SCHUYLER COUNTY 



Schuyler County is located in the wesl central part of the state 

 at the head of Seneca Lake. It has an area of 215,040 acres. 

 From north to south its extent varies from 12 to IS miles; from 

 east to west it extends approximately 22 miles. The population 

 is shown in the following table: 



Population, by Towns 



(Census of 1915) 



Catherine 1 , 192 Reading 1 , 385 



Cayuta 346 Tyrone 1 ,257 



Dix* 3, 568 



Hector 3,548 Total 13,954 



Montour 1,676 ■ 



Orange 982 



* Watkins, in the town of Dix, is the county seat. 

 HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS 



This county was formed from Steuben, Chenango, and Tomp- 

 kins in 1854, and named from General Philip Schuyler, the 

 Revolutionary leader and patriot. In 1779, when General Sul- 

 livan made his raid into western New York for the purpose of 

 punishing the Indians, there were within the limits of Schuyler 

 County several towns and villages laid out with considerable 

 regularity. Some of the Indians were living in painted frame 

 houses with chimneys. They had large fields of corn and beans 

 and extensive orchards of apples, pears, and peaches. So numerous 

 were the fruit trees, that one orchard alone contained 1,500 trees. 



When peace was concluded many settlements were made by 

 soldiers who had belonged to the army. The first settlements in 

 the county were made on Catharine's Creek near the present site 

 of Havana in 1788, and on the shores of Seneca Lake in 1790. 



Mary Jemison, the celebrated " white woman " of the Genesee, 

 who was adopted by the Indians when a child, lived for a time in 

 a village at the head of Seneca Lake. Another woman prominent 

 in the early history of Schuyler County was Catharine Montour, 

 a French woman who married an Indian and was adopted into 

 the Seneca tribe. She resided on the present site of Havana and 

 was know as Queen Catharine. For many years she received a 

 small salary from the English colonial government because of 

 her influence among the Indians. 



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