The History of Cayuga County 1789-1879 page 323
Town of Brutus

small streams and furnish but a moderate hydraulic power. They unite a short distance before discharging their waters into Seneca River.

Bread Creek is said to have received its name from the workmen engaged in the construction of the canal through here. At one time the vessel which was carrying their provisions to them was delayed two or three days on the river, and they were obliged to rely upon the people of the locality for food. When the vessel finally arrived and anchored in the river, they reached it by means of boats down this creek, and from their gratitude for the supply of provisions thus obtained, they named the Creek as above.*

It is underlaid by the red shales, the gypseous portion of which crops out in several localities, notably on the farm of John S. Sheldon, where it is five to seven feet below the surface, and was excavated for several years, some twenty-five years ago. A plaster- mill was in operation on this place at that time, but it has gone to decay. Generally the plaster is too deeply covered with drift to possess a commercial value. Recently, Mr. Faatz, in excavating for a well in the east part of the town, struck a vein of excellent plaster rock but a few feet below the surface. Its thickness was not ascertained. There are several localities where surface indications of salt exist, principally along the river, notably one in the north-east part of the town, where the early settlers boiled salt at a deer-lick. Brine springs exist near the village of Weedsport. Extensive deposits of calcareous marl exist in the marshy flats bordering upon the river. In 1873 a deposit of this character covering an area of fully ten acres, of unknown depth, was discovered on the farm of Edmund A. Havens, adjacent to the canal. Here, the overlying peat, its usual accompaniment, has an average thickness of fifteen inches.

The soil upon the uplands is a good quality of sandy and gravelly loam, intermixed with clay with a rich alluvion on the flats and in the valleys of the streams. The ridges are composed largely of clay, and the conical hills, of gravel.

The town is traversed from east to west by the direct line of the N. Y. C. R. R., and the Erie Canal, in close proximity, and from north to south by the Southern Central railroad, which open up excellent markets for the products of its farms and manufactories.

The population in 1875 was 2,825 ; of whom 2,462 were native, 363 foreign, 2,793 white, and 32 colored.

It covers an area of 12,477 acres ; of which 10,234 are improved, 1,242 woodlands, and 1,001 unimproved.

The first settler in Brutus was Aaron Frost, who was a squatter in the northwest corner of the town, on the river, about 1795. He was engaged in fishing, trapping and hunting, and finally settled in that locality. He was the first miller in the town. He fashioned stones for a grist mill from rocks obtained in the locality, and put them into the lower part of a saw mill subsequently built by the Hamiltons in the west edge of the town, about 1801 or '9. The stones were put in very soon after the saw mill was built, and the grist-mill was run by Frost. These were the first mills in the town, and have gone to decay. The building stood on the farm now owned by Jonathan Titus, on Cold Spring Brook, the water from which furnished the motive power.

It is not known that any further settlement was made prior to 1800, in which year William Stevens and Sunderland Sweet came in. Stevens was from Massachusetts, and settled on the farm now owned by Samuel J. Mack, just south of Weedsport, where his son Ira, the only survivor of his family, is now living. He died there in 1862. He kept a tavern previous to 1814, and for several years thereafter, till the opening of the canal in 1825. His was the first tavern in the town. It is a frame building, and was moved about four years ago to Weedsport, where it now stands, and is used as a tenement house. Bennett Stevens, his son, who was born November 13th, 1801 was the first child born in the town. The first death was that of an infant child of Sunderland Sweet, in 1800.

Several additional settlements were made in 1802, in which year Caleb and Jonah Rude, brothers, and Nathan, son of Jonah, came in from Saratoga county. Caleb settled about a half mile south-east of Weedsport, on the farm now owned by Frank Mills, where he died. Jonah settled on the south line of Weedsport, where Frank Mack now lives, and died there. Nathan lived and died on the old homestead. Bateman Rude, also son of Jonah, settled near the Cold

*Statement of Amos Cowell, of Weedsport.
55-2

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