Rouses Point—Malone—Watertown—Syracuse—Binghamton—(Scranton, Pa.); US 11.
Rouses Point to Pennsylvania Line, 329.8 m.
Two-lane concrete.
Rutland R.R. parallels route between Rouses Point and Winthrop; New York Central R.R. between Potsdam and Syracuse; Delaware, Lackawanna & Western R.R. between Syracuse and the Pennsylvania line.
US 11 is the main artery of travel between Canada and New Orleans. Between Rouses Point and Watertown it parallels the Canadian border; then runs south through the heart of the State, a great dairying region, to the Pennsylvania line. Along the road are milk platforms on which the farmers leave their full milk cans to be picked up during the night by New York City milk trucks. There are several industrial cities. Around Watertown are landmarks recalling the romantic story of the French émigrés who settled in Jefferson and St. Lawrence Counties after the downfall of Napoleon. Other sites commemorate incidents in the War of 1812. Side routes lead to Canada and the Thousand Islands.
Section a. ROUSES POINT to MALONE; 55 m. US 11
Between Rouses Point and Malone US 11 goes through a region of pasture land and small fields of corn and potatoes. Originally an Iroquois war trail, this stretch became the Military Turnpike, a link in the overland route between Lakes Ontario and Champlain, which was completed in 1826.
In the middle 1800’s hard-fisted, devil-may-care French-Canadian lumberjacks, packs strapped to their backs, came across the border to the camps of the North Country lumber industry, then beginning to boom. Upon depletion of the forests they settled on the land, eking a bare existence from the soil.
US 11 runs west from the border town of ROUSES POINT, 0 m. (120 alt., 1,920 pop.) (see Tour 21).
US 11 becomes the main street of CHAMPLAIN, 5 m. (120 alt., 1,197 pop.), which manufactures bookbinding machines and grows peonies. French Canadians who threw up cabins here in the late 1790’s named their settlement for Samuel de Champlain, discoverer of the lake that bears his name.
At the ‘Four Corners’ in MOOERS, 13 m. (260 alt., 465 pop.), is the junction with State 22 (see Tour 20).
CHATEAUGAY, 42 m. (972 alt., 1,169 pop.), with its maple-lined streets and ample lawns, has a New England appearance. Named for the adjoining Canadian land grant owned by Charles Lemoyne, founder of an eminent Canadian family, the village was settled by French Canadians in 1796. A blockhouse was erected here at the outbreak of the War of 1812. General Wade Hampton’s troops invaded Canada from here in 1813, retreating in rout after a brief engagement with the British.
MALONE, 55 m. (730 alt., 8,657 pop.), straddles the Salmon River, site of hydroelectric plants. Paper mills, woolen mills, railroad shops, tanneries, milk and cheese factories, and powder mills furnish work for about 1,500 persons. Slightly more than 60 per cent of the residents, Catholics of French-Canadian descent, speak both French and English. English is taught in the grade schools; parents teach their children French in their homes. The people listen to French programs from Montreal radio stations, attend ice hockey games at Montreal, and spend many winter hours snowshoeing across country.
The place was settled by Vermonters in 1802; the name was bestowed by William Constable, an early landowner, in honor of his friend, Edmund Malone, Shakespearian scholar. In 1866, 2,000 Irish-American members of the United States Fenian Society, formed in 1858 to supply arms and money to the movement in Ireland for an Irish Republic, came to Malone with the purpose of seizing Canada and then striking a bargain with England whereby the Dominion would be returned for the freedom of Ireland. Canada stationed troops along the international line and established a gun-boat patrol on the St. Lawrence. With no commissary, no discipline, and no lines of supplies, the poorly armed mob crossed into Canada on June 2, 1866, exchanged shots with a detachment of Canadians, and retreated in disorder to Malone, where they disbanded.
The WHEELER HOUSE, Elm St., now the clubhouse of the local Elks Lodge, was the home of William Almon Wheeler, Vice President of the United States under President Hayes, 1877–81. The present owners have preserved the front section of the building, erected in 1857, as it was when occupied by Wheeler.
Left from Malone on State 10 to MEACHAM WOODS, a thick stand of timber extending along the road for seven miles, 18.2 m. to 25.1 m. It was named after Thomas Meacham, hunter and trapper, who purchased the land in the early nineteenth century. MEACHAM LAKE STATE CAMPSITE (L), 22.7 m. (fishing, boats for rent), is one of the newer camping areas.
North from the campsite on a foot trail 2.5 m. to the summit of DEBAR MOUNTAIN (3,305 alt.).
