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On July 22, 1779, the Battle of Minisink occurred in northern Delaware. This skirmish was between British Loyalists and their Native American allies, who were led by Mohawk leader Joseph Brant. A formidable enemy, Brant received an education at Moor’s Charity School for Indians, which later became Dartmouth College. He learned to read and write in English, and he spoke several languages, making him a valuable ally to the British. Brant’s contingent of British Loyalists and Indigenous volunteers had recently raided nearby settlements, destroying homes, killing settlers, and stealing supplies and livestock. Three local militia units were called to intercept the escape of Brant andRead More →

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So many of the most influential citizens of Cortland County relocated here after starting lives elsewhere, and Giles Chittenden, Jr. is one of them. Chittenden was born in New Milford, Connecticut to Giles Chittenden, Sr. and Lavinia Todd Baldwin. Before young Giles was even born on November 21, 1800, his father died, leaving his mother in a quandary. It was quite rare for a woman to keep her children with her if her husband died because she might not be able to care for them financially. If a woman did not immediately remarry, she might have to move in with one of her siblings, andRead More →

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The Bennett and Pratt families have deep roots in Homer, and in several columns last year, we learned about how the two families became intertwined through marriage. This is a continuation of that narrative, and if you missed the original articles, you will find the stories of Dr. Lester Pratt, Augustus H. Bennett, Emma G. Pratt, Lester P. Bennett, and Alice Ruth Watson on the Cortland County Historical Society’s blog at www.cortlandhistory.org. On September 5, 1906, Lester Pratt Bennett and Alice Ruth Watson welcomed their son, Porter Kingsbury Bennett into the world, and four years later, another son, Malcolm Watson Bennett, completed their family. LittleRead More →

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We finally reach the last block on the north side of Hubbard’s Corners, that is, the intersection of Main and Court Streets! Bertha Blodgett tells the story of Jonathan Hubbard in “Stories of Cortland County” as follows: “Jonathan Hubbard must have been an unusual man. You will remember that he was one of the first men to push his way through the forest which covered all of Cortland County in 1794, and from a high tree on Court House Hill he looked over the land. He made up his mind that right at the foot of that hill, toward the east, would be a futureRead More →

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Lewis Riggs was born and raised in Norfolk, Connecticut. The information about his early life is sparse, but we know that he was the youngest son of a family with seven children. Sources differ on the heritage of his parents, but it seems his father was of English descent and his mother was of Scottish ancestry. His father was a sea captain who left the call of the sea to settle into farming. Lewis was a bright boy with an aptitude for mechanics, and he received a common school education as well as Latin and Greek classes. There was no money for college, so inRead More →

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The most concrete information I have about the early use of the northwest corner of Main and W Court Streets comes from a deed between Ebenezer Hopkins and Oliver W. Brewster. In 1828, Brewster purchased the property which he used as a female seminary. But the deed indicates that the lot was “known and distinguished by the Ballard stand,” with reference to it being a tavern. This “Ballard” appears to be Joshua Ballard (1774-1855), who in the village of Homer built an inn on the corner of Main and Albany Streets that would later be known as Wisdom’s Gate. In 1819, he moved to theRead More →

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In the last Slumbering Souls, we looked at Philo Miles and surmised that the ripples of his family extended far beyond his own life, but where did some of his descendants end up? Today we’ll follow one of his children and her family over the course of their lives. Philo Miles and his wife Abilena Hopkins had a total of fifteen children, one of whom was Lucy, their fifth child. Lucy married Samuel Foster Andrews, Sr., and they lived in Homer Gulf in a rather small house, about twelve by sixteen feet. Lucy was adept at weaving, as was her mother, and her large loomRead More →

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Glimpse above the third-story windows of the building at 43-49 Main Street and you’ll find a stone marking it as the J.J. Newberry Building. Indeed, Newberry’s occupied the structure for sixty-five years from 1927-1992. But, built in 1879, it was initially known as the Schermerhorn building, later called the A.M. Collins block. Prior to the block’s construction, it appears that there were two separate frame structures on the lot, one serving as James A. Schermerhorn’s law office, and the other housing various businesses. These include the drug store of Aaron Sager from 1857-1861, and a shoe business owned by a revolving door of partnerships (FitzgeraldRead More →

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Philo Miles made his way to Homer as a young married man somewhere between 1829-1831. Philo was born on March 16, 1792, to John and Rachel Miles of Connecticut, and the family moved to Eaton, New York. It was here that Philo met his future bride, Abilena Hopkins. The couple were married in 1815 and they purchased land on Lot 91 in Scott in 1829. It was in Scott where their first three children were born, in a log house built by Philo. Conflicting resources make it difficult to know just when the Miles family moved to Homer, but a deed is recorded for aRead More →

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One of the names that pops up often enough at the Cortland County Historical Society is that of Ina Hurlbut Bird. Ina left behind scrapbooks containing a wealth of information as well as items which were utilized by her ancestors on the old Scott Road in the early to mid-1800s. Ina Hurlbut was born in Homer on the old Scott Road on February 13, 1870, to Leslie Lafort Hurlbut and Mary Frances Williams. Her father’s parents were children of early Homer settlers, Samuel Smith Hurlbut and Eliza DeVoe, both of whom arrived in Homer as children. Ina was proud of the fact that her greatRead More →