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New York - Utica Utica (500 alt. 60,651 pop,), trading center and largest mill town of the Mohawk Valley, lies 20 miles east of the geographical center of the State. The almost level city area of about 22 square miles marks the western terminus of the Mohawk highlands; the foothills of the central Adirondacks rise to the north. Baggs Square, the heart of old Utica, is approached from the north over the river and railroad bridges. Three blocks south is Utica's 'busy corner,' the junction of Genesee, Bleecker, and Lafayette Streets. The principal manufacturing plants are in the eastern part of the city; the knitting mills are in the eastern and western sections. A belt of parks, donated by Thomas R. Proctor and connected by the Parkway, a landscaped boulevard, extends in a rough semicircle across the southern section and is bordered by a residential area of prosperous modern homes. Power from Trenton Falls, 15 miles north, whirls the wheels of the city's industries. Knit goods are the principal product; cotton cloth and cotton goods second, followed by beer, furnaces, metal furniture, firearms, machinery, and brass products. The surrounding rich farm and dairy section is the city's trading area. The Oneida Indian name for the vicinity of Utica was Yah-nun-da-da-sis (around the hill), in reference to the way their trails circled the near-by hills. At the city site was the only ford across the Mohawk River for many miles; and near by was the hub of trails leading northwest to the portage at Rome, west to Oneida Castle, and east to the settlements on the Mohawk and the Hudson. These trails became the routes of the white pioneers. The site was included in Cosby's Manor, a grant of 22,000 acres made by George II to William Cosby, governor of the Province of New York-, and others in 1734. In 1758 the British erected Fort Schuyler on what is now Main Street, just below Second Street, close to the river. It was never garrisoned, and was abandoned in the early 1760's. In 1772 the Cosby tract, on which the quitrents were unpaid, was bought at public sale by Philip Schuyler, John Bradstreet, and others for about 1,300 pounds. In 1773 the Weaver, Reall, and Demuth families, descendants of the Palatines and staunch patriots, moved from German Flats to the north bank of the Mohawk River where it is crossed by the present North Genesee Street. In 1776 their settlement was destroyed during an Indian-Tory raid. After the Revolution new homes were erected; and in the floodtide of westward migration the settlement grew rapidly as a trading add transportation center. Among the early settlers was Peter Smith ( 1768-1837), who came in 1787 and who in later years was a partner of John Jacob Astor. Quick to sense the possibilities of the place as an outpost for the Indian trade was John Post of Schenectady, who loaded family, employees, and merchandise on boats and made the trip west in nine days. Post erected a home and warehouses and sent his boats on regular trips to Schenectady, to bring back, not only goods to trade with the Indians and settlers, but also more Yankees and English to settle and become his customers. In 1792 abridge was built across the river, and the next year stagecoaches ran from Albany; a church and a schoolhouse were erected in 1794. In 1796 Gerrit Boon, agent of the Holland Land Company for its northern tract, erected a three-story brick tavern; his purpose was to make the place a market and shipping point for the produce of his settlers. In 1798 the settlement, with a population of 200 in 50 houses clustered at the foot of the present Genesee Street, was incorporated as a village, and the present name was determined on by a chance selection from a hatful of paper slips. After 1825 the Erie Canal brought new prosperity—new industries and Irish and German immigrants. The population, 2,972 in 1820, jumped to 8,323 in 1830. The city was chartered in 1832, and in the same year engine and boiler works joined the already existing plow factory, gristmill, iron foundry, and pottery. In 1836 the Chenango Canal and the Utica & Schenectady Railroad were completed and a clothing factory was opened. Stove and furnace manufacture was begun in 1842. The textile industry, the backbone of Utica's economic structure, began with the opening of the woolen mills in 1847 and of the cotton mills in 1848. The manufacture of locomotive headlights was started in 1851, of steam gauges in 1861, of firearms in 1862, of knit goods in 1863. Frank W. Woolworth opened his first five and ten cent store on Bleecker Street in 1879; it was a failure. The manufacture of worsted and caps was started in 1886. A wave of Italian and Polish immigration, attracted by the varied industries, reached its crest in 1910. Genesee Street, Utica, New York Art Print Buy at AllPosters.com Utica's Busy Corner, Utica, New York Art Print Buy at AllPosters.com Business District of Utica, New York Art Print Buy at AllPosters.com Round Lake Camp, Utica, New York Art Print Buy at AllPosters.com