Oriskany Welcomes Lafayette
On June 10, 2025, the Village of Oriskany will celebrate the 200th anniversary of General Lafayette's Farewell Tour of the United States.
In 1824-25, the Marquis de Lafayette (the last surviving of George Washington's generals who enlisted as a nineteen year old French volunteer in 1777), returned to the United States at the invitation of Congress to say farewell to his adopted nation ahead of the 50th anniversary of Independence. He spent more than a year traveling to every state in the young nation. An adoring nation greeted him with enthusiasm, showing up in huge crowds for his arrival, hosting grand events, and naming streets and towns in his honor.
Ten months into his national farewell tour, General Lafayette arrived in Oriskany on the newly constructed Erie Canal to greet his fellow veteran of Yorktown, Col. Gerrit G. Lansing. Both men had enlisted in the Revolution as teenagers and found themselves coming of age with the birth of a new nation.
After the war, Col. Lansing raised his family in Albany before settling at Oriskany around 1802, where he helped start the village's first woolen mill. On June 10, 1825, Lansing, his wife Marie Antill Lansing, and their oldest son Richard greeted Gen. Lafayette as he arrived on the newly constructed Erie Canal. They received him for breakfast at the Lansing home on what is today Dexter Avenue.
To commemorate the anniversary, the community will receive Lafayette in Trinkaus Park outside the Oriskany Museum at 420 Utica Street, about 600 yards from where Lafayette and Lansing originally reunited. In attendance will be representatives of the American Friends of Lafayette and Gen. Lafayette "himself" portrayed by professional historical interpreter, Mark Schneider. This event is free and open to the public. Please bring lawn chairs or picnic blankets.
The public ceremony will be followed by a breakfast fundraiser at 10:30 am at the Oriskany American Legion on Route 69 adjacent to the Oriskany Battlefield. Tickets are $25 for general admission or $20 for Battle of Oriskany Historical Society members. The breakfast will feature a historically-inspired menu of eggs, ham, and pancakes alongside a selection of pastries based on recipes available in the 1820s. Seating is limited, so please reserve your tickets today.
Regency clothing is welcome and encouraged; business casual for the modern dresser.
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For more information about General Lafayette and details about other events on the Farewell Tour, please visit:
Lafayette200.org for National Events &
Lafayette200cny.org for Local Events
October 14, 1781
Battle of Yorktown - Col. Lansing helps storm the redoubts at Yorktown under the leadership of Lt. Col. Alexander Hamilton and Gen. Lafayette.
Image: Bataille de Yorktown by Auguste Couder (1836)
October 3-4, 1784
Treaty of Fort Stanwix - Lafayette travels to the Mohawk Valley to attend treaty negotiations with the Six Nations, closing his remarks by saying "I shall hear from you from the other side of the great lake; and until I come again to smoke with you and lye on your matts, I wish you health, fortunate huntings, peace and plenty, and the fulfilling of such of your dreams as foretel good luck."
-Penna. Jour. issues of 24 and 27 Nov. 1784
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June 10, 1825
Village of Oriskany - General Lafayette arrives in Oriskany by canal boat to breakfast with Col. Gerrit Lansing and his family at his home near present-day Dexter Avenue. Lansing helped found Oriskany Manufacturing Company in 1811, one of the first mills in the United States to turn wool into finished cloth at a single location.