Marcy
()
About this ebook
Raymond F. Ball
Raymond F. Ball, born in nearby Utica, has been a resident of Marcy for more than 50 years and town historian since 1988. The photographs in Marcy are from his collection and several other private collections.
Related to Marcy
Related ebooks
Rogue River Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBayfield and the Pine River Valley 1860-1960 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIra Township Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChain O' Lakes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBerwyn Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRemembering Haverhill: Stories from the Merrimack Valley Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5St. Joseph County's Historic River Country Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Eagle River Valley Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAround Essex: Elephants and River Gods Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe West is Calling: Imagining British Columbia Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hiawatha's Highways Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConesus Lake Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUpper Nisqually Valley Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsElk River Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEssex Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Mad River Valley Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSt. Helens Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Capital Place: Memories of a Minnesota Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeerpark Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Capital Place: Reminiscences of a Sandy Lake Boyhood Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLander Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLeavenworth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThree Lakes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRock County Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBuried By Table Rock Lake Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKennewick, Washington Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Tobacco Valley Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSullivan County: A Bicentennial History in Images Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Around Sylvan Beach Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRoseburg Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
United States History For You
The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Kids: An Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Benjamin Franklin: An American Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A People's History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable American Life of a 109-Year-Old Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why We're Polarized Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Responsibility of Intellectuals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Origin of Others Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Disunited Nations: The Scramble for Power in an Ungoverned World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Huckleberry Finn Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Leadership: In Turbulent Times Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Where I Was From Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dark Money: how a secretive group of billionaires is trying to buy political control in the US Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bowling Alone: Revised and Updated: The Collapse and Revival of American Community Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Reset: And the War for the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Right Stuff Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5James Baldwin: A Biography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hidden Figures: The Untold Story of the African American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Eighth Moon: A Memoir of Belonging and Rebellion Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Marcy
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Marcy - Raymond F. Ball
book.
INTRODUCTION
Marcy history is rather unique, but at the same time not unlike that of several other towns that extend the length of the Mohawk Valley in central New York. Thousands of years ago, at the time of the great Ice Age, the ice covered most of what is presently New York State. This ice was nearly one mile in height and covered most of Lake Iroquois, which was one of the ancient Great Lakes, now known as Lake Ontario. From the Lower Hudson Valley north to Albany and beyond to the St. Lawrence existed Lake Albany, and it also was frozen over with thick ice.
About 12,000 years ago the ice began to recede or melt, and as it did, it left behind the Catskill and Adirondack mountain ranges. These must have appeared like islands in the large body of water. The St. Lawrence and Champlain Valleys drained out in a few hundred years, but Lake Iroquois showed no sign of changing. To the west, it had been slowly draining into what would become the five Great Lakes. At Little Falls, the main lake narrowed down to a break in the rock strata. Here the escaping water pressure was so great as to cut pot holes about three feet in diameter and four feet deep into the solid rock.
This escaping water only added to the water level below, which archaeologists have named Lake Amsterdam. The water found a small opening in the lower rim of this lake and began to escape through it, and the pressure of the water behind kept working away, making a larger opening. After several thousand years, this small opening was worn away and has become what is called the noses
—the natural gateway to the Mohawk Valley and the entire west.
This break in the mountain range is the most important geological event that occurred since the Ice Age, for without it we would still have a giant lake, there would be no gateway for settlers, boats, trains, cars, and trucks, and the Township of Marcy would never have been.
Instead Marcy is located on what would have been the north shore of the lake, on a plateau of rich sandy loam composed of thousands of years of lake bottom silt and rich vegetation. The recovery and new growth took hundreds of years. Compared with the show that nature put on over the last 10,000 years, what could we as people do in only 400?
But try we would. Our early settlers came right after the Revolutionary War, not from Europe, but from the New England states.
Originally this entire area was called Deerfield,
and it will be remembered as the place where the Native Americans burned the settler’s homes; the march by Gen. Nicholas Herkimer and his citizen army to the bloody battle of Oriskany and the siege of nearby Fort Stanwix. Most of this was portrayed in the movie Drums along the Mohawk.
After a few years, some settlers moved to the western part of Deerfield and began new settlements in the heavily wooded wilderness. The year was 1793, and this was the pioneer beginning of our future town. The first chore they faced was for two men to drive a wagon the 50 miles to Onondaga Lake and dig enough salt to last until the next season. Then they had to get the salt home safe and dry to share with each family. This was no small task when there were no roads, just woods and wilderness.
Most settlers tried to arrange their arrival for the late spring, if the weather cooperated. They would leave from the New England states in late March or early April and have their possessions in a wagon pulled by oxen or horses. This was a rough time of the year for both