History of Syracuse, (Onondaga County) New York United States of America

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Local History Notes:

The 1854 Gazetteer of the United States by Thomas Baldwin shows:

SYRACUSE, a flourishing city of Central New York, and capital of Onondaga county, is situated on the S. end of Onondaga lake, and on a creek of that name, 148 miles by railroad W. by N. from Albany, 80 miles E. by S. from Rochester, and 35 miles S. S. E. from Oswego. Lat. 43° 4' N., lon. 76° 12' W. The site is nearly level. The city is regularly laid out, with wide, straight streets crossing each other at right angles. The principal avenues of business are lined with handsome blocks of brick and stone buildings. The city contains a public hall, which will seat 2500 persons, and is one of the best in the state. The situation being more central than that of any other large town in New York, nearly all the state conventions of the political and other associations are held here. The principal hotels are the Globe Hotel, the Syracuse House, and the Onondaga House. There are 4 Roman Catholic, and 19 Protestant churches, among which are 4 remarkable for architectural beauty, erected at a cost of $125,000. Eight handsome buildings have been erected for the public schools, at an aggregate expense of $30,000. The city contained, July, 1852, 8 banks, with an aggregate capital of $885,000. The public press consists of 4 daily and 6 weekly newspapers, besides several monthly periodicals. Some of these are devoted to religious and literary subjects.

From its position, Syracuse enjoys great facilities for trade. The Erie canal, completed in 1825, passes through the central part of the city, E. and W., and is intersected at right angles by the Oswego canal, extending northward to Lake Ontario. The Central railroad of New York, forming the great thoroughfare from Albany to Buffalo, here divides into two branches, one leading directly to Rochester, and the other pursuing a more circuitous route vi� Auburn and Geneva. The Oswego and Syracuse railroad, and the Syracuse and Binghamton railroad, also terminate at this place, connecting it with the towns indicated by their names. Two other railroads are projected to Sackett's harbor and to Newburg. Plank-roads diverge to various points in Onondaga, and in the adjoining counties. Here terminates the long level of the Erie canal, 69 1/2 miles in length.

Syracuse is remarkable as the seat of the most extensive and valuable salt manufactories in the United States. The land containing the saline springs is owned by the state, and is leased free of rent, to be used only for this manufacture. The wells are dug and the water pumped at the expense of the state, and the manufacturer pays a duty of 1 cent per bushel. Originally the duty was 12 1/2 cents; then for many years prior to 1846 it was 6 cents per bushel. Some of the wells are sunk to the depth of 400 feet. Fine salt is prepared by boiling, and coarse by solar evaporation. In 1850 the number of manufactories of salt in this vicinity was 192. The whole quantity produced in 1851 was stated at 4,614,117 bushels; and in 1853 it amounted to more than 5,000,000 bushels. An experiment has recently been made, by the order of the secretary of war, for the purpose of testing the relative value of the Onondaga and Turk's island salt, the result of which proved that the salt of home manufacture was fully equal to the foreign. Syracuse also contains a variety of other manufactories, the most valuable productions of which are machinery, steam-engines, farming implements, stoves, woollen goods, paper, leather, and flour.

History.--The township of Salina, in which Syracuse was situated, was formed in 1809. A post-office was established here in 1820, prior to which time the place was called Cossit's Corners, and then Corinth. In 1820 the village contained 3 stores, 2 taverns, and 250 inhabitants. On April 13th, 1825, it was incorporated as a village, and in 1848 as the city of Syracuse, including the contiguous village of Salina, situated on the margin of Onondaga lake, about 1 mile N. from the centre of the city. Salina village was incorporated in 1824. It appears that the growth of this town was never more rapid than at the present time. Pop. of Salina township in 1840, 11,013 of whom 6500 were in Syracuse; in 1850, 22,271; in 1853, estimated at 27,000.

