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Alice Cately was born in Tully, New York, the daughter of Shepard W. Cately, renowned carriage manufacturer. Alice graduated from Cortland Normal School in 1871 and taught for a few years before training as a nurse. She married Henry Ettling but was widowed in 1885 at the age of 35, after only four years of marriage. She had one child and never remarried. Her father left his carriage business in Tully in 1876 and moved to Cortland where he was employed as a salesman at Fitzgerald and Kinney, wagon manufacturers. He was always an inventive man, and he continued to develop and patent his designs.Read More →

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We’ve recently been working with Molly Kathleen Reagan to highlight three important women from Cortland County’s past. We supplied information and Molly created portraits of each of the three women. This is week two of our series. This project is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by CNY Arts. Bertha Eveleth Jones was the oldest of two girls born to Augustus and Helen Jones. She was born on September 7, 1866 inRead More →

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How can we know so little about someone who left behind so much? That is the question I often ask myself when I consider what we know about miniature portrait artist, Meriva Carpenter. Carpenter provided inspiration for local artist Molly Reagan for her “History Highlighted” series created for Cortland County Historical Society. This project is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by CNY Arts. Meriva Carpenter was born to Dr. Ruggles andRead More →

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The first known building on the spot that is now 9 Main Street was a wooden structure that shows up in the same photo depicting the corner of Main and Clinton that has been featured in past posts. The earliest I can trace the businesses back is to a gentleman named James Van Valen, who came to Cortland from Madison County and kept a “cash and barter” store in 1845. An ad from 1849 shows it came under the ownership of Daniel Schermerhorn who advertised his takeover of Van Valen’s “old stand” with a new  stock of dry goods, groceries, and hardware. In the 1860sRead More →

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The earliest building that appears on maps was an L-shaped brick structure that at the time was the residence of Robert O. Reynolds (1811-1855). Reynolds was partnered with Hiram Crandall as attorneys and counselors at law, and their office neighbored Reynolds’ home. By 1876 the house was reduced to a square shape and was owned by Julius A. Graham (1827-1902), who once ran the Cortland House and was involved in many different enterprises over the years. The residence underwent renovations in 1895 to form a new business block (#12) that would contain the drug business of Fred I. Graham, and an article from the HomerRead More →

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The beginning of the history of #3-5 Main Street overlaps with that of #1 covered several weeks ago (https://tinyurl.com/zd4y4h). Joshua Ballard is quoted in H.P. Smith’s “History of Cortland County” as saying: “The corner lot where stands the noble brick edifice of Major Aaron Sager and the Dexter House, was once occupied by a tavern building of ordinary size, owned by Grove Gillett, with whom Samuel Nelson, afterwards one of the judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, took board for a time.” This seems to be a reference to an earlier building, perhaps latter replaced by the Barnard block seen in theRead More →

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The first structure on the southwest corner of Main Street and present-day Groton Avenue (at one time named Cortland Street) was called the Lyman Block, a two-story brick structure which is said to have been built around 1816-1817 by Asahel Lym an (1787-1840). Ly man conducted a mercantile business on the spot for about 25 years. By 1855, the same William O. Barnard who owned the Barnard block across the street (see the previous Main Street Monday post here: https://tinyurl.com/zd4y4h) took possession of the location that would come to be referred to as the “dry goods corner.” The Samson name comes into the picture someRead More →

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Like most cities, Cortland has a fair number of streets named after trees. In the old newspaper article (circa 1908) I’ve been using to investigate street names, we see Maple, Chestnut, Elm, Evergreen, Locust, Willow, Greenbush, and Holly Terrace listed. One could probably include Orchard Street in that lineup as well. In the years since 1908, other streets have popped up with tree-type names: Forrest, Pinecrest, Cedar, Oaklin, Redwood, Woodcrest, Rosewood. In previous posts, we have covered Maple (formerly Merrick Street), Willow Avenue, and Orchard Street, and you can find those stories on our blog (Blog : Cortland County Historical Society (cortlandhistory.org)). This post willRead More →

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  The first structure at 1 Main Street for which we have decent documentation is the Bernard Block, which according to the 1863 map included a boot and shoe shop, a milliner’s shop, and a dry goods and grocery store. D. Morris Kurtz briefly describes the building in his book “Past and Present: A Historical and Descriptive Sketch of Cortland, NY” (1883) as being three stories high in front with a sloping roof and only two stories in the rear. It was apparently one of the most prominent buildings in the village at the time, although rather stunted when compared to the building that replacedRead More →

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  According to the newspaper article that details the origins of street names of Cortland, ten of the city’s then 122 streets were named after United States Presidents: Arthur, Blaine, Cleveland, Garfield, Grant, Harrison, Lincoln, Madison, Monroe, and Washington. Blaine? Who was Blaine and where is there a Blaine Street in Cortland? A quick internet search revealed James G. Blaine ran against James A. Garfield for the Republican presidential nomination. Blaine was later appointed to Secretary of State under President Garfield. One mystery solved. There was, in fact, a Blaine Street in Cortland! It was a small street located off from Clinton Avenue which wasRead More →