Brookton Resources

An overview of the temperance group High Bridge Lodge No. 296 of the Independent Order of Good Templars in Brookton NY, including transcriptions of a photographic inventory of entries from a meeting minutes notebook archived at the Tompkins County History Center, Ithaca, NY. As time allows, I will transcribe the entries, proofread, index and identify the members, and provide more complete citations for the literary works mentioned. I will also provide contextual information on the organizational structure and history of High Bridge Lodge and the overall Order, to provide context for better understanding the newspaper accounts and meeting minutes.

Present-day Dalebrook Apartments sits on the foundation of the former Vorhis Milling Co., known as the “lower grist mill” or simply the “lower mill”. Owners of the grist mill prior to the Vorhis family included William Mott 2d, David C. Roe, Willis Shurter, Jacob Vandemark and Charles W. Personius, and Fred E. Bates. Known prior names of the lower grist mill include Personius Flouring Mills, F.C. & E.F. Vorhis or Vorhis Brothers, Bates, Vorhis & Company, and The Vorhis Milling Co.

Completed in Dec 1875, a wooden railroad trestle crossed the valley in Mott’s Corners, and at 1600 feet long and 85 feet high and made of foot-square timbers, the massive structure was known outside of Tompkins County. Eventually, the wooden structure became equally infamous for its deteriorating condition, and in 1894, it was replaced by the “Great Iron Bridge at Brookton”, without any interruption in rail traffic. The metal bridge was dismantled in 1935.

The deed history for the “Upper Grist Mill” can be followed back from the current address of 7 Mill Street, Tax Map ID: 10.-6-8. The land that the mill sat on was appropriated from that parcel by the State of New York in 1963, with the “practice burn” of the mill taking place in 1964. The historical deeds refer to the Upper Grist Mill as the “Motts Mill Property”.

Compiled by Deborah Halpern and Kathy Keaney. Layout and design by Avi Smith. Contains many historical photographs and facts focused on Brookton’s Market, formerly Frank F. Mulks general store.

This section summarizes deeds collected during this research. Note that for the properties presented, the deed history should be assumed incomplete. I have followed the deed histories only as far as I am able at any given time, and because I am most interested in data of clear historical value, I have chosen in some instances to not include such things as appropriations, boundary line agreements, etc., unless they are themselves directly relevant to what is being investigated.