Q. A. J.], got half the estate into his own hands, and well-nigh ruined the concern. (p. 169). Q. A. J. was Q. A. Johnson.

The whole number of members, male and female, labor most industriously from six till six; and having large orders for their saw-mill and turning show, they work them night and day, with two sets of men, working each twelve hours – the saw-mill and turning shop being their principal sources of revenue. (p. 169)