[citation needed] The Cayuga were allies of the British and attacked American settlements from the outset of the revolution.

The first settlers chose the area for its easy access to water and close proximity to the Iroquois trail.

[citation needed] The New York State Barge Canal project in 1915 eliminated what remained of the rapids, canalizing the entire river and building a pair of locks to replace the three smaller locks which had made it possible for boat and barge traffic to pass through the village.

[citation needed] The falls were also the cause of the village's existence, providing water power for mills, distilleries, tanneries, and other factories.

By the mid 19th Century, Seneca Falls was the third largest flour milling center in the world, after Rochester and Oswego.

[8] A young man, Birdsall Holly, moved to Seneca Falls from Auburn to work as a mechanic in one of these mills.

His son, Birdsall Holly Jr., was entranced by the water power, studying hydraulics and mechanics until he became one of the foremost American inventors.

The Silsby Company eventually moved to Elmira, New York and became American LaFrance, famous for its fire engines.

[citation needed] Seneca Falls played a prominent role in the Women's Rights Movement.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, one of the organizers of the 1848 Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention and recognized as "the philosopher and chief publicist of the radical wing of the 19th century women's rights movement",[10] lived in Seneca Falls from 1847 to 1863.

She confronted the nation and its institutions, including a local Presbyterian Church and its minister, over slavery.

Within a year, a member of that church was found guilty of "disorderly and unchristian conduct" after she personally confronted that minister on the issue of slavery.

[citation needed] Early women's rights leaders Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Coffin Mott, Martha Coffin Wright, Mary Ann M'Clintock and Jane Hunt hastily organized the Seneca Falls Convention, the first women's rights convention, held in 1848 at the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel.

Frederick Douglass, a former slave and publisher of a Rochester, New York, abolitionist newspaper, attended the convention.

Nearby Waterloo was the planning location for the convention, which is commemorated by the Women's Rights National Historical Park in the two villages.

[citation needed] The National Women's Hall of Fame was established in Seneca Falls in 1969.