Lansing Bicentennial Minutes

Martin Murphy's daughters, Nancy, Mary, and Sally, earned money to build a frame house near the log cabin, but Martin said he had lived for years in the log cabin and it was good enough for him. So he stayed the rest of his life there, while his family moved into the new home. Martin Murphy and his sons, Jim, Ed, and John dug out a road in Ludlowville using pick, shovel, and wheelbarrow. They took contract for $500. Before that Tile Yard Hill, Cemetery Hill, and Dug Road were the only roads in Ludlowville.

Albert Slocum owned the old Strong farm three miles up Salmon Creek Road in Ludlowville. At the auction following his death (1896), several men stood on top of a big cistern to see better. The top broke and the men had to be pulled from the icy water. Slocum's wife was Rozanna Townley who died in 1892. Originally from Newark, the Townley family came to Lansing in 1788 from the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania. When a company of French immigrants offered high prices in gold for all the valley land, the brothers sold out and came to Lansing. The land that they sold in Pennsylvania was planned to become an Asylum for Marie Antoinette, and her son, the Dauphin. But they were killed by the French Revolutionaries and never arrived here.

Near Genoa there was a saw mill with a vertical saw. On one occasion the miller that operated this saw mill was eating his lunch when a passing bear caught scent of food. The bear came in the mill and was fascinated by the moving saw. He went to the saw, hugged it, and was cut in half.

The Town of Lansing, formed in 1817, was originally part of the larger Town of Milton. Then the name was changed to Town of Genoa in 1808. One of the final resolutions of the Old Town of Genoa came in 1816 when a "Certificate of Freedom" was granted to one Issac Middleton, a person colored, about 40 years of age. He was a free man as he was born free in Salem, Massachusetts.

South Lansing, January 12, 1924: Wednesday was a memorable day for the Grangers of this vicinity, when the mortgage of their hall was burned, a sumptuous dinner was served, and officers for 1924 were installed. The building was fully equipped by the women of the Grange, who sold ice cream and baked goods, and who later sold sandwiches and coffee to purchase the gasoline lamps now used on both floors. This Grange building is our present Community Building.

Quill pens date from the dark ages when bird feathers replaced hollow reeds the Romans used. To make a quill pen, you first had to catch your bird. Goose feathers were favored. Swan quills were best, but who would approach an angry swan? Crow feathers were unbeatable for drawing fine lines. If you were lucky your quill might last a week. For almost 1500 years people used quill pens to write letters. By the nineteenth century, however, steel nibs were well on their way to ousting the trusty quill.

Junior Prom 1959 - The Junior Prom on May 16 was a successful event with the Esquires supplying the the music to the theme, "Apple Blossom Time".  The gym was decorated with two-toned pink and white colored streamers reaching from the top of the gym to the sides, with a pool of water in the center of the dance floor which contained apple blossoms and a revolving reflecting light. Around the outside of the gym were tables with apple blossoms and a candle on each table. Joyce Barron was crowned queen.

In 1954 Cayuga Rock Salt owned Ludlowville Falls and several acres of land surrounding the falls. (They had bought the property earlier as a possible future water power site.) The  International Salt Company also owned another former dam site a short distance upstream from the Falls (the Red Bridge area). The International Salt purchase appears to have been intended to block any future development of the Falls by the Rock Salt, and also for their own future power use. The two companies ownership of the two Salmon Creek sites continued for many years with neither company willing to sell to the other nor were they interested or able to proceed with any water power development. In 1954 The Rock Salt was contacted by the Town (Russ Lane, Supervisor) to see if they would be willing to deed the property to the town for a town park. Rock Salt was happy to do so, provided the land would always be used as a park.  In this way Ludlowville Park became our first Town Park. A couple of years following the Rock Salt transfer of land, International Salt deeded its land around Red Bridge to the Lansing Fish and Game Club and this became the Rod and Gun Club that we know today.

A game played during recess at the one room schoolhouse was, "Anty Over". The children would get on either side of the building and throw a ball over the roof. They would call, "Anty over!" when they threw the ball. If it was caught on the other side that side scored a point.

A game played during recess at the one room schoolhouse was, 'Anty Over'. The children would get on either side of the building and throw a ball over the roof. They would call, "Anty over!" when they threw the ball. If it was caught on the other side that side scored a point.

The  South Lansing School was originally built on Conlon Road. When it burned the children attended the Grange Hall while waiting for the "new school" ( now the Lansing Community Library) to be built in 1925. There were no school buses in those days and all the children walked to the district schools which were located so that almost all the children walked under a mile. The Field School, which is the only remaining one room schoolhouse in Lansing, was nearby on the corner of Route 34 and Van Ostrand Road. At one time Lansing had 23 schoolhouses.

In 1957 the drama club of the high school put on the play, 'The Valiant' with these actors: David Wicham, Tom Frady, Steve Dunn, Joanne Horvath, Marty Trinkl, and David Bowman. The student director was Nancy Maine. Dramatic readings were given by: Janette Larson, Faye Ann Ferris, Carolyn Cochran, Wanda Holden, and Ralph Lobdell. In another vein; Herbert Milliman, James Phillip, Evan Phillips, Thomas Frady, and Ralph Rose were making fudge and other goodies in Mrs. Juracka's Home Economics class.