The per capita income for the village was $17,066. About 14.3% of families and 14.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 17.9% of those under age 18 and 11.4% of those age 65 or over. The village was incorporated in 1881 and population peaked in the early 1960s, with a 1960 census reported population of 4,708. The original inhabitants of the area were Onondaga clans, whose village was atop a hill on the eastern border of Onondaga territory along what is now Kinne St. An established trail ran down part of what is now James Street to Ley Creek where the Onondagas could travel by canoe to their capital along the northeast shore of Onondaga Lake. Portions of this Onondaga village dating from the early eighteenth century were uncovered in the 1930s when East Syracuse High School was being built on Kinne St near James St. The current settlement, originally named "Messina," grew up along the northern edge of the Erie Canal across from Headson's Landing, a busy canal port with the only bridge to cross the canal east of downtown Syracuse for ten miles. In the middle of the nineteenth century the Messina Plank Road (now New York State Route 290) was built from Messina east to Manlius Center and the canal port there. Large venetian blind and buggy whip factories operated in Messina in the late nineteenth century. In the 1870s, the main line of the New York Central Railroad was built through the northern part of Messina. The DeWitt Railyards complex, one of the busiest in the world in its day, stretched from Messina five miles east to Minoa. East and westbound trains were assembled in the yards at the "Hump", where trains were pushed up tracks on one side of an artificial hill and routed to their train by track switches as the rolled freely down the far side. During most of the nineteenth century the larger part of the hamlet was south of the railroad yards, but as the population grew with rail workers, housing expanded to the north. During the boom following construction of the railroad, the name "East Syracuse" began to replace Messina. That name was chosen for the new village when it was incorporated in 1881. At that time the village thrived due to its access to transportation. The railroad was the new powerhouse, but the canal remained viable, with Headson's Landing still a busy port. The northeastern corner of the Headson's Landing Bridge was the original southwestern corner of the village.