Indigenous peoples occupied the lakeshore and riverways in present-day New York for thousands of years. Prior to European-American settlement, a major Cayuga village, Chonodote, stood near the present-day site of Aurora village. It had permanent dwellings and the people cultivated fields for their staple crops of varieties of corn, beans and squash. Chonodote was destroyed by the Sullivan Expedition in 1779 during the Revolutionary War, when the Cayuga were allies of the British army, in retaliation for raids by Joseph Brant and his Mohawk and Loyalist forces mostly in the eastern Mohawk Valley. Most of the Cayuga went with other Haudenosaunee nations to Canada, where their descendants are enrolled in the Six Nations Reserve. Some members of the Cayuga tribe returned to the area after the war, but the tribe had been forced to cede its land to New York. They were left landless and shared…
Passages that mention Aurora, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Cayuga County, New York1908 · page 419Read the page →
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Aurora village on the east bank of Cayuga Lake was incorporated May 5, 1837, and is beautifully situated, and commands a view of the most picturesque portions of the lake, which here widens out to about four miles. Among all the villages of this section of the state which are celebrated for their beauty, there is nothing to surpass the little village of Aurora. It contains some of the most elegant country residences west of the Hudson and all that taste and wealth, aided by the lavish hand of Nature can do to
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History of Cayuga County, New York1908 · page 244Read the page →
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As nearly as can be described the reservation of the one hundred 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
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History of Cayuga County, New York1879 · page 373Read the page →
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in the fall of 1866. Previous to that time only occasional services had been held. Until the fall of 1876, this parish was united either with that at Cayuga, or that at Aurora, under the charge of one clergyman. Grace church was incorporated in 1867, and was admitted to union with the Convention of the Diocese of Western New York the following year, passing, however,
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History of Cayuga County, New York1879 · page 406Read the page →
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Postmasters. — The post-office at Aurora was established at Scipio, April ist, 1795, with Judge Walter Wood as postmaster. Previous to that date there was no post-office in the State west of Canajoharie. Contemporary with the establishment of the office at Aurora, offices were established at Onondaigiia, with Comfort Tyler as postmaster ; Kanandaigua, with Thaddeus
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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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 (7), the Library of Congress (2), Wikidata (2), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia) 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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