Descriptive Essay: Cornwall, New York

Cornwall is a city in Orange Country in the state of New York; it was named new Cornwall by immigrant settlers from English and Scottish families due to its high resemblance with Cornwall County in England. The name was officially changed to Cornwall in 1799, since then the sea port city developed to be a summer resort for many tourists due to the auspicious beauty of the natural river, the mountain vistas, and the fresh country air. Over the years Cornwall gained fame and popularity as a therapeutic city, many people seeking a special retreat would go over to Cornwell to get the smooth breeze of the mountains and the ever green forests around. In all these, the city developed its infrastructure, roads, boarding houses, docks, and factories were set up and over time the beauty and the serene environment surrounding the city faded. Cornwell town changed into a cog in the wheel of industrialists, the military in the First World War and business merchants ("History Of The Town Of Cornwall").

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Cornwall was infamously known for its docks, merchants like Isaac Tobias in 1805 constructed a dock at the New Windsor. The town became involved in ship contractions, and even Tobias made one for himself. In the spans of time steam boats were constructed and sailed from the landing, Captain Isaac Vanduzer sailed off with the first steam boat from the docks of Cornwall city. Due to the availability of goods for trade such as cattle, sheep, and fruits like strawberries and rasp berries, Cornwall upgraded into a freight city that was fully immersed in businessmen and middle men.

The port city attracted many people from far and wide and over the years the town transformed into a boarding metropolis. The Mountain House is known as the first guest house that was set up in Cornwall town. Seamen and business merchants sought refuge in the boarding house when the day broke, a club house was also constructed to cater for these elites of the time. Boarding houses such as the Mountain House, The Smith and The Elmer covered the whole city block offering a perfect serene hospitality center.

The development of institutions of learning ensued as the town continue to grow; this is attributed to the high number of people who settled in the city. At the end of the great Revolutionary War, the legislators of the land saw it wise to erect public schools within the villages across Cornwall town. Boarding and day schools were developed for the younger folks of Cornwall. Within the first year of school construction, over 500 students were enrolled in the academic institutions. It was rather imperative that education was included in the development of the city-state.

As these institutions of higher learning, hospitality, industry, fire protection sprung up; the next thing was the development of factories in the city-state. The elites of the city were opposed to the ideas of having factories developed around Cornwell. The rich felt that the introduction of factories in their town would lead to the immigration of low caliber individuals who would come in seeking jobs and later on settle in Cornwell. The issue of factories did not auger well with many of the city elites. The first factory to be set up was a woolen mill that was owned by Mr. Broadhead; the factory was later sold to an English carpet firm. This saw to the encroachment of workers into the city. The next was a piano factory which was owned by a John Ryder; this was followed d by Forge paper mill with its sister company Leonard linen mill. The whole factory rush was accelerated by the piping of mountain water down the town.

Industrialization marked a major curve in Cornwell town, industrialists in different sectors all converged in Cornwell. The main advantage was the docking options available at the ports of Cornwell. Finished products from the industries in Cornwall were shipped directly to different markets globally. Most of the ships from Cornwall carried glassware, paper, farm products, machineries, silverware, utensils, and meat. All these products were shipped to France, England, Germany and South America. The backbone of industrialization in Cornwell was the rail road, tracks of rail road were developed all across the docking points of Cornwall. The trains were used in the shipping of products from Cornwell to other states across the great Norther America. Other finished products from other city factories in other states were also brought to Cornwell for shipping to global markets. Cornwell developed from being a hospitality and boarding town to an industrial hub. Investors from all over America came into Cornwell to develop industries, and this also caused the hiking of the prices of land across Cornwell. Due to the limited availability of land, industrialists started expanding to other regions outside the boundaries of Cornwell; this triggered the expansion of Cornwell town, in the long run, the small port town turned into a booming city.

