The History of Cayuga County 1789-1879 page 310
Town of Mentz

office, a private bank, two good hotels,  (The Howard House, owned by John R. & Rush M. Howard, and the National, kept by Wm. G. Gallt) several stores of various kinds, two flouring-mills, a foundry, a planing-mill, sash and blind factory, woolen factory, a small cheese factory, and about 1,200 inhabitants.

The Port Byron Free School and Academy was chartered in 1857, and the following year a lot containing one and one-half acres, centrally located was purchased and the present brick structure erected.  The building is three stories high, sixty feet long and fifty feet wide, and is capable of accommodating 400 pupils.  The cost of the lot and building was $10,850.  The school is divided into academic, senior, sub-senior, junior and primary departments.  It is free to all residents of the district, except for Latin and Greek, for which $2 each is charged.  To nonresidents the tuition fee is $6, and $2 each for the languages.  The course of instruction is left discretionary with the principal.  It is managed by a board of nine trustees.  The first board was composed of J. D. Button, M.D., W. A. Halsey, who is the present president, Alfred Mead, Amasa K. King, F. M. King, D. B. Smith, Geo. Randall, J. D. Schoonmaker, and Wm. D. Osborne.  It has a library containing 1,050 volumes, valued at $1,062.50, and philosophical and chemical apparatus valued at $250.  The present attendance is from 250 to 300.  The present Principal is A. W. Morehouse.

The Port Byron Chronicle is published weekly by Chas. E. Johnson, who commenced its publication in company with Geo. F. Marsh, under the name of Marsh & Johnson, November 1st, 1873.  John L. Ransom became interested in its publication in May, 1874, and continued his interest till September, 1877, when he sold to the present proprietor, who is also its editor.  The paper was established here in 1851, by Oliver T. Beard, as the Port Byron Gazette.  In 1860 it passed into the hands of Benj. Thompson, who sold to Wm. Hosford in 1861.  In 1862 it was bought by Cyrus Marsh, and its name changed to The North Cayuga Times.  H. P. Winsor succeeded Cyrus Marsh, but in what year we could not learn  Several changes in proprietors took place from this period to 1873, and at intervals its publication has ceased entirely.

The Private Banking House of H. B. Baxter & Co. commenced business March 1st, 1877, with Henry B. Baxter, formerly of Sherman, Chautauqua county, as senior partner, and G. W. Latham, of Port Byron, as junior partner.

John C. Dixon, proprietor of the flouring and grist-mill at Port Byron, commenced business in the fall of 1865, in company with J. V. White, the present Supervisor (1879) of Mentz, under the firm name of Dixon and White.  February 17th, 1875, the mill, which was a wooded structure erected in 1845, was burned, and in that year Mr. Dixon bought Mr. White's interest and rebuilt on the same site.  The present mill, which is also built of wood, is forty by sixty feet, three and one-half stories high, and supplied with all the modern improvements.  It is reputed to be the finest mill in this section of the country.  It contains four run of stones and is capable of grinding 100 barrels of flour per day in addition to custom work, which averages from 25,000 to 30,000 bushels of grain annually.  The motive power is furnished by water from the creek, over a fall of eight feet.  This first mill on this site was built about 1814 or '15, by Aaron Knapp, the site and ten acres of land being donated for that purpose by Elijah and Aholiab Buck.  The present mill is the fourth one on this site, three having been destroyed by fire.  A saw-mill built on this site by Knapp about the same time stood until it decayed.  These were the first mills in the town.*

The cheese factory located in the village, near the upper dam, is owned by a stock company, which was incorporated in 1867, with a capital of $3,800, and of which  David H. Mills is President, W.A. Jacobs, Secretary, and W. D. Osborne, O. A. Paddock and Jonathan Myers, Trustees.

The foundry and machine shop owned by Henry Leonard and George Anable is located on the dam south of the canal.

On the dam north of the canal is a planing-mill owned by Lewis Peck, and a flouring and grist-mill, with three run of stones, owned by Henry Traphagen.  The sash and blind factory and planing-mill owned by Samuel M. Wells and Charles J. Stiles, are operated by steam.

*Statement of Daniel Drake Buck, to whom, and to Mr. W. A. Halsey, we are largely indebted for information in regard to this town.

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