A few weeks ago we took a look at some of our smaller communities… still known, named, and mapped, but unincorporated, and without official boundaries. There are 72 of these on the official Steuben County map, and plenty more in other counties.
*Rheims (or Reims) in Urbana was a stop on the old Bath & Hammondsport Railroad. Today it’s home to Finger Lakes Boating Museum, Mercury Aircraft, Pleasant Valley Wine Company, and Great Western Visitors Center. A thousand spectators came out to Rheims on July 4, 1908, to watch Glenn Curtiss fly his “June Bug.”
*Not too far away is Pleasant Valley, also once a B&H stop. Drivers whizzing by on State Route 54 recognize the expansive Pleasant Valley Cemetery, where Curtiss and other aviation notables lie buried. PV also has a number of homes, the elegant old Grange building, Vinehust Motel, Urbana Town offices, and the Finger Lakes Trail, which wends its way through a lovely vineyard here. The “June Bug II” flights of 1976 took place from the airstrip here.
*South Hornell forms a southern fringe of “urban sprawl” from Hornell. (NORTH Hornell is an incorporated village.) Gibson (Town of Corning) faces the City of Corning across the Chemung River, while East Corning is a little downstream, at I-86 Exit 48 and almost on the county line. Gibson was the site of Steuben County’s worst train wreck – 44 dead – back in 1912.
*Burns is a small agricultural community in Town of Dansville, straddling the Steuben/Allegany County line. Also in Dansville is South Dansville, once Rogersville, site of Town Offices, a cemetery, an active Methodist church, and quite a few homes.
*Towlesville, in the Town of Howard, is no longer the dense population center it once was, but folks for quite a stretch around consider themselves to be Towlesville residents. At the old crossroads is an active Grange, and a monument to the Towlesville Cornet Band.
*The settlement of Howard has its own exit (#35) on Interstate Route 86. It’s a good-sized community, with quite a few homes, the library, a church, a cemetery, historic museum, several businesses, Town Offices, and the Howard Community Center. For decades Howard had a large impressive high school and graded school, which was succeeded by a new elementary school in the 1930s. That building is now a business, rather than a school.
*Mitchellsville, in the Town of Wheeler, has a fair-sized population, several businesses, a cemetery, and an active Methodist church.
*Many folks don’t know the name of Ingleside, and those who do are often flabbergasted to learn that it’s in Steuben County – those heading to Naples from Bath or Avoca way go through Ingleside on State Road 53. Long a lumbering center, Ingleside is much like Mitchellsville, with numerous homes, several businesses, and an active church.
*Coopers Plains, which also enjoys its own I-86 exit (#43) is a good-sized community with two churches, a huge cemetery, several businesses, and, until recently, a Grange. The State Police station, BOCES, and the Southern Tier Library System are all a stone’s throw away, on the other side of the Interstate.
*Back in the 1920s Coopers had a very large Scout troop. Railroads stopped here, but the place suffered whenever Meads Creek or the Conhocton River flooded. There was a two-story school here, and in the 1950s a modern elementary school was built, but they have different uses now,
*Future IBM giant Tom Watson grew up nearby, went to church here, and supported local activities all his life… often with large financial donations! He always remembered his childhood friends, and took a crowd of them by train to New York City in 1939, so they could all enjoy the World’s Fair together.