'Lost Steuben': How cessions changed county, created some confusion still seen today

When Steuben County was formed in 1796, it was a LOT bigger than it is today. It even stretched all the way over from Keuka Lake to Seneca Lake, taking in Lamoka and Waneta along the way.

Over the years portions of Steuben have been sheared off to create new counties, or to augment existing counties.

The first cession came in 1808, when the “seventh range of townships” was transferred to enlarge two-year-old Allegany County. Roughly speaking, this is the “stack” of towns that runs north and south on the west side of today's Steuben-Allegany line: Ossian (now in Livingston County), Burns (including the Village of Canaseraga), Almond (including most of the Village of Almond), Alfred (including Village), Andover (including Village), and Independence.

Steuben was originally set off from Ontario County, and in 1814 “the part in the fork of Keuka Lake” was donated back to Ontario. This is the southern half of Keuka Bluff, now in the Town of Jerusalem. A look at the map confirms that this was a very sensible arrangement – otherwise the Bluff dwellers would have been “islanded,” nowhere in direct contact with their own county. After cession the Bluff and its hinterland were politically, as well as organically, connected. (Although this transfer was to Ontario, the territory went to Yates when that county was created in 1823.)

An 1822 cession transferred what is roughly the Town of North Dansville (including the Village of Dansville) to the year-old Livingston County. This has led to two centuries of confusion over the Town of Dansville (in Steuben), the Village of Dansville (in Livingston), the Town of North Dansville (also in Livingston), and the unincorporated settlement of South Dansville (back in Steuben again).

The 1824 cession gave roughly the Towns of Barrington and Starkey (including the Village of Dundee) to Yates, along with the Towns of Tyrone and Reading (later transferred to help form Schuyler).

The 1854 cession of the Towns of Orange and Dix (up to the Catharine Creek, and so including part of Watkins Glen, but not Montour Falls) was also part of the foundation of Schuyler County.

The new County of Schuyler in the east spawned confusion like the confusion of Dansvilles in the west. The Town of Wayne remained in Steuben County, but the settlement of Wayne lies mostly in Schuyler. (Just to mix it up a little more, this settlement is often called Wayne Village, even though it’s not a legal village. There's also Wayne Four Corners, in Steuben.)

This might also be a good place to note the boundaries in Keuka Lake. The county line (Pulteney-Jerusalem boundary) is extended eastward into the West Branch, until it’s half-way across. It then undulates southward, keeping to the moving centerline; swings around the point of the Bluff at the same distance; and continues northward along the centerline of the East Branch until it reaches a point a little northwest of Wayne’s northern tip, then connects those two points. So Steuben no longer touches the Bluff anywhere, but it does include almost half of the West Branch, and a little bit of the East Branch.

If all of that ceded country were still in Steuben, it would make a big addition to our agriculture. We would have considerably more grape country in the east (along Seneca) and on the Bluff, plus somewhat more muckland in the northwest. Educationally, we'd have Alfred University, Alfred State College, and The New York State College of Ceramics, not to mention the Genesee Community College Campus Center at Dansville.

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Our tourism would also be beefed up, with a good stretch of Seneca shoreline, and a lot more on Keuka, not to mention the “Little Lakes” – Waneta and Lamoka. We'd have a pleasant waterfront town at the head of each major lake, and we would be anchored by a major state park in the east (Watkins Glen) to match our park in the west (Stony Brook). Much of the Catharine Valley Trail would be in Steuben, plus a good deal more of the Finger Lakes Trail.

We'd have Camp Gorton, and Camp Lamoka, and a nice airport in Dansville, along with the Dogwood Festival. And in the stakes for most famous Steubener, Clara Barton would be giving Glenn Curtiss a run for his money!

-- Kirk House, of the Steuben County Historical Society, writes a local history column appearing in The Leader and The Spectator.

This article originally appeared on The Evening Tribune: Steuben County borders shrunk in 19th century. Here's what was lost