Biographies:

Mary (Dana) Hicks Prang, art educator, was born in Syracuse, N.Y., Oct. 7,1836; daughter of Major and Agnes Amelia (Johnson) Dana; granddaughter of Major and Mary (Need) Dana and of Benjamin and Lydia (Stearns) Johnson, and a descendant of Richard Dana, who came to Cambridge, Mass., in 1640. She was graduated from Alien seminary, Rochester, N.Y., in 1852, and later pursued special studies at Harvard and at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She was married in Syracuse, N.Y., Oct. 7, 1856, to Charles Spencer Hicks, who died in 1858. She was president of the Social Art club, Syracuse, 1875-80; director of the Prang Normal Art classes, 1877-1900, and was married secondly, April 15, 1900, to Louis Prang of Boston, Mass. She was president of the Massachusetts Floral Emblem society, 1898-1901, and a member of numerous philanthropic, progressive, educational and social clubs. Her published works include: The Use of Models (with John S. Clark, 1886); Form Study without Clay (1887); The Prang Two Courses in Form Study and Drawing and an Elementary Course in Art Instruction (with John S. Clark and Walter S. Perry (1886-1900); Suggestions for Color Instruction (with John S. Clark and Louis Prang, 1893); Art Instruction for Children in Primary Schools (2 vols., 1900), and many contributions to educational and art periodicals.

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

Amos Phelps Granger, representative, was born in Suffield, Conn., June 3, 1789. He was a nephew of the Hon. Gideon Granger, postmaster-general through Jefferson's and Madison's administrations. He settled in Manlius, Onondaga county, in 1811, where he was the president of the corporation that settled the town. He was captain in the war of 1812, serving at Sucker harbor, and on the borders of Canada, and was afterward brigadier-general in the New York state militia. He removed to Syracuse in 1820, where he acquired a fortune. He was a Whig in politics and in 1842 was a delegate for New York to the Whig national convention that nominated Scott and Graham, and in 1844 in the state convention at Auburn, N.Y., he presented the resolutions that led to the formation of the Republican party. He represented his district in the 34th and 35th congresses, 1855-59. He died at Syracuse, N.Y., Aug. 20, 1866.

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

John Otis Burt, physician, was born at Syracuse, N. Y., April 27, 1835. He was graduated at Harvard in 1858, and at the New York college of physicians and surgeons in 1864. He was appointed an assistant surgeon in the U.S. navy July 30, 1861; served on the Colorado of the Gulf squadron; at the naval hospital at the mouth of the Mississippi and on the iron-clad Cairo until she was destroyed by a torpedo on the Yazoo river. He resigned Nov. 23, 1863, studied medicine in Paris and Vienna 18634, and subsequently became professor in the medical department of Syracuse university. He died in 1894.

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

Amelia Stone Quinton, president of the National Indian association, was born near Syracuse, N.Y., daughter of Jacob Thompson and Mary (Bennett) Stone; grand-daughter of Thomas and Mary (Webb) Stone and of Asa and Chloe (Grow) Bennett; great granddaughter of Thomas and Rachel (Marsh) Stone and of Darius and Deborah (Palmer) Webb. She was educated at Cortland academy, taught for a year in a seminary in Madison, Ga., where she became the wife of the Rev. James Franklin Swanson, upon whose death she removed to Philadelphia where she taught for Mary L. Bonney (afterward Mrs. Rambaut, q.v.). She was prominent in the evangelistic department of the new temperance movement; addressed drawing-room and other meetings in London and other English cities in 1877, and in February, 1877, was married to Richard L. Quinton, A.M., a lecturer in London colleges, returning with him in the fall of 1878 to Philadelphia. In March, 1879, she joined Miss Bonney in work for the Indians in the United States, which eventuated in the Women's National Indian association. She was its general secretary and organizer, 1879?87, its president, 1887?1903, and editor of The Indian's Friend till 1902. Its first two petitions to congress asked for the faithful keeping of compacts with them; its third annual petition, circulated in 1881, asking lands in severalty, citizenship, and common school education for them, led the popular movement which resulted in the passage of the Dawes Severalty bill in 1887. She was a member of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the New Century club, and the Mayflower society.

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