Waterville (The Huddle) History

Before the first settlers came, in 1792,  the tall, thick forests  were broken only by twisting streams of the Oriskany and the narrow, centuries-old Oneida Trail, but once  one wagon had made a path from Paris more followed, and soon a similarly hilly, muddy track  led from Cherry Valley bringing more and more New Englanders westward. Within just a few years, so many small cabins and water-powered mills were clustered along "Big Creek" that the settlement became known as "The Huddle."  By 1805, the community of three-hundred boasted one church, two "dry goods" stores and three taverns as well as the essential sawmills gristmills and a distillery. With the advent of regular postal service in 1806, a more suitable name than "The Huddle" was required, and because it was the swift waters of Big Creek had made the settlement's growth and rapid prosperity possible, the name "Waterville" was selected. 

Waterville gained local fame first for its distilled products; then for the prime cattle fattened on mash - a distillery by-product - and ultimately it was a by-product of the cattle industry that made successful hop cultivation possible!  Richly fertilized hop yards soon replaced fields of corn and wheat; farmers became wealthy hop dealers overnight and built elegant houses in the village. After the advent of rail service in 1867, Waterville became the primary shipping point for hop-related cargo. "Waterville Hops" as well as Hop Extract were shipped to brewers all over the world.  By the late 1860's, prices throughout the world-wide hop industry were controlled by brokerage offices in Waterville and the International Hop Stock Exchange was established.  The title "Hop Capitol of the World" was secured when a consistently reliable Hop Extract was developed here in 1876.  Prosperity rose throughout the Waterville area and much of the community's Victorian architecture reflects the wealth of its residents during the "golden years." Hop production began to slow in the 1920s due primarily to poor agricultural technology. The last of the hop farms closed in the 1940s.