Deferiet
Deferiet
The village of Deferiet lies in the Town of Wilna in Jefferson County. The area was first settled in 1806 and the village was named after Madame Janice (Jenika) de Ferriet, originality of France, who sold the land the village stands on to David Reynolds for his farm. Later it was sold to the St. Regis company when it planned on building a paper mill there. Previously there had been nothing on the property but the Reynolds farm and a bridge over the Black River.
The village was basically designed around the mill, with the village being a sort of man-made island due to the canal built to divert water to the St. Regis Paper Mill.
By about 1922 the village was company-owned with fifteen hundred residents living in company-owned houses, but in the 60's the company sold the houses.