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By Shirley G. Heppell
Cortland County Historian
The Independent Village, January 21, 1985, p. 16
The political town of Truxton was established in 1808 from the southern half of the Military Tract survey township of Fabius, and at that time included what is now Cuyler. Truxton was one of the original six towns comprising Cortland County.
Truxton derived its name from naval hero Thomas Truxton, American Revolutionary War patriot and privateer. Later he was commander of the U.S.S. Constellation that cruised West Indies waters to protect U.S. commerce. Commodore Truxton never visited his namesake. Since then Town Historian Donald McCall has made contacts with one of Commodore Truxton’s descendants with the expectation of arranging a visit.
The terrain of Truxton is a succession of rugged, steep-sided north-south hills several of which rise to about 1800 feet. Through one of the broader valleys between these hills flows Labrador Creek southward to join the east branch of the Tioughnioga River that bisects the town. Cheningo Creek flows northwest and empties into the Tioughnioga River near Truxton Village. In these so-called floodplain areas of the creeks and the river, there is a sizable quantity of flat, arable land.
Three years after Truxton was organized, the New York State Legislature passed a law annexing the northern four tiers of lots from Solon which adjoined Truxton on the south. Here the land was hilly but less steep thus providing more tillable land.
People from eastern New York and New England especially Vermont began moving into the area about 1793, tow years after the first white man settled Homer. Emigres from eastern New York or New England came west on either the Great Genesee Road (now NYS Route 5) or later on the Cherry Valley Turnpike (now U.S. Route 20). At Manlius these two arteries of travel converged. Here settlers left the highways and followed marked trees and Indian trails along creeks draining into the east branch of the Tioughnioga River. Perhaps many incoming migrants passed by Truxton looking for wider valley lands. Still others may have canoed up the Tioughnioga River from the south, and followed the east branch to Truxton.
A hardy lot were these early pioneers, willing to fact [sic] the rigors of this heavily forested areas, but obsessed with the desire for new fertile lands to farm.
Entire families worked at clearing away the trees, building log cabins and barns and getting crops planted to avoid starvation the next winter. A man could clear about 10 acres of land per year. These were planted with corn which could be used for animal as well as human food, wheat for bread and potatoes. Maple trees were tapped, and pioneer women made small quantities of maple products. As trees were cut after the fammily’s immediate needs were met, the wood was burned, water poured over the ash leached through producing lye which was cooked to produce potash used in the manufacture of glass. Potash and maple products were the settlers’ first cash “crops”.
After Stephen Hedges established Truxton’s first store, and Asa Babcock opened a second one about 1814, in the back of what is now the Miller Grange Building, also known as Wiegand’s Drugstore, the settlers could take surplus items such as whiskey, sawed lumber, potash, perhaps even a hog to the store for credit against which a family could purchase supplies. Money was scarce and the barter system was used. Surplus goods accepted by the storekeepers could be shipped downriver to Binghamton, Harrisburg and Baltimore.
Although Truxton and Virgil were the two largest towns in land area, the Federal Census of 1810 shows Truxton with just over 1,000 persons, the second smallest population in the county. Virgil had the smallest. By 1830 Truxton reached its highest population and then steadily declined until 1930 in spite of the Irish influx during the 1840s.
Agriculture and Animal Husbandry: The years 1825 to 1855 were the bountiful years for Truxton. The New York State Census for 1825 shows Truxton leading in the number of cattle, horses, sheep and hogs. Ten years later Truxton showed the largest acreage of improved land and the largest number of cattle and sheep. In fact there were 5 sheep for each person. Eighteen forty-five was the peak of sheep raising as western competition forced New York State farmers to change to a more profitable activity, just the same as with wheat growing.
Farmers of Truxton and the county gradually shifted to dairying in the 1840s. As fluid milk for drinking was not yet popular and lack of refrigeration necessitated that milk be made into butter and cheese which was much in demand in the growing eastern markets. Again, the New York State Census of 1855 shows Truxton leading the county’s other towns in quantities of butter and cheese products, also in bushels of apples, pounds of honey, and second only to Solon in maple sugar.
Industries: As forests were being cleared, saw mills, asheries and tanneries sprang up. Evidence that land clearing was in full force in Truxton is indicated by Truxton’s 12 sawmills in 1825. Truxton had three of the county’s 21 asheries, but no tanneries. Why? Tanneries were needed for processing of animal skins to make shoes and other items of clothing.
Grain growing predominated in 1825 and the county was undoubtedly awash with whiskey as evidenced by 12 distilleries, two of which were in Truxton. Truxton also had four grist mills; three fulling mills, five carding mills; three woolen factories, a triphammer and Cortland County’s only oil mill.
