Do you want to know the story behind how Mexico New York got its name? In this post, learn the details behind this uniquely named town.
The story behind this town’s name is not what you might think!
I am the first person to admit that I am interested in obscure and random things that other people might find strange, such as how a particular town or street got its name. However, I don’t think that I am the only person who wonders why there is a town called “Mexico” in a rural part of Oswego County, New York, less than 1.5 hours from Canada.
It is important to mention that there are actually two places called Mexico, NY. One is the village of Mexico, NY, and the other is the town of Mexico, NY.
This post addresses questions about both places, which are located very near each other, since their histories are intertwined.
Why is it called Mexico NY?
Mexico New York was named by a German-born immigrant named George Scriba who had a special interest in Central America. He was granted 500,000 acres from the State of New York in an agreement that is still referred to as the Scriba Patent.
Not everyone knows that there was a City of Mexico, which was eventually renamed Vera Cruz, that suffered several setbacks and eventually “failed”. According to a 1991 filing submitted to the National Registry of Historic Places, the “City of Mexico”, which was known as Vera Cruz, was absorbed into the Town of Mexico.
The name Vera Cruz makes sense when you learn what George Scriba hoped that the City of Mexico (or Vera Cruz), now town of Mexico, would grow to become.
He envisioned that it would become a grand port city on Lake Ontario. A city that would be an international envy!
Some might say that he might have known that this part of New York did not really have the economic potential that he claimed, but that he wanted to “sell the dream” to potential investors. This is backed up by newspaper records of decades of lawsuits filed by investors who lost money.
Of course, anyone who has spent just one winter in northern New York knows that it is nothing like Vera Cruz, Mexico, or really anywhere in Mexico. One difference is that we get a significant amount of snow, and it takes a certain amount of dedication to make a life in this area.
Regardless of why Mexico New York did not grow to the size that George Scriba hoped that it would, it still remains as a very nice, small New York town. It is certain to remain so for generations to come.
When was Mexico NY founded?
Mexico, NY was founded as the City of Mexico, later known as Vera Cruz, NY in 1794 by George Scriba. The town was initially settled on what is now called Mexico Point, a piece of land that juts out into Mexico Bay, part of Lake Ontario.
Oswego County, where Mexico is located, saw the arrival of many migrants of European ancestry after the end of the Revolutionary War, and especially after 1796 when the British left their fort (Fort Burnet, later Fort Oswego). By the 1820s, there were about 2780 people living in Mexico NY counted in the US Federal Census.
Is there any connection between Mexico New York and Mexico the country?
Mexico is formed by an act of New York State Legislature; named by a commissioner that has an interest in Central America.
George Scriba, whose full name was George Frederick William Augustus Scriba, had no formal connections with Mexico. He simply had an interest in the general area.
I spent quite a bit of time trying to research any connection between George Scriba and Mexico, and I was not able to find any evidence of one. This leads me to believe that he just had an interest in the region from afar.
This is not very hard to believe, as the country of Mexico, too, is a very interesting place that has surely fascinated many people throughout history.
George Scriba was the source of other places names around Mexico NY
500,000 acres is a very large area of land, of course. This means that there are many other locations in the Scriba Patent region, which extends from the northern shores of Oneida Lake to the banks of Lake Ontario, that were directly named by George Scriba, or still maintain a name that was influenced by him.
A few examples include:
- Mexico Bay
- Mexico Point
- Town of Scriba, NY
- Scriba Creek
- Volney, NY was previously named Fredericksburg, after Scriba’s son
- The old town of Vera Cruz, which became part of Mexico in
The land that was included in The Scriba Patent was divided into about 24 towns. Over time, the population of this part of New York grew, necessitating the formation of many more small and larger towns, villages and cities.
Conclusion
I hope that you found this post interesting, and that it helped you understand just a little bit more about the rich and interesting history of the North Country, this beautiful region of New York.
When you take a look back into history, you will find that the villages and towns where we live, the streets we drive on, and sometimes even neighborhoods, parks, lakes, and rivers, carry the names of just regular people who lived there long ago. I think it’s pretty neat to be able to know the story behind these names.
If you have any questions about something that you read in this post about Mexico New York, or if you have a little bit of the story that you have heard about would like to share here, please leave a comment in the discussion below.
Thanks for reading today!