Tylerville is a tiny hamlet in Rutland — just past Watertown and just before Copenhagen. Not many people know much about it, but in this history lesson from Emily Griffin, we learn the community was once booming.
TYLERVILLE, New York (WWNY) – What Tylerville lacks in population, it makes up for in history. Today we learn the rise and fall of the sleepy hamlet.
“This is a photo of the oldest house in the village, it’s still there on the corner,” Tylerville historian Andrew Hodge said while showing old pictures. “This is a photo of the old cheese factory. That building is still in the village.”
There are many things in Tylerville still standing just as they were in the early 1800s.
But the hustle and bustle that once surrounded them has quieted.
Hodge has lived there his entire life, and his family history there dates back several generations.
He’s written three books about the area’s history and is currently working on a fourth.
“Around 1805, people began to settle in what is, we call it the Sandy Creek Valley,” Hodge said. “Farms were set up, and a small community was set up with a grist mill and a saw mill. There was a store, a carriage shop, a shoemaker — and there was a hotel.”
And the big attraction of the time: the woolen mill.
“Tylerville was the place where the very first woolen mill in northern new York was set up,” Hodge said.
A water wheel powered a carding and spinning shop, and workers would dye and weave the wool into fabric.
“During the War of 1812, the Tylerville mill secured a contract from the state of New York to supply uniforms for the militia troops that were stationed in Sackets Harbor,” Hodge said, “so that was a shot in the arm for the little woolen mill in Tylerville.
But as fast as business came, it left. When the war ended, European goods flooded the market and depressed the prices of little American manufacturers. By 1817, Tylerville’s prized woolen mill was shut down.
“The old woolen mill would’ve been located right around here,” Hodge said, pointing at an aerial photo. “Today, there’s nothing left, there’s no physical evidence that there was ever a woolen mill in Tylerville.”
Tylerville faded into obscurity. It’s still a happy home to dozens, but no longer a booming community.
“In a way, it’s kind of a sad story, because you like these communities to want to last forever and prosper and thrive,” Hodge said, “but such is not the case for a lot of places.”
Tylerville lost all its businesses, but the legacy remains that it had the first woolen mill in the north country.
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