State 10 continues southward, crossing the East Branch of the St. Regis River at 24.7 m. and passing through the largest State reforestation area in the Adirondack State Park, some 3,800 acres, burned over in 1903, and today containing a stand of 3,853,000 spruce and pine. The area is cared for by the CCC and protected by State rangers.
At 34.5 m. is the junction with State 192.
1. Right on State 192 to PAUL SMITHS, 0.3 m., a hotel established in 1859 by Apollos A. Smith, a guide to wealthy sportsmen. It now has a private park of 33,000 acres, with a clubhouse, golf courses, and a bathing beach.
2. Left on State 192 to the EPISCOPAL CHAPEL OF ST. JOHN’S OF THE WILDERNESS, 0.3 m., a beautiful little stone structure tucked away in the woods. Originally of oiled logs, it was established in 1877, burned in 1928, and was rebuilt in 1930. Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau of Saranac Lake supervised the erection of the original chapel. The road continues to GABRIELS, 3.8 m. (1,704 alt., 200 pop.), and the GABRIELS SANATORIUM, conducted by the Sisters of Mercy, which has been caring for tubercular patients since 1897. State 192 continues to the junction with State 3 (see Tour 17), 9.1 m.
On State 10, UPPER ST. REGIS LAKE (R), 36.8 m., is almost entirely surrounded by the luxurious camps of men of wealth. UPPER ST. REGIS LANDING (L), 37.6 m., is a point of departure for short and long canoe trips through the Adirondack lakes.
LAKE CLEAR JUNCTION, 41.1 m. (1,630 alt., 348 pop.), is at the junction with State 86 (see Tour 16).
In the ADIRONDACK FISH HATCHERY, 43.9 m., brook, lake, and rainbow trout and whitefish are hatched, and the fingerlings are used to restock the brooks and streams of the State.
At 45.8 m. is the junction with a macadam road; left here 0.5 m. to SARANAC INN (open July 15–Oct. 15). Begun in 1864 by James S. Hough on a small plot of land at the north end of Upper Saranac Lake, it is now a private park of 26,000 acres, with accommodations for 800 guests and a large variety of recreational facilities. Grover Cleveland was a frequent guest, and Charles E. Hughes, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, has often vacationed here.
The FISH CREEK POND CAMPSITE (fireplaces; canoes rented), 49.9 m., considered one of the most attractive Adirondack campsites, encircles the entire shore line of two small lakes. From the campsite there are several hiking trails; a popular canoe trip of about ten miles, with three carries, leads through several ponds.
UPPER SARANAC LAKE, 52 m., has all types of Adirondack fish.
At 54.5 m. is the junction with State 3 (see Tour 17).
Section b. MALONE to WATERTOWN; 116.1 m. US 11
In this section are rich pasture lands, blooded cattle, and big barns. The road skirts the foothills of the Adirondacks, following the fall line between the Adirondack upland and the St. Lawrence plain, where the drop in the northward-flowing streams provides water power for paper mills and other factories. The people are almost all of hardy native stock, mainly Yankee.
West of MALONE, 0 m., the route passes through a number of hamlets dependent principally upon small-scale lumbering and the farm trade. POTSDAM, 42 m. (433 alt., 4,136 pop.), is supported by dairy farmers, tourists, and the students and teachers of its two educational institutions.
In 1804 William Bullard and others came here from Massachusetts, pooled their resources, and purchased a tract of land, on which they established the ‘Union.’ Property was held in common, an accurate account of labor and materials contributed by each member was kept, and all proceeds were divided pro rata annually. The group prospered for a few years, but a demand by more indolent members for an equal division of income led to internal strife, resulting in dissolution in 1810, and the land was evenly divided among the members.
In the nineteenth century the sandstone quarries, now almost completely flooded by Hannawa Falls, employed hundreds of workers. The durable stone, of a deep, rich, lasting red color, was used in the construction of the House of Parliament, Ottawa, and All Saints Cathedral, Albany. But beginning with the late nineties, largely because of the cost of transportation, sandstone gradually lost its popularity.
The POTSDAM STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, Main St. above Park St., is a four-story red brick building erected in 1918. The school is an outgrowth of the old St. Lawrence Academy, founded in 1816, and turned over to the State in 1867. A three-year course provides training for prospective teachers. Besides regular practice teaching, students are trained in the education of subnormal children in a special practice school featuring manual arts, and in the care of children of pre-school age in the nursery school.
The THOMAS S. CLARKSON MEMORIAL COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY, Main St., known familiarly as Clarkson Tech., was founded in 1895 by Frederica, Elizabeth, and Lavina Clarkson as a memorial to their brother, Thomas S. Clarkson, Jr. The original red sandstone building provides facilities for woodworking, metal work, and chemistry. The student body numbers about 400, the faculty 35. Degrees are given in civil, chemical, industrial, electrical, and mechanical engineering.
