The Onondaga salt deposits were mentioned in the journal of the
French Jesuit Lemoyne as early as 1653, and before the War of
Independence the Indians marketed Onondaga salt at Albany and
Quebec. In 1788 the state undertook, by treaty with the Onondaga
Indians, to care for the salt springs and manage them for the benefit
of both the whites and the Indians. In 1795, by another treaty,
the state acquired for $1000, to be supplemented by an annual
payment of $700 and 150 bushels of salt, the salt springs and land
about them covering about 10 sq. m. In 1797 the state leased the
lands, the lessees paying a royalty of 4 cents per bushel and being
forbidden to charge more than 60 cents per bushel. The state sank
wells and built and maintained tanks from which brine was delivered
to lessees. During 1812-1834 a royalty of 12½ cents was charged
to raise funds for building canals (a rebate being granted in the
last three years covering the entire amount of the royalty for these
years). During 1834-1846 the royalty was 6 cents, and between 1846
and 1898 it remained stationary at one cent. In 1898 the state
ordered the sale of the salt lands, because the revenues were less than
the expense of keeping up the works; but state ownership was maintained
until 1908, when the last of the lands were sold and the office
of superintendent of salt lands, created in 1797, was abolished.
Until 1840 only boiled salt was manufactured; in that year the solar
process was introduced. The annual production, which amounted
to 100,000 bushels in 1804, reached its highest point in 1862 (9,053,874
bushels, of which 1,983,022 bushels were solar, and 7,070,852 boiled).
The development of the Michigan salt deposits and (after 1880) of the
deposits in Wyoming, Genesee and Livingston counties in New York
caused a rapid decline in the Onondaga product. In 1876 both
processes yielded together only 5,392,677 bushels, and in 1896 only
2,806,600 bushels. The salt deposits at Syracuse had, however, laid
the basis for another industry, the manufacture of soda-ash, which
has grown to important proportions. At the village of Solvay
(pop. 1905, 5196), adjoining Syracuse on the lake shore, are the
largest works for the production of soda-ash in the world, giving
employment to more than 3000 hands.
The Syracuse region became known to Europeans through its salt deposits. Until several years after the close of the War of Independence, however, there was no settlement. Ephraim Webster, who built a trading-post near the mouth of Onondaga Creek in 1786, was the first white settler. About 1788-1789 small companies began to visit the place every summer to work the salt deposits. In 1796-1797 there was a permanent settlement known as Webster's Landing, and in 1797 a settlement was begun at Salina, a short distance to the north on the lake shore. Geddes, another “salt settlement,” was founded in 1803. In 1800 “the landing” received the name “Bogardus's Corners,” from the proprietor of a local inn. Between 1800 and 1805 a dozen families settled here, and in the latter year a grist mill, the first manufacturing establishment, was built on Onondaga Creek. A sawmill was built in the following year. In 1804 the state government, which had assumed control of the salt fields, sold to Abraham Walton of Albany, for $6550, some 250 acres, embracing the district now occupied by Syracuse's business centre, to secure money for the construction of a public road. During the succeeding years the name of the place was frequently changed. It was called Milan in 1809, South Salina in 1809-1814, Cossitt's Corners in 1814-1817, and Cossitt in 1817-1824. In 1824 a post office was established, and as there was another office of that same name in the state, the name was again changed, the present name being adopted. The village was incorporated in 1825, Salina being incorporated independently at the same time. In the meantime the settlement had been growing rapidly. In 1818 Joshua Forman bought an interest in the Walton tract, had the village platted, and became the “founder” of the city. The first newspaper, the Onondaga Gazette, was established in 1823; and in 1825 the completion of the Erie Canal opened a new era of prosperity. In 1827 Syracuse became the county-seat of Onondaga county. In 1847 Salina was united to Syracuse, and the city was chartered. Geddes was annexed in 1886. Syracuse has been the meeting-place of some historically important political conventions; that of 1847, in which occurred the split between the “Barnburner” and “Hunker” factions of the Democratic party, began the Free Soil movement in the state. The strong anti-slavery sentiment here manifested itself in 1851 in the famous “Jerry rescue,” one of the most significant episodes following the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850; Samuel J. May, pastor of the Unitarian church, and seventeen others, arrested for assisting in the rescue, were never brought to trial, although May and two others publicly admitted that they had taken part in the rescue, and announced that they would contest the constitutionality of the Fugitive Slave Law, if they were tried.
