History

In 1865, when the Winona St. Peter Railroad, now known as the Canadian Pacific Railroad, was being built, it was decided to establish a station ten miles west of Rochester close to a community then known as Bear Grove. S.W. VanDusen, a New York millionaire, purchased land near this station and platted a village. Mr. VanDusen named the village "Byron" after his hometown, "Byron, New York," which is approximately 25 miles southwest of Rochester, New York.

The railroad became the lifeline of the Village and at one time there were at least eight passenger trains stopping daily in Byron.

In the early days, Byron had a hotel, town doctor, cheese factory, brick yard, several general stores, a harness shop, a bank and a saloon. Little remains of the original buildings of Byron's early downtown as the buildings were slowly destroyed by fires.