The History of Cayuga County 1789-1879 page 302
Town of Montezuma / Village of Montezuma

hotels and a grist-mill. It has a population of 550.

The grist-mill owned by Messrs. Babcock & Drake, came into their possession some twelve years since. It was originally built as a steam mill in 1853, by L. A. Hopkins, of Auburn, and was changed to a water power mill in 1861. The motive power is furnished by the surplus water from the canal, there being no natural water power in the village. The mill has three run of stones.

The Northern Hotel, located in what is called the old village, is conducted by H. R. Shockey, who leases of Mrs. Elcy Forbes. This hotel occupies the site of the first hotel kept in the town, which was built about seventy years ago by a man named Stephens, and was burned July 16th, 1874.

The Exchange Hotel, located in the new village, has been kept by Garrett Forshee some five or six years.

Montezuma Lodge F. & A. M. No. 176, was organized July 15th, 1850, with seven members, and meets the first and third Saturday evenings of each month. Simeon Mott was the first master. The present officers are, Jerome L. Fuller, M.; Charles W. Ball, S. W.; John Ross, F. W.; H. Mack, Treas.; Ed Ross, Sec. The present membership is 48.

Rechabite Tent No. 43, was organized in September, 1874, with Russell S. Chappel, as C. R.; B. F. David, D. R.; and George W. Bell, Shepherd. The present officers are, B. I. C. Bucklin, C. R.; Chas. Davenport, D. R.; and Dr. E. W. Crispell, Shepherd. It is reputed to be a useful temperance organization. There are 60 members. Meetings are held every Saturday night.

Logan Grange No. 107, at the old Mentz Church in Montezuma, was organized about 1873, with thirty members. It consists of twenty-nine members. The first officers were, Jno. S. Pratt, Master; Wm. Buckingham, Overseer; and Jas. H. Baldwin, Lecturer. The present officers are Chas. C. Weston, Master; J. D. Nye, Overseer; and Abram Rowe, Lecturer.

In the south-east part of the town is a cheese factory, which receives the milk of about 100 cows. It was built in 1872, by a stock company, of which Wallace Weston is President; S. R. Glasgow, Secretary; and Alonzo J. Weston, Treasurer.

The first settlements were made in 1798, at what is now called the old village of Montezuma, by Dr. Peter Clarke, Comfort Tyler and Abram Morgan, who were attracted to the locality by the salt springs there; though it is pretty certain that neither Clarke nor Tyler settled there permanently till several years later, about 1810 or '11. About the beginning of the present century they commenced the manufacture of salt, "and did a good business long before Syracuse had lain the foundations of its present prosperity and wealth."

COLONEL COMFORT TYLER was born in the town of Ashford, Conn., February 22d, 1764. At the age of fourteen he evinced that disposition to mingle in public affairs which so conspicuously characterized his after life, for at that age we find him a soldier in the war of the Revolution, though his duties were light, being mostly confined to service in and about the fortress of West Point. In 1783 he was engaged in surveying and in teaching school in the Mohawk country, and while there he was engaged by Gen. James Clinton and spent one season with the expedition to establish the boundary line between New York and Pennsylvania. In the spring of 1788, in company with Major Asa Danforth, he began the settlement in Onondaga county, where he "felled the first tree, and constructed the first piece of turnpike road in the State west of Fort Stanwix," and assisted in the first manufacture of salt. When the Military Tract was surveyed he was selected to assist. He surveyed one of the townships, and subsequently the Cayuga reservation. He filled various offices of responsibility and trust in Onondaga county, and in 1798 and '9, represented that county in the Legislature. He was foremost among the agitators for public improvements, and was conspicuously active in the construction of roads, bridges and all other works calculated to promote the general welfare. His efforts to bring capital and influence in aid of these undertakings led to his acquaintance with Aaron Burr, and his subsequent connection with the celebrated southern expedition projected by that gentleman, which resulted so disastrously. The disease which ultimately resulted in Col. Tyler's death is ascribed to his effort to evade capture at this time. This affair greatly impaired his private fortune, and, such was the popular prejudice against those who participated in it,

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