The first settler in what is now the Town of Marcy was John Wilson, who came from Windsor, Vermont in 1793, with a large family of children. He settled on a river farm one-half mile east of Nine Mile Creek, in the south western corner of the township. He was taken ill of a bilious fever and died in the same year he settled; this was the first death in the town. The homestead was taken over by the elder children.

Early in the year 1794, James Wilson, brother of John, came to Marcy and settled in a large log house on the Nine Mile Creek. In the following spring Wilson purchased an unimproved lot about a mile north of Oriskany Village, where he became a successful farmer. Early in the history of the town, Welsh settlers found their way into the central and northern parts. Their numbers increased until they constituted the largest part of the population in that district.

Industry of any scale was not known until 1812 when a window glass company, later known as Utica Glass Company, located on what is now called Glass Factory Road. This factory is credited as the first industry in Oneida County to have a production line system. By the census in 1850, the town contained 1,769 inhabitants. It then contained one gristmill, seven sawmills, one trip hammer and two tanneries. A cheese factory was built in 1862 by Levi Tanner, A.W. Wood and Charles Ashby on the Tanner farm. The same year another was built by David Wilcox and Amos Potter. A corn mill was located on the north side of the Rome-Utica State Road on Snaker Hill. A few sawmills were built in the early years.

In the list of principal taverns, Rice's Nine-Mile Creek is mentioned. This tavern was patronized by pioneers who drove to salt springs, near Onondaga Lake for their yearly supply of salt. This was also the stopping place for the stage coach and mail.

Olin's Store in Stittville

By a law passed on March 30, 1832, the Town of Marcy was formed from the Town of Deerfield and named in honor of William L. Marcy, then Governor of New York State. A few months after the formation of the town, Governor Marcy visited it, and was the guest of Samuel C. Baldwin, who was then the first supervisor of the town. About 1892 the township boundary line on the north was changed and the hamlet of Stittville moved from the Town of Trenton to Marcy. The number of acres ceded by the Town of Trenton to the Town of Marcy included not only all the present hamlet of Stittville but many acres of farmland especially to the north and the east of it.

In 1911 the state legislature authorized the purchase of 1,000 acres in Marcy initially to move the entire population of Utica State Hospital out of Utica. This never happened however and both hospitals continued to grow. In 1931 Marcy State Hospital became a separate hospital from Utica State. The Township population in 1920 was 1,191 and in 1930 it was 2,602 including the state hospital. The reason for the population decline in 1920 was the movement of the people from rural areas to the cities due to the manufacturing boom of wartime and the early'20s.

Methodist Church

In the early 1930s Marcy came to a turning point in its history. Instead of declining, it started to grow. By 1957, there were 3,550 people excluding the state hospital. The Marcy State Hospital patient population was 3,100. During the 1960s the town continued to grow as more and more people turned to suburban living. During the ‘60s much change took place as farming continued to decline and home building increased.

Three main churches are located in Marcy. The first church was the Stittville Methodist Church organized in 1836. There are also Marcy Community Church organized in 1842 and Maynard United Methodist Church organized in 1839. There are two fire departments, the Stittville and Maynard Fire Departments.

Schools and education have always been important in Marcy. The first school was erected on the old River Road about one half mile east of Nine Mile Creek. Teachers were paid $50.86 for teaching up to seventy pupils for six and one half months. In the l940s Marcy students became a part of the Whitesboro School District serving the southern portion of the Township. The Whitesboro District located their new modern high school adjacent to Route 291 in the Township.

In 1966 New York State purchased 840 acres on the eastern Marcy Townline, between Mulaney Road and Route 49, to locate the SUNY Institute of Technology of Utica/Rome. The Institute is an upper division college for transfer and graduate students in professional, technical or liberal arts programs.