The town of Oswego,
situated in the northwest corner of the county and lying wholly within
the old Military Tract, was erected from Hannibal the 20th of April, 1818.
May 20, 1836, a trianglar tract bordering the river at Minetto was annexed
from Grandby. March 24, 1848 that part of Oswego city lying west of the
river was taken from the town, thus leaving the town its present area of
20,536 acres. It is bounded on the east by Oswego city and Scriba, on the
south by Grandby and Hannibal, on the north by the lake and Oswego city.
The Surface is gently
rolling and in some places quite broken, the whole having a northerly or
northeasterly inclination. Abrupt bluffs border the lake and river and
afford considerable picturesque scenery. The soil is a productive gravelly
loam underlaid with a red sandstone of worm pebbles. The principle streams
are Eight-Mile, Nine-Mile, Snake, Rice, and Minetto Creeks, which afford
excellent drainage and some valuable mill privileges. At Minetto
the river furnishes an immense water-power.
The town of Oswego was
originally covered with a dense growth of heavy timber, which long furnished
employment to numerous saw mills and to scores of lumbermen, for whose
product a ready market was found at the mouth of the river. But the primitive
forests have long since disappeared, and in there place are seen fertile
fields and comfortable homes.
Soon after the pioneers
threaded the wilderness, roads were cut through the forests to what is
now Oswego city, but several years elapsed before passable thoroughfares
were surveyed and opened. The first highway in town was the road
leading from Oswego up the river though Minetto to Oswego Falls, which
was surveyed and opened in 1810 or 1811. The Fifth street road, now a popular
thoroughfare, was laid out by William Moore, the first surveyor, in 1813.
The early bridges were made of logs.
April 17, 1816, Jacob
L. Lazalere, James Geddes, and John McFadden were authorized
by the Legislature to lay out a State road four rods wide, “beginning at
the ferry on the west side of the river in the village of Oswego, and thence
by the most eligible rout thorough the towns of Hannibal, Sterling, and
Galen, (now Glyde), to the bridge over the Canandaigua outlet at the block-house
in the town of Galen.” This was the old Hannibal road. On the same day
the Legislature authorized Seth Cushman, of Lysander, and Edward
Hawks and William Moore, of Hannibal, to lay out a road four
rods wide from “Snow bridge in Syracuse and thence through the towns of
Lysander and Hannibal to Oswego.” The Oswego and Sodus Branch
Turnpike Company was incorporated March 28, 1817, with a capital stock
of $2,500, for the purpose of constructing a road from a point on the Owasco
Creek in Mentz through Cato, Sterling, and Hannibal to Oswego. All these
thoroughfares passed through the town of Oswego, and materially aided its
settlement. Over them stage lines were maintained, making them scenes
of considerable activity. About 1846-7 planks roads came into existence.
In 1850 one was completed from Oswego to Sterling Center, but with the
decline of these highways it was abandoned. Other roads were surveyed and
opened to accommodate the increasing settlements, and at the present time
the town has sixty-four road districts.
Expecting in the village
of Minetto the inhabitants of the town are principally engaged in agricultural
pursuits. In former years large quantities of wheat were raised, but that
was long ago superseded by diversified farming. Fruit, comprising many
varieties, is profitably grown, as are also the grains, hay corn, potatoes,
and vegetables. Perhaps no town in the county has devoted more systematic
efforts toward the development of agriculture than Oswego. March 13, 1869,
the Union Village Farmers’ Club was organized, with Thomas G. Thompson
as president, and in 1870 was chartered as the Oswego town Agricultural
and Horticultural Society. A fine hall was erected on the farm of Mr.
Thompson, at a cost of $2,000, and dedicated June 23, 1870. Exhibitions
were held for several years. Brick has been extensively manufactured, there
being at one time five or six yards in active operation in different parts
of the town.
