The community was first settled circa 1794. It was originally known as Cassety Hollow, and was incorporated as the village of Oriskany Falls in the 1880s.
In the mid and late 1900s, Mr. George Tucker owned a large portion of the town, which he donated to the people, including a church and the local store, "Tucker's Big M." The store, however, was sold in 2004 to the "Shur-Fine" corporation, who had a gas station put in and remodeled the storefront, and then again in 2006 to brothers-in-law Badal Singh and Sukhminder Singh, natives of India.
The First Congregational Free Church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
Peaked at 1,014 in 1920; 658 people lived here in 2020.
16 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Oriskany Falls’ Wikipedia page.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Oriskany Falls in 1878
Passages that mention Oriskany Falls, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Oneida County, New York1878 · page 412Read the page →
Read the text
Elisha Fowler settled in the town of Paris in 1792, where he finally died. His son, Elisha Fowler, Esq., of Oriskany Falls, was born in Paris in 1793, and came to the town of Augusta in 1816, and in 1821 located at Oriskany Falls. He was afterwards engaged in the dry goods and grocery business, and also carried on a distillery, which stood where the brewery now is. He was out a short time with the militia in the war of 1812. For ten
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Oriskany Falls, 1810 to 1931
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Oriskany Falls. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1907Sangerfield sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Oriskany Falls.
Every building
Oriskany Falls, building by building, 1892
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 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 (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), 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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