Town Historian
Information was obtained from the Historical & Statistical Gazetteer of New York State, R. P. Smith, Publisher, Syr., 1860, by J. H. French.
The first settlement was made in 1806, by Martin OWENS, Abel and Joseph B. AMES, Ebenezer LOOMIS, and Sylvanus ALLEN. Deacon SMITH, from Mass., settled in the town in 1808, and Hiram NICKERSON in 1810. The first birth was that of Azariah AMES. The first inn was kept by Deacon SMITH, in 1812. The first school was taught by Caroline BARNES, IN 1810. The first church (Presb.) was organized
in 1843. The census reports 2 churches; Presb. and F. W. Bap.
This information was generously donated, by the West Monroe Historical Society, and transcribed by Mary Lou Guindon. WEST MONROE,
N.Y.
AN ALL BUT FORGOTTEN PAST- The beginnings of the town of West Monroe are sketchy because of limited record keeping. In 1768 Sir William Johnson, as representative of the English, made an agreement with the Mohawk and Oneida Tribes of the Iroquois, that lands west of Rome and Susquehanna were not to be open for white men to purchase. In 1772 all the land from this line to the western boundaries of New York were established as a new county named Tyron for the royal governor at the time. After the Revolutionary War, the lands in what became Oswego County were transferred from Indian to New York State possession. In a treaty with the Onondagas, Cayugas, and Oneidas made in 1788 the Oneidas retained one half mile square every six miles along the north shore of Oneida Lake for fishing sites. All other Oswego County lands became State owned and by 1789 tracts of land were offered as bounty lands. The tract in which West Monroe is situated was first purchased by John and Nicholas Roosevelt, and they, less than a year later in 1792, sold it to George Scriba. In that same year the first town was established, Mexico.... Scriba began a settlement in 1793 at Rotterdam, which was the name for Constantia..... Scriba had the surveyor, Benjamin Wright, lay out townships in his tract that were an average of forty square miles each. To township #12, which later became West Monroe, Scriba gave the name Delft for a city in Holland which was his native land...... Settlement in Delft began in 1806 when Martin Owens, Abel Ames, Joseph B. Ames, Ebenezer Loomis, and Sylvanus Allen located their farms in the township.... In 1808 the township
of Rotterdam, together with Delft and Breda (now Hastings) were organized
as a town apart from Mexico. The new town was named Constantia.
That same year Deacon Smith came from Massachusetts and settled near what
became the West Monroe-Hastings town line at Mallory. That first
year he built his house and began the first saw mill in town. ... The county
of Oswego was formed from Oneida and Onondaga Counties in 1816....
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