6 IN AND OUT OF ITHACA. 



the Tompkins House now stands, calling it the ' ' Ithaca 

 Hotel." It was from this fact that the place came to 

 be generally known by the name of Ithaca, although 

 Mr. DeWitt had bestowed that name upon it some years 

 previously. The village had before that been common- 

 ly called ' ' The Flats, " " The City, ' ' or l ' Sodom. ' ' In 

 1810 Mr. DeWitt wrote from Albany: "The place to 

 which I purpose to go when I have no business here, is 

 a village of at least thirty houses. * * * If I 

 should live twenty years longer, I am confident that I 

 should see Ithaca as important a place as Utica is 

 now ' ' ; and in a letter from Ithaca, dated the same 

 year, he says, "I find this village considerably in- 

 creased since I was here before. I have counted thirty- 

 eight dwelling houses, among which are, one very large, 

 elegant three-story house for a hotel, and five of two 

 stories ; the rest of one story, all generally neat frame 

 buildings. Besides these, there are a school-house, and 

 buildings for merchants' stores, and shops for carpen- 

 ters, cabinet-makers, blacksmiths, coopers, tanners ; 

 and we have besides, shoe-makers, tailors, two lawyers, 

 one doctor, watch-cleaner, turner, miller, hatter, etc." 

 With all this apparent prosperity, however, there were 

 only two or three marriageable young ladies, and some 

 forty eligible young men. 



So favorably started with a name and a tavern, 

 Ithaca steadily grew and prospered. The turnpike to 

 Owego, completed about 1808, and that to Geneva, com- 

 pleted about 181 1, gave increased shipping facilities, and 

 the demand for Cayuga plaster, caused by the war of 



