History of Madison, (Madison County) New York United States of America

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Local History Notes:

MADISON, a county in the E. central part of New York, has an area of 620 square miles. It is partly bounded on the N. by Oneida lake, and on the E. by the Unadilla river, and is drained by the head branches of the Chenango river, and by several smaller streams, which supply motive-power to numerous mills. The surface in the southern and middle portions is uneven and hilly; along the lake shore more level. The soil near the lake is fertile, but in the southern parts rather cold and wet, and more adapted to grazing than grain. Indian corn, oats, and grass are the staples. In 1850 this county produced 339,906 bushels of corn; 585,307 of oats; 93,565 tons of hay; 1,584,499 pounds of butter, and 2,450,172 of cheese. There were 28 flour and grist mills, 14 woollen and 3 cotton mills, 8 iron foundries, 5 distilleries, 2 paper mills, 24 tanneries, and 7 machine shops. It contained 84 churches, 6 newspaper offices; 11,837 pupils attending public schools, sad 857 attending academies or other schools. Gypsum, water limestone, and common limestone are found in abundance, and some iron ore and marl occur. It has also a salt spring and two sulphur springs. The Erie canal, the Chenango canal, and the Utica and Syracuse railroad traverse this county. Organized in 1806, having previously formed part of Chenango county, and named in honor of James Madison, fourth president of the United States. Capital, Morrisville Population, 43,072.

Biographies:

Edward Maynard, inventor, was born in Madison, N.Y., April 26, 1813; son of Moses and Chloe (Butler) Maynard; grandson of Lemuel and Sarah (Wright) Maynard, and a descendant of John Maynard, Sudbury, Mass., 1638. He received his primary education at Hamilton academy; entered the U.S. Military academy in 1831, but resigned the same year on account of delicate health. He then studied anatomy, architecture, drawing and civil engineering, and practised dentistry in Washington, D.C., 1836-90. He was professor of the theory and practice of dentistry in the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, 1857-90, and of the same in the dental department of the National university at Washington, D.C. He discovered the great diversity of form, situation and capacity of the maxillary antra; announced the existence of dental fibrils before their discovery by use of the microscope, and was one of the first if not the first (in 1838) to fill thoroughly with gold foil the nerve cavity, including the nerve canals in molar and bicuspid teeth, which operation he introduced in Europe in 1845. He declined the position of court dentist offered by Emperor Nicholas I. of Russia in 1845. He invented, besides many instruments used in dental surgery, firearms and ammunition, and patented a priming to take the place of percussion-caps in firearms (1845); a breechloading rifle, called the Maynard rifle (1851), second patent (1859), which resulted in great increase in precision and was adopted by the U.S. government, by all American manufacturers of breech-loading arms and for military riffles of nearly all the nations of the world. He also invented a method of converting muzzle-loading into breech-loading arms (1860); a method of joining two barrels (rifle or short) by a device that permits either barrel to expand or contract, end wise, independently (1868), and a contrivance for indicating the number of cartridges in the magazine of a repeating firearm at any time (1886). He received honors from Prussia and Sweden for his inventions in fire-arms. He was first married, Sept, 8, 1838, to Sophia Ellen, daughter of Moses and Elizabeth (Pike) Doty, and in 1869, to Nellie, daughter of William Long, of Savannah, Ga. He died in Washington, D.C., May 4, 1891.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor