A Very Brief History
The Towns of Sweden, Clarkson, and Hamlin were part of the so-called Triangle Tract of 87,000 acres that was a by-product of land speculation by the Phelps and Gorham consortium and Robert Morris in the late eighteenth century. Morris, an enormously wealthy American Revolutionary leader, resold the land to other investors, who organized it into five towns including Sweden. By 1814, the town government of Sweden was organized.
In 1822, founders Heil Brockway and James Seymour laid out the Village of Brockport on the north edge of Sweden to take advantage of the impending arrival of the Erie Canal. For two years, Brockport was the western terminus of the canal before reaching its completion to Buffalo in 1825. Nothing did more to shape the town’s history than the Canal. From 1823 until about 1880, Brockport was a major canal port and as such, was a significant contributor to the dramatic effect of the Canal on American economic development. It opened the Midwest to settlement and to rapid agricultural growth by radically cutting the cost of shipment of goods to eastern markets. The surge of settlement that resulted started the drive to the West Coast, leading eventually to the United States becoming a continental power.
Manufacturing has been an important factor in the economy of the village through much of its history. In the heyday of local manufacturing in the mid to late nineteenth century, the Canal in Brockport served flourmills, grain warehouses, stove manufacturing, and the production of agricultural implements. The latter was a particularly important part of the industrial landscape. The local Seymour foundry produced the first McCormick reaper and the later firm of Seymour and Morgan produced its own varieties of reapers and was for a time a major player in this rapidly expanding industry and the explosive growth of American wheat production.
Both directly and indirectly, the Town of Sweden played a significant role in the American Civil War. The reaper freed up substantial farm labor for service in the Union Army. And town recruits played a decisive role in the victory of that Army when Town of Sweden soldiers at Gettysburg led the successful Union defense of Little Round Top, which turned the tide of that pivotal battle.
Higher education has had a crucial role in the town’s history since the mid-nineteenth century and the founding of the Brockport Collegiate Institute in 1841. This school evolved into the Brockport State Normal School in 1867. It became a liberal arts college with an enrollment, at one time, of nearly 12,000 students. Today, the college is an important part of the SUNY system and the largest employer in the town.
Numerous town residents rose to national prominence. They included politicians James Seymour, Civil War hero Milo Starks, industrialists William Seymour and Dayton Morgan, and women’s rights activist and educator Fannie Barrier Williams. Perhaps the most celebrated of Brockport’s residents was writer Mary Jane Holmes, who published forty best-selling novels in the late nineteenth century With sales in the millions, her book sales outstripped those of any other late-nineteenth century novelist save Harriet Beecher Stowe.
From 1905 to 1918, New York State rebuilt the Canal to accommodate mechanically powered transport, but it never recovered its onetime commercial importance. Yet it remains a centerpiece of life in the Town of Sweden. Now largely used for recreational purposes, the Canal and its side trail have become places for boaters, kayakers, walkers, cyclists, shoppers, and diners. A quieter town than it once was, Sweden remains a gem on the landscape of western New York.
William G. Andrews/Robert Westbrook
August 2025