Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Great Bend yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Great Bend is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in Jefferson County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, Great Bend had a population of 807. Great Bend is in the northern part of the town of Champion. It is adjacent to the southern section of the Fort Drum military reservation.
Its first post office opened in 1828. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 843 to 807 (-4%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Great Bend, 1854–1878
Passages that mention Great Bend, cut from the printed page as they were published.
A history of Jefferson County in the state of New York1854 · page 132Read the page →
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The village of Great Bend, being at the crossing of an important and early traveled road into the northern part of the county, naturally became a place of some business, and has at present a large grist mill, a saw mill, two inns, two stores, a Baptist church and thirty or forty families.
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A history of Jefferson County in the state of New York1854 · page 131Read the page →
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The village of Great Bend, is situated mostly on the south side of Black River, about a mile below where it bends from a northern to a westward course, and at the point where the Chassanis line crossed the river. A bridge was built here about 1804, which in 1807, was swept off by the spring flood, which in that year was very general in this section of the state, and of extraordinary height. It was soon rebuilt. In 1840, a substantial covered bridge at this place was burned, and a few weeks
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History of Jefferson County, New York1878 · page 422Read the page →
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and in the preparation of timber for the mills were Robert Sixbury and Solomon Parker, who came to him after their engagement with Cadwallader Child, in surveying the road route from Alexandria Bay to Great Bend. The saw-mill and grist-mill were built and completed during the years 1805 and 1806. The grist-mill stood a little northeast of the present site of Mr. Casse's paint-shop. The saw-mill occupied the spot where its successor stands to-day. In
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History of Jefferson County, New York1878 · page 427Read the page →
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On the north side of the Black river, opposite the village of Great Bend in Champion, is a hotel, built about 1833, by King Potter, and for some years kept by Henry G. Potter, who also started a distillery at the same place.
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
By decade
Great Bend, decade by decade
2 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
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 (1), the Library of Congress (1) 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.
1864
1910
