Historian's Corner



Charlene Cole
Sandy Creek/Lacona Historian
Historian's Corner
January 26, 2016

Photo: Early Map of Washingtonville and Sandy Creek Station One hundred ninety-one years ago on March 24, 1825 the Town of Sandy Creek was formed. The following history was compiled by T. T. Davies and printed in the Centennial Souvenir History in1925.  “The town that we now call Sandy Creek became legally so in 1825. From 1807 down to the date just mentioned it was an appendage of the town of Richland, but at the beginning of the year 1825, the population of the north part of Richland was deemed sufficient for a separate municipal organization, and on the 24th day of March, in that year, the town of Sandy Creek was formed, with its present boundaries by an act ofthe legislature.  The first town meeting was held on the first Tuesday in May of the same year.  It was also suggested that the village becalled Washingtonville, but the name never became popular.  It was finally abandoned and the name by which the village is known at present became fully established.” 

“The decade between 1820 and1850 marked real progress in the life of the community.  The log-house with its small windows and rough interior and scanty furniture had to give place to more pretentious dwellings.  Homes, commodious and comfortable, were erected on farms and in the village.  Roads were surveyed and travel became easier, which brought the people in closer touch with the outside world.  Among the new comers of the decade was Jotham Newton, father of Pitt M. Newman, who was born on the Ridge Road in 1825, Leman Baldwin, Miles Blodgett, William H. Bellinger, Herman M. Stevens, Leander Tifft, John Wilderand others.  Mr. Blodgett conducted a tannery in the southeast corner of the town for fifty years.” “In the decade which followed, mention should be made of John Edwards, and his son, Alfred, Hon. Andrew S.Warner , William H. Cottrell, Joel Morey, Ira Oyer, William Stevens, Newton M.Thompson and Col. Thomas S. Meacham, who were boosters among their fellow townsmen.  Hon. Andrew S. Warner was a true leader, and elected member of the Assembly, and later became State Senator, and during the Civil War was Colonel of the 147th N.Y. Volunteers.”

Charlene Cole
Sandy Creek/Lacona Historian
1992 Harwood Drive
Sandy Creek, NY 13145
315-387-5456 x7
office hours: Friday 9am to 2pm
www.sandycreeknyhistory.com