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1944 Map of Otselic

Name: 1944 Topographic Map of Otselic
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1944
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1944

About this map

The Otselic River valley serves as the central artery for this rural interior of Central New York, where the Madison Co Chenango Co border divides the township of Georgetown from the heart of Otselic. The landscape is defined by its numerous small school districts, such as School No 2 and School No 14, reflecting a traditional decentralized rural community structure still intact during the 1940s. These schools, alongside cemeteries like Maple Grove Cem and Cole Hill Cem, provide critical anchors for genealogists tracing family locations across the hills of Pharsalia and Smyrna.

Significant water features like Muller Brook and Texas Brook feed into the river system, while the southern reaches of the map are dominated by the Pharsalia Game Refuge. Settlements such as Otselic Center, Bonney, and Beaver Meadow appear as small clusters of structures at crossroads, connected by a network of brooks including Meadow Brook and Truman Brook. This topographic study, produced by the Army Corps of Engineers and the Tennessee Valley Authority, captures the area just before mid-century modernization shifted the local agrarian character.