The History of Cayuga County 1789-1879 page 268

CHAPTER XXXII/ TOWN OF VICTORY

great importance to all this section of country, as it furnishes not only building stone, but also lime suitable for all the purposes to which that article is usually applied, except where a very white lime is required. The quarry of Mr. Doud, about two miles north of Victory, where four or five feet are taken out for lime, which has a little dark-blue shale between the layers, is of great interest, as affording more fossils, such as Becostated orthis, a columnaria also, and an avicula, as well as a slender encrinite not yet specifically named.*

The Southern Central R. R. crosses the northeast corner of the town, but has no station within its limits.

The population of the town in 1,875 (sic) was 1,944; of whom 1,853 were native; 91, foreign; 1,943, white; and 1, colored.

The town covers an area of 21,234 acres; of which 16,085 are improved; 4,641, woodlands; and 508, otherwise unimproved.

Settlement was commenced in 1800, on lot 65, in the south part, by John McNeal, from Montgomery county, and John Martin, from Ireland; the former of whom located about a mile south of Victory, on the farm now owned by Edward Merritt, where he died the same year, his death being the first in the town. None of his descendants are living in the town. Martin located on the farm now owned by Smith Wood, on a tract of fifty acres, twenty-five acres of which was given him to induce settlement, the remaining twenty-five having been given him by his wife's father. His daughter Jane, (afterwards Mrs. Samuel Wood and mother of Smith Wood,) who was born in 1804, was the first child born in the town. She died on the farm about eight years since. Her husband died in Ira, in the fall of 1877. Samuel Martin, brother of John, also from Ireland, located a few years afterwards in the north part of the town, where he died some fifteen years ago.

Elisha Granger settled with his family in 1802, in the south-east corner, on lot 67. His son Gideon is now living at Westbury, and John, another son, in Michigan.

A Mr. Scouten, a soldier of the Revolution took up as a soldier's claim lot 14, on which he settled prior to 1806; but he remained only four or five years.

Patrick Murphy, from Ireland, settled in February, 1806, on lot 54, where Samuel Murphy, his grandson, now lives. Two other grandchildren, Patrick and Jane, are living in Butler, Wayne county; and a third, Sarah, (now Mrs. Wm. Root,) in Cato.

Matthias Vanderhuyden, from Troy, Rensselaer county, settled in 1810, on lot 67, where his daughter Louisa (now Mrs. Elihu Knapp,) lives, and where he died in April, 1876, aged ninety-five years. Wm. Hager, Vanderhuyden's stepson, and Pamelia, his daughter, afterwards Mrs. Peter Cooper, came in with him. The former is living, at the age of eighty-two, on the farm he took up in 1823, about two miles south-east of Victory. Pamelia died in the town in 1841. Asahel Carter from Vermont, also came in 1810, and settled on lot 66, on the farm now owned by Hamilton Emerick. He took up twenty-five acres. In 1817 he moved to the farm now owned by John Wood, on the south line of the town, where he died some twenty years ago. His daughter, Polly, (the widow of Henry Wood,) is now living with her son John. Lucretia, (now Mrs. Worden Eastwood,) another daughter of Carter's, is living in Conquest. His other children, John and three or four daughters, are living in the west. Abram Scott, from Vermont, came in with his family, (consisting of his wife Hannah, and two sons, Charles Y. and Abram,) in the spring of 1810, and took up fifty acres, in the south-west corner of lot 54, where Philo Camp now lives, about a mile south-east of victory. His son Abram is now living, aged eighty-four, with his son, Geo. C. Scott.

John and Daniel Rumsey and William and Daniel Griswold, from Herkimer county, settled on lot 25, a little south-east of Westbury, in 1811. All are dead. Benjamin, son of Daniel Rumsey, is living with Stephen Holt, about a mile west of Victory. The rest of the family moved west.

Jacob W. and Martin DeForest, from Washington county, settled on lot 43, in the east part, in 1812. Conrad Phrozine, from Newburgh, settled the same year on lot 4, at North Victory, on the creek at Stumm's mills, on the site of which he built the first grist-mill in the town. About 1820, John Hooker put up a still, saw-mill and grist-mill, about a mile south-east of Victory, on the farm now owned by John Hapman, which,

____________________________________________________________________

*Natural History of New York, Geology, 3d Dist., by Lardner Vanuxem.

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