Seneca Falls is known as the Birthplace of Women’s Rights in the United States. The first Women’s Rights Convention was held there in 1848, when Elizabeth Cady Stanton presented her "Declaration of Sentiments" modeled on the "Declaration of Independence".
The Women’s Rights National Historic Park, dedicated in 1982, maintains a Visitor Center and the Stanton Home that was built in 1832. Seneca Falls was also the home of Amelia Jenks Bloomer, for whom bloomers were named.
Waterfalls, which provided Seneca Falls with its name, is now accommodated by locks on the Seneca-Cayuga Canal. The Bayard Company, a monopolistic land syndicate, obtained the
water rights to the Seneca River and set high fees for its use early in the life of the
settlement. The syndicate's high rates hindered development of the settlement until
the State took over the water rights in 1827. Most of the industry was concentrated along
the river and on the islands between the canal and the river.
Wooden pumps were made in Seneca Falls beginning in 1840. In 1850, Seabury Gould began to manufacture iron pumps at what is now the ITT Gould Pump Company, a firm known worldwide for quality products.
The Montezuma Wildlife Refuge, maintained by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service of the Department of Interior, is located a few miles northeast of Seneca Falls. Seneca Falls is also the home of Cayuga Lake State Park.
Excerpt from Persons, Places and Things In the Finger Lakes Region
by Emerson Klees
Return to Cayuga Lake
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