The first town meeting
was held at the school house in Oswego village Tuesday, May 5, 1818, and
the following officers were chosen:
Eleazer Perry,
supervisor; William Dalloway, town clerk; Henry Eagle, Henry
Everts, Eleazer Perry, jr., assessors; Matthew McNair, William Fay,
jr., Erastus Todd, commissioners of highways; Matthew McNair
and Eleazer Perry, jr., overseers of the poor; Asa Dudley,
collector; Asa Dudley and John S. Newton, constables; Alvin
Bronson, Samuel B. Beach, John Moore, jr., commissioners of common
schools; Walter Colton, George Fisher, and William Moore,
school inspectors; Alvin Bronson and Samuel B. Beach, commissioners
of gospels lots.
The supervisors
have been:
Eleazer Perry,
1818; Jonathan Deming, 1819-20; Matthew McNair,
1821; Alvin Bronson, 1822-24; Matthew McNair,
1825-30; George Fisher, 1831; Joel Turrill, 1832;
David P. Brewster, 1833; Jacob N. Bonesteel, 1834-35;
W.F. Allen, 1836-37; Patrick H. Hard, 1838; Walter
W. White, 1839; Matthew McNair, 1840; W.W. White,
1841; Daniel H. Marsh, 1842; Joel Turrill, 1843;
James Platt, 1844; Luther White, 1845; Leander
Babcock, 1846-47; D. H. Campbell, 1848-49;
Lewis
A. Cole, 1850-51; Silas Cushman, 1852-54; John Carpenter,
1855-56; Stanton S. Gillett, 1856-58; John H. Mann,
1859; Simon G. Place, 1860; John H. Mann, 1861-62;
John S Furniss, 1863-65; John H. Mann, 1866-69;
William J. Stark, 1870-71; Thomas G. Thompson, 1872;
John G. Warner, 1873; Ira L. Jones, 1874;
Lyman
Coats, 1875; T.S. Brigham, 1876-77; Lewis H. Ottman,
1878; M.C. Simmons, 1879; Albert F. Allen, 1880;
Riley I. Harding, 1881; Albert F. Allen, 1882-83;
Ira L. Jones, 1884-85; James R. Ottman, 1886; Lewis P.
Taylor, 1887; John A. Perkins, 1889; Frank A. Pease,
1889-91; John A. Perkins, 1892; Robert Lippincott,
1893; Lewis P. Taylor, 1894-95.
The town
officers for 1895 were;
Lewis p. Taylor, supervisor;
S.E. Metcalf, town clerk; John F. Brown, John
Bishop, Milton S. Coe and Albert A Sabin, justices
of the peace; Robert Lippincott, William Taggert and Lester
C. Wright, assessors, Frank Doyle, highway commissioner;
William Powell, collector; William Leadley, overseer
of the poor; T.G. Thompson, J. A. Perkins, and Maxon Lewis,
auditors.
The first settler in the town of
Oswego was Asa Rice, who came from Connecticut, down the Oswego
River, and settled on lot 2 October 6, 1779. For a time he lived
in a tent as the mouth of Three-Mile Creek, and when his log shanty was
erected he moved into that. This latter habitation stood on the site
of Union Village (Fruit Valley) post office and was the first building
of any kind in the territory under consideration. Upon its completion Mr.
Rice formally christened the place with a bottle of wine, giving it the
name, “Union Village,” which it has ever since borne. With him came tow
or three other families, but all removed before winter set in, leaving,
Mr. Rice as the first and only permanent settler. His son Arvin,
who accompanied the little ban of pioneers, was then eleven years of age.
In 1809 he settled near Hannibal village and died there in 1878. His son
Arvin, now a lawyer in Fulton, was born there in 1845. Asa Rice
made the first clearing, planted and raised the first crops and set out
the first orchard----all on lot 2, He passed through many hardships
and privations, and during the winter after his arrival his infant child
actually died of starvation, which was the first death in town. The
first birth was that of Thomas Jefferson Rice, in 1801.
