Because statewide gazetteers were published in 1835 and 1860, I recently took a detailed look at the Keuka Lake towns in those years. (That’s Pulteney, Urbana, and Wayne in Steuben County, with Milo, Barrington, and Jerusalem on the Yates side.)
Not only were those days very different from ours, they differed greatly from each other, even though separated by only 25 years.
In 1835 Lincoln had not yet been admitted the bar, nor Darwin returned from the voyage of the Beagle. By 1860 the pair (born the same day in 1809) were shaking the world. The United States in 1835 petered out along the Mississippi, with a vague claim to the northern Rockies. Twenty-five years later we were a feared aggressor nation, having swallowed Texas, stolen the southwest and California by war, and secured the Oregon country by armed diplomacy. The Erie Canal was ten years old in 1835, and the Crooked Lake Canal was two, but both were already being overshadowed by railroads. Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Andrew Jackson, and John C. Calhoun dominated the news in 1835… by 1860 it was Lincoln, Douglas, and Jefferson Davis.
The two counties and six towns were already in place by 1835, though only just. Those three Yates County towns all exceeded the Steuben towns in population: Milo (including Penn Yan) was the largest at 3824, and Wayne the smallest at 1350. The gazetteer gives only county-wide breakdowns by race, but Steuben and Yates each had a small number of African Americans, and a handful of African American voters.
We know that Milo in those days had 443 militiamen, 18 schools, and 1010 scholars. Tiny Wayne had the smallest militia roster (136), but Pulteney had the fewest school students (397).
In no town were a quarter of the people eligible to vote, but in every case births far outstripped deaths. Bewilderingly, the gazetteer also reported on married females under the age of 45, unmarried females between 16 and 45, and unmarried females below 16… but does NOT have similar breakdowns for men. What in earth did they do with this information? Did people use it to calculate their chances of marriage before they decided whether to move? How would that help without corresponding figures for men? Or did officials want to estimate the reproductive capacity of a population? Anyhow, in case you were wondering, Milo had 443 marriageable women.
By 1860 Barrington and Wayne had each lost population, but that no doubt was because of territory lost to the new Schuyler County. Pulteney also lost ground, and Jerusalem stayed level. But Milo was up 500 and Urbana 300, suggesting that people were gravitating toward the villages of Penn Yan and Hammondsport. Farming was already becoming less significant, while services, manufacturing, and transportation were on the rise, especially in Penn Yan, served by a canal AND a railroad… not to mention being the county seat. Unmarried females were no longer reported, but many of those who were listed in 1835 would now have the horror of watching their sons march off to war.
As far as transportation’s concerned, 1835 saw the advent of “Keuka” (first of that name), that lake’s first steamer — doubled-hulled with a center wheel, and basically a single flat platform for carriage. The double hull allowed it to run right up onto the beach. In 1860 “Keuka” was gone, but the sidewheeler “Steuben” (also first of that name) had been plying the lake for 15 years.
While Barrington and Wayne went down, all the other towns saw significant increases in students. This was probably a factor of general population going up, more kids going to school in the first place, and students staying in school longer, especially with high schools (one each) now available at each end of the lake. And the gazetteer goes into great detail on the agricultural produce, down to the pounds of butter (106,673 in Jerusalem), but provokes us to a knowing, superior smile. It doesn’t mention one word about grapes. Which will very quickly become MIGHTY important.