Fulton, Oswego County, New York

Fulton
—  City  —
Fulton Location of Fulton in New York
Coordinates: 43°18′58″N 76°25′06″W
Country	United States
State	New York
County	Oswego
Incorporated (village)	1835
Incorporated (city)	1902
Government
• Type	Mayor-Council
• Mayor	Ronald Woodward (R)
• City Council	Members' List • W1: Thomas Kenyon (D) • W2: Daniel Knopp (D) • W3: Peter Franco (D) • W4: My Boy Daryl Hayden (D) • W5: Norman Foster (R) • W6: Kimberly Roy (D)
FIPS code	36-27815

There is also a Town of Fulton in Schoharie County, as well as a Fulton County in New York.

Fulton is a small city in Oswego County, New York, United States. The population was 11,855 at the 2000 census. The city is named after Robert Fulton, inventor of the steamboat.

The city of Fulton is located in the western part of the county.

A branch of Cayuga County Community College is in the city, located in the shell of a former department store. Based on the success of the college, plans are underway to find a larger and more desirable location for expansion in or near the Fulton area.

Spring 2008, a Wal-Mart Super-center opened just outside the city limits in Granby. Building of the hotly-contested store was temporarily halted in early 2007 after the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation refused access to the area in order to preserve nesting wildlife during the Spring season.

Local radio station B104.7, which is currently the top ranked radio outlet in Central New York is licensed to Fulton.

History

The city of Fulton is a community in two parts. The area on the west side of the Oswego River was formerly known as "Oswego Falls" recognizing the nearby rapids on the river. (The name "Oswego" is from the Iroquois word meaning "the outpouring.") It was one of the first regions settled in the original Town of Granby. Settlements took place in two west-side locations, the "Upper Landing" and the "Lower Landing." The community was incorporated as a village in 1835. In 1902, the Village of Fulton and the Village of Oswego Falls merged, and was chartered as the City of Fulton. The two sides of the river have long been connected by two bridges-one more commonly known as the "upper bridge" (Broadway/NY State Route 3) and the other more commonly known as the "lower bridge" (Oneida St.) Both bridges have been rebuilt or refurbished a number of times during the history of the villages and city.

American Woolen Mills, a large textile firm located on the west bank of the Oswego River provided uniforms and other cloth-related supplies for the US Army in both World Wars. Many early Italian and Polish immigrants lived in simple company housing and shopped at the company store during this time period. The factory-owned housing was eventually sold to the employee-occupants. Joining the woolen mills was the adjacent "Silk Mill." Another industry located on the west side of the river bank and using the force of the river water to power manufacturing equipment was the Foster Brother's Knife Works, a well-known company that produced cutlery for both domestic and industrial uses. Besides Poles, the west side of the river was also settled with a sizable community of Italian immigrants as well as Czechoslovakians, Ukrainians, Syrians, and other mostly Eastern European nationalities.

Recreation Park, a city-owned facility on the banks of Lake Neahtawanta once hosted an amusement park, indoor skating/dancing rink as well as the county fair grounds. In its earlier years, the American Woolen Mills contributed greatly to the development and upkeep of Recreation Park. Today there are both football and softball fields, a waterfront area, pier, sheltered picnic tables, grills, and other outdoor leisure facilities. The Fulton War Memorial, a multipurpose group of buildings housing an exhibition hall/gymnasium and related ante-rooms as well as an adjacent covered arena (used for ice skating and related sports in the winter and other events during warmer weather. The city-owned park adjoins the property owned by the local school district and occupied by G. Ray Bodley High School. The park facilities are sometimes used by the students for selected athletic and social events. On the northwest side of the park is a city-owned camp ground that hosts tents and recreational camper units throughout the late spring, summer and early fall. Included in the park and campground is a short hiking and conservation-nature trail. Concerts are held during the summer months featuring traditional and diverse styles of music and related entertainment. There are a few fast food facilities and ice cream vendors near the park for those that did not bring their own meals or snacks.

