Source: BICENTENNIAL HISTORY OF SPRINGPORT AND UNION SPRINGS NEW
YORK 1976 - Excerpt copied from Page 45 et sequens.
"In 1802 Philip Yawger, who had emigrated from New Jersey to Owego and then to Springport to settle on Lot 86 of the East Cayuga Reservation, discovered gypsum in the soil on his farm along the lake shore. His experiments with this mineral confirmed his hope that it could be used as fertilizer; and from this he built a thriving business in quarrying the gypsum and pulverizing it in the mill for use by neighboring farmers. With the Embargo of 1812 to restrict English commerce, the importation of Nova Scotia Gypsum was stopped. The Yawger operations grew as their fleet of fifty to sixty plaster boats delivered the gypsum from Union Springs to Ithaca to be forwarded by wagon thirty miles to Owego, to continue by boat along the Susquehanna, for sale (at $6.00 per ton, unground) throughout the country. At that time this was the only known source in the United States. Later the Yawger boats were confiscated by the government for use as troop transports, only to be sunk at Sackett's Harbor on Lake Ontario. Philip Yawger was unsuccessful in seeking reimbursement of his loss from the government, which caused him serious financial embarrassment. He died in 1830; and his sons formed a partnership to carry on the business. It was then that the highest degree of prosperity was attained . Plaster was also discovered and quarried on Lot 92 owned by E. Dougherty, south of the Yawger holdings, later on the Barnett Crise farm, and still later on the Richardson and Thompson farms.
"Subsequently, the Cayuga Plaster Company was formed in 1874 for the purpose of mining grinding and disposing of plaster rock. Members of the company were Clinton T. Backus, James Fitch, R. B. Howland, B. Robinson and R. B. Robinson. The company operated the R. B. Howland and C. T. Backus quarries and bought the products of the Yawger and Richardson quarries on the Cayuga Lake shore and employed approximately fifty men about two thirds of the year, when annual production varied from 20,000 to 40,000 tons. Later it was sold to the United States Gypsum Company, which operated until 1916, when the mill burned.
"At Hill's Branch (near the intersection of the present Cross Roads and Conners Road) were two plaster mills, both owned in 1879 by J. W. Woodruff of Auburn. George Hibbard, who then lived at Hibbard's Corners (near where Route 326 today meets Route 90), was the foreman of the mill, where the annual production of ground plaster was 3000 tons.
"At the intersection of Route 90 with Yawger's Creek, approximately three miles north of Union Springs, was a grist and plaster mill which was built about the year 1853 and in which 500 to 600 tons of plaster were ground per year. A cooper shop was located on the east side of the highway. Approximately one hundred years ago Lafayette Yawger, son of Peter Yawger and grandson of the pioneer Philip, was the proprietor.
"Storke's History of Cayuga County 1879 tells us that at that time on the farm of Stephen Patterson, near the center of the north line, is a plaster quarry from which 300 to 400 tons are being taken annually. Messers Patterson and Shank have a plaster mill in that locality. This was on a branch of Yawger's Creek where it crosses the present Benham Road.
"In 1969 there was a resurgence of interest in the gypsum quarries in the Town of Springport, when Cayuga Exploration Inc. made a study of existing deposits, etc; but no action was taken toward opening an operation to resume the gypsum industry."