Local History

Trumansburg was founded by the Treman and McLallen families. Abner Treman Sr. was born in 1761 in Columbia County, between the Hudson Valley and the Massachusetts border. He married Mary McLallen in the Berkshire town of Alford, Massachusetts in 1785.

Treman served with distinction during several campaigns through the Revolutionary War, including the notorious Sullivan campaign, which inaugurated the effort to drive the Iroquois tribes out of central New York. Treman, achieved the rank of captain by the end of the war in 1781. He was awarded 600 acres of land west of Cayuga Lake. In 1792 he and his extended family went west to settle the land. Treman built and operated a saw mill and his 19-year-old brother-in-law, John McLallen, built and operated a tavern. The site of the tavern, once called 'Shin Hollow', is just down the hill from McLallen House, where a supermarket now stands.

The first name of the settlement was "McLallen's Tavern", but when Treman applied to the Federal government for a post office he requested the name "Tremaine's Village". As often happened in the 18th and 19th century, the combination of inconsistent spelling and really bad handwriting conspired against intentions and the settlement was given the name "Trumansburg". Mr. Treman apparently didn't take this personally and served as postmaster for several years.

A Short History of Trumansburg

A Walk Around Trumansburg (June 16, 2004)

There are three McLallen homesteads still standing along McLallen, Washington and Congress Streets. McLallen House Bed & Breakfast is not one of them. The house at 30 McLallen Street was built for the Biggs family on a plot carved out of the McLallen property. Joseph Hunt Biggs was a business partner of William McLallen (a son of John McLallen). See "The House" for more information about the Biggs family.

Mary McLallen Treman photo from the Treman Family Album at community.webshots.com/

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