Fort Brewerton was built in 1759 and is thus described by Clark: "It was a regular octagon, about 350 feet in diameter, surrounded by a wall of earth about five feet above the interior area of the works. In front of this wall was a ditch about ten feet deep, from the top of the inside wall, encompassing the whole. In front of the ditch, encircling the whole, was another embankment, not quite as high as the interior one, corresponding to it in all its lines and angles, with a covered gateway on the south side facing the river. In the interior embankment was set a row of palisades about twenty feet high, with loop-holes and embrasures. It is situated on a gentle elevation, about forty rods to the river, and when garrisoned and armed for war could easily command the passage of the river, and must have presented a formidable barrier. A little east of the fort was built, at the same time with the fort, a mole of huge rocks, about ten rods into the river, at the end of which was placed a sentry's box, where a sentinel was continually posted to watch for enemies passing up the river." This seems an error.
Cicero swamp occupies about four thousand acres; originally as much more. There is a good water power at Bridgeport, a village partially in this town.
A blacksmith named Dexter is said to have located on the south side of the river at Brewerton in 1790, living there any years. He was not there, however, in 1791, 1792, and 1795. Oliver Stevens lived on the north side in 1792, having a garden on the south side, and soon living there. He built the block house on the north side in 1794, having come there in 1789. Ryal Bingham was there in 1791, but the statement that McGee was there that year is an error, as is the statement that a school was kept there in 1792. Jonathan Emmons came there in 1804 with his wife Mary, settling on Lot 10 and purchasing six hundred acres. He needed it, for he had eighteen children. In 1813 he obtained the exclusive right of maintaining a ferry there, holding this for many years. At this coming the town had no roads and no physician nearer than Onondaga Valley. All the early settlers were on Oneida lake and river, and suffered from sickness. They had to go far for flour, and there was little water power for saw mills, but the development of the salt works after a time furnished an ample market for barrels, and this became a leading industry. A state road was opened in 1812 from Salina to Brewerton, known as the Salt Road, and this and the succeeding plank road helped the town much.
Most of the travel was by the river for a long time. The Inland Lock & Navigation Company was chartered in 1792, and it became possible for Durham boats, sixty feet long and drawing two feet of water, to pass from Schenectady to Seneca lake or Oswego with short portages. In a single year three hundred boats passed the Rome portage. These boats varied in length and in the number of men. They had oars, setting poles and sails, as well as ropes for towing, and were deep, flat-bottomed and pointed at both ends. In 1788 Elkanah Watson spoke of those on the Mohawk: "I was surprised to observe the dexterity with which they manage their boats, and the progress they make in poling up the river, against a current of at least three miles an hour." Three years later he said of the men with him: "They occasionally rowed in still water, setting with short poles, at the rapids, with surprising dexterity. In this mode their average progress is three miles an hour," but very fatiguing.
The first town meeting of the military township of Cicero, No. 6, was held at Three River point in 1807, Thomas Pool being elected supervisor and Elijah Loomis town clerk. The town records were burned in 1851. The passage of troops to Oswego and elsewhere made things lively in the war of 1812, and the cold year brought suffering. Asa Eastwood brought the first wagon and threshing machine into the town in 1817, and became a prominent man. Dr. Daniel Orcott came to Cicero village the same year as the first physician there. Mrs. Isaac Cody opened a store there in 1818, and her husband became first postmaster in 1820. The mail was carried once a week on horseback. From them the place was called Cody's Corners. The second merchant was Samuel Warren in 1825, and Alexander Cook was the first lawyer in 1841.
The first church in the town was built here by the Presbyterians in 1819. It was of logs, and was replaced by a frame edifice in 1830. The first pastor was Rev. Truman Baldwin. In 1832 it became the Reformed church. This building was burned in 1881, and a new one dedicated in 1882, costing three thousand dollars.
Dr. Hezekiah Joslyn came to Cicero in 1823, and was long the principal physician of the town, and the father of the late Mrs. Matilda Joslyn Gage of Fayetteville. Beside other industries the village once had Young's saw mill and Brunt's stave mill. In 1877 Loomis, Allen & Company's canning factory was established. A Baptist church was organized in 1832, which became a Disciple society afterward.
Brewerton was laid out as a village in 1836 by Orsamus Johnson, Miles W. Bennett, Harvey Baldwin and Daniel Wardwell. It became noted for its eel fisheries, as many as three thousand eels being taken in one night. This ceased in 1845, when the channel was deepened. Four steamboats were placed on the lake and river in 1846, by an Oswego company, Henry Guest being local agent. They were the Madison, Oneida, Onondaga and Oswego. William H. Carter continued this business for many years, but it gradually declined, and some of the early industries have vanished.
Deacon George Ramsey, a Scotch Presbyterian, is said to have planted his faith in Brewerton in 1793--perhaps later. He was a teacher, but there was no house of worship there till 1849, when a union church was built by the Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians and Universalists with the usual result. After 1869 it was used exclusively as an Methodist Episcopal church, a society have been organized that year under Rev. Ebenezer Arnold. The First Church of the Disciples, organized in 1835, built a church in 1851. The Stone Arabia Methodist Episcopal church was formed in January, 1845, at a schoolhouse one mile west of Cicero Center. A church was built in 1847, and rebuilt in 1869. The Taft Methodist Episcopal church was organized by Rev. Barnard Peck in 1847, and a church built in 1857. The Cicero Methodist Episcopal church was formed in 1850 by Rev. Browning Nichols and a church was at once erected. In the same place the only Roman Catholic church in the town was built in 1889. A former Baptist church in Cicero village was transferred to the Universalists in 1867. It was rebuilt in 1871. This society was organized in 1859 by Rev. A. A. Thayer.
