Ovid is a village in and one of the two county seats of Seneca County, New York, United States. The population was 612 at the 2000 census. The town was named by a clerk interested in the classics. The Village of Ovid is within the Town of Ovid and is southeast of Geneva, New York. Ovid and the surrounding area was part the lands controlled by the Iroquois. The Sullivan Expedition of 1779 drove away or killed many of these natives to reduce their raiding in support of the British. After the American Revolution the village was in the Central New York Military Tract, used to compensate soldiers.

Ovid was the first county seat of Seneca County, and a courthouse was erected in 1806. When adjacent towns were created from Ovid and placed in other counties, Ovid was seen as being too far from the county center, and Waterloo became the county seat. Later, Waterloo itself became located on the northern fringe of the county when new towns created there were assigned to new counties. The ultimate solution was to make both Ovid and Waterloo county seats.

The village was incorporated in 1816, but dissolved in 1849, and then re-incorporated in 1852.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Page Design by Paul G0HWC