JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK

TOWN OF THERESA

A detailed 1864 town MAP showing residents.
An 1864 map of The Village of Theresa
1918 TOWN OF THERESA FARM MAP

A list of POSTMASTERS in the town in existing and discontinued postoffices.

Town of Theresa Chronology

Elected officials in the Town of Theresa, Supervisors and Mayors

Town of Theresa 1890 Census of Civil War Veterans

Civil War Soldiers Buried in the Town of Theresa

Theresa Veterans of many wars by Tim Minnick

1863 Civil war draft and exemption list

NORTHERN NEW YORK BUSINESS DIRECTORY 1867-68 THERESA

Family sketches from CHILD'S GAZETTEER for the town of Theresa.
Child's Business Directory for the Town of Theresa.
Haddock's Family Sketches - Town of Theresa.

Rev. Edwin Salisbury Cheeseman of Theresa, New York 1883 Diary

1885 Diary now avialable. See link below.

From Find a Grave Memorial 199157653: “Rev. Edwin Salisbury Cheeseman was the husband of Ruby Ann (Graves) Cheeseman (FAG 73592432). Ruby died February 20, 1911. Rev. Cheeseman was a minister in the Black River Conference and Northern New York Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. His first charge was Ellisburg, New York. His last charge was Cape Vincent, New York. This covered a period of 36 years of faithful service.” Edwin died 13 July 1913

Nannette McCormick discovered his diary and created a PDF, adding supportive material found in old newspapers. A great deal of work and much appreciated.
Thank you, Nannette!

On Tue, May 11, 2021, 8:42 AM Nannette McCormick wrote:
The newspaper clippings were added by me, they were not part of the diary. The footnotes contain the citation for anyone who might want to add this to their family tree. The article at the end that I provided a link to gives an excellent biographical sketch of Reverend Cheeseman.

I think it would be great to post on the Theresa site. The information I can provide is that I purchased the diary from Court Street Antiques in Watertown, NY. It's a pocket-sized Excelsior diary from the year 1883. The Reverend Edwin Salisbury Cheeseman of Theresa faithfully made an entry for every day of the year, and also kept an account of his expenses. It gives an interesting insight into the 19th century life of a country pastor. Most of the families in this diary are from St. Lawrence County as he was assigned to Heuvelton in 1883. Family names include (but not limited to) Griffin, Popple, Atwood, Bean, Cheeseman, Graves, Wright, Simons, Furness, Smithers, Hutchinson, Walrath, Goodenough, Dimick, Cobb, McLaren, Widrick, Fieldson, Watson, Calkins, Brown, Ames, McCollum, Smith, Dawson.

The 1883 diary is in PDF format and can be downloaded here (2.22 MB) .

Nannette has finished Rev Cheeseman's 1885 Dirary and it is available in PDF (4.96 MB) or Docx (14.3 MB) format

History of the Presbyterian Church in Theresa
Bartlett's Cemetery Inscriptions for the Town of Theresa.
Vital Records 1847-1849 for the Town of Theresa.
Oakwood Cemetery Burial Index
Linnie Nell Joles Smith Hammond's Book of Death, a record of deaths from 1901 to 1963, with notations.

THERESA

Jefferson County maintains Town contact information on their site

History of the Town of Theresa linked from Shirley Farone's Home Page taken from CHILD'S GAZETTEER OF JEFFERSON COUNTY by HAMILTON CHILDS, published in 1890, transcribed by Shirley Farone.

A List of People who contributed information concerning the Town of Theresa in 1878 to Durant and Peirce's History of Jefferson County.

History of the Town of Theresa, from Durant and Peirce's History of Jefferson County, 1878.

History of the Town of Theresa, taken from A HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK by FRANKLIN B. HOUGH, A. M., M.D., linked from Shirley Farone's Home Page.

Four Rivers Historical Society

P.O. Box 504
Carthage, NY 13619
(315)773-5133
Website

Organized in 1977, this society averages over 600 members, and has microfilmed the Carthage Republican newspaper. The microfilm is deposited in the Carthage Library. They have published books. Their holdings include a working chapel, and a one room school. Carthage lies on the border of Lewis County, so that the society covers part of Lewis as well as the western townships of Jefferson County. The society collects material from three central school districts, the Copenhagen Central, Carthage Central, and Indian River school districts. This area includes parts of the townships of Theresa, Philadelphia, Antwerp, Le Ray, Wilna, and Champion. Their 21 directors represent the various communities within this area.

Town History

The Town of Theresa was one of the last to be settled in Jefferson County. Covered with thick timber, and the northern part of the town studded with lakes, settlers preferred more accessible lands. Though a road was opened from Evans Mills to Theresa High Falls, no permanent settlement was made until after 1817, when James D. Le Ray began to sell lots to pioneers. Theresa lies in the northern section of the county, surrounded by the Towns of Alexandria to the northwest, Orleans on the west, Le Ray on the south, and Philadelphia and Antwerp on the southeast. Northeast is St Lawrence County.

While today the lakes of Theresa, ranging from half a mile to several miles in length, are a sportsman's delight, they impeded the establishment of farms. They include Butterfield, Grass, Moon, Hyde, Crystal, Sixberry (named for Jefferson County's famous early hunter), Millsite, Red, Muskalonge, and Lake of the Woods. Not all are wholly within the Town of Theresa, some sharing borders with the Towns of Alexandria and Antwerp.

Theresa's main watercourse is the swift flowing Indian River, which enters the town from Le Ray and flows into St Lawrence County. Its high falls provided the site for Theresa village. The town was organized from the Town of Alexandria on 15 April 1841, named for a daughter of the early proprietor, James D. Le Ray. Theresa village is the only populated area within the town.

From the 1864 Jefferson County Atlas: a summary of statistics for Theresa

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