Halseyville History

In the spring of 1793, when 12 years of age, together with his father's family, Nicholl Halsey came from the town of Southhampton, County of Suffolk, N.Y., to the Town of Ovid, then called Herkimer County. The Halsey family left Southhampton by sloop to Albany, then by land to Schenectady, thence in three batteaux and overland portages, to Lodi, where they lived in a log hut with an earth floor. Nicholl's father was Dr. Silas Halsey, who was married three times, Nicholl being a child of his second marriage. Nicholl married Euphias McDowell Aug. 10, 1806. After living with his parents for two years, they moved to Halseyville where they erected a home, mills, shops, etc. Their first home was undoubtedly a log cabin. The present Halseyville House is said to have been built in 1829, with timbers cut from the forest, sawed, split and planed in the mills already erected on the creek. In a letter Carolyn Halsey Tyler, niece of Nicholl Halsey wrote, she speaks of the race and creek on which her uncle had a wheat mill, six saw mills, a fulling mill, lanyard. The logs from which Halsey House were built were floated for a year in the pond and later dried in a kiln. Hardware in the house was cast in a shop on that site. Halseyville community was composed of six houses, as well as the mills and shops. A very picturesque covered bridge spanned Taughannock creek.

Extract from a paper written by Gladys Duddleston in 1971 and a History written in Nicholl Halsey's handwriting, now owned by Miss Estelle D. Stone.

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