Town Historian

Early in 1781, the New York State legislature agreed to set aside some two million acres of land for the state’s soldiers, so that it could raise its quota of regiments for the American Revolution, which ended later that same year with the surrender of the British. In 1789, the state contracted with Simeon Dewitt to survey the tract, so that veterans could collect their bounties of land as rewards for their service during the war. Camillus was one of the twenty-five original towns carved out of the tract in 1790, all of which were named for the political, military and literary figures of ancient Troy, Greece, Rome and Carthage. At the time, the area now known as Onondaga County was one vast wilderness, inhabited only by the indigenous people of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. So, few of the bounty-holders ever settled on their lands, instead selling them to speculators.

John and Lydia McHarrie were the first permanent settlers of what would become the town of Van Buren, building a log cabin in 1789 on the south side of the Seneca River about where the dam is located today in the village of Baldwinsville, known first as McHarrie’s Rifts and then as Columbia. McHarrie is the namesake of McHarrie’s Legacy, which owns and operates the Shacksboro Schoolhouse Museum. The town’s first permanent settlement was made in 1808 at Ionia (Iona Corners), where Phineas Barnes erected the first frame house. Here the first post office in town was established in 1816, near where the Memphis post office stands today. But, it wasn’t until 1829 that the town was formed from the northern half of the town of Camillus and named for the then president of the United States, Martin Van Buren, a native of New York State.

Beyond Ionia (Iona Corners), early hamlets in the west of the town included Bangall or Sand Springs (Whiskey Hollow) and Jack’s Reef. In the south, they included Canton (Memphis) and Van Buren Center (Warners). These two hamlets owe their early growth to the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825, which ran through Memphis and near Warners (at Newport) on the southern boundary that separates Van Buren from Camillus. The canal’s successor, the New York State Barge Canal, together with the Seneca River forms the northern boundary of the town today. Lock #24 of the barge canal, located in Baldwinsville, opened in 1910. Beyond these artificial waterways, the town boasts several natural water features. Two tributaries that flow into the Seneca River from the south are Crooked Brook, which drains the hills around Van Buren Town Park, and Dead Creek, fed by White Bottom Creek and first known to the Haudenosaunee as Camp Brook. There are several springs surrounding Dead Creek, the most prominent of which can be found at Whiskey Hollow.

Early farmers of the town supplemented their field crops and dairy herds with tobacco, grown as a cash crop and shipped downstate for cigar-making. Beyond agriculture and the businesses associated with both canals, early industries in the town included several sawmills, a pottery works and a brickyard. Today, the town includes several housing developments, like the Ford tract on the southwest side of the village of Baldwinsville, Harbour Heights, Seneca Knolls, Village Green, Sun Meadows and the McHarrie Towne retirement community. Its schools include Van Buren Elementary on Ford Street, McNamara Elementary on O’Brien Road, Reynolds Elementary in Village Green, and Ray Middle School on Van Buren Road. Popular parks include Van Buren Town Park on Canton Street Road and Lions Park on Maple Road, maintained by the village of Baldwinsville. The town of Van Buren has a rich history, which you can investigate further by following the links below.