Watertown

Watertown, a city and the county-seat of Jefferson county, New York, U.S.A., 73 m. (by rail) N. of Syracuse, on the Black river. Pop. (1890) 14,725; (1900) 21,696, of whom 5119 were foreign-born and 75 were negroes; (1910 census) 26,730. Water - town is served by the New York Central & Hudson River railway. The city has several squares and public parks, one of them, City Park, having an area of about 300 acres. Among the public buildings and institutions are the city hall, the Federal building, the county court house, a state armoury, the Flower Memorial Library (erected as a memorial to Roswell P. Flower, governor of New York in 1892-1895, by his daughter, Mrs J. B. Taylor) with 25,514 vols. in 1910, the Immaculate Heart Academy (Roman Catholic), the Jefferson County Orphan Asylum (1859), the St Patrick's Orphanage (1897; under the Sisters of St Joseph), the Henry Keep Home (1879), for aged men and women, St Joachim's Hospital (1896; under the Sisters of Mercy), and the House of the Good Samaritan (1882). Watertown is situated in a fertile agricultural and dairying region, of which it is a distributing centre, and it ships large quantities of farm produce and dairy products (especially cheese). The Black river furnishes water-power which is utilized by manufacturing establishments of diversified character. In 1905 the city's factory product was valued at $8,371,618. Watertown was settled during the late years of the 18th century. It became the county-seat in 1805, was incorporated as a village in 1816 and was first chartered as a city in 1869.