Editing McGraw, New York (section)

== History ==
The community was first settled in 1805 by Samuel McGraw, who came with his wife and family from Vermont.<ref>{{cite web
|title=Samuel McGraw
|author=CNY Artifact Recovery
|url=https://cnyartifactrecovery.wordpress.com/2013/11/14/samuel-mcgraw/
|year=2013
|accessdate=May 29, 2019}}</ref> He built a log cabin (no longer standing) and was followed by Jonathan Taylor and a handful of other New Englanders. McGrawville, as the settlement later came to be known, grew up on either side of the road near McGraw's initial homestead, taking advantage of water power on the adjacent Trout Brook to drive an early grist mill (1812) and a sawmill. An ashery was established at an early date to profit from the clearing of new farmlands in the surrounding area, and in 1818, the hamlet acquired its first store. In 1823, a cemetery was established within the boundary of the Main Street Historic District, and, by 1830, ten houses had been built within the small settlement."<ref>{{cite book
|last=Peckham
|first=Mark L.
|title=New York State Department of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, Main Street Historic District, McGraw NY, nomination document, 1986, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, Washington, D.C.019
|year=1986
|url=https://www.livingplaces.com/NY/Cortland_County/McGraw_Village.html
|accessdate=May 30, 2019}}</ref>

[[File:Miller Corset Company.jpg|thumb|Color postcard of the Miller Corset Company in McGraw, NY from 1905]]Originally it was called McGrawville, and that name appears on an 1855 map,<ref>{{cite web
|title=Map of Cortland County, New York : from actual surveys
|publisher=Eneas Smith (Cortland), and J. B. Shields (Philadelphia)
|year=1855
|first=P. J.
|last=Browne
|url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3803c.la000489/?r=0.452,0.986,0.095,0.115,0}}</ref> but it was officially incorporated as McGraw in 1869. (There is a hamlet [[McGrawville, New York|McGrawville]] further west in [[Allegany County, New York]].) In the 19th century the community styled itself as "[[Corset]] City" for several decades of corset manufacturing.  P.H. McGraw & Son produced corsets in the 1880s until mismanagement of an unrelated produce business led them to sell their interests to the Warner Bros. of New York,<ref>{{cite web 
|title=A DISASTROUS FAILURE. The Firm of P. H. & D. McGraw, Produce Dealers of McGrawville, Make an Assignment—The Firm of P. H. McGraw & Son Transfer Their Real and Personal Estate.
|publisher=The Cortland Democrat 
|date= January 31, 1890
|url=https://jeffpaine.blogspot.com/2015/04/a-disastrous-business-failure-in.html}}</ref> later known as the [[Warnaco Group]].  The factory was reopened and incorporated as the McGraw Corset Company in 1890 and employed over 400 men and women in the area.<ref>{{cite web
|title=The Wood Building History
|author=Cynthia Carrington Carter
|url=https://www.woodbuildingsyracuse.com/history.html}}</ref>  In 1901, William J. Buchanan, a former employee of both the P.H. McGraw & Son and McGraw Corset Company, founded the Empire Corset Company.  The Empire Corset Company was known for the “Never Rust” corset, the “Sorosis” and the “Reduzyou” styles, and sold internationally.  They employed 215 women and 35 men. In 1910 the company manufactured one hundred thousand dozen corsets.  The McGraw Corset Company was the largest industry in the area, employing over 400 men and women in the factory and, additionally, providing women in the area piece work to do in their homes.<ref>
{{cite web
|title=Buchanan Article from Cutters
|url=https://sites.rootsweb.com/~nycortla/buch1.htm}}</ref> Simultaneously, the village was home to the Vesta Corset Company and the Miller Corset Company.

The village was home to [[New-York Central College, McGrawville]], an institution of higher learning founded by [[Free Baptists]] in 1849. The college was notable because it was the first college in the United States founded to accept all students, including both women and African Americans. About half of its students were African American. The college also employed three black professors, the first time in the United States where black professors taught white students. A [[smallpox]] epidemic, along with social and political opposition and financial problems, brought about the college's closure in 1859 or 1860.

In 1852, the village had "some five or six stores, one tavern, and three churches".<ref>{{cite web
|date=May 23, 1852
|first=William
|last=Austin
|title=Letter to his family
|accessdate=December 24, 2018
|url=https://cdm16694.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/NYMHG/id/239/rec/12}}</ref>

The [[Main Street Historic District (McGraw, New York)|Main Street Historic District]] and [[Presbyterian Church of McGraw]] are listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2010a}}</ref>