Lincoln keeps a lot of its story in Clockville

Lincoln is easier to picture when you start in Clockville. The town history says this part of old Lenox was settled by the Klock family in the 1790s, and Clockville grew around mills and small factories. A gristmill was there by 1820. Later came hay-fork and rake making, a hop-picking machine, cheese work, a triphammer, wagons, furniture, sawmills, and even a plaster mill.

Then the travel lines came through. In 1863, the Canastota-Peterboro Highway was built with gravel and wooden planks, crossing Lincoln from railroadless Peterboro toward Canastota, the New York Central freight stop and Erie Canal port. The town history says the toll road was still collecting tolls as late as 1881. A railroad followed another path through Lincoln and served the area until December 1967.

That gives Lincoln a different feel than a simple rural-map dot. It was a place where farm work, workshop inventions, plank-road ambition, and rail service all rubbed shoulders. If you drive through today and wonder why these quiet roads have so many old place names, Clockville is part of the answer.