Left from Potsdam on Pierrepont Ave., which becomes State 56, to HANNAWA FALLS, 4.8 m. (560 alt., 301 pop.), a hamlet spreading from the falls of the same name. Here the Raquette River, 300 feet wide, falls 85 feet. A masonry dam forms a pool almost three miles long that covers 200 acres.
Wide, tree-arched streets with bordering lawns lend a parklike atmosphere to CANTON, 53 m. (363 alt., 2,822 pop.), on the Grass River, settled by Vermonters in the early 1800’s. It is the seat of St. Lawrence County and the home of St. Lawrence University and of a New York State School of Agriculture. The name, like that of Potsdam, was a chance selection from an atlas.
The story is told that in 1825, when the completion of the Erie Canal had made York Staters canal-minded, a local candidate for the assembly was elected as the result of a ‘canal campaign’; his proposal was to join the St. Lawrence and Lake Champlain with a canal across the Adirondack Mountains.
On the crest of a hill on College Ave. are the buildings of ST. LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY, a coeducational institution chartered in 1856. The enrollment is approximately 700; the faculty numbers 86. The State School of Agriculture occupies land belonging to the university. Although the school is State-operated as a separate institution, the trustees of the university constitute the school’s board of visitors. The Theological School (Universalist) has its own building and separate faculty, trustees, funds, and government. As provided by its founders, the College of Letters and Science is nonsectarian in its teaching and influence. The Law School, which became part of the university in 1903, is at 375 Pearl St., Brooklyn, New York.
Most conspicuous among the buildings is the GUNNISON MEMORIAL CHAPEL, an English Gothic structure with a corner tower and a steep slate roof, designed by Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue. The new dormitories are in part the gift of Owen D. Young, alumnus.
In 1878, at the age of 21, Irving Bacheller (1859—) moved here from his farm home in Pierrepont, six miles east, and entered St. Lawrence University. For 16 years after graduation, during which time he wrote for newspapers, Bacheller studied ‘the hard-headed Yankee folk in the fertile valley of the St. Lawrence,’ who were to serve as prototypes for the characters in his novel Eben Holden (1900). The Master of Silence (1892), The Still House of O’Darrow (1895), and Darrel of the Blessed Isles (1903) are among his other works.
Frederic Remington (1861–1909), artist, sculptor, and author, was born in the REMINGTON HOUSE (private), a large frame structure with portico, on Miner St. near Main St. He studied art with the Art Students League in New York City and at Yale, where he played on the football eleven captained by Walter Camp. After a year on a mule ranch in the West, he and Richard Harding Davis, novelist, were sent to Cuba by William Randolph Hearst to secure ‘evidence’ of Spanish brutality. Remington mailed his boss a few paintings, then, convinced that there would be no war, asked for his recall. Hearst is said to have cabled: ‘You furnish the pictures; I’ll furnish the war.’
Remington was fond of western subjects for his art; critics consider Horses in Motion his best canvas and Bronco Buster his foremost work of sculpture. His books include Pony Tracks, Crooked Trails, and Stories of Peace and War. A collection of his paintings hangs in the Remington Art Memorial, Ogdensburg.
GOUVERNEUR, 78 m. (428 alt., 4,015 pop.), on both banks of the Oswegatchie (Ind., black water flowing out) River, is the trading center for the 1,000 workers in the near-by talc mills and talc, lead, and zinc mines. Two small local industries—a marble quarry and a silk and hosiery mill—furnish about 100 jobs for men and women.
Gouverneur Morris purchased a large tract of land here in 1798, and seven years later the village was settled. In 1867 talc (magnesium silicate) was discovered in this region and it has since become an important product. In the mills, talc is ground to the fine finished form in which it is used as electrical and heating insulation, in the manufacture of rubber, and as a filler in paper, paint, roofing, rope, and plaster manufacture. Zinc mining began in 1915; the ore is sphalerite (sulphide of zinc). The lead ore (galena, sulphide of lead) is sent to St. Joseph, Missouri, to be refined.
At the eastern village limits is the unoccupied GOUVERNEUR MORRIS MANSION (R), a two-story stone house with hipped roof, erected in 1809. The rear of the building, facing the hillside, has no windows. Toward the end of a long political career, Gouverneur Morris (1752–1816) spent some time on his estate here. He had been Minister to France during the Reign of Terror and, so the story goes, had acquired costly jewels, plate, and other valuables from the fleeing French nobility, much of which he brought to this house. Since he had no children, relatives expected to inherit this wealth. To their disappointment, however, a son was born after Morris’s death.
