This Timeline is a Project that is continually in progress. The events represented by our other Projects and posts will provide items to be placed in this chronology and contain further reading regarding each item.
We hope to make this Timeline more interactive in the future and be able to view all items or focus on a topic by selecting a category.
| 18,000 BCE | The Laurentide Ice Sheet glacier over Fair Haven began to melt. | ||
| < 1142 | Some time prior to 1142, the Proto-Iroquois people migrated to New York from the Montreal area. They may have displaced earlier indigenous people here. | ||
| < 1450 | Some time prior to 1450, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy was formed. The Cayuga and Seneca members frequented Little Sodus Bay seasonally. | ||
| 1776-1783 | Revolutionary War | ||
| 1795 | Original survey to lay out the boundaries of the Township of Stirling, as part of Onondaga County; Cayuga County did not yet exist. Stirling and Cato, being unpopulated, were administered from the township of Aurelius. | ||
| 1799 March 8 | Cayuga County was created from part of Onondaga County. | ||
| 1802 March 30 | Cato town government established to administer the area of Cayuga County north of the Seneca River, including Stirling. | ||
| 1804 March 24 | Township of Stirling split in half when Seneca County was created from western Cayuga County.
In 1807 the Town of Wolcott was created in what was then Seneca County. 1823 April 11, that area of Seneca County became Wayne County. |
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| 1805 | The first permanent settlers arrived in Sterling. | ||
| 1811 February |
John Turner and family arrived in Fair Haven from Long Island. | ||
| 1812 June 18 | War of 1812 – 1812 to 1815 |
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| 1812 June 19 | Town of Sterling established. The population of Stirling Township was large enough to organize its own government and elect officers, and permanently change the spelling of Sterling. (Previously administered by the adjacent Township of Cato.) | ||
| 1816 |
Isaac Turner built his house on Main Street (now the 1816 Isaac Turner House bed & breakfast). |
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| about 1825 | Garrison Taylor opened the first store in Fair Haven on Lake Street. The second store in Fair Haven was opened by Oscar Miller near Vought’s Cove. |
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| 1827 July 4 | Slavery ended in New York State |
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| 1829 | Little Sodus Post Office established with Seth Turner as its first Postmaster. | ||
| about 1830 |
Abijah Hunt built the Hunt Hotel on Hunt’s Point (later Eldredge Point). | ||
| 1852 Aug 31 | Little Sodus Post Office renamed Fair Haven Post Office. | ||
| about 1859 |
Seth Turner opened a store at the head of the bay. |
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| 1861-1865 | Civil War |
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| 1871 Nov 29 | Gold spike celebration of the completion of the Southern Central Railroad allowing coal from Pennsylvania and other goods to be shipped on Lake Ontario and local goods to be freighted south. | ||
| 1874 | John Dietel opened a hardware store on Main Street east of Lake Street in 1874. The following year he built a new building for his store, just west of Lake Street. (This still stands today as the Hardware Cafe.) | ||
| 1875 |
Giles Barrus opened the Barrus House hotel at the corner of Richmond Avenue. John Dietel moved his hardware store to where it stands today. |
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| 1880 | Fair Haven incorporated as a Village and first officers elected. | ||
| 1890 | First issue of the Fair Haven Register. | ||
| 1899 September | Fair Haven High School on Lake Street opened it doors for the first time. | ||
| 1905 | First Telephone Company in Fair Haven |
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| 1917 April 6 |
The US entered the Great War (World War I) on April 6, 1917. The war had started three years earlier and ended November 11, 1918. |
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| 1917 Nov 6 | Women won the right to vote within New York State. |
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| 1918 |
Flu Pandemic |
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| 1918 Mar 29 |
Dr. Virginia McKnight was appointed President of Fair Haven Village. She is Fair Haven’s only female mayor. |
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| 1920 Aug 18 | The 19th Amendment was ratified, giving women the right to vote Nationally. | ||
| 1921 | Electricity arrives in Fair Haven – Electric streetlights, school, Dietel Hardware Store, and a few others. |
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| 1927 | Fair Haven Beach State Park created. |
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| 1934 | Fair Haven CCC Camp established. |
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| 1941 December 7 | Pearl Harbor was attacked. The US entered World War II. The war ended in 1945. |
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| 1955 March 17 | Fire on Main Street |
I remember going to the saw mill my dad worked at. John Follet, who lived across the street from the school, was a super nice man. I miss the old stories my dad would tell of when he was a young man with Dick Hilton and all the crazy things that they did.