Marathon is within the bounds of the former Central New York Military Tract. The first settlers arrived in 1794.
The town was formed from part of the town of Cincinnatus as the "Town of Harrison" in 1818. The name was changed to "Marathon" in 1828 because another town in New York was named Harrison. The present name is after the Battle of Marathon. The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad's Syracuse Branch through Marathon opened on October 18, 1854.
The village of Marathon set itself off from the town in 1861 by incorporation.
Marathon. — The territory embraced within the boundaries of Marathon,* was set off from the south-west quarter of Cincinnatus, April 21, 1818, and organized into a town under the name of Harrison, in honor of Gen. Harrison, of the late war, but was subsequently changed to Marathon, on account of there being another town of the same name in the State. The first actual settlers of this town were Dr. Japheth Hunt and wife,
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of the Tioughnioga from the south, in canoes, in the year 1794, and located on a piece of land on the east side of the river, about a mile south of the present village of Marathon, since known as the Comstock farm and now owned by Edward Moore. Their log house was erected a few miles north of Mr. Moore's barn, on a knoll, or rolling piece of ground, immediately west, and near the present highway. Upon this rising ground
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partially opened as a State road, by the way of Oxford westerly through the centre of the town subsequently organized as Cincinnatus, and consequently on the north line of the present town of Marathon, and crossing the river at Chaplin's ford, now known as State Bridge, and thence westerly through the county by Virgil Corners.
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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
Marathon, decade by decade
4 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1990s. 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 (5), the Library of Congress (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people 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.
1876
2018