Historian's Corner



Charlene Cole
Sandy Creek/Lacona Historian
Historian's Corner
May 8, 2016

Photo: Balsey District School

As we continue researching one room schools for the upcoming book I wanted to share some of the interesting information we found and encourage my readers to share family stories.

May School District was on the southwest corner of today?s Hilton Road, originally known as the Warner Road. It was established about 1825 and was named after Darwin May who owned a large farm in the western part of the town. His brother Martin L. May was Justice of the Peace.

Marie Parsons wrote: "Raymond Herring, one of Gramp Kent's hired men, grew up in what had been the May District and he said that his mother held him back from school until he was 7 because they had closed May

Schoolhouse and he had to walk all the way up over the hill and down to the Balsey District School which was located opposite the east end of the Rainbow Shores Road. That was sometime in the 1890?s. The Balsey School was built after May/Warner District School was closed to serve the families in the combined districts."

CHASING TRAINS - THE HISTORY OF RAIL CITY: Saturday, June 4th at the Sandy Creek Town Hall, 1992 Harwood Drive, Sandy Creek at 7PM. The program is free and open to the public - refreshments will be served.

Rail City Museum was considered to be the first steam operating railroad museum in the United States. It was located in the Oswego County Town of Sandy Creek on the shores of Sandy Pond. The railroad theme park opened on the same day as the first Disneyland in California - July 4, 1955. Bob Groman utilized his father's photo collection of the Rail City Historical Museum and will share his research, photographs, and 16 mm digitized film in a fascinating one hour presentation.

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