The first marriage occurred in 1800, the contracting parties being Augustus
Ford and Miss. Rice. Mrs. Rice and her daughter did the weaving
for their neighbors. There being no distilleries in the vicinity,
Mr. Rice made from honey a fermented drink called “metheglin,” which was
sweet and pleasant, but somewhat intoxicating. He built the first
frame house about 1810 and also was the first frame barn in the town.
About the same time, with a Mr. Brace, he erected on Rice Creek
the fist saw mill at Union Village.
Mr. Rice apparently
was the only permanent settler of the town of until 1800, when Reuben
Pixley came in and purchased fifty acres of him, which he sold a few
years later to a Mr. Brace. Daniel Burt arrived in 1802 and
a Mr. Beckwith in 1804. Eleazer Perry, the first supervisor,
came in 1805, while Jacob Thorpe and Jonathan Buell were
settlers in 1806, the latter location on lot 29. Montgomery Perry
and Mehetabel Rice were married about 1812. Daniel Robinson
came in 1809 and Nathan Drury about 1810. The latter was from Massachusetts
and located on lot 30, and in order to raise a cope of corn was obliged
to watch his field and drive away the bears. Mr. Robinson had a clay bed
on his farm and manufactured bricks. Soon after 1830 he erected on
lot 9 the first brick house in the town.
Settlement progressed
very slowly until after the war of 1812. The close proximity to the
warlike scenes at Oswego had a marked influence not only upon immigrants
seeking homes in the then “Far West,” but upon the safety and peace of
those who had already settled in the wilderness. Several of the pioneers
joined the American forces, while their families guarded the little clearing
and met with fortitude the privations of frontier life. A few settlers
came in during those years. Among them were David Gray, who migrated
from Saratoga county in 1812, located on lot 21, and died June 6, 1813;
William
Moore, the first surveyor, and Paul Whittenmore, who also arrived
in 1812; Elihu W. Gifford, who came from Washington county in1812,
settled first on lot 92 and latter on lot 91, and died there in 1848; Nathan
Farmham, from Bennington, Vt., who located on lot 2 in 1813; and on
lot 3 in 1816; Chauncey Coats, an athletic man and probably the
strongest man in the county, who came from Massachusetts in 1814 and settled
on lot 12, living first in a log cabin covered with ash bark; and Daniel
Pease, who came from the same State about the same time and located
on lot 11, where his sons Alfred and Levi, grandsons of Asa Rice,
have since resided. Nathan Farnham was born in Bennington, Vt.,
December 24, 1792, and died here September 10, 1885. He was a member of
Capt. Stephen Brace’s company in the War of 1812, one of the original
vestry of Christ’s Church, Oswego, and served as constable, justice of
the peace, and sheriff of the county. His brother, Samuel Farnham,
preceded him as a settler, and in 1813 built on Rice Creek at Union Village,
the first grist mill in the county of Oswego. It was know as the
old red mill, was sold to Matthew McNair, and was burned in 1869.
Daniel Pease married Miriam, a daughter of Asa Rice, and
had four sons and three daughters, of whom Levi, born in 1816, was the
eldest. The latter married Mrs. Mary B. Rhoades, a daughter of Sylvanus
Bishop. Elihu W. Gifford, from 1813 until his death, conducted
the mill erected by Silas Crandall.
After the war ceased
settles came in increasing numbers, and hereafter space permits the mention
only of those more prominently identified with the life and growth of the
town. In 1816 came Abram M. and Selden P. Clark, from Connecticut,
who located on lot 3, which was then worth $10 per acre. John Griffin
arrived about the same year and settled on lot 24, where he built the first
log house in that vicinity. As early as 1817 the following settles came
in: Cephas Weed and Justin and Jonathan Eastman, on lot 84;
Messrs.
