History of Syracuse: New York

Syracuse NY was first settled in 1788. The city was founded in 1848. The salt springs, discovered in 1648 spurred the salt making industry, which lasted until after the civil war. Syracuse was a hub of the Erie Canal (1819), which further spurred it’s growth.

Syracuse is home to the Onondaga Nation, which has a great history of it’s own. Hiawatha was from the Onondaga Nation and helped form the Iroquois Confederacy.

Many famous entertainers have lived in the Syracuse area, including Gordon MacRae (Oklahoma Musical), Richard Gere and The Baldwin Brothers. Also, Carmen Basilio, a former boxing champion was from Canastota, near Syracuse. Canastota is the home of the Boxing Hall of Fame. James St. in Syracuse is named after Henry James, a famous author.

The Syracuse area was first seen by Europeans when French missionaries came to the area in the 1600s. A group of Jesuit priests, soldiers, and coureurs des bois (including Pierre Esprit Radisson) set up a mission, known as Saint Marie Among the Iroquois or Ste. Marie de Gannentaha, on the northeast shore of Onondaga Lake at the invitation of the Onondaga Nation, one of the five constituent members of the Iroquois confederacy.

The mission was short lived, as the Mohawk Nation hinted to the Onondaga that they should sever their ties to the French, or the Onondaga’s guests would suffer some horrible fate. The men in the mission caught wind of this and left under cover of a cold night in March. Their entire stay was less than two years. The remains of the mission have been located underneath a restaurant in nearby Liverpool, NY. There is now a living history museum in Liverpool that recreates the mission.

After the Revolutionary War, more settlers came to the area, mostly to trade with the Onondaga Nation. Ephraim Webster left the Continental Army to settle in the area in 1784, and Asa Danforth, another revolutionary war hero, arrived afterward. Salt was discovered in several swamps in Syracuse, which brought more settlers to the area, and eventually gave the city the nickname “Salt City”.

he original settlement went through several name changes until 1824, first being called Webster’s Landing (1786), then Bogardus Corners (1796), Milan (1809), South Salina (1812), Cossits’ Corners (1814), and Corinth (1817). The U.S. Postal Service rejected the name Corinth upon its application for a post office, stating there was already a post office by this name in New York. Due to similarities such as a salt industry and a neighboring village named Salina, the name Syracuse was chosen, after Syracuse, Italy.

In 1825, the Village of Syracuse was officially incorporated. Five years later, the Erie Canal, which ran through the village, was completed. In 1848, Syracuse merged with nearby Salina to become the City of Syracuse. The opening of the canal caused a steep increase in the sale of salt, not simply due to the improved and lower cost of transportation, but because the canal caused New York farms to change from wheat to pork, and curing pork required salt. As salt production climbed, the processing became increasingly mechanized, and local industry became more generalized; population grew to 5,000 by 1850, from 250 in 1820, making it the twelfth largest city in the Union.

As Syracuse grew in wealth and sophistication, it became a hot spot for the growing abolitionist movement. On October 1, 1851, a freed slave known only as Jerry was arrested under the Fugitive Slave Law. The anti-slavery Liberty Party was holding its state convention in the city, and when word of the arrest spread, several hundred abolitionists broke into the city jail and freed Jerry. The event came to be known as the Jerry Rescue. During the Civil War, Syracuse was also a stop on the Underground Railroad.

The salt industry declined after the Civil War, but a new manufacturing industry arose in its place. Throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s, numerous businesses and stores were established, including the Franklin Automobile Company, which produced the first air-cooled engine in the world, and the Craftsman Workshops, the center of Gustav Stickley’s handmade furniture empire.

Syracuse University was chartered in 1870 as a Methodist-Episcopal institution; it has grown from a few classrooms located in downtown Syracuse into a major research institution.

World War II sparked significant industrial expansion in the area: specialty steel, fasteners, custom machining. After the war, the Big Three auto companies had major operations in the area, Syracuse was headquarters for Carrier Air Conditioning and Crouse-Hinds traffic signal manufacturing, and General Electric had its main television manufacturing plant at Electronics Parkway in Syracuse.

Many of Syracuse’s landmark buildings were demolished in the 1950s and 1960s, and several new museums and government buildings were built. Syracuse’s population peaked at 221,000 in 1950. In the 1980s, many immigrants from Africa and Central America moved to Syracuse, under the auspices of several religious charities. However, these new Syracusans could not make up for the flow of residents out of Syracuse to either its suburbs or out of state due to job loss. The city’s population slowly decreases every year.

The manufacturing industry in Syracuse began to falter in the 1970s. Many small businesses failed during this time, which contributed to an already increasing unemployment rate. General Electric moved its manufacturing operations to Singapore. Carrier Corporation moved its headquarters out of Syracuse. Nevertheless, the Syracuse metropolitan area population has remained stable due to sprawl, even growing by 2.5 percent since 1970.

Syracuse ’s low, swampy land was ideal for canal construction. The Erie Canal opened in 1825 and quickly established Syracuse’s dominance over nearby settlements, including the Village of Salina. As a result of the boom of the early canal years, the villages of Salina and Syracuse merged to become the city of Syracuse in 1848. Syracuse’s first mayor was Harvey Baldwin. Syracuse’s nickname is the “salt city.” Some people say that Syracuse was a city that salt built. But in reality, the city was built because of the Erie Canal, which continued to run through the heart of the city until the mid- 1920’s.

The present appearance of Syracuse was shaped in the years after the Civil War, a time when salt manufacturing began to decline. But Syracuse’s many businesses and diversified industries assured the city’s continued economic prosperity. Candle makers, beer brewers, steel producers and manufacturers of furniture, caskets, bicycles and cars helped the city to flourish. All sorts of goods - gears, typewriters, electrical devices, shoes, glass and china, to name just a few - were made in Syracuse by companies who took advantage of Syracuse’s good transportation system, its central location and its ready, skilled labor force.