The 19th Century

 General Jacob Swartwood, a revolutionary war soldier, built the first inn in Van Etten in 1801 near what is now Swartwood. In the 1820s, it served as a stage coach stop on the Owego to Seneca Lake Turnpike, which ran along what is now State Route 224. By the 1830s, post offices were established in Swartwood and Van Ettenville. Bounties were still being paid for wild animals in Van Etten as late as 1831, but new businesses like stores, taverns, and hotels were being established in the townships. Factories were manufacturing a wide-range of products such as cheese, bear traps, and broom handles. In the 1880s and 1890s, a driving park in Van Ettenville offered a program of horseracing. An opera house opened in the 1890s.