When the town was laid out on September 20, 1827, it was called Eugene Station, though it was also called Osonimon after an Indian chief of that name. It was later renamed after the village of Cayuga and Cayuga Lake in the state of New York; an early settler named John Groenendyke had originally come from Cayuga County, New York, and moved to Vigo County in 1818, then in 1819 moved to the area that later became Vermillion County. The name is based on the Iroquois term Gwa-u-geh, meaning "the place of taking out" (in terms of a portage). Local legend attributes the name to the sound made by the horn of a Ford Model T. The town was incorporated around 1891.
Passages that mention Cayuga, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Cayuga county New York1908 · page 273Read the page →
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The great Genesee road through Cayuga County was substantially the old road from Skaneateles or Mottville by Franklin street to Auburn and thence nearly on the line of West Genesee street, to Cayuga ferry about one mile north of the present village of Cayuga.
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History of Cayuga county New York1908 · page 244Read the page →
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square miles was located as follows: "Beginning on the east side of the town of Ledyard in the center of the highway running from Sherwood's Corners to Aurora, and running thence west to a point about three miles west of Cayuga Lake, thence northerly to the village of Seneca Falls thence along Seneca River to the Cayuga Salt Springs, below the village of Montezuma, thence southeasterly to a point in the town of Aurelius in line with the east line of the town of Springport and thence south to the place of begin-
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History of Cayuga County, New York1879 · page 36Read the page →
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Court of General Sessions of that county, January 27, 1789. This town, it should be remembered, was outside of the territorial limits of what afterwards became Onondaga and Cayuga Counties, and should not be confounded with tHe Aurelius in Cayuga County, which was one of the "Military Townships," formed January 27, 1789, but was enlarged by an act passed March
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History of Cayuga County, New York1879 · page 48Read the page →
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Cayuga Southern Railroad. — This road extends from Cayuga to Ithaca, a distance of thirty-eight miles. This company was first organized in 1865, as the Cayuga Lake Railroad Company, with the following directors : Henry Wells, E. B. Morgan, T. Delafield, J.J. Thomas, D. Anthony, A. Beardsley, C. H. Adams, L. A.
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Cayuga. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1955Newport sheet · 1:24,000
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Cayuga.
Every building
Cayuga, building by building, 1906–1913
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (6), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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