Early history reveals the importance of the river to the Native Americans and the European settlers. The early settlement's strategic location at the site of the waterfalls, with dangerous rapids below, contributed to the success of various industries that harnessed the waters' power. Fulton grew, flourished, and became a city having the distinct honor of being virtually unaffected by the Great Depression.
Fulton and the Oswego River contains a striking collection of hundreds of rare local photographs, together with the stories of the town, the river, and the people who have lived here. The early settlers, including blacksmith Daniel Masters and the Van Buren family come to life in these pages, as the reader imagines their early struggles. The building of the Erie and Barge Canals had a influence on the economy, as did the businesses that developed along the river: the flour mills, paper mills, and woolen mills, such as the American Woolen Mill, which made military uniforms on Oswego's banks through World War II.
When Rochester experienced the explosive growth generated by the Erie Canal, what began as a pioneer neighborhood of cabins quickly became an impressive ward of mansions for the city's social hierarchy. Today's generation knows it as Corn Hill, but it is actually the old Third Ward, an extraordinary neighborhood that rivaled Charleston, Savannah, and Natchez in elegance and importance. Rochester's Corn Hill: The Historic Third Ward offers the first comprehensive pictorial history of this ruffled-shirt district from its humble beginnings, to its Victorian peak, through its eventual decline and subsequent rehabilitation into a landmark ward.