The History of Beaver Dams

We All Had Lives Once is the story of three generations of families who lived their lives around the tiny hamlet of Beaver Dams, NY.

The History of Beaver Dams, N.Y.

The village of Beaver Dams, is situated in the southwest section of the town of Dix, Schuyler county, and borders on the two counties of Chemung and Steuben, from which counties over two-thirds of Schuyler was taken. It is located on the new Syracuse, Geneva and Corning Railway, 12 miles north of Corning, 8 south of Watkins Glen Station, and surrounded by a good and productive agricultural region which annually sends a large amount of grain, and other farm products, to market. The locality takes its name from TWO BEAVER DAMS on a small stream, in the vicinity, found, alive with beaver, by the early settlers, and one of them, or rather a portion of it, remains to the present day. The place is by no means a large one, but there is every reason to believe that it will be much benefitted (if a liberal policy prevails among its real estate owners) by the new Railway, and will become an important shipping point, a good business center for quite a section of the adjacent country, and a growing and prosperous village. A coal yard has already been started, a hay press will be sure to find its way there this fall; and a grain warehouse, where "Cash For All Kinds of Grain" attracting the farmers for many miles around, will undoubtedly be erected within a short time after the opening of the new Road. Those influences, with cheap lumber and fuel, cannot fail to lead to more business, building, and a more progressive condition of things, in the near future. It may be observed that Beaver Dams, which has been hitherto numbered among the most isolated and secluded villages of the county, will shortly be in both railway and telegraphic communication with the whole country, and has a better and more cheering prospect before it. Its location is a splended one for a growing and thriving village, healthful and fertile, and its natural resources ample to make it a lively and prosperous center of enterprise, manufacture and trade. Hence we predict its steady and continous progress and advancement, commencing with the present year. From the 1877 History of Beaver Dams

*"The town of Dix was organized April 17, 1835, chap. 98, page 82, laws of New York, taken from the Town of Catlin. As now constituted, Dix is bounded on the north by the town of Reading, on the east by the valley of Watkins, and the town of Montour, on the south by the town of Catlin, and on the west by the town of Orange. It is situated on the west of the valley of Catharine, upon the rolling lands and plateaus, overlooking the Seneca Lake, and some of the finest landscape views in the state can be obtained from points in this town. Its soil is very productive. The Syracuse, Geneva & Corning railroad passes thru the township in a north east, and south west direction, having stations at Beaver Dam [see photo], and at Watkins Glen, originally in the town, built now in the corporation of Watkins.
The Northern Central railroad runs along its eastern boundary, having a station at Havana, and at Watkins, thus accommodating the citizens of Dix with ample railroad facilities. It was named in honor of Hon. John A. Dix, subsequently Governor of the State. There are several hamlets and villages in the town, among them Beaver Dam, Moreland, Townsend, and the incorporated village of Watkins.

*The first settlers to the area around what later became Beaver Dams, in upstate New York, were Ebenezer Perry and Abraham Crout in approximately 1818. Before that, the land was largely untouched, occupied only by wild animals, including the beavers who labored at two large dams on Bowers Creek.
*Other settlers gradually began arriving from Litchfield and Fairfield Counties in Connecticut, as well as from New Jersey, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania. Peter Fero and his wife Jannetje moved to Stueben County between 1819 and 1820. Peter's oldest son Cornelius Fero, along with his wife Alida and four children, moved into the area in March of 1827, clearing a tract of land about 11/2 miles west of the village of West Caitlin, which would later become Beaver Dams.
* As early as 1823, David H. Bolt kept the first tavern in the area at nearby Townsend Settlement. Green Bennet built the first sawmill on Bowers Creek in 1828, and Samuel Hubbel built a grist mill in Van Zandts Hollow in the same year. Abram P. Crout had a few goods for sale in his home about 1829, making him the first official storekeeper of the area, while a better stocked establishment was opened for business by Gardner Crum about 1832. William Skellinger built a foundry and machine shop in 1834, and the tannery opened in 1837 by W.S.Beers.
The village post office was first established in 1829 under the name of West Catlin and was a part of Chemung County. David Davison was the first postmaster. The first church in the area was the Baptist Church organized in 1830 in nearby Moreland. Beaver Dams organized its own congregation of 12 members as the First Methodist Episcopal Church in 1833. As the community grew, a second church organized. In 1848, the First Universalist Society of Dix began meeting with 22 members, the Reverend Ethan Carpenter as pastor, Joseph Cole as moderator, and W.S. Beers as clerk. The Universalist Church building was constructed in 1853 on property owned by W.S.Beers. The Methodist Episcopal Church building was constructed in 1859 (by John Anthony) and still stands today.