The WPA Guide to New York by Federal Writers' Project

Author:Federal Writers' Project
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781595342300
Publisher: Trinity University Press

Section d.LA FAYETTE to AUBURN; 25.4 m.US 20

Between LA FAYETTE, 0 m., and Auburn US 20 whips up and down over the ragged southern edge of the Lake Ontario Plain, the crests of the mile-long gradients providing brief glimpses of the blue Finger Lakes and farm-green valleys.

Set like a delicate cameo at the base of the little digit of the Finger Lakes, SKANEATELES, 18.6 m. (868 alt., 1,882 pop.), is today, in the minds of thousands of people, synonymous with KREBS (L), a story-and-a-half white frame house set off by deep lawns; and Krebs is synonymous with food. Here a one-time impoverished Alsatian caterer has provided a place to delight a gourmet. Krebs came to Skaneateles in 1900 for his health and started serving meals to make a living. By word-of-mouth the fame of his cuisine spread until now during the summer months more than 1,000 meals a day are served, continuing the original policy of giving customers more than they can possibly eat.

In 1750 Moravian missionaries from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, visited the Indian village on this site. The Indian trails were widened through this area by a detachment from the Sullivan-Clinton expedition; even so, Abraham A. Cuddeback, believed to be the first white settler, who arrived here about 1792, required 43 days for his trip with family and effects from Orange County.

In 1841 a water-cure sanitarium was started here by Dr. W.C. Thomas, who conducted the cures for 40 years, and who could at least offer his long life, 107 years, as a recommendation of the curative value of the waters.

Before the Civil War the village was a headquarters for the abolitionist activities of Gerrit Smith and an important station on the Underground Railroad. In 1843–5 it had its touch of ‘ism’ in the form of a commune of ‘infidels’ led by John Anderson Collins (1810–79), who bought a 300-acre farm two miles north of the village and advertised in the papers for followers. The principles of the group were denunciation of individual property, negation of all force, easy divorce, universal education, and vegetarianism. The community attracted the usual seekers after free board and lodging and received the usual round of condemnation from outsiders. Disillusioned, Collins liquidated the venture. At the opposite pole from the antireligionists was the work of the Quakers. About 1818, Lydia P. Mott came to the region and started the Friends’ Female Boarding School, known as the Hive.

At one time or another Skaneateles attempted to develop industries of its own. As a sideline to its effort in textiles, an industry nourished here which is almost unique: teasel raising. The fuller’s teasel, a thistle-like biennial, native of the south of Europe, is used in tearing or raising a nap on cloth. While visiting his home in England in 1840, William Snook, a resident of Onondaga County, became interested in the plant and on his return brought with him teasel seed. Although the raising of teasel never spread far, it became an important means of livelihood for this area until foreign competition drove it from the market.

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