Godby, Godfrey and Oswell on lot 76; and Rudolph Dutcher, on
lot 17. The latter was a millwright and assisted in erecting the first
mill in Oswego. In 1818 William J. Forbes located on lot 22.
In 1819 Schuyler Worden came from Cayuga county and settled on lot
29, the site of the present village of Minetto. A Mr. Collins purchased
lot 31, which was drawn by Joshua Foreman, Revolutionary soldier.
After owning it many years he deeded it to his son, Lee Collins.
In 1820 the town contained 992 inhabitants.
Other early settlers,
the date of whose coming cannot now be ascertained, were Joseph Rice
on lot 36 (“State’s hundred”); Francis Lent on lot 36; a Mr.
Foster on lot 26; David D. Gray on lot 21; Job and Ebenezer
Perkins, Anson Taylor, Jason Peck, Samuel Sanders, James Gillis, Herman
Rice and a Mr. Chambers lot 78, were W.H. Johnson afterward
became an owner; Erastus Todd on lot 13, now Oswego Center; and
Henry
Everts, the pioneer of Scriba.
In 1821 Stephen Tilden
arrived from Vermont and settled on lot 9. His lands finally passed into
possession of B. P. Dutcher and Vincent Sabin and son. In
1822 Nathan Lewis, who was born October 27, 1797, and had moved
with his parents to Madison county in 1805, came to this town where he
spent the remainder of his life. About the same year James Stevenson
purchased 108 acres of lot 17, and a Mr. Brown settled on lot 14.
The latter sold his improvement to Jesse Gray in 1826. In 1824 Silas
Green, who was born in Coventry, R.I. and had served in the Revolutionary
war, located on the north corner of lot (38). His farm for about forty-four
years was owned by his son Norman and finally passed into possession of
Garrett
Loomis. In 1825 John Dunsmore came from Massachusetts
and purchased 130 acres of lot 24, which was first owned by the Bleekers,
land speculators, of London. He came from Otsego, N. Y., with ox-teams;
was seven days on the way; and sold one yoke of oxen upon his arrival for
$55.
Among others who became
settlers prior to 1830 were:
B.P. Bradway.
Le Roy Burt, Madison J. Blodgett, C .W. Bronson, George Blossom,
Lyman Coats (one of the projectors of the Oswego County Pioneer Association),
Warren Coats, Seymour Coe, jr., Daniel R. Green, Alfred H. Greenwood,
R. F. Harding (for several years superintendent of the Oswego City
almshouse), Nathan Lewis, John Ostrander, Lewis Stevens, Philo Stone,
Willett R. Worden and James Wiltse.
Samuel Furniss
purchased a part of lot 26 in 1832 and John Parkinson, from England,
settled here in 1833. About 1832 Seymour Coe, sr., who had come
from Massachusetts to Onondaga county and thence in 1818 to Palermo, located
on lot 12 and died in 1877, aged nearly ninety years. In 1838 Abel Wilder
came from Madison county and purchased of Ansel Frost 437 acres
on lots 31 and 32. To 100 acres of this his son Eli succeeded. One Nine-Mile
Creek on this farm William Lewis, at a very early date, erected a saw mill,
which was rebuilt by Eli Wilder in 1838. Able Wilder died
in 1852, aged sixty-seven. December 18, 1816. Eli the eldest of three sons
and two daughters was born December 18, 1816.
During this decade---1830-40---the
following also became settlers:
James W. Brown, Eugene
M. Blodgett, T.S. Brigham, Richard Carrier, G.J Cornish, John Carpenter,
Benjamin P. Dutcher, John S. Furniss, Henry P. Fitch (long a justice
of the peace), William Gray, Dr. Ira I. Jones, Capt. James Jenkins (master
of a vessel out of Oswego for twenty-three years), C.G. Park, Walter
R. Perry, H.M. Potter, John Place, Hamilton L. Stearns and Vincent
Sabin.