Colonel John Shepard drew his military Lot 11 and settled on it near the lake, living there till his death in 1824. He became a Presbyterian minister late in life. Elijah Loomis, another Revolutionary soldier, came to Cicero Center in 1804, and became influential. In 1846 a lock was built at Oak Orchard, nine miles below Brewerton, and another about half way between. A new bridge was also built in 1847. November 9, 1871, a railroad was opened through Brewerton, from Syracuse to Watertown. This is now leased by the new York Central, and is an important part of its system. The consequent ease of access has made Brewerton quite a summer resort, and the trolley line to South Bay now building, will furnish new attractions. The barge canal will restore water traffic to its natural channels, and some old dreams may yet come true.
The village of Brewerton was incorporated in 1872, with John L. Stevens president and E. N. Emmons clerk. Fort Brewerton Lodge, No. 256, F. A. M., chartered January 10, 1852, is located there. Frenchman's Island is elsewhere described.
Asa Eastwood came in 1817, bringing the first wagon and threshing machine into Cicero. He was much interested in the county agricultural society and held public offices. Although occasionally resident elsewhere, he died here February 25, 1870. Orsamus Johnson was once a merchant in Brewerton, and held several town offices. It is said he took the Albany journal for over sixty years.
Dr. Joslyn married the youngest daughter of Sir George Leslie, and lived in fine style for those days, having handsome furniture, carpets and a piano. He befriended a Baptist clergyman, Elder Samuel Thompson, the first in Cicero, who had made a runaway match in England. The parents were unforgiving, and the couple drifted to Cicero, where the young wife died. Dr. Joslyn provided a grave, and took the widower home for a year. He was a thorough abolitionist.
The great Cicero swamp, a remarkable place, came before the Legislature in 1836, when three commissioners were appointed to make a map and estimate the cost of drainage. In 1852 three other commissioners were charged to drain lands in Manlius, Cicero and De Witt, first making maps and assessing cost, but this act was repealed the next year. In 1858 commissioners were appointed to drain the great Muskrat swamp, between Brewerton and South Bay. Ditches were made in both swamps and much land reclaimed.
In 1791 John Thayer started from Salina to visit Oliver Stevens at Brewerton, following the Indian trail. He lost his way and was three days in the woods without shelter or food. In crossing Oneida river he broke through the ice, and his feet were badly frozen before he arrived at home. They mortified and he was taken to Cherry valley on a sled, where both were amputated. Nearly sixty years later he was in good health in Oswego county.
Two of the Shepard girls were lost in the woods at South Bay in 1811. After three days search they were found asleep. Ground nuts and wintergreens had sustained them. Such incidents happen in most new settlements.
In the alarm of 1794, Oliver Stevens was charged with the erection of a block house near old Fort Brewerton, part of which was standing in 1849. Clark said: "A trench was dug about it, and pickets, twelve feet long, erected, of heavy logs, about four rods from the house. It had a substantial gate and way, on the side towards the river."
Mr. Stevens had adventures. In March, 1792, he went to the town meeting of the town of Mexico, held at Pulaski, starting early with gun and knapsack. There was no road, but he was a woodman and felt safe. About the middle of the afternoon wolves were following him, and he found he had lost his way. He sought a clearing but found none, and the wolves came nearer. A black one was close upon him, and him he shot. The others were furious, but he faced them, and they went back a little and sat on their haunches. He built a fire, reloaded his gun, dragged the dead wolf to the fire, skinned it, and drove off the rest with firebrands. It grew dark. He gathered fuel and watched. Toward morning the wolves went off. He got a hasty meal and started homeward, carrying the skin. At night he was still astray, but built a fire and slept. Next morning he was off early and at ten o'clock came to Oswego. He was on his homeward way next day, and on the fifth day reached home. He got a large wolf bounty.
The next year a half drowned man rushed in, saying a bear had attacked him and his companion in a boat, and the other might be killed. Mr. Stevens took his gun and went to the rescue, finding the man on shore, and the bear in the boat, drifting down the stream. A shot ended the tableau, and a bear feast followed.
The town has little water power, except at Bridgeport, which lies mostly in Madison county, but Moses and Freeman Hotchkiss built the first saw mill in 1823. Of late the Whiting limestone quarry has been utilized by the South Bay trolley line, which is an important enterprise for the town, soon to be completed.
In 1836 Cicero village had a Presbyterian and Baptist church, a benevolent lodge, two stores, two taverns, and fifteen dwellings. In 1886 it had three blacksmith shops, four stores, two hotels and three physicians. The latter may be accounted for by the proximity of the great swamp.
In 1836 Brewerton had two stores, one kept by Asa v. Emmons, and the other by Alexander Cushing; Cyrus Hurd kept the toll gate; George Walkup was the blacksmith, and Henry F. Marks the physician. In 1886 it had two general stores, two groceries, two wagon shops, two hotels (one being in Oswego county), two dealers in agricultural implements, clothing store, shoe shop, ice dealer, feed store, drug and jewelry store, and coal yard. There were also two churches. Baldwin island, now tastefully laid out, is close to the southern shore, and once abounded in early Indian relics. With increased facilities for travel the place will have an increased summer population, having already many summer cottages, the inmates of which take their choice of river or lake. The fishing there is good.
A new railroad is planned to cross the town from east to west, passing through the village of Cicero, but an effort has begun to have it intersect Syracuse instead. Should the original plan be adhered to it may have quite an effect upon the town.