Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Deferiet, NY

Deferiet is a small incorporated village on the southwestern side of the town of Wilna in eastern Jefferson County, New York, east of Watertown and just south of Fort Drum.

The village is named after early settler Jenika de Ferriet, but it truly began as a company town: Deferiet was the birthplace of the St. Regis Paper Company, founded there in 1899 by David M. Anderson and George C. Sherman.

The St. Regis mill began operating in 1901 on water power diverted from the Black River through a hand-dug canal, and the Watertown Daily Times called it a 'mammoth paper-making plant' able to produce 100 tons of paper a day.

The company built the village itself - before the mill, the spot was known as Egleston or Eggleston - providing workers with houses, a general store, a schoolhouse and a hotel, all on an island in the Black River.

At its height the St. Regis mill employed roughly 900 people and was for decades the leading employer in this part of northern New York; the company sold its worker housing to employees in the mid-1950s.

From a total village population of only about 600, some 157 Deferiet men and women served in the armed forces during World War II, and 10 of them were killed.

Deferiet's population peaked at 739 in the 1930 census and has declined almost every decade since, falling to 245 residents at the 2020 census, living in a village where the 2000 census counted 120 households.

After a century of operation the mill closed in 2001, according to the village's historic marker, and the mill buildings were later demolished; the brownfield site has since been cleared for redevelopment with state and National Grid support.

New York State Route 3 runs through Deferiet, leading 12 miles west to Watertown, the Jefferson County seat, and 6 miles southeast to Carthage, while the Black River forms the village's western border.