Among those who
came during the years from 1840 to 1850 were H. A. Cornish, Simeon Lewis,
James Martin, Chester M. Randall, Frank Smith and Albert A. Sabin.
In “Historical
Collections of the State of New York,” published in 1846, two years before
Oswego was incorporated as a city, appears the following brief description
of this town:
Oswego was taken from
Hannibal in 1818. It has a level surface and a soil of sandy loam. Pop,
4,673. Oswego Village, post and half-shire town, port of entry and delivery
for Oswego district, is 45 miles W. from Sackett’s Harbor, 60 from Kinston
Upper Canada, 60 from the mouth of Genesse River, 140 from the mouth of
Niagara River, 150 from Toronto in a straight line, and 38 from Syracuse
on the Erie Canal. . . .The water power afforded by the canal and river
is very extensive, and upon them are many large manufacturing establishments.
In October, 1848, the
Oswego and Syracuse Railroad (now the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western
Railroad), was completed and opened through the town, with a station at
Minetto and the terminus at Oswego, and thus afforded a new avenue of transportation
and travel. This was followed about twenty-five years later by the Lake
Ontario Shore (now the R.W.& O.) Railroad southwestward from Oswego,
to aid in the construction of which the town was bonded for $30,000, of
which $3,000 remained unpaid January 1, 1895. J.A. Perkins is railroad
commissioner. There are two stations, Wheeler’s and Furniss, in the town
of Oswego.
Prominent among other
residents of the town may be mentioned the names of William Dams, Lewis
A. Cle, Silas Cushman, James A. Griffin, Stanton S. Gillett, D.D. and
E.B.
Colby, William Howell, Le Roy Pease, E. C. Pasco, Schuyler L. Parsons,
Waterman T. Parsons, Horace W. Todd, N.K. Hammond and others noticed
further on in Parts II and III of this volume.
As instances of longevity
it is interesting to add the names of three centenarians whose death occurred
in this, viz., Abram Emelow died in May 1877, age 102 years; Mrs.
W. Clark, May 13, 1880; aged 113 years, 9 months and 23 days; and Nathaniel
Laird, April 16, 1894, aged about 109.
The population of the
town at the periods indicated has been as follows: In 1830, 2,703;
1835, 4,002; 1840, 4,673; 1845, 6,048;
1850, 2,445; 1855, 2,700; 1860, 3,181;
1865, 2,913; 1870, 3,043; 1875, 2,977;
1880, 3,022; 1890, 2,772.
The figures given
prior to 1850 include the inhabitants in Oswego village on the west side
of the river; those for 1850 and afterward indicate the populations of
the town outside the corporate limits of the city.
From the fall of Sumter
in 1861 to the end of the Rebellion in 1865, the town of Oswego responded
promptly to the calls for troops, sending in all nearly 275 of her citizens.
A number fell in battle; a few died in Southern prisons; some succumbed
to wounds and the ravages of disease; and the remainder returned home to
receive the welcome and applause of a grateful people. Among those
who attained merited promotions were Capt. E.F. Barstow, Lieut. Smith
McCoy, Lieut. Charles A. Phillips, Capt. Volney T. Pierce, Capt. James
V. Pierce, Col. William C. Raulston (81st Regt., prisoner, killed),
Capt.
John Stevenson and Sergt. Richard A. Shoemaker.
The first school
in town was kept in a log cabin just south of the four corners at Union
Village in 1813; the teacher was Susan Newell. The first regular
school house was a frame structure, which was erected in 1816 on the site
of the present cobblestone school building at Union Village. The town now
contains fifteen school districts with a school house in each, schools
in which were taught in 1892-3 by seventeen teachers and was attended by
563 pupils. The school building and sites are valued at $11,200;
assessed valuation of the districts, $890,563; money received from the
State, $ 2,093,95; raised by local tax, $2,301.82. The districts are locally
designated as follows; No.1, California; 2, Fruit Valley; 3, Minetto; 4,
Number Nine; 5, Worden; 6, Fair Ground; 7, Stephens; 8, Tallman; 9, Burt;
10, Oswego Center; 11, Thompson; 12, Southwest Oswego; 13, Ball;
14, Hall; 15, Bunker Hill.
