HISTORY OF
CAYUGA COUNTY, NEW YORK

CAYUGA COUNTY, NY is part of an area known as "The Military Tract". The Military Tract was a vast area of about 1.75 million acres located in the heartland of Central NY. Lands purchased by the State from the Onondaga Indian Nation in 1788 and from the Cayuga Nation in 1789 were surveyed into 28 Military Tract Townships to satisfy the claims of veterans of the Revolutionary War, who had been promised farms as an inducement to enlist in the New York regiments.

Cayuga Co. was formed from Onondaga County, March 8, 1799. Seneca County was taken off in 1804 and part of Tompkins County in 1817. The government of Cayuga County, NY was organized on May 28th, 1799, at the Court House, (Then located at Aurora, NY). Auburn was chosen as the County Seat in 1805. Today, Cayuga County, NY contains one City, and twenty-three Towns, with nine incorporated Villages.

The County Seat is the city of AUBURN, NY, known today as "History's Hometown".. Auburn, rests in the heart of the Finger Lakes Region of Central New York. It was first settled by Col. John L. Hardenbergh, an officer in the Revolutionary War, in 1793. The area was selected because of the natural resource of water power along the Owasco River. It was then called "Hardenbergh's Corners". The name was changed to "Auburn" in 1805. Auburn was formed as a Town from Aurelius, March 28, 1823 and was incorporated as a Village April 18, 1815, and as a City on March 21, 1848.

Among the favorite citizens of Cayuga County is the thirteenth President of the United States, Millard Fillmore, who was born in a log cabin in the Town of Summerhill, and two Governors pf NY State:  Enos Thompson Throop, Governor from 1829-1833, who died in Auburn in 1874 and William H Seward, Governor of NY from 1839-1843, also served as a US Senator, Secretary of State to President Lincoln, and is perhaps best known for the purchase of Alaska from Russia, "Seward's Folly". He died in 1872, in Auburn.  Harriet Tubman  is well known for her efforts in helping many slaves to freedom.

One of the historical sites in Auburn is the Willard Memorial Chapel, which is all that remains of the original Auburn Theological Seminary campus which was established in 1918.  In 1939, the Auburn Theological Seminary relocated to New York City where it exists today as an educational and research theological center.  

Check out the Auburn Prison links found on the New York Correction Historical Society Website.