Last Modified february 12, 2003
Click here to go back to RootsWeb page for the Towns of Cazenovia, Fenner, and Nelson
The
various Gazetteers of New York State hold tons of great material on what
the communities of NY were like at the time these works were compiled.
Beginning with the 1810 American Gazetteer of Jedediah Morse and
the fantastic 1813 Gazetteer by H.G. Spafford, and including his
1824 revision, Gordon's 1836 Gazetteer, Barber & Howe's 1841
Historical
Collections, Disternell's 1842/1843 Gazetteer, Mather &
Brockett's 1848 Geographical History of New York, the well known
French's 1860 Gazetteer, and the 1872 Hough's Gazetteer,
as well as Hamilton Child's 1868 Gazetteer and Business Directory of
Madison County for 1868/1869, and John E. Smith's 1899 Our County
and Its People: A Descriptive and Biographical Record of Madison County,
New York, I present the full and unabridged texts that describe
Madison County and the Towns of Cazenovia, Fenner, and Nelson.
Although
the material presented in the various texts was obviously derived, in some
cases word for word, from the earlier gazetteers, there are many updates
and new sections that warrant presentation of all the texts in their entirety.
I made no corrections or comments to the content of the texts (although
many are needed), except in the instance of the Madison County text in
Child's 1868 work where the erroneous record of the 1780
Walter Vrooman expedition cannot be left alone without some corrective
comments. I have included images of tables, and abstracts of others,
and in only one case, the reiteration of the lengthy newspaper list derived
from French by Child, did I summarize the text and present only the material
that was different in the latest version. Some sections are missing,
but I will add them and others as I obtain copies.
Click on the following categories to go to the texts:
Descriptions of the Town of Cazenovia in Gazetteers, 1810 to 1899
Descriptions of the Town of Fenner in Gazetteers, 1813 to 1899
Descriptions of the Town of Nelson in Gazetteers, 1813 to 1899
I am still in need of copies of the following sections:
1813 Spafford = Town of Nelson,
1824 Spafford = Town of Fenner
(still listed as Smithfield?), and, of course,
additional texts from gazetteers that I do not already have!