Freeville

History

Freeville was in the former Central New York Military Tract. It was first settled by Daniel White, a Revolutionary War soldier who cleared land along Fall Creek and built a cabin there around 1798; by 1802 White had established a grist mill at the site. In the early 1870s, Freeville was transformed from a quiet mill town into an important regional railroad junction when the Southern Central Railroad and the Utica, Ithaca & Elmira Railroad (acquired in 1884 by the newly created Elmira, Cortland and Northern Railroad) extended their lines through the village. Both lines were acquired in the mid-1890s by the Lehigh Valley Railroad, which maintained passenger service at Freeville through the 1930s and freight service until the 1970s. The Village of Freeville was incorporated in 1887. George Junior Republic, a youth center, originally called the Freeville Junior Republic, was founded just outside of the village in 1895; the name was changed in 1909.

Race & ethnicity