Falls in the Sauquoit Creek near the Sauquoit arterial; 1918

The name Paris was given the town in appreciation for help given in time of need by a Fort Plain farmer and miller named Isaac Paris. There was a famine in 1789 in the area where the village of Paris is now located. Paris sent food by way of flatboats up the Mohawk to the mouth of the Oriskany where the cargo was transferred to a log canoe built by the settlers. The grain was taken up the creek to Clinton from whence it was taken by cart to the village.

The first permanent settler was Major Royce of Hartford, Connecticut, who settled in the Paris Hill area in 1789. Shortly after his arrival John and Sylvester Butler and Asa Shepherd came to the area. Phineas Kellogg was the first to settle in Sauquoit.

Five main villages existed in the early history of the town. They were Paris, Sauquoit, Cassville, Clayville and Holman City. Clayville was so named in honor of Henry Clay in 1849, after being previously called Paris Furnace. Cassville was known as Frog Hill or Toad Holler until 1830 when it was called Paris Hollow.

Lewis Knitting Mill, a silk mill of the early 1900s

The first fire engine in Sauquoit was Fulton No. 3 which was purchased in 1835 from the City of Utica when it became inadequate in size for the city's needs. Fulton No. 3 is now the property of the Oneida Historical Society and appeared in the 1998 Bicentennial exhibit at the society.

The geographic feature which most influenced the development of the town is the Sauquoit Creek which rises on Tassel Hill and flows 17 miles to the Mohawk. It has a drop of 90 feet per mile and supplied power for 144 industries which were located at various times along its length. Not all of these were in the Town of Paris.

Another feature which provided a source of interest for a time was a “burning spring”, of sulphurated hydro­gen gas. This spring was located at the point where Sulphur Springs Road and Oneida Street join, and where the park is now located. The Gilberts once ran a hotel there that was lighted by natural gas. On Holman City Road is a geographical formation known as “the basin”. It is a hole about 100 feet deep, perfectly round and 850 or more feet in diameter. Geologists claim it was caused by a meteorite as evidenced by the pure iron in the depression.

St. Paul's Episcopal Church

From 1789 to 1812 the earliest form of livelihood after land clearing was the establishment of family farms and small industrial concerns which used the Sauquoit Creek as a source of waterpower. The first cotton mill in the val­ley was set up in 1812. Gere's oil (linseed oil) was mar­keted locally and in valley towns. Factories in Clayville included a shovel factory (1814), a scythe factory (1818) and a blast furnace from 1801-1832.

From 1830-1880 dairy farming increased with the advent of railroads and cheese factories. Hollister's woolen mills began in 1847 but failed in 1850. David Millard began an implement factory which later went out of business. Sterling Millard's scythe factory opened, and the Empire Woolen Company began to operate in 1861. This woolen mill stimulated the economy and was the largest industry in the township in 1880. In 1847 a silk mill was built on Griffith Place in Sauquoit by Abner Brownell. This later operated as a knife factory owned by J. Pope. This was a four-story building, and, as is true of most of these mills, is now demolished.

A number of churches were established early in the township. St. Paul's Episcopal Church in the hamlet of Paris is one of the earliest parishes in the county. The church was founded in 1797, and the early building burned. The present architecturally significant structure dates from 1818 and is now used only for summer ser­vices. The Paris Religious Society was founded in 1791, later became Congregational, and had the first church bell in the township. The United Methodist Church of Sauquoit, organized in 1801, is the oldest Methodist con­gregation west of Albany. The current building, the second on the site, was erected in 1842.

Wheelman's Fountain, Cassville, June 18, 1897. A popular stopping place on the bicyle path from Utica to Cassville.

The Sauquoit Valley Central School was built on Oneida Street in 1932. In 1953, a new elementary school was erected on Sulphur Springs Road and in 1990 a new middle school was also built on Sulphur Springs Road. In order to accommodate the growing enrollment of students in the school district, additions and renovations were made, in 1996, to both the elementary school and the high school.

Several well-known people lived and/or were born in the town. Perhaps the most famous beyond our own area is Asa Gray, the world-known naturalist, who was born at the foot of Pinnacle Road, Sauquoit, in 1810. He spent his boyhood in Clayville where his father had a mill.

The town of Paris has a rather homogeneous population with no one national or ethnic group dominat­ing its life. The location on good roads, with a good sewer system, sufficient utilities and availability to the shopping and entertainment centers of Utica make citizens of the Town of Paris happy to live here.