*
Edited from: Dwight H. Bruce, Onondaga's Centennial. Boston History Co.,
1896, Vol. I, pp. 807-824.
*Author's Note: The source
of this page is noted above. I have
highlighted Eastwood references
in blue.
Both Oneida Lake and
River presented a busy scene in the early years of the town with the passage of
the many boats of the Inland Lock and Navigation Company, which was chartered in
1792. By the improvements made by this company, Durham boats, sixty feet or
more in length, carrying twenty tons, and drawing two feet of water, passed from
Schenectady to Seneca Lake or Oswego with only short portages. As many as three
hundred boats passed the Rome portage in a single year. It was over this route
that nearly all the early settlers of the Cicero section of the State arrived.
All the early settlers in this town located along Oneida Lake and River, and they found it an unwholesome locality, like many others that in later years became healthful. The pioneers suffered much from fever and ague and other diseases common to the miasmic influence of new countries, and some of them were at times distressed for food. The lack of water power postponed the erection of saw mills, the first one not being built until 1823 by Moses and Freeman Hotchkiss. The absence of grist mills long compelled the inhabitants to go great distances for their flour, while the clearing of land was unrenumerative because of no early saw mills to convert the forests into lumber. These drawbacks involved the loss of time and money, militated against the rapid development of the town, and are the chief reasons why the inhabitants were less prosperous in early years than those of other localities. As the settlements advanced, however, in the western and northern parts, a source of income was developed which greatly benefited later comers. This was through the manufacture of barrels for the salt industry at Salina. For many years Cicero and Clay supplied a large portion of the salt packages used, and employed so large a part of the men and boys in the town that agriculture was generally neglected. This brought revenue, but it was not conducive to permanent settlement nor to the best interests of the community. When the timber had been cut and made into barrels the people turned their attention to farm improvement and inaugurated the period of prosperity that has ever since continued.
In the early days, the village of Cicero was known as Cody's Corner's, named after Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Cody, pioneering settlers and business people, who moved from the village around 1833. They are best remembered for building a part of the Parker House, in which Samuel Cushing at one time had a store. This hostelry was rebuilt under Judson Settle and was kept by Ebenezer Crowell, Ira Colson, A. S. Auborn, George Crownhart and his father, Spencer Hawn, and others. Local naval war hero and respected politician, Asa Eastwood and his youngest son, Enos, erected what was long known as the "old yellow store," which, after them, was kept by Julius Dunham, Allen Merriam, Irving Coonley, Horace D. Parks, and James Van Alstine.
On the 20th of
February, 1807, the civil town of Cicero, comprising military township No. 6, of
the same name, and including the present town of Clay, was erected into a
separate town by an act of the State Legislature, and soon afterward the first
town meeting convened at the house of Patrick McGee at Three River Point, the
moderator being Moses Kinne. The first officers were Thomas Pool, supervisor,
and Elijah Loomis, town clerk. The town records were burned in 1851, with the
store of Charles H. Carr, who was at that time town clerk, and it is therefore
impossible to preserve in these pages the many names and interesting items of
local history which they would necessarily contain.
*Author's Note: Lose of the Town Records from
1807-1851 is most unfortunate as Asa Eastwood moved to Cicero in 1817, residing
there until his death in 1870.
One of the earliest roads of much importance in Cicero was authorized by the State Legislature in 1812 and opened soon afterward direct from Salina to Brewerton. This became well known as the "Salt Road." The money necessary for the poor thoroughfare that resulted was advanced by the State, and a tax levied on contiguous lands to repay it, and along the route of this highway the first plank road in the United States was constructed in 1846, extending from Salina to Central Square (Oswego county), at a cost of about $1,500 per mile. In 1873 this plank road was abandoned from Central Square to Brewerton and in 1876 from Brewerton to Cicero Corners, and from the latter point to Salina is still maintained.
The war of 1812-15 caused much excitement throughout the settled portions of the town, not only from the sight of soldiers passing down the lake and river to Oswego, but from alarming reports which spread among the inhabitants from time to time. Many settlers joined in the defense of Oswego and Sackett's Harbor, while nearly the entire male population was kept in readiness to march in case of emergency. No sooner had this struggle ceased than the famous "cold season" of 1816 swept over the country, bringing with the following winter a universal scarcity of provisions and causing great suffering to both man and beast. But from these two events the pioneers soon recovered, and thence forward general prosperity prevailed.
The 1816 “cold season”
no doubt contributed to the demise of the elderly couple who owned the 107 acre
parcel of land along the shore of Oneida
Lake which New York City businessman and
politician, 
Asa Eastwood, purchased, sight unseen, from their estate in 1817. Asa Eastwood, born in Allentown, N.J., in 1781, came to Cicero with his family,
in 1817, bringing the first wagon and threshing machine into the town. He was
particularly interested in the welfare of the county agricultural society. On
March 13, 1821, he was appointed a justice of the peace and the same year was
elected a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. From 1822 to 1825, he
returned to live in New York City, leaving the management of his farm to his
wife, Mary, and two eldest sons, William and Benjamin.