From these circumstances an elaborate ghost story has grown up. According to this story, his widow, Anne Morris, was sitting before the fire on New Year’s eve, 1817, when she heard hoofbeats outside. There was a knock at the door and a man’s voice demanded that she bring out her husband’s will. At that moment the figure of Morris stepped down from a portrait on the wall, opened the door and frightened away the intruders, and then led the widow from room to room, showing her where the treasures were hidden.
At 90.7 m. is the junction with a macadam road.
Right on this road 6 m. to OXBOW (351 alt., 250 pop.), where the Oswegatchie River makes a complete loop, forming a bow-shaped lake. At the western end of the hamlet is the BENTON HOUSE, a large two-story brick structure built by Joseph Bonaparte in 1838. Joseph Bonaparte escaped to America after the Battle of Waterloo and, assuming the title of Count de Survilliers, settled in New Jersey and married Annette Savage, a beautiful Quakeress, despite the fact that he had a wife in Italy. In 1822 he moved his family to Natural Bridge, where he erected a house and a hunting lodge on the 80,000 acres he had purchased with the Spanish crown jewels. In 1838 the Bonapartes moved to the Benton House here.
The short, stout nobleman, invariably accompanied by four giant gendarmes who had fled France with him, became a familiar figure in this region. Here he was often host to French émigrés from Cape Vincent who rode on the lake in his gondolalike boat and ate from his plates of gold, while he, dressed in a green hunting suit, told jokes and recited poetry. Near the outlet of the lake, Bonaparte had a stump carved into a comfortable chair, from which he shot deer when they came down to drink. The chair was made very broad, since, in the words of one of his guides, Bonaparte ‘had quite a beam amidships onto him, and he had to have room for himself.’ In 1839, after settling a large sum on Annette and their daughter Caroline, Bonaparte rejoined his wife in Italy. He died in 1844.
During the Second Empire, Caroline accepted the invitation of Napoleon III and sailed for France with her daughter Josephine and her son Louis Joseph. She was legitimized by the Emperor, who said: ‘You are a Bonaparte, my cousin. I see my uncle Joseph in your face.’ Her daughter became maid-of-honor to the Empress. In 1871, after the retirement of the Royal family, Caroline returned to America with her daughter, leaving her son in a French military school. She died in Richfield Springs in 1890. Her grave is in the small Oxbow Cemetery.
The smokestacks of a large milk products plant pierce the skyline of EVANS MILLS, 105 m. (431 alt., 514 pop.), a farm center at the junction of West and Pleasant Creeks. Ethni Evans, New Hampshire millwright, who settled here in 1803, gave his name to the hamlet.
The PALMER HOUSE (R), Main and Factory Sts., a two-story brick hotel, was erected in 1821 and is still operating (1940). Here ‘Prince’ John Van Buren, son of President Martin Van Buren, lost his mistress by the flip of a coin. The girl was Maria Amerigo Vespucci, descendant of the man after whom America was named. The incident is described in Walter Guest Kellogg’s novel, Parish’s Fancy. Van Buren and George Parish of Ogdensburg had spent an evening at poker, with Maria watching the game. Van Buren lost $5,000 given him by a client for the purchase of land. ‘You fancy the lady, Mr. Parish?’ he asked. ‘She is yours, if your luck holds good.’ The girl was put up against the $5,000; a coin was flipped and Parish won. Van Buren complimented the winner, bid the lady adieu, and left.
In 1851 a group of farmers met in the OLD STONE HOTEL, Factory St. near Main St., now an apartment house, and organized the present internationally known Agricultural Insurance Company.
In the center of the village is the junction with a concrete road.
Left on this road 3 m. to LERAYSVILLE (532 alt., 60 pop.); right here on a dirt road 0.5 m., to the stately French Renaissance LERAY MANSION (open by appointment), erected by LeRay in 1806–8. The main building is of two stories, with one-story wings; its principal feature is a wide, two-story Ionic portico surmounted by an open balustrade. Original ceilings, doors, and woodwork are well preserved.
James LeRay de Chaumont (1760–1840), French nobleman whose father had expended a large share of his fortune in the American cause, came to America in 1785 and presented his claims for reimbursement, which were settled by the Government in 1790. LeRay bought thousands of acres in the present Jefferson and Lewis Counties in 1802, erected a home, and brought his family to Leraysville six years later. He developed the new territory, building sawmills and gristmills, forges and blast furnaces, powder mills, wharves, and warehouses, and encouraging agriculture. His presence here attracted a number of French émigrés to this region.