Ten years later Truxton still had its oil mill where flaxseed were pressed to producr linseed oil, a commodity used in making paint. There were 21 sawmills indicative that land clearing was still being done; three woolen factories – these were the only ones in the county; three tanneries but only one distillery.
The distillery had disappeared by 1845; 17 sawmills were working; the oil mill and three grist mills.
By 1855 one woolen mill (Crain’s) was still working; two wagon manufactories of which Solomon Goddard’s had the highest monetary value of goods produced; one oil mill; cooper shop; three blacksmith shops; tin shop; basket factory; bedstead factory; and a cabinet shop.
Following the Civil War a butter firkin and tub factory was operating; cheese factories indicative that cheese making was no longer solely a home industry. Willow Grove Mills was considered one of the largest in the state. Bryant’s Furniture Factory, located near the Catholic Cemetery turned out quality products in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Truxton Village was a self sufficient community around the turn of the century. There was a bank operated by the Muller family; two hotels where stage coaches stopped – Hotel Kenney and Hotel O’Connor. Much of the merchandise for stores and factories were brought in by teams and this made business at the hotels where meals were served and rooms rented.
Briefly, the Truxton Courier was published in 1885.
Prosperity of the town at various periods is reflected in the farmsteads and the houses in the village. For example, Solomon Goddard’s mansard roof house now occupied by the Parker family undoubtedly was financed by the wagon manufacturing enterprise owned by Goddard plus his other business ventures through the years: Chauncey Stevens/Bryant House is the result of the Bryant Furniture factory.
Churches were established early in Truxton Village. The Baptist church in 1806; the Congregational or Presbyterian in 1811. The later church burned in 1942. It had been a Methodist church since 1879.
Education: Elementary education is older than the county. By 1813 districts were established to provide what was defined as a common school education, namely, reading, writing and arithmetic, and spelling comparable to our grades 1 through 6. Truxton did not appear to have an academy for the higher grades until about 1901. After this date, the school burned and the Dr. John Miller/Dr. Judson Nelson house was purchased and used as a high school until 1935 when the present school was under construction.
Transportation: Coming of the railroad to Truxton was a historic milestone. The Western Division of the New York and Oswego Midland Railroad built a line from Cortland to Utica that was put into service in June, 1872. The route extended northeast from Cortland through East Homer, Truxton and Cuyler to DeRuyter. Shortly, this company merged with the Ithaca & Cortland RR to become the Utica, Ithaca and Elmira Railroad.
Cuyler: On November 15, 1858 the Cortland Co. Board of Supervisors created Cuyler from the eastern portion of the Town of Truxton. This was the last town organized in the county.
Today, Truxton is still the center of a viable agricultural community. Like the other small communities, rural and non-rural, improved transportation has enabled the citizens to travel considerable distances to shop and to work. Specialty shops, grocery stores in these communities have thus been forced to close.
Truxton’s population has been increasing since 1970 largely because of a shift of population away from urban centers to outlying rural areas where rents and taxes are lower and families can enjoy back-to-nature kind of living without farming.
Truxton has considerable potential in its beautiful physical setting: architectural attractions especially in the village which if restored sympathetically could turn the community around.
PICTURES (Not reproducable from article):
Crain’s Woolen Mills established 1838. Buildings burned c. 1886.
In pre-auto days a social group of Truxtonites made excursions to distant places in this coach drawn by a six-horse hitch. The coach is said to have been purchased in Middlebury – (whether this is Middlebury N.Y. or Vt. Is not known) – and brought to Truxton in 1891 by Dr. & Mrs. Judson C. Nelson. Co-owners of the coach were Mr. & Mrs. Peter Muller; Mr. & Mrs. Alfred Bryant; Mr. & Mrs. Albert Stevens; Mr. & Mrs. Frank S. Hilton; Mr. & Mrs. Fred L. Woodward; and Dr. & Mrs. Judson C. Nelson.
Miller-Nelson home. Built of brick and stone in the Federal style between 1818-1824 at a cost of $8000. After the high school burned this house was purchased and used as a school until the present school building was constructed in 1935.
Bryant Furniture Company
Hotel O’Connor, Truxton. Owned and operated by John O’Connor, father of Mrs. Marcella Dwyer. This building stood on the southwest (southeast) corner in the village center where the gas station is today.
Methodist Episcopal Church, Truxton organized in 1811 as a Presbyterian denomination. Reorganized in 1879 as a Methodist Society. This building was built in 1821 was a fine example of the New England meeting house style with the central entrance tower and typical Christpher Wren Steeple. Burned December 20, 1942 and replaced by the present Truxton Methodist Church structure.
Copyright © 2006 - Michael F. McGraw
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