After his return to Cicero, he was engaged in the salt business for a short time in neighboring Salina. In 1832, he was elected to the New York State Assembly. He was a Jeffersonian Democrat until 1856, when, being staunchly opposed to slavery, he affiliated with the Republican Party. He died peacefully on the Eastwood Cicero farm, February 25, 1870, having just reached the tender age of 89. His funeral was attended by numerous important politicians, as well as a large turnout of members of the state’s Masonic lodges.
Dr. Hezekiah Joslyn settled in Cicero in 1823 and for many years was the principal physician in town. Having completed his medical studies, he left Sandville, Oneida County, on horseback, and traveled around Oneida Lake to Cicero, where he found the town’s first and only, doctor, Dr. Orcutt. Approaching retirement age, Orcutt was eager to sell his medical practice, which Dr. Joslyn quickly purchased. Dr. Joslyn was a staunch Abolitionist who became one of the founders of the 'Liberty Party’. The young doctor was a profound thinker and always a liberal supporter of every good movement. It was only natural that Dr. Joslyn would befriend local community leader, Asa Eastwood, a strong-willed religious man, who shared the doctor’s intellectual background, as well as, his strong, liberal, social and political views. They remained close friends and political comrades for over 50 years until Dr. Joslyn died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. M. J. Gage, in Fayetteville, in 1865.
Among other Cicero area settlers before 1840, the following are still remembered: Alexander and Quartus Cushing, David Shepard, Hiram and John R. Wright, Charles Wright, Joseph Douglass, Dr. H. Joslyn, Isaac Brown, Gibbs Skiff, Ira Hall, James Anderson, Bartholomew Andrews, Noah Merriam, Nathan Botsford, Isaac Myers, William Hill, Burr Hackett, Benjamin Eastwood, Zebulon Weaver.
Chester Loomis came to Cicero in 1823 and purchased the farm of 150 acres upon which a Mr. Lynch had built a substantial dwelling in 1809. Here he died September 5, 1851, aged sixty-six years. His son Addison J. succeeded to the homestead. Another son, Henry H., the youngest of his twelve children, was born here April 20, 1833, served as county superintendent of the poor from 1875 to 1881, and finally became a partner of Hoyt H. Freeman, of Syracuse, in manufacturing willow baskets on an extensive scale. in 1877 he associated himself with others in the erection of a large canning factory in Cicero village, which is now owned by Loomis, Allen & Co.
Lauren Plant, born in Benson, Vt., March 7, 1817, came to this town in 1833 and for thirty-five years served as constable. He was also collector and town clerk, carried on butchering for a quarter of a century, manufactured salt barrels, and being a carpenter by trade assisted in erecting many of the buildings standing in Cicero and vicinity. His son Byron is the present town clerk (January, 1896).
David H. Hoyt, born in 1813, migrated to Cicero in 1836, and with his brother Jacob purchase 136 acres of land. He married a daughter of Bartholomew Andrews, who was born here in 1823 and died in 1877.
In 1845 the town contained 223 militia, 597 voters, 624 school children, 8,192 acres of improved land, one saw mill, two asheries, three tanneries, three churches (Baptist, M. E., and Dutch Reformed), sixteen common schools, four taverns, six stores, 450 farmers, seven merchants, fifty mechanics, two physicians, and two lawyers. Contrast these with the following statistics of 1860: Acres of improved land, 14,376; valuation of real estate, $628,523, and personal property, $42,200; dwellings, 642; families, 689; freeholders, 529; school district, 15; school children, 1,305; horses, 901; oxen and calves, 1,274; cows, 1,324; sheep, 2,253; swine, 1,552; winter wheat, 1,920 bushels; spring wheat, 113,649 bushels; hay, 3,391 tons; potatoes, 24,842 bushels; apples, 20,131 bushels; butter, 129,140 pounds; cheese, 28,035 pounds; domestic cloths, 2,905 yards.
Isaac Coonley, great-grandson of John Coonley, emigrated from Germany to Dutchess County, N.Y., about 1750. He was born in Albany County in 1810, taught school and learned the weaver's trade, and in 1838 settled in Jamesville, whence he moved to this town in 1849, where he died November 16, 1876. He was count supervisor for four terms, justice of the peace four years, and the father of Irving Coonley, who for sixteen years was postmaster and long a merchant at Cicero, being in partnership with Isaac Merriam and later with Russell Z. Sadler.
During the war of the Rebellion from 1861 to 1865 the town contributed a large number of brave and heroic soldiers to the Union armies, responding promptly to every call. Patriotism and excitement ran high. Numerous war meetings were held, notably one on May 4, 1861, at Brewerton, when the names of fifty-four citizens were enrolled with Henry Emmons as captain. Cicero's record in that eventful struggle is pre-eminently a brilliant one and will forever illuminate the pages of history.
* Edited from: Dwight H. Bruce, Onondaga's Centennial. Boston History Co., 1896, Vol. I, pp. 807-824.
