Emmonsburg (Stratford, NY) and Delos White Emmons

 

The area that we know today as Emmonsburg, has in the past been known by other names.  The area names were usually in reference to an influential person that lived in the area.    Early Stratford town minutes referred to the area as Hart’s Bridge and later Whitesburgh.   Today we know the area as Emmonsburg.  Who was the Emmons that gave Emmonsburg its name?

 

Delos White Emmons was born in Oneonta, New York in 1828.  He moved with his family to the Stratford area in about 1858 – 1859, settling on the Herkimer side of the East Canada Creek.  He was in partnership with Israel Corse, and Edmond Thompson in a tannery also located on the west side of the creek.  The business was described as “tanners of sole leather and general dealers in merchandise”.   Also on this property was a store.

 

Delos Emmons also owned two lots of land on the Stratford, Fulton County side of the East Canada Creek.    Assessment records for his Stratford properties show that on these properties were two houses and a barn.

 

In 1859 Delos Emmons moved the post office from Stratford, Fulton County to Herkimer.    In 1872 it was moved back to Stratford, Fulton County.  In 1892 the Post office changed the name from Emmonsburgh to Emmonsburg removing the H.  

 

Delos left the Herkimer/Stratford area in about 1870.  As per the book West Virginia and its People,  Volume 2, page 126,  Emmons later went on to join his brother in law, Collis P. Huntington  in a real estate venture in West Virginia.   The book continues to indicate that he selected the site of the present city of Huntington, West Virginia and named it after Mr. Huntington.  It was in West Virginia he acquired great wealth.