Finger Lakes history · regional story
Developing historyThe millrace that became a canal feeder
An 1896 county history follows a two-and-a-half-mile millrace along Ninemile Creek from a private association into the state canal system.
Research status
This history is still developing.
Parts of this account remain unresolved. Here is what the sources support, what is uncertain, and what we are looking for next.
About this review. Written and source-checked with AI assistance under an owner-authorized editorial process. This is not a personal review by Riley or an independent historian. Sources and unresolved questions are listed below; corrections are welcome.
- What the records establish
- The 1896 account connects a named association, an approximate construction date and a dated transfer to canal administration.
- What remains uncertain
- The unpaginated online transcription supplies an exact paragraph, but not the individual printed page. We have not inspected the association’s records, sale instrument or original feeder map.
- What we are researching next
- Find the 1835 transfer record, canal commissioners’ files and a dated channel survey. Check the named members against company records, then connect specific mills and workers through sourced relationships.
The channel had two jobs in its recorded history. The Camillus chapter in Onondaga’s Centennial describes a millrace roughly two and a half miles long, built around 1832 by the Nine Mile Creek Canal Association. History of the Town of Camillus, in Onondaga’s Centennial.
The account names its organizers, among them James R. and Grove Lawrence, David Munro and Miles H. Bennett. It then dates a sale to the canal commissioners to 1835 and describes the waterway’s subsequent use as an Erie Canal feeder. History of the Town of Camillus, in Onondaga’s Centennial.
This is one piece of Camillus’s industrial history, told from a later county history. The builders, the channel and its transfer offer a specific investigation to follow. They do not establish every mill’s water entitlement or the present course and condition of the works. History of the Town of Camillus, in Onondaga’s Centennial.
Sources
- History of the Town of Camillus, in Onondaga’s Centennial — Dwight H. Bruce, editor; transcript submitted by Kathy Crowell; 1896; online transcription date not stated. Locator: Original chapter span volume I pages 659–682; online paragraph beginning About 1832 the present mill race, followed by 1835 sale and Patterson & Sisson mill chronology. Accessed October 22, 2026.