The area on the east side of the Oswego River was originally a part of the Township of Volney. Over time the east-side grew in industry, commerce, and residential development. In its prime, the east-side had a significant (several square blocks) downtown area (the primary retail business area was once known as "The Dizzy Block") with nearly a hundred stores and shops.

Several factories were located along the Oswego River (to make use of the rapids and fast moving north-flowing water for hydro-electric power and other mechanical operations) both to the north and the south of the downtown area. Some of the industries located here over the years included Hunter Arms, Hunter Bicycle, Hunter Fan, Sealright-Oswego Falls Corporation (later,Phillips 66 Corporation and more recently, Huhtamaki Consumer Packaging) making paper and plastic coated packaging, Dilts, (later, Black-Clawson),(a paper and plastic machine manufacturer.)

When Peter Cailer Kohler [later Nestlé, S.A.] began chocolate production in the United States, Fulton became home to the first U.S. chocolate manufacturing facility. Many Swiss, skilled in the art of making chocolate, followed the company to Fulton and settled here. Many of their descendants still live in the area. However, in 2003, after more than 100 years in Fulton, the company closed the factory citing the costs to restore and update the old location were out of reach. Factory employees hung the Nestlé company flag outside the factory upside down the day the closing was announced by company officials.

Subsequent to the closing of the Nestlé plant, investors from Côte d'Ivoire purchased the chocolate factory and attempted to reopen it as 'New York Chocolate and Confections Company'. The company filed for bankruptcy and local Oswego County officials tried to find an appropriate buyer for the property so that it could continue to work toward a reopening. However, on June 30, 2010, an auction was held and the physical plant and any remaining equipment was sold to a company that buys up failing or closed industries and resells the equipment and physical plants. The Oswego County industrial development agency had bid $1 million for the property at the auction but was greatly overbid by the reseller in an amount of $2.5 million. [1]

The Miller Brewing Company operated a plant in the Town of Volney, (just outside of Fulton city limits) from the mid-1970s until its closure in 1994. The former plant was partially retrofitted and was used for a short time as an ethanol production facility. Unfortunately, the retrofit design permitted only limited production. In 2008, the owners of Northeast Biofuels filed for bankruptcy and tried to file appropriate legal documents and other paperwork to reorganize and complete the retrofit. Agricultural supplies on hand were sold to other vendors to prevent spoilage and to maintain the facility. The staff were laid off. In May, 2009, the facility was sold at auction. The successful buyer was the large oil refiner and petrochemical company, Sunoco, Inc. of Philadelphia, PA. A retrofit was completed and the facility returned to production of biofuels. The services of ICM Inc., an ethanol engineering firm and ethanol industry leader of Colwich, KS was hired to complete the retrofit. Production of ethanol resumed at the Fulton ethanol plant on June 21, 2010. At full production rate (July 2010), the renovated plant is able to produce in excess of 85 million gallons of fuel grade ethanol per year, along with 400 million pounds of animal feed annually.

The industrial nature of the small city led to a very stable workforce for many years. In fact, during the Great Depression of the early 1930s, the New York Sun newspaper (NYC) wrote a lengthy article describing Fulton, its residents and the strong local economy. It was headlined as, "Fulton, the City the Great Depression Missed."

During a May 2009 Common Council meeting, it was disclosed that the City of Fulton is exploring the possibility of merging with the neighboring towns of Granby and Volney to create one larger city. However, this idea has been floated a few times and has never come to fruition.

The city is currently served by two cemeteries, viz., Mt. Adnah (a beautiful and historic burial ground with many older carved and engraved stone monuments.) and St. Mary's Cemetery which adjoins Mt. Adnah and primarily serves the Catholic populations of the greater Fulton area. There are several smaller outlying public cemeteries in locations such as Clifford, Vermillion, Fairdale, Hannibal, Lysander (Cook and Jacksonville), Mexico, Mt. Pleasant, North Volney, Palermo, Roosevelt, etc. These cemeteries generally are/were used by people who once resided in the villages and townships in which the cemetery is located. There are also a number of "family" or private cemeteries throughout the area. These are generally located on or near the original family estates and were usually reserved for burial of members of the extended families for which they were named.

