The Village of Clyde and the Town of Galen, written by Hugh Miner

The Village of Clyde is halfway between Syracuse to the east and Rochester to the west. That east-west line forms a major part of the history of the region.

Flowing through what would become the village is a waterway that was eventually named the Clyde River. When the Erie Canal opened in 1825, it did not use the river. Canallers used a narrow ditch that went through downtown Clyde so that boats could be pulled by mules on an adjacent towpath. Then in 1918, the Canal adjusted to the invention of steam engine-powered tugboats and Canal traffic was able to use the Clyde River instead of a narrow ditch.

A meeting was held in the Baptist Church, now a museum for the Galen Historical Society, in 1846 at which it was decided to form a company that would oversee the building of a railroad that would go west to Rochester. And in 1853, the first steam engine arrived in Clyde. The railroad would become the New York Central and it would have a station in Clyde on the north side of the river.

Another New York-Buffalo line would be built through Clyde in 1884. This railroad would go up the west shore of the Hudson River and was called the West Shore Railroad. It traveled on the south side of the Clyde River and it would build Clyde’s second railway station. (Both stations are now gone.)

One more rail line would be built. This would be a trolley line between Rochester and Syracuse and had a station in Clyde. It opened in 1908 and would exist until 1931.

We now consider the occupation of Galen’s inhabitants. Most of the work of local farmers was the growing of subsistence crops, which would keep their families and their livestock fed.

By the end of the 1800s, wheat became a cash crop. Wheat and hay fed dairy cows. By 1895, Clyde had a creamery that produced butter that was consumed throughout the state. A second creamery, that did not make butter, opened a few years later and would stay in operation for 60 years, eventually owned by the Sealtest company. A railway siding led to the creamery where a tank car could take away 6,000 gallons of milk. A1935 newspaper article said that 165 farmers were supplying thousands of gallons of milk daily.

To feed their livestock, farmers needed someone to grind their grains to a suitable consistency.. Farmers could sell grain to a feed mill, or they could bring their grain to the mill to be processed and brought back to their farms. The feed mill cold enrich their grain with additives, including molasses, to enrich the feed being given to local livestock. The last feed mill to remain in operation in Clyde was the A.R. Ketchum & Son mill which closed in 1973. George Ketchum would gift the mill to the new historical society in 1976 which made it a museum.

The other type of grain-based enterprise that put Clyde on the map were the Renco and Clyde Milling Corporations. These companies took advantage of a railroad siding to export animal feed that was shipped across a wide region.

Clyde has hosted other manufacturers. The glass factory in Clyde produced window glass, from 1828. Later it would produce bottles and would become one of the producers of Mason canning jars. From 1918 to 1923 it created specialty items such as glass canes. The site, located on the original Erie Canal, in 1940 attracted the Acme Electric Company. The site later became the home of General Electric and Parker Hannifin divisions and today is the site of Advanced Automization Technology. The east side of Clyde is the home of Thomas Electronics and the south side of the Clyde River was the site of the Hemingway canning factory which opened in 1878 and was still open in 1970.

Over the years Clyde has welcomed many visitors. Two of the most famous ones were Abraham Lincoln whose trip to his inauguration stopped in Clyde in 1861 and a General Electric employee named Ronald Reagan came to Clyde in 1958.

We welcome you to come and visit with us.  Of course, if you would like to settle here with us, you can join the 4,400 who are here already.