Ellisburg, New York facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Ellisburg, New York
Town
Ellisburg, New York Location in New York Show map of New York Ellisburg, New York Location in the United States Show map of the United States
Country	United States
State	New York
County	Jefferson
Government
• Type	Town Council
Area
• Total	86.61 sq mi (224.32 km2)
• Land	85.22 sq mi (220.72 km2)
• Water	1.39 sq mi (3.60 km2)  1.60%
Population  (2020)
• Total	3,352
• Density	39.33/sq mi (15.19/km2)
Time zone	UTC-5 (Eastern (EST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-4 (EDT)
FIPS code	36-045-24086

Ellisburg is a town in Jefferson County, New York. In 2020, about 3,352 people lived here. The town is in the southwest part of the county. It is located south of the city of Watertown. Ellisburg got its name from some of the first European-American landowners. One of the villages inside the town is also called Ellisburg.

Ellisburg's Past: A Look at Its History

Early People and Ancient History

This area was home to many different groups of indigenous peoples for a very long time. Old remains show that people lived here thousands of years before Europeans arrived. The St. Lawrence Iroquoians had villages along the upper St. Lawrence River from the 1300s to the late 1500s.

Further south, the Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy controlled land from what is now New York to Pennsylvania and Ohio. They also reached south into Virginia. In more recent history, the Onondaga people lived mainly in this area. The Five Nations called themselves the Haudenosaunee.

In the mid-1800s, E.G. Squier studied ancient Native American sites for the Smithsonian Institution. He found signs of Iroquois longhouses and burial grounds in this area. He also found many old tools and parts of what seemed to be Iroquois forts. These forts were along Sandy Creek and were likely built in the early 1700s. They helped protect against French colonists and other First Nations.

European Arrival and Conflicts

Samuel de Champlain and other French explorers and missionaries visited this area in the 1600s. The French later set up a colony called New France (now Quebec). Their traders worked with many Iroquois villages, especially the Onondaga and Mohawk peoples.

Later, these groups mainly traded with Dutch and English colonists in what is now New York. This trade happened from Albany west along the Mohawk River. Most of the Iroquois nations sided with the British during the American Revolutionary War.

After Great Britain lost the war, the United States took over its lands in the Thirteen Colonies. The U.S. then made the Iroquois give up most of their land in New York. The British Crown gave the Iroquois new lands in Upper Canada (now Ontario) as a trade-off. There were already Mohawk villages along the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, near Montreal, that had started near Jesuit missions.

Growth and Challenges After the War

After the war, New York State made five million acres of former Iroquois land available to buy. People who bought and sold land, called land speculators, bought huge areas for development. They hoped to create new villages and farms.

As part of this land buying, Alexander Macomb bought thousands of acres in what was called Macomb's Purchase. Many people from New England moved to upstate and western New York after the war. Immigrants from the British Isles and France also came. Marvel and Lyman Ellis bought land from Macomb's Purchase and settled near what became Ellisburg village around 1797. The name was first spelled "Ellisburgh."

The town of Ellisburg was officially created in 1803. This happened before Jefferson County was formed. It was created from the town of Mexico, which is now in Oswego County.

Impact of Wars and Canals

In 1807, President Thomas Jefferson stopped trade with Great Britain. This was before the War of 1812. This ban badly affected the busy trade between towns in upstate New York and Canada.

In the small village of Sackets Harbor, near Ellisburg, the U.S. Navy built a large shipyard during the war. About 3,000 workers built 12 warships there. These ships were very important for battles on the Great Lakes. Thousands more soldiers and sailors were also stationed at Sackets Harbor. By late 1814, Sackets Harbor was the third-largest town in New York State. Only Albany and New York City were bigger.

In 1814, during the War of 1812, Americans defeated a British invasion at the Battle of Big Sandy Creek in Ellisburg.

Settlers thought upstate New York would grow a lot because of trade with Canada. But the war stopped this trade. After the war, big changes came with the building of the Erie Canal. The canal opened in 1824 and went through the Mohawk River Valley. It helped connect New York City with the Midwest and Great Lakes areas. Farmers and businesses could now send their goods easily to New York City.

However, many towns in Jefferson County were not directly helped by this westward growth. Because of this, many young people moved west to Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin starting in the mid-1800s.

Watertown, New York, however, became a major industrial city around 1900. Its paper and other factories used power from the Black River. The money made from these factories meant that Watertown had one of the highest numbers of millionaires per person in the early 1900s.

Village Incorporations

The community of Belleville became an official village in 1860. The community of Mannsville became a village in 1879. Ellisburg village itself became an official village in 1895. In 1930, Belleville decided to no longer be a village.

