Blog (Page 7)

  According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, excelsior means “fine curled wood shavings used especially for packing fragile items.” Excelsior Street was named after the Excelsior Top Company, a manufacturer of tops, dashes, and trimmings of the carriage trade. Perhaps the company got its name from the fine wood shavings that resulted from all of the work that went into the production of carriage items. It seems excelsior was also used to indicate high quality products at one time. Perhaps we will never know the origins of the name of the company, but Excelsior Street was named after the company because it opens directly acrossRead More →

  Willow Avenue is named after the 14 willow sprouts that were planted on both sides of Otter Creek by Horace Dibble sometime between 1847 and 1852. That is a very short street story, so maybe we should take a look at Horace Dibble, the man responsible for the trees. Horace Dibble was born in Greene River, Columbia County, New York on November 21, 1801 to Lucy King and Ebenezer Dibble. The Dibble family moved to Moravia in 1809. In 1821, young Horace visited the Cortland area to look for work. He had recently completed his apprenticeship of wool carder and cloth dresser. He stayedRead More →

Dunsmore Avenue was named after D.F. Dunsmoor, according to the newspaper article I’ve been using to sleuth out the history of Cortland’s streets. I love it when there is an actual name attached to the street because that usually means it shouldn’t be hard to find information….not the case this time! I was determined to learn more about this street because City of Cortland Historian Kate O’Connell had told me that there was a park there on that corner that was similar to my favorite park, the Floral Fountain Trout Park which was over on South Franklin where the DPW is today. It should haveRead More →

Right around the corner from Cortland County Historical Society is a peaceful side street called Jewett Avenue, named after Dr. Homer Octavius Jewett. Dr. Jewett owned much of the land which makes up the street today. Dr. Jewett was a long practicing and respected physician in Cortland in the 19th century. Homer Octavius Jewett was born on March 31, 1819 in Madison County, the eighth of nine children. He was the youngest boy. His father was Walter Jewett and his mother was Betsey Rockwell. They moved to Madison County from Lanesborough, Massachusetts in 1806. The land Walter purchased was heavily forested and he cleared mostRead More →

  There are some families that we encounter in our trips to the family files and archives that stand out because of the amount of information we have about the family, and the Samson family is one of them. This family preserved their lineage much better than many families do. They could easily trace their roots back to both Miles Standish and John Alden of the Mayflower because they kept records and passed the information from generation to generation. They were proud of their heritage, and there were several ancestors who were quite adventurous, including Deborah Sampson, a cousin who served in the Revolutionary WarRead More →

  Last week, Cortland celebrated PorchFest on VanHoesen Street and we had a request to see what we could turn up on the origins of the street. Since we were there, it made sense to make Van Hoesen our next topic! I spent all morning going through files, vital statistics, scrapbooks, and city directories to try to find out if the 1908 newspaper article I’ve been using to track down the names of streets was accurate this time. The story states that VanHoesen Street is named after Daniel VanHoesen. Seeing a name always makes me happy because it usually means the research is not goingRead More →

This piece is more about transportation and work than it is about roads or streets, but it is a fascinating part of the history of America and something we generally don’t think about because the knowledge has not been passed down the generations due to changes in the way we live. Probably about ten years ago I stumbled across a book entitled “Diary of an Early American Boy” by Eric Sloane, and I was completely captivated by the illustrations and the patient recounting of the lives and work of those who settled in America. Sloane collected almanacs and tools, and he had acquired an immenseRead More →

  When I think of a turnpike, I think of a large highway with fast-moving traffic and tolls. The tolls help to pay for the maintenance of the road. Turnpikes of the past were similar in that they collected tolls to maintain the road. Early turnpikes were developed because local and state governments were inefficient in road building. The United States was developing rapidly after the Revolutionary War, and people were moving from the east coast into western lands, but roads were not adequate for large-scale travel. Smart businessmen saw the value in developing roads and directing settlers to areas that would greatly benefit theRead More →

Last week we talked a little bit about the Plank Road, but I should have really started with earlier roads and ways of traveling in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when white settlers were first making their way to the area which encompasses Cortland County today. The Tioughnioga River was one of the primary methods of transportation for the Indigenous peoples of this area along with well-traveled land trails. These methods of travel were perfect for people without horses and wagons, but not conducive to ox carts laden with people and household goods traveling from New England and other places. One of theRead More →