Supervisor’s statistics
of 1894: Assessed valuation of real estate, $892,882, equalized, $1,124,279;
personal property, $25,950; value of railroads, $14.14 miles, $129,054;
total valuation of town, $1,124,279; town tax, $2,539.51; county tax, $6,295.96;
total tax levy, $11,180.81; dog tax, $84; ratio of tax on $100, $1.22.
The town has two election districts, in which 573 votes were cast in November,
1894.
Minetto
is a post village on the Oswego River and a station on the D., L. &
W. Railroad about four miles above Oswego city. It is pleasantly situated
in the midst of picturesque scenery, and acquired some prominence as a
local summer resort. It occupies lot 29. The first tavern was opened in
the place as early as 1820 by Mrs. Betsey Pease, and among the early
settlers on the site were Messrs. Pease, Forbes, and Everts. About
1832 Samuel Taggart built a grist mill here, which was long since
discontinued. Among the old-time merchants were Henry Fichard and
A. Oot. At one time a large saw mill was operated here.
It stood on the site of the shade cloth factory and had a capacity of 20,000
feet of lumber every twenty four hours. The postmaster is John
R. Chase, who succeeded Dr. Ira L. Jones in April, 1894. The
chief industry of the village now is that of the Minetto Shade Cloth Company,
which was started in the fall of 1879 by the present proprietors, A.S.
Page, C.B. Benson, and Charles Tremain. From 250 to 350 operatives
are employed, and window shades and shade rollers are manufactured. The
village contains two hotels and about 300 inhabitants.
Fruit Valley,
formerly and still locally known as Union Village, a name given it by Asa
Rice, the first settler of the town, is a postal hamlet on lot 2, near
the lake shore, and was the scene of many of the first happenings in Oswego,
as already narrated. A small tannery was built and operated there by a
Mr.
Nelson at a very early day, and a bout 1825 Willet R. Willis
erected a cloth-dressing establishment on the same lot. The first merchant
was a Mrs. Neland, from Massachusetts, and the first tavern was
opened in a log house by Lemuel Austin about 1810. He was
succeeded by William Lewis, and the latter about 1813 by Jacob
Raynor. The first carpenter was Chester Brace, and the first
blacksmith was Arthur Brace. The first physician was Dr. Coe,
and the first mail carrier was Mills Brace, the post –office at
the time and for many years afterward bearing the name of Union Village.
B.B. Bradway was a long time merchant and also had a cider mill.
The present postmaster E. Newell; who succeeded Louisa E. Bradway.
South West Oswego
is a postal village in the southwestern part of the town. The first house,
a log structure, was built there in 1820; the first blacksmith shop was
opened by Stephen Cobb about 1833; and the first store was kept
by Asa Watson about 1844. The present postmaster is Charles M.
Barstow. The place contains tow churches, and the usual complement
of stores and shops, and about 300 inhabitants.
Oswego Center
is a postal hamlet situated north of the R., W. & O. Railroad near
the center of the town. It is located on lot 13 and for many years was
familiarly known as Fitch’s Corners. The present merchant and postmaster
is Charles A. Fish, who has held the office several years.
A former postmaster and merchant was William C. Marsh. Frank Smith
formerly had a tavern there. About half a mile northwest of the place
in the cider refinery of James A Griffin, who started it as a cider
mill in 1862.
Burt’s Point,
owned by George N. Burt, of Oswego, is an attractive summer resort
on the lake shore about three miles west of Oswego city, with which it
is connected by an electric street railroad. The place contains a
number of summer cottages.
