Avery Families

Avery Family

This map shows the extent of the property in Lot 18 owned by Benajah Austin Avery as of 1851.

Connection to Mattydale

Several members of the Avery family of Groton bought land in Salina Lots 8 and 18. These were Benjamin G. Avery, Denison Avery, Jr., Benajah Austin Avery and Latham Y. Avery. Augustus Avery was the brother of B. A. Avery and his purchases were in Lot 17, just west of Lot 18. Descendants of Augustus Avery's family were still farming on Lot 17, along Buckley Road, up into the 1980s.

Family History

Where did they originally come from

James Avery came from England and settled in Gloucester, MA. and remained there for 7 years. In 1657 the family relocated to an area that is now New London, CN. They were referred to as the Cape Ann Colony (Gloucester in MA was located on Cape Ann).

Mary Avery Harris was born on the ancient Avery Estate called Birch Plains on the western border of the beautiful valley of the Poquetannach. She was married on Nov. 25, 1807 at the family mansion at Birch Plains. Nephews of Mary Avery Harris were Captain B. A. Austin Avery and Augustus Avery, Esqr. Her niece was P. S. Avery. She had numerous cousins such as the wife of Supervisor Chamberlain of Geddes and the Messers Sweet of the 5^th Ward of Syracuse. [Very, very, very distant cousins – 5^th cousins. Mary Avery Harris’ connection to the Sweet brothers is through their mother Candace Avery Sweet who was born 1797. She married Horace Sweet of Pompey in 1817. ]

What follows is a partial transcription of a newspaper article that contains information involving the Avery family history

“Mrs. Chamberlin said she did not know when the house was built, but that it had been standing a long time when her father Benjamin G. Avery came to Geddes from Connecticut in 1827. And Charles Gere came together on horseback. They had been preceded by Robert and William Gere. Mr. Avery went back to Connecticut two years later to be married. Mrs. Chamberlin has lived in the house forty-five years. Two of the old trees that were in front of the house when she went there are still standing. Twenty-five years ago, when a furnace was put in workmen broke their tools trying to cut through some of the heavy timbers. These and the walls are still sound, and the old fireplace, with its wide chimney from cellar to roof, is still used occasionally. Additions have been made to the original house, and it is now much larger that it was when Squire Hughes built it.” [1915-08-13]

Where did they initially settle

The Avery family members under discussion in this section settled in the Village of Salina that later became the 1st Ward of the City of Syracuse when it was incorporated in 1846. After a while they started buying additional land on Lots 8 and 18.

Family connections

The table below shows the relationships among the Averys of Groton who were involved in land transactions in the northeast corner of the Town of Salina. The active participants in the pre-Mattydale area are in the shaded squares in the table below. Benjamin G. Avery appears to be the first Avery to arrive in the Village of Salina in 1827, other family members soon followed.

Source: The Averys of Groton, Genealogical and Biographical, by Homer DeLois Sweet, 1894 [Sweet, 1894]

Property History

Lot 18

The Avery purchases began in 1836 with Benjamin G. Avery and Denison Avery, Jr. purchasing 188 acres in Lot 18 (about 1/3 of the entire lot) from Clary and Clapp for $8000. In 1839 the Averys sold 94.64 acres of their 188 acres to William F. Gere who had accompanied Benjamin G. Avery to Salina in 1827. Gere's ownership is reflected on the 1860 and 1874 Town of Salina maps. In 1840 Benjamin Avery sold the remainder of the 188 acres, which was 93.56 acres, to his co-owner Denison Avery, Jr. In 1841 Denison Avery sold this land to Benajah Austin Avery. Like his neighbor Gere, to the north, B. A. Avery also shows up on the 1860 and 1874 maps.

B. A. Avery died in a carriage accident on James St in 1882. The Skiff brothers, George and Charles, purchased the Avery farm from at an estate sale in 1882. In March 1900 the Skiff brothers also purchased the William F. Gere farm. In the 1920s the Gere farm was sold to developers and became the Garden City Tract and Richfield Farms.

Lot 8

In 1839 Benjamin G. Avery was probably the first Avery to purchase land in Lot 8. He bought 56 acres in the northeast corner of the lot. In 1840 Latham Avery sold 100 acres in the southeast corner of the lot to Patrick Molloy. However there is no deed recorded that would indicate when and from who he had purchased the land. In 1850 Denison Avery, Jr. was living on Lot 8, next to Patrick Molloy. He was the only Avery living on Lot 8 at that time. There were other transactions on Lot 8 by Averys but by 1863 they were no longer owners of any property on Lot 8. The last Avery transaction was the sale of Isaiah Sayles old 50 acres by Hannah Avery (wife of Latham Y. Avery) to Patrick Molloy.

Notable Facts or Events

B. A. Avery, Miles Adams and Jerome Briggs were given a commission to drain swamp lands and to straighten out Bear Trap and Ley Creeks. The unusually straight sections of both creeks, still very visible today, are a lasting sign of their work. [1853-10-13]

B. A. Avery and friend Nelson Phillips were roughed up by a "party of Irishmen." [1853-09-05]

B. A. Avery was part of the group that was authorized to construct a street railroad in the 1st Ward of Syracuse. [1859-03-21]

NOTES:

[1853-09-05] - "Irish Row - Police Officer Injured," The Daily Standard, Syracuse, NY, Monday, September 5, 1853.

[1853-10-13] - The Daily Standard, Syracuse, NY, Thursday, October 13, 1853.

[1859-03-21] - "A Railroad to the First Ward," The Central City Courier, Syracuse, NY, Monday, March 21, 1859.

[1915-08-13] - “Another Contender For Title: ‘Oldest House in Syracuse,’” “Builder Died There in 1858

Squire Hughes died in the house in 1856, aged 75 years.” The Post Standard, Syracuse, NY, Friday, August 13, 1915

[Sweet, 1894] - The Averys of Groton, Genealogical and Biographical, by Homer DeLois Sweet, 1894