The History of Cayuga County 1789-1879 page 417
Town of Scipio

South end for storage for custom work. They contemplate the erection of a new and strong dam, a saw-mill adjoining the grist-mill, and the addition of an engine to be relied on when the water fails in summer time.*

WAR OF THE REBELLION.-Ledyard's share in the war of the Rebellion is one of which she may justly feel proud. She poured out her blood and treasure with lavish hand upon the altar of Liberty - in aid of her stricken country, and the names of her fallen heroes are beautifully and appropriately enshrined on a copper tablet upon the walls of the Presbyterian church of Aurora. The tablet was designed by Russell Stergis, of New York, and the gift of Colonel E. B. Morgan. It was dedicated September 6th, 1872. It bears this inscription:

"In Memory of Soldiers of Ledyard, who died in Battle or in Hospital during the War for the Union, A. D. 1861 - A. D. 1865, that their Fatherland might live. Daniel Abbot, David A. Baker, Wm. H. Barnes, Patrick Barry, James Benedict, Sylvester Brightman, Andrew J. Carey, Wilson E. Cowan, Seward Dean, Wm. Henry Fowler, David Abbott Gifford, Henry Nelson Gifford, James Gray, Samuel J. Halstead, John L. Jones, Dier Moreland, Rufus Myers, Charles F. Nye, Wm. Henry Patchin[,] Edward Peto, Peter Quackenbush, Peter Quackenbush, Jr., James Redman, Martin Roe, George Runnel[,] Ansel Basset Smith, Chas. Frederick Smith, Horace Walworth Smith, Wm. Nelson Smith, Cornelius Sullivan, Richard Tierney, Jonathan VanDerip, Abraham Vreeland, George Webster, George West, James West, John Shurer Winters[.]"

CHAPTER XLVI.
TOWN OF SCIPIO.

SCIPIO was one of the old townships of the Military Tract and was formed March 5th, 1794, deriving its name from a Roman General. It originally embraced Sempronius, which was taken off March 9th, 1799; a part of Marcellus, Onondaga county, set off in 1804; and the towns of Ledyard, Venice and a part of Springport, which was set off January 30th, 1823. It lies south of the center of the County, upon the west shore of Owasco Lake, which forms its eastern boundary. It is bounded on the north by Fleming, on the south by Venice, and on the west by Springport and Ledyard.

The surface is rolling, its highest elevations being 500 feet above the lake. A steep bluff twenty to fifty feet high borders the lake, and the land slopes gradually upward from its summit for about a mile. Its waters are the headwaters of numerous small streams, the principal of which are Salmon Creek, flowing to the south, Crain Creek to the north, Great Gully Brook to the west, and Yawger Creek to the north-west. Numerous little rivulets course down the eastern slope to the lake, some of them cutting deep gullies in the shaly rocks and forming beautiful cascades. These streams furnish numerous mill sites in their course, but they are inconstant in their supply, being subject to the influence of drouths.

The soil is a highly productive sandy and gravelly loam, intermixed with clay. It is underlaid by limestone, which crops out north of Scipio Center, but is nowhere quarried in the town, we believe, except on the farm of Jacob Post, about three-fourths of a mile north of the center, from which stone for the railroad culverts was obtained. The ledge extends about a mile north and south. Slate and some limestone are exposed in the railroad cutting on the shore of Owasco Lake. It is an excellent agricultural town.

The population of the town in 1875 was 1,917; of whom 1,594 were native; 323 foreign; 1,911 white; and 6 colored. Its area is 22,503 acres; of which 20,206 are improved, and 2,279 woodland.

The Utica, Ithaca and Elmira Railroad, now operated as a branch of the Midland Railroad, enters the town from the south, and, following the line of the old Auburn & New York survey, terminates at Scipio Summit, about a half mile north of Bolts Corners. The Southern Central extends through the east border of the town, along the shore of the lake.

The settlement of the town by the whites was begun in 1790, probably by Henry Watkins, who

*We are indebted to an author unknown to us for the facts given in the sketch of Black Rock.

The information on this page was transcribed to a digital format by Roger A. Post

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