
By McKenna Van Dreason
I might have lived in Boonville NY my whole life but I still know next to nothing about the town itself. For example Boonville wasn’t even the original name of the town back when it was just a settlement. With such a fascinating history right at our fingertips I have compiled some of the most important dates in Boonville’s history so that everyone can understand its development and growth over the years.
- 1795: Gerrit Boon and others arrived in the area that would become Boonville. They were representing the Holland Land Company. A sawmill was constructed but burned down.
- 1796: The year the Town of Boonville was founded by Gerrit Boon and Andrew Edmunds. The sawmill was rebuilt and the settlement that came out of it formed the town. Boon originally named the village “Kortenaer”, after Egbert Bartholomeusz Kortenaer, a Dutch admiral.
- 1802: The first school was built in Boonville.
- 1805: The first church was built in the town of Boonville. This year was also the first time a town meeting was held.
- 1812 or 1819: These are the disputed dates of when the Hulbert House was built. This was the first two-story building erected in Boonville that still stands today. Back when it was first built it was the Hulbert Hotel and hosted famous guests such as the U.S. Grant, William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody, and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
- 1839: Construction on the Black River Canal began.
- 1848: The Black River Canal was completed to Boonville.
- 1850: The first boat came up the Black River Canal from Rome to Boonville.
- 1852: The first weekly paper started in Boonville, originally the Boonville Ledger became the Boonville Herald and Adirondack Tourist.
- 1855: The Utica-Black River Railroad was completed from Utica and was greatly celebrated. This is also the year the entire length of the Black River Canal was completed.
- 1856: The year the entire Black River Canal from Rome to Lyons Falls was operational.
- 1861: The Civil War started with the bombardment of Fort Sumter in South Carolina.
- 1862: Colonel Charlie’s Wheelock for the Civil War Battlefields with the 97th, New York State Volunteer Infantry.
- 1863: The telegraph was installed in Boonville.
- 1871: The first Fair to be held in Boonville hosted by the Boonville Union Agricultural Society.
- 1885: Cornelius B. Erwin passed and left many donations. He gave instructions after his death to build a public library and a park with part of the estate he left to the Village of Boonville.
- 1888: Later the Boonville Fair would be taken over by the Boonville-Oneida county fair.
- 1890: The Erwin Library was built.
- 1891: The Erwin Library was opened, as a reading room, to the public.
- 1898: Streetlights were provided for the town of Boonville.
- 1900: Telephone lines arrived in the town of Boonville.
- 1902: The founding of the Boonville Municipal Commission, started as a means to get electric lights to the village residents. This was also the year that Rural Free Delivery mail routes were established.
- 1904: Houses in the village of Boonville get electricity.
- 1910: This was the busiest year for the Black River Canal.
- 1922: The Black River Canal was abandoned by the State.
- 1924: The last boat goes through Boonville on the Black River Canal. It was taking supplies to Delta for the Delta Dam’s construction.
- 1933: The milk strike in Boonville, result of the Great Depression and farmers seeing their milk prices drop. In Boonville a group of farmers estimated to be between 400 to 800 strong stopped delivery trucks and spilled the milk onto the streets. One incident evolved into the New York State Police (who were escorting the milk trucks) throwing tear-gas bombs and hitting the farmers. This resulted in about forty farmers being injured.
- 1936: The first stage of the sewer system was built.
- 1955: Boonville’s double celebration, The Villiage’s Centennial and The Town’s Sesqui-Centennial.
- 1961: The last passenger train left Boonville but the train tracks are still in use in the present.
- 1962: The first Woodsmen’s Field Days were moved to Boonville N.Y. from Tupper Lake.
- 1983: A tornado came through the town of Boonville. Trees were down in Erwin Park and siding was ripped from houses.
- 2002: Dedication of the flagpole in Little Village Park took place.
- 2003: The Black River Canal Museum opens.
- 2005: Dedication of the old-fashioned covered bridge connecting the Black River Feeder Canal trail to Erwin Park. This is the only existing covered bridge in Oneida County that is still standing.
History surrounds us every day, yet we don’t take the time to think about its impact around us. The importance of these events ranges from the town one grew up into the inventions of everyday use like the lights on in one’s house. So, I will end this article with this, if there is any free time in a day, take that time to question the history that surrounds us.