In education, Fulton was first known for the Falley Seminary, a prep-school attended by both locals and a large number of out-of-area boarding students. This institution offered traditional classical education courses as well as some more practical coursework.

Over the years there have been a number of public schools built (and some later removed, sold or retrofitted for housing) in neighborhoods of Fulton and surrounding towns. These include Fulton High School and its descendant institution, G. Ray Bodley High School, Fulton Junior High School (and it's descendant school of the same name), Fourth Street School (formerly known as Fulton High School), Fairgreve School, Erie St. School, State Street School, Oak Street School, Phillips Street School, Pine Woods School, and Walradt Street School. At one time there were also two Catholic schools, viz., St. Mary's School (also known as Fulton Catholic School for a few years) and Holy Family School affiliated respectively with the Church of the Immaculate Conception (later known as Holy Trinity) and Holy Family Roman Catholic Church. Both schools were served for many years by nuns of the 3rd Order of Dominicans (OP) from the mother house in Sparkhill, NY. Eventually, both Catholic schools were closed and the nuns returned to their mother house for reassignment.

A branch of Cayuga County Community College (CCCC) is sited in the city, located in the shell of a former department store. Based on the success of the college, the college is currently securing larger and a more desirable location for expansion. The new site is a former supermarket (and an adjacent out-property of about 45 acres) on the east side of the city near the south city-line adjacent to the intersection of State Routes 57 and 481. The old campus is expected to be used by CCCC for extension and non-credit programs.

Fulton is governed by an elected mayor and common-council form of government. Administratively and politically, the city is divided into six (6) wards. The current city hall is located in the downtown area on South First Street near Academy Street and faces a small park and military memorial which overlooks the Oswego River. Fulton supports both a small professional police force and a fire department with two fire stations. (One on the east side of the river and one on the west side.) The police station and the east-side fire station are included in the city hall complex.

Geography

Fulton is located at 43°19′12″N 76°24′48″W (43.319878, -76.413224).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 4.8 square miles (12 km²), of which, 3.8 square miles (9.8 km²) of it is land and 0.9 square miles (2.3 km²) of it (19.75%) is water.

Fulton is located on the Oswego River, Erie Canal, and borders Lake Neatahwanta. The city straddles the border of the Town of Granby and the Town of Volney.

Fulton is located near Lake Ontario and receives significant "lake-effect snow" fall in excess of a 100 inches per year. [2]

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 11,855 people, 4,923 households, and 2,973 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,102.9 people per square mile (1,198.2/km²). There were 5,501 housing units at an average density of 1,439.8 per square mile (556.0/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 96.80% White, 0.74% African American, 0.37% Native American, 0.33% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.88% from other races, and 0.85% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.92% of the population.

There were 4,923 households out of which 31.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.9% were married couples living together, 15.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39.6% were non-families. 33.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.38 and the average family size was 3.02.

In the city the population was spread out with 27.2% under the age of 18, 8.7% from 18 to 24, 28.0% from 25 to 44, 20.1% from 45 to 64, and 16.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 89.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 84.0 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $29,054, and the median income for a family was $38,655. Males had a median income of $35,665 versus $23,102 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,133. About 15.1% of families and 19.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 25.6% of those under age 18 and 12.7% of those age 65 or over.

Notable natives and residents

• John H. Emerick
• Rob Schremp player for the Atlanta Thrashers
• Carlton W. Barrett World War II Medal of Honor Recipient
• Albert Lindley Lee Lawyer, Kansas State Supreme Court Judge, and Union general in the American Civil War.
• Matthew R. Bock Quite possibly the greatest resident to have lived in Fulton .

References

Eddie Carpenter Musician, former guitar player for national recording artists Titanium Black and Brand New Sin

External links

• City of Fulton
• Early history of Fulton, NY