Main Street 1908

By an act of the New York State Legislature passed March 15, 1978, forming the County of Oneida from the County of Herkimer, it was also decreed that all of the Town of Norway lying in the new County of Oneida should be organized into the new Town of Remsen. The town was named after an early patentee of the area, Henry Remsen.

Upper Main Street

In 1812 the turnpike from Utica to Sacketts Harbor was completed and for two or three years afterward it was a busy thoroughfare. Supplies and stores for the 1812 war were hauled through by day and by night and many soldiers and sailors passed over it on their way to Sacketts Harbor. The same year Colonel Mather Beecher purchased the Noble and Blue Tannery and established a shoe factory. This was one of the first establishments of it kind in the United States and the work was carried on in the stone house on Main Street in the village, just north of the present Baptist Church. In 1813 the population of the township was 4,891. At this time Forestport was included in Remsen.

The completion of the Plank Road in the fall of 1848 added to the facilities for transportation of merchandise, diminished the time of transit and lessened the exertion of both men and teams. It brought to travel in general a degree of comfort before unknown.

Bristol House

The first settler within the Village of Remsen was Peter A. Becker, who took 110 acres of land at the southern line of the present village limits. This he sold to Deacon William Platt, a man’ of activity and enterprise, who built a sawmill and gristmill and later added a blacksmith shop to the lower end of the village. Broughton White and Lemuel Hough came to Remsen from Steuben and built an ashery on what is Steuben Street now, and opened up a small grocery store.

The history of Remsen and Steuben is not complete without the story of the Welsh chutes. The first Welsh settlers came to this area about 1795, but the first church was built in the Steuben area in 1804. The first church building erected in this area was of logs. It was to be used for school purposes as well. It was completed in November. It burned to the ground on Christmas night that same year. During the year 1805 a frame structure was built and in this they worshiped until it became too small.

The first organized school in Remsen was founded in 1813. The village school was a log building on the northeast side of the turnpike. In 1852 in order to be more centrally located, a Union school was built on Prospect Street near where the Mohawk and Malone Railroad was later constructed. A new building was built on Steuben Street about 1912 which served until the consolidation of the districts, to become Remsen Central School in 1935.

Grading 1914

Remsen was a busy industrial place in the early days. As the woods were cleared another industry of much importance was the manufacture of potash or pearl ash. As trees throughout the vicinity were burned, ashes were collected. The lye was extracted and sent to New York where it was made into saleratus (a leavening agent consisting of potassium or sodium bicarbonate) and kindred compounds. Brick manufacture was carried on at the Mitchell farm. In the early 1800s John R. Ellis established a foundry and machine shop. He manufactured steam boilers, cheese presses, and treadwheels for churning by dog power. All of these were his own inventions.

There have been many merchants in Remsen village through the years. Remsen for a time was sufficient unto itself, but with the coming of railroads, better roads, and automobile travel it has become a small part of a larger community, Utica and Rome.