See Carroll E. Smith, Pioneer Times in Onondaga County (Syracuse, 1904).
SYR-DARYA (Gr. and Lat. Jaxartes; Arab. Shash or Sihun), a river of Asia, flowing into the Sea of Aral, and having a length of 1500 m. and a drainage area of about 320,000 sq. m. Its headstream is the Naryn, which rises in the heart of the Tian-shan complex south of Lake Issyk-kul, on the southern slope (12,000 ft.) of the Terskei Ala-tau. After its union with another mountain stream, the Barskaun, it flows W.S.W. at 11,000 to 10,000 ft. above the sea, in a barren longitudinal valley between the Terskei Ala-tau and the foothills of the Kokshal-tau. On entering a wild narrow gorge in the south-west continuation of the Terskei Ala-tau it receives the name of Naryn. Within this gorge it descends some 4000 ft.; Fort Narynsk, 20 m. below the confluence of the Great and the Little Naryn, is only 6800 ft. above the sea. Here the river enters a broad valley—formerly the bottom of an alpine lake—and flows past the ruins of Fort Kurtka, for 90 m. westward, as a stream some 50 yds. wide and from 3 to 11 ft. deep. Its waters are utilized by the Kirghiz for irrigating their cornfields, which contrast strangely with the barren aspect of the lofty treeless mountains. The At-bash, a large mountain stream, joins the Naryn at the head of this valley and the Alabuga or Arpa at its lower end, both from the left. Before reaching the lowlands the Naryn cuts its way through three ridges which separate the valley of Kurtka from that of Ferghana, and does so by a series of wild gorges and open valleys (170 m.), representing the bottoms of old lakes; the valleys of the Toguz-torau, 2000 ft. lower than Kurtka, and the Ketmen-tube are both cultivated by the Kirghiz. Taking a wide sweep towards the north, the river enters Ferghana—also the bottom of an immense lake—where, after receiving the Kara-darya (Black River) near Namangan, it assumes the name of Syr-darya.[1] The Kara-darya is a large stream rising on the northern spurs of the Alai Mountains. As it deflects the Naryn towards the west, the natives look upon it as the chief branch of the Syr-darya, but its volume is much smaller. At the confluence the Syr is 1440 ft. above sea-level.
The waters of the Syr-darya and its tributaries are in this part of its course largely drained away for irrigation. It is to the Syr that Ferghana is indebted for its high, if somewhat exaggerated, repute in Central Asia as a rich garden and granary; cities like Khokand, Marghilan and Namangan, and more than 800,000 inhabitants of the former khanate of Khokand, subsist by its waters. Notwithstanding this drain upon it, the Syr could be easily navigated, were it not for the Bigovat rapids at Irjar, at the lower end of the valley, where the river pierces the Mogol-tau.
On issuing from this gorge the Syr enters the Aral depression, and flows for 850 m. in a north-westerly and northerly direction before reaching the Sea of Aral. On this section it is navigated by steamers. Between the Irjar rapids and Baildyr-turgai (where it bends north) the river flows along the base of the subsidiary ranges which flank the Chotkal Mountains on the north-west, and receives from the longitudinal valleys of these alpine tracts a series of tributaries (the Angren, the Chirchik, the Keles), which in their lower courses fertilize the wide plains of loess on the right bank of the Syr.
Some 50 m. below Chinaz (770 ft. above sea-level) the Syr bends northwards, but resumes its north-westerly course 150 m. farther down, following with remarkable persistency the edge of the loess. Its low banks, overgrown with reeds and rendered uninhabitable in summer by clouds of mosquitoes, are inundated for 20 m. on both sides when the snows begin to melt. These inundations prevent the moving sands of the Kyzyl-kum desert from approaching the Syr; below Perovsk, however, the steppe does gain the upper hand. Down to Perovsk the river rolls its muddy yellow waters, at the rate of 3 to 5 m. an hour, in a channel 300 to 600 yds. wide and 3 to 5 fathoms deep; at Perovsk its vertical section is 8220 sq. ft., and 312,500 cub. ft. of water are discharged per second. The Arys and the Bugun are the only tributaries worthy of notice along this part of its course; the other streams which descend from the Kara-tau fail to reach the river. The Kirghiz rear numerous herds of cattle and
- ↑ Syr and darya both signify “river,” in two different dialects.
