Phoenix NY is due north of Camillus, just over the Onondaga County line in Oswego Co.   

According to William Hullfish, author of "The Canaller's Songbook", Yewdall's Mill was just west of Syracuse on the canal.

The song itself is credited to Jimmy Smith, and according to Lionel Wyld in "Low Bridge! Folklore and the Erie Canal", a broadside of the song is (or was) housed in the collections of Union College in Schenectady.

Maybe the Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse would have more info on the town of Yewdall's Mill?

Dave Ruch
Performer of Traditional Songs of New York State
Buffalo NY


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: [log in to unmask] 
  To: [log in to unmask] 
  Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2003 12:58 PM
  Subject: Yewdall's Mill


  A resident of my town has asked me if Yewdall's Mill, featured in the folk song, "The Girl From Yewdall's Mill," was real or fictitious.  The canal song also mentions Fairmount and Phoenixville and Ginea Hill.  French's Gazetteer lists Fairmount as a canal stop in the town of Camillus in Onondaga County.  Phoenixville may be Phoenix in the town of Schroeppel in Oswego County.  Neither French's nor Spafford's refer to Yewdall's Mill.
  Does anyone have any knowledge of this place?

  Mary Jo Lanphear
  Town of Brighton Historian