The History of Cayuga County 1789-1879 page 288
Biographical Sketch of Harry Jefferson Wilcox / Town of Cato

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH



HARRY JEFFERSON WILCOX (continued from page 287)

whom are now living, except Ann Eliza, who afterwards became the wife of Sylvester M. Young. Mr. Wilcox is now in his 77th year and enjoying good health. Mrs. Wilcox died August 18th, 1874.

CHAPTER XXXV.

TOWN OF CATO

CATO lies upon the east border, north of the center of the County, and is bounded on the north by Ira, on the east by Onondaga county, on the west by Conquest, and on the south by Seneca River. It is the south-east quarter of the military township of Cato, (which comprised 143 lots of 600 acres each,) and was formed from Aurelius March 30th, 1802. At that time it comprised all that part of the County lying north of the river. Sterling was taken off June 19th, 1812; and Conquest, Ira and Victory, March 16th, 1821. The south-east corner lot of Ira was annexed in 1824, to compensate for the waste lands in Cato.

The surface is level in the south and gently rolling in the north, where the ridges, which extend north and south, rise about fifty feet above the valleys, and 150 to 200 feet above Lake Ontario. Cross Lake, upon the east border, is a shallow body of water, with low shores, about five miles long, through which Seneca River runs. Otter Lake is a shallow basin, with low, marshy shores, situated north of the center of the town. It is one and one-half miles long and three-fourths of a mile at its widest point. Parker's Pond, in the north-west part, is a rounded, shallow basin, about half a mile in diameter. It is gradually filling up each year. Its waters were lowered several feet when the improvements at Jack's Reef were made in 1854-7. It is connected with Otter Lake, which empties into it, by Drew Creek, which is about half a mile long, and named from Darwin Drew, through whose farm it runs. The Pond is named from Daniel Parker, an early settler in the town of Ira, and was locally known at an early day as "Parker's pork barrel," because of the abundance of its fish. It empties into Muskrat Creek, a sluggish stream, having a fall of only seven and a half feet in its course south through the central part of the town to Seneca River. All its waters are well stocked with fish.

In 1872, Hon. Ira D. Brown, then a Member of Assembly, secured an appropriation of $5,000 to prosecute a boring for salt. A spot in the south edge of this town was selected, and a boring over 600 feet deep made the following year. A brine was obtained, which, according to an analysis made by Prof. J.J. Brown, of Syracuse University, exceeded in strength any obtained at Syracuse, but containing a greater percentage of impurities. Further work was prevented by the exhaustion of the appropriation.

The soil is a very productive alluvion, exceedingly fertile, and admirably adapted to all kinds of crops. This is one of the best agricultural towns in the County; but those who subdued its dense forests and drained its extensive marshes, filled with decayed product of successive growths of vegetation, made terrible sacrifices in health to the noxious miasm arising therefrom. The malarial diseases then so prevalent in this locality caused many to abandon their improvements after a few years' settlement, and seek restoration to health in more favored localities, thus tending to retard somewhat the settlement of the town. These difficulties have, however, gradually disappeared, and, until the last two summers, have not been experienced for many years.

The Southern Central Railroad enters the town near the center of the south border and leaves it in the north-west part; and by its connection with the New York Central Railroad and Erie Canal at Weedsport and the Lake Ontario Shore Railroad at Sterling, opens up very accessible markets for its valuable pomonic and varied agricultural products.

The river is spanned within the limits of the town by three bridges, two of wood and one of iron. The latter, in the south-east corner, connects Cato and Elbridge, and was built in 1868, at a cost of about $25,000, toward which Cayuga and Onondaga counties each contributed $5,000, the remainder being paid in equal shares by the towns of Cato and Elbridge. It replaced a wooden bridge owned by the Cato and Jordan Plank Road Company, and abandoned by them in 1866. The wooden bridge in the south-west part was supported by the Plank Road Company, incorporated in 1848. Their charter having expired, the bridge became the property of the town.

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