The Canal Era is one of the most memorable features of Cornwall city, the construction of the Cornwall Canal was a significant lead to the industrialization Era. This lead to the immigration of new people and the new religious ethics. The construction of the canal was done mainly by foreign workers due to lack of skilled workmen in Cornwall. The completion of the canals saw to the advent of many factory owners. The canal was built along St. Lawrence River that passed in between Cornwall and Montreal. Many of the Canadian officials haggled over the construction of the canal for a while, a decade later they joined in and the Cornwall canal was finished up, this saw to the usage of Cornwall as a seaway for American, English and American troops during the First World War (Parham).

Cotton mill industries were set up by British owners of Curtails, the Toronto Paper mill, and the Canadian Mill were erected in Cornwell city. The next group was the Aluminum Company of America, they did set up an aluminum processing plant, and they took power from the owners of St. Lawrence Power Company. The former workers of the canal and local residents were employed by the ALCOA to work on the aluminum plant. Over the years the company expanded its production levels, and many immigrant workers started flocking the city for jobs, ALCOA was named the largest employer in all of Syracuse. The original inhabitants of the city disliked the new entrants; they barred the immigrants away by contracting separate churches houses on a different side of the city. Other industries that were developed was a furniture manufacturing company, beer breweries, textile industries and pant shops.

The St. Lawrence Seaway was the next big project that pushed Cornwall city into the industrial age completely. This was considered the greatest construction show on the face of the earth, the project consisted of seven locks, the expansion of existing canals and the taming of dangerous rapids around the Alexandria Bay. This project linked the internally linked industrial hubs of the United States of America and the Atlantic Ocean. The water way was 342 miles and it costed more than $ 1 billion, this cost was shared among the US government, Canadian government and the state of New York. The mega construction project brought in transient workers from both the US and Canada; the locals disliked them, they used religion as a tool of instilling order and control in Cornwall city (Parham). The St. Lawrence Seaway and the Power project developed at Cornell, was a big attraction site for investors, business men, merchants, raid road owners and service industry owners. Business boomed in Cornwell town and industrialization did set in officially.

The construction of St. Lawrence Seaway did not fully revitalize Cornwall as it was predicted by many pessimistic economists. Scholars and economists predicted that Cornwall would not prosper economically due to the following reasons; the decline of the construction of the Seaway, this factor made investors and other prospective merchants to shy away from Cornwall (Parham). The layoffs are done by the plant owners whereby they halted the power project in order to develop other prospective projects that were believed would yield more profit over time. The next reason was the stiff competition local factories were facing from the external production companies; they offered products at cheaper prices than what was being offered in the local companies. It was rather imperative that business shut down and workers were laid off. This impacted negatively on the growth and development of Cornwall as every stopped suddenly happens amid industrialization. Deindustrialization trends continued to progress as Cornwall turned out to be a ghost town. Many companies moved from the North and started pushing their business down South which looked as better business environments than the north. The factors that contributed to the exit of companies from New York were the high taxation policies for external investors.

The city officials of Cornwall had to manage the town with taxes from the existing companies because most of the people had vacated the city. The fire department, school, infrastructure maintenance and other town operations were maintained using the tax from factory owners. In any case, Cornwall has a twist in its story, the town developed to be a great metropolis and an industrial hub that attracted many investors across the different states to Cornwell. The shutdown of the St. Lawrence Seaway led to the halt of industrialization in Conwell. Cornwell city was well developed in the 18th and 19th century, it served as a passage way for troops in the First World War, the city also served as a hospitality resort and an industrial park. The development of Cornwell city progressed bit by bit and this many interested investors though many had doubts about the development of the town as it was also strategically far from New York City. The seaway construction project significantly increased development in Cornwell, but it all dipped with the halt of the project.

Work Cited

"History Of The Town Of Cornwall". Cornwallny.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 22 Oct. 2016.

Parham, Claire Puccia. "From Great Wilderness To Seaway Towns". State University of New York Press (2016): n. pag. Web. 22 Oct. 2016.

Parham, Claire Puccia. "From Great Wilderness To Seaway Towns". State University of New York Press (2016): n. pag. Web. 22 Oct. 2016.