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The first white settlers along the Seneca River arrived in the area in the late 18th century. They were part of Sullivan’s March and had seen the potential the area held. Water played an important part in the development of the area. Seneca County, established March 29, 1804, originally covered an area extending from the shore of Lake Ontario to just south of Ithaca; a distance of about 63 miles north to south and 11 miles east to west. It was divided into 6 towns: Junius, Fayette, Romulus, Ovid, Hector and Ulysses.
By 1818 canal locks were built along the Seneca River, allowing boat traffic to avoid the rapids. By 1828, the Cayuga-Seneca Canal had been linked to the Erie Canal, making transport of raw materials and finished goods easier and opening up the much larger market for items manufactured locally. On March 26, 1829, the Town of Seneca Falls was organized when the existing Town of Junius was divided into four towns: Junius, Tyre, Waterloo and Seneca Falls. Business and industry was attracted to Seneca Falls by the rapids along the Seneca River and potential waterpower they implied. Tanneries, distilleries, mills, and factories of all types sprung up along the river. Landowners along the river became very successful by leasing water rights to a wide variety of industries.The area originally known as Mynderse Mills officially became the Village of Seneca Falls when it was incorporated on April 22, 1831. Ansel Bascom was selected as the first President of the Village (mayor.) As early as 1841, the Rochester-Auburn railroad system opened the door to the world market for goods manufactured in Seneca Falls.
Seneca Falls was also gaining a reputation for social and religious reform. Abolition of slavery and the underground railroad, the temperance movement and women’s rights were among issues supported by local residents. On July 19 and 20, 1848 the first Convention on Women’s Rights was held at the Wesleyan Chapel on Fall Street in Seneca Falls. Organized by Jane Hunt, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Mary Ann M’Clintock and others, it was the birth of the Women’s Rights Movement.
In recent years tourism has become the major industry in Seneca Falls. The Women’s Rights National Historical Park, the National Women’s Hall of Fame, the Seneca Falls Historical Society, the Seneca Museum of Waterways and Industry are great tourist sites. The Seneca Falls Heritage Area Visitors Center, as well as local wineries, the Finger Lakes and the beautiful scenery of Central New York also attract visitors to the Village of Seneca Falls.
The Village of Trumansburg is within the Town of Ulysses and is northwest of Ithaca, New York. The village is located in the former Central New York Military Tract (The Military Tract of Central New York, also called the New Military Tract, consisted of nearly two million acres of bounty land set aside to compensate New York’s soldiers after their participation in the Revolutionary War). The village of Trumansburg was originally named “Tremaine’s Village,” after an early settler, Abner Tremaine, who was granted the land for his service in the American Revolutionary War. The village was built around a cascade on the creek that provided power for grain mills. In the 19th century Trumansburg was dominated by Col. Hermon Camp, an officer in the War of 1812 who settled in what was to become the village of Trumansburg. For many years he was the local postmaster, and founded a bank now the Tompkins Trust Company, the largest bank in the county. His imposing and elegant Federal style house remains the largest in the village today. The village was incorporated in 1872.In the late 19th century Ithaca began to grow rapidly at the expense of Trumansburg. Industry began to develop there rather than in the upland village. Some businesses, notably Morse Chain, moved from Trumansburg to Ithaca in the late 19th century.
In the latter half of the 20th century, as the quality of the road between Trumansburg and Ithaca improved and “country living” became more fashionable, the village became home to many faculty and staff at nearby Cornell University and Ithaca College, as well as many musicians. Between 1961 and 1970, Robert Moog built electronic music equipment, including his famous synthesizers, in a downtown storefront.
From 2004 to 2007, the mayor was John R. Levine, the original author of “Internet for Dummies.”Trumansburg was a mill town and commercial center for the agricultural community from its inception until the Second World War. Since the late 1940’s, it has become a combination of a bedroom suburb for Ithaca and a modest tourist destination, with restaurants and antique stores.
Since 1973 the village’s best known business has been the Rongovian Embassy to the USA, a bar and restaurant that frequently features local, national and international musical talent. Since 1991, the Finger Lakes Grass Roots Festival of Music and Dance has taken place each July at the village fairgrounds and is hosted by nationally popular Trumansburg-based band Donna the Buffalo. The village is also located along the Cayuga Wine Trail and is close to Taughannock Falls.
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