LOOKING BACK: Jefferson, Skoi-Yase became Waterloo

Media file	Title: LOOKING BACK: Jefferson, Skoi-Yase became Waterloo Media type: story Format:
Record ID number	8db672d1-73c9-443d-88cf-cc5d0da1e5fa
OBJE:DATE	1816
OBJE:PLAC	Waterloo, Seneca, New York
OBJE:_DSCR	http://www.fltimes.com/lifestyle/looking-back-jefferson-skoi-yase-became-waterloo/article_af50f898-0631-11e5-b650-13a7912c15b9.html. By WALT GABLE May 31, 2015
OBJE:_META	<metadataxml><content><line><p><span style="font-size: small;"></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'open sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;">This article discusses how the present-day Waterloo village started out as two different communities &mdash; one on each side of the Seneca River &mdash; and grew into one community with the name of Waterloo in 1816.</span></p></line><line><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px; font-family: 'open sans';">Samuel Bear was the first permanent European-American (white) settler in what is today the village of Waterloo. He came in 1792 from Lancaster County, Pa. He soon realized that he could use the Seneca River outlet as water power for a grist mill. He could not buy this land because of an Indian treaty of 1789. That treaty had reserved to the Cayugas a one-mile square piece of land on the south side of the Seneca River, an area known as Skoi-yase in a portion of Military Lot No. 4. So, Bear simply made arrangements with the Cayugas to use the land and settle upon it.</p></line><line><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px; font-family: 'open sans';">In spring 1793 he created a dam on the river and erected a grist mill. This grist mill was one of the earliest in the central Finger Lakes area and became a mecca for area farmers. The nearly immediate success of this grist mill prompted Bear to start a general store.</p></line><line><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px; font-family: 'open sans';">A 1795 treaty between the Cayugas and New York state made the state the owner of the lands Bear was using. On March 27, 1799, a new state law granted Samuel Bear ownership of 100 hundred acres of land with a $275 mortgage at 6 percent interest. Following this acquisition, Samuel Bear employed David Cook, a well-known surveyor of Geneva, to lay out for him a plot for a village. The resulting map refers to &ldquo;Town Plot of the Village of Jefferson at the Scoyes in Seneca County.&rdquo;</p></line><line><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px; font-family: 'open sans';">There is confusion as to what name to use to refer to his settlement. Bear himself called it &ldquo;Mount Jefferson&rdquo; at times, although the David Cook map used &ldquo;Jefferson.&rdquo; It was in the area called &ldquo;Skoi-yase&rdquo; or its variant spellings Scayau, Skoies, Scoyes, Schauyas and Jefferson at the Scoyes. The 1806 Field Book of the Unappropriated Lands in the Military Tract refers to the place as &ldquo;Beartown.&rdquo; This settlement on the south side of the Seneca River was commonly known as Skoi-yase because of the Iroquois name for the area.</p></line><line><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px; font-family: 'open sans';">Samuel Bear died unexpectedly on Sept. 25, 1807, but his settlement on the south side of the river continued to grow with many new businesses. Fayette Street became the center of business at Skoi-yase, and remained so for all of the time that the south side of the river constituted the main or larger part of the present village.</p></line><line><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px; font-family: 'open sans';">The history of the community on the north side of the Seneca River began in 1795 when Jabez built a dwelling/tavern just west of the present Gorham Street. About 1803 a small wooden bridge was built over the outlet southeast of the Gorham house/tavern. Within a short time there were a few other houses in the area, largely because of the new turnpike route on present-day Main Street.</p></line><line><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px; font-family: 'open sans';">In December 1807, the state gave title to much of the present village lands on the north side of the Seneca River to John McKinstry. McKinstry then conveyed these lands to Elisha Williams for $2,000. Williams was a noted lawyer in Hudson, N.Y. and so busy in his hometown that he relied upon his agent, Reuben Swift, to represent him in Seneca County. In 1809, Williams and Swift had these lands surveyed and staked out as farm lots. It is believed that the settlement north of the Seneca River became known as New Hudson because of Swift&rsquo;s influence and his desire to recognize the home of his boss.</p></line><line><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px; font-family: 'open sans';">Both communities &mdash; Skoi-yase on the south side of the river and New Hudson on the north side &mdash; were growing, especially with the economic stimulus immediately after the end of the War of 1812. The two communities were basically growing into each other.</p></line><line><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px; font-family: 'open sans';">In 1816, a public meeting of the residents of both sides of the river was held to consider adopting a common name for the two settlements &mdash; which now were basically one. Simply stated, Skoi-yase residents weren&rsquo;t willing to become New Hudson, and vice versa. An old soldier present at the meeting suggested the new name of &ldquo;Waterloo,&rdquo; in that the recent great victory of the Duke of Wellington over Napoleon was instilled in everyone&rsquo;s minds. His suggestion was accepted. Since then, the entire village &mdash; north and south of the Seneca River &mdash; has been known as Waterloo, even though parts of the village are in the town of Waterloo and the southern part in the town of Fayette.</p></line><line><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px; font-family: 'open sans';">As in interesting added comment, Edwin Valentine Mitchell&rsquo;s book It&rsquo;s an Old New England Custom states that the community of Waterloo, N.H. was named for Waterloo, N.Y. Two New Hampshire deputy sheriffs chased a fugitive from New Hampshire into New York and captured him in Waterloo. The deputy sheriffs were so impressed with the village&rsquo;s beauty that they not only brought back their man, but also the name of the place where they caught him.</p></line><line><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px; font-family: 'open sans';">Until about 1816 the main business of the village was conducted on the south side of the river. Since about 1816, the majority of the population and business activity of the village of Waterloo has been on the northern side.</p></line><line><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px; font-family: 'open sans';"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Gable is the Seneca County historian.</em></p></line></content></metadataxml>
OBJE:_CREA	2020-03-10 20:36:49.000
OBJE:_CLON	_TID: 2262762 _PID: 380009972911 _OID: bf44dcfb-30a4-4742-bac8-c217974b18e0
OBJE:_ORIG	u
Unique identifier	3A93F182F3E24CC4AABF38BCB859C471C864

Alive Dead Death>100 Death<=100 Birth>100 Birth<=100 Roots Leaves
Given names	Surname	Sosa	Birth		Place		Death		Age	Place	Last change
Samuel Bear (Major) Father: John Jacob Bear Mother: Elizabeth Meyer				August 12, 1770	253	Somerset, Somerset, Pennsylvania	0	September 25, 1807	216	37	Waterloo, Seneca, New York, United States	Never	M	YES	YES

Both alive Widower Widow Both dead Roots Leaves Not married Marriage>100 Marriage<=100 Divorce Multiple marriages
Given names	Surname	Age	Given names	Surname	Age	Marriage		Place		Last change