Editing Aurora, Cayuga County, New York (section)

==History==
Indigenous peoples occupied the lakeshore and riverways in present-day New York for thousands of years. Prior to European-American settlement, a major [[Cayuga people|Cayuga]] Indian village, ''[[Chonodote]]'', stood near the present-day site of Aurora village. It had permanent dwellings and the people cultivated fields for their staple crops of varieties of corn, beans and squash. ''Chonodote'' was destroyed by the [[Sullivan Expedition]] in 1779 during the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]], when the Cayuga were allies of the [[United Kingdom|British]] army, in retaliation for raids by [[Joseph Brant]] and his Mohawk and Loyalist forces mostly in the eastern Mohawk Valley. Most of the Cayuga went with other Iroquois nations to Canada, where their descendants are enrolled in the Six Nations Reserve. Some members of the Cayuga tribe returned to the area after the war, but the tribe had been forced to cede its land to New York. They were left landless and shared space with the [[Seneca people|Seneca]] on their reservation that once included the north end of [[Cayuga Lake]].

Part of the village was within the [[Central New York Military Tract]]. The United States reserved this portion to pay off veterans with deeds to land after the Revolutionary War. The tract was part of the five million acres (20,000&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>) of lands which the [[Iroquois]] were forced to cede in the 1794 [[Treaty of Canandaigua]]. Many veterans from [[New England]] settled in the [[Finger Lakes]] area, as did some migrants from the Mohawk and Hudson valleys.

During the 19th century, Aurora developed as a minor center for manufacturing. A stopping point for [[canal]] traffic after the [[Cayuga–Seneca Canal]] opened, the village was incorporated in 1837. It became a port, shipping produce from farmers in the region up Cayuga Lake, then by the [[Erie Canal]] to other major markets. Academies and seminaries for basic education were established in 1800. Notable schools include Cayuga Lake Academy, which was founded in 1797 and chartered by the New York State Regents in 1801. Its second structure, built in 1835, remained until it was destroyed by fire on April 19, 1945.<ref>Hollcroft, Temple Rice, ''A Brief History of Aurora, NY''. Revised by the Aurora Committee for the American Bicentennial (W.E. Morrison & Co., Ovid, NY, 1976)</ref>  Many prominent graduates attended the school, including President [[Millard Fillmore]],<ref>''The New York Times'', June 16, 1889, accessed February 2, 2008</ref> William Brookfield, the founder of the Bushwick Glass Works; and William E. Leffingwell (1855–1927), State Assemblyman and founder of the Glen Springs Sanitarium. In 1868 [[Henry Wells]] founded [[Wells College]] for the education of women.

With changes in transportation, development of the [[Midwest]], and other economic shifts, local agriculture declined in importance. The village is a local center with well-preserved buildings composing the [[Aurora Village–Wells College Historic District]], listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].<ref name="Brad Edmondson, All Dolled Up">[http://www.aurorany.org/PresMag.html Brad Edmondson, "All Dolled Up"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120225142734/http://www.aurorany.org/PresMag.html |date=February 25, 2012 }}, ''Preservation Magazine'', May/June 2002, reprinted by Aurora Coalition, Inc., accessed April 10, 2009</ref><ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2009a}}</ref> It has come to rely on Wells College as the major employer. During the school year, nearly half the population of the village is made up of students. Since the renovations in the town and the college's 2005 decision to enroll men and become co-educational, enrollment has increased. The student body, with enrollment of 567 in 2007, had increased by a third since a few years ago.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/07/nyregion/07doll.html?_r=2&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin Lisa W. Foderaro, "Doll's Village: Some See Restoration as Too Cutesy"], ''The New York Times'', December 7, 2007, accessed April 10, 2009</ref>

Also listed on the National Register of Historic Places are the [[Aurora Steam Grist Mill]] (1976) and [[Mosher Farmstead]] (2003).<ref name="nris"/>

In December 2005, the S.H.A.R.E. (Strengthening Haudenosaunee-American Relations through Education) Farm was signed over to the [[Cayuga Nation of New York]] by US citizens who had purchased and developed the {{convert|70|acre|m2|adj=on}} farm in Aurora, New York.  This is the first substantial property which the Cayuga Nation has owned since after being forced to cede its lands after the Revolutionary War. Settlement here has meant their first chance to live within the borders of their ancestral homeland in more than 200 years.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=z40dq_0qLG0C&dq=%22Building+Bridges+Through+Public+Anthropology+in+the+Haudenosaunee+Homeland.%22&pg=PP6 Hansen, B. and J. Rossen. "Building Bridges Through Public Anthropology in the Haudenosaunee Homeland"], In ''Past Meets Present: Archaeologists with Museum Curators, Teachers, and Community Groups.'' Jameson, Jr., J and S. Baugher. 2007. Springer: New York</ref>