Editing Canastota, New York (section)

==Economy==
The presence of fertile soils made Canastota an agricultural center in Central New York and a source of vegetables for the region. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many Italian families immigrated here to become tenant farmers and landowners. The village was sometimes referred to as the onion capital of the world,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Signs – Town of Lenox, NY |url=http://lenoxny.com/galleries/signs/ |access-date=April 22, 2023 |language=en-US}}</ref> and onions once accounted for a large portion of the village income.<ref>{{cite web |author=Anthony DiRenzo |title=From "Tears and Onions" |url=https://faculty.ithaca.edu/direnzo/bitter_greens/onions/ |access-date=February 14, 2019 |publisher=[[Ithaca College]]}}</ref>

During the 1850s, [[Charles A. Spencer|Charles Spencer]] constructed compound microscopes and achromatic objective microscopes.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cassedy |first=James H. |date=1976 |title=The Microscope in American Medical Science, 1840-1860 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/231135 |journal=Isis |volume=67 |issue=1 |pages=76–97 |doi=10.1086/351546 |issn=0021-1753 |jstor=231135 |pmid=770392 |s2cid=37197205}}</ref> Robert Tolles became his partner.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Robert B. Tolles |url=http://microscopist.net/TollesRB.html |access-date=October 3, 2021 |website=microscopist.net}}</ref> The manufacturing operation moved elsewhere following the fire of 1873.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gage |first=Simon Henry |date=May 1900 |title=Some Laboratory Apparatus |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3221033 |journal=Transactions of the American Microscopical Society |volume=21 |pages=107–109 |doi=10.2307/3221033 |jstor=3221033 |issn=0003-0023}}</ref>

In 1893, David S. Watson moved his wagon building company, Watson Wagons, to a former broomstick factory building in Canastota, alongside the railroad and the Erie Canal. In 1899, Watson Wagons had 300 employees in Canastota and sold over 100 wagons, costing $104 for the base model. Watson Wagons were unique in that they had a mechanism to allow the operator to drop the wagon's contents through the bottom of the wagon bed. The wagons were used in agriculture, waste management, and road development. Eventually, they also saw use in World War I, when France and the United States purchased 15,000 wagons to carry engineering equipment and artillery. Watson sold his shares of the company in 1908, but the factory continued to sell wagons until 1933. The factory went through many changes after the great depression, and eventually turned to manufacturing Rex school buses. The factory, for some time, was operated by [[Oneida Limited]], and then by [[Henney Motor Company]], where some of the United States' first electric automobiles were made.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Post-Standard |first=syracuse com {{!}} The |date=January 5, 2012 |title=Canastota museum brings groundbreaking Watson Wagon back home |url=https://www.syracuse.com/neighbors/2012/01/canastota_museum_brings_groundbreaking_watson_wagon_back_home.html |access-date=November 24, 2023 |website=syracuse |language=en}}</ref>

[[Herman Casler]] of Canastota invented the Biograph, an early motion picture machine. The first showing of movies using of the biograph occurred at the Bruce Opera House in Canastota.<ref name=":0" />  In 1904, Harry D. Weed invented the [[Tire chain]], and patented his invention while working for the Marvin and Casler Machine Shop in Canastota.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://transportationhistory.org/2019/08/23/1904-thanks-to-this-inventor-driving-in-snow-and-ice-became-safer/|title=1904: Thanks to This Inventor, Driving in Snow and Ice Became Safer|date=August 23, 2019}}</ref>