Gateway to the Thousand Islands and the Adirondacks, WATERTOWN, 116.1 m. (478 alt., 33,323 pop.), a trading and industrial center, is bisected by the Black River, which falls 112 feet within the city, powering 55 industries. Manufactured products include paper, papermaking machines, air brakes, plumbing supplies, and surgical instruments. From the Public Square in the center of the city, bordered by business blocks and the huge bulk of the Woodruff Hotel, the principal streets radiate unsymmetrically, trailing off into residential sections.
In 1800 five New Englanders hacked their way up from the Mohawk Valley, stopped at the rocky Black River Falls, and named the site Watertown. They built sawmills and gristmills along the river, and burned piles of lumber for potash. Residents of near-by hamlets flocked to the settlement to work in carpenter and machine shops, barrel shops, and sash and blind factories.
The papermaking industry began with a rag mill in 1809 and reached its peak in the 1890’s, when the Black River Valley was one of the Nation’s leading papermaking districts. The industry started on the down-grade in the early 1900’s when the supply of spruce dwindled.
The five and ten cent store originated here during county fair week in 1878. Frank W. Woolworth (1852–1910), a clerk in Moore & Smith’s general store, piled leftover odds and ends on a table and put up a sign:’ Any Article 5¢.’ The entire stock was sold out in a few hours. Inspired by this success, Woolworth opened his first store in Utica the following year.
The JEFFERSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY BUILDING (open Tues.–Sat. 9–12:30, 2–5), 228 Washington St., contains collections of Indian curios, historical materials relating to the era of French settlement, and pioneer furniture.
The FLOWER MEMORIAL LIBRARY, Washington St., is a two-story-and-attic marble building in the neoclassic style of the Beaux Arts period of the early 1900’s. The building was donated by Mrs. Emma Flower Taylor in memory of her father, Roswell P. Flower, governor of the State, 1892–5. The library exhibits relics of Indian life and French occupancy.
Watertown is at the junction with State 3 (see Tour 17), State 37 (see Tour 19), and State 12 and 12E (see Tour 25).
Section c. WATERTOWN to SYRACUSE; 69.5 m. US 11
South of WATERTOWN, 0 m., the route crosses the flat Lake Ontario plain. The villages are much alike, with their tree-lined streets, truck gardens, one-family frame houses, and small industries. Most of the land is given over to pasture. Oxcarts of the pioneers followed an Iroquois war trail; during the middle years of the nineteenth century the road was turnpiked. The first automobile trip from Watertown to Syracuse, in 1900, took an entire day; gasoline was purchased in drug stores; repairs were made in blacksmith shops. In 1906 the same trip was made in two hours and 45 minutes, a record that stood for years.
In 1818 Charles Grandison Finney (1792–1875), a native of Connecticut, entered a law office in ADAMS, 13.8 m. (600 alt., 1,613 pop.), and was admitted to the bar two years later. At that time he ‘manifested an antagonism to religion,’ but Mosaic references in his law books led him to secure a Bible. Conversion came suddenly one day in 1823 when the Lord appeared before him and gave him ‘a mighty baptism of the Holy Spirit.’ Finney was ordained in 1824, and the same year converted the entire village of Evans Mills. A handsome, well-proportioned man, six feet, two inches tall, he made a profound impression upon his listeners. ‘Violent physical manifestations resulted from his preaching; people burst into tears, shrieked, fainted, and fell into trances’ as Finney portrayed ‘the terrible guilt of sin and the consequences of the disobedience to God.’ He continued his sensational work in Utica, Troy, Rome, and other towns. Some prominent members of his own sect, including Lyman Beecher, Moses Gillett, and Heman Humphrey, were displeased by his methods, and in 1827 a conference was held in New Lebanon to settle the matter; but the decision was in Finney’s favor. In 1834, after a successful revival in a New York City theater, the Broadway Tabernacle was built for him. The following year he established the theological department at Oberlin College, then in its infancy. He was president of Oberlin from 1851 to 1856.
Mormons ‘without scrip or purse,’ led by Prophet Joseph Smith, arrived here in dusty, canvas-roofed wagons in 1841, put up in farmhouses, and started a drive for converts, which caused bitter dissension, often splitting families. Farmers sold their holdings and gave the proceeds to Smith, and some of them left with him for Ohio a year later.
The MORTON HOUSE (private), a small frame building on South Main St., was the birthplace of J. Sterling Morton (1832–1902), Secretary of Agriculture in the cabinet of President Grover Cleveland, who moved to Nebraska in his youth. Arbor Day is celebrated on his birthday, April 22.