Churches.---From 1811
to 1813 two sermons were preached at Union Village, one by Rev. Roswell
Beckwith, a Baptist and an uncle of Mrs. Jesse Gray, and by
a Methodist itinerant named Gillett. Subsequently classes were formed
and occasional services held convenient places, but during
the earlier years the inhabitants worshiped in Oswego village and city
and in Fulton.
The Methodist Episcopal
church of Minetto was organized as the First Society of the M.E. church
of the town of Oswego at the Dennis school house on November 15, 1848,
with Daniel Scott, Abraham Fort, Mynard Grooesbeck, Le Roy Burt,
and Robert Fulford as trustees. Rev. M.H. Gaylord and
Samuel
L. Lent presided, and among the constituent members were:
Mynard
and Phoebe Grooesbeck, George and Betsey Burch, Samuel and
Catherine Lent, Perry and Myra Chase, John and Eleanor Myers,
Robert and Sarah Fulford, Caroline Armstrong, is Everts, Sally
Dennis, Caroline Brown, Dibby Rheubottom, and Harry Miller
and wife.
Mr. Miller was
the first class-leader in this vicinity. In 1849 a church edifice was erected
at a cost of $700, and dedicated in the fall of that year by Rev. Hiram
Mattison. In 1892 this building was replaced by the present neat
frame structure, which cost about $3,000 and was dedicated early in 1893,
being built during the pastorate of Rev. Mr. Culligan. The
society also owns a frame parsonage, which was purchased in the fall of
1894 for $1,500. There are about ninety members under the pastoral charge
of Rev. Jesse F. Rathbun. The first superintendent of the Sunday
school was Jonathan Buel; the present incumbent is Frank Parkhurst.
The entire church property is valued at $8,000.
The Baptist church of
South West Oswego was formed in 1839, among the earlier members being C.G.
Parks, William Curtis, Stephen Cagg, Mrs. C. Dunsmore, Mrs. Newell,
and Mr. Merwin. The first stationed pastor was Rev. Edward Lawton,
and the early services were held in a wooden building fitted up for the
purpose. In 1854 a frame church edifice was built, and tow years later
the first Sunday school was organized with John B. McLean as superintendent,
who was succeeded by John D. Andrews. Among the early pastors were
Revs.
H. Powers, Isaac Butterfield, Morley, Parkhurst, William
C. Corbin, and W.C. Johnson. The present pastor is Rev.
A.H. Sutphin. Miss Mattie Pasko is superintendent of the Sunday school,
which has about 100 officers and scholars. The society has some eighty-five
members and property valued at $4,000.
The First Methodist
Episcopal church of South West Oswego was organized from the Oswego center
circuit on December 9, 1872, with the following trustees: Vincent Sabin,
James Wiltse, John A. Taylor, E.A. Carnrite, Benjamin P. Dutcher,
O. Barstow, and William E. Stevens. The Oswego Center
circuit was set off in 1859 and meetings were held at Oswego Center and
Minetto. Among the early ministers in charge were Revs. R.L. Frazier,
George Plank, A. Shaw, D. Furgeson, A.J. Cotrell, George
C. Wood, Charles E. Beebe, W.F. Purrington, and others. A brick
church was erected in 1873 under the supervision of P.M. Schoonmaker,
and cost complete $3,600. It was dedicated February 4, 1874, by Rev.
B.F. Barker, P.E. In the latter year a Sunday school was organized
with O. Barstow as superintendent. In 1892 a frame church
was built at Oswego Center at a cost of about $2,300, including lot and
furnishings, and dedicated in December of that year. The society
also owns a frame parsonage. There is also an M.E. church, a frame structure,
located at what is known as Town Line. All three are in the
Oswego Center charge, under the pastoral care of Rev. George F. Shepard,
and have a combined membership of about 140 and property valued at $10,000.
Services of the Methodist
Protestant denomination are held at the Thompson school house, the pastor
being Rev. Charles Hessler.