About the Aurora Ledyard Historical Society

The Village of Aurora Historical Society is now the Aurora Ledyard Historical Society, bridging the rich histories of Aurora and the Town of Ledyard.

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Check out our Winter 2025-26 Newsletter

Current and Upcoming Events

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News

Patrick Tavern’s front porch RETURNS after a Three Decade Absence

# We have successfully moved and stored Walter Wood’s 1795 law office, which functioned as the first post office west of Canajoharie, New York. Read about the move in:

The Little Building Takes a Long Trip: A Serialized Adventure!

# Ely S. Parker, a Tonawanda Seneca who went to school in Aurora, was just admitted to the New York bar—176 years after he was denied admission because he was a Native American. Parker studied at the Cayuga Academy in Aurora, where he was sponsored by Lewis Henry Morgan, for many years known as “the Father of American anthropology” and a leading figure in the relatively new field. During the Civil War, General Ulysses S. Grant’s chose Parker to be his secretary. Drafts of Robert E. Lee’s surrender documents at Appomattox Court House are thus in Parker’s handwriting. After the war Grant appointed Parker Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the first Native American to serve in that position.

CNN’s story of Ely Parker’s November 14, 2025 posthumous admission to the New York bar.
The story of Parker, Morgan, and the “Grand Order of the Iroquois” in Aurora on our website.

Ely Parker’s sister Caroline, an accomplished artist, also studied at the Cayuga Academy in Aurora. Morgan raised money to provide her and her Seneca friend Sarah Spring a year at the Academy. The Aurora Ledyard Historical Society recently devoted an exhibit in Historic Patrick Tavern (1793) to Caroline Parker’s life and work.

Restored to its former glory, the Victorian-era porch on the 1793 Patrick Tavern once again graces Main Street in the Village of Aurora.

Our heartfelt thanks go to architect Jennifer Ahrens (Bero Architecture), builder Jeff Koehn (Yesteryears Restoration), the NYS Department of Transportation, and our major donor the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation. Please watch for a public invitation to the “porch party”, planned for later in the summer after installation of our new west-side windows, when we will thank them in style and celebrate the return of an icon.

Click here for start-to-finish photos of building the Patrick Tavern West Porch.

Three shy young ladies wave from the new porch to thank the

Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation for making the restoration possible.

Announcements

Upcoming Meeting
Our next meeting is on Wednesday, August 12 at 4:30pm.
We hope you can join us, either in person at the Ledyard Town Hall or via Zoom.
If you are not already on our email list, please write to auroraledyardhistory@gmail.com so that we can send you the link to the meeting.