Marietta Holley (1836–1926) lived most of her life in the HOLLEY HOUSE, 16.8 m., a two-story frame house, now a tourists’ home. Her birthplace near by has long since disappeared. A semirecluse, Miss Holley described North Country life and manners in her books with a sentimental humor; her Around the World with Josiah Allen’s Wife was a best seller of the 1880’s.
At the southern end of MANNSVILLE, 21.2 m. (630 alt., 313 pop.), is the KLAN HAVEN HOME (R), a roomy old frame house set on 300 acres of farmland. About 30 orphans of Klansmen are kept here; funds are supplied by Ku Klux Klan headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. The boys are trained in farming, the girls in domestic science.
CENTRAL SQUARE, 52 m. (460 alt., 542 pop.), was the northern terminus of the Salina (Syracuse) and Central Square Plank Road, the first plank road in the country, 14 miles long and eight feet wide, built by George Geddes. The planking, laid crosswise on sills, was partially imbedded in packed earth to prevent decay. Millions of dollars were invested in plank roads before their popularity subsided in the seventies.
Right from Central Square on Phoenix Road to CAUGHDENOY, 3.4 m. (370 alt., 250 pop.), on the Oneida River (Barge Canal). Along the shore are the shacks of thirty-odd fishermen, each of whom pays the State $20 a year for the privilege of maintaining eel weirs, or traps, small wooden boxes with a wire entrance that opens inward but not outward. These traps are suspended from a wire stretched across the river at the proper depth. In early morning and late evening, the fishermen in row-boats empty the traps and transport the catch to the eel factory, an abandoned barn on the shore, where the eels are killed, skinned, and cooked. They are then pickled or smoked, cut into pieces from one to two inches long, and packed in glass jars. New York City delicatessen stores provide the main market. In the late nineteenth century, when eel appetizers were the fad, Caughdenoy factories packed 3,000 eels a day. Because of the diminished demand, the daily average has dropped to about 150.
CICERO, 59.9 m. (396 alt., 410 pop.), is famed for its frogs’ leg dinners. In horse-and-buggy days, tally-ho parties came from Syracuse to enjoy the dish, said to have been introduced to this section by early French expatriates; today automobile parties make the same trip for the same purpose. Cicero Swamp, a 14-mile stretch that grows thick clumps of tamarack and balsam with underlying peat beds, supplies the frogs.
SYRACUSE, 69.5 m. (400 alt., 205, 637 pop.) (see Syracuse), is at the junction with State 5 (see Tour 11) and State 57 (see Tour 26).
Section d. SYRACUSE to PENNSYLVANIA LINE; 89.2 m. US 11
This section is the most beautiful stretch of the entire route, especially north of Tully, where the road rides high above the farm-spotted Tully Valley and then drops abruptly into the Tioughnioga Valley. Fields of hay and corn stretch east and west from the road, backed by the hills that form the divide between the watersheds of the St. Lawrence and Susquehanna Rivers. Derricks standing over salt wells seem out of place in this pastoral panorama.
The road is built on one of the trails followed by the Sullivan-Clinton expedition. In the 1790’s, New England pioneers, many of whom had served with Sullivan and Clinton, traveled westward in covered wagons over the Cherry Valley Turnpike, turned south at La Fayette, and erected cabins on the banks of the Tioughnioga. Fugitive slaves on their way to Canada stole along the turnpike, remaining overnight or for days at a time in the homes of friendly farmers. A few of these Underground Railroad stations still stand. The population is about 75 per cent native born, and many trace their ancestry to the New England pioneers.
South from SYRACUSE, 0 m., in NEDROW, 5.4 m. (520 alt., 250 pop.), is the junction with State 11A.
Right on State 11A to the hill-enclosed ONONDAGA RESERVATION, 1 m., a 7,300-acre tract occupied by descendants of the Onondaga (Ind., people of the great hill) Nation, part of the Iroquois Confederacy. On the reservation are scores of unpainted two- and three-story houses, three churches, a two-story public school, two council houses, and a State health office. Less than 100 of the inhabitants are full-blooded Indians. Only a few work small farms on the reservation or hire out by the day on the near-by fruit orchards and truck gardens. Most of the Indians find work in Syracuse homes or factories, the more affluent driving to Syracuse daily in decrepit automobiles, the others hitch-hiking or walking the macadam road to Nedrow, at the end of the Syracuse trolley line.
The 200 descendants of the Oneida, the Cayuga, and Canadian Indians, who live among the Onondaga, do not receive the annual Government subsidy of a few yards of cheap cloth, a few pounds of salt, and $2 in currency, given to each Onondaga annually in accordance with the terms of the early treaties. Rentals received from white men’s industries on the reservation—sand banks, a stone quarry, and pipe lines—are distributed by the sachems with the approval of the general body and of the Government Indian agent.