Ellisburg's Location and Landscape

Geography and Waterways

Ellisburg covers a total area of about 224.3 square kilometers (86.6 square miles). Most of this is land, about 220.7 square kilometers (85.2 square miles). The rest, about 3.6 square kilometers (1.39 square miles), is water. Water makes up about 1.60% of the town's total area.

The western edge of Ellisburg is Lake Ontario. The southern border of the town is also the border of Oswego County.

Roads and Highways

Interstate 81 runs through the eastern side of the town. U.S. Route 11 runs right next to and east of the interstate. New York State Route 3, a north-south highway, goes along the western side of Ellisburg. New York State Route 193, an east-west highway, crosses the north-south highway New York State Route 289 at Ellisburg village.

People of Ellisburg: Demographics

In 2000, there were 3,541 people living in Ellisburg. These people made up 1,269 households, and 961 of these were families. The population density was about 41.5 people per square mile. There were 1,781 homes, with about 20.9 homes per square mile.

Most people in the town (97.85%) were White. Other groups included 0.40% Black, 0.48% Native American, and 0.37% Asian. About 1.04% of the population was Hispanic or Latino.

About 38.5% of households had children under 18 living with them. Most households (62.3%) were married couples living together. About 19.0% of all households were single people living alone. The average household had 2.77 people, and the average family had 3.16 people.

The population was spread out by age. About 29.5% were under 18 years old. About 29.6% were between 25 and 44 years old. The median age was 36 years. This means half the people were younger than 36 and half were older.

The median income for a household in the town was $38,112. For families, the median income was $40,903. About 13.6% of all people in Ellisburg lived below the poverty line. This included 21.3% of those under 18 and 6.7% of those 65 or older.

Communities and Places in Ellisburg

Here are some of the different communities and important spots you can find in Ellisburg:

• Belleville – A small community and official census place in the northern part of town. It's on NY-289 near County Road 75, next to Sandy Creek. It used to be an official village.
• Cobbtown – A place southeast of Pierpont Manor.
• Cobblestone Corners – A spot in the southern part of town where County Roads 87 and 89 meet.
• Ellisburg – The main village near the center of the town, served by NY-289.
• Giddingsville – A small community on U.S. Route 11 in the northeast part of town, by Sandy Creek.
• Hammond Corners – A place where County Roads 75 and 78 meet, north of Woodville.
• Hossington – A small community near the northern town line on County Road 91.
• Jefferson Park – A community by the lake, northwest of Ellisburg village.
• Mannsville – A village in the southeast part of town on US-11 at County Road 90.
• Montario Point – A community by the lake in the southwest corner of the town.
• North Landing – A small community on NY-3 west of Ellisburg village. The historic Amos Wood House was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.
• Pierrepont Manor – A community and official census place east of Ellisburg village on US-11. It was first settled around 1805. Baseball player Frank Smith was born here.
• Rural Hill – A place in the northwest part of town on County Road 79. It was named after early settlers, the Hill brothers. It was once called "Buck Hill."
• Saxe Corner – A small community northeast of Ellisburg village.
• South Landing – A small community southwest of Ellisburg village on NY-3.
• Taylor Settlement – A place in the northeast part of town on County Road 91.
• Wardwell Settlement (or Wardwell) – A small community in the northeast part of town at County Roads 85 and 91. It was named after an early landowner, Colonel Wardwell.
• Woodville – A small community northwest of Ellisburg village, located on the north branch of Sandy Creek. It was first called "Wood's Settlement" after an early pioneer family.

Natural Areas and Water Bodies

• Black Pond Wildlife Management Area – A special area for nature and wildlife near Lake Ontario in the northwest corner of Ellisburg.
• Colwell Hill – A high point in the southwest part of Ellisburg near Montario Point.
• Floodwood Pond – A small lake close to the shore of Lake Ontario.
• Goose Pond – Another small lake near the shore of Lake Ontario.
• Lakeview Pond – A small lake right by the shore of Lake Ontario.
• Lakeview Wildlife Management Area – A conservation area for wildlife located by Lake Ontario on the western edge of Ellisburg.
• North Colwell Pond – A small lake by the shore of Lake Ontario.
• Sandy Creek – A stream that flows southwest through the town, passing by Belleville, Hossington, and Woodville.
• South Colwell Pond – A small lake by the shore of Lake Ontario.
• Southwick Beach State Park – A state park located on the shore of Lake Ontario, northwest of Ellisburg village.

Famous People from Ellisburg

• Estelle Mendell Amory (born 1845), a teacher and writer.
• La Fayette Eastman, an early settler of Plymouth, Wisconsin and a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly.
• Marietta Holley (1836–1926), a novelist and humorist.

See also

In Spanish: Ellisburg (Nueva York) para niños