The Early Settlers Revised: September 7, PDF Free Download

The Early Settlers Revised: September 7, 2013 The earliest settlers were farmers. Among the largest farmers in 1860 were: Adams, of which there were several, Phillips, Lynch, Avery, Gere, Garrett and Malloy. Thorpe, Smith & Hanchott ran a large nursery that later became the farms of Kirsch and Baum. The main roads of Mattydale today are readily recognized in this map from 1860. The Cicero Plank Road stats at what is now 7 th North St at the city line and proceeds northeast until it meets what is now LeMoyne Ave coming from the south and Molloy Road coming from the east. Just south of this intersection was the Toll Gate for the plank road. Proceeding north from this intersection were two parallel roads. The Cicero Plank Road on the west was for southbound traffic. There was northbound traffic on the plank road but the custom was for the northbound wagons to yield to the southbound traffic. LeMoyne continued on the east of the plank for a ways and was utilized by the northbound traffic. It was not of plank construction and its name at the time is not known. The plank road continued north past Pitcher Hill and onto Centerville (North Syracuse). The Early Settlers 09-07-13-1 - Copyright 2013 Michael F. McGraw

As it leaves Mattydale, at the Miles Adams property, Sand Road cuts off to the east, makes a left turn north and becomes Lawrence Road. When the Air Base was built during WWII, the connection between Sand Road and Lawrence Road was terminated by a runway. The eastern boundary of Lots 8 and 19 contains Townline Road and it is the boundary between the towns of Salina and DeWitt. According to an 1874 map of the town of Salina the new additions were: Hinsdell (1867), Baum (1866), Kirsch and Overacre. In 1867 Perry H. Hinsdell bought the farm belonging to W. Adams. Hinsdell s homestead was located on the present site of Steve Aloi Ford. By the time of the 1874 map, Michael Kirsch has replaced G. O. Blennins at the corner where Sand Road takes a sharp turn north. S. Overacre & Sons were farming 138 acres on Lot 3. The homestead was on LeMoyne Ave. between Ley Creek and the railroad tracks. On Molloy Road, I. Sayles was gone and Garrett or Malloy probably took over the Sayles property. School No. 4 has been renamed School No. 3. Further out Molly Road, J. M. Garrett has been replaced by his son W. B. Garrett with 126 acres on Lot 19. Daniel Lynch was still on Molloy Road and had 110 acres on Lot 8. Patrick Malloy is still holding down the end of Molloy Road with 396 acres on Lots 8 and 19. The Early Settlers 09-07-13-2 - Copyright 2013 Michael F. McGraw

W. E. Gere has moved his residence from the triangular piece of land between the Cicero Plank road and what is now LeMoyne Avenue. Gere had property at the corner of Park and Bear Sts. and 92 acres on Lot 18. By 1882 Gere was gone. After buying Rose Lawn itself in 1866, Baum added to his holdings with the purchase of Spring Farm and some additional farmland further north, along Bailey Road. Spring Farm consisted of about 134 acres and the Bailey Road land contained of 97 acres. The family fortunes fell upon hard times and in 1880 Baum lost Rose Lawn and Spring Farm at a foreclosure sale. The farmland on Bailey Road was in his wife Cynthia s name and was not subject to the foreclosure action. At the foreclosure sale, Benjamin s son, L. Frank Baum purchased Rose Lawn for his mother. At the same foreclosure sale, George Nellis Crouse, Sr., had purchased Spring Farm. The property remained in the Crouse family for over two decades. The fate of Rose Lawn itself will be covered in another section. Exactly what the Crouse family did with Spring Farm has not been determined. A farm left unused will become overgrown and the buildings will decay and become unusable and decrease in value. The Crouses were city people, they were not farmers. Perhaps the land had been leased out, but no record of that activity has been found. In December 1901 1 the Crouses offered Spring Farm for sale or rent. Frank Matty took them up on the offer and was renting Spring Farm as early as September 1902 2. Matty already owned land in the town of Salina. In June 1900 3 he had bought the Zimmer Farm, on the northeast corner of the Cicero Plank Road and Molloy Road, at a foreclosure sale after the death of Silas R. Zimmer s widow in mid 1899 4. By 1892 Wright (1883) and Charles & George Skiff (1881) had settled in the area. Albert Wright had purchased the110 acre farm of Daniel Lynch in a deed dated October 13, 1883. Charles (age 21) and George (age 17) Skiff had come from Cicero and purchased the farm of the late B. Austin Avery at an estate sale in the early Spring of 1881. By 1900 John Kirsch had left his father s farm on Sand Road and settled on a farm of his own on Brewerton Road. The details of his land purchase have not been uncovered yet. Frank Matty s first purchase of land in the town of Salina took place in the summer of 1900 when he bought the Zimmer farm at a foreclosure sale. Around 1882 it is believed that Silas Zimmer purchased the old Adams farm on the northeast corner of the old Cicero Plank road and Malloy Road. By December of 1900 Matty was having a ½ mile track built on his new farm, for his stable of race horses. In 1903 he added to his holdings by purchasing Benjamin Baum s old Spring Farm from the Crouse family. It was located on the west side of the Plank Road, starting at the northern boundary of the Action Skate & Sport, up to the Northern Lights traffic circle and from the Plank Road to Bear Trap Creek. Matty was raising hogs on both properties but when his supply of free garbage from the city was cut off he sold the Spring Farm to Peter Michels in December 1905. The Early Settlers 09-07-13-3 - Copyright 2013 Michael F. McGraw

Residential Development George Skiff appears to be the first farmer to be bitten by the development bug. In 1919 George Skiff sold 300 acres east of his farm (exact location to be determined) on the old Cicero Plank Road for residential development. Skiff sold the rest of his farm to Byron G. Harrington in early November 1919. After that Skiff devoted all his efforts to the apple business. It is currently thought that, out of that first 300 acres came Syracuse Villas. The exact chain of ownership still needs to be determined but it is suspected that Skiff had previously purchased some of Overacre s land. The picture above is from a 1919 newspaper containing the story of Skiff selling his farm to Harrington. It is by no means a good picture but there are not many pictures that have survived from that era and so one takes what one can get and makes the best of it. The picture does give an idea of what one of the most successful farmer s house and barns looked like in their prime as the age of residential development began. The first three tracts developed in Mattydale were: Syracuse Villas, Hinsdale Farms and Home Gardens. These tracts were all on the east side of the Cicero Road (Brewerton Road). Syracuse Villas was the former farm of Daniel Overacre and extended north and south from Molloy Road to the railroad tracks. East and west it extended from the east line of Military Lot 18 to LeMoyne Ave. The land of Perry Hinsdell was the next to come on the market as Hinsdale Farms. Home Gardens was located between the Cicero Road and LeMoyne Ave, bordering Ley Creek on the south and Edgemere Road on the north. The Mattydale development opened in 1922. In the 1923 real estate season these first three were followed by Richfield Farms, Garden City, Northwood Tract and Harrington Farms. These were then followed in 1926 by the Wright Tract, in 1927 by the Kirsch The Early Settlers 09-07-13-4 - Copyright 2013 Michael F. McGraw

FOOTNOTES 1 Farm For Sale or Rent, Syracuse Journal, Syracuse, NY, December 30, 1901. 2 Pigs Will Not Hunger, The Evening Herald, Syracuse, NY, September 12, 1902. 3 The Evening Telegram, Syracuse, NY, June 21, 1900. 4 Died at Sixty-Eight, Post Standard, Syracuse, NY, July 13, 1899. The Early Settlers 09-07-13-6 - Copyright 2013 Michael F. McGraw