The area around Scio was first settled around 1805 by Joseph Knight, a minuteman in the American Revolution, and Knights Creek, which flows into the Genesee River near Scio, was named for him. Before receiving its final name, the community was called Bloods Corner and later Riddleville. In 1822, the massacre of Christians by the Turks on the Greek island of Scio in the Aegean Sea horrified many in the western world, and Daniel Webster gave a passionate speech that swept the country. Scio's founders honored the victims by naming their new town Scio on January 31, 1823.