More than 70 per cent of the inhabitants have embraced Christianity; the others adhere to the doctrines of Handsome Lake (see Tour 11), nineteenth-century Indian prophet. The wary chiefs walk cautiously between the two religions. The green corn festival at the end of August, the week-long harvest feast in October, and the strawberry feast and thunder dances during the second week in June are advertised in newspapers. Tickets of admission are reasonably priced, and ‘hot dogs’ and soda pop are sold on the grounds. These festivals have been somewhat influenced by the circus; the ancient simple Onondaga headdress of a cap with three feathers has given way to the conventional feathered war bonnet of the prairie tribes.
The nation still retains the form of the ancient government of the Iroquois Confederacy, electing 14 sachems to the Iroquois Council; though the nominal rulers of the reservation, the sachems are subject to removal by mass ballot. Some 150 children are enrolled in the reservation public school. Many continue through high school in Syracuse, and several have been graduated from the State College of Forestry and other colleges of Syracuse University; only a few of the better educated Indians return to the reservation. Clinics held weekly by the State Department of Health have resulted in a marked improvement in health. In 1939, after a powwow that erased fear from the minds of the superstitious, the Indians allowed the installation of electric lights in their homes.
The ONONDAGA COUNCIL HOUSE (L), 2 m., is a two-story structure, 68 feet long and 25 feet wide, built of white pine clapboards. The interior is a large meeting room with chairs and benches along the sides and a fireplace at each end. The GRAVE OF HANDSOME LAKE, in a small plot adjoining the Council House, is marked by a weathered granite stone.
At 16 m. is the junction with US 20 (see Tour 8). US 11A continues south to CARDIFF, 16.5 m. (676 alt., 100 pop.), which made newspaper headlines in October 1869, when the ‘Cardiff Giant’ was unearthed by workmen digging a well on the farm of William Newell. The giant figure, over 10 feet tall and proportionately broad, frightened Onondaga Indians, who immediately recalled their legend of the stone giant of the Cardiff hills who made forays into Indian villages each morning and chose a warrior for breakfast. As curious crowds gathered, Newell erected a tent over the hole and charged admission. Doctors and archeologists examined the figure and proclaimed it a petrified human being, even pointing out the stony pores. A group of businessmen from Syracuse and neighboring communities purchased the ‘corpse’ and placed it on exhibition. It was sold and re-sold, its value ever increasing until a one-eighth share was worth $25,000.
The hoax was revealed when physicians discovered that the giant was solid gypsum and had no petrified heart, lungs, or other internal organs. Investigation disclosed that George Hull of Binghamton, Newell’s brother-in-law, had contracted to have the figure cut from a two-ton block of Iowa gypsum by stoneworkers in Chicago. A wet sponge filled with sand was used to erase chisel marks; the ‘pores’ were made with needles and a hammer. The figure was boxed, shipped by rail to Union, near Binghamton, then hauled overland at night in a large wagon and buried, late in 1868, at the future ‘well’ site. Despite the exposure, dozens of Cardiff Giants toured American medicine shows and fairs. P.T. Barnum, unable to purchase the original, had a duplicate made. In 1934 the giant was taken from a warehouse in Iowa, exhibited at the State Fair in Syracuse, then shipped back to Iowa to become a permanent exhibit in a private museum.
At 23.5 m. US 11A rejoins US 11.
LA FAYETTE, 12.1 m. (1,160 alt., 100 pop.), is at the junction with US 20 (see Tour 8).
HOMER, 31.7 m. (1,140 alt., 3,195 pop.), has a village green reminiscent of an old New England common, with churches and school in an orderly row. Brick structures of the Civil War period dominate the six-block business section. Industries manufacture flannel shirts and fishing tackle; beans canned here have a national distribution.
Homer was the locale of Edward Noyes Westcott’s David Harum and the birthplace of David Hannum, around whom Westcott built his chief character. Hannum, a shrewd, quick-witted Yankee horse-trader, was faultless in attire, ‘never appearing without his high silk hat and a kerchief in his breast pocket.’ Innumerable legends have followed him down through the years. One tells of the time a man offered $15 for a white dog with black spots. Hannum completed the sale after paying an urchin 5¢ for a white dog on which he painted the required spots. Approached by the irate purchaser shortly after a storm, Hannum remarked: ‘I guess I forgot to give you the umbrella that went with the dog.’ ‘Do others or they’ll do you—and do ‘em first!’ was his business slogan. Late in life he lost his entire fortune in land speculation.
