- Leonardsville, New York
Leonardsville is a hamlet on the
Unadilla River in theTown of Brookfield inMadison County, New York ,USA .The
community started as a number of small factories deriving power from adam on the Unadilla River during the firstdecade of the 1800s. These were known locally as "the shops" and included ascythe and hoefactory , ablacksmith shop, agrist mill , asaw mill , ahorse rake factory andwagon shop, and afoundry andmachine shop.As with many small communities, Leonardsville was given its name by the
Post Office Department , which in this case named if afterReuben Leonard who, in the early years, ran a localgrocery anddry goods business that became a convenient location to drop offmail for local residents. In 1856, the grist mill, saw mill andagricultural implement factory were destroyed by fire, but were rebuilt immediately. Soon after that, the shops were purchased by theBabcock family who operated them until the 1930s, employing at their peak over 100 workers. Until the 1950s, when the manufacturing shops closed, Leonardsville was a stop on theUnadilla Valley Railroad , had amilk station (now arecycling center) and afeed store . None of the manufacturing buildings remain, but the formerCrandall Department Store still stands and is now the regionally-knownHorned Dorset Restaurant .Leonardsville had its own
kindergarten through 12th grade central school until 1969, when the district merged with Bridgewater and West Winfield, creating theMount Markham Central School district. The building was one of the new district'selementary school s until 2001, but now is used for specializededucation al programs.External links
* [http://www.uuva.org/leonardsville.htm Upper Unadilla Valley Association]
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