The History of Cayuga County 1789-1879 page 261
Early Settlements / Town of Sterling

were thus able to take home with their grist a bountiful cargo of venison. Isaac was a soldier in the war of 1812. He has filled nearly every town office; and seen nearly every improvement which the last sixty years have produced.

Benjamin Clark taught the first school in 1812.

June 19th, 1812, the town was set off from Cato. The first town records are lost; hence we are unable to learn the names of the first officers.

Town officers elected at the Spring election of 1879:

Supervisor--E. Randolph Robinson
Town Clerk--Daniel C. Sanford
Justice of the Peace--James C. Irwin
Assessors--L. Nathan Calbert, Hersen J. Lewis, to fill vacancy.
Overseers of the Poor--Harman Van Petten, George A. Cleaveland.
Commissioner of Highways--Orville E. Curtis.
Collector--William Stevens.
Inspectors of Elections--Shelden D. Cole, Isaac Borst, Frank Jones, appointed to fill vacancy.
Constables--Christopher Huntley, Wm. Butler, Ira Ward, Edward Floyd Snyder and H. J. Coalman.
Game Constable--Lewis Tebedo.
Town Board Justices of the Peace--Wm. Kevill, A. S. Douglass, James C. Irwin.

John Ingersoll, from Scipio, came in 1812, and settled where James Bennett now lives. Silas and Elijah Marsh and a man named Bothel were among the first settlers at Fair Haven. Bothel kept a small tavern there a good many years.

William Miller, Samuel Stewart and Alexander McFadden, from Argyle, Washington county, and Benjamin Lyons came in 1815. Miller came in the fall, and settled in the south-west corner of lot 26. He is now dead. Stewart also came in the fall, and settled on lot 27. He subsequently removed to Michigan, where he died. Lyons settled on the State road from Oswego to Fair Haven. He has numerous descendants living in the town. McFadden settled on lot 26, a little south-west of Sterling Center. He brought with him his wife, Jane, and seven children, viz: William who died on the old homestead in 1834; Mary S., who is living with her brother, John H., in Sterling Center; Margaret, afterward Mrs. Daniel Hoy, with whom she removed to Missouri, and on whose death she returned here, and subsequently became Mrs. Robert Hume, and who died in the town May 5th, 1869; Jane, who is also living with John H., Sarah, the widow of William Calvert, with whom she removed to Cortland county, where she now lives; and Alexander, who is now living in Lexington City, Missouri. Thomas McFadden, who was born after the family moved into the town, is living in Michigan.

Hugh McFadden and Robert M. Stewart, from Argyle, Washington Co., came in the spring of 1816. McFadden was a brother of Alexander and John W. McFadden. He settled on a farm adjoining that of Alexander's, and died in the town several years since. Stewart came on foot, arriving in the town on the 7th of May, and settled on twenty acres, on lot 27, near the center of the town. He was the first blacksmith in the town. His shop was about a mile east of Sterling Center. He busied himself at farming when not employed in the shop. He was a noted hunter.

John Winchell was a blacksmith at Fair Haven at an early day. He was fond of fishing and spent much time at that when not engaged in his shop. Joshua Barnes located on the creek below the bridge crossing the creek on the State road. He used to fish for salmon while his wife rowed their log canoe.

Big Bluff was, at an early day, a great cattle run in the summer, and was the scene of the destruction of a good many cattle. Its elevation secured it a breeze which attracted the cattle to the edge, whence they were frequently precipitated below from the caving of the embankment, which was then almost perpendicular. About 1820, an ox belonging to a Mr. Eno, who was an early settler upon the shore, was precipitated over the bluff and lodged on a ledge about half way down. It remained there several days before being discovered. It was rescued alive by means of ropes, which served to guide it and prevent its falling while making the steep descent.

When the first settlers came the marshy tract bordering the lake was covered with cranberry bushes, and the fruit was gathered in large quantities and marketed at Oswego and Onondago Hollow. A few years later they were killed by a rise in the water which covered all that tract. The water has receded somewhat, but the tract

Return to the Index of The History of Cayuga County 1789-1879 by Elliott Storke
Return to the Cayuga County NYGenWeb Project Home Page