Francis Bicknell Carpenter (1830–1900), portrait painter, was born in the CARPENTER HOUSE, a two-and-one-half-story frame structure at the north village line. Carpenter made his first sketches with lampblack on scrap paper and on pieces of board. At the age of 16 he opened a studio in Homer. His original commission, for which he received $10, was to illustrate a book on sheep husbandry. His best known work, Lincoln Reading the First Draft of the Emancipation Proclamation, hangs in the Capitol at Washington. A group of his paintings are among the collection in the HOMER ART GALLERY (free, 9–4 workdays) in the Homer Academy, on the village green.
Andrew Dickson White (1832–1918), historian, State senator, first president of Cornell University (see Ithaca), and United States Minister to Germany and Russia, was born in the WHITE HOUSE, corner of Main and Albany Sts., a two-story Victorian brick home.
The STODDARD HOME, a two-story brick dwelling in the rear of the Braeside Inn, corner of Main and Albany Sts., was the birthplace of William Osborn Stoddard (1835–1925), author of boys’ books, inventor, and secretary to Abraham Lincoln. Besides his more than 70 books for boys, he wrote a Life of Abraham Lincoln.
At the north village limits is the junction with a macadam road.
Right on this road 0.7 m. to the SALISBURY-PRATT HOMESTEAD (private), a station on the Underground Railroad. This section of the railroad followed the Tioughnioga and Tully Valleys between Binghamton and Syracuse and the Oswego Valley between Syracuse and Oswego. In 1851, when Frederick Douglass, orator and journalist (see Rochester), was prevented from speaking in Homer by a barrage of missiles, Oren Carvath, abolitionist, who owned the house, resigned as deacon of the Congregational Church, sold his farm, and moved to Oberlin, Ohio. His son, Erastus M., who made the education of the Negro his life’s work, collected funds for the founding of both Atlanta and Fisk Universities and was the first president of Fisk.
CORTLAND, 34.5 m. (1,122 alt., 16,113 pop.), is the home of 30 industries, manufacturing wire cloth, lingerie, corsets, truck parts, and other products. About 1,700 Italians live in the eastern section of the city close to the wire mills, where most of them work. Here customs of the homeland prevail: parades and fireworks feature the celebration of Saints’ Days; wedding festivities continue long after the bride and groom have departed on their honeymoon.
As many as 250 Italian families, many from New York, are brought to Cortland County each summer in cannery-owned trucks and transported from farm to farm to pick beans—lima, string, and kidney. Some farms are company-owned, others company-subsidized. Workers live in company-owned homes, long wooden structures suggestive of the barracks found in Army camps during the World War. A company canteen sells food and other necessities. A family of four—two adults and two children—average about $200 during the working season, which lasts from late June to late August.
Elmer Ambrose Sperry (1860–1930), inventor, was born in Cortland. Sperry is credited with 400 patents, including the gyroscopic compasses and stabilizers used in ships and airplanes, high arc searchlights, and designs for improvements on electric street railway cars and electric automobiles.
Left from Cortland on State 13 to TRUXTON, 11.4 m. (1,150 alt., 609 pop.), birthplace of John J. McGraw (1873–1934), baseball’s ‘master mind.’ Tiring of farm life at the age of seventeen, McGraw joined the Olean baseball team. A scrappy little lad with a passion for the game, he won the attention of baseball scouts, and was signed the following year by the Baltimore Orioles of the American Association, one of the most famous teams of all time. Among his teammates were Miller Huggins, later manager of the New York Yankees, and ‘Connie’ Mack, later manager of the Philadelphia Athletics. On July 19, 1902, McGraw became manager of the New York Giants, holding that position until June 3, 1932, when he voluntarily retired. Called the ‘Little Napoleon,’ he ruled the Giants with an iron hand, going to the extreme of calling every pitch from the dugout. Under his guidance the team won ten National League pennants and three world’s championships.
At 70.5 m. US 11 joins State 12 (see Tour 25), with which it runs in common to BINGHAMTON, 76.4 m. (845 alt., 78,242 pop.) (see Binghamton), at the junction with State 17 (see Tour 3) and State 7 (see Tour 10).
South of Binghamton is a countryside of rolling hills and lush flatlands. Scattered homes house workers employed in the Triple Cities (see Binghamton). Irish section hands who helped lay the railroad through here objected loudly but unsuccessfully against the rule which compelled them to board with their section bosses. The food apparently left much to be desired, for the following song, later a vaudeville favorite, sprang into existence:
The boss was a foine man, all aroun’
Till he married a great big fat far down!
She bakes good bread, and she bakes it well,
But she bakes it hard as the hubs of—
Eeee—yah!
At 89.2 m. US 11 crosses the PENNSYLVANIA LINE, 41 miles north of Scranton, Pennsylvania.