January 27, 1826 Town of Lodi Created

As will be discussed in detail in April, when the Town of Covert was created it was a much larger town, running from Cayuga Lake to Seneca Lake along a line roughly equal to today’s Route 96A.

As Mr. Morrison discusses in The Early History of the Town of Covert, during the fall and early winter of 1825, a petition was circulated in the western half of the town of Covert, seeking to form a new town. This petition, with signatures of 167 residents, was presented to the State Legislature. During the 49th session of that state body, legislation was passed on January 27, 1826, creating the Town of Lodi.

Morrison, page 25 includes the entire wording of the legislation (click here).

The dividing line between the two towns ran along the west side of lots 49, 59, 69, 82 and 94, which is today’s Lodi Covert Town Line Road, from Route 96A south to the Seneca/Schuyler County line.

The legislation does not state how the name “Lodi” was selected. It did include when the new town would become effective, “from and after the first Monday in March next” [March 6, 1826]. It also included the location and date of the first Town of Lodi meeting, “that the first town-meeting held there-in, shall be held at the house of John Ingersoll, in the said town, on the first Tuesday of March next. March 7, 1826). 

The third part of the legislation dealt with the poor of the two towns, Covert and Lodi. “And be it further enacted, That as soon as may be, after the first Tuesday in April next, the supervisors and overseers of the poor, shall…meet together and apportion the poor maintained by the said town of Covert.” Once the list of people being assisted by the overseer of the poor was determined the funds in the budget were to be shared.

It should be noted that with the boundary along current day Route 96A, the village of Lodi was split into the two towns, much like today’s Village of Romulus. Following a petition to the New York State Senate and Assembly, legislation was passed on May 5, 1837, which took lot numbers 36, 37, 38 and 39 from the town of Ovid and transferred them to the Town of Lodi.

1874 Town of Lodi Map as shown in the Seneca County Atlas for that year.

Not only does the original 1826 division change the Town of Covert, but it adds another layer to both genealogical and property research.

As discussed on January 8^th, we need to understand the changing geographical boundaries to locate census and land records. For the first two federal census people living in current day Lodi were part of the town of Ovid in Montgomery County (1790) and in Cayuga County in 1800. Looking for someone in the 1810 census, Lodi is still part of Ovid, now in Seneca County. By the 1820 census most of Lodi is in the town of Covert. The 1830 census is the first federal census to list residents in the Town of Lodi, (those living south of Route 96A.) Finally, in the 1840 census and going forward, if an ancestor is noted as “from Lodi” one only has to look in the Town of Lodi census records.

Many families are “from Lodi,” but until 1837 you need to check, and double check, sources to find and document exactly where they were located to gather the recorded information.

Dewitt’s Diary: Saturday January 27, 1962 Temperature 26 Cooler-Cloudy. I got up early to watch the man in space-shot-around-the-world on television. The man for the trip is John Glenn. A ex-marine corps pilot. Home is New Concord, Ohio. At 8:30 they are holding up the flight because of weather at Cape Canaveral Florida the place of blast off. He is 40 years old.

They called off the flight because of the cloudy conditions at the take off point. We drove to Trumansburg and bought the groceries. Light snow flurries. Ground white at dark. I called on Lantos this afternoon. Temperature 20 cloudy frosty snow falling.