McGraw

History

The community was first settled in 1805 by Samuel McGraw, who came with his wife and family from Vermont. He built a log cabin (no longer standing) and was followed by Jonathan Taylor and a handful of other New Englanders. McGrawville, as the settlement later came to be known, grew up on either side of the road near McGraw's initial homestead, taking advantage of water power on the adjacent Trout Brook to drive an early grist mill (1812) and a sawmill. An ashery was established at an early date to profit from the clearing of new farmlands in the surrounding area, and in 1818, the hamlet acquired its first store. In 1823, a cemetery was established within the boundary of the Main Street Historic District, and, by 1830, ten houses had been built within the small settlement." Originally it was called McGrawville, and that name appears on an 1855 map, but it was officially incorporated as McGraw in 1869. (There is a hamlet McGrawville further west in Allegany County, New York.) In the 19th century the community styled itself as "Corset City" for several decades of corset manufacturing. P.H. McGraw & Son produced corsets in the 1880s until mismanagement of an unrelated produce business led them to sell their interests to the Warner Bros. of New York, later known as the Warnaco Group. The factory was reopened and incorporated as the McGraw Corset Company in 1890 and employed over 400 men and women in the area. In 1901, William J. Buchanan, a former employee of both the P.H. McGraw & Son and McGraw Corset Company, founded the Empire Corset Company. The Empire Corset Company was known for the “Never Rust” corset, the “Sorosis” and the “Reduzyou” styles, and sold internationally. They employed 215 women and 35 men. In 1910 the company manufactured one hundred thousand…

Geography

McGraw is located at (42.594547, -76.092899). State Route 41 runs through the village, leading west to Interstate 81 and U.S. Route 11. Downtown Cortland is a further to the west. NY 41 leads east to the hamlet of Solon. According to the United States Census Bureau, McGraw has a total area of , all land. The village is in the valley of Trout Brook, east of the Tioughnioga River and part of the Susquehanna River watershed.

Race & ethnicity